"Harry?" Cedric blurted out. "I thought you weren't competing," He said in a confused tone.
"I had considered it and found that it'd be beneficial to me if I did compete," Harry shrugged. "So, everyone feeling good?" He asked casually.
"Hello, champions!" A cheery voice interrupted just as Rita Skeeter walked into the tent, dressed up in nice clothes (at least for her) with her hair curled up into some elaborate sort of bun and she supported about half a ton more make-up than usual. Following her was the forgettable-looking cameraman who always accompanied her. "It's such a pleasure to see you all again," She said in a sanguine voice. "I wish you all the best of luck, of course, hopefully, there won't be any accidents but if there are then please try and angle your faces towards the camera so we can properly capture your final moments." She said in a kind voice that really didn't fit with what she had just said.
Cedric bristled at her words, Krum merely grunted at her before looking away. Fleur sent the reporter a withering glare while Harry leaned back on a tent pole and stared at the reporter who was smiling at all four of them.
"Of course, we won't be hoping for that," Rita quickly added before turning to Krum. "Hello handsome," She smiled. "You're the tournament favourite, you know, perhaps you'd be interested in giving your adoring fans a few words?" She asked hopefully, Krum stared at her like she was a bug. Eventually, she got the hint and looked away from him, dismissing Cedric and Fleur before locking her gaze on Harry. "Harry," She grinned widely as she took a step forward and stared at him hungrily. "How good to meet you again, perhaps you've changed your mind about giving me that interview?"
"We've read your last article about us," Harry replied, tilting his head slightly.
"Of course you all have," Rita nodded, as if expecting nothing less.
"Even a five-year-old would be able to tell our...I mean my age and you somehow got that wrong," Harry started. "You also didn't mention my mother whilst also implying things about my dead father and for some reason or the other, you portrayed me as a crying, little brat. Why on Earth do you think I'd possibly want to give you an interview if that's what you do without me saying a thing?"
"Harry," Rita let out a sigh, speaking in a condescending tone. "If you don't give me an interview then how can I fix that?"
"You want me to give you what you want and advance your career because you can't do your job?" Harry asked in an amused tone. "That's cute, Miss Skittles, but I don't think that's going to happen. After all, when a woman in her fifties can still not..."
"I'm not fifty!" She glared at him. "And that's not my name."
"How on Earth is anyone supposed to work out your age when you wear that much makeup?" Harry replied. "Either way, there will be no interviews for you, Miss Scooter," He continued, ignoring the expression on her face. "You see, what I had given you that day was a test, Miss Scooter."
"Skeeter!"
"A test to see what you would do," Harry continued. "If you had passed then you would have gotten as many interviews as you want from me," Harry fibbed, he had no intention of ever giving this woman an interview, not that he was letting her know that. "Alas, you performed at the usual level you've been performing all of your career. So that means no interviews from me." He added, causing Rita to turn red with anger and perhaps a little bit of embarrassment if he was reading her right, he idly noticed a chuckle or two from his fellow champions. Rita opened her mouth to speak but he quickly cut her off. "Therefore, that means my interview today will not be with you, it's alright though, I've contacted an entirely different reporter to help out."
"A diff...a different..." She stuttered, sounding like she simply couldn't fathom how he managed to say those words in that order. "Who on Earth..."
"Sorry that I'm late," An airy voice spoke up.
Everyone in the tent turned to see Luna Lovegood step into the tent, dressed in her usual school uniform, but also with a few added differences. In one hand was a notepad and quill with a pink cover that was covered in stars along with a couple of unicorns, multi-coloured birds and one blue moon. In her other hand, she held a blue-feathered quill that she absently used to scratch her cheek. She had two badges on her uniform, one said 'Press' and the other said 'Pass', accompanying this look was a lanyard that hung from her neck, holding a small camera along with a sign that said 'Please read my badges'. On top of her head, was a brown deerstalker hat for some reason. To complete her look, she had painted a red lightning bolt on her forehead, a yellow 'C' on her left cheek, a blue 'F' on her right cheek and a red 'V' on her chin.
