The First Task

I apologise for the length of this chapter – I usually try to keep chapters shorter and publish more routinely. But I decided very early on that this chapter would include the first task and so it just kept getting bigger and bigger… anyway, enjoy and remember that reviews fuel the muse.

As ever, this belongs to JK, not me.

Hermione was muttering loudly to herself as she pulled vast armfuls of books off the library shelves, adding them to an already teetering stack that was floating behind her. Not for the first time that day she cursed herself for not preparing Harry more for the first Triwizard task. Truthfully, she had been ignoring it slightly and hoping it would go away. Now that she knew about it, and knew it was dragons, she was frantically researching ways of incapacitating them, at least for long enough for Harry to do whatever it is he was meant to be doing. She didn't think that Harry would have to defeat the dragon as the breeds involved were rare and she didn't think a dragon reserve would have agreed to lend such valuable creatures for their destruction. She thought instead that Harry would have to perform some form of task that had a dragon interfering with it. Not that it was a much easier prospect.

Harry was sat at her usual table, books piled high in front of him but from where she was stood it looked as though he had given up, his head resting on the table and his eyes staring down at the stained wood.

"Harry!" She whispered frantically, rejoining him with her new stack of books. "What are you doing?"

"It's hopeless," he mumbled, not lifting his head up. "I really don't need to know how to treat scale rot or dragon conjunctivitis, all these books are hopeless."

Hermione looked affronted at the fact someone had insulted her books. "There will be something somewhere! Oh no…"

Harry raised his head to see that the brunette was not looking in his direction anymore but was instead distractedly staring at the back of the library. Following her line of sight, he saw Victor Krum sitting at a small table behind his own book pile.

"What's wrong with Krum? He seems ok, and he's not exactly bothering us…"

"It's not Krum," Hermione hissed. "It's them."

She indicated towards a group of girls who had just entered the library and were taking up a spot near the table Hermione and Harry were sitting at. Instead of working, the girls were giggling into their hands and shooting glances at Krum. "Fan girls!" Hermione said flatly, not even bothering to lower her voice and causing a few scowls in their direction. "Come on Harry, we'll get more work done in the common room." She gathered up the most promising books and gave the girls a black glare as she brushed past them on her way out. Despite the fact that most were in older years they still flinched from her the force of her gaze.

"They turn up constantly," Hermione told Harry while they were walking back to the Gryffindor common room. "Every time Krum comes to the library, which is quite a lot of the time, and often when he doesn't just in case. As Krum always sits at the same table they normally choose the table next to mine so they can get a good view." Hermione's voice contained badly suppressed irritation. "They once even had the nerve to ask me to move from my table just because, and I quote, the view was sublime and it was wasted on me."

Harry desperately wanted to snigger at Hermione's indignation, but wisely decided now was not the time to interrupt her rant.

"I mean, of all the cheek! That is my table, I use it all the time and I've been going to that library since before they knew it existed! And they are always chatting and giggling. Madame Pince usually keeps the worst of the noise down but it's just so distracting! I wish Krum would go anywhere else and take his fan club with him. He must have a library of some sort on the Durmstrang ship."

By this time they had reached the cosy familiarity of the common room and Harry claimed a couple of comfortable seats with a low table in front. They spent the rest of the day poring over the dragon books, unfortunately making very little progress.

At breakfast the next morning Hermione was still sat reading a tome on dragons (Dragon History of Eastern Asia, to be precise) propped up against a fruit bowl that she knew most of the boys surrounding her wouldn't touch. Harry sat next to her, poking around the bacon and eggs that she had earlier piled on his plate for him. She didn't see him look up and across the room, but when he suddenly stood she glanced quizzically at him.

"Don't wait for me," he muttered before charging out of the Great Hall. "I'll see you in the greenhouses."

Hermione assumed Harry had run to get a textbook he had forgotten before Herbology, so she assumed he would meet her outside the greenhouse as she packed her book away after breakfast. She was therefore surprised when not only was he not there when she arrived but that he didn't turn up until ten minutes after the lesson began, waving Professor Sprout a note from Professor Moody and a muttered apology as he made his way over to where she was working. The expression on his face was a mixture of elated and apprehensive.

"Hermione, I need you to help me. I need to learn how to do a summoning charm by tomorrow afternoon."

