24TH NOVEMBER 1994

On the morning of the First Task the Great Hall was filled with people and the air seemed to be filled with the same buzz of excitement that had been present on the day the Champions were announced. Meera had slept fitfully the night before and was one of the first in the Great Hall. She ate quickly, and by the time she finished Merlin entered the Great Hall. Despite, his confidence the previous day, Merlin looked much more nervous this morning and this worried Meera.

Had something changed or was he finally realising the insurmountable nature of the task?

"What's wrong?" Meera asked sitting next to the elder boy on the Slytherin table.

"I...I don't know...I guess, I'm getting a little...stage fright?" Merlin said hesitantly, his face reddening.

Meera looked at him with an expression of utmost exasperation."You are about to face a grown dragon who can toast you to death and you're getting stage fright?"

"Well, yeah...being toasted by a dragon would be embarrassing...considering I'm a Dragon lord." He said, he glanced around the table to ensure no one had overheard them.

"If anyone has a right to get stage fright it's Diggory." Evie said joining him. "I still feel bad for not telling him sooner."

"It's probably for the best...he'd not have gotten any sleep if you'd told him, some sleep is always better than none." Meera reasoned. "Also, I thought you were certain you can control them." 

"Yes, I can I just have to be discrete so that no one in the audience knows that I can...its a difficult balance to maintain you know?" Merlin argued. "And Cedric has nothing to worry about he did great. He has a great reaction time and knows his spells really well."

Meera nodded, recalling their practice sessions yesterday. Cedric had been the first to arrive in the Great Hall, leaning against the door and waiting for them, he'd been uncharacteristically blunt with Evie when she'd been the last to join them. The Ravenclaw would probably never directly admit this to him, but McGonnegal would have been proud if she'd see some of his on the fly Transfigurations yesterday.

"That's true, but if you the Dragonlord have stage fright, it's reasonable to assume that he does too." Meera said, taking a muffin that Lory was passing to her to give to Evie. Marcus Flint regarded her with some disgust; a little way off Malfoy was watching them, but once Meera looked at him directly he turned back to his breakfast quite quickly.

The appearance of a flock of fans signalled the entrance of Viktor Krum, and the boy struggled to emerge through them. The way they crowded around him sickened Meera; here he was just trying to grab a bite to eat and he can't even do that in peace.

"We'll see you later." Meera said to Merlin quietly before leaving.

Unfortunately, they didn't get to see either Cedric or Merlin for very long and had to leave for Charms. No one was able to focus very much as the students were eager for midday, which is when lessons would stop to allow the students time to get down to the enclosure where the first task would take place.

The enclosure filled with five fully grown nesting mother dragons. Meera'd thought sourly when she'd seen the notice. She checked her watch anxiously and for once was appalled by the fact that time was actually passing, at a surprisingly quick pace. Potions rushed by rapidly, despite the fact that Snape's drone seemed as endless as it always did.

Despite the ringing of the lunch bell Snape droned on with his notices and no fifth year dared to try and leave his lesson without his dismissal. Evie was tapping her feet rapidly and in position to race out of the classroom at the first chance.

When they entered lunch Meera saw that Merlin and Cedric were already at their respective tables. Merlin ate swiftly, with Lory helping him get as much food as possible from the table summoning plates and swatting hands trying to grab anything from plates near Merlin.

In contrast Cedric was staring at his plate absently playing with the vegetables on his plate as he sat with his face in his hands. She saw Roman nudging him and from his expressive gesticulation she assumed he was berating Cedric. 

Before Meera could join him and persuade the Hufflepuff champion into eating something however, Professor Sprout had arrived and Cedric had left with her looking rather pale as he'd walked out. Many of the Hufflepuffs wished him luck in the background and he nodded absently, plastering a polite smile on his face as he thanked them, before disappearing out the door. Meera noticed Evie glancing towards the Slytherin table and saw that Merlin was also leaving.

Soon Meera, Evie and the rest of the students were escorted towards the enclosure and Evie had a firm grip on Meera's robe's sleeve to avoid losing her in the crowd. Before, they made they way over to the stands, Evie had tugged at Meera's sleeve and pointed towards a tent: Hermione had parted from the crowd and had snuck towards there.

