November 19th came gray and ominously, with dense mist rolling across the Scottish Highlands. Saturday morning brought with it the anticipation as only five days remained until the first task of the Triwizard Tournament would test the champions.
The early morning air was filled with the chill of approaching winter, carrying the earthy scent of damp leaves and the faint promise of frost. Through this ethereal shroud of mist, Adrian led Harry and Cedric along a narrow path that went deeper and deeper into the heart of the Forbidden Forest.
"Professor, where exactly are we going?"
Cedric's voice broke the silence as they ventured deeper into the forest's depths. His breath formed small clouds in the cold air, and there was an unmistakable hint of curiosity mixed with uneasiness in his tone.
Adrian glanced back over his shoulder with a mysterious wink.
"Patience, Cedric," He said, his voice sounding like the tone of someone who was thoroughly enjoying keeping a delicious secret. "We'll reach our destination in just a few more minutes. Trust me when I say this surprise will definitely be worth every extra step we're taking."
His mysterious response only intensified both Harry and Cedric's curiosity. They exchanged glances filled with anticipation and nervousness, their imaginations running wild with possibilities about what their professor might have planned.
Just last night, Adrian had suddenly informed them that he had personally prepared a secret training session for the Triwizard Tournament.
Neither Harry nor Cedric had hesitated for even a moment before agreeing to participate. They naturally trusted him. If Professor Westeros believed they needed this training, then they would follow him wherever he led.
However, despite their eager questions and attempts to coax hints from him, Adrian had remained frustratingly tight-lipped about any details concerning the nature of this mysterious training session.
After nearly twenty minutes of walking through the increasingly dense forest, with mist swirling around them like living smoke and the distant calls of unseen magical creatures echoing through the trees, the small group finally came to a stop.
They had appeared into a relatively spacious clearing that felt almost circular, surrounded by high oaks and ancient pine trees whose trunks disappeared up into the white mist shroud above them.
The ground here was more level, covered in a thick carpet of golden and crimson leaves that crunched softly under their foot. But it wasn't the natural beauty of the clearing that immediately captured their attention.
In the very center of this forest amphitheater stood an absolutely massive wooden crate that attracted their attention instantly. It rose nearly fifty feet into the air, making it considerably taller than even Hagrid's hut.
The sheer size of the thing was both impressive and deeply unsettling.
"What is...?"
Harry's voice trailed off as he stared up at the enormous crate, his eyes widening behind his glasses. A cold knot of dread was beginning to form in his stomach, and he couldn't shake the feeling that whatever was contained within those wooden walls was going to deeply change his understanding of what constituted "training."
The ominous premonition that had been growing steadily stronger throughout their forest walk now crystallized into something approaching terror.
"Alright then, look this way, you two champions of Hogwarts." Adrian clapped his hands together with obvious satisfaction, drawing their attention away from their worried inspection of the mysterious crate.
His smile was warm but held an edge of something that might have been mischievous anticipation.
"As I'm sure you're both well aware," He continued in the tone of a professor beginning an important lecture, "the first task of the Triwizard Tournament has always been specifically designed to test the courage of its participants above all other qualities. With this ultimate principle in mind, I've prepared this specialized training session to help you warm up and gain some practical preparation for whatever challenges await you."
"But Professor," Harry interjected and said in a tone of frustrated confusion, "we don't actually know what the specific competition event will be. How can we prepare for something completely unknown?"
Then, as a sudden realization struck him like lightning, Harry's eyes widened vividly. "Wait just a moment! Professor, do you already know what the first task involves??"
Adrian's responded instantly with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Oh, of course not, Harry. I'm just as much in the dark about the specific details as you are."
"Then what exactly are we supposed to do here?" Cedric asked looking puzzled. His gaze kept drifting back to the wooden structure in the center of the clearing.
"Don't worry yourselves unnecessarily, you two," Adrian replied with a slight smile as he began walking toward the massive crate. "Although we don't know the precise nature of what the competition will specifically entail, we can certainly make some educated assumptions based on historical precedent and the tournament's reputation."
