Ashes | 𝔇. 𝔐𝔞𝔩𝔣𝔬𝔶 [𝟙]

10 ⚡︎ The first task

♫ Ignorance by Paramore ♫

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ .・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

"You only live twice:
Once when you are born,
and once when you look death in the face."

-Ian Fleming

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ .・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Cassie spent the next month helping Harry prepare for the first task with Hermione. Two weeks before the first task was to take place, Hagrid broke the rules and showed Harry what they were up against in the first task. When Harry told her, Cassie nearly fainted.

It was the morning of the day when the first task would take place and the three of them were doing some last minute preparations. Harry had decided to use the summoning charm once he was in the arena to summon his broom, so he could fight the dragon in the air.

He had also told Cedric Diggory what they were up against, because both Maxime and Karkaroff saw the dragons and he figured that they would tell their students, so, Harry also told Cedric.

"Accio!" Harry shouted, and the book that Hermione had been holding flew out of her hand and Harry caught it. "I really think you've got it!" Hermione said to him, and Cassie nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, but the firebolt will be up in the castle." Harry argued with a frown on his face. It was evident that he was not a hundred percent confident about this plan.

"As long as you keep your mind set on it, it will come." Hermione said smartly, before standing up. 

Harry checked his watch, and noted that their classes would be starting soon. Hermione refused point-blank to skip Arithmancy, and there was no point staying without her so Harry left for divination while Cassie left for charms. 

"Bye! I'll see you down on the quidditch pitch later!" Cassie called after him and he waved back at her. Five minutes later, she walked into Professor Flitwick's classroom. She sat down in her usual seat next to Draco after apologizing to Flitwick for being late.

The lesson flew by and way too soon they were walking down to the quidditch pitch. The anxious feeling in Cassie's stomach had appeared about half an hour ago, and noticing her nerves, Theo placed a gentle hand on her shoulder before speaking a few comforting words to her.

"Oh don't worry Cass, he'll be fine. Whatever the first task is, they won't let any of the champions actually get hurt. You heard Dumbledore, it's supposed to be safer this year."

She looked up at him and licked her lips before responding. "Yeah, but still. I'm just worried." She said back to him in her thick British accent. Theo didn't know exactly what Harry had to do, if he did, he would've understood her worries better. 

"Yeah, I know. Try to calm down a bit though." He said soothingly as they climbed the stairs up to the stands in the quidditch pitch where the task would take place. 

Honestly, how could they let him face a full grown dragon? Cassie thought furiously to herself. Harry had told her that Charlie would be there, and Cassie knew that Charlie would never let anything happen to Harry if he could help it. With this soothing thought of her big brother in mind, she sat down between Draco and Theo, while Blaise sat down excitedly on Draco's other side.

They waited for what felt like hours until Dumbledore, Madame Maxime, Karkaroff, Ludo Bagman and Mr. Crouch walked onto the pitch and sat down, Cassie assumed they would be the judges. After a little while, Cedric walked onto the pitch and every single person in the stands gasped when an enormous dragon was led onto it, except for Cassie and Hermione. 

After Cedric had defeated his dragon came Fleur, and then Krum. Cassie held her breath when Harry walked onto the pitch, faced with a monstrous dragon with spikes for a tail. She heard him shout the incantation he had practised before he swiftly had to duck to avoid the dragon's enormous and deadly tail. 

He hid behind a rock just in time before the dragon shot a load of fire at him. Cassie grabbed Draco's hand as she held onto the fence with her other hand for support, causing Draco to do a double-take in her direction. After a while, they all heard a swooshing sound and saw the firebolt come flying across the grounds before stopping beside Harry. He jumped onto it and kicked off the ground to cheers from nearly everyone sitting in the stands. 

He flew around the pitch a few times, nearly avoiding great spurts of fire by inches. Cassie was still clutching Draco's hand in a death grip, worried sick about her brother, who was currently followed by a dragon. An actual dragon. This was insane, she concluded.

When Harry had gotten the dragon away from the egg at last, he made a bee-line towards the golden egg and grabbed it. Clutching it in his arms, he flew up into the air again as Charlie and the other dragon keepers restrained the horntail.

Cassandra was sitting with Harry in the medical tent now, she had rushed up to it the moment Harry had left the pitch. Not long after she arrived, they both saw the tent flap open and in came Hermione, followed by Ron. 

Madame Pomfrey was fussing worse than ever over Harry, Cedric, Fleur and Krum, all while muttering about dementors and dragons as Ron made his way up to Harry. He apologized for his behaviour and Harry forgave him without a second thought. Predictably, Hermione burst into tears.

"There's no need to cry about it" Ron told her with a roll of his eyes as Cassie let out a chuckle.

"You two- are so stupid!" Hermione burst out once she had calmed herself slightly. Ron reminded them of Harry's score, and they all rushed out of the tent to see what he got. He had gotten a 40 in total, and he now tied for first place with Krum. 

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ .・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Authors Note: Hii again! I hope you liked this chapter, sorry it's so short! 

Don't forget to vote and comment, I'd also love any feedback on my writing or the story.
If you have any suggestions or requests let me know xx

Word Count: 1.026

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ .・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