Arch Mage, the Path of Magic Chapter 35 (Patreon)

Hey friends and fans, Kairomaru is here with another chapter of Arch Mage, the Path of Magic! The First Task is now upon the three Champions! Three dragons have been brought to Hogwarts: A Chinese Fireball, a Swedish Short-Snout, and a Hungarian Horntail! Who will face which Dragon and what will their methods be to overcome the Task?

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So, without further delay, please enjoy.

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Chapter 35 – First Task

-November 24th ~ First Task-

“You alright, Harry?” Sirius questioned his godson as they sat in the antechamber just off the Great Hall.

The families of the Champions were allowed to attend every event of the Triwizard Tournament without restriction. Harry and Fleur were both sat next to each other and surrounded by their families. Sirius, Tonks, Andromeda, Ted, Marius, Appoline, and even little Gabrielle were gathered around the two Champions.

“I’ll be fine, Sirius.” Harry reassured his godfather with a slight grin. He was only a little nervous, who wouldn’t be going up against a dragon all alone? But Harry had an idea as to how to safely (for a given degree of safe) deal with any dragon he might be put up against.

“I swear I’m going to find a way to make Bagman and Crouch pay for this.” Tonks muttered as she pulled Harry into her side for a hug. This tournament was supposed to be safer than previous ones, and yet the FIRST FUCKING TASK was against dragons of all things!

“Harry put himself into the tournament.” Andromeda sighed while giving Harry a stern look. “We can’t really blame anyone for that.”

Ted nodded once, also giving Harry an exasperated half-smile. “Couldn’t help yourself, eh, Harry?”

“It seemed too interesting to pass up, Uncle.” Harry freely admitted with a grin.

Appoline hugged her eldest daughter close and placed a gently kiss on Fleur’s cheek. “I just want Fleur to be safe.” Then she hugged Harry, surprising the young man, and kissed his cheek as well. “I want you to stay safe as well, Harry.”

Harry blinked once before giving Appoline a smile. “I’ll be fine, Mrs. Delacour.”

“You’re sure that you’ll be okay, ma petite fleur?” Marius asked his daughter, slipping into their native French every now and then out of worry for his eldest child. He hugged her close for probably the eighth time since the pre-task meeting had started.

“Yes, Papa, I have a plan that should be very effective against dragons.” Fleur smiled at her father and hugged him back to ease his worry. She’d prepared for this, taking inspiration from documented accounts of Dragon Handlers and even the known history of the few Witches and Wizards to earn the Title of ‘Dragon Slayer’ in the past.

Andromeda gave Harry a warm hug again as well. “Worry about yourself, more than this Tournament.” She advised her nephew in a soft whisper. The Triwizard Tournament could be relegated to the past forever in Andromeda’s opinion; she just wanted her family to be safe.

“I will, Auntie.” Harry agreed as he gently returned her hug.

“Remember that you probably don’t have to defeat the dragon, Harry.” Sirius said with a smile meant to ease Harry’s nerves. “You just have to complete the Task, whatever it may be.” Left unsaid was that defeating the dragon might ACTUALLY be the Task, for all that they knew.

Harry nodded to his godfather with a small grin of his own. “I’ll remember, Sirius.” But even if the Task WAS to defeat a dragon, Harry had spent quite a while studying up on the great lizards and had found a rather obvious weakness when it came to a certain Branch of Magic.

-Later-

Thirty minutes before the Task, the Champions had to head down to the arena that had been built for the Tournament. They would be waiting in a special tent just for Champions and be given the last details just before the First Task was underway. As Fleur and Harry waited, holding each other’s hand, the three Champions were intruded upon by none other than Rita Skeeter. Harry frowned at the annoying woman -dressed in green robes today- as she walked into the tent as if she belonged there. Following behind the woman was the same camera man from the Wand Weighing that immediately zeroed in on Fleur.

“Champions!” Rita’s smile couldn’t have been more sinister in Harry’s eyes. The woman’s look absolutely oozed smugness and a desire to cause trouble. “If I could have a moment of your time before the First Task.”

“You have no business here.” Viktor glared at the woman; his surly look compounded by his nerves. Not to mention that his first meeting with the vile ‘reporter’ had been nothing but negative.

Fleur looked at Rita disparagingly, the other woman had made it very clear just what kind of person she was at the Wand Weighing ceremony. “I don’t believe any of us has anything to say to you.”

“Get out.” Harry stated plainly and simply to Rita.

Rita smiled at the three of them as if they hadn’t all told her (in politer ways) to fuck off. “Now, now, I only want to ask a few questions.”

“Miss Skeeter, might I inquire as to what you’re doing in the Champion’s Tent?” Dumbledore’s calm, but sharp, voice spoke up from behind Rita and her cameraman. The smile left Rita’s face so quickly Harry would have missed it if he blinked.

