Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, who is a genius.

Chapter 1

The Fourth Triwizard

The cheers stopped suddenly when the Goblet of Fire spat out another long tongue of flames. Sparks flew in every direction as a fourth piece of charred paper shot upwards. With an immensely calm expression, not shared by any of the judges, Dumbledore plucked the paper out of the air. A grim expression fell over his features as he scrutinised the writing. All the students and teachers watched in curiosity as Dumbledore regained his composure.

"Neville Longbottom!"

There was nothing but silence. Everyone from Hogwarts turned as one to stare at the Gryffindor table, where a rather shell-shocked Neville sat. Hermione reached over and clutched Neville's hand as his face began to turn a rather unflattering green. Ron, in contrast, was becoming redder by the minute and Hermione feared an explosion from him with every passing second. The silence stretched, taut and ready to snap.

To everyone's surprise, Mad-Eye Moody and Draco Malfoy broke the silence at the same time; both with the same half-shocked, half-derisive comment.

"Not Potter?"

Neville squeezed his eyes shut as the hall erupted around him. Hermione felt his hold on her hand tighten to the point where she knew if she dared look it would be white. Instead she sat stoically by his side as everyone in the hall tried to shout over the top of each other. She saw McGonagall stand from the staff table out of the corner of her eye and turned to watch her quickly stride up to Dumbledore. After a few seconds of them quietly conferring Dumbledore nodded and raised his hands. The shouting continued.

Losing her temper with the rapidly deteriorating situation, Hermione pried her wand out of her pocket with her left hand. She huffed in frustration as Dumbledore added his voice to the cacophony, only to be drowned out by Karkaroff who decided it was a good idea to yell, "who is the coward?! Make him stand up!"

Neville's eyes shot open, clearly incensed by the insult and made to stand up. Hermione held his hand tighter to hold him down with a glare and raised her wand to the ceiling. A deafening bang exploded and echoed round the hall. The students who had stood up immediately sat back down, cowering slightly with everyone else. Silence finally descended once more.

Dumbledore coughed once. "Thank you, Miss Granger," he said, his eyebrows raised but eyes twinkling. Then he turned his attention back to the hall.

"Could Neville Longbottom please come up to the staff table and make his way to the Champion's room."

Neville stood up stiffly, forgetting he still clutched Hermione's hand in a death grip. A few of the Hogwarts students snickered causing him to turn purple in embarrassment. Hurriedly, he untangled his fingers from her worryingly white hand with an apologetic look. Hermione gave him a small but encouraging smile, despite the awful pins and needles. Neville attempted to return the gesture, but gave up. He seemed to have forgotten how to use the muscles in his face. He turned and walked as fast as he could down the corridor of stares. The Great Hall had never seemed so long to him before. He reached the teachers quickly and in his haste to leave the hall behind almost jogged into the room where the other Champions waited.

As if a spell was lifted as soon as he was out of sight, the Great Hall was filled with the buzzing of angry voices. This time however, the students took notice when Dumbledore raised his hands.

"I suggest you all make your way to bed. Classes will be on as normal tomorrow after all and it is well past your bedtimes."

The angry buzzing grew louder, but Dumbledore ploughed on.

"I assure you," he paused to let the hall quieten, giving Hermione a warning look. She guiltily pocketed her wand. "I assure you that you will all find out what has occurred, tomorrow. We will make an announcement over breakfast to clear up any misunderstandings. For now, I ask for your patience. Goodnight."

With that he swept from the room. The other headmasters and judges stood abruptly to follow him, looking none too happy about being left behind. Ron grabbed Hermione's arm to drag her out with him and Harry, but was stopped by McGonagall's shrill voice carrying over the chaos.

"Miss Granger! A word, if you please." The Scottish lilt made the phrase sound far more threatening than it should have. Ron threw Hermione a despairing look which made her wonder what she had done wrong. He let go of her as if burned and stormed off with the crowd of Gryffindors. Harry gave her arm a pat and a token "good luck" before moving to follow Ron in a rather dazed fashion.

Hermione was sure that she would be taken to McGonagall's office for a tongue lashing. When instead she was led up to the entrance of the Champions' room and told to wait outside, she was too bewildered to ask why. McGonagall swept through the door without another word and left Hermione with her thoughts for company. Immediately her head filled with the worst case scenarios for the coming competition. Why on earth were these schools bringing back a competition where students died?!

~o~

Neville careened through the door startling the three occupants standing round the fire. Victor Krum spun round with a dark look on his face. Cedric Diggory and Fleur Delacour however schooled their faces from surprised to an expression of mild curiosity. Deciding that three people staring at him really was preferable to the entire Great Hall, Neville bent double with his chubby fingers on his knees to concentrate on catching his breath. He watched unhappily as a witch flitted into a portrait of a wizard sporting an impressive walrus moustache. The witch began whispering in the wizard's ear, throwing looks in Neville's direction.

Fleur threw her sheet of long, silvery hair over her shoulder with an impatient huff. "What is it?" she said. "Do zey want us back in ze Hall?"

