When the First Task Went Wrong

Summary: When an extra name came out of the Goblet of Fire, the First Task of the Tri Wizard Tournament needed a fourth dragon. Someone, somewhere, said "I know, let's get the biggest and meanest dragon we can find and really give the punters a show for their galleons." And someone else said "That's a good idea, and to make things even better, we'll make sure that it is the youngest, most inexperienced Champion who battles the biggest and meanest of the dragons." And they took their ideas to the rest of the Tournament Organisers and they said "What a good idea! What could possibly go wrong?"

This story is of the answer that ill-fated question.

Warnings: Lots of death and destruction. Fire and smoke. A fair amount of use of swearing, particularly the "f" word. Incompetent Ministry. Incompetent Dumbledore and Hogwarts staff (as if they were ever anything else!) - The Goblet of Fire had hardly any protection on it, and Hogwarts has a pretty poor track record when it comes to safety and security. Why should the tasks be any different?

Harry sat in the Champion's Tent, waiting anxiously for his turn. Both Cedric and Fleur had already faced their dragons and left the arena. Krum had just retrieved his egg and was now waiting upon the deliberations of the judges to find out his score.

Sitting in the tent alone had only increased Harry's anxiety. He could hear every word of commentary that was provided by Ludo Bagman and from the sounds of it, all three Champions to have faced a dragon so far were in need of trips to the Hospital Wing. The way Bagman told it, each of them must have suffered burns and tail-lashings.

It made Harry wonder if he was about to die. After all, the other champions had several more years' worth of magical education under their belts than he had. On top of that, Krum was a world-class Seeker who played for a national Quidditch Team, Diggory's dad worked for the Ministry and likely gave his son some tips that he had heard through the grapevine, not to mention the fact that the Hufflepuff Head of House, Professor Sprout, clearly supported her champion and offered him extra tuition, not something that had been offered to Harry by the Head of Gryffindor House, Professor McGonagall. Fleur Delacour, on the other hand, was a Veela, or at least a partial one. This gave her a certain level of natural resistance to fire (at least according to that book Hermione had quoted from.)

So where did Harry stand in comparison to all that? He had three years and half a term's worth of magical education to his name, though to be honest Professors Binns, Quirrel, Lockhart, Trelawney and Snape had hardly taught him a thing in that time and he could think of nothing taught to him by McGonagall or Sprout over the years that was going to do him any good now!

Maybe the levitation spell taught by Flitwick in his first year would come in handy again, as it had with a certain misplaced mountain troll…

He was decent on a broomstick, good enough for his House Quidditch Team but nowhere near Krum's level. He had no natural resistance to fire like Fleur and, while he and Hermione had looked up and begun practicing shield charms, Harry rather doubted that his was strong enough to hold off a fiery blast from an angry, full-grown dragon, especially as the one he was due to face was meant to a member of the largest, strongest and meanest species of dragon out there!

Suddenly Ludo Bagman's voice broke through Harry's thoughts. He was being called to the arena.

As he approached the flap in the tent, Harry ran his plan over in his mind – summon his firebolt broomstick, try and lure the dragon away from its eggs and swoop down to snatch his prize.

That was the best he and Hermione had been able to come up with. Hopefully it would be enough.

"Now," boomed out the magically amplified voice of Ludo Bagman, who was clearly relishing his role as the commentator for this little tournament, "please welcome our fourth and final champion, Mr Harry Potter!"

As Harry stepped into the area the chanting broke out amongst the hundreds of faces in the crowd.

"Harry! Harry! Harry! Harry! Harry!"

The boy in question found this enthusiasm to be rather peculiar as in recent weeks only Hermione had been in any way supportive of him. Everybody else in the school had gone out of their way to either avoid him or make it clear that they thought him to be a liar and a cheat.

Looking around the arena, his eyes took in the rocky surface, a mixture of solid mountainside, loose stones and unsteady boulders. Mostly everything was a dull grey colour, though here and there the rock was scorched black, presumably from the attempts of the previous dragons to kill the previous challengers.

Then the crowd was blocked from his mind completely by the sight of the creature that he had to face. The Hungarian Horntail was a gigantic lizard covered in scales as black as coal. She had a long neck and even longer tail with huge, bony horns jutting out from the back of her head, down her neck and back and along her tail where they were their longest and most lethal-looking. Her immense, leathery wings were furled up at her sides and she watched his approach with large yellow eyes, ready to strike at him the moment he got too close to the clutch of eggs positioned within a mound of earth between her front limbs.

If there was one thing that Harry had learned by reading his Monster Book of Monsters textbook, it was that there were two sure-fire ways to get yourself killed by an animal. The first was to get between a mother and her young, and the second was to provoke a mother who was guarding a nest of eggs.

Harry had a sudden desire to hunt down the person who decided that the champions should face nesting mother dragons then tie them to a Quidditch goalpost and flay them with a cat o' nine tails.

Sticking to his original plan, Harry drew out his wand and called out "Accio Firebolt!"

For a few tense moments Harry held his breath, as did the crowd around him. Then his broom flew over the arena wall and Harry sprang onto it.

He was airborne in an instant.

The Horntail raised her head to watch him.

Phase one of the plan was over. Now all Harry had to do was lure the dragon away from her nest and then he could swoop in and snatch the golden egg that sat on top of the clutch of normal dragon eggs.

