Chapter 333: Chapter 332 The First Task (2 in 1)
The five days passed quickly.
During this time Jon stayed in the wagon, and even when he got off it, he only wandered around the area near the Black Lake, which made the Aurors, who were always at the entrance to the castle and who were always watching him at the first sign of sight, relax their guard a little.
In the meantime, there was no news from Lyon, which Jon had been expecting, and this caused him some disappointment.
However, it hadn't been in his plans to use Animagus as a significant means of performing the tasks, so although there was a disappointment, it didn't put much mental pressure on him.
And just under two days before the start of the first tournament task, the entire sky over Hogwarts Castle was overshadowed by the dark shadows of a dozen behemoths in the afternoon of that day.
The Thestrals relaxing on the lawn flicked their tails restlessly, and in the forbidden forest, countless flocks of birds rose into the sky and flew off into the distance with a "clatter".
Many students in the wagon were startled by the commotion outside, they stepped out of the wagon and looked up to see the dozen or so dragons flying in the sky!
Dragons, XXXXX-level Magical Creatures, are considered to be at the top of the force among many Magical Creatures.
These creatures are not common and are even on the verge of extinction, apart from the fact that there is human encroachment on nature that has compressed their living space, it is mainly because each dragon is a huge treasure trove in itself.
Dumbledore had worked with Nicolas Flamel to discover twelve uses of dragon's blood; dragon's hide has an excellent defence against magic, dragon's eyes are a necessary magical material for certain alchemical items, and even the nerves and heartstrings of dragons can be used to make wand cores.
There was no way for wizards to leave the valuable materials available in dragons alone; because of this and the reality of the impending extinction of the dragon species led to the creation of a Dragon Sanctuary and the professions of Dragonologist and Dragon Trainer.
The International Confederation of Wizards has set up an organisation specifically for this purpose, to safeguard the continued existence of dragons so that they can continue to contribute to the development of wizards, and one of the European dragon sanctuaries was set up in Romania.
When he was travelling in France some time ago, Jon had heard some of Ron's brothers talking about it, and it seemed like a lot of the dragons in the Romanian sanctuary had been bought out.
Looking up at the dragons that blanketed the entire Hogwarts castle, and the dragon trainers on their backs who controlled them as they began to hover over the Forbidden Forest and eventually landed with a bang, Jon realised what the purpose of all those bought-out dragons would be.
George looked up at the sky dumbfounded, for the first time in his life, he had seen real live dragons, not to mention so many at once.
All around him both the Hogwarts wagon and the Durmstrang students matched his performance, after all, the sight of that many huge creatures appearing together was truly mind-blowing.
Diane subconsciously swallowed, and it could be discerned that she was doing her best to maintain the calmness in her voice.
"Our first task isn't going to be a fight to the death with these dragons, is it?"
While it might be easy for an entire community of wizards to target and hunt dragons because of their large target range and their solitary nature, that was only if more than two wizards were working together.
Dragon hide is extremely resistant to magical spells, far more so than the basilisk, and because they are extremely powerful and can spit out magic-infused dragon breath, individual wizards have no countermeasures against them other than running for their lives.
Even if a dark wizard used a killing curse, the extremely high resistance to magic would not cause them to die instantly, or at least the 'will' to kill would have to be strong enough to make the killing curse kill it immediately.
If the four students participating in the tournament truly had to fight these dragons separately, then even Jon would be charred to a crisp given how restricted the venue would be.
It was for this reason that Jon did not think that the judges would set up such a task that no one would be able to complete.
He looked towards the forbidden forest into which the dragons had descended and said softly.
"I would rather say it's more like they want us to do a wilderness survival in the forbidden forest than to kill or defeat a dragon."
Jon's thoughts were confirmed two days later.
The news of a dozen dragons flying into the Forbidden Forest reached the ears of every student in the four schools in the span of two days.
It made them feel more thrilled with excitement, as well as a small disappointment.
If the venue for the tournament would be in the Forbidden Forest, they would certainly not have the opportunity to watch the whole thing as spectators.
On the Monday of the second week of September, the four champions of the Triwizard Tournament were all gathered at the entrance to the Forbidden Forest.
This place was filled with adult wizards without any other students on the sidelines besides the three of them and Jon.
Dumbledore, Voldemort, Rosier, the Deputy Headmaster of Beauxbaton and three wizards from the Confederation, seven judges in all, three stout dragon trainers with a bronzed complexion from years of exposure to the elements, journalists from all over Europe and a dozen Auror security guards led by Lucius were all present.
The atmosphere was somewhat gloomy, less friendly than at the Triwizard Tournament hundreds of years ago, filled with a sense of solemnity instead of the friendly atmosphere of interschool exchanges.
The champions were gathered together, each having their group photo taken by a different national photographer, while Matthew, who was the judge's general representative, was concluding some small confirmations with the one who led dragon trainers about Dragons using gestures and whispers.
Everyone else didn't utter a word, making the atmosphere seem to freeze for half a beat.
Finally, with just under half an hour to go before the beginning of the tournament, Matthew had the journalists dispersed and gathered Jon and the others in the middle.
His expression was serious, and he raised the pitch of his voice so that it would be clearly audible to everyone in that area, even in the open meadow.
"The Triwizard Tournament, originally a tournament in which the three European magical schools would exchange experiences with each other, has been discontinued since 1792, on the grounds that the tournament posed an extremely serious threat to the lives of the participating students, who were injured or even killed almost every time as a result."
"Two hundred years ago, the wizards of Europe cancelled this tournament to eliminate unnecessary casualties, and two hundred years later, we are bringing it back here again, also for the well-being of more people!"
