Prompted by 'The Reluctant King' by BadLuckRabbit. 'God Slaying Blade Works' by Marcus Galen Sands was a major influence as well.

First Task Arena

'Wonderful.' A green eyed wizard thought as he exited a tent and came face to snout with a massive black scaled dragon known as a Hungarian Horntail. 'I am going to punch the next person who thought I volunteered for this.'

"Aaaaand START" the enthusiastic voice of Ludo Bagman shouted and Harry wished for bloody vengeance on the man as he was one of the people who sealed his fate in facing this beast.

The dragon narrowed her eyes as she spotted Harry. The boy in question wasted no time running to cover as the dragon moved to face him. He knew the moment he found out that he was going to face a nesting dragon he was punching way above his weight limit, again.

A wall of scorching flames lapped around the rock he had ducked behind and Harry watched the grass burn away. 'If Wood had seen this he would have tackled the dragon personally for ruining the quidditch pitch.' Harry thought. Shaking the distracting thoughts from his mind he focused on one of his most prized possessions.

"Accio Firebolt!" he shouted as he waved his wand through the right movements. 'Now I just need to…' "Merlin's balls!" he shouted as a battleaxe of a tail whipped around the rock and nearly crunched his head against the stone.

He dived out of the way and scrambled for the next large rock to hide behind. 'Can't I just forfeit! I participated in the loosest sense of the word?!' Harry cried out in his mind as his Seeker instincts warned him of strike from behind and he dived to the ground. The medieval weapon on a tail flew over his head and chipped a significant piece of the rock he was planning to hide behind.

'Run Harry run! Run for your life!' He chanted in his head as he made a good attempt at beating world records in the one hundred meter sprint division. The dragon meanwhile took great joy in trying to turn Harry into a flaming heap of dinner without ketchup. The crowd jeered but Harry ignored it all in favor of the overriding desire to survive when the assault and the general sense of being hunted disappeared.

Harry took the opportunity to duck behind an undamaged rock. But the faint tingling on his senses soon made him peek his head out to see what had made the angry she-dragon stop its assault on him. What he saw worried him as the dragon clearly lost all interest in him and was weary, perhaps even afraid of whatever was roughly on the right of him.

With all the grace of a stuttering clock Harry turned his head to the unknown entity whose presence was enough to unnerve a mother dragon.

Harry did not expect to see a red-eyed long golden haired pretty boy that reminded him slightly of Lockhart. Harry was sure the man could seduce any woman he wanted with his looks if it wasn't for the enormous amount of arrogance he seemed capable to visibly emit from his eyes.

Even without directly looking into them Harry could tell this man thought he was above everyone else in the area. An impression he soon enforced when he spoke up. Harry currently rated this man's threat level above Lockhart but below the troll. A spell could be used to intimidate the dragon after all, but he needed more information before placing him definitely on the list.

"It seems my prey knows its death is near!" the man declared in a tone that oozed superiority and confidence. He wondered where it came from as he could only identify the bow on the man's back as an available weapon. The pure-white clothing and cape seemed to shine in their inability to stop dragonfire.

"Sir! You are interfering with the task!" The announcer bellowed, sounding annoyed at the intrusion, and Harry wondered why nobody stopped the man from getting into the arena in the first place. 'Wouldn't they ward the arena against people coming in? Oh wait.. Wizards…' He answered himself.

"You must leave now lest we are forced to remove you!" the announcer Ludo Bagman threatened and Harry could see it all the effect of tossing a stone against the castle's walls. Instead the man looked intrigued. "A task you say? A task involving my favored foe?" he inquired haughtily.

"Then I must stay! For a task is a challenge to overcome! It would be unthinkable for one such as I to back down from a challenge!" He declared with authority. Harry was certain he wasn't the only one gaping at the man. Nor did he doubt he was the only one wondering who this madman was.

His head turned towards Harry and the young man forced himself not to duck down like his gaze was the flames of a dragon. "So young mortal, what is this task you sought to accomplish?" he asked in a tone that demanded a honest and full answer immediately.

Harry gulped at the red eyes staring at him and worked to get his voice working. Mentally he marked the man's threat level as approaching 'Basilisk' levels. "I need to get the golden egg the dragon is standing over." he answered.

