No one moved, they just looked at their headmaster and host in confusion.
"Well, come along then." Dumbledore said, gesturing for the four extra editions to join the first three champions.
"Is—is the goblet defected?" Ness wondered aloud, his brain reeling as he stood up and moved for the door, slowly being followed by Harry who looked just as stunned as Ness felt, a nervous Adaliz who was muttering something under her breath in rapid French while Alexander looked straight ahead, looking incredibly sick as they entered the hallway.
Cedric and Victor looked surprised by the young students arrival but Flurr took it in good stride, a worried frown appearing as she approached them, "Do the teachers need us for something?" Flurr asked.
"I wish." Ness grumbled as Alexander mumbled something in Russian and leaned against the wall.
"What?" Victor exclaimed, "What do you mean you're all champions?"
"Is this a joke? I mean, you guys are at least 3rd years, right? Well, Harry's a fourth year but still, you look like 3rd years." Cedric said.
Adaliz answered in shaky French as Harry tried to explain, "The goblet picked us, and everyone saw it."
"There allowing little kids to enter in the tournament?" Flurr exclaimed, her pretty eyes widening in surprise and oddly enough disgust.
"Well this little kid managed to save the world at the age of 12. So there." Ness thought before he threw his hands out, "Hey! Don't get mad at us! The goblet's defected or something!"
"I think those red heads broke it earlier." Adaliz whispered.
Harry shook his head no but didn't argue, for now. They were just going to have to wait for a teacher to sort this mess out. Professor McGonagall was finally sent out, killing the angry questions bubbling in the champions throat with a swift glare as she curtly instructed, "Follow me, the headmasters wish to speak privately about this."
"But Professor-," Flur tried when she was silenced by a firm, "Privately." And another glare from the professor. Ness and Harry exchanged uneasy looks as they dutifully did as told. Entering one of the teacher's office on the third floor and standing by the door as Professor McGonagall left them.
Allowing the questions to pile up even more as they nervously occupied themselves with fidgeting and looking around the office, trying to figure out who it belonged to.
"I'm seriously starting to wonder if I'm in some sort of soap opera." Ness darkly thought as they heard the sound of muffled arguing coming from behind the door, which burst open revealing the three headmasters, Mad Eye Moody, Professor McGonagall and oddly enough, Snape.
"This is an outrage!" Karkaroff spluttered, his face purple with rage, "I demand a recall!" Dumbledore opened his mouth to say something, probably something to calm him down when Madam Maxine said, her voice full of disbelief, "A recall? For what! We should be figuring out how four extra students became contestants!"
"Agreed." Snape said, his eyes darting to Harry and Ness with a glint of suspicion, "I'm especially intrigued to know how a third year and a fourth year managed to become champions."
Ness flinched as Snape suddenly asked—or rather barked, "So? Who did you two bribe to put your names in the cup?"
"Severus, I doubt they bribed anyone-," Professor McGonagall started when Karkaroff cut her off, harshly asking, "Well? How did you two manage to become champions?"
Adaliz looked somewhat offended at the fact they everyone was focusing on the two extra Hogwarts students while Alexander was leaning against the wall, looking even worse than before.
"Settle down." Dumbledore ordered, still calm despite the rising tempers in the room as Flur and Victor waited to put their two cents in, "I'll get to the bottom of this," he turned to the four extra champions and calmly asked, "Did you ask anyone to put your names in?"
They shook their heads no, "Are you quite sure? Did you drop any accidental hints about entering as a joke?"
They shook their heads no once more while Alexander choked out, "My friends wouldn't do it, they know I'm terrified about the Triwizard tournament after I found out how my great grandfather died."
Dumbledore nodded his head in understanding and turned back to Madam Maxine and Karkaroff, "Well, that answers that."
"Someone else most likely did, perhaps a teacher." Mad Eye Moody supplied, his blue eye looking at Snape who scowled in disbelief then at Karkaroff who flinched at the accusation.
"But why?" Adaliz questioned, "and why are we involved in this?"
