Chapter 13: Cum Dracone Certo
"Harry, are you sure you know what you're going to do?" asked Parvati for the fifth time.
"Yes, I'm sure, Parvati. I worked out my plan a week ago. All I have to do is snap my fingers."
"That still doesn't sound like it's going to defeat a dragon," Parvati said skeptically.
"Have you ever known me to fail?" asked Harry rhetorically.
"Yes. You got a 99 on your second year potions final exam," replied Parvati.
"How is that a fail?"
"Because you didn't get 104% like you usually do."
"Actually, my current potions grade is 109%," corrected Harry.
"Back then it was 104%."
"No, at the end of second year, my potions grade was 114%. You're confusing second year with first year, when I had to make up for three assignments that were 40% and below, so I only got a 102% for that year."
"How does anyone keep up with you?"
"Well, Padma usually keeps herself at about 103% in her classes, and I think that Mandy Brocklehurst stays pretty close to 102%."
"How do you even get over a hundred percent anyway?"
"Ask Padma. I need to prepare myself for the first task."
"You said that you were already prepared!" exclaimed Parvati.
"I meant that I needed to prepare myself mentally for the task ahead of me. All of the preparations are set. I will only need to raise a finger to defeat the dragon."
"Yeah, right. Snapping your fingers isn't going to cut it."
"Fine, would you like me to wink at the dragon instead?"
"Wink?"
"Personally, I think snapping my fingers gives off a better vibe than winking at it. It's less...sexual, in connotation."
"Fine. Don't tell me what you're going to do. I'll let you prepare by yourself." Parvati stood up and walked away.
"See you later Parvati!" called Harry after her, but she didn't turn back. Ignoring her, Harry sunk back into the wall, thinking. After thanking the Weasley twins for their cooperation, he had checked to see if Krum knew what the first task was. Turned out, he had, but still thanked Harry for coming out of his way to inform him. Harry still hadn't had his first lesson with Fleur yet, because she was training for facing the dragon.
An alarm sounded from his pocket, and Harry stood up. It was time for the first task. Strolling down to the field, Harry entered the Champion's tent first. Since no one was around, Harry cast a color changing charm on the tent so that it would cycle through the rainbow. Two minutes later, Ludo Bagman entered the tent and came over to Harry.
"Know what you're going to do, Harry?" asked Bagman nervously.
"Yeah. I'm going to snap my fingers. It'll be fine." Bagman looked at him strangely, but then the Weasley twins entered with Fleur, and Bagman stepped away from Harry carefully. "Ah," he said, "you're here. Looks like we're just waiting on Krum."
Fleur just shrugged, while Fred ad George grinned inexplicably. Waiting for a few more minutes, Harry twiddled his thumbs, leaning against the tent wall, now a dark blue. Bagman noticed the tent change colors, and looked at Harry quizzically; Harry ignored him. Finally, Krum came into the tent, and Bagman gathered the five of them around.
"In here are four dragons, one for each team. You will pick one from the bag here, and that will correspond to the dragon you face. Your job is to retrieve the golden egg from the dragon's nest. Ladies first." Bagman pulled out a bag, and Fleur stuck her hand in, drawing out a blue dragon with the number 2. Krum went next, pulling out a red dragon with the number 3. Fred took out a green dragon with the number 1, leaving Harry with a black, horned dragon with a number 4 attached.
"Very well, Fred, George, you will be going first. Good luck!" The twins left the tent, slightly nervous, but Harry knew they would be fine. He had taught them well. However, since Harry had overlayed all of the dragons with his spell, he could take a look at the other battles as well. Taking a minute to cast a complex illusion spell, he hid himself with a powerful disillusionment charm, careful to block his scent and to muffle his footsteps.
Fred was taking the dragon head on, blocking the dragon's flame with a special shield that Harry had taught them. Fred had asked him if he could teach them a shield that would defend against dragon flame, and Harry had shown them one that he had invented himself. He hadn't told them that, of course, but they'd still learned it. And it worked, apparently. Harry hadn't had the time to check it, but was confident in his own spell-crafting abilities.
Fortunately, it was working perfectly, and George, who was disillusioned, was creeping around behind the dragon. Harry took the time to take control of the dragon, inserting himself into its mind, making sure it ignored George. It worked, and seven minutes in, the Weasley twins retrieved their egg. Now it was Fleur's turn.
