Title: Kiss.
Author: AspergianStoryteller.
Genre: Supernatural/General.
Summary: When a dementor tried to Kiss Harry Potter, it got more than it bargained for. And Harry did not walk away unaffected. Don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter 27: I Think They Meant For You To Die.
The fairly gentle impact woke Harry from his dream of flying. He opened bleary eyes and saw a familiar figure exiting the Fat lady's portrait. But it was still quite early, and he was tired. He'd think about later.
The rush to master the summoning charm had been keeping back some of the panic plaguing Harry as the first task drew near. Now, on the day, with the charm out of the way, Harry felt as though he was isolated from everyone somehow, their 'good luck's and 'it was nice knowing you, Potter's barely registering. He was so nervous, he wandered if he'd totally freak out and go trigger-happy when it was time to face the dragons. Time was slipping by most oddly; one minute he was in class (History of Magic was usually so slow), the next, he was walking to lunch...
'Mr. Potter,' Professor McGonagall stood behind him. 'It's time to go into the grounds now. You must get ready for the first task.'
'Okay.' Harry stood up. His fork fell with a clatter by his barely touched plate. Hermione wished him luck. She sounded nearly as scared as he was.
Professor McGonagall escorted Harry outside. It was chilly. She put her hand on his shoulder as she talked, clearly anxious, though she managed to keep her head.
'You just need to keep calm,' she told him. 'We have experts to control the situation, should things get out of hand. You only need to do your best... are you alright?'
'Fine,' Harry murmured.
She lead him to the area in the Forest where the dragons were enclosed. A tent had been erected; it hid the dragons from view.
'In you go,' McGonagall said shakily. 'Mr. Bagman will be telling you what's going on... good luck.'
'Thanks.'
Inside, the champions each showed their nervousness. Fleur sat rigid on a wooden stool. Her face was pale and clammy. Viktor looked surlier than ever. Cedric paced agitatedly up and down. He smiled at Harry when he entered, though his smile was strained with fear. Harry returned it.
'Come on in, Harry,' Baman greeted him happily. 'Good to see you. Make yourself comfortable.' The Head of Magical Sports was dressed in his old black and yellow quidditch robes.
'Well, now that we're all here, it's time to reveal the first task. When the audience are all here, you're each going to reach into the this here bag,' he held up a purple silk bag, 'and pull out a small model of, well, whatever you'll be facing. There's different varieties, you see! One more thing: your task... is to collect the golden egg!'
The champions returned to their dreadful wait. Cedric looked slightly green as he continued pacing. Fleur and Viktor didn't talk. Harry wondered if they, like him, feared they would puke if they opened their mouths. At least they had signed up for this.
Far too soon, hundreds of footsteps and excited voices went by the tent. Their mood was so different, it was as though they were of a different species.
'Ladies first,' Bagman said to Fleur, holding out the silk bag.
She put a shaking hand in, and drew out an exact model of the Welsh green. It wore a tag reading the number 'two' around its neck. Fleur didn't appear surprised; only determinedly resigned.
Viktor drew the scarlet Chinese fireball, number three. He didn't look surprised either.
Cedric reached for the lucky dip and got the greenish-blue Swedish shortsnout. It was number one.
Knowing what was left, and feeling worse, if that was possible, Harry put his hand in the bag and pulled out the Hungarian horntail. Number four. It bared little-bitty fangs at him and stretched small wings out. It was almost cute.
'And there you have it!' said Bagman. 'Each of those is a smaller version of the dragons you have to get past outside, and the number refers to the order you go in. Now, I'm going out for a moment because I'm commentating, and I'll call you out soon, Mr. Diggory. You're first. Lucky number one. But Harry, could I have a word with you outside first?'
While Bagman offered him help, and was refused, Harry kept wondering to himself, why the hell did he keep telling people he was fine, and why was he refusing this help? He was under-age and an unwilling participant, surely he was entitled...
A whistle blew, summoning Bagman away.
Back in the tent, the waiting and the commentary, 'Ooo, what a narrow miss!' drove him nuts. He was going to have a heart attack soon...
One by one, the older champions were called out to do their thing and did it. The sounds of the crowd roaring, and the dragons roaring, it all washed over him. Harry had never been so aware of his heart pounding, his nerves tingling with fear, and yet he seemed to be very far away. Spacing out, for once, didn't feel much different from his current state of being. He could still feel the air tremble around him. Terror, excitement and sound seemed to go right through him.
At last, the whistle called him out. His legs were like shaking like jelly. He walked past trees, through the enclosure fence. A sea of faces stared down at him from stands. The horntail was at the other end, crouched protectively over a nest of large eggs. Her wings were half opened, evil yellow eyes fixed upon him, looking for all the world like a giant, monstrous lizard. Her spiked tail left yard-long gouges in the dirt.
Time to go. This was it. Harry had to pull himself together and focus, or he was dead.
He raised his wand.
'Accio Firebolt!'
Harry waited. Please, please let it work. The trance was broken when the dragon, proving that yes, she could easily reach forty feet out with her flame, sent a long, hot tongue of fire at him.
