A/N:

Hi! New chapter.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading this story so far. I'm very grateful for the reception it has been getting, and I really enjoy reading all of the comments.

Thanks as always to BingBong for his help editing this chapter, as well as fielding a thousand of my annoying story related questions per week.

"Astoria," Daphne said seriously.

"Yes?"

"Are we going to talk about the kiss today?"

"No."

"Okay."

Daphne had been asking Astoria if she wanted to talk about 'the kiss' for the past two days, but her answer was still in the negative.

While Tracey found it incredibly amusing, Daphne was quite shaken up to have witnessed her little sister kiss a boy, even if just on the cheek, and wanted to know what it meant for Astoria's relationship with Harry. At this point, Daphne would even just like to know how Astoria's first date went, but Astoria refused to speak on the subject even once since getting into the carriage with her and Tracey a couple days prior.

In fact, Astoria wasn't speaking much at all since the date, and that troubled Daphne more than anything else.

A quiet Astoria was not a good Astoria, from her experience.

UGHHH! Astoria screamed into her pillow once Daphne had left her room. Why did I kiss him!? He probably hates me now, I didn't even ask for his permission, and I always tease him but I don't know if he actually likes me, because I've been dropping hints and he's not picking them up, and he said he was glad it was a date and that he'd like to go on more in the future, but that isn't an excuse to just walk up and kiss someone that you're not even officially dating-

The primary reason Astoria had been so quiet for the past two days was because her head was filled with a constant stream of regret and self-doubt. She didn't regret kissing him per se, as she had found it incredibly fun, even if it was just on the cheek. The issue was that the second she got into the carriage she realized that she wasn't sure if Harry had liked it.

At the time, she was pretty sure he would, but then she got reflecting and realized that while she had been rather obvious about her romantic interest in the boy over the past few weeks, he had been rather mild in reciprocating.

Sure, he had been the one to ask her out on the date, but she was the one that had to tell him that it was a date! And while he may have said he'd like to go on more dates in the future, Harry was so dense and oblivious that for all she knew, he could've meant playdates.

How am I ever going to face him now? She thought, burying her head under her covers and wishing she could turn back time and get a redo of the end of the date. And even if he forgives me, what will I do if he doesn't want me to kiss him again…?

I really want her to kiss me again, Harry thought on his way through the courtyard.

When he wasn't thinking about the dragon he was set to fight, which admittedly was most of the time, he was thinking about Astoria.

Is it possible that she actually likes me? He questioned, trying to put all of the hints together in his head. She said she wanted to go on more dates with me, and she even kissed me before she left…maybe all that teasing was because she liked me?

Harry shook himself out of his musings, as he saw his target sitting amongst a group of his friends.

"Cedric!" He called. "Do you have a moment?"

A few of Cedric Diggory's friends laughed and flashed their 'Potter Stinks' badges at him, which he readily ignored, but Cedric said a few quick words to the group and ran up to Harry anyway.

"Hi Harry, what's up?" Cedric said, before glancing back at his friends and giving Harry a sheepish look. "I'm sorry about the badges by the way, I tried to get them to stop wearing them, but they won't listen…"

"Don't worry about it." Harry said, having gotten used to it and rather stopped caring. "Listen, the first task is going to involve dragons, and I thought you should know."

"Seriously?" Cedric asked, his face going pale.

"Seriously." Harry confirmed with a grave expression. "They're being kept in the Forbidden Forest until the day of the task, in case you wanted to sneak around and do your own research."

"I will," Cedric nodded. "And thanks, Harry, I know you didn't have to do this. Especially with everything going around the school at the moment, what with the badges and all…"

"Like I said, don't worry about it," Harry assuaged. "Besides, I'm sure Fleur and Viktor already know as well, if the way their headmasters have been stressing over them is any indication."

"You're probably right," Cedric agreed, "I have a feeling Hogwarts is the only school that's going to be playing fair in this competition."

"We can't be that fair if we have two champions," Harry shrugged. "The other headmasters will probably use that as an excuse to help their representatives in any way they can short of completing the tasks for them."

"All the more reason for us to look out for each other I guess, right?"

