Unofficial Portkey Archive

Call of the Wild

Over the next few days Alice learned several things: the first was that her teachers had impressive tenacity as no matter how often the class begged none of them would reveal what the first task in the Triwizard Tournament was to involve. The second was that rumours stuck like pieces of stray spellotape at Hogwarts. No matter how persistently she insisted to people that there was nothing between herself and Cedric she still had people coming up to her as she made her way down to the stands for the first task and wishing her luck for him. It was infuriating. The third was that boxes of Bertie Bott's Every-flavour Beans should never be left unattended when Peeves was on the loose, but the less said about that particular incident the better.

In the run up to the first task the entire school seemed to become infected with a nervous excitement. Everyone had theories as to what the champions would have to face and even the teachers seemed to join in the spirit of things. When they had gone to visit Hagrid the evening before the task he had been practically bouncing around his cabin with excitement. He refused to tell any of them what it entailed - an impressive feat considering his track record - but from the way he was behaving Alice assumed that it involved some manner of dangerous creature. With Hagrid it almost always did.

The day of the task dawned crisp and sunny. The snowy clouds which had been looming for the last week seemed to realise that Hogwarts' occupants had other things to concern them that day and had vanished. After lunch Professor McGonagall instructed everyone to make their way down to the Forbidden Forest and to walk around the perimeter until they got to the arena which had been set up specially. She distributed warning glances to her more troublesome charges liberally as she emphasised that on no account were they actually to enter the forest.

Once they had carried out her instructions Alice and her friends found themselves confronted by a large wooden stadium, rather like the one they used for Quidditch except this one looked a lot less permanent. Attached to it was a smaller enclosure from which the odd ominous growl was emitting, although the thick wooden planks were too high for her to see what was inside. Prefects were directing all the students towards the entrance to the stands, next to which a tent had been set up. As Alice walked past one of the tent flaps shifted enough that she caught a glimpse inside. She could just make out Dumbledore, Karkaroff and Madame Maxime deep in discussion with the three champions. They all looked rather green.

As Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville and Alice shuffled along an empty row in the stands she found her view partly obscured by an enormous silver cup bobbing about in front of her. Alice blinked. It wasn't really a cup at all, but a hat enchanted to look like one and to emit bursts of streamers at odd moments. The area around her feet was already beginning to resemble a drift of colourful snow. Leaning to the side and peering under the wide brim of the hat she grinned as she made out the face of Luna Lovegood. She should have known really. Who else would sport such an… `interesting' creation?

Alice tapped her on the shoulder. "Hi Luna," she smiled at the girl. "Are you looking forward to the task?"

"Yes," the third year was clearly excited even if she did still have that dreamy, far-away look in her eyes. "What do you suppose it will be? I thought maybe they might have to fight a Crumple-Horned Snorkack…" Luna glanced speculatively at the arena in front of them.

Ignoring Hermione's amused snort Alice decided to humour the girl; even if she was a bit odd, it didn't mean she wasn't nice. "I don't know, I suppose it could be -" The rest of her sentence was drowned out as a bellowing roar crashed around the arena, the bench below them vibrated with the force of the sound and several students clapped their hands to their ears in alarm.

"What in Merlin's name was that?" Harry asked, looking quickly around for the source as Ron cursed loudly. Alice elbowed some manners into him.

"I don't know," Hermione had turned a little pale and she was clutching painfully onto Harry and Alice's arms as they sat on either side of her, "but whatever it was it sounded big."

"And grumpy," Ron added. "Whatever that was, it wasn't a happy animal."

In front of them Luna let out a disappointed sigh. "Oh, I guess that means it's not a Crumple-Horned Snorkack then. They don't roar they see, they sound more like they're hiccupping. That's a shame."

Ron sounded like he was going to choke for a moment before burying his face in his sleeve and turning his back on them. From the way his shoulders were jumping up and down Alice assumed he had dissolved into helpless fits of laughter at Luna's response and was trying to be discreet about it. He was failing miserably of course, but at least he was trying. Luna gave him a concerned look for a moment and opened her mouth as though to ask something.

"Just ignore him Luna," Alice assured her, "he's more than a tiny bit insane."

"Oh." Luna looked at him askance again for a moment before nodding. "I guess that explains a lot."

