Disclaimer: Harry Potter and the associated milieu belongs to J. K. Rowling and various publishers. I'm just borrowing the characters and the world for my own fun.
AN: And here's the second chapter, finally. It took me much more time to edit this than the first chapter, despite this chapter being shorter...
I've also noticed that I've written about some things, like homework, with a bit more detail than most of the fan fiction, and while I personally like that kind of meaningless details, I hope too many won't be bored by them...
Harry Potter and the White Phoenix
Chapter 2 – The First Task
The next morning when Harry woke up, he realized that it was a Saturday and that he'd have most of the day for himself, as he was going to have a day off of the training with Hermione. He stayed in his bed for much longer than he usually did, feeling comfortable under the warm blanket, and when he finally got up it was almost nine already. He dressed, and seeing that the weather seemed quite nice, he decided to go flying that day, despite there being no Quidditch this year – there was no rule that denied flying on your own, just for fun, that he knew about.
In the common room he saw Ron with Dean and Seamus but Harry just looked the other way and continued through the room. He didn't see Hermione in the common room and he thought that she was probably in the library already, as she usually got up early in the weekends too, and so he decided to head down to the Great Hall to have some breakfast.
During his walk there, he was being stared at by most of the students he met, and someone also asked him if he needed a handkerchief and that caused several other students nearby to start laughing, though Harry didn't quite get the joke. When he entered the Great Hall, he noticed that most of the students that were still there turned to look and stare at him when they saw him, and when he got to the Gryffindor table and saw the day's paper, that someone had left there, he finally understood why; the Prophet had a long story about him by Rita Skeeter. Harry only glanced at the paper but he was immediately disgusted by the lies she had written – it seemed that the fact that Harry hadn't given her an interview hadn't stopped her from publishing one. So, Harry decided to just quickly grab a bit of the breakfast that was still being served, before he headed back to the Gryffindor Tower to fetch his broom, eating the toast he had grabbed on the way.
As he got back to the tower and walked through the common room, Ron pretended not to notice him and it suit Harry just fine – he didn't need Ron to have fun and go flying. Harry went up to his dormitory and took his broom, before heading back down to the common room and out of the Gryffindor Tower. When he finally made his way to the Quidditch pitch, it was quite predictably empty – very few students bothered with flying without Quidditch.
As he mounted his Firebolt and climbed high in the air, Harry felt really relaxed for the first time since he had been chosen as a champion. It seemed that all the tension, frustration and anger he had felt since the Halloween vanished as he continued flying and all the thoughts about the Tournament and other issues faded into oblivion. He lost all sense of time, as he made loops in the air, did quick zigzagging turns and made dives straight down at horrifying speeds, usually pulling up just a few feet from the ground.
The weather was very nice and almost exceptionally warm for November, though there had been some heavy clouds in the morning, but they cleared towards the afternoon and the sun started shining sometime during the day. Harry continued flying for what seemed like hours and for a long time he felt that everything was perfect at the moment, but towards the end of his flying session he could detect a small niggling feeling in his mind, telling him that it would be even better if he had someone to fly with. That thought reminded him of Ron again, but Harry banished the thought and focused fully on the flying again, doing another quick and daring dive, and he did manage to concentrate on just the flying again.
It was past midday when Harry finally landed and went to the Great Hall for a quick lunch. The Great Hall was uncomfortably full in his opinion and he tried to eat as quickly as possible to get out of there, but he was not quick enough to avoid hearing Malfoy's commentary about the morning's paper. Neither Hermione nor Ron was there and Harry left as soon as he had eaten.
When he made his way to the Gryffindor Tower, he saw Hermione there, quite predictably reading a book. He greeted her and exchanged a few words with her before heading up to his dormitory and polishing his broom. He didn't hurry with it, as he had plenty of time, and it took him easily an hour as he cared for the precious broom that he had received as a Christmas present from Sirius – he had had the broom for almost a year already and, despite some quite rough handling during Quidditch games, the broom was still in very good condition.
