A/N: This chapter contains a version of the first task that's a bit more realistic than the one in the books or in the movies. A bit more graphic, too. You have been warned.
Y/N dragged Harry's pale and limp form through the portrait hole, Harry had one arm flung over Y/N's shoulders and he used it to support himself as he weakly limped over the the nearest squashy armchair. As they approached it, Harry had another vomit attack, and he threw up all over a red Gryffindor rug near the still-lit fire.
"Good lord, what on earth happened to him?"
Startled by the sudden voice, Y/N whisked his head in the direction of the fireplace, where the head of Sirius Black was casually sitting, as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
Y/N sighed and summoned his wand. He pointed it at the large stain of greenish-yellow bile on the rug and muttered, "Scourgify." The puddle vanished.
"We just found out what the first task is," Y/N told Sirius gravely, as he gently lowered Harry into a squashy armchair. "Dragons."
At the mention of the word itself, Sirius' face paled. But it seemed he had soemthing else on his mind.
"As dangerous as that is, I unfortunately have some more pressing matters to discuss with you two," said Sirius regretfully. "I hate to add to your stress, Harry, but I haven't got long here... I've broken into a wizarding house to use the fire, but they could be back at any time. There are things I need to warn you about."
"Frick," said Y/N, irritated. "Just another thing for Harry to stress over."
"What is it?" said Harry weakly.
"Karkaroff," said Sirius. "Harry, Y/N, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?"
"Yes - he what?" stammered Harry.
"He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. I'd bet everything that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year - to keep an eye on him. Moody caught Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place."
"I already knew that." Y/N said. "But why the hell did they release him?"
"He did a deal with the Ministry of Magic," said Sirius bitterly. "He said he'd seen the error of his ways, and then he named names... he put a load of people into Azkaban in his place... he's not very popular there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he's been teaching the Dark Arts to every student that passes through that school if his. So watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well, Harry. Stay close to Y/N, and don't leave his side."
"Okay," said Harry, slowly. "But... are you saying Karkaroff put my name in the Goblet? Because if he did, he's a really good actor. He seemed furious about it. He wanted to stop me competing."
"We know he's a good actor," said Sirius, "because he convinced the Ministry to set him free, didn't he? Now, I've been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet -"
"You and the rest of the world," said Harry bitterly.
" - and reading between the lines of that Skeeter woman's article last month, Moody was attacked the night before Hogwarts. Yes, I know she says it was another false alarm," Sirius said hastily, seeing Harry about to speak," but I don't think so, somehow. I think someone tried to stop him getting to Hogwarts. I think someone knew their job would be a lot more difficult with him around. And no one's going to look into it too closely, Mad-Eye's heard intruders a bit too often. But that doesn't mean he can't still spot the real thing. Moody was the best Auror the Ministry ever had."
"I still don't think it's Karkaroff who put Harry's name in," said Y/N. "He may be power-hungry, but the man's a total coward. He wouldn't go so far as to try and do a favour for the people he snitched on."
"Well, whoever it is, they know what they're doing. I've been hearing strange things." said Sirius slowly. "Did you hear about that Ministry witch who went missing?"
"Bertha Jorkins?" said Y/N and Harry in unison.
"Exactly... she disappeared in Albania, and thats definitely where -"
"Voldemort was rumoured to be last." Y/N finished, realising where Sirius was going with this conversation.
"Yeah, but... It's not very likely she'd have walked straight into Voldemort, is it?" said Harry.
"Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins," said Sirius grimly. "She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above James and me. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It's not a good combination. I'd say she'd be very easy to lure into a trap."
"And so Voldemort found out about the Tournament because she spilled the beans?" said Y/N. "And whoever put Harry's name in the Goblet is here on Voldemort's orders?"
"Looks like a really good plan from where I'm standing," said Harry bleakly. "They'll just have to stand back and let the dragons do their stuff."
"Right - these dragons," said Sirius, speaking very quietly now. "There's not much that can take on a dragon. But don't even be tempted to try a Stunning Spell - dragons are strong and too magically powerful to be knocked out by a single Stunner. You need about half a dozen wizards at a time to overcome a dragon -"
"Yeah, I know, we just saw." said Harry, looking a little green again.
"If there's not much he can do, how on earth are they expecting him to defeat this thing?" Y/N said, exasperated. "He's only allowed his - his wand..."
Y/N's eyes suddenly widened in realisation. "No... there is a way... a very simple way now that I think about it..."
Harry suddenly held up a hand to silence him, looking desperately anguished. The sound of footsteps coming down the spiral staircase echoed through the deserted common room.
"Get out of here!" Y/N hissed at Sirius. "There's someone coming!"
There was a tiny pop as Sirius' head disappeared from the fire, just as a familiar head of red hair came into view.
It was Ron. Dressed in his maroon paisley pyjamas, Ron stopped dead facing Harry and Y/N across the room.
