When Hermione woke up, Harry standing over her shaking her shoulder gently. Thankfully, the floor under her was surprisingly soft and warm. Had the room known she was going to pass out?

"Hermione? You okay?" Harry asked, gently helping her stand up.

"Y-yeah, just a bit of a headache," she admitted. Probably magical exhaustion she told herself, "I'll grab a pain relief potion and have a nap later. What about you?"

Still looking worried, Harry nodded.

"Actually… I feel good. Never better actually," Harry said, still holding her gently.

I'll say. Hermione thought to herself, finally getting a clear look at him.

The spell had caused some minor changes. Harry had been one of the smallest boys in their year, shorter even than her and even after three months of hogwarts dinners he had still been worryingly thin.

Now, he was taller than her and as he helped her up, she couldn't help but notice the addition of muscle flexing under his skin as he'd moved. It wasn't a huge change, but there was clearly more definition.

He wasn't wearing his glasses either, she noticed. Were they always that shade of green?

Confident she would be okay, Harry let go of her and moved to collect his belongings. He didn't notice her slight disappointment or her pout as he put his shirt back on.

"I don't know about you, but I'm starving." Harry said as he frowned at the sleeves of his now too small shirt.

Smiling, Hermione picked up her wand and attempted to cast a simple resizing charm but hissed when it only made her head pound.

She waved off Harry's worried look, "I'm fine, but I don't think I can cast anything for awhile… food sounds good though. What do you think, great hall or kitchens?"

Harry looked again at his ill fitting clothes, "Kitchens, definitely. Who knows, maybe the elves can do something about this?"

"Harry! You will not go making extra work for them!"

"It's not extra work," Harry protested, "they already do the laundry."

"That's not the point!" she argued, walking out of the room ahead of him.

She refused to speak to him the entire way to the kitchens. Once there however, they were both quickly shown to a small table that wouldn't get in the way.

The elves were only too happy to see them. bringing up more food that they could eat, not that Harry wasn't giving it a good try. Even she'd eaten more than usual.

By the time she was finishing her desert, Harry was starting his third serving of main course.

"And I thought Ron had hollow legs," Hermione muttered quietly.

"I know… Is this normal?" Harry asked, waving at the food.

She tried not to be surprised that his hearing had apparently been improved along with his eyes. "The spell probably took a lot out of you, I wouldn't worry about it too much."

Given the increase in height and muscle tone, it didn't seem too outlandish that he would need to eat more. She was sure he'd be fine after a couple of days.

While they were talking, one of the elves wondered over and looked at Harry with a frown. Nodding to himself, the elf snapped his fingers and Harry's clothes resized themselves to fit.

"Gizzy will making sure yous other clothes be fitting," he said before disappearing.

Hermione glared at Harry's smug look.

##

What Hermione wanted to do, was spend a few days carefully testing Harry's new abilities.

Unfortunately, preparing and casting the empowerment ritual had taken longer than she'd expected and now there was only a day and a half before the first task.

This meant they would need to hurry things along more.

They were back in the come and go room, this time shaped like a large gymnasium. Exercise equipment was scattered around and the ceiling above them was open, letting plenty of sunlight fill the room.

First up had been the treadmill. At her insistence Harry had changed into a pair of Dudley's old shorts and trainers. Oddly, both now fit him perfectly. She suspected 'Gizzy' had resized not only his school clothes but everything that had been in his trunk.

The treadmill was one of the old fashioned kind, little more than a fabric surface and some rollers. Speed was gauged by a large wheel with some marks on it, she recognised it as an old measuring wheel. The distance traveled would be equal to the circumference of the wheel, so one rotation was a yard. The room had also supplied an old fashioned stopwatch.

It wasn't the most accurate system, but it would do.

Watching Harry run, she tried to focus on his speed and endurance and not his exposed muscles. Stupid hormones. They didn't really have anything to compare him too, but she doubted anyone else in the castle could move at the same speed.