"Right." Harry replied, looking over to where Cedric's friends were still laughing and playing with their badges.

Cedric followed his gaze and grimaced. "I'll tell them off again and make sure they stop wearing them this time, I promise."

"Luna?" Astoria said to the girl sitting next to her in Potions class.

"Yes, Astoria?" She replied, in the middle of dissecting a Mothwing Butterfly.

"I have this friend, you see," she began, "that kissed this boy – on the cheek, mind you. But now my friend isn't sure if the boy liked the kiss and now she's afraid to speak to him again in case he says he didn't."

"That's fascinating," Luna replied, as she plucked an antenna from the deceased insect.

"I know, but what should I do?"

"Don't you mean, what should your 'friend' do?"

Astoria floundered around with her hands making vague gestures, crushing the butterfly wing she was trying to preserve in the process. "Yes! Exactly, what should my friend do?"

"Well, the way I see it, you have three alternatives."

"My friend has three alternatives?"

"Yes, right. Your friend." Luna nodded sagely. "First, you can get someone to go ask Harry if he liked it, so you can know if you need to stay away from him or not."

"I don't know, that's still a bit scary…what are my other options?"

"Second alternative, you can never speak to Harry ever again." Luna suggested helpfully. "That way, he'll be kept in a constant state of both liking and not liking the kiss. I call that idea Schrödinger's Harry."

Astoria didn't like the sound of Schrödinger's Harry. "And the last one?"

Luna hummed. "Well, we're in potions class, after all. You can always slip some Amortentia into his morning orange juice. Then you'll know for sure that even if he didn't like the last kiss, he'll like the next one and be begging on his knees for more."

"I can't do that!" She shouted, scandalized, and floundered some more, causing the remainder of the butterfly corpse she had been mangling to fall off her desk. She would obviously never use a love potion on Harry.

But she had to admit, she did like the mental image Luna had conjured up…

"Miss Greengrass," a menacing voice from behind her intoned. "I believe this belongs to you?"

Astoria turned around slowly, and sheepishly accepted the pulped butterfly carcass from Professor Snape.

"The assignment was to dissect the butterfly, not destroy it." He said disparagingly. "Detention in my office tonight, for wasting valuable school resources."

Snape looked over to Luna's desk, and his scowl vanished for a moment, overtaken by genuine surprise. He quickly plastered the scowl back on his face however, and Astoria almost believed she had imagined it.

"And you will be joining her in detention tonight as well, Miss Lovegood."

Snape sneered at the two girls one last time before spinning away and walking back down the row of tables.

Astoria turned to look at her friend's desk, where she saw Luna had forgone dissection in favor of pulling the insect into a bunch of tiny pieces and rearranging them into a startlingly accurate self-portrait.

"Wow, that's really good!" Astoria praised.

"Thanks," she replied.

Harry woke up on the morning of the first task, feeling rather worse for wear. While he had previously made arrangements with the Hungarian Horntail, he had no way to guarantee that she would be chosen to face him that day. He also wasn't totally discounting the possibility that the dragon's word was less dependable than Cory had claimed, and he'd be eaten in short order after entering the arena either way.

Unsurprisingly, Harry didn't find he had much of an appetite, so he forced down a light breakfast and headed off early to the arena where the first task would be staged.

"Harry!" A voice called out to him on his way out of the school. "Come here for a second, boy."

Harry turned to see Professor Moody waving at him in a 'follow me' gesture. Puzzled and only slightly suspicious, Harry followed the man into an unpopulated alcove off a hallway.

"Have you figured out your plan for the task today?" Moody asked once they were alone.

Harry thought about how much he should be revealing to the teacher, and decided that the correct answer in any case was 'as little as possible'.

"Yes."

"Good, good." The man replied, his eyes darting around everywhere as if expecting an enemy to jump out of the shadows at any moment. "You know what you'll be facing?"

"Yes," Harry said. He considered lying, but figured it was expected that the champions would find out what the task consisted of before the actual day anyway. After all, the organizers of the tournament didn't seriously expect them to face a dragon without at least having time to prepare, did they?

"And how will you approach it?"

