"So," Fleur said as she and Harry walked arm in arm. "Can you actually perform the charm or are you simply trying to show off?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Are you challenging me?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow of his own back at her. "Because it kind of feels like you are."
"Perhaps I am," She said with a dainty shrug. "Can you perform the charm?" She asked once more.
'Challenge accepted,' Venom growled before moving discreetly placing Harry's wand into his hand. Harry flicked his wrist to make it look like he had summoned his wand, he extracted his arm from hers as they both came to a stop. He took a moment to focus on the memories that Venom had shown him, allowing himself to immerse in the feelings of warmth and love that he felt coming from his parents, the feeling of safety, of family. He raised his wand, feeling his eyes prick with tears that he forcibly shoved down.
"Expecto patronum," He waved his wand, and out came a wispy, patronus that quickly solidified into the shape of a beautiful and regal-looking stag that stood at just under seven feet tall from head to to hooves. Its massive horns looked like they could quite easily impale themselves through a troll with no effort.
"Amazing," Fleur breathed out as she stepped past Harry to look at the stag, she raised her hand instinctively to touch it. A patronus was not supposed to be solid matter, they were made up of magic and feelings, they shouldn't be able to be solid, nor could they be touched. That's what her research had told her, yet as her hand got near her, she could almost feel it as if it were an actual animal in front of her. Truth be told, she was mildly surprised that her hand had actually gone through it. "That is incredible," She gasped as she stared at it.
"It is," Harry said simply as he took a good long look at it before willing it away. "So, now that I've proven myself, shall we continue on our way?" He asked as he moved forward and offered Fleur his arm, she stared at him for a moment before slipping her arm into the crook of his elbow.
"You truly taught yourself this?" She asked as they continued walking.
"It's what got Flitwick's attention enough for him to offer me more lessons," He shrugged. "It's the most advanced spell I know,"
"Well, you'll certainly be a worthy competitor in this tournament," She said, before giving him a curious look. "That is if you are still competing, my headmistress informs me that you might not."
"I'm considering it," Harry said neutrally. "There are advantages and disadvantages to competing, still, I wish you luck in the tournament, you're up against some stiff competition. I don't know much about Krum and how good he is, but I'm going to assume he's at least decent. As for Cedric, he's one of the best in our school."
"Perhaps, though I am most definitely the best in mine," She stated in a matter-of-fact voice.
"Hmm, I'll take your word for it," Harry decided.
"Smart boy," Fleur smirked just as they rounded a corner, only to be met with none other than Ron and Hermione.
'Really? A whole school full of people and they're the ones we have to bump into?' Venom groaned.
"Harry, I..." Ron trailed off as he realised just who Harry was standing with, his ears turned red and his face flushed as he looked at their joint arms. He stared at the two with a gaping mouth while Hermione's eyebrows had nearly shot up past her head.
"Can I help you?" Harry asked cooly.
"Harry, I...well...we heard from Ron's brother that you found a way out of the tournament," Hermione spoke up softly as she also stared between Harry and Fleur.
"Yeah, Percy found a way to get me out," Harry confirmed. "He seemed quite proud of himself,"
"So, you're not in the tournament then?" Hermione asked, sounding somewhat hopeful.
"I never said that," Harry replied, a small smirk on his face.
"What? But...if Percy found a way to get you out, then why would you still be in the tournament?" Hermione asked, confused.
"Because it's up to me if I leave the tournament or not," Harry told her. "And I'm still undecided on that."
"Harry," Fleur spoke up. "Are these your friends?" She asked curiously.
"Ex-freinds," Harry corrected her. "Now, we should be on our way," He told her before turning to Ron and Hermione. "If you'll excuse us," He told them before walking past them with Fleur walking alongside him. "I'm sorry about that," He told her once they were far enough away.
"I sense drama," She replied, giving him a questioning look.
"Why do you sound so curious?" Harry asked, returning her look.
"It's nice when somebody else is on the receiving end," She shrugged. "Normally, all drama resolves or...revolvevet...or...resolved...I forget the word, but it's all connected to me. It's nice to hear about someone else's drama,"
"I think you mean that all drama 'revolves around you'," Harry told her. "Truth be told, same for me. Ron and Hermione were my best friends, but since this tournament, we've had a disagreement. They believe I entered this tournament, I believe that I don't need friends that I can't trust a hundred percent."
"If you did not enter yourself into this tournament then who did?" She asked.
"A dead man walking is my best guess," Harry said, straight-faced. Fleur opened her mouth to respond but trailed off as they arrived outside of Professor Flitwick's office. Harry raised his hand and knocked on the door.
"Come in," A squeaky voice called, Harry opened the door and walked in with Fleur to see Professor Flitwick sitting behind his desk. "Hello Mr Potter, I thought our meeting wasn't for another twenty minutes or so," He frowned as he glanced at his wristwatch before realising that Harry wasn't alone. "Ah, forgive me, you would be Miss Delacour, the Beauxbaton champion, correct?"
"Oui, I am," Fleur confirmed with a nod.
"She wanted to meet with you, Professor," Harry explained. "I'll leave you two to it," He said, taking a step back. "I'll see you in the courtyard for our lesson, Sir," Harry added before turning and walking away, once he was far enough away he decided to start conversing with the voice in his head.
'So, what do we do know?' Harry wondered.
'The Spiders,' Venom decided. 'We'll go to them, see if they found anything.'
'Fair idea,' Harry decided. 'We'll go at night,'
'We do our best work then,' Venom agreed.
"What have you to report?" Venom questioned, perched on top of a tree in his sleek form, looking down at the acromantula nest in front of him. The acromantulas stayed deathly still, not one of them twitched, wisely remembering the last spider that had antagonised him.
