Fire from the skies

-By Merlin's knickers... That was fantastic! -Bagman commented aloud once he regained his composure as he turned to look at the Headmaster of Hogwarts, "I didn't expect you to have such a "fierce" student with you, Dumbledore. And that music! Look, I've got goosebumps!

-I think Mr. Galegold has given us all quite a surprise," the old man commented humbly as he recalled the whole encounter in his bewildered mind, trying to understand how a fourth year student managed to do all that.

The shield at the beginning that deflected the dragon's tail was still understandable, the lady was clearly an illusion for show and the physical transformation was due to his traits as a shapeshifter.

But how did she manage to swallow the dragon's fire and return a fiercer version?

What was the principle behind that dark, metallic skin?

Even with his extensive knowledge, he didn't manage to understand these points in a short time and maybe he wouldn't even do it later. Who knows if he had more tricks up his sleeve?

-I knew he was a little monster, but this... -sighed Madame Maxime as her head turned to look at Fleur on the stands, who had a much paler expression than when she had been treated for the burns from her encounter with her dragon. Despite Popy's insistence, Fleur did not stay in the infirmary bed to watch the rest of the encounters via the den den mushi projector and wanted to see Soisen's confrontation with her own eyes.

But now Maxime didn't know how one of her champions would react.

Would her competitive spirit burn brighter or would she be overwhelmed and shut down?

He really hoped it would be the former.

Karkaroff narrowed his eyes and no one knew what he was thinking.

The last bout conducted by Beauxbatons champion Curie went off without a hitch, aside from a dislocated shoulder, but after watching Soisen's performance, people found the excitement lacking and as Curie left the stadium, she felt the atmosphere was strange.

The time came for the judges to meet and hand out the points.

Everyone could see the judges discussing with arguments what points each champion deserved in their opinion, but later the discussion heated up when it was time to score Soisen.

Karkaroff wanted to give a low score because he felt the music, the show and the way it ended had little magical merit and was more the performance of a barbarian. But no one was foolish and they could see that the headmaster of Durmstrang wanted to reduce the chances of the new "menace" as much as possible.

In the end, the results were as follows based on points scored:

Soisen

Cedric

Fleur

Potter

Curie

Krum

Svadika (retired)

The results between Hogwarts and Beauxbatons were the most balanced, while Durmstrang had the worst performance. Krum lost points for breaking eggs and Svadika had bad luck and almost didn't make it out alive, resulting in him not being able to get the golden egg needed for the second test.

So the tournament champions were reduced from seven to six, to Karkaroff's complete anger and frustration. Now Hogwarts had three champions, Beauxbatons had two champions, and Durmstrang had only Krum, who ranked last.

But despite the ranking, the truth was that Soisen nearly came in second because he was the only one to kill his dragon and this caused the dragon keepers to protest, initially thinking that they only needed to "loan" the dragons and would not lose any of them during the trial.

Soisen snorted in amusement when he heard that, they should thank him for not claiming the body of the dragon he killed, thanks to his legitimate rights of conquest he possessed based on the laws of the magical world.

And it wasn't that he didn't want to, it was just that after facing the Hungarian Horntail, he saw that the materials in its body weren't of high enough quality to attract him.

Well, as you can deduce, the egg is the clue that you must decipher related to the second test, which will take place on the twenty-fourth of February. That is, you have three months of time to study the golden egg and prepare accordingly.

Soisen already knew that he needed to open the golden egg underwater to listen to the clues that the second test would take place in the depths of the Black Lake, in order to rescue his "most precious treasure" which was actually a person important to him. Now, who would be his hostage?

Most likely he would be subjected to observation during these three months and there was a high probability that his partner during the Yule Ball would be the one chosen.

But Soisen would have two of them! Well, that is as long as Hermione and Silvia remembered and wanted to honor the bet they made at the end of first year. In which case otherwise, he hoped they would let him know, as it wouldn't be any fun to realize at the last minute that he didn't have a dance partner for whatever reason.

More so considering that the champions had the duty of opening the first dance!

He didn't know if Krum would ask Hermione as in the original, but he secretly hoped that Silvia wouldn't stand him up. Even without the bet, he would have asked her to be his dance partner.

...Two days later, in the Forbidden Forest...

The Acromantulas' lair was put on alert when several objects fell from the sky. Upon close examination of the projectiles, they discovered that they were barrels filled with some kind of odorless liquid, which splashed all the spiders.

As Aragog pondered whether some careless wizard had lost his baggage while accidentally flying over their territory, he heard roars from the sky and raised his eight eyes to see several species of dragons rushing towards them in a frenzy, showering him and his son with fire.

...The next morning...

-Did you hear about what happened last night in the Forbidden Forest? -Ginny excitedly arrived at Galegold's table and looked around at everyone.

-What happened? asked a curious first-year student named Verti.

-The dragons from the first test somehow escaped and attacked the Acromantula nest deep in the forest, they're all dead and even the centaurs are celebrating for wiping that invasive pest out of their ecosystem!

-It's strange, why did all the dragons go after them? -Verti asked, but no one could give her an answer, "Did they get the dragons back, at least?

-Yes, my brother Charlie told me that we don't have to worry, all the ones that escaped have been found," assured Ginny.

-It seems that the barrels filled with dragon pheromones are working perfectly," Soisen thought contentedly as he ate a piece of chocolate cake in celebration.

It didn't take him too long to find the location of the nest of those dreadful creatures, the centaurs were happy to give him that information in exchange for his promise to eradicate that pest. Too bad for Hagrid, when he hears the news he'll be heartbroken, but it's a small price to pay to regain his equilibrium.