Broken :||: Loved Series #2

7) Battle A Dragon

Ft. Opal

Lily's POV
I could hear the wild and exuberant chanting from outside, as Harry and I sat together on a plush lounge. Dumbledore was having trouble announcing the task outside over the cheers, but I wasn't feeling very cheerful. Not just because of the dangerous and daunting first task, but also because we received a letter early this morning.

'Dear Lily and Harry,
I apologise for the late notice, but something has come up at work and I am keen to follow the lead, therefore I will be unable to attend the first task. I deeply apologise and hope to receive a letter in reply to this and my last. I shall definitely be at the second task, again I am sorry.
Love, Sirius. xoxo'

He wasn't coming. The only thing that we'd looked forward to in this task, was seeing Sirius. Now, we were on the brink of freaking out. A little 'psst' sound came from behind the tent flap we sat near and Harry and I walked over.

"Lil? Harry?" It was Emmaline.

"Yeah." He answered hesitantly.

"How are you feeling? Okay? Both of you?" That was Ginny, her words falling over each other with worry.

"Yeah." Harry answered again.

"The key is to concentrate, after that, you just have to--"

"Battle a dragon." I interrupted Hermione.

The three burst through the tent flap and embraced us, Emmaline embracing me, Hermione in the middle and Harry subsequently ended up hugging Ginny. They pulled away, Ginny's face almost as red as her hair, Harry looking a little flustered.

"Be careful, both of you." Hermione smiled softly.

We nodded, feeling the nerves slip away for a moment when the tent flap opened and the three girls exited behind the three headmasters, Filch and Crouch.

"Good day champions, gather round." Dumbledore greeted, it wasn't, in fact, a good day, the first layer of snow had settled over the grounds and had sent the temperature hurtling towards the minus'.

Gathering around him in a small group, each headmaster standing behind their school champion, Dumbledore between Harry and Cedric. "Now, the moment you've all been waiting for. Barty, the bag if you will."

Crouch stepped forward and offered a small, purple velveteen bag to Fleur. "Champions, please place your hand in the bag. Ah, the Welsh Green." Fleur had pulled out a miniature version of the life-sized dragon we'd seen the night before. "Mr Krum, the Chinese Fireball. Mr Diggory, the Swedish Short-Snout."

Harry glanced at me before pulling out his dragon. "The Hungarian Horntail. Ms Potter, the Antipodean Opaleye. These represent five very real dragons, each of which has been given a golden egg to protect. All you have to do is collect the egg, you must do this because it contains a clue, without which you cannot hope to proceed to the second task."

"Alright, good luck champions." Dumbledore clapped his hands. "At the sound of the cannon, Mr Diggory, you may proceed--"

Dumbledore was interrupted as the cannon above us went off, causing him to roll his eyes at Filch and ushered Cedric toward the back entrance where all of us would enter the ring. The time between each champion varied, depending on how quickly they defeated their dragon and collected the egg. I'm not entirely sure whether anyone could kill their dragon, but none returned to the tent afterwards. It was nerve racking being the last, I was left alone in the tent as Harry went out to face the first task, making me worry whether he was going to survive. Then...

"Four of our champions have successfully proceeded to the next task. And now our fifth and final contestant, Ms Lily Potter." Dumbledore broadcasted over a loudspeaker.