"The golden one, she said."

She pulls her head back, but - "Stay over there. Away from my nest."

"Okay. I don't want anything else, or anything to do with your real eggs."

She tilts her head to eye her nest - being careful to keep an eye on Ellie and to not actually expose her eggs from any angles but 'the front.' She goes over her eggs with a critical look, tapping them with her claws and breathing a small gout of flame over them -

Then, a disgusted noise. "I don't know what gold is, but this is not a child." She scoops up the golden egg in her palm, flinging it out of her nest with a good bit of force and rattling her tail. "Who put that there? Is it a cuckoo?" She spits the term.

"Just some dumb humans who didn't think things through all the way," she says, going to scoop up the golden egg.

She hisses angrily and keeps watching Ellie, but doesn't stop her from approaching the golden egg. "I'll show them what they get for threatening my eggs - and you should tell your mother not to let you wander so far, your wings are deformed, how will you escape from predators?"

"Yes, I'll tell her. But please don't get too angry with the people here, most of them had no idea what was going on."

She nods, grouchily. "I'll warn them to stay away, though, and I'm not leaving my nest. But they shouldn't try twice."

"No, they shouldn't. Thank you."

And over to the judges' booth with the golden egg.

There's applause! Dumbledore is grinning pretty widely, and the French delegation seems a bit impressed.

The Horntail is put back to sleep (and very, very annoyed about this) in preparation to remove her from the field as Dumbledore gestures for Ellie to leave the field and join the other champions (which by now includes a woozy-seeming Krum).

Success!

Once the field is clear, the champions are told to line up in front of the judges to receive scores and feedback.

Cedric Diggory is complimented on the complexity of his transmutation and his clever use of a creature known for stealing dragon eggs (which Ellie can vaguely recognize as a sort of oversized magic rodent), though the judges note his injuries do lose him a few points. Still - his score's a solid 42 after adjustments.

Elodie Delacour next - the judges seem extremely impressed with her wandless spell work, with placing an enchantment on a dragon, and with multimodal simultaneous spells - Dumbledore comments he hasn't seen such a cleverly execution of two simultaneous spells in a few decades. She gets no dings whatsoever, and her score's a good 56 after a mix of 9s, 10s, and one 8 (courtesy of Headmaster Karkaroff). 

Victor Krum - the judges are fairly harsh on him. He did hit two difficult soft targets - the dragon's eyes, and the roof of its mouth - but his choice of spell shows a limited understanding of dragon behavior, and his actions after blinding the dragon were more 'reckless' than 'daring.' His injuries also dock him points, as does the injury to the dragon - the damage to the dragon's eyes will require treatment to fully clear. His score's only 31, rescued in part by Karkaroff going easily on him.

Ellie Potter last - the judges are impressed that she mastered the Animagus transformation, though they have some questions about how she got the dragon to remove the egg from the nest of its own accord.

Animagi are able to communicate with similar animals, and it turns out dragons really don't like cuckoos.

That's accepted - it's fortunate that her Animagus form (which none of the judges recognize) is so similar, and thinking to try it was clever.

Ellie received no injuries as well, and seems to have been in the least danger, and demonstrated an ability to cooperate with even dangerous magical creatures. She only demonstrated the Animagus transformation, magically, but that's incredibly complex magic.

She receives a 54 in the end - Headmaster Karkaroff gave her a 7, and the French representative gave her a 9 instead of the 10 given to Elodie, but otherwise her spread of results is the same.

That puts Elodie as a narrow winner, Ellie right behind, Cedric after a good gap, and Victor trailing in last. (Victor and Cedric both accept this graciously.)

The judges inform them - and the cheering crowd - that the eggs hold a vital clue to the Second Task, which cannot be trivially accessed. The Second Task will be Saturday, February the Twenty-Fifth, and they have until then to prepare.

The champions are then dismissed to go mingle as they like. (A host of reporters have been covering the event - more than were at the wand weighing - and a few seem determined to approach the champions.)

Ellie will try to get under cover of Professor Reynolds as expeditiously as possible.

Anathema hits her first - knocking aside a reporter that'd been closing in on Ellie - and tackles her in a hug. "You did great!" she says, laughing.

Fay's not far behind. "Impressively so."

Hug!

"Thanks. It wasn't that bad."

"A simple but safe option is better than something complicated and dangerous." She glances around at the forming crowds. "But let's get you somewhere quieter to celebrate."

"Oh, yes please."

Off, then, to the castle, bulldozing past any reporters who look like they're getting ideas.

This is so much easier when Professor Reynolds is leading.

It's almost like she has a reputation or something.

She gets them safely ensconced in her suite with a small request to the house elves for some celebratory food, then hugs Ellie again.

"I was worried about this Task, but - you really did do very well."

"Turns out Parselmouth in my Animagus form is really close to dragon. "

"Rather convenient."