And herein lay Harry's biggest problem – how do you lure a nesting mother away from her clutch of eggs without provoking her – the very last thing that anyone in their right mind should ever do, especially when said nesting mother was huge, carnivorous and capable of spitting out gigantic plumes of scorching fire?

He began a series of ducks and dives, barrel-rolls, spins and sharp turns, flying as close to her as he dared in an attempt to irritate her enough to get her follow him away from her eggs.

The dragon watched him for a long time, her head swaying this way and that as her yellow eyes followed his every move. After a while she snapped her jaws as he passed near. She wasn't intending to kill, just give him a warning.

Harry took that warning and backed off to a safer distance.

The Horntail snorted and lowered her head again while all around the arena some of the crowd started to boo. They had come for a show, and Harry hovering in mid-air while the dragon rested was not their idea of entertainment.

Harry licked his lips. While to the crowd it appeared as though the dragon was ignoring him, he could see quite clearly that her yellow reptilian eyes were still fixed on him, intently following his every move. She was waiting. She was watching. She was prepared for the exact moment that he got in too close.

As slowly as he could, Harry allowed his broom to drift a little closer to the dragon. When she made no response he got even closer.

Then he heard the air rush in through her nostrils and noticed her sides expanding as she drew in a large breath before blowing it out again.

'What was it Hermione had mentioned about dragons taking large breaths?' he thought as the dragon draw in another.

For some reason he thought that the number three had something to do with it. Three breaths, what did that mean?

The dragon exhaled again and raised her head.

It clicked – three large breaths means fire!

The Horntail drew in a third breath and spat out an immense plume of flame as Harry performed a hasty barrel-roll to the left.

The crowd roared its approval as Harry retreated from the dragon fire.

"My word, that was close a close call for our youngest champion!" boomed Ludo Bagman's voice. "And it seems like… yes, Potter's on fire!"

Harry turned his head and saw that indeed there were flames trailing behind him. The cloak which had been provided as part of his Champion's outfit had been caught by the dragon's flaming breath and now the hem was burning with bright flames.

Slowing up his broom he grabbed for the clasp of his cloak with one hand and undid it.

At that exact same moment a freak gust of wind blew into the arena and the burning cloak was blown away from Harry and right into the face of the now rather angry Hungarian Horntail.

She shook her head to the side, getting rid of the cloak before then getting to her legs and roaring furiously at Harry. Compared to her, the fourteen year old wizard on his broom was little more than a fly.

A fly that was annoying her greatly.

The crowd was going wild, shouting and jeering, and several of them had horns and other trinkets with which to make very loud, annoying noises. Looking up, Harry could make out someone behind the dragon but to its left leaning over the railing with a camera against his face. It wasn't Colin Creevey like it usually was but a simple member of the general public.

The flash emitted by the bulb of the camera was bright and it completely distracted the dragon from Harry. Growling in annoyance she gave a shake of her massive head and turned towards the crowd, several of whom, including the photographer, screamed and backed away despite the fact that they were obviously protected from the dragon.

That much had to be true… right?

Another spectator in that part of the crowd, a Slytherin seventh year student, wasn't quite so scared. With a shout of "Stupid Dragon!" he threw what appeared to be a half-eaten apple at the Horntail. The huge creature snorted her displeasure as the thrown projectile bounced off of her snout and fell onto the ground at her feet.

Her attention was now firmly on the crowd, but Harry was denied any opportunity to grab the golden egg as she kept her back legs planted firmly on either side of her nest, while her tail made it all but impossible to attempt a mad dive.

Not that Harry was all that focused on the egg right now. That apple had just been thrown from the stands and into the area with no indication that there was any kind of spell or enchantment in place to stop such things from happening, something which Harry found to be more than a little worrying because if there was nothing to stop projectiles from within the stands from getting in the actual arena, what proof was there that there was anything preventing projectiles or, Merlin forbid, flames from the arena getting into the stands?

As the dragon craned her neck as high as she could to glare into the stands, her sides expanding as she took a deep breath, Harry decided that he didn't want to wait to find out just how well the stands were protected, if they were at all.

The Horntail had just drawn her third breath when a rock that Harry had banished towards her with a flick of his wand struck her on the back of the head. The rock had been roughly the size of Harry's head but the Horntail ignored it. Instead she opened her mouth wide and spat a flame at the annoying wizards and witches who were jeering at her from the stands.

Harry leaned to the side and threw up his breakfast as the jeering turned to screams. His worst fears were confirmed as a large portion of the stands on the north-western part of the arena burst into flames.

Fear took over the minds of those not killed instantly. As the panic set in the shouting and screaming were quickly joined by pushing and shoving. The stands had not been designed to allow for multiple people to make a quick exit. The crush began as people pushed into their neighbours in an attempt to flee. Those unlucky enough to be at the front or the back of the stands had the misfortune of being pinned painfully against the railings as everyone else tried to push their way away from the dragon fire.

Over the screams of the crowd Harry could hear Ludo Bagman's voice shouting loudly, though he couldn't hear what it was. He raised his wand and started blasting every spell he could think of at the enraged dragon, but there was nothing that he had learned in all his time at Hogwarts that was of any use. After shouting out "Immobulus! Expelliarmus! Flippendo! Petrificus Totalus! Periculum! Verdillious!" and "Diffindo" half a dozen times each, Harry quickly came to the conclusion that his initial analysis of his situation was correct – nothing taught to him in the last three and a bit years at Hogwarts could help him now!

