The Magic Revolution
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#01: The Challenger

June 24, 2015

The Maze was a hive of activity, loud chitters and the occasional roar, the snapping and crushing of foliage, and the muffled shouts of the three Champions inside as they cast their spells. It had taken them the better part of an hour, but they could feel it. They were drawing closer to the center of the accursed Maze. They knew this because they'd started bumping into each other with much more frequency than they had earlier. The large audience that surrounded the Quidditch-Pitch-Turned-Maze were a surprisingly varied collection from across Wizarding Europe, though primarily from the three representative schools. Most of the gathered spectators were watching a series of misty screens floating over the edges of the Maze like giant television monitors with avid interest.

From where he was seated on the pavilion where the other judges presided, Dumbledore felt a small smile cross his face as he watched the three Champions endure their Final Task. It was both heartening and disappointing to the old Hogwarts headmaster. It was only this past year that things had finally started to somewhat improve for the British Wizarding World. Sadly, based on the rumors he'd been hearing lately, his colleagues and associates from all over the rest of the world couldn't say the same.

A loud cry of victory from the Hogwarts contingent drew the Headmaster from his thoughts. Cedric Diggory had just managed to slip past the last remaining specimen of Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts. The path to the Trophy was all but clear now for him. As the one presently in first place, Cedric was arguably having the toughest luck since he was the one bumping into the obstacles first. Although, that's not to say that Viktor and Fleur weren't having their share of bad luck either. Fleur Delacour's most harsh trial had been when she'd become disoriented and suffered a mild case of vertigo when she'd briefly gotten trapped within a gravity-defying golden mist. She was barely able to stumble out of it before she completely collapsed in a senseless heap of vomit. Viktor Krum's biggest obstacle had been when he ran into a sphinx and decided to try forcing his way through her, a reckless and dangerous choice. He'd managed to limp away with savage slashes down his leg and his dominant arm was hanging limply because of the shoulder bite he'd sustained. Given how dangerous sphinxes were, it was a miracle he'd managed to get passed her alive, regardless of his injuries. But now, finally, the trials were over. Now it was just a race to find the center and get the Trophy first. And, judging by how tightly packed together they were, it would be a close one at that.

"This is it, ladies and gentlemen!" Bagman cried out, his voice amplified with the Sonorous once again. "The final stretch to the Trophy! Who will reach it first and claim eternal glory?!" The crowd were quite literally on the edges of their seats, leaning forward with eager anticipation as they watched their favored champions rush forward through the winding paths of the Maze. Each of them were in a slightly different section of the Maze closest to the Trophy. Each section had its own opening that led straight to the center, if only the Champion could find it.

"Krum's found a way in!" Bagman declared, announcing the Durmstrang champion's success. This brought a rather loud cheer from the Durmstrang and eastern Europe wizards, stomping their feet triumphantly. "What an upset, people! It looks like he's got the best chance—Wait! Ms. Delacour's found her way in!" Indeed, the blonde Champion of Beauxbatons was now running down the final stretch of the Maze. The cheer from the Beauxbatons' supporters were noticeably louder than Durmstrang, since they were closer to Hogwarts and so more were able to attend as a result. "Incredible! We've got a race to fini—Diggory's entered!" The cheer from the Hogwarts supporters was better described as a deafening roar, being that more than half of the audience were British in origin.

Despite himself, Dumbledore couldn't help shuffling a bit in his own seat as he watched the race approach its climatic final moments. Though he'd entered closer to the Trophy and sooner than his rivals thanks to his opening's location, Krum was actually at a disadvantage due to his injuries severely slowing him down. He was barely shuffling along, strongly favoring his one good leg, probably so highly jacked up on adrenaline that he couldn't feel anything beyond his desire and need to win. Ms. Delacour and Mr. Diggory were fairing much better by comparison, though Ms. Delacour seemed to have a slight upper hand on Diggory. Though they were both running at their best speeds, it was obvious that Diggory was nowhere near in as good a physical shape as the French witch. The boy may have been a star Quidditch player at Hogwarts, but that didn't amount to much in a footrace. By comparison, Delacour was practically floating across the earth at a ground-eating pace that would've left Diggory in the dust had they been side by side. Overall, despite the uneven and varied distances they had to reach the Trophy, all three were approaching at nearly the same speeds. It would be a truly close call for who grabbed the Trophy first.

