chapter 41

Hope crouched down and brought her sword above her head calling out, "Scutum!" creating an invisible barrier between the Dragon Fire and herself. The powerful burst of fire thudded loudly against Hope's magical barrier, the audience gasped in fear while others cheered. Hope was bracing herself against the ground furrowing her brows in strain as she didn't expect the fire to be this powerful.

The Hungarian Horntail finally relented her attack and growled again as she reached down to destroy the chain that was restraining her foot, stopping her from flying. As the Dragon was prepared to fly off and potentially attack the crowd she watched as the flames surrounding the girl she attacked died down with a spell, "Adiuuatur." Revealing an unscorched girl staring back at her with a sword in her hand.

The Dragon roared in anger as she stretched out her wings and rose into the air while spitting more fire at the girl.

Hope saw the next stream of fire coming straight to her, but the last breath of fire took more out of her than she was expecting and she raised her left hand towards a large boulder off to the side. She closed her fist causing the boulder to levitate and she yanked her closed fist to her own body.

The boulder shot off with immense speed towards Hope, the Tribrid moved about 5 steps back and when the boulder passed in front of the girl she struck her left hand out, stopping the rock dead in its tracks just as the Dragon Fire struck the rock with incredible impact.

"Jesus Christ! This is one pissed off Dragon!" Hope gritted out in annoyance.

There were loud scratching noises coming from above Hope as the Hungarian Horntail landed on the stone shield Hope was using to protect herself. Hope looked up and saw a swiping claw coming right at her.

Lady Emrys leapt back quickly and threw herself down on the ground as the claw passed right overhead and embedded her front claw into the stone ground with debris shooting off into every direction at the powerful strike.

Hope finished her back roll and stood up with graceful ease but eyes wide. "Damn. I swear to God that Dragons are not supposed to be this angry!" The Dragon pulled her fist out of the ground, clenching then releasing the pressure with a growl as she glared at the girl.

Hope's mouth opened in shock as she saw fiery lines shoot across the black abyss of the Dragon's eyes.

"Something's wrong." Hope murmured just as she was backhanded by the Dragon.

The force of the hit had Hope flying back until her back slammed into the magical barrier surrounding the arena with a terrible thud. Hope landed on the ground with a grunt as she managed to bring her legs under herself so she wouldn't faceplant into the ground.

"Ow." Hope groaned, tightening her grip on her weapon as she raised her eyes to see the Dragon stomp her way over to her prey.

There was a loud crunch that brought Hope's sea blue eyes down to the Hungarian Horntail's nest that had been destroyed by the Mothering Dragon's hind leg as the large reptile made her way to Hope.

Hope's eyes widened in shock at the destruction of the unborn hatchlings as a Mothering Dragon would never have killed her own hatchlings, not even if they were enraged.

Hope placed her sword back in front of her and yelled, "Scutum!" Again erecting another barrier just in time to stop the next stream of Dragon Fire coming at her in close range.

'Love! Someone has fucked with this Dragon! It seems awfully set on killing me!' Hope shouted out mentally in fear as she gritted her teeth as she leaned against the magical barrier in support but instead it zapped her.

"Ouch! What the hell?" Hope cried out with a glare facing the magical barrier behind her.

'The barrier around the arena also shocked me… Do you know what's going on?' Hope called out to Daphne.

Hope frowned in contempt as there was no reply from her Mate before glaring at the barrier behind her again.

"Fucking hell! I am killing whoever fucked with the barrier and the Dragon when I get out of here!" Hope yelled in anger over the roaring flames surrounding her. "And where the fuck is that Golden Egg so I can leave this God damned Task!"

Hope gathered her energy in her left hand before facing it at the Dragon calling out, "Ventus." As she dropped her own protective barrier.

Gale-force winds erupted from Hope's left hand as the wind torrent spell Hope learnt from her aunt Freya slammed into the Dragon's Fire. The two powerful elements struck against each other with tremendous force and started to create sparks of lightning to spread out from the epicenter of the collision.

Hope gritted her teeth and called out, "Glacius obscuro." Hope slammed her sword into the ground activating the spell.

Ice spread out from the sword encasing the ground in ice and frost began to coat the air, a misty haze surrounded the arena, obscuring the area so no one could see into the arena causing the crowd to groan in disappointment.

Hope shook her head in anger as she ditched that blade stuck in the stone before drawing another from her other shoulder and tossing it to her more dominant hand. "Screw this shit!" Hope ran to the other side of the arena with her super speed and avoided the mass amounts of fire. Hope was shocked to see that her ice spell was slowly dissipating due to the immense heat being emitted from the Dragon.

"How the hell is she doing that?" Hope questioned to herself with a furrowed brow.

Hope blinked through the thin mist as she tried to come up with another plan that didn't involve the Death Spell she used on the previous Dragon from her world. She decided to give Harry's idea a go considering that this was not what she was expecting at all.

"Myrddin!" Hope waited for a moment before calling out, "Alexandria!"

"Well shit." Hope mumbled to herself after waiting a couple of seconds before closing her eyes to recall the information she had on Dragons.

Hope had read through a few books on Dragons but she didn't think that she would've had any problems battling the Dragon so she hadn't actively been looking into a specific Dragon's weaknesses.

She only had the general information and weaknesses. Basically that Nesting Mothers were overly protective, which didn't apply to this Mother Dragon for some reason and that all Dragons go into hibernation under extreme cold weather, yet again something that this Dragon doesn't want to do.

"Obvious answer. The Dragon is infected by something terrible. But what?" Hope questioned aloud as she paced.

Hope let out a groan of frustration as the Dragon hissed out more fire from her mouth, thawing out the rest of the frost in the air. The Dragon growled at her again.

"Get ready for round 2." Hope murmured softly as she clutched the new sword in a white fisted grip.

"Ventus." Hope called out as she lifted the sword out towards the Dragon with the point of the sword facing the Hungarian Horntail as the spell flowed through the enchanted blade as she also used the sword's magic to increase the power of the spell.

