The weeks leading up to the first challenge were difficult for Avery, to say the least. The morning after the champions were chosen, Avery laid in bed till 2pm. A war was waging in her head about what was happening outside of her dormitory; whether people really believed she would enter Harry Potter in the tournament, whether they all hated her, or whether she had simply exaggerated the whole situation in her head. Maybe no one believed Zacharias- outside of Cedric, of course. Maybe she was actually making things worse for herself by locking herself away- making herself look guilty. But the war in her head was immobilizing. She didn't know for sure one way or another, and so she simply stayed put, sleeping on and off until Monday morning.

As a result, it wasn't until breakfast that morning that Avery got her answer. She walked into the Great Hall, donning her normal appearance, and noticed almost right away a chill emanating from her peers. As she sat down at the Hufflepuff table, she noticed several students, some who she had never even spoken to before, like Wayne Bostock and Linda Chaddesley, gesturing to her and whispering animatedly. Others were downright glaring at her while she poured herself some coffee. She tried to keep herself calm and pretend she didn't notice, choosing to focus instead on what she would eat than their whispers.

It became even more apparent how many people had been persuaded by Zacharias when lessons started. In Herbology with the Gryffindors, none of the other Hufflepuffs would speak to her. She noticed Harry was having this same issue. In fact, the Hufflepuffs seemed to be cold to the whole of Gryffindor, no doubt feeling that their house glory was diminished by Harry being allowed to compete in the tournament. The Gryffindors did not seem to treat Avery any differently from usual, however. Avery wondered if this was because the rumor about her entering Harry hadn't reached them or if it was because her supposed duplicitousness benefited their house.

Avery eventually decided on the latter, as her lessons continued and she was treated coldly by many of the Ravenclaws as well. It seemed from what Avery could glean from their snide comments to her or whispers amongst themselves that Avery had been blinded by Harry's fame, making her easily manipulated into submitting his name on his behalf. After hearing one particularly nasty conversation about her motives exchanged between Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot in their shared potions class, she couldn't help but snap at them about how Ravenclaws were supposed to be smart, so she couldn't understand how they could "sort in such a pair of wankers who are so obviously dead from the neck up!" It cost her five points from Hufflepuff when Snape overheard, but she felt little guilt or remorse since there seemed to be nothing she could do to make her house hate her any more than they already did, anyway.

The final straw, however, was Defense Against the Dark Arts with Mad-Eye Moody. She had been working quietly on the assigned reading, when a slip of parchment was dropped in front of her.

"I believe that's yours, Stone," came Moody's gruff voice from above her. Avery tore her eyes away from the parchment to look up at Moody, who seemed to be smirking. Something about the tension between them seemed to have drawn the attention of the other students, as Avery could feel multiple pairs of eyes rolling over her.

"Tried to submit your name, eh?" Moody went on. "I found it on the floor of the Great Hall the night before the champions were chosen. Couldn't get across the line, could you?"

Avery's blood ran cold. For a moment she wasn't sure how to respond- should she admit to a professor that she had been out of bed after hours? Or should she vehemently deny it? But she quickly decided to answer truthfully, thinking maybe it would serve to reinforce her innocence regarding who submitted Harry's name.

"No, I couldn't," Avery said firmly, looking straight into Moody's good eye, while the other swiveled fast enough over her and around the room to give her motion sickness.

Moody promptly grunted that it would be a detention for being out of bed after hours. For a moment Avery was not concerned about this, thinking at least she had demonstrated her innocence to the rest of the class. That, logically, if she couldn't submit her own name, there was no way she could've submitted Harry's and that the rest of the class would realize this. But, almost immediately she heard Megan Jones whisper behind her, "See! That puts her at the scene of the crime!" and lost all hope once again. The story of the slip of paper bearing her name circulated the halls quickly, and students began adding that incident to the stockpile of evidence against her.

Of course, the Slytherins were always a lot that kept to themselves, but Avery noticed even they seemed colder towards her. There were a few she was on speaking terms with since she had performed detentions for them and would wave hello to, but even they began to see through her in the halls. The only few who Avery really spoke with following the announcement of the champions were Fred, George, and her fellow Hufflepuff, Anne.

Anne had taken it upon herself to sit with Avery, usually silently, at every meal and in the common room. She also invited Avery to practice Quidditch with her in their free time, since there was no regular practice and the pitch was almost always vacant. Avery was grateful for her quiet support and her willingness to listen to Avery repeatedly rant about how she was completely innocent while they tossed the quaffle back and forth.

The twins had also taken it upon themselves to lend their support.

