The next morning, Konata and Shiro entered the great hall holding hands. When they met up with Blaze, she just looked at them casually. "You two got together? It's about time."

Konata smiled and nodded, blushing slightly; Shiro patted Konata's arm and declared, "Yup, Konata is now my snuggly-bumpkins."

Both girls gave him an odd look. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Watch you language, Alexanders!" Shiro sang.

Blaze stuck out her tongue, then grinned. "Congrats, you two."

The rest of the month was fantastic. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Mad-Eye Moody, was no Lupin, but an interesting professor nonetheless. Being a former Auror, he had quite the experience with the dark arts, and even had permission to demonstrate the Unforgivable Curses- Crucio the torture curse; Imperio, the controlling curse; and even Avada Kedavra, the killing curse. Fortunately, he demonstrated them on insects… at first.

Aside from the interesting but frightening DADA sessions, constant word of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students' upcoming arrival circulated around Hogwarts. Rumors about the foreign students- from France and Bulgaria- were started, though nobody entirely believed them. They were all either confirmed or stomped down on the 30th of October.

Both schools made breathtaking entrances. The Beauxbatons boys and girls were transported in a colossal carriage by numerous gigantic, gorgeous horses. Their headmistress, Madame Maxime, stepped gracefully out of the carriage; the jaws of most of the Hogwarts students dropped: the woman was at least 7 feet tall.

After she had a brief, friendly discussion with Dumbledore (who kissed her hand), she led her students, dressed in dashing blue, inside. "Blimey," Shiro breathed as the Beauxbatons girls swept by. Many of the Hogwarts boys were whistling.

Konata nudged Shiro in the arm with her elbow, hard. "You have a girlfriend now, Shiro. You can't be checking out other girls right in front of her."

Shiro rubbed his bruising arm. "Ah, but you're SO much lovelier than all of them combined." Konata chuckled quietly and entwined her fingers with Shiro's.

The Durmstrang boys arrived by a humongous ship, which magically rose from the depths of the lake. "I hope it didn't run into the squid," Shiro murmured. Somehow, Konata figured he wasn't concerned for the safety of the ship or even the students as he was for the squid.

Dumbledore had set up an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire, which would determine who would compete in the tournament. The Weasley twins attempted to defy the line with an aging potion… and ended up heading up to the hospital wing with long white beards.

From Beauxbatons, a rather proud, silver-blonde haired girl named Fleur Delacour was selected. From Durmstrang, it was 18 year old Qudditch legend Viktor Krum (the Great Hall exploded with applause with his selection, especially the Gryffindor table. Unfortunately, the Durmstrangs sat with the Slytherins). And from Hogwarts… 17 year old Hufflepuff Cedric Diggory was selected. Almost all of the Hufflepuff table got to their feet to clap, cheer, and woot in pleasure, Konata being one of them.

"You have a boyfriend now, you know," Shiro reminded her when she finally sat down, grinning like a fool.

"Ooh, jealous, are we? Doesn't feel so great, huh? Don't worry, I'm just a fan. Nothing personal. I suppose we're even now." Konata stretched across the aisle and pecked her lips against Shiro's cheek, causing his face to go crimson.

Everyone thought it was decided- as it should have been- until another piece of parchment spat out of the flames. On it read Harry Potter. Shiro's eyes widened.

"What! Harry specifically told me he wasn't entering! There's no way he'd lie… Besides, there's no way he'd break such a significant rule, put himself in danger like that, OR expose himself so easily!" he hissed. Konata just shrugged, shocked stiff. She liked Harry, really she did… But he was robbing her House the chance at honor that it deserved yet almost never received. She was secretly chanting "Down with Krum, Delacour, and Potter, up with Diggory!" in her head.

A bit more than a month later, the first task was held. Everyone gathered in the completely changed Quidditch stadium, many people (especially Slytherins) sporting badges that flashed "Potter Stinks." It took all Shiro's willpower to refrain from clawing Draco's eyes out for starting the trend.

Blaze, Konata, Shiro, and Sakura found seats in the exact middle row of the stands. Satoshi sat with Jeffrey, the Weasley twins, and two blonde girls that had to have been twins themselves a few rows forward. Shiro put his arm around Konata's shoulders, and she snuggled up as close to him as she could; Blaze was fighting the strong urge to flash them a disgusted look, so she settled with nonchalantly rolling her eyes.

When the task at hand was revealed, gasps arose from all around. Blaze and Sakura's eyes widened; Konata covered her mouth with a gloved hand; Shiro grinned wildly: the four champions would have to retrieve golden eggs from real, live dragons.

Everyone was on the edge of their seats, literally, screaming and gasping and cheering and booing. Cedric's plan was to transfigure a rock into a Labrador and have the dragon be distracted by it. This was effective for a while, until the dragon decided Cedric was a better target. Konata cried out in terror along with hundreds of others when Cedric got burned. All in all, though, he made it out fine.

"Wonderful, now you can make pretty Hufflepuff babies with him," Shiro muttered bitterly.

"Oh, don't be so jealous, hun! I love YOU. Not Cedric," Konata assure him.

"I wouldn't be so sure, Shiro. You two haven't even kissed on the lips yet," Sakura remarked. Although they blushed, Konata and Shiro decided to ignore the comment.

Fleur used some sort of charm that was supposed to put her dragon in a trance, and it worked for the most part. Viktor shot a spell in his dragon's eye, and though it was very successful, the dragon ended up squashing some of the non-golden eggs in agony, which the champions were supposed to prevent from happening. The best was certainly saved for last.

"A Hungarian Horntail… That's one of the most ferocious dragons alive," Shiro breathed, staring at the creature in awe.

"Harry's going to get CREAMED," Sakura murmured.

"YOU CAN DO IT HARRY!" Shiro, Konata, and Blaze shouted with an undertone of uncertainty.

However, Harry most certainly COULD do it. He summoned his broom, the legendary Firebolt, and used his Quidditch skills to avoid the dragon. In the end, he'd retrieved the egg the quickest out of them all.

"Brilliant! Bloody brilliant!" Shiro cried, standing up to clap. Konata was doing the same, but she looked rather shaken, as if it had been her who had just narrowly escaped a dragon.

"If dragons were only the first task… WHAT could the second and third ones be?" she wondered aloud nervously.

"Maybe they'll have to piss Shiro off," Blaze mused.

"Oh don't even joke about that!" Shiro snapped. Still, the smile wouldn't come off his face.