Fleur stepped out confidently, and conjured a harp. Sensing what she would do, Harry cast a silencing ward over himself, and the enchanted harp began playing softly. Harry didn't dare enter the dragon's mind, less he fall asleep, and the illusion had to defeat the dragon by itself. However, Harry didn't have to worry about that, as the dragon just smashed the harp accidentally, stopping the soothing music, and bringing the dragon back to full awareness.
The dragon snapped at Fleur, who just barely dodged out of the dragon's attack. With her only plan having failed, Fleur was trying to think something up on the spot. Harry took the time to enter the dragon's mind, and began carefully controlling the dragon's attempts to eat her, driving her into a corner. Backed up against a rock, Fleur held her wand out in front of her desperately, frantically using a blasting curse.
It struck the dragon in the eye, which exploded in a gory mess, splattering Fleur with dragon blood and eye guts. She flinched, and the dragon roared in pain. Harry tried to control the dragon's actions, but the fierce attitude broke free of Harry's control, and the dragon lashed out angrily.
Fleur screamed in pain. Harry had just only been able to deflect the dragon's aim, but the dragon managed to only bite off her left arm. The rock that Fleur had been leaning against exploded as the dragon's head crashed into it, and Fleur took this moment to run off. Seeing the egg free of a guardian, which was currently stunned by the impact against the rock, she grabbed the egg with her good arm, and held it up. Dragon handlers immediately ran onto the scene, stunning the dragon, and Fleur was taken off the field and rushed into the medical tent.
Harry took a deep breath and sighed. He had barely managed to save her life, though she would never know. Now that he knew how dangerous they could be, he was staying out here so that the next one wouldn't kill Krum. Hopefully Krum would do anything too stupid.
As Harry's luck would have it, Krum did something stupid. He used a conjunctivitis curse, blinding the dragon, which began flailing dangerously around the compound. Krum got his egg, but after the dragon had smashed up half of the other eggs in the nest.
Harry's turn was next, so he walked back to the tent, replacing his illusion seamlessly (he'd had a lot of practice skipping class that way), and when Bagman opened the tent flap, Harry entered the compound confidently. He knew his plan would work—he just had to execute it. The dragon—a Hungarian Horntail—stared down at him menacingly. Harry glared back. He looked up to the judge panel, and Dumbledore motioned for him to start. Harry took a deep breath, and snapped his fingers.
Instantly, the dragon lay down, and Harry simply walked over and picked up the golden egg. Walking out of the compound, he heard Bagman saying in the commentary, "And Hogwart's very own Harry Potter is the quickest to get his egg!" Smiling, he continued walking back to the Champions tent.
His scores were up a minute later—he received a total of 44 points. Dumbledore and Bagman gave him tens, Madam Maxine and Crouch nines, and Karkaroff gave him a six. Harry didn't care that Karkaroff was giving the short end of the stick—he'd still outperformed all of the other Champions, with the Weasley twins in second with 41. Krum had 37, while Fleur got 34. Harry honestly hadn't expected Fleur to get so many, but her rally at the end had probably given her some pity points after her arm had been eaten off.
Deciding to visit Fleur, he went to the medical tent, where Madam Pomfrey was furiously working behind a curtain to heal Fleur. Krum was still sitting in a hospital bed nearby, his burns being ignored in favor of Fleur's predicament. Krum noticed him, and called him over. "Vy is I not being attended to?" the Bulgarian asked.
"Fleur's arm got bitten off. She was lucky not to get killed."
"How do you know that?"
"What do you mean?"
"I vasn't allowed to vatch the matches. How did see them? You vere there the whole time."
"Was I? Or was it just an extremely complex illusion that fooled you while I sat in the compound disillusioned manipulating the fights from the background?"
"That is highly unlikely."
"True, but not impossible."
"Did you really manipulate the fights?"
"To some extent," Harry admitted. "Hold on. We have an eavesdropper." Harry looked down, and he saw a green beetle trying to fly away. Wandlessly summoning it, he examined it under mage vision. "We have a beetle animagus. Huh. I don't recall there being a beetle on he list of registered forms. Maybe you should keep that knowledge to yourself, Rita." The beetle, which had been trying to escape earlier, now doubled her efforts.
"Vat is an animagus?"
"An animagus is a person who can transform into an animal at will. You can only have one form, and you're required to register your form by Ministry law. In fact, my father was one, though he didn't register before he died."
"You said her name vas Rita?"
