A/N – I was pleasantly surprised by all the follows, favourites and reviews on the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this next one :)

Chapter 2 – Dragon Fire

Harry left the tent and was instantly greeted by the roar of the crowd the moment they'd spotted him, despite the cheers from Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs in the stands around the arena, the jeers and boos from Slytherin were still clearly audible. He was slightly surprised to see the Hufflepuffs supporting him just as much as the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, since his name had come out of the goblet, they'd been treating him mostly with indifference, if not outright hostility. Hermione theorised that they felt like Harry was trying to steal Cedric's thunder by entering himself into the tournament as a second Hogwarts champion, now that they'd seen what he had to face, they'd decided to at least show him as much support as they were the Hufflepuff champion.

The arena itself was not at all what he was expecting, it was almost completely barren, there was the dragon, chained to the ground directly in the centre beside its nest full of eggs, the golden egg which was his goal directly in the middle of them. He'd expected some trees, maybe some large rocks which he could seek safety behind, but there was nothing at all, it disturbingly reminded him of a giant version of the tiny sandpit in the park near number 4 Privet Drive, where he often sought shelter on the swings, away from Dudley and his gang.

The sand in the arena was littered with pebbles and chunks of rock no bigger than the size of Harrys fist. He'd watched Professor McGonagall transfigure a handful of pebbles into a pack of wolves as a demonstration in one of his earliest transfiguration lessons, but he was only a fourth year, he wouldn't be able to do anything like that. The rocks weren't even big enough to cause the dragon any real damage if he'd managed to launch them at it. There was a small pond full of water between himself and the dragon, he supposed if the dragon set him on fire, he could always jump into it, assuming he wasn't already beyond saving.

He chanced a glance up at the Gryffindor stands and vaguely saw a very familiar head of bushy brown hair before he was jerked back to reality by an inhuman roar and a sudden bright orange something that could only be one thing in present company. He launched himself sideways in his desperate attempt to get as far away from where the dragon had sent its jet of orange flame as possible. Had he not moved he would've been completely engulfed by it, he'd still been at the entrance, he hadn't thought for a moment that the dragon would've been able to reach him from there.

Deciding he'd wasted enough time, he started running as fast as he could in a circle around the arena in his attempt to slowly get closer to the nest of eggs, while hopefully moving fast enough that if it shot fire at him again, he'd be at less risk of it hitting him. When he saw the dragon open its jaws wide, he knew what was coming this time, "REDUCTO" he yelled, aiming his wand at the sand between the dragon's feet, creating a giant cloud of sand which completely obscured the dragon from his view.

Trusting that if he couldn't see the dragon, there was no way that it could possibly see him, he ran full pelt directly in the direction of the nest. Sure enough, he tripped over a something sticking out of the sand and nearly fell directly into the nest full of eggs, he quickly picked up the golden egg and ran back the way he came with the egg tucked securely underneath his arm. He didn't know where the dragon was but was sure getting as far away from the nest as possible was his best chance. Bagman told the champions that their task was to "Retrieve the golden egg" yet failed to mention what they had to do with the thing once they got their hands on it, was something supposed to happen once he'd touched it?

Without warning, the dragons tail came out of nowhere and collided with his left arm, which he was using to hold the egg, one of the horns sinking deep into his flesh and he felt his arm break with a loud CRACK. He was launched sideways, both egg and wand flying from his grip, flying across the arena before crashing into the sand in a heap. He barely had time to look up, cradling his bleeding and broken arm, when the dragon trudged out of the dust cloud, the remains of the chain that was keeping it secured trailing along in its wake. It opened it's jaws wide, and time seemed to slow as he saw the jet of fire leave the beasts mouth and engulf him…

So, this was how he died… lying on the floor of the arena, burned beyond recognition, with the entirety of the Hogwarts student body, staff and representatives from the ministry of magic watching him. Though his mind was only on one specific Hogwarts student, the girl whose voice he was sure he heard scream "HARRY!" moments before all sound had been muffled by the roar of the flames surrounding him.

If this was what burning alive felt like, then it wasn't so bad, but was he dying? The robes he was wearing had long since been burned to dust but the only pain he felt was from the huge hole in his broken and bleeding arm. He just felt… warm, as though he was sitting in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room, certainly not being engulfed in dragon fire and burning to death. Suddenly the flames which had completely obscured his vision died away, and he was left staring at the dragon, which was staring directly back at him, as though wondering how this little boy had the audacity to still be alive.