Just as he'd predicted, Dumbledore watched as the three Champions left the Maze and entered the centermost area at nearly the same time as each other. Once inside, they all paused to catch their breaths, leaning heavily on the nearest support they could find as they quickly looked around the new area, searching for traps. Since the interior of the Maze was magically silenced to prevent any of Bagman's commentary from reaching and distracting them, none of them had known that they were all about to reunite inside. Dumbledore couldn't hold in the slight grin as he watched their surprised expressions upon spotting each other before identical scowls of annoyance flashed across each of them.

"What'll they do now?!" Bagman was yelling excitedly. "Will they drop everything and rush the Trophy?! Will they duel it out with each other, winner take all?! Will they try to compromise?! The suspense is killing me!" Many in the crowd agreed with the loudmouth commentator on that. Sadly, the answer would likely never be known.

It was at that instant that everything stopped going according to plan.

Cedric was heaving heavily for breath as he somewhat glared to the side, towards the other Champions. 'That took longer than I hoped,' he thought forlornly. 'I wish I could've been just a little bit faster.' Similar thoughts were going through Fleur and Viktor's minds as well, cursing themselves for getting lost for so long in the Maze. 'But…what do I do now?'

The Tournament officials hadn't said what to do in a situation like this. There was the trophy, sitting right there in the center of the small clearing of the Maze. There were no more surprises, monsters, or traps between him and it. But the same was also true for Viktor and Fleur, who he could see just beyond on opposite sides of the trophy. In a straight race, he didn't favor his chances at reaching it first. If anything, he suspected that Fleur would get it first because she didn't seem as winded as him or injured like Viktor seemed to be. However, that didn't mean that Viktor was incapable of using some kind of magic to distract either them. Who knows what kind of Dark Magic he learned while at Durmstrang after all.

Movement by the trophy caught his eye, Cedric immediately hefted up his wand in preparation. Apparently, the movement was also noticed by Fleur and Viktor. But because of the darkness of night surrounding them, none of them could see what it was. Scowling in annoyance, Cedric raised his wand, "Lumos!" and sent a ball of light flying from his wandtip to hover above the figure. Fleur and Viktor quickly sent their own respective Lumos to help further light up the area. What he saw illuminated by the lumos balls was a small person, probably a kid just a little younger than himself. That was all he could judge about the person since the body was quite clearly male in stature, but otherwise wearing a dark, travel-worn cloak with a deep hood up.

"Who are you?" Viktor barked out, confusion in his voice despite his guarded expression. The figure remained silent, it's body shifting slightly as it looked over its shoulder towards the burly Champion.

"Are you one of the tournament officials?" Fleur asked, earning the figure's attention. Despite her question, it was obvious to Cedric that she didn't believe that was the case anymore than he did.

"Is this some kind of hidden test of the Task?" Cedric called out, keeping himself guarded in case this was some kind of trick. After the figure looked towards him, Cedric couldn't help feeling a shiver go down his spine. The apparent lack of a face under that hood was fairly haunting in a way. Despite himself, the appearance brought to Cedric's mind images of what Death Eaters must've looked like back in the war. "Answer us!"

Rather than answer, the figure lowered his head slightly as his shoulders started shaking slightly. It started lowly, but rapidly grew in volume. Cedric realized that the boy was chuckling, laughing at them. "What's so funny, boy?"

"You three are the best that your schools have to offer?" the boy finally said. His tone was somewhat condescending, cocky, and immediately stoked each of the Champions' anger. "How disappointing."

"What's that mean?" Viktor demanded, glaring darkly at the boy, his wand now noticeably held in a threatening manner. "Who are you anyway?!"

"Who am I?" the boy repeated, condescending surprise obvious in his voice. "Isn't it obvious?"

Spreading open his cloak as he suddenly dropped into a deep stance, he held out his arms to the sides. Cedric could see that the boy wore some weird kind of clothing that he vaguely recognized as being oriental in origin. The robe-like shirt was mostly black with golden-yellow edgings and seams, along with broad yellow stripes running down the sides of his sleeves and tan-colored pants. As he swept down into his stance, a sudden oppressive wave of sweltering heat sprung to life around them. Cedric couldn't help gasping in surprise as the heat wave slammed into him with all the subtly of a Troll in Diagon Alley. And he wasn't the only one to stagger backwards a few steps in surprise, Fleur and Viktor mirroring him as they too were overcome briefly by the heat.