The windy spell cracked into the Dragon with the strength of a battering ram, knocking the Dragon into the stone pillar behind her with enough force to shatter the stone tower into smaller chunks of rock clattering down onto the ground.

The Dragon roared out in pain as she pulled herself up to all four legs. Hope didn't want to give the Dragon any more opportunities to try and kill her so she blasted off a lightning spell she learnt from one of her teachers from the Salvatore Boarding School but had been improved on by Alexandria as she was saddened that her Familiar couldn't summon anything more than a spark when she first started, "Fulmen."

A striking blue lightning bolt shot out of the tip of the blade at an amazing speed but the Dragon was about to take off so her wing had moved in front of Hope's intended target of the Dragon's head as she was going to go for the kill shot, not caring about the loss of points.

The lightning bolt tore through the Hungarian Horntail's right wing, the lightning spread all around the wing as the Dragon cried out in pain as her wing was encased in the spiderweb of chain lightning.

The lightning burned through the leathery wing, burning holes into the wing and cauterizing the wounds as soon as the injury was made, ensuring that the Dragon wouldn't be able to ever gain use of that wing ever again.

But the lightning spell didn't end there. The superheated crackling of electricity also ran along the top of the leathery wing, striking into the bones that held the wing together and shattering all the bones in the Dragon's wing.

The Dragon roared in pain as she glanced over to her wing, observing the broken and bloody appendage with a critical eye. Hope could've swore she saw a flash of gold when the Dragon turned her head.

Hope narrowed her sea blue eyes on where she thought she saw the gold coating, on the back of the Dragon's head but as she was intently looking for the spec of gold the Dragon turned her head back around to Hope and she saw the Golden Egg hidden between the spines along the Dragon's neck.

"Son of a bitch!" Hope remarked in frustration but she was interrupted yet again when the Hungarian Horntail had swung her whole body around before striking out with her spiked-mace tail.

The tail swing embedded a few spikes into her stomach as well as flung her across the arena and landed with an 'ompf' as she landed on the ground, dropping her sword at the impact.

Hope's eyes glowed gold in anger as she was panting on all fours into the ground, blood dripping from her abdomen and the emerald green shirt. There were three spines in her, two just under her right rib cage and the third down in her left hip.

"Okay… Now I'm pissed." Hope groaned out as she slowly made her way to her feet as she reached out to retrieve her sword, using it as a crutch to push herself to her feet as she forced her eyes to stop glowing as she raised her head to face the Dragon.

Hope yanked out the spines from her body one at a time feeling the wound stitch itself closed in a matter of seconds until all three were out of her body. The Tribrid dropped the first two spines to the ground and burned her blood off of the spikes. Hope held onto the last one in a strong grip, her knuckles cracked soundly at the exertion she was squeezing on the spike as it steamed from the blood being boiled off.

The Dragon roared as she threw more fire in Hope's direction. "Glacius Tria!" Hope shouted as she struck her sword forward so her ice spell would intercept the Dragon Fire.

A loud explosion erupted from the collision of the two opposing elements, Hope held her ground and the Dragon didn't move back from the force of the explosion. The two magical beings glared at one another. Hope lightly held onto the spike as she murmured quietly under her breath, "Mutatis mutandi."

But the switching spell didn't work and Hope grounded her teeth in frustration

"Of course they make the damn Egg spell-proof. I'm killing one of them when I get out of here." Hope gritted out while dropping the useless spike to the ground as she glared up to the officials box with the Headmasters along with Bagman and Crouch Sr.

Dumbledore had an unreadable expression on his face while the Headmistress looked shocked, Karkaroff seemed angry and the two Ministry officials were absolutely ecstatic as they watched the fight.

Hope watched as the Dragon reared back getting ready for another burst of Dragon breath. Instead of blocking it with her magic she saw a rock formation that would bring her up to a higher vantage point so she ran for the first platform and leapt up on top of it and used the tallest pillar as a shield.

As the fire hit the stone pillar Hope gripped her sword in both hands and she shoved the sword deep into the rock, "Glacius." Ice shot out into the pillar and encased the stone in frost. As the ice spread out around to the other side of the rock, once the ice touched the fire it caused a hissing sound as the ice turned to mist.

The Tribrid left the sword in the pillar as she drew Excalibur from her hip and used this distraction to jump up the next 3 pillars until she was up as high as the top of the Dragon's shoulders. Hope was almost knocked off the stone platform when the Hungarian Horntail raised her head above the mist and breathed fire down on her. "Scutum!" Hope called out just in time as the Dragon Fire hit another invisible wall about a foot away from her face.

Hope frowned at the fire that was barely stopped in front of her face before she looked out to the crowd for the first time to see their reactions. There were many stupefied faces as the students, teachers and even the parents who were able to buy their way into observing the Tri-Wizard Tournament for themselves.

The only people that weren't gobsmacked at Hope's performance were her friends and family who were absolutely outraged at the outcome of Hope's Task. Daphne and Freya were exluting large amounts of magic from their bodies, the air was icy around her while the air around Freya was shimmering in what seemed to be a personal heat wave as she ran her hands over the barrier separating her from her niece.

Freya looked through the barrier and locked eyes with her niece, shaking her head slightly as she motioned to the barrier.

Hope understood what her aunt was telling her, that she was unable to break the barrier unless she wanted to disqualify Hope and lose her magic due to the contract.

Hope nodded her head to her aunt before looking past her aunt to see Daphne staring back at her.

The girls shared an intense moment as Hope let out a groan at the pressure of stopping the Dragon Fire and she gritted her teeth in pain. Daphne looked immensely pissed as she turned her gaze to the Officials box with an ice dagger in her hand but Hope shook her head pleadingly.

Freya, Nic and Nelle all saw Hope's action, Nic and Nelle were able to intercept Daphne but the girl froze the Flamel's feet to the ground as she smoothly sidestepped them. The 'Ice Queen' got up to Professor Flitwick who had fearful eyes trained on the distraught Greengrass Heiress or perhaps he should now be calling her Consort Emrys with the amount of rage and magic pouring out of her.

