Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does. I'm just an avid fan.

Word Count: 4789!

A/N: We've reached 100,000 views! Whoppeeee!

Chapter 25: The First Task

On the morning of November 24th, everyone woke up excited, anticipating the epic atmosphere of the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Hardly anyone got any work done that day, not that the professors even assigned much classwork to do because their minds were set for the battle between four champions. The past week felt like someone had switched the notch from tired and bored to energetic and prideful. Everywhere Cadmus went, people wished him luck left to right, betting on the odds that he would win.

Everyone seemed excited except for Daphne, who constantly fretted over the first task and his safety. The blabbering agitated and stressed everyone out further until Jacob had enough and told her to shut up.

"He's not going to die, Daphne. Give it a rest; he's going to be amazing! I mean, look at him" Jacob snapped, gesturing at Cadmus. Cadmus looked down at his body; he had some muscles and exercised routinely but, he wasn't that good. Daphne glowered at Jacob but the other Harvard students backed him off until she relinquished and quit stressing over Cadmus. However, she still incessantly drilled safety procedures into Cadmus' brain whenever she got the chance in private.

To be honest, Jacob was right; he was going to do just fine in the first task. But the nagging feeling of the unknown unnerved Cadmus very much and, as time passed, he got edgier. The other champions didn't look as tense as him; they seemed suspiciously calm and posed as though they prepared all their lives for this. Krum didn't seem to be affected at all. He was talking to his classmates like nothing was happening in his life. Jamie Potter was laughing with his friends as they walked down the corridors without a hint of fear.

But...Cedric. He seemed just as confused as he was, staring aimlessly at his plate and twiddling his fingers as though they could soothe his agitation. His friends tried to cheer him up, but Cedric only laughed for a brief moment before uneasiness washed over his face. So it seemed...Jamie Potter didn't even have a slight ounce of modesty and altruism to warn his classmate of what the first task was.

Before the champions arrived at the first task enclosure an hour before everyone else, Colin rushed up to Cadmus eagerly with his camera hung around his neck and carrying a large bag full of stuff.

"Hiya, Cadmus! The photos developed, the one you asked for. Here" Colin said briskly, carefully taking out the photo and handing it to him. Cadmus took it and smiled.

"Thanks, Colin! What's that bag for?" Cadmus asked curiously, pointing to the rather medium-sized felt bag next to Colin. It seemed like Colin was expecting him to ask that because he jumped happily and excitedly opened the bag.

"I came here to ask something from you just for this. I managed to mass-produce the first autograph of yours and you said that I had to ask for your permission before-" Colin answered before he stopped suddenly to take in Cadmus' reaction.

There was a pause before Cadmus shrugged, "Sure. Run it by my Headmistress first before you're selling it, my say in this doesn't hold any significance. She'll most likely agree."

Colin beamed brightly as though his dream had come true. "Thanks so much! I wish you all the best for the first task; you'll do great!" he gushed before he waved goodbye and practically bounded out the Great Hall entrance. Ludo Bagman walked into the Great Hall in an officious manner accompanied by Headmistress Perenell, Lily Potter, and Karkaroff. Everyone except for Perenell looked pensive and reserved as though they were fearful of something happening. Maybe they were afraid of getting caught cheating and violating the tournament rules or terrified that they would be fired from their jobs, but Cadmus didn't know which one it was.

Cedric, Krum, Jamie, and Cadmus all looked up to see Bagman made a gesticulation for them to come over. Cadmus looked at Daphne, Jacob, and Casper, who all gave him a reassuring thumbs-up as they left the Great Hall with the rest of the students. Cadmus confidently stood up and walked over to Mr. Bagman, followed closely behind Cedric and Krum.

"Right. It'll be an hour before the first task. So you will have plenty of time to rest before we tell you what you are up against. Follow me to the champion's tent" Bagman chirped happily, clicking his heels and leading the four champions and their professors down the pavilion to a large enclosure built especially for the first task. The construction that went into building the enclosure was still visible, along the way several broken poles laid forgotten with discarded wooden planks and destroyed stools in large piles of trash.

