Hope everyone is doing well, especially for those of you who are being affected by the wildfires because of that gender reveal with a pyrotechnic in the middle of the damn dry season (like how stupid can people be?).

Anyway, in this chapter, some of the dialogue is taken directly from the book, and there is some French spoken, but I'm not a French speaker, so it is taken directly from Google translate and I apologize in advance if it is wrong.

Thanks for reading and thanks to my reviewers!

Sunday afternoon, the following day after being chosen for the Triwizard Tournament, Carina planned on going to see Fred, George, and Lee in the Room of Requirement with Sylvia, but first, she had to make it out of the Slytherin common room. She hadn't even left her dorm room yet. She had skipped breakfast to avoid the constant stares and congratulatory words from her fellow housemates, never mind what the other houses thought.

Adjusting her skirt, she looked over at Sylvia who was watching her in minor fascination. "You'll be fine," Sylvia assured. "It's Slytherin. They've got the partying out of the way, so I'm sure they're much tamer now."

It hadn't seemed that way earlier when Carina had woken up. Gertrude and Mildred had been incredibly loud and forward. Thankfully, they had ended up leaving. Not to mention, the party from Halloween night had lasted ages. Carina had downed her fair share of firewhiskey and butterbeer just to keep up with all the chattering until finally Adrian and Sylvia pulled her away, much to the rest of Slytherin's disapproval. Her minor hangover that was taking too long to go away wasn't helping.

Sylvia held out her arm, offering to link it with Carina's to offer grounding and support, but Carina shook her head and said, "No, no, I'll be alright. It's all just a bit overwhelming. But thank you."

Carina took in a deep breath, straightened her back, raised her chin, and walked out the door. Sylvia followed closely behind as they walked to the common room. The few Slytherins milling around applauded again, which included Draco who sat in front of the fireplace with Blaise Zabini, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson.

Draco waved her over. "Car, Car, come look at what I'm making!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Alright, Draco, what is it?" Carina asked, walking over to him. She stood behind the couch he was sitting on as he held something up for her to see.

SUPPORT CARINA LESTRANGE

THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION

The letters were in glowing Slytherin green on a button with a black background. "Oh, that's very creative, Draco," she said amicably. "Thank you."

"They're not done yet," Draco told her, lowering his arm. "When I'm finished, you'll be able to press it, and it'll say 'Potter Stinks.'"

She wanted to smack him upside the head, but instead, she smiled. While she hated the message, she liked him being excited about something. She didn't see excitement on him often. "Clever. I look forward to seeing them completed." Carina patted her god-brother on his shoulder. "See you at dinner."

And with that, Carina and Sylvia left the common room.

Once alone, Carina turned to Sylvia and quietly said, "He's making buttons. Buttons. I'd be flattered if they weren't bashing Harry."

"Well, he did enter the tournament," Sylvia said.

Carina quickly shook her head. They hadn't had that conversation yet. "No, he didn't. You didn't see his face. He was confused and scared and overwhelmed. Someone else must've done it. Harry did not want to be in the tournament."

Sylvia frowned and looked at her feet as they walked through the corridors. "Now I feel bad. All this time I was thinking he went against the rules as he always seems to do."

"I thought it briefly at first, too, but Harry's face. . . I feel bad for him. He has no choice but to compete."

A few days prior, Fred and Carina made plans for them all to meet in the Room of Requirement the day after the selection of the champions whether Carina had been chosen or not, so since she had actually been chosen, Fred, George, and Lee raided the kitchens for as many snacks as they could carry and sought the room out for 'a place to celebrate in style.' Lee's words, not the twins.

So, when Sylvia and Carina walked in, the room was smaller than they usually had it for practicing magic. Large bean bags were spread about and there was a table Fred, George, and Lee were unloading a bunch of food and drinks on. Cedric also stood in the room, leaning against the table chatting with George, much to Carina's confusion as he hadn't been part of the initials plans.

The boys turned around at the sound of the doors opening. Fred quickly set down everything he held, bursting into a grin. "The Hogwarts champion has arrived!" he announced, holding out his arms dramatically.

"Yes, yes, you may all bow before me, you lowly peasants," Carina responded blandly, as though uninterested, before smiling. "Now, where's the chocolate? My head's killing me."

