Harry nervously sighed as he awaited his turn to enter the arena. He was of course, correct that the first task was related to dragons, and his fears had been realized when they were told they would need to fight the dragon in an attempt to retrieve a golden egg from among a clutch within the arena.
As he twirled his wand between his fingers, a nervous tick he had picked up recently, Harry reviewed the preparations the Champions had made for this event. After a thorough review of the books Charlie had given Harry over the years, the Champions had worked out a number of strategies for dealing with dragons. Harry knew Viktor intended to debilitate the dragon's wings through liberal use of a sticky goo charm, and then use the aerial advantage he would have on his broom to outfly the dragon. To that end, Viktor had borrowed a Firebolt from a member of the Bulgarian team, who had hand delivered it to Hogsmeade as a favor to the star seeker.
Cedric had planned to summon some stone walls, and use them as cover against the dragon fire, while he battered the dragon with stunning charms. Harry hoped that Cedric had the necessary power to manage that. Conjuring stone was a rather taxing endeavor for many wizards, and the power needed to stun a dragon was nothing minor either. Combine that with the need to maintain the flame-freezing charm and Harry worried that Cedric might push himself to magical exhaustion during his attempt. It was unfortunate that Cedric was the weakest magically of the four competitors, although he was still above the average wizard by a considerable amount.
Fleur had planned to debilitate the dragon's sight through means of the conjunctivitis curse, and then use her Veela abilities to distract the dragon with fireballs while she peppered it with other spells. Needing to retrieve an egg, as opposed to defeating the dragon entirely, had been a boon for her strategy, as she could likely clear the distance in the arena within only a few seconds.
The crowd roared with cheers as Harry heard Fleur finish her encounter with the dragon. Harry could see that she was being rushed to Madame Pomfrey, and was immediately concerned. He rushed to see her, and was very concerned at what he saw.
Fleur had some bad burns along her back, which was incredibly frightening for Harry, given her natural resistance to fire as a Veela. The back of her champion's costume was completely destroyed, only hanging onto her body by the sleeves and a small strip on her lower back.
"Sorry Mr. Potter, I must ask you to leave, I need to treat her." Madame Pomfrey said, trying to push him out of the medical section of the tent.
"Excuse me Madame, but may 'e stay? I could use ze support." Fleur said, pain evident in her voice.
Pomfrey looked at her for a moment before sighing. "If you insist, although Mr. Potter will be needing to leave soon for his own challenge."
"I understand. I would just like to see my friend while I am treated." Fleur said, smiling through the pain.
"What happened Fleur? I thought you were resistant to fire." Harry asked, taking her hand in concern while she laid on her stomach. Pomfrey was quickly getting to work and rubbing a salve over her burns. Harry imagined that the burns would likely be gone by tomorrow, but it did not make him feel any better about her current predicament.
"I am. 'Owever my Flame-freezing charm ran out because I lost focus after grabbing my egg. Ze dragon managed to breathe fire in my direction despite its impairments. I zuppose I must count myself lucky the damage is so minor." Fleur said, squeezing Harry's hand.
"I'm sorry you have to go through this Fleur." Harry said, looking at his friend.
"It iz okay. I knew what I signed up for when I entered this tournament. I worry more for you." Fleur said. "Your Hungarian Horntail is much more aggressive than my Welsh Green. Please be careful."
"I will Fleur, trust me, I hope to step out of that arena in better shape than you are, no offense." Harry said, trying to give Fleur a reassuring smile. He knew in some parts that it was fake, his nerves wouldn't allow a real one to shine through, not truly, but he could try.
"None taken, I too 'ope you will emerge unscathed. Once you are done, I believe we should have a celebration. I am certain Ms. Brown and Ms. Patil are both excited for the chance to throw a party in celebration of a successful first task." Fleur said, sending Harry a smile of her own. Despite the pain Harry knew she was in, it seemed more genuine than his own had been.
"I'd say you're counting your dragons before they hatch, but that seems a bit on the nose for right now." Harry said, causing Fleur to laugh a bit at his joke. "I'll deal with the dragon, grab my egg, and we'll have a celebration. I'm sure Madame Pomfrey will have you all fixed up by the time I'm back."
"I'm no miracle worker Mr. Potter. I strongly suspect that Fleur might not feel up to much celebration tonight." Pomfrey said, having finished lathering the girl's back.
