A/N: Hey guys! I know it's been a
while.... a week or two at the most, but I've been really busy
lately, but things should
return to thei regular schedule now. But
enough with that, let's get on with the story.
_-_-_-_-_
The Daiven Knight
Chapter 6 - The First Task
-_-_-_-_-
Harry looked at the miniature figure of the snarling Hungarian Horntail. He then glanced up to the larger version.
'Fuck' he thought to himself.
He turned grimly towards Cedric, "If I don't make it out of here alive, Cedric, I want you to know..."
Cedric raised an eyebrow at him wearily. Harry paused. "You should consider porn as a career option."
Cedric
and the surrounding Champions gaped at him. He smirked and sat down
on the couch that had been scattered all around the
tent.
Silence reigned.
Suddenly, Ludo Bagman's voice rang out across the stadium.
"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament!"
Applause.
"The rules here are simple, each champion will go in a preset order, they must retrieve the egg without being harmed."
Pause.
"Now, introducing our first champion, Fleur Delacour!"
Applause
rang out as Fleur walked unsteadily to the stadium. The majority of
the applause, of course, came from the men.
Harry snorted and
unsheathed his sword, giving it a once-over.
Krum stared at him blankly. "Excuse me, vut, are swords allowed at Hogvarts?"
Harry glanced up. "Eh, I dunno, and I don't care." Krum cocked his head.
"You are very confident, Mr. Potter," Krum said, in his slightly broken english.
Harry snorted. "Of course I am, its just a bloody dragon." Cedric and Krum blinked.
Throughout the
conversation, if it could be called that, Fleur had managed to grab
her egg, and Bagman's voice
breached the stadium.
"Aaaaaand Ms. Delacour has her egg! Nice use of distraction, but it unfortunately didn't pay off too well."
He listed off some more meaningless stuff, and soon, Krum's name was called.
Krum gave them a nod, which they returned, and he walked out towards the stadium.
Harry raised an eyebrow, "Strange one, isn't
he?" Cedric glanced at him. "Yeah, he's a damn good
Quidditch player though."
Harry snorted. "You think you
could be better?" Cedric asked wryly. Harry smirked. "Probably,
considering he has one thing
I don't." Cedric snorted,
"That's usually a disadvantage, isn't it?" Harry's smirk
grew wider. "Not when it's HIV."
Cedric choked on his spit. Before he could reply, however, his name was called.
Harry smirked. He quickly went over his plan.
'Alright, tough skin, and more horns then God ever intended it to have... what the hell is there for me to do?'
He stood up and began pacing.
'Let's see... eyes? Too hard of a target. Blast it?
Too messy, and I can't use most of those spells without being in some
sort
of weird form. Try to talk to it? Nah... I don't think I know
how to do that. Summons, however...'
Harry's eyes positively glowed.
He sat down and thought about his strategy.
'Alright... what to summon though? Hell summons, or Heaven summons? Or maybe both... No, too flashy...'
His sword glowed, and suddenly, an image began to form within his mind.
'Perfect... now I just gotta make up some words, because I don't know how to summon a specific animal...'
Harry jumped with a start, his name had been called.
*BREAK*
Amy chewed her lip nervously. Her family had been acting rather... odd.
'Of course they would, you're their daughter and you're dating some sort of... blasphemer?'
She gave up on trying to rationalize her love life.
Her dad cleared his throat.
"Er, Amy, you realize what this Potter fellow is right?"
Amy sighed, "Yes, dad, a knight."
Thomas coughed, while her mother gave her a warning look.
"I'm just telling you, be careful, he's not like the other knights you've met."
Amy was about to say something back when Harry's name was called.
She sat back and began to worry.
Harry was Harry, no matter how much of a jackass he was, but how was he going to deal with a full grown dragon?
*BREAK*
Harry
shifted as he walked out into the bright stadium. He paused just
before he reached the dragon, with the dragon staring at
him
menacingly. He shifted, the dragon became quiet.
He
took his chance. "STUPEFY!"
He didn't look to see
whether or not he had hit, he was concerned about one thing: the
egg.
