"Curiosity is not a sin… But we should exercise caution with our curiosity… yes, indeed."


When they got back up to the tower after the feast, Belle was sitting in a chair gazing happily out the window towards the lake.

"So what was up earlier?" Al asked, sitting down in a chair opposite her.

"I wasn't feeling well," she said, smiling out the window. The setting sun lit her face and wreathed her black curly hair with gold and twinkled in her eyes. "But it's such a beautiful day and a beautiful view, I feel tons better."

"Well, that's good," Al said.

"Hey, Rosie, have you got the Charms essay done yet? I don't know what to write in mine..." Jake started, shifting on his feet uncomfortably. Rosie sighed and rolled her eyes, but she couldn't keep the smile from ghosting across her face. She turned on her heel and walked up the stairs to the girl's dormitories. Jake grabbed his bag from a nearby table and reached through it for his roll of parchment, which so far just had the words "Jake Longbottom" on it. Al smirked and shook his head.

"Well I don't suppose YOU have gotten along much further," Jake huffed.

"As a matter of fact, I've gotten the introduction and two paragraphs done," Al said.

"Well fine then, Belle, I bet YOU haven't gotten that far. Belle and I are on the same page, isn't that right, Belle?" Jake said, turning his attention to her.

"Hm?" she asked, turning away from the window. "Oh, actually, I'm done."

"DONE?" Jake demanded, his eyes near bugging out of his head. "But we just got it yesterday!"

"Yeah, I was bored," Belle said with a shrug.

"Bored," Jake scoffed, shaking his head.

"Here," Rosie's voice came from behind the chair and Jake flinched, then shot her an angry look.

"Bloody hell," he swore, "I wish you wouldn't DO that!"

"Do what?" Rosie said innocently, handing him a neat roll of parchment.

"Sneak up like that!" he said, settling down with his own quill and parchment. "You could at least make a sound like a cough or something!"

"Oh, but that's no fun," she scoffed, pulling up another chair and sitting on it.

"Fun," Jake grumbled in disbelief, his quill scratching away at his parchment. The portrait hole slammed open with a bang, and James bounded in, closely followed by Fred and Louis. James was grinning so wide his dimples were like creases in his cheeks, and his eyes twinkled behind his glasses.

"We put our names in!" he declared happily, receiving a cheer from the Gryffindors that were sitting around the common room. Al looked at them and smiled an exasperated smile; now it was just a question of who would be drawn.


"Si-LENCE!" Professor McGonagall's voice echoed around the Great Hall, and the students of the four schools fell silent. The clanking of forks being placed on dessert plates echoed around the hall and the light of the jack-o-lantern's flickering across the plates.

The Goblet of Fire stood on the dais in front of the podium, it's fire raging up and casting shadows across McGonagall's face. "It is time to announce the champions for the Tournament." In the silence of the next thirty seconds, you could have heard a spoon drop. Then the crackle of the fire raged up and turned blue, and in a loud crack and plume of smoke, a charred piece of paper rose into the air and fell into McGonagall's outstretched hand.

"The champion of Durmstrang will be... Vsevolod Yovkov," her voice reached seemingly effortlessly to the corners of the room. "Vsevolod, please come to the front and follow Professor Balakov through the door, and when the rest of the champions arrive, we will explain the details of the tournament to you."

A young man stood from the end of the Ravenclaw table where the Durmstrang students were sitting. He was tall and broad shouldered with short, straight black hair and thick brows that furrowed in the middle, but he had a kind lilt to her mouth and a calm confidence to his stride. He walked up to the dais and shook McGonagall's hand before following Balakov through the door.

The fire spat blue again, and she caught another slip of paper. "And the representative of Magia is... Esmeralda Arroyo. Please follow Professor Gomez, Esmeralda." A slight blonde girl with steel-grey eyes stood, her cloak still making her seem to melt into the background even against the grey stone of the Hall. The Magia students clapped and the sound of their applause seemed to come from all directions. She padded to the front of the room without a sound and glided after Professor Gomez through the door.

Another piece of paper drifted through the air. "From Hogwarts, our champion will be... James Potter," McGonagall said, and applause broke out from the Gryffindor table as James stood. He ran down the isle between the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables and highfived students on either side, bouncing up to the dais happily. "Please go through the doors, James, and I will meet you there shortly." James nodded, and walked through the door. As it closed behind him, the final rage of fire rose up and the last piece of paper fell into McGonagall's hand.

"And from Beauxbatons, the representative will be... Armela Chevalier," McGonagall said, and a thin girl a bit taller than James stood, with mousy brown hair hanging in his face. She had wide, innocent eyes, and seemed to be walking in shoes too big for her feet that flopped on the floor as she walked up to the front of the hall. "Armela, please follow Madame Maxime, if you would, through those doors. And if the rest of you will be ever so patient, we will return shortly," McGonagall said, and Madame Maxime, McGonagall, and the girl all disappeared behind the doors.