It was a good thing Dana had cancelled their morning run the previous day because of a cold. With their free morning, Ginny and Rohini were able to meet up with their friends.
When they learned the truth about the first task after breakfast, Rohini feared they'd get a heart attack as they stared at the twins in shock for the first two minutes. Then, they all began to talk at the same time, their range of emotions varying from extremely worried about Rohini's safety to being furious at the judges for coming up with such an impossible task.
"Dragons!" Padma was still saying one hour later, as they all sat in an empty classroom they had locked behind them. "Dragons!"
"Relax," Ginny told her, "Charlie works with dragons every day and he's still in one piece."
"But Charlie is a competent, well trained adult and he's part of a team." Hermione pointed out. "We need to go to the library and look for the spell Sirius was ready to tell you."
"No, we can't do that." Rohini said grimly. "Since both Fleur and Krum have probably heard about it by now, it would be suspicious if we, too, go to the library and read every book about dragons."
"She's got a point." Ron said. He was obviously feeling guilty for accidentally making Sirius go away last night and have been trying the hardest to come up with a solution. "Dragons are extremely difficult to slay, because there's some kind of bloody ancient magic in their thick hides."
"Let's try some simple spellbooks, then," said Harry as he and Ginny went through their Charm book while Hermione read some passage of her Transfiguration book. As for Rohini, she tried to see if there was anything helpful in Luna's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
"Well, there are Switching Spells…" Hermione was mumbling with a concentrate frown, "but what's the point of Switching it? Unless you swapped its fangs for wine-gums or something that would make it less dangerous… The trouble is, like that book said, not much is going to get through a dragon's hide."
"I'd say Transfigure it, but something that big, you really haven't got a hope." Padma sighed. "Same with giving yourself extra powers; But they're not simple spells, I mean, we haven't done any of those in class… or did you learn anything useful with Professor McGonagall?"
"Not that I can think of, right now." Rohini sighed.
They stayed like this until lunch, exchanging a few ideas from time to time. Rohini was feeling slightly nauseous again, the memory of the Hungarian Horntails stuck in her mind.
"We should go eat something." Luna suddenly said, breaking the heavy silence. "Dad always says that you can't think properly with an empty stomach."
"I'm with your dad." Ron said, stretching his arms above his head with a yawn.
As they headed to the Great Hall, Rohini caught sight of Cedric and Cho Chang talking with their group of friends. Judging by his beaming face, he probably had no idea of what was waiting for them on Tuesday.
Rohini bite her lips. Some could be tempted to keep it to themselves; after all, Cedric gone, there would be only two champions left to defeat. But it didn't feel fair at all, especially since Cedric wasn't a bad person.
"I'll join you in two minutes, need to do something first." She told her brother and friends before running towards the group of older students. As soon as they saw her, they all lost their smile and threw her nasty glances, which made Rohini hesitate; maybe she should wait for Cedric to be alone before thinking of talking to him.
But she couldn't back up, now; already Cedric was looking at her with a confused expression and a polite smile.
"I-huh…" Rohini began, dancing from one feet to another. Probably sensing that she was quite intimidated, Cedric told his friend to go to the Great Hall without him. The Hufflepuffs glanced at Rohini suspiciously, probably wondering if she was going to attack Cedric while they were gone, before leaving the two champions alone.
Feeling better, Rohini thanked Cedric before trying to figure out how to tell him the truth. Cedric politely wait for her to find her words, and she was grateful for that.
"Listen, I know it's going to sound a bit crazy, and maybe you will not believe me, but I still feel like it's only fair for you to know- the first task. It's gonna be dragons."
"What?" Cedric asked, frowning.
"I know, sounds crazy right?" Rohini laughed nervously. "But yeah, dragons. I saw them, and so did Karkaroff and Madame Maxime. Which means, you were the only one not knowing about them, so I thought it was only fair to let you know."
"Dragons…" Cedric whispered, looking troubled. He then looked into Rohini's eyes, probably trying to decide if she was telling the truth or not. It made Rohini feel uncomfortable, but she didn't look away for she wanted Diggory to trust her.
