Disclaimer: I am merely playing with other people's creations, I don't own the game/book/anime/TV-show I am borrowing from, nor am I making any money with this. I am writing for fun and practice, as fan-fiction to be shared with others if I feel like it.
Chapter 2: Here there be Dragons
In the days that followed the champions selection, the school had become divided into two factions. Cedric Diggory had the support of Hufflepuff, Gryffindors and most of the Ravenclaws, while Draco Malfoy basked in the support of Slytherin and a small number of Ravenclaws. It seemed the thought of denying had not even entered his mind, and Harry had to wonder if the blonde boy actually had attempted to enter himself into the tournament. He figured it was possible, given the protections had been so laughably poor one could just toss their name-slip from behind the age-line into the goblet.
Nonetheless, Harry and his friends were rooting for Cedric, and the Hufflepuffs were proud that one of theirs had been selected as the champion. While they were rivals, it seemed Krum and Fleur had accepted Cedric as an official champion and one of their peers, but Harry had to wonder if it was Snape's influence that made the Slytherins stand together for Malfoy, or if they truly believed one of their own deserved the chance. Harry was not convinced that Draco could get more than his bookends to support him without his father's influence and Snape as the head of Slytherin.
Nonetheless, in the days that followed Draco's robes had taken up shrinking, turning transparent, coloring themselves in pastel pink colors as well as sprouting white polka dots on a black surface from time to time. Some of it was the twins showing their opinion about the 'usurper champion' but there seemed to be more pranksters than just them in the school, based on the fact they were getting new ideas from some of the pranks they were seeing.
Harry found that Draco being busy with his preparations gave Harry a fair share of time to spend with Hermione, and the two of them studying together as well as hanging out together near the lake just by the two of them was making gossips wag their tongues. Ron had been calling them mental a few times but eventually headed off to play chess with the other boys at the dorm, leaving Harry and Hermione to hang out alone. Without distractions, the two of them talked a fair bit amidst studying, and their bond grew closer yet.
The wand weighing had come and gone rather quietly, but the look of smugness on the twins faces had caused Harry to wonder, at least until he saw the results in the next day's Daily Prophet. The image of Draco Malfoy holding up his wand, only to have it turn into a rubber chicken when handed to Ollivander, was used to great effect with the title Malfoy Heir makes a Mockery of Tri-Wizard Tournament. With Rita Skeeter's venomous quill put to good effect, it was evident that the house of Malfoy lost a lot of respect in one day.
Eventually the time came for the First Task. Lucius Malfoy had argued that as Draco had been named as the champion of a 'fourth school' of 'making one's own luck' that he needed to have a judge of his own too. Which lead to a fair bit of arguing, but ultimately Severus Snape found himself joining the other judges and smirking quietly while attending the first task.
Harry and Hermione had been just grateful that this year Harry hadn't been put into danger, as the two of them took a seat at the benches to watch the task, which appeared to be dragons. That alone made Harry very happy he had made sure not to participate, though also a small twinge of guilt about leaving Draco out there to be killed. Then again, given what a bully Draco had been over the years, he wasn't going to be feeling all that guilty.
The first three champions emerged to the arena one at a time, fighting with their own style. Cedric's transfiguration of stone to living hounds to distract the dragon had worked, partially, but the dragon's flames destroyed his creations before he could get away with the egg, and a blast of flame behind him burnt him slightly before he managed to get away, though the flame-freezing charm did at least keep him from being turned into a human torch.
Fleur had sought to charm the dragon to sleep by a combination of her Veela allure and a spell woven into her voice. Harry had a thought about the ancient sirens and wondered if there was a truth to the legends there somewhere. Nonetheless, as the French witch was walking away with the golden egg the otherwise seemingly perfect completion was ruined by the dragon snorting and blowing a small fireball setting her robes hem on fire. She quickly vanished a bit of cloth, showing some leg that to Harry wasn't really worth the whistling and cheering it got from other boys in the crowd, but he saw Hermione's beaming smile to him as he turned his gaze to her rather than watch the arena while Fleur rushed to the medical tent.
Krum's attempts had been met with a lot of booing and shouting as he struck the dragon's eyes with a blinding curse causing it to trash and smash some of its own eggs in pain and panic. Krum's approach made the dragon unpredictable, and as he neared the nest the dragon's tail swinged his way slamming him in the ribs with enough force to throw him out of the arena grounds. With a whimper he had been forced to forfeit the task, as he had to be carried to the medical tent.
