Through the gates, flanked with statues of winged boars, and up the sweeping drive, the carriages trundled, swaying dangerously in what was fast becoming a gale. Another gust seemed sure to blow the carriages right into the Black Lake. Leaning against the window, I could see Hogwarts coming nearer, its many lighted windows blurred and shimmering behind the thick curtain of rain. I smiled up at the sight of it. It was as my parents had once told me, the sight of Hogwarts for the first time in a new year would never get old.

Lightning flashed across the sky as our carriage came to a halt before the great oak front doors, which stood at the top of a flight of stone steps. People who had occupied the carriages in front were already hurrying up the stone steps into the castle. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and I jumped down from our carriage and dashed up the steps too, looking up only when we were safely inside the cavernous, torch-lit entrance hall, with its magnificent marble staircase. I was the first one inside. Harry and Ron were right behind me with Hermione and Neville trailing behind them.

"Blimey, if that keeps up the lake's going to overflow," Ron groaned, shaking his head and sending water everywhere. "I'm soak - ARRGH!"

A large, red, water-filled balloon had dropped from out of the ceiling onto Ron's head and exploded. Drenched and sputtering, Ron staggered sideways into Harry, just as a second water bomb dropped - narrowly missing Hermione, it burst at my feet, sending a wave of cold water over my sneakers into my socks. I yelped in disgust and discomfort as I staggered back. People all around us shrieked and started pushing one another in their efforts to get out of the line of fire. I shoved Ron off to the side to stand in between Hermione and Harry.

Random water balloons dropping from the sky was an odd way to start the year. Even at Hogwarts. I looked up and saw, floating twenty feet above us, Peeves the Poltergeist, a little man in a bell-covered hat and orange bow tie, his wide, malicious face contorted with concentration as he took aim again. I groaned as I side-stepped from the path his next water balloon was set to follow. Peeves was notorious for harassing the student body of Hogwarts with his somewhat cruel and somewhat funny pranks.

"Correction: Now you're soaking," I told Ron.

"Shut up, Tara," Ron groaned, trying to keep from slipping on the stone floor.

As much as I hated Peeves most of the time, even I had to admit that he was rather clever with some of his jokes. "Come on. That's kind of funny," I said, trying to stifle my laughter.

"Tara, honestly, he's a menace," Hermione chided.

Wasn't that kind of the point of a poltergeist? "You're telling me that you wouldn't have laughed if it was Malfoy?" I asked her. Hermione remained silent. "That's what I thought."

"Still... what did we ever do to him?" Hermione asked.

Poltergeists weren't like ghosts. They had never been humans. They had only ever known their half-alive status. "Nothing. He's a poltergeist. He just likes to cause mayhem. That's literally the only reason he exists," I pointed out.

"PEEVES! Peeves, come down here at once!" an angry voice yelled.

"Oh, he's in for it now," I hummed.

Coming down the stairs was perhaps one of the worst people to get caught doing something against the rules by. Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and Head of Gryffindor House, had come dashing out of the Great Hall. I assumed that she must have heard all of the racket that Peeves and the rest of us were causing. She skidded on the wet floor and grabbed Hermione around the neck to stop herself from falling. I stepped back as Professor McGonagall attempted to straighten up.

"Ouch - sorry, Miss Granger -"

"That's all right, Professor!" Hermione gasped, massaging her throat.

"You all right?" I asked Hermione, grabbing her arm and pulling her over to us.

"Fine," Hermione groaned, still looking to be in a bit of pain.

"Peeves, get down here now!" Professor McGonagall barked, straightening her pointed hat and glaring upward through her square-rimmed spectacles.

"Not doing nothing!" Peeves cackled, lobbing a water bomb at several Fifth-Year girls, who screamed and dived into the Great Hall. "Already wet, aren't they? Little squirts! Wheeeeeeeeee!"

My eyes rolled so far into the back of my head that I was sure they would get stuck there. The one thing I hadn't missed about Hogwarts was Peeves. He was a complete menace, hell-bent on ruining the days of innocent students. Peeves blew another raspberry at Professor McGonagall before aiming another bomb at a group of Second Years who had just arrived. They shrieked and ran off. A hand suddenly fell on my shoulder and I practically jumped out of my skin. When I turned back, I saw that it was Cedric, who had finally caught up with the rest of the students.

He was gazing up at Peeves, who had moved onto making obscene gestures at Professor McGonagall. "Quite the little monster, isn't he?" Cedric asked me, folding his arms over his chest.

"Yet you people somehow think I'm the poorly-behaved one," I huffed.

"This doesn't change the fact that you're still badly-behaved," Cedric teased.

Well... my poor behavior in school would likely never change. "You like it," I half-sang, nudging his shoulder.

"Yes, I do," Cedric admitted. We exchanged a quick grin but Cedric's attention quickly turned back toward the ceiling. "Duck!"

Well-aware that he was paying much more attention than I was, I let Cedric grab my arm and yank me into him. I had barely managed to throw myself underneath another one of Peeves' water bombs. I narrowed my gaze at him as he began cackling maniacally again. I turned back just long enough to see that a Second Year Slytherin hadn't been quite as lucky as I had been. I suppressed a laugh as I looked at Peeves again, who was now making rather rude gestures at Professor McGonagall, who was still trying to get him to stop.

"Knock it off, asshole!" I yelled at the poltergeist.

"Language, Nox," Professor McGonagall chided, although she looked as though she could have called him that and much worse.

"Sorry, Professor," I mumbled.

"Oh, potty mouth, Foxy Noxy!" Peeves cackled.

It had always been Peeves' favorite nickname for me. That and a few other, much ruder, ones. "I hate that nickname," I growled.

"Yeah? I kind of like it," Cedric teased.

"Shut up," I snapped.

"I shall call the headmaster!" Professor McGonagall shouted. "I'm warning you, Peeves -"

Peeves stuck out his tongue, threw the last of his water bombs into the air, and zoomed off up the marble staircase, cackling insanely. I could have sworn that I heard a few other curses get thrown back at us before he took off. I rolled my eyes as the rest of the students threw themselves out of the way of the falling water balloons. As they all splashed to the ground, soaking our feet even more, I turned back in hopes that Malfoy had managed to take a water balloon to the face. No such luck. It appeared that his cronies had managed to save him.

Disappointed that Peeves hadn't hit Malfoy, I turned back to Cedric. "Such a sweetheart," I said, wiping some sprayed water off of my clothes.

"A real charmer," Cedric added, brushing the damp hair off of his forehead.

"Well, move along, then!" Professor McGonagall called sharply to the bedraggled crowd. "Into the Great Hall, come on!"

"See you after the feast," Cedric said.

I smiled, giving his hand a quick squeeze. "Bye," I said.

In the background, I could feel the eye-rolls that I was receiving from my friends. Unfortunately, I didn't have long to yell at them to leave me alone. Next came the problem of getting into the Great Hall. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I slipped and slid across the entrance hall and through the double doors on the right. Everyone was having a tough time keeping themselves on their feet as they entered the Great Hall, considering that Peeves had managed to soak all of the stone floors. Ron was muttering furiously under his breath as he pushed his sopping hair off his face.

"Just dry yourself off, you fool," I snapped, sick of listening to him.

"How, genius?" Ron hissed.

Maybe if he ever read a book, he would have known this one. I whipped out my wand and gave it a complicated little wave. As soon as I had, hot air streamed out of the tip. Ron looked more than a little pleased at the feeling. I pointed the wand from the tip of his head to the bottom of his robes and onto our shoes, which I hated being wet. Our clothes began to steam slightly as they dried out. Ron looked extremely grateful as I slid my wand back into my robes. Hermione looked shocked. I assumed that it was because it was a wordless spell.

"What was that?" Ron asked gratefully.

"The Hot-Air Charm," I said.

"Since when did we learn that?" Ron asked, baffled.

"Since never, Ronald," I sighed. Were they just never planning on learning a new spell once they left Hogwarts? "Mom taught me when we lived back in Florida since I was always traipsing back through the house drenched in water after coming back from the beach."

"Teach me, why don't you?" Ron said.

Having me teach Ron a spell... That was one surefire way to end our friendship. "You won't listen," I said.

Ron looked quite offended, but Hermione spoke before he could. "Is that wordless?"

"As far as I know. I'm sure there's an actual incantation for it, but Mom never taught it to me," I told her. "I've always just used the wand movements."

"Hmm... I'll have to learn that one," Hermione said thoughtfully. "I didn't know that you knew wandless spells."

"Just a few. They're tough," I admitted. In fact, there were only three spells that I could regularly do without using the incantation. We would get better as we got older. "We're going to start learning them next year, I think."

"Something to study over the summer," Hermione said brightly.

Which, naturally, meant that I was going to get dragged into it. "Joy..." I muttered.

Hermione was already ignoring me, likely already making up study charts as we walked. The Great Hall looked its usual splendid self, decorated for the start-of-term feast. I sighed happily at the sight. Golden plates and goblets gleamed by the light of hundreds and hundreds of candles, floating over the tables in midair. The four long House tables were packed with chattering students; at the top of the Hall, the staff sat along one side of a fifth table, facing their pupils. It was much warmer in here.

As we fully entered the Great Hall, I glanced around at the other tables. Most of the older students were already seated. At the Hufflepuff table, I gave a quick smile to Cedric. He was sitting with his friends all surrounding him, as usual. They all laughed as my cheeks burned brilliantly. Our relationship would never not be funny to them. At the Ravenclaw table, Cho Chang was scowling at me, as usual. I scowled as we passed Malfoy at the Slytherin table, who was giving me a glittery smile that I would have loved to smack off his stupid face.

There was no doubt in my mind that he knew that he had gotten to me earlier. Trying to ignore him, I walked firmly past the Slytherin's, the Ravenclaw's, and the Hufflepuff's, and sat down with the rest of the Gryffindor's at the far side of the Hall, next to Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost. Pearly white and semitransparent, Nick was dressed tonight in his usual doublet, but with a particularly large ruff, which served the dual purpose of looking extra-festive, and ensuring that his head didn't wobble too much on his partially severed neck.

Harry took the spot next to me as Hermione and Ron took the two on the opposite side of the table. "Hi, Nick," I greeted, smiling at the ghost.

"Good evening," Nick said, beaming at us.

"Says who?" Harry asked bitterly, taking off his sneakers and emptying them of water. I rolled my eyes and snatched his shoes, drying them as I had done with mine earlier. "Thanks. Hope they hurry up with the Sorting. I'm starving."

