Chapter 12

The First Task

So, fare thee well

Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies

A lass unparallel'd. Downy windows close;

And golden Phoebus never be beheld of eyes again so royal!

-Shakespeare

"Harry?"

"mmhm"

"Why do you like treacle tart?"

"I dunno. I just do"

"mmhhm"

.Silence.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"There is life after love and there is love after love".

I woke up. My cheeks were wet with tears. Every night I'll relive the moments we shared. After a long time I had dreams instead of nightmares. Dreams filled with the memories of a girl with obsidian dark eyes. It gave me strength. It reminded me that I had a promise to keep. I will win. I jumped down from my bed. For the last two days I have been sleeping down here in the chamber. My dorm mates respected my wishes and never let anyone knew that I was not spending my nights at the Gryffindor tower as I should. Might have something to do with the free play wizard subscription I gave them.

There was something strange going on. The organizers had changed so many rules. Six champions, unbreakable vows to prevent cheating. The question is why. Then there was the case of my name coming out of the goblet. Somebody really wants me to participate in this tournament. But who?

Dumbledore was a given. Voldemort always wanted me dead but he would want to do it himself. Malfoy? But he didn't have the skill. I shook my head and decidedto go up to the Great hall for break fast.

I was sitting at the Gryffindor table when the daily prophet came.

TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT-Special Exclusive
by Rita Skeeter.

Good Morning Wizards and Witches! As we all know the Triwizard Tournament has been installed again after many months of painstaking effort of our beloved Ministry International Magical Cooperation. After the failure at the World Cup, our ministry at a daring move has been successful at reinstating the Tournament. Champions of the schools have been chosen last night and we all can see beloved results. Representing Durmstrang is Viktor Krum International Quidditch Champion and his classmate Vladmir Romanoff. On the Beauxbaxtons is the Veela Fleur Delacour and the esteemed Nicole De Couteau .And quite impossibly folks, through talent and grace, Our own hero Mr. Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory. We all are surprised at Potter's daring, but that can be expected from the Boy-Who-Lived.

For more details on triwizard tournament pg.5

For more details on the death eater attack pg.7

I passed the paper to Cedric who started reading it as I turned my attention to Hedwig who had an issue of latest issue of Quibbler. On the cover there was a picture of Albus Dumbledore sucking on a lemon drop beneath which words in red were printed "ALBUS DUMBLEDORE: MASTER MIND BEHIND THE ROTFANG CONSPIRACY?" I chuckled and started reading the article about Dumbledore. Luna as promised had kept my name out of the article. As I finished the article Cedric gave me back the prophet apparently satisfied with the report. It must have caused Rita quite a pain not to smear anyone's name.

But the most important problem right now was that I had no clue about the first task. Professors didn't know about the task and those who did know were under the effect of an unbreakable vow. Cedric was using his connections to find out the first task. The thing about eidetic memory is that you can have loads of black mail material. I mean the things he picked up with that brain of his were huge. He knew who was seeing who, who had hots for who, who was cheating on his girlfriend so on and on.

"Hey, Brad "Cedric called the current head boy, Brad Bagman, over to an abandoned classroom.

"What is it Diggory?" He was obviously displeased that he wasn't selected as a champion.

"You handle this, Cedric. I'll just be over there." I said as I walked out of the class room.

Five minute later Brad ran past me struggling not to cry. I walked back in and saw Cedric giving me a Cheshire cat grin.

"What exactly did you do, Cedric?" I asked curiously.

He simply tapped his nose. 'I do not want to cross this guy.'

"So, did you get anything?" I asked.

"Just that our task is to collect a golden egg. He said he had overheard his father speaking to crouch yesterday"

Mhmmm. Golden egg.

"Shit." I swore.

"What?"

"Cedric, connect the dots. Daring, egg and the fact that during the first task of last tournament half the audiences were killed by a rampant Cockatrice" I grimaced.

"Monsters" He realized.

"Yeah, we just have to figure out what kind of monster are we going to face. Fortunately for us there is a person inside the castle who knows everything about monsters" I smirked.

"Hagrid?" Cedric paled. Everyone knew about Hagrid's fascination with monsters.

But an hour later we realized the truth. We were fucked. Karakaroff had insisted on binding Hagrid with an unbreakable vow. Poor guy nearly cried when he couldn't tell me about the task.

"Yeh'll love them, Harry" was that all he could say without breaking the vow. Somehow that didn't exactly comfort me.

