The First Task
Harry stepped out of the tunnel, into the arena. Around him stands had been conjured up. The Quidditch stadium usually only seated a thousand, enough for the students and staff of Hogwarts, and some parents. Now it seated a good ten thousand, maybe half of the Magical population of the British isles.
He ignored the stands and looked at the task at hand.
In the middle of the field, a strange pile of wood hung on a pole. It was evidently the nest of the Pixies.
Around it, two dozen bright green Pixies swarmed. They where slightly bigger then the Cornish Pixies that Harry hat seen last year in DADA with Lockhart. They were about the length of his forearm.
At the base of the pole lay a shiny object, the ring. He only had to get it and get out, and he would pass this task.
Before he got any closer, Harry wanted to get his broom. "Accio Harry Potter's broom."
A moment passed, and then he saw his broom fly towards him from the Slytherin section, where Theo was sitting. Harry smiled.
Then a dome of red light flashed, concentrating at the point where the broom impacted a hitherto invisible barrier.
The broom continued to bounce against the dome. It drifted around, while it bounced. Harry gave up with this approach, and canceled the spell.
Loud laughter erupted from the Gryffindor section. The Durmstrang and Beauxbatons sections joined them.
Harry hung his shoulders. What could he do now?
He thought on his spell repertoire. 'What would be useful against these Pixies?'
He examined the Pixies behavior. It was not that he needed a particular strong spell, but it needed to get him past twenty four, independent, but cooperating, poisonous pests. Harry did not know of a shield that could not be flown around.
He had an idea: "Ventus"
A strong gust of wind moved across the arena. The swarm was pushed to the other end of the arena with it.
Harry sprinted as fast as he could towards the nest.
Now the swarm discovered him. There was angry buzzing and then they spread out. Harry attempted to redouble the spell, but now that they were spread out, he could only get a few at a time.
In a moment of vanity, he was pleased how he had progressed in mobile spelling. He barely had to slow down to cast several different spells in quick succession, looking for the best one against the pest at hand.
"Aguamenti!" Harry put quite a bit of magic into this squirt of water. It disoriented the Pixie for a short time and pushed it back. But it only got one Pixie at a time.
"Depulso!" this basically had the same result as the gust of wind, but again only one at a time. He needed to find something more permanent.
The body bind: "Petrificus totalus!"
For a quick moment the targeted Pixie was still, but then another Pixie flew to it and bumped its head. It flashed quickly and both were flying again.
Harry remembered that they were from the tropical Amazon rain forest. A place that is hot year round. Maybe they were weak against cold?
"Glacio!" The freezing spell.
Bingo!
The bright green of the Pixie turned turquoise and his target first slowed down and then dropped to the floor.
Another Pixie again came to its aid, but this time it could not help. It rather became slow itself, from the cold, but did not immobilize itself.
Harry threw the spell at the handicapped Pixie. One Pixie darted at him from the corner of his eye. He instinctively responded, and just moments after the last spell downed this one too. Three Pixies down twenty one to go.
Harry now had an useful spell. But could he keep it up? He knew that while not extremely draining, the glacio did require some stamina to be cast two dozen times.
But before he could worry about this, he saw that the Pixies made a concerted counter attack.
Harry was now only ten yards from the nest.
The remaining Pixies had divided into three roughly equal groups.
Two groups charged from opposite directions. Trying to catch Harry in between, unable to defend against one of the two charges.
Harry reacted without thinking. He threw another gust of wind at the group from his right, and concentrated on immobilizing as many as he could of the group to his left.
One … two … three … They dropped like flies. Six were down in no time, the seventh of the group tried to doge behind a rock.
Harry ignored it for now. He was halfway through the task, underneath the nest. He saw the ring. It is golden, but Harry had no time to look at it too closely. He just slipped it on to his left little finger. And looked for the exit. The task is not yet won, he still had to get out of the arena.
There on the opposite side to where he entered is another tunnel through the stands. He dashed forward.
But as he steps out from below the nest, the third group dive bombs at him.
They had hidden behind the nest, while the other two groups had attacked him. Harry now understood. They had only been a ruse to distract him from this maneuver.
Harry again, instinctively now, threw the ventus at them.
Five Pixies were thrown violently at their own nest. Some were knocked out cold, while others where only momentarily disoriented.