Finally, after a long 20 minutes of walking, the sight of the large enclosure came into view. From a distance away, they could hear the energy coming from the jam-packed stadium of students and staff. Cadmus gave an impressive nod, kudos to the organizers for being able to construct this enclosure in such a short timespan. They approached a rather medium-sized tent where they were led through the back entrance and into the champion's tent. Cadmus looked around; it was quite spacious and the area was divided into four discrete corners with a large common center area. It was just like those wizarding camping tents; the outside doesn't look too inviting but, the inside was decorated.

They gathered in the center of the tent where Mr. Bagman told them to wait for a second as he grabbed something important. Using this time, Cadmus walked across the length of the tent towards the front and opened the curtain-like entrance to peek at the enclosure. It was enormous when you were inside the enclosure and the overwhelming amount of spectators in the stands.

The sound of Bagman's returning footsteps brought Cadmus' attention back into the tent where the four of them stood by their Headmaster/Headmistress. When they settled, Cadmus saw that Mr. Bagman was holding a small silk pouch.

"Well, now we're all here - time to fill you in!" Bagman said enthusiastically. "When the audience is assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag" - he held up the purple silk pouch and shook it - "from which you will each select a small model of the thing you'll be facing. There are different..um..varieties, so no one champion will face the same thing. Your task is to collect the golden egg!"

A golden egg? Cadmus scoffed. What are the organizers making them face against, some fairytale golden goose or something? As much as Cadmus was looking forward to seeing the golden goose from Jack and the Beanstalk, it didn't seem likely to have them face off a goose instead of something like a rhino. Not that a mother hen isn't fiercely protective of her eggs. Cadmus racked his brain for his knowledge of dangerous creatures that lay eggs. For one, it could be an enlarged lizard or a wild penguin. Or it could be a mother-freaking dinosaur who loves to feast on humans. The possibilities are endless.

Cadmus glanced around; Krum and Jamie seemed quite calm, glancing around unbothered but, Cedric looked as terrified as him. He looked slightly green, but Cadmus couldn't blame him, he was just as sickened at the thought of it as Cedric was. In no time at all, the enclosure seemed to pack with hundreds upon thousands of pairs of feet. Excited talking, laughs, jokes were audible.

Cadmus felt nauseous; his stomach churned uneasily as he nervously glanced at his mother for reassurance. Perenell gave Cadmus an infectious smile and patted his shoulder supportingly. Cadmus smiled back at his mother, thankful that she was here with him. It all seemed very quick to Cadmus because a few moments later, Bagman was opening the neck of the purple silk pouch.

"Mr. Potter first," he said, offering the pouch to Jamie Potter. Cadmus and Cedric watched eagerly as Jamie Potter stuck his hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny model of a dragon. A Chinese Fireball. Cadmus groaned and, he mentally cursed his luck, who would have thought that they were facing dragons for the first task? Looking closely at the model of the dragon, it had a number 2 tag around its neck. And Cadmus knew, judging by the fact that Jamie Potter showed no sign of surprise but rather a determined resignation, that he had been right: James Potter had told him what was coming.

In no particular order, Bagman turned to Viktor Krum, who grunted and pulled out Swedish Short-Snout and the number 1 tag around it. Krum just simply sat down and stared at the ground with the miniature dragon stretching its wings and hissing menacingly at him.

Knowing that he was next, Cadmus took a deep breath trying to compress his nerves and wiped his sweaty hands on his clothes.

Cadmus closed his eyes and sunk his hand into the bag until he felt something nip on his finger. He felt the spiky scales of something and was able to tuck his hand under the miniature dragon and pull it out. It had black scales, bronze horns, large yellow oval eyes, and the appearance of an overgrown lizard. Hungarian Horntail. Cadmus didn't know what to make of his dragon and couldn't stop the sinking feeling that in an hour or two - he would be facing one of the most dangerous dragon breeds known to man.

Cadmus collapsed in the armchair and stared at the Horntail model that was baring its fangs at him with the number four tag around its neck. Cedric was last. He pulled out a model of the Welsh Green with the number three tag around it.

"Well, there you are!" Bagman said conclusively, "You each have selected a dragon you will face and the number refers to the order in which you are to take on the dragons." Cadmus thought that Bagman was being too happy when they were about to risk their lives to retrieve a golden egg from a mother dragon.

