Yay thank you for the reviews again :3 I feel like me not updating the past two days is like…naughty, of me. In most fanfics I do you're lucky if you get twice a week from me, but this is different o.O
ChasingAspirations - KILL THE SPARE. (that's not foreshadowing at all.) I less than three you.
DuctTapedHeart - The name's awesome. Totally awesome. :')
Athyna DaughterofPosiedon - What is this A Very Potter Musical you speak of? Would you recommend it? :')
Jenny - I practically do put up a chapter every day bar this week.. *_*
Dananananananananana - Yeah, Quinn was kind of making the point that Blaine talks about it on a daily basis, whereas when she said it, she was making a reference to the fact that - I'm not even gonna tell you, you'll find out soon enough.
And yes, having 69 reviews really did make me giggle. And then I realised wow. That's a big number. And now it's 70. Think I could reach past 100?
(Is it weird that I write my authors notes before I write the chapter? Yes? Ok.)
Also, wheee, it's the first task. I'm really nervous for Blaine and Quinn.
Okay, that was weird.
Chapter Fourteen - The First Task
"Kurt, you," Blaine shook his head in disbelief. "…are amazing."
"You don't know if I'm right yet."
"Well, I'm just hoping so, considering the first task starts in two hours and I've got nothing else to rely on."
Kurt laughed. "Blaine, you do realise you aren't supposed to know? Trust me, you'll be fine. And even if it isn't dragons, you know you're dealing with something magic, imaginary and reluctant."
"These sketches Hermione showed me don't even look like dragons. They're all colourful and fluffy and adorable and they're just like the cutest things ever."
He cleared his throat. Blaine peered at him. "What?"
"Is it weird to feel jealous of the way you're describing a childrens cartoon?"
"Is it weird that I'm kind of enjoying jealous-of-a-childrens-cartoon Kurt?"
"No. Just mean." he scoffed. "Seriously though, two hours. Eat some breakfast and find Snape. I'm sure he'll have some pearls of wisdom for you after being away."
"No, I cant, we're forbidden to interact with any of teachers today, other than our heads of house. I have to go straight to Sylvester."
"Quinn gets Snape. Unfair advantage."
"Tell me about it."
He sighed. "Come on, lets just get something to eat."
As they entered the great hall, they were assaulted with the sound of over a thousand people chatting animatedly. I suppose it would be an exciting day, Kurt reasoned, if it wasn't your boyfriend who was going to be stealing something from a monstrous fire breathing, vicious flesh eating creature.
Breakfast seemed to go by quicker than ever, even though there was more time allocated to it due to the fact that there were no classes, so everyone congregated here to share the buzz of the tournament or place bets or whatever it was they were doing. But the impending danger of his situation wasn't what Blaine had been worried about this past week.
In Glee Club, he had let something slip when he and Quinn had been arguing. He'd said You're the one who didn't know anything about why we were chosen for the tournament. I wouldn't call that involved in the grand scheme of things, and for the record, I would rather die than be a part of it all.
Kurt hadn't called him up on this. Had that statement slipped past him? He hoped so, but he doubted it muchly. But if he did, why hadn't he said anything? It would have been easy for him to put two and two together. Blaine wondered whether having no reaction from him about this was worse than a potential over reaction. He just wanted to keep him out of it as long as he could.
"Oh look!" someone at the Gryffindor table exclaimed. "Post!"
Blaine had given up scanning the parliament of owls for his parents large tawny in third year, it usually being Kurt who got letters and muggle products from his father, so he actually almost had a heart attack when the familiar brown owl landed in front of him, dropped an envelope onto his plate of toast, and flew off again.
He exchanged a look with Kurt, because even he knew this was a rarity, Blaine didn't even receive Christmas presents.
"Open it." he mouthed at him.
With slightly shaking fingers, Blaine unfolded the parchment. He began to read, Kurt's eyes scanning the page also, ignoring the thicker envelope he had received from Burt.
Blaine,
The first task is upon you. I wont be surprised if you are uncapable of fighting whatever it is you must. Get out of there alive, they need you.
