The day of the first task started out rainy, which perfectly reflected Mia's mood that morning and, even though the weather had improved by the time she and Sirius arrived to Hogwarts, around one in the afternoon, her foul mood had grown into a tingling frustration.

Hagrid was the first one to talk to them in the school just as soon they'd gotten past Filch at the gates. He gave them a sympathetic smile right in the moment he saw them. "I'm cheerin' fer Harry. He'll get past those dra...," he told them. "Er... he told yeh about 'em, didn' he?"

"Yes, he did," Mia said and gave him a small smile. "Thanks for showing them to him, Hagrid."

"Yeah, that gave him time to come up with a plan," Sirius added. Harry had informed them in the previous night via two-way-mirror that Moody had hinted him with a way for him to go through the task. His godson hadn't gotten into specifics about it but he'd said that if any plan would work, that had to be the one.

Hagrid shook his head. "Oh, don' thank me. It was the least I could do. Tha' boy is way too good to end up as a piece o' dragon-made coal..." He stopped himself. "Er, sorry. I jus' don' think before I say things."

Mia sighed. That wouldn't be the first time that thought had come through her head. "It's okay. Don't worry about it, Hagrid."

The large man apologized again before excusing himself, saying he needed to go help bringing the first dragon to the Quidditch pitch.

Sirius reached for his wife's hand and gave her a small smile as they started walking together closer to the castle. "He won't become a piece of coal," Sirius told her, comforting her for the millionth time. "He's smarter than to put himself right in front of the dragon's mouth. He'll be just fine."

She nodded. "I want to believe that. I trying the best I can. It just… frustrates me. I feel so useless in all this. It's not supposed to be this difficult keeping your kids away from danger. Seems like the more I try, the more danger happens and it is not his fault. Keeps me wondering if Lily and James would make a better job…"

"How?" Sirius asked. "Harry's not the one causing this. You said it yourself. What would Lily and James do? Keep him chained in the basement? I don't think so. Maybe our job, as it is nearly impossible to keep him out of danger, is to make sure he's ready to face it when it comes which, by the way, is what we've been doing ever since he was selected to the tournament."

His wife sighed. "It's not fair he doesn't get to just be a kid like Izzy does."

"He was just a kid, a happy, loved kid, until he was eleven thanks to you, which is more than any of us can say," Sirius told her. He stopped walking and turned to face her. "We did all we could to prepare him for this task: sent him books, told him about spells far advanced for his age, supported him, believed him… Now it's in his hands." He kissed her forehead before putting his hands on the sides of her bump. "Besides, think of what a piece of cake this kid will be, with all the experience you get from trying to keep Harry out of trouble."

She chuckled. "Incredible how you're so good with words. Maybe you should become a writer or a reporter."

"And have Rita Skeeter as a co-worker? No thanks," he told her with a laugh. He looked for a moment over his wife's shoulder and groaned when he saw who was approaching. Of all people in the world…

"What?" she asked, turning around too. "Oh, for Merlin's sake." Lucius Malfoy was walking in their direction along with his wife, and Sirius's cousin, Narcissa.

"Look who we have here, dear. Your cousin Sirius and his wife," they heard Lucius telling his wife out loud as they approached. "We're so looking forward to see your godson in the task – Minister Fudge made sure we were invited to attend. Nice of him, isn't it? We brought a large box of tissues just in case. Do you want to take it now or would you rather we held it for until Potter's sent to St. Mungo's on fire?"

Sirius gave them a clearly fake smile. "What an unpleasant surprise to see you." The pleasantness of his voice contrasted with his words. "Funny how, no matter how long I spend without laying my eyes on you, it always feels like it is too soon. Oh, and you can keep the box of tissues and then Cissy can use it when the Dragon realizes you may taste a little better than Harry does. See, I heard dragons just love other reptiles."

"Well, Azkaban doesn't seem to have changed your sense of humour at all, Sirius," Narcissa replied. "Tell me, did they have a comedy club in there? The Dementors must be a splendid audience."

"Nah, not so much. Bellatrix, on the other hand, was a blast," he told his cousin, mimicking her pleasant tone. "You wouldn't believe the way she laughed. It almost sounded like she was out of her mind. She and many of your friends are having the times of their lives in there." He turned to Lucius. "Pity you had to pass on joining them. It would make one hell of a party."