“I was just leaving, Dumbledore.” Rita gave him a fake smile as she and the cameraman left the tent in a hurry, passing by Bagman and Crouch on their way out.

Harry, not one to let Rita get away with her nasty attitude and writings, managed to lay a quick Curse upon the woman’s crocodile skin handbag. ‘That should be activating right about…’

“MY PURSE!!!” Rita’s loud cry was even heard inside the tent.

‘Now.’ Harry barely kept his expression from changing. All his curse had done was Vanish the ugly crocodile skin purse as soon as it was opened. Rita hadn’t been able to resist opening it, most likely to get her poisonous quill and start making up a story for the Champions’ Tent, not even a few seconds after being chased away from the tent by Dumbledore. ‘I’m sure it won’t take her long to replace all of her things that got Vanished along with that ugly purse of hers. But for today, there won’t be any of her ‘speculations’ or half-truths.’

“Well, now that we're all here it’s time to fill you in!” Bagman informed with a bright smile. “When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag,” He held up a small sack of purple silk and shook it slightly. “From which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different, uh, varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else too...ah, yes! Your task is to collect the golden egg!”

‘They want us to collect a golden egg from a dragon? So, that whole spiel about this Tournament being safer than previous ones was just an outright bloody lie!’ Harry snarked to himself. Truly, Wizards and Witches didn’t know the difference between danger and entertainment.

Fleur spoke up with a flat stare at Ludo and Crouch. “I fail to see how this Tournament is an anyway safer than those in history.”

“Agreed.” Viktor said with a surly glare at the two Ministry officials. “Facing a dragon, any dragon, is close to suicide. You have us taking an egg from nesting mother dragons?” He looked like he wanted to spit at Crouch and Bagman’s feet.

Harry, wanting to pile onto the two men for their outright lies, decided to speak as well. “I’ve always heard the Ministry was staffed by nepotism rather than capability. You two seem to prove that quite well.”

Crouch, if he didn’t look nearly dead on his feet from exhaustion, might’ve been much sharper in his retort. “Every safety measure has been put in place to ensure that the Champions won’t be overly harmed.” But all he managed was an almost mechanical platitude.

“L-Ladies first.” Bagman, now sweating quite a bit from the rebukes of the Champions, offered the purple silk bag to Fleur.

Fleur put her hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny, perfect model of a silver-scaled dragon, the Swedish Short-Snout, and it had the number two around its neck.

“Mr. Krum?” Bagman held the bag out to Viktor next. The professional Quidditch player reached in and seemed to grimace as he pulled out a red dragon that appeared to be trying to breathe fire on him, the Chinese Fireball. It had the number one around its neck to match Fleur’s model.

“F-Finally, Mr. Potter.” Bagman stuttered out and even looked sympathetically towards the Spellcrafter.

Knowing what was left in the bag; Harry put his hand into it and pulled out the model of the Hungarian Horntail. The tiny model of the vicious dragon was trying to dig its miniscule fangs into Harry’s thumb. The model, as one would expect, had the number three around the neck.

“Well, there you are!” Bagman nodded to the three Champions, looking more than a bit nervous after the previous lambasting he’d received. “You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr. Krum, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear the whistle, all right?”

Viktor only gave him a short nod in response, his glare not lessened at all.

“Do remember, that the rules state you are only permitted your wands.” Crouch spoke up as he turned his tired gaze onto the three Champions. “If you have anything else on you besides your robes, please remove it before you enter the enclosure or you’ll be breaking your contract with the Goblet of Fire.” Seeing that none of the teens were moving to take off any hidden items, Crouch gave them a nod. The three Organizers left to head up to the Judges’ booth so that they could score the Champions’ attempts at the First Task.

Viktor headed over to the tunnel that led into the enclosure while the murmurs of the crowd began to grow louder as the time neared for the First Task to begin. A series of shrieks let Fleur and Harry know when the Chinese Fireball had been revealed to the crowd. Both took each other’s hand for comfort just as the whistle blew loudly and the crowd roared as Viktor entered the enclosure to face the Dragon.

-Arena-

“Hah…” Viktor sighed at seeing the red and gold dragon standing protectively over its nest of eggs.

“ROOAAARRR!!!” The Chinese Fireball roared at Viktor threateningly, a warning not to get closer.

Knowing that he was being timed, Viktor looped his wand, swished it twice, and then pointed at two of the large rocks that littered the floor of what was once clearly a Quidditch pitch. The two large rocks levitated into the air and were launched at the dragon.

FWOOOOSSSHHH

The two small boulders were bathed in fire as they got close to the Chinese Fireball. The wave of flames obscured the dragon’s vision though, which is exactly what Viktor wanted. He rushed forward, ducking between the large boulders and rocks scattered about to hide from the dragon’s gaze.

