Cedric and Harry walked back to their dorms together. They walked in silence, Harry not knowing what to say. Eventually they reached a point where they needed to go separate ways and they came to a stop.

"Look… I'm really sorry." Harry said, feeling the statement was completely inadequate.

Cedric gave him that funny look again. "You really didn't want to enter?" He asked once more. Harry shook his head.

"I swear on my magic." He said lightly, then jumped out of his skin when he suddenly glowed.

"Wow. A magical oath, you didn't need to go that far Potter." Cedric joked, but Harry could feel the tension leek out of the air.

"Erm… I don't know what it is?" He said awkwardly.

"What?" Cedric asked, obviously shocked.

"I don't know what I just did." Harry repeated.

"Aren't you a half-blood?" Cedric asked.

"Well, yeah, but I don't exactly have parents to tell me these things." Harry said annoyed. "What was that?"

"Sorry." Said Cedric, and sounded like he really meant it. "I just thought… I mean surely you were brought up by wizards?" Harry shook his head and Cedric's jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Nope. I didn't even know about magic until I got my letter."

"Bloody hell." Cedric looked truly shocked. "Right, well, what you just took was a magical oath. You should really finish with 'so mote it be', and then if you lied, you'll lose your magic." He looked curiously at Harry for a moment, but Harry finished the oath, and then with a sarcastic voice cast lumos, getting a bright glow from the end of his wand. Cedric stood there contemplating for a moment.

"This isn't going to be good." He finally said.

"What?"

"The fallout. I'll talk to the Hufflepuffs, and the Ravenclaws I can talk to my girlfriend Cho–"

"What?" Harry was shocked, and a little bit of him died for losing Cho, but at the moment he didn't feel as if he could begrudge Cedric anything.

"What?" Cedric echoed.

"Wh– right, sorry. Just…" Harry searched for an excuse. "Um. You don't need to do that." He finally finished lamely. But Cedric just smiled. "I really are sorry. I don't know how I can make it up to you…" He sighed.

"Well I won't say I don't care. Because I do." Cedric laughed, and Harry felt even more guilty than before. "But," he looked Harry over, "I don't blame you. I would like to find out how it happened."

Harry shrugged "These sort of things always happen to me. What do you think about this first task? Are you nervous?" Harry tried to change the topic.

"Yeah." Cedric nodded, "It hasn't really sunk in yet, I think. You?"

Harry gave him an appraising look. "Scared as fuck." He gave Cedric a small wave and started up the stairs.

"I'll see you in the morning…"

"Are you still up for Flying?" Cedric yelled just before Harry reached the corner. Harry was shocked, but grinned.

"Yeah… yeah, that would be great."

"Six then?"

"Six." Harry nodded.

Harry didn't know what Cedric had to deal with when he reached his common room, however he had arrived to find everyone still awake, and a full-blown party running.

"Harry!" One of the twins called out, the moment he entered. Suddenly he was surrounded by people, and was almost knocked to the ground with heavy pats on the back, and hugs.

"You should have told us you entered!" Fred bellowed

"And with no beard in sight!" George agreed.

"If it wasn't me. At least it was a Gryffindor." Angela grinned, hugging his then heading back to dance. That relieved him a little, however no matter how many times he tried, no one would listen when he said he didn't enter.

"How did you do it?"

"I can't believe you got one up on Dumbledore."

"Here, have a butterbeer. Celebration for Hogwarts being sneakier than any other school!"

It didn't take long for Harry to want nothing other than his bed. He slowly made his way across the room, then snuck up the stairs, collapsing on his bed. He rolled over to see Ron sitting on his own bed, glaring at Harry.

"Hey. It's crazy down there." Harry said, ignoring the glare. He suddenly became aware that he was still draped in a Gryffindor banner Lee-Jordan had unearthed, and struggled to untangle himself. Ron just sat there grinning in an odd way.

"So, Congratulations. How'd you do it?" Ron asked. Harry felt the anger in him swell up again.