"I'm just going to fight it." Harry didn't like how many questions the man had, and was certainly not going to reveal his scheme.

Moody froze.

Is this kid stupid? He thought. He's going to try to fight the dragon in a 1-on-1 duel?

"I have a better idea," the ex-auror suggested. "I hear you're a good flier. Why don't you try summoning your broom, and outflying the dragon?"

Is this man stupid? Harry thought. He wants me to fly against a creature whose primary method of movement for its whole life has been flying? Anyway, I'm sure Ron will be happy to know he thinks in line with 'Mad-Eye' Moody...

"Thanks, but I think I'll stick with my plan, Professor. Have a nice day."

Alastor Moody looked at the boy incredulously as he walked away.

I hope they don't ask me to pick up all the pieces after the dragon's done with him, he thought.

The four champions were assembled in a tent just outside the arena that had been constructed for the first task. They had been asked to appear in front of the tournament judges: the three headmasters of the represented schools, as well as Bartemius Crouch Sr. who was representing the Ministry. There was also a rotund man who Harry gathered was an ex-athlete of some kind, but he honestly wasn't sure what purpose he served other than to run around and act important.

"For the first task," Crouch began, "each of you will be asked to retrieve a golden egg guarded by a dragon."

Harry looked around, and as he had expected, none of the other champions looked surprised.

"The egg will be hidden amongst the dragon's real eggs, and you'd best believe they will be defending it with their lives. You will be evaluated based on the speed and elegance with which you finish the task, and causing unnecessary damage to the other eggs will result in a point deduction."

With his explanation out of the way, Crouch gestured for the rotund man to step forward with a velvet bag. "While normally we would leave the assignment of dragons to the Goblet of Fire, due to its…previous unreliability, you will instead be randomly selecting a miniaturized dragon out of a bag. This idea is courtesy of our Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports at the Ministry of Magic, Ludo Bagman."

At this the rotund man, Ludo apparently, beamed in pride.

"Right then!" He said brightly. "Let's start with the Beauxbatons champion! Just stick your hand into the bag and pull a dragon."

"Wait!" Harry yelled as Fleur was about to put her hand in the bag. "Isn't this unfair?"

Everyone looked puzzled by Harry's outburst, and he saw a flicker of annoyance cross Ludo's features before he schooled them back into his normal smile. "And how would that be?"

"Well," Harry said, quickly trying to think up a scheme that would guarantee him the Horntail. "Even if we're not looking, we can still feel the dragons, right? I mean, for example, if there was a Hebridean Black in there, you'd be able to feel the horns and avoid it. So that means whoever chooses first would have an advantage over the others, wouldn't it?"

Everyone looked at Ludo Bagman expectantly.

"Uh, well," the man faltered. "Of course, that only works if you know every breed of dragon by feel! And I doubt the four of you know every dragon breed by feel."

Ludo wiped a bead of sweat off his brow, hoping that his improvised response would be enough to deflect any negative reception the other organizers may have given his idea. While they all looked at him dubiously, none of them said anything, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"So with that concern mollified, let's continue!" He said, eager to move on. "We'll keep things simple and go from oldest to youngest."

The champions spoke amongst themselves for a moment, establishing the order of their birthdays. In the end, being the oldest, Fleur once again reached towards the bag to select her dragon.

Ultimately, Harry didn't need to pick first, he just needed to ensure he put the thought of feeling the dragons into the other champion's heads, just in case it wasn't there already. He assumed that if they knew the task would contain dragons, they would also know which dragons were prepared, as he doubted he had been the only one to go snooping around the forest. And anyone who saw the dragons would know which one, even amongst the other deadly creatures, was the one to avoid.

Sure enough, Harry watched as all three champions fished around in the bag, and drew any dragon that wasn't the Hungarian Horntail. It wasn't hard after all, the spikes lining its back and head would've made it a pretty easy dragon to identify through touch alone.

Resisting the urge to let out a breath of relief that at least this part of the plan was working so far, he reached into the bag and drew the final remaining dragon.

"Ah," Ludo smiled. "The Hungarian Horntail. The most fearsome of them all…"

While third years and below weren't technically allowed to watch the first task, Astoria snuck in anyway, sandwiched between Daphne and Tracey. The seventh year prefect stationed outside of the arena looked like he was about to protest, but a simultaneous glare from all three girls silenced him.

