The First Task

"That little witch!" Ginny exclaimed, slamming down the Daily Prophet during breakfast a week later, for what seemed like the twelfth time in the school year.

"Figuratively speaking," Jacob added, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice.

"TROUBLE IN THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT," Ginny read with a scowl. "The Triwizard Tournament is known for its dangerous aspects, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent, but this time, it seems dangerous tasks will be the least of the champions' worries. The American champion, as it turns out, is none other than Jacob Andrew Riddle. Many of my dear readers may know Mr. Riddle as the boy who cold bloodedly tortured his ten year-old adopted sister before killing her. He escaped incarceration with the help of Albus Dumbledore stating the boy was under the Imperius curse. Imagine my surprise when Jacob walked into the Wand Weighing ceremony, dark eyes glaring at everyone, with a clearly scared Harry Potter. 'He kind of reminds me of what You-Know-Who was like at this age,' Harry stuttered during our interview. 'I really don't like him.'"

Jacob began to cough before bursting into laughter. "So I go from 'a child with eyes filled with the utmost evil' to the second coming of Voldemort?"

Harry snatched the paper from Ginny and scanned down. "I do not cry about my parents at night," he gasped in shock. Suddenly, he turned an odd shade of red. "Uh…Hermione," he stammered, handing her the paper.

She read it over before gasping angrily. "That bitch!" she growled, ignoring the reminders of her language from Ron. "Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school they're going to think we're dating," she groaned. "People won't believe this…they…they can't."

"People will believe anything the media says," Jacob recited, taking the paper. "Let's see…ah, yes, Riddle is also seen in the company of one Luna Lovegood, daughter of the editor of the often flighty The Quibbler, although there is no evidence, yet, that she is being controlled for the boy's dark purposes. Blah, blah, blah, dark me, emo-Harry, Blah, blah, blah three school champions, names misspelled, Blah, blah, no mention of anything that is actually fact. Yep she does it again. Thatta girl, Rita." He smiled hollowly, as he crumpled up the paper and tossed it into his goblet. "Another award winning lie."

"How can you be so cheerful?" Hermione asked annoyed.

"Well…I guess I'm use to people dragging my name through the mud or judging me before they get to know me," he explained. Hermione sat back and just stared crestfallen at her food. "Harry, do you have any clue what the first task is?"

"Uh…no."

"Well, if you find out," Jacob said as the bell rang, "don't tell me, please."

"What? Why? These tasks are dangerous!"

"I like surprises," he said with a shrug as he stood up and collected his bag. "Besides," he added darkly with a backward glance. "It'll give the bitch a story if I die."

Harry felt a shiver going up his spine as he watched his friend leave. Is that what Rita's done to him? he thought. No…no, that's what life has done to him.

He watched everything with a dull sense of his surroundings. The walls were as he always remembered, just as white and boring as usual. The table in a perfect position to trip over, pictures on the wall oddly askew, and the television playing that same old Degrassi show Aura always watched. He smiled. All was as it should be.

Then, he felt something dripping from his hands. Looking down, he gasped in horror at the red, sticky liquid falling from his fingertips. Suddenly the scene shifted and there were four bodies in black robes, faces unrecognizable, piled all around him as the room burned. He screamed.

Jacob's eyes snapped open as he let out a horrified gasp. Looking around wildly, he dimly realized that he was on the school grounds next to the lake. Wiping his forehead, he groaned as he realized that he had broken out in a cold sweat…again.

"I thought I'd find you here," a lofty voice said cheerfully. He turned quickly to see Luna staring at him with a soft smile on her face. "You're too jumpy." She giggled.

"Luna…" he smiled uncertainly, "uh…hey."

"What was it about?" she asked, sitting next to him and taking on a more serious face. It always surprised him how easily she could switch facial expression from flighty to serious. He found it rather alluring to tell the truth.

"Pardon?"

"The dream," she clarified. "What was it about?"

His face fell and he looked sad. "What I did," he murmured. "What I did to those people…to Aura."

"Why do you blame yourself?" she asked. "You didn't mean to do what you did."

"But it felt like I was…" He sighed. "I saw everything. She knew it wasn't…she begged….the look on her face was just…" He moaned pitifully.

