The Tale of Dark Hermione

Year 4 - The First Task

Mr. Crouch walked forward with the first bag Hermione, Fleur, Cedric, and Victor reached in and grabbed out their number.

"Okay, that means Mr. Diggory will be first, Ms. Delacour next, then Mr. Krum, and lastly Ms. Granger and Mr. Potter." Bagman smiled then grabbed the other bag. 

Cedric reached in first and pulled out the Swedish Shortsnout, Fleur then pulled out the Common Welsh and paled now she looked at the tiny dragon in her hand.  Hermione held her breath in hope as Krum reached in and to Hermione's disappointment got the Chinese Fireball. She almost groaned out loud at their luck as Harry reached in know exactly what they were going to get, the Hungarian Horntail, the worst of them all. The men left for their seats and the champions were again in silence as they waited for the announcement for Cedric to go out.

The signal came to quickly and Cedric took a deep breath as he stood by the entrance to the arena, "Wish me luck..." he whispered and walked out. The other champions could only hear the cheers and the screams of the crowd and of course the anger of the dragon. 

Cedric was able to quickly get the egg after transfiguring a boulder into a large labrador dog they heard he got 38 points. Fleur charmed the dragon into a trance, but at the last second snored and set her robes on fire, she got 36 points. Viktor used a conjunctivitis Curse which made the dragon angry and it crushes it's other eggs as Krum got the golden egg, he was awarded 40 points. 

Harry and Hermione were shaking at they heard Krum was done.

"The last one today is Harry Potter and Hermione Granger!" The cheers were loud as they walked out into the arena. After a minute the crowd grew silent again. Harry and Hermione looked around and didn't see the dragon, but saw the egg upon the highest rock formation. They took advantage of the dragon not seeing them yet and got closer Harry reached up and shouted.

"ACCIO FIREBOLT!" Then the ground shook as the large dragon appeared over the rocks. It was large and looked a lot larger than what it did in the cage that night. It was growling at them as it crawled slowly to them. Harry was still concentrating on getting the broom there from the castle. The crowd was intense as they watched.

The dragon crawled closer and closer. Hermione raised her wand and started the large motions chanting in her head the spells. She was done as the dragon stopped before them and opened its mouth showing it's sharp teeth.

"I hope this worked," Hermione mumbled as she looked into its throat as the fire came up lighting up the area even more. The audience was yelling and gasping at they slowly watched the fire quickly move towards them.

"GRANGER!" most of the Slytherins were leaning over the edge watching.

The fire surrounded the two where they looked completely engulfed in flames. The crowd was yelled but inside the fire, Harry yelled.

"It's almost here! Open up the wards in the back!" 

Without hesitating Hermione moved her free hand and pushed the wards upward making the fire go up into the air revealing the two students again perfectly untouched by the flames. Harry reached up and grabbed his broom and hopped on. The dragon stopped breathing fire and watched as Harry grew distant and flew towards the egg. The dragons attention was now fully on Harry. Hermione using her free hand controlled the rest flame making a wall to hide her as she neared the egg, warding herself just in case. 

The dragon was flying now chasing after Harry. Harry made sure to stay low enough where its chain wouldn't break. Harry was weaving every which way and going through small areas. Impressing most of the crowd at his flying skills. Hermione climbed up the rocks and could reach the egg. She knew with the dragon mother instincts it will know when her egg was touched and taken, it's attention would be back on her.

She was sweating and looked up where Harry and the dragon were. This would be the best chance. She grabbed the egg and like she predicted the dragon snapped its head toward her. Hermione quickly duplicated the egg and threw Harry the real one and he flew off since the dragon's attention was still on her. She just had to hold off the dragon long enough for Harry to put the egg on the stand signaling for the task to be over.

The dragon was flying towards her quickly as Hermione held onto the fake egg. She waited until it was perfect and made the extra, kept in the back, chain wrap around the dragon's leg. The dragon soon was back on the ground and couldn't move. It was struggling against the magic, but Hermione held it tightly. She sighed in relief when the bell signaled the task over. The Dragon tamers quickly came and locked down the dragon away.

Hermione looked up to the sky and chuckled in pure relief that she was still alive. The stress was finally being released from her. Harry walked up and hugged her that it worked. The final part of the duplicate egg was improvised, but it was a good thing they did it. 

The crowd was wild even the Slytherins were relieved and cheering. They looked and saw their score of 40 points. 

"That was some amazing magic right there!" Crouch Sr. said.

Harry was dragged off by the Gryffindors with the egg and Hermione in a daze walked back to the common room where the Slytherins were celebrating.

"Here here to Granger who survives whatever stupid thing Potter drags her into!" Blaze yelled taking a drink that was most likely alcohol. Hermione didn't care at that moment and just wanted to relieve some more stress so she like the others decided to party with her house. One night of forgetting that they thought of her as a mudblood won't matter, so she drank and had fun for once in Slytherin. 

After all, tomorrow will just be another day, Hermione thought as she took another drink.