"Rita Skeeter, in the flesh," Harry affirmed. "Rita, why don't you transform back, and we can have a little chat."
Harry set her down on the ground, and Rita appeared moments later. "How on earth did you catch me?"
"It was simple. I sensed your aura."
"You seem to have many talents, Harry. Illusions, confundus charms, and apparently, snapping your fingers does something as well."
"You can add illegal animagus, occlumens, wandless magic master, and near perfect obliviator." Rita paled at that last one. "Yes, I could invade your mind, and rework it to fit my image. You'd forget all those silly secrets you keep, I'll find them out, and you can go and register your form. What do you say?"
"Well, Harry, I don't think you'd need to go so far—"
"Let me make one thing clear, Ms. Ogden (Rita paled even further). I don't want you writing about me one bit whatsoever, unless I approve the entire article. That includes any of your six aliases, and the one you plan to create to try and weasel out of this."
"Harry, the public has a right to know certain things—"
"And other things must be kept secret. If you print one word about me I don't approve of, then I will destroy your reputation. After all, I'm the Boy-Who-Lived, and you're just a vicious lying cheapskate reporter. Who would win in a fight?"
Rita nodded slowly. "And it might even get you a better deal. I may come to you when I want to be interviewed, maybe giving you exclusive rights to write about. How's that. In exchange for me not revealing anything I learned today, any article that mentions my name must be run by me first. I'll make sure to let your employers know that. Good day, Rita." Rita disappeared, the green beetle flying out of the medical tent erratically.
Krum reexamined Harry closely. "That was very impressive, Potter. I didn't think you vould be able to deal vith her."
"Reporters are easier to deal with than you might think. All you have to do is get a little blackmail on them, and suddenly, they do everything they can to stay on your good side. Journalism is a fickle business, to say the least. Oh, call me Harry."
"Only if you call me Victor. Did you really see vat happened to Fleur?"
"Yes. I deflected the dragon's aim a bit, so it only bit off her arm, rather than her torso. A torso is harder to replace than an arm."
Victor chuckled, and Harry noted the strained cracks that were present in the laughter. Fred and George suddenly appeared on either side of Harry; Victor flinched, but Harry remained unmoved. "Don't do that, please," requested Victor.
"Okay," chorused the twins.
"Harry, how'd you do?" asked Fred.
"We got a 41."
"I know," replied Harry. "Nice disillusionment, George. You might want to work on your silencing charms a bit. Next time the dragon might hear you."
George stared. "Didn't I tell you?" asked Harry. "I was manipulating all of the fights. I made your dragon ignore George's footsteps, changed Fleur's death to a disfigurement, and prevented the dragon from smashing Krum's egg. Oh, and I snapped my fingers, too."
"Fleur's death?"
"Snapped your fingers?"
"Madam Pomfrey is fixing up what remains of Fleur's left arm right now. It was bitten off just below the shoulder."
All of the three others flinched. Harry couldn't blame them. Losing an arm was just...frightening, to say the least. "I'm going to go check up on Fleur. I'll be back in a moment." Harry disappeared from view, slipping behind the curtains, where Fleur lay prostrate on a hospital bed, blood tainting the sheets near her arm stump. The wound looked absolutely horrible. The bone was jagged from where it had shattered, and the muscles wrapped around it were ripped apart uglily. Madam Pomfrey had stopped the blood flow to the arm, and was rerouting the blood vessels to accommodate the lost arm.
Harry took another look at the arm, this time under mage sight. Fleur's saucy red core was fluctuating, sending a lot of energy to the arm, speeding along the healing process. The arm was a mess of distracted red particles, and a cluster of Madam Pomfrey's magic could be seen blocking off the blood vessels to her arm stump. Harry watched Madam Pomfrey work for about another minute, before deciding to leave, lest he disturb the healing process. While Harry did know a decent amount of healing magic, he couldn't hold a candle to professional healers like Madam Pomfrey.
Harr emerged from behind the curtain, and dropped the disillusionment. "How is she?" asked Fred.
"Well, Pomfrey's got it under control. Fleur won't have a left arm anymore, but she'll live."
"At least she's alive," agreed George. "Do you want to go back to Gryffindor Tower?"
"No, I think I'll stay here."
"Then we'll stay too," declared Fred.
"I still haf to be treated," said Victor glumly.
"Oh, I can take care of that," said Harry.
"You are a healer?"
