Harry's eyes slowly opened as he felt his wand buzzing underneath his pillow, telling him that it was time for him to wake up, and he yawned widely as he withdrew his wand from the pillow, and gave it a little shake to turn it off, and slid into the back of his pajama pants. He stood up, looking around the room, and seeing that he was the first one awake, he smiled softly and made his way to the bathroom to take a shower, mentally realizing that today was the day that he was going to face the dragon in the first task of the Tournament.
He rushed out of the shower rather quickly, mainly from his brilliant thought about the dragon and which one he was for sure that he was going to get; the Hungarian Horntail. This wasn't some magical foresight that somebody such as the Divination teacher might have believed, but it was just Harry's logic working and his knowledge of his general bad luck. The only positive thing that he was able to figure from the situation with the Horntail is that Haley wasn't going to get it, and he hoped that she would get a dragon that was much more tame and would be as aggressive as he knew the Horntail would be. The teenager sat down on his bed, and stared at the floor for a few moments, just trying to find any flaws with the strategy that he had decided to go with. When he had finished contemplating, he stood up, quickly throwing on his robes and shoes and walked down the stairs, only to find Haley sitting on the couch, staring into the already-lit fire, paler than a ghost and completely still.
"H-hey." Harry said quietly, sitting down next to his girlfriend, and watching her nervously, "Are you okay?" He asked, raising his eyebrows as his hand looped through hers, causing her to jump lightly and look over at him, and show a shaky smile, "Y-yeah… I'm fine. Just got to fight a three-ton dragon with nothing but my wand and some thin clothing! What do I have to be worried about?" She retorted, smiling softly and shaking her head, "I know that you're used to these life and death situations, but… Harry, I could really die!" She said, her eyes meeting his finally as he shook his head, "You can't die, Haley. They wouldn't allow it! I know for a fact that they have more safety measures than the last Tournament. And even then, I won't let you get hurt. I'll jump right into that arena with you!" Harry said, shaking his head, his green eyes slightly darkening a bit, and the tattoo on his shoulder burning slightly.
Haley rested her head on Harry's shoulder and placed her hand on his chest, watching the fire once again, "But what if?" She asked quietly, the flames mesmerizing her as she thought about the gruesome ways that the two of them could die, each one more bloody than the previous. "But nothing, Haley. You're going to be absolutely fine. I promise." Harry said, shaking his head, and sliding his arm around her shoulders and listening to the fire crackle and the sound of the students getting ready for the day above them.
After a few more moments of resting by the fire, Haley decided to go down and get something to eat, or at least try to, as much as her nerves would allow, and stood up, grabbing Harry's hand and pulling him along as she left the Common Room, and walked down the Grand Staircase with him silently, as neither had much to say anyway.
As they walked into the Great Hall, they saw Hermione and Fleur sitting at a table, alone, with a plate of toast and butter in-between them, their faces buried into books as they read frantically, trying to find any little tidbit of information that would give them an edge over a ferocious dragon. Harry grinned, deciding that the morning needed just a little bit of humor and wanting to get some revenge on Hermione for the last time that they snuck up on them, Harry crept up behind Hermione, watching Fleur with a careful eye as he lowered his face next to hers, and whispered into her ear, "Constant vigilance!" He said happily, causing the brown-haired girl to jump a million feet in the air, the book also going for a bit of a ride through the air as she turned to Harry, her wand being yanked from her pocket simultaneously as she pointed it at him and prepared to usher a curse in his direction when she finally saw who it was that had scared her, and she relaxed a bit, holding her hand to her chest as she lowered her wand and groaned at Harry, "I swear to Merlin, Harry. Scare me like that one more time." She muttered, turning her body back towards her book, and glancing up at Fleur, who was also reading her book, but was a little bit red from trying to hold back her laugher.
Haley walked over, still chuckling lightly and sat across from Harry, who had sat next to Hermione, and was stealing a piece of toast from the plate, "Morning ladies! Little bit on edge, are we?" She asked, putting on a cocky face as she smirked at Hermione, who was still panting lightly, "Oh ush', Aley!" Fleur said, elbowing Haley with a soft smile on her face, "We're not the only ones oo' ave' to face a dragon today, non?" She asked, raising her eyebrows as she looked at the redhead, who grinned and nodded, "Yes, I gotta fight a dragon. Difference is, I'm not flipping my shit about it." She said, laying on the American slang for the French girl, who merely shook her head and laughed, turning her head back to her book.
