It was the day of the first task and the lot of us were in a panic, outside was an uproar as the crowd cheered, I stood stretching my arms and legs, Cedric stood fiddling with his wand, Fleur paced, Victor just stood staring at the tents wall, Mike seemed sure of himself rolling his eyes at our obvious worry, Jess sat on her bed shaking from fear of what was to come, why she was picked I didn't know. I heard a strange 'pssting' noise from behind the tent and put my ear to it.

"Bella? Is that you?" I smiled at hearing Harry's voice, thankful that there was someone who took the time to come see me when I was like this.

"Yeah."

"How are you feeling? Okay? The key is to concentrate. After that you just have to…"

"Battle a dragon?" My voice shook slightly and I hated sounding weak in front of my cousin. Then the tent parted as he pushed his way through to give me a hug, it only lasted a moment before a flash of light almost blinded me, Harry and I pulled apart to try and see who it was.

"Young love, it's so… stirring." Even before my vision cleared, I recognized her nasally, high pitched voice. Rita –fucking-Skeeter.

"If everything goes… unfortunately today. You two might even make the front page." Cedric stood forward and placed himself in front of Harry and I.

"You have no business here. This tent is for champions and family." He put an emphasis on family, I guess trying to make certain there would be no other unflattering articles about me. She looked at Cedric from under her eyelashes, barf.

"No matter. We've got what we wanted." As she turned to leave the quick quotes quill brushed Cedric's cheek and I gritted my teeth. The flash went off again but Cedric's body casted a shade over my eyes so it didn't blind me this time. Dumbledore chose that moment to come in through the main tent opening which Rita had just left out of, followed by Filch, Karkaroff and Madame Maxime. Dumbledore was now in charge of the event after Crouch had been shipped off to Azkaban for helping his son escape.

"Good day champions. Gather around please." We all got into a sort of circle, Harry stayed by my side. "Now we've waited, we've wondered and at last the moment has arrived. The moment only six of you can truly appreciate." Dumbledore noticed Harry at that point stood between us. "What are you doing here Mr Potter?" He was unusually more chipper than usual; my guess was that the crowds excitement was rubbing off on him.

"Oh… Erm… sorry I'll just go." I waved at Harry, forcing a smile as he left. He pulled an opaque, purple bag out of his pocket and faced us.

"Now champions, in a circle around me. Miss Swan, if you will." The bag came to me first and I placed my hand in, pulling out a tiny toy sized dragon with yellow eyes and black skin. The – "Hungarian Horntail ooh." A spark of worry appeared and disappeared just as quickly as Dumbledore turned to Cedric. With a look of barely concealed worry he put his hand in the bag, he pulled out a dragon of the same size with silvery blue skin.

"The Swedish short snout." A small smile was aimed his way. It continued on; Victor getting a Chinese Fireball, Mike got a Hebridean Black, Fleur a Common Welsh Green and Jessica finished with a Norwegian Ridgeback. Dumbledore carried on speaking.

"These represent four very real dragons. Each of which has been given a golden egg to protect. Your objective is simple; collect the egg. This you must do for each egg contains a clue, without which you cannot proceed to the next task. Any questions?" None of us said a word and Dumbledore nodded. "Very well, Miss Swan at the sound of the cannon you will –" The cannon went off before he could say another word and I braced myself to head for the tent exit to a chorus of people shouting "Swan." Cedric grabbed me before I left and gave me a brief but strong hug letting me know in his own way that I wasn't alone and we would do this together. I smiled up at him when we stepped back, pretending that I was as confident as I looked. With that I left the tent and came out onto a scenario of rocks in which was once the Quidditch pitch, I glanced up at the stands catching sight of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hazel and Kiera all stood together. Hazel and Harry holding hands? What the fuck is going on with them? I didn't get the chance to dwell on it any longer. As soon as I stepped out of the alcove I was currently in the dragons tail smacked the rocks right next to me. I flew left, out of its way and hid behind a large rock, narrowly missing a burst of fire only just managing to extinguish it with burst of water from my wand. The dragon flew at me, knocking rocks everywhere causing me to get propelled two metres further away from the egg. Another burst of fire came at me and I managed to just dodge behind another huge rock, the dragon continued to blow fire at it, the rock couldn't last much longer and so I pointed my wand up to yell and saw seven people sat in the teachers stand who I never wished to again. They were staring my way with looks of complete terror, the anger at seeing them spurred me into action, just as the rock started to crumble away I yelled;