"Forgive me," Luna said dreamily, staring at something in the distance. "I was distracted on the way here by a trio of lapta-tiblialisis."
"What are they?" Krum couldn't stop himself from asking.
"Lapta-tiblialisis," Luna repeated. "It's a type of bird that goes around, leaving a series of miniature gas clouds in the air that are designed to make people sneeze. Not much of a threat on their own but if you sneeze enough then you could do some damage. I'm surprised that your school hasn't taught you about them, I've known about them since my first year." Everyone stared at her for a few long moments before Krum began looking down and muttering about the standards of his school's magical creature classes.
"Emm...excuse me," Cedric coughed. "But...what's up with that hat?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Really?" Fleur snorted. "Of all the things you could ask about, you wish to discuss the hat?" She told Cedric who flushed red.
"Yes, that is a rather uninteresting question," Luna agreed. "Besides, if you must know, then this is my backup journalist hat. My main one got lost two years ago and I've never remembered to buy another one. I suspect nargles are behind it," She revealed, as serious as stone. Cedric stared at her for a moment before Krum rubbed his eyes while muttering something about his education.
"J...journalist hat?" Rita repeated, looking like she was trying to fight off a persistent headache.
"Yes, every serious journalist has a hat," Luna explained patiently, though she did seem a little confused as to why something that was so clearly obvious needed explaining.
"That's ridiculous!"
"Every serious journalist has a hat," Luna repeated. "Everyone knows that." She added.
"Yep," Harry spoke up.
"Oui," Fleur nodded.
"Of course," Cedric happily played along.
"I agree," Krum grunted.
"And what about all of that?!" Rita demanded, gesturing to the painted letters and lightning bolt on Luna's face.
"I didn't know who to root for," Luna admitted. "Harry's my favourite but I do like all the champions, they all have nice bums."
"Oui," Fleur nodded somberly.
"You have a lot of make-up on," Luna told Rita who was slowly getting redder and redder. "That's not good for your long-term skin health, could attract sysim-babwi-babwibians."
"Anyway," Harry cut in before Rita could burst a blood vessel. "Luna is here to interview me for the tournament," He told his other champions. "I'm sure she'd be happy to interview the rest of you as well."
"Oh yes," Luna nodded happily. "My father would really appreciate it,"
"Your father?" Rita asked suspiciously.
"Yes, he owns, writes, publishes and distributes the 'Quibbler'."
"The Quibbler?!" Rita shrieked. "That...garbage magazine about weird and imaginary animals and crackpot ministry theories?!" She turned to Harry with a horrified look on her face. "You're going to allow her to interview you?! I...but the Daily Prophet is..."
"You should have passed the test, Miss Screecher," Harry said, managing to sound at least a little bit apologetic.
"This is not the end of this!" Rita hissed before turning around and storming out, violently pulling her cameraman along with her.
"No, it's not," Harry quietly agreed, knowing full well that sooner or later, a lawsuit would be hitting the Daily Prophet.
"That was awesome," Cedric grinned at Harry.
"Thank Luna," Harry replied in an amused voice before turning to Cedric and frowning. "Seriously, thank her."
Cedric's response was cut off as a group of people arrived in the tent, in the front was Dumbledore, accompanying him were the other school heads and behind them were Bagman and Percy. Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak first before pausing as he noticed Luna was also in the tent.
"Miss Lovegood?" He asked in a confused voice. "What are you doing here?"
"Reporting," Luna chirped, holding up her quill and notepad.
"How marvellous," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "For your father, I assume,"
"Oh yes, he's quite excited about it," She revealed.
"Well, that's good to know, however, I'm afraid that now is not the time. There is a conference after the first task for the champions to be asked questions, I will personally make sure that you are invited to it." Dumbledore told her.
"Thank you, Sir, I guess I'd best be going now," Luna said before turning to everyone. "Bye guys," She waved. "Watch out for the Muss-minns!" She called before leaving.
"Thanks, Luna," Cedric called out as she left.
"I'm sorry, did anyone else hear 'Muslims'?" Harry wondered.
"Muffins," Fleur corrected him.
