Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585181
Chapter 2: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585386
Chapter 3: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589099
Chapter 4: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589999
Chapter 5: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003590737
Chapter 6: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003592048
Chapter 7: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003593450
Chapter 8: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003594715
Chapter 9: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003595876
Chapter 10: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003596713
Chapter 11: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003597502
Chapter 12: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003598647
Chapter 13: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003600597
Chapter 14: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003602821
Chapter 15: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003605031
Chapter 16: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003605690
Chapter 17: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003607525
Tags: @MeowTasticCat @Bellatrisblack @Diantha Angelina Black @CatsAndRoblox @Kakaonut @Potatopanda2121
(After the heartfelt last chapter with Sirius and Remus, get ready for an angsty one.)
Chapter Eighteen: The First Task
Harry got up on Sunday morning and dressed so inattentively that it was a while before he realized he was trying to pull his hat onto his foot instead of his sock. When he’d finally got all his clothes on the right parts of his body, he hurried off to find his friends, locating at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, where Tracey, Terence, and Theodore were eating breakfast with Colin Creevey and Ella Wilkins. Feeling too queasy to eat, Harry waited until Theodore and Tracey were done eating, then dragged them out onto the grounds. There, he told them all about the dragons, and about what his parents had told him in private, while they took another long walk around the lake. Alarmed as she was by Sirius and Remus’ warnings about Karkaroff, Tracey still thought that the dragons were the more pressing problem.
'Ok,' she said with newfound determination, 'We'll keep practicing spells, and then you just have to apply them creatively to a dragon. Karkaroff can wait until Friday.'
They all walked three times around the lake, trying all the way to think of a simple spell that would subdue a dragon, Theodore knew a potion but Harry had to remind him that only wands were allowed and that it would look suspicious if he showed up to the secret task armed with a dragon sleeping potion. Besides the potion nothing effective occurred to them, so they retired to the library instead. Here, Harry pulled down every book he could find on dragons, and all of them set to work searching through the large pile.
'How to treat scale-rot...fire enhancing...charm to clip talon's, I can only find Dragon maintenance,' said Tracey, quite frustrated.
'‘Dragons are extremely difficult to slay, owing to the ancient magic that imbues their thick hides, which none but the most powerful spells can penetrate...But there has got to be something or how else do they expect each of us to single handedly defeat one?'
‘Well we keep going for the most complex dragon books that focus on their biology, maybe the secret to defeating a dragon is actually really simple. Let’s go through some jinxes and low-level curses,’ suggested Theodore.
They put their books back and went searching for a more wide variety. They returned to the table with piles of spellbooks, set them down, and began to flick through each in turn, They all kept pitching ideas quietly.
‘The Brachiabindo charm doesn’t work on something as big as a dragon, nor do I think it’s strong enough,’ said Theodore.
‘It wouldn’t work anyway,’ said Harry. ‘Remember what the book said, dragons have an enchanted hide that repels most spells, we got to think outside the box.’
‘Cracker jinx could distract it, but wouldn’t be much use in immobilizing it. Oh, and the Impediment Jinx could definitely come in handy, though it might be repelled as well,’ said Tracey.
Tracey kept sprouting dozens of charms and jinxes for Harry to consider, Theodore offered some as well, but the constant bombardment of ideas was starting to overwhelm Harry.
‘Guys,’ he said, through gritted teeth, ‘will you shut up for a bit, please? I’m trying to concentrate.’
But all that happened, when the two fell silent, was that Harry’s brain filled with a sort of blank buzzing, which didn’t seem to allow room for concentration. He stared hopelessly down the index of Basic Hexes for the Busy and Vexed. Instant scalping...but dragons had no hair...pepper breath...that would probably increase a dragon’s firepower...horn tongue...just what he needed, to give it an extra weapon...
‘Hi everyone, whatcha doing?’ came the cheerful and curious voice of Colin.
‘Hey Colin,’ said Theodore, sounding relieved after hours of studying, ‘we’re just doing research for a project of sorts-‘
‘Colin, can you leave us alone for five bloody minutes, I swear you are constantly hovering around us!’ said Harry, reaching his breaking point.