"If 'Arry makes it out of this unscathed, I would celebrate even if I was still on fire." Fleur said. "'Arry did not choose to enter this tournament, and while 'e is an exceptional wizard, 'e is still young. Too young for this nonsense."
"Of that we can agree Ms. Delacour. Harry, if I'm not mistaken, that would be the sound of the crowd cheering for Mr. Diggory. That would mean you are up soon. I recommend you get yourself ready." Pomfrey said, looking over at him with a reassuring smile. "I will take good care of Miss Delacour, you of all people should know that. I hope that the only reason I will need to see you once you have finished your task is just a check up to make sure you don't need any attention."
"You and me both Madame Pomfrey. Thank you." Harry said, before squeezing Fleur's hand. "I'll be back before you realize I'm gone. What chance does this dragon have against the Dueling Champion Harry Potter?" Harry puffed out his chest in fake bravado, getting a small laugh from Fleur.
"Go get 'er then Champion." Fleur said, a smile on her face.
Harry confidently stepped out of the medical area of the tent, only for the confidence to leave him once he was certain Fleur couldn't see him. His bravado in front of Fleur was an act to make her worry less, and while he was certain she could see right through it, maybe it could provide her with some small amount of comfort.
Harry reviewed his plan in his head a few more times. While many of his dueling books had constantly stated that no plan survives first contact, it was still important to have one. Too soon for Harry's liking, Ludo Bagman stepped into the tent where Harry waited.
"Well Mr. Potter, I hope we've saved the best for last!" The blond man said, his laughter being decidedly not contagious at this moment.
"If it's all the same sir, I'm just hoping to come out of this unscathed." Harry said, mentally preparing himself.
"Uh, quite. Well let us step out, I'll give the crowd your introduction, and we will begin." Bagman said, clearly off-put by Harry's moroseness about the situation. Harry supposed it wasn't his fault, he was a sportsman, and probably just viewed this as any other competition, not the fight for survival Harry was forced to view it as.
With a deep breath, Harry stepped out into the central arena, where the cheers of many students filled the air at his arrival. Glancing up at the stands, his cheering section had been easy to spot. Aside from the now expanded Sphinx Club, Harry could see Ted and Andy, as well as Nymphadora sitting with them. He had expected to see Charlie as well, but imagined he may be working with the dragons at this moment. Assuming he made it out of this, Harry would poke fun at him for not being in the stands.
Listening for his adopted mother's encouraging words, he allowed them to fill his mind with reassurances that he COULD do this. Waving his hand up to greet the crowd, he tried to display some bravado, to perhaps convince himself that he was more than capable of rising to this challenge.
"Ladies and gentleman! Entering the ring is our final Champion: Harry Potter of Hogwarts! Harry has drawn to face off against the Hungarian Horntail! A mighty dragon known for its thicker than average hide, let us see if young Harry has what it takes to retrieve his egg from the clutch!" Came the voice of Ludo Bagman above the crowd, who roared at the excitement. Harry so desperately wished he could have been here as a spectator as opposed to a participant, but such was not his luck.
"Now Mr. Potter! You may begin!" Bagman's voice came again, as the gate in front of the dragon opened, releasing it into the arena. Harry immediately ducked behind a large rock that was present, and began his plan.
"Accio supply bag!" Harry incanted, summoning the bag he had prepared in advance for this task. Inside were a few items Harry hoped would help him. Primarily inside was a selection of potions he had brewed, including what he looked for initially, a perk-up potion. Harry's plan for delaying the dragon needed him to be able to think positively about his situation, and he felt that the extra assistance would be helpful at this moment.
"Mr. Potter seems to have thought ahead and prepared a bag of supplies for the task! The judges appear to be deliberating on if this qualifies as a violation of the rules, but we will have to see! It seems he has taken a potion from the bag, who knows what effects it may have?" Bagman said, obviously trying to hype up the crowd more. Harry appreciated the boisterous man at this moment, his jovial voice, alongside the potion he had just taken, was going to make this much easier.
"Expecto Patronum!" Harry incanted, summoning all of his will and magic into his wand. The androsphinx he had conjured in June of this year appeared from his wand in all of its silvery glory, before looking at Harry. Harry had supercharged the spell, using the happiest memory he could manage, as well as pouring far more magic than he normally would ever even consider doing at once into the spell.