"Assumptions?" Cedric echoed, his voice reflecting both confusion and growing wariness.
"Ah, yes, assumptions," Adrian confirmed with another one of his winks. "For example... let me think of a particularly challenging scenario... you might very well need to defeat a dragon during the first task. Hmm… yes, that seems entirely possible."
"A dragon?" Harry's laugh was particularly dry and completely lacking of humor. "You're joking, Professor."
But Adrian gave no reassuring response. Instead, he simply continued smiling in that mysteriously knowing way as he drew his wand from within his robes.
Harry and Cedric exchanged a glance, both recognizing the same growing unease reflected in the other's eyes.
Judging by the size of the crate in front of them...
"Well, naturally they wouldn't simply have you defeat a dragon outright," Adrian finally continued. "But, let's engage in another assumption—if the task were designed so that you needed to retrieve something of value from directly under a dragon's nose, while the creature was very much awake and aware of your presence, what exactly would your strategy be?"
The hearts of both young wizards, which had just begun to settle back toward normal rhythm, immediately leaped back into overdrive. The hypothetical scenario Adrian was creating was becoming uncomfortably vivid and specific.
At that precise moment, Adrian stepped forward and lightly tapped the edge of the massive wooden crate with the tip of his wand. The contact produced a sound like distant thunder, and immediately the entire side panel crashed down with a tremendous bang.
The falling panel revealed an enormous iron cage nestled within the wooden frame, its bars thick and sturdy enough to contain something truly formidable. And indeed, something formidable was exactly what they found themselves staring at.
Curled up within the cage was a massive creature that seemed to embody every childhood nightmare about dragons. Its hide appeared almost metallic in the light, with scales that seemed to shift between emerald and sparkly bronze depending on the angle of observation.
The creature's nostrils, each large enough for a person to crawl through, trembled slightly with each breath, emitting wisps of white smoke. When the beast sensed their presence and began to stir, its massive head lifted slowly, revealing eyes like melted gold coins set into a skull that could have served as the foundation for a small building.
Those golden vertical pupils rotated predatorily before finally locking onto Harry and Cedric, who stood frozen not far away like deer caught in torchlight.
Every student at Hogwarts had studied Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as part of their Care of Magical Creatures curriculum, so Harry was able to identify the species almost immediately despite his shock. The creature's most distinctive feature was the prominent jagged ridge that ran down the entire length of its back like a natural sawblade.
This was unmistakably a Norwegian Ridgeback, one of the most aggressive and dangerous dragon species known to wizardkind.
Harry's mind immediately flew back to his first year, when Adrian had kept a Norwegian Ridgeback named Torch. But that had been a relatively young dragon. The beast in front of them now was clearly a fully mature one, easily five times the size that Torch had been.
"Merlin's beard!" Cedric gasped and instinctively stepped backward.
"This has to be some kind of joke, right Professor?" Harry managed to say, though his voice cracked slightly on the last word. He swallowed hard, his throat was suddenly feeling as dry as parchment.
"I really don't think so," Adrian replied with a casual shrug. He then pointed toward something that lay at the dragon's massive clawed feet.
There, looking almost insignificantly small in comparison to the creature that guarded it, sat a plain and rather unremarkable grayish-black egg. It appeared to be about the size of a Quaffle.
"Your task," Adrian announced with the tone of someone assigning homework, "is to develop and execute a strategy to steal that egg from under the dragon's protection."
He paused, checking a pocket watch that emerged from his robes. "You now have exactly five minutes to discuss your approach and formulate a plan of action."
Upon hearing these instructions, Harry and Cedric could hardly believe what they were being asked to do, but years of trusting their professor's judgment compelled them to begin the strategic discussion that Adrian had requested.
In fact, based on Harry's experience with Adrian's teaching methods, he understood that although the dragon in front of them appeared genuinely intimidating, seeing Adrian's completely relaxed and confident demeanor meant he undoubtedly had multiple plans to ensure their absolute safety.
