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Chapter 25: Fourth Year (Part 13)
16th August. 1998. 8.30pm...
"Right." Harry said after a few minutes of pacing, "We'll do a short one to start with. Then we'll watch the two other schools arriving." he decided, "We had been complaining about the amount of homework we had been getting and Hagrid didnt help much by adding more to it." he explained.
Even Hagrid was adding to their workload. The Blast-Ended Skrewts were growing at a remarkable pace given that nobody had yet discovered what they ate. Hagrid was delighted, and as part of their "project," suggested that they come down to his hut on alternate evenings to observe the skrewts and make notes on their extraordinary behavior.
"I will not," said Draco Malfoy flatly when Hagrid had proposed this with the air of Father Christmas pulling an extra-large toy out of his sack. "I see enough of these foul things during lessons, thanks."
Hagrid's smile faded off his face.
"Yeh'll do wha' yer told," he growled, "or I'll be takin' a leaf outta Professor Moody's book... I hear yeh made a good ferret, Malfoy."
"I wonder how fast that story spread." Astoria mused. "I know all of the Slytherins knew it almost instantly."
"The Gryffindor's knew in an hour." Ginny smiled, "Mainly because we were laughing too much to explain what happened."
"So we eventually shouted it out to the whole tower." George grinned, gesturing Fred.
"The Ravenclaw's found out from the Hufflepuff's that night at dinner." Luna smiled, "I think the Hufflepuff's found out from the Gryffindor's."
"Though of course there was a lot of by-standers, there's bound to have been a few from each house that saw what happened." Neville smirked, "Either way everyone knew about it by dinner time that night."
"Fairly quick spreading then." James chuckled.
The Gryffindors roared with laughter. Malfoy flushed with anger, but apparently the memory of Moody's punishment was still sufficiently painful to stop him from retorting. Harry, Ron, and Hermione returned to the castle at the end of the lesson in high spirits; seeing Hagrid put down Malfoy was particularly satisfying, especially because Malfoy had done his very best to get Hagrid sacked the previous year.
When they arrived in the entrance hall, they found themselves unable to proceed owing to the large crowd of students congregated there, all milling around a large sign that had been erected at the foot of the marble staircase. Ron, the tallest of the three, stood on tiptoe to see over the heads in front of them and read the sign aloud to the other two:
TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT
THE DELEGATIONS FROM BEAUXBATONS AND DURMSTRANG WILL BE ARRIVING AT 6 O'CLOCK ON FRIDAY THE 30TH OF OCTOBER. LESSONS WILL END HALF AN HOUR EARLY -
"Brilliant!" said Harry. "It's Potions last thing on Friday! Snape won't have time to poison us all!"
STUDENTS WILL RETURN THEIR BAGS AND BOOKS TO THEIR DORMITORIES AND ASSEMBLE IN FRONT OF THE CASTLE TO GREET OUR GUESTS BEFORE THE WELCOMING FEAST.
"Right now you've seen that one we can skip to when they arrive." Harry smiled.
There was a pleasant feeling of anticipation in the air that day. Nobody was very attentive in lessons, being much more interested in the arrival that evening of the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang; even Potions was more bearable than usual, as it was half an hour shorter. When the bell rang early, Harry, Ron, and Hermione hurried up to Gryffindor Tower, deposited their bags and books as they had been instructed, pulled on their cloaks, and rushed back downstairs into the entrance hall.
The Heads of Houses were ordering their students into lines.
"Weasley, straighten your hat," Professor McGonagall snapped at Ron. "Miss Patil, take that ridiculous thing out of your hair."
"Someone's nervous..." Sirius said, looking amused.
Parvati scowled and removed a large ornamental butterfly from the end of her plait.
"Follow me, please," said Professor McGonagall. "First years in front... no pushing..."
They filed down the steps and lined up in front of the castle. It was a cold, clear evening; dusk was falling and a pale, transparent-looking moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest. Harry, standing between Ron and Hermione in the fourth row from the front, saw Dennis Creevey positively shivering with anticipation among the other first years.
"Nearly six," said Ron, checking his watch and then staring down the drive that led to the front gates. "How d'you reckon they're coming? The train?"
"I doubt it," said Hermione.
"How, then? Broomsticks?" Harry suggested, looking up at the starry sky.
"I don't think so... not from that far away..."
"A Portkey?" Ron suggested. "Or they could Apparate - maybe you're allowed to do it under seventeen wherever they come from?"
"You can't Apparate inside the Hogwarts grounds, how often do I have to tell you?" said Hermione impatiently.
