Lunch came to an end much sooner than Katie would have liked. Not even fifteen minutes after Harry left the Great Hall with McGonagall, students were finishing their food and exiting the Hall.

To say that Katie was nervous would be an understatement. In fact, she felt as though she was probably more nervous than Harry himself. She stared down at her porridge in disgust, like she had been doing for the majority of lunch, and finally pushed it away, grimacing.

As the Hall emptied further, Katie looked up from the table and saw Hermione making her way over to the Slytherin table. She was accompanied by Ron, who was shaking anxiously, and Dean, Seamus and Neville.

"You ready, then?" Hermione asked when she was in ear-shot.

Katie nodded and quickly got to her feet. She staggered momentarily when her legs trembled with fear.

"See you later, Pansy," Katie's voice was shaking too. "Bye, Draco."

The five Gryffindors and single Slytherin tread across the lawns together. Dean and Seamus were talking loudly and excitedly about the upcoming task, with occasional input from Neville, while Ron stayed silent and Hermione stared straight ahead.

The air was crisp and the grass was ridden with drew. Katie pulled her scarf tighter around her neck to shield herself from the cold — she was already shaking with nerves, so she felt as though she might collapse if she began shivering from the cold.

Professors were dotted around the lawn and pointing the students in the direction of the trees. Katie and her friends were travelling amidst most of the school who, much like Dean and Seamus, were chattering obnoxiously.

As they made their way through a small opening in the Forest, two tents came into view. One was large and colourful, while the other was white and much smaller than its counterpart. McGonagall was stood by the entrance of the vibrant tent, waving the sea of students to the left.

They followed her directions and found themselves standing by a large wooden fence. The fence was surrounding an enclosure, which was bordered by very high stands. Many students had already filed into the seats in these stands.

"C'mon!" Seamus said excitedly.

Katie and the rest followed Seamus through the stands. He got them very good seats in the back row where, funnily enough, Chris was already sat. He was engaged in hushed but elated conversation with Niall, Oscar and the Weasley twins. Dean made to sit next to Chris, but Katie called out to him.

"Not there," she said to Dean. "Budge up."

Doing as Katie asked, Dean moved up on the row, leaving three seats between himself and Chris for Katie, Hermione and Ron. Chris smiled at his sister when she dropped down beside him.

"Stop smiling." she snapped. This only made Chris' grin broaden.

"Ah, you're worried about Harry." Chris said knowingly. Katie merely scowled at him.

Chris draped his arm around Katie's shoulder and pointed to a cluster of adult wizards who were standing by the fence on the perimeter.

"Don't worry about it," Chris began. "See them? They're really skilled and well trained, apparently. If anything goes wrong they'll be at hand to sort it out."

Katie had to admit that this did give her a small kick of reassurance, but the loud prattle in the stands was setting her nerves on edge.

Five minutes later, the stands were full to the brim, and the judges — Professor Dumbledore, Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Mr Crouch and Ludo Bagman — had slipped into the judge's panel. They were all sitting down except for Bagman, who was on his feet, beaming out at the students. He placed his wand to his throat and then—

Katie clapped a hand over her mouth.

At least ten wizards walked into the enclosure, each clutching a thick chain. On the ends of the chain was an enormous dragon — a silvery-blue dragon with pointed horns, snapping and snarling at the wizards on the ground.

"Dragons?" Katie cried in disbelief.

Hermione was biting her nails nervously and Chris was staring at the beast with his mouth agape.

Ludo Bagman had just opened his mouth to speak when a canon sounded, rattling the stands. Everyone yelled excitedly as Cedric Diggory emerged in the enclosure. He was clutching his wand and looked very pasty.

Cedric barely had too feet inside the enclosure when the dragon reared, shooting a burst of flames at the Hufflepuff. Katie covered her eyes in fear put peeked through her fingers.

"Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow..." Bagman was commentating. "Clever move!"

Cedric waved his wand at a rock on the ground and is transformed into a dog. The stadium gasped in horror — how could he be so cruel? He wanted the dragon to eat the labrador rather than himself.

