A/N: Here's the neter! Which also means the four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the ce to vote on the dire of the story!

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  In which Harry gives the audience a different sort of show this time around.

  -x-X-x-

  The day of the First Task has arrived. More specifically, the hour of the First Task has arrived. Having just finished lunch, Harry departs from the Great Hall ahead of schedule, intending to make his way down to the Waiti he First Task Arena before anyone e a him.

  However, the moment he leaves the Great Hall, a bundle of barely tained fuzzy brue hair all but collides with his chest.

  “H-Harry!”

  Blinking, Harry grabs Hermione Granger by the shoulders in order to still her current frantiergy, looking her over and quickly dedug that she hasn’t been sleeping well. In fact, the brue book worm looks pale as a ghost… and quite sied at that. Finally managing to calm down enough to look him in the eye, she all but bnches.

  Her mouth opens and closes several times, but she ’t quite get the words out. However, her demeanor alone is enough to tell him that she’s doly what he asked of her. She’s done her research. And in cssic Hermione fashion, she’s e to clusions that no one else in the Wizarding World has mao e to, despite the evidearing them all right in the face. Finally, Hermioles for letting out a shuddering breath and whimpering.

  “e have to do something. A-Anything.”

  Surprised but not really that someone as brilliant as Hermione had mao uncover enough to truly horrify her, Harry smiles softly and pulls Hermioo his chest, hugging his best friend close and running a hand through her incredibly frazzled hair. As he does so, he uses a very light application of magic to settle down her brue locks… and also Hermione herself, easing the panic she’s feeling momentarily. If he hadn’t, he feels like she might have started hyperventiting on him.

  Of course, he doesn’t just use magic to calm her down. He also uses words.

  “Don’t worry, Hermione. We will.”

  He lets that sit in the air for a moment before tinuing, murmuring directly into the top of her head.

  “The Wizarding World has bee pt, Hermiohey’ve been stu their ways for far too long. Even those of us with a foot in the muggle world don’t uand the danger… not truly. Half-bloods and Muggleborns alike have allowed themselves to be subsumed by the magical world’s culture, leading to unsable ignorance of the muggle world… and just what they do to both themselves and us.”

  Hermione shivers at that, knowing full well from her own research precisely the sort of things he’s talking about. But she only really imagi. Harry… he’s lived it. Feeling more fident than ever before that he’s on the right path, he pulls bad looks Hermione in the eye again.

  “We’ll talk ter, Hermione. But just know this. Today is the day we start shaking the Wizarding World free of its pcy. Whatever it takes.”

  She stares at him with wide, hopeful eyes for a moment before shakily jerking her head up and down in an approximation of a nod. Giving her o smile and o squeeze of her shoulders, Harry pulls away and heads down to the tent.

  Admittedly, he’s curious to see if anything will have ged from what he remembers. As he arrives at the Waiti and is ushered in, he ’t help but think that it SHOULD all be the same… right? The only real difference is that he blew Hagrid off when the half-giant tried to get Harry to use his Invisibility Cloak to follow him and Maxime into the Forbidden Forest. As far as Hagrid knew, Harry had gone ahead and do… but he holy hadn’t bothered.

  That shouldn’t have ge anything for anyone else though… right?

  Except, as the rest of the Champions file in, Harry remembers something else that he’s iently ged. Looking at the poorly cealed knowledge on Viktor and Fleur’s faces, and the plete ck of it on Cedric’s, Harry realizes that HE was the one who told Cedric Diggory about the dragons in the first timeline. He’d done so out of a sense of fairness upon realizing that pretty much everyone else was cheating to find out what the First Task was.

  He hadn’t done so this time. Holy, he’d barely been thinking about the Triwizard Tour save for how he might use it to further all of his OTHER pns.

  Before Harry sider trying to get a message to Cedriow, it all kicks off. The officials e in, speak momentarily, and then have the four Champions pull the miniature dragons from the little pouch same as before. Also same as before, Cedric is first to pull and drags out the Swedish Short-Stout. And… he doesn’t look remotely fident in how he’s going to ha. The ft-footed expression on his face as he’s told he’ll be battling the real life version of the miniature dragon and trying to cim a golden egg from its makes it clear nobody told Cedriything in Harry’s absence.