So there we were, on the morning of the day of first task sitting at the Gryffindor table trying to eat something. We had tried everything. Searched the forbidden forest for monsters, asked and blackmailed people but nada, nothing. All we knew were that we had to fight some monster and had to obtain a golden egg. So we threw ourselves in to training. Cedric put his brain into learning about all type of monsters and I practiced all sorts of curses and hexes. We were as prepared as we could ever be. Yet I can't help the feeling that we were fucked.

"Follow me, Boys" Professor McGonagall said in an unusually soft voice. We stood and followed her.

"I don't know what the task is. But the stadium contains many raw materials, so you don't have to conjure anything .Use transfiguration. Always surround yourself with animate objects so that a chance of direct hit can be avoided. And don't waste too much energy on spells," She gave us a warm smile.

"I can't tell you how proud I am to have you both as my students. " She had a proud look on her face as she led us towards a tent.

"This is it. Do your best, Boys"

"Yes, Professor" Cedric and I said with a determined look on our faces.

As we entered the tent we saw all other champions were already there. Fleur still had that bored look but she was scowling. Nicole gave us a friendly wave which we ignored. We were not going to fall for that. We had done our research and found out that she had a nasty reputation of being a back stabbing bitch in her school. Krum glared at us and Romanoff flexed his muscles threateningly. I yawned widely and sat down on a chair. Cedric leaned against the tent pole with an expressionless face.

We could hear the sound of crowd from the stadium. Then Bagman and Crouch entered the tent. Bagman was bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Well, aren't you all excited? I bet you are. So, your task is to collect the golden egg," He paused obviously expecting us to ask him something. When no one did he continued,

"Obviously we can't make it easy. So, we have brought some, er, guardians to watch the eggs. "He stopped,looking at us expectantly.

"Get on with it, Ludo" Crouch said impatiently.

"Yes, Yes. There are six of you and there are six of them. Each team will have to face two different type of, er, Guardians. Hogwarts will go first followed by beuxbaton and then Durmstrang. I'll be commentating and if you think you can't handle the guardians just shoot red sparks. We'll help you out of the stadium, er, hopefully" He added the last part in a small voice.

"When the cannon fires you can enter the arena" and with that he left.

"So do you know anyzing about zese guardians?" Nicole asked in an overly sweet voice.

"Drop the act, we know who you really are" Cedric grunted. He really didn't like manipulators. His style was" I'll be blunt and I expect the same".

She snarled and opened her mouth to retort but was cut off by Fleur.

"Save eet. Zat works only on leettle boys. Sit down" Her voice had a steely edge that I have never heard before. Nicole grunted and reluctantly backed off.

"You are mine" Krum grunted at Cedric. Oops, Poor choice of words.

"We don't swing that way, Vicky, sorry" I mock apologized and Fleur let out a throaty chuckle.

"Vat do you mean?" Krum looked confused. But at that moment Cannon fired.

We stepped out of the tent and saw that we were in some sort of circular arena. It was a grass land with occasional rocks. There was a large tree exactly opposite to us in the other side of the arena and I saw a golden thing hanging from one of its branch about one meter from ground.

The problem was that we were not alone in the arena. A dragon curled around the tree sleeping and a thing with the body of a dragon and head of a rooster was standing in the middle of the arena with its back towards us. Cockatrice. There must be a silencing ward around us for we couldn't hear what the audience was shouting.

I immediately casted a powerful notice me not charm on us as we pushed our back against the arena wall.

"Cedric, which one is the worst, Cockatrice or a dragon?" I whispered.

"Cockatrice. Poisonous skin, Basilisk stare that can be used once a moon cycle, Deadly speed. To kill it we need a real rooster cry or make it look in the mirror. Scared of weasels" He eidetic memory was a great tool.

"You killed a basilisk, any tips?" He whispered as the Cockatrice slowly started to turn around. I felt my charm fading away. Against magical beings born to hunt that charm had a little to no effect.

"Don't look one in the eyes and don't get bitten" Before he could reply me the Cockatrice let out a shriek and started running towards us.

"You make a mirror, I'll distract it" I shouted as I ran. I transfigured a rock into three weasels and put a compulsion charm on them to surround the Cockatrice. It gave a mighty roar and spat some liquid at me as it ran away from the Weasels. I had no desire to die so I summoned one weasel and used it as a shield. The moment it touched the venom the weasel burnt to ashes. Unfortunately that meant the Cockatrice was not surrounded by weasels anymore. It ran through the gap between the remaining two weasels towards Cedric who was transfiguring a rock into a mirror. I quickly summoned him near me as the Cockatrice looked at the mirror.

"Fuck" Cedric swore. The Cockatrice was still standing. "Cedric, Why is it not dead?" I asked as it smashed the mirror into pieces.

