I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.

A Taste of Magic

74th Course – The Expected Unexpected Task

"I'm glad exams are over," Parvati said gustily. "Even though they weren't that bad this time around. Good thing we did the Academic Event and all that reviewing and quizzing each other for it. You're right Harry, it really did help us in class."

"Now you're just being rude," Padma sighed, kicking Parvati's chair.

They had finished their last exam for the year and were enjoying the time doing nothing in the Uncommon Room. Everyone had gathered as they finished their exams and the usual visitors came as well, having finished their exams in the carriage and the boat.

"That must've been tough studying and doing classwork and things while away from school," Lavender said.

Aimee shrugged. "We still had our lessons as well as sitting in on yours so it was not too bad."

"You tried to leave your school and it came with you, rough," Millicent said.

"How are you feeling about the Third Task?" Harry asked. The Third and Final Task for the Champions was going to take place in two days' time.

"I feel good," Fleur said. "I am ready."

"Same," Viktor said. "My lead is not so much where I can be lazy about it. Complacent? Is that the word?" He continued when others nodded. "I am only a few points ahead of Miss Delacour."

"Do you know what the Task is going to be?" Sue asked.

"Yes, it will be a maze," Viktor said easily. "There will be obstacles throughout and we will be trying to get to the center and climb a structure to get the TriWizard Cup."

"Ooh, that sounds exciting," Tracey said.

"It will require perseverance, strength, and will," Fleur said without boasting. "Mister Krum will be my closest opponent." She offered a hand. "May the best witch win."

Viktor laughed and shook it without hesitation. "And maybe a wizard will win."

"A distinct possibility," Fleur smiled.

"Aww would you look at that, you're not enemies anymore," Parvati smiled.

"Because there are no enemies here," Viktor said. He smiled when Harry slid a piece of tiramisu to him. "As my friend says." He bit into the sweet dessert with relish. "Mmm, very rich! Very good." He watched as Harry sliced it up for everyone else to have some. "Is this what you normally do when you have nothing else to do?"

Harry nodded. "It's my hobby and my favorite thing."

"And we get to enjoy the fruits of his labor," Millicent said, taking her slice happily.

"Say, I know, how about a little fun?" Fleur said out loud. "How about a contest?"

"What kind?" Padma asked.

"Chef versus chef," Fleur smiled. "Sophie takes our school's cooking class and she is the best of us. How about you against her?"

"Oh yes, that sounds like fun," Sophie said eagerly. "How about it, Harry?"

"Sure, that does sound like fun," Harry said enthusiastically.

"We can treat it like the Bocuse D'or or the Cuisine Capitale," Colette said excitedly. "Or even the World's Kitchen."

"What are those?" Sue asked.

"Those are some of the biggest cooking competitions," Harry said, eyes sparkling. "I read about them in some of the magazines I've managed to get here. I really like Cuisine Magique."

"Oh you can get that here? And you can read it?" Fleur asked.

"It's hard to get them and read them as is, but I have these lenses I pop onto my glasses to translate if I don't use the charm. Grandmother and Grandfather made them for me."

Fleur blinked a few times. "That sounds very handy. I will help you get a subscription to the magazine. It is very good."

"How do they do competitions?" Pansy asked.

"The Bocuse D'or is very fancy, celebrating the tradition of haute cuisine," Sophie said. "We cannot do that properly. It has many rules and standards. The World's Kitchen has challenges and the like, some technical while others are for entertainment value, but it is one of the biggest magical cooking competitions. For us now, we can decide on ingredient and theme and have judges determine who wins."

"We can put names in something and draw, at least one per school," Terry suggested.

"Sounds good to me," Harry said.

"Let me go get my things." Sophie dashed out of the room and returned carrying a bundle over her shoulder. While she was gone, the others wrote their names on parchment and put them into a bag and had drawn for the three judges. Everyone also put in suggestions for ingredients and themes and put them in bags as well.

"Do you want a sous?" Sophie asked, tying her hair up and putting her apron on. "In case you need assistance?"

"I think I'll be okay," Harry grinned as he tied a bandanna around his hair and put his own apron on.