Alice had to smile.

Once Ron had recovered himself enough to sit upright again they all began eagerly checking their watches to see when the task would start. Every so often Harry would stand up and peer over everyone's heads of everyone still shuffling into the stadium to see the entrance to the tent the champions were in. Hermione was midway through subjecting Neville and anyone who would listen to a lengthy list of former tasks when they were suddenly interrupted.

"Here you go Evans, we thought you might appreciate one of these." A freckled arm reached over her shoulder and waved something round and yellow in front of her face. Recognising Fred's unmistakable voice her hand had closed automatically around the object before she had even registered what it was. Glancing at it she scowled.

Swinging round to look at the offending twin as he stood grinning with his brother on the tier behind them her glower only deepened. "Support CEDRIC DIGGORY?" she read the writing on the badge. She'd seen plenty of other people wearing the badges earlier, but hadn't had a chance to work out what they were yet. "How did you know?" her voice dripped sarcasm. "It's exactly what I've always wanted."

"We'd heard a rumour." Fred waggled his eyebrows at her in such a ridiculous way that no matter how much she wanted to remain angry with him she couldn't help but let a snort of laughter escape. Unfortunately there was no way to conceal her reaction as a tell-tale cloud of frozen air plumed in front of her.

"You see?" George grinned wickedly. "We knew you'd love it. It'll make a nice matching set with the one your fan club sent you. And…" he rummaged dramatically in his pockets for a few moments before drawing out another handful of badges, "we've got more for the rest of you. We wouldn't want you to feel left out."

"Yes, never let it be said that the Gred and Forge Weasley indulge in favouritism."

"Thanks," Ron accepted the other badges with an enthusiasm that surprised Alice and passed them around before pinning one firmly to the front of his robes. Luna added to the ridiculous confection on her head by attaching hers to the Triwizard hat.

Catching her friend's eye Hermione winced in sympathetic understanding. "You don't have to wear it if you don't want to Alice."

She considered it for a brief moment before hooking the pin through her scarf. "No, just because people believe that stupid article in the Prophet doesn't mean I shouldn't support my school champion."

"Yeah, you should have heard Mum about that in her last letter." George teased. "She was all ready to write to you about it and give you advice."

"She practically had the two of you married," Fred added, screwing up his face. "I'm surprised she didn't realise it was a load of frogspawn, then again Mum tends to believe all the romantic gossip she reads. But really, as though you would be interested in Diggory!"

Alice fought down a blush at how close to the truth his words had come and she felt a light, reassuring squeeze on her arm from where Hermione was standing. Emboldened by her friend's presence and the knowledge that she would be there to dig her out of any holes she got herself into, and if she was frank more than a little intrigued by Fred's reaction, Alice asked: "Why?"

He blinked. "Why what?"

"Why wouldn't I be interested? Not that I am," she hastened to fib and felt she had made the lie convincing enough, "but half the girls in school are so why not me too? Are you trying to say there's something weird about me?"

Everyone turned to look expectantly at Fred who for once seemed lost for words.

"Come on," Ron looked as though he'd been told Potions was cancelled for a month, "she asked you a question. Why is she weird?"

Alice thought she heard Harry mutter something which sounded very like "why is she not?" but it was difficult to tell. She made a mental note to get him back later though.

"Well," Fred finally seemed to have regained his equilibrium, "because you're you and Diggory is… well he's a prat isn't he? He's a woolly-headed… I mean you just wouldn't be interested in a boy like him you would…" He stopped as Alice raised an amused eyebrow.

"You know if you keep digging there, I reckon you might hit Australia soon," George smirked at his twin.

Fred scowled.

He was saved from having to embarrass himself any further however by a booming cough that suddenly echoed around the stadium and everyone craned their heads to see Ludo Bagman standing on the raised platform reserved for the judges. He had obviously magically magnified his voice in the same way he had at the Quidditch World Cup.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, witches and wizards, foreign guests and familiar faces," he gestured expansively around him. "It is my very great pleasure to welcome you to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. I am sure that you are all dying to know what fearsome foe our champions will have to face, but let me just ask you to be patient for a little longer."

