Harry gritted his teeth as he slowly walked into the tent where the other champions were. Once he got in he looked around, Krum had a small bandage on his wrist, Delacour looked fine, except her clothes were slightly burnt. Diggory undoubtedly looked the worst, his entire right arm was covered in bandages as he laid down on a bed.
"What happened to you?" Harry asked Cedric, drawing the attention of the champions.
"You're alive?" Cedric breathed as he and the other champions looked at him.
"Clearly." Harry nodded just as Madam Pomfrey entered the tent and rushed over to him.
"Mr Potter, you're bleeding." She said as she guided him to a nearby bed.
"Clearly." Harry repeated as he sat on it while she waved her wand over his head.
"A manticore of all things," She hissed, sounding angrier than Harry had ever heard her. "I cannot believe that you actually managed to get past one." She added.
"How did you do it?" Krum asked, he and the other champions weren't able to watch the other champions compete in the task. "Distracted it?" He asked.
"Killed it." Harry answered, wincing slightly when he felt the tip of Madam Pomfrey's wand touch the area near his cut.
"You...you killed it?!" Madam Pomfrey gasped as the other champions looked at him like he wasn't human. "But...but it's a manticore!"
"I am well aware of that." Harry said before he gestured to his cut, that seemed to snap Madam Pomfrey out of her shock and she quickly returned her focus to healing him.
"How...how did you do it?" Fleur Delacour asked.
"Two arrows into its eyes, plus I tied it up before I knocked onto its side and forced it to stab itself with its own tail. Then I summoned the key and left." Harry answered, the other three champions exchanged looks, all silently agreeing that their chances of winning the tournament had decreased a lot the second Harry Potter was put in the tournament. "What happened to you?" Harry asked Cedric.
"Huh? Oh, I tried to distract the dragon," Cedric sighed. "it didn't work properly and my whole arm got burnt, so did my wand." He said, a sad and disappointed expression on his face.
"Wait, you can summon the key?" Fleur asked. "Why not just do that in the first place? Then you do not have to fight the creatures."
"Can't," Harry sighed as Madam Pomfrey left to go get some potions. "I asked Lord Black about the task earlier, he mentioned that the there's an anti-summoning charm on the key that's tied to each creature. As long as they're conscious you won't be able to summon it."
"Oh." She said, sounding very disappointed.
"Time to choose your next opponents." Percy said when he entered the tent later, once again holding a bag. The champions were about as healed as Madam Pomfrey was able to make them in the limited time she had.
"Mr Diggory cannot compete in the next task," Madam Pomfrey told Percy. "His arm requires serious attention and he no longer has a wand."
"My condolences." Percy nodded to Cedric, who gave a small nod back. "But the other champions can, so let's begin." He said, this time it was Fleur who went first, she reached her hand in and pulled out a sphinx. The it was Krum, he pulled out a dragon, the dragon model in his hand was a 'Chinese Fireball'. Next it was Harry's turn, he took in a deep breath and reached in, he let out a small grunt when he felt something bite his hand, he pulled the model out and had another dragon, except this one was very different from Krum's. This dragon had black scales, and was lizard-like in appearance. It also had yellow eyes, with vertical pupils like a cat's, bronze horns along with bronze spikes that stuck out from its long tail which it would gladly deploy in combat. Harry's dragon was a 'Hungarian Horntail', the most dangerous and violent of all known dragon breeds.
"You're fucking kidding me, right?" Harry sighed while Madam Pomfrey started ranting under her breath about stupid tournaments.
"No jokes, Mr Potter." Percy said in a respectful tone, while he didn't like Harry personally, he was not about to anger the wizard who had not only killed a minotaur, but a manticore as well.
"When you next see Bagman, let him know that I'm going to kill feed him to my snake."
"Fuck my life." Harry muttered as he entered the stadium for a third time. This time the crowd began cheering for him loudly, more loudly than they had for any of the other champions. Though the cheering was quickly silenced by the loud roar of a dragon. Harry took several deep breaths before he walked closer and quickly hid behind a boulder, he leaned his head past it and saw the horntail on the other side of the arena, chained there so it couldn't start flying around. Harry also spotted the key, it happened to be right under the horntail.
