"Ah, Harry, what brings you here?" Dumbledore asked when Harry finally reached his office.
"I'd like to tell you my choice of item to assist me with the first task," Harry said.
"Really? So soon? You've got plenty of time." The Headmaster smiled at him. "Besides, we need all the Headmasters to approve it, so you'll have to come back later, maybe around dinner... unless you're just here for advice." He winked at him.
"Not really for advice, professor," Harry scratched his head. "I'm not allowed to do that, after all, I wanted to ask the subject in question if they'd like to do the deed with me."
"Oh." Dumbledore understood immediately and rose from his chair to walk over to where the Sorting Hat was resting. "I'll leave the persuasion up to you." With that, the Headmaster passed the Hat into Harry's outstretched hands and went to sit down again himself.
"Is it time for the sorting already?" Voice echoed in Harry's head immediately as he put the Sorting Hat on. "Although I've already sorted you Mr. Potter?"
"No, I just...," Harry didn't even finish as the Hat continued.
"I know, I know... you have it all in your head after all... and I must note that you still have many qualities in it that can bring you to the spotlight. And what about Gryffindor, are you still happy with your choice? You still have a head for Slytherin; I stand by that."
"I'm happy where I am, but maybe I wouldn't be so opposed to your choice and let you decide."
"Glad to hear it," Hat replied, and he might have smiled a little if he could. "Anyway, you came here for something other than my ramblings. Need help?"
"Yes, you can look at all this."
"Okay...hmm...interesting...really interesting...do you think I can help you, though? You realize I can't divulge anything I've read in the minds of others."
"I don't think that the knowledge of eleven year olds would be that helpful," Harry replied.
"Indeed, but otherwise, why not? I must warn you, if you're counting on drawing the Sword of Gryffindor, you must display the qualities fitting for the feat. I'm not lending it to just anyone, and certainly not whenever anyone wants it."
"If you seek courage, I believe you will find it in me, there will be no dragon to stand against me, but whatever it will be, it will be a life or death situation."
"We'll see," said the Sorting Hat after a moment, "but I'm sure we'll have another great adventure together, but preferably no tunnels full of water. I'm old and damaged enough as it is."
"I'll try," said Harry with a smile.
"Please do so, and now please return me to my place. I need to prepare myself properly."
"Of course." Harry took the Hat in his hands, but before he took it off, he added. "And thank you."
"So, what did he tell you?" The Headmaster asked as he looked up from the papers on his desk.
"He agrees."
"Really?" Dumbledore tilted his head.
"Really," the Hat said as a mouth of sorts reappeared on it.
"In that case, you have my blessing, my boy," the Headmaster added with a smile, watching Harry head for the door after a brief thank you. "And, Harry, without giving you any advice, a hat is not considered a magical item, you do wear clothes everyday after all."
Harry noticed the twinkle in the Headmaster's eye and understood what he was trying to say, and disappeared as quickly as he had come.
***
"Well?" He was approached by Hermione, who was pacing around the whole time he was in his meeting with the Headmaster and was getting on Fleur's nerves.
"The hat said I can take him, but that I shouldn't count on any extra help or anything like that."
"Why not?" Fleur asked.
"Well, he won't give me the sword for free. I have to earn it in order to draw it."
"How about some advice?" Hermione asked next.
"The hat said it couldn't tell me anything from other people's minds, but to me, it just sounded like confirmation that everything else it'd heard is fair game."
"It's a risk, then," Fleur replied.
"Probably," Harry admitted, "but Dumbledore implied that if I wished, I wouldn't even have to report the Hat. It is only a piece of clothing after all."
Hermione groaned at the actions of the Headmaster.
"If we can think of something better, we can get another magical item to help," Fleur mused, "but if we can't think of something better, I'd opt for just the Hat. We can still use it to gain some popularity. Something along the lines that we could have cheated, but we were fair."
"Sounds like some kind of political advert... 'you want fairness, vote for Harry Potter'."
"That doesn't sound bad. Remember when you get into politics, you have to tell everyone everywhere that I was the one who started this career for you," Fleur winked at him.
