"In the middle of the hall, really love?" Draco questioned as the two got into the Slytherin common room
"Oh shut up" Ella said throwing a book at him "don't act like you didn't like it"
Draco smirked and wrapped his arms around her waste "Now I never said that did I"
"No, I suppose you didn't" Ella said
"We're not 15 yet, but I say we date anyway" Draco suggested "we're not that young"
"Harry's gonna lose it" Ella said pulling away and walking close to the fire
Draco sighed "I think the most important job as a sibling is to support each other even when one might think it's the wrong choice"
"I think you're right" Ella smiled "I'll always love my brother, but he needs to respect what I want"
"And what you want" Draco held her hand "Is me"
-
Weeks past and it was finally time for the first task. Students filled the stands of the arena, waiting for the champions to face their first challenge, dragons.
"You're brother's going to get cremated" Draco said to Ella
"I'm sure he'll be fine" Ella replied as she sat in her seat next to Draco
Ella hugged Draco's arm and laid her head on his shoulder. The first 3 champions got their eggs and it was finally Harry's turn. Draco looked down to see Ella's wand in her hand and she was staring at the stadium, waiting for Harry to come out.
Harry walked out through the entrance of the tent, the panic rising into a crescendo inside him. And now he was walking past the trees, through a gap in the enclosure fence. He saw everything in front of him as though it was a very highly colored dream. There were hundreds and hundreds of faces staring down at him from stands that had been magicked there since he'd last stood on this spot.
There was the Horntail, at the other end of the enclosure, crouched low over her clutch of eggs, her wings half-furled, her evil, yellow eyes upon him, a monstrous, scaly, black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, heaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground. The crowd was making a great deal of noise, but whether friendly or not, Harry didn't know or care. It was time to do what he had to do...to focus his mind, entirely and absolutely, upon the thing that was his only chance.
He raised his wand.
"Accio Firebolt!" he shouted.
Harry waited, every fiber of him hoping, praying....If it hadn't worked...if it wasn't coming...He seemed to be looking at everything around him through some sort of shimmering, transparent barrier, like a heat haze, which made the enclosure and the hundreds of faces around him swim strangely....
And then he heard it, speeding through the air behind him; he turned and saw his Firebolt hurtling toward him around the edge of the woods, soaring into the enclosure, and stopping dead in midair beside him, waiting for him to mount. The crowd was making even more noise....Bagman was shouting something...but Harry's ears were not working properly anymore...listening wasn't important....
He swung his leg over the broom and kicked off from the ground. And a second later, something miraculous happened....
As he soared upward, as the wind rushed through his hair, as the crowd's faces became mere flesh-colored pinpnicks below, and the Horntail shrank to the size of a dog, he realized that he had left not only the ground behind, but also his fear....He was back where he belonged....
This was just another Quidditch match, that was all...just another Quidditch match, and that Horntail was just another ugly opposing team....
He looked down at the clutch of eggs and spotted the gold one, gleaming against its cement-colored fellows, residing safely between the dragon's front legs. "Okay," Harry told himself, "diversionary tactics...let's go..."
He dived. The Horntail's head followed him; he knew what it was going to do and pulled out of the dive just in time; a jet of fire had been released exactly where he would have been had he not swerved away...but Harry didn't care...that was no more than dodging a Bludger....
Harry soared higher in a circle; the Horntail was still following his progress; its head revolving on its long neck – if he kept this up, it would be nicely dizzy – but better not push it too long, or it would be breathing fire again –
Harry plummeted just as the Horntail opened its mouth, but this time he was less lucky – he missed the flames, but the tail came whipping up to meet him instead, and as he swerved to the left, one of the long spikes grazed his shoulder, ripping his robes –
He could feel it stinging, he could hear screaming and groans from the crowd, but the cut didn't seem to be deep....Now he zoomed around the back of the Horntail, and a possibility occurred to him....
The Horntail didn't seem to want to take off, she was too protective of her eggs. Though she writhed and twisted, furling and unfurling her wings and keeping those fearsome yellow eyes on Harry, she was afraid to move too far from them...but he had to persuade her to do it, or he'd never get near them....The trick was to do it carefully, gradually....
He began to fly, first this way, then the other, not near enough to make her breathe fire to stave him off, but still posing a sufficient threat to ensure she kept her eyes on him. Her head swayed this way and that, watching him out of those vertical pupils, her fangs bared....
He flew higher. The Horntail's head rose with him, her neck now stretched to its fullest extent, still swaying, hike a snake before its charmer....
