Emily and I joined Ron in the Entrance Hall around midnight. Once Ron told me we were going down to Hagrid's to see the Dragons, he turned to Emily.
"I didn't know you would be coming with us." He said to her seeming excited.
"Well Alice asked me, and I told her I'd leave if you wanted to be alone…"
"Have you ever seen a dragon before?" He asked Emily, interrupting her. He smiled when she shook her head. "Well then if you stay here, you'd only be missing out!" Emily smiled back at him as I threw the Invisibility cloak over the three of us. There was just enough fabric to cover us completely if Ron or I were any taller out feet would have shown at the bottom.
"Lead the way Ron." I whispered. The grounds were very dark. The only light came from far off at Hagrid's cabin. Stumbling a bit in the dark, we slowly made our way to the Cabin. Listening for a few seconds first, I rapped lightly on Hagrid's door.
"Ron? Alice? You there?" Hagrid whispered, opening the door and looking around.
"Yes, we brought Emily along too." Hagrid held the door open wide so the three of us could slip inside the cabin. Once we were well inside Hagrid shut his door, and Ron slid the cloak off our heads with a gentle tug.
"Got summat ter show yeh," Hagrid looked to me. There was something differnet about Hagrid that night. He was wearing a flower that resembled an oversized artichoke in his buttonhole. It looked as though he had attempted to comb his hair some of the comb's broken teeth were still tangled in it.
"Ron said it's Dragons. You must be really excited! Where are they?" I asked knowing they had to be hidden somewhere students wouldn't stumble upon them.
"Come with me, keep quiet, an' keep yerselves covered with that cloak,"Hagrid instructed stricktly. It then occurred to me that Hagrid could get in a lot of trouble for showing me the dragons. He was giving me an unfair advantage. Not just against Fleur and Krum, but against Cedric too. Without another word he was opening the cabin door and striding off into the night. Our small cluster hurried to follow after him. I was surprised to discoverer Hagrid was leading us to the Beauxbatons carriage.
"Hagrid, what -?" Ron started to ask.
"Shhh!" said Hagrid, and he knocked three times on the carriage door. Madame Maxime opened it. She was wearing a silk shawl wrapped around her massive shoulders. She smiled when she saw Hagrid.
"Ah, 'Agrid...it is time?"
"Bong-sewer," Hagrid said, beaming at her. Still smiling he helped Madame Maxime down the carriage's golden steps. Madame Maxime closed the door behind her, Hagrid offered her his arm, and they began to walked off.
"I think they're on a date." Emily whispered as we followed slowly behind Hagrid and Madame Maxime.
"Only Hagrid." Ron mumbled as we tried to keep pace with the two. It was difficult trying to keep all three of us under the cloak while trying to stay close to Hagrid and Madame Maxime. Apparently the trek was tiresome for Madame Maxime toobecause after a while she asked Hagrid where he was taking her.
"Yeh'll enjoy this," He answered gruffly, "worth seein', trust me. On'y - don' go tellin' anyone I showed yeh, right? Yeh're not s'posed ter know."
"Of course not," Madame Maxime promised, fluttering her long black eyelashes. We continued walking and I worred that soon Ron and I would have to carry Emily because it was become increasingly difficult for her short legs to navigate the thick forest. Just when I was sure we could go any farther I heard something a short distance away. Men were shouting up ahead, then came a deafening, earsplitting roar. Hagrid led Madame Maxime to a small opening in the tree line. Emily, Ron and I dared to step up to Hagrid's side. If we hadn't known any better, I would have guessed the men were darting around a series of bonfires. Unfortunately we did know better, and I was staring at a real life dragon. Four fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing onto their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood, roaring and snorting. Fire was shooting into the dark sky from their open, fanged mouths, fifty feet above the ground. There was a silvery-blue one with long, pointed horns, snapping and snarling at the wizards on the ground; a smooth-scaled green one, which was writhing and stamping with all its might; a red one with an odd fringe of fine gold spikes around its face, which was shooting mushroom-shaped fire clouds into the air; and a gigantic black one, more lizard-hike than the others.
There were about thirty wizards trying to control the dragons, pulling on the chains connected to heavy leather straps around their necks and legs. There was to do but stare up at them. Every dragon had the same vertical pupils like a cat's, bulging with either fear or rage. Whichever it was caused the creatures to let out some variation variation of the same yowling, screeching scream.
"Keep back there, Hagrid!" a young red-headed wizard near the fence. He was obviously straining to keep a grip on the chain in his hands. "They can shoot fire at a range of twenty feet, you know! I've seen this Horntail do forty!"
"That's Charlie!" Ron said low enough that only Emily and I could hear. Of course once he said it I recognized Charlie from our brief meeting during the World Cup that summer.
"Is'n' it beautiful?"Hagrid sighed, mezmorized.
