The Year I Did Not Sign Up For! (Edited)

A Batch Of Burnt Champions

Diggory, who was up first, looked ready to throw up when the signal sounded for him to go face his fiery foe. The mini version of the swedish shortsnout he was facing looked hungry. If that meant the large dragon was hungry, his chances didn't seem all that great. He pushed a snack in the dragons direction just in case.

Fleur was shaking as she walked out of the safety of the tent through the tunnel into the arena. She obviously wished she could go back in time and take her name out of the goblet of fire. Either way she squared her shoulders and walked out.

When he was up, Krum took a swig of something out of his small hipflask. It smelled suspiciously like Vodka. Then he straightened up and marched towards the challenge.

Harriet revised all the dragonese she had learnt over the past few months and took a deep breath. The canon sounded, telling her it was time to go meet her fate. She stood up and walked through the tunnel into the arena. In the middle in a nest of sorts sat a huge black dragon. The hungarian Horntail fixed her with a suspicious look.

"Hello," Harriet tried in Dragonese, "I come in peace."

It may have come out more like 'jello, I come in pieces' but she couldn't really get hung up about that now. Not when the dragon was looking at her like it was contemplating a snack.

"Really," Harriet continued, "This is a kind of tournament where I have to get that golden egg you're sitting on so I pass."

The dragon suddenly looked more interested in her than hungry. Harriet took this as a good sign and kept talking. "It's called the tri- wizard tournament and it's supposed to be held every four years but last time they held it someone died so it got cancelled. It's a series of tasks a few wizards and witches have to pass to win. Anyway, can I have the golden egg please?"

The dragon contemplated it for a moment and sneezed. That would have been okay if dragon sneezes weren't flammable. Harriets robes caught fire.

"Shit!" she said dropping and rolling like muggle kids were taught in bonfire safety before guy- fawkes day. The stop, drop and roll manouver. Due to the sand in the arena the fire went out pretty quickly. She got up again brushing off sand and doing a damage check. Her leg had suffered a few rather bad burns. She heard gasps from the audience and looked back at the dragon. It's head was about a metre away from her. It dropped the golden egg at her feet.

"I wonder why a dragon is competing in a tournament for wizards. Especially one like you, who is barely more than a hatchling." The dragon sounded confused. "Your buisness is your own though. Take the egg and win hatchling."

After saying that, the dragon returned to it's nest and curled around it's real eggs again not sparing Harriet a second glance.

"You're just giving it to me?" She asked suprised.

"You think I'm stupid enough not to know when it's not a real egg? It doesn't have a heartbeat!"

"Why did the others fight then?" Harriet was confused.

"We were promised treats," the dragon said, simply.

Harriet nodded. "Understandable."

She turned to the judges. Four ministry officials. They raised their wands and each sent a number into the air. Her score: four tens, fourty total.

After reading them, she was ushered away by madam Pomfrey immediateley. She ended up in the healing tent with the other champions.

"So, what did you guys get?" she asked as the leg of her trousers was pushed up so madam pomfrey could check the injuries.

No permanent scarring to be expected.

"Fourty, like you." Krum stated proudly.

"Thirty-eight."Diggory smiled. Half of his face was covered in some paste.

"Zirty,"Fleur said, "I don't theenk one of ze judges was very fond of me."

"Everyone got burnt though," Diggory said.

"You got the worst." Krum stated.

Diggory chuckled humourlessly. "Yeah, I'm not gracing any magazine covers soon."

"You okay?" Harriet asked him.

"Yeah."

"Don't worry," she smiled. "If it's permanent we can be scarface buddies."

Diggory let out a snort.

"'ow long 'ave you known Dragonese?" Fleur asked harriet, in an attempt to change the subject.

"I started learning a couple of months ago." Harriet shrugged.

"I heard your talented but I didn't know you were actually a genius! Colour me impressed!" Cedric said, reaching out to shake her hand.

As it turned out, the other champions had taken a more simple approach to the task. Diggory had transformed a boulder into a labrador as a distraction so he could steal the egg. He had still gotten a blast of dragon fire to the face. Krum had tried to knock it out with a conjunctivictus curse and had gotten a blat of dragon fire to the chest before summoning the dragon egg with a simple 'accio'. Fleur had charmed the dragon into a rather deep sleep. Everything would have gone well if the dragon hadn't snored.

"Good strategies!" Harriet grinned. "I really overcomplicated things, didn't I?"

"Maybe a leetle." Fleur said.

"A little much." Krum said, taking another swig from his flask.

"It's okay." Diggory said, patting her shoulder.