German-Austrian Merger

The First Task of the Triwizard Tournament will not begin until after Halloween.

In Dumbledore's words, the First Task is mysterious and requires some special items, which are currently being transported.

Harry wasn't curious; he intended to maintain a bit of mystery so he could surprise the player during the match.

During a Potions Class before Halloween, Snape assigned them to work together to process pickled rat heads.

"I don't think Harry's First Task is any harder than the one Snape assigned us," Ron said after class. "I'd rather fight Fire Dragon with my bare hands than deal with rat heads in his dark little cellar."

"I think so too."

Hermione's voice and a greasy, slurred voice rang out at the same time.

Ron turned around in alarm, and sure enough, there stood Snape smiling behind him.

"Professor--"

Young man, stand at attention. You're from Ron.

"It seems you really like Fire Dragon, Weasley," Snape said sinisterly. "Perhaps I can ask Dumbledore to transfer you to Romania, so you can raise dragons with another Weasley?"

At this point, Snape twitched his lips.

"Gryffindor -5 points."

He didn't offer much explanation; he simply said, "I deduct points, that's all. There's no need to explain why."

After Snape left, Hermione breathed a long sigh of relief, as if she had just emerged from the depths of hell.

"Ron!" she whispered, "Have you forgotten?! You have Causality Effect! How dare you say such things in public!"

"I forgot," Ron said, his face contorted with regret.

The Saturday before Halloween, they were granted permission to travel to Hogsmeade.

"It'll be good for him to get away for a while," Ron said. "Harry's about to start his First Task, and I think we should go with him to clear his head."

"But Harry is in a bad situation now—" Hermione turned around and glanced at Harry, who was being chased by the crowd. "I'm sure if he gets to Hogsmeade, he'll be mobbed by his enthusiastic classmates."

As soon as he finished speaking, a crazed Ravenclaw senior pounced on him and gave Harry a hard kiss on the cheek.

"Ouch!" Harry yelled, a hickey on his face that was quite noticeable.

The other girls followed suit, rushing over to kiss Harry's little face and fair neck.

After a while, Harry finally managed to shake them off.

His glasses were broken, and he clung to the ground helplessly. His robe was torn into long strips, making him look extremely pitiful.

He didn't look like a Hogwarts student; he looked more like a fugitive who had fought his way out of a mass of dead.

"That was horrible, woman," Harry said, still shaken.

"I think you're enjoying yourself," Hermione said, frowning. "With your abilities, you would have run away long ago if you could."

"I was just worried about hurting my classmates, wasn't I?" Harry began to Clean-up his glasses and clothes.

But Ron suddenly spoke, making Harry's heart skip a beat.

"I don't think that's the scariest thing," Ron commented. "The scariest thing is what you say when you see Miss Grindelwald on your phone at night."

What a great question! Harry was stunned.

Yes, if Veratia found out tonight that he was caught and kissed passionately by Ravenclaw woman...

Perhaps Veratia's anger will Purification everything?

But just then, Ron's owl Pigwidgeon, flew in.

This owl was bought for Ron by Mrs. Weasley after Scabbers —that is, Pettigrew— was captured.

To avoid Ron constantly thinking about Scabbers, or rather, to use the owl's ability to catch mice to keep Ron away from mice.

"Pigwidgeon?"

Ron reached out and took the letter Pigwidgeon handed him. After opening it, his face turned pale.

"Oh my god— Merlin's pantyhose—... Merlin, holy yeah!"

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked with concern.

"This is a letter from Charlie!" Ron said in a low voice, glancing warily around before looking down again. "Charlie says he's coming to Hogwarts from Romania!"

"What's wrong with that?" Hermione asked, puzzled. "Didn't you already see each other during the summer vacation? Why are you still so excited?"

"He told me! The first project is related to Fire Dragon!" Ron said, his face pale. "Fire Dragon! My Merlin robes! He said it was definitely not a joke, because he brought several kinds of Fire Dragon, including the Chinese Fireball dragon..."

