Summer to Remember

Harry Potter/ Fay Dunbar

XVI

(Flashback 23rd-26th of November)

"Potter! A word." Snarled Snape, Harry sighed as he got up and moved to one side of his potion. He had attended the Weighing of the Wands; knowing he had Divination next and remembered that Professor Snape had a free period had headed down to the dungeons to complete his potion.

"Professor?" Harry kept his tone respectful; he wasn't sure where this was going to go. The sallow faced Potions Master, made a few gestures and a translucent bubble surrounded them.

"Mr. Potter, how are you holding up?" The Potions Master asked, with what appeared to be concern in his voice.

"Just like second year all over again. I apologise for what I said back in the Antechamber."

Snape stopped "I…also apologise. Furthermore, appearances must be maintained…" He stopped, shook his head. This was the time to come clean "I apologise for my actions both physical and verbally against you, I will admit you looking like a carbon copy of my childhood nemesis with my best friends eyes hurt. Hurt, more than I care to admit. Due to my position from a time as a tortured youth seeking to find his way, I have made some terrible choices. I must live with them and due to a certain Old Goat, you must be the target of my ire. Know this Mister Potter, I am on your side."

Harry stared at his Potions Master, ever since the meeting in the Chamber of Secrets; it seemed that the pair and formed an uneasy truce. A truce formed on the foundation of profit. "Furthermore, I shall inform you that your grade in Potions is much higher than the grade you actually receive from me."

Harry's eyes widened slightly "Shield your thoughts Potter…Any capable wizard can read your thoughts on a whim. Yes, I will give you permission to find the books in your free time. I would suggest you run, Minerva brooks no tolerance for lateness."

Harry nodded "Professor, thanks…Yes, appearances must be maintained. Might I suggest point loss?"

The Gryffindor Point counter lost five additional points but their overall deficit had decreased as Hermione and surprisingly Harry, who had decided to participate in the class won a large number of points back. Harry won more so, due to the practical work and his surprising ability to perform the required transfiguration on his first attempt.

"Late bloomer Professor. All it is." Harry replied skilfully deflecting and downplaying everything. Inwardly he snorted, what right did she have to criticise his lack of progress. He had read the Hogwarts Charter and he was seriously considering bringing charges against the school. But that was for another day.

His interactions with his fellow students became more and more negative by the day. Although, the mild discomforting hexing had stopped after Draco Malfoy had attempted to split Harry's trousers in the Great Hall. Unfortunately, Harry had clocked the attack and effortlessly deflected it and had retaliated with a simple knock-back but had combined it with a gust of wind and the result was the Peroxide Blonde ferret being forcibly hurled out of the Hall.

Snape, true to form was on his case like a literal bat out of hell. Giving him a detention and then discreetly dropped a note into the younger boy's pocket. The days began to move in a blur of monotony, until two weeks before the first task when Hagrid, asked to have a quick chat and to bring his cloak.

Harry smirked "Fay, Hagrid's interested in meeting me…"

"Us. Cloak? You go under the cloak, I've been meaning to study my concealment spells."

Soon enough the duo were crossing the lawns to Hagrid's. The Half Giant met them outside his cabin and the pair of them, following at distance as did Fay. She drew her wand and then in a combination of Gaelic and German performed an incantation that allowed her to move undetected from everyone bar those skilled in magical detection.

"Aren't they beautiful? Ey Charlie!"

"Hagrid, Madame Headmistress; I'd stay right there. We managed to get five different Nesting Dragons together. We've got a Swedish Shortsnout; A spirited Welsh Green…rather a Welsh Red and it's been snorting flames up to thirty-five feet; A black Chinese Fireball and its temper is that of its scales, nearly killed Bartholomew, but got his ass instead at forty-five feet; We've also got an American Armageddon, it's under a stasis charm…" Charlie stepped forwards revealing he was wearing a threadbare vest and wrapped up in bandages "…I've never thought I'd see a dragon worse than a Hungarian Horntail…which is the last one that we have…Turns out, it and the Armageddon have a common ancestor, they despise one another. The Fireball hates everyone. Again the Armageddon and Horntail dislike the others immensely but each other more. The only two that are the easiest to handle are the Welsh Red and Shortsnout. One's enthusiastic and curious as a cat with a temper of a Nundu cub and the other one is content to sleep."

