25Chapter 2 – The first task
Private room, Ceridwen's Cauldrons, Hogsmeade
"So you-know-who is still alive, your first defence professor was possessed by him, your second defence professor probably memory-charmed students, and your third defence professor put you in danger under the full moon?"
"It wasn't his fault!" Harry protested. "I mean Lupin is nice…"
"Fine," Cyrus assured him, "that wasn't the point. We just need to be sure because we're going to do rather drastic things."
"What kind of drastic things?" Harry meekly asked.
"Taking care of your enemies." Skinner grinned grimly. "Doing things a child really shouldn't know about."
"And it would reassure us if I could examine your memories," Cyrus added, "so that we can feel certain that it's necessary."
…
"Tom Riddle?" Cyrus shook with laughter, "Tom Riddle is a bloody half-blood. This is bloody hilarious."
Skinner only smirked.
…
After Harry left Lord Greengrass began shaking.
"It's worse than it sounds like," he confided. "What do we do."
"I say we interview Moody and Lord Malfoy," Skinner's second in command said.
"Lucius first, and then we need to get Moody within a week of that, or he may become even more paranoid," Skinner decided.
"We'll need a good plan," Cyrus agreed glumly.
"It's dragons, Daphne, the first task is bloody dragons!" Harry exclaimed, when Daphne had finished warding the room.
"Well it's a good thing Moody showed you a spell to deal with dragons then, isn't it?" Daphne answered smiling.
"What spells? Hermione couldn't thing of any."
"The most potent spell he showed us? Bypassing a lot of shields and magic resistance?"
Watching it slowly dawn on Harry, Daphne almost burst into giggles. "The killing curse?" Harry asked hesitantly.
"No," she corrected, "the Imperius. It would be painfully wasteful to kill a dragon, so you won't need to. The Imperius can make the dragon do whatever you need. The strength that allowed you to resist the Imperius curse should also allow you cast it."
Harry stared for a moment, stunned.
"Do you still remember the wand movements?" Daphne asked.
Harry nodded. The wand movements of Imperio were rather simple, in that there weren't any.
"Would you cast the curse at me?" she asked cheerfully.
...
It took some cajoling, but Harry eventually cast the curse at Daphne. Repeatedly. Without any effect at all.
Even when Daphne coyly suggested that he could make her do whatever he wanted, his heart just wasn't in it. He actually didn't want her to do anything beyond her own will.
Fascinating. And a little sad. If Harry was more like the poser pureblood princes Daphne was more familiar with, she would've probably had precious blackmail material by now.
They needed a new approach.
...
First, Daphne conjured a spider, freaked out, and begged Harry to make it go away. However Harry just started giggling, rather unimpressed with Daphne's acting.
Then, they recruited Hermione, and Hermione conjured a spider that she send chasing after Daphne. Harry tried, he really did, but there was mirth in his eyes. When he pointedly smirked at Daphne she gave in, let the spider crawl up her hand, and petted the spider whilst cooing at it.
For the next attempt Daphne charmed a real spider, engorged it, and then further enchanted it until Hermione was screaming in fear. Then she send it after the girl. And that was how Harry mustered the Will to fast an effective Imperio.
It did hurt that Harry had found the Will only to protect another girl, but in a way Daphne already had her revenge. She vanished the 'Bloody Freaking Horrible Evil Nightmare Spider' with satisfaction.
"Sooo, I actually slightly lied to you about the wand movements."
Harry looked at her perplexed. He had, after all, performed the spell. And Daphne hadn't said anything about the wand movement.
"You see, the proper wand movement is like so." Daphne demonstrated a slowly shrinking spiral with her wand, whispering "imperio" when the spiral had shrunk to nothing. A translucent bolt shot from her wand and impacted the wall.
"Casting with the point-and-cast approach puts less of your power behind the spell. This doesn't matter for the spiders and muggles, but to overwhelm the Will and Magic of a dragon, you'll every bit of power you can bring to bear."
And thus she began coaching Harry on the effective use of the Imperius.
AND NOW, FINALLY AND MOST EXCITINGLY, IS HARRY POTTER, OUR YOUNGEST CHAMPION, FACING THE HUNGARIAN HORNTAIL Bagman announced.
Harry looked up at his opponent with quiet awe, and with confidence. With his whole outstretched arm he made a very large, very slow, and very sleek lazily shrinking spiral.
"Imperio."
He felt the mind of the dragon, wild and powerful beneath his own, like a mighty ocean, intent on harming anyone and anything that came close to any of her treasured children. Harry felt pity, and he felt his spell weakening. So he reminded himself that that primal wrath would turn against him too. And Harry said "No." He felt his Will dominate the dragon's. "Submit." The mighty dragon shrank.
LOOK AT HIM, HE'S FIGHTING A BATTLE OF WILL WITH A DRAGON, AND HE'S WINNING!
"Give me your egg." A mistake. The dragon's will surged up and fought. "The golden egg. It is false." Fortunately that was enough to recover. The dragon hesitated, doubted, and was suppressed again. "Look for the golden egg. It is a danger to your children." The dragon's neck bend inwards, and she looked. Harry felt it when the mother had found the 'imposter'. "Give it here." Gently, the dragon took the egg in her mouth and placed it as close to harry as she could. "Now sleep." The roiling sea calmed, but Harry did not let go.
INCREDIBLE. THE YOUNGEST CHAMPION CONVINCED HIS DRAGON TO GIVE HIM THE GOLDEN EGG
Harry jogged to the egg and then to the exit.
AND HE COMPLETES THE TASK THE FASTEST OF ANY COMPETITORS, AND COMPLETELY UNHARMED. GIVE AN APPLAUSE FOR THIS INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCE!
The judgements
Bagman, enthusiastic, innocent, and quite desperate to fix his gambling debt, gave 10 points.
Dumbledore, who knew that someone had been practising the Imperius within the wards, was both relieved and distressed that Harry had been the one. But there'd be no point undermining their relationship. 9 points from him.
Maxime, unimpressed by the brute curse, far less elegant than her own champion's sleeping charm, and lacking in daring besides, gave 6 points.
Karkaroff, who in no absolute HELL was going to give the lowest score to a boy that imperiused a dragon, no matter how much he wanted his own champion to win, gave 7 points.
Crouch just noted the Imperius curse was unfortunately not against the rules, and so by the letter of the law Potter had performed perfectly. 10 Points again.
In total then, Harry received 42 points and first place.
In the aftermath of the first task, Ron Weasley was even angrier, Hermione didn't know what to think, and Draco Malfoy was suspiciously polite.
A/N:a: I am uncertain whether this chapter is bloat or good content. In the outline I had when I posted last chapter, all of this was just 3 short sections. My rationale for expanding is that:
1. it deviates far enough from the books
2. it has some character development
3. I'm giving Harry access to the Imperius curse, which is a very potent solve-all tool. The process of acquiring such a tool deserves screen-time.
4. I think nerfing the Imperius keeps things more interesting. I'm hesitant on this point because it can be very unfulfilling when fanfic authors change the rules of magic.As a compromise, I've introduced a wand movement without any other explicit changes. Not shown: a wizard, particularly a powerful wizard or a death eater, will be able to resist Harry's Imperius.
A/N:b: I had a cool-sounding title prepared for this chapter, but in the end I opted for practicality. Let me know if you have an opinion, what kind of title is best.
A/N:c: Next chapter comes some of the content that motivated me to actually write this story, as the titular adults start taking on the Death Eater threat.