The first task.
I'm back! Sorry that I haven't updated anything in months, and it wasn't because I lost interest, my old computer crashed so badly that it's not worth trying to save it so I had to wait until my parents got me a new laptop as an early birthday/Christmas present, and even now I still have to wait to get Microsoft word on it. Right now I am writing directly on FanFiction using a document that I'm rewriting, luckily my new laptop tells me if I misspell something, so I'm back to writing. Now, on with the story.
It was dark and all the academy students were back on the sky-ship when Maria arrived back from her meeting, she looked calm but the atmosphere around her was anything but. Everyone who knew Maria knew that she wasn't one to make a big display of her anger, she was one of those types who kept her anger inside while she plotted the demise of whoever caused her anger, but she still gave off a scary vibe when she was angry that everyone could pick up on, so when the students felt suddenly scared of Maria they knew to hide in their rooms until morning. Unfortunately, the Black twins had to speak to Maria to find out about the tournament and they dragged the Saxton triplets and Weasley twins along for support.
When the seven Slayers entered Maria's room and saw the Muse they actually felt sorry for Dumbledore, but on the other hand they were grateful that Maria's anger was directed at him and not them.
"What's the news?" Harry asked carefully.
"Dragons!" Maria growled, sounding very much like she was about to shape-shift into her wolf form. "And not just any dragons, oh no, nesting dragons!" Maria spent the next few minutes firing off every curse word that the seven Slayers knew along with plenty that they didn't know.
"So, Harry and I have to go up against nesting dragons?" Matilda asked.
"Not only that, but you have to steal a golden egg off of them from a clutch of real eggs. I'm going to rip Dumbledore apart with my teeth and claws!"
"Don't, I bet he'd taste awful." Vida said dryly.
A little while later Maria had calmed down to explain the fully what the Black twins had to do.
"First the champions have to take place in a wand weighing ceremony where a wand expert will check to make sure your wands are in perfect working condition and the press will be covering that." Maria explained. "As I've already said, the first task consists of the champions retrieving a golden egg from a clutch of real Dragon eggs that are guarded by a nesting dragon. thankfully I managed to bend the arms behind the backs of the tournament heads enough to make it so that both of you face the challenges together as you both are siblings and are in the tournament unwillingly."
"You did what you could." Matilda consoled Maria.
"So, what can Harry and Matilda do?" Vida asked.
"Dragons are great and noble creatures and powerful above all else, you'd have to be mad to try and attack it in any way." Maria said. "Dragons are known as ancient beings and as such speak ancient languages, I recommend learning an ancient language and trying to appeal to the dragon you get, convince her that you are not a threat but that the golden egg is."
"But what language?" Harry asked.
"How about Fae?" Aria suggested.
Everyone looked at her as if she'd grown a second head.
"What? It's one of the oldest languages around and is virtually impossible to lie with."
"Aria, only Fae can speak our language." Layla informed her sister.
"But I'm sure that I read somewhere that someone can be given the gift of speaking Fae under certain circumstances."
"Wait!" Maria cried out, shooting out of her seat. "Arianna may be onto something." she ignored the way Aria pulled a face at the use of her full name and went to her trunk.
After digging around in her trunk for a few minutes Maria finally emerged with a book clutched in her hands.
"Here it is!" she cried triumphantly.
The book was unlike anything that the seven Slayers had ever seen, the cover was made of some sort of stone that was like marble but had all sort of colours swirling around it that were changing every second, it was framed with gold that had runes carved into it, when Maria opened it there was no word or symbols that could be translated as words, the pages were covered with complicated designs that must have taken a very good eye and extremely steady hand to draw, there were drawings of flowers; many of which went extinct long ago, and there drawings of different magical creatures, animals and Fae.
Maria waved her hand over the book and gave a long whistle that everyone found calming. After Maria stopped whistling the book game alive with sounds, to the Black twins it sounded like the wind blowing through different things and distant whispering, but the others understood what was coming out of the book as words. It was the language of the Fae. Maria turned each page of the book very carefully until she settled on a page and listened very intently to what the book was saying to her, she then gently closed the book and the sound abruptly stopped. the Saxton triplet and Weasley twins snapped out of the trance they had been under since the book had started speaking.
"There is a way for Harry and Matilda to speak Fae." Maria concluded. "Fred, George, do you remember when the Fairies awoke the Imp blood within you?"
"Yes." the Weasley twins answered.
"We can do a similar thing for Harry and Matilda but it'll only be temporary."
"What is it?" Aria asked.
"What we do is gather our magic together in a ceremony and focus it on awakening the Fae side of the Black twins, like the Fairies did, but the magic we give will return to us and once it does the twins will return to normal."
"Will it hurt?" both Black twins asked.
"Like going through all your growing pains all at once." Maria concluded.
The Black twins had a quiet discussion between them before agreeing.
"We'll do it." they said.
"Okay, the ceremony requires a potion and some runes, which will take a while to get, we should be able to perform the ceremony before the first task though."
"How long will us being Fae last?" Matilda asked.
"It usually lasts a few days according to the book. Anyway, it's late, get to bed."
The student of Muse academy were on the deck of the sky-ship as Maria taught them, they were currently doing PE, which meant Maria was teaching them how to fight.
