The Monday before the first task Evie sat down to breakfast with her three best friends like nothing had ever happened. Trying to figure out what spell Sirius could've been talking about had proved difficult on Sunday. It didn't help that every book told them that there were no simple spells to outsmart or incapacitate a dragon.

"You've got to tell Cedric today, Harry," she said casually as they ate.

"Can you remind me why you aren't going to tell him?"

"It's better this way. Besides I don't feel like being lectured."

"Alright, I'll try to do it after breakfast."

"Good."

They ate the rest of their meal in a pleasant silence; at least it felt pleasant to Evie, perhaps because her group of friends was finally united again. After they finished Harry kept his word and rushed off after Cedric, while Evie, Ron and Hermione made their way towards the greenhouses.

Herbology still wasn't the same enjoyable experience it had been since Harry's name had been picked out of the Goblet, but the tension had eased some since Cedric had talked to his housemates. For the most part Gryffindor and the rest of the school stayed in some sort of icy stalemate, but other than that, the outwardly verbal attacks had ceased from every house except Slytherin.

Evie remember that Monday lesson more clearly than she did many others that year for two reasons. The first being it was the Monday before the first task, and the second because, about twelve minutes after they had begun pruning their Flutterby bushes, Harry had rushed into the greenhouse and called for her attention.

"Did you tell Cedric?"

"Yes, but I need your help."

"Yeah, I know."

"No, you don't understand. I need to learn the Summoning Charm properly by tomorrow afternoon."

Evie snorted instantly, but when Harry's face stayed completely straight, the smile fell from hers. "Oh Merlin, you're serious."

They skipped lunch to practice. Harry seemed to actually have gotten worse, which made Evie want to pull her hair out. She was stuck trying to keep her cool as, instead of at least getting the objects to fly in his general direction, Harry managed to get them to start towards him before they fell to the ground midway through.

"What happened? Last time they were at least making it all the way across the room. Well, they were making it way past across the room, but that was an improvement to this."

"I can't help it! I keep thinking of giant dragons and I can't focus."

"Well, if you don't start focusing you'll be burned alive."

"That's not really helping!"

"The idea of your possible demise isn't helping? That's usually such a great motivator."

Harry just glared at her. "Maybe I should have asked Hermione to help me."

"Excuse me! I've got the highest marks in Charms out of everyone in our entire year! What could Hermione teach you that I can't?"

"Well, at least she wouldn't remind me of my imminent death by angry dragon!"

"Well if you don't want it to be imminent perhaps you should learn to focus. Now try again, and remember this book is your salvation."

Just then the bell to end lunch sounded.

"We'll try again after dinner." Evie stood grabbed her bag off a nearby desk and started for the door.

"I need to know this by tomorrow! Can't we just skip class and keep practicing?"

"Absolutely not."

"Why not? It's not like I'll learn anything I don't already know in Divination."

"I don't have Divination next, remember? I took an actual class, that requires actual work and I can't just miss it."

"Why not?"

"Well, for one, Hermione would be furious with us. Secondly, I'm sort of struggling and I need her help to understand what we're even doing." When Harry raised a shocked eyebrow, Evie pursed her lips. "Oh, shut it."

Harry conceded to going to class, and the two packed up their things and separated to their different methods of predicting the future.

When she got to class, Evie nearly tripped over a bag in the middle of the aisle. Turning to see who it belonged to, she was greeted by the smirking faces of Malfoy and Zabini. Rolling her eyes, she straightened up and scoffed at the two boys.

"Think you might watch where you're going next time, Diggory?"

"Think you might keep your trash out of the middle of the aisle next time, Malfoy?"

"Trash? Of course you wouldn't know what the finest materials look like," he sneered. "You've never seen anything even close to this quality have you?"

"I don't care what quality it is, Malfoy. It belongs you, so it's trash now, worth less than the dirt on my shoes."

"You'd better watch yourself, Diggory."

"Or you'll what? Run home to Daddy? Call your mummy because the big, scary girl was too much for you to handle?"

"Is there a problem here?" Professor Vector's entrance had escaped both of their notice.

"Of course not, Professor," Evie smiled innocently and went to take her seat next to Hermione.

"You'd better be careful or you'll get another detention." Hermione scolded.