“ROOOAAARR!!!” The Chinese Fireball bathed the area in fire in hopes of killing or at least scaring off the one approaching her nest.

“Shit…” Viktor hissed out as the temperature of the air alone spiked to nearly burning levels. He peeked around the boulder he was hiding behind and aimed his wand at another large rock. With a bit of focus and five swift wand movements, Viktor cast his spell. “Draconifors Maxima!”

The boulder that the Transfiguration spell hit quickly morphed into a dragon. It had grey scales, was similar in shape to the Chinese Fireball, but was noticeably smaller than the real dragon. Such was the limit of even a powerful and modified Draconifors spell.

“ROOAARR!!!” The transfigured dragon roared at the Chinese Fireball.

“ROOOAAARRR!!!” The Chinese Fireball roared back while spreading her wings to make herself look even bigger.

Viktor made his move while the two dragons stared each other down. He ducked behind a few boulders, always making sure to keep the large rocks between him and the two dragons. Finding a path through the boulders wasn’t difficult as he heard the Chinese Fireball and his transfigured dragon start fighting. He just needed to keep the mother dragon distracted long enough to grab the golden egg.

Fwoooossshh

The transfigured dragon breathed flames at the Chinese Fireball.

However, the real dragon shook them off as if they were merely a warm breeze.

FWOOOOSSSSHHHH

And then bathed the transfigured dragon in intense flames that destroyed the Transfiguration spell entirely.

The blackened stone hit the ground with a heavy thump, smoke rising from it in a thick cloud.

Viktor had managed to get close to the nest, but froze when he saw the mother dragon’s head whip around and catch sight of him. Before the Chinese Fireball could bathe him in flames like it had done to his transfigured dragon, Viktor struck first. “Conjunctivitis!” He whipped his wand through an oval shaped motion and the Chinese Fireball quickly reacted.

“ROOOAAARRR!!!” The mother dragon bellowed as one of her eyes swelled shut, irritated and burning. She staggered a bit before turning her good eye to face the human that had attacked her.

Viktor wasn’t about to let up though, just as he was taught at Durmstrang! Three quick, sharp, and powerful slashes with his wand were followed by the incantation: “Fumus Cultro!” The smoke still rising in the air from all of the flames twisted into itself and became a swarm of daggers. “Oppungo!” A quick wave of his wand and the multitude of blades all shot straight at the Chinese Fireball’s good eye.

The metallic ‘ting’ of metal meeting dragon scales was heard as the mother dragon tilted her head and closed her good eye to protect it from the sharp blades. Without looking, she opened her jaws and unleashed an inferno in Viktor’s direction.

“Aqua Eructo!” Viktor bellowed out as he hastily slashed his wand in an upward motion. A massive burst of water exploded from the tip of the wand and formed an immense spray that protected Viktor from the flames like a wall.

Steam filled the air just as Viktor lunged for the golden egg, managing to grab it and start running while he had some cover.

“ROOOAAARRR!!!” The Chinese Fireball’s roar followed Viktor and he cast over his shoulder.

“Conjunctivitis!” Viktor fired the spell behind him, never slowing down in his run. The thudding steps of the dragon behind him let him know that, by some miracle, he’d hit the Chinese Fireball’s other eye. Just as Viktor got to the exit, he finally paid attention to Bagman’s commentary.

“And he’s done it!” Bagman roared to the crowd. “In an impressive display, Viktor Krum of Durmstrang has gotten the golden egg!” The crowd cheered and applauded loudly. “Unfortunately, I think he’ll lose a few points for the crushed egg.”

Viktor looked back towards the nest and noticed the single crushed egg at the edge. “Damn…” He hadn’t meant for any of the eggs to be harmed, but with the Chinese Fireball now blinded, the mother dragon had clearly not been able to watch where she was staggering around.

Once the Dragon Handlers had the Chinese Fireball safely subdued and both mother and eggs removed from the field, Viktor was called back in to the arena to receive his points.

Crouch lifted his wand and the number ‘9’ appeared above it in a soft orange color.

Bagman threw up his arm and from his wand came a sparkling yellow ‘9’, matching Crouch’s score.

Karkaroff, as expected, gave Viktor full points, a red light forming the number ‘10’ above his wand.

Madame Maxime held her scoring for a moment as she used a Sonorus Charm to amplify her voice. “Mr. Krum… Can you tell us why you chose the Conjunctivitis Curse to use against your dragon?”

Viktor kept hold of his golden egg under one arm as he looked up at Maxime and the other Judges. “I’d heard that dragons eyes were their weak points back at Durmstrang. When up against such a magically resistant creature, it seemed appropriate to take advantage of its weakness.”

Maxime took a moment to think about that before raising her wand and a flowing ribbon formed the number ‘8’ above her.

Dumbledore held up his wand and a purple ‘8’ popped into existence for a moment before fading away.

