Author: Muduoduomu

The original story page: http/onebook.php?novelid=3415654

Chapter 33. Partner's better than idol

No on knew what the first task was.

Everybody wanted to know!

At noon on Thursday, Hermione didn't leave immediately as she usually did after lunch, but waited for Della to finish.

Della noticed and asked, "want to borrow my lipstick?" Most of her money was spent on lipsticks, in the past six months, she had bought 26.

Hermione shook her head, took a deep breath and asked her in a very low voice, "do you want to know the first task?"

Della's eyes widened.

"Who told you that?" Della asked, complicatedly.

Hermione didn't want to withhold from her. Maybe they didn't have such a close relationship in grade one or two, but since this year, she and Della had become inseparable friends — she was the only good friend who knew she and Harry were in love but didn't gossip.

Others thought that she fell in love with Harry for his reputation or something, which made her angry.

While Della never thought about it.

It made Hermione like her more than she could.

Harry agreed to tell Della, "it's nothing to keep secret. I mean, sooner or later, they'll know. On the day of the competition, it's not a secret. In a week at most, everyone knows."

Hermione explained the whole thing in a long sentence: "Hagrid, he's a gamekeeper, told me, Harry and Ron last week and he took us to see it. It's a dragon!"

Della tried to be surprised. "Wow!"

Then she went to class.

After class, Fred unexpectedly waited for her at the door of the Divination classroom. As soon as he saw her, he took her away. Katie had only time to shout to her with "see you at dinner!"

She waved her hand and ran away with Fred.

Fred pulled her out of the castle. The cold wind rushed at her face, mingled with snow. She narrowed her eyes, tucked her neck into the collar, shivering as she followed him.

"I forgot to ask you to put on your cloak." Fred took off his scarf and wrapped around her, then he covered Della in his cloak. They walked together.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

In the distance, the dark clouds were low on the sky, floating like a wool hat over the Forbidden Forest, sparked with lightning inside.

They're going to the Forbidden Forest.

Fred put an arm around her shoulder, held her tightly in his arms, and said in her ears, "Charlie arrived. Didn't you want to know the first task?" He winked at her.

She had known it!

But she couldn't tear herself away from his arms, so she pretended she didn't know.

She wanted to be smart to surprise him: "I remember Charlie works with dragons in Romania… Is it the first task?" She pretended to be shocked.

"Oh, yes." Fred sounded surprised, but he immediately realized that Della was bright. "Yes, Honey, it's the dragon! Several of them! Charlie said they were all broody mothers. We can't get close, we can only stand far away to look!"

Della had never seen a dragon.

She's getting excited!

Hand in hand, she and Fred ran to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, carefully taking a detour from Professor Hagrid's hut and entering.

There were very thick fallen leaves on the Forbidden Forest, some of them were rotten and covered with dew and snow. One step down, like stepping on a thick carpet.

Strangely enough, the Forbidden Forest was a little warmer than outside.

Maybe they're hot for running.

Fred held her along the way as he said, "Charlie told us yesterday. Fortunately, Percy was not here, otherwise he must have something to say. George and I have seen it. Charlie won't let us get close watching, for the reason that they were very fierce when nestling… Here we are, just stand here, you can see a little bit."

They had reached deeper into the forest, and in front of it was a valley, the forest became sparse with the sky visible.

Fred helped her climb up a fallen tree, he also shinned up: "This was made by the dragons. As soon as their tails swept, several trees fell… Look!"

From the valley ahead, a long and overwhelming roar of dragons resounded through the sky. A platinum pillar of fire wrapped in lightning shot into the sky. Several wizards, as small as flies, were flying on broomsticks around the dragon, casting incantations. A long, barbed tail swung lazily in the air, almost hit a wizard, fortunately, he dodged, for his good skill.

They stood there until they were frozen. Fred helped her down and said, "we should go back. Getting dark now. It's one week before the first task, we'll see those dragons at that time." He added complicatedly, "Although I don't like Cedric and Viktor, but… I begin to feel sorry for them."

Della got into his cloak. "Maybe not necessary. They're both good at riding." Like those dragon keepers, a good riding gave them an advantage over others.

