Chapter 12: Prophecy Fulfilled

Ron Weasley was starting to hate himself.

He watched as the first contestant, Fleur Delcour of Beauxbotons Academy of Magic, faced off against her dragon. Ron had, of course, seen dragons before when he had visited Charlie. But then he had been rather far away, with the comfort of his parents. Now that he could see the dragons up close he realized just how truly massive they really were. He could bloody feel their menace. Then he saw how easily someone could be killed. Fleur had skillfully distracted her dragon to retrieve her egg, but it had been a narrow thing, a snort of dragon fire burning her robe away. The beast's tail had left massive gashes in the ground. To say nothing of its teeth!

As menacing as the dragon had been and as nail biting the event, he felt even more nervous and agitated between the time that the French witch left the stadium and the time that the Bulgarian entered. As bad as the dragons were, it was much worse to be left to deal with the guilty pangs of his own conscience. It really didn't matter if Harry had entered himself or not. How could he have ever have wished his best friend killed by a dragon? Why had he chosen to make up a bloody prophecy like that about Harry Potter, the boy who had been his friend since their first train trip to Hogwarts?

Ron looked down at the magically spinning and morphing button on his chest. "Support Cedric; Potter Stinks!"

With a sick feeling he removed it from his robes and destroyed it with an incendio spell.

He didn't even watch Viktor Krum facing his dragon. Ron rushed down the stands to the champions' tent. But he was barred at the entrance.

"Only champions and zer escorts are permitted in ze tent," came the gruff rebuff from the prefect, one of the students from Durmstrang, standing guard outside.

"I've got to speak to Harry," Ron demanded.

"Oh, vhy didn't you say so? Ov course you can go in…" the prefect began, "Vight after your name comes out ov ze Goblet ov Fire." The prefect move to stand between Ron and the tent entrance.

Ron frowned. Then he shouted, and started to try and push past the prefect. "Harry! Harry! Don't do it! Don't try and go against that dragon!"

Annoyed, the Durmstrang Seventh Year froze Ron in place with a deft wave of his wand and a gruffly spoken immobulus. Ron was then taken back, the prefect guiding Ron's immobilized body along with flicks of his wand, over to the Hogwarts stands where Professor McGonagall unfroze the boy. She nodded to the Durmstrang prefect, who left her student in her care.

"Mr. Weasley," she began, "you cannot wander around this stadium at will…"

Ron gulped and listened to the lecture he was getting. Krum's dragon had already been escorted off the grounds and the next dragon was brought in. It was a Hungarian Horntail, one of the most vicious of all the Great Dragons. Ron suddenly started shouting. They had announced Harry's name.

Ron was overcome with a terrifying fear. "Harry! Harry! You don't have to do this! Don't go out there, mate! Please!"

The past two days Ron had been the center of attention once more. He had gotten an interview with Rita Skeeter who had asked him how he felt about Harry's chances. Ron had pretended not to remember what he had said, claiming that he had been moved by the Inner Eye to speak what he had said. He said a few more things as well, including his certainty that if Harry competed in the event, his prediction would come true. The words he had said in that interview were coming back to haunt him now.

It was his worst fear. But it wouldn't really come true, right? He had just been making it up to get back at Harry for threatening him with his wand. It was just something he had thought up.

Like he had with Neville and the bolt of lightning.

All the anger and hurt he had felt over Harry being in the tournament melted away at the prospect of his friend's death. Now, faced with an enormous dragon about to eat his friend, according to his own prophecy, he no longer believed Harry had put his own name in. His jealousy over Harry Potter's fame and power felt so petty to him. But Ron could only look on futilely.

Harry was walking out to his doom. Ron watched as Harry entered the stadium looking calm. If Harry had heard Ron, the youngest Tri-Wizard champion didn't acknowledge him. Ron's heart started to beat faster.

What was Harry doing? He was standing up, challenging the dragon openly? And then Harry cast his first spell, and suddenly the entire arena was shrouded in dust. When the dust settled, there wasn't one, but a dozen Harry Potters standing there! They all ran together in a line, heading across the path of the mighty dragon. The Hungarian Horntail turned its gray-scaled head and breathed a gout of fire that burned through the entire line of Potters, from the first to the last.

"NO!" Ron heard himself screaming, along with audible cries from many of the crowd.

But then, impossibly, Ron watched as Harry shot up from the ground on his broom! The Boy-Who-Lived flew right across the dragon's nose causing it to turn its angry gaze his way. It flapped its wings, pulling at the heavy chains that bound it down to the stadium, rising up to the maximum length of the chain in pursuit. Harry dove and twisted, trying to keep away from the dragon's sharp teeth and wicked paws. It was a marvelous sight to see the daring boy outmaneuver the massive beast. He circled up higher and then back down, but Ron noticed that the boy was getting further and further away from the egg he was supposed to be trying to capture. And then Ron watched as Harry flew back by, aiming to go straight past the dragon and towards the eggs. It was the most amazingly daring and exciting thing Ron had ever seen!

Until the dragon turned its head and snapped its jaws shut around Harry Potter.

Ron screamed again, his eyes burning with tears. It was all his fault, because of his prophecy! He had killed The Boy Who Lived! He had killed his best mate! He had killed Harry.

THE END

of this chapter

Author's Note: Next update...Soon!

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