"What do you mean Congratulations?"

"How did you get past the age line?"

"I didn't put my name in." Harry replied in a flat tone.

"Oh come on, you don't have to lie to me. I'm your best mate." Ron said in a patronising tone. "I just wish you'd have let me in on it as well. I might have wanted to enter."

It was taking every bit of Harry's energy not to explode, but that was the last straw. The glass in the bathroom mirror suddenly exploded and Harry jumped to his feet.

"Listen, I didn't put my name in. Someone else must have done it. Moody reckons–"

"And why would they do that?" Ron laughed, a dry, closed laugh to match his odd smile. Harry clenched his teeth.

"Moody reckons someone entered me to get me killed." Ron laughed again, and it itched against Harry like nails on a chalkboard.

"You won't get killed. You always come out just fine. I said before, that you would be fine in the competition, after all your adventures." Ron's meaning was quite clear. Harry had had a very long night. He had spent the last hour listening to teachers debate between Harry being a worthless student who entered for his won gain, and the horrible ways in which this tournament would be bad for his health. It was a great relief to have convinced Cedric, however upon entering the Gryffindor common room his thought had been will no one but Ron and Hermione believe me straight away? Ron's accusations felt like betrayal. He punched Ron in the nose. Hard.

"Wh- What!?" Ron fell to the floor and sat there staring up at Harry shocked. Harry wasn't sure if it was because Harry had once more got some unwanted fame, or from surprise that he could hit so hard. Harry hadn't been a punching bag for ten years and hadn't noticed how to hit.

"What the hell was that?" Ron yelled. Neville opened the door, took one look between Harry and Ron, and shut the door again.

"That was the end of our friendship." Harry said calmly. He picked up the Gryffindor banner and his pillow, and walked out of the room.

"Are you okay?" Neville asked. He was waiting just outside the dorm on the stairs.

"Why? Do you want to know how I entered too?" Harry demanded sarcastically.

"You put your name in?" Neville asked in shock, and Harry immediately felt bad for yelling at him.

"No. Sorry, I shouldn't have yelled."

Neville just smiled it off like usual. "Are you okay? Do you have to enter?"

Harry ran his hand through his hair frustrated, "Yeah, it's either that or lose my magic."

"Oh."

"Yeah…" Harry laughed shakily. "Oh."

They made their way back down to the common room, and Harry searched out the twins. "Urgh! I need to talk to everyone."

"Hmm…" Neville waved Fred… or George? Over, and whispered something into his ear.

"Speech. Speech. Speech. Speech." George (Harry was pretty sure it was George) started the chant. Grinning at Harry Neville motioned to a small coffee table and Harry sighed in relief and stood on it.

"Okay guys." Harry started,

"And girls!" Katie yelled, working off the traditional Quidditch speech. Harry smiled sheepishly at her, but blanked his face and took a deep breath.

"And girls. You're not going to like this." Suddenly the common room went very quiet. "I really didn't put my name in." Harry held up his hand to keep the silence. "I've just spent the last few hours arguing my point, and I'm only going to say this once more." He went over the arguments that had come up in the meeting, each adventure, and what Moody thought.

"You really think someone wants to kill you?" A seventh year boy asked.

Harry shrugged, "I'm not really sure about that, but in the very least someone wants to make me look like a fool, or get seriously hurt." He didn't feel like explaining the whole Voldemort-isn't-really-dead thing. You have to pick your battles.

"So you didn't enter." Fred said, still sounding sceptical.

"Was it you with the betting pool?" Harry asked. The twins nodded. "And my name wasn't on there because…?"

Both twins mouths formed a perfect O. "because our… tracking… system didn't show you entering."

Harry smiled. "Because I didn't."

"But still," said Angela, "We can celebrate a Gryffindor competing." A cheer followed this, but died out as Harry shook his head. "Oh come on! Why not?" Angela whined.

"Look, how would you have felt if you'd been selected, and then a fourth year Hufflepuff got chosen as well?" Understanding crossed Angela's face.