"So Haley, what are you planning on doing in order to get past the dragon?" Hermione asked, looking up from her book as she gave a soft smile to Haley, who merely shrugged and grinned, "I'm not gonna say. You'll just have to wait!"
Harry sat back, watching the whole thing go down as he munched down on the toast, smiling softly as McGonagall walked up behind the small group, and tapped on the shoulder of Harry, who turned around, his eyebrows raised, "Hmm?" He said, his mouth full of toast, "Mr. Potter, Ms. Williams, and Ms. Delacour, if you'd please follow me? It's time for you guys to get ready for the task. I take it you're all prepared and all ready for the task?" She asked, her Scottish burr coming out even more than usual as she looked at Haley.
Harry grinned and nodded, "I'm pretty ready, ma'am." Followed by a nod from Haley and Fleur, as the trio stood up and started to follow the older teacher, out into the brisk air, causing Haley to scoot slightly closer to Harry, and slide her hand into his as she stared ahead, watching the cloudy sky nervously, listening for the roars of the dragons that she knew she would have to face. "I can't really pick a favorite or bed, but if I could, or did, then I would probably place my money on you three." The teacher said, her face showing what seemed to be the essence of a smile on her face as she led them to the tent, hiding the large soon-to-be battlefield. "Good luck Mr. Potter." The professor ended, nodding lightly as she walked away from the tent, and back towards the school.
The trio walked into the tent, finding Cedric and Viktor already inside the tent, looking pale and nervous as they stare at the ground, Cedric occupying the bed while Viktor stands some distance away from him, on a bench and holding his head in-between his hands as he mentally prepared himself for the task.
"Alright then, I guess that this will be the more somber part of the task, so everybody quickly get sad and depressed!" Harry said, grinning and trying to lighten up the mood in the tent, and trying to show off his fearlessness, when in all reality, he was deathly scared of facing the Horntail he knew that he was facing. Fleur smiled softly at him and walked towards an unoccupied bed and laid back on it, staring at the roof of the tent, her hair falling all over the bed, showing her extreme beauty, drawing Viktor's eyes to stare at her, while Haley and Harry walked over to another free bench, and say down, Harry's arms instinctively and protectively going around Haley, pulling her closer to him as he stifled a yawn, and watched the floor along with Cedric.
After a while of waiting, and doing absolutely nothing, Barty Crouch Sr. walked in, his eyes wide open as he stared off at the copule on the bench, and sighed lightly, knowing that they weren't going to like what they had to do. "Alright champions, gather round'." He said, drawing a small bag from his satchel, and slightly shaking it, provoking miniature sounding roars from the bag, and even a small jet of flame to shoot out the top of the bag, causing Cedric to jump as he watched the bag nervously.
Once everyone was up and gathered around the older man, he smiled deviously and looked at the two youngest champions, "So since we have…. An unexpected amount of champions in the tournament this year, we had to alter the rules, so which ever dragon one of you picks, is the dragon that you're both going to fight, at the same time. But for a challenge, since its two versus one dragon, we'll give it a version of the Pepper-Up potion to give it a little more fight inside of it." The man said, smiling and turning towards Fleur, and gesturing the bag open to her, "Ladies first, madame." He said, giving the bag another small shake, letting out another roar from the bag.
Fleur nervously put her hand into the bag, and jerked it out quickly, gasping lightly as a small green dragon flew out behind her, a small number 3 tied around its neck, causing Crouch Sr. to smirk at her, "Ah, the Welsh Green, rather… Feisty." He said, nodding as he turned towards the next person standing there, Cedric Diggory, who drew the Swedish Short-Snout, followed by Viktor's Chinese Fireball, causing harry to grimace, and nod lightly, hating that he was right most of the time, and sighed as Crouch turned towards him, the damned devious smile on his face once again, knowing what Harry and Haley had to fight.
Harry glanced at Haley, before sighing and reaching into the bag, drawing the dragon out, by the neck, ignoring the jet of fire that the dragon had fired off, knowing that he was going to face much worse, and causing Crouch to chuckle lightly, "The Horntail… Very Nice." He said happily, watching them as they glanced at each other, and shrugged, before walking back to the bench that they were sitting on, and sighing at the same time, "We're so screwed." Harry said, staring over at his girlfriend, who merely shrugged, "Just take it calmly. We'll get through this together. It's not too bad to do this, I think." She said quietly, glancing up at him.