“With the points given, Mr. Krum has earned a rather impressive score of forty-four points!” Bagman announced to both the crowd and those listening into the Wizarding Wireless broadcast covering the Triwizard Tournament.

That got another round of applause and cheers from the crowd as Viktor walked out of the area so that the next dragon could be brought in.

-Champions’ Tent-

Fleur exhaled to steady her nerves after hearing Viktor’s task complete. Harry leaned over and pecked her cheek before giving her a smile. Fleur looked at Harry warmly and then their lips quickly met for a kiss. The two pushed their love into their lip lock for several long moments until the exclamations of the crowd alerted them to the Swedish Short-Snout being revealed. The two separated as Fleur stood up and made her way through the tunnel. Harry sat alone in the tent, naturally a bit worried for Fleur, and with a rising agitation knowing that he couldn’t interfere without upsetting the Goblet of Fire, the Artifact that all three Champions were bound to for the duration of the Triwizard Tournament.

Fleur waited for the whistle to sound before she stepped out into the enclosure. She instantly saw the silver and blue scales of the Swedish Short-Snout as it crouched between her and the nest of eggs behind it. Among the real eggs was a large golden egg atop the rest of the clutch. Nesting mother dragons were known to be the most dangerous of any dragon; only the males in rut during their breeding season came close to the ferocity a mother dragon would show when defending her nest.

“Safe my perfect ass.” Fleur huffed as she looked at the snarling dragon. She stepped forward and simply blocked out Bagman’s annoying commentary along with the sound of the crowd. The Swedish Short-Snout exhaled a blast of its incredibly hot, blue fire in her general direction as a warning.

Fleur had her wand at the ready as she took hold of her emotions and began to apply her interpretation of Magic to her spellcasting. “Dffindo!” She flicked her wand twice in quick suggestion with a snarl of anger tearing its way from her throat.

Every rock and boulder in the path of the two spells was cleanly cut in two. The rumble and crashing of the stones falling apart and hitting the ground was loud. The dust thrown into the air from the rubble helped obscure Fleur’s form

With an excited grin taking over her previous angry expression, Fleur zipped along the ground at speed, easily skipping across the rubble as if it was a flat footpath. This got more than a few amazed sounds from the crowd and Bagman, not that Fleur heard it as she was entirely focused on the Swedish Short-Snout.

“ROOOAAARRR!!!” The dragon roared before unleashing a blast of blue flames at the approaching Fleur.

“Thank you.” Fleur’s mood shifted from excited to acceptance, her smile becoming small and soft as she raised her left hand and Veela Fire burst forth. The blue flames hit the purple-tinged yellow and orange flames and the two clashed for a brief moment. Then Fleur’s flames spiraled into a single point, taking all of the blue dragon fire with it and forming a sphere of intense heat and flame that rapidly shrank into nothing.

The Swedish Short-Snout spread her wings in a threat display after seeing her powerful flames not working. “ROOOAAARRR!!!”

Fleur moved her wand into what looked like a backwards ‘P’ and then her expression changed to one of calmness, serene as one could be, before she cast her spell. “Orchideous!” A pink light filled the air as thousands of flowers began to fall from the air above the Swedish Short-Snout and Fleur.

The dragon growled and a burst of flames torched the falling flowers, reducing them to naught but ashes instantly. But that didn’t stop more from falling, eventually touching the Swedish Short-Snout one after another. Most fell off its body, but some lay across its back, atop its head, and even on its feet as the mother dragon continued to protect her nest.

“What could Miss Delacour be trying to do?!” Bagman questioned the odd use of the Bouquet Charm.

Dragon scales and hide were both incredibly resistant to Magic. Most dragons could shrug off spells with ease. However, what Fleur was doing wasn’t trying to overcome the protection of the Swedish Short-Snout’s scales and hide, but to impart the same emotion that she was currently feeling: utter calmness. That effect could transfer through the color of the flowers that she’d conjured, as well as their scent. It was a more subtle use of Fleur’s emotional interpretation of Magic.

It proved to be effective as the Swedish Short-Snout began to lower her wings, ending her threat display. The thick smoke that had been emerging from the mother dragon’s jaws became thin and wispy as the dragon calmed down and slowly allowed itself to be covered in the seemingly unending rain of flowers.

“Rrrrmmmsss…” The Swedish Short-Snout let out a low grumble as she laid down, curling around her nest and lightly blowing the piled up flowers off her eggs with a hot breath filled with wispy smoke.

Before the stunned eyes of all of the spectators (including the Dragon Handlers) Fleur approached the nest among the falling flowers and carefully picked up the golden egg. The mother dragon watched her, but made no move to attack Fleur as the fake egg was removed from the nest. Fleur walked across the arena and reached the exit without issue before the crowd snapped out of their daze and burst into raucous cheering, applauding, and whistling.

