A/N: I wished I owned Harry Potter. Alas, I do not. Ms. Rowling, I'd be happy to take it off your hands

A/N: When multiple chapters will cover a single day, I will note that day. It's safe to say a lot will happen the day of the first task.

Chapter 21: Beware the Fire

November 24th, 1994

"Did you sleep at all last night?" Cedric asked as Harry walked into the tent.

"Not much," Harry admitted.

"Harry, can I ask you a weird question?" Cedric asked.

"I'd prefer you didn't, but I won't stop you by force," Harry said. It was a weak joke, but Cedric allowed it to pass. It was understandable Harry was stressed out. He was barely keeping it together himself. Nevertheless, he needed an answer to the question.

"Harry, you look like you could snap my neck in half with one arm." Harry shrugged noncommittally. "How did you get in such good shape?"

"Diet and exercise," Harry told him. Cedric patted him on the shoulder. "There are no shortcuts."

"Well, please don't snap my neck too much," Cedric told him with a weak joke of his own. The tent flap swung open and Krum and Karkaroff walked in. Cedric say Harry tense a tiny bit as his glance flickered over Karkaroff. Now was not the time to examine that. Cedric resolved that if he survived this, he would try and figure out why Harry was bothered by Karkaroff.

"Cedric," Akira said, popping up behind him. "Harry tells me you have a plan?"

"Nice of you to show up," Cedric said, but with no real venom in his voice.

"I did tell you I might miss significant periods of time," Akira told him. "And that we could never study in the morning."

"I'm not actually upset," Cedric admitting. "I could have trained morning to evening with you and I still would have been in trouble." He beckoned Akira away from the other contestants as Fleur entered with her giant of a headmistress. "What Harry probably didn't tell you is that the plan he gave me was something he created. He said he has something else, but that doesn't mean I'm not worried."

"Don't worry about Harry," Akira told Cedric. "He has a few tricks up his sleeve. If it really gets bad, the professors will jump in."

"Can the professors really stop a rampaging dragon?" Cedric whispered.

"I can slow it down," Akira said. "Slow it down enough for Harry to get away. Who knows what Dumbledore could do. But if I was you, I'd watch his performance with interest."

"Well, here we are all!" Barty Crouch said, stepping into the tent. He was holding a squirming sack. "I'd like all of you to reach in here and take out one thing." Cedric stepped forward and took out a small dragon he recognized as a Swedish Short Snout with a small 1 around its neck. He took a breath of relief. At lunch, Cedric had a chance to talk quickly with Harry. Facing a dragon was bad enough. At least he wasn't facing the most dangerous one. Then Cedric saw Fleur draw the Welsh Green, and Krum reached in. Krum almost gave a small smile as he withdrew a red dragon.

All three champions looked at Harry, and Cedric could see Harry silently cursing. The youngest champion reached into the bag, and his small dragon has a nasty spiked tail with a 4 on it. Harry would go last, and he would face the one dragon that, judging from the faces of the other champions, was the one everyone wanted to face least. For one moment, Cedric debated jumping forward and offering to trade. He took a half step forward, but Akira grabbed him.

"Don't do something stupid," Akira hissed. "Harry will be fine. Don't insult him by trading."

"Fine."

"You all have a smaller version of what you will face in the arena," Barty Crouch was saying. "They will all be protecting a clutch of eggs. We have placed a golden egg in each nest. You must get that egg, because it will provide a crucial clue for the 2nd task. You will lose points if you destroy the other eggs. Mr. Diggory, I believe you are first?" Cedric nodded and stepped right past Barty Crouch. A flash went off, and he saw Rita Skeeter waiting at the flap leading to the challenge.

"How does it feel to be-" Akira appeared at his side, snapping her quill. He grabbed the camera from the cameraman and smashed it on the ground.

"OK." Cedric took a deep breath and stepped into the arena. Nerves, fears and worries went out the window. He was one of the Hogwarts champions. He had friends, family, and teachers counting on him. The time for planning, worrying, and learning was over. It was time for action.

There was a literal roar from the crowd and Cedric hesitated with his first step. Eventually he forced himself forward and the noise got even louder. He looked out and saw a variety of rocks arrayed on the ground surrounding something slightly obscured from view. He ducked behind the nearest rock and peered around it. Cedric yanked his head back behind cover just as grey eyes flicked over his position.

There was no doubting it. Sitting there on a nest was a long lizard with huge wings and a silver sheen. There was a tiny part of Cedric's brain that rejected everything that Harry and even Barty Crouch had told him, but that part died as his eyes registered the creature in front of him. He had to get past a dragon and somehow get an egg. He took a deep breath and readied his wand. Cedric stepped out from beyond the rock and pointed the wand at one of the rocks near the dragon.

