Chapter 587: The Dragon and Krum's Performance

Before Bagman could say how he was going to help Ron, Ivan, Harry and Hermione emerged from the bushes.

After separating from Ron, Ivan and the other five followed Professor McGonagall into the auditorium.

After asking Colin to take a seat for them, Ivan, Harry and Hermione slipped into the tent.

They had planned to wait until no one was inside to find a way in. Little did they know that when they were there, they would see Bagman pulling Ron out.

"Why are you here?" said Bagman with surprise.

The next second, before they could explain, a whistle had blown somewhere on the floor.

"My God, I have to run!" said Bagman in alarm, and hurried out, no longer concerned about them.

"What did he ask you to come out for?" said Hermione, looking skeptically at Bagman's back.

"He wanted to help me and was willing to give me advice. Before he said anything, you interrupted him." replied Ron.

"You can pass the task as long as you follow the battle plan, and you don't need any other help!" said Ivan. "It's not a glorious thing. The fewer people you know, the better. By the way, what kind of fire dragon did you take out?"

"The Chinese fireball!" said Ron quickly and looked at Ivan eagerly. "Do you have any fire protection potion against it?".

The Chinese Fireball was the only Oriental dragon in the group, also known as the Lion Dragon, originally from China.

It has a particularly striking appearance. Scarlet and smooth-scaled, it has a fringe of golden spikes around its snub-nosed face and extremely protruding eyes.

The Fireball owes its name to the mushroom-shaped flame that erupts from its nostrils when it gets angry. This is its most powerful attack.

The female fireball is much larger than the male. She is aggressive, but tolerant, and sometimes accepts to share her territory with up to two others.

Especially with the help of Ivan's potion, Ron didn't have to worry about her fire attack.

Relatively speaking, it was much less difficult than the more dangerous Hungarian Horntail that Harry had taken out in the original book.

Ivan pulled out the potion to protect himself from the flame of the Chinese Fireball and handed it to Ron. The three of them said a few words of reassurance before turning back to the audience.

By this time, the audience was full of people, and all the young wizards were shouting and screaming.

The five judges, Dumbledore, Mr. Crouch, Madame Maxime, Karkaroff and Ludo Bagman, sat in the middle height chair.

Then, Ivan spotted Sirius in the crowd. He was at the referee's table, waving to them.

"That's strange, why Bagman offered to help Ron," Harry said, waving to Sirius. "No reason, he's a judge..."

"Probably for personal reasons!"

"Don't worry about him. I wish Ron success!" said Hermione worriedly, looking at the center of the pitch.

Krum had emerged from the tent, and in front of him was the silver-blue Swedish Snout.

This dragon is the most attractive of all the dragons. It is silver-blue in color and can shoot a bright blue flame from its nostrils.

But beyond this beauty, it has a heartbreaking strength. The blue flame is hot enough to reduce wood and bone to ashes in a matter of seconds.

In the Middle Ages, the skin of the Swedish Snout was highly coveted for the manufacture of protective gloves and shields, and dragon skin products were the main equipment of all adventurers and magicians.

Because of its high value, many people tried to kill the dragon.

The vast majority of dragon slayers eventually died, and their skeletons were left forever in the mountains of northern Sweden.

The Swedish dragon is one of the most dangerous species in the world due to its agile flight and extremely hot fire, both for attacking and defending itself.

"Look at Krum, what is he doing!"

Krum came out of the tent and ran straight for the Swedish Snout at the other end of the field.

The Snouty Snout crouched down, protecting his nest of eggs, and his terrible eyes locked on Krum, who was approaching.

It let out a shrill roar, warning Krum to stay away and flapping its wings.

Krum didn't seem to see it. He ran forward sideways and got very close to the dragon.

In the next second, the Short Snout snorted and sprayed a blue flame, and Krum hurried to hide behind the stone.

The flame brushed him, dangerous and threatening, and all the young wizards focused on Krum.

Even in the crowd, which was far away, they could feel the hot temperature.

The blue flame of the Snout was continuous in nature, and it swayed back and forth where Krum was hiding.

As the rocks melted in the heat, it was no good for Krum to still be hiding there.

I was finished. Everyone had that idea in their heads.

Just as the dragon keepers were about to run to save Krum, the flame shot by the Snout gradually stopped. It was breathing, and Krum took the opportunity to run away.

The wand in his hand was pointed at the Snout, and a spell flew out and hit the dragon in the eyes.

It was the conjunctivitis curse!!!!!

The Snoutlet let out a terrible roar, which broke the ice, and everyone in attendance took a deep breath.

"Very bold, Krum has shown extraordinary courage!" shouted Bagman. "The dragon can't see anything, now...hold on, oh no!"

They watched as the Snout struggled wildly in pain, stomping his feet and crushing half the eggs behind him.

Krum's Conjunctivitis Curse was so powerful that the Swedish Snout lost his sight and felt pain.

Ten seconds later, Krum dodged this monster's aimless attack and grabbed the golden egg from the nest behind it.

The forty-plus dragon keepers standing by rushed to calm the mad dragon.

"He did a good job!" commented Ivan objectively, "Ron should have seen it. The Conjunctivitis Curse Krum used is exemplary. It was very good both in position and timing and was worthy of study. Ron only needs to be half as good as him and he can easily get past the dragon."

"Krum is really good, but his score is definitely not high. He broke half of the real eggs. He'll get points taken off for that. He wasn't supposed to do them any harm." Hermione said, directing everyone to see Hagrid, who was in the center of the enclosure.

Hagrid was helping Charlie and other dragon keepers save what they could from the dragon eggs with a look of distress on his face.

Indeed, for Krum's performance, with the exception of Karkaroff who gave full marks, the other four judges only gave between eight and nine points as their assessment.