"Uhm, Hermione, is your kitty okay?" Aimee asked Hermione, looking down at Crookshanks in her lap with a concerned look. "He started coughing."

Hermione looked down. "Oh no, he's fine. That's him snickering."

"He…snickers? Oh, the others are too." Aimee gaped at the sight of Crookshanks, Sunny, and Hedwig snickering and giving Sophie pitying looks that involved head-shaking and eye-rolling and expressive mooning.

"They know that Harry doesn't need an assistant," Hermione smiled. "Some of us can do small things but nothing close to what he does. He's worked in professional kitchens."

"He has?" Aimee gasped.

"Oh good, this will knock her down some," Colette said gleefully. "One of Sophie and Fleur's aunts owns a nice little place in Paris and Sophie worked there from time to time so she thinks herself skilled."

"To be fair, she is not bad," Aimee giggled. "Compared to us she is more than not bad."

"No, but Harry is more dedicated so this will be fun," Colette smiled.

Luna, Aimee, and Felix were chosen as the judges and when Pansy drew cards for ingredient and theme, chicken and French were revealed.

"Would you like to draw again?" Sophie asked, smiling slyly.

"Why?" Harry asked sincerely.

"It appears that I have the advantage, given the theme," Sophie said.

"It does appear that way," Harry said solemnly, making the others ooh and chuckle.

"Very well then," Sophie laughed. "Confident are you?"

"In this I am," Harry smiled back. He showed her where the different pans and things were and a brief word with Inky brought vegetables, pantry staples, and several chickens arrayed out on the table in plain sight. Some of the chickens were whole while the rest had already been broken down into parts. After bringing everything, Inky and Ebbers and a few other of the kitchen elves sat on the side to watch, surprising the students from the other schools.

"Your House Elves interact with you?" Fleur asked. "We have a Head Elves that you can speak to about requests and things but as a whole, they do not interact with the students usually."

"Same for us," Viktor said. "We do not even have Head Elves."

"Not really. I doubt any of us would ever actually see them normally," Lavender said. "But it's Harry of course and he's friends with a lot of them."

"He knows the ones that run the farms," Sue said. "That's how he got the tripe so easily for your dragon's breath soup."

"Impressive," Viktor said. "But knowing Harry now, it makes sense."

"One hour for the cooking time?" Pansy asked. When the two competitors nodded, she waved her wand and a magical hourglass floated in the air. "Go!" The hourglass turned in the air and time started to count as grains of magical sand fell through the narrow point.

Sophie waved her wand, pointing at various things and they flew through the air to her. She assembled her ingredients on her prep table and busily sharpened her knife with a charm before getting started. Harry ran to the table with a tray and looked through what he wanted, selecting his ingredients and running back. He took out his knife and honed it on a sharpening steel briefly before he got to work.

Ana tilted her head and leaned forward. "That knife is very good. Do you know where he got it?"

"It was made for him," Pansy said. "It was actually made for an ancestor of his before it was reforged into his knife now. I believe the name of the blacksmith was Anbin."

"Is the blacksmith's mark an anvil and hammer?" Ana asked. She gasped when Pansy nodded. "Anbin of StoneHeart?!"

"Yes, that's the name of the clan. My family has a few of their pieces," Pansy said.

"Ana's family are soldiers and warriors of our Ministry," Viktor said. "They own many weapons and work with metal and things like that."

"We have a sword of theirs," Ana said, staring at Harry's knife. "The head of the family owns it."

After cleaning the ingredients, Sophie arranged chicken thighs in a pan with their skin down to brown and crisp in oil and butter. As they did, she minced shallots and sliced button mushrooms and finely diced a pile of herbs: tarragon and parsley. After the chicken skin was browned and the other side was cooked a little too, she put the thighs into the oven to finish cooking and got to work on the sauce. She cooked out flour in the remaining chicken fat and sweated the shallots out until they were translucent and fragrant before cooking the mushrooms.

