“Ginny! Oh dear Ginny!”

Ginny turned around and grimaced as she saw Eric coming towards her in the abandoned hallway.

“What?”

“Did you figure out why it’s the two of us that were chosen?” Eric said, “I’m sure you have already.”

“Yeah, I have.”

“Well, I’ll say it anyway. Somebody wanted to put Harry Potter’s name in. Seems the Goblet got confused when it tried to find which one to pick… So, any limits or restrictions you want to put on us? Give those other two chumps a chance?”

Ginny scrunched her brows, confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I was thinking,” Eric said, “We could pretend to use our wands and use our telekinesis to smash this competition into dust. Use our skills to dismantle whatever enchantments stand in our way… I know even more than you so I’ve got plenty of other tricks I could use to win too. But isn’t that kind of boring? We should restrict ourselves, to make things more even and exciting.”

Ginny hesitated, that made a surprising amount of sense from Eric, “Okay. No wandless magic from either of us?”

Eric shook his head, “No way. Look we’re good at our spells, but not enough to match people as old as Fleur or Krum. I don’t want either of us to get blown out of the water and look like idiots either. No breaking enchantments, that’s a little too overpowered I think…”

“One magic tendril,” Ginny supplied, “Then it’s basically an overpowered levitation charm, right? But still useful enough to help us catch up.”

Eric thought about it and then grinned, “Sounds good. May the best Harry win,” he said as he stuck out his hand. Ginny grimaced but shook it and released it as fast as she could.

“Oh, I’m just going to love the interviews.” Eric said, “They’ll be loads of fun.”

“Interviews?” Ginny said slowly, “What?”

“We’re champions! Of course somebody will be giving us interviews!” Eric said, “Do try to keep up, my goal is to be on the front page even before the first task starts!”

“Well, uh, good luck with that,” Ginny said.

“Oh, just you wait,” Eric said, “I’m sure you’ll have load of fun when it’s your turn to go.”

Ginny shifted on her feet. She hadn’t thought about that part, it was going to be such a pain wasn’t it?

— — —

Jack and Alexa were excited that Ginny was a triwizarding champion, even if they understood that she hadn’t put her name in the Goblet of Fire for it. Ginny was actually the school favorite, getting appreciative nods and congratulations for days after she was chosen.

Eric wasn’t exactly unpopular, but he wasn’t exactly a favorite to be Champion either. Ginny at least had a largely neutral reputation with most people while Eric was much more of a polarizing person. People didn’t seem to really believe that Ginny had cheated to get in, while they were much more suspicious of Eric.

Oddly enough most of the Slytherins supported Ginny as the ‘true champion’ and viewed Eric as a faker who had cheated in order to get more attention. A view that Eric did little to contradict with his bragging and talking up how amazing he’d do in the triwizarding tournament despite only being a fourth year. Also he was Gryffindor while Ginny was a Ravenclaw so Slytherin seemed opposed to him as champion just on principle.

Fleur and Krum had also directed their anger towards the unrepentant Eric rather than to the Ginny who had apologized after, knowing that it was unfair that Hogwarts got two champions while their schools only got one. That seemed to calm their anger at her down a bit, even if they seemed to faintly dislike her still.

Ginny was wearing the special champion robes that she’d been given and only had her wand on her. For some reason they were calling all the champions to arrive in the afternoon at the astronomy tower for unknown reasons. Ginny walked in and saw that Eric, Fleur, and Krum had already arrived. Thankfully, Eric was silent and not provoking the other two at the moment. Mr. Crouch stood there looking rather grumpy to be so close to Eric while McGonagall also stood there. Ginny still didn’t like the woman all too much, she’d gotten away with a slap of the wrist for sending Ginny and her friends into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid. And still hadn’t really apologized to them about what had happened.

There was also a woman standing there with a pad held in her hands. She was blonde with her hair tied back in a bun and wore a pair of spectacles on the bridge of her nose, and was wearing a bright lime green set of robes with puffy black ruffles at the sleeves and around the neck. She looked over the four champions in interest as Ginny joined the rest.

