Hermione
Another exasperating yawn escaped her mouth as she picked up her cup of coffee from the table; she certainly needed all the caffeine she could get today. Last night had been hell. No, scratch that, this past week had been hell. Never in her life had she ever found it as hard to get a little sleep as she had this week. Ever since she was old enough to read she had always fallen asleep to the same routine like clockwork. She would lay down with a good book and at some point fall asleep and wake up the next morning with the book sprawled somewhere across her bed.
This week, though, she felt like sleep was impossible to come by. The fact that she was a Triwizards Champion had set in long ago and was not the reason behind her poor sleep schedule. The issue was that the fact that the tournament was finally about to start had only begun to sink in. The worst part of the feeling finally sinking in was not that she had to participate in the tournament. No, she had Harry and Marik by her side for that, so she knew everything would be fine. The worst part was that she had no idea what the first task was, and it was driving her mad; though, maybe insane would be a better choice of word.
Since the panic had begun to set in a few days back, she had scoured Durmstrang's library for any books that may have any information on the Triwizards' Tournament, hoping that she might find some common trends of first tasks. It was useless though. The objective of each first task was different every year, and each objective depended on which Headmaster at the time was designing it.
She also tried to discover which Headmaster had been in charge of designing the first task, but again, was unable to get any useful information. She had gone so far as to even ask Dumbledore if he could let them know anything but he had just smiled and walked away. She had been hoping if she knew which Headmaster was designing the first task that she would be able to at least narrow down some of the magic they should expect, she had no such luck though.
All of her worrying, panic, and research only led her back to square one, which was nothing.
Thank god for coffee.
"Morning Hermione. Sleep any better?" She lifted her head from her coffee cup that she was aimlessly gazing into at the sound of her name being called out. She saw that it was Harry. She gave him a warm smile as he sat down next to her. He was already wearing the dark black battle robes Harry's father had bought for them when they were announced as Triwizard Champions. He looked really good in them.
"Hey Harry. No I didn't unfortunately," she answered him and took another sip from her coffee.
Mmmm so good. She thought to herself with a mental smile as she started to feel some of the caffeine kicking in.
"Me either. Me and Marik ended up practicing in our dorm until around four this morning," Harry answered her and poured himself a cup of coffee.
"I'm jealous! Cho goes to bed so early, so I was stuck in my bed doing nothing all night. What did you both work on?" she asked Harry. Living with Cho this year had so far not been too bad. Cho was hardly ever in the room and when she was she was always asleep. So far the two of them had probably said a total of ten words to each other, which Hermione did not mind at all.
"I worked on my legilimency with him a little. I'm getting more consistent at creating mental hallucinations and we both figured that would come in handy at some point during the tournament. He just worked on a few different charms and what not," Harry answered her, another yawn escaping his mouth. She could tell he was just as tired as she was.
"Where is Marik by the way?" she asked him, just now realising that Marik had not arrived to the dining hall like he normally did with Harry.
"Luna was letting him have it in the hallway. He will be here in a bit," Harry answered, shaking his head with a slight smile at their friend's expense.
"What did the idiot do this time, call her Alina again?" Hermione asked, not surprised at all that Marik was in trouble with Luna again. Luna seemed to be upset with Marik practically everyday, which honestly she had pretty good reasons to be. Marik had not been the best boyfriend to her since they had arrived at Durmstrang.
"No, not that again. According to her he has been ignoring her and acting disinterested, or something like that. I got out of there once I saw her coming," Harry answered her in his best Luna impression. His poor attempt at the Ravenclaw girl's accent made her laugh.
"Well that sounds about right. Everytime we see them together it looks like Marik is off somewhere lost in his head and Luna is desperately trying to get his attention. Either that, or she is crying and he is apologizing for something."
Ever since Marik and Luna had arrived at Durmstrang their relationship had seemed to worsen. It honestly didn't even seem like the two of them were really even a couple anymore. Luna always looked like she was ready to hex Marik or cry, and Marik always looked like he was daydreaming or angry at something. The two of them had fought constantly. Although it may be more accurate to say Luna fought constantly, and Marik just kind of seemed to ignore it all.
