There is a lot of Japanese in this chapter. xD If any of you can figure out what im trying to say, note me. If not, just ask and I'll tell you next chapter. xDDDDD

Chapter 9

Harry's POV

"Did you bring yer father's cloak, like I asked you?" Hagrid asked as we walked through a part of the Hogwarts grounds I had never set foot in.

"Yeah, I brought the cloak," I said exasperatedly, trying to match Hagrid's fast gait. "Hagrid, where are we going?"

"You'll see soon enough," he said, staring off into the trees, distracted. "Now pay attention, this is important."

"Hey, what's with the flower?" I questioned suspiciously as I noticed the rather exotic looking flower in his coat pocket, and the tiny teeth from a comb that had apparently broken off into his disarrayed hair. "Hagrid, have you combed your hair?"

"As a matter of fact, I 'ave," Hagrid said, somewhat defensively. "You might like to try the same thing now and again."

Suddenly, a faint, what sounded like a roar, echoed through the dense forest. I stopped and glanced around nervously, trying to see what had made such a sound. It was the middle of nowhere. What the bloody hell could be out here?

"The cloak," Hagrid said, rather urgently. "Put the cloak on!"

"All right," I grumbled, still rather confused about this situation.

INVISIBLE~LINE~BREAK

Now, the answer to the many questions I had.

First off, why did Hagrid comb his hair? And, what was with that huge flower?

Simple. He was on a date with Madame Maxine. Who would've guessed? Well, everyone. But, it was still an…interesting combination.

Now, what were they doing out here? What the bloody hell was going on? And, why did I hear that roar?

Yet another simple answer.

Dragons.

Four extremely large, extremely dangerous dragons. Each one could breathe fire, had fangs the size of my entire leg, and looked like they wanted to kill someone.

In a momentary fit of fury and disbelief, I stuck my head out of my Invisibility Cloak.

"Dragons?" I hissed over the roaring and sizzling sounds coming from the clearing ahead. "That's the first task? You're joking!"

"Come on, Harry," Hagrid said. "Look, the ninja are handling just fine."

It was true; I could see them darting around, using their 'jutsu' to contain these dragons.

"Raiton: Shichū Shibari!" Aeri yelled out, doing a quick series of hand motions. In a split second, four gigantic pillars of rock shot out of the ground. An electrical current ran through them, trapping the four fiery beasts in a giant electric cage.

I felt my jaw drop. How the bloody hell did she do that? I mean, I was used to seeing some pretty insane stuff from the ninjas. But this was just amazing. She made a bunch of rocks and electricity appear out of nowhere! And without a wand.

"Naruto! Midori no izure ka o teikuauto! Wareware wa te ga michite iru!" Aeri shouted, hands still tightly clasped together.

Naruto nodded and then, to my sheer and utter surprise, another Naruto appeared in a cloud of smoke.

"The bloody hell…" I gaped, watching as the two Narutos ran to face the dragon. Really, you'd think you'd get used to this type of thing after a while.

As they were running, a blue and white ball of light appeared in between their hands. At the last minute, they jumped higher than what seemed humanly possible.

"Rasengan!" They both shouted, ramming the ball of light al the dragon's skull. I saw Hagrid flinch.

Now, either that was an extremely strong light, or not a light at all, but that thing caused an explosion.

When all the smoke and debris cleared, the dragon was unconscious.

"They didn't have to do that to get it to calm down," Hagrid grumbled. "These are seriously misunderstood creatures."

A dragon suddenly lashed out with its tail, sending Ino flying into a nearby tree.

Hagrid and I both winced.

"Although," Hagrid said, "I have to admit, that Horntail is a right nasty piece of work. Poor Ron nearly fainted at the sight of him, you know."

I looked up in confusion and disbelief. "Ron was here?"

"Oh, sure," Hagrid said dismissively. "His brother Charlie helped to bring 'em over from Romania."

Hagrid looked down at me. "Didn't Ron tell you that?"

I shook my head, anger welling up inside of me. "No, he didn't. He didn't tell me a thing."

INVISIBLE~LINE~BREAK

A couple days after the dragon incident, I went searching for Cedric. Yeah, I know, champions aren't supposed to know anything about the task, but there was a good chance that Krum and Fleur would learn about the dragons soon enough. Just to be fair to Cedric.

These 'Potter Stinks' badges were really getting on my nerves. Nearly everyone had one, and they all just had to shove it in my face, literally and figuratively.

As I tried to get the garden where Cedric was, a group of seventh years blocked my path.

"Like the badge?" The eldest asked smugly.

"Excuse me," I said between gritted teeth, shoving my way through them.

"Could I have a word?" I politely asked Cedric, ignoring his group of followers and their stupid badges.

"All right," Cedric shrugged, following me into the shade of a tree.

I wasted no time. As soon as he was facing me, I got straight to the point.