“Champions,” Mr. Crouch said, “Let me introduce you to Rita Skeeter, a reporter for the Daily prophet. She’s here to give some interviews to you and publish some personality pieces in preparation for the first task next week. Do your best to put your best foot forward, but Rita has assured me that she’ll be working to present you all in the best light possible.”

Rita nodded, “Of course! I’m just so excited to interview all of our champions. I’m sure you all must be fascinating people to be chosen to represent your schools.”

McGonagall took a step forward. “This is not required by any means,” He said, “If you feel uncomfortable at any point you are free to leave or refuse to answer any question Ms. Skeeter asks you.”

Skeeter looked annoyed at the interruption, but nodded, “Yes, of course, of course, dears. Just let me know if you’re ever uncomfortable and we can move to a different question. Now, how about we start with… Mr. Krum? Victor? Can I call you Victor?”

Krum walked forward and the two of them vanished into the astronomy classroom. The rest of them waited around, mostly silently as Mr. Crouch and McGonagall stood there as well. After thirty minutes or so, Krum emerged and Fluer went in. Ginny was tempted to let out her magic tendrils to have something to do. But with Eric nearby… best to not give him any ideas if he sensed what she was doing.

Fleur went, then Eric next… Ginny was left for last, sitting in a nearby chair and meditating silently as she waited for Skeeter to finish with the others.

“...Ginny, Ginny?” She shook her head as she heard her name snapping out of her meditation. She looked up and saw Rita Skeeter standing there next to Eric. The boy looked pleased with how things had gone as she stood up and passed him to enter the astronomy classroom with Skeeter following closely behind.

There were two chairs across from each other. Skeeter sat in one and gestured to the other silently. Ginny sat down.

“Now… Ginny Weasley. The second of our young Hogwarts Champions,” Skeeter began, “You… Oh, do you mind if I use a quick quill? Just a tool so we can talk like friends while it notes everything down.”

Rita released the pad in her hand and the quill in her hand. The pad floated upwards over Skeeter’s right shoulder and the Quill lifted itself and bobbed as if eager to write. Ginny stared at it with interest. It was an interesting enchantment, linking the pad and the quill to work together. She didn’t think she’d ever seen one like it before.

“What is it?” Ginny asked, “I’ve never seen something like that before.”

“Oh, dear…” Skeeter said with a little titter of laughter, “You are a Ravenclaw, aren’t you? A new innovation we’ve been using recently at the Daily Prophet. Helps us give interviews like this in a more comfortable setting. Much better than me constantly having to be busy scribbling up a storm on my pad rather than focusing on the conversation! So I assume you don’t mind?”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“No, it seems fine…” Ginny said, watching as the quill started moving and writing on the pad below as they spoke., “Interesting…”

“So, Ravenclaw,” Skeeter asked, “Ginny, can I call you Ginny? How do you like your house so far?”

“I like it, Ms. Skeeter. You can call me Ginny. Amvatroz likes me so he never gives me any riddles that are impossible to solve. He does that to some people if he has a big grudge against them.”

“Amvatroz? Who’s that? And please call me Rita, dear. Only want to be fair after all.”

“Oh, that’s the name of the Ravenclaw eagle blocking the way to our common room. We have to solve his riddles or problems for him to let us inside. Did you go to Hogwarts?”

“Yes, I was a little Slytherin myself back in my day,” Rita said, “Living down in the dungeons. I’m wearing my house colors even today. I had no idea that the Eagle had a name. What prompted him to tell you that? I’ve heard he’s quite an ornery fellow usually.”

“Well, he is grumpy most of the time,” Ginny admitted, “But so long as you try at his riddles as best as you can he doesn’t mind you. He’s very proud and has a long memory, so he remembers when people get annoyed or are rude to him when he doesn’t let people in when they are having trouble solving a problem. I asked him one time and he remembered one person insulting him four years ago word for word after Amvatroz wouldn’t let them in the common room. He’s made their riddles far harder ever since just to get back at them. Most people have said something rude to him at one point, so it just seems like he doesn’t like most people when it's just that he holds grudges for a long time.”