"Because of freaking Peter Petigrew." Ness thought, his stomach turning into knots as he pictured what the plan was supposed to be, get Harry and the boy who could wield PSI and possibly take them out in a friendly bout of sportsmanship gone wrong.
Adaliz and Alexander were probably picked just so there wouldn't be a huge amount of suspicion towards the two extra Hogwarts students. He hoped that maybe Dumbledore would have saw this, and insisted on pulling out the four extra champions just to appease the tournament rules and the angry headmasters but instead he merely said, "Well then, tomorrow there will be a weighing of the wands before the tournament starts, it'll be after class so don't forget."
"I refuse!" Kakraroff growled, "I demand that there is a recount so we can have an extra student to balance it out!"
"Agreed!" Madam Maxine said.
"The flames had already died, what's done is done." Dumbledore solemnly said. The seven champions looked at him in disbelief, the official three at the fact they would be competing against younger students who were clearly not prepared for this and the younger champions at the fact that they would be risking their lives for something they didn't sign up for in the first place.
Ness glanced around the room, his anger and shock roaring inside him as he saw the stunned faces of Adaliz, Harry and Alexander who had actually fainted from the news.
"Hold the phone!" Ness blurted out, causing the headmasters and teachers temporally stop talking (arguing) about the new adjustments, "Harry, Adaliz, Alexander and I are all underage!"
"We've noticed." Victor dryly noticed, not bothering to hide his annoyance.
"So shouldn't we be kicked out or something?!" Ness demanded. His nails digging into the palms of his hands as Snape coldly stated, "For some reason or another, the Goblet has chosen you four, there's nothing we can do about it for the time being."
"He's right Earthbound." Professor McGonagall said, looking even less thrilled than Snape was at the fact she had to agree with him, "Until we can find out exactly what and how this happened, you'll be contestants."
"What about the rule book?!" Ness asked, "Doesn't it say something about this!?" he got blank looks while Dumbledore's eyes slowly started to roam the room as if avoiding something, "…You're joking." Ness deadpanned, "You guys NEVER made a rule book?!"
"The Ministry has it." Madam Maxine simply said, "And it'll be too much of a hassle to get the proper forms to get the book-,"
"Forms?! Why do you need forms to get the rule book for an event that barely happens anymore?!"
"That does seem a bit ridiculous." Cedric said.
"Hasn't something like this happened before?" Harry asked, "Well, not exactly like this but maybe someone entered us under a different school name or-,"
"Impossible!" Karkaroff snapped, "You can't trick the goblet!"
"Well. SOMEONE just did!" Ness yelled, "How else do you explain the seven champions standing in front of you!?"
"I formally request to forfeit the tournament." Adaliz voiced, folding her arms and glancing at Alexander, "And I'm quite sure that Alexander would do the same."
"Yes! Forfeiting!" Ness felt a small bubble of hope as he repeated what Adaliz said. It popped within a nano-second as Dumbledore informed them, "Forfeiting is strictly forbidden given the limited number of champions and can only be performed in serious emergencies."
"This IS an emergency!" Ness shot back, "We're all underage and I can't even do a basic spell!"
"S-same." Alexander feebly muttered, his eyes fluttering open, "I'm still a second year in terms of magic. I flunked my year exam and was held back."
Ness angrily pointed at Alexander in a manner of 'See?! Emergency!' as the headmasters exchanged looks, two, competitive looks. Oh, you had got to be kidding!
They knew perfectly well about the rule book and what it stated! Maxine and Karkaroff just didn't want to do it so they could have a somewhat even playing field for the freaking tournament since they thought Dumbledore might be cheating!
And speaking of Dumbledore, why was he staying quiet!? He was the one the entire wizarding world was going to blame for this and—wait, why was Moody, Mr. I'm paranoid about everything being so quiet?
Shouldn't he be agreeing with Ness on this? And pointing out the potential dangers of Peter Petigrew, a known death eater now setting this whole thing up? Yet here he was, staying eerily quiet as the Headmasters finished their argument and sealed the four new champions fates with the order to get some rest for the big day.