"Dragons. That's the first task."

INVISIBLE~LINE~BREAK

I angrily watched as Ron stalked away with Seamus, still angry at him for not telling me about the dragons.

"Why so tense, Potter?"

I glanced up, then exasperatedly began walking away, seeing that it was none other then Draco Malfoy, perched in a tree.

"My father and I have a bet, you see," he continued, not even caring if I was listening or not. "I don't think you're gonna last 10 minutes in this tournament."

I stopped walking.

"He disagrees," Malfoy drawled, jumping out of the tree and landing lightly on his feet. Oh, how I wished he fell flat on his butt. "He thinks you won't last five."

"I don't give a damn what your father thinks, Malfoy." I lashed out, angrily shoving him. "He's vile and cruel. And you're just pathetic."

I turned around and walked away, tired of Malfoy's snobbish taunting.

"Pathetic?" I heard him mutter angrily. Little did I know, he was drawing his wand, a hex already forming on his tongue.

He never got the chance.

"Oh, no, you don't!"

I quickly whipped around to see Aeri perched high in a tree, higher then anyone here would ever dare to go.

She made a quick hand seal and pointed her finger at Malfoy, a slight grin on her face.

In a whirl of smoke, Malfoy shrunk, changed color, and transformed in appearance.

Aeri turned him into a ferret.

"Serves you right," she scolded, jumping off her perch and picking him up by the tail, looking at him straight in the eye. "Only I'm allowed to attack someone when their back is turned."

"Hey, Aeri, did you know that the paintings are ticklish?" Naruto said, oblivious of what was happening, despite all of the shouting and laughter. "I mean, you can reach out and AHHHH! Jigoku kara akuma no yōna neko!"

Naruto went face to face with Malfoy, a seriously irked look on his face.

"Wareware wa, futatabi neko o mitashite imasu…" He hissed.

Aeri sighed. "Naruto, Neregui o oboete, atarashii tochi ni Temujin to issho ni itta? Soreni, kare wa, neko de wa nai ferettodeshita."

"Sono koto wa watashi o kiratte!" Naruto wailed. "Sore wa sukoshi watashi to watashi no kizu, sore wa jibun no wana ni makikoma ni watashi o damashite!"

"Hai, sore dake de anata wa genin sa reta toki, anata wa mada bakadatta sa remashita." Aeri said dismissively. "Tonikaku, kore wa gakuseidesu."

"Aeri!" Professor McGonagall fretted, rushing over to where I was standing. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just showing the students my justu," Aeri said a little too innocently. "I can change objects into whatever I want it to be… Such as, this ferret could have previously been a log, or a clump of grass, or a little whiny girl…"

"Is that – Is that a student?" McGonagall gasped.

"Yeah, well, technically, it's a ferret."

With a firm wave of her wand, she turned Malfoy back into a human, looking disheveled and mentally scarred.

He quickly leapt to his feet, and when he came face to face with Aeri, he flinched and retreated.

"My father will hear about this!" he spat angrily.

"Is that a threat?" Aeri said smugly. "You can't touch me; everyone here is under a contract signed by Dumbledore himself."

"Aeri," Professor McGonagall said sternly. "We never use transfiguration as a punishment! Surely Dumbledore told you that."

"On the contrary, our mission is to oversee this competition, and to protect the boy," she said, gesturing to me. "I've been given the permission to deal with persecutors however I wish."

McGonagall gave her a deep frown before turning and shooing everyone away.

"You, come with me."

I turned to see Professor Moody walking away with his walking stick, not even making sure I was following. When had he gotten there? Before I hurried after him, I turned around to watch Aeri and Naruto walk away, deep in discussion. But before they walked into the corridor, I think she turned and winked at me. But before I could even think about it, she was walking away.

"So, about those paintings…"

INVISIBLE~LINE~BREAK

November 24.

The 1st task.

The four of us competitors were mulling around in the champions tent. The roars of the dragons waiting for us just outside the tent were too much for most of us. We were nervous to the point that we couldn't even sit down.

After Hermione had attacked me with a hug, and after that annoying Rita Skeeter women came in and made up stories about the champions, it was time for the task to start.

I had a plan. Ok, I admit, it wasn't even a plan. I was more of an idea that, if executed correctly, would get me out of this mess alive. But I was still nervous. How could you not be when you were going into an arena with gigantic dragon with nothing more then a wand and a summoning spell that, mind you, I wasn't even sure would work.

INVISIBLE~LINE~BREAK

The next two hours were torturous. Every noise from the arena, every comment made by Dumbledore… I was able to hear it all from the tent. Soon, I was the only champion left.

"Three of our champions have now faced their dragons," Dumbledore's voice rang out. "And so each one of them will proceed to the next task. And now, our fourth and final contestant."

I slowly rose to my feet.

Here we go.

Well, that was fun.

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