Through All the Pain // N. Longbottom

Fourth Year // Chapter 10

***

That night, I was sitting in the Common Room doing some last-minute Herbology work when I heard a clatter come from the middle of the room. 

"Hey, Harry," I smirked at the empty space. Suddenly his face appeared out of nowhere. 

"Was that loud?" He asked timidly while scanning the rest of the room.

"Sort of, and don't worry. I'm the only one down here." I shut my book and placed my quill in the ink well and walked over to Harry. "What are you doing up so late, Harry." 

"I'm on my way down to see Hagrid. For some reason, he's making me bring my Invisibility Cloak." Harry glanced down to his still nonexistent body. "Wanna join me, Lori?"

"Sure, why not."

***

The grounds were very dark. We walked down the lawn towards the lights shining out through the teeny tiny windows in Hagrid's hut. The Beauxbatons carriage was also lit up; as we passed by we could hear Madame Maxime talking inside it as Harry reached up to the front door of Hagrid's hut and knocked.

"You there, Harry?" Hagrid whispered, opening the door and looking around. 

"Yeah," said Harry. "Lori's also with me, Hagrid." He mentions while we slip inside the hut, and pull the cloak off of our heads. 

"Oh, hello Lori," Hagrid said as he smiled down.

"Hey, Hagrid," I said quickly going over and hugging him.

"What's up?" Harry asked trying to focus on why we walked down here at the night. 

"Got summat ter show yeh," said Hagrid. Hagrid walked over to a big mirror hanging on his wall, and grabbed a comb from the table, and attempted to comb his beard. After a few moments, he put down the comb and put on a furry jacket with an oversized flower sitting in the pocket.

"What're you showing us, Hagrid?" I asked warily, as I was thinking of the various things we could be possibly seeing. The Blast-Ended Skrewts could have laid large eggs, or Hagrid could have managed to buy another dragon egg off of a stranger at the pub.

"Come with me, keep quiet, an' keep yerselves covered with that cloak," said Hagrid. "We won' take Fang, he won' like it ..."

He opened the door and began to stride across the lawn. Harry and I scrambled to get back under the cloak and follow after him. Luckily we did and followed Hagrid off into the night. While we were walking we both noticed Hagrid was leading us to the Beauxbatons carriage.

"Hagrid, what --?" Harry started to ask, but he was quickly cut off by Hagrid hushing him. Hagrid cleared his throat before knocking on the door three times. I could hear the sound of a girl calling for Madame Maxime and her speaking rapidly in French.

Suddenly the door opened and out she walked wearing a gorgeous royal purple silk dress with a light blue silk shawl wrapped over her massive shoulders. Her stern face lit up the moment she laid eyes on Hagrid. 

"Ah, 'Agrid ... is it time?" 

"Bong-sewer," said Hagrid, beaming back at her, and holding out his hand to help her down the small golden steps. Madame Maxime closed the door behind her, accepted Hagrid's hand, and stepped down from the stairs. Once she was on the ground, we began walking towards the edge of the Forbidden forest. The edge that wasn't able to be seen from the castle.

"Why is Madame Maxime here?" Harry mutter irritably. 

"Isn't it obvious?" I whispered back. "I think Hagrid fancies her! Didn't you see the flower in his pocket, and hear the awful french?"

"Well, yeah but-" Harry was cut off by the sound of men shouting up ahead. A few seconds later came a deafening, earsplitting roar. A huge smile grew on my face, while a look of pure shock came across Harry's. 

We continued to follow Hagrid as he led Madame Maxime around a clump of trees and came to a halt. We hurried up beside them, and for a slipt second, it looked like we were at a Bonfire with a bunch of men dancing around. Except that's when we saw what we were really meant to see.

Dragons.

Four fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing onto their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood, roaring and snoring -- torrents of burning red fire were shooting into the dark sky from their opened, fanged mouths, fifty feet above the ground. 

"Whoa!" I whispered out. "Swedish Short-Snout, Welsh Green, Chinese Fireball, and a -" I stopped and stared at the last dragon. "A Hungarian Horntail!" I rapidly patter Harry's shoulder as he stared blankly straight ahead. 

"Keep back there, Hagrid!" yelled a wizard near the fence, straining on a chain he was holding. "They can shoot fire at a range of twenty feet, you know! I've seen this Horntail do forty!" The voice, Lori could tell it was familiar but couldn't lay a finger on why it was so familiar. 

"Is'n' it beautiful?" said Hagrid softly. 

"It's no good!" yelled another wizard. "Stunning Spells, on the count of three!" 

We watched as the dragon keepers all pulled out their wands and aimed them at the four dragons. They shot their Stunning Spells into the darkness like rockets, bursting in showers of stars. We watched as all the dragons began to sway, and nearly fell over as they all hit the ground with thuds. 

"Wan' a closer look?" Hagrid asked Madame Maxime excitedly. Both of them advance closer to the fence with the two of us not that far behind. As we got to the fence, the wizard who told Hagrid to stay back came running over to the fence. I let out a small whine as I saw who it was, none other than Charlie! 

I so wanted to just run out from under the cloak and wrap my hands around him and hug him for a long time, but I felt Harry's hand hit my shoulder and he shook his head. I bit my lip and tried to ignore his presence, that was until Charlie brought up something concerning my dear twin brother.

"How's Ron doing?" Charlie asked. "I remember he nearly fainted at the sight of the Horntail." He chuckled. I must have let out a low growl or something because Charlie scanned the area. 

"Did you hear that? That growling noise?" Charile asked Hagrid as he grasped his wand. Harry held his hand over my mouth and we backed up a little bit. After a few moments and some encouraging words from Hagrid Charile put his wand back in the hem of his jeans and bidded Hagrid farewell. 

"Dragons?! That's the first task?!" Harry whisper shouted at Hagrid as he whipped the cloak off of our heads. 

"Thrillin' isn't it!" said Hagrid while moving excitedly. "Don't envy the champion who draws the Horntail, though. Back end's more dangerous than the front." 

We stayed for a few more moments before we headed off back towards the castle. Once we got to the Common Room I grabbed a long body pillow on the sofa and started punching it relentlessly. 

"Let me guess, pretending that's Ron?" He said coming over and sitting on a chair.

"Yep." I said slamming my fist in the area of the pillow where is shoulder would be. "How could he just NOT tell me Charlie was here?! I mean, he's my older brother too!" 

"I know, Lori. That is complete and utter --"

"What may I ask are you doing up?" came a voice from the stairs. We looked over and saw one of the female Gryffindor Prefects standing at the stairs. Harry and I sat opening our mouths like fish for a few moments before she came down to the sofa.

"Whatever your reason were, they aren't valid anymore! Now go up to bed, both of you!" she spoke sternly at us. We both nodded and rushed up to our beds.