I found Emily, Harry, Ron, and Hermione and the entrance to the castle standing with Fred, George, and Ginny. The group seemed to be comparing the four champions against each other.
"You know what? I reckon you could win this tournament, Alice." Ron said as everyone nodded in agreement.
"I don't know guys." I shook my head. "It's only the first task. I'm just glad I'm alive."
"You were brilliant out there!" Fred exclaimed.
"Diggory didn't think of flying did he?" George pointed out.
"Neither did dumb Krum." Ginny added in. As always Hermione shared her serious concern.
"Alice's got a long way to go before she finishes this tournament. If that was the first task, I hate to think what's coming next."
"Right little ray of sunshine, aren't you?" Ron asked. "You and Professor Trelawney should get together sometime." Emily giggled, possibly recurring Trelawney's most recent of a long line of death predictions.
"Well I'm just trying to be realistic." Hermione grumbled.
"Thanks everyone. If it's all the same to you, I'm going up to the owlry. I want to tell Remus about the first task." I excused myself from the small group, but only after agreeing to meet up with them again in an unused charms classroom. We all ventured off in separate directions, and I could only assume they were planning some sort of victory celebration. Since Fred and George were involved this probably was an accurate assumption. I did write to Remus about the first task, I also tried to hint around to what Sirius had said about Karkaroff, hoping maybe Remus would have a better idea about what he was capable of. Moments later I met Fred, George, Ron, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Emily in the small charms classroom. Where, as I guessed, they had planned a small party.
"This is awful heavy," Emily said as she picked up to golden egg from the table. "What's inside Alice? Can you open it and show us?"
"Emily you know she's supposed to work out the clues on her own. It's in the tournament rules..." Hermione scolded.
"I was supposed to work out how to get past the dragon on my own too." I reminded her.
"Go on, Alice, open it!" Harry encouraged. Emily passed the egg to me and I looked down at it blankly. It took me several minutes to figure out how to open the tightly sealed golden egg. I was disappointed to discover the inside of the egg was hollow and completely empty. Even worse was that the moment I opened it, the most horrible noise, a loud and screechy wailing, filled the room.
"Shut it!" Ginny bellowed with her hands over his ears. I slammed it shut as fast as I could.
"What was that?" Fred asked staring at the egg. "Sounded like a banshee...Maybe you've got to get past one of those next!"
"I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing...maybe you've got to attack him while he's in the shower." George suggested.
"I've got plenty of time to figure it out. For now, let's just enjoy the fact that I've made it this far alright?" It was nice, our small group tucked away in an abandoned classroom. We stayed up late into the night just enjoying each other's company. After a while I began to wonder if my parents and their friends had ever snuck food from the kitchen and hid in an old classroom. From the way Severus and Remus talked about their school days, I was certain they had stayed out past curfew at least once. It was nearly one in the morning when Emily and I sleepily made our way down to the Slytherin Dormitory. As I readied myself for bed, I removed the model horntail from my pocket and placed it on the side-table near my bed. The Hungarian Horntail yawned, curled up, and closed its eyes. Thinking suddenly of Hagrid, I couldn't help but think that maybe, Dragons weren't so bad.