"Are you going to be my secretary?"
"And what would be my job description, Mr Potter? What would I have to do for my master?" she said in a sultry voice.
Harry went to cover his rising blush with his hands, signaling his defeat. "You win."
"You're incorrigible! " Hermione snorted.
"Oh, come on, Hermione, my offer still stands. Tuesdays and Thursdays can be yours." Fleur winked seductively, and Hermione picked up her book instead and pretended to read.
***
"Well this is something I didn't expect to happen," Fleur said at the celebratory lunch before the first task was due to begin.
"What?" Harry focused on her since he didn't really feel like eating anyway.
"Look at Bagman, subtly-" Fleur suggested, and both he and Hermione did so, "doesn't he look at you like he's trying to tell you something?"
"I'm not really that good at reading subtle cues, I have no clue what you are talking about,'' Harry shrugged. He wasn't really in the mood for guessing and riddles today.
"Just look a little closer," Fleur continued. "Remember when the goblins were sitting in the pub we were in? And how when Bagman entered the pub, he headed straight for us but immediately changed his mind when he saw the goblins a table over?"
Hermione looked at Fleur in a slightly better light but said nothing.
"Goblins only deal with one thing here... money, and the fact that Bagman is afraid of them means only one thing. He owes them something."
"How does communicating with me fit into that?"
"I believe Bagman is the same as me."
"Veela?" Harry suggested sarcastically.
"A nuisance?" Hermione added quietly.
Fleur just gave them both a piercing look. "If I were a betting woman, I'd say Bagman bet on you to win. Those odds are crazy."
"How do you even know such things?" Hermione asked.
"I bet on Harry too, of course. Only a fool wouldn't take those odds."
Harry just sighed. "I told you the main goal was to survive."
"That doesn't matter now," Fleur changed the subject, "what I was going to say is that when we started the whole thing so no one on the committee could help anyone, we lost the advice of Bagman. He would have done anything to increase his chances of winning the money."
"Too late to cry over spilt milk." Harry jabbed his fork frustratedly at the eggs on his plate.
"You should eat something," Hermione said almost pleadingly, "you'll need the strength for whatever comes."
Harry's mounting frustration about the lack of information about the first task was about to blow over onto Hermione, but he relaxed realising that she was just doing her best to help him and was not the right person to be putting that anger towards.. So he swallowed his anger and frustration and subsequently swallowed his lunch. "I'm waiting here like I'm on death's row," he finally grumbled.
Hermione tried to give him an encouraging look and a little half hug. "We prepared as best we could." With that, she looked at Fleur. The fact that much of the preparation was due to Fleur was not voiced. She couldn't say that out loud, certainly not in front of Fleur.
"It will have to do," Harry replied at the exact moment that Headmaster Dumbledore stood up and got the attention of the Great Hall.
"Surely everyone has finished eating, and we can proceed to the first task. The experts from our Ministry have set themselves the challenge of making an arena for this task a short distance from our Quidditch pitch, so let's go together and see how they've done."
Harry took that as a command for himself as well, so he just wiped his mouth with a napkin and headed towards the Quidditch pitch with the two girls. Just before the stands, however, Percy stopped them.
"Harry, Hermione," he greeted them. "Harry, I need to take you to the champions' prep tent," Percy said with an expression that said he had been given the most critical job. He was going to accomplish it even over dead bodies.
"Alright." Harry nodded in response and turned to Fleur and Hermione. "I'll see you in a bit."
"I hope so," Fleur replied, tossing her hair as if any goodbyes were unnecessary.
"Don't mind her." Hermione grabbed his shoulders. "you'll get there, beat them all, nothing will happen to you, and you'll come back, understand?"
Harry only had time to salute before Percy cleared his throat meaningfully, indicating he really had to go. So Hermione just gave him a quick hug before he headed off to where he was supposed to go. Percy led him to a round room with four comfortable chairs. The interesting thing was that they were all as far apart as possible.