"May we," George began during lunch the Monday following the selection, "offer our sincerest condolences-"

"For your reputation," Fred finished.

Avery gave each of them a sour look. Just then, Zacharias Smith started to walk by behind Avery. Upon seeing the three of them sitting together, he scoffed loudly and said "celebrating your champion together, are you? Cheaters."

Without hesitation, both Fred lept to their feet and hexed him, earning themselves a week's worth of detention apiece. From then on, they, too, went out of their way to sit with her at meal-times, or walk with her through the halls. Though, Avery quickly realized this did little to persuade anyone of her innocence, and so she took to changing her appearance a few times a day outside of classes to try to keep out of the line of fire of the rest of the school.

Though Avery saw Cedric often, either at mealtimes or in the halls or in the common room, they did not speak. She tried not to look at him, but she often found herself searching his face when he didn't seem to be looking, and quickly looking away if he started to look back at her.

It was the weekend before the first task before she spoke to Cedric again. That Sunday, Avery made her way to Mad-eye Moody's office to serve her detention from admitting she was out of bed after hours. When she arrived, she knocked and Moody called for her to enter. When she did, she looked around and saw a multitude of strange objects that she quickly recognized as dark detectors; sneakoscopes, secrecy sensors, and foe-glass. Avery was also quick to notice the secrecy sensor was humming non-stop and there were plenty of figures moving about in the foe-glass, obvious signs of someone nearby being untrustworthy.

"Had to disable my sneakoscope," Moody grunted, noticing Avery's eyes wandering between the many dark detectors, "too much interference here. Students lying about why their homework isn't done, why they're late to class."

Avery nodded wordlessly in response, eager not to extend her visit to Moody's visit by discussing anything unnecessary.

Moody put her to work in small pantry-like room off of the office sorting various antidotes to poisons and more common maladies that he "liked to keep on hand." While she worked with the door ajar, she would occasionally hear Moody clunking around the office or shuffling parchment, occasionally even voicing his distaste for a students answers to an assignment. At one point, she thought she heard him leave the office, but thought little of it as she was busy sorting between Wiggenweld and Wolfsbane. But, a short while later, it became clear that Moody had left the office and was now returning, and he was not alone.

""That was a very decent thing you just did, Potter," Moody said, almost so quietly Avery did not hear. But she was sure she caught the word "Potter," and her interest was piqued.

"Sit down," she heard Moody say next. She put down the bottles she was holding as quietly as she could and scooted closer to the partially open door. She was just able to see Harry take a seat and look around the office, taking in all the dark detectors that Avery had noticed earlier.

"Like my Dark Detectors, do you?" said Moody, who was staring fixedly at Harry, an odd expression that Avery could not place on his face.

"What's that?" Harry asked, pointing to the Secrecy sensor, which was a sort of squiggly golden aerial.

Moody growled an explanation similar to the one he gave Avery about what it was and how it had been humming since he arrived at Hogwarts due to the plethora of dishonest students.

"And what's the mirror for?" Harry asked again, watching the shapes move about in the glass.

"Oh that's my Foe-Glass. See them out there, skulking around? I'm not really in trouble until I see the whites of their eyes. That's when I open my trunk." He let out a short, harsh laugh before continuing. "So. . . found out about the dragons, have you?"

Avery's eyes darted to Harry to see his reaction so that she might make sense of what was happening. Unfortunately, the angle she was at made it hard to see more than the back of his head, and he remained quiet.

"It's all right," said Moody, sitting down across the desk from Harry and stretching out his wooden leg with a groan. "Cheating's a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and always has been. "

Avery's eyes grew wide at the mention of the Triwizard Tournament; dragons were the first task.

Dragons were the first task? How could that be? And how could Moody be so relaxed about Harry knowing?

"I didn't cheat," Harry replied, his voice sharp. "It was - a sort of accident that I found out. "

Moody grinned, his marred face hardly improved by his smile. "I wasn't accusing you, laddie. I've been telling Dumbledore from the start, he can be as high-minded as he likes, but you can bet old Karkaroff and Maxime won't be. They'll have told their champions everything they can. They want to win. They want to beat Dumbledore. They'd like to prove he's only human. " Moody gave another harsh laugh before continuing. "So. . . got any ideas how you're going to get past your dragon yet?"

Avery's mind was racing. Harry had found out what the task was ahead of time and Moody didn't seem to care. Moody also seemed to recognize that the other two champions had an unfair advantage and didn't seem to care, either.

"No," Harry replied simply.