Finally, it was turn for the youngest champion, and they brought out the biggest, fiercest dragon so far, and Harry felt himself tremble at the thought of having to face that himself. He was really grateful now that he had made the preparations. As Draco Malfoy strode out to the battlegrounds however, he seemed cocky and confident, grinning slightly and bowing to the applause by the Slytherin house.
As the task began Draco moved ahead slightly to get into cover, the boy seemed to hesitate a bit as the flames were blown over the rock he was taking shelter behind, but passing without harming him other than the hem of his robes smoking slightly, but as Draco turned his wand rose to cast something none had expected to see a wizard cast in public, before so many witnesses.
"Avada Kedavra!" Draco's shout saw a thin green flash of spell rushing towards the dragon, striking it in the chest, and causing a moment of silence to hang in the air. The boy had cast an unforgivable, and hit a precious, rare dragon with it. Hermione's face showed outrage at this cruelty, and Harry stared wide-eyed too, while Snape sneered and smirked, while the other judges stared at them shocked.
As the dragon slumped down, Draco headed towards the nest to retrieve his egg while Dumbledore rose to stand casting Sonorous on himself. "Mr. Malfoy, what do you think you are doing!? Using unforgivables is unforgivable, for a reason! Those spells corrupt your very soul! Dear boy, do you really think-" At this point, Snape was on his feet too, a wand under his chin.
"Mr. Malfoy has done nothing wrong, the unforgivables are unforgivable to cast on humans or other intelligent beings, but they were made to be used to strike down magic-resistant beings in the past eras, and the tournament rules do suspend many more modern laws like banning the unforgivables. When the tournament began, they were regularly used to put down dangerous beasts!"
The two men arguing might have held more interest than Draco and the arena, but Hermione's loud gasp drew Harry's attention to her, and looking where she was looking, seeing Draco holding the egg heading back proudly, but behind him, the angry Dragon raising its head.
It seemed others became aware of this turn in events too, seeing the dragon draw breath more than a few screamed, just in time to draw everyone's attention to Draco Malfoy as a huge fireball rushed over the blonde ferret, causing his robes to burn away to reveal a bit of dragonhide vest and pants he was carrying, the charms for flame-freezing trying to struggle against the intense heat of the dragonfire, and the blonde hair and the many potions used to making it slick and glorious as a Malfoy must always present himself as starting to spark flames.
Screaming and dropping his egg as he dashed towards the healer's tent, Draco's hair was on fire, his robes gone, the protective dragonhide having saved his life but his skin burnt like he had been way too long in the sun nonetheless, and the crowd struggling between being horrified and laughing at the sight of the ponsy poof's hair burning as he was running for his dear life. The dragon following him seemed to notice the golden egg on the ground and smashed it apart with its talons, blowing flames after Draco towards the healer's tent.
Thankfully, the magic kept the flames from leaving the arena grounds but as Draco left the arena the judges had no choice but to declare the Heir Malfoy to have forfeit this task, given that his egg had been destroyed and he was going to need a few days in the infirmary to recover under Poppy Pomfrey's watchful eyes.
A lot of debating went on later that day, people muttering about Draco being a future death-eater and a dark wizard, as well as loud snorting and snickering as some wondered aloud if he was going to be a 'bald ferret' from this point onwards. There was a general agreement though that the reasons Snape had named had sounded partially interesting but more like excuses than a real reason to permit the use of unforgivable even against what they thought to be a non-intelligent beast.
Nonetheless, Cedric and Fleur were in the lead, with Fleur just a little ahead of Cedric mostly because Dumbledore and Snape were hardly impartial judges, Snape worse so than Dumbledore. Krum had received some points because it might have worked, but not that many given that he was penalized for destroyed eggs and injuring the dragon, as well as failing to complete the task. Draco was the very last and given the massive penalty for daring to try and cast an unforgivable on the dragon, he was actually at negative total.
The dragon-tamers had actually sworn that they'd never bring their charges for a tournament again after seeing what Krum and Draco had done, and complained to the International Confederation of Wizards about the poor organization of the event and the harm done to the valuable, rare creatures that the dragons had become.
There was quite a lot of bribing going on in the background by Malfoy Senior to let his son's actions be passed over as 'dim witted but more misinformed than malicious' and to reach a sentence of 'just don't do it again'. Of course, the rumors that Malfoy fortune had been halved in doing so didn't help Draco regain his standing among the Slytherin after the infamous failure.
Though as the year continued along, Harry had began to worry about a little problem he had. Namely, nobody had taught him how to dance. Fidgeting about it and worrying if Hermione would dump him for someone who actually could dance, he let himself worry more and more. Luckily, Hermione proved quite observant and knowing Harry's behaviour so she confronted him about it soon enough.
