Chapter 21

The First Task

Susan

Despite her show of confidence in herself, as the Tournament however got under way Susan couldn't help but feel a bit panicked about what she had gotten herself into however especially since she had no idea just what she was going to be facing in the First Task.

One night however about an hour before curfew Hagrid surprisingly invited the study group to meet him just at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

He looked particularly excited about something he wanted to show them, which in Hagrid's case made her quite wary of just what it was, probably some sort of monster or very dangerous creature.

When she saw just what Hagrid had to show them and more in particular just what it meant for her however she couldn't help but feel sick to her stomach.

Dragons, she realized. That's what she would be facing in the First Task. How on earth was she supposed to take on a dragon all by herself?

"We'll help you figure it out," Hermione promised her, noticing the look of fear on her face as she watched the dragons fight the dragon handlers, nearly managing to break free as they breathed fire and pulled at the ropes binding them to the ground.

Susan nodded glumly as she tried to think of anything that she could take down a dragon with.

Absolutely nothing came to mind, what she had read about dragons was that they had very thick hides that were very difficult to penetrate with either magical or regular means.

She thought of her animagus form which she was very close to completing a full transformation. As an owl she would certainly be smaller and hopefully attract less attention to the dragon, she would even have the benefit of being able to fly around, but the dragon would simply then be able to roast her to a crisp with only a single fire breathing breath so that might not help too much.

When she and the rest of the study group sat down in the library to help her figure out what to do and found nothing she got even more and more worried as the day of the First Task got closer and closer.

Once again she cursed herself for getting herself into this mess and thinking that she could actually do this. Harry and the other girls still had confidence in her and she tried to have confidence in herself but the fact of the matter was time was running out and she still had no way to handle a dragon.

Finally with the First Task only a few days away and after searching in the library with nothing Susan told the rest of the study group, "why don't we just give it a rest for now?"

"You sure?" Hermione asked, "we can keep going for as long as you need us to."

"Thanks, but I think I'll take a moment to look just myself, thank you all for your hard work," She told them.

The rest of them nodded and got up and left but Harry lingered back as he asked her worriedly, "are you alright?"

"Yeah," Susan said with a long sigh, "I guess I'm just worried about letting everybody down that's all, each of you, my family, the whole school, I would hate to just have to give up and tell the judges I just can't do it."

"You'll figure something out," Harry promised her as he gave her a quick hug, "I know you will."

"Thanks Harry," Susan told him gratefully as she looked into his emerald green eyes that always made her melt.

He was so attractive she thought and she couldn't resist leaning in and kissing him.

However as they pulled away from the kiss then a thought crossed her mind.

"I think I know how to take on the dragon," Susan blurted out in complete amazement at herself.

"Really?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Yes, I think it might actually work," Susan said with an awed voice, hardly able to believe she had finally come up with a solution.

"What is it?" Harry asked her.

Susan couldn't help but smile as she said, "I'll let you know as soon as I've finished putting my idea together."

She rushed off without another word towards the library to go look something up.

…..

The next day, she got the study group's help in helping her prepare for what she needed to learn how to do, she would need to learn several rather difficult spells as well as complete her animagus form.

The spells were challenging but she felt that she could do them, the full animagus transformation however was more of a problem as she had been working on trying to complete it off and on for about a year now. It was actually the wings that were the most challenging and she would absolutely need them for what she had planned.

Padma and Hermione had managed to complete their animagus transformations about a month ago, while she, Daphne, and Harry were still working on theirs. She suspected it was because Hermione's and Padma's forms weren't as dissimilar from their own, it was actually their tails that had been the biggest challenge since they didn't have them of course as humans.

Developing wings however was an even greater challenge even though she so very much wanted to fly as a gorgeous beautiful red owl.

Ooh, that would be so great and that was what helped fuel her efforts to achieve a full transformation.

She was also pleased and encouraged to see Daphne finally manage a full transformation as they had all decided to try and work on their animagus forms, if Daphne could do it, then she ought to be able to do it too.

As Daphne transformed back into a human after trying out being a snake for a few minutes, slithering about, she said excitedly, "I did it!"

"Congratulations!" All of them told her at the same time.

Harry went and gave her a hug and then a kiss as a reward as Daphne practically beamed with pride.

"Congratulations, you get to be the snake we always knew you were," Hermione teased her.

