Disclaimer: I do not own the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Anything familiar you see in this story, whether it be characters or plots, belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Brothers, and whoever else owns the rights.
Author's Note: I'm back… way later than expected. Life took a real downturn for me this year with regard to availability. I didn't really have a chance to work on this chapter until late June, at which point fellow author ACI100 graciously offered to take a look at it and give writing feedback on it. He also volunteered to take a look at Chapter 5, which is being rereleased concurrently with this. No plot in either was changed, just descriptive text and a bit of dialogue. Thank you again for all of your help, Ace!
Shoutouts go to Discord Members 1saaa, Luq707, and Sinisterfox for helping with the planning and editing of this fic.
Lastly, I'd like to thank my wonderful Beta, Athena Hope, for her help editing this fic.
Self-Promotion: I have a Discord Server where you can talk with me and other readers. Also as part of the server, you get early access to all of my chapters. To join, paste the following link into a new tab and remove the spaces: discord . gg / Bfwywpf
Harry's stomach fluttered as he neared the classroom, ready for another day of spell practice with Katie. What if he made himself look like a complete fool? He didn't want to lose Katie's friendship like he had Ron's.
Harry pushed open the door to find all of the desks pushed aside and a smiling Katie waiting for him.
"Harry!"
Harry smiled, unsure how to respond.
He couldn't tell whether or not Katie noticed; she just continued talking.
"I've been trying to prep for this all day, but maybe we'll just do a bit of everything until you know what the task is?"
"Sounds great, Katie."
Katie began pacing the room. "I don't know the history of the Triwizard Tournament as well as Hermione probably does, but I'd be shocked if the tasks didn't require charms. We should probably start with Stupefy, maybe Protego as well."
Harry's sessions with Katie continued similarly for the next week. Their first Sunday session, on the other hand, was different. That evening, Harry burst into the abandoned classroom wide-eyed and filled with energy.
"Dragons!" he panted. "The first task is dragons!"
Katie paled. "You're joking, right? That's ridiculous."
Harry shook his head. "I know what I saw, Katie. Hagrid took me into a clearing in the forest last night. There were a bunch of wizards and four dragons. Charlie Weasley told Hagrid that they were for the task."
"Are they insane?" Katie cried out, flopping down and burying her face in her hands. "Most fully-grown wizards can't even come close to taking on a dragon and they expect students to fight them?"
The two sat in silence for a moment before Katie pulled her head out of her hands and stood. "Do any of the others know?"
"Fleur and Krum definitely know. Hagrid took Madame Maxime to the clearing at the same time as me, and I saw Karkaroff running from the forest."
Katie frowned. "Them knowing will make it harder for you to win, but at least Cedric doesn't know."
"But Cedric should know! It's not fair for everyone else to know and for him to end up fighting a dragon that could kill him."
"I get it, but Cedric knowing makes it that much harder for you to win. I know you don't want to compete, but there's nothing you can do about being in the tournament, so you might as well try to win."
Harry grimaced. "I understand where you're coming from, but I don't want Cedric to be killed because I didn't tell him about the dragons."
"He won't die. There's no way the organizers will let that happen. One of the conditions of reviving the tournament was making it safe."
"But —"
"You agreed to let me help you, so let me help. Someone clearly entered you hoping for something bad to happen. What better way to stick it to them than to not only survive the tournament, but win it?"
Harry ponderedKatie's words. "I… you're right. I want… no, I need to win the tournament."
Katie beamed. "That's the spirit! Now then… the dragon."
"Right, there were four dragons, one for each of us. I don't know what we have to do with them, but whatever it is, it can't be good."
"Did you happen to get a close look at any of them? We might be able to figure out what types they have."
Harry racked his brain to try and remember anything about the dragons. "I remember a little bit. One was a silvery blue, another was some shade of green, the third was a bright red with gold spikes around its face, and the last one…" Harry shuddered. "It was pitch black and I think I remember one of the dragon people calling it a Horntail."
"Well, that's a start," Katie mused. "We probably can't figure out what each dragon is, but it's something. What about we go to the library and do some research? I don't actually know that much about dragons."
Harry sighed. "Well, that was useless."
"Cheer up we might not have found anything about dragon breeds, but at least we found that anatomy book."
