The Triwizard Tournament had begun as scheduled. However, since it was a major inter-school, international, and even inter-magical-world event that spanned the entire school year, there would be quite a long interval between each task. The Champions were also given plenty of time to prepare beforehand—or, one might say... to cheat?!
So the First Task wouldn't officially begin for a while yet, and the Champions still had plenty of time to prepare.
Although, from every angle, it seemed to Harry and Hermione that all these so-called Champions were cheating?
After all, they knew that Headmaster Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, and even Harry and Hermione had all learned what the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament involved. They were all doing their best to figure out how to defeat or deal with a dragon... But since the situation was more or less fair to all the Champions, he and Hermione soon came to terms with it and set about finding a way to handle the First Task.
"Hey! Ron!"
"Ron? Wait up..."
Sure enough, after Potions Class ended that day, Harry immediately called out to Ron, his friend who'd been scowling throughout class, barely speaking, and keeping his distance from Harry for the past couple of days.
"Hey!"
"Ron, I wanted to ask you something. Do you know how to deal with a dragon? A really big one—the female kind, that breathes fire. I heard it might be brooding over its eggs..."
As he said this, Harry suddenly trailed off.
He'd noticed that their good friend Ron was looking at him with narrowed eyes, fury and disbelief in his gaze, as if Harry were doing something unforgivable—or downright wicked.
"Just shut up, Harry!"
"You and Hermione teamed up to fool me. You used some trick I don't know to get past the