Harry stepped into the Great Hall in high spirits. With the announcement of the Triwizard Champions coming in only a few short minutes, attention at Hogwarts would be firmly situated on someone other than him. For once there would be danger at Hogwarts that didn't see him front and center. Sure, something was bound to go wrong this year. Something always did. But he legally couldn't be entered in the tournament, so that was at least one possibility avoided. Whatever else ended up happening the tournament might provide a nice distraction for the school so that his inevitable rule breaking could slip through the cracks unnoticed. It was wishful thinking, Harry acknowledged that, but he wouldn't let little things like reality bring his mood down tonight.
The Hall was already filled and buzzing with excitement, and Harry was able to slip into his seat between Hermione and Ron at the Gryffindor table relatively unnoticed. Hogwarts always went overboard with decorations for the holidays, but it seemed they had taken it up another level in light of the circumstances. Candles covered the Hall, casting the room in an eerie golden light. The pumpkins lining the tables looked out at the students with their grinning faces, but they didn't seem at all cheerful. There was a tension in the room as the students whispered about who among them would be named champions. Harry ignored the whispers as he took his seat. They weren't about him for once, and that was all that mattered at the moment. That and the food he had been looking forward to eating all day. Ron had talked about it enough that even Harry's stomach had been growling by the time classes ended for the day.
Beauxbatons and Drumstrang students were already seated throughout the Hall, waiting for the announcement that the feast could officially begin. Around him, the Gryffindors were throwing around the names of the people they wanted or didn't want for Hogwarts Champion, but Harry tuned them out as well. He had heard these arguments back and forth since the tournament had been announced, and he doubted they would have anything new to add to the conversation. All the Gryffindors wanted Angelina to be the Hogwarts Champion, but anyone would do as long as it wasn't a Slytherin. Predictable, but that meant that it wasn't likely that anyone would be able to call him out for not paying attention. Even if he didn't hear a word they said it would be easy enough to pretend.
Conversation on the tournament ground to a halt as Dumbledore announced the start of the feast and the food appeared in front of them, the student body too preoccupied for a moment with stuffing their faces to continue their well worn discussions. Harry relaxed in the assurance that this might be his new routine for the foreseeable future. Eat dinner with Ron and Hermione. Listen to gossip that surrounded other people. Halloween had never been Harry's favorite holiday, for obvious reasons, but he let himself enjoy the atmosphere of the Hall, get swept up in the excitement of the announcement. Hermione had talked about the past trials enough to know that even if the tournament was supposed to be safer this time there would still be a lot commotion brought on by the whole thing.
After a few minutes of silence as the students dug into their food, the buzz of conversation started to build again. Still the feast dragged on. Harry could have sworn he saw a twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes as the headmaster finished his own dinner as though the impatience of his students amused him. Harry couldn't find it in himself to blame him. Dumbledore had always seemed one for a flair of dramatics, and the reveal of the Triwizard Champions was an opportune moment to take full advantage of.
A hush quickly swept the Hall as Dumbledore finally stood. The candles floating across the enchanted ceiling responded to his movement, dimming until the entire room seemed washed in a faded swatch of moonlight. In the low light, the glow from the goblet seemed even more ominous. Harry hadn't paid it much attention when he entered the Great Hall. It sat in front of the staff table, blue flames flickering as it commandeered everyone's focus now that the moment had finally arrived. Harry felt a chill run down his spine, and he shivered as the goblet blazed brighter.
Harry watched the flames as Dumbledore moved around the table to stand in the goblet's shadow. Light danced across his face as the flames moved, and he raised his hands to draw the whispering to a close.
"The time has finally come," Dumbledore said, pausing as his words echoed through the Hall. "If your name is called, please make your way to the room behind me in order to receive further instructions. Whether you are chosen by the goblet or not, remember that it took a great deal of courage to enter yourself into the tournament. You should be proud of that fact, no matter the outcome. Now, let us congratulate our first champion."
Dumbledore waved his wand, and Harry felt himself holding his breath with the rest of the Hall as the fire sparked violently before spitting out a burnt piece of paper. It rose high above their heads before fluttering down into Dumbledore's outstretched hand. "From Drumstrang…Viktor Krum!"
Harry leaned back towards Hermione as Ron burst into applause beside him. His friend had been trying to keep a wrap on his crush on the international quidditch star after he continued to sit at the Slytherin table on a daily basis, but it was clear that his enthusiasm at seeing Krum be named champion had taken precedence.
Krum stood, seeming unbothered by the attention, and walked towards the door behind the staff table without a word. He would have been used to the attention, Harry felt sure, but he gave nothing away in his reaction to being named champion despite the obvious glee in his headmaster's face.
