Never Trust A Snake

Chapter Twenty-six

'The First Challenge'

The day of the first challenge had come faster than anyone expected. Excitement flooded the halls of Hogwarts as the students were ushered to the stadium by teachers. Hadrian and his fellow champions were taken to a tent by McGonagall. Fleur looked rather pale as she stepped inside the tent, as did Victor. Due to the help of his Bulgarian friend, Hadrian now knew why. The first task involved dragons, and none of the champions were very keen to face them. With his limited time, Hadrian hadn't managed to find anything on defeating dragons. Judging from the looks of nervousness, the foreign champions hadn't had much luck either. Unfortunately, it looked like Potter had. Evan pushed himself into the tent with a smug grin on his face. Undoubtedly, Dumbledore had taught him a few special tricks for the task. But, as Hadrian watched the large boy's eyes flicker around the room, he realised that with Evan's magical potential, most of them probably wouldn't work. Evan Potter was flying on blind confidence, hoping that, as it always had, his title as The-Boy-Who-Lived would carry him through the tournament. Slowly, but confidently, Hadrian stepped into the tent. Evan was sitting in a chair, rapidly eating chocolate frogs as Fleur  paced around the room muttering in French. Hadrian joined Victor, who was standing at the edge of the room.

"Ah, Mr Black!" One of the tournament officials said excitedly.

"Now that we're all here, time to fill you in!" The man, who Hadrian soon recognised as Bagman, continued.

"When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag-" he held up a small sack and shook it at the champions that had now gathered around him. "-from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different, erm, varieties of this thing. You must face it and collect the golden egg that it's guarding!" He explained brightly, seeming unaware of the champions nervous moods.

"This will be easy!" Yelled Evan smugly, taking a bite of his chocolate frog, before glancing at Hadrian.

In no time at all, the champions could hear the footsteps of thousands of students rushing past the tent. As soon as the noise passed, Bagman was offering the bag to Fleur.

She put a shaking hand inside the bag, and drew out a tiny model of a Welsh Green. When Krum's turn approached, he drew out the Chinese Fireball. That left only the Swedish Short-Snout and the Hungarian Horntail. To Hadrian's annoyance, he received the Horntail, which was by far the most fearsome dragon that the tournament had to offer.

Evan was up first, and the piercing sound of a whistle blowing signified the beginning of his task.

***

Evan stepped out of the tent to find himself in a rocky arena. The Swedish Short-Snout stood at the center, crouched low over the golden egg. Ignoring the imminent danger of the dragon, Evan waved around to the crowd as he always had done when in front of a camera. He sent a wink to the Daily Prophet's camera, ready to make the front page, as always.

"Accio Firebolt!" He yelled, pointing his wand to the sky. The crowd waited in anticipation, watching Evan with interested eyes. This continued for fourteen minutes before the dragon's loud roar interrupted the silence. The Slytherin students began jeering at Potter as his face paled. His broom hadn't came.

A new plan began forming in Evan's head. He and Dumbledore had decided it was best for him to use a broomstick. Not only would it showoff his long distance summoning but his quidditch skills aswell. Without his broom, he didn't have a plan.

So, Evan Potters small mind decided that, being The-Boy-Who-Lived, he could do anything. A dragon was nothing. He had survived the killing curse.

Evan strode towards the dragon, clutching his wand tightly.

***

Both Victor and Fleur had collected their eggs, more successful than Evan if the crowd's reactions were anything to go on.

Hadrian stepped into the arena. The crowd was silent, watching him with anticipation. He had none of the arrogance that his brother had shown. All eyes trailed on him as he took a step forward.

In his head, the assassin was forming a plan. Most spells wouldn't penetrate the dragon's hide, the ones that would weren't exactly legal. That left him with a few options. He could distract the dragon, push it back or summon the egg. Calculating his ideas, Hadrian came to the conclusion of none of those plans. The Horntail was a nesting mother and would most likely see him as the biggest threat to her eggs, so distraction wasn't an option. The dragon's size meant physical force wouldn't work and Hadrian assumed the egg had an anti-summoning charm.

Walking forward, Hadrian smirked. He had remembered exactly what he needed. The crowd gasped as bright orange flames shot towards the Slytherin champion. For a moment, Hadrian was obscured from the crowds view the the flames.

Cheers broke out as the fire stopped momentarily. Hadrian was still walking towards the dragon, unharmed. A perfect shield charm shimmered in front. The dragon spat flames once more and the audience watched as the flames rolled harmlessly around the shield charm.

"Stop!" Hissed Hadrian. The Dragon recoiled, before rearing back ready to strike.

"I mean no harm! I've come to take the fake egg from you!" He hissed once more.

"Fake!" The dragon roared, blowing orange flames into the air. The dragon once again crouched over her young, golden eyes locking onto Hadrian.

"There is a fake amongst your eggs. I will take it, and only it" Hadrian hissed, walking even closer to the dragon. The crowd had gone silent. They had watched this happen before. Evan had walked right up to the dragon and tried to grab the egg. They had all seen the bleeding mess he had been afterwards, and they were unlikely to forget. Every person in the stadium held their breath, waiting for the attack as Hadrian reached forward for the egg. But, there wasn't an attack. The dragon huffed as Hadrian walked away, unharmed, egg in hand.

The crowed erupted in cheers and shouts as the held up the egg. The five judges were sitting in shock, taken aback by his performance. First, Madam Maxime raised her wand and a silver ribbon twisted itself into the number nine. Mr crouch gave him a ten as he sat with his mouth still hanging open. The crowd was cheering harder than ever. The applause turned into momentary booing as Dumbledore put up a four. Bagman, like Crouch gave Hadrian a ten. Finally, Karkaroff begrudgingly raised his wand and let the number eight shoot out.

***

"What matters most is how well you walk through the fire"

Sorry for this taking so long. Wattpad keeps not letting me save or publish so I've been trying to get that to work.