All his spells were achieving nothing apart from irritating the dragon more. When one of his severing charms clipped the edge of her right wing, doing little more that chipping one of her scales in the process, the Horntail turned her head back towards Harry and roared as she spat a burst of fire at him which he had to barrel-roll to avoid.

Outside the stadium the dragon handlers head the screaming and turned to see the fire consuming the stands.

"Shit!" muttered Murtogg "It's kickin' off! "

Charlie Weasley turned and shouted "All handlers, into the stadium! Now!"

Drawing their wands the handlers began running towards the stadium. In their hurry, none of them realised that the cage containing the Chinese Fireball had not closed properly.

While the Common Welsh Green and the Swedish Short-Snout had largely settled down within their respective cages following their time in the stadium, the Chinese Fireball was anything but settled. Krum had hit her in the eye with a conjunctivitis curse and as she had thrashed around in irritation she had accidentally crushed several of her own eggs. Now she was enraged.

She had been dragged away from her homeland and deprived of her eggs. She had been kept in a cage for several long nights, still without her eggs, while three other dragons of different species had roared nearby. Most dragons preferred solitary lives and, while Chinese Fireballs were generally more tolerant of other dragons being nearby, that was only if the other dragons in question were of the same kind. In truth she wasn't all that bothered by either the Welsh Green or the Swedish Short-Snout, they were both smaller than her. It was that Horntail that had her on edge, it being twice her size and all.

It had been horrible, stuck in that cage in such close proximity to the Horntail, and then they all got dragged into the stadium one by one and reunited with their eggs, only to be shouted and jeered at by the crowd as some puny wizard or witch used magic to taunt them.

It was because of that magic that she had broken her own eggs. Needless to say, the Chinese fireball had not taken too kindly to being shoved back into the cage and once again deprived of her remaining eggs.

And now the Horntail was out of her cage, roaring furiously causing who knows what amount of death and destruction (quite a lot if the shouts and screams were anything to go by!)

With the handlers gone, the Chinese Fireball now had one thing on her mind – finding her remaining eggs and getting them as far away from this place as possible.

Evidently the other two dragons had the same idea as her, but their crashing against the bars of their cages was proving to be fruitless. The Fireball had better luck. The latch on her cage door was not shut properly and after a few nudges with her snout, the door swung open. She stepped out and began to look around for her precious eggs.

In the stadium things were quickly going from bad to worse. In her frustration at being unable to get to Harry, the Horntail lunged and clamped the chain restraining her in her jaws. With one almighty pull the chain snapped in half.

The Horntail was free!

She stretched her massive wings and roared up at Harry. But before she could take off, behind her the pushing and shoving of the panicked spectators became too much for the wooden barrier at the front of the stands. There was a creaking sound and a moment later a wooden rail snapped apart, allowing at least twenty people to fall, screaming, down into the area.

The fall killed three of them instantly while another five found that they could not move.

The Horntail turned her head towards them and quickly decided that all of those people posed much more of a threat to her next than Harry did.

One man, in a blind panic, scrambled to his feet and saw the champion's tent on the opposite side of the arena. Madly he began sprinting towards it but he stood no chance.

There was nothing that Harry could do except watch in horror as the Horntail covered the distance between her and the running wizard in just two steps. The unwilling champion looked away from the grizzly sight just in time to avoid seeing the man get eaten, but he heard the screams in the stadium get louder. Opening his eyes again Harry saw the Horntail turn her head back towards the others who had fallen into the stadium. As she did so, Harry noticed something sticking out of the side of her mouth.

It was the unfortunate man's severed arm!

She opened her jaws, letting the arm drop to the floor, and spat a great plume of fire at the others who had fallen into the area. They were all killed instantly, as were a great many others who were still in the stands above.

In a desperate attempt to do something to keep the Horntail distracted while the surviving spectators made their escape, Harry dive-bombed the head of the dragon, kicking her snout as hard as he could as he passed.

The impact hurt Harry more than it did the Horntail, but his ploy had worked. She turned towards him, reared up on her hind legs and spat her fire at him instead of the crowd. Harry performed a cork-screw manoeuvre on his broom to avoid her fire before turning back to face her.

Her jaws worked a little before she opened her mouth and roared. It was a terrifying sound and Harry got a good look down into the black oblivion of her throat.

Then, all of a sudden, the dragon was hit in the side by a dozen stunning spells. Then ropes and chains were launching themselves at the dragon, swishing, whipping, coiling, knotting themselves together in an attempt to contain the beast.

Harry glanced around and saw that the Dragon Handlers, led by Charlie Weasley, had entered the stadium and were quickly working to subdue the Horntail. Deciding to leave this to the professionals, Harry goaded his broom into flying away from the dragon and surveyed the situation.

Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape and several other Professors were directing students away from the stadium and up to the castle. Madame Pomfrey and her assistant Nurse Wainscott were working as fast as they could to get the most seriously injured onto floating stretchers which would then float towards the castle and to the Hospital Wing. A good number of older students, even a few of the Slytherins, were helping out where they could, as were the students of Beauxbatons under the guidance of their Headmistress. There was no sign of the Durmstrang students.

