0572 Disputes

The timing of this moment was extremely precise, down to the very fraction of a second. The blazing torrent of dragon fire was a half meter away from engulfing Krum. The intense heat had already caused red blisters to erupt on the side of his face closest to the flames.

Meanwhile, the tip of Krum’s outstretched finger hovered just half an inch from making contact with the golden egg. However, apart from Watson and Dumbledore, everyone else’s vision in the stadium was completely obscured by the tsunami of fire surging from the dragon’s jaws. The rising smoke and shimmering haze of heat made it impossible for the crowd to observe this critical scene.

It was at this precise instant, when the balance between triumph and tragedy hung by a thread, that Watson and Dumbledore simultaneously chose to intervene.

The gray runes that Harry had previously seen trapping the Swedish Short-Snout in the cave abruptly reappeared. They spread with incredible speed across the thrashing dragon and the surging pillars of flame in the air, entangling them completely within a spatial dimension.

Dumbledore’s magic, on the other hand, required no flashy visual display, manifesting instead as a gentle, almost imperceptible breeze that ruffled his long silver beard. But the humble nature of the spell opposed its extraordinary power.

The massive Hungarian Horntail, by far the largest and most imposing of all the dragons brought to the tournament, was plucked from the ground and flung through the air like a child’s toy. Its enormous wings flapped uselessly as it tumbled and flew in a long arc, before crashing to the ground dozens of feet away with a resounding, earth-shattering roar.

Chunks of dirt and grass exploded up from the impact spot like a jet.

BANG!

Amidst the reverberations of the aftershock rippling through the ground, another distinct sound of impact rang out. It was the sound of a human body hitting the ground hard. Krum who had just barely managed to support the golden egg under one arm when the magical intervention tossed him backwards, lay curled on his side in the grass.

The wind had completely knocked him out and stars exploded behind his eyes from his head slamming against the ground. The blow left him dazed and disoriented, and he struggled to regain clarity.

For several moments he remained motionless with his lungs heaving as he gasped for air, and instinctively curled his body to protect himself from further injury. Waves of dizziness and nausea came over him, and intense bolts of pain radiated out from his shoulder and ribs where he had landed.

As the dust settled, a hush fell over the arena, leaving an almost oppressive, suffocating sense of silence in its trail. The screen displaying the action for all to see froze and held on the climactic final image of Dumbledore and Watson lowering their wands with solemn expressions.

The critical question hung unspoken in the air above the eagerly waiting crowd:

How should the judges give score on this?

Did it still count as Krum completing the task when he only grabbed the egg thanks to the intervention of them?

Ludo Bagman, Madame Maxime, and Barty Crouch seemed uncertain how to proceed, exchanging hesitant glances as they tried to reach an agreement on inferring the tournament rules for this unexpected scenario. Even the audience at the scene and those watching on the screens were at a loss for words. No one had imagined events would unfold this way.

The person who broke the tense silence was Karkaroff. He recovered his mind and found his voice first, clearly recognizing that popular opinion could rapidly grow against his champion if he did not act fast to set the narrative.

“Viktor has completed the challenge!” He declared loudly to the crowd, gesturing towards where Krum lay embracing the golden egg. “You all saw it with your own eyes! He has the egg in his possession! The boy has done it!”

Ludo Bagman, placed in the uncomfortable position of having to officially rule on the matter as both a judge and the tournament commentator, cleared his throat and spoke up reluctantly.

“I don’t mean to refute your point, Professor Karkaroff,” He said, choosing his words with great care, “but there is an undeniable fact we cannot overlook: Krum only obtained the golden egg after Watson and Dumbledore subdued the Hungarian Horntail. So, at least from a strict interpretation of the tournament rules and regulations, I’m afraid it doesn’t count as a successful completion of the task.”

Karkaroff’s face reddened with indignation and he exploded with barely suppressed rage. “That’s absolutely ridiculous, Bagman!” he spluttered. “It’s not as if Viktor asked them to intervene on his behalf! He would have had that egg in hand on his own! You all saw how close he was!”

“How can you say such a thing, Professor?”

Madame Maxime stared at Karkaroff with an expression of cold disapproval. “If it weren’t for the quick response of Watson and Dumbledore, your champion would have been burnt to a crisp!!”

Bryan and Dumbledore themselves remained silent, not wanting to engage in the increasingly heated and childish argument. Karkaroff’s clownish behavior were not enough to enrage them. Karkaroff also quickly realized that this was not the small room behind the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Countless gazes were focused on them from all around!

Sensing his control of the narrative slipping away, Karkaroff tried a new approach. He turned to Watson and Dumbledore with a sickly, fawning smile plastered across his face.

“Of course, I am immensely grateful to you both for saving Viktor’s life in the nick of time,” He said hypocritically. “It was nothing less than your duty, naturally! But I ask you both to speak fairly on this matter. Did Viktor not complete the challenge? Before the dragon’s flames could touch so much as a hair on his head, he had the egg in hand! So, oh, what I actually want to express is that you intervened a bit too early!”

Karkaroff’s ridiculous show drew sneers and snorts of disgust from the onlooking crowd. Professor McGonagall and Sprout made no effort to conceal their disdain and anger, while Snape, turned away to hide his sour expression, fearing Karkaroff might call him to come to his defense.

A hint of coldness tugged at the corner of Bryan’s mouth. He turned his head away, gazing at the dragons’ entrance tunnel with slight anticipation, not wanting to be entangled in this.

Dumbledore’s half-moon spectacles also reflected a trace of impatience, but in the end, he calmly made his assessment. “Objectively speaking, in that situation: Mr. Krum would indeed have been the first to touch the golden egg.”

