"Harry's turn." Skylar said and Hermione nodded, she seemed to be holding her breath in anticipation, her hands up against her face as she dug her nails into the skin in her worry. The Horntail was led into the enclosure and she crouched low over her eggs at the opposite end to which Harry was to enter through.
A whistle blew and signalled for Harry to enter the enclosure.
He looked up at everyone as they watched him, waiting, cheering, before he set eyes on the black reptile. Her wings were half-furled, her evil, yellow eyes upon him, a monstrous, scaly, black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, leaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground.
He raised his wand.
"Accio Firebolt!" He shouted.
Everyone waited, and a few people looked confused as to such a plan. Hermione and Skylar stood hand in hand and waited on baited breaths, hoping the spell would work.
And then Harry's Firebolt hurtled toward him around the edge of the woods, soaring into the enclosure, and stopping dead in midair beside him, waiting for him to mount. The crowd was absolutely ecstatic and even Bagman was shouting. Skylar and Hermione didn't hear it however, they were screaming in triumph at the spell having worked.
Harry swung his leg over the broom and kicked off from the ground. He soared upwards, high above the enclosure, everyone cheering as he looked down at them all.
And then Harry dove. The Horntail's head followed him and Harry pulled out of the dive just in time to miss a jet of fire. He swerved away as if it was nothing, to Harry, this was just another Quidditch game, the Horntail was his opponent, and the fire was no different to a bludger.
"Great Scott, he can fly!" yelled Bagman as the crowd shrieked and gasped. "Are you watching this, Mr. Krum?"
Harry soared higher in a circle; the Horntail was still following his progress; its head revolving on its long neck — if he kept this up, it would be nicely dizzy — but better not push it too long, or it would be breathing fire again —
Harry plummeted just as the Horntail opened its mouth, but this time he was less lucky — he missed the flames, but the tail came whipping up to meet him instead, and as he swerved to the left, one of the long spikes grazed his shoulder, ripping his robes —
The crowd screamed and groaned as Harry ignored his wound and zoomed around the back of the Horntail.
And then Harry became more strategic, as the horntail was so protective of her eggs, she refused to leave them. If Harry was to get to the golden one, he'd have to make her move.
He began to fly, first this way, then the other, not near enough to make her breathe fire to stave him off, but still posing a sufficient threat to ensure she kept her eyes on him. Her head swayed this way and that, watching him out of those vertical pupils, her fangs bared…
He flew higher. The Horntail's head rose with him, her neck now stretched to its fullest extent, still swaying, like a snake before its charmer…
Harry rose a few more feet, and she let out a roar of exasperation. He was like a fly to her, a fly she was longing to swat; her tail thrashed again, but he was too high to reach now… She shot fire into the air, which he dodged… Her jaws opened wide…
"Come on," Harry hissed, swerving tantalisingly above her, "come on, come and get me… up you get now…"
And then she reared, spreading her great, black, leathery wings at last, as wide as those of a small airplane — and Harry dived. Before the dragon knew what he had done, or where he had disappeared to, he was speeding toward the ground as fast as he could go, toward the eggs now unprotected by her clawed front legs — he had taken his hands off his Firebolt — he had seized the golden egg —
And with a huge spurt of speed, he was off, he was soaring out over the stands, the heavy egg safely under his uninjured arm. The crowd was screaming and applauding as loudly as the Irish supporters at the World Cup — Hermione and Skylar were screaming and jumping up and down, their throats sore.
"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling. "Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mr. Potter!"
The dragon keepers rushed forward to subdue the Horntail, and, over at the entrance to the enclosure, Professor McGonagall, Professor Moody, and Hagrid hurried to meet Harry, all of them waving him toward them, their smiles evident. He flew back over the stands, the noise of the crowd raising even still if possible, and came in smoothly to land.
"He did it! He did it!" Skylar and Hermione were cheering.
The teachers spoke to Harry before he was led from the enclosure after where Fleur and Cedric had vanished for Madam Pomfrey to patch them up.
"Come on!" Skylar said.
"Are we allowed?" Hermione worried.
"I'll make us allowed." Skylar shrugged, not caring. Hermione it seemed was so full of adrenaline she didn't even pause to scold her.
"Can I come?" The two girls stopped and turned to see Ron. They shared a look and both smiled.
"Of course."
They left the stands in a hurry and went to the medical tent. No one stopped them and Professor McGonagall had already left it seemed.
Harry was leaving the tent when they arrived, standing at its mouth. Skylar flung her arms around him beaming. "That was absolutely, positively fantabulous!" She beamed, jumping up and down.
"Fantabulous?" He asked, chuckling.
"I'm sorry, I'm just excited, oh my god, it was so scary and so thrilling!" She said laughing.
"You look a bit peaky."
"Well you're no better!" She snapped back. "I'm lucky I didn't swallow my leaf! I was terrified for you!" He grinned at her.
"Harry, you were brilliant!" Hermione said squeakily. There were fingernail marks on her face where she had been clutching it in fear. "You were amazing! You really were!"
But Harry had turned his attention away from Hermione and was looking at Ron, who was very white and staring at Harry as though he were a ghost.
"Harry," he said, very seriously, "whoever put your name in that goblet — I — I reckon they're trying to do you in!"
"Caught on, have you?" said Harry coldly. "Took you long enough."
