Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [165]
“It doesn’t matter,” said Ron, just stopping his clapping. “Whether you had a great victory, a pathetic victory, or even lost, we’d applaud just the same!” Harry gave him a smile and nod of approval, and Hermione smiled.
“Thanks guys,” she said as she sat down.
“A’ight! A’ight!” said Hagrid, trying to calm down the excited crowd. “Our nex’ battle ‘s gonna be between… Mr. Gregory Goyle an’… Mr. Ron Weasley!”
The audience gave an enthusiastic cheer as the two competitors walked to their boxes. This time, Ron took the blue box, and Goyle took the red one. Immediately, the two holes in the ground appeared, and the dragons popped out.
“Where are the dragons coming from?” Harry asked Hermione. “They seem to just pop out of the ground.”
“Well,” said Hermione, “the chamber that they were kept in was just below the ground here, so it’s pretty easy to just make some holes appear in their ceiling, and then force them up through it.”
“I’d hate to be part of the crew that had to force the dragons through the holes,” said Harry. “Man, what did they do to deserve that?”
But, Harry and Hermione’s attention had now turned to the two dragons that popped out of the ground. Goyle’s was the best dragon of the Slyhtherin’s so far. He had a Golden Germanic Glider, and it looked quite elegant. It was at least forty feet long, and extremely slender, like a snake. It’s entire body was a light golden color, and it looked quite ferocious.
Just by looking at Ron’s dragon, you would think that Goyle’s victory was in the bag. His dragon was extremely fat, the size of several elephants, only with no muscle. It’s torso was so incredibly large, that it appeared as though it had no limbs. Its neck barely popped out of the top of its giant bulge, and the dragon’s orange, black, yellow and purple stripes did not give it any more of a ferocious appearance.
All the time Ron was training it, though, he kept reminding himself of the “special power” that Hagrid had spoke of; the power that all African Abysmalls had, only no one had ever bothered to raise it enough to try and discover what it was exactly.
“Come on Tapescrew!” yelled Ron. “Let’s see what you got!” Tapescrew looked at Ron, appearing slightly confused as to what was going on. It spun its head back around, and saw Goyle’s dragon. It glared its eyes at it, and gave a deep roar.
Goyle’s dragon, however, didn’t try to intimidate Tapescrew. It decided to attack immediately. It jumped up into the air, and hovered there, looking quite magnificent. It stiffed itself up, into one extremely long form, and started spinning. The dragon then shot forward through the air, like a bullet right at Tapescrew. It hit him, bouncing right off, but not before causing it extreme pain.
Tapescrew let out another roar, this time, there was a hint of pain in it. Goyle’s dragon then went back into its normal, hovering form, and shot backwards, out of the way of danger. Tapescrew tried to make a grab for it, but missed and fell over.
“Come on Tapescrew!” yelled Ron again. “Get up and use your weight!” Tapescrew immediately jumped up, surprising the crowd. It’s tiny wings fluttered, and it slowly rose into the air. When it was just above the height of the box, it stopped fluttering its wings, and fell to the ground, causing a massive earthquake. The entire stadium shook from the force of its immense weight, and even the bleaches vibrated.
Goyle’s dragon, however, was unaffected by it. It was in the air, and the earthquake didn’t even phase it. It just reared back, and shot a giant fireball from its mouth, straight at Tapescrew who was lying on the ground, collapsed from its previous attack. The fireball struck it, right in the face. Fire sprang up all around its head, and Tapescrew started scrambling around, shooting fire all over.
The fire, however, was not a reddish color, it was a golden instead. It got brighter and brighter, and began to expand, not coming just from Tapescrew’s mouth, but from all over its body. It stopped scrambling around now, and just stood there,