Marik kept telling them that everything was fine and it wasn't a big deal, but as an outsider looking in, it certainly seemed like something was off. The two of them had become inseparable over the summer and Marik talked about Luna constantly. However, since the first few days at Durmstrang their relationship did not look like a healthy one at all.
"Think he will be ready to go today even with the drama?" she asked Harry, hopeful Marik would have his head in the game.
"Yeah, he will be fine. Are you going to be ready?" Harry asked her, his gaze turning to meet hers.
"Yeah, I'm obviously nervous, and ready to freaking know what the challenge is, but I'm excited to get started."
"Yeah, me too. Speak of the devil," Harry added as Marik finally arrived and grabbed a seat across from them. She noted his skin was a little paler than normal.
"What happened to you?" Harry asked before she could.
"I apparently, am an asshole. Who knew?" Marik said sarcastically as he grabbed a roll from the table along with a cup of coffee.
"You an asshole? No way!" another voice chimed in. Hermione saw that it was Alina who had also made her way into the dining hall and sat down next to Marik.
"I know right," Marik said with a half-hearted laugh.
"So why are you an asshole this time?" she asked her friend.
"Well Luna says that she has been in a one way relationship since school started, and that I am leading her on with false expectations and false feelings, or something like that." Marik answered her.
"What did you do this time?" Alina asked, stealing the butter tray from Marik.
"This time-I'm not particularly sure. I saw her in the hall, she started crying, she yelled at me about not being truthful with my true feelings, and then she broke up with me," Marik answered her. Hermione noted that he kept playing with his bracelet as he spoke.
"What?" she and Alina said in unison, a little taken aback at the news.
"She broke up with you?" Harry added, looking just as shocked as them.
"Yup," Marik said nonchalantly.
"Marik, I'm so sorry," Alina told him, wrapping her arms around her friend to give him a hug.
"I'll be okay. But thanks," Marik told them.
"Is there anything you need, or that we can do?" Harry asked him.
"Nah, I'm too concerned with this task to even worry about it now. We can cry and have a pajama party in the room later though Harry," Marik joked and gave Harry a wink. Apparently, the break up wasn't affecting him too much or if it was he wasn't letting them know.
"I wanna be there for the pajama party," she said playfully.
"Okay, but you have to stay on the top bunk. There is already barely any room with both me and Marik sharing the bottom bed," Harry joked and Alina did a spit take with her orange juice.
"I always knew it!" she said through laughter as she cleaned up the orange juice on the table.
"So did Rita write anything good today? Lemme guess, the article is about Harry and this time he is actually the next dark lord in training, and is using this tournament as a way to make his grand reveal to Europe," Marik joked. She saw the scorn immediately appear on Harry's face at the mention of Rita Skeeter.
Poor Harry had become enemy number one in the Daily Prophet since his name had been called by the Goblet of fire. It had very quickly become clear that the writers of the Daily Prophet were not the biggest fans of his. Why they seemed to hate Harry, she had no idea. Ever since their first interview with the reporters things had only gotten worse for Harry too. Everyday it seemed there was a new article spreading rumors and telling insane stories about her friend. Rita Skeeter's articles were some of the worst of all of them.
She had published a number of articles on Harry, each one more outrageous than the next. She had claimed Harry to be a serial killer and the mastermind behind the attacks on Hogwarts, Dumbledore's replacement in training, and a glory hungry animal who had bewitched the Goblet of Fire to chose him so that he could become even more famous. Altogether, it was no surprise that Harry had cancelled his subscription with the Daily Prophet.
"Actually, today the article was about Viktor Krum. Apparently, Bulgaria announced yesterday that Krum would be starting on their national Quidditch team this year. It was a boring article, though, so I didn't finish it," she answered him. Whenever an article mentioned Quidditch she quickly moved on to the next one.
"We should be sure to remember Krum is a good flyer during the tournament. He might be able to use a broom to his advantage," Harry told them.
"Good point Harry," She replied, not having come by that observation on her own.
"You guys better win today. I won't be known as the girl who sits with losers," Alina joked, they were all to anxious for the task though to laugh. "Tough crowd," Alina added, and turned her attention to her breakfast.
"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, Mr. Ose, how are we feeling this morning," A voice interrupted them from their conversation. Hermione turned her head only to be surprised. Professor McGonagall, who she had not seen since the short amount of time they had spent at Hogwarts at the start of the year was standing next to them.
