Popping the cork on the little bottle in my hand, I chugged it in one go, then put the empty bottle back into my endless bag. Forget the prize money from the Dueler's Cup, this bag was the single greatest prize they could give anyone.
"A little tired, Professor Xarion?" Dumbledore kindly asked from where he sat next to me on the wooden bench.
"Nothing major, but a little bit." I answered as the awakening potion started kicking in. Say what you would about Severus Snape, but when he was motivated he was an excellent teacher. I'd even go so far as to call myself an adept alchemist at this point.
"Working on your secret project on the seventh floor?" he asked with a knowing twinkle in his eye.
Smirking back at him, I said, "Are you having the paintings spy on me, headmaster?" Maybe it was a little hypocritical of me to ask that because I had several spirits following him wherever he went, but I enjoyed the byplay Dumbledore and I had.
"I have the paintings spy on everyone. How else would I so regularly bump into students who are up to mischief?" he said, touching the side of his nose with a finger.
Shaking my head in amusement, I turned my attention down to the field. "How do you think they'll do?"
"I believe they will all emerge unharmed. You have done all you could to prepare them."
"Why, headmaster, I have no idea what you mean. I am just worried about the members of my esteemed 'How Not to Die Like an Idiot' club." I said innocently.
"Ah, but of course, of course. Forgive me; in my advancing age I've started to make the silliest of mistakes." he popped a lemon drop in his mouth, humming contentedly as the announcer finally stopped bloviating and announced the first contestant, Fleur Delacour.
There was a deafening roar as the crowd lost control of itself. Everyone couldn't wait to watch the highschool girl face a dragon in single combat.
Delacour stepped into the stadium somewhat apprehensively, and she froze as she saw the large dragon staring at her, watching her every move and growling in warning.
After taking a deep breath, the girl began to dance and sing, a change coming over her entire body. Where before she was a blossoming young woman, now it was as if she was an angel sent down by god to embody the concept of beauty. I felt her presence assault my wards and it did a fair job at prodding them.
"Wow. That effect is a lot stronger than I was expecting it to be." I said, impressed.
"It is indeed. A large majority of the crowd is now quite taken with the young woman." Dumbledore commented disapprovingly as he looked over the salivating men staring down at Delacour.
The dragon was feeling the effects as well. I recognized a contented smile on its reptilian face as it stared lovingly down at Delacour.
Delacour walked up to the dragon and patted it on the knee, prompting it to lay down. Not wasting another moment, Delacour scooped up the golden egg before her and gracefully jogged from the field, the crowd snapping out of their stupor as she reigned in her power.
It may have been a bit of an anti-climactic battle, but that meant Delacour was alright, so I would take it.
"Mr. Diggory is up next, correct?" I said to Dumbledore.
"Ah, he is indeed. The boy was practically brimming with confidence. I can't wait to see what it is he discovered from your late night meeting."
"Headmaster, there's intelligence gathering on a potential threat and then there's just plain stalking." I said, giving him an exasperated look.
"Is that what it is? Oh, silly me, I was merely curious about your ever growing collection of cursed letters and happened to notice Mr. Diggory's entry. I will refrain from disturbing such meetings in the future." he said in a tone that made it clear he was having too much fun to refrain from doing such things in the future.
Sighing, I directed my attention back to the field just as Diggory walked out. His muscles were tense, but his eyes were focused, not frantic. He was scared, and rightfully so, but he was pushing through that fear.
Waving his wand, Diggory transformed a nearby stone into the shape of a dog. The animated statue started barking, and ran straight at the dragon to get its attention.
As the dragon turned to look at the dog, the entire stadium gasped as a spell circle appeared in front of Diggory's hand moments before he completely faded from view.
Dumbledore's eyes had gone wide. He may have known of our meeting, but it seemed the privacy wards I'd set up in my office worked.
"You taught him your technique." Dumbledore said in quiet shock.
