The Third Task
March 24th had come too fast, Harry and Draco both concluded on the week before the task, when Professor McGonagall had called them back after ending class and they knew the inevitability of what she would explain.
“Boys,” The two groaned their acknowledgement and she frowned. “Please take this seriously. You both have a real chance at winning this Tournament, and though I don’t agree with any of the actions taken by the adults at this school this year, I would be very happy if you brought Hogwarts the glory of the Cup. But, for now, the Third Task.
“In one week, I will lead you two to the Quidditch Pitch and you shall be divided into teams along with your fellow Champions before waiting for the Third Task to begin. That’s right, Potter and Malfoy, this next Task will be a Quidditch Game. Don’t let me catch you getting too cocky about that fact--I still expect you two to train your best for it, as you have had nearly a year for your skills to wear out.”
Even Draco had been too thrilled into stunned silence to make a snarky or cocky comeback, only cheering along with Harry as they exited the classroom.
And after that the Task they had easily forgotten about became easy to feel calm, possibly even excited about, as the Quartet arranged a friendly game of Quidditch that weekend to prepare.
On Saturday afternoon on the 18th, straight after lunch, the kids all arrived at the pitch. Harry was leading a team of himself, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, Tess, Ron, and Ginny. While Draco strutted out with the Weasley twins, who had become glued to his side like Crabbe and Goyle once were since the creation of the newspaper, Cedric and Cho, the latter supposedly being brought just to distract Harry, and Seamus and Dean, surprisingly, who Harry was sure Draco must’ve paid off.
They went three games mopping the floor with the Malfoy team before settling on balancing out the skill level, but then realizing the major problem was Harry and Draco couldn't focus on getting the Snitch when they were struggling to control their teams, and when the bells for dinner finally clanged in the distance, the crowd that had slowly gathered to watch groaning and dissipating, the final game had just been a race for the Snitch with no other players, just Harry and Draco. It had been so entertaining, that at the Great Hall the two boys had been approached several times by first and second years begging to see more.
The easy conclusion to be made, however, was that no matter what, the boys were beyond ready for a Quidditch based Task, and the approach of March 24th had almost become something to look forward to, with the twins selling merchandise for Draco and Harry outside the Room of Requirement when people went to buy the newspaper and a hiring of Colin Creevey to take pictures of the Fourth Years in the sky. Kids around the school quickly all became the most excited for the upcoming events, far exceeding the excitement for the first two. The starve for Quidditch thrills was clear, and even the Champions seemed beyond ready.
But, of course, at least for them, it didn’t last. It never does.
On a fateful March morning the Champions marched down to the Quidditch Pitch and gathered to talk animatedly about the Task to come--Harry noticing that Hugo was already in the stands, leaned over and encouraging Anya. He looked worse for wear, clearly, as there were dark circles hanging under his eyes and his arms seemed more stringy than muscular, and for a moment Harry thought maybe the Durmstrang girl was right about her boyfriend being Imperiused.
Then the Judge’s arrived, however, and his attention was pulled away to Ludo Bagman just in time for the bomb to drop.
They weren’t going to be playing their usual positions. They’d be shuffled, randomly, and assigned to teams, randomly. Suddenly, all joy Harry had felt vanished in an instant, and he was left with that ever present churning in his stomach.
-*-*-*-
Team one would be Viktor, Draco, Fernando, and Fleur, with Viktor and Draco serving as Chasers, Fleur as a Keeper, and Fernando as a Beater. There would be no Seekers. Team two would be Cedric, Anya, Tess and Harry, with Cedric and Tess as Chasers and Anya as a Beater, Harry serving as Keeper. He didn’t feel the slightest bit thrilled about it.
Not only had he of course never played as Keeper, but it wasn’t as if he’d thought to ever listen to Ron describing his skills in the position, or Oliver ranting about how he had the hardest one whenever the team started to get too lazy. He had no clue how Keepers were supposed to play, but then again he had no clue how any of the other positions worked. If anything, this was the best option for him, as all he had to do was wait for a ball to come flying at him.
Right?