He lay there in the sand, completely naked as his clothes had all been burned away, but that was the least of his problems. Sure, the dragon hadn't been able to burn him to death, but it could still very well rip him to shreds with its teeth and claws if it so desired. It seemed to be contemplating that very thing as it took a step towards him, but it was immediately distracted by a yell to Harrys left and both he and the dragon turned to see Hermione climb over the railing high in the stands and jump down into the arena.

Complete shock seemed to prevent the dragon from toasting her right where she landed, as she ran towards Harry and placed herself between Harry and the dragon with her arms outstretched as if to shield him.

"HERMIONE NO! GET BACK!" Harry shouted as he suddenly had a vision of his own mother standing much like Hermione was now, shielding him from Voldemort's wand.

The dragon finally seemed to decide it had had enough and opened its jaws wide once more, aiming straight at Hermione. "STOP!", Harry shouted at the dragon this time, not sure what good it would do but unwilling to watch his best friend die for him, just like his mother had all those years ago. To his complete surprise, the dragon did stop, and looked directly at him over Hermione's shoulder.

"Dragon-Tongue?"

There was no mistaking what had spoken, he felt like he was back in the chamber of secrets in second year, hearing Riddle speaking Parseltongue to the Basilisk, he could understand what Riddle was saying as if he was speaking English, yet there was still that unmistakable hissing sound behind the words. Yet when the dragon spoke, there was no hiss, though there was still a hint of something unidentifiable beneath the words.

It spoke again "You can hear me, Land-Walker?"

"Yes, I hear you", Harry replied, sure now that everyone else would be hearing the unidentifiable sounds and not the English that he understood. Judging by the surprised look Hermione suddenly threw at him over her shoulder, he seemed to be making the same noises too.

Emboldened by the thought that she wouldn't understand anything he was saying he pleaded with the dragon, "Don't hurt her, please, she hasn't done anything to you".

The dragons gaze seemed to soften slightly, "why are you trying to steal my children?"

"I wasn't" he implored "I was only trying to get the golden egg; it isn't one of yours".

"You can speak our tongue, why not merely ask for it? Instead, you enter my domain and attack me with magic".

He decided to simply ignore the fact that the dragon had attacked him first, "I didn't know you would understand me, I didn't know I could speak Dragon-Tongue".

"You didn't know? Dragon blood runs in your veins Young-One, it was dormant before, but I see it clearly now you've been touched by my flame. I've heard of your kind; you have no idea of the power you possess."

The dragon backed up a step before continuing "I will not harm you or your mate, maybe one day we will meet again Fire-Eater."

His Mate? What on earth gave it the impression that Hermione was his mate? She wasn't even aware of his feelings for her.

She basically just tried to sacrifice herself to save you, you idiot, she feels the same about you. His inner voice seemed to shout at him, causing him to fight to contain a blush despite the precarious situation.

The dragon turned on its heel and headed back in the direction of its nest. Harry briefly noticed that they were surrounded by dragon keepers, who looked as though they weren't sure if they should intervene or not, before his world started to fade. The last thing he saw was Hermione turning to face him, conjuring a large sheet as she went, and covering him with it before his world faded to black.

Albus Dumbledore sat behind his desk in his study, sucking on a lemon drop and pondering the mystery that was Harry Potter. The boy had been taken to the hospital wing hours previously, shortly after he'd passed out from blood loss in the arena, according to Poppy, he was out of danger and was resting. Harry had managed to get his hands on the golden egg without too much difficulty, but that was where everything had gone wrong. Albus had turned the egg into a portkey himself, not trusting anyone else to do so, which should have taken Harry directly to the judges and out of danger the moment he touched it, but it didn't,

He'd known that Tom must have had a spy In Hogwarts if they'd managed to enter young Harry's name into the tournament, thus ensuring he was selected as a fourth Triwizard champion, but he still had no idea who it was. He'd failed Harry yet again, after performing the charm he should have made sure that the egg was kept in a safe location where no one could access it, instead he'd simply handed it over to the tournament organisers and trusted that it wouldn't be tampered with. He'd been wrong on all accounts, the spy had obviously undone his spell work and trusted that the dragon would finish Harry off.

But this wasn't what he'd expected from Tom at all, he'd assumed that Tom would want to get his hands on Harry himself, not have a dragon finish what he'd started on that fateful night 13 years ago. He'd made a grave error, he'd thought Harry would be perfectly safe, even against a dragon, for surely Tom would have seen to it that Harry wouldn't meet his end at any hand but his. For that was what the prophecy had said, "Either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives". Surely that line alone would ensure that Harry couldn't die unless he was personally killed by Tom. Maybe all these years Albus had been looking at this the wrong way, if Harry had died in the arena, and if Tom had given the order to have the portkey charm removed, would that have counted as Harry dying by the Dark Lord's hand, as indirect as it was?

