Story: Moira
Chapter Six: Taming the Beast

A/N:- Just a note that the italics are Parseltongue and the normal font is English.

If the Great Hall on the night of the choosing of champions was loud, there was no word to describe the stadium on the day of the first task. The complete school of Hogwarts along with the students of the guest schools of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were present, neatly seated in lines in the stands.

The weather was ideal. It was warm and sunny although hints of rain bearing clouds were present. The three champions were seated in a small tent off to the side of the Quidditch stadium. They were trying, or at least two of them were, their best to keep a calm expression. The other one, the only male in the tent, wore a naturally tranquil face as if he had faced this situation numerous times before.

"How on Merlin are you this calm, Mister?!" Ginny Weasley asked. She was pacing around the small tent in nervousness. When he shrugged, she sighed then slumped down beside him. Alarie, the Beauxbatons champion, was biting her nails on a chair opposite of them.

"Don't think about anything," Harry whispered.

"Seriously?"

"Well, no."

Ginny rolled her eyes in response. Before she could come up with an equally sarcastic retort, the tent's split opened and Ludo Bagman, the eccentric British Minister of Games walked in, followed by Dumbledore.

"Ah, greetings, champions! I hope you are all ready," Bagman greeted. When he received no response, he grinned awkwardly. Dumbledore smiled mischievously and it did not go unnoticed by Harry. "Alright, here's the task. There are three dragons out there. You have to tame them and take part in a dragon race. The race track starts from the stadium and involves flying above the Forbidden Forest, the Black Lake, the Bridge and finally around Hogwarts castle and back to the Stadium. The first one to reach the stadium is given points accordingly and so are the other two. You get to pick the dragons. Ladies first. Here is the bag," Bagman explained, then offered a bag to Ginny.

Ginny looked at Dumbledore, who nodded, then put her hand inside the small sack. A small roar was heard when she withdrew her hand. She opened her closed fist and a miniature red dragon sat on her palm. She raised her eyebrows. "A Chinese Fireball?"

"That will be the Dragon you will be taming, Miss Weasley," Bagman supplied, then offered the bag to Alarie, who nervously put her hand in it and pulled a flailing green dragon out. "Swedish Short-Snout." Bagman then offered Harry the bag. Harry took a deep breath then bravely put his hand into the sack. He groped for a miniature dragon and caught a long scaly tail before pulling it out, rather harshly. His face remained expressionless as he realized he was going to face the most dangerous dragon of the three. "The Hungarian Horntail."

The tiny, grey-scaled dragon looked at him ferociously with its bright yellow eyes. He glared right back at it but it did not cower under his intimidating eye. Bagman's instructions were heard faintly in the background and he paid no heed. He had to think fast and come up with a solution to tame a tough dragon. He was thinking of using violence against it and forcing it to fly, but that would only cause him to lose points for using dark spells and would cause the dragon to fly wildly in a rage. A sudden idea occurred to him and he smirked mischievously.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by a canon's loud announcement of start. He looked around and found Ginny motioning him to come over. With Alarie in the front and Harry in the rear, the three of them left the tent in a line after wishing good luck to each other.

The crowd broke into loud cheering as soon as the champions exited the tent. Harry looked forward and found the three dragons lined up beside each other, his dragon being on the right of Ginny's Fireball.

Bravely, he walked up to the chained dragon. As soon as the Horntail spotted him, it started roaring and spitting out balls of fire. He cast a fire-proof shield over himself which absorbed the fire balls. He reached out a hand to try and pet its side but it moved dangerously, forcing him to withdraw. Judging by the dragon's horns, Harry assumed the Horntail to be a female.

"Hey," Harry hissed in Parseltongue. Parseltongue was the language of the snakes. Even reptiles could understand that. Harry was taught the snake language at the age of five by his master. The Horntail suddenly froze.

"You speak my language?!" she asked.

"Not really, but I know your language," Harry cleared his throat and whispered in Parseltongue. "Ma'am, I intend no harm. I just need to win this race. I have promised my friends. Can you help me? In return, I am prepared to do anything for you and you have a wizard's honour."

The Horntail's eyes looked through his, as if searching for any trace of dishonesty. When she was proven otherwise, she nodded. "I want to fly back to Romania, the place where I came from. They brought me using some painful things and my wings hurt. If you talk to them about this, I'll let you ride me, human."

"I will try everything in my power to do so," saying so, Harry gently rubbed his hand down the dragon's side. She roared gently and bent her neck for him to climb on.