"Maybe if you'd bought some candy in the train instead of pined after a girl who barely knows you exist..." I muttered.

"Oh, shut up. I just wasn't hungry," Harry snapped.

"Not for food, at least," I said quietly.

"Tara!" Hermione gasped.

"What?" I asked.

"Honestly..." Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

Right... I always forgot that Americans tended to be a lot blunter about things. "I'm still partially an American, Hermione. I'm going to say things like that. Get used to it," I told her.

Hermione rolled her eyes at me as we all turned back to the four-legged stool sitting in the center of the front section of the Great Gall. The Sorting of the new students into Houses took place at the start of every school year, but by an unlucky combination of circumstances, I hadn't been present at one since my own. In Second Year, we'd flown by car and missed it after crashing into the Whomping Willow. Last year I'd been intercepted by Professor McGonagall to give me the Time-Turner. I was quite looking forward to it this year. Just then, a highly excited, breathless voice called down the table.

"Hiya, Harry!"

All of the heads on our side of the table jerked up. I glanced up and smiled almost immediately. It was Colin Creevey, a Third Year to whom Harry was something of a hero. He was very sweet but a little neurotic. He talked so much that it was usually extremely hard to follow him. I hadn't seen him much last year, for which I was extremely grateful. Colin was sweet but he was a little overwhelming.

"Hi, Colin," Harry said warily.

Colin was about to respond to him before seemingly noticing me. "Oh, h-hi, Tara," Colin stammered.

"Hi, Colin," I answered.

While Harry might have been a hero to Colin, Colin had had a crush on me since he had first started Hogwarts two years ago. I wasn't exactly sure why. But everyone knew it thanks to Gilderoy Lockhart's loud mouth. I had always tried to just ignore the crush since I knew how embarrassed he was about it. Over at the Hufflepuff table, I could hear Cedric laughing. I rolled my eyes at him, pressing my head into my hands. He, like so many others, had always thought that Colin's crush on me was rather funny.

"Are you still with Cedric Diggory?" Colin asked rather boldly.

It was the first time that I'd ever heard him speak to me without stuttering. "Yeah," I answered.

"And he'll flatten you if he sees you flirting with his girlfriend," Ron muttered under his breath.

"Shut up!" I snapped, kicking Ron under the table. He grunted in pain. "He thinks Colin's crush is funny, actually."

While I had been snapping at Ron, Colin had gone back to Harry. "Harry, guess what? Guess what, Harry? My brother's starting! My brother Dennis!"

"Er - good," Harry said awkwardly.

"That's nice for him," I told Colin, who smiled at me. "Is he ready?"

"He's really excited!" Colin told me, practically bouncing up and down in his seat. One of these days I was sure that Colin would give himself a heart attack. "I just hope he's in Gryffindor! Keep your fingers crossed, eh, Harry?"

"Er - yeah, all right," Harry said.

"Will you, Tara?" Colin asked.

"Yeah, of course," I said. "He'll probably be in Gryffindor."

It wasn't as likely that Dennis would be in Gryffindor since there was no real family history there. One of the only reasons that I had been in Gryffindor was because my entire family had been before me. But I didn't want to tell Colin that. I should have at least let him have some hope. Colin then turned back to Hermione, Ron, and Nearly Headless Nick. Harry looked like he was planning on smashing his head into the table. He had always been extremely embarrassed by his conversations with Colin.

"Brothers and sisters usually go in the same Houses, don't they?" Colin asked the others.

From the direction he was looking, I could only assume that he was judging by the Weasley's, all seven of whom had been put into Gryffindor. As had their parents when they were in school. Much like my own family. My parents had both been in Gryffindor, just like where I had been placed. The same had happened to Harry's family. So had Malfoy's family, just with Slytherin instead of Gryffindor. But it wasn't always the truth. Sirius had been the first Gryffindor in a long line of Slytherin's.

"Oh no, not necessarily. Parvati Patil's twin's in Ravenclaw, and they're identical," Hermione said. It had come as a shock to everyone, including the twins, that they hadn't been placed together. "You'd think they'd be together, wouldn't you?"

"But they're so different from each other," I told her. Lowering my voice, I leaned into the three of them slightly. "Plus, Sirius was the only Gryffindor in a long line of Slytherin's. It's more common to be placed in the same House as family members, but not a sure deal."

After all, hadn't I almost gotten Sorted into Slytherin? Just as Harry had. I swallowed nervously and looked somewhere else to try and distract myself. I looked up at the staff table at the end of the Great Hall. There seemed to be rather more empty seats there than usual. Hagrid, of course, was still fighting his way across the lake with the First Years; Professor McGonagall was presumably supervising the drying of the entrance hall floor, but there was another empty chair too, and I spent a few minutes trying to think who else was missing.

"Where's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Hermione asked, who was also looking up at the teachers.

That was the person who was missing. I arched an eyebrow curiously. Where was our new teacher? I was halfway curious to make a bet on how long it would take this one before they attempted to kill me. We had never yet had a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who had lasted more than three terms. We had also never had one - accidental or not - that hadn't attempted to kill us. My favorite by far had been Professor Lupin, who had resigned last year. I looked up and down the staff table. There was definitely no new face there.

"Maybe they couldn't get anyone!" Hermione gasped, looking anxious.

Not a chance in hell. They would have rather canceled school than let us come without getting a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Maybe I was just missing them. I scanned the table more carefully. Tiny little Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was sitting on a large pile of cushions beside Professor Sprout, the Herbology teacher, whose hat was askew over her flyaway gray hair. She was talking to Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy department. I had always liked Professor Sinistra. She was tough but genuinely cared for her students.

On Professor Sinistra's other side was the sallow-faced, hook-nosed, greasy-haired Potions master, Professor Snape - my least favorite person at Hogwarts. My loathing of Snape was matched only by Snape's hatred of me, a hatred which had, if possible, intensified last year, when I had helped Sirius escape right under Snape's overlarge nose - Snape and Sirius had been enemies since their own school days. My hatred of Snape could only be surpassed by Harry's. Our parents had been best friends and had all hated Snape, a hatred which had been returned ten-fold.

It certainly made sense that we were two of Snape's least favorite students. On Snape's other side was an empty seat, which I guessed was Professor McGonagall's. Next to it, and in the very center of the table, sat Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, his sweeping silver hair and beard shining in the candlelight, his magnificent deep green robes embroidered with many stars and moons. The tips of Dumbledore's long, thin fingers were together and he was resting his chin upon them, staring up at the ceiling through his half-moon spectacles as though lost in thought.

It was perhaps one of the few times I had ever seen him look even moderately serious. I wondered if he was getting ready to make the announcement for what I assumed was going to be the Triwizard Tournament. I glanced up at the ceiling too. It was enchanted to look like the sky outside, and I had never seen it look this stormy. Black and purple clouds were swirling across it, and as another thunderclap sounded outside, a fork of lightning flashed across it. I glanced back down at the table.

"No way, they found someone," I finally told Hermione.

"Who do you think?" Hermione asked.

Hopefully, someone who wasn't planning on trying to kill me. At this point, I was sick of all of our professors attempting to kill me. Even Professor Lupin - whose attach had been completely accidental. That was wishful thinking, though. I knew that it would be someone dangerous. Strangely enough, I was shot back to our conversation at the Burrow. Mr. Weasley and Mr. Diggory were talking about Mad-Eye Moody's new job. There was no way that they would hire him. Right? He was a little dangerous, even for Dumbledore. But he had hired Voldemort... Accidentally, of course.

"Oh my..." I breathed out. I looked up at the others. "Do you remember that conversation back at the Burrow when your parents said that Mad-Eye Moody was taking up a new position? The man hasn't worked in years, until now."

"There's no way they'd let a man like that teach in a school," Hermione said.

"Yeah?" I asked her sharply.

"Lockhart," Ron growled.

Hermione flushed slightly. "Let's go through the list. We had Quirrell, who turned out to have Voldemort buried in the back of his head. He tried to murder us. Then there was Lockhart, who had a creepy crush on my mother and tried to erase our memories. Then there was Professor Lupin, who, granted, couldn't control himself, but still tried to kill us," I pointed out. Hermione merely stared at me. "And you think that they won't hire a madman who actually was quite brilliant in his own time?"

"She makes a fair point," Ron said quietly.

"Should make for an interesting year," Hermione breathed.

"When aren't they?" I asked, laughing humorlessly.

"Oh hurry up, I could eat a Hippogriff," Ron moaned.

The words were no sooner out of his mouth than the doors of the Great Hall opened and silence fell. Professor McGonagall was leading a long line of First Years up to the top of the Hall. I smiled at them. I'd always wanted to see a Sorting in which I wasn't terrified that I would fall on my way up to the stool. If Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I were wet, it was nothing to how these First Years looked. They appeared to have swum across the lake rather than sailed. I put a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing in the silence.

"Poor kids," I said, still giggling.

All of the new students were shivering with a combination of cold and nerves as they filed along the staff table and came to a halt in a line facing the rest of the school. I felt terribly for them. This was definitely not the best way to start off a new year at a new school - for some of them, their first exposure to the magical world. All of the new students looked terrified, except the smallest of the lot, a boy with mousy hair, who was wrapped in what I recognized as Hagrid's moleskin overcoat. The coat was so big for him that it looked as though he were draped in a furry black circus tent.

What the hell had happened to that poor kid? It looked like he had just gone swimming in the Black Lake. His small face protruded from over the collar, looking almost painfully excited. When he had lined up with his terrified-looking peers, he caught Colin Creevey's eye, gave a double thumbs-up, and mouthed, I fell in the lake! He looked positively delighted about it. It was definitely Dennis Creevey. He looked very much like his brother had when I'd first met him two years ago. Hopefully, he had a different taste in girls than his older brother did.

"We should tell him about the Grindylows," I whispered to Harry, who laughed.

"Don't you dare!" Hermione snapped.

"He'd probably ask them for their autograph," Harry whispered back.

We all laughed quietly, except for Hermione, who looked very annoyed that we were talking through the beginning of the Sorting. Professor McGonagall now placed a three-legged stool on the ground before the First Years and, on top of it, an extremely old, dirty patched wizard's hat. It was the Sorting Hat. The First Years stared at it. So did everyone else. For a moment, there was silence. Then a long tear near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and the hat broke into song:

"A thousand years or more ago,
When I was newly sewn,
There lived four wizards of renown,
Whose names are still well known:

"Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,
Fair Ravenclaw, from glen,
Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,
Shrewd Slytherin, from fin.