"So…yeah." Rohini finally said, breaking the awkward silence. Cedric gave her a little smile.
"Thanks for telling me. Better be prepared, lie or not."
"That's the spirit." Rohini said, smiling back with a nervous chuckle.
"Your friends are waiting for you, too, right? Let's not worry them." Cedric said and they walked side by side towards the Great Hall.
"You know, about the badges…" Cedric said, looking bothered. "I told the rest of the Hufflepuffs to stop wearing them. I really did."
"It's ok." Rohini assured him. "It doesn't bother me anymore. You're the real Hogwarts Champion, after all."
"Hmmm." Cedric hummed as they reached the open gates. "Well, thanks again for telling me. That was very fair play of you."
"No problem." Rohini assured him before parting way with him as she sat between Padma and Luna.
"Did you tell him about the task?" Padma asked in a low voice.
"Yeah, it felt like the right thing to do." Rohini said.
"Good." Padma said with a smile, looking at Rohini proudly. "I would have been disappointed if you hadn't."
After lunch, they met up with Harry and their friends again and decided to go for a walk around the lake, hoping that some fresh air might inspire them.
"I know!" Rohini suddenly said. "Harry, I could use dad's cloak! A little Accio spell, and hop! I can go unseen!"
"No way." Harry refused flatly. "Everybody will know about the cloak if you use it; we'll never be able to use it freely after that."
"Thanks for your support." Rohini grumbled. "Maybe I could use the The Melofors Jinx, just like I did with the Troll, back in first year?"
"I doubt it would be as efficient on a dragon." Hermione pointed out. "I mean, it could probably break the pumpkin easily…"
"What you need is a distraction." Ginny said. "If you can't fight it by the front, then you need to kick its bum."
"Ginny's right." Harry said and Ginny's cheeks turned slightly red as she smiled at him.
"A distraction, a distraction, a distraction…" Ron mumbled before yelling as something exploded a few steps away.
Raising their head, they saw Fred, George and Lee Jordan laughing and pointing at each other's hair, now all burned from whatever they had just make explode.
"Look at them, the Distraction Kings." Rohini said with a laugh. "Maybe I should ask them, instead."
"Rohini, that's bloody brilliant!" Ron suddenly said, clapping his fingers. "That's it, that's the solution!"
"Huh…" Everybody said, looking at him in confusion. Ron looked quite excited.
"Think about it! You talked about using Accio earlier, right?" He said to Rohini.
"Yeah, but Harry doesn't want me to use the cloak." Rohini pointed out. Ron shook his head.
"I'm not talking about the cloak; I'm talking about Fred and George!"
"You want her to use them as a bait?" Harry asked, confused. Ron groaned in frustration.
"Of course not! Blimey, can't you see it? Their tricks! If you can summon them, then you can use them against the dragon!"
"Oh!" They all gasped.
"I thought your mum threw away everything?" Hermione asked. Ron and Ginny exchanged a knowing smile.
"Everything she could find at home, yes; but she didn't know half their stock was kept well safe at Lee's place." Ginny explained.
"That's… that's the craziest plan I've heard today." Rohini said, before smiling at Ron. "And also my favourite one. If this works, then I might be able to distract that godamn dragon!"
"Good thinking, Ron." Luna said, beaming and Ron turned crimson.
"'Not really…" He mumbled and Rohini nudged at him.
"Come on, your idea might save my life, on Tuesday. I still need to beat up the dragon, but that's a start!"
Ron smiled and catching Harry and Rohini's arms, the little group of friends walked back to the castle, merrier than when they left it.
As they reached the doors, they spotted Dana talking to two other Durmstrang students and she waved at them with a bright smile on her face, which seemed to bother her friends for one of them elbowed her and whispered something at her.
"Guess not everyone wants to befriend the enemy school…" Padma said.
"I wouldn't mind befriending Krum- no offense, Rohini." Ron said.
"None taken." Rohini assured him. "I bet he is a really kind boy, deep, deep inside…"
"Or just a real idiot." Hermione said, still resentful for Krum's fangirls being too noisy while spying on him in the library. Ron and Harry looked at her as if she had just said something extremely obscene.
