Chapter 8.4- Doom Days

When the beast turned around to look at the remaining champions, it was like all four of them in the arena moved at the same time. Harry’s wand flashed out and lightning from the sky itself struck down on where the Hellhound had been standing. It dodged the spell by the bare skin off its teeth, but somehow that spell had just been an attempt to herd the beast in a direction. Delacour’s singing began again, and this time it took a completely different pitch. Cedric moved his wand to and fro in a series of movements and one of the boulders near the hellhound turned into a massive lion that dove right at Cwn Anwnn.

It tried to wrestle the bigger hound into submission but it was almost sad how the hound overcame the lion and tore through it’s throat with teeth like blades after pinning it to the ground after a very brief tussle. Cedric’s wand did not stay still. Another boulder turned into a badger of all things. A third boulder into a snake and a fourth became an eagle. The entirety of Hogwarts, it seemed, was cheering on their champion as he called upon the school’s animal mascots to his aid.

Of course, whatever morale benefit his animal choices had did not matter in face of the hound from hell itself. Cwn Anwnn incinerated the eagle before it could even take into the air and eviscerated the badger with wide swipes of its claws. The snake went completely ignored as the beast ran along the wall of a particularly large boulder before jumping onto another and then another. It was rapidly approaching Diggory. If she could see that, then those on the ground could do the same.

When the beast jumped again, the boulder it intended to land on turned to dust from a blasting curse from Harry’s wand. It landed in a sand pit that Harry had quickly transfigured. It began pushing itself out but was forced to take another lightning bolt to the face. This one drove it deeper even into the sand, but it seemed her friend had miscalculated. She knew that lightning could get as hot as the sun’s surface but it was likely Harry didn’t. His sand was mostly glassed by his own attack so the hellhound shrugged away the effects of the molten sand as it rose to its feet and walked out of the mostly destroyed pit.

Cedric, perhaps frustrated at seeing all his creations destroyed with little effect, turned his wand to the Hellhound itself. She wondered what he had up his sleeve that compared with the bevy of dark arts that Krum had unleashed or the elemental power that Harry called upon with ease. It turned out that it was a reducto curse. She did not facepalm as the Hellhound allowed the spell to splash harmlessly against its fur.

Of course, all her uncharitable thoughts fled when the hellhound took in a deep breath. Cedric was still too far away, at least a dozen feet away from the max range she’d seen of the hellhound’s flames so he should be fine. Except that he wasn’t. This time, instead of a stream of flames, the hellhound breathed out a fireball that travelled through the air aimed at the Hogwarts Champion.

His shield charm did not appear as quickly as Krum’s but it was sufficient to shield him from the explosion of flames, even if he did look worse for wear.

“Hold strong, Cedric” She heard Harry shout out at him from across the arena as he began to weave another spell into being. It wasn’t to be, after all, as the second the Hellhound was moving again, Cedric’s wand snapped up to the sky and sent up purple sparks. He was whisked away a second later, and then there were two.