The Life that Never Lived ? (Goblet of Fire)

THE FIRST TASK

Lily couldn't help it, her anger at Ron really was starting to bleed out by now to just be replaced with sorrow for both him and Harry. Both boys needed to talk to each other: she was sure they would work this out if they did, but while both blamed the other it didn't seem to be happening soon. What would it take to get it through Ron's head this wasn't Harry's fault? Ron was clearly growing tired of the argument though, so if Harry finally snapped and tracked him down, could they hopefully settle their differences soon?

Lily was the only one hoping along those lines. James was still trying his hardest not to think about it at all, while Remus and Sirius still wanted to smack the redhead a good one. Remus began his chapter with anger still bleeding into his tones.

Sirius tried for a laugh at the mental image even if he didn't really feel it.

"Sure you didn't want to try pulling a sweater over your drawers next?" James muttered.

"Wish you had realized that," Remus sighed at Sirius. "I'm still blasted you found anything more important to discuss than that, even a Death Eater."

Sirius just shrugged, really not having a defense for himself. He certainly agreed Harry should be on his guard around anyone from Durmstrang now, but those dragons really were a bit more pressing at the time.

"Oh thank you, Hermione, that was very encouraging," Lily huffed.

Remus fidgeted with the page for a moment, hoping desperately something else would happen to Harry in between now and when that First Task would come up so that he wouldn't have to read it, but then he realized it would in fact be Lily's turn to read about her son against a dragon, so he instead changed his wish to just getting this over with.

"That could work at least," James nodded along. "You should find a passage talking about a dragon's weak spot, and come to the conclusion on your own of what to do."

"I still don't see how that would help," Harry sighed. "So I get it in the eye, then what? Now I've got an angry dragon because I managed to hit it, on top of whatever else I'm supposed to be doing."

"Still better than not knowing anything," Remus offered with a forced smile. Harry didn't argue the point.

"Not top priority right now," Lily agreed.

"I'm worried that they're taking that too literally," Sirius frowned. "They need to stick with the dragon books to see what I meant."

"There's nothing easy when it comes to dragons, really," Lily agreed.

"Also known as Hagrid and Charlie, the nutters around them right now," James muttered.

"Now there's an interesting idea," James said with honest amusement.

"Harry's not at that skill level yet," Lily corrected.

"Of course the bloody fourth year has been," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"She's got to stay on top somehow," Remus shrugged.

'And she was just trying to help,' Lily wanted to sigh, but didn't correct him as she could only guess at how stressed her son was right now.

"Can't deny it would be interesting to see, though," Remus muttered to himself, knowing he was the only one to think that.

"Well, this clearly isn't helping," Lily groaned.

"Better than sitting around the common room freaking himself out," James sighed.

Harry felt a funny little feeling tingling in his gut, like he wanted to laugh at a vexed Hermione around Krum, but the feeling was so buried with the gut wrenching fear of facing a dragon soon he never even really registered it.