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Chapter 587: The Dragon and Krum's Performance
🕑 Added 2019-09-01 01:16:05 +0000 UTCBefore Bagman said how he was going to help Ron, Evan, Harry and Hermione came out of the bushes.
After being separated from Ron, Evan and the five others followed Professor McGonagall to the audience.
After asking Colin to take seats for them, Evan, Harry and Hermione sneaked back to the tent.
They had planned to wait until there was no one inside to find a way in. They didn’t know that when they would be there, they would see Bagman pulling Ron out.
"Why are you here?" said Bagman with surprise.
The next second, before they could explain, a whistle had blown somewhere on the ground.
"God lord, I’ve got to run!" said Bagman in alarm, and he hurried off, no longer caring about them.
"What did he ask you to come out for?" said Hermione, looking skeptically at Bagman's back.
"He wanted to help me and was ready to give me advice. Before he said anything, you interrupted him!" Ron answered.
"You can pass the task as long as you follow the battle plan, and you don't need any other help!" said Evan. "It’s not a glorious thing. The fewer people you know the better. By the way, what kind of fire dragon did you draw?"
"The Chinese Fireball!" Ron said quickly and looked at Evan eagerly. "Do you have any Fire Protection Potion against it?"
The Chinese Fireball was the only oriental dragon in the bunch, also known as the Liondragon, native to China.
It has a particularly striking appearance. Scarlet and smooth-scaled, it has a fringe of golden spikes around its snub-snouted face and extremely protuberant eyes.
The Fireball gained its name for the mushroom-shaped flame that bursts from its nostrils when it is angered. That is its most powerful attack.
The female fireball is much larger than the male. It is aggressive, but tolerant, sometimes consenting to share its territory with up to two others.
Especially with the help of Evan’s potion, Ron didn't have to worry about its fire attack.
Relatively speaking, this was much less difficult than the most dangerous Hungarian Horntail that Harry had drawn in the original book.
Evan took out the potion to protect from the Chinese Fireball’s flame and handed it to Ron. The three of them said a few words of assurance before they returned to the audience.
At this moment, the audience was full of people, and all the young wizards were screaming and yelling.
The five judges, Dumbledore, Mr. Crouch, Madame Maxime, Karkaroff and Ludo Bagman, sat on the chair in the middle height.
Then, Evan saw Sirius in the crowd. He was before the referee’s table, waving to them.
"It’s strange, why Bagman offered to help Ron,” said Harry, greeting Sirius. “There’s no reason, he’s a judge...”
"Probably for personal reasons!"
"Don't worry about him. I wish Ron would succeed!" said Hermione preoccupied, staring at the middle of the field.
Krum had walked out of the tent, and opposite to him was the silvery-blue Swedish Short-Snout.
This dragon is the most attractive of all dragons. It is silvery-blue and can spur a brilliant blue flame from its nostrils.
But beyond this beauty, it has indeed a heart-wrenching force. The blue flame is hot enough to reduce timber and bone to ash in a matter of seconds.
In the Middle Ages, the Swedish Short-Snout’s skin was sought after for the manufacture of protective gloves and shields, and the dragon skin products were the top equipment of all adventurers and wizards.
Because of its high value, many people tried to kill the dragon.
The vast majority of dragon Slayers eventually died, and their skeletons remained forever in the mountains of northern Sweden.
The Swedish Short-Snout is one of the most dangerous species in the world due to its agile flying and extremely hot fire both to attack and defend.
"Look at Krum, what is he doing!"
Krum came out of the tent and ran straight to the Short-Snout at the other end of the field.
The Short-Snout crouched low, guarding its clutch of eggs, and its terrible eyes fixed on Krum, who was approaching.
It gave out a shrill roar, warning Krum not to be close, and fluttering its wings.
Krum didn't seem to see it. He ran forward sideways and came very close to the dragon.
In the next second, the Short-Snout snorted and sprayed a blue flame, and Krum rushed to hide behind the stone.
The flame brushed past him, dangerous and threatening, and all the young wizards were highly focused on Krum.
Even in the audience, which was far apart, they could still feel the hot temperature.
The blue flame of the Short-Snout was of a continuous nature, and it swayed back and forth at the place where Krum was hiding.
As the rocks melted in the heat, it was not good for Krum to continue hiding there.
He was done. Everyone has this idea in their minds!
Just as the dragon keepers were about to rush in to save Krum, the flame shot by the Short-Snout gradually stopped. It was breathing, and Krum seized the opportunity to rush out.
The wand in his hand was pointed at the Short-Snout, and a spell flew out and hit the dragon in the eyes.
It was the Conjunctivitis Curse!!!
The Short-Snout uttered a terrible, ground-breaking roar, and the audience all took a deep breath.
"Very daring, Krum showed extraordinary courage!" Bagman shouted. "The dragon cannot see anything, now... hold on, oh no!"
They saw the Short-Snout struggling wildly with pain, stepping on its feet and crushing half of the eggs behind it.
Krum's Conjunctivitis Curse was so powerful that the Short-Snout lost sight and felt pain.
Ten seconds later, Krum dodged this monster's aimless attack and took the golden egg from the nest behind it.
More than forty dragon keepers on standby quickly rushed in to calm the mad dragon.
"He did a good job!" Evan objectively commented, "Ron should really have seen it. The Conjunctivitis Curse Krum used is exemplary. He was very good in both position and timing and it was worthy of being studied. Ron only needs to be half as good as he is, and he can easily pass the dragon."
"Krum is really good, but his score is definitely not high. He broke half the real eggs. They will take marks off for that. He was not supposed to do any damage to them." Hermione said, motioning everyone to see Hagrid, who was in the middle of the enclosure.
Hagrid was helping Charlie and other dragon keepers to save what they could of the dragon eggs with a look of distress on his face.
Sure enough, for Krum's performance, except for Karkaroff who gave a full mark, the other four judges gave only eight to nine points as evaluation.
