Chapter Twenty Three
Harry walked with his friends down to where a large arena had been set up for the challenge. People around him kept stepping forwards, either to say 'good luck' or hiss 'we'll have a box of tissues waiting for you' but Harry couldn't hear them, not really.
They walked towards the forest and stopped at the entrance to a large tent.
"You need to go in there." Professor Snape said, he was shaking ever so slightly as he touched Harry's shoulder.
Harry nodded and watched his father walk away, making sure he could get a word in with Charlie.
"You OK?" Daphne asked.
Harry nodded, "Yeah, I mean… yeah." he didn't know what to say.
"We'll see you afterwards." Draco said. He was so pale he was almost white.
Pansy, Daphne, Hermione, Neville and Draco watched as Harry turned and walked slowly into the tent before moving to take their seats.
Inside the tent it was surprisingly bright, several orbs hung from the celling. Harry was pleased to see he was not the only champion who was looking rather nervous. Fleur was looking less than composed, her skin pale and clammy. She kept playing with her hands and looking around with large, dark blue eyes.
Cedric was pacing up and down the rich carpet that had been put on the ground. Krum was sitting in the corner glaring at everyone who so much as breathed to loudly.
Ludo Bagman however was bouncing with happiness. He was wearing his Wasp robes again, stretched over his stomach and came bounding over to Harry.
"Harry you're here! Good-oh!" he said, taking Harry's arm and pulling him forward, "Time to fill you all in." Bagman said brightly, gesturing for the others to come over.
"Right, now when the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you something out of this bag," Bagman held up a purple silk bag, "You need to pick a...er… item from the bag as there are different varieties. And one last thing I have to tell you, your task is to collect the Golden Egg."
Harry looked around, the others nodded to show they understood Ludo Bagman's words and moved back to their old seats.
They all looked as worried as Harry felt. They at least had volunteered to face a huge dragon; Harry hadn't, he'd never wanted this. He had been looking forward to sitting in the stands and watching them nearly get roasted, being excited and cheering Cedric on.
It wasn't long before Harry heard the hundreds of feet going past the outside of the tent calmed down and Ludo stepped forward again with the bag.
"Right, let's see..." he looked around the anxious faces, "Ladies first I think."
Fleur put her shaking hand into the bag and pulled out a tiny model of the Welsh Green. It moved around her hand slowly, it was a perfect replica of the big one with a tiny number 2 around it's neck.
Harry knew from Fleur's unsurprised face that he was right, Madam Maxime had definitely told her what was coming.
Krum also knew, he took a deep breath when offered the bag and pulled out the Chinese Fireball with a number 3 around it's neck.
Cedric went next, Harry wasn't sure if he was hoping that Cedric would get the Horntail or not. It seemed cruel to wish such a vicious dragon on someone but at the same time Harry didn't want it.
It wasn't the Horntail, Cedric pulled his hand out of the silk bag holding the Swedish Short-Snout in the palm of his hand, a small 1 sign hanging from it's neck.
Harry's stomach cramped painfully at the thought of putting his hand in the bag. He reached forward and felt around the fabric until he gripped the last miniature dragon. It snapped at him as Ludo Bagman gasped excitedly.
"The Hungarian Horntail!" Ludo exclaimed, "Oh wow!"
Harry shifted awkwardly, unsure what he was meant to say to that.
"Right, now." Ludo said, "Well there you are! You'll go out in the order that the dragons are labelled so Mr Diggory you will go first. Now, I'm going to have to leave you, I'm commentating you see. Harry can I have a quick word?"
Harry nodded and followed Bagman over to a quiet corner.
"You got the nasty one there," Bagman looked around them to make sure that they weren't being over heard, "I could give you a few pointers."
Harry looked at him a frowned, "I think that's against the rules."
Bagman smiled, "Look, no one would need to know, and you're already at a disadvantage."
Harry shook his head, "I'm OK, thanks. I have a plan."
"Sure?" Bagman asked.
Harry nodded, "Fine, thanks."
