As the next day was Saturday, most students would normally have breakfasted late but as Rohini finally joined Padma and Luna for breakfast, she realised she might be the last student to arrive. The decorations in the Great Hall had changed this morning. As it was Halloween, a cloud of live bats was fluttering around the enchanted ceiling, while hundreds of carved pumpkins leered from every corner.
"Did I miss something?" She asked as Padma handed her the plate of scrambled eggs.
"All the Durmstrang lot put their name in the goblet," Luna said. "But we haven't seen anyone from Hogwarts yet."
"I have the feeling three trouble makers aren't going to wait any longer…" Rohini said, glancing at Fred, George, and Lee Jordan walking towards The Goblet of Fire, all three of them looking extremely excited.
"This isn't going to work." Padma said, shaking her head.
"Nope." Rohini said with a smile.
Everybody was looking at the silly trio, wondering if whatever plan they came up with will work.
"Ready?" Fred said to the other two, quivering with excitement. "C'mon, then - I'll go first -"
Fred pulled a slip of parchment out of his pocket bearing the words Fred Weasley - Hogwarts. Fred walked right up to the edge of the line and stood there, rocking on his toes like a diver preparing for a fifty-foot drop. Then, with the eyes of every person in the entrance hall upon him, he took a great breath and stepped over the line.
For a split second, nothing happened; George let out a yell of triumph and leapt after Fred - but next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been thrown by an invisible shot-putter.
They landed painfully, ten feet away on the cold stone floor, and to add insult to injury, there was a loud popping noise, and both of them sprouted identical long white beards.
"Oh no, they look awful!" Padma said, eyes tearing up from laughing too hard.
"They had it coming, ahah!" Rohini said, leaning against Luna's shoulders to avoid falling.
The entrance hall rang with laughter. Even Fred and George joined in, once they had gotten to their feet and taken a good look at each other's beards.
"I did warn you," said a deep, amused voice, and everyone turned to see Professor Dumbledore coming out of the Great Hall. He surveyed Fred and George, his eyes twinkling. "I suggest you both go up to Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to Miss Fawcett, of Ravenclaw, and Mr. Summers, of Hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours."
Fred and George set off for the hospital wing, accompanied by Lee, who was howling with laughter.
"More seriously, I wonder who will be our champion if only underage students have tried…" Padma said, glancing back at the goblet. "I wonder if Cho Chang have put her name in yet."
"Oh, here she goes!" Rohini said excitingly as Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory stepped into the golden circle together. Both the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs clapped loudly, followed by the Slytherin as a huge bloke named Warrington put his own name in the Goblet.
"I'm not that hype about having a Slytherin champion." Rohini admitted. "I mean, I know there are some decent fellows in their house, but Warrington isn't one of them; he played dirty during his match against Harry."
"Oh, look!" Luna said, pointing at Angelina Johnson, grinning in an embarrassed sort of way, as she walked towards the enchanted goblet.
"She's really cool, isn't she?" Padma said as she looked at Angelina grinning at the Gryffindors. "She's both pretty and very strong, since she's in the Quidditch team."
"I wouldn't mind her being our champion, yeah." Rohini agreed. "Didn't know she was seventeen! What are your plans for today?" She then asked her friend.
"I'm going to write my first article for the next edition of The Quibbler." Luna announced, beaming.
"Wow, really? That's awesome!" Rohini said, impressed. "I'm sure you'll do well! What is it going to be about?"
"S.P.E.W., I had a talk with Hermione and she gave me all the information I needed for it." Luna said. "Dad is quite interested by the subject; he even asked me to buy a pin for himself."
"You and your dad are so sweet I'll get cavities." Rohini sighed before looking at Padma. "How about you?"
"I was thinking we might have spent the day together?" Padma said, looking unsure. "But I think you said you and Harry planned to go visit Hagrid with Ron and Hermione…"
"You can come with us!" Rohini said. "You're my best friend, of course I want to spend the day with you, too!"
"What a poignant confession." A cold voice said behind the girls and Rohini hold back a grimace as they looked up at Snape.
"Some people are able to show other emotions than hate, professor. Surprising, isn't it?" Rohini said shortly and she didn't miss the little smile Padma hide behind her hand.
"Five points from Ravenclaw for your distasteful s use of sarcasm, Potter." Snape said. "I have the displeasure to announce you Professor McGonagall have… kindly asked me to tutor you today-"
"What?" Rohini said, suddenly not amused at all.
"-She apparently seems to think you need to broaden your potions knowledge before going further into your Animagus training." Snape sneered. "Meet me in front of the donjon at 5." And then he left, his black cape floating behind him like an ugly bat's wings.
"Please poison me right now." Rohini said as Padma gently patted her back. "I feel betrayed by Professor McGonagall, how could she think it was a good idea?! Snape hates me!"