"Hey...could you go over there, and give Merlin this for me?" Evie asked, placing a red scarf of some kind in her hand. "He gave me this during exam season and said it was kinda lucky or something..I don't want to go there with all the others, you know."

Meera nodded smiliing softly. "You don't want him to see you worrying."

Meera parted from the crowd and made her way to the backside of the tent where Hermione had disappeared to the Gryffindor girl rose her eyebrows at her.

"Are we allowed in there?" Meera asked. Hermione shrugged. "Is Harry on the backside?"

Hermione nodded.

"What about Harris? And if he isn't could you get Harry to get him for me?"

Hermione muttered quietly through a gap in the tent and then Merlin asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Can we come in?" Meera asked.

"I think so." he said. "No one's in here..."

He opened the flap just wide enough so that Meera could slip through. Meera gestured Hermione to follow but she shook her head.

"Evie asked me to give you this." Meera said passing the scarf to him. Merlin looked down at it his eyes widening a little then tied it around his neck.

"It's one of my neck kerchiefs." he explained. "I wore it all the time."

Meera nodded.

"She's worried isn't she? That's why she isn't here?" Merlin said his question sounding more like a statement.

"Good luck...don't be stupid okay? If you can't...communicate with them, run like hell, okay? We have enough things to worry about." Meera said sternly. Merlin smiled at her. "What?"

"I'm not stupid Meera...I'll be fine." he nodded.

"Hey, Harris." Freya said approaching them, her eye fell on the neck kerchief and she smiled softly. Harris gave Meera a pointed look. She patted his arm and left after giving her a tight smile.

Meera noticed Cedric pacing nearby, staring resolutely at the grassy area. She went over to the Hufflepuff and cleared her throat interrupting his reverie.

"Hey." she said awkwardly.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Wishing Harris luck...giving him something Evie asked me to." Meera shrugged. "You okay?"

He chuckled wryly. "Well...considering the fact that there is a fully grown dragon out there that I have to combat in about...5 or 10 minutes...I've had better days." 

"Fair enough." Meera agreed quietly. "Just...remember the spells you used...and play to your strengths...and I was just telling Harris this wonderful tidbit of advice. Sometimes running away rather than running at it does the trick."

Cedric smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind..."

Meera glanced back at Freya and Merlin who were still discussing quietly. Freya was moving her wrist in a pattern with her wand between her fingers, Merlin was watching her movements keenly imitating them and nodded his acknowledgment. Unbeknownst to Meera, Cedric's gaze lingered on her for a moment as she watched his best friend. He looked away quickly though as Meera turned back to him.

Then there was a bright flash followed by Rita Skeeter entering. "Ah! Young love!"

Hermione had finally entered the tent, surprising Harry with a tight embrace. She pulled away, from the young champion, looking rather startled. Rita's quill was gliding across the page as she smirked devilishly. "How...stirring..."

Meera glared at her remembering the exactly what had happened when Rita Skeeter had stumbled onto Meera and Cedric in the courtyard.

Almost instinctively her right hand reached for her wand, a particularly nasty hex coming to her mind, but she felt a grip on her wrist; tight enough to stop her from lashing out, but not so tight that it hurt her.

Meera turned to Cedric, who was fully aware of her indignation, but the Hufflepuff boy didn't let go of her wrist, as he kept his eyes on the devious reporter. "You'll only make things worse." he murmured softly, pulling her back a little.

"If everything goes unfortunately today. . . . . .you two may even make the front page." Rita said.

This bitch.

Meera gritted her teeth and yanked her wrist sharply, in attempt to free it. Cedric stumbled forward, a little. However, his grip didn't falter at all, much to Meera's annoyance.

"You forget I'm a seeker Meera, maintaining excellent grip despite turbulence is a prerequisite." Cedric whispered jokingly.

A smile flickered across her face.  "There's the cocky bastard, I hate." Meera responded quietly. 

"You have no business here." Krum said stepping in front of the reporter. "This tent is for Champions and Friends."

Meera glanced at the Durmstrang boy, Krum had never said anything when she'd been around and so hearing him speak surprised her a little. She is quite grateful that he intervened however.