"My King," A young spider spoke up nervously. "We've been unable to get too close, the humans fired spells at us. But we've heard very loud noises,"
"Noises?" Venom repeated impatiently.
"Roars, King." Another spider spoke up quickly. "Loud roars, belonging to a mighty beast. We know not what it is, but it's dangerous."
"Beasts!" Another spider corrected. "More than one, I'm sure of it. Dangerous, King, very dangerous!"
"So are we," Venom growled. "We'll scout out the beasts ourselves," He decided, he tensed, preparing to leap before Harry sent a meaningful cough at him via his head, causing him to pause and look at the spiders. "Thanks for your help," He said appreciatively before leaping through the air and swinging away. "Was that necessary?" He asked his other half.
'If they're serving us then it helps to be polite,' Harry mentally replied. 'Even if they didn't help that much, if it's just fear all the time then eventually they'll rebel. That's what happened with me and the Dursleys, remember?'
'I was there,' Venom replied dryly as they got near the holding area.
A loud roar was heard, sending vibrations down Venom's body, causing the black goo to start shifting temporarily. The roar was unpleasant but thankfully not painful or bad enough to disable him, a small mercy that Venom was thankful for. He landed on top of a thick branch of a nearby tree and promptly froze as he saw the very beasts that the spiders had mentioned. In four very large cages were four unholy offsprings of fire and death, large apex predators that feared nothing apart from their own kind.
Dragons.
"Shit!" Venom cursed when one of them let out a particularly hot fire blast that shot up into the air like a volcano. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" He jumped back and quickly swung away. "This is worse than I thought! We should cancel our plan immediately."
'What? No! No, we're not cancelling our plan,' Harry declared. 'We can't back out now.'
"They're dragons, Harry!" Venom decided to remind him as he landed on the side of a tree. "Massive Fire-breathing dragons! Fire is a bit of a weakness of mine if you'll recall!"
'And you're bonded with a fairly decent wizard if I do say so myself,' Harry responded. 'We'll figure a way around it,'
"It won't be easy," Venom growled.
'I fought the world's biggest snake with my headmaster's bird, an ancient and incredibly floppy hat and an old sword, I have no preparation for most of my adventures. This won't be the worst thing I've done.'
"True," Venom said thoughtfully. "Do you have a plan?"
'Initiate 'Plan Granger',' Harry said simply.
"The library!" Venom said with furious determination.
"Dragons, dragons, which fuckwit thought that it was a good idea to bring dragons for a school tournament?" Harry muttered as he sat in the library looking through a book on dragons. Truth be told he could have probably just skimmed the whole book in seconds and have Venom remember the whole thing, but it'd look weird for him just to pick up a book and read it in seconds before putting it back. Besides, the reading did at least give him something to do.
From what he had read so far, dragons came in various different sizes depending on the type of dragon, some even became big enough to eat other dragons. Their scaled armour was thick and protective against all but the worst magic, at the very least it wouldn't be damaged by most of the legally allowed magic available to the average wizard in wizarding Britain unless you added a good bit of extra power into your spells. Naturally, they were also great at breathing fire, something that didn't help Venom's mood.
"Hold it," Harry muttered. "Resistant to all forms of fire,"
'Huh, that'd be nice,' Venom grunted. A second later Harry went still as an idea came to his head, somehow he could tell that Venom had just had the same idea.
'Venom,' Harry said.
'Yeah?'
'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?'
'I am,'
'Good,'
'Indeed,'
'I'm hungry,'
'Chocolate?'
Very soon, the day of the first task arrived, a Gryffindor uniform had arrived for him to wear but he had chosen to instead go with his own look. Black dragonhide boots combined with black trousers, along with it was a full-sleeved black shirt. He'd had been tempted to add more but decided to keep it simple. For the first task, he was supposed to meet the other champions in a tent and he was heading there now.
'Alright, are you ready?' Venom asked as Harry walked to the tent.
'Nope, but I'm still going,' Harry answered honestly, he was about to say more when someone called his name. He looked to his right and saw Hagrid rushing over to him, looking pretty worried. "Alright, Hagrid?" Harry asked.
"Harry, you're going to compete in the task?!" Hagrid asked in a worried tone. "I thought you weren't competing, if I knew I would have told you. I know what the task is, I'm not supposed to be telling you but you need to know. It's dragons, Harry, big ones and they're really dangerous and..."
"Hagrid," Harry cut him off before someone could hear and get Hagrid into trouble. "I know what the task is,"
"Yeah, and I...wait...what? You know?!" Hagrid asked, sounding shocked and relieved.
"Dumbledore's not the only person in the castle with tricks," Harry smiled, tapping his nose.
"You're a sharp one, aren't you?" Hagrid chuckled, patting him on the shoulder. "Reckon your dad would be proud of you, and your mum, though you'd probably drive them spare as well."
"Maybe," Harry smiled. "Thank you, Hagrid, you're a good one."
"Nah," Hagrid blushed, waving him off. "You're the good one, Harry. I should probably be going now, I'll see you later, okay? Good luck!" He gave Harry a thumbs-up before walking off.
"He's a good one," Harry sighed.
'He is,' Venom agreed, truth be told, he didn't think the man was that competent, but he was at least loyal to Harry, so he was okay in Venom's book, at least for now.
Harry took in a deep breath before he continued walking to the tent that had been set up near a stadium that had been built quite recently considering that it wasn't there last year. Once he entered the tent he looked around and saw the other champions, Krum was leaning against a post with his usual surly look whilst Cedric was pacing back and forth, muttering to himself. Meanwhile, Fleur was sitting calmly on a bench, looking perfectly at ease if you missed the stiffness of her body and the way her neck seemed tiger than usual. Harry coughed and they all looked towards him.
"So, nice day for a tournament, huh?"