Hope watched as her aunt Freya appeared in a flash of fire in front of the irate blonde girl and she faltered as the Immortal Viking Witch stood in front of her telling her to stand down.

Daphne gritted her teeth as she knew she couldn't out-magic the woman in front of her and turned to Hope with anger in her eyes and told her Mate, "Don't you dare die Hope Mikaelson! Or I swear to Merlin and Morgana that I will kill everybody who screwed you over!"

Hope only got the first half of what Daphne said as her Mate's voice was drowned out by the noise of the audience and swallowed deeply at the blonde's most likely threat.

Hope turned back to the Dragon and braced herself. She called out, "Post tenebras spero lucem!" A glowing light orb appeared in her left hand and she gripped it.

Hope moved Excalibur in a slicing arch, cutting through the fire momentarily as she threw the ball of light towards the Dragon. As it was basically on the Horntail's nose, Hope called out, "Sol."

As she covered her eyes by burying them into her elbow.

The light ball exploded right in front of the Dragon's face causing the Mother Dragon to roar and throw her head around wildly as Hope blinded the Dragon, whether it was temporary or not Hope had no clue.

The Dragon stumbled around blindly as she crashed into the stone pillar Hope was standing on and she wobbled as the stone tower started to crumble.

"Mother fucking Dragon." Hope mumbled as she attempted to keep her balance on the shaky pillar. The Hungarian Horntail must have heard Hope as she turned her head to Hope and roared.

Hope's eyes widened as she felt the heat coming from the Dragon's mouth, Hope used her Werewolf agility and jumped up high into the sky right as flames spewed from her mouth. The crowd gasped as Hope landed on the Hungarian Horntail's snout in a crouch.

The Dragon started to fling her head around to dislodge the girl from her head but Hope extended her claws in her left hand to hold onto the rough scales as she flipped the sword's hilt in her right hand so the blade was facing out from her body.

Hope growled as she raised Excalibur up past her shoulder so she was able to get enough height before thrusting the sword down into the Dragon's nose, "Glacius!"

The Dragon gave a full bodied shiver at the feeling of ice sweeping into her nostrils, into her mouth and up to her brain causing the Dragon to collapse to the ground with an earth-shattering bang as ice coated her head.

As soon as the Dragon hit the ground Hope abandoned the icy blade in the Dragon's snout and ran down the Horntail's long neck with agile speed before she slid to a stop using one of the Dragon's spines to come to a stop. Hope scanned along all the spines in this area as she recalled the glint of gold came from this rough area.

Hope looked up to see the Dragon's face begin to defrost from the heat coming from the Dragon's body and gritted her teeth but when she gazed up she located the Golden Egg stuck in between a couple of spines a few metres away.

Hope rose to her feet and ran back up the Dragon's neck in haste realising that the Hungarian Horntail will be able to regain movement soon.

When Hope arrived at where the Egg was she saw how tightly it was lodged between those tough spikes.

"Oh for fuck sake!" Hope growled out as she slammed her open palm against the bottom spine shouting, "Depulso!"

The spine was forcibly removed from the Mother Dragon's neck, the Dragon whimpered slightly as she tried to move her head.

Hope caught the Golden Egg as it almost slid off the Dragon's neck, "Gotcha!"

The Dragon began to rise and Hope let go of the Horntail's neck as she dropped to the ground, Golden Egg in hand. Hope did the same trick to the Dragon that she did to the Basilisk, "Dimiterre!" The Dragon in her shock was thrown backwards with incredible speed, crashing through the same pillar Hope was standing on earlier causing it to collapse completely, debris falling heavily on top of the Dragon and she groaned in pain.

Hope frowned at the defected Dragon, feeling sorry for the beast. Hope hitched the Egg under her left armpit as she snapped the fingers of her right hand. Excalibur reappeared into Hope's right hand but she held it loosely, turning away from her battered opponent.

She murmured the cleaning spell on her green and silver uniform, even going as far as to stitch it up with magic as she walked to the barrier and placed a hand on the wall and rolled her eyes.

Hope shouted out, "I've completed my Task, now let me out!"

The crowd looked oddly confused as Lady Emrys didn't leave the barrier with the Egg in hand. But before they could say anything Freya and Daphne appeared in a flash of fire in front of Hope at the barrier with Myrddin thrilling anxiously above them.

Freya looked at the Egg then at Hope. "You've completed the Task even the Officials have admitted to that. So we can break down this damn barrier locking you in there."

Hope nodded to her aunt as placed the Egg down between her feet and held her hands out to the barrier, lightly touching it along with Freya and Daphne.

Freya looked over to Daphne and told the other blonde girl, "Repeat after me." Before turning back to Hope with a meaningful gaze.

"Destruccive glas stav enfala. Destruccive glas stav enfala." Freya clearly pronounced a couple of times for the girls to hear before closing her eyes and focusing on the barrier.

The three witches had their eyes closed as they chanted Freya's spell. "Destruccive glas stav enfala. Destruccive glas stav enfala." As they were chanting quietly Hope overheard Amelia Bones bark out orders to her Aurors to break down the containment spell.

However the Aurors came to a complete stop as they turned the corner to see Heirs Emrys and Greengrass performing a powerful spell on the barrier and Madam Bones could see Hope's mouth moving but no sound came out.

Madam Bones had been in attendance for all 4 Champions. She had thought this Task was beyond stupid. Placing school kids against a Dragon.

It was practically suicide!

- - -

As the Head of the DMLE watched the last Potter make his way into the arena, the red-head's nerves stood on end as fear washed over her but she was completely surprised when the boy didn't even try to move to the Dragon.

In fact he just tried to summon the Golden Egg to himself, which in all fairness wouldn't be a bad idea but the Officials didn't want to be humiliated again if Lady Emrys managed to make them look like fools in front of an audience.

Mr Potter then bent down slowly to pick up a small rock while making a show to the Dragon to prove he wasn't a threat. The Swedish Short-Snout only gave a low growl and narrowed her eyes on the boy but didn't approach. Harry pointed his wand at the rock and whispered something, one flash of magic later had the Golden Egg in his hand and he fumbled the Egg when it appeared, almost like he wasn't expecting it.