"They shared a wish, a hope, a dream,
They hatched a daring plan
To educate young sorcerers
Thus Hogwarts School began.

"Now each of these four founders
Formed their own house, for each
Did value different virtues
In the ones they had to teach.

"By Gryffindor, the bravest were
Prized far beyond the rest;
For Ravenclaw, the cleverest
Would always be the best;
For Hufflepuff, hard workers were
Most worthy of admission;
And power-hungry Slytherin
Loved those of great ambition.

"While still alive they did divide
Their favorites from the throng,
Yet how to pick the worthy ones
When they were dead and gone?

"'Twas Gryffindor who found the way,
He whipped me off his head
The founders put some brains in me
So I could choose instead!

"Now slip me snug about your ears,
I've never yet been wrong,
I'll have a look inside your mind
And tell where you belong!"

The Great Hall rang with applause as the Sorting Hat finished. As much as the Sorting Hat did annoy me (as it had once said that I had a great darkness in myself and belonged in Slytherin) I did enjoy listening to its songs. It was a lot more interesting than just standing in the middle of a Gordian Knot on the floor as we did in Ilvermorny. Their Sorting wasn't nearly as interesting. I did arch a brow as I stared at the Sorting Hat. That song didn't sound familiar. Was that the one it had sung three years ago?

"That's not the song it sang when it Sorted us," Harry said, clapping along with everyone else.

So, I wasn't going crazy. "Sings a different one every year," Ron explained. I raised a brow, surprised that there was finally something that he knew that I didn't. "It's got to be a pretty boring life, hasn't it, being a hat? I suppose it spends all year making up the next one."

"Well, I'll give it five stars," I said, smiling.

My gaze traveled around the room. I saw Cedric sitting at the Hufflepuff table, chatting to one of his friends. Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, and Justin Finch-Fletchley were all surrounding him, also involved in the conversation. For just the briefest moment, I was extremely jealous of them. For the first time since arriving at Hogwarts, I vaguely wished that I was sitting at the Hufflepuff table. I shook my head and looked back up to the front of the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall was now unrolling a large scroll of parchment.

"When I call out your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool. When the hat announces your House, you will go and sit at the appropriate table," Professor McGonagall explained to the First Years. "Ackerley, Stewart!"

A boy walked forward, visibly trembling from head to foot. I frowned at him. He looked extremely embarrassed. That was about as afraid as everyone was the first time they walked up. The only person I had ever seen look vaguely confident when they had walked up was Malfoy - seeing as he had known that he would be placed in Slytherin. Professor McGonagall picked up the Sorting Hat, put it on his head, and he sat down on the stool. Even from here I could see the sweat beading on his forehead.

"RAVENCLAW!" the Sorting Hat shouted.

Stewart Ackerley took off the hat and hurried into a seat at the Ravenclaw table, where everyone was applauding him. I rolled my eyes, only joining in on the cheering when Hermione nudged me. I looked over and noticed Harry catch a glimpse of Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Seeker, cheering Stewart Ackerley as he sat down. I rolled my eyes at him. He looked like I had when I'd still had a crush on Cedric before we had started dating. From the look on Harry's face, I had a feeling that, for a fleeting second, he had a strange desire to join the Ravenclaw table too.

"Make it a little more obvious, why don't you?" I snapped at him.

Harry shook his head, looking over at me. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Nothing..." I muttered irritably.

"Baddock, Malcolm!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Malcolm Baddock was a dark-haired young boy who looked the slightest bit like Sirius. The table on the other side of the hall erupted with cheers; I could see Malfoy clapping as Baddock joined the Slytherin's. Was he planning on trying to make another kid into one of his cronies? I wondered whether Malcolm Baddock knew that Slytherin House had turned out more Dark witches and wizards than any other. On my other side, Fred and George were hissing at Malcolm Baddock as he sat down.

"Would you two stop? He could be perfectly nice," I told them.

"Dear, sweet, Tara," George said, leaning over and ruffling my hair.

"So clueless," Fred added.

"Hah-hah," I snapped, throwing them off of me.

"Branstone, Eleanor!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Cauldwell, Owen!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Creevey, Dennis!"

Tiny Dennis Creevey staggered forward, tripping over Hagrid's moleskin, just as Hagrid himself sidled into the Hall through a door behind the teachers' table. About twice as tall as a normal man, and at least three times as broad, Hagrid, with his long, wild, tangled black hair and beard, looked slightly alarming - a misleading impression, for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I knew Hagrid to possess a very kind nature. He winked at us as he sat down at the end of the staff table and watched Dennis Creevey putting on the Sorting Hat. The rip at the brim opened wide.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the Sorting Hat shouted immediately.

At least he would get to be in the same House as his brother. I smiled at him. Hagrid clapped along with the Gryffindor's as Dennis Creevey, beaming widely, took off the Sorting Hat, placed it back on the stool, and hurried over to join his brother. He looked like he was about to stumble face-first onto the ground as he sprinted up the aisle. I laughed at the look on his face. He was more excited than even Collin had been when he'd first arrived in Hogwarts - which was not something easy to beat.

"Colin, I fell in!" Dennis said shrilly, throwing himself into an empty seat. "It was brilliant! And something in the water grabbed me and pushed me back in the boat!"

"Cool! It was probably the giant squid, Dennis!" Colin said, just as excitedly.

"Wow!" Dennis said, as though nobody in their wildest dreams could hope for more than being thrown into a storm-tossed, fathoms-deep lake, and pushed out of it again by a giant sea monster.

It took me a moment to shake myself free from my stupor at the sight of the Creevey brothers. "Congratulations, Dennis. Welcome to Hogwarts," I told him from across the table.

"Thanks!" Dennis said excitedly, beaming at me. It looked like he wasn't going to have the same crush on me that his brother did. I sighed in relief. "What's your name?"

"I'm Tara Nox," I said.

Dennis's eyes lit up. "Oh, Colin's talked about you!"

"N - No!" Colin shouted, looking as though he could have killed his brother. I smiled into my empty plate. "No, I haven't. I mean, I've talked about everyone and I keep telling my family about Hogwarts and -"

"You'll love it here, Dennis," I said, over the top of Colin's stuttering. I just wanted to spare him the embarrassment of trying to explain that he hadn't talked about me to his parents, which was kind of awkward, considering the fact that I had never talked about Colin to anyone back home. "Hogwarts becomes a home for just about everyone who goes here."

"Awesome," Dennis said, beaming.

Thankfully, as I had been talking to Dennis, Colin had remembered himself. "Dennis! Dennis! See that boy down there? The one with the black hair and glasses? See him? Know who he is, Dennis?"

He was pointing to Harry. "You had to have seen that one coming," I whispered to him.

"That'll never get easier," Harry said, rolling her eyes.

Colin was still pointing out Harry to Dennis. Harry looked away, staring very hard at the Sorting Hat, now Sorting Emma Dobbs. I turned back toward the head table, watching as the students continued to move to their new tables. The Sorting continued; boys and girls with varying degrees of fright on their faces moving one by one to the three-legged stool, the line dwindling slowly as Professor McGonagall passed the L's. Very few of the students looked as comfortable as Malfoy had during the Sorting in our First Year.

"Oh hurry up," Ron moaned, massaging his stomach.

"You just ate, you fool," I told him.

"On the train," Ron argued.

"It was just a couple of hours ago!" I snapped.

"A couple of hours ago was a couple of hours ago!" Ron yelled.

"What a stunning revelation, Ron. Thank you," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Now, Ron, the Sorting is much more important than food," Nearly Headless Nick said as 'Madley, Laura!' became a Hufflepuff.

"Course it is, if you're dead," Ron snapped.

"Merlin, Ron... Relax," I muttered.

He'd never had a great attitude once he got hungry. "I do hope this year's batch of Gryffindor's are up to scratch," Nearly Headless Nick said, applauding as 'McDonald, Natalie!' joined the Gryffindor table. "We don't want to break our winning streak, do we?"

Gryffindor had won the Inter-House Championship for the last three years in a row. Our First Year, we had only won because Dumbledore had given us a ton of extra points after we'd saved the Sorcerer's Stone from Quirrell and Voldemort. In our Second Year, we had managed to win after earning points from Dumbledore because we had saved the school from the Basilisk and Voldemort. Last year our winning streak at Quidditch had contributed to our win. So, mostly breaking the rules had allowed us to win. And Dumbledore's minor bias to Gryffindor.

"Don't worry, Nick. We've got two of the best Quidditch players in a century to help out," I told Nick. He grinned as I smiled proudly at myself and Harry. Fred and George cleared their throats impatiently on the other end of the table. "Four. Excuse me."

"Much better," Fred said. I smiled at them.

"Pritchard, Graham!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Quirke, Orla!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

And finally, with 'Whitby, Kevin!' ('HUFFLEPUFF!'), the Sorting ended. I smiled, looking down at the plates. By now, I was actually starting to get hungry. Not that I would admit that to Ron, who had been growling about his stomach for the past ten minutes as the Sorting went on and on. I had a feeling that he would have just as soon pointed at random students and Sorted them that way. Professor McGonagall picked up the Sorting Hat and the stool and carried them both away.

"About time," Ron said, seizing his knife and fork and looking expectantly at his golden plate.

"Wouldn't it be funny if Dumbledore picked now for a huge speech?" I said, snorting into my empty goblet.

"You're a horrible person," Ron growled.

"Yeah," I agreed.

That was what he got for not eating the sandwiches his mother had provided. They weren't always the best things in the world but he should have known that he would be starving by the middle of the evening. As Professor McGonagall walked off, Professor Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. I grinned at him. Come on, Dumbledore. Make a huge speech. Ron groaned in annoyance. He looked like he was about to collapse backward out of the bench seat. Dumbledore was smiling around at the students, his arms opened wide in welcome.

"I have only two words to say to you," Dumbledore told us, his deep voice echoing around the Hall. I groaned in annoyance. That wasn't a big speech. "Tuck in."

"Oh, come on. That wasn't long enough..." I moaned.

"Hear, hear!" Harry and Ron said loudly as the empty dishes filled magically before their eyes.