After that, they moved on to weight lifting. The room had a barbell and a large selection of weights, some were actually larger than her. For safety sake, Harry started with the smaller weights and gradually moved onto the larger ones.

Just incase something went wrong, she kept her wand in hand so she could levitate the weights if needed.

Harry didn't make it to the larger weights but 300 pounds was still an incredible amount amount.

To give Harry a chance to cool off, she thought it would be a good idea to test his eyesight. A simple chart appeared on one of the walls with a stool opposite it. Sitting Harry down, she had him read the smallest line he could.

"Made in Taiwan?" Harry said with a smirk.

"Really Harry? That joke's almost as old as Hogwarts," she said, rolling her eyes. "Now be serious."

"Harry?" Hermione asked, once the eye test was finished, "does wearing your glasses make any difference?"

"No, I can see clearly with them on or off."

"Okay, that makes sense," she said, nodding to herself, "I think you should keep your glasses on for now. We don't want people to notice something is different and Wizards don't really have contact lenses."

Harry nodded, "makes sense. Maybe next year I can tell people I bought some over summer?"

"Hmm, that might work," she agreed.

Before they stopped for lunch, there was one last 'test' she had planned. Durability.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Harry asked nervously.

He was stand with his back to the wall, Hermione was on the opposite side of the room with a collection of weights in front of her.

"Harry, we need to know your limits and this is the quickest way."

"By shooting stuff at me?"

"Well i'm sorry but we don't really have time to do this slowly," honestly, he was being such a big baby.

Not giving him another chance to complain, she fired a banishing charm at the first weight. it went it sailing across the room, through the empty space where Harry had been standing and embedding itself in the wall.

Harry was on the far side of the room. looking just as surprised as she was about his burst of speed.

Glaring at him, she pointed at the spot he'd just vacated. With a defeated sigh, he walked back.

##

By later that afternoon, they had learned several things. Most importantly, he wasn't at 'superman's' level. Yet.

When they had first tested his strength, Hermione had made note of his maximum weight. when they tested it a second time, at the end of the day, there had been a noticeable increase. The same had happened with his speed.

Some careful spell work had also proved that while he was still vulnerable to magic, he was a bit more resistant. Most spells needed a little more power behind them to get the same effect.

"So, what does it mean?" Harry asked, reclining in his chair and basking in the sun that was still shining through the artificial skylights.

"I think…" Hermione said, biting her lip as she considered the possibilities, "That the spell worked. You have the powers, but they are building up slowly over time. You'll probably keep getting stronger over time, either as you age or from the sunlight. I'm not sure which."

What about this? Harry said, wave at his exposed torso. Looking at him, Hermione could feel herself 's blush. He'd decided to go without for the rest of the day. The faint muscles she'd noticed yesterday had become much more visible, giving harry something of a swimmer's build.

"I guess it comes with the power?" Hermione suggested, trying to get herself under control.

"Okay… So does this mean I've got to spend the rest of the day sunbathing?" Harry asked with a smirk. care to join me? The words sat on his tongue but he dared not say them. The tension from yesterday eased somewhat but he could still feel it.

"Honestly, at this point I don't think there's much else we can do," Hermione admitted. Grabbing a book out of her bag, she sat herself down on a second sunbed and settled down to read. She frowned briefly at the light glaring off her book and parasole appeared above her bed.

Harry tried not to laugh, too loudly, at her pleased expression and let himself doze off.

##

The next day, Harry walked into the tent where the other champions were waiting. This was it, the big day.

He'd barely eaten this morning, even the few slices of toast Hermione had talked him into were sitting uncomfortably in her stomach.

The other champions were standing around looking solomn. Nobody felt like talking and the air was heavy. Krum looked more surly than usual, Chedric was pale and even Fleur looked… well, Harry wasn't sure a veela could look unattractive. Instead, she just looked slightly dishevelled. Which was the same thing, but with extra style.