After that he went back to the common room. He didn't really have anything to do until the detention with Dumbledore that evening, so he just sat there doing nothing. That became boring quite quickly, though and so he started talking with Hermione, who didn't seem to have anything urgent to do either. They thought up some ways to make sure that the Gryffindor Tower would be empty the night when Harry would have his talk with Sirius, and she also told him about what she had planned for their training sessions. Now that Harry could do the Shield Charm, they would start practising the Stunning Spell, "Stupefy", and then they would spend some extra time studying the Summoning Charm, if Harry hadn't learned it by then – they were studying that charm in their Charms class and Harry seemed to have trouble learning it – as it too could come in handy in one of the tasks.
Harry didn't really feel like going to the Great Hall for dinner to be further ridiculed by Malfoy and others, and he was glad that he had eaten lunch and thus wasn't feeling really hungry when the dinner time approached. So, when Hermione left to have dinner, he just continued sitting in the common room, until the other Gryffindors started to return from the dinner and he thought that it was about time to make his way to that evening's detention.
His detention with Dumbledore was very much like the one he had had the day before with one notable exception; when he entered Dumbledore's office, he noticed that Fawkes was there and he realized that it hadn't been there the day before. Fawkes welcomed Harry with a trill of song, and Harry briefly wondered where it had been the day before, but his thoughts were interrupted by Dumbledore, who asked if Harry had some unfinished homework for that day. Harry didn't have any urgent homework – meaning anything that was due the Monday – but he had Charms and Transfiguration homework for later dates, and Harry decided to tackle the Charms essay that evening. It was a really long and difficult assignment which Harry hadn't even started yet, as there was plenty of time to do it, and thus by eight of clock Harry wasn't yet finished with it and Dumbledore let him go. Harry had been there for three hours already and Dumbledore thought that it was enough for one day's detention.
The next morning, when Harry woke up, he was feeling much more energetic and less tired than what he had felt for the whole week. He felt quite good actually and he didn't really mind it when, immediately after he had eaten breakfast, Hermione dragged him to the Transfiguration classroom to practice for the Tournament – he was quite early at the breakfast and managed to avoid Malfoy, who would have no doubt had more comments about the "interview" published in the Prophet. Hermione seemed quite set on taking back the time they had lost yesterday, when they hadn't trained at all, and they practised for several hours that day. When they were finished, Harry was already starting to get a hang of the Stupefying Charm that they had just started studying, though he seemed not to be making any progress in the wandless magic.
Before the day's detention, Harry had some time to kill and he decided to finish the Charms essay he had started yesterday, and so the only homework assignment he was yet to do was the Transfiguration essay, and as he managed to get that done in the detention that evening, he had all the homework assignments done and he actually felt very good about it. The next day would be Monday already and they would, no doubt, get some more homework, but it was nice to start the week without anything left hanging from the previous week.
With everything he had to do, the week passed quickly for Harry. The days following the news article weren't any easier for him than the days following the Halloween had been, and every day he looked forward to the end of the classes when he could finally get away from the other students. Others than Malfoy too had started quoting pieces from the news article, and while most of them concentrated on Harry, some of them also made fun of Hermione, who had been mentioned in the article too. The bullies seemed to be especially fond of the part where Harry had, allegedly, told Skeeter that he still cried for his parents at times.
He still had detentions with Dumbledore and that didn't leave too much free time for him, especially with Hermione pretty much insisting that they use all the time after his detentions until the curfew to practise for the Tournament. He quickly learned the Stunning Spell but he was still having trouble learning the Summoning Charm, so they concentrated on that spell besides the wandless magic. In that, he still hadn't progressed at all; he could now easily cast the Wingardium Leviosa silently, if he concentrated properly on it, but the leap from silent magic to wandless magic seemed to be quite enormous and it made it seem like he wasn't making any progress at all. Hermione somehow managed to motivate him and keep his spirits high enough to continue with the wandless magic practise through the week.
The Thursday finally marked the end of Harry's detentions and he had actually received some extra homework to do in that day's detention because he had done everything that had been assigned during the classes of the week. Harry had noticed that Fawkes was missing from Dumbledore's office quite often and he had few times briefly wondered where it was, but he didn't feel comfortable asking the Headmaster where it went.
