Harry

It felt good to be out in the wild again. He had not been able to truly stretch his legs since the summer time, but now he had free range and could let loose as much as he pleased. The muddy ground felt natural beneath his paws, and the chilled air seemed crisper, with a smell of pure-nature to it. This was his environment; this is where he thrived. He couldn't help the snarl of pleasure that came out of his throat as he continued to run, loving every second of it.

Only a few minutes had passed since he had left Hermione and Marik back at their base. Thankfully, his journey so far had been fairly uneventful. In his animagus form he was able to quickly navigate through the jungle of trees and shrubs and make his way along the border of the arena; hopefully towards another team's base. Moving was the easy part, the hard part was taming his animal instincts. A part of him wanted to chase after each rabbit and squirrel he saw along the way, but the other part was able to hold him back.

The forest was thick along the border of the arena. It made him wonder if the forest was this dense closer to the center of the arena as well, and if so, how Hermione was doing dealing with it. The more he thought about how Hermione might be faring the more it made him want to finish his task at hand and run off to her.

After about five more minutes of walking he noted that the trees had begun to thin out a slight bit, and there seemed to be a clearing in the forest a good fifty feet up ahead. Making sure to keep low and remain stealthy he silently crept forward. As he neared the clearing a horrid smell entered his lungs. Unable to see what was giving off this awful smell, he used his heightened sense of smell to try and see if he could tell what was giving off the odor just based off the smell itself. After a few seconds of trying though he gave up. The smell was too terrible to focus on what it could belong to and was making his head hurt. Taking his time to be quiet, he neared the edge of the clearing.

His claws began to poke out instinctively as he discovered the source of the foul odor. Sitting on a large tree trunk, a good thirty feet away from him, was a fully grown mountain troll. It looked to be a lot bigger than the one he had fought against with his friends back in their first year. Unlike the previous troll he had seen, this one was wielding two giant clubs, both of which looked to have protruding spikes emerging from their wood. One hit from those and you were in for some serious trouble, or you were dead.

A mountain troll was a tough creature, level three if he remembered correctly. However, in his animagus form he could easily outrun the beast. There was no need for him to try and take the troll out, the longer he spent here the longer it would take him to get back to Hermione. He was about to start making his way stealthily around the clearing when an idea came to him. Flashing his large teeth in an almost sort-of-smile he slowly walked straight into the clearing.

Trolls are not known to be the smartest of creatures. In fact until the first dissection of a mountain troll's head back in 1745, many wizards believed that trolls may not even have brains. This one seemed to fit that stereotype quite well. Even with him out in the open and fully visible the mountain troll had not realised he was even there yet.

Guess I will have to be a little more obvious to get your attention for this to work. He walked closer to the large troll and when he got within ten feet let out a loud roar at the beast.

After a few seconds the sound seemed to register with the mountain troll and the beast slowly picked up both of its clubs and began searching for the source of the noise. At last the troll's eyes landed on him in his mountain lion form and the beast started to charge at him. With step one of his idea in motion, Harry slowly made his way back towards the original path he was headed. Just as he hoped the mountain troll continued to follow him, not wanting to let a snack pass him by.

If Harry would have ran at full speed there was no way the mountain troll could keep up with him, so unfortunately, he was stuck having to move at a much slower pace as he made his way along the arena's border again. The good news was that the troll was making his path back to their team's base a much easier one. Each time the troll closed in on him it would swing both of its large clubs into the dense forest, clearing a wide enough path for it to run through. Harry would spring a few feet ahead, wait for the troll to catch up, and when it did he would repeat the process. After about eight minutes of this he started to get a little bored, but thankfully, he at last saw his destination.

He arrived into another clearing with a flurry of shattered wood flying through the air behind him. Checking his surroundings he quickly observed the base. He could smell a human's presence somewhere nearby, and sure enough standing near the center altar of the base was Beauxbaton's champion, Oliver Minoit. Oliver had apparently heard the loud commotion the troll had caused and looked ready to duel the champion, Harry assumed he was expecting, who had come to steal their scroll. If he had the time to, Harry would have stopped to smile and laugh when he saw Oliver's expression.

Instead of a champion emerging from behind the trees a fully grown mountain troll came charging in. Seeing that there were no more trees to smash the troll switched its target, now aiming at the nearby pillars of the base and the Beauxbaton's Champion. After a few seconds of being stunned by the troll's appearance, Oliver began to fire off spells wandlessly at the beast. This was Harry's chance.

Charging as fast as he could in his animagus form, Harry sprinted full speed towards the scroll box. Thankfully, with the troll as a distraction he had enough time to approach it, pounce on it, and take the scroll box in between his teeth. Before Oliver could even realise that Harry had been there, taken the box, or that the troll was just a distraction, Harry was already running full speed back the way he came towards their starting base.

Thanks to path the troll had cleared, getting back was already going much quicker than his previous trek had. He was able to stay at top speed the entire way back to the clearing he had first found the troll in. Once there, he slowed down again, not wanting to risk getting caught by another beast or champion. After a few more minutes of the slow pace, he made his way back to their team's base, were thankfully their scroll box still remained untouched. Harry could not smell or see Marik though. In a flash of black magic, causing his hair to stand up, Marik emerged from the shadows next to him.

"Well done Harry," Marik told him, giving him a scratch behind the ear. As good as it felt he snarled at his friend for scaring him before shifting back into his human form.

"You scared the shit out of me," he confessed as he handed his friend the scroll box.

"Well, that was kind of the point. Anything I need to know before you take off?" Marik asked him as he handed him the three runes Harry had come back for.

"Oliver is dealing with a troll I left him at their base at the moment, other than that I didn't see anything or anyone else," Harry said, looking over the runes in his hands.

"You left him a troll? What does that even mean?" Marik said with a curious grin.

"A good story for later. What runes did you carve, I have to go so tell me quick?" he asked Marik, ancy to make his way towards Hermione.

"Right. One is an area power increaser. It will place a large enchanted circle on the ground around wherever you place it. As long as you are inside of the circle your spells will pack a little more punch. The other one is kind of the same thing but just give it to Hermione since she has the wand.

"As long as she has this on her person her magic will drain slower so she can throw out more spells. And the third one is an area shield. It is only a little stronger than your normal shield spell but will last a little longer," Marik answered him. Harry was always impressed by how Marik was able to carve runes so well, and these three were no different. It took skill to carve runes under this type of pressure without screwing up, even Harry, who had never carved a rune before he knew that much.

"Well done Marik. I'm off now, good luck defending the base," Harry told him as he put the runes into his pocket and headed off towards the center of the arena.

"You two just hurry up and finish this thing, I'm getting bored back here," Harry heard Marik joke as Harry pounced through a few trees and began to follow Hermione's scent.

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