Chapter 201

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"Greetings to our fourth champion!" shouted Bagman to the entire corral and the stands, amplifying his voice with Sonorus. "Maximilian Knight!"

However, as before, the greetings were sluggish. And their enthusiasm waned considerably as students and guests saw the threat the champions faced and the risks they were taking. One mistake was tantamount to death or serious injury.

A young blond boy, looking no younger than the other champions, walked into the corral. He was wearing a rather stylish three-piece suit with a sparse, almost invisible stripe and a black overcoat on top, to the surprise of many. If Potter and Krum were in their Quidditch uniforms and Fleur was in a tracksuit, then these clothes were more in keeping with a business meeting than a tournament competition. A meeting with a dragon.

"Are you worried?" Lavender Brown turned to the roommate sitting next to her, Hermione. A silly question, for they were both very worried, clutching the edges of their robes. Except Hermione's face was deathly pale but expressed no emotion.

"Yes," the girl answered briefly.

On the other hand, Lavender couldn't help but notice Max's resemblance to one of the guests who had come to the tournament. He looked a lot like Narcissa Malfoy, and there was no doubt in her mind that it was the mother of their classmate, Draco Malfoy, who sat among the other adult and influential wizards. Thinking about the reasons for this resemblance distracted the girl from her worries, and she almost missed the moment when Max suddenly ran at the dragon, pulling his wand from his sleeve.

"Wow! Dear audience, what's he doing!" shouted Bagman, and everyone suddenly held their breath. This was something no one had expected.

The Horntail didn't think of anything special and simply exhaled a huge, previously unseen jet of flame, into which Max literally flew.

"Oh!" everyone sighed anxiously in various ways. Only a few noticed that just before he came into contact with the fire, Max seemed to be sucked into an apparition vortex or something like that.

"He apparated?" exclaimed Bagman disbelievingly. "But dear spectators! Where, and how?! We're still under the dome of Hogwarts' anti-apparation charms!"

However, only Dumbledore, Delphine in the form of a cat, and another old healer noticed that this was not an apparation vortex but a twisting of matter characteristic of transfiguration.

The jet of flame from the dragon's mouth suddenly stopped, and it was like a pinch of pepper hit the dragon in the nose, and the huge monster shook its head. Not a moment later, it was as if the dragon had gone mad. The dragon lunged sharply to the side, jerking its wings and head convulsively, once more. As if trying to scratch its head, the dragon swept it across the ground several times, but clearly, it was only getting worse. The dragon violently slammed its head to the ground, smashing boulders and raising clouds of crumbs and dust into the air, jerked sharply, and tore off the chain it was chained to the arena. But it couldn't take off and only tried a couple more times to get rid of the discomfort.

The spectators were as shocked as the draconologists. Nothing was clear yet, and they were not given the go-ahead to act. The raised cloud of dust practically made it difficult to see only the silhouette of the Horntail. After a couple of moments, a tenacious eye would have noticed the tip of a small sword suddenly emerging from the dragon's nape, but there were none of those. However, it was at this moment that the dragon fell to the ground, as if knocked down. Its tongue fell out of its open mouth, and a stream of blood immediately gushed out. Due to the thick dust suspension, no one noticed a tiny bird, literally a couple of centimeters, that escaped from the dragon's mouth and flew to the place where Max was standing.

The spectators once again saw a vortex, so similar to an apparation, which instantly transformed into the guy, Max Knight, recently lost from sight. There was no sign of fire or any other damage on him. The guy put his wand back in its sheath in his sleeve and walked briskly to the nest, where he picked up a golden egg.

"Unbelievable!" yelled Bagman, and the audience from the stands literally exploded with applause. "I can't tell you what just happened, but the result is incredible!"

To the unceasing thunder of applause, Max left the corral. The judges argued, the judges were outraged, but among them, Dumbledore sat calmly and with a slight smile. What is the mighty old wizard happy about? Dumbledore saw the powerful transfiguration performed by the fourth year. Dumbledore is pleased. And as for killing the dragon, the old Headmaster loves a good beefsteak and is well aware that meat does not grow on trees.