"You smell of sick." he said, crinkling his nose and pinching it with his long fingers. "What have you been doing? Who were you talking to?"
"Nothing to do with you." said Y/N coldly.
"What are you doing down here at this time of night?" said Harry snarled.
"Nothing." said Ron. "I'm going back to bed."
Harry looked as though he was about to shout at Ron, but Y/N held up his hand. "No need to waste your breath." he said nastily.
As Ron scampered off up the spiral staircase once again, Y/N turned to Harry.
"I think I have an idea on how to deal with the dragon," he said calmly. "Remember all that extra homework Professor Flitwick gave you on Summoning Charms?"
"Yeah?" said Harry blankly, not putting the pieces together.
"Well, be prepared to cram all I can teach you about it from now till Tuesday."
* * *
On Monday morning, Harry looked all but ready to simply flee from the confines of the castle.
Both Y/N and Hermione were doing all they could to help him perfect the Summing charm, but just like everything else they tried to teach him, it was being severely restricted by his stress.
Harry had already decided to tell Cedric Diggory about the dragons, since he was the only champion who wasn't aware of it. This did not please Y/N.
"Why would you tell him?" he said, slightly exaspered. "Its not like he's going to show you any gratitude for it."
"Its not about that," said Harry. "If he's the only one who doesn't know what's coming, then not only is that unfair, but it could put his life in danger."
Y/N, as much as he wanted to, couldn't argue with that. "You're too damn nice for your own good, Harry."
Sure enough, not only had Cedric been extremely sceptical on whether or not Harry had been telling the truth, but as Y/N predicted, the older Hufflepuff boy had shown no gratitude for Harry's assistance.
Ever since Sirius had visited them in the fire, Y/N, Hermione and Harry skipped lunch so that they could train Harry the best that they could.
They used the same free classroom to train, and Harry would try with all his might to make various objects fly around the room towards him. He was still having problems. The books and quills kept losing heart halfway across the room and dropping like stones to the floor.
"Concentrate, Harry, concentrate..." said Hermione.
"What d'you think I'm tying to do?" said Harry angrily. "A filthy great dragon keeps popping up in my head, for some reason... okay, try again..."
He wanted to skip Divination to keep practicing, and Y/N stayed with him while he did so while Hermione went to her Arithmancy class. She disapproved of Y/N skipping classes, of course, but given the situation, she decided to overlook it just this once.
After cerfew, Y/N, Hermione and Harry continued up in Gryffindor Tower, which was mercifully empty.
At two o' clock in the morning, Harry stood near the fireplace, surrounded by heaps of objects - books, quills, several upturned chairs, an old set of Gobstones and Neville's toad, Trevor. Only in the last hour had Harry really gotten the hang of the Summoning Charm.
"That's better, Harry, that's loads better," Hermione said, looking exhausted, but very pleased.
"You've finally managed to get it decent enough." said Y/N, equally as exhausted. "I reckon you'll stand a good chance now."
"Well, now we know what to do next time I can't manage a spell," said Harry, throwing a Rune Dictionary back to Hermione, so he could try again, "threaten me with a dragon. Right..." he raised his wand once more. "Accio Dictionary!"
The heavy book soared out of Hermione's hand, flew across the room, and Harry caught it.
"I think you've got it." said Y/N, smiling through his dark eye bags.
"Just as long as it works tomorrow..." said Harry worriedly.
* * *
The next day, lessons seemed to almost fly by. The atmosphere in the school was one of great tension and excitement. Lessons were to stop at midday, giving all the students time to get down to the dragons' enclosure - though of course, they didn't get know what they would find there.
Throughout the precious few dragon-free hours before the first task, Harry looked as though he would literally shit himself. His face was never seen as anything other than a rather worrying shade of white, and after lunch, Professor McGonagall was hurrying over to Harry in the Great Hall. Lots of people were watching.
"Potter, the champions have to come down into the grounds now... you have to get ready for your first task."
Looking hysteriacally desperate, Harry turned to Y/N. "What if I just refuse to do it?" he said, almost whimpering. "They can't force me, right?" his eyes were wet and he was trembling just as he was the night he'd seen the dragons.
"If you refuse to do it, the magical contract will - well, you know." said Y/N regretfully. "There's no way out of this, Harry. Just stick to plan and you'll be fine."
Harry mournfully turned away, nodded, and stood up. His fork fell with a clatter and he followed Professor McGonagall out of the Great Hall.
Hermione looked positively terrified. "He'll be fine, right?" she said, turning to Y/N as though trying to reassure herself. "Fine!"
Y/N looked down at her hands, which were clasped in front of her very nervously. Like Harry, she too, was trembling.
