The little snakes had plenty of guesses about the First Task.
A few of them were surprisingly close.
Draco, for instance.
When courage came up, his first thought was, "Could it involve fighting a dragon?"
Everyone thought he had gone mad. Even adult wizards could usually do little more than protect themselves against a dragon, thanks to the fact that most of them could at least manage Apparition.
If they could not win, they could still run.
Dragons possessed certain magical abilities-mainly magic resistance, an intimidating aura, and magically infused flames. Unlike other magical creatures of a similar level, however, they could not disrupt magic.
But in a competition, they certainly would not be allowed to Apparate away. Even among adult wizards, perhaps fewer than one in a hundred could face a dragon head-on, never mind students.
So although someone still raised this guess from time to time, it was almost always shot down immediately.
And every time Tris saw people sneering and laughing at the students who suggested dragons, he found it immensely entertaining.
He wondered what their faces would look like when the dragons actually appeared in the First Task.
Huh?
Wait, could the task itself change? This fluttering moth of mine has already changed quite a lot. Could this change too?
Even if it did, Tris did not really care.
Before absolute strength, every trick was nothing but smoke.
In early November, Tris received news about the First Task that was still being kept secret from the outside world.
Charlie sent word that they had transported four dragons to Hogwarts and hidden them in the Forbidden Forest for the First Task. The dragons had come from Romania.
The Dragon Sanctuary in France had just harvested a batch of assorted dragon parts and materials. Besides, it had no