Harry had gone for chicken thighs and drumsticks and browned them in a pan with butter and oil, skin side down as well. As they did, he sliced mushrooms thinly but did the same to an onion. When the skin was browned on both the thighs and drumsticks, he removed them and set them aside. The mushrooms and onions went into the pan with thyme and bay leaves and he cooked them until the mushrooms were lightly golden and the onion soft with clear edges before adding chopped garlic. While this all cooked, he had another pot on the stove coming up to boil and he roughly chopped some potatoes after peeling them, putting them into the water to cook through.

"Is there any wine?" Sophie asked.

"Cooking wine," Inky said, pointing.

"Is there no proper wine?" Sophie asked.

"No wine in Hogwarts unless for professors or of age guests," Inky said, waggling a finger.

"I'm of age!" Sophie said indignantly.

"Still student," Inky sniffed.

Sophie muttered something under her breath and shook her head, going back to her cooking. She added tomato paste and chicken stock to the shallot and mushroom and brought it to a simmer. She then set a pot of water to boil on the hob and looked through the pantry staples, deciding on short egg noodles.

At this point Harry returned his chicken to the pan, skin side up, and added chicken stock and when it started to bubble gently, turned the heat to low and put a lid on the pan. As it simmered away, he checked the doneness of the potatoes and drained them, letting them steam in the air for a few moments while he measured out what he would need next.

"This is so cool," Tracey said excitedly. "It's actually fun to watch!"

"My goodness," Fleur murmured, watching Harry. "He really does move like a professional."

"Felix, switch with me," Viktor said.

"I will not," Felix said indignantly.

"I can order you to!"

"Only on the Quidditch field! You hold no power over me otherwise!"

Colette undid the first few buttons on her top and leaned over the prep table a little. "So, Harry," she purred, thickening her accent, "has anyone ever told you that you have clever hands?"

He took one look at her and her posture before averting his eyes, flushing slightly. "Not quite like that," he said with a slight stammer. "But it's kind of you to say."

Colette shrieked when Fleur shot her in the rear with a stinger while some of the others howled with laughter and others looked on with outright displeasure. "Please do not hold this against her," Fleur sighed. "She does this sort of thing to tease in situations like this."

"Two can play at that game. Hey, Zabini, show Sophie your assets," Parvati said.

"I certainly can," Blaise said comfortably. "I can go get my fitted robes to really highlight them if need be."

"Do not encourage him," Daphne groaned.

Sophie laughed and flicked her wand at Colette, buttoning up her top. "Do not interfere in our duel!"

"I was helping!"

"I do not need that kind of help!"

Sophie tasted her sauce and then made a roux to thicken it up slightly, making sure to cook out the flour. When the sauce thickened to her desired consistency, she removed it from the heat and added cubes of butter along with the chopped herbs and stirred until it looked glossy and rich. She then took the chicken out of the oven and arranged the thighs onto the plates with cooked egg noodles and ladled the sauce over it all.

Once the chicken was done cooking in the broth, Harry removed them and set them aside. He poured cream into the sauce and stirred until the sauce was pale brown and very smooth, adding salt and black pepper. He put the chicken back in to sit in the sauce while he finished making the mashed potatoes. Heated milk and melted butter was put into the potatoes and he mashed them hard, stirring until they were smooth and soft. He ladled a mound of mashed potatoes onto each plate and then put a piece of chicken on each and ladled generous amounts of sauce over the chicken and potatoes.

Everyone applauded at the two pretty plates of food. The House Elves had watched eagerly and had taken notes throughout the whole thing. The students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang watched Harry with some confusion as he continued to make plates of all the chicken and potatoes, dividing everything out.

"I made Chicken Chausseur also called Hunter's Chicken," Sophie said. "It is a very traditional chicken dish from France. It is rustic and reminiscent of the times hunters would return home with game birds and mushrooms from their hunting. I served it with egg noodles on the side for texture and for the sauce."

"This is Chicken Fricassee," Harry said. "It's chicken that's been pan-seared and then cooked in sauce before finished with cream. I served it with mashed potatoes to take advantage of the sauce from the dish." After he served the judges, he handed a big plate to the elves and then another big plate for the Hogwarts group, and smaller plates for Fleur and Colette to share and Ana and Viktor to enjoy together. He had two final small plates: one he handed to Sophie and the other he sliced up the chicken for Hedwig, Sunny, and Crookshanks to enjoy.