"This is a tournament," the boy called out loudly. He raised his hands skywards before suddenly bringing them downwards. As he did, fire spontaneously sprung to life around his fists, erupting from the ground all around them, and blasting outwards in every direction, eliciting cries of surprise from each of the Champions as they staggered back several more steps. "I'M A CHALLENGER!"

Immediately following his declaration, the fires around him sprung up even higher. As though they had minds of themselves, the fires flew over and through the hedgerows that surrounded and made up the entirety of the Maze. Almost as soon as the fires passed them, the hedges ignited in fire as well, creating a conflagration that was eerily reminiscent of some depictions of Hell. Even through the silencing charms surrounding the Maze, the screams of fright that sprung from the audience were audible to the Champions. Not that they needed to be concerned since the flames spread no further than the hedges themselves. Each of the Champions were forced to throw up shield charms to protect themselves from the onrushing fires, straining mightily against the staggeringly powerful fires.

Outside the Maze, it was little more than a state of panic and confusion. It started when the cloaked figure stepped before the champions and promptly set the entire Maze afire. Despite the terrible scene, none of the officials or Headmasters could move forward just yet. The reason for this was that the Maze had a series of complex charms and protections around it. The only time that the protections would allow anyone inside was if one of the Champions had fired up red sparks, signaling that they needed immediate aid and were willing to withdraw. That or the Trophy being taken and a victor was declared.

"What is going on here?!" Minister Fudge was demanding, looking around almost accusingly at the other tournament officials and Headmasters that were seated near him. "Why is there someone in the Maze with the Champions? I was under the impression that no one was allowed inside until it was over!"

"And I can assure you, Minister, that no one had entered the Maze since the Task started," Dumbledore stated, as calmly as he could manage, given the situation and what he was seeing inside. The mysterious figure was talking softly to the Champions with a wide grin on his face.

"And yet there's someone in there!" Fudge pointed out, almost sounding like he was whining like a child.

"Yes, it begs the question," Karkaroff said, his voice laced with his usual snide tone as he looked pointedly over at Dumbledore. "How could that boy possibly have gotten inside after the protections went up? Could he have received some…help from certain parties to ruin—?"

"I would think the answer is obvious, Karkaroff," Professor Alastor Moody snapped, his magical eye remaining fixated on the maze while the rest of him turned to glare at the 'reformed' Death Eater. "If Dumbledore says that no one has entered since the Task started, then no one has. Which means that he was inside the Maze before it even started. Probably hiding somewhere along one of the far corners since we were more concerned about unleashing the creatures and setting up the traps and trophy to really concern ourselves with searching the Maze for any intruders."

"You seem to have put a lot of thought into this, Moody," Karkaroff said, a not-so-hidden threat obvious in his tone as he turned his glare on the scarred former Auror. That was when the entirety of the Maze suddenly burst into flames, causing all of the officials and many of the watching spectators to flinch away in surprise and cry out.

"What happened?!" Madam Maxime cried out. "Why's it burning?!"

"No one wizard could perform a feat like this alone," Dumbledore observed, his mind already shifting into battle mode. "There's must be more of them in there. Alastor?"

"Attack! It's an attack!" Fudge was yelling. Turning to a nearby Auror guard, he yelled out, "Get back to the Ministry and get more Aurors! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK HERE!" The man didn't need to be told twice, immediately turning and running off.

With his magical eye, Moody quickly surveyed the entire Maze, searching. "It's empty. Aside from the creatures, none of which have even been singed, by the way, there are no other wizards or witches there!"

"What?!" the various officials and Headmasters said in varying amounts of disbelief. The most prevalent thought between them all being: how could one wizard spontaneously burn more than two acres worth of hedgerows? Such a thing was nigh impossible for someone as great and powerful as Dumbledore and even Voldemort themselves!

That was when they saw the protective dome around the Maze shimmer and vanish. The Tournament was over…but how?