He regretted it almost instantly, when Colin first met Harry it was clear he only saw Harry as a hero, but over the last couple years they had grown to be friends, and now Harry watched Colin’s happy smile shatter. Tears filled the third years eyes.
‘I-I...’ the lad stuttered, but then turned around and ran out of the library.
Theodore then stood, he looked as though he was going to explode. ‘That’s it, I can’t take anymore of your attitude today Harry. He just said hi and you blew up at him.’
And with that Theodore ran in the direction Colin had went. Miserably Harry put his head in his hands. ‘Are you going to leave me to, Tracey?’
She answered slowly, her voice was bitter, ‘No, I can tell you’re just overwhelmed, but you got to stop taking your pent up emotions out on your friends. You could have just said you needed a break.’
‘I guess you’re right, I’m not going to be of any use if I start spiraling. Let’s head back to the common room.’
Harry barely slept that night. When he awoke on Monday morning, he seriously considered for the first time ever just running away from Hogwarts. But as he looked around the Great Hall at breakfast time, and thought about what leaving the castle would mean, he knew he couldn’t do it. His family would be worried sick and they didn’t deserve that, if he was caught his wand would be taken away and snapped, but he probably won’t even get that far as Crouch had said he was magically contracted to participate in the tournament.
Somehow, the knowledge that he would rather be here and facing a dragon than magicless and alone was good to know; it made him feel slightly calmer. He finished his bacon with difficulty (his throat wasn’t working too well), and as he and Tracey got up (Theodore was still a little mad at him), he saw Cedric Diggory leaving the Hufflepuff table.
Cedric still didn’t know about the dragons...the only champion who didn’t, if Harry was right in thinking that Maxime and Karkaroff would have told Fleur and Krum...
‘Tracey, I’ll see you in History of Magic,’ Harry said, coming to his decision as he watched Cedric leaving the Hall. ‘Go on, I’ll catch you up.’
‘Ok, just don’t do anything stupid. Last thing you need is detention for skipping class—‘
‘I’ll try not to be late. Meet you there.’
By the time Harry reached the bottom of the marble staircase,
Cedric was at the top. He was with a load of sixth-year friends. Harry didn’t want to talk to Cedric in front of them; they were among those who had been quoting Rita Skeeter’s article at him every time he went near them. He followed Cedric at a distance and saw that he was heading toward the Charms corridor. This gave Harry an idea. Pausing at a distance from them, he pulled out his wand, and took careful aim.
‘Diffindo!’
Cedric’s bag split. Parchment, quills, and books spilled out of it onto the floor. Several bottles of ink smashed.
‘Don’t bother,’ said Cedric in an exasperated voice as his friends bent down to help him. ‘Tell Flitwick I’m coming, go on...’
This was exactly what Harry had been hoping for. He slipped his wand back into his robes, waited until Cedric’s friends had disappeared into their classroom, and hurried up the corridor, which was now empty of everyone but himself and Cedric.
‘Hi,’ said Cedric, picking up a copy of A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration that was now splattered with ink. ‘My bag just split...brand-new and all...’
‘Cedric,’ said Harry, ‘the first task is dragons.’
‘What?’ said Cedric, looking up.
‘Dragons,’ said Harry, speaking quickly, in case Professor Flitwick came out to see where Cedric had got to. ‘They’ve got four, one for each of us, and we’ve got to get past them.’
Cedric stared at him. Harry saw some of the panic he’d been feeling since Saturday night flickering in Cedric’s deep gray eyes.
‘Are you sure? Are you pulling my leg?’ Cedric said in a hushed voice.
‘It’s no trick,’ said Harry. ‘I’ve seen them.’
‘But how did you find out? We’re not supposed to know...’
‘Never mind that,’ said Harry quickly—he knew Hagrid would be in trouble if he told the truth. ‘But I’m not the only one who knows. Fleur knows and Krum will know by now to—Maxime and Karkaroff both saw the dragons too.’
Cedric straightened up, his arms full of inky quills, parchment, and books, his ripped bag dangling off one shoulder. He stared at Harry, and there was a puzzled, almost suspicious look in his eyes.
‘Why are you telling me?’ he asked.
Harry looked at him in disbelief. He was almost sure Cedric wouldn’t have asked that if Harry had been in any other house. Harry wouldn’t have let his worst enemy face those monsters unprepared—well, perhaps Pansy or Snape...
