Draco caught Granger and Weasley by their elbows before they could follow Black, Harry, and She-Weasley into the competitors' tent.

They were both wearing black duelling vests adorned with the Walpurgis crest; theirs had been supplied by the Tournament organisers, not the Dark Lord, though, and so were simple quilted fabric, not dragonhide. Both wore black jumpers beneath - Mother Weasley's work - with a golden lion for Granger, and a red dragon for Weasley ("Like the toy ones, because I know you're with us," he'd said to Draco).

Neither of them wore much black except for school robes, and it made them look older and paler. Weasley in particular looked sharp; most of his clothes were family hand-me-downs or bought second hand, but the vest and trousers were new, fit like they'd been made for him (which they had), and didn't have that worn or faded look that pretty much everything else he wore did. Granger's wild hair had been braided back out of her face so neatly that Draco suspected Brown had had a hand in it.

He pulled them a short distance away from the tent and cast a Muffliato - a useful spell Severus had shown him - so they wouldn't be overheard.

Weasley glanced at Granger as if to catch her eye, but she wasn't looking. Then, seeming to remember things were strained, helooked back to Draco. Barely a moment later Granger glanced back at Weasley - habit seemingly overcoming whatever rules she'd set for herself - and seemed both relieved and saddened to not find him looking back.

"Merlin," Draco sighed, then gestured between them. "This has to stop." To their credit, neither pretended not to know what he was talking about; Granger blushed and Weasley scowled. "I've kept out of it so far because it's not my business, and because I've got more important things to do than worry about your little non-lovers'-spat, and because I thought you'd work it all out on your own, but you haven't." They were both red now.

"We don't have time for this, Draco," Granger said, biting her lip and glancing back at the tent.

"Exactly," Draco snapped. "So you need to resolve this, or agree to disagree or something because the task's about to start and you two need to be in there looking after each other and She-Weasley, and Potter, not being- this." He stared them both down until Granger shifted. "If you can't, you need to tell me now, so we can do a last minute swap. Me, for one of you."

"Is that…" Weasley's eyes flicked to Granger. "Safe?"

Draco shrugged; this late, it would be almost impossible for there to be a staged test of his loyalty, but he'd still be putting his image at risk by standing by Potter in such a public setting.

"Safer than the alternative, maybe," he said, giving them both a pointed look.

"We can't ask you to risk it," Weasley said, with another cautious glance at Granger. "You haven't been training as much, haven't been able to prepare..." Draco heard the unspoken You haven't had the chance to think through all the risks.

"No," Draco agreed, giving him a tight smile. He'd given it some thought, obviously - Gryffindor he may be, but he was not reckless - but not as much as he'd have liked, not as much as he needed to be sure it was a good decision. "But if it's necessary..." If he had to risk himself to save them from themselves, to make sure Potter got out of this, then he would.

"It's not," Granger said, reaching forward to give his hand a squeeze. "Really, Draco, I know it's been a bit- but we're still going to look out for each other. And the others. We're still friends." She bit her lip and glanced at Weasley. This time, he met her gaze. "Right, Ron?"

"Always," Weasley said, quiet and a bit uncomfortable, but genuine. "We've got this, mate." He smiled at Draco but his eyes were serious, certain.

"You'd better," Draco said warningly. He gave them one more long look each, then released his spell and strode off to join the Weasley family, the Lupins, Jordan, Creevey, and Lovegood in the stands.


"Where'd they go?" Harry hissed to Ginny, who shook her head, frowning; Ron and Hermione had been right behind them, she was sure of it.

"They'll be here," Sirius said giving his shoulder a squeeze. "Maybe they just needed a moment."

"Now?" Harry asked weakly. Ginny thought she rather agreed; Ron and Hermione had had weeks to sort themselves out. Although, better now than not at all…

"Hello, Harry," a thin, bespectacled wizard said, coming to join them. He was carrying a clipboard and wore a pair of neat, navy robes. "Auror Black-"

"Professor Black," Sirius said, drawing himself up. The badge on his chest flashed with lightning as if to emphasise his point. Ginny's own badge flashed a moment later, from its spot covering the Walpuris coat of arms on her vest. "Yes, well." The wizard looked uncomfortable and apologetic. "I'm afraid you still can't be in here-"

"Told you," Harry muttered.

