OVER THE next few weeks, the four champions were planning for the first challenge. Zola was still not in favour of the tournament and tried to keep away from any conversations about the topic.

But clearly, that was a most impossible task when literally the only thing everyone in school could talk about was the tournament. So now she would spend most of her time in the library, but not even the silence of the room was safe from gossip.

In the corner, Zola was sat alone, her nose buried in a textbook and a messy pile of parchment scattered in front of her, all scrawled with black cursive ink.

A small yelp left her mouth as the book was snatched from her grasp and away from her sight. Her eyes travelled up to the burglar to see none other than the Golden Boy — Cedric Diggory, the boy everyone was talking about.

"Cedric!" Zola breathed out, a strand falling from her messy ponytail and landing at the side of her face. "Is there a reason why you so rudely snatched my book from me?"

The Hufflepuff boy smiled, his fingers toying with the spine of her textbook. "Yes, actually," he paused, resulting in a look from Zola — as if saying to 'spit it out, then'. "You're the smartest person I know and I need your help with the first challenge."

Zola sighed shortly, her back slumping into her chair. "You know that-"

"That you don't care about the Tournament. I know, I remember," Cedric chuckled, remembering their conversation from the Quidditch World Cup, when the Tournament came up and how passionate Zola discussed her hatred of the games. "But surely, you can put your hatred aside to help a friend out?"

Zola raised a brow, a smirk playing at her lips. "We're friends now?"

Cedric threw his head with a groan. "Of course, we're friends, Zola! Now will you help me, please?"

Zola snorted slightly, making Cedric laugh with her. "Alright, alright, no need to beg," she teased playfully. "What's the first challenge?"

"Right, Harry told me that Hermione was told by Ron...who was told by Seamus who heard that Dean....heard from Parvati who was told by Hagrid that the first challenge involved dragons," Cedric said, his finger pointing at different spots in the air as if trying to mentally fill in the chain of gossip.

Zola was still trying to comprehend the first half of his statement that she didn't catch the ending. "...What?"

"Harry... Forget it. Hagrid said the first challenge involved dragons," Cedric summarised.

Zola's eyes widened at the mention of the fire-breathing creature. "Dragons?!" She whispered harshly, as she saw a group of students walk past their table. "You're kidding, right?"

Cedric shook his head. "Nope. And I know that you're at the top of the Care of Magical Creatures class. And Troy told me that you know a lot about all animals, so I was wondering if you knew about dragons?" Cedric wondered.

Zola shook off her shock and nodded. "Of course I do," She said, pushing her papers away so she could focus purely on Cedric and the topic at hand. "So what do you need to know about them?"

"Everything, really," Cedric spoke. He lent forward on the table so he too could focus solely on Zola.

"Ok, so the first thing you should know about dragons is that their incredibly dangerous. The Ministry classed them as 'wizard killers' as they're known to be impossible to train or domesticate. A dragon's biggest weakness is their young, but I suppose as they'll be used for a challenge, they won't be any of their offspring on site. They'll be guarding something, I reckon. Their dragon keepers most likely implanted in their brains that whatever you need to get is the equivalent of their young. So they'll be very protective over it. The best thing to do is avoid the fire, avoid the claws, avoid the teeth, avoid the tail, avoid the wings. Avoid it all, really. Dragons can use all of their body to attack so it's best to go as undetected as possible. Dragons have a good sense of smell so try to eliminate your own odour as best you can to be unnoticed."

Cedric nodded, his brow furrowed slightly as he mentally noted everything that she was saying. "How do I get rid of my smell?"

Zola stifled a smile as she tried to look sympathetic. "You won't like it..."

Cedric urged her to continue. "Come on, I can take it, Z."

"Where did you even get this?!" Cedric asked, examining the large glass of dragon urine in his hand.

Zola chuckled, as she lent against the door frame of the vacant classroom so she could show him in private. "My suppliers will forever be a secret."

"Fred and George?" Cedric guessed.

"Fred and George," she nodded before giggled. "Either way, you're gonna have to dump all of that over your noggin so the dragon can't detect you."

Cedric grimaced with a shudder. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," she snickered. "Good luck, Golden Boy."