Hermione hurried over to where Neville was sitting. She had a pile of various books in her arms. "I've been doing some reading," she announced sliding into the seat next to him. She had offered to help Neville prepare for the Triwizard tournament a couple of days ago and he had agreed.
"Thanks for helping me," Neville said. "To be honest, I was a bit unsure—they didn't even tell us what the task is. It could be anything."
"Well, I've been reading about that," Hermione said, grabbing one of the books. "This is the records of every single Triwizard Tournament."
"Cool," Neville said, flicking through it.
"The events, the winners and how they won," Hermione continued. "So, what I found out was that 83 percent of all tournaments feature something including magical beasts and monsters—fighting them, getting past them, getting through a maze full of them, getting an object they are guarding. That sort of thing."
"Ok," said Neville.
"And 77 percent of all tournaments feature magical beasts as their first task. So it seems very likely you'll be facing a beast or monster of some sort," Hermione continued.
"Lucky we had Lupin last year," Neville said, thinking of the Boggarts and Hinkypunks and Redcaps that Lupin had showed them.
"Well, I think it'll be something tougher than what Lupin taught us," Hermione said, thoughtfully. "The tournament is aimed at students at or close to NEWT level. So, I think we're looking at Class 4 or Class 5 creatures."
"Wait, what do you mean by class 4 or 5?"
"The Ministry classifies beasts out of 5, depending on how dangerous they are. One is and two are pretty harmless like gnomes and grindylows …"
"I'd say Grindylows are more dangerous than gnomes, gnomes can only give you a nip—but Lupin said if a grindylow got you unawares and you couldn't break its fingers …" Neville said.
"It's not an ideal system," Hermione admitted. "But its what the Ministry relies on. Anything under Class Four is far too simple. In the past, champions faced things like manticores and banshees and acromantula."
Neville pursed his lips, suddenly regretting his promise to win the tournament. He had seen a manticore in Hagrid's class and didn't relish the possibility of having to fight one. His gran had told him all about banshees too—they definitely sounded like bad news.
"Ok," Neville said, after a few seconds thought. "So, what do you think it'll be?"
"We can rule out things like merpeople and centaurs, I think. There's no way they would agree to be used as a monster to face in the Triwizard Tournament from what I have read about them—too proud. Here's a list of all the Class 4 and Class 5 creatures." She handed over a sheet of parchment.
Neville's eyes widened as he read the list. He didn't know every creature on there, but he knew enough of them—lethifolds, dragons, trolls, manticores, chimaeras, Nundus—to suddenly feel like this tournament was going to be a nightmare.
"And some I think are too dangerous. It would be beyond stupid to bring a Nundu into the country. It takes over 100 wizards to subdue one."
Neville's eyes buldged. 100 wizards!
"And some are too rare, like Lethifolds. Though, a dementor is possible—they are all under Ministry control, so dementors could easily be brought in."
Neville felt his heart drop a bit, regretting even more his promise to win the tournament. He hated dementors.
"Anyway, what I think we need to do is look at each of the possibilities and try to find one tactic which may work on them all. I don't think we can prepare individually for everything. But perhaps together we can find a way which might work no matter what we face—and we should practice some general purpose spells, too. Stunners, impedimenta, shield charms."
Neville nodded, feeling much more nervous now than he had done when he made that ludicrous promise to Dudley Dursley that he would win the tournament and show everyone who laughed at him that he wasn't useless.