"You're the first one here, pick one and sit down," Percy more or less commanded, and Harry did so with a shrug. It didn't take five minutes for the other members of the Ministry to bring in the other champions. They, too, were directed to the available seats.
"It's such a special day for us, isn't it?" Bagman immediately echoed as he poked his head into the tent, then slowly walked to the centre of the room and continued. "Now, I'll give you the details of this task. It will begin in exactly one hour in the arena we have set up. Why an hour, you ask? For many reasons, we want all the spectators to have time to sit down, possibly purchase some souvenirs, and to allow time for some of the announcements from the Ministry, perhaps some interviews from the headmasters, and so on. But the main reason is you." With those words, he somehow winked at them, even though half of the people couldn't see his face because he had his back to them. "There were some attempts at cheating... but that's all ancient history, right?" He winked again. "But anyway, the Ministry decided that someone might try to make themselves stronger with some substances, and we don't want to let that happen. So you'll be sitting for that hour under the watchful eye of the gentlemen and ladies here to possibly wear off any ingested potions, concoctions, or any short-term enchantments. And of course, you may not speak during that time, and you will give me your wands, which will be waiting for you along with your chosen item back in the arena."
Harry looked at Bagman in surprise, but when he came to him for his wand, even though he didn't want to, he handed it to him.
"Excellent." Bagman smiled at them. "You have an interesting book on Quidditch under your chair, so you won't be bored. That was my idea..." He winked at them again. "And a little leaflet of what I've just said in your native tongue so that our colleagues from other countries won't miss anything because they didn't quite understand me. Plus some other information about the task. And with these words, I will leave you here and see you in an hour. May the best man win!"
"Great," Harry said sarcastically to himself, pulled out the book, and took out the pamphlet, which included a drawing of the arena and their positions. There wasn't any more interesting information, though, so Harry looked at the book to see if he was interested. But somehow, Harry wasn't in the mood to read it anyway, so he put it down on the arm of the chair, leaned back better, and closed his eyes. Of course, he had no chance of falling asleep. Still, it was better to watch his eyelids than the impatient champions and the people who were supposed to be watching them.
It was perhaps the most boring hour of his life, but then the gong went, and if anyone had asked Harry, he would have guessed that he had come in about three hours, not the promised one.
"You can go in. You know where to stand, right?" said one of the people guarding the place, and after a nod from everyone, he let them in.
"And now they're entering!" Bagman echoed like a commentator... that was about the only thing he was really good at. "Our champions! That calls for a huge round of applause. They're only here for you, ladies and gentlemen."
Harry even enjoyed the applause a little, but he wouldn't admit it to anyone, least of all Fleur. So, accompanied by the same people from the tent, he stood where he was supposed to. The other champions did the same, and Harry felt a little uncomfortable as they each stood in one corner of the square and were damn close together. He had expected this to be a fight against monsters, not against each other.
"Now, you all shake hands in turn. The Ministry wants to see that you respect each other," came the order, and Harry made his way to Cedric first, who did the same.
"Good luck," Cedric told him, shaking his hand.
"Sebastian," Harry said quickly, though, squeezing his hand hard.
"What?" Cedric stopped him from squeezing.
"Sebastian." Harry indicated with his head once more, letting go of his hand when their referee started looking at them strangely. Cedric seemed to understand, though, and nodded his head. Harry then headed for Krum, who nearly crushed his hand, and then Sebastian. When they all shook hands, they were directed back to their respective positions, and the referee handed them a small bag in turn.
"In this bag, the champions have their wand and the mysterious object they have chosen to aid them in this task. So ladies and gentlemen, are you excited to see what the champions will reveal to us?" It was Bagman again, and Harry understood what he was supposed to find in the bag. He opened it slightly and saw that both his wand and the Sorting Hat were in the small bag, which was, of course, magically bottomless, and all. "And since everyone wants to know what the first task is about, I'll be happy to tell you. The more knowledgeable of you have recognized what this arena imitates. Yes! It's the Colosseum! And the champions today will get to enjoy what it's like to be a gladiator... not literally, of course, no sword-swinging... hopefully." Bagman laughed at his joke. "But our champions will face each other as well as the other things that have been prepared for them."