"No, but I know some rudimentary healing techniques. Burns like yours won't be too bad." Victor acquiesced, and Harry poured his magic into the burns, reforming the skin and recalibrating the nerve endings. After about a minute, he stopped.
"That vas good. I feel better now."
"No problem." An awkward silence dropped on the group, only to be broken when Harry asked Victor, "Know any good jokes?"
"Vell, there vas this one vere a hag, a flounder, and a piano vere—"
"Heard it," the three Hogwartsians said, cutting off the Bulgarian.
"It vas vorth a try."
Asyli Intimi Abdere
Twenty minutes later, Sirius entered the medical tent and tackled Harry. "Wonderful performance, Harry!"
"Geroff me, you dog!" grunted Harry, wrestling himself from his godfather's grip.
"Really, Harry, it was well done."
"It was five parts skill, two points luck, and one point practice."
"You've had practice subduing a dragon with your bare fingers?"
Harry smacked Sirius on the shoulder. "No, but I did have some practice exerting my will over a dragon."
"So that's what you did."
"Not exactly. I found out about the dragons a week or two ago, and I cast this spell over each of them that would allow me to enter its mind and control it."
"When did you practice?"
"During the task."
"Huh?"
"i practiced on all of the other dragons."
Sirius's expression darkened. "You didn't cause Fleur to lose her arm, I hope."
"Actually, I sort of did." At Sirius's outraged face, Harry put up his hands. "No, hear me out. It was either an arm or a torso. I chose the arm. If I could have completely redirected the attack, I would have."
"I assume you already checked on her. How is she?"
"She'll live, but the arm is toast. I saw Madam Pomfrey rerouting the blood vessels in her arm. Madam Pomfrey should be done in about another ten minutes."
"Harry, why don't you introduce me to the other Champions here?"
"Well, you already know the Weasley twins, and Victor is too good a guy to get an introduction, so there." Sirius's mock shock made Victor laugh.
"Sirius Black, how do you do?" said Sirius, shaking Victor's hand vigorously.
"Victor Krum, though I think you already knew that."
Sirius laughed, and the two of them started a detailed conversation about Quidditch, Harry and the twins sometimes joining in. But since Harry didn't follow Quidditch as much as his godfather did, he generally stayed quiet. About ten minutes passed, and then the curtain around Fleur's bed opened for a moment, just long enough for Madam Pomfrey to step through.
"How is she?" asked Harry.
"She'll live, but I couldn't do anything about her arm. What were the organizers thinking? Dragons? Sure, lets give them one each!" Madam Pomfrey grumbled.
"When will she be awake?"
"She'll be awake tomorrow. I want to let her sleep while her body readjusts to the loss of her arm. Dragons, bah!"
Asyli Intimi Abdere
Harry went to the hospital wing the next morning, where Fleur had been moved the previous night for convenience. Fleur's family were all huddled around her bed, and Fleur was still sleeping. Harry did a quick mage vision check, and saw that the potion would wear off in forty seconds. Fleur's father looked up from the bed when he heard Harry's footsteps, and stood up. "Hello, you are Harry Potter, non?"
"Yes. Fleur should be up in half a minute."
"How would you know zat?"
"The potion's almost worn off. I'm sorry, but I don't know your name."
"My name is Jean Delacour, zis is my wife Annette, and my younger daughter Gabrielle."
"Nice to meet you, though I wish I could say the same about the circumstances."
"When I heard zat Fleur had been chosen for ze tournament, I was so proud, but now, I want to tear apart ze organizers." Fleur's eyes suddenly flew open. She sat up, wincing, and tried to lean on her nonexistent arm, and fell back on the bed.
"What happened?" she asked.
"The dragon bit off your arm," explained Harry. Fleur looked down at where her left arm used to be, and screamed. The stump was bandaged, but that didn't mean that she was ready to see it. Fleur reached over with her right arm to touch the stump, and winced when she touched it.
"I do not remember much from ze task. Did I get ze egg?" Gabrielle plopped the egg down on Fleur's lap, taking it from where it had been resting on the bedside table, and said something rapidly in french. Harry hadn't taken the time to learn the language, so her just ignored the little girl.
"Papa, why are you still here? Don't you have a meeting to go to?"
"You are much more important to me zan a meeting, Fleur," replied Monsieur Delacour. Fleur nodded gratefully, and then looked up at Harry. "Why are you here?"
"To apologize."
"Why?"
"Because you shouldn't have lost your arm."