Though Sundays were usually peaceful at the castle, it wasn't the case of today, for everybody was growing more and more excited about the First Task and trying to figure out what it might consist of. The closest hypothesis had been from Colin Creevey's who was convinced the champions will have to fight giant Blast-Ended Skrewt.
"Do you want to practice your summoning spell, then?" Padma asked as she, Luna and Rohini tried to find some peace in the Ravenclaw girls' dorm.
"Sure." Rohini agreed; she already knew that she had no problem with summoning items (Professor McGonagall had even praised her about it which was something quite hard to achieve). "Can we practice Protegio, after that?"
"Anything you want, champion." Padma said, light hearted; Ron's idea seemed to have improved her mood and Rohini was glad about it; she hated to see her friend worrying about her well-being.
They ended up taking turn, Padma and Luna decided to learn how to use the defensive spell, too. For a while, Rohini forgot about her panicked state and even fully enjoyed dinner for the first time in weeks.
Her mood turned sour again the next morning though, after she woke up at dawn from a terrific nightmare; she had been facing the Hungarian Horntail while everybody pointed and booed at her. As she tried to use the Summoning spell, the dragon had burn her wand and crushed her under its large tail.
Petting Thranduil as she waited for Padma to wake up, Rohini tried to convince herself that it was just a nightmare, that she knew that both the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws would be rooting for her, and that they would hopefully not let her be killed by the beast.
If time had seemed to froze since her name had been called, Rohini found herself waking up on Tuesday morning with no idea about what had happened the next day; did she go to classes? Did she finish her homework? Did she even eat?
The atmosphere in the school was one of great tension and excitement. Lessons were to stop at midday, giving all the students time to get down to the dragons' enclosure - though of course, they didn't yet know what they would find there.
Breakfast went quietly at the Ravenclaw table, everybody either glancing nervously at Rohini or whispering little "good luck" or tips to her. Through the heavy mist that seemed to be invading her mind, Rohini noticed that Cho Chang kept glancing from Cedric to Rohini, looking paler than usual; Diggory had probably told her about the dragons, then.
She was about to stand up to go to her Charm lesson when someone passed an arm around her neck.
"Ready to shine, my little knight?" said a teasing voice.
"Dana!" Rohini said, surprised. "You scared me!"
"My bad." Dana said with a laugh. Then, she looked at Padma and Luna. "Hello there. Don't think I have introduced myself properly yet; I'm Dana, nice to meet you."
"Pleasure." The girls said.
"Did you come to show me your support?" Rohini asked, half joking and Dana smile's grew bigger as she looked for something in her pocket before handing up a little golden earring with a fang to Rohini.
"It's a good luck charm." Dana explained. "I saw that you had pierced ears, last time."
"Oh." Rohini said, feeling her cheeks getting warmer. "Are you sure it's ok for me to have it?"
"Certain." Dana said. "Don't want something bad to happen to you, do we?" She asked Padma and Luna.
"Of course not." Luna said with a smile before taking off one of her ladybug earing. "Maybe a second one would bring you luck." She said and Rohini tried not to imagine how funny she would look wearing such different kind of earrings.
"As the French would say, 'jamais deux sans trois.'" Padma said with a thick accent before taking off her "P" pendant and putting it around Rohini's neck. "Here. You look ridiculous." She said and the girls laughed before Dana took her leave.
"I've misjudged her." Padma admitted at the end of their History of Magic lesson, the last one before the task. "Dana, I mean. She's a really nice girl."
"And so are you." Rohini said, her fingers brushing against Padma's hand without taking it.
Padma smiled, and was the one grabbing Rohini's hand as they headed outside to eat the brioches and pains au chocolat they had taken during breakfast. (Rohini didn't feel like eating with everybody staring at her for lunch).
They were joined later by their friends who brought them a sandwich to complete their odd meal.
"You're sure you remember the names of what you want to summon, right?" Hermione asked for the hundredth time."
