𝐈𝐕. 𝐄𝐔𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐀 | 𝐏𝐉𝐎 𝐗 𝐇𝐏

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀

THE NEXT DAY, THE BUZZ OF THE CROWDS were all about Lilith's new defense club and how three of the Triwizard champions had their ass beat by a fourteen-year old girl. A lot of students signed up for her club, even the younger ones.

Most of them were Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, a few Ravenclaws, and precisely two Slytherins— Daphne Greengrass and Theodore Nott. Not to mention a few Beauxbatons students and a lot of them from Durmstrang.

Even Neville Longbottom wanted to join.

Lilith had caught up with Barty— who had been one of the people in the audience watching her little training session. Safe to say, he was proud.

She now had a full schedule, she had training sessions with the three boys every day before dinner, and defense club every Saturday afternoon. She loved teaching. But she loved beating her boys' asses more.

After the Daily Prophet about the champions' interview had gone out, Harry had received more backlash. But with Lilith's training, he managed to shut each of them up. He was most definitely proud of himself.

"Yeh'll enjoy this," said Hagrid gruffly, "worth seein', trust me. On'y — don' go tellin' anyone I showed yeh, right? Yeh're not s'posed ter know."

"Of course not," said Madame Maxime, fluttering her long black eyelashes. And still they walked, Harry getting more and more irritated as he jogged along in their wake, checking his watch every now and then.

If they didn't get there soon, he was going to turn around, go straight back to the castle, and leave Hagrid to enjoy his moonlit stroll with Madame Maxime. . . . But then — when they had walked so far around the perimeter of the forest that the castle and the lake were out of sight — Harry heard something.

Men were shouting up ahead . . . then came a deafening, earsplitting roar. . . . Hagrid led Madame Maxime around a clump of trees and came to a halt. Harry hurried up alongside them — for a split second, he thought he was seeing bonfires, and men darting around them — and then his mouth fell open.

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 snorting — torrents of fire were shooting into the dark sky from their open, fanged mouths, fifty feet above the ground on their outstretched necks.

There was a silvery-blue one with long, pointed horns, snapping and snarling at the wizards on the ground; a smooth-scaled green one, which was writhing and stamping with all its might; a red one with an odd fringe of fine gold spikes around its face, which was shooting mushroom-shaped fire clouds into the air; and a gigantic black one, more lizard-like than the others, which was nearest to them.

At least thirty wizards, seven or eight to each dragon, were attempting to control them, pulling on the chains connected to heavy leather straps around their necks and legs. Mesmerized, Harry looked up, high above him, and saw the eyes of the black dragon, with vertical pupils like a cat's, bulging with either fear or rage, he couldn't tell which. . . . It was making a horrible noise, a yowling, screeching scream. . . .

"Keep back there, Hagrid!" yelled a wizard near the fence, straining on the chain he was holding.

"They can shoot fire at a range of twenty feet, you know! I've seen this Horntail do forty!" "Is'n' it beautiful?" said Hagrid softly.

"It's no good!" yelled another wizard. "Stunning Spells, on the count of three!" Harry saw each of the dragon keepers pull out his wand. "Stupefy!" they shouted in unison, and the Stunning Spells shot into the darkness like fiery rockets, bursting in showers of stars on the dragons' scaly hides —