“Ladies and gentlemen, witches and wizards!” Harry was broken out of his trance when Ludo Bagman’s familiarly magnified voice bellowed across the now crammed full stands from the Judges table, eyes narrowing in on the lineup of adults and seeing that, rather predictably, Barty Crouch (Sr) was nowhere to be found, Percy sitting in his place once more. “Welcome to the Third Triwizard Task!”
Cheers filled the stands, abnormally loud this time due to the overall nail biting excitement at seeing Quidditch again, and an all star player racing across on his broom again as well. “As I’m sure you have realized by now, our Champions Task this afternoon is to simply be the best at Quidditch, and it comes with its own fair assortment of challenges. For example, our Quaffle is enchanted with wings like a Snitch, as you shall see,” Harry looked over to see the largest ball indeed did have wings as Madam Hooch held it up for all the crowd to see. “Which is meant to make the Keepers job of getting the ball out of the hoops harder. You’ll see what I mean soon, I am sure. Additionally, the hoops have been enchanted to move as well,” Harry looked over just as the hoops began to lower and rise dramatically. “Making the Chaser's job harder. And finally, the Beater will face considerable difficulty in hitting their balls, which have been weighed down, in turn making them hit a bit harder. We stress the urgency of the penalty against head shots for this reason, and it will serve as the only penalty in the game.”
The Champions all exchanged looks of worry at that, being Quidditch players, mostly, and knowing the consequences of something like that, but most of the crowd simply seemed to be stoked at the increased stakes.
“Finally, to help determine who will be eliminated in this Task, points will be deducted for an foul play--which really would only be a headshot--getting hit by a Bludger, not being able to stop a Quaffle as a Keeper, and flying off course. Points will be given for flight tricks, interceptions, and overall creativity. With that said… On my whistle… Let the game begin!”
And a second later Bagman had blown as hard as he could into his silver whistle and the Champions all shot into the air on their brooms, the crowd erupting in immense applause.
Half of the Champions all rode on Firebolts, but Harry could see, as he made his way over to his respectful Keeper hoops and they zoomed past him, the Beauxbatons Champions were all riding Nimbus’ alongside Cedric. He also could hear Bagman had begun commentating the game, and according to him, though Harry hadn’t noticed yet, still adjusting to the change of the house colors to white and black--he was black--Viktor had started of the game with the Quaffle, now attempting to outrace Cedric, the other Chasers trailing behind, Fernando and Anya rising into the air and readying their bats as they watched the Bludgers zoom into the air.
Harry frowned and began to fly his broom back and forth in front of the hoops, getting fidgety as he watched Viktor zig zag out of the way of Cedric and Tess, and toss the Quaffle above their heads to Draco when he had to fly out of the way of a Bludger, before plunging forward and raising his hand, getting dangerously close to Harry now.
The Gryffindor bent down low on his broom, stretching his arms wide in wait as Draco tossed the ball over to Krum who had spun out of the way of Tess, Cedric alone now chasing down the Durmstrang Champion while Harry waited for him to make his throw.
He chucked the ball at an angle and Harry zoomed his Firebolt over as best he could to catch it but the thing flew right over his head and into the highest hoop.
“Ten points to the White Team!”
Harry sneered, cursing to himself and turning the broom back to face the game that had resumed with increasing intensity; Fernando and Anya were now hitting the Bludger back and forth to each other while Tess, Quaffle tucked under her arm, attempted to race in between and avoid them.
It didn’t work, however, as the Bludger nicked her broom handle and sent her flying, her last act being throwing the ball up weakly, and Harry squinted to try and see who would come out with it as Cedric, Viktor, and Draco all dived. The blonde headed, white-robe-clad Slytherin ended up emerging and diving down to the ground below the Bludger fight before sharply rising and zooming with a burst of speed towards Harry, Cedric startling at the speedy turn.
Something unexplainable happened then, however. Just as Draco raised his arm to chuck the ball forwards, it flew right out of his hands, and began to fall. Krum had to quickly swoop down and save it before quickly tossing the ball towards a hoop, where Harry didn’t even bother to get it as he was too stunned from what had happened to Draco.
