Darkness Rising: The Unicorn Hunt

by Three Craaaaaaaazy Aussies

In Harry’s seventh year, the Unicorn Hunt is to be held at Hogwarts, and the eight great schools of the Western Magisphere are called together to participate. With the darkness rising, nothing will go to plan.

10. The Quest

This one is for the third Craaaaaazy Aussie, the ever adorable if slightly moody Shadow Wolf, Aka Tegan - This Chapter (the Kallaixians in the quest) was her baby - We hope you like what we did with it, Kisses!

---

Chapter Ten: Quest

At a shocking six thirty Justine was woken by the insistent tapping of an owl on the window of her bedroom. Blearily she opened one eye and tried to roll over to ignore the tapping, but it continued and increased in volume until she was forced answer. She opened her eyes and yawned, then shook her head and got up to let the bird inside, along with a burst of chilly, British air. She grabbed the blanket from her bed and bundled up hastily, cringing at the sudden cold temp, due to the climate control on the ship she had been enjoying comfortable warmth. Sleepily, she took the note that the bird offered her.

Dear Justine Snape,

Please present yourself, along with Alyson Deveréaux, at Professor Albus Dumbledore's office upon receiving this note. Make yourself as presentable as possible.

There was no signature, and all Justine could say for sure was that it had not been Severus who sent the note, as it was not his writing. Throwing on the formal Kallaix uniform, which was a white collared shirt and a pleated white shirt, and a black v necked jumper with the school crest on the breast, then she went to wake Alyson, and the two of them made their way noisily upstairs – their version of a wake up call.

They wandered through the empty, silent halls of Hogwarts, until they reached the gargoyle that marked the entrance to Professor Dumbledore's study. "Wonder what the password is," Justine remarked. "It's probably changed since the last time we came here."

"Lemon Drop," a female voice said from behind them, they spun around to see Hermione approaching. "It was changed last week." She smiled a tentative greeting at the two Australians, "Good party last night, thanks for inviting me."

"You're welcome," Justine said, "You should see some of the parties we have back home … raging." The three of them walked up the staircase together. "So I'm guessing we've been called here to be the person who… for something to do with the Quest."

"It's very likely…" Hermione said as they approached the very door, Justine had broken through yesterday. "What do you know about the Quest? It's meant to be very hush hush."

"Well, we did a lot of supposing." Justine said lamely

"And we guessed some stuff…" Alyson said truthfully.

Thought the door Albus Dumbledore stood surrounded by six others. "Well the last of our little group has arrived at last. Ladies and Gentlemen, your role in the Quest today will be that of the rescued. Eight of you will be put under a simple sleeping spell, and you will be left in a clearing in the forest. During this portion of the Quest the contestants will have to get past three dragons and retrieve you. You have no need to fear." He added as the South African girl paled. "We will have teachers just inside the tree line to protect you."

Hermione seemed to be perplexed, "Professor, there are nine here, but you said only eight of us will be sleeping."

Alyson suddenly had a moment of clarity. "Justine won't be sleeping."

"Vhat do you mean, you von't be sleeping?" The Durmstrang boy asked.

"Justine is the Head Girl of Kallaix Academy, Australia, and when she took on the role of the Head of that school something truly remarkable happened as always does, she has gained some control over the draconic kind." Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling.

"So I'll be there playing babysitter." Justine finished.

"Well actually we are having some trouble with the dragons, and will need you to take on more of a commanding role." Said Minerva McGonagall as she entered the room.

"Let's go!" Justine replied. "What breeds am I working with?"

"Your own House dragon, The Wentworth and another from your school, Steelwell. Also a Norwegian Ridgeback."

"You brought Steelwell?" Justine demanded. "Steelwell's a stuck up snob! You'd be better of with Kris who he actually respects ... of course, he can't control Wentworth easily..."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled madly, "I'm sure you'll do a remarkable job," he told her. "Minerva will show you to the dragons, in a moment. The rest of you are here because you have been chosen as the most beloved of your schools, and part of the Quest asks for someone to be sleeping to be rescued from the dragons, and to be guided, unconscious, through the rest of the maze. I'm afraid that if you do not wish to be involved with this, your school will not be able to participate ... your roles here are irreversible."

Everyone in the room nodded quickly, none of them were prepared to forfeit the seventy possible points that the Quest could win for them. "For all but one of the schools, a Head student, generally the female of the pair was chosen, for obvious reasons ... of course, for Kallaix this was impossible, as the Head Girl, was needed elsewhere."

"Alyson is more ... loved than I am anyway," Justine said, "I'm probably more respected, but she's the lovable one."

Dumbledore smiled slightly, "Well, since we don't have any problems, let's head down to the dragon grove - remember, with Justine accompanying us, we are perfectly safe!" with that, he stood up and lead the procession down to the forest.

Justine and Electra were walking last, chatting quietly together; Alyson was up the front with Hermione, also talking. They walked through the forest, with most of the students shivering and looking around fearfully - Justine wasn't scared, knowing that there were three of the Kallaix dragons here, within her call if necessary.

Then the roaring began, as Dumbledore, Alyson and Hermione walked into a clearing where the dragons were being kept. Justine immediately began pushing everyone ahead of her trying to get to the clearing before any of the dragons did anything dangerous.

When she made it, an unfamiliar black dragon was getting ready to breath fire, though the two Kallaix dragons seemed happy enough to just roar. Justine stalked into the centre of the clearing, propped her hands on her hips and spoke in English for the benefit of her human company.

"SIT!" she thundered, and they all immediately did so, the black dragon looking rather confused, Wentworth and Steelwell looking resigned.

McEwen told us that we were only supposed to leave the brooding black haired one and the flaming hair children - has Tanya multiplied? Wentworth asked.

"No, Tanya hasn't breed yet - those are the Weasley's," Justine replied.

None of these are red heads - she's a blonde Wentworth said, extending a claw to point at Alyson, who glared at him.

"Excuse me?" she said, mimicking Justine's pose.

Oh, apologies Alyson, Wentworth said, retreating the claw and looking down in shame.

"You're forgiven," Alyson smiled widely at her house dragon, which cheered it up immensely.

"Well, now that the dragons seem to be under control, could all of you please go and lie on your beds, over there, so that I might place the charm on you," Dumbledore addressed the rest of the group. "Justine, you'll have to make yourself comfortable - we hadn't thought to prepare for you, as we didn't think that we would need to."

Justine rolled her eyes and turned pleading eyes to the Wentworth dragon, almost immediately it lay down, arranged itself so that one of its legs was extended away from its body, Justine lay down, sprawled over the dragons leg, and Steelwell lay down beside her, spreading one wing over to cover her.

Dumbledore, having placed the charm on the other students, looked enquiringly at her. "It's ten to seven and it was a long party and I had every intention of sleeping in this morning, since I wasn't supposed to be involved with the Quest," she told him, "Excuse me," with that she closed her eyes and was asleep before Dumbledore had left the clearing.

---

Harry stirred and opened his eyes, reaching out one hand to absently pat the area beside him. His hand hit the bed, rather than the warm body he had been expecting, and Harry sat up fast. The sheets on his bed were tousled and messy, but he was definitely the only person there.

"Hermione?" he asked, keeping his voice soft as he looked for his girlfriend. She had been there the night before, when they'd gotten back from the party. He remembered only because he hadn't really wanted her there. Somehow he didn't like spending time with her as much as he had before. But she had insisted that they should sleep together to try 'make up' for the bad mood that 'both of them seemed to have been in lately'.

Then again, since they slept in the DA tower these days, and when they had first come into the tower, they had decided to share a room, rather than have separate ones. Now Harry was starting to regret that, although he did admit that it was good being able to share the warmth on the colder nights over Christmas break.

He and Hermione had been sharing a bed for the past several months now, although nothing ever really happened, and both of them were reasonably happy to keep it that way. Harry more so than ever now. Draco had been urging Harry to take it further, but Harry was fairly sure that this was just Draco being Draco and pretending that he'd been everywhere and done everything, and was therefore entitled to give advice to everyone else … wanted or not.

He was fairly sure Draco hadn't ever actually done anything either, and was just trying to show off, but he kept quiet, avoiding the arguments that would ensue if he called Draco to task on the fact.

Still, that wasn't aiding his wondering about Hermione. He slipped out of bed and pulled his robes hastily over his boxers and t-shirt, a silent charm calling light into the room. There was no sign of Hermione. The clothes she'd worn to the party were still sitting, neatly folded on the floor beside her bed. Her habit of folding the clothes that she had been wearing was something that Harry laughed at her about every night. His own robes were simply tossed on the floor each night, which Hermione constantly admonished him about.

Looking around, he deduced that Hermione was not in the room, and must have left without much warning, because otherwise she would have dressed. She was incredibly self-conscious, and usually did her best to be fully dressed before Harry had even

woken up properly.