With a simple spell, Cedric turned the rock into a dog. The dog yelped in surprise and raced away from the dragon, who took a half step forward towards the dog and then another. As Cedric stepped towards the nest, the dragon turned his eyes on Cedric, who had to jump to the side to avoid a claw swipe. The crowd went silent as the dog raced away ignored as the dragon turned its full attention to Cedric.

Cedric silently thanked Harry. If he did not have a back-up plan, he would be dead right now, but he did have a back-up plan courtesy of a boy 2 years younger than him. Cedric cast a partial obscuring charms on the two rocks closest to him and then turned and raced away. The dragon reacted to both spells and peered suspiciously at both rocks. Eventually, she bounded towards the one on the left and crushed it with one massive bite. Instantly Cedric reversed course and as he headed at the dragon and aimed his wand at the rock left untouched, turning it into a deer.

Harry had told him that the dragon would need to be stimulated, but once its blood was up, it would instinctively chase anything that had been recognized as prey, and there was one animal that dragon handlers put in enclosures more than anything else. The dragon saw the deer and rose up with a roar and a jet of fire. It reached for the deer, who nimbly stepped out of range. The dragon snapped at the hindquarters of the deer, and Cedric saw for the first time the chain around the neck of the dragon.

"That's not good," Cedric said to himself. The dragon would literally be stuck to the nest, and while that might make it easier to not die, his plan depended on getting the dragon off the nest. "Ok then." Cedric turned the deer back into a rock and shot it up into the sky. The dragon's eyes followed the rock, but then she heard Cedric racing towards her and changed targets.

The next part of this insane plan Harry had suggested required near perfect transfiguration skills and an iron nerve, but Cedric stood in front of the dragon, legs trembling a little as the dragon took a deep breath and Cedric saw the fire building up in the creature's mouth. Then as the dragon was about to incinerate Cedric, the rock dropped in between them.

The fire spilled around the rock as Cedric threw his body right into the rock and curled up as small as possible. Even though he was right behind the rock he felt the heat of the flame. It felt like an age, but finally the fire stopped, and Cedric stepped out from behind the rock and at the same time fired a spell that turned the rock into a deer.

Seeing the same animal that had escaped it before, the dragon's claw snaked out with incredible speed and the deer didn't have the chance to dodge as the dragon cut it down. It roared in triumph at its victory, but in that second Cedric was next to the dragon, scooping up the egg and racing away. The moment he was outside the nest the dragon had finished with the deer and was looking for new prey, but Cedric was prepared.

He levitated another two rocks a few feet and turned one into a bird. The dragon roared at the bird which fled, but Cedric had cast an obscuring spell on the second rock which the dragon fixed with a steely glare. Cedric raced past the gate on the other side of the arena, which slammed closed, the task completed and the champion safe.

"Yeah!" Cedric cheered and the crowded erupted in cheers as Cedric waved to them, holding the golden egg above his head "Let's go!" Cedric's pulse was still racing and his palms were clammy from fear, but he felt more alive than he ever had before. He had been alone, against a creature that wizards three times his age would never dare to even look at. But Cedric had outthought it, tricked it, and stole an egg!

His elation vanished as he saw a few dragon handlers rushing into the cage to subdue the dragon, and his mind turned to the other champions. He had almost died the moment he entered the arena, almost caught by surprise by the shocking speed of the dragon's attack. His victory was nice, but now he would be forced to watch his fellow champions go against similar creatures. What's more, Harry had given him the idea that allowed Cedric to deal with the dragon and now he would face an even more dangerous version of the creature. The platform Cedric was on began to rise, and in a few seconds he was in front of the judges, a raucous cheering crowd of his classmates on either side.

Barty Crouch raised a wand and a smoke 9 floated out. Ludo Bagman, the other tournament organizer gave him a 10, as did Dumbledore. Maxime was next, and she gave Cedric an 8. Then Cedric turned to Karkaroff, who sneered at Cedric and shot a 6 into the year. The crowd started booing, but Karkaroff turned away, his 6 lingering in the air.

The scoring made sense to Cedric. It seemed like the score would be out of 50 and each judge could give a maximum of 10. Akira had told him the judges would score him on time, execution of plans and skills, and other factors depending on the task. It seemed like not getting injured and making sure the dragon did not destroy the eggs would lead to a high score. He had done very well, and Madame Maxime had been very generous giving him an 8, especially since he was not her student and even though he had clearly done a good job, she was by no means obliged to help.