"Yes, Hermione, I do." Rohini said shortly. "There's the Ton-Tongue Toffees, the Trick Wands and their latest Silver Sparkling Snakes."
"Good." Hermione said with a nod.
"Oh no…" Padma said and they all turned their head to see Professor Flitwick running towards them.
He was wearing his prettiest robes today, probably because he was the Head of the Ravenclaw House.
"Ah, Miss Potter!" He said with his mousy voice and slightly out of breath, "Here you are! Hello, Miss Patil, Miss Lovegood." He added before nodding at the Gryffindors.
"Is it… Is it time?" Rohini asked, feeling her throat tightened. She felt Harry tensed by her side and for a moment, it looked as if he was going to grab her hand and run away with her.
"I'm afraid so." Professor Flitwick said. "The champions have to come down onto the grounds now... The three others have already left for the arena…"
"Ok." Rohini said with a nod as she stood up. She forced a smile on her lips as she gave one last look to her friends, who were now looking quite blemish. "See you after the task."
"Good luck." They all said. Harry hesitated before taking a step forward and giving Rohini a strong but brief hug.
"You will do great." He said and Rohini nodded before following Professor Flitwick who put a reassuring hand on her arm, for he was too short to reach her shoulder.
"I know it might be scary for you," He said after a moment, "but I have heard from Minerva that you were doing quite well with your private lessons… Of course, you're still quite young next to the other champions, and I'm not saying the task waiting for you will be easy to manage, but we've got wizards standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand. . . . The main thing is just to do your best, and nobody will think any the worse of you!"
"Thanks, Professor." Rohini said, fidgeting Padma's necklace.
They were now walking toward the place where the dragons were, around the edge of the forest, but when they approached the clump of trees behind which the enclosure would be clearly visible, Rohini saw that a tent had been erected, its entrance facing them, screening the dragons from view.
"You're to go in here with the other champions," said Professor Flitwick, in a rather shaky sort of voice, "and wait for your turn, Miss Potter. I have to leave, only the judges are allowed inside- just believe in yourself, and you will do great! I believe in you, Miss Potter. Good luck!"
"Thanks." Rohini mumbled. As she stood up alone, she could swear she heard him shouted "Just believe in yourself!" once more before silence fell again.
"Well, here comes nothing." Rohini said before entering the tent.
Fleur Delacour was sitting in a corner on a how wooden stool. She didn't look nearly as composed as usual, but rather pale and clammy. Viktor Krum looked even surlier than usual, which Rohini supposed was his way of showing nerves. Cedric was pacing up and down. When Rohini came in, Cedric gave her a small smile, which Rohini returned, feeling the muscles in her face working rather hard, as though they had forgotten how to do it.
"Rohini! Good-o!" said Bagman happily, looking around at him. "Come in, come in, and make yourself at home!"
Bagman looked somehow like a slightly overblown cartoon figure, standing amid all the pale-faced champions. He was wearing his old Wasp robes again.
"Well, now we're all here - time to fill you in!" said Bagman brightly. "When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag" - he held up a small sack of purple silk and shook it at them - "from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different - er - varieties, you see."
The picture of the four dragons flashed into Rohini's mind.
"And I have to tell you something else too.. . ah, yes... your task is to collect the golden egg!"
'So that's why they asked for mothers…' Rohini thought, remembering Charlie's words to Hagrid and the huge eggs. Rohini shivered; it was well known that most species were extremely protective of their eggs, and could turn into quite the fury if someone tried to steal them…
In no time at all, hundreds upon hundreds of pairs of feet could be heard passing the tent, their owners talking excitedly, laughing, joking and unaware of the perils waiting for the champions.
Once the noisy crowd had passed, Bagman opened the neck of the purple silk sack.
"Ladies first," he said, offering it to Fleur Delacour. Rohini found it slightly unfair; she was also a girl, the youngest champions, and the one who hadn't enter the tournament willingly; wouldn't it be more logical to let her pick first?