Remus Lupin walked in, disguised, with his head shaven and his scars covered with makeup. Next to him was a perfectly groomed, large black dog on a leash.

"Sorry sir, but no pets allowed," the prefect said.

"Ah, don't mind him," said Remus, gesturing to the 'dog'. "This is my service animal. We'll stay at the top so as not to distract anyone. Good day!"

Before the boy could protest, Remus and Sirius walked through the gate and into the stands, where they found a particularly unassuming corner to hunker down into.

"Place your bets here!" Called the Weasley twins, wandering around just outside of the stands in a crowd full of students. "5 to 1 odds that Harry Potter survives, 20 to 1 that he wins!"

A small girl with wide eyes and dirty blonde hair walked up to them. "I'll place two galleons on Harry Potter to win."

"Sure thing!" The twins said in unison. "Just mark your name on this sheet."

Luna Lovegood, she wrote, and then handed the boys her two galleons.

Astoria's anxiety grew as she watched the other three contestants complete the task.

Dragons!? She thought. How is Harry possibly meant to steal an egg from a dragon!?

While Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor had all successfully retrieved their eggs, none of them had gotten through unscathed. And that's beside the fact they were all at least three years older, and vastly more experienced than Harry was.

Noticing the girl's apprehension, Tracey put a hand on her shoulder. While she would've loved to give Astoria some words of encouragement to relieve her worries, Tracey too had a hard time believing Harry would get through this task in one piece, so she kept her silence.

"Dragons!?" Remus whispered furiously to Sirius from the top of the stands. "What were they thinking?"

Sirius growled softly, and Remus knew his friend was just as angry about the situation as he was, if not more. Realizing that he probably had to play the role of the rational one here, Remus patted Sirius' flank. "Don't worry, I'm sure Dumbledore will intervene if anything goes wrong."

Sirius whined uncertainly.

Harry tentatively stepped into the arena to the cheers and jeers of the spectators. On the other side of the field, he spotted the massive dragon chained to the arena by thick steel fetters. She was positioned in front of three eggs – the two fakes he had made a few nights prior, and the golden egg he needed to retrieve to complete the task.

Harry and the Horntail stood motionless for a few seconds, staring at each other, until the dragon broke the calm by unleashing a terrifying roar.

The crowd flinched back in surprise, and immediately fell silent. Despite having seen three dragons before this one, the level of power and hatred the Horntail emanated was nothing like the others.

Astoria gasped, and squeezed Daphne's hand so tightly the older girl winced in pain. Daphne didn't complain however, and squeezed back just as hard. While she had never spoken to Harry, and didn't care much for the boy either way, she hardly wanted to witness his grisly demise at the jaws of a dragon. Besides, Astoria was rather fond of him, and Daphne was loath to see what would happen to the girl's mental state if her crush died right in front of her.

Sirius was just about ready to jump into the arena and fight the dragon himself, but Remus put a hand on his head. "Look at his eyes, Padfoot. He's not afraid – trust that he has a plan."

Sirius growled in response. While he did trust his godson, it took all of his willpower to not reveal himself right then and place himself in front of Harry, just in case.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. While everyone else present in the arena that day heard the fearsome roar of an enormous dragon, Harry heard it for the message that it was.

"Come, hatchling!" The dragon roared in Parseltongue. "You're to defeat me and steal my eggs – play the part convincingly!"

Thanking his lucky stars that the dragon had decided to keep her end of the bargain, Harry advanced on her with his wand raised.

"Move to the left!" The Horntail shouted, her speech masked in a bellow of rage.

Caught by surprise, Harry dove to the left just in time to avoid a blistering pillar of fire expelled from the dragon's mouth.

Woah! Harry reassessed how much effort he was going to have to put into this game of pretend. The Horntail really doesn't do things halfway, does she?

As he got to his feet and gathered his wits about him, he heard another warning and dashed to the right this time, waiting out the stream of fire behind a rock. When the flames died down, Harry emerged and raised his wand at the dragon.

