Chapter 10: Armor
After a while of flying around with Viktor I notice Harry flying around on his own and slow down, Viktor at my side. When Harry sees me his eyes go wide and he asks, "Iris? You're flying?"
"Way to state the obvious, darling brother of mine." I say cheerfully before turning upside down.
"What about your headaches?" he asks and I smile.
"Viktor had an idea and we tried it out. As it turns out, once I got to the fifty foot mark the headaches stopped. Now I can fly again. You wanna join us? We were just flying around and enjoying the day." I tell him and he smiles.
"Sure." he says as I flip right side up. He then smiles at Viktor and says, "Thanks for helping her, Ronald doing that is the reason we stopped being friends, though he hasn't quite gotten that through his thick head yet."
"Of course." Viktor says. "I consider Iris my friend, I would do nearly anything to help a friend."
We then proceed to fly for the next several minutes before deciding to head inside. When we get there we are immediately approached by Dumbledore, who smiles and says, "Ah, Iris, lovely weather we're having today, isn't it? I hope you don't mind my intrusion, but I'm afraid I must ask, what prank do you have planned for the day?"
I smirk before looking him in the eyes and saying, "I'm sure you'll find out." I then walk past him and say to Viktor, "Me and Harry need to head for class, thanks for the help."
"It was my pleasure." Viktor says with a smile before Harry and I walk away; I put my firebolt back in my room before heading for my first class of the day. The day goes by normally until just after lunch when Viktor rushes up to me and says, "I need to tell you something." I let him lead me a bit away from the hoards of students and he says, "The first task is Dragons."
"Really?" I ask in a worried tone; he nods so I sigh a bit, "I'll have to rethink my strategy, thank you for telling me, do the other two know?"
"No, they don't." he says with a frown.
"Alright, I'll go tell them. Its only fair they they be made aware." I say.
"This isn't the first time you've tried to make things fair for all of us." he points out.
"Viktor, all my life I have been at a disadvantage, nothing was fair for me." I say softly. "I have one advantage in this tournament, which is the fact that I own and have studied works written by Merlin and other notable people. But other then that..."
I trail off, looking down a bit. He frowns before asking, "Other then that?"
I sigh and say, "You have had all your life to practice magic. Until my first year I had no knowledge that magic was real. That gives you another advantage over me other then your age. If I can make things fair for everyone in this death trap, because of how my life has been...I will." I then sigh and say, "I will tell the others, thank you for the warning. Have a pleasant day." I walk way, leaving him thinking over my words. I find Fleur pretty quickly, I just had to follow the path of drooling teenage boys. As soon as I spot her, in a group of her schoolmates, talking sadly to each other, I walk up and clear my throat, gaining their attention, "Excuse me, Miss Delacour, may I speak to you?"
"I'm sorry, now is not a good time, we have just received news from home." she tells me sadly.
"Paris has fallen?" I ask in a concerned tone and she nods. "Do you know if they joined willingly or if they were controlled?"
"No." she says with a frown before continuing in French, "I wish I knew if our parents were safe."
"I am sure we will receive news soon, Fleur." the younger girl standing next to her says.
"Most likely news will come either by dinner or by breakfast tomorrow." I tell them in French and they all give me a surprised look. "The headmaster, no matter how foolish he is, can always be counted on to know what is happening in the world."
"Are you sure?" Fleur asks.
"I am." I switch back to English and say, "You should focus on the task. Its soon and focusing on a plan will get your mind off of the bad news until you learn more."
"Yes, I suppose you are right." she says with a small nod.
"Excellent, now, about the task, I came to give you information regarding it." I tell her and she gives me an interested look, "I'm unsure if you have been informed already, but we are going up against dragons, from what I've gathered there's one for each of us."
"Dragons?" she asks.
"Yes, fully grown, fire breathing dragons." I say with a nod. "I recommend investing in some sort of fire resistant clothing or protective gear. I personally plan to have some basilisk hide armor crafted for myself, now, if you will excuse me, ladies, I need to go and warn Cedric about the task. Have a pleasant day."
"You too, thank you for warning me." she says and I walk away. As I'm walking several laugh and show off the stupid Potter Stinks badges made by Ronald Weasley. The badges change from the words Support Cedric Diggory – the real Hogwarts champion to Potter Stinks to Potter really stinks, with a picture of me along with the insults, I hate them so of course most from Hogwarts is wearing one.
I walk up to Cedric's friends, all of which are wearing one of the badges. As I walk up to them they laugh and one of them calls out, "Read the badge Potter."
"Yes, I've seen them. I've laughed at how idiotic they and those who wear them look." I tell them and they fall silent, "The people who wear them seem to thing that they make people look really cleaver. However, because it says that Cedric is the true Hogwarts Champion, they are redundant."
"What do you mean, Potter?" one of them sneers at me as I see James and Lily walking over out of the corner of my eye.
"The badges say that Cedric is the true Hogwarts Champion. However, what all the idiots like you who wear those things don't seem to realize, is Cedric is the only Hogwarts champion." I tell them and they give me angry looks.
"What do you mean?" one of the others ask.
"I am not a Hogwarts Champion, I chose to represent a different school in the spirit of keeping things fair. I am the Uagadou Champion, not a secondary Hogwarts one. That makes the statement of Cedric being the true Hogwarts Champion redundant because he is the only Hogwarts Champion. Your daft little baboon brain apparently decided that it would be fun to, instead of listening to your friend who I have no doubt informed you about my decision, bully a fourteen year old who isn't representing this school." I say with a scowl. "In my opinion it just makes you seem petty and a bit daft."
