Cassius stood alone within the tunnel.
Ahead of him, the muffled roar of over a thousand spectators reverberated through the stone walls.
Every cheer blended together into a single thunderous rumble that seemed to shake the very earth beneath his feet.
Daylight was before him, and the entrance to the arena, to his first task.
Too the third dragon he'd ever faced off against, though technically only the second lesser dragon as Lady Draconis still refused to accept this whelps were true dragons, mearly wyverns at best.
His first true performance before the wizarding world, as more than an athlete or a prodigy child, who could out spellcast other children.
He calmly rolled his shoulders.
No nerves.
Only anticipation.
From somewhere beyond the tunnel came Ludo Bagman's magically amplified voice.
"Ladies and Gentlemen!"
The cheering immediately intensified.
"Our third champion! The Hogwarts Champion representing House Draconis! Cassius Snape!"
With measured steps, Cassius emerged into the sunlight.
The noise became deafening.
Students leapt to their feet.
House Draconis banners waved wildly by the collection of girls who belonged to his house.
Even among the sea of Hogwarts colors plenty of the student body had chosen to set aside rivalries or jealousy to root for him in this competition.
Or rather the muggle-borns of the three houses did, the trueborn wizards were divided.
Griffindor stubbornly seemed willing to support Harry even with Ron's falling out over the tournament.
Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were split choosing to support Hogwarts champions over a specific individual.
High above, the judges' platform overlooked the arena.
Dumbledore watched calmly.
Madame Maxime leaned forward with interest, wanting to see the boy her very own Fleur had deemed so worthy.
Karkaroff wore a calculating smile.
Bartemius Crouch remained unreadable.
Beside them sat Rita Skeeter, already her floating quill was tearing through page after page of a notepad.
Off to one side, Grindelwald stood with his walking cane resting before him, his eyes only barely paying attention to the arena, seemingly just enjoying the freedom.
Next to him stood Sirius Black, and surprisingly even Stellatrix was present dressed up in a modest all white dress and standing next to Sirius.
From the look on his face, it was not his idea to bring her, but instead her own insistence at being brought to witness history in the making.
Cassius slowly surveyed the arena.
Rocky terrain.
Scattered boulders.
A large nesting mound near the center.
Upon it rested the golden egg, surrounded by a clutch of regular dragon eggs.
Curled protectively around it...
Was the Hebridean Black.
The dragon was enormous.
Nearly forty feet from snout to tail.
Its scales resembled polished obsidian, reflecting almost no light.
Powerful shoulders rose and fell with each steady breath.
Its long tail ended in vicious arrow-shaped barbs that lazily scraped against the stone beneath it.
Golden reptilian eyes slowly opened.
They locked onto the newcomer.
The dragon stood.
Its wings unfolded with a thunderous snap.
The entire stadium seemed to collectively hold its breath.
The dragon released a deep, resonating growl.
Dust cascaded from nearby rocks.
Several younger students instinctively shrank back in their seats.
Cassius simply smiled.
The dragon blinked.
It had expected fear.
Instead... The young wizard calmly reached up... ...and loosened the collar of his robes.
He removed his outer cloak that was billowing in the breeze created by the monsterous dragons breath.
The audience exchanged confused murmurs.
"...Why isn't he drawing his wand?"
"What's he doing?"
"He can't possibly be planning to—"
Cassius rolled his neck.
Then...
He started walking.
Straight toward the dragon.
The Hebridean lowered its head.
Smoke escaped its nostrils.
Another warning growl echoed across the arena.
Still...
Cassius continued forward.
Twenty feet.
Thirty.
Forty.
The dragon answered with a roar that shook the grandstands.
But the most shocked of all were the dragon handlers, such as Charlie Weasley.
They were the tenders to this dragon, and to see it behavior now… well there was only one word for it.
The dragon was afraid, otherwise it would have lashed out in an attack the minute it had seen Cassius enter the areana.