"Every time we brought it up." Ron smirked at his girlfriend.
"Dont worry Hermione, we remembered it eventually." Harry grinned.
They scanned the darkening grounds excitedly, but nothing was moving; everything was still, silent, and quite as usual. Harry was starting to feel cold. He wished they'd hurry up... Maybe the foreign students were preparing a dramatic entrance... He remembered what Mr. Weasley had said back at the campsite before the Quidditch World Cup: "always the same - we can't resist showing off when we get together..."
"Of course we're going to have a dramatic entrance." Fleur chuckled, "Well semi-dramatic." she shrugged, "Madame Maxime wanted to have something bigger than what we did have but she changed her mind."
And then Dumbledore called out from the back row where he stood with the other teachers - "Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"
"Where?" said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions.
"There!" yelled a sixth year, pointing over the forest.
Something large, much larger than a broomstick-or, indeed, a hundred broomsticks-was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time.
"It's a dragon!" shrieked one of the first years, losing her head completely.
Nearly everyone laughed, Harry merely smiled, not having any good experiences with dragons.
"Don't be stupid... it's a flying house!" said Dennis Creevey.
"Oh, yeah, don't be stupid." Sirius muttered, causing the others to laugh.
Dennis's guess was closer... As the gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the lights shining from the castle windows hit it, they saw a gigantic, powder blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house,
"Oh. Dennis's guess was closer then." Sirius laughed.
soaring toward them, pulled through the air by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant.
"Wow." Petunia gasped.
"Arthur wasn't kidding about us liking to show off." Fleur said. "But at Beaubaton those 'orses were normal for us to see everyday." she smiled, "You lot just weren't used to them."
The front three rows of students drew backward as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed - then, with an almighty crash that made Neville jump backward onto a Slytherin fifth year's foot,the horses' hooves, larger than dinner plates, hit the ground. A second later, the carriage landed too, bouncing upon its vast wheels, while the golden horses tossed their enormous heads and rolled large, fiery red eyes.
Harry just had time to see that the door of the carriage bore a coat of arms (two crossed, golden wands, each emitting three stars) before it opened. A boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully. Then Harry saw a shining, high-heeled black shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage - a shoe the size of a child's sled- followed, almost immediately, by the largest woman he had ever seen in his life. The size of the carriage, and of the horses, was immediately explained. A few people gasped.
Harry had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in his life, and that was Hagrid; he doubted whether there was an inch difference in their heights. Yet somehow - maybe simply because he was used to Hagrid - this woman (now at the foot of the steps, and looking around at the waiting, wide-eyed crowd) seemed even more unnaturally large. As she stepped into the light flooding from the entrance hall, she was revealed to have a handsome,olive-skinned face; large, black, liquid-looking eyes; and a rather beaky nose. Her hair was drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.
Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many of them standing on tiptoe, the better to look at this woman.
Her face relaxed into a gracious smile and she walked forward toward Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, had barely to bend to kiss it.
"My dear Madame Maxime," he said. "Welcome to Hogwarts."
"Dumbly-dort," said Madame Maxime in a deep voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"
"Dumbly-dort?" Sirius laughed.
"She had been trying to say it properly all the way to Hogwarts. That was zee closest she could get to Dumbledore." Fleur explained. "It was zee closest many of us could get." she shrugged.
"In excellent form, I thank you," said Dumbledore.
"My pupils," said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her.
Harry, whose attention had been focused completely upon Madame Maxime, now noticed that about a dozen boys and girls, all, by the look of them, in their late teens, had emerged from the carriage and were now standing behind Madame Maxime. They were shivering, which was unsurprising, given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls around their heads. From what Harry could see of them (they were standing in Madame Maxime's enormous shadow), they were staring up at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.
"Werent you told it would be cold?" Lily asked Fleur.
"Non, we were told to were our school uniform's." she replied, "Zee reason we look apprehensive is because we had never seen a castle as big as Hogwarts before." she added. "Beauxbatons is only half the size."
"'As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.
"He should be here any moment,"said Dumbledore. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?"
"Warm up, I think," said Madame Maxime. "But ze 'orses -"
"Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them," said Dumbledore, "the moment he has returned from dealing with a slight situation that has arisen with some of his other-er-charges."
"Skrewts," Ron muttered to Harry, grinning.
"My steeds require - er - forceful 'andling," said Madame Maxime, looking as though she doubted whether any Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts could be up to the job. "Zey are very strong..."
"So is Hagrid." Sirius mumbled.
"You 'ave to remember we did not know much about Hogwarts." Fleur pointed out.
