Fangirlfriend 2 - There will be Vlad progression, not necessarily vampiric yet because he's not nearing sixteen! It's tied in to the tournament, bear with me! As for update schedule, the aim is to update every Sunday. Sometimes that stretches to 4am on a Monday morning (in the UK, where I am) because I am largely nocturnal. I write entirely on a smartphone, so I have to contend with writers block, have to take breaks to charge my phone and honestly I find it a miracle there haven't been too many mega late chapters. Sometimes I have it done by Tuesday, other times I am struggling to finish it by the Sunday. I am trying, promise!

YokaiAngel - poor Harry? I felt bad for Vlad last chapter! Thanks for reviewing!

VampireHarry the 2 - thank you!

-YDHP-

"Where's Vlad?"

"Getting fitted for his tournament robes with the others. He wasn't impressed."

George giggled, she and Bella sliding into the seats opposite where Harry was looking out of the window to avoid his essay on kneazle care. The first task was mere days away, and as far as he knew, Vlad wasn't yet certain how he was planning to deal with a massive fire-breathing lizard. Whenever Harry expressed concern about that, Vlad just shrugged and pointed out he could handle his sister and father with a sound of amusement.

"This tournament is so weird. Who decided three schools should each volunteer a student, hope they don't die and call it co-operation?"

"No idea. How was your detention for those exploding biscuits?"

They hadn't hurt anybody, but George was too obvious when she fell into hysterics as several students picked up cookies and biscuits only to have them blow up in their face.

"Not bad. Professor Moonshine even complimented my exceptional brewing of the No-burn Slow-burn I used for it. Then made me bottle pickled frog guts for an hour."

"Nice."

"Better than Jacob, he had to extract slug livers for feeding babbling beverages to the house elves!"

"Gross!"

The two girls carried an animated conversation on all by themselves, but Harry was desperate enough to avoid his work that they were enormously amusing to him regardless. He looked out of the window again to see Vlad and Viktor Krum walking towards the Forbidden Forest - he actually hoped they were looking for the dragons, not that Vlad was taking him to see the thestral herd. Vlad's joy around the strange creatures was personal, private. He didn't know Krum well enough for him to see that, surely?

"Harryyyyy? Earth to Harry Potter?"

Shaking out of his reverie, Harry smiled at the two.

"Sorry, zoned out for a minute. What's up?"

"Want to come see the animals with us?"

That meant going to Hagrid's - he could get some advice on his essay, spend time with his friendly professor and be able to spot Vlad leaving the Forest.

"Let's go. If you intend to see the skrewts, you better go get your dragonhide gloves."

"Good plan. Let's go Bella!"

They acquired Jason and Matthew too, who too lamented the loss of Quidditch that year as they headed down. It was ice cold outside, but the energetic second years had zero care for that as they dashed through the snow. Hagrid greeted them happily, thrilled by the avid interest in weird and slightly lethal creatures they had.

The blast ended skrewts were still growing in size while shrinking in number - they were several inches longer and turning a sickly grey colour, which would become the armoured plating of their skin within the month. And there were another five that had mysteriously vanished, likely eaten by their siblings.

They were totally, utterly repulsive, but George and her friends cooed over them like they were fluffy kittens, or bouncing puppies. At least they had their gloves on to protect from the flames spitting out of their rear ends. Staying a safe distance away while making sure nobody caught fire, Harry heard an unexpected voice.

"That's the hippogriff enclosure cleaned out ready for next week Hagrid."

"Much appreciated Cedric."

"I can get started on the bowtruckles, except I need someone to distract them."

Hagrid looked between the children even he knew better than to leave alone with the skrewts and Cedric, but Harry had a lightbulb moment.

"I'll help. You stay with the little beasties. And the blast ended skrewts."

"I heard that Potter!"

Winking at George, Harry headed over to Cedric.

"What do I need to do?"

"Hold out these woodlice. And don't get close to the little hands, they are pretty sharp."

Harry couldn't even see what he was distracting, until random parts of the tree Cedric was getting close to started moving. As camouflage went, it was pretty effective.

"So, why are you down here? I'm watching the second years."

"Because being the school champion is fine, but with what happened with Vlad I get everyone coming up to talk about that. Hagrid doesn't care about any of that, and neither do the creatures."

"You know Vlad didn't do it, right?"

Cedric nodded, and Harry was relieved he didn't have to defend Vlad here. The sixth year transpired to be fairly easy company - he even apologised for not realising Harry had fallen off his broom before he caught the snitch the previous year.

"Vlad's a good guy. I take it you know about him?"

