The article about the Tournament appeared the very next day, carried into the Great Hall by the flutter of owls. Calla saw Fleur Delacour whispering to her friends over the copy a seventh year had shown them, and people were looking at her often over breakfast. "Pass me a paper," she said to Terry, who winced as he handed it over.

"I don't know if you want to read it..."

She started reading quickly, stomach churning. There were things written there she knew neither she nor Harry had ever said, exaggerated beyond belief. 'Calla Potter looks so terribly young for one so haunted by the past... "My parents' deaths still haunt me. I often have nightmares about that night, but I know that they would want me to succeed."' And then about Harry, '"I know they'd be very proud of us if they could see us now... But I think I'd like to win this competition, prove myself... I suppose Calla and I are natural competitors, but we are both close, too... Both of us know what it's like... We do cry some nights, it's true, I'm not ashamed to admit it... And I know that whoever wins, nothing will happen to us in the Tournament, because they're watching over us both..."'

"This is ridiculous," Calla muttered as she read a particular paragraph in which Skeeter's described the competitive spirit between them both and Calla's desire to 'step out of the long shadow cast not only by her tragic past but by her brother's young fame'.

And as she read on she saw that Skeeter's hadn't only twisted their words, but interviewed other people about them. Colin Creevey, for a start, seemed to have given the impression that Harry was in love with Hermione, and that they were both 'among the top students at Hogwarts school'. She had not failed to note how Calla was 'by comparison, struggling, but keen to prove herself and rise to her brother's level'. And her supposed love life had been mentioned too, she read with an empty feeling.

'And Calla Potter is alleged to have close relations with a Hufflepuff student in her year, one Zacharias Smith, though as our anonymous Hogwarts source tells us, they may be going through a lover's tiff cause by her surprise entry into the Triwizard Tournament.'

"Lover's tiff?" she read, finally throwing the paper down in indignation, stomach churning. She and Zach... Well, yes, maybe she liked him, but whatever was happening was not a - a 'lover's tiff'!

"Who spoke to her?" she said along the table, and all her yearmates shrugged, looking around.

"Dunno," said Lisa, and Calla fixed her with a dubious look. "It wasn't me, Potter. Believe me, I don't care nearly enough about you to talk to Rita Skeeter."

"This is so ridiculous," she said, cheeks burning as Daphne and Padma read the article over quickly, and then winced at her in sympathy.

"I told you everything Rita Skeeter writes is nonsense," Padma said briskly, folding the paper up. "Anyone with sense will know the same."

"Yeah well, I'd think anyone with sense would know I didn't put my name in the goblet in the first place, and look how that turned out."

Over the next few days, she'd had to endure an awful lot of torment from the other students, largely the Slytherins, and a handful of Hufflepuff girls in her year - Leanne, Rachel, and Sally-Anne - who she'd never spoken to much but who she at least hadn't expected to be so mean. "How are things going with Zach?" Rachel Harris had mocked in the corridor before Transfiguration. "Lover's tiff sorted out yet?" She and the other girls had laughed, and Calla's cheeks burned.

At least they only went so far as to talk about her and Zach - who had said an awkward hello to her in the corridor and then sped off in the other direction with Justin. The Slytherins were considerably more taunting. "Need a hanky, Potter?" Millicent Bulstrode had teased. "In case you start crying in Moody's class?"

"Trying to get on your brother's level, Potter?" Parkinson had called in Transfiguration after she had yet again failed to transfigure her guinea pig. "I'd say it can't be hard, but considering it's you..."

"You think either of you can win the Tournament? You wouldn't last five minutes, Potter. Even your mother watching over you couldn't help."

"Sod off, Draco," Daphne had told him sharply after that, as Calla had clenched her fist very tightly under the desk, cheeks blazing. "You know fine well that Skeeter only writes drivel."

Malfoy smirked. "Oh, isn't it true then, Potter? That you get nightmares?"

Her heart had clenched, and she squeezed her eyes very tightly shut, concentrating on her guinea pig, whose fur seemed to turn a reddish colour in response. "Mr Malfoy," McGonagall had snapped. "I would thank you not to spread your gossip in my classroom and instead focus on your work. That guinea pig has barely so much as twitched all lesson."