Bagman nodded and left the tent. Harry watched him go ad waited. He wasn't sure he could manage waiting for very long, not really. Cedric had just left the tent when Harry heard a cries and cheers from the crowd meaning that he had entered the arena.
Waiting in the quiet was bad enough but waiting while listening to the sounds coming from the crowd was even worse. Every cheer or groan had Harry jumping as Cedric fought the dragon.
Krum was staring at the floor, looking as green as Harry felt while Fleur had taken over pacing around the tent, tracing Cedric's steps.
It was only fifteen minutes, according to the cloak anyway, it felt a lot longer to Harry, before there was a huge cheer that could only mean one thing; Cedric had gotten his egg from the dragon.
"Very good indeed!" Bagman shouted, "And now the marks from the judges!"
He didn't shout them out though so they had no idea how well Cedric had done.
Fleur stood, Harry could see her hand shaking slightly as she moved to the entrance of the tent and tried to take some deep breaths. The whistle blew and she disappeared out of the tent. Harry stood up and moved to another chair, he didn't know what else to do.
It was the same thing again, Bagman announcements; making everything that much worse, while the crowd reacted to Fleur's attempts to fight the dragon.
It only took her ten minutes before another cheer told Harry he was one person closer to fighting his own dragon. Krum's face was fixed with determination as he moved into position.
"Good luck Harry." Krum said, "I hope you do very vell."
Harry smiled, "Yeah. You too." and with that Harry was left alone. Harry wanted to run away, except there was nowhere to run. His second thought was to throw up but he didn't think that would actually help much either.
Harry didn't watch the clock as the time ticked on before Krum's cheer meant that he too had gotten through the challenge.
Harry felt like he was made of lead as he dragged himself through to the entrance of the tent. He could hear his heart hammering in his ears and sweat dripping down his neck. The whistle blew and he walked out the tent, passed the trees and into the arena.
Hundreds of stadium like seats had been magicked into place around a large cage. He could see the Horntail, curled like a snake around it's eggs at the other end of the arena, watching him with it's big yellow eyes.
Harry focused on blocking out the sound around him. He couldn't see anyone's faces in the crowd; the light was too bright and he was too far away but in many ways that was a good thing. He knew that somewhere up there, Severus, Draco, Daphne, Hermione, Pansy and Neville sat worrying about him.
And at home, he could picture Lily sitting on the sofa in the living room worrying and picking at her nails. Sirius and Nikka would be there was well, worrying with her, waiting for news from Severus. Would they have told Danica what was going on? She was so young still, he couldn't imagine Lily trying to explain to her how much danger he was in.
Suddenly rage flared inside him, burning away all of his fear for a moment. In that second he hated whoever had put his name into the Goblet of Fire, hated them for everything they were putting his family through.
"And now time for Harry Potter, of Hogwarts school!" Bagman shouted, "He is by far the youngest of champions and will be facing the Hungarian Horntail. So Harry! The clock starts now!"
He raised his wand into the air and took a deep breath, "Accio Nimbus 2000!"
He waited, they'd calculated it would take at least half a minute for his broom to reach them; assuming it worked.
He felt a breath of relief as he heard the broom flying through the air towards him. He caught it in one hand and mounted it quickly before kicking off.
The dragon still hadn't moved, or taken her eyes off him.
Harry flew a bit closer, it wasn't going to be possible to get to the egg until she moved, at least a little; preferably a lot.
Harry flew closer, darting around her head and swooping down low. The dragon reared her head and snapped at him a couple of times.
He could hear Bagman commenting on how well he was flying and allowed himself a small smile before focusing back on the task. The dragon still seemed mostly uninterested in Harry, he was no more than a fly buzzing around annoying her.
Harry knew he was going to have to get closer to the dragon. A deep breath later Harry dived down towards the nest, aiming for the eggs and pulled away just as a large amount of fire whistled passed his side.
It worked though, and the dragon stirred from her resting place and moved a couple of steps away from the nest. Harry flew close again and again slowly drawing the dragon out.
She was getting more and more frustrated with him, snapping her mouth and sticking out her fork like tongue while throwing as much fire at him as she could manage.
