In the midst of a vast and enchanted forest, teeming with all manner of magical creatures, there lay a small clearing. The towering trees cast a dappled shade on the tranquil space, obscuring the sky above and imbuing the air with a cool, damp scent of earth and moss.
Amidst the stillness of the clearing stood a small tent, made of an otherworldly, shimmering material that seemed to blend seamlessly with the surrounding forest. Even the creatures passing through the area either failed to notice it or instinctively avoided the tent.
At first glance, the tent appeared entirely unremarkable from the outside, blending into the natural surroundings with ease. However, once you enter the tent, you are transported into a completely different world of wonder.
As you open the tent flap, you are greeted with an interior that is far more spacious than it appears from the outside. Multiple rooms branch off from the main living area, each adorned with intricate tapestries depicting mythical creatures and plush rugs covering the floor. The centrepiece of the living room is a crackling fire nestled in a stone fireplace.
There were multiple rooms deep inside, but for safety reasons, both occupants were sleeping in the main living area. On the left bunk bed, Sirius Black was snoring peacefully, his face contorted in a perverted grin that suggested he was having a vivid dream. He had not bothered to apply any glamour to his face, revealing his true appearance.
On the right bunk bed, Celine was sleeping fitfully, her face and hands covered in small red welts from mosquito bites. Dark circles under her eyes and twitching movements signaled that she was suffering from sleep deprivation, it seemed as if she was not having a good time in this forest.
The air inside the tent is warm and dry, a stark contrast to the cool and damp forest outside. The scent of pine and woodsmoke fills the air, bringing with it a sense of comfort and security to this magical sanctuary.
Suddenly, a soft whooshing sound echoed through the tent, followed by the appearance of a small white envelope. The envelope hovered in the air momentarily, before making its way towards Celine's bed. The flap on the envelope opened as if taking a deep breath before erupting into a loud screeching noise, startling both Sirius and Celine from their slumber.
"CELINE! BREAKER! HOW DARE YOU SNEAK OUT IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT AGAIN—" The angry voice boomed from the howler.
"Aaaahh—" Celine tried to get up but got tangled in her sheets and fell straight off the bed with a loud thud. Sirius was a bit more dignified as it seems that his body was accustomed to sudden pranks so he was only surprised for a few seconds and slumped back into his bed after seeing no immediate danger, his heart racing from the unexpected intrusion..
Taking his wand from his bedside table, Sirius waved it toward the Howler with a mumbled 'Muffliato' and immediately the loud screeching turned into soft murmurs, only for him though.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Celine growled at the Howler while getting up from the ground but it seemed to be stuck on a loop and didn't seem to have any intention of stopping anytime soon. Finally Fed up with it Celine took her wand and started casting on the Howler indiscriminately.
Silencio!
Incendio!
Bombarda!
Evanesco!
...
Celine tried many spells, from the easiest to some extreme ones that even Sirius had never heard of but it seems as if Beth had charmed the Howler rigorously as nothing seemed to be working. Sirius could have easily included her in his Muffliatio but he didn't want to deprive his tentmate of listening to her Granny's sweet voice so he let her be. He was just thankful that Snivellus's spell seemed to be an exception and worked on the Howler.
Sirius was having too much fun watching his tentmate suffer, but it seemed that her irritation had reached its peak as with a maniac glint in her eyes Celine suddenly started waving her wand exaggeratedly before starting to chant a very familiar spell.
"PESTIS INCEN—"
Thankfully, Sirius acted quickly, his wand flicking toward Celine as he deftly disarmed her. She seemed disoriented and sleep-deprived, barely noticing what had just happened. It wasn't until her spell failed that she looked around and saw Sirius standing there, holding her wand in his hand.
"Why did you take my wand? Give it back and I will burn it to a crisp," Celine gestured toward Sirius with her eyes red like a zombie.
