"Hey, Ced!" I jogged up to Cedric on Monday morning, who was outside Charms with his friends. 

"UHH! FRED!" One of Cedric's friends, Jordan, mock-moaned. 

"UGH, DAISY!" Jake groaned.

"I'M COMING! I'M - uuhhhh..." Robert collapsed against the wall in a mock orgasm.

I flipped them off.

Cedric was snickering, and I flipped him off too, grinning.

I wasn't quite sure how the rumour of Fred and I performing oral sex on each other got round the school so quickly, but I suspected Fred might have let a little... or a lot... slip - or brag - to others. 

"Cedric, for fuck sake, I came here to tell you something important, you dickbag." 

Cedric rolled his eyes, grinning. "What, suck-off?" 

I narrowed my eyes at him. "The first task is dragons."

"What?" Cedric laughed.

"Dragons." I flaunted my knowledge in front of him and all his friends, placing a hand on my hip with a smug smirk on my face. "They've got four, one for each of us - well, each team - and we've got to get past them."

"Are you sure?" Cedric said, in a hushed voice. His friends all leaned in, intrigued.

"Dead sure." I said. "I've seen them."

"But how did you find out? We're not supposed to know..."

"Floppy bitch showed me." Cedric raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I know. I thought it was weird too. But oh well, imma take full advantage of it."

Cedric was high-fiving me when I heard a familiar clunking noise behind me. I turned around, and saw Mad-Eye Moody emerging from a nearby classroom. 

"Come with me, Miss Potter." He growled. "Diggory, off you go." 

I happily followed Moody into his office, glad I was getting out of class and possibly into trouble because of cheating.

"Look, Daisy..." Moody said once the door was shut. His voice had lost its rough growl, and it sounded quite young - and familiar. 

I blinked. "Why are you referring to me using my first name, Prof?"

"I'm Barty." Moody looked me in the eye. "Crouch Jr." 

I blinked again. Then it dawned on me. "OHH. Jerk."

"Sure." Moody? Jerk? said, shrugging with a scowl on his face. 

"Prove it." 

"I am, currently." The guy said. His face was sort of melting off, and his skin was bubbling in a weird way. I stared as Moody's body melted away and was replaced with Jerk's.

"What. The fuck." I said.

Jerk rolled his eyes. "Polyjuice potion. The Dark Lord sent me here to bring you to him somehow. But I can't, I won't do it."

"Why? You work for him, don't you?" I sat down on a chair, suddenly overwhelmed. 

"You don't deserve this. I like you. You're innocent. They want to use you for bad things. Many reasons." Jerk sighed. "Daisy, I have to take this potion again or else someone might see me - but please watch out. Felix Malfoy has told me that if I won't do it, he will."

I stumbled up from my chair. "I - I will." 

Jerk shut the door behind me as he took a swig of his hipflask - that must be what's in it. Polyjuice potion.

~~~

Harry and I had worked out between us how to get past the dragon. Well, more like we had seen Floppy summoning his broom from his dorms for Quidditch practice after he had forgotten it, right in front of us, winking at me as he stalked past, broom in hand. We were going to do the exact same thing - summon our brooms to fly past the dragon.

We were in an empty classroom with Hermione, using the Invisibility Cloak to avoid the teachers. We kept practising the Summoning Charm until midnight. We would have liked to stay longer, but Peeves turned up, and pretending to think that I Harry and I wanted things thrown at us, started chucking chairs across the room. We left in a hurry, me cackling along with Peeves, before the noise attracted Filch. We went back to the Gryffindor common room which was now mercifully empty. 

At two o'clock in the morning, Harry and I stood near the fireplace, 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 we really got the hang of the Summoning Charm. 

"Accio Fred!" I said, raising my wand, as a joke.

We were all surprised when Fred zoomed towards me from behind a couch.

"Oof!" He flew into me and we fell back onto the floor. 

"What were you doing back there?" I sniggered.

"Totally not watching you because you're hot or anything, haha!" Fred's face was bright pink as he slowly rolled off me. Harry was staring at us with a questioning look on his face. Hermione swiftly left, tossing her hair.

~~~

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. 

Well, maybe some of them. I had, obviously, gossiped.

Everyone was either wishing me good luck, hissing "We'll have a box of tissues ready, Potter", or gossiping about Fred and I as I passed. 