Even the red look of embarrassment on Malfoy's face hadn't been enough to cheer Calla up, though she didn't spot McGonagall's worried glance at her either.

The only relief that week was Mairi's letter, a reply to Calla's last which had rather awkwardly translated the Tournament business into Muggle terms. The story Mairi had was that there was a big sport tournament with some other schools and everyone was annoyed Calla had been chosen to represent their school over someone worthier and better at sports, while Calla herself was nervous about not deserving her position. She'd touched on the gossip, too, but this was a little harder; she pushed it off as schoolgirl rumours and ignored that half of Wizarding Britain had probably read everything.

Mairi's advice had been to ignore what everyone else said and concentrate on herself, and then rub it in all their faces when she did great. She herself had just made the girls' football team at Stonewall, though she said they were pretty rubbish. So, trying to ignore the comments from everyone around her as Mairi had advised, Calla tried throwing herself into preparations for the Triwizard Tournament instead. The First Task was only days away and yet she still didn't feel nearly prepared - not that she ever really thought she would feel prepared - and she didn't have any idea what she could be up against. She knew she wasn't supposed to know, but she had a feeling the other champions would at least have an idea, whereas she was left completely in the lurch with no idea what she might have to face.

So every evening now, she would go up to Trelawney's classroom after dinner and before spell work practice with her year mates, and try to discern whatever she could from the crystal balls, tarot cards, tea leaves and flames. Trelawney was more than happy to have her there, and seemed keen to help Calla if she could, likely because she apparently kept foreseeing her death. The Tuesday a week before the First Task, she was in there as usual, kneeling by the hot fire and running her hands carefully through the gently coiling smoke. The fireplace sparked and the embers shifted, burnt flakes of wood falling and moving there.

She didn't know what it was that attracted her to the fireplace - fire omens had never been her favourite method of Divination - but it felt right. Trelawney was watching her over the top of her own crystal ball, as Calla breathed in deeply, feeling the heat against her cheekbones. The flames shifted, embers falling to create the shape of a great beast, winged and massive, hulking out from the flames. She couldn't discern it right, and squinted, leaning closer just as it shifted again, something flicking the logs with what appeared to be a tail. It was a dragon, and when the embers shifted it looked like it was protecting something. She frowned, scribbling what she'd seen down on parchment and then looking back to the fire.

A snake coiled and shot out of the flames, and Calla let loose a small shriek, scrambling back, heart hammering. The snake fell back, melting back into the flames, as Calla caught her breath. "What is it, my dear?" Trelawney asked, hurrying over. "What did you see?"

"It was a - a snake," Calla said, shaking her head. "It just gave me a fright."

"Fire omens may often be frightening," Trelawney told her, staring almost hauntedly into the fire. "Snakes most of all... They are a symbol of change and transformation... the cycle of life..." Her eyes drifted back to Calla, who looked up at her curiously, waiting to hear what Trelawney interpreted. "But for a snake to lunge from the fire..." She shook her head adamantly. "My dear..."

"Yes, Professor?" Calla asked, prickling a little as she waited, wishing Trelawney could get to her point without the melodrama.

"This is a terrible omen... Your path may break, may take a horrid turn... There is a great change coming soon... And I have seen it too, my dear."

"I thought so," Calla mumbled, glancing back to the flames.

"Come," said Trelawney after a moment's pause, "I sense, my dear, that you are troubled."

"Yeah," Calla said tiredly, tucking her feet under her. She looked into the fire, watching the flames prickle against the brick, and hearing the crackle of burning logs. "I guess... I just don't really know what I'm up against. And I know I can't win, I don't even have a plan."

"There are grave dangers in your path, my child," Trelawney told her, in a voice that was almost comforting even though her words were anything but. Calla felt like she was just constantly going around and around in circles, knowing she had to do something but never knowing what, and knowing what was coming but not being able to do anything about it. "Coming closer every day."

"Do you have any idea what?" Calla asked her, frowning.

"It is hard to say... There are so many... But I see the skeleton, the symbol of decay, a breakdown..."