Fred was not upset then. He said in disappointment, "it makes sense. Lucky for them."

In a flash, it was the day of the competition.

All the people swarmed to the valley, sitting in the stands. There were several dragons lying in the valley, in different nests, far apart, with the dragon keepers nearby.

"Dragon! It's dragons!"

"Blimey!"

The content of the competition was that the champion should collect the golden egg from these brooding dragons, which mixed with the real eggs.

It's like sending the champions to death.

Everyone exclaimed, in white- faced, some of the girls in Hufflepuff began to cry. The wizard stood beside the dragon like a fly, they could easily be trampled to death.

Hermione took a contemptuous look at the weeping Hufflepuff, who had been unfriendly to Harry.

She turned and whispered to Della, "I told Cedric about it."

Della: "…" She did it, too. No wonder he looked so strange when she told Cedric with no one else around. Of course, he sincerely thanked her.

Hermione, who had always been very disciplined, shrugged uneasily: "Well… for the sake of friendship."

But now, when she saw these dragons in the daytime, her face also turned pale: "it's really… cruel…" Seeing the contrast between the dragon and the wizard, no one would consider it was an easy game.

Della hesitated and said, "maybe… it will be all right." Because she also told him the secret of using a broomstick.

She said the dragon keepers rode broomsticks.

She hoped Cedric would be safe.

The game was settled by lots. Cedric came first.

Fred sighed: "What bad luck he has! The first one usually got a low mark."

Cedric did a good job. He turned a stone into a Newfoundland terrier. The dog yelled at the dragon, circled under its feet, and ran away. Then the silvery-blue Swedish Shout-Snout ran after it. Cedric took the opportunity to collect the golden eggs on his broomstick, in a perfect way.

The French witch, Fleur Delacour, managed to use the Stunning Spell. Apart from being burned by the flame shot out from the Welsh Green when snored, she succeeded.

The dragon Viktor Krum had to face was a Chinese Fireball.

Della thought the it was a bit like some kind of monster in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas".

She couldn't help standing at the front, holding her hands tightly, breathlessly.

Of course, she I tried to tell Viktor. But she had no idea whether he believed it or not, or maybe he didn't understand.

…Since Viktor did not speak English!

Hermione was a genius, she was right again.

She found him in the library. In order to tell him the secret, she walked around the lake of Forbidden Forest for hundreds of times without seeing him. It was Hermione who told her she and Harry met Viktor when they were in the library.

Hermione was unhappy, "a lot of girls were always around him, noisy, they disturbed others!"

Della had to change the way and go to the library to kill time.

She also solved some tardy homework by the way, upon a single cast.

She finally found a chance to corner Viktor, but she was too nervous to be stammered. Fortunately, he was gentle. Although he didn't smile very much, serious and indifferent, but he stood there waiting for her to finish and sign for her.

She whispered to him about the dragon and reminded him to use a broomstick. While he had been frowning at her, she was not sure if he thought it's not good, or didn't understand.

She even got sweating when he finally replied a vague "thank you", which sounded like "thunk".

In a word…, well…

After Krum entered the enclosure, Della had been nervous and kept screaming. She was leaning out of the railing, looked like she would fall down.

Fred had to stand by and hold her in case she was really pushed out.

Fortunately, everything went well.

Krum hit the eyes of the dragon with some sort of spell, and stole the egg on a broomstick when it couldn't see. Only thing was, it went trampling around in painful and squashed the real eggs.

Della suddenly felt uncomfortable. Cedric and Fleur Delacour before him didn't hurt the dragon. Although it's very powerful, it was not voluntary to be sent here. It was the wizards who forced them all the way here, besides, they used the instinct of the broody mothers to make the competition more difficult.

She started to regret that she had told Krum the content of the game before he could think of hitting the dragon with a curse.

All three champions had been on the field, there came to the marks from the judges. Fred took Della back to his seat, looked at her depression, he comforted her and said, "are you ok? Viktor did not bad, I don't think his mark is low."

Della shook her head, trying to relieve herself from the guilty, but failed. She looked around and whispered to Fred what was on her mind.

