Stepping inside there was a warm filter of light coming through the tent, though it carried a rather frigid and anxious atmosphere within. Fleur and Krum were already waiting and looking exceedingly nervous, though Mr Bagman was as cheerful as ever as he turned around to greet us with a swish of his robes. "Harry! Good, come in, come in, make yourself at home, you too I suppose, Miss Black…" I didn't miss the fact that Harry received a much warmer welcome than I did but I ignored it, going inside to find a set of robes neatly folded on the end of one of the hospital beds with my name on a card.
Another set had Harry's name, though his were a deep scarlet colour whilst mine were a bright gold. I suppose they were to represent the colours of Gryffindor, and they'd given one colour each so that we wouldn't be confused at all. We were of similar height, after all, though I was still taller. "Well, now we're all here, time to fill you in!" Bagman announced, drawing my eyes away from the robes in order to pay attention. "When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag, from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face." He informed us all as he lifted the bag in question, which was moving rather suspiciously on its own. "There are different – er – varieties, you see, and I have to tell you something else too…ah, yes…your task is to collect the golden egg!"
Our eyes all quickly darted to look at one another as I started to grow increasingly giddy. So it wasn't a real dragon egg, that was a start, and of course no matter what the challenge was it was going to be dangerous, but now I knew for certain, I couldn't help but grin slightly. This was going to be legendary. Harry and I pulled the curtains closed around the beds in order to change into our robes, which had the Hogwarts crest and our surnames on the back, clearly printed below the hoods.
They fit perfectly and the long outer robe was predominantly black, my sleeves and the inner trim showing the gold. I then pulled on the dragon-skin boots and gloves, fixed my wand to the halter up my sleeve then checked on Harry. "All good?" I asked him as he just finished pulling on identical boots to mine. "Here, your shoulder is all twisted." Moving over, I neatened him up a little, making the hood sit properly over his shoulder then gave them a firm squeeze. "You'll be fine. If anything goes wrong, a whole bunch of wizards will jump in to rescue you, and I'll be watching. Just remember to focus. You can do this, Harry."
"Thanks. Good luck to you, as well. We never really got round to thinking how to fight your dragon. Are you going to be alright?" He worried so I just grinned and ruffled his hair, assuring him that I could easily handle a dragon after spending the last six years as Fred and George's best friend. At that moment, the sound of many hundreds of pairs of feet could be heard moving past the tent, cheers and eager whispers floating past as I allowed myself a deep sigh. "I should have placed a bet with the twins. What's the point in throwing yourself in front of a dragon if you're not going to earn any reward?"
"How are you so calm?" Harry was shaking out his hands like he were trying to hide the fact that he was nervous, though it didn't help him much. He looked like he was going to throw up.
"Because I'm probably insane. At the very least, there's something not right in my head. Come on, let's get out there." So we both stepped back out into the tent as I started to try and tie back my hair, wanting to plait it so that it was more effectively out of my way than just a simple ponytail, but I soon found out that plaiting hair on yourself was a lot more difficult than doing it on someone else's. I kept on dropping sections and it was all loose and confused, making me frown in concentration until Fleur came over, wearing powder blue and silver robes which suited her fair features prettily.
"Would you like some 'elp? Please allow me, I often arrange my leetle sister's 'air." She offered and I was instantly relieved. Sitting down in a chair, Fleur's rather quick and expert hands seemed to masterfully tame my curls and wove them into a firm plait which felt very secure against my head and all the way down my back. "You 'ave such lovely 'air, I 'ave always wanted curls like zis, does your muzzer 'ave curls as well?"
"No, my mum's hair is straight. I take after my dad." I answered her and we started talking about hair, our favourite products and how we both would play with other people's hair. I learned that Fleur had a little sister named Gabrielle and I told her about Ginny, the little sister of my best friends. The talking helped distract us from the inevitable, but after a while Bagman called us all to gather around him so I gave Fleur a smile, squeezed her hand then walked on over to where Bagman stood with the purple sack held up.