Harry rose a few more feet, and she let out a roar of exasperation. He was like a fly to her, a fly she was longing to swat; her tail thrashed again, but he was too high to reach now....She shot fire into the air, which he dodged....Her jaws opened wide....
"Come on," Harry hissed, swerving tantalizingly above her, "come on, come and get me...up you get now..."
And then she reared, spreading her great, black, leathery wings at last, as wide as 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, and it was as though somebody had just turned the volume back up – for the first time, he became properly aware of the noise of the crowd, which was screaming and applauding as loudly as the Irish supporters at the World Cup –
"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling. "Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mr. Potter!"
Harry saw the dragon keepers rushing forward to subdue the Horntail, and, over at the entrance to the enclosure, Professor McGonagall, Professor Moody, and Hagrid hurrying to meet him, all of them waving him toward them, their smiles evident even from this distance. He flew back over the stands, the noise of the crowd pounding his eardrums, and came in smoothly to land, his heart lighter than it had been in weeks....He had got through the first task, he had survived....
"I'm going to go see Harry" Ella told Draco as she got up
He nodded in response. Ella walked to the tent where Madam Pomfrey was helping the injured champions. She went in to see Hermione and Ron already there talking to Harry.
"No," said Ron, "I shouldn't've -"
"Forget it, "Harry said.
Ron grinned nervously at him, and Harry grinned back. Hermione burst into tears.
"There's nothing to cry about!" Harry told her, bewildered.
"You two are so stupid!" she shouted, stamping her foot on the ground, tears splashing down her front. Then, before either of them could stop her, she had given both of them a hug and dashed away, now positively howling.
"Barking mad," said Ron, shaking his head.
"Harry" Ella said happily running over to her brother and hugging him
"hey sis, don't tell me you're going to cry too" Harry said as he hugged her back
Ella pulled away and shook her head "No way, I'm not that weak. I'm happy you're safe though, dragon's are no joke"
"C'mon you two, they'll be putting up the scores" Ron said
Picking up the golden egg and his Firebolt, feeling more elated than he would have believed possible an hour ago, Harry ducked out of the tent, Ella and Ron by his side. Now that the Horntail had been taken away, Harry could see where the five judges were sitting – right at the other end, in raised seats draped in gold.
"It's marks out of ten from each one," Ron said, and Harry squinting up the field, saw the first judge – Madame Maxime – raise her wand in the air. What hooked like a long silver ribbon shot out of it, which twisted itself into a large figure eight.
"Not bad!" said Ron as the crowd applauded. "I suppose she took marks off for your shoulder..."
Mr. Crouch came next. He shot a number nine into the air.
"Looking good!" Ron yelled, thumping Harry on the back.
Next, Dumbledore. He too put up a nine. The crowd was cheering harder than ever.
Ludo Bagman – ten.
"Ten?" said Harry in disbelief. "But...I got hurt....What's he playing at?"
"Harry, don't complain!" Ron yelled excitedly.
And now Karkaroff raised his wand. He paused for a moment, and then a number shot out of his wand too – four.
"What?" Ron bellowed furiously. "Four? You lousy, biased scum-bag, you gave Krum ten!"
But Harry didn't care, he wouldn't have cared if Karkaroff had given him zero; Ron's indignation on his behalf was worth about a hundred points to him. He didn't tell Ron this, of course, but his heart felt lighter than air as he turned to leave the enclosure. And it wasn't just Ron...those weren't only Gryffindors cheering in the crowd.
When it had come to it, when they had seen what he was facing, most of the school had been on his side as well as Cedric's....He didn't care about the Slytherins, he could stand whatever they threw at him now.
"You're tied in first place, Harry! You and Krum!" said Charlie Weasley, hurrying to meet them as they set off back toward the school. "Listen, I've got to run, I've got to go and send Mum an owl, I swore I'd tell her what happened – but that was unbelievable! Oh yeah – and they told me to tell you you've got to hang around for a few more minutes....Bagman wants a word, back in the champions' tent."
"I'm going to head back to my friends, I'll see you later big bro" Ella said giving Harry a quick hug before running back to Draco
-
"I'm happy it was your brother and not you, I'd be worried sick" Draco said as he and Ella walked to the castle
"Don't worry I'd never put myself in danger like that, I wouldn't want my boyfriend worrying about me" Ella said as she sped up
Draco blinked then ran after her "Does that mean we're dating?"
Ella continued walking.
"Hey answer me" Draco said waving a hand in front of her
Ella grabbed his tie and pulled him into a kiss again before letting him go and continued walking.
Draco smirked "I'm taking that as a yes"