THE FIRST TASK
Watch as the Triwizard Tournament takes an unexpected turn.
In the very first task, these wizards are expected to go up against one of the most dangerous predators on earth, with scales that can block any spell from even prodigy level wizards, and fire breath hot enough to melt stone, how will they face up against creatures that take over a dozen full grown wizards to merely incapacitate.
Let us watch and see how they do…
Warning, please don't hate us. Rated M for reasons, you've been warned.
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Harry gulped nervously, his hands slick with sweat as the first champion opened the exit flap of the tent.
Cedric looked back. His eyes met with those of his fellow contestants.
Fleur Delacour's eyes offered pity, but Victor Krum's gaze only showed desire. Desire for victory. For success and glory. Desire for Cedric to fail.
And finally, his gaze met Harry's.
Cedric nodded to the Boy-Who-Lived, who gave one in turn, wishing luck in his coming challenge.
He turned back and entered the stadium to the voice of the announcer.
The roar of the crowd fell upon Cedric like a tidal wave of noise. He squinted in the harsh light of the bright, cloudless day and took into view his challenge.
The dragon was a Swedish-Short Snout.
Its silver-blue scaled hide glittered in the sunlight as the large specimen stretched its twenty-five foot body leisurely across its makeshift nest.
"Alright Cedric," The Hogwarts champion whispered to himself, "You practiced for this. It's worked every time. You cannot fail."
The dragon looked upwards lazily, catching scent of Cedric, and giving him an appraising look.
"You can do this." He squeaked, "You may not have tried it against a dragon yet, but you can cast this spell."
Hiding behind a large rock, he quickly got to work.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the boulder, the dragon was alarmed at the Hufflepuff's rapid disappearance.
Hiding meant violence. Fear. Enemy. Prey.
The Dragon's pupils constricted, focusing on the spot the wizard child vanished.
It crept up towards the boulder, holding it's wings close to its sides by instinct. Holding out its wings was for potential rivals or mates. Prey required stealth.
The crowd grew silent at the dragon's behavior, too scared or too excited to make a sound.
Despite its massive size, it remained nearly silent, holding its tail from scraping on the rocks around it.
Cedric finished his transfigurations, and sent them out.
Four large dogs sprinted out from behind the cover, and Cedric peeked out over the lip of the boulder.
He panicked momentarily at the short distance between himself and the dragon.
It must have been creeping up behind me! He realized, Thank goodness I finished casting in time.
The dragon whipped around as the dogs ran towards her eggs and motherly fury took over.
With a massive roar that blew out more than one bystander's eardrum, it dashed towards the animals. One bite severed a dog in two, and a blast of fire incinerated two of them in less than three seconds to bits of ash.
It stomped towards the final one as it reached the mother's nest.
The dog yipped and prepared to sit down, having completed its task.
The dragon shrieked, a tool it used to stun prey through fear. It worked and the dog froze in complete terror as the dragon fell upon it, ripping it to shreds.
A few people groaned at the brutal display and more than one puked.
The dragon settled back in its nest, having forgotten about the wizard child and its nostrils filled the scent of blood.
Cedric was hiding only fifteen feet away, and the majority of the crowd was cheering at his successful strategy even as he frantically motioned for them to quiet.
Noise would alert the creature that something was up even if it did disguise any sound he made.
He was right.
The dragon was looking around warily. Mostly at the people surrounding it, but also around its environment.
She was certain she had forgotten something.
Cedric pointed his wand at a rock around ten feet away and transfigured it into another golden retriever.
The dog barked upon its summoning and the dragon wasted no time in pouncing upon it.
Cedric took his chance, summoning another dog nearby and running for the egg.
Prey! Enemy! Came the realization. The dragon finally remembered what had been at the corner of her mind.
Intruder!
Her vision went red and she turned much faster than anyone could have expected, letting an enormous gout of flame wash over the wizard.
Cedric screamed as his right side became engulfed in fire.
He was barely grazed, but the attack was still hot enough to instantly light him on fire.
Diving behind another rock, he quickly put himself out, using the minor healing charms he had learned for this exact purpose.
The dragon stomped around, brutally killing and devouring the two living dogs before roaring in frustration.
Cedric panted, and grit his teeth from the pain even as the crowd roared in fear, excitement, eagerness.
He readied himself to move, breathing hard as the crowd started screaming.
A shadow covered him, and he looked up.
Dumbledore looked sadly on as Cedric's scream was cut off and he was messily devoured by the nesting dragon mother.