"He started it. Besides, I needed to blow off some steam."

"Harry's lessons not going so well?"

The two girls pulled out their books as Professor Vector began the day's lesson.

"He wouldn't focus," Evie whispered. "So I told him if he didn't get it together he'd end up burned to a crisp."

"That's terrible!" Hermione hissed as quietly as she could. Evie smiled, having expected that exact reaction. "How is that supposed to help him?"

"I thought it might motivate him to try harder. You know, to avoid that exact fate."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You weren't planning on trying again, were you?"

"Yeah, I told him we'd practice more after dinner."

"You'd better let me handle that lesson."

Evie just shrugged before turning back to the board.

The morning of the first task Evie woke up after a plethora of horrible nightmares featuring Cedric, Harry and many very angry dragons. When she rolled over after the latest dream, in which, Harry and Cedric had been featured roasting over open dragon flame, she groaned quietly as it wasn't even six in the morning yet. She tried to turn and gain perhaps another hour of sleep, but when she closed her eyes she couldn't stop the image of the dragons breathing fire and it caused her to break out in a cold sweat.

Opening her eyes and wiping the sweat from her brow and upper lip, Evie sat up with an exhausted sigh. Chancing a glance at her best friend, she knew that six was too early for even Hermione to wake up, so she climbed silently from her bed, dressed for the day and slipped the copy of The Quibbler she'd been lent into her bag before heading down to the common room as quietly as possible.

The November chill had already started to drift through the great stone tower, but the house elves had already been through the common room and the fire was lit. Evie settled herself on the plushy maroon couch near it, tucking her feet under her as she tried to relax. Pulling The Quibbler from her bag, Evie finally opened it.

Reading the magazine was like reading about all of the most impossible things she could ever imagine. Luna and her father, and anyone who actually subscribed to the magazine, believed in creatures that she'd never heard of before. Creatures like nargles, who could not be seen but liked to steal things. Then there was, as Evie recalled, the wrackspurts which got into a person's brain and caused them to be unable to focus. They seemed more like explanations a parent would give to their child when the socks went missing from the laundry or it was hard to focus on lessons, not at all the types of things a rational adult should believe in still.

"Morning," Hermione yawned as she descended the stairs. "What are you smiling about?"

Evie looked up in shock and watched her friend rub the remaining sleep from her eyes. She had not realized she was smiling, but once the question had been asked she knew exactly what the answer was. Closing the magazine, which she had only just realized she'd nearly finished, she shrugged. "What time is it?"

"Nearly seven thirty." Hermione sat down beside her. "How long have you been up?"

"Since six."

Hermione's eyebrows knitted in worry. "Couldn't sleep?"

Evie smiled humorlessly. "I kept having nightmares about them being cooked and eaten by those bloody dragons." She was sure to whisper, despite the fact that very few people were in the common room and they were all rushing through to get to breakfast.

"They'll be alright. Harry finally managed to get the Summoning Spell last night."

"Did he? Even without me teaching?"

"You might be better than everyone at Charms but we both know you'd make a terrible professor. You're almost as bad as Moody, using fear to motivate."

"Fear is an excellent motivator," Evie defended before shrugging away the statement. "But you're right. I can't stand teaching. I just don't have the patience for it."

"That's quite alright. I'm third behind only you and Zabini last I checked and I am extremely patient." Hermione boasted.

"Are you worried?"

"Of course I am."

"But Harry got the Summoning Spelling?" Hermione nodded. "You're sure?"

"Yes. We wouldn't have gone to sleep otherwise."

"Okay."

Harry and Ron descended the stairs at that moment, Harry looking like he might be ill. Evie frowned at her friend's face, wondering if he'd enjoyed dreams similar to hers. Of course the idea of similar dreams brought to the forefront of her mind something she'd not thought of in months. The blurriest flash of that desolate house and that horrible voice echoed like the ghost of a memory and an involuntary shiver ran down her spine.

"You alright?" Ron asked, suddenly standing with Harry right in front of them.

"Yeah," she answered, shaking her head clear. "I can definitely feel that November chill."

"It's not that cold," Ron rolled his eyes. "Let's go get some food before we miss breakfast."

