You're Not Alone-Hermione Granger(Currently Editing)

Eighty-Five

This was it. The moment Juniper had been waiting for since she had been forced to be a champion in the tournament. The first task was upon her and she just had to wait for the whistle to blow to signal it was her turn. One single blow of a whistle to decide her fate. She had resorted to pacing around the tent herself, like Cedric and Fleur had been doing before they were off to battle for their eggs.

Harry was still battling his dragon but it seemed he was the quickest at it, having finished in the same amount of time as Viktor, leaving Juniper about to have a panic attack at what was about to come. As Harry waits for his scores, the sound of a whistle rings out, meaning it was her turn. She slowly makes her way towards the enclosure, almost like she was floating. 

She sees a crowd of faces staring down, noise coming from all sides and looks out for the certain few that could possibly calm her down, though she can't find anyone as her vision was foggy what with the panic she was experiencing. She takes a look around the enclosure, noticing the looming presence of Norberta stood over her eggs. The dragon hadn't noticed her yet. 

The enclosure was covered in rocky terrain and she surveys the area quickly, reminding herself this was timed. She had to turn a living organism into a duck and all of this rock was not gonna help. Then, she spots something. A weed, growing out of a crack in the rocks. She points her wand at it and shouts "Ducklifors" and watches as a yellow light leaves her wand. The weed morphs into a duck right in front of her eyes.

She rushes to grab the duck, shaking her head. This idea was absolutely ridiculous. This duck was gonna be cooked as soon as the dragon caught sight of it. But she was running out of options. She doesn't listen to what Ludo is saying as she throws the duck towards the dragon. The duck catches itself with its wings in midair and takes off, the dragon's eyes now latched on to it. It breathes fire at it but the duck dodges it and Norberta follows after it.

Juniper maneuvers through the terrain then, her ears ringing, not really able to believe this was working. But alas, nothing was ever easy for her. She's close to the egg at this point when she hears screams and turns to find the dragon coming back after her. It goes to breathe fire and she rolls out of the way at last minute. She runs in the opposite direction, hearing the roar of Norberta on her heels.

She had to do something and fast. She continues to be chased for Merlin knows how long and moves to jump over a rock in her way but ends up falling at last second. She backs away as the dragon looks down at her menacingly and she's starting to wonder where her duck went.  Norberta opens her mouth to burn her alive most likely, the dragon trainers looking about ready to intervene. This was it. She was actually about to die from this.

 What would happen if she let it burn her alive? How would her friends feel? Would any of them actually miss her? Maybe Summer... Her parents? Would her parents be glad to finally be rid of her? Remus? Would Remus feel guilty for all that time spent apart? What about Hermione? Hermione with the bushy brown hair and cute smile. She wouldn't ever get to see any of them ever again... No, no she couldn't. This wasn't gonna be her end...not yet. She makes a split second decision and throws her wand up and shouts "Aqua Eructo". A powerful stream of water blasts into Norberta's open mouth before she can breathe fire which seems to snuff it out and smoke shoots out at her instead, causing her to start coughing.

Norberta hacks and coughs as well considering water was just shot at the back of her throat, backing away and Juniper scrambles to her feet, still coughing, using the distraction to her advantage. It worked. The spell she stayed up all night for worked to her advantage. She runs for it, towards the eggs, Norberta back on her trail and turns back around, shouting the spell again, only to this time hit her right in the eyes. The dragon screams in pain and she lunges for the golden egg, Norberta breathing fire again. She lands on the hard ground, some fire managing to burn her leg but her adrenaline was pumping and her ears were still ringing and she couldn't really feel anything.