"Have you figured out what you're going to do about the first task?"

He laughed hollowly, giving her a sideways glance. "Good subject change." He stopped smiling when he saw her worried expression.

"Why do you laugh like that?"

"Maybe, subconsciously…I think that if I die, she'll forgive me…OW!" Luna had punched—not slapped—punched him in the side of the head.

"I think she'd be angry—furious even," she growled. "I know I would."

"Not the best thing to say, huh?" He smiled sheepishly. She glared and nodded. "Okay, how 'bout this: if I seem like I'm trying to get myself killed, I give you full permission to hex me five times."

"It's tempting…" She still had her eyes narrowed, was still appraising him.

"Oh come on!" he laughed. "Most people I know would give an arm to get that kind of deal."

She giggled. "Okay, fine. Now about the dragons…"

"Dragons?" he gasped a slight gleam in his eyes. "The first task is dragons? How'd you find out?"

"I heard it from Ginny who heard it from Ron, who heard it from Hagrid, who told Parvati, who…" Jacob put his hand over her mouth.

"Ginny is good enough," he said, "but I don't know what to do…magic won't work very well against a fully grown dragon."

"I'm sure you'll find a way." She smiled.

"I hope so…" He seemed unsure of himself.

"Promise me something," Luna whispered staring at the ground.

"Sure." He stiffened when she suddenly pulled him into a hug.

"Promise me you'll be careful," she whispered into his shoulder. "It would really suck to see one of my best friends eaten by a giant lizard."

"Um…yeah," he stuttered. "I will….promise."

She giggled again. "You're too jumpy," she whispered in his ear, causing him to turn bright red. "I guess I'll have to fix that. Let's head back, it's late, and you've got a big day coming up." He nodded dumbly, following her.

"Hey Moonshine…" Jacob said as they were about to part ways. She turned and looked at him with a soft flush across her cheeks. "Thank you." She sent him a dazzling smile before turning the corner, with a skip in her step.

Harry sat back in the armchair in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room after having a talk with his godfather, Sirius Black. While he loved the man to death, his advice was less than helpful, and more than a bit hypocritical, but the gist of it was to stay low and out of trouble.

"Yeah," Harry sighed tiredly. "Easier said than done…"

Not only did he need to worry about his godfather, who thought that he should come waltzing back despite being a wanted man, he also had deal with the 'little' surprise that Hagrid had shown him earlier that night. The large man had wanted to show him something at the ridiculous hour of midnight. That particular something had turned out to be dragons, bloody dragons as the first task! Once again, he felt the familiar feeling of dread seep into his stomach at the thought of facing the large creatures, and coupled with the possibility of the Ministry of Magic recapturing Sirius, Harry doubted he would be sleeping anytime soon.

He ran a shaking hand through his unkempt hair as he stood and paced, trying to calm himself, but it didn't seem to work. "Why can't my life be normal for just a little while?" he murmured softly to himself for what felt like the hundredth time. Hearing a noise on the steps behind him, he turned around. "Oh…it's you," he sighed with a slight glare.

"What are you doing down here this late?" Ron asked, returning the gesture.

"What's it to you?" Harry snapped, "I figured you'd all but abandoned me out of spite, all things considered."

Ron scoffed in return. "Well, maybe if you told me how you got your…"

"I didn't put my name into the Goblet, Ron!" The redhead took a step back in surprise, at the intensity in his former friend's voice. "I thought that you of ALL people would know that I don't need any more attention than I already have." Ron's glare returned, which only made Harry angrier. "After everything we've been through—the Philosopher's Stone, the Chamber of Secrets and Sirius—what could possibly make you think that I'd even want to participate in a tournament that I would need to risk my life in?"

"I don't know," Ron, sneered fists at his sides clenched tightly, knuckles white. "You already have everything; girls chasing after you, fame, and money. You always get everything, why can't I…" Something heavy struck him in the forehead cutting him off. His rant stopped as he tried to get the stars that had invaded his vision to disappear. When they finally cleared, Ron nearly fell over himself in shock.