"That he told you about the dragons, or the whole future fangs thing? He's my best friend, what don't I know about him?"

"So you two are just friends? Sorry, I couldn't help asking."

Harry let the glare drop - it was hardly a rare occurrence by now that they seemed more than friends.

"Yes. I don't get why that's what everyone thinks. I mean, he's a guy."

"I forget you grew up in the Muggle world. Wizards really don't care."

"You say that, but Seamus seemed to mind very much when he accused Vlad of harboring a secret crush on me."

Cedric scooped up a bowtruckle, managing to measure it without getting clawed thanks to Harry's bowl of woodlice being more exciting. He considered what Harry said, shrugging as he released the wooden critter to a scattering of woodlice on the floor.

"You know what they say, most of the outward homophobia comes from people ashamed of themselves. Plus, Seamus is a half blood. Maybe his Muggle parent is less open minded."

"Maybe. Still doesn't make it right to attack Vlad."

"Does it bother you personally? Homosexuality I mean?"

"Uh, no, not really? Just irritates me that because we are best friends, everyone assumes there's more."

There was more though, Harry's mind substituted. He slept in Vlad's bed, never thinking twice about seeking comfort when he was scared of his nightmares. Whenever Vlad wrapped his hand around Harry's wrist to soothe him - like he always had - Harry found himself with vague but persistently intrusive thoughts about whether it would be strange for them to hold hands. Even so, they were just... close. It wasn't romantic.

"Fair enough. Watch those sharp-"

It was too late, the bowtruckle had scratched Harry's hand and jumped down. Cedric managed to grab hold of it, which gave Harry time to turn around and pull his wand - hopefully Cedric wouldn't notice that he barely had a mark where he should have a deep, bleeding cut.

"You ok Harry?"

Flexing his hand like he had just healed it, he nodded and held it up to show the two pink lines.

"I take Healing. I'm fine."

He hadn't healed it at all - the lines that looked healed were all the damage that had been done. Cedric grabbed his hand to check, which made for the most awkward moment for someone to find them like that.

"If ve put a blonde vig on Harry, ve could pretend this was a secret champion meeting."

Vlad and Viktor Krum - obviously looking for where Harry was, there was little other reason to be around this side of the trees - found it looking like Cedric was making a romantic proposition to Harry. Even when they dropped their hands, Harry thought Vlad probably found it suspect.

"Hey guys. Just checking his hand was ok, a bowtruckle scratched him."

"Ve vere visiting the... vhat did you call them?"

"Thestrals."

"Vampire. Thestrals. Of course."

For a second, Harry was aghast that Cedric said it so casually, then realised everyone present already knew - Vlad had told him how he had been described as a vampire after the goblet of fire spat out his name. Then it occurred to him - Vlad had taken Krum to see the thestrals. A hot flash of anger surged, then vanished just as fast. What was wrong with him?

"They saved my life, I would have been gored by a unicorn if they weren't there to rescue me. So yeah, I'm a fan of the thestrals."

Vlad knew better than to bring up how they had also been pivotal in getting four children away from six werewolves. Harry knew about that. He would bet Krum didn't. Satisfied he was still the one who knew Vlad better, Harry felt an awkward silence stagnate between the four of them.

"Ready for the task then you two?"

He saw Vlad wink, grinning.

"How can you be ready for something you don't know anything about? Speaking of which, why do I have the worst colours for those Champion robes? Everyone else has perfectly fine mixes, but mine are brown and orange."

Cedric laughed aloud, quickly clapping his hand across his mouth to muffle the sound as Vlad scowled about the memory.

"Because they didn't originally account for you I guess."

"Since you are, vhat did they call it? The surplus champion?"

"I'm the target. Someone went to a great deal of trouble to ensure I get eaten by a dragon, or mauled by a manticore. Just because your headmaster and Madame Maxime think I cheated... actually, Dumbledore probably thinks it too. Anyway, you two looked... busy, so I'll leave you to it."

Krum waved cordially, then followed after Vlad who had left rather abruptly. Harry made a mental note to quiz him on that later, but didn't get much further before he heard George calling out for him. Cedric followed, finding the second years laughing hysterically at Hagrid trying to put a little cardigan with six arms over a skrewt.

"Maybe this is one of the tasks, pay attention Diggory!"

"Whatever you say Georgina."

"I will hex you, sixth year or not. Merlin only knows what my mother was thinking giving me that name. Oh, it's almost dinner!"

"Magic forbid George miss a meal. I don't know where she puts it all!"

