Chapter Twenty: The First Task
Monday 23rd November 1994
In no time at all the day before the First Task had dawned. Excitement was in the air. All around the school students were taking bets, placing who they thought would come out on top. Harry tried to avoid most of the students, though it was difficult since he had to go to lessons. All through Sunday, he had practiced the Summoning Charm with Hermione and Ron's aid. When he had felt fairly comfortable that he could summon his Firebolt, Harry took his Invisibility Clock and went out into the grounds. Undercover of the cloak, Harry had raised his wand and summoned his broom. He hadn't failed. His practice all through the day had ensured his success.
Despite having lessons all through the day, Harry didn't feel worried about the upcoming task. He felt confident that he had the summoning charm mastered to an extent that he wouldn't fail in summoning it to his side.
After dinner Harry was just leaving the Gryffindor Table when Hedwig flew into the hall, settling a note into Harry's hand before flying off again. The writing was very neat, in an elegant script. The last time he had seen this was when he had been eleven and had been given the Invisibility Cloak for Christmas. Dumbledore had later explained that he'd been the one to send it since James Potter had left in his possession.
He read the note:
Harry,
Come to my office. Sirius will be there. We have much to discuss.
Dumbledore
He quickly whispered to Ron and Hermione that they weren't to wait up for him and quickly paced out of the Great Hall, took the stairs one at a time before coming to the second floor. Running along the corridor he skidded round the corner and stopped when he saw his Godfather leaning against the wall, waiting for him. The stone gargoyle concealed the entrance to the headmaster's office and as Harry approached, Sirius muttered the password, of which Harry didn't hear. The gargoyle began to move revealing a staircase behind it.
"After you," Sirius motioned with his hand.
Harry glanced at his Godfather, slightly confused by his sombre tone. Now he was worried. Sirius followed behind. Reaching the top of the stairs, Harry knocked lightly on the door and then pushed it open. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk. He nodded at Harry and Sirius as they moved forward towards the two chairs that sat in front of the main desk.
Once they were seated comfortably Harry glanced nervously at the headmaster, a quizzical look on his face. Before he could phrase a question Dumbledore spoke.
"You may have forgotten what I said I would do nearer the time of the First Task." He inclined his head at Sirius. "But your godfather certainly remembers what I said, especially since he's been constantly bugging me to do it." The headmaster chuckled but no one else did.
"I'm still a bit confused, sir," replied Harry. What hadn't Dumbledore done?
"Your protection, Harry, during the tasks ahead of you is vitally important. If anything does happen to you we can act fast and save you. I was meant to cast the charm on you a week ago but I have had to deal with a few issues which were of vital importance. Tonight I will be placing a tracking and a bonding spell upon you and Sirius."
"And what do those do, sir?" Harry remembered Dumbledore mentioning those spells before but he didn't know the exact effect they would have on him.
The headmaster clasped his hands in front of him, looking directly at Harry through his half moon glasses. "They are very simple but highly effective charms. They are rarely used. Many wizards and witches have trouble mastering them despite the fact that they are simple spells. The complex wand movement is enough to frustrate anyone. Despite that, the spells are still listed as simple ones. However, Harry, your mother and father both were able to use the two spells effectively."
"What they are meant to do is to give you protection," Sirius continued. "The bonding spell will enable me to know, on intuition, where you are at all times. I won't be able to see where you are, but I will know what region you are in, so if something does happen to you, Dumbledore and I will be able to act. The tracking spell will also allow us to pinpoint your exact location, which the bonding one cannot."
Harry nodded, feeling at ease. At least if something did occur that somehow took him to Voldemort then he wouldn't have to feel much fear since he would know that his Godfather would be coming to help him.
"Could you please stand next to your Godfather?" Dumbledore instructed, rising from his own chair, striding round the desk so that he stood in front of the two. Harry's head was just at Sirius' shoulder.