After a brief and embarrassing confession, Harry found himself gently chastised for not speaking to her about the problem earlier, and then a sweet smile as she lead him to an empty classroom along with a borrowed old gramophone from Professor McGonagall's office. She'd borrowed it for a good cause after hearing what it was for, and in the coming weeks, Harry began to shape up to be an adequate, if not exactly a fantastic dancer. He was unlikely to be the prince of the ball, but at least he shouldn't be able to stumble on his two feet during it.
Finally, the season of celebrations came and the ball was upon them. Harry had asked Hermione as soon as he could, but Ron seemed to have been struggling about asking someone. While Harry and Hermione had been practicing, a rumor started that Ronald Weasley had tried to ask Fleur Delacour to the dance. Actually, it seemed he had practically shouted it at her, and run off right after. Trying to blame his nerves on Harry setting the bar too high after asking out Hermione, Ron found himself facing a lot of laughter and teasing, but Harry just shook his head quietly at the whole ordeal. Hermione wasn't too amused either, but the two of them kept to one another's company more than Ron's company, the golden trio having become the platinum duet.
As the night of the ball came, Harry had found his jaw on the floor at the sight of Hermione's gown and the way her hair looked and the whole way she carried herself. The damn Hogwarts robes hid a lot, and he had acknowledged her as a young woman before, but seeing her in the dress robes had him silently swallow and quiet doubts try and whisper into his ear. He felt unprepared, and unworthy of her attention.
"Bloody hell, you look smashing..." Finding himself embarrassedly closing his mouth after that statement, he expected her to scold him for his language but instead found her smiling brightly and making him quiver a bit in place. They were young and it might not last, but in that evening's shade he found his heart beating fast just taking her hand in his, and walking by her side to wait for the dance to begin. The champions had the honor of starting things after all.
The people had paired up for the celebration already, and the two of them could see Cedric standing besides Cho, and Fleur besides Roger Davies, and Victor Krum back on his feet besides Daphne Greengrass. Lastly there was Draco Malfoy besides Pansy Parkinson, though the two of them drew a fair bit of eyes.
Draco's hair had not started to return, and the polished dome of his bald head seemed to almost sparkle in the candle light, earning a measure of mirth from a few people. Pansy's dress robes were obviously expensive, but were squeezing her in a way suggesting she had put on a couple of pounds after they had initially been fitted for her. All things considered, they seemed to carry on with making a mockery of the Tri-Wizard events though in a far more subtle fashion this time around. Unintentional or not, McGonagall's stern glance at them voiced some of her opinion even without words before she informed everyone loudly about the champions starting the dance.
As the ball began, Harry found himself captivated by Hermione's eyes, dancing close to her enjoying the moment as long as he could, not caring about the others. Just the two of them and the music playing, the dance-floor calling, and the very difficult challenge of not looking down at the cut of her dress despite how a part of him kept urging him to do. Dancing close by, he enjoyed the scent of her, whether perfume or soap it was just so different, up close holding her, inhaling her scent, feeling her hand squeeze his own, her eyes not leaving his own either.
They were so lost in each other they almost missed it when a shriek and a sound smack broke the peace of the evening, and a stunned Draco Malfoy sat on his arse at the middle of the ballroom, Pansy's ballgown partly torn and exposing a bit more of her than she might have wanted to show everyone, and McGonagall hurrying in to lead the two of them out, the red palm print on Draco's cheek pulsing.
"What the heck happened?" Harry muttered to himself and glanced at Hermione who looked equally puzzled, before Fred and Angelina, who were dancing near them, leaned a bit closer to whisper. "Draco was staring at Fleur's rump and Pansy tried to push him back and scold him for it but the git managed to tear part of her dress, making her scream and slap him. I wish I had a camera to capture that." Angelina's jab into his ribs had the lad quickly trying to explain he only meant catching the slap on it but it was obvious he had gotten himself in trouble too with those words.
End Chapter
A/N: More of a clumsy continuation to the first one-shot bit, figured alright I might try and put something together about the Tri-Wizard tasks and what else goes on. Not much but something. I figure I'll see if there's any interest, possibly continuing onwards to 2nd task and the 3rd one too, but will have to see when I get there.
Glad that some folks found the one-shot bit interesting enough there might be interest for a bit of continuation, but as this chapter might show, it is mostly improvisation as the champions selection was the main idea I had in mind, though I am not averse to writing a bit more if there is interest.
"Moody" is still at school and despite the problems something more might come up later on, if there's enough interest I will have to see if I'll carry this on to some conclusion about that too, but again, it'll be more improvisation than a nailed-down-plotline at this point. A little scribble that took on a life of its own.