Bagman said the ball would only react that way to Keepers, not Chasers. Could it be a malfunction? Was that even possible? Harry had been inclined to believe that, but he would be quickly proven wrong, as the Quaffle escaping its holders hands happened to no one except Draco, and it happened to him quite a bit.
Half the game went by, the score had become 50-40, White in the lead, because Harry hadn’t managed to save a single ball but Fleur was showing an exceptional amount of skill in nimbleness, and Draco had not scored a single goal, despite performing quite skillful and creative tricks that were gradually tacking him points.
Whenever a player would perform an exceptional feat, the judges would raise their scores for it in the air, out of five, and the scores of the Champions, once again floating in the air above everyone's heads, would be adjusted to fit that.
So far, Harry had only managed to dodge a Bludger by kicking it to the side, which only caused him bonus points for how heavy the thing was. But he would take that over anything else, as he was sure he’d heard some bones crack.
It was now, halfway through the game, however, that things got much more strange--not just because Harry had finally saved his first Quaffle, but also because a Bludger struck by Anya had suddenly begun to turn off its course all on its own and fly down towards to the group of Chasers fighting for the Quaffle.
Harry blinked behind his glasses, rubbing his eyes and blinking once more in a desperate hope that he was seeing things--that no, surely, that ball wasn’t rogue again.
But it was clear as day either way: the ball had indeed gone rogue, and now set itself on a direct collision course with Draco Malfoy.
Harry cursed under his breath then screamed at Hooch for a timeout. She simply shook her head, and he attempted to yell at Bagman, but he explained, through commentating, that timeouts weren’t allowed. So Harry changed course of actions, instead saying damn to it all and flying high up to Anya and whipping the bat out of her hand.
Immediately, he could see his miniscule points earned from his own successful block being deducted for going off course, but ignored it as he dived down to the Malfoy boy who was still chasing Tess’s broom, oblivious to the Bludger tailing him.
He remained oblivious even as Harry attempted to warn him before smacking the bat against the heavy ball and sending it flying away, but it was only when the ball instantly flew right back at him and rammed him in the arm, causing him to spin out of control and drop the bat did Malfoy turn and shout a warning far too late.
Harry slipped off his broom and the last of his points were taken off, but the scores then immediately froze as the Judges rose up in outrage, having witnessed all of that and being appropriately confused. Increasingly so, too, as Draco began to spin his broom in a slowly rising circle before jutting to a corner to test if the Bludger was really following him and it was indeed.
“My God!” Bagman exclaimed while Cedric helped Harry back onto the broom and the Quaffle fell to the ground of the Pitch, forgotten, when all eyes turned to the skies where Draco was vainly trying to out fly the Bludger, Fernando flying around in vain to smack it away and Anya floated, confused, mid air. “It seems the Bludger has been bewitched! Foul play, perhaps? We’ll have to wait and see, but for now Mr. Ferret seems to be losing the battle of getting rid of the thing. I’m not sure how long he can last…”
Ludo lowered himself into his seat to hurriedly discuss matters with the Judge’s, who Harry could guess, based on how this whole year had gone, most likely couldn’t get involved in the Task due to some ridiculous reason. So instead he flies through the air as fast as he could to where Draco had risen from flying over the stands and was now zig zagging through the sky.
“Training for the Ballet, Malfoy?!” He yells out to him in an attempt to cool his clearly worsening mood while whipping out his wand. He can only catch Draco’s voice in response as he was moving far too fast to see. “Not the time, Potter, not the time! Now will you please shut up and--” The Bludger knocked his broom off course. “HELP!
Eyes wide, Harry plunged forward, raising his wand and struggling to aim it right. The Bludger and the Malfoy were moving too fast. He’d hit one, surely, but he wasn’t sure if he’d hit the other in the process by accident.
“Draco I… I can’t see you! Slow down!”
“Slow down? Potter, if I ‘slow down’ I’ll get killed!”
True point, dumb suggestion. Harry pulled his broom to a stop and bit his lip, looking around vainly like he could see anything that might help. But what would help catching a Bludger that moved too fast?
His eyes fall on Dumbledore, then the grass of the Pitch, then the clouds in the sky. Oh, yeah, that’ll work.