Everyone on our end of the table laughed. I grinned happily as Pumpkin Juice filled my goblet and chicken legs appeared on my plate. While dinner might have been marvelous, I was really looking forward to dessert. Nothing ever beat dessert at Hogwarts. Chocolate cakes and pies and crepes that went beyond where the eye could see. My mouth watered at the anticipation. Nearly Headless Nick was watching mournfully as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I loaded our own plates. The boys had enough food to feed a small village.

"Aaah, 'at's be'er," Ron said, with his mouth full of mashed potato.

"You're disgusting," I groaned.

Ron merely stared at me. I had a feeling that he was half tempted to show me his half-eaten dinner. "You're lucky there's a feast at all tonight, you know. There was trouble in the kitchens earlier," Nearly Headless Nick said.

"Why? Wha' 'appened?" Harry asked, through a sizable chunk of steak.

"Both of you. Were you raised in a damn barn?" I snapped.

"I was raised on a farm," Ron pointed out.

"But not in a barn," I hissed.

"I was raised in a cupboard under the stairs," Harry said.

"Oh, shut up," I mumbled. "We both know that the Dursley's would have never let you talk with your mouth full of food. Which, come to think of it, is probably why you're doing it." Harry grinned.

"Peeves, of course," Nearly Headless Nick said, shaking his head, which wobbled dangerously. He pulled his ruff a little higher up on his neck. I rolled my eyes. I definitely didn't miss Peeves over the summer. "The usual argument, you know. He wanted to attend the feast - well, it's quite out of the question, you know what he's like, utterly uncivilized, can't see a plate of food without throwing it. We held a ghost's council - the Fat Friar was all for giving him the chance - but most wisely, in my opinion, the Bloody Baron put his foot down."

The very thought of having Peeves at the start-of-term feast was horrifying. That was a good way to make sure that no new students ever wanted to come to Hogwarts. Peeves was bad enough during the occasional passing in the halls. The Bloody Baron was the Slytherin ghost, a gaunt and silent specter covered in silver bloodstains. He was the only person at Hogwarts who could really control Peeves. He was also one of the only ghosts who genuinely scared any of the students - mostly because he never spoke. I had only ever heard him laugh menacingly.

"Yeah, we thought Peeves seemed hacked off about something," Ron said darkly. I snorted under my breath. "So, what did he do in the kitchens?"

"Oh the usual," Nearly Headless Nick said, shrugging. "Wreaked havoc and mayhem. Pots and pans everywhere. Place swimming in soup." It was kind of pathetic that things like that were normal around here. "Terrified the house-elves out of their wits -"

There was a terribly loud clang. Everyone around the table jumped. We had drawn attention from people at all of the other tables. Hermione had knocked over her golden goblet. Pumpkin juice spread steadily over the tablecloth, staining several feet of white linen orange, but Hermione paid no attention. I groaned as some of it spilled into my lap. I jumped up and started dabbing at the stains all over my new robes. There goes another pair of robes. Every year, I had managed to ruin at least one pair.

"Hermione!" I growled, glaring at her. "Watch it."

She completely ignored me. "There are house-elves here? Here at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked, staring, horror-struck, at Nearly Headless Nick.

"Certainly," Nearly Headless Nick said, looking surprised at her reaction. "The largest number in any dwelling in Britain, I believe. Over a hundred."

"I've never seen one!" Hermione said loudly.

"Well, they hardly ever leave the kitchen by day, do they? They come out at night to do a bit of cleaning... see to the fires and so on... I mean, you're not supposed to see them, are you? That's the mark of a good house-elf, isn't it, that you don't know it's there?" Nearly Headless Nick said.

It had never really occurred to me that someone other than Filtch worked in the castle. It was stupid of me. I had really figured that someone just used magic to clean and make everything. I raised a brow. Did house-elves really do everything in the castle? Hermione made a good point. I had never seen any of the house-elves hanging around. Although, Nearly Headless Nick made a point. Most house-elves avoided being seen by the masters that they served. Hermione didn't understand the point, though. She was just staring at him.

She might not have understood the point, but the rest of us did. "They're slaves and servants, Hermione," I told her gently. She turned a horrified look on me. "That's literally the point of them."

"That's disgusting!" Hermione gasped.

"I never said it was nice," I mumbled.

"But they get paid? They get holidays, don't they? And - and sick leave, and pensions, and everything?" Hermione asked.

Was she joking? That was the entire point of my previous mention. The house-elves were barely considered to be living beings. There was no way that they were going to get perks that some normal human workers didn't even get. Nearly Headless Nick chortled so much that his ruff slipped and his head flopped off, dangling on the inch or so of ghostly skin and muscle that still attached it to his neck. I groaned in disgust and looked away, glad that I hadn't eaten too much already. It had always been hard for me to stomach his half-severed neck.

"Sick leave and pensions?" Nearly Headless Nick asked, pushing his head back onto his shoulders and securing it once more with his ruff. Yep. There comes my dinner. "House-elves don't want sick leave and pensions!"

They would think that it was insulting if we tried to offer them anything that a normal worker would ask for. It was definitely sad but it would have taken years and generations to try and upend all of the training that house-elves had ingrained into them. Hermione looked down at her hardly touched plate of food, then put her knife and fork down upon it and pushed it away from her. I rolled my eyes at her. Starving herself wasn't going to do anything from anyone. All it would do would annoy me as she started to get grouchier from hunger.

"Oh c'mon, 'Er-my-knee," Ron said, accidentally spraying Harry with bits of Yorkshire pudding. "Oops - sorry."

"Ron!" I yelped in disgust.

"'Arry -" Ron swallowed. "You won't get them sick leave by starving yourself!"

"Slave labor," Hermione growled, breathing hard through her nose. "That's what made this dinner. Slave labor."

"Yeah, well you're not doing them any good by starving yourself to death," I pointed out.

"I'm not eating this," Hermione snarled.

"So, you're planning on dying, then?" I asked. "That's a truly brilliant way to help them."

Hermione didn't answer. I laughed at her. She was being a complete moron and I knew that she was going to eventually give in. There wasn't the slightest chance that she was going to keep going on this one. Within a day or two, she would start starving and give in. I supposed the only thing left to do would be to let her just have her pissing contest with herself tonight. The boys looked shocked that she was even semi-serious about the entire thing. She wouldn't be bending tonight, at least. Throughout the rest of the meal, Hermione refused to eat another bite.

By the end of the meal, the rain was still drumming heavily against the high, dark glass. I was hoping that it would be warm and sunny by the time we had Herbology or Care of Magical Creatures. Those classes were both awful when we had weather like this. Another clap of thunder shook the windows, and the stormy ceiling flashed, illuminating the golden plates as the remains of the first course vanished and were replaced, instantly, with puddings. I smiled brilliantly. I just wished that the house-elves had made their chocolate cake tonight.

"Treacle tart, Hermione!" Ron said, deliberately wafting its smell toward her. "Spotted dick, look! Chocolate gateau!"

Did they really have to use names like that? I knew that Americans had some extremely strangely named foods, but it was nothing compared to the ones that they had here in England or Scotland. They really weren't good at naming foods. Hermione then gave him a look so reminiscent of Professor McGonagall that he gave up. I shrugged at him, silently letting him know that it would be best to just leave her to her own devices. She would eat again when she was starving - either in the morning or at lunchtime.

When the puddings too had been demolished, and the last crumbs had faded off the plates, leaving them sparkling clean, Albus Dumbledore got to his feet again. I straightened up slightly. This was it. I knew that this was the moment that we were all going to find out whether or not it was really the Triwizard Tournament that was going on at Hogwarts this year. The buzz of chatter filling the Hall ceased almost at once so that only the howling wind and pounding rain could be heard. Everyone had been waiting for this all evening.

"So!" Dumbledore said, smiling around at us all. "Now that we are all fed and watered."

"Hmph!" Hermione huffed.

"Shut up!" I snapped at her.

"I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices," Dumbledore continued. I exchanged a look with Cedric, across the hall. "Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-Yo's, Fanged Frisbee's, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."

The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched. The older students all began chuckling. We all knew that no one would even dare set foot near Filch's office. That was a surefire way to end up getting detention for at least a few nights. I glanced over at the twins, both of whom were looking back at me. Each winked. I laughed at them. There was no doubt that the twins were the reason that over half of those things on the list were now banned. They would definitely manage to add onto it this year, just as they did every year.

Dumbledore continued, "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below Third Year. It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

"What?" Harry gasped.

That's not the Triwizard Tournament. I jumped to my feet and shouted, "That's rubbish!"

"Sit down!" Hermione hissed.

We were supposed to be having a good time this year. Not having the Inter-House Quidditch Cup was one of the best parts of the school year! All around us, the Quidditch players in each House were staring at each other in shock. Hermione wrapped a hand around my robes and yanked me back down into my seat. Cedric looked stunned but was also laughing at my reaction. Harry was dumbfounded. I looked around at Fred and George, my fellow members of the Quidditch team. They were mouthing soundlessly at Dumbledore, apparently too appalled to speak.

Dumbledore went on, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy - but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely." I gasped. This was it. The Triwizard Tournament! "This castle will not only be your home this year but home to some very special guests as well. You see Hogwarts has been chosen -"

Before Dumbledore got the chance to tell us all what was going on, the doors to the Great Hall opened. We all looked back to see Filch come running up the aisle in between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. He was running whilst pulling his knees almost all the way up to his chest. He darted up to Dumbledore and whispered something that no one else could hear. He then turned and ran off in the same fashion. I snorted under my breath in amusement. I certainly wasn't the only one. But Filch only glared at me. So, apparently, we still weren't on good terms.

"Still hates you, I see," Fred said.

"Shocking," I muttered.

"You did try to kill his cat," Fred said.

"Shut up!" I snapped. "I'm going to kill you."

Fred was referencing the moment that had truly made Filch hate me more than he ever had - and he'd never genuinely liked me before. Back in Second Year when a Basilisk had been set loose by the memory of Voldemort to attack the Muggle-Born's in the castle, Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, had been one of the beings to be petrified. Unfortunately, the four of us had been there at the time. My hand had been on her chest to check for a heartbeat when Filch had seen me. He had thought that I'd killed her and attempted to strangle me. I had never gotten an apology and never forgiven him.

Once Filch had vanished back out of the doors, Dumbledore continued. "I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts -"

But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open again. I threw my head back in annoyance. Were we ever going to get on with the announcement of what was going on at Hogwarts this year? Most people ended up screaming at the sudden bang. Unlike Filch's comical entrance, this time had definitely been a lot more frightening. I glanced back and stared at the double doors. My jaw almost dropped at what I saw.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black traveling cloak. Was that really who I thought that it was? It certainly looked like it. Of all of the times that I could have been right about something... Every head in the Great Hall swiveled toward the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling. He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark gray hair, then began to walk up toward the teachers' table. Oh, yeah. It would certainly be an interesting year for us.