‘It’s just...fair, isn’t it?’ he said to Cedric. ‘We all know now...we’re on an even footing. Besides, I owed you for looking out for my sister in her first year.’
Cedric was still looking at him in a slightly suspicious way when Harry heard a familiar clunking noise behind him. He turned around and saw Mad-Eye Moody emerging from a nearby classroom.
‘Come with me, Potter,’ he growled. ‘Diggory, off you go.’
Harry stared apprehensively at Moody. Had he overheard them?
‘Er—Professor, I’m supposed to be in History of Magic—‘
‘Never mind that, Potter. Binns still thinks he’s teaching the class of 1885, he won’t notice you’re gone. In my office, please...’
Harry followed him, wondering what was going to happen to him now. What if Moody wanted to know how he’d found out about the dragons? Would Moody go to Dumbledore and tell on Hagrid, or just turn Harry into a ferret? Well, it might be easier to get past a dragon if he were a ferret, Harry thought dully, he’d be smaller, much less easy to see from a height of fifty feet...
He followed Moody into his office. Moody closed the door behind them and turned to look at Harry, his magical eye fixed upon him as well as the normal one.
‘That was a very decent thing you just did, Potter. Your guardians raised you well,’ Moody said quietly.
Harry didn’t know what to say; this wasn’t the reaction he had expected at all.
‘Sit down,’ said Moody, and Harry sat, looking around.
He had visited this office under two of its previous occupants. In Professor Lockhart’s day, the walls had been plastered with beaming, winking pictures of Professor Lockhart himself. When Remus had lived here, you were more likely to come across a specimen of some fascinating new Dark creature he had procured for them to study in class. Now, however, the office was full of a number of exceptionally odd objects that Harry supposed Moody had used in the days when he had been an Auror.
On his desk stood what looked like a large, cracked, glass spinning top; Harry recognized it at once as a Sneakoscope, because he owned one himself, though it was much smaller than Moody’s. In the corner on a small table stood an object that looked something like an extra-squiggly, golden television aerial. It was humming slightly. What appeared to be a mirror hung opposite Harry on the wall, but it was not reflecting the room. Shadowy figures were moving around inside it, none of them clearly in focus. It reminded Harry of his and his biological father’s enchanted two-way mirror, except this one was like a five-way version.
‘Like my Dark Detectors, do you?’ said Moody, who was watching Harry closely.
‘What’s that?’ Harry asked, pointing at the squiggly golden aerial.
‘Secrecy Sensor. Vibrates when it detects concealment and lies...no use here, of course, too much interference—students in every direction lying about why they haven’t done their homework. Been humming ever since I got here. I had to disable my Sneakoscope because it wouldn’t stop whistling. It’s extra-sensitive, picks up stuff about a mile around. Of course, it could be picking up more than kid stuff,’ he added in a growl.
“And is that a two-way mirror?’
‘What? Oh that’s my Foe-Glass. See them out there, skulking around? I’m not really in trouble until I see the whites of their eyes. That’s when I open my trunk.’
He let out a short, harsh laugh, and pointed to the large trunk under the window. It had seven keyholes in a row. Harry wondered what was in there, until Moody’s next question brought him sharply back to earth.
‘So...found out about the dragons, have you?’
Harry hesitated. He’d been afraid of this—but he hadn’t told Cedric, and he certainly wasn’t going to tell Moody, that Hagrid had broken the rules.
‘It’s all right,’ said Moody, sitting down and stretching out his wooden leg with a groan.
‘Cheating’s a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and always has been.’
‘I didn’t cheat,’ said Harry sharply, he hated when others assumed he cheated. ‘It was—a sort of accident that I found out.’
Moody grinned. ‘I wasn’t accusing you, laddie. I’ve been telling Dumbledore from the start, he can be as high-minded as he likes, but you can bet old Karkaroff and Maxime won’t be. They’ll have told their champions everything they can. They want to win. They want to beat Dumbledore. They’d like to prove he’s only human.’
Moody gave another harsh laugh, and his magical eye swiveled around so fast it made Harry feel queasy to watch it.
‘So...got any ideas how you’re going to get past your dragon yet?’ said Moody.