"Worth a shot," Sirius sighed. He drew Harry in for a quick hug, and gave Ginny's shoulders a squeeze. She was surprised but grateful for it. "Be careful out there, yeah?"

They nodded at him and he left.

"So," said the wizard, "you must be one of the Weasleys."

"What gave it away?" Ginny asked, deadpan. His mouth twitched and she decided he reminded her a bit of Percy. "Ginny," she said, offering him her hand. He shook it, smiling.

"William Pemberley." He looked back to Harry. "And where are the others?" He glanced down at his clipboard. "I've got here that you've got another Weasley, and a Granger?"

"Yeah," Harry said, glancing briefly at the tent flap. She could see it on his face, the moment he went from confused and a bit nervous to genuinely worried. "They're-"

"There," Ginny said, as Ron and Hermione stepped inside. Something inside her eased at the sight of them, and Harry sagged beside her. Pemberley looked equally relieved, and jotted something down on his clipboard. Then, he signalled to Bagman, who bounced into the centre of the tent to stand beside a table, the lumpy surface of which was covered by a large purple cloth.

"Now that we're all here… Shall we introduce ourselves?" He rubbed his hands together. "On Team Durmstrang, we have Miss Nina Morozov-" Morozov was a willowy blonde girl with sharp blue eyes and a nose that looked like it might have been broken before and healed wrong. "-and Mr Luca Popa-" A swarthy boy tall and broad enough to make Ginny think he might be part-giant. "-and of course, Mr Viktor Krum." Krum glowered at the ground. All three of them wore blood-red vests and black trousers.

"On Team Hogwarts, we have Mr Patrick Stebbins-" That was the handsome, dark haired boy who'd been in Dumbledore's office because he was underage. "- Mr Thomas Fisher-" Another handsome boy, dark-skinned, with an easy smile and hair-dyed Hufflepuff yellow. "-and Mr Cedric Diggory." All three boys wore Hufflepuff yellow and black, but had the Hogwarts crest on their backs.

"Team Walpurgis is Miss Ginny Weasley-" Ginny lifted her chin as eyes landed on her, skimmed over her face, her black uniform, the Support Harry Potter badge she wore. She felt a tingle of magic as she did and stiffened until she realised Dumbledore was the source; he pointed his wand at Ron next, and she relaxed a little. "-Mr Ronald Weasley, Miss Hermione Granger-" Ginny saw Krum's mouth twitch up slightly but only because she was watching for a reaction. "-and our one and only, Mr Harry Potter." Harry grimaced.

"Lastly, we have the lovely ladies from Team Beauxbatons… Miss Renee Colbert-" A tall girl with glasses and brown hair and a shy smile. "- Miss Elodie Garcon-" A stocky girl with a long, dark braid and eyes only for Krum. Quidditch fan or player, Ginny guessed. "-and Miss Fleur Delacour."

"Diagnostics match their claimed ages," Pemberley said, nodding at Dumbledore. "And each team's got the number of years equal to or lower than the number of points given last task."

"Marvellous," Bagman said, rubbing his hands together again. He twisted and pulled the cloth off the table to reveal a jumble of large slices of what Ginny thought looked like sort of exotic, jewel-like fruit; the slices had a golden rind, and a glowing, whitish flesh. They were also shrieking and Harry's hands jumped up to block his ears. It was a severe reaction compared to the scrunched faces of everyone else, but then, not everyone had his hearing, either.

Bagman draped the cloth back into place and the noise stopped.

"Recognise them?" he asked.

"They're the eggs," Diggory said, uncertain.

"Good, good," Bagman said. "They are. Unfortunately, we were a bit careless with our storage of them and they're now a bit broken up. Quartered, actually-" Hermione's hand lifted tentatively. "Yes?"

"Sorry, Mr Bagman, but there were only enough quarters for three eggs..."

"There were!" Bagman said, delighted. "Not only were we careless enough to let them get a bit broken, but we also lost one..." He shook his head in affected contrition. "Thankfully, we know where the lost egg - or rather its pieces are."

"The arena, probably," Harry muttered to Ron, who nodded.

