November to December 1994, 4th year

When Harry had set out to find the potions ingredients he needed for his Pensieve in the Forbidden Forest and seen the smoke in the distance, he hadn't expected to run into dragons of all things. Four nesting mother dragons, one more vicious than the other, fiercely protective of their eggs.

They weren't even hidden.

Yes, the enclosure was deep in the forest and students weren't supposed to enter said forest, but still …

The creatures were beautiful. Beautiful and dangerous. Harry watched for a long time as the dragon-keepers flitted about, trying to calm them down and keep them from burning the whole forest to the ground. He sneaked closer at one point to examine the dragons properly, to get a feeling of their inherent magic, and to talk to them. They didn't speak Parseltongue, though.

Stealing an egg from a nesting mother was impossible. So Harry just wouldn't bother.

Just a few days ago, Professor Moody had asked him, "Got a plan, Potter?" and Harry had given him a toothy smiled and replied, "Yes, Professor." and that plan had not changed in the least – Harry was going into the First Task with a plan. A plan to do absolutely nothing. Or maybe he would do something. If he felt like it. But he certainly wasn't going to put any effort in. It was the principle of the thing – he hadn't wanted to participate and now they were forcing him. There was no way he would use his Gift for something like this.

Knowing his luck, Harry would get the most dangerous of the four dragons – the one with the spiky tail. And, having seen the dragons for himself, Harry knew none of them would just let him stand there, in the vicinity of their precious eggs, while hundreds of people were watching. So he couldn't actually do nothing at all without endangering his wellbeing. But protecting himself didn't count as actively participating, did it?

When the day of the First Task came around, Harry wasn't the only one entirely unsurprised by the miniature dragons coming out of the bag (like letting the cat out of the bag). In fact, out of the four champions, only Diggory appeared to have not known what they would face, beforehand. Harry wondered whether anyone else had stumbled upon the dragon enclosure by accident, like he had. Or maybe their headmasters had been snooping around for clues to ensure their champions would have an advantage.

Harry was also unsurprised to draw the most dangerous of the bunch. The dragon with the spiky tail, aptly called a 'Hungarian Horntail'. He was wrong about having to watch out, though. The dragon watched him with piercing, yellow eyes, but Harry wasn't moving from his spot, wasn't doing anything at all – and so they just stared at each other, while the crowd became increasingly confused. Harry could hear them talking to each other, wondering what was going on.

"Mr Potter," Mr Crouch eventually said, his voice magically amplified. "You entered a magical contract with the Goblet of Fire to actively participate in this Tournament. You must at least try to get the Golden Egg."

Harry scowled. He had done no such thing.

The judges were all looking at him with piercing stares that matched his dragon's.

"Mr Potter," Crouch repeated sternly.

Harry grumbled. Fine. Fine.

He scrutinized the dragon in contemplation, then nodded to himself. Where was his wand again? Can't have everyone watch him use his Gift just like that, after all. There it was. Alright. And the incantation – He didn't know the incantation. Oh, well. He would have to make something up. Harry had learned Latin. At some point. He couldn't say whether that had been at school or self-taught, though. He didn't remember.

The dragon fell asleep instantly.

Harry tried to summon the egg, discovered someone had been smart enough to put anti-summoning spells on it, decided breaking said spells would bring about unwanted attention, and then walked right past the dragon and picked up the egg.

He only remembered that he was supposed to wait for his score to be announced, when he had already returned to the champions' tent and was enduring the school nurse's fussing. It didn't matter, anyway.

(He later found out that the Beauxbatons champion had tried something very similar, almost exactly identical, only her dragon had set her skirt on fire. He also found out that no one had bothered to switch all the real dragon eggs for fakes and some poor dragon babies had accidentally gotten crushed during the Durmstrang champion's attempt. Idiots, the lot of them.)

o

"You knew all along? And you didn't tell me?"

Harry flinched back from the betrayed tone in Theodore's voice. It made the broken chair he had repaired mere moments ago creak oddly. They were in one of the abandoned classrooms, having just escaped the annoying reporter that kept popping up everywhere, demanding interviews.