"One of them. That isn't even the best spell I know to accomplish the same task." And it wasn't. While no one in the crowd could determine where Diggory was, I knew his exact location. I wasn't stupid enough to give anyone an illusion that I, myself, couldn't see through. While it blocked sight, hearing and smell, there were dozens of other ways to determine someone's location.
With everyone distracted watching the dragon snap at the dog, very few of them noticed as the golden egg suddenly disappeared. With his treasure collected, Diggory made a brisk escape through one of the side doors.
Two down, two to go.
"This is an outrage!"
I lazily turned my head to see who was infuriated with me this time, and came face to face with Durmstrang's headmaster.
"Why hello there, headmaster. I am having a good day, thank you for asking. How are you?" I said dryly as the man seethed.
"This show of blatant favoritism shall not stand!" he cried like a toddler throwing a tantrum because his parents wouldn't buy him candy. "I will not-"
"Headmaster, please be seated. Mr. Krum is about to compete." Dumbledore said kindly, motioning to the field where Krum was indeed walking onto the field.
The Durmstrang headmaster ground his teeth together, but sat back down, throwing a look at me that promised the conversation wasn't over.
Unlike the other two champions who had taken a moment to breathe before engaging the dragon, Krum walked straight ahead, his eyes fixed solely on the dragon as he disregarded the egg.
The dragon roared a challenge at the approaching young man and spewed forth a great pillar of fire in his direction.
Once more, the crowd was overcome with shocked gasps and exclamations as Krum held up his hand to summon a spell circle.
Durmstrang's headmaster turned to me in shock, and I just smirked smugly at him.
"Mr. Krum. Is there something I can help you with?" I asked the young man as he entered my office.
"You helped the Hogwarts champion develop a plan for the first trial." he said, accusingly.
I put on an affronted face. "My good Mr. Krum, I am aghast that you would even suggest that. I merely helped Mr. Diggory to develop a strategy to face a dragon, should the event ever arise where he would need to, without dying. After all, I will do anything in my power to keep the students who are in my class, and especially those in the esteemed 'How Not to Die Like an Idiot' club, alive and well."
"Then you will help me develop a strategy for the first task, as well?" Krum said in a confused voice.
"Mr. Krum, regrettably, I cannot aid you in preparation for the first, or any task of the Triwizard Tournament as that is against the rules set down by the dead idiots who created it." I said, a sorrowful tone in my voice.
Krum's eyes narrowed, and he opened his mouth to shout, only to close it a moment later as his eyes widened in understanding. "If I were to face a dragon in combat, how should I go about killing it?"
I smiled widely at the young man. "Why, Mr. Krum, if that was what you were here for then why didn't you just say so? I'd be more than happy to help! Take a seat and let's get to work. If you really want to kill it, you're going to need a few additions to your arsenal…."
The crowd roared their approval as a translucent red barrier appeared before Krum. The champion flicked his wrist and another spell circle flashed to life in his hand.
The stones beneath the dragon filed themselves down into sharpened stakes and launched up into the dragon's belly. The beast roared in pain as dozens of sharpened rocks impacted its scales; not penetrating, but hitting with enough force behind a small enough surface area to cause extreme pain.
Using the opportunity, Krum hastily crafted another spell circle and a beam of red energy shot out of it directly into the dragon's gaping maw, spearing through its mouth to the creature's brain.
Like a sack of flour, the dragon crumpled to the ground, making the very ground shake as its body struck the stone.
There was a moment of dead silence as everyone, Krum included, stared at the dead dragon.
Krum was the first to break the silence by throwing his arms up in the air and screaming, "Yes!"
That broke the dam, as suddenly everyone in the stadium was on their feet roaring in approval and showering the Durmstrang with praise.
"What was that about blatant favoritism?" I mildly asked Durmstrang's headmaster, thoroughly enjoying how he refused to look me in the eye.
"What a show!" Dumbledore said. "It will be hard for our young Mr. Potter to top that, I'm afraid."
"It may not be as momentous a victory, but he should be alright." I said, watching the dragon handlers try to figure out a way to move the dragon's corpse. The others they'd just walked out, but this was a problem for them.
