Ginny sat at the Halloween feast. Rumors had been flying about the castle about a big announcement for the feast. An old tattered wooden ship with cannons and sails and everything had appeared floating in the lake two days ago, just floating there in the morning with no one knowing where it had come from. Alexa had been irritated, since it was parked right where they usually swam. They had to go run on the other side of the castle, too creeped out by the old ship floating right near them in order to leave their things and the robes they wore over their running clothes there out in the open nearby.
Yesterday, a giant carriage with pegasi, or horses with wings, landed on the great lawn. Ginny had shuddered when she looked at the creatures. Their wings were puffy and had white feathers with the bird wings. And their heads were horse-like, nothing like the sharp beaks like the thestrals…
Classes had been going well so far. Lockhart’s test had just been a demonstration of all the spells displayed in the parts of the book they’d read up to so far. Nothing overly complicated, but there were a lot of them to remember. Eric was keeping his distance and despite Ginny’s initial worries Preston also steered clear of Ginny and her friends. Oddly enough Luna was avoiding her though. Ginny had thought the girl would want to be friends, but now it seemed that all she wanted to do was make excuses and leave whenever Ginny talked to her.
Everyone was in their seats waiting as Dumbledore stood at the Professor’s table at the end of the great hall. Strangely enough, there were two more ornate chairs that weren’t usually there. One on his right and another on his left.
“Students!” Dumbledore began and the hall quieted down, “This year our school will be hosting an event. A tournament to promote international cooperation between three schools. Hogwarts, the first major magical school in the world. Beauxbatons in France, and Durmstrang in Bulgaria that formed shortly after seeing the success that Hogwarts had in fostering the magical youth to be their best selves! These three schools grew together, challenging each other and helping each grow so that we could each teach our students so they could make their own ways in the world. So the triwizarding tournament was founded, to elect one champion from each of our schools to compete and to demonstrate the best of what each school had to offer. The best student of their generation. Each of these champions will compete in three great tasks, each harder and more dangerous than the last, administered by our Ministry. While utmost precautions have been taken for these tasks, there is always the risk of danger for the ill prepared. This position is one of fierce danger, yet if one is crowned the grand champion…”
Dumbledore paused as two men in blue robes walked from the side carrying a large goblet between them sitting on an ornate stand. Dancing above the goblet a blueish flame crackled. Ginny extended her magic sense to inspect the flame. The goblet and flame were blazing in magic, something she had only ever seen in people like Balthazar or Dumbledore before. Whatever it was, it was powerful.
“Yet if you win,” Dumbledore continued as the Aurors stopped with the Goblet between them just to the side of the headmaster, “Eternal glory. Both for yourself, as well as for your school.”
He smiled slightly and paused before speaking in an amused tone,
“Not to mention, the one thousand galleon grand prize that our Ministry will award the winner.”
The whole hall perked up at that. Ginny was mildly offended. They thought that Fawkes was only worth eight hundred galleons while winning this school tournament was worth a thousand?! Shows what they knew.
“Anyone who wishes to enter the tournament will simply put their name on a piece of parchment into the Goblet of Fire behind me. It will be publicly available for that time for anyone who wishes to submit their name. The goblet will pick the person that it believes is most suited to best represent our school. Now, as tempting as it may be for all to enter,” Dumbledore said, “It has been decided by the ministry for your safety that no one under seventeen will be allowed to participate.”
There was a murmur across the hallway and Ginny saw that Fred and George looked rather upset. They wouldn’t be seventeen for another few months, and appeared to have just missed the age requirement to enter.
“Make no mistake,” Dumbledore said and his firm tone silenced the muttering in the great hall, “Being a Champion is a great responsibility as well as an honor. These three tasks are not something that even a seventh year would find trivial. The requirement is for your own safety, those whose names are picked by the goblet are bound by magic to compete to the end. Once your name is selected to represent our school then there is no backing out for any reason.”
The hall went quiet at that.
