Chapter 8

The Hungarian Horntail

The sunrays struck Lorena directly in her eyes. She frowned, still half asleep and rolled to the other side of the bed, only to fall down with a loud thump.

"Ow," she said, her voice muffled by the covers around her.

She disentangled herself lazily from her warm covers and, with her eyes still closed, she stumbled towards the bathroom. As she splashed water in her face, she wondered why weren't any sounds coming from her dorm.

More awake now, she peeked through the bathroom's door into her dorm and saw that neither Violet nor Emma were there. She froze, and slowly, she turned around to glance at the clock.

"Holy shit!" she yelled as she ran into the dorm and retreated her school uniform. She was already fifteen minutes late for Herbology.

In her rush, she fell twice, smacked her head against the bed while finding her shoes, cut her finer while throwing her thing into her bag and hit the doorframe on her way out. She practically flew through the castle's corridors and almost crashed against professor McGonagall.

"Miss Rodríguez! Five points from…" but Lorena was already down the stairs and running across the courtyard.

She finally arrived to the greenhouses and headed to greenhouse number five, but when she was about to enter, she slipped in a puddle of water and fell heavily to the wet stone ground. A sharp pain in her ankle left her without air, and she heard some laughs above her, but instead of getting angry, the only thing she could feel was the pain.

"Mr Ackerman, Mr Colton! Ten points from Slytherin for laughing at your fellow student" professor Sprout said angrily.

Lorena felt two pairs of arms lifting her and thanked Violet and Emma, although she was angry with them for not waking her up.

"Miss Knight, Miss Williams, please take Miss Rodríguez to the Hospital Wing" professor Sprout directed, and then frowned, "And Miss Rodríguez, ten points from Ravenclaw for arriving late."

Lorena sighed in defeat and let her friends take her to the Hospital Wing. Madame Pomfrey took care of her ankle with a flick of her wand, but advised to stay and rest at least until lunch.

"Sorry for not waking you up" Violet said as she sat in the corner of Lorena's infirmary bed, "Emma woke me up early in the morning and then dragged to breakfast."

"We were hoping you showed up," Emma said sheepishly.

"It's all right. Thanks anyway" Lorena told them, and they smiled at her before returning to class.

Now that the adrenaline of the morning had worn off, Lorena suddenly felt exhausted and closed her eyes, but it hadn't past more than five minutes when she heard footsteps enter the infirmary. She opened her eyes and the air got caught in her throat when she saw Lorcan standing a few meters away, staring intently at her.

"Hi" Lorena said hesitantly. This was the first time she talked to him outside the classroom.

"Hey" was all he said, and then proceeded to place the bag he had been carrying next to her bed, "You forgot your school bag."

"Oh, thanks" she said, but he raised an eyebrow. Lorena pursed her lips and looked away, uncomfortable.

"Just 'thanks'?" he asked, stepping closer to her.

"Um...yeah" Lorena said with a wide smile.

Lorcan narrowed his eyes and then chuckled.

"You haven't change" he said, "I miss that."

Before Lorena could answer, he winked at her and then turned to leave as suddenly as he had appeared. Lorena sighed in relief. She didn't have to deal with this just yet.

"I just can't get it right and I don't know why" Harry was saying while he and Abril walked together to the Great Hall for lunch, "Every time I try, whatever thing I'm trying to summon, it just flies half way through and then falls to the floor" he continued, frustrated.

"We'll just have to practice a bit more" Abril said encouragingly.

When they arrived to the Great Hall, Abril was about to walk to her table when Harry stopped her.

"Hey, wanna have lunch with me today?" he asked smiling.

For a strange reason, that smile was all it took for Abril to accept. There were a few odd stares at the sight of the Boy Who Lived having lunch with a Hufflepuff girl two years older than him, but they ignored them.

Abril was helping herself with some pumpkin juice when Hermione Granger arrived and sat across from her, next to Harry.

"Hello" she said politely.

"Hi" Abril said.

Harry swallowed a piece of chicken before speaking.

"Hermione, this is Abril" Harry told his best friend, "She and her friend are helping me with the summoning charm."

Hermione looked curiously at Harry.

"Why do you need to know the summoning charm for?"

Harry leaned closer to her and lowered his voice.

"It's for the first task. Dragons, remember?"

Hermione nodded.

"But I still don't see the use of Accio while fighting a dragon."

Harry look expectantly at Abril.

"Because it's difficult for a single person to take down a full grown dragon, let alone for a student," Abril began, "my friend Lorena and I offered our help to Harry. We are going to use his talent, flying, as an advantage to use against the dragon."

"Harry! But it's against the rules to take your broom and…" Hermione started saying, but then paused and smiled, "Oh I get it now! You're going to summon your broom."

