Harry dodged the swinging hammer by changing into a cat, he quickly ran between the minotaur's legs and stopped a small distance away before turning back into his human form. He fired a stunning spell at the minotaur's back, the minotaur grunted but didn't show any visible reaction beyond shrugging his shoulders, he turned around and glared at Harry.
"Magically resistant." Harry noted. "Either that or he's too thick."
"This is already shaping up to be an interesting bout," Ludo Bagman's voice was heard via the microphone in his hand, he had happily accepted the position of commentator. "and Mr Potter starts off amazingly with an animagus transformation followed by a stunner, shame it didn't work."
The minotaur roared and charged at Harry with surprising speed for one so big, it swung its axe at Harry who fell back in an attempt to avoid it, which worked...barely. As Harry landed on his back he looked up and saw the minotaur raise his hammer, Harry quickly fired a blasting spell at the hammer. He had managed to push it back but hadn't been able to send it out of the minotaur's hand.
Harry shuffled backwards as the minotaur raised his axe and swung down, Harry waved his wand and was able to knock the axe to the side so it crashed into the ground next to him. Harry managed to get to his feet just as the minotaur raised his hammer again. Harry rolled out of the way, barely avoiding getting crushed. Harry got to the feet as the minotaur pulled his weapons from the ground.
Harry fired a cutting curse at the minotaur, followed by a piercing curse, the cutting curse hit its harm while the piercing curse struck its chest, unfortunately for Harry they didn't seem to do much damage. They clearly hurt the minotaur, but not enough to stop him. Harry quickly crouched down as he waved his wand around himself, creating a glowing golden dome that covered him.
The hammer smashed against the dome, causing it to shake, but it did not break. Next came the axe, it had the same result. The minotaur roared and began pounding at the dome repeatedly with both of his weapons.
Harry gritted his teeth as he felt his body shake, but he kept focused on the shield. This was a spell that Salazar had created, back in his time the muggles would mostly rely on close range weapons and would try to smash, punch, kick and stab an enemy to death. This shield absorbed the energy from physical attacks, thought it wasn't really designed to absorb attacks from a minotaur, despite that it continued to work, Harry could feel the energy building.
The minotaur raised both of its weapons in the air so he could slam down on Harry's shield, at that moment Harry quickly crossed his arms before he spread them outwards with a shout. The shield burst outwards, sending a golden wave that sent the minotaur flying backwards, it even had pushed back the audience, causing those who weren't sitting to fall back into their seats.
Harry let out a deep breath before he spotted the downed minotaur, Harry quickly got to work and sent several ropes and chains to tie down the minotaur. Once Harry was done with that he quickly raised his wand.
"Accio Tri-Wizard key." He said, a second later a key flew out from a rock and landed in Harry's hands. "Got it." Harry grinned.
"And it seems our youngest champion has got his key in record time, now all he has to do is get back to the exit to complete the task." Ludo's magically amplified voice echoed all around. Harry pocketed the key and was about to make his way to the exit when he heard a grunt. Harry turned around and saw that the minotaur was standing up, broken bits of rope and chains hanging off him as he picked up his weapons.
"Oh fuck off." Harry groaned.
The minotaur roared and chucked his axe at Harry, Harry quickly transformed into his cat form, allowing the axe to fly over his head and crash into a rock. Harry ran towards the exit, hoping the rocks would provide him with sufficient cover. He saw the exit and was seconds away from reaching it when a large boulder flew overhead and crashed in front of him, his eyes widened as he slid to a halt. The boulder was big enough that it actually blocked the exit.
Harry turned back when he saw the minotaur charging towards him, he didn't have time to move the boulder with the minotaur trying to break his neck, cat-Harry hissed before charging towards him. At this point everyone was looking at him like he was crazy, after all he was charging at a minotaur while in the form of a cat. Though not everyone, the more level headed members of the audience remembered exactly what form he had. Once the two got close enough Harry turned into his tiger form and jumped onto the side of a nearby boulder as the minotaur's eyes widened.
Harry leaped off the boulder and tackled the minotaur from the side, managing to knock his hammer out of his hand. Harry tried to bite down and claw at the minotaur, he was able to hurt it quite a bit but was eventually thrown off. Harry's back hit another boulder but he powered through the pain when he saw the minotaur starting to stand up. Harry changed into his sabretooth form and tackled it back down before it could get all the way up.
