The night before the first tasks, I swear I was more nervous than Cedric was. We had spent the weeks leading up to the task practicing the plan to get him past the dragon without him or the dragon getting hurt. After double checking my research, I found out I was correct about my original thought when Charlie called the dragon 'she'. The reason the dragons were acting out as much as they were was because they were guarding their eggs and their maternal instincts were kicking him.
Once we figured out why the dragons were acting out, I looked in to the four types of dragons. The horntail was by far the most dangerous dragon out of the four. It was highly aggressive and not only did it have deadly sharp spikes on the end of it tail, it had the longest fire breathing range of up to forty-five feet.
The Swedish short snout had the lowest number of human kills, but that was mainly because it chose to live in mountain ranges that were far higher than any human would choose to go to. But it also has the hottest flame of any dragon know. The blue fire of the short snout was so hot that it could turn bones to ash in a matter of seconds.
The Chinese fireball was the biggest of the four dragons, weighing anywhere between two to four tones. It had golden spikes around it face and breathed fire that was the shape of a mushroom. After everything with Ultron and plans with the nucellar code, all I could think was that the flames looked like a nucellar bomb explosions, mushroom cloud.
The last was the Welsh green which was the most docile four dragons. Much like the short snout it lived in mountain ranges but it actively avoided humans rather than seeking the out. There was nothing special or unique about the dragon itself or it's flames. Which meant that it was the dragon I hoped either Cedric or Harry got.
All four dragons ate small animals and considering how Cedric topped transfiguration every year, we both thought it would be the best idea that he used the spell that Professor McGonagall had taught us at the start of the year where you turn a rock into a dog. The fact that it was only a rock and not a real dog made me feel more comfortable with the plan, otherwise I would have stayed up all night, every night until I found another way to get past the dragon.
By the end of the two weeks, Cedric was turning a rock into a Labrador like he had been doing it since the day he was born. But he also had to stop me from smuggling it into the castle, reminding me that no matter how cute it was, it was actually a rock. But I couldn't help it, it was a cute 'rock'.
I had offered to help Harry prepare for the task but he kept telling to focus on working with Cedric because he had Hermione helping him. But that didn't stop me from checking on how he was going every...single...day. Like I was annoying big sister. Harry pretended that he was 'annoyed' at me for checking in on him but the smile told me something completely different.
Eventually at 1am the night before the task, I finally fell asleep. But I wasn't counting on sleeping well that night because I was scared that Skuld of the Nornir would try to mess with my head again and plant images in my mind of Cedric get hurt or even killed in the task. But I refused to let her get the better of me if it was the last thing I did.
Cedric's POV
I woke early the morning of the first task after a broken night's sleep. Every time I closed my eyes all I saw was a dragon breathing fire at me. But I was determined to win this, if it was the last thing I would do. I looked over at the clock next to my bed to see it was 6am. Knowing that I wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep, I got up, dressed in my tournament uniform that I was given the night before and grabbed my bag before heading down to the common room.
I wasn't surprised to Elsa already awake and sitting on one of the couches with her legs neatly tucked under her as she reread Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them again. She had read the book so much that it honestly wouldn't surprise if she could recite the whole book by heart. But I also knew what part of the book she would be rereading, the chapter on dragons. She looked so focused as she read the book in her hands, with her blonde curls tied up in a ponytail so they wouldn't fall in her face. I could tell she had been up for a while from the slight frown that was forming on her face that she only got when she hadn't had much sleep and I hated the reason she wasn't sleeping was because of me. But I knew even if Harry and I told her not to worry about us or that she didn't need to help us with the task, she would have done it anyway. If was just the kind of person she was and I loved her for it.
"Please tell me you had at least an hour's sleep," I said, startling her as I walked over and sat down next to her.
"Possibly an hour, maybe two. But what about you? All ready for today?" she asked, placing her book down on the arm of the chair next to her.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," I told her, trying to sound positive.
