To say Harry James Potter was nervous, would be stating the obvious. His body trembled. His thoughts were assaulted by constant fear, making all of the planning he and Hermione Granger had been making a moot point. It was the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament, a magical contest between a British, a Mediterranean and a Slavic wizarding school. His competition? A Seeker renowned in the European wizarding world for his talents, a quarter-Veela more secure than her and a popular seventh year Hufflepuff. Who was Harry Potter? The unwilling archenemy of the Dark Lord himself. What was the objective of this task? Retrieve a golden egg guarded by a Hungarian Horntail mother hen. Chances of success? Slim, if any.
There was loud cheering coming out of the tent. Harry gulped. The moment had come. Shaking even more, Harry rose from his seated position, glanced one last time at himself and waited for the signal. Five minutes passed, until Ludo Bagman's loud yelled his name through the stadium. Harry opened the curtains and slowly walked inside the rocky decor. What was 'the plan' again? Summoning his Firebolt and trying to outfly a dragon? Harry shook his head. The bloody beasts had wings by birth; he didn't stand a chance.
It didn't take a long for the dragon to confront him. When Harry's eyes met the dragon's, Harry forgot his fears and natural inhibitions. It was like waking up from a very long and fitful dream. As the Hungarian Horntail studied him, Harry observed her. She hadn't stolen her name; there was a mighty dangerous horn on her tail. Rational thoughts going through his head demanding him to challenge the dragon and take the egg, but Harry wasn't a rational being. Emotion and instinct always got the better hand than him in necessary situations. And right now, dragons resembled snakes a lot; maybe they'd understand Parseltongue?
Calmly walking forward, his body held in a position of surrender, but never yielding eye contact with the dragon, Harry approached the heir of dinosaurs.
"Can you help me?" Harry hissed. The crowd shuddered. While it had become public knowledge that the Boy-Who-Lived was a Parseltongue, it was disconcerting to hear inhuman sounds coming from a man's throat.
The Hungarian Horntail roared loudly, frightening many a student. The dragon handlers looked at each other in complete disbelieve. Tending dragons for years, they were quite familiar with dragon intonation.
A small smile escaped Harry's lips. Dragons didn't hiss, but they understood hissing all the same, just like he couldn't roar, but comprehended roaring. From what he understood of the dragon's answer, she would help him. The tone she used reminded him of the tone a mother had when conversing with her toddlers.
Harry Potter's audience was officially baffled, even Albus Dumbledore. From what his dear friend Alastor Moody told him, Harry was going to fly, not do whatever he was doing.
The Horntail roared again, this time longer and more distinct than before. Charlie Weasley scratched the back of his head and shrugged his shoulders at the questioning glances of his colleagues. How was he supposed to know his brother's friend was a natural dragon caretaker?
Harry listened intently, soaking up the message. There was a clear warning in her roar; the jury and crowd thought it meant Harry's plan failed. Harry knew better; he was in danger of his foe, Voldemort, and he urgently needed to develop some clear goals, lest he was taken by surprise. Dragons don't concern themselves with the elaborate lives of humans, they were quite content to be taken care of and hardly worry about the future. There seemed to be something about Harry setting the dragons off though, like their future was threatened by his failure. It was disconcerting to interpret all that and realize he still had a job to do.
"May I take the false egg?" Harry asked in Parseltongue. A short roar was all the answer he needed. Grabbing the egg with a dragon eying him approvingly was surprisingly easy. What had he been nervous about? He was Harry Potter, survivor of the Killing Curse and bane of Voldemort's continued existence. He survived a nest of Acromentula's, the lair of a Basilisk, a massive attack by Dementors and the sounds of his aunt and uncle making love. He doubted another would be able to cope this well, especially with the latter.
The applaud took a while to start, but went to a standing ovation quickly. If Harry's method wasn't the most efficient, no method would be efficient at all. It didn't came as surprising when full points were awarded to him.
Hermione Granger rushed to his side, a waterfall of compliments and questions following her. Harry calmed her down in a way that rendered her speechless. He kissed her on the lips.
"Thank you for your help, Hermione," Harry said to her afterwards. "I don't think I'd have the courage to do as I did without your help."
After a moment of silence where a blush graced Hermione's face, she found her voice again. "Did you just kiss me?"
Harry grinned like a cat that ate the canary. "I did."
She lowered her head shyly. "Why?" she whispered.
"Because I could," Harry answered. "Because I find myself without anxiety and fear anymore."
His answer only served to confuse her a bit more. "Are you saying that you… love me?"
Harry scrunched his face in thought. "I don't think I love you." Hermione's expression of wonder fell. "I know that I like you a lot though. I don't know much of love to be honest, but I think love is just one of those things that take a lot of time to develop."
Hermione's response was to throw her arms around him and give him a suffocating hug.
Ron Weasley, who had come down to apologize for his behavior since Halloween, saw the kiss Harry and Hermione shared, witnessed their hug and turned back from where he came from. First Harry got to be part of a prestigious contest and receive glory and honor, now Harry stole Ron's girl from under his nose. Why did he even bother trying to sympathize with Harry?
When Harry and Hermione looked around them, it was to see a large group of Gryffindors surrounding him, wanting to congratulate him. Harry shook his head, clearing away all thoughts having to do with life, destiny, the Triwizard Tournament and the golden egg. Now was not the moment to worry, it was time to party.