Fleur put a shaking hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny, perfect model of a dragon - a Welsh Green. It had the number two around its neck And Rohini knew, by the fact that Fleur showed no sign of surprise, but rather a determined resignation, that she had been right: Madame Maxime had told her what was coming.
Bagman turned to Rohini, beaming.
"Your turn, Rohini."
Rohini put her hand into the silk bag, trying to feel the less spiky dragon but something bite her fingers and as Rohini jerked off with a yelp, the Hungarian Horntail followed, the number four around its neck.
It stretched its wings as she looked down at it, and bared its minuscule fangs. Rohini felt like her soul was leaving her body; Weasley tricks or not, she was going to face the most murderous beasts of the four.
Krum pulled out the scarlet Chinese Fireball. It had a number three around its neck. He didn't even blink, just sat back down and stared at the ground.
Cedric put his hand into the bag, and out came the blueish-gray Swedish Short-Snout, the number one tied around its neck.
"Rotten luck." He whispered to Rohini with a glance at her dragon. Rohini didn't even reacted to that.
"Well, there you are!" said Bagman. "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr. Diggory, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, all right? Now, Rohini, I'd like a word please."
"Huh." said Rohini blankly as she got up and went out of the tent with Bagman, who walked her a short distance away, into the trees, and then turned to her with a fatherly expression on his face.
"Feeling all right, girl? Anything I can get you?"
"Well, you could get me the right to forfeit." Rohini said and Bagman laughed, as if she had told the funniest joke ever.
"Got a plan?" said Bagman, lowering his voice conspiratorially. "Because I don't mind sharing a few pointers, if you'd like them, you know. I mean," Bagman continued, lowering his voice still further, "you're the underdog here-"
"No thank you." Rohini said shortly. "I might be the underdog as you said, but I'm not a cheater."
A whistle had blown somewhere.
"Good lord, I've got to run!" said Bagman in alarm, and he hurried off.
Rohini walked back to the tent and saw Cedric emerging from it, greener than ever. Rohini tried to wish him luck as he walked past, but all that came out of her mouth was a sort of hoarse grunt and so she just gave him a little wave.
Seconds later, they heard the roar of the crowd, which meant Cedric had entered the enclosure and was now face-to-face with the living counterpart of his model.
It was worse than Rohini could ever have imagined, sitting there and listening. The crowd screamed, yelled, gasped like a single many-headed entity, as Cedric did whatever he was doing to get past the Swedish Short-Snout. Krum was still staring at the ground, his mini-dragon now asleep on his shoulder, apparently taking the fur of his cape for a nest.
Fleur had now taken to retracing Cedric's steps, around and around the tent. And Bagman's commentary made everything much, much worse… Horrible pictures formed in Rohini's mind as she heard: "Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow- he's taking risks, this one!-Clever move - pity it didn't work!"
And then, after about fifteen minutes, Rohini heard the deafening roar that could mean only one thing: Cedric had gotten past his dragon and captured the golden egg.
"Very good indeed!" Bagman was shouting. "And now the marks from the judges!"
But he didn't shout out the marks; Rohini supposed the judges were holding them up and showing them to the crowd.
"One down, three to go!" Bagman yelled as the whistle blew again. "Miss Delacour, if you please!"
Fleur was trembling from head to foot.
"Good luck." Rohini whispered to her as she left. Fleur nodded in acknowledgment and left the tent with her head held high and her hand clutching her wand. Rohini and Krum were left alone, at opposite sides of the tent, avoiding each other's gaze.
The same process started again. "Oh I'm not sure that was wise!" they could hear Bagman shouting gleefully. "Oh. . . nearly! Careful now. . . good lord, I thought she'd had it then!"
Ten minutes later, the two of them heard the crowd erupt into applause once more; Fleur must have been successful too. A pause, while Fleur's marks were being shown, then, for the third time, the whistle.
"And here comes Mr. Krum!" cried Bagman, and Krum slouched out, leaving Rohini quite alone.
She felt much more aware of his body than usual; very aware of the way her heart was pumping fast, and her fingers tingling with fear, aware of her muscled but short legs, aware of how tiny she would look next to the Hungarian Horntail.