“Now, without further ado, let us invite the members of our sister schools!” Dumbledore said and with a flick of his wand the doors to the great hall opened. A massive woman almost as big as Hagrid walked through the doors in a long fur coat and a large fluffy scarf wrapped around her neck. Behind her walked a group of girls in formation wearing fashionable blue robes that looked like they were made of something like silk rather than the heavy drab things that they wore at Hogwarts. They were all wearing funny little hats that sat at an angle on their heads and they almost looked like they were glittering with what Ginny could sense were all sorts of spells cast over them to make them look better. All of the girls were older, probably over seventeen.
“Beauxbaton and her headmistress Madame Maxine!” Dumbledore said as the massive woman walked down the hall and shook Dumbledore’s hand firmly. The Beauxbaton girls lined up in front of their headmistress and turned around to face the rest of the great hall. They started singing a wordless tune, singing as a choir. Ginny frowned as she felt the waves of magic blasting out over half of the girls as they sang. Was this… Veela magic? She looked to her left and saw that Jack was staring at the girl letting out the strongest bursts of magic with obvious desire.
Ginny felt herself flush and grew annoyed. What did they think they were doing?! He shouldn’t be looking at her like that! He should be looking at Gin… She shoved Jack lightly and he shook his head and seemed to snap out of it.
Ginny had a sudden thought and suddenly twisted around to stare at Eric. He was sitting at his seat staring at the Beauxbaton girls and licking his lips with his mouth watering. His eyes were laser focused even as he grinned widely so much that the girls around him that weren’t being affected by the Beauxbaton’s magic were giving him disturbed looks and leaning away.
Hermione just rolled her eyes when she noticed and shoved Eric lightly on the shoulder. And then Ron next to her who was genuinely spelled by the Veela magic. Ron required a second shove by Hermione to snap him out of it. Eric shot Hermione an annoyed look, but then lowered his smile to a normal level and got himself under control. But he still stared at the girls who let out the waves of magic with intensity. Not affected by their magic, but desiring it for his own use…
Ginny shivered.
The Beauxbaton girls sang a wordless tune for a few seconds more before finishing and all curtsying at once. They spread out to sit at all of the tables for the houses except Slytherin. A fact that seemed to disappoint many of the Slytherin boys. Wherever a Beauxbaton girl wanted to sit, there was a boy there making room for them as quickly as they could no matter how many annoyed looks they got from the surrounding girls in exchange.
“And finally, Durmstrang and their headmaster Karkaroff!” Dumbledore said after the Beauxbaton girls had found their seats.
A man with a scraggly and wispy black goatee walked in, his face looking sickly and his teeth crooked and yellowed. He was wrapped in heavy fur coats and a roundish fur cap. Behind him stood a group of boys similarly looking like they were prepared to go out into a snowstorm at any moment. All of them carried large staves that they tapped on the ground in unison as they walked down the hall towards Dumbledore. With all the impacts at once the tables rattled slightly. The boys all let out a guttural chant as they moved forward. Karkaroff went up and shook his hand and they shared a few quiet words.
The Durmstrang boys turned around and struck the ground with their staves one last time and shook the great hall from the impact. “Hah!” They let out in what felt like a military salute one last time before moving over to the Slytherin table as a group. Karkaroff took the remaining fancy chair next to Headmaster Dumbledore and sat down.
“Now with our welcomed guests here, let the Halloween feast begin!”
Dumbledore clapped his hands and trays of food appeared on the tables in a massive burst of magic from the house-elves below. Dumbledore sat down in the headmaster’s chair and soon the great hall was filled with the echoing sound of conversation.
Ginny turned back to the table and started eating.
— — —
Lockhart walked through the hallways. It was late at night and it was his turn to roam the hallways and make sure there weren’t any students out of bed up to no good. He passed the room with the goblet of fire and paused. Now, he had just had the most wonderful idea. Harry Potter had such a good baseline of fame to work with.
The boy who lived, yet he had nothing yet that really propelled him into his own fame yet. One single event the boy could point to and say, yes I did that. No one else, but Harry Potter alone who did that thing. It was Harry Potter, changing it to Eric just ruined all the built in fame and branding the old name already had attached to it. Lockhart was sure that the boy would see the value of his real name once he heard his great hero Lockhart using it so often, knowing him by reputation.
