A/N A fun little chapter to write, hope you all enjoy and review!

Disclaimer: J.K. owns everything. Period.

Chapter 11: The Goblet of Fire

Over the next few days, classes began increasing in work load and the group postponed their testing of the Room of Requirement for the weekend. Finally, Friday arrived and the group met in the common room, excited to test out their skills in a dueling arena.

Just before leaving the portrait, however, Ginny stepped in front of them with an annoyed look on her face. "And just where do you all think you're going?" She asked with her arms crossed. "Ron's had his goofy excited look on all day so I know you guys are up to something fun."

"Er…" Harry stuttered uncertainly, not wanting to bring up the Room of Requirement in such a crowded area.

"Oh just come on," Ron said impatiently, you'll see when we get there. Ginny shrugged at this and fell in with the group as they headed again to the seventh floor. Pacing before the door, Harry began to open the newly appeared door when he heard a throat clearing behind him. Spinning quickly, expecting a teacher to have caught them, Harry was surprised to see Neville standing by the tapestry of Barnabus.

"I heard Ron talking about the room yesterday and I want in. I could use some extra help with Defense of the Dark Arts." He said, walking towards them quickly as though they might not let him join them if he took too long.

At this Hermione gave Ron an exasperated look before shaking her head and opening the door, muttering about Ron being unable to keep a secret if he had a wand shoved up his arse, causing Harry, Ginny and Estella to break into laughter as they followed her through the door. As they entered the immense room, Ginny gasped at the sight while Neville merely nodded in appreciation. Harry first went to the training dummies to see if they operated in the same manner as those he was used to and upon confirmation he levitated 4 of them over to the arena where the others awaited him.

"Well seeing as only Estella and I have ever had any legitimate dueling instruction, I want to first see where you all stand against opponents and then we'll decide where to go from there." Harry said, fairly confident in his plan as he'd spent a great deal of time going over how he would bring them up to speed before they began learning new spells and techniques. "To do this, I'm going to put you in an open field, no landscape just yet, and see how well you handle yourselves. Sound good?" The others nodded in agreement and headed to the arena, each levitating a training dummy to face off against.

First up was Hermione, who squared off with the dummy nervously. Setting the dummy to low skill level, Harry activated it and Hermione went immediately to disarm her opponent, yet when the dummy threw up a shield, she seemed at a loss as to what to do next and was nearly caught by a stunning charm. Casting her own stunning charm in response, she seemed to be becoming increasingly frustrated at not taking out her target which only caused her to further stumble over spells. It seemed as though she had too many ideas on what spells to use but she couldn't seem to make up her mind. Finally, as a stunning charm came towards her as she was in the middle of a spell she froze and neglected to shield herself, merely throwing up her hands and squeaking as the charm hit her in the chest. Harry cast Rennervate to wake her before moving on.

Next up was Ginny, who approached the target as though she were facing one of her siblings who'd pissed her off. As soon as the dummy was activated she went straight to work throwing bat-bogey hexes, stunning charms and disarming charms. She seemed to be making headway, however, her extensive spell casting relied mainly on the fact that her opponent couldn't get off many spells while attempting to avoid her and she was throwing up no defensive spells to protect herself. A well placed Expelliarmus easily struck her and she huffed angrily as she retrieved her wand, kicking the dummy as she passed it.

As Ron walked up to his position, the group could see the trepidation in the shakiness of his movements and the deep breaths he kept taking.

"Relax, Ron," Harry said reassuringly. "It's just practice; no harm will come from it."

At this, Ron straightened up and nodded, attempting to muster up his confidence. As the dummy activated, it immediately sent a stunning charm at Ron, who seemed to freeze instantly. His eyes widened he raised his arms for a second to protect himself before remembering his wand and casting a quick shielding charm. The rushed Protego barely managed to stop the spell and Ron was tagged by the bit that managed to slip through the shield, causing his eyes to droop into a semi-conscious position. Somehow he managed to remember where he was despite the state of his mind and managed to get off a Stupefy before being struck down by a body bind curse. Somehow his stunning charm managed to hit the dummy and it went down nearly simultaneously.

The group laughed at Ron's "victory" though Harry told him not to let it get to his head, as a victory at the cost of his own life wouldn't be of much use to him. This seemed to humble Ron as he moved back to his place next to Hermione to watch Neville take his turn.

Neville, who'd been unusually quiet lately, moved up to position with the same look of determination that he'd worn as he'd prepared to face the Imperius curse. As soon as the dummy activated, he began by throwing a volley of spells much like Ginny had, mixing in a large variety of spells into a few seconds. Jelly legs jinxes, body bind curses, stunning charms, and even Reducto's flew towards the dummy with extraordinary intensity. The dummy did a marvelous job of holding of the first few spells but one of the jelly legs jinxes managed to slip through the shield, throwing it off balance and allowing a Reductor curse to hit it full in the chest, blasting it in half and ending the duel swiftly, without ever giving the dummy a chance to fire back.

