The Triwizard champions were announced that evening at a second specially prepared banquet in honour of the foreign arrivals. The students were crammed into the Great Hall, each of them pushing through the crowd to get a good view of the Goblet of Fire, from which the champions' names would appear.

"From Beauxbatons Academy of magic – Miss Fleur Delacour!"

Measured and brisk applause from the students in blue satin as a pretty blond girl kissed Dumbledore's hand and disappeared into a room at the back of the Great Hall.

"Aye, I won't mind watchin' her." Seamus whispered to Dean, who nodded his approval. Emer, who was sitting on a tiered bench behind them, rolled her eyes. A couple of the other Beauxbatons girls had burst into tears on account of not being chosen, and Emer didn't doubt that Seamus was considering comforting them.

"The champion from Durmstrang Institute is – Mr Victor Krum!"

Krum got a much louder applause than Fleur Delacour. Several of his fellow Durmstrang students rose to their feet as he marched, stony faced, to Dumbledore.

"No surprises there." Lee muttered, as the twins began to catcall "KRUM! KRUM! KRUM! KRUM!"

Dumbledore raised a hand for silence, and received it immediately. The Durmstrang students sat down, looking slightly dejected.

The flames licking the surface of the Goblet of Fire turned scarlet once more, and a third scrap of parchment came whizzing out – only to be caught sharply between Dumbledore's long fingers.

"And from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry-" Dumbledore's face broke into a smile as he called, "Cedric Diggory!"

There was an almighty roar that echoed around the Great Hall twice over, as every single Hufflepuff rose to their feet, stamping, clapping and screaming with delight. Cedric was hauled to his feet by a couple of sixth years and practically thrown at Dumbledore, beaming from ear to ear. A happy balloon inflated inside Emer as she cheered with the rest and watched Cedric shake Dumbledore's hand and disappear off into the chamber off the hall.

It took several minutes and an explosion of fireworks from Dumbeldore's wand to calm the Hufflepuffs down, so elated were they that finally, finally their house had something to celebrate.

When calm eventually fell, and Fred had grabbed Emer and pulled her back onto the bench, Dumbledore turned and beamed at them all.

"So that is that! The Goblet of Fire has chosen our-" He stopped. Everything stopped. Every pair of eyes in the Great Hall was staring at the Goblet.

"Harry Potter."

The Goblet had spat out a fourth piece of parchment and Dumbledore caught it.

"Harry Potter." He said it again, and the student's mutters echoed over and over again in the cavernous hall. There was a scuffle behind Emer, as Hermione and Neville pushed Harry roughly to his feet. They all watched him worm his way through the students towards Dumbledore. Harry looked even more shocked and confused than anyone else. Fred was shaking his head. Even the Slytherins seemed lost for words. The happy balloon that had risen to quickly when Cedric's name had been called deflated just as fast.

The students left in confusion, no-one dismissed them or seemed to be able to find anything of merit to say, and so they took themselves off to their dormitories. However excited chatter is infectious and soon enough the Entrance Hall was alive with anticipation and speculation.

"Ron, Ron!" Fred called, grabbing his younger brother's robes and pulling him to the side, closely followed by George, Emer and Hermione.

"How did he do it?" Fred demanded, grinning from ear to ear, "Not even we managed it!" He did not seem to notice the total lack of modesty this statement held.

"I dunno." Ron muttered, shrugging off Fed and pushing between Emer and Hermione, the latter apologising briefly before chasing after him.

"Hmm," George said, his eyes trained on Ron's retreating hunched over figure. "Well, we can dwell on that later – we've got a party to organise! You coming Paddy?"

Emer shook her head, "We've got a champion to celebrate too, so we have."

"Ahhhh Cedric…"

"Piss off."

They turned left and headed down the marble staircase towards the Hufflepuff common room, Fred and George on the pretext of visiting the kitchens for extra food. After leaving the twins, Emer slipped through the false barrel, her head bent low to avoid the stony passage ceiling. What she found when she straightened up, did not impress her.

A few students were standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, bobbing to music that wasn't playing yet, and the squashiest chairs by the fire were full of sleeping first years. Ernie was bent over a radio, poking it with his wand and muttering spells under his breath.

"This blasted thing simply will not work!" he said to Emer, glaring at the radio as if it were being deliberately unhelpful. Emer gave him a withering look and fiddled with the knob on the right hand side of the machine marked 'volume'.

"Oh," Ernie said sheepishly, "Right." Music blared out of the radio, a loud thudding tune by the Weird Sisters that the awkwardly bobbing fifth years began swaying to, looking relieved.

"We need food and drink." Emer said to Ernie, who went a little pale.

"That's all very well but where will we get it from? We can't steal…" Emer's eyebrows were raised and Ernie skulked towards the hidden passage, defeated.

However he returned barely a minute later, forcing cauldron cakes and butterbeer on anyone with a spare hand.

"Fred and George Weasley gave them to me!" He shouted excitedly above the babble, "Awfully nice chaps! Said they brought it all down from dinner especially for us!"

Emer snorted. She was prepared to bet every last scrap of money she had, which wasn't very much, that Fred and George had only given Ernie the food they couldn't manage to carry back up to Gryffindor tower.

Ten minutes later, when the 'party' was in a much more excited state, Cedric came clambering through the tunnel a broad grin spread across his face. There was a roar of applause as a pair of burly seventh years pulled him into the throng. Emer hung back and watched as Cedric was hugged and pulled about by most of her house, smiling to herself. She joined in with a half-hearted round of 'For he's a jolly good fellow', before slipping away, unnoticed, up to her dormitory.