"Ladies first." He held it towards myself and Fleur who nervously stared at it so after a moment, I reached in. I didn't pick the first one that came to hand, in fact I was purposefully trying to feel for the Horntail as at the very least, I didn't want that one to go to Harry. I felt one of the moving miniature dragon models nudge against me, my fingertips brushing against horns so I picked it up as one of them spit out tiny embers at me, making me whip my hand out quickly. Everyone stared, watching me as I uncovered my hand from my fingers in order to reveal a blue and silvery grey dragon with prominent horns around the crown of its head and around its neck was a little tag with the number one on it. "The Swedish Short-Snout, excellent, excellent."
Pulling off the tag I lifted the dragon model up and tickled it under the neck, making it wriggle and rub itself against me. I hope we get to keep these things. I love mine already, though I felt bad I'd left the Horntail in there, worse still for hoping either Krum or Fleur got it. Unfortunately, my hopes were not to be recognised. Fleur pulled out the Welsh Green and Krum the Chinese Fireball with the numbers two and three respectively, leaving the Horntail last for Harry. "Can we swap?" I asked immediately as Harry held his own model dragon in his hand as Bagman looked at me incredulously.
"Swap, my dear? No, no, you cannot swap."
"Are you sure? I don't mind taking the Horntail." I insisted and even though Bagman considered it, he admitted guiltily that it was against the rules and couldn't be done. Clearing his throat, Bagman continued to explain how everything was going to work.
"Well, there you are! You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment because I'm commentating. Miss Black, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, alright? Now, Harry, could I have a quick word? Outside?" Giving Harry a confident smile, I put my model dragon with my stuff and warned it not to eat or set fire to anything before heading out the other side of the tent, following the tunnel before I was faced with a larger section where a gate stood before me.
Looking through it, I could see the stands of the stadium and a large rocky ground which had been made to imitate the nesting grounds of a mother dragon. It took me a moment to spot her, she was rather well hidden but sure enough, she was guarding her cluster of eggs and growling, baring several long fangs in my direction as if she already knew I was coming for her. Next thing I knew, the whistle went and the gate vanished from sight, allowing me to step out into the stadium as a cacophony of roars, shouts and screams sounded.
I pushed all those aside, however, immediately setting my sights on the dragon as my heart rate started to slow down, focusing on the task at hand. After taking a short, quick breath, I bolted. The rush of movement and my bright gold robes instantly caught the mother dragon's attention, blue and silvery scales glinting as she roared and sent a blast of fire at me. With a wave of my wand, I moved a rock to block the scorching flames so that I could hide behind it, waiting until the frenzied inferno died off before I then jumped up from behind it and fired a spell at her face.
A dense, green fog-like substance bust out of the tip of my wand as I shouted the spell and it curved through the air before it then landed on the Short-Snout's face, causing her to whine and her nostrils to flare. A Stink-Bomb Jinx, that should at least confuse her sense of smell so she can't locate me through scent. I didn't really want to go for her eyes because then she ran the risk of going wild. So long as I could keep her focus and attention, I should be able to direct it somewhere. Anyway, whilst she was snorting and confused, I took the opportunity to run out once more.
With a couple of incantations and fancy wand work, the stadium was soon filled with bubbles and purple firecrackers, making the dragon snap and flinch at them all as it didn't know where to look. The point was, it was mostly looking upwards, allowing me a little more time to think. I tried to get closer, but before I could get near enough to the golden egg sitting amongst the real ones, one of the grey bluish-grey wings suddenly swept around and covered the nest and I got a very sudden, close and personal look at what the inside of a dragon's mouth looked like.
Yelping as I felt a thrill of excitement and fear shoot through me, I dove out of the way and without even thinking, flung a spell at the dragon as flames started to follow me. "Confundo!" The Confundus Charm hit the dragon right in the eye, causing it to snap it's jaws shut just as I dove over a boulder for cover and feeling the heat of its dragon breath reaching towards me. It moaned, blinking rapidly as I gasped for air, catching my breath for a moment as it started to shake its head. "Confundo!" I used the spell again to make it more effective, watching as it started to groan and stretching, slamming its head into the ground and uncurl from around the eggs.
There it was! I could see it now, though it was still halfway across the arena. "Accio! Accio egg!" I attempted to summon the egg to me but it didn't move, so I assumed that it had spells on it to keep the champions from making things too simple. All the while I hadn't even realised that Ludo Bagman had been commentating until I heard him drawl with clear sarcasm that summoning the egg wasn't going to work, so I tossed a sour look up at the judge's stands. Enough of this, I'm done messing around now.
