Chapter 10 – Prelude to Doom

The excitement of the selection ceremony had died down to slow murmur, as moonlight began to shine through the castle corridors. Rumors were circulating about the unexpected fourth champion, Harry Potter. Most were quick to discredit him as an attention-seeking brat who wanted to steal the fame of the other champions for himself, others believed he would do such a thing. The serenity of Gryffindor Tower was interrupted by the opening of the Fat Lady's portrait. Exiting from the common room in a huff, was the Boy-Who-Lived.

"How could he think I entered myself in?" Harry said to no one but himself. He knew that most people wouldn't believe him when he said that he didn't put his name in, but to his great shock, Ron was one of the nonbelievers. Frustrated by his friends lack of support and jealousy, Harry walked down the hallway, his temper rising as he progressed. Nearing the staircase, he finally snapped and pounded the side of his fists into the wall, realizing a yell of frustration that came out half as a roar.

"Just stay calm Harry. Stay calm." With his breathing under control he glanced at the wall and saw two sizable cracks where his fists had connected. Casting a quick Reparo he continued his march down the Grand Staircase and out onto the grounds.

-HP-

Hermione had heard the shouting coming from the Boys Dormitory and decided to leave her quarters to go talk to Harry. She knew that a lot of the students didn't believe, some Gryffindors included, and figured that someone had accosted him about his entry in the tournament. When she made it down to the Common Room, she heard the portrait shut and made her way towards it, before hearing a low roar coming from outside.

Hermione quickly peaked her head out, but found no sign of Harry. Knowing that what was bothering him was really serious, she headed back in and up to the Boy's Dormitory too question her other best friend.

"Ron, what happened to Harry?" The mass in Ron's bed simply grunted in response.

Hermione was at first confused by this response, but her mind quickly put two and two together.

"What did you say to Harry, Ron?"

He quickly sat up with a surly expression on his face. "I told the git to piss off."

"You don't actually believe that Harry put is name in the goblet, do you?" A brief glance of guilt crossed Ron's face before his angry expression returned, his glare now focused on Hermione.

"Harry always gets everything, I'm tired of it. He couldn't at least tell me how he did it."

Hermione quickly saw through his deception. "Ronald, how could you?" The guilt briefly returned to his face, but Ron quickly gained control of his emotions, wearing a neutral expression. "You know Harry wants nothing to do with his fame. You're just being jealous!"

Ron didn't answer simply glaring at her further before pulling his sheets over his head. Turning with a huff, Hermione moved towards Harry's bed, and opened his trunk to search for the Marauder's Map. She found it soon after and opened it to search for Harry. His dot was found heading towards the Whomping Willow. Knowing his intended destination, Hermione headed off towards the Shrieking Shack to find her best friend.

-HP-

'There's something strange about 'Arry Potter.'

This was the thought that plagued the mind of Fleur Delacour since the night of the champion selection. The stories and comments she heard from the students that sat around her at the Ravenclaw table, painted a very conflicting picture. Some claimed that he was arrogant and constantly seeking attention, while others said that he was a humble students of moderate ability. One thing for sure was certain, things always seemed to happen around him.

Initially, she agreed with the sentiment that he entered the tournament for his own gain. The fact that someone could've entered his name so that he would die was completely insane. Dumbledore said that every precaution was being taken for the champions safety, so to her, it seemed like a feeble excuse.

As time went on however, she started to see a different side of the "leetle boy". His apprehension towards all the attention, both positive and negative, he was getting, though she told herself that it was because most of it was negative. From her own personal experience, she couldn't understand how someone didn't want to have all that attention. Granted, she grew into enjoying the attention, but still, growing up as "the Boy-Who-Lived" means he must be accustomed to it by now.

What she really found strange was his behavior during the wand weighing ceremony. She refused to even look at him during most of the meeting, but when she allow herself to peer over at him, she saw a very nervous, fidgeting young man. The way he seemed to stress over the state of his wand was also a little disconcerting.

Fleur decided that she needed to get all thoughts of Harry Potter out of her head as she headed towards the Quidditch field for the Beauxbaton vs. Hogwarts match.

-HP-

Harry was a nervous wreck as he waited anxiously in the Hogwarts locker room. To say that the last few weeks had been stressful would be an understatement. Quidditch practice had already eaten up a lot of his time, but in the two weeks after his name came out of the Goblet of Fire, it had been almost impossible. Their team captain Roger Davies had upped the amount of practices to every other day, while Hermione insisted on Harry preparing for the First Task nearly every day.

On top of all that, one of the starting Chasers, a Hufflepuff, had come down with dragon pox just days before the first match. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but a few weeks earlier, one of the two back-up chasers had an accident during her charms class, and was currently unable to play, meaning that the remaining one had to be used. With Quidditch being the violent game that it was, Harry could only hope that nothing would happen to any of the Chaser, otherwise they may have to forfeit.

The announcement of the Hogwarts team broke him from his thoughts, as he mounted his broom and speed off towards the center of the field. After the captains shook hands, Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the game began.

Harry immediately began searching for the golden snitch, occasionally hearing the commentary of Lee Jordan and glancing at the action on the field to keep him updated.

"Spinnet passes to Davies, who speeds towards the hoop. He throws…and he scores! Hogwarts leads Ninety to Forty."

Harry clapped for his teammates, hoping that they could get enough of a lead to ensure a Hogwarts victory.

"Look out!"

He looked up just in time to see a bludger heading directly for him. He rolled out of the way but was surprised to still hear that deafening crunch of the ball making contact with bone. He turned his head around to see Cassius Warrington, the Slytherin back-up chaser, falling from his broom.

