Chapter 333: The First Task (2 in 1)

Chapter 333: The First Task (2 in 1)

The five days passed quickly.

During this time Jon stayed in the wagon, and even when he got off it, he only wandered around the area near the Black Lake, which made the Aurors, who were always at the entrance to the castle and who were always watching him at the first sign of sight, relax their guard a little.

In the meantime, there was no news from Lyon, which Jon had been expecting, and this caused him some disappointment.

However, it hadn't been in his plans to use Animagus as a significant means of performing the tasks, so although there was a disappointment, it didn't put much mental pressure on him.

And just under two days before the start of the first tournament task, the entire sky over Hogwarts Castle was overshadowed by the dark shadows of a dozen behemoths in the afternoon of that day.

The Thestrals relaxing on the lawn flicked their tails restlessly, and in the forbidden forest, countless flocks of birds rose into the sky and flew off into the distance with a "clatter".

Many students in the wagon were startled by the commotion outside, they stepped out of the wagon and looked up to see the dozen or so dragons flying in the sky!

Dragons, XXXXX-level Magical Creatures, are considered to be at the top of the force among many Magical Creatures.

These creatures are not common and are even on the verge of extinction, apart from the fact that there is human encroachment on nature that has compressed their living space, it is mainly because each dragon is a huge treasure trove in itself.

Dumbledore had worked with Nicolas Flamel to discover twelve uses of dragon's blood; dragon's hide has an excellent defence against magic, dragon's eyes are a necessary magical material for certain alchemical items, and even the nerves and heartstrings of dragons can be used to make wand cores.

There was no way for wizards to leave the valuable materials available in dragons alone; because of this and the reality of the impending extinction of the dragon species led to the creation of a Dragon Sanctuary and the professions of Dragonologist and Dragon Trainer.

The International Confederation of Wizards has set up an organisation specifically for this purpose, to safeguard the continued existence of dragons so that they can continue to contribute to the development of wizards, and one of the European dragon sanctuaries was set up in Romania.

When he was travelling in France some time ago, Jon had heard some of Ron's brothers talking about it, and it seemed like a lot of the dragons in the Romanian sanctuary had been bought out.

Looking up at the dragons that blanketed the entire Hogwarts castle, and the dragon trainers on their backs who controlled them as they began to hover over the Forbidden Forest and eventually landed with a bang, Jon realised what the purpose of all those bought-out dragons would be.

George looked up at the sky dumbfounded, for the first time in his life, he had seen real live dragons, not to mention so many at once.

All around him both the Hogwarts wagon and the Durmstrang students matched his performance, after all, the sight of that many huge creatures appearing together was truly mind-blowing.

Diane subconsciously swallowed, and it could be discerned that she was doing her best to maintain the calmness in her voice.

"Our first task isn't going to be a fight to the death with these dragons, is it?"

While it might be easy for an entire community of wizards to target and hunt dragons because of their large target range and their solitary nature, that was only if more than two wizards were working together.

Dragon hide is extremely resistant to magical spells, far more so than the basilisk, and because they are extremely powerful and can spit out magic-infused dragon breath, individual wizards have no countermeasures against them other than running for their lives.

Even if a dark wizard used a killing curse, the extremely high resistance to magic would not cause them to die instantly, or at least the 'will' to kill would have to be strong enough to make the killing curse kill it immediately.

If the four students participating in the tournament truly had to fight these dragons separately, then even Jon would be charred to a crisp given how restricted the venue would be.

It was for this reason that Jon did not think that the judges would set up such a task that no one would be able to complete.

He looked towards the forbidden forest into which the dragons had descended and said softly.

"I would rather say it's more like they want us to do a wilderness survival in the forbidden forest than to kill or defeat a dragon."

Jon's thoughts were confirmed two days later.

The news of a dozen dragons flying into the Forbidden Forest reached the ears of every student in the four schools in the span of two days.

It made them feel more thrilled with excitement, as well as a small disappointment.

If the venue for the tournament would be in the Forbidden Forest, they would certainly not have the opportunity to watch the whole thing as spectators.

"I don't know, but I don't think so."

The Arab diplomat, clearly sceptical of Emil's words, picked up the orb and tapped his wand on it, and then the whole thing lit up with a pale blue light.

He looked at Emil meaningfully.

"It doesn't look like you know much about it, Mr Lestrange, do you need us to hold it for you, or will you nominate a custodian?"

Emil's face showed little embarrassment as he looked over at Lucius, who was standing over in the crowd.

Lucius coughed lightly, then stepped forward and took the orb from the Arab diplomat.

"This thing, let's leave it with me temporarily for now, I'll give it to him after the tournament is over."

At this, the three judges looked at each other as if they had nothing against it.

Then they went back to Diane and picked up a bracelet from the table, one that looked like it was made of metal, with a silver crest at the top and no distinguishing features on the surface.

"This is the family crest of the Rosier family, it has no magic attached to it other than a symbol of status and honour."

It was not Diane who opened her mouth to speak, but Vinda Rosier, who was standing beside Dumbledore.

Matthew nodded approvingly while still holding the bracelet up to do some testing, and after making sure she wasn't lying, he returned it to Diane's hand.

Next came Draco, who didn't carry anything other than a wand, which saved the judges some effort.

Finally, it was Jon's turn.

On his table lay a strange pendant with a ring set with three blue diamond-shaped gems, and a very badly worn wooden token dangling from a red cord.

"These are?"

Matthew picked up the string of pendants in front of Jon.

"The wooden tag was a gift from a friend of mine, and the ring was left by my family."

Jon said calmly.

"They're both ordinary things."

Matthew took one look at the wooden tag before losing interest, it was hard to fake, there really weren't any magical properties on it, and he focused directly on the ring.

There were quite a few alchemical items of this form (gem) in the magical world in various shapes and sizes, and he couldn't see anything odd about it just by looking at it with the naked eye, so instead he simply raised his wand and flicked it over the ring.

Nothing happened, it was as if the ring was just a muggle product.

Eventually, Matthew handed the pendant back to Jon, and after he took it back without moving a muscle, Jon quietly relaxed in his mind.

The ring would be as indistinguishable from a stone on the side of the road to anyone whose 'will' was not up to scratch, and as Slughorn had said when he handed it to Jon at the beginning, there might not be anyone else in the entire magical world who could use it, except Jon.

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