Draco had never known the color green could be that cold before. Nor that so much could be conveyed simply by the eyes alone. But there was no doubt in his mind Harry Potter's eyes could. And did. It became clear to him his rival had changed. The Harry Potter in the school now was not the same boy he had declared as his rival when they were eleven. He didn't know how or why but he did know it was true. So he took to stalking the Gryffindor and observing his few interactions with people. He saw at once just why Harry had changed and decided he didn't like it. He saw why he couldn't get a reaction from his rival any more. Pain was something the Gryffindor Golden Boy was all too used to seeing as how he was being injured daily left, right and center by almost everyone in the Castle. Only the foreign students weren't actively trying to harm his rival.
Slowly, he got the rest of the Slytherins to back off by pointing out to them how the other students were doing all the work for them. Harry Potter was no longer the Prince of Hogwarts that he had been in previous years. He pointed out the treatment the boy was now receiving even from their teachers and told them, "If he doesn't kill himself outright, there's a damn good chance he'll allow this bloody tournament or any of our fellow students to do it for him. Merlin knows some of those so-called pranks he's getting hit with are deadly enough to do the trick." He didn't know it but Harry had heard him.
The first challenge was outsmarting a dragon to steal an egg that wasn't an egg from her nest. The creators of the challenge had made it as difficult as they could by choosing only first time nesting dragons because they had a reputation for being the most protective of their nests for the contest. And being in a foreign location not of their own choosing, they were doubly fierce and overly protective of their eggs. Added to that they had deliberately withheld their food from the mother dragons so they would be hungry as well as angry over the perceived threat to their young. Dragons were meat eaters and much larger than mere humans. So the contestants would be considered food for a hungry dragon. The coordinators wanted the dragons to be very hungry, upset and angry when the competitors entered the arena because they thought it would produce a better show for the spectators sitting safe and sound in the stands. They wanted a true gladiator style challenge for the audience to enjoy but an angry, starving lion wasn't quite gory enough for them. Mainly because they'd never seen a lion on the attack before and they'd certainly never seen a lion devouring it's kill. If they had, they'd have known lions would provide a lot more gore than any breed of dragon ever could. Harry was the last to go which didn't surprise him at all. Nor had it surprised him when he got the meanest breed of dragon there was.
He was, however, the best equipped to deal with an angry dragon seeing as how they were related to snakes and could understand the basics of the snake language. He simply told the dragon he was sorry to be entering her nesting area but he had no choice. He told her of the gladiator styled event to amuse the masses of bored out of pocket Romans of which she, her younglings and he were all victims. The purpose of the event was for him to retrieve the false egg that was invading her nest. She'd turned immediately to examine the stands full of booing and hissing spectators and the small table for the judges where they could see and hear everything the competitors did to win the challenge. Then she examined her nest, spotting the egg no dragon would ever have lain with no trouble at all.
....
Join my P@treon get free advanced chapters.
Paid members can get upto 60+ chapters ahead of the public release.
Link : [email protected]/KittyLovesMilk