Harry and Fay, headed back to the castle. Together they made up a game plan that involved potentially either summoning Harry's Firebolt or using elemental channelling to absorb the heat of the Dragon Fire. Thankfully, Harry only had to remain calm and communicate with the Thunder Bird within him. The majestic bird complied and the dark overcast November sky's rumbled with potential energy.

(End flashback)

It was the morning of the task. Harry and Fay were sitting with Eobard at the Gryffindor Table. Harry and Eobard were chewing through a variety of things from typical American and English Breakfasts. Eobard groaned as he devoured black and white pudding with perfectly fluffed scrambled eggs, ham and beans.

"This is amazing…Nervous?"

"Absolutely terrified…Anyway, I have my strategy. You? Preferred Dragon?" Harry asked the last one in a whisper.

"Same, same…The Armageddon…Only because it's the main one I know. But honestly no dragon is my preferred dragon."

Fay shook her head and then she playfully swatted the pair on the shoulders "You two are incorrigible…Why do I date one of you and hang out with you both?"

"Because, we're fun." Harry replied. Soon enough their potentially last meals were consumed and they headed down towards Ludo Bagman who was standing in his slightly too small Wimborne Wasps quidditch robes, old beaters bat at his side and waving like a lunatic.

The duo sighed and they entered the tent. Cedric looked pale; Krum looked the better side of cold porridge and Delacour looked quite frankly horrible.

Bagman entered looking all boisterous and bouncing "Welcome, good champions to your first task! A task of daring, a task that will have you show off your skills of daring, courage and hopefully great sportsmanship; when placed in a Trial by Fire."

"Nothing like Napalm and cooked Natives in the morning." Eobard commented.

"This case dragon fire and potentially suicidal seventeen-year olds."

"You're…" Began Fleur.

"This is my attempted 'Kill-Harry' of the Year. I'm used to this." Harry replied drolly.

Bagman pretended not to listen and he finished his monologue opening up the first task. The tent flap opened and Rita Skeeter; Barty Crouch; The Headmasters of the schools along with Sprout and McGonagall. No-one aside from McGonagall and the Lead Representative of the American Mages paid attention to Harry. The Representative murmured a good luck and proceeded to do the same thing with the others. "It's because of your Lead Representative that I'm not immediately forfeiting this thing." Harry murmured.

"You will now place your hand into this cloth bag and pull out an object with a number. That number will determine where you go in the proceedings of the task." The bag was made out of immaculate velvet or silk in a dark purple in colour with intricate golden threads. Fleur pulled the Common Welsh Green with a number 2; Cedric, a Swedish Short-snout with a number 1; Krum, the Armageddon with a number 3; Eobard pulled the Chinese Fireball at number 4 and Harry, with a sense of trepidation pulled out the Hungarian Horntail.

Harry watched and waited, he listened with nerves trembling with no-one comfort him. Not that he needed it, although Fay could have been of some help. He listened as Cedric it seemed performed a rather tricky spell weaving combination of transfiguration; weaving was a duelling technique which was not a small feat of accomplishment but incorporating a complex branch of transfiguration into it definitely won points. From what it sounded like, Cedric had created a heard of sheep and some dogs, the dragon had eaten one of the distractions before giving Cedric a nice solid blast of Swedish Dragon fire, this had been accompanied by a yelp and frantic bit of swearing and charm work but before long Cedric had grabbed the Golden Egg and vanished in an internal portkey.