Harry was eagerly awaiting for the weekend, as he wouldn't have any homework to do and he would have plenty of free time, despite spending a lot of time with Hermione. He didn't think that Hermione would easily give him another day off, and strangely he didn't even actually feel like he wanted one, as he had become quite used to spending most of his evenings with Hermione; admittedly it could be a bit boring at times, but he really appreciated how calm it was with just her.
The Friday, Harry also had another of the dreaded double Potions classes with Snape. He was feeling quite prepared for the lesson, though and despite Snape being his normal, grouchy git, Harry made it through the double class without any incidents. Snape had seemed a bit sourer than usual, and Harry thought that he was probably still mourning the missed change of making Harry's life even more miserable, when the Headmaster had taken over the detentions that Snape had given Harry.
After the classes, Harry and Hermione joined once again in the Transfiguration classroom to continue with their training. This time, however, Harry was already feeling tired when they began and he got quickly frustrated with his lack of progress.
"I just can't do it, Hermione," he said morosely, after just fifteen minutes of trying to levitate a quill without his wand, and he sat down, sighing wearily.
"It just takes a lot practise, Harry. Remember, it took me several months before I could do it but then it got a lot easier," she encouraged him.
"But I don't have several months!" Harry protested. "By that time the tasks are already over. It would be better to use the time for practising something else," he said gloomily.
Hermione sighed. She too was quite tired to tell the truth, no matter how she tried to hide it. They had been spending a lot of time studying, and Harry had been progressing quite well in the wandless magic, but otherwise he wasn't progressing as fast as she had thought that he would – he still couldn't do the Summoning Charm, for example – and she knew that Harry had a point there. It didn't help that he was being insulted by many of the students and it obviously hurt him more than he admitted, and it did nothing to help his concentration with their studying. And then there was also Ron still being an immature prat – another thing that was obviously bothering Harry.
"It's just that the difference between silent spellcasting and wandless spellcasting is so huge, that it seems that you're not making any progress while in truth you are. If there was something in between them, it would help to see that you are making headway," she said to him, deep in thought.
"Why can't I try it without the wand motions?" he asked.
"Because without the motion the wand is basically useless and it is just as difficult as without a wand," she explained him off-handedly.
"Well, isn't there a way to make my wand work only partially without breaking it?" he asked.
"No, not that I know off," she said, thoughtfully.
They lapsed into a thoughtful silence, both thinking about the matter. Harry watched as Hermione absently fingered her wand while thinking and he was struck with an idea. "Couldn't I try using your wand? After all –" he started but he was cut off by Hermione.
"That's brilliant, Harry!" she exclaimed. "Everyone chooses the wand that best suits their magic and a different wand would make the wand less useful in focusing your magic, so you'd have to do more of it by yourself! Your wand has a phoenix feather core, right? And mine has a dragon heartstring, so our wand cores are totally different! That's brilliant, Harry!" she rambled excitedly. "Here, try this," she added, as she offered her wand to him.
Harry took the wand from her and he noticed that it felt a bit strange in his hand, despite it being about the same size as his wand, and he thought that it was probably because it was made of different wood. He carefully tried a normal levitation spell on the quill, with the incantation and the wand movement, but the quill just jerked. He tried it again, concentrating decently on the spell, and this time the quill rose up from the desk and levitated in the air, but it was taking Harry much more effort to do the spell now and the quill still seemed to levitate a bit wobbly. He ended the spell and let the quill fall back on the desk, before trying the spell silently. Nothing happened and the quill stayed firmly on the desk.
"Concentrate, Harry. Take a few deep breaths and concentrate on the spell like you had to do earlier," Hermione advised him, rather needlessly as that was just what Harry was going to do.
He relaxed and closed his eyes and concentrated fully on the thought of levitating the quill, and then he opened his eyes again and tried the spell silently. This time the quill jerked a little but didn't really levitate.