It was clear that Karkaroff was going to give Victor an edge, potentially one that was undeserved by lowering the score of the other contestants. Cedric remembered how Harry had been staring at the other headmaster in the tent and knew that there was something going on that was more than simple dislike, a3nd that if this scoring continued, Harry might blow his top. For someone who was surprisingly even keeled, the oddest stuff could set Harry off.

Not many people would pick a fight with an entire house the day before facing a dragon because of bullying, and moments like that made Cedric wish he had half of the courage that Harry had. Regardless, Cedric knew he would have to keep an eye on Harry's interactions with the Durmstrang headmaster. There was chance that with all his martial art skills, Harry could probably give the headmaster a good fight, but Cedric knew nothing good would come of that.

"Well done," Akira said, throwing an arm around Cedric and guiding him up to a box of seats right below the judges. "The only legit points you lost was because the dog gambit didn't work. What possessed you to use a dog?"

"Well, that was the initial idea," Cedric admitted. "If it didn't work, I figured it would at least rile the dragon up."

"The deer and bird were Harry's idea?" Akira asked.

"Once he told me about deer and riling up the dragon, I figured out the rest," Cedric explained. "But the bird was entirely his idea. I hadn't even considered an exit strategy." Cedric looked below and saw a new dragon was crouched nearby the eggs, and recognized it as the dragon Fleur had pulled, which Barty Crouch had called the Welsh Green.

"Well you have earned a nice break," Akira said as Cedric leaned back in his seat. "Any idea what Krum and Fleur are planning to do?"

"I don't even know what Harry is planning to do," Cedric said. Akira just chuckled. "I'm guessing you do?"

"I have an idea," Akira said. "Hermione was panicking about both of you this morning."

"She was?" Cedric was a little surprised by that.

"Even mentioned you by name," Akira told him, but Cedric saw a knowing grin on his professor's face. "After she was done worrying about how Harry seemed really relaxed about the whole thing."

"He is a little relaxed," Cedric said. "It's eerie."

"It's a state of mind crucial to his plan," Akira explained. There was a roar from the crowd as Fleur stepped out from the tent, and Akira pointed at the Beauxbatons champion. "Time for the worst show ever. The please don't die show."

Fleur stepped from the tent and instantly took in the arena. The students arrayed all around her, and there were a bunch of giant rocks that surrounded the object of the next few minutes. Madame Maxime had not been lying. There was a giant green dragon crouched protectively over a nest of eggs.

Fleur steeled herself and stepped behind the closest rock. There was a faint smell of sulfur in the air that made her horribly nervous. A dragon was a dangerous creature, and if it managed to catch her with fire, she was unprepared and had no counter measure. But she had been chosen by the goblet for a reason, and it was time to show why.

Fleur moved smoothly to the next rock, a few feet closer to the dragon than before and took a deep breath. She stepped out from behind the rock and took aim at the dragon. "Somnium!" The dragon looked at her curiously, and then opened its mouth and Fleur saw the red-hot burning glow. She stepped back behind her rock just as flame scorched past her.

Fleur tried her best not to panic. As a Veela, her charms would be her best chance to influence a dragon. It didn't look like a simple sleep hex would work, and she was fairly far away from the dragon, so she was not about to give up on the plan she had worked out. First she would have to get closer the dragon.

Fleur chose a rock across the arena and with a whip of her wand sent it airborne. The dragon turned angrily at the noise, and Fleur took the opportunity, moving 10 feet forward to a rock closer to the dragon. The sulfur smell was stronger now, both from the surrounding area and from the fact a fire breathing dragon was less than 50 feet away from her. But she couldn't stay behind the rock.

"Somnium" This time the dragon wavered, and one eyelid closed. Fleur moved back behind the rock as she heard the dragon adjust position. Clearly the charm could affect the dragon, and distance was a factor. Fleur peered around the rock, but the nearest rock was too far for her to run, even if she was able to distract the dragon again. Her only option was to make the spell stronger. Luckily, she was prepared for that eventuality.

"Sonorus Somnium!" Fleur combined the amplifying charm with the sleep hex and watched as the dragon's eyes closed and its head dipped to the ground. She took a breath but the dragon was motionless. Fleur crept towards the dragon, desperate to not wake it. She was within 20 feet, and then she was literally next to it. She looked around and saw a golden glint on the far side of the nest

Fleur wasn't about to take it slow anymore. She rushed around the nest and grabbed the egg. Behind her she heard a noise, and she didn't need to look to know what had happened. In her haste, she had awoken the dragon. Fleur tapped the egg and realized it would not crack under a little pressure, so she tossed it in the air and rolled forward. The jet of fire just missed, and Fleur jumped in the air, corralling the egg.