"I guess you could never be fully ready to face a dragon. I mean, it's a freaking dragon," she laughed.
"Say's the girl who is half super solider, half demi god who has magical ice and illusion powers who has taken on both Hydra and killer robots that were trying to take over the world," I joked.
"When you say it like that, it makes it sound like I took them on myself. Which I defiantly didn't do. I was part of a team." she said, sounding more than a little embarrassed.
"And that's why I know that everything is going to be fine, because we worked as a team to figure this out," I said, leaning forward to give her a quick kiss before pulling my quidditch jersey out of my bag and handing it to Elsa. "But I wouldn't say no to you wearing this for good luck.
"Of course, I'll wear your jersey, even if it will look like a dress on me because I'm so short," she laughed.
"Don't worry, it's my jersey from our third year so it won't be as big on you," I told her.
"Let me go get changed and then we can go to the kitchens to see if Dobby will let us have breakfast early," she said as she jumped up from the seat and picking up her book. "And I need to give Dobby the socks I got Dad to send over for him. There Avenger socks, each pair has a different Avengers theme. I hope he like them."
I smiled as I watched Elsa bounce up the stairs, excited that she could give the little house elf his gift. She was one of the most caring people that I has been lucky enough to meet and I had no idea what I did to deserve her in my life.
I was nervous as I paced around the champions tent, waiting for the first task to officially to begin. I wasn't the only one who was nervous, Fleur was nowhere near as calm and collected as she normally was as she sat in a chair, looking white as a ghost. Viktor was more hunched shoulder than normal and had a scowl on his face that gave him the appearance of having a migraine. But who knows, maybe he did have a migraine. I wouldn't have been surprised; we were all stressed after all. But Harry wasn't there and I was starting to get worried about where he was.
But soon enough a worried looking Harry walked into the tent, looking like he was about to be sick. His hands we shaking as he played with the sleeve of his robes which were the same as the ones that I had been given. But instead of being black and yellow as mine were, Harry's were black and red. I guessed they wanted to show our house colours instead of united as Hogwarts students.
"Come now, Miss Rogers. We need you as Potter's guardian again, the Skeeter woman is going to be here before the tournament starts. The moment she's gone you can go and sit your friends to support Potter and Diggory," Professor McGonagall said, making me look up to see her dragging Elsa behind her.
I may have been bias but I thought Elsa look adorable dressed in her old faded blue jeans, cowboy boots and my old quidditch jersey with the sleeves rolled up. She clear wasn't ready to be pulled out of the crowd so suddenly because she was still holding a half-eaten cupcake that Dobby had given her in the hand that wasn't being dragged by Professor McGonagall.
"Um, hi everyone," she said as Professor McGonagall let go over her arm in the middle of the tent before finishing off her cupcake.
"Good havens! Where is your coat and scarf Miss Rogers! It freezing out there and your half-dressed," Madam Pomfrey fussed as she saw Elsa.
I looked over at Harry who looked like he was trying not to laugh, much the same as I was. We both knew that Elsa didn't feel the cold as much as the rest of us but usually she was good at hiding it. But I guessed she didn't think that anyone would notice her in the crowd so she wasn't as careful as she normally was. I could tell by the look on her face she was trying to come up with an excuse as to why she did have her coat with her.
"Damn, I must have left them on the seat next to Danny. I was getting warm sitting in between all those people in the bleacher so I took it off and I must have forgotten to grab it when Professor McGonagall grabbed me," she said convincingly.
"Elsa can have my coat, Madam Pomfrey," I said as I pulled from the pile of clothing I brought to change into when the task was over. "I won't need it for a while anyway."
I walked over to Elsa and draped my coat over her shoulders. It was far too big for her and fell almost to her knees, but I guess that's what happened when your 6'1 and your girlfriend is a cute 5'2.
"I can't use my hands," Elsa giggled as she pulled the coat on and waved her hands in the too long sleeves.
