Chapter 21: THE FIRST TASK

Chapter Text

Thank you all so much for sharing your patronuses! I find it the most fascinating thing to think about, that and animagi and, fingers crossed, we'll get an official quiz for that as well.

To xiaoweisan: You brought up two things that I have every intention of speaking of and explaining in-story, but not now because spoilers, and I'm mean like that. Thanks for the review!

To Guest: Sorry if I got your hopes up; occasionally I manage to get in updates on the weekend, but don't expect it. My standard's usually Wednesdays.

Lily couldn't help it, her anger at Ron really was starting to bleed out by now to just be replaced with sorrow for both him and Harry. Both boys needed to talk to each other: she was sure they would work this out if they did, but while both blamed the other it didn't seem to be happening soon. What would it take to get it through Ron's head this wasn't Harry's fault? Ron was clearly growing tired of the argument though, so if Harry finally snapped and tracked him down, could they hopefully settle their differences soon?

Lily was the only one hoping along those lines. James was still trying his hardest not to think about it at all, while Remus and Sirius still wanted to smack the redhead a good one. Remus began his chapter with anger still bleeding into his tones.

Sirius tried for a laugh at the mental image even if he didn't really feel it.

"Sure you didn't want to try pulling a sweater over your drawers next?" James muttered.

"Wish you had realized that," Remus sighed at Sirius. "I'm still blasted you found anything more important to discuss than that, even a Death Eater."

Sirius just shrugged, really not having a defense for himself. He certainly agreed Harry should be on his guard around anyone from Durmstrang now, but those dragons really were a bit more pressing at the time.

"Oh thank you, Hermione, that was very encouraging," Lily huffed.

Remus fidgeted with the page for a moment, hoping desperately something else would happen to Harry in between now and when that First Task would come up so that he wouldn't have to read it, but then he realized it would in fact be Lily's turn to read about her son against a dragon, so he instead changed his wish to just getting this over with.

"That could work at least," James nodded along. "You should find a passage talking about a dragon's weak spot, and come to the conclusion on your own of what to do."

"I still don't see how that would help," Harry sighed. "So I get it in the eye, then what? Now I've got an angry dragon because I managed to hit it, on top of whatever else I'm supposed to be doing."

"Still better than not knowing anything," Remus offered with a forced smile. Harry didn't argue the point.

"Not top priority right now," Lily agreed.

"I'm worried that they're taking that too literally," Sirius frowned. "They need to stick with the dragon books to see what I meant."

"There's nothing easy when it comes to dragons, really," Lily agreed.

"Also known as Hagrid and Charlie, the nutters around them right now," James muttered.

"Now there's an interesting idea," James said with honest amusement.

"Harry's not at that skill level yet," Lily corrected.

"Of course the bloody fourth year has been," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"She's got to stay on top somehow," Remus shrugged.

'And she was just trying to help,' Lily wanted to sigh, but didn't correct him as she could only guess at how stressed her son was right now.

"Can't deny it would be interesting to see, though," Remus muttered to himself, knowing he was the only one to think that.

"Well, this clearly isn't helping," Lily groaned.

"Better than sitting around the common room freaking himself out," James sighed.

Harry felt a funny little feeling tingling in his gut, like he wanted to laugh at a vexed Hermione around Krum, but the feeling was so buried with the gut wrenching fear of facing a dragon soon he never even really registered it.

"Ooh, my poor baby," Lily finally couldn't stop herself, she'd been trying to restrain how sorry she felt for Harry for ages so as not to smother him or embarrass him or anything, but she just couldn't hold it back anymore with how genuinely bad this was for him.

Harry gave his mother a warm, reassuring smile which seemed to at least somewhat put her at ease, but it didn't really erase a pang in his head telling Harry that for some reason he should remember something about leaving Hogwarts? He never really ran away did he?

"Least I have them now," Harry quickly inserted before he had to watch depression mix in with the already wound up nerves of his family. They gave him a grateful smile for the effort, even if it was still hard to shake that sentence off.

"Oh thank you," Lily still couldn't help but ground out. "It just warms my heart to know a dragon is still better than that!"

Harry wasn't sure if that was sarcasm or pure anger at the reminder, most likely both.

"You most definitely are," Sirius scoffed.

Remus, though, was watching Harry with a calculating look, wondering why Harry was thinking about this again when he noticed Cedric walking off... Was he really going to?

"Oh you're not," James asked with a genuine smile.

"I think he is," Lily corrected with a fond look at her boy.

