Harry Potter: Don't touch

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Harry got on his broom, got off the ground and flew towards the dragon. He was in no hurry: the huge lizard had already proven to be a danger. Indeed, as Potter approached, the dragon breathed fire, but Harry was ready for it, accelerated and flew over the jet of fire.

- Devastatio! - Potter renewed his spell just in case.

Harry began flying over the dragon, occasionally sending simple spells at it, which only annoyed it. Potter's goal was to lure the dragon out. If he understood correctly, the dragon wasn't really a dragon, but a dragoness, the females protecting their offspring, right? And the Norwegian Humpback dragon had been tricked, planted with a golden egg and made to think it was his.

Accordingly, Potter had only to annoy the dragon to the point where he decided that killing the insolent troublemaker was more important to him than protecting his offspring, i.e. the golden egg.

Time passed, however, and the dragon did not respond to the provocation. Harry had already spent more time on the challenge than the rest of the contestants, but he was having no luck outsmarting the lizard. But the Norwegian Humpback was a clever dragon, too clever. It was highly likely that he had figured out Potter's plan and was staying still, watching carefully to make sure he didn't get anywhere near his egg.

From time to time the dragon snapped back - trying to hit Harry with flames - and the attempts were decent. The Norwegian Humpback didn't just let the flames fly, he tried to match Harry's actions and sometimes even calculated the trajectory and speed of the broom to hit the flames. His actions were similar to Potter's own Quidditch actions when playing as a paddler, except that the dragon didn't move.

Another plan went awry, the dragon had six flame spits close to hitting, and Potter had zero attempts to steal the egg. What was happening resembled a shooting gallery: the lizard was the shooter with an infinite amount of ammunition, and Harry was the wiggly target.Soon it was over... and not at all in Potter's favour. Norwegian Humpback had noticed Harry pausing for a few seconds to apply the Devastatio, and at one of those moments he timed it and breathed fire. At the last moment, Harry moved out of the flight path of the flames, but the Nimbus 2000 caught fire and Potter was forced to make an emergency landing.

If it could be called that, of course... Harry went down a bit, and then his broomstick simply disintegrated in mid-air, and he hit the ground very hard as he fell. The dragon immediately released fire at the landing spot, but Harry was no longer there, he made a couple of jumps to the rock that had already become his home and hid behind it from the flames.

The fire didn't reach Harry, the spectators were happy with the end of the fight, and the dragon was still sitting on the masonry. Nothing had changed.

- What a creature you are! - Shouted Harry to the dragon. The loss of his broom upset and made him very angry. - Set yourself on fire, you bastard!

The dragon might not know human language, but he got the general meaning, as he tried again to reach Potter with fire, but to no avail.

Another idea popped into Harry's head. If dragons were so intelligent, then maybe spells that worked on a thinking creature's perception would work on them as well? An illusionary spell or maybe.....

- Confundo! - Harry exclaimed without preparation, sending a mental order to the dragon to get rid of the egg.

An orange flash hit the dragon and it immediately turned away from Potter. Harry stared at the dragon in surprise. He had the distinct impression that the lizard was Mad-Eye Moody's hand lizard.

He wondered if all dragons were so clever. Or was he the only one so lucky? How smart does it take to be a dragon, to realise that magic has been thrown at him, and to pretend that the magic has worked, so that the wizard can get closer to him, where he can be reached by the flames?

The dragon's plan was ingenious, and Harry would surely have been trapped if he had sent a normal Confundus, and his Confundus had been flavoured with a mental command - get rid of the golden egg. And since the dragon wouldn't touch the egg, the Confundus had no effect on him, which meant that the one turning away was just pretending.

- I know you're faking it, you bastard! - shouted Harry, notifying the Norwegian Humpback of his conclusion.

The dragon realised he had been exposed, he turned to Potter and breathed fire on him again... A stalemate had developed.

Another of Potter's plans had failed - the sixth or seventh, Harry lost count. He had also had the idea of launching a Conjunctivitus, but as Bagman had said, that would only enrage the dragon, better not to try it, because a dragon defending itself was one thing, but attacking it was something else entirely.

- Harry Potter, come on! Show him! - came a familiar voice from the west stand.