The quartet made their way down to the Great Hall quickly, Hermione ordering Harry to at least try to eat as they walked. When they entered, Evie spotted Cedric already seated at the Hufflepuff table and broke away from her friends to greet him.

"Good morning," he smiled as she walked up.

"Morning. I'm just coming to check on you. Are you ready for the first task?"

"I am," he answered before lowering his voice. "I assume you already know what it is."

"I do."

"Harry told you, did he?"

"He did."

"And how did he know what it was?"

"I didn't ask." Cedric threw her a look that said he knew she was lying, and she cleared her throat. "So, you know how to get past it then?"

"Yeah, I've thought of something."

"That's good. I should, um, get some breakfast before it's gone. If they let me, I'll come see you before the task." Evie started back towards the Gryffindor table.

"Oi!" She turned back to her brother. "Eat something; don't just push your food around."

She chuckled. "Alright, Dad."

"Well, someone's gotta look out for you."

"Oh that's right, you promised, didn't you?" She teased.

"That's right, and you know I never break my promises."

"I'll eat." She nodded before heading back to the Gryffindor table where Ron had already set a plate of food in front of her empty spot. She thanked him, before scooping a decent sized bite of egg onto her fork, turning around and staring straight at her brother while stuffing it in her mouth.

'Thank you.' He mouthed, looking at her as though purposefully ignoring the obnoxiousness of the act, before turning back to one of his friends. With a smirk, Evie turned back to her own friends and ate only a few more bites before breakfast was over.

Classes were too fast and the moments before they saw the first dragon were too slow. Hagrid had seated himself next to Evie, Ron and Hermione. On his other side sat Neville and Ginny. Evie was silent as all around her people were trying to figure out what the giant arena was for. In the middle of the dirt enclosure there was a nest of eggs, one of which was golden.

"That must be what they're meant to get," Ron said.

"I wonder who's going first," Hermione whispered.

A whistle blew from somewhere near the judges table and out rushed Ludo Bagman. A greenish blue dragon was released and Evie heard Hagrid only barely over the gasps of the crowd. A Swedish Short-Snout is what he called it. She glanced at him and noticed the longing in his eyes.

The sound of uproar from the Hufflepuffs drew Evie's attention back to the arena. Cedric had just walked through a curtain. Evie could see a slight green tint to his olive skin. She tried to swallow back the feeling of queasiness that washed over her.

"Oh, Merlin."

"He'll be alright," Hagrid tried to reassure her, laying a giant hand on her shoulder.

"How bad is that one, Hagrid?"

He never got the chance to answer her. Cedric had started his plan to get the golden egg. He picked a rock in the opposite direction of the nest and transfigured it into a Labrador. When the dragon went to chase down the poor animal, Cedric sneaked forward, trying to stay out of the dragon's line of sight and retrieve the egg. He was just inches from it when the dog cowering in the corner stopped being interesting to the Short-Snout. She turned to see Cedric reaching for one of her eggs and, with a stand shaking roar, she turned her fury on him.

She caught Cedric with her flames, hitting him on the side of his face as he tried to dodge her. Evie had found something akin to a shriek of horror leaving her mouth. She stood, not knowing when her bum had left its seat, watching him rush quickly away from the dragon and towards the nest. Luckily the Short-Snout had chased the dog far enough away for Cedric to reach the nest before she reached him. As soon as the egg was in his grasp, the dragon handlers, Charlie included, rushed in to subdue his dragon.

While the entire crowd cheered around her, Evie watched Cedric rush off towards the safety of the sidelines where Madame Pomfrey was waiting to usher him into a tent. Evie sighed in relief, as the realization that her brother was going to live washed over her. As she regained her composure, she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Hermione smiling comfortingly at her.

"Are you alright?"

"I don't know if I can handle watching Harry do this as well." Evie gulped down what little breakfast she'd eaten.

"I'm sure he'll be alright."

They said nothing else as the next two champions faced their dragons. Fleur managed to lure hers to sleep, which was a good enough plan, and would have been perfect had the dragon not shot flames in its sleep and caught her robes on fire. Other than that, she managed to collect the egg with little issue.