"Hey Professor!" Harry said, sounding excited at the sight of his favorite professor.
"What are you doing here professor?" Hermione asked, wondering what their transfiguration professor was doing at Durmstrang.
"You didn't think us professors would miss out on watching the tournament did you? Especially when students from our houses are participating!" McGonagall said with a wide smile that was more of a creepy grin than a smile.
"Does that mean all the professors are coming?" Marik asked the professor.
"Yes, Mr. Ose, all of your professors will be observing the tournament today," Professor McGonagall answered.
"So that you means you better not screw up kid!" Hermione saw professor Kingsley say to Marik as he also arrived into the hall.
"Kings!" Marik shouted as he jumped out of his seat to give his foster dad a hug. Hermione smiled at the sight of the two.
"All of Ravenclaw is rooting for you back at home Miss Granger! We set up a giant projection screen in the Great Hall for everyone to watch the first task today." She saw professor Flitwick appear from behind professor McGonagall.
"Thank you sir," she said, giving her head of house a smile.
"All of Hogwarts is rooting for you three today. Dumbledore wanted me to tell you three that all of the champions have to go down to the grounds now-You have to get ready for the first task," Professor McGonagall told them.
You could hear a pin drop in the dining hall as the three of them made eye contact, realising that the tournament was actually about to begin. They all robotically stood up in silence.
"You three will do just fine," Kingsley told them, helping her nerves a little.
"Good luck guys. Make me proud!" Alina added, giving them each a quick goodluck hug as they headed out of the dining hall.
The three of them left the dining Hall and headed out towards the grounds of the castle. As she walked down the entrance stone steps she reached out and took Harry's hand into her own, needing something to help calm the butterflies fluttering around inside her stomach. As they walked across the grounds they arrived at a large tent that had been set up, the three Headmasters were all already standing outside its entrance.
"You three can go ahead inside and wait. We will be in shortly once the last champions arrive to provide instructions," Headmaster Dumbledore told them as they approached the tent. They all nodded and headed in the tent.
The inside of the tent had been enchanted to be much larger than it appeared on the outside. The tent was divided into three sections of seating, one for each school. The Beauxbaton Champions were all deep in conversation over in their section, probably planning for possible scenarios that they may encounter. The Durmstrang section was still currently empty. The three of them made their way over to the Hogwart's section and sat down nervously.
"Feels like the summer dueling tournament kind of doesn't it?" she said to Marik as she found a seat in their section. Sitting in a tent waiting for an event that she knew would have thousands of people watching her brought back the familiar nervous feeling.
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Marik replied as his eyes darted around the tent.
"Excuse us," a voice interrupted them. The three Beauxbatons Academy Champions had made their way over to their section.
"We just wanted to wish you three a final good luck before the tournament begins. And we realised that we haven't formally introduced ourselves yet, so we figured since we would all be seeing a lot of each other today and the coming months now was as good a time as any. I am Weiss Marceau," The tall blonde witch said to the three of them and extended her hand out towards Hermione.
"I'm Oliver Minoit." The tall boy with long black hair followed suit and extended out his hand.
"And I'm Fleur Delacour, though I have already had the privilege to meet two of you," Fleur said with a smile as she extended her hand out too. Hermione had met Fleur before a few times actually, twice if she remembered correctly. Once, when she had dueled against her in the dueling tournament, another time when she had been staying in France over the summer and had bumped into her on the street.
"I'm Hermione Granger," she said to the three Beauxbatons champions. Harry and Marik followed her lead and introduced herself.
"Good luck to you guys too," Harry told the three as they all finished exchanging hands.
"Thank you," Weiss replied and started heading back to the Beauxbatons section.
"I hope we cross paths again soon, Marik," Fleur said playfully to Marik as the two of them shook hands, before turning and following her two teammates, her silvery hair flowing behind her.
"Guess Fleur is really looking to get revenge on me for beating her in the tournament," Marik said, shrugging his shoulders. Hermione rolled her eyes at his obliviousness.
"That isn't what she meant you moron," she told him, still shaking her head.
"What?" Marik asked, looking confused.