After a long moment, the fires receded enough for the Champions to see the boy again. He had thrown back his hood during the onslaught, revealing his face at long last. Cedric was unsurprised to see that his assumption about the boy's age was correct, he was indeed younger than him. The boy had spiky black hair that stuck up at odd angles, bright green eyes that seemed to glow in the fires' light, and a face that was marred by a large jagged red scar running from the bridge of his nose and across his left cheek towards his ear. His body was somewhat lanky, clearly just entering his growth spurt, but the muscles on his body were plainly visible through his light clothes as well. His mouth was pulled back into a cocky smirk.

Rapidly spinning around, the boy swept his cloak over the Triwizard Tournament trophy, having it disappear into his cloak as he returned to his earlier position. "You want this trophy? COME AND GET IT!"

Hollering in anger, Viktor immediately took up the boy's challenge, sending a Blasting Hex at him. The boy heard the Durmstrang champion's cry and immediately leapt away, rising easily six meters into the air, landing with a dainty spinning grace that seemed out of place on his lanky body. Raising his hand, the boy sent a concentrated ball of fire at Viktor. "Karyuu no Koen!" Viktor Krum hastily dropped to a knee and transfigured the ground below him into a large boulder, blocking him from the explosive fireball as it erupted when it struck. Cedric couldn't help raising his brow at the boy's casual demonstration of strength and speed. What kind of magic was he using to jump so high, spin so fast, and use fire without a wand?!

Fleur moved in then, casting multiple fast and silent Stunners, Impediment Jinxes, and Leg-locking Curses. However, the fire boy easily noticed these attacks due to the bright lights they gave off as they raced through the air towards him. He danced and dodged around the spells with maddening speed and mocking ease, grinning widely the whole time. "Come on, guys!" the boy called out to them as he dodged yet another Stunner. "At least make this a challenge for me!"

Scowling darkly, Cedric swept forward, joining Fleur in attacking the boy. Unlike his Beaxbatons' rival, Cedric used transfiguration and conjuration on the area around them. He changed the ground under the boy into ice to disrupt his footing. Despite the surprise, the boy just smirked as steam flared up under him, the ice melting almost immediately underneath his feet as fires burst to life from his boots. Cedric next transfigured some stones and pebbles around him into glass shards and sent them flying towards the boy. This, combined with Fleur blasting high-powered water from her wand, caused the boy to stumble backwards from the cutting glass and water pressure. Then a bolt of lightning flew forward from behind them, combining with the water and glass, and struck the boy, knocking him off his feet. He cried out as he was sent flying several feet before he crumpled to the ground in a deadened heap. Cedric and Fleur both glanced back at Viktor momentarily, who'd been the one to use the lightning.

Staggering forward to stand alongside his rivals, Viktor glared down at the unmoving boy. "All that talk, and you go down so quickly… How disappointing."

"Maybe," Cedric agreed, frowning thoughtfully. "But where did he learn to use this kind of magic?! Have either of you ever heard of a wizard or a witch who could use magic like this before?"

"The Ministers will be wanting to talk to him after this," Fleur observed, cautiously stepping towards the downed boy. "No one in Europe can use magic like this. And look at his clothes. He must've learned it from the Far East wizards."

"Whatever, let's get that trophy and get this over with," Viktor snapped, starting to move forward to claim his prize.

"Already?" The three Champions jumped back several steps as the boy suddenly sprung to his feet, smirking broadly and looking none the worse for wear. "But this was just getting fun!"

Simultaneously, the three champions launched Stunners at the boy. But he blasted skywards, literally. Fires flared out of the heels of his boots as he shot into the air, allowing him to fly about easily. "Karyuu no Kagizume!"

"Let's keep playing for a little bit longer!" Raising his hands over his head, he formed a large fireball, easily three times as large as himself. "But right now, it's my turn to attack! Karyuu no Koen!" he yelled before lobbing the fireball down towards them.

All three Champions raised their wands and created shields that merged into each other, forming a tri-layered dome of translucent magic around them. The fireball struck the dome and exploded spectacularly, straining all three of them as they labored to maintain their combined shield. The explosion and smoke had scarcely had a chance to dissipate before they spotted the boy coming down towards, fires coating one of his cocked fists with a large grin on his face as he bellowed a challenging roar. With all the force of a freight train, he slammed his fire-coated fist into the fused shield. To their credit, the combined shield was able to hold back the force of the blow for a few precious seconds…before it suddenly shattered like glass.