"Mr. Potter casts an impressive spell! Although I'm not sure how useful it will be since his opponent isn't a dementor." Bagman's voice rang out.
The Sphinx didn't care for Bagman's words, and pounced like the Lion it was onto the dragon, knocking it to the ground.
"And I eat my words! Potter manages not only a corporeal patronus, but a solid one! It's wrestling with the dragon!" Bagman said, astounded.
Harry nodded, taking a moment to survey the field while his patronus distracted the dragon. Harry knew that it wouldn't be able to fully incapacitate the beast, but it should keep it occupied, at least for a few moments. Scanning the arena, Harry found the golden egg he was after, surrounded by several dragon eggs in a clutch. Harry gulped. Taking on a mother bear was dangerous. A mother dragon? Tantamount to suicide.
Well, Harry realized his self preservation sense hadn't worked since he was 11 and he fought a troll. What's one more effectively suicidal mission?
"Accio Golden Egg!" Harry said, hoping that the simple solution would work for him. It did not.
"And Mr. Potter thinks practically! The egg unfortunately has an anti-summoning charm built in to prevent the easy way out." Bagman said.
"Great." Harry muttered to himself. Despite his sphinx doing a phenomenal job of distracting the dragon, he didn't really want to run out in the open. He supposed he'd have to. "Ignis Resistencia!" Harry incanted, waiting the three seconds for the spell to take effect. He had wanted to make the potion version, which didn't need him to concentrate on it, but the brewing time for it had been too long. This would need to function. Harry drank another potion, a feather-swift one, that gave him an extra boost in speed. It wasn't much, but it might be the difference between making it out of here alive or dead.
Rushing the nest, Harry's dragon caught sight of him, shooting a gout of flame at him. Harry wheeled around, recognizing that there was always the chance that the Flame-Freezing spell wouldn't stand up to dragonfire, so he followed Hermione's advice. The best way to avoid getting burned by fire, was for there to not be any fire at all.
"Aquamenti Maxima!" Harry called out, shooting a high powered jet of water towards the dragon. It dissipated a good deal of the dragon's flames, before connecting with the dragon's head, knocking it to the side. The Sphinx used this opportunity to tackle the dragon again, taking its attention from Harry.
The few flames that licked Harry were still hot, but only so much as putting your hand over the burner on a stove. He could live with that. Harry ran as fast as his legs would take him, and scooped up the golden egg from the nest.
Good, halfway there.
Harry spun around ducking low in an attempt to stop his own momentum. It was a dueling trick he'd picked up from a book written by an American wizard. You could arrest your own momentum by effectively baseball sliding backwards, and then use your new lower position to shoot forward for a counterattack.
Harry however, was not counterattacking. He was boldly fleeing.
Harry cleared the arena in record time, his Sphinx providing excellent backup and guarding his retreat. It wasn't until Harry was completely enclosed in the tent flaps, with someone other than a competitor in his sight that he stopped.
He then immediately fell to the ground.
The feather-swift potion was incredibly useful for a short burst of speed, but it left you unbelievably sore afterwards, as your legs were working significantly harder than they were supposed to while under its effects. His perking potion had also ended, leaving him with a hollow feeling inside. A side-effect, since you were effectively stealing happiness from your future self. Harry however was so happy to be alive he was only barely noticing the effects.
Leaving the tent, Harry felt himself immediately being crushed into a hug by a brown-haired missile. "Harry! You did it! I was so worried, but your plan with the Patronus worked perfectly! I can not believe it!" Hermione said into his chest rubbing her head against it in near hysterics.
"Hey, you didn't think my plan would work and you still let me do it?" Harry asked, with faux hurt in his voice. He didn't think it would work either, but it was only the first of a few plans they had. It had to be the first one to try though, because he needed to be as fresh as possible to cast a patronus like that.
"I admit I was hesitant. It is not that I thought it would not work, just that it might not be as effective as you had hoped it would be." Hermione said, with a bit of embarrassment. The rest of the Sphinx Club appeared, Hermione having apparently dashed off as soon as Harry left the ring to wait for him.
"Congratulations Harry, they awarded you second place. They deducted points for the potions because they thought it was 'against the spirit, if not the rules' of the competition." Luna said, hugging him as well.
