Daughter of Mine | Harry Potter

XIII.

The Horntail dragon Harry was meant to face was especially frightening, looking significantly angrier than the earlier dragons.

Harry raised his wand.

"Accio Firebolt!" he shouted.

Lalia froze, along with those around her and Harry as they all stared waiting to see whether his broom would come to him. And then they heard it, speeding through the air, Harry turned to face his broom, floating in the air, waiting for him to mount in.

Lalia finally sucked in a breath of air and Hermione let go of Lalia's hand to shout in excitement.

Harry swung his leg over the broom and kicked off from the ground. Lalia watched as he flew around the air above the dragon, she could see him planning in the air.

Suddenly he dived. The Horntail's head followed him; Harry pulled out of the dive just in time to avoid a jet of fire released where he would've been in a second.

"Great Scott, he can fly!" yelled Bagman as the crowd shrieked and gasped. "Are you watching this, Mr. Krum?"

Lalia felt her stomach heave at the close call, but kept watching Harry's figure circle above the Horntail.

The Horntail opened it's mouth again and Harry plummeted. This time to miss the flames and meet the whipping tail. Lalia gasped as one of the spikes from the tail grazed Harry's shoulder.

"Oh, I really don't think I can watch," she said with an unbelievably pale face. Her eyes never left Harry's form despite her upset stomach.

Harry began flying over her again, out of range of her fire, but close enough to unsettle her. Harry rose a few feet higher, frustrating the dragon who attempted to swat him with her tail and breathe fire at him.

Harry continued to swerve above her tauntingly.

And then she reared, spreading her great, black, leathery wings at last, as wide a those of a small airplane - and Harry dived. Before the dragon knew what he had done, or where he had disappeared to, he was speeding toward the ground as fast as he could go, toward the eggs now unprotected by her clawed front legs - he had taken his hands off his Firebolt - he had seized the golden egg -

And with a huge spurt of speed, he was off, he was soaring out over the stands, the heavy egg safely under his uninjured arm.

Lalia had sat frozen in the stands, she saw everyone moving around her, but she was unreactive.

"He did it ... he really did it ...," she whispered to herself. "He did it!" She had jumped up and began cheering with her friends around her. The knot in Lalia's stomach became a little smaller in that moment.

---

Hermione led Ron and Lalia to the medical tent where Harry was loacted.

"Harry, you were brilliant!" Hermione said squeakily. There were fingernail marks on her face where she had been clutching it in fear as well as on her hand from Lalia's hand. "You were amazing! You really were!"

Lalia had thrown herself into Harry's arms, who returned her quick hug.

"I think I'll die of a heart attack if I have to watch two more tasks," Lalia chuckled stepping back from the boy.

But Harry was looking at Ron, who was very white and staring at Harry as though he were a ghost.

"Harry," he said, very seriously, "whoever put your name in that goblet - I - I reckon they're trying to do you in!"

Lalia choked on her laughter, not wanting to interrupt whatever was happening.

"Caught on, have you?" said Harry coldly. "Took you long enough."