In all honesty, the Head of the DMLE wasn't expecting a switching spell to work so she placed her head in her hand and groaned. There was a couple behind her laughing their asses off while Heir Emrys shook her head in amusement as she turned back to the couple. "100 bucks, says Hope gave him the idea."

The couple shook their heads adamantly. "We're definitely not taking that bet Freya!" The man remarked with a gleeful smile.

Amelia turned around to see Mr and Mrs Fell interacting with Heir Emrys as if they were old friends. It would make sense considering the Fell's were Hope's parents.

Nelle was smiling as she added, "Please! Do you take us for fools Freya? We've had plenty of time with Hope to know that this is something she would love to do."

A chuckle came from the side as a blonde Slytherin girl from Susan's year, Daphne looked over to the 3 adults with her father, Marcus standing behind her with a hand placed gently on her shoulder.

"It was Hope." She told them with such certainty that the 3 older attendants looked at one another for a split second before roaring with laughter.

Before the next competitor came out Daphne gave a small warning to the attendees in their section. "You should be aware that Fleur is next and from what she's told me, she's going to enchant the Dragon to sleep with the addition to her Veela abilities."

Heir Emrys frowned slightly as she faced the younger girl as she asked curiously. "You mean she could enchant the whole crowd to sleep? Seeing as I know the pretty little Veela has been working on her magic recently."

Daphne shrugged. "Probably." The Slytherin girl looked over at Freya as a thought entered her mind, "Any chance you are able to keep the enchantment contained?"

Amelia turned around to face the Heirs Emrys and Greengrass as she pointedly told them. "You know that you are trying to make plans to sabotage one of the competitors with the Head of Law Enforcement in front of you right?"

Heir Emrys turned to the attractive red-head woman. "Of course I know you are there. I invited you, if you recall?"

Madam Bones clenched her teeth but Freya stood up and walked down next to her, standing above the other woman.

"Follow me. I want you to see and test the ward I will be placing up outside of the arena's barrier. So as you see, I'm not interfering. Only protecting the students and guests." Freya suggested.

Madam Bones stood up as she tried to fight a blush of embarrassment as she remembered that Heir Emrys was here at the school literally to protect the students. "Sorry. I'm not used to hearing about the teachers actually protecting the students and pensive memories from my Ward is not enough to get an Auror stationed at the school. So in other words, thank you."

Freya gave the other woman a polite smile. "I'd say you're welcome but I think you need to tell that to my niece. Since she's the one who placed me here… Legally." The older woman finished with a smirk as they made their way down to the bottom row of the stands.

As Freya took her last step, there was a flash of light as a staff appeared in Heir Emrys hand and Amelia tried not to gape at the legendary Staff of Merlin. "Have you given the Staff a name yet?"

The corner of Heir Emrs lips curled up in a smile. "It's Hirdman."

The immortal witch turned to the red-head as she explained. "It means 'Family' in Norwegian."

"You were born in Norway?" Amelia asked in fascination.

Freya chuckled lightly. "Yes. I was born in Norway or what I think was Norway. There weren't many detailed maps around when I was born over a 1,000 years ago. And yes. I'm an immortal." Freya told the woman as she erected a non-verbal barrier around the outside of the original.

At that stage Amelia had tested the new ward on autopilot before returning to her seat without a word as she tried to comprehend the new information given to her that she almost missed the next competitor, Fleur, the Beauxbaton Champion.

The girl used the exact plan that Daphne said she would use and the precaution Freya placed around the original barrier was a wonderful idea as the Common Welsh Green fell asleep within seconds of the Veela releasing her power as she casually walked over to the nest and removed the Golden Egg.

Again another Champion goes through the Task without a single injury. She looked over to the judges who once again, did not look impressed.

Madam Bones frowned at the officials as she thought to herself, why would they be so keen to witness a fight between a Dragon and a student, it's barbaric.

A chorus of snorts behind her dragged her back into the present as she turned around to see Freya, the Fell's, the Greengrass' as Annabeth and Astoria had rejoined the family sometime during the Veela's Task were all holding a hand in front of their mouths.

"I said that aloud, didn't I?" Amelia asked back to them with a groan.

Before any of them could reply, one of her Junior Cadets was standing in front of her with a massive smile on her face as she answered with a laugh.

"Sure did, Boss." The pink haired woman answered.

Amelia had invited the Junior Cadet with her as the girl had only finished schooling at Hogwarts a couple of years ago and thought her bubbly personality might be able to help gather more information from around the school.

"Great." Came the stoic response from the Head of the DMLE.

When the next Champion came out, the Bulgarian Seeker, Viktor Krum, he tried to advance on the Egg without using any stealth or patience like the other two competitors did. His reward was some moderate burns and a scratch or two across his face from when sharp rocks were flung off in his direction after being shattered by a spell or the Fireball's massive body.

This was the fight she was expecting from a student and a Dragon. Lots of close-calls and a very injured student. But the Bulgarian man surprised the crowd as he was able to hit one of the Chinese Fireball's eyes with a Conjunctivitis Curse, blinding the Dragon and causing the Mother Dragon to step back and break some of her Eggs.

Amelia felt immense pity for the Dragon that lost possibly half her clutch. However what she didn't see was Freya hiding the real smuggled Dragon Eggs under a cloaking spell. The battle in the arena went on for a while longer as Krum had to still bypass the Dragon to get to the Golden Egg as the crowd cheered him on.

However her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she saw a small Ravenclaw girl with blonde hair and a miniature moving dragon on her shoulder make her way into the stands and make her way to the Fell's.

Amelia's expression gained the attention of her Cadet and the pink haired girl looked back and exclaimed in shock. "Is that a baby Dragon!?"

The blonde girl turned back to face her Cadet and replied with a cheerful smile. "It's not a baby Dragon Junior Cadet Tonks. It's an animation come to life for the Champions to pick which real life Dragon they were going to face. This one will never grow any bigger than this."