"Fleur likes you, you idiot. The looks she gives you in class are not angry, revenge looks, they are I-think-that-guy-is-kinda-cute-looks. And her wanting to cross paths, is her wanting to see you again, not go up against you; well, maybe go up against you but in a different way. She was flirting with you, you dumb moron!" Hermione told him, laughing a little.
"Oh. . . OH! Really?" Marik asked looking shocked when he arrived at her conclusion.
"Yess! I am a girl you know, I know these things," she said to her friend.
"Huh," Marik replied, his eyes roaming over to the part veela girl.
"How do you know what I-think-that-guy-is-kinda-cute-looks are?" Harry asked her, a flirtatious, curious look on his face.
"Uhhh. . ." was all she managed to get out as her cheeks started to blush.
"Alright, let's try and focus a little," Harry told the both of them, thankfully saving her from further blushing as the gate to the tent opened and the three Durmstrang champions entered. She watched as the three of them as they made their way over to the Durmstrang section. Viktor and Rosa looked like they were ready for war, Dedrick on the other hand was just smiling a normal smile. Even if Alina did like him, Hermione thought the boy gave off a creepy vibe. She would never tell her friend that though.
"Champions, gather round please!" Beauxbatons giant, literally, Headmistress ordered as she and the other Headmasters entered the tent. Hermione, along with the rest of the champions, made their way to the center of the tent. "The audience has assembled and the stage has been set, which means it is time to begin," the Headmistress said in excitement.
"I was the Headmaster in charge of designing the first task and I will be the one to provide you with all of the information you need to be successful in this task. The first task will challenge your bravery, quick-thinking, intelligence, strategizing, and much, much more. This task is certainly not for the weak of heart and those who lack courage. The arena you are about to enter is a large triangle shaped area. The boundaries of the arena have been enchanted so that you will not be allowed to exit the arena during the task.
"Once I am finished providing all of the instructions, each team will be transported by portkey to one corner of the triangle. The area that you arrive at will be your team's base for the entire first task. At the center of each team's base you will find three things. The first thing you will notice will be an enchanted scroll box. Inside each scroll box is an enchanted scroll that contains a clue for the second task of the tournament. You will find that you will be only able to open other teams' scroll boxes and not your own team's box. Which means if your team wants a clue for the next task you must steal another team's scroll box.
"If at the end of the task your team's scroll box has been stolen your team will lose two points off your overall score. The scroll box is an optional objective in this task, you do not need to steal another team's scroll box to win. If you attempt to steal a scroll you do it only for the clue and to cause other teams to lose points, not to win the task. To complete the task, teams will have to make their way to the center of the arena.
"At the center of the arena teams will find three enchanted doors, each with the name of their school labeled on it. The team will enter their school's door and defeat the task that lies ahead of them once they have entered. Once your team defeats the task inside your enchanted door, your first task will end. Points will be awarded by we three Headmasters once every team has finished the task. If your team fails to defeat the task inside the enchanted door your team will be awarded zero points.
"Since you all have been deemed as the best of the best in your school we expect only the best out of you. Therefore I feel that this task would be too simple for you all under normal circumstances. So to make the task live up to the difficulty of the Triwizards' Tournament and to make you all push your own limits of magic even further this task has a special twist to it.
"Once you arrive at your base, two champions on each team must sacrifice their wands, meaning only one champion on each team will be allowed a wand during the first task. When you arrive at your base and decide on who is going to give up their wands, simply place the two wands onto the center altar at your base, they will be transported back to your rooms from there. You will not be allowed to leave your team's base until two wands have been sacrificed, so keep that in mind.
"You will find that next to each of your center altars there will also be three blank runes, a rune stave, and an empty potion flask. You may use and distribute these amongst yourselves however you like or chose to ignore them. The choice is up to you. Fireworks will go off at your location to signal that you have completed the first task, until you see the fireworks the task is unfinished. Now, time to begin," the Headmaster finished explaining and before Hermione could even finish taking everything in, their team was handed a shovel, which she assumed was their portkey.
"You will be transported any moment now. Good luck to you all!" Beauxbaton's Headmistress finished saying and turned to leave the tent with the other two Headmasters.
Hermione looked at Harry and Marik, both of which had smiles on their faces and looked ready to go. She smiled back at them and closed her eyes, allowing herself one more nervous breath before everything began. Just as she exhaled the last bits of nervousness inside her, her stomach lurched as the portkey activated and pulled her into it. Her body whipped through what always felt like thin, endless tubes, stretching and pulling at her until her world stopped spinning, and she landed on the ground.