Rita blinked and her quill scribbled furiously on the pad.

“Really?” She asked in shock, “That’s why he gives such hard riddles to everyone? Why not just tell people so they know what they did wrong?”

“He doesn’t think their apology is authentic if they know he’ll give them riddles more on their level when they apologize. Oh, but he wouldn’t want everyone to know about this. Can you not report on that last part?”

“Oh, of course, of course. Pad, strike out that last part.” The quill scratched out a few lines and floated there again waiting for them to keep talking. It flipped the page up to a new page as it prepared to keep writing.

“So, you seem to have a certain affinity for birds, don’t you, Ginny?” Rita said, “Friends with Eagle, sorry Amvatroz. And the first familiar bond with a Phoenix in modern times. Any tips or tricks for our readers trying to form familiar bonds with their own pets?”

“Pets?” Ginny asked, confused, “Fawkes isn’t my pet.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re very fond of him, and I’m sure that a Phoenix would never deign to let themselves be called a pet by anybody, even the one they are bonded to.”

“But he’s not a pet, he’s a person,” Ginny said, “A very proud person, but still a person. He can understand what people say around him perfectly even if he can only speak with me because of our bond.”

Rita leaned in with interest, looking down her nose and over her glasses to look at Ginny

“So, you think treating animals like they’re people could be the key? Many people try to form familiar bonds with their animals, but it’s quite a rare thing to see these days.”

“Well, I don’t know,” Ginny said, “I’m not sure how it happened exactly. But I wasn’t acting, I just thought of him as another person as soon as I saw him. I was confused and didn’t really know what was going on at the time, so maybe that helped me see him that way so quickly…”

“Yes, that was such a tragedy,” Rita said sympathetically, “An incident shrouded in mystery. Do you know exactly what happened? Anything you remember?”

“No, not much,” Ginny said, “I still don’t have any memories before waking up in the Chamber. But I’ve made new friends, and things have mostly worked out so far ever since then.”

“New friends, tell me about them. I’ve heard that you go exercising in the mornings? Friends with a Gryffindor?”

Ginny and Rita chatted for a bit about Ginny’s classes and her friends. Rita seemed interested in knowing about Ginny’s exercise in the mornings. Ginny tried to be a little unspecific when she talked about it, not sure if Alexa and Jack would be okay with her telling a reporter about the details of their workouts and things that they did.

“So, I’m glad you’ve found some new friends after your incident,” Rita said, “Something so severe that you completely changed houses on your resorting even! I’m told that there was another incident last year, with you being there when Olivia Roberts was infected by your old teacher?”

Ginny had a brief flashback to Lupin biting down on Olivia’s leg, pulling with all of her might to free the girl, ripping her free from the werewolf’s jaws with a spray of blood. Eric standing over Lupin’s charred corpse…

She shook her head to clear away the images, “I was there. But now she’s working at the wolf-kin clinic, so things are going to work out even after all those horrible things her parents said about her.”

“Yes, it was all very dramatic. It’s been a relief to us all to hear that there’s a cure to the scourge of lycanthropy that’s plagued us all for centuries. A great charity effort by Sirius Black for his big debut onto the public scene. Many people were quite surprised about his announcement, I’ll say. After his long recovery from his time at Azkaban, he’s reentered the public eye in a big way.”

“Yeah, being a werewolf seems pretty horrible,” Ginny said, “I’m sure the wolf-kin will like changing away from being werewolves once the clinic starts being able to cure more people.”

“That’s right. You seem like a very compassionate girl, Ginny. Do you have any idea why the goblet would choose you and Eric Potter both to be triwizarding champions?”

Ginny shook her head, but didn’t say anything else.

“What’s your feelings on your fellow champions? On Eric Potter?”

“N… Nothing much,” Ginny stammered as she scrambled to think of a response, “He’s in Gryffindor so we don’t talk all too often. And he’s two years ahead of me in school so our classes don’t overlap at all either.”

