Chapter 32..6- Doom Days

I nodded, slightly irritated, but not too surprised. Imagine if someone could just forgo getting the hostages entirely and skip to the end of the course. That had no chance of going over well with anyone involved. Besides, his words were that I had to acquire the antidote, not that I had to feed it to the Weasley spawn. And if I wasn’t forced to, I wouldn’t be inviting his company on this thing.

I walked over to the brooms. ‘The Hummingbird’ was written on it in silvery cursive font. It was quite dissimilar from my fireboat. Where that oe had been all rough angles showing that it was built for pure unmatched speed, this one was different. It had a softer appearance, more rounded corners than sharp angles. There were four of them floating next to each other. I waved my wand over myself transfiguring the robes I was wearing into a near-skintight leather ensemble.

Exercise with Flitwick and the effect of my rituals meant I was physically fit in a way that neither Harry Potter nor Tom Riddle had been. When I swung my leg over the broom, I felt a different set of instincts take over. The same instincts that took over when I got into a duel or fight as well. Harry Potter’s instincts. All three parts of me had become one, but I could still tell when something was more suited to one side than the other. Designing the ritual and learning new pieces of magic was all Tom, the courtroom performance was Doom at his peak, and this? This was Potter. I shot into the skies with more force than I expected, but I quickly adapted to all the broom’s quirks.

It was like it spoke to me in a language only we knew,. It told me how fast it could do, when it could make turns, what turns it could make, and how it could dance. It told me, and I listened as I cut through the air above the island, making turns and loops as I completed an imaginary circuit in my mind. It was useful for getting used to the Broom and his capabilities.

By the time I came to a stop, Krum was already dragging his hostage, the Greek girl from the water. I wouldn’t bet on beating the man in the air with his famed skill in that respect, so I channeled my energy into maintaining my lead. I looked up above at the target, and really considered my options. There was a golden cage with four vials suspended within it. Trying to summon one of the vials had already failed. In fact, any attempt to affect the cage with magic failed. The obvious ward was not the cage’s only defence. The other defence was the herd of harpies.

Screeching magical creatures with avian bodies and human ears. Not just human heads, but female human heads and torsos— well, female human heads with beaks in place of mouths. Their breasts hung out flapping about the place. I sighed and shot off towards them. The Hummingbird was slower than the Firebolt in a striaght line, but it could do things that were impossible with the faster broom. The harpies turned to me as I approached— there being too many of them for me to even consider trying to sneak past. They dove down in my direction, and I slashed my wand through the air, focusing my intent and using one of the few Black family spells that I could use in a public area, creating a torrent of blue flames that engulfed the approaching creatures, overwhelming their magical resistance with the dark magic, and spreading to the ones behind.

They separated once they clocked that the flames were spreading from creature to creature, and I took the chance to shoot at the cage. The cage’s door swung open with a wave of my wand and flew into it. Sound fell away as I slammed the cage shut behind me. There was scarcely enough space for a single person, and the harpies instantly surrounded it from all corners, snapping their beaks and dragging their claws in my direction. I turned back to the cage’s interior, picking up one of the vials and slipping it in my pocket. When I moved the vial, a glamour fell away, revealing what lay behind the vials, a single egg.

A few seconds later, the cage shook as a rush of flames surrounded it, cooking all the harpies. In their space was a creature no one ever wanted to see approaching them in the sky. The Hungarian Horntail was some distance away, but its attention was fixed intently on the cage— the cage I was shut within. And I could tell just what it wanted.