deceived | tom marvolo riddle

XVII | first task

As I dodged yet another boulder, probably a few times my own size, for my life I began to wonder if I may die during this plan.

--

The green and silver uniform they had given me to wear felt extremely heavy on my tired bones. I shifted myself on the bench I currently waited on, alongside the other two champions who seemed to be less of worry than I was.

This seemed to be going by all too quickly; one moment I had been sitting in my potions class and the next thing I recognized was being hauled out to the quidditch field behind the school.

I wasn't sure if the other champions were free of worry because they didn't know what the next challenge was or because they had something good tucked up their sleeves. I assumed it were the latter as you could very well hear the heart wrenching growling of the dragons just out the golden tent's door.

Lucky for myself, I had already known the contents of the first challenge with prior, or future really, knowledge. I spent each of the nights before this day drilling attack sequences strong enough to battle the intelligence of dragons. Most of the names were so difficult to pronounce I had to drop some of them from my plan.

Roman, the Durmstrang champion, was sporting an awfully arrogant expression, which was sure to give some explanation soon enough. Well, a good plan or the fact that the dragon he drew was coincidentally the weakest of the three. Some strings were sure to have been pulled there.

I turned my attention to Isabella, who by surprise, was also free of any tension. She was currently focused on getting her long hair into a suitable enough style in front of the tent's only mirror. Her dragon was also quite resistable.

Biting my lip, I faced the small dragon toy that was circling around my palm. My luck must have run out clean because this creature was not beautiful. It had been described to be at least 30 feet tall with massive fangs and even larger scales, sharper than even the finest sword. I pray Headmaster Dippet was kidding but just by the smaller model, I don't truly believe he was.

"Worried, little snake?" Roman's deep voice broke through my gruesome thoughts as he sat down next to me. He was so large he could have looked to be a giant compared to myself.

"A bit I suppose," The best I could do was seem stronger than I felt. Then at least if I were to die it wouldn't be so pathetic. Oh gosh, what in Merlin's great hat was I thinking.

He laughed, which I had to decipher as it sounded more like a grunt, "I wouldn't let it get you, pretty one."

My face contorted, "Thanks."

Suddenly, a loud and extremely unwanted siren sounded off, "Roman Kovalev of Durmstrang."

The large boy got up and I waved politely, "Good luck."

He laughed again, "I don't need luck."

And then he disappeared through the curtain.

It turns out he did infact need luck as he just barely managed to take the egg from it's protector. A few points were lost as the Durmstrang student had almost sabotaged his entire arm due to the final blow of his dragon's tail. He was successfully wheeled off in time for it to be saved.

The boy, who I believed to be extremely strong and even sorted with a weaker styled dragon, almost lost. That certainly didn't do much to calm my nerves.

Isabella Belle was called up next.

Her performance was much smoother and she came out successful with only a few face scratches. You wouldn't be able to tell how shallow they were by the way she had screamed looking at them afterwards.