210 Goddess of Thunder

Dragons produced their own magic internally, so its natural abilities were completely unaffected by Oleandra's lightning storm. Similarly, any magic that acted from inside the body would be unaffected. Magic such as the potion Oleandra had imbibed, and…

"Ægishjálmur," Oleandra whispered, before wrapping Cloak the Lethifold around her body.

WHOOSH!

'Am I an idiot?' Oleandra berated herself, as the Chinese Fireball's flame breath engulfed her small body for a few seconds. 'Professor Lupin warned me against using electricity magic; even the stars' inheritance explicitly said that Hagal was one of the most dangerous runes. But did I listen? Nooooooo.'

The Lethifold did not mind the flame bath even the slightest; Oleandra sometimes wondered if it really had no weaknesses at all; even a Patronus Charm would only scare one off.

"Hurry up!" Oleandra heard voices from outside the protection of her Cloak. "Extinguishing Charms on three! One— Two—"

Oleandra was feeling a little hot under the collar, but the triple layer of protection afforded by Cloak, the Helm of Terror Spell and the Ice Potion was still holding out against the dragon fire. However, if the match was interfered with, she might be disqualified! Oleandra whipped off her cloak and turned to face the Dragon-keepers.

"Back off!" she snarled, glaring at them. "I'm not done yet!"

Oleandra's long hair was floating ominously like an octopus's tentacles due to the static electricity in the air, its ends smouldering and glowing like hot coals from where they'd been exposed to the fire. Unconsciously, the Dragon-keepers, one of which looked an awful lot like a Weasley, took half a step back in fear as the Helm of Terror's power washed over them. To them, it almost seemed like something was glowing on her forehead…

KRAKOOM!

At that moment, lightning arced from the storm cloud to the Chinese Fireball behind her, discharging all of the potential it had accumulated in one blast. The Dragon roared in distress before collapsing, unconscious. Oleandra whirled around, eyeing the Dragon warily. The lightning had done a number on it; smoke was coming out of its orifices. Then again, it had been doing that even before being struck by a lightning bolt, so who was she to judge?

"Accio golden egg!" Oleandra shouted.

A golden glint caught her eye; something was trying to wiggle out from under the Dragon. Oleandra redoubled her focus, and soon enough, the golden egg came free and zoomed into her waiting arms, upon which she raised it in the air triumphantly.

The crowd had grown deathly silent when she had been caught dead-on by the dragon's stream of incandescent flames, collectively holding their breath as they waited to see if she was safe. And when Oleandra raised the egg above her head… All hell came loose! The crowd cheered like they never had before, drowning out Bagman's voice.

The Dragon-Keepers hurried onto the field, extinguishing fires and levitating the unconscious Chinese Fireball away to make place for the last Dragon, which Harry would have to face. As Oleandra walked off the field, still cradling the large golden egg in her arms, several teachers came to congratulate her.

"Well done, Miss Greengrass," said Professor Snape simply. "Madam Pomfrey will need to look you over before the judges give out your score. The first-aid tent is right behind me."

"Yeh did it, Oleandra!" Hagrid cried. "Bu' di' yeh have to hit it with ligh'nin'?"

"Nothing else stuck," said Oleandra with a wide smile. She couldn't stop grinning, even though she was extremely tired. "But don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Nicely done," said Professor Moody, nodding at her.

Oleandra walked into the first-aid tent, and peeked inside the cubicle where Madam Pomfrey was treating Fleur Delacour's burns. The half-Veela girl yelped every time her wounds were dabbed with some sort of purple vulnerary.

"I'll be with you in a moment," she said, eyeing Oleandra critically. "You look mostly fine to me; let's hope the next tasks will involve less dangerous creatures… Pfft, Dragons, what were they thinking…"

A few moments later, the treatment was done.

"There, you're done," Madam Pomfrey said to Fleur. "Full-body burns, poor dear…"

She then bustled over to Oleandra and started poking and prodding her with her wand… and unsuccessfully trying to pry the golden egg out of her hands.

"I should have known it would be you two again," she muttered. "You always end up badly hurt, but you've only overdrawn your strength this time. Slight concussion, a few bruises, nothing that can't be easily fixed."

A few incantations later, and Oleandra felt much better. Madam Pomfrey mumbled another incantation to fix the parts of Oleandra's hair that had been singed off. And to her delight, her split ends were also repaired at the same time. Yay! She'd have to ask Madam Pomfrey how to cast this one later.

Oleandra thanked Madam Pomfrey and headed out of the tent. It had taken some time for the Healer to fix Delacour's burns, so Oleandra made it just in time to see Fleur receiving her score (twenty-seven points out of fifty) and to witness her friends rushing towards her.

"You did great!" Tracey tittered excitedly. "You should have seen the other champions; Delacour tried to charm her Dragon, but it just wouldn't work! Her Dragon chased her around for a full fifteen minutes before it finally fell asleep! And even then, she still got burnt."

"Nice going, Sis. I don't think I could have done this one," said Daphne, shuddering. "Dragons and Wood Nymphs just don't go well together. I daresay I would have been burnt to a crisp."

"Krum's score's going to be hard to beat; he got forty-eight," Tracey continued, chattering away a mile an hour. "He got the easiest Dragon; the green one. He lured it away from its nest, and hit it dead-on in the eye with a Conjunctivitis Curse. He sneaked by while it was distracted and grabbed the egg just like that. But I'm certain you'll get a better score; you actually beat your dragon unconscious!"

"I wouldn't be too sure," said Daphne. "The first task is about obtaining the golden egg, everything else is secondary."

"I s'pose we're about to know," said Oleandra, looking up at the judges' table.