CHAPTER SIXTEEN: PRAYING
The Hall was silent as Dumbledore began explaining to the students from all three school about the Triwizard Tournament. The feast had ended, and to Ron's great disappointment Krum and the rest of the students from Durmstrang had been seated at the Slytherin table.
"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."
The Hall was filled with silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing.
"The Champions will be chosen by an impartial selector…the Goblet of Fire."
Dumbledore reached into a casket that was in front of him and pulled out a wooden hewn cup with dancing blue-white flames on it.
"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. Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night 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."
Fred, George and Lee grinned at each other and Buffy shook her head, wondering how three daredevils such as the twins and Lee had managed to stay alive for so long.
"To ensure that no underage student yields to compete, 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 the line. 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. It is a binding magical contract. Please be very sure, therefore, before you drop your name into the Goblet. Now I think it is time for bed. Goodnight to you all."
"An Age Line?" Fred said indignantly. "It should be fooled by an Ageing Potion, shouldn't it?"
"But I don't think anyone under seventeen will stand a chance," Hermione said. "We just haven't learnt enough."
"Speak for yourself," George said shortly.
They then split up, Fred, George and Lee hurrying up to the Gryffindor Tower, dragging Buffy up with them. They entered the Sixth-Year boys dormitories and George began digging under his bed, pulling out two boxes, one box full of different potions and the other filed with miscellaneous items such as fireworks and sweets and jokes bought from Zonko's in Hogsmeade or Japes in Diagon Alley. Buffy looked at the boxes wide-eyed.
"What are they all?" she asked curiously.
George grinned up at her proudly. "Fred and I made half of them," he explained, gesturing to the first box. "There should be an Aging Potion in here somewhere. And the antidote in case it goes wrong."
Buffy's eyes widened at the thought of it how much could go wrong with the potion they were about to try. She suddenly had the most bizarre mental picture of Fred and George with walking sticks and grey hair.
"The other box is just random jokes, fireworks and sweets that we've been modifying," Fred finished for his twin.
"Aha!" George finally cried, holding up a small bottle.
Fred dug into his trunk and pulled out four small cups. "One for each of us," he explained.
"Oh no," Buffy replied. "I'm not drinking that."
"It's perfectly safe," George assured her.
She just shook her head. Neither George nor Fred were ones to try and pressure people into doing something, so they left it as it was. Fred took out a small bottle of water and poured it into the cups before George added two drops of the Potion to the water.
Buffy just watched in interest as all three of them held their cups up, clinked them together and downed the potion in one gulp. George wiped his mouth and cleaned the cup with a simple -"Scourgify!" – charm.
Buffy shook her head. "I can't believe you just did that."
"We've taken it before," Fred said. "It didn't kill us."
"Should we put our names in now?" Lee asked.
"Not til morning I reckon," George replied.
Fred nodded his agreement and all of the bottles and cups were replaced from where they'd come from. For the rest of the evening, the three boys sat around, making plans for the prize money and speculating about the three tasks that would need to be completed. Buffy just listened, adding comments every now and then.
She was sifting through George's second box, looking at some of the items the twins had accumulated over the years. The amount of fireworks the boys owned was incredible, and looking at some of the illustrations on them, it was easy to tell what shapes the fireworks would take when lit. Some were shaped as hearts, others as different constellations, others would come out as different animals, dogs, ducks and dragons, cats, rats and bats.
Not one of the boys even bothered to ask whether she would enter, or to even question her age. Buffy grinned, wanting her entry into the Tournament to take them all by surprise.
When Buffy left the boys room, she snuck down to the Entrance Hall and noticed that it was completely deserted. She pulled out a slip of parchment with her name and school written on it, folded it in half and placed it into the Goblet. She silently prayed that she would get a chance to prove her worth with magic. She wanted to show that it wasn't just the Slaying that she was good at. She also prayed that neither of her parents would kill her if they found out.
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Morning came and most of the students, after eating breakfast, began camping out in groups in the Entrance Hall, eagerly watching to see who would put their names into the Goblet. Buffy was suddenly very grateful that she'd done it with no one around.
Buffy sat with Harry, Ron and Hermione, waiting for the twins and Lee to come and put their names forward.
