Year Four, Chapter Nineteen
Holly felt her nerves build and build throughout the day so that she was full of energy throughout all of her classes - even history of magic! But lessons were to stop at midday, and the whole school seemed to share some of Holly's nervous energy. The competitions related to the tournament seen so far had been fun to watch or participate in, but gobstones and firsties attempting to duel could hardly be compared to the tasks themselves.
She ate her lunch quickly, and managed to finish off her sandwich and down the last of her pumpkin juice as she saw McGonagall begin to approach her.
"With me, Miss Potter. The champions are heading down now," the Professor said, and Holly nodded.
"Good luck," Ginny said from across the Gryffindor table, and Holly nodded. She followed McGonagall down the hall and out into the cold November afternoon, shivering a little as the wind blew across the grounds.
"Now, just don't panic and try your best in there, Potter. We have trained wizards standing by if things... well, just give a good effort and no one can think less of you," McGonagall said.
"Sure, professor," Holly said. She found herself strangely calm as she saw the stadium for the first time. It was lower to the ground than the Quidditch pitch but otherwise looked quite similar. There was a large box with fancier seating, including a golden table for the judges, and a small tent at the side. A pair of large gates occupied the other end of the stadium, and beyond them, Holly could see the beginning of the dragon enclosure - though the dragons themselves were carefully kept out of sight.
Holly went over her plan in her head - she had to temporarily blind the dragon with a pair of conjunctivitis curses and then use summoned snakes as a distraction to sneak up on or past the dragon. She had a few more ideas, but without knowing what she'd actually have to do she couldn't plan in much more detail than she already had.
It was, Holly thought, a good plan. She thought she could improvise if it went wrong - her training with Dumbledore had made her fairly confident when it came to dealing with magical fire, and even her nonverbal shield charms should be able to deflect the dragon's claws. Though she wasn't keen on chancing 'should' against claws the size of a shortsword and as sharp as razor.
"In here, Potter. Wait for your turn with the other champions - Mr Bagman will explain the, ah, procedure to you... and good luck," McGonagall said, and Holly smiled at her before she entered the tent.
Holly noticed with surprise that all the other champions looked significantly more nervous than her. Fleur was clammy and pale, sitting on a low wooden stool and not looking at anyone. Krum was pacing with a fierce look on his face, whilst Cedric was cleaning his wand and looking around nervously.
Once you'd killed a Basilisk with a sword, Holly guessed, getting past a dragon simply wasn't as scary as it ought to be. The other champions might have more experience when it came to magic, and they certainly knew more spells than her (although she thought the spells she did know were more likely to be useful in situations like this), but Holly had far more experience when it came to getting out of deadly peril.
That was probably a bad thing, but right now Holly was glad for the calm that had come over her. She was still scared, of course, but she was used to being scared. She could work with scared.
"Holly, good to see you - come on in, make yourself at home. That's all of them, Janet?" Bagman said, gesturing towards Mrs Hull. She clearly did not appreciate being called by her first name, but Holly thought she looked more long-suffering than angry.
"Yes, Ludo, that's all of the four champions. In case you forgot how many there were," Mrs Hull said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Excellent. I supposed we can explain how it all works now... ah, there it is," Bagman said, searching for something. He pulled a purple silk bag from under a table and turned to face the champions once more. "So, inside this bag is a model of what dra - what you're about to face. What else was there - oh, yes. You're to retrieve the Golden Egg!" Bagman said, grinning.
He paused for a moment, and the sound of hundreds of people walking up the stairs into the stands grew very loud inside the tent. Bagman paused for a moment, and Holly saw the other champions get even more nervous. She wondered why bagman was making such a big show out of concealing that they'd be facing a dragon - surely he'd expected them all to know that by now? Cheating, Hermione had told her, was a sacred tradition when it came to the Triwizard Tournament.
"Ladies first, eh?" Bagman said and opened the neck of the bag slightly before offering it to Fleur. She looked like she was on the verge of trying to quit, but she managed to slowly put her hand in a draw something out. It was a moving, miniature model of a Sweedish Short-Snout, with the number 'one' around its neck. That was, Holly thought, quite an impressive bit of enchanting.
"Lucky girl - Short-Snout's are big, but they're not all that bright. Well, the last of our lady champions, then," Bagman said, and offered Holly the bag. She hesitated for only a moment and withdrew her dragon. It was covered in spikes of bone, and she had to hold it by the tail to stop it from trying to breathe a miniature jet of fire at her. It had a little card around its neck that read 'four'.
"Hungarian Horntail for you, Potter. That's a nasty one," Mrs Hull said, chuckling to herself. Holly tried very hard not to scowl at her. Cedric pulled out the Chinese Fireball, whilst Victor Krum drew the Welsh Green.
"Now, for your boons. You each have one for this task, and each will give you a very useful item for the task ahead. Each boon will come with a small card explaining how to use it - keep them secret, and keep them safe! Once I've given them to you, the boons are your responsibility - you may use them for this task, or save them for another," Bagman said. He passed out small stoppered glass vials with objects inside them. Both Fleur and Krum got vials containing little silver disks, whilst Cedric's just looked like a gobstone. Holly's boon was what looked like an ordinary wizarding white queen chess piece.