"First let me introduce our judges, I am sure you are all familiar with them by now. Mr Bartemius Crouch," there was a spattering of mild, unenthusiastic clapping which faded quickly away on the brisk breeze that had sprung up. "Madame Maxime," a slightly more vigorous round of applause was instigated by the Beauxbatons students huddled in more scarves hats and robes than Alice had ever seen on a single group of people. She wondered if they were clapping so enthusiastically just to keep warm. "Professor Karkaroff," the only people to really clap this time were the Durmstrang students and the Slytherins. Alice kept her hands firmly in her pockets. "Professor Dumbledore," the stands around him erupted as nearly every Hogwarts student assembled sounded out their approval. Bagman had to repeat his next sentence twice before anyone had quieted down enough to hear him. "And of course myself," he concluded with a self-deprecating smile as he received his own round of applause, it was less vociferous than Dumbledore's had been, but still it was hearty enough.

"Now to business. The champions have drawn lots which will determine the order in which they are to face their challenge. First to appear will be Miss Fleur Delacour, followed by Mr Cedric Diggory and Mr Victor Krum will bring up the rear. In turn each of them will come out into the arena where they will have to face -" Bagman stopped abruptly allowing the expectant tension and his grin to grow with every second that passed. Finally just when Alice thought the crowd might be about to burst with curiosity he relented. "A dragon!"

The collective intake of breath on the part of the students seemed to suck all of the sound from the stadium for a moment. Bagman simply stood there beaming at their shock whilst every single person crammed into the wooden stands scrambled to collect their jaw from where it had dropped onto the floor. A dragon?! How in Merlin's name were the champions going to defeat one of those? They were the one of the most powerful creatures in the magical world; going up against one was suicide!

"The champions have all made their selections and Miss Delacour will now be facing our Welsh Green! The task each of our champions must accomplish is to retrieve from their dragon a special golden egg which it has been given to guard. Once the champion has obtained this, their task will be over. Let the first task begin!" From somewhere Alice thought she heard a whistle shrilly go off, but she couldn't be sure over the tumult of the students around her. What she definitely could hear was a sudden screeching sound followed by a heavy clunk and the wooden side of the arena that backed onto the dragon's enclosure seemed to fold itself away revealing an enormous dragon the colour of pond weed, wings furled and hunched over a clutch of eggs. She thought she could just make out a wink of gold in there, but she couldn't be sure. Of the other two dragons there was no sign.

Abruptly more cheering broke out in the stands as a fragile looking figure in light blue robes strode out of the champions tent wand raised and looking purposeful. Alice sat forwards eagerly in her seat, curious to see what Fleur would do. The Beauxbatons girl began to scamper nimbly between the boulders covering the arena and had almost reached the dragon before it even seemed to register that she was there. Alice groaned and yelped along with everyone else as it suddenly reared up, issuing a jet of billowing flame into the air before dropping back down onto all fours with a force that rattled her bones. She could only imagine what it must be like for Fleur Delacour standing right in front of it. For a split second Alice thought the girl was going to run, she seemed to waver on her tiptoes for a fraction of a second before solidly planting her feet and raising her wand. Muttering quickly under her breath, Fleur began an incantation and Alice held her breath, waiting to see what would happen. Nothing.

The dragon lashed and snarled, whipping its tail back and forth with lethal intent as it seemed to suck in another lungful of air, ready to roast the young girl to a crisp. Then, almost as though it was unaware it was doing it, the dragons head began to sway slowly in time to Fleur's ever moving wand.

"What's she doing to it?" Harry yelled to no one in particular over the sudden whooping of the crowd as it began to rock drunkenly backwards and forwards, its great, scaly head sinking ever lower towards the ground.

"Enchanting it," Hermione bellowed predictably back. "Sending it to sleep I think. That's a really complicated piece of magic!"

Alice for one knew she was impressed. It took a lot of power to bewitch a dragon and there weren't even that many spells that would work on them in the first place. She hadn't given much thought to the champions other than Cedric really, and when she had she only really considered Krum. Perhaps it was because he was a Quidditch player that she thought he would be the toughest competition, but as she watched she began to revise her opinion of the slight, beautiful girl in blue. She made it seem easy.

