In LOTR with Harry Potter system

As one of the three Unforgivable Curses, Crucio was never designed to kill. Unlike Avada Kedavra, which ends life in a flash, Crucio was born for a far crueler purpose, torture.

Pain that seared through flesh and soul alike.

Even the strongest minds crumbled under its agony. Those subjected to it for too long often lost their sanity entirely, reduced to husks of what they once were.

But what truly stunned Sylas was how the spell, which was intended for humans, could so effectively break a creature like Smaug.

The mighty dragon, who had razed kingdoms and scorched armies, now writhed helplessly beneath the sky, his colossal frame twisting in agony. He couldn't even lift his wings, pinned down not by chains but by a spell meant to make men scream.

"Mercy! Wizard, have mercy! I yield!"

Smaug's voice cracked with pain as he howled into the mountains."I surrender!"

Everyone present, Gandalf, the Dwarves, even Bilbo, stared in speechless shock. The dragon who had doomed Erebor, who had driven Thorin's people into exile, now begged for his life.

But Sylas expression didn't waver.

He knew better than to trust a dragon's plea.

Crucio couldn't kill.

If he let up now, even for a moment, Smaug would rise again, and this time, he wouldn't underestimate Sylas.

So Sylas narrowed his eyes and poured all his wrath into the curse.

"Crucio!!"

Smaug shrieked. His voice split the air, rattling stone and sky.The mountains trembled as his tail thrashed and wings convulsed, flattening trees and tearing apart the landscape.

Desperate, on the edge of madness, Smaug lashed out one final time.

With pinpoint precision, he slammed his massive tail into the ancient stone pillars that supported the mountain's gate.

The columns cracked.

Faced with the avalanche of boulders crashing down from the shattered gate, Sylas had no choice but to divert his wand and cast a powerful Protego Maxima, shielding himself from the deadly debris.

But that single moment of distraction was all Smaug needed.

With a furious roar, the dragon unfurled his massive wings and blasted into the sky, golden flames trailing in his wake.

"I will remember this day, wizard!" Smaug bellowed as he soared into the darkened skies. "You've earned my hatred! I will reduce everything you love to ashes!"

His glowing eyes fell on the distant, glittering lights of Lake-town, reflected across the Long Lake.

"You miserable insects will be the first to burn! You will suffer my unending wrath!"

Gandalf's face turned pale as he watched the beast race toward the unsuspecting town.

"Lake-town is in danger! We must stop him!"

"I'm going!" Sylas leapt onto his broom.

"Wait!" Gandalf called. "I'm coming with you."

There was no time to explain to Bilbo or the others. With a shared glance, the wizard and the young man kicked off and blazed after the dragon, broomsticks howling against the wind.

By the time they caught up, Lake-town was already burning.

Flames danced across rooftops. Smoke rose in choking columns.

Smaug's fire had turned the lake itself into a boiling mirror of destruction.

In the chaos, the Master of Lake-town, clutching his hoarded gold aboard a barge, tried to flee. But the weight of his greed was his doom, Smaug's flames engulfed the boat, melting both coin and coward alike.

On a tall watchtower, Bard had retrieved a long black arrow. He stood poised, bow drawn, searching the skies for a weakness in the dragon's armored hide.

Above, Sylas and Gandalf streaked toward the battle, wind lashing their faces.

"Sylas! Get me above him!" Gandalf shouted.

Sylas didn't hesitate. He wrenched the broom into a near-vertical ascent, rising high above Smaug's flight path.

Then, without a word, Gandalf leapt from the broomstick.

The Grey Wizard landed on Smaug's back.

Raising Glamdring high, Gandalf drove the blade down with all the force he could muster, aiming for the joint between Smaug's iron-hard scales.

The sword struck true, but the dragon's hide was like forged steel. Glamdring pierced barely half an inch before grinding to a halt, caught in the dense scales of the beast.

To a creature of Smaug's size, the strike was no more than a splinter, sharp, irritating, but far from fatal.

