"It's so ridiculous," Lorla expostulated, as they sat at a table in the Three Broomsticks that weekend. "Those stupid badges." She looked askance at Georgia Greenwood, a fellow fifth year Ravenclaw who was sporting one of the large Support CEDRIC DIGGORY badges on her cloak.

Georgia looked indignant. "I'm just showing support for the Hogwarts champions."

"Yeah, but-" Lorla reached over and pressed the badge, and it glowed green with its alternative message: "POTTER STINKS". "You can't call that support."

"Okay then, support for the real Hogwarts champion."

Cho strongly suspected the badges had been put into circulation by the Slytherins, who seemed to be delighted that the whole school was, for once, joining them in their antagonising of Harry, whom they had always despised.

"You're only wearing that because you're lusting after Cedric," Lorla pointed out.

"As a matter of fact," Georgia said pompously, drawing her cloak tighter around her, "I happen to think this stunt of Potter's is just to get more attention. Everyone knows Cedric got in on real talent, and not just for having a scar on his head."

Lorla screwed up her nose in disgust. "You sound like a Slytherin," she said, making it sound like the foulest thing on earth. Everyone laughed and Georgia went pink.

"I do not!" she declared hotly.

"Yeah, sure. Look there's Draco Malfoy and his slimy Slytherin mates. You can go join them."

"Yuck!" Georgia squealed, and everyone laughed again.

Cho shook her head at them in mock despair. Lorla could never resist picking on Georgia, who had always been a bit stocky and self-absorbed. She tended to complain a lot and became absolutely useless under pressure, but lately Cho had seen a change in Georgia- more of a will to stand up for herself. Cho had always encouraged Georgia to be less co-dependant.

"You have to agree with me though," Georgia said defensively as the laughter died down. "I mean, it's so obvious."

"I don't know," Ariana Hedgewhistle said, thoughtfully stirring her butterbeer. "He seems to be a bit put out by the whole thing."

"That's true," Islean van Tassel agreed, shaking her mop of blonde curls, "although Georgia certainly has a point," she added a moment later.

"As if," Lorla muttered. "You're all being ridiculous." Georgia opened her mouth to deliver a cutting remark, but just then a distraction entered the pub in the form of Fred and George Weasley. They were identical twins in the year above Cho, and she knew them only on a

Quidditch-related basis, as they played the position of Beaters on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. They were known notoriously around the school for their mischievousness, and were the archenemies of the school caretaker, Filch. Everything they did was noisy and exuberant, and today was no exception, as they burst into the pub in the midst of an argument with their younger brother. He was a tall and freckled fourth year, and someone Cho only vaguely recognised, as last year the mass murderer Sirius Black had broken into school and tried to attack him-

or so the story went. He had bright red hair just like the twins and a sulky expression on his face. What was his name again? Ryan? Ross?

"…know, Ron," said one of the twins in an exasperated tone, as Cho tuned into their conversation, "If the both of you weren't so bloody stubborn…"

"It's none of our business of course," amended the other twin, "but you could always just go and, oh, say…apologise?"

Ron muttered something inaudible in response.

"Whatever," sighed the twin who had first spoken.

"It's no skin off our noses," the other twin said with raised eyebrows.

"Good," snapped Ron.

The twin who had first spoken paused briefly as they made their way past Cho's table.

"Hey, Cho," he said.

"Hi," she answered. "How are you?"

"Fine, if you don't account for my unfortunate anal rash," he quipped. Cho wasn't sure if he was serious or joking, so she nodded. Lorla snorted into her butterbeer and the twin grinned at her, and perched on the arm of her chair.

"Hey Cho," the other twin said, as his identical brother struck up a conversation with the rest of the group.

"Hi," she said again.

"Oh!" said the twin, and pointed to her school tie as though he had spotted something on it. She looked down, but the moment she did so the twin brought his hand up, hitting her lightly on the chin. He grinned. "Better keep those reflexes sharp. There's always next year's Quidditch, you know."

"I haven't forgotten."

"Just making sure, dollface."

Ron was standing awkwardly aside, scratching his nose. Cho gave him a friendly smile and he managed to return it. "I'll go and get us a table," he muttered to the twin who had hit Cho's chin.