"Almost there, Harry! Just try it again and soon you'll have it," Hermione encouraged him.
Harry, having something that much more clearly showed his progress, was greatly motivated and he continued to practise the spell for most of that evening. When he finally tired of it, he had almost managed to levitate the feather silently with Hermione's wand, and he only had a bit of time to spend on trying to learn the Summoning Charm.
"I don't understand why I don't get that simple charm!" he said to Hermione as they walked back to the Gryffindor tower, just before the curfew. "Almost everyone in the Charms class can do it already, but I can't," he lamented.
"It's OK, Harry. Some spells are just more difficult for some people," she consoled him. She thought about something for a brief moment, but apparently decided that whatever she was going to say was worth saying. "For example, I never quite got the hang of the Riddikulus spell," she said a bit hesitantly, reminding him of the last year when she had failed to get that spell right in their DADA exam.
Harry realized that she was right and it did improve his mood a bit. The fact that Hermione couldn't get some spell right meant that just anyone could have trouble with some spells and it didn't have to mean anything. Still, it didn't change the fact that the Summoning Spell might be really useful in the Tournament and he was unable to do it.
Harry went up to his bed almost immediately after they returned to the Gryffindor Tower and so he was up quite early the next morning – which was a Saturday, he realized gladly. He quickly put on some clothes and headed down to the common room, where he met Hermione, who was just on her way down to breakfast.
"Good morning, Harry! You're up early," she said cheerfully when she noticed him.
"Morning, Hermione," he said, finishing with a yawn. He was still a bit sleepy but he felt quite good otherwise.
On their way down to breakfast they made idle chat, and it seemed that Hermione too was feeling more cheery than she had been during the week. Harry felt like going flying again, like he had done the week before, and while eating breakfast he was again reminded of the feeling he had had while flying last time, about wanting to fly with someone, and he suddenly thought about asking Hermione to fly with him. It seemed like a ridiculous idea at first, as Hermione wasn't at all fond of flying and she was probably going to the library and had a huge load of things she wanted to do, but Harry still couldn't shake off the idea.
"So, Hermione, what are you going to do today?" he asked her, when they were both just finishing their breakfast.
She seemed a bit surprised by the question and looked at him strangely for a moment but then she answered him. "I'm was thinking of going to the library to do some extra research for the Transfiguration assignment and then try to find something about house-elves," she said.
"But you have nothing urgent? Would you come flying with me?" he asked.
"What?" she asked surprised. "Flying with you?" she asked with disbelief clearly evident in her voice. "Not that there's anything wrong with flying with you, but you know I'm not a good flyer," she corrected herself, realizing that her tone hadn't been very nice.
"But that's just another reason to go flying, you could learn to be better at it. And it would be a change to all the studying. Come on, Hermione," he pleaded her. He was starting to feel a bit foolish about asking her – of course she would refuse.
She seemed to seriously think about it for a while and her decision certainly wasn't what he had expected. "OK, but only if you promise not to laugh or anything," she said a bit uncertainly.
Harry was surprised by her positive answer but he quickly recovered from it. "Great! I'll just go and grab my broom quickly. I'll meet you at the Quidditch Pitch," he said brightly and left towards the Gryffindor Tower.
He practically ran all the way to the Fat Lady and he quickly told her the password and hurried inside the tower. There really wasn't a rush anywhere but he was just feeling so eager about getting to fly again, that he wanted to get down to the Quidditch Pitch as fast as possible. Some of the Gryffindors in the common room looked at him funnily when he passed the room to the dormitories practically running, but he didn't pay them any mind and continued up the stairs to his dormitory. He grabbed his broom and hurried down, and out of the Gryffindor Tower just as fast as he had come in. When he got to the Quidditch pitch, he saw that Hermione was already there and she had one of the school brooms with her. She was holding the broom in her hand and she seemed to be rather nervous and tense, as she stood there, waiting for him.
Harry jumped on his Firebolt and flew the rest of the way to Hermione. "Come on, Hermione," he urged her and a bit uncertainly, she mounted the school broom and somewhat shakily lifted of the ground, being careful not to go higher than a foot or two from the ground, as she slowly flew towards him.