No one seemed to be tackling the fire yet so Harry flew over towards the burning part of the stadium. Most people were now well clear of the fire, though there was a woman lying helplessly across one of the benches. Harry saw that she was moving feebly and he flew his broom down towards her, but quickly the heat of the flames overwhelmed him and he backed off.

He drew his wand and fired off "Aqua Eructo" A jet of water shot out of his wand and hissed as it came into contact with burning wood. Smoke became steam and after a few seconds the fire had retreated just enough for Harry to fly back down to the woman and grab her by the arms.

He tried to ignore the fact that her legs were burnt off as he flew her over to Madam Pomfrey, who grimaced at the sight but set to work anyway. Harry recognised the look for what it was – it was unlikely that the woman could be saved. He wished that there was more he could do for her but he knew his limits. He turned back towards the fire.

He was just about to summon some more water to douse the flames further when another burst of fire in the arena caught his attention.

The Horntail snorted as the charred remains of five dragon handlers all hit the ground. Harry hoped that one of them wasn't Charlie.

Three other handlers lay upon the ground, though whether they were dead of simply unconscious, Harry could not tell. Either way there were only six Handlers left standing. Two had shielded themselves from the dragon fire while the other four had been off to either side, out of the way.

The Horntail roared and swung her head in a circle, spitting out flames as she did so. The chains on her body remained where they were but the ropes burned away. She roared again and spat out more flames, this time aiming for the south stand. The poor people still there never stood a chance.

Harry surveyed the situation again. There were not enough Dragon Handlers left to subdue the Horntail, and the staff of the school and the Ministry officials were too busy directing the students to safety or with helping the injured.

Suddenly an idea came to Harry. It was stupid and it was risky, but it was also the only course of action that he could think of.

Lure it away.

If he could get the dragon to chase him, to follow him away from the stadium, those remaining could get the students to safety, get the fire under control and tend to the wounded. And the surviving Handlers could call for backup. It was likely any more would come from the Dragon Reserve in Romania, but there were people in the UK who looked after its native dragon populations – the Welsh Greens and the Hebridean Blacks. They could come and help subdue the Horntail.

There were mountains all around Hogwarts, Harry could lead the Horntail there and hopefully make his escape without getting burnt up too badly.

Without another moment's thought he dove down towards the Horntail's nest where he grabbed, not the Golden Egg that he was tasked with collecting, but one of the real eggs. It was as black as coal and warm to the touch, but not especially heavy and not much larger than a Quaffle so it was relatively easy to pick up and carry under one arm.

With the egg in his possession, he pulled the broom up and rose up into the air again. As he did so, he suddenly spotted a relatively large group of people running away from the stadium and towards the Black Lake where the Durmstrang Ship bobbed on the surface.

Harry snorted in disgust. So much for International Magical Cooperation!

Pushing thoughts of the retreating Durmstrang Students and their cowardly Headmaster out of his mind, Harry turned back to the task at hand. He drew his wand and yelled as loud as he could.

"OI! DRAGON!"

The he fired a series of red and green sparks at the ground by the Horntail's back left foot.

The massive, scaly head whipped around that the evil eyes focused once more on him.

Harry put him wand back into his pocket and held up the black egg triumphantly.

"LOOK WHAT I'VE GOT!"

The Horntail let out a roar unlike anything it had issued before and spread her massive, leathery wings. With just three powerful beats she was airborne and level with Harry, who had already turned and raced off. The Horntail did not hesitate to follow.

On the ground the Chinese Fireball heard the Horntail's roar and instinctively ducked low as the larger animal flew out of the stadium, chasing a flying wizard.

Unfortunately for the Fireball, there was not enough foliage to hide her massive body and the Horntail saw her. While some of her instincts were telling the largest dragon to chase after the one who had stolen her egg, the rest of her instincts were telling her that if she followed the wizard, the smaller dragon would go and devour the rest of her eggs.

Deciding to forfeit one egg in order to save the rest, the Horntail banked in mid-air, swung around and with an almighty roar she dived that the Fireball.

Harry realise that his pursuer had broken off and turned around just in time to see the Horntail collide with the Fireball.

The smaller dragon was sent tumbling over by the force of the blow but quickly righted herself and turned to face her attacker, snarling as she did so. The Horntail glided down and landed on top of the cage containing the Welsh Green. She was ignoring the trapped animal and focused her attention on the Fireball, even as the bars on the cage bent, buckled and broke under her weight. The Welsh Green did not take kindly to her already small cage becoming even more cramped and she quickly made her displeasure known by spitting a blast of fire upwards at the Horntail, causing the larger animal to rear up onto her hind legs in anger before crashing back down to all fours, breaking the bars on the cave even further.

The Welsh Green's head and neck was pinned painfully against the floor of the cage. Her air supply was cut off and she soon stopped moving.

The Horntail snorted and then stepped off of the cage roof and onto the ground, stalking towards the Fireball. The smaller dragon knew it stood no chance against the Horntail, but her need to protect her eggs, wherever they were, drove the instinct to flee out of her mind.

Harry could only watch as the Horntail loomed over the smaller dragon, quite convinced that the Fireball was about to become the Horntail's next victim in this bloodbath.

Then, as the Horntail went to lunge, it suddenly stopped and let out an agonised scream of pain. Behind her, Harry could make out the head of the Welsh Green. The animal wasn't dead and was now free from her cage now that the Horntail was no longer pinning her beneath it. The Welsh Green had taken her chances and lunged forward to clamp her jaws around one of the Horntail's back legs.