But what did that really mean, Calla thought. It was all well and good to see an omen of misfortune or danger or decay, but without knowing what was actually coming she had nothing to do about it and no way of making a plan to confront it. "I sense the answer to your problems, my dear, may lie in an unexpected place... From an unexpected source."

Calla sighed, glancing back at the fire. There was nothing in it now except flames and embers, but she looked anyway, comforted only a little by the heat. And then she startled, whipping around to look at Trelawney, who had a faraway look in her eyes. "Professor? Do you think there are dragons in the Tournament?"

Trelawney blinked up with her massive eyes, seemingly startled. "Perhaps, my dear... They are certainly a portent of great danger."

Well, yes, Calla thought, but her head was already beginning to spin at a thousand miles an hour. Then again, she'd seen that fish thing - a mermaid, could it be? - and a snake, but the snake showed up everywhere she looked, but a dragon... God, that was exactly the sort of ridiculous thing whoever came up with the Tournament would put in, and exactly what someone would think to use if they wanted to do her in. And though she couldn't explain how, it felt right, and she was growing to trust her Seer's senses. She'd have to try again to be on the safe side, but at least if she had an idea then she had a starting-off point with which to make a plan. "I think I ought to get back to my dorm now," Calla said, standing up abruptly, her brain still whirring. She'd need some way to protect herself from dragon fire, but she had no idea what, and even then, what would they have her do? Fight it? She couldn't fight a dragon - she'd have to borrow one of Isobel's books, or Hagrid's... but of course, Hagrid would know all about what they were doing with the dragons. Still, she couldn't try and get him to tell her to get past it.

But she thought and stewed as she made her way down the stairs, along the Hufflepuff corridor. She saw Zach up ahead coming the other way and stopped abruptly in her tracks, cheeks heating. There was nowhere to duck into or hide; and he caught her eye, slowing down too. He looked like he wanted to say something as he came nearer, and Calla swallowed nervously. "Hi," she said awkwardly, holding his gaze. She tugged at the threads of the end of her cloak sleeve. "How - how are you?"

"Good," he said, just as awkwardly, eyes darting like he couldn't meet her eyes.

"Look," she said quickly, "I'm sorry about the article, I really am, I didn't - didn't say any of that."

"Yeah," Zach said. "I... Mum said Rita Skeeter's a gossip hunter." He didn't meet her eyes.

"She's right." Calla bit her lip nervously. "I get if you feel weird about it, and... I get you being upset about the Tournament, too."

"I know," he said. "I talked to the guys about it, and we all kind of agreed that, well, we saw your face when your names came out that goblet. But we can't really say anything, everyone else in our house is furious and it'd just be easier to, you know, go along with it for a while until they came around."

Calla looked at him grimly. At least he'd spoken to Ernie and Justin about the issue, and it comforted her a little that they'd agreed, but still none of them had exactly gone out of their way to defend her or be nice to her. "So that's what you did."

"Yeah. And I guess I... kind of believed it too, a little bit what Skeeter was saying. I couldn't argue because I thought, you know, maybe you did want to prove yourself. Against your brother."

"Not like this!" Calla said, mouth falling open in protestation. "He's my brother, why would I want to go against him in a potentially to the death Tournament, just so I could... I don't know, what did you think I wanted?"

"I don't know..." Zach's cheeks went pink. "But I do know you didn't put your name in, I told you that already." She looked at him dubiously. "The rest aren't really - most of them don't think you put your name in, you know, Ernie and Justin and Hannah and Susan, but... We never get anything."

"And Ravenclaw does?"

"You know what I mean. Everyone was so excited that someone might finally get to do something to make Hufflepuff proud and represent us. And then..." He shrugged. "If it's not your fault then it's not your fault, but. I don't know."

"You don't know?" She fixed him with a hard look. "I told you even before all this I hated the idea of competing. It'd be a terrible idea. I thought we talked about this!"

"I know," Zach said. "I'm sorry." To his credit, he did look it, but he didn't seem to know what else to say.

"Yeah." Calla stood awkwardly, not knowing what else to do or to say.

"You really don't know what you're doing, do you?" he asked, and she startled a little, staring at him.

