Title: Truth behind the name and the lies pt.4
Pairings: DracoxHarry, twincest, OliverxPercy, RemusxSeverus, CharliexBlaise,ViktorxHermione, future BillxFleur. Future Stalker Ginny! Seamus and Colin *hides*
Fandom : HP
Notes: An abused boy finds out he's a wizard and a hero; his tormented mind rebels. One person sees through the misconceptions to the real Harry and treats him the way he deserves. How does this change them both and those around them.
Chapter 24- The First Task
Harry's nervousness returned in full measure, however, on that morning. The atmosphere in the school was one of great tension and excitement. Lessons were to stop at midday, giving all the students time to get down to the Harry felt oddly separate from everyone around him, whether they were wishing him good luck or hissing "We'll have a box of tissues ready, Potter." as he passed.
It was a state of nervousness so advanced that he wondered whether he might just lose his head when they tried to lead him out to his dragon, and start trying to curse everyone in sight while he ran to hide. Time seemed to be behaving rather peculiarly, rushing past quitckly, so that one moment he seemed to be sitting down in his first lesson, History of Magic, and the next, walking into lunch… and then Papa was hurrying over to him in the Great Hall. Lots of people were watching. Where had the morning gone? The last of the dragon-free hours? By that he didn't mean his boyfriend.
"Potter, the champions have to come down onto the grounds now. You have to get ready for your first task."
"Okay," said Harry, standing up, his fork falling onto his plate with a clatter.
"Good luck, Harry," Draco whispered, hugging him and brushing his cheek with a light kiss. "You'll be fine!"
"Yeah," said Harry in a voice that was most unlike his own.
He left the Great Hall with papa, he didn't seem himself either; in fact, he looked nearly as anxious as he felt. As he walked him down the stone steps and out into the cold November afternoon, he put his hand on his shoulder.
"Now, don't panic," Severus said, "just keep a cool head. We've got wizards like Charlie standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand. The main thing is just to do your best, and nobody will think any the worse of you. Are you all right?"
"Yes," Harry heard himself say. "Yes, I'm fine Papa. I already know what I've facing."
"Oh, I should have expected my Slytherin son to discover that." he was leading him toward the place where Blaisé told him the dragons were, around the edge of the forest, but when they approached the clump of trees behind which the enclosure would be clearly visible, Harry saw that a tent had been erected, its entrance facing them, screening the dragons from view.
"You're to go in here with the other champions," His papa said, in a rather shaky sort of voice, "and wait for your turn, Harry. Mr. Bagman is in there and he'll be telling you the - the procedure… Good luck."
"Thanks," Harry said, in a flat, distant voice.
Severus left him at the entrance of the tent reluctantly; he's heard of leaving your child to the wolves- he felt safer leaving Harry with his wolf then abandoning his son to Dragons which were considered to be a known wizard killer they'd killed more wizards then werewolves.
Harry went inside; he found Fleur Delacour was sitting in a corner on a wooden stool. She didn't look nearly as composed as usual, but rather pale and clammy. Viktor looked even gruff than usual, which Harry supposed was his way of showing nerves. When Harry entered, Viktor gave him a small smile, which Harry returned, feeling the muscles in his face working rather hard, as though they had forgotten how to do it. Cedric was pacing up and down.
"Harry! Splendid!" said Bagman happily, looking around at him. "Come in, dear boy and make yourself at home!" Bagman looked somehow like a cartoon figure from Dudley's old comics that had been forgotten in his cousin's second bedroom, standing amid all the pale-faced champions. The former professional Beater was wearing his old Wasp robes; well, they resembled the robes Harry had seen on members of the Wimbourne Wasps in Quidditch through the ages which Draco owned. "Well, now that we're all here, it's time to fill you in!" Bagman said brightly. "When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag" - he held up a small sack of purple silk and shook it at them, "from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else too; your task is to collect the golden egg!"
