The First Task

Victoire admired herself in the mirror. The trousers were almost pitch black with the words 'Ravenclaw' and 'Hogwarts' standing out the way she had pictured, her blonde hair stood out against the navy and black and with her top tucked in, the delicate curve of her waist made the outfit more feminine. The cosy tent guarded her and the other contestants from the cold outside, there was a fire ablaze by the navy velvet dressed fourposter bed, McGonagall had smuggled in butterbeer disguised as water in a flask on the side table and there was a medical kit at the bottom of the bed that was already open. She slowly brushed her hand against the bedding, enjoying how it had soaked in the heat and simmered down her roaring anxiety. The chattering grew from outside the tent and she was only able to pinpoint certain things being said like 'place your bets' and 'go go Ravenclaw'.

"Gather round champions, gather round," Kingsley announced.

Distracted by nerves, Victoire hadn't even realized Kingsley had entered the tent and as she slotted into the circle, McGonagall stood behind her to give her support that felt like nothing compared to the support she needed. In Kingsley's hands was a black bag with agitated lumps moving around. Victoire looked at her competition opposite her. Leon looked confidently at the bag, looking back at his headmaster and nodding, while Alodie was still listening to music, cracking her knuckles as if the bag didn't exist. Startling her, a small fire jumped out of the black bag, and when the other two acted like it was a daily occurrence, she knew.

"They know the task," Victoire whispered to McGonagall,

"Something you wish to share?" Alodie's voice surrounded the tent,

"I mean if we're going to start sharing, surely one of you two should go first,"

"Now girls, there's no sharing in the first task. In this bag is a small version of three very real and much larger dragons, you will put your hand in the bag and pick one. Don't worry, they do bite, but it's the equivalent of a paper cut," Kingsley stayed cheery as he gently shook the bag and opened it slightly for Leon to plunge his hand into.

The first task is DRAGONS?!

Uncle Harry told her of how he could've easily died while fighting his dragon, and she was just expected to dive into the same amount of risk? Creatures were not her forte, in fact, she was very happy spending her life away from creatures that could scorch her into ash in less than ten seconds. What charms was she meant to use on a dragon? Something that giant wasn't going to be distracted by fireworks and a flying feather. She may have been good at flying, but after Harry's story, that was out of the question. What would the task be? Did she have to tame it? Did she have to mount it? Did she-?

"Your turn, Miss Weasley," Kingsley's warm voice stopped her panicking from escalating any further.

Hesitantly, Victoire adjusted the glove of her trembling right hand and slid in into the bag. Instead of grabbing the small creature, she gave it a minute to mount her hand and as she pulled it out, it blew fire at her and snarled. Its scales were dark with ridges along its back and Victoire fought every impulse to drop it or throw it away from her.

"The Hebridean Black. A native of Scotland and my favourite just because I feel a connection to the name," fear took over Victoire's ability to laugh at Kingsley's joke, "female versions of these dragons will be nesting and guarding a golden egg amongst their own. Your task is to retrieve this egg, as it contains a clue to the next task. We're not savages at the ministry, so we have chained the dragons down and there are dragon keepers on hand if things get out of control."

Though Kingsley carried on talking, his words began to evaporate as Victoire looked into the small beady eyes of her dragon. It seemed primed to attack her, waiting for her to make the first move, but the longer she kept eye contact with it and remained still, its aggression subsided, and it simply curled into a ball on her hand. Maybe this would be how she'd tame the dragon to get the egg, but would it work on something a thousand times the size of what lay in her hand?

She was first, of course. Knowing that Alodie and Leon couldn't watch her struggle with her dragon created some sort of temporary ease, but fright almost petrified her as she stood at the opening of the tent.

"Remember, you are a skilled witch, use those skills," McGonagall placed her hand on her shoulder as the canon was fired and the music began.

She walked out onto the rocks on the beat of the base drum and the cheers erupted as she felt the suns light hit her face. The stadium was a mix of blues and reds, horns and flags, friends and strangers, but all cheering for her as she stood on the jet grey stone. But soon there was silence. Light bounced off of the golden egg, making it seem much more attainable as she estimated that it was one hundred metres away, but would require climbing over some lumps of rock. Slowly, she picked up a cold damp rock and threw it as far as she could. That's when it came. Her spine stiffened in fright as the almost thirty-foot-long dragon made its presence known as it suddenly blew fire at the rock. As she watched it stomp through the rocks, she took out her wand, making sure her movements were almost painfully slow and whispered, "Accio".

