When she returned to Hogwarts, Poppy was in a distinctly happy mood thanks to the light buzz that had come from her glass of elderflower wine.

"Interview go well?" Cass asked when Poppy walked in and placed her box of cookies and a large brown paper wrapped sandwich from Rosa Lee's on her bed.

"Good, really good," Poppy replied, smiling. "D'you want to hear about it?"

"Tomorrow okay? Sorry, we've practice in a minute," Cass said, tying the end of her long braid. "Cedric needs something to try and get his mind off the task. It's really harsh that they don't warn anyone what's coming, isn't it?"

Once she'd left, Poppy removed her black robes, switching them out for a pair of chequered pyjama trousers and a baggy white t-shirt. Esther was on her Prefect rounds, which left Poppy alone for the evening. She sat and ate her sandwich, wrote her letter to Charlie to accompany the cookies, and waited for her friends to return. They did soon enough, but then they went to bed, leaving Poppy alone again. It was about ten when she decided that she was going to do something which broke the rules. She slipped on a hoodie and her trainers and waited until the common room was empty - by this time it was eleven thirty. Then she snuck out, crawling through the barrels which concealed the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room.

She waited at the bottom of the stairs by the kitchen (which all Hufflepuffs seemed to know instinctively was accessed through a portrait of fruit), listening for any footsteps in the Entrance Hall above.

When she didn't hear anything, she crept up the stairs and shuffled across the Entrance Hall, stopping numerous times to hide behind suits of armour when she heard footsteps, or thought she did. She asked herself more than once why she was doing this, but her excitement over her interview and breaking the rules, and her want to tell Charlie how it had gone meant that she pushed on.

Finally, she entered the Owlery at the top of the tower and began to look for a nice sturdy looking owl which would be able to take her letter and the package of cookies all the way to Romania.

Before she could tie her things to its leg, she saw a large flash of red down by the forest. She walked over to the window and frowned, peering out into the dark and cold night. She thought it was just from the Skrewts again, but then there was another blast of fire and her eyes widened. She opened the window and stared out, pushing her face into the chill wind to try and get a better view.

More fire leapt up and she gasped as a massive flame rose into the sky, illuminating a patch of the forest which shouldn't have been on fire.

Without thinking, she began to run.

Her legs aching, her chest heaving, she ran and ran, using the staircases as a little reprieve to catch her breath as she took the steps two by two, not even thinking about the fact that she might get caught outside of curfew.

She waved her wand to open the main doors and burst out of the front of the castle and into the cold night. She kept running across the lawn and then down the lane towards Hagrid's hut, searching as she ran for the blasts of fire.

She made it to the edge of the forest and stayed close to the treeline. It wasn't long before she was rounding the expanse of forest. She heard a man's deep voice somewhere in front of her asking, "Who's there?" and she stopped, skidding to a halt so that she could hide behind a very thick and wide tree trunk since she didn't know if this was the person behind the blasts, and she didn't want to go up in flames as well if it was.

She tried to slow her breaths so that she wasn't panting loudly and cursed when she realised that she still had Charlie's letter and cookies in her hand. She quickly shoved them into her hoodie pocket and continued to hide until she thought she heard footsteps passing by her in the opposite direction. Then, slowly, she continued her journey around the forest edge, searching for the fire.

Curiosity fuelled her now much more than her adrenaline, but she didn't find anything for a minute and began to think she'd missed or imagined whatever it was, when she heard a couple of shouts and looked to the left.

There, in front of her, well, hiding behind a tree but still in front of her, stood Karkaroff, the Durmstrang Headmaster. He seemed to be watching something, and Poppy heard more shouts and talking from the dark area in front of him, so she stepped behind a tree and kept out of Karkaroff's sight.

She watched him for a while and tried to figure out what he was doing, but then the cold began to settle into her and she shivered, regretting her clothes choice - her pyjamas and hoodie just weren't warm enough in the cold November air.

Karkaroff turned suddenly and hurried away, and Poppy moved around her tree as he passed, trying to conceal herself more. It only took a moment for her to realise why he'd run off – Madame Maxime and Hagrid, who looked as though he'd tried and failed to make an effort by brushing his hair and wearing a terrible suit - were making their way back towards the castle.

