Chapter 34: 34. Alexander, the mother of dragons
The audience was waiting for the tournament to start, the cameras were set and the people of the world were watching it. The in-between ads were stacked properly. It seemed that the big businesses of the Wizarding world had started understanding the value of advertising.
Behind the champion's entrance, the 3 champions were briefed about their task. Then they all took out a miniature dragon from the bag.
Hermione was matched with a Swedish shortsnout. Fleur Delacour was matched with a Common Welsh Green. Viktor Krum was matched with a Hungarian Horntail. Their order was Hermione, Delacour, and Krum.
Hermione prepared herself for the task. Took a long breath and walked into the arena. As soon as she entered she heard the cheers of people and distinct screams of Edward and Alexander. She embarrassingly ignored them and walked towards the dragon. The Swedish Shortsnout was acting as if asleep while covering her eggs.
Hermione calmly walked to the dragons and made some weird noise from her mouth. No one knew what she was speaking except 2 beings. Alexander and the dragon. The dragon lifted her head, seemingly interested in the little human.
"HAHAHA... SHE DID IT, SHE MASTERED THE DRAGON TONGUE," Alexander roared, nearly scaring the other judges sitting on both sides.
"What? When did she?" Dumbledore delightedly asked.
"She's been at it for the past 2 years," Alexander answered.
"Truly a genius," Madam Maxime complimented.
"Yes yes... She's the best." He bragged smugly.
...
"What do you want human? Go away."
Hermione heard the dragon. Delighted that at least the dragon is ready to talk.
"Uh... Hello, my name is Hermione. You see, that golden egg in your nest is not real." She was cut off by the dragon's angry voice.
"I know that, human. Do you take me for a fool?"
"Then why are you risking yourself for it? Please give it to me." She requested, she didn't want to hurt the dragon. Hermione always had a soft spot for magical animals.
"Noh, it's mine... So shiny, such perfect shape." The dragon said looking at the golden egg.
Hermione understood now. She had forgotten that dragons are gold junkies. They would fight for anything shining.
"I didn't want to hurt you, but if that's what you want," she took a fighting stance.
"WAIT! I can feel your power. I don't want to die so I suggest we trade. You can take the fake egg if you give me something comparable to it." The Dragon suggested.
Alexander was trying to control his laugh hearing the business savvy dragon.
Hermione suddenly had a thought when she saw Alexander in the background.
"Umm... What does freedom sound like? You must not like being in chains. After your babies are born they will also be chained. I can get you freedom," she proposed.
"And how will you do that? You are just a small human. Not even grown fully" dragon countered.
"Yes, I am small but my grandpa is a very big man. He's the boss of all Wizards. If I ask him, he will help you." Hermione said while pointing to Alexander.
The Dragon followed her fingers and looked at the judge's table. When the dragon saw Alexander her pupils expanded.
"Holy moly, what's the old man doing here?"
"You know grandpa?" Hermione curiously asked.
Dragon nodded her head. "Yes, he's a divine being. Not like us mere mortals. He came to our Dragon enclosure last year and defeated all of us with a single hand. He has already promised us freedom as long as we behave. If you are his grand-daughter then just take the golden egg. I don't want to anger God"
The dragon had pure worship and a little fear in her eyes as she spoke to Hermione.
"Thank you miss Dragon, btw you are clearly an intelligent being, so why do you act like mad beasts." She asked while walking to take the golden egg.
"Call me Mira and yes we are intelligent but we are dragons. It's in our nature to be angry and wild. We just don't like to interact with you humans and in return, you all declared us mad beasts." Mira grunted.
"Well, I think grandpa must have something amazing planned for you all so be happy. I should go now. Thanks, Mira," Hermione said with a slight bow.
"No problem little humans," Mira went back to sleep.
The audience just looked at the shocking interaction between the dragon and Hermione. They even forgot to cheer but then Alexander stood up and started clapping. People followed him, ushering the arena in crazed cheering.
The judges showed the scores on slates in front of them. Madam Maxime and Dumbledore gave a 9, no-name Durmstrang headmasters gave 8 and Alexander shamelessly gave a 10. Total being 36.
Next, it was Fleur Delacour's turn. She elegantly used some Vela bloodline related spells to confuse the dragon and stole the golden egg.
Everyone gave the same score to her except the no-name guy, who gave her a 7. Her total was 35.
Alexander glared at the Durmstrang headmaster making him shudder in fear. The headmaster must have forgotten that the tournament was being shown live all around the world. He was spoiling his own image.
The next was Viktor Krum. It was his bad luck that he was matched with one of the most dangerous dragons. He entered the arena with caution and looked around to assess the situation.