"Actually, Miss Delacour, she said 'Muss-minns'," Dumbledore told her. "A sub-species of magical iguana, mostly found in south-east Asia and north-west of Canada and occasionally in the North Pole during the summer, though they never head to the South Pole. They burrow into their victim's body from their..." He trailed off as he noticed the looks that he was getting from everyone. "The Quibbler is a very fine news organisation," He huffed defensively.
"Right..." Percy looked like he was visibly struggling not to comment and instead turned towards Harry. "I was under the impression that you would not be competing," He said with a small frown.
"Well, I certainly did appreciate the help you've given me, but I've considered my options and decided that it was better to compete," Harry shrugged. "Though, once again, I am really appreciative of the help you've given me. You're a credit to the ministry," Harry told Percy who blushed slightly as he puffed his chest out.
'Same old, Percy,' Harry thought amusedly. 'Just takes a bit of flattery, kind of like you, Venom.'
'The fuck did you say?' Venom asked warningly.
"Well, thank you," Percy smiled at him. "I think that..."
"Anyway," Ludo cut in. "How are you all doing, ready for the task?" He asked the champions excitedly.
"Umm...about that," Cedric said hesitantly before deciding to voice the question on all of the champion's minds. "What exactly is our task?" He asked. At once, every pair of eyes in the tent turned to face Ludo who let out a small squeak.
"Ah, I thought I had forgotten something," He frowned thoughtfully.
"You forgot the entire task?!" Karkaroff blurted out. "Have you taken leave of your head?"
'Your head will be in my stomach,' Venom growled. 'Soon,'
"The task is quite simple," Dumbledore said before Ludo could respond. "Each of you is tasked with retrieving an object, a golden egg. It has been placed in the arena outside, and each of you will take turns trying to retrieve your eggs. You will then be judged on your attempt, your judgement will be based on how quickly you complete your tasks along with how you complete it."
"That's it?" Cedric frowned.
"Oh, there is more to it than that," Dumbledore assured him. "Each egg is guarded by a dragon,"
"A dragon?!" Cedric gaped. Harry noticed that Krum and Fleur didn't look that surprised, meaning that they had likely found out about the task beforehand as well.
'How?' Venom wondered. 'They don't have a spider army, that's our thing!'
'Likely their headmaster's told them,' Harry responded. 'Karkaroff doesn't surprise me,'
'Hmm, let's kill him,' Venom suggested.
'Set a date,' Harry told him before focusing on the conversation in front of him.
"I promise," Dumbledore was saying to Cedric. "All you have to do is retrieve the egg, you do not have to harm the dragon. The dragon handlers will be on standby, ready to stop the task if things get too out of hand. Simply retrieve the egg and come back."
"Are there any other rules?" Harry asked.
"Do not bring any items into the arena besides your wands, obviously no illegal spells as well. That's pretty much it," Percy Weasley summed up.
"Indeed, thank you, Mr Weasley," Dumbledore said, causing Percy to puff up again predictably. "Now, Mr Weasley, if you can hand me the bag, ah yes, thank you. In this bag, there is a small model of your chosen dragon, with each dragon there will also be a number that will decide the order in which you compete. Take your picks," He said, holding the bags out. One by one, each champion came over and took out a dragon. Harry hissed slightly as he felt his model dragon bite him, he looked down and saw what he recognised as a Hungarian Horntail. Not the biggest or strongest species of dragon, but certainly the most vicious, at least according to his research. It was the most volatile of dragons, and least likely to not attack, meaning Harry definitely had a fight on his hands.
"So," Percy looked at each dragon. "Mr Diggory first, followed by Miss Delacour, Mr Krum and then finally Harry Potter."
"This is going to be so exciting!" Ludo grinned, looking positively gleeful at the idea of four students fighting dragons.
'Fuck this guy!' Venom roared.
'The wait is killing me,' Harry mentally complained.
'Better than the dragon killing you,' Venom replied.