She raced to the open gate and felt it smack close behind her. She took a deep breath, feel her heartbeat slow down. She put the egg down and enfolded her body with a small hug, as if making sure she was all there. She felt a little heat behind her, and saw her skirt was on fire.

"I'll get that," a man said, stepping forward and with a wave of his wand the fire slowed, and then a small jet of water flowed over the fire, quenching it.

"Thank you," Fleur said, smoothing out her now shortened skirt. "I didn't realize it was on fire."

"Yeah, I figured that you might be busy running from the beauty," The man said with a cocky smile.

"Beauty?" Fleur asked, very confused.

"You don't think she is beautiful?" Fleur shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, come on. That is a beautiful dragon if I've ever seen one. Perfect specimen of a welsh green." Fleur felt the platform grind beneath her and she began to rise. "Good luck with the rest of your tasks!" The man called and then he disappeared from view as the platform stopped, exposing her to the cheering students. She gave a half curtesy to the judges, and then held up her egg. She had done well, and now all that was left was to receive the scores.

Barty Crouch nodded and gave her a 9. Ludo Bagman gave her an 8, and Dumbledore extended his wand and the smoke from his wand took the form of a 9. Madame Maxim gave her a 10, and Fleur smiled gently. Then Karkaroff raised his wand, and she heard an intake of breath from the crowd. A dark light spilled from his wand, taking the shape of a 5. The crowd started to boo, which Karkaroff clearly couldn't care less about. Madame Maxim said something sharply to him as she walked past him to collect Fleur.

"Don't worry about Karkaroff, he is a stupid and cruel man. You did well," Fleur's headmaster said. "You are only two points behind Mr. Diggory, and there is a long way to go.

"Thank you," Fleur said, as Maxime indicated a seat next to Diggory, in a box right below the judges. Madam Maxime patted her shoulder and then left her to sit next to Cedric. A man in a professor's robe rose from Cedric's side and gave her a nod as he left the two champions together.

"Nice job," Cedric said as Fleur sat. "I never would have thought of charming a dragon."

"I am lucky," Fleur told him. "My charms are strong than usual because of my Veela heritage. So my amplifying charm made it possible to put it to sleep." She grabbed the shortened fringe of the skirt and held it up. "My skirt was not so lucky."

"Well, it was a good strategy. I'm happy it didn't kill you," Cedric said with a small smile.

"I'm happy you are immune to my allure, thought I would expect it from a champion," Fleur told him.

"Well, I have to fight it, but yeah, I'm happy too," Cedric admitted. "Though I think Harry isn't affected at all. I guess allure isn't more powerful than an imperius curse."

"Who put him under an imperius curse?" Fleur asked, horrified.

"Oh, one of our teachers tested it on all the students earlier this year," Cedric said. "He is a bit of a nut, but it was a good lesson. I talked about it with Harry one of our training sessions, and apparently he was one of the few people in the school could break it entirely on his own."

"That's amazing," Fleur said, her voice a little breathless. "He is so young too. I do not know many people who can do that."

"Yeah, I've had the chance to spend a lot of time with him this year," Cedric said. "Just hope that none of the tasks are duels. Harry would wipe the floor with us."

"Wipe the floor?" Fleur asked, unfamiliar with what Cedric was saying.

"Sorry, it's a saying," Cedric said, realizing Fleur was confused. "I mean in a duel, Harry is far stronger than the rest of the champions. I wouldn't bet against him even if it was 3 on 1."

"That little boy?" Fleur said with a scoff.

"Harry may be shorter than me, but trust me on that," Cedric said. "He has beat me more than once while we train, and without much effort. The guy who just left," Cedric said, indicating Akira who was now conversing with McGonagall "trained Harry all summer. He may just be a fourth year, but if there was no age line I think he would have had a real shot at being champion.

"Ridiculous," Fleur said.

"Maybe," Cedric told her with a shrug. "I'd be dead without his help." Cedric leaned over, his mouth inches from her ear. "He told me about the dragons and gave me a strategy."

"Why would he do that?" Fleur asked, clearly confused.

"Well, he said that you and Krum already knew, and that he wanted to even the playing field. Besides, isn't a dragon dangerous enough?" Fleur nodded in realization. Clearly she was not the only one who was getting secret information. "Hey, do you want to join our training sessions?"

"I think not," Fleur said, turning away angrily.

"Fine, have it your way," Cedric said, his tone sour. He scooted away from Fleur, muttering under his breath. Fleur turned back to the arena and saw that Krum's dragon, the Chinese Fireball was in place. The crowd was roaring in anticipation, but Fleur tuned them out and focused on the Bulgarian, who stepped out of the tent.