Chapter 37 :
Bagman and Crouch Snr left the tent to respectively go stir up the crowd outside and join the Judges table, leaving only a random staff member with the Champions. The man was awkwardly standing, trying to lean in on the wall but not able to because it was made of cloth. He kept a close eye on them four, serious in his duty to monitor them for potential cheating.
Viktor was staring pensively at the ceiling. Fleur was clinging onto Harry and glaring at anyone who so much as looked in their direction. And Cedric was fidgeting while pointedly ignoring everyone. He was soon called to the stadium however, somehow more relieved to face a dragon than he was to stay with them. They heard the enthusiastic shouts of the public, but the silence came back immediately as the tent was closed -probably a charm of some sort-. Then the waiting continued.
Everyone was tense, and it was getting worse by the second as they couldn't tell what was happening outside. The Tournament's committee seemed to be deliberately playing with their nerves. Fleur whispered sweet nonsense to Harry, trying to calm herself by comforting him, not noticing that he couldn't hear her as he was way too anxious to aknowledge the world around him. And soon she was called away too.
Once she was gone, Viktor came to sit beside the young Gryffindor, patting his shoulder soberly.
"Getting too nervous is counterproductive." He tried to advise despite his own nervousness.
"Any idea on how to take our mind off how big and mean the beasties we'll face are ?" Asked Harry, taking a deep breath to ease his jitters.
"Well," Answered the older boy with a smirk, showing off his tiny animated dragon. "They did give us toys to amuse ourselves, didn't they ?"
"They did, indeed." Agreed Harry with a wobbly grin of his own.
By the time Viktor's turn came, the two boys were engrossed in the fierce battle of Pumpkin The Horntail and Watermelon The Fireball, over the supremacy of the Fruits-Garden-Tent. The Triwizard employee looked so done with life that it was nearly funny. Then Viktor went and Harry was left on his own.
It was strangely soothing to be alone with his tiny Hungarian Horntail. The charm that kept it animated was really well done, it seemed alive in a way only magic could do. Harry got the strange idea to study its behavior, in case it could prove useful against the real one. Teasing it with a twig made it angry and it would attack with its teeth and tail. Petting its snout with a finger made it purr, making it curl up in its own wings to sleep. Uh. The green-eyed boy was starting to get attached to his little companion. It was kinda cute, wasn't it ? Reminded him of Theo somewhat...
"It's your turn, Potter." Suddenly called out Bagman through the tent's entrance.
Harry sighed. Here it was, the moment of truth. He stood up from his stool, buried Pumpkin in his breast pocket to keep it safe, and took a shaky step. When he pushed open the cloth of the tent, the loud roar of the crowds greeted him like a cacophony.
"And here come our final and youngest participant," Bellowed Bagman, his voice echoing in the stadium. "Ladies, Gentlemen, let's welcome... HARRY POTTER !"
The public got even rowdier and louder, to a point the boy hadn't thought possible.
"POTTER ! POTTER ! POTTER !" They chanted like some kind of unholy incantation.
The stadium was a giant Coliseum : with a big field of sand, soil and rocks, surrounded by rows upon rows of seats filled by hooligans. It was downright frightening how overwhelming everything was.
"DON'T DIE HARRY !" Cried out several voices.
"I'LL CARRY YOUR BABIES !" Even proclaimed one of them.
"LIKE HELL YOU WILL, BITCH !" Answered another one that sounded strangely like a rabid version of Ginny Weasley.
"BEGONE THOT !" Agreed someone else from the other side of the stadium.
This... This was everything he hated in being a celebrity. Every reasons why he tried to never call attention to himself. They were like enraged beasts fighting over a piece of meat. And yet the worst of them all, the one that would try to eat him above all, was the giant nesting mother in the middle of the field : the Hungarian Horntail.
The lady was massive, big like at least a dozen of Hagrids together. Its snout alone was bigger than Harry. Its body was covered in hardened scales and spikes that would break even swords of steel and resist even cannonballs. It was sitting on its nest, brooding its eggs in between which lay the Golden Egg the boy was supposed to retrieve.
The dragon yawned, unveiling fangs nearly as big as that of the basilisk had been -he was suddenly very glad he didn't have to defeat this one-. Harry quickly hid behind a rock, perfectly aware that the only reason he was still alive was because the beast was too bored to care about him. It was lazily observing him, seemingly seeing through the rock and giving him the heebie-jeebies.
The Gryffindor couldn't to make this last any longer, he summoned the package that Theo had taken with him to the bleachers, shouting out :
"ACCIO SNAPE'S SECRET STASH !"
He didn't know what the Potion Professor had done to deserve whatever revenge this was, but the man probably had it coming. Theo would never act against someone who hadn't done anything after all. Harry undid the packaging, unveiling a beautiful small-ish crystal bottle.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO- !" Rang out Snape's cry of anguish, extinguishing every other sounds and reverberating all over the stadium when he saw it.
Theo's soft and discreet cackle went unheard behind this call from the soul, the only proof of its existence being the numerous rows of fainted and frothing spectators all around him.
Without leaving his hiding place, Harry silently spelled the bottle's content into the dragon's belly, hoping for the best. The effect was immediate. The beast let out a loud burp, its eyes comically widening as it tried to comprehend the aftertaste. Then it bellowed a tragic roar, erupting into multi-colored flames before falling in front of its nest, completely plastered.
Harry waited a bit, watching it snoring happily and mumbling what seemed to be draconic drinking songs under its breath. Then he discreetly tiptoed to the nest, took the Golden Egg in his arms and fled as fast as he could. No sooner had he reached the exit than the drunk dragon burped again, blowing a large and colorful flame that made every rocks in the area melt like lava.
As the bewildered audience started to tentatively applaud his performance, the young Potter couldn't help it : he threw the empty crystal bottle as far as humanly possible. Whatever this Nuclear Vodka was, something strong enough to put a dragon into coma with only a small bottle, had no right to exist for human consumption.
AN : There you go ! It only took more than 30 chapters to get to the first task LMAO!
