Blissful Amnesia

Chapter 9

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After the horrid article was published by that Skeeter woman, everything good that had happened at Hogwarts immediately reverted to crap. While the majority of the male students cooled their advances on Fleur, apparently out of fear of her supposed predatory ways, another set got even more aggressive, blaming their boorishness on her aura. Fleur was forced to forcibly discourage more than a few of the fools, and I solidly trounced at least three boys. Most of worst the offenders wore that hated green tie.

For the most part, Fleur and I took the events as a good reason not to mix with the Hogwarts students unless it was absolutely necessary. Hermione and Luna were the exception, of course, but even they grew weary of my tirades against the folly of their peers.

I was still in a distinctly sour mood when, exactly one week before the first task, Madame Maxime called Fleur and me in to her small office for a very enlightening discussion.

"Dragons," she said, ominously. "The first task is going to use dragons, one for each challenger."

Fleur shifted uncomfortably at the pronouncement and I could only blink. "They're really stupid enough to make us risk our lives against dragons?" I asked after I was able to form a thought out of my disbelief.

Madame Maxime nodded, looking more than a little displeased with the idea, herself. "The original task was worse than the one that we will see now, but it is still not good. Each challenger will face a Welsh Green, one of the smaller breeds. I don't know exactly what the challenge will be, but I would not expect you to have to actually kill the thing. The dragon preserves never would have provided nesting mothers, if that were the case."

"Nesting mothers?" I asked, my mind rapidly going over some of the many texts I'd read on dragons and other magical creatures.

Fleur beat me to it. "They intend to have us steal something from them, then. Mothers with eggs don't hunt, in the traditional sense, so they won't bother anyone that avoids their nest."

"Most likely," Madame Maxime agreed. "I do know that the task allows you to start with only your wand. You will have to find a way to deal with them magically."

"Magically? They're dragons… that's… well, it's possible, but it's not easy." I reached out and grabbed Fleur's hand, suddenly very afraid for her. "I think I can manage, but…"

"I will be fine, Jean," my lady love said and gave my fingers a squeeze. I felt a little better but not much.

"If you come to harm, my love, I will take the entire castle down about their heads, stone by stone if I need to," I said in all seriousness. I would do it, too.

"Jean, I don't think it will be necessary. The English are showing more restraint than usual by procuring three more Greens for the task. Hag- someone told me that they'd originally wanted a mixed group of the beasts including a Hungarian Horntail of all things. Can you imagine the stupidity of that?" Madame Maxime broke in. I think I scared her a little by threatening to commit some good old fashioned revenge killing.

We chatted for a while longer and then returned to our team. Hermione and Luna eagerly leapt at the chance to research something interesting and Marcel started filling us in on all of the past Tri-Wizard tasks that had involved dragons and how they worked. We were definitely going to have to sneak past them or steal something from them, but what that would be, we had no idea.

A week passed in a heartbeat and we had each come up with a shaky but workable plan. Attacking the dragons directly was a recipe for injury. Unless you could actually kill it, wounding a dragon was just asking it to go berserk and cause more damage faster than it normally would. For such large creatures, dragons were actually fairly cowardly, but there was no way to scare a nesting mother off of her nest.

That really just left stealth, and dragons ran on more senses than humans so the spells required to mask your presence from one were quite extensive. Distraction would also play a role, of course. Fleur's plan called for some charming magic, which I'm rubbish at, to make the dragon easier to fool. Mine didn't have that benefit, but some additional factors made it safer, overall.

Finally, the day came and Fleur and I spend the early morning together before separating to prepare for the match. We were using similar strategies, but we'd agreed that we didn't need the distraction of worrying about each other while we tried to calm ourselves. When Madame Maxime came for me, I was ready to get the ordeal over with.

The route I took across the grounds appeared to have been dictated by the tournament officials as it gave me only a minimal glimpse of the stands around the area where we would be undertaking the task. I'd have liked a better look, but I was denied.

I found Fleur and the other champions already waiting in the tent and gave them each a slight nod of acknowledgement. There was also a man with the features of a weasel trying to butter me up a bit, but I brushed him aside. I didn't need his "help", whatever that would entail.

"Well, we're all here," the man started as the assembled headmasters stepped into the tent. "For this task, you will have to retrieve a golden egg from a dragon's nest. Injuring the dragon or the other eggs in the nest is a penalty, though, so you must be careful."

The two boys looked as unsurprised as Fleur and I, and that made me realize that they'd also been warned. Apparently, this contest was as much about cheating as it was about actual performance. Fortunately for me, I am a right scoundrel when I put my mind to it.

As we had no questions, we went right to drawing numbered stones out of a bag to determine who would go first. Fleur pulled her stone and held it in a closed fist, not daring to look. I took mine, as well, holding it the same way and started to get a bad feeling in my gut. I had two options, go before Fleur or after her. If I went after her, I'd be trapped in the magically sealed tent unable to hear her fate until my turn. If I went before her, I'd have to sit and watch her risk her life while I was powerless to help her. Neither was a good option.

We opened our hands at the same time and I cursed quietly in Spanish when I saw that Fleur was first and I last. I could not have picked a more annoying arrangement if I'd tried.