"Only seems fair," Sirius smirked in agreement.

"Considering Sprout's unusual ire with you, you're risking a lot for this," Remus reminded.

"He's helping out a Hufflepuff, though," Sirius waved off, "so I'm sure she'll forgive him.

"Bloody, bleeding, a-holes picking on a younger kid," James huffed. Quidditch was one thing, if this had just been going on right before a tournament or something, he knew he'd laugh it off, but this wasn't a Bludger problem, this was a life and death tournament!

"Well, that was rude," Lily got out around her own giggling; she couldn't deny it was effective.

"Ah, he can just repair it later," Remus waved her off. "You can't deny him points for thinking up that."

"Helps that he knows how much of a distraction it is," James agreed with a wild smile as he remembered back to Harry's lovely singing valentine because of this moment.

"And the usual response," Sirius agreed, as this was a fairly common occurrence and no one really wanted to help pick up slimy, inky anything. It stained your hands for a time no matter what.

"Subtle as a brick to the face," James got out around a fantastic snort.

"I don't know if there is a way to ease into that," Remus snickered, "so Harry's way was probably best."

"Least he doesn't think you're pulling his leg," Sirius shrugged, as that would probably cross his own mind. From an outsider, with all the flack Harry was getting, he wouldn't have put it past Cedric to think Harry was doing this as some sort of set up.

"Honestly though, what is to stop them wandering the grounds and finding out?" James rolled his eyes. The three of them couldn't have been the only students in their youth to be out wandering the grounds so much, and the dragon pens weren't exactly in the heart of the forest.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they set up security not long after Harry left," Lily pointed out. "Warn away any students trying to get close, official Tournament business and all that. If Hagrid hadn't snuck Harry in there right when he had, it probably would have been a lot harder to be done."

"Fair enough," James agreed.

"That's what I was looking for," Sirius nodded. "He's got to be a bit suspicious of you."

"Thanks," Harry drawled. Everyone here knew Harry was doing it out of a kindness, but even he'd admit he would have been suspicious of someone doing this for him as well.

"Agreed," James yelped instantly, finally something fun to think about! "There's a ton of room for potential mayhem-"

"James," Lily cut him off fondly, "would you please plan your plots later?"

James couldn't help a smile when he realized his wife had said later instead of knock it off, at least it meant she wasn't really opposed to the idea.

"Why?" James yelped in surprise.

"Think Moody heard him and is going to tell off Harry?" Lily pouted. "It's not like he can do anything though, the damage has been done."

"This could turn bad," Sirius agreed.

"Is that your go-to fear of him now?" Remus asked between laughter. "I think he's got other animals up his sleeve."

Harry just shrugged, that bouncing ferret had really been a lasting memory.

"Can't argue with you there," Sirius agreed with a repressed shiver.

"Well, he's not at the start of telling you off," Lily murmured hopefully, though if that wasn't what he was doing, why had he dragged Harry there?

"Thank you for the remembered nightmare," Sirius snorted. He'd still never heard of anyone so vain.

"Thank you for the remembered payback," James corrected with a wicked grin. At least he'd got his comeuppance in the end.

"Because Moony's the only nutjob who loves them so much he keeps them on hand," James snickered, which Remus gracefully ignored by flushing slightly and reading a bit louder.

Lily was just glad that Harry had never had the reason to visit Quirrell in his office; she didn't want to know what he would have found.

"Why's it cracked though?" James asked in surprise, Moody was a well-known maniac for keeping his gear in top priority.

"Your guess is as good as ours," Sirius shrugged, though just as confused.

"That's a Secrecy Sensor," James smiled in surprise, "though I wonder why it would be going off now. No one in there should be hiding anything."

"How long is the range?" Sirius asked. "Could be picking up students up to no good, couldn't it?"

James nodded in fair point.

"Ooh, that's a Foe-Glass," Remus smiled. "Those are really rare; I wonder where he got it." He didn't wait for Harry to ask this time before adding on, "it shows the outline of your enemies, and when they come into focus it means you'd better start running. Great head start if you learn to use it properly."

Harry nodded in understanding of what Remus had said, but not why he was getting a prickling feeling. All of this made perfect sense, so why did he still have a growing suspicion about Moody any time he was mentioned?

"I would if any of them were active," Remus scoffed. Moody was supposedly there this year to keep an eye on anything suspicious going on, yet he had all the instruments to help him do so off. What was the point of that?

