Ah, Screw It!

chapter 19

The day of the task arrived and Harry was in hot water with nearly everyone.

He refused to tell them what his main plan was to get the egg. Fleur had been coached into a repeat performance of her sleeping charm (with added fire protection this time) and Viktor was encouraged to use transfiguration as a distraction (to avoid breaking eggs).

Harry had listened to all the ideas from trying to learn to become a dragon animagus to bribing it with gold. He didn't tell anyone his plan though.

And that pissed off everyone from Hermione to Filius.

Fleur was also annoyed, but Viktor found it amusing.

They were in the Champion's Tent, Fleur and Viktor were a little nervous and Harry was reading a book. Then the heads entered along with Amelia and Bagman.

"Excellent!" Bagman exclaimed in his annoyingly jovial way. "You're all here. Now in this bag are identical miniatures of what you will face in the arena. They will also determine the order you go in."

"Non." Fleur said defiantly. "'Arry goes last. Zat way Viktor and I can watch him."

"B-B-B-"

"That's perfectly fine." Amelia interjected whilst Bagman tried to remember how to talk. "The order you go in doesn't matter, it is only the choosing of the dragons that we want to be fair."

She took the bag from Bagman and offered it to Fleur and then Viktor. She then handed the bag to Harry.

"Miss Delacour, you will go first and face the Common Welsh Green. Mister Krum, you will go second and face the Chinese Fireball." She then turned to Harry. "Harry will have to go last anyway as he will be facing this."

Harry looked up from the empty bag he was peering into. Sitting in Amelia's hand was a pale blue wingless dragon.

"A Japanese Water Dragon." Amelia smirked.

"That bastard Albus arranged this, didn't he?" Harry scowled.

"Actually, it was a recent acquaintance of yours." She gestured to the mouth of the tent.

Harry turned to see a very smug Yoshiko standing there in a knee length skirt and t-shirt topped off with a light jacket.

"What the hell did I do to you?" Harry asked indignantly.

"I'm a trickster Harry-kun, you couldn't really expect me to turn down the opportunity to play a prank on the son of a prankster, could you?" She pouted.

"I am going to learn some nasty words in Japanese just so I can call you them." Harry warned her with a maniacal glare.

"I would be happy to teach you some." She smiled. "But I must go and find Severus-kun. It is cold and he needs to keep me warm." She said as she left the tent.

"I didn't need to know that!" Harry called after her.

Amelia had been tempted to alter the tasks after seeing Harry's memories of them. But she decided that it was hard enough for the teens to face down a nesting dragon on their own when even an experienced Dragon Handler wouldn't try.

Fleur's attempt went much the same as last time, only she dodged the snort of flame that the dragon let out in its sleep. It wouldn't have mattered as she had charmed her outfit to be flame proof.

Viktor's was a big improvement. No eggs were crushed. Instead he transfigured one rock into a tasty looking cow and another couple into wolves. The result was that he was able to slip past the dragon and take the egg whilst it fended off the wolves so it could take the cow.