I had arranged to meet with Isaac earlier that Saturday, Right before I was supposed to meet Hermione and my brother.  He told it was supposed to be "casual" so I dressed in Jeans and a T-shirt with my normal shoes. 

He told me to meet him by the lake; was it symbolic? I mean it was where he first came here. Or possibly it's closest to his ship? Does that indicate laziness? 

It is 99% possible I am over thinking this. 

Isaac met me at the lake with a picnic basket in his hand, he flashed me his famous smiles and gestured to the grass. "You didn't seem like the type of person who would like fancy on the first date" he explained as we sat down a little way from the lake "and I thought I'd introduce you to classic Bulgarian breakfast dishes." 

"Sounds amazing" I said smiling, and it did. Points to him for amazing choice of scenery too.

 Early in morning the artistic golden sun got up like a baby and started painting the dark black sky into a bright blue sky. The bright looking milky clouds got up from sleep and started travelling around the sky visiting the wonderful environment.

"What do we have then?" I asked, peering in the basket.

"Princesses, Popara, Banichika an' Bora."

Seeing my confused look, Isaac grinned and explained "Sandwiches with eggs and white cheese or with minced meat is famous Bulgarian breakfast. First ones are made when you mix 2 eggs and some Bulgarian white cheese in a bowl. Then put the mixture on slices of bread and bake it in a party grill. The others are called 'Princesses' and are made when you put minced meat on the bread slices and also bake them in party grill."

he opened these first. It was like an explosion of flavour in my mouth. And I had to admit, it made the regular breakfast I had rather bland. 

Again reading my expression correctly, Isaac chuckled and said "I take you like it?"

Mouth full, I nodded. He went on explaining "Widespread morning meal in Bulgaria is 'Popara'. Bulgarian kids love it! It's made with a glass of warm milk (or tea), 2 chopped slices of bread, Bulgarian white cheese, some butter and sugar if you want it sweet. Put everything in a bowl and you are ready to eat. I assure you it is very delicious and super easy to prepare. It tastes better than it looks. I promise!" And it did. 

It looked like a bunch on things chopped up and shoved in. But it was like drinking hot cocoa on a particulary warm night. It was delicious. Isaac's hand briefly brushed mine, so discreet and quick I couldn't tell if it was on purpose or accident. 

"A traditional Bulgarian Breakfast is 'Banitsa s boza'" said Isaac "Banitsa is traditional Bulgarian food prepared by layering a mixture of whisked eggs and pieces of cheese between filo pastry and then baking it in an oven. Boza is a drink with thick consistency and a low alcohol content, it has a sweet flavor. Although a popular beverage, boza is also used to describe something (film, piece of music, etc.) to be bland, boring, and of low quality. This comes from the turbid consistency and colour of Bulgarian boza ."

Princesses:

Popara:

Banichka:

Honestly he could be a food critic if wizards didn't have far more interesting jobs. And the date went really well. Isaac always had an air of comfort around him, I never felt like I had been uncomfortable around him.

So, pretty great as far as date's go. 

---

I met later with Harry and Hermione, And we practiced. We didn't have lunch, but headed for a free classroom, where Harry tried with all his might to make various objects fly across the room toward him. He was still having problems. The books and quills kept losing heart halfway across the room and dropping like stones to the floor. 

"Concentrate, Harry, concentrate. . . ."

 "What d'you think I'm trying to do?" said Harry angrily. "A great big dragon keeps popping up in my head for some reason. . . .Okay, try again. . . ." 

He wanted to skip Divination to keep practicing, but Hermione  and I refused point-blank to skive off Arithmancy, and there was no point in staying without us. He therefore had to endure over anhour of Professor Trelawney. 

He forced down some dinner after Divination- I made him- then returned to the empty classroom with Hermione and me, using the Invisibility Cloak to avoid the teachers. 

We kept practicing until past midnight. We would have stayed longer, but Peeves turned up and, pretending to think that Harry wanted things thrown at him, started chucking chairs across the room. Me, Harry and Hermione left in a hurry before the noise attracted Filch, went to a different classroom, which was now mercifully empty. 