A dull clunk echoed through the Hall on his every other step. I stared at him in surprise. Even though I had suggested that Mad-Eye Moody might have been our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, I had never thought that I genuinely might have been right. I was surprised that my parents hadn't mentioned his appointment to me. Moody reached the end of the top table, turned right, and limped heavily toward Dumbledore. Another flash of lightning crossed the ceiling. Hermione - and many other students - gasped.

The lightning had thrown Moody's face into sharp relief, and it was a face unlike any I had ever seen. Mad-Eye Moody was even scarier-looking than the stories made him out to be. It looked as though it had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces are supposed to look like, and was none too skilled with a chisel. Every inch of skin seemed to be scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal gash, and a large chunk of the nose was missing. There was a nasty scar over his cheek. But it was Moody's eyes that made him frightening.

One of them was small, dark, and beady. The other was large, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue. The blue eye was moving ceaselessly, without blinking, and was rolling up, down, and from side to side, quite independently of the normal eye - and then it rolled right over, pointing into the back of the man's head so that all we could see was whiteness. It was his magical eye. I knew that it allowed him to see all around him and through most objects, including walls. It was held in place by an eye patch that went over his forehead and wrapped over the back of his head.

Mad-Eye Moody reached Dumbledore. Everyone was staring at him like he was the newest exhibit in a museum. Which, I supposed, he kind of was. Moody stretched out a hand that was as badly scarred as his face, and Dumbledore shook it, muttering words that none of us could hear. He seemed to be making some inquiry of Moody, who shook his head and replied in an undertone. I hadn't seen him smile - or give any hint of emotion - since walking into the Great Hall. Dumbledore nodded and gestured Moody to the empty seat on his right-hand side.

Moody sat down, shook his mane of dark gray hair out of his face, pulled a plate of sausages toward him, raised it to what was left of his nose, and sniffed it. He then took a small knife out of his pocket, speared a sausage on the end of it, and began to eat. His normal eye was fixed upon the sausages, but the blue eye was still darting restlessly around in its socket, taking in the Hall and the students. Everyone awkwardly shifted around in their seats, presumably waiting for Dumbledore to explain who the hell the newest addition was.

Harry leaned over to me and spoke so quietly that I almost didn't hear him. "Is that -?"

"I believe so," I whispered back, terrified that he might hear me. "Mad-Eye Moody."

"You were right," Harry mumbled.

"Honestly, I was kind of hoping that I was wrong," I said, even more nervous now that I was seeing him fully, and he was seeing me. "He's a little..."

"Scary?" Ron filled in.

"Yep. That's one word for it," I muttered.

Finally, Dumbledore stepped back to his podium in the center of the head table. "May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Dumbledore offered brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."

It was usual for new staff members to be greeted with applause, but none of the staff or students chapped except Dumbledore and Hagrid, who both put their hands together and applauded, but the sound echoed dismally into the silence, and they stopped fairly quickly. Everyone else seemed too transfixed by Moody's bizarre appearance to do more than stare at him. Even the Slytherin's looked completely stunned by the new addition. The tense air was much different than the polite smattering of applause that Remus Lupin had gotten last year.

"Moody?" Harry muttered to Ron. He still sounded disbelieving about the entire thing. "Mad-Eye Moody? The one your dad went to help this morning?"

"Must be," Ron said in a low, awed voice.

"What happened to him?" Hermione whispered. "What happened to his face?"

"Dunno," Ron whispered back, watching Moody with fascination.

Did they ever listen to me? "He was an Auror," I explained to them. They all nodded at me blankly. "He got in a lot of fights with some pretty dangerous witches and wizards over the years."

But I hadn't been expecting him to look quite the way that he did. Moody seemed totally indifferent to his less-than-warm welcome. Ignoring the jug of pumpkin juice in front of him, he reached again into his traveling cloak, pulled out a hip flask, and took a long drought from it. As he lifted his arm to drink, his cloak was pulled a few inches from the ground, and I saw, below the table, several inches of carved wooden leg, ending in a clawed foot. Moody shuddered from whatever it was that he was drinking. Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"What's that he's drinking do you suppose?" Seamus whispered to us.

"I don't know, but I don't think it's pumpkin juice," Harry whispered back.

"Probably Firewhisky," I offered quietly.

That was the only drink I'd ever seen someone shudder that much from. "As I was saying," Dumbledore continued, smiling at the sea of students before him, all of whom were still gazing transfixed at Mad-Eye Moody. Everyone was too focused on Moody to even give Dumbledore a thought. "We are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

So, I was right. We were hosting the Triwizard Tournament. "You're JOKING!" Fred yelled loudly.

The tension that had filled the Hall ever since Moody's arrival suddenly broke. Nearly everyone laughed, and Dumbledore chuckled appreciatively. If I hadn't been so distracted from what Fred had just said, I would have jumped to my feet with anticipation. We would all really get the chance to enter into a competition that hadn't been played in hundreds of years. I was smiling brilliantly. Maybe I would be able to get over the fact that we weren't going to have an Inter-House Quidditch Cup this year. I slowly turned back to Fred and rolled my eyes. He still looked baffled.

"Freddie..." I muttered. He was still staring open-mouthed at Dumbledore. "Say it a little louder, why don't you?"

"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley, though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar," Dumbledore continued, smiling.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly. Fred and George were already muttering to each other about how they were planning on entering the tournament and splitting the winnings. I smiled at them. I should have known that they were planning on entering. They really could have used that prize money. I certainly didn't need it, but I really would have loved to do something without having my name attached to Harry's. This could have been the chance to do something all on my own. It could have been an interesting Fourth Year for me.

"That's so awesome!" I chirped brightly.

"Going to enter?" Fred asked me curiously.

Did I actually have enough nerve to throw my name in the ring? I wasn't completely positive. "Eh... I don't know," I told him honestly. "But I definitely can't wait to watch."

"Er - but maybe this is not the time... no... Where was I?" Dumbledore asked, realizing that Professor McGonagall was warning him against the joke, which I actually kind of wanted to hear. "Ah, yes, the Triwizard Tournament... Well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely.

"The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities - until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

"Wicked..." Fred mumbled, grinning.

"That's what you find fascinating?" I asked disbelievingly.

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Fred asked me happily.

My jaw dropped. "You stole my line."

Although I probably deserved it, after the many times I had used it against him. Fred grinned and stole two cookies off of my plate, tossing one to George. I scowled at them but didn't push it any further. They had already taken my food and there was no way that I could get it back without having to attack them, which would have certainly resulted in me getting detention for at least a week. No, I would have to settle with just glaring at them and promising that I would get them back for it later.

"Death toll?" Hermione whispered, looking alarmed.

Nothing had been that safe three hundred years ago. I wasn't that concerned about it. Neither, did it seem, was anyone else. Her anxiety definitely did not seem to be shared by the majority of students in the Hall; many of them were whispering excitedly to one another. My mind was already off in the far reaches of what could await the person (me) who won the tournament. I was far more interested in hearing about the structure of the redone tournament than in worrying about deaths that had happened hundreds of years ago.

Since Hermione was still muttering nervously, I leaned over to her. "The tasks were so dangerous that kids were getting way in over their heads. They were going in too young and unprepared," I whispered.

"And they think that it's a good idea to bring it back?" Hermione asked.

"Shut up, Hermione," I groaned at her.

This was a wonderful idea! Finally, something dangerous and actually fun that we could do! "There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament, none of which has been very successful," Dumbledore continued, over the rising chatter in the hall. "However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger.

"The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween," Dumbledore said. I smiled. In a month we would be meeting other students from all over the country. "An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

Impartial, my ass. They were always going to be slightly biased. "I'm going for it!" Fred hissed from down the table, his face lit with enthusiasm at the prospect of such glory and riches.

"Maybe I'll go for it," I said dreamily.

"Really?" Hermione asked, looking quite shocked about the entire thing.

"I'm thinking about it," I said honestly.

Wouldn't that be fun? To compete in something that was voluntary, for once, and maybe not be risking my life for it. Fred Weasley was definitely not the only person who seemed to be visualizing himself as the Hogwarts champion. At every House table, I could see people either gazing raptly at Dumbledore or else whispering fervently to their neighbors. It seemed that students of all ages were debating on whether or not they had what it took to become the Hogwarts champion. It was the one time we had all been on board with the exact same thing. Everyone wanted to be the champion.

Naturally, only one of us would actually become the Hogwarts champion. I glanced off proudly, still thinking about myself getting crowned the Triwizard Tournament champion when I met eyes with Cedric. His chest was puffed out proudly. Oh, yeah... He was probably thinking about entering the tournament. I would have gladly thrown my support to him. But this was also the perfect time to throw it back in Malfoy's face. Cedric slowly turned to me and nodded, seemingly confirming that he was going for it. Eventually, Dumbledore spoke again, and the Hall quieted once more.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts, the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year," Dumbledore continued. There was a lot of looks exchanged between the younger students, myself included. "Only students who are of age - that is to say, seventeen years or older - will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration."

What? It meant that I couldn't enter. "That's rubbish!" Fred and George shouted together, rising to their feet.

"You don't know what you're doing!" George yelled.

"Oh, come on!" I yelped, disappointed.

This," Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words, myself included, and the Weasley twins were suddenly looking furious, "is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below Sixth and Seventh Year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion."

His light blue eyes twinkled as they flickered over Fred's and George's mutinous faces. Damn it... We really weren't going to get a chance to enter in the Triwizard Tournament? I couldn't believe that I wouldn't be able. But, at least I would be able to throw my support to someone else. It definitely wouldn't be Fred or George. Having been born on April Fool's Day, they wouldn't be seventeen until months after the Triwizard Tournament began. They were just slightly too young to put their names forward.

Dumbledore continued. "I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen."

"Damn it... There goes that idea..." I mumbled.

"You really wanted to do it?" Hermione asked me.

"I was definitely thinking about it," I told her.