"Well, no," Calla told him quietly. "Not that any of us really do, but they're all... older and better than me, and Harry's Harry and you can bet he'll find some way, and he is a much more powerful wizard than I am. They've got a chance, and I really don't think I do."

Zach looked at her for a long moment, his cheeks going slightly pink, and then looked down at his shoes. "Oh."

Wringing her hands together nervously, Calla said quickly, "I should probably get back to Ravenclaw Tower."

"Yeah," said Zach. "I should go to the common room..." But neither of them did. Calla swallowed, looking around, feeling oddly too nervous to meet his gaze. Her stomach growled loudly and her cheeks heated up, blazing red. "I'll... See you in Ancient Runes tomorrow?"

And like that, something seemed to click, and Calla grinned as Zach hugged her quickly, making her cheeks blaze even hotter. "Yeah," she said, turning away and towards the Ravenclaw Tower, feeling a smile break over her face. "I'll see you!"

She felt more cheerful than she had in days as she went on her way up to the Ravenclaw Tower, answering the eagle's riddle with a grin and setting off towards her dormitory. "You've only just made curfew," Mandy informed her, and she grinned.

"I'm fine. I've got some ideas, Izzy, could you lend me some of your dragon books?"

Isobel's face lit up in excitement. "Yeah!"

The rest of the week was much happier now Zach was talking to her again, and the rest of the Hufflepuffs in her year seemed to follow suit, discarding their old badges - though Rachel Harris still gave her certain rude looks in the corridor. But the first task was still coming closer and closer, and as she still had very little clue of what to do, she was beginning to feel rather hopeless, the way one does when falling with nothing to grab onto. She'd told Harry about her suspicions, of course, but whether he'd done anything about it, she didn't know. They were both nervous, but she knew when it came down to it her brother was much more likely to be able to find his way out of a tight spot than she was.

So she'd taken to learning everything she could about dragons; caring for them, feeding them, and fighting them, which was her least favourite part. "You need to go for the eyes," Isobel told her on Friday night while a group of them - the two of them, Daphne, Padma, Terry, and Anthony - practiced various offensive and defensive spells in the Charms classroom. "That's their weak spot."

"With what?" Calla had grunted in response, recovering from the Stunner from Daphne which she'd failed to block.

"Whatever works. Conjunctivitis jinx might work, to blind it, but you might also just really annoy it."

"I think Calla could probably do without aggravating a dragon," Terry said, taking a hand through his hair. "No, you need to be sneaky. Brute force won't get you anywhere."

"I don't have any of that anyway," Calla muttered, and Padma shook her head, whispering something to Daphne. Her arms prickled. "I don't want to fight a sodding dragon."

"Well, if you're right and it is a dragon, then you're probably going to have to," Anthony pointed out, which wasn't very helpful.

"I know." She flopped dramatically onto a chair. "But I'm not going to win."

"Not with that attitude," Padma told her sternly, hoisting her back to her feet. "Come on, put your shields back up."

She obliged, with a sigh. Shields were the only things she could reliably manage - and even then, she didn't think they'd do much good against a dragon. If only her task was to predict what it would do, or translate some Runes; but no, a test of a wizard had to be their spellwork and their 'daring'. Who cared about daring when you could be smart and figure out a plan and not get yourself killed, or better yet, not have to fight a bloody dragon? "You're not concentrating," Daphne told her bluntly, and Calla gritted her teeth.

"Protego," she said again, seeing the faint blue shimmer that moved before her, wrapping around her like a cocoon. Padma sent a stunner in her direction, and the red light bounced off of the shield harmlessly, sparking and dissipating on the floor.

"Good," Padma said, as Isobel stepped forward.

"Right. Let's see what it can do with fire." Terry grabbed a bucket of water, just in case, and Calla shook a little. If Isobel set her on fire, she'd be pretty furious. "Incendio!"

A blast of flame shot out the end of Isobel's wand and she jumped back. Calla was sure she shouted, "Cool!" but the words were lost in the roar of the flames as they rushed towards Calla, who squeezed her eyes shut and focused very hard on keeping her shield up like it was a wall of water, forcing the fire out. The roaring sound disappeared and she hardly dared to believe it as the steam curled in the air, and Isobel grinned, hair looking frazzled.

