Chapter 585: The games begin

Throughout the day, Ivan, Harry and Hermione had been helping Ron practice the Summoning Charm.

They continued practicing until ten o'clock at night. They would have stayed longer, but Peeves appeared and, pretending to think Harry wanted things thrown at him, started throwing chairs around the room.

The four of them left in a hurry before the noise attracted Filch.

They returned to the Gryffindor Common Room, which was now mercifully empty.

After more than three hours, it was well past midnight; Ron was finally mastering the Summoning Charm. On the floor around him were piles of objects: books, quills, several overturned chairs, an old set of Gobstones, and Neville's toad, Trevor!

"Much better, Ron. You've made a lot of progress," Hermione said, looking exhausted but very pleased.

"I've learned the spell!" said Ron happily, he raised his wand and pointed it at the book on the round table. The next second, the book Breeding Dragons for Pleasure and Profit shot out, flew to the other side of the room and Ron caught it.

"Congratulations, Ron, you've mastered this magic completely," Harry said happily. "Now I know what to do the next time we can't handle a spell: have Ivan and Hermione threaten us with a dragon! It's a very useful method."

"It's not easy. I've learned this spell, but I'm not sure," Ron said, still a little worried. "You know, the broom is going to be a lot further away than the stuff here, it's going to be in the castle, and I'm going to be out on the grounds."

"That doesn't matter," Hermione said firmly. "As long as you concentrate really, really hard on it, it will come."

"Now we'd better get some sleep. Tomorrow you will learn the conjunctivitis curse. This spell is much harder than Accio," Ivan said.

Ron had been practicing the Conjunctivitis Curse for a long time, but on Monday they practiced until three in the morning, so that Ron could master the curse thoroughly and not be too nervous or excited to fail to release it.

Everything was ready, and the rest now depended on Ron's own performance.

Ron was now somewhat more confident than before, and less panicky.

Ivan felt as if he had just gone to bed when Colin woke him up.

He dressed absently and followed Colin to the Great Dining Hall. The atmosphere in the school was one of great tension and excitement.

Everyone in Gryffindor was greeting Ron and wishing him well, while Malfoy was full of cynicism.

Ron seemed extremely nervous and slow to react. He seemed indifferent to everything around him and rarely spoke.

Classes at the school were to stop at noon, giving all the students time to go down to the dragon compound.

Professor McGonagall arrived and called Ron, and Ivan, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George hurried to follow.

"Weasley, the champions have to go down to the grounds now. They need to get ready for their first task," Professor McGonagall said sternly, and looked at Ivan and the others. "You six, follow us!"

She seemed to think Ron would feel better with them by his side.

Professor McGonagall also looked nervous. She seemed almost as anxious as Hermione and Ginny.

As she walked down the stone steps and out into the cold November afternoon, she put her hand on Ron's shoulder.

"Well, don't panic!" she said. "Just keep a cool head. We have wizards ready to control the situation if it gets out of hand. If you can't do it, give up. This is not an embarrassment. The main thing is not to complete the task, but simply to do your best and stay alive. No one will think you are inferior to others. are you okay?"

"Fine!" muttered Ron.

"Fine!" said Professor McGonagall.

She led them to where the dragons were, around the edge of the forest.

As they approached the clump of trees behind which the enclosure would be clearly visible, they saw that a tent had been erected whose entrance faced them, hiding the dragons from view.

"You're going in here with the other champions, Weasley!" said Professor McGonagall, her voice a little shaky. "You'll wait your turn. Mr. Bagman is in there...he'll tell you the procedure. Good luck."

She pouted, looked anxiously at Ron, and then led him to the entrance of the tent.

Professor McGonagall wouldn't allow Ivan and the others to enter, so they all had to go up to say goodbye to Ron in turn.

It was as if they were sending Ron to the battlefield. There he would die and they would never see him again.

Ginny, in particular, couldn't help but cry when she learned that Ron was going to face a dragon.

Ron was pale. He looked at them with pity. He still hadn't gotten Ivan's fire protection potion, and it wouldn't do to go into the task like that.

But Professor McGonagall was still here, and he couldn't talk about it.

"You'll make it, Ron!" Ivan leaned closer and whispered, "Wait for me inside. I'll be there in a minute."

"I'll wait for you!" said Ron in a voice very unlike his own. Then he turned and walked into the tent, staggering.

Cedric was sitting on a low wooden stool in the corner and didn't go to Ron.

This made Ron very upset. It was clear that this guy had received the news of the dragon through him and Harry, but he showed no gratitude, as if nothing had happened.

He had long since disliked that guy ever since he beat Gryffindor in the quidditch match.

Both he and Cedric were champions, but only one of them could represent Hogwarts, and they had to be separated.

Likewise, Fleur ignored Ron. She didn't look as serene as usual, but rather pale and clammy, curled up in a chair.

She was the only girl among the champions. Looking at Fleur, Ron couldn't help but wonder how she could defeat the dragon.

As for Krum, he looked even gloomier than usual, and kept pacing back and forth in the tent.

When he saw Ron, he walked over and whispered a few words to him. He now had a good relationship with Ron.

In Ron's opinion, he was Krum's only friend at Hogwarts, which made him feel honored.

To those admirers, Krum wouldn't even look at them.

"Do you know how to defeat dragons?" Ron couldn't help but ask.