At two o'clock in the morning, Harry stood near the teacher's desk,surrounded by heaps of objects: books, quills, several upturned chairs, an old set of Gobstones, and Neville's toad, Trevor. Only in the last hour had Harry really got the hang of the Summoning Charm. 

"That's better, Harry, that's loads better," I said,  looking exhausted but very pleased. 

"Well, now we know what to do next time I can't manage a spell," Harry said, throwing a rune dictionary back to me,so he could try again, "threaten me with a dragon. Right . . ." He raised his wand once more. "Accio Dictionary!"

 The heavy book soared out of my hand, flew across the room, and Harry caught it.

 "Harry, I really think you've got it!" said Hermione delightedly.

 "Just as long as it works tomorrow," Harry said. "The Firebolt's going to be much farther away than the stuff in here, it's going to be in the castle, and I'm going to be out there on the grounds. . . ." 

"That doesn't matter,"I said firmly "Just as long as you're concentrating really, really hard on it, it'll come. Harry, we'd better get some sleep . . . you're going to need it." 

The atmosphere in the school was one of great tension and excitement.Lessons were to stop at midday, giving all the students time to get down to the dragons' enclosure — though of course, they didn't yet know what they would find there. 

Harry must've felt oddly separate from everyone around him, whether they were wishing him good luck or hissing "We'll have a box of tissues ready, Potter " as he passed. 

It was a state of nervousness so advanced that I wondered whether he mightn't just lose his head when they tried to lead him out to his dragon, and start trying to curse everyone in sight. 

Time was behaving in a more peculiar fashion than ever, rushing past in great dollops. Until it was time for us to go down.

"Good luck, Harry," Hermione whispered. "You'll be fine!" 

"Yeah," said Harry in a voice that was most unlike his own. 

Please don't die...

Bagman used the same charm he used in the World cup

"Welcome!" he said, his voice magically magnified "to the first task of the triwizard tournament!" Applause echoed like a drumbeat at his words. 

"Hey Potter" I groaned, as Zoe snatched my wand out of my hand so that I don't hex the idiot standing beside me, she forgot I still have a smart mouth.  I missed Bagman's next words. 

"Shouldn't you be holding your brothers hand?" asked Malfoy giving me a weak smirk "you know--in case he starts crying--suppose you substitute for you dad--"

"I'll have you know" I interrupted " my brother doesn't need our father or me to fix his own mistakes or solve his own problems. But you wouldn't know anything about that would you?"

Bagmans voice came "now introducing, from Hogwarts school! Cedric Diggory!"

----

Diggory, Fluer and Krum did well but the one I was waiting for came last. The dragon-keepers brought out--

The hungarian Horntail. 

It was worse than I could ever have imagined, sitting thereand listening. The crowd screamed . . . yelled . . . gasped like a single many-headed entity, as Krum did whatever he was doing to getpast his dragon- the fireball I think-- And Bagman's commentary made everythingmuch, much worse. . . . Horrible pictures formed in my mind.

Harry's name was called. 

There were hundreds and hundreds of faces staringdown at him from stands that had been magicked there since he'dlast stood on this spot. And there was the Horntail, at the other endof the enclosure, crouched low over her clutch of eggs, her wingshalf-furled, her evil, yellow eyes upon him, a monstrous, scaly,black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, leaving yard-long gougemarks in the hard ground. The crowd was making a great deal ofnoise, but whether friendly or not, I didn't know or care.

 Itwas time to do what Harry had to do . . . to focus his mind, entirelyand absolutely, upon the thing that was his only chance. . . .He raised his wand. 

"Accio Firebolt!" he shouted. 

I waited, every fiber of me hoping, praying. . . . If it hadn'tworked . . . if it wasn't coming . . .I seemed to be looking ateverything around me through some sort of shimmering, transparent barrier, like a heat haze, which made the enclosure and thehundreds of faces around me swim strangely. . . . 

"C'mon" I whispers "come on, Harry."

And then I heard it, speeding through the air behind Harry; heturned and saw his Firebolt hurtling toward him around the edgeof the woods, soaring into the enclosure, and stopping dead inmidair beside him, waiting for him to mount. 