Rita turned slowly glancing at each of the champions. She smirked when she saw Cedric and Meera and the Ravenclaw gritted her teeth to avoid blurting anything. She then saw Freya and Merlin behind them and her eyebrows shot up. Finally, she faced Krum and her smirk fell as the boy stared at her resolutely.

"No matter." she said in a slightly more subdued tone, smiling at him. Her quill stroked his face and Krum retracted a little disgustedly. "We've got what we wanted."

The photographer raised his camera again and Cedric let go of Meera's wrist, allowing her to duck away from the shot. There was another bright flash of light, causing Meera to shield her eyes.

Dumbledore entered. "Good day, champions. Gather round, please."

Meera tried to exit with Hermione, but the entrance was blocked by Madame Maxime. "Now you've waited, you've wondered and at last the moment has arrived. A moment only five of you can fully appreciate."

His arm was around Hermione who had somehow ended amongst the champion huddle and Meera pursed her lips together to avoid laughing.

He glanced around and finally noticed Hermione. "What are you doing here Miss Granger?"

"Oh,um...sorry I'll just go." Hermione said awkwardly.

Thankfully, Madame Maxime had moved away from the flaps allowing Meera and Hermione to exit. They parted ways near the stands where Evie had stood up and was waving a bright yellow banner signaling her to come towards him.

"Did you give it to him?" Evie asked as Meera sat down. Meera nodded. "What did he say?"

"He appreciated the gesture." Meera replied."Rita Skeeter made an appearance."

"Did you turn her into a frog?" Lory asked leaning forward between them from behind.

"No, I would have, but Cedric stopped me." Meera said sourly.

Evie exchanged glances with Lory. She then turned back to Meera. "Um...what exactly did he do to stop you?"

"He grabbed my wand hand. Just like he did the last time, I tried to attack her." Meera replied.

Lory rose her eyebrows at her. Meera bit her tongue, cursing silently.

Evie's going to have a field day with that.

"The last time? And when exactly was the last time?" Evie asked. "And why were you with him?"

"The last time was when I went to reprimand him about the badges." Meera replied. "Now just watch the tent...let's see who comes out first."

"I sure as hell hope it's Harris...I don't really care about anyone else and if he comes first then we'll be over with it." Evie shrugged.

"What about Cedric?" Lory asked.

"Eh...I'm sure he'd prefer if Meera visited." Evie said, she wiggled her eyebrows at Meera, who elbowed her sharply.

"Just watch the tent." she said shortly.

A cannon was fired and a few seconds later Cedric emerged from the tent, looking greener than ever. The students around her, including Evie began to chant "DIGGORY! DIGGORY! DIGGORY!"

Evie nudged her grinning eagerly. "Join in."

Cedric seemed to be looking down at something in his hand and then he looked up at the blue dragon before him.

"That's a Swedish Short Snout." Evie said to Meera.

Meera's eyes scanned over the dragon keenly; a number of offensive and defensive spells they'd practiced ran through her mind, as she watched Cedric. He eyed the dragon warily as he walked around, seemingly searching for suitable cover.

The Short Snout also watched him with an eagle eyed gaze, and suddenly jet of fire came out of it's nostril when Cedric approached one of the eggs in the enclosure, and Cedric dodged, behind a boulder.

"Ooh, narrow miss there!" Bagman commented.

Cedric looked around at his surroundings, he paused by a pile of rocks and was staring at it for a good few minutes.

"What the fuck is he doing? Can't he see that there's a grown dragon in front of him, that's ready to toast him to death?" Evie asked. Meera nodded absently, and observed keenly. A few seconds later one of the rocks turned into a dog...a puppy to be exact.

The dragon focused its attention on the barking labrador (or golden retriever perhaps), and then the dog began to run away towards one of the egg causing the dragon to follow it.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" Evie shouted launching herself towards the edge of the stands. "THAT'S A PUPPY! ARE YOU FUCKING MAD?!"

Meera got up to console the Hufflepuff girl and stop her from running into the enclosure.

"Ooh...he's taking risks, this one!" Bagman commentated.

With the dragon, successfully distracted, Cedric had started to advance towards a pile of eggs. Amongst the pile something, there was a faint gleam in the September sun.

"Let go of me! LET GO OF ME!" Evie snapped.