Perhaps Alice had thought too soon, or perhaps Fleur was just unlucky, but just as the dragon seemed to be dropping off to sleep it gave out an enormous rumbling snore and a sudden spurt of flame lashed out from its nostrils. Fleur happened to be standing only a few feet too close and her robes caught fire. Her startled cry was echoed by half of the audience before she had the sense to extinguish the flame. It seemed that that had been the Welsh Green's last attempt at resistance however and by the time everyone's attention had refocused on it the dragon was sound asleep. Still it was with obvious trepidation that Fleur crept towards the stash of eggs and lifted her golden prize gently from the stash.

Alice winced as the audience erupted into ecstatic jubilation and shot a glance towards the dragon, praying that it wouldn't awake. She noticed Fleur hurrying anxiously away from it too as trained wizards began to emerge into the arena to restrain the creature.

"That," Neville asserted from farther down the row. "Was the coolest thing ever!"

Grinning in surprise at her friend's enthusiasm Alice shouted back over the thunderous applause. "Thinking of taking up dragon taming now are you Neville?"

Before they had more time to revel in the first champion's success the dragon had been packed away with such speed Alice wasn't even quite sure how they managed it. The whistle ran out again and the enclosure wall folded in upon itself revealing the second dragon. A Swedish Short-Snout.

Alice could feel a lump form in her throat as the Hogwarts champion emerged from the confines of the tent. As Cedric strode across the arena with more confidence than she was sure she would feel should their roles have been reversed she felt a light tap on her shoulder.

"Five knuts says he gets toasted," Fred's playful voice tickled her ear with his laughter.

She couldn't help but grin. "Only five? I'm not going to bother if you're not serious about it." She glanced back at him for the length of time it took to raise a challenging eyebrow, not wanting to look away from Cedric for long. The Hufflepuff was now advancing cautiously towards the silvery-blue dragon hunched protectively over its eggs. Fed up of everyone, especially Fred, teasing her over the last few days she decided to use the opportunity for some payback. "What about a full sickle?"

Over the encouraging roar of the crowd Alice could hear Fred making a sceptical noise.

"What's wrong Fred?" Hermione asked, she had obviously been listening to their conversation. "It's a safe bet surely? I thought Cedric was a… what was it you called him? A woolly-headed prat?"

A great cry suddenly went up from the crowd dragging their attention back to the arena just in time to see the Short-Snout emitting a tongue of flame that lapped at the spot Cedric had just thrown himself away from. Casting her eyes about she spotted him, hunched behind a rock, frantically checking that his robes weren't smouldering.

"Done," Fred suddenly shouted, grabbing her hand awkwardly from behind and shaking it firmly. "One sickle it is."

Alice crossed her fingers tightly inside her pocket where no one could see. She had always wanted Cedric to win the task, and the Tournament itself of course, and now she had double the reason. She wasn't sure why she wanted him to win more though, to prove Fred wrong or because she just really liked him. Cedric, of course.

She needn't have worried however. As they all watched with bated breath the Hufflepuff champion turned his wand, not on the dragon as Fleur had done, but on the boulder he was sheltering behind. A few muffled words later and rather than a lump of rock between himself and the dragon there was a jumping, yelping, Labrador. For a moment both the dog and the dragon seemed to freeze as they caught sight of each other, each as surprised as the other, before suddenly the dog took off to the far side of the vast stadium. As Cedric had clearly been hoping for the dragon gave an eager snarl and took off after its latest prey. Alice quickly lost sight of the smaller animal as the dog scampered between the hulking boulders that peppered the arena and the dragon spread its vast wings and soared as high as the chains binding it to the ground would allow. She wasn't really paying attention though as, like everyone else in the stadium her eyes were fixed on Cedric, now running at full pelt towards the unguarded eggs and his prize. The noise around her was deafening and it wasn't until she felt her throat scrape roughly that she realised she was hollering along with everyone else.

Cedric had almost reached the pile of eggs when suddenly the dragon banked sharply to one side, twisting around quickly within the narrow confines of the stadium and speeding back towards Cedric who made a frantic dive for the eggs. Rolling he was up and running before Alice realised that he had a large golden object tucked under one arm. He had it! Unfortunately the dragon was still hot on his tail, smoke pluming ominously from its nostrils as it streaked after the sixth year. As Cedric leapt behind a particularly large boulder the dragon handlers were suddenly on the scene again, spells flying in every direction and enchanted chains appearing from thin air to wrap around the creature dragging it back into the dragon enclosure and out of sight as the wooden fence unfurled itself again. Its indignant bellows were drowned out by the sound of the Hogwarts students' applause as Cedric clambered onto the rock and lifted the egg high above his head for all to see.