Ness felt his ears ring as they were ushered outside the office and forced to head to their bedrooms. Before Adaliz, Alexander—who was leaning on Harry for support and Harry could move to head to their respective dorms Ness stopped them.
"Tomorrow, after the wand weighing we're going to make a plan." He stated.
"What kind of plan?" Alexander faintly asked.
"A plan to survive this dumb tournament." Ness replied, "We're the youngest and less experience in this whole mess. So, were going to even the playing field by working together."
"But… the prize money," Adaliz started when Ness cut her off with a sharp, "Is it worth possibly getting seriously hurt, or worse. Killed?"
She paled and shook her head no, looking a little scared. His heart went out to her but he couldn't back down now.
He wasn't sure what the challenges would be, but considering how everything in this school seemed to be pushing him and Harry toward the most dangerous things, he could say it would be hard and utterly mind numbing to perform.
"Alright," Alexander agreed, "We'll meet at the lake, with the giant squid."
"Sounds good to me." Ness said as Adaliz murmured, "Mama is going to be so surprised when I write to her."
"See you in the afternoon then," Harry called as they went their separate ways. Silently climbing the stairs to the Fat lady's painting as their minds went over today's events.
Ness was about to ask if Harry knew anything about wizards being possibly insane when they entered the common room and were greeted with loud cheers and a party banner.
"Congrats!" someone yelled as Ness and Harry were pulled out of the portrait hole and thrown into the heart of the party, "How'd you do it?" Fred asked as someone shoved a butterbeer into Ness's numb hands, "How'd you fake the age line?"
"Yea! And why didn't you tell us?" Ron asked while Hermione tittered about rule breaking from the corner of the common room.
"We weren't planning this-," Harry tried when Dean interrupted him, "Go for the gold you two!"
"Hey—wait," Ness started when Ginny pushed through the crowd and grabbed Harry and Ness's hands, leading them over to Hermione's corner.
"Heard everything," Ginny murmured, "Selvis activated your stone and allowed me and Luna to ease drop."
"Wizards are insane." Ness faintly said, as people shook his and Harry's friend hand with cheerful, "Good luck!" and "Awesome job mates!" before they resumed partying with fireworks and somehow, music.
"This… is going to get a lot worse." Harry murmured as they collapsed into a free chair.
"Of course, it will." Hermione stiffly said, "But you two knew that when you were signing up, didn't you?"
Ness bit back a scream of frustration as Harry hissed, "If we had planned this then why do think Adaliz and Alexander were brought with us? Someone set us up!"
"Like a certain rat." Ness grounded out. Hermione blinked then stifled a gasp as she realized all the possible 'accidents' that could happen to them out on the field, "I didn't even think about that!"
"Apparently, no one else did either." Ness growled, glaring at the partying Gryffindors with a burning annoyance for wizards. This wasn't something to celebrate! They were underage and inexperienced teenagers being thrown into the gauntlet for entertainment! Who cared about the money when you considered the dangerous risks looming around the corner!
Apparently not Ron since he joined them, ignoring Ginny's warning glare or the frustrated tension in the air and asked, "No, seriously how did you guys get into the tournament?"
"We. Didn't. ENTER." Ness snarled, fed up with the lack of common sense these people had. With a curt, "I'm heading to bed." He stormed into his dormitory as Harry and Ron got into a brief argument.
His mood only worsened when Selvis messaged him, whispering, "We're making badges to celebrate Cedric's entry, oh, we're also cheering for Hufflepuff."
"Good, I'd rather they get the support we don't deserve." Ness growled, causing Selvis to whistle and snicker, "I've never heard you this upset before, Earthbound."
"You know what I'm ticked off about."
"Oh, you mean the rule-book which is looking up at me?"
Ness bolted up right and looked down at the glowing Gryffindor stone in disbelief, "How." He demanded.