"Karyuu no Tekken!" The boy's bellow became mixed with cries of surprise and fright from the Champions as he shot downwards fist first into their midst. An explosion came to life that cratered the ground around them and sent all three of them flying backwards in different directions.

Landing heavily upon his back and having the wind knocked from his chest, Cedric gasped out in distress. 'He's so powerful! Who—What is he?!' After a few seconds to regain his breath, Cedric pushed himself up into a sitting position and brought his hand up to fire a spell at the boy. But he blinked in surprise at seeing that his wand missing. Shit, he'd dropped it during the explosion somewhere!

"Heheheheh," the boy's quiet laughter drew his attention. The boy now stood at the edge of the meter-wide, half-meter deep crater he'd made with that ever-present grin still on his face as he looked over at Cedric. "That's the problem with being a Holder-type wizard. Totally helpless without your little magic stick. Heheheh!"

"Who are you?" Fleur asked, drawing the boys' attentions. After a moment, Cedric suddenly became all-too-aware of just how incredibly beautiful she truly was. Even with how filthy and tired she was because of the Maze and this fight, her beauty remained utterly unblemished. "You do have a name, right? What is it?" It took a few moments for Cedric to realize just what Fleur was doing. Trying to use her Veela charm to distract the boy while fishing for information, so that Viktor could strike him down when he wasn't looking.

"I'm the Salamander!" the boy answered cheerfully, puffing up his chest slightly as he scratched the back of his head with one hand. His gaze was every bit as clear and coherent as ever. "Not that I imagine that name means anything to you guys yet. After all, you wizards go out of your way to ignore or look down on anything that doesn't fit in your perfect little corner of the world."

'What the?' Cedric thought in surprise. 'He's not reacting like most other men around a Veela. Is he…Is he somehow immune to the Charm?' That's when what the boy said clicked in his mind. "Salamander? What's…that supposed to mean?"

Gesturing towards Cedric triumphantly, the newly-named Salamander said, "I rest my case!"

"Crucio!" Viktor barked, taking his chance to throw the most incapacitating spell that he knew at the boy's back. Warned by the Champion's incantation, the Salamander easily sidestepped the Unforgiveable Curse as he inhaled deeply. Before Viktor could attack again, the boy's cheeks bulged immensely as he settled into a deep anchoring stance. As the boy opened his mouth, Viktor saw the conflagration of flames inside his mouth and immediately threw himself to the side.

"Karyuu no Hoko!" The strange name that he called out as he launched his attack was quickly swallowed up and transformed into feral roar that matched the flaming tornado he'd created. Even with his injured leg, Viktor dodged at not a second too soon as the flames blasted forward towards him, forming into a large funnel that incinerated everything within their immediate path to ash. The sheer destructive power of these flames was quite blatantly obvious to all three of the Champions. They watched in stunned, horrified silence as the horizontal tornado of flames continued flying onwards on their path for several hundred meters before finally dissipating. Once the fire tornado had died down, they turned to look incredulously at the one who'd launched it.

The gaze in the boy's eyes had changed dramatically. It was no longer cheerful and playful. It was angry, a fiery rage that promised instant pain. It spoke of rage, of power, of dominance and triumph. But above all it spoke of fire, and for the duration of the glare, the three Champions saw something strange and very terrifying. Somehow, silhouetted by the burning flames of the Maze's hedgerows, standing in his shadow and snarling over his shoulder at them, was a massive dragon with glowing eyes. The fiery glare in both the Salamander and dragon's eyes revealed the boy's fury. And they sent reverberations through their very souls in an impossible fashion that made them want to beg and scrape to avoid the simple truth that they were so much smaller than the predator that stood before them. Cedric knew for a fact that it lasted not but three seconds, but it seemed to last so much longer than that.

Seeing that he had at least gained Viktor's undivided attention, the Salamander growled out lowly. The phantom image of the dragon behind him faded away as the boy's glare lessened, his anger fading somewhat. There were small smoke trails still coming out of the corners of his mouth as he said, "If you're going to fight like that, then don't be surprised or angry when I start to too." Despite himself, Viktor just nodded numbly, dropping painfully to the ground as his injuries and exhaustion finally hit him. Turning back to Fleur and Cedric, he growled out, "Anyone else?"