Sylvia and Carina joined the boys by the snack table, both immediately reaching for chocolate cupcakes. Before taking a bite of hers, Sylvia asked, "What are you doing here, Cedric? Don't recall inviting any badgers to a snake and lion party."

"We picked him up in the kitchens," George explained.

"I was asking one of the house-elves if they could make a small cake to send up to Car since she wasn't at breakfast," Cedric elaborated. "When they asked what I was doing, they invited me to join."

"Seems like we should make this a right party," Lee suggested, pouring himself a cup of butterbeer. "Anyone else we can invite?"

"Harry, Ron, and Hermione," Carina said. "They're about the only other ones in on this. Maybe Ginny because of the World Cup."

Fred gritted his teeth and made a face. "Maybe cut that down to Harry, Hermione, and Ginny. Ron's avoiding Harry like he's the plague. Not too happy with Harry not telling him about entering."

Carina groaned and slammed her fist onto the table. "Harry didn't even enter. He didn't want to be a part of it."

"Wait, he was telling the truth?" Fred asked. "He didn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire?"

"No," Carina replied, shaking her head. "I can see why everyone thinks he did, but when he joined us in the side chamber and everyone was arguing then going over the rules, he did not look up to it at all. He looked like he was going to be sick. That's not the face of someone who willingly entered a dangerous tournament. Then Moody suggested whoever entered Harry's name was intending for him to die in the tournament and-"

Sylvia gasped. "No."

"Yes." Carina bit the inside of her cheek. "My point is, I believe Harry. And I've offered my help if he needs it."

"That's all terrible," George muttered. "We should definitely invite him here then. See if we can't lift his spirits."

"Don't push him into it," Carina said. "He might just want to be left alone."

George nodded. "Right, come on, Lee." Lee, though annoyed he had to set down his cup of butterbeer, willingly followed George out the door of the Room of Requirement, leaving Carina, Sylvia, Fred, and Cedric.

"So, Car, did they tell you anything about the first task?" Cedric asked.

Carina shook her head, pouring herself and Sylvia cups of butterbeer. "Not anything useful. November twenty-fourth in front of the student body and a panel of judges, courage in the face of the unknown, and it testing our daring. Oh, and we'll be getting a clue for the second task. But really, it's hard to prepare for a test if you don't know what it's on."

"That's bollocks," Fred said, frowning indignantly and picking up a biscuit. "I wouldn't be surprised if that's when most of the tournament deaths happen since they don't tell the champions about it."

"Maybe." Carina shrugged. "I might do some reading on past first tasks to see what the ballpark will be though."

"That sounds like a good idea," Cedric said. "You should probably get on it soon though. They've held a lot of tournaments."

George and Lee returned about twenty minutes later with Harry, Hermione, and Ginny, and they kicked off the mini party.

On Friday afternoon, Carina sat in her N.E.W.T. level Transfiguration class next to Sylvia. Fred and Lee sat at the next desk over, and all four were behind the other students in the class which gave Fred leeway to send cute notes and doodles over to Carina and distract her from the lesson. Fred was incredibly careful to avoid being caught by McGonagall, unlike most times he wreaked havoc in the middle of classes.

But before she could open his latest note, the door to the classroom opened, and everyone turned to see a second-year Slytherin walk in.

"Can I help you, Miss Greengrass?" Professor McGonagall asked, lowering her wand where she had been about to demonstrate the Bird-Conjuring Charm.

"Mr. Bagman is asking for all the champions to meet with him," young Astoria explained. "He asked me to get Carina."

McGonagall nodded with a sigh. "Very well. Miss Lestrange, if you please, when you're done go over class notes with one of your peers to learn what you missed. Your homework is to practice the Bird-Conjuring Charm."

"Yes, professor," Carina said, collecting her things. She slipped Fred's final note in her bag. She'd look at it later. But her not looking at it yet only made him anxious about having sent it over. She quickly said goodbye to Sylvia then followed the second-year out of the Transfiguration classroom.

Astoria led her to an empty classroom near the entrance hall, and Carina walked in alone.

It was a rather small classroom compared to most others, probably used for one of the electives only taught when there was a sufficient demand for the class or had been discontinued completely. Most of the desks had been pushed to the back of the class to make a large open space in the middle aside from three desks placed end-to-end in front of the blackboard and were covered in a length of velvet.