Harry knew that the sabretooth's teeth were actually not its main weapon as they were surprisingly brittle and easily broken so he tried to claw at the minotaur's neck, he managed to cut it but he hadn't got deep enough, the minotaur managed to get his feet under Harry's belly and pushed, sending Harry flying upwards, Harry landed on his back a meter or so past the minotaur. He coughed as he turned back into his human form, he blinked his eyes and a second later he saw the minotaur standing up.
"You're a stubborn bastard, aren't you?" Harry said as he got up, he couldn't help but hold some respect in his voice for the minotaur. It might not be human but it wasn't giving up and Harry could respect that. "Sorry, but it's time to end this." Harry said before he aimed his wand behind him and without looking he summoned the axe. The minotaur roared and charged towards Harry, just before it reached him Harry jumped to the side, at that moment the axe crashed into the minotaur's stomach.
It grunted as it took a few steps back, Harry quickly blasted the axe so it pushed further into the minotaur. Harry blasted it again, so it went even further in. The minotaur fell to his knees, blood pouring down the axe and towards the floor. Harry looked around and blasted a couple of boulders into pieces, he waved his wand and animated the pieces into a large snake. The snake slithered forward and Harry cast some hardening charms on the mouth of it. The snake lunged towards the minotaur and wrapped its mouth around the minotaur's neck.
A second later the crowd gasped as a snap was heard, Harry stopped the animation spell, causing the rocks to fall into pieces. Harry didn't show any reaction to this, he simply walked past the body and towards the exit, he cast a spell to lighten the boulder before he levitated it out of the way. Harry most definitely felt bad about killing the minotaur, it's not like it wanted to join this tournament (as far as Harry was aware). But it was a threat and Harry wasn't going to give it the chance to kill him. He walked out of the stadium and straight towards the tent as he heard Bagman praising him.
"Our youngest champion has just left the stadium with an excellent time, he was also so far the only champion who has killed their opponent. He has made great use of his animagus form, which I have been informed by professor Dumbledore, is in fact a 'tri-cat', a rare animal that can shift between three feline forms. Interesting, he also made great use of animation charms. Now Mr Potter will go off and rest, and once we're ready we'll have Mr Diggory come out and face his next opponent."
"Mr Potter, are you alright?" Madam Pomfrey asked as he entered the champions tent.
"Peachy." Harry said in a dry voice, which apparently wasn't good enough for her as she began casting a myriad of diagnostic spells before he could even continue. "I was thrown around and I have a few bruises, but other than that I'm fine."
"I will be the judge of that." She huffed before she finished casting spells. "Hmm, you do have a few bruises, luckily that's all there is."
"A few bruises? Never would have guessed." Harry said in a mock-surprised voice as Madam Pomfrey ignored him before she began casting healing spells. Harry looked around, he saw that the other champions appeared to be much the same as him, so far nobody had gotten hurt badly.
"The bruises should be better, normally at this point I would advise rest but unfortunately stupid tournaments are apparently more important than your health." She said in a disapproving voice.
"Oh, you can join me in the 'Bagman' haters club!" Harry laughed as he put an arm around her shoulder. "You want to join? You'd be the first member, probably not the last."
"I will consider it, Mr Potter." She said in an amused voice as she pushed his arm off her. "Though please do try and limit how much damage you receive."
"Do...do you believe I get hurt on purpose?" Harry raised an eyebrow at her. She didn't respond, instead she walked off while muttering things that sounded a lot like 'just like his father'. At that moment somebody else walked into tent, it was somebody that Harry did not expect to see. "Percy Weasley? What the fuck are you doing here?" Harry asked, last year was supposed to be Percy's last year at Hogwarts.
"I was working for Mr Crouch before his...unfortunate arrest." Percy said, looking like he wanted to both glare at Harry and tell him off for his language. "Since he was not able to be here, I am here to assist the judges." Percy said, he didn't mention that he had no idea what would happen to his career after the tournament was over. Percy pulled out a brown bag. "Now, all of you must pick your next opponent."
This time Krum picked first since he was the closest to Percy, and it didn't really matter since he was going to go third anyway. When Krum pulled his hand out he had a small yeti in his hands, next was Fleur Delacour, her eyes widened when she saw a Welsh Green dragon, it was arguably the tamest and least deadly of the dragons, but it was still a dragon. Still, she managed to ease her nerves by reminding herself that she didn't have to fight it, just get past it. Next was Cedric's turn, he pulled out another dragon, this one being a Swedish Short-Snout. His reaction was much like Fleur's, except with a lot more sweating.