"Aha! I see!" the man said pridefully as if he had just unravelled one of magic's great mysteries. "To steal such an expensive object from a mighty guardian as this! For one of your age this would be a near insurmountable challenge! Not even I, I must admit, have attempted a challenge like that at your age." The last sentence was the most humble one yet, but it was still drenched in the man's pride in himself.

"However, I am afraid you will not be able to accomplish this task!" he declared once more. "For I cannot turn away from this foe no matter the nobility of the task I am interrupting!" Harry almost shrugged and said 'Sure, go ahead.' It was the man's unending waves of arrogance that stilled his tongue.

"Now step back young magus. For my very legend demands my upcoming victory." he said with a wave of his hand that indicated Harry should hide behind the rock. "I will show you all how a dragon slayer gains his victory over those loathsome beasts!"

Without saying a word or making a gesture with his hand a resplendent steel sword appeared in the man's hand. In the back of his mind Harry noted it had a curved edge instead of the straight one the Gryffindor's sword had.

And then he disappeared without the signature pop of apparition or the glowing flash of a portkey item. There was a squelch of flesh being parted, something heavy hitting the ground and rolling towards him and the crowd instantly going silent. Harry was staring in utter surprise at the place the man had just stood when a large black head with slitted eyes rolled into his view while leaving a bloody trail.

Harry blinked with disbelief as the head of the Hungarian Horntail that just a minute before had been spitting fire at him was now staring at something unseen behind him. 'What… how...when...why?' Harry blubbered in disbelief in his mind. All the research he had done showed that the flying beasts were incredibly hard to kill in one blow.

Harry peeked around the rock to see the man approaching his hiding spot. "Who are you?" he couldn't help but ask. He wasn't like Ron that he memorized all the famous people he could get the card on. But surely the name of a man who could slay dragons in a single blow was a name he should have encountered in his studies.

A grin formed on the man's lips and Harry knew he had tickled his ego just the way he wanted to. A glow started to emanate from the man and something settled on the area that tried to force Harry to obey. It instantly evaporated any feelings of awe Harry had for the man and he mentally went past the Basilisk and took the top spot of dangerous things Harry had encountered.

"Who am I you ask?" The man asked dramatically. "Can you not tell by my mighty deed here? Allow me to enlighten you!" he answered and while his red eyes were focused on Harry, the loudness and arrogance in his voice made it clear he was addressing the entire crowd.

"Who else would appear before the innocent as a hero and slay dragon with such grace and divinity? Who else but I, Perseus!" Perseus shouted pridefully. Harry's knee jerk reaction was that the man was some pureblood with his arrogance set to maximum.

'Wait.. Hero.. divinity…' Something tickled in the back of Harry's mind of a forgotten lesson from Binn's that didn't involve the goblin rebellions. Screams erupted from the crowd and there was a general milling about as people tried to get far away. A glance towards the section where the officials and headmasters sat showed that they were unnerved as well.

'What am I missing.' Harry thought furiously. He refused to be surprised that with his luck he could go from the flaming dragon to something worse. He looked back to Perseus who was distinctly unimpressed by Harry's and the crowd's reaction.

"Where are my praises?" he mumbled just loud enough for Harry to hear. "Why am I greeted as if I am the monster Medusa herself?" he shook his head as if an idea came to him but he discarded it. "Ah, it is an unsightly solution for one such as I. But I must make them see that I am the hero I am." he declared more loudly and Harry's 'this is bad' senses went haywire as the pressure seemed to increase.

"Oh ladies of magic, stop your wailing and look upon me. Stop your male counterparts and make them admire the perfection I am!" he ordered and instantly the crowd's hysteria was cut in half. Harry turned his eyes back to the crowd and saw every girl and woman, regardless of age, draw their wands and started stunning, binding, levitating or transfiguring every man they could get their wands on.

Even Dumbledore was held aloft by the Beauxbatons Headmistress while Hagrid's half-giant magical resistant skin was circumvented by crafty transfigurations of the benches. Harry looked in disbelief as the few men who were stunned were revived and bound. It had only taken a handful of seconds for every man to be forced to watch the ongoings in the arena.

