After Harry's name had been chosen from the goblet with no real explanation, he was forced by the rules of the tournament to compete even though he had no interest in doing so. The tournament was dangerous, to put it lightly, and it showed in Harry's eyes over the next few days as he slowly realized what he had unwillingly and unknowingly─having no part in it at all─gotten himself into.
But never the less, all of Harry's friends were rooting for him. Well, everyone except Ron, who still thought that Harry had put his own name in and not told us. It obviously wasn't true, but Ron was too caught up in the possibility of his friend getting the supposed 'eternal glory' instead of him to see reason.
"lt's already been through enough people," Hermione whispered to Ron as we walked down to the lake where Harry was sitting with Neville. "Why don't you just go and talk to him yourself?"
"Ron, this is your problem, not ours." I huffed as Ginny stood by my side, all three of us girls getting pretty sick of Harry and Ron's foolish bickering.
Hermione turned to Ron. "What do you want me to say again?" she asked, getting the sentence from him before walking to Harry. "Ronald would like me to tell you that Seamus told him...that Dean was told by Parvati that Hagrid's looking for you."
"ls that right?" Harry grumbled. "Well, you...what?"
"Dean was told by Parvati that...please don't ask me to say it again. Hagrid's looking for you."
Harry huffed. "Well, you can tell Ronald-"
"l'm not an owl!" Hermione snapped before grabbing Ginny and me and taking off, stomping her feet as we climbed up the leaf-covered hill.
_______________
"There were dragons, Yavana, I'm telling you!" Harry turned to me as we walked through the halls the next morning. He had just finished explaining to me that the night before Hagrid had taken him out to the forest where dragons were being held, courtesy of Ron's brother Charlie.
Of course, he had to find that out from Hagrid as well, as Ron was still giving him the silent treatment. "I'm not saying there weren't dragons," I replied, trying to find a way to word my next question without calling him a liar. "But are you sure they're for the tournament? I mean, I've seen some pretty messed up things since being at Hogwarts, but a stadium full of people watching as a fourteen-year-old boy fights a dragon seems a little unethical to me."
"I'm positive." he nodded as we continued through the halls, the promotional pins people were wearing turning green with a rude message about Harry as we passed by. People called him a cheat in the hall and stopped him just to insult him, which seemed like some sort of middle-school muggle drama bullshit to me.
Following Harry, I stood nearby as he approached Cedric in the green-grassed courtyard. Cedric's friends teased Harry, just like everyone else, as Harry spoke to Cedric a little ways away. "Dragons. That's the first task." Harry warned him. "They've got one for each of us."
Cedric's eyes grew wide. "Are you serious? And Fleur and Krum, do they-"
"Yes." Harry nodded.
"Right." Cedric sighed. "Hey, listen. About the badges. l've asked them not to wear them, but-"
"Don't worry about it," Harry assured him as the two of us headed back the way we had come, spotting Ron walking down the hall with Seamus. Cutting Ron off, Harry glared at him. "You're a right foul git, you know that?"
Ron looked back at Harry with no emotion. "You think so?"
"l know so."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah. Stay away from me."
"Fine."
With that, Ron pushed past us and continued walked off with Seamus. I could tell everything about the tournament was taking a toll on Harry, and having his best friend hate him definitely wasn't helping.
"Why so tense, Potter?" Draco called as he sat up in a tree like some sort of monkey. "My father and l have a bet, you see. l don't think you're gonna last ten minutes in this tournament. He disagrees. He thinks you won't last five."
"l don't give a damn what your father thinks, Malfoy." Harry stalked over, everything piling up inside of him and making him angry. "He's vile and cruel. And you're just pathetic."
Grimacing, Draco drew his wand. "Pathetic?"
"Oh, no, you don't, sonny!" Professor Moody ran out and cast a spell, turning Draco into a white ferret. "l'll teach you to curse someone when their back is turned! You stinking, cowardly, scummy-"
"Professor Moody!" McGonagall ran over. "What are you doing?"