"We'll come," the first twin said, hopping off Lorla's chair. "Nice talking to you, girls. See you round, Cho."

"Sure," she said, returning his playful grin. The twins walked off, shoving each other, while their little brother walked behind. There was a definite droop to his shoulders, and on closer observance, Cho realised the look on his face wasn't so much sulky as it was just plain…sad. She wondered briefly what the trouble might be, but then dismissed the matter, and turned back to her friend's conversation.

"Talk about cute," Lorla said, craning her neck to get a better look at where the twins were sitting, now joined by a sixth year named Lee Jordan, whom Cho didn't know very well.

"Talk about obvious," said Georgia smugly, obviously pleased to have got Lorla in a compromising position, "If you don't stop looking then they'll know you like them."

"What's wrong with that?" Lorla said. "If I don't tell them then they'll never know. I'm not going to sit around waiting for some boy to ask me out when it's perfectly in my power to do the same to them."

"The boy is supposed to ask the girl," Georgia argued, "that's how it's done."

"Get real," Ariana said. "That concept is dead. Gone with the fifties and rainbow suspenders."

"Rainbow whats?" Islean asked, as Georgia looked indignant.

"It's proper," said Georgia, drawing herself up pompously.

"It's stupid," said Lorla, and Ariana and Islean murmured their agreement.

"What do you think, Cho?" Georgia asked.

Cho considered for a moment. "I think…" she said, after a pause, "That it's a bit romantic for us to expect the boys to come running around after us. Ideally that would be the way, but unless we're built like a veela with a face to match I don't know if that would happen."

"Exactly," Lorla said triumphantly, "We have every right to ask the boys out."

"On the other hand," said Islean, "Nothing's sorrier than a desperate woman."

"I wonder why?" mused Ariana.

"Well, it's because boys just assume that we want a deep emotional attachment to them while all they want is sex," Lorla declared.

"Don't you believe in fate?" Georgia cried, "That everyone has a soul mate and that you'll be brought together by destiny?"

The pub door opened again, and a slight drop in the noise level succeeded this as everyone saw who it was- Harry Potter's girlfriend, Hermione Granger.

She looked nervously around until she spotted someone and gave them a timid little wave. Cho looked where she was looking- at Ron Weasley, who gave her a little wave back and then turned back to his brothers.

She murmured something to herself and took a few hesitant steps in. She put her arm out to the side and murmured something to herself again, then pointed to an empty table across the pub. She paused, then nodded, and went off to the counter to get drinks.

"Weird," muttered Lorla.

"I suppose being his girlfriend would drive anyone mad." Georgia said spitefully, and Cho frowned.

"That's not very nice, Georgia," she pointed out quietly. Cho tried not to reprimand Georgia very often- the girl was self-conscious enough as it was- but it was unlike Georgia to simply make spiteful comments like that for the hell of it, and Cho suspected she was doing it for attention. "She's not mad. She's very brave. She's sticking by her boyfriend when the rest of the school is ostracising him. That's not mad, that's pure guts. She must really believe in him and love him a lot to do that, don't you think? She's to be admired."

Georgia blushed and looked down, fiddling with her Support CEDRIC DIGGORY badge. "To get back to the point," Lorla said, interrupting the thoughtful silence that had fallen over the table, "Destiny's a load of crap, George."

"It's not!" said Georgia, immediately rising to the challenge and forgetting her shame in a millisecond, "And it will bring everyone together with their soul mate before they die."

"Oh yeah? My Aunt Ignatia died alone. How do you explain that?"

"Well, she…" Georgia said, and paused while she tried to think of an argument. "She probably didn't believe in fate's plan for her, and denied its path."

"Too right," said Lorla. "And plus, someone had transfigured her feet into cabbages when she was sixteen. Surprisingly enough, men don't find stinky vegetables in place of feet very attractive. Right Cho?"

"Mmmm," said Cho, slightly distracted as she saw Hermione Granger heading to a spare table in the corner carrying two mugs of Butterbeer.

"You are being kind of cynical, Lor," Ariana said reasonably. "Mr. Right could walk through that door any second. Would you just ignore it?"

