1Disclaimer: Nothing's changed in the last few days . . . still don't own it :-(

Author's Notes: Wow! So much response last chapter! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Chapter 4: Clashing

(Back to Harry's POV)

Harry watched as Emma walked out with Ginny and Bill and then Emma separated herself from them as she went to her spot in the set up.

"Don't you just love their outfits!" Hermione said. "They are really grand." Harry saw that as the dance started, their costumes began to shimmer and gleam with magic in the sunlight; it almost seemed like the designs themselves were dancing.

"They are all wearing green today, for Ireland," Arthur said, "but the etching is significant to each person. Each is significant to their home clan."

"But da, Emma, Cedric, and some others are from Britain," Ron pointed out.

Arthur smiled. "Yes, she lives in England now, but her father is of the O'Neill clan. You know the story of them from when your mother and I told you when you were a child, remember?" Arthur said.

"Vaguely," Ron said.

"What is their story?" Hermione asked.

"The O'Neill's are one of the oldest families in Ireland, descended from the High Kings that ruled all Tara. Along with the O'Brians, who your friend Seamus is descended from, they are one of the five high families of Ireland."

"What is special about the five?" Hermione asked.

"Muggles say they have special powers, but it's because the magical creatures and fairies have blood ties with them," Arthur said. (A/N: got this when searching for other stuff; it will come into play later . . .evil Grin)

The song started and soon everyone was dancing; Harry noticed that they were forming what he knew was a celtic knot. "Seamus!" Harry heard Emma call out as she passed by on the opposite side. Harry looked and indeed Seamus was there and joined in on the dancers taking a place with Emma. The dancers kept moving and formed a shamrock, with Emma and two other girls each in the center of one of the leaves.

As they started to move and weave in and out, Harry saw the crowd parting to allow a group of Bulgarians in. Harry noticed that they all seemed to be about fifteen or so, and all, even the girls, seemed to be big and burly. They came up to watch the Irish, and as the Irish started to move again, the Bulgarians started doing an impersonation of the Irish dancers.

Charlie snorted. "How did they learn to do that? Some muggle movie?"

"They aren't that bad actually," Arthur noted.

"Yeah, probably better than Ron," Fred pointed out, making Ron's ears go red and for him to give Fred a rude hand gesture. .

The Bulgarian mascot (i.e. Veela) screeched out at them, getting their attention and forcing the Irish dancers to step back. They then transformed back into the beautiful, alluring women and soon had all the male attention.

"This will be interesting," Bill said, coming up to join the rest of his family (minus Ginny).

"What is going on?" Hermione asked.

"The Bulgarians are challenging the Irish. There dancers will now do one of their own dances to try to outdo the Irish," Bill explained. "If we don't answer back in some impressive way, than they will win."

"So?" Ron asked.

"Honestly Ron, don't you know anything?" George said

"It is superstition that the winner of these weekend festivals usually wins the Cup," Percy piped up.

"And the Irish can be very superstitious," Charlie added.

"And very competitive," Arthur added.

They watched as the Bulgarian musicians started a thick, heavy beat and the dancers (male and female) begin their dance.

Harry noticed that the male Irish dancers didn't particularly care about the dance– they only noticed the veela. The girls on the other hand, didn't even spare the boys a look as they watched the Bulgarians.

Harry watched Emma and two other girls share a glance. They separated themselves from the rest of their group and stepped out into the space dividing the two groups. As they stepped out, the Leprechauns, who were making angry and rude gestures at the Bulgarians, had flown over the three girls and threw down some of their magic, transfiguring their dresses into a more warrior-type outfit.

"Now, they are answering the challenge," Arthur explained.

The three girls started mimicking the Bulgarian dance, and soon, were following along seamlessly.

"So . . . they are showing that they are not only a match for them, but are there equals?" Hermione asked as she watched.

"Not only that, but that they can beat them at their own game," Arthur explained.

Harry watched as the dancers finished with the last few beats of the music. He heard Bill and Charlie call something out when it was finished, but he didn't understand what they were saying.

He saw someone approach the two eldest Weasely children and he said something in the same language.

"What are they speaking?" Harry asked Hermione.

"It is Irish, but I don't know what they are saying,"she said. They both looked at Ron, who just shrugged. (A/N: American's call it Gaelic, Irish and Brits call it Irish).

"Don't look at me," he said.

"I think he is related to Seamus– look, they look alike," Hermione said.

Bill and Charlie and the stranger kept talking in Irish, and then went out onto the field to the group of dancers.

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(Emma's POV)

Emma was in the middle of a set, when she saw Seamus finally arrive. "Seamus!" She called out and motioned for him to join them. He crossed over onto the floor and found his place in the set.

"Sorry! Da got a later portkey time! Can you believe it?" Seamus said.

"Ah, tis a pity, but at least you are here finally," she teased, "and you didn't miss the challenge,"she reassured him.

"Good! I would hate to miss that! Especially after everything we . . ." Seamus didn't get to finish his sentence because they heard the Bulgarians approach. It would have been impossible to ignore them the way they were acting.

Good thing they didn't want to ignore them.

Emma-and all the other dancers-stopped in the middle of the set and watched the Bulgarians do a child-like imitation of their dancing.

"Not bad, actually," Brigit said to Emma since she was right next to her. "Not how I had thought they would challenge us, but their imitation isn't bad."

Emma nodded. She practically jumped when the Veela screeched at them, and like everyone else, she naturally took a step or two back. She and the other girls looked at the boys with disgusted looks on their faces as they fell charmed at the Veela. "Pitiful. Did they forget what they just were?" Nora asked, who joined Brigit and Emma. (Nora, Brigit, and Emma are the Triad for this year; both Brigit and Nora are seventh years, Brigit is "the Crone", Nora "the mother", and Emma "the maiden").

