DISCLAIMER: I do not own Mahou Sensei Negima or Harry Potter. Mahou Sensei Negima is the property of Ken Akamatsu, and Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling.

Italics text = character thinking to themselves.

Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy

Bold text = shouting

Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability

Chapter Nine

The First Task

The morning before the First Task of the Tournament was met with great excitement from the majority of the students and great worry from most of the staff. Once the investigation regarding Ron Weasley's disappearance had started, it became impossible to keep the presence of the dragons secret, hence now the entire school knew that during the First Task the school champions were going to face dragons.

There were many complaints from both Karkaroff and Maxime regarding the secrecy of the Task, how Dumbledore had allowed the secrecy of the challenge to be compromised, but eventually Bagman of all people pointed out that it would take a lot of bravery to show up to face dragons anyway, possible more then one would when facing the unknown.

"Lord Potter." McGonagall spoke up as he approached Harry where he was having breakfast in the Great Hall. "The school champions are required to meet before the First Task starts so that you will be given the last details."

"In other words to decide which dragon we get to face." Harry mussed out loud, earning a sigh and a nod from the Deputy Headmistress. "Very well then."

"I'll be accompanying you there." McGonagall added and soon enough she was leading him to a tent raised near the enclosure where the dragons were.

Strands similar to those around the Quidditch Pitch had been raised around the enclosure which further hid it, but nothing could hide the angry roars and the tongues of flame that were reaching for the sky. Harry could not help but smirk at how McGonagall had blanched and was trembling slightly at this. With a muttered 'Good luck' she left him in front of the tent and after a moment Harry entered.

Fleur Delacour was sitting in a corner on a how wooden stool. She didn't look nearly as composed as usual, but rather pale and clammy. Viktor Krum looked even surlier than usual, which Harry supposed was his way of showing nerves. It was Bagman, however, that drew Harry's attention. Dressed in what Harry guessed had been his Quidditch robes during his time as a Beater, the man was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement.

"Ah, Ha – Lord Potter!" Bagman called out happily. "Come in, make yourself at home!"

"So, how do we decide which dragon we get?" Harry inquired in amusement. "A duel? Rock-Paper-Scissors? I heard about something called the Russian Roulette…" Harry trailed off, not even trying to hide his growing smirk at how Krum paled at his last suggestion.

"Uh… no. you just draw a corresponding figurine from this bag. You will have to get passed the real life versions of them and claim the golden egg from their nest." Bagman pointed out as he held up a sack of purple silk.

'Oh. That's rather… anticlimactic." Harry sighed.

"Well, there will be plenty of excitement soon enough." Bagman grinned.

"True." Harry agreed. "So, when…?"

"We'll let the crowd to gather first before you will draw your dragons." Bagman explained.

Five minutes later, the excided chatter that had began to trickle by was focused within the stands, and Bagman opened the sack and held it out.

"Ladies first." Bagman smiled.

Fleur put a shaking hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny, perfect model of a dragon - a Welsh Green. It had the number two around its neck.

Krum pulled out the scarlet Chinese Fireball. It had the number one around its neck. He didn't even blink, just sat back down and stared at the ground.

Finally, Harry reached into the sack and narrowed his eyes slightly at the feeling of as small repelling ward being broken down when recognising his magical signature. Without a word he pulled out the Hungarian Horntail and looking at it inquisitively.

"Well, there you are!" Bagman said. "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr. Krum, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, all right?"

After he left, a tense silence settled inside the tent, with Krum looking towards the entrance in concentration.

"I'm pretty sure you two already know this, but dragons are vulnerable at the eyes and the back of their mouths." Harry casually informed them.

"I did not read about their mouths." Krum frowned as he glanced at Harry.

"That's because while a weak spot on its own, it's still well protected by the fire the dragons spews out." Harry said dryly.

"Why are you telling us zis?" Fleur looking at him with some surprise.

"Just because I intend to win this, it doesn't mean I want you to die in the process." Harry shrugged.