"I'm going to take that as a compliment," Daphne told her.

"It was, you are probably the only snake that I actually like though," Hermione replied.

"Snakes are gorgeous," Daphne insisted, "but I'm glad that you like me Hermione, I might even decide not to turn into a snake and bite you after all."

"I'll just eat you if you try to bite me," Hermione argued, "leopards can get mighty hungry I've found."

"This is true but cats are the best," Padma agreed, who's animagus form was also a large cat.

Both Hermione and Padma, who had bonded and gotten even closer over their similar animagus forms gave each other a high five.

"I can't wait until you and me Harry are able to fully transform and we can go flying together," Susan said with a sigh at the thought.

It would be so wonderful, her a beautiful red owl and him a gorgeous black pegasus flying together.

Harry grinned and said, '"Well we'll just have to get you to achieve your animagus form and we can look forward to that."

"What about you?" Susan asked.

"Let's focus on you first," Harry suggested hastily.

She could somehow sense that he was hiding something but she couldn't be sure just what. At any rate Harry then encouraged her:

"So why don't you try again?"

She did so, concentrating and trying with all of her might, thinking of what it would be like to be a red owl, imagining herself flying through the air and-"

Whoa!

She must have had her eyes closed because when she opened them again she found herself flapping her wings in the air.

She had done it! She thought with a great feeling of excitement.

Yet she was also so surprised that she actually ended up falling and landing the short distance onto the ground.

Flying was going to take some getting used to, she thought, but she was certainly encouraged by having a full transformation.

She let out a hoot of joy that was followed by congratulations from all of her friends and Harry, her fiance.

After a little while of trying to learn how to fly however she was getting tired from the exertion and so transformed back.

"I did it!" Susan said happily.

At this rate if she worked at it enough she should be able to do what she needed to do for the First Task.

"Now we just need to work on you and your animagus form Harry," Hermione told him.

Harry however then looked guilty as he admitted, "well I didn't really want to say anything until now, but since the rest of you have managed it…"

At that, Harry concentrated really hard and much to their amazement...he turned completely into a full Pegasus.

"Harry you've been holding out on us!" Daphne complained before grinning and saying, "keeping secrets, how very Slytherin of you."

Harry the Pegasus however gave a snort of annoyance at her.

Susan pointed out, "he probably just was thinking of the rest of us and didn't want to say anything until we achieved our animagus forms either. Thanks Harry but you didn't need to do that."

Harry just gave her a look and she seemed to understand what he was thinking. He didn't need to hold off from telling them but he did because he cared about them.

The thought then struck her that while they couldn't communicate verbally while in their animagus forms, they could communicate through their bond, which if they continued to try and work on strengthening and having control over it, would be a huge help to them.

Each of the girls looked Harry in his pegasus form over for a while with wonder.

"You're gorgeous Harry," Hermione admitted, now blushing.

"I think he was already gorgeous before Hermione," Daphne argued.

"You know what I mean," Hermione answered.

"Can I ride you?" Padma had the courage to ask, blushing even as she asked it.

She however blushed even more when Daphne then said, "oh, I'd like to ride you too Harry...but you don't need to be a flying horse for me to want to do that."

Padma looked about as red as Susan's hair as she admitted, "I meant actually ride."

If a black pegasus could blush it looked like Harry was too but he obligingly got down so that Padma could more easily mount him.

It didn't seem that Harry knew quite how to fly yet, or at least not safely enough with a passenger on him, but he had no trouble with walking or galloping around with Padma on top of him as she bounced around and grasped his neck to try and hold on. She did however seem to be having a great time as she had a big grin on her face and she trusted that Harry would make sure she didn't actually fall off of him.

"We're going to have to get you a saddle," Hermione observed.

"I know what we're getting him for Christmas then," Susan said, already thinking of asking her Mother and Aunty to help her find one.

For now however she ought to get back to learning how to fly in her animagus form...she was going to need it.

….

When the First Task arrived, Susan stood in the tent with the other 2 champions nervously, hoping that her idea was actually going to work. If it didn't she could very easily be roasted to a crisp.

She was also quite dismayed when she reached into the bag only to get the worst dragon of all, the Hungarian Horntail.