A few gulps later and all that was left of Cedric Diggory was a splotch of blood on the ground.
Intermixed with the laughter, shouts of triumph and anger was crying. Hogwarts wept at the death of a close friend to many. The wizards who were meant to stop the dragon before such an event happened didn't even have time to raise their wands before it did. It was so unexpected.
"Well," Ludo Bagman announced, "The Hogwarts champion has failed his task! The next champion will be out in ten minutes!"
The announcement was met with anger.
None of the champions within knew what happened, only that Cedric failed the task.
"What do you zink 'appened to 'im?" Fleur asked her fellow champions.
"Probably forced to give up, too much injury or it got destroyed." Krum suggested.
Harry stayed silent, fearful at the unspoken possibility.
Death was always possible even though the organizers did their best to make it safer.
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Minutes later, Fleur received her cue and stepped up to the flap.
She looked back at her fellow champions and Harry saw for the first time since the drawing how scared she was. Her hands were shaking and she gave them an almost pleading look as if they could do anything to help her.
Not finding what she was looking for, the Beauxbaton's Champion turned away and entered the first challenge.
As she looked around the arena to gain a sense of her terrain, Fleur was put off suddenly by the presence of multiple dragon tamers at the edge of the rocky outcroppings, they almost seemed anxious to run into the dragon nest at any moment.
Looking around further, she noticed a cleaning crew on the far side of the area.
Sounds of a dragon roaring could be heard outside, past the stands.
The people watching had mixed emotions. Some appeared relieved for some reason, a few seemed eager and grinned maliciously, and others looked on in abject terror.
Fleur gulped and she prepared her enchantment. All she had to do was make the Common Welsh Green fall asleep. A rather easy task for a dame of Veela blood, such as her.
"Begin," Came the command from the judges.
Tapping into her heritage was simple enough, but exercising it over a dragon of any kind, with all of their natural resistances, was difficult. The Common Welsh Green was her best chance, as it was one of the least resistant breeds.
Fleur watched as the green reptile began to yawn and appeared to grow drowsy.
The crowd stayed utterly silent as they watched, far too afraid to make a sound and risk alerting a dragon for the second time.
Finally, the beast rumbled and laid down its head to sleep.
Her steps were silent but still filled the Delacour with nervousness as she made her way to the nest.
You can do this, She thought with trepidation. The silent fear written across the faces of the crowd and the anxious twitching of nearby dragon tamers were really starting to get to her.
Only twenty feet from the nest, she could note the leaf green hide of the Welsh's back, and as she rounded it, the heavy breathing of the dragon begin to give her confidence in her enchantment.
She gagged when she stepped into a bit of saliva the dragon had let pool out of its mouth.
Some in the crowd gasped in shock as she slipped, disappearing behind the dragon's body, before quickly scrambling back up and shaking herself off.
Fleur Delacour froze and waited to see if she woke up the Common Green.
The crowd held their breath as the dragon's hot exhale warmed the stone beneath its head.
Seeing no change in the dragon's still demeanor, Fleur continued all the way past its eighteen foot long body and reached the nest.
She quickly snatched the golden prize and began to retreat.
As soon as she crept next to its chest, the dragon rumbled in its sleep.
Fleur froze in place as it moved a bit. Stay asleep, stay asleep, stay asleep.
The dragon suddenly rolled over atop of the French girl.
"AAAI-……..
The whole crowd flipped their proverbial lid as the Delacour girl vanished beneath the large beast.
Dumbledore shook his head sadly as dragon tamers moved in to rescue the poor girl, and after forty minutes of trying to move the Welsh Green, it woke up and attacked the nearby dragon tamers. Biting and clawing, the creature rolled from side to side, rubbing the thing beneath it with its shoulder blades and rough scales, malforming the soft, delicate body with its every movement.
The ordeal was quickly over and her heavily flattened corpse was retrieved to be given to her family.
Madam Maxime sobbed at the judge's table, unable to go down to console her students until after the next two champions took their turns.
"NEXT"
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"Vhat do you think is taking so long?" Krum murmured to Harry.
They heard Fleur's cut off scream a very long time ago and nothing but the crowd's roar since.
It was difficult to tell whether the general consensus was positive or negative as it was too loud to determine.
Krum cast a silencing spell on the tent flap and the noise turned to a muffled rumble.
"I don't know." Harry whispered, his voice layered with uncertainty.
Krum looked uncharacteristically nervous. His confident façade had suffered a little crack.