"Not much information about other schools is known to others." Hermione nodded, "We didn't really know much about Beauxbatons or Durmstrang other than roughly where they were."
"That's true." Fleur agreed.
"I assure you that Hagrid will be well up to the job," said Dumbledore, smiling.
"Very well," said Madame Maxime, bowing slightly. "Will you please inform zis 'Agrid zat ze 'orses drink only single-malt whiskey?"
"It will be attended to," said Dumbledore, also bowing.
"Come," said Madame Maxime imperiously to her students, and the Hogwarts crowd parted to allow her and her students to pass up the stone steps.
"How big d'you reckon Durmstrang's horses are going to be?" Seamus Finnigan said, leaning around Lavender and Parvati to address Harry and Ron.
"Well, if they're any bigger than this lot, even Hagrid won't be able to handle them," said Harry. "That's if he hasn't been attacked by his skrewts. Wonder what's up with them?"
"Maybe they've escaped," said Ron hopefully.
"That would be awesome!" Fred exclaimed, imagining the chaos.
"That would be bad." Lily replied, also imagining.
"Very bad." Harry agreed, "I don't fancy being attacked while walking around the grounds."
"Good point." George conceded.
"Oh don't say that," said Hermione with a shudder. "Imagine that lot loose on the grounds..."
They stood, shivering slightly now, waiting for the Durmstrang party to arrive. Most people were gazing hopefully up at the sky.
For a few minutes, the silence was broken only by Madame Maxime's huge horses snorting and stamping. But then - "Can you hear something?" said Ron suddenly. Harry listened; a loud and oddly eerie noise was drifting toward them from out of the darkness: a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed.
"The lake!" yelled Lee Jordan, pointing down at it. "Look at the lake!"
From their position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, they had a clear view of the smooth black surface of the water - except that the surface was suddenly not smooth at all. Some disturbance was taking place deep in the center; great bubbles were forming on the surface, waves were now washing over the muddy banks - and then, out in the very middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared, as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake's floor... What seemed to be a long, black pole began to rise slowly out of the heart of the whirlpool... and then Harry saw the rigging...
"It's a mast!" he said to Ron and Hermione.
"They're coming out of the lake?!" James exclaimed in surprise.
"Of course." Hermione smiled.
Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and the dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes. Finally, with a great sloshing noise, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to glide toward the bank. A few moments later, they heard the splash of an anchor being thrown down in the shallows, and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank.
People were disembarking; they could see their silhouettes passing the lights in the ship's portholes. All of them, Harry noticed, seemed to be built along the lines of Crabbe and Goyle... but then, as they drew nearer, walking up the lawns into the light streaming from the entrance hall, he saw that their bulk was really due to the fact that they were wearing cloaks of some kind of shaggy, matted fur.
"Durmstrang must be somewhere cold." Sirius said.
"Didn't you mention that earlier Hermione?" Amber asked.
"Yeah," Hermione said, "I said that they must be somewhere cold because heavy cloaks were part of their uniform."
But the man who was leading them up to the castle was wearing furs of a different sort: sleek and silver, like his hair.
"Dumbledore!" he called heartily as he walked up the slope. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"
"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff,"Dumbledore replied.
"Why is that name familiar?" James asked.
Sirius concentrated, "It's familiar to me too... might have something to do with my parents."
"What makes you associate the headmaster of Durmstrang with your parents?" Remus asked.
"I don't know."
"Karkaroff was a Death Eater." Cissy supplied.
"Which is why you associated him with our parents." Regulus snorted, "Not to mention the fact he used to tutor us as kids."
"Oh, I'd forgotten about that." Andy made a face, "He was the one I 'accidentally' hexed during one of our history lessons, wasn't he?"
"That's the one." Cissy smiled, "Served him right. He shouldn't have insulted Sirius and Regulus behind their backs."
"Didn't he spend a week in St Mungo's?" Sirius grinned.
"Two weeks." Andy smiled, "It was a borderline Dark spell I hit him with. Just on the grey side by a few millimeters."
"Really Mum?" Dora asked incredulously.
"Yeah, I was about 19, possibly 20, and he really did deserve it. He called those two," she nodded at Regulus and Sirius, "the 'brats from hell who won't be good for anything except target practice for the Killing Curse'." she growled.
"So that's what he said!" Regulus exclaimed.
"Regulus had just turned 2 and Sirius was 4 at the time, I was supposed to be watching both of them whilst supervising Cissy and Bella's lesson and they accidentally knocked over a big statue belonging to my parents when I looked away for a minute." she explained.