As the Horntail turned her head to face her attacker, the Fireball took her chance. Jaws opened wide, she lunged forwards and sank her teeth into the scaly neck of the larger dragon.

The Horntail howled and she thrashed her body in an attempt to get free. Her massive tail swung through the air and struck the Welsh Green hard of the flank, forcing the smaller dragon to let go. Then, with increased momentum, the Horntail swung her entire body around and slammed into the Fireball, sending it tumbling across the ground. The Fireball tried to regain her footing but the Horntail was already charging and a moment later the smaller dragon was pinned against the cage that contained the Swedish Short-Snout.

As the structure of the cage creaked and groaned, the Welsh Green got up and threw herself at the Horntail, biting and clawing at the larger animal for all she was worth. The Horntail screamed and reared back, flinging the Welsh Green aside. The Fireball, now free, went in for the attack again even as, behind her, the Short-Snout pushed through the remains of her cage.

The blood in Harry's body seemed to run ice cold.

All four dragons were now free.

Harry pulled his broom to the left and shot off back towards the stadium. Even as he flew over the wall he saw a massive part of the burning grandstand collapse into the arena, landing on the Horntail's next and crushing all the eggs within.

Harry had a feeling that that was only going to make things worse.

He scanned the far end of the stadium and saw that most of the spectators were had not left, leaving only those who were injured behind.

He could not make out Professor Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall anywhere amongst those that remained in the stadium to help with the rescue, but he quickly spotted Professor Moody.

He dove down towards the Defence Professor and shouted for him, getting the attention of both Moody and Professor Flitwick who came hurrying over from nearby.

"Professors! It's the other dragons! They're free!"

"Free?" squeaked Professor Flitwick "How can that be?"

Harry shook his head and replied "I don't know. I grabbed one of the real Horntail eggs so I could try and lure her away from the stadium while everyone else sorted things out here. We got as far as the place where the other dragons were being kept. The Fireball was already out and the Horntail decided to pick a fight with her rather than chase me. During their fight they damaged the cages of the other two dragons and now they're out."

Suddenly they were all treated to the sight of the Horntail, bloodied and scarred, taking flight. A moment later the three smaller dragons followed suit, evidently having decided that they would put their own differences aside to drive the larger Horntail as far away as possible.

Unfortunately, they were all heading in the exact same direction; Hogwarts - the very place that the students, public and the injured were being evacuated to.

Without another word to either of the Professors, Harry turned his broom to face the castle and shot off towards it, aiming to… well, he had no idea what he was going to do. All he knew was that he had to do something.

"We must hurry and inform Professor Dumbledore!" squeaked Professor Flitwick as he broke out into a run.

Behind him, Professor Moody hesitated. It would be most unlike Alastor Moody to back away from the task of saving the school from fire breathing dragons, but then he was not actually Alastor Moody. He was Barty Crouch Jr, Death Eater, Azkaban escapee, Imposter…

And Barty Crouch Jr had absolutely no intention of confronting fire breathing dragons in order to save a load of mudblood school kids.

He disappeared with a pop, thankful that Dumbledore either did not know, or simply did not care about the breach in the wards he had created within the first few days of the start of the school year. The breach he had created was there for two reasons – first to allow the portkey that would eventually take the Potter Brat to Little Hangleton to work and second, to allow Barty to make a quick escape, either once his task was done or in the event that he was discovered.

Of course, no one else knew about this breach. If they did then the Aurors ad Healers who were arriving to assist would be apparating or port-keying right to the scene of the devastation, rather than flooing into the school and walking or jogging the rest of the way.

By the time Harry arrived at the castle, three green houses, the library and the astronomy tower were all ablaze as the four dragons engaged in a vicious dogfight around and between the castle's many towers and battlements.

Already people were fleeing the castle and Harry dove down to aid in the evacuation.

"Come on! Keep moving!" he shouted.

"That's it," said a drawling voice. "Everyone listen to Potter. It's not as if he isn't the one who brought this upon us all.

Harry turned and saw that Draco Malfoy and a good dozen of his fellow cronies from Slytherin had paused to mock him. It was an action that would cost them all. A second later there was a roar above them which cut off abruptly. Then the lifeless body of the Welsh Green crashed to the ground, crushing Malfoy and his sycophants and bodyguards beneath it.

Students screamed as above the Horntail gave a victorious roar before the Fireball and the Short-Snout both attacked it.

"Keep going!" Harry shouted at a trio of terrified second year Hufflepuff girls before kicking off of the ground. He still had the Horntail's egg. If he could just lure her away he was sure that the Fireball and the Short-Snout would pursue her.

As he rose level with the top of the school he saw the Horntail with the Fireball's neck in its mouth. The Fireball was screaming piteously, but a sudden jerk of the Horntail's head ended that.

The Horntail led go of the smaller dragon and its body fell down, right on top of the Covered Bridge which led from the Clock Tower Courtyard near the Hospital Wing to the Stone Circle and the two paths that led to two of the Hogwarts grounds most prominent outbuilding – Hagrid's Hut and the Owlery Tower.

The part of the bridge directly beneath the Fireball smashed apart into smithereens under the weight of the dragon, claiming the lived of thirty three fleeing Wizards and Witches in the process. Those on the bridge who weren't killed instantly began running even harder as the rest of the wooden structure began to collapse. As each section of the bridge broke away more and more people were plunged down into the abyss of the canyon below.