'True,' Harry allowed himself a brief snort of amusement as he sat on a bench, talking with Venom. He noticed Krum on the opposite side of the tent, silent as wood, while Fleur was sitting on her own bench, practising her wand movements. Harry looked at the model dragon in his hand, watching as it snarled and growled and moved menacingly up and down his palm. Cedric had gone out a couple of minutes ago for his attempt at the task, Harry hoped he would do well.
'Do you think we should have told him about the task?' Harry asked Venom. 'Fleur and Krum clearly know about the task, Cedric was the only one who didn't.'
'Well, it's not like we have the time turner with us anymore,' Venom grunted. 'He'll be fine. Probably. Hopefully. Maybe.'
"Are you okay?" An accented voice asked, Harry looked up to see Fleur sitting next to him. "You seem quite distracted," She noted. "Nervous?"
"Why would I be?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow, earning a look that quite plainly said 'Don't be so dense'.
"We are about to fight dragons, and in case you haven't noticed, you have ended up with the horntail, the most..."
"Aggressive species of dragon, I know," Harry cut her off. "I did my research,"
"Truly?" Fleur asked, sounding quite interested. "That means you knew about the task?"
"Do you want to tell me that you didn't?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. "Let me guess, your headmistress told you, right?"
"And how did you learn about it? Your headmaster?" She guessed.
"Nope, it just helps to have friends in the right places," Harry smirked. "So, I'm assuming you've got a plan of some sort ready,"
"Why? Need some advice?" She asked innocently.
"I have my own plan, obviously mine is better than yours," Harry said matter-of-factly.
"And how do you figure that?"
"Because I'll be the one to win the task, obviously," Harry shrugged.
"You believe that you, the youngest and least educated of all of us, will be the one to win when you have the most aggressive dragon?"
"Youngest? Yes. Least educated? Fair enough. But I'm also the strongest one here. Let me tell you something, Miss Delacour, I've fought worse than a large fire-breathing lizard and I've become stronger since. Don't worry about me, worry about yourself, you'll need the help more than me."
"Hmm, perhaps you are simply trying to impress me," She hummed thoughtfully, giving him a challenging look.
"I don't have anything I need to prove to you or anyone else," Harry replied, staring right into her eyes. "Think what you want of me, it's what everyone does and it doesn't matter to me anymore. To paraphrase a certain French girl, I will be whoever I am, anything less is a shame."
"Hmm," Fleur stared at him for a moment. "You do not drool," She noted curiously.
"Beg your pardon?" Harry blinked just before a canon blast was heard.
"I guess that that's my signal," Fleur stood up. "Good luck, Mr Potter," She told him before turning and walking away.
"Women are so confusing," Harry muttered.
"Agreed," Krum grunted from his side of the tent. "Potter, I must ask you a question, if you don't mind?"
"What is it?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Do you think there are any of those creatures the reporter girl mentioned in this tent?" He asked with a deep frown. "My magical creatures class did not teach me about any of them. I don't know how to recognise them,"
"Oh, well..."
"I am particularly worried about that last creature she mentioned, I hope it's not in this tent. What was it called? The one that your headmaster talked about it. Started with 'M', was it...what was the word... 'Muslims'?"
"My uncle always told me you got to watch out for them," Harry said sagely.
'Our time is coming,' Venom said shortly after Krum had left to go and compete.
'Yeah,' Harry replied as he looked down at the model dragon in his hand. 'You remember the plan?'
'We've got this,' Venom said confidently just as the model bit Harry on the hand.
'Yeah,' Harry agreed, his hand turning black before two tentacles shot out and wrapped around the model. It shrieked and screamed just as rows of small white teeth suddenly surrounded it, the teeth closed in and covered it whilst the tentacles held it down. A second later, Harry's hand returned to normal and the model was nowhere in sight. 'We got this,' Harry agreed just before the canon fired, signalling that it was their turn to go.
'Time to fight,' Venom told him as he stood up.
"It's not every day I have to kill a dragon," Harry frowned before heading out to the arena.