Yes, entering the tournament would be essential to Harry’s rising celebrity. And Lockhart would be the teacher of the wizarding world’s newest star. Many other short minded celebrities might become jealous of Harry Potter’s easy success. How he was so famous without clawing his way from the very bottom like Lockhart had…
But he was not short sighted. It was natural to feel those things, but rising waters raised all boats. Harry Potter was far too young to enter himself for the tournament, the age line around where the Goblet of Fire had been placed wouldn’t allow anyone below seventeen to pass. It had other protections as well, but Lockhart could likely deactivate them if need be. He was excellent at piercing stationary wards as well as his mind magic. It was best to ambush the heroes of his stories while they lay sleeping in their homes where they thought they were most safe after all…
Harry Potter entering at such a young age would only increase his fame and the acclaim he would receive from simply participating even if he couldn’t win it all.
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Lockhart took a piece of parchment from his robes and scribbled a name on it. ‘Harry Potter’. After taking fifteen or minutes or so to deactivate the defenses in a way he wouldn’t be detected, he stepped over the age line and tossed the scrap of parchment into the blue flame of the goblet of fire.
The flame flared up for a moment before settling back into place. The goblet had accepted the entry. Lockhart took a step back and replaced all the wards to their active state. He walked back into the hallway to return to his patrol around the castle with an easy grin on his face.
It wasn’t guaranteed that Harry Potter would be chosen to be the Hogwarts Champion. But Lockhart had given him the chance for eternal fame, one that the boy couldn’t seize for himself. And the goblet would still be choosing him to compete or not, so he would be a true champion either way if he was chosen.
And as the boy’s teacher during this exciting year, of course he’d be able to claim a tiny proportion of the boy’s success, no matter how small. It was half the reason he’d returned to this position after his less than stellar first attempt at teaching two years ago. To be the Defense teacher during the triwizarding tournament… To be the teacher able to claim the most credit for the skills of the Hogwarts champion… Now that was the kind of accomplishment that he’d be able to brag about and leverage for years! And with his better preparations this time, the students seemed to be more engaged with his reenactments of his books than they had taken the dry tests and lectures he'd foisted on them last time.
Yes, things were looking up…
— — —
Ginny sat at the great feast, watching as Dumbledore stood next to the Goblet of fire. It had been two weeks and the time had come to choose the champions. Ginny had let out a sigh of relief when she’d seen Eric visibly following around the Beauxbaton girls in the hallways.
It sounded creepy, and it was… But Eric was joined by at least another dozen boys in large clumps, most lovestruck with the girls and not able to separate the effect of the Veela magic and their actual feelings. So with so many people around Eric all the time he probably wouldn’t do anything that horrible. He was probably following the Beauxbaton girls to listen to their magically infused voices so he could study their voices rather than the supposedly romantic reasons that all the other boys were following around the Beauxbaton girls. No wonder Beauxbatons was an all girls school if they had to deal with that kind of thing all the time for everyone who were descended from a Veela.
Ginny quickly learned that the girls who could use that voice magic were half-Veela and so could use the Veela magic even if it was much less potent than what full blooded Veela could create. Ginny was surprised to discover that the half-Veela girls had no control over their magical voices. Singing, speaking normally, coughing… Whenever a sound left their lips their magic infused it and spread the entrancing magic.
The girl that had the strongest waves of magic when she spoke was known as Fleur Delacour and was the favorite for who would be chosen as the champion. Eric followed her most of all, and it seems that Fleur’s stronger release of magic caused a stronger effect on the boys’ minds than the others. This caused her to be the ‘favorite’ amongst the lovestruck boys. Ginny didn’t hear most of it directly. Her roommates kept complaining about it before bed so she learned a surprising amount about which boys were smitten with the Veela girls and what they were up to.
“Now, we will select our three triwizarding champions! Champions, when your name is called please proceed out the side door to my right where you will receive explanations on the first task and your duties as Champion,” Dumbledore said from the front of the room, causing Ginny to refocus on what was happening.