"We did it," Fred whispered excitedly to Ron.
"Did what?" the younger boy asked.
"Took the Aging Potion, dungbrains," Fred replied.
"A few drops each," George said, 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," Lee said.
"I'm not sure this is going to work," Hermione warned. "I'm sure Dumbledore will have thought of this."
Fred, George and Lee ignored her.
"Ready?" Fred asked, quivering with excitement. "C'mon then, I'll go first."
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Buffy all watched as Fred pulled out a slip of parchment and walked up to the edge of the line, and stood there, rocking on his toes. 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 they all thought it had worked. George certainly thought so, for he let out a yell of triumph and leapt over 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.
The Entrance Hall rang with laughed. Ever Fred and George joined in, once they had got to their feet and taken a good look at each others beards.
"I did warn you," said a deep amused voice, and everyone turned to look at Professor Dumbledore coming out of the Great Hall.
Fred and George set off for the hospital wing, Buffy and Lee following after them, Lee howling with laughter and Buffy unable to contain her fits of giggles whenever she looked at George.
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Several hours later, the Great Hall was filled with students, a lot of the entrants sitting on their hands to keep themselves from fidgeting. Angelina Johnson was looking more and more nervous with each passing second, and Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff was bright red from all the attention he was receiving from his housemates.
The Goblet of Fire was now standing in front of Dumbledore's empty chair at the teacher's table. Fred and George – clean-shaven again – seemed to have taken their disappointment fairly well and were looking around the room at all of the nervous faces.
The feast seemed to take forever, mostly because everyone was so anxious to find out who had been chosen as the champions. Angelina barely ate a single bite of food, and Buffy was finding it hard to eat anything either. She looked up at the Professor's table, and her eyes found Giles'. He nodded at her encouragingly and she found herself calming slightly. When Dumbledore had finally finished, and the plates had been magically cleared away, the Headmaster of Hogwarts got to his feet and the Hall was filled with a tense silence.
"Well, the Goblet is almost ready to make its decision," Dumbledore announced. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them to please 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."
Dumbledore took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once all the candles except those inside the carved Halloween pumpkins went out, 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.
"Any second," Lee Jordan whispered.
The flames inside the Goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. A tongue of flame shot into the air and a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it.
Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it in the light so he could read it properly.
"The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum," Dumbledore read in a strong, clear voice.
"No surprises there!" Ron yelled as a storm of applause swept into the Hall.
Viktor stood and walked towards the Professors table, turning right and heading into the next chamber.
Several seconds later, the Goblet turned red again and spat out another piece of parchment. "The champion for Beaubaxtons is Fleur Delacour!"
Fleur followed Viktor's footsteps. Two of the unchosen Beaubaxtons students had burst into tears, their heads on their arms.
The Hall fell silent when Fleur had closed the door behind her. The air was stiff with silence and Buffy was wringing her hands nervously. George noticed and looked at her in shock.
"Oh my gosh," he whispered softly.
Buffy grinned nervously and George reached over to squeeze her hands in support.
The Goblet turned red once more, sparks showered out of it, the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment from it.
Buffy breathed in deeply.
"The Hogwarts champion…is Eliza (Buffy) Potter-Summers!"
The entire Gryffindor table jumped to their feet, the yelling, clapping and cheering suddenly deafening. George pulled Buffy into a bone-crushing hug, Fred joining it from the other side. Harry looked at his cousin accusingly.
"You didn't say!" he yelled above the din.
She just shrugged and grinned happily. The cheering continued as she walked towards the Professors table, Professor Moody clapping heartily, outdone only by a beaming Giles whose hands were red and sore when the applause died down. He winked at her with his good eye and Buffy went into the next chamber.
Back in the Great Hall, the cheering died down, and the Goblet of Fire came back to life. A fourth piece of parchment was spat out and Dumbledore stared at it in shock. He cleared his throat and read out –
"Harry Potter!"
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So, that answers your question about Buffy being in the tournament with Harry. No Cedric…poor boy, he got the shaft. Sorry for the delay in updating. Have so many assignments and stuff to do, its been chaotic around here lately. Many thanks for your feedback!
Toodles.
DKG.