"There's my cheerful thought," Lily huffed, that's all she'd been thinking about since this mess had started.

Harry rubbed furiously at his temple for a moment, feeling like he should go back and kick his fourteen-year-old self for not investigating that further, because it was going to bite him in the arse. Thankfully no one pressured him to talk about it though: they all knew the results they'd get.

"Won't find that in any books," Lily chuckled, "but I can't imagine him being wrong."

"I really don't even see what Harry did as cheating," Remus agreed. "Is there actually a rule saying you can't help your fellow players? Crouch just said you couldn't have outside help like from the teachers."

"If you ever bother to find out, let us know," James snorted.

"Something I'm going to more than enjoy showing," Sirius hissed bitterly. Even when he did rip that rat's head from his body, he wasn't likely to forget the great leader of the Order who hadn't lifted a finger to help him when it happened.

"I wouldn't expect him to," James raised a sharp brow in surprise.

"Though if he's not there to tell you off, what was the point of him doing this?" Lily asked.

Nobody actually had an idea. Why was Moody taking an interest in Harry like this? Was it possibly Dumbledore again, who'd asked his old friend to keep a special eye on the boy? They wouldn't put it past him.

Harry flushed in shock when he received four startled faces. He still felt that way, was going to repeat himself and try to just move on, but then Sirius snorted and shook his head as he declared, "the funniest part is, you actually mean that."

"Harry, everyone's got things they're good and bad at," Lily scolded maternally. "You've clearly excelled in some classes but lack in others, just like every other student."

"DA," Remus quickly said when Harry looked like he was still going to disagree. "I can only name one third year I've ever known to make a Patronus. I'd call that a strength." He decided to leave off the mention of the Imperius curse. Though just as impressive, that one wasn't as good to think about.

"Plus you're a ruddy good Seeker," James quickly put in as clearly Harry wasn't going to agree on the academia side, "best I've ever seen."

By this point Harry was so red and desperate to change the subject, it didn't even click in his brain what his dad had really said as he told Remus, "alright, please keep going or I'll take that and do it myself."

They were all chuckling with good nature. This was certainly much more pleasant to be talking about than dragons, so none of them really wanted to go back to the book, but Remus decided to save Harry anyways, as he did know how it felt to have things you didn't believe thrown at you like that.

James' smirk widened all the more. He knew he'd hit Harry's best point, and when Harry gave him a warm smile to show that the praise his dad had given for agreeing meant the world to him.

"Oh!" Sirius did a double take in shock.

"Well that's, something," James got out around a crackling throat that was trying to laugh.

"You're going to somehow get your broom to you, to fly past the dragon," Remus said slowly, before nodding with bright eyes and saying, "well, major credit, it's certainly better than running!"

It didn't take Harry but a few moments at watching them before it all clicked together in his mind, and he started laughing in relief.

Lily was smiling with pure indulgent happiness at her boy. Of all the times she'd complained about his Quidditch status, at last it finally seemed to have done some good for him. She hadn't seen Harry relax so much since before this Tournament had been announced.

"Wait, where did Hermione come into this?" Sirius asked in surprise.

"Harry needs a spell to get his broom to him," James shrugged, "who would you ask?"

"Good point," Sirius acknowledged.

"Oh, but of course you pick the spell you've been having trouble with all year," Lily snorted.

"How else could I get it to me?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Well, you certainly picked the easiest way," Lily corrected herself. "The Summoning Charm is so flexible with its wording and doesn't have a range, that would be a recommendation, but with the fact that you haven't mastered it after trying for months at school, I would have suggested an alternative."

"Any others I can think of, though, are at an even harder level," James countered back for Harry, "and there's a difference between slacking off on your homework, and 'I need this bleeding spell for a really important reason.' I think Harry'll figure it out."

"Trust him on this one," Sirius smirked when Lily didn't really look convinced, "you'd be amazed what sudden motivation will help your wand to accomplish."

Lily suddenly realized the two big headed idiots were referring to themselves being able to pull off an animagus transformation at such young ages, and they did have a point. Besides, there was no point pestering Harry about it; he already did whatever it was that got him through, so she let it go.

"Is that all the advice she's giving?" Remus rolled his eyes. "Telling him the same thing over and over won't ever cause an improvement."

"Thank you, professor," Sirius snorted.

James couldn't help a little frown though, as he really did wish that Moony had still been around to help Harry with this. It would have made him feel better as he knew that Remus could get Harry through some pretty difficult spells already.