The crowd was making even more noise. . . . Bagman was shouting something . . . but my ears were not working properly anymore . . . listeningwasn't important. . . . watching was. He swung his leg over the broom and kicked off from theground. And a second later, something miraculous happened. . . . 

As he soared upward, I realized that he had left notonly the ground behind, but also his fear. . . . He was back wherehe belonged. . . . 

"YES!" I yelled

He dived. The Horntail's head followed him; he looked like he knew what itwas going to do and pulled out of the dive just in time; a jet of firehad been released exactly where he would have been had he notswerved away . . . but I didn't care . . . To my brother that was no more thandodging a Bludger. . . . 

"Great Scott, he can fly!" yelled Bagman as the crowd shriekedand gasped. "Are you watching this, Mr. Krum?" 

"Wow" whispered Zoe in aw "he's an idiot but..wow."

Harry soared higher in a circle; the Horntail was still following his progress; its head revolving on its long neck — if he kept thisup, it would be nicely dizzy — but better not push it too long, orit would be breathing fire again — 

Harry plummeted just as the Horntail opened its mouth, butthis time he was less lucky — he missed the flames, but the tailcame whipping up to meet him instead, and as he swerved to theleft, one of the long spikes grazed his shoulder, ripping his robes — 

I sucked a breath through my teeth. 

Now hezoomed around the back of the Horntail, and a possibility occurredto me. . . .The Horntail didn't seem to want to take off, she was too protective of her eggs. Though she writhed and twisted, furling andunfurling her wings and keeping those fearsome yellow eyes onHarry, she was afraid to move too far from them . . . but he had topersuade her to do it, or he'd never get near them. . . . The trickwas to do it carefully, gradually. . . . the quote "great minds think alike" does not come in play here because my brother's mind is not great.

I'm kidding. My point is, Harry seemed to have drawn the same tactics. 

He began to fly, first this way, then the other, not near enough tomake her breathe fire to stave him off, but still posing a sufficientthreat to ensure she kept her eyes on him. Her head swayed thisway and that, watching him out of those vertical pupils, her fangsbared. . . . 

He flew higher. The Horntail's head rose with him, her necknow stretched to its fullest extent, still swaying, like a snake beforeits charmer. . . . 

Harry rose a few more feet, and she let out a roar of exasperation. He was like a fly to her, a fly she was longing to swat; her tailthrashed again, but he was too high to reach now. . . . She shot fireinto the air, which he dodged. . . . Her jaws opened wide. . . .

And then she reared, spreading her great, black, leathery wingsat last, as wide as those of a small airplane — and Harry dived.Before the dragon knew what he had done, or where he had disappeared to, he was speeding toward the ground as fast as he couldgo, toward the eggs now unprotected by her clawed front legs —he had taken his hands off his Firebolt — he had seized the goldenegg — 

And with a huge spurt of speed, he was off, he was soaring outover the stands, the heavy egg safely under his uninjured arm, andit was as though somebody had just turned the volume back up —for the first time, I became properly aware of the noise of thecrowd, which was screaming and applauding as loudly as the Irishsupporters at the World Cup — 

"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling. "Will you look at that! Ouryoungest champion is quickest to get his egg! Well, this is going toshorten the odds on Mr. Potter!" 

"YES!!" I yelled clapping wildly with everyone else--even the Slytherins--"YES!!"

Then I began tearing my way through the crowd. And was joined by Ron and Hermione as we begged professor Mcgonagall to see Harry. She pointed the way to the medical tent.

We pushed our way in.

"Your not dead!" I said 

"Harry, you were brilliant!" Hermione said squeakily. Therewere fingernail marks on her face where she had been clutching itin fear. "You were amazing! You really were!" 

"You aren't dead!"

But Harry was looking at Ron, who was very white and staringat Harry as though he were a ghost. 

"Harry," he said, very seriously, "whoever put your name in thatgoblet — I — I reckon they're trying to do you in!"

 It was as though the last few weeks had never happened — asthough Harry were meeting Ron for the first time, right after he'dbeen made champion. 

"Caught on, have you?" said Harry coldly. "Took you longenough." 