All but Harry and Estella looked at Neville in silence with expressions of astonishment before rushing up and congratulating him. Looking at Estella, he saw the same thoughts reflected in her eyes.

"Looks like we're going to have to talk to Neville," Harry said to her under his breath. "I have a feeling that he's got something on his mind that he's learned to use with his magical ability. The difference in skill level is extraordinary but the look in his eyes worries me."

A nod from Estella told him she'd been thinking along similar lines. Looking on for another moment, Harry and Estella walked up to join the rest of the group.

"Well great job everyone," Harry said cheerfully. "Particularly you, Neville, you tore that dummy to shreds." Neville smiled slightly at the praise and Harry continued. "Each of you has your strengths and weaknesses to work on so Estella and I are going to work out some drills for each of you individually so we can work on your dueling fundamentals before we start adding new spells and tactics."

The others nodded, each of them excited at the prospect of being able to become more skilled duelists. They continued to chatter excitedly about the skills they were sure to learn as they headed back to the dorms.

The next few weeks went by smoothly, with the lessons in dueling progressing smoothly. Harry and Estella had Hermione practice short, fast-paced exchanges with the dummies by posting up several opponents for her to face off against. One would fire off a round of curses that she had to shield against and respond with a spell of her own. Shortly after, another drone would repeat the actions of the previous and she would continue to skirmish with various drones. She wasn't allowed to use the same offensive spell until she'd used 3 others in different exchanges, causing her to use a larger variety of spells and helping her to more easily recollect spells for use in a duel.

For Ginny, the two had faced her off against an opponent in an ordinary duel, however, she was only allowed to fire back as many spells as were thrown at her, forcing her to shield and move about much more defensively than before. This assisted her in learning how to properly defend herself while in a duel rather than relying merely on her intense volume of spells cast.

Ron needed assistance most in becoming used to stressful situations so Harry decided to work from the ground up. First he had Ron practicing against multiple dummies, only allowing him to shield and defend himself. On alternating weeks, Harry had Ron practice going on the offensive by reversing the positions and putting the drone on the defense. However, not wanting Ron to merely be attacking a target, he had the drone occasionally throw out a quick burst of spells that Ron would have to be on guard for if he didn't want to be hit.

Neville needed assistance in facing an opponent that could react faster than the drones, as even the high level drones weren't swift enough to face Neville's onslaught of spells. They defended against each one but were unable to respond to his spells. To remedy this, Harry set Neville in a room with various obstacles and sub-rooms where Neville had to be more on guard. He faced him against 3 drones that were in various places, forcing Neville to move about and locate his opponents before they surprised and stunned him. Occasionally Harry would even face Neville himself to give him practice against a much more powerful and slightly more experienced duelist.

Outside of assisting the others, Harry and Estella worked on learning various new more powerful spells that could be used to take down an opponent's shield with far more ease than a stunner. They had begun with strengthening her ability with shield charms by having Harry duel her with some of the safer spells they had learned as she defended. For the more violent curses, he threw the spells at a target dummy that she shielded from a nearby location.

With classes settling in, the work load had begun increasing and the group always enjoyed the release they got from dueling. Harry had written to Sirius and Estella again to update them on the status of the training and they had responded quickly, letting him know that they were proud of him for adding others to the group and assisting them as well rather than keeping his skills to himself.

Before they knew it, October was upon them and the holiday spirit was visible throughout the school with the cobwebs and carved pumpkins lining the hallways. Near the end of the month, a poster appeared outside of the Great Hall signaling the pending arrival of the delegates from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons for October 30.

Excitement filled the castle as girls chattered amongst themselves about the likelihood of the Durmstrang boys being cute while the boys traded stories about their unlikely experiences with females from Beauxbatons.

The evening of October 30 arrived and the students lined up to await the arrival of the schools. A massive flying carriage landed in the grass, carrying Madame Maxime, headmistress of Beauxbatons, and her students who were shivering from lack of proper weather attire. She planted two kisses on Dumbledore's cheeks as he welcomed her to Hogwarts before ushering her students into the school to warm up.

Soon afterwards the Durmstrang students arrived on an eerie ship that emerged from the Black Lake. As the students piled off, Ron nearly fainted in excitement at seeing that the student in front was none other than the famous seeker Victor Krum.

Filing into the castle after the students, Harry was amused to see Ron rush in to stand amongst the females attempting to acquire an autograph from Victor Krum.

"I'm glad you don't get so flustered when a Quidditch player shows up to the school," Harry said to Estella jokingly.