"Fictus Impetus!" He whispered, recalling his dad's fake combat spell from the Marauder's notebook. With great force, a bolt of magic shot from his wand and towards the dragon. Upon impacting her scales, the spell exploded with a loud crack like a blast of thunder.

The Hungarian Horntail bellowed in pain and stumbled several steps back from the attack. Harry had to admit, the display was rather convincing, as he knew for a fact the spell would feel like a light tap on the arm to a human, and probably wouldn't even register on the nervous system of a dragon.

The crowd gasped, shocked by the incredibly powerful spell the young wizard had just cast. While they didn't know what spell it was, they knew it must have been amazing to have damaged a dragon.

Meanwhile, further up in the stands, a man and his dog narrowed their eyes in suspicion.

"That's James' spell!" Remus whispered excitedly to Sirius. "The dragon is acting! I'm not sure how he managed it, but Harry must have planned this out with the Horntail in advance!"

Sirius felt an emotion well up in his chest that he identified at once as a strong, all-encompassing pride. While he didn't want to overvalue his own contributions towards Harry's accomplishments today, and knew that the boy must have put in a lot of time and effort to set this up, he couldn't help but feel like the plan was reminiscent of something he himself would have done years ago.

Sirius watched Harry dance around the arena, dodging all of the Horntail's attacks a moment before they were launched, and sending his own 'attacks' back in turn. Witnessing first-hand the growth of his best friend's son and his own godson, Sirius felt his eyes begin to tear up.

James would've been so proud, he thought.

"Did you know he could do this?" Daphne asked, awestruck by Harry's powerful showing against the dragon.

"Of course!" Astoria lied, equally shocked as everyone else at the boy's display of skill. Within her, the deep anxiety she was feeling at the start of the match slowly shifted into hope that Harry might be able to get out of this mess unharmed.

Was he always this strong? Astoria wondered. Maybe the younger Slytherins were right to be afraid of him after all…

Although none of the spells were real and he had advance warning of the dragon's attacks, after a few minutes of 'fighting', Harry could feel himself starting to tire.

"We now enter the endgame," the Hungarian Horntail roared. "Make sure to sell it well, for both our sakes."

In a spectacular show of strength, she pulled against the chains so hard that they snapped right out of the ground with a sharp ping noise. She roared in triumph and the crowd gasped, some of them fleeing the arena in fear for their own safety. Harry saw the dragon trainers mobilize from the sidelines to wrangle the loose creature, so he acted quickly.

"Begone, beast!" He shouted, and put all of his focus into one final silent cast of his dad's original spell.

The force of his spell shook the stadium, and the dragon let out such a compelling wail of agony that he almost believed he had actually hurt her. She faked a limp and took off into the sky, one wing lagging behind slightly to cause an intentionally uneven flight.

The crowd erupted into cheers, and Harry was pretty sure he could make out the start of a chant forming from the Gryffindor section.

I didn't actually damage her, did I? He thought uneasily, as the dragon clumsily flew over his head.

"It was a good performance, fledgling," she said in Parseltongue, her voice reaching Harry's ears as she easily dodged a few grounding spells from the trainers. "Perhaps in another century or so we can have a real spar."

Of course I didn't, he realized as her flight evened out ever so slightly, confirming his suspicion that this had been just another part of the performance. I can't tell if I'm relieved or disappointed…

Harry watched the dragon fly away and out of sight, much to the distress of Charlie Weasley and the rest of his team.

As the dragon disappeared into the sky, the cheers from the crowd engulfed him.

Gildeory Lockhart may have been the worst teacher I've ever had, Harry thought, but he was right about one thing – fame is indeed a fickle friend.

Shrugging, he walked over to the dragon's 'eggs', and picked up the gold one, lifting it up high above his head for all to see.

The roar of the crowd was deafening.

"Oh my gosh you were amazing!" Astoria said as she ran into the healer's tent where Harry had undergone his post-match examination. He was alone in the tent, sitting on a bed lost in thought, and she wrapped him up in a hug before abruptly pulling away and looking down at her feet shamefully.

"Um, sorry. I didn't mean to do that. Are you okay?"