The Hungarian Horntail was looking at Viktor with anger. Suddenly she lunged at him. It seemed like Viktor was planning for that. He threw a spell at the dragon's nest. Feeling a threat to her eggs, the dragon jumped back to her nest.
Due to being preoccupied the dragon didn't see a Confringo(blasting Curse) sent towards her.
The curse hit her neck, causing a deep wound. The mother Dragon screamed in agony and lost her balance. She started to fall on her eggs in the nest.
Without waiting a second Alexander jumped from the judge's seat and stopped the dragon from falling on eggs.
People gawked at the scenes. The cameras started making shutter sounds. The audience was so shocked because Alexander didn't use some magic to levitate the dragon but he used his bare hands to hold the giant mother Dragon's 50 feet body.
He quickly put down the Dragon and looked at her wound. She was bleeding a lot. Viktor Krum felt Alexander's anger even though he was quite far away, not just him. The whole arena felt it. Alexander had strictly told everyone that under no circumstances should the dragon be fatally wounded. He quickly put a healing potion with phoenix tears on the wound. The wound healed mostly but the dragon was still unconscious due to losing too much blood. So he fed her a lot of blood replenishing potions.
"Charlie, come here and keep an eye on her" He called out.
Quickly a Redhead bearded boy came running to the dragon. He was Charlie Weasley.
Then Alexander left her and went on to check on the eggs but as he was walking towards the nest he heard a slight cracking sound. He looked and sure enough, the eggs were hatching.
One by one, all three eggs started to hatch and soon the first little Dragon came out and opened its eyes.
The dragon made a small screech followed by it's two more brothers or sisters.
"F*ck," Alexander said out loud. The reason being that he knew what their screech meant.
"Mother"
"Mother"
"Mother"
That's all he heard repeatedly. They had imprinted him as their mother. The little Dragon started to jump around him. One of the brave ones even jumped and latched on to his golden chain hanging around his neck.
~Hahaha... I can't really get angry at such cute little guys. Though I still hate being called mother~ he thought to himself. Then he started caressing them.
After a while, he heard the mother Dragon waking up. Alexander prepared himself for a chat.
"MY BABIES!" She roared.
"Easy there. They are fine. Look," Alexander said, pointing to the 3 baby dragons. 2 on both shoulders and one on his head standing like he was king of the world.
The dragon mother waited for her babies to come to her but they didn't. To them, she was a stranger. Feeling the rising anger in her, Alexander spoke.
"Yeah, there is a problem. They think I am their mother. But worry not, I can help you. You should remember me from a year ago. I am the human that your leader called God." He tried to ease her.
The mother Dragon looked at him for a while then spoke. "Yeah, now that you say it. You do look like him. Your aura also feels quite different... Pure. Okay, tell me, how can you help me?"
Alexander smiled. "Yes, I can imprint you as their mother but there is no way of making them forget that I am their... Ehm... Mother, without messing with their minds. It's your choice, what do you want?"
The mother Dragon fell into contemplation. She looked at her 3 bundles. One of them was quite energetic. It was now hanging down on the gold chain. She thought about it and didn't like the idea of messing with their heads.
"Okay, as long as you don't take them away from me I'll agree to let you be their mother too." She answered.
Alexander felt relieved, he also didn't want to obliviate them. "Thank you, by the way, what should I call you?"
"I am called Balena and the one proudly standing on your head will be called Buntie after my first caretaker, the cheerful one hanging on your chain will be called Bobby after my 2nd favorite caretaker. The silent one on your shoulder will be called Dexter after my 3rd favorite caretaker who was also very silent and smart." She introduced and also named her children.
Alexander felt a bit funny about the names but accepted them, after all, it could have been worse.
"Alright, I'll imprint you in their minds now," Alexander said and one by one put his hands on the trio's head. Soon they Stopped whatever activity they were doing and looked at the big Dragon standing there.
"""MOMMY?""" the three said.
Then they turned to look at Alexander.
"""MOMMY""" they started running and jumping around and on Alexander and Balena while repeating the same word. To them, having one mommy was good but 2 were even better.
Alexander just shook his head and accepted the situation. He sent Balena and the trio away and took his seat at the Judges table. Viktor Krum had picked up the golden egg and returned to the champion's waiting area while Alexander was talking with Balena.
Then it came to scoring and Alexander gave a solid 1. While Dumbledore and Madam Maxime gave 5 each, no-name headmaster shamelessly gave 9. Alexander had already decided that punishment will be given to Viktor Krum in the next round.