Fleur went next, Harry grinned when he heard her shriek "ZAT EEZ NOT A COMMON WELSH GREEN!..." The rest was a rapid deluge of French which might have been to do with honour and integrity. However, it sounded as if Fleur had decided to get on with her task and it appeared, she managed to complete her task.

Krum, gulped as he stared down the American Armageddon. It's naturally bright scales that shimmered like rubies, its neck was longer than the typical European, it's head was also longer and much sharper than the typical brick like head of the European Dragons. Furthermore, his forelegs also doubled up as its wings. However, unbeknownst to Krum; a typical Armageddon had a wingspan of on average 68feet with unanticipated growth of up to 70feet and as short as 66feet. However, this particular Nesting Mother was what was known as a Titanwing American Armageddon. With Titanwing dragons everything you may know about the species goes out the window.

Harry wasn't sure what Krum did but from what he heard the Durmstrang Champion shot the dragon in the eye with a conjunctivitus curse. Krum's result was easily the quickest of the contestants so far.

"I'll see you later Harry." Eobard said as he walked out.

Harry nodded.

Eobard departed next. There were a series of bangs, crashes of thunder and what sounded like a very short-lived chicken and goat followed by a rampant applause along with a muffled 'Fuck, my leg.' It turned out Eobard had pulled off a battle potion, transfiguration enchantment with a similar effect of transmutation and had created some sort of Chimera out of transfigured rocks and dirt.

Finally it was Harry's go. Harry entered the arena through a tunnel that would put him in the Nesting Pit Ground. There had originally been one pit and each dragon would be manuevered in. However, after two incinerated Dragon Tamers and a dumb Magical Creature Expert they had quickly decided to create five identical nesting grounds. No-one had told them this! Getting a false egg from an already cranky brooding Nest Mother; out of her natural habitat; put on display in a tournament and on a rather decent remake of said natural habitat!

Harry made his way to the floating X "On the sound of the…" Began Bagman, however the dragon inhaled and Harry reacted and chucked himself to one side as a massive torrent of flame roared towards him.

"…I didn't say start!" Declared Bagman.

Harry's temper frayed and he drew his animagus thunderbird wand, levelled it at Bagman and a shattering hex rushed towards the barrier. It hit the barrier with enough force to temporarily render it visible. "Start the task. Stop the pretentious pomp and bluster you; washed out bludger-drunk, idiot…before I actually get killed." Harry growled, his temper fraying and a storm began to brew.

Harry tuned out the commentary, and he shifted his position through the rocky crevasses, that snaked across the ground heading to an open plateau…Harry stuck his head out and saw the dragon was no-where immediately obvious. A loud roar echoed above him and he dived again seeking cover into a small cave, however the Horntail seemed to predict this.

"Ventus repulse!" Harry thundered and the natural winds in the arena although heated by the Dragon's fire, it managed to cushion his landing somewhat. Harry groaned as the flames rushed over him, he had a plan. He was going to channel the hot air from the Horntail into his Animagus form, discharge it upwards and with the raw energy try and force the Horntail to back down! It was a horrible plan, one of his worst but it was the best he had.

Looking back, he should have summoned his Firebolt. Harry rolled to his feet, and with a few slicing spells cut a hefty chunk of rock. Then with a simple linking spell the earth wedges began to levitate. Another incantation and Harry was now surrounded by shards of glass; it wasn't a hard spell he had learnt the basics in third year but turning it into glass was something different. "Flippendo!" The glass hurled towards the dragon and Harry began to sprint.

Harry, was definitely grateful for the crash course in parkour and free-running. He flipped, slid and pushed himself off the rocks, his hiking trainers cushioning the impact to his feet as he ran like the Pinewood Devils were after him.

He tuned out the cheers and the jeers. He focused, it was merely him, the dragon and the egg. He heard the air inhale, the Thunderbird felt the change in temperature and sent out a bark that reverberated through him in defiance of the creature and then he felt the heat.

The crowd screamed as youngest contender in the Tournament was enveloped in a torrent of flame.