And yet now even as he walked closer and closer the dragon merely tried to use scare tactics to ward him off, send him away rather than pick a fight with the young wizard.
Its claws gouged deep furrows into the earth.
Students screamed.
Everyone wanted him to retreat, to at least draw his wand.
Instead...
He accelerated.
Breaking into a run.
Gasps swept through the audience.
"Has he lost his mind?!"
"He's charging it!"
"Draw your wand!"
The Hebridean roared again.
Finally its patience snapped and it lunged forward as well, signalling the true start to the battle.
Forty tons of muscle thundered across the arena.
Every step shook the earth.
Thirty feet.
Twenty-five.
Twenty.
Then—
Cassius' body erupted in crimson light, as if his own body were about to explode.
Bones shifted.
Muscles expanded.
His spine arched violently.
The audience watched in complete disbelief as his entire body began changing.
His arms lengthened.
Hands became enormous claws.
Dark scales spread across his skin like liquid shadows.
His legs thickened.
His torso expanded outward with terrifying speed.
A massive tail burst from behind him, carving a trench through the arena floor.
Gigantic wings unfurled.
His form growing, larger, longer, bigger, Until...
Standing where a fourteen-year-old boy had been only moments before...
Towered an entirely different dragon.
Pitch-black scales that seemed to suck in all light making everything around it appear darker.
Deep crimson eyes, that bore a vertical pupil of golden orange, that was locked onto the dark dragon before it.
Broad wings spanning nearly sixty feet, at full extension almost touching both sides of the created arena.
Nearly fifty feet in length from nose to tail.
Silence.
Utter silence.
Filled the arena stands
Even the Hebridean itself stopped charging at the new sight before its eyes.
It skidded several yards before coming to an uncertain halt.
The audience couldn't process what they were seeing.
"...That's..."
"No..."
"...Impossible..."
Even Dumbledore's eyes widened.
Beside him...
Grindelwald chuckled quietly.
"It's about time he decided to reveal that little trick."
Rita Skeeter's quill practically caught fire trying to keep up.
Dragon.
A real dragon.
Not an illusion.
Not transfiguration.
Not some temporary enlargement charm.
An honest-to-goodness dragon stood in the arena, standing in opposition to another smaller dragon.
The Hebridean stared.
Its instincts screamed conflicting messages.
The creature before it... Was larger. Older? Stronger.
Yet...
It had watched a human become that creature.
Unable to reconcile instinct with reason, it did the only thing aggression allowed.
It attacked.
With a furious roar, the Hebridean lunged.
Cassius met it head-on.
Their collision echoed like a cannon blast.
A combined 100 tons colliding together, the impact sent dust exploding outward.
The grandstands shook in response to the shockwave produced.
Rather than trading fire...
The two dragons grappled.
Massive claws were thrown, gouging out scales and flesh of the Hebridean, while sparks were created when Cassius's own scales were contacted.
Cassius manuevered his own long serpent like neck to stike at the Hebrideans flank.
Sinking his fangs into its flesh before using all his strength to whip his head around and send the gian dragon tumbling, throwing up rock and creating another trench as it slid along the ground.
The Hebridean roared in frustration before whipping its deadly tail around.
The arrow-shaped barbs shot toward Cassius' side.
Without even looking...
Cassius caught the tail.
One enormous claw wrapped around it.
The dragon pulled trying in desperation to retract its tail.
Nothing.
Cassius simply held it there, his strength overwhelming the poor beast.
The Hebridean's eyes widened.
Then...
With a single powerful motion...
Cassius swung.
The forty-foot dragon briefly left the ground once again before crashing across the arena in a shower of broken stone.
The impact echoed like thunder.
The audience gasped.
Several dragon keepers instinctively took a step forward fearing for the mother dragons safety.
Grindelwald merely laughed in the stands. "Excellent."
The Hebridean quickly regained its footing.
It spread its wings.
Fire erupted from its jaws.
A torrent of emerald dragonfire engulfed Cassius.
Flames towered high into the sky.
The heat could be felt even in the upper grandstands.