Dumbledore spoke quietly under his breath and Harry could not hear the incantations for the spells he was performing. A moment later a red line of sparkles erupted from the headmaster's wand, entwining themselves round Harry and Sirius' forms. At the back of his mind he could discern Sirius' presence before it vanished. The magic disappeared into thin air and once more Dumbledore cast another which only entwined round Sirius, however he placed his palm on Harry's shoulder and he immediately felt a rush of magic run into his system. The strange feeling vanished as quickly as it had come.
"You may sit now," said Dumbledore quietly. They did so.
"Is it done?" Harry enquired.
"It is. You may have felt Sirius' presence briefly in your mind."
"I did, yeah."
"Only Sirius can do that, you cannot enter his mind. The small link he has to you allows him to get a rough idea of where you are, but the tracking charm will pinpoint your exact location through the aid of this link I have bestowed upon you two." The headmaster waved a hand at the entrance to his office. "You may leave now."
As Harry turned to leave, the headmaster spoke once more.
"And Harry?"
"Yes, Professor?"
"Good luck for tomorrow."
Tuesday 24th November 1994
Harry woke around six in the morning, feeling nervous. The day of the First Task had arrived. When he went for breakfast in the Great Hall, the students were chattering excitedly about the impending task. The Gryffindors cheered as Harry sat down at their table, but he bowed his head and managed to eat a bacon sandwich before he felt full. He had lessons until lunch and then afterwards the Task would begin. He could barely concentrate. He felt nervous, although he had checked that his broom was lying on his bed. When lunch finally came he could not eat anything, however as he left the table, Hermione and Ron both wished him good luck. Once more he checked to see if his Firebolt was still on his bed. It was.
With a sigh of relief he made his way downstairs where he collided with Professor McGonagall who looked flustered.
"There you are Potter! The champions have to come down onto the grounds now. You have to get ready for your first task."
"Okay." Harry felt his stomach squirm. He swallowed.
She placed her hand on his shoulder and steered him into the grounds. She seemed to be shaking with nerves but it could've been the cold November weather. "Now don't panic. Just keep a cool head…We've got wizards standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand. The main thing is to do your best, and nobody will think any worse of you." She looked at him. "Are you alright, Potter?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry managed. He hadn't felt nervous before, so why was it hitting him so suddenly?
They reached the enclosure where the dragons were being kept. There was a tent in front of the stadium and the entrance was keeping the dragons from view. "You're to go in there with the other champions and await your turn. Mr Bagman is there…he'll be telling you the procedure. Good luck."
And then she strolled back up to the castle, leaving him to enter the tent alone.
Sirius sat in the Professors box, his stomach full of nerves as the time for the task to begin drew nearer. He was quiet, waiting for the damned thing to start. Professor McGonagall sat beside him.
"Are you alright?" she asked quietly.
"Do I look it?" he said in reply, wearily.
She smiled lightly. "No, you don't. Worried?"
"Definitely," sighed Sirius, running his hands through his hair. "How did it come to this: a fourteen year old participating in tasks that are meant for seventeen year olds?"
"He'll be okay. If he's anything like his father he'll know what to do."
"I hope so. I have no idea what he's doing in this task." He leaned forward. Frustration grew and he bellowed: "Why can't they start the bloody task?"
"Are you impatient, Black?" Severus Snape was gliding into the box.
"Shut up," snapped Sirius. He was in no mood to pick a fight. He did not see McGonagall motioning to Snape to not push his luck. She knew that her once pupil was on edge.
Within minutes the task had begun.
And the first of the champions took on their dragon.
With Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour and Victor Krum having succeeded in their task to retrieve their golden egg, Sirius waited impatiently for Harry to emerge into the arena. "The Hungarian Horntail…just his luck to get that one!" he hung his head. He couldn't bear to watch, but he had to. Swallowing, he lifted his hand and gazed down at Harry's figure in the arena as he looked around. The Horntail was settled in the far corner of the arena, crouched low over her eggs, and he could see that her small beady eyes were focused on the lowly figure that had entered the compound. Then he watched as Harry lifted his wand. He could not tell what spell his Godson had cast.
