The First Task

On the day of the competition, Hogwarts students still had to attend classes—well, only for the morning. Classes were canceled at noon. Still, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan complained endlessly. Their reason was that the Triwizard Tournament placed enormous pressure on the Champions, so they should be given a more relaxed environment to prepare for the first task.

All right, that sounded perfectly reasonable, but Albert knew they simply did not want to attend Charms Class.

After all, having to go to class before watching the competition in the afternoon was a real buzzkill.

The moment Albert entered the Great Hall, he was surrounded by a huge crowd of students, all offering him their good wishes.

Shanna led a group of girls over to show Albert the enormous banner they had made. It showed Albert holding his wand as though confronting something, with a roaring Gryffindor lion beside him. Across it flashed a line of enchanted words: GRYFFINDOR WILL WIN, ALBERT WILL WIN.

However, Albert changed GRYFFINDOR WILL WIN to HOGWARTS WILL WIN.

Fred and George took the opportunity to open a betting pool. The odds on Albert coming first were the lowest, only ten percent, practically telling everyone that Albert was guaranteed to win. Of course, Albert was not the focus of the betting pool—Harry was. The odds on Harry finishing last were quite high.

Compared with the popular Albert, Harry was having a much worse time. He was not especially well-liked to begin with, and most people did not think highly of his chances. Coupled with all the nonsense he had pulled recently, quite a few students were now taking pleasure in his misfortune. Some even waved handkerchiefs at Harry and said, "We prepared loads of tissues to cry for you."

"You're not seriously going to compete dressed