February 24th, 1995. Wednesday
9:00
"Selena!"
Selena groggily cracked open her eyes to find Alisson shaking her, the bright sunlight streaming through the dorm window searing. Her friend was shouting "Selena, get up!"
"Wha-what's going on?" Selena asked.
"The Triwizard Tournament is going to happen in, about, thirty minutes!" Alisson said. Her long brown hair was pulled up into a pony-tail, the Gryffindor ready for the day, even donning her favorite sweatshirt: the Braga Broomfleet Quidditch team. Well, nearly ready. She was still barefoot.
Selena sat up and looked around her dorm, rubbing her eyes. Crescent shifted beside her, the black cat seeming a little grumpy to be awoken. Shorty seemed a little agitated too, hooting in his cage, peering around with big eyes. Sierra was slumbering in rays of sunshine on the floor, not caring about the girls stepping around her.
Two of Selena's dormmates were getting ready for the Second Task as well.
Tess was wrapping a scarlet-and-orange scarf around her head, hair up in its usual loose bun. Renee was putting on a hat, walking over to her inky converse. Around them, the beds weren't made up, sheets wrinkled. On Renee's bedside table, some pink Valentine's were still sat, waiting to be pasted on the wall. Valentine's Day had passed on the 14th of that month, Selena receiving some chocolates from her family back in Bath. Alisson had been the only other one of the five girls - besides Renee - to receive a Valentine, hers being from Nigel Wolpert, a Gryffindor boy a year younger than them. She'd been ceaselessly embarrassed by this, Renee and Wendy taking nearly every opportunity to call her Miss Alisson Wolpert. This also resulted in Alisson doling out threats of jinxes to both of them.
Selena slowly got out of bed. She didn't want to leave the warm covers, but the Second Task was something that simply couldn't be missed. Selena pulled on boots and mittens, changing into some jeans and a button-up blouse. She grabbed her gray coat, Elizabeth returning from brushing her teeth. Finally, with her friends waiting, they made their way down the spiral stairs, to the Common Room.
"Where's Wendy?" Renee asked.
"Ah," Selena responded, "she got detention for trying to send Snape and Filch shampoo. Filch used it, I guess, and his hair got even more greasy and turned pink."
"Hah," Alisson said with grin. "I had fun making that. It was Wendy's idea to make it pink, though."
Tess gave her a disapproving look and began to lecture Alisson about "such mean behavior" as they crawled out the portrait hole and down the Great Staircase. Selena and Alisson decided to slide down the banister and beat the other girls down to the Entrance Hall, giggling as they made their way outside.
"Where's the competition?" Elizabeth asked, shivering. She rocked on her toes, clad in her peach UGG boots.
"It's out on the Black Lake," Alisson answered, stuffing her hands in her sweatshirt pockets.
Selena cringed. "Do you think the Giant Squid will be there?"
Renee grinned. "I hope - I want to teach him tricks!"
Alisson looked at her for a second in incredulity, and Tess pointed towards the lake. Trails of students were already heading down to the competition. "We have to go to the lake shore and take a ship out to the stands put there to watch."
The girls caught up with Rolf and Hazel and even Ray Macalaster as they walked down the grassy slope, sun shining.
Both of the Hufflepuffs were wearing puffy coats, Rolf's green-dyed fringe sticking out from underneath his knit hat. Rolf, of course, had his rabbit and Ray was holding -
"A ferret?" Selena asked.
"His name is Aldwyn," Ray replied, glancing at her with grey eyes.
Selena didn't reply, remembering the year before, when he had run into her and Hazel on Hallowe'en. He'd been crass about it, even when Tess pointed out that he'd been rude. Later, he had apologized to the girls, though Selena spent plenty of time trying to avoid him before then. It was odd talking to the Slytherin boy again, but Selena felt a little happiness bloom in her heart as well.
The ferret - Aldwyn - gave a little shake of his tail while Ray held him as they all stepped onto the pebbled shore. Of course, they still had to find a boat, and Fred and George Weasley were walking down the shore shouting.
"Place your bets now!" one of them called (Selena usually couldn't tell them apart.)
"They will go down, but will they come up?" the other continued, their voices rising above the chatter of the students descending the hill to the boats.
"Don't be so mean," Ginny Weasley commented to them as she walked by. Elizabeth nodded in confirmation, as if she'd been thinking the same thing. Selena clambered in the closest free boat behind her blonde friend, tugging the girl's plait as she sat down beside her. Elizabeth smiled at her, stormy eyes shining behind her glasses.
Rolf pushed off from the side of the wooden dock and the boat gave a lurch as they began floating towards the stands. There were no oars or motor, the boat magically moving through the dark water. Selena peered over the side, watching her shadowy reflection peer back from the lapping waves.
"It's just like the charm they put on the boat during out first year!" Tess said happily.