"It almost crushed him." Cissy nodded, "I was only 11 at that time, Bella was 15. I managed to get the boys out of the room before he cursed them."
"And conveniently left Bella and I to deal with Karkaroff." Andy sighed, "Bella hexed him too. Cissy told our parents and Karkaroff was sacked on the spot."
"Glad you got him Andy." Sirius growled, "I don't remember much of that but I can remember a little."
"Anytime, I was just waiting on a reason to hex him anyway. He was an annoying git." she admitted.
"What was he tutoring you on?" Remus asked curiously.
"What else but the history of Bloodlines?" Cissy snorted, "Our parents thought we needed the information. As if we hadn't learned it all since birth. Even at 4 if you asked Sirius anything about it he could tell you, Regulus could tell you too come to think of it." she mused.
"Not as much as him." Regulus added, "But I probably could recite half of it by the time I was 2." he nodded.
"Only because it's about the only thing we knew." Sirius muttered, "Our parents took pride in making sure we knew what we were talking about if the subject came up, especially for me, I honestly think they were trying to brainwash us."
"If they were they wouldn't have left you alone with me for three weeks whilst they went on holiday." Andy smirked, "That's all it took to turn their 5 year old prejudiced heir into a kid who loved to make trouble and fought against everything they believed in, I was 21 that time and it was the best thing they could've done, leaving me to watch the four kids."
"Two." Cissy frowned, "I was not a kid. And neither was Bella."
"You were 12, she was 16. You were kids." she retorted, "Besides, I got a lot of time to tell them whatever the hell I wanted without getting in trouble for it." she smirked, "Therefore, Sirius ended up disliking the views on blood status that was drilled into him. I think you two were on the fence, but evidently you at least thought about it." she mused, looking at Cissy and Regulus.
"I think we're all glad about that." James grinned, "Even if Sirius still believed some of it when I first met him I changed that quickly."
"Compulsion charms." the named man shrugged, "I swear they were determined to keep me the way they wanted me."
"You were the only one except Andy to actively fight against it." Regulus pointed out, "Of course they were determined."
"Not to mention you grew up with their beliefs." Draco added, "It took me almost 3 months to stop calling Muggleborn's 'Mudbloods' or 'scum' and a month or two to stop the behavior you've seen in the memories. I wouldn't have managed to change if not for the help from those six and Aunt Andy." he added gesturing the two Trio's, "I knew they'd likely hex me if I kept being a git."
"Glad we could help." Neville grinned, "Better than having you be a pompous git around us."
"And your right, we would've hexed you." Harry smirked as they all turned back to the memory.
Karkaroff had a fruity, unctuous voice; when he stepped into the light pouring from the front doors of the castle they saw that he was tall and thin like Dumbledore, but his white hair was short, and his goatee (finishing in a small curl) did not entirely hide his rather weak chin. When he reached Dumbledore, he shook hands with both of his own.
"Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle and smiling; his teeth were rather yellow, and Harry noticed that his smile did not extend to his eyes, which remained cold and shrewd. "How good it is to be here, how good... Viktor, come along, into the warmth... you don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold..."
Karkaroff beckoned forward one of his students. As the boy passed, Harry caught a glimpse of a prominent curved nose and thick black eyebrows.
Ron frowned and Hermione rolled her eyes.
He didn't need the punch on the arm Ron gave him, or the hiss in his ear, to recognize that profile.
"Harry - it's Krum!"
"Still a fan?" James asked.
"At that time yes. Now, definitely not." Ron answered frowning.
Harry snickered, "Your just jealous because Hermione liked him." he muttered so only Ron heard him, Ron flushed red. "We're skipping a little bit by the way, mainly the feast so this is just after the feast." he added louder.
Once the golden plates had been wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the Hall now. Harry felt a slight thrill of excitement, wondering what was coming. Several seats down from them, Fred and George were leaning forward, staring at Dumbledore with great concentration.
"The moment has come," said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket -"
Most of the room looked confused.
"The what?" Harry muttered.
Ron shrugged.
"- just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation" - there was a smattering of polite applause - "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."
There was a much louder round of applause for Bagman than for Crouch, perhaps because of his fame as a Beater, or simply because he looked so much more likable. He acknowledged it with a jovial wave of his hand. Bartemius Crouch did not smile or wave when his name was announced. Remembering him in his neat suit at the Quidditch World Cup, Harry thought he looked strange in wizard's robes. His toothbrush mustache and severe parting looked very odd next to Dumbledore's long white hair and beard.
"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore continued, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."