Making a mad dash, he didn't see the dragon's tail whip
forward.
Harry's world exploded into stars as he was knocked into
the air. He landed on his feet somehow, breathing heavily.
'Dammit,
this goddamned dragon's gonna kill me.' He took a moment to rest.
He took a moment to look for his wand.
He finally spotted it next
to the dragon's foot. He cursed.
Bagman was saying something, but with the blood pounding in his ears, he ran towards his wand.
The dragon roared and directed a large inferno of fire towards Harry. He waited, and rolled.
Many people had expected
Harry to fail, in fact, some people even wanted Harry to fail,
*Malfoy*, but
to Harry's surprise, and everyone elses, he emerged
from the inferno perfectly fine, holding his wand, and still lightly
charred, but fine.
The dragon paused, and Harry jumped at the window of opportunity.
"Ego voco vos, Viper extraho!"
For a second, nothing happened, and the dragon roared, and began trying to take flight, the chains holding it down creaking.
Harry cursed. He forgot to take into account
the fact that the particular species of dragon he was trying to
summon were
considered next to extinct.
Then, his wand began vibrating. He cursed and held it up high with both hands, but this did nothing for it.
'SHIT! The fucking dragon's almost loose!' Harry cursed again.
Then, a burst of green light billowed from his wand. Harry smirked. He forced the wand down, and began tracing a pattern in the air.
He suddenly felt
nauseated. With dawning horror, he realized that he had severely
underestimated the power it would take
to summon such a
beast.
Growling, he noticed the dragon being held down by one
solitary rope, and it was beginning to give. He saw the dragon's
caretakers
warily drawing their wands.
'No, dammit! I'm not gonna lose to some asshole dragon!' With that, he forced some more of his magic into the spell.
The dragon broke free. The
stadium let out a collective gasp. Amy, like most of the audience,
had stood up, to both see the events
unfolding, and to run, if
need be. Thomas' knuckles were white.
'What the hell are
you doing Harry? This is no time to be summoning something..'
Tina noticed her husbands' emotions and began
trying to calm him
down.
Dumbledore's eyes had lost all of their twinkle, and he was radiating his magic around the stands. The judges edged away.
Harry noticed the dragon breaking free, and pointed the wanded at it. Surprisingly, it managed to send the dragon back a few feet.
However, it came back, roaring fire this time.
Harry growled, his eyes once again changing color. He began combining and pouring his two magic elements.
A wave of darkness a dread
fell over the stadium. Thomas grit his teeth, looking ready to jump
into the stadium and stop Harry
himself.
A second, more lighter wave washed the area, this time giving off feelings of pure, unadulterated happiness.
The dragon had finally had enough, he roared and sent another wave of fire towards Harry.
Something inside Harry snapped.
Just as the flames were about to engulf
him, and another wave of fire poured out from green light. The dragon
paused, waiting.
Harry's wand finally calmed down, and the green
light sustained itself.
To the shock of every one in the area, which is basically, everyone, a snarling snout appeared.
Then
a wing, then the head, then the neck, then, to the horror of Thomas,
Dumbledore, and everyone who knew what it was most likely to
be,
the entire thing came flying out of the portal, as they could now
assume it was.
Thomas froze, his mind in shock. Amy gaped at
the creature, she had only heard legends and stories from her father,
but seeing it,
was a completely different experience.
Dumbledore had also froze, not noticing Fawkes appearing to watch the soon-to-be fight.
The dust cleared, with the dragon having been blown
back. The snarling beast confirmed the suspicions of Dumbledore,
Thomas, Amy, and
the rest of their family. The Weasleys, or at
least Bill and Charlie, along with Arther and Molly, had also
recognized the creature.
Harry grinned up at the stands. Ludo Bagman had been uncharacteristically quiet.
Dumbledore and Thomas made eye contact, and nodded.
The wyvern roared.
It roared again and again, Harry frowned.
The voice was back.
"Who has summoned ME?"
Harry walked forward, surprised that the dragon hadn't done anything yet.
