Chapter Sixty-Six: The Hungarian Horntail

Harry took his invisibility cloak and Draco's map and headed straight towards Hogsmeade village. He headed for the equestrian store (that people usually buy supplies for flying and other kinds of horses) to buy a riding helmet and saddle when suddenly he bumped into April Anderson.

"Harry? What are you doing here?" She questioned him while she spun around as he took off his cloak.

"Sorry April, top secret. Please don't tell anybody else that I was here." He told her.

"Alright, but could you at least tell me what's going on? I'm here because I'm taking muggle horseback riding lessons back at home. Do you have a unicorn or something?" She wondered.

"No, dragon actually but he isn't really mine. I'm just borrowing him. Sort of a long story." He told her.

"Alright, well see you later then Harry and good luck in the tournament." She told him with a rather warm and loving smile before giving him a slight wave and skipping off while he started buying his supplies.

The next few weeks Harry started training incredibly hard with Spike by practicing on catching rainbow fish from the black lake as he would have to be stealing the golden egg that his dragon would be protecting. With each day he got faster and faster and then after his practice he would reward Spike by either playing with him with his favorite ball or rubbing his belly.

Finally, it was the day that everybody been waiting for. The day of the first task and Ginny was starting to walk towards Draco and Hermione who were already at the champions' tent. "Have either of you seen Harry?" She wondered.

"No, I was just about to ask you the same thing actually." Hermione began. "I haven't seen him all day."

"I'm sure he'll be alright." Draco began with a grin. "He is the boy who survived Voldemort after all. A dragon should be easy work for him." He told them but both girls just eyed him suspiciously.

"What's going on here?" Ginny wondered. "Do you know something that we don't?" She questioned him.

"Why don't we just take our seats and watch the show and find out what happens?" He suggested continuing to grin at her before Hermione smacked him upside the head.

"You do know something don't you!?" She cried before he started to laugh.

"Wow, you're beautiful when you're angry." He told her with a grin. "Actually, you're beautiful all the time." He added as Hermione turned away from him and blushed.

"Alright, let's just go get our spots. Remember, we're here for Harry." She said before she quickly hurried away.

"It's so adorable how you guys always flirt with each other!" Ginny exclaimed excitedly as Draco rolled his eyes at her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah Weasley." He began. "Enough with the hearts and violins already." He told her before giving her a tight hug and affectionate noogie and then they walked to their seats.

As Fleur, Viktor, and Cedric faced their dragons Severus was starting to get really worried about Harry as well. "Where is Harry?" He questioned himself aloud.

"Three of our four contestants have now faced their dragons, and now it's time for our fourth and final contestant." Dumbledore's voice over the loudspeaker and everybody in the stadium started chanting Harry's name.

Hermione started getting extremely anxious as she didn't see Harry anywhere. All she saw was the Hungarian Horntail tied up and an empty arena and the crowd went silent. "Well there's the Horntail, but where is Snape!?" Lee Jordan exclaimed onto the loudspeaker.

"Where are you Harry?" Severus questioned while he started looking around worriedly and his heart began to pound inside his chest before there was a sudden woosh and Harry flew straight past him on top of Spike's back and the crowd gasped before Harry held him back and hovered in the air for a few moments while Spike flapped his wings up and down repeatedly wearing his new saddle and matching Gryffindor robes that read "Snape" on the back of them and he grinned as the crowd began to cheer.

"Go Harry!" Hermione cried out before she threw her arms up into the air and then applauded and cheered with the rest of the crowd as Harry dove down and avoided a fire blast from the other Horntail.

"Alright Spike, you remember what to do. Just like we practiced it now come on!" Harry yelled while he directed him around the evil dragon and with a humongous swoop Spike caught the golden egg inside his talons and then rose back up into the air and the crowd cheered even louder while the dragon tossed it up to him. Harry beamed with pride as he heard the crowd chanting his name once more while he hovered in midair.

Later on Ron and Hermione went to go meet Harry in the Gryffindor common room and Hermione threw her arms around Harry and embraced him tightly. "Congratulations, not only were you in first place but you had a world record time." She told him. "Since when did you decide to ride Spike?" She wondered before slowly backing away from him and Harry just simply shrugged and brushed his bangs out of his eyes.

"I dunno since a few weeks ago. If I would have thought about it I would have said something to Cedric. After all, we're on the same team and I warned him what the first task was going to be." He explained as Ron heaved a sigh and looked at him.

"Well I reckon that you have to be barking mad to put your own name in the cup." He told him as Harry gave him a slight nod.

"Finally figured that out did you? Took you long enough." He told him.

"I'm sorry mate, but I'm not the only one who thought you did it. A lot of other people were going around saying it behind your back." Ron said as Harry simply just looked at him.

"But you're supposed to be my best friend." He told him before exiting the Gryffindor common room.