"Accio firebolt!" As it flew towards me I jumped atop it, narrowly missing the fire that hit the back end of my broom, I hurried to extinguish it as I flew upwards. The crowd went crazy as I flew around the pitch, dodging fireballs. I just missed the egg as I flew over it and reached down, fire almost got me and so I continued to fly up but as I did the dragon tried to follow effectively breaking the chain that was meant to keep it in the pitch, it chased me, I went any direction I could to avoid it and ended up going under the teachers stands cover and flying up out of it making a hole narrowly missing the Cullens frozen figures the dragon followed and a part of me hoped he would set fire to their asses but I quelled the though and concentrated on getting out of the Horntails way by using a charm to help with the wind, causing it to become stronger in the path of the dragon but retreat completely in mine. I flew in a circle around the castle, the dragon following at a much slower pace before i returned to the pitch and flew directly over the egg, this time retrieving it to the love of the Gryffindors and most of the others too who clapped and applauded as soon as seeing my return, I couldn't allow myself the time to celebrate yet because the dragon was coming back. I shoved the egg into a pocket in my robe, it barely fit and I was sure I heard the fabric tear a little as I hurriedly shoved it in one handed, the other holding the broom. My mind was running through any charms I could think of to fight it back, suddenly an idea came to mind which I'd have to thank Harry for. As it got closer I pointed my wand.

"Conjunctivitis!" Its eyes immediately shut as his eyesight was temporarily damaged. It landed awkwardly without being able to see, it kept screaming and I struggled against the impulse to hold my ears. I landed myself then back into the alcove which led to the tent, breathing heavily after the exertion. The dragon handlers headed down onto the pitch to control the dragon then and the crowd cheered as I waved at them all smiling but my own eyes were drawn to the Cullens and Edward looked directly into mine, I struggled against the tears that threatened to fill my eyes and turned my back on them all, heading into the tent. Cedric was there, his arms open waiting and I ran into them letting the tears fall. I wasn't sure what he thought I was crying over, most likely thinking that I was still scared from the dragon but I wasn't, I would rather face a hundred dragons than face them again. I was glad for the article Rita printed about my past with vampires now though, even after getting an earache off of Cedric after he read it, at least it would leave out some explaining.

"The Cullens are here." I mumbled into his chest and was met by his body stiffening.

"What are they doing here? Do you think they got a copy of the daily prophet?"

"I honestly don't know. I don't even know why I'm crying."

"What they did hurt you. Don't be ashamed to feel it. Are you going to speak to them?" I shook my head, I couldn't, not now, not yet, it was too soon for me." He lifted my chin to look into his eyes and I met the stormy grey, he wouldn't let them near me if I didn't want them there, for that I was thankful.

"Go Ced. Its your turn, the crowd are waiting. I'm sorry to dump this on you before your task, good luck and thank you for being here for me." He smiled down at me and brushed his lips very lightly against my forehead causing a shiver, for once I didn't care, I just wanted him. It took me by surprise how much I wanted him at that point, I'd put all feelings of attraction aside and concentrated on our friendship, I knew I fancied him but this seemed like more. So much more. I pushed it out of my head for now, watching his as he left but before he did he turned to me and smiled, I wiped my eyes once he was gone and resulted to sitting on the bed. Fleur sat beside me and I found myself telling her everything. She was nice, and she comforted me, telling me the Cullens weren't worth my tears and that Cedric was by far a better man for me but she was cut off by Cedric being brought in, burns all over the left side of his face, and leaning on Carlisle.