When the fire finally cleared...
Cassius still stood exactly where he'd been.
Unmoved.
His scales glowed faintly before the last embers simply rolled harmlessly away.
Then...
He answered.
Opening his own jaws...
A pillar of black dragonfire burst forth, like a stream of Amaterasu flames.
The Hebridean instinctively ducked away.
The black flames carved a glowing line across the arena floor behind it.
Every dragon keeper stared.
"Black flame..."
One whispered.
"I've...never seen anything like that..."
The ground before the Scottish dragon had been reduced in an instant to molten rock.
The Hebridean remained stationary now.
Folding in on itself, almost as if it was pretending to be a stone itself.
Its earlier confidence had vanished.
Cassius lowered his head peering down on his submitted opponent.
Then...
He spoke.
Not in English.
Not even in Parseltongue.
But in the ancient, rumbling language of dragonkind itself.
Each word vibrated through the arena.
Deep. Powerful. Primal.
None present understood a single syllable of what was spoken from his maw.
But every dragon in the holding cells or in the arena did.
The Hebridean froze hearing the words spoken.
Its wings folded.
Its head slowly lowered.
Before the entire stadium...
Britain's most aggressive dragon bowed.
Silence swept across the arena.
Then...
The Hebridean gave a low rumbling sound.
Not anger.
Acknowledgement.
Submission.
Its own response in broken draconic speech being relayed to Cassius.
Cassius turned leaving the kneeling Hebredian exposing his back to it without care.
His hulking form stepped toward the golden egg.
No challenge came.
No attack followed.
The battle was over, and it was clear he had won.
He picked up the gleaming prize with one massive clawed hand.
Only then did crimson light envelop him once more.
His gigantic form rapidly shrank.
Scales became skin.
Claws became hands.
Wings disappeared.
Moments later...
Cassius Snape stood once again upon the arena floor.
Golden egg tucked comfortably beneath one arm.
Thunderous applause exploded from the stands.
Students stood cheering.
Even several professors found themselves applauding before realizing it.
Cassius inclined his head politely toward the judges.
Then...
He turned back toward the Hebridean.
Looking directly into its golden eyes, a silent command was clearly given.
The dragon blinked.
Before slowly moving forward still in a submissive manner fearing the attack that might come if it failed.
Then lowered itself further, as if it were laying flat upon the ground.
Almost invitingly.
Cassius smiled.
"Good."
He placed one hand upon its neck before effortlessly climbing onto its broad shoulders.
The audience collectively blinked.
"...What is he doing?"
But before anyone could actually ask Cassius, the Hebridean answered instantly for him.
It spread its enormous wings.
The Romanian dragon keepers frowned.
"...Wait."
One took a cautious step forward.
Another dragon keeper shouted.
"Stop!"
Too late.
With one mighty beat of its wings, the Hebridean launched itself into the air.
Cassius sat calmly between its shoulders as they climbed higher above the arena.
The crowd erupted into ecstatic cheers.
Children pointed excitedly.
Even seasoned Ministry officials stood with mouths hanging open.
Cassius a mere child not only had he managed to turn himself into a Dragon, but now was even a Dragonrider, with a mount that obeyed his commands so soon after having been mortal enemies.
High above, the Hebridean circled the stadium once.
Twice.
Only after several bewildered seconds did one Romanian handler finally connect the dots.
His face went pale.
He pointed helplessly into the sky.
"...Our dragon..."
Another looked upward.
Then at the now-empty enclosure.
Then back toward the dragon flying happily around the stadium with a fourteen-year-old wizard riding upon its back.
"...He... ...He stole our dragon!"
The horrified realization spread through the assembled handlers like wildfire.
Meanwhile, perched comfortably atop Britain's most notoriously territorial dragon, Cassius simply enjoyed the fame he had attained from this one moment.
No doubt he would be bombarded with Magical Legalese, and questions in the coming days but he was prepared.
The time for building was over.
The time for his rise was at hand.