Fleur however went out first and Susan listened to the commentary from Ludo Bagman as best she could, hoping to try and glean anything that might help her, but really it only served in making her more nervous as she listened to Fleur narrowly escaping death before finally succeeding in getting her egg.

Krum was then next as she also had to listen to him as he tried to get his egg, which he finally succeeded in doing.

Well the other 2 champions had managed it, it was all up to her now she thought as her name was called finally and she went out to go take on a dragon.

The dragon somehow looked even bigger and meaner and scarier looking than she remembered and she mentally tried to prepare herself for this.

She looked over at several of the dragon handlers who were currently standing on hand nearby in case they were needed and things got too dangerous. She hoped however that she wouldn't need them and in any case the dragon could still manage to do some serious damage to her before they were able to come protect her.

It was now or never.

She pointed her wand at herself first, muttering the first charm that she would need as she walked closer to the dragon.

The dragon seemed to study her, protectively guarding its eggs, but did seem a bit confused as it tried to sniff her but found nothing.

So far so good she thought her plan so far was working. It couldn't smell her anymore due to the spell that she just cast.

She then pointed her wand at a large rock over on the opposite side of the stadium and as far away from her as she could get, muttering the long and complicated spell. The effects would be invisible to her but not to the dragon.

Much to her relief the dragon's eyes immediately perked up as it got the first whiff.

"That's right," Susan said quietly to herself, "you know you want it."

Drowning out the cheers as well as a few boos from the crowd, it was now just her and the dragon.

The dragon continued to sniff with great interest, looking more and more interested as it slowly and cautiously began to crawl towards the large rock.

The dragon wouldn't be fooled for long though, Susan realized. As soon as it realized that the male dragon pheromones that she had cast onto the large rock was not an actual real male dragon it wouldn't be very happy.

So as soon as the dragon started leaving its eggs and its attention focused on the rock, she began running towards the eggs.

She managed to get all the way over and grab the golden egg but then with a moment of panic the dragon let out an enraged growl as it melted the rock that she had put the dragon pheromones onto with a long stream of flame from its nose and mouth.

It would be coming for her she realized with great fear.

The dragon then turned its attention back to her with an enraged look, knowing that it had been tricked.

She'd never be able to move fast enough to get past it and into safety now she realized.

Well not running at least.

Hurriedly as the dragon looked at her with its steely gaze, its eyes locked in on her as it moved in for the kill she quickly shrank the golden egg that she had just collected down to the size of a chicken egg before transforming.

Concentrating intensely, her thoughts of self preservation fueling her, she transformed into the red owl that was her animagus form.

As she had hoped the dragon was temporarily confused as it wondered just where she had went and where the owl had come from and she used that brief moment to her advantage as she fluttered away as fast as her wings could carry her, the minimized golden egg safely in her talons.

The dragon roared in rage at being thwarted and she heard a burst of flame from its maw but she was already far enough away that it didn't get her.

She managed to fly straight into the tent and back to safety.

She had done it! She had managed to complete the first task and safely get past the dragon and get the golden egg.

To her further amazement as she studied herself she noticed that she also had managed a full Animagus form change even under such pressure.

She however immediately turned back into a human.

"You did amazing!" Padma praised her as she rushed into the tent along with the others, being the first to give her a congratulatory hug.

All of the study group members happily congratulated her and she couldn't help but beam a little at all the compliments. Still she was mostly just relieved that she had done it.

Yet as her scores were put up into the air, she couldn't help but feel some satisfaction that she was in First Place, having gotten all 10s from most of the judges besides Karkaroff who gave her an 8 much to many people's displeasure.

"You should have gotten all 10s," Daphne complained.

Susan however was just fine with what she had gotten and she did take a rather perverse pleasure that she had also done better than Fleur.

She looked over at the gorgeous veela who was currently being treated for a nasty burn next to her, obviously the work of the dragon she had just faced.

Susan's first thought had been to possibly try and rub the fact that she had done better in Fleur's face, but her compassionate side won out and she asked with genuine concern, "are you going to be okay?"

Fleur actually looked surprised that she would ask about her and so didn't answer.

Madame Pomfrey however who was treating her burn admitted, "she will be fine just as soon as I finish with healing her up. I still can't believe the judges though, dragons! I already have enough to deal with, all the stupid and dangerous things you teenagers get into and here I have to deal with you fighting dragons."