"Well, I'm not going to tell you," said Moody gruffly. "I don't show favoritism, me. I'm just going to give you some good, general advice. And the first bit is - play to your strengths. "

It took everything in Avery not to snort in exasperation in that moment. It seemed clear enough that Moody was showing favoritism just by not reporting that three out of the four champions had a leg-up going into the first task. And that was when Avery was filled with dread.

Cedric doesn't know, she thought, anxiously. He would be the only one to go into the tournament not knowing that they were going to face dragons. He would be the only one going in blind against an extremely dangerous magical creature, and he could be seriously hurt or even killed in the process.

By the time Avery came to terms with this shocking and sickening realization, she heard Moody saying "You're a damn good flier from what I've heard. "

"Yeah, but. . . " Harry started, sounding bewildered. "I'm not allowed a broom, I've only got my wand. . ."

"My second piece of general advice," said Moody loudly, interrupting him, "is to use a nice, simple spell that will enable you to get what you need... Come on, boy. . . " whispered Moody. "Put them together. . . it's not that difficult. . . "

Avery seemed to put what Moody was saying together about the same time Harry did. He exclaimed something about his broom and thanked Moody before hurrying from the room. Avery turned her focus back to Moody in time to see him smirk, his real eye still on the door Harry had exited through. But, suddenly, his head jerked in her direction, both his magical and real eye fixed on her.

It was too late, but she attempted to scoot back over to the box of antidotes and get back to work. She heard Moody walking over to her as she did. He opened the door fully and looked down at her. Avery paused in fumbling with bottles to look back at him.

"Well…" he started, magical eye swiveling again, "I trust you'll keep this quiet, eh?"

Avery furrowed her brow at him, trying to find the words to respond. Did he mean to keep quiet about it in front of other professors? Triwizard Tournament Officials? Or did he mean from Cedric?

"It's normal. Cheating's a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and always has been," he repeated. "Besides, Potter would've likely been burned to death without the help. The boy needs a little support."

"It's still not fair!" Avery snapped, sounding braver than she felt. What about Cedric? Didn't he deserve any support?

Moody stared at her, and he seemed to be really scrutinizing her. She imagined he was trying to see through her with his magical eye, trying to determine what he had to do to keep her quiet. But then he said, in a quiet voice, "you're nothing like your parents, are you?"

Avery was taken aback by this, and again was not sure what to say. She stared at him, mouth partially open, a certain severity in his expression that she had never encountered before.

"Well, I suppose I can't keep punishing you for breaking the rules if I helped break one, can I?" he asked, moving out of the doorway as if to let her pass through. Avery watched him for a moment, trying to decide if he meant it or not. When he did not move again or speak, she put the bottles she was holding down and stood. She exited the small room and walked past Moody and into the office. Pausing, she looked to Moody, waiting for him to say something, though what, she wasn't sure.

"Keep it between us, Stone," he growled, wagging a gnarled finger at her. "It won't happen again."

With that, he ambled back over to his desk and picked up the stack of papers he had been grading before. After a moment, Avery turned and left without another word.

That evening, Avery chose a seat at the table with the helpful Herbology plant and tried to do her homework. But she couldn't help but become distracted by the knowledge of the first task that she had acquired that afternoon. Anne, who had chosen a seat across from her and was working quietly on her own homework, seemed to notice the difficulty Avery was having focusing.

"What's the matter?" she asked gently, dipping her quill in her ink bottle.

Looking about to make sure no one else was listening (which wasn't an issue, as all of their housemates seemed to be avoiding any space Avery occupied like the plague), Avery whispered to Anne what had happened in Moody's office.

"You have to tell Cedric," Anne said firmly the moment Avery was finished. Avery glanced over to a table on the opposite side of the common room, where Cedric was immersed in a book. He looked somewhat shabby, his hair fussed and robes unkempt as he poured over a book which Avery could not make out the title of.

"I doubt he'll even believe me," Avery replied sadly, looking back to Anne.

"Doesn't matter. You are a good person and you know the truth and you should share it. Whether he accepts it or not is up to him," Anne replied. With a final hard look, she dipped her quill in ink once again and set back to writing her essay. Avery watched her for a moment, wondering if she had been that wise when she was a third year, and quickly deciding she wasn't.

She looked back over to Cedric, still reading. She took a deep breath and pushed herself into a standing position and strode over to him. Stopping a mere foot from him, fully aware that the eyes of all the Hufflepuffs in the common room were on her, she spoke. "Cedric, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Cedric looked up from his book at her, and it seemed to take a minute for him to process who she was. His eyes were tired and anxious, and seemed to grow in size when he realized what she had asked of him.

