Chapter XVI: When Goblets and Mirrors Speak
The drawing of the Triwizard Champions would be done Halloween Night. Usually, students at Hogwarts would spend Halloween Day slacking in their classes and playing pranks in preparation for the feast. But that day, students gathered in the Entrance Hallway and watched students of age – and a few underage attempt to – add their name to the Goblet of Fire.
All the popular students from each House put their names in. Angelina Johnson from Gryffindor, Sawyer Fawcett from Ravenclaw, Cassius Warrington from Slytherin, and, of course, Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff. Cedric was universally popular across the school. He was Hufflepuff's darling, Ravenclaw was kind to him, and even Slytherin found little fault with Cedric. Only some in Gryffindor mocked as a way to support their candidates.
"Should we go talk to Nelo before the feast?" Vaughn asked.
"Let's save it for tomorrow." Giuliana said. "Besides, do you know how to get onto the magical boat?"
So instead, the two of them spent the rest of the day roaming the Hogwarts Castle, talking with the portraits and exploring rooms they had never seen before. Even in their Fourth Year, there was so much of Hogwarts that remained a mystery. Some rooms were interesting, such as a room on the Second Floor that had chocolate frogs hopping everywhere. Others were shocking, such as the Sixth Floor room filled with tapestries that yelled obscenities at them.
Night fell before long and it was time for the Second Feast and the Drawing of the Champions. The usual Halloween decorations were not there, replaced by the banners with the coat of arms of the Three Schools. Once more, Durmstrang sat at the Slytherin Table. While all the food was as splendid as the previous night, no one was particularly hungry. Everyone – even the Professors – seemed anxious to get to the Champion Drawings.
But next to Giuliana, Nelo was devouring his fish pie, seemingly without a care in the world.
"Aren't you nervous?" Giuliana asked him.
"No, dear cousin, I am not. Everyone from Durmstrang knows it will be Krum. We're just here to support him."
"How can you be sure? Did Karkaroff do something?"
Nelo scoffed at that, scooping up the pie's creamy mashed potatoes with some black bread. "Karkaroff isn't a powerful enough wizard to enchant a clock, much less influence something imbued with as much Old Magic as the Goblet of Fire. But if he could, he would. He such a lackey of Krum it's disgusting. Krum dislikes him though. He's just too nice to say anything."
Giuliana looked up at the Head Table and considered that. As Headmaster, Giuliana would have assumed Karkaroff was powerful. While she didn't care for Dumbledore, only an absolute moron would think he wasn't powerful. And Karkaroff was a Death Eater!
But in that moment, Giuliana remembered her parents' words.
'Most of the Death Eaters were as talented as a troll doing Ballet. Their only strength was in fear. Fear of what they could potentially do to another and that they had no limits on the cruelty they could inflict. But in a one on one duel, one could easily dispatch with a Death Eaters. They were nothing more than brutes.'
"Is Krum popular?" Giuliana asked.
Nelo shrugged. "He's popular in a sense. Everyone wants to be near him. Krum doesn't have many friends though. Is it like that for Harry Potter?"
"What?" Giuliana asked, slightly taken aback by the question.
"Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived? I saw him last night as we left. Scared the lights out of Karkaroff, that gave us all a good laugh back on the ship. Do people like him?"
"Um…" Giuliana began, trying to think of an answer. "Some do. He's a bit much though. Always seems to be the center of attention each year."
Wiping his mouth with a napkin, Nelo considered that. "When I saw him, I was a bit underwhelmed. I expected… I don't know… more gravitas from someone who survived the Killing Curse and beat a Dark Lord."
Giuliana laughed at that. "An event that he has no memory of according to gossip."
Nelo shrugged again, scoping another helping of fish pie as it floated down the table. "Doesn't matter. He is distinguished for life and seems to be of good breeding too. By the way, what is this proposal you mentioned last night?"
"We can discuss it later, with Vaughn too. It's… a bit private."
"How intriguing. But I was right last night, I will be needing something to do. Karkaroff barely brought any school work for us."
Several minutes later, the food vanished from the tables and excited muttering erupted across the Hall. The drawings were upon them as Dumbledore rose from his seat and brought the Great Hall to attention.
"Well, the Goblet is almost ready to make its decision. 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 where they will be receiving their first instructions."