Lunch that day consisted of sandwiches grabbed quickly before they found a spare room to practice in. Harry just couldn't manage the charm for some reason – their practise objects would start travelling towards him but then give up halfway, falling to the floor. They spent their whole lunch hour trying to improve it, to little avail. Hermione just wasn't sure where he was going wrong, he managed the wand movements and incantation correctly but it just didn't complete for some reason.

As the bell rang for their next lesson Harry slumped into a corner and tucked his head between his arms, resting his forehead on his knees with a look of absolute dejection. "It's impossible, if I can't even summon a quill across one classroom how can I summon my broom into the middle of the forest?"

Hermione sat next to him and put her arm around his shoulders. "You'll get there. We can skip our classes and practice all afternoon." On seeing Harry's disbelieving look she nudged him slightly. "I know it's hard to believe but I have come on a bit since first year – I now believe your life is worth more than one Arithmancy class. And I know you aren't going to be upset at missing divination."

This time the boy snorted. "Missing Trelawny's predictions of me meeting a fiery end in my near future, you mean."

At this Hermione knocked her head backwards against the wall. "I can't believe she still does that! She is a complete fraud and should be sacked for tormenting students."

Harry smiled at this, twirling his wand between his fingers while he gathered the energy to start practising summoning again. His thoughts were interrupted by Hermione.

"Do you have your invisibility cloak on you?"

"Yes, I tend to keep it with me. Why?"

"I think the problem is that you are losing concentration – as Professor Flitwick said, you have to really want the object for the summoning charm to work properly. I don't see that being too much of an issue tomorrow, as although your concentration may be affected by the dragon-"

"You think?!"

"Hush! As I was saying, your concentration may be affected but I very much doubt you'll have wanted anything much more in your life than your Firebolt at that moment in time."

Harry nodded as he conceded that was very likely true.

"The problem with practising is that none of the objects we are using are magical, certainly not the way your Firebolt is. Your Firebolt is already attuned to your magic so it will try to help you out, spell or not. I thought the easiest thing to practice with in here would be your cloak, that would allow you to get the feel of it and then you can move back to non magical objects."

"That…isn't a bad idea at all," Harry said slowly, thinking Hermione's logic through. He stood and retrieved his invisibility cloak from where it was stored in his bag, folded carefully inside a compartment he had added specifically for it. Placing it carefully at one end of the room on a long table, Harry retreated to the other side and raised his wand.

"Accio cloak," thinking very hard about his invisibility cloak.

In his defence, he hadn't yet managed to cast the spell properly, and he was busy concentrating hard. Whatever the reason, when the cloak flew towards him at lightning speed even his seeker reflexes weren't enough to stop it hitting him square in the face.

"You did it!" Hermione bounced up and down several times in excitement, before pulling the cloak off his face and putting it back on the other side of the room. "Try again!"

This time Harry was prepared for the cloak to come sailing towards him and caught it easily, a large grin splitting his face. Maybe unsurprisingly, it seemed Hermione was correct about his own magical items working better with his magic which gave him some confidence when it came to summoning his broom.

They worked together on the summoning charm most of the afternoon, moving on from the invisibility cloak to other, less magical objects and finally mundane objects. After Harry had caught the heavy textbook he had successfully summoned five times in a row, Hermione declared that if he didn't have it now he never would.

The pair went down to dinner having spent all afternoon practising. Hermione received a short nod from her Arithmancy teacher, Professor Vector, suggesting that the professor would not penalise her for skipping classes. Hermione knew she was strict though and expected to have additional work set so that she could catch up.

After dinner Harry went back to the classroom to study, but asked Hermione not to help him as he needed to be sure he could summon his broom by himself. The brunette acquiesced and went to the library to get some peace and quiet. She was poring over yet another book looking for any last minute tips for Harry (Dragon Habits and Weaknesses – A Tamer's Guide) when her study was disturbed by a figure muttering to themselves as they perused the shelves behind her. This was not that bad by itself, after all some people (and she was occasionally guilty of this herself) did prefer to think out loud. No, the thing that really annoyed her was the accompanying whispering and giggling coming from the end of the row. Sighing, she was about to glare (again) at Krum whose followers had made the library unbearable recently, when she realised that the figure was considerably more slight than the Bulgarian seeker. Not skinny, she thought, as her eyes roamed over the muscular shoulders, just not quite so bulky and hunched over. As she was comparing physiques in her head the figure turned, and she was caught staring by none other than Cedric Diggory. She turned her gaze into a glare, trying to ignore the blush rising after being caught perusing him like he was some kind of meat. In the force of her glare he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and disappeared over to the next aisle, presumably to rejoin his fan girls. Hermione huffed and returned to the book, relieved to have lost the distraction.