Despite Madame Pomfrey's complaining however she was able to fix up Fleur completely in only another minute.

Fleur however looked at Susan as she went to go leave and grudgingly admitted, "congratulations."

"You too," Susan answered.

"I'm still going to beat you in the 2nd task though," Fleur told her defiantly as she then left the tent.

Not a chance, Susan thought.

Still the First Task was over at least and she had done better than she had expected, she just hoped that she survived the other two tasks...and maybe just maybe she might actually even win the whole Tournament.

Dumbledore

He had watched with great interest along with everyone else as each of the champions had competed, being impressed with all of them.

He had been most impressed with young Susan Bones. While he had ultimately decided to give special permission to allow her and the rest of her study group a chance to submit their names and try and compete in the Triwizard Tournament feeling that they at least would be up to the challenges that they may face, he had still been surprised that Susan had been selected, and been concerned that she really would be able to handle it.

However at least in the first task, she had handled herself admirably and he was glad that the Hogwarts representative had done so well and was now in first place.

It seemed obvious that she had learned about the dragons well beforehand but he had already figured out that Hagrid had decided to show them the dragons, possibly as a sort of thank you for all their help in helping him make his lesson plans.

With their help, Hagrid had actually proven to be a great teacher that he always knew that he could be given the right encouragement.

He also doubted that Hagrid had shown the study group the dragons in an effort to try and help Susan cheat, it was much more likely in Hagrid's case that he just wanted to show them all his absolute favorite magical creature.

He'd actually had to stop Hagrid several years ago from trying to raise a baby dragon in his hut, contacting some dragon handlers discretely to get them to go pick up the baby dragon and take it to be raised in Romania.

As far as Susan having an advantage knowing about the dragons however he felt that it was fair since Hagrid had also shown Madame Maxime who would no doubt tell Fleur and he had spotted Karkaroff sneak off one night in the woods towards where the dragons were being kept too.

That meant all the champions knew about the dragons beforehand and all of them had obviously prepared.

Personally he felt this was fortunate, while they had people on hand just in case things got too dangerous, he would much rather the students know what they were up against, even though the first task was traditionally supposed to be a mystery...and traditionally never was as the champions all seemed to learn about it well beforehand somehow.

At any rate, he was not only in a good mood to see that the champions had gotten through the first task safely (minus a bit of a nasty burn that Fleur had gotten) but he was also happy as he had just destroyed another horcrux and was close to finding and destroying another one.

This one had been Ravenclaw's diadem, which had, it turned out, been right under his nose this whole time inside Hogwarts.

He'd come across it when finding a totally new room when going through the school trying to find the nearest bathroom, only to find a mysterious new room full of chamber pots and toilets for him to use.

The room had intrigued him and after looking into it for a bit, he decided to ask those that knew the castle better than anyone, the house elves about it.

The house elves apparently called it the Come and Go Room or the Room of Requirement and after discovering the vast potential of such a room and marveling at how such an amazing room could go undiscovered by him for all this time both as a student, teacher, and headmaster, he realized that such a room could also potentially have been used by Voldemort to hide a horcrux, much like how Salazar Slytherin had hidden a basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.

After searching, he managed to find Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem and destroy the horcrux inside it.

That now left just Hufflepuff's cup and Slytherin's locket, and he had a strong clue as to where one of those was.

Then there was of course Voldemort himself yet he still had no idea just where he was. If he was lucky however it wouldn't really matter as if he destroyed all of his horcruxes his tethers to this world would all be destroyed and what was left of him would truly be gone.

Yet he knew deep down this wouldn't really happen, Harry was destined to have a role in being the one to help destroy him...but it didn't mean he couldn't help Harry with destroying most of Voldmort's horcruxes so Harry could kill him once and for all when the time came.

…..

Bellatrix

Bellatrix couldn't help but feel rather disappointed.

Where was her master, the all powerful, deliciously cruel Dark Lord who she had practically worshipped and dreamed about reuniting with as she languished in prison?

Instead she was left with what he had been reduced to, less than even a ghost who was far weaker than even she had feared.

Her magical power however was returning and it wouldn't take too much longer before she would be at least close to what she had been at before.

Her master on the other hand even through a great deal of effort had only been able to be restored to a small, very weak body like that of an infant, hardly what she had imagined for her master's return.