Daphne looked over at the Ravenclaw girl before she noticed the little green dragon that was practically an identical match to the Dragon Fleur just faced and her eyes bulged wide for a second as mentally thought to her Mate, 'We are NOT having a pet dragon!'

While saying aloud, "Luna. I swear to Merlin, if Hope brought that thing to life as a gift to you I will literally freeze it until we are out of school. I am not dealing with a miniature dragon through the rest of this school year. I already have enough issues with both Hope and Fleur being in this blasted Tournament!"

"Not at all Daph. Actually Hope told me to gift him to her parents, for looking after her for all these years." Luna replied with a smile as she made her way up to the flabbergasted couple.

"What?" Nic and Nelle dumbly replied as they looked at the baby dragon with confusion clearly in their eyes.

Freya laughed. "Thank God! I would've been so pissed if Hope gifted me the dragon."

The Immortal Witch turned to Luna with a curious expression as a thought just occurred to her.

"What happens if the Fl-- Fell's don't accept the tiny replica?" Heir Emrys stumbled over her wording as she only barely remembered that not everyone here knew who the Flamel's are.

Luna gave a bright grin as she looked back at Freya. "I get to keep him."

"Of course you do." Daphne responded with a groan.

Luna walked up to the Slytherin girl and handed over a wand to the other blonde.

"Why do you have Hope's wand? Daphne asked in confusion.

"The competitors are only allowed to take 1 magical implement into the arena to assist them. I informed Hope about my concerns for this Task and she's chosen to enter with her sword." Luna replied honestly but solemnly.

"I'm afraid Daph." She added only to the blonde girl with fear in her voice.

Before Daphne could question the seer any further she saw Hope enter the arena. There were a few problems Daphne noticed immediately.

"Where's the Egg? Better yet, where's the Dragon?" She tried to call out to Hope mentally, 'Darling? … Hope?'

The blonde's heart dropped when she didn't get an instant reply from their mental link. "Guys! There's something wrong with the barrier!"

"What do you mean?" Marcus asked his distressed daughter.

"I can't reach her." Daphne said, tapping the side of her head. Freya, Nic and Nelle paled as they turned back to the arena.

Freya noticed the shimmer in the air. "Hope! Above you! Look out!" She shouted but Hope still had her eyes closed as she was sensing the arena before turning sharply as fire breathed down on top of her.

There was an eruption of pleased cheers coming from the Slytherins and some of the Ravenclaws as they watched the Dragon set the girl on fire, but as the Dragon Fire stopped and the Dragon freed itself from the chain.

Hope stood up from her crouch as she whispered a spell and the fire surrounding her went out. The Hungarian Horntail roared angrily at the girl and Hope summoned a giant rock as the next stream of fire came at her, effectively blocking the attack.

"Whoa!" The pink haired girl remarked in amazement at the sheer power the girl was able to produce and all without a wand as she gave a subtle gaze behind her to see the blonde Slytherin girl fretting to the group of people behind them in hushed whispers.

"Sweet Merlin!" Amelia breathed as the young girl was swept away by a backhand from the Dragon.

Tonks turned back around quickly and noticed the giant crater in the ground and the destroyed Eggs and wondered when those things happened as she didn't hear it but before she could comment the Dragon spewed more fire at the girl.

No one could see the girl until suddenly a powerful burst of wind magic blew the fire away from the girl who struggled to her feet either from the strain of magic or being clobbered into the wall, the Metamorphmagus did not know.

"Boss? Something is wrong. I can't hear a single thing from within that barrier." Tonks admitted as she watched the young girl slam the sword she was wielding deep into the stone ground.

Ice shot out from the ground, freezing the floor as frost came out of the handle, the frost quickly filled the arena and no one could see in. "Okay! Now that is impressive!" Tonks blurted out in appreciation.

"She's trying to put it to sleep." The woman from the couple behind her and her Boss explained, "Dragons go into hibernation in the extremely cold weather… The frost? It's already dissipating? But how?"

Daphne gritted her teeth together as she gnashed out angrily. "Because someone has tampered with that Dragon. It's pouring out more heat than it should be able to. Also the frost never exited the arena. Hope's good, but I don't think even she can control the frost bouncing off of the barrier. She locked in there with a severely pissed off Dragon."

She turned to Freya. "We need to get her out!"

Freya's magic was flaring out dangerously as she faced the Officials box. Amelia stood in front of Heir Emrys, holding her wand in front of her. "Don't do that Freya! I will stop you from getting to them!"

Freya regarded the Head of the DMLE and her additional 4 Aurors that made their appearance at their Boss's movement, she ignored them as she turned back to Daphne. "We can't! That's the problem! As a Champion if there is any outside interference we could disqualify her and she could lose her magic as a consequence."

As the frost disappeared completely from the field Freya quietly mentioned. "Let's pray that Hope can handle herself."

"What about Myrddin or Alexandria? They're her familiars, can't they help her?" Daphne suggested with worry coating her words.

Apparently the Phoenix and Thunderbird were listening and appeared above Daphne as the golden bird landed on Daphne and softly thrilled, dropping her head down sadly. Myrddin flew over to Freya and shook his head while hovering in front of her.

"What do you mean you can't get in?" Freya replied darkly to the midnight bird who thrilled sadly as he lowered his head, "The damn barrier is blocking them from getting in."

Freya turned back to the arena to watch Hope blast another wind spell at the Dragon knocking it back into a wall as stone fell down from the impact but Hope didn't let up, she shot out a crack of lightning from her sword that had Alexandria chirping with pride.

Hope was still for a few moments as she regarded the Dragon curiously, "What's she doing?" Nic asked in worry.

"I don't know." Freya replied just as the Dragon swung its tail out to hit the girl.

"Ouch! That's gotta hurt." Tonks grimaced as she watched the girl go flying back and landing roughly on her back causing the crowd to cheer.

But the girl rose to her feet pulling the spikes out of her own body without flinching. "Okay… How is she doing that? That's not normal!" The Metamorphmagus blanched.

