All in the Family

Chapter 78: The First Task

It wasn't quite as cramped as the fireplace had been, but Frank felt like the magical broomshed wasn't doing all it could to help them out considering there was a Cleansweep jabbing him where it shouldn't!

There was hardly any elbow room, what with Regulus Black smashed against one side and Lily on the other. Even with two of their numbers animals, Sirius still a panting black dog and Peter immediately shrinking down once more in the minimal space, wasn't really helping much. Bloody magic only extending as far as they 'needed it.' Maybe the brooms wanted a little more luxury, he sure did!

Grumbling and cursing, and trying very hard to ignore his pounding heart and the averted eyes of the werewolf they were once more entrapped in an enclosed space with, Frank managed to wedge the book into his hand first from a shelf just above, nearly knocking it on his head with a bottle of wood polish that did collide with the ground.

He barely gave himself time to exchange an exasperated look with Alice for this happening once more before letting himself start with the strong smell now making them all crinkle up their noses for extra discomfort. The First Task was here, they couldn't delay it any longer.

It was not a nice go of it, Harry's fear of the coming event keeping all of them uneasily on their toes no matter where they landed. The fact that it was so close on the horizon and Harry didn't even have a plan on how to handle the task was vexing him the longer this went on, as was their circumstances as Harry and Hermione stewed over the problem. What did a broom shed have to do with this? Were the eggs somehow hidden here at one point? Well, at least they weren't now.

Breathing through his mouth was starting to make his tongue dry as he forced himself off, the strong smell of wood polish was making him light headed. He was barely keeping up with his own words as Harry confronted Cedric and told the final champion of the dragons, so they all started on equal ground. It was such a genuine thing to do, he was almost smiling despite his stomach curdling up in pain and anxiety to get on with this already, they all knew it was coming.

Moody distracted them a good bit though when he pulled Harry aside, not to scold him for cheating and telling another champion what was coming, but praise him, and even help him? Despite his insane house and generally forceful nature, he'd been nothing but kind and helpful to Harry thus far, it almost made them all smile as they put together what Harry being good at Quidditch had to do with the first task.

It still took him a lot of practice and concentration to get the Summoning Charm down, but by the time he did and he was being led to the first task by McGonagall, they were almost confident he'd come out of this alive!

The task was explained in excruciating detail by Bagman, by the end of which Remus was sure if Padfoot had still been human he would have ripped off his jersey in frustration, he was shuffling so much in agitation at his feet.

James wasn't feeling much better as Bagman sucked up to Harry, he felt like dropping a Bludger down his pants by the time he had to run off, he was being so annoying trying to butter up Harry.

Frank couldn't decide if it was a good thing or not the other tasks weren't even going to be shown, he supposed if Harry had spectated them it could have helped his own strategy if he hadn't one already.

At least when it finally got to Harry's, it was both fast, and detailed. Lily startled spectacularly when the tail spikes managed to snag Harry, a sack of golfballs raining on their heads going unnoticed. His singular focus on stealing an egg from a dragon, a suicidal task really, was handled with grace from the fourteen-year-old. They all felt hot, trapped, and enclosed in this space just hearing about the heat of those fiery blasts they'd just experienced going so close to Harry, but Merlin did he do it.

Even being the one to read such a thing, Frank couldn't imagine doing it, he'd have long since fainted just being taken to the arena! There had been plenty of evidence before, but here was just another example he was one of a kind for how he faced this problem.

A fact that was only further solidified when Ron came in to check on his friend, and Harry instantly forgave him. Just like that, the two went back to how things had always been, Ron's details of what the others had done in comparison to Harry as casual as ever. Still, he hoped a new saying wouldn't start cropping up that a dragon would solve all of Harry's problems.