“Fleur Delacour has done it!” Bagman finally roared out. “In a spectacular display of non-violence, Miss Delacour managed to pacify the Swedish Short-Snout and simply take the golden egg from the nest and walk away!”

-Champions’ Tent-

“Show off.” Harry chuckled to himself with a grin. “Guess I’ll show off a slightly more overwhelming approach.”

-Dragon Pens-

The Dragon Handlers found the Swedish Short-Snout to be rather easy to move, the mother dragon still covered in the flowers that Fleur had conjured. As they moved her, a few of them became calmer, their bodies releasing the tension they’d been under as they all were waiting to rush in and restrain the dragons should anything go wrong. It was only after the mother dragon was safely back in her massive crate with her nest did the flowers begin to disappear as the conjuration was undone. The Dragon Handlers all realized that they’d been affected by the remnants of Fleur’s spell, especially when the Swedish Short-Snout let out a rumbling warning growl with smoke pouring from her nostrils.

“You think she could teach us that?” Charlie Weasley asked his colleagues with a grin as they all moved away from the huge metal crate to not agitate the Swedish Short-Snout.

-Arena-

With the dragon removed, Fleur returned to receive her points, holding her golden egg in front of her with both hands.

Bagman quickly shot a sparkling firework into the air that exploded with a small bang and formed the number ‘10’ in multi-colored sparks.

Crouch merely raised his wand and the number ‘10’ appeared in blue light.

Dumbledore happily gave Fleur a ‘10’ made from flowers, a chuckle escaping the old Headmaster.

Madam Maxime conjured another ribbon, this one a nearly shining powder blue, that formed into the number ‘10’ above her. The proud smile on the Headmistress’s face made Fleur smile back.

“Miss Delacour,” Karkaroff spoke up before he gave any points. “In this Task, you are set with the goal of overcoming a dragon to take the golden egg. Why is it that you did not use some form of concealment Magic, or barring that, more combative Magic to deal with the dragon?”

Fleur looked at Karkaroff for a moment before speaking. “As you said, High Master, the task was merely to retrieve the golden egg. While I could’ve tried to hide from the dragon and steal the golden egg, it proved to be unnecessary. As for not using more combative spells, that was simply due to my own reasoning.”

Karkaroff looked down from the Judges’ stand with an unreadable expression. “And what was your reasoning?”

“Bringing force against force is not always the best solution.” Fleur said simply with a little shrug. “Not every problem needs to be solved with violence. A more calm and measured response can be much more effective in getting the result that one wants than trying to force it.”

Karkaroff nodded and raised his wand a flaming ‘7’ appeared above it a second later.

Fleur heard Madam Maxime calling Karkaroff ‘petty’ in French a second later.

With four perfect tens and a seven, Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons takes the lead in the Triwizard Tournament with an amazing forty-seven points!”

Once Fleur had left the arena, it was time for the last Champion to step forward.

-Champions’ Tent-

“Looks like it’s my turn.” Harry said after he heard the announcement of Fleur’s perfect takedown of her dragon. The tension that had been in his shoulders mostly went away after the announcement and hearing Fleur’s score. Now it was his time for him to face a dragon alone. When the crowd shrieked and several screams rang out, Harry steeled his nerves with a deep breath and a slow exhale. The Hungarian Horntail was obviously on the field now. The whistle went off and Harry stepped out to face the dragon.

-Arena-

“They ARE bloody insane!” Tonks shouted as soon as she saw the Hungarian Horntail. “That thing has probably killed people before at whatever Reserve it’s from!”

Andromeda nearly had a vice grip on Ted’s hand as she looked at the huge dragon in fear and worry.

Ted wasn’t much better, just staring at the great lizard as it stood protectively over its nest, large wings already spread wide to threaten and intimidate while its viciously spiked tail swung behind it.

“Harry has a plan…” Sirius said, even though both of his hands were clenching his robes so hard that the knuckles were white. “We know how powerful he is…how advanced…he’ll definitely be fine.” It was hard to tell if Sirius was trying to convince the others or himself.

Harry stepped into the arena and immediately saw his ‘opponent’.

There, on the other end of the arena, was the Horntail, crouched low over its nest of eggs, its wings wide and covering a large area, the baleful yellow eyes locked onto Harry. It was a monstrous, scaly, black lizard, thrashing its spiked tail about and leaving meter-long gouge marks in the hard ground. The crowd was making a great deal of noise, but whatever was being said, Harry didn't know or care as he’d already blocked them all out. He was given no time to think about anything else as the Horntail lunged forward a bit and a blast of fire was launched at Harry.

“Vicious, aren’t you?” Harry used Magic Manipulation to take control of the magic within the flames. He whipped his hand to the side and the wall of flames followed the motion. The massive amount of fire swirled into a ball of incredible heat and bursts of fire.