"Very daring!" Bagman was yelling, and Rohini heard the Chinese Fireball emit a horrible, roaring shriek, while the crowd drew its collective breath. "That's some nerve he's showing - and - yes, he's got the egg!"
Applause shattered the wintery air like breaking glass; Krum had finished - it would be Rohini's turn any moment.
She stood up, noticing dimly that her legs seemed to be suddenly made of marshmallow and waited.
And then she heard the whistle blow. Gulping and clenching her wand, Rohini walked out through the entrance of the tent, the panic rising into a crescendo inside her. And now she was walking past the trees, through a gap in the enclosure fence.
For the split of a second, Rohini felt like running away; there were hundreds and hundreds of faces staring down at her from stands that had been magicked there since she'd last stood on this spot. An eerie silence had followed as she entered the arena, made of huge stones that felt hot under her feet, even if she was wearing shoes.
Bump bump. Bump Bump. Bump Bump.
Rohini could only hear the blood pumping in her ears, felt her skin getting covered by a cold sweat and glistening.
And then-
And then there was the Horntail, at the other end of the enclosure, crouched low over her clutch of eggs, her wings half-furled, her evil, yellow eyes upon Rohini.
She looked like a monstrous, scaly, black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, heaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground. Then, the beast roared loudly and the crowd began to make great deal of noise.
Rohini closed her eyes for a second, tried to empty her mind of all fear, and then looked at the beast with a desperate kind determination. Willing to or not, she had a task to pass.
But she wasn't the only one with a purpose; the dragon did too and before Rohini could cast any spell, it stood up and breathed a brazier towards Rohini, who barely had time to take cover behind a large rock.
She gulped at the unbearable heat and tried not to picture what would have been left of her if she hadn't hide in time.
"Accio Ton-Tongue Toffees!" She said and, to her surprise, didn't have to wait for too long before the candies landed in her palms; it looked like The Weasley Twins might have planned to sell some during the task. She would have to pay for them later, then.
Glancing at the dragon, Rohini tried to come up with a plan; running straight forward would be the worst plan ever, but if she took cover behind the largest rocks…
"Accio, Trick Wands!" She then called, but only one fake wand came to her, this time; the rest must have been left at the castle, and she had no time to lose waiting for them to arrive.
Touching Padma's necklace one last time, Rohini finally jumped out of her hiding place and began to run. The crowd shouted, Bagman was commentating excitingly but Rohini didn't listen, couldn't listen; she took a sharp turn and jumped behind another rock as the dragon tried to roast her like brunch sausages once more.
Her hair was sticking to her forehead now and Rohini wished she had thought to tie them up first; maybe she should get them cut before the second task.
The Hungarian roared again, a terrific roar that echoed through her whole body. Pushing her hair away, Rohini took a sprinting position before jumping forwards; for a moment, she felt as if she was back to Private Drive, trying to escape Dudley and his gang.
Doing a surprisingly graceful move to hide into a hole in the ground large enough to hide her, Rohini grabbed the Trick Wand and waved it; instantly, the wand turned into one of those baby toys that made dreadful noises.
"Engorgio!" She said, and the toy –shaped like a chicken- was now the size of Hagrid's pumpkin but thankfully just as light as an ant. Peaking at the dragon, Rohini crossed her fingers before casting Leviosa and throwing the chicken as far as possible before it crashed a few feet away from the dragon with a "PfiuuUUuuuuuuuuuh!" sound.
The dragon instantly tried to crush it under one of her large paws, but it only made it squeeze loudly. Rohini jumped out of the hole and began to run towards the nest; she was getting quite close now, thanks to her speed.
But if Rohini had focused on the dragon's head, she had forgotten the tail; she was suddenly hit hard in the stomach and air left her lungs painfully as she grabbed one of the dragon's spikes to avoid falling from the swooping tail.
The ferocious beast roared once more and turned her head towards Rohini, showing her fangs. Fearing to be eaten alive, Rohini tried to clumsily catch the Ton-Tongue Toffees in her pocket and threw them all into the Horntail's open mouth.