"Oh… Sure, of course," he said, placing his book down and pushing himself into a standing position. Avery nodded slightly before turning and striding to the hall outside of the common room. She could feel Cedric following her closely, as well as the gaze of all those in the common room, and the buzz of their whispers followed them out of the room.

Once in the hall and the barrels closed behind them, Avery turned to Cedric and looked up into his tired, grey eyes. As quickly and firmly as she could, she told him, "the first task is dragons."

Cedric's eyes widened again in shock, before narrowing suspiciously. "How d'you know that?"

Avery hadn't thought this far along. She wondered briefly if she should tell him the truth or simply leave it at "the first task is dragons." But, she decided that being completely and utterly open with Cedric is something she should've done from the beginning, and so it was best she do it now.

"I had a detention in Moody's office today. Harry Potter came in and they were talking about it. They said that the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang champions both know as well, and I wanted to make sure you weren't the only champion walking in blind."

Cedric surveyed her quietly. Avery faltered under the pressure and looked to her feet, folding her arms and biting her lip.

"Were… Were you serving your own detention or someone else's?"

Avery's head snapped back up to glare at Cedric. He had been wearing a smile, but it faded quickly upon seeing her expression.

"I knew. Harry told me," he said with a sigh. He ran his hand through his already disheveled hair. "I don't know what to do, though. Dragons… Dragons aren't easy."

Avery's face softened at his obvious exhaustion and frustration. She nodded in reassurance and said, "I'm sure you'll think of something. You're… You're the best champion we've got."

Without waiting to see his reaction, Avery turned and walked back into the common room, leaving Cedric behind.

The first task was set for that Tuesday, and when the time came Avery filed down to the arena with the rest of the student body, though she was not as surprised as they were when Ludo Bagman, who was playing the announcer, informed them that the champions would be facing dragons for their first task.

She was sitting in one of the first few rows of the arena seating and could see down into the rocky arena easily. There was a large nest of dragons eggs clearly visible. The only odd thing was how one egg was gleaming gold, standing apart from the rest of the concrete colored ones.

"I bet they have to fetch the egg!" Anne cried to Avery excitedly from her left side.

"What did your friend say?" Fred asked from her right.

Avery was sitting on a very clear border between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students- both houses had been very careful to coordinate their clothes with their house colors, and so looking around the stadium you could easily identify them among the mass of other spectators- a mass of yellow neatly separate from a mass of scarlet. Avery had also worn yellow and black, much to the indignation of the rest of her house.

Avery leaned over to Fred, who was clad in red, so that he could hear her over the cheers of the other audience members.

"She thinks they're going to have to fetch the golden egg from the nest," Avery repeated.

"Blimey," replied Fred, his eyes wide, "maybe it was better we couldn't get our names in."

Just then, a large door to the arena opened and what seemed like a half dozen wizards were working together to levitate a sleeping, or, more likely, a magically sedated silvery-blue dragon into the ring.

"That's our brother, Charlie!" Fred shouted, nudging Avery and pointing to one of the wizards working with the dragon. He, too, had flaming red hair.

Once the dragon had been placed on the ground near the nest, all the wizards but Charlie hurried back out of the entrance from which they came. Once they were to safety, Charlie performed some sort of spell they could not hear and also went running for the exit, which was quickly closed and, Avery assumed, magically sealed, the moment he was out.

The dragon began stirring almost immediately. It lifted its head and began sniffing the air, and shortly thereafter began to roar angrily, smoke unfurling from it's nostrils all the while. As the crowd watched, Ludo Bagman confirmed Anne's theory- the champions would have to somehow outsmart the dragon and collect the golden egg without damaging any of the other eggs.

"TO BEGIN OUR FIRST TASK-" came Ludo's magically-magnified, booming voice, "WE HAVE A SWEDISH SHORT-SNOUT! THIS DRAGON IS NATIVE TO THE UNINHABITED MOUNTAINS OF SWEDEN. THOUGH IT HAS THE FEWEST DEATHS TO ITS NAME, THAT IS SIMPLY BECAUSE IT RARELY ENCOUNTERS HUMANS. IN REALITY, IT IS AN INCREDIBLY AGILE AND DANGEROUS SPECIES DUE TO ITS EXTRA HOT BLUE FLAME! FACING THIS DRAGON WE HAVE OUR FIRST HOGWARTS CHAMPION- CEDRIC DIGGORY!"