Ice and fire met in the middle of the arena with what could only be described as an explosion, the crowd 'ooo'ed as the magical waves shockwave out from the middle of the collision.

Hope had murmured something but frowned as threw the remaining spine to the ground before running to a rock platform with differentiating heights of stone pillars around it to dodge the next breath of fire. Hope slammed another sword into the pillar that the Dragon's Fire was being blocked against, changing the pillar to ice.

Mist began to form where the fire was melting the late forming ice and the crowd laughed at the attempt, angering Hope's family. But Hope left this sword behind as she drew what she knew to be Excalibur from her left hip and jumped up the stone pillars with agile speed and some parkour possibly enhanced by her Werewolf abilities as she stood on the tallest pillar.

There was no time for Hope to gather her balance as she brought the sword up in the nick of time to activate her shield spell.

Hope was able to look out to the crowd and she located her family first. Freya was motioning angrily to the barrier in front of her before shaking her head in shame. Daphne however locked her eyes with Hope's until the pressure of keeping the Dragon Fire at bay made her scream in frustration.

Ice blue eyes narrowed angrily as she looked over to the Officials box and created an ice dagger. As the Aurors were distracted by Hope's shield spell, blocking the Dragon Fire being breathed down onto her. Daphne walked past them with a purpose but Nic and Nelle followed her as they could sense her anger and the icy air around her.

Nic and Nelle called out to her when she was about one section away from the Officials box and Daphne summoned their wands to herself before freezing their feet to the ground. "You can't stop me."

A flash of fire appeared in front of her and Freya was there shaking her head as she held out a hand threateningly. "Don't Daphne. You know who will win this."

Daphne came to a screeching halt as she held her wand in hand but couldn't attack the other woman and groaned in frustration as she turned to the arena in contempt.

As she looked back to where Hope was standing she called out angrily. "Don't you dare die, Hope Mikaelson! Or I swear to Merlin and Morgana that I will kill everybody who screwed you over!"

Hope rose her eyebrows and swallowed as she refocused on the Dragon. She created a light filled orb and used Excalibur to cut through the Dragon Fire, spitting the fire so it curved around her before throwing the orb and covering her eyes.

An incredibly bright flash erupted from the orb and the light remained contained in the barrier, further enforcing the fact the barrier had also been tampered with.

After the flash of light Hope made a noise and the Dragon was moments away from blasting Hope with fire at close range but she flipped over the flames and landed on the Dragon's snout.

The audience was shocked at the performance and the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs cheered as Hope held on to the Dragon's nose before sinking the sword into the Dragon's snout, not killing it, but as ice spread over the Horntail's head, the Dragon collapsed to the ground.

Hope ran down the Dragon's neck as she searched for something. "What is she doing?" Daphne asked in confusion as Hope came to a sudden stop.

Hope ran back up the Dragon's neck as she started to stir but Hope slammed her hand against one of the Dragon's spines before catching a glint of gold in her hands before lowering herself to the ground.

"The Egg was lodged between the spines of the Dragon?!? What the fuck is that!?" Freya exclaimed in shocked anger as Madam Bones and Junior Cadet Tonks joined the two blondes before gaping at the arena as they watched Hope retrieve the Egg from a near impossible location, whereas everyone else's Eggs were located in the nest.

"You make an excellent point, Heir Emrys. One I'd like to get to the bottom of." Amelia remarked with an inseccest look on her face as she turned to the Officials box and cast the Soronus charm on herself, "Judges of the Tri-Wizard Tournament!"

Bagman, Crouch Sr and Karkaroff jumped at the loud sound while Madam Maxine swore in French as she placed a hand to her heart. Dumbledore's response however intrigued the Head of the DMLE.

The Hogwarts Headmaster just passively turned to face her with a dismissive look on his face and was going to possibly berate her for interrupting but Amelia beat him to the punch as she thinks she now knows who tempered with the Dragon and the barrier.

"The Task for Hope Mikaelson, Lady Emrys has been completed! She has retrieved her Golden Egg but is unable to escape the arena. Apparently the barrier between the arena and the audience has been tampered with. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

"The Task is officially over?" Freya asked hurriedly.

"No---." "YES!" Amelia shouted over Dumbledore. "Hope Mikaelson has completed her Task which is to retrieve the Golden Egg! I see the Golden Egg in her arms! Hence she has completed her Task, Headmaster Dumbledore."

Amelia cancelled her Soronus as she turned to Tonks. "Go get the rest of the Aurors. We need to break this barrier down NOW!!"

Meanwhile Freya called Daphne over to herself which the other girl did not hesitate, there was a flash of fire beside them as Heir Emrys and Heir Greengrass disappeared along with the midnight Phoenix.

Before Tonks took off running she glanced at Madam Bones. "What's the bet that Heir Emrys removes the barrier before we get there?"

Amelia groaned as she took off running towards the exit for the arena. In her haste, she didn't realise that she gained some shadows. She flung herself around corners whole taking the stairs at either two at a time or just jumping down the lot of them if possible.

She was joined by her Aurors as they had their wands drawn and ready for spellwork but as they rounded the last corner they saw the two Heirs with their hands placed on the barrier along with Lady Emrys on the other side as they were whispering something under their breaths.

Junior Cadet Tonks was the last to make the turn around the corner with Susan Bones in one loose shoulder grip and Neville Longbottom in the other. "Boss… We have some extra cargo."

Amelia looked back with wide eyes as she saw her niece and opened her mouth to scold her Ward for following her but before a sound could come out there was an ear-piercing, glass-shattering noise that came from the barrier.

Everyone in the corridor jumped in shock as the barrier was utterly destroyed by the 3 witches. Hope left the arena immediately and took hold of her aunt's hand as Myrddin jumped shoulders from the Heir to Lady Emrys' shoulder. His claws pierced her skin deeply as the antibodies from his talons allowed Hope to regain some of her magic as he slowly began to heal her.

The Dragon was slowly emerging from the wreckage, opening her mouth ready to spew fire at Hope one last time.

Hope and Freya raised their non-joined hands up before calling out together. "Clostrum!"