Hagrid and Cedric both walked them back up to the castle, and Harry followed a wretched glare from Igor Karkaroff to where Vlad was sat at Slytherin, opposite his sister and next to the Durmstrang champion. He felt the familiar growling in his chest, shaking his head to clear it.

He wasn't jealous.

Dragons.

Vlad was still reeling from the fact he had an as yet unnamed task against several tonnes of fire breathing lizard. Samael couldn't breathe fire, nor did he seem inclined to hurt Vlad.

On the plus side - he did have Charlie Weasley. Who was only too keen to ensure Vlad had the best chance of at least surviving the task.

"So Chinese Fireball, Swedish Short-Snout, Welsh Green and Hungarian Horntail? How do we know who gets what?"

"Random selection on the day. To ensure you can only cheat so far, I guess. Dragons are tough at best, and for some hellish reason they only wanted nesting mothers so these gals are extra lethal. Magic won't penetrate their hide, and you aren't going to out muscle it. No offence, but you're smaller than a Horntails hatchling and not exactly built like Diggory or Krum."

"Ok. Anything I should be looking out for in particular? Specieswise? Can a Chinese Fireball turn into a giant ball of fire?"

"No, it's bright colours give it that name. The Horntail, funnily enough, has a very spiky tail. Sharp enough to cleave flesh from bone if it gets you right."

"Then I'm certain that's the one I'll get."

"In which case you have two choices. Blind it or distract it. I would prefer you don't permanently destroy their eyes, I love dragons."

"How do you distract a nesting mother from her eggs? Blimey, Norbert was a hatchling and didn't make a fun buddy. Granted, my own mother is basically a dragon... I'll figure it out. Thanks Charlie."

Charlie Weasley slung an arm around his shoulder, giving him a brotherly squeeze.

"You're basically family. Without the freckles and red hair. You and Harry. And even Draco and Hermione. Plus you're powerful, and obscenely intelligent but they still have three years learning, power and head teachers helping them. Nobody told me I couldn't give you dragon lessons."

"I should get out of here before the other handlers come back and think I'm flirting with you for information."

"Hilarious. You're too young for me Vladdo!"

"Wait. So you're..."

"Gay? Yep. Doesn't matter here, ask my boyfriend. Well, you could but he's still in Romania. Come on, I'll walk you to the Great Hall so the international Quidditch player with a horde of fan girls can make eyes at you."

Feeling his cheeks flame, Vlad glared at the dragon handler.

"Hilarious. He doesn't make eyes at me!"

"Whatever you say Vladdo. Get a shift on!"

Charlie left him in the Entrance Hall, heading back out to join the other handlers while Vlad joined the throng of students milling into the Great Hall for sustenance. At least he had a vague idea of what he was going in to now, and what against.

Even so, he really hated how some bizarre tension had built between him and Harry ever since the intersection of he and Viktor, and Harry and Cedric. It had taken a great deal of self control not to break Cedric's arm to get him off of Harry, and the longer he stood there looking at the two the harsher the sting was.

Harry being straight was one thing. Harry not being straight, but not being interested Vlad was entirely another. It was unfair on Harry to be angry, he knew but it hurt.

"Vladimir? Are you alright?"

Shaking his head to clear the cloud of angry thoughts, he could feel the presence of another creature nearby before he looked up to see Fleur Delacour. Several other Beauxbatons girls were not far away, a couple fussing with their hair and giggling in his direction. When he looked down, he saw his knuckles white with the fierce grip around Dragon Specifications Volume Four.

"Yeah. Fine. Just doing a little reading to kill time. Good luck for the task."

She smiled, then turned to rejoin her friends. Some continued to throw glances his way, and Vlad actually checked he hadn't spilled food on his clothes or left his zipper undone. Nothing embarrassing leapt out at him, so he put his books back and stood to leave. Fleur offered a perfectly friendly smile, and that made it all the more obvious a couple of the girls weren't just giving him friendly looks.

They had no chance. They weren't Harry.

Half a dozen blindness charms memorised, one intense session on dragon hazards with Bertrand (and Charlie, secretly) and a few learned Transfiguration spells later, Vlad was laying in bed staring at the canopy of his bed the night before the task. He and Harry still hung out, spent time together but something infinitesimal had shifted, and he wasn't sure what it was but Vlad didn't like it - Harry seemed withdrawn at times.

It made the ache in his chest return, and he was worried his newly fascinated Bulgarian friend would recognise the signs somehow.

"Don't give me that look Lily. Harry's already told you you can't come to the dragon task. At least, that's what he told me he said. He could have been talking about dipping you in custard for all I know."