Once Harry had entered the arena, he had managed a few seconds to look around and take note of his surroundings. Above him, the arena was surrounded by stands filled to the brim with students from all three schools, he could see some students holding signs of support for different champions, he had quite a few himself. On the opposite end of the arena was a large tower that held a few seats for the tournament judges, Harry resisted the urge to promptly shoot his most powerful spell at it when he saw Karkaroff sneering at him. The arena itself was a grey rocky floor, and covered all over in large rocks of various sizes, some as big as Harry and some twice as big and some even larger.
He had barely taken a few steps when the dragon landed on one of the nearby rocks, and Harry finally got a close look at it. It was lizard-like and big enough that it could probably swallow him in a single bite, its scales were black as night and its body was covered in hundreds of yellow spikes. Its yellow eyes fixed on him and it only took a second for him to see the rage and hunger that possessed this monstrous creature. It raised its wings and reared back, opening its mouth, a green gas appeared in its throat.
Harry jumped to the side, barely avoiding the fire blast that missed him by mere inches. The flames were hotter than anything Harry had ever felt, he could feel Venom's discomfort vibrating through his whole body. He aimed his wand and shot a purple spell that bounced harmlessly off of the dragon's nose. It glared at him, Harry was ready to shoot another spell when it started roaring, loudly.
Harry's research had told him that the common thing that would happen when a dragon roars is paralysing fear and perhaps a busted ear drum or two, whoever wrote that obviously did not have a symbiote in their body. While his human self was paralysed, his passenger ended up experiencing a large amount of discomfort that shot up into him, Harry let out a scream as he fell down to the ground, feeling like his head had been hit with a hammer. To the watchers around them it looked like Harry had simply been blown off his feet by that dragon's roar, not a single one of them knew that his head felt like Hagrid was doing cartwheels inside of it.
'That's pissing me off!' Venom roared in Harry's head just before he forced Harry to roll out of the way of another fireblast, Venom handed back control and Harry rushed up to his feet.
'Ditto!' Harry growled back before levitating the nearest rock and sending it straight at the dragon's head, it shattered upon contact, causing the dragon to stumble back before it leapt at him. "Lumos maxima!" Harry yelled, a massive light shining out of his wand and blinding the dragon, Harry jumped to the side as it crashed into the rocks behind him, the dragon's tail flicked at him and a hastily put up shield stopped any damage but didn't stop Harry from being thrown across the arena.
He was tempted to have Venom help him with the landing but he wasn't intending to reveal him to the public anytime soon. A hastily cast spell on the floor caused it to turn soft, Harry bounced right off of it, flipping backwards in midair and landing on his feet in time to see the dragon leap on top of another rock. It raised its head, green gas once more pilling up in its throat.
"Reducto!" Harry cast quickly, his spell shattering the rock that the dragon had landed on and causing it to fall right to the floor, freeing Harry up to shatter a nearby rock. He raised the broken pieces into the air and transfigured them into small daggers before sending them straight at the dragon's face, most of them bounced harmlessly off of the dragon's face, though one managed to get stuck in its gums while a second pierced one of its eyes, causing it to roar once more.
It was all Harry could do to stay standing, thankfully for Venom, his sound weakness was far less severe when he was inside Harry's body, though with that being said, the dragon could still roar pretty loud.
'KILL IT!' Venom roared.
'Happily!' Harry snapped before shooting apart another rock. "Draconifors!" His spell turned the broken bits of rocks into a large bunch of mini dragons that Harry sent right at the horntail before repeating the process with two more rocks. "Let's deal with that mouth first," Harry growled, aiming his wand at the dragon as its head was swarmed by dozens of dragons. It waved its head repeatedly, swatting a few of them before it grew irritated enough to open its mouth, ready to burn them. Harry waited until he once more saw the green gas appear in its throat. "Confringo!" He yelled, a fiery orange spell burst out from his wand and rocketed straight at the dragon, entering its mouth and causing a mini-explosion in its throat.
The dragon staggered back, coughing wildly and loudly as the miniature dragons kept attacking it, they weren't doing much damage but their repeated attempts to attack the dragon's eyeballs had caused it to keep its eyes closed, especially since it was no longer capable of burning them. It tried to roar once more but let out what sounded more like a cough.
