Wade finished his training and returned to school from Hogsmeade. He tapped on the Vanishing Cabinet twice, and the door silently slid open, letting light stream in from outside.
But it wasn't Zoe, whom Wade had arranged to meet, who opened the door. It was Harry, who should have been asleep in the Gryffindor dormitory.
"You're finally back!" Harry quickly said before Wade could speak. "I've been waiting for you for over half an hour."
Wade closed the Vanishing Cabinet door behind him and asked, "What happened?"
Harry's brows were tightly furrowed, his knuckles white from clenching, the hem of his robes still muddy, and a spiderweb in his hair.
"Dragons!" Harry said, his face pale. "Hagrid came to find us tonight. You weren't at school, so he took me to see what would be appearing in the first task... It's Dragons!"
He spoke with despair. "We're done for, Wade... I saw that even adult Wizards needed seven or eight people just to barely control one Dragon. The flames from their nostrils can shoot out forty feet!"
"Oh."
Wade said, casually casting a Scouring Charm on Harry, feeling much better about the sight of him afterward.
"Oh? Just an 'oh'?" Harry asked incredulously. "Wade, are you scared senseless?"
"Harry, if you studied the history of the Triwizard Tournament, you'd know that Dragons appearing in the competition isn't a first. There have been creatures even more dangerous than Dragons before."
Wade calmly walked over to the table and sat down, casually grabbing a bottle of drink from the cabinet and handing it to Harry, motioning for him to sit as well.
Harry was stunned for a moment before asking, "What kind of creatures could be more powerful than Dragons?"
"Many. For example, a Manticore. They're fast, and their breath is highly poisonous. It's said that at least a hundred Wizards are needed to subdue one. Isn't that much harder to deal with than a fire-breathing lizard?"
Wade took a few sips of hot water and said, "There's also the Chimera, equally dangerous. Historically, there's only one record of a Wizard successfully killing a Chimera. As for Dragons? Most Dragons are now raised by humans for Potions ingredients."
Harry was aghast. "Manticores and Chimeras appeared in previous tournaments? How did the Champions survive back then?"
"Oh, not Chimeras, but they did once use a Manticore, raised from a young age, to test a Champion's abilities," Wade said casually.
"And then?" Harry asked, concerned.
Wade retorted, "Do you remember why the Triwizard Tournament was discontinued?"
"Because... too many people died..." Harry murmured.
"Exactly," Wade shrugged, "Compared to that, don't you think Dragons are quite acceptable?"
Harry: "..."
What's the difference between one way to die and another?
He felt no comfort; instead, his life seemed to have become even more bleak.
"I don't think I'll make it past next Tuesday..." Harry mumbled. "Dragon scales and thick hides are imbued with ancient Magic. Only the most powerful Spells can penetrate them. I don't think I can do it."
"You're overthinking it. Do you really think others have the ability to defeat Dragons? The purpose of this competition is to test everyone's abilities, not to send us to our deaths."
Wade said, "I'm guessing that when the time comes, we'll probably need to get past the Dragon's obstruction, or get something from the Dragon itself... In short, there must be a clever way to do it."
Wade, holding the script in his hand, remained calm and composed, and this emotion clearly infected Harry, making him even feel a little ashamed of his own fear.
"You're right, that must be it... I want to go ask Sirius, he might know how to deal with Dragons."
Harry pulled open the Vanishing Cabinet and asked, "Wade, are you coming with me?"
Wade shook his head and said, "I've already thought about what to do if I encounter a Dragon. There's no need to cram at the last minute."
"Alright, then I'll be back tomorrow morning." Harry didn't ask what Wade's strategy was, still determined to consult Sirius.
"Harry?"
"Hm?" Harry, with one foot already in the Vanishing Cabinet, turned his head.
"Accio is a very useful Spell," Wade said with a smile.
It would be cool to fly around teasing a Dragon, but that's Harry's method, not Wade's, and he wasn't good at Quidditch anyway.
"...Okay, Accio." Harry nodded a little blankly and slipped into the Vanishing Cabinet.
Wade walked out of the Room of Requirement, where the Vanishing Cabinet was located, and softly said, "Zoe?"
"Present!" The Elf responded, appearing immediately beside Wade.
"Harry's gone to Hogsmeade. Remember to open the Cabinet for him tomorrow morning."
"Understood," Zoe said in a soft voice.
Wade then walked through the corridor to the other side of the castle, opened a window, transformed into a Peregrine Falcon, and flew out.
He flew high into the sky, circling the castle from a distance. As he passed over the Forbidden Forest, he suddenly saw the distant, dark night sky briefly light up, as if a huge bonfire had been lit in that spot.
The Peregrine Falcon flapped its wings and flew towards the light—he wanted to see with his own eyes which Dragons the Ministry of Magic had brought this time.
This place was already very far from the castle, and Wade doubted if it was still within the castle's protective Magic. As he got closer, he heard the deafening roars of Dragons and the shouts and calls of people.
In a relatively open area, dozens of Wizards were trying to calm a group of Dragons. Seven or eight Stunning Spells simultaneously shot towards a Hungarian Horntail with black scales. The huge creature opened its mouth wide, then crashed to the ground.
There were several other Dragons in the area that had already fallen asleep, each one looking like a small mountain.
The Peregrine Falcon landed on an extremely tall pine tree, watching intently.
There were more Dragons than in the original story, which was to be expected since the number of Champions had increased several times over. But there weren't 33 of them; there seemed to be only seven.
A black Hungarian Horntail, capable of breathing fire up to 50 feet, was Harry's opponent in the original story;
The highly aggressive Chinese Fireball, the agile Swedish Short-Snout, and the relatively docile Welsh Green — these were all participants from the original story.
But at this moment, three uninvited guests had also been added to the arena—
The Scottish Black Dragon, with its extremely strong territorial instincts and serrated spines along its back; the Romanian Longhorn, with its two golden horns; and the Ukrainian Ironbelly, the largest of them all, possessing armor-like defenses.
There weren't enough Dragons for everyone to have one, and the rules of the competition were likely different from the original story. But as long as he knew what his opponent was capable of, he could always figure out a way to deal with it.
Wade admired the sleeping Dragons for a while, seeing no more being brought in. He was about to head back to his dorm to sleep when, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed something moving stealthily in the forest.
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