"Now I'll be leaving a few minutes because I'm commenting. Mr. Krum when you hear the cannon, you will enter the enclosure, alright?" Bagman said pointedly. Then Bagman turned to Jamie Potter and asked to have a word with him outside. As Jamie Potter followed Bagman outside the tent; Cadmus' eyes followed them with suspicion as well as Cedric.

Perenelle leaned towards Cadmus and gave him an encouraging smile before she departed for the judge's panel where she would be judging the first task along with the other judges. At least if someone was going to be biased, there were impartial ones in the stands as well. Karkaroff left after Perenell as well, followed by James Potter which Cadmus shot a glare at. When Bagman returned into the tent with Jamie Potter, he made some last-minute checks with the crew. When one of the crew members muttered something, Bagman's face fell and he quickly hurried out the tent informing Cedric, Cadmus, Jamie, and Krum that they had a little issue to fix before they could start the first task.

"You alright there Cadmus?" someone asked him.

Cadmus raised his head and saw that Cedric was making his way over to Cadmus with a frown on his face. Cadmus smiled at Cedric to show that he was fine.

"Well...I suppose I should wish you good luck. The Welsh Green isn't as dangerous as yours so I wanted to make sure you don't faint before you face the Horntail" Cedric laughed nervously, gesturing at the miniature models of the Horntail and Welsh Green having a go at each other. It was quite amusing to watch a mini dragon battle take place in front of them, which temporarily took their minds off the first task. After a while, Cedric left for his champion corner pacing back and forth.

Sitting down on the sofa placed in the common center, Cadmus thought back to all his past studies of Defense and Care of Magical Creatures which hinted on ways to survive attacks. He could try to attempt using transfiguration and somehow try to distract the Horntail but they were smarter than that. If he tried using transfiguration, he would be roasted within the first twenty minutes of entering the dragon enclosure. His safest bet was to hit his Horntail at its weakest spot which was either its underside or its eyes. Or he should play his strengths. Jacob's strategy for every situation he should encounter. But what were his strengths? He was pretty fast but could never outrun a dragon, he was agile which meant he had fast reflexes if his Horntail breathed fire on him, he had a knack for using powerful offensive spells while simultaneously doing something else. He flew a broom pretty well but playing against a dragon isn't Quidditch unless you imagined fireballs whirling at you as nasty bludgers.

The more time passed by without a sign of starting, the more jitters Cadmus got and the more his stomach flopped. He decided to get up and walk his worries away. What spells were the most effective? What actions caused the least damage but can be awarded the most points?

Midway through Cadmus' pace around the tent, the back of the tent flaps open and someone pokes its head inside.

"Cadmus?"

Cadmus' head whipped up when he heard a familiar voice coming from the person and saw Daphne, standing there in the champion's tent. Cadmus quickly stood up and walked over to his friend, inviting her in a tight embrace.

"Daph" Cadmus greeted. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in the stands by now?" He withdrew from the hug and surveyed her unexpected presence.

Daphne smiled at Cadmus. "Bagman is allowing the champions to have a five-minute talk with one friend while the organizers are fixing an issue. Something about having troubles with the audio loudspeaker"

"Oh," Cadmus replied, running his fingers through his hair.

"You ready?" Daphne inquired, starting off the conversation.

Cadmus shrugged, "Yeah, I guess. Just found out we're going against dragons; mine is the Hungarian Horntail." Daphne covered her mouth to hide her gasp. The Hungarian Horntail was considered one of the most dangerous dragon breeds in the world, known for their ferocity and flames that easily reached 50 feet. Hardly anyone in history was able to escape the intensity of a female Horntail without being majorly injured.

Cadmus nodded his head solemnly. His years at Harvard had taught and trained him enough to survive in the world, but nothing the size of going against fiercely protective mother dragons. At least he was advanced enough in his studies to know several wound-inflicting offensive spells. Daphne seized Cadmus' momentary silence to look at the other champions present in the tent; they were watching her closely as though they suspected her of helping Cadmus.

"Well, Casper and Jacob are in the stands. They wanted me to pass on their good wishes to you for the first task. Did you know they have concession stands to buy flags supporting each champion?" Daphne mentioned on a cheerful note.

