Ch. 128 First Task

I could see and hear hundreds people cheering for me as they see my person appear from the entrance.

The excitement, the tension, even some small amount of blood thirst could be felt from those wanting to see some kind of gladiator match.

And as I saw my foe, all of it vanished for me.

I no longer heard the cheers. No longer were the gazes a factor. No one and nothing mattered other than the best coiling itself around its clutch of eggs, protecting them from the people surrounding it.

Its long and sturdy body was covered in dull silver scales, protecting it from almost any blade. A strong tail wrapping itself around a small nest containing 4 dragon eggs and my prize. Its pair of powerful wings were currently folded against its body. Its four mighty legs bent, ready to pounce on any would-be threat against her young, and armed with claws capable of tearing steal apart. And to top everything off, the primeval magic resistance i could feel in every part of its body besides the eyes, capable of turning pretty much any spell cast by second maturation levels wizards into something near meaningless.

I could feel it glaring at me with its blue eyes, nearly matching my own in color, assessing me as a threat.

'This time I guess it's ok to show off.' I thought with a smile as I confidently walk towards the Swedish Short-Snout.

With each step I take, more of my aura is unleashed as I gradually approach. This is my challenge to the beast. Its ferociousness against my majesty.

Unfortunately for her, I possessed an incredibly powerful aura. I was the amalgamation of a Whampus cat, a Phoenix, and the power of an alpha of her species. I have the presence of a true warrior-king. Those who could not match my level had to step aside instinctively. And as a result, I could feel my own aura pushing hers further and further back, driving the dragon away from wanting to fight me.

The only issue was that this was a nesting mother. A mother from a prideful and powerful species. So even if she could not really fight me. Even if she would not survive. She would fight till death in order to let her young live. This is one of the most powerful and dangerous drives within any species: a mother's love.

And so, even in the face of a foe which seems unchallengeable, this dragon will fight.

I could feel her magic gathering in her throat as if time was slowing down. The temperature around her rose as she prepared the deadliest weapon a dragon, and this species in particular, has: her breath.

In that moment, I was so excited.

I could see the whitish-blue flame come out of her gaping maw in slow-motion. Creeping towards my direction in full detail as everything else in the world ceased to matter.

And as soon as that fire was about to truly exit her mouth, i raised my wand for the first time.

For this little demonstration I simply decided to take a page out of our dear Headmasters book.

I channeled my magic and affinity towards all related to fire through the dragons own flame and start to make a circling motion above my head, guiding the blue flame as it followed the path I wished for it to take. As the Short-Snout continued to breath out its flame, I gently guided it all around me, forming as great pillar of rotating fire reaching out into the sky.

The dragon finally stopped breathing new flames into my pillar, letting me take complete control as I push most of it upwards, but as the last bits were about to go beyond me, I let out a burst of magic to cause the remnants to disperse with flare.

This had the effect of leaving me standing amidst of circle of blue fire, as my silver hair tied in a high ponytail danced in the wind, and with myself sporting a confident and proud smile on my face.

Seeing this, the mother immediately whipped her tail from above in an attempt to flatten me as she roared aggressively.

"My turn."

My wand blurs as I move faster then most humans can dream of, pointing at the ground ahead of me and to the right, transfiguring it into titanium chains and manipulating them as they grabbed the incoming tail with a flick of my wrist in its direction, and with a third movement I perform a slamming down motion, making the chains force the tail to the ground away from me. The dragon realizes that it has been trapped and tries to use its massive strength to free itself, but with a few more flicks of my wand I change more of the ground into powerful chains, making the grab further and further up as I was getting closer to her body.

Before I could lock her tail down completely, she decides to lunge towards me and try to claw me. With her right front leg raised as her weapon of choice, she attempts to strike me. Unfortunately for her, I used the same method as before to immobilize her leg. I point to the ground on my left and make more chains rise to protect me. They grab onto her mighty claws and leg, and reel it to the ground as they snake up her limb. This time I added another measure since she would have an easier time putting more strength into her legs than her tail, thus I make her leg sink into the ground as even more chains begin to grab her.

As she begins to fiercely struggle against her entrapment, trying desperately to free her leg by putting more pressure on the other ones, I do the same to her left leg. Meaning chains rose from the ground as the ground itself sank. The result of her not being able to properly control her own legs was that she lost her balance and started to stumble during her struggle.

I noticed that she had finally decided to try use her wings in an effort to free herself, thus I immediately confirmed that the weather was perfect for my next spell.

There was a reason I shot the fire into the air earlier, was for more than just looking cool. I wanted to use the heat in order to help me stimulate the heavy clouds hanging above.

With an excited smile I loudly announce my next spell for dramatic effect as I wave my wand above of my head and point towards the dragon.

"Tempestas!"

With a brilliant flash of light and the sound of an explosion setting off, a powerful bolt of lightning struck her back, slamming her into the ground and roar in pain.

With her body against the ground and forgetting about my presence, I quickly make chain after chain erupt from the ground. In her daze, she doesn't even notice her wings can't unfurl anymore. She doesn't know yet that all four of her legs have been sunk into the ground. And in mere moments, I have the dragon in front of me almost completely immobilized.

But now she knows.

She realized that she could no longer move. Even with desperate tugs against all of these powerful chains, she could only move an inch. With only her head still free, mostly due to it moving around too much when she was in pain, she looked around and spotted her intact eggs, then quickly looked at me with fire in her eyes.

Her will to die for her future children was burning even brighter in this moment.

As her final act of defiance, she readied another blast of fire aimed at myself, who was standing a dozen meters away from her.

She opened her maw one final time, trying to get rid of me, but with one upward flick on my wand the earth under her head rose, forcing her to shoot the blue fire into the sky. I then quickly change the earth I used into more chains and force her mouth close, removing any possibility of attacks as she was now fully bound and defenseless.