Lory pushed the Hufflepuff back towards the railing firmly. "Stay put. The dog will be in a safe place as soon as Diggory gets the egg, so stop shouting." she said curtly. Evie glared at the elder Slytherin, but Lory was unfazed and so Evie reluctantly sat down, flinching occasionally as spouts of flame from the dragon almost hit the puppy.

Unfortunately, this distraction didn't last long as the dragon seemed to be getting bored of the puppy. It turned it's head back to Cedric and he froze.

"Use the bloody Conjunctivitis Curse you fucking moron." Meera muttered under her breath. Evie frowned at her. "It would obscure the dragon's vision...just like conjunctivitis aka pink eye obscures human vision"

Cedric shouted a different curse at it and Meera cursed silently. This curse evidentally didn't work as the dragon was still advancing towards him. Hs e tried another spell, it seemed to work for a few minute

"Conjunctivo!" Cedric shouted finally pointing at the dragon, unfortunately it missed and hit one of the other nest of dragon eggs, the eggs. The dragon roared at him and a huge blast of fire came his way, burning him. He managed to duck behind a boulder and avoid the worst of it.

"Clever move! Pity didn't work!" Bagman commented.

Evie rose her eyebrows at Meera. "What?" Meera asked.

"You gained the ability communicate telepathically or something?" Evie asked. She then glanced around, before asking in a quieter voice. "Or is it something you saw?"

"No. It just seemed to be the next logical move." Meera shrugged. "Happenstance."

"Bombarda!" Cedric shouted, pointing his wand at a set of rocks beside the dragon. The dragon turned once again to investigate the sound and Cedric quickly advanced the remaining distance and grabbed the egg. A deafening roar broke out amidst the crowd as the Hufflepuffs jumped to their feet cheering for their champion

"Very good indeed!" Bagman was shouting. "And now the marks from the judges!"

The judges held up their wands and ribbons shot up, it seemed to be out of ten and Cedric hadn't done too bad.

"Where's the puppy?" Evie asked, ignoring the scores. "Where is the puppy?"

Cedric was escorted out of the enclosure towards a second tent. Another wizard, with a shock of red hair, followed with something smaller in his hand. Meera soon recognised the wizard and what he was holding. "Look. Charlie's got it." Meera said.

Evie exhaled relievedly.

After the cannon got fired. The crowd began chanting again. "SMITHSON! SMITHSON! SMITHSON!"

Evie didn't join this time and Meera rose her eyebrows at them (not that she did either, but she was curious why Evie didn't). "It doesn't have the same ring to it. Diggory has a better ring than Smithson." Evie shrugged.

They turned back to the enclosure and Merlin looked at the white dragon before, him. The neck kerchief was now tied around his neck and flapped a little in the wind. Unlike the Swedish Short Snout this dragon remained quite calm as she watched Merlin through her blue eyes. Whatever, he was doing it seemed to be working as the dragon seemed to move ever so slightly.

The crowd waited with bated breath, for a spell or any kind of reaction. Then around the a huge heard of pigeons started flying around the dragon. Their eyes darted up as they watched the white dragon rear it's great head to get rid of the pigeons that were following them as if the dragon was their mother.

"Ah, finally! An interesting opening move, all part of a carefully, calculated plan I'm sure." Bagman burst out exuberantly.

"I sure hope so." Evie muttered.

"You and me both." Meera agreed.

Merlin seemed to be doing quite well, the seemingly calm dragon did attack when he reached one of the nests, but he dodged skillfully, successfully using an impediment charm to protect himself (although Meera suspected that he also used some magic of the Old Religion to help strengthen it).

However, as he was reaching for the egg he paused, he turned to the dragon and Meera frowned. He looked at the dragon then back towards the crowd who were watching and cheering for him eagerly. Murmurs began to spread through, as they were all confused by the Slytherin's action.

"He seems confused." Lory muttered from behind them, Meera frowned.

"How the hell can you see that from here?" Evie asked squinting.

"How can I see that? Um..." Lory repeated the question and pushed her hair out of her face, her eyes flitting between the ground and her hands."Well...I'm a beater! Long distance vision is important for that, how else would I aim the bludger successfully?"