Thoroughly confused, Poppy watched them go and then crept forwards to see what they'd been looking at. She tiptoed up to a large wooden slatted wall, but before she could take a proper look she heard Hagrid behind her saying, "Tha's alrigh', no trouble ah all! I'm sure they'll be able teh answer yeh questions for yeh," his voice coming closer.

"Why?" she whispered urgently to herself.

Not wanting to be caught, she assessed her options and decided that if she could get behind the wooden structure then she'd be able to hide until they'd gone again. Whatever was causing the fire couldn't be too bad if so many teachers were watching. So she squeezed between a gap in the fence posts and squatted down to hide herself from sight.

"Are you sure?" came Madame Maxine's simpering voice. "Will eet not be too much trouble?"

"Best see what they 'ave ter say, eh?" Hagrid replied, his voice incredibly close to where Poppy was hiding. "'ey, Charlie!" he called.

Poppy nearly choked, and put her fist to her mouth to remain quiet. She really hoped that the Charlie he was referring to wasn't her Charlie. Well, not her Charlie… but… she really didn't want him to see her like this.

"Hagrid?" Charlie called. "I thought you left?"

Definitely my Charlie, she thought to herself, groaning inwardly. She grimaced and allowed herself to look into the wooded area properly now, instantly regretting her choice of hiding place - twenty feet away from where she was hiding lay a sleeping dragon. She didn't know what was worse - potentially getting burned to death by a magical beast, or Charlie finding her and telling her she was too immature for them to ever be together… her imagination ran wild.

She took a moment to breathe and not panic, and then she counted four dragons in total, all sleeping and surrounded by witches and wizards who seemed to be in the last stages of fixing ropes. The dragon handlers who were finished were beginning to congregate near a fire a little ways away.

A pair of footsteps came closer, walking carefully through the massive space.

She was, for now, hidden by the darkness by the fence, but she was sure that Charlie would see her if he moved much closer and so she tried to make herself even smaller by wrapping her arms around her legs.

When Charlie came into view, she took a moment to look at him properly. His face, half lit by the moonlight, was strong and handsome. His hair was slightly shaggy, just as it had been in the summer. He was wearing dark clothes with a dragonhide jacket, and was pulling his dragonhide gloves off as he walked towards Hagrid and Madame Maxime. And, despite obviously being at work, he still managed to have a friendly, youthful air about him.

"Maxime 'ere was jus' wonderin' if yeh knew 'ow the Horntail does agains' sleepin' spells?" Hagrid asked happily.

Charlie grimaced. "I'm sorry, Hagrid, but I really can't say. It'd be cheating."

Hagrid grumbled but after a few more questions which Charlie found that he could answer, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher left with Madame Maxime in raised spirits. Charlie watched them go and then sighed deeply.

"You should be in bed," he said, and Poppy looked up to see him smiling down at her. "And definitely not this close to a dragon."

"You're this close to a dragon," she argued, standing up and wiping down her knees.

"I work with dragons," he replied, grinning and crossing his arms across his chest.

Poppy smirked. "I do too."

"Is that right?" he asked.

"Yup."

"Where?"

"Library."

"You work with dragons in the library?" he asked, his smile dropping slightly as his eyebrows knitted together.

Poppy shrugged. "There's a painting of a dragon by the Magical Creatures section so technically I work, and it watches me..."

Charlie rolled his eyes but smiled again despite himself. "You really shouldn't be here."

"I know… I know…" she replied, wringing her hands together and screwing her face up. She hoped he was in good enough spirits to overlook this transgression. "It's just I was in the Owlery and I saw fire, and…"

"Ran straight towards it. Yeah, unfortunately that sounds just like you. Well, come on. While you're here you might as well meet some of the others," he said, turning to walk over to the gaggle of his coworkers.

"Wait, but I need to get dressed, don't I?" she asked, walking fast to catch up with him. "I need to make a good impression… And is it… safe?"

Charlie let out a short laugh. "Now you ask if it's safe. Well, yeah. Perfectly safe now. If they wake up, get behind me though. Don't want you getting burnt."

"It would be a right side cooler to say that I had a dragon burn rather than one from a Blast-Ended Skrewt," Poppy replied, groaning and rubbing the back of her hand which was still tingling – she'd burnt it yet again in a lesson, and was sure the Skrewts were doing it on purpose now since she'd wrangled that one back into its cage in October. As much as Hagrid said it meant that they liked her, she wished she wasn't on 'clean out the cages for the fourth years' duty.