"Pretty annoyed I guess." She admitted sheepishly.

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "Look, I know this school is all for house rivalry, but this is an international competition. Support me if you want, but I didn't even enter. We should support Cedric. He's been really good about this."

Slowly the room nodded, and eventually Lee called out, "Yeah, but I don't want to ditch you, so how do I support Cedric first?" Harry grinned at that.

"Thanks. Well, I did have an idea, but I don't know what you will think, and I might need some help." He glanced at the twins, who showed four thumbs up.

"Right, well…" Harry explained his idea.

The next morning his alarm went off just before six, he rolled out of bed, only to fall off the couch he'd been sleeping on. Even though he had managed to get the house to listen, he was still pissed off at Ron, and hadn't gone back to the dorm. He was stiff from lying on the lounge, and had only had a few hours sleep, but he wanted to meet Cedric. He found the pitch cold and empty, and felt a bit vulnerable. A low fog rolled over the grounds so he decided to take to the air and wait, doing a few slow laps he couldn't help but let his thoughts wander. Yesterday he had felt on top of things, he had a few new ideas about getting Sirius cleared, he'd finished the long essay for Runes, and felt that he was actually on top of most class work. Now, a mere twenty-four hours later and he was entered into a dangerous competition, possibly had someone out to kill him… or at any rate actively out to kill him, Voldemort always seemed to be at it, and was sitting on a very fine edge with having the school turn on him again.

"Oi Potter!"

Harry had been doing lazy loops and not really thinking and Cedric's yell shocked him enough that he slipped a bit. "Argh. Wait up, I'll come down."

He was up quite high, so decided to just dive, he let the broom almost drop out from underneath him until he was heading perpendicular to the ground, and only pulled up just in time to slip neatly off the broom and land in a standing position a few feet from Cedric. Seeing the older Hufflepuff there made his heart a lot lighter. Despite feeling confident the night before, he hadn't realised the tension he was feeling until he landed and saw Cedric's grin.

There was an awkward silence.

"That was some dive."

"Man am I glad to see you here." They both started at the same time, then laughed.

"Did you think I'd go back on my word?" Cedric laughed.

Harry shook his head. "No, but I thought you might change your mind after a good sleep."

"Is there reason for me to?"

"No." Harry kept his voice very decisive, "I'm really sorry again, I spoke to my house."

Cedric's eyebrows went up. "About what?"

Harry blushed, "Well, they were, erm… a little enthusiastic about having a Gryffindor champion." Little was definitely an understatement.

"Ha! You should have seen the Hufflepuff common room last night, complete chaos, they were still celebrating when I left this morning."

"Wow. We quit at about one. I was surprised McGonagall let us off that late."

"Hmm, yeah The Professor is usually pretty strict, but she was there celebrating with us until two, and when she left put up a silencing charm so we wouldn't get the attention of any other staff." Cedric grinned, "I must admit I gave in about three, and have only had a few hours sleep. Hufflepuff doesn't usually get much to celebrate, so this is pretty big."

Harry suddenly felt awful again. "Yeah, um, I just want to let you know that Gryffindor has decided to support you first, as the Hogwarts champion."

"Gryffindor has decided huh?" Cedric teased, and Harry blushed.

"Yes, well, they might have needed a little push, but we can be loyal too if we need. I just pointed out a few key ideas and it all made sense." At Cedric's questioning look Harry explained. "This is an inter-school competition, you're our school champion, so we support you. However as my friends they support me too."

Cedric smiled and pulled out the snitch. "That's surprisingly loyal, but nice nonetheless. Now, however, shall we fly?"

They both took off, and Harry took straight to the high, while Cedric did a few laps around the stadium, after a minute or so they met, like in a game, at mid-field.

"So…" Harry felt rather awkward practicing with another seeker, he'd always been kind of separate from the team, and when he practiced with Ron it was always focusing on the keeper. "How do we do this?"

