Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 287, Section 286: Malfoy's Frontal Assault on the Fire Dragon

He's a complete scoundrel, and the kind who doesn't even bother to pretend; everyone else already knows what kind of person he is anyway.

If circumstances allowed, Scrimgeour would have preferred to imprison Karkarov, who had previously escaped trial, in Azkaban.

“I think this is fair,” Ms. Maxim agreed, “Even if points are deducted, there must be a reason for the loss.”

Ms. Maxim was also a little worried that Karkaroff might deliberately give low scores to all the other warriors outside of his school.

"Fine, fine!" Karkaroff said irritably. After thinking for a moment, he reluctantly raised his wand and displayed his score—7 points.

The score is neither good nor bad; at most, it could be said that the scoring was a bit strict. However, given that Cedric was the first Warrior to play, being cautious is reasonable.

"This is the highest score I can give him!" After giving the score and noticing that the others were still looking at him, Karkaroff became even more agitated. "If he wants to get ten points from me, he'll have to defeat that damn fire dragon!"

“...That makes sense,” Madam Maxim said, nodding slightly after exchanging a glance with Harry.

“Um, excuse me for interrupting?” Hack suddenly asked hesitantly, “How should we… how should Perrier and I score? I mean, we can’t conjure up scores like you guys do with that stick…”

"Rest assured, we have already made preparations for this," French Minister of Magic Fernando said with a smile, handing each of the two Muggle prime ministers a piece of parchment—or rather, something that used to be parchment, because the two pieces of paper were very flat and hard, and would not bend when held in the hand; on the contrary, they were so hard that you could write directly on them.

“You two just need to write down the scores you want to give,” Scrinker added. “The corresponding scores will be displayed directly above your heads.”

“Oh?” Perrier wrote a number on the parchment with great interest, and the next second, a big number 9 floated above his head.

“I know I might have given him a slightly higher score than you guys,” Perrier explained with a smile. “But I think that child had extraordinary courage. Not everyone can bravely face such a huge fire dragon. At least I can’t be as calm as him… well, even though I don’t know magic.”

"Award points for courage?" Dumbledore nodded slightly. "That's reasonable, Mr. Prime Minister. Please score according to your own whims."

Following closely behind the French Prime Minister, Haque, as if unwilling to admit defeat, also gave it a nine out of ten, with similar reasons.

Following Cedric was Maria Miller, Durmstrang's warrior, who faced a Romanian horned dragon and boldly chose to use an Eye Strike spell to directly attack the dragon's eyes.

Unfortunately, the effect was shockingly poor. It wasn't that the dragon was immune to the Eye Curse; in fact, this spell was one of the effective spells a wizard should use when facing a dragon. The only problem was that Maria's spell clearly enraged the Romanian horned dragon.

The enraged dragon spewed flames at everything in its path, then furiously tried to kill the little insect that dared to attack it with its long, gleaming golden horns. Then came Maria's despair—the dragon, enraged by the pain and losing sight of itself, accidentally crushed its nest of eggs.

Therefore, quite surprisingly, the second warrior to appear received five zeros as his score, because those missing eggs were truly gone.

Maria Miller deducted all the points for the biggest penalty in the entire event. Even though Karkaroff struggled to give some sympathy points to his school's students, he still obediently gave her zero points when the dragon keeper charged up and roared angrily.

They have no choice but to fight. If Karkaroff insists on giving Maria a score of three or four, then the dragon keeper leader will probably have to give her a score of three or four.

"Two ministers, three principals!" the leader said without any politeness. "We absolutely cannot afford to lose any more dragon eggs. Therefore, we will use props to replace the remaining dragon eggs. This may cause some doubts for the fire dragon, but it is a necessary preparation—farewell!"

"This is really... a formidable force," Humphrey remarked with a strange expression as he watched the dragon keeper's departing figure.

"There was nothing we could do; after all, they really did lose the dragon egg by accident," Scrimgeour explained, somewhat embarrassed.

"No, I didn't mean... Let's keep watching the game, the next Warrior is about to take the court," Humphrey changed the subject.

What he actually meant was that the hierarchy among wizards didn't seem very clear, even between dragon breeders and the Minister of Magic—was it because of magic?
The existence of magic has made many things different.

Further exploration is needed.

Although there were nine student warriors, the competition was actually quite fast. The warriors either stole the golden egg from the fire dragon's lair very quickly or failed decisively, sometimes incredibly quickly.

The fire dragon is like an obstacle. Those who can get past it can do so relatively easily, even if it involves some risks. But those who can't get past it are completely stumped. No matter how hard they try, they can't overcome the fire dragon's protection, and they might even end up killing themselves.

Alan Dehaka, a student warrior from Beauxbatons, was nearly crushed to death by the fire dragon. If he hadn't jumped into the gap between the dragon's claws at the last moment, he would probably be mincemeat by now.

Dehaka's close call drew gasps from the audience, highlighting the perilous nature of the match.

However, although Dehaka survived, he was given a zero score, just like Maria Miller, because he not only failed to get the golden egg, but also almost died.

As for the others, such as the students most favored by each principal, they performed much better, such as Krum, Karkarov's favorite student, and Fleur, Ms. Maxim's favorite student.

Is it fair to say that Durmstrang graduates are just stubborn, or that they have a strong, uncompromising style of doing things?
It's more like getting back up from where you fell. In short, when Durmstrang's first student used the Eye of the Dragon Charm but ended up crushing all the dragon eggs and getting zero points, Viktor Krum also chose the Eye of the Dragon Charm as a means of attacking the dragon.

