Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)

58. The First Task

Y/n got up early on Sunday morning and climbed out of bed to shake Harry awake.

"Sirius?" Harry groaned half asleep.

"I am afraid not Harry." Y/n said. "Sorry, but we both have got too much work to do for you to rest anymore."

Harry quickly sat up now. "The Dragons! Sirius!" He blurted out then looked around to see if anyone else was in the common room that could have overheard him. But the others were all still fast asleep.

"We should find Hermione." Y/n said now as he went back over to his bed and opened his trunk to take some clothes out. "I told her we would let her know what happened last night, She might also be able to give us some ideas on how to deal with our upcoming problem." He suggested beginning to change into clothes now.

"Alright..." Harry said as he climbed out of bed now and dressed so inattentively that it was only when Y/n pointed it out to him that he realized he was trying to pull a hat onto his foot instead of his sock.

When Harry finally got all his clothes on the right parts of his body, Y/n and he hurried off to find Hermione, locating her at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, where she was eating breakfast with Ginny.

"Good morning." Y/n said to the pair. Despite recent falling outs, Y/n remained on good terms with all the other Weasleys.

"Morning Y/n." Ginny said back.

"Toast?" Hermione asked Y/n and Harry now but Harry looked too queasy to eat.

"Actually...we were rather hoping to talk to you, in private. It is a rather important matter." Y/n told her.

Hermione lowered her spoon and swallowed her last mouthful of porridge. "Uh...sure." Hermione said. "Sorry Ginny we'll catch up later." She then said getting up.

Ginny just looked annoyed that she was being left out again.

The three walked out onto the grounds. There, they told her all about the dragons, and about everything Sirius had said, while they took another long walk around the lake.

Alarmed as she was by Sirius's warnings about Karkaroff, Hermione still thought that the dragons were the more pressing problem.

"Let's just try and keep you both alive until Tuesday evening." she said desperately. "And then we can worry about Karkaroff."

"Sirius said that there was a simple spell we could use, but we were interrupted before he had time to tell us what it was." Y/n said.

They walked three times around the lake, trying all the way to think of a simple spell that would subdue a dragon. Nothing whatsoever occurred to them, so they retired to the library instead. Here, they pulled down every book one could find on dragons, and the three of them set to work searching through the large pile.

"Talon-clipping by charms...treating scale-rot... This is no good, this is for nutters like Hagrid who want to keep them healthy..." Harry said closing a book.

"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..." Y/n read out loud and it made him think.

"But you told me Sirius said a simple one would do it..." Hermione said.

"Let's try some simple spellbooks, then." said Harry, throwing aside Men Who Love Dragons Too Much. He returned to the table with a pile of spellbooks, set them down, and began to flick through each in turn, Hermione whispering nonstop at his elbow.

"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...