He raised his wand once more and, with the skills of a Seeker, saw the brown form of the ball spinning through the air, and screamed at the top of his lungs, “ARRESTO MOMENTUM!”
Only this rogue Bludger had clearly been a bit more bewitched than the last. As predicted, it froze Draco too, but it didn’t freeze the Bludger. He saw the blue jet of light crackle over its surface, proving it did work, but the Bludger seemed to almost shake off the effect, and only plunged on forwards.
Harry had no time to react. One second Draco was on the broom, and the next he was flying towards the ground. He plunged down at full speed to catch him, reaching out with one hand, but only managed to grab his robes, as the ball had knocked him out mid air, and he was making no attempts to reach out with his hands. Thus, the ball that had made a direct head shot already, caused Draco to fall and hit his head again on the firm, still slightly frozen, ground, being flung backwards from the force of Harry’s hand grabbing onto him.
Crack.
“DRACO!”
Screams echoed across the stands as the Champions swiftly flew down to the fallen boy and Harry slipped off his broom, scooping him up in his arms, hand flying to his head and pulling back to reveal, to his horror, trickles of blood running down his fingers. “Draco? Oh no…”
“What is it?” Krum shouted while Fleur landed beside him and screeched, Cedric and Tess bolting forward. Harry didn’t really care about that, however, instead focussing on the body in his arms as he shifted Draco’s head onto his lap, placing one hand on his heart--which thankfully was still beating--the other on his pale cheek.
“Draco? C’mon wake up. Wake up Malfoy, don’t go… You can’t go… Malfoy?” His face remained still, as if etched from stone, the only thing changing being a trickle of blood now running down each of his nostrils.
“DRACO!” “Sh! Calm down, Potter.” Harry looked up quickly to see Madame Pomfrey, thank Merlin, had arrived and was now sitting herself down in front of him, also placing one hand on Draco’s heart, the other going to his head as well. She recoiled at the wet feeling of blood and frowned deeply. “Okay… This could be difficult…”
“Difficult?!” Harry shouted, voice cracking. “What do you mean? I saved him from falling didn’t I? I caught him, I--”
“Yes, you did, and that was very noble of you, Potter, but also very foolish. Judged by the looks of his neck…” She raised it up, examining every inch while her frown worsened. “The sudden whiplash of the speed of your broom and you grabbing his robes has caused it to crack.”
“What?”
But she wasn’t finished.
“That, combined with the concussion most likely caused by the Bludger hitting his head, means there is little I can do. Also, it appears that he is experiencing cardiac arrest.”
His heart stopped beating.
“DRACO!”
Madame Pomfrey stood up fast and turned to face the rapidly rushing Judges, but Harry paid her no mind, now screaming at the Champions if any of them knew CPR, to which Cedric rushed forwards, kneeling down and beginning to pump his hands against the boys chest, or opening his mouth and blowing periodically.
Harry stayed focussed on watching the older boy whom he’d come to detest do this in wonder, before looking up in shock when he heard a familiar song being whistled in the wind. A bird song. He raised his head to see, flying towards him as he had once before, two years ago, Fawkes the Phoenix, flapping its wings as fast as he could and landing gracefully beside the three boys.
Cedric jumped backwards in surprise but Harry, desperate, now with his own tears glistening his eyes, only pushed Draco’s still and stiff body towards the bird, crying, “Save him!” The bird looked down at the blood headed boy, whom Cedric’s lips had caused the blood to smear across his face. “Please!”
Fawkes seemed to nod slowly, and everyone watched in awe as his eyes filled with shiny, silver tears that slipped down his feathered cheeks before landing on Draco’s throat. Harry flipped him over, and Fawkes then cried on the back of his neck, and his scalp, then flew up and to the side as Harry flipped the boy back over, and the Judges and Professors and Champions gathered around, leaning in subconsciously to see what would happen next.
A pause, then familiar gray eyes shot open and Draco gasped for air, shooting upwards before gasping in pain and falling back onto the ground again. “Ow.” Was all he managed to say before Harry had pulled him into a tight hug, the tears freely slipping down his cheeks, and everyone around them, crowd included, erupted in cheers and applause, Dumbledore reaching up to pet his bird in a show of thanks.