With a start Harry realised he was the only wand-waving male in the arena that was not magically captured and turned into an unwilling audience. With a silent gulp of nervousness his attention returned to the man responsible for it all.

"Much better!" Perseus declared with his back towards Harry. He spread his arms wide. "Oh my beautiful magical ladies. Let us educate these common lowborn men why I am so great!" he announced pridefully with a hint of glee.

"What is the name of the hero who struck down the deadly snake-woman Medusa?" he asked the crowd. "Perseus!" the woman shouted back.

"Who is the hero that defeated the uncouth monster that pursued the beautiful Andromeda of Aethiopia?" he asked arrogantly. "Perseus!" the woman shouted back.

Who is this king that has slain the foul beast that lays dead at his feet?" he asked once more. "Perseus!" the woman shouted back gleefully.

'What kind of magic is this? A form of mass imperius?!' Harry thought horrified as he had spotted his friend Hermione shouting back with the same vigor as the rest of the woman. 'Who is he to…' "Ouch!" Harry exclaimed as something hard bumped into the back of his head.

With an angry glare he whirled around to see his Firebolt patiently waiting for him. It slowly descended down to the ground as the power of the spell he had used to call it to him waned. He then noticed that the arena had gone silent and something was approaching him from behind.

With honed instincts he leapt forward and spun around midair with his wand drawn to see he was pointing it at the mad wizard who had just enchanted the entire female crowd somehow. The man looked offended and the next word slipped out of Harry's mouth with the disdain he had started to feel for the man. "Perseus."

"Oh?" he replied with a hint of incredulity. Then understanding washed over his features. "Of course you would challenge me after hearing my accomplishments! This was your task, your audience and I stole it away from you. I slew your dragon, I took your egg, I took the attention of every female here in the heat of the moment."

If Harry wasn't that flabbergasted he would have stuttered a surprise of survival instincts with the right amount of groveling to get the man's attention off him. Harry was the practical sort and he knew that this man was way out of his league.

"But to challenge me to a duel…" the man trailed off before brightening up again. "I would do the same! We are cut from the same cloth! I can sense it now. The mark on your head shows the power you have stolen from a snake-like foe!" he looked right into his eyes with a soul-search stare.

'Challenge you? Nonono!' Harry thought in panic as he tried to find his voice this was turning into a most horrible misunderstanding. However nothing came out of his throat, not even a pathetic croak of protest.

"Yes! I am certain of it now! You have been touched by the fates, they have plans for you like I! A future set into the stars! You have overcome a deadly monster rooted in the origins of snakes not once, but twice. Bearing a scar of those encounters on your forehead and arm. The monster whose glare was as deadly as Medusa's yet you had overcome that with but a sword in your hand a phoenix at your side!" the man declared pridefully as if it was his own achievements.

He barked out a laugh. "And from your first foe you stole a bit of his power. Truly we were destined to meet in combat! You would never resist the siren call to challenge me, to measure your worth against my own!" a touch of somberness overcame the man. "But I must apologize to the fates for you will come up short. You have bitten off more than you can handle young magician. My honor demands I will see a challenge to red-stained sand's end."

The sword was dropped and it sank tip-first into the ground as the man pulled off the bow of his back. "But do not worry about fate's call upon you. For I, Perseus, will answer it in your stead." he declared solemnly.

He raised his bow and an arrow materialized in his free hand. In a blink of an eye Harry dived and took hold of his Firebolt's shaft while an arrow thundered over his head and struck the arena wall. The woman on the stand didn't even twitch a muscle in surprise and then broke into a thunderous cheer.

Harry came out of his roll and leaped to his feet. 'I… I just reacted. I couldn't even see him draw back the arrow!' He thought with eyes wide. He ruthlessly kicked down the rising tide of panic as he knew from experience it would not serve him well.

He didn't dare to look back to see what kind of damage the arrow had done but Harry would be unsurprised by the neat hole it had blow into the wall and stand supports, nor the crater and destroyed trees where it had hit a particularly unlucky one at the edge of the Forbidden forest.

Harry stared into the amused eyes of Perseus who stood in a 'just shot an arrow' pose. A smirk crawled its way on his face. "You dodged it with the swiftness of a striking snake. Most impressive young magician. But it will not be enough." he declared and Harry had no reason to disapprove of him.