Welsh Green dragon, Swedish Short-Snout dragon, and Hungarian Horntail dragon!

"How could this be!" Hermione quickly pulled them to a corner, and after confirming that no one was around, she scratched her head and asked, "The First Task is going to involve Fire Dragon? I really don't know what the Triwizard Tournament is all about. Are we going to have the warriors defeat Fire Dragon? That's practically suicidal!"

"Not necessarily," Harry suddenly said. "I think the competition is only related to Fire Dragon, it doesn't mean the heroes will actually defeat a Fire Dragon —you know, even elite Auror can't do that!"

"There are other possibilities," Hermione said worriedly.

Because of the Fire Dragon incident, Hermione didn't make any plans to go to Hogsmeade, but instead spent all her time in the library looking for books about Fire Dragon.

She compiled a table listing the various habits of different Fire Dragon Fire Dragon, as well as their hobbies and weaknesses.

"We must learn to win with our wisdom." These are Hermione's exact words.

Halloween is fast approaching, and this time Hogwarts is not holding a costume party, but instead preparing a sumptuous dinner for everyone.

The professors seemed to have other things to do, and most of them did not attend the dinner.

That evening, Harry was stopped by Pabbie.

"Harry." Pabbie grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him aside.

Harry let Pabbie drag him along, and once they reached a corner, Pabbie said in a sneaky tone, "I already know about the First Task. It's about Fire Dragon. Newt told me, and he's already gone to take care of those Fire Dragon —Merlin, he's so happy about it, so many Fire Dragon, even Tina went with him—"

"I already know, but thank you anyway." Harry willingly let Pabbie bury him.

He took a deep breath and kissed the girl's rosy cheek.

"Ouch!" Pabbie cried out, covering her face. "You little rascal!"

"Oh, then I won't kiss you anymore," Harry said deliberately.

"No way!" Pabbie blurted out, "I just love hooligans—"

"Ha ha ha ha--"

After joking around for a while, Harry suddenly asked, "Isn't this a bit unfair? You told me about the match beforehand."

Pabbie gave him a pitying look and said, "You're such a fool, Harry — Karkaroff has already arrived at the Fire Dragon ' temporary base. Do you think Beauxbatons and Durmstrang's warriors don't know all this?"

"That makes sense," Harry said, suddenly realizing.

"Come on," Pabbie said to Harry. "I'll show you."

They used the Disillusionment Charm to conceal their presence and walked together out of the castle.

As soon as they reached Hagrid's Hut, they saw Hagrid seemingly talking to someone.

Something's up!

Harry's gossipy nature kicked in, and he even forgot about watching the Fire Dragon with Pabbie.

"Oh, isn't this Madame Maxime?" Pabbie said with interest beside him. "It looks like..."

Are they going on a date?

"Let's go after them and see!" Harry said.

They followed behind the two men, Madame Maxime were so Hagrid that they strode forward with long, loud strides.

In contrast, Pabbie and Harry could only follow along, making little noises.

They walked around the edge of the Forbidden Forest, crossed the Black Lake, and finally arrived at a makeshift camp.

Harry pricked up his ears; he thought he heard something.

Several men were shouting loudly in front of them—and then came a deafening, piercing roar.

Hagrid led Madame Maxime around a grove of trees and stopped.

Harry grabbed Pabbie's hand and quickly followed, standing hand in hand with them—for a brief moment, he thought he saw several campfires with men jumping around them—then he saw the familiar animals.

Fire Dragon.

Ah, the Fire Dragon! His and Pabbie's most thrilling adventure was rescuing a Fire Dragon from poachers.

Pabbie seemed to recall their shared adventure, and she tightened her grip on Harry's hand.

"Pabbie," Harry said softly, "Remember her?"

"Of course." Pabbie smiled and reached out to hug Harry.

The girl's body was soft yet voluptuous, and Harry, not being oblivious to her charms, immediately wrapped his arms around her waist.

She wasn't exactly slender; that was only in comparison to Veratia, whose figure was practically inhuman.