Harry glanced around. Cedric had nodded once, to show that he understood Bagman's words, and then started pacing around the tent again; he looked slightly green. Fleur Delacour and Viktor hadn't reacted at all. Perhaps they thought they might be sick if they opened their mouths; that was certainly how Harry felt. But they, at least, had volunteered for this…
In no time at all, hundreds upon hundreds, though it sounded like a thousand of pairs of feet could be heard passing the tent, their owners talking excitedly, laughing and joking.
Harry felt as separate from the crowd as though they were a different species. Then it seemed like about a second later to Harry, Bagman was opening the neck of the purple silk sack.
"Ladies first," he said, offering it to Fleur Delacour.
She put a shaking hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny, perfect model of a dragon - a Welsh Green. It had the number two around its neck And Harry knew, by the fact that Fleur showed no sign of surprise, but rather a determined resignation, that Blaisé had been right: Madame Maxime had told her what was coming.
The same held true for Viktor; he pulled out the scarlet Chinese Fireball. It had a number three around its neck. He didn't even blink, just sat back down and stared at the ground. He hadn't seen Viktor nervous before a Quidditch Match but he wasn't excited, Viktor looked resigned.
Cedric put his hand into the bag, and out came the bluish-gray Swedish Short-Snout, the number one tied around its neck. Knowing what was left because Blaise told him , Harry put his hand into the silk bag and pulled out the Hungarian Horntail, and the number four. It stretched its wings as he looked down at it, and bared its minuscule fangs.
"Well, there you are!" said Bagman. "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr. Diggory, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, all right? Now. Harry dear boy. Could I have a quick word? Outside?"
"I guess," Harry said blankly, he got up and went out of the tent with Bagman, who walked him a short distance away, into the trees, and then turned to him with a fatherly expression on his face. One that left him feeling cold and uncomfortable, he had a father. Well two if you included Remus who had saved his life twice; once from Dementors and the second time when he fell from his broom during that storm.
"How are you feeling Harry, my boy? Anything I can get you?"
"What?" said Harry. "I', fine. I don't need anything."
"Got a plan?" Bagman said, lowering his voice conspiratorially. "Because I don't mind sharing a few pointers, if you'd like them, you know. I mean," Bagman continued, lowering his voice still further, "you're the underdog here, Harry. I'll do anything I can do to help…"
"No," Harry said so quickly he knew he had sounded rude but Bagman was irritating him, "No. I know what I'm going to do."
"Nobody would know, Harry," Bagman said, winking at him.
"No, I'm fine," Harry said, wondering why he kept telling people this when they asked. He was still wondering whether he had ever been less fine, four days ago he finds out he was facing dragons and a few hours after that Draco was brutally attacked by that monster Mad-Eye Moody. Draco was still limping, and he worried so much about him. The last thing he wanted was to be away from his lover. "I've got a plan worked out, I,"
A whistle had blown somewhere.
"Good lord, I've got to run!" Bagman said in alarm, and he hurried off.
Harry walked back to the tent and saw Cedric emerging from it, greener than ever. Harry tried to wish him luck as he walked past, but all that came out of his mouth was a sort of hoarse grunt. Harry went back inside to Fleur and Viktor. Seconds later, they heard the roar of the crowd, which meant Cedric had entered the enclosure and was now face-to face with the living counterpart of his model.
It was worse than Harry could ever have imagined, sitting there and listening. The crowd screamed… yelled… gasped like a single many-headed entity, as Cedric did whatever he was doing to get past the Swedish Short-Snout. Krum was still staring at the ground. Fleur had now taken to retracing Cedric's steps, around and around the tent. And Bagman's commentary made everything much, much worse… Horrible pictures formed in Harry's mind as he heard: "Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow"… "He's taking risks, this one!"… "Clever move - pity it didn't work!"
After about fifteen minutes, Harry heard the deafening roar that could mean only one thing: Cedric had gotten past his dragon and captured the golden egg.
