Book Three: The Heir and The Champions

The First Task special edition of the Daily Prophet.

Excerpt from the Daily Prophet.

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Dragons, Wixen, and Dark Magic, oh my!

By: Rita Skeeter

Well, my dear readers, it's been a day since the events of the first task of the Triwizard Tournament that is being held at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and while I'm sure most of you tuned into the WWN to listen in to the broadcast, I'll be filling in those missing details that you may have missed out on as well as giving my own opinion about how each of our four champions tackled the task.

The task itself started out as an unknown danger to each of the champions before stepping out into the arena yesterday, even the Headmasters and Headmistress of each of the schools had no clue what to expect till just before the task that would test each of the daring and ingenuity of the four champions, the task itself was simple, to retrieve the golden egg but the real danger came from what they were retrieving it from. Dragons, that's right my dear readers each of the champions had to circumvent one of the most dangerous five X-class creatures the magical world has ever known. Though, while the champions didn't know at the time, the danger wasn't real. Each dragon brought to the task was one that was approached months ago and offered a large amount of gold to pose as a threat, but not a real one to the champions. In addition to the gold the dragons were promised that they themselves would not be harmed as long as they did not try and kill any of the champions, to which they had agreed, this will be an important fact coming up later on, but let's talk about the first Champion that had stepped out into the arena: Victor Krum.

The world-renowned Quidditch Seeker entered the arena with his head held high, but left in obvious disappointment, for the dragon he was to face was supposed to be a Zemy, a terrifying three-headed dragon from northern Bulgaria, but apparently, someone at the Ministry made mistake and asked for a Zemj instead, a two-headed dragon from southern Bulgaria known to be a protector of cities(We can add this to the Ministry of Magic long list of "Mistakes" that had happened over the last few years). And all Mister Krum had to do was simply ask the dragon nicely for the egg and it was handed over, much to the disappointment of the crowd and Mister Krum himself, he was awarded a total of thirty-eight points for his knowledge of his homelands myths and the pure nerve of his actions.

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Zoë's Room

Harry had retired with Zoë, Ron, and Hermione to the Lieutenant's quarters in Hogwarts to avoid the undoubtedly loud and wild party going on in the Gryffindor Common room at the moment to enjoy a hot meal with his sister. It was an awkward one, to say the least, he didn't even know where to start with Ron and Hermione, so he had settled on just playing with his food. It was apparent that Ron and Hermione didn't know what to say either, as they both sat next to each other as awkwardly as Harry on the small couch not really speaking either.

Zoë was looking between the three of them with a bored look as she sipped on a glass of strawberry wine, "So," the older hunter says, "What exactly did these two do?" she asks, waving her free hand over at Ron and Hermione as she looks at Harry.

Harry mumbles something, causing Zoë to sigh, and before she tells him to speak up, Hermione beats her to it.

"We didn't believe him when he said he didn't put his name in the goblet," the bushy bookworm says, "and I slapped him,"