Death's Son (Originally done by Little.Miss.Xanda)

Wake-up Call

"Are you sure you want to do this tonight?" Tom asked, for what felt like the hundredth time. Harry had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. Who would have thought that Tom had mother-hen tendencies?

"Yes, Tom. I'm sure," he couldn't quite keep the exasperation from his tone.

"Truly? There would be no harm done in postponing. You had a rather tiring day," Tom insisted and Harry did roll his eyes.

"Tom, it was just the second task, nothing more."

"Just!? Just the second task? Harry, are you forgetting that I was there? What you did..." Tom shook his head, wonder still present in his eyes. Truthfully, Harry didn't blame him, he had been surprised that his plan had worked as well as it had, considering that he hadn't even come up with it until he was standing beside the other champions ready to rescue their hostages.

Harry was a little tired, alright, more than a little. He was ready to drop over and sleep for a week. Which was a bit of an exaggeration, maybe only for two or three days, but still tired. Things were a little complicated at the moment and all because of the second task.

Not that he was worried about the task himself, he was more worried about who they would take hostage. Ron was out, at least he thought so since they hadn't spoken since his name came out of the Goblet. His date for the Yule Ball was a possibility; he had taken Luna. The only person he knew wouldn't assume that he had taken her because he was madly in love with her. So as soon as McGonagall had told them about the Ball he had tracked Luna down and asked her to go with his. She smiled dreamily at him and agreed; then she floated away as if nothing happened, though, not before getting rid of the nargals.

It still brought a smile to his lips when he saw the people's faces when they saw Luna at the Ball with him. He had bought her a beautiful gown and had arranged for an older Ravenclaw, one that didn't bully the little raven, to help Luna with her hair. When all was said and done little Luna Lovegood had looked like an ethereal elf. The student body had gaped and more than one boy had shot him envious looks.

Luna had been quite happy for the whole night. She was still herself but there had been a light in her eyes that had been absent when he had met her in his first year. It felt good to bring her joy and it hadn't been difficult, just a little care and attention. He would have done so much more to see the light in her eyes. So, yes, Luna was a possibility. But so were others, like Hermione, Wayne, Zack, even Ginny. He had no idea how the hostages were chosen, so he had no way to know.

Which led him to spend the last day marking everyone with a tracking charm. Not everyone, everyone, just those that interacted more with him. He knew that he was going overboard, but he truly didn't want to risk it. Besides, he couldn't quite remember where the merpeople's village was in the lake and as far as he was concerned, the sooner he could get there, the better. Though, the downside about the charm was that it had a forty-eight-hour lifespan since he had opted to cast a weaker one that wouldn't be felt by Dumbledore or people more sensitive to magic, so he had to do it the day before the task or it wouldn't be of any help. This led to his tiredness, it was past three am and he wanted nothing more than to sleep. As his head hit the pillow he hadn't even remembered that he hadn't thought about how to get his hostage since this time Dobby hadn't popped up with gillyweed to save the day.

The following morning he dragged himself to the shore of the Black Lake and for a moment thought he back at the Quidditch World Cup when he reached the platform.

He didn't remember there being so many people present in the second task. Cedric, seeing Harry's look, shot him a wry grin.

"It's because of you," Cedric told him. Harry just stared at him confused and Cedric shook his head, "You created a dragon out of fire in the first task. You awed the masses. So now, everyone wants to see what you do next. To be honest, even we are quite anxious to see what you come up with. I am not ashamed to say that we were quite outclassed by you in the first task." Harry saw Krum and Fleur nod, there was even respect in their eyes.