“ROOOAAAARRRRR!!!” The Hungarian Horntail didn’t let the redirection of its flames deter it from unleashing an even greater blast of fire at Harry a second after its thundering roar.

Harry, seeing the massive wall of inferno headed his way, fed his magic into the ball of flames he’d took control of. In the second that it took for the conflagration to reach his location, a glowing red sphere of magic had surrounded the condensed fireball.

FWOOOOMMM

The entire area that Harry had stood in was now a sea of flames. Stones and boulders became red hot and began to sag as they became semi-molten. The heat was so great that a massive heat haze was radiating through the air above the blaze like a tower of agitated air.

-Stands-

“HARRY!!!” Hermione and Daphne both screamed at the same time, drowning out all other screams or yells from the crowd around them.

Luna looked stunned; her eyes wide as she watched the sea of flames that had engulfed her ‘big brother’.

Astoria was no better, tears beginning to fill her eyes as she grabbed onto Daphne.

Tracy was on her feet, but no sound escaped her as she watched the flames burn intensely. She couldn’t fathom Harry being killed after everything she’d seen him do before.

All of Harry’s Ravenclaw friends were either sitting in stunned silence, or were on their feet yelling for someone to do something.

Neville, surprising many, was not only on his feet, but was leaning over the railing of the seating area and yelling his head off for the dragon Handlers to do something.

Sirius was already trying to shove his way down the stairs towards the arena, his wand in hand, as he yelled at people to get out of his way.

Tonks was following him, having escaped the hold of Andromeda and Ted as her hair rapidly cycled through various colors in her panic.

-Arena-

The roaring and crackling flames visibly shook.

Then the panic that was building in the stands was silenced by a voice that seemed to reverberate in the air.

“Spirit of Fire.” Harry said and the flames were consumed utterly as a truly immense giant rose from the scorched ground.

The burning red spirit was at least twenty meters tall, had a humanoid form with thin upper arms and large forearms and hands, its legs were more normal in proportions compared to its arms, and its head was facing forward at the end of a slightly elongated neck, at the sides of its head were what appeared to be branch-like spikes, straight at the base, but then branching off at an almost ninety-degree angle about two-thirds of the way to the two ends. Its body was completely red and indistinct, lacking the musculature of a living creature, though it appeared solid…its form also wavered like flames here and there.

The ’Spirit of Fire’ as Harry called it had its right arm raised slightly, the palm of its hand facing upwards, and in said palm stood Harry, completely unharmed.

“That was close.” Harry smiled down at the Hungarian Horntail. The great dragon now looked much more like a winged lizard from this height. “I’m not used to using this particular form just yet, so it takes me a second.”

The Hungarian Horntail still had her wings wide in a threat display as she looked up at the Spirit of Fire. It was clear the mother dragon wouldn’t back down from defending her nest.

Harry nodded, briefly reminded of the stories that Sirius had told to him about his parents and how they’d given their very lives for him against Voldemort. “This form is called Over Soul, and you cannot defeat it.” He told the dragon plainly as the huge Shikigami’s burning yellow eyes looked down on the Hungarian Horntail. “But you’re a parent protecting your offspring, and my task is not to slay you.”

“ROOOAAARRR!!!” The Hungarian Horntail roared and unleashed another burst of flames.

The Spirit of Fire held out its left hand and the dragon fire was drawn in. The conflagration was consumed entirely in just a second or two, the red of the spirit’s body glowing brighter for a moment and the parts of its body that wavered like flames flared up for a moment before settling back down.

Harry focused his magic and performed a series of spells one after another in quick succession.

Large and small, red, wooden torii gates were conjured into being high in the air, no one noticing them at all as they stared at the Spirit of Fire. Upon each of the wooden torii gates, Harry used his magic to inscribe a specific Rune. Once the gates of various sizes were all inscribed and moved into position, Harry slapped his hands together, amplifying the sound on purpose with his Magic to get the crowd’s attention. “Renzoku Fūjin no Seimon! (Sacred Gate of Continuous Sealing)”

The confusion from the crowd was audible, but quickly silenced.

The torii gates slammed down on the Hungarian Horntail one after another, merely a blur to most people’s eyes. First the dragon’s neck was pinned to the ground, then a smaller torii laned atop its snout and forced its mouth shut, two more torii gates, larger than the first two, pinned the Hungarian Horntail’s wings down near the base, four of the largest gates locked the body down, followed by four smaller ones that trapped each of the legs, then a series of torii gates going from large to small, pinned down the dragon’s dangerous tail until it couldn’t move at all either. In mere seconds, the Hungarian Horntail had been completely immobilized without being able to do anything.

Harry dispersed the Over Soul of his ‘Spirit of Fire’ and floated down to the ground gently. Once his feet touched the ground, Harry simply walked past the Hungarian Horntail and picked up the golden egg before walking out of the arena.

It took several seconds, stretching into a drawn out moment, before everyone snapped out of their shock.