Harry finally understood why they were so close together. If the strange sounds from the sides meant anything, he was glad he was standing in the middle and not at the edge. Harry was no historian. He'd been taught very little in primary school before he'd disappeared to Hogwarts, but he knew what the Colosseum was. He also knew that it wasn't good at all to be locked in it, and few people did it willingly, and even fewer could talk about it in good health.
"When the blast goes off, the champions can start as they please," Bagman said excitedly, and Harry wished for some sort of switching spell. He'd call Bagman over and go commenting instead of him, then we'd see how much fun Bagman would be having. "Ready." But Harry stopped thinking about anyone outside the arena and pulled out his wand, followed immediately by the Sorting Hat, which he placed on his head. He didn't need to hide it until the last second because his other opponents didn't know what he was doing anyway.
"Bang," came from the cannon. Harry immediately aimed at Sebastian and sent a Stunner. Still, Cedric was a second faster, and two spells flew at Sebastian, but he deflected them both. By the time he sent his first spell at Harry, he was already doing a roll-out of the way.
"Shield!" Hat said in his mind, and Harry conjured his Protego, which deflected another spell from Sebastian. "Run!" More advice from the Hat, and Harry dodged the next hex and then sent his own jinx. Still, three spells flew at Sebastian at that moment, and one even came from his blind spot because Krum's 'mystery item' was a broom. Sebastian had no chance to dodge and ended up stunned. This takedown was probably enough for Krum, as he immediately aimed high, presumably to disappear from the arena.
"Oh, Mr Krum discovers that there is a barrier around the entire arena, for he has just crashed into it on his broom. No, no, Mr Krum, you will not get out of this arena until it is over."
Harry had to involuntarily chuckle briefly, the best Seeker of the century, and he rammed into the barrier. Even though he didn't know about it, it was comical. What was not comical was the sound of the gates slowly opening.
"Ladies and gentlemen, in one minute, we will see the first wave of wild beasts!" Bagman continued.
Harry then quickly looked around the arena to see which danger was the most acute. Krum was flying as high as the arena would allow him. Cedric was chucking potions after potions that were most likely his secret weapon, and he... he didn't know what to do.
"Hey," Harry said nervously towards the Hat on his head, still unsure of the most pressing agenda regarding his survival. "How did you know which spell to avoid and which to shield against?"
"I didn't know," replied the Sorting Hat, "I just wanted to see if you'd listen to me."
Harry was baffled by that statement, and he struggled for words. But then Krum realized that he wasn't going to win anything by flying and took a dive at Cedric, who was more of a threat from his point of view, but Cedric showed that he was ready. He dropped the last vial of potion, took a step to the side, avoiding the flying spell, let Krum fly into his back, did a spin almost on his heels, and with one Stunner dropped Krum to the ground from his broom. It was that simple for Cedric, though it was the most ridiculous thing anyone could have done, in Harry's opinion.
"Now that was the most impressive shot I've ever seen in my life, and I've seen a lot," Bagman muttered after a few seconds, his words barely audible over the roar and cheers of the spectators. Harry couldn't bring himself to say anything because if Cedric was such a badass, what was he even doing in this tournament? Yeah... he's actually here by mistake. That made sense.
But then Cedric pointed at him. At that moment, though, the gates twitched, indicating something was about to charge at them. From the sounds it was making, it was starving. Cedric just sighed very loudly. "Come on, Harry, you'll have my back."
And Harry was very good at one thing, catching the lifelines that were thrown at him. So Harry ran the few yards that separated them and stood with his back to Cedric, wand raised.
"What about them?" He indicated Krum and Sebastian lying there.
"Bring them to us," and as soon as Cedric had spoken, he was summoning Krum's stunned and battered body to him. All Harry knew was levitating magic, and he used it to bring Sebastian closer.
"Hey, Cedric."
"Yeah?"