At the mention of the word "champions," the attentiveness of the listening students seemed to sharpen. Perhaps Dumbledore had noticed their sudden stillness, for he smiled as he said, "The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch."
Filch, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the Hall, now approached Dumbledore carrying a great wooden chest encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely old. A murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students; Dennis Creevey actually stood on his chair to see it properly, but, being so tiny, his head hardly rose above anyone else's.
"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman," said Dumbledore as Filch placed the chest carefully on the table before him, "and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways... their magical prowess - their daring - their powers of deduction - and, of course, their ability to cope with danger."
At this last word, the Hall was filled with a silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing.
"Which was so weird for Hogwarts." Ginny commented.
"Yeah it only really happened with big thing's. Or whenever Harry, Ron and Hermione did something big or dangerous... Or both." Draco added slyly.
"Silence didn't last long when those three were involved." Astoria pointed out, "Most people whispered or shouted out to them."
"And that was annoying." Harry muttered.
"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament," Dumbledore went on calmly, "one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."
Dumbledore now took out his wand and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. The lid creaked slowly open. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames. Dumbledore closed the casket and placed the goblet carefully on top of it, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the Hall.
"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said Dumbledore. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete. To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation," said Dumbledore, "I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line."
Lily let out a sigh of relief, Harry couldn't enter.
"Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end."
Harry flinched violently, thinking how literal that term had been for Cedric.
"Explained later." he said noticing the curious and worried looks everyone gave him.
"The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all."
"An Age Line!" Fred Weasley said, his eyes glinting, as they all made their way across the Hall to the doors into the entrance hall. "Well, that should be fooled by an Aging Potion, shouldn't it? And once your name's in that goblet, you're laughing - it can't tell whether you're seventeen or not!"
"If it's drawn by Dumbledore it can." Ron said.
"But I don't think anyone under seventeen will stand a chance," said Hermione, "we just haven't learned enough…"
"Speak for yourself," said George shortly. "You'll try and get in, won't you, Harry?"
"No." Harry sighed, "But I'm entered anyway." he muttered so no one heard him.
Harry thought briefly of Dumbledore's insistence that nobody under seventeen should submit their name, but then the wonderful picture of himself winning the Triwizard Tournament filled his mind again... He wondered how angry Dumbledore would be if someone younger than seventeen did find a way to get over the Age Line.
"Very." Charlie frowned, "It's supposed to be impossible to get passed age lines... Especially one's Albus drew."
"Anyway, Fred, George? You two don't mind if we have a laugh at your expense do you?" Harry asked.
"Let me guess... The beard's?" George asked, Harry nodded.
"Then go ahead. It was funny." Fred shrugged with a grin.
"Okay." Harry said flicking his wand to play the memory.
As the next day was Saturday, most students would normally have breakfasted late.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione, however, were not alone in rising much earlier than they usually did on weekends. When they went down into the entrance hall, they saw about twenty people milling around it, some of them eating toast, all examining the Goblet of Fire. It had been placed in the center of the hall on the stool that normally bore the Sorting Hat. A thin golden line had been traced on the floor, forming a circle ten feet around it in every direction.
"Anyone put their name in yet?" Ron asked a third-year girl eagerly.
"All the Durmstrang lot," she replied. "But I haven't seen anyone from Hogwarts yet."
"Bet some of them put it in last night after we'd all gone to bed," said Harry. "I would've if it had been me... wouldn't have wanted everyone watching. What if the goblet just gobbed you right back out again?"
Someone laughed behind Harry. Turning, he saw Fred, George, and Lee Jordan hurrying down the staircase, all three of them looking extremely excited.
"Done it," Fred said in a triumphant whisper to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Just taken it."
"What?" said Ron.
"The Aging Potion, dung brains," said Fred.
"One drop each," said George, rubbing his hands together with glee. "We only need to be a few months older."
"We're going to split the thousand Galleons between the three of us if one of us wins," said Lee, grinning broadly.
"I'm not sure this is going to work, you know," said Hermione warningly. "I'm sure Dumbledore will have thought of this."
Fred, George, and Lee ignored her.
"Ready?" Fred said to the other two, quivering with excitement. "C'mon, then - I'll go first -"
Harry watched, fascinated, as 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 Harry thought it had worked - George certainly thought so, for he 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.
"Huh?" Frank asked.
"Muggle thing." Hermione explained.
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. 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.
They all laughed.
"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."
Everyone laughed even harder at this.
Fred and George set off for the hospital wing, accompanied by Lee, who was howling with laughter, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione, also chortling, went in to breakfast.
"And that's where we'll end this memory."