Moreover, as Harry took another, more careful look at the dragon within the cage, he couldn't shake the growing feeling that something was slightly off about the creature's appearance and behavior.
The Norwegian Ridgeback's golden eyes, while certainly impressive and appropriately predatory, seemed to have a certain emptiness that struck him as unusual.
A wild possibility began to form in Harry's mind. 'It couldn't possibly be created by Transfiguration, could it?'
But even as the thought occurred to him, he found himself struggling to accept it. 'What kind of extraordinarily advanced Transfiguration could create such a massive and seemingly lifelike creature?'
In his own limited experience with Transfiguration magic, Harry knew that he could barely manage to transfigure Ron's bed into something resembling a pig and even then, the result would only sprout a snout, curly tail, and other pig-like characteristics while retaining its bed-ness.
Meanwhile, Adrian stood to one side of the clearing, his arms folded comfortably as he watched his two students with obvious satisfaction. Their grave expressions and intense whispered conversation told him that they were taking the challenge with appropriate seriousness, exactly as he had hoped.
Actually, Harry's instinctive guess wasn't wrong.
Adrian certainly didn't have the ability to obtain and transport a genuine dragon for training purposes. Even if he had somehow managed such an impossible feat, the safety concerns would have been absolutely unsolvable. A real dragon, no matter how well-contained, would represent an unacceptable risk to his students' wellbeing.
[Species: Dragon (Transfiguration)]
[Level: 1]
[Weakness: Three inches to the left of center on the dragon's back]
Yes, this was indeed a dragon created through highly advanced Transfiguration magic, though few wizards would have possessed the skill necessary to detect the subtle signs that marked it as artificial rather than natural.
Adrian's mind drifted back to his own first days at Hogwarts, when Dumbledore had arranged a trial involving a dragon. The dragon that the headmaster had prepared for that memorable encounter had been exactly this type of Transfiguration creation—impressively realistic but ultimately controllable and safe.
Inspired by that memory, Adrian approached Dumbledore over the past few days and requested instruction in dragon Transfiguration. The headmaster had not only shared the essential principles of this remarkably advanced magic but had also provided invaluable insights and practical tips that could only come from decades of experience.
What had surprised Adrian most during these instructional sessions was that Dumbledore had never once asked what purpose he intended for such powerful and unusual magic.
Armed with Dumbledore's guidance, Adrian had spent nearly three full days in careful preparation and practice, finally managing to successfully replicate the complex magical techniques required. He had selected a massive boulder from the forest's depths as his raw material and had painstakingly transformed it into this remarkably lifelike Norwegian Ridgeback.
The transformation had been largely successful, though Adrian had to admit there were still some minor imperfections in his work. The dragon's eyes, while certainly impressive and appropriately golden, retained a slight vacancy that spoke of their artificial origin.
Nevertheless, despite this small flaw, the creature's functionality was completely guaranteed for training purposes.
The only significant weakness in Adrian's creation was an inherent limitation of the Transfiguration spell itself. As long as someone managed to strike the spot located three inches to the left of center on the dragon's back, they could immediately and safely defeat the creature, causing it to revert to its original boulder form.
However, discovering this specific weakness would require either exceptional magical insight or remarkable luck, neither of which could be counted upon during the stress of actual combat.
The five minutes of preparation time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.
Harry and Cedric drew their wands, encouraged each other, and looked toward the dragon with determined eyes.
Although Hogwarts was currently thriving with rumors about the supposed antagonism between the two champions, with some students treating them as natural enemies competing for the same prize, it was obvious to anyone who observed them closely that their actual relationship remained mostly unchanged.
Neither Harry nor Cedric took those rumors to heart.
Of course, Harry still harbored some slight reservations about Cedric, but this wasn't because of Cedric himself—it was due to Harry's own reasons.
"It appears you're both as ready as you're likely to be," Adrian observed, noticing their determined expressions. "Then let us begin what I hope will be the first of several valuable training sessions!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the cage beside the dragon instantly vanished.
The dragon stood up, spread its massive wings, and Harry and Cedric immediately felt tremendous pressure.
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