"I guess you're right. Anatomía Drákou does look useful, but I just… was hoping for something more."
"Madam Pince might know where to find better books. She knows this library like the back of her hand."
"Better books on what, Miss Bell?" The stern voice of Madam Pince said from behind them, startling the pair.
Harry hesitated and looked at Katie before answering. "We were looking for information on dragons. We're doing a project on different breeds. All we could find were books on general anatomy."
"Dragons…" Pince sniffed. "Those books. A shame what happened to them."
"What happened to them?" Katie asked.
"They burned up a few years ago while the Gamekeeper had them checked out. I will never understand why Professor Dumbledore still lets that oaf enter my library. If I had it my way, he would be on top of the lifetime ban list."
Their talk was cut short when another student shouted from nearby, asking Madam Pince for help.
"He just had to raise a bloody dragon," Harry muttered.
Katie raised an eyebrow.
"Do you remember back in my first year when Hermione, Neville, and I lost a hundred and fifty points in one go?"
"Vaguely."
"Well, we had kind of got caught smuggling a baby Norwegian Ridgeback that Hagrid hatched in his hut."
Katie laughed, earning the pair a nasty glare from Madam Pince. "Miss Bell, please cease your laughter, or you and Mister Potter both will have to leave."
Harry checked out the anatomy book that Katie had found ushering her from the library and back to their study room.
Harry imagined the Great Hall was abuzz with chatter that morning, but he cared for none of it. He instead sat in the old Transfiguration room, Anatomía Drákou propped open to a page detailing the lower neck of a dragon. 'If I can stop it from breathing fire, it'll be a lot easier to deal with. Of course, that only takes care of the fire problem and not the giant, still-deadly magic beast problem.'
Closing Anatomía Drákou, he began to make his way to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, rotating his wrist a few times before practicing the deceptively simple wand movement of a circle and a jab one final time.
Soon, he heard the booming voice of Ludo Bagman. "Harry, my boy! Come in, come in"
When Harry stepped inside the tent, he noticed that Krum and Fleur seemed relatively relaxed, but Cedric… Cedric looked like a bundle of nerves. Harry felt a twinge of guilt over not telling Cedric about the dragons, but he quickly brushed that away. 'I'm here to win. Cedric knowing would make that harder.'
He wasn't given any more time to reflect on his past choices as Bagman instructed the champions on the task. "When the audience has assembled, I'll offer each of you this bag" — he held out a small, purple sack and shook it in the direction of Harry and the others — "from which you will each select a small model of the… thing you are about to face! There are, er, different… varieties, you see. Your task is to collect…" he paused for dramatic effect, "the golden egg!"
Fleur and Krum maintained their nonchalant expressions, while Cedric's face took on a putrid shade of green. Harry slowly took a few steps away from Cedric in case he did end up losing his breakfast.
"Well, there you have it!" Bagman exclaimed after the champions had chosen their dragons. "You've each drawn the dragon you'll be facing in the arena. The number on the token indicates which order you will enter the arena and retrieve your egg. Now then, I must be going. Mr. Diggory, when you hear a whistle, your task will begin!"
Cedric let out a torrent of vomit the moment Bagman exited the tent, making Harry glad he had moved away from the older boy. It only took another few minutes for the whistle Bagman had spoken of to ring out and Cedric to exit the tent to face his dragon.
One by one, the other champions faced their dragons until only Harry was left in the tent. The audience screamed in delight and horror as the champions went out and faced their dragons, but they all faded to silence when Harry's whistle blew and he stepped out of the tent.
He looked around the crowded arena and caught Katie's eye. She flashed him a quick smile before Bagman announced, "And now, our final champion. Representing Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the one, the only… HARRY POTTER!"
He looked away from the stands and met the sulfuric yellow eyes of the Hungarian Horntail. His gut clenched. 'I'm sorry, but this is the only way.'
Once Harry noticed fire begin to form in the dragon's gaping maw, he raised his wand and yelled a single word. "COANGUSTO!"
The spell Katie had found for him caused the fire to sputter out as the dragon began to make horrid, wrenching sounds. The dragon's throat turned an ugly red before it exploded outwards in a ring of fire, leaving its body to slump to the arena floor in front of its nest.