"Sweet," she said. "You got it!"

"Pity we can't replicate actual dragon fire," said Anthony. "But hopefully your shield will work against that too."

"Not with my luck," Calla told him, feeling like with her luck, her shield wouldn't work against anything during the First Task.

"Cushioning Charm?" Terry asked, hopping up onto a desk, which wasn't very far off the ground.

"It'll work on you but I'm sure it won't on me."

"Never know," Terry said cheerfully, eyes glimmering at her. "Come on."

She sighed, pointing her wand at the ground and uttering the charm just as Terry jumped lightly off of the desk, landing with his knees bent, and winced. "Ah."

Calla muttered a swear under her breath. "It wasn't bad!" Terry was quick to assure her.

"If I can't even cushion you from barely two feet then how am I meant to cushion myself if the dragon decides to throw me across the lake?" Calla asked crossly, nervous anger glaring in her chest.

"You'll get it," Terry told her, shaking his head. He was already clambering on top of the desk. "Try again."

"Don't be silly."

"It's two feet, it's not going to do me much damage."

But that wasn't what was really stopping her. She didn't want to fail again, didn't want to fail over and over and over again. But she had to try again or else she'd fail in front of everyone and probably get roasted alive just like Voldemort wanted. So, screwing her face up to hold back frustrated tears, she tried and tried again, not only the Cushioning Charm but a whole host of other spells, and by the time they went back to the Tower, she was in a foul mood.

"You will be alright," Terry told her quietly, lingering at the bottom of the steps.

"Easy for you to say."

He winced. "Yeah, I guess. We've still got time..."

"Barely."

He looked down awkwardly, and Calla breathed in sharply, worried she'd offended him. "I didn't mean to snap."

"You didn't," he said lightly. "You're fine. But... You are coming to Hogsmeade tomorrow with the rest of us, right?"

Like she'd miss it now she was able and knew it would be safe. "Of course."

"Good," he said, as Anthony beckoned him on up the stairs. "If you're struggling it might be because you're overworking yourself. It'll be good to take a day off."

Part of her wanted to say she wasn't overworking herself at all, but the rest of her knew he was right. So she smiled placidly and nodded. "Yeah, it will. I'll see you in the morning. And thanks for helping."

"Course," Terry said with a grin, and then hurried after Anthony, leaving Calla to be pulled along with Daphne, Isobel and Padma, who chattered excitedly amongst themselves as they all got ready for bed. The three of them were all seemingly asleep when Lisa, Mandy and Sue came in from the boys' dormitory, whispering to each other, but Calla lay wide awake for what felt like all night.

She just felt heavy. Like she was being dragged down, like Alice on her way to Wonderland, and there was nothing to hold and nothing to stop her fall, and she knew that at the end, when she inevitably hit the bottom of this anxious pit, she might not survive. There would be no cake to make her smaller or drink to make her bigger, and nothing to help her but herself.

When she dreamed she dreamed of that, too, falling down a great dark rabbit hole, crying for help that no one gave. She dreamed of a graveyard and a bloodied hand grabbing her by the throat, of herself falling and falling onto a field with a dragon at her back, breathing fire upon her neck, and she dreamed of drifting in the nothingness forever, with nothing to hold onto except to hug her shaking chest. When she woke in the morning she was crying, and Matilda stood over her worriedly, kneading at her hair. Moony perched at the end of her bed with bright eerie eyes, and Calla lay there a long while, staring up at the ceiling as dawn broke into the dormitory.

She was tired all through breakfast, wishing she'd managed to sleep a little better. Her eyes were dropping as she went over to the Gryffindor Table when her friends were almost ready to leave, slipping into a seat beside Harry. "Got any further forward yet?" she asked him lowly, and he shook his head.

"Still waiting on Sirius to write back, I thought he might have an idea."

"I have nothing," Hermione muttered bitterly. "I mean really, if it is dragons-"

"It is," Calla said tiredly, quite sure now.