  … Still, he’s a Seventh Year, right? Harry figures it should be fine.

  “ARRRRRRRRRRGH!!!”

  Right up until the scream of pain that es from outside a few minutes after Cedric leaves. Followed by lots of shouting and the roar of a dragon. Harry grimaces, even as both Krum and Fleur jolt in their spots. He only hope he didn’t get Cedric killed even earlier than the previous timelihat said, Harry checks on his petitors. Krum settles back down and looks more determihan ever before… but Fleur looks shaken and terrified, her mask of poise and elegaorn away by whatever Cedric’s fate might have been.

  In that moment, even knowing that he and Fleur have a wager he very much wishes to win… Harry meets the beautiful young woman’s eyes from across the tent and gives her an encing smile.

  “Don’t lose your nerve now, Decour. We both know you’re more than up to this task.”

  Fleur’s eyes widen in shock at his kind words, but she’s also visibly bolstered by them. She doesn’t get the ce to respond before she’s called up to go , but she does leave the tent with a certain… swagger iep. Harry, meanwhile, is quietly relieved. They probably wouldn’t have tihe First Task if Cedric was ht KILLED by his draght?

  … Right?

  Either way, he and Krum both hear the tell-tale signs of Fleur’s singing soon enough, and judging by the g and cheering from the crowd that ensues a few mier, she’s succeeded iask. Though there’s also an audible gasp at one point, which Harry remembers must be the moment when the dragon she’s lulled to sleep actally sets her a little on fire with a snort from its fring nostrils.

  Either way, Krum goes and from what Harry hears, does just as well and just as poorly with his strategy as st time. Meaning he succeeds in blinding the dragon in order to get his egg, but also ends up iently causing his dragon to crush a few of its own eggs as a result of its blindness. Shame, that.

  Finally… it’s Harry’s turn. Ign Ludo Bagman’s desperate attempts to give Harry a st sed peptalk, he steps out of the tent and into the sunlight, his eyes adjusting quickly as he walks into the arena. Hundreds of pairs of eyes fall upon him, but it’s nothing Harry isn’t used to. Admittedly, by his memory of things it’s been a long time since he was st the ter of THIS much attention, but to be fair, he HAD pyed Quidditch every year he was at Hogwarts.

  Harry’s own eyes are on the Hungarian Horntail, the real oher than the miniature one he pulled from the bag. Everything has turned out pretty much the same so far, save for whatever happeo Cedric. The dragons each testant had to tend with were the same if nothing else. Which of course meant Harry found himself up against the Hungarian Horntail, the worst of the lot.

  Perfect.

  Lifting his wand, Harry lets a small smile appear on his face for the audience’s sake as he begins to cast a spell. Casting silently, he heless moves his lips to give the impression to most of the onlookers that he’s just saying the spells under his breath. However, anyone who knows better will be able to tell that’s not the case. In this moment, he’s giving those with a modicum of real power the ability to see more of him than he’s let on. Everyone else… well, they’ll just have to enjoy the show for what it is.

  Out of the earth, Harry raises up over a dozen massive golems, surrounding himself in a circle of the creature, eae t over him at around twelve feet tall. Made of rod stone and dirt, they shake themselves as if they’re alive for a brief moment… and then zero in on the resting Hungarian Horntail a few hundred feet away.

  The dragon, curled up in its around it’s eggs, huffs at the sight of Harry and his magic, looking pletely uurbed. But then to be fair, the unintellige has a right to feel unworried. After all, dragons are notoriously resistant to magic. There’s a reason that dragonhide is so expensive and so sought after for certain high-stakes magical professions, after all.

  Even with the power of two witches stacked on top of his own incredibly robust magic, Harry isn’t likely to be able to break through the Hungarian Horntail’s hide without wasting a simply uable amount of his strength.

  But then, that’s not what he’s here to do. He’s not here to kill a dragon. He’s not here to pierce a dragon’s hide. He’s here to get a golden egg and win a bet… and that’s exactly what he’s going to do.