Before they could reply, the whistle sounded and Krum hurried out, leaving Fleur to begin pacing nervously while the shouts of the crowd, the angry roars of the dragon and Bagman's comments filled the air. Harry was taking full advantage of his magical sight to see through the physical obstacles how Krum had blinded his dragon with a Conjunctivitis Curse which unfortunately led to the dragon going wild and thrashing around, crushing some of its own eggs. Unable to safely approach the eggs as the dragon was attacking the ground there, Krum was forced to remain idled until the dragon regained enough of its self control to sniff him out. At that point had to run around the enclosure a bit as the dragon had begun to blast all the boulders it could reach towards him. In the end, the Bulgarian managed to hit him with another Conjunctivitis Curse which proved enough of a distraction for him to get the golden egg, though his left sleeve was set aflame from a stray blast of fire.

Soon enough, Fleur answered the call of the whistle and headed into the enclosure. She began by casting Calming Charm after Calming charm at the Welsh Green, generally focused around the eyes and the head as a whole. This resulted in the dragon getting more and more drowsy, though it was negligible. After several minutes she began what looked like a song in Latin , though Harry was clearly seeing how she was flooding the arena with her Allure, focusing it on the dragon. Eventually, the dragon settled down and fell asleep, prompting Fleur to hurry and retrieve her golden egg – she was careless, however, and walked in front of the dragon's nostrils which led to her skirt being set on fire by a few flames that came with the snores.

Finally though, it was Harry's turn. At the sound of the whistle he left the tent and entered the enclosure where he found himself face to face with the enormous Hungarian Horntail.

It had black scales, a spiked tail, and bronze horns protruding from its head. It had yellow eyes with vertical pupils. And was it glaring straight at him, streams of near white-hot flames randomly spewing from its mouth as its spiked tail whipped around smashing craters randomly.

At the sight before him, Harry could not help but feel a shiver that ran down his spine. Not of fear as it might have been not a year before, but of excitement, as his own pupils became vertical slits and his sclera became pitch black for a couple seconds, before he regained control of himself. Taking a deep breath he began walking towards the dragon at a calm pace as the 'plan' he made with Eva flashed at the forefront of his mind.

Flashback

"Your goal is not to survive this Task." The Queen of Darkness spoke with a smirk. "It's not even to win." she added, her smirk becoming feral. "Your goal is to completely establish your superiority and to show the heights of your power to those pathetic wizards so that none will question you again without fearing for their continued existence!"

Flashback End

"Showtime." Harry thought.

As if his thought was a signal, the Hungarian Horntail drew a deep breath and unleashed a huge stream of fire towards him.

Without breaking his stride, Harry raised his empty right hand towards the approaching flames.

"Nivis Casus!" he called out and a large-volume avalanche of snow was created and launched at the dragon, meeting the flames mid-way in an explosion of hissing steam. His eyes seeing through the fog of war before him, Harry swished his left hand to the side calling out "Flans Paries Aerialis!" just before the Horntail's spiked tail impacted the newly erected barrier. Immediately, Harry called out "Gelidus Capulus!" causing frost to erupt from under the tail, encasing it in a pillar of ice, firmly anchoring it in place.

The Horntail howled in anger and unleashed another stream of fire at Harry, this time even more powerful then the one before, its anger clearly amplifying the power of the attack.

Harry allowed the flames to approach him until they were only a couple seconds away. At that point he brought his left hand to his mouth and breathed out a black inferno.

"Fiendfyre!" was Harry's harsh whisper as a torrent of black fire left the palm of his hand and wrapped itself around the dragon's fire, burning it from existence as it took the form of a flaming, pitch black, Japanese dragon which unleashed a taunting roar at the Hungarian Horntail before fading away.

Before the living dragon could do more then screech in anger, Harry raised his right hand towards the dragon's chest and called his spell out firmly.

"Dextra Emittam! Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!" came from Harry before a huge twister of frost and darkness erupted from his open palm and quickly crossed the distance between him and the dragon, impacting the Horntail in the chest and blasting him away from the eggs and to the other side of the enclosure where it slammed into the huge boulders that were on the edge, the chains holding it to the ground as well ass the ice prison holding its tail having been uprooted in the process.

The dragon's pained and angry screech was echoing through the deathly silent stands as Harry took a few more steps towards the dragon before he used a Shundou to appear before it causing the dragon to move to attack him again, only to be smashed into the ground once again at a mere whisper from Harry.