The goblet must have had a sense for the tension, because the next flash of fire spitting out a piece of burnt paper didn't spark until the door had closed behind Krum. This flash was brighter, the paper trailing flames behind it as it fell into Dumbledore's hands. "From Beauxbatons…Fleur Delacour!" Applause burst out again, a little more sedated than for Krum. She lifted her chin as she stood, as though she acknowledged the difference in support, but felt it beneath her. If people were expecting Delacour to be easy competition for Krum, Harry had the feeling they would be disappointed. Depending on who the Hogwarts Champion ended up being, Harry could see himself cheering for Delacour for her reaction to the scrutinty alone. She too disappeared to the back.
"Our last champion!" Dumbledore called, raising the crisp paper in his hand. "From Hogwarts…Cedric Diggory!"
There were some disappointed groans from the Gryffindors, but most of Hogwarts applauded as Cedric stood. If anyone wasn't pleased with Hogwarts' Champion, they wouldn't have been noticed over the roar that came from Hufflepuff. Cedric could barely get up from the table with the way the students around him were clapping him on the shoulder.
Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, yes. You will all have time to congradulate the champions after they have received their instructions. Now-"
His words were cut off as the flames flared again and a fourth piece of paper was released into the air. Immediately the fire exstinguished along with all of Harry's hopes for a normal year as he watched the paper fall gently into Dumbledore's open hand. Why had he allowed himself to believe that this year would be any different? He hadn't had an uneventful year at Hogwarts in all the time he had attended. It should have come as absolutely no surprise that something would ruin his chance for this year to go any differently. That still didn't stop him from freezing in his seat when Dumbledore said, "Harry Potter."
Harry could feel Hermione's hand on his shoulder, could hear Ron saying something beside him, but he didn't understand a word of it. It took Dumbledore saying his name again for Harry to finally move, pushing himself to his feet and stepping away from the table. He could feel the eyes of everyone in the Hall on him, but he refused to look at any of them.
"The room, Harry," Hermione said, giving him a gentle nudge, and Harry started walking.
Dumbledore hadn't moved as Harry passed him. Harry didn't want to imagine the expression on his face. He kept his eyes forward, focused on the door. When he finally reached it, he gripped the handle with trembling hands and pushed it open. The Hall burst into whispers again just as the door started to close behind him.
Leaving the Hall didn't mean that he had escaped the stares. When he stepped into view the three champions turned towards him expectantly, but Harry had nothing to offer them in way of an explanation. He was just as confused by his presence there as they were.
"Harry?" Cedric asked, stepping towards him when no else spoke. "Did something happen?" Krum and Delacour were watching him, but they made no move where they stood on opposite sides of the room. Harry opened his mouth to respond, unsure what words would come tumbling out, but in the end he didn't have to try. Dumbledore came into the room, quickly followed by his fellow heads along with McGonagall, Snape, and Moody.
It only took a glance to see what Snape and McGonagall thought of this turn of events. Neither were pleased, although Harry suspected it was for very different reasons. Moody was harder to read, so Harry turned his attention towards Dumbledore. His opinion was probably the only one that mattered at the moment anyway.
"Harry. Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?" He asked, calmly.
"No," Harry said, shaking his head.
"Did you ask an older student to enter it for you?"
Would that have worked? Harry thought. Snape, at least, would have taken his curiosity the wrong way though, so Harry shook his head again. "No. I have no idea how my name was entered."
"Well, obviously the boy is lying," Madame Maxine said, her accent adding a melody to her words that Harry didn't finding soothing in the slightest in that moment. "He cannot be allowed to compete. It is unfair."
When Moody spoke, his voice sounded gruff, as though the words pained him to push passed his throat. "Are you saying your champion can't compete with a fourteen-year old?" He asked.
"That is not what I said," Maxine snapped, offended, reaching a hand out to place on Delacour's shoulders. "It is simply against the rule, as we were told them. Hogwarts should not be allowed special treatment."
Harry wanted to argue. To point out that it wasn't really special treatment if he was entered only as a way to get him killed, but he swallowed the words down, watching Dumbledore.
"The boy," Moody countered, "doesn't seem too excited about this development as he should be if he entered himself. And I think he has the right of it. Boy-Who-Lived has a lot of enemies. Easy enough to make an attempt on his life look like a task gone wrong."
Dumbledore stared at Harry, their eyes meeting. Maxine huffed again behind him, but Harry didn't look away. Dumbledore had to see that Harry had no clue what was going on, didn't he? A beat of silence passed, their eyes locked, then another. Finally, Dumbledore said, "Harry is telling the truth. While the hows and whys of his name being entered are concerning, the fact of the matter is that he will be required to compete. When a name is chosen from the Goblet of Fire it creates a magically binding contract. Even the heads of each school are unable to release the students from these contracts."
"Even if I'm underage?" Harry asked, remembering something Uncle Vernon had been telling Dudley about contracts when trying to get his son interested in his business. "If I didn't consent to being entered, and I don't have a guardian approve of me entering, can I really be held to a contract like this?"
