Rune stone path

The first task

Krum blinked and only his Quidditch reflexes prevented him from sliding down the wall in shock. As frustrating as the Headmaster's underhanded tactics were Krum could not bring himself to berate the man considering the import of this information. "A manticore? A five X magical creature?"

"And a chimera. The dragon might be difficult too but compared to those…" the Headmaster scowled. "Well at least the dragon wouldn't prolong things like those would."

"I do not know vat the danger is vith a chimera…" Krum said slowly racking his brain for why the cuddly little creature would be considered deadly.

"It's dangerous because these organizers are insane and importing a true chimera. The Greek chimera. I'd like to say this smacked of the Dark Lord but even he wasn't this foolish. Between those two creatures, they've already lost three from the containment team." Viktor's mouth dropped open at that. The Greek chimeras had nearly all been hunted to extinction; where in the world had the English managed to find one allowed off the reservation? Karkaroff dropped into his chair and twisted to stare out over the lake waving a hand over his shoulder. "Good luck, boy. I'm glad I'm not in your position. If you die, please be sure to at least give a good showing of Durmstrang beforehand."

Viktor walked out shaking his head. These English were even crazier than he had seen during his games. He was starting to seriously regret having entered this Tournament. He had only done it because he wanted to show he could do more than Quidditch and was hoping to use the excuse to talk to others outside of Durmstrang. Neither goal was remotely worth facing any of those horrors. He scowled, thinking that he'd have to brush up on spells to help with blinding opponents. With luck that would be enough to get him through the worth of what was coming before they switched to tracking him by scent.

Viktor paused with his hand on the door to the library cabin. The other Champions should be informed as well. They had been very nice to him and weren't acting like star-struck fans despite his sometimes seeming indifference.

Sighing, Viktor turned to head towards the school grounds. He could spare a few minutes to find the others before diving into his research.

Fred was sitting down to lunch with his brother Charlie in the Three Broomsticks. Was he technically supposed to be out of the castle? No. Did he particularly care when his long lost brother was in town for a few days? No. Besides, he was a Champion – there was probably a rule that let him leave the grounds for 'official Tournament business' or some such.

"I still can't believe you actually wanted to enter this thing, little brother," Charlie said smiling and giving a rueful shake of his head.

Fred just shrugged. "Well, I figured I had to prove to them and to myself that I can do more than just prank people. George and I both agreed that this would give us the confidence to move forward with the shop beyond just the owl order catalog."

Charlie eyed him critically. "And George is okay that you got in and he didn't?"

"Yup," Fred shrugged. "I think he was actually a little relieved. Especially after I told him about how worried Harry's friends are about the dangers involved. It's a bit intimidating, but I think I'll be fine." He scowled – completely missing Charlie's frown. "Ron however, is very not okay with this. Did you hear about him screaming in the middle of the Great Hall about how he hoped that I'd lose a limb or something and that Harry would be killed?"

Charlie sighed. "I had really hoped that Dad had exaggerated that..."

"He didn't. Dad came to talk with him too; Ron moped about for almost the entire weekend afterwards. George, Ginny and I all talked about it afterwards. We've decided that if Ron actually gives a proper apology we'll accept it, but not forget what he said. Somehow we all rather doubt that Ron will get over himself before the First Task. Maybe whatever it is will knock some sense into the idiot. Even if he does end up apologizing, it's going to be a good long while before we ever do anything as brothers again. He went way too far this time."