"I could say just the same about you. Pity you had to leave…" Lucius then turned to Mia with a sneering smile. "And what a pleasure to meet the new Mrs. Black. You were Amelia Davis, right? I heard about what happened to your parents during the war… such an unfortunate thing."

Mia returned the smile. "I'm sure it broke your heart in pieces. Surely more than it broke mine."

"It was a… terrible shock," he said before looking at Mia's bump and then turning to Sirius again. "I see you're expanding the family too. Just imagine adding another member to the family. Just look at it so far: a disinherited former fugitive, a blood-traitor wife and a bastard daughter. What an honour to the noble Black family. Join an orphaned half-blood godson to the mix and you have one big happy family."

Sirius snorted. "If you call than an insult, Malfoy, I can understand why you always look like someone shoved a broomstick up your arse."

Narcissa glared. "Auntie Walburga was right. You were, and still are, nothing less than a good-for-nothing disrespectful brat in a grown-up's body. You're a shame to the honour of the name Black."

"It's my name now, Cissy," he countered. "And you can bet I'm cleaning every bit of pureblood supremacy filth – the one that you call honour – our dear ancestors covered it with for centuries. If that shames you, well, cheers to me." He smiled at the sight of his cousin's red, angry face. "And I think this was more than enough verbal bashing for a day."

Saying that, he circled Mia with his arm and turned their backs to them, walking away without another word. He could only imagine how angry they must look.

"Well, if your mother was nearly as 'nice' as your cousin is, I'm glad I never go to meet her," Mia told him.

Sirius snorted. "My mother? Please, Cissy is an amateur compared to what she was. Bella might be closer." He sighed. "Makes me wonder how I didn't turn out like the rest of them."

Mia placed a kiss on his cheek. "Whatever caused it, I'm very glad you didn't. Because there was no way I'd have married you if you were even slightly like Narcissa. Now, how about we go look for Harry and wish him good luck?"

He smiled. "That's a wonderful idea."

---

They ran into McGonagall a few minutes later, who took them to the champion's tent in order to see Harry.

"We've got wizards standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand," the old professor informed them on their way to the tent. "Dumbledore didn't cut in measures to make sure that ever champion is as safe as the rules of the tournament allow."

"And how much do the tournament rules allow?" Mia asked her just as they reached the tent.

McGonagall sighed. "Not much. But I'd say Potter is in less danger in it than he has been during the… adventures he tends to get himself into by the end of every school year."

Sirius chuckled. "That's probably saying a lot."

"It is," the professor told him. "Well, go on in. I'm afraid you haven't more than a few minutes with him as only the champions and the judges are allowed in the tent after the task starts. I'll be waiting for you out here to escort you back to the stadium."

Mia nodded and went in, followed by Sirius. The tent was rather large – clearly magically enlarged inside – and illuminated. It seemed there was a resting area for each champion that could be surrounded by a curtain, each with a comfortable-looking lounge chair, a table and a coat hanger.

Fleur was lounging in her own area and her usually flawless face looked tense and… greenish, while Cedric just paced and Krum stood in a hard posture, looking down at his feet. Harry as sitting in his resting area but got up in the moment he saw them coming in.

His godmother took long steps in his direction and enveloped him in a quick hug before taking a seat by his side. "How are you feeling?"

"Kind of sick," Harry replied shortly.

"Sick but ready?" Sirius asked.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Is that even possible?"

He shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? So, did they tell you more about the task?"

His godson nodded. "A dragon was sorted for each champion – I got the Horntail." He gulped when he said that. "Anyway, the dragon will be guarding a nest where there is a golden egg. The task is to get the egg and, well, not be killed by the dragon doing it."

"And that plan you told us about. Will it work in this case?" Mia inquired.

"If I'm fast enough, it might," he said. "See, it's related to Quidditch."

"Quidditch?!" Mixing Quidditch with dragons made no sense at all to Mia. But then again, she couldn't play the game even if her life depended on it…

"Well, technically flying. I'm supposed to… summon my firebolt and use it on the task. Because flying is my strength. This will be sort of like a… weird Quidditch game. Instead of the snitch there's the egg, which is easier to see and doesn't fly around and instead of the opposite team…"

"…there's a dragon who breathes fire," Mia finished for him. "Who in Merlin's name made up a tournament like this?"

"Definitely a person who wasn't planning to compete," Sirius pointed out. "Now, show us the summoning charm, Harry." He thought of something for Harry to summon – he wouldn't be seeing the firebolt, so the best would be to have him summoning something he couldn't see. "Summon my two-way mirror."

