The next day, Harry and I decided that we should just relax. The first task of the tournament was coming up, and we had no idea what it was going to be. That was what worried us. But as long as we worked together, everything would be fine, and we wouldn't get killed. I was so over with everyone trying to kill us.

On that Sunday, Harry, Neville, and I decided to go to a spot on the lake and relax. We were going to go with Ron and Hermione, but he was still mad at us, and Hermione started to hang out with him more. It obviously meant that she was taking his side. But she wasn't going to admit that. But Neville was a really nice guy. I didn't understand why people made fun of him. He was so sweet. If I was ever upset and didn't have Harry, Ron, or Hermione to turn to, I would go to Neville.

While Neville was looking around for plants in the water, Harry and I sat against a tree, reading something that was in Neville's bag. "Amazing," he muttered. "Amazing!"

"Neville. You're doing it again," Harry told him.

"Right, sorry," he apologized quickly.

I took the book that Harry was looking at out of his hands and read the cover. "Magical Water Plants of the Highland Lochs?" I questioned.

"Moody gave it to me. That day we had tea," he told me. I saw him waving at someone. I turned around to see Ron, Hermione, and Ginny coming our way.

Hermione and Ron were whispering about something. I looked at Harry and got up to see what they wanted. Harry followed behind and we watched them for a couple of more seconds while they were whispering to each other.

Finally, Hermione came over to us. "Ronald would like me to tell you something," she started, trying to figure out how to start. "Seamus told him that Dean told Parvati that Hagrid's looking for you two." The entire time she said that, she looked and sounded confused. She had no idea what the hell she was saying.

"What?" we said at the same time in confusion.

Hermione went back over to Ron and said something. But Ron told her to go back to us and tell us something else. If Ron wasn't a coward, then he would just come over here and just tell us himself.

"Dean was told by Pavarti that..." Hermione sighed, then continued. "Please don't ask me to say it again. Hagrid's looking for you two." She walked away again.

"Well, you can tell Ronald--"

"I'm not an owl!" she yelled at Harry, cutting him off. She turned back around, walking away with Ginny and Ron.

We went back to our spots on the tree and sat there in silence.

I finally broke the silence after five minutes. "Are you sure he's going to forgive us?"

"He'll come around eventually," Harry replied.

"I don't know why he couldn't have told us himself that Hagrid was looking for us."

"You know Ron. He likes to make things complicated."

"That's why he's perfect for Hermione," I mumbled. "She can straighten him out."

Harry started laughing at my comment and soon I started laughing. Neville just looked at us funny. He gave us a look that made us look like we weren't normal.

But that was what we were, anything but normal.

*******

After Hermione told us about Hagrid, we went to his place to see what he wanted, where he asked us to go with him in the Forbidden Forest tonight. We snuck out of the Gryffindor Tower that night to meet Hagrid. We brought the cloak like he asked us before. Harry pulled the cloak over our heads and we got past the Slytherin Prefects easily. But I saw Cedric as he was roaming around the halls. With Cho. They were talking and laughing as they were walking together.

"That bitch," I said.

"Maybe they're just friends," Harry suggested.

"They better be," I told him. "Come on, we have to go meet Hagrid."

Harry nodded and we headed down to Hagrid's Hut. He was waiting outside for us and we took the cloak off, revealing ourselves to Hagrid. He took us into the Forbidden Forest with a light in his hand.

"Did yeh bring yer father's cloak like I asked yeh?" he asked us.

"Yeah, we brought the cloak. Hagrid, where are we going?" Harry asked.

"You'll see soon enough," he replied. "Now, pay attention, this is important."

I noticed that he looked different tonight. And he also had something else with him. "What's with the flower?" I asked him. "And have you combed your hair?"

"As a matter of fact, I have. Yeh might like to try the same thing now and again."

"But I'm not the one getting freaky with another teacher," I said.

"Max!" Hagrid looked at me, shocked that I would say something like that. Before he could yell at me, we heard a roar that came from the distance. We looked around and saw nothing.

Then we heard the voice of a woman. "Hagrid?" I saw him smile to himself and started walking away from us. Then he turned back around and told us to put the cloak on. Now I knew why he asked us to bring it. He didn't want us to interrupt his date.

"Bonsoir, Olympe," Hagrid greeted someone. It was Madame Maxime.

"Oh, Hagrid. I thought perhaps you weren't coming. I thought perhaps you had forgotten me," she exclaimed.

"Couldn' forget yeh, Olympe." He smiled at her.

Harry and I made disgusted looks as the couple were flirting. "This is sick," I said.

"Couldn't agree more, sis," Harry agreed.