"I did,"
The wyvern turned around. "You? You think that such a creature as yourself could summon ME?! I should eat you for that.."
"Do not harm him,"
Harry and the wyvern turned around. It was Fawkes.
"He, is the One,"
"You mean-"
"Yes"
Harry growled. The dragon started
growling.
"Sorry to break up this love fest, but I kinda
need some help against that giant dragon that was about to eat
me?"
"This child has tremendous power, you and I both know what could happen if used wrongly..."
"Very well,"
Harry sighed, it appeared as though they were ignoring him.
"You, child," Harry jerked his head up.
"We will talk about how you managed to summon
my kind, or how you even had the idea, but for now,
why did you
summon me?"
Harry groaned. "To take care of the damned dragon!"
The wyvern, had it had human expressions, would have blinked in confusion.
"Very well, since you are the first to have summoned my kind in over a thousand years, what is your name?"
"Harry Potter..."
"Very well, Harry Potter, we shall go over the terms of our agreement soon, but for now, we will slay that damned beast!"
Harry raised an eyebrow. "We wyverns, were the original-" Harry waved his hand.
"This is interesting and all, but I kinda HAVE SHIT TO DO!"
The wyvern gave what looked like an amused smile, and grabbed Harry by the shirt.
The audience gasped. Harry started relaying information to the wyvern.
The dragon roared and sent another blast towards them, the wyvern countered with his own.
"By
the way, I am Animous, and the next time you summon us, just say my
name if you want to summon me...
and we'll have a talk
soon..."
With that, Animous dropepd Harry in the pile of eggs. Scrambling, he quickly snatched the required egg.
He looked up to see Animous and the dragon snarling at each other.
He paused. Animous looked back towards him roared.
The dragon once again sent another blast, but this time, Animous breathe fire that was positively reeking of Hellfire.
The dragon slumped to the ground.
Harry raised his wand. "Reverto ex unde vos venit."
Animous disappeared.
Looking at the surprisingly undamaged stadium, he held the egg up high.
*Break*
-----------------------------
Harry
laid back on Madam Pomfrey's bed. She was walking around,
muttering.
"A wyvern, what will happen next? Every
year..."
He tuned her out, and was just about to leave when he was attacked by a blonde blur.
"HARRY! Thank God you're okay!" Amy said breathlessly as she untangled from him.
"Thank God? Thank my awesome skills," Harry said, puffing out his chest.
Amy smiled and slapped his arm.
Ron came peering into the tent. "There you are." Harry smirked.
"Harry, mate, don't ever do that again.
Blimey mate, you nearly gave me a heart attack." Harry smirked
even more.
He saw Hermione in the background however. Hermione
approached towards him timidly.
"I just wanna say, Harry, I-, I'm sorry.." Hermione stared at the floor. Harry sighed.
"You know, Hermione, just.... whatever just remember how to keep to your own buisiness."
Hermione brightened up at this.
Amy laughed at him. "You are entirely too soft, Mr. Potter," Harry shrugged. "It's because I'm amazing like that."
"Indeed." Harry looked up to see Thomas. He looked rather.... uncomfortable.
"I see you've found your summon animal then?" Thomas asked. Harry stared blankly.
Thomas sighed. "Not this crap again.
Harry, a Knight has a primary animal that he can summon, that makes
it easier to summon
then anything else."
Harry nodded in understanding.
Thomas nodded, "Treat my daughter well, Harry." He left.
Harry stared after him, "I think he
has a stick jammed up his-" Amy slapped him.
Harry
smirked.
He looked around, "Hey, do you guys know when they're telling us our scores?" Ron nodded. "Yeah, they're doing it right now, let's go."
They walked outside to the stadium.
Ludo's voice appeared again. "Now that was one
hell of a Task folks! Congrats to all the Champions! Now, would you
all line up
in your order please?"
Harry left Ron, Hermione, and Amy and stood next to Cedric.
"Fleur
Delacour managed to retrieve her egg with a nice use of
transfiguration, however, this failed, in that the dragon came after
her,
and she got injured. Will the judges please show their
scores?"