"What are you talking about?"
"I was in the compound with you, invisible. The night I told you about the dragons, I had cast a compulsion charm over each of the dragons, and it would allow me to control them somewhat. When you blasted the dragon's eye out, it went berserk, and tried to eat you. I managed to affect the dragon's aim enough that it missed your torso, but it still got your arm."
"You mean to say zat you are sorry for saving my life?"
"I'm sorry I couldn't do more!"
"Harry," said Fleur, "I am zankful zat you helped me, but if you helped me too much, I wouldn't appreciate it."
Harry blushed a little, and Fleur laughed, her mother joining her a moment later. Sighing, Harry turned to leave, but Fleur's hand caught his. "Zank you."
"Do you still want some tutoring?" asked Harry. "Next time, the dragon might lose an arm instead."
"Yes, please. I will owl you a good time." Harry left, and as he did, he distinctly heard Fleur's mother ask, "Tutoring? From him?"
Asyli Intimi Abdere
"Rock!"
"Paper!"
"Dang!"
"I win again!" exclaimed Susan. "Twenty-nine out of fifty-seven?"
"No," conceded Neville, "I know when I am beaten."
Susan giggled, and Neville sighed. Hermione had introduced the two of them, and Susan had quickly become a master, outwitting all of them. She hadn't lost a round in about two months, and they'd played thousands of rounds. In fact, Ophelia had to ban all RPS matches on the deck, because Susan wasn't doing her job properly.
Neville still didn't know how he had gotten there. All he remembered was some fuzzy images of his gran and some of the gardening journals he had kept. There was one in particular that he had liked, but he couldn't remember why. Now, Neville was in charge of all food, and he had taken numerous journals and filled them to the breaking point with his knowledge of plants.
Hermione was still trying to figure out how to work magic inside Tom's soul, and so far, she wasn't coming very far. Still, she kept going, and Neville would cheer her on. If she could find a way to use magic here, then Neville would be the first to sign up. Granted, there would only be two people in line behind him, but it was the principle of the thing. First was good, and Neville couldn't recall a time outside of Tom where he had won anything particularly noteworthy.
"Susan," called Ophelia from the bridge, "did you check the Warp Capacitor Drive against the primary fuel gages? I want to take off in a couple of minutes."
"Yeah, they're all fine, Captain. Whenever you're ready, you can go ahead and five the order to launch."
"Then let's go. The Corporal got a probe back from Harrius Insulum, and I want to check it out tomorrow."
"Roger that." Susan sat down in her driver's seat and began flipping switches and pressing buttons. "All systems ready and waiting. Countdown beginning in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, ZERO!"
The SSS Phoenix blasted off from where it had landed on Yggdrasil Repita, and Neville looked out the window. The orange sky was darkening, and soon, stars were visible from the deck. Then he noticed Susan frowning behind him. "Captain, I have a reading on our starboard life scanners. There's a ship!"
"Establish radio contact."
"Roger." Susan flipped more switches, and pressed more buttons, before frowning again. "Uh, Captain, I have a heat signature separating from the ship. It's moving pretty fast..." Susan's eyes widened, and she started frantically pressing more buttons and flipping more switches. "Prepare for impact! Enemy torpedoes approaching!"
"Custodian, get into weapons," ordered Ophelia. Just then, the three torpedoes struck the starboard side, and Neville was thrown to the ground.
Hermione's voice came in through the radio all staticy. "Captain, what's going on?"
"We're under attack. Prepare the AI modules. I want to get through this." Today had been up to a fairly good start, thought Neville; but now it was going steadily downhill. Another impact struck the side of the SSS Phoenix, and Neville fell to the ground. He scrambled up and threw open the door to the weapons facility. Clambering into the cockpit of the firing module, he started up the OS and put on his headset.
"Lets get down to business!"
A/N: Hello, everyone, and welcome to your friendly Tuesday updates! Don't forget your pizza rolls. Oh, you did? Never mind. I've now got a plan that will have you hanging by the edges of your seats. It involves not returning to our lovely heroes aboard the SSS Phoenix. Mwahahaha.
Fleur gets the unlucky thirteen. Yay!
In other news, I've got another story idea, and it might be good enough for a one shot. I'll be working on it a little more today. If it's good enough to post, then I'll do that. Next week at the earliest would be when I'd post it.
But that's enough of my ramblings, interesting as they are, so R&R, and I'll see you next Tuesday.