Hermione went pink. "Yes, well, then they can't expect you to do very much, can they? And I still don't think they would bring dragons into a school."

"You also didn't think they'd bring a three headed dog or a basilisk," Calla pointed out, and Hermione flushed.

Harry gave her an odd look. "Have you got a plan yet?"

"Not a plan so much as a couple of spells I'm hoping will work," she told him. "I'm hoping I don't have to fight it, but I don't know what else they'd make us do." She shook her head, tired of this subject making her nervous. "Are you coming to Hogsmeade?"

Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance and Harry nodded. "Yes."

"Good. Terry said I needed to take a break from all this and he's probably right." She glanced over to the Ravenclaw Table where Daphne was beckoning her. "I've got to go now, but I'll see you there, yeah?"

Harry nodded somewhat gloomily as Calla got up, hurrying back over to her friends. "Come on, I want to get there before Honeydukes gets too busy," Lisa told the group of them as they hurried to their tower.

The whole group of them went into Hogsmeade cheerfully, cloaks wrapped around them to combat the mid-November chill. Lisa, Michael and Mandy led the group, while Calla hung back at the end with Padma and Terry, Daphne giggling about something with Isobel in front of them. "I don't see Harry anywhere," Padma said, frowning around. "Maybe he's stayed and made things up with Ron?"

"No chance," Calla said grumpily - she'd had to put up with their fight for ages now. "They're both way too stubborn."

"Boys," Padma said sagely, and Terry looked at them, quite affronted.

"Oi!"

"Don't worry, Terry," Padma said, "we like you."

Calla giggled. "Thanks very much," Terry muttered, though he was grinning.

"There's Hermione," Calla said, suddenly catching sight of her strolling down the path by herself. She frowned. "Where is Harry?"

Padma turned around, and she stared too. "I don't know. He did say he was coming, didn't he?"

Calla kept looking at Hermione, waiting for Harry to appear, though he didn't. At last as they entered the village she called over, "Hermione?" and she turned, eyes wide. She seemed to say something, though Calla couldn't make out what it was, and then she grudgingly came over to them. "Where's Harry?"

"Here," came Harry's voice, and Calla stared at the empty space beside Hermione.

"You've got the cloak on?" she whispered. "Why?"

"Everyone'll look at me," he muttered. "And I can't be bothered with everyone looking at me today."

Calla sighed, but she understood. "Stay by us then," she said to Hermione. "It'll be weird if you're seen as just talking to yourself."

They went on with Hermione and Harry at their sides, having a quiet conversation as Calla and the others chatted. The day was looking perfect as they got chocolate from Honeydukes, and Daphne, Hermione and Padma took it in turns to choose different sweets for Calla and Harry to try, but it wasn't to last. Harry and Hermione had gone on just ahead of the other three girls, just as Rita Skeeter came around the corner from the Three Broomsticks pub, talking quickly to her photographer friend.

"Hide me," Calla muttered quickly to Padma, but she was too late; Skeeter had spotted her, eyes lighting up.

"Ah," she said, coming up to her with an acidic smile, "Calla Potter."

"Rita Skeeter," Calla said quietly, with a tense smile.

"I hope you don't mind," Padma cut in loudly, "we're just on our way somewhere."

"You must be a friend of Calla's," Skeeter said, grinning. "Tell me dear, how do you feel about the upcoming First Task?"

The three of them all stared at her, unspeaking. It was Daphne who rolled her eyes and broke the silence. "Calla'll do as well as anyone else. Now, we have to go."

They tried shoving past her, but Skeeter reached out a hand to clasp Calla's arm. "Now, now. You must be scared, aren't you? With the task only days away, how are you preparing?"

"Just practicing spells," Calla said shortly. "Nothing very exciting. Excuse us."

Skeeter didn't seem to want to let them go, but Calla managed to squirm away. "We've lost them now," she muttered as they turned around the corner, looking for Harry and Hermione. "Damn it."

"We can catch up to them later," said Daphne. "I've got to go to Gladrags Wizardwear anyway, don't you need shoes as well, Calla?"