Harry looked at the girl oddly, unsure where her bashful attitude was coming from.

"Yeah, totally fine. Madam Pomfrey gave me the all clear, I'm just hiding out here for a bit before I get swamped by everyone." He said, thinking back to all the cheers he had gotten at the end of the task.

"Oh, sorry." Astoria mumbled. "I didn't realize you wanted to be alone. I'll just leave then…"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Astoria?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you being…" Harry searched around for the correct word. "Weird?"

"I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Astoria." Harry said seriously, taking her hand in his. "What's bothering you?"

The way he looked at her so honestly and openly made her hesitation break, and she finally said what was on her mind.

"I'm sorry for kissing you!" She got out in a rush, almost blurring the whole sentence into one word.

Harry was stunned for a moment, and before he could open his mouth to reply, she kept going.

"At first I wasn't sure if I could still be friends with you like before without kissing you again, but then today when I saw the dragon and I knew you could've died and I thought 'wow that's really selfish of you Astoria' and I realized that we can still be friends even without kissing, even though I want to kiss, because I like being your friend, and I'm really sorry for kissing you I know you hated it-"

"Wait!" Harry interjected, finally putting a stop to the girl's speech.

"What is it?" Astoria asked, her eyes looking like they were on the verge of tears.

"How did you come to the conclusion that I hated the kiss?"

Astoria thought about that for a second. How had she come to the conclusion that he hated the kiss? She tried backtracking her seventy-two hour long train of thought, but came up dry.

"Um, did you not?" She eventually asked.

"No, quite the opposite really." He blushed.

Astoria's eyes lit up and her heart soared. "So does that mean I can do it again?"

"If you want…" Harry's blush deepened.

Astoria leaned over to where Harry sat on the bed, prepared to plant her second ever kiss on Harry's cheek. The moment before she made contact, the blinding flash and unmistakable shutter sound of a camera filled the tent, causing Harry to instinctively turn his head towards the source of the commotion.

Both of their minds cleared entirely as their lips met.

"Harry Potter," a delighted female voice began, an enchanted quill scribbling on a notepad in the air next to her, "mere minutes after defeating one of the deadliest breeds of dragons in a duel, rushes to his lover for a kiss."

She sighed. "What a perfect headline that will make!"

The two teens turned to look at their uninvited photographer, but both were still too stunned from the accidental lip contact to speak.

"The girl- what's your name, girl?"

"Astoria."

"Victoria, who is- what year are you in, girl?"

"Third."

"Who is much younger than him, seems to hold a tight rein on their relationship." She said matter-of-factly, glancing at the notepad to make sure the quill was doing its job correctly and copying her words down. "While Harry Potter may have no problem dealing with dragons, he seems to be weak to a pretty face – take note, witches."

"People keep telling me I'm pretty lately," Astoria said to Harry, still too shocked to be rational. "Do you think I'm pretty too?"

"Of course I think you're pretty," Harry replied, still too shocked to be shy. "I already told you that on our date the other day."

"You didn't say I was pretty," Astoria frowned. "You said that I was nice, and gorgeous."

"Oh. Well I think you're nice, gorgeous, and pretty."

"Aw, thanks." Astoria blushed.

The woman, who Harry's subconscious had decided was probably a news reporter, smiled widely at the 'content' she had just received.

"The young Victoria is insatiable," she continued monologuing to her quill, "and Harry Potter bends to her every whim, showering her with the love and attention she so desperately seeks."

"You bend to my every whim?" Astoria asked him.

"I mean, I wouldn't- Hey, wait!" Harry's brain had finally caught up to the situation, and he turned to look at the woman in the tent with them. "What are you doing here!?"

"Oh, don't mind me!" The woman said. "I'm no one, really. Just keep chatting away and forget that I'm even here."

Astoria's brain had also started to unscramble, and she narrowed her eyes at the reporter. "That's kind of creepy, you know. We're literally just kids."

"Yeah, are you even allowed to be here?" Harry continued. "Surely there's a law somewhere that wouldn't allow you to interview two minors without a parental consent form or something?"

"Well, I'll be going now! It was nice talking!" The woman chirped, and promptly disappeared from the tent.

