Vid finished training and returned to the school from Hogsmeade. He knocked on the Disappearing Cabinet twice, and the door silently slid open, letting in light from outside.
But it was not Zoe, whom Vid had arranged to meet, who opened the door; it was Harry, who should have been sleeping in the Gryffindor dormitory.
"You're finally back!" Harry said hurriedly, not waiting for Vid to speak. "I've been waiting for you for over half an hour."
Vid closed the Disappearing Cabinet door with a reverse hand and asked, "What happened?"
Harry frowned, his knuckles pale from exertion, the hem of his robe was smeared with mud, and there was a cobweb in his hair.
"Fire Dragons!" Harry said, his face pale. "Tonight, Hagrid came looking for us; you weren't at school, so he took me to see what will appear in the first task... it's Fire Dragons!"
He said desperately, "We're doomed, Vid... I saw that even adult wizards need seven or eight people to barely control a Fire Dragon, and their nose flames can spray as far as forty feet!"
"Oh."
Vid said, casually using a Scouring Charm on Harry, finding him much more pleasing to the eye afterwards.
"Oh? Just an 'Oh'?" Harry said incredulously. "Vid, are you scared silly?"
"Harry, if you study the history of the Triwizard Tournament, you will know that Fire Dragons appearing in the tournament is not the first time; there have been creatures even more dangerous than Fire Dragons in the past."
Vid calmly walked to the table and sat down, casually taking a drink from the cabinet and handing it to Harry, signaling him to sit down as well.
Harry hesitated for a moment before asking, "What creatures are more powerful than Fire Dragons?"
"There are many, such as Nundu, which moves quickly and has poisonous breath. It's said that it takes at least a hundred wizards teaming up to subdue it. Isn't this kind of creature harder to deal with than a fire-breathing big lizard?"
Vid drank a few sips of hot water and said, "And then there are Chimera Beasts, also extremely dangerous. There's only one recorded instance of a wizard killing a Chimera Beast in history. And Fire Dragons? Most of them are now kept by humans for Magic Potion materials."
Harry shuddered, "There were Nundu and Chimera Beasts in previous tournaments? How did the Champions survive then?"
"Oh, there were no Chimera Beasts, but they did once use a young Nundu to test the Champions' abilities," Vid said lightly.
"Then what happened?" Harry asked concernedly.
Vid countered, "Do you remember why the Triwizard Tournament was discontinued?"
"Because... too many people died..." Harry muttered.
"That's right." Vid shrugged, saying, "By comparison, don't you think Fire Dragons are still acceptable?"
Harry: "..."
Isn't death a death regardless of how it happens?
He felt he hadn't been comforted; his life seemed even dimmer.
"I think I probably won't make it past Tuesday..." Harry muttered in depression. "The scales and thick skin of Fire Dragons are permeated with ancient magic, only the most powerful spells can penetrate them, and I don't think I can manage that."
"Overthinking it, do you think others have the ability to defeat Fire Dragons? This tournament is meant to test our abilities, not send us to our deaths."
Vid said, "I guess we'll probably need to get past the Fire Dragons' obstacle or obtain something from the Fire Dragons... In any case, there must be tricks to manage."
Vid, holding the script, remained calm and collected, a demeanor that evidently influenced Harry, even making him a bit embarrassed by his own fear.
"You're right, that's probably how it is... I want to go and ask Sirius; maybe he knows how to handle Fire Dragons."
Harry opened the Disappearing Cabinet and asked, "Vid, do you want to come with me?"
Vid shook his head and said, "I've already planned ahead for what to do if I encounter Fire Dragons, no need for last-minute cramming."
"Okay, then I'll come back tomorrow morning." Harry decided to consult Sirius and didn't ask about Vid's strategy.
"Harry?"
"Hmm?" Harry, one foot already in the Disappearing Cabinet, turned back.
"The Summoning Charm is a very useful spell," Vid said with a smile.
Flying in the sky teasing Fire Dragons is indeed cool, but that is Harry's way, not Vid's own; he also isn't good at Quidditch.
"...Okay, the Summoning Charm." Harry nodded somewhat cluelessly and climbed into the Disappearing Cabinet.
Vid walked out of the Room of Requirement, lightly speaking, "Zoe?"
"Here!" The house-elf replied at once, appearing next to Vid.
"Harry went to Hogsmeade, remember to help him open the cabinet tomorrow morning."
"Okay." Zoe said in a soft voice.
Vid then passed through the corridor to the other side of the castle, finally opening the window and transforming into a Peregrine Falcon to fly out.
He soared into the sky, circled the castle from afar, and as he skimmed the Forbidden Forest, suddenly in the distant pitch-black night, he saw a flash of light, as if a giant bonfire had been lit over there.
The Peregrine Falcon flapped its wings and flew towards the source of the light—he wanted to see with his own eyes what Fire Dragons the Ministry of Magic had brought this time.
This place was already very far from the castle, and Vid wondered if it was still within the protective magic range of the castle. As he approached, he heard the deafening roars of Fire Dragons and the shouts and cries of people.
In a relatively open area, dozens of wizards were striving to calm down a group of Fire Dragons, and seven or eight Stunning Spells were simultaneously aimed at a black-scaled Hungarian Horntail, which opened its mouth wide before collapsing with a crash.
In the field were several Fire Dragons that had already fallen asleep, each looking like a small mountain.
The Peregrine Falcon landed on an extremely tall pine tree, staring intently at those dragons.
The number of Fire Dragons was more than in the original work, which was only natural, as the number of Champions had increased several times. But there weren't as many as 33, there appeared to be only seven.
The black Hungarian Horntail, with a fire spray range reaching 50 feet, was Harry's opponent in the original work;
the extremely aggressive Chinese Fireball Dragon, the swift Swedish Short-Snout, and the relatively mild Common Welsh Green, these were all contestants from the original.
But at this moment, three uninvited guests were added to the field—
The territory-conscious Hebridean Black, with saw-like spiky ridges on its back; the Romanian Longhorn with two golden horns; and the Ukrainian Ironbelly with an armor-like defense and the largest physique.
There were not enough Fire Dragons for everyone to take one, and the rules of the competition were likely different from the original, but as long as one knows what abilities their opponent has, a way to counteract them must be found.
Vid admired the sight of those Fire Dragons asleep for a while, seeing no more Fire Dragons being brought over. Just as he was preparing to return to his dormitory to sleep, he suddenly noticed in the corner of his eye something sneakingly moving in the forest.