There was definitely some disappointment in my chest. I really had wanted to at least throw my name into the ring. It could have been fun to at least get excited over potentially getting my name pulled. I looked up again and smiled at Cedric, who was looking even happier. Despite being a Sixth Year, he would be seventeen at the beginning of October, just before the drawing of the names. He would be able to put his name forward. I supposed that I would just have to be content with supporting him. At least, this time, it would be someone else risking their life this year.

The twins were muttering mutinously down at their end of the table. I grinned. They definitely weren't going to be ready to give up on this as easily as I was. Of course, they needed that money to start their joke shop. I knew that the two of them would be trying to figure out a way to submit their names anyway. After all, the Goblet of Fire was a binding contract. If they were to be picked, it wouldn't matter how old they were. They would be in the tournament. But it definitely wouldn't be easy to fool Dumbledore.

"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected," Dumbledore continued. "And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"

It was definitely exciting. I knew that the next month would be interesting. We would all be constantly talking about and wondering who was going to get picked as the Hogwarts champion. But now everyone was muttering among themselves about whether or not they could still somehow get their names put in. Dumbledore sat down again and turned to talk to Mad-Eye Moody. There was a great scraping and banging as all the students got to their feet and swarmed toward the double doors into the entrance hall. I'd have to ask Cedric tonight about his plans.

"They can't do that!" George said furiously, who had not joined the crowd moving toward the door, but was standing up and glaring at Dumbledore. I laid a hand on his shoulder and shoved him forward. "We're seventeen in April, why can't we have a shot?"

"They're not stopping me entering," Fred said stubbornly, also scowling at the top table. "The champions will get to do all sorts of stuff you'd never be allowed to do normally. And a thousand Galleons prize money!"

"Yeah," Ron mumbled, a faraway look on his face. "Yeah, a thousand Galleons..."

As they continued chattering among themselves, I threw myself forward in between the twins. "So... will you two tell me how you're planning on beating the Goblet of Fire?" I asked them, throwing my arms over their shoulders.

"Once we figure it out," Fred said.

"Help us?" George asked.

If any of us was going to get the chance to get into the Triwizard Tournament, it definitely should have been one of them. "You're closer to seventeen than me. Sure," I said carelessly.

"You wanted to enter?" Fred asked.

"Yeah. Kind of. Throw it in Malfoy's face," I explained. The twins laughed. "Surprised I'd want to?"

"I'd cheer you on as you get flattened by a giant snake or something like that," Fred teased.

"I've already beaten a giant snake," I pointed out. "Try again, asshole."

"Language, Tara," Fred said playfully.

He laughed again as I whacked him over the back of his head. "Come on, we'll be the only ones left here if you don't move," Hermione told us.

She was the only one who didn't seem to care even the slightest bit about the upcoming Triwizard Tournament. Of course, she had always been the one who had blatantly tried following the rules. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and I set off for the entrance hall, Fred and George debating the ways in which Dumbledore might stop those who were under seventeen from entering the tournament. I grinned at them. It definitely wasn't going to be anything cruel, but it would probably be a pretty good joke to embarrass the perpetrator.

"Who's this impartial judge who's going to decide who the champions are?" Harry asked.

"Dunno, but it's them we'll have to fool. I reckon a couple of drops of Aging Potion might do it, George..." Fred said knowledgeably.

"It's not a person. It's a goblet that chooses," I told them.

"What?" Harry asked, baffled.

"I don't know. That's just how it works," I said.

"Even easier!" Fred said happily. "An inanimate object."

Were they that clueless? It was probably going to make things even harder. But I would have liked seeing them try and figure things out. "But it's able to kind of read a person based on the name that they submit. The Goblet of Fire will know that you're underage. You'll have to do something really drastic if you want your name to get picked," I explained.

"Would it matter?" Harry asked.

"Dumbledore knows you're not of age, though," Ron pointed out.

"The goblet's a binding contract. If your name is drawn, you're in," I told them.

"That seems dangerous," Hermione said suspiciously.

I would have thought, by now, that Hermione would have understood that nothing in this school was genuinely safe. It was part of going to a school that used magic for everything. "But it would never let someone underage submit their name," I said, not entirely sure if that was true. "Oh, who cares? We'll find out in a few weeks."

"Yeah, but Dumbledore's not the one who decides who the champion is, is he?" Fred asked shrewdly. For once, he wasn't completely wrong. Maybe the goblet could pick someone who was underage. "Sounds to me like once the goblet knows who wants to enter, it'll choose the best from each school and never mind how old they are. Dumbledore's trying to stop us giving our names."

"The goblet might end up ignoring your names," I pointed out.

"Worth a try, right?" Fred asked.

"Sure. What's the worst that could happen?" I said.

There was no way that Dumbledore would curse the goblet. They might be a little surprised and embarrassed, but it wouldn't kill them. "People have died, though!" Hermione said in a worried voice as we walked through a door concealed behind a tapestry and started up another, narrower staircase.

"Yeah, but that was years ago, wasn't it?" Fred asked airily. "Anyway, where's the fun without a bit of risk?"

"There's a good way to go about it," I said, giggling.

"Hey, Ron, what if we find out how to get 'round Dumbledore? Fancy entering?" Fred asked his brother.

"What do you reckon?" Ron asked Harry, who looked to still be in deep thought. "Be cool to enter, wouldn't it? But I suppose they might want someone older... Dunno if we've learned enough..."

"I'd do it," I said brightly.

"I'd root for you," Ron said, piping up.

"Thanks," I said happily.

"We wouldn't," the twins said together.

"Thanks, boys," I deadpanned.

"We need that prize money," Fred pointed out.

"You don't," George added.

"Okay, I suppose that's a fair point," I conceded.

"I definitely haven't," Nevile's gloomy voice came from behind Fred and George. "I expect my gran would want me to try, though. She's always going on about how I should be upholding the family honor. I'll just have to - oops..."

Neville's foot had sunk right through a step halfway up the staircase. I frowned at the sight of him. I'd gotten caught up in those stairs before, but not since my First Year when I was still learning my way around the castle. There were many of those kinds of trick stairs at Hogwarts; it was second nature to most of the older students to jump that particular step, but Neville's memory was notoriously poor. Harry and Ron seized him under the armpits and pulled him out, while a suit of armor at the top of the stairs creaked and clanked, laughing wheezily.

"You okay, Neville?" I asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Fine. Thanks..." Neville muttered awkwardly.

"Shut it, you," Ron said, banging down the visor of the suit of armor as we passed.

The suits of armor didn't like most of the students seeing as we were all so destructive. They hadn't liked me since I had toppled them over after slamming headfirst into Fred and George one afternoon. Not talking anymore, we made our way up to the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, which was concealed behind a large portrait of a fat lady in a pink silk dress. We all stared at each other. None of us were Prefects which meant that none of us knew the password to get into the Common Room.

"Password?" the Fat Lady asked as we approached.

"Balderdash, a Prefect downstairs told me," George said.

The portrait swung forward to reveal a hole in the wall through which we all climbed. At least this time, Neville didn't trip over it, as he so often did. A crackling fire warmed the circular Common Room, which was full of squashy armchairs and tables. I smiled at the sight of it. I had genuinely missed being here. Hermione cast the merrily dancing flames a dark look, and I distinctly heard her mutter 'Slave labor' before bidding us a brief good night and disappearing through the doorway to the girls' dormitory. She hadn't even bothered to wait for me.

"Uh... goodnight!" I yelled after her. She didn't respond.

"She'll get over it," Ron said.

But it likely wouldn't happen until the middle of the day tomorrow, which meant that she would be annoying me for the next twelve hours. "When she realizes that starving herself to death isn't exactly helping the house-elves," I told them. "Alright, boys. I'm going to bed. See you in the morning."

"Night, Tara," Harry said.

"See you tomorrow," Ron added.

Harry, Ron, Neville, and I climbed up the last, spiral staircase until we had all reached our own dormitories, which were both situated at the top of the tower. I said a final goodnight to the others quickly, ducking into their dorm for a brief second. Dean and Seamus were already getting into bed; Seamus had pinned his Ireland rosette to his headboard, and Dean had tacked up a poster of Viktor Krum over his bedside table. His old poster of the West Ham football team was pinned right next to it. I gave the two of them a hug before ducking back out.

Once I had let them know that I would see them again in the morning, I headed back out of the boys' dormitory and walked into the girls'. Five four-poster beds with deep crimson hangings stood against the walls, each with its owner's trunk at the foot. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown were already in bed. They were chattering with each other happily. Fay Dunbar looked like she was already half-asleep. Hermione was in the middle of getting ready for bed, still muttering to herself about the treatment of the house-elves.

"Hermione, you're going mental. Starving yourself isn't the way to go about this," I sighed, shaking my head at Lavender's endless supply of glittery makeup and overly-colored clothing.

"It's slave-labor!" Hermione gasped.

"They're kept warm and well-fed in the castle. This is better than most of the house-elves could ever dream of," I argued.

"It's attitudes like that..." Hermione muttered.

This definitely wasn't a conversation that I was prepared to have tonight. "Okay, fine. Goodnight," I told her bluntly.

"There has to be something we can do," Hermione said suddenly.

"We?" I repeated, shaking my head. "I think not."

"You're all for them being treated like slaves?" Hermione asked.

Better to appreciate the fact that they were being treated well here rather than trying - and failing - to make any headway on their equality. "They might not be paid but they're being housed and fed and kept safe and sound. Paying them would be an insult to their own pride. They were made to be servants. They're used to it," I tried to point out. "It's going to take a lot more than a determined teenager to change that."

"But -" Hermione started.

"Go to bed!" I yelled.

Parvati, Lavender, and Fay all jumped and snapped at us to be quiet. I rolled my eyes and flopped over in bed, facing Hermione. The five of us all quickly got changed - myself trying not to get too messy, considering my upcoming date - and got back into bed. Someone - a house-elf, no doubt - had placed warming pans between the sheets. It was extremely comfortable, lying there in bed and listening to the storm raging outside. I was half surprised that Hermione hadn't thrown the warming pan in her sheets onto the floor.

"I might go in for it, you know, if Fred and George find out how to... the tournament... you never know, do you?" I told Hermione through the darkness.

"That's a death sentence," Hermione responded.

"Maybe not," I replied.

If they were bringing back the Triwizard Tournament, there was no way that it was going to be that brutal. Probably scarier rather than anything else. I laid back in bed again and stared up at the ceiling, thinking about the upcoming tournament. There was definitely no way that we were going to be allowed to compete. Any of us. Especially not me. I was far too young. But I could always think and dream about it. In the meantime, I knew exactly who was going to be competing - at least, who would actually be allowed to compete.