Lorraine.
"Nice words of encouragement, mother." he muttered, and went to shove the letter in his pocket, before Kurt exclaimed "Look, there's more writing!"
Under the original text, there was indeed, more ink appearing.
PS. For your own sake and his, if you love that boy, don't keep him out of this tournament, which I am sure you're doing. I know what you're thinking, but there's no point. They're still going to target you and everyone you care about, whether they're involved or not, so give him as much insight as possible, to work in his favour.
As you're required to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, being a champion, I would hope you two will spend easter here. Your father will be away on business, as I would really like to see you. Both of you.
"Wh…what does that mean?" Kurt looked at him. "Blaine?"
"I honestly… I don't know." he shook his head. "Is she…on our side?"
"She used that…that ink. Why?"
"Well… maybe she… she was keeping this from dad. It only appears at the sound of a certain persons voice. Her invention. She didn't want him to…to see it."
"Does she mean she wants…both of us… to spend easter holidays at your place?"
"Because dad's away on business. This is… weird." he finished lamely, scanning the letter again.
"Blaine…" Kurt started, carefully. "Uhm… what did she mean, keep me out of things? Why would you… not tell me stuff about the tournament?"
"It's not that, Kurt. It's… bigger than some game." he took his hand. "I… I cant explain here…and… I don't know if she's just trying to make me think she's on our side… but… what she's saying… Tonight. After the task, after the celebrations, or whatever there's going to be… then I'll tell you."
He nodded. "Please don't keep stuff from me. I don't care if you want to protect me, I need you to be straight with me about what's happening."
"I… I will be. And…it's time for me to go meet Sylvester."
"I'll walk you there."
They quickly left, and when they were standing in the pretty much deserted entrance hall, Kurt stopped in his tracks, looked at his boyfriend for a moment, and then threw his arms around his neck. "Be careful!" he sniffed. "Do what Lorraine said. Survive, Blaine. Just get out alive. And preferably with no damage done to you."
He smiled a little. "I'll try not to mess my face up for you."
Kurt withdrew from the embrace. "That's not what I'm worried about." the look on Blaine's face made him smack him across the chest. "Not that, you pervert!"
"Sorry."
"Brain in your head for once, not your crotch, please."
"That," he tried to keep a straight face. "is an unfair accusation, Hummel."
He gave in to himself, and grinned. "I don't care if your looks get messed up by a dragon. I'll still love you. But if it hurts you, the bitch is paying for it."
"Are you going to go all ninja on the creature and kick it's ass?"
"Yes."
Blaine said his goodbyes to Kurt, and as he watched him run back down the staircase to rejoin the Gryffindors, he sighed, and knocked on Sue Sylvester's office door.
But it wasn't Sue who opened it. It was Snape.
"Professor Sylvester is ill." he said bluntly. "I'm taking care of both of you." Quinn was standing behind him. "I may or may not have had something to do with this arrangement. Please tell me one of you worked out my riddle."
"I didn't. But a Durmstrang boy told me."
"I did." Blaine muttered. "Dragons."
"At least one of you has brains, but it seems your looks actually served you in a good way this time." Snape glared slightly at Quinn.
"How does that equate to Dragons?"
"Puff the Magic Dragon. Figment, the imaginary dragon. The Reluctant Dragon. Muggle first year could have worked it out." Blaine nodded. "Very clever, Severus, I'll give you that."
"What are you talking about?"
"Your riddle…"
"I was talking about a terrifying magical creature that muggles know about but many of them don't believe, think they're muggle folklore! What the devil is Puff the Magic Dragon?"
"It's like…the most adorable thing in the whole entire world! I thought that's what your riddle meant!" he stared at him, perplexed.
"You wont be fighting adorable little cartoon dragons. You'll be fighting real ones, not imaginary ones. These dragons wont be reluctant, they'll be hungry."
"Hungry?" Quinn shrieked.
"They haven't been fed in two weeks."
Snape led them out of the castle a few minutes later and across the courtyard, and onto the path towards the Quidditch pitch - or, what had previously been the Quidditch pitch. It had been converted into a massive arena, but Blaine couldn't see anything beyond that as Snape ushered them to the side, and they walked towards an area where a tent had been set up.