"Good thing you don't need your hands to stare down Rita Skeeter," Harry laughed as he walked over to stand with his 'guardian'.
"Good thing I have the glare of a demi god," Elsa pointed out. "Now, as your guardian, I'm ordering you to sit down in a dark corner where Skeeter won't see you until it's too late to pull you into an interview."
I could see Professor McGonagall smiling and nodding as she watched Elsa drag Harry over the corner of the tent, out of sight of anyone who walked in. It wasn't much longer until Rita Skeeter walked in with her photographer and her acid green quill. As soon as she walked in, Rita Skeeter's eyes roamed the tent for Harry and pouted when she couldn't see Harry. I pulled the hood on my coat over Elsa's head so the Rita couldn't see her and corner her about Harry's whereabouts.
"Looks like your plan is working," I whispered to her.
"As long as no one screws it up, I think Harry will be able to escape the grasp of that devil woman," Elsa said, looking around the tent.
But unfortunately, someone did ruin Elsa's plan. That someone was the usually intelligent Hermione Granger. She called Harry over to the side of the tent to ask him how he was only for Rita's camera man to snap a photo at the exact moment Hermione threw her arms around Harry in worry.
"Young love!" Rita cooed at the pair as soon as pulled apart after hearing the camera snap. "Ohh how...stirring. If everything goes unfortunately today you might make the front page."
"Odin's beard, I hate that woman," Elsa muttered as she glared at the reporter.
"You have no business here," Viktor growled at Rita as he stalked over towards her. "This tent is for champion and friends."
"No matter. We've got what we wanted," Rita purred as her acid green quill brushed up against Viktor's face and Dumbledore walked in.
I looked over at Elsa who was scribbling a note down on a piece of parchment. At first, I was confused but then I saw it was a note to Dumbledore, warning him about what Rita Skeeter because could be planning.
"Miss Granger, what are you doing here?" Dumbledore said in shock as he looked down at her. "Miss Rogers, since our reporter has gone why don't you and take Miss Granger and go and sit down."
After shrugging off my coat and handing it back to me. As she walked out of the tent, Elsa slipped the note to Professor Dumbledore who looked down and smiled at her.
"Good-o! Everyone is here!" Bagman said he walked in to the tent dressed in his old quidditch robes that were far too small for him with Mr. Crouch.
Something about Mr. Crouch just didn't look right when he walked in to the tent. He looked ill, like he hadn't slept in weeks and he had looked like he had lost a large amount of weight. Even though Mr. Crouch wasn't my favorite person after how he fired his house elf, Winky, at the quidditch world cup, I had to admit it was concerning to see him looking so frail.
"Now, it's time to fill you in!" Bagman said in an excited voice. "In a moment I will be offering each of you this bag from which you will select a model of what you are about to face! There will be, er, different varieties of what you will each face. Now, your task is simple, all you have to do is collect the golden egg."
I couldn't believe the man just revered to the task as simple. Getting an egg from a maternal dragon was by no means simple. It was a death wish that was making me wonder I thought it was a good idea to enter the tournament. But I quickly pushed the thought aside, I entre the tournament to prove something, not to my father but to myself.
"Ladies first," Bagman said as he opened the bag for Fleur.
She reached in with a shaky hand and pulled out moving model of a Welsh green dragon with the number 2 hanging around its neck. Next, he offered Viktor the bag who pulled out the Chinese Fireball that had the number 3 around its neck, leaving the two most dangerous dragons for Harry and I.
When Bagman offered the bag to me, I tried not to look nervous as I reached in and pulled out one of the dragons. I looked down to see that I pulled out the Swedish Short shout with the number 1 around its neck which meant Harry had the horntail and was going last.
I looked down at the dragon in my hand and remembered Elsa calling its real-life counterpart, Olga. It was one of Charlies personal favorites that he looked after, which made me hope it would be as vicious towards humans. But I knew that was no way to think, it was a dragon who would do anything to protect its eggs. A dragon with the hottest flames out of all the dragons. All I knew was that I needed to go out there with a clear head.