'Throw me at your foe, and I shall aid you with marble fist and stone bladeread the card. Holly could guess what the chess piece would do, and she carefully pocketed it and the vial.
"Say, Holly my dear - could I have a word with you outside?" Bagman asked. Holly blinked, but she followed the portly department head out of the champion's tent.
"What do you need, Mr Bagman?" she asked.
"Well, just wanted to... see how you are. Got a plan?" Bagman asked.
"Sure - Sirius and Remus helped me with it," she said.
"Excellent, excellent... but if you need anything, you just ask. A few pointers, maybe... or something discreet. Nobody'd have to know," Bagman said, and Holly almost went for her wand. Why would Bagman want to help her cheat, she wondered?
"I think I'll be fine, Mr Bagman," Holly said. There was a note of tension in her voice, and Bagman seemed to get the message because he ran back inside the tent almost immediately. Holly followed him in after a few moments, and she saw Fleur leaving to go confront her dragon.
There was silence in the tent as Fleur competed. They could all hear the sounds of a roaring dragon, smell the distinctive smell of dragon breath, and then the dragon seemed to calm. Another voice could be heard over it. This one was gentle and melodic. Fleur sang, and even here in the tent, Holly could feel the power in that melody. It was a little like parseltounge, infusing magic into words at a more primal level than an incantation.
The crowd roared, and Holly knew Fleur had just succeeded. Then in what seemed like no time at all, Cedric and Krum had also gone and faced their dragon. Holly listened to Bagman's excited commentary, and she knew all the older champions had at least gotten the egg. Krum had done something with a broom and apparently gotten singed, Cedric's attempt had involved a lot of spellfire, and Fleur had done something with a magical song to placate her dragon.
Holly heard the whistle blow, signalling her to enter the stadium. She looked down at her hand and saw that it was perfectly still. Not a trace of a shake. There never was when her life was on the line. She grinned despite herself, drew her wand, and walked out into the stadium.
She exited the heavy drapes of the tent's exit and entered a blasted hellscape. Barren grey rock, carved into a series of trenches and littered with bits of cover, slowly converged upwards. At the very top of the hill was a dragon exactly as big as Holly had been dreading it would be, sitting on a cluster of fake eggs and a single shining golden egg.
The crowd roared as Bagman introduced her, but Holly knew she had no time to waste. The second the task began, she leapt out of cover. Out of the rocky trench and onto the open ground.
Her wand moved lightning fast as the Horntail roared and breathed fire at her before she could cast her curses. Her shield charm split the flame down the middle, scorching the rocky walls of the stadium black. She was running forward as she kept up her shield, and then the Horntail's breathe let up and Holly fired off a beam of pink light from her wand.
"And Potter's demonstrating incredible mastery of the shield charm - to be expected with her combat experience!" Bagman said, his voice magical enhanced from his seat in the commentary box.
The Conjunctivitis curse hit the Horntail right in the eye, and it let out an awful screech as Holly's curse blinded it temporarily. Then her second curse hit the other eye, and the Dragon reared back up on its hind legs, screeching in pain and confusion. Holly saw how unsteady it was on only its hind legs, and then she noted how the hill it was standing on and her angle towards it worked out.
"EXPLUSO!" Holly roared, her powerful blasting curse slamming into the Dragon and sending it toppling backwards in a pulse of blue light. The Dragon's thick hide was resistant to magic, but that wouldn't protect it from gravity, and the force of her blasting curse was enough to unbalance the Dragon.
"Serpensortia," Holly said more calmly, and she summoned a dozen huge and dangerous looking snakes. She hissed at them, giving their unliving magical constructs their orders, and then silenced herself.
"My word, she's blinded and toppled it! And what's this, summoning snakes - wait, let's all be very quiet. Potter is attempting to use a stealthy approach," Bagman said, as Holly slowly snuck up the rocky hill in the centre of the stadium.
She had to be very careful, because whilst her silencing spell would stop her from making any noise, if she dislodged some rocks her spell would do nothing and the Dragon would be alerted. From what Holly could hear, it was happily devouring the conjured snakes for the time being.
Then, just as she crested the hill, she saw the Horntail's spiky snout turn in her direction and sniff loudly. Holly began to understand the flaw in her plan, and she knew that her summoned snakes weren't going to be able to distract the dragon long enough. The Horntail turned fully towards her, and Holly gulped. She wasn't even at the golden egg yet!
Holly withdrew the vial with the chess piece from her robes and threw it towards the dragon as hard as she could. It shattered on the blasted rock in front of it, and then in a puff of smoke the White Queen from the chessboard guarding the Philosopher's Stone appeared. It socked the Horntail right in the jaw with a marble fist and then tried to put the Dragon in a headlock.
As the chess piece and the dragon grappled one another, Holly cancelled the spells on her and dashed forward. As the Dragon finished smashing up the chess piece, Holly scooped up the golden egg and began to dash for the exit. The Dragon turned and breathed fire at her, but Holly shielded herself against it. The fire went upwards and slammed into the wards designed to protect the audience; who screamed and cheered equally loudly.
She ducked beneath a tail swipe, going into a desperate roll, but then Holly was safe and beyond the reach of the dragon. Dozens of handlers emerged and start to stun the Dragon, and eventually, they got the dragon to agree to take another nap.
Holly had survived the first task, and she eagerly turned towards the judges to see what she'd scored.