Harry reached for his wand and pointed it at the Sirius. "Accio Mirror," he said. Like it was being pulled by a magnet, the mirror flied from Sirius's pocket to his hands in a matter of seconds and he handed it back to his godfather.

"Nice," Sirius said with a grin. "Let me guess, Hermione had you training it for days."

"Yep."

Suddenly, Crouch entered the room saying it was time for the tournament to start and it was their cue to leave.

Mia sighed before getting up. "I don't think you can get ready than you already are, Harry. Just… do your best. We'll be watching. Don't get hurt and especially don't get killed."

"Or else she'll ground you," Sirius added with a chuckle. "You know your godmother. She'll find a way to bring you back just to do that."

Harry laughed nervously, his green tinge disappearing slowly.

---

Elizabeth was waiting for them by McGonagall's side when they came out of the tent and was escorted with them to the stadium.

The deputy-headmistress led them, under Dumbledore's orders, to the teachers' seats, which were right across from the ministry's ones. Even at a distance, Sirius could see the sneering look in Malfoy's face as he sat by Fudge's side. At the same time, he also noticed his daughter waving down from the student's stands, where she stood with who he assumed to be Ginny and Luna.

The task started with Cedric's turn, whose egg was being guarded by the by the Swedish Short-Snout, while Ludo Bagman commented the game from what used to be the Quidditch field's entrance. It took Cedric about fifteen minutes to get the egg, only ending up with some mild burns on the side of his face.

Though it had been rather scary, the fact that Cedric had done it so… smoothly slightly eased Mia's worry. She looked at Sirius for a moment, only to see that he looked rather entertained so far. She imagined he should be labelling the Hufflepuff's facet as 'wicked'. She couldn't really blame him for that… It had really been impressive.

On the other hand, when she turned to Elizabeth, Mia noticed she seemed to be glaring down at Ludo, even though he probably couldn't see it at all.

"What's wrong?" she whispered.

The blonde nodded at Ludo. "That idiot is under the Goblins' radar again for owing them money," she hissed. "Can you believe it? My father has a friend in Gringotts who heard it and told me. Ludo says he has it 'all under control' but I know it's bogus. He'll get himself into one hell of a trouble because of this. I know he will. And then I'm the one who had to explain our kids why Daddy's being shipped to prison or why he's being cornered by goblins every other week."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is there… something I can do?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "He got himself into that mess, he needs to come out on his own. But that doesn't mean I don't get to be angry at him. He should learn from his own mistakes – he should have already."

"Some people just never do," Mia told her.

"Well, it really sucks that he's one of them."

She stopped talking when Fleur Delacour entered the field for her own turn. To everyone's surprise, she was even faster than Cedric had been, having the golden egg about ten minutes after she'd entered the field and ending up with no injury whatsoever apart from a burned skirt that left many of the male students with their mouths hanging open. Krum followed and, as expected, beat both Fleur and Cedric in time after blinding the dragon with a conjunctivitis charm.

Mia's hand reached for Sirius's right after Krum was done – Harry would be next. Sirius pulled her closer and she rested against his side. She saw as the dragon keepers, Charlie Weasley among them, subdued the Chinese Fireball and got it out of field, only to bring the Hungarian Horntail in. Just looking at the dragon made Mia shudder.

"Merlin and Morgana, they saved the tamest-looking one for Harry…" Sirius said, sarcasm all over her voice.

"Vicious little thing," Mia whispered, gulping.

Harry entered the field seconds later, looking around in intimidation. His stare landed on the Horntail and Mia could almost feel him shudder despite the distance. Then, he raised his wand and, even though she couldn't hear it, Mia knew he was summoning his broomstick. The short time Harry waited for the firebolt to come, staying completely still so the Horntail wouldn't see him as a menace, felt like hours. Behind her, Mia heard Hagrid asking someone if Harry was frozen in shock.

"Look," Sirius whispered in her ear, pointing at something black moving against the blue sky. "It's the firebolt."

Mia sighed in relief, watching the broomstick flying very fast in her godson's direction and stopping by his side, floating in mid-air as if it was waiting for him to climb. Behind her, Flitwich was murmuring something about giving Harry a few house points for using such an effective summoning charm. And when Harry climbed over the broom and left the ground, everything changed. Anyone could tell by the way he flied that the fear that had been stamped in his face before was gone.