But she only managed to read a single paragraph when she was disturbed again by someone sitting down in the seat opposite her. She looked up into Cedric's blue-grey eyes.

"Can I help you?"

"I was wondering if you were finished with that book? It's just….the first task is tomorrow…"

Hermione looked down at the book she had been reading and realised that Harry must have told Cedric about the task. She was torn between wanting to finish the book herself and helping out the Hufflepuff who was gazing at her with the same easy smile that sent most of the female population of Hogwarts into palpitations. As though sensing her reluctance, Cedric leaned forwards in his seat and…fluttered his eyelashes?!

"Does that ever actually work?" She only realised she had spoken out loud by the slight blush darkening Cedric's cheeks.

"Well…yes, usually."

Hermione sighed deeply. "I am ashamed to be female sometimes. That is just…just…words fail me."

Cedric was pouting slightly by now, giving her puppy eyes. This caused her to roll her own back at him. "You think it so incredible that a woman might find me attractive?"

"I think only if the girl in question is the type to value pretty looks over anything more substantial."

Cedric placed his hand over his heart dramatically. "Ouch, you wound me Granger. I'll have you know that I'm not just pretty looks, half the school would be able to tell you that."

"Which half would that be? The female one?"

"Again with the scorn! This may start to affect me, you know."

"I'm sure you'll get over it, or find some fan girl to help you to." Hermione closed the dragon book and reluctantly handed it over, realising that with Harry's plan she really had no need of another book on how to subdue a dragon. Cedric hesitated for a moment, before he seemed to remember why he had come over in the first place and took the book from her.

"Thanks Granger, it's been fun talking to you!" He stood and went to move away.

"Isn't it a bit late for trying to learn anything from that?" Hermione gestured to the book he had taken from her, the first task was tomorrow afternoon after all.

Cedric's expression turned wry. "It's for a backup plan really, I am planning to use Transfiguration to create a distraction as it's my strongest subject, but it's always nice to have options. I was hoping for some inspiration."

Hermione nodded. "I see…well, good luck I guess." Cedric's answering smile was a genuine one and for one tiny, almost insignificant moment Hermione could see why almost all the female population of Hogwarts turned to mush when the tall Hufflepuff prefect was around. The feeling passed very soon though and she waved him away.

After Cedric departed Hermione was left with her thoughts. Which very quickly turned to how late it was and that she needed to be up early for last minute summoning practice with Harry. She gathered up all her things in a rush to get back before curfew and cursed the Hufflepuff under her breath for wasting a perfectly good reading evening.

The next day dawned clear and bright, a beautiful crisp autumnal day that was completely wasted on Hermione. The only person that seemed anywhere near as nervous as she was (and was in fact far more nervous than her) was Harry, who was struggling to eat normally and was a disturbing shade of grey. They attended their morning classes as usual, mostly to fill the time before the contest in the afternoon. Over lunch Harry was very quiet, and simply nodded resolutely when Professor McGonagall approached to say that the champions were required to gather at the edge of the forest. Hermione whispered a hurried 'Good Luck' as Harry was disappearing out of the Great Hall. Looking across, she caught sight of pale blue eyes and nodded to Cedric as he too left following a brief discussion with Professor McGonagall. He gave her a tight smile which looked more like a grimace in return, a determined expression on his face.

Instead of heading straight to the forest and the new stadium that Hermione could see towering above the trees, she initially took a diversion to the quidditch pitch to ensure that Harry's Firebolt broom was clear of restraint and placed in the centre of the arena. Despite all the additional attendees at Hogwarts, she didn't expect anyone to come down to the quidditch pitch and so she and Harry had agreed it was a sensible place to put the Firebolt ready for Harry to summon it. They hadn't been sure how strong the charm would be and whether or not it would allow the broom to break out of the castle, and even if it did there was a chance the Firebolt could be damaged in the process.

The task complete, Hermione hurried to join her school mates at the stadium. Most of the school were fighting their way inside, and she was knocked sideways into someone who steadied her carefully. She looked up to thank them, and realised she had bumped into the Hufflepuff who had helped her when she had been cursed by Malfoy.

