Albus Severus Potter (A Harry Potter fanfic)

The First Task

It was already 13th October and Albus had learnt everything that he could, and some extras that his father had taught him, like the shielding charm 'protego', and other spells he had learnt from his books and the library. Shruti wasn't quite as well prepared as Albus, but she knew all of the spells her 7th year textbooks and her previous ones too obviously! Louis had been learning all of his spells, but had also been learning some muggle techniques to avoid dying in the first task.

All three champions had been prepared and they were all ready, they had been using books, other people, all they could to prepare themselves for the task ahead of them. They had all read up on previous tournaments as well, to give them background information so that they knew what kind of things they were up against. But nothing can prepare you perfectly for something you don't know.

∞

As the sun shone through the window and woke up the three champions, they all had the same question running through each of their minds, 'what do I do?' But they all knew that they couldn't do anything until they knew what was going to happen in the task.

They were all given certain clothes to wear, to represent their schools, and were ready, in the mini-arena, to do what they had to. Shruti was dressed in a dark blue top and lighter blue skirt; the top had the Beauxbatons coat of arms on it. Louis was dressed a blood red shirt and dark trousers with the Durmstrang coat of arms on his shirt. Albus was dressed in a red and black shirt, after refusing to wear a red and gold one, with the Gryffindor crest embroidered on it, and black trousers.

They were in a tent, situated just outside the arena, waiting for instructions from Lockheart. We waited for what seemed like an hour, but were probably only a few minutes, and finally he arrived.

"Hello, hello champions," he said, waving and flashing that 'award-winning' smile. "Right then, your task has been set up, with a lot of difficulty may I add, in the arena. I can finally tell you what to do!" he said brightly, looking around grinning. "In the middle of the arena, there are three golden eggs. They are guarded by three dragons. You must each take one egg as fast as you can, the one with the fastest time gets the most points," he finished, still watching us with that never faltering grin. He seemed to act as if it was no big deal,

"Right then," said McGonagall, cutting off Lockheart, "you will each enter through three different doors, around the arena, when you hear the cannon, you may enter. Good luck champions, you'll need it," she added, under her breath.

∞

The champions were standing outside the doors, adrenaline pumping through their veins as they waited for the sound of the cannon. The staff took their seats, gave Mr Filch Jr. the signal, and the champions opened the doors.

Their eyes grew wide as they realised the size and power of three large dragons, they would be very protective of their eggs. This only made it worse for the champions, the champions were frozen in shock, but Albus quickly hit the dragon in front of him with a 'stupefy', this only confused the dragon slightly, as it was so big, it would need a stronger spell, to overcome it fully.

Louis was just hitting the dragon repeatedly with all the spells, hexes, charms, jinxes, anything he could think of. This idea was effective, as it confused the dragon, as well as making it entertaining to watch. The dragon changed colour, rolled over, and so many more humorous and useful things. The audience laughed and held a collective breath when the dragon got close to him, it was amazing.

Shruti, however, wasn't faring so well, her dragon was a bit smarter and had decided to keep throwing fire at her. She was running around, getting away from the fire, shooting 'aguamenti' whenever her clothes became singed.

Soon, Louis had passed the dragon and had one of the eggs, he ran quickly back out of the arena, and through the door that he had come through at the start. He jogged back to the tent, smiling to himself as he had gotten three points for coming first. He waited in the tent for the other champions, inspecting the egg.

Albus, after seeing Louis get his egg, had decided to imitate his tactic, but he would run away each time he shot a spell so that dragon couldn't hit him with fire. Albus kept slowly creeping towards the egg, occasionally having to hide behind rocks and getting small burns along the way. The whole place was very rocky, allowing him to hide easily. In this way, he had managed to make to the centre and collect one of the two remaining eggs. He was able to get out easily as well. Just before leaving, he glanced over at Shruti who was still dodging the dragon's fire, but he wasn't allowed to help her, if he did, the both of them would be disqualified.

Shruti was trying to shoot spells, but she decided on a muggle approach to defeating the dragon, she knew that she was fast, so she would run from rock to rock and end up in the middle. She peeped over the rock, seeing the dragon was facing away from her, she sprinted to the next rock and hid behind it. The dragon, hearing her footsteps, began to walk/fly over towards her. She ran out and so close to the middle, the dragon breathing out fire from behind her. She was concentrating so hard on finally reaching the middle that she didn't realise that the fire was incredibly close to her.

James had been watching her every move very carefully, he didn't want her to die in this tournament. At that crucial moment, when she could have died, James had stood up and yelled, "Aguamenti!" The water had sprayed in between Shruti and the fire, making her wet and putting out part of the fire. She had flinched when the ice cold water had hit her, but continued running, not looking to see who had saved her. The dragon was momentarily confused, as its fire had simply gone out. Shruti used this to her advantage and sprinted back to the door faster than she had ever run before. She ran out of the arena, slamming the door behind her. She walked back to the tent, panting heavily. She had only earned one point.

All three champions were sitting down in the tent, being tended to by the matron. They all had various injuries, burns, cuts, bruises, the matron wasn't happy; she would keep making comments like, 'crazy people', 'insane trying to do it again' and 'even after last time'. But she was right; she didn't like the students getting hurt for some tournament. But eternal glory and 1000 galleons sounded incredible to all the students. That's all it took to start up WWW, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, and that shop's the best one in Diagon Alley.

After a few minutes, James was trying to get in and see his brother, some Durmstrang boys and some Beauxbaton girls, soon, the matron gave up on her 'they need rest' argument and let them all in. The beds of the champions were surrounded by friends and admirers. Albus wasn't too fond of random people taking photos of him, but he was able to kind of communicate with Tom, seeing as he had gotten to the bed quickly, he was fairly close.

Louis' friends were congratulating him on his magnificent performance, and coming first. He seemed to love the attention, he wasn't only surrounded by his Durmstrang friends, many girls, Hogwarts and Beauxbatons were surrounding his bed. One of Shruti's friend's, Simran, left her and went to Louis' bed to go and swoon over him.

Shruti didn't have many people around her bed, mainly her friends, but she did have an admirer or two. She didn't have to deal with quite as much attention as the others did.

After a few minutes, the admirers had left, leaving the champions friends with the champions. The matron soon grew tired of their constant chatter though, so she sent away everyone, despite their protests. After an hour, she decided to let them go and join their fellow classmates at lunch.