Three, however, had been outside the area affected by the spell.
One, Harry caught in another glacio, before it could get to him.
One, he was barely able to bat away with his left arm, as it tried to bite him into his ear. It crashed into the floor with a satisfying clunk.
One, Harry was not able to stop.
Four needle like teeth cut into his right lower leg.
Harry smashed at the beast with both fists. The Pixie fell to the floor. It's head completely crushed. It would never move again.
But it was too late.
Harry looked at his leg. He felt numbness spread out from the four small wounds.
He didn't have time for reflection.
He had less then three minutes, he needed to move.
"MOVE!" Harry shouted at himself.
Harry darted towards the exit. The remaining dozen Pixies redoubled their attack.
As he ran and cast at the same time he noticed the numbness spread. It slowed him down. At this pace he would not make it. What could he do?
He stopped. His last round of spells had taken all but five remaining Pixies out. The five were tending to their wounds for the moment. But the numbness had almost spread through his entire leg. Only the upper thigh was still normal. He could barely hobbled along.
Harry dropped to the ground, and picked up two rocks. He transfigured one into a rope, and the other into a small stick. He started to tie it around his leg. Harry placed the stick as Moody had taught him. He pulled tightly and tied it as snugly as he could. It was a make shift tourniquet. It was painful, but he hoped it would slow the blood flow across it for long enough. The tourniquet was a muggle method, but Moody had said it had saved him multiple times.
He got up again. The Slytherin section cheered. Harry realized that he had tuned out the crowd until now. Battling even just Pixies had been his entire. But now his main enemy was himself. He could not give up.
With his left leg almost completely numb and without any direct control over it, he stumbled forward. He transfigured a small rock into a stick, a make shift crutch. For the time being this was enough to help him keep balance.
He kept an eye out for the Pixies. They had positioned themselves between him and the exit. They seemed to be aware that their poison was in effect. It was only a mater of time until Harry would be paralyzed.
'Keep moving!' Harry kept repeating to himself.
The tourniquet was so far working. It had slowed down the blood flow. His entire leg was now numb, but above the tourniquet he only felt a slight numbness. It was growing, but if he kept moving, he might make it.
His pace was now fairly slow, a few steps every second. But he was getting there, the Quidditch field was a standard length of five hundred feet. So since the nest was in the middle, he had to get about two hundred fifty feet to the exit, when he had been caught by the bite. With every step he was getting closer, now he was maybe one hundred fifty feet away.
The crowd was more subdued now as he was moving. He did not really care what they thought, but the encouragement from repeated "Potter, Potter!" and "Show them, Potter!" distracted him a bit form the numbness, and made him feel as if he was not entirely alone, even if, really, he was.
He felt his right leg also starting to become numb. It was slow, the tourniquet was working, but he was running out of time.
Then when he was roughly seventy feet from the exit, he collapsed. His right leg was not controlled enough anymore to make up for his left leg. A disappointed murmur went through the crowd.
At this point the remaining five Pixies decided to attack.
Surprisingly, they did not really cause too much trouble. They were attacking from different directions, but his glacio was now almost second nature. What surprised him most was that even after having cast it almost twenty times, he felt no strain on his magic. His body was another story, but his magic was very much fine. He took down all five in twenty seconds.
The crowd cheered for a moment, until it realized that he was still stranded. An Auror approached him.
He took a deep breath, and waved her away. The crowd cheered at his refusal to give up.
He could do this: He was Harry Potter.
He had fought Voldemort, twice.
He had slain a basilisk.
He could not let Pixies get the better of him.
So, he experimented. For about forty feet he was able to use his right leg enough to do a decent army crawl. It was slow, it was painfully slow, but he was getting there.
The crowd was impressed. They liked seeing him not give up. If he was not mistaken, he could even hear some Gryffindors cheering him on.
Then even his right leg was too numb to be useful. Pulling himself by only his arms was excruciatingly slow. He had to repeatedly wave away the Aurors and mediwitches.
Then he tried something new. He discovered that he could still use his two arms to roll himself around. His legs did not cooperate at all, and where quite in the way, but it worked. It probably looked pathetic, but he was going to make it.
As the exit line approached, he could not think on anything besides reaching it anymore. His entire focus was on reaching that line. He felt the numbness rise, coming up his stomach and then his chest. It became harder and harder to roll around.
