Infamous | Fred Weasley x OC |

Chapter Forty Four

Harry emerged from the tent looking smaller and more nervous than the others. The dragon he had to face was the most hideous and terrifying thing I had ever seen in my entire life! It was enormous! Much bigger than Cedric's, or Fleur's or Krum's. It was a deep scarlet colour and kept smashing it's spiked tail into the rock, gouging out a ridge that could have comfortably fit a large family house. My breath caught in my throat. The crowd, either booing or cheering, were making some sort of noise as Harry appeared. Waiting for something to happen. But Harry just stood there in the entrance way to the tent and the dragon stared at him, repeatedly hitting its tail into the crowd as if it were daring Harry to get closer.

"What is he doing?" Emmy asked, frowning and squinting at the arena, trying to make out if he had actually moved or if he were so shell shocked that he couldn't move a muscle.

Then, without taking a single step forward, he raised his wand and waved it above his head. I could see his mouth moving but had no idea what he'd said from all the way across the stands. He just seemed to stand and wait while everyone was murmuring, trying to work out if he had a plan at all and what it could possibly be that involved just standing around. Some people were laughing, all of the Slytherin's no doubt, who had taken quite a liking to the Potter Stinks badges. Kevin was probably laughing too.

Just when I was starting to think that poor Harry really didn't have a plan, something appeared on the horizon.

"What on earth is that?" Maddie said, having seen it first. I squinted up at the sky as whatever it was drew closer.

"It's his firebolt!" I said, triumphantly. I knew he'd have a plan.

"Why does he need that?" Emmy asked exasperatedly, "Just grab the egg! It's not a bloody quidditch match!"

The firebolt flew down to meet Harry and, without waiting for it to land, he jumped on and flew off.

"What a play!" Ludo enthused as Harry flew off at such a rapid speed that the dragon was having difficulty keeping up with him, "What a flyer is that Potter! Krum had better watch out for this one!"

Harry flew up and circled over the dragon. The dragon looked up at the sky, it's head twisting and turning to try and pinpoint Harry but its head was so big and heavy, it couldn't move it quick enough to keep up with Harry's speed.

And then Harry dove.

As he got closer to the dragon, it had an easier job of locating him and seemed to lock onto Harry's position. It took a few steps away from its nest to follow Harry and opened its jaws to snap at him. The dragon closed its mouth and for a second looked as if Harry had disappeared down its throat but he had rolled out the way at the very last second causing the crowd to erupt into cheers.

"Great Scott can that boy fly!" Ludo cheered but I could barely hear him over the noise I was making in support for poor Harry.

Harry flew up again and started circling the dragon once more. It couldn't keep up with it and looked as if it were getting dizzy and disorientated. Then, just as the dragon opened its mouth and the glow of flames appeared in its throat, Harry dove again.

This time, he wasn't so lucky. Harry managed to avoid the flames but was caught by its thrashing tail. He briefly lost control of the broom and began careening out of control, looking as if he was going to crash into the jagged rocks below him. Clutching his bleeding shoulder, Harry pulled the handle of his broomstick vertically up with one hand and managed to avoid a second attack from the dragon.

Harry kept flying around her and dipping but not enough to come into any more harm. He was enticing the dragon and it was working. She started to unfurl her wings but didn't want to take off and leave her eggs unprotected. Harry continued to circle above her but started to drift slightly off to the left. The dragon followed him but he was moving so slowly that the dragon didn't realise it was moving at all.

"Brilliant!" I called out once I'd realised what he was doing.

The dragon furled and unfurled her wings, getting quicker now and then suddenly, without any warning at all, took off. But Harry seemed to be expecting it as no sooner had her feet left the floor, Harry dove right down. He disappeared behind the dragon and it wasn't until Ludo Bagman shouted "Look at that! Would you look at that! The boy's only gone and done it! He's got the egg!" that I knew Harry had done it.

Since retrieving the egg, Harry was allowed to duck into the champions' tent to receiving treatment for his shoulder. He reappeared shorting with a bandage on to receive his score.

Madame Maxime gave him a respectable 8, although whilst looking rather begrudgingly down at him. From both Crouch and Dumbledore, Harry received a 9, to which the crowd cheered and cheered until they had to be told to quiet down by Ludo Bagman, who gave him, to everyone's surprise, a 10 out of 10.

"But he got hurt," Maddie said, seeming to be the only one not wearing a Potter STinks badge to not be cheering, "Krum didn't get so much as a scratch and Ludo Bagman only gave him a 9."

"So what?" Emmy dismissed, "Hogwarts stands more of a chance now."

Emmy would have been right had Karkaroff not given Harry a 4. With Karkaroff's unreasonably low score, Harry was now tied with Krum for 1st place.

"That's rubbish!" Emmy shouted, "Absolute bull-"

"Emmy!" Maddie shouted, glancing over her shoulder at the gaggle of first years sat behind us. Emmy raised her eyebrows and laughed it off but still remained absolutely fuming at Karkaroff for sabotaging Hogwarts like that.

*

The majority of us Hufflepuffs waited up in the common room for Cedric to get back from the hospital wing. He came back looking very tired but otherwise unhurt. His face broke out into a grin when he saw the attempt at a banner we had made and the small hoard of snacks we had asked the house elves for to put together a party for Cedric to celebrate coming second (third if you're being picky about there being two people in first) in the first task.

Despite how tired Cedric looked, we stayed up most of the night partying, The first years, second years and a few third years all turned in at around midnight but the rest of us, with the promise to keep the music down, stayed up a bit longer.

Part of me wished that I had gone to bed with the others as Kevin seemed hellbent on talking to me and only me, which I'd rather have avoided. Especially considering Maddie too seemed as if she would rather talk to Kevin than help me hide from him. She kept following him around every time I'd move away and he'd follow after me. Perhaps that was her attempt to help me wriggle out of a conversation with him but Kevin didn't look at her twice. Maddie must have been as tired as I was when we did finally turn in as she didn't say a word as I was complaining about Kevin. She just turned over in bed and lay with her back to me. Yeah, she must have been really tired.