Professor McGonagall was hurrying over to me in the Great Hall at lunch. Lots of people were watching.

"Potters, the champions have to come down into the grounds now... you have to get ready for your first task."

"Fantastic." I said, standing up, Harry following. 

Everyone high-fived me as we passed them down to the double doors. 

My twin and I left the Great Hall with Minnie. She didn't seem herself; she looked nearly as anxious as Hermione had this morning. As she walked us down the stone steps and out into the cold November afternoon, she put her hands on our shoulders. 

"Now, don't panic." She said. "Just keep cool heads... We've got wizards on hand to control the situation if it gets out of hand... The main thing is just to do your best, and nobody will think any the worse of you.. Are you both all right?"

"Yeah, this kinda shit is natural to me." I flipped my hair over my shoulder, and Harry said, "Yes, yes, I'm fine." 

She was leading us towards the place where the dragons were, around the edge of the Forest, but when we approached the clump of trees behind which the enclosure would be clearly visible, I saw that a tent had been erected, its entrance facing us, screening the dragons from view. 

"You're to go in here with the other champions." Minnie said, in a rather shaky sort of voice. "And wait for your turn, Potters. Mr Bagman is in there... He'll be telling you the - the procedure... Good luck." 

"Thanks." Harry said in a flat, distant voice.

"TY, Minnie." I said brightly, and stalked right on in, Harry behind me.

Krum and Cedric fist-bumped me nervously as I entered, and continued anxiously pacing. Fleur observed me.

"Daisy! Harry! Good-oh!" Bagman said happily, looking around at us. "Come in, come in, make yourselves at home!"

He explained how we will each reach into a bag to select a small model of the thing we will face and that our task is to collect the golden egg. Cedric had nodded once, to show that he understood Bagman's words, and then started pacing around the tent again; he looked slightly green. 

In no time at all, hundreds upon hundreds of pairs of feet could be heard passing the tent, their owners talking excitedly, laughing, joking. I could make out Lee's shout of, "Stop it you wanker!" and a loud snigger amongst the crowd passing, and I cracked a grin. 

"Ladies first." Bagman said, offering a purple silk sack to Fleur.

"I'm a lady." I muttered sullenly as she put a shaking hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny, perfect model of a dragon - a Welsh Green. It had the number two around its neck. And I knew, by the fact that Fleur showed no sign of surprise, but rather a determined resignation, that I had been right: Madame Maxine had told her what was coming. 

The same held true for Krum. He pulled out the scarlet Chinese Fireball. It had a number three around its neck. He didn't even blink, just stared at the ground.

"Why's everyone so glum? Cheer up lads, this is pure banter!" I said brightly, grinning. Krum raised an eyebrow, looking up at me, and Cedric high-fived me. He pulled out a Swedish Short-Snout with the number one tied around its neck, and winking at Harry, I pulled out the Hungarian Horntail for us, and the number four. It stretched its wings as we looked down at it and barred its minuscule fangs. 

I'm defo keeping this in my pocket!

Bagman tried to motion for Harry and I to come outside with him, but I pointedly ignored him and bro-hugged Cedric as the cannon went off for him to go. 

They both left, and Harry and I leaned back against the wall together, bonking our elbows together. We waited, bantering and laughing, as the others went out one by one, then in no time at all it was our turn. 

We walked simultaneously through the entrance of the tent. There were hundreds and hundreds of faces staring down at us from stands which had been magicked there since I'd last stood on this spot. And there was the Horntail, at the other end of the enclosure, crouched low over her clutch of eggs, her wings half furled, her evil, yellow eyes upon us, a monstrous, scaly black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, leaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground. The crowd was making a great deal of noise. I waved up at them, grinning, and they roared even louder. 

I turned to Harry. "Ready, bro?" 

"Indeed." 

"Naturally." We chorused, and raised our wands simultaneously. "Accio Firebolt!" 

The crowd was still roaring, and I flipped my hair at them, waiting flawlessly for my broom. And then we heard them, speeding through the air behind us; we turned and saw our Firebolts hurtling towards us around the edge of the woods, soaring into the enclosure, and stopping dead in mid-air beside us, waiting for us to mount. The crowd was making even more noise and Bagman was shouting, "Spectacular! The Potter twins displaying a genius innovation..." 

