The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|45| the First Task

The day before the task, Hermione, Harry, and I were still trying to figuring out ways to get past the dragons. Of course, at first, Hermione was terrified of the idea, but once she calmed down, she helped. Not that we figured out much.

Leaving the library, I stopped Cedric Diggory coming out of class.

"Harry, Cedric," I pointed over to him.

Cedric was talking with a group of his friends at the bottom of the steps.

"What about it?" Harry said.

"He doesn't know about the dragons! It's not fair!" I hissed and dragged him down the stairs with me towards Cedric.

"Diffindo!" I heard Harry say from beside me and saw Cedric's bag split, everything falling to the floor.

"Don't bother," said Cedric in an exasperated voice as his friends bent down to help him. "Tell Flitwick I'm coming, go on..."

"Hi," I said, bending down to help him pick up a copy of A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration that was now splattered with ink.

"Maisey Potter, yeah?" he said, standing up.

"Yeah, uh, Harry and I have got something to tell you," I said looking around the corridor. It was empty. Hermione had left for Herbology without us.

"Cedric," said Harry, "the first task is dragons."

"What?" said Cedric, looking at us in disbelief.

"Dragons," I said, speaking quickly, in case Professor Flitwick came out to see where Cedric had got to. "They've got five, one for each of us, and we've got to get past them."

"Are you sure?" Cedric said in a hushed voice.

"Dead sure," said Harry. "We've seen them."

"But how did you find out? We're not supposed to know..."

"Nevermind that," I dismissed him. "But we're not the only ones who know. Fleur and Krum will know by now— Maxime and Karkaroff both saw the dragons too."

Cedric straightened up, his arms full of inky quills, parchment, and books, his ripped bag dangling off one shoulder. He stared at Harry and me, and there was a puzzled, almost suspicious look in his eyes.

"Why are you telling me?" he asked.

Harry looked over to me, asking for help with his eyes.

"Because it's not fair," I said firmly. "We all know. Even footing... plus we're all from the same school anyways."

Cedric gave me a nod and left for his class.

Later in the day, Harry almost peed himself with excitement. While Hermione and I had gone to Arithmancy, Harry was stopped by Professor Moody who helped him figure out how he would get past the dragon: His broom.

"I need to learn how to do a Summoning Charm properly by tomorrow afternoon," Harry said.

And so we practiced. We didn't have lunch, but headed for a free classroom, where Harry tried with all his might to make various objects fly across the room toward him. He was still having problems. The books and quills kept losing heart halfway across the room and dropping like stones to the floor. It wasn't until later that night that Harry finally was able to summon heavy objects from around the common room.

We had been so focused on helping Harry learn how to summon objects, that we never figured out how I would get past.

"Maisey!" Hermione cried. "We never figured out—"