Eventually, the cue came and Victor Krum marched out of the tent.
The Durmstrang Champion entered the arena, head held high.
He eyed the judges, noticing how Karkaroff appeared especially sweaty and nervous as if all of his confidence had leaked out during the first two champion's turns.
He also noticed that his headmaster's hands were clasped together, almost in prayer.
Odd, thought Victor.
He surveyed his looming task.
A mother dragon, twenty-six feet in length, larger than most of its kind, circled her nest, noticing Krum immediately.
He took into view the fifty odd dragon tamers lining the arena, every one with a wand out and pointed at the dragon. Krum felt he should be offended at the extra care they were taking. He scoffed.
His field was a rocky environment, with a sparse amount of trees, that appeared freshly scrubbed. The ground practically sparkled, especially around the edges of the nest.
Sobs began to ring out across the arena as Krum's massive fanbase began to worry.
Determined not to let it get to him, the quidditch star grit his teach and set about his task.
"CONJUNCTIVUS!" He shouted, snapping his wand at the dragon's face.
The Conjunctivitis curse fell a little short, hitting the dragon in her snout.
Snorting angrily, the mother breathed in and exhaled a long mushroom shaped ball of fire.
Krum dodged away, avoiding it entirely and the attack set fire to a medium sized tree behind him.
He cast the spell again, this time hitting it on the frill around its head.
The dragon stubbornly stuck to her nest, refusing to budge as she sent another two fireballs in the Durmstrang champion's direction.
Forced, this time, into a run, Victor spotted a nearby rock that was large enough to cover him and dove behind it.
Fire licked his boots and he pulled his feet into the protection of the boulder.
He stopped for a breath and noticed the ground here was a shade more red than its surroundings.
Filch was very proud of his work, but if they tried to get him to clean up a massive puddle of blood again he was going to have words.
Victor didn't let himself think further on it, he leapt up and away from the hiding spot and shot another curse at his foe.
The dragon, turned towards him, accidentally blocking the spell with a wing, and she roared at him in frustration.
I'm going to have to get closer, Victor thought, then he wondered, did they starve the dragons to make them more vicious?
Again, he refused to think on it and mentally mapped out his next movement.
Shooting a string of curses this time, he made dragon duck its head, giving him a window to move.
Victor sprinted across the distance, hearing shouts of fear from the dragon handlers as they resisted the urge to help him out, and slid behind the dragon, where it could not see him.
The dragon roared and started turning, trying to find Victor.
This close up, Krum took advantage of the situation and shot its eye point blank with the Conjunctivitis curse.
It aimed straight and true, directly at the dragon's eye.
Then it blinked, deflecting the spell with its heavily resistant scale.
Victor panicked and ran underneath it, grabbing the golden egg and running out behind the mother.
Growing furious, the dragon, much faster than before, stood up entirely and started to chase him down.
Victor dodged, putting his incredible reflexes to their limit, as the dragon's massive clawed feet slammed into the ground behind him.
The resulting vibration jolted his rhythm and Victor tripped, his knee locking up.
The dragon continued moving and Victor did not.
The crowd collectively OOHED, at the mess, and Dumbledore shook his head sadly.
Karkaroff screamed incoherently at Ludo Bagman who cowered in his seat.
"'e was so close too." Madame Maxine said softly, her eyes red from crying.
"Well then," Dumbledore said, his eyes hard, "As Harry is the last champion, would it not make sense that he be proclaimed the winner?"
Karkaroff turned on the Hogwarts headmaster, snarling, "Of course not! You know the rules as well as I! He must succeed the first task or he cannot claim victory!"
Dumbledore fell silent and once again shook his head sadly.
In the stands, Ron looked on, completely stunned, his Victor Krum quidditch merchandise falling onto the floor from his limp fingers. He then turned to Neville.
"I'll trade this Krum quidditch card for your Gwenog Jones one."
"Gladly." Neville said, making the trade, "After his death, his cards will stop circulating and make the ones that exist all the more rare."
Ron shouted in anger.
To his right, Hermione cried with Cho Chang over Cedric's unfortunate end and Harry's very probable death.
"Don't bother with the cleanup this time!" The Durmstrang headmaster called, "Let us have the final champion!"
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Harry stepped into the arena, watching an unconscious Chinese fireball being lifted out on a floating platform and a much larger, much more vicious Hungarian Horntail moved into the arena, eggs having already been replaced.