"Yeah, that's cause for distraction," Sirius shivered, wishing he could go back to picking on his friend now, as that was already popping up in his head every other sentence this chapter.

"Why?" Lily asked in surprise. "If all the advice she's giving you is to tell you to concentrate, I'd think not having her around for a space would do you some good."

"I didn't really like being alone," Harry muttered. "I tended to freak myself out more when she wasn't at my elbow muttering things."

"It's not very sudden if he's been expecting it for months," Remus snapped in a real temper; he was sick of that woman's stupid predictions.

"Can someone shove a planetarium up her nose already?" Sirius grumbled. "Might distract her long enough Harry can drop this class."

Which gave them all a nice, surprised burst of laughter that they had been sorely missing for ages now. Anybody smarting off to Trelawney was always a good source of mood, even if the topic was usually depressing.

"Genuinely impressed he restrained himself," Sirius said, his good mood still lingering enough he didn't sound as sore as usual.

Lily and James exchanged exasperated stares, both now on the same page that they'd lock those two boys in a room themselves if it would get them to talk to each other and get this over with. It had worked for Remus and Sirius, and that fight had been worse than this one.

Causing another smattering of giggling to erupt in the room, all of them now quite glad indeed Harry had come to this class. It was great at relieving most of the tension at least.

Only Sirius and James got a good laugh out of that. They hadn't heard about the Poltergeist in a while, and he was always around when you needed him the least, and the most. This time was sort of both for them, as they really didn't want to let go of their laughing mood, because the moment they did, they'd remember what Harry was fixing to do.

"And me Mum always told me nothing good happens after midnight," James beamed.

Lily didn't even bother with the worry that Harry should have been in bed; she knew as well as anyone her boy wouldn't be getting any sleep.

"Is that all it takes?" Sirius demanded as he theatrically popped himself in the forehead, "I'll keep that in mind."

"You'd Crucio someone before you let that threat hang over you," Remus mock-scolded him.

"Well, I'm not as good a person as Harry," Sirius shrugged without remorse.

"I'm sure everything'll be fine," Lily said instantly, her faith in her son's charms not wavering for a second. Harry had yet to actually get a spell wrong once he'd mastered it.

"Probably would have sneaked onto the grounds myself to practice," James offered with a shrug.

"Didn't know how getting caught out of bed would affect me," Harry returned, "and I'd yet to have many good experiences of it, so that night didn't seem to be one to try."

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Remus chuckled. "They'd think you'd gone mad, there's no way they'd force you to stay in the Tournament then."

Harry snapped his fingers with a jesting regretful face that hadn't crossed his mind.

Lily couldn't help but coo. She'd always loved McGonagall. Strict as she was, she never missed a moment to show that she cared about her students, and this was one time Harry most definitely needed it.

"Yeah, cause that won't cause him to panic," Sirius muttered, unable to stop an almost nonstop shivering. Only the warmth of the baby in his arms was really registering in him now.

"Best advice to be given," James sighed as he pushed his hand through his hair. He didn't care if Harry was sitting next to him now, fully grown and clearly having survived this, the anxiety galloping up his throat wasn't leaving him at the thought of this.

"He's just peachy," Remus muttered mutinously.

"Now you're just depressing me," Lily sighed, her fingers catching strands of her hair and twirling them around her fingers tightly as any form of distraction.

"How is he always in such a good mood?" Sirius snarled with a touch more venom than was really called for. "I get so sick of hearing him say what a good thing this is for Harry!"

"If it makes you feel any better, imagine him wetting himself if he was the one to go in front of those dragons," Remus offered.

It didn't, but Sirius thanked him for trying.

Remus groaned and face planted the pages. He'd detested the idea of getting past a nesting dragon, but, oh, no. Now Harry was expected to grab an egg from her clutch, under her bleeding talons, because that was so much better!

It only vaguely registered when someone smacked him upside the head, but still he glanced up to see Lily with too-bright eyes as she snapped at him, "you nearly gave me heart failure! Can't you pretend for at least a second you didn't just picture Harry getting charbroiled doing this?"

Remus worked furiously for a second, but he really couldn't get rid of the expression until he glanced at Harry who was watching him with concern.

It was not comforting in the slightest that the guy they would have relied on to get them past a dragon was freaking out as much as Sirius, who was only taking long steady breaths as a simple reminder just to keep his chest moving. Both parents were a twitching mess thinking about this, so Remus bolstered himself as he realized he was the only one to get through this.

"Thanks for the reminder, made this all ten times worse," James sneered.

