SMILE » n. longbottom

vi

"THE FIRST TASK, PART ONE"

Alana walked out of the castle grounds amongst her fellow spectators. As usual, her portable oxygen tank strolled beside her as she walked. The first task of the Triwizard Tournament was to be held on the side of a mountain, where a circular building stood. All students of all three magical schools stood around what seemed to have been a pit, where there were rocks and boulders. To one side of the pit was the entrance for the champions, and to the other side — a golden egg for which each champion are to capture. But there were a dragon for each champion, for which they each had to go against.

Alana Wallace found her Gryffindor friend, Neville Longbottom, in the middle row of the stands leaning forward two other Gryffindors. They were two-thirds of "the Golden Trio," Hermione Granger, one of Hogwarts' most intelligent witches of her time, and Ronald Weasley, the youngest son of the infamous ginger-haired Weasley household. As the conversation between the three Gryffindors fades, and Neville notices Alana standing quietly by him, either waiting for the first task to start or to speak to Neville, "Oh, hello. Uhm — sorry about that, I was just speaking to some other Gryffindors."

Alana nodded in approval, "It's fine, Neville. I know of house loyalty," she stared blankly down the stone pit that the stands of the building surrounded.

Neville Longbottom stared in the direction of which Alana was, then down at the pit as well. He shuddered, but quickly looked toward his Hufflepuff friend. "Have you met Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley?"

Alana creased her eyebrows together, turned towards Neville and nodded. "I had Care of Magical Creatures with them last year. But, no, I haven't actually met them."

"Do you want to?" Neville nodded to the direction of where the two Gryffindors were, where the young Weasley stood silently. He looked towards the direction, and sighed. "Oh. Hermione has left."

"Neville, it's not a problem," the curly-haired witch tried to assure Neville. But Alana became distressed as he leaned forward to the young Weasley, in attempt to speak to him. "No, Neville. Its fi—"

"Hey Ron," Neville interrupted Alana as she grew silent. He leaned towards the ginger, "I was going to introduce someone to you and Hermione. Do you know when she'll return?"

The ginger boy nodded, and looked around Neville, "She'll return shortly, presumably. Who were you going to introduce?"

"Oh, Alana Wallace," Neville looked toward her, and smiled, "She has helped me pass Arithmancy." Alana nodded in a response, as to say "You're welcome" to him.

Ron shot the Hufflepuff a look of surprise. "You both are taking Arithmancy? I heard a rumor that only Ravenclaws are able to pass that class. Even Hermione's a tad dodgy of Arithmancy."

"That's a load of codswallop," Neville Longbottom chuckled into a fit of laughter. He nodded towards Alana, "I think she could outwit Professor Septima Vector herself! And she's a Hufflepuff!"

Alana shook her head in disagreement to the two Gryffindor boys. "I don't think so, Professor Vector was a Arithmancy prodigy when she was a student here at Hogwarts. I'm not that brilliant."

The ginger-haired boy laughed and stared to Neville and then finally at the curly-haired Hufflepuff, "If you can teach Neville Arithmancy, I think you would be able to outwit your own professor."

Just as Ronald Weasley finished his sentence, the first task as the shot of a cannon began, and Dumbledore walked out of the tent that the four champions were held. His voice rang through the crowds of students as he hushed a spell to his wand, "Welcome to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament! I am pleased to announce that the goal of this task is for each champion to acquire a golden egg, as for each egg — there is one dragon. Now, the first champion to compete will be Hogwarts very own Hufflepuff Quidditch captain, Cedric Diggory!" The wizard stepped out of the Champions' tent, and stepped down to where the champions are to enter the pit. The golden egg appeared, and a dragon known as a Swedish Short-snout crawled out from beneath the rocks.

As the first three champions, including Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum had finished their first task of the tournament ... it was time for the unsuspected champion, Harry Potter, to acquire his golden egg from the dragon's nest. The crowd grew silent as the young champion's name was called, and the messy haired boy stepped out of the tent and traveled to the mouth of the cave.

To Harry Potter, the dragon was no one in sight, but to the audience of the task grew warily as the boy stepped out of the cave, and the Hungarian Horntail smashed its horned tail down by his feet — missing him completely as the Boy-Who-Lived was thrown forward. Then the battle between the fourteen-year-old wizard and the vicious dragon began immediately. People in the crowds shouted at Harry Potter, including his fellow Gryffindor friend, Hermione, who shouted: "Your wand, Harry! Use your wand!"

He shouted something, and ran away from the fiery flames erupting from the Hungarian Horntail's jaws. To everyone's surprise: the spell of which he'd casted caused no affect to the dragon. In the distance an object flew, perhaps a bird, no, it was Harry's broomstick. It flew to the boy in the dragon pit, and saved him just as the dragon breathed flames that could equally be from a volcano's magma. The scarred boy flew to the sky, followed by the chained dragon, who was shot aback as the chains restrained him. In the air, the chains snapped. The people in the stands screamed in horror as realization that this gory dragon was real. And could possibly kill, if it desired so.

Some people shrunk back in the stands, including Alana, who shuddered beside Neville, and mostly younger students of Hogwarts, who teared up. The duo in the skies flew off towards the Hogwarts' castle grounds, striking fear through everyone within the stands, and igniting them to think of only one thought: "This has gone out of hand," Alana shuddered a whispered as people surrounding her screamed, cried, or simply waited for assurance that something will end well.