Hehe… don't hurt me?

I'm sorry I couldn't get this up sooner! School has been crazy, and with sports and my deviantART and schoolwork and summer school and being sick for two freaking weeks and not having a laptop for a week on top of that, I haven't had a lot of time to work on this… so sorryyyyyy!

There is a POLL ON MY PROFILE. PLEASE TAKE IT.

In the last chapter, when Naruto is yelling at the ferret (xDDDDDD) he's basically saying how much this OTHER ferret called Neregui that looks kinda like him hated him. Watch The Stone of Gelel for more info.

Ok, we're in double-digit chapters now! HUZZAH! For the record, this in one of the first times this has happened… I think…

On a side note, JAPAN WON THE WOMEN'S WORLD CUP! xDDDDDD

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE REVIEWZ!

Chapter 10

Harry's POV

I lay on my bed, staring at the golden egg that lay on the bedside table beside me. A lot had happened today. I had fought a dragon. I had nearly gotten the Gryffindor Common Room's ears blasted off. And, most importantly, I made up with Ron. I still couldn't believe I actually survived in the arena with that unnerving Hungarian Horntail. I closed my eyes, letting my mind wander back to memories of the battle.

FLASHBACK

The crowd enthusiastically chanted my name as I stepped out into the rocky arena. I warily looked around, searching for the dragon and my target, the egg. I spotted a golden glint off to my right, and started to walk towards it, my hand slightly outstretched with the naïve idea that I would be able to simply walk over and retrieve the glittering ticket to victory.

Big mistake.

I leapt backwards as a huge, spiked THING attacked my left side with a burst of red flames. I whirled around to see my second target, the dragon.

It let out a deafening roar and, again, let out a blast of flames from its mouth. I leaped over a rock, desperately trying to avoid getting burned to a crisp and/or squashed like a bug.

Someone in the stands was shouting frantically to me—I think it was Hermione. Something about my wand…

"Accio Firebolt!" I yelled, using the spell that I had practiced endlessly in preparation for this very moment. Before I could see if this spell had even worked, the oncoming Horntail continued to spew red-hot flames, forcing me backwards to avoid getting burnt to a blackened crisp. In the distance, I saw what looked like… a small bird? No, it was my Firebolt! But, before I could move, the Horntail let out yet another horrifying shriek as the flames from its sharply toothed mouth started to actually melt the cracked, brown rock I was hiding behind.

I swallowed nervously, feeling the oncoming heat begin to singe my sleeves. At the last minute, before the rock, I don't know, exploded or something, I hoped that luck was on my side and leapt into the air…

Right onto my Firebolt, narrowly dodging yet another stream of fire from the Horntail. Jeez, how could the thing not have melted its own throat by now?

Aeri's POV… BUT IT'S STILL A FLASHBACK

"He's up!" I shouted happily over the roar of the crowd. Around the arena, my team cheered along with the rest of the students as we watched Harry rise steadily on his broomstick. How the hell he stayed afloat on that flimsy sticks of wood, I'd never know. But never mind that.

Anyways, my team was spread out around the rim of the arena, closely watching the action for any signs of trouble…Well, trouble that wasn't supposed to be there.

The audience shrieked as the Horntail spread its gigantic wings and attempted to take flight. Everyone let out a united sigh of relief as they realized that the chain around the Horntail's neck prevented it from getting more than a few dozen feet off of the ground.

"Aeri, there's no way that dragon can get loose, yeah?" Ino shouted at me from my right.

"Positive!" I shouted back. "I double and triple checked; it would take shinobi strength, at the least, to break it!"

We all watched again as the dragon tried to take flight a second and third time. Each time the thick chain jerked it harshly back towards the earth.

But on the fourth try…

"Aeri, do you see that?" Neji screamed from my left.

I turned my head sharply to get a better view. A thin blue thread of chakra was dancing around, flickering between visibility and the realm of the unseen…but what in the world…

"What's it doing?" I yelled. "Ino, you see anything?"

"Nothing!" she yelled back. "It must be invisible!"

I watched it in unadulterated horror as it leapt towards the dragon's neck.

"It's cutting the chains!" I realized, leaping up from my post. "Neji! Kiba! After him!"

They both nodded, dodging between unknowing, screaming fans to follow our mystery man.

"Aeri, you might wanna try going after that dragon!" Ino screamed, watching as the scaly beast broke free and finally took flight. The crowd broke out into petrified shrieks.

"I'm on it!" I yelled back, darting along the rim of the arena, leaping at the last moment onto the dragon's back.

Holy Shiznits.

Now, I know being and ANBU and all, I'm not supposed to be scared of stuff easily.

But humans are NOT, NOT, NOT meant to be flying.

That is a SURE fact.

"Holy crap, get me off this thing!" I screamed, clutching the scaly hide of the dragon for dear life, completely forgetting my mission, as the dragon raced forward in pursuit.

At least from up here, I could see where Neji, Kiba, and Akamaru were running as they tried to find our invisible foe. It looked like they were headed to the forbidden forest…

Carefully inching my way around, clutching onto any handholds I could find, I cautiously peeked over the dragon's head. It was still in pursuit of Harry, its opponent, chasing him in circles around the school.

And I was on its back.

I peered down below me; there were a couple of school buildings that I could leap onto and (hopefully) stick a landing, but for the most part, if I leapt now, I'd probably be looking at a broken neck, and no means of getting to the others.

Mother-fucking fuck.

Harry's POV

My original plan? Get my broom. Do some fancy tricks. Confuse the dragon. Get the egg. It would take fifteen minutes. Tops.