Five chairs sat behind the desks. Ludo Bagman sat in one along with a woman in magenta robes. They briefly looked up to see Carina but turned back to their conversation. Krum stood in the corner with a grumpy look as usual, and Fleur was looking around the room, obviously bored. An overweight man stood off to the side with a large black camera, eyeing Fleur which only made Carina grimace at the lewd behavior. It looked as though Harry hadn't arrived yet.

When Fleur spotted Carina walk in, she bounded over, excited to have someone to talk to that wasn't so obviously checking her out like the photographer or not up for conversation like Krum. But was Krum ever up for conversation?

"Bonjour," Carina greeted politely. "Comment vas-tu?" She didn't often have cause for speaking French unless she and the Malfoys were visiting France and she could only read so many French books, so giving native-born French speakers a break from speaking their non-native English was something Carina wanted to do.

Fleur looked momentarily stunned but then beamed. "Tu parles français?"

"Oui. Cependant, je ne parle pas souvent français." Carina waved her hand at their surroundings as it was self-explanatory as to why she didn't speak French often.

The door to the classroom opened again and Harry walked in. Bagman spotted him quickly and hopped out of his chair. "Ah, here he is!" Bagman said. "Champion number four! In you come, Harry, in you come." He beckoned the fourth year over. "Nothing to worry about, it's just the wand weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment."

"Wand weighing?" Harry repeated. Carina heard a bit of nervousness in his voice.

"We have to check that your wands are fully functional," Bagman explained, "no problems, you know, as they're your most important tools in the tasks ahead. The expert's upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there's going to be a little photoshoot. This is Rita Skeeter." He gestured to the woman he had been talking to. "She's doing a small piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet."

"Maybe not that small, Ludo," Rita said, her eyes behind her jeweled glasses solely focused on Harry.

Ah, here we go, Carina thought. Instead of focusing on the tournament, like Rita was supposed to do, Carina immediately knew she was going to spin it into a piece about Harry and probably ruin much of the poor boy's reputation. Carina wondered if anything would be said about the other champions if they would be mentioned at all. Anyone with a brain knew to never trust a word Rita Skeeter writes. Unfortunately, a good portion of the wizarding community in Britain and Ireland weren't so bright.

"I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry before we start?" Rita asked Bagman, still watching Harry. "The youngest champion, you know. . . to add a bit of color?"

"Certainly!" Bagman said. "That is, if Harry has no objection?"

Harry didn't get the chance to say anything other than a filler noise when Rita said, "Lovely," and grabbed Harry's upper arm, dragging him out of the room.

Carina wasn't surprised.

Barely a minute later, in walked Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Mr. Crouch, Professor Dumbledore, and Mr. Ollivander.

Dumbledore seemed mildly annoyed with Bagman at allowing Rita to pull Harry aside, so he went to fetch them. Meanwhile, the judges sat in the chairs by the velvet-clad table and the champions sat in chairs by the door. Carina sat next to Fleur, leaving the final seat next to her empty for Harry.

When Dumbledore brought back Rita and Harry, Harry looked relieved to be out of that situation and sat next to Carina. Dumbledore went to where the judges had sat down and gestured to Ollivander who stood quietly by the window. "May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?" Dumbledore said. "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament."

Ollivander stepped into the empty space in the middle of the room. "Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?" Ollivander requested.

Fleur stood from her seat, glided over to Ollivander, and handed him her wand.

"Hmmm. . ." Ollivander studied the wand, twirling it in his hand. It emitted pink and gold sparks. He then brought it close to his eyes. "Yes, nine and a half inches. . . inflexible. . . rosewood. . . and containing. . . dear me. . ."

"An 'air from ze 'ead of a veela," Fleur said. "One of my grandmuzzer's."

Carina thought of how beautiful and flawless the girl was. Her being part veela wasn't shocking in the least.

"Yes, yes, I've never used veela hair myself, of course," Ollivander said. "I find it makes for rather temperamental wands; however, to each his own, and if this suits you." Ollivander checked for scratches or bumps then held it up. "Orchideous." A bunch of flowers sprouted from the wand tip. "Very well, very well, it's in fine working order." He grabbed the flowers then handed them to Fleur with her wand. "Miss Lestrange, you next."