Harry nodded excitedly, but then frowned.

"But I'm having trouble with it. Maybe you can help me too?" he asked hopefully.

"Of course, Harry" Hermione said, and then turned to Abril, "Thanks for your help."

"No problem" Abril said, feeling a pang of guilt when she remembered the time they had obliviate her in the library.

After several leafless books, ruined cushions, a broken mirror and some bruises, Harry could finally use Accio without anything throwing him to the ground or falling in the middle of the way. Abril and Lorena had decided not to hang out together very often and instead be with their own House friends, in case Moody saw them together again. That way, with their friends around, it wasn't likely for Moody to accuse them of anything or surprise them in an empty corridor.

The day of the first task finally arrived, and the girls decided to go pay Harry a visit before it started.

"Hey Harry" Lorena greeted him happily when they arrived to the champion's tent. Harry smiled and said hello, but his face was a nasty tone of green and he looked like he would have preferred to be in the bleachers with everyone else.

"What if I fail to summon my broom? Then what?" he was saying when Hermione appeared in the entrance. She looked for them around the tent and when she saw them, she started walking their way, but bumped against Viktor Krum who was struggling to put his sweatshirt on.

"Sorry" mumbled Hermione and went to sit next to Harry, Abril and Lorena, failing to see the second glance Krum had thrown at her, "So, are you ready Harry?"

"As ready as I'll ever be" he answered with not much enthusiasm.

"You'll be great" Abril assured him.

"Harry! Good-o!" a happy voice boomed behind him, and Harry turned to see Bagman entering the champions tent, "Feeling all right?"

"Yes," Harry said with a distant voice, "Yes, I'm fine"

"Don't worry Harry," Abril told him encouragingly, "the key is to concentrate"

"Are this ladies your friends?" Bagman asked smiling at them.

"Yeah, they helped me practice the…"

"Just some exercising so he could be in shape for the first task" Lorena interrupted him before he could give himself away.

"Excellent! Inter-school cooperation is essential!" Bagman agreed, but then added with a lower voice, "As for me, you're the underdog here, Harry. … Anything I can do to help …"

"No," said Harry, "no — I — I know what I'm going to do, thanks."

"Nobody would know, Harry," said Bagman, winking at him and the girls.

Before Harry could answer, Dumbledore and the other headmasters entered the tent, followed by Barty Crouch.

"Well, now we're all here — time to fill you in!" said Bagman brightly, turning their backs on them and facing the others, his bright Wasp robes shining.

Abril and Lorena were about to leave when Abril heard Lorena making a rude sound. She turned to look at her and then found out the cause of the sound.

Rita Skeeter had just entered the champions' tent, with her insufferable photographer behind her. She had a huge fake smile on her face and was examining every person in the tent.

"So we meet again, darlings" she said with a sickly sweet voice, "I do hope you are in excellent condition for this dangerous task. We would love to have you give us some words for the Prophet after it."

"I'll give her some words for the Prophet all right" Hermione gritted behind her teeth, earning an amused look from Harry.

In that moment, professor Dumbledore interrupted Skeeter giving her a disapproving look.

"Pardon me, Miss Skeeter, but I'm afraid this tent is for champions only. If you would be so kind as to leave, that would be excellent."

Skeeter pursed her lips offended and Harry repressed a laugh. But to his dismay, his friends had to go too, so they said goodbye and wished him good luck before disappearing out of the tent. He thought of Ron for a moment, and then with a sigh, he headed toward professor Dumbledore and the other champions, who were gathering around Mr Crouch and Mr Bagman.

"He's a great wizard, but I'm still worried for him" Hermione said to them when they arrived at the bleachers and took their seats.

"Of course you are. He's still an impulsive teenager," Lorena said, eyeing someone in the crowd.

"Oh, because you're so mature" Abril said sarcastically.

"I never said I wasn't an impulsive teenager too," Lorena said with a smile, and then her smile grew when a certain pair of twins appeared next to them.

"Hello, beautiful ladies. How are you today?" Fred said, "Would you like to join the bet?"

"That's rude, George" Hermione scolded at him, "You shouldn't be betting on people that…"

"Twenty galleons on Harry" Lorena said.

George's eyes widened.

"You look pretty sure of yourself. Very well, then."

"Ten for me" Abril said, eyeing Lorena.

"What about you, Hermione?" Fred asked smiling.

"I won't bet on my friends" Hermione said dismissively.

Fred shrugged.

"Suit yourself. Krum, maybe?" he said wiggling his eyebrows.

Hermione blushed and looked the other way as Fred and George chuckled and sat next to them.