"How the fuck did you manage to hit Krum in mid-flight?" Harry couldn't help but ask.
"Maybe I'll tell you sometime." Cedric laughed slightly, but then the cages opened, and the banter ended. When several lions come running at a person from all sides, the jokes usually stop. Luckily not all of them ran at them. Some seemed to be waiting. But the first one to run ended up getting a few spells from the two of them.
Harry couldn't do much, so he just fired at the ones closest to him, while Cedric did wonders. At one point he summoned some kind of dog that lured the lions to him, at another he was binding two more lions with some roots. It was evident that this was just the first line of monsters, for as quickly as it started, it ended. For skilled magicians, non-magical monsters were simply not a problem. Perhaps if the four of them were still fighting each other at this point, the lions would be more of a problem. Still, as it was, they were just annoying insects to Cedric and his junior sidekick Harry. It reminded Harry of some comic from his childhood where some goofball walked around in black clothes and had a trusty sidekick beside him.
"You don't see this every day! Excellent cooperation from Hogwarts. Yes, yes... My school has always been great, here you see the example," Bagman began to speak in delight, "but that's not all, now comes something else."
Both Harry and Cedric started to look around. With a screeching sound, another gate opened, and several giant wolves came loping out of it.
"Don't attack!" shouted the Sorting Hat in his mind.
"Another humorous attempt to put me in danger?" Harry snorted, a spell on his tongue.
"Not now, just don't shoot!"
"Cedric, hold on!" Harry decided to listen to the Sorting Hat and passed his advice on.
"What?"
"The Sorting Hat told me not to attack. You trusted him when he was sorting you out, so it's probably a good idea to keep doing it," Harry pitched in, but still also at full alert as the wolves began to slowly circle around them. Thankfully, though, far enough away.
"If they kill us, I'll haunt it."
"I'm glad my students have a firm belief in me," came the sarcastic voice in his head. "Anyway, these aren't ordinary wolves. These are wolves from the Forbidden Forest," the Hat said this out loud, but so that only the two of them could hear it. "Many decades ago, two werewolves mated during a full moon, and these wolves were born."
"What?" wondered Harry.
"How does this even work?" Cedric inquired.
"Werewolf and human biology aside, these wolves are just the descendants of these werewolves that found refuge in our forest."
"So they don't eat us?"
"Do you know of anyone who was eaten by wolves in the Forbidden Forest?" Hat replied.
"I was almost eaten by spiders," Harry countered.
"Does this look like a spider to you?"
"I was almost killed by a wraith, too... my thought is what's stopping another creature from the Forbidden Forest eating or killing me."
"Just trust me, you picked me for this, didn't you?" Hat sighed, "if the student doesn't attack them first, they won't attack back. Otherwise, Headmaster Dumbledore wouldn't have left them in the forest."
"That looks like an alpha male over there." Harry pointed to the most enormous wolf. "Hey Cedric, you have Care of Magical Creatures, right? How do we tell them we're not a danger?"
"Pee on them to show dominance?" Cedric suggested. Harry threw him a look that said a lot. "If they're intelligent, try the Hippogriff method, approach slowly and bow, but I'm not going to try that. I'm not suicidal."
"Okay," Harry said aloud to himself with a sigh, hiding his wand and slowly, his arms outstretched to show he had no ill intentions, made his way to the wolf that looked like the leader. "I know you'd eat me in one gulp," Harry began his persuasive monologue, "but I also know you wouldn't like the taste of me. I'm all bone, and believe me, the stuff these robes are made of isn't much to be desired either, so how about you don't eat us and then I'll get you whatever you want after this task? I'll find out where the kitchens are in our castle and bring you enough meat to make it more worth your while than eating us... lightly roasted, right?"
Of course, the wolf looked at him like he was an idiot, but when Harry subsequently bowed as he had done with Buckbeak, his gesture was sort of returned. If Harry was expecting some kind of hand sniffing as dogs do, he was wrong. The wolf just turned and headed for his cage, the others, of course, mimicking his lead as the leader.