‘Not fully,’ said Harry. ‘I know a couple jinxes now that’ll distract it, but I couldn’t find any spell to stop it that’ll work on its hide.’
‘Well, I’m not going to tell you,’ said Moody gruffly. ‘I don’t show favoritism, me. I’m just going to give you some good, general advice. And the first bit is—play to your strengths.’
Sirius and Remus had said something similar, but the problem was that most spells Harry was really good at were useless in a battle, like levitation or transfiguration, or the Patronus Charm that was only useful against Dementors. The only spell Harry knew that would guarantee the dragons defeat would likely kill him in the process as well, Fiendfyre.’
‘I haven’t got any,’ said Harry, before he could stop himself.
‘Excuse me,’ growled Moody, ‘you’ve got strengths if I say you’ve got them. Think now. What are you best at?’
Harry tried to concentrate. What was he best at? Well, that was easy, really—
‘Quidditch,’ he said dully, ‘and a fat lot of help that’ll—‘
‘That’s right,’ said Moody, staring at him very hard, his magical eye barely moving at all. ‘You’re a damn good flier from what I’ve heard.’
‘Yeah, but...’ Harry stared at him. ‘I’m not allowed a broom, I’ve only got my wand—‘
‘My second piece of general advice,’ said Moody loudly, interrupting him, ‘is to use a nice, simple spell that will enable you to get what you need.’
Harry looked at him blankly. What did he need?
‘Come on, boy...’ whispered Moody. ‘Put them together...it’s not that difficult...’
And it clicked. He was best at flying. He needed to pass the dragon in the air. For that, he needed his Firebolt. And for his Firebolt, he needed—
‘Tracey,’ Harry whispered, when he had sped into classroom 4F five minutes later, uttering a hurried apology to Professor Binns as he passed him. ‘Tracey—you are the only person who can help me.’
‘Great,’ she whispered back, ‘but isn’t that what I’ve been doing for you for weeks now?’
‘And I have been a jerk, thinking that nothing you suggested was useful, but the truth is it is the key. Tracey, I need to learn how to do a Summoning Charm properly by Thursday afternoon.’
And so they practiced. Every lunch and afternoon into the evening they spent time trying to master the spell. Harry had new motivation to learn the spell so he was no longer giving up when he got frustrated. Harry was trying with all his might to make various objects fly across the room toward him. He was still having problems. The books and quills kept losing heart halfway across the room and dropping like stones to the floor.
‘The first step is the wrist movement, which you have now mastered, but that will activate the charm,’ said Tracey, sounding scarily like Professor McGonagall. ‘The next step, to get the object you want to come to you, you must picture it in your mind. Your one and only thought must be that object and it being in your possession.’
‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ said Harry, starting to get worried, ‘A great big dragon keeps popping up in my head every time I cast it...’
‘You got to keep trying...’
On Wednesday after lunch they tasked Theodore of covering for them and writing down any important notes, and the two of them skipped that History of Magic class all together.
They had found an empty classroom and practiced their all afternoon. They skipped dinner and kept at it for a few more hours, and were started to get close to curfew.
Only minutes before every student had to be in their common room had Harry really got the hang of the Summoning Charm.
‘You’re doing it, Harry, that pencil did drop before reaching your hand,’ Tracey said, while looking exhausted from spending the last three days trying to teach a single spell.
‘Well, now we know what to do next time I can’t manage a spell,’ Harry said, tossing a Galleon at Tracey, so he could try again, ‘threaten me with a dragon. Right...’
He raised his wand once more. ‘Accio Galleon!’
The large coin soared out of Tracey’s hand, flew across the room, and Harry caught it.
‘You’ve done it Harry, I dare say you’ve mastered the spell!’ said Tracey delightedly.
‘Just as long as it works tomorrow,’ Harry said. ‘The Firebolt’s going to be much farther away than the stuff in here, it’s going to be in the castle, and I’m going to be out there on the grounds...’
‘Distance only effects the time it takes to arrive,’ said Tracey firmly, ‘as long as you can picture where it used to be and where you want it now it will come to you. Now let’s get downstairs, I think Daphne will share her stash of snacks with us, you’ll need to keep your strength up for tomorrow.’