Harry sighed as he reached in, he pulled out the model and looked at it. The creature in his hand had the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion, except the tail's size matched the body it belonged to. Harry's eyes widened as he realised he had just picked a manticore, even the other champions looked at him with shock. A manticore's skin repelled all known charms, so it was extremely difficult to subdue a Manticore with magic. It was known to be capable of human speech, and was considered a sentient beast, despite that it was extremely violent and dangerous. And only the bravest - or if we're being honest, stupidest - wizards and witches would ever willingly go against one. Harry really couldn't believe that they were part of this tournament.
"Are you shitting me?" Harry breathed as he looked at Percy.
"You can just not complete the task." Percy shrugged. That's what he would do, he might have been a Gryffindor at school but there was no way in hell that he would ever fight a manticore, not even at his bravest.
Some would call it brave, others would call it stupid, but Harry did later go out to complete the task. Harry wasn't just representing himself in this tournament, it didn't matter if he wanted to enter or not, he was now representing his family, both of his families and Harry would be dammed if he quit even one of his tasks because he was sacred. This time when Harry entered he couldn't help but notice the shields around the stadium to protect the crowd, were they just put in recently or were they always there and Harry simply didn't notice? He wasn't sure but dismissed that train of thought to remind himself how stupid he was to willingly enter into a stadium with a manticore.
"Mum, Dad, I blame this stupidity on the Gryffindor genes you gave me." Harry said under his breath.
Harry rolled his shoulders as his wand came into his hand when a door on the other side of the stadium opened, the crowd gasped when they saw a manticore strut out from the door. The manticore looked around, it may have had the face of a human but its teeth were not teeth that belonged to a humans mouth, they were all razor sharp and about as pointy as a dagger. The manticore stopped looking around when it saw Harry.
"And look," The manticore spoke in a soft voice, everyone hearing what it said thanks to the mirrors and the fact that nobody was willing to make a noise in case they miss something or attract the attention of the manticore. "prey walks willingly into my hunting ground."
"I'm not the prey, mate." Harry said after taking a small breath. "I don't want to fight you."
"I imagine you wouldn't." The manticore growled as he licked his lips.
Over in the judges seats, Ludo was face to face with Arcturus Black, the reason behind that was because Arcturus had grabbed him by the collar of his robes with one hand and pulled the former beater so close that they were only a short distance away from kissing, not that Ludo would have done that. One reason was because he was into women, thank you very much, the second reason was because he knew that if he kissed Lord Black then he'd probably lose his lips or his life...most likely both.
"What...in...the...everlasting...fuck...were you thinking when you put MY heir in a stadium with a fucking manticore?" Arcturus asked in a deceptively calm voice, his voice might have been calm but his face made it clear that he was a very short amount of restraint away from killing Ludo right there and then.
"I...I...it...come on..." Ludo stuttered, suddenly finding it very difficult to breath. "the...tournaments all...all about entertaining the p...people...and...a...and I...just thought that..."
"Shut your mouth." Lord Black cut him off, having grown tired of him. "I want you to listen to me, and listen very carefully. Before this tournament is done I want you to get all of your affairs in order, don't try and escape the country because I will find you and that will just piss me off even more. When this tournament is done, the first thing I am going to do is sue you so hard and so bad that any remaining family members you have will not even be able to afford the paper bag that I'm going to put your ashes in." He growled as he let go of Ludo who fell into his seat, the other judges didn't say anything but they did look at Ludo who was looking like he had just been kissed by a dementor.
Karkaroff and Madam Maxime nervously shifted away, mentally noting to not get on Lord Black's bad side. Dumbledore gave Ludo a pitying look before he turned his attention back to the stadium. 'Why on Earth do people keep insisting on messing with the Blacks and Potters?' Dumbledore mentally thought.
"I don't want to hurt you." Harry said, wand ready in his hand.
"Hurt me?" The manticore scoffed. "You're an amusing little two-legs, much better than the last ones I've met. They're all 'oh contain it!', 'get away!' and 'look out Mike!', oh and we mustn't forget 'Oh no, he's got Mike!'. Tell me, little human, do you believe you pose a challenge to me?"
"I'm very stubborn." Harry warned him.
"Let's test that." The manticore growled before he charged towards Harry, roaring as he headed towards Harry with frightening speed.
