After what felt like forever for Harry but much too soon for Draco, the day of the first task arrived. Harry looked towards his blond companion, finding that, once again, the boy's hands were shaking violently. He smiled at the Slytherin's obvious concern as he lightly placed his hands on top of the other boy's.

"I'll be fine, Draco," Harry said encouragingly when the blond looked over at his touch.

"You are about to fight a bloody Dragon!" Draco hissed, making sure he couldn't be overheard at the Slytherin table, "I'd think that that warrants me being concerned for you."

Harry simply squeezed the hand still held in his own, hoping to comfort his friend in some way. It didn't seem to work, however, as throughout the entire morning the blond refused to leave Harry alone; constantly holding onto the raven-haired teen in some way. Harry found it incredibly endearing, as he'd never had someone so concerned for him before. No one had quite cared as much about him as Draco seemed to.

Eventually, though, the two had to part ways as Harry was escorted by Ludo Bagman into the Champions Tent. WHilst there, Harry played his part well in pretending that he had no idea about the Dragons. However, it became increasingly obvious to him that the other Champions had known as well.

Whilst they should have all been panicking at the news, they were really only nervous. One by one, the Champions left the tent to face their respective Dragons. Eventually, it was just Harry left. As he sat waiting for Krum to finish, he noticed absently that the back entrance of the tent was slowly opening. Assuming that it was just Ludo, he was surprised when he felt arms wrap around him, squeezing him tightly.

"Oh, Harry!" a female voice said that Harry immediately recognized as Hermione's.

"'Mione?" What are you doing here?" he asked, putting away the wand he'd absentmindedly pulled out at the unexpected hug.

"When they said that you'd be going last, I knew I'd have to come to see you!" she began, sounding slightly hysterical, "Are you really ready for this? What is your plan? Are you panicking!?"

"'Mione," Harry began, trying not to laugh, "I'm going to be fine. In fact, I think you're the one who's panicking."

"Of course I'm panicking!" Hermione said, pacing around the room, "I just found out my best friend is about to fight a Dragon! Wait… Why aren't you panicking?"

"Maybe because I already knew about the Dragons, so I have a plan in place already."

At that, she finally stopped the pacing she'd begun earlier, "How did you find out?"

"Blaise found out and showed me when they brought the Dragons to the Forbidden Forest."

"Zabini?" she questioned. At Harry's nod, she said, "I'll have to remember to thank him for telling you, then promptly scold him for neglecting to tell me!"

"I'm sorry 'Mione, I should have told you, but I was so busy training with Draco, I guess I forgot you didn't know about the Dragons."

She was about to reply but was instantly cut off by the sound of the cannon going off.

Harry stood up from his chair only to be nearly knocked back into it due to the force of Hermione's hug. He responded back, lightly holding her before extracting himself in order to leave.

When he turned back to look at her before entering the Quidditch Pitch-turned stadium, he noticed grey eyes peering from behind the curtains Hermione had entered from. Harry smiled and winked, his heart beating faster with the knowledge that Draco had come to see him off.

Once the blond turned and left, Harry entered the stadium. He quickly took in his surroundings, noticing the golden egg behind the Hungarian Horntail that did not match the other eggs.

Harry took a few steps out of the tent, gaining the attention of the Dragon. Immediately, Harry held his wand hand in the air, casting the fire-protection spell before slowly lowering it into the holster on his hip. The Horntail merely watched intently but did not yet make a move against Harry.

Taking a deep breath, he ignored the gasps and calls from the audience. He then bowed deeply to the Dragon, but the Horntail did not bow back. Harry sighed quietly to himself. He had hoped that showing respect would be enough, but Harry couldn't quite blame the Dragon for being so cautious. He hadn't wanted to have to speak Parseltongue for fear of everyone's reactions but he knew that it would be the only way to get out of the situation without hurting the Dragon.

"Hello, lovely," Harry began in Parseltongue, ignoring the horrified asps of those who heard him, "I am not here to hurt you."

The Dragon tilted it's head slightly, but didn't relax, "Just because I can understand you, Young Speaker, does not mean that I will believe you. I have watched as every other child that came through here injured my Kin. Why should you be any different?"

"Ah, I am terribly sorry that the others have hurt your Kin. I am different because I do not wish to harm you and your eggs. I simply wish for the false egg that the trainers have placed amongst your own," he replied calmly, though his heart was beating out of his chest.

"Words mean nothing to me, Young Speaker. How will you guarantee that no harm will come to me and my children?" the Horntail asked, sounding intrigued, though no less defensive.

"I will guarantee it as I will not go anywhere near your children. I just ask that you bring the golden egg to me and then I will leave."

"And what will you do if I refused, young one?"

"Then I would leave empty-handed," Harry said truthfully.

He watched as the Dragon seemed to rear back slightly in shock.

"Then I refuse." the Horntail said softly, tensing as if in preparation for a fight.

However, Harry simply bowed deeply once again before turning to leave, despite many protests from those waiting in the stands.