Skylar and Hermione were silent, standing nervously between them, looking from one to the other. Ron opened his mouth uncertainly, wanting to apologise, but Harry cut him off, not needing to hear it.
"It's okay," he said, before Ron could get the words out. "Forget it."
"No," said Ron, "I shouldn't've —"
"Forget it," Harry said.
Ron grinned nervously at him, and Harry grinned back.
Hermione burst into tears, surprising all three of them.
"There's nothing to cry about!" Harry told her, bewildered.
"Calm down Hermione." Skylar said, chuckling awkwardly.
"You two are so stupid!" she shouted, stamping her foot on the ground, tears splashing down her front. Then, before either of them could stop her, she had given both of them a hug and dashed away, now positively howling.
Skylar had her mouth hanging open.
"Barking mad," said Ron, shaking his head.
"Sky, your leaf's gonna fall out." Harry knocked her under the chin. She rolled her eyes.
"Harry, c'mon, they'll be putting up your scores…"
Picking up the golden egg and his Firebolt, Harry went with Ron and Skylar out of the tent as Ron was talking fast, explaining the other champions' methods of getting their eggs.
"You were the best, you know, no competition. Cedric did this weird thing where he Transfigured a rock on the ground… turned it into a dog… he was trying to make the dragon go for the dog instead of him. Well, it was a pretty cool bit of Transfiguration, and it sort of worked, because he did get the egg, but he got burned as well — the dragon changed its mind halfway through and decided it would rather have him than the Labrador; he only just got away. And that Fleur girl tried this sort of charm, I think she was trying to put it into a trance — well, that kind of worked too, it went all sleepy, but then it snored, and this great jet of flame shot out, and her skirt caught fire — she put it out with a bit of water out of her wand. And Krum — you won't believe this, but he didn't even think of flying! He was probably the best after you, though. Hit it with some sort of spell right in the eye. Only thing is, it went trampling around in agony and squashed half the real eggs — they took marks off for that, he wasn't supposed to do any damage to them."
Ron drew breath as the three reached the edge of the enclosure. With the Horntail gone the Judges were the prime focus of the enclosure, all five sitting in raised seats draped in gold.
"It's marked out of ten from each one," Ron said.
Madame Maxime was first to give her score, raising her wand in the air. What looked like a long silver ribbon shot out of it, which twisted itself into a large figure eight.
"Not bad!" said Ron as the crowd applauded. "I suppose she took marks off for your shoulder…"
"They probably all did." Skylar agreed.
Mr. Crouch came next. He shot a number nine into the air.
"Looking good!" Ron yelled, thumping Harry on the back.
Next, Dumbledore. He too put up a nine. The crowd was cheering harder than ever.
Ludo Bagman — ten.
"Ten?" said Harry in disbelief. "But… I got hurt… What's he playing at?"
"Harry, don't complain!" Ron yelled excitedly as Skylar was grinning.
And now Karkaroff raised his wand. He paused for a moment, and then a number shot out of his wand too — four.
"What?" Ron bellowed furiously. "Four? You lousy, biassed scumbag, you gave Krum ten!"
"What do you expect? He's completely biassed." Skylar grumbled.
But Harry didn't care, he wouldn't have cared if Karkaroff had given him zero; Ron's indignation on his behalf was worth about a hundred points to him. He didn't tell Ron this, of course, but his heart felt lighter than air as he turned to leave the enclosure. He glanced at Skylar who was looking mighty giddy, and he knew she knew what he felt. She winked, confirming his thoughts, but didn't say anything.
"You're tied in first place, Harry! You and Krum!" said Charlie Weasley, hurrying to meet them as they set off back toward the school. "Listen, I've got to run, I've got to go and send Mum an owl, I swore I'd tell her what happened — but that was unbelievable! Oh yeah — and they told me to tell you you've got to hang around for a few more minutes… Bagman wants a word, back in the champions' tent."
"That's alright." Skylar said. "We'll wait." She gave Ron a look and he grinned in agreement. They stayed outside as Harry went back in. Skylar placed her finger to her lips and she and Ron crept up the tent and listened silently around the side.
Fleur, Cedric and Krum were all there, and Cedric greeted Harry.
"Good one, Harry."
"And you," said Harry back.
Footsteps sounded and Ron and Skylar peered around the tent to see Ludo Bagman bounding inside.
"Well done, all of you!" He said, he seemed more pleased than anyone.
"What's with him?"
"It seems he's been gambling on the tournament." Skylar said before sighing. "He never learns his lesson does he." She turned to Ron. "He's been betting on Harry, so given how well Harry did, he's excited."
"Bloody hell." Ron muttered.
"Now, just a quick few words." Bagman continued. "You've got a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth — but we're giving you something to think about in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open… see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg — because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"
Harry came back out and the two moved quickly from behind the tent, only Harry caught them.
"What?" Skylar asked innocently.
Harry wanted to know everything about what the other champions had done in more detail and both were happy to fill him in, until they got round the clump of trees and a witch leapt out from behind them.
It was Rita Skeeter. She was wearing acid-green robes; the Quick-Quotes Quill in her hand blended perfectly against them.
"Congratulations, Harry!" she said, beaming at him. "I wonder if you could give me a quick word? How you felt facing that dragon? How you feel now, about the fairness of the scoring?"
"Yeah, you can have a word," said Harry savagely. "Good-bye."
And he set off back to the castle with Ron and Skylar, Skylar giving Rita a wave with a cheerful smile.