Laughing, she replied, "Why would I when I have the famous Harry Potter by my side already." Seeing his face redden indignantly only made her laugh harder as she enveloped him in a bear hug. "I'm only joking, I could care less about how famous you are, I just care about plain old boring Harry."

"Thanks… I think," Harry said shaking his head. 'I think I'll stop now before she continues to poke fun at me.'

As the students sat at the tables, each house attempted to sway Krum into sitting with them, though in the end he sat down with the Slytherins, causing Draco to look around smugly, as though he'd won some great victory.

"Hey, psst! Hey, Victor! Krum! Psssssssst!" Harry looked to his left in annoyance to find Ron desperately attempting to catch the attention of Victor Krum in order to persuade him to sit with the group. When Ron even went so far as to invite him to sleep in their room Harry just shook his head and proceeded to ignore him.

The girls from Beauxbatons had finally stopped shivering and once they did Harry wished they'd never stopped. As soon as they managed to work the frost from their lips they proceeded to criticize everything in sight, from the ceiling to the decorations to the food (when it appeared) and even the very students of Hogwarts. Estella seemed like she was on the verge of slapping one who looked at her with a curled lip before turning to her friend and speaking under her voice. Despite how much he'd enjoy watching her take apart the girl, Harry pulled her back to him and planted kisses on her neck until she calmed down enough for him to let go, though he held onto her anyway.

When Dumbledore brought the hall to attention, Harry noticed two unfamiliar figures sitting at the head table with the teachers. When he pointed them out, Ron stopped staring at a girl from Beauxbatons he claimed to be a Veela long enough to answer him.

"That's Ludo Bagman to the left, he's the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, and to the right is Barty Crouch, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

Dumbledore was now clearing his throat again to settle down the remainder of the conversation in the hall before he proceeded to speak. "Good evening all and welcome to Hogwarts!" He boomed enthusiastically. "It is a pleasure to extend the hospitality of Hogwarts to our fellow schools of magic and I'm certain that our students will express their excellent conduct as well.

"Now we are all here together to participate in the monumental return of the Triwizard Tournament in which one delegate from each school will be allowed to participate in a contest of wit, bravery and strength to win the Triwizard Cup for their respective school along with 1000 galleons."

Upon hearing of the winnings for the tournament, the Hall broke into excited chatter, to which Dumbledore merely smiled before hushing the students again. "Now to determine the champion for each school, the Goblet of Fire will be used to select those it deems most worthy." At this, Dumbledore gestured to a large goblet that had escaped the attention of most. "Each student wishing to enter must place his or her name upon a slip of paper and place it into the Goblet and tomorrow the champions will be announced. On that note, do not enter your name if you believe yourself to be unable to complete the tasks because if selected, you must go on with the tournament. Now, sleep on that thought and tomorrow if you still wish to enter, the Goblet will await you outside of the Great Hall."

When Dumbledore stepped down, the students began making their way to the dorms while the head boy lead Durmstrang away and the head girl, Beauxbatons. As they made their way towards the common room, Estella was steadily attempting to convince Harry to enter.

"Why should I enter the tournament?" he asked in exasperation for what felt like the hundredth time. "I already have fame and I clearly have gold, what would the tournament do for me?"

"It's not about that, Harry! You could win this tournament and have something you can say you did on your own. It's not for anyone else, Harry, it's for you!" Estella was clearly excited about this and refused to drop the subject.

Sighing, Harry tried a different angle. "I thought you wanted to enter the tournament. We can't both be the Hogwarts champion."

"But this way one of us will at least. I don't care who it is, I just don't think you should let this opportunity go without at least trying." Estella stuck out her bottom lip in an attempt to sway him, begging him to consider her idea and finally Harry relented.

"Well… I still don't want you entering, so…" I'll put my name in if you promise not to enter yours." His slim hope that this would change her mind was crushed instantly when her smile lit up and she hugged him tightly, agreeing readily to his terms.

'I'm going to regret that tomorrow, especially if I get selected.' Despite this, Harry couldn't help but be a little excited about the prospect of entering the tournament and as he and Estella kissed one another goodnight, that thought kept him up as he considered the possibilities.

The next morning came about swiftly and Harry was surprised to find that many people were unwilling to enter the tournament, despite their excitement at the rewards. Cedric Diggory slipped his name into the cup to the raucous applause of several of his housemates who'd come to watch and Victor Krum had placed his name in as well, ignoring the fawning girls around him.

Harry had managed to avoid placing his name in all morning and had held out hope that Estella had forgotten their deal until she showed up with a slip of paper and a quill ready for him to sign. After lunch, he'd headed to the cup to witness a few students from Beauxbatons enter their names. Following them, Draco Malfoy strutted up to the cup with a gang of Slytherins to enter their names with expressions that showed that they felt they'd already been selected as the champions.