"Come on." Harry said under his breath, a second later the manticore got a few meters away and pounced towards Harry. Harry shifted into his cat form, the manticore went over his head, having not expected the sudden change in size of his prey, Harry turned into his sabretooth form not even a second later, and threw the manticore who hadn't yet totally jumped past Harry. The manticore landed on his back just as Harry changed back into his human form.
Harry aimed his wand at the manticore and green gas shot out of it, covering the manticore before it could stand up. Once it was sufficiently covered Harry rushed backwards and shot a spark into the gas, causing it to burst into flames. The crowd gasped but Harry kept moving back.
"Oh, you are indeed an interesting two-legs." The manticore said as the smoke cleared away, he looked completely unharmed and had a wide and unsettling grin on his face. "You're smaller but I bet you'll taste so much nicer than Mike!" The manticore roared before he charged towards Harry. Harry flicked his wand and a lightning whip shot out from it, Harry waved the whip around before it shot towards the manticore. It wrapped around its neck, the manticore stopped and snarled at Harry, after a few seconds it charged towards him. Harry abandoned the whip and twirled his wand, building up air as he did so, once the manticore was close enough Harry waved his wand upwards and the manticore flew back and landed on his back but quickly rolled to a standing position and charged again.
This time it stopped a short distance in front of Harry and thrust its tail towards him, Harry wanted nothing to do with that since he knew that that tail was instant death. Harry managed to create a small shield on the tip of his wand and batted the tip of the tail to the side. The tail swung back towards him, Harry ducked under it before he did a rather Gryffindors move and jumped towards the manticore and hit it the nose with a jumping knee.
Harry figured that human face meant human face pain, even if it could take more pain than a human could. Harry quickly followed up by turning into his tiger form and scratched the manticore across the face before he changed into a kitten, and ran under it. He stopped under its belly before he changed into a sabretooth, his new size forced the manticore's lower half up and forwards, causing the manticore to land face first on the floor. Harry changed back into his cat form and quickly ran off to hide behind a rock. Once Harry was out of sight he changed back into a kitten and cast a disillusionment charm on himself, which made him invisible.
"And an advanced charm from Mr Potter." Ludo's voice was heard, he had apparently recovered enough to actually speak.
"You'll pay for that, two-legs!" The manticore growled as he got back onto all for paws, he began walking around the arena. "You will die, that is not up for debate. My skin is impenetrable, my teeth are daggers, my claws are powerful, and my tail is death!" The manticore said before he suddenly stopped, his tail wrapped around a large rock, he picked it up and tossed it in what appeared to be a random direction. The rock smashed against a boulder, shards of the rock flew outwards, including one that knocked Harry over, he had been able to dodge the rock but not the shard that struck him on the side of the head. Harry was on the floor, blood dripping out of the right side of his head. "And my senses are better than yours." The manticore finished.
Harry grunted as he pushed his face off the ground, he shook his head and once his vision cleared up he looked around and saw the manticore calmly walking towards him.
"Give up two-legs, I'll make it painless...well...I'll try." He said, eyeing Harry like he was a delicious piece of meat...which he actually was as far as the manticore was concerned.
"I would...but...stubborn." Harry reminded him as he pushed himself onto his knees.
"At least you won't die a coward." The manticore said in a voice that held a small modicum of respect. The manticore charged at him.
"Lumos Maxima!" Harry yelled out, the manticore closed his eyes when the bright light shined out of Harry's wand. Harry rolled to the side and the manticore crashed face first into the rock behind Harry, it shook his head and quickly recovered before it tried to take a swipe at Harry with his claws. Harry jumped back and fell on his back, his eyes went towards his jacket and the manticore had actually managed to cut it a little, leaving three thin claw marks across the stomach his jacket, which was pretty surprising since this was a dragon hide jacket.
Harry shook off his shock and sent a blasting curse to push the manticore back enough for Harry's next spell, an arrow shot out of Harry's wand and pierced the manticore's left eye.
"Fuck!" It shouted as it let out a pained scream. "You dare?!" It roared before it lunged at Harry. Harry created the same impact shield that he had used on the minotaur, the manticore slammed against it repeatedly before Harry released the energy from it, sending the manticore crashing against a rock a short distance away.