"I'm not sure this was such a good idea," she said, as she uncertainly flew next to him and her expression made it clear that she was quite nervous about the situation.
"You just need some practise, Hermione, that's all," Harry encouraged her, before he flew away.
He wanted to have a bit of flying on his own, before helping Hermione with her flying, if she needed help, and he flew high in the air and did a few quick loops and zigzagged in the air, letting all the stress flow out of his mind, just concentrating on the flying for the moment – he really enjoyed the feeling and the noise of the air whistling past his ears and the vision of the scenery tilting and turning around. The weather was quite a bit colder than it had been a week ago, but he didn't think it was too cold to continue flying for sometime.
After a moment he looked back to where Hermione was and he saw that she was still flying close to the earth, making a slow circle around the Quidditch Pitch. He also noticed that the old, unstable school broom wasn't making her flying any easier. He slowly descended closer to her and flew side by side with her.
"Let's switch, Hermione," he called to her.
"What?" she asked, turning her head to look at him, but just then her broom gave a nasty lurch and she quickly turned her head back to the broom and the direction she was going in.
"Let's switch brooms," he explained. "You've never flown anything but those old school brooms, have you?" he asked and she shook her head, still keeping her full attention on the broom and her flying.
Harry landed gracefully and Hermione landed a few metres from him, not so gracefully, though she did manage to stay on her feet.
"Here, try this," Harry said and offered the Firebolt to her. She took it and gave Harry the school broom, but she eyed the Firebolt warily.
"Are you sure, Harry? You're a good flier and can handle any broom, but I'm not sure I could handle flying nearly as fast as you do," she said.
"Don't worry, Hermione, just be careful with the acceleration and it should be much easier to fly than the old school brooms. It's much more stable and corners more evenly, although you should start carefully, as it's more responsive than the old brooms," he encouraged her.
She hesitated for a moment, before mounting the broom and getting ready to take off. She tried to be careful as she took off, but obviously she wasn't careful enough and the broom suddenly sped forward and she screamed in fear. She quickly leaned backwards to slow down the speed and, thanks to the very effective Braking Charm on the broom, she stopped suddenly, almost like she had hit a wall. She swayed on the broom, but managed to stay on it, this time thanks to the safety charms that had been placed on the top of the line broom.
"Carefully," Harry called at her. He mounted the old school broom, took off, and did a few turns to left and right to get a feeling to the broom. It was somewhat unstable and constantly leaned a bit to the right, but with his experience the broom was quite easy to manoeuvre. He flew next to Hermione, who had managed to get the broom to fly slowly enough for her and she was now slowly flying across the Pitch, obviously still frightened about it.
"Try turning, but be very careful," he said to her and she did as he told. She leaned left, very carefully, and the broom started to turn slowly.
Harry flew at Hermione's side for a while, as she slowly got used to handling the broom and soon she seemed much more confident. She did several turns left and right and tried increasing and decreasing her speed carefully, until she seemed to be quite comfortable with the broom.
"I think I'm getting a hang of this," she called to him, as she increased her speed just a bit and did a few more careful turns to left and right. Her voice didn't sound nearly as tense as it had been just moments ago and unnoticed by herself, she had also risen higher in the air and she was now flying several feet above the ground.
"I told you it would be easier on a decent broom," he answered her. "Come on, let's fly around the pitch," he said excitedly. He increased his speed just a bit and looking back at her he saw that she was flying a bit faster too, just fast enough to stay close behind him. When he turned at the end of the pitch, he saw that she lowered her speed for the turn, but then she sped up again when she had turned around and flew straight towards the other side of the pitch again.
They continued flying and Hermione's confidence seemed to grow by minute, but the weather was quite cool for flying and Harry thought that they couldn't fly for too long without catching a cold. Quite soon he saw her landing and she was looking quite cold too, but she seemed to have come up with a solution to that problem – he saw her cast some kind of a spell on herself. Harry landed next to her to ask if she could do the spell on him too, but she beat him to it and asked if he needed a warming charm too. He quickly answered positively and he thanked her earnestly, as the comfortable warmness of the charm enveloped him.