“He’s done it! Harry Potter has trapped the Hungarian Horntail and retrieved the golden egg!” Bagman cheered loudly. It was the first easy thing he’d been able to commentate on as Harry went through the task. Bagman had never seen such Magic before and had a hard time describing them accurately. He was sure that he’d get at least a few letters of complaint from the Wizarding Wireless listeners about his ineffective commentating on Harry Potter’s first task.

-Stands-

“I’m going to throttle him!” Daphne swore as she collapsed into her seat. How dare Harry make her…all of them…yes, all of them, worry like that!

Luna and Astoria were all smiles as soon as Harry was revealed to be okay.

“That was awesome!” Astoria cheered for Harry’s performance.

“Can you get that big, Leafy?” Luna asked her little Shikigami on her shoulder.

The little Kooni merely let out a small sound. “Koo…”

Hermione let out a heavy breath of relief now that the task was over. “I’m just glad he’s okay.” She was going to hug Harry so tight as soon as she got the chance!

A bit further away and Sirius was chuckling a bit. “I can’t tell if that was on purpose or not…which makes it a great prank if it was.” Once his worry that Harry had been hurt was proven wrong, Sirius had marveled at his godson’s showing of knowledge and power. “Did he learn all of that while we were in Japan?”

“No…” Tonks was fairly certain that all Harry had learned from Yasashī was the Onmyōdō stuff. “I bet he made that second spell up.” She narrowed her eyes at Harry as he walked out of the arena. “I know he still looks at the English-Japanese dictionary he bought as he goes through those scrolls and books we bought in Japan.” She was SO going to give Harry a noogie for making her worry like that!

The two returned to their seats, seeing both Andromeda and Ted looking much more relaxed than earlier when Harry had been engulfed by dragon fire.

“That boy is going to be the death of me.” Andromeda let out a long sigh.

Ted hugged his wife close. “He’s definitely gotten some bad influence from someone.”

Both Ted and Andromeda shot glances at Sirius.

“Oi! You can’t blame this on me!” Sirius denied with a shake of his head and his arms crossed in front of him.

The looks he got from Tonks, Andromeda, and Ted said that ‘Yes, they could blame him and they were going too’ quite clearly!

Harry was a bit surprised when a red-haired man, one of the Dragon Handlers, came to meet him before he was called back out to receive his points. “Can I help you, sir?”

“Dragon Handler Weasley, High Sorcerer Potter, pleased to meet you!” The man introduced himself politely.

“Weasley?” Harry could easily see the family resemblance. “You must be Charlie, right? I heard about you from George and Fred.”

Charlie chuckled and nodded. “That’s me. I hope my brothers aren’t giving you too much trouble.”

Harry grinned. “No, of course not.” He waved it off. “They know better.”

“You’re a scary young man, Mr. Potter.” Charlie said as he saw the wicked little smirk on Harry’s face. “But about why I’m here. We can’t remove those wooden constructs you pinned the Hungarian Horntail down with.”

“Oh, yeah, just destroy the runes on top and you can undo the Conjuration.” Harry said as they walked back out into the arena together. Once they got to the side of the -now stunned- dragon, Harry pointed at the Rune in the center of the top bar that made up the torii gates. “That vertical line is the Rune ‘Isa’ of Elder Futhark. It means ‘Ice’, but also means ‘Stillness’. Imbuing it with that intent, the gates became immovable as soon as they touched the ground.” He explained before pulling the magic out of the Runes on each torii with Magic Manipulation. With a clap of his hands, the various-sized torii gates vanished as the Conjuration was undone.

“Thank you, High Sorcerer Potter.” Charlie smiled as he and his team quickly got to work to move the Hungarian Horntail back into her pen.

Dumbledore’s amplified voice got everyone’s attention as he spoke to Harry. “Mr. Potter, as you’re already here, why don’t we go ahead and give you your points?”

Harry held his golden egg under one arm and faced the Judges’ booth.

Crouch, actually looking more awake and alive from what he’d just witnessed, held up his wand and a large black ‘10’ appeared above him.

A glowing green ‘10’ shot from the tip of Bagman’s wand a second later, the former Professional Beater looking amazed and excited. It was like he’d just won a huge bet or something.

“Mr. Potter, if I may ask, what sort of Magics were those? I’ve not seen the like of them in Europe.” Madame Maxime asked politely, seemingly giving a bit more respect to Harry after witnessing his knowledge of Magics that she’d never seen or heard of.

“The Over Soul is a branch of Onmyōdō, a regional Magic of Japan that I was lucky enough to find a teacher for while on a trip with my family.” Harry answered the Beauxbatons Headmistress with a small smile. “The torii gates were merely an application of Conjuration and Runes, just the form was made Japanese. Unfortunately it wasn’t perfect…”

All of the Judges -along with most of the crowd in the stadium- all looked confused at the clearly powerful spell ‘not being perfect’.