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!" Sirius asked incredulously as the spell he had just stopped her from casting was one of the most dangerous ones in the magical world, it was one of the few spells that could actually destroy a Horcrux. Fiendfyre. "You could have just burnt the whole forest along with both of us,"
"I don't care," She said holding her hands over her ears to help with the noise, "Now give it to me,"
Sirius knew that she was too far along to think rationally so he just waved his wand and included her in the Muffliato field. Almost immediately he could see her face slack in relief as the loud screech of the Howler turned into a soft buzzing sound. She didn't waste a single moment and fell back on her cot with a muffled Thank You, and was out in a matter of seconds.
"ZZZ...ZZ...Z..."
Now, Sirius knew that people can be a bit crazy if their sleep is interrupted but it was the first time he had ever seen someone this determined to go back to sleep. He swore to himself to never interrupt a woman's sleep ever.
For over a week now, Sirius and Celine had been making progress in their journey through the forest, having covered a decent 10 per cent of the area. However, their progress had been far from easy, as the forest constantly presented them with dangerous obstacles.
From camouflaged man-eating plants that spit poison to bees the size of a human fist and a huge three-headed Runespoor, they had faced numerous challenges. Fortunately, both Sirius and Celine were skilled and powerful magic users, enabling them to handle everything the forest threw at them with calmness and skill.
Ironically, it was the tiniest creature that posed the greatest challenge - the magic-eating mosquito. Found throughout the forest, these creatures were fond of sucking blood and magic from people.
They were too numerous and tiny to kill and the only way to protect against them was to cast a very particular repelling charm over their bodies but the thing was that they eat through the magic of the shield very quickly so you have to recast them every few minutes. And considering that it was already a magically intensive task to cast the spells they were using to find the traces of the tomb, you could imagine the strain on them.
But thankfully Sirius found out early in the beginning that the mosquitoes seemed to be afraid of his Beerus form, so he didn't have to do anything, and just his scent seem to keep them away. So the only one who was suffering from constant bites whenever she screwed the charm up was Celine, which explained her sleep deprivation and irritation.
...
At about 10 am in the morning, they packed up their tent and once again started their search for the elusive tomb. But one thing different today was that Celine was in a very good mood and was wearing one of his old T-shirts.
Despite his denial, Celine suspected that Sirius was using a charm to ward off the bloodthirsty mosquitoes, but no matter how much she asked he wasn't able to tell her the magic spell since there was no such thing.
However, she recalled that when she was downwind of Sirius, the mosquitoes bothered her less so she took one of his shirts to try it out, and found that it worked like a charm, leaving her in a jubilant mood as she skipped along the way while casting the sensing charm.
They made good progress by noon and contemplated taking a break when suddenly the trees around them began to thin out, and their path became filled with obsidian rocks. The shiny black rocks varied in size from waist-high to small mountain-like boulders towering over the surrounding trees.
However, Sirius came to an abrupt halt when the trees ended, overcome by an inexplicable feeling that he was entering a forbidden area. An ominous sensation crept over him as he realized that he hadn't heard any birds or animals for quite some time, and even the mosquitoes seemed to have vanished.
Celine didn't notice that Sirius had stopped and was looking at the curious-looking rocks scattered around in a windy spiky pattern. She was just about to touch one when she was suddenly startled by Sirius.
"Stop!" Sirius urgently hissed, his hand outstretched towards Celine as he took a step back. "Don't touch it!"
Celine looked at him, her wand held tightly in her hand, ready to defend herself against any imminent danger. "What's wrong?" she asked quietly, scanning the area around her vigilantly.
"We need to leave the area quickly," Sirius whispered urgently, his eyes fixed on a point beyond Celine. "There's something wrong here."
Celine furrowed her brow, trying to sense any danger with her magic. "Did you catch something in your magic field?" she asked.
"No, it's just a feeling, but..." Sirius trailed off, his gaze still fixed on the point beyond Celine.
"A feeling?" Celine repeated incredulously, her voice rising.
"Shh!" Sirius immediately silenced her, but it was too late. Suddenly, a loud rumbling sound rang through the clearing, and the ground beneath their feet shook violently.