"Woah!" Rohini gasped as she almost let go of her grip, the Horntail whipping the air furiously with her tail as her tongue began to swell, making it impossible for her to close her powerful jaw or breathe fire.
Rohini's palms were all sweaty and she yelped as her hands slipped and she hit the ground hard with a crack. Grunting, she barely had the time to stand up that the Horntail tried to hit her with her spiky tail again and Rohini barely avoided the collision.
Looking up, she realised that she had landed right to the eggs and began to run for it. She could hear the dragon's muffled roar as her tongue was still getting longer and longer, she felt her heart miss a beat every time she avoided getting crushed under the tail- and suddenly, Rohini dive and grabbed the golden egg before rolling behind a large rock.
It was as though somebody had just turned the volume back up - for the first time, she became properly aware of the noise of the crowd, which was screaming and applauding louder than during a Quidditch Match.
"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling. "Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get her egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mrs. Potter!"
Rohini dared to glance at the dragon and saw the dragon keepers rushing forward to subdue the Horntail, and, over at the entrance to the enclosure, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, and Hagrid hurrying to meet her, all of them waving her toward them, their smiles evident even from this distance.
Standing up on her sore legs, Rohini walked slow at first before feeling the impulse to sprint and jump into Hagrid's open arms, the tension finally releasing as she broke into a laugh.
"I did it!" She yelled, relieved tears in her eyes. "Oh my gosh, I did it! I- I'm alive! I got the egg! Hagrid, I got the egg!"
"Told ye that ye could do it!" Hagrid said, beaming. "An' agains' the Horntail an' all!"
"Your knees are bleeding." Professor Flitwick realised. "Oh, and you have a nasty bruise on your face already, must be from the fall- You should go and see Madam Pomfrey before the score."
"Come." Hagrid said, leading her to another tent.
Madam Pomfrey standing at the mouth of a second tent, looking worried.
"Dragons!" she said, in a disgusted tone, pulling Rohini inside. The tent was divided into cubicles; she could make out Cedric's shadow through the canvas, but Cedric didn't seem to be badly injured; he was sitting up, at least.
Madam Pomfrey examined Rohini's face and knees and touched her back to make sure she broke no bones while talking furiously all the while.
"Last year Dementors, this year dragons, what are they going to bring into this school next? You're very lucky you didn't get badly hurt…"
She cleaned up Rohini's scratches and put some thick, stinky balm on her bruises before agreeing to let her go.
Rohini got to her feet, wanting to see what was going on outside, but before she'd reached the mouth of the tent, a group of people stepped it; it was Harry and their friends, all speaking and hugging her at the same time.
"That was brilliant!" Fred said, starts in their eyes.
"You did us quite the advertising for our products!" George laughed. "I would have never thought our Toffees could have made a dragon's tongue swell that much!"
"You did great!" Harry said, looking at her with a proud smile.
"It was all thanks to Ron." Rohini said before hugging her friend. "You're the best."
"To the Weasleys!" The twins shouted and they all laughed before Madam Pomfrey furiously chased them out of the tent.
"I was so scared for you." Padma said, refusing to let go of Rohini's hand. "When the dragon breathed fire the first time, I really thought- but you're alright now, that's all that matter." Padma said with a smile.
"c'mon, they'll be putting up your scores!" Ginny said.
"So, what did the others do?" Rohini asked, curious.
"Cedric did this weird thing where he transfigured a rock on the ground and turned it into a dog." Harry explained.
"Well, it was a pretty cool bit of Transfiguration, and it sort of worked, because he did get the egg, but he got burned as well - the dragon changed its mind halfway through and decided it would rather have him than the Labrador; he only just got away." Ron continued.
"Fleur tried this sort of charm, I think she was trying to put it into a trance - well, that kind of worked too, it went all sleepy, but then it snored, and this great jet of flame shot out, and her skirt caught fire - she put it out with a bit of water out of her wand." Said Ginny.