She was followed by Viktor Krum, who received quite the cheer as he entered the arena. His strategy was to blind his dragon, a great red beast Hagrid had named a Chinese Fireball. It was, at best, helpful so the dragon wouldn't know where he was. But as it flailed around in confusion and fear, it trampled half the eggs, luckily missing the one Krum was meant to be grabbing, but he was still docked points for it. When he retrieved his egg, Evie noticed that even Hermione was clapping for him.

"What's this last dragon?" Evie asked Hagrid as the mess from Krum's attempt was cleared away and his dragon removed.

"The Hungarian Horntail."

"That's bad, isn't it?" She didn't really need to ask. Hagrid's tone did nothing to cover his own worry. The dragon was out and the whistle blown before he managed to collect himself enough to reassure her Harry would be fine.

Harry walked out slowly, staring first at the crowd and then at the dragon. Evie wasn't sure he was as focused as he ought to be and as he raised his wand after a minute to call his Firebolt, she worried it might not come. Without really thinking about what she was doing, she closed her eyes and tried to will the spell into working. In the moments before she heard it, she could have sworn there was complete silence.

Then it was there and the crowd was calling out in excitement or anger, she wasn't sure but she knew she felt proud. All the training and study sessions had paid off, he had found his focus and there was the Firebolt. When Harry kicked off the ground, Evie felt less nervous than she had before. She knew that he could grab the egg because it was just like grabbing the Snitch. That was what Harry was best at, and all he had to do was fly like he knew how and everything would be okay.

Then he dove, and she instinctively grabbed hold of Hermione's arm. Hermione gasped and stiffened as they watched. "What's he doing?"

The Horntail shot flames towards Harry, who had pulled up before he could be hit.

"He's feeling her out," Evie smirked, but it quickly turned into a gasp as Harry tried again to dodge the flames of his dragon, only to be nearly knocked from his broom by her spiked tail. He managed to swerve just in time to only get caught by the end of a spike in the arm, but it was a mistake he could not afford to make again. They watched as he teased his dragon, moving higher and higher until she was forced to fly after him. Just as she lifted off after him, he dove, flying quickly down towards the ground, past the dragon, reaching his arms out until he had grasped the golden egg.

A deafening cheer rose through the crowd, so loud Evie could barely make out what Mr. Bagman was saying. After a victory lap over the stands, Harry turned his broom towards the entrance of the enclosure where Professor McGonagall and Professor Moody were waving to him.

"Let's go!" Hermione called over the cheering crowd. Evie nodded, and the three of them rushed from the stands and towards the tents Harry and Cedric had been ushered into.

In the first tent Evie could see, through a cut in his robes, that Harry was already healed. With a smile she, Ron and Hermione rushed over to congratulate him. She hugged him before bothering to say anything. "That was brilliant! I'm so proud of you."

"Yeah, mate. The best flying you've ever done." Ron nodded excitedly.

"I'm positively breathless. I can't believe you managed to get past it so quickly," Hermione gushed.

"I couldn't have done it without you guys."

"Oh, don't get all emotional or Hermione will start crying," Evie teased, noticing the tears already welling up in her best friend's eyes.

"Hey, let's go check your score," Ron suggested trying to change the subject.

"I'm going to check on Cedric," Evie cut in. Harry, Ron and Hermione nodded before heading out of the tent. With a shaky breath, Evie followed them out, before entering the tent directly next door.

Madame Pomfrey turned to fuss before realizing it was her and nodding that it was okay for her to enter.

Looking around, Evie saw Cedric sitting up on his cot, some sort of orange healing salve spread across the burns on his face, which were slowly but surely healing. When she saw his face up close, Evie suddenly felt like crying.

"Hey!" Cedric smiled brightly at her.

"Is he going to be alright?"

"He'll be just fine. Burns are easy enough to heal; they just take a bit of time."

"Good, because he'll die if he loses his good looks." The joke came out with no a single bit of amused infliction. "You idiot," she huffed at her brother. "You could've been killed." She slapped him in the arm angrily.

"Hey, watch it! I am still injured," Cedric complained, but when Evie's bottom lip began to tremble his expression turned into one of concern. "Hey, what's with the tears?"

"I thought that stupid beast had killed you," Evie sighed, trying to fight the urge to cry.