"If you gentlemen will excuse me for a moment." I said, rising from my seat. "I'm going to help clean up the mess."
Leaping off of the bleachers, I flexed my spacial magic to slow my descent as much as it could - I wasn't willing to reveal to the world that I had phoenix wings - and rolled once I hit the ground to dissipate the impact. Coming to my feet and dusting myself off, I walked up to Krum who was still basking in the praise of the entire stadium. "A word of advice? Claim the dragon's corpse by right of conquest before any number of the greedy old codgers in the stands get any ideas. Since you killed it, all the resources are yours by right, but only if you say so."
His eyes widened, he likely knew of the custom but had forgotten in the euphoria that accompanied slaying your first dragon.
"Thank you, professor." he said quickly before turning to the crowd. "I claim the dragon's corpse by right of conquest!" He called over the still roaring crowd.
It brought me immense pleasure to feel the minds of so many in the stands instantly turn sour. The reason I'd warned Krum to begin with was because they were already planning to steal anything of value. Now if they did, the wizard cops would be after them.
With Krum's kill protected, I casually strolled up to the men trying to figure out a way to move the dragon's body. "Do you have a place to store it? Because if you do, I can move it no problem."
"Uh… yeah, we do, professor. Over in its pen where it was before the fight." a man with red hair who for some reason looked familiar said as he pointed in the direction of the pen.
I sent a spirit there quickly to determine the location and nodded contentedly. "Good. I'll take it from here."
"Um, professor? How are you….going….to….?"
He, and everyone else in the crowd, who had still been chanting Krum's name, went slack-jawed as the dragon's corpse just started floating behind me.
I strolled through the gate and set the floating corpse down in the pen before walking back into the stadium where I'd jumped down from my seat.
Contrary to everyone else in the stadium, Dumbledore was just smiling warmly down at my antics. I was really starting to like the man.
Summoning two spell circles, one for either hand, I pumped mana into my muscles to over charge them and, boosting myself with space magic, leapt up and over the wall and landed back in front of my seat.
"Did I miss any interesting discussion?" I asked as the teachers around me stared in disbelief.
"Unfortunately, I must inform you that you did. Kakarov and I were just having the most lovely discussion about bogs and the different shades of color present within them." Dumbledore said as I sat back down next to him.
"A shame. I'm sorry I couldn't be here."
"Oh, don't worry, my friend. We can revisit the topic at a later time." Dumbledore assured me, his eyes still sparkling. I really needed to figure out how he did that. It was awesome.
Activity slowly picked back up as Krum left the field and the final dragon was brought in. It wasn't long before Harry Potter walked into the arena, staring frightfully at the dragon.
Potter whipped his wand out and aimed it skyward. A thin red beam shot out of it and exploded into a firework high in the sky.
The dragon reared back, perplexed by the still present light, and I realized Potter was doing the same thing Diggory had done.
While he didn't have access to the spell I'd given the Hufflepuff, Potter had compensated by using the firework to spread a repugnant smell all over the stadium to obscure his own. At the same time, he'd pulled a cloak out of nowhere and disappeared as he wrapped it around himself.
The dragon continued watching the bright red flashes of Potter's fireworks, it and the rest of the stadium completely ignorant to the fact that the golden egg was already gone and Potter was safely out of the stadium.
"They all did rather well." I said as I clapped for Potter's success, everyone in the stands around me looking extremely confused as Albus and I clapped for seemingly no reason.
"Yes they did. It warms my heart to see such talented young people. They are, afterall, our future." Dumbledore said.
Standing up and stretching out a bit, I said, "Well, if that's everything then I think I'll-"
A loud chink interrupted me as the dragon decided it wanted to explore Potter's mesmerizing firework up close and snapped the chain keeping it in the stadium.
The dragon's wings spread out behind it as it leapt upwards, heading directly towards a section of the bleachers filled with students and other spectators.
Narrowing my eyes, I was enveloped in flame as I teleported. I reappeared a meter above the dragon's head and fell right onto its neck. Propping my feet against its spine, I gripped a long horn on its snout and pulled backwards.
