Chapter Text
Harry James Potter was nervously pacing back and forth across the far end of the Champions tent.
It was mere minutes before the first task of the famed TriWizard Tournament was supposed to start, but he was anything but eager to get it underway. The three champions were similarly nervous, but Harry had barely even noticed this when he’d walked in due to his own nervous state, and certainly wasn’t paying them any attention now, nor were they paying him any attention, or each other any attention, all four of them lost in their own worlds.
But as Harry paced across the long side of the tent, he noticed a slight shadow fall across the side of the tent, and the fabric ripple slightly. Moving towards it, he heard a distinctly feminine "Psst”, so he moved right next to the fabric separating the competitors from the outside world, to see what the only person who would think to come visit him before his rapidly approaching demise wanted.
"Psst," came the voice again, quiet enough that the other three champions hadn't seemed to have noticed it, before it whispered, “Harry? Is that you?"
"Yeah," replied Harry in an equal whisper.
"How are you feeling? Okay?" came the voice of his best (and since his name had come out of the goblet, seemingly only) friend. When he didn’t say anything, after a second she continued on, "The key is to concentrate. After that you just have to —"
"Battle a dragon," Harry finished for her.
There was a pregnant pause, before Harry suddenly found himself being engulfed in a mighty hug, as Hermione burst through the opening in the tent wall and launched herself onto to him. Staggering a step backwards to keep his balance, Harry wrapped his arms around her tightly, returning her hug gratefully.
Hermione had been the only one to believe him when he said he hadn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire, for which he knew he would be forever grateful. And beyond just believing him when no one else would, she'd also helped him perfect Accio, the Summoning Charm, once he'd told her about needing to summon his Firebolt for the first task against the dragon.
But suddenly, their bubble was rudely burst by the flash of a camera lightbulb.
"Young love," cooed Rita, strutting into the tent. "Oh, how—" Here she pause for a second, clearly contemplating the best word to describe the situation.
"Stirring," she finished with great finality, before continuing, "If everything goes unfortunately today, you two may even make the front page."
Hermione had a nasty suspicion that "unfortunately" to Rita would mean that none of the champions or Harry had sustained a nasty injured in the upcoming task, but before she could do anything more than glare at the 'journalist', Krum spoke up for the first time since Harry had entered the tent.
"You have no business here. This tent is for champions. And friends."
Rita looked mildly offended that no one considered her a friend, but she covered it well, and answered, "Well. No matter. We've got what we wanted," before swaying back towards the door of the tent.
But before she'd made it all the way to the door, the judges and Filch entered the tent from behind where Harry and Hermione were standing, drawing everyone’s attention away from her, so she slipped into the corner to watch.
"Good day, Champions. Gather round, please," boomed out Dumbledore's voice as he entered. The three champions quickly hurried over to where the adults were, as Harry and Hermione shifted to the side slightly so Dumbledore could have center stage. Harry and Hermione's hands instinctively found their way into each other, and Hermione's other hand grasped his arm protectively.
"Now you've waited. You've wondered. At last the moment has arrived. The moment only four of you can fully appreciate."
Dumbledore looked around at the four students, and with a double take, realized that there were in fact actually five students standing around him, not four. So taking another look to see who the extra student was, he quickly recognized her as being none other than Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of their generation.
"What are you doing here, Miss Granger?” the Headmaster asked in a puzzled tone, clearly confused at her presence, looking around to see if anyone else knew why she was there. As no one seemed to, he looked back around at the young witch.
"Oh, sorry…" Hermione stuttered, before Harry squeezed her hand a little bit tighter and said, "She's here with me, Professor. She wanted to wish me 'Good luck'."
"Oh," replied Dumbledore, still looking flummoxed. But when it became clear after a few seconds that Miss Granger wasn’t leaving, he continued on, turning to Mr Crouch. "Barty. The bag."
Holding out a bag that looked like it was smoking slightly, Mr Crouch gestured to all of the champions. "Champions, in a circle around me. Miss Delacour over here. Mr Krum. Potter and — you" — here he looked at Hermione, clearly not having paid the slightest bit of attention to what Dumbledore had just called her — "over here." Having shuffled everyone around to where he wanted them, he continued, "Right. Miss Delacour, if you will…"
Soon all four competitors had selected their dragon, Mr Crouch had explained the objective of the task, and the adults had left the tent to return to the stands, leaving the competitors (and friend) alone once more. As Cedric headed out of the tent first to face his dragon, Harry and Hermione drifted back into the furthest corner of the tent, while the remaining two champions returned to their own corners, resuming mentally preparing themselves for the monstrous task they would soon be faced with.
"Thanks for coming," said Harry quietly as soon as everyone but the remaining two champions had left the tent.
"Of course, Harry!" replied Hermione distraughtly, still grasping Harry's arm tightly. "This is completely mad, having students face dragons! And without any of you having a clue, if they’d had their way!”