"It's no good!" yelled another wizard. "Stunning Spells, on the count of three!" We watching in silence as each dragon keeper pulled out their wand. In unison they called out the stunning spell shooting showers of stars at the dragons' scaly hides. The dragon nearest to us teetered dangerously on its back legs; its jaws stretched wide in a silent howl; its nostrils were suddenly flameless, though still smoking. Very slowly, it fell. Several tons of scaly-black dragon hit the ground with a thud causing the trees around us to shake. The dragon keepers lowered their wands and hurried to tighten the chains. They then secured the chains to large iron pegs that had been driven deep into the ground.
"Wan' a closer look?" Hagrid asked Madame Maxime excitedly. The pair of them moved right up to the fence. Reluctantly I followed I noticed that Ron and Emily didn't seem keen on the idea of moving any closer either. Charlie Weasley approached Hagrid once he had the green Dragon secured.
"All right, Hagrid?" he panted, coming over to talk. "They should be okay now - we put them out with a Sleeping Draft on the way here, thought it might be better for them to wake up in the dark and the quiet but, like you saw, they weren't happy, not happy at all -"
"What breeds you got here, Charlie?"Hagrid said, glancing over at the closest dragon.
"This is a Hungarian Horntail," said Charlie indicating the black dragon behind him. "There's a Common the smaller one's a Welsh Green over there. That blue-gray is a Swedish Short-Snout, and a Chinese Fireball, that's the red." Once Charlie explained the breed of dragon Madame Maxime began strolling around the edge of the enclosure, gazing at the dragons.
"I didn't know you were bringing her, Hagrid," Charlie said, frowning. In a way he was almost scolding him "The champions aren't supposed to know what's coming - she's bound to tell her student, isn't she?"
"Jus' thought she'd like ter see 'em," Hagrid shrugged, as he continued to gawk at the dragons with awe.
"Really romantic date, Hagrid," Charlie said sharing his brother's sentiments from earlier.
"Four..."Hagrid said impressed, "so it's one fer each o' the champions, is it? What've they gotta do? Fight 'em?"
"Just get past them, I think," Charlie answered. "We'll be on hand if it gets nasty, Extinguishing Spells at the ready. They wanted nesting mothers, I don't know why...but I tell you this, I don't envy the one who gets the Horntail. Vicious thing, It's back end's as dangerous as its front, look." When Charlie pointed toward the Horntail's tail, I saw long, bronze-colored spikes protruding along it every few inches. My first instinct was to silently play that It wasn't mean stuck with that thing.
"How's Alice doing? From what Ron said she's having a tough time with all this." Charlie asked.
"She's fine," Hagrid replied. It was obvious he was distracted by the collection of dragon eggs that the dragon keepers were returning to their mothers.
"I've had them counted Hagrid." Charlie warned, breaking Hagrid from his trance. "Just hope she's still fine after she's faces this lot," said Charlie grimly, looking out over the dragons' enclosure. "I didn't dare tell Mum what they've got to do for the first task. She's already in an uproar about it." Charlie then imitated his mother's anxious voice. "'How could they let him enter that tournament, he's much too young! I thought they were all safe, I thought there was going to be an age limit!''" I could gape up at the dragons any longer. I had read about dragons hundreds of times, but nothing prepared you for meeting one face to face.
"Can we go now?" as asked to Ron and Emily, who each agreed it was time to leave. Knowing Hagrid and Madame Maxime would not miss us, we silently turned away and made our way out of the forest.
"Mind if you stop one more place fir-" Ron began to ask before I voice called through the night.
Harry sped up, skirting the edge of the forest; he had just under fifteen minutes to get back to the fireside and talk to Sirius, and he couldn't remember, ever, wanting to talk to someone more than he did right now - when, without warning, he ran into something very solid.
"Who's there?" It was Karkaroff. He was looking around very suspiciously in the darkness. We had no choice but to remain remained still and silent. After a minute or so Karkaroff must have assumed he'd just heard an animal of sorts. He sketched away, heading in the direction where we had just came.
"He's gone looking for information about the first task." I told Emily and Ron once Karkaroff was well away from us.
"I'm sure he'll find Hagrid and Madame Maxime, not problem. They aren't exactly difficult to spot are they?"
"That'll make Cedric the only one who doesn't know the first task." Emily pointed out as Ron led us up to the castle. Ron mumbled something Cedric deserving the disadvantage as we slipped into the Entrance Hall undetected.
"Where did you say you wanted to stop Ron?" I asked trying to shake the Tournamet a moment.
"Would you mind coming to the Gryffindor Common Room with me?" Ron asked.
"Wont we get in trouble?" Emily asked biting her lip.
"Come on Em, I'm a Potter, troubles my middle name" I gently nudged her with my elbow. You're you're the one who said you wanted to come on more adventures…"
"You're really going to make me regret saying that aren't you?" She said before agreeing to come along. Emily and I waited under the invisibility cloak while Ron spoke the Gryffindor password sneaking us inside the Fat Lady portrait.