Harry and I grinned at each other, high fived, then mounted our brooms. We took off into the air, the wind pushing away all of our anxiety that we might have had - Harry mostly, I wasn't really worried at all, crowds are my THING, y'know. 

I looked down at the clutch of eggs and spotted the gold one, gleaming against its cement-coloured fellows, residing safely between the dragon's front legs. 

"OK." I told Harry. "Diversionary tactics... let's go!" 

We dived. The Horntail's head followed us; I knew what it was going to do, and we both pulled out of the dive just in time; a jet of fire had been released exactly where Harry would have been if he had not swerved away. 

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

Harry took on distracting the dragon as I tried to find a way to steal the egg. I could hear Fred and George in the crowd yelling "Go dragon!" 

Harry plummeted one way as I zoomed around the other - the tail whipping around to strike my brother came whipping up to meet me instead, and as I swerved to the left, one of the long spikes grazed my shoulder, ripping my robes. 

"Jesus fucking fuck!" I yelled, giggling. 

I could feel it stinging, I could hear screaming and groans and a bit of laughter from the crowd, but the cut didn't seem to be deep.

The dragon reared, spreading her great black leathery wings at last, as wide as those of a small aeroplane - and I dived. Harry was circling above the dragon, and I was speeding towards the eggs now unprotected by her clawed, front legs - I had taken my hands off my Firebolt - I had seized the golden egg - 

With a huge spurt of speed, I was off, I was soaring out over the stands with my brother, the heavy egg safely under my uninjured arm, and it was as though somebody had turned the volume up - the crowd was screaming and applauding as loudly as the Irish supporters at the World Cup -

"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling. "Will you look at that! Our youngest champions are quickest to get their egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on the Potters!" 

I saw the dragon-keepers rushing forwards the subdue the Horntail, and, over at the entrance to the enclosure, Minnie, Jerk (as Moody), and Hagrid were all hurrying over to meet us, all of them waving us towards them, their smiles evident even from this distance. We flew back over the stands, the noise of the crowd pounding my eardrums, and came in smoothly to land.

"That was excellent, Potters!" Minnie cried as we got off our Firebolts - which from her was extravagant praise. I noticed that her hand shook as she pointed at my shoulder. "You'll need to see Madam Pomfrey..."

All of my friends came rushing over and hugged us all in a big group. Fred was grinning at me over Draco's head, who was giving me ten million kisses across my face. We watched the scores - Harry and I scored an eight, two nines, a ten, and a four (from Karkaroff, obviously.) 

Bagman told us that we had to open our eggs to get the clue for the second task then sent us off. The entirety of Gryffindor was behind Harry and I as we left to go back inside the castle, cheering and roaring. 

Rita leapt out at us from behind a clump of trees, beaming at us. "Congratulations, Daisy, Harry! I wonder if you could give me a quick word? How you felt facing that dragon? How you feel NOW about the fairness of the scoring?"

"Yeah, you can have a word." Harry said savagely. "GOODBYE."

I burst out into peals of laughter as we all set off for the castle.

Once inside, I felt someone pull me into a broom cupboard. Expecting Floppy, I turned as savagely as Harry had spoken, ready to punch him in the face - only to see Fred's face shining at me in the semi-darkness.

"Heya, Softpaw." 

"Hiya, Red."

Our faces were inches from each other. I caught my breath. Fred's hand came up and traced my cut, his eyes gazing at it.

"You looked so hot today."

I smirked. "I know. So did you."

Fred looked back up at me, pressing me further into the wall. "Does it hurt?"

"A little." I shrugged.

"Well." Fred smirked. "I'm going to make you feel MUCH better."

Before I could get in another snarky remark, Fred's mouth was on my neck, biting, and my head was thrown back against the wall, moaning.

I'll spare you the details of what happened in that broom closet, but thirty minutes later and we were traipsing into the common room, disheveled and grinning, hickeys and love bites all over our skin.

"Wow, someone's getting it!" A wolf-whistle rang out across the room.

"Shut the fuck up, Seamus." I said. I hoisted the egg up onto my good shoulder. "Now who wants me to open it!"

The yells and roaring could be heard from all the way into the grounds. 

I smirked. "That's what I thought."