Not really wanting to talk either, Harry moved to the side of the tent. Before he could get too caught up in his thoughts, Hermione ducked through the door.

"Hermione, What are you doing here?" he asked quietly, worried she would get into trouble.

"I… Just came to say, good luck and… please be careful…," biting her lip, she looked at the other champions before visibly steeling her nerves. Stepping forward, she quickly kissed Harry on the cheek.

"Remember what I said, come back alive and we'll talk."

Behind him, Fleur turned to Krum and muttered, "sont-ils pas adorables?"

He grunted in reply, smirking slightly in amusement. Even Cedric chuckled quietly.

Frowning at the french which, Hermione hurries off, her cheeks were almost on fire from her blush.

"For what it's worth," Fleur said, switching to heavily accented english as Harry turned towards her. "You make a cute couple."

Blushing, Harry focused on his shoes, not sure what to say to that.

##

When Bagman finally reached the tent, gave the amused champions a confused look. Shrugging it off, he gave Harry an odd look, like he wanted to say something, before looking at the other champions and sighing.

He held up a felt bag for them all to see, "inside this bag is a number and a model of the… obstacle you are to face. Each of you will take one and enter the arena when you hear the whistle. The challenge starts from the moment you enter and ends when you leave."

He paused, looking thoughtful, "I think that's everything… Oh yes! Your goal is the golden egg. Now, ladies first!"

He present the bag to Fleur who carefully lowered her hand inside. Frowning in distaste, she pulled a small, moving, model of a Dragon out. It had the the number one on a chain around it's neck.

From her reaction to the model, Harry had suspected Madam Maxine must have forewarned her. Krum also showed the same lack of surprise. This made Harry feel a bit better about warning Cedric.

Reaching into the sack, Harry pulled out his Dragon. He wasn't that surprised when he saw it was the Hungarian Horntail, the largest and most aggressive of the four dragons.

##

Sitting in the tent waiting for his turn was practically a form of torture. Fleur was up first, followed by Krum, then Cedric and finally himself.

They couldn't see the arena from where they were and the tent must have been charmed as the sounds were muffled. Bagmans magnified voice and the vague noises of the crowd were all they could hear.

One by one they walked out the door until only Harry was left. Alone, he suddenly had a sense of fellow feeling. Was this how the gladiators of Rome felt? Walking out into arena while the crowd screamed for blood, knowing they might never come back.

Hearing the final whistle, Harry shook the morbid thoughts away and focused instead on Hermione and what they had planned.

Walking out into the arena, Harry felt his confidence falter at the sight. Not that anyone could blame him, seven tons of dragon would make anyone shrink from the challenge.

The tent had definitely been charmed, standing out here now the crowd was almost deafening. The arena wasn't too different from the one he'd seen at the world cup. An oval clearing with raised stands around it.

At the far end of the field was the Dragon. It's scales were black, and is lizard-like in appearance. It's yellow eyes kept darting back to him even as it snapped and snarled at the audience. The bronze horns and spikes that protruded from its long tail carved deep furrows into the ground as lashed out in anger.

Trying to stay calm, Harry reached into his robes and pulled out several small glass vials.

"What's this? It seems our Youngest champion has a trick up his sleeve!" Bagman shouted to the cheering crowd. Harry ignored him, he didn't need the distraction right now.

Hermione had spent an hour yesterday with a colour chart* carefully matching the hues with rare, difficult to make potions. They needed an excuse for his sudden abilities and this seemed like the best one they could come up with in time.

Gulping them down, he shuddered and wondered if the real thing tasted that bad.

Excuses made, he looked towards the dragon and moved.

Perspective was a funny thing, he hadn't moved from where he was standing but the world around him slowed to a crawl. According to Hermione, his sense of perception would increase to match his speed. Enabling him to navigate without crashing into things.

As a side effect, he could force this perception increase without actually moving, just by willing it.

In front of him, the dragon was barely moving.