"Very good indeed!" Bagman was shouting. "And now the marks from the judges!"
But he didn't shout out the marks; Harry supposed the judges were holding them up and showing them to the crowd.
"One down, three to go!" Bagman yelled as the whistle blew again. "Miss Delacour, if you please!"
Fleur was trembling from head to foot; Harry felt more warmly toward her than he had done so far as she heft the tent with her head held high and her hand clutching her wand. He and Viktor were left alone, at opposite sides of the tent, avoiding each other's gaze. Both to nervous to speak even though they could be considered friends being far closer then Harry was with his fellow Hogwarts' Champion Cedric Diggory.
The same process started again…
"Oh I'm not sure that was wise!" they could hear Bagman shouting gleefully. "Oh… nearly! Careful now, good lord, I thought she'd had it then!"
Ten minutes later, Harry heard the crowd erupt into applause once more… Fleur must have been successful too. A pause, while Fleur's marks were being shown, then more clapping and for the third time, the whistle.
"And now Mr. Krum!" Bagman cried.
Viktor slouched out waving before the tent flap closed, leaving Harry quite alone.
He felt much more aware of his body than usual; very aware of the way his heart was pumping fast, and his fingers tingling with fear. Yet at the same time, he seemed to be outside himself, seeing the walls of the tent, and hearing the crowd, as though from far away.
"Very daring!" Bagman was yelling, and Harry heard the Chinese Fireball emit a horrible, roaring shriek, while the crowd drew its collective breath. "That's some nerve he's showing, and yes, he's got the egg!"
Applause shattered the winter air like breaking glass; Viktor had finished and it would be Harry's turn any moment.
He stood up, noticing dimly that his legs seemed to be made of jelly. He waited. And then he heard the whistle blow. He walked out through the entrance of the tent, the panic rising into a crescendo inside him. And now he was walking past the trees, through a gap in the enclosure fence.
He saw everything in front of him as though it was a very highly colored dream.
There were hundreds and hundreds of faces staring down at him from stands that had been magicked there since he'd last stood on this spot. There was the Horntail, at the other end of the enclosure, crouched low over her clutch of eggs, her wings half-furled, her frightening, yellow eyes upon him, a monstrous, scaly, black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, heaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground. The crowd was making a great deal of noise, but whether friendly or not, Harry didn't know or care. It was time to do what he had to do to, focus his mind, entirely and absolutely, upon the thing that was his only chance.
He raised his wand. "Accio Benia." would she come? Draco's familiar was a very independent bird.
There was a crack of fire and there stood his lover's phoenix, she chuckled loudly enough for the others to hear her, "magic is about balance. What is the opposite of a dragon?"
Harry smiled, "To some cultures the Dragon is male and the Phoenix female. Balance in all things."
"Very well little Lion. What is you desire?"
"The Golden egg. Will you retrieve it for me?"
Benia nodded, "A dragon's flames won't burn me." she disappeared with a flash of flame only to reappear behind the Hungarian Horntail. She snatched up the golden egg with her talons disappearing with a crackle of fire before the dragon noticed her.
Harry was excited, she landed on his shoulder and held out the egg. He found Draco in the crowd and grinned waving the egg. He wanted to hold his boyfriend's hand just to reassure himself that Draco was safe.
It was as though somebody had just turned the volume back up; for the first time, he became properly aware of the noise of the crowd, which was screaming and applauding as loudly as the Irish supporters at the World Cup -
"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling. "Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! Who would have thought to use a Phoenix? Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mr. Potter!"
Harry saw the dragon keepers including Charlie rushing forward to subdue the now angry Horntail, and, over at the entrance to the enclosure, Headmistress McGonagall, papa, and Remus were hurrying to meet him, all of them waving him toward them, their smiles evident even from this distance. Benia's talons dug into his shoulders as she flew him back over to the stands, the noise of the crowd pounding his eardrums, and came in smoothly to land, his heart lighter than it had been in weeks. He had got through the first task, he had survived.