Cadmus laughed; imagining students in the stands sporting Harvard colors and waving flags with his large face. He thought about Colin having a blast selling autographs. "Really? That must be a blast to see, how's the concession stand fairing for me?"

Daphne's lips curled upwards, "Not bad actually. Instead of the stands being separated by different schools, the spectators are grouping by their favored champion. Your crowd is by far the largest." At this statement, Jamie and Krum turned around scowling at the thought of him outranking them in popularity. Daphne smirked back smugly as though trying to show off her pride.

The back end of the tent opened again and three people entered the champion's tent. Judging by Krum and Cedric's expressions, those two are their friends. One was a rather pretty Asian girl with long black hair who dashed happily over to Cedric and the other was a brutish looking male with dark brown hair who grunted at Krum in greeting. The last was a boy with blonde hair waving at Jamie Potter.

Cadmus opened his mouth to discuss something with Daphne but quickly closed his mouth, throwing a cautious glance at Krum, Cedric, Jamie, and their friends. Cadmus quickly got up and dragged Daphne into a more enclosed area in the tent, shielded by a curtain that was their makeshift changing room.

Cadmus pulled out his wand and warded the area and sat Daphne down seriously. "Listen Daph, I noticed something yesterday and when we selected our dragon, it only confirmed my suspicions. They knew what the first task was before today. Someone must have told them to give them a heads up advantage. Cedric and I are the only ones who didn't know."

Daphne growled at the unfairness, "So..you mean that they- cheated?" Cadmus nodded his head.

"That's scandalous! Injustice! We have to tell Headmistress Perenelle because they're going against the tournament rules" Daphne exclaimed, ready to storm out of the changing room and strangle the other champions. Cadmus reacted quickly and grabbed her arms before she could jump up.

"No, Daph! Just- not now, ok? After the first task, we are to get instructions for the second task. But for now, I need to focus on getting that golden egg from my dragon" Cadmus insisted firmly.

"Alright fine" Daphne relented, her eyes full of concern and anxiety. She held Cadmus' arm possessively as if he would slip away from her grasp any second. Cadmus took down the wards and appeared from the changing room. No one seemed to notice their detour as Cedric, Viktor and Jamie were fully-engaged in their conversations with their friends.

Just then, Bagman poked his head through the back of the tent smiling at the champion's interactions with their friends. "Alright, we've got the problem fixed so the first task will start in no time. I would ask if the friends of our Triwizard Champions kindly return to the stands with me." He turned to the four of them and smiled.

"Good luck, champions! Remember, retrieve the golden egg only" Bagman instructed before he hurried away. Not long after, the cannon boomed signaling for Krum to enter the enclosure and start the first task of the Triwizard Tournament by facing his Swedish Short-Snout. It was more terrible than Cadmus could have imagined, just sitting there and listening to the crowd gasping and screaming as Krum seemed to be doing whatever it took to get past the larger more dangerous version of his dragon model.

Bagman's commentary seemed to make everything much worse as images formed in his mind as he heard: "Oh, narrow miss there!" "Oh, that must have hurt badly!" "Oh no, that didn't seem to work." And then after about 30 minutes, they heard a deafening roar that meant only one thing - Krum had gotten past his dragon and secured the golden egg.

Everything blurred by so fast after that. Jamie Potter followed promptly after Krum had gotten his golden egg. He finished just 40 minutes after. And then Cedric was up next. Before Cedric entered the enclosure, Cadmus gave him an encouraging pat and wished him good luck. Cedric firmly nodded and walked into the enclosure to face his Welsh Green. Not long after, Cedric had also gotten his egg and then - it was his turn.

Cadmus nervously walked up to the entrance of the tent as his heart raced and his breath quickened. He waited and waited. His hands gripped his wand tightly. The panic rising into a crescendo inside of him as he heard the cannon boom for the final time. Numbly, Cadmus walked out into the enclosure and took in his surroundings. Everything looked like a highly colored dream until his Hungarian Horntail came into view. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a large section of the crowd proudly sporting Harvard colors and flying banners that flashed his name.

Pursing his lips, Cadmus thought of the first rule of dueling, never taking your eyes off your opponent for a second. That seemed most logical as if he diverted his attention for one second, he would be fried toast. The Horntail had sensed his presence and roared at him, the powerful vibrations forcing him to plant a steady hand on a large boulder.