"That potion sure as hell works," Cedric said, shaking his head at Harry in an acknowledging manner.
"What potion?" Harry didn't understand, but at that moment came a huge cheer and a comment from Bagman.
"Very impressive solution, very impressive. Team Cerry... that's my made-up combination of their names... has dealt with the next obstacle, but how will they handle the last one?"
So Harry immediately headed back to Cedric's to cover his back again.
"I've got a Galleon that says it'll be a troll," he got a prediction from Cedric.
"My money's on Acromantula."
"Wrong, boys, this one has more heads," the Hat told them as he squinted into the last unopened cage, which opened with a resounding roar at his words.
"Shit!" Cedric summed up.
"No... no... no! Not another one!" Harry pointed his wand into the darkness. "Please let it be Fluffy."
"Fluffy?" Cedric didn't understand.
"Conjure a musical instrument that you can play!" Harry managed to shout before the three-headed dog lunged at them, causing them both to jump to the other side to avoid being knocked down. When Harry stood up, he noticed that both of their stunned opponents had disappeared. Someone must have remotely activated the Portkey on them, or the Headmaster used Fawkes because if not, they would have just been trampled by Fluffy.
"What?"
"A musical instrument!" Harry shouted again.
"But why!" Cedric echoed between the spells he was sending at the giant three-headed dog.
"Either I explain, or you listen to me, and we survive!" Harry said, heading for the broom that Krum had left behind. "Hat, sing!"
"It's not a new school year."
"And you won't live to see it if you don't start singing!" Harry threatened, "If you don't start, we'll both end up in this creature's stomach."
"Then get me closer. I'll try to think of something," sighed the Sorting Hat, so Harry hopped on the broom and flew as close to Fluffy as he could. He then proceeded to shoot anything he could think of at him from the air. This, of course, only annoyed the three-headed dog, and he started swinging at him.
"Now is the time for the music, Cedric!"
"It's not easy!"
"But dying is easy!"
Cedric couldn't find an answer to that, so he began to quickly turn the stone into a harp, which of course, he had to enchant before it could play on its own.
"Let's have a school anthem," the Sorting Hat yelled loudly and began to sing, "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, Teach us something please, whether we be old and bald, or young with scabby knees,"
Harry joined in immediately, better to look like a tone-deaf fool than to be dead. But somehow, it didn't work. Fluffy couldn't even hear them as he barked furiously.
"You need to get closer!" Hat echoed before continuing to sing.
Harry thought of something else and headed towards the stands on his broom, Fluffy in tow, stopping next to the seats for Hufflepuff House. "If you don't want a dead Cedric, start singing!" He ordered, as soon as he was sure he could be heard. The magic word Cedric seemed to be working because after the Hufflepuffs looked at each other, they added their voices to the Sorting Hat. "Use the Sonorus!" he shouted at them, still in a rush, before darting off at Fluffy as he stopped following Harry and ran to eat Cedric, who had his hands full with the harp. Harry understood that he had to do something immediately and knew that whatever he cast with his wand wouldn't be enough.
"I must be insane!" Harry mumbled to himself and then did something he didn't expect to ever do. He slammed it full speed on his broomstick into Fluffy's middle head. Then there was pain, a fall, and more pain. Harry forced himself to open his eyes, though. He was able to see that he was lying about five feet away from Cedric, who didn't understand what happened, and about a foot and a half away from Fluffy, who didn't understand either. But even a giant hound wasn't immune to a blow to the head at that speed, and so Fluffy ended up lying in a sort of semi stupor. But Harry didn't see his wand beside him, so he reached for the Sorting Hat that lay at his right hand.
"I think you deserve this," the Sorting Hat said in all seriousness, and suddenly the Sword of Gryffindor appeared inside it.
At that moment, however, many students were already singing and even the school choir joined in. But Harry didn't hear any of that. Just a sort of buzzing in his head, but even that was enough for him to notice two things, that Fluffy was getting up and that he was holding a sword of some sort. So Harry stood up and braced himself for a single swing. It was like that time with the basilisk. The blow through the mouth to the brain was proven successful. Hopefully, it will be effective now too.
