Chapter 2

3 years later…

Harry looked up to the front of the hall to watch the names of the competitors for the Tri-wizard cup. Malfoy sat across the table from him flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, Blaise sat beside Harry on his right while his girlfriend Jessica Randall sat on his left. She gripped Harry's hand in anticipation; she was one year below Harry. Naturally she became one of the most popular girls in Slytherin being the girlfriend of the Boy-who-lived, not to mention the poster boy of Slytherin.

Soon a slip of paper sprung from the goblet and flew into Dumbledore's hand. He read it out loud in a booming voice. "Fleur Delacour from Beaxbatons," soon another slip fluttered up. "Victor Krum from Durmstrang," then another. "Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts. There we go we have our champions we will see in the following weeks who will come out on top." Before Dumbledore could finish speaking another slip of paper flew out of the cup. Since he wasn't prepared to catch it, it fluttered to the ground. As he bent down to pick it up Harry could see his face visibly pale as he read the slip.

"Harry Potter." Silence seemed to engulf the room. The whole Slytherin table turned their gazes on him. He stood up and began to walk to the front of the Great Hall. The stares of everyone in the hall seemed to drill through his back. He couldn't think of anyone who would have put his name in the goblet because he certainly hadn't done it himself. Soon he came up to stand by Dumbledore.

"I didn't put my name in that goblet. Besides how could I have I'm only a fourth year." The old man nodded in agreement and scratched his overflowing beard in consideration.

"Well if the goblet chose you, you have to compete. Come back with me so we can figure out what the others think. Dumbledore soon lead him by the arm to a room that jutted off the Great Hall itself. As they walked out Harry could still feel the stares drilling through him.

Once they entered the room Harry could see the other three champions standing with their respective teacher/headmaster. The room was adorned with portraits as every hall and room of Hogwarts is and their occupants scrutinized him. As the foreign headmasters began to argue with Dumbledore Harry drifted over to sit in a chair by the other champions. Fleur was very calm about the matter and didn't seem to care either way that Harry competed Krum also shared this same attitude but Cedric on the other hand…

Harry had a sneaking suspicion that if he had been a Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or fellow Hufflepuff it would have been different but since he was a Slytherin and not to mention a younger Slytherin it was doubly offensive to his convoluted sense of honor. Harry didn't really care at all what any of them thought about him competing because he was going to do it no matter what they said.

Soon the adults were done arguing and naturally it was decided that Harry would compete and there would be two champions form Hogwarts. He non-chalantly stood from the chair and half-listened to a short debriefing on the rules of the competition while he thought about how to find out what the first task was without drawing too much attention or breaking too many rules.

Once the briefing was over everyone had already left the feast even the late stragglers like Crabbe and Goyle. Harry began to make his way to down to the dungeons and the Slytherin dorms. As he was walking he wondered what his parent's reaction would be to him entering the tournament. They would probably go apoplectic. After he had been sorted into Slytherin his father had sent him a particularly vicious Howler on how the Potters had always been in Gryffindor. He finally got over the bruise to his reputation a couple of duels later. (Malfoy had been oh, so subservient after that.) Soon he reached the entrance into the realm of Slytherin. He quickly tapped on the door in a certain pattern and it opened onto the large spacious common room.

He wasted no time by the fire and made his way up to the fourth year dormitory that he shared with Blaise Zabini, Malfoy, Goyle, Crabbe, and Theodore Nott. A thorough interrogation ensued as Harry tried to get ready for bed. Harry turned the questions away until morning and went to sleep.