"He made one for us too?" Colette asked, eyes wide. "And even the animals?"

"Harry's awesome that way," Parvati smiled.

"Oh, uh, help yourselves," Sophie said sheepishly as she put out the rest of what she had made. She took a bite of the chicken that Harry gave her, her eyes opening wide as she chewed, looking down at the plate and back at Harry. The judges tucked in at the same time, making noises of appreciation as they ate both offerings.

"Mmm, this is very nice," Luna said dreamily as she nibbled on the chausseur. "The sauce isn't creamy but the butter at the end made it very rich."

"Mont au beurre, right?" Harry asked. "I read about it but never tried it."

"Yes, exactly," Sophie said. "It adds richness and body to a sauce and makes it shine."

"That's so cool," Harry said sincerely. "Can you teach me that?"

"I, uh, yes, I could," Sophie said, sounding flustered.

"The chicken from both are very well cooked," Aimee said. "Juicy and delicious. The skin is still good. Mushrooms are excellent in both."

"This is difficult," Felix said as he ate hungrily. "Both are excellent and just different enough to make judging difficult." He moved his plates away from Viktor who was reaching over his shoulder.

"Who taught you this?" Colette asked as she ate. "It is very good."

"I got a few cookbooks from Grandfather and Grandmother my third year," Harry said. "Then this last Christmas when they visited, Grandmother Penny taught me how to make it how she likes it."

"I still cannot get over the fact that you call Perenelle Flamel, Grandmother Penny," Fleur said dryly.

"Flamel? The Flamel?" Viktor asked, chewing on a drumstick. "That Flamel?"

"Surprising, no?" Fleur snorted.

"I have had fricassee many times," Sophie said. "Our aunt makes a very good one. But how is this so delicious?"

"You can taste Harry's thoughts," Luna said as she licked her spoon.

"Luna's one of those feelings vampires!" Parvati gasped. She grunted when Padma kicked her, kicking her back.

Luna smiled. "Not literally of course. But I bet Harry was thinking about his grandparents when cooking, right?"

Harry smiled. "I was," he confirmed. "I wanted everyone to really enjoy the food."

"Well, judges, do you have a verdict?" Pansy asked when the three judges finished. "If so, push the plate forward that you deem the winner." Luna pushed Harry's plate forward without hesitation and Felix did the same after a moment's thought.

"Sorry," Aimee said sheepishly to her friend when she pushed Harry's plate forward. "Yours is as good as it usually is but there really was something wonderful about Harry's cooking."

Sophie shook her head. "No, I agree. Perhaps I was too lax on this one, expecting victory." She shook Harry's hand. "It looks like you win!"

"Thank you, but I'm sure it was really close. I've never even heard of Chicken Chausseur. May I have some?" he asked. He smiled when Sophie made him a plate and he ate too, chewing thoughtfully. "Wow, adding that butter to the end really makes it taste rich and silky. This is great!"

"Thank you," Sophie said, also smiling. "I must learn how you made this fricassee and see how it stands against our aunt's."

"Be careful what you say, she will never let you live down the fact that you were beaten by an Englishman at French cooking," Fleur giggled.

"Oh I did not even think of that!" Sophie groaned. "I will be knocked back down to plongeur for this!" She looked at Harry. "I believe there is an expression, best two out of three?"

"Another chance to cook?" Harry snorted at Hedwig's expression: overlarge round eyes and an open beak with faux-shock written cleanly. "Sounds like fun to me!" They cleaned their stations and put everything back while new judges were selected and a new ingredient and theme was decided.

"Ah, I have you now," Sophie said when egg was the ingredient and simple was the theme. "I make the best proper French omelettes."

"Okay, let's see how mine stacks up," Harry grinned.

"Of course you know how to make one too," Sophie grunted. "Very well! Let us see!"

"I never thought this sort of thing would be entertaining, and yet, I am highly entertained," Daphne smiled as she watched. "Though I did find the honor duel entertaining before but that was from Draco obviously losing."

"That seems to be a thing for him," Viktor grunted, giving Ana a sour look as she sat at a judge's place, making faces at him. "Losing duels."