"Look at the guy you're going to be facing," Pabbie said softly.

Harry looked over again and saw four ferocious-looking adult Fire Dragon confined in an area enclosed by thick wooden planks. They stood on their hind legs, roaring and snorting – bursts of flame shot from their open, fang-filled mouths into the dark night sky. Their necks were held high, their mouths fifty feet off the ground.

A silver-blue Fire Dragon with a pair of long, sharp points was roaring and raging at the wizard on the field.

A green Fire Dragon with smooth scales was writhing and twisting its legs; another red Fire Dragon, with a ring of strange, thin, sharp horns around its face, was spewing mushroom-shaped clouds of fire into the air; and finally, a black dragon, more like a dinosaur than the others, was the closest to them.

There were at least thirty wizards on the field, seven or eight of them assigned to each Fire Dragon. They clung to chains, desperately trying to subdue the four dragons, chains attached to thick leather straps around their legs and necks. Harry was utterly stunned. He looked up, high above, and saw the black dragon's eyes, pupils vertical like a cat's, bulging out whether from fear or rage—the dragon emitted a terrible sound, a shrill and piercing wail. "Stay there, Hagrid!" shouted a wizard near the fence, gripping his chain tightly. "They can breathe fire twenty feet away, you know! I saw this Tree Bee breathe fire forty feet!"

"How beautiful!" Hagrid said softly.

"It's no use!" another wizard shouted. "Recite the Stunning Spell, count to three, and recite it all at once!"

Harry saw each Dragon Tamer draw their wand.

"That's brutal," Pabbie muttered. "There were better ways."

Because of the Disillusionment Charm, Harry couldn't see Pabbie's form.

He reached up and cupped his hand, as if he had grasped something vital.

However, he did not withdraw his hand. He was very arrogant at the moment, and even squeezed it.

"Not everyone is as affable as you, Pabbie," Harry whispered. "They can only resort to this stupid method."

"Mmm." Pabbie's voice was barely audible, but Harry knew she must be blushing terribly.

Stunning Spell!

At that moment, the wizards shouted in unison, and the Stunning Spell shot into the dark night sky like rockets. Sparks rained down on the thick, scaly hides of the four Mars — Harry watched as the dragon closest to them stood unsteadily on its hind legs, its mouth wide open, emitting a silent roar. The flames in its nostrils suddenly went out, but still emitted wisps of smoke—and then,

It fell very, very slowly. The powerful, black-scaled dragon, weighing several tons, crashed to the ground.

As a result, the earth trembled.

The Dragon Tamer put down his wand and walked toward the fallen dragons, each one as large as a small mountain.

The Dragon Tamer quickly tightened the chains, securing them firmly to the iron post, and then used his wand to drive the post deep into the ground.

"Would you like to get a closer look?" Hagrid asked Madame Maxime excitedly.

They walked towards the fence together, Harry pulling Pabbie's hand as they followed. The wizard who had warned Hagrid not to come near turned around, and Harry recognized him—it was Charlie Weasley.

"How are you, Hagrid?" he asked, panting, as he approached them. "They should be alright now. We gave them Sleeping Draught; they were asleep the whole way here. We thought waking them up in the quiet of the night would make them feel better—but, as you can see, they're not happy, not at all—"

"I'm not happy either," Harry said softly. "Look at this, such important information, and Hagrid's first thought is Madame Maxime. Isn't that aiding the enemy? No, this is more than just aiding the enemy!"

Pabbie chuckled, reaching out to gently stroke Harry's chest without saying a word, just continuing to stroke him.

"Mr. Crouch! Mr. Crouch!"

An anxious voice came from behind him, and Harry looked in the direction of the voice to see an official from the Ministry of Magic.

She was calling for Mr. Crouch, who was talking to the camp leader.

Mr. Crouch emerged from the tent, his expression grave. "What's wrong? Have you found Bertha?"

"No!" the official gasped. "News just came from the Ministry of Magic: the Austrian Ministry of Magic has announced its merger with the German Ministry of Magic!"