"I'm touched Malfoy deemed me so special he spent his own allowance just to try to annoy me," Harry smirked.
"It does seem like he considers taking you down a notch to be his life's ambition, doesn't it? He seems rather... unhealthily obsessed with you." Hermione had an inquisitive look on her face.
"Yeah, and all this because I didn't want to be his friend..." Harry chuckled.
"What? He wanted to be your friend? You never told me that!"
Harry laughed. "Oh, it was on the train in first year. I'd just met Ron, and Malfoy walks in saying he wants to be my friend and I shouldn't associate with Ron. I turned him down. I don't remember ever doing anything else to him, but from then on he practically declared a blood feud against me."
"Why didn't you tell me this before?" laughed Hermione. "We are so going to use that against him sometime! Poor little Draco, he couldn't command someone to be his friend, so they must be his enemy. I can't imagine living with such a simple mind like that." Harry made no comment on Hermione's last statement.
They finished their breakfast, gleefully explaining why they were both wearing Malfoy's badges. The twins loved it and were determined to get a pair of their own by the end of the day. Most of the Hufflepuffs were already wearing it, but most weren't audacious enough to leave it on the POTTER'S A GLORY HOUND message, and few noticed the one-word difference on the first message. By the end of the day, it seemed that Hermione had achieved what Draco had initially intended- nearly everyone in school wanted to wear a badge. Many people, even those who didn't like the fact that Harry wasn't competing for Hogwarts, didn't want to wear the original version because it would make them look like insulting jerks. The new one was humorous and actually served well as a Triwizard souvenir.
The next two weeks consisted of training with the twins along with Lee a few times. With the extra practice, Harry got good enough that be began to practice dodging while holding the broom with only one hand, practicing simple stunners, reductors, banishing and summoning charms, and shields with his wand in his other hand. At this point, Hermione joined in, sending minor jinxes for Harry to block. At this point, Harry began having some trouble, but he realized he could use some light legilimency to help predict where everyone was aiming. When he did that, it once again got much easier. He knew not to rely on it too much, however, because in the actual trial he would be dodging mostly obstacles and creatures , instead of the other champions. They got to the point where he even tried dodging the Whomping Willow- but after barely dodging one branch, and getting his shirt torn off in the process, Hermione didn't let him go near the tree again.
On the days where he wasn't getting bludger-dodging practice with the twins or the tree, Harry and Hermione began attempting their animagus transformations. Sharing what they saw of each other's forms with legilimency, they knew exactly what to turn into, which made the visualization far easier. They began with small, superficial changes, like hair to feathers and toenails to talons. They had mastered the simple changes and were ready to begin morphing their arms and legs by the end of the second week. Unfortunately, it was clear they wouldn't be anywhere close to mastering the full transformation in time for the Trial, but they were determined not to rush their work, as an incomplete or incorrect transformation was quite dangerous.
At night, just before curfew, they would sneak back down to the Chamber of Secrets to check on the eyesight potion. At first, they thought of using the Room of Requirement, but they realized that if they left the potion in there for a week, other people would come across the room eventually. It was a relatively simple one to make, but it just required a lot of simmering time as well as a few expensive ingredients. Dobby supplied a few raw onions to get some tears out of Harry, tailoring the potion specifically to his eyes. Three days before the Trial of Air, Harry was laying on his back in the Chamber of Secrets.
"Are you ready, Harry?" Hermione was obviously more nervous than he was.
"Don't make me tell you again," growled Harry playfully. "Just do it."
The potion had been simmered down to only a few concentrated drops. Hermione carefully pulled one drop up with an eyedropper, and dripped it into one of Harry's eyes. Hermione figured that, even if Harry trusted her with his life (and eyesight), they'd still do only one eye at a time so he wouldn't be completely blind if the potion came out incorrectly.
"How did that feel?"
"Not too bad, actually," answered Harry, blinking rapidly. "I can really feel it spreading around my eyeball, but it's not even uncomfortable."
"Huh... that's odd..." said Hermione, looking worried. "The book said there should be some mild pain involved. Harry, what if this means I screwed something up?"
"Hermione, you probably improved the formula by accident or something so that it doesn't hurRRRRRRTTT! Oh god, there it is! Mild pain my arse! OWWW! It feels like there's shards of glass in my eye! AHHH!" Harry looked like he wanted to claw at his eye, but he knew not to touch it. Hermione helped restrain him. "It hurts to look at things! It's too bright!"
"Um... it should only last a little while, Harry. Some light sensitivity is pretty normal... Stay still..." Hermione was now straddling him, pinning his arms to his side while caressing his face.
"Ugh! It hurts to blink, Hermione... this is just... ow ow ow..." Harry eventually settled down, although still in pain, kept silent. His eyes were watering so much he thought he might run out of tears soon. About five minutes later, the pain ended.
"Is... is that better, Harry?"
"Err... yeah. Wow, this is pretty amazing. I had no idea things were supposed to look so sharp at a distance." Harry was winking alternately with each eye, amazed at the difference he was seeing. He was staring at Hermione's face, seeing every hair on her head, every line in her irises, every little detail on her skin. Compared to his other eye, which really only let him notice that she was human, female, and brown-haired without his glasses, it was a marked improvement. He kept looking at her one eye at a time, marvelling at the difference.
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