Slipping out of his room, Harry went next door to Draco's room and shook his brother awake. Draco opened his eyes blearily, hand going to his wand, and muttered something sleepily, to the effect of hurting Harry for waking him up.

"Have you seen Hermione?" Harry asked straight over Draco's half-formed protestations at being woken up. "She was gone when I woke up … she must have left in a hurry."

"So you finally took my advice and tried something, and you were so bad that you made her run off? Well done," Draco muttered caustically.

"Ouch," Harry remarked, "What happened to make you so bitchy?"

"You don't want to know," Draco replied, burying his face under his pillow. "Now f-off. I don't care where your girlfriend is."

Harry looked at Draco, "I'll talk to you again when you're civil," he told his brother and left the room. Something pretty significant must have occurred the night before – while Draco could be incredibly nasty when he wanted to be, he very rarely lost his temper at Harry.

Harry walked around the tower looking for Hermione, but was unable to find her anywhere he looked. Readying his wand, he returned to Draco's room, and found that his brother hadn't moved since he had left. "Draco, I don't care what happened last night, but you're going to get up now and help me think where Hermione has gone," Harry said, just as Ron slammed into the room.

"What are you doing still sleeping?" he demanded, "The Quest starts in an hour!"

"Plenty of time," Draco muttered, not looking up, but Harry looked stricken.

"Draco, what were we doing with the hostages in the Quest?" Harry asked.

"Don't care," was the reply.

"Argh!" Harry yelled, then wheeled around, shoved past Ron and returned to his own room. Why was no one being helpful this morning? He could only assume that Hermione had been chosen as the Quest hostage, which set his mind to rest about where she was. Now, if only he could remember what was going to happen to the Quest hostages, he would be a little bit happier. He knew that they were in some form of danger, although he wasn't sure if they would actually be in a position to get hurt. It could be that there was something dangerous near them …

Harry shook his head as he redressed in clothes somewhat more appropriate for the Quest and returned to find Ron and Draco downstairs, Draco snarling at Ron, who seemed more than a little amused. Ron's amusement was clearly not making Draco any happier.

"What happened?" Harry asked with a sigh, realising immediately that if he didn't step in, Ron and Draco would be at each other's throats very quickly.

"I woke him up," Ron said innocently.

"Your methods were completely uncalled for!" Draco yelled back. Harry noticed that Draco's hair was damp, and immediately deduced that Ron had used some form of water to wake Draco up.

"If he dumped water on you, how are you so dry now?" he asked tiredly.

"He started glowing black, and his eyes went all glowy" Ron admitted, "And the water on him turned mostly to steam. I didn't hang around after that, figured it wasn't good for my overall health."

"No, it wouldn't have been," Harry said, feeling a lot more troubled than he let show. If Draco was losing control of his emotions and letting his magic escape from him, then all was not good. In fact, things were rather dangerous. Still, he wouldn't have time to confront Draco over those changes until a later date, he figured.

"I've calmed down now," Draco said, before Harry could ask, "I'm going to go and get ready for the Quest … but Weasley had better watch himself when he goes to sleep from now on …" the threat in Draco's voice wasn't even remotely hidden. Harry wasn't sure how far Draco would take revenge, but he was very glad that he wasn't Ron. Draco rarely forgave without getting his revenge first, and he didn't forget.

"Good, I'll meet you down in the Great Hall for breakfast," Harry said, his stomach suddenly churning faintly. He wondered what he had dreamed up to put himself through in the Quest, and wasn't sure that he wanted to remember. After all, he hadn't wanted to make it too easy, that much he could recall.

"Damn," he muttered to himself, "I wish I hadn't agreed to let Dumbledore take away my memories of this."

---

Tegan had been rudely awakened this morning at seven so that she would be ready in time. I mean honestly, what did they take her for, she wasn't Justine who took fifteen minutes just to do her hair, all she did was shove on her uniform shirt and her blue McEwan jumper, then pull on her uniform pants and tie her hair out of her face, thanking whoever was watching over her that it seemed to be behaving today. She had fallen back to sleep after catching Severus at about six thirty and had completely forgotten about the Quest. She heard later; when she was properly awake, that Kris and Ax did paper, scissors, rock to figure out who would have to wake her up again. It turned out to be Ax, which was a good thing because he had reflexes good enough to block the sudden swipe she had aimed at him.

Now it was 7:30 and she was waiting in the Kallaix event tent with Kris, Ax and Jacque, off to one side hovering over the coffee percolator waiting for it to be finished. She didn't like to conjure her coffee, so she made what she called 'the real stuff', instant coffee was nasty. The rest of the Kallaix students were hanging out in the tent behind Jacque, some helping her with the equipment. Other yawning and laying against one another. To one side of the tent, in an area which had gone up to today as an unnoticed 'garden' area of the forest, a huge maze was set, with fifteen foot tall leafy walls. It seemed ominous to Tegan's cotton wool filled head, sort of eerie, as the tree line and maze cast deep shadows across the dew covered tents, hiding the early morning sunshine.

She was suddenly aware of heated whispering behind her. She tuned into the present and listened, her everyday sense of hearing excellent from her, uh, condition each full moon.

"… look just go and give her a hug. She needs one." a familiar adult voice said, she couldn't put her finger on which it was...

"Are you kidding? She is not a morning person! If I tried to give her a hug I'll get turned into a newt or something! Newts live in RIVERS! Swim around in water full of pollution! Don't get decent root or anything... just die." she heard Kris say in a very similar voice.

"You know he's right," Ax said, "It actually happened once. Some guy cut in front of her one morning; she whipped out her wand and turned him into a roach. She was about to step on him but the teachers saved his life. She was on detention for about a month, but she said she would do it again if need be." Tegan snorted to herself quietly, that little butthead had cut in and taken the last of the donuts. In her opinion he got off lightly.

"I heard about that, I didn't think it was true though. Good Lord. But she wouldn't do it to me, I'm the Minister of Magic and her favourite adopted uncle. I'm special." Gregory Crompton sounded smug.

Tegan recognised the voice now and sighed, true she wouldn't do it to him but she was still not in any mood to be hugged. She spun around and wandered over to the trio, "Hi Greg, how are ya?"

"I'm good, but you look like you need a hug, and these pansy's aren't up to hugging a real girl." blue eyes twinkling out from a smiling face, Greg resembled his son in many ways, most of all his eyes.

"Oh fine," Tegan said with a sigh of exasperation.

She gave him a hug then winked back to the boys. Kris just gaped and pouted, "How come he gets a hug and I don't? Can I have a hug?"

"No." Tegan said flatly

"Don't you want a hug from me?"

"No."

"Aww come on." Kris said walking up to her with arms spread.

She whipped out her wand and put the point under his chin and said, "No."

"Fine, I feel so rejected."

"You'll live, if only to piss me off," Tegan muttered putting her wand away and walking into the tent.

---

Five minutes later a loud voice boomed across the clearing, "Will all participants of the Quest please make their way to the far side of the clearing? Thank you."

Tegan forced herself into a slightly better frame of mind. They walked over to where a crowd was quickly growing. They pushed themselves to the front of the crowd where they saw Harry standing on a podium. Around it were some adults including Greg so she figured these must all be the Ministers of Magic for each country represented by a school.

"Good Morning," Harry called out, "I just though you would all like to know the scores as they stand now.

"I must say they are close but in first place we have Kallaix Academy with 133 points." he paused for a moment to allow the Kallaix students and supporters to cheer, and cheer they did, "In second place we have Hogwarts with 106 points." All the Hogwarts students and supporters cheered, making a considerably larger commotion.

Tegan tuned out at that stage, happy they were in the lead but aware they could be overtaken, especially as the points for this even were inclusive. They would all have to work their butts off to maintain the lead. A soft nudge in her side from Ax brought her back to the present and Harry's speech.

"So you all have about 5 minutes before the first school enters Durmstrang, then there will be a half hour between schools. Good luck." Harry said before stepping off the podium and wading into the crowd where Tegan promptly lost sight of him.

Tegan blinked a few times still in the process of waking up when she heard someone call out. "Kris, Tegan, Ax"

She turned around and saw Harry approaching with someone in tow. Stopping in front of them he grinned, gesturing to the pretty girl with tanned skin and long sun streaked blonde hair, Tegan vaguely thought she looked a lot like one of the girls from the party the night before.

"I just wanted to introduce Tegan and Ax to Nymphadora Tonks."

"Harry, call me Nymphadora and I will kill you! You know the rules, it's just Tonks thanks," she said.

The boys nodded hello, "I'm Kris, we met last night, this is Ax, my 'tribute' buddy, and this is Tegan, who usually doesn't have this weird look on her face." his eyebrows rose at Tegan's intent expression.

"You smell familiar." Tegan murmured.

"Smell?" Tonks asked a little perplexed, a little amused.

"Yeah, she tends to recognise people by scent rather then sight." Kris explained.