But Harry had not died, Albus had seen what dragon fire could do to its victims in his own time studying abroad in his younger years, yet Harry was perfectly fine, he'd likely be somewhat traumatised, for even though the fire had not harmed him, it had certainly done away with his clothes. Yet why was Harry himself unharmed? For even he, Albus Dumbledore, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, had no idea how the boy was still alive.

In all his years, he'd never seen anything of the sort, the moment that Harry was engulfed by that fire he had frozen, something that he hadn't done since he'd had to face his former best friend and partner Gellert Grindelwald back in 1945. All the precautions that he'd taken, and the blind faith that he placed in the prophecy to ensure that Harry would not be harmed until Tom had returned and Harry could complete his destiny. That had all crumbled to dust the moment Harry was consumed by dragon flame, for no one could've survived that, prophecy or no prophecy, the crowds shocked silence and Miss Grangers screams matching the utter horror he'd felt as his indomitable nature had faltered for the first time in just shy of 50 years.

And then Harry had emerged from the fire looking nothing more than slightly wind-swept, and young Miss Granger had done what no one else had and risked her own life jumping into the arena and placing herself between the dragon and Harry. Then the dragon had spoken, another thing he hadn't known was possible, though it was clearly no language he himself had ever heard before. Harry's ability to speak to snakes was something he was aware of, but dragons? This wasn't just some extension of his powers as a Parselmouth, no… this was something far more.

Perhaps it was time to confide in the boy, and certain other trustworthy parties, he'd kept the prophecy to himself ever since that night in the Hogs Head when he'd visited Sybill, though Severus had overheard and informed Tom leading to the Halloween night that had started it all. If only Severus had considered the possibility that the prophecy could mean Lily's son, he never would have taken it to Voldemort then. Professor McGonagall had always proven herself trustworthy, he could confide in her, and Amelia Bones was an old friend on the Wizengamot, plus with her unique position in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, she would likely prove to be a powerful ally.

He would have to arrange a meeting once young Harry was back on his feet and tell them all everything he knew, well almost everything, Harry mustn't know that his scar may very well contain a portion of Voldemorts soul until it was absolutely necessary. He'd meddled in the boy's life far more than he had originally planned after Lily and James lost their lives. He thought he was doing the best thing for Harry by sending him back to the Dursleys every year to ensure he could still call the house home, thus staying protected by his mother's blood. He'd known about how he had been treated by his relatives but had never sought to do anything about it. He could have asked Arthur and Molly if they'd consent to taking Harry in, he'd have been just as safe there as he was behind the blood protections. Especially if they'd consented to having the fidelius charm cast upon their home. Neither Tom nor any of his followers would've been able to find the boy if Albus himself was the secret keeper.

Maybe Harry would be able to tell him what happened down in the arena and why the dragon fire didn't affect him at all, he had been seated too high up in the stands to be able to see Harry very clearly, though he was sure he saw a glint of something golden in the boys' face before he'd fallen unconscious.

He popped another lemon drop into his mouth and leaned back, staring up at the ceiling of his office still deep in thought, could this possibly be the "Power the Dark Lord knows not"?

Harry awoke slowly, trying to remember the events of the last few hours when he became aware that he was lying on a very soft, very familiar surface, where he'd often found himself waking up over his years at Hogwarts. I must be in the hospital wing again, he thought mildly, his spirits lifting very slightly as he realised that couldn't've been injured too badly, or they would have sent him to St Mungo's.

He opened his eyes carefully, squinting at first as to not blind himself due to how bright he knew the hospital wing to be, only to discover that the lights were off and it was the middle of the night. He must've slept through the entire day; the first task had started at noon but it was now clearly well into the night. He reached onto the side table to find his glasses simply out of habit, he found them and pushed them onto his face, only for his vision to suddenly become extremely blurry. He took them back off and was surprised to find that he could see perfectly, even better than the previous morning when he'd put his glasses on so that everything came into focus.

That's odd, do I not need my glasses anymore? Surely if Madam Pomfrey had a way to fix my vision she'd have done that one of the other times I've been in here.

Deciding to put that out of his mind for the time being, he glanced around him and saw a very familiar head of bushy brown hair resting on his mattress, arms folded beneath her head as she sat in an armchair at his bedside facing towards him, dozing peacefully. He just watched her, realising that he'd never actually seen her asleep before, she'd woke him up in his dormitory several times so they could go down to breakfast together. He'd attempted to do the same to her when she'd slept in one morning, only to be utterly humiliated as the stairs turned into a slide halfway up and he slid all the way back down, landing rather ungracefully on Neville who'd just reached the bottom of the boy's staircase. According to Hermione, the founders didn't think boys could be trusted to enter the girls' dorms.