The dragon was starting to get its head back into the right senses, snorting as she scratched at the end of her nose so I reasoned she was probably starting to get her sense of smell back too. Her large, penetrating gaze was now sweeping the arena in order to search for me so I quickly hid myself behind another rock cluster, listening to her movements as she snarled and let off a random blast of fire in an attempt to frighten me out of hiding. I listened, and once I knew she had her head turned in another direction, blasting fire at the other end of the arena, I rushed out. "Reducto!" A rock suddenly exploded right in front of her, drawing her attention all the more as I began to race forwards.
Creating a few more explosions from the rocks, the Short-Snout soon wised up and turned to me with a furious roar, opening her mouth wide in order to begin firing a torrent of flames at me, but I was ready as everyone in the stadiums gasped and I think someone screamed. "Aqua Eructo!" A powerful jet of water burst from my wand and it immediately filled the dragon's entire mouth, causing it to jolt sharply as it coughed and choked, lifting her wings in order to flap backwards from the shock – yes! There it was! "Carpe Retractum!" A fiery orange rope of light burst from my wand as I directed it right at the egg and latched on in order to pull me flying towards it too fast for the dragon to catch me and the moment I seized the egg, the stadium erupted into applause.
Not that it was over yet, I still had to get away from the dragon, didn't I? Being careful not to tread on any of the real eggs as the female dragon sprung up with a flap of her wings in order to move around, her deafening roar drowned out the cheering of the spectators as she opened her great maw and dove her head down with the intention to swallow me whole. With the golden egg tucked up in one arm, I took a flying leap out of the way as I heard a horrifying snap of jaws locking shut as I absorbed the impact of my landing by rolling from my shoulder, rising with a skid in order to turn and point my wand back at the dragon an bellowed, creating a flurry of fireworks which exploded around her head, distracting her long enough to get away.
"I don't believe it! She's done it! Black has got her egg! Remarkable!" Before I could be subject to any further dragon battling, Charlie and about half a dozen other handlers appeared in order to stun the dragon and quickly move her out the way as I'd flung myself down a slope in order to hide, sliding down the rocks to now sit there for a moment and catch my breath, grasping the egg to me tightly.
"Mia! Mia are you alright? Were you hurt anywhere?" Next thing I knew Charlie was there, grabbing me by my arm and looking for any burns or lacerations, but despite the concern and worry, he was beaming. "You did it! That was unbelievable, you really did it Mia! That was some really impressive magic you did there, you should be proud. Come on, up you get." Helping me to my feet, Charlie dusted me off as I started to recover from the shock of nearly being eaten alive. "If you're not hurt then you can go and get your scores, then you'll go to the tent on the other side of the arena where you came out from. Madame Pomfrey will be waiting. I'll try find you after if I can, alright? Go on." Encouraging me with a smile, Charlie ushered me to go stand before the judges as he hurried to get the Swedish Short-Snout and her eggs out of the arena.
Ludo Bagman was still commentating and it was only then that my ears started to actually hear properly again, the dull buzz of sound now rising into a full sweeping roar from my school. Banners and flags flashed all around me as I looked around, covered in ash and dust but finally able to grin about it all. That had been wicked, wait until I tell dad. "Alright, settle down everyone, it is time for our champion to receive her scores. Judges, if you please." First was Madame Maxime who, rather unexpectedly, gave me a smile as she lifted her wand to create a ribbon which curled into the number nine.
Next was Dumbledore, who was also smiling and even from here I could tell his eyes were twinkling from behind his spectacles. He too gave me a nine. So far so good, this was great! Almost full marks, though I was curious to know how I could have improved to get a full house. I'll have to try and ask Dumbledore later. Next came Crouch, who also gave me a nine, leaving Bagman and Karkaroff. Both of them seemed to be conferring, whispering to one another until Bagman then wrote his number in the air, a bright number seven.