Calla nodded; she hadn't really thought about getting shoes for the Yule Ball to go with her dress robes, but she didn't really have much except her school shoes, boots, and a pair of Dudley's old boys trainers which she hated even with normal clothes. She needed something much nicer for the ball.

Gladrags was, not surprisingly, full of Hogwarts students. Hannah and Susan were talking animatedly as they compared five pairs of heels, and Cho Chang and her friends were giggling over a magazine as they waited by a dressing room. Daphne led Calla and Padma over to the shoe section, where a magical measuring tap flew over to them, trying to gauge the size of their feet. Calla was very confused by the shoes, though, as none of them seemed to have sizes on them, and though she saw a couple of pairs of heels with the number five on them, they were massive and she was sure they did not equate to Muggle sizing at all. "How do we know what's going to fit?" she asked Daphne, who looked at her strangely.

"Well, the tape will show you. Take off your trainers and see."

Calla obliged, feeling very awkward with her bare feet on the floor. The strange tape measure turned a bright pink as it flew over to her, measuring her feet, and she looked down at it uncomfortably. A moment later it had curled up and flew off towards a shelf line with an assortment of shoes; some white flats, silver heels, soft grey boots, and Calla looked at Daphne confusedly. "Just follow the tape measure," she told her.

Calla did so, going over to the shelf. She wasn't totally sure what she was meant to do, but apprehensively took down a nice pair of pale grey heels. With Daphne and Padma in another corner of the room, she tried them on and grinned; they felt nice on her feet, and even when she tried to walk she felt stable on them, which had always been her worry about the idea of wearing high heeled shoes. So she took the shoes off and paid for them quickly, waiting for Daphne and Padma. They took much longer than she did, but half an hour or so later they had all made their purchases and were making their way towards the Three Broomsticks to meet Harry and Hermione. Remus and Sirius had said that they'd meet them at about half past one, and it was one o'clock now.

They passed Professor Moody and Hagrid on the way in and spotted Hermione in a booth at the back, seemingly alone, but Calla was sure Harry was hiding somewhere in his Invisibility Cloak. "Did you get everything you were after?" Hermione asked cheerfully as they approached her. She had a whole load of papers spread out in front of her, and Calla frowned over them.

"What are you working on?" she asked, staring at the seat. She lowered her voice and said, "Budge up, Harry."

There was a gently shuffling sound and she slipped into the booth, Padma beside her, and Daphne beside Hermione.

"Oh, good. Have we got any more members?" Daphne asked Hermione.

"Not yet, but I was thinking of asking some of the villagers if they'd like to join. And I'm working on updating our short-term aims; there's no point in simply trying to help without deciding on how we're going to help, is there?"

"That's a good point," said Daphne, looking down Hermione's list. "Listen, Hermione, I've got this Muggle Studies essay about pop culture, and Professor Burbage wants us to write about musical evolution in recent decades. Could you look over it for me and check I've got the right points, there are so many bands they all confuse me."

Hermione obliged, and the two of them chatted over the essay. Calla turned to Harry, saying in a low voice, "What are you still hiding for? There's so many people here no one'll see you."

"Ron's over there," he muttered, as if that settled the matter. Calla huffed, and decided it would be much easier to talk to Padma about shoes.

At about half one, Remus and Sirius came in, sneaking through the crowd of people. They got quite a few looks, and Calla could hear Harry shift awkwardly beside her as they all bunched around into the booth. Remus frowned. "Where's Harry?" he asked, sitting down.

Calla gestured to the seemingly empty space beside her. "He's hiding."

Sirius shook his head. "Can't say I blame him. The looks I got coming up here... I saw that article in the Prophet."

Calla made a disgusted sound and said darkly, "We don't talk about that."

It was barely any time before the subject had turned to the First Task, and they all spoke in hushed voices. "Calla thinks it's dragons," Harry said, still hidden by the Invisibility Cloak. "And if it's dragons, we're goners."

"It is dragons," Calla said, grimacing. "I'm sure of it."

"Dragons we can handle," Sirius said. "We'll have a think... But we wanted to warn you, too."

"Warn us?" Harry whispered, and Calla looked at Sirius worriedly. "About what?"