Harry agreed with her completely, but didn’t say anything out loud, too afraid that if he tried to actually say anything, he might be sick. Hermione completely understood though, barely keeping it together herself. One by one the remaining two champions left the tent to face their dragons when their names were called out, eventually leaving Harry and Hermione all alone in the tent, counting down the minutes until the inevitable. The entire time, Hermione kept a tight grasp on Harry's hand and arm, neither of them saying anything to each other, both lost in their own thoughts.
Finally, however, Dumbledore called for Harry to enter the enclosure to face the Hungarian Horntail, and Hermione had to let him go.
Turning towards her, Harry held out his hand that wasn’t still being grasped by hers, the miniature dragon sitting in the middle of it, and said with more confidence than he actually felt at the moment, “Here — hold onto this for me until I get back."
Hermione nodded silently, trying to fight back her tears, and finally let go of his hand to hold it out to let the miniature dragon flutter from his hand to hers.
"See you soon," said Harry in what he hoped was a reassuring tone, before turning and heading towards the door of the tent that led to the enclosure.
Hermione turned and ran towards the stands, wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand as she hurried to join the rest of the Gryffindors in watching Harry face his dragon.
"Where have you been?" demanded Ron irritably as Hermione appeared next to him, right as Harry stepped into the enclosure.
"Being there for my friend," replied Hermione shortly, stuffing the miniature dragon out of sight in her robes.
Then she deliberately turned towards the enclosure, resolutely ignoring the redhead.
~HP~
Several nerve-wracking minutes later, Harry stood outside the enclosure, golden egg raised in one hand, Firebolt in the other.
As Professor McGonagall and some of the other professors hurried towards him from one side, a bushy mane of brown hair came flying at him from the other. Not seeing her coming, this time he was knocked down when she launched herself onto him, squealing acclamations in such a high-pitched voice that he couldn't make out what she was trying to say, although he thought he caught the words "Harry" and “remarkable” repeated multiple times.
But he did hear Professor McGonagall’s slightly less stern than normal voice say, "That was brilliant, Potter,” so he pushed the bushy hair obscuring his vision out of the way to see the Transfiguration teacher and their Head of House standing over him, looking down at the two of them. Surprisingly, she seemed more amused by the fact Hermione was laying on top of him hugging him, than disapproving.
"You'll need to get that scratch checked out by Madam Pomfrey right away," she added, pointing at the scrape on his shoulder that he'd sustained from the dragon's tail.
“Yes, Professor," he replied, trying to nudge Hermione up and off of him so that he could stand.
Getting the message, and having heard Professor McGonagall tell Harry he needed to go to the medical tent, Hermione quickly scrambled up, before holding out her hand to help Harry stand up after her. Once Harry was standing next to her, and she’d quickly given his shoulder a once-over to make sure he wasn’t seriously hurt, she looked around her for the first time since she’d tackled him, and noticed all the professors standing around them watching them. She ducked her head and blushed, before practically dragging Harry off to the medical tent so they wouldn’t be in the limelight any longer.
Once inside the medial tent, Harry was quickly pounced on by Madam Pomfrey, who was muttering up a storm about dementors, dragons, and the deranged devils who thought it was a good idea to keep bringing such dangerous creatures onto the school grounds (though not in those exact words). Looking rather pleased that Harry’s scrape was no more than that, a scrape, she quickly cleaned the wound with a purple potion, before poking his shoulder with her wand and making him right as rain.
Sticking her wand back in her robes and grabbing up her bottle of purple goo, she said, "Now, just sit quietly for a minute — sit! And then you can go and get your score.” But as she walked over to the next cubicle to check on Cedric again, they heard her mutter to herself, “Not that anyone’s actually been listening to me, and I doubt you will either!”
But as Harry looked down at where Hermione was standing next to the bench he was sitting on, to see if she was okay with him going ahead and going back out to learn his score, he found himself engulfed in yet another hug, this one just as tight as the first two she’d given him so far that day.
“It’s okay, Hermione — I’m safe and alive,” he muttered into her hair as he hugged her back with one arm.
After a few seconds, Hermione let go of him and leaned back slightly to look up at him, her eyes shining brightly with a mixture of unshed tears and pride. And before he could even open his mouth to ask if he had her permission to leave the tent yet, she said sternly, “No, Mr Potter — you are not leaving this tent until Madam Pomfrey gives you the okay. I don’t care that you’re obviously perfectly fine, and anyways, they aren’t going to give out your scores before you get there.”
Harry gave a token disgruntled sigh, before smiling softly. “Thank you again — for everything,” he said quietly. “The Summoning Charm, coming to the tent and being there for me, being with me now, and just generally being here for me the entire time since my name came out of the goblet.”
“Always, Harry,” replied Hermione softly, leaning her head gently against his newly healed shoulder.
A few minutes later Madam Pomfrey returned, looking rather surprised that her patient was still there, and hadn’t left against her express wishes like the other three had at least once apiece since they’d respectively finished their tasks and been sent to her for healing. A quick look at Harry’s shoulder and she told him he was good to go, mouthing a quick ’Thank you’ to Hermione behind Harry’s back as he started walking out. Hermione gave the older woman a quick nod and smirk before running to catch up with Harry, walking out of the tent by his side.