The Horntail was paying this absolutely no mind. Instead she wheeled about in mid-air to face her last opponent.

The Short-Snout was perched on the roof of the Grand Staircase Tower, the second largest of the towers of Hogwarts after the Astronomy Tower. She shifted nervously, fully aware that both of her allies had fallen and that she was now the sole target of the bloodied Horntail's ire.

The Horntail landed on top of the Clock Tower, sending roof tiles, wooden supports and chunks of masonry in all directions before beginning to charge. The Short-Snout adjusted herself, sliding off of the roof of the Grand Staircase Tower and grasping a hold of the three smaller towers that jutted off to the side. Harry knew that those small towers contained Professor Dumbledore's office and, he assumed, his living quarters. For a brief moment he wondered whether Fawkes the Phoenix would realise that there was a problem and come to help.

That moment ended when the Horntail let of a blast of fire. The Short-Snout let go of the towers and dropped towards the Great Hall below. As the Headmaster's office burst apart in a blast of fiery destruction, the Short-Snout spread her wings and flew off, passing over the Great Hall, the Entrance Hall and the Entrance Courtyard, heading towards the Viaduct. Moments later the Horntail followed, spitting out flames that blasted burning holes in every structure the smaller dragon passed.

One blast hit the Short-Snout hard. The creature flipped over in the air, crashed through the small towers and structures that marked where the viaduct met the courtyard before disappearing down into the ravine.

The Horntail roared triumphantly for a few moments before turning her head and spotting Harry on his broom.

"Fuck…" swore Harry as the Horntail recognised him for who he was. He turned his broom and raced back over the castle. The Horntail gave chase which was exactly what he had wanted it to do a short time ago. Now he had to navigate through Hogwarts' many towers and turrets before he could lead her towards the mountains.

The Horntail had other ideas. A burst of flame raced by Harry and smashed apart the roof of Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration Classroom. The debris rose up to meet him and, as the dust blinded him and the chunks of stone crashed into his body he lost complete control of his broom and crash landed in the middle of the Transfiguration Courtyard.

Winded but not beaten Harry pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. He hurt like hell but he had felt a lot worse before. Looking down he saw that both his broomstick and the Horntail's egg had been broken during the crash.

Hearing the huge wings of the dragon beating above him saw Harry scrambling to his feet and running towards the nearest door. Fuelled mostly by pure adrenaline he made it to the door and began sprinting down the deserted corridor which led to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He turned the corner that went towards the Stone Bridge just as the corridor behind him lit up with dragon fire.

Harry pushed open the door that led out onto the Stone Bridge and quickly slammed it shut behind him before leaning against it in an attempt to remain unnoticed. He had no idea where the Horntail currently was and did not want to walk out onto the bridge and present an easy target. At the same time he could not go back into the corridor behind the door as the whole place was aflame now.

He had no idea what to do now.

Suddenly a shadow fell over the bridge and Harry pressed himself against the door as hard as he could as the Horntail flew overhead. It did not spot him and flew off.

To Harry's horror, he realised almost immediately where it was going. The Horntail was heading back to the Stadium, where the rest of her eggs were.

"Were" being the key word, of course, given how the collapsing grandstand had destroyed them all, not that the Horntail knew that yet.

The Horntail did indeed return to the stadium, much to the dismay of those Witches and Wizards still gathered there.

The screams began anew at the sight of the huge, black, scaly body soaring towards them and more than a dozen Aurors disgraced themselves by disapparating away out of fear.

The sole surviving dragon landed in the arena and looked around for her nest. Quickly she spotted what remained of it.

At the sight of her broken eggs a new level of anger filled her. Fire issued forth from her mouth once more and many Wizards and Witches trying to contain the already burning fire or tend to victims unable to get out of the stadium were burst alive.

A handful of Aurors entered the arena, accompanied by the remaining dragon handlers, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Vector and a little over half a dozen braver members of the wizarding public. They send a barrage of stunning spells at the Horntail in an attempt to bring the dangerous beast down.

The Horntail staggered from the force of the blow but she was far too worked up to be subdued that easily. That said, she knew a fight she could not win when she saw one and quickly took to the skies once again, looking for something else to take her ire out on. She sent a burst of fire at the medical area just out of spite and then flew off.

The sails on the Durmstrang Ship unfurled and the ship began to move as the sails caught the wind.

"Vot are you doing?" Krum demanded of his Headmaster, Igor Karkaroff.

"Leaving, Krum," retorted Karkaroff from the wheel. "Ve are leaving!"

"Ve cannot leave!" protested Krum. "Ve should be helping!"

"Help?" spat Karkaroff in disgust. "Help? You vant us to help? They do not deserve it Victor. Oh, I vas blind at first, but now I see. They lured us here, lured me here, under false pretences. They get me out from behind Durmstrang's wards and then unleash fiery hell upon us all!"

"Vat are you talking about?" demanded another student. "Those dragons are killing everyone and everything they can. Would the British Ministry really allow that to happen just to kill you?"

"Obviously they did not think it through properly, Ivanova," replied Karkaroff. "These British types are not smart like the rest of us."

Despite the protests of Krum and several other students, Karkaroff kept the ship moving. Pretty soon they were out of the shallows of the lake and over deeper water.

"Prepare to dive," ordered Karkaroff.