"Malleus Aquilonis!" caused a humongous sphere of ice, half the size of the dragon itself, to form above the open hand that Harry was holding towards the heavens before the green eyed mage brought it down on his opponent.

Harry then levitated himself to stand face to face with the dragon and began chanting.

"Tenebris gelida flamma fulgur! Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach! In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium Cum Spinis Triginta! Iaculatio Fulgoris!" Harry roared the last part and thirty spears of white lightning materialized floating around him before descending on the dragon at a gesture of his wrist, impaling the dragon's body and limbs, pinning it into the ground.

The dragon's roar of pain followed and heat began to gather in its mouth before Harry unleashed his aura upon the stadium, mostly focused on the dragon before him before he slammed his palm on the Horntail's snout, immediately halting it fully as Harry lowered his shades to reveal his glowing emerald eyes.

"Yield." Harry while sending a spear of mental magic through the dragon's eyes straight into its psyche.

The result was near instantaneous, as the dragon immediately lowered its head in a bow, its body trembling visibly.

"Tenebris gelida flamma fulgur! Aer et Aqua, Facti Nebula Illis Somnum Brevem! Nebula Hypnotica!" Harry chanted slowly causing a light fog to gather around him before it flowed into the dragon through its mouth and snout, quickly knocking it out.

Without another word, Harry used a Shundou to appear beside the nest and took the golden egg before heading towards tent he saw the other two champions enter earlier, where Madam Pomfrey was apparently waiting for him.

"I'm unharmed." Harry said as soon as she was within hearing range.

"I thought as much, surprising as it may be." Pomfrey remarked faintly. "Keep an eye on the judges to see your scores." she motioned towards the far end of the enclosure.

Looking in that direction, Harry noticed that the shell-shocked and pale judges were staring at him while whispering furiously between themselves. Soon enough, Maxime raised her wand and two silver ribbons shot out of the tip, taking the appearance of a ten, earning applause from the crowd. Crouch followed her example as did Bagman, each granting him a ten.

Next in line was Karkaroff who was silently looking at Harry. The raven haired champion guessed he needed a slight push to make the right decision and flashed his eyes slightly behind his shades earning a flinch from the Durmstrang Headmaster who flinched and quickly gave him a ten.

Dumbledore was last and after giving his fellow judges a disappointed look he gave Harry a four, earning shouts of outrage from the crowds.

Harry, however, chuckled in amusement and with a shake of his head he headed towards the champion's tent.

"Verry impressive, Lord Potter." Krum remarked as he saw Harry.

"Thank you. If what I heard is true, you put up quite a show yourself." Harry smiled. "And I hear you were quite… enchanting, Fleur."

"Zank you." the Veela smiled.

"Well done, all of you!" Bagman said, bouncing into the tent and looking as pleased as though he personally had just got past a dragon. "Now, just a quick few words: You've got a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth - but we're giving you something to think about in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open… see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg - because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"

Harry left the tent with the other champions but quickly split up to meet up with their respective schoolmates. Harry joined up with Hermione, Neville and Daphne as they headed towards the castle, only to stop as Rita Skeeter appeared before them from behind a tree.

"Lord Potter! Congratulations on finishing the First Task in first place!" the reporter began. "Do you have anything to comment? Did you find the judges unfair?"

"With the exception of Dumbledore, all the judges graded correctly as far as I know." Harry shrugged.

"What do you think made Dumbledore give you such as small score?" Rita asked.

"Well, I'm certain he's going to claim that I used too much force and that I'm going dark, or some other bullshit along those lines." Harry began. "The truth, however, is that Dumbledore is just throwing a temper tantrum to make it seem like he still matters in some way."

"To make it seem?" Rita asked for clarification.

"Dumbledore has been committing various illegalities over the past few decades." Harry said firmly. "Right now, he's buried up to his neck in trials. And this time he won't get away by saying that whatever he did is for the Greater Good. Do you know why, Miss Skeeter?"

"No, could you please tell us?" Skeeter grinned.