"Well, Snape is the most despicable man on this planet, but you have to admit Potions are important." Padma said.
"Yeah, but is there really nobody else available?" Rohini groaned. "Private lesson with Snivellus Snape, oh joy."
"I'm sure you will survive it." Padma said, and there was a little twinkle in her eyes that showed she was quite amused by the situation.
"Oh look, the Beauxbatons students are here." Luna said, pointing at the entrance doors.
Madame Maxime entered the hall behind her students and organized them into a line. One by one, the Beauxbatons students stepped across the Age Line and dropped their slips of parchment into the blue-white flames. As each name entered the fire, it turned briefly red and emitted sparks.
When all the Beauxbatons students had submitted their names, Madame Maxime led them back out of the hall and out onto the grounds again.
"I wonder where they are sleeping." Rohini thought aloud. "I mean, the Durmstrang students probably sleep aboard their ghostly ship, but sleeping in a huge carriage sounds quite… weird, even for the wizardly world."
But before Padma or Luna could answer, Harry and his best friends joined them and asked if Rohini was ready to go.
"Padma can come with us, right?" She asked and Padma smiled anxiously.
"Yeah, sure." Harry said.
"Thank you." Padma said, looking half surprised to be allowed to follow so easily.
"Told ya." Rohini said, smiling softly.
As they neared Hagrid's cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, the mystery of the Beauxbatons' sleeping quarters was solved. The gigantic powder-blue carriage in which they had arrived had been parked two hundred yards from Hagrid's front door, and the students were climbing back inside it.
"So they really sleep inside!" Rohini said, bemused. "Gosh, I'd love to follow them and see how it is…"
"Maybe you should make some Polyjuice potion to find out." Padma said, grinning; she was obviously referencing to that one time, back in second year, when the twins and their friends had brewed the difficult potion to spy on Malfoy.
"No thanks, it tasted worse than rotting eggs." Ron said with a grimace.
Harry knocked on Hagrid's door, and Fang's booming barks answered instantly.
"Bout time!" said Hagrid, when he'd flung open the door. "Thought you lot'd forgotten where I live!"
"We've been really busy, Hag -" Hermione started to say, but then she stopped dead, looking up at Hagrid, apparently lost for words.
"Woah." Rohini said, blinking.
Hagrid was wearing his best (and very horrible) hairy brown suit, plus a checked yellow-and-orange tie. This wasn't the worst of it, though; he had evidently tried to tame his hair, using large quantities of what appeared to be axle grease.
It was now slicked down into two bunches - perhaps he had tried a ponytail like Bill's, but found he had too much hair. The look didn't really suit Hagrid at all. Rohini and Padma exchanged a look, then cough to hide their smile.
Hermione goggled at him, then, obviously deciding not to comment, she said, "Erm - where are the skrewts?"
"Out by the pumpkin patch," said Hagrid happily. "They're get-tin' massive, mus' be nearly three foot long now. On'y trouble is, they've started killin' each other."
"Oh no, really?" said Hermione, shooting a repressive look at Ron, who, staring at Hagrid's odd hairstyle, had just opened his mouth to say something about it.
"Yeah," said Hagrid sadly. "S' okay, though, I've got 'em in separate boxes now. Still got abou' twenty."
"Well, that's lucky," said Ron and Rohini elbowed him. Hagrid, thanks Merlin, missed the sarcasm.
Hagrid's cabin comprised a single room, in one corner of which was a gigantic bed covered in a patchwork quilt. A similarly enormous wooden table and chairs stood in front of the fire beneath the quantity of cured hams and dead birds hanging from the ceiling.
"Oh, hello Padma!" Hagrid said when he spotted the fifth member of their tiny group.
"Hello, Mister Hagrid." Padma said, looking slightly intimidated.
"Just Hagrid is fin'" Hagrid said with a smile.
They sat down at the table while he started to make tea, and were soon immersed in yet more discussion of the Triwizard Tournament. Hagrid seemed quite as excited about it as they were.
"You wait," he said, grinning. "You jus' wait. Yer going ter see some stuff yeh've never seen before. Firs' task. . . ah, but I'm not supposed ter say."
"Go on, Hagrid!" They urged him, but he just shook his head, grinning.
"I don' want ter spoil it fer yeh," said Hagrid. "But it's gonna be spectacular, I'll tell yeh that. Them champions're going ter have their work cut out. Never thought I'd live ter see the Triwizard Tournament played again!"
"Me neither; mum had always said it was way too dangerous to begin with." Padma said.
"Yer' motha' is an Auror, heh?" Hagrid said while pouring them a cup of tea each. "Hope she's all good, with all that's happenin' lately…"
"I'm sure she will manage, she's stronger than what most people think." Padma said, obviously proud of Mrs. Patil's hardworking and perseverant personality.