“What have you heard about him from other people then?”

“Not much. Slytherin doesn’t like him because he’s a Gryffindor. But other than that… yeah, nothing much.”

“No need to be so nervous, dear!” Rita said, “No one’s getting in trouble. Looking forward to the first task? Feeling prepared?”

“I think so, I’ve been practicing my spells. I’m really good at levitation charms.”

“Oh, are you? Would you like to demonstrate for me?”

“Sure.”

Ginny drew her wand and after standing pointed her wand at the chair she had been sitting in.

“Wingardium Leviosa!”

Instead of actually casting the spell, Ginny created a magic tendril that she used to lift the chair up. She started rotating it and moved it around for a bit before putting it back on the ground as Rita watched and the pad as the quill scribbled furiously.

Rita talked a bit more, and then wrapped them things up.

“Well, it’s been a pleasure talking with you, Ginny,” Rita said, “Good luck on the first task.”

“Thanks, Rita. I was worried about the interview,” Ginny admitted, “But it wasn’t that bad at all.”

“That’s always what you hope for with these things. Make sure to read the paper, I’m sure you’ll be in it in a few days.”

— — —

Ginny walked in the hallways and froze when she saw Eric stomping towards her looking annoyed. She reflexively spun out seventeen magic tendrils and prepared to fight him off.

Eric snorted and waved his hand, a flicker of a smile flashing across his face before his expression grew stormy again. He raised a rolled up newspaper and jabbed his finger to the headline.

“You’ve seen this? This is total bull!” Eric said, “Who does this Rita Skeeter think she is?”

Ginny cautiously took the paper and blinked as she saw her own face on the front page, Eric's face half the size of her own image. Fleur and Krum were in little boxes in the top corner no bigger than a postage stamp.

The headline was in heavy print.

‘Triwizarding Tournament’s Two Hogwarts Champions, As Different As Could Be.’

“Ginny Weasley was a thoughtful and pleasant girl who has been through much hardship in her short life, but still maintains a positive attitude and has made new friends despite this…” Ginny read.

She read the whole article and half way through the article Rita switched to talking about Eric, “Arrogant and abrasive… Sense of entitlement as if he assumes that even champions many years his senior will be defeated without even the slightest efforts on his part. Remarkably self-centered…”

She read to the very end, "...And Fleur Delaceur from Beauxbatons and Victor Krum from Durmstrang are the two older champions that our two Hogwarts champions must compete against."

Ginny looked back up and handed Eric the paper back, “Sorry,” She said, “I guess Skeeter really doesn’t like you. Why are you mad at me again?”

“What did you say to her? Why’d she spend the whole article praising you while dumping all over me! You don’t even care about fame!”

“No, I don’t! You don’t think Rita couldn’t tell that?! Don’t blame me because you screwed up your own interview, Eric! I didn’t say hardly anything about you. All I said was that Slytherin didn’t like you because you were a Gryffindor, that was it.”

Eric paused and cracked a smile for a moment, “Hah. That’s kind of hilarious actually. Haven’t thought about that one too much. They’ve got more reason to hate me than anyone, they just don’t know it. What with the Mad Potioner framing them for everything at all. That’s all you said, you swear?”

“Yes, I swear. That’s all I told her. There’s… I’m sure there will be more interviews in the future?”

“Hmph. I guess. Don’t talk badly about me in your interviews or our deal is off and I’ll start having some real fun again. I’ll just have to crush this first task to show them that I deserve to be arrogant. Even with the restrictions, I’ll get first place.”

Eric turned around and walked off, still looking annoyed but pacified compared to his amped up state from before. Ginny let out a sigh of relief. She turned her head as a magical green beetle on the wall shifted and started buzzing and flew off out the window. Odd, Ginny had thought that Hogwarts anti-pest wards would keep creatures like that out of the castle grounds.

People kept saying that the triwizarding tasks were supposed to be dangerous. But Ginny worried about upsetting Eric more than any task the Ministry could throw at her. Who knew what would set him off if he thought that Ginny’s fame was starting to outshine his…