"Swiped it from the restricted area in the library when I heard you ask about a rule book." Selvis explained, "There has been other underage wizards that competed but they were abruptly pulled out by the school for fear of backlash of the public."
"And the reason why we can't?"
"No clue, everything you stated and tried—forfeiting and getting disqualified, would have worked. Dumbledore and others just, ignored it."
"This year, I am so going back to the Dumbledore is evil theory." Ness mumbled, then he groaned as Luna sleepily asked, "Is that before or after the champions get interviewed by the newspaper?"
"Ohhh! You might have to look out for Rita Skitter!" Selvis warned with a gleeful edge to his voice.
"Who?"
"I'll tell you in the morning—oh! You want a badge to support Cedric?"
"Might as well," Ness sighed, "I'm trying to get everyone focused on surviving during the games."
"Hopefully they won't have any poisonous pits you have to watch out for." Luna yawned before she left, the purple glow that had been battling the snake green fading away.
"Cool." Ness thought as Selvis left as well, causing the stone to dim and the runes to fade away.
His dreams were unsurprisingly plagued with nightmares of the public discovering his PSI powers, Peter Petigrew somehow reviving Voldemort which Ness was wondering if that was even possible, he quickly thought "Probably." when he remembered the other crazy things happening in the wizarding world.
When morning rolled around Ness was once again greeted with proud grins from his housemates and with looks of sympathy from Ginny and Hermione as they accompanied him and Harry to breakfast. He was about to say wasn't necessary since he and Harry could fend off the people who wanted to know how they did it until he spotted the collective glares coming from the Hufflepuffs. The kindest house he knew in the entire bloody school.
"Oh god, the badgers are going to kill us!" Ness exclaimed as they sat down. Ginny glanced up and agreed not even fazed by how angry the Hufflepuffs looked, "They aren't very pleased with you two stealing Cedric's spotlight."
"Well they should be mad at the Goblet, not us." Ness grumbled as the morning mail came in.
"It's not like they know we were set up." Harry wearily stated, "They just think we entered for laughs and became champions."
"Yaaaayy." Ness sarcastically grumbled as Ginny said, "Well, look on the bright side! At least no one's sent you hate mail yet."
"That's probably because they've started making fan clubs for Cedric." Ness said, pointing toward Selvis who proudly walked to the Slytherin table with his house mates with giant yellow and black badges that said, "Go Cedric! Boo Potter and Earthbound!"
"Is it bad that I want one?" Ness asked as Harry and Hermione glowered at Malfoy, the ringleader behind the new club before they turned back to him. "I want one to." Harry said, "But for Ron."
"Where is Ron?" Ginny questioned, frowning when she spotted her brother sitting by Dean and the twins.
"Probably off being a pigheaded idiot." Harry said, angrily stabbing a piece of eggs and shoving it into his mouth.
"…What did he say?" Ness asked, dreading the answer.
"He doesn't believe me when I told him that we didn't enter!" Harry replied, "Thinks I want to be possibly murdered in a dangerous game!"
"He'll get over it." Ginny said, rolling her eyes in slight disgust, "He just needs to get over himself and open his eyes for once."
"Which probably won't happen until he actually sees us in danger." Ness grumbled.
"For now, let's just ignore him," Hermione offered, "At least until we can figure out a way to get you disqualified or something."
"Sounds like a plan-," Ness started when a quiet cough cut him off, prompting him turn around to see Alexander, nervously carrying a plate loaded with protein and toast, "Hello," Alexander softly said, "Is it all right if I sit here?"
"Sure Alexander!" Ness chirped making space for the lanky dark-haired boy as he sat down, looking sick, "How's your day so far?"
"Awful," Alexander managed, giving Ginny and Hermione wary looks, "I didn't realize how big a fanbase Krum had until I was attacked this morning on the way to the dining hall," he quickly added, "Verbally attacked! Not magically." When he saw the horrified looks on their face.