"She's the werewolf." Harry whispered to Tonks.

"Oh, ok, that makes sense."

Tegan listened to this with half an ear, she was to busy trying to figure out where she had smelled Tonks before. Suddenly she remembered and a look of revelation swept over her face.

"It was you!"

"It was me what?" Tonks asked.

Tegan started to laugh, "Lets play Ax's favourite game, his version of Cluedo."

Ax suddenly realised what she was talking about and gave a cheeky grin, "Who got freaky last night?" he looked around, "Tegan?"

"It was Tonks, in the cruiser library, with..." Tegan started to say but was cut off by Tonks slapping a hand over her mouth and pointing her wand at her face menacingly.

"Say it and I will shove a hex so far up your nose your head will explode. Understand?" Tonks said in a low voice. Tegan nodded her head, a look of amusement in her eyes.

Harry and Kris stood there looking confused. Tonks stalked off, Harry gave another confused look in Tegan's direction before following. When they were out of sight Tegan and Ax cracked up laughing. Kris stood and waited for them to finish.

"Are you going to tell me now?" he asked after a few moments

"Well I woke up earlier this morning and I could smell that someone had gotten freaky last night. At first I assumed it was just Ax, after a few more sniffs I realised that it wasn't. It was..." Tegan started to laugh again unable to control herself.

"Well?" Kris asked, impatient that a potentially funny piece of gossip was being kept from him.

"Tegan!" someone yelled.

Tegan looked up and around. Then she squealed and dashed off with Kris and Ax close behind. She flung herself at a guy who was wearing dark sunnies and a baseball cap. The boys caught up with her and grinned.

"Jeez Mark what are you doing here? Not that I really don't appreciate it. Look at you wearing the incognito gear!" Tegan said.

"Well this event was open for the public and I decided to come along and support our school, I'm gonna be hanging out with all the others in the tent, but first I think I'm going to conjure some coffee… " Mark said.

"Good idea. We chucked a big party last night. The others are probably still wearing off the effects."

"Well I suppose they are forgiven, partying can be tiring. So why aren't you sleeping?" He asked, concerned that his little sister wasn't getting enough sleep so soon after the full moon.

"Will the Kallaix contestants please make their way to the starting point now, they will be the second school to enter." A loud voice called.

"I got to go now Mark, love you heaps." Tegan walked off following Ax and Kris.

"Wait, Tegan! Hang ON! You two better take care of her!" He yelled after them.

Kris and Ax just waved and kept going. They joined up with the other contestants of the hunt at the entrance of a huge maze. Looking around Tegan spotted the Hogwarts team, which were Harry, Ron and Draco. Tegan smiled to her self self-assuredly.

---

"Are you ready Kallaix Contestants?"

The boys said 'yes' and Tegan's voice could be heard mutinously saying 'no'.

After many assurances from Kris and Ax that he should just let them in because Tegan was fine, he said loudly "On your mark, get set, GO!"

A loud cheer accompanied Kallaix as they took their turn early on and entered the maze. Inside the entrance there was a small clearing with waist high columns arranged in a circle. On each collum there was a school crest. The Kallaix team headed over to their collum. On it was a piece of paper, Kris picked it up.

"What is it?" Ax asked peering over his shoulder.

"It's a list." Kris replied.

"Well. What's the first thing on it?" Tegan asked.

"Uh... we have to learn the dance printed on the back. It says here that we can only go through the dance steps three times, then it'll disappear."

"Great, no point me learning it, my memory is woeful for that kind of thing." Tegan said. "But why do we have to learn a dance? What do we need dancing for?"

"You remember that bird thing from the Quest info sheets we accidentally have? You have to learn a dance to get the feather so you can control it," Jacque's voice came in on the microphones she had painstaking installed on them this morning. The sheets they had managed to get turned out not to be instructions, rather information sheets on each of the creatures in the event, without instructions on when or where they would come.

"Well I could learn it, it looks easy enough." Kris said.

"You? You're going to memorise a dance by only doing it three times?" Ax asked, sceptic.

"Have you ever been dancing with Justine?" Kris asked.

"Yeah."

"No, not at parties, professionally like at Dad's balls and such."

"Er, no."

"Lucky. Well I have and she is a harder task master then this paper, she expected me to have learned the Tango by the second time around and the waltz after the first time, so compared to her this is easy."

Ax and Tegan just looked at Kris with sceptical looks.

"Fine, you don't believe me, watch."

He put the paper down and looked at the steps. He went through them the first time slowly, the second time he sped up, then handing the paper to Ax, he went through the steps flawlessly the third time. The steps on the paper then disappeared.

"Well. Congrats. But we have a Quest to do, so what's next?" Tegan said.

Ax looked at the paper; "We have to find this bird and get the feather on top of its head," He showed them the little drawing of the bird.

Tegan gave feral grin, "Let's go hunting."

With that they rushed off into the maze. They walked around the twists and turn for a few minutes before stopping at an intersection. The walls were thick with small green laves, and an ivy like vine grew weaved through the branches. Tegan would bet that the walls of the maze were cursed so you couldn't blast your way through, but wondered if she should anyway. She stopped the group by holding out a hand.

"Well, can you smell it Tegan?" Kris asked.

"Smell what?" Tegan asked, distracted for a moment.

"The bird."

"You dick, what is she, our damn animal detector?" Ax drawled disdainfully.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask and the answer is no, for starters I don't know what the bird smells like in general and secondly there is more then one animal species roaming the maze with us."

"What? And you neglected to inform me because?" Kris asked.

"Because the creatures didn't smell like a threat. I would have told you if it did." Tegan said in a tone of voice that suggested it was an obvious answer.

"Well of course they won't smell like a threat to you 'cause you're a werewolf. Werewolf's can take on almost anything, what about us, huh? We might want a little fun?" Kris fired back.

"Focus." Ax said.

"What?" they both said at the same time.

"Kris you better bust the moves because according to the list the dance is the only way to get the feather from the bird. That bird." He pointed at something over Kris's shoulder.

Kris and Tegan both turned and looked at the bird, which had entered the intersection. It was at least three meters from the top of its feather-crested head to its clawed feet. It was all different shades of the sunset, and reminded the Australians strongly of an overly dressed Emu. The bird peered at them. Kris slowly took a few steps forward and did the dance carefully. When he finished they all waited. He wasn't the most graceful boy, but many years of football, Quidditch and numerous other sports had given him a keen awareness of his body and how it worked and he pulled the dance of beautifully. Finally the bird walked a few steps forward and lowered its head towards Kris. Kris reached a trembling hand up and plucked the golden feather from the top of the crest.

As soon as he got it a bag appeared on the ground. Tegan picked up the bag and held it open. Kris dropped the feather in and gave a grin.

"What now?" He asked Ax.

"Now we find the way out of this godforsaken maze."

"Great. Lets go!" Kris said.

---

Harry, Ron and Draco looked at the piece of paper twenty minutes later as they entered the mazethat had their instructions. "We have to learn a dance," Ron repeated after Harry had told the other two what was going on. "How the hell are we supposed to do that?"

"I'm taking it that I'm the only one who took dancing lessons for twelve years?" Draco drawled, and smirked when the other two looked at him. "Give me the paper," he said, holding out his hand.

Harry and Ron looked at one another and burst into laughter simultaneously, leaning against each other and positively howling. It was as much that Draco had done dance lessons as the pompous tone that he had used. Draco scowled at them, snatched the paper from Harry's trembling hand and read through the instructions, carefully reading through and practicing the dance while his two companions recovered from their laughing spree.

"You two really aren't the supportive, helpful people I'd appreciate doing this with," Draco remarked, "I could just walk off and leave you, and then where would you be? You wouldn't have anyone who could do the dance and you'd be screwed."

"If we were screwed, then Hogwarts would be too," Ron pointed out, "And you wouldn't do that. Not even you could be arrogant enough to think that you could get through the Quest on your own, Draco."

Harry noted that Ron had called the Slytherin boy Draco rather than Malfoy, which was a good sign. He wasn't sure how Draco would take the implication that he was arrogant, he was, of course, but that didn't mean he admitted it … at least, he didn't in most company.

Despite the laughter, Draco didn't get self-conscious and practiced the dance rather than responding to Ron's quip, which relieved Harry. He noticed that his brother went through the dance with a smooth grace. He didn't know what the dance was supposed to look like, but Draco made it look good without looking like he was even trying.

When the paper disappeared after the third practice, Draco just nodded, indicating that he was ready to proceed into the maze. "Which way are we supposed to go?" Ron enquired, looking at the options that immediately presented themselves. The other two boys just shrugged, "Are we allowed to use Point Me?"

"Should be," Harry said, raising his hand, "Point Me," he said, fully expecting to see an arrow appear above his hand to show them which was they should go. Instead, a miniature of the maze appeared on his palm, a purple line connecting where they stood with the way out. "I didn't mean for it to do that," he said immediately, worried that it was cheating.