"What is it you wanted to show me?" she asked Hagrid. "When we spoke earlier, you sounded so exhilarated."

"You'll be glad yeh came. Trust me," he informed her.

"Then why the hell did he want us here?" I asked Harry.

"I guess we're about to find out," he said.

We followed the couple deeper into the forest. Finally, they stopped and I heard Maxime say something in French. Whatever she saw, it shocked her. We went to see what they were looking at. A bunch of men were on top of big boxes and fire was coming out of them. It could only mean one thing was in there.

"Can we get closer?" Maxime asked. Okay, why the hell did she want to get closer?

Harry was shocked as well. He took the cloak off of us and started walking over towards Hagrid. When Harry spoke, it startled Hagrid.

"Dragons? That's the first task?"

"You're joking," I told Hagrid.

"Come on, yer two. They are seriously misunderstood creatures." The sides of a box fell down and there was one dragon, trying to get free from the cage. The dragon saw us and fire came out of his mouth and right at us. "Although, I have to admit that Horntail is a right nasty piece of work."

"Maybe they're misunderstood for a reason, Hagrid," I informed him.

"Well, yeah. Poor Ron nearly fainted jus' seeing the Horntail, yeh know," Hagrid added.

Ron? "Ron was here?" Harry asked.

"Oh, sure. Charlie, his brother, helped to bring him over from Romania," he exclaimed. He looked at us, confused. "Didn' Ron tell yeh that?"

"No, he didn't," Harry replied.

"He didn't tell us anything," I added.

Typical. I wanted to punch him in the face the next time I saw him. But Ron was the least of my worries. Those bloody creatures were my problem now.

*******

"So how the hell do they expect us to fight those things?" I asked Harry as we were walking back to the Gryffindor Tower. "There's no way we can do that."

"I know. But we have no choice, Max. We have to fight them." I stopped in my tracks and started to cry. Harry turned around and came over to me. "What's the matter?"

"I'm starting to think we don't have a choice in anything anymore," I said. "We don't have a choice but to live our lives without our parents! We don't have a choice but to live with people that treat us like animals! We don't have a choice but to be targets of one of the darkest wizards of all time! We don't have a choice but to compete in this stupid tournament! When are we ever going to have a choice in anything?!" I started crying hard, letting the tears fall down my face.

I saw pity in Harry's eyes as he held my face in his hands. "Max, I know we don't have the best of luck, but there's always something good that comes out of these things. You just need to relax, okay?"

I nodded in response. "I'm just tired of bad things happening to us. It's like every year is a death wish."

Harry looked at me with sadness and pulled me in for a tight hug. "It's going to be okay. I promise."

"I know," I said.

After just standing there, not letting go of him, we finally headed back to the tower and in our own beds this time. I managed to get some sleep that night.

*******

The next morning, everyone couldn't stop staring at us. They were giving us glares everywhere we went. Throughout classes, everyone was snickering and whispering about us. It was getting on my last nerves. After lunch, we noticed that everyone was wearing little badges that said Cedric's name and with his face on it. Then it changed with our faces on it.

"You cheats, Potters."

"You stink, Potters."

"Good luck, you little cheats."

"The Potters stink!"

That's all we heard as we were walking by. Everyone was showing us their buttons and laughing at us. I was surprised Dumbledore hadn't done anything about it yet. He needed to, though.

"Cedric rules!" some kid shouted at us.

I spotted Cedric out in the courtyard with a bunch of his friends as he was laying on a bench.

On the way out there to see him, we were stopped by two of his friends. One was a boy and the other was a girl.

"Like the badge?" the boy asked us, rubbing it in our faces.

"Excuse us," Harry said politely. But the two were still laughing.

"Excuse us!" I yelled, pushing the girl out of my way. We headed over towards Cedric and he immediately sat up to face us.

"Read the badge, Potters!"

"Can we talk to you?" I asked Cedric, ignoring everyone else.

Cedric nodded and walked with us. All of his friends were making more comments about us.

"Dragons. That's the first task. They've got one for each of us," Harry told him.

"Come on, Ced!"

"Will you shut up?" I yelled.

"You serious?" Cedric sounded shocked. Harry nodded. "And Fleur and Krum, do they know?"

"Yes. We told them already," I answered.

"Come on, Ced, leave them! They're not worth it!"

"Lovely friends you have, Cedric," I told him. We started walking away from him, but then he stopped us.

"About the badges. I've asked them not to wear them, but--"

"Don't worry about it. It's nothing we've heard before." Harry walked away from Cedric, but I stayed for a little bit longer. When Harry saw that I wasn't with him, he waited for me.

"Come on, Cedric!" one of his friends shouted.

I looked down at my feet. "You should go back with them."