The dragon let out a surprised barking sound as it flapped its wings backwards to try to ease the pain I was causing it, taking it back and away from the fleeing fans it had been moments away from crushing.
Seeing that the dragon was once more over the stadium, and therefore in no danger of crushing anyone if it randomly fell out of the sky, I pulled my fist back as I summoned the phoenix fire in my soul. My entire arm was coated in one of the most powerful fires in existence as I summoned a spell circle in front of me.
Roaring out a battle cry, I punched forward, coating my blazing fist with the deathly magics in my spell circle as I did. As my fist hit the dragon's scales, the necrotic magic empowering them decayed the dragon's armor while the phoenix fire on my arm melted through what was left and quickly slagged a large portion of the creature's brain.
The dragon went unnaturally limp, and began to rotate towards the ground as its body fell. Not particularly interested in being crushed by the body of a dead dragon, I leapt off the dragon's head and teleported once more, reappearing on the ground in the stadium. A breath later, the dragon's corpse rocked the stadium as it fell a few scant meters behind me, but I didn't turn to look at it, I'd known exactly where it was falling and knew I wasn't in any danger. There was also the fact that I was showing off a bit, but that was beside the point.
"I claim this dragon's corpse by right of conquest." I declared into the silence following the near instant death of the dragon. "Mr. Potter retrieved his egg and vacated the stadium before the dragon got free, so I was not helping him and his score should therefore be unaffected. Also," the entire stadium flinched backwards as I flexed my power slightly, pressing down on them with the unnatural powers of death. "Someone just tried to kill one of my students and in attempting to do so nearly killed dozens more."
I wouldn't have noticed the corrosion charm placed on the chain had I not felt the magic on it activate, but since I had, it was clear in my mind that his had been an assassination attempt. I didn't know why, and I didn't care. Part of my job was to protect my students, so I would do so. "I will find you. And I will hang you with your own intestines. If you have any self-preservation instincts at all, give yourself over to the aurors before I find you. They believe in due process. I believe in cutting the head off of the problem then incinerating the ashes. You have three days to submit yourself to the authorities. If you remain at large after that time period, you will not last a fourth." Having said my piece, I levitated the dragon's corpse behind me and walked out of the stadium, starting the long trek back to the castle.
While I possibly could have teleported with the corpse, I didn't know how Hogwarts' wards would interact with the dead dragon. I could bypass them using my own wards because I was essentially invisible to them, but the dragon body was another matter entirely. It was best to just walk it back.
A little over ten minutes into my walk, I heard a voice call from behind me. "Professor!"
Apparently it was too much to ask to be able to walk back to a magical castle in peace after saving countless lives, slaying a dragon, threatening a fate worse than death upon an unknown individual and levitating the corpse of the dragon behind you.
"Miss Greengrass, is there something I can help you with?" I said as the young woman caught up with me.
"You taught them your magic!" she yelled, sounding rather angry.
"I do not see how that is a problem. They are my students, and it is in my job description to prepare them for any dangers they might face to the best of my ability."
"Then why haven't I been taught any of your magic?" she said, carefully working to control herself.
"For two simple reasons. The first is that I do not believe you will find yourself in a situation in the near future where my magic would be necessary to your survival, and the second is because you never asked."
Greengrass narrowed her eyes as we continued walking. "I did ask you but you said no."
"Incorrect. I said no to taking you on as an apprentice. I never said I wouldn't teach you wandless magic. Now, there are certain facets to it that I will not teach anyone," It would be a monumentally stupid idea to give away any tricks that I had spent decades perfecting to be nigh-unbeatable. "But I am more than willing to instruct you on how to cast any spell you can cast with a wand through a spell circle. Though there would be a condition. You would not be able to share any of the knowledge with your other teachers. They have all been trying to figure it out ever since I began trading knowledge with Professor Snape and their constant failures are endlessly amusing. Was that all, Miss Greengrass?"
Straightening out her school robes and looking far more pleased than when she'd sprinted up to me, she said, "Yes, professor. I will seek you out when you are not so busy. Thank you, and congratulations on your dragon." Smiling in a pleased manner, she turned and walked away.