Cedric opened his arms with a gentle smile and Evie threw herself into them, making sure not to touch the side of his face covered in orange paste. As her brother rubbed comforting circles into her back, Evie let a few tears slip, before breathing in deeply to find his usual smell, grass and the wood of his broom, had been partially covered over by the smell of smoke and burnt cloth.

"Better?" He pulled back to look her over.

"Better," Evie half smiled, wiping the tear trails from her cheeks.

"Good. Now, you listen to me, I don't care what the next two tasks are, I want you to know I'm going to be alright. This tournament isn't going to kill me, it's too safe now."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

"Okay," Evie's smile widened, and even though she knew he couldn't actually promise the tournament was perfectly safe, hearing him promise to be alright made her feel loads better.

"Mr. Diggory," Madame Pomfrey walked back into the tent. "Mr. Bagman is saying he wants you in the Champion's tent."

"Am I alright to go?"

"As long as you come back to see me afterwards, I suppose it's alright." The Mediwitch pursed her lips, clearly unhappy with the idea of letting some competition take priority over her caring for a student.

With a respectful nod, Cedric stood and he and Evie left the tent. "I don't think you'll be allowed in there."

"Can I wait outside to find out what's going on?"

"I don't see why not. If I don't tell you what it is I know Harry will anyway," Cedric smirked.

"Oh, you know us so well."

Cedric didn't respond, he just rolled his eyes and entered the tent with a small smile on his face. Evie watched him disappear into the tent with a smile of her own. Her heart felt lighter than it had since the beginning of the school year. Her best friend and her brother had both survived the dragons and she found that her faith in their ability to succeed was much stronger than it had been before.

"How's your brother?" Evie turned to find two of her best friends. She hadn't even heard them walk up.

"Good. He's still got that paste on his face, and Madame Pomfrey says she wants to see him after the meeting, but he's good." She smiled.

She, Ron and Hermione spent the remaining time waiting quietly outside the tent, but they weren't silent for long. When the Champions reemerged, Viktor and Fleur quickly disappeared, but not before Evie noticed Krum throw a small smile in Hermione's direction. After he was gone, she turned to her friend with a raised eyebrow, but Hermione was pointedly avoiding eye contact.

"Well, the next task isn't until the end of February," Cedric sighed.

"That's a rather big gap," Hermione frowned.

"These eggs are a clue," Harry held his up. "We're supposed to open them up and use the clue to figure out what the next task is."

"I wonder how hard the clue will be," Evie furrowed her brow.

"Let's worry about that later. Right now I'll bet there's a party in both the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff common rooms to celebrate our Champions." Ron smiled brightly.

"Sounds like a plan to me, but I've got to go see Madame Pomfrey." Cedric pointed back towards the medical tent. "Walk with me?" He nudged Evie.

"Alright," she nodded.

"We'll walk slowly so you can catch up," Hermione offered. Evie nodded before turning to walk with Cedric.

They were silent the whole short walk to Madame Pomfrey's tent, but just outside Cedric turned to face his sister. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a miniature version of the Swedish Short-Snout he'd faced. "I want you to hold on to it for me."

"Really? Why?"

"Call it an insurance policy. I'll take it back after the tournament is over." Cedric dropped the little dragon into Evie's hand. "It's pretty cool, isn't it?"

She watched it walk in circles on her palm for a moment before it made itself comfortable and curled into a ball. "Yeah, it is sort of cute. I can almost see why Hagrid likes these things," she chuckled. "It doesn't breathe fire, does it?"

"A little, but it doesn't burn you."

"That's amazing." Evie looked up at her brother and smiled brightly. "Thanks."

Cedric just shrugged. "No problem."

Once he had gone back into the tent Evie turned to catch up to her friends and ran right into Cho. "Oh!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"Came to check on him?"

"Yes, but I saw you talking and I didn't want to interrupt."

"It's alright, I'm just going." Evie waved the girl's worry away. "I think Madame Pomfrey will let you see him."

"How is he?"

"Good. It's like it didn't even faze him that a dragon shot fire at his face." Cho tried to smile but she didn't seem very happy. "Hey, he's really alright. Go and see."

Evie gently guided Cho into the tent before turning and finally rushing off towards where Harry, Ron and Hermione had stopped walking altogether to wait for her.