C h a p t e r N i n e
T h e H u n g a r i a n H o r n t a i l
When it came time for the first task, Harry had planned to use his broom to battle the Dragon. His lack of knowledge in spells meant that he needed to use his strengths. He struggled to learn the spells that Evelyn had taught him.
Thanks to Mad Eye Moody's suggestion, Harry and Evelyn were able to plan where to leave the firebolt so Harry could call it while in the ring.
Harry was currently pacing the large tent with the three other champions when he heard a repeated "pst!" noise on the opposite side of the material.
Harry approached the noise cautiously, he was relieved to hear two familiar voices.
"Harry?" That was Evelyn.
"Is that you?" And that was Hermione beside her.
"Yeah," Harry replied. It took a lot of control for Evelyn not to enter the tent, she was so afraid for him, as was Hermione. However she knew that the Professor's could give them into trouble for entering the Champions Tent.
"How are you feeling? Okay?" Hermione questioned, she too was terrified. When Harry didn't answer, she continued attempting to comfort him. "The key is to concentrate. After that, you just have to-"
"Battle a dragon," Harry finished.
Hermione couldn't help herself any longer, hearing those words caused a whimper to escape her as she entered the tent. Hermione threw her arms around their friend, Evelyn followed behind.
As soon as the brunette entered the tent, a dazzling flash blinded her. Eve looked up with a glare as Rita Skeeter entered the tent, her pad and quill beside her with a photographer in tow.
"Young love," she signed causing Harry and Hermione to pull away. "How...stirring. If everything goes unfortunately today you two may even make the front page."
"You've already squeezed every piece of fake news out of the Champions, so go find someone else to write about," Eve protested as she glared at the journalist.
"Ah Miss Black!" Rita squeaked delighted as her quill began to scribble rapidly. "Any news on your father? What a tragedy it must have been to find out that you were the daughter of one of the Wizarding World most feared murderers! Interested in an exclusive with the Daily Prophet?" The woman winked.
"Nothing that I would tell you," Evelyn spat with a glare as she looked the woman up and down.
"You have no business here," Viktor Krum interrupted as he approached the journalist. "This tent is for champions and friends."
Evelyn sent a smile to the Durmstrang student, thankful that he would stick up for her, despite the fact he rarely knew her.
"No matter. We've got what we wanted," Rita smirked as her photographer captured another image.
Evelyn quickly turned to Harry and Cedric as she heard voices approaching the tent. "Good luck," she told them both.
Just then Dumbledore, Barty Crouch, Madam Maxine and Igor Karkaroff entered the tent.
"Good day, champions." Their headmaster began. "Gather round, please. Now, you've waited, you've wondered, and at last the moment has arrived. A moment only four of you
can fully appreciate."
When Dumbledore finished, he looked down to see that the student he had wrapped his arm around was actually Miss Black, who winced as she waited for some kind of scolding.
"What are you doing here, Miss Black? And you, Miss Granger?"
"Sorry. Um...we'll just go," Eve stated as she grabbed Hermione's arm as they exited the tent.
Both girls quickly headed for the stands surrounding the arena. They joined Ron and some of the other Gryffindor students just as the first champion was called.
Evelyn was bundled with nerves as Cedric was first to enter the arena, thankfully her friend was able to gather the egg fairy quickly without any harm.
Viktor Krum had been next, he too claimed the golden egg after battling with the Dragon for a few minutes.
Then it was Fleur's turn who had a fairly quick Dragon which chased her around the foundtion before she was able to disarm it and collect the next clue.
It was now only Harry remaining, and Evelyn didn't think she could take any more of this. Dumbledore's voice soon filled the arena by the use of his wand, to introduce the final competitor.
"Three of our champions have now faced their dragons and so each one of them will proceed to the next task.
And now our fourth and final contestant!"
"Harry! Harry! Harry!" The Hogwarts students began to cheer for Harry in encouragement. The cheering stopped as Harry's turn began.
Eve watched as be slowly stepped out of the formation, unaware of the dragons that was meters away from him. The crowd was silent until gasps of horror erupted as the Hungarian Horntail used it's spiked tail to attack the young wizard.
Evelyn's heart stopped as Harry just managed to roll out of the way of being hit. He was quick to scramble to his feet as a breath of fire was aimed towards him.
More gasps and shouts followed as Harry was cornered and tossed across the rock formations. Another breath of fire occurred before Evelyn finally managed to shout out, "Your wand, Harry! Your wand!"