"It's a bit weird isn't it? I normally run the team practice, and just follow the snitch once I've got them doing drills. How do you guys run it?"

Harry grinned, "Trying to steal our technique?" He teased, "After warm up they go over chaser drills, while me and the twins play tag."

"Tag?"

"Yeah, four bludgers, one seeker."

"They hit you with four bludgers!" Cedric yelled shocked.

"They try." Harry laughed. "It's a surprisingly good way of practising manoeuvring. Oliver usually has a few specific drills I have to fit in, and at any point we get the chance we're meant to randomly dive through the chaser drills, scatter them and keep them on their toes. Sometimes I play beater too, so three of us aiming for the chasers. Fred and George have a go at Keeper every now and then when Oliver wants to watch and critique, or we'll leave the hoops free, and once we played this great game where me and Oliver were the 'goals' and the chasers had to try and get us in the back. The twins were allowed to aim at the girls, but not us, and the girls were only allowed to hold the quaffle for twenty seconds. Most of the time we do ground or manoeuvre drills. And we always start with a tactics lecture and finish with a workout. How about you guys?" Harry had been counting off things on his fingers and looked up to see Cedric shocked.

"Wow, no wonder you usually flatten us all. I still haven't got over the four bludgers. FOUR! Most of it sounds the same, only we don't usually let the bludgers out too much, and we never thought of using moving targets for shooting. We do practise dives a lot, as a team, and start a session with throwing the quaffle on the ground, then in the air. I usually make them run a few laps, then race an 'obstacle' course. Around the bleachers and up to the tower and back. Nothing too close because we don't have players like you and the twins."

"Yeah," Harry nodded, "We're pretty lucky with the twins. No offence, but your beaters are definitely your weakest link. Ravenclaws do okay, but they favour different arms, which works against them, and Slytherin rarely picks for skill. If hooch actually called on all fouls I doubt they'd even have a chance to see the quaffle."

Cedric laughed and shook his head. "Sadly my beaters were in need of some work. I only had three try out and one could barely lift the bat, and you tell me you give that a go too! I'm even more jealous of Wood. You've got a great team. We can't do much with that now though, but maybe we could try a game of tag."

"We don't have any bludgers." Harry frowned.

"Thank god. No, I was thinking that we could take turns being the snitch. I don't want to let mine out until the fog clears, but it's already lifting."

Harry agreed and they were soon racing about the pitch, it was actually really fun, and with an intelligent 'snitch', each of them could anticipate more, and they found that the chase was a lot harder, even though they were big enough that they were tagged as soon as they got close. The fog helped a lot, and Cedric soon found Harry enjoyed steep dives into it, where he disappeared, then popped up on the other side of the pitch. After an hour the fog had lifted and they let out the snitch and Harry was feeling confident enough to attempt a Wronski Feint, however while he could pull off a neat dive, he still needed practice on the acting, and it took Cedric the third attempt before he actually followed Harry on his dives. Soon they were too cold and sweaty and hit the change rooms for a shower before heading up to breakfast.

"You're completely crazy Potter." Cedric said, as they made their way up the lawn.

"Ouch. And call me Harry."

"Oh no, that was a compliment. I don't know how you convince yourself to get so close to the ground. I never have. That first game you played back in your first year was still your best I think. Just for shock factor. I remember hearing through gossip that Wood had got some first year for seeker and was thinking that we'd have a few years to work with while he trained you up. Then I found out it was the famous Harry Potter, and we thought he'd gone for a name. You got on the pitch, and while you sit natural on a broom, you did nothing for ages, just kept out of the game up high. Then there was the whole faulty broom issue, which, no offence, didn't improve my opinion of you… except that you knew how to hold on. Then you go and pull of that amazing stunt where we all thought you were falling and you pull up with less than an inch to spare, stand up on your broom, and catch the damn thing in you mouth! It's been nothing but crazy from there either."