Potter turned at the sound and found Sirius Black sitting there. Still undecided how to respond to him, Harry turned back to the dragon. Something had to be thought of. Suddenly Potter felt a searing pain.

- Devastatio! - Harry instantly pointed his wand at himself.

The pain was gone. He had forgotten to cast the spell on himself because of the negotiations with the dragon. But now he knew that the spell lasted for about five minutes. Not too long, but it could have been worse.

Harry sat down next to the stone and began to consider his options; there was no time limit on the trials, so he could think. Some onlookers started whistling, expressing their outrage, but Potter didn't care. He wouldn't go to slaughter for the whims of the people.

So. What are the options? Transfiguring a dragon? Nonsense. Kill it? Nothing. Defeat fire with ice? Harry never learnt Congelo, so that's out. Some kind of distraction? No way, the burnt snake is proof of that. Arrangements? The dragon doesn't want to settle this peacefully. Confuse? Confundus doesn't work on dragons. Trick and lure? Hmmm... We could try that.

- Novum angustus! - The stone in front of Potter turned into a golden egg, or rather, it looked like a golden egg, more like a yellow polyhedron. Harry wasn't as good friends with transfiguration as he was with spells. But the dragon wasn't a geometry teacher, he should have been fine with that.

- Geminio! - A replica of a yellow polyhedron, a pseudo-golden egg, appeared in front of Harry.

- Geminio! Geminio! Geminio! Geminio! Geminio! Geminio!

When at least a hundred golden eggs appeared around him, he stopped using the duplicating spell. The second stage of the plan had arrived.

- Wingardium Leviosa! Waddiwazi!

The dragon was bombarded with golden eggs. At first the animal's instincts prevailed, it regarded them as its own and moved them towards him with its paw; perhaps it had simply been led to believe, for the test, that all the golden eggs it would see were his. However, after the fifteenth yellow polyhedron the dragon realised something and started to burn the parcels on the way up, so that half of the eggs never reached the dragon. However, the main goal was achieved, the dragon fell for it, it considered the golden eggs created by Potter as its own. Which meant it would protect them at all costs.

Casting Devastatio on himself once more, Potter exclaimed:

- Accio maxima golden egg!

Nothing happened. Oh well, you can't fool magic.

- Accio maxima yellow polyhedron! Falls!

A Potter transfigured golden egg flew out from under the dragon and stopped three metres away from the dragon at Harry's will. Experiments with roosters were not in vain: if you cancel the beckoning spell in time, you can simply move the object to a certain distance. And if you gradually move the egg away from the dragon, you can slowly lure the lizard out of the nest.

The Norwegian Humpback moved away from the nest and tried to bring back his, as he probably thought, future cub. But Potter was faster:

- Accio! Falls! - the polyhedron flew a few metres away from the dragon.

That's when the Norwegian Humpback suspected something. This was obviously the first time he had ever seen his cubs in an egg be able to fly before they even hatched. He looked at the egg, at the clutch, at the egg again, at Potter.... and went back to his nest!

Harry mentally scowled, the plan seemed perfect, as far as he remembered from his fourth grade environment books, parents in the animal world have instincts and the paramount one is to protect the offspring. Instincts are what the animal world was all about, however, just now the lizard had sensed the trick and was able to suppress its natural instincts before Potter's eyes.

Harry had almost succeeded in luring the dragon out, a few more metres and it would have left the nest, and then he could act.

- Accio another yellow polyhedron! Falls! - Potter repeated the egg trick.

This time the success was even more dismal, the dragon did not leave the clutch, only gave the golden egg a sad look. The third attempt was an even bigger failure, Harry had not timed the beckoning spell, so he cancelled it too late and the egg he had made almost crashed into him.

The dragon continued to do clever things, this time he didn't even pay attention to the flying yellow object and even more, he realised his mistake and started to get rid of the fakes in his nest. It was obvious that the dragon had no maternal instinct for yellow polyhedrons.

Another plan ended in failure. The lizard was too clever for such tricks. And Potter ran out of ideas again. Again he had to come up with something.

"What's he supposed to do now? Give up? No way! What options hadn't he tried yet? Turning one of the false eggs left by the dragon into explosives? He doesn't know how it works, and the real golden egg could be damaged. How stupid is that? He knows a bunch of spells, but none of them will help him subdue the dragon!"