  As his ros all charge forward, Harry walks with purpose in their wake, striding across the arena. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Horntail rises from her , uncurling that massive spike-ball tail of hers and throwing her head back with a roar of challehat SHAKES the very air itself betweehen… she begins to lumber forward, moving towards him and his golems.

  The cros at her charge, but Harry just smiles and twirls his wand in a flourish. It’s not necessary, truth be told. He doesn’t o do anything with his wand at this point, he has plete trol over his magid that includes the golems. After all… the golems aren’t really golems at all.

  What might appear at first go be a simple Animation Spell, is actually a far more plex Animation Spell, ohat Harry knows those with any degree of knowledge will reize. Everyone else will just be awed by the spectacle.

  The e is the same though. As the Hungarian Horntail reaches the first of his golems, she ptuously tosses her head, intending to bash right through it. But rather than being smmed, smashed, and scattered to the winds, the golem… melts onto her face, immediately c half of her sinuous head.

  The Hungarian Horntail’s remaining visible eye widens in disbelief and e, and her open nostril fres in anger as she tries to roar through a half-closed jaw. But before she break free of the first melted golem, the other eleven all reach her and do exactly the same thing. Because as previously mentiohey weren’t golems at all… Harry had individually animated every rock, stone, and piece of dirt that made up their ‘bodies’.

  In an instant, the Hungarian Horntail is immobilized. From her head all the way to her spiky death ball of a tail. And though she struggles mightily… Harry’s magic holds. Because while it might not be strong enough to pierce a dragon’s hide without signifit cost, his magic is MORE than strong enough to hold a dragon in pce, regardless of just how physically powerful that dragon might be.

  To really sell it, Harry doesn’t ever even look the Hungarian Horntail in the eye. He makes sure she breathe of course, but he makes a nice show of paying her absolutely no mind as he strides forward and snatches the golden egg right out from her .

  Standing there amidst the s, Harry turns and grins, thrusting the golden egg up into the air. The crowd goes absolutely WILD of course, and Harry lets them positively freak out for a few moments before striding right back out of the arena.

  He lets the handlers for the Horntail get into pce before finally releasing the Horntail from her prison of magically animated dirt, rock, and sto which point, they quickly get her under trol in their own way. Harry, meanwhile, feels undeniably smug as he ehe Waitio find Professonagall staring at him like he’s grown a sed head.

  In the end, the Transfiguration Professor closes her agape mouth and swallows thickly befiving him a simple nod.

  “Well done, Mister Potter.”

  “Thank you, Professor.”

  That’s all the words they exge before he finds himself called out before the judges once more. Harry is curious to see what scores they’ll give him in this timeline. Was he fshy enough to make up for the fact that he hadn’t led the Horntail on a death-defying flight around the Castle?

  It certainly seems he was for Maxime’s taste, because the woman gives him a his time around when he’s sure she gave him a st time. Croud Dumbledore also give him Nines, which just makes Harry wonder what the hell he would have had to do to make them give him Tens. Probably just not possible, sidering Crouch was Crouch even uhe Imperius Curse and Dumbledore didn’t want to be accused of favoritism.

  The st two judges, oher hand, couldn’t have cared less about being accused of favoritism. In Ludo’s case, this works in Harry’s favor. The man gives him a Ten because his life literally depends on Harry winning. Meanwhile, Karkaroff gives him a Three with a scowl on his face. One poihan the previous timeline, Harry wryly notes. All to make sure Harry got an even forty points, same as his precious Krum.

  While it’s absolutely ridiculous, Harry doesn’t care in the slightest. Because even as his total point score is announced, he’s made eye tact with Fleur Decour and see from one look at her face that he’s already beaten her score this time around. And won their wager.

  Well now, wasn’t that fun? Heh… now all Harry o decide was whether it would be more fun to go and talk tht now while the victory was fresh, or leave it be and make her sit and stew in her loss until eventually her own pride forced her to e and front him ter.

  Ah. Such hard choices he found himself having to make in this imeline, heh.

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