"Do you suppose it's alright?" Hermione shouted, looking worried.

"Who cares?" Ron responded. "That was brilliant!"

Alice gave her friend a reassuring hug, but she couldn't stop grinning herself. Cedric had made it and… suddenly she remembered something. Twisting round in her seat she held out her hand to a disgruntled looking Fred behind her. "One sickle, please."

Neither twin looked happy, but Fred looked as grumpy as she had ever seen him as he rummaged in his pocket for the coin. His normally cheerful face was stretched into an ugly frown and Alice felt her own smile falter as she took in his reaction. The only thing she had ever seen him get this angry over was his mother. Perhaps his joking comments about Cedric hadn't been jokes after all, but that still didn't explain why he disliked the boy, or his current reaction for that matter. Surely he hadn't wanted Cedric to get hurt?

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Fred attempted to rearrange his face into something resembling a smile and managed a poor job of it.

As he dropped the silver coin into her hand she almost considered handing it back and telling him to forget about it. She probably would have if he hadn't tacked on one last vindictive sentence.

"There's still two more tasks for him to get squished in anyway."

Alice gave him a long level look, before her hand closed slowly around the coin and she turned back to the arena. What on earth was Fred so riled up about? She knew he disliked Cedric because of his role in the Gryffindor Quidditch team's loss last year, but he seemed to objet to him on a personal level too. If she didn't know better she might have thought it was because Cedric was academically successful and Fred wasn't, but she knew that Fred had the brains to get as many O.W.L.'s as he put his mind to, he simply chose to invest his time elsewhere. And it wasn't as though the Weasley twins weren't popular. Fred usually needed a good reason to dislike someone, unless they were a Slytherin and then he just despised them on principle, so the fact that Cedric was perhaps a tad more serious than Ron's brothers was unlikely to have much to do with it. She just couldn't understand it. Why were boys always so completely unfathomable?

By the time she was paying attention again. Krum was already in the arena and facing off to the Chinese Fireball that had appeared. It seemed larger than the others though that was probably an optical illusion created by the fact it was so violently red in colour. This particular show down turned out to be much less impressive than the others however. Once he was close enough Krum fired some sort of spell straight into the creature's eye, which although succeeded in blinding it, also meant that it trampled around in pain for five minutes. Smashing most of the eggs to bits before Krum could scoop out the golden egg and nearly turning him into a deliciously soupy mess along with it. As they had with Cedric earlier the dragon handlers scrambled to restrain the Chinese Fireball before it damaged more than eggs in its pain-maddened rage.

After that there was a lull before the judges revealed their scores. Cedric, rather predictably seeing as he was the only one not have been burned, scorched or almost trampled, came out on top with forty-one points. At that point Alice thought the crowd were going to scream themselves hoarse and she felt a little sorry for Fleur who had received a perfectly adequate although much less enthusiastic cheer for her well-deserved thirty-six points. Ludo Bagman had to fire off several loud bangs from his wand to bring the noise level back under control again and allow the judges to award Krum thirty-seven points.

"I don't understand why he got more points than Fleur did though," Hermione opined as they made their way back up to the castle some time later. "I mean alright her robes caught fire, but she put it out and managed not to get burnt herself. Krum managed to scramble half his eggs and was nearly flattened!"

"There's only one point of a difference," Alice tried to console her, "so perhaps they'll make it up on the next task."

"Well I think that they all deserved fifty points," Harry asserted slinging an arm around Hermione's shoulders as they walked. "You wouldn't catch me facing down a dragon that's for sure!"

"I could ask Charlie to let us see them if you like?" Ron offered suddenly. "They brought him across from Romania to deal with them especially. I haven't seen him yet, but I'm sure if I asked he would say yes."

"Alright," Harry looked excitably at Alice for her reaction and she nodded. Norbert had been all well and good when they were in first year, but he had only been little and it would be exciting to see a fully grown dragon close up, not to mention educationally valuable too.