"Let me see?" Charlie asked, stopping to hold out a hand.

She slid her hand over his, feeling the calluses and rough skin on his fingers and palm until her palm lay on top of his, her finger tips splayed across his wrist.

He frowned down at the burn and held onto her hand, moving it slightly to the side and closer to his face so that he could get a better view in the moonlight. "I've got a cream that might help. Blast-Ended Skrewts did you say? Don't remember that being on the curriculum when I was here…"

"Hagrid's showing them to the Fourth Years. I don't think he knows enough about them either but I think they're happy with it. No one's complained at least," she said, frowning. She hissed and grimaced when he lightly traced a finger over the sensitive burnt skin. "Hurts a bit when I knock it, but otherwise it's healing fine. Madam Pomfrey said I just had to leave it alone for a bit."

Charlie hummed and gently traced his thumb over the outline of the burn. "Come on," he said, turning and pulling her along, her hand still in his.

"Rahul!" he called, dropping her hand when they reached the cluster of around thirty or forty wizards and witches who were standing or sitting around now, mugs of steaming liquid in their hands.

"Another teacher?" asked a rather tall wizard with dark hair and a grimace. He spoke with a clear and slightly posh accent, but something told her English wasn't his first language. "I thought Dumbledore was trying to keep all this a secret."

"Nah, she's alright, I can vouch for her secret keeping skills. She's a Seventh Year 'Care Of' student. Was out after hours, saw fire and ran to help. Jumped into the enclosure to avoid the teachers," Charlie explained quickly. There was a smattering of laughs and smiles, and Poppy tried not to let her embarrassment show. "I thought she could help us set up. Call it work experience."

"What's your name?" Rahul asked, frowning at her.

"Poppy, sir. Poppy Jacobs," she replied quickly, stepping further into the light.

Rahul raised an eyebrow. "I know that name. You applied to work at the Sanctuary?"

Poppy swallowed thickly and nodded.

"You can't just jump into enclosures when you're working with us, you know that right?" asked a wizard sitting near Rahul.

Again, Poppy remained silent, but nodded.

Rahul sighed. "Well, if you're here already might as well. Charlie, she's your responsibility. If she gets injured, that's on you." He turned back to her. "Don't do anything stupid. If they wake up, run. If they breathe fire at you, run. If you hear one of them snort or snore, run. You hear Jakobson let one rip, you run. Got it?" he asked. Poppy nodded quickly and tried not to laugh at the last instruction. "Right. It's going to be a long night setting up, so grab some coffee. Break's over in fifteen, and we've run out of biscuits so don't expect us to feed you."

Poppy grinned and shook her head. "That's okay, I actually brought some," she said, pulling the box of sweet treats out of her pocket. "They were meant for you as a thank you for passing on information about the Gringotts job," she whispered to Charlie when a smiling witch took the box from her hands and began to hand out the cookies.

"Mint choc?" someone asked, grimacing at their choice.

"There're other choices you dolt," the witch handing them around said, chucking a salted caramel one at him.

"Those aren't-" Charlie said, his mouth dropping open.

"Rosa Lee's, yeah," Poppy said, grinning.

"Want one?" he asked, eyeing up where the box had gone.

When Poppy shook her head, Charlie ran off to grab a few treats and returned with two mugs of coffee and a cookie held between his teeth. He gave her a mug and then took the cookie in his hand, taking a small bite. "Just so you know, Jakobson is the Swedish Short-snout," he explained.

"Of course," Poppy groaned, closing her eyes at her stupidity. "I thought it was a flatulent handler."

Charlie chuckled and took a bite of his cookie. "Well despite your confusion, it seems like you did well already," he said with a smile. "The coffee's just black unfortunately," he pointed out when she lifted the mug to her lips. "It takes too long to faff with milk and stuff."

"Yeah, and Charlie's sweet enough already," the wizard who had interrupted Rahul called.

"You can say that again," Poppy said without thinking, eliciting more laughs.

"Quentin," Charlie said, nodding at the wizard. "Essentially my best mate." Poppy let out a long breath, understanding that Charlie thought she was joking with her retort.

"If you fancy hearing any embarrassing Charlie stories, hit me up," Quentin called, and Charlie rolled his eyes as he took a swig of his coffee.

"I think I'm starting to like the idea of this job even more," she said, grinning and watching the group in front of her.