For one second, it was a bright little dot of orange some distance away. The next, it filled Harry's vision completely, and he threw himself to side. Impossible heat seared over him. His whole body went from clammy to sweat soaked in an instant. For seconds, (he couldn't recall just how many exactly) Harry lay on the ground trembling. His legs hurt. His body felt stiff. He wasn't sure if his bladder was secure... And there was the sound he was waiting for!
His Firebolt shot out of the Forest and stopped perfectly right in front of him, waiting for take off. Harry jumped to his feet, stumbled for a moment, and swung his leg over the broom.
Bagman was shouting something, but he couldn't comprehend it. He kicked off from the ground, and a miracle happened.
Harry's fear fell away as the wonderfully familiar sensations of flying took him over. Just like a quidditch match, the the faces of the crowd were tiny specks, the wind was in hair, chilling the sweat, the dragon was a small, ugly opposing team below.
Looking down, he spotted the gleaming gold egg amongst the concrete coloured ones. Nestled right between the dragon's forelegs.
Harry dived. He knew the horntail was watching him; it's head moved with him. Just meters away, he pulled back and swerved to the side. Fire burned the space where he'd just been; it didn't matter. It was like a mere bludger.
'Oh Merlin, see him fly!' Bagman cried over the shrieking crowd. 'Are you seeing this, Mr. Krum?'
Again, Harry swooped down and dodged flame. This time though, the massive tail loomed in his face. He went left, and a wicked long spike ripped into his shoulder. It stung. Screams erupted from the crowd, but Harry put them out of his mind. It wasn't that bad.
Time for another diversion tactic.
'Cultri mittere!'
Harry wasn't used to projecting a flurry of knives from his wand while flying. They landed several meters away from the dragon, and probably wouldn't have hurt her, but they did catch her attention for precious moments. "Throw knives" was a borderline, almost illegal spell. Harry doubted anyone would care under the circumstances.
Harry was able think for a bit and decided what to do next. To get her away from the eggs, into the air...
He swooped in close and back out again. Not too close-she'd fire upon him- gradually getting higher and higher. Keeping the horntail's cat-like eyes on him.
Her head swayed as it followed him, like he was a snake charmer and she was the snake. Well, minus the wings and legs, she did look a bit like a snake. Did other reptiles have their own language?
Fire shot up again, but Harry was now too high for it too reach.
'Come on,' he hissed. 'Come and get me. Up.'
She reared suddenly, black wings, as large as those of a small air plane, unfurled and pushed. Faster than she looked, the Hungarian horntail lunged into the air after Harry. Before she could register it, he dived down, shooting past her- it was a blur of blue, then black to him- as fast as he could go, towards the now unprotected eggs. Harry got in between the large claws, took his hands off his broom, snatched the golden egg, and soared up and away.
And the noise came back. He could hear the crowd properly again. They were all screaming as loud as the Irish fans at the Quidditch World cup...
'LOOK OUT!'
Hot wind blasted past Harry, pushing him to the side.
He looked back.
Driven absolutely mad by him, (and probably very stressed out already anyway) the horntail was still in the air, wings beating, fire bursting out, straining to break the long chain around her neck. Fire went up, down, at Harry and over the heads of the terrified crowd. On the ground were dozens of wizards struggling to subdue their scaly charge.
Harry watched in horror as thrown-flame seared at the shields thrown up by teachers. Students and villagers were hastily being evacuated from the stands, or disapparating away.
'Oh shit,' he uttered. 'Stop dammit! Sstop!'
The dragon roared furiously. 'Away! Away! SSSSSS! Thief!'
Harry did a double take when he managed to catch it. It was growly, deep, unfamiliar in several places and Hungarian-accented, but it sounded as though the Hungarian horntail was speaking (shrieking) Parsletongue. Or maybe it was Dragonese.
If that was so, maybe he could reason with it.
Yeah right.
Getting closer, wearily, he shouted, 'Sstop! Your eggss are fine!'
'Eggssss?' Yellow, slit-pupil eyes snapped onto him. They held him.
'They're fine!' Harry yelled. 'Ssafe!'
The dragon was distracted just long enough for the wizards on the ground to stun her. She sank down and collapsed with a heavy thud near her eggs, missing them.
Thank goodness. Harry watched the chaos being sorted out for a minute, then flew back down towards the tent. The moment his feet touched the ground, he crumpled up into a shivering pile. All of a sudden he was hearing everything clearly and his anxious feeling was draining out along with his energy. His heat was beating wildly, but it was returning to normal. His shoulder and legs hurt.
Professor McGonagall, Hagrid and Professor Moody were hurrying over to him, waving and smiling. He smiled and waved back.
'That was excellent, Potter!' McGonagall cried when she reached him. Very major praise from her. 'Are you alright?'
'I'm okay,' he said, sitting up.
'Yeh did it! Yeh were Amazing!' Hagrid sounded somewhere between shocked and very emotional. 'An' Charlie said it was the wors'-'
Harry thanked him loudly to make sure he wouldn't end up revealing any details of their midnight meeting and get himself in trouble.