Harry was fairly well healed, even if his body ached. Madam Pomfrey was also kind enough to give each champion a vial of an energy boosting potion that they were to drink before they left the tent. She had okayed it with the judges and that was good enough for the champions who had quickly drank their vials before they left.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, we get to bear witness to Harry Potter facing off against the Hungarian Horntail, widely considered to be the most dangerous dragon breed alive." Ludo spoke via his magically amplified microphone. "Though if the boy can handle a minotaur and a manticore then he probably stands a better chance than most."
Harry gingerly moved to hide behind another boulder that was closer to the dragon, but unfortunately the dragon spotted him halfway across. It roared and sent a blast of fire towards him, Harry rolled out of the way and quickly hid behind a boulder.
"I don't want to fight you." Harry hissed in parsletounge, wondering if the dragon would understand him, apparently not since it roared and fired again.
"No, I'm the snake, that's a dragon!" Jet hissed loudly from his place in the audience. A few seconds later Harry heard a large snap, he looked past the boulder and saw that the dragon had apparently broken the chains and was now starting to fly.
"Yeah...that matches my luck." Harry sighed before he aimed his wand at the dragon, a whole swarm of bats shot out and charged towards the dragon, Harry quickly began transfiguring six large rocks into spears while the bats began distracting the dragon. Harry sent the spears at the dragon, the first three bounced off of its head but the fourth managed to pierce the dragons tongue, while the fifth managed to hit it in its gums. The sixth one would have hit its eye if it hadn't closed its eye lid at that moment.
The dragon roared as it shook his head to throw the spears out of its mouth, it looked towards Harry, looking far more angry than before.
"Fuck this! Angela!" Harry called as he looked at the judges area where Angela was stood next to Lord Black, she nodded and quickly pulled something out of her pocket, she enlarged it, revealing that it was Harry's Nimbus 2001. "Accio broom!" Harry yelled and the broom flew from her hand and into his.
"Wait, that's cheating!" Karkaroff protested.
"No, it's not." Angela smirked. "The rules state that the champion can only enter with a wand but it says nothing about summoning objects, all I did was hold it for him."
"She's got you there." Lord Black chuckled just as Harry climbed onto his broom and took off into the air. He flew away from the stadium with the dragon chasing him.
"Fuck you, Ludo!" Harry called as he flew past the judges box with the dragon flying after him, its wing smashing through the roof of the box.
The dragon chased Harry all the way back to Hogwarts, several times it had tried to roast him with its flames but Harry had barely managed to dodge. As they got near one of the towers of the castle, the dragons flames finally managed to reach Harry's broom and started burning it from the back. The fire was causing it to slow down and causing the handling to get worse, the crowd - who were watching thanks to the mirrors - gasped when it looked like Harry was going to be die.
Once they got close enough to the tower Harry made the decision to leap off the broom, it was un-flyable at this point and if he stayed on it he'd either crash, burn, get eaten or all of the above. Harry aimed his wand at the tower and a rope with a hook at the end shot out, and attached itself to the top of the tower, Harry swung around the tower just as the dragon landed on the side of the tower, Harry stopped swinging when he was on the opposite end of the tower and now had his feet pressed against it.
Harry released this rope in favour of shooting out another one, this rope pulled him all the way up towards the top of the tower, once Harry got to the top he ran forwards and jumped off on the side where the dragon was and fell downwards towards it. Harry shot several high powered spells at the dragon, including one conjunctivitis curse - a curse that irritated the target's eyes, forcing them to swell shut - that hit the dragon in its left eye. Harry shot out a third rope and swung around the tower, this time he crashed through a window and found himself staring down the hallway to see the dragons left eye just outside of the window opposite Harry.
Harry blasted that window, sending shards of glass into the dragons eye when it tried to open it. The dragon screeched in pain while Harry transformed into his sabretooth form and ran at the dragon as fast as he could, Harry didn't know how heavy he was in his sabretooth form but he knew that they reached between a hundred-and fifty to six hundred and sixty-one pounds, not a weight that anyone would want thrown in their face. Harry body jumped through the window, body slamming himself into the horntails head, as the dragons head shot back from the impact, Harry transformed back into his human form.
As he fell back down he shot out a lightning whip that wrapped itself around the dragons tail, the dragon screeched in pain while Harry used the whip to swing himself so he could back to the other side of the tower. Harry cancelled the spell and fired another rope that began pulling him upwards, as Harry was climbing he thought about his next move, only to be interrupted by the sight of the dragons tail swinging around and smashing against the tower, causing Harry's rope to snap when it was cut by one of the horntails horns.