One by one, numbers appeared. Fudge lifted his
wand, and a 6 showed up. Percy, was still here, in the place of
Crouch, and he granted
her a 5, Olympe, the Beaubaxton's
headmistress, gave her a 7, with much grousing from Harry. Kakaroff
gave her a 3, with Dumbledore
giving her a 5.
"Well folks, looks like Miss Delacour starts off the Tournament with twenty-six points. Will Mr. Krum please come forward?"
Krum
did so. "Mr. Krum displayed extraordinary skill in his use of
the area around him, however, he destroyed half of his eggs. Will
the
judges please give their score."
The scoring went in the same order, an eight, a six, a seven, a ten, and an eight were given.
Harry caught eye contact with Kakaroff and gave him the finger.
"Looks like Mr. Krum starts off the tournament with thirty nine points. Looks like he's leading so far. Will Mr. Diggory step forward?"
Mr. Diggory displayed an acute
knowledge about the dragons' weakness, and used a well aimed stupefy
to the eye. However, he got
injured retrieving his egg. Judges, if
you would please."
An eight, a nine, a seven, a five, and an eight were awarded.
"And Mr. Diggory starts off with twenty seven points, placing second, will Mr. Potter step forward"
"Mr. Potter displayed an alarming amount of
magic, much more magic then should be possible, and managed to summon
and control a
wyvern. However, he was injured, in the beginning,
and the dragon was harmed from the wyvern. Judges?"
A seven, an eight, a nine, a two, and a nine were given.
"Well, it looks like Mr. Potter is in second place now, with thirty five points. Thank you all, and goodnight."
------------
Break
Harry
sat in the Gryffindor common room, celebrating. He had managed to
dodge any questions about Animous, but he knew, it would come
up
eventually. He didn't worry about it though, and merely
celebrated.
It ended for a moment, however, when someone had
asked to open the egg. The noise that came through was positively
horrible.
Harry groaned.
------------
Break
Harry
stumbled into the restroom and had began the shower head when all of
a sudden, a very familar voice breached the room.
"I
believe we need to talk..."
Harry groaned. "Hi Animous."
------------
Break
Harry
sat down at the breakfast table, again at his usual ungodly
hour.
Suddenly, his scar twinged. For the first time in a while,
his scar twinged.
The sword vibrated. Harry cursed. 'Damn! This is no time for Voldemort to be doing anything! And what's with Denovos?'
Harry had long sinced figured out the signals his sword sent him, however, both his sword and his scar were unusual.
Sighing, he took out a sheet of parchment and began to write.
Thomas,
This is Harry. Listen, My scar
just twinged, and my sword just vibrated.
They usually happen
seperately, but they happened at the same time. I think it's too
dangerous
for it to be a coincidence. I think Voldemort and
Denovos may be working together, but I'm not
too sure on
this.
Let me know what you find out
Harry
He
sighed and sent it off. Amy sat down next to him a minute later. "Hey
Harry, what's up?"
Harry shrugged. "Knight
buisiness."
Amy raised her eyebrows. Harry smirked, "Can't raise only one?" Amy humphed.
Harry nodded in resignation. "Fine, whatever. I think Voldemort and Denovos maybe working together.
"What?!" Three voices rang out, causing the rest of the school that had started to come in to stare. Harry glared.
Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione. He
liked them, but sometimes, they were too much of Gryffindors. He
sighed and explained.
Hermione looked worried, "Harry, maybe
you should tell Dumbledore." Harry snorted.
"I think
Hermione's right, mate," Ron said, agreeing with Hermione. Harry
sighed and nodded towards Amy. Amy looked back and
forth between
them. "Harry," she said slowly, "I agree with you,
about the relationship thing, but I think you should tell
Dumbledore."
Harry threw his hands up in the air. "Fine," Getting up, he walked towards Dumbledore.
Dumbledore looked up to acknowledge Harry. "Dude," Harry began, but noticed Kakaroff trying to listen in.
"Hey! I'm not talking to you!" Harry called out towards Kakaroff, and continued. "I think Denovos and Voldemort just may be working together."