“First for Durmstrang…”
The flame on the Goblet of Fire flashed red and a single piece of singed parchment fluttered out of it, which Dumbledore caught in his hand. He unfurled it and spoke loudly, “Victor Krum!”
Ginny looked to the Slytherin table and saw the boy stand up and bow to the room as everyone clapped and the Durmstrang students cheered loudly and slapped Victor Krum on the back. Ginny had heard that the Quidditch seeker for Bulgaria had been in the Durmstrang group. It was too bad that his game had gotten canceled because of Fate trying to attack Ginny and Eric over the summer. Victor walked forward and to the indicated side door and slipped out.
“Next, for Beauxbatons…” The flame flashed red again and another slip of parchment was spat out and floated into Dumbledore’s hands.
“Fleur Delacour!”
The room shook as most of the boys from all three schools cheered as well as the high pitched cheers of the rest of the Beauxbaton girls Fleur was smiling and went to the front of the room and curtsied to the rest of the room that caused everyone to only cheer louder. She went through the side doors as well.
“And finally. Last but certainly not least… Our very own Hogwarts!”
The flame on the Goblet of Fire turned red, but for several seconds it didn’t do anything. The flame remained red but no piece of parchment was spat out. Dumbledore frowned as he stared at the goblet. The Goblet of Fire began to rattle and shake in place and its red flame grew bigger and bigger until it was nearly triple the size it had been originally. The goblet shook more and more violently as time passed until it was practically humming as it vibrated in place. Ginny could hear the crackle of flames as Dumbledore drew his wand and appeared nearly about to cast a spell.
But before Dumbledore could cast anything, two pieces of parchment were spat out of the flame and floated over to him. In an instant the massive red flame died down to its previous blue, calmly burning just above the Goblet of Fire.
Dumbledore stared between the two pieces of parchment in his hands with a complicated expression as the whole room waited with baited breath to see who it would be. He looked up and took a deep breath.
“The… two Hogwarts champions… will be Eric Potter… and Ginny Weasley.”
Ginny sat there in shock. Eric of course took it in stride, laughing and receiving the congratulations from his fellow Gryffindors. He made his way up to Dumbledore and went to the side doors where Fleur and Victor had gone. Ginny remained sitting, in a state of shock, her brain not seeming to be able to take any more new input at the moment.
“Ginny, I think you have to go,” Jack whispered nervously as everyone’s eyes focused on Ginny now that Eric was gone.
“Yeah,” She said with a dry throat and mechanically stood from the table and walked forward. She felt something tickle the back of her skull as she felt the eyes of the entire great hall focused on her. She walked past Dumbledore in a daze and went through the side door and down a set of stairs.
Below Eric was already talking loudly, sounding like he was having a casual conversation between classes more than anything. Why couldn’t it have just been him? He loved being the center of attention, why did Ginny have to get dragged into this too?
Ginny reached the bottom of the stairs and walked towards Eric, Fleur, and Victor.
“Yeah, so here’s the second Hogwarts Champion,” Eric said, “We’re great friends. Apparently we have a home field advantage since our school is hosting. Double the champions, double the chance to win.”
Fleur and Victor had thunderous expressions and turned to glare at both Ginny and Eric at the same time.
“Shut up Eric, I didn’t ask for this!” Ginny said, “You have fun competing, but I’m droppppppppp…”
Ginny felt her mind stutter and creak as it tried to process something impossible.
“Competing, even if I don’t like it!” Ginny continued. Something strange had happened there. Hadn’t she been saying something else? But she had to compete no matter what, even if she didn’t like it.
“That’s what I thought,” Eric said, “No escape for us unfortunately. Well, unfortunate for you Ginny. I’m going to try to have some fun with this. For once, I’ll be famous!”
“Famous? The boy who lived?” Fleur said bitingly, “Who could have imagined it? Haven’t you had enough fame already?”
“Nope,” Eric said, “I crave more still. Ginny’s my only real competition for this thing, the rest of you chumps are competing for third place.”