He sighed, nodding his head. "Right. I'll see you tonight, love." He smiled at me and went back with his friends.

I couldn't help but smile back and walked over towards Harry. We saw Ron with Seamus, glaring at us. Harry looked mad and walked over towards them.

"You're a git, you know that?"

"You think so?"

"I know so."

Ron acted like it was no big deal. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. Stay away from us," I retorted, shooting him a dirty look.

"Fine, I will, you little slut," he spat, walking away from us. He did not just call me that. Ron was one of my best friends and hearing him call me a slut was a knife in the heart.

A few tears formed in my eyes. "Does he even know what that means? I'm only fourteen."

"You're not a slut, Max," Harry said.

"I know, but it still hurts when he says it."

We started walking out of the courtyard until we heard another annoying voice.

"Why so tense, Potters?" It was Malfoy. There he was, up in a tree, smirking down at us.

"Us? Tense? Of course not! Why would we be tense?" I asked him in a sarcastic tone, rolling my eyes.

"You should be. My father and I have a bet, you see. I don't think you're going to last ten minutes in this tournament." We stopped to glance at him. He jumped down from the tree, smirking at us again. "He disagrees. He thinks you won't last five."

Okay, I was mad now. I threw my stuff down and walked over towards him. Harry tried to stop me, but I pulled my arm away. "I don't give a damn what your father thinks, Malfoy!" I slapped him across the face. "He's vile and cruel. And you're just pathetic."

We glared at each other for another moment, then I walked away from him and his idiot friends.

"Pathetic, huh, Potterette?" He reached in his pocket for his wand, but he was too late. Moody beat him to it.

"Oh, no, you don't, sonny!" Before we knew it, Malfoy was transformed into a ferret. Harry and I stared at him in shock and started laughing. Soon, Cedric, his friends, and everyone was surrounding the big tree. "I'll teach you to curse someone when their back is turned!" He started moving Malfoy up and down with his wand. "You stinking, cowardly, scummy, back-shooting--"

"Professor Moody!" McGonagall came running towards us. "What are you doing?!"

"Teaching," Moody replied bluntly.

"Is that a student?!"

"Technically, it's a ferret." He put the ferret in Crabbe's pants and Goyle tried to get it out of him. I was pretty sure he got bit. I saw Cedric and his friends and they were laughing as well. Moody turned around and winked at us. Once he got out, McGonagall ruined the fun and transformed him back into a human.

"My father will hear about this!" he informed Moody.

"Is that a threat?!" Moody started chasing him around the big tree while McGonagall was trying to stop him.

"I can tell stories about your father that would curl even your greasy hair! It doesn't end here!" he called out while Malfoy and his friends ran away.

"Alastor! We never use transfiguration as a punishment. Surely Dumbledore told you that," she scolded him.

Moody looked like a little kid who had done something wrong. "He might've mentioned it."

"Well, you will do well to remember it." She walked away from him and shooed the other students away. Harry and I just stood there.

Moody made a funny face when her back was turned. Then he turned around to walk away. "You two, come with me."

We looked at each other and followed him. He took us to his office. It looked nothing like it was when Lupin worked here. It was more dark and mysterious. He sat down and took off his prosthetic leg. Now I knew why he was always limping.

"That's a Foe-Glass," he told us. "It lets me keep an eye on my enemies. If I can see the whites of their eyes, they're standing right behind me!" he cackled and the box behind him started shaking like an earthquake. "Wouldn't even bother telling you what's in there. You wouldn't believe it if I did. Now, what are you going to do about that dragon?"

Neither of us had a clue on how he knew about that, but we went with it anyway. "Well, you know, we just thought that we'd..." I trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"Sit down, you two." We took our seats and waited for him to continue. "Listen. Your pal, Diggory? By your age, he could turn a whistle into a watch and have it sing you the time. Miss Delacour? She's as much a fairy princess as I am. As for Krum, his head may be filled with sawdust, but Karkaroff's is not. They'll have a strategy. And you can bet that it will play to Krum's strengths! So what are your strengths?"

Again, we had nothing to say. "Well, we can fly, we're fair flyers, but--"

"Better than fair, the way I heard it," he interrupted me.

"But we're not allowed brooms," Harry said.

"You're allowed a wand."

~~~~~~~

A/N: HI!

Sorry I haven't updated! I've been stressed out lately, but now I'm able to write again! So the first task will be the next chapter. Who's excited? :D

And I know I should've put some Drax in here. I hope y'all liked that slap lol ;D Don't worry I have some planned out.

I want 5 comments before I post the next chapter.

COMMENT, vote, and thanks for the support! Bye for now!

-A