"Stop, Young Speaker," he heard the Dragon say, causing him to stop just outside of the tent's opening and turn around.

After tensing, he watched in awe as the Dragon grabbed the golden egg in its mouth, then flew over to Harry, depositing the fake egg at the Wizard's feet. Once done, the Dragon bowed to him, who immediately bowed back, feeling honoured at the trust given to him.

"Young Speaker, you have surprised me. You are not like the others at all. You have shown me and my Kin the utmost of respect and I shall reward you well for it."

"Thank you very much," Harry responded, not knowing quite how to respond.

They both bowed to each other one last time before the Horntail flew back to her eggs and Harry picked up the golden egg, causing a door to appear in the stadium wall which Harry walked towards. It wasn't until he was nearly through the doors that the audience, who had been rather shocked by the whole encounter, broke into a deafening applause.

Harry rolled his eyes, unable to forget that those same people had, only ten minutes previously, hated him for something he hadn't even done. With that in mind, he ignored them and quickly entered the rather large room that the door had led to. Inside was the other Champions, along with medical personnel, one of which was treating Cedric, who had gotten a nasty burn on his leg. The others seemed to have already been treated, Krum having a splint on his wrist while waiting for the potion to properly re-align the fractures.

Once he was noticed, one of the Healers ushered him to the hospital bed next to Fleur's in order to check him over. Fleur seemed to be the only one other than Harry who had gotten away unscathed as she only had a few minor bruises along her arm. Everyone, he noticed, however, had all managed to obtain their egg.

After his check-up and Ludo's rather long-winded explanation about the egg being a clue for the next round, Harry was finally able to escape.

He was on his way back to his room in order to grab the Marauder's Map so that he could find Draco; he knew that the blond would be anxious to see him. He did not go very far, however, as he was nearly knocked to the ground once he'd turned the corner. He relaxed from the shock once he realized who it was that was currently hugging him extremely tightly.

"Draco!" Harry said, slightly out of breath from being knocked into, "I was just going to go looking for you!"

"Merlin, Harry!" Draco began, obviously shaken up, "I was so scared that entire time, I could barely watch! This Tournament is pure madness; making teenagers fight a bloody Dragon. Who even came up with this and who agreed that it would be a brilliant idea? Why Dumbledore would agree to this is beyond me, especially considering how you always end up in these crazy things one way or another! And-"

"Draco!" Blaise said from beside them, surprising Harry who hadn't realized he and Hermione had been with the blond this entire time.

"You're rambling, dear," Blaise said with a smirk before turning to Harry, "Congrats, mate. That was pretty brilliant back there."

"Thanks" he replied, blushing slightly when he realized he was still holding onto the blond, "You alright there, Draco?" he asked, pulling away slightly so he could read the other boy's face.

"Oh, um, yeah. I'm alright, sorry." the other teen said, blushing deeply as he took a step away from Harry.

"Thanks, by the way," Harry said, causing the other boy to give him a confused look.

"What for?"

"For allowing 'Mione and I to have our moment in the tent, even though you wanted to talk to me."

Before Draco could respond, Blaise spoke up, "Your 'moment'? What kind of 'moment' was this?"

"'Mione just came by to show her support. She was a little surprised about the Dragons since we forgot to tell her." Harry replied, smirking when Blaise rubbed the back of his neck as he noticed that Hermione seemed to be mad at him for not mentioning it to her.

"Yeah, well," Draco began, obviously attempting to smile, but failing terribly, "I didn't want to break up your… hugging session, so…"

Blaise, seeming to realize what was going on here, shared a look with Hermione before rolling his eyes in exasperation. Extremely sarcastically, he asked Harry, "Oh, so you're dating Hermione, then?"

"What?" Harry responded, taken aback by the thought of dating his best friend, "Date 'Mione? Yeah, not likely."

"But- I thought… Not likely?" Draco stuttered out, much to Harry's amusement.

"Draco, I'm gay," he said, snickering to himself as he watched his Slytherin friend take that information in.

Harry tore his eyes away from the blond's reaction when he heard Blaise begin snickering as well. As he turned towards the other Slytherin, Blaise suddenly burst out into laughter, tears eventually running down his face.

"Oh, Draco!" Blaise began in between bouts of laughter, "You're face is priceless! I can't believe you hadn't figured it out yet!"

"Yet? You knew!? Draco exclaimed, suddenly snapping out of his shock to turn to Blaise with an almost hurt look.

"Well, I couldn't very well tell you when it was Harry's secret to tell, now could I?"

"Why would it be so important for Draco to know anyways?" Harry questioned, worried that the blond might feel uncomfortable with him being gay and sharing a room.

"Yes, Draco. Enlighten us, would you?" Blaise smirked, obviously enjoying himself throughout all of this.

"Well, I mean," the blond began, blushing profusely, "It's just that… Well, I'm gay as well, you see, so it would have been nice to know, is all."

During the explanation, Harry's heart started beating rather quickly once Draco mentioned also being gay. He tried to ignore it, however; truly believing that there was no way Draco could feel anything back. They are just friends, after all… Right?