He looked to his side and found Alarie trying to protect herself from her dragon's spiky tail. Ginny, on the other hand, was whispering to her dragon just like Harry did, although he could not make out if she was speaking Parseltongue. He met her eyes and the same blazing look was back on her face. With a competitive smile, both the teens boarded their respective dragons and stroked its back. "Let's take to the sky!" Harry announced in English, and the Horntail spread its mighty wings.

No sooner than did he look at Ginny, she took flight, leaving Harry behind. The Horntail noticed this and started running a few meters before taking flight. Harry clutched its scales tightly to prevent himself from falling down.

The loud voice of Bagman's commentary was drowned as they entered the grayish blue skies, weaving through the wisps of ash clouds. Harry noticed several cuts on the dragon's back.

"They did this to you?" Harry asked in Parseltongue.

"Yes, they did, those dragon men. The chains they tied were tight for us," the Horntail answered back. Harry's eyes turned determined and he withdrew his wand, simultaneously tightening his legs around the dragon to keep his balance without having to hold onto the spikes.

"It will hurt, ma'am, but I can make them right if you so desire," Harry offered.

"Go ahead then. I will take care of winning," the Horntail replied, a hint of amusement in her voice. Harry closed his eyes, recollecting the healing spells used on the thick scales of magical beasts. His master's pet was a serpent and hence, Harry was taught such spells. When the right spells came to his mind, he began chanting them. His wand tip glowed and so did the dragon's scales.

As they weaved through the cloudy skies above the Forbidden Forest, the cold wind pinched his cheeks and ruffled his hair messily. His glasses prevented him from having to blink every time the wind passed by and he was thankful for that. Soon enough, they passed the Black Lake and Harry found himself in a neck-to-neck race against Ginny Weasley.

"We can do it," Harry urged in Parseltongue as they passed the bridge. Ginny seemed to be whispering the very same words to her own dragon.

The finish line got closer and closer. The excited cheers got louder and louder. The sky became darker and darker and the clouds became heavier with rain. Droplets of pure water hit their hair, soaking their hoodies and their dragons' scales but neither cared. The break neck speed caused their robe's tails to cause a 'whoosh' sound as they flapped up and down. This gave Harry the ultimate idea to win the race.

"Your tail, ma'am! Use your tail!" Harry hissed. In a moment of quick action, Harry's Horntail did a mid-air somersault and shoved its pointed tail to the finish line before the Chinese Fireball could reach it, thus handing Harry the victory.

The crowd broke into a huge applause, mainly coming from the Durmstrangs. Harry smiled lightly as he got off the Horntail.

"Pretty good flying ma'am," Harry praised in a whispered hiss so that only the Horntail could hear. He then gently rubbed its side. In response, the dragon leaned into his touch.

"You will speak for my afore-seeked aspiration, won't you, human?" the Horntail roared lightly. Harry smiled slightly.

"You have my word."

"Good thinking there, Mister," came another voice. Harry turned around and met Ginny's eye with a competitive glint rivaling her own.

"Good going, Miss Weasley," Harry replied. She smiled in response and turned back to her dragon. Alarie arrived after a few seconds. She looked tired and defeated but nevertheless gave him a thumbs up.

The rain started to pour heavily and so, a thick shield was erected by Dumbledore to shelter the audience and the champions.

"The judges have given their marks. The first place goes to Mr err – what's his surname?" Bagman stuttered, then looked at Karkaroff. Harry rolled his eyes from where he was standing. Karkaroff shrugged in response, then Dumbledore said something. "Ahem. Right, so the first place goes to Mr Harry with thirty-nine points. Ten each from Headmasters Karkaroff and Dumbledore and myself and nine from Madame Maxime for an outstanding performance, ability to tame a dragon and excellent last-minute strategy. Miss Weasley grabs the second position with thirty-eight points. Ten each from Headmaster Dumbledore and myself and nine each from Headmaster Karkaroff and Madame Maxime for an amazing performance and ability to tame the dragon. Miss Beaumont gets the last position with thirty-three points. Nine points from Headmaster Dumbledore, seven points each from Headmaster Karkaroff and myself and ten points from Madame Maxime. The date of the second task will be announced shortly and until then, Bag out!"

A pretty long chapter. This chapter originally reached 3k words and I had to shorten it. Oh and (⚠Spoiler Alert⚠) the next chapter is filled with drama and tsk! Something which I love. ;)

Thanks for reading!

Miyoko x