Chapter 182: Before the First Task

The wand inspection occupied an entire afternoon because all twelve champions received the same examination.

Ollivander worked at a long table beneath the judges' platform. Each wand entered a clear ward, underwent tests for damage and concealed enchantment, and returned directly to its owner. A second wandmaker from France observed. A Durmstrang professor signed the record.

Cedric went first. His ash wand with Unicorn hair produced a clean shower of silver sparks. Ollivander found ordinary wear near the grip and no alteration.

Adeline's rowan wand contained a dragon heartstring. A shallow scratch beneath the handle came from an old classroom fall. The inspection charm showed no weakness.

Edward placed his walnut wand in the ward. The phoenix feather within answered Ollivander's test with a brief golden flame.

"Well maintained," Ollivander said. "No attached setting, secondary channel, or foreign spell."

The public statement mattered. Rumours still claimed Edward had hidden the Heart-Flame Crest inside his wand.

Harry's holly wand produced a stream of red and gold. Its phoenix feather came from the same bird as Voldemort's wand, a fact Ollivander did not announce to the press. The judges already knew it under seal.

Fleur's rosewood wand carried a Veela hair from her grandmother. Krum's hornbeam wand held dragon heartstring and showed the heavier use of advanced practice.

Volodya's beech wand used Unicorn hair and had a repaired chip near the tip. Ollivander confirmed the repair was stable. Igor carried blackthorn with dragon heartstring, rigid and scarred from field practice. Nikolai's larch wand, also with dragon heartstring, produced a precise blue ribbon during the test.

Elodie's willow wand held Unicorn hair and showed residue from repeated healing charms. Lina used cypress with Unicorn hair, balanced for the long movements she preferred. Margot's maple wand carried dragon heartstring and a worn grip from broom practice.

All six passed. Minor wear entered the individual records, and each owner received maintenance advice in their preferred language. No judge treated one material as proof of character or combat ability.

The inspection register now contained twelve complete entries with matching seals. The press received only the public findings: fit for use, ordinary repair needed, or disallowed alteration. Private wand history remained with the champion and examiners.

Ollivander also documented the wands used by the reserve keepers and judges. A champion's spell could then be distinguished from emergency magic if the arena record became disputed. The complete register went under three school seals before the final field briefing. Each delegation received a copy number and named its custodian, making any later substitution visible across independent records.

Edward compared the equal process with Rita's attention. The officials had examined everyone; the reporter still behaved as though only five people mattered. Administrative fairness did not automatically produce narrative fairness, but it gave the overlooked champions a record that could not be erased from the event.

Rita Skeeter watched the repeated inspections with diminishing interest. Her photographer took pictures of the famous champions and had to be reminded to photograph the others for the common record.

Afterward, Cedric and Adeline delivered the agreed Hogwarts statement.

"We recognize that two entries were fraudulent," Cedric said. "All four team members retain the right to stop or forfeit. Our preparation focuses on retrieval, communication, and safe withdrawal."

Rita pointed her quill at Edward. "Mr. Black, is it true you believe the Dark Lord placed your name in the Goblet because he fears your unique power?"

"I declined an individual interview."

"Is that a denial?"

"It is a reminder of the terms."

The quill wrote anyway. Hermione, attending as the student observer, recorded the exact exchange. The Prophet could print its interpretation. It could not claim Edward had supplied a dramatic quote without a competing record.

Rita turned to Harry. He repeated the same refusal.

Krum walked away before she reached him. Fleur granted three questions, rejected two, and corrected Rita's pronunciation of her name. The added champions issued short school statements and refused personal speculation.

The press session ended early.

In a private briefing, the dragon keepers presented the final arena layout. The species were no longer secret: the Common Welsh Green, Swedish Short-Snout, and Hungarian Horntail would occupy separate nesting zones inside one broad field. What remained hidden was the precise placement of the twelve marked eggs and the order in which the dragons would be released into their prepared areas.