He gasped in shock and fear at the sight of Victor Krum's corpse.
Or, what remained of it.
The dragon apparently thought to have a snack before it was incapacitated.
He vomited off to the side, being alone as the people in the stands had already run out of bile.
"Am I really supposed to do this?" He asked quietly.
"Begin," Came the announcer's voice, albeit nervously.
"How?" Whispered the second Hogwarts Champion.
Hermione whimpered as she saw the Hungarian Horntail enter the stadium and crouch protectively over her eggs. It was easily twice as large as the other dragons. She brought a book up to her face to hide it from sight, and to read what she could about the monstrous creature.
Ron overheard her reading aloud next to him.
"Flight speeds going up to 150 miles an hour, and fire reaching 50 feet in length at its peak, the Hungarian Horntail is considered one of the, if not the most, dangerous and vicious dragon breed alive."
She whimpered some more, calculating Harry's flying speed and the wind current. She determined that the fire breath shouldn't be able to reach him in flight. She sighed in relief at that thought and shouted encouragement to him. Ron and the other Weasleys shouted along with her.
Charlie did not. He shook his head sadly. He knew from first hand experience how dangerous a Hungarian Horntail was. He lost many friends and colleagues to a stray, or nesting Horntail. If he was lucky, he could get a good price on a small coffin for the pieces that remained, if there were any.
Harry gulped audibly and held out his wand.
"ACCIO FIREBOLT!"
Nothing happened, at first, except that the dragon raised her spiked tail and whipped it in the air threateningly.
A whistling sound thrummed through the air as Harry's favored firebolt flew forward to him.
He caught it in the air facing away from the dragon.
Ron and Hermione screamed at him to launch, as the Hungarian Horntail reared back her head.
Dumbledore gripped his wand tightly and closed his eyes. He couldn't watch what would happen next.
Harry turned about, bringing his hand up and flashing a thumbs up to his best and only friends.
He was than engulfed in a gout of red hot flames.
The screams Hermione heard would haunt her for the rest of her days. Ron fainted dead away as the entire crowd stared in abject horror, and the 120 odd Dragon Handlers attacked, attempting to save Harry's life.
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Harry looked around. He didn't know where he was, but it looked like Kings Cross Station to him. Everything was, however, white as snow. He heard a whimper, and looked around, only to find a naked, anorexic, malformed, wrinkled, disgusting, vile, oddly bloody, small, and raw abomination. It was curled up in the fetal position under a bench, probably where it belonged. Harry jumped back and yelped in disgust and pity.
"What is that disgusting, naked, anorexic, malformed, wrinkled, disgusting, vile, oddly bloody, small, disgusting, and raw abomination?" He shouted.
A strong male voice rang out from behind him.
"Don't forget awful and wretched."
Harry turned and saw himself, and yet not himself.
James Potter spoke up once again, "While it is good to see you Harry…"
"You should not have come here so soon," a soft female voice finished for him.
Lily Potter stepped into view and put her arms out.
Harry eagerly ran up and embraced his parents.
"What happened?" Harry asked.
"Well you died," his father answered, "and in a very unpleasant way at that."
Lily smacked him upside the head, and hugged Harry warmly, "Our time came long ago, but your time is waiting for you back out there."
They looked to each other and back at Harry.
"I think we can stretch that protection I gave you so long ago a little bit more if you are willing." She said grinning broadly.
"But you're both here." Harry said, tears springing from the corners of his eyes, "You don't know how long I waited to see you!"
Lily pulled him tighter into the hug.
"It's okay champ," James said jokingly, "we will be waiting. It isn't like we're going anywhere." He knelt down and placed his hands to either side of Harry's face. "Now you go out there and show them what a Potter's made of!"
They embraced one final time and backed away.
"Go on Harry!" Lily cried, unable to hold her tears back any longer, "And do not come back until you're good and ready!"
James held up his fist and the two faded away.
Harry stifled his tears, nodding to himself.
"Yes mum, I'll make you both proud!"
He steeled himself and made his choice.
He would reenter the world of the living.
His eyes opened.
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"Yeah he's, like, dead dead." The medi-witch said.
"Dead…Dead?" Hermione asked.
She looked down on the blackened thing that remained of her first and best friend and broke down once again.
The medi-witch frowned.
"Look miss, I know this was your friend or whatever, but please stop being so loud and," The medi-witch flicked off some of Hermione's tears that fell on her hands during her work, "Messy."
"Please j-just check ag-g-ggaiiiiin!" She cried.