"Teaching," Moody answered as he used his wand to shake the ferret, or Draco, around.
McGonagall's eyes grew wide when she realized what was happening. "ls that a─Is that a student?"
"Technically, it's a ferret." Moody dropped the creature down Crabbe's pants, causing the crowd that had formed to burst out into laughter.
As soon as the ferret had crawled out of Crabbe's pants though, McGonagall changed it back into Draco, who's hair was messed up and face flushed with fear. "My father will hear about this!" Draco told Moody.
"ls that a threat?" Moody chased Draco off. "l could tell you stories about your father that would curl even your greasy hair! lt doesn't end here!"
"Alastor!" McGonagall approached the man. "We never use transfiguration as a punishment! Surely Dumbledore told you that."
"He might've mentioned it."
"Well, you will do well to remember it." she nodded before turning to the students. "Away!"
"You. Come with me." Moody told Harry as he started to walk off.
Turning from Moody to me, Harry gave me a sheepish smile. "See you later?"
"Yeah."
_______________
As everyone on the premises of Hogwarts filed into the stadium for the first event of the tournament, I felt my stomach fill with butterflies, knowing full well that in a couple of minutes I could be watching my friend die. Fred and George were using the excitement to their advantage though and taking bets as they walked up and down the rows.
Every time one of the dragons would let out a roar from their cages on the side of the stadium, the crowd would scream, ecstatic at being able to see four different dragons in one day.
"Your attention, please," Dumbledore announced, making sure everyone could hear over the screams. "This is a great day for all of us. Each of the three tasks involves very considerable danger. Please keep your seats at all times. This will minimize any risks you may be exposed to. I'm sure we all wish our champions the best of luck."
Heading over to the tent where Harry and the other champions were waiting, Hermione and I made sure we weren't spotted before standing on the other side of the thin tent fabric. "Harry? ls that you?" I asked.
"Yeah," Harry replied.
"How are you feeling? Okay?" Hermione tried to talk through her own nerves. "The key is to concentrate. After that, you just have to-"
"Battle a dragon." Harry finished.
Pulling the fabric back slightly, Hermione ran through and gave Harry a hug. I was about to do the same when a woman with short, curly blonde hair walked through, the man by her side snapping a photo of Harry and Hermione in the embrace.
"Young love." she gushed, being the same woman who Harry had told me did the champion interviews. "How...stirring. lf everything goes unfortunately today...you two may even make the front page."
"You have no business here," Krum told her, his accent thick. "This tent is for champions...and friends."
"No matter." the woman smirked as her magic quill wrote down every word that was said. "We've got what we wanted."
As she and the cameraman left, Dumbledore and a few others entered. "Good day, champions." Dumbledore's smile helped to ease some of the tensions in the room. "Gather round, please. Now, you've waited, you've wondered, and at last the moment has arrived. A moment only four of you can fully appreciate...what are you two doing here?"
Noticing he was looking at Hermione and me, I grabbed Hermione's sleeve and started backing towards the exit. After returning to our place in the stands, Hermione and I held each other's hands tightly, bodies shaking nervously as the cannon sounded, officializing the start of the first event. "Diggory! Diggory! Diggory!" the crowd started to cheer, knowing that Cedric was going first.
As the day went on and we watched Cedric, Fleur, and Krum all successfully use their skills to battle their dragons and obtain the golden egg with the next clue, I was still shaking, hating the fact that Harry was going last.
"Three of our champions have now faced their dragons...and so each one of them will proceed to the next task. And now our fourth and final contestant."
"Harry! Harry! Harry!" the crowd cheered before quieting down eventually so Harry could process what was happening.
Spotting the golden egg in the middle of the stadium, Harry had barely taken five steps out of the cave from which he emerged when the dragon's large, spiked tail came crashing down behind him, nearly ending his life right then and there.
