The First Task

The first week of special training was just a formality. The three professors taught them a little of the basics and didn't put them through any grueling exercises.

That was because the First Task awaited Harry and Cedric in the second week.

Compared with Cedric, who was at ease after having been through it once already, Harry was clearly distracted.

Even so, before the First Task, he told Cedric that the challenge involved dragons.

Clara also gave the two of them some targeted help with Transfiguration. They were cramming at the last minute, but it was better than being unprepared.

Clearly, though, fourth-year Transfiguration wasn't enough for Harry to conjure a Newfoundland dog as easily as Cedric could.

Fortunately, Harry and his outside help, Hermione, were clever enough to come up with the idea of combining the Summoning Charm with a broomstick before Clara could suggest it.

Although it seemed like making a fuss over nothing, they couldn't find a better solution on such short notice.

After that, Clara and Hermione took turns helping Harry practice the Summoning Charm. Cedric's Transfiguration didn't need much attention from them; he stayed in a corner by himself, effortlessly making the little creature he had transfigured from a wooden figure run back and forth.

Even on Sunday night, Harry was still shut away in the Room of Requirement, practicing frantically, although he could already summon a book from Clara's hand into his own from the other end of the room.

He finally and visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

But when they met in the Entrance Hall the next morning, Harry was still pale, and his confidence had begun to waver again.

Cedric, too, grew a little nervous under the influence of the atmosphere.

The students passing by were all excitedly guessing what the First Task would be. No one noticed him leaning against the stone wall, breathing a little faster.

"You're not nervous too, are you?" Clara walked over and leaned against the wall beside him.

She took a Chocolate Frog from her pocket, peeled off the foil, and handed it to him.

Cedric took it and popped it straight into his mouth without looking. He chewed twice before answering.

"Thanks for the Chocolate Frog. Much better. It obviously made a big difference. You'll come and watch, won't you?"

"Of course. The reason I didn't watch the Second Task that time was that, standing by the Black Lake, you couldn't see anything. All you could do was stand in the cold wind," Clara explained with a shrug.

The morning flew by, and before they knew it, it was almost time for the competition.

After lunch, Harry even came over and tried to drag Clara away to practice the Summoning Charm. Hermione stood behind him, looking up at the ceiling in resignation.

He didn't succeed, though, because Professor McGonagall came over and called him and Cedric away. "Potter, Diggory, the Champions must go down to the grounds now... to complete the First Task."

"All right." Harry deflated like a punctured ball and silently got to his feet. Cedric also rose from the Hufflepuff table, and when he reached the door, he turned back and mouthed something to Clara.

Clara read his lips. He said, "See you in the stands."

She smiled at him and replied, "Good luck."

In the tent, the four Champions were pacing. Apart from Cedric, the others all looked plainly uneasy.

"By the way, Cedric, aren't you really nervous?" Ever since their heart-to-heart in the Room of Requirement that day, Harry had considered Cedric one of his own.

Of course, he couldn't find anyone else to talk to at the moment, either.

Karkaroff and Madame Maxime stood behind their respective heroes, watching the two Hogwarts Champions warily.

"Harry, don't be nervous. You'll do very well." Cedric patted Harry on the shoulder. He wasn't comforting him; after all, in his memory, Harry had done extremely well in the First Task, even though Karkaroff had maliciously given him a low score.

The tent flap was suddenly thrown open.

A woman in magenta robes strode in. Her hair had been styled in delicate but stiff curls, her nails were painted in a matching shade of magenta, and a flying quill followed behind her.

Behind her came a short, stout wizard carrying a camera. A thin layer of dust covered its lens, and it was obvious he had squeezed his way over from the stands.

"Oh, isn't it our Champions!"

Rita Skeeter's voice was shrill and loud, like fingernails scraping a blackboard.

"What an exciting moment! What brave young people! Let me see-Fleur Delacour, of course, you need no further introduction, the brightest jewel of the French Wizarding World; Viktor Krum, the youngest Quidditch star in the world, your tactics today are sure to make every fan scream-"

Her Quick-Quotes Quill danced frantically in the air, having already written at least three lines of exaggerated description on the parchment.

"And our two Hogwarts Champions! Harry Potter-of course, everyone knows you, the Boy Who Lived, the Goblet of Fire's fourth surprise. You must have so many stories to tell me."

Her gaze rested on Harry for a second, then, like a shark catching the scent of stronger blood, she turned to Cedric and reached out to ruffle his fluffy hair.

Cedric tried very hard not to roll his eyes.

"And you-Cedric Diggory, Hufflepuff's pride, Hogwarts' other, less conspicuous Champion."

Rita took two steps forward, her Quick-Quotes Quill hovering over her shoulder like a venomous wasp poised to strike.

