"Now, if you'll all follow me I will show you where our four champions will face their first challenge!" Bagman said as the group followed him down the path to the arena. Harry flew nearby, close enough so that he could hear every word being spoken. "Now, I'm not supposed to be telling anyone the details about the first task. But we're all friends here, no? I'm sure you can all keep a secret." Harry almost fell off his broom in shock at his good luck. The rest of the group also seemed interested, and gathered in closer to Bagman who looked quite pleased to be the center of attention. "As we speak, four dragons are being brought to Hogwart's. One for each of our champions!"
"Ludo! You can't seriously expect children to slay a dragon!" one member of the group yelled. Harry had to agree with him, he knew that bringing down a dragon was difficult for a group of fully trained wizards, let alone one teenager who would have had no idea what he was facing.
"No, no, not to worry." Bagman assured them. "They will not have to kill the beast, just to recover a golden egg that the dragon will be guarding. A clue pertaining to the second task will be placed in the egg. Each contest will be judged on if they were able to retrieve the egg, how long it took, and how they did it." Excited murmurs broke out from the crowd. Meanwhile, Harry looked back out towards the arena. He now realized what he had mistaken for a quarry was actually a man made dragon's nest. He had never seen a real one before so he had no idea on whether or not it was accurate, but he assumed so. The group of people continued down to the nest, clearly excited about the tournament. Harry followed them, hoping to gather more helpful information about the tournament but Bagman did not seem willing to talk about the other tasks.
"Alright everyone, let's head back to the tent where dinner shall be served. You will all have the chance to see this again, I promise. I have arranged for the Department to provide each of you with front row seats!" Bagman proclaimed to the delight of the group. Harry doubted that he could sneak into the tent unnoticed, even with the disillusionment charms, and that he might as well head back to the castle. As he flew back, Harry thought about the challenge to come.
'Dragons! They expect me to fight off a dragon long enough to steal something from its nest. How in the hell am I going to do that' he thought. 'I'm going to have to call in help getting ready for this one I guess.' he finally decided. Smiling, he wondered if Daphne had any idea what she was getting herself into when she offered to help him.
.....
Harry made his way into the Great Hall for dinner with a smile on his face. Although the idea of fighting a dragon was not very appealing, just knowing what to expect made him feel a lot better about his chances of surviving at least the first third of the tournament. Plus, he still had a little more than a week to figure out what he was going to do. He decided to spend the rest of his night in the library trying to find out how to attack a dragon, and hopefully by tomorrow he could have someone else thinking about the challenge as well.
Dinner was already half way over by the time Harry noticed an empty seat across from Neville and sat down. As he began to eat he noticed Ron, who was sitting at the other end of the table, get up and walk out of the Hall after glaring at Harry for a few moments. He didn't mind, and in fact was happy Ron had not decided to make a scene during dinner. Meanwhile, Neville had stopped eating and was looking at Harry with a curious look on his face.
"What's got you so happy, Harry?" Neville asked. Harry thought about what he should tell his friend, and Neville truly was a friend. Harry regretted the three years in which he had known Neville and not let him get as close as he allowed Ron and Hermione. Harry wondered how much he should tell him and how much he should keep to himself. While he didn't want anyone to find about his advantage, he knew a little extra help couldn't hurt. And maybe he had been underestimating Neville all of these years.
"Neville, you can keep a secret can't you?"
"Of course, Harry."
"OK. I know what the first task is going to be." Harry said prompting a shocked reaction from Neville. Harry leaned in a little closer and whispered "Dragons."
"Seriously? Wow, that is going to be tough."
"Yeah. You don't happen to know an easy way to bring one down, do you?"
Neville laughed and answered "No, I don't think there is an easy way. Gran took me to a dragon preserve once on vacation and we saw the dragon handlers trying to get one into a cage. It took ten wizards a half hour to do it." Harry frowned, clearly this was going to be even more difficult than he had anticipated.
"Well, I don't have to cage one or even kill it. I just have to take something from its nest."
"You don't really think that is going to be easier, do you? Dragons are very protective of their nests, Harry. You really don't want to fight one head on. Maybe you could try distracting it somehow, and then get to the nest while the dragon is gone." Harry nodded at the idea, it was one he had been considering.
"But how do you distract a dragon?" Harry wondered.
"I dunno, but they've got to be scared of something right?"