The first event of the Triwizard Tournament wouldn't begin until after Halloween.
As Dumbledore put it, the first event was quite mysterious and required some special items, which were currently being transported.
Harry wasn't too curious; he planned to keep a little bit of the mystery, thinking it would give him a surprise during the competition.
In a Magic Potion class before Halloween, they were tasked by Snape to deal with pickled rat heads.
"I bet Harry's first task won't be as tough as this job Snape has given us," Ron whispered after class, "I'd rather wrestle a fire dragon barehanded than handle rat heads in that gloomy little cellar of his."
"I think so too."
Hermione's voice chimed in at the same time as a greasy, drawling voice.
Ron turned around in terror, and sure enough, Snape was standing behind them, smiling.
"Professor..."
The young man stood at attention, courtesy of Ron.
"It seems you like fire dragons, Weasley," Snape said mockingly, "perhaps I can apply to Dumbledore to have you transferred to Romania to raise dragons with another Weasley?"
With that, Snape pulled a wry smile.
"Five points from Gryffindor."
He didn't offer much of an explanation; a point deduction was a point deduction, no need to tell you why.
After Snape sauntered away, Hermione finally breathed a long sigh as if emerging from the depths of Hell.
"Ron!" she whispered, "didn't you remember you have a causality effect? Why would you dare to say something like that in a public place!"
"I forgot," Ron said, frowning, genuinely regretting it.
On the Saturday before Halloween, they were given permission to go to Hogsmeade.
"A little leisure can't hurt," Ron said, "Harry is about to participate in the first task, and I think we should accompany him to unwind."
"But Harry now..." Hermione turned to look at Harry, who was being surrounded and chased by the crowd, "it's not exactly ideal. I believe if he gets to Hogsmeade, he will definitely be swarmed by enthusiastic students."
As soon as she finished speaking, a crazed Ravenclaw senior pounced on Harry and gave him a big kiss on the cheek.
"Hey!" Harry cried out. A bright red mark, obviously a kiss, was left on his face.
Other female students followed suit, swarming forward to kiss Harry's cheeks and his fair neck.
After a while, Harry finally managed to break free from them.
His glasses were broken, dangling helplessly, his robe ripped into strips, making him look rather downcast.
He looked less like a Hogwarts student and more like a survivor escaping from a horde of zombies.
"Scary women," Harry said with lingering fear.
"I think you enjoyed that," Hermione said, frowning, "with your skills, if you could run, you would've."
"I was afraid of hurting my fellow students," Harry started casting a Cleaning spell on his glasses and clothes.
But suddenly Ron spoke up, causing Harry's heart to skip a beat.
"I don't think that's the scariest part," Ron keenly commented, "the scariest thing will be explaining to Miss Grindelwald when you see her picture on your phone tonight."
What a great point, and Harry was instantly dumbfounded.
Indeed, tonight, if Vivi found out he was grabbed and passionately kissed by a Ravenclaw woman...
It's likely Vivi's wrath would cleanse everything, right?
Just then, Ron's owl, Zhu Weiqiong, flew in.
This owl was bought by Mrs. Weasley for Ron after Banban... or Peter Pettigrew was caught.
To prevent Ron from always thinking about Banban, or using the owl's hunting skills to avoid rats for Ron.
"Pigwidgeon?"
Ron reached out to catch the letter Zhu Weiqiong delivered, and after opening it, his face turned pale.
"Oh my... Merlin's tights... Holy Jesus of Merlin..."
"What happened?" Hermione asked with concern.
"It's a letter from Charlie!" Ron whispered, looking around warily before leaning in, "Charlie says he's preparing to come to Hogwarts from Romania!"
"What's the big deal?" Hermione asked, puzzled, "Didn't you meet over the summer already? Why so excited?"
"He mentioned the first task involves fire dragons!" Ron said with a pale face, "Fire dragons! My Merlin's robe, he said this is no joke because he's bringing several types of fire dragons, including Chinese Fireball, Welsh Green, Swedish Short-nosed Dragon, and Hungarian Tree Bee!"
"No way!" Hermione quickly pulled them into a corner, looking around to ensure no one was around, then scratched her head, "The first task involves fire dragons? I truly don't know what the Triwizard Tournament is up to, are they really making the Warriors defeat fire dragons? That's practically suicidal!"
"Not necessarily," Harry suddenly said, "I think the event only involves fire dragons, and it's unlikely that the Warriors have to completely defeat a fire dragon—keep in mind, even elite Aurors can't achieve that!"
"There could be other possibilities," Hermione said, worried.
Because of the fire dragon incident, Hermione didn't make plans to go to Hogsmeade but spent her days immersed in the library, looking for books on fire dragons.
She compiled a table with information about various fire dragons' habits, preferences, and weaknesses.
"We have to learn to win with wisdom," was Hermione's motto.
Halloween arrived quickly, and instead of a costume party, Hogwarts prepared a sumptuous feast for everyone.