Karkaroff showed his yellow teeth in a grin of triumph at Dumbledore’s words.

Krum, in a semi-conscious daze with pain was levitated onto a stretcher by a team of mediwitches and healers from St. Mungo’s Hospital and was taken swiftly away to the medical tent for treatment.

Bringing in these experienced specialists to handle any injuries had been a wise decision- had they left the task up to Madam Pomfrey alone, she would likely have confronted Bryan and Dumbledore directly and chewed them out for allowing students to face such dangers in the first place.

With Krum evacuated, the judges talked briefly and then began to give their scores.

Dumbledore and Madame Maxime remained impartial and fair-minded, giving Krum nine and eight points respectively. Barty Crouch gave an identical score of eight. Few could object with their judgment.

The controversy and drama came from the scores submitted by Karkaroff himself and Ludo Bagman. When Karkaroff pointed his wand at the magical scoreboard and a silver ribbon shot from the tip to form the number ten, the crowd erupted in outrage and disbelief.

From every corner of the stands, spectators shouted the word “Shameless!” and rained down boos upon Karkaroff’s head. But Karkaroff simply smiled more widely, unperturbed by the criticism – until Bagman revealed his score a moment later.

“Six points!”

Not to mention Karkaroff, even Bryan slightly raised his eyebrows, but then his brows fell back. ‘This guy must be secretly betting on Krum to lose the tournament.’

Karkaroff shot to his feet as if he’d sat on hot coals, and saliva flew from his lips as a vein pulsed in his temple.

“This is outrageous! Completely unacceptable!” He screamed at Bagman and his voice was cracking. “You’re Biased! You are targeting my champion!!”

“Ahem, perhaps you have forgotten, Professor Karkaroff,” Madame Maxime interrupted, her tone dripping with disdain. ” you also gave that Hogwarts boy 6 points, while his performance was far beyond that score?”

Karkaroff had a look of annoyance on his face. He was about to make a rebuttal, but Ludo stepped forward to explain his judgment.

“Don’t get me wrong, Professor,” Ludo said with a light smile on his face, clearly having anticipated that Karkaroff might question his scoring. “Mr. Krum performed quite admirably indeed! He had that golden egg practically in his grasp! But I’m afraid there was one tiny little problem.”

Bagman’s smile never wavered, but his eyes glittered coldly now. “You see, in those final critical seconds, when the Horntail was about to roast him to a charred husk… Mr. Krum made no attempt to dodge. In fact, unless my eyes deceive me, the boy actually sped up, and basically dove into the flames in a mad lunge for the egg!”

Karkaroff’s face went pale and he opened his mouth to retort, but Bagman spoke right over him, shaking a finger over his twitching face. “Come now, Professor, let’s call a spade a spade, shall we? Mr. Krum clearly counted on Dumbledore and Watson to swoop in and rescue him from the consequences of his recklessness! He staked his life on their intervention! If not for their quick thinking and decisive action, he would have been burnt to ashes! I believe such an approach warrants a firm deduction of points; wouldn’t you agree?”

Faced with the damning summary of his champion’s strategic mistake, Karkaroff found himself tongue-tied and at a loss for any effective rebuttal. He stood there opening and closing his mouth with no words emerging.

Bryan glanced at his pocket watch deliberately.

“In any case, as long as the judges provide appropriate justification, they have full autonomy to score the champions as they see fit,” he said in an uncompromising tone. “The last champion is eagerly waiting. We shouldn’t waste any more time on this issue.”

Seeing he would find no allies in this argument, Karkaroff plopped back into his seat with a sulky scowl and began to count up the numbers. But as he tallied the final score, his expression cleared and brightened considerably.

Despite the unkind scores from Bagman and the others, Krum’s total still surpassed that of the Beauxbatons champion Fleur Delacour and drew exactly even with Cedric. A gleam rekindled in Karkaroff’s eyes, and he turned to stare at the tunnel mouth in eager anticipation.

At long last, the first task of the storied Triwizard Tournament had nearly reached its conclusion. All that remained was the final champion, the second representative of Hogwarts – and the unexpected fourth contestant in a tournament only meant to feature three.

The Gryffindor section of the stands had fallen abnormally silent as they waited with bated breath. Cedric had completed his challenge. Now, it all depended on Hermione Granger!

Ron’s face had gone chalk-white as he stared at the entrance to the champions’ tunnel. After seeing the terrifying spectacle of Cedric, Fleur and Krum battling the monstrous dragons, the true deadly nature of the tournament had sunk in at last, shifting his earlier bitterness and jealousy with pure fear for Hermione. He tried very hard not to picture Hermione’s broken, scorched body being carried out on a stretcher like Krum’s.

“Blimey,” he muttered through a hoarse throat. “Harry… where the bloody hell are you, mate?” He scanned the crowd desperately, hoping to spot a familiar messy-haired head.

‘Why wasn’t he present at the scene?’

Wow!

At this moment, a wave of gasps arose from the audience. Ron quickly turned his head and finally witnessed the opponent Hermione was about to face.

The Chinese Fireball.

This dragon had a particularly striking appearance. Its smooth scales were a scarlet color, and it had a lion’s snout with a circle of golden, tassel-like spikes around its nostrils. Its eyes were bulged out and its body was much smaller than the Hungarian Horntail that had just left the arena, weighing only three to four tons. It seemed much easier to deal with, but still—

No matter how easy it was to deal with, it was still a dragon!

And why was Charlie leading this dragon with an iron chain all by himself???

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