“Could you explain what was ‘imperfect’ about it?” Madame Maxime requested.

Harry nodded once. “I wanted to see if I could handle this task with just ‘Japanese Magic’, you see. But as I am still a bit of a novice with the language, I had to use an Elder Futhark Rune to give the torii gates the effect that I wanted them to have. For it to have been perfect, I’d have needed to use a Kanji for the effect and to complete the aesthetic. Unfortunately, I don’t know that particular character yet…so Elder Futhark it was.” He shrugged a little. “I’m fairly certain the grammar for the name of my spell was also off, but I’m still learning Japanese.”

That stunned the crowd almost as much as seeing Harry use these foreign Magics to such amazing effect.

The simple fact that Harry had been vastly limiting himself only made his overwhelming success even more impressive.

“Thank you for explaining, Mr. Potter.” Madame Maxime thanked Harry as she hid her own shock at what the young man had just explained. With a flick of her wand, a ribbon spun through the air to form a ‘10’.

Karkaroff had been looking at Harry with barely disguised fear throughout the task and simply raised his wand as a flaming ‘10’ appeared in the air above him for a few seconds before it vanished.

“Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore started with his normal calm and grandfatherly voice (even amplified by the Sonorus Charm). “You could’ve completed your task much faster if you had used your…Over Soul, as you called it. Clearly it was strong enough to kill the Hungarian Horntail. I’m curious why you chose the actions that you did.”

“True strength comes from knowing, not when to take a life, but when to spare one.” Harry answered simply, his voice heard by all as he and Dumbledore looked at each other.

Dumbledore raised his wand and large golden ‘10’ appeared above the Judges’ booth. He gave Harry a smile that only a proud teacher or perhaps a proud grandfather could give to someone. “Very well said, Mr. Potter.”

“High Sorcerer Harry Potter has gotten a perfect fifty points!” Bagman announced loudly and with cheer. “He places Hogwarts in the lead going into the Second Task!”

That got another loud round of cheers and applause from the audience in the stadium. And, unbeknownst to Harry, from hundreds of Witches and Wizards throughout the British Isles that were listening in on the Wizarding Wireless.

-Hidden Location-

“Incompetent fool!” Voldemort hissed at the Wizarding Wireless. He was cursing Bagman’s lack of any detailed explanation of Harry Potter’s strange and foreign Magics. But what did he really expect from a fool of the Ministry that had been hired and placed as Head of a Department based on being friends with several higher ups? “Barty!”

Barty Crouch Jr, was kneeling before his Lord almost as soon as he stepped into the small room. “Yes, my Lord? What can your loyal servant do for you?”

Voldemort let out a slight hiss. “Find someone that was present at the Triwizard Tournament’s first task and acquire their memory of the event. I wish to see the boy’s abilities for myself. Do not draw any attention to yourself.” The warning in Voldemort’s tone couldn’t be missed.

“As you command, my Lord. I will find someone that was there and extract their memory without them remembering anything.” Barty said with his usual fanatic loyalty.

“Fetch Wormtail before you go, I need him to retrieve a necessary ingredient for my work.” Voldemort ordered as he turned his back on Barty and looked through a very worn tome on the desk. “We will not have to skulk about soon enough.”

They’d already taken more than enough risk revealing themselves to Lucius and getting him to bury the Death Eaters at the World Cup story by ‘advising’ that fool of a Minister, Fudge that it could cause unnecessary panic.

“Yes, my Lord.” Barty was out of the room quickly, eager to fulfill Voldemort’s orders.

Now that he was alone, Voldemort flexed the fingers of his left hand…or his current body’s left hand at any rate. He was losing more and more feeling as the days went by before, but now he felt less response from this shell every day. It was going to fall apart on him soon enough. He needed to prepare a body worthy of his soul and power as soon as possible.

‘Once my immortal body is secured, then I can begin my plans to make followers that can never betray or forsake me again. I will show this world that Lord Voldemort is the Greatest Wizard that ever lived!’

His red eyes practically glowed, even in the well-lit room.

-End Chapter-

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Quite the showing from each of the Champions!

All of them managed to successfully complete the First Task!

Fleur uses her growing understanding of her interpretation of Magic, while Harry shows off his own advancements in Onmyōdō and even creating a ‘Japanese’ spell of his own.

The fact that he limited himself when facing down a Hungarian Horntail of all things stuns everyone!

Harry has got some lovely ladies that’re gonna make their displeasure with him known soon! Kek!

Voldemort is curious about Harry’s abilities and how they’ve grown since he was possessing Quirrel. He needs to see the memory of the First Task for himself!

But what is this immortal body that he plans to create for himself? What type of dark and twisted Magic is Voldemort planning to use now?

Keep reading to find out!

Until I get your reviews, later!