Diggory's plan seemed to work, though. The dragon became distracted by the joyous dog that was bouncing around, barking loudly, and wagging its tail. While the dragon had it's attention on the labrador, Cedric sprung forward, towards the dragon's legs. Katie leaned forward and removed her hands from her eyes to get a better look at what was happening.

Cedric sprung away from the dragon, clutching a shimmering golden egg in his hand, and Katie then understood what the task was. Each of the champions would face a dragon and try to steal a golden egg from it.

Just as Cedric got away from the dragon, it opened its mouth and breathed fire at him, burning the side of his face. Half of the stands were applauding loudly, while the other half were screaming in terror as Cedric got burned.

A flood of wizards rushed into the enclosure. Two of them dragged Cedric aside while the others heaved the dragon from the enclosure. The silver-blue dragon was quickly replaced with a smooth-scaled green one.

"One down, three to go!" Bagman yelled.

Ten seconds later, another canon sounded, and Fleur Delacour appeared within the enclosure. She looked even paler than Cedric had but she still held her head high. Everyone watched eagerly as Fleur flourished her wand, placing a charm on the dragon. The beast got all sleepy and Fleur sprung on her chance.

"Careful now..." Ludo Bagman was saying.

Just as Fleur's hands clasped around her golden egg, the dragon snored and shot out a jet of fire. Fleur's skirt caught fire. Many people screamed — though none as loud as the Beauxbatons students. Fleur hastily put the fire out with some water from her wand.

"Good Lord, I thought she'd had it then!" Bagman exclaimed.

As before, the greenish dragon was taken from the enclosure, and in its place, a new dragon was placed. This dragon was red with an odd fringe of gold spikes around its face.

"And here comes Mr Krum!" Bagman cried as the canon boomed yet again.

Krum wasted not a single second of precious time. Thrusting his wand forward, he shot a spell straight into the dragon's eyes. The spectators shrieked as the dragon started trampling around in agony.

Katie watched, frozen stiff in perilous shock, as the dragon shot a burst of flames at Krum, burning the side of his face and making the crowd gasp loudly. It swung its strong tail, narrowly missing Krum and striking a rock instead. The rock chipped under the force of the blow and Katie winced.

At that moment the true danger of the Tournament hit her. It was no wonder it had been banned for decades. Anyone could die, people had died... Harry could die.

An icy shiver ran down Katie's spine as that thought struck her mind. Without thinking about it, Katie found herself latently rising from her seat and beginning to push through the crowd, making her way to the nearest exit of the stadium.

"Katie? Where are you going? Katie!" Chris called after her, but she ignored him. She had more important things to worry about.

Before Katie's dad met his untimely demise, he had been dealing with the fact that he had somehow upset his daughter and didn't know what he had done wrong, and he died before Katie had the chance to make things right. There were so many things she wanted to ask him, so many things she wanted to tell him, so many rumours she wanted cleared up and, most importantly, she wanted to give him one last 'I love you.'

And while she was never going to get the chance to quell her unfinished business with her father, Katie would be damned if she was going to let the same thing happen with her and Harry.

She clambered out of the stands. Thankfully, no one paid any mind to her — they were too distracted by the fire-breathing monster that was busy trying to bring a painful end to Viktor Krum's life.

Katie rounded the stadium and made her way all to the tents. She pulled back the drapes of the white tent, bursting inside, only to find Cedric and Fleur lying wounded on what were unmistakably hospital beds. Katie had clearly entered the medical tent. She cursed herself, ignoring Madam Pomfrey asking her what she was doing in the medical tent, before rushing back outside and going to the neighbouring tent — the Champion's Tent.

There Harry sat, alone, on a small stool, his face terrifyingly pale and his hands shaking uncontrollably. He was mindlessly twirling his wand around his trembling fingers and tapping his foot against the ground. His head snapped up when he heard the rustling by the tent's entrance, and his eyes lit up like stars in the night sky when he saw that it was Katie who had come to visit. He sprung to his feet almost instantly.

