As Harry enters the arena for the first task, things dont go as expected... (a few ideas)
- As Harrys eyes adjust from the dim tent to the bright sun he hears a metallic THUNK before him. looking down he sees, the egg?! glancing up he sees the dragon curling around her clutch of eggs completely ignoring him. Harry knows there is a saying about looking gift horses in the mouth and thinks that it goes a multitude of times harder about looking to closely anywhere for gifting dragons.
1B. As Harrys eyes adjust from the dim tent to the bright sun he hears a metallic THUNK before waking up in St. Mungo's with severe head trauma and no memory of (just the first task, the past year, anything, writers choice)
As Harrys eyes adjust from the dim tent to the bright sun he sees the dragon just sitting there looking at him. before he can do anything the dragon slowly reaches down and picks up the false egg. there is a brief stare down, Harry confused, the dragon just done with this bull s***, before chucking the egg over it's shoulder. The egg lands (over the stands and out of the arena, on some one deserving of karma[Draco, Ron, Barty as Mad eye, one of the judges, etc], at Luna's feet who opens "oh, it's Mermish" spoiling the next task)
As Harrys eyes adjust from the dim tent to the bright sun he sees the dragon just sitting there looking at him. before he can do anything the dragon slowly reaches down and picks up the false egg. there is a brief stare down, Harry confused, the dragon just done with this bull s***, before eating the egg. just popped it in it's mouth like a snack. the arena goes silent. Harry turns to the judges, "well, now what?" (failed task, incompetent/evil judges insist he still has to try [Harry tries and dies, harry just nopes out damn the consequences])
Essentially, the Horntail, instead of acting like the spicy , spikey, giant ball of anger, or the fandom one that can speak Parseltongue, does something that just throws the entire task into disarray. Not Harry or anyone else being clever or special, but the dragon. Done for crack or played serious
Also, if anyone has read fics that do this already, id love some recommendations