"This tournament once again commenced for the sake of preventing a war that could not be solved by any other means through peace! But war has always been brutal, and this tournament to eliminate war is bound to be brutal too, we will not design tasks that are like child's play, and for the final result and the winner to convince everyone, you will have to face challenges and threats that are countless times more arduous than those of the champions of two hundred years ago."
His eyes were as sharp as a hawk's as he delivered his speech, and there was no reassurance or gentleness in his voice, only coldness and stiffness like steel.
"I suppose that all this is probably just superfluous nonsense on my part because after you have intended to throw your names into the goblet of fire, the decision has already been made in your minds about the fact that this new Triwizard Tournament, after a gap of two hundred years, will no longer be concerned about whether you live or die in the tournament and that in the end, the only thing that will be accepted by the wizards is victory or defeat!"
The moment his words fell, a restless roar shook the woods and birds flew up into the sky in the forbidden forest.
Draco, whose body was already tense, subconsciously took a step back, Emil's face was bloodless, and Diane's lips were tightly pursed as she stared unblinkingly into the deep, forbidden forest.
Even Jon was a little nervous, not that he was afraid of such a situation, rather he was quietly gripping the object he wore around his neck, wondering how Matthew would proceed with his inspection of them before entering the Forbidden Forest.
"Now, let me explain what you need to do for the first task of the tournament."
Matthew finally began to talk about the detailed rules regarding the first task.
"As I'm sure you all already know, a bunch of big guys have come to the Forbidden Forest in the past two days, they are all wild and untamable dragons from Romania and have been moved to various locations in the Forbidden Forest. At the same time, the dragon trainers helped us to disperse a total of fifty golden snitches around each territory that these dragons had already marked for themselves."
"All you have to do is to capture as many of them as you can under the guardianship of these big guys, and you will be ranked according to the number of them you obtain, with the one who gets the most flying golden snitches will be awarded seventy points, the second one will get fifty points, the third one will get thirty points and the fourth one will get ten points. You will all need to live and survive a minimum of three days in the forest, after which the first to return will receive forty points, the second will receive thirty points, the third twenty points and the fourth ten points. And the final deadline is seven days, and if after this time of seven days, someone is still in the forbidden forest and does not return, then no matter how many golden snitches he ends up gaining, the score will only be zero."
The rules were laid out in great detail, and the specifics were really not beyond Jon's expectations; a minimum of three days in the Forbidden Forest was basically asking them to survive in the wilderness.
It was easy to see from the rules that the task was designed to allow the champions to catch as many golden snitches as possible, but the time limit also made speed an important indicator, and it was up to the champions to choose between time and numbers.
Once all the rules had been explained, Jon and the others began to prepare for their entry into the Forbidden Forest.
With a flick of Matthew's wand, their robes fluttered as if blown by a gale, and the bits and pieces that had been placed in their clothes fell onto the table.
Matthew took the other two judges of the Confederation and began to examine them one by one, starting with Emil.
"Is this a Remembrall?"
The African witch asked in somewhat broken English as she picked up one of the small round balls on the table.
Emil replied with an expressionless face.
"It's just a common souvenir, given to me by my grandmother."
"We have no intention of inquiring about its function, what we want to know is does it contain magical powers?"
"I don't know, but I don't think so."
The Arab diplomat, clearly sceptical of Emil's words, picked up the orb and tapped his wand on it, and then the whole thing lit up with a pale blue light.
He looked at Emil meaningfully.
"It doesn't look like you know much about it, Mr Lestrange, do you need us to hold it for you, or will you nominate a custodian?"
Emil's face showed little embarrassment as he looked over at Lucius, who was standing over in the crowd.
Lucius coughed lightly, then stepped forward and took the orb from the Arab diplomat.
"This thing, let's leave it with me temporarily for now, I'll give it to him after the tournament is over."
At this, the three judges looked at each other as if they had nothing against it.
Then they went back to Diane and picked up a bracelet from the table, one that looked like it was made of metal, with a silver crest at the top and no distinguishing features on the surface.
"This is the family crest of the Rosier family, it has no magic attached to it other than a symbol of status and honour."
It was not Diane who opened her mouth to speak, but Vinda Rosier, who was standing beside Dumbledore.
Matthew nodded approvingly while still holding the bracelet up to do some testing, and after making sure she wasn't lying, he returned it to Diane's hand.
Next came Draco, who didn't carry anything other than a wand, which saved the judges some effort.
Finally, it was Jon's turn.
On his table lay a strange pendant with a ring set with three blue diamond-shaped gems, and a very badly worn wooden token dangling from a red cord.
"These are?"
Matthew picked up the string of pendants in front of Jon.
"The wooden tag was a gift from a friend of mine, and the ring was left by my family."
Jon said calmly.
"They're both ordinary things."
Matthew took one look at the wooden tag before losing interest, it was hard to fake, there really weren't any magical properties on it, and he focused directly on the ring.
There were quite a few alchemical items of this form (gem) in the magical world in various shapes and sizes, and he couldn't see anything odd about it just by looking at it with the naked eye, so instead he simply raised his wand and flicked it over the ring.
Nothing happened, it was as if the ring was just a muggle product.
Eventually, Matthew handed the pendant back to Jon, and after he took it back without moving a muscle, Jon quietly relaxed in his mind.
The ring would be as indistinguishable from a stone on the side of the road to anyone whose 'will' was not up to scratch, and as Slughorn had said when he handed it to Jon at the beginning, there might not be anyone else in the entire magical world who could use it, except Jon.
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