It was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, like all wizarding tents. There were couches and armchairs in it, but the four other champions weren't sitting on them, but rather pacing, or just standing rigid and frightened looking.
Courage, Blaine thought, glancing at Quinn, who seemed unusually shaken.
Professor Dumbledore smiled at them. "Well, I think it's time to get started!" he held up a brown woven sack. "In here, is a miniature version of the creature that you will be fighting. You will each choose one out of the bag, and the number around it's neck will represent what order you will be going in. So! Ladies first." he shuffled over to the Beauxbaton Girls.
One of them, Blaine thought it was Fleur, withdrew a green creature, who roared, spinning around on her hand. But the noise it made sounded surprisingly melodious.
"Common welsh green!"
The other Beauxbaton champion carefully withdrew a second dragon replica - it was actually a very pleasant looking creature, with pearly scales and multi-coloured eyes.
"Ahh, the Antopodean Opaleye!" Dumbledore sighed. "Lives in valleys, rather than in mountains. Very beautiful creature."
He then turned to Quinn, and she, her arm now shaking, withdrew a dragon that made a very aggressive noise. It had brilliant purple eyes, and was rough scaled, had razor sharp looking ridges all down it's back, and a long tail ending in an arrow-shaped spike.
"The Hebridean Black." he made no further comment.
Now, the Durmstrang boy who wasn't Viktor Krum eagerly shoved his hand into the bag, and withdrew a silvery-blue dragon.
"Swedish Short-Snout! Very attractive creature, also."
Viktor Krum looked bored as he withdrew what Dumbledore proclaimed to be a Chinese Fireball.
"Mr. Dalton." Dumbledore came to him last. "If you please."
Blaine took a deep breath, and plunged his hand into the very bottom corner of the sack. The dragon he produced was by far the biggest of them all, lizard like in appearance, black scales and bronze horned, with bronze spikes protruding from it's tail.
"The Hungarian Horntail, one of the most terrifying creatures you will ever see in your whole entire life!"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dumbledore."
Fleur Delacour was to go first, then Viktor Krum, then the other Durmstrang champion, and then the other Beauxbaton champion. Quinn was to go second last, followed by Blaine.
As the champions began to prepare for the task, Blaine kept trying to catch Quinn's eye, but she was firmly keeping her gaze to the floor.
They heard the cheers and screams and, bizarrely, laughs of the crowd as each of the foreign students left the tent to take on their dragon. It wasn't until Adéle Bebeau was called that Quinn seemed to snap back into reality.
"You do realise they were all given tame breeds, right?" she said.
"Yeah. We were given the two must dangerous ones in existence. They might as well have given them Figment the imaginary dragon!"
"That's not a coincidence, is it, Blaine?"
"No. It's not."
"What do they want?"
But before Blaine could respond, the canon sounded, calling Quinn. She gave him a scared look, before rushing out of the tent.
Screams. Cheers. Boos. Laughs. More screams. Screams of terror, screams of pain, and then finally, a big cheer. Quinn had been successful. It had taken her longer than the others, Blaine noticed.
Canon.
Here goes nothing, he thought bitterly.
He walked, surprisingly steadily, out of the rear exit of the tent, and was suddenly standing at the edge of the arena. The Hungarian Horntail was tied around the neck on a very long chair, and it was hovering over a nest of eggs. He knew immediately he had to retrieve the large, fake, golden one in the midst of the real dragon eggs.
He didn't know what to do. But the crowd was cheering him on, or at least they were cheering, maybe it was for the dragon.
He did the first thing that popped into his head.
He began to approach the creature, who seemed to have noticed it wasn't alone. As soon as it's beady eyes spotted him, it roared, and started thrashing it's tail about. Blaine's apprehensive walk changed into a run, causing him to trip over a rock. "Shit!" he yelled, rolling away before the massive spiked tail smacked across the surface where he had been moments before. He climbed behind a pile of rocks, and as the dragon began to swivel it's head around, looking for him, he shot loud, bright sparks out of his wand. As the dragon roared and made for the direction in which they had come, he, with a surge of adrenaline, jumped over the rocks he was hiding behind, and sped towards the nest of eggs.