"Hermione" he rasped, his voice breaking as though from lack of use.

"Hermione" he repeated a little louder, he reached over and gently tapped her on the shoulder.

She woke suddenly, glancing up at him sleepily before coming to her senses and yelling "HARRY!" as though she hadn't seen him in months, she threw herself at him and gave him one of her usual bone crushing huge that he'd come to love.

He chuckled, wrapping his arms around her to return the hug, "I'm fine Hermione, have you been here all night?" He was surprised to find that his arm didn't hurt at all from where the dragon had punctured it, the Matron sure did good work.

She pulled back, gazing up into his eyes as she did so, her eyes suddenly widened as though in surprise and her mouth parted slightly as he let out a soft "oh". He'd have found the expression on her face extremely cute if she wasn't staring at him as though he'd suddenly blurted out a desire to run away and elope together.

"What is it Hermione? Is there something on my face?" he asked before removing his arms from around her and reaching up to his face to try to find the source of her confusion and finding nothing.

"No Harry, it's your eyes" she replied softly, "They're beautiful".

"Wh-what are you talking about?" he stammered back.

At that precise moment, Madam Pomfrey, summoned no doubt by Hemione's yell moments previously, came into view. "Ah Mr Potter, awake at last I see-" she said, before coming to a sudden halt as she caught sight of Harry's face.

"Oh my... I better go get the headmaster; don't you go anywhere Mr Potter!".

She turned suddenly, and hurried towards the end of the hospital wing, faster than he'd ever seen her move before, he heard her let herself out and the door close quickly behind her.

He turned back to look at Hermione, suddenly feeling like he was missing something he asked "Hermione, what's wrong?"

She jumped off him, probably realising she was basically sitting on his lap, before crouching down and reaching into her schoolbag, which he now noticed resting on the floor besides his hospital bed. She straightened up and wordlessly handed a mirror to him, he held it up to his face, desperate for something to explain what they had both seen which caused them to act so strangely, when he saw it himself.

His eyes were no longer the startlingly green that he'd inherited from his mother and had gazed back at him from the bathroom mirror that very morning. They were now the colour of molten gold and stood out in the darkness of the hospital wing surprisingly clearly, they almost appeared to be glowing very slightly.

"Well at least you're okay" Hermione said suddenly, trying and failing to act nonchalant despite his mysterious transformation. "I've been visiting you for weeks and was starting to get really worried".

Only one part of this statement stood out to Harry, "Weeks!?" he almost shouted, "how long exactly have I been asleep Hermione?"

She suddenly looked sheepish, as though she'd let something slip that she wasn't supposed to, "oh, er… well… tomorrow is Christmas Eve" she replied, so quietly that he barely heard the last two words.

He let his head fall back onto his pillow, gazing up at the ceiling of the hospital wing. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve? He'd wanted to get Hermione something special for Christmas this year too, there was no hope of that now, he'd never have enough time.

"That's not all though Harry", she continued, blushing suddenly despite herself, "The school's' hosting a Ball on Christmas Day, it's traditional you know, and as a champion you'll need to open the dance with a partner".

He sat up suddenly upon hearing this news, determined for something good to come out of this at least, and remembering the promise he had made to himself before he exited the champions tent to face the dragon.

"As in like a date?" he asked her, suddenly interested.

"Exactly like a date" she replied shyly, intent on not meeting his gaze.

He reached over and grabbed her hand where it had been resting upon the mattress, surprising her into looking up at him. "Hermione" he said trying to be as calm as possible, though his insides felt as though they were on fire "Will you be my date to the ball?".

She simply stared at him, as though he'd just slapped her, before letting out an almighty squeal, throwing her arms around him and kissing him on the cheek. "Oh Harry, I'd love to!" she replied excitedly, "I was just about to ask you the same question".

"You were?" he replied, completely amazed by this sudden turn of events.

"Yeah, I've been waiting for you to wake up ever since Dumbledore announced it, I'll say though, you cut it pretty fine" she replied, pouting her lips and trying to act as though she was upset with him.

"Better late than never I guess?" he responded with a nervous smile, immensely thankful that he had woken up in time.

"Damn right" she replied forcefully, resting her head against his shoulder, as they heard the door to the hospital wing swing open, and several pairs of feet start hurrying towards them.

Better late than never indeed…