It wasn't that easy. How dumb was she to think they would allow the task to be that simple?

"Bombarda maxima!" Victoire directed her charm to rocks towards the left of the stadium.

The dragon breathed fire straight away at the rocks and proud of her trickery, Victoire ran in between two rocks that towered over her. As she came closer to the dragon, she aimed her wand at the ridges along its back, briefly admiring the darkness of its scales and how bat-like its wings were. Her two breaths before casting her next charm felt like they were in slow motion, but only last less than a second as the dragon began to turn to face her.

"Immobulus!" she smiled with relief as the colossal creature came to a halt, "time to run."

Dashing through the maze of rocks towards the egg gave her an adrenaline rush with her backing track being the cheers of the crowd. She kept her eyes fixed on the golden egg that shined on a rock the towered the others, giving her more and more determination and energy with every step she took. Even when she hit her arm into a rock, her need for the egg erased the pain and pushed her further. She was halfway there, but the cheering had stopped. A shrill cry of her name was her only warning. A warning that came too late. The swooping sound of the dragon's tail filled the air as it smacked into Victoire's back, propelling her side into a sharp piece of rock twice her size. She had never experienced so much pain. It felt like a sword had plunged into her lung, making every breath more painful than the last, needle sharp pulses darted through her broken arm and the excruciating throbbing in her head made her burst into tears. As she tried to find her feet, the scenery around her turned into a blur of different shades of grey, but soon a large dark blob began to create a stream of reds and oranges. She didn't know what was happening or what she was doing, she simply held up her wand and let her mouth move, "Aqua eructo!"

Jets of blue engulfed the reds and oranges, forcing the large black blob to hover backwards towards what she guessed was the golden egg. Her sight began to come back to her, but her hearing was completely impaired as once loud steps on the rock became muffled little taps. She took a couple of steps and fell to her feet with a cry of agony.

She couldn't go on.

The dragon glared at her, daring her to make her next move. She felt like a small frail bird just finding its feet as she stood up and took a deep painful breath. A glimpse of the prize helped her construct a plan that would mean as little movement as possible.

"Avis!"

A sound like a gunshot struck the air, creating gasps in the crowd. A flock of blue birds sprung into existence and with one look at Victoire, they began to screech as they darted in the direction of the egg. Before the dragon could fight them away, Victoire jetted streams of water over it, keeping its focus on her and disorientating it as she took slow painful steps back towards the exit of the arena. The screeches turned to cheerful chirps as the birds worked together to lift the golden egg and carry it towards Victoire. But pain was taking over and her energy was fading. The dragon attacked her with an eruption of fire, which pushed her onto the ground as she made it divert to the side.

"Please, I just need the egg, please," she whimpered through her tears as she stared into the dragons piercing purple eyes.

The dragon moved closer to her. She could hear the professors ordering the dragon keepers to prepare to act, but Victoire held up her hand, urging them to not move a muscle as she kept her desperate eye contact with the dragon. Agony and yearning poured from her eyes to the dragon's as its tail rested on the floor and it let its guard down.

"Thank you," she smiled weakly as the birds handed her the golden egg and she pushed herself back.

There was sympathy in the dragon's eyes as it watched her attempt to hold in her screams that came from the tiniest movements. Rapidly, she surrendered to the excruciating pain as she collapsed onto the cold stone, with the golden egg clutched to her chest with her remaining strength. She turned to look at her arm. Through her blurred vision, she could see the deep wound from the rock, her blood had mixed with the black ash covering her crooked out of place arm, the laceration created on her back from the arrow-shaped spike at the end of dragons tail made its stinging presence known and the pounding in her head possessed her whole body. The deep breath of the dragon warmed her frozen body before it moved back to guard its eggs and despite the cheering congratulations of the crowd, a smile was too difficult for her to form on her face.

"Victoire, my dear, can you hear us," McGonagall's comforting voice began to fade as it came closer to her.

As her eyes began to close, sending her into darkness, she took a sigh of relief. She had completed the first task.