Dumbledore put his hands together. "Yes,
I have feared this for a long time, but nevertheless, Harry, what
would you propose I
do?"
Harry gaped at him, "I don't know, do your little I-am-holier-than-thou crap," Dumbledore coughed.
"I cannot do such a thing Harry, based on the suspiciouns of two people, but I assume you have already informed the White Cross?"
Harry nodded. Dumbledore
smiled in approval, "Well, then the best we can hope for, is
that the students be prepared if anything should
ever happen."
Harry snorted. "Not fucking likely, the only good duelists in
here are me, you, most of the teachers, Amy, Ron, Hermione,
Fred
and George Weasley, aaaaand that's all I can think of."
Dumbledore
leaned forward, "Well what do you propose we do then, Harry?"
Harry threw his hands up in the air. "I don't
fucking know!
Dueling Club or something?"
Dumbledore nodded happily. "Excellent idea my boy, once everyone arrives, I shall inform them of your decision to start and lead this Club."
Harry
gaped. "What the fuck old man! I don't have time for this
chicken shit bullshit! I can't-" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.
"Relax, Harry,
I will be there to ensure that nothing goes
wrong."
Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Fine, whatever." He sat back down.
Amy leaned in excitedly,
"So what did he say Harry?" Harry closed his eyes, "He's
gonna start a dueling club, and I'm
going to lead it," Ron
looked up from his inhalation of food. "Brilliant mate,"
Amy and Hermione rolled their eyes.
Once all of the students had
filed in, Dumbledore stood up. "Children, if you would all be so
kind."
The Great Hall was silenced.
"Guess this
hall's not so great after all," Harry muttered.
Amy silenced
him, though with a smile.
Dumbledore continued on, "We
will be hosting something else alongside the Triwizard Tournament. We
will be,
in light of recent events, start a Dueling
Club."
Chatter started up again, only to be shushed by their neighbors.
"This is mandatory for all houses,
although the students from the other schools may attend if they wish.
You will be supervised by one or
more teachers during your time in
the dueling club. he Dealing Club will also be led, by one of your
own."
Dumbledore took a sip of his water. "Harry Potter, would you please stand up?"
Harry did so. As he did, a fresh wave of mutters broke out upon the crowd.
Dumbledore
held his hands up. "Mr. Potter, when the Club is in session,
will have all the power of a head boy. He can give points and
give
detentions. So it would be best for you to respect him. He
may also choose a number of assistant "teachers", who have
the same power."
Dumbledore smiled. "The first meeting, where all of your questions will be answered, should you have any, is tomorrow. At 8 'o clock."
"Don't be late."
---------
Break
Harry groaned as he entered Dumbledore's office. True to his word, he had allowed him to pick a number of assistants, and he had naturally chosen Amy, Ron, and Hermione.
They reached Dumbledore's office, where the other teachers were waiting.
As they
arrived, McGonagall was the first to say something. "Albus, are
you sure this is the right thing to do? To give them such
power
over their fellow classmates?" Dumbledore smiled. "My dear
Minerva, if I did not feel Harry was the best candidate for
such a
task, I would never have mentioned it."
"Just what we need," Snape snarled, "Potter's head to be even more fileld with pride and -" "Shut up Snape," Harry said calml.
Snape sputtered. Dumbledore raised his hands. "No need for fighting now.... Harry, why have you chosen the ones you chose?"
Harry shrugged and thought for a moment. "Ron's
good at chess, so he could do something with strategy, Hermione's
smart, so you know,
study and research, and knowing about your
enemy... Amy can teach them those healing spells of
hers."
Dumbledore smiled, "But what about you?"
Flitwick piped up, "Is this going to be an extension of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Mr. Potter?"
Harry smirked, "No, I, am going to tell them how to be offensive against the so-called dark arts."
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean, Harry? You aren't going to teach them anything illegal are you?"
Harry smirked again, "No,
but I am going to teach them how to be offensive though. Defending
yourself is all good, but that's why Moody's here."
