Umm…hello! An update at last! I apologise for my absence but I shall keep you no longer. Hope you enjoy xx

Disclaimer: I've spoken to J.K Rowling but she refuses to sell me the rights to Harry Potter. Damn!

Chapter Seventeen:

By Rosa241

Harry POV:

This is it.

This is actually it.

Percy had left what felt like hours ago to do his task and judging by the roar that went up he survived. Something inside me was screaming at me to turn away, screaming for me to walk away right now and never look back. There would be no shame in not wanting to go out there and face a dragon. No shame at all. But then there's another part of me…there's another part of me that wants to prove everyone wrong.

"Mr Potter. This way please." Oh god its time.

As I wander out towards the arena my heart starts beating so quickly I'm surprised it doesn't jump right out of my chest. My breaths are coming in short bursts and to be honest I think I'm on the verge of passing out. My every instinct is screaming at me to run away but I force myself to ignore it. Instead I focus on breathing and putting one foot in front of the other.

The roar of the crowd should fill me with pride, the fact that people are cheering me on, the fact that they're not booing me should make things easier but it doesn't. The roar of the crowd simply reminds me of how many people are out there, of how many people are watching me…of how many people are going to see me crash and burn.

Do your best and that's all you can do.

Percy's words come back to me and I force myself to take a deep breath. Steadying my nerves, or at least trying to, I shake my trembling hands and tighten my grip on my wand.

Stick to the plan Harry…stick to the plan.

As the door to the arena opens I find myself almost frozen to the spot. Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath I move forwards.

Now or never.

Charlie POV:

"Can't believe how well Harry did. His plan was pretty good." As I stand beside Percy, the pair of us walking side by side, I realise just how long it's been since we've talked like this.

"Yeah it was. It's strange but the four of you were oddly prepared for the task." He shrugs his shoulders but says nothing. "I know Karkaroff snuck into the forest the other night when we were preparing the dragons, which explains how Krum knew, Madame Maxine told Fleur so I can only assume…" I trail off as he winces.

"Hagrid." That bloody man. We had a deal. "Hagrid let slip to Harry and Harry told me."

"I should be mad that all of my hard work keeping this quiet was for nothing but right now I'm just glad that you're alive." From the smile and the nod I can tell he's thinking the same thing. We descend into silence once again and I marvel at how awkward this is. We used to be close, we used to be able to talk about basically anything. Percy's not the type of person to open up to people but we could always talk. Over the years that's been lost but the worst part is that I didn't even realise it was happening. The truth is as much as I hate Flint for everything that he put my brother through in a way I have to thank him. If it hadn't been for Flint (and Oliver I suppose) being such a bastard to Percy then he and Oliver would never have gotten so close. If it wasn't for that then Oliver never would have been able to persuade Percy to tell us the truth about what happened. I hate to think what would have happened if he'd never told us, if he'd kept it inside and continued to drift away from us.

"Never been a big fan of cheating but in this case I was quite happy to make an exception." His voice breaks me out of my thoughts and forces me to focus on the present. Like Bill said in his letter, we can't change the past but we can start again.

"Listen Perce…ever since I found out you were going to have to compete I've been absolutely terrified." He gives me a sympathetic smile but lets me continue. Somehow he knows that I need to talk. "I was so scared especially when I found out the first task was dragons. I could never imagine just how the hell you'd ever be able to take on a dragon, not single handed at least."

"Tell me about it. You weren't the only one who was scared."

"But now I realise that I didn't have to be scared. There was no need to be scared because you had this in the bag." He looks like he's going to argue for a second but I don't let him. "Before you start yes I know that you knew about the dragons but you still managed to battle one and steal an egg from one."

"Yeah." For another minute we descend into silence before he speaks again. "Oliver said he thinks that I can win this."

"He's right." He doesn't seem surprised at what I say. "You keep this up and there's absolutely no reason you can't win. You've got as good a chance as anyone."

"I don't care about winning." That doesn't surprise me at all. When it comes to being competitive it's not something that comes naturally to Percy. "I just want to prove that I can do this."