The whole Hall was silent in anticipation as Dumbledore took out his wand and snuffed out the candle lights. The only source of light was from the Goblet of Fire, its bright blue and white flames strong enough to illuminate the whole Hall. Shadows danced on the walls behind everyone as they waited for the first name to be drawn.
Finally, the flames condensed and changed to an off-color red, before erupting with sparks, sputtering out a charred piece of parchment. It fluttered down into Dumbledore's aged hand, who adjusted his glasses and read off its' contents.
"The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum."
A cheer erupted from the whole Hall, though Durmstrang's students were the quietest. None seemed bitter, simply resigned to it just like Nelo was. None were as excited as Karkaroff though, who was making a bit of a fool of himself as he shouted congratulations to Krum. To his credit, Krum accepted his choosing with humility and shook Dumbledore's hand politely as he exited the Hall.
The cheering died down as Krum left and anticipation returned. They didn't have to wait long as the flames turned red and produced another piece of charred parchment. Dumbledore repeated the process and read off the name of Beauxbatons champion: Fleur Delacour.
Polite applause followed, though it increased when many of the boys – and a few girls – caught a glimpse of Ms. Delacour. Fleur Delacour was beautiful as she moved gracefully towards Dumbledore, her silvery blonde hair swaying rhythmically in line with her movements. Her beauty and confidence were apparent to all and, to the annoyance of some of the Hogwarts girls, many of the boys were plotting how to get to know Ms. Delacour better.
Once Delacour had vanished into the side chamber, the silence fell again. Hogwarts was next and the anticipation was high. Luckily, they did not have to wait long as the Goblet produced the final name.
"The Hogwarts champion," Dumbledore announced, "is Cedric Diggory!"
The uproar from Hufflepuff was deafening. Everyone single one of them, from Seventh to First Year, were on their feet cheering and celebrating. The other Houses were respectful though silently disappointed their own House wouldn't have a Champion. Still, even in their disappointment, most thought that Cedric wouldn't be too hard to root for. Once Cedric had exited out the way Krum and Delacour had gone, Dumbledore spoke once more.
"Excellent! Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining student 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-"
Dumbledore trailed off, a look of shock on his face as those in the Hall followed his eyes.
The Goblet of Fire wasn't done yet.
Flames red once more, the Goblet spouted out one more piece of parchment. Dumbledore, dazed, grabbed the piece of parchment and looked at the writing on it. He was still for a while, the look of disbelief still plastered on his face. The whole Hall was silent as Dumbledore called out one more name.
"Harry Potter."
It was said weakly, so only those closest to the front could hear the Headmaster. Murmuring, most of it angry, picked up as students in the front passed along the name. Every head turned to the Gryffindor table and stopped when Potter was spotted.
"Harry Potter!" Dumbledore called again, his voice more urgent as Professor McGonagall, who had dashed from the Head Table to Dumbledore's side, whispered in his ear, "Harry! Up here, if you please!"
After a moment, Harry rose from his seat at Gryffindor table and made his way to Dumbledore. He did not seem eager to reach him. He walked up as though he were a man going to his death. Once he reached the Headmaster, Dumbledore dutifully directed him to the side chamber with the rest of the Chosen Champions, the entire Hall still silent. He wasn't smiling. The Head Table was still as well. The only one up there who looked happy was the portly Ludo Bagman. The Heads of the other Schools looked absolutely murderous. The glare Madam Maxine was giving Harry could give the Killing Curse a run for its money, while Karkaroff seemed ready to jump over the Head Table and strangle Potter.
Finally, Harry made it to the door to the side chamber. He gave the Great Hall one last glance, shock still written all over his face, and then vanished out of sight.
"Un-bloody-believable" Giuliana hissed.
Since his arrival at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter had been a common topic of conversation and gossip. And during the three years he had been a student at Hogwarts, his reputation had fluctuated up and down depending on the events that unfolded around him.
Today, the tides at Hogwarts were decidedly against Harry Potter.
Gryffindor, true to form, rallied around their own. Word had gotten around thanks to a bunch of chatty paintings of the raucous party hosted in the Gryffindor Common Room after the Champion Drawings, leaving many in the other Houses annoyed at Gryffindor's lack of tac. There were a few in Gryffindor with misgivings, but overall the House didn't seem to care whether Potter's claims of being an unwilling Champion were true or not. A Gryffindor was a Gryffindor and House loyalty was paramount. They'd support their own, no questions asked.