Harry fell downwards but just barely managed to catch himself on the edge of the window that he had smashed through earlier, Harry climbed into the tower only to fall forwards when the dragons tail smashed into it again. Unfortunately for Harry a large piece of rubble landed on his right foot, Harry screamed out in pain, before he quickly blasted the rubble off of him. He looked down, he was pretty sure that he had just broken something.
"Flipsy!" Harry called as he took off his dragonhide jacket, a plan had formed in his head and he needed to take the jacket off if it was going to work.
"Master!" Flipsy gasped when he appeared.
"My Nimbus 2000, get it now!" Harry said, the tone of his voice making it clear that Flipsy had to do this as fast as he possibly could. Flipsy quickly popped away and popped back a second later with Harry's broom. "Thanks, take my jacket and give it to Angela. Then come back here and get ready to catch my broom." Harry said as he took the broom and placed it under him, Harry rose into the air while Flipsy followed his instructions. Harry cast a numbing spell on his foot to stop the pain, a second later he heard movement from outside, it was the dragon. Harry flew forwards and out of the tower, he flew up and above it and the dragon spotted him. "I'm ready whenever you are." Harry called to the dragon before he took off.
The dragon roared and chased after him, Harry went higher and higher into the air. When the nimbus looked like it was struggling to go higher, he looked down and saw the dragon was still chasing after him. Harry took in a deep breath as he closed his eyes.
"Oh please let this work." Harry said before he jumped off the broom, his jump was as good as it could be considering that he was only using one leg. If Harry could hear them then he would know that the crowd were all gasping and screaming as he fell towards the dragon. The dragon opened its mouth, clearly intending to catch him and eat him. Harry fired an explosive spell that hit the dragon in the face, causing it to move its face to the side.
Harry flew past it and continued falling, the dragon changed directions and chased after him. Harry span so he was facing the dragon, he aimed his wand and a barrage of spells shot toward the dragon. If it wasn't for its magically resistant hide then the dragon would have most certainly been dead by now. The dragon roared as it got closer to Harry, it opened its mouth and Harry could start to see the fire building. Harry quickly jabbed his wand in the dragons direction, a bright blue beam shot out and went directly into the dragons mouth.
The dragons eyes widened as it felt the explosion in its mouth, Harry allowed himself a small grin before he turned over, he waited until he was closer to the ground and waved his wand over his shirt. The sides of his shirt expanded, the bottom corners of the shirt attached itself to his ankles, Harry had managed to create a glider. Harry kept his legs together and spread his arms out, he reached closer to the ground before he pulled up, thankfully the glider was working. Harry looked back and saw that the dragon was struggling but it was still flying, it hadn't crashed into the ground like Harry had hoped. He had either misjudged how good dragons were at flying and had been able to pull up in time or he had messed up his timing.
Harry used his glider to fly back to the stadium, once Harry got closer he landed near the key. As he landed he fell on the floor thanks to a lack of support from his right foot. Harry saw the dragon - while still slower than before - was flying towards him. Harry took in a deep breath as he forced himself to a kneeling position. The tip of his wand started glowing, lightning began dancing along his wand and down his arm. Harry pulled his arm back, he waited till the dragon had flew past the crowd.
Harry took in one more deep breath before he thrust his wand in the direction of the dragon, a large blast of lightning erupted from the tip of his wand. The lightning struck the dragon directly in the chest, it screeched as it fell out of the sky and crash landed on the rocky floors below, it rolled several times before it stopped in front of Harry, only a meter or so away from hitting him. Despite that Harry kept pouring out lightning for at least another thirty seconds.
Once Harry stopped he looked down at the dragon, it twitched slightly but it didn't look like it was going to keep moving. Harry flicked his wand at the direction of the key, a rope shot out of it and grabbed the key before pulling it to Harry.
"Flipsy, broom." Harry tiredly called. A second later, Flipsy arrived and handed Harry his broom. "Thanks. Harry smiled at the elf before he got on the broom and flew towards the exit, the crowd cheering loudly for him as he left.
"Miss Delacour will not be able to compete, she has broken her leg." Madam Pomfrey told Percy when he came over. "Same for Mr Krum, his whole left arm has been burnt, fortunately he hasn't lost his wand like Mr Diggory."
"And what of Mr Potter?" Percy asked.