They ended up having lunch with Hagrid, though they didn't eat much - Hagrid had made what he said was a beef casserole, but after Hermione unearthed a large talon in hers, the five friends rather lost their appetites.
However, they enjoyed themselves trying to make Hagrid tell them what the tasks in the tournament were going to be, speculating which of the entrants were likely to be selected as champions, and wondering whether Fred and George were beardless yet.
A light rain had started to fall by midafternoon; it was very cozy sitting by the fire, listening to the gentle patter of the drops on the window, watching Hagrid darning his socks and arguing with Hermione about house-elves - for he flatly refused to join S.P.E.W. when she showed him her badges.
"It'd be doin' 'em an unkindness, Hermione," he said gravely, threading a massive bone needle with thick yellow yarn. "It's in their nature ter look after humans, that's what they like, see? Yeh'd be makin' 'em unhappy ter take away their work, an' insutin' 'em if yeh tried ter pay 'em."
"But Harry set Dobby free, and he was over the moon about it!" said Hermione. "And we heard he's asking for wages now!"
"Is he?" Rohini asked, surprised; she hadn't heard about Dobby in a long time.
"Yeah, well, yeh get weirdos in every breed. I'm not sayin' there isn't the odd elf who'd take freedom, but yeh'll never persuade most of 'em ter do it - no, nothin' doin', Hermione."
Hermione looked very cross indeed and stuffed her box of badges back into her cloak pocket.
"Oh no, I forgot I'm supposed to meet up with Snape!" Rohini suddenly realised at five in the afternoon rang.
"Huh, what?" Harry said.
"Padma will explain. Sorry Hagrid, gotta go!" Rohini said, running back to the castle, holding her bag above her head to avoid being soaked wet by the now pouring rain.
Of course, Snape was already waiting for her in front of the door and didn't miss the opportunity to take off some points from Ravenclaw for "making him loses his precious time."
"Today, you will learn to make a Skele-Gro potion." Snape announced as he began to write the different steps on his chalkboard. "It shouldn't be too hard for someone as smart as you, Potter."
Somehow, Rohini could tell it wasn't mean as a compliment.
By half past five it was growing so dark inside the donjon that Rohini could barely see what she was doing but Snape didn't bother to light up a candle or two. Sweaty, her glasses all steamy and her hair messier than ever, Rohini finally finished her potion.
Snape took a look above her shoulders, invading Rohini's personal space so much she could feel his disgusting breath against her nape.
"I wouldn't risk giving it to Madam Pomfrey." the Potions Master said. "You obviously didn't respect the dosage of Chinese Chomping Cabbage."
"Duh." Rohini said; she had chopped the vegetable right under Snape's eyes and he hadn't stopped her yet.
"You might take your leave, now." Snape said. "I will inform my colleague that you should be able to grow back a bone the size of your little toe."
"Thanks, professor." Rohini said, obviously not thinking a single word of it.
She was on her way to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast when something caught her attention; it was Peeves, laughing and mocking someone. Rubbing her glasses on her sweater to get rid of the steam, Rohini realised he was actually bothering the pretty girl from Durmstrang.
"Peeves!" Rohini shouted, running towards them and pointing a menacing finger at the poltergeist. "If you don't stop what you're doing right now, I will tell the Bloody Baron you're bothering the Slytherins' table guest!"
The Bloody Baron was the Slytherin ghost, and the only person (?) that was able to scare Peeves away. The Poltergeist blew up raspberries at Rohini before flying away.
Left alone, Rohini gave an apologetic smile to the stranger; now that they were in front of each other, she realised the other girl was way taller than her, maybe even taller than Ron. The Durmstrang student was now smiling at Rohini.
"Thanks, little saviour." She said. Her voice was deep and nice to listen to.
"You're welcome, my lady." Rohini said with a nervous laugh. "I, erm, am sorry about Peeves. Don't hesitate to jinx him if he bothers you again."
"I will make sure to remember that." The girl said before offering her hand to Rohini. "I'm Dana, by the way."
"Rohini." Rohini said, shaking hands with her. "But I supposed you already know that, with what happened yesterday."
"The twins who lived, heh?" Dana said. "Yeah, I might have heard about you and your brother before."
"More about my brother than I." Rohini said. "I've heard scars were quite popular."
"Scars are overrated, don't you think?" Dana said with a wink and Rohini's eyes fell on the three scars on her cheek. "May I ask my little saviour to show me the way back to the Great Hall?"
"Oh, of course!" Rohini said eagerly. "I don't want to be rude or anything, but how did you end up here?"
"I was looking for our headmaster, and got lost." Dana explained. "How about you? I saw you head towards the Forrest with your friends earlier. Did the big bad wolf eat them?"
"Pfff!" Rohini chuckled. "Hopefully not; I do like my worldwide famous big brother. I just had a special Potion training with Snivel- Professor Sn ape."
"A special training?" Dana asked, looking interested.
