Chapter Ten; The First Task

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After the match was over, Harry followed his father and the other champions back to the great hall. There was a woman waiting for them that he had never seen before. She had short and curly blonde hair with dark red glasses and was wearing a dark green dress. "Hullo there," she began before she started shaking all of their hands. "Rita Skeeter, I work for the Daily Prophet." She began before she looked back over at Harry and glanced at his forehead.

"Well, well, I'll be damned. If it isn't Harry Potter, or Harry Snape as I hear it now days. How a twelve year old child was entered into this contest I'll never understand, of course I'll never understand how you of all people were able to befriend a dragon either." She said.

"Actually I'm fourteen and I didn't enter." He told her.

"Of course you didn't." she told him although Harry wasn't under the impression that she believed him. However that just meant that she wasn't any different from everyone else. After everyone had finished their interviews and their pictures were taken Barty Crouch gathered around them.

"Alright everyone. I have in my pack four different miniature dragons that represent four rather large and very real dragons. I want everyone to reach inside and pick your dragon. Once your dragons are selected then you will take turns facing them and trying to collect the golden egg that they've been given to protect. Miss Delacour you first." He told her as she reached deep inside the bag and pulled out a tiny blue and green dragon.

"The Swedish Short Snout ooh,.." Crouch said before Cedric picked his dragon. "The Chinese Fireball." He said before Viktor Krum withdrew a tiny black version of The Great Horned Spiked Tail. After that it was finally Harry's turn. "Which leaves,.." Crouch began before Harry reached inside the bag and felt a painful sensation inside his finger as the small dragon bit it before he sat on the palm of his hand. "The Hungarian Horntail." Crouch said.

Harry felt a sudden sense of fear overcome him when he had remembered this spikey dragon almost scorched him to death. "Now since we're going in alphabetical order, Miss Delacour you'll be first." Crouch told her.

…

Harry waited inside the locker room to face his dragon while Krum went into the arena. Harry was last and would be going after him, but he still didn't have any idea what he was going to do. He didn't see how even a wand would protect him from one of the most dangerous and deadly dragons on the face of the earth. Finally he heard the cannon's blast and that meant that it was his turn to face the dragon.

"Harry! Harry! Harry!" Everyone in the crowd except for Ron chanted as Harry gulped as he came face to face with the Horntail and it didn't look happy that he was inside the pit with him. Harry tried to focus on the fact that his family was out there watching him, and strangely enough Professor Moody who was busily whispering something into Hermione's ear.

The Horntail let out a rather loud angry screech and spat a jet of fire out at Harry. Harry screamed and quickly hid behind a large rock and looked up at the sky and praying for a miracle. Sure enough he got one. For he knew that dragons among other creatures had very strong hearing and his scream had managed to reach Diamond and the other dragons deep inside the Forbidden Forest. Diamond perked up her ears and let out a triumphant screech of her own.

Then she stood up on her hind legs and stretched out her wings and broke her chains with a sudden burst of strength before she started flapping her wings and hovered off the ground before flying away leaving Charlie and all of the other dragon trainers left scratching their heads with complete and utter bewilderment and disbelief. Harry gripped his wand tightly before he heard the familiar dragon's cries. Without thinking he stepped back in front of the bolder and saw his friend soaring down out of the sky and landing right in front of him.

This had angered the Horntail even more, but he wasn't nearly as ticked off as she was. Then she began acting in a way that Harry had never seen her before. She took another step towards the Horntail and started growling, roaring, and snapping at him. Then it occurred to Harry that she was trying to protect him. She let out her own fire breath and directed it at the Horntail but he just simply ducked his head before lunging forward on his chain and grabbed ahold of her tail inside his teeth.

Harry gasped and widened his eyes while gaping his mouth wide open as she let out a great big cry of pain. His bottom lip began to quiver and shake with fear. He had to do something to help her but it was already too late. The Horntail swung her around by her tail and flipped her over onto her back. Then he leapt on top of her and started biting her and scratching her all over her body until he was sure that the job was done and leapt back down on the ground and laid back down cuddling his golden egg to his chest.

Harry quickly rushed over to Diamond and knelt down beside her. She slowly rolled over onto her stomach and lifted her head slowly turning it to look over at him with her sad green eyes and a lone tear rolled down her cheek as she let out a sad moan and dropped her head again. "It's alright Diamond, everything's going to be alright girl, I promise." Harry reassured her as he knelt down by her side but it was too late, for she drew one final breath before her body became lifeless.

"No." Harry said in a horrified whispered as he felt his own tears streaming down his cheeks as he placed his hand on the top of her head. Everyone in the crowd was watching him through their own tears, even Ron had a sad and solemn expression worn upon his face. A sudden burst of determination filled Harry's heart. He was going to face the Horntail again and somehow this time he was going to win. He had to. Diamond had died trying to protect him and now he was going to avenge her even if he had died in the process.