Someday, I will own something of great value. This will not be Harry Potter, as J K Rowling already owns it.
The First Task
Harry and Hermionie fell upon Ryua when she was peacefully walking into the library early one morning. "There you are!" Harry exclaimed. "We've been looking everywhere, where've you been?"
"Er, in my common room, with the rest of the Slytherins?" Ryua said, rather taken aback at their overenthusiasm.
"Oh, right," Harry said.
"Listen, never mind that now," Hermionie cut in, "Ryua, do you know anything about dragons?"
"Sure. Why do you want to know?"
"Er..." Hermionie seemed a bit reluctant to say.
"Because it's my task on Tuesday, and I have no clue what to do!" Harry's nerves had been streached past the reluctant point, apparently. "We've been searching the library, but didn't find anything..."
"Okay already, let's sit down, alright? The middle of the doorframe isn't exactly a good place to have this conversation." Ryua led them to a nice, secluded little table and dropped her Charms homework without a second thought. "Now, what do you want to know?"
"Any weaknesses, or anything that would let me disable one or get past it somehow."
"Okay... well, a dragon's hide is impervious to just about erverything, that's why we use it for protection... it's claws can cut through anything from oak to granite, depending on the dragon... their flame has anywhere from a 20-50 feet range and the hottest can melt just about anything shy of admantine..."
"Admantine? What's that?"
"Unfortunately Harry, not something you can get easily. It's a very rare metal, theoretically indestructible, especially when magic-forged." Hermionie rattled off, sounding like a periodic table or something.
"Fine, admantine's out. How about a weakness, Ryua?"
"There aren't many. Dragons can swim, although they don't like to, so something really wet might annoy it... they like music..."
"Can't sing."
"Fine, be that way. You could make yourself really small, but not something a dragon might like to eat..."
"Unless Moody transfigures me for cursing someone, that's not happening."
"You are really being obstinate, aren't you? What're you so worried about, anyway? Dragons don't usually eat humans, at least not 2/3 of them, and Dumbledore'll have fed them so they won't go rampant. Just act very nonthreataning and walk past it."
"I don't think I can." Harry said glumly. "Charlie said they requested nesting mothers for some reason, I bet we have to get something from the eggs or something."
"Nesting mothers? You have got to be joking! They'll eat you if you get anywhere near their nest! Dragons are fiercely protective of their eggs... speaking of which, I wonder if I could get one..."
"Not you too!" Hermionie groaned, "Hagrid's already wondered that, could we please focus?"
"Okay, okay. Well, if you try to harm an egg, she'll do anything to stop you, maybe you can do something with that. Or you could try for the inside of it's mouth..."
"And how do I do that? Get eaten?"
"Well ..."
"Nuh-uh. Forget it. I'm not going anywhere near that head."
Ryua sighed. "Well then, I'm just about out of ideas. If you raise a dragon from the egg, it's fiercely loyal to you and would never harm you, but nesting mothers... that's just dangerous. I don't know, Harry. Have you asked anyone else?"
"No, I just found out last night. Fleur and Krum know, but not Cedric yet. Maybe I'll tell him, and we can brainstorm."
"Yeah, maybe. Don't you both have Herbology or something? That puts me in Transfiguration, I've got to get up to the tower before McGonnagall kills me..."
"I guess. Sprout might just feed us to a Venomous Tenticula or something. If you think of anything, tell us, okay?"
"Of course." Ryua picked up her bag full of (yet again) unfinished Charms work and left for Transfiguration.
Oddly enough, it turned out to be Harry and Hermionie who came up with an idea. They accosted her on her way out of the Great Hall at lunch. "Harry's been given an idea!""Yeah, the problem is, I can't work it."
"Really, what is it?" Ryua asked.
"I'm going to fly circles around the bloody great creature! The only problem with that brilliant plan is that I can't bring my Firebolt with me."
"Oh. That is a bit of a problem, isn't it? Well, you're good at Charms, just summon it." Although she couldn't work most of them, Ryua knew the spells.
"I can't do a summoning charm. I failed the lesson miserably."
"So, we figured you and I could coach him!" Hermionie concluded.
"Whoa. Wait. You actually think I can do a summoning charm?" At their blank looks and slow nods, Ryua sighed. "I'm failing Charms at the moment. For some reason, I can't seem to get about ¾ of them to work, and Accio is one of them."
