Chapter 26

Hundreds of faces stared down at Harry from the stands surrounding the enclosure.

With a flourish, he gave an exaggerated bow to the crowd, earning a mix of cheers and laughter.

He followed it up with a playful wink toward the familiar faces he spotted Hermione, who rolled her eyes in exasperation, and Parvati and Lavender, who, for some reason, looked unusually worried.

They pointed urgently toward the other end of the arena, drawing his attention.

He knew where the Horntail was.

A monstrous yellow-eyed, leathery black lizard with a pair of massive wings couldn't be really overlooked. It really hurt his pride how they were looking down at him.

Harry froze for a moment. Pride?

Considering his past personality, wasn't he acting atypical for himself?

Sure the Horntail wasn't a threat to him, but he never had been one to showboat, no matter what Snape was always saying.

Neither would he look down on the other contestants or outright mock them with his act.

Had his transformation to a devil affected him mentally? Or was it absorbing Ddraig, turning his soul into a dragon's soul? Dragons are prideful creatures.

Thinking back about his other interactions, he clearly had changed.

How he flirts around with the girls in the school, taking some closer looks when the chance offers itself, could be both attributed to dragons and devils, who have lustful traits.

And the anger he felt when someone else was staring at Hermione, or even recently Parvati and Lavender. Or the pettiness towards Cedric, just because of something that hadn't even happened yet.

It had affected him!

There are side effects to his Nen ability.

This wasn't how he had been.

"After his confident entrance, did our fourth and youngest Champion freeze up at the sight of his dragon? Did all his confidence leave him? If he doesn't start soon, he will run out of time!" Shouted the boisterous voice of Bagman over the crowd of students.

'Freeze?' Harry thought annoyed as he stepped towards the Horntail, 'Let's see, how should we do that? You know what? Let's embarrass the organizers.'

Still out of range, Harry's aura shaped into an arm; this was one of the abilities he had gained in the Heaven's Arena.

Sadaso's original Aura Arm had been restricted to being a replacement for the arm he had lost, sure a bit larger than his normal one, but the range was still limited to its shape.

Harry, after transforming, had easily improved this simple ability; he never had to lose an arm to use it, but now he could change shape and range as much as he liked while it wasn't beyond his aura capacity. Neither was he limited to one arm.

His Auror arm stretched out and flew by the Hungarian Horntail, which had its gaze still on him. It looked angry, but at the same time Harry could notice something else in its eyes: fear.

Then it clicked; the Horntail felt his Draconic presence.

While it wasn't on the level of a Heavenly Dragon, with having only absorbed 25% of the Souls power and lacking Ddraig's body, it still is far more powerful than the Horntails.

After all, the Dragons in the Wizarding World are just low-level Dragons, intelligent Beasts with a bit of Draconic Bloodline. Still incapable of speech like high-level dragons.

Harry just smiled at it as he put his wand into the air.

"Here it comes!" Shouted Bagman, "Finally Harry makes his move; it looks like he is trying to summon the egg, but it won't work. The judges have placed protections on the—huh?"

"ACCIO GOLDEN EGG!" Harry shouted as he moved the Egg with his Aura Arm towards himself.

"Did you make a mistake, Dumbledore?" Bagman asked in confusion, now a bit quieter but the Sonorus still active, "Oh, Kakaroff decided to place the spell for the other champions! Mistakes happen, Headmaster Kakaroff."

Kakaroff was shouting something at Bagman as he looked angry at the other judge, probably because he was made to look like a fool.

Well, he placed the anti-summoning charms and everything correctly; just no one knows that.

"That's it! Harry Potter has gotten his egg by simply trying the most obvious solution! At least he didn't choose to blow up the arena! Bagman shouted towards the crowd, "He even used the shortest amount of time, even while he stood there for a few minutes doing nothing!"

Harry, with his golden egg under his arm, saw the dragon keeper placed all around the arena, rush towards the Horntail, who still just stared warily at Harry. Maybe he could have just walked by and grabbed the egg?

Probably not; even in front of a more powerful dragon, a maternal one would fight to the death to protect her young ones. It's their instinct.

"This was unexpected, Potter! You were lucky that Kakaroff was so incompetent." Professor McGonagall said, now far more relaxed than before as he approached the edge of the arena, "I hope you had some other plans?"

"Yep, but I felt like trying a simple summoning charm wouldn't hurt. And it worked." Harry shrugged his shoulders.

"Good… good." She sighed, "You'll need to see Madam Pomfrey before the judges give out your score. … Over there, she's had to mop up Diggory already. …"

Passing the Hogwarts staff congratulating him, like a happy Hagrid, Harry was led towards the first aid tent by Professor McGonall.

As he got pushed inside, he could already hear Madam Pomfrey complain, as she seemed busy, "Dragons!"

The inside was separated into cubicles, where he could see Madam Pomfrey busy working on Cedric from behind the canvas. He even could smell a bit of burnt flesh; well, he was alive at least.

Being behind on points would mean he had no chance of getting to the Cup first and taking the Portkey accidentally. Not that Harry was planning to give him the chance in the first place.

"Potter, get to one of the beds," Madam Pomfrey instructed, barely glancing up from her work as she pointed him in the right direction. "I'll be with you shortly. I need to apply the burn-healing paste for Diggory first—it just arrived, and the longer we wait, the less effective it becomes."

It took about 5 minutes before Pomfrey arrived, giving Harry a quick check-up:

"At least one of you hasn't been burned or hurt worse." She sighed in relief as she couldn't find anything wrong with Harry. "Last year dementors, this year dragons, what are they going to bring into this school next?"