Carina stood and Fleur smiled as they passed one another. Carina pulled her white, fine-grained wand out of her pocket and handed it to the wand-maker.

"Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn't it?" Ollivander said, much more enthusiastic than when he handled Fleur's. "Yes, I remember it well. Aspen wood, good for duelling and martial magic. . . Containing dragon heartstring, of course. Ten and a half inches. . . solid. It's in fine condition. I see you take good care of it." Ollivander sent a stream of silver smoke rings from the tip then handed it back to Carina. "Mr. Krum, if you please."

Carina went and sat back down between Fleur and Harry as Krum stood and walked to Ollivander, still scowling. He handed over his wand.

"Hmm, this is a Gregorovitch creation, unless I'm much mistaken?" Ollivander said. "A fine wand-maker, though the styling is never quite what I. . . however. . ." He lifted the wand, studying it closely. "Yes. . . hornbeam and dragon heartstring?" Krum nodded. "Rather thicker than one usually sees, quite rigid. . . ten and a quarter inches. . . Avis." Small birds flew out of the wand through the open window. "Good." He handed back the wand. "Which leaves. . . Mr. Potter."

Harry hesitantly stood and walked over to Mr. Ollivander, handing him his wand.

"Ah, yes," Ollivander mumbled, studying the wand. "Yes, yes, yes. How well I remember." Carina wondered what was so interesting about Harry's wand since Ollivander seemed far more intrigued. "Holly, a rather protective wood. . . eleven inches long. . . a single feather from the tail of a phoenix. An unusual combination. . . nice and supple."

Ollivander spent longer studying Harry's wand than he had done the others, but eventually, he made a fountain of wine shoot from the wand tip before giving it back to Harry and saying it was in good condition.

"Thank you all," Dumbledore said, standing from his seat. "You may go back to your lessons now, or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as they are about to end."

The man with the camera jumped up and cleared his throat.

"Photos, Dumbledore, photos!" Bagman reminded. "All the judges and champions, what do you think, Rita?"

"Er, yes, let's do those first," Rita agreed. "And then perhaps some individual shots."

Taking pictures took forever, leaving almost everyone grumpy until at last, they were free to go.

Walking to dinner, Carina had thought she'd be left alone so she could finally pull out Fred's note to see what it said, but Fleur had other ideas. The blonde girl laced her arm through Carina's, speaking excitedly in French as they walked down to the Great Hall. It kind of overwhelmed Carina, but she allowed it, remembering how touchy French people were whenever she and the Malfoys visited France.

Krum was hanging back away from everyone and Harry was hurrying ahead, happy to finally be out of the classroom and away from Rita Skeeter.

Carina and Fleur walked into the Great Hall, and surprisingly, Fleur didn't unlatch herself from Carina's side to go to the Ravenclaw table, instead choosing to go with Carina to the Slytherin table. Adrian and Sylvia were sitting next to each other conversing with Lukas, Nik, Vasily, and Sofia from Durmstrang across from them.

Carina slid into the spot next to Adrian since Terence was sitting on Sylvia's other side, not particularly into the conversation. Adrian eyed the Beauxbatons champion warily then looked at Carina. "Make a new friend?" he asked cheekily.

"Shut up," she muttered. "This is Fleur." The champions began piling food onto their plates as they were both starving.

Fleur gave them all a charming smile. "'Ello."

Sylvia rolled her eyes as a few of the boys found themselves affected by the veela charm.

Terence leaned forward with a dopey grin, looking past his friends. "Hello." He stuck out his hand. "Terence Higgs."

Adrian shoved Terence's hand away. He was, for the most part, unaffected by the residual veela magic due to his strong resolve of character instilled in him since birth. "So, where have you two been?" Adrian asked.

"There was a wand weighing ceremony and pictures," Carina explained. "Took longer than it should have because of Rita Skeeter and her photographer."

"How does she still work for the Daily Prophet?" Sylvia wondered. "It's not like she's ever written anything factual. She seems to take pride in slandering others with absurd, made-up stories."

Carina shrugged. "Beats me." She turned to Fleur. "Don't expect anything nice to be written about you in the article about the tournament. It's just what Rita does." Carina used her fork to pick at the pasta on her plate. "She'll probably spin it into a slander piece about Potter instead of being about the tournament."

Fleur didn't seem too put out, almost as though she had expected it. "Ça va."