Play to your strengths. You are fast but not fast enough to outrun a dragon, but you can fly on a broom adequately, which is much quicker.

Cadmus raised his wand and pointed towards what seemed like the direction of Hogwarts and muttered, "Accio Nimbus 2001." It would take about a few minutes for his broom to arrive so, Cadmus advanced through his plan.

"Stupefy!" Cadmus cried, sending out a powerful stunner that caught the dragon off-balance but, she quickly recovered and swung her massive tail at him. Her stance was closed around her nest of eggs that she was aggressively defending. Cadmus cursed and dodged the tail feeling the rush of air current riffle his hair.

He needed to have some way to expose the stomach, which was the second most vulnerable spot of a dragon. He needed something strong and big enough to topple her over. Then he saw a large boulder that suited his requirements. Cadmus pointed his wand at it and closed his eyes. He felt his magic flowing through his body and into his spell.

"DEPULSO!" With all that magic and power going into his spell, the boulder effortlessly went speeding towards the dragon. The Hungarian Horntail snapped its mouth at the boulder and quickly raised its front legs to block it from smashing its head, exposing its stomach. From a distance away, Cadmus saw this opportune moment to send a stunner again. It shot out of his wand straight at the exposed underside but a gust of wind diverted its path and impacted the scales. His stunner sizzled before it harmlessly bounced back at him.

Dammit. He needed a better aim. "FLIPENDO!" This time his knockback jinx hit the stomach of the Horntail squarely. It roared loudly and for a second, everyone thought that the spell wouldn't work as the Horntail rapidly sent jets of fire at his face, but it whined in pain and collapsed on the enclosure ground with an earthquake-like thump that shook the whole stadium. Like a kicked puppy, the Horntail let out a painful whine which came out as a small roar and curled its tail in front of its frontside protectively. Cadmus felt bad for the Horntail and decided that it would hurt a lot less if it went to sleep.

"Somnium Maxima" Cadmus cast as a large beam of blue hit the Horntail. Immediately its eyes started drooping until it fell into a peaceful sleep.

The whole crowd went silent in shock as he managed to knock out his dragon without any problems. Bagman was overly enthusiastically shouting in his microphone, "The kid's done it! Oh wow, in all my years I've never seen such power displayed from a 16-year-old like this ever! He might even give our dragon keepers a run for their money!"

Cadmus promptly grabbed his broom, swung his leg over it, and flew over to the nest of dragon eggs. Thankfully none of them looked harmed and fortunately for the mother Horntail, he wasn't after any of her real eggs, only the fake golden egg that sat snuggly in the middle of the nest. Cadmus scooped up the golden egg in his arms and sped back to the finish line, swerving the jet of flames that came out when the Horntail snored.

"Great Scott, he can fly!" Bagman shouted as the crowd cheered loudly in approval, "Will you look at that! Mr. Flamel is the fastest champion to retrieve his egg without any injuries! This is going to raise his scores!"

Cadmus was hearing none of the commentaries as he flew back to the entrance of the enclosure where Professor Evans and Professor Kim both eagerly waved at him with large smiles on their faces.

"Fantastic, Mr. Flamel!" Professor Kim praised patting him on the shoulders happily before she became concerned and checked for any injuries. "Are you hurt? You are so lucky that the Horntail's flames didn't get you, that poor Diggory chap got his left shoulder burned."

Professor Evans was slightly less energetic instead he held onto his normal teacher composure and said, "Excellent job, Mr. Flamel." His eyes sparkled with a hint of pride because they both secretly knew that he was super proud of him no matter what.

Both his professors led him to the mouth of the second tent which was set up as a first-aid tent before they both patted his shoulders and left. Cadmus entered the second tent and looked around; it was divided into four separate cubicles.

The matron and healer of Hogwarts bustled over, looking worried but pleased. "Good heavens, you didn't get burned, Mr. Flamel! Hmmm, your vitals look perfectly fine. A little trauma and elevated heart rate but you'll be fine after a nice little rest. You feeling alright yourself?"

"No, I'm feeling fine, thank you. My legs are a bit sore but it will heal after a while" Cadmus responded, trying to ignore the pain from his stingy legs. A little leg soreness was nothing he couldn't handle. After all, he had far worse injuries before. Madam Pomfrey, the healer nodded and gave some ice packs.