"Why did they do that?" Hermione asked, frowning as Alexander glumly answered, "Krum's famous, I'm a nobody who's threatening his fame or something dumb. I don't know, girls are weird—er, never mind."
"It' okay Alexander." Ginny gently offered, "In my opinion I consider men to be aliens."
"And I see Ginny as a worrisome mother hen," Ness joked, snickering as the red head glared at him, probably thinking of a comeback when the bell rang.
"Remember, the lake after the weighing." Ness reminded them as they went their separate ways for class, he only had until second period until the wand weighing and the interviews so he braced himself for the worst.
Not bothering to hide his bad mood as he was confronted with angry Hufflepuffs who gave him glares from the corner of their eyes and flat out ignored him when he got stuck dealing with a very lovable Huggle Plant that enjoyed strangling their victims with hugs and then the Slytherins and oddly enough some Ravenclaw kids who Ness had always thought to be neutral in terms of house dislike.
"I. Hate. Tournaments." Ness mentally declared as Selvis gleefully bumped (Shoved in his opinion.) into him and sent him a vicious look, daring him to say anything as his friends slowed down to watch.
They weren't expecting Ness to grin at them, ask for a badge or pay for it before he happily pinned it on his robe and heading for Divination. This lessened the glares a bit since now everyone was giving him baffled looks when the spotted the badge.
"You actually bought it?" Harry asked in disbelief as they followed Professor McGonagall to the empty entry hall where Adaliz, Flur, Victor, Alexander and Cedric were waiting, looking a little worried about missing class.
"Now, here's how it's going to work," Professor McGonagall started, "When your name is called you are to head upstairs and into the third classroom on the right to get your wand weighed, then you are to come back here for interviews. Understood?"
Everyone nodded and studied their wands, wondering how it was going to go. "Good, first up, Victor Krum." Victor nodded and headed upstairs before briefly returning mumbling, "That was shorter than I expected."
"Flur Decour," Flur grinned and went up as well, she took a bit longer but came back still smiling as Cedric was called, then Harry, Adaliz and Alexander, leaving Ness last as he headed upstairs. Dreading how he was going to talk his way out of why he was using a fake wand instead of a real one.
Maybe he could fake the magic? Wait, they would be weighing wands, not magic. And he couldn't control how much items weigh… Or could he? He made that ball float last year, but that was probably because he had willed it to happen and went outside his comfort zone of PSI abilities.
With a sigh, he opened the door and stepped inside, a bit confused to see the wand store owner from Diagon Alley—wait a sec,
"Mr. Ollivander?" Ness questioned, a wave of relief crashing or him as he recognized the man, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to weigh the wands of course," Mr. Ollivander explained, "I am the best, and probably only wand maker closest to Hogwarts after all."
"Huh… Never knew that before." Ness admitted as he offered the man his wand and frowned as it was quickly given back to him, "Forgot I gave you a fake wand." He admitted with a chuckle, "I'll just have to make something up then."
"Are you sure?" Ness asked, "I wouldn't want you to get in trouble with the authorities for lying about my toy wand."
"Don't worry about it my boy, this isn't the first time I had to make something up." Ollivander assured him with a small smile, "Some wizards were born with the natural ability to cast spells with their hands and couldn't connect with a wand. Forcing us wand makers to give them fake wands so they wouldn't get expelled from school."
"Some wizards don't use wands?" Ness questioned, wondering if those 'wizards' were actually PSI users who didn't realize that they were using Psi and not magi.
"No, but it was very rare." Ollivander explained, "In fact… I think Belinda Thimble was one of the few who used a fake wand."
Ness's heart skipped a beat as Ollivander gravely shook his head before he caught himself and forced a smile, "Well, off you go, I have to give the organizers of the Cup the information."
"R-right," Ness stammered quickly leaving and joining his fellow champions.
"The interviews will be taken outside in private tents." Professor McGonagall explained, "And we'll have a group picture in the Qudditch Field. Any questions?"
They shook their heads no, everyone focused on not making a fool of themselves.