Harry looked at Susan, who just looked back, resigned.

"Of course," she said in a tired voice, putting her face in her hands, not caring that the table she was resting her elbows on was covered in dust and cobwebs. "What did we expect? That you would allow us to help you prepare? No, never. At least I wasn't worried sick until I saw them bring the first dragon in. No more than I already was because of the Tournament in general." She paused and then straightened up. "Wait a minute. You knew. That means you could have told Cedric! Or I could have told Cedric! He might have actually done better, had he known he would face a dragon. You son of a – No, sorry, I'm sure your mother was lovely. You bloody arsehole!"

Harry raised his hands defensively. "Hey, how was I to know the other two champions would cheat? And it's not like I actually went looking for hints, I just stumbled upon them by accident."

"So what? Have you no school pride? Don't you think Hufflepuff deserves some recognition?"

"By cheating?"

Susan froze. "Oh. I didn't realise –" She bit her lip. "But if every other champion knew about it, then it wouldn't really count, right?"

Harry raised an eyebrow.

His friend deflated. "Alright. It would have been cheating."

"So … Am I forgiven?"

Susan rolled her eyes. "Just this once."

Harry brightened. Then he turned to Theodore.

"Your puppy eyes won't work on me," Theodore grumbled.

"But Theo," Harry whined, scooting his chair over to bump his shoulder against his friend's, knowing the motion would make him freeze up. "I was fine. Perfectly alright, even. And not knowing about the dragons wouldn't have made a difference. Come on, Theo, don't be mad at me. Pretty please?"

The other boy huffed. Harry could feel the motion from where their shoulders were still touching. Theodore never moved away, it was always Harry who did.

"I will let you be the first to use the Pensieve when it's finished," Harry tried.

"Bribery won't work, either."

Susan snorted. "You two are like an old, married couple."

"I thought old, married couples only bickered all day?" Harry asked.

"Is this not bickering?" Susan returned.

Harry turned back to Theodore. "Is it?"

"We are not married," Theodore said.

"We could be," Harry said and suppressed his glee at the momentary widening of Theodore's eyes.

His friend was always so careful not to show more than the barest hint of an emotion. It made it all the more satisfactory to watch the mask crack now and then. He took mercy on his friend, though, and slightly moved away to give him space. Theodore still remained stiff for a while.

Susan sighed. "You are a bit erratic sometimes, you know?"

"I am?" Harry tilted his head. "How so?"

Susan gave him a look.

Harry gestured between himself and Theodore. "Aside from this."

"Let's see," Susan said, almost mockingly. "You are bored most of the time and you complain about not having enough entertainment or mysteries to solve, but then an opportunity presents itself and you aren't interested at all. In second year, you were all about exploring the castle, even wanted to dismantle its foundations, but you weren't interested in looking for the Chamber of Secrets and Slytherin's Monster. In third year, you were so annoyed when Black took away your chance to solve the mystery surrounding him, but this year you don't want to participate in the Triwizard Tournament, nor want to find out who entered your name."

Harry sniffed in mock offence. "You say that like it's a bad thing – that I didn't go looking for the deadly monster that's been petrifying people or that I didn't want to participate in a competition that originally got cancelled because of its death toll."

"That's not what I'm talking about here, Harry."

"Well," he shrugged, "I don't remember what I was thinking in second year, but the Tournament didn't seem worth it. Not exciting enough. There's no challenge in it for me."

"You literally had to face an aggressive, fire-breathing dragon in the First Task."

"Yeah, and I put it to sleep and picked up the egg – no challenge at all."

"Headmaster Karkaroff was a Death Eater," Theodore suddenly said. "Maybe he entered Harry's name."

"Whatever for?" Harry asked. "Professor Snape was a Death Eater, too, and he certainly didn't put my name in the Goblet of Fire."