Enraged, Smaug let out a deafening roar. He twisted violently, banking hard in the sky, trying to throw Gandalf from his back.

But the old wizard clung fiercely to the embedded hilt, robes whipping in the wind, eyes blazing with defiance.

Gandalf refused to be shaken off. Each lurch of the dragon only made him grip tighter, his knuckles white on the sword.

Smaug's fury built with every failed shake, his wrath rising like the heat of his fire.

Smaug no longer cared about incinerating Lake-town. His rage had found a new target.

With a thunderous snarl, he twisted his serpentine neck, unleashing a torrent of flame up toward his own back, trying to burn Gandalf off him.

But Sylas struck again from above, wand blazing with fury.

"Crucio!"

The curse lashed into the dragon like a storm of needles, and Smaug let out a screech of agony. His massive body seized in midair, wings locking as he plummeted toward the lake below.

Just before impact, he snapped open his wings, catching himself in a violent gust of wind and pulling skyward again with a roar.

The cunning dragon had used the dive to escape the curse's effect, putting distance between himself and Sylas.

Seeing Smaug shift to aerial hit-and-run tactics, Sylas quickly scanned the tower below, and spotted Bard, the archer, steadying his bow with grim focus.

Sylas dived toward him, calling out through the wind,"Bard! There's a missing scale on his chest! It's his weak point, your ancestor Girion struck it with a black arrow! Aim there!"

Bard's eyes widened. He nodded, searching the great beast's chest as the dragon circled above.

Meanwhile, Sylas returned to the chase, darting through the sky like a hawk, doing all he could to herd Smaug toward Bard's firing angle.

It was a desperate gambit, but the dragon had proven too resilient to finish by magic alone. If fate had once felled him by arrow, perhaps it could again.

Smaug snarled, wary now of Sylas's Crucio. He kept his distance, climbing higher into the sky.

But Gandalf was not idle.

Slamming his staff into the dragon's back with sudden force, he channeled a spell of impact so intense it felt like a mountain had fallen upon Smaug.

The beast let out another cry, spiraling downward, his flight path shattered.

Sylas saw the opening.

"Crucio!" he roared again.

The pain ripped through the dragon's nerves like fire through parchment. Screaming in torment, Smaug twisted and tumbled straight into Bard's line of fire, unknowing, unseeing.

Bard, his face resolute, raised his black arrow.

"For Lake-town! For Dale!" he cried.

He let it fly.

The arrow sliced through the air, a black streak of vengeance, aimed straight at the bare spot on Smaug's chest.

Just as everyone thought the black arrow would successfully hit, it was caught by a giant claw.

The Dragon snatched the incoming black arrow out of the air with a contemptuous flick of his claws, his molten-gold eyes gleaming with disdain.

"Did you truly think I would fall for the same trick twice?" he sneered, his voice rumbling like an earthquake wrapped in fire.

With chilling precision, Smaug tossed the arrow skyward, tilted his head back, and released a surge of dragonfire.

The black arrow was instantly engulfed, melted midair into a stream of molten metal that hissed and spat as it fell.

Then, to everyone's horror, Smaug caught the molten remains, and with a twisted kind of intelligence, slathered the searing metal over the bare spot on his chest, sealing the weak point that had once doomed him.

Bard's hands fell to his sides. His face was pale with disbelief, his final hope undone before his very eyes.

Sylas hovered above, stunned.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

He had originally thought Bard would successfully kill the Dragon as in the original course of fate.

But now...

Everything was different.

Sylas's thoughts raced.

In the original flow of fate, Bard's victory came from a delicate balance of luck and timing. Smaug, bloated with pride, had underestimated the humans. He had flown to Lake-town seeking revenge, careless and unchecked, never imagining that an heir of Girion still lived, armed with the final black arrow.

But this Smaug....this Smaug had been hunted, harried, wounded. He had tasted pain and humiliation at Sylas's hands.And most of all, he had learned.

This dragon was no longer overconfident.

He was furious, and wary.

Sylas now understood: the chance to slay Smaug like before was gone.

...

STONES PLZzz