Jupiter | Harry James Potter

xviii ; teenagers

"Not when their trying to kill two people I care about." I muttered, and Ron rolled his eyes.

"Who knows if the dragons are actually trying to kill them? Maybe the goal is to tame them." Ron shrugged after shaking the flag like mad.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Hermione said blankly. She was firmly wrapped in a red coat, along with a Gryffindor beanie. I seemed rather out of place in the sea of red with my yellow sweater, but it didn't matter to me. It meant that it would be easier for Cedric to look out in the stands and see the girl in yellow.

A loud cannon boomed throughout the stadium, causing the whole crowd to blow up into frantic cheers. The whole section from Hogwarts, minus a few Gryffindors (Fred and George) chanted the name of the first champion who would be fighting the dragon. Diggory.

A small Golden egg had been placed in the center of the arena, and several Ministry workers lead a giant Dragon out from under the stands. It was the blue Dragon, which was aggressively stamping its feet the night I snuck out with Harry and Hagrid.

They chained it to the mound in the center, and quickly fled from view as Cedric's small figure appeared from the tunnel into the arena.

I couldn't see his face, but I reckon that was for the better. Seeing Cedric, who usually seemed to confident and happy, be nervous for his life would've broken me.

Cedric broke into a run across the rock, not going unnoticed by the dragon. It shot a large, steaming cloud of fire at him, and he quickly dove behind a rock. The fire missed him narrowly.

"He's gonna die!" I screamed, pulling my Gryffindor hat over my eyes. Although I was already terrified of the obscene height I was being forced to stand at, nothing could top seeing Cedric almost get burned alive. He's going to get set on fire. He'll be trampled by the dragon.

"Jove, look! He's doing something!" Hermione yelled, pulling my hat off of my head. She was right. Cedric had pulled out his wand and made a move across the arena. He shouted something, and a bright blue light sprung onto a rock. It was engulfed by a aquamarine circle for a brief moment, and just before the dragon could send another gust of heat at Cedric, the rock barked.

He had transfigured a rock into a Labrador.

The dragon's focus moved from Cedric and focused on the jumping dog. As it prepared to send its fire at the dog, Cedric made a lunge for the egg. It seemed to be working for a brief moment, until it heard Cedric get close to the egg. It turned its large head at him, and let out the fire it was so expectantly holding back.

The whole crowd screamed as Cedric was knocked to the rocks below him. The fire had hit him, square across the face.

"He's dead!" I yelled, covering my eyes again with my red mittens. The crowd was screaming along with me, and as I heard loud, booming footsteps surrounded by another roar, I was suddenly being shaken.

"He's up!" Hermione yelled, and the stands erupted into celebrating cheers from every school. Cedric had gotten back up, even though the whole left side of his body seemed to have been severely charred by the fire. He jumped for the egg, narrowly missing another cloud of fire.

He had done it.

"Very good, indeed!" Ludo Bagman announced happily as Cedric clutched the egg within his arms. "And now the marks from the judges!"

Dumbledore went first, holding his wand to the sky. Out came a long, silver ribbon that formed into the number eight.

Then Crouch, who gave him a solid seven.

Bagman, who seemed to just be an amazing sport, gave him a nine.

Madame Maxine, surprisingly, gave him an eight.