They both mounted their brooms again and continued flying for some time more, until the effect of the warming charms started to wear off, and they were starting to get cold again. She had improved in leaps and bounds, although she still wasn't a good flier by any definition and wouldn't be without a lot of practise, but now at least she could fly without being scared witless. Harry ended up flying the old school broom for most of the time, but he didn't really mind it that much, as Hermione was much more comfortable on his Firebolt. Hermione did try the school broom again, just before they ended their flying session, and this time she could handle it with much more confidence at a slow speed. She was also smiling happily instead of being tense and nervous.
After they took the school broom back to the broomshed, Harry and Hermione returned to the Gryffindor Tower and started doing homework. Harry was very satisfied when he finished his only unfinished homework assignment in just a couple of hours and he was free of homework for the rest of the weekend. After that he sat for a while in the common room with Hermione, who was, of course, finished with her own homework, but she was doing some extra credit for Transfiguration. She thought that he should go and talk with Ron, but he was adamantly against it and he thought that Ron should come to him first. She didn't push her opinion too much, though and for that he was glad, because he didn't want to spend his time thinking or quarrelling about Ron. Soon they, once again, went to the Transfiguration classroom to practise, and that evening they had plenty of time for that and Hermione seemed to be very satisfied about that – especially as Harry was finally starting to get a hang of the Summoning Charm, and this time he also managed to do the Levitation Charm silently with Hermione's wand.
The Sunday and the next week passed quickly and Harry was happy that they did. Malfoy and some other students were still quoting pieces from the week old newspaper and quite a many students from Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were wearing the badges he was making. Harry's evenings were still spent training for the Tournament with Hermione and Harry finally mastered the Summoning Charm on Wednesday. That Friday Harry also finally managed for the first time to do the Levitation Charm without his wand and Hermione was really thrilled about that, and he did feel quite good about it himself too – if Hermione was right, now it would get easier for him to learn doing other spells without a wand.
The Saturday was a Hogsmeade day and Harry went there with Hermione, but he was wearing his invisibility cloak, because he didn't want to be seen by anyone. Hermione wasn't very happy about that, as she didn't like being with the invisible Harry, not knowing exactly where he was and looking like she was talking to herself, but she understood that he wanted to avoid drawing attention from the students of the other Houses. They spent a moment going around the shops and then they went to the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeer and Harry still refused to take off his invisibility cloak.
While they were in Three Broomsticks, Hagrid came there with Mad-Eye Moody, and Harry and Hermione learned that Professor Moody could see through invisibility cloaks with his artificial eye. Hagrid asked Harry to visit him at midnight and Harry was quite perplexed about that, wondering why Hagrid wanted to meet him that late That night was also the night that Harry would finally get to talk with Sirius and, because of that, Hermione thought that Harry shouldn't go and see Hagrid, so that he wouldn't be in danger of missing Sirius's appearance.
Harry decided to meet Hagrid, despite what Hermione said, because he thought that Hagrid had to have something important to show or tell him, and thus, just before midnight, Harry made his way down to Hagrid's hut under his invisibility cloak. When he got there, Harry was quite surprised to see that Hagrid had a date with Madame Maxime – the Headmaster of Beauxbatons and also one of the Triwizard judges. Hagrid and Madame Maxime made their way to the Forbidden Forest and Harry followed them, feeling quite baffled, but not knowing what else to do.
What Harry saw in the forest made him very glad that he had decided to follow them; there was a dragon enclosure with four dragons and dozens of dragon keepers in the forest. He heard a conversation between Hagrid and Charlie Weasley, about the dragons being used in the first task, and the champions having to get past the dragons somehow. Charlie was Ron's brother and he was one of the dragon keepers there. Hagrid seemed to be entranced by the dragons and Harry decided to leave him at that, as he really had to get back to the common room. On his way back to the castle, he stumbled on Professor Karkaroff, but luckily the invisibility cloak covered him completely and Karkaroff didn't see him.