"And Krum - you won't believe this, but he didn't even think of flying! He was probably the best after you, though. Hit it with some sort of spell right in the eye. Only thing is, it went trampling around in agony and squashed half the real eggs - they took marks off for that, he wasn't supposed to do any damage to them." Ron finished.
They had all now reached the edge of the enclosure. Now that the Horntail had been taken away, Rohini could see where the five judges were sitting - right at the other end, in raised seats draped in gold.
"It's marks out of ten from each one," Luna said, and Rohini squinting up the field, saw the first judge - Madame Maxime - raise her wand in the air. What looked like a long silver ribbon shot out of it, which twisted itself into a large figure eight.
"Not bad!" said Fred as the crowd applauded. "I suppose she took marks off for your landing."
Mr. Crouch came next. He shot a number nine into the air.
"Wow." Rohini said, impressed; she would have expected Mr. Crouch to be the hardest judge, somehow.
Next, Dumbledore. He too put up a nine. The crowd was cheering harder than ever.
"You deserve it." Harry said, a hand on Rohini's shoulder.
Ludo Bagman - ten.
"Why?" Rohini asked, confused. "I wasn't that great-"
"Shhhh!" Her friends shushed her.
And now Karkaroff raised his wand. He paused for a moment, and then a number shot out of his wand too - four.
"What?" Ron bellowed furiously. "Four? You lousy, biased scum-bag, you gave Krum ten!"
Though slightly offended by the mark, Rohini didn't care as much as the Weasley sibblings who were shaking their fists at Karkaroff.
"You're tied in first place, Rohini! You and Krum!" said Charlie Weasley, hurrying to meet them as they set off back toward the school. "Listen, I've got to run, I've got to go and send Mum an owl, I swore I'd tell her what happened - but that was unbelievable! Oh yeah - and they told me to tell you you've got to hang around for a few more minutes-Bagman wants a word, back in the champions' tent."
"Thanks, Charlie." Rohini said before telling her friends that she would meet them up later.
Then she re-entered the tent, which somehow looked quite different now: friendly and welcoming. She thought back to how she'd felt while dodging the Horntail, and compared it to the long wait before she'd walked out to face it. There was no comparison; the wait had been immeasurably worse.
Fleur, Cedric, and Krum all came in together. One side of Cedric's face was covered in a thick orange paste, which was presumably mending his burn. He grinned at Rohini when he saw her.
"Good one, Rohini."
"Thanks, you too." Rohini said, feeling much more lighter.
"Well done, all of you!" said Ludo Bagman, bouncing into the tent and looking as pleased as though he personally had just got past a dragon. "Now, just a quick few words. You've got a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth - but we're giving you something to think about in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open. . . see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg -because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"
Rohini left the tent, staring at her egg and met up with her friends again. they started to walk back around the edge of the forest, talking hard; Rohini wanted to hear what the other champions had done in more detail. Then, as they rounded the clump of trees behind which Rohini had first heard the dragons roar, a witch leapt out from behind them.
It was Rita Skeeter. She was wearing acid-green robes today; the Quick-Quotes Quill in her hand blended perfectly against them.
"Congratulations, Rohini!" she said, beaming at her. "I wonder if you could give me a quick word? How you felt facing that dragon? How you feel now, about the fairness of the scoring?"
"Yeah, you can even have three." Rohini said shorty. "Go to hell."
And she set off back to the castle with her friends laughing and booing at Rita. As they passed next to the lake, they saw Dana running toward them and Rohini gasped when the strong girl grabbed her by the waist and carried her with a laugh.
"Congrats, little saviour!" She said, eyes shining and beaming. "It was quite the dragon that you faced, back there! I wish I had known beforehand what the task was about, I have so many notes about this specie-"Dana began to ramble and Rohini snorted before taking her hand.
"Here, for you." She said as she gave Dana the tiny Hungarian Horntail she had picked up. It was now asleep, snoring little flames from time to time. "I think it would be happier with someone who knows about dragons."
Dana's eyes opened comically as she stared in awe at the creature, making everybody laugh.
On this instant, all the fear and anger from the past few weeks were forgotten, replaced by a strong feeling of security and merriness.