Severus pulled him into his arms, "I was so worried Harry. Draco's phoenix was pure genius."
Remus ruffled his hand, "Brilliant pup. Just brilliant."
Harry looked up and there was Draco, his eyes shining with pride.
"Come here, Adder."
Harry leapt into his waiting arms careful not to knock him over and forgetting the entire crowd, kissed Draco.
Draco held him close, "I knew you could do it. I'm proud of you."
There were three disgruntled faces at their intimate moment…
"Harry, you were brilliant!" Hermione said squeakily. There were fingernail marks on her face where she had been clutching it in fear. "You were amazing! You really were!"
But Harry was looking at Viktor, who was very pale and staring at Harry as though he were a ghost.
"Harry," he said, very seriously, "vhoever put your name in that goblet zey underestimate you. Why would someone vant you dead?" a tournament where the first task was against dragons and Harry ended up with the most dangerous one implied that people wanted the teen dead.
"Caught on, have you?" Draco chuckled.
Hermione stood nervously between Harry and Viktor, looking from one to the other. Viktor opened his mouth uncertainly.
"It's okay," Harry said, smiling and nudging Hermione in Viktor's direction. "Come on 'Mione, don't you know brave champions deserve a kiss? Did you give him a favor? Something of yours for luck?"
Hermione blushed taking three steps towards her boyfriend, Narcissa had been helping her dress more flatteringly. She looked less like a bookworm and more mature these days.
Viktor leaned down to kiss her lightly, "I said you vere my luck." he smiled, "you may need to turn this necklace of yours into a bracelet. When I no longer need this golden egg Ahren, it's yours."
If the female half of the student population wasn't irritated enough at Harry and Draco's public display of affection they were incensed at Viktor's infatuation with the young bookish gold-digger Hermione Granger. Well that was unfortunately what they thought though it couldn't be more untrue.
"Harry, come on, they'll be awarding your scores in a minute," Draco said holding him close.
Holding the golden egg and leaning against his lover, he was feeling more elated than he would have believed possible an hour ago. Harry looked up at the judges, Draco by his side, talking fast.
"You were the best, you know, no competition. Cedric Transfigured a rock on the ground into a dog. he was trying to make the dragon go for the dog instead of him."
"Yes, it was a decent bit of Transfiguration, which did work because he did get the egg, but he got burned as well. The dragon changed its mind later and decided it would rather have him than the Labrador; he only just got away." Blaisé said appearing out of nowhere.
"That Fleur girl tried a charm I haven't seen before, I think she was trying to put it into a trance. It actually worked. I was surprised. It went to sleep but then it snored a jet of flame and her skirt caught fire. She put it out with water from her wand, I think she used aquamenti." Draco continued.
Hermione was holding her boyfriend's hand, "He was probably the best before you, I'm not sure who was more impressive now" she was loyal to both of them and well, she couldn't chose between them. "He hit it with a hex in the eyes that I didn't recognize. Only thing is, it went trampling around in agony and squashed half the real eggs. They took marks off for that, he wasn't supposed to do any damage to them."
Viktor shifted nervously, "I didn't zink it vould react like zat."
Draco drew a breath as they reached the edge of the enclosure.
Now that the Horntail had been taken away, Harry could see where the five judges were sitting, right at the other end, in raised seats draped in gold.
"It's marks out of ten from each one," Draco said, and Harry squinting up the field.
The first judge was Madame Maxime, she raised her wand in the air. A long silver ribbon shot out of it, which twisted itself into a large nine.
"Not bad!" Draco said as the crowd applauded.
Mr. Crouch came next. He shot a number nine into the air.
"Looking good!" Draco yelled, hugging Harry in excitement.
Next was McGonagall, she too put up a nine.