"It must be pregnant; Mirrors won't work on pregnant Cockatrices. That means we can kill it only with a roosters cry"

"Where the fuck can we get a rooster?" I asked as I dodged a swipe by its tail. It now stood between us. Its eyes started to glow a sickly green color.

"It's going to use the Stare, cast Conjunctivitis curse now" I shouted

'conjuctivitis' we said at the same time and bulls eye, its eyes exploded. It let out a huge shriek and the dragon woke up.

"This is fucking awesome" Cedric exclaimed as he joined my side. We were now back to back, Cedric faced the dragon and I faced the now blinded Cockatrice.

"Cedric, my friend, You are an adrenalin junkie," truth to be told I felt awesome too."What about the dragon?"

"Swedish short snout, slow, thick hide, hates wolves. Weak point eyes and has poor sense of smell" He gave me the short version. The Cockatrice was banging its head against the arena wall. It seems to have forgotten us due to the pain.

"RRRRRRAAAAAARRRRRR" Unfortunately the dragon had its undivided attention on us.

"Wolves" Cedric said and we began transfiguring the rocks around us. But there were only four rocks around us and the dragon seemed to find four wolves as a treat rather than threat. A stream of fire and we were left with nothing else to transfigure.

"Well, that was unfortunate" Cedric frowned.

"For us or the wolves?" I asked as I shot a bombarda at its eyes. It missed.

"Both" Cedric ducked a swipe by the dragon. "Close your eyes "I said.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" He asked as he dodged again. With a shriek the Cockatrice turned its head towards me. It seems to have a superior sense of smell.

"Close your fucking eyes right NOW" I shouted and without waiting for his reply I closed my eyes and casted my spell.

'Solarius illuminatus' A bright light flooded the arena. The spell was used to produce solar flares. It was invented by Nicholas Flamel. It was a basic spell that was required for many alchemy experiments to provide the kick start to reactions.

The dragon gave a mighty roar and shook its head. The Cockatrice which was already blind seized the moment and lurched towards us. I pulled Cedric to the side and it collided with the blinded Dragon. The dragon roared and bit down hard on the Cockatrice's neck which in turn clamped its beaks on the wings of the dragon. We slowly backed away as they started fighting each other.

We reached the tree as quickly as we could without drawing attention from them. I casted a spell to detect traps but found no enchantment near it. So I moved forward but Cedric pulled me back and shook his head. "Watch the tree" He pointed towards the branches which were quivering even though there was no wind.

These bastards have really outdone themselves. It was a whomping willow. "Know anything about it?" I asked

"Bad, don't go near it" He shrugged. He still had that crazy look on his face.

"Fan-bloody-tastic" I looked around and saw that the creatures were currently occupied. The Cockatrice was winning. We should really finish this soon.

"Cedric ,Let's just burn the shit out" I snarled. Cedric had that shit eating grin when he realized what I had meant.

"incendio" we both casted at the same time. Twin columns of fire covered the tree. The willow swayed back and forth as its leaves and bark burned. Its branches swung wildly as it tried to kill us. But we were just out of its reach. I pushed more power into the spell and the column of fire doubled in size. After thirty second or so it stopped moving. I stopped my spell and Cedric stopped casting five seconds after me. In place of the whomping willow now stood a charred tree. It was half way dead. I motioned Cedric to get the egg as I turned to guard his back. The Cockatrice had won and was currently eating the dead dragon. I felt Cedric tapping my shoulder and turned around. He pressed the egg into my hand.

"Together" He said

We raised the egg and the silence ward around us broke. A massive cheer nearly deafened us. I felt a tug at my navel similar to that of a port key and after a moment reappeared on the medical tent.

I shrugged off madam promfrey as she tried to fuss over me. She huffed and proceeded to check on Cedric who had a cut on his right leg and was bleeding slightly. He still had that crazy grin. I realized that I was grinning too.

"We just did that, didn't we?" He asked excitedly.

"Hell, yeah" I was high from the adrenalin. I couldn't stand still.

"Can we go?" Cedric asked the bewildered nurse who had never seen him acting like that before. She must think that he has some sort of head injury. The polite young man was gone. He jumped down from the bed before she could answer and looped one arm around my shoulder as he pulled me out of the tent. People cheered widely seeing us.

"Ladies and gentlemen give a loud round of applause for the champions of Hogwarts," Bagman's magically magnified voice was drowned by the loud cheers and claps from the spectators. He continued after a moment."They showed their vast knowledge about magical creature by the use of weasel and mirror against the Cockatrice and the use of wolves against the dragon. Their teamwork and magical strength helped them finish the task with just a scratch. Let's see what the judges think about their performance"

Madame Maxime held up an eight, to the unyielding cheer of the people. Karkaroff held up a six and Bagman who gave thumbs up and held up a ten. Crouch gave us a nine. Dumbledore stood up, his eyes twinkling and held up an eight.