The crowd roared and Cedric walked into the stadium from a smaller door on the opposite side from which the dragon was brought in. Avery stood to get a better look at him, and was anxious to see he looked quite green in the face. What if he hadn't come up with any good ideas as to how to face the dragon? Would an official swoop in to save him? Or would he be left to suffer whatever this dragon might do to him?

It took a moment after Cedric entered the arena for the dragon to smell him, but as soon as it did it zeroed in on Cedric's lonely figure, and began to tilt its head slightly backward in what Avery could only assume was the lead-up to unleashing a mouthful of flame.

"MOVE YOUR ARSE, CEDRIC!" she screamed, so anxious and terrified in that moment that she had no real conception of the fact that there was no way he could hear her over the rest of the spectators. Cedric ran and dived behind a huge boulder just in time to avoid the dragon's white-hot, blue breath, the crowd gasping collectively at the near miss.

"OOOH, NARROW MISS THERE, VERY NARROW!" came Ludo's commentary.

From behind the rock, Cedric seemed to be looking about frantically. Avery was dancing in her seat, nearly pulling out her own hair with anxiety. The dragon lumbered a step or two closer to the rock it knew Cedric to be hiding behind. Edging his way around the rock, Cedric seemed to see this and took off running for another boulder, which was somewhat closer to the nest. The dragon saw this, however, and unleashed another mouthful of flame in his direction. It came so close to catching Cedric that Avery swore she could see the hem of his robes smoldering.

"OOOH, HE'S TAKING RISKS, THIS ONE!" Ludo commented.

Cedric did not seem to be in a much better position than he had been, however. He still seemed to be looking around, searching for something. The dragon had taken a few more steps away from the nest and towards Cedric's new hiding place.

"DO SOMETHING, CED!" Avery yelled from behind her fingers. She wasn't sure she could watch if Cedric was going to be barbecued. She felt Fred grasp each of her shoulders and squeeze reassuringly.

Then, Cedric cast a spell towards a nearby rock, and suddenly it wasn't a rock- it was a dog. Pointing his wand towards the boulder, the dog ran towards Cedric's original hiding place. And the dragon seemed to take the bait. Cedric kept his wand pointed away from the nest so as to draw the dragon farther and farther from it. The dragon took a few more tentative footsteps away from the nest, unleashing more blue flames at it's new target. Avery was so distracted by the dog herself, that at first she didn't see Cedric take off running from behind the rock towards the nest.

The dragon, however, was not as easily distracted. It seemed to have sensed Cedric's movement, and whipped around just in time to release a jet of flame which came into contact with the left side of Cedric's body, particularly his shoulder and face. Cedric fell with a shout, and crawled quickly behind a nearby rock. The crowd screamed in terror, and Avery instantaneously had tears streaming down her face.

"CLEVER MOVE - PITY IT DIDN'T WORK!"

"Is he okay?!" Avery cried through her tears. She couldn't help but imagine the worst- after this Cedric might be blind or only have use of half of his face. What if the damage was irreparable? What if he died from complications from the injury and she never got a chance to repair things with him?

"He's alright! He'll be okay!" Fred shouted to her, still gripping her shoulders to keep her steady.

Half blinded by tears, Avery saw Cedric transfigure another rock into another dog. He sent it running towards the edge of the arena, again trying to lure the dragon away.

The dragon, again, seemed interested in the dog. It took a few steps towards it, nostrils smoking, tilting its head in that way that seemed indicative of disaster.

Avery looked towards Cedric, barely visible to her behind the rock, and saw that he was not far from the nest. If he could just find a way to get there unharmed...

Just as the dragon began to shoot flames at the dog, Cedric bolted for the nest. Only after the dragon has finished burning the dog did it turn to address Cedric, and by then Cedric was only a few feet from the egg. The dragon began to tilt its head again to ready new flame for Cedric, just as he bent to grab the golden egg.

The crowd released an almighty roar- perhaps louder than any the dragon had done. The dragon was hit by a stunning spell from the dragon handlers just as it was firing towards Cedric, which luckily sent the jet of flame a few feet to the left of where Cedric was standing. While the handlers worked fiercely to subdue the Swedish Short-Snout, Cedric collapsed near the nest, one arm cradling the egg, the other hand shielding his already burned and bloody face. He was almost immediately magicked onto a stretcher and removed from the ring. Just beyond the exit he was taken through, Avery could see the top of a tent. She assumed this must be for the champions, or perhaps a medical tent.

Without thinking or waiting to hear his score, or anything else anyone had to say, Avery fought her way out of Fred's grasp and out of the stadium seating, determined to find Cedric and set things right.