Definitely Cedric. It would have shocked me if he wasn't planning on competing. He had seemed excited about this in the weeks leading up to our return to Hogwarts. I had seen that look on his face when we were sitting together in the Great Hall. He had looked so proud. I was positive that he was planning on entering. He was just within the age bracket. I smiled at the thought. At least I would have someone that I knew well enough that it wouldn't feel weird to root for him just because he was from Hogwarts.

A few hours passed that I spent reading and sorting my things and thinking about the tournament. I would definitely be the first one who got themselves unpacked. I didn't want to lay down and potentially end up falling asleep. I would never hear the end of it from Cedric. So, I worked in relative silence. Thankfully, none of the other girls heard me. I knew that they would start questioning what I was doing and I didn't want anyone to know about those midnight meetups that I had in the Astronomy Tower with Cedric.

When the clocks throughout Hogwarts finally began chiming that midnight had come, I slowly slipped from my bed, still in my pajamas, and started heading toward the Astronomy Tower. It was a long walk from the Gryffindor Common Room all the way there. The Astronomy Tower was on the other side of the school. It wasn't the smartest idea to wander through the halls without the Invisibility Cloak, but I had forgotten to ask for it and I wasn't sure if Harry would have let me borrow it anyway. I wasn't really sure that I was concerned about it anyway.

If the Hufflepuff Prefect, Cedric Diggory, could make it to the Astronomy Tower without one, so could I. There was no way that I was letting him outdo me in the rule-breaking area. I wound through the halls and up the staircases that led to the Astronomy Tower as quickly as possible, grateful that I hadn't yet run into Peeves. I assumed that he was downstairs, causing a ruckus in the kitchens again. Eventually, I arrived at the spiral staircase that led to the tower and clambered up it. Cedric was already there, seated against the bars. He turned back to me and grinned.

"Look who's on time," Cedric teased.

"So, tell me, are you entering in the Triwizard Tournament?" I asked immediately, not bothering to beat around the bush.

"Hello to you, too," Cedric said.

"Come on. Tell me," I goaded.

Cedric grinned. "Here. For you."

Cedric reached back and tossed a wrapped Chocolate Frog at me, which I just barely managed to catch. "Ah. Thank you," I said happily, beginning to unwrap it. "Now are you going to tell me whether or not you're entering the tournament?"

But I knew that he was going to let me sweat this one out for a while. I supposed that I deserved it. Cedric grinned again and motioned me toward the bars. I walked over and dropped down next to him, watching the moon off in the distance. Cedric's arms wound around my shoulders as I smiled and leaned up against his shoulder. It was a nice night out - slightly breezy but still warm. It would be bitter cold in a matter of weeks. We stared up at the moon together for a long while as I chewed on my Chocolate Frog, waiting for Cedric to tell me the truth.

"I'm entering, Tara," Cedric said suddenly.

I lifted my head off of his shoulder. "You're really going to do it?"

"Surprised?" Cedric asked.

"I'm impressed," I said honestly. He beamed. "You're really going to go for it?"

"Dad told me about the tournament a few weeks ago," Cedric said. I furrowed my brows. Why hadn't my parents told me? "I started thinking about it more and more and I realized that I really want to give it a shot. This is the kind of glory that Hufflepuff has never gotten. I've always wanted to do something great and this would really be a good chance."

The passion in his voice was more than I'd ever heard before. He was serious about this. I smiled at him. Maybe this was my warning that I really shouldn't have made an attempt to enter the competition. Especially given that I was underage by a few years. I likely wouldn't have been able to make it work anyway. Dumbledore was much smarter than I was. I would have never been able to outsmart him. But Cedric would be seventeen in a few weeks. It would be nice to support someone else and not just because they were from Hogwarts.

So, I finally said, "You have my full support, then."

Cedric's head whipped around to me. He looked shocked. "I do?" he asked.

"You look surprised," I said.

"Honestly, I thought that you might want to try and enter yourself," Cedric said.

"You know me well," I teased.

"Believe it or not, I do," Cedric replied.

He did. With the exception of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Cedric probably knew me best. I leaned forward and pressed a long kiss against his mouth. Cedric smiled into it, raising his hand up to my hair and knotting it in. We stayed together for a long time as Cedric pushed me up against the bars over the edge of the Astronomy Tower. I smiled as I threw my legs up into his lap. It was well over ten minutes later that we finally pulled apart, laughing at each other. We definitely couldn't do that in the middle of the day, in between classes.

Cedric threaded his hand with mine as I leaned up against his shoulder. "I really thought about entering the tournament," I admitted. Cedric laughed, probably already well-aware that I had been planning on giving it a shot. "There's got to be some way to fool the Goblet of Fire into thinking that I'm older. But Dumbledore will be watching and I'm sure he'll think of something comically cruel to do to those who try and enter even though they're underage. But if my name were to get pulled when I'm still two years too young, I'll get in way more trouble than I've ever been in before.

In all honesty, I had probably thought about how to enter the Triwizard Tournament way too much. "Those are all good reasons to keep yourself from entering," Cedric said, laughing. "Maybe let someone else have the spotlight for the year?"

"Well, if I have to give it up," I teased, moaning pitifully. Cedric laughed. "I think you can do it."

"Get picked?" Cedric asked.

That had to come first. He wouldn't be in the Triwizard Tournament unless his name was drawn from the Goblet of Fire. "Yeah. It evaluates who it thinks is the most worthy person in the school. They'd be hard-pressed to find someone who's more well-rounded," I told him truthfully. "You're good at almost everything in school, you're brave and kind and, let's face it, we'd all have an easy time supporting you."

"Why's that?" Cedric asked.

"Don't be stupid," I huffed. Cedric arched a brow. Guess I'm going to have to admit it. "I'm not the only person in the school who likes looking at you."

There was no doubt in my mind that Cedric Diggory was one of the most attractive people in Hogwarts. He laughed loudly as I winked playfully at him. I pulled myself out of his grasp and leaned back against the stone on the floor. No near-death experiences this year. That was something that I could definitely get used to. Although, it had occurred to me, what would I do with my time? I supposed that I would have to help Cedric with the tasks in the tournament. I was too nosy to keep to myself. I would have to see what was going on.

It went without saying that Cedric knew I wouldn't leave him alone during the tournament. I liked being involved in things. Cedric sat up for a few more minutes, watching the moon, before finally coming to lay down next to me. I immediately tucked my head down into his shoulder. A second later I felt Cedric's fingers press underneath my chin. He pulled my head up to meet his own, pressing a long kiss against my mouth. When we finally broke apart, I settled back into his chest, completely content on staying here all night.

"You really have faith, then?" Cedric finally asked.

"I do," I said honestly.

He looked quite proud of himself. I smiled at him. "Some of your friends probably won't like that," Cedric pointed out.

The last thing any of them would want was me supporting Cedric. "No, probably not. I've got a vague idea that a lot of the Sixth and Seventh Years in Gryffindor want to enter and I'm pretty sure that they think that they'll be picked," I told him awkwardly. "You know..."

Cedric waved off my concern. "Hey, no, I get it. Gryffindor's tend to get most of the glory. They always have. They'll probably be expecting one of theirs to be picked."

Unfortunately, he was right. "I'm sure they will," I replied. They would likely think that they would get their name pulled, but I genuinely thought that it would be Cedric. He just seemed so right for being the Hogwarts champion. He was all of the best qualities of all of the Houses. "Fred and George really want to enter but they're a few months too young."

Cedric laughed. He must have known that they would give it a try. "So, I can imagine that we're going to see the two of them doing something magnificent to try and enter?" Cedric asked.

"Oh, they'll figure something out," I said, laughing at the thought. "I'm thinking of suggesting an Aging Potion."

"You think that'll work?" Cedric asked me disbelievingly.

"Not at all," I said quickly, waving him off. There was no way that an Aging Potion would fool Dumbledore. That was likely the most obvious answer for someone to put their name forward. "I think Dumbledore's way smarter than an Aging Potion. But I'm also kind of curious to see what happens when the Goblet of Fire has someone underage enter."

It was Fred and George, after all. They could take a joke. "You're terrible," Cedric said, laughing.

"Yeah," I answered bluntly.

But I was only a little bit terrible. It was mostly just for good fun. I didn't want either one of them to get seriously hurt. We both laughed at my blunt answer as I wrapped a hand around Cedric's shirt and pulled him into me. Cedric laughed again as I pressed a lingering kiss against his mouth. Cedric grinned into the kiss as he pushed me underneath himself, down against the stone. Cedric's hands wound up to tangle in my hair. We remained locked together, our legs wrapped around each other's, for a long time. I giggled happily against his mouth.

When we finally pulled apart, I threw my legs over his, laying back against the stone. "What kind of tasks do you think the champions will have to do?" I asked curiously.

Cedric hummed thoughtfully. "In past years I know that they've done obstacle courses," Cedric said. I hummed thoughtfully at him. That could have been kind of cool. "Part of it will be physical. Then there will be a chance to test your knowledge of spells. Difficult transfiguration and maybe a chance to prove that you understand potions."

"Sounds kind of like what we went through in our First Year," I said.

"Hmm?"

"Back in First Year, when we were down in the dungeons, we went through this obstacle course type thing that had been set up by the teachers to protect the Sorcerer's Stone," I told Cedric. I hadn't actually explained to him exactly what had happened when we had gone down into the dungeons. "There was Fluffy - a three-headed dog - the Devil's Snare, the hunt for the correct key, the giant chessboard, the riddle with the potions, and the question of how to find the Stone."

Cedric started laughing. "That must have been fascinating."

"Would have been a lot more interesting had Voldemort not tried to kill us immediately after," I said honestly.

Cedric twitched slightly. "Right... I always forget about that little tidbit."

"Uh-huh," I muttered disbelievingly.

"What?"

"I saw how panicked you were after. You looked the same way after the Chamber of Secrets."

"Maybe if you'd stop putting your life in danger."

"What fun would that be?"

Cedric laughed. "You're right. Silly me. What fun could something be if you didn't have to risk your life for it?"

"Says the one who's going to enter the Triwizard Tournament," I shot back.

"You'll be cheering for me, right?" Cedric asked.

"As long as you win," I replied.

"Tara!" Cedric gasped.

"I can't be seen cheering for a loser," I gasped.

He merely stared at me. "You are a terrible person."

"But you like me anyway," I teased.

