Gone Awry

Three and a half hours into the race, Ash was happy that it was held during the day - at least she could now see the problem that lay in front of her.

Currently, she was standing at the edge of a gigantic dragon infested breeding ground... and if she wanted to get to Arjeplog, she needed to cross that.

No chance of flying around it, no chance of anything - at least if she still wanted any chance of winning this race. Only chance was to rush through this as fast as possible.

"I wonder if the Impervius Charm works with Dragon fire..." she muttered worriedly while she slowly let her broom hover above the ground and then started flying forwards, leaving behind the last protection she had in the forest.

She started of slowly, thinking that maybe slow moving flying objects would be ignored by these Dragons, it worked for a while - until she was about 1/4 into the grounds - but soon enough one of the breeding mothers saw her and began to hiss and roar - alarming the other dragons about the intruder in their middle.

"Scheiße!" Ash screamed and brought her broom to high speed in a matter of seconds.

The female dragons around her jumped from their nests and began snatching at the flying witch. The hot blue flames of the Short-Snouts rushed passed her.

She didn't have any time to think through anything, all she did was let instinct take over her body as she swooped through the hundreds of Dragons, evading their flames and snaps and protecting herself with few attacking and defending spells here and there.

Left, right, down, up, right again followed by a spiral downwards and a sharp turn left.

"Desino Flamma," she bellowed when she saw the flames near her.

"Impervius," she yelled when a flame stroked her.

"Conjunctivitis," she screamed when a Dragon was about to snap at her.

"Impedimenta," she cried when their teeth nearly grazed her.

Soon she saw the end of the breeding grounds that ended in another woody forest. With her last flicker of hope she yelled out "Lumos Solem," and a strong ray of light flared out of her wand, temporally blinding all living being on the field as she sped into the protecting forest.

-----

Meanwhile, the Dragon keepers that had been in the clearing and watched the witch fly through the breeding grounds - defending herself superbly.

"She's quite good... you think this is the first time in this race?"

"Yeah, I've never seen this one before."

"She must have had some experiences with Dragons though."

"I guess, but I could have done without her passing through here. Now we have to calm them down again..."

"Damn, your right... how about we give them a sleeping drought?"

The first Dragon Keeper looked at the other one, thoughtfully. "Sounds like a plan. I'll get right to mixing it!"

-----

When Ash rushed through the first trees, tears started to fall down her face. "Oh Merlin, Oh Merlin, Oh Merlin," she muttered and shook her head disbelievingly. "I really made it through... How?"

While she swished past the trees, towards Arjeplog, the tears of shock started to slowly ebb away and soon she had a hold of herself again.

"Everything is alright, everything is good..." she said to no one in particular as the next clearing came nearer and nearer. Soon she found herself outside of the dense canopy again. However, she wasn't alone. Only a few 100 meters in front of her, she saw Olaf Andersen fly near the ground.

Quickly she looked around her and saw Tina Lundstrom another couple of 100 meters behind her.

Her eyes widened in shock as she figured, that this meant she was one of the top racers right now, probably runner up right now...

This prospect of actually having a chance to get one of the top placements, made her forget all about the past affairs and she only concentrated on the now and here. Getting her broom to go maximum speed she rushed after Olaf - swearing that she wouldn't let him out of her sight ever again - at least for the duration of the race, everything else would be creepy.

She had no idea how far away Arjeplog was from where they where, but she guessed that it wouldn't be all to far away now.

The dragon nest episode had taken her about minutes, meaning if they would make to times, the race could be over in only 20-30 minutes.

But then again, who knew what the others had to go through to make it through this race so far? Definitely not her, she had her own adventures to fret about.

Ash did not look back for the rest of the race, she imagined Lundstrom gaining on her quickly, she could imagine all the other players appearing in the horizon and trying to take away her position.

So she did the only thing that she could think off, she speed along the round so fast she could, never looking back to let herself be panicked by the stress and trying to get nearer and nearer to the high-speed broom-racing champion of the last two years.

Finally the little blond witch saw a small town appear at the far end of the horizon.

Buildings started to appear behind the next hill and soon she found herself staring at the goal of the race, the finish line.

A smile started spreading on her face as she saw a huge crowd of people gathered at the goal, cheering for them, cheering for Olaf, cheering for Tina, cheering for her.

She tried to increase her speed even more as she rushed to the end, but the broom was already at its limits. Still she flew the fastest she could.

All of a sudden, however, Tina was beside her...

Swallowing hard Ash tightened the grip on her broom and leaned into the hilt even more.

Tina was a head length in front of her...

Grimacing in pain as Ash watched the other witch gain on her, she did everything she could think of to gain speed herself.

Tina had over taken her...

With a frustrated yell, she looked at the back of the Nordic Teams Captain as she passed through the goal a few minutes after Olaf and a few seconds after Tina.

She followed after them as they slowed down and gently landed on the soft Swedish snow.

As soon as her legs hit the ground, they buckled away under her and only a second later she found herself on the floor panting and starring at the blue sky, not a shred of cloud could be seen.

All around her she could hear the roar on the crowd, chanting their names as the three of them lay on the floor.

Nobody was allowed into the racers area, if they weren't a racer themselves, therefore they could quietly stay planted there, without any problems, as the rest of the surviving racers finally came to Arjeplog.

After about 10 minutes, one of the others finally found the strength to get of the ground. When Ash opened her eyes to look, she saw Olaf walk up to his team mate and pull her of the ground, congratulating her on the race.

Next the two of them went over to her.

Olaf held out his hand for her to take. Closing her eyes for just another second she gathered her strength and took his hand with a smile on her face.

"Good job," he told her with a grin as he pulled her of the ground.

"Thank you," she gasped and shifted her weight so that her legs could carry her body. "You weren't to shabby yourself, it seems."

Olaf laughed a deep laugh that shook her whole frame. "I never do bad," he told her with a smirk.

"You took me quite by surprise there, suddenly charging out of those trees, what way did you go?" Tina asked her also shaking Ash's hand.

"I got a bit off course, suddenly found myself at the dragon breeding grounds. Only way I could go was through them... it seems to have been a short cut though," she answered truthfully.

"You actually went through the breeding grounds!" Olaf asked astonished.

"Yeah... but I didn't know about that, until I stood before them."

"Still... your a mad little girl," he said with a grin on his face.

"What is you name, by the way?" Tina asked, after agreeing with her college.

"Ash Weasley's the name," she told them with a smile.

The three of them talked for another few minutes, until one of the tournament people walked up to them and congratulated them on their win.

"Wait... I really came in third? As in I was the third best racer of the whole race?"

"Yes."

Slowly it dawned to Ash on what she had actually managed. She had decided to join the race only five days ago... she hadn't practised or anything such and yet, she was now the third best of the whole race, a race that had started of with 124 people.

"I... I... I need to go to my family," she said in shock and turned to her fellow winners. They smiled and nodded at her

"We'll see you at the podium later on, and I do hope you'll come to the after-party!" Olaf said, hitting her on the shoulder with a force that made her stumble.

"Sure... We'll see each other there!" she told them, with a small, shy smile and walked of towards the crowed, hoping she would be able to find her family there.