Remus did not miss the fact that Harry was now down to a fifty, fifty shot of getting the worst of the dragons. His mind tried to scatter to a less scary topic, like wondering which breed had been added as the afterthought upon Harry's entrance. Had it been the Horntail, the worst of the lot as an extra challenge, or perhaps the Welsh Green who was, at least compared to the others, the best choice? He didn't have an answer, and knew he most likely wasn't going to get one, but at least the small distraction had done its job and he was able to keep going in a steady voice.

"Of course, absolutely, that makes perfect sense! Harry would get the bleeding Hungarian Horntail, the most dangerous of them all! How could he not! Because this one f'ing time he couldn't have just-" James reached around Harry and almost gently pulled on Sirius' ear to get him to stop, but the tug did indeed get his attention and Sirius forced his tirade to cut off.

"What are those, anyways?" Harry asked dully, not really curious for an answer as it just involved more dragon talk, but the question had come out nonetheless.

Remus had to think for a moment, collecting his thoughts to something other than a fifty-foot monster in the same vicinity as Harry, before answering. "Normally? The models are used for little tasks. I know a shop in Diagon Alley uses one to roast their chestnuts. They're not exactly real, you don't have to feed them or anything; the magic just makes them lifelike for a few months until you reactivate them."

"Well, that's a relief," Lily muttered, "because for a moment I was honestly afraid those were baby dragons."

"Nah," Remus was actually relaxing now as he kept going, "they imitate real life dragons, and, yes, they can breathe fire, so they're not a toy, but they're not particularly dangerous either. Once the magic in them wears off, they vanish, and you have to buy a new one. It's more of a novelty, to have dragon-roasted chestnuts when you could simply cook them like normal, or other gimmicks that they're really rarely used."

"Well, do me a favor, and keep them away from me as well," Sirius grumbled, suddenly thankful that Remus clearly knew about these things, and had never tried to give one to Sirius as a gag gift. As Sirius most likely would have dropped it down Remus' pants in retaliation, it was wise of him.

"Did Harry have to go last, though?" Lily couldn't help but scowl. "I wish he'd just gone first to get it over with."

"Why's that?" Sirius asked in surprise, not against anything that would keep Harry away from that dragon any longer than he had to be, but that was still pretty odd.

"No clue," Harry muttered, just as curious, but somehow agitated about it as well.

James didn't even try to smother his agitation at that comparison. Sirius was one thing, he'd take that jealousy happily any day as James himself would pick Sirius to be any sort of fatherly figure to Harry since he was out of the picture. It wasn't fun to listen to, but tolerable. This f'ing stranger, though, who had been bothering Harry since he met him, was really starting to dig under his skin.

"Well, that's, sweet," Lily said uncertainly. She at least appreciated Bagman's attempts to see that Harry was feeling okay, but McGonagall had done the same thing without making it so obvious to the other champions. Why would he bother anyways?

"Jeez, at least Moody was being subtle about it," Remus frowned, "and he did it in return for Harry helping Cedric. What's Bagman playing at doing this?"

"Is it so bad to see him doing something nice?" Lily asked without any real force; she found it odd as well.

"I'd believe it a little more if he'd quit treating Harry like a star every time he walked into a room," James sniffed. "I think he's just buttering up to him."

Sirius did not add his opinion; he still looked likely to vomit at the task to come the moment he did open his mouth.

"A terrible habit I wish you'd break," Lily muttered, as Harry said that too commonly now when it came to his headaches.

"What you get, you little-" James cut himself off with a few more terse mutters that in no way cut off what Remus kept forcing out.

"Credit for trying," Lily tried to get out, though she knew she didn't sound much better.

"Thought Bagman was supposed to be commentating," Remus grumbled, thinking that would be easier to think about than a random crowd reaction that could be to anything. "He's doing a terrible job of it."

"The less description of them the better," Lily shivered. "I'm going to be having enough nightmares when we get to Harry's, no need to preemptively tell me what to fear."

"Probably isn't too good at his job anyways," James snapped, clearly still rankled over the encounter. "All he does is spout off names, doesn't know how to really describe the action."

"I stand corrected," Remus rolled his eyes.

"Not hardly," James scoffed, everything they said was still true.

Lily couldn't help but agree with Harry in that moment. Though she was losing a shade of color with every passing moment it was getting closer to Harry's turn, and with Fleur being her least favorite contestant so far, even she could see how much it would take of a person to willingly walk into a dragon's den like that.