After what seemed like an eternity, Harry rolled across the exit line, leaving the wards marking containing the field behind.
He lifted his left arm, with the golden ring on its little finger into the air.
The crowd roared.
And then the mediwitches finally took him to the infirmary.
HPU
Harry's injuries were patched up rather quickly. The Pixies poison was rather mild compared to its paralyzing effects. The antidote took effect within minutes. And so, Harry's make shift tourniquet actually caused the most damage. The muscles and arteries below it were damaged, and even with some potions, he would have a slight limp for a couple of day's.
Johnson and Krum both were up and about, as well, but they were kept in separate infirmary tents, while Delacour was going through her task. She was much quicker, and was not injured at all by the Pixies. After only a few minutes of rest all four were brought forward to determine the results.
The four champions now stood in the center of the arena, as they awaited the scoring. The judges, Directors Bagman and Crouch, and Professors Dumbledore, Maxime and Karkaroff sat at the judges table.
"Esteemed Witches and Wizards, we have seen valiant acts of our contestants. They have displayed courage and tenacity. We will now proceed to evaluate their performance." the sonorus enhanced voice of Director Bagman boomed throughout the arena, "First we have to judge Hogwarts's original champion, Angelina Johnson. To refresh our memories, Johnson showed great magical ability in transfiguring six rooks into small dragons, and then directing them to distract the Pixies. Sadly, this did not provide enough cover for her and she was overwhelmed by five Pixies, after she had obtained her ring. Johnson was not able to complete the task.
"The champion of Durmstrang, Viktor Krum used the cutting curse to exterminate the entire swarm of Pixies, and then calmly traversed through the arena. It was a display of brutal efficiency as he was able to use the cutting curse on multiple Pixies at a time.
"Our youngest champion, Harry Potter, charged at the Pixies with a combination of the ventus and the freezing spell. He was able to eventually subdue all of the Pixies, but was bitten by one before he froze it. Despite this, Harry Potter completed the task through pure force of will, finishing the task by rolling over the exit line.
"Finally Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons used her Veela powers and transformed into her avian form. As a bird she simply flew through the arena and outmaneuvered the Pixies. She impressed all of us with her quick time, Delacour only took a minute and a half to complete this task."
Now Director Crouch spoke, "We will now award up to ten points each, for a maximum total score of fifty points. I should remind the judges to be balanced, and to look not only at the time, but also at the elegance of the task. First up, Angelina Johnson."
The five used their wands to conjure various numbers. As expected for not completing, Johnson received a small score. All but Dumbledore gave her under four points, while he gave her a six, presumably for effort. Johnson was not happy with her score of seventeen, but still received thunderous applause from her lions.
Krum's numbers were strange. His own Headmaster gave him a ten, while everyone else gave him mid range numbers between four and six. Harry wondered if Dumbledore's four was for using a too violent approach, and resolved to only use as much force as necessary in this tournament. Krum's numbers added to a respectable thirty-one points.
Harry was amused to find that he tied with Krum. He had received a more even grading, apparently his approach was not as controversial.
Harry and Beauxbatons was rather disappointed in Delacour's results. She had blown away the competition, but received some rather poor scores. Both Dumbledore and Maxime gave her a ten, and Bagman a nine, but Crouch and Karkaroff gave her a four and a three respectively, severely damaging the score. Delacour could be happy with taking the lead, even if she deserved more then thirty-six points.
As the four walked to the exit, this time in peace, Harry approached Delacour. "Champion Delacour, congratulations on your victory. It sounds to me as if you deserved a better score, but great job nevertheless."
"Z'ank you, 'arry. It is tru', but Veela are not always uelcome 'ere in Britain. It is just somez'ing I have to live wiz'. It sounds like you did well too."
At this point the two had reached the exit, and an exited Moody pulled Harry away. Harry waved a good bye to the Veela as she too was dragged along other exited witches and wizards.
"Potter, not bad. It was a close call, but you really showed heart. Nice job using that tourniquet to slow down the poison, but talk to Snape about it, he should know some better methods of dealing with poison. I was pleased to see you fight. Remember, never surrender, fortitudine vincimus. Are you happy with how you did?"
"Mmm, happy enough sir. My leg will remind me of my foolish Gryffindor charge for a few day's. I surprised myself with how rapidly I could freeze them, so I'm pleased with that."
