Author's note:

Welcome back to this little corner of my mind where I pretend that I am cool cause I write Fanfiction. This story is no longer dead. Yay! Enjoy the madness, it has been a long time. Parts of the chapter have been taken from 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,' UK addition, 2000. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling, Chris Colfer and Stephanie Myer.

Chapter Five: A Mysterious Duo.

Hermione Granger stepped out of the Gryffindor common room with her best friends of all time, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley in toe. The foreboding feeling of things going wrong weighed heavily on her heart, for Halloween was the day when things went wrong every year. The past three years of her life had certainly taught her that. First it had been the mountain troll which had come so close to snuffing out her life in her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Chamber of Secrets fiasco had started on the same day the very next year. The third Halloween had involved Sirius Black, an innocent man who was believed to be a mass murderer and a loyal servant of the Dark Lord Voldemort breaking into Gryffindor house to supposedly kill Harry. Despite knowing full well that professor Dumbledore had set up an age line around the goblet of fire which was in the entrance hall, the extra precaution did little to quell her fears about Halloween this year. When Fred and George Weasley had attempted to use in aging potion to try and get past the age line, they had failed spectacularly. For the magic of professor Dumbledore had figured out that the twins were not yet the age of seventeen. Thus, when the boys crossed the age line, they were violently thrown back sporting silver beards and hair. That in itself was able to distract Hermione from her dark thoughts, and she had chortled along with the rest of the school as she went to have breakfast in the great hall, Harry on her left and Ron on her right.

The day passed relatively normally, and by the time the Halloween feast had rolled around, Hermione was cross with Hagrid because he had firmly refused to join S.P.E.W (The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare.)

Wrinkling her nose in disgust at the smell of Hagrid's eau-de-Cologne that he had put on to impress madam Maxime, Hermione trudged up to the great hall with Harry and Ron for the Halloween feast.

The great hall was almost full. The goblet of fire had been moved in front of Dumbledore's empty chair at the staff table. Both Fred and George were clean shaven again, and from their expressions, it seemed that they had both taken their disappointment fairly well. Two girls dressed in the uniform of Beauxbatons academy sat across from them. This was a surprise since most of the others were seated at the ravenclaw table. The one across from Ron had a giant blond updo and wore an impressive amount of makeup. She seemed like one of those girls who could snap her fingers and Ron would follow her anywhere. The other girl's appearance was surprising. Her hair was short and had a streak of pink and blue in it. She seemed to be analyzing everything she saw.

"Hello," the blond one said. She sounded very British to be going to a French school. "I'm Juliet and this is—"

"I'm Bree," interrupted the other. She was, most certainly, American.

"Er… H-hi," Stuttered Ron. His eyes were fixed on blond beauty, Juliet, whatever her name was.

"You guys aren't French," Hermione said.

"No, we aren't," Bree said. "Beauxbatons takes students from all around the world. Our parents didn't want us to go to the schools that we would've gone to. I think they wanted us to be ladies or something, which I am clearly not."

"Although I am quite disappointed that I wasn't sent here." Juliet didn't sound that disappointed at all.

"Well, this is Hermione, this is Ron, and I'm Harry," Harry smiled at both of the girls.

"Are you Harry Potter?" Bree asked.

"Er… Umm… Yeah." Harry looked like he wanted to crawl under the table and hide. Luckily for him, the two girls were distracted by all the food which started to appear upon all the tables in the great hall.

Unlike most of the Halloween feasts in the past, mostly everyone, with the exception of Ronald Weasley, were not that interested by all the food, but instead, were impatiently waiting for Professor Dumbledore to finish eating.

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 all into a state of semi-darkness. 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. Everyone watched, waiting … a few people kept checking their watches …

'Any second,' Lee Jordan whispered, a few seats away from Hermione.

The flames inside the Goblet turned suddenly red. 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 and 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, 'is Viktor Krum.'

'No surprises there!' yelled Ron, as a storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall. Hermione rolled her eyes and gave Ron an exasperated look and huffed, all the while, muttering about boys and Quidditch. Her eyes though, still remained on Viktor Krum and she saw him elegantly and gracefully rise from the Slytherin table, and slouch up towards Dumbledore. Viktor 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!'

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!'

'It's her, Ron!' Harry shouted, as the girl who so resembled a Veela got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair and swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables.

'Oh, look, they're all disappointed,' Hermione said over the noise, nodding towards the remainder of the Beauxbatons party. 'Disappointed' was a bit of an understatement, Hermione thought, seeing two of the girls who had not been selected dissolve into tears and sobbing with their heads on their arms.

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. The Hogwarts champion next…

And 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 uproar from the next table was too great. Every single Hufflepuff had jumped to his or her feet, screaming and stamping, as Cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off towards the chamber behind the teachers' table. From Gryffindor house, Hermione was the only one who stood up and clapped for Cedric because she had developed a slight crush on the kind, hard working, fair and handsome sixth year Hufflepuff. 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 then Dumbledore cleared his throat, and read out –

'Harry Potter."