A new barrier was erected just in time to stop the Dragon's Fire from hitting anyone in the corridor and locking the Dragon inside the arena until she could calm down.

- - -

The flames stopped coming out nearly immediately as the Mother Dragon turned her attention towards her nest then to her foot before she wailed in sorrowful pain. Hope frowned as she watched the Dragon become remorseful over her actions.

"What the?" Freya mentioned in confusion beside her niece.

Hope released a breath as she recalled something from her first year. "That's right! Our spell negates any spells being used in a specific area. The Dragon was spelled to act that feral… I destroyed her wing… I'm sorry."

"You did what you had to to survive." Freya told her niece as she placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Hope turned her head and looked up to her aunt. "Please tell me you were able to save her Eggs?"

Freya nodded. "I managed to swap them out before the barrier changed."

The Tribrid sighed in relief. "Then let's return her Hatchlings."

"Are you sure you want to take down that barrier?" Daphne asked skeptically.

"She deserves more than what I did to her… So yes. Come on Aunt Freya. Dissera portus." Hope chanted as placed her hands together before separating them as if she opened an invisible door and walked into the arena yet again with a determined face as Freya, Daphne, Amelia, Susan, Neville, Tonks and the Fell's as they had made their way into the arena on Hope's tail. Alexandria flew in with a distressed squawk and landed on Hope's other shoulder as she preened obsessively over Hope's hair and face.

The crowd was murmuring quietly as they watched the Mother Dragon cry. The Dragon tamers were able to finally enter the arena to stun the Dragon so they could take her back to the Dragon Reserve but Freya held out a hand, freezing them in place with terrified expressions on their faces.

"Wait." Heir Emrys told them.

Hope handed her Golden Egg off to her aunt as she asked Freya to return the Dragon Eggs into a nest for her to carry to the grieving Dragon. Freya sighed before rotating her hand as a nest of Dragon Eggs appeared in Hope's hands and the crowd gasped in shock.

Amelia came up to Heir Emrys. "You removed the Dragon Eggs from play?" She whispered softly.

Freya glanced back slightly as she watched her niece walk out to the Mother Dragon with Daphne at her side. "Yes."

Heir Emrys turned back to face the Head of the DMLE. "But as you saw I replaced them with realistic eggs. Are you going to arrest me for protecting an endangered species?"

Amelia looked over to the two Hogwarts students as Hope placed the nest gently on the ground and the Mother Dragon looked over to the two girls then down near their feet before blinking sadly. "No."

Hope moved forward with her hands outstretched and up in the air trying to show the Dragon she was no longer a threat but the Dragon didn't seem to care. Daphne levitated the Hungarian Horntail's clutch of Dragon Eggs to sit directly in front of the Mother Dragon.

As the Dragon sniffled she caught a scent coming from the Dragon Eggs the two children were presenting to her, these were her Hatchlings. She angled her head down to her hind leg with a groan of pain before sniffing at her foot with crushed egg on it.

Her head raised in astonishment before she reached out gently and pulled the nest to herself and hummed a deep rumble in her throat.

The Dragon tamer's jaws dropped in shock. "But the Hungarian Horntail's nest was destroyed? How?"

"Because I swapped all the Eggs out before the Champions entered the arena and replaced them with fakes. Once the Task was complete I would change the Eggs back. Why couldn't this be a condition at the start of the Task? I don't know. Honestly I think you're all stupid for not thinking this for yourselves. My niece came up with this plan because none of you even considered the idea of protecting the Dragon's Eggs." Freya ranted angrily at them before grumbling swear words under her breath as she walked over to the two girls and the Dragon, figuring she would have better luck with them.

As the Immortal Witch approached the now calm Dragon and the Emrys couple. "Please tell me you plan on killing some of these idiots who trapped you with a berserk Dragon?"

"I want to. Trust me. I just don't know if I can legally challenge them to a Wizard's Duel? Do you have definitive proof?" Hope regarded with a scornful look on her face as she held out her hand and closed her eyes.

Hope performed the same Healing spell on the Dragon that she did on Fleur and Gabrielle during the Quidditch World Cup. The two magical birds watched on with a scrutinous gaze, not blindly trusting the other magical creature just yet seeing as the Dragon tried to kill their Familiar only moments ago.

The Mothering Dragon looked over to Hope with curious eyes as she flexed her wings instinctually ready to bring them around to protect her Eggs but she didn't feel pain anymore in her right wing. Myrddin thrilled quietly in pride as he watched Hope healed the Dragon.

The Mother Dragon quickly glanced over her body to see her wing heal in front of her eyes. She blinked in shock before turning back to her previous opponent and gave a nod of her head at the girl in thanks.

Hope gave a shuddering sigh as she finished her Healing spell, realising that she may have a lot of magic, but she has used a fair amount of magic over the past 20 minutes or so.

Lady Emrys staggered over to Daphne to use her as a crutch and whispered in her ear. "Can I use you as a crutch to the Infirmary? I kinda exhausted myself a bit… And I want a legit reason to touch you considering we haven't ---."

Daphne cut her off with a deep kiss and Hope could've sworn she heard a symphony of items dropping on the ground in the stands while the Weasley twins were laughing like a pair of hyenas.

As the girls broke the kiss, Hope hummed happily as she gazed into Daphne's soft ice coloured eyes. "Well I didn't expect that, but I'll happily take it…"

Hope looked over to the crowds' shocked faces and Dumbledore's priceless expression as he didn't believe what had happened at all. Hope then located the Weasley twins in the audience who dramatically bowed to the couple and Hope warily murmured over to Daphne. "Why do I have this strange sensation that those two bet on us being together and that they won a lot of money because of it?"

"Who cares?" Daphne replied with a smile as she helped Hope walk off.

There were gasps coming from the crowd and Hope tensed up slightly at the noise but before she could get far enough away from the Mother Dragon, she wrapped a claw around Hope's stomach and Hope came to a stop as did Daphne.

The girls turned around to face the Hungarian Horntail and the Dragon gently pulled back her claw. She gazed at the 3 people in front of her before she sensed the powerful wand in the coppery auburn haired witch's hand while the blonde haired witch was only holding a barely compatible wand in her hand.