And still, even after everything that had happened, none of them could help the mental complaint of why that couldn't just be the last time that stupid whistle was to be blown.

"Adrenaline will do the strangest things to your body," James agreed absently.

"What did he do?" Remus yelped in surprise. "Judging from his remarks, did he just charge out to meet the dragon head on?"

"Don't know, hoping I don't have to find out," Lily grumbled, now massaging at her chest that was thundering so hard against her ribs she was sure they'd crack soon. Harry hadn't even had his turn yet and she couldn't seem to find air, and it was only going to get worse when it did. After he was out of the arena, she never wanted to hear talk of dragons again.

Remus released a deep breath he felt he'd been holding for ages, but there was nothing for it now. He could just keep glancing up as often as he needed to at Harry now, clearly more than fourteen, alive and well, to convince himself he could get past this no matter what.

"I'd like to think it was an honest combination of both," James muttered, thinking that Hogwarts really couldn't be so shallow to still be roaring disapproval at Harry even in the face of a dragon. Not that cheers would do him any better, but still, it was the principal.

Sirius felt like someone was constantly flicking his heart, making it do several jump starts that he was sure wasn't normal, but this had been going on since Harry had been led down to the enclosure, so he was growing used to the feeling now and at least had a moment to appreciate that Harry at least had the best broom in the world under him when it came. If he'd trust one thing to help him get past a dragon, at least it could be that.

No one had really doubted he'd be able to pull it off, but now that the moment had come and his strategy had arrived, everything did come back to them with some clarity. They were no longer listening with quite the same loud buzzing in their ears at least.

Though ironically as Harry looked around he found the exact opposite going on, now sure they'd never been listening so hard in their lives. His father had his knee pressed against Harry's in what he assumed was an unconscious gesture just to keep him as close as possible without overreacting. Sirius was burrowed into himself with the baby his life support, his eyes staring at nothing as his head remained cocked to the side to take in every word. Lily's hand was twitching with the impulse to snatch the book away from Remus, read it herself already just to hear it all and be over. Remus' words were slurring together slightly and every time he finished a sentence he'd hesitate a second longer than was normal but still forced himself to keep going in an almost calm voice. It was almost fascinating, and extremely unnecessary, but Harry still couldn't help but watch the lot of them, his family, worry like this.

"Don't you compare that thing to me!" Sirius rasped out, the first intelligible thing he'd said in a while.

James' first impulse was to reach over and try to smother his best friend for that running bleeding gag, and for cutting Remus off at such a moment, but unbelievably they were all just a little calmer for it as well. If there was one thing they knew of by now, Harry was a superb flyer, and he now had his broom. Harry would get past this.

"You're still not endearing me to this game," Lily muttered with unease, though her usual agitation at the game wasn't present in her voice. She'd take a Quidditch match over this any day.

Harry didn't really notice, as his mind flashed back to last year and his championship game, where he'd had that funny dream about dragons appearing while he played Quidditch. Guess now he understood why he'd felt a premonition about that, but he really wished his brain would stop supplying these things that seemed to inevitably come true.

Lily couldn't help but startle a bit with nerves at the thought, her own flame colored hair nearly going on end in shock, but Remus wasn't going to pause for a blow that didn't even strike Harry.

"A Bludger that's a good thousand degrees hotter, but at least it can't chase you in the same way," James muttered agreeably.

Lily felt a screech building up in her throat, her hands automatically flying up to cover her ears so she didn't have to hear what happened to her baby, but again Remus couldn't bring himself to pause as he wanted to know the full extent of whatever blow Harry received.

"Tell me that thing's not poisonous at the end!" James gasped out between a shaking jaw.

"No, no," Remus quickly soothed as he saw the fear on all of them, "if Harry only felt a scratch than that's the worst of it."

James and the others sagged back in relief, not wanting to think what would have happened if Harry had suddenly lost temporary use of one of his arms at such a crucial time.

That sounded sort of like snake charming to Lily, though she was thankful Harry's gift of Parselmouth didn't extend to the snakes' more beast-like relatives: she didn't want to hear what that dragon would be screaming at her Hare Bare.

Remus' composure was cracking, he couldn't put into words how dangerous Harry was playing this, taunting a nesting mother, and the fear that Harry was going to get a very real injury from messing with her before he had the chance to dive down and grab his egg kept lingering behind his mind's eye, expecting to read out the fateful words any moment. If this didn't end soon, he was going to end up with double vision and probably pass out from stress.

