Magic is amazing. Since receiving my Hogwarts letter over four years ago, this thought had crossed my mind more frequently than boys think about sex, or so I've been told. Being far from masculine, despite what my two best friends may have supposed, I really had no inkling how much time those of the male persuasion spent imagining various scenarios ending in their bits ensconced in someone else's. Obviously it must have occupied a good portion of their brain power considering their academic performances.
If only they realized how astounding the magic they learned really was, I'm sure they wouldn't complain at how I push them to study. I mean, seriously, how is it not fascinating that with a flick of a wand and an incantation, one could do almost anything? Didn't they need to know how it all worked? Didn't they want to know how to do more? And that's just the magic that we do ourselves. What about all the other fantastically magical things around us?
Case in point: the Goblet of Fire. In the muggle world, a stone chalice with a fire in it would simply burn up a piece of paper or parchment you threw into it. But with magic, it's transformed into so much more. Since last night, when Dumbledore had revealed it as the impartial selection committee-of-one for the TriWizard Tournament, I'd been fascinated with trying to figure out how it worked.
It wasn't enough to just know what enchantments were placed on it. Since starting Arithmancy last year, I wanted to know exactly how each and every spell actually worked. It was becoming an obsession like physics had been before I came to Hogwarts. Actually, physics was still beyond intriguing, especially trying to reconcile the natural order with the magical order.
Now, as the Halloween feast drew to a close, I knew exactly how the Goblet was going to work. The arithmantic proofs were quite clear in my mind. If anyone bothered to ask me, I could have told them who would be chosen with at least 80% confidence. Factoring the magical signatures of every eligible candidate from each school into the complex selection algorithm in conjunction with the randomization matrix (which was ridiculously predictable) skewed the selection toward the same three names.
"The Hogwarts champion is: Cedric Diggory." Duh. The combination of his above average magical power, creativity, and sense of fair play had placed him far out in front of the other Hogwarts hopefuls despite his lack of drive. In the past, Slytherins were often chosen based on their sheer desire to win over the other houses. Of course, the last time the tournament had been held, the other traits were more evenly distributed throughout the houses, allowing ambition to outweigh other notable attributes.
"The champion for Durmstrang is: Viktor Krum." Though not surprising to any of his own school's students, this selection always kind of surprised me when I ran the numbers. He was almost the opposite of Cedric, except in the power department. My only thought was that his desire to prove himself as a wizard as opposed to just a Quidditch player gave him the edge over his classmates.
"The champion for Beauxbatons is: Fleur Delacour." Again the obvious choice to me and more importantly, to the numbers. Oddly enough, it was her unique abilities as a part-Veela that tipped the scales in her favor. She was neither particularly powerful nor ambitious, but the singular nature of her magical signature seemed to make the formulas almost giddy at the chance of choosing her. I had the most confidence in my prediction of her selection, and also a bit of pride and thankfulness. One of the things I love about arithmancy is that it holds no prejudice unlike the less structured magic of the human psyche. Without the impartiality of the rigidly framed selection and randomization charms on the Goblet, there would have been little chance of Fleur's selection. Such obstacles as sexism and bigotry would have surely prevented a female half-breed's participation.
I sat back smugly thinking I certainly now had one up on that fraud of a divination teacher Trelawney. At least my predictions actually came true, even if they were based on logic and math. Just goes to show how much that saying about assumptions always seems to be the greatest prophet. Still listening to Professor Dumbledore's closing speech as I picked at the last morsel of the apple crisp I'd chosen for my Halloween dessert, I instantly caught the hitch in his voice. Swiveling my head quickly to catch whatever had shocked the headmaster into silence, I caught the tail end of yet another presenting tongue of flame from the Goblet.
But that couldn't be right. The Goblet was specifically designed to only choose three names—one from each participating school. The arithmantic formulas flashed quickly through my mind as I simultaneously watched the professor reach out for the fluttering piece of parchment the Goblet had just regurgitated. My jaw slackened in surprise as I arrived at the exponential function that described the school separators. It was right there; just alter the cubic function to a power of four through a confundus charm.
It was so simple, so basic that the looks of surprise on the professors' faces almost made me laugh. It didn't even take much magical power. Shit, even Ron could have done it if he were smart enough to direct it to the correct location in the runic structure. Of course, Ron wasn't the issue as I didn't even have to run the algorithm to know exactly whose name was on that paper. I'd already run it. If everyone's name from all years of all schools were combined under one school only one name ever came out, despite the randomizer.
"Harry Potter."
Son of a bitch!
So this is a little diddy that I wrote up with grand ambitions of epic explorations into the nature of magic and love with a few twists on some of our favorite fanfiction plot devices. After sitting on it for a couple of months, I've come to the conclusion that my muse deserted me…at least for the moment. So what you actually get is a little one-shot fic from Hermione's POV on her views on magic in the context of her examination of the workings of the Goblet of Fire. I tried really hard to add a section on Harry's musings on the same event, but being more of a curious intellectual myself, more so than an angsty teenage boy at any rate, I had a lot of trouble and went through several rewrites before I just scrapped it and stuck with what you just read.
I'm still really enamored of the original idea I had for this fic and I'm willing to put it up for adoption, or even a small challenge. But I don't want to publically announce where the story was actually headed in case I do decide to actually continue it myself. In a full length fic, this chapter was intended for character development and really doesn't give much of anything plot wise, which is why I don't feel bad leaving it as a stand alone at the moment. If anyone is interested in where I was going with it in my grand schemes, feel free to PM me.
Anywho, why aren't standard math and English courses mandatory at Hogwarts? Even magicals need to know how to write and count their money, you know. Just one of the many indications that Harry Potter does not belong to me, and I only write this stuff for fun.