CH 52

Fleur Delacour shot him a look between anger and pity as she stalked out towards the dragon. She clearly had quite a temper. Harry almost felt sorry for the creature that was about to be in her way.

The tent was much more peaceful and bearable now that everyone else had left. It was nice to have some quiet around him again.

Time stretched on as Harry waited and still there was no sound from the arena beyond. He had heard nothing from either the crowd or the dragon. It was possible the french witch had been eaten and the crowd was in horrified silence, but Harry had the sinking feeling she might emerge victorious and more unbearable.

The cannon sounded again and Harry flinched at the sudden noise. His movement caused the small dragon in his hand, that had finally settled down a few moments ago, to lash out with its tail and stab him in the palm.

Infernal creature, Harry swore internally. If the real one is as bad this one, I'm not going to enjoy this at all.

He eyed the model and smirked.

You'll be coming with me, he decided rather spitefully. The tent opened into a short, rocky passageway that led down into the arena. Since there was only one way, forwards, Harry followed it, hiding the hand he was holding the model horntail in and slipping his wand out of his sleeve.

The golden egg was nestled on top of a clutch of the dragon eggs. There was no Hungarian Horntail in sight, but Harry was not so foolish as to simply step out.

He glanced around the arena, took aim at one of the rocks and murmured, 'reducto.' He had not put much power into the spell so its impact with the rock created little more than a loud noise.

A searing column of flame engulfed the innocent stone a moment later and the dragon made its appearance. Oh my.

It was a very impressive looking creature and Harry instantly grasped why Fleur Delacour had not wanted to be near the dragon after the horntail was uncaged. It was only a little shorter than the dead basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets and similarly built. The model really did not do the creature justice. The dragon spread its tattered wings over the nest to make itself appear larger and lashed its tail across the rocks savagely behind it to produce a ghastly screeching sound.

Harry hurled the model dragon to the far side of the arena and took careful aim with his wand.

'Engorgio,' he hissed. There was no limit to the enlarging spell save how much magic could be channelled from the caster and the model dragon was soon every bit as large as its real counterpart. It left Harry with very little magic left.

This has better work.

Faced with a more serious threat than Harry, the Hungarian Horntail whirled around and roared in challenge. The crowd cheered loudly, thrilled by this new turn of events. Harry couldn't blame them.

Who wouldn't want to watch dragons fight?

'Confractio,' Harry whispered, aiming his rupturing curse for its eyes. His first two attempts miss completely as the dragons squared up, his third deflected harmlessly off the real dragon's jaw, but his fourth hit true and blinded the creature on his side.

It screamed with rage and pain, shaking its head and spattering the ground nearby with drops of steaming dragon's blood.

Seeking to eliminate its rival and end the threat to its nest the horntail swung its tail in a vicious circle towards the enlarged model. Fortunately the depth perception of the dragon was hindered with one eye and it only succeeded in obliterating part of the arena wall next to Harry's distraction.

The fragments of stone that sprayed from the impact tore holes through the plastic skin of the model.

The enlarged model lunged forwards, grappling with the the original and the two dragons went crashing to the floor on the far side of the arena.

Harry quietly took his chance and stole a little closer to the nest. On the far side of the arena the model had pinned the actual dragon beneath it, driving its tail through the tattered, leathery wing of its attacker. The original dragon seemed dazed, but the attacks of the enlarged model were not penetrating the hard ebony scales and deflected off harmlessly. When it recovered its senses the model, which was only enchanted plastic, and then Harry, would be in serious trouble.

He snuck a little closer to the eggs, warily watching the tail of the downed dragon scrape across the ground by the nest.

The real horntail curled its tail back on itself and impaled the creature pinning it to the floor through the chest. Using the tail now embedded in the model it threw the enlarged replica off itself and on to the floor, raking deep gouges into the model when it tried to rise with the clawed tips of its uninjured wing.

Darting towards the nest before the real dragon won and his distraction failed, Harry abandoned subtlety entirely.

The horntail unleashed a second wave of white flames at Harry's battered, enchanted replica. For all the magic placed upon it to make it lifelike the model was not a real dragon, and withered away to ashes within seconds.

That will teach it to bite me, he thought smugly as it disintegrated, then he remembered where he was and swore violently.

Harry took what was left of his opportunity, grabbed the egg, and ran, completely ignoring the roar of the crowd behind him. There was a horrified gasp from the arena and the barbed tail of the Hungarian Horntail slammed into the rocks beside him a second later. Harry had no doubt that if the dragon had not been half-blind he would have been killed.

Diving behind the nearest cover he dodged a torrent of fire, then wriggled away to hide from the dragon's remaining malicious, yellow eye. He wasn't exactly sure anyone would, but now he had the egg he quite hoped someone would step in and deal with the dragon before it realised where he was and finished him off.

A very loud thump came from close nearby and Harry risked a glance out around the rock.

The Hungarian Horntail was unconscious. Standing up to the applause of the arena, Harry bounced his golden egg in the crook of his arm. Whatever was inside this thing had better have been worth it.

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