She prayed that the boy had heard her, as she noticed him move his hand which she presumed held his wand. The only way Harry would get out of this was if he stuck to the plan.
Moments later a familiar broom was approaching the arena, Evelyn cheered quietly as she saw the spell had worked.
Harry used to arrival of his broom to make a quick escape from being burned. Eve watched in anticipation as Harry directed his broom towards the golden egg, but he had to swerve as the Dragon for to close making his miss the item.
The crowd let out collective gasps as the Dragon broke free of its chain and followed Harry high up into the sky.
If it had not been for the threat against Harry's life, Evelyn would have laughed at the sight of some of the professors' reaction when the Dragon ripped apart their section of the arena.
"Oh no," Evelyn muttered terrified as Harry and the dragon disappeared from sight. There was no way to tell what was happening back towards the castle. The only indication they had was from the combination of sounds of crumbling debris and the Horntails roars.
The arena sat in silence for minutes, each one feeling longer and longer for Eve, Ron and Hermione as they desperately watched the sky.
"Come on Harry, come on!" Eve grunted as the silence became painful to bare.
Suddentky a speak started to get closer to the arena, Evelyn noticed the smoke coming off the item. As it but closer she and Hermione erupted in to exited screams as they watched Harry enter the arena once again.
Evelyn leaned into the air exactly as she watched Harry gather the golden egg.
He made it! He survived! She realised as a heavy breath escaped her in relief.
******
Celebrations had begun in the common room as soon as the first task was over. The students in the Common Room as they crowded Harry, who raised the golden egg proudly.
Evelyn watched the scene from across the room as she stood on the staircase. A smile was on her as she looked at all the people who were now supporting Harry.
The twins suddentky entered the crowd, both picking up Harry to hoist on their shoulders as the cheers continued.
"Knew you wouldn't die, Harry. Lose a leg-"
"Or an arm!"
"Pack it in altogether?
"Never!"
The golden egg who Harry had thrown into the crowd was passed began to him by an ecstatic Seamus. "Go on, Harry. What's the clue?"
Harry grinned at the item before looking around the room at his fellow students. "Who wants me to open it?"
The crowd cheered excitedly, causing Harry to smirk. "Do you want me to open it?!" He asked again.
"Yes!" The crowd coursed.
Eve watched as Harry twisted the top hatch of the golden egg, when he finished the egg split open into three section. A horrid noise filled the common room, the high pitched screech causing everyone to drop what they were doing and cover their ears.
The twins dropped Harry in attempt to avoid the painful pitch. Eve watched with clenched teeth as Harry finally managed to close the egg, stopping the screech.
She let out a sign of relief as she dropped her hands back to her side, before she heard a familiar voice.
"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron demanded as be entered the common room alone.
The crowd watched as Ron started to approach Harry, which lead Evelyn to leave her place at the staircase where she could join Hermione incase an argument erupted again.
"All right, everyone!" Fred called. "Go back to your knitting,"
"This is gonna be uncomfortable enough without all you nosy sods listening in," George stated as students started to file into their dorms or scatter across the common room.
Evelyn sat down next to Hermione as both girls listened to the conversation between their friends.
"I reckon you have to be barking mad to put your own name in the Goblet of Fire," Ron stated sheepishly.
"Caught on, have you? Took you long enough."
"I wasn't the only one who thought you'd done it, everyone was saying it
behind your back."
"Brilliant," Harry commented sarcastically. "That makes me feel loads better."
"Least I warned you about the dragons," Ron stated causing Evelyn to frown in confusion.
"Hagrid warned me about the dragons," Harry replied with a frown.
"No, no, I did! Don't you remember? I told Hermione to tell you that Seamus told me that Parvati told Dean that Hagrid was looking for you. Seamus never actually told me anything, so it was really me all along. I thought we'd be all right, you know...after you'd figured that out."
Eve shook her head at her brother's ridiculous idea. She and Hermione shared a look of pure confusion of how anyone was meant to understand there two.
"Who--? Who could possibly figure that out?" Harry questioned. "That's completely mental."
"Yeah. Isn't it? I suppose I was a bit distraught."
The two shared awkward smiles at each other as they both looked at their feet.
"Boys," Hermione breathed in bewilderment as she shook her head. Evelyn nodded her head in agreement as she looked at her friend and brother.
"They're worse than a married couple!"