Harry groaned as Matilda flipped him over her head and slammed him into their practice mat.
"Oh, that's got to hurt." commented one of their class mates.
"His back or his pride?" joked another.
Matilda held out her hand and helped her brother back up.
"Good job, Matilda" Maria said. "Better luck next time, Harry."
"Hello!" someone shouted from bellow the ship.
Everyone looked over the edge to see a Hogwarts student.
"Yes?" Maria called back.
"I've been sent to escort Mr and Miss Potter to the wand weighing ceremony!" the student called back up.
"Just a minute!"
"Class dismissed." Maria told the academy students.
As the students went back to their rooms the Black twins quickly got changed from their PE clothes to their normal ones. Maria then flew them and herself off the ship and to the ground where they followed the student to where the wand weighing was taking place.
When the Black twins got to the ceremony it began, they patiently waited their turn while staying away from reporters like Rita Skeeter; who they had been warned away from by Sirius. Then it was their turn, they handed their wands to Olivander.
"Oh my!" he exclaimed as he analysed them. "I can hardly believe I am lucky enough to hold not one but two wands crafted by the great Lady Blackmore, you two must have had very close Fae friends as their is only one way to get wand off Lady Blackmore."
"Who is Lady Blackmore?" Dumbledore asked.
"Lady Blackmore is the finest of all wand crafters, her wands are made exactly for the wielder and are made using some truly unique ingredients, her wands are also extremely hard to get if you're not a Fae and don't know where her shop is. Anyway, for Harry, yew wood, a blackbird feather, a chip off the antler of a deer, and the nectar of a white lily. And for Matilda, ash wood, an eagle feather, a chip off the antler of a deer, and the nectar of a white lily. Truly marvellous combinations."
At the side the reporters were scribbling down what Olivander said.
"You think they're going to put us in a good light or bad?" Matilda asked her brother.
Harry shrugged. "If they put us in a bad light we can always sue for libel or use the percentage we own of the newspapers against them." he said.
A few weeks on and it was two days before the first task. The seven Slayers and Maria were in a clearing in the forbidden forest under the light of the full moon and dressed in plain ceremonial robes. they drew a large pentagram on the floor using a special salt and put runes in each of the triangles, in the centre them made a small hole and poured a potion into it, Harry and Matilda sat in the centre facing each other with the hole between them, and the six Fae stood at each of the points of the pentagram.
The Fae began chanting in their language and gathered balls of magic in their hands, the lines and runes of the pentagram lit up and the potion in the hole began to boil, the glow grew brighter and the potion turned to smoke which engulfed the Black twins, they began to scream in pain but the others continued. The screams soon stopped and they stopped chanting, the glow died down and the smoke, pentagram and runes disappeared, the Fae then rushed over to the unconscious twins and checked them over.
"They'll be fine." Maria concluded. "They just need rest."
"What Fae are they?" Fred asked.
"Sprites, Harry is fire and Matilda is water."
"Wow, if only the two of them were actual Fae." George said.
"Come on, let's get them back to the sky-ship." Vida said as she and Layla picked up Matilda.
It was the day of the first task and the champions were waiting in a tent, each of them had picked a dragon at random and Harry and Matilda had been lucky enough to get the most dangerous dragon of them all, now they were waiting to get called.
"Mr Potter, could I have a word?" said a woman that they recognised as Rita Skeeter.
"No. And this is the champions tent, you're not allowed in here, so get out." Harry said.
Before Rita could do anything she was blasted out of the tent by a psychic wave made by Matilda.
"What?" Harry said when the other champions looked at him. "It wasn't me."
One by one the champions had their turn at trying to receive the golden egg until it was only Harry and Matilda left. Then they were called.
Harry and Matilda stepped out into the dragon ring clad in the battle gear that they used for their Slayer outfits and their wands in their holsters on their arms, they saw the dragon immediately and saw she wasn't happy.
"This is going to be difficult." Harry said to his sister.
Matilda nodded in agreement.
With slow movements as to not provoke the dragon they withdrew their wands and lay them at their feet and them stepped back from them, they then bowed to the dragon and spoke in Fae.
"Oh great and noble dragon, ruler of the skies and of fire, most powerful of beings, we beseech you and ask that you here our plea!" They called out as one.
They dragon gave a snort of smoke through its her nostrils.
"Speak your peace, Fae, but I won't wait long." only the twins could understand her words.
"Noble mother, you have been taken from your nest and chained before such inferior beings that do not tremble at your might, this you know, but we fear you do not know of another danger, one to the clutch of eggs you guard so well, one that is in your clutch of eggs right now."
The Dragon looked at her clutch of eggs and found the false one that she had not realised was there.
"Please, give us the false egg and we promise that we shall work to set you and your eggs free."
"How do I know that you will do this?"
"We swear on the ancient ancestors."
The Dragon contemplated the twins' words before picking the golden egg out of her nest with her teeth and throwing it at them, Harry managed to catch it but fell hard to the ground in the process.
"Thank you." Harry said, slightly winded, but since Fae speak revolved around air what he said came out completely different, luckily the dragon got the message.
Harry and Matilda bowed again before picking up their wands and leaving the area.