Yo! You know, I'm really tired of people telling me what to do. Not even asking. Telling. Demanding. And one person asked why Harmony can't be the pairing. ...This is a slash fic. That's why. Unless you want me to genderbend Hermione into a dude. ...Which I might do one day, who knows. Also, an anon pointed out that those who keep questioning/demanding unreasonable things are those who don't read ANs. I know that's totally true, but ranting like this makes me feel better! (^_^)

When Harry got up in the morning, it was with a heavy heart. It was eight in the morning, the first task was due to begin in just three hours, and he still had no idea what the task even was. Tch, he was going to kill whoever did this.

...Who was he kidding? As if he could actually kill Voldemort.

After doing his usual morning routine, and mourning the fact that he hadn't somehow managed to miraculously drown in the shower, Harry made his way down to the Great Hall. He was alone, but that didn't really matter. Most left him alone now, especially since he still mainly only spoke in Parseltongue.

He was panicking, of course, regardless of how much he was trying to hide it, but it wasn't as if he had a choice here.

So he choked down some breakfast, followed McGonagall to the tent the champions were to wait in, and listened as the stadium filled up with all the other students, professors, judges, press, and whoever else Harry didn't care to know of.

He had an encounter with Bagman that made it obvious the man was literally betting on him winning, and then Crouch came in, finally revealing to them what the task was.

Needless to say, Harry was not pleased. How in the world was he supposed to get past a dragon of all things!?

He sat nervously as the minutes went by. His turn was last, so he was left listening to the other three try to complete the task one after another, Bagman's commentary seriously not helping matters at all. Eventually, his turn was up, and stepping into the stadium was like stepping into a nightmare.

The dragon was, of course, the first thing he saw. The massive creature sat over her nest of eggs, not even realizing one of them was so obviously fake. And she didn't even wait. The moment she spotted Harry, she began roaring. Harry hid behind a rather large boulder, just so he'd have some cover if the dragon began breathing fire towards him, and thought hard.

It wasn't easy to do.

The crowd was almost as loud as the dragon was. Most of them being Hogwarts students, jeered, taunted, and mocked him. Harry was sure some of them at least were expressing concern, but they couldn't be heard above the ones who wanted to see him get hurt. They were probably pleased they could now do this without him going off on them in Parseltongue as he usually did. And all this did was piss Harry off more. They really were cowards, weren't they?

In hindsight, it was probably an extremely stupid and dangerous idea, but Harry, too angry and frustrated to care, moved out from behind his cover and advanced on the still-roaring dragon. "Hey! Will you calm down already, lady!?"

The Hungarian Horntail fell silent immediately. The crowd did too.

"Jeez! You're going to wake the dead with all that roaring! I bet you're even disturbing my parents right now!"

Whispers had broken out throughout the crowd, but Harry didn't even notice, his focus entirely on the dragon who...leaned down towards him.

"Well, this is a surprise," she said slowly. It was Parseltonue that she was speaking in, but it had a rather heavy accent to it, which made it clear it wasn't a language she spoke often. "How fascinating that you know this tongue, little hatchling. That is very rare." She leaned down even closer to get a better look at him.

Harry just nodded. Somehow, all of this made perfect sense to him. Dragons and snakes were probably related in some way, he figured. They both had scales, after all. And if they weren't related, well, Care of Magical Creatures had to get better at teaching biology. Or, Harry thought it was biology, at least. Primary school had been a while ago.

"I think it's because of the guy who tried to kill me when I was a baby," he said to the Horntail. "I was told he transferred some of his powers to me then."

"Really? How very strange. That is not something I thought possible. You said your parents were dead?"

"Yeah, during that same attack."

The dragon sort of...crooned at him. "Poor little hatchling, left all alone. I cannot imagine leaving my little ones on their own. Not until they are big and strong. You are not yet prepared for such hardships."

And soon enough, Harry was seated cross-legged on the ground, having a rather interesting conversation with the Horntail that no one else understood even a single word of.

The whispers in the crowd turned to mutters, then eventually, yells, but Harry was too caught up in his discussion to pay them any mind. He didn't care what they had to say anyway. And besides, this dragon was way more interesting and-wait, Charlie did that!?

After what must have been a good half hour, mainly judged by the fact that his butt had gone numb, Harry decided it was time to inform the dragon that a fake egg had been placed among the real ones. He was sure to emphasize that it wasn't at all his fault and that it was all on the adults that this was happening.

The Horntail was far from pleased and readily nudged the large golden egg towards him, hissing about bloodthirsty adults unworthy of even being around children, let alone having their own.

She crooned at Harry again, nudged him gently (though he still stumbled slightly at the force), made him promise to visit her one day, and finally retreated to her eggs and curled up around them protectively.

Once she had, Harry simply picked up the golden egg and walked out of the stadium, and was immediately accosted by Madam Pomfrey, who didn't listen to a word he said when he tried to assure her he was alright. Mainly because she didn't believe him.

He supposed he couldn't blame her.

When the Medi-Witch determined that he was, indeed, alright, Harry simply returned to the castle. He didn't give a damn about his scores or what anyone had to say about it.

Hermione, Neville, Fred, and George all seemed to have the same idea in mind, because he ran into them halfway there, and they made their way back together, Harry explaining what happened and what he and the dragon had chatted about, including the thing Charlie did, which had the twins gaping, Neville blinking in confusion, and Hermione blushing like crazy.

Well, at least all that had gone better than expected. One task down, two more to go.

That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!