Surprisingly Hermione didn't share this view. "Well you can count me out anyway."

"Why? Don't you want to see a dragon in the flesh - or scales?" Haary looked perplexed by his girlfriend's response. Alice suspected that she was the only one who saw Neville shaking his head violently in answer to the question too. She caught his eye and smiled.

"No. I had quite enough with Norbert in first year thank you very much and I have no desire to go -"

An ear splitting roar drowned out the rest of Hermione's sentence and several people nearby screamed. As one the five friends spun around to see what had caused the commotion. They had heard the dragons both before and during the first task, but there was something different about the noise they made now, truly enraged and much louder than it should have been. Of course the minute they faced the enclosure the why of the matter became evident. All three dragons had risen into the air above the stadium, wings flapping in great gusts of wind that buffeted the nearby trees, snapping ferociously at each others necks and any other exposed parts they could get their teeth near. More worrisome than this however and the thing that made Alice's heart suddenly freeze inside her chest was the fact that, as far as she could tell, none of the three dragons were chained up anymore.

"Have they -?"

"Are those -?"

"Oh Merlin." Hermione let out a little whimper.

Everyone seemed to be transfixed, riveted by the sight of three fully grown and extremely deadly dragons rising into the air by the Forbidden Forest in a flurry of whirling scales and teeth. Of course the spell was broken the instant the first dragon broke away with a triumphant, bugling cry.

"Run!" Harry yelled, grabbing Hermione's hand and streaking towards the castle. Around them students and visitors alike were doing the same thing, pelting desperately towards the safety of the castle which was still too far away for Alice's liking. Important questions like how in the name of Merlin the dragons had managed to escape could keep for later, right now they just had to get out of the path of three enormous, extremely irritable, fire-breathing lizards.

As everybody ran towards Hogwarts she caught sight of teachers streaking in the opposite direction, wands raised and shouting to the students fleeing past them to get out of the way. Alice wandered what else they thought they were trying to do? They were almost at the castle when screams and shouts broke out again followed by an ominous crackling sound. Glancing back Alice felt as though her stomach stopped in mid air as she stumbled forward another few places. Giant sprays of flame were licking across the lawn as the dragons soared over the mob of people frantically struggling to get away from them. Some had broken away from the main group and were trying to get back to the shelter offered to them by the arena whilst the teachers and dragon handlers were all firing spells towards the creatures as quickly as they knew how. Alice thought she could see Professor McGonagall, her hat lost somewhere amongst the melee, shoulder to shoulder with Professor Kreevain, but her glimpse was too fleeting to be sure.

"Alice, come on!" Harry had run back and was tugging at her arm, the others now sprinting up the castle steps three at a time. Turning back Alice was about to follow him when out of the corner of her eye she saw two students, first years by the look of them, standing stock still about fifty yards back. One seemed to be hauling frantically on the others robes with little effect. Both were right in the path of the oncoming dragons.

"Alice!" Harry repeated as he was buffeted sideways by the terrified students swarming past them. The fear in the air was infectious and Alice could see he was fighting down the panic in his eyes. Seeing where she was looking he followed her gaze and after a moment let out a wordless, frustrated snarl before the two of them took off towards the students without another sound.

Getting closer Alice could see that they were girls, Hufflepuffs, and neither of them could have been taller than Colin Creevey was when he had started at Hogwarts. One, a pale girl with brown pigtails and tears coursing down her cheeks was dragging at her friend's arm, but didn't have the strength to budge even her tiny form.

"Astrid," Alice could hear her wailing as they got closer, "Astrid, come on! Please! We need to move!" Her friend, Astrid, didn't seem to be able to hear her. Wide, dark eyes were pinned on the dragons, the fear in them seemed to have overwhelmed her, consumed her ability to reason and stripped her of the facility to move anything other than her knees which Alice could see knocking together through her robes.

Running up to them she skidded to a halt with Harry hot on her heels. "Come on, you two need to move. Now!"

"It's Astrid," the girl with the pigtails sobbed as she turned to look imploringly at them. "I think she's in shock or something. I can't get her to move!"