Finally, Potter had another idea. It was the most delusional of the previous ones, but it might work. A tantalising spell seemed like it could solve all problems?

- Actio weapons against dragons!

Nothing happened.

- Accio dragon slayer! Accio something useful! Accio piece of land under the golden egg! Accio piece of land underneath the piece of land underneath the golden egg underneath the dragon! Accio anything at all, come on!

Potter added an amendment to his opinion on the tantalising spell, it could solve all problems except taming the dragon.

After ten minutes of inactivity, Potter had another idea. However, that one was as dangerous and inadequate as it could possibly be. Alas, however, there was no choice.

Potter carefully approached the nearest dragon restrainer, who was supposed to intervene in an emergency. I wonder if they are forbidden to have contact with champions?

- What kind of defence system is in place here? - Harry asked. - I'll be rescued if something goes wrong, won't I?

He consulted with his partner standing next to him and answered:

- 'If you are seriously injured there is an automatic transfer to the Hospital Wing and there will be an emergency portal to St Mungo's Hospital, this is used at the Headmaster's discretion if the student's injuries are too serious.

It sounded safe. However, Harry decided to clarify one point:

- If I get hit by dragon flames without protection, will it save me?

He conferred with his partner longer this time.

- Yes. Any injury sustained in the test will not be fatal.

Harry nodded. This might be the moment he would do the dumbest thing in the history of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. For that, he would have to get over himself and ignore his instincts. The dragon did it, why can't he?

- Devastatio! - Harry renewed his fire protection spell and slowly walked towards the dragon, muttering to himself that the fire wouldn't hurt him.

The onlookers cheered, they were already bored out of their minds watching Potter's incredibly long first trial, and the dragon tamers raised their wands. Even the dragon himself seemed surprised that the annoying little man was walking towards his own death.Potter was already a few metres away from the dragon when it stopped looking for a catch and breathed fire.

Everything around Harry turned orange, red, a little yellow and bright. There was fire all around.

Potter realised that he and all his clothes were on fire. There was no pain though, the Devastatio was working properly. Still, it was good that the spell didn't just apply to the man, but also to his clothes and wand. If the clothes had burned, he would have been naked, and if the wand had burned, it would have been impossible to update the spell's effects, and Potter would have been in serious trouble. However, the glasses were less fortunate, they were not affected by the spell's effects, they burned almost instantly.

The fire was there, but it didn't do any damage while the spell was in effect, it just acted as a decoration. However, that decoration was getting in the way, and not just psychologically. Harry's eyes were on fire, making it incredibly difficult to make out the world around him, but there were still some outlines visible.

Potter sped up and ran towards where he thought the dragon's nest should be, he was sure that the dragon expected the victim to burn or at least be injured, it was unlikely that the lizard expected a burning man to run to steal eggs. This dragon might be smarter than his brethren, but even he wouldn't have had the brains to realise that his fire wasn't harming the man.

- Devastatio! - Potter updated the spell just in case.

He reached the nest, but there was a problem. Because of the burning eyes, the whole world around him was orange, and Harry found it hard to tell which of the eggs he should take. He recognised his fake eggs immediately, the eggs should be round, not polyhedral, but as it turned out, there were real eggs in the nest too.

There was no time to feel the eggs, the dragon could try to eat the torch man at any moment, so Harry grabbed the yellow egg that looked the most yellow and ran out of the nest, away from the still inactive dragon.

After moving five metres away from the dragon, Potter allowed himself to relax. The task was done. Yes, with problems. But he had proven to everyone that he was worthy of participating in the Tournament and competing on equal footing with the adults. He'd won the golden egg and passed the challenge. And it was his own idea. Neither Bagman, nor Lupin, nor Moody had suggested it to him. He had figured out the solution on his own. And the solution wasn't that difficult, it was enough to get over himself, switch off his emotions, put the fear of fire away and complete the task. You could say that the box was simply opened. I wonder why the dragon used only fire and not his paws, or, for example, his tail?

That was Potter's last thought before something hit him in the back so hard that he flew a few metres away with the egg in his hand, fell to the ground and lost consciousness. Then the auto-apparate system kicked in.