As they exited the tent, Hermione spotted Ron lurking off to the side, looking highly disgruntled at all of the people congratulating Harry as he walked over to the edge of the enclosure to receive his scores, and seeming to glare specifically at her as soon as he saw her. She assumed this had to do with her leaving him to go be with Harry before the task, pointedly ignoring him the entire time Harry was trying to get past his dragon, and running to enthusiastically congratulate Harry once he’d safely finished the task, as well as for simply believing Harry when he said he didn’t enter himself in the tournament, something the redhead clearly still did not believe. But she mentioned none of this to Harry, instead just standing faithfully by his side as he watched his scores slowly be revealed by the five judges.
Once they’d all been revealed and he’d tied for first place with Krum, three-quarters of the Hogwarts stands erupted in jubilation. Slytherin, of course, did no such thing, but as he found out from Neville later, the only competitor they had cheered for at all was the Durmstrang champion, Viktor Krum, so it wasn’t just him they’d refused to act like civilized human beings for. Not that Harry cared either way, as Slytherin was Slytherin, while he was tied for first place in the world-famous TriWizard Tournament he was three years too young to compete in.
The scores of all four competitors finally having been given, Bagman called them all back into the tent to give them a few quick words about the upcoming second task, and what they needed to know to prepare for it. By the time he let them go, the stands had completely emptied and were waiting eagerly for the champions (and Harry) to return, bursting into a hearty round of applause as soon as the four of them (plus Hermione, who’d resolutely stayed by Harry's side the whole time) exited the tent, free at last. Everyone crowded around them, congratulating them, patting them on the back, and with Harry telling him that they'd always believed in him and that he was going to win the tournament for sure. In the midst of the celebrations, Cedric edged his way over to Harry to offer him his own congratulations that he hadn’t had the chance to while listening to Bagman talk about the second task.
"That was an impressive bit of flying, Harry. I got Madam Pomfrey to let me watch from the medical tent," he said as he shook Harry's hand, before adding quietly, "And thanks, you know, about the dragons and everything.”
Harry nodded, saying, “Of course. And I heard you did pretty well yourself.”
Eventually Harry and Hermione waded their way through the crowds and up to the seventh floor corridor outside the Gryffindor common room, eager to relax for a while before heading down to supper once the crowds had hopefully thinned slightly. But as they stepped their way through the portrait hole, Ron brushed by them brusquely in the opposite direction heading towards the Great Hall in search of food, saying loudly, "I'm glad I didn't enter the tournament," as he knocked into Harry's shoulder. "I wouldn't want to be facing dragons, even if it was for eternal glory.”
And with that he was out the portrait hole and gone.
"Does he really still think I would have entered myself to face dragons?" asked Harry in disbelief as he and Hermione collapsed onto the couch in front of the fireplace several seconds later.
"But you didn't know there were dragons when entrance was open, Harry," explained Hermione patiently, rubbing his arm soothingly. "Both of you wanted to be in the tournament back when you didn't know what any of the tasks were — same as half the school that was too young to enter did. And just like all of them, both of you would have entered had it been allowed. So just because he's realized now that he’s actually seen the first task that he really doesn't want to be in this tournament, that isn't going to change his belief on whether you entered yourself or not. And to be perfectly honest, whatever he may say, if he had the chance to enter right now, I still think he would — just for the attention, and if he could, a chance at all the money the winner will get."
"But what about the rest of the school? They don't still think I entered myself! So why would he!?” exclaimed Harry, still not understanding his first friend’s thought process.
"I'm not so sure that's really true, though, Harry,” answered Hermione gently. "The difference is, after watching you defeat a dragon, the rest of the school just no longer cares whether you entered yourself or not. If we’re being honest, I think most of them actually do still believe that you entered your own name, but you did such a good job that they're willing to support you now even though you did enter yourself." At Harry's glare she hurriedly added with an eyeroll, "Which I know you didn't really of course."
Harry sank back into the cushions of the couch, both physically and mentally exhausted from all the stress leading up to the first task, and his flight with the dragon during it — he made a quick mental note to never go flying with a dragon again.
Mistaking his sigh of exhaustion for one of anxiousness about his former best friend, Hermione said cautiously, "Give Ron time, but as long as he still believes that you entered your own name, and you keep getting all the attention — which I know you don't want — I don't know how you two are going to become friends again."
Harry nodded, knowing what she said to be true, but he found himself less worried about it than he thought he would be. He realized that the only person he really needed was already right by his side, both figuratively and literally at the moment, and always had been. Even during their minor squabble at Christmas the year before over the source of one of his gifts, she had been more by his side than even he himself had been.
But Harry was suddenly broken out of these thoughts by Hermione exclaiming, “Oh — I nearly forgot!"
She quickly rummaged through her robes for a second, before pulling out the miniature Hungarian Horntail he'd given her in the Champions Tent for safe keeping.
"I believe this is yours.”