"Astrid," Harry waved a hand in front of the little girl's unresponsive face as he cast an anxious glance towards the rampaging dragons, one of them seemed to have been brought down, but two was more than enough to wreak considerable damage. He looked up at his sister. "Help me get her arms around my neck." Alice quickly obliged as Harry stooped to ensure the girl's weight was being carried across his shoulders.

"Have you got her?" She asked watching her brother take a few stumbling steps. Astrid seemed not to have registered what was going on yet although as Alice watched her skinny arms did seem to tighten slightly around Harry's neck.

"Yes," her brother nodded after a moment looking slightly firmer on his feet.

"Alright," Alice grasped the other little girl's hand. "Come on, let's get out of here."

By now they were at the back of the group of students clamouring to get into the school, but with Harry and Alice hurrying them all on it wasn't long before their party reached the bottle-neck that seemed to have developed around the front doors. "Here," Harry swung Astrid down from around his shoulders and pushed her ahead of him into the throng, she seemed to have come to her senses and as Alice shoved her friend after her, the two girls clung to each other as they disappeared into the press of people.

Alice felt a hand slip into hers and drag her closer to the doors. She looked up into Harry's face and began pressing forwards after them. At last everyone seemed to be inside and Alice collapsed onto the floor of the Entrance Hall beside a suit of armour, trying to catch her breath along with everyone else. As they regained their breath a group of prefects struggled to close one of the enormous front doors, leaving the other slightly ajar for any stragglers.

"Harry!" Hermione suddenly burst through the crowd, closely followed by Ron, Neville, Ginny who had materialised from somewhere, and Luna who looked as though she had wandered across by accident. Hermione dropped down beside her boyfriend. "Are you two alright?" She directed her question towards Alice, "where did you disappear to?"

"Alice - Alice decided we needed to go and rescue some first years," Harry's breathing gradually began to regain a normal rhythm. As he began relating what had happened Alice slowly got to her feet and moved towards one of the huge windows lining the outer wall and slipped into a gap in the crowd that had gathered around it. Standing on tiptoe she could see a group of teachers and handlers attempting to force the Chinese Fireball to the ground, chains dangled from its ankles and the adults seemed to be winning the fight, but it was slow going. The last of the dragons was still circling over the lawn occasionally snorting a provocative jet of flame towards its pursuers far below.

"Hey, Evans!"

Alice turned in time to see the Weasley twins striding towards her, relief written evidently across their faces and all traces of Fred's earlier foul mood vanished.

"Are you alright?" He asked as they both attempted to ruffle her already dishevelled hair and she ducked just in time.

"Where is everyone else?" George asked, peering around the Entrance Hall. "We lost sight of you in all the excitement."

"They're over there with Ginny and Luna," she gestured towards the far wall where she had left her friends only moments before. "Everyone is fine. Was anybody else hurt?"

"Not that I could see," Fred answered now looking back out of the window towards the dragon. The Welsh Green had now decided to take a break from taunting the adults and was resting precariously atop the Forbidden Forest. From the little Alice could make out at this distance it looked as though it had nearly flattened quite a few trees in its attempts to roost there. "Just a few scraped knees trying to climb the stairs and a few bruised egos."

Alice glanced curiously at this last statement. Fred chuckled.

"Evans seems curious George. Should we indulge this curiosity?"

"Hmmm… I don't know Fred, after all curiosity did kill the cat."

"It's just as well I'm not a cat then isn't it?"

"True," Fred grinned, "but taunting you is so much more fun!"

"You know you're going to tell me eventually," Alice pointed out, "so why don't we just skip to the part where you do and then this conversation will get along that much more quickly?"

"Spoilsport," Fred muttered.

George on the other hand seemed much more inclined to tell her whatever it was. "Well apparently - and you must bear in mind that neither my brother nor myself saw this with our own eyes and so could not be called upon to testify as to the veracity of this -"

"- though our source was very good," interjected Fred.

"Indeed. So we have good reason to believe that a certain blonde Slytherin individual in your year, whose name bears a certain resemblance to Shmalfoy, was spotted fleeing towards the castle at very high speed followed by two rather large friends of his. And if he did trip up on his robes and go flying into a group of second years then it would be purely speculation on our part to repeat it."

Alice laughed, wishing she had been there to see Malfoy's embarrassment. How typical of him to be so cowardly despite all his bluster and tendency to throw his weight around. She couldn't wait to tell Harry and the others.