"Forty one out of fifty." The crowd cheered again.

"Now it's time for beuxbaton champions." The cannon fired and I noticed that the arena had been repaired. They had brought a new Cockatrice and a new dragon.

Fleur walked in lazily and casted a disillusion charm on her. She shimmered out of existence and the Cockatrice had its eyes fixed on Nicole. She immediately began firing off hexes which as the time went by grew more and more dark. Asphyxiation curse, Blood boiler, entrails exploding curses. It was plainly dark but not advanced. She was vicious. But every single one of her curses bounced of its skin. Suddenly a ring of fire surrounded the Cockatrice. It looked bewildered and snapped its beak at random directions. Fleur, I realized. She rematerialized but I felt something was off; it was as if she was not there. Illusion, the real Fleur was sill invisible. The Cockatrice lurched for the illusion but collided with the sleeping dragon. They started fighting with each other. Fleur shimmered back into view and walked lazily towards the tree but Nicole ran past her to grab the egg first. The new willow was much more intelligent than ours was; it waited till she was in the range and then swiped her away like a fly. She landed at least six meters away. The audience gasped. Fleur was not a bit fazed. She used a fire rope to summon the egg and conjured a bed to carry Nicole. Then I saw her face. It was lit alight with excitement. She checked Nicole apparently for injuries, seeing it was not life threatening she grabbed the egg and both of them disappeared.

"She's good" Cedric commented after a while.

"Yeah, Her illusions were perfect" I added my two Knuts.

"Zank you, 'Arry" A musical voice came from behind me. I turned and saw Fleur smiling radiantly. I nodded and Cedric flinched. She noticed his face.

"So, you know about my maman. But 'ow?" She tilted her head.

"I know many things I shouldn't, Fleur" I evaded the question.

"You are, what is ze word, an enigma 'Arry potter" She mused. Funny, I think the same about her.

"The beuxbaton champions chose the same way as Hogwarts champions to get past the monsters,by making them fight one another. A perfect illusion from Miss Delacour tricked the Cockatrice into fighting the curses Couteau casted were obviously dark, though it served its purpose. let's see what the judges think about that cunning performance. " Ludo Bagman was apparently thrilled.

The judges gave them thirty seven points.

"I think the judges were not impressed by the lack of team work and use of dark curses" Ludo bagman commented.

"As eef that conchon wouldn't repeat zat again" Fleur muttered. There must have been some deeper issues between Nicole and Fleur.

The cannon fired again Vladimir and Viktor entered the arena. They didn't wait or plan anything. They just started throwing curses. Then,

"Fiendfyre"

Vladimir released fiendfyre on the arena. It was uncontrolled and ran rampant. But it did the trick. The entire arena, including the dragon and the Cockatrice were burning. Krum had produced a bright red shield which protected both of them from fire. Blood magic, Krum had just used his blood to create the shield. These guys had no subtleties. The media will tear them apart but it was still within the rules. Use of dark art was not prohibited but was still frowned upon.

Krum picked the Egg up from a burned Whomping willow and they both disappeared from the arena. The fiendfyre was burning madly, trying to tear down the wards around the arena, to consume everything. About thirty wizards were trying to control the fire. Finally after thirty minutes they succeeded. The arena now looked like someone had dropped a nuclear bomb on it.

"That is how ve do it." The proud voice of Vladimir broke the silence at the champion's box. He was limping. Krum sneered at us. Cedric was about to retort but I stopped him. "Little boys" Krum grunted.

"Let's see what the judges think of that" The disgust was obvious in Bagman's voice.

They got thirty points. People booed when Karakaroff gave them a ten.

We were then asked to follow a rather frail looking witch in to a room.

"All our champions are here, except for poor Nicole" Bagman added the last bit hastily seeing the disapproving look on Crouch's face.

"The first task," the weary official began dryly, 'is over. You have all obtained the golden egg and achieved a score for your methods.'

"Some of which were spectacular," Bagman cut in enthusiastically winking at Cedric and I.

"The egg," Crouch continued with no hint he had even heard Bagman speak, "is your clue for the second task. This will be a surprise task. Solve the clue as soon as you can or you will be at a disadvantage for the next task."

He walked out without another word and the rest of them followed him. Fleur gave me a wave which I reluctantly returned. What was her game?

"So, what the hell have they planned for the second task?" Cedric asked still having that shit eating grin.

"I don't know. But you are hoping for something more dangerous, aren't you?"

His grin, if possible, grew wider.