Harry calmly strode up to the dragon's nest, picked up the golden egg, and walked back to the tent. 'It was only an animal, standing between me and winning the tournament.'
Almost as soon as Madam Pomfrey finished making sure he wasn't injured, an enraged Hermione stormed into the tent.
"WHAT WAS THAT? YOU… YOU KILLED THAT DRAGON. AND FOR WHAT, HARRY? A STUPID EGG?"
"That's enough," Harry had no interest in hearing her tirade.
"What did that dragon ever do to you? It didn't want to be there. It was being forced to —"
"Hermione, it was an animal. It's not like I killed someone. Besides, the spell was created for killing dragons. God, Hermione, what do you think wizards did to dragons before handlers and reserves existed?"
"I don't like this, Harry. You wouldn't do this. You learned the Patronus last year to protect people and now you're using magic like… like that? Harry, you're my friend; I'm worried about you. I've read about what magic like that does to people. I'm worried —"
"That I'm going to become the next Voldemort? Thanks, Hermione, it's not as if people don't tell me that every day."
She huffed. "That's not even close to what I was going to say, you know that. Just… be careful."
Hermione left the tent, muttering under her breath. Katie brushed past her with a spring in her step.
"Great job, Harry."
Harry smiled. "Thanks, I couldn't have done it without your help. I wouldn't have even found that spell without you."
Katie beamed and opened her mouth, but was interrupted by Bagman ducking into the tent. "Harry, they're giving out results. They've asked for all the champions to gather in the arena."
Harry stepped out of the tent into the now-empty arena, giving a small nod to the other champions before getting in line next to Viktor Krum.
"Champions!" Bagman proclaimed loudly. "You all approached this task in… your own ways and managed to get your golden eggs, which contain a clue about the next task. Now for your results. Each of us here on the judging panel will each award you points out of ten. The champion with the highest total points will be in first place and so on. Let us begin with Mister Diggory…"
Harry let his mind drift from the ceremony back to his spat with Hermione, but was unable to dwell on it for too long.
"And now for Mister Potter, who caused his dragon to cause itself great harm. Let us see what the judges awarded Mister Potter…"
Madame Maxime raised her wand and shot up a silver five. 'She probably disapproves of my spell choice. I wasn't expecting to be rated that highly by her in the first place, though.'
Mister Crouch soon followed, sending the number six into the air. 'Another person that doesn't like my choice of spells.'
Dumbledore then rose, a troubled look in his eyes as he cast a seven. 'I get not approving of spell choice, but he's my headmaster. He should be giving me a ten.'
Bagman once again rose, an ear-to-ear grin splitting his face. A golden ten sprang from the tip of his wand, leaving Harry speechless. 'I… I probably deserved it, but still…'
Harry was left no further time to ponder as Karkaroff stood and flashed a self-satisfied smirk at Madame Maxime before casting a glimmering eight into the air. 'An eight… that puts me at 36 points, one more than Fleur..'
"There you have it, ladies and gentlemen," Bagman announced proudly. "The first task of the Triwizard Tournament! We have Mister Krum in first place with 40 points, Mister Diggory in second with 38 points, Mister Potter in third with 36 points, and lastly, Miss Delacour with 35 points. Let's hear it once more for our Triwizard champions!"
Author's Note: Right, so, I did a little bit of reworking of canon with the First Task, but things are still chugging along similarly to canon. I want to take this moment to first emphasize that this will not be a bashing fic of any kind. Not Ron, not Hermione, not Molly (who I don't think will even make an appearance), not Dumbledore, nor anyone for that matter. If at any point you feel like this is turning into a bashing fic and want to talk about it, you're welcome to reach out to me via on-site PMs or through my Discord.
As for what's next, to be completely frank, lack of motivation has been a thing grating on me for a while. A couple of things lined up on the docket are DiD Chapter 7, Chapter 2 (3 counting the prologue) of my Percy Jackson fic, a rewrite/new chapter of a Percy Jackson fic on FFN that I volunteered to adopt ages ago and only recently heard back about — for those of you on AO3 interested in that, it'll only be uploaded it on FFN — and Chapter 2 of an original work that I wrote for a creative writing class last year that I'm uploading to AO3 at the same time as this goes up.
Wherever my creative juices may flow next, I hope to see you there.
- Asmodeus Stahl