"Oh..." Harry seemed rather saddened by this news.
"However, I know very well that Hermionie can summon anything to exactly where she's standing. So, get help from her, and come back to me when you need to blow something up or cause great amounts of pain. I'm really good at that."
"Well fine than. Be completely unhelpful!" Harry yelled in a mock-angry voice.
"Of course! Why would I help a whiny little Gryffindor like you?" She grinned and walked off, praying with all her might that Hermionie could teach him that charm. Especially because than she can teach it to me...
Tuesday arrived bright and clear. Harry wasn't eating at breakfast, although Hermionie was cajoling him to eat some oranges or something. Ryua filed out with the rest of the students, finding a seat right on the edge of the Slytherin house so that she could cheer without attracting attention.After twenty or so minutes, a Sweedish Shortsnout dragon, crouched on a pile of eggs, was manipulated with complex levitating spells into the arena. Cedric Diggory came out, looking absolutely terrified. The whistle blew, and he started scanning the arena frantically. Unfortunately for him, the grassy circle had been cleared of all debris, to allow for maximum room. He charmed his boots to levitate above the fence, spotting a rock about the size of a footstool twenty or so feet away. Staying carefully as far from the Dragon as possible, he dropped to the ground, levitating the rock in. He then started what Ryua recognized as an extremely high-level Transfiguration, and formed the rock into a loud, obnoxious, hyper Black Labrador. Diggory directed it off, trying to distract the dragon, as he snuck towards the nest, aiming for the tiny golden egg sitting on the pile. It actually looked like he'd get it, too, until the dragon roasted the dog with one puff, and turned back to Diggory. Everyone gasped as he broke into a desperate run to get the egg, and screamed as he dove from a jet of blue- white fire, cluching the egg in one hand, and running as fast as he could away from the dragon, trying to bat the flames on his head out with his other. Professor Flitwick dumped a floating globe of water on his head, dousing the fire, and pointed up at his marks being shot up by the judges as a dozen wizards stunned the dragon and switched it with a Common Welsh Green.
Once Diggory was safely in the hospital tent, Fleur was summoned out to meet her dragon. She started up an insanely complicated charm, also from the very far corner of the arena, one so complicated that Ryua couldn't recognize it. The dragon started to droop, slumping down on it's nest, leaving the golden egg just outside one talon. Fleur gulped, moving quickly but very quietly towards the nest. She got to the very tip of the dragon's tail when it let out a loud snore, which involved a large ball of fire, being a dragon. Fleur jumped, stifling a scream, and sent a jet of water onto her skirt, dousing the flames. Shaking now, she scrambled up to the egg and caught up the glittering gold one, and the dragon-wizards immediately took over. Her scores were shot up, she took an elegant bow, and walked into the tent to have light burns along her leg taken care of.
Krum was next, facing a very large, very irritated Chinese Fireball. It kept snorting balls of flame, keeping him at a distance. Ryua kept jerking in response to his awkward movements on the ground, wishing he wasn't quite so clumsy and slow. Wonder why he isn't flying? With a sudden decicive movement, he darted in under a particularily large fireball and sent a Conjunctavus curse at the dragon's eye. He's got a good aim. The dragon reared back with an ear-splitting scream of pain and rage, bucking and trampling around the arena. Ryua winced as egg after egg was broken underfoot. Krum finally managed to dart in under the tail and grab the golden egg out of a gooey mess. He glanced up at his scores, then shuffled off, as usual, not enjoying being in the spotlight.
And then it was Harry's turn. Looking very small, and very scared, Harry walked into the middle of the field, and Ryua could faintly hear him yelling "Accio Firebolt!" at the very top of his lungs. She sat forward on her seat, breathing out a huge sigh of relief as the sleek broom hurtled into the arena. Once in the air, Harry seemed much more relaxed. He ducked a few jets of flame, then managed to coax the Horntail up off her eggs just enough. He dove into a near-vertical stoop, not even shuddering as the dragon's tail dug into his shoulder, tearing a gouge halfway down his arm. Easily snatching the egg, Harry pulled out of the dive, and was immediately ushered into the hospital tent. Apparently they were worried he'd be poisoned.
When he came out, Harry didn't seem much interested in his marks, Ryua noticed, because not only was Hermionie on one arm, Ron was on his other, shouting insults up at Karkaroff who had only given Harry 4 out of 10. Oh, good. Now they should all start acting like themselves again.