The book slipped out of Remus' hands, though for the first time in pure relief of that finally being over. He rubbed furiously at his eyes for several moments until bright spots appeared, just for something else to see than that bloody forsaken print.

"Oh thank Merlin, I couldn't take much more," James groaned with an odd look of ecstasy on his face as finally all the tension building in his stomach, where he'd had his hand firmly pressed this entire time like he was trying to hold in his innards, was able to release.

Lily couldn't find words to add her agreement.

"Never again," Sirius practically sobbed, still looking more worn than the others and not feeling nearly as relieved at this being over as he would have thought: he was still too wrung up over the incident to feel relief. "Never, ever, again do I want to hear mention of those f'ing things around."

Harry tried to laugh it off, wanted more than anything in that moment to tell Sirius that of course this was the last time Harry had a dragon encounter, but the words wouldn't come, and as Remus moved to get the book back and finish his piece, his silence went unnoticed in the relieved room.

"Really?" Lily couldn't help but raise a brow in surprise. Not that she even wanted, or cared, to know how the other champions had done now that she had proof her son had been fine, but it was still an odd comment. "It sounded like you taunted that thing for a bit. I would have guessed you'd taken the longest."

Harry just shrugged; they knew as well as he did what all had gone on.

"There's the bright side," James got out in a weak chuckle, his mind already trying to taunt him with the thought of 'if this had been the first task, what are the others going to be like,' just to ruin his mood, but he swiftly beat that away and tried to just enjoy this one moment of Harry surviving this.

"Yeesh, that didn't sound encouraging," Remus said with genuine pity for Diggory, feeling bad that he'd had the least time of all to prepare for this, and hoping nothing permanent had happened to him.

"Got to love Hagrid," Lily said genuinely as she smoothed some hair out of her face, honestly surprised at this point she hadn't gone bald from stress.

"I just want him to survive this year before I have to freak out about that," James muttered bitterly, hoping with everything he had the answer would finally be nothing!

They were all just too bone tired and weary after hearing about this to even bother to tense up in agitation for that. The fact that Ron showed up with Hermione like that must mean that Ron had to have finally come to his senses, to apologize.

Lily rubbed absently at her face, thinking she wouldn't be surprised if she'd looked the same way at the time.

Remus' anger at Ron was already melting away, finally looking past his attitude and just seeing that angry boy who was sick of being looked over. He still thought Ron should have acted better, thought with his head and some slight resentment rather than his emotions, but clearly seeing Harry in such a life or death moment had jarred Ron back to reality.

"Now why would you go dragging me into this?" Sirius asked, finally being able to really smile again for the first time since he'd heard of the stupid dragons to begin with.

Remus groaned and kept reading that little bit louder to drown out Harry's laughter at that joke; he really wished Harry would stop encouraging that.

"Almost had a good go of it," Lily grumbled without any real agitation anymore; she couldn't find it in herself to hold it against Ron now that he was acting the right way.

Sirius sighed and fidgeted a bit to stop himself saying something. He knew he shouldn't blame Harry if he did decide not to forgive Ron, but he hoped Harry would. Ron was a good friend who'd made a mistake after all.

Finally they were all smiling again, almost as happy as before this tournament had started. Harry still had two more tasks to live through, but if there was one thing that could make this seem okay again, it was that at least everyone who should be on his side was now.

Lily was as happy as anyone, but she really did hope the boys would still have a talk. Thankfully Ron had chosen to be the bigger and apologized, but she still couldn't help but worry if they didn't discuss the problem then it could possibly happen again. Resentment could fester, and the next time things might not have such a happy ending.

Remus flinched like someone had just chucked a miniature dragon at his head. Lily rolled her eyes at him and all of the boys' suddenly horrified expressions.

"She's insane," James said weakly, though Hermione's reaction still wasn't the worst thing Harry's friends had done of late.

"She's emotional," Lily corrected. "She's spent the past few days fearing for Harry's life and then had to live through that in the stands, and then finally felt some relief of watching her two friends make up."

"Girls," Sirius muttered with a deep shake of his head, ignoring Lily's stank eye.

"He's lucky to be using my favorite phrase after I forgave him," Sirius' smirk widened to the agitation of all except Harry.

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Remus chuckled.

"I think Harry's due for some," James smirked.

"That's really clever," Lily admitted as her mind flickered with the possibilities.

"Poor dog though," Sirius said sagely.

"Oh, the poor dear," Lily instantly switched to concern that he'd been caught so bad!