Y/N didn't have the heart to even respond. It seemed everyone was relying on him to reassure them, for him to keep a level head an tell then that everything would be all right. But in truth, Y/N was just as terrified as everyone else. Of course, it did not show in his facial expression, but he was doing everything in his power to steady his beating heart. The concept didn't really seem real at all.
If Harry or the wizards in charge of protecting him messed up even slightly, Harry could die tonight.
It wasn't a joke, nor was it a game. This was reality. This could very possibly be the last time Y/N would see his friend alive.
Y/N's heart did an odd little thump. This was it.
It was a peculiar feeling, being so scared and anxious over the life of someone else. When had he become so soft? When had his walls been broken so much to the extent that his heart was actually thumping so irregularly in dread over the life of another human? And not just any human, but of a precious friend. Something a version of Y/N from five years ago would never have dreamed of having. A friend. A singular human who was filling Y/N with so much anxiety that he felt his heart would explode. A singular human who had been loyal to him for almost four years. A singular human who was one of the few members of blood family Y/N had left.
Hermione seemed to sense Y/N's inner turmoil, and she placed a reassuring hand over his own. He lifted his head and gazed into her chocolate brown eyes. The eyes of the girl who started it all.
Wow. He thought. I honestly can't believe how much this single girl before me has changed my life so much in the mere four years I've known her.
After fifteen more dreaded minutes, Dumbledore stood up from his chair at staff table.
"My dear guests," he called loudly. "Prefects and Head of Houses, please lead your students to the stands near the edge of the forest, where we shall begin the first task."
The residents of the Gryffindor table stood up, and followed Professor McGonagall (who had just returned from escorting Harry), out of the Great Hall, through the Entrance Hall and out into the grounds.
They cut across the field in single file, and rounded the Forbidden Forest, following the same path that Hagrid had used when he had shown Y/N and Harry the dragons. They passed the rocky hills and ominous landscape of the Hogwarts fields and when they finally reached the paddock, Y/N noticed that a large tent had been erected, where he assumed the champions were residing.
Just left of the tent was a large, empty enclosure, surrounded by wooden stands that housed more seats than even the Hogwarts Quidditch stadium. Each segment of the stands was covered in crimson tarp, and many flags sprouted from the wooden beams that sported each of the Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang coat of arms respectfully.
Little by little, the stands were filled, and soon they were bustling with all of the students that were currently taking refuge in the castle, all of Hogwarts, and the few Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students. They all shared one thing in common, however, and that was that they were cheering, laughing and joking in mad excitement for the event that was about to take place.
As Y/N and Hermione took their seats in the fifth row, they could hear Fred and George yelling out for people to bet on the winners.
"Bets! Place your bets!"
"Bets taken! Bets taken here!"
"Step up, folks! Who fancies a flutter in today's bloodbath?"
Y/N sighed as he took his seat next to Hermione. "Immature idiots."
Right at the other end of the stands, in seats draped in gold, the judges were sitting. Bagman, Crouch, Madame Maxime, Karkaroff and Dumbledore. Bagman, who was sitting right in the middle, had motioned for silence. When he spoke, it had been magically amplified with Sonorus.
"Well, now that we're all here - welcome, to the first official task of this year's Triwizard Tournament!"
There was a scatter of enthusiastic applause and cheering.
"This is a great day for all of us," Bagman continued, after the applause had died down. "Each of the three tasks contains very considerable danger. Please remain in your seats at all times."
There was suddenly an ear-splitting roar, and nearly everyone threw their hands over their ears. Y/N looked over to the entrance of the enclosure, where twenty wizards in dark green robes were leading a large bluish-grey dragon, secured in many chains and manacles, into the terrain that waited for it inside.
It was snapping its teeth extremely aggressively as it was dragged inside, apparently trying to force its way back, digging into the chains painfully. Y/N recognised the dragon immediately as a Swedish Short-Snout, and judging by its immense size, it was a female.
A few seconds later, Y/N realised why the great beast had been fighting so hard.
Six more wizards had entered the enclosure, each of them holding up a large, heavy egg. Five of these eggs were ash-grey, and the sixth was golden.
At the sight of the eggs, the Swedish Short-Snout thrashed harder against her restraints, nearly ripping out of her muzzle as she attempted to blast out a torrent of fire.
The eggs were placed near her feet, and as the wizards left, the dragons binding magically came undone. She blasted her limbs outwards, lifted her head and roaring into the sky.
"What the hell?" said Y/N, his eyes wide shocked.
"What? What's wrong?" said Hermione nervously, eyeing the dragon with trepidation.
"I thought that the champions would just have to fight a dragon, but instead, they have to fight a mother dragon? Is the Ministry insane? Do they have any idea how territorial mothering dragons are?"
"What's the difference?" Hermione asked. "Between a dragon and a mothering dragon?"