The Dragon felt grateful to the powerful witch who healed her so she chose to gift the girl with a precious artefact, so she reached over to the pile of rubble. She pulled out a large rock that fit in her claw, moving it off to the side and away from the witches who saved her clutch of eggs.

The Hungarian Horntail took a deep breath as she focused on her Dragon Breath, to change it temporarily to an Ice Breath. She opened her mouth and an ice-blue flame shot out of her mouth, a frigid breeze came from the Dragon's mouth as she froze the stone. Continuously breathing Ice Breath into the stone before it began to glow.

The Hungarian Horntail stopped after nearly a minute of using the peculiar breath, leaving behind a glowing piece of rock the size of a human's fist. It looked like a giant gemstone matching Daphne's eyes.

Hope's eyes widened in surprise while she heard Nic hit Nelle on the shoulder as he excitedly whispered in his wife's ear. "It's a Pure Ice DragonStone, love! This is the first one seen in over 400 years!"

"Shush! You'll alert the others and they'll try to take it away from them. The Dragon gifted the stone to Daphne. We'll need to get Marcus or Anna to take Daphne to get a new wand. Her old one won't work for her any longer when she picks up the Stone." Nelle quietly explained to Nic.

Neither girl had approached the Dragon or the glowing ice blue stone. Instead the Dragon reached over with her claw, picking up the spectacular looking stone in a pinching motion between two of her claws and carefully carried it over to the pair.

Hope moved away slightly. "Love." Daphne looked over to her Mate in confusion as she placed a small gap between them. "It's yours. The Dragon is gifting that stone to you and only you."

Daphne blinked once before taking a few steps forward so she was within an easy reaching distance for the Hungarian Horntail. The Dragon gave another rumbling noise in approval before reaching out to the blonde girl who cupped her hands as she held the ice blue stone above her and let go, dropping it directly into the blonde's hands.

Daphne bowed to the Dragon. "Thank you for your gift."

The Dragon accepted this show of respect and nodded her own head to the girl before returning her attention to her Hatchlings.

Daphne rejoined Hope and the copper haired Champion whispered what she heard from her parents to the blonde before telling her to have Myrddin or Alexandria take it away. Daphne saw Dumbledore approaching, as he practically licked his lips in greed as he hungrily eyed the Pure Ice DragonStone.

She transferred the artefact over to her left hand before snapping the fingers on her right hand, teleporting the Pure Ice DragonStone away somewhere safe.

"Miss Greengrass. You will need to return the DragonStone as it was created on Hogwarts ground it belongs to Hogwarts." He announced without a single glance anywhere else.

Daphne glared at the man. "No. It was created for the Emrys family."

Daphne revealed the Consort ring on her right index finger to the small gathered crowd in the arena as practically everyone's jaws dropped at the information. "As mentioned in the Magical Law of Artefacts, Section 5. Any Artefact gifted to a specific family can not be claimed by another person, family or house."

"Now excuse me, Headmaster. I need to take my wife to the Infirmary as required after such a gruelling Task. Especially one that was severely and dangerously altered from the previous Tasks. For instance this poor Dragon was spelled to be completely feral until my wife and Aunt," Freya looked up and over to the blonde girl in surprise as she accepted familial ties between them, "Broke the spell that was on the Dragon and don't say there wasn't one! This same Dragon is now tending to her young while ignoring everyone in the arena. Then there's the matter of that damn barrier! I'm not even going to start on that! So as Consort to the House Emrys I demand a trial by Veritaserum on all of the Officials at this Task to find out who tried to have my wife killed! As Heir Greengrass, I second the motion."

Dumbledore's eyes widened as he realised the potential problem that was about to arise, but another voice shot out before he could try to counter the action made by Miss Greengrass. "As Heir Longbottom, I third the motion!"

Dumbledore's jaw dropped in utter surprise as the Gryffindor boy sided with two Slytherins.

Amelia walked up beside the group as she announced. "Very well. Since the next Task won't be until the 24th of February. We will hold this trial during the Bi-Annual Wizengamot session at the end of the year."

The Head of the DMLE looked over to Hope. "Lady Emrys. Since your wife made the demand for the trial you are required to be there."

Hope nodded in understanding. "Fair enough. Do you mind if we walk and talk on the way to the Infirmary? There's something I need to speak to you about."

Daphne realised what Hope would like to talk to Madam Bones about and she decided to add, "You should bring Junior Cadet Tonks with you."

Hope's eyes widened as she turned to her Mate then back to the surprised pink haired girl. "I agree with my wife. Please bring Junior Cadet Tonks with you please Madam Bones."

Madam Bones gave the two girls a curious glance at their request but nodded her head as she moved over to the pink-haired girl holding her niece. Amelia whispered something to Susan which had her look at the ground in guilt.

Hope slung her right arm over Daphne's shoulder as they exited the arena with everybody else as she whispered to her Mate under her breath. "Wife? I thought we weren't using that term yet?"

"If we want to be taken seriously by the Ministry. We'll have to." Daphne replied with a partial smile as she slid her left arm around Hope's waist to help lead her out.

The on-site Dragon tamers walked up to the peaceful Dragon with confusion in their eyes as the Hungarian Horntail was ignoring them completely, she was focused completely on her Eggs. They managed to convince the Dragon to head out of the arena without much trouble at all.

Freya, Nic and Nelle were forming a protective physical barrier around the two girls, blocking them from the trailing Dumbledore with an evil glare at the man.

However Nelle was fussing over Hope as they walked into the arena corridor asking all the questions she expected a mother trained in Healing to ask. Myrddin and Alexandria thrilled quietly to each other over the top of Hope's head while occasionally stopping to glance at Freya or the side of Hope's head before starting up again.

Hope answered the questions diligently under a privacy ward Freya had erected around them until Amelia could catch up after sending both Susan and Neville back to the school with a minor warning for disobeying simple school rules as well as entering an area with a 5 'X' Magical Creature.