A/N: And here is the next chapter! I hope you guys enjoy it, along with the updates.

Chapter Eight: The First Task

The 25th of November rose, cold and bright. Today was it, all that Harry had been practicing for. Today he would have to face one of the dragons. He joined his usual group down in the Great Hall.

"Good luck Harry." Hermione said, hugging him tightly. "You'll do really good, I know it." She said, quickly hugging him. He gave her a reassuring hug back and shook Neville's hand as they went to the stands and he moved to the Champion's Tent. Upon entering he saw that all the other Champions were already there.

Cedric was pacing nervously, Fleur was meditating, Krum was glowering at him, and Alex was whaling on a punching bag that had obviously not originally been there. Finally, with a sigh, Alex stopped and the tent descended into a tense silence, as the sounds of the surrounding stands got louder and louder.

Finally, all four Headmasters came in. "Champions, you have waited and wondered what this task will be." Dumbledore said, as an official was holding a smoking bag.

"Hot potato?" Alex said, Harry noticing the tiniest smirk at the corner of his mouth.

"Unfortunately, no, Mr. Yeltom." Dumbledore said, grimacing, while Headmaster Williams was struggling to keep a straight face. "You will be facing dragons. The objective is to retrieve a golden egg from the nest that the dragon will be guarding." Krum and Fleur didn't flinch. 'I guess they knew too.'

The bag got passed around, everyone taking out a miniature dragon with a number tied around its neck. Fleur drew a Green Welsh, with a number two. Cedric drew a Swedish Short-Snout, with a number one. Krum drew a Chinese Fireball, with a number three. Alex drew a Hebridean Black, with a number four. Harry gulped as he saw what Alex had drawn. That left the Hungarian Horntail. And sure enough, sticking his hand in, Harry drew it out, with a number five hanging around its neck.

"Very good. Now in a few moments, Mr. Diggory, we will call you out. You four are welcome to watch how the event unfolds." Dumbledore said, as each of the four Headmasters went to their students. Dumbledore came over and said, "You can both do well. Make Hogwarts proud." before leaving.

Harry, Alex, and Victor all went to watch Cedric battle it out with his dragon. The dragon was guided to the nest without much difficulty, but through the research that Hermione had been doing, Harry knew that getting the dragon back off of the nest was going to be the challenge. The cannon blast sounded as Cedric slowly made his way onto the field. This was not going to be fun.

Harry was impressed by the thought that Cedric had shown. The Swedish Short-Snout was not known to be very aggressive. However, whoever came to that conclusion had never been around a female defending her nest. She didn't move very much, as her wings restricted most of her movements across the ground. But the intense heat of her flames was more than enough to be afraid. Cedric was spending his time running from rock to rock, each melting after being exposed to the stream of fire for a few moments. Eventually, he stopped running and the dragon appeared ready to fry him, when a dog suddenly came bounding out from behind him, towards the side. This was quickly joined by a second and third, taking the dragon's attention away from Cedric and onto the new threats. And when she looked away, Cedric made his move.

Jumping up, he sprinted toward the nest, avoiding the lashing tail, grabbed the golden egg and booked it out of the ring. He had a slight misfortune of catching the end of one of the spouts of fire from the dragon, as the handlers came out to subdue the beast. A couple officials helped him to his feet as he moved to a different tent, where Madame Pomfrey ushered him inside.

One down, four more to go.

Fleur made her way into the enclosure to face off against the Welsh Green. It wasn't moving to attack her, but it seemed to be locked in a staring contest, with the first to break being declared the loser. Slowly, her wand came up like a conductor's baton before she started to move it slowly, bringing forth beautiful music for everyone to hear. This went on for a minute before Harry realized what she was trying to do.

The dragon's eyes had begun to tremble slightly, the lid coming closed before snapping back open. But it still didn't attack. After another 5 minutes, it was standing quite wobbly, before laying down on its stomach, it's body still wrapped around the nest. The eyes finally slammed shut and rumbling snores filled the stadium. Harry smiled, the thought of putting it to sleep having not occurred to him before. Fleur then moved like the wind, lithely moving over the scales, before snatching the egg.

Unfortunately, the dragon seemed to wake up at that moment. Itss claws came out and caught her arm, bringing forth a river of blood. The handlers came in to subdue the dragon and Fleur went off to the medical tent.

Krum moved out onto the field, the Chinese Fireball looking at him, almost hungrily. Which very well may have been the case, as Harry remembered that Chinese Fireballs had a propensity for eating people. Why the hell did they have one here in a tournament for young adults? As soon as the cannon blast sounded, Krum was sprinting towards the dragon, which surged forwards as well.