"Katie—"

The Slytherin didn't give the Gryffindor nearly enough time to finish his sentence. She lunged forward, her heart hammering against her rib cage, her stomach whirring in anticipation, and she placed her hands on either side of Harry's face, and she kissed him.

Harry's breath got caught in his throat and he stumbled backwards, but he quickly caught himself. He placed the hand that wasn't occupied by his wand on Katie's waist and kissed her back.

The pair were trembling from the excitement of the moment — a moment that had been gradually building for three years, and then, like a ticking time-bomb, it happened, and it was spectacular.

A nearby cannon sounded, shaking the tent. Katie and Harry jumped apart in fright, though nothing could soil the very evident joy that was sparkling in Harry's emerald eyes, or the overwhelming swirling of happiness in Katie's stomach.

Harry glanced towards the outside of the tent, then back at Katie, who smiled at him proudly.

"Go kick that dragon's ass."

Harry exited the tent from one side while Katie left through the other. As fast as her trembling legs could carry her, Katie sprinted back to the stands, tripping over many pairs of feet as she carelessly stumbled back to her seat. By the time she was sat down again, Harry was already stood in the centre of the enclosure.

"Where did you go?" Hermione asked, taking note of how Katie seemed to be much more cheery than she had been minutes before. Katie glanced at Hermione momentarily but decided not to respond — she would explain everything later.

Harry stood across from a monstorous, scaly black and reptilian-looking dragon. She thrashed her spiked tail, leaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground and stared at Harry through her evil, yellow eyes. The crowd was making a great deal of noise. While the vast majority of the school were cheering Harry on, some of the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs were still getting pleasure from mocking him.

"Bloody hell..." Chris breathed, his tone a mix of horror and awe. "That's a Hungarian Horntail, that is! Vicious creatures."

At Chris' words, Katie felt her stomach lurch in fear, but she had full confidence that Harry would be able to get past his dragon.

Harry raised his wand.

"Accio Firebolt!" he shouted.

"But he can't do a Summoning Charm!" Ron yelled suddenly. "He's useless at them!"

"Don't worry about it. I've been helping him." Hermione assured the red-haired boy.

Harry waited, the crowd waited, still and silent. And then they heard it, speeding across the roof of the Forest, the Firebolt was hurtling towards Harry. Katie and Hermione cheered syncophonically. Harry swung his leg over the broom and Katie's eyes followed him as he rose ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet, forty feet, fifty feet...

And he plunged back down. The Horntail's head followed him. Harry pulled out of his dive just in time; a jet of fire had been released exactly where he would have been had he not swerved away.

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

Harry circled the Horntail high in the air, the Horntail following him, her head revolving around her long neck. Katie knew that he was trying to make the dragon dizzy... but it spurted out another breath of fire. This time, Harry was not so lucky. He dodged the flames, but the tail came whipping to meet him instead, and he was swerved to the left, one of the long spikes grazed his shoulder, tearing his robes.

Katie flinched and her stomach knotted.

Harry had no choice but to brush his injury off. He continued to taunt the dragon, flying left, then right, up, then down, and the dragon watched him, baring her fangs. Harry flew higher . The Horntail's head rose with him, her neck now stretched to its fullest extent, still swaying... And then she reared, spreading her great black leathery wings — and Harry dived.

Before the dragon could process what Harry had done or where he was gone, Harry was speeding towards the ground. He had taken his hands off the Firebolt... He seized the golden egg and soared out over the stands, which was ringing with thunderous applause and cheers. Katie clapped until her hands stung, and Hermione pulled her into a hug as they both squealed in delight.

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

Katie turned to express her pride to her brother, but was cut short when Ron grabbed both her and Hermione by the hands.

"Come on!" he beamed. "To the common room! Fred and George said they're setting up a party!"

Sure enough, Fred and George had already disappeared from their seats next to Oscar Whiterose. Ron dragged Katie and Hermione down from the stands while Chris, Niall and Oscar followed closely behind.

"Unbelievable!" Niall exclaimed.

"He really can fly, can't he?" Chris grinned. He was ecstatic.

The whole way up to the castle, the six of them excitedly babbled about Harry's performance in the First Task. Katie was glowing with pride, and she couldn't wait to congratulate Harry.