She thought he had come to deliver a message. Neville took one last shuddering breath and unfolded himself to his full height. He noticed in slight astonishment that the growth spurt he had cursed so much over the summer meant he now stood only a few centimetres shorter than Cedric. Great. He had enjoyed being small and unnoticeable. He opened his mouth to explain why he was there, but he could get anything past his lips other than a stuttered 'I'. He clamped his mouth shut. It had been months since he had last stuttered. Since he had last been at Hogwarts now that he thought about it. The Champions stared at him. He stared back, feeling stupid.

Footsteps rang out behind him and he thanked every star in the sky. Someone was coming to tell him this was all some awful mistake. He turned round and came face to face with Dumbledore. The twinkle which usually resided in his eyes was markedly absent. Neville's stomach plummeted for what felt like the thousandth time. Behind Dumbledore the door flew open admitting a large group of people: Ludo Bagman followed closely by Mr Crouch, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime and Professor Snape. Neville focused hopefully on Ludo Bagman whose eyes glittered with barely suppressed excitement. He rushed forward ignoring Dumbledore's severe expression.

"Extraordinary!" he muttered, grabbing Neville's hand and shaking it. "A fourth Triwizard! How exciting! Remind me of your name young man."

Neville flushed and shuffled his feet. He extracted his hand from Bagman's with some difficulty and attempted to make himself as small as possible. Fleur tossed her hair letting out a perfect laugh. "Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman."

"Unfortunately, this is no joke," came Dumbledore's stern voice. His eyes still fixed on Neville.

"Well, there can't be any ducking out at this stage… what with the Champions bound to compete, right Barty?"

Mr Crouch opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by a shriek of anger from Fleur. "You are saying zat zis stupid boy is to compete also?"

Cedric started chortling. "Longbottom? Impossible."

Neville wished he could sink into the floor. The words 'stupid boy' echoed round his head endlessly. His battered self-esteem was further trampled on by a rather loud, malevolent chuckle from Professor Snape.

"C'est impossible!" said Madame Maxime, placing an enormous hand on Fleur's shoulder. " 'Ogwarts cannot 'ave two champions. It is most unjust."

"Maybe we did not read the rules carefully enough, Madame Maxime," said Professor Karkaroff in a cold voice. "Dumbledore may have changed the rules to allow for an advantage for the Host school."

"Don't be ridiculous!" McGonagall, having just come in through the door glowered at Karkaroff. "Dumbledore would never use such backhanded tactics!"

"Unlike some dark wizards," intoned Moody. Karkaroff's face went beetroot in patches. Neville wasn't sure if it was in anger or fear. Dumbledore barked "Alastor!" in warning. Neville, who had been following the argument miserably until this point, glanced up to figure out who Alastor was. His gaze was met by Moody's magic eye, which seemed fixed eerily on his face. Terror from the class on Unforgiveable Curses fresh in his memory, he slouched further than even Krum and avoided anyone's eyes by going back to staring glumly at the floor.

Dumbledore's calm voice forced him to reluctantly look back up again. "Neville, did you put your name into the Goblet."

"Of course he didn't," Snape snapped. His next comment felt like a punch in the gut. "As if Longbottom could figure out a way over the Age Line."

McGonagall rounded on Snape, her back ram-rod straight. "No underage student can get past the Age Line, Longbottom or not. You would do well to start defending your own students rather than demeaning them."

Neville noticed that Dumbledore was ignoring the argument and watching his face carefully. He was sure he would burst into flames if his face got any redder. He was trying desperately to hold back tears of humiliation. "N-n-no sir," he eventually forced out.

"Did you ask an older student to put your name in?"

"No sir." This time the answer was more confident.

"Of course he didn't, Albus. The boy is terrified!" McGonagall all but yelled.

"With good reason," croaked Mad-Eye. "It would take a very powerful Confundus Charm to fool a magical object as old as the Goblet of Fire. Clearly someone put Longbottom's name in without his consent. Someone who wants him dead."

Professor Karkaroff let out a nasty snort. "I heard you were going senile Moody, but this is ridiculous. Why would anyone want to kill this boy– " he fell silent as Moody clunked towards him.

"You tell me, Igor," was Moody's furious reply.

"Enough, Alastor!"

Neville did not hear the rest of the argument. At the words 'wants him dead' he felt like he was suddenly submerged in very deep water. He watched the faces of everyone in the small room feeling numb. A whining in his ears began and slowly grew louder over what felt like hours as they kept shouting silently. He watched as if through a window as the guests from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang stormed out with dark looks on their faces. He watched as Ludo Bagman and Mr Crouch disappeared out the door; the former looking like he was about to explode with excitement, the latter looking as ill as Neville felt he should in his current situation. If he could feel his fingers. Or the rest of him. He watched McGonagall shoo Cedric Diggory and Professor Snape out the room. Only when she brought a very stressed and tired looking Hermione in did reality finally come crashing down. He did what any normal 14 year old would do after being told someone was out to kill him.

He fainted.

AN: This is the first time I have written in a very long time. Constructive criticism would be much appreciated.

I would also like to point out that this chapter follows the Goblet of Fire very closely, to the point where I have taken a few sentences from the book. I am aware this is not good practise and I am not planning to do it (often) after this. I felt for the first chapter, however, this would provide more effect, considering that I was hoping to play off what you remember.

Thank you very much for reading!