Everyone cleared the deck and the doors shut. Karkaroff reached over and grasped a leaver to pull on, only to find Victor holding it firmly in place.

"Ve are not leaving," the young Quidditch star said in a tone that brokered no room for argument.

"Foolish boy!" snapped Karkaroff, stepping back and drawing his wand. "You vill do as you are told, Victor, or I will haff to rethink your attending Quidditch practices outside the school grounds during school hours!"

The two men glared at each other for several long moments before Karkaroff's eyes widened as they spotted something through the window over Victor's shoulder. Seeing his Headmaster suddenly pale, Victor spun around to see what had caused it.

His own stomach dropped as the black-bodied dragon winged its way towards them.

The Horntail's mouth opened and a moment later the Durmstrang ship and all who were aboard her went up in flames.

Harry staggered across the Stone Bridge and then through the doors that led to the first floor corridor.

Here he found people, lots of people. Healers and volunteers were running around, providing aid where they could. Others were sitting around, cradling wounded body parts, trying offer comfort to friends who had been hurt or to those who had lost loved ones.

Eyes turned towards him as he began to make his way along the corridor. Some looked at him with anger, distrust or outright disgust on their faces, others looked saddened or sorrow filled while, here and there, there was the occasional look of respect or admiration.

Suddenly he heard a familiar voice cry out "HARRY!" and a moment later someone with bushy brown hair glomped him from the left side.

Harry hissed in pain and muttered "Easy Hermione."

Sheepishly his best friend pulled back a bit before apologising.

"Sorry, Harry."

"It's alright. Horntail arranged for me to have a crash landing in the Transfiguration Courtyard. I'm a bit battered and bruised… what happened to you?"

His question came suddenly. His vision had gone a bit out of focus with the pain caused by Hermione's forceful hug. When it came back, he quickly realised that everything was not right with his friend.

Despite the force of her hug, she had only used her right arm. Her other was hanging at her side, covered from the elbow down in a bright pink paste Harry knew to be a burn salve. Her left cheek was rather red looking and some of her bushy hair was missing. She still had more than most girls but there was a large chunk gone from her left side, leaving singed ends above her shoulders.

Hermione worried her lip for a moment before replying "Harry, I was in the south stand. The Horntail sent fire at us after burning up most of the handlers. The flames passed right by me."

Shock filled Harry. While it was obvious that her injuries had been caused by dragon fire, the idea of her being that close to death was like a sucker punch to Harry's stomach. He saw tears building up in her eyes and, without a moment's hesitation he stepped forward and pulled her back into a hug, ignoring the pain it caused him and overlooking the little fact that this was the first time that he had ever knowingly initiated a hug in his entire life.

Hermione wrapped her good arm around his shoulders and began to sob.

"Shhh…" said Harry, softly. "It's going to be ok."

Hermione took a deep, shuddering breath and then spoke in a soft, distant voice that he only heard because her mouth was right next to his right year "Harry, I was standing next to Ron…"

Harry pulled back from the hug to look her in the eyes, horror etched onto his face.

"What?"

"I'm sorry Harry. It all happened so fast… there was nothing I could do…"

He stepped away from her, dumbfounded by what she had just told him.

Ron was gone…

Unbidden, memories of his other best friend raced through his mind, the good times and the bad…

Ron was gone…

They had fallen out when Harry's name had mysteriously come out of the Goblet of Fire and they hadn't managed to patch things up before the First Task. And now they would never be able to.

Ron was gone…

"Harry?" asked Hermione in a small voice.

He turned back her and saw the look of fear and sadness on her face as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Determination filled him. He turned around and marched halfway down the corridor to where a suit of armour stood with a fifteen foot long spear its hand. Harry took the spear and turned back to Hermione, only to find that everyone else in the corridor was watching him as well.

"I'm gonna kill that fucking Horntail!"

It was a pretty decent day down in Hogsmeade. Sure, it was a little bit on the cold side, but then that was to be expected in Scotland in winter.

Some of the population of the village had gone up to Hogwarts Castle to watch the First Task of the Tri Wizard Tournament, but for many of the village's inhabitants they would have to read about it in tomorrow morning's edition of the Daily Prophet. They all had work to do and for some reason Dumbledore had declined to allow commentary of the Tournament to be broadcast over the Wizarding Wireless Network.

The many shop and pub owners in Hogsmeade had spent the morning getting everything ready. The floors were swept, the guest beds were made, the fires were lit, the products were on display, the barrels were fixed to the pumps… everything was ready.

Once the First Task was over every shop owner, from The Magic Neep the greengrocers and Dogweed and Deathcap the herbologists to Zonko's Joke Shop and Gladrag's Wizardwear was expecting a massive influx of wizards and witches, all eager to head to Hogsmeade to see what souvenirs were on offer and have a pint or two in The Three Broomsticks or the Hogs Head.

The shop keepers had been let in on the secret of the first task well before the champions, allowing Gladrags to stock up on clothing featuring dragons, Zonko's to get in models of dragons that actually moved and spat out flames that tickled rather than burned, Tomes and Scrolls to order as many books on dragons as they could stock while just about every shop in the village had a stock of magical posters featuring the various Tri-Wizard Champions and images of dragons.

There was even a good stock of the Harry Potter dolls that Harry had never approved the production of and which annoyed him to no end.

All in all, Hogsmeade had been turned into the perfect tourist trap.