"Good, follow me." True to her word, there were tents, three of them to be exact in each champion's school colors and standing outside was an eager reporter, a teacher and a photographer.
"Probably to make sure the reporters don't take advantage of us." Ness thought as he, Harry, Adaliz and Alexander were forced to wait outside for their turn. Making it a bit nerve wracking and infuriating as they were once again reminded that they weren't supposed to be here, something they fully agreed with.
"Hey Harry," Ness started, tossing his Messenger Stone in the air, "How much trash talk do you think I can get away with before a teacher stops me?"
"A lot," Harry guessed, "Hermione told me to be careful, the Daily Prophet is infamous for allowing their readers to forge their own conclusions in the wrong way."
"Of course the most renowned newspaper in the wizarding word is like a celebrity drag magazine." Ness said with an eye roll, "Because we can't possibly have anything good going for us."
"I'm starting to think we're cursed." Harry admitted.
"That would answer so many questions." Ness replied, his thoughts wandering back to Belinda who was mistaken as a wizard alongside a couple other. So, magic was officially confused with PSI, or the Ministry of Magic didn't realize that PSI was in its own category.
Made sense considering how many times Ness had thought he found something extremely different about PSI only to discover a magic counterpart that had been set in stone for ages, Belinda had only been confirmed a PSI user because of her freak out during her fourth year.
Four years of accidentally being treated like a wizard without realizing she wasn't. Four years of mimicking spells and performing them without making anyone suspicious. Four years of possibly not even knowing if she was a PSI user, and not a wizard. "I'm starting to wonder if the only difference between Magic and PSI is the person using it." Ness glumly thought.
"Ah! Harry Potter!" he and Harry glanced up and jumped at a woman with blonde hair, green eyes and wearing a crocodile robe. He didn't like this woman, or her weird fashion taste at all.
"I'm Rita Skeeter, you're interviewer for the day." She explained, not noticing how Ness stiffened and shot her a glare. "I'm sorry, but I think we're supposed to be interview by a Mr. Goldmen," Harry replied, getting the same vibe as Ness. He glanced around, looking for a teacher but the ones who had been ensuring that no one snuck over and attempted to prank the private interviews were mysteriously gone.
"Are you going to be covering the tournament like the others?" Ness asked, trying to get her focus away from Harry, or more importantly, his lightning bolt scar. She barely spared him a glance as she swiftly answered, "Yes, I'll be the Daily Prophet's represented." And even faster said, "Now come on Harry! Let's go find a nice quiet spot for an interview!"
Her hand somehow wormed its way into Harry's and dragging him away to a secluded location, one without teachers or the fear of being interrupted.
Shell-shocked, Harry looked up at her in disbelief as Ness blinked in surprise and face palmed as he realized they were getting away. "Smooth going Ness," he grumbled as he tried to activate the magic on the Stone to contact someone for help, or maybe a distraction. That plan was quickly shut down are there was a faint pop before the stone burned in his palm, forcing him to stop and go to a hastily made plan B.
"Selvis?" Ness asked, reaching out with is telepathy as he looked around the empty grounds, paling when he spotted a flicker of black cloth disappear into the shadows toward the Qudditch locker rooms.
"Huh?"
"Selvis, it's me! Ness!"
"What the—why are you in my head?!"
"I needed to talk to you and-,"
"Then use the stone! That's why I made it!"
"I can't activate it, it just burns my hand when I try."
"Oh of course, just lovely. Fine, hold on."
Ness waited as the stone flared to life and Selvis's irritated voice came through with an annoyed huff, "What? Did you ruin your interview or something and wanted to complain?" Selvis asked as Ness broke into a run, trying to keep an eye on Harry's black robes as they were swallowed up by the darkness, "Actually, I'm trying to stop one from happening," Ness answered as Ginny jumped on, asking, "What do you mean?"
"Rita Skeeter ring a bell? Since she just kidnapped Harry for an interview."