Lily continued to look at him through beady eyes, making a couple of hissing noises Vlad couldn't understand before slithering up to loosely coil around where Phantom was already sleeping in a big ball of black fur. He should really sleep... exhaustion wouldn't help him pass the task.

He woke early to Phantom licking his ear, fuelled so much by nerves that he couldn't get close to sleeping again. Choosing some hard-wearing trousers and boots, Vlad pulled on a warm jumper and shoved his gloves and wand into a pocket before slinking out of a dorm full of snores, then a near-empty common room.

Barely done sleepily swallowing down some porridge - and ignoring a far-too-alert George Giles cover her eggs and bacon in chocolate sauce - Vlad and the other champions were each 'collected' from their seats. One champion per table it seemed. He was bolstered by Harry, Hermione and Draco shouting "good luck" when they caught him leaving, nerves well and truly setting in again as he was led to the large marquee tent in lurid colours.

There were four little sectioned off cubicles, their champion robes hanging off a hook in each one to indicate who was meant to be in each one.

"Oh look, we have our own rooms!"

"Vlad, behave! It's clearly not a real room, there's no bed!"

He had Tonks in his 'corner' as it were - Cedric had Dumbledore, Fleur Madam Maxime and Viktor had Karkaroff. He would probably have been chaperoned by Bertrand usually, but Vlad insisted he stay where he could keep an eye on Ingrid and Harry.

"Don't worry about your sister. She's accidentally ended up sitting with your friends instead of with the Slytherin and Durmstrang students."

Tonks managed to give him a sly whisper as everyone seperated to change, and Vlad felt infinitely better knowing Ingrid and Harry were safely together and still had Bertrand watching them.

"Thanks Tonks. I uh, I can dress myself though."

"Oh yes, put... that on."

The vile garb sadly fit him perfectly, so Vlad was left with no excuse not to wear it. The head teachers - plus Tonks - were all grouped near the tent door around a bag, apparently deep in conversation.

"Are you alright Vlad?"

"Peachy. Terrified."

Viktor placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling encouragingly. Even though they were competing against each other, he was still being a good friend. There was a sudden flash of light, accompanied by a shrill voice.

"Well well well, what do we have here?"

Cedric and Fleur immediately moved in closer, forming ranks tightly against Rita Skeeter.

"This tent eez for champions."

Skeeter hummed, mumbling to a floating acid green quill and notepad next to her head before offering a truly unconvincing, smarmy grin at the foursome. Marshalling what nerve he had left, Vlad grinned back.

"She wants an exclusive. Here's a direct quote you can use."

The reporter leaned in, showing way too much teeth and wearing far too much perfume.

"Yes?"

"Go away."

Before she and her photographer could do more than scowl in protest, the grown ups were returning. She managed to nab another photo of the four of them, no doubt highlighting how Vlad was the shortest of the four and ducking his head awkwardly before finally being herded out. Barty Crouch soon joined them, making Vlad feel off centre as a sense of wrongness filled the air around him.

"Each of you will take something from this bag. They represent four very real obstacles, and the order in which you will face them."

Some dark and juvenile part of him was amused when the bags contents seemed to attack Cedric. It wasn't fair on the other Hogwarts participant, because he had been nothing but nice to Vlad, but since Harry and Cedric had been hanging out, Harry had been acting weird. He pulled out a small bright red dragon with a number one around it's neck.

"The Chinese Fireball, and you'll be going first. Miss Delacour?"

Fleur pulled the Swedish Short Snout, and a number three. Viktor went next, and his was the Welsh Green complete with a little two card on it. Which left Vlad with...

"Last but not least, Hungarian Horntail! These represent a real dragon each, with a golden egg you must retrieve. The champions will not return to this tent, but rather will be moved to the second one for any medical attention required. So you are to wait here Mr Dracula."

"Figures. What if I die of boredom? Is that a disqualification?"

That won him wry grins from his fellow champions and Tonks, but disapproving looks from the heads of schools and departments. The stands outside were filling, Vlad could hear wooden footsteps and excitable chatter outside. This was all very real, especially when Dumbledore and Crouch both stuck their heads out of the tent, then came back in nodding.

"Very well. Mr Diggory, on the sound of the cannon-"

Filch had clearly jumped the gun a bit as the cannon sounded immediately, and Cedric straightened his shoulders out before walking out with Professor Dumbledore and Barty Crouch.

"Here we go!"

-YDHP-

I've written the First Task scene from both Harry and Vlad's POV, but I only realistically want to use one of them or the next chapter will drag out too much I think. Any preferences? I mean, Vlad's is obviously more in-person but Harry's is all four champions...