But no. This dragon had decided to rip itself free from chains that were double and triple checked on strength, and send me desperately flying for my life around Hogwarts.

No wonder people had died in this competition…

I looked over my shoulder, trying to see how far behind the Horntail was. It roared and snapped at me, but something jumping off it's back caught my eye.

"Aeri?" I gasped.

She looked at me, her eyes wide, "Potter, careful!"

I nodded and began to loop around the Gryffindor tower only to have the dragon's spiked tail whip me right off my broom and onto the roof of the tower.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed as I slid down the roof, trying desperately to grab anything that might slow my descent. This is it. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, this is the end…

By some luck, my fingers latched onto a windowsill on the way down, and I hung on for dear life. Gasping, I struggled to pull myself back up while watching the Horntail land much more gracefully on the tower.

Scooting myself around the ledge, I quickly located my Firebolt, hanging on another windowsill just under mine. Unfortunately, I was too busy thinking of falling off the tower and the Horntail slowly advancing on me to notice the spike that was holding me up slowly rip away from the wood.

And then it popped.

I plummeted onto the window below me, the one with my Firebolt lodged on it. Unfortunately, the wood I would have used as a ledge for my feet broke, and I was once again dangling by my fingertips.

Struggling for a foothold, I looked up, to only see the Horntail slowly making its way towards me.

I pulled myself onto the ledge, and attempted to pull my Firebolt free. But, to my dismay, it was stuck.

With a mighty roar, the Horntail snapped at me, completely annihilating the window I was clutching onto. Guess who was falling? AGAIN.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed yet again, somehow managing to mount my broomstick. I took off, soaring through the school, the Horntail hot on my tail.

Through a gap in the building, I could see a bridge, one with small arches. Could that be my savior?

Quickly changing course, I went for the bridge. I just had to make sure I managed to safely get through one of the arches…

"I must be mad," I muttered quietly to myself, hurtling forward.

Moments before I passed through the bridge, the dragon snapped it's huge mouth at my broom, causing my to loose my crucial balance.

With yet another scream, I bumped against the arches. The dragon was not as lucky; it crashed loudly into the stone bridge. Ouch.

And yet again, I was free falling.

Aeri's POV

As soon as I saw Harry falling, I leapt into action.

Darting from tower to tower, I dove after him, somehow catching him in midair. After that, it was simple to land softly at the bottom of the valley.

"You okay, Potter?" I asked, helping him up.

"Other then the fact that I was just chased around my school by an angry dragon, fell off a roof, twice, and was nearly killed after a kamikaze attempt to fly through a bridge?" he asked sarcastically. "Yeah, just peachy."

"Heh, sorry," I laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck.

"Why didn't you just step in and, like, kill the dragon?" he asked me, bending over to retrieve his broomstick. "I mean, I know you could have if you wanted to."

I flinched. "Number one, I would never want to kill an animal. Even if it wanted to eat me."

"Wait, lemme get this straight," Harry said slowly. "You can kill a hundred people in the blink of an eye… and not want to hurt a gigantic fire-breathing, clawed, pissed off dragon that wants to eat your face?"

I nodded.

He sighed. "I don't think I'll ever understand you…next reason?"

"Reason number two: we're only supposed to step in if the champion looks as if he or she is going to die if we don't do anything. A dragon you around the school, sure, you could get eaten. We wouldn't know until we tracked down the dragon. But, get set on fire…"

I close my eyes thoughtfully.

"You're in the hospital for three weeks, you have nasty scars for the rest of your life, but you live."

I nodded, opening my eyes.

Harry was staring at me in shock.

I sighed. "Ok, here's the deal. Why don't you just go get your egg, and we pretend this never happened, got it?"

Harry nodded. "Okay. Thanks, Aeri."

I smiled. "No prob."

It was only AFTER he flew away that I realized that I was at the bottom of a freaking cliff with absolutely no idea where in the world I was.

Damn it all.

Harry's POV

As I flew into the arena, the crowd erupted into cheers below me. With no dragon around to try and set me on fire, I dived into the middle of the arena and easily scooped up the dragon's golden egg.

INVISIBLE~LINE~BREAK

Aeri's POV

"Neji, Kiba, were you able to track down that weird chakra we saw earlier?" I asked.

I was sitting at one of the gigantic tables in the Great Hall along with Gaara, Kiba, Akamaru, Neji, and Ino, discussing the First Task. It was originally only going to be Neji, Ino and I, but after the Gryffindor Common room got their ear drums decimated by Harry's egg, it seemed best to avoid it for the night.

"Nope. We tracked him for a while, but then the chakra signal just… vanished" Kiba said.

"Yeah. It was like our mystery man vanished into thin air…" Neji agreed.

I sighed. "That's alright. Kiba. You're our best tracker. If they slipped past you, there's something fishy going on. We're gonna have to tighten security ten-fold. Someone's trying to sabotage this tournament, and I wanna know who."

Yaaay! Reviews!

Axel – AWWWWWW! Thank you so muuuuuch!

girl of the streets – thank you so much. Don't worry, with the response I've gotten, I have no intention of abandoning the story (even though I haven't updated in 5 months…)

( ) – thanks! Don't worry, the ninja will have their appearances. Thank you for the feedback!

Spider's Thread – hehe, don't worry, I will :)

SaturnXK – the explanation is in the beginning. Im so sorry you've had to wait for so long! And thanks, I knew that was something he HAD to say… lol.

Em, you got me back the edit in RECORD TIME. U R AWESOME!