All around them was a dense forest. Above them she could see only small bits of sunlight peeking through the canopy of thick leaves that were hundreds of feet over their heads. Their base was a fairly large area, that looked to be part of some ancient ruins or something. The base had a large stone circle as its floor and a few broken pillars along its border. At the center was a large stone rock, that somewhat resembled an altar, sure enough a scroll box was floating a few inches above it.
"Okay so what is the plan? And who is giving up their wands?" Marik asked as the three of them quickly gathered round.
"Real quick, just to make sure we all heard the same thing and are on the same page. To summarize everything she told us our main objective is to beat whatever lies beyond our enchanted door. We have the option to do a detour and steal another team's scroll, and we lose points if someone steals ours. Only one of us gets a wand, and we have three runes and a potions flask to work with too," she repeated to them, more so just wanting to repeat everything one more time for herself to think.
"Yeah, that sounds about right to me," Harry replied.
"Same here," Marik added.
"I already sort of have kind of a basic plan if you guys don't have any ideas," Harry told them.
"I don't," Marik replied.
"Go ahead," she told Harry, listening intently. Her mind was racing; she was amazed he was already able to think of a strategy under conditions like this.
"Right. So I think it is a no brainer Marik that you give up your wand. With your rune-tattoo magic you can basically cast the majority of the spells wandlessly and silently that you would need a wand for anyways."
"Good point. Okay, so who is the other person then?" Marik asked Harry.
"I think Hermione should keep her wand. Let's face it, she knows more spells than I do and who knows what spells could come in handy here. Plus, I don't need my wand for my animagus transformation and I know a few wandless spells to get by, though I can barely put much power behind them."
"Are you sure Harry?" she asked him before he continued on.
"Yeah, I am. It works better that way with my strategy anyways. I think stealing another team's scroll box is a no brainer. If another team steals one and we don't, we will be at a clear disadvantage in the next task. So if you all agree with me there I will go on with my plan." Harry looked at them, waiting for an answer. She thought about it briefly. While stealing a scroll box was not the main objective he was right that it would help out overall in the tournament, even if it meant taking a little extra time in this task.
"I agree," she said after a few seconds.
"I'm game. Let's hear the plan, be quick though," Marik added.
"Okay, so listen closely we only have time to go over this once. Hermione you are going to start off towards the center of the arena on your own. I want you to put a silencing spell and any disillusionment charms you know on yourself. If you see any other people try to stay hidden and only get into an encounter if you absolutely have to. Once the enchanted doors are within your site get to a spot you can stay hidden in and wait for me. Also keep an eye out for any useful potions ingredients.
"I'm going to transform into my animagus form and travel along the arena's border until I find another team's base. I can get there quicker than any of you can in my mountain lion form and probably a lot stealthier too. I will steal the scroll box and make my way back here to the base.
"While we are both doing that, Marik, you are in charge of defending our scroll and carving runes. You are our best duelist. So I think it is best that for the task you remain here to guard our scroll box against other champions, since you have the best chance of beating them in a one on one duel.
"We definitely can't afford to lose two points, so I think defending the scroll is crucial. I need you to also carve me and Hermione three runes before I get back here with the scroll box. When I get back you will give me the runes and I will give you the stolen scroll box to defend alongside our own scroll box. You're in charge of carving whatever you think could be useful, just have them done by the time I get back.
"Once I'm back at our base, Hermione, I will use my legilimency to find you. When I find you we will brew a potion if we find enough ingredients, then make our way into our door. Marik you will keep guard still at this point. Everyone agree with my plan, or have any suggestions?" Harry asked the two of them.
She thought over his strategy quickly. It was a pretty good plan she thought. She was beyond amazed that he had somehow managed to come up with all of that so quickly. She had barely managed to even slow her breathing since they had arrived, let alone think of any plans. Her only worry with Harry's plan was if she came across someone or something along her trip to the center of the arena. If anyone did come across something though she figured it would be best if it was the person with the wand.
"I like it," Marik stated first.