Moody also expressed his approval, then he eyed Harry's legs and shoulder.
'You'll want to get those looked at, Potter.' He extended his hand to Harry and hauled him to his feet.
'Oo- ow,' Harry winced, then hobbled into the tent.
The inside had been converted into in a first-aid station. It was divided into cubicles; Harry could see Cedric's silhouette in one.
'Dragons!' Madam Pomfrey spat. 'Whatever is next? Sometimes I swear I just want to...' She muttered to herself as she sat Harry in a cubicle and dabbed his shoulder with a purple liquid. It smoked and stung, but when she poked it with her wand, it healed in an instant.
'Shoes off and pull your trousers up, Mr. Potter.'
Harry bent down and tugged his sneakers, then his socks off. His feet were pink. Very pink.
'Ow...' His lower legs were pink too, red, and slightly blistered.
Madam Pomfrey tutted and smeared the burnt skin with an orange paste. It cooled him immediately.
'Stay here for a minute, Mr. Potter, quietly.' The nurse vanished the paste from her fingers and went to see Cedric.
Harry was far too full of adrenalin to just sit still. He wanted to go outside and see how things were. He'd have gotten up if it weren't for the paste all over his feet. Turned out he didn't have to; Ron and Hermione slipped into the tent and made a beeline for him.
'Oh my goodness, Harry!' Hermione was a bit hysterical. She had stressed fingernail marks on her cheeks. 'You were brilliant! I can't believe that just happened! How are you?'
'I'm okay,' Harry reassured her. 'No lasting damage.' But his eyes were on Ron, who was more pale than he'd ever seen him before, staring at Harry.
'Harry,' he said very seriously. 'That was, that was insane. Whoever put name in the Goblet- I-I think they meant for you to die out there.'
Everything between them from last few weeks seemed to disappear then. As though time had re-winded.
'You got it, did you?' Harry asked coldly. 'About time.'
Ron swallowed nervously. He prepared to speak, and Harry knew he was about to apologise, but suddenly, he didn't need to hear it to know it.
'It's okay. I know.'
'No,' Ron protested. 'I was such a git- I shouldn't have-'
'It's fine,' Harry insisted.
He and Ron shared grins.
Hermione surprised them by bursting into tears.
'You two are so stupid!' she cried. 'Boys!' She stomped her foot, hugged them both and dashed off.
'... Girls.' Ron shook his head. 'Come on, Harry. Everyone's coming back now; the dragon's under control. They'll be telling your scores by now. Um,' he glanced at Harry's orange legs and feet. 'I'll go see what your scores are and tell you. It's not announced out loud, you know?'
He went back outside. While waiting, Harry thought he'd chat to Cedric.
'Hey Cedric,' he said. 'How'd you go?'
'Harry? Ah, alright. I got burnt a bit, but mostly it went pretty well.'
Cedric told Harry how he'd transfigured a rock into a labrador dog as a decoy, but when he was close to the egg, the Swedish shortsnout changed its mind and went after him, which was why the side of his face was burnt. Fleur had done a spell to charm her Welsh green, and in its stupor, it snorted fire and ignited her skirt. She put it out with water from her wand, 'aguamenti', and gotten the egg. Viktor Krum had hit his Chinese fireball with a curse to its eyes, which was really efficient, but it made the dragon go crazy from the pain and wound up crushing half its eggs. Points were taken for that.
Ron soon came back in and told Harry what his scores were. Madam Maxime had given him an eight. A nine from Mr. Crouch and Dumbledore. Ludo Bagman gave him a ten, which surprised Harry, and Karkarof gave him a four. Harry didn't really give a damn about that, but Ron's indignation for him made him very happy. With the first task out of the way now, and because most of the students had been cheering for him as much as they had for Cedric, Harry felt better than he had in weeks. His heart felt very light.
Then an out-of-breath Charlie popped into the tent and cheerfully informed Harry that he was tied for first place with Viktor. 'It was totally unbelievable! But I've got to go and owl Mum, and by the way, Bagman wants to speak with the champions for a minute to stick around, okay? Bye!'
Fleur, Viktor and Bagman came in right after Charlie left. The champions stood by Harry and Cedric's cubicles, clutching their hard-earned golden eggs while Bagman congratulated them all and told them that the next task was to be at nine thirty am on February the twenty-fourth. The eggs-notice the hinges in the side-were their clues.
Fleur smiled at the guys and left the tent, looking a lot better than earlier. Viktor nodded to Cedric and Harry and left as well. The remaining boys had to wait for Madam Pomfrey release them, listening to Cedric's surprising tale of attempt to escape the Hospital Wing early. It was ten minutes before Madam Pomfrey allowed Harry to wipe his legs off with a towel and go.
On the way back to the castle, they bumped into Rita Skeeter, wearing acid green robes today. Harry took pleasure in telling her goodbye savagely, then filled Ron in on what he and Hermione had been up to between then and Halloween.
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