"The Point Me spell is allowed in the rules," Draco shrugged, "We may as well take advantage of anything that will help us, after all. Let's go – we know where we have to end up, but we still have to find the bird before we leave. So lets just follow the path, and hopefully we'll run into one … if not, we can go back and look through the maze until we do find one."

Ron and Harry just shrugged. Draco was right, they weren't technically cheating, they supposed. "Let's go then," Harry nodded and started forward, heading along the path that coincided with the purple line on his hand. At the third intersection they came across, a huge bird that looked as if it's feathers were made of fire was pacing out of one of the other ways that they could go, stalk like legs allowing it to move gracefully, a huge feather rising up from it's forehead.

"I think that's the bird," Ron remarked.

"Yeah," Harry agreed, and pushed Draco forward, "Put those dancing lessons to good use," he told his brother, he and Ron stepping back to give Draco room. Draco nodded and stepped forward, starting the dance immediately, showing no sign of nerves as he performed to an excellent degree.

When he finished, the bird lowered it's head, offering the feather to Draco. Draco reached out and took the feather from the head of the bird. Once he had, it rubbed his hand against his shoulder, almost suggestively. "Looks like Draco found a girlfriend," Ron teased, stepping forward now that it was safe to continue.

"If you ignore the species gap, and the fact that I don't even know if it's a girl," Draco sneered in response. To the surprise of the three boys, to the bird looked almost put out by Draco's manner, and turned to stalk away as if hurt. "Which way now?"

"This way," Harry said, pointing down a path. When they headed down it, the bird turned back and followed them at a distance. "I think it's following us," Harry remarked. "Guess it's supposed to do that."

"Maybe she just thinks that Draco's handsome," Ron suggested, ducking away from Draco's half-hearted punch.

They were nearly at the edge of the maze before they encountered anything else, with the bird still following them at a distance. As they turned down another path, they found a small Gerbil-like like thing trundling up and down a small section of the path. It was almost sweet in appearance, with wide, innocent eyes.

"What's that?" Ron asked.

"I don't know, but I don't trust it," Draco replied, eyeing the creature with distrust.

"Let's just walk slowly passed it," Harry suggested, "Ron, keep your wand out, Draco, be ready," he raised his own hand, ready to cast a spell if necessary, and started forwards, watching the creature from the corner of his eye, but keeping an eye on what was ahead of them, in case this was only to divert their attention from something more dangerous.

He made it passed without any mishaps, and nothing new appeared from anywhere. He turned around to watch as Ron, the most vulnerable of their party and thus walking between the two more powerful, walked behind him, like Harry, only watching the creature with a cursory interest.

Finally, it was Draco's turn to walk through. The little creature turned its sweet eyes on the blonde boy, who stared back into them with a faint sneer and a dominating gleam in his eyes. Immediately, the creature gave a angry shriek and reared up, breathing out a poisonous looking red mist. Draco was rooted to the spot and couldn't move to escape as the mist surrounded him. When it had cleared, the creature had moved away, trundling down the path and Draco was lying, curled up and fast asleep on the ground where he must have fallen.

Harry leapt over immediately and cast a spell to try and wake Draco up. His brother jolted upright immediately, then sat back groggily. "Ow, my head," he groaned, reaching up a hand to massage his forehead as if it pained him. "What happened?"

"The thing attacked you. I guess you just didn't charm it like you did that bird … guess it must have been a guy," Ron replied with a wicked grin. Draco just muttered half-heartedly in response to the claim, and held out his hand for Harry to help him up. Harry hauled him to his feet, and threw one of Draco's arms over his shoulder, indicating that Ron should go to Draco's other side and support him from there.

By the time that they had reached the end of the maze, Draco had mostly woken up, and his team mates were teasing him about being floored by a cute little hamster-gerbil.

---

"Kris we are lost! Trust a male to have no bloody sense of direction" Tegan said after they had been wondering around the maze for fifteen minutes.

"No we're not, I know exactly where we are." Kris stated in a macho yet uncertain tone.

"Then why were we here just five minutes ago, hmm?"

"How do you know if we've been here already?"

"Because I can smell our trail, we've been going around in circles."

"Well, I know one way to solve this problem." Ax said as he took out his sword.

"I agree," Kris said, "On the count of three. One..."

"Guys, don't. I don't think were allowed to start blasting holes. Follow me, I think we might have a way out." Tegan said sniffing the air.

Tegan was catching a faint whiff of the Hogwarts team. She could smell the confidence they had so she figured they might have some way to get out of the maze, trust them to have pulled in front of Kallaix already, when they must have been the third school to enter a whole twenty minutes after Kallaix. After another 10 minutes they finally reached the entrance, Hogwarts had just passed through it. Tegan silently thanked them. The maze ended near the edge of the lake and an arrow sign confirmed the direction was straight into it's murky depths.

---

Leon, standing with Tanya, watched as Jacque sat at her computer, getting the scores for the first rounds of the Quest. They had retreated to the Kallaix Information Tent because the Hogwarts people were glaring at Leon and Oliver, who were both standing with the Australians. Oliver and Adam were talking about Quidditch more than concentrating on what was going on with the Quest.

Leon, of course, was happy to be surrounded by people from his own country, who could actually understand his way of speaking, even when he was at his most obscure. "So, how's Kallaix doing?" Tanya asked, standing beside Leon and spending a lot of her time talking to him, catching up on everything now that they both knew that the other was a part of the Magical World also.

Scattered all around the tent were the pages from the Quest info sheets. Leon had been informed of what was going on when he had accompanied them to the tent, as had Oliver. Oliver's words upon finding out had been, "I really should do something about that, but I can't be bothered. You had to work to get the sheets, so I guess your ingenuity in getting the sheets makes up for the cheating. Or something… whatever."

Leon had just shrugged, "You're Aussies, like me. I'm not telling anyone."

So Jacque had the group of Kallaix students with her sorting through the plans so that she knew exactly what was coming up, and what to do about it. Jacque's screen flashed, and a large seven appeared on it. "OK, so we go a seven … we should have done better, but we took too much time getting out, and apparently no one had faith that Kris could learn the dance – of course they did, it was just general bickering," Jacque remarked, glaring at the screen.

"I'll go check on what Hogwarts got," Leon said, and hurried out. Tanya glanced after him, then went to help Jeffery sort through the information on the Lake, which was the next task in the Quest.

Leon arrived back panting, "Hogwarts got nine," he told them, a little breathlessly, "Lost a point getting out, ran into some sort of evil hamster."

"Why were you running?" Tanya enquired.

"The other Hogwarts students chased me away – apparently I'm a traitor to the school because I'm hanging out with you instead of them, I think Seamus was kidding, but I ain't taking no chances" Leon replied.

"I see," Tanya said, voice dangerous, reaching for her wand.

"What's she doing?" Leon asked.

"Stop her!" Saul yelled, leaping for Tanya and scattering papers everywhere, Jeffery leaping to help him, but managing to avoid knocking anything over. Tanya had already taken a running step for the door when Saul and Jeffery knocked into her.

Saul went straight for her wand, and Jeffery held her arms while she growled and snarled obscenities, seemingly directed at the Hogwarts students, revolving around the theme, "How dare they diss my friends! I'll kill them!"

Jacque, who was alternating between scowling at the papers now settling on floor and glancing at her computer screen. "If someone could pick up those papers, I do need to know what's going on in the Lake, and that will be rather hard with the papers all over the floor and in no order at all," she remarked disgustedly.

"Oops," Saul muttered.

"That comment was directed at you, Saul," Jacque told him.

"Dammit."

---

They jogged down to the shore of the lake and stood there looking at the list. Ax seemed to be driven on by the idea that somehow, Hogwarts had seemed to over take their half hour lead into the maze. It was then that they realised that the bird was still with them.

"What are you doing here?" Ax asked.

Since he was not expecting an answer he got the biggest shock of his life when the bird answered, "You will need me later on. In any case, you are in possession of my feather, and I want it back. But at the rate you are going, the future looks grim."

"Right…." Ax's eyebrows shot up "The bird talks … Does it always talk?"

"Only when an intelligent question is directed at it. A good thing Saul didn't end up on the Quest team," Jacques voice came over the headsets. She sounded pissed off. "The birds are, by the way, sadistic by nature. I wouldn't pay much attention to anything it says."

"Oh yay, just what I always wanted, to be stuck in the company of a sadistic budgie," Ax muttered rebelliously. The bird, if it had had a human face, would have been scowling murderously, as it was, it managed to do a pretty good impression as it stalked away. "Well, let's go," Ax said, not in the least bit concerned that the bird was walking away from them.

"Should we, like … get it back?" Kris wondered.

"We have the feather, we have the power," Tegan replied.

"Exactly," Ax nodded. "So, what are we waiting for?"

"Ax, we can't go anywhere until you tell us what we have to do next." Tegan reminded him.