So he took the opportunity to start plan B. A plan he would have used for more often if he had the chance to. In a well practiced motion he threw himself on his broom and rocketed skyward. It was not very Gryffindor, or manly, or honourable but Harry preferred alive to all those.

"So you take to the skies! Very well, we shall duel among the clouds!" he heard the arrogant hero declare below him as Harry pushed every bit of power out of the broom he could get his hands on.

There was a flash of light below and Harry dared to look behind him to see Perseus on a pegasus going skyward far faster than he could fly away. He spotted the man's sword in his hand and a desperate plan formed.

Perseus charged forward and Harry dived sideways and avoided it smoothly. "I see you sought the defence of the skies for a reason! You are a most skilled flyer like I! Perhaps in another world we would have had a most invigorating race!"

"However everyone knows this is over! Do you hear it young magician! The cheering crowds below are already celebrating my victory!" Perseus declared and Harry could hear it. But he was unaffected by it. The same courage that had allowed him to stick his wand up a troll's nose and face a basilisk with just a sword in his hand overtook him with an icy calmness and it was almost like the next words weren't his own.

"Those are fake calls of encouragement and you know it!" he shouted and the man rocked back on his winged steed and a sneer overcame his face. "True or not, it does not matter as this will be my victory!"

Harry saw the opening he needed. It was a very Slytherin's plan but survival went first. "Then let's end this in one joust!" he declared with confidence he did not feel. So far the man had shown that he was way above his capabilities. "Let's" the man agreed as he turned around and gained some distance.

For a moment Harry toyed with the idea to turn around and make for the hills but deep down he knew for a fact that the pegasus was faster than his broom ever would be. He turned around but instead of fleeing he made a wide turn, gathering speed as he went. 'Okay. So I got one chance to blast him off his horse with my wand. Or I need to knock out the horse with a stunning spell. No, he could reenervate the horse as it falls so I need to hit him wit the banishing charm. If I hit the horse instead I might disorientate it and make it fall so the target is bigger than it looks.' Harry planned as he finished his turn and discovered he had made the fatal mistake of assuming things.

Instead of holding his sword the man had his bow at the ready and an arrow in hand. Harry didn't even try to predict his shot and went into a charging corkscrew. An arrow whipped past his head with barely a handspan to spare. 'Bastard!' Harry shouted in his mind and the man seemed to hear it as he charged forward. "You never declared a weapon foolish young mage, but I respect your courage and pride to end it all in one pass!"

Another arrow appeared and Harry did a brake-dive to foul up the next shot. The arrow thundered past his feet and chipped off the very point of his broom into a spike. Harry hugged his firebolt close and charged. He had no more room left to dodge and the world seemed to slow down as he approached the hero on the back of the Pegasus slightly from the right, but head on.

Another arrow appeared out of thin air and with hypnotizing slowness it was drawn back. Harry raised his right arm and the first syllable of the spell was on his tongue as he could watch down the shaft of the arrow to the feathers. He knew that it was aimed right at his head and he started a barrel roll to the left to avoid a grisly fate.

It was too slow and as Harry formed the second syllable he was cut off in a cry of pain as his right arm exploded. Blood covered his eyes and Harry aborted the reflex of his left hand to grasp his non-existent arm but his broom did veer to the right.

'Is this how…' Harry started to wonder when his broom hit something a moment before his body crashed into the same something with a most satisfying crunch. The unpleasant sensation of flying skyward overtook him and with a hand that blazed in agony he wiped away the blood blinding his eyes as made his first frontal flip.

Harry couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction and he watched the self-proclaimed dragonslayer fall to the ground with Harry's broom impaled through his body and a bloody face from where Harry had crashed into him bodily.

A delirious laugh bubbled up and Harry did not restrain it as gravity took hold of his body and dragged him into his final flight. 'I wonder who was dismounted first!' Harry thought far too happily. He did see that the 'Hero' would hit the ground before he did so Harry counted that as his final victory.

The final thought Harry had just before he made his final appointment to ground was the love he felt for Hedwig, his loyal snowy owl who had stuck with him through everything. The Dursley's, the second year's accusation and this year's nonsense. Harry smiled as his vision went black.