"No, of course it's not your fault, honey." Fred immediately held his heart and seemed in great pain: "Cedric knows and he didn't go too far. It's the matter of the character. Durmstrang has always been good at the dark arts, and the people are like him." He whispered to her, "their headmaster, that Karkaroff, my dad said he had been accused of being a Death Eater, you know, follower of the Dark Lord."

Something flashed in Della's mind, but she didn't catch it.

She froze and tried to remember, while Fred thought she was still sad. He held on to quiet a lot hated towards "Viktor" as comforted her, "don't worry, honey. Dragons are very strong, they will be recovered soon."

All of a sudden, she felt the glow of Krum was gone.

Della fell into another round of depression.

At the celebration party, she sat on one side, gloomy.

Hermione came with her.

"So, you also told Viktor?" Hermione shook her head.

"Krum." Della gave her a white eye and groaned, "don't laugh at me. I think my first two weeks was stupid!" How come she be so crazy for someone who didn't say a few words to?

Hermione consoled her, "don't mind. He's a star. There are still a lot of who don't wake up." She motioned her to see Lavender on the other side.

Della heaved a sigh, "yes."

In order to celebrate the highest mark of Cedric, a party was held in the Gryffindor common room.

It's hosted by Fred and George.

They brought a lot food from the kitchen.

"The elves are very enthusiastic." Fred said, "we just wanted a little biscuit cake, and they gave us so much!"

Hermione was stunned: "Elf? You mean elves like Kreacher of the Black? Are they also here?"

Fred: "Hogwarts is the oldest castle in England, of course there are elves. Maybe it's the most the Britain."

"Where are they?" Hermione asked in an innocently casual way. George: "In the kitchen."

"Where is the kitchen?" Hermione kept on.

Fred: "On the first floor, a picture of a fruit bowl with a door behind it — want a jam tart?" Hermione took one out of courtesy.

Della also reached for one, she was a little hungry.

Fred quickly took back the plate. "No, honey!"

Della and Hermione quickly exchanged a look.

—No wonder they were having a party today.

Della got interested. "What's this?" She walked to him and took a biscuit.

Fred couldn't hide from her, he noticed Della was depressed, but now, at least she was laughing, which made him not want to turn her down.

"It's our new product." He said, "we have to develop new products and get the money back."

Before his voice dropped, Neville, opposite, suddenly turned into a huge canary!

All the people around exclaimed and avoided him.

In less than a minute, Neville reappeared, joined in laughing — for the first time, he was not only the focus of the crowd, but also so many people were kindly laughing at him.

"Canary Creams!" George shouted to the crowd.

"—To have fun at your party and feast! Only seven Sickles each." Fred added.

Della looked at the cream in her hand and took a bite. The taste was as same as the normal biscuit, with milk, crispy and not drop.

Less than a minute, after she finished the biscuit, she felt the hot come from body inside, like blowing the whole person into a hot-air balloon.

"Ah…" She exclaimed, reaching out to Fred, but the next second, her vision became lower, and she had never seen the world so clearly. It's said that bird's vision was 270 degrees. She could see the people behind her, even the fluff and every eyelash on Fred's face.

As well as every expression of him.

He was too frightened to threw the silver plate and rushed to her with "No".

But she became a bird.

A minute later, she came back.

The sudden change back made her a little unstable, her sight narrowed again, which relieve her a lot: It's so scared to see the world clearly.

While she was, at the same time, a little disappointed. It would be great if she become a bird.

Fred held her and checked her nervously, "Della, you're all right, aren't you?"

There was laughter all around, people were waiting for her angry.

She burst into laughter, took all the money out of her pocket and gave it to Fred: "I want to buy your creams! It's funny!"

Fred froze for a moment, then grinned to the root of his ear, "you like it? Really?"

The few remaining biscuit in the plate was quickly snatched away, and the canary, as tall as man in Gryffindor's common room, kept appearing, accomplishing laughters.

Many people liked this Canary Creams. Even girls were willing to buy some to have fun. It would be Christmas soon, it's also good to send it as a Christmas gift.

George and Fred got a big order.

Looking at their ecstasy, Della thought it was a good day. She lost an idol, but had a better partner.