“No, Eric. They’re older, I’m sure they know lots of spells we don’t,” Ginny argued lamely, knowing that Eric was right. With their training in Teregatt they could probably both beat both Fleur and Victor to a pulp in their sleep. It would be a little harder having to pretend they were using a wand to accomplish everything during the tournament… but not that hard.
But now she’d have to spend even more time around Eric than she ever wanted to. Ugh.
Karkaroff’s voice echoed from the top of the stairs. “I protest! I protest!”
“Headmaster,” Madame Maxine’s voice said next, “This is an outrage, to have two champions…”
There was the sound of three sets of footsteps rushing down the stairs.
Dumbledore reached the bottom of the stairs with the other two adults following closely behind.
The Headmaster rushed forward with his eyes fixed on Eric.
“ERIC, DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE?!!!” Dumbledore asked calmly.
“What?” Eric said, “No. Of course not. Someone else must have done it for me.”
“Did you ask them to do it? Who put your name in?” Dumbledore continued.
“No, I have no idea,” Eric said, “Whoever it was must have thought I would make a good champion. An older student or teacher or something. What are you focusing on me for? Ginny was chosen too.”
Dumbledore turned to her. “Ginny, did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?”
“No, Headmaster. And I didn’t ask anyone else to either. I swear I didn’t.”
Dumbledore nodded at her and turned back to Eric, “You’re absolutely sure you didn’t manipulate the results somehow? If it’s discovered later that you’re involved in any tampering then we’ll be forced to tell the world who did it and disqualify the one who was involved.”
“Hey! What the heck?!” Eric said, “What’s with all the suspicion, Headmaster! I’m innocent, I get a whole interrogation while Ginny gets one question and a nod? Just because I’m rolling with the punches in being forced to compete in a tournament with a grand prize of a thousand galleons and eternal fame?”
“You have abilities that young Ms. Weasley does not,” Dumbledore said, “Ones that you displayed at a young age at your Aunt and Uncle’s home.”
Eric looked confused, “Huh? What do you… oh. Right, yeah those things. Oh, I see. Look, I swear I didn’t ask anyone to put my name in okay? I don’t know anything about it.”
Dumbledore looked skeptical, “Very well, we’ll take you at your word for now,” he said, “But we’ll investigate the situation thoroughly to find the true culprit behind this.”
There was a tense pause.
“We should pick again,” Madame Maxine said, “Choose new champions for Hogwarts properly this time.”
“Yes, yes,” Karkaroff quickly agreed, “Pick two champions from each school if we must. Champions can not drop, but we can add more, yes?”
Dumbledore shook his head, “It doesn’t work that way. The Goblet of Fire is dormant now and will remain so until the tournament is complete. These are our four champions for the tournament no matter what we may think of it.”
“Convenient that this unfortunate mistake gives your school two champions, huh?” Karkaroff said.
“Regardless, let’s inform the champions of their duties and save our discussion for later,” Dumbledore said, “Mr. Crouch?”
Ginny stiffened as a man who had been behind the three arguing headmasters stepped to the side to fully reveal himself. Ginny relaxed slightly, was it a coincidence? Wait, was he…
“Hey, they didn’t end up arresting you?” Eric said, “Your son tried to assassinate the Minister of Magic and they still have you here running a tournament?”
Mr. Crouch glared at Eric. “I was found innocent of any involvement in that affair,” He said firmly, “I have not had any contact with him in years, and I’d appreciate you not spreading slanderous rumors like that around.”
“Oooohhh, scary,” Eric mocked, “From what I heard the court case is still ongoing. Not proven innocent just yet. Are you going to send another of your hidden children to assassinate me if I piss you off?”
“Enough,” Dumbledore said with a warning tone, “The Champions will be silent for now. Mr. Crouch please explain the first task so we may move onwards.”
“Yes,” Mr. Crouch said and controlled himself, “It is quite simple. The first task will be on November twenty fourth on what was your school Quidditch field. Bring only yourselves and your wands to the task. The event itself is a secret, so do not seek out information or attempt to determine what it could be. Such things would sully the integrity of yourselves as well as the competition.”
He eyed them and especially Eric for a few seconds.
“That will be all. Good day.”
He turned around and left the room.