Viktor Krum wasted absolutely no time at all once he entered the arena. He marched forwards and shot a curse at the Chinese Fireball which hit it directly in the left eye! It seemed temporarily blinded, as it started stumbling around all over the place, and it fired a burst of flame in a random direction, which Krum was actually standing in! He dived down to the floor and the flames passed narrowly over him.
"Very daring!" yelled Ludo.
The dragon re-gained it's senses, and now, although blinded in one eye, it nonetheless continued to attack Krum, who dodged and weaved in between each burst of flame as he looked for a new attack to take out the other eye.
"I must say, his reflexes are seriously remarkable!" Stefan commented.
"Of course they'd be, he's the best seeker in the world, you need it when playing Quidditch, and it's coming in handy here too!" Hermione said
Finally, Krum managed to get a shot off which hit the dragons right eye, it went stumbling around again, emitting a horrible, roaring shriek and crushed some of it's own non golden eggs. Krum took advantage of this and ran forward onto the mound.
"That's some nerve he's showing — and — yes, he's got the egg!" Ludo shouted "Now, the scores. Unfortunately, there will be some points deducted due to the destruction of the real dragon eggs, that was prohibited under the rules, so Mr. Krum, you will start on minus 3, and we can count upwards from there"
Maxime and Dumbledore both raised a 6, Ludo a 7, Crouch a 4 and Karkaroff a 10, for a total of 30, the highest score so far!
"That's a load of bullshit!" I shouted, "how can Karkaroff give him a perfect score, he crushed half the eggs!"
"Filthy, cheating, biased little twat!" added Stefan savagely
We weren't the only ones, more than half the crowd were on their feet booing Karkaroff and demanding he lower his score.
"Silence!" called Ludo. "The judges decisions are final, and this will remain the case no matter how... uh... unjustified you may think it is. Now let us move on to our final, and youngest champion, Harry Potter!"
From a few rows down, Avery turned and smiled sadistically at me, and made a cut throat gesture. It took a willpower greater than I knew I had not to go down there and strangle her!
The Hungarian Horntail definitely looked like the most vicious of all the dragons. It was in a highly merciless mood, judging by the way it was snorting flames every 10 seconds, and thrashing it's tail around, leaving yard long gouge marks in the floor! I closed my eyes and silently prayed for Harry's safety. I'm not a religious person, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and Harry would have his work cut out despite all the practice we'd done! Even on his Firebolt, I was having a hard time imagining him getting out of this unscathed!
Harry stood there, I saw his lips moving, and for a while, nothing happened. I chewed my lip nervously. Just as I was beginning to think that it hadn't worked, the Firebolt shot down from over our heads, and parked itself right next to Harry. He shot up extremely quickly, and rose to about 50 feet in no time.
"What's he doing?" said Luna, "he's not gonna get the egg by running away!"
"He's not running away mate" I said "he surely has to be judging angles and distances, so that he can create the right diversionary tactics!"
I was proved right very quickly, as Harry entered a steep dive, with the dragon following his move and shooting some fire towards him. Harry pulled out of the dive just in time though!
"See!" I told Luna "told you so! He's got this under control!"
"Great Scott, he can fly!" yelled Ludo as the crowd shrieked and gasped. "Are you watching this, Mr. Krum?"
I felt a surge of pride at my boyfriend being compared to the international Quidditch star, made even more satisfying with the knowledge that it was fully deserved.
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 —
"Shit!" I said, placing my hands on my head, as the crowd let out screams and groans
"You might have spoken too soon mate" said Demelza
I lowered my arms and crossed my fingers very tightly. Harry zoomed around the back of the Horntail, which didn't seem to want to take off, she was too protective of her eggs. Though she writhed and twisted, furling and unfurling her wings and keeping those fearsome yellow eyes on Harry, she was afraid to move too far from them . . . but he had to persuade her to do it, or he'd never get near them. .
"It's got to take the bait and go after Harry soon, or he's gonna have to think of a new plan!" said Hermione
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. . . .
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 entire crowd erupted onto their feet, Harry had done it, and in the fastest time no less!
"Look at that!" Ludo 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!"
"Oh he is just fucking brilliant isn't he!" Demelza shouted
"Legend!" called Stefan
"I couldn't love him more or be more proud of him than I am now!" I said
"Just wonderful!" yelled Hermione
I looked down at Avery, who was scowling and had her arms crossed. I made my fingers into an L shape and put it up to my head. Demelza saw this and smiled slightly.
"Take that you scummy little bitch!" I said
"You know what, I'll allow it this once. She probably deserves it" Demelza told me
"She definitely deserves it, in fact she deserves more!" I replied
Demelza rolled her eyes and kept applauding Harry, who landed and went over to Professor's McGonagall, Moody and Hagrid. They each had a brief interaction with him, before Harry left the arena and entered the medical tent outside. The crowds started to file out and back towards the castle.
"Right. I'm going to see Harry. You guys coming?" I said
"Yes" said Hermione
"Of course" added Demelza
"Might as well" Luna said
"I'm gonna go find Magda, I'll see you lot later" said Stefan. He gave Demelza a quick kiss on the cheek before moving off.