"Draco… You’re safe I got you. I got you…” A hand was placed on Harry’s shoulder as the crowd continued to cheer but he shrugged it off, only hugging Draco tighter and focusing on his arms as they wrapped around his back, returning the hug. “Hi Harry.”
“Potter! Oh really, you boys need to separate!” With a voice added to the hands grabbing them Harry was sure it was Madam Pomfrey, but kept his eyes glued shut and his arms tight around his friend, refusing to budge. “I need to clean you both up! Albus--Please, Albus, help me--”
A comforting hand lifted Harry’s chin up and he finally opened his eyes to meet Dumbledore’s familiar, and as usual, friendly eyes. “Hello Harry. You’ve been very brave. But you need to let go now, please.” Harry found himself nodding, and pulling his arms back, detaching himself from the boy in his arms and getting a good look at his bloody face.
And despite it all, Draco grinned, and Harry found himself smiling back as Madam Pomfrey dragged the two of them away to a tent. He then raised his head to the stands to find their friends, and quickly spotted them--a whole group of Gryffindor’s and others--cheering through panic.
Hermione had her hand clasped around Ron’s and was waving through tears while he looked uncomfortable but was grinning and waving as well. Seamus and Dean were grinning while holding up Neville between them who seemed to have recovered from passing out, and a group of girls could be spotted wearing matching hats supporting the Hogwarts Champions--Cho, Marietta, and Parvati supporting Cedric, Draco, and Harry respectfully. Meanwhile the twins were of course clapping and cheering as best they could with armfulls of galleons, sickles, and knuts from selling merch, newspapers, and Weasley Wizard Wheezes products.
Harry could even see some Durmstrang and Beauxbatons kids he’d seen hanging out around the other Champions supporting him. In fact, it seemed everyone was thrilled by the sight of the two Hogwarts Champions simply hobbling over to a tent--except for Pansy Parkinson, of course, but she seemed to be more focussed on making sure her gang didn’t cheer on their former leader.
Once Madam Pomfrey had pushed the boys into cubicles like she had in the First Task, however, Harry was left to his thoughts, and though he knew now, looking back, he should have been thinking of some reason why the Bludger and the Quaffle had both gone rogue on Malfoy, but for some reason he could only think about the blonde himself. About how he’d felt thinking he’d just seen him die in his arms. About how he felt now, with a twisting feeling in his gut, that was also kind of fluttery. That made him feel sick but also… light.
He knew he’d felt it somewhere before, he just couldn’t place a finger on where…
“Harry!” He jolted upright, and grinned when he saw all his friends had come, with Hermione holding onto Draco to make sure he’d stand upright, and the others all clapping their hands and waving little red and green flags, shouting their congratulations.
He melted in the joy of knowing he had these cool people who cared about him, and let them help him up too, and outside to see the scores and overall results, as there had certainly been nothing right about that Task.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Ludo Bagman announced to the crowd once more, looking red in the face and sweaty as he had the night Harry and Draco’s names came out of the Goblet, even bouncing on his feet a bit too. “My fellow Judges and I have listened to your concerns, understood them, and… mostly… agree with them. After much deliberation, we have decided to eliminate all point consequences related to getting hit with a Bludger, as it would seem that the ball was rigged, and we simply can’t trust the reliability of it throughout the game. With that being said, we would also like to choose Fernando Escarra and Anya Sallow as our eliminated Champions for the Task, for suspicion of cheating.”
An uproar came quickly after that statement and Ludo, clearly knowing he’d never calm the people down, settled for shooting the final scores in the air and running off.
Viktor Krum, 205 points.
Draco Malfoy, 160 points.
Harry Potter, 156 points.
Cedric Diggory, 151 points.
Tess Whitlock, 150 points.
Fleur Delacour, 148 points.
As suspected, Krum was the highest. He was the best at Quidditch, and Harry had seen him doing very good, so it was no surprise. Harry himself staying so high also came quite as a surprise to him, but Hermione whispered that she’d overheard Madam Pomfrey request some sort of compensation be given for his act in saving Malfoy and Dumbledore had agreed, so he supposed those were the ‘moral fiber’ points not unlike those he he had gained last time, added onto the meager points he’d gotten in the actual game.