When Harry walked up to the cup nervously, Draco turned and commented loudly. "Looks like Potter thinks he's good enough to enter the tournament. Letting that fame get to your head eh? Maybe I should get you a pacifier and a couple more parents for you to give you a better chance?"

Stopping in his tracks, Harry turned slowly and when he faced Malfoy the look of intense fury caused the smirk to slip a little. For Harry, everything happened in slow motion, literally, and he advanced on Malfoy so quickly that to the naked eye it was almost as though he had apparated. His wand had also managed to appear in his hand and he'd pushed it roughly into Draco's neck.

For a moment, it looked as though Harry would take off Draco's head there on the spot but instead he leaned forward, the fiery look in his eyes still present. "I should kill you for that," he whispered in Draco's ear, "but you aren't worth the years I'd spend in Azkaban. Just know that if you ever cross me in less favorable circumstances than this, it might be your last."

Pulling back, Harry glared into Draco's eyes for a moment longer before removing his wand, the tip of which had turned a yellowish hue and had left a cut on Draco's neck, which began to run freely until Draco covered it up and backed away in fright, not turning his back on Harry until he reached the corner of the hallway where he turned and ran.

Harry had continued to stare down Draco until he rounded the corner, at which point he shook his head and seemed to come back to reality to see the small crowd looking at him in a mixture of awe and fear. Hurriedly he shoved his slip into the Goblet and walked off quickly, not waiting to see if Estella was there or not.

When a comforting hand slipped into his, he turned and looked at Estella, who'd caught up to his long strides with relative difficulty. "What did you say to him?" She asked him softly.

"I told him not to cross me again…" he said, pausing uncomfortably, "and that if he ever did so again that I wouldn't give him the chance again."

"Oh, Harry," she said, pulling him into a hug. "I understand how upset you must be but don't let that idiotic prat get to you. He's just doing his best to rile you up and its clearly working. Don't let him get the best of you like that, sometimes it's best just to ignore, especially when they anger you this much." Harry nodded his understanding but he still kept silent and Estella was content to merely walk with him, providing what comfort she could.

Dinner came swiftly and everyone ate in a rush, excited for the selection of the champions to begin. Finally, Dumbledore stepped forth and signaled for Snape to bring up the Goblet of Fire. When Snape set it upon the table, sparks began to shoot from the inside, increasing in intensity and spitting out pieces of paper. Finally, when the third paper appeared, the sparks began to die down and Snape handed the slips to Dumbledore.

Clearing his throat, Dumbledore selected the first slip and began to speak. "As each champion is chosen, I would like for them to stand at the before the head table to await further instructions. Now, for the Durmstrang champion we have… Victor Krum!" Loud applause echoed throughout the Hall, particularly from the females, although Ron outdid them all.

"Some surprise that is," Ron said sarcastically, continuing his enthusiastic clapping.

As the applause died down, Krum took his place at the head table and Dumbledore shook his hand before continuing. "For the Beauxbatons champion we have… Fleur Delacour!" Applause broke out, less intense from most, but equally as enthusiastic from Ron as he shouted to Harry that she was the half Veela girl he'd noticed earlier.

When Fleur took her place amongst the champions, Dumbledore selected the final slip and smiled slightly before reading. "And the final champion for Hogwarts is… Harry Potter!" Applause exploded throughout the Hall and Harry's heart seemed to pound in his throat as he stood up and walked towards the head table.

When he reached Dumbledore he smiled slightly and shook his hands, feeling less nervous after seeing the reassuring twinkle in Dumbledore eyes. "Now all of the champions must leave now to meet in my office to discuss the tournament. To the rest of you, be prepared for an exciting year and I look forward to seeing each of you support you're respective champions throughout the tournament."

As Harry and the other three champions walked out, many of the students congratulated him and wished him good luck, increasing the butterflies in his chest. Upon reaching the doors his nerves were shot with adrenaline until a series of gasps throughout the Hall caught his attention, causing him to turn around.

Wondering at the fuss, he noticed several students pointing at the Goblet and muttering to the others around them. Dumbledore frowned and walked towards the cup cautiously. After a moment of intense sparking, a fourth slip of paper shot out and landed in Dumbledore's hand. Dumbledore stared at the paper intensely for a moment, his frown deepening before he turned to face the students and faculty who seemed eager to hear of this new development.

Pausing momentarily to scrutinize the slip once more, Dumbledore finally looked up and surveyed the hall before reading the name aloud and as the name sounded throughout the hall Harry's jaw dropped in shock and dismay, unwilling to comprehend what he was hearing.

The name was, "Estella Adalmund."

A/N Hope you liked it! I'm excited to get the fun part started so please review and keep reading, more is in store in the near future.