"Dragons are already violent creatures." said Y/N, biting his fingers anxiously. "But a mothering dragon will do anything to protect her eggs. She will not take chances. She'll go above and beyond to kill anything that dares to even move around her eggs."
Y/N gritted his teeth. "We didn't prepare enough," he said. "We should have considered the distance between the item summoned and size of said item. Harry's only ever summoned small items over short distances. The Firebolt is a lot bigger, and it's all the way in the castle..."
Hermione gave a terrified little squeak. "I didn't think of that..."
Now that the dragon had been secured inside the enclosure, Bagman continued to speak.
"There are four dragons." he boomed eagerly. "One for each champion. They have already been chosen for each dragon they face, and their task, is to collect the golden egg!"
The tent flap that the champions were residing in was suddenly lifted, and Cedric Diggory walked out into the enclosure, green in the face and staring at the Swedish Short-Snout in a mixture of intense fear and determination.
"And here we have the first champion!" Bagman called, as the Hufflepuffs exploded into cheers. "Let the first task commence!"
It was worse than Y/N could have ever imagined. The crowd screamed... yelled... gasped like a many-headed entity, as Cedric did whatever he could to get past the Swedish Short-Snout.
As Y/N had suspected, the dragon did not hold back at all. Eventually an exhausted and drained Cedric Diggory gave up in trying to get close to it, and transfigured a nearby rock into a dog, distracting the dragon long enough to approach the eggs, grab the golden one and make a break for it. However, the dragon turned back to Cedric before he could properly pick it up, and it mercilessly shot out a tornado of orange fire, burning Cedric's handsome face as he picked up the egg and dashed away, letting the Ministry wizards rush forwards and subdue the enraged dragon.
"Very good indeed!" Bagman shouted, once it was all over, his voice barely heard over the mad cheers of the Hufflepuffs. "And now for the marks from the judges!"
Y/N did not pay attention as the judges shot Cedric's scores into the air, he simply watched as the struggling dragon was once again entrapped by chains and dragged out of the enclosure.
The the following two champions, Krum and Fleur, also did well against their dragons, the Chinese Fireball and the Welsh Green. The only drawbacks to their marks was that Krum had accidently caused the Chinese Fireball to stomp onto her eggs, crushing them, and Fleur had very nearly been burned alive.
Finally, it was Harry's turn.
Y/N watched, his heart in his throat as the Hungarian Horntail was lead into the enclosure. It was larger and much more violent than the other three, with a thick, muscular body and black scales. Her yellow eyes were small and filled with a powerful maternal protective instinct, and her spiky tail swung around violently, very nearly beheading a few of the Ministry wizards.
When her restraints had been magically removed, she sat near her eggs, waiting.
And then, trembling violently in fear, Harry Potter stepped out of the champions' tent.
It was almost as if the Horntail knew that this scrawny, black-haired boy was here to harm her eggs. And she immediately attacked, slamming into Harry with such force that he was flung backwards, landing with a thud onto the ground, looking as though he was frozen in fear. Hermione suddenly gripped Y/N's hand hard as Harry began to cough.
As he shakily got to his feet, he raised his wand high into the air, and shouted, "Accio Firebolt!"
Both Y/N and Hermione (Harry too, from the looks of it) held their breath, waiting, praying... if it hadn't worked... if it wasn't coming...
Still they waited... but it wasn't there. The familiar whizzing sound of a successful Summoning Charm could not be heard. Harry simply stood there like an idiot, his wand outstretched, still hoping that, by some miracle, his faithful Firebolt would answer its call...
But it did not come.
Hermione turned very white, and Y/N swore under his breath.
"No," said Hermione faintly. "No, no, no, no..."
The Horntail, who realised that Harry was not going to leave, prepared herself for another attack. The judges seemed to know something had gone wrong and Dumbledore called out for the dragon-handlers to subdue the Horntail.
Twenty-five wizards clad in dark green robes came spilling out onto the area, one of them Y/N recognised as Charlie. Then, the dragon did something no one expected.
She attacked, swiping her large, spiked tail in the direction of the the dragon-handlers. All twenty-five of them were knocked off their feet and fell to the ground. The crowd gasped as, a second later, a torrent of orange fire billowed from the Horntail's mouth, burning the fallen dragon-handlers, who could do nothing to protect themselves.
With the pesky wizards out of the way, the dragon turned back to Harry, who was sprinting back towards the tent. In three vast strides, the dragon caught up with him, and lifted an enormous, clawed front leg.
As the shadow of her foot ominously fell over Harry, he looked up, almost accepting his fate.
"Wait," said Y/N fearfully, more to himself than to the dragon. He rose from his seat. "Stop -"
Too late. With a heavy crunch, the Horntail lowered her foot, crushing Harry like a pancake. Many students, Hermione included, screamed as a splattering of blood soiled the floor in an instant, and Harry Potter was crushed under the weight of an angry mother dragon's foot.