The crowd was cheering harder than ever.
Ludo Bagman - ten.
"Ten?" Harry said in disbelief, he still couldn't believe that, he used a Phoenix to get the egg. "What's he playing at?"
"Harry, don't complain!" Draco yelled excitedly, he was proud of his lover; his attack quite forgotten for the moment.
Karkaroff raised his wand, he paused for a moment and then a number shot out of his wand, a five.
"What?" Draco hissed furiously. "Five? You lousy, biased yellow bellied snake, you gave Viktor a ten!"
But Harry didn't care, he wouldn't have cared if Karkaroff had given him zero; Draco's indignation on his behalf was worth about a hundred points to him even though the last time Draco got incensed on his behalf he was turned into a ferret and used like a ball in an arcade machine. He didn't tell Draco this, of course, but his heart felt lighter than air as he turned to leave the enclosure. It wasn't just Draco… those weren't only Slytherins and Gryffindors cheering in the crowd. When it had come to it, when they had seen what he was facing, most of the school had been on his side as well as Cedric's. He didn't care about the Hufflepuffs or the Ravenclaws, he could stand whatever they threw at him now.
"You're tied in first place, Harry! You and Krum!" Charlie said, hurrying to meet them as they set off back toward the school. "That was unbelievable!" he snuck a quick kiss from Blaisé , "Oh yeah, they told me to tell you you've got to hang around for a few more minutes. Bagman wants a word, back in the champions' tent."
Draco and Hermione said they would wait, so Harry and Viktor reentered the tent, which somehow looked quite different now: friendly and welcoming. He thought back to how he'd felt when facing the Horntail, and compared it to the long wait before he'd walked out to face it. There was no comparison; the wait had been immeasurably worse.
Fleur and Cedric all came in together.
One side of Cedric's face was covered in a thick orange paste, which was presumably mending his burn. He grinned at Harry when he saw him. "Good one, Harry."
"you too," Harry said, grinning back.
"Well done, all of you!" Ludo Bagman said, bouncing into the tent and looking as pleased as though he personally had just got past a dragon. "Now, just a quick few words. You've got a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth but we're giving you something to think about in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open. See the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg; because it will tell you what the second task is. Thus, enable you to prepare for it! Understood? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"
Harry left the tent with Vikto, they rejoined Draco and Hermione. The four of them started to walk back around the edge of the forest, talking fast; Harry wanted to hear what the other champions had done in more detail. Then, as they rounded the clump of trees behind which Harry had first heard the dragons roar, a witch leapt out from behind them.
It was Rita Skeeter. She was wearing acid-green robes today; the Quick-Quotes Quill in her hand blended perfectly against them. "Congratulations, Harry!" she said, beaming at him. "I wonder if you could give me a quick word? How you felt facing that dragon? How you feel now, about the fairness of the scoring?"
"Yeah, you can have a word," Harry said savagely. "Good-bye."
That reporter witch had managed to twist his words even though she had been unable to use a Quick Quotes Quill. She had claimed Draco and Andromeda bullied her and kept him from answering questions. That he was such a sad tragic figure who must be using the Tournament as a way to get out from under their thumbs. Speculating that he was planning use his Triwizard cup winnings to emancipate himself so he would be free of their overbearing ways. Surely, the famous Boy Who Lived deserved better. She had made the majority of her article about the Triwizard Champions about him. Andromeda was suing her, the article that she had approved of was not the one the Daily Prophet printed and you didn't cross a Slytherin…
Harry set off back to the castle with Draco.
Charlie seemed to have disappeared with Blaisé and Hermione had walked off with Viktor a bit ago…
Exceeds Expectations? Outstanding? Troll? What do you think? Did I do it justice? I wanted it to be a bit different from canon...okay a lot different. Got to love Benia...
I didn't mention Skeeter's article sooner so I thought I'd throw it in here. This fic has so much happening at once I'd be lost without my timeline.