"Very well," Dumbledore said taking over from Bagman. "Good luck champions. Mr. Diggory, at the sound of the cannon..."
I assumed that he was going to say at the sound of the cannon I was to enter the arena. So instead of waiting to be told to go out, I walked out into the arena of my own accord. I pulled my wand out of my robes pocket and gripped it tightly as I went over the plan in my head one last time. But it flew out of my mind as soon as I saw the sliver blue dragon in front of me. I had seen how big the dragon was that night in the forest but I felt that it had somehow doubled in size since then. But I knew that was just my fear talking.
I'm don't know how, but I looked up into the crowd and spotted Elsa straight away. She hadn't bothered to put her coat on when she sat back down next to Danny and stood out in my canary yellow jersey and blonde hair. She was gipping Danny's hand and leaning into his side with Danny's arm wrapped around her shoulders. On the other side of her, Hamish also had wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Zane and Henry were standing behind her and had both placed a hand on her shoulder in support while Maggie held on to Danny's other hand. Seeing Elsa with our friends gave me the courage I needed to finish this task.
I quietly walked out further into the arena, not wanting to draw any attention to myself. When I was close enough, I quietly whispered the spell to turn one of the rocks in to a dog. Within seconds, one of the large rocks turned into a golden Labrador that started to bark at the dragon. The dragon's attention was immediately drawn to the dog and I felt a twinge of guilt but I reminded myself that it wasn't actually a dog but a rock.
When the dragon started to move closer to the rock dog, I quietly moved towards the golden egg that was in-between the dragons actually eggs. Everything was going to plan as I reached the golden egg and held it in my hands, until there was a loud noise in the crowd behind me, drawing the dragon's attention to where I was. I knew what was about to happen, so I dived behind one of the boulders in the arena but I was a second too late and the heat from the dragons' flames burnt the left side on my face, neck and shoulder
It was unlike any pain I had ever felt before. It was so painful I could even make a noise. Everybody in the crowd, on the other hand, did yell in shock. I didn't know if I imagined it or it actually happened but I could have sworn I heard Elsa scream the loudest over the top of the rest of the crowd but it snapped me out of my daze.
Suddenly time seemed to slow down as I looked over at the exit to the arena. Seizing the only chance, I got when the dragon was momentarily distracted by the rock dog and ran towards the exit as fast as I could. I only stopped running when I was safely back inside and then everything went black.
Elsa's POV
When the heat of the flames burnt Cedric, I screamed louder than I had ever screamed in my life. It was almost as if I could feel the burns myself. As soon as I screamed, Danny pulled me closer to him and wrapped both of his arms around me.
"He's going to be alright," Danny told me as I started to cry tears that froze as soon as the hit my cheeks. Noticing the frozen tears, Danny quickly brushed them off my cheeks. "See, look he's up and running."
I looked down in the arena to see Cedric sprinting out of the arena with the egg in his hands. The moment he was out of the arena, I was out of my seat and running towards where Professor McGonagall has told me the medical tent was. A few of the dragon handlers were hanging around the medical tent, waiting to see if they were needed to help with the dragons. The one who had stopped me the night I was disguised as Loki was standing at the door to the medical tent.
"You can't go in there, miss," he said gruffly as he grabbed hold of my arm with a heavily callused hand.
"Let go of me," I snapped, pulling my arm free. "My boyfriend who was just seriously burned by a Swedish Short Snout and there is no way you are going stop me from entering that tent."
"If he had been burnt by a Swedish Short Snout, he would be dead, girl," he told me as he pushed me away from the tent.