But Fluffy barely took one small step and fell again, but this time with his eyes closed. Cedric was beside him with his wand now. When he shook him, Harry's hearing returned as well, allowing him to hear the beautiful melody of the harp and all sorts of singing from his colleagues.
"You're a complete lunatic, Harry." Cedric pulled him away from the sleeping three-headed dog. Harry could see all sorts of grimaces on Cedric's face, so he couldn't really tell what he was thinking.
"Thanks, Ced," Harry got out heavily.
"That wasn't a compliment." Cedric didn't understand.
"For the harp."
"Oh," Cedric finally understood, and he too looked at the harp playing. "How did you know it would work?"
"I'm just that good."
But Cedric just laughed, perhaps a little too hysterically. "You really are a psycho."
Suddenly, though, Bagman's voice rang out, somehow magically drowning out even the still-singing crowd. "Unbelievable! The last creature is defeated. Now all that's left is to see who will be the last standing wizard."
That was something of a signal for Cedric to take a step away from him.
"I don't have a wand, Cedric," Harry sighed.
"But you're holding a fucking legendary sword," Cedric tried to lighten the situation with humour.
"You think I'm going to stab you with it?"
"You were planning to do that with the dog."
Harry just sighed again and shifted his sword to his other hand. "Congratulations, I surrender," he said, holding out his hand to Cedric. "Officially, of course. You're the winner, enjoy it. I'm out of here. Screw all this."
Cedric shook it after a brief hesitation. And that must have been enough for Dumbledore because he somehow appeared beside them. With that, silenced any singing that wasn't even needed anymore. Of course, one spell was all Dumbledore needed, and it was assured that the Fluffy wouldn't wake up.
"And we have a winner!" Bagman piped up. "Harry Potter surrenders. The winner is Cedric Diggory!" And with that came a massive round of applause, and the whole Hogwarts could be seen cheering and applauding Cedric.
But instead of all that, Harry headed for his wand, which was lying next to Fluffy. As he picked it up, he looked at the beast lying next to him and snorted. Such a monster, and its weakness was music. Harry took advantage of his free time by glancing at Hermione and Fleur. They were both visibly happy that he was alive, and he waved at them for reassurance. But then Harry thought of something funny and crazy at the same time. Since he was still half out of his mind from the fall and found it more amusing than crazy, he walked over to the middle head of Fluffy and placed his foot on it triumphantly, then raised his sword in the air. Hermione put her hand in front of her mouth in shock, and Fleur just smacked her forehead. But Harry had an even stupider thought, so he sat on that middle head and raised his sword in the air again triumphantly. He didn't get away with it for long, though, because Dumbledore cleared his throat next to him.
"Is this enough, Harry?" He replied, half amused, half feeling like he was getting too old for this.
"If I say no, can I keep sitting here?" Harry tried.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no, Harry."
"In that case, that's enough," and with those words, he jumped down and headed towards the Headmaster. "This is probably yours," he handed him the sword and then walked the two steps to the Sorting Hat that was still on the ground and gave that to the Headmaster as well. "And this too."
"I'll put it back in its place," Dumbledore smiled at him. "But now both of you go to the infirmary," he raised his voice so that Cedric could hear him. "Someone will call you when we're ready to award points."
Nodding to him, they both headed to where the Headmaster had sent them. Cedric waved to the audience, Harry holding his aching head with one hand.
"I wonder, wouldn't the dragons be easier?" Cedric uttered thoughtfully.
"You know what, Cedric? Fuck you," Harry retorted, only to be answered by Cedric's loud laughter.
AN:
Once again heartfelt thanks to the members of the Harry/Fleur discord server (HonorverseFan, Wish, DJKopper and x102reddragon) for their beta-corrections on this chapter. This is the first story I am posting in English, which is not my first language and their help was invaluable.
If anyone wishes to join our community, here is a link: "discord . gg / skww8F4RFv" (without spaces)