Using the time to look around, he could see every face in the crowd. Some were cheering for him, others, like Hermione, just looked horrified.

Focusing, back on the dragon, he spotted the golden egg. Sitting right in front of the other eggs and being closely guarded by the mother. Harry didn't know much about animals, but didn't nesting mothers get even more vicious?

Mind made up, he sprinted towards the dragon. He'd never tried to move this fast yet, the feeling of freedom was almost like when he was on his broom.

The problem was, his body felt heavy and the air around him felt like treacle. He could feel it fighting against him as he moved. It wasn't just the world that was moving slowly, trying to lift his arm felt like it took an age.

He wasn't sure how fast he was moving, but it wasn't enough. The dragon was moving towards him, spinning to bring its tail round. He couldn't dodge in time, bringing his arms up, he tried to shield himself.

The tail connected and the word returned to normal. The impact hurt and sent him spinning through the air.

He hit one of the low walls that ringed the arena in front of the the stands with enough force to split the wood. He could hear the audience scream, Hermione above them all.

"Ouch," he muttered as he climbed onto his feet. Brushed himself down and check for injuries. his side and back were a bit tender, but nothing felt broken. His shirt however shredded.

"Merlin above he's alive! What on earth is this boy made out of!"

Ignoring bagmans 'boy' comment, Harry sprinted forward.

This time, he moved sideways, trying to spiral in towards the dragon.

When the dragon brought it's tail around, Harry jumped. His momentum carrying him over the tail. Hitting the ground, he fell to his knees and skidded to avoid the dragons head as its jaws snapped close just above him.

His legs carved furrows into the ground and shredded his trousers, but he wasn't too worried about that.

Spotting a chance, he sprinted for the nest, he grabbed the golden egg bolting away as fast as he could. Running in a straight line was a mistake and he felt the approaching warmth of a fireball on his back as dragons fire incinerated the ground behind him.

Throwing himself forward, he sliding to a stop just past the starting point and rolled behind the a large stone while the dragon handlers tried to subdue the beast.

"He's done it! Merlins beard he's done it! Harry Potter has completed the challenge in record time!" Bagman shouted excitedly, even as the crowd cheered.

A nearby dragon handler waved to Harry and pointed at another tent, this one with a red cross on it's side.

Nodding, Harry climbed to his feet and walked inside. It was only when Madam Pomfrey looked at him in horror did Harry realise his robes were still smoldering.

Pulling him aside, she quickly doused the flames and started checking him for injuries.

"Dragons! In a school, what were they thinking!" she fretted as she cast a charm after charm on him. Frowning at the result, she paused. "Mister Potter, can you tell me what potions you consumed?"

"Erm… Giant's strength, Mercuries grace and a fire resistance potion, but only a mouthful of each" Harry said, trying to remember the instructions Hermione gave him.

The witches expression softly, "well, someone certainly knew what they were doing. More than that would be dangerous in such a mixture. I expect they will wear off soon, just take it easy until then."

As she turned, the witch waved her wand and a silver raven flew out of the tent.

Harry was just starting to relax when Hermione came rushing into the tent, it looked like she'd been crying and there were claw marks on her cheeks.

Harry caught her as she ran towards him and started beating her her hands on his chest. "What part of 'stay safe' meant charge a nesting dragon! You- you, Gah!"

Giving up, she buried her face in his neck and held on tightly, taking a few moments to calm herself down.

"You need to go back outside, the judges have to give you a score. But don't think this is over," she warned.

Standing up, Harry kept an arm around her waist as he walked outside.

Maybe this tournament wouldn't be so bad after all.

##

*Only in the magical world was a colour chart considered an important cooking tool.

An: Appologies for the bad french and Fleurs lack of 'accent'. I know she has one in canon but I really can't write accents.
Once I have another chapter or so written, I may make a thread for this. by that point I'll probably need a beta

Edit: oh, I forgot to mention, I'm mostly using Superman:TAS for 'final' power levels.