"Because I'm going to remind people that 'For the Greater Good' was Grindelwald's slogan. And look what he did to our society." Harry said darkly.

"I… see." Rita flinched. "Thank you for your time…"

An explosion erupted from the enclosure and the group hurried back there, only to find a rather gruesome sight.

Blood was splattered before the once again chained and awake Hungarian Horntail, who was growling in satisfaction. Impaled on its spiked tail was the body of a familiar looking Slytherin, the hair giving it away… before the tail flicked towards the dragon's mouth, detaching the corpse which was almost instantly crushed by the Horntail's powerful fangs and then swallowed.

"M-Malfoy?" Daphne gaped in shock and horror at the sight of her classmate's corpse.

"Stupefy!" Harry roared along a couple dozen other voices and the Horntail went down under the combined power of the Stunners.

"What happened here?" Hermione asked in shock.

"What the hell was Malfoy doing so close to the Horntail?" demanded from the nearest dragon keeper.

"I… I don't know." The man shook his head. "He just suddenly ran up to the dragon and before we could do anything he started ranting how the dragon was weak to lose to you… and then…"

"The dragon killed him, stab him with the tail, it did." another dragon keeper finished.

"But how did he get down here from the stands?" Harry demanded before turning towards the approaching judges. "Weren't there any wards put up between the stands and the enclosure?"

"I placed several to stop any stray spells, flames or objects from leaving the enclosure and endangering the spectators… I did not think it was necessary to place any to stop people entering the enclosure." Dumbledore admited.

"Yes, you have the unfortunate habit of NOT thinking." Harry growled under his breath, though hard enough for everyone to hear. "Well, Dumbledore, since it's your lack of judgement that led to this, it's up to you to recover Malfoy's body… and explain to his father how this happened. Look, here he comes now…"

"DUMBLEDORE!" Lucius Malfoy's roar of rage was heard from the place in the stands he was coming from all over to castle itself.

Timeskip – That Night – Malfoy Manor

Lucius Malfoy was a mess. His day started bad enough, with watching the Potter brat practically toying with what was considered the most dangerous dragon breed left in existence – nesting mother at that! Seeing the fourteen year old throwing that much magic around like it was nothing terrified the elder Malfoy more then any political al financial manoeuvre the young Lord had pulled since claiming his inheritance.

Compared to the fearsome ice and darkness, the Dark Lord's Fiendfire, which at times clamed a few Death Eaters that were foolish enough to think Voldemort would keep it in a tight leash for their safety, was no that impressive. And the way he pinned the dragon to the ground with those spears of lightning… Lucius quickly drowned the shiver by abandoning his glass and drinking straight from the bottle of Firewhiskey.

Then tragedy struck… or rather the epitome of stupidity. He had always known that Draco was arrogant – he had made sure he was raised to be that way. But he had though that he had shown the stupid boy that there was a fine line between showing that you're confident in your status and power… and being utterly stupid. Clearly, from the way Draco has simply walked up to the dragon and began berating it for loosing to Potter, the boy had not learned that lesson or heard a word of it for that matter.

And, to top it all, there was little he could do about it. Draco was dead and had been halfway digested by the time what was left of his corpse had been extracted from the dragon due to the creature's superior metabolism, and he was limited in what retribution could demand. The worse kind of opposition was there: witnesses that saw exactly what happened. At most, he was able to accuse Dumbledore of negligence and the only reason that worked was because Potter was doing the same. In the end, he had written a complaint and sent it to Fudge and he was meeting Dumbledore in court in a few weeks.

Deciding to forget this most unpleasant day, Lucius pushed away the empty bottle next to the one that preceded it and popped open another. He had earned the right to get smashed, he has nothing urgent planned for the next day and Narcissa was in France for the next week, though she would likely cut it short for Draco's funeral.

He continued drinking into the night, his inebriated mind not even contemplating that he had passed the safe limit of Firewhiskey with the first bottle. By the time he was finishing his sixth bottle he was so drunk he could not even begin to wonder how he was still conscious. He was halfway through his eighth when he finally fell asleep… and with that the spell he had been tagged with that morning before the First Task even began finally ended, allowing the full extent of alcohol he had consumed to hit his heart and brain, instantly giving him a stroke which killed him in his state of unconsciousness.