Harry twisted and darted out the way each time, missing the flames and sharp teeth.
'This is it' Harry thought to himself. He brought himself round and faced the nest, the golden egg was sitting there, pride of place, in amongst the pile of stone coloured dragon eggs.
Harry was sure he could grab it and then fly out, it was bigger than a snitch and wasn't moving. How hard could it be?
He leaned forward with all the force he could to muster to zoom towards the egg. He was going to make it! He heard the crowd roar and the dragon roaring louder. He was nearly there, his fingers where just inches from the egg.
That's when he felt the heat, his broom wasn't responding. He felt himself crash into the hard branches and dirt that made up the nest as the air was pushed from his lungs and he rolled down the mound.
He could feel the earth move as the dragon moved quickly towards him. The eggs, he had to get to the eggs. Harry forced himself onto all fours and scrambled up the earth mound and lay down amongst the eggs.
He knew she wouldn't hurt them and most dragon's eggs couldn't take direct blasts of fire. He could see the Horntail glaring over him, bearing her teeth and trying to work out what to do.
Harry was trying to think about that as well. What was he going to do? He took several deep breaths to slow his heart rate a little and tried to think clearly.
There was too much noise, the crowd was screaming and shouting, the dragon was hissing and spitting at him, Bagman was prattling on and there was something else. Noise from the forest maybe? It was like a strange hiss with the odd word thrown in.
Harry shuffled closer to a large pile of eggs as the dragon grew more and more impatient at the threat being so near her precious eggs.
Harry froze. The noise was coming from within the eggs! He was sure of it. He pressed his ear to the egg.
"Sssss….Mama…..ssss…..ssss….warmth…."
Harry didn't understand, there was no dragon that could speak human from birth, let alone English. It was broken English for sure, and Harry could only make out every other word. Parseltongue, it wasn't the dragon who was speaking English, it was Harry picking out the snake words in the dragon's language.
It made sense, to Harry at least, sort of. The Horntail was very snake like in looks anyway and their young even more so. Harry took several deep breaths, this was crazy but he had no other choice. His broom was now nothing but ash and sticks that had smashed against the cage wall and he didn't know any spells that would have an affect on a dragon.
He stood up, "STOP!" he shouted, in Parseltongue, as loudly as he could.
The dragon which had been about to send him up in flames stopped, confused.
"Not egg!" Harry said.
The dragon threw her head back and roared loudly, "Thief….ssss… my babies!"
"No!" Harry wasn't sure this was going to work, "Not egg….look...smell!"
The dragon looked at him, clearly trying to make up her mind about what was going on. She flicked out her long, forked tongue at the golden egg and then at her own. She reared up and gave an ear splitting roar of anger.
"Trick... Ssss...ssss…ss…trick!" she hissed, "Who?!"
Harry wasn't sure what to do; he knew who had slipped her the egg, of course he did, he also knew he had to get out of there and if he didn't tell her he had no doubt that she would cook both him and the egg without a second thought.
But he also knew what his mother would say if she found out he'd turned a dragon on someone. He didn't have a choice, Charlie Weasley said that they would be on stand by; Harry just wished they were on stand by for the judges table as well.
"Judges." Harry said, but the dragon clearly didn't understand.
"Of all the words not to get." Harry muttered to himself.
The dragon was getting impatient.
"Point taker… umm people watching… in charge!"
She understood that one and turned quickly to aim her fire at the judges. Harry took the chance and grabbed the egg, running for the exit. He had just gotten out when he felt the flames behind him and heard the dragon crash to the ground.
Severus was on him in a second, smothering him in a hug. Harry could see an owl already flying to Lily and the rest of his family that he was OK.
"You did so well Harry, the fastest time of any of the champions." Severus said, he was beaming and couldn't stop smiling, "You need to go and see Madam Pomfrey before you get your scores. She's already having to patch up Diggory."
He walked with Harry over to where Madam Pomfrey was in a tent, patching up some burns on Cedric. He didn't look too badly injured, at least he was sitting up.
"Dragons! Whatever next? What was the headmaster thinking?" She muttered to herself.
