Hungarian Horntail

Although Wizet helped them work through it, over the following week, Harry, Draco, and Cedric could still feel an invisible pressure weighing on them.

All three of them were becoming increasingly popular. Whenever they walked through the corridors, they would occasionally receive words of encouragement.

It was not only encouragement from students of all years in their own Houses, but also from students in other Houses.

Harry and the others could vaguely sense that the identity of "Hogwarts Champions" had become a kind of bond, bringing the four Houses closer together.

And it was precisely because of that that they felt pressured. Once the first task began, if any one of them made a mistake, it might damage that relationship.

Ron was making himself a sandwich. He stuffed bacon sausage into bread and drizzled a spoonful of gravy over it. "Just think about Snape..."

"It really isn't that bad. Even if something goes wrong then, I don't think much will happen... The most likely consequence would just be going back to how things were before, right?"

"Actually, we wouldn't even have to go back to how things were before. Like I said..." He took a savage bite of his homemade sandwich and mumbled, "Think about whether Snape has changed at all lately."

Although Ron's reassurance was rather casual, Harry found it very reasonable and could not help nodding in agreement.

Ron was absolutely right. Snape had not changed in the slightest. He still loved finding fault with Harry's potion-brewing, then docking him points mercilessly.

The reason Ron knew so clearly was that, as Harry's desk mate, after docking Harry's points, Snape would dock Ron's points with a line like, "Why didn't you remind Mr. Potter?"

Harry did not expect Snape to do anything else. If one day Snape smiled and