"Hopefully that won't be a permanent marring," James winced in sympathy. "Pomfrey should be able to get rid of the burn marks."

"I've never heard of that kind of charm," Lily said in surprise.

"Might be a French type of spell," Remus offered with the same curiosity, thinking that foreigners might have some other ways to lull beasts to sleep that weren't in British type texts.

"He went for the obvious shot," James nodded.

Remus winced in genuine pity for those poor unborn dragons. He may not be particularly fond of them, especially after all the trouble they'd caused Harry, but it was still a sad moment.

"Guess it's a good thing I didn't do that," Harry yelped in surprise, as that didn't sound like a particularly good strategy.

"You definitely found the best way," Sirius nodded in agreement, ironically thinking it was a good thing Ron had interrupted Sirius now from giving that advice.

"Most likely your original technique outweighed the minor injury," Lily offered with a happy smile. They were all pleased Harry was getting the proper marks he should be for his display of talent, but none of them could muster up too much enthusiasm for it either: it was still rewarding him for something he never should have had to do.

"You are most likely the only person who would say something about it," Sirius agreed with a snort.

"What a cheap!" James yelped in outrage. "There's no way Harry deserved that low of a mark!"

"At least Maxime was fair on him," Remus agreed tersely.

"What a wanker," Sirius scowled venomously.

Which tempered off their moods as well. As annoying as all the judges felt at the moment, at least the real person whose opinion mattered was behaving right.

Like with Ron, they really felt like that was too little too late in the grand scheme; they'd put Harry through hell treating him the way they had until it mattered, but it was at least nice to hear that they were trying to make up the difference at least after the fact.

"Your mind can often be crueler than the real world," Remus agreed.

"Where do you keep pulling that crap from?" Sirius rolled his eyes at him.

"Oh, the poor thing got hit in the face." Lily's concern really did spike at that.

Sirius wanted to make a joke about how that would ruin Cedric's pretty looks at least, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. So far Cedric hadn't gone out of his way to treat Harry like crap like the rest of his house, and no one really deserved a burned-up face.

"Still want to slap him into a dragon's nest," James huffed, wishing it had been anyone else delivering what this news was.

"That's rather clever," Lily said without any of the usual enthusiasm she'd have liked. She did love riddles and clues, and integrating the two tasks together like that was rather brilliant, but still there was always that nagging agitation of Harry having to deal with it.

"So long as it does not relate to a second egg-laying monster," Sirius shot back with still a bit more agitation that this stupid tournament couldn't just be over after the one task.

"Where's Hermione when you need her?" Remus grumbled. "I'd like to see Rita get slapped."

"Hopefully Harry'll toss her a good curse and she'll steer clear for the next century," Lily sniffed.

"I can give you several," James said with a grin that wasn't at all pleasant.

"I'm sure you could," Lily quickly interrupted before he could get started, "but compile them for later, love."

"I get the feeling you'll need them," Remus agreed.

Harry was surprised she was really so daft after all the crap she'd done to him that she even had the gall to come up to him like that.

Sirius was just worried that this would cause a relapse in Ron all over again. He'd just walked in on the source of that first argument.

"That's even better than what I was going to say," James cackled.

"Hope Ron got a good laugh out of that one," Sirius agreed.

Remus tried to pass the book to Lily while rubbing at his eyes, so it took him a moment to notice Lily declare, "No, that's it." She took the book away from Remus but closed it instead of starting. "I cannot handle any more tonight. Bed, all of you."

"Yes, Mum," Sirius pouted, watching her take up her baby and head for the stairs, clearly stating the matter was closed.

James and Harry exchanged a look, but didn't argue the point as they followed.

Remus and Sirius however, exchanged a look, and though Remus yawned and looked likely to fall back on the couch any moment for his own rest, both still had wide, alert eyes.

I'm enjoying asking you guys random questions now and seeing what kinds of responses I get. This time, let me know your favorite subject, and what you think you'd be good at. They are two different things.

My favorites are Care of Magical Creatures and Transfiguration, the first because I'm just a huge animal lover, whether it can eat me or not (still a Hagrid, yes) and the second because the idea of changing something's very nature into something else is as magical as it can get to me and it's just the most fascinating class.

What I might have the propensity of actually being good at, though, is potions. I love to read, and I would patiently go over every instruction and make sure of every ingredient, but I also love to experiment, so once I got through the basics I'd turn into a Snape-like person and start experimenting and trying new ways to make the potions even better.

Let me know about you!