"It's in the arena!" Bagman said. Fleur wore an expression of polite interest, Diggory looked patient, but Harry looked exasperated and Krum looked like this whole thing was an inconvenience. "So. So, so so…! Each team starts with three egg pieces and you want a fourth. Any fourth - all the pieces are the same. So, you can find one of the hidden- ahem, lost pieces, or you can take them from another team." This announcement was met with silence, but a lot of flickering eyes; eyes meeting within teams, eyes sizing up people from other teams. "Take them from the weakest team - perhaps that's easier - or take them from the team of the Champion that's the biggest threat, because it'll disadvantage them next task."

All eyes went to Bagman at that point and he seemed to revel in the attention; Fleur seemed considering, Krum was frowning, Diggory seemed excited, and Harry's jaw was set, his eyes sharp.

"You see," he said, "each bit of the egg contains a bit of information about the third task, where it is, what you'll be up against, and what you have to do, so you'll know how to prepare… that's information you Champions are going to want, believe me. So, you have half an hour in there. In that time, you've got to find your fourth piece - and keep the other three-" He chuckled at that. "-and put the egg back together. Any pieces not combined to make an egg at the end of the half hour will vanish. You can combine any number of pieces into an egg at any time, but once formed, an egg can't be broken up again or added to."

He paused then to look around, as if to let that sink in, but not a single Champions' expression had changed.

"If it's made with less than four pieces, you'll be missing potentially vital information. There's no extra information for making an egg with, say, six pieces, but you will be keeping that information from other Champions… in theory; like pieces, eggs can be stolen from other competitors at any time - all that matters is who's holding it when time runs out. Damaris?"

"The egg pieces can't be resized or transfigured," Sprottle said. Pemberley nodded along with her, like was was going over the same things in his head. "They cannot be summoned. They cannot be duplicated. No single person will be able to carry more than two pieces at a time-"

"So I hope you've picked your teams carefully, Champions," Bagman interjected, "because you're going to have to trust them."

"Indeed," Sprottle said, eyes sweeping over them all. "You'll also find this arena impervious to anything you might try to summon in-" Her eyes went to Harry and her mouth quirked up slightly. "-or send out. Anything you can conjure or transfigure within the arena, is, of course, perfectly acceptable. As we are within their jurisdiction, all spells you use must be legal in the eyes of the British Ministry of Magic."

"I've got the Ministry's list of prohibited spells for you to look at if you need to," Pemberley said. "Especially for foreign teams."

"Questions?" Sprottle asked.

"'Ow do we put ze egg back togezzer?" Fleur asked, after a moment. "Eez zere a charm, or-"

"A member of your team will be taught before the task commences," Sprottle replied. "If there are no other questions…" She waited for a moment but everyone was silent. "Separate into your teams - there's a section of the tent for each. You'll have ten minutes, in which time one of your members will be taught how to remake the egg, and you can strategise. Then we'll be underway."

"Best of luck to you all," Bagman said, heading for the tent's flap. As it opened, Ginny heard the excited babbling of the crowd outside and everything started to sink in a little.

"C'mon." Ron grabbed Ginny's elbow and steered her into a pocket of the tent after Harry and Hermione. It was quiet, no noise reaching them from the rest of the tent, but Harry flicked his wand anyway and the familiar purple of a Silencing Charm shimmered over the canvas walls.

"Hermione," Harry said, "reckon you're up to learning about the egg?"

"Of course," she said, with a small smile.

"Thanks," he said, frowning down at the table. Ginny moved closer to look; on it was the list of forbidden spells Pemberley had mentioned, and a sketched map of what must be the arena.

It was large and round, with what looked like four entry points equally spaced around it. Each had a school coat of arms on it. There was a round structure in the centre of the sketch - some sort of platform, perhaps - and there were other shapes - mostly squares - dotted around the rest of the area. More platforms? Or traps? Or something else? There was nothing on the map to suggest where the other egg pieces might be.

"Is that supposed to be here?" Ron asked, eyes wide.