"Prove it to who?" I didn't need to ask as I already knew the answer to that. Ever since he was a kid he's always doubted himself. It'd be a shock to most people if they knew but he's never been confident in himself. Of course the lovely Marcus Flint made that ten times worse. I thought he was starting to get better, he still has low confidence but it's getting better all the time.

"Everyone…to me. Since my names been pulled out of that damn Goblet all I could do was think about how bad this was going to be. All I could think about was that I was going to humiliate myself and that I was probably going to end getting myself killed. Of course I wasn't the only one. The whole school has basically been telling me for days that I was going to screw everything up."

"They're wrong. You have to know that." He smiles at me and nods.

"I do now. I thought they were right but they're wrong. I can do this, I know that I can." I can tell he doesn't quite believe it but at least he's saying the words now. He's trying to believe in himself. "It's funny. If you'd have told me a couple of years back that I'd be doing this I never would have believed you. In fact I probably would have told you that you were completely insane. I'm not that person anymore." For a while we fall back into silence. My worries have calmed slightly now that we've spoken. That's partly due to the fact that he's no longer on the verge of facing a dragon (okay mostly) and partly due to the fact that I know he's not letting all of this angst get to him.

"Listen. I've got to go back to work tomorrow. I wish I could stay but I don't have a choice." Naturally he understands, just like he always has. "I can't get the time off to come back down for the second task but Bill's going to be here."

"Of course he is." He rolls his eyes but I can see that he's grateful. If this school doesn't start getting it's act together then he'll need the support.

"I should be able to be here for the third task though, so don't get yourself killed before I come back. Alright?" As much as I'm joking I'm also deadly serious. I couldn't bare it if anything happened to him.

Ron POV:

I can't believe he just did that…he actually managed to…he…

I steel myself for the onslaught of anger I'm about to receive. I deserve it, I know. I know Harry couldn't have gotten his name into the Goblet, I know he had no way of doing that…I do. There's never been a doubt in my mind that he didn't do it. I know that but…that didn't stop me being angry though. It's just that…everything always seems to happen to Harry.

Shaking my head to rid myself of those thoughts I finally manage to walk through the tent. It doesn't take two seconds for Harry to spot me, which means it takes about three seconds for him to turn totally furious.

"Can we talk?" Hermione's eyes flicker between us for a few moments before she takes several large steps off to one side.

"What?" I can hardly blame him for being angry at me, I've spent so much time being angry at him that it feels strange not being able to talk.

"You did good." Well isn't that just the perfect opener Ron, well done! "With the dragon I mean. You did good with the dragon."

"Yeah…thanks." It's obvious that I'm going to have to make the first move. Lets face it I'm the one who messed up so badly in the first place. "Is that all?"

"No. No it isn't." Swallowing my pride is no easy thing but it has to be done. I'm the one in the wrong here. "I'm sorry. I was wrong."

"Yeah you were. What the hell did you think that I did? How in your right mind could you possibly think that I could do something like that? Do you not think I would have told you? Scratch that! Do you actually think I would do something like that?" His voice has risen several times during his rant.

"No, I didn't…I mean, I did but…" Sighing I run my hand through my hair before trying again. "I was angry and I wasn't thinking clearly."

"Yeah you weren't!" For another minute we slip back into silence before he finally speaks again. "What do you mean you were angry? If anyone round here should have been angry it's me. I'm the one whose name was put into the goblet."

"Exactly!" Things finally explode and I just can't keep it in anymore. "You don't get it Harry! Do you have any idea how hard it is being friends with you!?"

"What? What the hell are you talking about?" Anger explodes within me and everything all of a sudden seems too much.

"Do you know what forget about it! I came in here to apologise to you but you're not interested in that so just forget about it!" With that I turn round and storm out of the tent.

Well done Ron, what a wonderful job you made of that.

Oh dear. Poor Ron. Just what is going through his mind right now? Sorry I didn't give you Harry's task but I think it's time to move on with the story. Until next time. Bye x