M.P.O.: Elloz! Sorry it took me so long, I had to think hard on this one. I have decided that fourth year shall only have five chapters, just like all the other years, so the First and Second tasks are going to pass in this chapter. You already know what was in them, so i feel no need to elaborate on them, merely state that thay happened. Please review! And if you're bored while I'm working on the next chapter, go check out What the Blind Man Saw, my newest HP fic. Warning though, it is an HP/TR pairing, though no slash will be present.

Chapter 19: Dragons and Snakes

Sev glared at the cauldron of bubbling potion beneath him, carefully spreading mugwort across the surface as he stirred. Draco stood nearby, shifting from foot to foot as he gripped the empty vial in a pale hand.

"Is it finished?" He asked for the third time in as many minutes. Sev growled audibly and reached for the vial, scooping a measured amount from the now pale blue antidote and corking it tightly.

"Yes Dragon, it is finished, now take this to Poppy and make sure not to drop it!"

"Yeah yeah, I know. I'll floo you if it works." The eager blond ran off, cradling the vial in both hands as he headed for the hospital wing, where Daemon was lying, still and unresponsive as though in a coma. Sev sank into a chair beside the fire and conjured a glass of Firewhiskey.

"I hope it does...It's been too long."

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His sense of time was skewed. He thought it might have been a few minutes, or maybe a year since he had fallen, Drake's horrified visage the last image he had. He wandered in what he thought was a foggy valley, dodging trees and dead leaves, all the while slipping constantly on puddles of ice. Occationally a burst of flame blinded him and he cowered back hissing his irritation. This strange place quite frankley scared him, as devoid of life and his dragon as it was.

He was sitting on a rock...or at least he thought it was a rock, when he felt something being forced into his mouth. He gaged and swallowed involuntairily, the feeling of a hand stroking his throat startling him furthur. He stood quickly, wheeling around and squinting at the area around him suspiciously, but found nothing. Slowly, he calmed and sat back down, shrugging off the incident and eyeing his suroundings warily.

The same thing happened five more times, sometimes minutes later - or was it hours? - and eventually he just waited it out, figuring someone must be trying to get him to do something. The only problem was, he didn't know what. Then, when he was walking around in the small crop of trees one...afternoon, for want of a better term, he felt it again, only this time it was different. His limbs grew heavier and he sank onto the soil, hands on his chest where a dull ache had sprung up. He coughed, vision flickering and fell, hitting something soft...on his back? Wait a second...

Daemon's eyelids fluttered and he groaned, a hand rising to grab at his chest. Drake nearly crowed with excitement and ran to the floo, almost burning himself in his eagerness to get to Sev. Back on the bed, Daemon was blinking rapidly, his stomach lurching painfully as he turned to hurl in a quickly conjured bucket. Madam Pomfrey smiled and laid him back in his pillows, banishing the bucket and wiping his mouth with a soft rag.

"Welcome back Mr. Snape." She said quietly before moving and letting an overexcited Drake back to the bed. Daemon smiled weakly at the blond and moved a hand to cup his cheek.

"My Dragon..." He mumbled, eyes half closed in exhaustion. Drake slid onto the bed and wrapped his arms around Daemon, burying his head into the vampire's neck.

"My Demon..." He muttered back, smiling at the rumbling sort of purr that Daemon gave at the name. Sev walked into the room, well more like flew he was traveling so fast, and came to a dead stop next to the bed, where both boys had fallen asleep in each others arms. He smiled lightly and turned to find Poppy.

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"So what all did I miss?" Daemon asked as he walked down the hall with Drake a week after waking up. Poppy had finally let him go after he drank about three packets of antidote and blood. Drake had wrapped himself around the smaller vampire and wasn't letting him go anywhere without the blond, a fact the was quickly growing irksome to the teachers and Dameon himself. After all, a bloke's got to have a bit of privacy for those special moments, eh?

"Well, the First Task was dragons. Diggory won first with 36 points. Krum came next with 29 points, and Delacour last with 20 points. You just missed the Second Task by about a day. The champions had to rescue their most prised person from the middle of the lake. Krum won that one. The Third task is in about two months. Oh and you missed the Yule Ball. Of course, so did I, but hey, I'm not about to show up alone when I could have had a stunning Vampire on my arm." Daemon smiled at that and inched closer to his taller mate, wrapped securely in a warm cloak. Passing students stopped to stare, but the two Vipers ignored them, heading for the great hall.

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Around the hall from the two boy's, a figure growled to itself, hand clenching around the cherry wand in it's grasp. "Damn that bastard. I had hoped for a few more months. Blast, but I'll have to find another way to get him there...Oh...Yes, that shall work nicely, yes it shall."

"Professor?" A child's voice interupted his thoughts and he turned, looking down at the child with a calm indifference.

"Yes, Ms Stewart?"

"I was wondering if you could help me with Ancient Runes. I just can't seem to get edo and eido in the right places."

"Alright. Let's go to my office and see if we can't get that memory of yours on track, hm?"

"Thanks Professor Vector!"

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The third task dawned grey and humid, the wind nearly extinct around the stands that framed the Maze where the Champions would face off for the last time. Daemon twitched, his skin feeling itchy and moved his wings a bit, grumbling abou the rough school uniform that covered them. Drake rubbed his shoulder absently, his other hand scratching away on a peice of parchment.

"I feel like something's going to happen today." He muttered to Drake as they headed out of Transfiguration, rolling his shoulder uncomfortably. Drake smiled softly at him and pulled him closer, ignoring the whispers of the other students.

"The Third Task is today. Of course something's going to happen. It always does." Daemon stared out a window, leaning his head against Drake's shoulder and sighing.

"You're probably right. My last change is soon, and that always makes me jumpy. Come on, we've got Defense in an hour."

M.P.O.: Ok, I am TOTALLY sorry for that really long wait, but i had writters block from hell for this one. Luckily, i already know exactly how the next chappy is going to run out so that one should be up soon. Thank you all soooooo much for sticking with me and the guys for this! Drake and Daemon growl at being called such muggle names. ANywho, please please please review and tell me what you think. I've already gotten over 18,000 hits on this story, a record for any of my fics, and i want to try for 20,000 by the time fourth year is done.