After a few moments of anxious waiting he could hear a whooshing sound. And then over the top of the arena a broom soured. It headed straight for Harry, and his Godson mounted it and took off into the sky. Drawing in a deep breath, Sirius could hardly believe that Harry had managed that.
Still, the difficult bit was yet to come.
Sirius watched with baited breath, one of his hands clutched tightly on McGonagall's arm, as Harry dived towards the Horntail's eggs, but at the last minute he pulled upwards as a jet of fire sprouted from the mouth and nose of the dragon at the place he had just been. Harry soured higher, flying in a circle, the dragon's head following him. He plummeted as the Horntail opened his mouth again to let rip more fire, however his godson wasn't as lucky as before. He managed to duck below the flames, but the tail met him instead as he swerved left. Sirius let out a yell as he watched as one of the dragon's spikes grazed Harry's shoulder, ripping his robes.
A few moments later Harry had lured the dragon out of the protection she had been providing for her eggs, launching into the sky, as Harry dived downwards once more towards the ground.
Sirius held his breath and then cheered as Harry grabbed the golden egg and flew high into the air, away from the dragon and over the stands. "YES!" Sirius punched the air with his fist.
"Look at that!" Bagman was commentating. "Will you look at that? Our youngest champion is the quickest to get to his egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mister Potter!"
All Sirius could do was laugh as relief flooded him. Harry had survived the First Task.
"You did it!" Harry was crushed by his Godfather as he walked out of the tent.
"Sirius!" Harry struggled from his grip. "Stop it!"
"That was absolutely amazing, Harry. I don't think James would've thought of summoning his own broom to take on a dragon!"
Harry smiled. "I'm just glared it worked. I thought it hadn't, but it did."
"James and Lily would be very proud of you, you know?" Sirius added quietly.
Harry nodded solemnly. He suddenly felt sad despite the fact that he had succeeded in retrieving the golden egg he had been required to collect. He sometimes wished that his parents were still alive. He had to wonder if they truly would be proud of him. But this was not the time to dwell on that. He was alive.
And he was tied in first place with Krum.
"I think I'd better tell you something."
It was a few days after the First Task. The euphoria had since died down, and Harry was once more hard at work, however he glanced up from where he was working in the library with Ron and Hermione to look at his godfather. "What is it?" he asked quietly, knowing full well that Madam Prince didn't like anyone to talk in her domain.
"It's something I'd rather not repeat here," replied Sirius as he bit his lip.
Pushing his chair out, Harry left his belongings behind and followed his godfather to an empty classroom. Sirius propped himself up on the desk and Harry sat in a chair.
"It's about Karkaroff. Something that I think you should know."
Looking slightly confused Harry decided to wait until he heard what Sirius had to say.
Sirius took a deep breath. "Karkaroff was once a Death Eater, one of Voldemort's supporters."
"Why isn't he in Azkaban then? Surely he would be?" asked Harry.
"He was," confessed Sirius, "until he made a deal with the Ministry and betrayed his fellow Death Eaters. He put a lot of them in Azkaban with his information, however he went onto become headmaster of Durmstrang which does have a reputation for teaching Dark Magic. My parents tried to send me there."
"They did?"
"Yeah," Sirius smiled lightly. "But anyway, Dumbledore is unsure whether Karkaroff has turned over a new leaf. If Voldemort does regain power, Karkaroff will have to make a choice; rejoin the ranks or go into hiding. The fact that a Death Eater is currently residing in Hogwarts grounds displeases me."
"Do you think he might try to hurt me?"
"Not under Dumbledore's nose," said Sirius shaking his head. "But I wanted to warn you, just in case."
Harry nodded. "Thanks."
Reaching out a hand Sirius ruffled his hair.
"Get off!" Harry yelled, pushing Sirius' hand away.
"You're just like James. He hated it when his mother and I did that, however he didn't mind Lily messing his hair up," reminisced Sirius. "Go on you little scamp. Get back to work."
To be continued...