The Intelligent Potter

*** Later

"ARE YOU READY FOR THE FIRST TASK OF THE ONE, THE ONLY, TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT!" Ludo Bagman yelled out at the top of his magically magnified voice.

The deafening cheer that returned was definitely sufficient evidence of the audience's excitement.

Everyone had been seated in the Quidditch stadium which had been magically modified to have a large protective dome in the middle for the contestants to fight within.

Not only had students been allowed to witness the event, tickets had also been sold for others to come and watch the event.

The ticket sales were record-breaking for any non-World Cup event, even outstripping the pretty good turnouts for the British and Irish Quidditch League which had taken place earlier that year, making it the biggest European sporting event of the year.

"THE FIRST TASK WILL TEST THE BRAVERY AND METTLE OF OUR CHAMPIONS! THEY WILL HAVE TO PICK A GOLDEN EGG FROM THE NEST OF A MOTHER DRAGON!"

Once more, the cheers went through the roof. Both Fleur and Krum seemed to have known about the dragons beforehand but it was certainly a surprise to Harry, although thankfully, he and Hermione had discussed contingency plans for all of the major creatures including dragons.

The conjunctivitis curse was most likely to be effective when facing a dragon, but even a blind dragon could be dangerous, so he would have to be on guard.

"NOW, OUR CONTESTANTS MUST PICK THEIR DRAGONS! LET'S HAVE MS FLEUR DELACOUR UP HERE NOW, LADIES FIRST AFTER ALL!"

Fleur went up to Bagman's podium and picked a miniature dragon model out of a bag, getting the Welsh Green.

Krum also went up and got a Swedish Shortsnout.

"AND NOW, FOR OUR YOUNGEST CHAMPION…HARRY POTTER!"

Harry went up, the picture of calm collectedness and picked his own dragon out of the bag.

"AND HARRY POTTER HAD DRAWN THE MOST FEROCIOUS OF THEM ALL! THE HUNGARIAN HORNTAIL!"

Shit.

Harry went up to the stands to sit with Hermione to watch the first two contestants go their turns.

Fleur's plan seemed to be to try and enchant the dragon to sleep with her veela magic but it only slightly worked, apparently veela magic was most effective on humans and her aura only managed to make the dragon mildly sleepy and blink a few times.

She tried to use this to her advantage and ran quickly in a bid to get the egg before the dragon realized what she was doing, hoping her magic would slow it down enough for her to do so in time.

Unfortunately for Fleur, it wasn't, the dragon blinked off any effect of her magic when it saw its precious eggs in danger and roared loudly, breathing fire at Fleur lightly.

Angered by the dragon, Fleur turned to her veela form and fought the dragon head on.

Her veela form turned her to a large strong and scaly being with wings, allowing her to fly as well, and shoot fireballs at the dragon, taking it head on, which impressed Harry, veelas were far stronger than he had imagined.

When she had been fighting the dragon for almost a minute, her brain kicked in again, and she threw a few balls of fire, using the distraction to fly over the dragon to its eggs and taking the golden one just in time to avoid being roasted, as the golden egg was a portkey that teleported her to Bagman's podium.

For her performance, she got 42 points, getting points taking off for her injuries sustained from the dragon, which were several cuts and bruises as well as some burns which were fading very quickly due to her veela heritage.

Victor's plan seemed to be similar to Harry's.

After a few tries and a few dodges from the dragon's claws and tail, which tended to whip forward to try and strike Krum, he managed to get a conjunctivitis spell into both its eyes.

While he was trying to get to the egg, the dragon's tail smashed him into a rock.

Krum was covered in scratches and bruises but he managed to stumble to the egg.

He got awarded 40 points, losing out because of his injuries.

Harry prepared himself mentally for facing a Hungarian Horntail.

With a deep breath, he walked into the protective bubble, which could only be entered from the outside but required contestants to teleport out from the inside with the portkey to exit.

The horntail was extremely aggressive, shooting flames at Harry before he could even react otherwise.

Harry's reflex saved him, as he quickly managed to summon a wave of water through elemental magic, to counter the fire.

Harry vanished the smoke and shot off a conjunctivitis curse, before ducking to avoid the tail which had come around to smack him like the Shortsnout had done to Krum, except the Horntail's tail had…well horns which would have likely maimed Harry at the very least.

The Horntail had sharp reflexes and managed to dodge the conjunctivitis curse, moving extremely quickly for such a large being.

The dragon rose from its nest and let out a long primal roar.

Harry cursed and began shooting off more conjunctivitis curses as he quickly moved to keep avoiding the bursts of flame that emitted from the mouth of the dragon.

With a flick of the wrist, he sent a large tidal wave of water at the dragon, the sheer power of it pushing the dragon off to the left.

Harry used the opening to his advantage, running towards the golden egg.

The dragon roared and its tail came up to smack him.

In order to protect himself, Harry conjured a quick brick wall to get in the way of the tail.

The wall crumbled to bits within seconds, the large gashes in it representing what would happen to Harry if he was unfortunate enough to be hit by it.

The Horntail had come to its senses and was about to belch more fire at him but he had no time to move anywhere and standing his ground and countering with elemental magic would be even more taxing on his magic which he had all but depleted already.

With an additional spurt of speed, Harry's finger grasped the golden egg and he portkeyed out of the arena…

Into a cemetery in Little Hangleton.

*** End of chapter