ELEVEN

"A 'POTTER STINKS' BADGE? Really?" Aurora snapped at her younger brother. The boy had decided to show his Hufflepuff pride by sporting anti-Harry Potter merchandise. Ever since Harry's name had come out of the Goblet of Fire after Cedric's, many of the Hogwarts students decided it would be best to bring Cedric up by putting Harry down. Rory disagreed and it seemed so did Cedric, but most of the other students were a fan of the concept.

"Yeah and? Where's yours? Thought you'd want to show some support for your boyfriend." Aaron sneered.

Rory rolled her eyes, "I can support my friend without being nasty to Harry. If you think wearing that badge makes you look cool it doesn't."

"Looks cooler than your badge." The boy mumbled giving her S.P.E.W badge a look.

Rory groaned and walked away before he could get a rise out of her. Because that's what little brothers do.

She headed back to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Lee and Marina. Angelina was sitting across from them, but no sign of the twins.

"Where did —" Rory began as she filled her plate with breakfast.

"They left." Lee shrugged, "They're going to try and sell some Skiving Snackboxes before the first task."

"Shit!" Rory whispered, "I completely forgot that was today! I've got to go find Cedric."

Rory abandoned her food and went up to scan the Hufflepuff table again. She noticed Cedric wasn't there and decided to barge into their common room. She knew the password so, why not? She exited the Great Hall and approached the common room for the badger house. She taped on the barrels and walked in. It was fairly empty inside given most of the Hufflepuff students were at breakfast. That made it much easier for Rory to spot Cedric though. She saw him sitting on a mustard yellow couch and decided to sit next to him.

"Rory, what —" he was a bit startled.

"I came to wish you luck before the... the first task! So, good luck!" She smiled, giving him a soft pat on the back. "Have you eaten breakfast?"

The boy slowly shook his head, "No... sorry."

"Cedric!" Rory gasped, "You've got to get your strength up!"

"It's dragons, Rory." He whispered. "Bloody dragons. Do I look like someone who can fight dragons?"

Rory's smile dropped and she looked at him. His gaze was fixated on his hands that were rested on his lap, fidgeting. She wasn't sure how to comfort him. There wasn't really a handbook for how to calm someone's nerves before fighting a dragon. She grabbed his trembling hands and looked at him.

"Cedric... that Goblet chose you for a reason. It knows you're brave, and smart. Don't doubt yourself. I know you'll do brilliant, I'll be wearing your scarf in the stands as good luck." She smiled with a wink.

The boy cracked a smile back, "Thanks, Rory... I'm a bit nervous about disappointing my dad, too. He's really excited and he's always really proud of me but — I dunno. So, you know when your dad – "

"No." Rory shook her head, "I don't. But, you can go on, about yours. I'm listening."

"Sorry, I forgot. It's just... he's not really hard on me, because I haven't given him a reason too. I try so hard in Quidditch and in school... but this is a whole different sort of thing. I can't practice this, I can't study it, I'm just being thrown in there. I just feel this pressure on me from everyone and I just don't wanna let anyone down."

"You can't possibly let me down, Cedric. You're capable of greatness." She said softly, pulling him in for a hug.

He let go and looked her in the eyes, "Rory, listen —"

She knew what he was going to say, and she didn't want him to. So she just shook her head and said, "Cedric... be safe. I'll be cheering as loud as I can."

"You're so amazing." He sighed, "Thanks, Rory."

Slowly more Hufflepuffs filtered in and began giving Rory strange looks as they went to wish Cedric luck. She recognized she didn't quite belong and decided it would be best to leave. She planted a soft kiss on Cedric's cheek (in a platonic way) and left.

The rest of the day was met with high energy from the rest of the school. The task was to begin just after lunch, although the champions had been taken away by McGonnagal before they barely ate anything. Rory saw as Harry dropped his fork and followed the woman out of the Great Hall. Although Rory was worried for Cedric, Harry needed comforting more than anyone. Ron wasn't speaking to him and nearly everyone in the school hated him. On top of that he was the youngest champion chosen. Rory thought seventeen was even too young... but fourteen? She felt a bit guilty wearing Cedric's scarf, but she would make sure to cheer for Harry just as loud.

"Hello, Rory!" The twins said in unison sitting down on either side of her at the table.

"Haven't seen you two all day, what have you been up to?"

"Business stuff," Fred said. "You know Harry is in Gryffindor, right?"

Rory rolled her eyes, "I wanted to show my support for Cedric, too. Nothing against Harry. It's not really a big deal."

"Not a big deal? Rory you can't show support for the enemy!" He persisted.

The girl shot him a look, filled with annoyance and slight anger, "You're not going on about this again. It's absolutely childish, Fred. I don't know why you're acting like this, really. I thought you'd gotten over it considering I'm not even with Cedric like that anymore. I get if you're jealous — "

"J-Jealous?" Fred spat, "What makes you think that?"

"Because he got chosen for the Tournament and you couldn't enter!" Rory said. A wave of relief took over Fred's face at her words, which Rory thought was odd, but she pushed it aside.