"He cannot..."
"I'll do it." Harry interrupted, as he stood up from the bed, his right foot covered in a bandage as he leaned on the bed post. The other champions stared at him with disbelief, they seemed to be doing a lot of that.
"Mr Potter, you can't, I haven't finished healing you!" Madam Pomfrey burst out. "That's not to mention the fact that you're exhausted. If you go out in your condition then you could be hurt much worse!"
"Then worse it is. As for the exhaustion I'll take one more of those potions if I can." Harry said as he walked forwards, taking great care to use his right foot as little as possible. He reached into the bag and pulled out his next opponent. "Well, I hope I don't have to kill this one." Harry sighed.
After a lot of protesting from Madam Pomfrey, Harry entered the stadium for a fourth time, the crowd once again cheered for him as he entered.
"Ladies and gentlemen, coming back is Harry Potter, the only champion to make it to the fourth round of this task!" Ludo said from the commentary box, his excitement was a little forced since he was really hoping that Harry had just stayed in the tent so to reduce the chances of him getting killed which would result in Ludo getting killed. "And now he faces his final opponent, the thunderbird!"
Harry limped forwards and saw the thunderbird resting on a nest along with three eggs, it was a massive bird, easily bigger than Harry. Its head looked like that of an eagles, it had three pairs of powerful wings, and feathers that shimmer with cloud-like patterns. The feathers were a mix of gold and white. Harry also couldn't help but notice the key that was sitting next to its talons. Much like the dragon it was chained up, but that didn't really comfort Harry much seeing as the dragon was also supposed to be secure. Harry stopped when its eyes locked onto him.
"I really don't want to fight you." Harry sighed as he pulled his wand out. "But I need that key."
The thunderbird looked at him, it tilted its head to the side and looked at Harry like he was the oddest thing it had ever seen. It reached its head down and picked up the key right before it tossed it towards Harry. Harry was more than surprised but he managed to catch it. The whole crowd was stunned, nobody made a noise as they did not want to miss whatever this was. Harry looked back and forth between the key and the thunderbird, the thunderbird looked at him and Harry couldn't help but feel like it was waiting for something.
"Um...thank you." Harry eventually said, the thunderbird's expression shifted and if Harry had to guess he would say that it was pleased. It reached down once again, but this time it didn't pick up a key. It moved as close to Harry as it could before lowering its head towards him. Harry gulped slightly but moved forward and placed his hands near the thunderbirds head, a second later the thunderbird had dropped an egg the size of a football into Harry's hands. "A...are you sure? This...this is yours." Harry said as he looked at the thunderbird with disbelief. The thunderbird squawked at him, it gently rubbed its head against his before it flapped its wings and moved back to its nest. "I guess she is sure." Harry whispered to himself as he looked at the egg, he frowned when he noticed a crack in the egg. A second later another crack appeared.
"It's hatching!" One person in the audience hissed, only to be shushed by several people nearby.
That person wasn't wrong though, more cracks formed, Harry didn't dare move. A few seconds later a small birds head poked out of one of the cracks. Several audience members quietly cooed at the sight while others began whispering to each other. Eventually the rest of the bird managed to escape the egg, it was the same colour as its mother, it looked up at Harry with its golden eyes, it stared at him for several seconds before it leaped up and tried to fly up by flapping its wings, it had overestimated its capabilities and began falling down, fortunately Harry was able to quickly catch it.
"Easy, big guy, easy." Harry whispered to it before he turned to the bigger thunderbird. "T...thank you." Harry said in a shaky voice, he wasn't entirely sure what had just happened, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was something special. The thunderbird bowed its head before it gestured him to leave. "Thank you." Harry said once again before he turned and slowly limped out, being very careful to not hurt the bird that was trying to make itself comortable in his hands.
The whole crowd had once again fell into silence, silence that would be broken about ten seconds later.
"Did he just get another one?!" Jet hissed loudly.
A.N: Hi guys, hope you liked the chapter. Regarding the fight scenes from this chapter and the previous ones, I understand that they are not perfect and could be done better, I've tried to not drag them out for longer than neccesary while also trying to make it seem realistic for the strength level of this version of Harry, if I've succeded or not is up to you.
Also yes, now Harry has a thunderbird, does anyone remember the vote from the early chapters where I asked what animal to give Harry? Well, now he's got a thunderbird. Yeah.
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a review.