Charlie Weasley stood beside a moving model of the Horntail. "Most defensive of her nesting ground. Longest tail range. Fast change between flame and physical attack. If she settles over the real clutch, you do not force her off it."

A second model showed the Short-Snout's narrower flame and quicker head movement. The Welsh Green was less aggressive, though Charlie warned them that "less aggressive" meant very little once twelve students started moving around a guarded nest.

The keepers had altered the field after the final safety inspection. Low stone ridges separated the three nesting zones without becoming walls. Champions could cross between them, but black boundary stones marked the distance at which interference with another student became especially dangerous. Emergency gates remained open on all four sides.

Each champion could carry out only one marked egg. Crossing an exit with it earned the base ten points. The judges could award another twenty for control, restraint, and safe handling of the hazards. A school total would be the sum of its four individual marks. The rule against attacking another champion inside a dragon's striking range was repeated aloud, then signed again by all twelve.

Sirius looked at Edward after that clause. The conditional forfeit remained available.

Hogwarts reviewed its plan around the full arena rather than assigning one dragon to each person. Harry's broom could draw attention upward if a keeper cleared the flight lane. Cedric could create harmless moving decoys. Adeline would track the dragons' heads, tails, boundary stones, and judge signals. Edward would use conventional shields against heat and call changes in flame direction. His own shaped fire remained an emergency tool, not the opening tactic.

"No shaped fire near a nest unless the alternative is worse," Charlie said. "A dragon may read it as a territorial challenge."

Edward wrote the restriction beside his name.

"No attack on eyes, wings, or real eggs," another keeper added. "If a dragon leaves its marked radius, the judges stop that part of the field. If the field cannot be isolated safely, the entire task stops."

The team practised with all three carved models moving at once. The Horntail's tail expanded to scale and knocked over three ink bottles before anyone adjusted. The Short-Snout turned faster than their first diagram suggested, while the Welsh Green repeatedly abandoned a decoy that moved too far from the false nest.

Harry rehearsed a short aerial pass instead of circling continuously. Cedric changed rock markers into birds and sent them away from the real eggs. Adeline timed every movement and forced the others to call the nearest exit before beginning a spell. Edward used a basic Shield Charm and a fireproofing spell, both approved, and practised dropping behind stone instead of answering every burst of heat with magic.

Their first plan kept the four Hogwarts champions too close together. A single dragon turn could have trapped them in the same lane, so they changed it. They would stay within whistle range while using different approaches, regroup only when the field allowed it, and abandon any marked egg that required entering the centre of a real nest.

No one needed a particular egg. No school needed a perfect score to complete the contract. Those two facts appeared at the top of Adeline's final sheet.

At dinner, Edward's hands remained steady until an owl delivered the Prophet's evening edition.

BLACK'S SECRET FIRE TO FACE DEADLIEST DRAGON.

The article described him as eager to prove he surpassed Harry and hinted that Sirius had trained him in forbidden family magic. It omitted the shared-arena rules, the ordinary-spell plan, and the right to forfeit.

Sirius crumpled the paper.

Edward flattened it again and filed it with Hermione's transcript.

"Why keep that rubbish?" Sirius asked.

"Because the difference is evidence."

Before sleep, the four Hogwarts champions answered the participation question one final time. Cedric and Adeline chose to compete without hesitation. Harry took longer, reread the healer's withdrawal rules, and chose the same. Edward checked the red-signal procedure once more before adding his own name.

Their guardians and adviser signed beside the decisions. No one signed for another person.

The first task began at ten the next morning. All twelve champions would enter through separate gates into the same broad arena, with three dragon zones active at once. The field would reward retrieval, but the amended rules made withdrawal a valid answer at every stage.

Hogwarts drew the eastern waiting tent. Through the canvas, Edward heard the Horntail roar while the keepers completed their final checks.

The sound vibrated through the ground.

He looked at the red withdrawal cord beside the door. It remained within reach.