AN: Yes I just realised that the one I uploaded was wrong and thank you to the person who made me realise it. I've spoiled a surprise now, well I apologise for that and all I can say is shit.
Moonreaper666: Could be, maybe he's a hidden one from another patron?
BROMBOS: I've taken your advice and it's installed for future chapters, so hopefully they'll be better and thank you muchly for the name of the species of spider because that was bugging me for some time.
Chapter 5 – The Selection
As the weeks passed into the void, with Hermione introducing Lavender to the basis of her speciality of warp use, it came to the time for the choosing of the Tri-Wizard champions had come and it, the anticipation of many a student have risen to almost palpable feel in the air.
The Ravenclaw trio was making small talk at their house table when Dumbledore interrupted them as he stood up to begin the selection ceremony.
"Students of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, it is time for the Goblet of Fire to select the Champions!" Dumbledore waved his hand across the hall and as he passed the sconces, the fires within them began to dull until the light in the great hall had dimmed substantially.
Everyone watched as the goblet began to churn and after a few seconds, it spat out a piece of parchment, straight into Dumbledores hand.
"The Champion for Durmstrang, Viktor Krum!" Dumbledore shouted as the Durmstrang students roared with applause and cheers for their schoolmate.
There was a smattering of applause amongst the Hogwarts houses but a large set of applause came from the Slytherins.
Krum walked up to the front and was directed to an antechamber off to the side, and was instructed to wait there until the rest had been chosen.
Everyone quietened down for the next selection and as the goblet spat out the second piece of parchment, the parchment had a bit of elegance to it, signalling it came from Beauxbatons.
"The Champion for Beauxbatons, Fleur Delacour!"
Harry and Hermione gave their new friend a smile as Fleur walked the same path as Krum and entered the antechamber.
Again, the students were silent as they waited for the Hogwarts Champion to be selected.
"The Champion for Hogwarts, Cedric Diggory!
This time, there was an even more thunderous applause but for the Hogwarts champion as he was well liked from nearly all of the houses and was a likeable person.
Cedric walked the same path as the previous champions and once again, the great hall was left in silence.
"Excellent! The champions have been selected- "Dumbledore trailed off as he saw that the teachers at the head table had moved their attention back to the goblet as it began to spit and flare up with bright red flames as it miraculously spat out another name.
Dumbledore grabbed the parchment and was stunned when he read it out.
"Harry Potter? Harry Potter!"
When the entirety of the great hall heard Harry's name being called out, all that could be heard was several goblets around him suddenly crack and shatter into pieces.
'Why didn't I see this coming!? I'm supposed to be a watcher of the strings and I couldn't even see this coming, poor excuse for a champion of the Architect of Fate indeed' Harry thought furiously as he continued to stay within his own mindscape when his elbow was prodded several times.
When Harry snapped his neck up to give a glare that was worthy of Tzeentch himself at the person who interrupted his thinking, he noticed that the populace of the great hall was staring at him with looks of shock, anger, jealousy and some even had pity.
"Harry they called your name, I'm sorry but you need to go up there," Luna said softly with a great deal of sadness as she tried to convey her support for her friend.
Harry, with silence and incredible reluctance, stood up slowly and began what could only be called a funeral march.
With each step he took, students began to shout that he was a cheater and how he was not of legal age, which made Harry even angrier, resulting in every goblet he passed shattering in pieces, exactly like the ones that were next to him when his name came out.
As the shouts became louder and louder, Harry's anger began to manifest itself by the sconces flaring up with warp fire at least a metre high, lighting the great hall up, as if there were no shadows, to begin with.
As he walked by Dumbledore, he saw only pity and a bit of calculating in his warp damned twinkling eyes but ignored it as he continued towards the antechamber.
Scene break
As Harry entered the antechamber, he began to walk over towards a trophy case that did not hold a trophy in it and started to punch it repeatedly, hard.
When the other champions noticed the door being opened, to their great surprise, Harry walked in with a furious face and again to their great surprise, began to attempt to shatter a trophy case.
For several minutes, Harry punched the glass and every time it shattered, he repaired it a wave of his wand, only to begin punching it again before the entry door opened again, with multiple people entering this time.
As the adults entered the room, they were greeted by the three legitimate champions standing off to the side with the illegally entered champion furiously battering away at the trophy case with a look of anguish on his face.
When Dumbledore attempted to gain the attention of the trophy case assaulting teen, he was treated with a glare that made everyone, including himself, turn away in sheer terror at the power fuelled blue eyes.
After a few seconds, though, they heard a pair of feet shuffle away from the case and sit in a chair next to the fire.
As soon as they could look back up again, the adults began their interrogation of Harry, not giving himself a chance to explain his situation.
"Harry did you put your name in the goblet of fire?!"
"Just like your father gain Potter, always showing off, being pig-headed and attempting garner fame everywhere"
Question after question came at him and after the tenth question, Harry shouted in anger, his anger turning the fire into a roaring fire that made everyone besides him sweat a bit.
"Now, I am only going to say this once; I DID NOT enter my name into the goblet of fire, I never wanted this as I find this whole tournament stupid to being with, I have better things to worry about such as getting my continuous high marks in school and possibly even date a girl"
"If you can't get that through your thick skulls, then it is YOUR fault, not mine!" Harry spat at them with fury.
"Potter! Fifty points from Ravenclaw for being disrespectful to the headmaster and myself in front of honoured guests!" Snape spat at Harry venomously.
Dumbledore quickly interceded before an argument could break out between the two and quickly asked Bartemius Crouch Snr about whether Harry had to compete or not.