"Oh right, well, it says here that we have to go into the lake and get a pearl. That sounds easy enough."

"I bet'cha there's a catch." Kris said suspiciously.

"Yeah there is, how do we get the pearl? What charm or spell are we going to use?"

"Guys, since Saul has managed to scatter all the Lake papers everywhere, I can't get you much info, but I have a sheet here saying there are some pretty nasty little beasties in the lake," Jacque told them. "Something called a 'Naga' – it says there are pictures on the next page, but no one can find it. Saul! Sort the bloody papers out!" she added to someone else.

"Well, getting to the pearl should be easy enough … and I'm sure that we won't have to deal with the Naga's too personally," Kris pointed across the lake to where the Kallaix yacht and the Durmstrang ship were sitting, "See unlike the other schools, we have a secret weapon."

Tegan gave a big grin as she realised what Kris was talking about, "Well let's call her over and get started."

Within moments the McEwan dragon was gliding silently over to where they stood on the shore.

"Honey, do you think you could help us with a little problem. We need to get to the bottom of the lake to get a pearl and we don't have anything really effective, so we were wondering if you wouldn't mind helping?" Tegan said.

I do not like this, children. I do not want you to come into the lake. There is something bad here. Something I do not like. I was not told of its arrival, and had I been asked, I would not have allowed it. If I could kill it, I would, but it is protected by something. Go elsewhere, McEwen told them, glancing at the waters.

"She doesn't want us to go into the lake," Tegan told Ax, who couldn't understand, Kris could hear her, as the Head Boy of Kallaix he had the same powers of Justine. "They are called Naga, we don't know exactly what they are … but we have to go into the lake, it's part of the reason we came here."

You should not come here, forget what you came for and go elsewhere, McEwen insisted.

"It's for the glory of the school. We lose this, we go home with nothing and Hogwarts gets all the glory."

Very well, step into the waters, McEwen said instantly.

"It's a good thing that McEwey loves Kallaix more than us," Kris muttered.

Ax and Tegan chuckled as they walked into the water. "I feel so unloved," Ax remarked.

The glory of the school is all encoumapssing, McEwen told them calmly.

"She says that the glory of the school is all," Tegan translated.

As they walked into the lake the McEwan dragon started to sing. As they kept walking they noticed that a bubble was forming around them.

"Cool" Kris said.

"Thank you" Tegan said to the dragon.

You are welcome. As long as you stay underwater the bubble will stay with you and if you need to separate you will each gain an individual bubble for yourselves. Good Luck. I go to search out these Naga; I will attempt to distract them for you.

With that the dragon swam off. They kept walking down into the lake, soon finding that they had to use their wands to cast light.

"So do you think we can swim or do we have to walk all the way" Kris asked.

Ax shrugged, "Lets give it a try." With that he jumped up only to come back down. Kris and Tegan stood to one side in the second bubble as they watched Ax.

"Ax I don't think we have enough time to be wasting it." Tegan pointed out.

"Hang on! I just want to try something." He said.

Ax slowly put his hand towards the bubbles sides. As his hand touch he kept pushing and the bubble formed around his hand. He kept going until there was an Ax sized bubble around him.

"Hey, I wanna try that" Kris said. Kris started to walk towards the bubble wall himself. The result was the same for him.

"Come on Tegan. As you said we don't have time to waste." Ax said.

Tegan rolled her eyes; "Fine I'm coming" She walked out of the big bubble towards the boys who had started to swim away. She came out with her own shaped bubble suit and started to swim after the boys. She was surprised by how easily she managed to move through the water and quickly caught up with Ax and Kris.

"So, how are we going to find the pearl?" Tegan asked, glad to realise that they could still hear each other through the separate bubbles, though the other's voices were a little distorted and was sure that her voice would sound the same for the other two.

"I dunno, follow road signs?" Kris replied.

"Oh yes Kris, just follow the road signs. Think. There are no road signs under water." Tegan said.

"Actually I think he's right" Ax said.

"What!" Tegan exclaimed.

"Really?" Kris asked happily.

"Yeah. See just up ahead." Ax pointed, and sure enough there was an arrow floating in the water pointing in the direction they were to go in.

"I don't believe this. " Tegan said as she swam past it.

The water began to darken to a swirling green-grey and become colder, sending chills down Tegan's back and as they swam they passed another arrow and kept going. It seemed that at one stage a dome of protective magic was directly below them, and through it's static surface the three could see a sort of village, but decided not to try their luck on the dome and swam on. After about half an hour they had passed another two more arrows and had approached another one. They had just changed direction as the arrow dictated when a big black shape came rushing out of the darkness and straight for them.

Ax and Tegan managed to avoid the creature due to fast reflexes, Tegan only just but poor Kris didn't see it coming and thus wasn't as lucky. He was rammed and was thrown backwards. Ax jumped on the creature and wrestled with it while Tegan swam over to see if Kris was all right.

"Are you alright?" Tegan asked Kris.

"Yeah I'm fine, I've been tackled by worst in footy." Kris replied cockily.

The creature looked very similar to a crocodile but its legs were longer and on the top of the tail there was a long dark green fin. The creature had an over all mottled dark green and brown colouration, bumpy and rough.

Ax, meanwhile, was still on the back of the croc creature trying to get his sword out while still hanging on. The creature was swinging around trying to snap at Ax. One snap came perilously close to disfiguring Ax's crutch when he had almost slipped off. Kris and Tegan hung back not sure whether to interfere, yet ready to jump in if they were needed.

Ax, fearing for the future of his crutch, managed to get his sword out and, with and sharp rap, hit the creature on the head. The thing just kept thrashing so Ax just kept hitting it with the hilt until it went limp. As soon as it stopped moving Ax let go and allowed it to drift away. "I figured killing it may get me in trouble."

Suddenly the water churned and a second of the creatures swam fast out of the gloom, heading, again, straight for Kris. This time, he was ready for it. Tegan hung back – she had seen Kris in footy, when he wasn't surprised; he would be able to take the creature out with ease.

Kris, however, was remaining perfectly still in the water, and Tegan was beginning to worry if he was scared of crocodiles or something, as he was behaving much like petrified prey. At the last second, however, her fears were allied when Kris turned sideways in the water, floating alongside the jaw for a second, and then slipping one arm beneath the creatures jaw, and rolling himself over it's back to push the upper jaw closed.

Tegan looked at the thrashing couple, and then reached for the bandana she was wearing to keep her hair out of her face, quickly shoving it out of her bubble and swimming over to secure it around the creature's jaws to hold them closed. She whispered a holding charm on the wet fabric, just to make sure. Being a werewolf, she had little fear of fierce creatures – she knew that very few of them could harm her. But being in the water, she was out of her element.

"Thanks," Kris said, still clinging to the creature, which was thrashing around trying to unseat him, or get its mouth free. He wrestled his wand out, and tapped it hard between the eyes and muttered, "Stupefy."

There was a sudden high-pitched screech that forced them to slap hands over their ears. As it faded a very large shape came torpedoing towards them. A very, very large shape. The crocodile look-a-like creature that had regained consciousness after Ax had fought with it swam off very quickly as the McEwen dragon stopped next to them.

How dare those creatures harm one of my children!

"Thank you," Tegan said, grateful.

You are welcome but perhaps, for your own safety, I shall accompany you to wherever you are bound next in these waters. I just met with the beast and the female he accompanies. They were told to set the Naga-dogs on you, vile creature, I would kill him but he is protected by this Dumbledore-man's magic.

"But won't that be cheating?" Tegan asked.

Ax and Kris looked at each other for a moment then both said, "No… if she keeps her head down they wont know she's there will they? "

"But..."

"Well you see technically we didn't ask her to come, she wanted to come of her own free will and since it is wrong to force someone to do something against their will, she will come with us." Kris said reasonably.

"See there is always a loop-hole in the rules" Ax said, "Now lets get the pearl and get out of here. Some huge shadowy thing brought my creature back to its senses, and even with a dragon, I don't think I want to get too close to it."

They managed to swim down and get the pearl without further incident. It was as they were getting close to the shore that Ax and Tegan heard muffled laughter from Kris.

They were climbing out of the water when Tegan turned to Kris and said, "What are you laughing at?"

Kris couldn't control himself anymore and said to Ax, "Crikey mate! That was one big croc!"

Ax just raised an eyebrow before turning back to the list.

Kris kept going, "You beauty! You can't get a croc much bigger then that!"

Ax had enough and whipped out his sword, "Shut up."

"Crikey, I'm sorry mate," Kris turned to Tegan and in a loud stage whisper said, "It's not good to get Steve Irwin mad."

"It's not like you didn't wrestle one as well," Ax muttered, "Now shut up."

"Think I'm going to name my croc Bob, after me mate Saul's favourite deck chair," Kris muttered in a rather good Steve Irwin impression.