"Oh makes sense." Evie nodded absently still watching the game.

"Right." Meera agreed, the mild scepticism. The stands were quite high up and away from the dragons so that the spectators got a good view, but didn't get burned along with the competitors. Merlin was quite far away from where Meera sat and she could only really see him as a small green and brown blob. Then again she didn't exactly have 20/20 vision so perhaps it was possible.

The dragon had turned on him by now and then roared loudly. Merlin's outstretched hand got hit with some flames and he retracted shaking his hand, and grabbed the golden egg with his other hand before he quickly ducked behind a boulder. Then he seemingly shot out a curse that caused the white dragon to retreat. However, unlike the Short Snout, which had still been roaring ferociously, after Cedric left. This dragon became calmer a little tamer perhaps.

"Another excellent performance...there seemed to be some confusion in the last moments, but bravo! Let's see the scores!"

Merlin had done a little better than Cedric. His points were either the same or higher except from Karkaroff who was even stingier than before. Evie tried to push her way out of the stands. He soon left the stands nursing his hand. Evie tried to push her way across and Meera frowned.

"What I came to see is over. You stay if you want, I have a puppy to take care of." Evie shrugged

The canon shot again a few minutes later and Fleur emerged from the tent.

"Are you sure?" Meera asked.

"I honestly, don't give two shits about whether the others pass..." Evie began but then noted the Slytherin girl behind her.

Lory laughed "It's ok Evie."

"I mean I care about Harry, but I care about this puppy more right now." Evie said smiling sheepishly.

"I'll come with you, so I can ask Harris a few questions." Meera said. Evie nodded and the pair pushed through to the ends.

They made their way towards the tent where Cedric and Merlin had been taken too. Madam Pomfrey was bustling around and stopped as she saw the two girls.

"I suppose you two are here for Mr Smithson? He's just be taken into the second cubicle, you're going to have to wait until I patch him up." she said.

"Madam Pomfrey, do you know where the dog is?" Evie asked looking around.

"It was somewhere here. Ask Mr Diggory, he had it with him when he came in." she said shortly before entering Merlin's cubicle. Merlin was evidently complaining as Madam Pomfrey repeatedly snapped at him.

They heard a barking noise in the corner and then a puppy ran into the tent. It was the same labrador that had been in the stadium. Evie bent down to pick the puppy up and examined it.

"He's okay." she said. "The little guy's thankfully not got a scratch on him."

"He's a rock, Evie." Meera reminded. "He will turn back into a rock soon."

"Shush, no he won't." Evie said. She continued nursing the little Labrador. "Now, let's go talk to Diggory shall we?"

"Why?" Meera asked.

"I want to slap him for using a puppy as bait." Evie replied.

Before Meera could stop her she entered marched over to the cubicle.. "What happened to your face?" she heard Evie ask. Meera sighed and followed mildly curious to see what Evie meant.

"I got scalded by a dragon, remember?" she heard him respond dryly.

Cedric was sitting on a hospital bed and half of his face appeared bright orange, covered in a thick paste of some sort. "Does it really look that bad?" Cedric asked, trying to find a reflective surface to see his face.

"No...no...its just..." Meera began, looking at Evie for help.

Evie laughed. "Oh come on Meera your disgust is as plain as the nose on your face."

Cedric exhaled forcefully. "Ok, I can take it be honest with me, how bad does it look?"

"You look like you've got a bad spray tan!" Meera said trying to contain her laughter. Cedric grimaced a little.

"Too bad I don't have my polaroid, this ones for the mantlepiece." Evie grinned. "Well, I was going to slap you, but I guess karma's already got you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"How dare you use a puppy as a distraction?" Evie asked. "Apologise to him."

"Why?" Cedric asked her reeling back and putting his hand to protect the burnt side of his face as she thrust the puppy in his face.

"You put another life at risk." Evie replied.

"You know Harris conjured up a flock of pigeons right?" Meera said coolly. "Real pigeons I'm pretty sure."

"Well...at least pigeons can fly away. This little guy was helpless." Evie contradicted.

"The dog's a rock...the transfiguration will wear off." Cedric explained.

"Apologise, or I will hex you when you least expect it." Evie said. "Or Meera will do it...she always finds a reason to be annoyed with you."