Her master however urged patience, promising that he would return to full strength and finish what he started.

She truly wanted to believe him with all her blackened heart, but there were some serious obstacles facing them.

First of all, due to the stupidity of what had been left of the death eaters in their foolish attack on the campground of the Quidditch World Cup, most of them had been caught or killed either then or in the aftermath as Amelia Bones had used the auror force to track and hunt down those that had escaped.

She had been very hesitant to share this news with her master when she had found out, and his rage had no known no bounds when she told him, but once he calmed down her master insisted they were not needed and they would have the army that they needed.

Still just where were they going to get such an army of followers?

"Do you doubt me Bellatrix?" Her Master asked her in his cold, calculating voice.

"No Master, of course not," Bellatrix insisted. Despite her concerns, she was of course totally loyal to the Dark Lord and she swore she would never allow herself again to let her mental guard slip enough for her master to practice legilimency and discover any such doubts she may have had in his plans.

"Good," The Dark Lord declared, "I do not blame you for having doubts, for any other than I, the greatest wizard to ever live, our situation would indeed prove dire and impossible, but know that I do have a plan for our future army."

"Yes of course Master," Bellatrix declared loyally.

"You have been my most loyal of servants Bellatrix," The Dark Lord told her, causing her to grin widely.

"I will always be loyal to the Dark Lord, the most powerful wizard to ever live," She responded immediately.

"Therefore I'm going to share with you another secret of mine," The Dark Lord said as he whistled and a dementor glided over to them.

"We won't need a human army as we will soon have an army of dementors," The Dark Lord informed her, "the problem with dementors which caused me not to use them much in the war was that they were too easily forced to be chased away by patroni, chased away but never destroyed. However I've discovered a way to make the dementors immune to the Patronus Charm which would of course take away their only weakness, and give me a totally loyal, unbeatable army."

Bellatrix considered just what he was suggesting. With an army of unbeatable Dementors, immune to the Patronus Charm and sucking all of their victims' souls out, they could very easily take over the world, not just the magical one, but all the world. They could kill every Muggle, every Muggleborn, or anyone who dared to defy them.

How could she have doubted her master?

She asked, "Master that is a truly glorious plan and I do not doubt your ability in being able to pull it off, what can I do to help you achieve it?"

"I will tell you the process," Her Master said, "however we will need to wait until I have regained my full strength to completely implement it."

"I have already collected nearly all that we will need for the rebirth ritual," Bellatrix declared proudly, "I would only need to get one of your enemies, you have many of them so it should be quite easy, and then use their blood in your rebirth."

"NO!" The Dark Lord insisted, "I will have the boy's blood and no other."

"Master the boy will be difficult, if not impossible to get to," Bellatrix argued, "why do we need his blood rather than another? We could bring you back to full strength right now if-"

"I need his blood and no others!" The Dark Lord insisted again before then calming down a bit and saying, "at any rate, allow me to figure out how we will eventually get to the boy. Instead I want you to go check on my horcruxes and see if they are still safe."

"Yes of course Master," Bellatrix answered.

"The loss of my diary was certainly not welcome," The Dark Lord admitted, "but trivial as I have quite a few more horcruxes to rely on. My concern however is that blasted Dumbledore may have found out that I have more than one horcrux and sought to find and locate more of them. If I have to I can create one more horcrux possibly using Nagini for it, but no others as I fear what is left of my soul has been stretched too thin for more than that. If however all of my horcruxes are safe then my fears were for naught."

"I will go and check My Lord," Bellatrix agreed with a bow, "it may take some time even with your explanations on how to do so safely, but do not worry I will succeed."

"I have no doubt you will Bellatrix," The Dark Lord informed her.

Author's Note: I wanted to address a few reviews at once. First of all, having Harry and his fiancees/girlfriends start to act more physically towards each other will start to happen, starting in the next chapter as I feel that at least some of them have progressed that far in their relationship however they will once again have much more reasonable body proportions, but if you do enjoy that sort of thing, Susan at least will still be very well endowed as a sort of compromise. In any case however I want the main focus to still be on the actual plot and storyline.

By the way as seen just now, this is the start to the real threat to Harry and the girls. Obviously it diverges from canon but I'm hoping that you all like it as I've had it planned for a long time and will have a nice twist to it as that part of the plot continues to progress.

Please Review!