Celine and Sirius stumbled backwards as the rocks around them trembled and shifted, and suddenly the mountain turned in their direction. Both of them looked in horror-filled awe as two huge yellow eyes opened and the enormous black dragon fixated on them with a fiery gaze glared at them before it let out a deafening roar that echoed across the mountain range.
"ROOOAAAAARRRR!"
...
"ROOOAAAAARRRR!"
The whole stadium quivered in excitement and fear as the massive black Hungarian horntail bellowed at the irritating humans sitting in the stands around the ground while fiercely guarding her precious eggs. It was a menacing creature capable of giving people nightmares for years and the only thing stopping her were massive chains; chains that seemed to strain under her immense power, threatening to give way at any moment.
You need to have the will and magical power of the top 1% of the wizarding population to even have the guts to stand in front of this monstrosity without shitting your pants and fainting.
Suddenly, a whistle pierced through the air, signalling the entrance of the fourth champion. The crowd erupted in both cheers and jeers as Harry Potter strode onto the field, his golden and red robes billowing behind him. The booing was predictably from the Slytherins and the applause was mainly from the female audience who had taken a liking to the new Harry Potter with his quidditch-bod and chiselled face without those horrible glasses.
Harry entered the grounds in his gold and red robes, and from afar he looked the very epitome of concentration and confidence. Without hesitation, Harry darted towards a nearby boulder, taking cover from the dragon's sharp gaze. For a moment, he was safe from her wrath, as it was still focusing on the rowdy crowd around her.
"Don't Stop! Potter!" Malfoy shouted from the stands smugly, "Do us all a favour and go straight into the mouth," Crabbe and Goyle snickered at their leader's joke immediately.
"Is that sex advice from your father, Malfoy," shouted Ron, who was seated nearby, eliciting laughter from the nearby Gryffindors. But the person who was sitting right next to him didn't seem to be paying attention to anything around her and was just mumbling prayers "Please Work!*5" to herself while biting her nails crazily.
"Don't worry Hermione. Everything will be alright," Ron soothed his best friend the best way he could; by making a lame joke.
"It probably isn't the biggest reptile Harry's been up against,"
"You can't know that!" Hermione turned to him, her eyes wide in panic, "What if something goes wrong? What if the spell doesn't work? Then I will be the reason he gets hurts! OH! Merlin! My First and only boyfriend will die because of me..."
Ron knew he had to act fast before Hermione spiralled out of control. He tried to distract her, "Look! Harry's doing it—"
"LOOK AT THAT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OUR FOURTH CHAMPION'S FINALLY COME OUT OF HIS HIDING PLACE AND WHAT IS THIS—HE'S TRYING TO CAST SOME KIND OF SPELL BUT WAIT ISN'T HE TOO FAR FOR ANY OFFENSIVE SPELLS—" he turned toward the judges for the answers when he saw Potter chanting a lengthy spell, "CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT KING OF SPELL OUR CHAMPION IS CASTING HERE?"
Crouch and Maxime shook their heads as they had no idea about the spell while Karkaroff just ignored him but everyone knew that "If the magic is not dark, Then don't expect him to bark," so Bagman turned to the one man he was sure would know the answer.
He forwarded his Mike/Wand in front of him and sure enough, Dumbledore answered after pondering for a few seconds, "If I am not wrong then—that is the earliest version of the Bubble-Head Charm when it was still crude and lengthy but it seemed to be modif—Oh!" Dumbledore exclaimed softly in surprise as his eyes widened a bit when he finally deciphered the purpose of the spell.
"WHAT? WHAT IS IT? IS THAT REALLY JUST A— OH WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! IT REALLY IS THE FAMILIAR BLUE FILM OF THE BUBBLE HEAD CHARM THAT POTTER PUT ON THE DRAGON? WHAT IS HIS GOAL HERE? IS HE GOING TO TAKE THE DRAGON OUT FOR A SWIM OR SOMETHING—"
Down below the Horntail was confused and getting angrier by the minute because of the transparent blue film around its head. She was shaking her head vigorously but it seemed to be stuck to her and shaking didn't seem to be helping at all.
