After discovering the situation with this Swedish Short-Snout, Kael immediately abandoned his plan to hide for a while. He abruptly turned his broom in the air, circled around, and moved to just above the dragon.
A blast of dragon flame came rushing over, but Kael managed to dodge it in time.
"Hey, calm down." He flew to the side of the dragon's head, making sure it could see him.
"We've met before, remember?
"Think about it. Back then, I helped heal your wound, and you insisted we were meddling..."
The Swedish Short-Snout's roar abruptly stopped. Its yellow slit pupil, staring at Kael, shifted slightly as if sizing him up.
Soon after, the second ball of dragon flame in its mouth gradually faded out, ending with two jets of fire puffing from its nostrils.
"Looks like you remember." Kael said, his tensed body finally relaxing a little—thankfully, he hadn't confused the dragon.
"How's your injury now... It's rare that we meet again. If you've got any scrapes or bruises, I can help you with those."
Speaking, Kael maneuvered his Firebolt to the dragon's left front side.
He pulled back a little, but not too far— from the audience's angle, it seemed like he and the dragon were locked in a thrilling chase.
Anyway, the gasps from the stands were pretty loud.
The Short-Snout snorted again and made a low whining sound. Its speed slowed, as if it had grown bored and wanted to return to the cliff.
"Don't rush back yet!" Kael immediately called out.
The orange-yellow pupil looked over.
"Don't get the wrong idea," Kael explained. "I just need a little favor, nothing major..."
The Short-Snout revealed a hint of impatience on its face but didn't try to go back, simply kept flapping its wings and followed after Kael.
"You probably haven't noticed..." Kael went on, "Someone put something else into your ashstones—I could pick them out for you, how about it?"
The Short-Snout glanced over warily, letting out a roar.
A ball of flame grazed the tail of Kael's Firebolt... The stands erupted with nervous screams from the audience.
"Don't be nervous, I'm not trying to take your treasure," Kael hurried to explain. "Just a few pieces, I promise you, they're definitely not ashstones..."
...
So, man and dragon kept flying and talking like this, even leaving the pitch altogether, not turning back until they circled the castle.
But the audience was surprised to see the dragon seemed to have been tripped up by one of the castle's towers.
"The distance's opening up!"
In the stands, Fred yelled out excitedly. With his Panoramic Telescope, he could see clearly that Kael was speeding straight toward the cliff, "The dragon's at least fifty feet away—he's got a shot at those stones!"
"No way, it's too risky!" Cedric said nervously. "Don't forget there's another dragon there, and it's the most dangerous Hungarian Horntail!"
"But Kael's already gone!" George said, his eye glued to the Panoramic Telescope.
He saw Kael charge right at the cliff without hesitation—then the Horntail stood up and breathed a ball of fire, but Kael dodged nimbly.
"Brilliant!" George couldn't help shouting.
As the Firebolt sped up, the spectators' hearts started pounding wildly.
At last, the Firebolt flew over the cliff... Kael grabbed the broom handle with one hand, his other hand quickly reaching down, as if scooping up something from the ground.
Then he turned to the other side.
But in just that moment's pause, the dragon was already only a few feet behind Kael...
"Run for it..." From the spectator seats, Conna couldn't help but stand up, trying to warn Kael.
But before she could finish, her words were drowned out by deafening screams.
Everyone was cheering, shouting, clapping wildly.
Nobody even knew exactly when, but Kael had already left the field and appeared on the other side of the stands, near the judges' area.
In his hand, three red stones were gleaming brilliantly.
"Such a bold idea!" Bagman was shouting from above. "He's shown incredible courage... Ah yes, that's right, he's done it... Amazing, our youngest Champion has completed all the rounds in the fastest time."
Kael looked up, just in time to see Dumbledore smiling at him. Next to him, Karkaroff and Maxime were also smiling, but it looked much more forced.
After leaving the field, the noise around him suddenly grew much louder, the crowd's clamor pounding at his ears.
"That was absolutely spectacular!" As soon as Kael stepped off his Firebolt, Professor McGonagall exclaimed loudly.
She jogged over to Kael. "Before the judges score you, you need to go see Madam Pomfrey. Right over there..."
Professor McGonagall pointed to the locker room on the other side of the passageway, and Kael noticed her hand was trembling slightly.
"You did it, Kael," Hagrid said hoarsely. "You took on two dragons alone—the other two have no idea what the third task is yet..."
"Thank you, Hagrid!" Kael shouted, cutting him off.
Karkaroff and Maxime were right there, their faces already looking pretty sour.
"Professor, can I go see Madam Pomfrey a bit later?" Kael turned to Professor McGonagall. "I want to watch the rest of the competition."
"I understand, but no..." Professor McGonagall insisted.
"All right, then."
Kael could only leave the field. He saw Madam Pomfrey waiting at the entrance to the second locker room, looking rather anxious.
"Zouwu, Bludger, Fire Dragon!" she said with obvious disgust, pulling Kael into the locker room. Inside, it was divided into little cubicles, identical to the Hospital Wing.
Madam Pomfrey carefully examined Kael's back, grumbling the whole time, "What were they thinking, letting so many dangerous things appear in the school at once? You're lucky—it's just your clothes that got torn, no injuries... Here, drink this."
She handed him a bottle of smoking blue Magic Potion.
Relaxing Potion, good for easing tension—one of the most popular potions before exams.
But Kael felt he didn't need it. He didn't know about Krum or Fleur, but for him, the three rounds had been pretty easy... he'd only even needed a single Summoning Charm from start to finish.
But Madam Pomfrey didn't see it that way—she fixed her gaze on Kael until he finished the potion and then quickly walked out of the cubicle.
Kael waited a bit. Once he was sure Madam Pomfrey was gone, he stood up to check what was going on outside.
But he hadn't even reached the door before a group of people rushed in.
"You were the first to finish—the first!" Conna said excitedly. "You were amazing!"
"She's right," Fred squeezed in from outside. "I'll bet your score's the highest."
"How's it looking now?" Kael asked, curious.
"Not great," Cedric said. "Krum got a real beating from a Zouwu. He used a Charm to make his skin tough as iron—barely scraped through the first task.
"And Delacour—she's stuck on the second round's platform, trying to take out all the Bludgers.
"I'm telling you, that Summoning Charm of yours was pure genius—Delacour never thought of that one."
"Wouldn't have mattered if she had,"
Fred laughed. "First, she'd need to have a Firebolt..."