"Surely," Hermione said. Ginny glanced up, surprised; she hadn't heard Hermione speak to Ron so amicably in weeks. "No one could have known we'd choose this part of the tent…"

"Team Walpurgis," Pemberley said, and Ginny jumped, having not heard his approach through the Silencing Charm. "Have you decided who's going to learn how to create the egg?"

"I am," Hermione said. Pemberley nodded and gestured for her to join him.

"Potter, as Champion you have to start where the Walpurgis crest is marked, but the rest of your team can start anywhere within the arena." Pemberley waved a hand at the map on the table. "Give that some thought while you're here." He led Hermione away.

"No thought needed, I don't reckon," Ron said. "We stay together, right?"

"Absolutely," Harry said, eyes still on the map.

"Who's carrying our three pieces?" Ginny asked. "Will we do two and one? Or one, one, and one?"

"Splitting them up makes the most sense," Ron said. "That way if someone's attacked, we're not giving away multiples. And we've got four people, so there's no need to double up, even once we find the extra." As he spoke he poked and pulled at his vest. "Question is how do we carry them?"

By the time Hermione returned, Ginny and the boys had managed to conjure misshapen but functional pockets on the insides of their vests. Hermione, of course, pulled out her wand and amended her own vest very neatly.

"Got the spell?" Ron asked.

"It's not-" Hermione spluttered and coughed and put a hand to her throat. Harry moved forward, alarmed and she waved him off. "I know what to do," she said, and coughed again. "And- we have to be here to do it." She tapped the circle in the middle of the map. "I don't think I'm physically able to say any more, though. Where've you got to here?"

"Starting together," Ron said, and Hermione smiled. Ginny gave them another look and noticed Harry doing the same, a relieved look on his face. "We'll carry a bit of egg each to start, Harry can grab the last one-"

"Oh, good," Hermione said. She looked a little sheepish. "I was worried you might just toss the eggs at whoever and go and stand somewhere out of the way, Harry."

"Thought about it," Harry muttered, then sighed. "But if it's information about the next task, I need it. Bagman said 'where it is' and 'what you'll be up against'... That makes it sound like it's not just going to be an arena at Hogwarts like this one and the last one. I need to know what to expect, and how Voldemort might be able to use that, especially if it's outside the grounds." He ran a hand through his hair. "And if it's creatures and not just the other Champions, I need to know too." He smiled suddenly, wry though it was. "Imagine how I'd have fared against the Horntail if it'd be sprung on me."

"I'd rather not," Hermione said, pulling a face. She stuck her hands into the pockets she'd made. "Will our vests be enough to keep the eggs quiet?"

"Depends on if it's the tablecloth or the dark or something else that does it," Harry said.

"I reckon we just Silence them," Ron said.

"If we can," Ginny muttered; it wouldn't surprise her if the things shrieked the whole time, just to make the task that little bit harder.

"We'll manage," Ron said. He put his hands on Harry's shoulders in a bracing sort of way, smiled shyly at Hermione - then more genuinely when she returned it - and then at Ginny. "We've got this. And in half an hour or so, it'll all be over and done with."

Harry let out a deep breath, nodded, then glanced up, expression pained, and Ginny knew what he was going to say before he even got the words out.

"You know it's not too-"

"Shut up, Harry," she said, at the exact same time as Hermione reached for his hand and said, "We're with you, Harry," and Ron said, "Wasting your breath, mate."

The three of them exchanged amused looks while Harry blinked around at them, then straightened abruptly, eyes going over Ginny's shoulder. Pemberley stepped within the Silencing Charm's boundary a moment later and the egg pieces in his arms became audible. Ron and Hermione scrunched up their faces; Harry flinched, hands coming up to cover his ears, expression pained.

Ginny plucked a piece from Pemberley's hold and shoved it into her vest. As soon as it was concealed within her pocket, its screeching stopped. Ron and Hermione traded a swift look then copied her, the tent falling back into silence.

"Awful things," Pemberley said, watching them tug and pat at their vests; the egg pieces were hard and bulky and heavy. The angle Ron's was sitting at made him look pregnant, but before Ginny could say anything, Hermione had snorted and moved to help him. "All sorted?" he asked when they were still. Harry caught Ginny's eye, then those of the other two, then nodded. Pemberley straightened his robes and gave a nervous nod back. "Follow me."