"Merlin knows why that is," Cedric huffed.

In the back of my mind, I had a feeling that Cedric might have just had the slightest inkling that I wasn't the best kind of person. He would have been right about that. I might have been fun and goofy, but I was also definitely not the best person in the world. Thankfully, Cedric had never seemed to mind that much. I barked out a laugh at Cedric as pulled me in for another long kiss. We stayed locked together as Cedric pushed the hair back off of my forehead. We stayed with our legs tangled together for a long time before finally breaking apart.

I stared off at the stars for a little while, thinking about the upcoming tournament. "It'll be so cool to get to see people from the other wizarding schools. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang," I said. Cedric nodded his agreement. "Not that I really care much for those schools."

Cedric chuckled. "Do you care for any schools other than Ilvermorny or Hogwarts?"

"No," I answered immediately.

"Of course not."

It was too good of an opportunity to pass up. "But if they made a school specifically for Irish Quidditch players, then we'd be talking," I teased, rolling onto my stomach to face Cedric.

He grinned bitterly at me, well-aware that I was messing with him. "If we're going to play that way, how about we talk about your fondness for a particular Ravenclaw student?" Cedric shot back.

My grin immediately fell. I searched the far reaches of my mind to try and remember if I had ever told Cedric the exact reason that I didn't like Cho Chang. Had I really admitted to him that I hated her because she had a crush on him? Idiot... Why would I have ever said that? Maybe I hadn't. Maybe my hatred of her was really that obvious. If anyone would have noticed, it was definitely him. I supposed that it didn't really matter now. He clearly knew, judging by the way that Cedric was grinning at me.

"Touché, my friend," I conceded.

"As your friend, let me tell you something," Cedric said. I laughed at his statement. "You're not very discreet."

I laughed. "I wasn't trying to be discreet."

I'd never tried to be discreet, but I had also hoped that he hadn't noticed. "I'm not interested in Cho Chang, nor will I ever be. She is my friend and nothing more," Cedric said.

"Well, this would be a bad place to tell me that you were interested in her. That's about a fifty story plunge to the ground," I pointed out.

Cedric laughed. "You wouldn't kill me."

"Nah..." I admitted. But if he ever told me that he had a crush on Cho Chang, I would definitely kick him where the sun didn't shine. "I guess I'd miss you. Just a little bit."

"You already said you would miss me, you can't take it back!" Cedric yelped.

"Damn me," I groaned.

We both laughed as we leaned back on the stone floor together. I wished that he had brought a blanket or that I had the Invisibility Cloak to sleep on. My head was tucked down into his shoulder as I rested against his hip. For a long while, we remained silent, watching the night sky and enjoying a few moments of privacy that we never got to enjoy otherwise. When classes started again, it would be almost impossible for us to get a moment alone. The teachers were very careful about letting two students go off in private together.

Eventually, we started chatting again. Our conversation quickly evolved into one about the Triwizard Tournament. We talked about everything. The ones that we had heard of before, the tasks that could have been prepared, and who else we thought might have been trying to put their name forward. There were multiple Sixth and Seventh Years in every House who would want to put their names forward. Cedric had a feeling that some of his own friends were also planning on putting forward their names. But even they were determined that he would likely get pulled.

But that only lasted for so long. Like any good teenagers who were sneaking out in the middle of the night, we spent a lot of times connected at the mouth. His hands rested down against my hips as mine wound around the back of his neck. I pressed one of my hands against the back of Cedric's neck, ensuring that he couldn't back away. Not that I thought that he was planning on moving away anytime soon. And that was the truth. It was well over an hour later when we finally pulled back with swollen lips and mussed hair.

"So... I see Colin Creevey's, Harry Potter/Tara Nox fan club is continuing to grow," Cedric teased.

"Oh, shut up," I growled.

It wasn't funny. It was awkward for everyone involved. "You just go so red when they talk to you," Cedric chuckled giddily. "Although, it's nothing compared to how red he goes when you talk to him."

"I'm going to give Phil Troy a call, how about that?" I shot back.

"At this point, it seems that you'll be able to add him to the fan club," Cedric teased.

"Ugh," I groaned, annoyed that he wouldn't play into my game.

Cedric grinned brightly. "Didn't get the answer you wanted?"

"I'm not giving you the satisfaction," I snapped.

Cedric laughed, running his hand over my hipbone. "What do you say we go back to our Common Rooms?"

"Maybe a few more minutes," I said playfully.

Cedric's lips turned up in a smile. "Oh, good. That was the answer I was hoping for."

It was easy to get him to stay with me. It was the exact same way to get me to not want to move. I laughed again as I gave Cedric a little kiss that quickly turned into a big one. My heart raced with excitement as he kept my body pressed roughly against his. Cedric once more leaned over me and pressed my back down against the stone ground. My legs found their place in between his own. Yes, I was definitely glad that he had offered me a few more minutes. Although, it had already been almost half an hour past when we had said that we would go.

That near half an hour had quickly devolved into something much more. Something almost like what had been on my mind for the past few months each time we'd been together like this. The two of us remained locked together for a long time. It would likely be the early hours of the morning by the time we left. When we finally broke apart, we remained on the floor, watching the stars dance across the sky. We quickly moved back against each other again. We didn't even pull away when the sky turned pink, signaling that the sun would be coming up soon.

It was definitely past four o'clock in the morning when the time came that we finally pulled apart. We didn't talk for a long time. Instead, we settled on laying together as I enjoyed the brief silence that we had. Neither one of us got much of a chance to enjoy our time together like this. Usually, we were always moving. Not only that, but there were also usually too many people around who wanted to watch us to see what was happening. I liked these moments of peace that didn't involve the peanut gallery listening in.

"You know, we're going to be exhausted tomorrow morning when we should really be ready for class," I told Cedric.

His eyes shot open. "Are you joking?" Cedric asked. I shook my head. "You're starting to sound like Hermione."

Starting to turn into Hermione. That was a horrifying thought. "Oh... Oh, my... Cedric, I think you're right," I gasped, placing a hand on my chest. He laughed at my sudden panic. "I'm spending so much time with her that I'm starting to turn into her. I need to do something with the twins. Or Ron. Or Harry. Or literally anyone else."

"Imagine the horrors of what could happen if you went to sleep on time or actually paid attention in class," Cedric teased.

"You're right. Horrible visions of the future, honestly," I told him.

Cedric snorted in amusement. "Should we go back to the Common Rooms?"

"Five more minutes," I moaned.

"Don't have to twist my arm," Cedric said immediately.

We both laughed again as I pulled Cedric in for another kiss. I was extremely grateful that we had managed to enjoy the few times like this that we got together without getting caught. That was the most surprising part of this entire thing. It had definitely been more than five minutes when I pulled away from him, annoyed that it was definitely time to go back to our respective Common Rooms. I had a feeling that classes would be starting in about two hours, leaving not much time to actually sleep. Oh, well... A problem for tomorrow, I supposed.

"Okay. Time to head back to the Common Rooms, I think," I told him, gently pushing myself back.

"Shall we?" Cedric offered, rising to his feet.

"Definitely," I said, taking his hand and pulling myself up.

"Definitely?" Cedric asked.

"In reference to the fact that we should definitely get going because I'll never hear the end of it from Hermione if I start falling asleep in the middle of class on the first day," I told him.

Cedric laughed. "Fair enough. Come on."

We both wandered down the spiral staircase and hurried through the hall. We had to be quick about things to ensure that we didn't get caught by any of the teachers who were on patrol duty. We headed toward the turret of Gryffindor Tower. I wasn't going to walk Cedric all the way there, but we could have a brief moment together. We stopped a floor below the stairs for Gryffindor Tower when I leaned in for a small kiss. It was extremely brief since neither one of us could afford getting caught out of bed, after hours.

"Goodnight, Cedric. I'll see you in the morning," I said sweetly.

"Goodnight, Tara," Cedric replied.

We leaned in and I pressed another quick kiss against his mouth. My heart fluttered slightly. I really did like being with him. It was at moments like these, though, that I wondered just how much I genuinely did like him. Was it finally more than just a big crush? I didn't want to think about it right now. I woke up the Far Lady (who didn't look happy to be woken up from her 'beauty sleep') darted back into the Gryffindor Common Room, and immediately dropped into my bed. There was barely an hour left before classes began, but I still couldn't fall asleep.

After a while, I rolled over in bed, a series of dazzling new pictures forming in my mind's eye. I had somehow managed to hoodwink the Goblet of Fire into believing that I was seventeen. I had become the Hogwarts champion. I was standing on the grounds, my arms raised in triumph in front of the whole school, all of whom were applauding and screaming. I had just won the Triwizard Tournament. Cedric's face stood out particularly clearly in the blurred crowd, his face glowing with admiration. I grinned into my pillow, exceptionally glad that Hermione couldn't see what I could.

A/N: Next time... The students have their first day back at Hogwarts and enjoy a brief lesson with Mad-Eye Moody. We're finally back at Hogwarts! Oh, I'm looking so forward to this story. It'll be great. Hopefully you guys like it, no matter where I choose to go with the story. Thanks for all of the follows and favorites! Please review! Until next time -A

Ghostie1701: Happy belated Valentine's Day! Hope you had a good one. Yes, we're finally back to Hogwarts! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter. Yep, the funeral is pretty much exactly what I was thinking when I wrote that line. Cedric is definitely picking up on the hints from Fred and we'll eventually hear more about that. That would have been funny! You know that Marcus would have Apparated onto the train just to kill Malfoy. Oh, man, Marcus is going to lose it if he ever hears the way that Draco talks to Tara. Hope you liked this one!

Guest: Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I'm glad that you at least enjoyed the original parts. Those are my favorite to write. Your comment is definitely understood. I will start diverting from the books later on, but for now, I'm still following the story closely. I appreciate the comment about my good writing but I disagree that my OC is cliche. Of course, we're both allowed to have our opinions and I'm obviously biased. If you choose to continue reading the story, I hope that you do enjoy.

pottersimpala67: Tara is definitely a jealous one! It'll pop up more in the coming chapters - and not always towards Cho. The slight tension between Fred and Cedric will continue throughout the story and we'll eventually see a real interaction between them. I'm so excited for the Yule Ball! It's one of the chapters I've been the most excited for this entire time. I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter! Unfortunately, I think if Tara showed real support for Cedric, her Gryffindor friends would probably try to pin her down and wash it off. Hope you liked this one!