He looked at Meera who shook her head behind Evie and exhaled.

"Okay, fine...I'm sorry...what's his name?" he asked. "It feels weird to say I'm sorry dog...you know...sounds a little derogatory."

"Okay...hmm, Pebbles." Evie said. Meera snickered and the Hufflepuff girl glared at her. "I'd like to acknowledge his origins."

"I'm sorry Pebbles." Cedric said to the puppy. He reached out to stroke Pebbles, but Evie held him out of reach.

"No...you don't get to stroke him." Evie said, cradling the labrador protectively. "Not yet."

"Mr Smithson's ready." Madam Pomfrey said. She then noticed the puppy. "Take that dog out of here!"

They entered the other cubicle, and saw Merlin sitting on the bed with his arm covered in a similar pasty looking thing. He smiled at them, but then he looked at Meera quizzically, nodding his head towards the puppy.

"This is Pebbles. Cedric transformed a rock into a puppy, during his round. Evie rescued him." Meera explained.

"You know Pebbles is not a real dog right?" Merlin asked.

"Stop crushing my dreams." Evie snapped. "Pebbles is the closest thing I have to a puppy."

"Okay. Fair enough." Merlin nodded.

"What the hell happened out there? You were doing so well, and then you just stopped." Meera said. Merlin didn't say anything, as he looked at Evie then away, seemingly in deep thought.

"Stage fright?" Evie suggested.

"No...it's just...we can't talk about that here." Merlin shook his head. "You guys go back to the stands. By the sounds of it there are more champions left to see."

"Na, I'll stay here. I'm not really bothered to go back." Evie said, sitting next to Merlin on the bed and placing Pebbles in her lap. His eyes began to droop as Evie scratched between his ears and she smiled affectionately Merlin undid his neck kerchief with his un-scorched hand and placed it over Pebbles, covering him up as much as possible. His hands brushed with Evie's and she smiled at the brunette boy who smiled back at her.

"I have something for you." he said. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a small figurine of the dragon he'd fought. "Isn't it adorable?"

Evie nodded and placed it on her palm. "I wonder how they made these? It must have taken a lot of effort to make these figurines then charm them to be almost lifelike."

Merlin nodded. "Maybe you can show it to your art club teacher and she'd tell you, perhaps it's similar to, how paintings are made live."

Evie nodded and they continued to watch the figurine. It blew out a tiny flame when one of Evie's curls touched its face and seemingly tickled its nose. Merlin laughed as Evie jumped back. "It's not actual fire, silly...not hot enough to burn anyway."

Meera exited silently and went to the entrance of the tent, to watch the rest of the contestants from there.

Fleur's technique was perhaps Meera's favourite as she managed to put the dragon to sleep with a spell of some kind. She regretted not waiting at the stands to watch her combat. Things were going pretty well for her until the dragon exhaled through its nostrils and a puff of flame caught her skirt. Krum successfully used the Conjunctivitis curse, but lost some marks since the dragon crushed half its eggs as it flailed around the enclosure.

The cannon fired again and Harry emerged from the tent, his small stature only making the last dragon look bigger. Meera wondered how small he would have looked or if she would have been able to see him at all from the stands.

Meera could just about see the Horntail from where she stood. Her yellow eyes were poised on him as she crouched low over her eggs with her wings half furled.

Harry looked up towards the castle and pointed his wand to the sky. Meera could just about heard the words Accio over the shouts of the crowd and the thuds on the ground as the Hornatail thrashed her spiked tail.

Harry stood there and waited, he seemed to be waiting for quite a long time and looked up anxiously.

Then something soared into the enclosure flying so fast towards Harry that Meera couldn't make out what it was. She then saw him kick off and begin to rise above the dragon.

Meera looked up uneasily. "How the hell can someone be comfortable flying on a bit of wood that far above the ground?"

"So let me get this straight: you don't like broomsticks and you detest Portkeys?" a familiar voice behind her asked. "So you hate two out of three major wizard transportation methods."

Cedric put an arm around her as he also watched the tournament. Meera shrugged it off and nodded. "Pretty much yeah."

The Horntail was in close pursuit of Harry as he dived forward; a jet of fire was released and if Harry had not swerved away it would have surely gotten him.