Another school team, who had gotten out of the water about the same time as them, started to laugh madly. Tegan was sure she could see Ax seriously considering doing a little slicing and dicing.

Lucky they were interrupted by Jacque. "How are you guy's doing? I had a bit of trouble reaching you before. What you battled were called Naga dogs, and the best way to defeat them is to stroke them under the chin – they go limp."

"See, it wasn't just you being 'powerful', Kris, you had it under the chin," Ax remarked. "By the way, Jacque, couldn't you have mentioned that earlier?"

"Saul only just found the bloody sheets. If he does this again with the next area, I'm going to evict him from the tent," Jacque replied.

"You are the Weakest Link – goodbye," Adam's voice came over the headsets, he was evidently talking loudly.

"It's time to go … Saul," the rest of the group laughed in Big Brother impression.

"Do we have nothing better to do than watch stupid reality TV shows in the holidays?" Tanya wondered.

"Yeah, something like that," Ax replied, "But what are we doing next? Something to do with fire, isn't it?"

"This is where you'll need my help – without a dragon to help you, I'm sure you wouldn't get out of the next bit alive," a voice muttered.

"Oh great, the sadistic budgie is back," Ax remarked as the bird stalked up to them. The group descended into giggles and the bird gave them a look of injured pride and stalked off ahead of them.

They kept walking following both the bird and the arrows, which were still floating, much as they had been in the lake. Rounding an outcrop of trees they were hit by an incredible heat.

"Oh god!" Tegan exclaimed, raising a hand to protect her eyes.

"I'm afraid that you're going to have to deal with this one on your own as well," Jacque's voice came to them, and she sounded really pissed off. This was not 'Saul is being an idiot again' pissed off … this was the real thing.

"What's happening?"

"They are trying to give us a six for the lake because you had the dragon helping. I'm going to argue it out with those skanky little bastards … we deserve full marks for that!"

"Hurry back then," Kris said, "I think we might need help – I don't like the lava."

"Don't worry, I've got Saul manning the desk now," Jacque said cheerfully.

"To use my dad's favourite expression, oh god, we're screwed," Kris remarked, and together they rounded a corner. Before them was a huge pit of lava. On the other side they could see another team walking off.

"How the hell are we suppose to get over this?" Kris mused.

"Hello lady and gentlemen, welcome to Saul Airlines," Saul began in a smooth imitation host voice.

"Saul, shut up and tell us what to do," Tegan said, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "I wish I had my bandana," she remarked.

"Hey, sorry!" Kris said, "It's not my fault I didn't know how to deal with the damn Naga dogs!"

"The list says that if we still have the bird, that's what we use to cross the lava." Ax said he turned to the bird that was still behind them, "Is that true?"

"It's not like you'll get across the lava without my help, now is it?" the bird demanded.

"Stupid sadistic budgie," Ax muttered.

"Ax, now is not the time to be insulting it," Tegan remarked, "It's about to be carrying us across a pit of lava."

"The sadistic budgie has to do what we tell it to, we have it's feather," Ax replied proudly, "So I can insult it all I like. By the way, what's a lava dog?" Ax asked looking up from the list, "'Cause it says we have to get the diamond off a lava dogs head."

The bird sighed, "Don't they teach you anything useful. A lava dog is a creature that lives in and around volcanos and such. They originated in Hawaii but have since populated every other active volcanic area in the world. Is there anything else you need to know?"

"Yeah, is it going to be hard to get the diamond?" Kris asked.

"Fortunately for you, no, lava dogs regularly shed their diamonds so all you have to do is grab – I doubt you could manage much more than that."

"Well let's go find us a lava dog." Tegan said cheerily before Ax could get into another argument with 'the sadistic budgie'.

The bird sat down making it easier for them to clamber on. "Hey, this thing didn't look so big when we were on the ground," Kris remarked.

"Obviously," the bird remarked. When they had all settled, the bird got up and walked to the pit. When it took the first step on the lava Tegan cringed but the bird kept walking.

"Well, I'm back," Jacque's voice came over. Saul had been chatting away through just about everything they had been doing, and they had been ignoring him. "I managed to get us a nine, by the way. They wouldn't give me a ten, because you didn't know exactly how you were supposed to deal with the Naga dogs."

"Go you!" Kris replied.

"Can you take us to a lava dog if you see one?" Tegan asked the bird, her hand touching the bag with the feather.

"How else would you find one?" the bird demanded, "By the way, there is one over there."

The bird walked over alongside a large dark grey creature with wide jaws and two too many legs. On top of its head a diamond sparkled in the sunlight. Tegan reached down to grab it. With a growl the lava dog snapped at her.

Tegan pulled her hand back and gave the dog a dirty look before growling herself. The lava dog growled back and pretty soon they were locked in a growling match.

"Tegan, stop it and just get the diamond!" Ax said.

"Bad Tegan! Bad!" Kris said, "Bad girl."

But Tegan didn't hear, she was intent on winning this little dominance fight.

"Tegan stop it!" Ax yelled, impatient now.

Much to Kris and Ax's surprise the bird whipped it's head around and gave a short sharp peck to the top of Tegan's head.

"Ow, what was that for?" Tegan complained.

"You stupid creature. Just get what you came for and stop the nonsense. That way I can rid myself of your presence, which is, I assure you, not in the least wanted," The bird said angrily.

With a quick swoop Ax reached down and grabbed the diamond off the lava dogs head.

"Let's get out of here," he said to the bird.

Without any further encouragement the bird walked off towards the other side of the pit. When they reached the far side they clambered off and the bird turned to them and demanded, "My feather," it asked.

"Can't do that, sorry," Ax grinned waving the bag in front of the birds face, "We need it for the end of the Quest," the bird snapped at them, obviously having hoped to trick them out of it's feather, then flew off to who knew where. Tegan rubbed her head.

"I'm going to have a serious lump from that stupid sadistic budgie," she complained.

"Get over it, you did kind of deserve it." Ax said. "Much as I hate to stick up for the sadistic budgie."

"You were a very bad dog." Kris commented.

"What, you want me to put my head down and tail between my legs?" Tegan asked.

"Yes, I believe that would be the appropriate response in your situation." Kris replied.

Tegan just stuck her tongue out at Kris. "What now?" she asked.

"Alright now we have to go through that." Ax said pointing straight ahead to a collection of massive poles like stripped tree trunks of various heights sticking out of the ground about 100m ahead of them, "According to the list there should be 8 stars we have to collect and a scale from a quetza… Quetzalcoatl."

"Oh no, not a Quetzalcoatl," Tegan groaned.

"What's wrong with them?" Kris asked.

"They are the most short-tempered, nastiest creatures you can get, even worse than a harpy."

"So what's this got to do with us and now?" Kris asked.

"Think swooping magpies. Permanently. That's a Quetzalcoatl, and one of us has to get a scale off it – that means that one of us will have to fly – not me, I don't like flying," Tegan said.

"But don't worry, they shed scales like feathers, you just have to find a loose one,"

"Really reassuring." Kris said sarcastically, "I'm going to have to do the flying aren't I?"

"Yep," Tegan and Ax said together.

Kris just stalked off towards the poles, Ax and Tegan hurried to catch up.

"The stars you have to collect should be a cream colour, all the different schools have different colours, they seemed to be based loosely around the colours of the hunt Jackets or Uniforms. Hence, Hogwarts has gold from their crest, Beauxbatons has blue etc…." Jacques piped up.

"Thanks Jacque." Tegan said, "Kris did you hear that?"

"Yeah, yeah I heard." Kris muttered.

Approaching the poles they noticed a line of brooms. Kris choose one and climbed on.

"Me and Ax will just walk around on the ground and look for a scale that might have been shed earlier, should make your job easier."

"Good," Kris muttered as he started to lift up.

"Oh don't forget, quetzalcoatals are related to dragons, so they can breathe fire." Tegan yelled after Kris.

"What!"

"She's right, so watch out for the flames." Jacque confirmed.

"Wonderful, giant pissed off magpies that can breathe fire, coming at me from god knows where."

"Don't forget the harpies," Jacque added.

"Harpies? Hey nobody said anything about there actually being harpies." Kris yelled out. Tegan and Ax had started to walk between the close together poles cautiously by then.

---

Kris cruised around the poles looking for the first of the stars. Spotting one he flew towards it. A horrible screech was all the warning Kris got of the dark shape plummeting from the sky. With flying reflexes born of numerus Quidditch practices with Justine and Jeffery, he swerved and looked at the creature that was back-winging.

The Quetzalcoatl snapped it's enormous head around and glared. With a fluffing of the feathers around its neck it opened it's mouth and a jet of orange flame shot out. Kris had to do some more fancy flying to avoid being barbequed. And panting from the effort, he shot off swerving around the poles with the Quetzalcoatl hot on his heels.

Meanwhile Tegan and Ax were on the ground still searching for a scale, unable to see Kris's dilemma through the poles.