The three girls looked at each other; Emma knew they were going to respond and she was trying to kick off the feelings of infatuation the boys around her were feeling. She decided to focus on the competiveness oozing off of Brigit and Nora and the Bulgarian dancers instead.

They stepped in front of their group, and passed under a shower of Leprechaun magic transforming their outfits and body paint. They stood there for a second till the Bulgarians acknowledged their presence, then proceeded in mimicking their moves.

Soon, they were not just mimicking their moves, but were holding their own. The final beat ended with the Triad trying to swipe the feet out from under the three Bulgarians in the front and vice versa.

With the music over, they all stood up and looked each other over before Ivan, who was leading the Bulgarians, stepped forward to shake hands.

Brigit (the current Crone & leader) stepped up to shake his hand. Soon, both sides were exchanging friendly jibes at each other before the Bulgarians left to return to their camp. Emma had been talking to Ivan before they left.

"We were awesome!" Brigit declared.

"I just know we will win the cup now!" Sean called out.

Emma felt their exuberance. "How do you know him?" Cedric asked Emma as he walked up to her.

"Ivan? He is the prime minister's son staying with us,"she explained.

"Why was it again they are staying with you?" Devon asked.

Emma laughed. "Apparently, the embassy became infected with a poltergiest who thought it funny to yell at its inhabitants in Yiddish and ancient Mayan. Prime Minister Strenksi says he refuses to live someplace where he is being yelled at in a language he doesn't understand," Emma said.

Before Devon could ask any more questions, Emma saw Charlie with someone approaching her.

"Emma!" Charlie said. "We would like to make an introduction. Emma, this is Padraig Finnegin. Padraig, this is Emma O'Neill. Padraig and I were in the same year at Hogwarts," Charlie explained. "He works with Bill now for Gringotts."

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Emma said. "Hmm, the others haven't done you justice."

"Really? My reputation forgotten already?" He said, feigning shock. "I can see I'll have to work on that today."

"You should be proud of Seamus, from what I have heard, he is definitely following in your footsteps," Emma said.

"He is luckier than I if he was chosen to be your protégée," Padraig said.

Charlie rolled his eyes. "Always the charmer-don't mind him, Emma. It is a compliment when he acts like this, believe it or not."

"I know, and thank you. Now-" Emma began but heard someone shout her name. She turned to see Cillian approaching her.

"Hey Padraig! Hope you're not taken, Emma. I want to dance the next double jig with you," he said. Emma nodded. "Padraig, you really have gotten slower than molasses, as Seamus said! You never would have let a girl get away before a dance!" he teased as he led Emma to the dance arena.

Padraig stood there flabbergasted making Charlie laugh. "Ah, don't worry. Emma will make time for you too after she's danced with everyone else," he said laughing.

Soon, everyone was getting ready to leave to find their seats for the match. Cedric and Emma had just finished a slip reel when Cedric noticed that Malfoy was in the crowd of onlookers.

Emma turned to thank him for the dance when he pulled her up to him and kissed her. While everyone around them started to whistle and make catcalls, Emma felt someone behind her become jealous but couldn't tell who because of the enormous number of people.

"Well, whoever you were trying to make jealous, it worked. Who was it, Cedric. Cho? Its not really your style," Emma said.

"Cho? Why would I . . . you know I like Cho?" he asked only mildly surprised.

"Duh!"

"No, it was not to make someone jealous. I was protecting you."

"Protecting me?" Emma asked pretending to sound confuse but she looked to see what he meant.

"Yeah, protecting you. I wanted someone to stop paying attention to you– someone who shouldn't be paying attention to you," Cedric explained.

"What on earth-why would you "protect" me?" Emma asked "And from who?"

"Don't worry about the who," Cedric said. He had seen Draco storm off with his gang after the kiss, so he was happy it worked. "And why? Because I love you and would always want to protect you– you're family," he said with a grin.

Emma kissed him on the cheek and smiled. "I love you too, but you better not let Cho hear this. She'll never go out with you if she does."

Cedric grinned. "Typical Emma. Here I am trying to help you, and you still try to help your protector," he teased. "Do you think she'll say yes?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "She would have to be daft to say no to the great Cedric Diggory, protector of the realm!"

Cedric laughed. "Well, I think I'll ask her to the first Hogsmeade weekend back at school."

"Good. My hero-you're growing up so quickly," she teased, pretending to wipe away a tear. "Now go and be her knight in shining armor."

Cedric laughed as he went to join Cillian on their way to their tents. Emma, while happy Cedric was concerned for her welfare, was sorry for Draco and couldn't help but frown.

Poor Draco. Jealous? Over Cedric? Emma thought, confused. Then she smiled to herself.

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Author's Notes:

KRP– as always, thanks! I know the Cup is lasting several chapters, and I think that is something that will continue to happen this year and in the next years. Events become longer and (hopefully) more complex. At least more drawn out :-)

Elenwyn– Yay! I love hearing from you.

Professor Epona– thanks!

Amarthiel– I love Cedric, but it is plutonic with him (now that everyone has read the kiss scene I can say that :-) )

Iceball– thanks! Hopefully you the wait wasn't to bad (

AnimeCrazy– Thanks:-)

DaffodilSweetie– I always try to acknowledge my readers, especially the ones who talk to me! Thanks for taking a chance with this one! I try not to wait to long between chapters– my beta was always afraid that Book 7 will come out before I get my version of it posted :-).

ChildoftheKng– Glad to hear from you again! It does make the set up easier for the school year, and just to show how Emma's dad's job has some benefits.