Though Sirius certainly thought otherwise. But Sirius also thought Harry had entered his name willingly – 'truly like his father James' or whatever. Harry had read the letter, read it again, found it sorely lacking of any useful piece of information, and then burned it. It had been very satisfying to watch the parchment curl and blacken and turn to ash. He was already looking forward to the next one.

"Professor Snape?!" Susan exclaimed. "And they are letting that man teach children?!"

"Psh," Harry made a dismissive gesture with one hand, the other drawing doodles in the dust on the old table. "It's all in the past, anyway. Maybe he was under the Imperius Curse, who knows?"

"He wasn't," Theodore said. "He was part of the inner circle with Draco's father and mine."

"And Karkaroff?"

Theodore shook his head. "The man is a coward, first and foremost. He only managed to avoid Azkaban, because he gave up several important names of Death Eaters that he was sure were loyal to the Dark Lord and hadn't been caught yet."

"Oh?" Harry leaned forward, right into Theodore's space. "Do you happen to know those names?"

Theodore stiffened again, but his voice remained steady, "Dolohov, Travers and Mulciber, in Azkaban. Rosier, killed by Mad-Eye Moody. Snape, cleared by Headmaster Dumbledore. Rookwood, in Azkaban thanks to Karkaroff."

"He made a lot of enemies, didn't he?" Susan said. "Maybe he is trying to regain favour by putting Harry's life in danger."

"But I'm not actually in any danger."

"Hush, Harry, no one except us is actually aware of that."

"You and all of Slytherin, you mean," Harry said, sitting back properly again, picking up where he had left off with his dust doodles. "I still don't think it was Karkaroff, though. Nor Snape. Don't frown, Susan, you'll put premature wrinkles on your pretty face. Professor Snape has been teaching at this school for many years and old man Dumbledore may be a fool, but nothing ever happened during that time."

"Maybe the reason for that," Susan said evenly, "is that You-Know-Who hasn't been active during the years Professor Snape has been teaching."

"Nothing has changed on that front."

"Hasn't it? What about the events at the Quidditch World Cup?"

Harry paused his mindless drawing. "Okay, that's actually a valid point. Whoever cast the Dark Mark into the sky might be up to something. It wasn't any of the known Death Eaters that still roam free, though. Right, Theo?"

Theodore nodded. "Those were all drunk and too scared to stay when the Dark Mark appeared."

Susan stared at Theodore. "I will pretend I didn't hear that."

Theodore levelled her with a blank stare. "You have known what my father is right from the beginning."

Susan narrowed her eyes. "Must I remind you that my aunt is the current head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement? A position she reached after her predecessor had to step down, because his own son was revealed to have committed crimes as a Death Eater."

"Susan," Harry said sternly. "Leave it be. And Theo, don't provoke her."

Susan slapped her hands down on the table, stirring up a cloud of dust, effectively destroying Harry's doodles. She fixed both Harry and Theodore with a glare and then turned to leave.

"You forgot your bag," Harry called after her.

o

Out of curiosity more than actual interest in getting a clue for the next task, Harry inspected the egg. It was golden, obviously, had some kind of mechanism that allowed it to open, and a lot of intricate magic woven into its material.

Harry opened it. It screeched horribly at him. Harry closed it again.

Then he silenced the thing, opened it again and began dismantling the Concealment Charms, so he could copy down the runes written on the inside.

He didn't do anything else.

"So you're not even going to try?" Susan asked.

"Nope."

"Okay, then."

And that was that.

Mostly.

Susan did try to convince Harry to help out Cedric Diggory, at least, as it was apparently obvious the other champion didn't have any idea what to do with his egg. This implied that Harry had figured it all out already (which was a fair assumption) and was willing to help his fellow champion out.

Susan, apparently, was more annoyed with her housemate not asking anyone for help than Harry not actually wanting to offer it. ("Asking someone for help is hard, but giving help to someone is easy. He should know that. One may think they are a burden when they ask for help, but they are not. If it makes you happy to help someone, then why shouldn't it make someone else happy to help you?" – "But it doesn't make me happy to help people." – "Shut up, Harry.")