"Only if he was hit directly by the flames. A person can be burnt by the heat of a short snouts flames alone and it is the equivalent to third degree burns," I told him in a deadly serious voice and shocking the man. "Yeah, that's right. I know more about dragons than you will ever hope to learn in your entire life. For your information, THE Newt Scamander has chosen me to be his apprentice as soon as I graduate. So, get...the hell...out of my way."
"I would move if I were you, Norm," Charlie called out from behind me. "She's not one to mess with and she's like my little sister."
"Oh, uh, sorry boss," Norm said, stepping out of my way.
"Thanks, boss," I called out to Charlie as I ran into the tent.
I stopped, frozen in the middle of the tent when I saw Cedric lying unconscious on one of the beds with the left side of face, neck and shoulder burnt red raw. Madam Pomfrey was in the middle of applying thick orange paste to his burns when she looked up to see me standing in the middle of the tent.
"I expect that fool, Norm, stopped you from entering the tent. Never mind, your here now. Sit with Diggory, will you. The paste will heal the burns as if they were never there and will ease some of his discomfort. But I'm sure seeing a familiar face when he wakes will do him the world of good," she told me as she ushered me to Cedric's side.
I sat down on the right side of Cedric bed and took hold of his hands. Around half an hour later Cedric groaned as he started to wake up. As soon as he came too, he tried to sit up.
"Hey, no you don't," I said as I gently pushed him back onto the bed. "You have just been burnt by the heat from the flames of a Swedish Short Snout, there is no way you are getting out of that bed."
"Yeah, I kinda remember that happening," Cedric said as he started to laugh.
"What, may I ask, is so funny?" I asked him.
"It's just that, normally it's the other way round. You're in the hospital bed and I'm the one stopping you from getting up," he laughed.
"Well, you're not wrong," I laughed, placing my hand on his cheek and icing it over ever so slightly to cool his burns.
"You have no idea how much that helps," he said as he leaned into my hand. "You know, I wish that I had your ice powers when I faced that dragon. Things would have turned out a lot differently."
"Hey, don't talk like that. You got in and out in under fifteen minutes without getting killed or hurting Olga or her eggs," I pointed out as Danny reached out to me through our bond.
Harrys just walked out onto the arena. I'll let you know what happens.
Thanks, Danny. Cedric's just woken up and I don't want to leave him.
"You were just talking to Danny, weren't you?" Cedric asked me.
"How did you know?" I laughed.
"You always tend to lean your head to the left when you are talking to him."
"How have I never noticed that before?"
"I have no idea, love."
As Danny filled me in on what Harry was doing, I relayed it to Cedric. It turned out that Harry had used a summoning spell to get his firebolt and attempted to fly past the dragon. But the horntail broke free off its restraints and chased after Harry. A few minutes later he returned without the dragon and got hold of the egg. Then it wasn't long until Harry walked into the medical tent with an injured arm and Madam Pomfrey started muttering how dangerous Hogwarts had got over the past few years.
It wasn't long until the champions were called out to the arena to get their scores. I helped Cedric up and let him lean on me as he walked out of the tent while holding Harry's hand who was on the other side of me. Each of them was given a mark out of ten from each of the judges.
Cedric came in first with forty-seven points, as he got in and out in the quickest time without damaging on the dragons' real eggs. Harry was second with forty-five points as he had the second quickest time. Viktor came in third with forty points after he used a spell to temporally blind the dragon and was docked points for making the dragon step on some of the eggs from pain. Fleur came in last with twenty-five points after she tried a sleeping charm on the dragon which took a while to take hold but she ended up getting caught in the line of the fire that the dragon breathed as it snored, forcing her to put the fire out with a jet of water from her wand.
I couldn't have been prouder of Cedric and Harry and wanted to say with both of them but Mr. Crouch kicked me out of the tent while the champions received the instructions for the second task.
All of our friends were waiting for both Cedric and me outside of the tent and made me tell them how Cedric was going. After I told them he was fine, they all started cheering and something told me none of us were going to be getting any sleep that night. And it didn't bother me at all.