"I think it is good. If we have any hiccups though Harry you are in charge of telling us through your legilimency. If you can't use that let's say two red sparks into the air if you are in danger. Harry you do one blue spark if you can't follow through on your part of the plan and Marik you do one green spark if you need help defending the scroll," she added, wanting to make sure they had a backup plan just in case.
"Sounds good. Everyone ready?" Harry asked the two of them, his eyes wandering between thiers'.
"Yeah, I'm ready," she replied confidently.
"Let's do this shit," Marik said with a grin.
"Okay, let's go," Harry said and they all were quickly off.
Marik and Harry ran to the center of their base and deposited their wands. The green aura around their base disappeared as they did. She saw Marik pick up the runes and was already carving into them as Harry shifted into his animagus form and went sprinting off into the dense forest. She took note of the corner of their base and where the two boundary lines met and started off in a straight path away from it and into the forest.
"Muffliato, dillusio," she cast the two spells on herself quickly before she trekked any further forwards. The first spell would keep anyone, or anything, from being able to hear her as she moved. Her second spell was a disillusionment spell that would hopefully keep her unseen as she walked. The spell was a difficult one and, unlike Harry's cloak of invisibility, someone would be able to see her if they looked at her hard enough or long enough. Hopefully, that didn't happen though.
The underbrush of the forest was as thick as the canopy of leaves above her was. With no clear path to walk she was forced to move forward at a slow pace. Before even making it five minutes into her journey she had already had to pull four different briar branches out off of her robes, as well as pull herself out of a deep bog of mud. After using a water repellent charm on her robes and resorting to using a cutting spell on any large branches in her way the journey started to progress a little bit better.
It was hard to keep a clear mind and a focus on her surroundings though as she moved through the forest. Unlike in the summer dueling tournament when you knew exactly where your objective and target were, here you had no clue. It was easy to get frightened by a moving branch, snapping twig, or small animal running past. As she progressed deeper into the forest her mind found itself constantly wondering how Harry, and Marik were doing right now. She was curious to know what runes Marik had decided on carving, and nervous if Harry would meet any opposition on his journey to steal a scroll. She hoped to Merlin he didn't and would get to her soon.
It was difficult, but she tried to clear her mind of all her worries over her friends. She knew they were just as good, if not better, than she was, and that they would be fine. Still, out here alone in the forest it was hard not to worry. She fired off another cutting spell into a thick piece of brush that revealed a small clearing in the forest a good ten feet from where she was. She quickly hid behind a nearby tree trunk, not wanting to be seen. She felt a few butterflies start to flutter in her stomach as she peered out into the clearing.
The small clearing seemed to be, for the most part, empty, only a few scattered large boulders here and there seemed to occupy it. For a second she thought she may have made it to the center of the arena already, but after thinking about the angle of their base's corner and the distance she had traveled already that just didn't add up. Still, a few of the butterflies in her stomach started to relax. Well, they started to, once her eyes found their way to the far side of the clearing, though, the butterflies doubled their pace and grew horns, big fucking ones.
Standing on the far side of the clearing was a massive creature, that had to be at least fifty feet tall. After allowing herself a few moments of panic she attempted to calm herself down and tried to focus on figuring out what the creature was. Even from the distance between them she could tell the large creature was none other than a minotaur.
Fan-fucking-tastic!
Minotaurs were known to be extremely rare and powerful creatures. The might and magical prowess of minotaurs was something that had been recorded and documented since many of the earliest magical civilizations. Some civilisations even called minotaurs gods based off their magical powers and abilities. The fact that one, and a very large one at that, was standing only around thirty feet from her was not a good thing. In fact, it was a very, very bad thing.
The Minotaur's skin was a deep, blood-red color. Its horn, hoofs, and armor were the only things on the massive creature that was not red. The large creature with the head of a ferocious bull and the body of a giant was menacing. Its horns towered at least ten feet above the creature's head and seemed to glow in a bright enchanted white light. The minotaur had black and silver bracers on each arm, and a silver belt around its waist. Each of the creature's arms was probably the size of Hagrid, and had hundreds of veins the size of a person poking out through its skin.
The creature was truly terrifying. Even scarier than the beast itself was the large double-sided axe that the minotaur held in its hands. The large, black axe had to be just as tall as the minotaur was. Its blades reflected a bright light out into the clearing as the small rays of sunlight peaking through the canopy collided with it.