The medi-witch rolled her eyes and went back over procedure.
Hermione cried harder, and Ron shakily patted her back.
She buried herself in his narrow chest as Ron barely held back tears of his own.
Dumbledore calmly stood with the other judges, discussing what Ludo Bagman's punishment was going to be.
"I lost my brightest student!" Karkaroff shouted, "DEATH! And that's too good for him!"
Ludo Bagman was struggling against the bonds that the other judges had put him in.
"Honestly!" He continued, "Who in their RIGHT MINDS would bring three medium-sized dragons and then ONE ENORMOUS DRAGON! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR BLOODY MIND!?"
"Mister Bagman deserves some famous French 'ospitality." Madame Maxine said with a dangerous gleam in her eyes.
Back down by the base of the arena, seven wizards were physically holding Rubeus Hagrid back as their magic couldn't stop him.
"LEMME IN THERE!" He demanded red in the face as he shoved another man's head into the ground, "LEMME SEE 'ARRY!"
Charlie Weasley was in the middle of an argument with another wizard.
"Look Charles," the other wizard was saying, "You told me to get here fast and I got here fast, but that there body is much larger than the measurements you gave me."
"I was guessing at first," Charlie admitted, "But I need another coffin, the one I ordered is much too small."
"That isn't my problem, old buddy," the coffin merchant said, "I have to use this coffin for something, otherwise I just wasted a fortune on a gold-plated, child's sized coffin for the boy-who-lived."
"THE BOY-WHO-WHAT!?" Came a scream from across the stadium.
"Eh, what was that?" The wizard asked Charlie.
"It sounds like someone finally told the medi-witch the name of the body she's so carelessly checking." Charlie replied.
Hermione helped the medi-witch shakily get to her feet.
"That was a lot of puke." Ron said.
"Very astute observation." Hermione snapped, cheeks still streaked with her tears.
"Sorry." He murmured.
He looked down at his best friend ever. So much black. The smell was horrendous but nobody, not even Ron Weasley, was tactless enough to mention it.
"This is THE Harry Potter?" The medi-witch sobbed.
"Yes, he was my best mate." Ron told her.
"Then who is that?" She wailed, pointing at the corpse of Victor Krum, "Victor Krum?"
"Actually, yes." He confirmed.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She screamed, clutching Ron's shirt desperately sobbing and wishing that the quidditch star hadn't met such an ignominious fate.
Okay, that's enough of that, Ron thought extricating the clearly distraught witch from his favorite shirt.
Hermione clutched his shoulders, looking like she was going to heave again.
"HIS EYES!" Hermione shouted, "THEY MOVED!"
The medi-witch scrambled to Harry's side as the eyes of every person in the entire stadium laser focused onto the body of the boy-who-lived.
Hagrid BURST into the stadium, sprinting to Harry in a matter of seconds.
"IS 'E ALIVE?" Hagrid asked loudly.
"Let me see." The now calm and collected medi-witch ordered, gently pushing Hagrid away.
Harry's eyes opened, a vibrant green against the black of his skin. His previously closed mouth opened, just a sliver, cracking the hardened skin stuff that remained of his cheeks.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA IT HURTS SO F*ING MUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH!" Harry screamed, his upper body shot upwards, then broke and his two halves fell to the ground.
Then, he was still, the life leaving his eyes twice and forever.
The boy-who-lived, didn't.
"I don't know what just happened, but nobody can survive longer than a few seconds with sixth degree burns like this." The medi-witch explained, "Burns like that extend throughout the entire body, completely charring the muscles, bones, everything."
Hermione burst into tears once more and Ron's façade shattered, letting a tidal wave of emotion loose.
Hagrid wailed as he knelt beside Harry's body, just wishing that something could have stopped this.
All eyes turned to Ludo Bagman. The one who planned the entire event in the first place.
No one noticed Mad-Eye Moody sneaking away.
"You know," Charlie said, "I think that coffin might actually work now."
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"Well that wasn't worth the read at all."
"Whatchu talkin' about? That was fantastic"
"Of course you think so, you co-wrote it! Why did we create this horrid thing?"
I co-wrote the best part, you mean. We created it because we thought it would be the best one shot to start with. They knew what they were getting into, besides, everything was up to OSHA standards.
"Nah dip, of course it was the best one to start with. It's short, and it gives me good practice for regular weighting. This is just so cursed."
You accidentally wrote weighting there buddy.
"Oh shut up Nathaniel"