The adults exchanged looks Harry couldn't quite decipher. "That is usually the case for normal contracts, yes, but contracts bound by magic…The goblet would not have selected your name if you couldn't legally be held to it. Magical contracts are not things that can be so easily escaped. I will look into the matter, but unless a solution can be found before the first task, I'm afraid you will have to compete, Harry. The consequences for not doing so to the best of your ability would be severe."
Their conversation continued on about possible ways that Harry's name could have been entered, with Moody and Snape breaking into an argument, but Harry felt the words washing over him without really comprehending them. There were other conversations to have, questions that he needed answers to, but at the moment all he wanted to do was go back to his dorm and climb into his bed. Spend a few hours pretending that he was back to enjoying a competition that didn't have anything to do with him. When they were finally released, McGonagall placed her hand on his shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze and an equally tight smile.
"It will be alright, Mr. Potter," she said, as the other champions walked passed them to the door. "We will find out what happened. Now, I'm sure the rest of Gryffindor is waiting to congradulate you. You shouldn't keep them waiting."
Harry walked back to the tower in a daze. In all honesty, he was surprised that he had been allowed to walk back without supervision considering the suspicious looks Maxine and Karkaroff were still giving him. Dumbledore may have believed that Harry hadn't entered himself in the tournament, but it seemed that those outside of Hogwarts hadn't been convinced. There wasn't anything he could do about that though, besides hope that Dumbledore would be able to find a way to get him out of competing. The only reason that Harry could see for someone wanting him in the tournament was to give them a convenient chance to kill him, and Harry would rather not give them more free shots at him if he could help it. Gryffindor might be disappointed, but it wouldn't be the first time Harry let them down. He doubted it would be the last.
Given that all he wanted to do was sleep, it wasn't surprising that McGonagall had been right about what was waiting for him in the common room when he stepped through the portrait at last. He was immediately met with a wave of noise. It seemed as though the entirely of Gryffindor had crammed themselves into the common room, including the new first years who seemed confused by the level of chaos. Harry couldn't blame them. Everyone was yelling their congradulations at him at once, and Harry could barely tell one voice from another.
Harry forced a smile and made his way through the crowd. As soon as people offered their congradulations they turned back to their conversations. That was fine with Harry. He wasn't in the mood to talk about what happened. No matter how many times Harry tried to explain that he hadn't put his name in the goblet, no one believed him. The most he got in response was a wink and a sarcastic "Of course you didn't!" A headache had started building by the third time he got that response, and it only grew worse every time it happened. And he still hadn't managed to find Ron or Hermione in the crowd, which worried him more than anything.
He was about to give up, decide that he couldn't take another moment of the crowd and the noise and settle for finding his friends in the morning when a headache wasn't crashing around the inside of his skull when he saw them. They were both standing by the stairs leading to the boys' dormitory, arguing. Harry felt the headache pound harder.
"Harry!" Hermione called, interrupting whatever Ron was about to say. She pulled him into a hug, but Harry still got a glimpse of her tight expression, and his stomach dropped. "I'm so sorry, Harry!"
"Sorry you couldn't have shared how you put your name in, you mean," Ron said angrily.
"I didn't put my name in, Ron," Harry said, for what had to have been the hundredth time in the last ten minutes alone.
"Sure, you didn't."
"Ron!" Hermione interjected. "Harry wouldn't have put his name in without telling us. Plus, you were there when he was talking about how glad he was that this year could be calmer than the last few have been!"
"Who else would have entered his name?" Ron asked.
Harry felt his anger rise from where it had been bubbling under the surface. "I don't know! Maybe someone who wants to kill me!" If he had been expecting Ron to back down at his outburst would have been disappointed. Ron huffed, but didn't respond, just continued to stare at Harry as if he didn't know him.
"I'm going to bed, Hermione. Maybe you can talk some sense into him, but I don't have the energy to deal with this."
"Deal with this?"
Hermione grabbed Ron's arm, pulling him aside. "Of course, Harry. Although I can't make any promises."
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Ron burst out, but they continued to ignore him. If Harry responded, he knew it was going to be something he would end up regretting, even if Ron was acting like an idiot.
Hermione pulled Harry in for another hug. "You're not alone, Harry."
"Thanks, Hermione."
Harry took one last look at Ron, then pushed passed him and headed up the stairs, finally, to bed. When he opened the door to his dorm though, Harry froze. Something was wrong, and Harry stood in the doorway trying to figure out just what it was. The rest of his dorm mates were still downstairs, so the room sat in darkness aside from the little moonlight that filtered in from the windows. When it hit him, Harry felt the floor shift from under him.
There were five fourth-year boys in Gryffindor, but where there had once been five beds there were now only four. He hadn't noticed at first because the room had shifted to make up for the empty space, but Harry's things were gone.