Harry's Concern for Cedric

Two years earlier…

Daphne walked into the hospital wing hoping to get some headache potion. She had just been cornered by Draco Malfoy who, after telling her that he had chosen her to be his girlfriend and that she should feel honored, had tried to kiss her. Daphne acted on instinct and headbutted the arrogant fool as he leaned his head towards her. He fell to the ground in shock, giving Daphne the opportunity to pull out her wand and stun him. She had left him laying unconscious on the cold stone floor near the entrance to the Slytherin dorms. Someone would eventually find him and wake him up, at which point he was going to be pissed. Daphne didn't worry too much about that, she was not afraid of him and if he tried anything else she was going to show him why. Painfully.

Her thoughts of revenge were interrupted when she noticed that she was not alone in the room. Harry Potter was sitting in a chair at the foot of a hospital bed towards the other end of the room. Hermione Granger lay petrified in the bed, the latest addition to Hogwart's odd collection of petrified students. Harry had not noticed her coming in and she considered leaving before he did notice her, but he looked like he needed someone to talk to.

"Are you ok, Potter?" she asked as his head jerked up in surprise. Eventually he shrugged and motioned for her to sit down.

"I'm fine, but Hermione isn't. Neither are all of the other kids who have been attacked. I wish I knew what to do."

"What is there for you to do? It's not your responsibility to be everyone's hero."

"Maybe not everyone, but I think I owe it to her."

"Ah, I see. I didn't know you two were together."

"What? No, it's nothing like that. Hermione is my best friend. I never had any friends before I came to Hogwarts, my stupid whale of a cousin made sure of that, so when I got here and met her and Ron it was just really nice to have people who cared about you. They are both like the family I never got to have. Seeing Hermione like this makes me feel bad, like I had let my sister get hurt or something." Harry said as he looked up at Daphne. She had reacted to his statement much stronger than he thought she would, to the point where he thought he saw tears welling up in her eyes. "Are you ok?"

"Fine, I just know exactly what you mean." she answered while wiping her eyes with her hand. "They are all going to be ok, Potter. As soon as the mandrakes have been harvested the potion to wake them up will be ready and you will have your friend back."

"You don't like Hermione very much, do you?" Daphne was surprised by his question, but decided to answer it anyway.

"I wouldn't say that I care enough to even dislike her, but no not really."

"Why not?" Harry asked, interested in how others saw his friend.

"It has nothing to do with her being a muggleborn, if that is what you are asking. It's more in her attitude. She tries so hard to prove that she is good little witch that sometimes she ends up putting down others who don't deserve it. I bet she treats you and Weasley like you would be incapable of studying or passing your classes without her."

"I wouldn't be that harsh on her… and she does try to get us to study when we would rather do other things." he said in defense of his friend.

"I thought so. It doesn't really matter anyway, who is going to notice if a Slytherin isn't the best of friends with a Gryffindor?"

"True. So what are you doing here?" he asked.

"Headache potion. Malfoy was being a prick so I headbutted him. I'm not bruising am I?" she asked as she pulled her hair away from her forehead. Harry grinned when he saw the red spot where their heads had connected. He also noticed, not for the first time, how pretty she was.

"It's a little red, but I think you are going to live." he pronounced.

"Well thank you, Healer Potter."

"Actually, I prefer Doctor Potter."

"You might as well be a muggle." she laughed with a small shake of her head. Harry had even broken out of his bad mood long enough to smile back at her. "I really do hope your friend gets better, Potter. Try not to worry so much." As she said this she stood up and began walking out of the room, completely forgetting the headache potion she had come for.

...

Harry was the first of the champions to make it to the tent next to the dragon's nest. Professor McGonagall had wished him luck and told him to wait for everyone else to arrive before leaving him to sit and review his plans. He felt confident that he would be able to grab the golden egg, but he was starting to have doubts about Daphne's plan. Even if it did work, the wizarding world might not look too kindly on a public display of his parselmouth talents. 'On the other hand, why should I care? It's not like they have been treating me well to begin with' he thought with a frown. Deciding it wasn't worth worrying about at the moment, he decided to go through the exercises Oliver Wood had the Gryffindor Quidditch team do before every match. Harry had no idea if they actually helped physically, but it did help him mentally prepare. A few minutes later Harry looked up to see Cedric Diggory walk in.

"Hey Harry." the Hufflepuff champion said, seemingly quite nervous.

"Hi, Cedric. Are you ok?"

"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just a little excited is all." Harry nodded and didn't press any further. Cedric began to pace back and forth, softly muttering something to himself.

Soon Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour had also arrived. The four champions spent several minutes looking at their competition, trying to determine who would be the biggest threat. They all knew that Krum was considered the favorite to win the competition, with Cedric a close second. Each of them seemed to handle the stress differently, Harry noted. Once the other champions had arrived, Cedric had adopted and confident face and a small grin. Krum, on the other hand, never seemed to stop scowling at his competition while Fleur seemed just seemed bored.

"Excellent, you're all here!" a booming voice came from the opening of the tent. Harry turned to see Ludo Bagman walking in with two assistants. "Now, gather around and I will explain the first task to you." Harry calmly walked over to Bagman, much like Krum and Fleur. Cedric, however, seemed the most eager to hear what Bagman had to say.

"Today you must recover a golden egg, within which is a clue for your next task. In order to obtain the egg, however, you must make your way past a dragon. You will have thirty minutes to complete the task." Only Cedric reacted to the news, paling significantly. "There are four dragons, and in order to determine which one you will face you must reach into this bag and pull out a representation of that dragon. Ladies first, Ms. Delacour." He said as he offered her the bag. Fleur reach in and pulled out a small green dragon with a number 2 on a chain around its neck.

"Ah, the common Welsh green. Very good, you will go second. Mr. Diggory?" Cedric reluctantly put his hand in the bag and withdrew his dragon, which had a number 1 on it. "The Swedish Short-Snout! Excellent." Cedric gulped and held the tiny dragon up to his face, inspecting it.

"You're next, Mr. Krum." Viktor Krum scowled and pulled out his dragon, which had a 3 on it. "The Chinese Fireball. Which means you, Mr. Potter, will be facing the Hungarian Horntail." Harry pulled his dragon out of the bag, and recognized it from his studies as one of the most aggressive dragons in the world.

"You have twenty minutes to prepare yourself, Mr. Diggory. Good luck to all of you." Bagman said as he waved at them and left. Once he was gone Cedric walked over to a bench and sat down, deep in thought. Every so often he would glance at the miniature dragon, looking for inspiration.

'He has no idea what to expect.' Harry realized. 'But Krum and Delacour do. So do I, for that matter. Why would Moody tell me and not Cedric? I can't just let him die out there…' Harry sighed and walked over to the bench where Cedric was sitting. The older boy looked up at him suspiciously, wondering what he wanted.

"Cedric, did you know that wolves and dogs are natural enemies of dragons? Or that the flame freezing charm will provide a few moments of protection against dragon fire? Just some things to think about, I suppose." Harry started to walk away when Cedric's voice stopped him.

"Why are you helping me?"

....

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