"He's a loser, so yeah, that's his thing," Millicent snorted.

"He made a bouef en croute," Pansy smiled softly. "And lost to Harry's wellington."

"He made a French dish too and lost with it?" Fleur groaned. "No wonder you all think poorly of French things with that sort of representation. Bad faith indeed!"

"We like the quiches and tartiflette that Harry makes," Hermione said. "They're so good."

"At least you have that," Fleur sighed.

Sophie and Harry moved almost simultaneously. Eggs were beaten well, the whites completely incorporated with the yolk, seasoned with salt and white pepper. Butter melted in a pan and bubbled until no foam was seen. The eggs were poured into the pans over a very low heat but Sophie constantly moved hers about with a fork while Harry did that less and swirled the eggs around more by rotating the pan. As they rolled them, Sophie put tiny pieces of butter at the top of the pan while holding it at an angle, using the extra butter to help the egg come off the pan and roll it together. They both finished at the same time, both presenting a smooth and even rolled French omelette on a plate. They each made two more in their ways and presented them to the judges.

"Oh my," Ana gasped as she ate a piece of both. "They are incredible! I have never had such a simple yet delicious egg like his before."

"Damn," Ron said, looking at the plates. "They're really good. I thought I only liked fried eggs but those are really something."

"Who taught you this?" Colette asked Harry.

"No one. I saw it made once on the telly and read about it and practiced it a lot," Harry said.

"This is practically perfect," she said, eating it eagerly. "I never thought anyone who has not been trained as such to make one like this."

"I hate that you're right," Sophie grumbled as she tasted hers. "His is unreasonably authentic."

"You know that his friends will tell him you said that, yes?" Fleur grinned.

"Judges?" Pansy asked.

"I'm sorry," Ron said, red-faced. "But I really liked Sophie's but I also really like butter and hers was more buttery."

"I like Harry's," Ana said, "because it is a little less buttery."

"I am sorry, but I too prefer Sophie's," Colette said. "Yours is incredible but more butter suits my taste. It tastes more like I am used to."

"No problem at all," Harry said easily. "That's such a neat trick to use the butter like that."

"It adds more flavor and makes it easier to roll," Sophie nodded. "There is also a charm to keep the butter cold and it will not melt at your touch. I will teach you." She smiled at the watchers. "I suppose we should make a few more for the others to try."

"Oh wow, they're both so close to another," Millicent said when she tried some of each after Harry and Sophie made a few for everyone to enjoy. "It really does come down to personal taste and preference."

"Sophie is right, it is unreasonably authentic," Fleur said.

"One more then," Pansy said excitedly, wiping her lips clean daintily. "Best of three after all."

They drew the cards. "Pork for ingredient, and as far as theme…saucy?" Padma blinked a few times. "Saucy? Did they mean sauced?"

"Sure, that works too," Blaise said making the Slytherin girls snort.

"So pork dish with sauce okay then," Sophie nodded.

"Go!" Pansy shouted and set the timer once more and Harry and Sophie gathered their ingredients and got to work.

Sophie grabbed several pork loins and dried them with a charm before seasoning them with salt and pepper. She browned them on all sides in a pan with oil and then placed them in a baking dish and set them in the oven to finish cooking. She then finely minced shallots and spices and roughly cracked handfuls of black peppercorns.

Harry measured flour into a bowl with his scales and added salt before mixing it with the Mixing Charm with hot water, forming a shaggy dough with it and he plopped it onto the table to finish kneading smooth by hand. Setting the dough aside, he chopped a pile of green onions and leaves of napa cabbage and mixed it with pork mince and a lot of seasonings.

"How have you gotten even better at that?!" Sue said indignantly as she watched Harry roll the dough into a long tube and cut out pieces swiftly and rolled out dumpling skins.

Harry chuckled, filling the dumpling and pleating them without stopping and looking away. "I made them a lot at Gringotts. The Crew loved them." He soon had them cooking away in their different forms and in a small saucepan he poured soy sauce, sesame oil, chicken stock, sugar, black pepper, and pieces of scallion and ginger. It simmered for some time and he heated up oil until it was hot and poured it over ground red chilies, chili flakes, a scattering of Sichuan peppercorns, garlic, and ginger.