Harry was glaring at him with a fury that he had never seem on his friend's face before. Harry's face was stone, a cold indifference that radiated authority, and Ron had just over-stepped his bounds. Harry's usually happy green eyes had hardened and turned a cold jade-like color that seemed to glow with power.

"There," he said coldly, "maybe that will leave a scar that people can gawk at wherever you go or maybe I should kill your entire family and leave you alive. Perhaps I should modify your memories of them while I'm at it, just so you can know that you had them in your life at some point, but never truly remember them."

Guilt, as well as an inkling of fear, slammed into Ron like a sledgehammer. "H-Harry…I-I"

"Shut up," Harry hissed in a voice that sounded colder and far older than Ron thought it should. "Just. Shut. Up! Don't ever say that I have everything! I have nothing! You're the one with everything, Ronald Weasley. You have a mother to comfort you when you have nightmares, a home with love and siblings to play with, a family that would do anything for you.

"What do I have? I have a mass murderer out for my blood, with hundreds of followers at his beck and call. I have a family that would rather put bars on my windows and doors than have to put up with me." Here Ron flinched, recalling the summer before their second year when he, Fred, and George had rescued Harry. "I have no memories of my parents, not even the love they had for me. Just the money I inherited from them when they died, so don't you DARE tell me that I have everything, Ron! You should be grateful every day that you have what you do. I would give anything, everything to have a life like yours for just one day."

By now, the powerful aura around Harry had died down, but that didn't stop Ron from shaking slightly at the tone his friend had taken with him, it sacred him. Moreover, to tell the truth, he had never even considered looking at it from Harry's point of view. Had he really been so shallow to overlook everything that his best friend had lost in order to gain what he had? Had he really been that…petty?

"Harry I'm…" he tried to apologize, as much as it grated on his pride, but Harry cut him off.

"Don't…" he sighed, looking away, and sitting down, while pulling something unseen from his robe pocket. "Just…don't, Ron. Go back to bed."

"Harry…" Ron tried, but Harry didn't even acknowledge him. With one last sigh, and a backward glance, Ron made his slow trek back to bed.

Harry opened The Marauder's Map, watching silently as Ron made his way up the stairs and stopped moving, presumably lying on his bed. He hadn't meant to react the way he had. At least, not with the amount of venom he had shown. It had always irked him that Ron could just blatantly dismiss everything great he had and only focus on the material possessions of others, namely him. He was not blind to Ron's jealousy, far from it. It was the first flaw he had noticed, but he lived with it for the sake of their friendship. Ron was his first friend, something that he was truly grateful for, the brother he had always wanted. Therefore, he accepted it and tried to ignore it as best he could, thinking that maybe one day, Ron would move past all that.

This year, however, he had discovered how wrong he was. Ron was still jealous of him. Of everything he didn't have, the money, the fame…all of it. Ron had abandoned him. Ron still couldn't look past it even after everything they had done together. Harry hoped that their little spat tonight would open his friend's eyes.

Looking back at the map, if only to distract himself from the night's events, he quirked an eyebrow. Crouch and Moody were in Moody's office again. They met there quite often lately. Although Moody never really moved at least from what Harry saw, and Crouch seemed to move around erratically, even at this time of night. As far as Harry knew, the two men didn't get along at all. It confused him.

In fact, many of Moody's actions, while unseen by most, confused him. He would periodically take sips from his hip flask, in well-paced intervals, and usually seemed to give him and Jacob now that he thought about it, a longer look than he gave other students. Frankly, it made his skin crawl. Crouch was another story altogether. The man seemed like a blank slate, staring into nothingness with glassy eyes, but the Ministry official was always like that when Harry interacted with him. However, what really confused him was the man's obsession with Snape's supply closet. The Marauder's Map had shown him in there on more than one occasion, but then again, maybe he needed something for the Ministry and Snape was the closest supplier at the time.

Pushing those thoughts out of his mind for now, Harry sighed and leaned back in the chair once more. Right now, he had bigger problems, like figuring out how to get past a dragon in a day's time.