"Hermione, isn't it?" The tall boy asked with an easy smile. Today she managed to get a good look at her former rescuer, who had short brown hair and brown eyes to match with an open face and dimples.

"Yes, Jonathon right? It's nice to finally be able to introduce myself properly. Thank you so much for helping me."

The Hufflepuff just waved her gratitude off as they were meandering into the stadium. "Nothing that you wouldn't have done." He almost looked embarrassed at her thanks.

"I still appreciate it," Hermione smiled brightly up at him, causing him to stumble slightly which the Gryffindor missed completely as she was scanning the stadium to find her friends. By now they had made it into the stands, but with a resigned sigh she could see her fellow lions were almost all sitting on the other side and she would have to make her way around to join them. The arena itself was covered in darkness, obviously deliberately to not give the crowd a glimpse of what was to come. The judges were raised on a platform to Hermione's left, with a good view down into the dark and opposite a

Bidding goodbye to the Hufflepuff, who had waved and started to make his way over to a group of boys she recognised as being the group that Cedric normally hung around with as well, Hermione started edging her way around to the Gryffindors. Finally reaching it, she was really pleased to find that Parvati and Lavender had saved her a seat with them. She hadn't always had a great relationship with her roommates but recently they had mellowed slightly and she had been more accommodating, meaning that they were on fairly good terms. Ron, on the other hand, didn't really look over at her but instead stared into the darkness trying to work out what was happening within.

They didn't have long to wait. Barely five minutes after Hermione was seated Ludo Bagman, the sports minister, stood from the judge's bench and magically enhanced his voice so that he could be heard by all the gathered students.

"Welcome to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament! Our four champions are waiting and raring to go, having found out their task. And for you, ladies and gentlemen, I have just a few words on how the task will go. The champions will be called out one by one, first will be Hogwarts own Cedric Diggory-" A rowdy cheer greeted this announcement as nearly all of Hogwarts cheered the Hufflepuff including the Gryffindors, although that could be because they like cheering. "Next will come Miss Fleur Delacour from Beaubaxtons," a similar, though slightly more refined cheer came from the smaller Beaubaxton contingent. "Third will be Mr Victor Krum from Durmstrang." This time the cheers were very definitely more female sounding, as the group from Durmstrang were drowned out by the fanclub from Hogwarts and Beaubaxtons. "And finally, our youngest champion, Harry Potter himself!" There was a loud cheer for Harry, but it was almost exclusively the Gryffindor students. What they lacked in numbers they made up for in volume.

"Now our intrepid champions have but one task – they must retrieve the golden egg! Points will be awarded by the judges for how well they manage to do this and the speed in which they complete the task. And now, ladies and gentlemen, your first champion is ready. Enter the ring, Mr Cedric Diggory!"

The darkness lifted from the arena and the collected audience gasped as the view was revealed. Boulders lay scattered about on the forest clearing, with a small hillock in the middle of it. Next to the hillock sat a huge blue-grey dragon, a clutch of eggs beneath her as she hovered protectively over them. Even from the stands Hermione could see the glint of gold that suggested the golden egg was within her clutch.

The audience was deathly silent as they watched the Hufflepuff champion walk into the arena. Cedric Diggory was tall, self-assured and confident but against the looming dragon he looked small and insignificant.

His tactic appeared to be diversionary, and true to his statement in the library the previous day he transfigured a rock into a large Labrador, a very impressive piece of work that earned approval from the crowd. The dog immediately began harrying the dragon, causing it to snap irritably as it kept a close watch on the canine. After a while passed the dragon lost patience and began to rise from her eggs, moving towards the barking dog. Cedric, who until this point had been sneaking around the arena to try to get as close as possible, saw his chance and sprinted towards the clutch. He had just managed to grab the golden egg when the dragon realised what was happening. With a scream-like roar she turned and flamed Cedric, engulfing him in fire and causing most of the crowd to cry out. Hermione buried her face in her hands, convinced she was witnessing the death of a school friend. When the flames died down Cedric could be seen still running for the exit, leading to relieved gasps in the audience but Hermione could see the ugly burn down his right-hand side.

Ludo Bagman stood slightly shakily. "Our first champion managed to collect his golden egg! That was very good indeed from the first Hogwarts champion. Now for the judges' marks."

Each judge stood and scored Cedric on a mark out of ten, resulting in a score of thirty eight out of fifty for his attempt at the first task. Hermione could barely watch – it had been brutal, and yet she knew that was one of the least challenging dragons. She hoped beyond hope that Harry hadn't been given the Chinese Fireball or the Hungarian Horntail, both of which were known to be incredibly aggressive.