"Karkaroff," he said, after looking around him worriedly. "He used to be a Death Eater. He was in Azkaban the same time as I was."

"I didn't know that," Daphne whispered, looking shocked. "How's he here, then?"

"He was released," Sirius explained. "I'd say that's why Dumbledore wanted Moody here this year, as an Auror, so he could keep an eye on him." A horrid thought had just occurred to Calla. "Moody was the one who caught Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place."

"Then how'd he get out?" Padma asked sharply. "And get made a teacher, no less!"

"He did a deal with the Ministry of Magic," Sirius said in a bitter sort of way. "He said he'd seen the error of his ways, and then he named names." A grim look settled over Daphne's features. "He put a load of other people into Azkaban in his place... he's not very popular in there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he's been teaching the Dark Arts to every student who walks through that school of his. So watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well."

"He has been teaching them," Daphne said, looking pale. "I remember Draco saying..." She looked urgently at Calla. "You think... he might have put your names in?"

Calla shuddered. "I don't know..."

"We must consider it," said Remus worriedly in a low voice. "But accusations and blame are not the priority now. There's something much bigger going on, and I'm sure you know as we do, whoever put your names in that goblet was likely working on the behalf of Voldemort. Now," he lowered his voice even more, "we think we might have a lead on Peter's location."

This stunned them into momentary silence, and then Hermione looked up. "Where?"

"We're looking at Norfolk at the moment. Couple of odd disappearances going on there... The Muggle police haven't turned up anything. It's a dead end for them, but we though we might take a look. We'll be at the First Task, though," Remus added quickly, and Calla breathed a sigh of relief. Knowing that he would be there made her feel at least a bit more confident that they wouldn't let her and Harry die fighting a stupid dragon.

"Good," Calla said quietly, and glared at the table. "You'll get to see us get roasted."

"Don't say that," Padma told her sternly, and looked to Remus and Sirius who both looked worried. "We've been practicing lots of spells. Calla's going to be fine."

"Easy for you to say," she said.

They ended up steering the conversation carefully away from the topic of the tournament - Padma and Daphne thought Calla didn't realise, but she did - and by the time it came for them to head back up to school, Calla had almost forgotten the tournament for a moment, mind distracted by Sirius and Remus' stories of their school days. They were about to turn up the path out of the village when Remus stopped them. "You two still haven't decided what you're going to do in the Tournament, have you?" he asked.

"I've got an idea," Calla mumbled.

"I've... not," Harry said awkwardly, and she sighed.

"Listen," Sirius said quietly, as they stopped by the edge of the road. "The most vulnerable part of a dragon's its eyes. The Conjunctivitis Jinx should do it."

She groaned. "Isobel said that, but we thought it'd just annoy it, which is the last thing I need. And I'll never manage to learn a whole new spell before Tuesday."

"You both ought to have a back up plan, besides," Remus said, with a sharp look at Sirius. "We're not meant to tell you what to do, but considering Dumbledore didn't listen to a word of what we said when we told him not to let you compete-"

"You did what?" asked Harry's disembodied voice.

"Not that it mattered," Sirius muttered. "It's binding, apparently."

"You tried to stop us competing!"

Sirius looked a little guilty, but Remus just sighed. "Harry, we've just discussed the probability that whoever put your name in the goblet wanted to do you harm. Do you think we should allow that to happen and not try to stop it?"

But Harry had wrenched off the Invisibility Cloak now and was looking between Remus and Sirius indignantly. "You don't think we can do it, can you?"

"Of course we do," Sirius said hastily. "Harry, I have every faith in you and your sister. But the thing is that you shouldn't have to do this."

Harry made an annoyed sort of sound. A group of Slytherins gave them a funny look as they went past. "Yeah," Harry said eventually. Calla saw Hermione give him a look and felt a prickle of annoyance. "I guess. Thanks for the tip anyway."

And he was in a mood all the way back up to the castle. "I know you're scared," Calla muttered, just before they parted ways at the Great Hall. Harry didn't reply, but his jaw tightened. "They're only trying to help."

"Leave it, Calla," Harry huffed, and hurried away to join Hermione without looking Calla in the eye.