"That was weird," Astoria said after she had left. "Why was Rita Skeeter talking to us?"

"Rita Skeeter?" Harry asked questioningly.

"Oh, she's a journalist for the Daily Prophet. She specializes in writing controversial and scandalous articles about various witches and wizards…oh." Astoria stopped speaking as she realized exactly why Rita Skeeter was talking to them.

"You don't suppose she got a picture of our kiss, do you?" She asked nervously.

"I have a pretty good feeling she did." Harry replied, feeling a bit sick to his stomach. "You don't suppose she'll actually use it in the paper, do you?"

"I have a pretty good feeling she will…"

Harry left the tent and headed back to school, bracing himself for the storm of questions, comments, and accusations he was surely about to receive after his 'fight' with the dragon. He hadn't been in the mood to handle it before meeting Astoria, but getting his first ever 'real' kiss had lightened his mood considerably, and he now felt ready to face pretty much anything. What he wasn't expecting was to see Sirius in dog form, waiting for him by a small grouping of trees near Hagrid's hut.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked quietly once he had gotten closer. "You're way too close to the school!"

"I know, Harry, and I won't stay long." Sirius said as he shifted back into a human. "But I wanted to congratulate you on your victory today."

Harry shrugged guiltily. "It wasn't really a victory, to be honest. The whole thing was planned in advance, in exchange for stealing and returning the dragon's real eggs to her."

"Of course it was planned in advance," Sirius rolled his eyes. "That's what I'm congratulating you for!"

"But I lied to everyone," Harry confessed.

"Exactly!" Sirius exclaimed loudly. Harry flinched and looked around, but thankfully there was no one around to notice the conspicuous escaped convict. "I bet you're already starting to build a reputation as one of the strongest wizards of your generation thanks to that performance today. Do you know how useful that deception can be when used against your enemies?"

Harry thought about it, and realized that Sirius had a point.

"I guess you're right…I still feel bad though."

"You can feel bad after you've won the tournament.." Sirius said with a grin. "Anyways, I have to get going now, but I'll see you next weekend. And remember, don't tell anyone the fight was staged!"

Harry agreed, but was already making a mental list of exceptions to the word 'anyone', starting with a certain blonde-haired Slytherin girl.

"Oh, and Harry?"

"Yes, Sirius?"

"Your dad would've been proud of you today."

Harry didn't trust his voice at that moment, so he just nodded in response.

When Astoria walked into the Slytherin common room that night, she was greeted by the sight of her old friend group standing around the fireplace. Before she could climb up the stairs to her room, one of the girls called out to stop her.

"Astoria! Wait…"

Astoria turned to face her. It was Alice – one of her best friends before everyone stopped talking to her.

"Hi…?" Astoria said tentatively.

Alice shuffled around awkwardly and glanced back at her friends, before taking a deep breath and looking Astoria in the eyes. "We just wanted to say we're sorry. We never minded that you were dating Harry, we were just afraid of Draco…"

Astoria stared at the girl silently, not bothering to correct her about her current relationship status with Harry.

"We're really sorry," she continued, "and we promise we'll be better friends in the future."

Astoria wasn't sure she'd ever like or trust the girls as much as she used to, but she didn't have anything against them either.

"Apology accepted, I guess."

The girls collectively exhaled a sigh of relief, and Astoria realized something didn't add up. "Why the sudden change of heart though? Aren't you still afraid of the big bad Draco Malfoy?"

The girls looked around sheepishly at the obvious jab. "Well, Draco is terrified of Harry now, and you're dating him," Alice said. "So if he got mad at us for talking to you, Harry would get involved, and Harry just beat a Hungarian Horntail, so Draco knows he wouldn't stand a chance."

"How interesting." Astoria said, still not bothering to correct the girl. Technically, she still wasn't actually dating Harry. Yet.

One of the girls from the back of the group who Astoria didn't know as well spoke up timidly. "Um, Astoria? How did you start dating Harry, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Well," Astoria replied, really starting to like the sound of this whole 'dating Harry' thing, "I ran into him when I got lost in Hogsmeade towards the start of the year, and he was worried for my safety so he walked me back to the High Street."