Fortunately the common room was empty when Harry came back and he took the invisibility cloak off and sat down on an armchair in front of the fire to wait. Just a moment later, Harry was startled, as Sirius's head appeared in the common room fire, but he quickly recovered from his surprise and he started talking with Sirius through the fire. Sirius was suspicious that Igor Karkaroff, the headmaster of Durmstrang and also one of the judges, was the one that had put Harry's name in the Goblet. Apparently he had been a Death Eater during the war against Voldemort, but he had been freed from Azkaban for giving up names of other Death Eaters.
Harry told Sirius about the dragons and Sirius was going to tell Harry about how to get past one in the first task, but just then someone came down to the common room from the dormitories, and Harry told Sirius to go and not to get caught. It turned out to be Ron who had interrupted Harry's speech with Sirius and Harry lost his temper with Ron, getting quite cross with him. Then Harry angrily stormed up to the boys dormitory past Ron, and he couldn't get to sleep for a long time, but despite that he didn't hear Ron come back up to the dormitory.
The next morning Harry told Hermione about the dragons and together they tried to think of a way Harry could get past one. They spent most of the day in the library searching for a spell, or some other way, to somehow pacify or cheat a dragon but they didn't come up with anything useful. All of the spells they found only worked if there was at least half a dozen people casting the spell at the same time on the dragon, and Harry wasn't allowed to take magical devices, like his invisibility cloak, to the task either. Viktor Krum appeared in the library later and with him came several girls that seemed to follow him everywhere. Hermione was annoyed by them, because they were making a lot of noise, and Harry and Hermione checked out some books and went up to the Gryffindor common room to continue their reading. Despite continuing to read late to the night, they didn't come up with anything useful.
The next day it was already the day before the first task and Harry was starting to get really anxious about the impending task and Hermione too seemed to be very nervous about it. It was also a Monday and they had to go to the classes, despite both of them wanting to spend the time in the library, looking for something that could help Harry.
When Harry met Cedric in the corridors of the castle later that day, just before his Herbology class, Harry stopped Cedric and told him about the dragons. Harry thought that it was only fair since Madame Maxime had no doubt told Fleur Delacour about the dragons, and Professor Karkaroff had probably seen the dragons too and had told Viktor Krum, so Cedric was the only champion that didn't know about the dragons yet.
Their talk was interrupted by Professor Moody and he had apparently heard their talk and he called Harry to his office. Instead of scolding Harry for cheating, Professor Moody thought that it had been a very decent thing to do and he even gave Harry a couple of hints on how to get through the task. With his help, Harry realized that he could use a Summoning Charm to summon his broom and then try to out fly the dragon.
Harry was very glad that they had spent some time with Hermione to learn the Summoning Charm, but despite him being quite comfortable with it, he spent that evening with her, making sure that he could do the charm decently. He was good at it, but he was still a bit nervous about the whole thing, as it would be a really long distance to summon his broom all the way to the dragon enclosure from the Gryffindor Tower.
The morning of the first task arrived and Harry was almost a nerve wreck, and the tense and excited atmosphere of the school was definitely not helping with the panic he was feeling – the classes were to stop at midday and then it would be time for Harry to face a dragon. Hermione tried to keep his mind off of the task during the day, but she wasn't that much of a help and Harry didn't think that there was much that could take your mind off of a dragon you were about to face.
He somehow made his way through the morning classes, feeling quite surreal and detached from the rest of the school for some reason, and during the lunch Professor McGonagall came for him; he was called with the other champions to prepare for the task. Even Professor McGonagall seemed to be extremely nervous as she led the way to the Forbidden Forest and towards the dragon enclosure. She left Harry at an entrance to a tent that had been erected near the dragon enclosure and left, wishing him good luck.