"Out the way!" Kris screamed as he flew towards them.

Ax and Tegan threw themselves on the ground as Kris zoomed overhead closely followed by the Quetzalcoatl. Getting up they watched as Kris still swerved around the poles, getting whatever stars he could while dodging the flame and snapping teeth.

"Vile humans!" a rasping and accented voice screamed.

Ax and Tegan swang around and looked up. They saw a flock of harpies sitting on the perches that jutted from all the poles.

"Er, Hi?" Tegan said tentively.

With a screech of the harpies own particular brand of vocals, they all lifted off and started to dive at them. Tegan and Ax were forced to duck and cover their heads in defence as the harpies tried to claw and peck their eyes out.

"I'm am so over this shit." Ax growled, and with a fluid movement slid his sword out and started to slash at the harpies.

With screeches and curses the harpies started to back off Ax, but kept up the attack on Tegan. With a growl of anger from Tegan she swang her arm around and hit the closest harpy, her werewolf strength sending it to the ground a good ten metres away. She then whipped out her wand and set about stunning any harpy within reach. Tegan was pissed, it had been a long day so far and she was getting sick of it very quickly.

"Tegan! You can stop now, I think that harpy is stunned enough." Ax voice cut through her anger.

Tegan realised that the remaining harpies had stopped attacking and had left; the ones that had been stunned were lying on the ground around her. The victim of her multiple stunnings was in front of her.

"Remind me not to get you royally pissed off." Ax said, putting his sword away, "And besides, Jacque just told me over the loud speakers that the Harpies are from a flock in the south of America, and are actually friends of Dumbledore's, who are just playing the part… maybe leave that one alone now." He looked somewhat amused as he watched the poor Harpy.

Kris, meanwhile, was still flying for all he was worth trying to shake off the Quetzalcoatl. So had far he had managed to gather five stars in his mad dash around the poles, but he still had three more to get and was having a hard time trying to find them with the Quetzalcoatl riding his up his ass end.

Suddenly another one flew straight up in front of Kris. With a loud curse Kris did a complete stop and shot straight up and over the new one. He risked a quick glance behind him, hoping that they might have a collided. Much to his disappointment he now had two of them chasing him.

"Think Kris think." He muttered to himself, then out loud "Tegan, quick, tell me what you know of Quetzalcoatals."

"Er, give me a moment to think."

"Well I don't have a moment! What I have is two quetzalcoatals thinking about wether they want me rare, medium or well done!"

"Look all I can think at the moment is that their mean, nasty creatures from the South American jungles."

Kris thought for a moment, "Jungles! No bloody wonder they are keeping up, they live in amongst bloody trees. Thanks Tegan." Kris started to glance behind himself more often, as he watched the way the quetzalcoatals moved he realised that the creatures didn't outright fly but moved from pole to pole with astonishing speed.

"Well lets se how long you can last when you are flying." Kris muttered as he suddenly pulled up. Dodging the perches that stuck out he burst up above all the poles.

Predictably the quetzalcoatals followed, green-blue iridescent scales and feathers glinting in the sunlight. Kris started to fly around the top leading the creatures on a merry chase. They kept following, matching every twist and turn that Kris made. Kris actually had a rare opportunity to look for the remaining stars.

Finally he saw what he thought was a star, squinting and flying back over to make sure he had another look, sure enough it was another star. Going back he dove straight down and grabbed it. As soon as he touched it, it disappeared with a pop, gone to the bag that Tegan had. He pulled up and headed back for the open space above the poles.

Unfortunately and with no fault of his own other than not realising it had moved position, Kris ran straight into one of the quetzalcoatals. It let out a kind of squawk and snapped at him maliciously.

"Shit!" He said as he pulled into a barrel role, flipping out the tail of the broom and flying faux straight down, when he managed in fact to slip up and over its head and back into the safe zone out of their reach. Kris resumed his search for the last two stars. Looking back he saw the Quetzalcoatl that he had ran into drift down into the trees, a few of its feathers and scales drifting down.

"Great, one down one to go. Just grab that scale and the last star…" Kris muttered to himself.

But when he looked back over to spot where the scale fell so he could report it to the two on the ground, almost fell off his broom. Harry Potter was coming up out of the poles and grabbed one of the scales that Kris had knocked off.

"Oi, that's mine." Kris yelled.

Harry didn't appear to hear, his face a mask of concentration as he turned back down to plummet back into the forest of poles, seemingly pulling figure eights that were marginally successful in protecting him from attacks. Kris swerved and turned to follow Harry. He spotted Harry dodging through the trees and followed him from above.

Neither of the boys saw the flock of harpies they flew straight past, but the harpies saw Harry and all launched after him with screams of delight. Kris watched as Harry was caught unawares and mobbed by the flock, Kris was about to help him, cause, well that was what Kris did, when a bright pulse of rainbow like energy flew out from Harry and all ten or so Harpy's fell to the ground stunned. Kris's eyes flew wide, that had been one kickass stunning spell, Harry was not one to be messed with, and he took a mental note not to do so…

The Quetzalcoatl, though, didn't recognise this and just registered in their primal minds that the Harpies that they couldn't seem to attack due to that white haired old man, had fallen back, and the human flying the air like a bird was open to attack. It saw an easier prey and dove. Kris watched as Harry barely missed the mighty claw that slashed out viciously at Harry's neck and shoulders. It instead hit the tail of his broom, shattering the tail section and plummeting him for the ground.

With a curse Kris started to dive for him, but was too late as Harry was forced to land hard, being cornered in an area where the poles were too close together to even fly.

"Kris! It's ok we have him! Don't be stupid and get out of here!" Ax called up as he appeared, and together with Harry threw a massive stun from sword and hand at the beast.

"We've got it covered; you find the rest of the stars!" Tegan called back up, suddenly Tegan heard a scwark and the harpies on the ground around her began to wake up.

Kris gave a salute and flew off. Tegan had her wand out and had started a shield spell against the Harpies; Ax had his sword out and was standing menacingly. Suddenly the harpies let out squawks and screeches and started to fly away.

"I didn't think we were that scary." Tegan said as she watched the harpies fly away.

A big thump reverberating off the ground behind them told them that it wasn't them that the harpies were running from. Slowly Ax and Tegan turned around and stared with open mouths. Looking back at them were a pair of large green eyes in a draconic head framed by the beautifully coloured feathers that were puffed out in all directions. One mass of sinewy muscle, scales, and feathers. The creatures long serpentine body curled up under it as it raised its head, feathered wings flared.

"Don't make any sudden movements." Tegan whispered, but to late.

Ax had put his sword up and yelled, "Stupefy!"

The spell glanced of the creatures hide. Irritating the skin, Ax grabbed Tegan, "You know about these creatures, keep it busy. I need to see if I can help Harry get the broom happening."

"But… but."

"Do it." Ax said sternly.

Tegan turned to face the Quetzalcoatl, which stared back down at her with a look closely akin to contempt; it seemed to know it couldn't kill her, that it was merely here to be a distraction, unlike its animalistic partner. In fact, this one scared Tegan for its intelligence.

"Er, good beastie, you don't want to eat us." Tegan said nervously.

The Quetzalcoatl opened its mouth and took a deep breath, a sadistic look I it's eyes. Tegan's eyes thinned to angry slits as she realised it was going to play with her.

"Oh shit." Tegan muttered before running away from Ax and Harry so that they wouldn't be caught in the fire. The Quetzalcoatl swivelled its head to follow her. Tegan stopped and quickly muttered the spell that her father taught her to ward off flames.

As the jet of fire streamed towards her, the spell protected her by directing the flow of the fire to go around her. It was a simple spell that all witches and wizards that worked with dragons knew. Her father had taught both her and her brother in case they ever encountered a less then friendly dragon.

Ax standing with Harry, watching his back as he went to work repairing the various sections of his broom, Ax had to be grateful that he could do the task fast with Magai ability.

A groan escaped Harry just as Ron and Draco came running up. "STUPID BROOM! I would kill for mine, but i'd never get it out of the rest of the quest safely."

"Harry!"

"He's alright." Ax said as the boys stopped.

"Ax, a little help!" Tegan yelled.

Ax immediately leapt up and ran over to where Tegan was battling. Ron took a look at Harry, who had stood and was brushing off his clothing, and followed to see if he could help out Tegan, whom he very much liked after last night, and though of as a friend.

Tegan saw Ax and Ron coming and ran over to them. The Quetzalcoatl swang it's head around to face the new comers. Letting out a roar it lunged at them snapping.

Tegan reached them, "On the count of three, stupefy. Ready one, two…"

But the Quetzalcoatl had opened it's mouth again and another jet of flame was heading for them just as the stupefy spell was heading for it. Tegan tried to get the fireproof spell out but ran out of time. Just as the flame hit a force suddenly pushed it aside so it went around them.

