Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter Eighty-Nine

The Hungarian Horntail

Harry wasn't sure if he wanted to get out of bed. Since becoming champion things had been up and down at Hogwarts. Since Cedric had shook his hand and accepted the fact that he didn't join the tournament willing, he knew things were now much better than they would have been. Almost the rest of Hogwarts has followed Cedric's lead and, maybe not believe that he didn't entered the tournament himself, but at least didn't blame him for being part of it.

He had almost been happy when Draco Malfoy had come up with badges that changed from Support Cedric Diggory to Harry Potter Stinks, because it had accomplished the opposite of what Malfoy had wanted. The other houses seemed to be annoyed with the Slytherin and Harry found he had more support than before … though he knew that Cedric was most of the Hogwarts students' first choice, at least everyone still wanted Harry to do well too.

Then there was the weighing of the wands and the stupid article that came after it. Harry didn't recognize anything from the interview he had with Rita Skeeter. In fact, he remembered pointedly not saying anything to her. After years of listening to Remus grumble about the 'journalist' he knew that nothing good would come out of the interview. It seems like saying nothing didn't help matters either.

Apparently, he still cried at night thinking about his parents, which was the only comment in the entire article that had any truth to it. Of course he didn't cry, but he did feel an ache in his chest whenever he thought of his mum's death and the fact that he'd only seen his dad once in the last thirteen years.

The other thing about the article was that it had him talking confidently about winning the tournament, it hardly mentioned the Champions from the other schools and Cedric hadn't been mentioned at all. He felt horrible about that. After all, Cedric was the real champion and Harry was just there because someone was plotting against him. Cedric deserved to be acknowledged for his accomplishment. He had asked Neville if Cedric had taken it hard, not being mentioned, and even though Neville said that Cedric said it was okay, they both knew he had to have been annoyed by that. And Harry couldn't blame him in the least.

Then there was the worst thing that article had said. It said that Harry had found romance at Hogwarts, which would have been embarrassing enough but a hundred times worse that it was Hermione that he was supposedly involved with. For one thing, Hermione was practically his sister, and he really didn't think of her like that … and he knew she felt the same way about him. For another thing, that portion of the article had caused Ron to glare at him and hardly talk to him in the week since the article had appeared. He had tried to tell his friend that he wasn't dating Hermione, but Ron wouldn't hear a word about it. Speaking of Ron, he seemed to be getting up right now.

"Hey," Harry said to his friend getting out of his own bed.

"You going to Hogsmeade," Ron asked in a curt tone, which was still friendlier than he had been the last week.

"Yeah," Harry answered.

"With Hermione," Ron added, his eyes narrowing.

"Well, she will be there, but it's not …" Harry sighed.

"Why didn't you tell me, Harry?" Ron snapped. "You didn't think I could handle it."

Harry thought that it was obvious that Ron couldn't handle the idea of him and Hermione dating but he wisely didn't say that. "I'm not dating Hermione … I don't even like her. Wait, of course I like her, I just don't like her, like her."

"You …" Ron's expression was suspicious, hopeful, confused but more than anything else, relieved. "You don't … you really don't."

"Nah," Harry said shaking his head. "It would be like you liking Ginny … I just don't think of her like that."

"Really?" Ron asked again, as if he couldn't believe what Harry was saying. It had felt like a slap in the face when he read that Harry and Hermione were dating. He tried to tell himself that he was so upset about this because as their best friend they should have told him before the entire wizarding world found out, but Ron knew that wasn't the real reason. He wasn't sure when it began, but he knew without a doubt now that he fancied Hermione. He wasn't sure how deep his feels went but he reckon it might be pretty deep seeing as it had felt like a knife had gone through his heart whenever he thought of Harry with her.

He was no stranger to being jealous of Harry. His messy haired best friend seemed to have everything. Money, Fame … he even had a good family life with Sirius and Remus. Of course he knew that Harry had problems (such as his life being threatened and his parents being gone) but sometimes it was hard to remember that when Harry received all of the attention. This, however, was different. He had always feared that Harry might like Hermione. Harry had always been able to get along with her so much better than he did. After all they had two years of bonding before they even came to Hogwarts … before he had met them.