"Amazing. Just amazing!" Ludo Bagman was saying in his commentary. "Harry Potter, against all odds, is not only competing in this task but also giving us quite a flying show! Now, who would have thought of this?"

Harry dived dangerously close to the Horntail, who refused to leave the eggs' nest, and, just as the it was about to send him a jet of fire, he pulled out, dodging the fire as if it was nothing more than a Bludger.

Mia had been prepared to cry, to yell, to bite her nails… She hadn't, however, been prepared to laugh. "I can't believe this. He's having fun with all this."

Sirius nodded. "It's like a game to him!"

"What Quidditch position does he play?" Elizabeth asked, looking at him flying in amazement.

"Seeker," Sirius replied. "Fast like a bullet, isn't he?"

Elizabeth was about to agree but wasn't able to as Mia let out a worried 'Oh Merlin!'. Harry had been hit by the dragon's horned tail but just very slightly. Luckily for him, it didn't seem to have left more than a cut on his shoulder caused by he one of the horns. "He's fine," she told Mia. "Look, he hasn't even bothered to look at his shoulder. He's okay."

"I know, I know," Mia said, nodding. "He dodged it fast enough."

She saw as Harry flew higher, high enough for the tail to be unable to reach him, and dodged the jets of fire again and again. He was trying to convince the dragon to leave the nest, to go up there after him so he could get past it and reach the eggs. And the dragon did. Just as its paws lifted from the ground, Harry sped away, diving in the nest's direction and, next thing everyone knew, he was holding the egg.

Mia was tugging Sirius's arm and pulling him off of his seat just as Harry landed. "Come on! We need to get down there. You too, Elizabeth!"

"You go ahead," she told them with a smile. "I'll meet you down there when everyone else is out. I'd rather avoid the mobs."

"Don't take too long," Mia said before heading out.

Sirius chuckled as he followed her out of the stands. "I told you he'd been fine. Hell, Harry was more than fine. I'll be damned if the kid doesn't get the first place in this thing."

"I'm just happy he's okay," Mia told him. "Never mind his score."

It took them several minutes to reach the small white infirmary tent that was set right outside of the teacher's entrance to the pitch, due to the moving mobs. It took Hagrid stepping in and pulling everyone out of the way, to let them pass.

Inside, Harry was sitting on a wooden stool, his shoulder's skin a little reddish but already healed, talking to a weepy Hermione and, to their surprise, Ron too.

"What did we miss?" Sirius asked them.

"Harry and Ron made up," Hermione said, wiping her tears with the sleeve of her shirt sleeve. "Took the long enough. Prats!"

Mia smiled. "Boys tend to be prats at that age." She nodded at Sirius. "This one was no exception."

"Hey!" Sirius protested. "I was not that bad."

"Worse," Mia said.

"I'll pretend you didn't just say that," he told her before turning to Harry. "You were bloody brilliant out there, kid. You fly even better than your father did. James would be proud."

"Really?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Absolutely!"

Mia nodded. "You did really great, Harry. Even I, who can't get the point of Quidditch, found it amazing. But how's your shoulder? You gave me quite a scare with that one."

Harry moved it just to show her it was okay. "It's good as new. Madam Pomfrey healed the cut right away."

"That's good. Well, I guess I'll have to give you more credit next time, Harry," Mia admitted with a sigh. "It's hard to see that, all of a sudden, your kids can get out of sticky situations by themselves. Too bad they just can't learn to keep their rooms clean without being told at the same pace."

"Who does?" Ron mumbled, which earned him an elbow hitting ribs, courtesy of Hermione.

"Well, that only shows I know how to organize my priorities," Harry told his godmother. "What's more important? Staying alive or cleaning my room?"

"Little smartarse, aren't you?" Mia asked him, narrowing her eyes.

Sirius grinned. "There, Mia, the kid has a perfectly valid point."

"Don't say…" she mumbled.

Her husband laughed, pulling her by the arm. "Well, let's just get out of this place and go look for Izzy. She's probably looking around for us somewhere."

Mia rolled her eyes but followed him. All seemed to be well for now but there was still a lot ahead. One task was down but there were still two more to go.

A/N: Well, this one really came out kicking and screaming! A real pain to get the words right - I have about a six page long document with the pieces I scrapped of it. Anyway, now that we have the first task out of the way, Christmas time arrives... and then I'll skip a few months to the end of February - guess what happens then? I really hope you liked this chapter. Send a few feedback to feed my addiction. review!

P. S: Was it me or the site was acting all weird before?