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Chapter 581: Cheating is a Tradition
🕑 Added 2019-09-01 01:13:49 +0000 UTCAt the sight of Charlie, Ron seemed to want to go out, but at last he resisted this urge.
Evan and Harry held him tight so that he could not rush out of his head or collapse in fear.
Ron was looking very bad now, and any unexpected situation could happen.
There were other dragon keepers around, they couldn’t be found, and the champions were not supposed to know about the task.
"All right, Hagrid?" Charlie panted. "They should be okay now. We put them out with a Sleeping Draft on the way here. We 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?" asked Hagrid, gazing at the closest dragon, the black one, with something close to reverence.
The black dragon's eyes were still just open, and a strip of gleaming yellow could be seen beneath its wrinkled black eyelid.
"This is a Hungarian Horntail," said Charlie. "There’s a Common Welsh Green over there, the smaller one … a Swedish Short-Snout, that blue-gray … and a Chinese Fireball, that’s the red."
Charlie looked around; Madame Maxime was strolling away around the edge of the enclosure, gazing at the stunned dragons.
"I didn't know you were bringing her, Hagrid," Charlie said, frowning. "The champions aren’t supposed to know what’s coming. She’s bound to tell her student, isn't she?" ”
"I just thought she’d like to see them," shrugged Hagrid, still gazing, enraptured, at the dragons.
"Really romantic date, Hagrid," sighed Charlie, shaking his head helplessly.
"A total of four..." said Hagrid, "So it’s one for each of the champions, is it? What have they got to do … fight them?"
"Just get past them, I think," said Charlie. "We’ll be on hand if it gets nasty, Extinguishing Spells and Stunning 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. Its back-end is as dangerous as its front, look!"
Charlie pointed toward the Horntail’s tail, and they saw long, bronze-colored spikes protruding along it every few inches.
Some of Charlie’s fellow keepers staggered up to the Horntail at that moment, carrying a clutch of huge granite-gray eggs between them in a blanket. They placed them carefully at the Horntail’s side.
Hagrid let out a moan of longing.
"I’ve got them counted, Hagrid," said Charlie sternly. Then he said, "How’s Ron?"
"Fine," said Hagrid, still gazing at the eggs.
"I mailed him two books on how to deal with a dragon, hoping he can speculate!" Charlie looked out grimly over the dragons’ enclosure, and said with concern, "Well, I just hope he’d come out fine after he’s faced this danger."
He shook his head and looked worried.
"You know Ron's ability. He can't deal with these dragons at all. There’s no chance!" said Charlie. "I'm ready to rush to protect him when he competes. I didn’t dare tell Mum what Ron’s got to do for the first task; She’s already having kittens about him..."
Charlie 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! God bless, how can Ron become a champion!’"
Mrs. Weasley's and Charlie's fears were well founded. Ron was now very pale and staring at the Hungarian Horntail with a silly gaze. His body kept trembling slightly and he was completely frightened.
He now had all his weight on Evan and Harry. Ron would have fallen if they hadn't supported him.
"Dad is happy about Ron becoming a champion and thinks it’s a good experience for him." Charlie continued. "I say it’s good for Ron to be a champion, but the difficulty of the task is too great. Now, it’s a dragon all of a sudden, I hope the poor guy won’t lie down after seeing the dragon.”
The four of them stared at the dragon again for a while. Evan gently patted Harry, Ron, and Hermione on the shoulder.
They didn’t need to stay any longer, and there was no point in staying here.
Charlie was still worried about Ron, and Hagrid's heart had been filled with the fascinating four dragons and Madame Maxime, and he would not miss them.
The four of them turned silently and began to walk away, back to the castle.
Along the way, no one spoke, after the initial fear passed, what took its place was deep despair.
Ron’s head was blank and he didn’t know how he could beat the dragon.
He could be sure that if he’d seen the dragons for the first time on Tuesday, he might faint on the spot in front of the whole class.
Although he was now prepared, things were not much better.
Facing those monsters, his weapon was only his wand!
His wand now felt like nothing more than a narrow strip of wood against a fifty-foot-high, scaly, spike-ridden, fire-breathing dragon!
And he had to get past it, with everyone watching.
This was really terrible. Ron had been thinking more than once now; if only he hadn't become a champion!
Although Sirius told him that he could deal with the dragon with the Conjunctivitis Curse, Ron was sure he couldn’t do it at all.
"Those dragons are completely beyond what I had imagined, the world..." said Harry.
Evan suddenly stopped Harry. He seemed to have heard something, as they were on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Because they had just seen the dragons, everyone was agitated and highly nervous.
At Evan’s sign, they stopped.
The next second, under the moonlight, they saw a sneaky figure appearing in the bush not far away.
It was Karkaroff, who carefully moved forward in the darkness and moved sideways toward the place where the dragons were.
After he completely disappeared, the four of them set off again to go to the castle.
They were very aware of what Karkaroff was going to do. He had sneaked off his ship to try and find out what the first task was going to be.
He might have spotted Hagrid and Madame Maxime heading off around the forest together; both were hardly difficult to spot at a distance. And now all Karkaroff had to do was to follow the source of the voices, and he, like Madame Maxime, would know what would be waiting for the champions.
By the looks of it, the only champion who would be facing the unknown on Tuesday was Cedric.
Obviously, cheating had always been a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament!