"Are you calling us stupid?" the original one asks
"I'm honestly surprised you managed to realize what I was calling you. With how completely compartmentalized your disappointingly minuscule brain capacities are even when they are combined, I thought you all would take having a baboon sized brain as a compliment." I tell them before turning to Cedric and adding, "Cedric, I need to speak to you without your poorly trained baboons." He nods, looking a bit shocked, so I lead him away from his stunned friends and my equally stunned blood relations. Once we're way from his friends he awkwardly clears his throat a bit.
"I'm sorry about the badges, I asked them not to wear them." he tells me.
"I see no reason for you to apologize to me, Cedric. I have made my opinion of the badges known and only wish to inform you about information I have obtained pertaining to the first task." I say. "I was informed today what we are to be up against and wanted to inform you, as I am sure you are the only Champion that has not been informed. The first task is fully grown dragons. The other champions know and I wanted to inform you in the spirit of keeping things fair."
"Oh...thank you, Iris." he says with a smile.
"Not a problem." I say before turning to walk away, "Have a pleasant day, Cedric." I walk away and go to my trunk.
My trunk is a multi-compartment trunk with seven compartments, including a fully functional forge which is where I take a large amount of Basilisk Scales. I spend the next three days melting down the Basilisk hide and mixing it with various materials. After a while I find the perfect combination that makes a lightweight and easily maneuverable metal that is nearly impossible to harm.
I then make myself a set of armor that hides every bit of skin on my body except for my eyes which I put some of the glass I managed to make with the Basilisk Scales, which has a green tint but otherwise doesn't distort my vision at all. During the testing faze of the materials I discovered that its immune to even fiendfyre when tested against it, meaning that it will have no problems against dragon fire. I then enchant the armor with the feather light charm to make it even lighter, along with several enchantments to block any weaknesses it may have.
After that I make it self repairing as well as having it grow to fit me as I get older. I color it green and silver with black and gold accents to represent both Loki and Hella, though I have no doubt that people will view it as representing my Hogwarts house. I also create and attach an enchanted Uagadou crest on the back of it which I will be able to remove quite easily so people know what school I represent in the tasks.
Once I get done, I put the new armor on and go to look in the full body mirror that I keep in the forge, to look over the fit of the various suits of armor I make for myself, as well as for customers to look-over the fit of their armor before they take it home. After a moment I nod before taking off the right boot, putting a marking on the inside, AMF, which is the marking for the forge I made under a cover name, Aurea Mortem Forges; I've become rather famous in the wizarding world because of the quality of my armor and weapons.
I put the boot back on and look into the mirror again. The helmet looks like a snarling wolf's face, with a snout that comes out about two inches. The armor gleams in the dim fire light of the forge and makes my green eyes seem to glow with power through the Basilisk Glass. I smirk a bit, feeling a large rush of pride in my work before hearing Hella ask, 'Is everything alright, dear? You seem rather...smug about something.'
'Just proud of something I made.' I tell her. 'You'll see it when I reveal myself as being on your side.'
'Oh, now you've got me curious.' she tells me and I smile before taking the armor off and placing it on an armor stand, 'Anything important to the invasion?'
'Armor for myself. I'll also be making armor sets for the people I've recruited as well as training them how to use the various weapons I know how too.' I tell her, 'Will I be seeing you soon for a progress report?'
'Of course, love. We will meet on the Hogsmead weekend. You said its soon, right?' she says.
'Yeah, it's the day after tomorrow.' I tell her as I grab one of the harder basilisk made metals, a sword design flashing through my mind.
'You know how to use a sword?' Hella asks.
'I've been learning how to use various weapons since I was rather young. I started out with a bow when I was four and told Vernon that I can start in tournaments and earn prize money, which could then be used to buy Dudley whatever it was that he wanted.' I think back as I get to work making the sword. 'Finally got to put the sword practice I would do to good use when I went against the basilisk.'
'You never cease to amaze me, little seer. We'll meet you in the Three Broomsticks in disguise. Ask for the Rowans when you enter. Loki wants news on how you are progressing.' she says
'Understood, see you then.' I say before hearing a knock on the trunk lid and setting my soon to be sword blade to the side. I walk up the ladder and open the lid, finding Daphne Greengrass standing there with Viktor, Fleur, and Cedric. I give them a confused look, moving to say something but getting stopped by Daphne saying, "Your fellow champions needed to see you." she then moves towards the exit. Before leaving the room she sets a money bag on the dresser next to my door and says, "Father wanted me to have you send this to Aurea Mortem. She said you were her contact."
"Of course, thank you, Miss Greengrass." I say as I walk over and grab the bag, walking back to and closing my trunk before setting it to my normal trunk compartment and putting the bag inside it. I then turn to the other champions as the door closes and ask, "Is there something wrong?"
"No, nothing wrong." Viktor says, "Its just that we wanted to give you something."
"As thanks." Cedric tells me, "Ever since you were selected you've been doing everything in your power to keep things fair for us. So, we ordered you something the other day and came to give it to you." he then holds a long box out to me and smiles as he adds, "Viktor said you can fly again."
"You didn't have to get me anything." I tell him, "I already told Viktor why I want things fair."
"Which is an even bigger reason to give you this." Viktor says while taking the box from Cedric and putting it in my arms. I carry it over to my bed and look at them, they nod encouragingly and Viktor says, "We want to see you open it."
I laugh a bit and say, "Alright."
I then open the box and find a sleek, new, Firebolt 51 Phoenix Sports Broom with protection and self repair enchantments carved into it.