"Ha ha. I'd totally forgotten about that. It wasn't a faulty broom though. Quirell was cursing it. I loved that broom. Sadly after our game last year it tried to make friends with the whomping willow."

"Ooooh, ouch."

"Yeah. But my godfather got me this one," Harry gestured to his Firebolt, "It's the closest gift I have to from family, so I guess that makes up for it." He grinned.

"Your godfather obviously hasn't seen you play. Otherwise he would have got you a slower broom, you don't need to head for the ground any faster than you already do."

Harry laughed, getting a little out of breath from walking up the hill at the same time. "No way, he thinks I'm crazy too, but loves it."

Cedric was frowning. "What do you mean 'the closest gift to from family'?"

Harry went quiet very quickly, he'd been having such a good morning he'd forgotten he wasn't with friends, and hadn't meant to let that slip out. After a bit he just shrugged it off.

"My Aunt and her family hate magic, and by proxy me." Cedric opened his mouth but Harry talked over him changing the subject. "Okay, so you may be about to hate me too. I did mention I talked to my house… and while it was my fault that I didn't consider the twins, in my defence I didn't think they'd get so into it."

Cedric gave him a confused look, but Harry shook his head and stepped into th great hall.

They had been enjoying training and it had got quite late. Most students had arrived down to breakfast, and were giving the Gryffindor table very odd looks. Cedric stepped through the doors behind Harry, coming to a stop next to him.

"Harry…?" He sounded very unsure.

"Sorry. A seventh year taught the twins the charm. I didn't think they'd be so… enthusiastic?"

The charm was one that made anything black it was cast on flash any colour you chose at varying intervals. As a result the Gryffindor robes, which other than the red trim, were predominantly black, were the perfect objects. One quarter of the hall looked like an emergency signal, flashing a bright yellow that almost made you shield your eyes every fifteen seconds.

Until their arrival the other students had been eyeing the table warily, unsure if they were being sarcastic in their choice of colours, however as un planned as it was, Harry and Cedric entering together did a great deal more in convincing the other houses that Harry hadn't entered himself than anything else ever could. It suddenly became clear that despite Harry being part of it, Gryffindor were clearly (and brightly) supporting Cedric as the rightful Hogwarts champion.

"Wow." Cedric finally managed.

"Yeah… sorry. Unfortunately they weren't so good at the counter charm." Harry said apologetically. He himself hated attention, and couldn't help but feel this warranted a little too much enthusiasm.

"That's… that's…" Cedric couldn't help it any more and suddenly burst out laughing. As such, this was how Draco Malfoy found Harry, standing next to a laughing Cedric.

"Ah look boys, it's the champion," he said to Crabbe and Goyle, "Got your autograph book. Look here, you can get Diggory to sign it, then let Potter spit on it with the respect he shows for everything else." He sneered getting a lot of laughs from the Slytherin table, as well as a few Ravenclaws, and Harry was heart broken to see, Ron, who had entered just behind the ferret.

"If they want yours they'll have to get in quick though won't they Potter. After all, I don't imagine you'll be around much longer… half the Triwizard champions have died. How long do you think you'll last? My bet's on ten minutes into the first task." This received many more laughs, and did nothing to improve Harry's mood.

"Well he'll certainly do better than you ever would." A female voice spoke up from behind them. Hermione had already gone to bed when Harry got back last night and he was dreading seeing her, worried she'd abandon him like Ron did.

"Going to miss your boyfriend when he's dead mudblood?" Draco sneered, getting more laughs from the Slytherins especially. Hermione just turned up her nose. "He's not my boyfriend. He's my friend. You obviously wouldn't understand those, so we won't worry you any further. Come on Harry." She smiled and gestured out the door. Harry smiled back queasily and followed. They were just slow enough to hear Cedric thank Malfoy sarcastically for showing such good school loyalty, and enquired how he thought he was going to do when Harry named him as his second in the competition. There was no such thing of course, but they just caught an undignified squeak coming from the blond Slytherin prince, which boded well for the rest of the conversation they couldn't catch.