Harry was the first of the champions to make it to the tent next to the dragon's nest. Professor McGonagall had wished him luck and told him to wait for everyone else to arrive before leaving him to sit and review his plans. He felt confident that he would be able to grab the golden egg, but he was starting to have doubts about Daphne's plan. Even if it did work, the wizarding world might not look too kindly on a public display of his parselmouth talents. 'On the other hand, why should I care? It's not like they have been treating me well to begin with' he thought with a frown. Deciding it wasn't worth worrying about at the moment, he decided to go through the exercises Oliver Wood had the Gryffindor Quidditch team do before every match. Harry had no idea if they actually helped physically, but it did help him mentally prepare. A few minutes later Harry looked up to see Cedric Diggory walk in.
"Hey Harry." the Hufflepuff champion said, seemingly quite nervous.
"Hi, Cedric. Are you ok?"
"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just a little excited is all." Harry nodded and didn't press any further. Cedric began to pace back and forth, softly muttering something to himself.
Soon Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour had also arrived. The four champions spent several minutes looking at their competition, trying to determine who would be the biggest threat. They all knew that Krum was considered the favorite to win the competition, with Cedric a close second. Each of them seemed to handle the stress differently, Harry noted. Once the other champions had arrived, Cedric had adopted and confident face and a small grin. Krum, on the other hand, never seemed to stop scowling at his competition while Fleur seemed just seemed bored.
"Excellent, you're all here!" a booming voice came from the opening of the tent. Harry turned to see Ludo Bagman walking in with two assistants. "Now, gather around and I will explain the first task to you." Harry calmly walked over to Bagman, much like Krum and Fleur. Cedric, however, seemed the most eager to hear what Bagman had to say.
"Today you must recover a golden egg, within which is a clue for your next task. In order to obtain the egg, however, you must make your way past a dragon. You will have thirty minutes to complete the task." Only Cedric reacted to the news, paling significantly. "There are four dragons, and in order to determine which one you will face you must reach into this bag and pull out a representation of that dragon. Ladies first, Ms. Delacour." He said as he offered her the bag. Fleur reach in and pulled out a small green dragon with a number 2 on a chain around its neck.
"Ah, the common Welsh green. Very good, you will go second. Mr. Diggory?" Cedric reluctantly put his hand in the bag and withdrew his dragon, which had a number 1 on it. "The Swedish Short-Snout! Excellent." Cedric gulped and held the tiny dragon up to his face, inspecting it.
"You're next, Mr. Krum." Viktor Krum scowled and pulled out his dragon, which had a 3 on it. "The Chinese Fireball. Which means you, Mr. Potter, will be facing the Hungarian Horntail." Harry pulled his dragon out of the bag, and recognized it from his studies as one of the most aggressive dragons in the world.
"You have twenty minutes to prepare yourself, Mr. Diggory. Good luck to all of you." Bagman said as he waved at them and left. Once he was gone Cedric walked over to a bench and sat down, deep in thought. Every so often he would glance at the miniature dragon, looking for inspiration.
'He has no idea what to expect.' Harry realized. 'But Krum and Delacour do. So do I, for that matter. Why would Moody tell me and not Cedric? I can't just let him die out there…' Harry sighed and walked over to the bench where Cedric was sitting. The older boy looked up at him suspiciously, wondering what he wanted.
"Cedric, did you know that wolves and dogs are natural enemies of dragons? Or that the flame freezing charm will provide a few moments of protection against dragon fire? Just some things to think about, I suppose." Harry started to walk away when Cedric's voice stopped him.
"Why are you helping me?"
"I still want to win, but I would rather not see you get burnt to a crisp out there either. Good luck, Cedric." Harry walked back over to where he had been sitting, wondering if it was smart to have given up a few key points to his backup plan. 'Oh well, I did only mention one spell and he probably would never consider summoning a broom.' Harry sat back down and listened to the noise from the growing crowd outside the tent. Another voice, this one much louder, was explaining the rules of the task to them and announcing the order in which they would face the dragons. Time seemed to drag on for him as his anticipation built. Finally, one of Bagman's assistants came into the tent and motioned for Cedric to follow him.
"You're up, Mr. Diggory." Cedric nodded and gave a brief thumbs up to Harry before walking out of the tent to the roar of an approving crowd. The other champions were not allowed to watch as that would give them an unfair advantage, but there was nothing stopping them from listening.
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