First Task of the Triwizard Tournament



"The first task is designed to test your daring, so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard ... very important ..."

—[http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Bartemius_Crouch_Sr. Bartemius Crouch Sr.][src]

The First Task
The First Task of the Triwizard Tournament was on the 24th November 1994. In the task the Champions would have to retrieve a Golden Egg, of which one of four Dragons was guarding. The Egg would contain clues of how to approach the Second Task.

Dragons
Four, nesting, female Dragons were transported to the grounds of Hogwarts by a team or Wizards - one Wizard included was Charlie Weasley. The four breeds of Dragon were: Chinese Fireball, Common Welsh Green, Hungarian Horntail and Swedish Short-Snout. Each Dragon was female, and also nesting so they would be protecting their own eggs aswell as the Golden Egg. The Dragons were kept in cages in the Forbidden Forest so they were unseen by students. However, Proffesor Moody tipped off Hagrid of the whereabouts of these Dragons. Hagrid took Madame Maxime to see the Dragons with Harry close by in his invisibility cloak. Igor Karkaroff saw them walking to the Forbidden Forest so he followed and also saw the Dragons. The Headmasters told their Champions and Harry saw them himself so the only one of the Four Champions who did not know of the contents of the First Task was Cedric Diggory. In a sportsmanship like manner Harry informed Cedric of the First Task. Each of the Four Champions now knew about the Dragons and had to prepare for the task.

Choosing of the Dragons
On the day of the First Task, all the Champions assembled in a tent. Each Champion dipped there hand inside a opaque bag and pulled out a minituare replica of a Dragon. The Beauxbatons Champion, Fluer Delacour, drew the Common Welsh Green. The Durmstang Champion, Victor Krum, drew the Chinese Fireball. The first Hogwarts Champion, Cedric Diggory, drew the Swedish Short-Snout. The second Hogwarts Champion, Harry Potter, unluckily drew the most aggresive of the four, the Hungarian Horntail.

The Task
Now all Four Champions had their chosen Dragon, they would face it in the arena. The arena was a circular stadium with stands all around, a drop, then a rocky ground where the Dragon was stationed. In the center was the Dragons own eggs and the Golden Egg. Cedric Diggory tackled the task first, against a Swedish Short-Snout. He used a Transfiguration spell to change a rock into a dog to distract the dragon. He was partially successful; the dragon took the bait, and Cedric went for the Golden egg. Halfway through, the dragon turned its attention back to Cedric, and burned his face. Cedric retrieved the egg, however, and passed the task. Second was Fleur Delacour, who faced a Common Welsh Green. She enchanted the dragon to sleep, but while retrieving the golden egg, the dragon snored and let out a jet of flame that set her skirt alight. She extinguished the flames, and retrieved her egg. Viktor Krum was third, facing a Chinese Fireball. He used the Conjunctivitis Curse to blind the dragon and retrieve his egg. However, he was docked points when the dragon stumbled around and smashed half of the real eggs. Harry Potter drew the fiercest of them all, the Hungarian Horntail. On the advice of Crouch Jr (disguised as Professor Moody), he used a Summoning Charm to bring his Firebolt broomstick to him, and manoeuvred past the dragon to retrieve his egg. After the First Task, Harry and Viktor were tied for first place, with Cedric in second, and Fleur in third. The champions were told that, the Golden egg they retrieved contained a clue on how to pass the Second Task. Without it, they had little chance of succeeding.