As her name was called, we exchanged a last, chaste kiss and I settled down in a chair to clear my mind. The other two champions postured a bit, but eventually fell into their own version of nervous silence. I kept myself under control, but only barely as time went on.

One by one the others went out to face their fates, and then it was my turn.

As I stepped out of the tent, the sound that had been missing came rushing back to me. There, in front of me, was a Welsh Green in all of her glory. There is one thing that books about dragons don't really cover. Dragons are big. Sure, the Green is one of the smallest breeds, but its maw is still large enough to snatch up and devour a man in two bites. A man devoured in two bites is no less dead than a man devoured in one.

I felt fear, real fear, spreading through me as I stood there. I could very well have died in those moments had the dragon not been more interested in hissing at me while crouched over her nest. I was probably only frozen for a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity before I found my control again.

I took a couple of deep breaths and centered myself. My approach was going to be technically impressive, but it would also require a good deal of luck. I glanced around, taking stock of the raw materials I had to work with.

Fortunately, the arena floor was composed primarily of loose stones of various sizes. That saved me having to summon materials as I began the intricate wand motions necessary to create the runes I needed. Three stones, each the size of a quaffle, glowed a faint blue as little lines started to appear on them. The lines drew themselves and other stones started to roll to the originals as things took form.

Finally, I finished my work, and there was a "whoosh" of displaced air as energy pulsed off the stones. The stones seemed to come to life and stacked atop each other. Each capstone became a "head" and the other stones formed squat but solid bodies. They rumbled as the lowermost stones churned around, propelling the mini-golems back to hover near me.

I let out a sigh of relief as the hardest of my spells worked. I could have just animated them with a bit of transfiguration magic, but the results of that would have been less predictable. Using the runes gave them a faux intelligence that would let them carry out far more complex orders than the "easy" way.

That intelligence was important as I rattled out a long series of directions to the golems and then began casting more spells. Each golem was layered with a string of enchantments to make them invisible and inaudible to the dragon. As I said before, the number of spells needed to accomplish that was quite impressive, as well, and unfortunately hid the golems from me as thoroughly as from the dragon.

Anyway, once I had completed my spell, I spoke the French word for "begin" and the golems went into action. At least, I assume they went into action because a few minutes later, the dragon spun in place, hissing at nothing. There was movement in her nest, and she spun again, snapping her jaws at the air. She missed twice, but then roared in pain as she must have gotten a good mouthful of rocks. As hard as she'd been snapping, that couldn't have felt good.

The bite probably destroyed one of my golems, but the most important part of the plan all lay with the third golem which wouldn't have been in the nest yet.

In pain from its aching teeth, the dragon reacted more violently to the next prod from the first invisible golem, actually stepping out of the nest to pursue it several steps. That was the cue for the third golem to move, and a second later, I saw the golden egg lifted from the rest by invisible hands. The golem immediately started moving in my direction.

As luck (bad luck, mind you) would have it, the dragon turned just in time to see what was going on and lunged. A jab from a forepaw caused the egg to drop to the ground and roll in my direction but the dragon was still far closer. The hit had probably destroyed my golem, not that it mattered any longer.

Cursing, I knew I was going to have to try something else. I swirled my wand, causing dirt and debris to fly from the ground and whip at the dragon as I rushed forward. The wind would make it hard for the dragon to see, hear, or smell me, but I feared that the vibrations of my feet on the ground would make that almost moot.

The dragon opened its mouth to breathe fire, but the wind made it hesitate. Dragons instinctively don't breath fire in high wind because it is possible for flame to blow back into the gas glands in their throats and blow them to bits. Thus, I can probably thank that spell for saving my life during a foolhardy charge. Had I been thinking more clearly, I would have simply waited for a moment to come up with a better plan.

The dragon took a swipe at me, but I managed to duck just in time, snatching up the egg and rolling away from the dragon's reach. A wave of my wand caused some of the ground where I'd just been to thrust upward, creating a low barrier that would protect me from flame and screen my retreat.

The dragon roared its rage, but was helpless to do more as I made it to the edge of the ring and dragon handlers rushed in to subdue the beast.

It was only when the wind spell finally died down that the sound of the crowd came rushing in on me. Pretty much everyone present was on their feet, cheering loudly. I smiled and sagged in relief as I realized that I'd finished the task. As the terror for my own life fled me, I realized that I still had no idea what had become of Fleur.

I needn't have worried. No sooner had I started looking than I was tackled by two energetic blonds babbling in French about how stupid I was and how happy they were that I'd survived.

The scores were posted and I was happy to see myself in first place. Diggory had managed second by using a conjured dog as a distraction. Fleur was in third, though her results had actually been the best of anyone's. Krum was bringing up the rear, but only because his brute force approach had caused the dragon to squash a few of the real eggs.

Of course, this was only the first of three tasks. If there were to be two more, and dragons were chosen as the opener… I did not look forward to the rest.

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Author's Notes: I'm not a big fan of this chapter. I also seem to have lost where I was going with this story… Hopefully I figure it out eventually. Thanks to everyone that has reviewed.