Chapter 98: Dead

"Ye.. ye'h. Charlie Weasley 'old me." Hagrid said to Moody, grinning. "They're arriving 'oday. I can see 'em at midnigh'."

Moody moved his magical eye around.

Noticing this Chris quickly mixed into the crowd and made her way towards their table.

As all around the table, her friends laughed, talked and drank butterbeer, Chris kept think about what she just heard.

'Why on earth Dragons are here? Not to mention four of them. Four? Wait there is also four champions. Is the Dragons are related to their first task? Harry did say that, Mr Crouch explained, the first task is designed to test their daring. If it's true then Harry is dead. I've to confirm that how they're going to use Dragons in the first task. Charlie will not help if I ask him directly. So the only option is sneaking out of the castle at midnight. But how....?'

"Harry!" Chris turned towards him.

"Yeah?"

"Can I borrow your Invisibility cloak for a night?" Chris asked.

"... er... my invisibility cloak?" Harry looked confused.

"Yeah for just tonight. I'll give it back to you tomorrow." Chris replied.

"But why do you need that?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"I've my reasons Hermione." Chris replied seriously. "Harry, You're giving it or not?"

"... er... ok... take it." Harry replied.

"Good." Chris smiled.

Ginny gave Chris a questioning glance and Chris gave reassuring smile.

___________________________________

After getting back to the castle, first Chris collected the invisibility cloak from Harry, then informed Ginny, Luna and Colin that she will be going out of the castle at mid-night. Chris didn't tell anyone the reason.

So at last when the clock striked almost twelve that evening, Chris, pulled Harry's Invisibility Cloak over herself and crept back downstairs through the common room. Quite a few people were still in there. She crept past them to the portrait hole and waited for a minute or so, keeping an eye on her watch. Then Ginny and Colin opened the Fat Lady for her from outside as they had planned. She slipped past them with a whispered "Thanks!" and set off through the castle.

The grounds were very dark. Chris walked down and saw the lights shining in Hagrid's cabin. The inside of the enormous Beauxbatons carriage was also lit up. Then she noticed two tall figures in the dark, walking together holding hands. There was no doubt it was Hagrid and Madame Maxime.

"Gotcha." Chris whispered then realized something. 'Wait is Hagrid showing Madame Maxime the Dragons? She will tell Fleur if she knows.' Then another thought hit her, seeing the couple. 'Oh Hagrid just show her the Dragons no problem, just don't kiss her or anything. I don't want to regret coming down here. But if it's...' Chris noticed someone else in the dark following Hagrid and Madame Maxime from a little far.

Chris also started to follow them. Soon Chris realized who it was... Karkaroff, who was walking very slowly and cautiously so the couple couldn't noticed him.

Chris smirked, 'So I'm not the only one who wants to know about the first task.'

Chris carefully walked a little far from Karkaroff, her eyes fixed on Hagrid and Madame Maxime.

They walked and walked, at last they had walked so far around the perimeter of the forest that the castle and the lake were out of sight — Chris heard something. Men were shouting up ahead … then came a deafening, earsplitting roar. …

'Finally' Chris eagerly walked fast as Hagrid led Madame Maxime around a clump of trees and came to a halt.

Then she them, four fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rear­ing onto their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood, roaring and snorting — torrents of fire were shooting into the dark sky from their open, fanged mouths, fifty feet above the ground on their outstretched necks. There was a silvery-blue one with long, pointed horns, snapping and snarling at the wizards on the ground; a smooth-scaled green one, which was writhing and stamping with all its might; a red one with an odd fringe of fine gold spikes around its face, which was shooting mushroom-shaped fire clouds into the air; and a gigantic black one, more lizard-like than the others, which was nearest to them.

At least thirty wizards, seven or eight to each dragon, were attempting to control them, pulling on the chains connected to heavy leather straps around their necks and legs. Mesmerized, Chris looked up, high above her, and saw the eyes of the black dragon, with vertical pupils like a cat's, bulging with either fear or rage, she couldn't tell which. … It was making a horrible noise, a yowling, screeching scream. …

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"Keep back there, Hagrid!" yelled a wizard near the fence, strain­ing on the chain he was holding. "They can shoot fire at a range of twenty feet, you know! I've seen this Horntail do forty!"

And Chris realized who it was, Charlie Weasley. She was sure it was him, as she expected Charlie to be here, the moment she heard the word Dragon.

"It's no good!" yelled another wizard. "Stunning Spells, on the count of three!"

Chris saw each of the dragon keepers pull out his wand.

"Stupefy!" they shouted in unison, and the Stunning Spells shot into the darkness like fiery rockets, bursting in showers of stars on the dragons' scaly hides —

Chris watched the dragon nearest to them teeter dangerously on its back legs; its jaws stretched wide in a silent howl; its nostrils were suddenly devoid of flame, though still smoking — then, very slowly, it fell. Several tons of sinewy, scaly-black dragon hit the ground with a thud that Chris could have sworn made the trees behind her quake.

The dragon keepers lowered their wands and walked forward to their fallen charges, each of which was the size of a small hill. They hurried to tighten the chains and fasten them securely to iron pegs, which they forced deep into the ground with their wands.

Without waiting Chris went near the fence. The thing Chris most loved about the Wizarding World was those things, which were Dangerous but at the same time fascinating.

"All right, Hagrid?" Charlie panted, coming over to talk to Hagrid. "They should be okay now — we put them out with a Sleeping Draft on the way here, thought it might be better for them to wake up in the dark and the quiet — but, like you saw, they weren't happy, not happy at all —"

"What breeds you got here, Charlie?" said Hagrid, gazing at the closest dragon, the black one, with something close to reverence. Its eyes were still just open. Chris could see a strip of gleaming yel­low beneath its wrinkled black eyelid.

"This is a Hungarian Horntail," said Charlie. "There's a Com­mon Welsh Green over there, the smaller one — a Swedish Short-Snout, that blue-gray — and a Chinese Fireball, that's the red."

Chris listened carefully every word they spoke, there might be clues.

"I didn't know you were bringing her, Hagrid," Charlie said, frowning, as he saw Madame Maxime watching the Dragons. "The champions aren't supposed to know what's com­ing — she's bound to tell her student, isn't she?"

"Jus' thought she'd like ter see 'em," shrugged Hagrid, still gaz­ing, enraptured, at the dragons.

"Really romantic date, Hagrid," said Charlie, shaking his head.

"Look who..." Chris almost replied to Charlie, but then she realized she was under the invisibility cloak. Chris wanted to say, 'Look who's talking?' As everyone knew Charlie's one and only love was Dragons.

"Four …" said Hagrid, "so it's one fer each o' the champions, is it? What've they gotta do — fight 'em?"

"Just get past them, I think," said Charlie. "We'll be on hand if it gets nasty, Extinguishing Spells at the ready. They wanted nest­ing mothers, I don't know why … but I tell you this, I don't envy the one who gets the Horntail. Vicious thing. Its back end's as dan­gerous as its front, look."

Charlie pointed toward the Horntail's tail, and Chris saw long, bronze-colored spikes protruding along it every few inches.

Five of Charlie's fellow keepers staggered up to the Horntail at that moment, carrying a clutch of huge granite-gray eggs between them in a blanket. They placed them carefully at the Horntail's side. Hagrid let out a moan of longing

'Great just great. If Harry's luck is as good as I think then he'll definitely get the most dangerous one.' Chris was irritated. 'Ugh... Harry you're so so dead this time.'