'That's better,' Venom said approvingly just as Harry raised his wand into the air.
"Fumos maxima!" Smoke appeared from the tip of Harry's wand, pouring out at high speed until soon the entire arena was covered in a grey fog, the only thing visible to the audience was the tip of the dragon's raised tail and a few rocks. "That's big enough," Harry said before his free arm was covered in a familiar black goo that spread to the rest of his body.
"Come on, Harry," Tonks muttered worriedly as she stood in her position. She was supposed to be guarding the area that the champions would go after completing the task, It was a small box, that was on top of the arena, opposite the judge's tower. Cedric was probably the worst off of all the champions, at least so far, supporting a burnt arm and a large scratch on his back, which was why the champion was covered in bandages. Krum was relatively uninjured with the exception of a couple of bruises. As for Fleur, she was the least injured, having only burnt a bit of her clothes.
As of the moment, Tonks had forgotten that she had a job to do and was currently watching as Harry actually fought against his dragon. Unlike the other dragons, the horntail had abandoned its nest and charged straight for Harry the second he had entered the arena. He had a few near misses but was seemingly holding his own pretty damn well.
"He's doing well," Krum noted, he and the other champions were also watching from the safety of the glass box.
"Better than me at least," Cedric said despondently, frowning heavily at his bandages.
"Oui," Fleur said, staring intently at the arena. "Strong indeed," She whispered to herself. "I hope he'll be okay," She said out loud.
"He will," Tonks said firmly. "He will be okay," She repeated firmly before mentally chanting the same thing again and again, using the words to crush down her doubts.
"I hope so," Fleur replied just before the arena became covered in smoke. "What's he doing?" She wondered.
"Whatever it is, I hope it's good," Cedric said. "He'll need something big to beat that dragon,"
"Maybe he's trying to sneak past it like you did," Krum theorised. "After all, no student his age could beat a dragon,"
Tonks was about to reply when suddenly a large boom was heard, her gaze snapped back to the arena in time to see the dragon, head-first in the air with its entire body off the ground with the exception of its tail. A large, white and very sharp tooth flew out of its mouth and landed back in the smoke-covered arena just before the dragon landed back-first on the ground, shaking the arena itself hard enough that all the people in the champion's box could feel it.
"Whoa!" Tonks gasped just before the dragon stood up, its head barely peeking out of the smoke, blood pouring out of its mouth as it stared directly in front of it. Tonks saw its eye and for a brief moment thought she saw a plea for help before a seemingly panicked look appeared on its face, the dragon was pulled back and thrown across the arena, pushing smoke out of the way as it crashed directly into the judge's tower. The tower shook at the impact, Percy had fallen off his chair while Bagman had landed on his back with the chair under him, Madam Maxime had ended up halfway over the table while Karkroff had somehow ended up under the table. Dumbledore was the only one who had managed to not fall over, but even then the headmaster was leaning on the table.
"I stand corrected," Krum said blankly whilst Dumbledore waved his wand and pulled everyone back into their seats before fixing the tower so it wouldn't collapse.
The dragon tried to take to the air and was promptly met with a couple of large rocks to the face, causing it to stumble in the air before it continued flying up. The smoke from the arena changed colour into a seafoam green and followed after it until Harry was once more visible, moving his wand like a conductor, commanding the smoke to follow after the dragon. The horntail ascended higher and higher into the air but the smoke caught up to it quickly, covering the dragon in a green smoke ball. A red spell shot out from Harry's wand and the smoke burst into a massive ball of fire, causing everyone to temporarily close their eyes.
Once Tonks opened hers, she managed to see the dragon plummeting down to the ground, it landed hard, once more shaking the entire arena. Its landing ended up sending a few rocks at Harry who had thankfully managed to shield himself in time. Tonks watched as Harry simply walked over to the fallen dragon, bold as brass, fearless and completely at ease, as if he was about to tell off a particularly irritating first-year. She looked at the other champions, Cedric was staring with wide eyes, looking like this was the first time he had ever seen Harry. Krum was muttering under his breath, eyes fixed on the fight that was going on. And Fleur...