"Did you see that thing when we were spying in the forest? It's huge and the damn thing could roast us with one burst of fire!" He said quietly, not noticing that Cedric got called up, followed by a mass of roaring and cheering as he walked out of the tent, still pale, but putting on an act for the crowd as a shout was heard and more roars were heard from inside the tent, causing Harry to jump at every other roar or so, followed by an occasional groan from the crowd.
Finally, after much waiting, and two other champions going out and facing their dragon, it was the couple's turn as they heard Bagman shout, "And finally, our youngest champions in the Tournament, Harry Potter, and Haley Williams!"
As the couple braved themselves and walked out into rocky arena, they were greeted with the giant, scaly black dragon that seemed to be slightly more on edge as the chains were severed, followed by Bagman's excited shout, "And we're off ladies and gentlemen!"
Harry's first instinct was to run back into the tent and cower in fear, but he knew that he had to stay right there, and face the dragon with his girlfriend. Haley and Harry simultaneously drew their wands, glancing nervously at each other, but giving the other a reassuring nod as they let their hands go, and stepped backwards towards a large rock behind them.
"Okay, so what's the plan, Mr. Potter?" Haley asked, raising her eyebrows as she eyed the giant dragon slowly walking towards them, roaring as it did.
Harry stared at the dragon, and shrugged, "No clue. Just… Wing it?" He said, right as the dragon got close enough to shoot a ball of flame towards the couple.
Haley's wand hand shot out, and she instantly shouted, "Protego," causing the jet of flame to bounce harmlessly off the shield, and them to both run behind the large rock protrusion, and Harry to grin, and pop out from behind the rock, aiming his wand and shouting, "Convirgo!"
The spell caused a large jet of air to converge on a single point, and Harry had aimed it for the leg of the giant, causing the dragon to fall forward onto its face, elicting an annoyed roar as the dragon stood up, but Haley was already running across the field, not pausing behind any of the rocks for cover, but she wasn't quick enough, as the dragon managed to spin itself around, firing off another small ball of flame in Haley's direction, hitting her in her hip, causing her to scream in pain as she fell onto the rough and rocky terrain.
As the fireball made contact with Haley, Harry's tattoo on his shoulder flared up, causing a burning sensation in his shoulder as he also let out a small scream, and he felt a strange feeling coming up from deep inside him. Unknown to him, but if anybody were to look into his eyes, instead of an emerald green, they were a dark and hopeless black. He turned up from behind the rock, suddenly feeling a sense of calmness, and fearlessness, he slashed his wand horizontally, and shouted, "Diffindo!" as he broke out into a small jog towards Haley.
The spell had much more power than usual, hitting the dragon in the side, just above the stomach, smashed through the scales, and cut deeply into the dragon, causing it to sound off to be what almost sounded like a scream, and blood to spurt out, and splatter the rocks ahead of the cut, as the dragon turned towards the cut, trying to gauge how bad the wound was, while Harry reached Haley, and knelt down next to her
"C'mon Haley… You gotta get up." He said quietly, swinging his arm around Haley, who was crying softly as she clutched onto her wound, but still tried to walk as she followed Harry behind a rock, "H-how close are we to the egg?" The wounded girl asked Harry, wiping her tears away, seemingly becoming angry as she stared at her boyfriend. "I think I could run and get it, if you cast another curse like yo… You did just now." She whispered, leaning up and glancing at over the rock, sitting back down as a jet of fire sailed over them.
Harry gave her a small smile, and nodded, "I can do that." He said, "When I get to three, I want you to run as fast as you can towards that egg, okay?" He said quietly, ignoring the thunderous stomping of the dragon as it approached them.
With a small nod, Haley got ready to run, as Harry leaped away from the rock, "ONE," He said, as he sprinted away from the dragon, watching it turn towards him, and "TWO, THREE!" He shouted as Haley took off in a dead sprint toward the pile of eggs in the corner, "Diffindo Maximus!" Harry shouted, adding on the end, his arm slashing downward this time as his wand jerked back from the force of the spell and towards the dragon, hitting it in the same spot the previous spell did, forming a large cross in the side of the dragon, but this spell was much more powerful than the last, hitting the dragon, causing it to stumble as the tail jerked towards Harry, far to fast for him to avoid it, and spearing him in the side, barely missing the stomach as Harry flew back a few metres from the impact.
