Dawn Rivera

The First Task

Harry and Danny join Hermione and I at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, where we are eating breakfast with Ginny and Misty. Harry and Danny wait until Hermione and I have swallowed our last spoonfuls of porridge, then drag us out into the grounds for another walk. There, they tell us all about the dragons, and I join in about everything Uncle Sirius said, while we take another long walk around the lake.

Alarmed as we are by Uncle Sirius's warnings about Karkaroff, Hermione and I still think that the dragons are the more pressing problem.

"Let's just try and keep you two alive until Tuesday evening," I say desperately, "and then we can worry about Karkaroff."

We walk three times around the lake, trying all the way to think of a simple spell that will subdue a dragon. Nothing whatsoever occurs to us, so we retire to the library instead. Here, Harry and Danny pull down every book they can find on dragons, and all of us set to work searching through the large pile.

"Talon-clipping by charms..." Hermione reads, "treating scale rot...this is no good, this is for nutters like Hagrid who want to keep them healthy..."

"Dragons are extremely difficult to slay, owing to the ancient magic that imbues their thick hides, which none but the most powerful spells can penetrate..." I say, scanning the page, "but Uncle Sirius said a simple one would do it..."

"Let's try some simple spell books, then," says Danny, throwing aside Men Who Love Dragons Too Much.

He and Harry return to the table with a pile of spellbooks, set them down and begin to flick through each in turn, Hermione whispering non-stop at their elbows. "Well, there are Switching Spells...but what's the point of Switching it? Unless you swapped its fangs for wine gums or something, that would make it less dangerous...the trouble is, like that book said, not much is going to get through a dragon's hide...I'd say Transfigure it, but something that big, you haven't got a hope, I doubt even Professor McGonagall...unless you're supposed to put the spell on yourself? Maybe to give you extra powers? But they're not simple spells, I mean, we haven't done any of those in class, I only know about them because me and Dawn've been doing O.W.L practice papers..."

"Hermione," Harry says, through gritted teeth, "will you shut up for a bit, please? We're trying to concentrate."

Hermione falls silent.

"Oh, no, he's back again, why can't he read on his stupid ship?" I say irritably, as Viktor Krum slouches in, casts a surly look over at the four of us, and settles himself in a distant corner with a pile of books. "Come on, Harry, Danny, Hermione, we'll go back to the common room...his fan club'll be here in a moment, twittering away..."

And sure enough, as we leave the library, a gang of girls tiptoe past us in the library, one of them wearing a Bulgaria scarf around her waist.

*********************************************

Harry, Danny, Hermione and I are eating breakfast in the Great Hall, and not any of us are feeling talkative. Harry and Danny are just looking round in silence.

Harry and Danny finish their bacon with apparent difficulty and, as they, Hermione and I get up, I see Cedric Diggory leaving the Hufflepuff table.

Cedric still doesn't know about the dragons...the only champion who doesn't, if I am right in thinking that Maxime and Karkaroff will have told Fleur and Krum...

"Hermione, Dawn, we'll see you in the greenhouses," Danny says, he and Harry also watching Cedric leave the Great Hall. "Go on, we'll catch you up."

"Harry, Danny, you'll be late, the bell's about to ring -" Hermione begins.

"We'll catch you up, OK?" Harry says.