"The goblet of fire is a binding magical contract, there is no other way for Mr Potter to exit the tournament, as of right now, Mr Potter is our fourth tri-wizard champion!" Crouch said with a flair drama, adding fuel to Harry's annoyance.
"But this is impossible Headmistress, he is but a little boy" Fleur sneered, not noticing Harry bristle slightly at her insult.
'Little boy? We'll see how little I am when I set your very soul on fire' Harry thought darkly before reigning in his inner thoughts and took a deep breath.
"Well, this is obviously a ploy for Hogwarts to have a better chance at winning, I will be taking my students and will leave this farce immediately," Karkaroff snarled.
"Empty threat Karkaroff, you and your other students can leave but your champion has to stay to compete or lest he lose his magic" Moody growled as he stalked his way up to the Durmstrang headmaster.
"Let us continue this discussion at a later date, for now, let us give the champions their task date and then send them off to bed" Dumbledore suggested and received agreements from the others.
Barty Crouch gathered the champions and gave them their clue for the first task; the task would involve two of the primal elements, air and fire, with the inclusion of the task date on 24th November.
After receiving the clue, the champions began to split off with Harry shrugging off an escort that was Dumbledore and received a warning about staying out late in return.
Scene break
When Cedric entered the Hufflepuff common room, he entered to a thunderous round of applause from his housemates besides a few, including Neville.
But when a few people began to shout out that Harry was a cheater and was trying to steal Hufflepuff's spotlight and glory, he noticed that Neville was gripping his wand a bit too tightly, signalling he was about to cast spells and not really care where they were going.
"Everyone listen to me! Now I admit that I don't know Harry well enough for us to be friends, but I can certainly say this; he DID NOT enter his name into the goblet" Cedric tried to calm down the crowd but was only drowned out by more shouts.
While Cedric was attempting to calm down his housemates, Neville was desperately trying to keep himself for his brother's sake and his own but was failing when he felt the touch of someone that knew him best.
'Calm Neville, as much as you'd want to teach them the glorious feeling of pain, it wouldn't do any good to your brother's situation'
Neville silently agreed with his more rational side and kept a close ear out for any more attempts at defending Harry.
"Look, let's look at Harry's track record at Hogwarts; have we ever known him to be deceiving at all? How about hurtful towards any student who has not hurt him before, more importantly, we Hufflepuffs? And second year doesn't count because Dumbledore himself erased Harry as being the Heir of Slytherin personally."
When that defence for Harry was said, it got a few people thinking about if whether Harry wanted this or not but there were still a good deal of people that were against being in the tournament and trying to take Cedric's spotlight.
"Look, I'm as upset about this as you are but at least for a Hogwarts brother who has been entered into a dangerous contest against his will where there is a huge chance of him dying since he is only a fourth year," Cedric's words were still making sense but he silently snorted when he talked about Harry being a fourth year.
'He could take you down easily Diggory, the magic you wield is nothing compared to the power that he has, nor could you ever comprehend how much he has.'
Scene break
When Harry did not come back to the Ravenclaw common room, Hermione, Luna and Padma were worried about their friend's safety and mental health when Luna got up and walked towards the common room door.
When asked where she was going, Luna only responded with that she was going to make sure that Harry was okay.
"I'm going to make sure that my best friend is okay, tonight has been a trying time for him and so I want to make sure he hasn't hurt himself, you two are always welcome to join me," and with that the trio walked out the common room, with no one batting an eyelid at them.
Scene break
In the Gryffindor common room, Ron Weasley was attempting to gain support win with his anti-Harry groups and was gaining some ground with all of his speeches that only a dark wizard could get past Dumbledore's age line when they were not even at the legal age.
'That boy is an idiot' Lavender thought as she got up with a huff and began to make her way out of the Gryffindor common room, for the exact same reason as the Ravenclaw girls.
Scene break
In the Slytherin common room, the same thing was happening but instead of being a dark wizard, there were calls of Potter being a glory hound with delusions of grandeur from the pureblood faction.
Daphne sat back and looked into her friendship with Harry and his friends; he certainly proved to be the opposite of what the Slytherins were saying about him and so got up as quietly as she could and left to find the others and hope to find her friend as well.
Scene break
As the girls met up and became one large group, the entered the lavatories to see that the entrance to the chamber was left wide open, which was not a good sign of Harry's mental wellbeing.
Slowly and carefully, the girls continued down and into the chamber, sometimes coming across scorch marks and deep gashes that only could have been made by a very large creature, or something else.
As they arrived at the great iron door, it too was open and no sound was coming from the inner chamber, just pure silence, which made everyone's nerves spike up dramatically.
Slowly the continued their way into the inner chamber, noticing that the snakeheads had been either destroyed completely, replaced with a creature that only Hermione and Luna knew of, or both until they noticed a lone figure, standing in front of plinth that held a book.
As they looked around the inner chamber, scores of scorch marks and deep gashes made themselves known in the light that made them shiver in fear slightly as they all thought the same thought without realising it: What the hell happened in here?
Will the groups training become jeopardised because of the tournament? Just who put Harry's name in the goblet of fire? Will the school's impressions of him fall and begin to taunt him? Will they support him? Moreover, what will meet the girls when they enter the Chamber? Find out next time of The Affliction!
AN2: I chose to write Harry's response to the selection this way because not everything can go the way Harry wants it to go, he has to face something he could not predict and something he has been forced into.
He is going to be emotional, like any person would, when your 14 and you have magic, the warp and hormones raging through his body, it's gonna be (pardon the pun) internal chaos inside of him.
AN3: I have something pretty awesome planned for the first task and I do hope it will be as awesome as it sounds in my head.
Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)