Outside, things had not settled down. In fact, the sudden blazing appearance of the Salamander's fire breath attack had done much in scaring people away. Especially since it had blasted a massive hole through the portion of the stadium stands that it was directed towards, terrifying the poor people and children who'd been closest to it. Thankfully, they weren't within its direct path of travel, being several meters higher up, but the fire and heat were still stifling and terrifying to witness. Many of the students had fled the Quidditch pitch and were mingling just outside of its stadium stands. The parents had left to seek out their children among the groups. The Ministry officials were floundering about in the stands, trying to find a way down onto the pitch that didn't involve jumping from the two-story-high stands. The remaining spectators and invited foreign guests and officials were all either demanding answers from the nearest wizards they could get their hands on, which usually was a passing Auror, or they were excitedly trying to figure out what was happening down in the center of the maze.

"Over here!" Auror Savage yelled, having finally discovered a small set of stairs that led down to the pitch. "I found some stairs! Let's go!"

But as he was turning to descend the stairs, he heard a faint rustle of clothing as something slammed into his stomach. The force of the blow was strong enough to knock the wind from his lungs as it sent him flying three meters backwards. He slammed into a pair of nearby witches who'd been previously seated in the front row of the stands and had been rushing for the end of the row of seats, his flailing body knocked all three of them down haphazardly. Climbing as quickly to his feet as his aching abdomen and heaving for breath could allow, Savage thrust his wand forwards towards the cloaked attacker who'd gotten the drop on him. But even as he launched a Stunner from his wand, the cloaked person held up a yellow glowing bare fist before smacking the red Stunner bolt to the side. Savage and the witches behind him all gasped as they saw the impossible occur.

Taking a second to take in the cloaked figure, Savage saw that the man was in fact a rather large boy. Or at least that was the stature of the boy he could make out, not quite tall enough to be a man just yet, but certainly bulky enough to be a male. With his cloak's hood up, seeing the boy's face was very difficult but he could make out his savagely grinning chin and a few locks of long blonde hair. Underneath the travel worn cloak, he could see that the boy was dressed in some kind of far eastern white robe with bold yellow edgings and broad stripes down his tan pants.

"Wh-Who are y-you?!" Auror Dawlish demanded as he and a group of Aurors came running forward, wands all drawn and aimed at the cloaked boy who was blocking the stairway's entrance.

"Heheheheh," the boy chuckled in a rather deep voice as he turned to face the crowd, but still keeping Savage within his peripheral. "I'm the Saiyan, old boys! And I'm sorry to say that none of you are permitted to interfere just yet."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Dawlish snapped. Though if he meant the 'Saiyan' name or the lack of permission, the boy didn't know or care. "Move aside, or we'll be forced to make you! This is Ministry of Magic business, boy!"

"No, it's not," the Saiyan snapped, his voice and stance changing instantly from jovial to guarded, even threatening. "This is Triwizard Tournament business. The Ministry, whether British, French, or Russian, has no say in it. You'll just have to wait until the officials declare a victor before you can go rushing in. That is the most basic rule of the Tournament! And since you're not abiding it like the lawmen you're supposed to be, I'm stepping forward to ensure it!"

"You asked for it then, boy!" Dawlish drawled, whipping his wand forward.

"No, stop! Wai—!" Savage tried to yell, tried to stop Dawlish and the other seven Aurors from attacking. But it was too late.

The cloaked boy merely crouched slightly before giving a mighty leap, sailing five meters over the spot he'd formerly stood, easily dodging the eight spells that'd been fired at him. All of them, even Savage, gaped in disbelief as they watched the impossible feat of physical might take place. Then they gaped even more when they realized that the boy wasn't descending back towards the earth, merely hovering there in midair as though he were riding a broom.

"Tell me," the Saiyan called out, ignoring their gaping faces and gasps of impossibility. "Is it standard Auror procedure to attack first, ask questions later?" He waited for half a second before holding out one of his hands towards the group as a ball of light suddenly ignited from his palm and between his fingers. The light in his palm somewhat helped illuminate the boy's face, exposing the somewhat sinister grin he was now wearing. "Now that is a philosophy I can agree with!"

With that declaration, he launched the ball of light into the midst of the Aurors. Though not knowing what that magic light could do, all of the Aurors were smart enough to try and dodge or erect Shield Charms to protect themselves. The ball sailed down towards them and then promptly exploded against one of the raised shields with a powerful concussive force, quite similar to a Blasting Hex but with a lot more light involved. The power of the explosion was more than enough to blast the shield to pieces. All the Aurors, even those with Shield Charms, were sent tumbling through the air, landing in awkward positions and groaning or crying out in pain.