Harry
paused, "I'm going to push them to their limits, and I'm going
to teach them some borderline stuff, I will teach them, not how to
capture,
but how to maim, how to kill if need
be."
The trio standing behind him stared. The teachers in the room did the same. Only Dumbledore was unfazed.
"As long as it isn't anything illegal, Harry."
"Albus you cannot be serious?" Dumbledore nodded, smiling.
-----------
Break
The students filed in the Great Hall. They chattered in wonderment about how drastically the Great Hall had been rearranged.
Harry smiled at Amy. "You ready for this?" Amy nodded, looking like she was about to be sick. Ron and Hermione looked just about the same.
Harry nodded, "Alright, lets' go."
They stepped out onto the stage. Or what was really some tables stacked up together.
Harry cleared his throat. "Welcome, to the
first meeting, of the Hogwarts Dueling Club."
"These-"
he pointed to the three standing with him. "Are the assistants,
and they are the ones who will teach you about
their
strengths."
Harry cleared his throat again. "Amy? If you will?"
Amy stepped up, this time
looking calm. "I'm Amy, and I'm basically going to teach you how
to heal in battle, and the specifics of antidotes
and poisons."
Ron stepped up. "I'm Ron, and I'm going to be teachiing about
tactics and strategy." Hermione stepped forward.
"I'm
Hermione, and I will be teaching about reading into the strengths and
weaknesses of your enemies during battle, and different
battle
situations."
The three of them stepped back down.
Harry
began pacing. "The Dueling Club, will be every Wednesday and
Friday, from eight to twelve. Some time will be spent learning
with
Ron, Amy, and Hermione, but most of your time will be spent learning
with me."
He stopped pacing and surveyed the room.
The Hogwarts Staff were up against the wall. The guests were also up
against the wall, with the
guest students standing with the
Hogwarts students.
"Now," Harry said, "who can tell me what we're here for?"
No one raised their hand. Harry frowned. "Come on, some one?"
A boy from Slytherin raised his hand. "Yes , um, Mr. Zabini?"
Blaise cleared his throat. "We're here to learn how to defend ourselves."
Harry smiled, "Wrong! We are here, because we will be learning how to defend ourselves, and we are here to learn when defense is just not enough."
Ginny Weasley called out from the back row. "What do you mean?"
Harry smiled, "What I mean is, there may a time when you can't defend yourself, when your only option is to attack."
He paused.
"That's what I'm here for. There will be no tears, there will be
no mercy, your enemy is your enemy, if you don't
hurt him, he
hurts you first. I, am going to be teaching you about offensive
magic."
A first year Hufflepuff raised his hand. "Yes?"
"Are you talking about Dark Magic?"
Harry shook his head. "No, I am talking about magic that can potentially save your life, no matter what it's been classified as."
A Gryffindor suddenly spat out, "What kind of crap is this? We aren't Slytherins!" Harry's eyes turned cold.
"Twenty-five points from Gryffindor." The room gasped. The Gryffindor turned red. "Traitor! What-" "Fifty points from Gryfindor." Now Ron, Amy, and Hermione were shocked. "Do you wanna keep on going?" Harry asked the boy. The boy stayed silent.
Harry surveyed the room. "There
will be no prejudice in this class, no house loyalties, who you get
paired up with is your teammate, and as
such, you either pass as a
team, or you fail as a team. There is no room for schoolboy
arguements on the battlefield."
He paused. "I will teach you how to hurt, how to maim, how to kill if need be."
The room was deathly quiet.
Harry sat down. "I will do
everything I can to give you the knowledge you need to survive, but
in order to do so, you must let go of
any foolish prejudice you
hold against anyone in here. If you don't, you will find those
foolish assumptions you hold so dear shattered."
Harry
leaned forward. "Now who's got the balls," he paused. "to
come back next Wednesday, to learn how to fight, to learn how
to
survive? Because if you come back, you can't leave." He
leaned back.
"Consider yourself no longer a part of a house, you are now part of an army. You live for your team mates, and they live for you."
Harry leaned forward again. "The only question is, will you die for them?"
