Harry woke up before the sun had even begun to rise. His entire night had been filled with restless sleep over the task. His sudden insomnia only led to more stress as he realised that going up against a dragon, while completely exhausted was not going to be a walk in the park. Even Cleo seemed able to sleep without issue, hung lazily around his bedpost as the light snores of the boys in his dorm filled the room. He continued rolling around in his bed for hours, sleep coming and going for moments at a time, a hundred thoughts - some completely irrelevant - bouncing in and out of his head. Why was Hermione suddenly so annoyed with Krum? Was he going to have to kill a dragon? Should he really have listened to Draco and left Cedric completely underprepared knowing full well the rest of the champions knew what was to come? Could he kill a dragon? Should he even be on good terms with Draco?
At some point, however, he realised he must have slept, as the dormitory came to life as the sun began to beam through the windows and the boys began to wake up. Harry looked over at Neville who was just walking out of the bathroom. Seemingly unsure of what to say to Harry, Neville mustered as comforting a smile as he could, but that only made Harry feel as though he was being sent off to his death.
He'd met with Professor Moody a few days earlier, who seemed to be aware that Harry knew what was to come. While Harry had expected to be shunned or disqualified or in someway punished, the professor had simply laughed, claiming it was a tradition of the tournament and it was only Dumbledore's self-righteousness that stopped him from telling either of the Hogwarts champions anything. In all honesty, Harry wasn't sure what to think of that. Sure, Dumbledore had a moral code to stick by, but where was that moral code when sending literal teenagers off to fight dragons.
In an effort to overcome his own nerves Harry began getting dressed for the day, before heading down to the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione. Without thinking, he went over to sit by Mary and Draco at the Slytherin table, not noticing his friends' hesitancy at coming over to join him. Eventually, most likely in support of Harry, they too sat at the Slytherin table. The five of them, plus Crabbe and Goyle, sat in mostly silence. Harry had expected Hermione to be listing off a load of things to be remembered, but it seemed she was too worried to nag. Ron's normal early morning cracks were gone, and Draco's snide remarks didn't make an appearance. Harry had piled his plate high with food but couldn't bring himself to touch any of it. No sleep and an empty stomach really didn't seem like a good idea before fighting a dragon.
"You'll do brilliantly." He looked up to see Marissa smiling at him, "You've got the best plan out there, we've thought this through and there's no way it'll fail. I give you my guarantee."
"And if her guarantee fails, you can hang out with Nick and haunt her as punishment," Ron said, finally earning a laugh out of Harry. By no means was he any less worried but at least he knew someone had faith in him.
After a short and pretty useless lunch, McGonagall had taken him over to the tent - he could hear the worry in her voice as she tried to encourage him before ushering him into the tent, where he and the other champions were. He had, less than politely, declined Bagman's offer of... well he didn't know what he was offering but Harry was too confused in the moment to really understand what was happening. He was now sat with Viktor, waiting for Fleur to finish with her dragon. He really wished he had eaten now, a sickly feeling sat in his stomach. Cleo was incredibly silent for the entire day, he knew she was awake but she had barely said a word. Then again, she was also going to be up close and personal with a dragon. Fleur seemed to be doing well, far better than Cedric. It had sounded like, while he had managed to retrieve his egg, he had gotten badly hurt.
All he had to do was go in, engorge the snake, collect the egg.
Engorge the snake, collect the egg.
Engorge the snake, collect the egg. Easy. So very, very easy.
The whistle blew again, and Krum stepped outside of the tent, his eyes never meeting Harry's. The moment he was outside, Harry stood up and started pacing. Any moment now, he'd be called into the arena. His legs felt numb, his heart was racing, his hands were shaking. We can do this. Cleo somehow exhumed confidence; confidence harry wished he could possess. All too soon, the whistle blew again, and he was out in front of the dragon.