"You OK?" Harry asked Cedric as he hopped up onto one of the beds.
Cedric shrugged, as much as he could, "I'll live. You seem OK though. Well done, I could hear the commentary." he smiled.
Harry grinned, "Thanks. Yeah just a few scrapes for me I think. Got pretty close though."
Cedric flinched as Madam Pomfrey finished putting a bandage over a nasty looking burn covered in orange slime.
"Come back tomorrow Mr Diggory for me to check they're healing all right."
Cedric nodded and stood up from the bed, waving goodbye to Harry. Harry let Madam Pomfrey push him down onto the bed and look over his left leg, it was only now he realised it was badly grazed it was. As soon as he'd seen it the adrenaline subsided and the pain kicked in. He'd forgotten how much a graze could hurt and had a new sympathy for Danica who seemed to have a new one every other day.
Severus stayed with him while Madam Pomfrey expertly fixed him up until the only signs he had of his brush with the dragon was his torn and battered clothing.
Daphne, Draco, Neville, Hermione and Pansy were all waiting for him just outside the tent, it was clear they had all been very worried. Hermione had nail marks in the side of her face from where she'd been digging in her nails.
"You were brilliant!" Draco beamed, going over to him and giving him a big hug.
"Thanks." Harry smiled, "Glad you all had a good show." he smirked.
"Oh, Harry we were worried sick!" Hermione said, coming over and hugging him as well.
"I'm fine." Harry tried to reassure them all, "So what did everyone else do?"
"Cedric managed to Transfigure a stone into a dog and then the dragon chased that." Neville said.
"Well it started to chase it, then wasn't as stupid as Cedric had hoped and burnt him." Pansy snorted, "He seemed OK though."
"Yeah I saw him in the tent." Harry said, "I'd never have been able to Transfigure something that well." Harry felt a knot form in his stomach, he was worried that the judges would think he had taken the easy way out, he'd only used his wand for one, simple, spell.
"Fleur did fairly well." Draco said, "You could really tell she's part Veela. She used a spell to put the dragon into a sort of trance, made it go to sleep. Unfortunately it let out a jet of fire and caught her skirt, she put it out OK though and managed to run and get the egg."
"Krum didn't do so well." Hermione sighed, "He jumped in there and shot the dragon with a conjunctivitis curse but it went a bit mad and started trampling all over the place. Smashed at least half the eggs, Hagrid was beside himself."
Harry felt a flash of sorrow for the dragon, having heard the babies in the Horntail's eggs talking they felt a lot more human rather than just mad animal to be avoided.
They'd reached the side of the arena now, the dragon was gone and they huddled around Harry to hear his scores. Ludo Bagman was now sitting in amongst the judges, talking quietly to Mr Crouch and Karkaroff who sat either side of him.
It wasn't a long wait before the judges nodded to show they were all ready. Madam Maxime was first and raised her wand into the air.
A silver ribbon shot from the end and twisted itself into a large number eight.
The crowd cheered and Harry breathed a sigh of relief, that wasn't bad really, that was rather good. Mr Crouch was next and sent up a silver ribbon seven.
"He's being a bit harsh." Draco huffed.
Harry didn't say anything but wondered if his use of Parseltongue, a typically very 'dark' talent, had put his marks down in Crouch's eyes.
Dumbledore came next and awarded Harry a nine. Harry could feel his friends jumping excitedly around him, Daphne's heels making a small click every time she bounced up and down.
Ludo Bagman beamed down at Harry while his wand shot out a silver ribbon ten.
"Really?" Harry said surprised, "I got hurt! I was hardly perfect."
"Shh." Draco said, nudging him in the ribs, "Don't complain."
Karkaroff looked rather uncomfortable as he sent up a silver six. The crowd cheered but there were a fair few grumbles as well.
"He's such a cheater." Daphne spat, "He gave Krum a ten and he squished all his eggs!"
Draco nodded darkly, "Father never did think much of him."
Harry felt suddenly very tired and the noise from the crowd was all to much for him, "Let's get out of here."