The rest of the school was not of the same mindset. Hufflepuff - usually the House that kept the peace between the House tensions - was the instigator of much of the negativity. It wasn't just Harry but all of Gryffindor they seemed to dislike now. Cedric was popular in school but he was a King to Hufflepuff. It was a house full of many bright and powerful witches and wizards, but they had considerably fewer famous ones compared to the other three Houses, in school or out of it. Cedric was their great exception and to see his achievements diminished hurt them all.
Most of Hufflepuff were pointedly ignoring Harry and other Gryffindors. Not all were passive aggressive though. There had been a fight between some Sixth Year Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors when the latter group loudly claimed that it was good a Gryffindor was in the Tournament since Hufflepuff couldn't be trusted to handle something so important as the school's honor. The Hufflepuffs got the better of the ensuing fight. Four Gryffindors were sent to Madam Pomfrey to be treated for Hexes inflicted on them, two for the Bat-Bogey Hex, a third for a very powerful Knee-Reversal Hex, and the fourth simply because he had been knocked out cold when a Hufflepuff's fist connected with his face. Meanwhile, the five Hufflepuffs got two week's detention and a deduction of thirty House Points each, a worthy trade many Hufflepuff's felt.
"Cedric is being a complete gentleman about the whole thing but you can tell he's put out." Teddy reported to the Slytherin pair. "He doesn't want anything bad to happen to Harry though. Last night he stopped some Fifth Years from plotting to give Harry some nasty joke items and caught some fellow Seventh Years before they had a chance to jinx some Gryffindors."
Ravenclaw in general didn't seem angry, but still rather annoyed with Harry. They liked to discuss theories about how Harry managed to get pasted the age line. Most of them were very complicated, but the simplest one was one that got the most traction.
"It's it obvious?" Lisa mentioned to Giuliana during Frog Choir practice, "Dumbledore rigged it so Harry could get through. Him and Gryffindor have always been the Headmaster's pets. I never used to listen to such rubbish against Harry because everyone will always try to tear down people more talented and popular then themselves, but honestly. Harry can be such a hog of the limelight. Let Cedric have his moment in it. He's certainly handsome enough for it."
Slytherin of course hated the whole thing. Their hatred DIDNT rival Hufflepuff though, but it was close a few times. Draco was the ringleader, and often spouted, as he always did, low brow insult and monologues. Most of the younger students - especially first years - went along with it. Draco's influence had been rising with the younger Slytherins as he grew in Years, something Vaughn and Giuliana watched with concern. Much of the old guard in Slytherin House had graduated, moving Draco and his cronies into the "elders" position for the younger students. It wasn't long until a lot of the younger Slytherins, many of them feeling marginalized by the school and Gryffindor, began spouting Draco-esque rhetoric.
Meanwhile, the "fostering of relationships" between schools was not materializing. Most Beauxbaton students remained in their carriage in protest, refusing to interact with any students at Hogwarts. They had not left the comfort of their beautiful chateau school in the French Pyrenees to come to a drafty and ancient medieval castle for a year only to be poked in the eye by Hogwarts' two champions. Many were unclear as to why Harry Potter couldn't be removed from the magical contract. It was a contract, magical or not, and every contract – as any half good lawyer could show – had loopholes to be exploited. Even if it could not, what would stop them from doing a simple hand drawing without magic to pick another champion from Durmstrang and Beauxbaton? Whatever the reasons, it would be some time before Beauxbaton's students were ready to move past the insult.
The Durmstrang students were also remaining aboard their ship, though this was due to Karkaroff, who had quarantined his students aboard their ship in protest. Only Krum was allowed off to do his exercises around the Great Lake, much to the delight of the girls at Hogwarts who watched and followed him about. After about a week though, Karkaroff relented and allowed his students to disembark and socialize with the Hogwarts populace.
"Nelo wants to meet with us before Potions today." Giuliana mentioned to Vaughn as they ate breakfast. Both were fairly tired after spending the past few nights up brewing M.A.P. and Calming Draughts. Their efforts had been successful and they had several batches ready to go, kept fresh thanks to a preservation charm Vaughn had discovered in the Rzhevsky Family Library. Teddy said his contacts were ready to start selling. All they had to do was secure Durmstrang and Vaughn would give him the go ahead.
