Disclaimer: I don't own either Harry Potter or the Hunger Games

Harry Potter and the Hunger Games

Reaping day arrived in District 5 the same as every other year. The undercurrent of fear overtook the whole district as everyone reluctantly prepared themselves for the reaping ceremony. This was no different in a wealthy house, built on top of a safety equipment shop in the centre of town. However, in this house, the fear only really resided inside of one small boy who slept in the bath at his house.

This boy's name was Harry Potter and he had every right to feel nervous. He lived with his Aunt and Uncle who had never had any problems letting him know that he was not wanted. In fact, Harry suspected that he would have been kicked out of the house if he had not been able to provide the family with Tesserae. This only provided a meagre supply of grains and oil, but his family was nothing if not greedy and they barely fed him anyway so it was seen as a net positive. This Tesserae had likely saved his life and had definitely kept him from becoming homeless, but it also had condemned him to a higher chance in the reaping.

Harry lived with his Aunt and Uncle because his Mother and Father had died in a power plant accident where a machine overheated and emitted poisonous gas back when he just one years old. His Mother had been right by the machine when it happened and his Father had died trying to save her from it.

Harry had to get Tesserae for himself, his Aunt, his Uncle, and his cousin and as such, with this being his 6th reaping, he had 30 entries in the reaping ball. Given that district 5 was one of the wealthier districts in Panem, it meant that Harry had a better shot than most at going to the Hunger Games.

The reaping ceremony was only in a few hours' time and as such the whole district was getting ready. Harry and his family were no different with Dudley, Harry's cousin getting into a smart new shirt while Harry was left to wear Dudley's first reaping shirt- it was still too big.

Suddenly, Harry heard thundering footsteps approaching before his Uncle popped into his room. His Uncle was a beefy man with beady eyes and seemed to always have a purple vein throbbing out of his temple. He looked especially big as he towered over

"Listen here boy, if you get reaped today I don't want you embarrassing us, you hear me?" He asks.

"No Uncle Vernon." Harry replied.

"Good, because we don't want to be associated with an embarrassing crying wreck ok? It looks bad for us and people might talk." Vernon sternly lectured

"Yes, Uncle Vernon. If I get reaped I'll keep my head up." Harry said

"See that you do boy." Vernon glowered at him a moment longer before sneering at him and walking out the room.

Harry had no doubt that if he was reaped he would keep his head together. In truth he expected to be reaped, his life had never been a lucky one and it seemed unlikely that he would dodge the reaping with one of the highest odds. He wondered if it would even be a bad thing. He had no friends, no family, and no real reason to live instead of someone else.

Harry shook his head to clear his thoughts; it didn't matter what he thought, he couldn't control the reaping. Either he would be reaped or he wouldn't and then he would have to cope with whatever happened. He fixed up his shirt, tried to comb down his hair- complete waste of time- and headed down to the kitchen. He still had to earn his keep, even on reaping day, and there were dishes to be done.

He entered the kitchen to the sight of his Aunt Petunia fixing his Cousin Dudley's shirt. Dudley was a well fed boy, who even possessed a bit of a gut, something very rare in the districts. His mother was a skinny woman who still showed some signs of being well-fed. She also had a long neck with a horse-like face. She looked over at Harry like he was a piece of dirt when he entered the room.

"The dishes are in the sink, we let a little bit of breakfast for you on the bench." She said.

Harry walked over to the bench silently and got to work, saving the food for after. It was only a half a piece of toast anyway. He finally finished the dishes as the family were getting ready to leave and so had to have his toast on the way.

When they arrived at the town square, there were very few people around. The Dursleys' liked to get there early to show that they were better than others. Tardiness was one of the things the Dursleys' hated the most and they viewed those that arrived after them with distain. Harry registered with the Peacekeepers and then slipped away from Dudley to go stand by himself. No one was really around so he observed his surroundings. On the stage, the escort for District 5, Aurelia, was talking animatedly with Mayor Lupin about something that clearly wasn't interesting to him. There was no sign of any of the victors yet and the technicians- probably from district 5 themselves- were going over all the electronic equipment. Nothing much else was happening and so Harry looked away. The square was starting to fill now and Harry could see Dudley being reunited with his best mate Piers Polkiss. Harry decided to hide himself behind a group of boys just to be safe.

Twenty minutes later and everyone had arrived and the ceremony was ready to start. The mayor got up, looking as tired as usual to give the usual speech on why the hunger games existed. Harry tuned out, having heard about the districts failed rebellion and subsequent demolition of district 13 before, until the mayor got to the reading of districts past victors. There were 4 in all, only two of them still alive. The first of these was a middle aged man named Sirius Black and the other was a Woman named Nymphadora Tonks who had won 7 years ago. Despite being in his mid-thirties Black was still quite a handsome man and was reportedly quite popular in the capital. Tonks was also quite attractive and had appeared to have adapted to the Capitol fashions; changing her hair colour and style seemingly every month. Today she had shoulder-length pink hair and a couple of nose piercings for good measure. After the reading of the victors, the mayor introduced Aurelia to take over who promptly bounded onto the stage."

"Hello, everyone and welcome to the 70th Hunger Games. It's great to be back in district five for another year to select two brave and courageous tributes." She said in the shrill Capitol accent.

"Well let's get to it. Ladies first of course." She walked over to the bowl and reached into the bowl, coming out with a slip from somewhere in the middle. She walked back over to the microphone and announced:

"Susan Bones."

Harry winced, he knew that name. Susan was a quiet girl in his classes who was one of the nicest people around. She was not likely to take this well. Sure enough, Harry saw the girl wandering up slowly onto the stage, tears clearly in her eyes. She stumbled a bit on the stage before standing next to Aurelia. Amazingly, Aurelia managed to maintain her bubbly persona.

"Congratulations dear, and now onto the boys." She declared

She walked over to the boys bowl and thrust her hand in, deeper this time. She emerged with a slip and walked back over to the bowl and declared the tribute.

"Harry Potter."

Harry felt everyone turn to look at him. No one really liked him, but they all knew who he was. The weird cousin of Dudley Dursley, never talks to anyone, a troublemaker, dangerous. Harry knew the rumours and knew that most of the people round him probably thought he was the perfect candidate. Harry had been prepped for this moment for years, however, and knew not to panic. He raised his head high and calmly walked towards the stage. He looked at the people on stage to see their reactions. Susan was still crying, she probably hadn't even heard who was joining her. Aurelia was giving him an encouraging smile, clearly grateful that he wasn't crying about his face. Interesting though, were the faces of the mayor Remus Lupin and the victor Sirius Black. Both of their faces had gone completely white as they stared at him disbelievingly. Their gaze never wavered as he climbed the steps and took his place next to Aurelia. They only looked away when the national anthem played after Aurelia had announced them as the tributes of district 5 for the district.