Just below the judges' seats, the Hogwarts teachers were engrossed in a heated discussion about the strange spell used by the Gryffindor golden boy.
"Brilliant! Brilliant I Say!" Fillius exclaimed as he suddenly started jumping in his seat and clapping excitedly.
"What is it, Filliuis?" Mcgonogal asked her colleague anxiously, "What did you find out?"
"Potter's spell is pure genius," Flitwick explained in his characteristic squeaky voice excitedly, "The spell Potter just cast is doing the exact opposite of what the normal Bubbe-Head is supposed to do meaning it is taking the oxygen out instead of filling it in— He's basically suffocating the Dragon!"
"Really!" Mcgonogall said taken aback, but she was surprised and excited all the same, "I never knew Potter had it in him,"
"Don't make me laugh," Snape interjected with a scathing remark from beside them, "Potter lacks the necessary intelligence to create such a spell, he must have cheated and paid someone to do this or copied it from somewhere. Just like his father..."
"Severus! How dare you accuse him—"
"He is right, you know," A soft voice interrupted Mcgonogall, and all three Heads of Houses turned to Professor Vector, sitting below them, "It was not Potter who created this spell but someone else," she said, pride evident in her voice, but she wasn't looking down at the champion struggling against the dragon but instead looking in the stands nearby, they quickly followed her line of sight and immediately understood her meaning.
"Tsk..." Severus's eye twitched as he saw Mcgonogall smirking from beside him but he couldn't deny that the 'Know-It-All' knew enough to do something like this.
"Oh! That makes more sense," Filius nodded with bright eyes, "Always thought she belonged in Ravenclaw,"
As the teachers excitedly discussed the spell, the dragon below began to falter. It was starting to get dizzy now due to lack of oxygen but it seemed that it finally pinpointed the cause of its condition as the human who was hiding behind the rock and was sticking his head and wand out and was constantly supplying the magic to keep the massive charm operating which would be a strain on anyone but the most powerful of wizards.
The dragon bellowed deafeningly at the tiny two-legged in front of him and the whole stadium gasped collectively as the horntail opened its jaws to their limit, ready to burn the Boy-Who-Lived to a crisp.
Harry's eyes widened in panic and his breath caught in his throat as he saw the red light filling the dragon's gaping maw. However, he quickly composed himself and stood his ground, not lowering his wand or running away.
Almost half the stadium looked away and screamed as the dragon breathed fire at the champion but the ones who kept their eyes wide could clearly see the flames didn't travel far and died down before even reaching the blue film around her head.
"What!"
"Why didn't it work!"
"How did he do it!"
...
A huge commotion filled the stands as the spectators excitedly asked their friends for explanations and it wasn't long before the muggle-borns started to explain the need for oxygen for the fire to burn.
The dragon tried again and again but for some reason, the fire that had never failed her before seemed to not be working today. She struggled against the chains fiercely but by this time she had been weakened enough that it was fruitless and after a few more seconds of resistance the massive creature fell on the ground from Oxygen Deprivation.
*Thump*
Harry kept the spell going for a few more minutes to ensure that the dragon was down before he finally let it go. Without wasting a single moment, he ran around the dragon and quickly retrieved the golden egg before running back to the finish line. The stadium shook with massive cheers from the spectators, who were thrilled to witness a feat worthy of a legend.
"AND THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS! THE YOUNGEST CHAMPION CLEARED THE TASK IN THE SHORTEST TIME AND HE DID IT BY SUBDUING THE DRAGON COMPLETELY! HE IS GOT TO BE THE YOUNGEST EVER TO SUBDUE A DRAGON ON HIS OWN! THIS IS GOING TO GO DOWN IN THE HISTORY FOR SURE! EXACTLY THE THING YOU WOULD EXPECT FROM OUR VERY OWN BOY-WHO-LIVED! NOW FOR THE SCORES FROM THE JUDGES—"
...
/
To read ahead go to: pat*eon.c*m/lazywizard