"Now you sit quietly, young man. Then you can go and get your scores" she said before she hurried out and entered the next-door cubicle. Cadmus didn't feel like sitting still so he got up and walked to the mouth of the tent, where three people darted inside before he could reach it - Daphne followed closely by Jacob and Casper.

"Cadmus, you were brilliant!" Daphne exclaimed squeakily as she bear-hugged Cadmus like he was her life-support. Jacob and Casper stood beside her sharing identical looks of amusement.

"Bloody right in her mind. She was so scared, she crushed my whole hand!" Jacob laughed, raising his hand which had a tomato shade of red. Cadmus smiled as Daphne smacked the poor boy around the head. Rubbing his head, Jacob chuckled, "But amazing performance, Cadmus, you were great!"

"Yeah, some smart thinking too," Casper stated. He sported a laughing grin as he showed Cadmus the flag he bought to support him.

"C'mon let's go see what score you got" Jacob stated eagerly, dragging Casper and Cadmus to the entrance of the tent. Cadmus had to double back and retrieve his golden egg and Nimbus. At the end of the enclosure was the panel of judges: Igor Karkaroff, his mother, Albus Dumbledore, Ludo Bagman, and Mr. Crouch.

Dumbledore started it off by raising his wand and, a ribbon formed the number 8. Not bad. Mr. Crouch followed suit and shot out the number 9, the creed cheered and hollered louder. His mother shot out the number 9 as well. Then Karkaroff raised his wand. He paused for a moment before a number shot out of his wand. 5.

"What?" Jacob bellowed furiously, shaking an angry hand at the Durmstrang Headmaster. "Five? Why, you lousy biased scumbag, you gave Krum ten when he was the most fatally injured one of the lot!" A hundred other people in the stands voiced their outrage as well yelling angry curse words at the Durmstrang Headmaster. It was clear he was playing favorites. Even Dumbledore seemed dumbfounded at the score his old friend Igor gave on a flawless performance. Bagman rectified the situation by giving the first ten of the task which made Cadmus feel quite proud.

"You're in first place, Cadmus! Way ahead of the others!" Daphne exclaimed joyously, jumping up and down in excitement. It turned out that Krum came close at second place, Cedric at third and Jamie Potter lagging at fourth. Bagman came back with a smile on his face and informed them that the next task will be taking place on the morning of February 24th and that the clue was inside the egg.

After that, they all headed back to the castle. Cadmus had a whole exodus of students chanting his name after him. They threw an extravagant celebration in the Harvard Tower later that lasted until midnight. Feeling elated, Cadmus found himself falling into a great sleep dreaming of his performance and looking forward to the other two tasks.

A/N: Wow. This chapter took more time and effort than I thought it would. Ok, ok, if some of you are mad at me for not showing some blackmail scenes, I'm so sorry. It's just this chapter is too long and I was afraid it would be too much. Alright, so I changed the dragon selection and order around, hope you don't mind. But the most important question of the chapter is what you guys think of Cadmus' performance. Did I make him too overpowered or too weak? Or just right? Somnium Maxima is a spell I 'invented.' Somnium meaning dream in Latin. I thought that Cadmus using this spell shows that even though he is powerful and harsh in his spells and dueling, he still has a soft heart and hates to see innocent people/animals hurt. At least that was my plan for that. So Jamie doesn't tell Cedric what the first task is, where's the Hufflepuff loyalty in that? Hopefully, he can redeem himself. Urgh, I just realized that I haven't touched upon the Weighing of the Wands and the whole picture thing before the tournament. Well, I kind of did but it was subtle. Will you forgive me if I start including that in the later chapters? Please just pretend it happened and I'll continue off that. Thanks.

Well, today's Friday, yay! I am a huge baseball fan so I'm excited for Opening Day today. I'll be watching religiously from today to the last day of the postseason. That's how devoted I am to watching baseball. JK I'm not that devoted but I'll always watch baseball if I can. If you want, you can guess my favorite baseball team. What sports do you guys watch? If yes, what team? As always, please review, favorite, follow, share, and all that goodie! ;)

Stay safe and happy,

mintloveme523