"But you stood side by side with a certain Hufflepuff girl in the Entrance Hall for quite a while this morning-someone saw you leaning against the stone wall with her. Her name is Clara Albert, a young witch from a Muggle family. I hear she was also there on the night of the Quidditch World Cup and had a little trouble with the Ministry of Magic, is that right? Some people even say there's a special relationship between you two? You're often seen together in the corridors, and it seems you've even been out at night-"

"Enough, ma'am. She's just a fellow Hufflepuff student. Please don't make groundless guesses about our relationship. And we had a legitimate reason for being out late that day. You can ask Professor Dumbledore." Cedric's frown deepened as he listened, and he spoke up to stop her.

Rita's smile stiffened for a moment. Her Quick-Quotes Quill scratched rapidly across the parchment, then crossed a few things out.

From behind her, Harry gave him an admiring look.

He greatly admired anyone who could stand up to Rita Skeeter. That unscrupulous reporter had already made his life miserable.

"I don't think anyone other than the Champions should be in this tent?"

Dumbledore's voice came from outside the tent, sounding like heavenly music. Rita Skeeter clearly knew she wouldn't get anywhere, so she rolled her eyes and sashayed out.

At two in the afternoon, Rowle appeared right on time at the entrance to the Hufflepuff Common Room and seized Clara, who was still leafing through a book.

"Let's go now! Any later and we won't get good seats!"

Clara let Rowle pull her into a run out of the castle, and they saw plenty of other students racing along the way.

"I bet the First Task is dragons!" Rowle shouted as they ran, her voice breaking up in the wind. "I saw Charlie Weasley in the library yesterday—he's Ron's brother, and he studies dragons in Romania! Why else would he be at Hogwarts? He can't be here to check Ron's Potions Class marks!"

Clara let Rowle pull her through the Entrance Hall, along a stone corridor, and up the wooden steps to the stands, silently giving Rowle high marks for her reasoning.

She really didn't know why someone so clever had lost so badly betting on matches at the Quidditch World Cup.

Maybe love made people blind.

They managed to claim seats in the very front row, right in the middle of the stands—a superb view, directly facing the rocky area in the center of the grounds, with the High Table a few rows behind them.

Rowle was clearly delighted with their seats. She plopped down and immediately began adjusting her Omnioculars.

Clara pulled her school robes over her knees and glanced at the High Table. Dumbledore sat in the middle, saying something to Professor McGonagall beside him; Snape sat near the edge, looking as cold as ever; Fake Moody was there too, his magical eye swiveling as it swept over the crowd in the stands.

Professor Dumbledore saw her and greeted her with a smile.

A faint smell of sulfur hung in the air, mingling with the slightly chilly November breeze and shrouding the entire grounds in a primitive, unsettling atmosphere.

Anyone who had paid attention in Care of Magical Creatures could soon deduce that it was the smell of dragons.

A loud blast of a horn suddenly rang out across the grounds, instantly drowning out the noise in the stands. Dumbledore stood, his voice carrying clearly to every corner through Sonorus.

The First Task officially began.

Cedric was first, facing the Swedish Short-Snout.

Overlapping with the black-and-yellow figure in her memory, Cedric conjured the dog with great ease and successfully distracted the dragon.

Last time, he might still have been a little unpracticed. The dragon had changed targets at the end, and he had been burned.

But this time he had clearly learned from his previous experience. The dog was much bigger and barked louder, successfully drawing the dragon to the other half of the grounds. He quickly finished the fight and took the Golden Egg.

Mr. Bagman led the cheering in the stands. Charlie Weasley and his team had already brought the dragon under control. Cedric raised the Golden Egg in the middle of the grounds and looked toward her, his gaze intense.

Several judges gave him extremely high scores, even higher than she remembered. First place was probably all but assured.

The Hufflepuffs erupted in deafening cheers.

"Oh my goodness!!! Cedric is amazing!!!" Rowle screamed to her left. "I don't think anyone will beat him, not even Krum!"

Great, Clara joked silently to herself. Cedric has earned himself a Krum fan through his own ability.

Neither Fleur nor Krum did particularly well after that, but Karkaroff was clearly biased and still gave Krum nine points.

Merlin! His egg even broke!

Although Rowle was a Krum fan, she didn't like him at all at that moment, and she chattered on about Karkaroff's improper conduct in Clara's ear.

Harry was the last to come out.

Clara had to admit that Harry was always a little unlucky. He had drawn the Hungarian Horntail.

A dragon covered in spikes, and the most ill-tempered of them all.

As soon as Harry came out of the tent, the dragon began snorting at him. He had to hide behind a huge rock, then raised his wand.

"Accio broom!"

The grounds were large, and many people couldn't hear what spell he had cast. But when nothing happened after he spoke, several Slytherins were already preparing to mock him.

About a minute later, something came whistling over from the Quidditch broom shed.

The corners of Clara's mouth lifted.

It worked. As long as Harry got his broom, he had already succeeded.

Everything that followed went smoothly, except that the Horntail was a little too destructive. The fence beside the Quidditch Pitch would probably need some repairs.

Harry swooped down and seized the Golden Egg, and the stands erupted in shouts, screams, applause, and cheers.

Harry was still on his broomstick, but Clara could see that he was smiling happily, clearly having breathed a huge sigh of relief.