Apart from the egg, the next big challenge for the champions would be opening the Yule Ball. Or maybe that was just a challenge for Harry, who had never learned how to dance. For one, there had never been a reason to – Harry hadn't grown up attending fancy balls all his life, after all. For another, the Dursley hadn't encouraged that kind of thing. Okay, the latter wasn't a proper reason as Harry had never cared about the Dursleys' opinion and they couldn't have stopped him, either. It still hadn't ever occurred to Harry to learn dancing of any kind.

"Hey, Theo?"

His friend looked up from the homework he had been trying to work on – trying, because Harry had at some point asked him to lie down and then made himself comfortable on top of him and it was rather difficult to do homework like that. The other Slytherins in the common toom had given them odd looks at first, but eventually returned to not pay them any mind. It had taken Theodore even longer to relax again.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Would you mind teaching me how to dance?"

"Of course I wouldn't mind. I would be honoured."

"And would you mind being my partner for the ball?" His friend didn't stiffen – Harry would have noticed – but when Harry turned his eyes on him, Theodore looked like his soul had left his body. "Theo? Hey, Theo! Theodore!"

Theodore flinched. "Sorry, what?"

"I asked whether you would mind being my partner for the Yule Ball."

Theodore blinked. "… What?"

Harry sighed. "Honestly, Theo. It's an easy question. Yes or no?"

"… Yes?"

"Perfect. That's settled then. You can go back to your homework."

Theodore gave him a dubious look, but visibly decided against saying anything.

Harry was fairly sure half the school would be scandalized with Harry's choice. Susan thought it was cute. She, herself, had been asked out by some boy from Beauxbatons – a nice guy with only good intentions. Harry had made sure of that. (Not by asking, of course, or talking to the boy at all.)

There was such a fuss all around because of the upcoming ball, Harry thought the whole school was going mad. The Slytherins were much more subdued, but even among the snakes the restlessness was noticeable. Most of all, the blonde boy took over the bathroom especially long on the day of the ball. He took so long, in fact, that they had to get a prefect to throw him out, so the other boys could finally use the bathroom.

The common room was unusually crowded, and so was the Entrance Hall.

Professor McGonagall, after calling the champions over, gave Harry and Theodore a disapproving look, but she didn't dare to make a comment in front of the foreign students. Harry gave the other three pairs a once-over, noted that he didn't know either of the champions' chosen partners and focused back on the entrance to the Great Hall.

Someone in the crowd whistled and Harry turned his head, but the students weren't focused on him.

He leaned closer to Theodore. "Why is everyone staring at Viktor Krum's partner?"

"Harry, that's Hermione Granger."

"Who?"

Theodore sighed. "Never mind. She just looks very different today."

"So what?"

"Forget about it. It's not important."

Once they had entered the Great Hall and taken their seats – the champions with the teachers and the judges at the Head Table, and everyone else around small tables scattered across the hall – people started really noticing each champion's partner. There were more wolf-whistles directed at the Granger girl. There were some forlorn looks directed at the Beauxbatons champion. There were some flustered outcries directed at Harry and Theodore. And no one really paid attention to Diggory and his partner.

The first item of the evening's agenda was the Feast. Then the champions opened the Ball with a dance. And after that everyone was free to do whatever they wanted (within reason, of course). Harry refused to engage in any conversations that were not held with Theodore or Susan and he only danced one more time after the opening dance, because Susan asked nicely. Theodore looked like he was very much hoping for another dance with Harry, but he never asked and when Harry suggested leaving, he didn't protest, either.

If you asked Susan, the evening had been magical.

If you asked Harry, the evening had been just fine.

If you asked Theodore, you wouldn't receive any answer at all.

AN

Harry, be nice to poor Theo.

I know the Yule Ball scene was short, but for Harry it just does not hold much significance. (For Theo it does, but Theo isn't our POV character, unfortunately.) I'm working on some future scenes between them, though - so you may expect to see some intimacy in year 5. 😉