Now all they had to do was wait for the tourists to show up.

Of course, with Dumbledore's decision to not allow the Wizarding Wireless to broadcast the goings on of the First Task over their network, the first that anyone in Hogsmeade knew of something having gone wrong was when a large shadow blotted out many of their windows for a moment.

Curious, people entered the street and looked around, though nothing seems to be present. The owner of Tomes and Scrolls looked over at the little witch who ran the Post Office and shrugged his shoulders, an action that she mirrored.

Then someone screamed and all eyes turned up as the Hungarian Horntail swooped over the village.

"DRAGON! DRAGON! RUN!"

The Horntail turned in the air, swooped down towards the human settlement once again and spat out her fire as she soared over the village.

Just like that, Ceridwen's Cauldrons, J. Pippin's Potions, Dogweed and Deathcap, The Magic Neep and half a dozen homes went up in flames.

Screams filled the air as people began to run. Someone kicked open a window on the third floor of the house next to the cauldron shop and jumped out even though they were already engulfed in flames.

The Horntail turned and swooped down again. The Post Office, Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop and eight homes burst into flame that time.

"How do you plan to bring it down?" asked Hermione as she followed Hermione into the Entrance Courtyard.

"I have an idea," he replied. "First we need to get to Hagrid's Hut."

"Wouldn't we be better off doubling back through the school and heading for the Covered Bridge?"

Harry shook his head "It's not there anymore. The Horntail dropped the dead Chinese Fireball on it."

The route they took meant it took longer to get down to Hagrid's Hut but they were soon there. Harry pushed open the door and Fang, Hagrid's pet boarhound, darted out and ran off in terror.

Neither Harry nor Hermione voiced the fact that they hadn't seen Hagrid at all since all this began.

Instead Hermione asked "What are you looking for?"

Harry didn't reply immediately as his eyes roamed through the hut. Despite his love for all creatures great and small, Hagrid had a rather large amount of traps and cages for capturing and containing animals, some humane and some not.

But it wasn't these that Harry was looking for.

"There," he said, finally spotting what he was looking for hung on the back of the door.

Hermione turned and recognised Hagrid's crossbow from when he had carried it while escorting them through the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night in the search for an injured unicorn.

"You know that charm Moody used to make those spiders bigger before he demonstrated the unforgivable curses on them?" Harry almost conversationally asked as he lifted the crossbow off of its hook.

"Yes…" replied Hermione a little warily.

"Do you think you can do that charm?" Harry continued. "Because I need this crossbow to be large enough to fire this spear."

He held out the spear that he had taken from the suit or armour.

Hermione examined the crossbow closely. "Shouldn't be too hard, though we may have to alter the firing mechanism once the crossbow has reached a certain size…"

They raced back up towards the castle.

The village of Hogsmeade was now a roaring inferno. Most of the inhabitants were either dead or dying. A fortunate few had managed to use the floo network to escape before their houses went up in flames. Now the remaining survivors were left with no choice but to flee on foot towards Hogwarts Castle.

The Horntail dogged them the entire way, burning some of them with her fire or occasionally snapping one up in her jaws for a tasty snack.

Evidently roasted human was a delicacy for a Hungarian Horntail.

Harry and Hermione were standing on the roof of the Astronomy Tower getting ready when a voice somewhere out on the grounds screamed "It's coming back!"

They looked up and saw that the Horntail was indeed following the path to back to the school from Hogsmeade, chasing down many unfortunate souls as she did so.

Hermione had successfully enlarged the crossbow to the needed size and the front end was resting on top of the low parapet wall that surrounded the flat roof of the Astronomy Tower. The string was in place ready to fire the spear at the right moment. Harry was supporting the other end of the crossbow with his left arm while his right held a bit of rope tied to the trigger mechanism. Hermione rested the spear on top of the crossbow and used one working arm to help Harry support the crossbow. She had modified the spear to make it a little more solid and added the best flight feathers that she could conjure.

Spell fire from a group of wizards down near the stadium struck the dragon but she barely felt it before returning fire. The screams reached all the way up to the castle.

The Horntail spat more fire at the stadium as if to punish it before swooping towards the castle. Hagrid's hut went up in flames, followed moments later by the Whomping Willow.

The Horntail swooped and tuned again, swooping out of sight behind several towers.

Beads of sweat collected on Harry's forehead as he waited for a sign.

Suddenly the Ravenclaw Tower went up in flames before the Horntail turned and gave Gryffindor Tower the same treatment.

But all the time she managed to deny Harry a clear shot.

Then quite suddenly he got a clear glimpse of her. Next to him he sensed Hermione tense up as he followed the Horntail's movement with the tip of the spear. She was over the greenhouses… over the Transfiguration Courtyard… over the Stone Bridge... Harry pulled the rope as hard as he could and the bowstring twanged.

The Horntail let out a scream of agony and lost control of her flight. She rolled through the air, flapping her wings frantically and, Harry thought, pointlessly.

She dropped from the sky and fell towards the grassy lawn that lay beyond the Greenhouses.

There was a thud of finality as the huge beast hit the ground.

Harry let out a breath that he had been unaware that he was holding and sank to his knees. Hermione knelt beside him and wrapped her good arm around him.

Someone has been watching The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies too much…

There will probably be a short(ish) follow up to this soon. I say short(ish) – this ended up being twice as long as I thought it would be.