When they finally reached the Gryffindor common room, Niall gave the password and they all clambered inside. Fred and George were the only ones there. They had covered every surface with mountains of cakes and flagons of pumpkin juice that they had no doubt nipped from the kitchens only minutes before. Banners of sparkling red and gold were strung up throughout the room.

By the time ten minutes had passed, the common room was filled with Gryffindors, all staring at the portrait whole, anticipating Harry's arrival. Many of the first years scowled at Katie because she was a Slytherin and, seeing as they were relatively new, they, unlike the rest of the school, didn't yet know that Katie was an uncommonly kind Slytherin. She ignored these first years — their glares didn't bother her, because she so overcome with joy and pride that nothing could spoil her mood.

The portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and Harry Potter stepped through. There was an instant uproar as everyone exploded with cheers and yells. They all hurled towards Harry and, although she wanted to go to him, Katie knew that there was no point trying to shove her way through the enthusiastic crowd.

Dean let off some Dr Filibuster's Fabulous No-Heat, Wet-Start Fireworks, so that the air was thick with stars and sparks.

Harry had just gotten a pat on the back from Lee Jordan when his eyes met Katie's and he grinned from ear to ear. He started to make his way over to where she, Ron and Hermione were sat, and all three of them stood up.

"Harry—!" Hermione began.

"Harry, you were brilliant!" Katie grinned, jumping into Harry's arms. Harry laughed and hugged her tightly, slightly swaying from side to side.

Katie released Harry from her crushing embrace ten seconds later. She was still smiling broadly, as was Harry.

"You were amazing!" Katie continued. "Really, you—"

Harry pressed his lips against Katerina's, putting an abrupt and to her speech.

Ron and Hermione almost doubled over in shock. A huge grin split across Hermione's face, her cheeks flushing pink, while Ron blinked, wide-eyed at the scene in front of him. When his brain had processed the situation, his lips curled into a smirk and he looked aside at Hermione, who was still beaming.

"About time, don't you think?" she chirped.

"Only three years overdue." Ron said, and they both laughed.

George Weasley wolf-whistled from across the room, making Katie laugh and forcing her to break the kiss. Harry chuckled, too, and leaned his forehead against hers.

"So?" Ron said skeptically, though he was still smirking. Katie felt a furious blush arise on her cheeks as she took a step back away from Harry.

"This only just happened like thirty minutes ago." she stammered, pointing between herself and Harry.

"Oh, so that's where you went!" Hermione said, a knowing glint flashing through her eyes. Katie blushed even harder and she awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

"In my defense, I thought he was going to die. It was a now-or-never situation." she replied, completely flustered.

Harry slipped his hand into Katie's. "Yeah, well, I didn't die, so now you're stuck with me."

Katie playfully sneered at Harry, who laughed in response.

Ron cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"Listen, Harry," he began timidly. "I reckon you'd have to be barking mad to put your own name in the Goblet of Fire."

"Come on, have you?" Harry said coldly. Katie shuffled on her feet uncomfortably. "Took you long enough."

Ron opened his mouth uncertainly. Knowing that Ron was about to apologise, Harry spoke first.

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

"No, I shouldn't've—"

"Forget it."

Ron grinned nervously and Harry grinned back. Hermione burst into tears, startling Katie.

"You two are so stupid!" she shouted. Then, before either of them could stop her, she pulled them into a hug.

"Blimey, this is heavy!" came the voice of Lee Jordan. He was carrying the golden egg that Harry had left on a table. "Open it, Harry, go on! Let's just see what's inside it!"

"Open it!" a few other people shouted.

Lee passed Harry the egg, and Harry dug his fingernails into the groove that ran all the way around it, and opened it.

It was hollow and completely empty — but the moment Harry opened it, the most horrible noise, a loud screechy wailing, filled the room. Katie snapped her hands over her ears and shut her eyes tight, desperately trying to drown out the shrieking sound.

"Shut it!" Fred bellowed, his hands over his ears.

Harry slammed the egg shut and Katie felt a great sense of relied wash over her.