The force of the stupefying spell from all three parties knocked the Quetzalcoatl hard, and it took off after other teams. Tegan gave a cough.

"What happened, I thought we were gonners." Ron said.

"We were gonners Ron." Tegan said as she coughed again, "I couldn't finish the fireproofing spell"

"Then why did fire go around us?" Ax asked.

"'Cause of mum and dad, mainly mum." Tegan replied screwing her face up in pain.

"Are you alright? And how does your parents account for us not being burnt to crisp." Ax asked, confused and worried.

Tegan gave a weak laugh, "Dad used to always take me and Mark with him on his research trips. Mum always worried that something would happen so one day she convinced dad to put a permanent fireproof spell on us in case something did happen. However once I learnt the more simple, yet temporary, spell I forgot I had it, until just now. Oh, headache, one of the side effects of the permanent spell is that it rips the magic from you to make the shield and if you're not expecting it then it hurts. Bad."

They had walked over to where Harry and Draco were standing; Harry was directing Draco on how they were going to get out, Ron joined them and they left.

Kris swooped in, "Hey guys I have the last stars, we can go now."

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Jacque sounded irritable. "All I've heard is a lot of 'oh shit' and 'I thought we were gonners' … I can hardly be expected to help you if I don't know what's going on!"

"Sorry – we were dealing with two Quetzalcoatals, and you couldn't help Kris before, so we just … tried to deal," Tegan replied. "We've dealt with it all now though, so yeah."

Tegan could almost see Jacque rolling her eyes in disgust. "Have you got the scale?" she asked, "And the stars?"

Kris stood and picked up a scale that had fallen during their brief battle with the creature. "We do now," he replied.

"Good, let's get out of here," Ax said.

"Well, just to let you know, you pulled off an eight and a half for the air, and you got a seven for the fire – apparently you lacked finesse," At Jacque's words, both Kris and Ax turned to glare at Tegan, who simply shrugged.

"Animal instincts," she said, and the boys rolled their eyes.

"You're currently on thirty one point five. Hogwarts is on thirty-three, so get bloody moving! Your next task is the forest," Jacque told them.

"Ok, we're going, we're going!" Tegan muttered tiredly, and the three of them set off after the Hogwarts group, who were already moving. "What do you have on the forest?"

"It'll be easy enough for you, Tegan – you have to locate a flower. On the list, you have a scratch and sniff, and then you have to find the flower that smells like it. There are several flowers, which all look alike, and the only difference is the smell," Jacque explained.

"List," Tegan said, holding her hand out. Ax handed it over immediately, knowing that Tegan would be able to completely ace this part of the Quest for them. She scratched the little area on the list, sniffed once and smiled sweetly. "Well, that's one scent I'll never forget – this way," she said happily.

"Tegan, we haven't even reached the forest yet," Kris pointed out.

"I can smell it from here," Tegan replied, and set off at an easy dogtrot, Kris and Ax hurrying behind her. They entered the forest at the same pace. Tegan paused and sniffed experimentally. "This way," she said, and set off again. Every couple of seconds she'd pause, look around, sniff, and set off with a minute change in direction.

Finally she came to a bemused halt. "It should be right here," she said, pointing to the ground at her feet. She looked around her, and the boys looked too.

"Dammit, is no one thinking of looking up?" Adam demanded angrily over the headsets.

Tegan, Kris and Ax looked up as one. There, hanging on a vine about half a metre above their heads was a pretty white flower. Tegan reached up and plucked it. "Well, that was silly of us – and I told you it was right here!"

"Why couldn't you smell it was up?" Kris asked.

"Have you got any idea how heavy that scent is?" Tegan demanded, "This entire part of the forest positively reeks of it!"

"Oh," Kris muttered, and they headed for the forest edge, finding it in good time and walking into a clearing.

"You guys scored a perfect ten!" Jacque's voice came over the headsets, and she sounded excited. "There's no way that Hogwarts will be able to do that, you were the first out, in the shortest time! Therefore you are now on forty one point five."

"What's next?" Kris asked.

"Dragons," Jacque replied.

"Wicked," Kris grinned cockily, "Another perfect ten!"

---

They walked on for five minutes, aware that they must be close to the edge of the 'safe' zone of the forest, Acromantula territory, and bordering on Centaur land. The forest thinned into a clearing. In the centre of the clearing was Justine - she was lying up against the Steelwell dragon, with the Wentworth dragon resting the very end of its snout on her lap, and she was scratching the area just above its eyes.

Kris could hear Steelwell muttering in the background, "Why is that I get lain on, but don't get scratched?"

"Because I'm scratching Wentworth at the moment! Soon enough we can swap over and I'll … Oh! Hi guys!" Justine scrambled to her feet and looked about ready to fly at the Kallaix students, then restrained herself. "Before we get started, what's the score?"

"We're on forty one and a half," Ax replied, "And at the end of the area before last Hogwarts was beating up by two and a half points."

Justine nodded. "Ok then, by the way, you're the first one's here – guys, do your thing," this last was directed at the dragons. Rather over-enthusiastic, the Norwegian Ridgeback lunged straight for Kris, who was standing in the lead. Justine walked over to the side of the arena, determined that she would not do anything to affect the outcome of this event.

Before the dragon could even really think about doing actual harm to any of the Kallaix students, the Steelwell dragon was coming up behind it. "STOP!" Kris roared, and the Hyberdian Black nearly fell tail over snout. As the Head Boy of Kallaix Academy, Kris could command any dragon he chose, and they could not easily disobey him.

Kristopher, I apologise for the little black one. It is overenthusiastic, Steelwell said, and placed one fore claw on the black dragons head, forcing it into the ground. The other dragon struggled, but was no match for Steelwell.

You may proceed. We will pretend to do our job, but we cannot harm you, Steelwell said, and the pair of dragons, one either side Alyson, arched their necks and blew fire gently over the Kallaix students, creating an archway of fire, under which the three students walked, Kris at the front, Tegan one side, a step behind, and Ax over to the other side, level with Tegan.

Tegan had her wand out, and she was casting fire protection charms, and Ax had put a neat shield up over them, just to make it look like they were making an effort in the event.

Kris knelt down and lifted Alyson, princess style, and walked out of the arena, with Ax and Tegan keeping pace behind him. "Perfect!" Jacque said, and they could hear the smile in her voice, "You'll have to get a ten for that one! And if they try anything else I'll … well, that doesn't matter, you've got a ten!" evidently their score had just appeared. "Next is something called 'the Underground', and I don't like the sound of it. The only objective is to stay alive and make your way through to the end of the event."

"This sounds nasty," Kris remarked. "What else do you know?"

"The sheets we um, found, say only that there are creatures, SAUL! Find the underground animal rundown!" Jacque replied, "What the creatures are was decided by the judges of this event, which is the Minister's of Magic for all of the respective countries."

"So dad'll give us a good mark?" Kris asked.

"No, unfortunately the judges don't know what school they are marking, the only thing they are told is exactly what it is each person has achieved."

"Dammit," Kris muttered. "Well, let's see what this underground is like…"

---

Justine was feeling lonely now she had seen her friends. Wentworth and Steelwell were having an argument over who got scratches, and the clever little Norwegian had snuck over for a pat in the interim.

"You know, they're going to be annoyed when they see you." Justine said to it.

But I have only just discovered feminine fingernails, Charlie; the human I lived with in Romania had such stubby ones… OH! Right there…"

Little one, get AWAY from our human! Came Wentworth's voice from across the clearing.

"He was just getting a scratch guys. You've been hogging me all morning." Justine said with a raised eyebrow. "We're just going to have to figure out some sort of system ok?"

Yes, little one, the system is this, you stay AWAY from our human and we in turn will let you live. Steelwell imperiously added.

Suddenly three figures entered the clearing, talking amongst themselves. They stopped dead when they saw Justine surrounded by three dragons. Justine recognised Harry, Ron and him.

"Guys. Get them good." Justine said, angry at Draco from his comments of last night.

Gladly. Steelwell said as the three advanced on the Hogwarts team.

---

Well, There's another Chapter! YAYNESS! - Coming up soon - Luna Lovegood and More Greggy Goodness!

Thanks -

GoDDark - Well this chapter should have answered your question, you little cluey one... (stcky tapes her mouth closed) Write to me soon, so we can figure out the whipped cream cameo!

Queenie - DamnIadore you - Thanks so much for reviewing love!

BladeKnight - I take it as my personal perogative to knock you into line when you need it, but now you have reviewed i may go easy on you, you'd better keep updating though :)

Dark672 - (Princess and Wolfmoonhide behind a sofa) well... another cliffie... whoops... Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Moonshadow10 - GO YOUR INPUT WOOOOOO

Ayheria - Well, well well, so you like Justine's Snape huh? (chuckles) Poor Draco is about to find out some home truths... and yes, he will come crashing back down to earth. I really do give to poor dude a hard time... Hmmmm. You dont like Roin with Black hair:)