Big, ugly, scaly, terrifying. Harry froze for a moment, taking in the beast before him. The Hungarian Horntail, the one dragon he hadn't wanted to face - though if he'd had the choice he wouldn't have faced any of them, roared in front of him, chains and shackles by its feet, eggs in a nest beside it - one blatantly gold in colour. Blocking out the gasps and shouts of the students, Harry pulled out his wand as he felt Cleo slide off him. "Here goes nothing," he said to himself, "Engorgio!" Putting as much energy as he could into the spell, he watched as Cleo grew to what looked to be near twice the size of the Basilisk. The dragon too seemed to turn its attention to the snake, roaring once more. The audience was deadly silent, their initial gasps and screams subdued, unsure of what to think now there were two beasts in the arena. Cleo hissed, too loudly for Harry to understand but enough to distract the dragon. At that moment, Harry rushed forward grabbing the egg and quickly shrinking Cleo back down to size knowing she would soon return to his arm. The dragon was immediately shackled and taken away by the handlers as the crowd erupted into applause. They were completely unsure of what happened, all they knew was Harry had practically unleashed a basilisk to battle the dragon while he completed his task.
"What a display!" Harry heard Bagman call out, "Who'd have thought of sending in a champion of your own to battle against the dragon? And with that fantastic performance, our youngest champion is the first to retrieve the egg! Absolutely incredible!" As Bagman went on, singing his praises, he saw Hagrid, McGonagall, and Moody coming over to congratulate him, all three beaming at him. He had done it, he had survived.
"Some excellent wandwork there, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said, full of pride as Hagrid blubbered through praises for the boy. He was hurried over to the medical tent where Madame Pomfrey was busily working over Cedric. Harry's adrenaline was on an all-time high, he didn't need checking over, not only had he survived, he had survived unscathed. Sitting still right now was out of the picture. Soon enough, Cedric lay asleep in his cubicle while Madame Pomfrey ran a few checks over Harry. Though she was reluctant to dismiss him so soon after facing a dragon, she knew trying to calm him down was a losing battle and she let him leave. As he turned out of the medical tent he nearly fell back in as he felt someone jump into a hug. Marissa, clearly incredibly worried, though she had been good at hiding it had immediately bounced into him, her excitement and nerves all falling out of her mouth at once as she began congratulating Harry though it was muffled through the hug. Behind her, he could hear Hermione saying how amazing it was, marks on her face from where she'd been clinging out of pure anxiety. As soon as Mary let go of him, Ron patted him on the back with a quick, "You were the best out there, no competition." Harry really still hadn't taken his victory in, but finally, he felt able to relax somewhat.
"Come on Harry," Ron turned to him as the two girls headed off together, "they'll be ready to give your scores now." They walked back into the enclosure together, Harry noticing a movement in the ground as he took a look around. "You were fantastic Cleo," he whispered as she wrapped herself on his arm again. I am completely aware of that.
He looked back up to the five judges, sitting on five raised seats draped in gold. "You'll be marked out of ten by each of them, fifty in all," he heard Ron whisper. He hadn't really focused on the scores, just the survival - but now he was glad for Draco and Marrissa's Wow-Factor idea. He didn't just want to survive this tournament, he wanted to win.
Madame Maxime gave him a mark of nine - outraging Ronald as "There was nothing to mark you down for!"
Dumbledore and Crouch gave the same score, still much to the infuriation of the Weasely boy.
Ludo Bagman gave a mark of a ten - "As he should" came from Ron.
And finally, Igor Karkaroff gave him a four. "What?" Ron shouted, of course not heard by the judges over the incredibly loud audience, "A four? A bloody four? I'd like to see him come down here and do better!"
"No need for that now Ron," Harry and Ron turned to see Charlie Weasely stood behind them. He shook Harry's hand with a smile, "Congratulations Harry, that score puts you in first place. You just beat Krum by one point." Harry was overjoyed, and completely in disbelief. He was ready at any moment to wake up and realise this was a dream before the actual tournament - nothing could bring him down from a high like this.
I really hope you guys enjoyed that chapter, I know the actual tournament bit was relatively short but I felt like if the plan was going to work it would be quick and simple! Please do vote and comment, it really means a lot to me to hear what you guys think of it all :)