"What?!" Ginny exclaimed while Selvis snorted, "Sounds like her, just keep her in a public place with a bunch of people before she's able to whip out that dreaded quill of hers."
"Explanation?" Ness questioned as he turned into the Gryffindor Qudditch section, studying the empty locker room.
"Apparently, she has this quill which writes down everything 'you' say." Ginny explained, "But it just twists your words and makes your statement a reporter's goldmine."
"So, evil monster pen then," Ness deadpanned as he tried to find a broom closet, hoping they were there. They were, thank the gods and Rita looked extremely surprised while Harry shot him a grateful look.
"Mr. Goldmen wants you Harry!" Ness quickly chirped as he performed Rockin' Omega on the green ugly quill that had stiffened mid-sentence. It fizzled and promptly caught on fire, thankfully burning a hole in the parchment as Harry nodded his thanks and scurried away.
"Rude," Rita clicked as she pocketed the now ruined statement in an alligator clutch and stood up.
"I'd beg to differ." Ness replied as he let the door close on her face before she could move to leave and rejoined Harry, "She didn't get anything out of you, right?" Ness asked as he heard faint breathing coming from the Messenger Stone.
"Hopefully no," Harry sighed, "I was too busy looking at her in disbelief to really say anything." He frowned and looked around, "Is… someone laughing?"
Ness resisted a look toward his inside pocket which was slowly burning a hole against his leg and lied, "I think it's just one of the other champions."
Harry's frown didn't let up but he nodded in agreement, sitting down on the grass and looking toward the sky, "So, what's your plan to survive the tournament?"
"Just practicing spells, we might need and keeping an eye out for each other," Ness said with a shrug, "I mean, even though we're at a huge disadvantage, with Adaliz and Alexander being from different schools we might learn a new spell we could use or keep our ears peeled for any hints of the first round."
"I doubt anyone's going to be dropping us hints." Harry pointed out, earning a look of disbelief from Ness, "Dude, I come from America, where people will get into fights over which team won what during the Super Bowl, Madame Maxine and Kakaroff will no doubt do everything in their power to help their champions, especially since now Hogwarts has three of them."
Harry frowned but slowly nodded in agreement, remembering how the Headmasters hadn't really objected to the idea once they had an extra member on their team, "True, but what if it's something not magic related?"
"That's where I come in," Ness answered, "I'm terrible at magic, but I used to play on a baseball team and-," he abruptly stopped and looked around, his danger sense tingling as something snuck up behind him.
"Something wrong?" Harry asked, looking around as well as a teacher finally appeared, grumbling something about a false alarm in the third-floor bathroom.
"Nah, I'm just paranoid." Ness lied, forcing a smile as the danger sense didn't go away. Something was here, and yet he couldn't see it. Was it Peter Petigrew? Hiding in the grass somewhere? Or something else? A small dangerous monster lurking to attack them?
"Hey! That cloud looks like a pumpkin!" Ness said, quickly ending their previous conversation as Cedric left his tent, looking a little irritated as Mr. Goldmen bid him good bye and called Harry up next.
"How was it?" Ness asked as Cedric headed for the Qudditch field to prepare for the group picture, "Tiring," he answered, sending Ness a tired smile over his shoulder, "Be careful, they won't hesitate to hold back, even with Professor Sprout glaring daggers at them."
"Nice to know!" Ness chirped as he leaned back and examined the clouds. "Huh… one of them actually does look like a pumpkin." He remarked as he frowned at his blatant lie come to life.
I hadn't realized this when I was reading the book, but why didn't Dumbledore or better yet Professor McGonagall since I am thoroughly convinced that Dumbledore is a mastermind pushing Harry toward his prophecy, and just kick Harry out of the tournament via rule book? Or, just use basic sports logic and kick him from the tournament so the champions would be an even number! I'm starting to notice that wizards love creating problems for themselves which often have an easy solution or could have been prevented from the very beginning. (At least in book 4's case. Book 1-3 don't really count since all the problems that were brought up were caused by an outside force no one could really pinpoint.)