Timeskip – Next Day at dinner – Hogwarts Great Hall

Loud chatter filled the Great Hall as the students and staff all but abandoned eating in favour of discussing the tragedy that had struck the Malfoy family the previous day: father and son both dieing in a rather stupid and embarrassing way.

"So I hear Narcissa will be back by tomorrow. She Floo-called Amelia this morning after hearing some rumours on the beach in France." Sirius said as he put aside the evening edition of the Daily Prophet.

"She was on the beach?" Remus asked surprised. "Never though her the type."

"Yeah, some place called Cap d'Agde, I think it was. Never heard of it. Must be some obscure place where nobody will see her." Sirius shrugged.

"C-Cap d'Agde?" Hermione squeaked as she repeated the name.

"Hm? You're heard of the place, Hermione?" Luna inquired.

"It's… um… I went there on summer holiday last year." Hermione said as she tried to tone down her blush, hoping that…

"Hoh? Never thought you the type to go to a nudist beach, little girl." Evangeline smirked as she and Harry arrived with Daphne and Tracey, with Susan joining them moments later at the end of the Gryffindor table their group had claimed.

"Nudist beach?" Luna questioned.

"A beach where you don't wear any clothes at all. Not even a swimsuit." Sirius grinned. "Damn, I knew we missed something this summer. Still, you surprise me, Hermione."

"I was expecting it, to be honest. Brainy girls are usually naughty." Harry took a jab at the bookworm.

"Me and my big mouth." Hermione sunk into her seat, her face shining red with embarrassment.

"So pup, you figured out what's the deal with that egg?" Sirius inquired.

"Yeah, just had to open it underwater. The starfish lock at the top of it was pretty obvious." Harry snorted, though he kept his voice down for the most part.

"He has to retrieve something from the bottom of the Black Lake in under an hour." Eva shrugged as she served herself some chocolate cake.

"Easy. Though they may add some extra water based magical creatures." Sirius suggested.

"And there's the giant squid as well." Susan pointed out.

"I don't think it will attack the champions. I hear the thing even helps out the first years that fall into the lake when they fall out of the boats." Tracey said.

"Like that Creepy kid." Harry agreed.

"Creevey. He's Colin's younger brother." Hermione corrected.

"Creepy II then." Harry nodded, earning a chuckles from those who knew the fanboy.

"So, how are you gonna do it?" Remus inquired.

"You could use the Bubble-Head Charm." Tracey suggested.

"And I read about this plant called Gillyweed that makes you grow gills for a period of time. I borrowed the book from Neville." Hermione added.

"If you know what you're looking for, you could locate it with the Point Me spell." Susan chimed in.

"You could simply try summoning whatever they took and avoid getting wet." Daphne pointed out.

"Actually, I was thinking of taking Eva's suggestion to split the waters and walking over to the thing they take from me." Harry confessed sheepishly.

A profound silence followed this statement, with everyone but Eva string at him incredulously while the Dark Evangel was smirking.

"Well… that would work." Remus nodded slowly.

A.N.: What's up people? I'm BAAAAACK!

Yeah, sorry for being so late with this chapter. I had to rewrite it a few times. For some reason, it kept turning out too short.

So, as I'm sure you notice, I ended the Malfoy line. I was considering dealing with Lucius like I did with the Lestranges, but I decided to make it less conspicuous. So I had him drink himself to death, for a bit of originality, you see. There are countless stories where Lucius gets assassinated but his killer takes the time to talk to him or make them change his will, so I decided to have him killed by a the delayed effect of a spell.

The next chapter will feature the Yule Ball as I'm sure you expected, but before that I have a few things to say regarding the poll on my profile.

I'm truly disappointed that 59 people had wasted their votes without considering the implications. Seriously, the guy lost the use of an eye and his body and powers were changed in an unknown way. How could Naruto possibly get through it without any lasting problems? I mostly place the 0% option in the poll just to cover all possibilities. Therefore, I regretfully announce you that the votes for the 0% option will be ignored. Sorry people, but it wouldn't work at all.

Until next time, feel free to drop a Review.