Jacob sat on the tent floor with a tired look plastered on his face. Although he looked beat, he still had a large smile on his face. The other champions looked tired, but did not smile. Each one was dressed in their school colors, matching shirt, jacket, and pants. His were red, white, and blue with Jeanu on the front and Riddle on the back. He nodded to Harry as he walked over to the tent wall and began to talk to someone.

This'll work, Jacob thought. It has to or I'm screwed.

To tell the truth, Jacob didn't really have a plan, not that he was going to tell Luna that. He was just going to do what he usually did…wing it. It always seemed to work before.

He jumped when Hermione leapt out and pulled Harry into a crushing hug. A flash sparked through the tent and Rita Skeeter appeared at the door, muttering about young love. Bagman followed her. He watched Hermione slip out before Bagman began to speak.

"Now that we're all here I'll explain the task." He smiled cheerfully. "It's simple. Collect the golden egg." Jacob had to hold a snort in at the odd image of the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Bagman's words conjured. "In this bag," Bagman continued, holding up a small purple sack, "are models of what you will face. We have randomly chosen which order you will be going in. Cedric, you're first, followed by, Fleur, Viktor, Harry, and finally Jacob. Now, Cedric if you please."

Cedric shakily put his hand in, wincing a bit before pulling out a bluish-grey dragon. "Swedish Short-Snout," Bagman muttered before going over to Fleur who pulled out a Welsh Green dragon followed by Krum who pulled out a Chinese Fireball, Harry got a feisty looking Hungarian Horntail. Jacob reached in and felt something wrap around his wrist. Pulling it out, he found a black snake-like dragon hissing at him. "Japanese Serpent," Bagman said. "When you hear the cannon…"

BOOM!

Bagman glared angrily at Filch, who shrugged.

"All right Cedric, good luck," he called hurrying out. The group watched Cedric walk nervously out the far door of the tent.

Jacob sat down, taking a deep breath before looking at Harry. "Nervous?" he asked. Harry gave him a look that practically screamed What-do-you-think. "Yeah, me too."

They listened to the cheers and screams of the crowd as one by one the champions faced their dragons until only Jacob remained. From what he had heard of Harry's match, he had summoned his Firebolt to get the egg.

"Sucks I can't fly to save my life," he sighed as the cannon blast boomed.

He stepped shakily out onto the rock-strewn ground and a cold chill ran down his spine. He looked up and gasped. There in front of him was a twenty foot long, one story tall, black as midnight, dragon. It was wingless, but if Jacob had to guess, it made up for that in speed. It snarled at the boy, red eyes piercing through his soul and appeared to smirk slightly as if sensing his fear.

Panic took a hold as Jacob faced the large animal. Then suddenly…it stopped. "You're beautiful," he hissed.

Like a gun, the dragon shot forward with a roar. For a fraction of a second, Jacob's eyes widened before he leapt out of the way, the dragon's head missing him by inches and smashing the rock he stood behind to pieces. As the boy rolled, he pulled out his wand, aiming it at the ground.

"Expelliarmus!"

The blast sent him into the air. Dodging a swipe from the dragon's tail, he landed quickly and sprinted behind a large rock for cover. Ignoring the cheering crowd and the dragon's cries of annoyance, he began to look for the stupid egg.

"Damn it!" Jacob cursed. "Where the hell…"

"Look out!" a voice shrieked loudly. Turning sharply, he had enough time to see the dragon's tail smash into him and the rock. He coughed as he felt the rock crack behind him before falling to the ground. The dragon simply scooped him up and flicked his body across the arena, where he landed painfully.

"JACOB!"

Getting up slowly, while trying to get the tune for "I've Got a Golden Ticket" out of his now bleeding head, the battered boy found that his left arm hung limp. "Pff…broken." Looking up he saw the dragon standing over a large gold oval. "FOUND IT!" he yelled triumphantly.

The dragon lunged again.

"Restituo!" Jacob yelled sharply.

Once again, the dragon smashed through a human-sized rock. The crowd watched in amazement and horror as Jacob, after leaping from the rock he used to take his place, sprinted along the dragon's back. Running for dear life he quickly scooped up the egg rolling painfully on the ground, before slamming the back of his head into a rock. He watched as the dragon made a dive for him before twenty red lights struck the beast in the chest. Jacob smiled, before everything went black.