Selena nodded, smiling fondly as she recalled crossing the lake to Hogwarts Castle. Of course, it had been pouring rain then, but it was still a pleasant memory.
"They make you cross the lake back again after you graduate seventh year," Ray commented, running a pale hand through his shaggy, black curls. "It's quite the tradition."
Finally they stopped and hopped off of the boat as they shakily got onto the platform. There were 3 stands - all in a line separated by about ten feet of water. Each one had five platforms about the size of the Gryffindor Common Room stacked up on each other, full of students.
Fleur Delacour, Viktor Krum, and Cedric Diggory were all waiting for the task to start.
"Where's Harry?" Selena whispered.
Alisson shrugged. "No idea - where's Danny?"
"No idea." Selena shivered, her teeth beginning to chatter loudly. What time was it? It had to be getting close to time for the Second Task to begin.
"Selena!"
The dark-haired girl turned around to find Damon grinning at her, walking over with his blue eyes twinkling.
"Hey, Damon," she said happily, her teeth chattering still.
"Cold weather, huh?" he asked, tightened his Slytherin scarf, the serpent on the crest mid-hiss.
She nodded. "Yes, very... Have you seen Potter?"
Damon shook his head. "No, I haven't seen Jojo either."
Jojo? Selena thought for a moment, but pushed the thought from her head. Of course he would be looking for his girlfriend. No big deal. "I'm excited to see what happens in the rest of the Tournament," she said. "A lot of people were placing bets on Viktor Krum from what I heard."
Damon smiled. "I've got five Sickles on Pretty-Boy-Diggory."
Selena nodded. "I think he'll win the Second Task... but I don't bet. Tess told me about her friend losing money by gambling. Some business with leprechaun gold."
Suddenly, Harry Potter sprinted past her and towards the Judges' Table, glasses glinting. His dark hair shifted on his forehead enough for Selena to see his famous lightening bolt-shaped scar.
"What do you suspect took him so long?" Elizabeth whispered, stepping close to Selena so that their arms pressed together (Selena was particularly happy to have some warmth.)
Selena shrugged. "Did he forget that the Second Task was today?"
"No," Damon replied. "He was asleep in the library. A house elf in a sweater and stockings woke him up. Strange, I think..."
Before Selena could say anything, Ludo Bagman - the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, from the Ministry of Magic - started to speak, and had used the Sonorous Charm to amplify his voice.
"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One... two... three!"
Cutting through the cold air, the whistle pierced the bright day, sending a shiver down Selena's spine. All around her, the crowd began applauding and whistling, the three schools screaming in cheers.
Selena clapped through her mittens and watched as Harry Potter pulled out a handful of slimy green things that resembled worms. She frowned when he ate the thing, glancing at Elizabeth. Her friend looked just as appalled, squinting before she shook her head, pale plait swinging.
"What kind of seaweed is that?" Elizabeth asked, and then cringed as Harry chewed the green slime and readied himself to jump into the Black Lake with the other Champions. Some of the Slytherins were catcalling at Potter, Damon glancing over his shoulder at his housemates. Some students were jeering at Harry. Selena tried to block out the noise.
Then, the Champions leapt into the dark water.
Harry was about five second behind the other Champions, and nothing was visible below the murky lake surface.
Some people laughed and Selena noticed Harry just floating in the water, maybe five feet below the surface, his pale skin glowing.
"What is he doing?" she questioned.
"Losing," Alisson answered bitterly. Some of the Slytherins (and Hufflepuffs) continued taunting him.
Suddenly, Harry started grabbing at his throat and then dissapeared from Selena's view.
Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas were leaning over the edge of the platform when Harry jumped from the water. Suddenly, the Boy Who Lived flew from the lake and flipped in the air, hollering. His feet seemed to be like flippers now, Harry splashing back into the water.
Selena grinned and everyone clapped as Harry swam deeper into the icy lake and vanished.
Then, Selena felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around. She froze. Standing behind her was Professor Dumbledore, a Ravenclaw prefect, and Erebus.
"Miss Malast, Miss Pierce, kindly follow me."
Not much to say...
Thanks for reading!
Review, would you?
Thanks to (for reviewing) Chapter 47:
PerriwinklePadfoot
PhoenixRose92
CharmedMillie
See ya!
~Loveableheart
6/18/15: I changed something that I'd gotten from another story.
6/7/17: Okay, a note from the books. So, in the actual Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire book, the students didn't take boats out to platforms in the lake. The students actually sat in the stands from the First Task, but moved to the Black Lake shore. I had originally used the movie version of the second task and kept it because it would've been a bother to retype, and I liked what I'd written. Sorry about the non-cannon, but ya know. Anyways, I tried to add bits and quotes from the book, if that helps! The piece with quotes from Fred, George and Ginny were all taken from the movie.