It wasn't exactly what happened, but it was close enough and sounded rather cute that way.

"That's so romantic!" One of the girls squealed.

"Yup!" Astoria beamed. "And then he bought me candy from Honeydukes."

More squeals.

"So that's what you were doing there with him!" Alice said. "You told me it was just a coincidence you guys were there at the same time!"

Astoria frowned. "To be fair, at the time I was hesitant to tell you the truth, which based on how you ignored me for the past two weeks, wasn't that bad of a decision."

Alice looked down at the ground shamefully. "I'm sorry, it was just Draco…" She rationalized, but even to her own ears it sounded weak.

They all sat there chatting in the common room for a little while longer, and it did a lot to dissolve some of the lingering awkward tension between the girls. Astoria told them stories about Harry and what they had been up to, including all about her previous date with him in Hogsmeade.

"That sounds so nice," Alice sighed. "I want a boyfriend too..."

"Especially one as strong as Harry," another girl said.

"And as dreamy as Harry."

"He's a bit scary, but it's sort of exciting…"

Astoria looked at her friends in horror. "No no no! Harry is off limits! He's mine, you guys go find someone else!"

Alastor Moody made sure no one was following him before stepping out of the school wards and disapparating.

He didn't bother taking another shot of Polyjuice Potion, and his appearance slowly shifted away from the ex-auror he was disguised as and into the Death Eater, Barty Crouch Jr.

"My Lord," he said as he entered the old house in Little Hangleton where his weakened master was currently hiding. "I bring news of the boy."

"Good," hissed the voice of Lord Voldemort. "Did he survive the first task?"

"Yes. Not only did he survive, but he beat back the dragon as well. A Hungarian Horntail, no less."

Voldemort hummed in thought. Even he hadn't been able to beat a dragon at Harry's age. In fact, it had taken him decades before he could even attempt it, and it certainly hadn't been against a Hungarian Horntail.

"The boy is more powerful than we initially believed," he hissed. "He has had someone to help him, no doubt."

"My Lord." Barty bowed deferentially. "Could it have been Dumbledore, perhaps?"

"No. That old fool wouldn't let any of his pawns get so powerful so young. He's too afraid of another repeat…"

"It's Sirius Black!" called a voice from the corner of the room. Barty watched as Peter Pettigrew, who he hadn't even known was there, emerged from the shadows.

"I'm s-s-sorry My Lord!" Pettigrew bowed deeply, apologizing for his outburst. "Sirius Black escaped f-f-from Azkaban last year, and w-we know he was in contact with Harry this spring!"

"Sirius Black, you say?" The Dark Lord mused. The blood traitor had been quite the thorn in his side during the First Wizard War, and had indeed been a close friend of the Potters. While the world at large still believed him to be the Potters' betrayer, he of course knew the truth of the matter.

"It is possible," He eventually declared. "Barty, continue monitoring the boy. Try to prevent him from dying in the tournament, but not at risk of exposing your cover; we want him alive, but not as much as we need an informant within Hogwarts."

Barty Crouch Jr. bowed, and swiftly left the house to return to the school before anyone noticed his absence.

"As for us," Voldemort said, turning to Pettigrew. "We will deal with Sirius Black."

Sirius Black sat on the couch in the living room of 12 Grimmauld Place that night, absent-mindedly petting Max. Kreacher had gone to visit his daughter in France, and had made it clear to Sirius that if he didn't look after the Black family puppy while he was away, there would be consequences.

"Harry was amazing today!" Sirius said aloud. "To think he managed to get the dragon on his side!"

Max barked at something that was on the television.

"True," replied Sirius, "I should've done more to help him…but seriously! I didn't expect them to throw dragons at the poor kids for the first task!"

Max whined when a commercial for dog treats came on.

"You're right, Max. 'Expect the unexpected.' Maybe I should do a little more research on the tournament before the next task…"

Later, when Max had been taken on his final walk for the night and tucked into bed, Sirius went through the Black family library, looking for information on the Triwizard Tournament.

Before he could make any productive progress, something caught his attention.

"The Yule Ball!?" He exclaimed.

Perfect.