From what she knew about minotaurs they were classified as a level two beast, meaning that they were one of the toughest wild creatures you could come across in the wild, only being outranked by the rarer level one beasts. She also knew that all of the armor and weapons the minotaur wielded were most likely enchanted, though what specific enchantments they had in them were seemingly random.
Minotaurs were close range attacking creatures, who relied on their strength, horns, and weapons to kill their prey. They are extremely agile and fast creatures who get more aggressive the longer they are in a fight. All of this basically told her this was a fight she should avoid.
She withdrew herself from behind the tree trunk she was observing behind and decided that she would attempt to take the long away around the clearing to get to the middle of the arena. Her straight path to the center cut straight through the clearing, so once she made it to the opposite side she would be in the clear, hopefully. All she had to do was just quietly walk around the edge of the clearing, simple enough. Right?
Making it a point to take as much time as she needed to make sure she remained hidden, she slowly walked around the edge of the clearing, her eyes never leaving the minotaur as she crept forward. Her wand was clutched in her right hand, ready to fire off spells at any given moment. The minotaur seemed not to notice her though, and continued to fix its gaze on polishing its axe. Her luck ran out though when she made it about halfway around the clearing. With a terrifying roar the minotaur took its axe into both hands and started charging right at her.
How had it seen her? She immediately started to ask the question to herself, but quickly ended that thought as the minotaur got closer. She needed to do something, and quick.
Fuck, fuck fuck! She internally screamed in a panic.
"Reducto, incarcerous!" She fired off two spells at the charging minotaur.
Her first spell was the powerful blasting spell, which she aimed directly at the minotaurs face. The large beast recoiled, but only slightly, as the spell collided directly on its snout. For the most part, however, the beast remained unfazed and continued on with its charge. With her second spell she summoned a flurry of thick ropes to start wrapping themselves around the legs of the creature. With a quick swing of its mighty axe though the creature sliced through all of her ropes and rendered her rope spell useless.
Fuck. She thought to herself in another fit of panic. The large beast closed the gap between them and raised its axe into the air, ready to swing.
"Aevumcorretro!" She focused as much a she could and cleared her mind as she used her difficult time-based magic spell.
Right as the axe started its downwards path the minotaur, along with its axe, vanished. Seconds later the minotaur appeared in the spot of the clearing where it had been when she had first seen it only minutes earlier. The beast looked confused as its axe collided with nothing but air. This gave her some time and space to work with.
"Geminio, rensa maho!" She quickly, without hesitation, fired off two more spells at the confused minotaur. The first spell was one of her signature spells. All around the clearing she summoned over ten thought projections of herself. She saw the beast stare in even more confusion at the sudden increase in Hermiones around it inside the clearing. Her second spell was the powerful black chain magic spell. From each of the thought projections a large chain emerged and shot towards the minotaur.
The large beast in an instant swung its axe through the air cutting through at least six of the illusion chains. However her real chain found its target. In a flash she wrapped her chain around the large beast's large axe and pulled it from its grasp. Luckily, the beast was caught off guard and she was able to pull the axe away from the minotaur and swing it into the forest, a good fifty feet away from where they were now.
Okay. So now we don't have to worry about the ten story sharp axe, just the huge beast itself. . . With another roar of anger the beast started to charge again. She knew the longer this fight lasted the tougher it would become. She needed to try to end things as quickly as she could. With that in mind, she ordered the thought projection the minotaur had started to charge after, along with rest of her thought projections, to start running around the clearing, hoping to create a little more chaos. Not wanting to blow her cover, she also began running around the clearing, hoping this tactic would confuse the minotaur for awhile.
"Reducto, azuflamen, aeriacta!" As she ran along with her thought projections she sent three more spells towards the large beast. Her real explosion spell collided with the beast's back and she could see a small scratch appear. Her next spell was a strong fire blast spell that collided with the back of the minotaur's legs. Although the beast kept charging at the same pace she could see blisters and burns appearing on the calves of the beast.
At least she was making a small dent. The third spell in her chain was another strong explosion spell, this time an air explosion spell. With a loud pop, the air around the beast exploded and sent the minotaur to its knees.
However, it quickly got back up, this time looking more angry.
Damn. . . So much for plan A.
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