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

Meera laughed and then looked at the stands to see where the Durmstrang was. She saw Krum by the edge of the stands; his face was still fixed in that sullen expression he always seemed to have.

"Is it just me or does he always look like that?" Meera asked.

"He always looks like that." Cedric replied. "He's not too bad actually, decent guy. Karkaroff's just putting a lot of pressure on him."

"Diggory! I have not relieved you yet! Get back in here!" Madam Pomfrey snapped from behind them. The Hufflepuff boy looked at Meera, a silent plea in his eyes.

"Go on, Diggory. I can't change her mind. I'll tell you what happened as soon as it's over." Meera assured him. Cedric nodded and left reluctantly.

Harry was now soaring higher and higher in circles and the Horntail followed, it's head revolving on it's long neck. He then plummeted just as the Horntail opened its mouth, but this time he was less fortunate. He missed the flames, but the spiked tail came up to meet him and caught his robe, ripping it.

The crowd screamed and groaned and Meera saw Lory leaning on the edge of the stands and watching anxiously.

Harry zoomed around the back of the Horntail. Harry kept zooming around the dragon, close enough to make her watch him intently, but not so close that she breathed fire to keep him at bay. Her large head swayed and her fangs were bared.

Harry flew higher and higher, and finally the Horntail did her best to catch him by extending her neck. She finally let out a roar of exasperation and a stream of flame came out of her mouth into the sky.

She then reared, spreading her great black wings to fly upwards and then Harry dived. Before the dragon knew what he had done, or where he had gone, he was speeding towards the ground towards the eggs now unprotected. He took one hand of his Firebolt, as he inched closer and closer to the egg...

And then he got it, holding it close to him as he took of towards the sky once more. The crowd screamed and were applauding loudly.

"Look at that!" Bagman yelled. "Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg. Well, this going to shorten, the odds on Mr Potter!"

The dragon keepers rushed forward to subdue the Horntail as Harry left the enclosure, landing gracefully. Hagrid was hurrying over to meet him and Meera smiled.

Professor McGonnegal led Harry to first aid tent, Harry noticed the pair standing by the entrance and smiled at Meera.

"You did good." Meera said.

"Dragons" Madam Pomfrey said in a disgusted tone as she pulled Harry away towards the cubicles. Her angry muttering faded as she entered the cubicle and Meera could see a shadow of her examining Harry's arm.

A few mintes later she bustled out of and went ino Cedric's cubicle. "How does it feel, Diggory?"

Harry exited his cubicle and was met by Ron and Hermione by the entrance.

"Harry, you were brilliant!" the Gryfinndor girl squeaked. There were fingernail marks on her face, where she had been clutching it in fear. "You were amazing! You really were!"

Harry was looking at Ron who looked very white staring at him as though he were a ghost.

She moved towards Merlin's cubicle but heard something which made her pause. "Listen I'm sorry I've been..."

She retreated and entered Cedric's tent instead. Madam Pomfrey exited and rose her eyebrows at Meera. "You can see Mr Smithson at anytime Meera. I've already told you...as long as he stays put..."

"Can I talk to Cedric?" Meera cut in. Madam Pomfrey paused. "He wanted to know how Harry passed the dragon...is it okay if I see him?"

The matron nodded.

Cedric smiled when Meera enter the cubicle. "So...did Harry get it?"

"Yep, he was the fastest." Meera said. "It was quite interesting to watch the performances, see the different techniques. He did really well."

"Well I'll have you know that it was not fun at all to be stuck in an enclosure with a nesting mother." Cedric said coolly.

"Well, you chose to enter this tournament...Harry didn't, and he didn't use any spells except the Summoning Charm I believe, just that and his broomstick." Meera grinned. "You've gotta agree that is kinda impressive."

"Yeah it is." Cedric shrugged, hiis grey eyes betraying his mild disappointment before he averted his gaze.

"I'm not saying what you did wasn't clever. It certainly was a very neat trick, you did really good, considering you are in second place out of five. That's not too shabby considering you only had one day to prepare for this...and that wasn't even a full day, it was like a few hours." Meera reasoned.

Plus you tied with the literal Dragon Lord. Meera thought.