Her hopes were dashed when the next dragon was brought in by dragon handlers and she saw the brilliant green hide of the Welsh Green. Fleur Delacour entered the arena, looking determined. The French champion did something that Hermione couldn't see, but the dragon was obviously being subdued. After some time had gone by, the dragon curled up to sleep. The blond girl crept forwards carefully so as to not wake the reptile. She snagged the golden egg and was creeping away when the dragon let out a great snore, accompanied by a tongue of flame. Fleur's blue robes caught alight, but with a flick of the wrist she dowsed the flames with a jet of water and then sprinted from the arena to widespread cheers.

The judges scored Fleur thirty nine points, one more than Cedric. Hermione assumed that it was because she took much longer than the Hogwarts student, despite not being getting injured.

The next dragon they wheeled in was a large red dragon, the Chinese Fireball. Hermione dropped her face in her hands as she realised that this meant that Harry would be facing the Horntail.

Krum was no nonsense in the arena, immediately firing a conjunctivitis hex at the dragon that hit true. This allowed the Bulgarian to creep in to retrieve the golden egg, although to Hermione's dismay the irate dragon was stomping around crushing her own eggs in her pain. This also meant that it took Krum more time than he would have liked to retrieve the golden egg, as he had to keep away from the dragon on its rampage.

Krum was scored forty points, the best so far, although Igor Karkaroff who was the headmaster of Durmstrang awarded him the full ten points out of ten, which given the majority of the dragon eggs had been crushed and Karkaroff had scored the other competitors quite low marks seemed to show blatant favouritism towards his own champion.

Next it was Harry"s turn. Hermione could barely watch as the giant Hungarian Horntail was brought into the stadium. Ron's whisper of "Bloody hell," could be heard throughout the silent assembled Gryffindors. Turning to scrutinise her red haired friend Hermione could see he had gone deathly pale as he stared at the monstrous beast that Harry would have to get past.

Harry entered to a cheer, seeing the type of tasks appeared to have warmed the school up to their youngest champion and all except Slytherin house were willing him on. He stood in the arena, as far from the Horntail as he could, and raised his wand. For a moment nothing happened, and Hermione could feel her nails digging into her face as she muttered "Come on, come on…"

Then, heralded by a gasp from the crowd, the Firebolt came sailing into the arena and hovered obediently by Harry's side. Releasing the breath she didn't know she was holding, Hermione watched as Harry mounted the broom and soared into the air. The commentary from Ludo Bagman and the expressions on the faces of the Beaubaxtons and Durmstrang students showed how talented Harry really was on a broom but this was lost on Hermione as she watched Harry twisting higher, getting caught by the Horntail's tail spikes, slowly luring her off her eggs. Soon the dragon reared up and Harry pounced, swooping down to collect the egg and then soaring towards the arena exit. The crowd went wild, it had been the best display they had seen and Harry had caught the egg in record time.

Hermione immediately stood, knowing that Harry would be taken to the medical tent due to the cut on his arm. She reached the end of the row and realised that Ron was following her, face still drawn. She scrutinised his pale expression and nodded slightly, to which he replied with a lop sided smile that before this mess of a year may well have made her stomach somersault slightly. With surprise she realised that the feeling had gone, maybe it was the stress of Harry being entered into the tournament or maybe it was the evidence of Ron's jealousy, she didn't know.

The pair entered the medical tent after Professor McGonagall waved them through to see Harry with Madam Pomfrey fussing over him. The clear skin underneath his torn robe suggested that she had already patched him up. As Hermione approached, Ron following closely behind her, Harry gave her a huge grin. Madam Pomfrey disappeared behind a curtain, asking Cedric how it felt. Hermione looked at the silhouette of the Hufflepuff with some concern before turning her attention back to Harry.

"You were amazing Harry!"

Ron behind her cleared his throat and, looking at his feet, muttered to Harry "I think whoever entered you into this tournament…they were trying to do you in."

Looking nervously from one boy to the other, Hermione could tell that Harry was thinking about his options, and waited nervously for him to respond. When he finally looked at Ron and said "It's ok, forget it," she couldn't help it – she burst into tears. All the stress and worry of the last month or so worked its way out in torrent and she felt like a damn had been released. Still crying, she turned and ran out of the medical tent.