As she heard Harry shout the spell, she dove for the pile of eggs, quickly finding the one that was shining in gold, and lifting it in the air, unaware of what had just happened to Harry, when she felt a horrid burning sensation where her tattoo was, causing her to gasp in pain and stumble lightly, dropping the egg as her eyes scanned the playing field, knowing deep down that Harry was hurt.
Once the dragon was ushered into her cage, with some difficulty, because of the dragon's wounds and the potion, she finally saw Harry on the ground, clutching at his side in obvious pain, and she dropped the egg back into the pile, and rushed over to him, and knelt in front of him, "Harry! Ar-Are you okay?" She asked quietly, looking at the boy, who merely nodded, "Im great, love. Top notch!" He said, with a small, but very forced smile as Haley took his arm and lifted it over her shoulder, helping Harry into the Medical Tent, and sitting him down, where Cedric and Fleur were sitting, Fleur having a blanket wrapped around her lower body, and Hermione next to her, her arms tightly around Fleur, as she smiled at Harry, "Congratulations' you guys! You two did amazing." She said, smiling at them, while Cedric nodded and gave them thumbs up, his forehead wrapped in a bandage as he smiled at them, not saying a word though.
Haley smiled and nodded as she sat next to Harry, when the St. Munigos' mediwitch walked over, telling Harry to strip his shirt off, to which he did, showing a gruesome stab in his lower midsection, causing Haley to gasp lightly as she looked at it, also noticing his other scars for the first time, and making a mental note to ask him about later. As the one witch examined Harry, another woman walked up to Haley, a small smile on her face as she looked at her, "If you'll come with me, then we can get your hip all fixed up, dear." She said, extending her hand, to which Haley accepted, and was taken to another part of the large tent.
Later, after the scores were announced, with Viktor Krum placing in first, for his excellent flying skills with his broom, Haley and Harry in a tie for second, with points only being deducted away from the couple's injuries, Fleur in third for getting her skirt burned off, showing more skin than she would've preferred, not that Hermione ever complained, and Cedric in last, because of his injuries and failure to get the egg, because of said injuries, Harry and haley were sitting outside, near the lake, with both their shirts off, examining each other's tattoos.
"So yours burned when I got hurt?" Haley asked, raising her eyebrows and adjusting herself lightly, trying to not think about the new scar that she had on her hip from the burn. The witch had been able to heal it, but her scar was going to stay a while.
With a soft nod, "Yeah, and I'm assuming from the sound of the egg against the rock, you got burned too?" Harry asked quietly, looking at his girlfriend, who gave a nod and tenderly touched Harry's shoulder, causing a small gasp to come from Harry's mouth as he felt her fingers against the blackened skin. "We… We gotta figure out what the hell these are, Harry." She said quietly, staring at the tribal on his shoulder.
"I know, Haley. We will. We will. How about this- we figure out what the hell this damn egg means, then we'll start to work on these tattoos, okay?" He asked quietly, to which Haley nodded and smiled, "Sure. But you know what I wanna work on tonight?" She asked, a mischief-filled grin on her face as she looked at Harry.
"Do I really wanna kno- OOMPH!" He said as he fell backwards against the grass, his arms pinned above his head as Haley pounced on his chest, pressing her lips to his, and straddling his waist, keeping them busy for most of the night.
Whassup people? Here we are with CH10 of our story! I hope you guys like it! Time I got my butt back to posting! Im out of school for the summer, so I have a bit more free time to write! Started up a FictionPress account, so if you're interested, go check that out. Haven't posted anything yet, but that'll change sometime soon, and I've also created a Twitter for you guys to go and follow! Go check it out if you want to find out what I'm updating next, when I'm updating, and other fun stuff. The account is theTyTyRichards, so please go give it a follow! In other news, I've broken 150 followers! That's awesome! Along with the 41 reviewers, and the 107 favoriters. I extend my many, many thanks, and I hope you guys keep enjoying our story!
Thanks guys
-TyTyRichards