Fred nodded, "Yeah, okay! That's it! You're right! I am being stupid!"

Rory hated fighting with Fred. She hated how strange he got when she brought up Cedric and she hated how he was never straight up with her. A thought quickly danced around her mind, that maybe Fred was so upset because he was jealous of Cedric for another reason. Did Fred have feelings for her? No, that would be silly. They were just best friends, nothing more. She never thought of him in any romantic sense... except of course for the time they were all in the common room talking about Cedric. When Fred placed a hand on Rory's leg and whispered to her. But that was just an in the moment sort of thing. Although in every argument Fred always gave in. Maybe he hated fighting with her too and was willing to give up his pride to patch things up. Whatever it was, it was taking over Rory's mind.

"Oh, okay then." Was all she could say.

There was a moment of silence at the table. It was a bit awkward, luckily George broke it by suggesting they all start heading down to get a good view for the task. The other two nodded in agreement and exited the Great Hall. The chilly walk down to the stadium was still slightly awkward as Rory was still deep in thought about her conspiracies surrounding Fred. Could she ask him if it was true? No, that would be ridiculous. Did she possibly feel the same? How could she? They were best friends. There was nothing Rory found particularly attractive about Fred... Maybe just when he wore flannels from time to time.. and maybe he had nice hands... but that didn't mean anything.

For a moment, Rory forgot where she was and why she was there. To support her friends. She pushed every thought about Fred and his hands to the back of her mind and focused on the arena as students slowly filled in. Lee, and Marina sat around the trio and Ron and Hermione filled in behind them. Rory saw a couple rows ahead where a few Hufflepuff boys stood, Aaron had removed his Potter Stinks badge. She smiled to herself with slight pride that she'd been a good big sister for once.

Angelina joined the others, moments before the task, slightly out of breath, "I... hate... being... a Prefect!"

"Cheer up, Angie!" George smirked, "You get a nice bathroom!"

"Not worth it." She snapped, "I'm a glorified babysitter!"

"Can't be that bad! I mean you've dealt with it last year — holy shit dragons!" Fred gasped.

Rory heard as the crowd erupted in cheers and gasps as they saw a large blueish-grey dragon enter the arena.

"Our four champions must successfully collect the golden egg from their dragon! First up, Hogwarts champion... Cedric Diggory!" Ludo Bagman announced.

Rory shrieked as she saw a very green looking Cedric emerge from a tent into the enclosure. She felt as if she were going to vomit. Cedric did too. She watched as he stared down the dragon and pushed his fear aside. He stood there as the dragon thrashed dangerously.

"Do something!" Rory yelled with fear.

Suddenly, he pointed his wand to a rock and transfigured it into a dog. The crowed gasped and cheered at his tactic. The dragon became distracted by the animal as Cedric tried to slip behind it to grab the golden egg. Although the dragon was paying attention to the dog, it's tail was still swinging about and was dangerously close to Cedric.

"Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow..." Bagman announced.

"He's good," Marina nodded as she clapped along with the rest of the students.

Rory was still stiff. He still hadn't gotten the egg and nearly five minutes had passed. The dragon stopped giving the dog its attention and turned back to Cedric. Rory grabbed on to Marina with worry and watched as he got closer to the egg.

"He's taking risks, this one!" Bagman commented "Clever move — pity it didn't work!"

Rory saw and Cedric now faced the dragon head on. He maneuvered around the enclosure as the dragon began to breathe fire. He got burnt, which caused Rory to hold her breath. He kept going though. Finally after what seemed like an eternity... he collected the egg. Rory felt as if she could breathe again and then began cheering.

Watching the others came easier to Rory. Fleur and Krum did well, both using spells on their dragon to distract it. Then there was Harry who used his flying skills and summoned his broom in order to face his dragon. When the final scores were announced it seemed that Harry had tied for first with Viktor Krum.

The crowed dispersed and Rory ran down to see Cedric at the tent. She was sure he'd be disappointed in himself, even though to everyone, especially Rory, he did brilliant.

Ron and Hermione had already met Harry where the champions had been. Rory walked through the herd of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students that were now there as well surrounding their champions.

"Rory!" Cedric said, pulling her in for a hug.

"Cedric! You did brilliant!" She smiled, running a hand through his dark hair, noticing the sticky sweat from his forehead.

"Not really... I just barely passed. My hand..."

Rory looked down and saw Cedric's hand had been bandaged from the dragon's fire. It seemed his whole side was slightly singed.

"Cedric, I —"

"Hey, Cedric!" A voice said from behind Rory. Rory turned around and saw Ravenclaw Seeker, Cho Chang, with a smile on her face.

Cedric smiled and for a moment acted as if Rory wasn't there. The girl looked at Cedric, then back at Cho, then it hit her what was going on.

"Oh!" Rory exclaimed, "Well... I should be going now... see you in class, Cedric! Nice seeing you, Cho!"

Before Cedric could say anything else, Rory headed off to outside of the crowd where the twins were waiting for her. It was all making sense to Rory, slowly but surely. Cedric really wasn't the one for Rory, no matter how brilliant he was. They were meant to be just friends.