Chapter 07 Tournament Troubles
A/N: Nope, still not JK Rowling.
Hermione was remembering the difference between this time line and the last one. Harry was called out of the tent to face his dragon. He and Hermione had managed to come up with a plan that was hopefully going to be safer than last time. They didn't know that the dragons were being starved to make them more aggressive.
The Horntail leaped at Harry as soon as she saw him and breathed fire on him. Several seconds later when she ran out of breath they saw Harry standing there unharmed… but his clothes had all been burned away, that included his wand. The Horntail's head snapped down intending to swallow the little human that dared to threaten her eggs.
Harry instinctively raised his arms in a futile effort to protect himself. However, he somehow managed to call the sword of Gryffindor to him. The Horntail's mouth came down on the sword and she immediately yanked her head back. She sucked at the wound and spat on the rocky ground.
The rock melted from the Basilisk venom from the blade. {What manner of sword is this?} She wondered. {You speak…} Harry marveled. {You speak.} The dragon said, sounding as shocked as Harry. {Please don't eat me. I wasn't intending to harm your eggs. I have to get the fake egg they placed among your real eggs to complete this task in this God forsaken Tournament.}
She walked back to her eggs and found the fake egg. She turned to Harry and asked, {You do not want to be in this contest?} Harry answered, {No Great Lady. Someone put my name in and I was chosen. Now they say I have to compete.} The Horntail groaned. {I'm so hungry I was going to swallow you whole, now I'm glad I didn't. There so few Speakers in the world as it is.}
{They aren't feeding you? I can't believe Charlie would do that.} Harry switched to English and added a Sonorus charm. "I heard that there ar representatives here, may I speak to any that are?" Dumbledore called down to him. "I'm the head of th Harry, what is it you want?"
"Ignore him mister Potter." Harry turned and saw two people coming cautiously toward him looking nervously up at the massive dragon. "Sirs. The Horntail says that the dragons were starved to make them more aggressive. She tried to swallow me whole because she is so hungry. Of course that was before she knew I can talk to her. Can you make them feed the dragons?"
"What are you playing at Dumbledore?! These dragons are being starved to make them more aggressive!" One of the representatives accused. "This is none of your business. This is Great Britain business. You are here as guests." Dumbledore responded.
"How long do you think Britain can last under a embargo Dumbledore?" "I am head of the I C W, I can veto such an embargo and tie th up for years." Dumbledore responded. "We were sent to observe, but before we came there was a special session. You were voted out because of your questionable actions over the years. There was an investigation and several things were discovered Dumbledore.
"I ask you again. How long do you think Britain can last against a embargo?" Dumbledore was in a panic. If what the man said was true… even his actions in the Wizengamot could be brought into question. Mean while Harry decided to take matters into his own hands.
"Dobby." The little man popped in front of him. "Master Harry calls for his Dobby?" "Yes, here's my vault key. Take enough money out to buy..." {Great Lady, how many cows do you think we would need to feed you all?} Harry asked after turning to the dragon.
{The others can each eat two. I can eat three, so nine would be good.} Harry turned back to Dobby. "Buy nine cows and bring them here for the four dragons. Two each for the ones in the pens and three for my friend here." Dobby popped away to do as Harry asked.
Dobby made a farmer think he worked for a slaughter house and made him think he had a big truck. As each cow was loaded into the, 'truck', Dobby popped it to one of the dragons. He was only able to do all this because he was bonded to Harry and Harry was well above average in terms of power. Dobby still needed to rest after he was done. Harry was tired too now but they got through the first task.
Fleur forgot Hermione's advice about staying away from the weeds in the Black Lake and she got tangled up with the Grindylows. The other three Champions hurried to her rescue as a result she wasn't injured too badly to go on. As a result of the cooperation all four got to the hostages at the same time.
They were all shocked when the Merfolk all tried to kill Fleur and Gabby. Harry cast the only spell he knew that could harm the Merfolk. He cast Incendio. It didn't form flames in the water but it sent jets of boiling water at the attackers and proved to be more effective than any of the other spells. It hit one of the mermen and the rest abandoned the attack. The Merman didn't die, but he would be pretty sore for a while.
After getting everyone back on dry land Fleur explained that the Merfolk and the vela were mortal enemies. The only reason they hadn't killed Gabriel was they wanted the sisters to see each other die. Harry didn't want sweet, adorable, Gabby being his slave because of a vela life debt but he couldn't refuse as that would cause Gabby to die a horrible death. Hermione whispered that according to Daphne he would need seven wives and he could have Gabby take one of the seven places. That was much more palatable to all involved.
At the graveyard after the third task, the battle was over before it began. The Department of Mysteries took the Dark Baby away. Later as an Unspeakable was cleaning the Dark Baby it slipped and fell on it's head. The homunculus died and Voldemort's spirit was freed, again.