At the start of this year Ron started to get a sickening feeling that more was going on between the two than they were letting on. Something seemed to have happened to change their relationship and they started to tease each other more … laugh together more. That's why it was so easy to believe that the article was telling the truth. Because despite how close he and Hermione had started to become this year, he was sure that, just like in the tournament, he would come up second best.

"Yeah, really," Harry said rolling his eyes, "now will you stop acting like a git and come to Hogsmeade with us."

"Yeah," Ron smiled, the relief starting to get to him and he felt better than he had in a week. "That sounds good."

O

Sitting down in the booth at The Three Broomsticks Harry sighed. It had not been a fun trip through Hogsmeade as he got looks from the students and shopkeepers alike. His popularity after the article had considerably dropped and it felt like he was receiving more glares than supportive looks lately. The truth was he would have preferred to be ignored at his point.

"I'll go get the butterbeer," Hermione said and Harry was sure that she gave Ron a pointed look, but his red haired friend didn't seem to do anything about it.

"What was that about?" Harry asked when she was out of hearing distant.

"She wanted me to cheer you up," Ron shrugged. "She seemed to think I could do it, but what the bloody hell I'm supposed to say?"

Harry shook his head as he grinned at his friend. "So is that what you two were talking about when I came downstairs."

"Er … well after she got done yelling at me for acting like a git and not trusting my friends, that's what she said," Ron shrugged. "Was I really acting that badly?"

"Nah," Harry said, only lying a little.

"Hey Harry," Neville said.

"Hey Neville, you want to join us," Harry asked and then noticed that the Hufflepuffs that were standing behind him didn't look happy about that.

"Yeah sure," Neville said, his jaw set stubbornly and Harry knew his friend was pointedly standing by him, though the others in the group didn't agree with him.

"See you later Neville," Ernie said as he rolled his eyes and the other Hufflepuff followed him except for one girl looking between Neville and Ernie.

"It's okay Hannah, you can go," Neville smiled at her.

She shook her head, "no, I'd like to stay … if that's alright."

"Yeah, it's okay," Neville smiled broader and Harry nodded his head.

She looked uncomfortable as she sat next to Neville, and then things started to tumble out of her mouth as if she wanted to say this before she lost her nerve. "I'm sorry about the others, they're just upset because they think Cedric deserved to be recognized and you've stolen all that from him."

Harry sighed again, "Yeah, I thought that was it."

"But I think Neville's right," she continued to blurt out. "The article didn't sound anything like you and you're not the one that wrote it in the first place. Skeeter is the one that omitted Cedric and we shouldn't blame you for something you didn't do."

"So you've been standing up for me again," Harry said looking at Neville, who shrugged like it was no big deal that he had stood up to his entire house to back up his friend.

Hannah beamed at Neville before she turned to Harry and said, "Yes, of course he did. He's a true Hufflepuff."

Neville turned bright red and a goofy grin spread across his face causing Ron and Harry to struggle to stop themselves from laughing.

"I hope you haven't lost any friends over this," Harry said, his focus having gone over to the other group and he didn't like the way they keep looking over at him.

"Nah, it's not so bad," Neville said. "They're annoyed at me of course, for siding with you …"

"But they respect him too," Hannah added, beaming again.

"They wouldn't hold it against me that I'm loyal to my friend," Neville finished.

"Hello," Hermione said coming back with five butterbeers and handing them to the others.

"How did you know to get five?" Ron asked.

"I saw Neville and Hannah sitting with you and I thought it would be best if I got them some," she shrugged and then sat next to Ron. "Harry, I think Hagrid wanted to see you."

"You think?" Harry questioned back at her.

"Well he didn't say it directly, but it seemed like he might want a chat," Hermione explained. "I'm sure if I'm wrong he wouldn't mind talking to you anyways."

"And I wouldn't mind having a word with him," Harry agreed, getting out of the chair and heading toward Hagrid. When he got there the big man beamed at him, slapped him on the back which nearly made him fall over.

"Ah, Harry, just the person I wanted to see," Hagrid announced.

"Hey Hagrid," Harry smiled; he couldn't help but feel better with Hagrid beaming like he was.