Hermione stood nervously between them, looking from one tothe other. I was tapping my foot impatiently, this was long overdue.

 Ron opened his mouth uncertainly. 

Harry seemed know Ronwas about to apologize and suddenly it looked like he found he didn't need tohear it. 

"It's okay," he said, before Ron could get the words out. "Forget it."

 "No," said Ron, "I shouldn't've —"

 "Forget it," Harry said. 

Ron grinned nervously at him, and Harry grinned back.Hermione burst into tears. 

"There's nothing to cry about!" Harry told her, bewildered.

 "You two are so stupid!" she shouted, stamping her foot on the ground, tears splashing down her front. Then, before either ofthem could stop her, she had given both of them a hug, and squeezed me and dashedaway, now positively howling. 

"Well" I said  "she was right about one thing; you both are stupid."

"Your one to talk" retorted Harry. 

"I am far from stupid!"

"Barking mad," said Ron, shaking his head. "Emma, Harry, c'mon,they'll be putting up your scores. . . ." 

Picking up the golden egg and his Firebolt, possibly feeling more elatedthan he would have believed possible an hour ago, Harry duckedout of the tent, Me and Ron by his side, talking fast. 

"You were the best, you know, no competition. Cedric did thisweird thing where he Transfigured a rock on the ground . . . turnedit into a dog . . . he was trying to make the dragon go for the doginstead of him. Well, it was a pretty cool bit of Transfiguration, andit sort of worked, because he did get the egg, but he got burned aswell — the dragon changed its mind halfway through and decidedit would rather have him than the Labrador; he only just got away.

" And that Fleur girl tried this sort of charm, I think she was tryingto put it into a trance — well, that kind of worked too, it went allsleepy, but then it snored, and this great jet of flame shot out, andher skirt caught fire — she put it out with a bit of water out of herwand. "

"And Krum — you won't believe this, but he didn't eventhink of flying! He was probably the best after you, though. Hit itwith some sort of spell right in the eye. Only thing is, it went trampling around in agony and squashed half the real eggs — they tookmarks off for that, he wasn't supposed to do any damage to them." 

Ron drew breath as we and Harry reached the edge of the enclosure. 

Now that the Horntail had been taken away, I could seewhere the five judges were sitting — right at the other end, inraised seats draped in gold."It's marks out of ten from each one," I said, and Harry, squinting up the field, saw the first judge — Madame Maxime —raise her wand in the air. What looked like a long silver ribbon shotout of it, which twisted itself into a large figure eight. 

"Not bad!" said Ron as the crowd applauded. "I suppose shetook marks off for your shoulder. . . ." 

Mr. Crouch came next. He shot a number nine into the air. 

"Looking good!" Ron yelled, thumping Harry on the back.Next,

 Dumbledore. He too put up a nine. The crowd was cheering harder than ever. 

Ludo Bagman — ten. 

"Ten?" said Harry in disbelief. "But . . . I got hurt. . . . What'she playing at?" 

"Harry, don't complain!" I yelled excitedly. 

And now Karkaroff raised his wand. He paused for a moment,and then a number shot out of his wand too — four. 

"What?" Ron bellowed furiously. "Four? You lousy, biased scumbag, you gave Krum ten!" 

"I have pretty could aim" I said, lining up my wand "you reckon I could get him from here, Ron?"

"I'd rather you didn't" said Harry

 "You're tied in first place, Harry! You and Krum!" said CharlieWeasley, hurrying to meet us as we set off back toward theschool. "Listen, I've got to run, I've got to go and send Mum an owl, I swore I'd tell her what happened — but that was unbelievable! Oh yeah — and they told me to tell you you've got to hangaround for a few more minutes. . . . Bagman wants a word, back inthe champions' tent."

Ron and I waited outside while Harry went back in, Isaac came to tell me to offer congratulations to my brother. 

"Friend?" asked Ron, as Isaac walked away. I hadn't told Ron and Hermione and Zoe about him. Yet.

"Went on a date earlier today" I said nonchalantly. 

Ron looked dumbfounded "b-but what about Malfoy?" he asked.

"What about him?"

Ron gave me and incredulous look which I decided to ignore.