School Exchange (Drarry) ✓

Chapter 5

"Mate, mate!" Ron yell-whispered outside the tent. Harry scooted inch by inch, making sure to not raise any suspicions. "Which dragon did you get?" Ron asked through a small slit.

"Hungarian horntail." Harry mumbled. Everything still felt extremely surreal. Ron sighed, knowing it was the most aggressive of the 4.

"Be careful. That's the most important." He said. "Your broomstick is at the nearest possible shed, I rearranged it a bit to make it easier."

"Right. Thanks mate." Harry could hear footsteps from the other side, ticking close towards where Ron was. "You have to go now."

"Alright, good luck mate."

The wait felt drawn out, longer than necessary. Harry listened for the round of applause after each of the champions before him, and then another one of them being called out. Until Harry was alone, with 2 strict-looking organisers that were no doubt gossiping about him.

Applause for Fleur Delacour. Suddenly, there was a knot in Harry's stomach. "Harry Potter, you're the last one." The organiser drawled in boredom. Harry didn't blame him- he was stuck in the tent and couldn't watch. It then dawned on Harry that there would be a couple dozen more eyes on him since he was the last one.

Nervously, Harry shuffled out of the tent. The 2 guards had to push him a little to walk faster into the arena, then closed the gates behind him. Harry could feel the cool metal against his back, and the escape place to get to safety on the other side of the arena. Thousands of pairs of eyes were on him, but he felt so frozen.

The dragon looked bigger than what he had imagined. It's menacing orange eyes were transfixed on his comparatively smaller body. Before he knew, the dragon shot a jet of fire in his direction. Harry ducked quickly behind the nearest rock, the heat almost radiating through it and making the sand around him appear molten. Taking a deep breath, Harry clutched at his wand tightly and focused, summoning his broomstick.

Whenever it started to take so agonisingly long to summon an object, Harry had no clue. Finally, with the broomstick in his hand, he felt a sense of relief. The dragon was closing in on him, slowly but surely, so he had to act fast.

The crowd gasped when Harry left his safe spot behind the rock, taking off on his broomstick and narrowly missing the next shot of fire from the dragon's smoking nostrils. He darted through the dragon's attempts to hurt him, mostly escaping by mere inches, finally able to agitate the dragon enough to get it moving away from her nest of eggs.

In a quick dive, Harry scoops the golden egg into his arms. The dragon's flames flew over his head, but it's talons caught onto his shirt, ripping the sleeve off along with slashing his shoulder. Harry ignored that, flying to safety.

The whooping and cheering from the crowd was overwhelming. Madame Pomfrey fussed over his shoulder as the pain started to set in after the adrenaline faded. Thankfully, the healing procedure was simple as the scratch wasn't too deep. Compared to Cedric's burns to the whole left side of his face and the blistering on Fleur's calves, his injury was nothing.

Harry was just outside the medical tent, with his 2 closest friends that the organisers allowed in, when they announced the results. Although Krum was the only one who didn't sustain any injuries and was quicker in retrieving the golden egg by a couple of seconds, his method of restraining the dragon with metal chains caused it to act up and damage his golden egg. The judges took away enough points for that for his rank to fall to second place. And since Harry was the second quickest with the least serious injury (as well as giving the most entertaining show to the audience), he came in first place. Cedric was third and Fleur was fourth.

Now, standing in the middle of the celebrating Gryffindors, it felt entirely too blissful to be true. Everyone was congratulating him, cheering and hooting to the point where Snape had to leave before he got a migraine. Draco came over as well, eventually, and pulled Harry into a congratulatory embrace without thinking.

Viktor Krum appears behind Draco as well, probably trying to keep his expression neutral, except it looked more like a scowl. In one hand, he held his broken golden egg, and the other rather roughly gripping onto Draco's waist, pulling him to his side.

"You fly well." Krum gritted out, as if it took all the energy inside him to say those words. Harry tried to play it off with a smile. It sounded more like a threat than a compliment, really.

"Thanks." He mumbled. Draco gave him an apologetic look, but it was soon replaced with the soft smile Harry had gotten used to. "See you later." Harry added, addressing Draco rather than Krum. Krum's face grew even darker while Draco just nodded before they left, more on his boyfriend's accord than his own.

Of course, Harry doesn't let that encounter dampen his spirits for the party tonight.