March 4, Saturday.
The fourth task of the First Magic Cup tournament, which was also the champions' third task, took place that day.
Harry and Ron had made all their preparations, or at least they thought they had. As for the champions from the other schools, some had prepared, and some had not.
Among the champions who looked prepared, some might have been pretending so that the others would not underestimate them.
Among those who looked unprepared, some might actually have prepared, hoping to make the others let their guard down.
After Harry had played dirty in the Second Task, the tournament's previously harmonious atmosphere had changed. Like all the tournaments before it, it had become a succession of schemes and intrigue.
Even the champions and headmasters were throwing up smokescreens during their pre-match interviews.
Karkaroff insisted that their champions had not found a single clue yet and were panicking like mad. Harry and Ron, however, knew perfectly well that they had cracked the clue long ago. Krum had even come over to tell Hermione.
Now, among the seven schools, the champions and headmasters all seriously distrusted one another. But they were competitors to begin with, so trust did not seem particularly necessary.
On the day of the task, the weather was a little overcast.
That was normal. In fact, the weather in the United Kingdom was like that most of the time. For this year's Quidditch World Cup, the wizards had even been forced to intervene with magic to ensure better weather during the matches.
To that end, the Ministry of Magic had had quite a few dealings with Muggle government agencies-something that had previously been very rare.
The weather during the earlier tasks had been fairly good, though magical intervention could not be ruled out. Hogwarts was in