Keeping my guard up, I confidently walk up to my chained opponent as she looked at me with absolute hostility.

I looked into her those eyes and decided to do a little something to reassure her that I mean her and her little ones no harm, so I used legilimency on her. Instantly raging thoughts of anger, sadness, determination, hatred, longing, indignation and her own savage nature could be felt, but my mind is still extremely powerful compared to raw emotions. I use images of happiness, created memories of her with her young to calm her, show her my own memories of playing with various creatures, send positive thoughts and calming vibes her way, all to let her know I mean no harm. I even sneakily sent in my Phoenix flame to heal the damages I have caused and the ones she endured has they brought her here or she suffered through her life. Using everything in tandem, I am letting her calm down as I show her what I wish to truly do. So I show her an image of me taking a golden egg, while leaving every other egg alone and letting her feel my desire for it and it alone.

As she stopped struggling and calmed down drastically, I exited her mind and turned my attention to the nest. She looked at me with wariness as I approached her eggs, but she couldn't turn her head and lost sight of me as I walked along her massive body.

I reach the nest and find the four eggs surrounding my goal. I calmly reach down and grab the smooth golden egg, look at it with pride and firmly take hold of it. I then walk back to the trapped dragon and show her the egg I took, letting her smell the metallic lookalike before took my leave and raise it above my head for all to see.

It was at this moment which my senses let the sound around me reach me, and roaring cheers which could drown out the dragons previous roars could be heard as I walked out of the arena victorious.

I was quickly led for a checkup with Poppy by Professor Flitwick, and he was both proud and blown-away by what I had done.

"That was simply unbelievable Mr. Bones! The most fantastic display of spells and power a Ravenclaw has ever put up! I have no doubt your score will be fantastic! You managed to subjugate a fully grown Dragon on your own!" He happily said in his high pitched voice.

"I did aim to show I am more than just my grades this time. It is a statement for my future as well." I replied with a confident smile.

"Oh ho!? And what statement is that if I might ask?" My head of house said with curiosity.

"That the new Lord Bones is not just a nerdy punk. I am strong and should not be recklessly provoked due to my age." I answered with pride in my voice.

"Well, I do believe that many will take that warning to heart after today." He jovially agreed. "But it would seem you've been holding back on me during our spars. Now I am curious just how much you've done so.

"Haha! If you're talking about proper dueling, then I've shown my skills, but not my combat spells, and some unfair advantages." I awkwardly answered with a laugh.

"You have my curiosity Mr. Bones, but I will leave you with Madam Pomfrey and then we can head out to hear your score." The half-goblin said to me with an excited smile.

Poppy was fretting about as usual, mostly talking to herself as she basically cursed the school for having so many incidents with beasts. I mean, a basilisk, then Dementors and now some dragons. Not a great deal of fun for the person who has to fix people, but she was glad that I didn't even have a scuff mark on myself, much less an actual wound.

"I heard you did us proud in that arena Aedan, so although I don't approve of this, good job coming out safe and sound." She finally said with a relieved expression.

"Thanks... Professor." I cheekily reply as I get her to smile a bit at the title.

My friends actually decided to crash in the infirmary tent before I could head out for my score as well. I had the time since although I'm not hurt, they need to get the Swedish Short-Snout out of the task area and set up the next one.

"That was bloody brilliant mate! Merlin can roll over in his grave after that!" Exclaimed a very hyped Christian.

"I can't believe you even mastered the Tempest jinx, you have to teach me that one." James said as he looked very determined.

"Well you certainly kept your promise and then some," Victoria said as she hugged me with a visibly relieved look on her face mixed with some pride, love, and a little bit of lust as she whispered, "And you were incredibly hot out there. I think you'll deserve a special reward."

She quickly separated after teasing me a bit and regained her composure as we all talked about my performance.

I was then called out to receive my score in front of the audience and with my egg in hand.

My friends said they'd go back to their seats in order to watch the next performances and see what score I get. We also promised to celebrate a bit during our next Hogsmeade visit.

I stepped out onto the arena once more and walk as cheers could be heard from everywhere. I decided to wave back and smile, causing high pitched squeals to erupt from any direction I did so.

It looked like the judges had finally decided on the score I would receive. This made the crowd go silent in anticipation.

The first judge was Madam Maxime, shooting out two ribbons as they formed a silvery ten in the air, causing excited applause to ring once more.

Barty Crouch went second and made a second ten appear, making the audience heat up in excitement.

'Either he's already under the Imperus curse, or he values impartiality even after our little stint this summer.' I thought after seeing my score from him.

Our dear Headmaster was next and gave me a proud look as he gave me another 10, causing everyone to cheer in response.

Bagman was next, but he looked very nervous after seeing my performance and score, looking very reluctant as he shot out a 9 in the air, causing some questions in the audience but cheers still rang out.

'Really desperate for Harry to win aren't you?' I thought with a smirk at the score.

And last was Karkaroff, the most obviously biased judge of the tournament. He looked like he had swallowed a fly at the moment, raising his wand and shooting out a seven and causing many disagreeing voices to ring out from the audience after seeing that score. A lot of people actually booed the man for this crappy judgement.

'Just wow. Wonder how people will react when he gives Viktor a ten no matter what?' I thought with a little chuckle after that one.

But even if pretty much everyone looked at him questionably, he just tried to look like he did nothing wrong.

So in the end, I finished the first task with 46/50 points and the golden egg.

'If I remember correctly, Harry and Viktor had the highest in the canon at 40, so it's an acceptable head start. Not like I need it anyway.' I thought as I left the field and headed to the tent set up for the champions which had completed the task.