Meanwhile, as the dragon struggled in agony, Krum used a summoning spell to summon his flying broom from Durmstrang's large ship, and then rode the broom to steal all the dragon eggs.

As expected of an internationally renowned Quidditch player, Krum displayed such agility as he flew through the flames spewed by the dragon and through its claws and wings that it was as easy as grabbing a loaf of toast from his own kitchen. This effortless performance earned him a higher score than the other students.

Karkaroff had every reason to give Krum a perfect score, Dumbledore gave it a 9, Madam Maxim gave it an 8, and both Muggle prime ministers gave it a perfect score—because Krum used a flying broom, which was a perfect match for the wizards they knew.

Most importantly, Krum flew very fast and very well, which greatly impressed them.

“I must remind you both that the scoring criteria for student warriors are different from those for professor warriors,” Crouch said in a hoarse voice.

“Of course, that’s easy to understand,” Hack said immediately.

Unfortunately, Fleur embarrassed Ms. Maxim. Compared to Krum's perfect egg-collecting journey, Fleur was in a bit of a predicament. It's hard to imagine that she was wearing a skirt, a garment that is inconvenient for movement, during such an intense and exciting competition.

At the same time, Fleur underestimated the dragon's resistance to magic. She used a spell that could put the dragon to sleep, and it did indeed put the dragon to sleep. Under these circumstances, Fleur's egg-stealing journey should have gone smoothly without any surprises, but she accidentally set her skirt on fire because of the flames that the sleeping dragon breathed from its nose.

Karkarov deducted points from her score for this.

In the end, Furong scored 46 points, and her beauty captivated many viewers.

“I think I’ve figured it out. Principal Karkaroff’s favorite student is that one named Krum, while Principal Maxim’s favorite is that beautiful Fleur.” They were already quite familiar with each other, so Huck leaned in and joked, “So, Principal Potter, which student do you support the most?”

"This question can also be interpreted as you asking who you think is the best student at Hogwarts," Perrier asked curiously. "It's definitely not Cedric, right?"

“They are all the best students at Hogwarts, otherwise they wouldn’t have been chosen for the Goblet of Fire.” Under Dumbledore’s smiling gaze, Harry shook his head slightly and said, “But if I had to rank them, Hermione Granger would be the strongest of them, because she was learning shamanic magic from me while learning wizarding magic.”

"Of all the student warriors, the Hogwarts warriors are the youngest," Madam Maxim said calmly. "Especially Mr. Malfoy and Miss Granger, who are only third-year students, which means they will face greater pressure than the other warriors."

"We'll know the result soon, won't we?" Karkaroff suddenly said cheerfully. "Look, that Malfoy kid has already taken to the field."

Draco has entered the game.

Today he was wearing, well, a rather wild-looking, um... short coat made of animal hides, with a wolf head slung over his shoulder as decoration—this unusual outfit drew cheers from the audience, both wizards and Muggles.

Wizards know that such attire means the child is a unique shaman, while Muggles are looking for something strange or unusual.

Dual-wielding warhammers, Draco later also obtained a pair of warhammers made from the corpse of the basilisk, but they were not forged from the basilisk's fangs, but merely from a piece of its bone.

After being forged by Harry using steel, it became Draco's most readily available weapon. He was already a mature Enhancement Shaman... an apprentice who, in the days leading up to the tournament, had established connections with all four common elements with Harry's help.

This means that Draco is now able to infuse his weapons with elemental energy, but more than that, Harry has spent the last month improving Draco's melee abilities.

This ability, in the end, requires constant fighting, being beaten, or beating others—this kind of instinct, which can only be etched into the body through long-term fighting and training, cannot be acquired in a day or two.

Harry could only do his best to prevent Draco from being swatted around by the dragon's claws, tail, and wings whenever he got close to the dragon.

So during that month, what Draco did most was—get beaten up.

Then dodge.

"Good heavens! What am I seeing?!" Ludo Bagman screamed frantically. "Look! One of our youngest warriors, Malfoy, is charging like a real wolf! He's facing a Hungarian Horned Wasp! The most volatile and aggressive of all fire dragons! It's attacking Malfoy!—but it missed!!"

"Unbelievable agility! I dare say this is speed that no wizard could possibly possess! Merlin's underwear! Malfoy leaped directly onto the dragon's claws as it slapped at him! He jumped again! What did I just see?! Malfoy was leaping around on the dragon's back like a cat! The dragon couldn't hit him at all!"

"Oh?! He's swinging his warhammer! But will that really work? I mean, those two tiny warhammers are like trying to poke someone with a toothpick against a massive fire dragon. You can pierce through the flesh but you can't kill them—sorry, my analogy might be a bit off, but you should be able to understand my excitement now!"

"You can see that Malfoy is irritating the Hungarian wasp, and it starts rolling around! Trying to crush Malfoy on its back! Failure! Malfoy jumps away! But is this right?! This isn't right, is it? Isn't the challenge for the student warriors simply to steal the golden egg?"

"But we can all see that Malfoy hasn't made a single step close to the golden egg so far. His only target is the Hungarian Hornet! I understand! He wants to defeat this fire dragon! He wants to kill it!! My God!! Our youngest warrior wants to defeat a fire dragon head-on!!!"

Malfoy's wild antics kept the cheers from the audience going non-stop, and his every move captivated the audience.

(End of this chapter)