I sent a gentle probe against her mind as she did, and I noticed her stumble a bit.
You're making progress, but your barriers still need work. I said in her mind, being careful not to stray any deeper than her surface thoughts. The best way to strengthen them is to shape a fortress in your mindscape that you have complete control of. Having something to visualize when resisting mental influences makes defending your mind much easier. Now I apologize for the rude mental contact. Have a good day, Miss Greengrass.
As I walked away, I let my thoughts shift back to my new dragon corpse. There was so much I could do with this that I was honestly getting a little giddy. Between my skill in artifice and my rapidly growing expertise in potions, this dragon was going to be my new best friend.
X
Barty Crouch Jr.
My breathing was erratic as I fled through the Forbidden Forest. This wasn't possible. There was simply no way he was doing the things he was doing. The dark lord himself was incapable of-
"Barty. Barty. Barty." came a condescending voice from the branches above me, causing me to scramble to a stop and raise my wand to the sky. "You should have taken my offer. I'm not usually so generous as to offer my enemies a way out. Maybe being a teacher has made me soft? No matter, that changes now."
An invisible force tore my wand from my grasp at the same moment I was sent flying backwards into a thick tree.
I wheezed as I fell to the ground, the impact having knocked the air from my lungs. Heaving in a great gasp of air, I began to crawl. I refused to die here. I had to warn my lord about this man. He was dangerous; too dangerous to be left alive.
"I'll never understand why the idiots of this world started using these pathetic twigs." a man in armor the color of shadows said idly as he shimmered into being, twirling my wand in his hand. "Relying on trinkets like this in order to properly channel your power is just asking for trouble. After all, twigs snap." His statement was accompanied by a pulse of dying magic as he broke my wand in half.
I snarled up at the man in a rage as I pulled out my dagger. "I'll gut you like the-"
My dagger was wrenched from my hand and an unseen force held me aloft in the sky.
"You are no longer permitted to speak, scum. The only reason I haven't killed you yet is because I need to make an example of you. People need to learn what happens when they fuck. With. My. Students."
Something deep inside my gut twisted unnaturally and I started to scream.
Barty Crouch Jr. would go on to spend the last hours of his life in agony before his captor gave him permission to die.
X
Daphne Greengrass
As the papers arrived at breakfast, there were frightened whispers, a few Puffs who vomited and even a first year student from Gryffindor who ran from the hall in tears. Honestly, it was all rather amusing.
I looked up at the teacher's table, and was unsurprised to once more see Professor Xarion absent from the hall. I had not yet discovered where he took his meals, but it was becoming more and more of a priority to do so. He was powerful and had made it clear that all I had to do to learn his secrets was to ask. If I knew where he ate, I would be able to ask more often, to spend more time ascending as only magic could allow one to do.
"Harry! Did you see the paper?" Granger's shrill voice rang across the silence of the hall. No one was talking, even most Slytherins had lost their appetite. Weak; the lot of them.
More out of idle curiosity than anything else, I turned around to see Potter's reaction to the image on the front page.
Just like the rest, Hogwarts' second champion paled and pushed his plate away, resigned to not eat until his mind had buried the picture before him.
Sighing in disappointment at my supposed 'peers', I cut into my toast to continue eating, looking sidelong at my own copy of the Prophet as I did, a small smile spreading across my face.
The headline read, 'Barty Crouch Jr. Found Hanging From Fountain of Magical Brethren in Ministry of Magic by Own Intestines. Escaped Azkaban by Trading Places With Dying Mother.' An image of the scene in question was pictured directly below the headline, Crouch's body swaying back and forth as the magical image moved across the page.
I had already skimmed over the article, and of course no one was able to find any evidence as to who killed the Death Eater, but no one needed to know who had done it. We all knew.
It was Professor Xarion. He had kept his promise.
Finishing the last of my eggs, I stood from the bench and walked from the hall, heading for my first period defense class. One could never show up too early after all.