International Love | Fred Weasley

Chapter 8

A week after my birthday, it is time for the first task. Flora and I wake up early, but my best friend still runs around in a hurry. "Come on, Elena, I do not want to be late! We want a good spot to watch Fleur win!"

Aline and Henry are already seated at the Ravenclaw table. Flora sits down and quickly begins to fill her plate with food. When she quickly starts devouring it, Henry looks at me puzzled. I shake my head and grab a piece of toast. Xavier joins us not long after.

"Is everyone ready for the first task?" Henry asks as he sips his morning coffee.

"I am curious to see what the first task is. I overheard Rosalia and Fleur talking about something dangerous," Aline says.

I feed Pixie a piece of my toast and look up, "Well, we know it is going to be dangerous. The tournament is famous for its dangerous tasks."

Flora forces us to finish our breakfast quickly. As we head to the large arena on the ground, Flora, Aline, and Xavier debate about what the first task might contain. We take a seat on the stands that slowly fill up with more and more students.

Fred, George, and Lee appear not long after we have taken a seat and take the places in front of us. Lee turns around when he is seated and nudges my ankle, "Hey Elena, are you interested in betting some money on your champion?"

Before I get a chance to answer, George adds: "The bets start from three Galleons – or higher, if you want."

"I appreciate the offer, guys, but I don't think I am going to place a bet," I answer with a laugh. Next to me, Henry grabs four coins out of his pocket and hands them over to Lee, "I will. Four Galleons on Potter."

"Oh!" George turns his head, "Not on your own champion?"

Fred and Lee laugh as Henry shakes his head, "I heard the stories about Potter, I think he has a good chance to win the first task."

The three boys nod and Lee quickly writes it down before dropping the coin in their pockets. Xavier, who is seated on the other side of Flora, pulls out a book from his cloak. Henry sees it and laughs, "Are you starting now as well? I know Elena always carries a book with her but why are you?"

"Well," Xavier says, "I have the feeling they will have to fight a beast."

The boy holds up the book he pulled out and we can all read the title: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them.

"I didn't know you were taking Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts," I remark.

"I don't. I borrowed the book from Fabien."

Xavier opens the book and starts browsing through it. I feel a presence on my shoulder and Pixie crawls from my shoulder to my lap. She buries herself in the folds of my jacket and I feel her shaking. Concerned, I scan her for injuries, but she seems fine.

"Hey there, girl, what is going on?"

"She looks scared," Flora eyes Pixie concerned and I nod. The little dragon is shaking and I have never seen her like that before.

"Perhaps she was attacked by an owl?" Henry suggests but I shake my head, "Pixie isn't afraid of owls. She can spit fire. Owls are afraid of her."

Suddenly, a loud growl sounds in the distance and I begin to laugh. Xavier flips through his book to find the beasts letting out such a sound while Flora, Henry, and Aline look at me.

"Dragons!"

I laugh harder.

"That's why Pixie is scared. The first task is dragons. She came across creatures like her but way bigger."

The students around us begin to cheer and when we turn back to the arena, we see the first champion entering. Cedric Diggory looks around the empty arena. From the other side, we see two men entering with a blue-grey dragon behind them. The dragon is chained down to the ground by its ankles.

"A Swedish Short-Snout," Xavier mutters impressed, "Quite dangerous."

Before he can supply us with more information about the dragon, a whistle sounds. The two men have left the arena and Cedric is on his own. The dragon doesn't seem to notice him at first, too focussed on being chained down, but that changes quickly when the boy decides to run towards it. The dragon flies up, towards Cedric, and misses him by an inch.

"Oh, that was close, real close!" The commentator screams out through his microphone.

Cedric decides he needs to distract the dragon in some way, but his spell fails miserably.

"Nice try. Sadly for Diggory, all his hard work isn't paying off!"

It takes Cedric fifteen minutes until he finally gets a hold of the golden egg from the dragon's nest. A second whistle sounds and the Hogwarts students cheer. The jury presents their scores by holding up small signs and when Cedric leaves the arena, we all applaud him. The two men from before return and lead the dragon away. It doesn't take long until a second dragon is brought into the arena.

"A Common Welsh Green," Xavier announces as he reads out the page, "Typically, they are not really dangerous. They prefer to feed on sheep instead of humans."

Fleur enters the arena and we all begin cheering. A whistle sounds and Fleur begins running through the arena as Cedric did minutes ago. With a loud growl, the dragon follows Fleur around the arena. We all hold our breath when it almost hits her. Fleur has disappeared for a moment before she jumps up on the other side of the arena.

"Again, that was really close. For a moment, I thought that she was dead," the commentator says.

Henry chuckles and leans forward so we can hear him over the cheers of the crowd, "I think this one also feeds on humans, Xavier."

Fleur gets a hold of the egg quicker than Cedric did. When she holds it up with a big smile on her face, we all jump out of our seats to cheer her on. The jury once again gives their scores and we applaud Fleur for the great score. The dragon is led away again and Fleur steps out of the arena.

"She did really great!" Alina tries to scream above the sound of the cheers of the students around us. We all nod. Fleur was a good choice to represent our school.

A third dragon is led into the arena and like the other two, this one is chained down. The chains seem to break any moment under the force of the dragon pulling on them.

"A Chinese Fireball!" Xavier exclaims when he finds the right page in his book. He sounds scared and we find out why moments later when Viktor runs through the arena and big, mushroom-shaped flames burst out of the dragon's nostrils. We all hold our breath when the dragon growls and almost crushes Viktor.

As the dragon tries to fly towards Viktor, the boy decides to run underneath the dragon in the direction of the egg.

"You need some good guts for that, but – yes, he has the egg!" the commentator whistles impressed.

I breathe out relieved when Viktor leaves the arena relatively unharmed and clap when the jury shows the scores. It's now time for the final champion to complete the task and while we thought the Chinese Fireball was dangerous, we don't have a clue what is about to happen next.