Cedric nodded and smiled. "So how did Harris do?"

"I think he's tied with you for second. Krum's third, Fleur's fourth." Meera replied. "It's a pity that Fleur's fourth, cause her trick was my favourite to be honest. She managed to put the dragon to sleep...I really want to learn how to do that. Also Harris got Stage fright."

Cedric blinked. "Stage fright?"

"Trust me Evie and I had the exact same reaction, the stage fright lead to him getting burnt...it was his left arm, and Madam Pomfrey's put the same stuff she put on your face so I guess he'll be fine." Meera replied. Cedric nodded.

They didn't say anything for a few moments and Meera looked at the side table, where Cedric had placed his model of the Short Snout.

"Oh, my God." Cedric exclaimed making Meera jump. The Hufflepuff boy's eyes were wide as he stared at the curtained of wall of the cubicle.

Meera frowned. She turned to the wall and then clapped a hand over her mouth to stop a squeak from escape.

Through the wall you could see Evie and Merlin's shadow and they were suspiciously close for a few minutes, then Merlin seemed to be moving closer. Meera looked away...and slapped at Cedric's hand to get him to stop staring at the wall of the tent.

"Did they just..." Cedric whispered looking at the tent canvas then at Meera. "You know..."

"I...I don't know...maybe..." Meera replied twiddling with her robes. Merlin's cubicle was empty now and then the brunette boy entered Cedric's.

"Hey, Meera...there you are! When did you leave?" he asked.

"About twenty minutes ago." Meera replied. "I watched the last three, fron the tent entrance."

"Oh...were they good?" he asked. Meera nodded. "Anyway, Cedric and I have to go back to the starting tent now...they want a word. Let's go."

They exited the cubicle and Meera saw a slightly red faced Evie waiting for them, by the tent entrance. She still held Pebbles, who was now tucked under her cloak a little instead of Merlin's neck kerchief. Merlin and Evie looked at each other then looked away and the Slytherin scratched his neck, smiling almost sheepishly.

Cedric and Meera exchanged glances and then Meera put an arm around Evie, wiggling her eyebrows at her. The Hufflepuff girl ignored this resolutely and shrugged her friend's arm off.

Despite being thoroughly amused, Meera said nothing, as they waited for Merlin and Cedric to exit from the champions tent. She just observed Evie's facial expressions, as the girl pondered over something, while she stroked Pebbles. After they exited, Meera noticed Merlin glare at Cedric who was grinning devilishly. He then stormed off, closely followed by Evie, who jogged ahead.

"Did you ask him about it?" Meera asked Cedric quietly.

"No...I asked why he was red, he refused to tell me so I started poking fun at him. He then spilled something about confessing things to Evie and then stopped himself, before we exited the tent and here we are." Cedric said. He watched as the Hufflepuff and Slytherin walked ahead, adamantly maintaining a distance between each other.

"I am going to find out as many details as I can." Meera said. "We're never letting them forget this."

Cedric nodded and they continued walking back across the edge of the Forbidden Forest chatting about other things including what the other champions and Merlin had done. However, Cedric's expression soured as he saw Rita Skeeter up ahead, talking to Ron and Harry.

"Yeah, you can have a word." they heard Harry say savagely. "Goodbye."

Then he set off back to the castle with Ron. Meera and Cedric managed to catch up to Evie and Merlin. Merlin was holding onto Pebbles as Evie applauded. Rita Skeeter glared at the four of them as they passed, but they ignored her laughing at Harry's remark and then continuing to talk about the task amongst other things as they returned to the castle.

At least they've passed one hurdle now...they've got three months till the next task apparently. That's a decent amount of time and to be honest if they passed dragons they could survive anything right?

What could possibly be worse than dragons? Meera thought. Part of her was still anxious, and before she knew it she was listing possible answers to that questions.

She pushed them out of her mind, choosing to worry about that at a later time and appreciate what is happening now. Everyone had survived without major injuries and it seemed that Merlin and Evie have started to talk through their issues.

For the first time in a while, Meera felt happy after being bombarded with a flurry of visions, panic and questions since the start of term. She felt light hearted as she set foot in Hogwarts castle again, no longer burdened by the worries she'd had this morning.