Well, if Blaine thought he would be able to distract a dragon, he was about to be extremely disappointed. It roared again, and rose into the air, Blaine yelped as the tail lashed out at him again, this time hitting his back. It was agonising, he was screaming, blinded with pain, trying to get a firm grasp on his wand and began shooting every single spell he could think of. But they all rebounded off the Horntails scales, just making it more aggravated.
As it roared once more, this time drawing fire from it's breath, all Blaine could think was please don't eat me.
He realised he was at the edge of the nest. If he was quick, could he roll into it and grab the golden one?
He forced his eyes open, they were burning with tears from the pain of his injuries. He aimed at the dragon's eyes as best he could, and yelled "CONJUCTIVITA!"
He knew it was a bad idea as soon as he had cast it. The horntail began to convulse in the air, it's wings and tail smacking the ground, its feet finding the edge of the nest, but Blaine had already dove onto the pile of eggs, but for the life of him he couldn't quite grasp the golden one, it was wedged into the others too tightly, and the horntail was seriously pissed off, breathing a brilliant blaze of flames, the caught onto Blaine's robes and hair, he yelped and tried to extinguish it with Aguamenti, but not before it had started to lick at his skin. In desperation, he again aimed his wand, this time at the eggs that were holding the gold one in place, and yelled CONFRINGO. DEFODIO. DIFFINDO. EXCELSIOSEMPRA. EXPULSO!
Something finally gave way. The eggs exploded, but the one he coveted was unharmed. As he clasped his hands around the egg, the canon sounded again, the crowd cheered and yelled, but he had got the egg, he had survived and gotten the egg.
The Horntail, however, wasn't finished with him. As the dragon handlers ran into the arena to try and calm the creature down, it was still thrashing about it's tail, and before someone had gotten to Blaine to remove him from the arena, it had smacked him right in the face.
That was when he blacked out.
"Blaine? Blaine? Can you hear me?"
It was as if he was underwater, and someone was shouting at him, he could tell people were there, but he couldn't respond, he felt trapped, trying to clamber to the surface, but something was pushing him down, down, down… and suddenly he surged up.
His eyes shot open. He was lying in a white room…on a bed… the hospital wing… why…
The task. The dragon. The pain.
But why wasn't he still at the arena? Didn't he have to collect his scores? Why was he brought here?
"Blaine!" the familiar voice of his boyfriend brought him back to where he actually was. "You…"
"Mr Dalton." Professor Dumbledore said. He was standing at the foot of his bed, his face unreadable. "You gave us all quite a scare."
"I…" it hurt to talk.
"Try not to speak. The Horntail got a good lash at your face, but Madame Pomfrey was able to clean the wound and close it as much as possible."
"I shouldn't have joked about not caring if your face got messed up." Kurt smiled slightly. "It's bad."
"Thanks." he managed to get out.
"I still love you." he whispered. "Even though your hair got burnt off."
The look of alarm in Blaine's eyes was so comical, Kurt didn't even feel bad for laughing. "It's okay love, it suits you short as well."
"Mr Dalton," Dumbledore started. "I'm going to have to speak to you as soon as possible, I'm afraid. Madame Pomfrey would murder me if I spoke now, though. Can I request that as soon as you're released you come straight to my office?"
"Yes." he said. Okay, he thought, I really have to stop speaking. The spikes had possibly ripped his face in two, any movement in it made the healing wound burn.
"You and Quinn came joined second last." Kurt knew exactly what Blaine wanted to know. "Adéle never got her egg." he paused. "Something funny was going on with yours and Quinn's dragons. You both had trouble actually seizing the egg."
Blaine knew exactly what was wrong.
Oh. my god. That took me six hours to write. Bitch was impossible. And dramatic. And I totally came up with a total plot twisting thickening thing so yeah, there's so much I can definitely squeeze a sequel out of it after I've done this. xD