She saw that Fleur was staring at Harry with thinly disguised hunger, staring at him like he was a particularly juicy piece of meat. A frown appeared on Tonks's face before she forced herself to focus on the arena, pushing down the sudden feeling of irritation she was feeling.
She watched as the dragon raised its head, only to be slapped down by an explosive spell from Harry, it screeched at him as he grew near. The dragon snapped its mouth at Harry who responded by firing a spell directly into its mouth, causing it to pull back and let out another screech of pain before Harry placed his hand on the monstrous reptile's jaw. Harry raised his wand and several large rocks the size of himself floated up into the air.
"He's certainly not lacking in magical power," Fleur smiled widely.
Tonks was tempted to comment on that but fell silent as Harry transfigured each rock into a large spear. With a wave of his arm, the spears all flew directly into the dragon's mouth, Harry stepped backwards and turned around, walking away from the dragon, utterly uncaring of the incredibly dangerous beast he had left behind him, a beast that Tonks was pretty sure was now dead, judging by the way it was not moving and how much blood was pouring out of it. Harry headed to the nest, grabbed the egg and raised it high into the air. The arena erupted with cheers, many people could be heard chanting his name, not that he seemed to care as he walked straight out of the arena.
About a minute later, Harry entered the room, holding his egg.
"What'd I miss?" He asked casually as if he hadn't just defeated the most aggressive species of dragon known to man. "Oh, hey Tonks!" He barely managed to smile before Tonks pulled him into a tight hug.
"I was so worried about you!" She admitted, hugging him tightly.
"Oh," He whispered before hugging her with the one arm that wasn't holding the egg. "Sorry about that," He said apologetically. "Downside of knowing me, I guess."
"Yeah, well, the perks had better be amazing," She said jokingly once she finally let go of him.
"Harry, that was amazing!" Cedric blurted out. "You were awesome,"
"Thanks, um...what happened to you?" Harry couldn't help but ask.
"Dragons like me," Cedric said, dry as sand.
"Ah," Harry said, understandingly.
"You are a very good competitor, good competition," Krum said approvingly. "You are hurt?"
"I'm fine," Harry shook his head.
"You certainly look fine," Fleur said silkily, stepping past Tonks and placing a hand on Harry's chest. "You are truly not hurt?"
"I've been far worse," Harry said dismissively before smirking at her. "Told you that you didn't need to worry about me, didn't I?"
"Perhaps you are right," She smirked back, her hand still lingering on his chest. "At first, I thought that you were perhaps just a little boy in a tournament that you shouldn't be in. Apparently, I was wrong," She smiled, staring right into his eyes just as Madam Pomfrey entered the room.
"Mr Potter, to your bed," She ordered, pointing to one of the four beds in the room.
"I'm uninjured," Harry protested, and it was true. Any damage he had picked up had been near-instantly healed by Venom.
"I'll be the judge of that," She said firmly, Harry was about to protest again when Tonks suddenly grabbed him and pulled him away from Fleur.
"Let her do her job, Harry," She said, pulling him to the bed. "Better to be safe than sorry, eh?" She said, lightly pushing him into bed. Madam Pomfrey began firing off several spells before he could even open his mouth.
"Hmm," She frowned, Harry couldn't help but feel like the woman looked disappointed. "You are seemingly fine,"
"Really?" Harry couldn't help how dry he made his voice, thankfully Madam Pomfrey hadn't noticed as she was still staring at him like he was a confusing puzzle. After a couple more spells, she decided to walk off. "Anyway, is there a toilet around here?" Harry wondered.
"Just there," Tonks pointed to a nearby door.
"Thanks, look after this for me," Harry told Tonks, handing her the egg before heading into the toilet. Once he had closed and locked the door, he pulled his wand out and aimed it at his hand, he allowed a small fire to appear on the tip of his wand. Harry took his free hand and wrapped it around the fire. Harry watched, amazed at the fact that he could feel the heat, but was not feeling any pain. He pulled his hand back and grinned, seeing not even a small burn mark.
'Success!' Venom said, letting out a furiously happy growl.