"Yep! I'm actually planning to become an Animagus." Rohini explained. "I've been training for almost a year now."
"I'm impressed." Dana said, and she sound sincere. "Any animals you'd like to turn into?"
"Hmm…" Rohini said, thinking about it. "Ideally? An Hippogriff. Realistically? A deer, maybe. It was my dad's fo- favourite animal, I've heard." Rohini said, remembering her father and his friends were illegal Animagi.
"I'd love to be a dragon." Dana said.
"A dragon? Neat." Rohini said with a smile. "I'm sure you'd look impressive as one."
"Grrr." Dana growled, making a claw motion with her hands and the two girls began to laugh.
By the time they reached the Great Hall, Rohini had learned two things: Dana was a fervent Dragon Right Activist and the little gap between her front teeth was very charming.
"Well, here we are." Rohini said as they stood up in front of the opened doors.
"Thanks, little saviour." Dana said. "It was a pleasure to properly meet you, Rohini."
"Pl- pleasure was mine." Rohini said, feeling her cheeks getting warmer as Dana used her name. She should definitely thanks Peeves for being such a bother at the right moment, for once. "I think you should be safe from now on."
Dana smiled and took Rohini's hand before giving it a little kiss.
"A proper thank for the knight in shiny armour." She said with a wink before heading towards the Slytherin table where her friends were already sitting.
Internally screaming, Rohini resisted the urge to hide her face into her hands and bit her lips to hold back the huge grin that was trying to flourish on her face. She bumped into two different students on her way to the Ravenclaw table and hit her knees against the table as she sat between Padma and Luna.
"Oh my god." She whispered. "Oh my god."
"Looks like you had a really unexpected meeting." Padma said, leaning closer. "Tell us everything."
"I…" Rohini began, trying to calm down, "I just met the coolest girl ever."
"See? She has forgotten about us already." Padma said to Luna with a little pout.
"I said the coolest girl, not the prettiest." Rohini said with a wink and Padma chuckled.
"Oh, hush you! How did you meet?" Padma asked, genuinely curious.
"I was leaving the donjon when I heard Peeves bullying her, so I decided to give her a little help."
"That was quite noble of you." Luna said with a knowing smile.
"I'm sure you'd have done the same." Rohini said before clearing her throat. "Anyway, I helped her get rid of him and then she asked if I could show her the way back to the Great Hall. We talked about dragons."
"Dragons?" Padma said, raising an eyebrow. "You met a girl for the first time, and you talked about dragons? That's… very typical of you."
"Thanks, Padma." Rohini said before pulling her tongue out childishly. "She's the one bringing up the topic, actually. She was really passionate about it."
"I'm sure she was." Padma said, looked at Luna, and the two of them began to giggle.
"Oh, shush!' Rohini said, turning crimson.
"I'm sorry but, you have to admit, it's so… cliché! You save the beautiful mysterious stranger from the Bad Poltergeist, you talk about dragons and then she gives you this very noble-like kiss on the hand? That kind of situation could only happen to you, Rohi." Padma said and Rohini joined her friends in their laugh.
Finally looking around properly, Rohini realised the Goblet of Fire had been moved; it was now standing in front of Dumbledore's empty chair at the teachers' table. Fred and George - clean-shaven again - seemed to have taken their disappointment fairly well.
The Halloween feast seemed to take much longer than usual due to everybody's thrilling excitement about finally learning the three champions' names.
At long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the Hall, which died away almost instantly as Dumbledore got to his feet. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr. Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.
"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" - he indicated the door behind the staff table - "where they will be receiving their first instructions."
He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes.
The tension was thick, everybody holding back their breath. Rohini saw Cho Chang's best friends taking her hands, probably hopping her name will be sorted out.
The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it - the whole room gasped.
Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.
"The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."
A storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall.
"That doesn't even feel like a surprise, somehow." Padma pointed out as Viktor Krum rise from the Slytherin table and slouch up toward Dumbledore; he turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.
"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. "Knew you had it in you!"
"He's playing favouritism so hard." Rohini said with a grimace. "I don't like him."
The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.
"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!"
The girl on Padma's right got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables.
When Fleur Delacour too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it.
"Cho Chang, Cho Chang!" A Ravenclaw cheered up.
"Diggory, Diggory!"
"Angelina!"
Finally the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment.
The Hogwarts champion," he called, "is Cedric Diggory!"
The Hufflepuff table uproared loudly, some students standing up on their seat while waiving their napkins as Cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off toward the chamber behind the teachers' table.
Indeed, the applause for Cedric went on so long that it was some time before Dumbledore could make himself heard again.
"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real -"
But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him.
The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment.
Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore.
And before Dumbledore could say anything, before his eyes went searching through the students' crowd for a particular face, Rohini had the nagging feeling that something wrong was going to happen once again.