Rahul wasn't joking about the long night. Poppy spent most of it holding various ropes or chains while the people around her secured them, carrying various things across the enclosure (apparently it was easier to not use too much unnecessary magic around the sleeping dragons, who might wake up and think they were being attacked), or learning the right spells to erect various parts of the enclosure. At one point she had to jump out of the way of a stray snort of dragon fire and didn't complain about it, earning herself a few extra kudos points with Quentin and Rahul.

She stayed with the group until sunrise, when she decided that she should get back to the castle. She said goodbye to everyone, and then Charlie walked her back up to the lane.

"Please don't tell anyone," Charlie said, frowning. "It really is meant to be a surprise."

"And if Madame Maxime and Karkaroff have told Fleur and Krum?" she asked, watching his face.

"Karkaroff? As in the headmaster of Durmstrang?" Charlie asked, pausing.

"He was here too, I almost bumped into him…"

"Merlin, they're really not playing nice, are they?" Charlie said, rubbing his chin. "I've just got to hope they haven't told their champions, or if they have, that Dumbledore's going to tell Cedric and Harry as well…"

"You're nicer than Fred and George for thinking about Cedric, they'd let him get burnt to a crisp if it meant Harry would get through…" Poppy quipped.

Charlie let out a small laugh. "Nah, I know he's your friend. And don't worry about Fred and George, they're all talk those two."

"Do you not remember when they turned the toilets into a mini swamp in my third year because Franny Hefner said they looked like the twins from The Shining and they didn't understand the reference?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Charlie smiled and stopped walking, looking up to the sky as he remembered. "Yeah, that was pretty good … okay, maybe they can hold a grudge…"

Poppy laughed, and opened her arms for a hug. Charlie moved in quickly, wrapping his arms around her middle as she wrapped hers around his shoulders. They stood there for a long moment, longer than if she was hugging anyone else, and then they pulled away just enough to see each other's faces. He didn't loosen his hold - his arms encircled her waist, holding her to him - so Poppy kept her right arm around his shoulders and moved her left hand to the crook of his elbow. Their faces were close enough that she could have kissed him if she'd had the nerve.

"I'll see you on Tuesday probably," he said, smiling down at her. He leant in for another long hug, and Poppy almost burst from joy. She slid her hand up his arm and hugged him back tightly.

"See you on Tuesday," she whispered as he swayed them from side to side slowly.

When he finally let her go, she put her hands in her hoodie pockets nervously. Her hand came into contact with a small wad of parchment and she finally remembered the letter which had been so important to her just eight hours ago. "Here," she said, pulling it out and handing it to him. "Forgot."

Charlie grinned and turned the letter over in his hands.

They smiled at each other for a moment and then Poppy turned and began to walk down the path, stumbling here and there on the uneven ground - she was extremely tired, and suddenly found it much harder than usual to put one foot in front of the other.

"Get some sleep, Bounce," Charlie called out behind her, and she turned and waved, and then kept walking, replaying the best hug of her life over and over again in her head.

Though when she returned to the castle she was grabbed by a spritely Cass, who eyed her up and made her join her for breakfast despite Poppy's reluctance.

"Where've you been?" Esther asked suspiciously, taking in Poppy's muddy pyjamas and lightly singed hoodie when she sat down for breakfast.

"Went for a walk," Poppy replied simply, reaching over to take a piece of bacon from the serving platter.

"Hmm…" Esther replied, narrowing her eyes. "Did you go for a walk… with someone?" she asked.

Poppy smiled but shook her head. "If you must know, I ran to the edge of the forest, and walked back," she said, not lying at all - just omitting certain information.

Esther continued to frown at her as Poppy poured herself a large mug of coffee, but otherwise fell silent.

Poppy looked over at the Ravenclaw table and watched Fleur throw her hair over her shoulder and continue talking to one of her Beauxbatons friends. Poppy wondered if she knew about the dragons already, or if Madame Maxime had decided to give her a morning of innocence before she dropped that particular issue onto the silver-haired girl's lap.

"Go to bed," Cass commanded a few minutes later, when Poppy began to fall asleep in her bowl of porridge, and helped Poppy to stumble back down to their Hufflepuff dorm.

Poppy woke the next morning, having slept for over eighteen hours.

"She's alive! Esther! It lives! Esther thought you'd died," Cass explained, when Poppy surfaced, walking to the bathroom.

"Not yet," Poppy replied, shutting the door behind her.