Moving with some small amount of hulking grace, Krum kept trying to get around the dragon's teeth, claws, and fire, but without any success. Finally he seemed to grow tired of that, firing some spells as the dragon before a Conjunctivitis Curse caught the dragon's eyes. The dragon stood on its hind legs, blindly thrashing out, trying to hit him. Krum used this opportunity to dart forwards, grabbed the egg and made it to the tent. However, the dragon had crushed several of the real dragon eggs that placed there, greatly reducing his overall score.

Now, it was Alex's turn. Harry felt his stomach tighten. The Hebridean Black was a large dragon and it looked almost ready to kill, the purple eyes more menacing than the VoldeQuirell amalgamation in his first year.

Alex seemed to be perfectly at ease. Looking up, he seemed to see someone. Holding up his hand, he made a fist, before extending the pinky. He then curled it up, like he was sealing a pinky promise. He then moved to cover as the dragon shot purple flames towards him, and so he went, from cover to cover, avoiding the fire until he tripped and the dragon spewed a load of fire out of his mouth, completely covering him. Harry looked on, horrified.

Looking up, he saw that Headmaster Williams was on his feet, almost taking off, if not for Madame Maxime's grip on his arm. Dumbledore and Karkaroff were looking on impassively, but Harry was certain that Dumbledore was chuckling at the Alex's bad luck.

Eventually, the flames stopped, the only thing left being a black burn spot on the ground. The dragon seemed to be content and unfurled itself, looking for more potential threats. Then the golden egg rose and quickly moved to the side, only to be shown as the Champion when the Disillusionment charm wore off. A huge cheer went up in the stands at that, and Harry saw both Tegwen and Nova hurrying off to the tent. Harry released a huge breath that he had been holding. At least Alex had gotten out safely.

Now it was Harry's turn. The crowds cheering lessened as he entered the arena, chants for and against him dropping to half their normal volume. The Hungarian Horntail stood by the eggs and, a cannon blast later, unleashed a fiery torrent, forcing Harry to find cover. From his cover, Harry quickly yelled, "Accio Firebolt!" Praying that he had put enough into the spell, he did as Cedric had done, moving from rock to rock, trying to stay in cover.

Then he heard it.

He didn't know how he heard it, but he heard the broom flying through the air toward him. Without needing to look, he leapt onto the broom and flew up into the air. He could hear the crowd, see them point, but he shut it all out. "Come and get me." He said, taunting the dragon by keeping out of range of her claws and dodging her fire, but staying close enough to keep her annoyed. Finally, after a spectacular air show, where Harry avoided volley after volley of fire, the Horntail finally stretched its wings, getting ready to fly after him. Harry saw this and prepared himself and, as it flapped its wings to take flight and get him, he dived.

The wind whistled in his ears as he grabbed the egg and relief flooded his body. But he forgot about the name of the dragon as its tail came down across his back, knocking him from the broom and to the ground. He rolled and came to a stop, seeing the blue sky and tournament officials around him, before he passed out.

Hermione and Neville were up and moving as soon as Harry had gotten the egg, only for their joy to turn to horror as he got hit by the horned tail. They forced their way through the crowd, trying to get inside the tent, but the officials had placed wards that kept out everyone who wasn't as a champion, healer or official.

*MEANWHILE*

Alex sighed and rubbed his head as he faced the dual tirade coming his way from Nova and Tegwen.

"You promised that you weren't going to use a Disillusionment Charm!" Nova scolded, running her hands over his minor injuries, working to heal them.

"Those poor dragons are all furious...I can't believe that the task was set up this way! It's cruel!" Tegwen was pacing about the room. "And those handlers! They don't know a damn thing about how to handle their charges!" She was growing angrier by the minute. "If I get my hands on that Charlie Weasley, I'll...I'll...I'll feed him to that Horntail!" A loud roar was heard from far away, immediately reducing the green-haired girl to tears. "They are mourning for their lost eggs…" Alex could tell that her emotions were rising. "You can't save them all, Gwen…" He gestured to the cot beside him, and hugged his devastated friend.

Soon enough, it was time for Harry to come back inside, his task complete. The tent was abuzz with motion.

Daphne Greengrass looked over the latest champion to enter the tent. Everyone else had come away with small injuries compared to this. Contrary to what a lot of other people, specifically Gryffindors and Slytherins, thought, she didn't hate Potter.