He was deftly caught by Alicia and Roger before Madam Hooch blew her whistle, signaling a time out. Roger flew over to her as the rest of the team landed a short distance away.

"It doesn't look like it's going very well," commented one of the twins, seeing Roger waving his arms around in an exasperated manner, before returning over to their position.

"We have no choice. Potter… you'll have to play chaser. Chang, you're seeker."

Harry groaned as this was exactly what he wanted to avoid. After the loss of two chasers, Roger informed him that he would be their last back-up chaser. Harry was barely competent as a chaser, playing seeker was where he truly stood out. He would be lying if he said he wasn't resentful that Cho would be the one to catch the snitch instead of him. He resigned himself to his fate and rose back into the air with the team, lining up alongside Alicia and Roger.

To say that the net few minutes were painful, didn't cover it enough. It became painfully obvious that following the injury, that the Hogwarts team was at a severe disadvantage. The lack of practice between the current three chasers caused a lot of miscommunication in the air.

It was during one of these moments that Harry accidentally collided with Alicia, nearly knocking the two of them off of their brooms.

When his eyes regained focus, Harry became aware that everything seemed to be moving at a slightly slower pace. He looked to his right and the Quaffle heading towards him.

Somehow Harry managed to catch the ball one-handed, before speeding off towards the hoops and threw it in for the score.

"Potter scores! Hogwarts catching up Ninety to One Hundred and Twenty!"

The Beauxbatons team wasted no time moving the ball back the other direction, attempting to quickly score in order to keep their lead cemented. One chaser attempted to pass it to her teammate, only for Harry to sweep in out of nowhere and throw it to Alicia.

This continued on for the rest of the game, with Beauxbatons unable to answer the renewed onslaught. Roger passed the ball towards Harry who landed a kick to the Quaffle to score yet another goal.

A whooshing sound caught Harry's ears as he saw that both bludgers were heading towards him. Thinking quickly, Harry pushed off his broom into a backflip, dodging both flying bludgers whose paths crossed before flying off, before landing back on his broom.

Soon after a loud cheer from the Hogwarts section of the stands was heard. Rounding about, Harry saw Cho Chang holding the snitch proudly above her head.

"Chang had caught the Snitch. Hogwarts wins against Beauxbatons Three Hundred and Ten to One Hundred and Forty!"

-HP-

One week after the Quidditch match, Harry awoke in his bed and quickly wondered if the events of the previous night was a dream. He had gotten word that Hagrid wanted to show him something so last night, he snuck down to his friend's cabin. What he found when he followed the professor into the Forbidden Forest made it extremely difficult to fall asleep.

Dragons.

How in the world did the ministry expect four students to be able to take on live dragons? Every possible outcome raced through Harry's mind, and as far as he could tell, it would be nearly impossible for him to survive.

Making his way down to the common room, he found Hermione already down there waiting. Seeing the bewildered look on his face, Hermione rose and met him near the bottom of the staircase.

"Harry? What is it?" Harry was trying to find where to start. Hermione already was using so much of her time helping him and worrying about him, that he hated to cause her anymore stress. "What did Hagrid show you?" This broke him from his trance and he looked deep into his friend's eyes.

"Not here," he said simply leading her out into the corridor.

"When I went to see Hagrid, he took me into the Forbidden Forest."

"Into the forest? Why on earth would he take you in there?"

Harry exhaled tiredly, knowing that there was no way around this.

"Dragons."

Hermione's eyes widened, unsure if she had heard him correctly. Immediately her mind began ti process everything at lightning speed.

How could they expect anyone to stand against a fully grown dragon? How could HARRY stand against such a task? There must be a way around this….

Her silent thoughts continued for nearly a minute before she remembered that this was about Harry and refocused on the boy in front of her.

"We'll find a way Harry. I'm sure that there are spells that will be helpful when the task comes around." What she didn't say was that she doubted that they had enough power to be able to use such spells, but she refused to allow herself to accept defeat.

"I know Hermione. It's just that with classes, Quidditch, and my lessons with Moony…I'm not sure how I'll be able to fit in even more training time for the First Task." This statement reminded Hermione about what she saw at the Quidditch game and remembered something she wanted to talk about with Harry.

"How're your lessons with Lupin going Harry?"

"Great. I think." Harry rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. In truth his lessons were going well, but maybe not as well as he had hoped. He had learned how to control his senses, being able to lessen and focus on his senses at will had caused the occasional sensory overloads to stop. He had yet however, to be able to control his transformations, still losing consciousness every time it happened. "I've learned to control my sense but not my transformations."

Hermione wanted to say something else but their conversation was interrupted by Professor Moody.

"Potter! With me. I want to show ya something."

As Harry followed the Professor, he decided that now was a good time to practice control of his senses like Remus had suggested. When he opened up his sense of smell, he found a scent that smelled vaguely familiar. He wracked his brain to try and determine where he smelled it before but lost his concentration when the door to Moody's office slammed shut

Author's Note-

So a lot happened in this chapter which required a lot of time leaps. I didn't feel it necessary to have more than one chapter about the events between the champion selection and the first task so I decided that it would all happen in here.

I hope the Quidditch section of this chapter is satisfactory. I really like Quidditch, but I personally find it difficult to write about. I did the best I could and hopefully it is satisfactory.

One reviewer commented on how he didn't like that Harry didn't have control over his shifts. Don't worry, he will learn control but I feel it's a lot like learning to play a sport. You most likely won't be good that first time you play basketball and I feel that being a werewolf is kkind of similar.

Next chapter is the First task so it should be a fun one.

As always, Thanks for reading!