Sophie made a sauce poivrade in the pan, scraping the delicious brown fond the pork left with stock and a touch of black currant jelly and seasoning it with vinegar and salt and reducing it until it became glossy and thick. She then stirred copious amounts of cracked black pepper through. After the pork came out of the oven and it rested a little, she sliced it on a bias and poured generous amounts of sauce over them.

Harry had three little cups on each plate with a few dumplings from each way he knew how to make them: boiled, steamed, and pan-fried. He put the simmered soy in one cup, the soy and some vinegar in another, and a dollop of the bright red chili oil in the third. He added some minced garlic and green onion to the soy and vinegar cup to finish it off.

"This is Pork with Sauce Poivrade," Sophie said. "Pan-seared pork finished in the oven with a very tasty pepper sauce."

"These are pork mince dumplings that are steamed, pan-fried, and boiled," Harry said. "I made a seasoned and simmered soy sauce, the same sauce with vinegar, and the last is a chili oil that you should probably mix with the others. It's more than a bit spicy."

Fleur coughed, eyes watering slightly. She had dipped a boiled dumpling straight into the oil and ate it before Harry finished speaking. She reached for a glass of water and drank it down, gasping. "Did you put the dragon fire pepper in it?!"

"No, that's Sichuan pepper, isn't it something?" Harry smiled while the others laughed.

Viktor licked his lips, having eaten a dumpling dipped into it without a change in expression. "I like this chili oil! Is very good."

"Gosh, this simmered soy sauce is so good," Padma said, eating another dumpling and slapping Parvati's hand away. "It's really savory and slightly sweet and so tasty!"

"I will take it if you do not want it," Viktor said, pointing at Fleur's chili oil.

"No, I do, now that I am aware of its danger," Fleur said. She sliced into one of the medallions of pork. "Mmm, rich poivrade sauce. Still peppery but not overly so."

"This is also very nice," Viktor agreed. "But-"

"You do not need to say it," Sophie said as she ate some dumplings of her own. "He made dumplings very well and the sauces are all good. I concede this one." She grinned ruefully at Harry. "Best three out of five?"

"Let me make enough for the others first," Harry laughed. "Or else there might be a riot."

"Not might, will," Parvati said, still trying to steal from Padma.

"Please, teach me as well," Sophie said. "I would like to know how to roll them out and fold them."

"Woo! Dumpling supremacy!" Sue cheered and she and Harry high-fived.

"How do you all maintain your weight?" Colette asked the girls seriously.

"It hasn't been a problem, yet," Lavender sighed.

"If Harry keeps making tiramisu, then it might be," Pansy sighed.

"Better than not having it all," Luna smiled.

-0-0-0-

Arnie1701 - To be fair, limited student pool. He has to work with what he has.

odonnellzoo99 - Yeah, I wanted to give her a chance at getting her own closure over what happened. I thought about how the duel would go. didn't want her to be some kind of secret savant or something that would seem out of norms/character. I thought that would be a fitting and appropriate way for her to win. Also yes, lucky for Blaise. I just like the image of Harry catching Hedwig out of the air like that.

DOOOOOOOM Lord of Waffles - It made sense for me to have Ariana training Lavender and help her. I do like how she is in this setting and she's a lot of fun to write for and to help influence things. Poor Voldie, wins one, loses more.

Hands Off MY Wolfie - He doesn't think the rules apply to him, not used to being held accountable by people that don't care who he is or his name. Now he is learning. That's how I thought it. Lavender wasn't trying to win the tournament, she just wanted to stand up to Draco. Once she obtained that goal, she was fine with what happened after. Thanks for reading.

poka - Thank you. I thought about the duel for a while. Wanted it to be believable as well as plausible and fitting. It was fun to think of how to use not dueling/offensive spells in a duel. Draco didn't take it lying down, he was on his knees. But we will see how things play out.

alix33 - I really enjoyed their same reactions to the Lip-Sewer. It seemed appropriate.

Aura-Guardian1999 - Hope you enjoy this chapter too, glad you like the story so far.

DarkRavie - Thank you.