Diving out of the way, Harry stared up at the large beast with a chain around its neck, only there to make sure it didn't fly away. After locking on to Harry, the dragon blew it's fiery breath at him, causing him to jump to his feet and scatter.
Taking to the air slightly, the dragon landed right beside Harry, using its tail to smash the rocks around my friend before knocking him halfway across the stadium. As Harry laid face down on the rough terrain, the beast let out a mighty cry, letting everyone know that it wasn't letting the egg go without a fight.
Jumping back up to his feet, Harry hid behind a few large rocks to avoid the fire once more. "Your wand, Harry! Your wand!" Hermione yelled down to him, noticing that he was forgetting to use the one tool he was allowed to.
"Accio Firebolt!" Harry cast the spell to call his broom to him before sprinting off again, buying time and staying alive until the broom arrived.
Not long after the very gift from Sirius flew into the stadium and Harry jumped on as it dashed past. "Yeah!" we cheered, watching as he took to the sky and obtained an actual advantage.
Flapping its wings once more, the angry dragon somehow broke loose of its chains, chasing Harry as the both of them took off over the surrounding mountains and out of sight.
"Yeah! Well done, dragon!" Fred cheered as the dragon's deadly tail nearly sliced the teachers' stands in half.
Every once in awhile a loud roar would sound in the distance, letting us know the chase was still on, but other than that we had no clue what was going on. Just then, a loud roar rang out, but this one was different. It was accompanied by Harry's scream before everything went deathly silent.
Just when it actually started to occur to me that Harry might have actually died, he flew over the mountain tops, his broom a little worse for wear, but still in one piece, just like him.
"Yes! Yes!" I screamed louder than I ever had in my entire life as Harry swooped down and grabbed the golden egg. "Yes, Harry!"
Back in the Gryffindor common room, the celebrating continued as Harry held the egg high in the air, a crowd of Gryffindors gathering around him.
"Knew you wouldn't die, Harry," George said as he and Fred lifted Harry into the air. "Lose a leg."
"Or an arm," Fred added.
"Pack it in altogether?" they spoke in unison. "Never!"
Turning and grabbing the egg from the crowd as it made its way around the room, Seamus handed it to Harry. "Shush! Go on, Harry. What's the clue?"
"Who wants me to open it?" Harry asked, earning a loud cheer from everyone as he stayed on top of the twins' shoulders. "Do you want me to open it?"
"Yes!" we all nodded as Harry opened the egg, however, the result wasn't exactly what we had expected. A high pitched squealing sound came out, causing everyone to cover their ears, including the twins as they dropped Harry to the ground.
"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron asked as Harry closed the egg again, causing everyone to turn to him, surprised he had even shown up at all.
"All right, everyone! Go back to your knitting." George told the people in the room. "This is gonna be uncomfortable enough without all you nosy sods listening in."
Walking over to Harry, Ron hung his head low, causing his red hair to fall in front of his face. "l reckon you'd have to be barking mad to put your own name in the Goblet of Fire."
"Caught on, have you?" Harry huffed, still a little agitated. "Took you long enough."
"l wasn't the only one who thought you'd done it. Everyone was saying it behind your back."
Looking around at everyone in the room, Harry sighed. "Brilliant. That makes me feel loads better."
"Least l warned you about the dragons."
"Hagrid warned me about the dragons."
Ron shook his head. "No, no, no, l did. No, don't you remember? I told Hermione to tell you...that Seamus told me that Parvati told Dean that Hagrid was looking for you. Seamus never actually told me anything, so it was really me all along. l thought we'd be all right, you know...after you'd figured that out."
Harry furrowed his brows at Ron. "Who...who could possibly figure that out? That's completely mental."
"Yeah. lsn't it?" Ron chuckled. "l suppose l was a bit distraught."
"Boys." Hermione shook her head as we watched the two best friends making up like an old married couple. It was quite cute, actually, and I was just glad that I wouldn't have to choose between sitting with Harry or Ron at lunch anymore.