She shared a rivalry with him and that he could be brought down a few pegs, but he was a good person. And he treated everyone pretty equally. When they dueled, even though she was a girl, he didn't hold back, making her work for her victories. And now, here he was, beaten almost to a pulp. She felt a lump begin to rise in her throat but shoved it back down.

Thankfully, she had been given lessons by Madam Pomfrey and her mother in healing magics. She began a diagnostic spell and it counted out the injuries that she could see...and then it kept going. A list as long as her arm was forming, and she was getting a little paler just listening to it. She linked the spell to a quill and parchment. After is stopped writing, she picked up the parchment and read it through once, twice, and a third time before she took off at a run for Madame Pomfrey.

"Madame Pomfrey, Madame Pomfrey!" She said, bursting into the area where said woman was trying to treat the Bulgarian champion. Magical exhaustion was a tricky thing and if it was done incorrectly it could end up damaging someone's core.

Madame Pomfrey saw Daphne and gave the girl a rejuvenation potion, used to counter the effects of magical exhaustion, but put the drinker to sleep for a few hours. Madame Pomfrey took the list that Daphne had, before pocketing it and moving to the area was at. Once they were near him, Madame Pomfrey turned to Daphne.

"You know what patient confidentiality is, right?" Daphne nodded, realizing how serious this was. "I found most of this list from when I treated him in his third year. I suggest that if you want to know more that you ask Harry. But be prepared to be rebuked. He is a very private person and can take a while before he trusts others."

Daphne nodded. She had no conscious intentions of asking Potter where those injuries had come from, but her own subconscious' natural curiosity was a whole other matter.

"Either way," Madame Pomfrey continued, "We need to put his back, back together. I trust you have that well in hand." Daphne began to nod her head, but then shook her head. Cuts like this were prone to infection and needed hours, if not days to heal. It was also a difficult thing not to leave scars, especially for non-experienced healers. Madame Pomfrey nodded, muttering about idiots and the Ministry and sometimes both next to each other.

*'*_ _*'*

Harry woke up to the feeling of someone putting something on his back. He tried to roll over, but whoever it was had him pinned. So instead, he tried to focus on the hands themselves. "Relax, Potter. I'm just putting on some anti-scarring cream."

Well, that certainly narrowed down the possible list of candidates. Slytherin, probably, and at least a 6th year, because it definitely was not Madame Pomfrey and they were the only ones who she took into her Healer Studies class.

Daphne looked down at Harry from where she was straddling his back. Thank god, he had finally come around. It was rather unnerving to treat around patient who was fine, but didn't respond to normal stimuli. She felt him relax under her hands and drift back to dreamland.

"You like him, don't you?"

Daphne nearly shrieked. "Madame Pomfrey, please don't do that." She tried to sound angry, but her heart was thumping a million miles an hour.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I don't want him dead. Happy?"

The nurse grinned to herself. "It will have to do. Now, would you stop straddling him, I can only keep Miss Granger and Mister Longbottom out for only so long."

Daphne quickly got off the bed, looking at Harry before heading into the nurse's office, while Madame Pomfrey let Neville, Hermione, and Ron in.

All three rushed over to Harry, who was waking up again. "Hey guys." He said, smiling weakly, slowly trying turn over. Hermione fidgeted as he turned, before flinging herself at him, simultaneously trying to crush him and hug him gently

Neville stood, smiling at him. "Did you forget that it's called a 'Horntail'?"

"Yeah, I was very focused on getting the egg."

"Well, keep it in mind if you ever try that again." Neville offered back, as Hermione finally let go of Harry. Looking around, he saw Ron hanging back. "And why are you here now?" He called to the redhead.

Looking back, Ron seemed to be having an internal struggle. It wasn't terribly uncommon with him and Harry had quickly learned the signs. He knew them well enough to know what Ron would be doing. Sure enough, Ron turned walked out of the Hospital wing. Harry exhaled, closing his eyes and leaning back.

When he opened them again, the sun was streaming onto his bed. "Well, he's alive!" A voice rang out, echoing inside Harry's head.

"Shush!" A female voice scolded, "He should be sleeping."

"He's been sleeping all weekend." The first, male voice said, "He should wake up and see the sun." Harry recognized Alex's voice.

"And what are you two doing here?" Harry asked, slowly sitting up. "Saying hi and that the nurse is asking you to leave, so she can label the bed as yours." Alex replied, without missing a beat.

"Well, I'm going to need to get moving then." Harry said, as Madam Pomfrey came out of her office, shooing the two others along as she checked on her patient.

A/N: And this is my first new piece of content in a long time. Hopefully, I can get one more chapter up before school starts up, but don't count on it. Review please!