Once again the manticore quickly recovered and charged towards Harry, Harry still hadn't been able to stand up as he had been too busy defending himself. Harry quickly aimed his wand behind him, a rope shot out and pierced through a boulder a short distance away, Harry then aimed his wand at himself and the rope wrapped around his waist. The manticore had leapt towards him just as the rope pulled him away.
Unfortunately it dragged him painfully across the ground but fortunately the dragon hide reduced the damage and it was far better than being under a manticore. Harry cut the rope and used the momentum to roll back to his feet. Harry quickly cast another animation spell, this time turning several large rocks into a large feline which charged towards the manticore.
As the manticore fought against his animated creation, Harry quickly began analysing it.
'Come on brain,' Harry thought as he watched the fight. 'I've been really nice to you over the years, please help me out.' Within a minute the manticore had completely smashed apart Harry's creation, Harry could have remade it but decided not to, he already worked out how to beat the creature. 'Thanks brain!' Harry could have sworn he heard a 'you're welcome'.
Harry laughed out loudly, attracting the attention of the pissed off manticore who still had an arrow in one of his eyes. The whole crowd was now looking at him like he had lost his mind.
"Why are you laughing?!" The manticore growled as he walked forwards, it vexed him beyond words that a simple human could cause him so much trouble.
"Last chance," Harry said as he stopped laughing and looked at the manticore with a serious expression. "Give up, or I will kill you." He said, there was so much confidence in his voice that even the manticore stopped in his tracks to join everyone in looking at Harry with disbelief.
"You'll try!" The manticore said before he charged towards Harry.
"I'll succeed." Harry said before he cast a disillusionment spell on himself again, the manticore stopped and tried to sniff out Harry, it didn't work as this time Harry had added a silencing spell and a spell to hide his scent.
"Come out two-legs!" The manticore shouted. A second later two pairs of chains shot out, the first pair wrapped around the manticore's front legs, tying them together, the next pair around the back legs. They followed by two ropes, the first wrapping around the front and the second around the back. The manticore had managed to barely stay standing, when suddenly another rope shot out, except this one didn't wrap itself around the manticore's legs.
No, this one attached itself to the head of the manticore's tail with one end whole the other end wrapped around the manticore's torso.
"No!" The manticore cried, he was about to break the ropes, starting with the one that was pulling his tail towards his body. But he soon became distracted, what by? Oh, just the arrow that pierced his second eye. The manticore screamed in pain just as Harry became visible a meter away from it. Harry rushed towards the manticore and changed into his sabretooth form before he tackled it to the ground. Once it was down he used all of his strength to help push the tail head towards its body. "No!" The manticore cried out when it could feel the tip reaching closer to his back, the beast managed to snap the chains and ropes on his legs.
Harry quickly turned back into his human form and let out a large yell as he put all of his effort into blasting the tail head into the manticore, a second later the manticore's eyes widened as he felt his tail pierce through him, he stopped moving as he died not even a second later.
Harry gasped and panted as he allowed himself to fall down next to him, the crowd were all stunned as they looked at the boy-who-managed-to-kill-a-fucking-manticore! Several seconds later Harry sat up and looked at the manticore, he cast a diagnostic spell to make sure it was definitely dead, and guess what, it was.
"That...was...for Mike...whoever the fuck he is." Harry grunted as he stood up. He summoned the key, towards his hands and began walking towards the exit.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Ludo spoke in an awed tone. "I..."
"Shut the fuck up, Ludo!" Harry called out before exiting. The crowd were all silent, except for one.
"Yeah, fuck that guy!" Jet hissed loudly.
A.N: Hi guys, I'm tired and am going to sleep after writing this so I'll keep it short and sweet. I tried to make the minotaur realistically challenging against someone like Harry, obviously has to be some level of challenging or it wouldn't be in the tournament. But I felt it was a stretch for it to be able to cause too much damage to Harry, so he's only got a few bruises. I think I have either underpowered Harry or overpowered the minotaur...or hopefully I got it just right.
As for the manticore I'm only going off what I've read from Harry Potter Wiki and I've found no mention of what happens if it stabs itself, only that its tail is instant death. And some people might want to argue that it's stupid for an animal to be able to kill itself, well guss what...humans can kill themselves...so can snakes...along with anyother animal that lives near a cliff but lacks the ability to fly. You get my point.
Anyway so far Harry had recieved a few bruises from the minotaur, plus a few bruises from the manticore along with a rock to the face. And he has two animals left, so that'll be fun hopefully.
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a review.