Even as the boy started laughing at the damage he'd caused, more arriving Aurors and random nearby spectators started throwing their own spells towards the boy. Displaying a totally mind-blowing control and experience, he started dodging and swerving and counterattacking while within the air with an ease that was as daunting as it was humbling. "Come on, guys!" he cried as he rolled over a trio of spells, his cloak's hood falling to his shoulders and revealing his grinning blonde face to the world. "You can do better than this, can't you?!"

Needless to say, the Auror reinforcements had been quite well distracted and stalled.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" the thunderous voice of Albus Dumbledore bellowed, enhanced many times by the Sonorous Charm. The elderly wizard, along with his fellow Headmasters Karkaroff and Maxime, came running through the incinerated opening that the Salamander's breath attack had left behind.

As the three Champions looked towards the source of the voice, hope alighting their faces, the dark-haired boy couldn't help crying out in pain as he reached to cover his sensitive ears against the old man's voice. He spun away from the noise, cradling his head protectively. Once the echoing bellows and ringing in his ears had subsided somewhat, he turned slightly and squinted through his pain to glare heatedly over at the trio of approaching Headmasters.

"My ears!" he cried out, sounding like he was genuinely in pain, which caused the three Champions to turn and stare at him in surprise. "I think they're bleeding! What's your problem, you shriveled up, old asswipe!"

"SILENCE!" Karkaroff bellowed himself, causing the boy to cringe away again. "YOU'RE IN EXTREME TROUBLE, BOY! WHO THE FU—"

"Karkaroff!" Dumbledore snapped, turning a hard gaze on the younger man. Once the man had quieted down, though still glaring alternately between Dumbledore and the Salamander, the old Headmaster moved forward towards Cedric. This action was mirrored Maxime and Karkaroff, who also came forward to examine their respective Champions for any injuries they may have sustained. Despite all of the fires and attacks that he'd been forced to endure, Cedric was largely unhurt even if he was still missing his wand, much to Dumbledore's relief. "You injured, Mr. Diggory?"

"No, sir," Cedric answered immediately, relief obvious in his voice as his Headmaster placed himself between him and the fire boy. Pointing past him, Cedric gestured towards the Salamander, who was finally starting to recover his hearing and confidence again. "But that kid, he calls himself 'the Salamander', has the Trophy! He said something about challenging us because this is a tournament and he…wants to have 'fun'. Do you know who he is, sir?"

Glancing over his shoulder at the boy's hunched back, the old man evaluated the young boy with a critical eye. He could instantly see the prominent muscles exposed on the boy's arms and some kind of strange emblem on the back of his shirt, which he couldn't quite make out in the wavering firelight surrounding them. He did not know this boy and yet…something about those spiky black locks of hair tugged at his memory. Something familiar…something from the past…

"No… I can't say that I do," Dumbledore said slowly, hesitantly. Then the boy straightened up and spun around, green eyes blazing in a strange mixture of excitement, anger, and annoyance. Upon seeing the boy's face, Dumbledore felt the blood in his veins freeze as his face whitened in shock, eyes wide.

"So, you old guys want a piece of me too, huh?" the boy shouted, fires instantly igniting within his hands as he dropped into a fighting stance again. "BRING IT ON!"

With a fiery explosion from the souls of his feet, Harry Potter launched himself straight towards the closest of the new arrivals with a loud battle cry.

(Author's Note) I know that many of you are probably quite annoyed by my doing this. But my muse has been driving me in this direction lately. The primary source of that inspiration comes from the story "Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix" by Fergus Flamacron. It's a truly incredible masterpiece that I cannot recommend strongly enough! If you haven't already, go read it!

And since I KNOW that a lot of people are going to be getting own my case about this in the future, I'm just going to come out and say it right here and now. I am drawing a lot of inspiration and ideas for this story's plotline from Araceil's Fairy Tail and Fiori57's Harry Potter and the Oriental Philosophy. I have already gotten each author's respective permissions to borrow from them. That's not to say that I'm ripping them off, but you veteran readers will probably notice a lot of similarities as the story progresses.