Finishing up their breakfast, both Slytherin's made their way out onto the Hogwarts grounds. Neither were quite sure where they were meeting Nelo though.
"Think he'll let us onto the Durmstrang boat?" Vaughn asked. They had stopped at the edge of the Great Lake, the Durmstrang ship anchored just off shore. Despite the sunny day, fog was still gathered around the ship.
"I doubt Karkaroff would allow that." Giuliana replied, though hoping Nelo could sneak them on. They waited for a few minutes before they spotted the fog break apart as a rowboat emerged, Nelo on it. At first, he looked alone until they noticed a skeletal figure standing at the back of the boat, guiding the boat to shore with a large oar.
As they got closer, both Slytherins realized that it was a skeleton at the back of the boat. Its bones were a shiny white and the rowboat hit the shoreline, both were able to make out glyphs that shimmered just above the bones. Noticing their mildly horrified looks, Nelo quickly explained.
"Necromancy! Pretty neat, huh?"
'Neat' was one way to describe it. Giuliana looked at the skeleton somewhat perturbed, though Vaughn's horror was giving way to interest. He had heard stories of the study of Necromancy at Durmstrang and secretly longed to learn more. Hopefully, Nelo could teach him a bit.
"Who is that?" Giuliana asked, referring to the skeleton.
"Don't know." Nelo shrugged, used to Necromancy. "But skeletons are kind of the servant caste at Durmstrang. They do the cleaning, cooking, menial stuff like that. People like to say they're the bones of students who failed their final year exams. But I'm sure that isn't true." He turned to the skeleton and spoke to it as though it were actually alive. "Return in… um… how long do you think we'll be? Actually, what time is lunch served?"
"11:30." Giuliana replied, trying to see if she could make out any of the glyphs. They bore no resemblance to any of the runes she studied. Instead of being carved, glyphs were drawn with magic and left no lasting marks on the target, and unlike the rigid design of runes, glyphs were circular and fluid in their shape and look. That was about the extent of her knowledge. Glyphs were far more popular in Middle Eastern and central American magics then European and were mostly used for Summoning Magics, a subject not taught at Hogwarts since they learned Transfiguration.
"Brilliant! I'll grab some lunch after our 'meeting.' Quint, pick me up in an hour?" The skeleton, evidently named 'Quint', nodded and lifted the oar out of the water, using it to push off the shore. "So, where can we talk privately?" Nelo asked already moving away as Vaughn and Giuliana continued to watch the skeleton guide the rowboat back to the ship.
"Um… there's an area next to the Forbidden Forest we can go to." Giuliana replied and began to lead their group there. As they walked, Vaughn was asking Nelo plenty of questions about Necromancy. Giuliana privately hoped that Vaughn wasn't getting ideas about teaching Necromancy to people at school. The skeleton had disturbed her deeply.
Once they arrived at a secluded spot, Vaughn and Giuliana immediately went into their spiel. It was much more refined then what they had presented to Teddy and they were even able to provide Nelo with some numbers regarding sales and what they could expect in profit. Nelo listened to them passively, taking it all in. When they finished, he raised his eyebrows and gave Giuliana a look.
"I'm impressed, cousin. I didn't think you had…. this in you." He grinned.
"Well… thank you?" Giuliana replied. Her and Vaughn looked at one another hopeful.
"So… selling potions for you two? At Durmstrang?" Nelo questioned. Both nodded as Nelo considered it further. "It's not… impossible. Durmstrang already has various secret societies, like any respectable school does. What's one more?"
"So, you have people you can trust then?" Vaughn confirmed.
"Yes. Yes, I knew a few boys who would be interested in this. But do you two only make two potions?"
"So far. I have ideas for other types of potions."
"Good. A variety would be nice. I could send the recipes to some people at Durmstrang to replicate."
"No. We will brew them ourselves." Vaughn asserted. Nelo looked puzzled at this.
"It would be easier to produce at Durmstrang, wouldn't it? Think of the owls."
"I am sure we can handle it ourselves. For now, we would prefer to keep the potion to ourselves." Giuliana said, backing up Vaughn. They had expected this and were resolute in that they would control the production of the potion. Nelo, seeing this unity, merely nodded.
