Albus's pet phoenix, Fawkes, had a hobby: burning its own tail for fun whenever it had nothing better to do.
A phoenix's feathers glimmered even in the dark, especially its tail feathers, but that did not mean Fawkes had burned off its beautiful tail.
Sometimes its tail was like red-hot gold, impossible to touch with bare hands. Other times, it controlled the temperature of its feathers and let wandmakers pluck one for a wand core.
"Maybe it's practicing temperature control," Albus had once joked to Pomona.
Fawkes looked at Pomona with its black eyes, and she felt that the bird was joking with her too.
Since Voldemort and Harry both used tail feathers from the same phoenix, and Harry had cast Expecto Patronum in his third year, Pomona had a new task. She needed to approach Ollivander and ask why he had said, "How strange," after examining Harry's wand.
She planned to ask Ollivander in the stands during the final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Just like during the second task in the Black Lake, no matter how tense the contestants were beneath the water or what dangers they faced, the spectators above could see only the surface of the lake.
She guessed Severus would not make excuses this time, saying that standing by the lake in the cold wind for an hour was idiotic. He had to be present for the entire thing, if there was to be a third task at all.
There were still several difficult problems to overcome in building the maze. Pomona should have been busy with research, not playing Wizard's Chess with Madame Maxime in the greenhouse where fig trees had been planted.
The temperature range human skin perceived was between 20 and 47 degrees Celsius. Below that range, people felt cold; above 47