"Well, they can keep their points, I'm just happy to not be roasted." Harry said with a laugh. "Now, Fleur said we have to celebrate all of us making it out of the task without getting too messed up. Lavender, Parvati, think you can handle that?" Harry asked, looking to the two Gryffindors.
"Absolutely, come on Cho, you can help us too." Lavender said, taking the older Ravenclaw girl with them.
Of the friendships that had started to arise over the past couple weeks with the new expanded Sphinx Club the camaraderie between Lavender, Parvati, and Cho had been strange. Cho getting along with Hermione and Padma was no surprise, they'd lived in the same house together for several years now, but the Gryffindors seemed to have added Cho as the third member of their group. Harry didn't mind, although he wondered how they connected. He'd asked Cedric, and his only explanation had been that Cho was someone who enjoyed the same things Lavender and Parvati did, but failed to elaborate on WHAT that was. In some ways, that made Harry nervous, but he let it slide. He was simply happy that his friend group had expanded. Especially since Ginny and Astoria had decided that they were joining the Sphinx Club proper, having had a couple years to realize that being a member wasn't a bad thing, and they could have their own lives and friends outside of it.
In true Sphinx Club form, the celebration they had for the successful task was wonderful. Cedric and Viktor unfortunately were unable to attend. Hufflepuff had thrown him a party for his first place finish, and he was honorbound to attend the celebration in the house of the badgers. No one minded, while they would have liked him to be present, they knew Hufflepuff rarely got to celebrate the successes of one of their own, due to being the house with the least competitive drive, and therefore while being a solid competitor at every inter-house competition, only rarely did they manage first place in anything. Cho, despite assisting in setting up the party, had gone with Cedric.
Viktor on the other hand had been required to attend the celebrations that Durmstrang were holding largely against his own wishes. Karkaroff had all but demanded that Viktor celebrate with his own school, rather than with the "enemy". Viktor disliked this, having found real friends among the Sphinx Club, something that had been increasingly hard to come by since his Quidditch stardom. Ivan was going to tag along for moral support, but Viktor denied him, saying that he should be allowed to enjoy the Sphinx Club celebrations alongside his closest friends.
Hearing that had been a bit of a shock for Harry. He knew Ivan was a tad abrasive, his talks with him during dueling tournaments had cemented that notion. To think that he had considered Harry and Marianne, two people he had only really gotten to spend significant time with over the past two weeks, his closest friends spoke a lot to how lonely he must have been. Harry endeavored to be a good friend to the boy, although that had been the plan anyway.
During the party though, Harry had to focus his attention on another friend he had gotten closer to over the past couple weeks, although he had been keeping in contact with her over letters for the past few years, Fleur Delacour. It had taken a good deal for Fleur to convince Madame Pomfrey to allow her to attend the celebration, and it was only under the condition that she wouldn't attempt to do anything more strenuous than walking during it that she had even been allowed to attend. As such, Fleur spent the party sitting in a chair that Cedric had been nice enough to transfigure some wheels onto before he left. This allowed her to move around a bit, even if she couldn't dance.
Fleur had moved herself to one of the couches and laid back against it, being careful not to push too hard, lest she aggravate her burns. "You feeling okay Fleur?" Harry asked, obviously pretty concerned.
"I'm sore 'Arry, although given what happened, I am lucky that is all I am." Fleur said, with a smile towards the younger boy. "You need not dote on me so much, I will recover quickly."
"I know, but I can still worry. You're a good friend to me Fleur, I was pretty upset seeing you come into the tent with those burns." Harry said, carefully sitting next to her.
"I am aware, I apologize for worrying you so." Fleur said, her face being a little sad.
"You don't need to apologize, you did your best, and it's only through luck that I managed to come out unscathed. What happened to you could have happened to any of us, and that worries me a bit." Harry said, looking down at the ground.
"Per'aps, but we will work 'arder to ensure next time there is no injuries this next time, yes?" Fleur said. "We 'ave much longer to prepare, the next task is not until February, we have several months, not just two weeks. We even have an official 'int this time, whatever is within the egg."
"Have you opened yours?" Harry asked.
"Non. I was 'oping we would do so togezzer, two 'eads are better zan one I believe the saying is.." Fleur said, with a smile. "Now iz not ze time for zis though. We are at a party. We should be celebrating."
"Alright Fleur, you win." Harry said, putting his hands up in mock surrender.
"Pas dans la compétiton que j'aimerais." Fleur whispered to herself.