"What do you have against Gryffindor charges? Never mind you snake," Moody snorted, "you showed a strange mixture in your magic though. I have observed it in practice as well. Your power level is not that unusual for a wizard your age, but you don't tire at all when you cast. You should look into that."
"Will do, sir. Maybe Granger would know something about it."
"You trust her, don't you. But this is rather peculiar. I'd be surprised if she will find anything."
"The whole broom incident was a bit embarrassing, Professor," Harry switched the topic.
"I'm sorry, I was not aware of the extra wards that they installed. I seriously thought that you would be fighting dragons. I had overheard Dumbledore murmuring about them. He seems to get more and more senile."
"I should thank you regardless, not for this tip, but for the Auror training you instructed me in. I have been continuing it, and it really helped today."
"My pleasure, kid, I'm glad it helped."
HPU
Not much later, Harry had escaped to the lakeside. He wanted to be alone for a little while. He could use the rest. His leg was smarting from the tourniquet wound. He would have to be careful in training for the next few days.
As he was starring across the lake into the distance, Snape came to him. Harry let out a sigh. He would have much rather seen Hermione or Theo.
Ignoring this sentiment, Harry got up, "Professor, I have to thank you for your help in preparing me for the Tournament."
"I wish I saw the same thing, Potter. You attacked the task like a Gryffindor. When one looks at your approach to the task, Johnson used a much more Slytherin way, but didn't executed well. You charged in like a Gryffindor and then had the luck to make it through."
"No, I came upon an unexpected challenge, and constantly adapted to the new challenges. I tried new things until something worked."
"You did not use your brain. You were lucky that your stamina is unbelievable. And that trick of slowing the blood flow. I will have to teach you some more effective methods in the next lesson."
"I hope there are better ones, my leg will bug me for a few days."
"Let that be a reminder to you, you are a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor. But now, come. The House of Slytherin wants to celebrate the runner up of the first task."
The two wandered over to the Slytherin Dungeons. The whole house had assembled. It was a rather low key affair, only semi-formal. Some musicians played music, and a few danced. Harry enjoyed dancing with the Greengrass sisters and Tracy. The house elves had brought in some snacks and butterbeer. Everyone seemed to enjoy their time.
At some point Harry noticed something going on in one of the alcoves. He took a closer look and discovered that several upper years were distributing potions there.
He asked Theo and Daphne about it, "Have you noticed that there are potions over there? It seems an odd time to test your homework."
Daphne laughed, "Those aren't homework, Potter. There is a big market of pleasure potions in the Wizarding world. If you drink them you can have all kinds of experiences, normally with little consequences. But if you take them to frequently, your behavior changes, and many wizards become completely dependent on them."
"Yeah, Harry, it's best to stay away from them. They change your behavior and if you are addicted, they rule your life." Theo chimed in, "Better stick to butterbeer or good old alcohol."
"People get alcoholic too, though?" Harry said.
"Sure, but it requires much more effort then some of those potions." Theo responded, "And you really don't know what you are getting in them either."
They dropped the topic and resumed dancing. Snape's lessons really paid of, Harry thought.
HPU
The First Task:
Exciting or Disappointing?
Half of Britain's Wizarding population gathered yesterday to witness the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Most spectators agreed that the four Champions gave a good show. The boy-who-lived surprised all with his endurance, and the French Veela caused controversy with her avian form. But in the end, most were disappointed in a rather lackluster challenge: Amazonian Hive Pixies. The Ministry now is seeking to reassure the public that the second task will be exiting in itself.
On the tasks themselves, see p. 2.
On the Ministries explanation of the task, see p. 5.
Should Half-bloods compete? see p. 5.
How violent should it be? See p. 6
Where do we go from here? see p. 9.
I am not sure about this. It almost seems to easy, but that is the point. The Ministry presses the organizers of the Tournament into making it safe, but it also makes it boring in the process.
I did enjoy writing it though, it was kind of the first, prolonged action scene in the story. Writing it came rather easily. But how does it read? Any tips on good action sequences? This was also my quickest update yet, and maybe not the most edited. Any mistakes you see?
I have been reading An Old and New World by Lens of Sanity, a rather funny story about a mildly crazy Harry. He spent a few months in Azkaban and befriends Bellatrix there. Upon his release, he drives the wizarding world insane.