Instantly the crowds all booed and I'm fairly certain I heard Fred and George bellow. "COME OFF IT!" Worse still, Karkaroff only gave me six, though from the look on his face it seemed like he wanted to give me far less. Probably a zero even. "THAT'S BIAS THAT IS! CHEATING SCUMBAGS!" With the twins yelling like that and Lee's voice also filtering through with a colourful array of swearing and insults, I didn't even feel bad about the last two scores. A quick calculation told me I'd scored a solid forty, and I was satisfied with that. At least for now. I'll show those two arseholes what for. Next time, they won't have any choice but to give me full points.
So with my scores given I was finally allowed to trudge to the opposite side of the arena and disappear down another tunnel to reach the tent where Madame Pomfrey was waiting for me. "Hurry along there! Let's see what the damage is, it's a wonder you're even in one piece. Dragons! Of all things…well Miss Black, how do you feel? Any pain? Burns? Sit down at the very least, child." Curt and strict as ever, Madam Pomfrey made me sit down and drink something apparently meant to settle someone in shock, so I took a little sip.
I was still holding the egg in my arm so I took the time to look at it. There seemed to be a dial on the top, holding the golden plates together like petals of a flower and I started to reach for it but Madam Pomfrey quickly smacked my hand away. "Oh no you don't, you are to wait until the others have finished. Come now, put that blasted thing down. Risking your life for such stupidity…don't know what Dumbledore is thinking…" She prattled on for a little while as I listened to the commentating for Fleur's challenge, all the while saying nothing. "You're awfully quiet for a change, dear, are you sure you feel alright?"
"I'm fine, Madam Pomfrey. Just…soaking it all in." I said to her with a slightly unnerving smile. That was when Professor McGonagall arrived to see that I was alright, asking Madam Pomfrey if I was hurt but since I was all in one piece, she finally allowed herself a smile.
"You performed wonderfully, Miss Black. It seems like you have everything perfectly under control." She said to me as she approached and began to look me over as if to satisfy herself that I really wasn't hurt. "Since you are uninjured, I don't see why you can't watch the rest of the champions complete their tasks. I know in particular you will want to see Potter…" Her voice twisted slightly, a fresh wave of concern rushing through her features before she cleared her throat. "As you were then, Miss Black." She left after having a final word with Madam Pomfrey and I allowed myself to leave my egg in order to watch the others.
Fleur and Viktor did well which was expected, but best of all was Harry. His summoning charm worked flawlessly and I could see Professor Flitwick clapping enthusiastically in the crowds as Harry flew around the arena on his Firebolt, diving at his dragon which was covered in spikes and seemed to take particular pleasure in trying to bite Harry in half or turn him to cinders. I was silent and grave the entire time, watching with Viktor and Fleur until finally Harry succeeded in swiping his egg, getting to it faster than any of us.
I was too relieved to even applaud, simply sitting down and hung my head between my legs for a while in order to breathe whilst Madam Pomfrey bustled about us, still muttering about dragons and how ridiculous this entire affair was. When Harry entered the tent, I immediately sprang up and launched myself at him, practically knocking him over as I flung my arms around him and crushed him with a hug, the egg awkwardly pressed between us. "Mphf…Mia…I can't breathe."
"You were brilliant Harry! Oh but you're bleeding, hurry up and come inside, what are you doing standing around for?" I said to him jokingly as I saw the cut on his shoulder and quickly pulled him inside so I could take a look. Madam Pomfrey seemed to have already dealt with the injury, so I didn't worry about it. Instead I pulled out my wand and tapped the robes lightly. "Tergeo. Reparo." Immediately the blood on Harry's robes was cleaned off and the tear mended, allowing me to then put my wand away. "How do you feel?"
"I don't know, ask me again after I process everything in a couple hours." Knowing how that felt, I ruffled his hair as Bagman bounded into the tent with his boisterous voice calling us to attention.
"Well done all of you! Now, just a quick few words. You've got a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth, but we're giving you something to think about in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open…see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg, because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it. All clear? Well, off you go, then!"
Glad to get out of there, I grabbed my belongings which had been brought over to this tent from the first, picked up the egg and the miniature of the dragon I'd fought which I stuffed into my pocket before heading outside to find Ron waiting for Harry. They were grinning at each other and with a great sense of relief, I reasoned that they must have made up again. Finally. Took those idiots long enough. They started walking once I'd reached them and after a very satisfactory dismissal from Harry to that odious Skeeter woman, we made our way back to the common room in high spirits