"Ok. We can work with that. Let me owl with some friends and get back to you. But I think we can pull it off."
With things settled, the three students made their way back to the main Castle, muttering final details to one another as they did. Giuliana felt elated, happy that her cousin had come through for them. But as they walked, Giuliana was distracted by a sudden buzzing from her school bag. Confused, Giuliana peaked inside and gasped at the sight.
"Giuliana?" Vaughn asked, both him and Nelo stopping. Giuliana's eyes were gazing down into her bag, which she quickly shut when the boys looked back at her.
"Um… give me a minute. I need to check something."
"I can wait." Vaughn offered.
"I'm pretty hungry…" Nelo teased lightly.
"No, no, no it's fine! I'll meet up with you in Potions." Giuliana replied, moving off towards the shoreline.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes! I'll see you there!"
Leaving both boys bewildered, Giuliana moved towards the Great Lake, ducking behind some black boulders along the shoreline. Once she was out of view of the others, Giuliana opened up her bag to pull out the source of the vibration.
The mirror from the Cumano Library was coming alive.
Pulling it out of her bag, Giuliana observing the mirror closely. Much like how it was in the Villa's library, the mirror was vibrating softly, the amethyst inlay glowing softly. But once she lined her face up with the mirrored surface, the light and vibration ceased. She could see herself clearly in the mirror until a ripple effect took hold.
'All just like last time.' She thought, excitement boiling up inside of her. After ten months of carrying it around, she thought the mirror was broken! A one hit marvel. Now though… maybe she was a seer like her bisnonno thought! The ripple came to an end and, like last time, images began to play out in front of her. The difference this time though was that an entire scene was playing out in the mirror.
First, a brown – no… bronze – eagle was flying through the air, majestic and powerful. Its flight through the clear blue sky was interrupted by an arrow that punctured the eagle's chest. The eagle fell from the sky, losing five feathers on the way down. It hit the ground hard, twitched, and seemed to die.
But behind it, a figure appeared. The figure was a woman, dressed in a plain robe and holding a bow with something strapped to her back. But her face was hidden, covered by a lion's mask. The woman stopped in front of the eagle, shaking her head in pity before pulling a heavy looking object off her back.
An axe. For the eagle was still alive, though struggling.
The figure readied herself to strike the desperate bird when a hand reached out from the side of the mirror and shouted "No!" and grabbed wrist of the lion masked woman before the axe could come down.
The ripples reappeared and the scene was gone. Giuliana's puzzled reflection looked back at her.
Realizing how important detail was, Giuliana quickly pulled out her quill, ink, and spare parchment to write down every detail she just saw, no matter how minute it might be. With a quick drying charm on the rock, Giuliana set to work, excitement roiling inside of her as she began to decipher the meaning of the scene.
Quint is a reference to the 'ghost' who may or may not have been real in Henry James horror novella, The Turn of the Screw.
For House Points, 50 seems to be the common max that can either be awarded or deducted per student. The only times this max is broken is by Dumbledore himself when he gives Gryffindor enough points at the end of Books 1 and 2 to win the House Cup. The only other time a non-Head Master does this is when Professor McGonnell deducts 100 points from Leta Lestrange for a hex and running away. This being shown in The Crimes of Grindelwald, based in 1910, I consider the norm to be changed over time. As for the film itself… let's just see how the next three turn out. Maybe Crimes will just be the Attack of the Clones for the Fantastic Beasts Series… maybe…
It would have been nice to get some context on the "magical contract" in place that prevents Harry from being removed. Beside "plot", I don't see what's to stop Maxine and Karkaroff from demanding a hand drawing of two more students' names. Once it spits out the names, the Goblet is shuffled off and not seen again, with no other importance to the Tournament. Getting two more dragons would be difficult, but there doesn't appear to be any added complications to having two more champions for the Second or Third Tasks. It would probably just make things more thrilling. Nobody probably thought about that since magic isn't involved.
Regardless, the whole set up of the Triwizard Tournament if fairly silly. What exactly are the elven other students from each School who weren't selected doing? They're not part of Hogwarts classes as exchange students and – as pointed out before – it's not like they can attach themselves to clubs at school. How the Triwizard Tournament creates camaraderie among the schools is beyond me. There does seem to be a fair amount of hooking up though, as implied in the Yule Ball chapter as Snape kicks older students out of the bushes.