"Maybe Giants?"

Madam Pomfrey didn't look amused as she gave him a stare. "I don't know how you build up so much muscle mass in such a short time, but I can't see anything wrong with you, besides a small potion overusage. You should abstain from using more potions for a few months, or it could turn into a poisoning. You wouldn't enjoy a flushing potion." She added as she had seemingly checked more up on him. Probably on Dumbledore's request.

Well, the opinion of a medical professional always helped; after all, he had no idea what the long-term effects of potions were. "There are flushing potions?"

"Yes, but they are unpleasant. They make you release grime and impurities all over your body for a few days and leave some damage on your tissue because of the forceful process. Such potions should be only a last resort, since the body can solve the problem itself." Pomfrey explained as she had finished the checkup, "You can go and get your score."

"Okay, I will keep that in mind. Thank you, Madam Pomfrey." Harry smiled as he stood up from his bed.

But before he left the tent, three people came inside and caught him in a crushing hug. "Harry, you were brilliant! It was so smart of you to check up on the simplest solution first!" Hermione said in excitement, as Lavender and Parvati nodded beside her.

They checked him up and down for any injuries; suddenly all three of them began to blush.

Harry looked down, only to realize that he was shirtless, from Pomfrey's checkup, his defined abs on full display for the world. The three girls weren't the only ones staring at him; Fleur was also checking him out from inside her cubicle.

"I should put on a shirt before I get my shirt." Harry chuckled as he summoned his clothes wandlessly from his cubicle.

Before Harry could put his shirt on, he could feel how Lavender was feeling his muscles, under Hermione's red face, "Lavender!"

This was the moment a white-faced Ron entered the tent and froze.

For a moment he stared at the situation in front of him, Harry with three girls so close to him. His face turned from white to purple, now a grimace on it. Without saying anything, he turned around and left.

"Well, that was something." Harry muttered as he noticed Lavender was still caressing his muscles, "Something you like?"

At these words, Lavender woke up, and her face took on a similar shade as Hermione's, "Y-yes." She stammered.

Hermione had stopped blushing since Ron had left and only looked sadly at the tent entrance.

"Forget it, Hermione." Harry said calmly as he put a hand on her head, patting her, "He won't overcome his insecurities, and it isn't worth it. Ron has to realize for himself what is important in life. That's nothing we can help him with. I prefer the version of you that doesn't argue the whole time with him."

"But…" Hermione tried to say, before sighing, "You are right. We argued a lot, didn't we?"

"You have no idea. Now let me put on my shirt; I need to get my score. Harry laughed as the girls took a last look at his upper body.

As he left the tent accompanied by Hermione, Parvati, and Lavender, the bushy-haired girl asked, "What did Bagman mean, that it was good you didn't blow up the arena?"

"Oh, I told him my original plan was to place a runic spell on the arena to blow it up with the dragon inside."

"Was it?" Parvati asked with a grin on her cute face.

"Nope, just a joke." Harry laughed as Hermione sighed in exasperation.

They arrived at where the 5 judges were, and Harry would get his marks, up to 10 points from each judge.

"Mr. Potter It's time for your score. But some of the judges wish to inquire with you about your task first." Bagman said as he spotted Harry.

"Sure, ask away."

It was Dumbledore who spoke up, "Harry, my boy, what did you use to bypass the Anti-Summoning Charm?"

"Ah, Albie, my friend!" Harry said while the others looked strangely at him.

"Harry, I am your Headmaster! You shouldn't address me in such a casual manner!" Dumbledore warned with a stern look.

"And I am your student! Are you addressing all your students by their first name so casually?" Harry asked back, not intimidated at all.

"Mr. Potter it is." Dumbledore conceded, not wanting such an argument in public,

"Could you please answer our question?"

"Sure." Harry nodded, "I used Magic."

Everyone looked at him strangely, some in exasperation, others wondering whether he was serious, and some even angry.

"Are you mocking us, boy? I placed the Anti-Summoning Charm myself. What kind of spell did you use to bypass it?" Kakaroff asked in loud anger, pointing his finger at him.

"Oh, why didn't you just say so!" Harry replied, his tone suddenly light as if he'd had a sudden epiphany. Pulling out his wand, he demonstrated with a casual flick. "By moving my wand like this and shouting, 'Accio Golden Egg,' I used the Summoning Charm. It's a fourth-year spell at Hogwarts, Headmaster Karkaroff. If your school doesn't even teach that, I'm starting to wonder if you're really qualified to be part of this tournament."

Kakaroff's face turned an unhealthy shade of purple, as there were quite a few chuckles all around the stand.

Before he could say anything else, Dumbledore interjected again, "Ha—Mr. Potter, we know which charm you used. Our concern is that it shouldn't have worked, and we wish to clarify how exactly you did it."

"But it worked. You all were there and saw it." Harry pointed out.

Before this could continue, Mr. Crouch interrupted, "This is getting nowhere. Let's give our score."

Madame Maxime was the first one who gave him a score. Harry was certain she would have given him a lower score if he hadn't mocked Kakaroff in front of everyone.

Followed by the imperious Crouch, who also gave him a 9.

Dumbledore gave him an 8. Bagman a 10.

Lastly came Kakaroff, who raised his wand into the air and gave him a 4.

At that Harry loudly said, "How sad; some people need to compensate for their own incompetence by judging unfairly."

Which turned the purple on Kakaroff's face even more unhealthy, reminding him of Uncle Vernon when someone was talking about magic.

( End of Chapter )

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