But the scores didn’t settle the crowds one bit. The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang kids were still screaming and wailing as the Judges descended the stands to attempt to calm them all down from going off on a swearing rampage as Fernando and Anya had both already done, and Karkaroff looked one wrong move away from doing. And the Hogwarts kids were mad too. It was clear that the disqualification was unlawful, as there was no clear evidence that they had been behind the Bludger either, but it was also clear that the Judges weren’t changing their minds, standing steadfast and angry-faced, all except for Karkaroff. So Harry saw that there was nothing they could do.
McGonagall ordered the students to depart from the pitch shortly after and everyone scattered, fuming, and Hermione and Ron, seeing that the boys needed some alone time, though they’d never admit it, steered their friends away from Harry and Draco as they kicked up dirt and stumbled down to the Lake, still sore from the Task.
They were quiet for a while, simply walking, before Draco spoke up first.
“I meant to say thanks.” Harry looked up, raising an eyebrow in question. “Hm?” “I mean… When I woke up, I said…‘hi?’ I meant to say thank you. I don’t know why I--” “It’s alright.” Harry said, biting his tongue shortly after as he felt the familiar fluttering rise up in him. “I understood.”
A pause, then, “I’m sorry. I should have been more careful with my wand. You were right, you almost got killed I--” “Hey!” Draco stopped abruptly, and they faced each other, meeting eyes for the first time since the pitch and immediately feeling their hearts stop because of it. “It’s… You did your best, okay? And, your best was pretty good. It’s always pretty good. But there was nothing else you could do that would have saved me. That’s why Dumbledore called for that Phoenix, right?”
Harry nodded. “Fawkes.”
“Huh?”
“That’s the Phoenix’ name. Fawkes.” Draco blinked, then raised an eyebrow. “And you know this because…?” “It’s a Second Year thing.” “Ah…”
Because their friendship was so recent, and there was still so much Draco had missed and needed to catch up on, referring to something as a ‘(blank) thing’ had become quite normal so Harry wouldn’t need to go into a long and complicated explanation including things he wasn’t comfortable sharing with Draco yet. Although, right now, he kind of wished he could tell him anything.
And he had no clue why.
“So, your father is definitely not hearing about this, right?” Harry asked then, continuing to walk towards the water and Draco doing the same. “Oh he will, whether I want him to or not.” The blonde paused, sighing and kicking a pebble across the sand, then sitting himself down on a rock. Harry frowned and sat alongside him, gently placing a hand on his arm before removing it, an unspoken sign they had come up with that indicated the other to talk.
“He’s not all that bad.” Draco said at last, and Harry nodded, sensing that this is what he’d say before he'd even gotten the words out. “He’s a Death Eater, sure, but he loves me. And he loves my mom. But no one else… And so I feel like… I don’t know… It’s complicated...” Draco shook his head, tucking his legs up to his chest and resting his chin on his knees, frowning as he gazed out at the water.
Harry knew this is when a person should say, ‘I understand’, but he also knew that would be a lie, because he didn’t. How sad it may seem, he didn’t know what it was like to have to deal with conflict like this with your parents, because he didn’t have any. And even then, what Draco was dealing with was far beyond anyone’s comprehension. He was just a kid, like Hermione had said all along, and he wanted to have a normal happy family like anyone else. But he never had, and never would.
Harry struggled to think there had ever been a time he hadn’t known that, even if it was just last summer.
“Hey,” Finally, Harry settled for bumping his shoulder playfully, giving the blonde a smirk. “You got me. And Hermione, and Ron, and we aren’t complicated, right? That’s got to count for something.”
It was meant to be a joke, so initially Harry got worried when he saw the tears glistening in Draco’s eyes, but then the blonde had flung himself at him, wrapping his arms around the boy just as Harry had to him about an hour ago, and Harry felt himself melt in the embrace, smiling and hugging back instantly.
He didn’t know what this feeling was, and he didn’t know if he ever would, but he did know one thing: if anything else, he hoped it would last and feel like this moment did, forever.