"Anyway, we heard that you and Harry were being quite the heroes? Rescuing Huffelpuffs in distress or something?"

Alice sighed and began to retell the story.

As it turned out it took quite a while for the last of the dragon's to be caught again. She wasn't sure how the teachers managed to do it, but whatever it was it brought the creature to ground with such a massive thud that the ground shook beneath them as they sat in the Great Hall. Once everyone had managed to get inside the panic that had swept through the students had diminished markedly and everyone had slowly filtered through to the Great Hall, sprawling across benches and tables and waiting patiently for the latest Hogwarts drama to be over. There had been a brief flurry of applause as the champions had come in to sit with their respective groups, but no one was really in the party mood so the celebrations would undoubtedly keep until later. The question on everyone's lips was how the dragons had managed to escape in the first place. No one in their right mind would free three enormous dragons deliberately, but it was also equally unlikely that the creatures had managed to rip free of their chains by themselves. Most optimistic individuals had opted for believing that it had all been an accident and someone had left the chains improperly secured. Alice and her friends were less than convinced, although she couldn't help wondering how much this had to do with their penchant for seeing conspiracy theories at every turn. Harry had decided the Slytherins were to blame, but as they had even less evidence than they usually did when accusing them of something Hermione had promptly sat on this idea until such time as they knew more about what had happened. In the end they had opted for a more light-hearted conversation.

"Can't I go across and rub his face in it just a little?" Ron whined staring across at Malfoy as he lounged imperiously over at the Slytherin table.

"No," Hermione and Alice responded for the third time.

"Not even just a teensy bit?" He asked hopefully.

Harry chuckled. "Look, I'm with you mate. I'd love to go and rub his nose in it, but I've had enough excitement for one day, even if it is Malfoy."

"Wow, Harry," Ginny chuckled, "I think you might be growing up!"

Further speculation on whether or not they should go and irritate Malfoy for their own amusement was cut short by the sound of footsteps in the Entrance Hall. Almost instantly every single conversation in the Great Hall cut off as one, it was rather eerie really, and every pair of eyes trained on the door. Slowly Professor Dumbledore, followed by the heads of houses, walked into the room. With the exception of the Headmaster each and every one of them looked dishevelled. Professor Sprout's hat still seemed to be smoking gently, McGonagall's hair was trailing loose from her usually severe bun making her look like an entirely different person, Professor Flitwick's eyebrows appeared to be singed and Snape looked generally rumpled and irritable. Alice tried to see if his robes were at all charred or burnt, but the deep black colour made it too difficult to tell. A tiny, vindictive part of her which she tried to squash promptly hoped that they were. For a moment the teachers surveyed the students staring back at them and behind them Alice could see some of the other members of staff filing up the stairs along with some of the students she assumed had taken shelter in the arena. All of them were being fussed over by Madam Pomfrey as they went.

"You will all be pleased to know," Dumbledore began, "that the dragons are now back in their proper places and the handlers will be making sure they leave the school grounds as soon as is possible. I am relieved to be able to tell you that no one was too seriously hurt in helping to round them up. Now," he paused and his twinkling eyes swept the room, "I would like to thank the prefects for making sure all of the students got back inside the school safely. Under the circumstances I think it would be best if you all returned now to your dormitories for the evening; the feast to celebrate the first task will be postponed until tomorrow night. We will arrange for dinner to be served to you all in your common rooms. If anyone does need Madam Pomfrey's attention I would suggest you make your way to the Hospital Wing." With a last smile at his students, and appearing entirely unfazed by the whole situation, Dumbledore turned and led his teachers back out of the Hall again.

"Right," Harry got to his feet and stretched, "I suppose we had better get a move on them."

"Definitely," bouncing eagerly to his feet Ron took off quickly towards the door, "they said there would be food!"

The others glanced at each other for a moment and chuckled. It was nice to know nothing deterred Ron from the call of his stomach for long.

A/N: Massive apologies for having not posted anything in an age! I've been preoccupied with so many other things and had a couple of other writing projects to do which had actual deadlines, so this one just got shuffled to the bottom of the pile. I'll try and post a few more chapters soon. Hope everyone enjoys; please R&R!

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