"I probably would," Lorla said stoutly, "unless he was devastatingly handsome, rich, and with abs you could slice cheese on."

"Speaking of which!" Georgia exclaimed, as the door swung open a third time and admitted a new customer, "Here comes Mr. Right now!"

Cho swivelled in her chair to see who he was, although the excited look on Georgia's face and the smattering of applause that greeted "Mr. Right" as he entered had pretty much answered that question for her.

"Hi, Cedric!" two fourth year Hufflepuffs cried as he came in, accompanied by a couple of his seventh year friends.

"Hi Hannah, hi Ernie," Cedric said amiably, waving back.

"I'll get a table for us," one of his mates murmured.

"I'll get the drinks," the other one said. Cedric nodded, and went to follow his first friend to the table, when he happened to see Cho and her friends. He smiled and made his way over.

"Hi Cedric!" Georgia cried eagerly as he approached.

"Hello," Cedric said, leaning casually on the arm of Cho's chair. "How's it going?"

"Good!" chorused Cho's friends.

"We're really looking forward to Tuesday!" Georgia said breathlessly, never taking her shining eyes off his handsome face, "I just know you're going to win."

"At least one of us does," Cedric said, his smile faltering a little. He moved his elbow slightly and it brushed Cho's glossy black hair.

"D'you know what the first task is?" questioned Lorla.

Cedric shook his head. "None of us do. It's going to be a big surprise for everyone." He looked down at Cho. "I ran into that writer outside, what's her name? The one that wrote that thing on Harry?"

"Rita Skeeter," Islean supplied.

"That's the one- and she seemed to be under the impression I knew as well. But I don't." A slightly troubled expression passed over his face for a moment or two. Cho recognised the expression from the conversation two days ago in the corridors. He was worried about the task, anyone could see that. But who wouldn't be? Cho couldn't even imagine how frustrating it must feel to face a task that was so impossible, going up against an unknown assignment and expected to perform like a champion in front of the whole school. Not only the whole school, either- most of the wizarding world was excited to hear that the Triwizard Tournament was on again, and there was bound to be loads of publicity, if only about Harry.

"Scary stuff," Lorla said. "Oh well. Sucks to be you."

"It does, doesn't it?" Cedric said with a good-natured laugh.

"Don't look so sad- you are school champion," Islean pointed out.

"Well, one of them, at least," Ariana admitted.

"I don't think Potter has the right to call himself a champion." Georgia snorted. "It's not as though he's ever done anything really important. What?" she exclaimed, as everyone at the table began to laugh at the plain absurdity of her statement. Cedric caught Cho's eye and gave her a smile- and for a moment or two held her gaze while her friends laughed. He didn't say anything, just smiled at her in a way that was almost- intimate. Almost as though they had a special, private joke. Cho herself was caught off guard- too surprised to say anything, although she could feel her face burning. Somewhere above the background noises of the pub they could hear Hagrid the groundskeeper bellowing something -"All righ' Hermione?"

Cedric swivelled to look where Hagrid was, and the moment was broken. Cho, glad for the distraction, quickly took a sip of her butterbeer, letting her hair fall over her face to hide her blushing cheeks. Cedric's friends were waving him over to their table.

"Ah well, better be off," he said, standing up straight and shooting Cho another glance. "Nice talking to you girls." As he brought his hand back to his side he let it brush Cho's hair and the back of her neck, and she felt a little tingle run up her spine. What on earth is wrong with me?

"Bye Cedric," they chorused. He smiled and turned to go, then stopped.

"Wait a moment." He suddenly leaned over the table to Georgia, whose face registered absolute shock as Cedric gently unpinned her Support CEDRIC DIGGORY badge from her cloak and then frisbeed it into the small metal wastepaper basket next to the bar.

"Hope you don't mind," he said to the five surprised girls, as he dug two Sickles from his pocket and placed it in Georgia's hand. "But I hate those stupid badges. That's to pay for it."

He gave them all a grin, shot Cho another unreadable look, then walked off to join his mates. There was a short pause as all the girls watched him go, then turned back to each other.

"Oh, my, god." Georgia said breathlessly, breaking the silence. "He's so…cute!"

Cute didn't even begin to describe it for Cho.