Harry stepped inside the tent and he saw that the other champions were already there, waiting, and they all seemed to be very nervous. Ludo Bagman was also there, and he told the champions about the task; they simply had to get a golden egg that was guarded by a dragon. Each of the champions had to draw a model dragon from a silk sack to determine which dragon would be guarding the egg of each of the champions and, as Harry was the last one to draw and had seen what dragons the others had got, he already knew that he would be left with the most dangerous of them – a Hungarian Horntail. He would also be the last champion to do the task.
Before the task, Bagman also wanted to have a talk with Harry and tried to give him some advice about the first task, but Harry didn't need any help, as he already knew what he was going to do, and soon Bagman had to hurry up, because he would be commentating the task.
It was one of the most difficult times of Harry's life to wait for his turn at the first task, totally wrecked with nerves. He could hear the loud shouts and gasps of the audience and also Bagman's commentary, but he couldn't see what was happening, as the other champions, one by one, went through the first task. From what he could make out of the commentary, each of the other champions had some close calls with the dragon, which didn't exactly ease Harry's nerves, but at least they did all manage to get the golden egg.
When it was finally Harry's turn and he was called to the arena, he was so nervous that he was almost trembling and he had trouble just walking. As he shakily walked towards the entrance to the arena where the dragon would be awaiting for him, he tried to calm down his nerves and keep focused on the Summoning Charm and his broom – he had to be calm enough to be able to summon his broom or he would be in deep, deep trouble. After he would get his broom, it would be a lot easier, as he was sure that getting in the air would help him get rid of at least some of his fears and nervousness, and it would also give him a clear direction of what to do – to out fly the dragon and get the egg.
As Harry entered the arena, he first noticed the countless faces staring at him from the stands, but he didn't pay them any mind, as his eyes searched for the dragon that was at the other end of the enclosure, quite a long distance from him. The dragon was just standing there with its wings half-folded and it had also noticed Harry and it was staring at him intently, as he was getting ready to Summon his broom. Just as he was ready to raise his wand, his concentration slipped, as he saw the dragon open its mouth to a deafening roar, before unfolding its wings completely and for a moment, Harry could just stare at the dragon, transfixed, as the mighty creature lifted off the ground with just two fierce flaps of its enormous wings. Then the dragon suddenly shot straight towards Harry with a speed that seemed impossible for something so large and he was startled to notice that the dragon was rapidly closing the distance between them and would reach him in just a few seconds!
Harry's mind was screaming for him to run, but just as he was about to do that, his instincts took over him completely and he just stood rooted on the spot. For a second he felt completely removed from the rest of the world, as his instincts were making him wait for the exactly right moment to leap out of the dragon's way; if he tried to run, the dragon would have no difficulty in changing its course just a bit and catching him, but if he leapt out of its way late enough, the dragon wouldn't have time to change its course. The second that he just stood there, watching the dragon drawing closer to him, seemed to stretch on forever and Harry was not even aware of the horrified screams and cries from the audience that drowned all other noises under them, and even the dragon's flight seemed to slow down to a crawl, as Harry's whole mind was focused on following the dragon with his eyes.
Just as quickly as the moment had come, it was over, as Harry's instincts finally told him that it was the time to jump and he made a wild leap out of the dragon's reach, landing painfully on his side on the ground, but managing to miraculously avoid the attack of the huge beast – it didn't have time to change its direction and it missed Harry. Ignoring his pains, Harry started to immediately get up, ready to dodge another attack from the dragon, if needed, but before he had time to do anything, he was struck heavily by something large and the force of the impact was enough to send Harry flying through the air, besides striking the air out of his lungs and causing a flaring pain in his chest.
He was thrown side first against something hard and he collided with it painfully, hitting his head on it so hard that he felt dizzy and almost blacked out. He could also feel his glasses breaking and falling, but he barely noticed that, as he knew that he had to stay conscious to get away from the dragon and he had to fight against the dizzying feeling. But the feeling was overwhelming and he only managed to fight it for a second or two before he succumbed to the blackness of unconsciousness and the last thing he felt was an immense heat all around him, burning him.
To be continued...
Bit of a different twist to the first task and a cliff-hanger too, but don't worry, I've already started editing the third chapter and I should get that done quite soon. Hopefully tomorrow already, but no promises...