Hagrid congratulated him on being a champion again, which Harry found to be odd, seeing as Hagrid knew that he didn't want to be one. They talked about if Harry felt ready for the first task, which was quickly approaching. Hagrid stated again that he knew that Harry would do brilliantly and Harry was starting to think this was all that Hagrid had to say. That was until Hagrid leaned in closer to Harry and whispered, "come to my cabin at midnight … I've got something to show you."

"Hagrid …" Harry started to ask looking confused by this invitation. His big friend never asked him to sneak out onto the grounds at night before and he wondered why he would do so now. But Hagrid patted him on the back again and soon was leaving the pub. Harry took several minutes to stare after him before he went to rejoin his friends.

"What happened?" Ron asked, not missing the confuse look on Harry's face.

"He … congratulated me and said I would do brilliantly on the first task," Harry said, not being able to explain more because Hannah was there but his friends knew that there was more to this. "I think I've had about enough excitement for one Hogsmeade visit, I'm going back to the castle."

"Yeah, we should be going back too," Hermione said, including herself and Ron and it wasn't long before the three of them were leaving.

"Maybe I shouldn't have sat with you," Hannah said as the others left. "I don't think he wanted to say anything in front of me."

"Don't worry about him," Neville said. "I'm happy to be right here."

Hannah turned to face him with a blush creeping up her face at the smile he was giving her.

O

Harry stumbled into the common room later that night (or was it early the next morning) his face was pale as he tried to make sense of what he had seen.

"Harry?" Ron asked as he stood up from his seat on the couch, Hermione doing the same. They were the only two left in the common room. "What is it?"

Harry tried to speak … to explain what he had seen, but the words didn't come out of his month.

Hermione went over to him, looking terrified and he knew he was causing it, but still he couldn't say what he had seen. "Harry?"

"D-dragon," he forced the word out because he couldn't stand to see his friends look so worried but the word didn't seem to make that go away. In fact they just looked more worried.

"What?" Hermione gasped.

"D-dragons," Harry said again, swallowing back his fear as he forced himself to talk. "Four … one for each champion. We're going to have to get pass them or something …"

"A dragon … you're going to face a dragon," Ron said collapsing back on the couch. He had a brief moment where he was happy that his name had not been called from the Goblet, but that was squashed immediately as he realized that Harry was going to have to do this. Going to have to face a dragon and there was not a bloody thought in his head about how Harry was going to survive that.

"Yeah," Harry said and with Hermione's help he walked over to the couch so they could collapse on it as well. "Hagrid took me … well no, he took Madam Maxime as I hid in my invisibility cloak, but he was taking both of us there to see the dragons. He seemed to think it was a great treat."

"He would," Ron grumbled thinking of their first year and Norbert. Harry didn't seem to have heard his comment as he continued to talk as if he was in a trance.

"Charlie was there … I guess he was helping keep the dragons tamed," he said, "he said something about them all being expecting mothers …"

"Argh," Ron groaned. "They're even more vicious then …"

"Yeah, Charlie said that too," Harry agreed. "He also pointed out that the Horntail was the worst."

"They have a Hungarian Horntail!" Ron gasped, could things get any worst.

"Yes, and a Common Welsh Green, a Chinese Fireball and a Swedish Short-Snout," Harry listed off.

"Well those aren't so bad, but the Horntails are known to be vicious," Ron said.

Harry didn't have anything to say to that so he went on with his story. "Karkaroff was there … I saw him when I was leaving."

"Then Viktor Krum is sure to know about the dragons soon," Ron said.

"And I would imagine that Madam Maxime will tell Fleur as well," Hermione added and Harry nodded his head.

"That means Cedric will be the only one that doesn't know," Harry summoned up. "Well, unless I tell him."

"How are you going to tell him," Hermione asked, taking it as a given that Harry would.

"I'm not sure yet, but it probably be best if I tell him face to face," Harry said, not hesitating for a second, this wasn't something that he would keep from even his worst enemy.

"Harry … how are you going to get past the dragon?" Ron asked the question they all feared to address.

"I don't know that either," was Harry's weak reply as his shoulders dropped.