It took all of her self control to not run up to Cedric at breakfast and tell him what was coming, but she wanted to try and keep her word to Charlie. So, when the bell rang, she headed off to Care of Magical Creatures instead, and tried not to tell Hagrid off for showing Madame Maxime the dragon enclosure. After that she had Charms, and practically ran inside the castle to get there in time.

When she sat down next to Fleur, she noticed that the girl was a little paler than usual and was doodling on her spare parchment. Poppy noticed a word written more than once and slyly looked at her dictionary - dragons.

"You know?" Poppy whispered, and Fleur turned to stare at her with wide eyes.

"Know wat?" Fleur asked, shoving her spare parchment underneath her Charms notes.

Poppy raised an eyebrow and gently guided Fleur's spare parchment out so she could point at the word.

"'Ow do you know?" Fleur asked, sliding the parchment back underneath her class notes.

Poppy smiled. "I have an inside track with one of the Dragonologists."

"You do?" she breathed. "'oo?"

"Uh… someone called Charlie… he's uh… he's Harry Potter's best friend's older brother?"

"Does 'Arry know as well?" she asked, and Poppy's eyes widened.

"I… I don't think so. I'm not meant to say anything…"

Fleur thought for a long moment and then said something which surprised Poppy. "I think 'e should know, don't you?"

"I made a promise," Poppy said quietly.

"Do you want 'im to know?" she asked.

Poppy nodded. "And Cedric, but I did… I promised I wouldn't tell."

"Well, let's 'ope Dumbledore tells zem both…"

"I didn't think you'd want them to know," Poppy whispered when Professor Flitwick called the students to order.

Despite her usual reluctance to talk during class, Fleur replied in a whisper, "It is a competition, but I do not want to win by cheeting. I will not tell 'im myself, I promised Madame Maxime, but if you tell zem… well, I think I would be happy wis that. If you think you can break your promise to zis friend of yours, zat is."

Poppy spent the rest of the class in silence, thinking it all through. Maybe if she didn't tell anyone, but simply reminded them there was a dragon section of the library? Or if she checked that Dumbledore had told them? (Though she knew he wouldn't have).

She wrestled with herself for over an hour until she decided this was something Charlie would forgive her for - if someone went into that enclosure unready, they might hurt a dragon.

When the bell for break rang out, Poppy ran off to find Cedric. She found him alone in the library, pouring over a book.

"Hey," she said, smiling down at him.

He glanced at her, his face ashen, and nodded. "Sorry, I'm a bit busy at the moment."

"Well, I have to tell you something, I know what the first task is," she said, looking around and trying to keep her voice down.

Cedric looked up sharply. "How?"

"I… I saw the… I saw them last night… and…"

"Dragons?" he asked, as if he already knew her answer. Poppy's eyes widened and she nodded. She couldn't help the wave of relief that filled her body - this meant she didn't have to break her promise to Charlie. Though the guilt of the fact that she half-did came in a wave of nausea straight after her relief had ended.

"Right… right… yeah," Cedric said, holding up his book. "Harry told me earlier. I assumed he was joking but thought it wouldn't hurt to start looking…"

Poppy let out a sigh of relief. "Do you have a plan?" she asked, frowning.

Cedric shook his head. "Not yet. But I will."

"Do you want any help?" she asked, but he shook his head.

"No, no, thanks though," he said. "Just need to get my head around it all first."

Poppy nodded, and turned, but then turned back again. "You said Harry told you?" Cedric nodded slowly. "Okay, thanks. That means I won't have to warn him too."

"You… you came to find me first?" he asked, putting his book down.

Poppy nodded. "Of course."

"Why?"

"I know you better," she said honestly. "I… I also didn't know where to find Harry."

"Okay, well.. thanks," Cedric replied, a small smile on his face.

Poppy nodded and turned, walking back across the library. She saw a gaggle of girls, and looked the table they were staring at. Krum was sitting alone, poring over a large book, a large stack of books at his side. He turned a page and she saw the unmistakable image of a dragon, and she knew for definite now that Karkaroff had warned him as well.

She watched out for Harry that day, but he was not at lunch when she arrived, and he and Hermione ran away from dinner as soon as they could after scoffing down their food. Poppy was glad. That meant that he had a strong plan - Hermione would be a good help, she thought.

That night, as she drifted into sleep, Poppy counted in her head - four dragons, four champions… one chance each.