"I love your hair" Lorena said suddenly to George.

"Thanks. I love it too," he said with a smile.

Lorena snorted amused and then turned to look at the enclosure, where the line of trees hid the champions' tent.

In the main bleachers, Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall chat with each other, Hagrid was using the space of three men to seat down, Ludo Bagman beamed in his bright yellow robe, and Rita Skeeter gawked at everything and everyone.

Suddenly a boom was heard and next thing, Cedric Diggory appeared in the enclosure, pale, but smiling.

The students clamoured at the Hufflepuff champion as he took his wand out and headed towards the Swedish Short-snout dragon.

The screams of the students shattered the wintery air like breaking glass, and Abril had to cover her ears as Viktor Krum raised his golden egg in the air.

"Mad, that was. Absolutely mad!" Ludo Bagman shouted above the students' yells, "A big applause for the Durmstrang champion. Let's see now our judges' scores."

"Karkaroff 's definitely more repulsive than I had imagined" Lorena commented as she saw his yellowed teeth and greasy hair.

"Hush now, it's Harry's turn!" Hermione said.

A boom sounded, and then, the fourth and youngest of the champions appeared in the enclosure. The students screamed, some encouragingly and some angrily as Harry looked around at the bleachers and the dragon.

The Hungarian Horntail was a crouched low over her clutch of eggs, her wings half-furled, her evil, yellow eyes upon Harry, a monstrous, scaly, black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, heaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground.

Then, without wasting more time, Harry raised his wand.

"Accio Firebolt!" he shouted.

Thanks to his Seeker reflexes, Harry managed to get away from the deadly spikes seconds before they struck the spot where he had been.

The crowd gasped as Harry jumped desperately to a nearby rock, but he was unable to catch his breath before the dragon threw a jet of fire in his direction. He crouched and raised his eyes to the sky in desperation.

"It seems young Mr Potter is having trouble keeping his dragon in line" Bagman said with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

Hermione, Abril and Lorena were sitting on the edge of their seats, staring intently at Harry, who was now running for dear life across the enclosure, trying to keep his distance from the dragon, who fortunately wasn't moving from her clutch of eggs.

Then a speeding sound was heard over the crowd's noise. Everyone looked up and even Hermione made a sound of relief as Harry's Firebolt hurtled towards him around the edge of the woods, soaring the enclosure and stopping dead in mid-air beside him, waiting for him to mount.

"I can't believe it! Now that is a master's plan! He has summoned his broom!" Bagman shouted as the crowd made even more noise.

Harry swung his leg over the broom, kicked off from the ground and soared upward, his figure shrinking until he was merely a black spot in the air. He hanged in mid-air for a moment…

And then he dived.

The screams of the crowd became even louder as Harry, with a new determined expression on his face, flew towards the dragon and pulled out of the dive just in time as the dragon released another jet of fire exactly where he would have been had he not swerved away.

"Great Scott, he can fly!" yelled Bagman as the crowd shrieked and gasped, "Are you watching this, Mr. Krum?"

Harry plummeted just as the Horntail opened its mouth, but this time he was less lucky - he missed the flames, but the tail came whipping up to meet him instead and as he swerved to the left, one of the long spikes grazed his shoulder, ripping his robes.

Lorena threw a hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp and the crowd around them screamed and groaned.

"Oh Merlin, I can't look" Hermione said, covering her eyes and turning her head to the ground, only to turn her gaze at Harry again moments later.

Now he zoomed around the back of the Horntail, but the dragon didn't seem to want to take off, she was too protective of her eggs.

He began to fly, first this way, then the other, not near enough to make her breathe fire to stave him off, but still posing a sufficient threat to ensure she kept her eyes on him. Her head swayed this way and that, watching him out of those vertical pupils, her fangs bared...

He flew higher. The Horntail's head rose with him, her neck now stretched to its fullest extent, still swaying. Harry rose a few more feet, and she let out a roar of exasperation. She shot fire into the air, which he dodged… Her jaws opened wide...

And then she reared, spreading her great, black, leathery wings at last, as wide as those of a small airplane - and Harry dived. Before the dragon knew what he had done, or where he had disappeared to, he was speeding toward the ground as fast as he could go, toward the eggs now unprotected by her clawed front legs - he had taken his hands off his Firebolt - he had seized the golden egg…

And with a huge spurt of speed, he was off, was soaring out over the stands, with the heavy egg safely under his uninjured arm.

"Yes! Yes!" Hermione screamed, kicking and clapping madly.

Abril and Lorena hugged each other and jumped exultantly.

"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling, "Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mr Potter!"

"And so, the first task has been beaten" Lorena told Abril raising a hand, and both friends high fived.