Prologue: Of Flaming Dresses and Bloody Stupid Decisions

In horror, I watched as everything went up in flames.

The stage was bright with fairy lights, camera flashes, and florescent orange flames shooting up the long - and I guess very flammable - curtains. It melted the carefully placed sparkling pink tinsel and torched her perfectly fitted exorbitantly expensive dress. I took a step toward her with my apology stuck in my throat. Next to me landed her congratulations sign burning up rapidly. I expected her to scream, but all she did was glare at me as the flames traveled up her emerald dress. It smelled like burning plastic. The small crown on her head glittered as if it was delighted.

Other people were screaming, girls were running off the stage, tripping and falling in their heels, spells were being cast left and right to extinguish my mistake, and I was just standing there dumbstruck.

Move Regina. The voice in my head urged me, but all I could do was watch in shock as a man tackled Hattie Carrow to the stage floor with a mighty thump. He took off his fancy jacket and whacked her with it over and over and over until the flames were gone and she was safe.

Do something, Regina.

Boy, did I want to run out of there like I was the one I had set on fire... Yet I just stood there, even as all eyes landed on me.

"What in Merlin's name did you think you were doing?"

That was the last time my mother ever forced me into a beauty pageant. I was ten, and magic sometimes just happened around me then. Luckily, this particular pageant was a witches' beauty pageant, so magic fire suddenly appearing wasn't the weirdest thing that could happen. Probably the most dangerous, though...

My parents had always had high hopes for me.

Beauty queen.

Quidditch player.

Blossoming socialite.

You name it.

Unlucky for them, I ended up being a magical creature-loving nerd who hates large crowds and gets stressed out far too quickly.

I let down my father pretty early on. He was determined that I would follow in his footsteps just like my brother Porter had.

Oliver Wood, one of the greatest Quidditch players of all time giving birth to two prodigies. It was his dream. But you see, I had failed to inherit whatever magic gene my father and brother had in them to make them love Quidditch… and I mean, love it! It bordered on unhealthy.

This was learned at the ripe age of six and three-quarters while they were trying to teach me how to fly. During this session, I realized that I was not only deathly afraid of heights but also that I tend to vomit when put under pressure.

"Just a mild setback," I remember my father telling me cheerfully as he bandaged up my bloody knee.

My mother took a little longer to figure it out. She saw that I would not be a Quidditch maniac and jumped for joy. This was finally her chance to have the little girl she always wanted.

You see, she had won Witch Weekly's prestigious Most Beautiful Witch of the Year Award seven times in her day, and to her dismay… I never took anything like that seriously. As a wee babe, I would cover my pretty dresses in mud and grass stains whenever I got the chance. Then, when I was old enough to figure out what a camera was, I began making ugly faces in every picture I could because I thought it was hilarious. Finally, there was that whole accidentally setting an opponent on fire thing, but we already went over that.

By the time I was headed off to Hogwarts, we had all settled in as the family we were going to be. They figured out that there was no forcing me to do or be anything I wasn't already.

They finally no longer thought it was weird if I wanted to lock myself in my room with my books and stuffed dragons. It was no longer a phase I was going through for them. I was the real deal.

But things can always change.

It started at the end.

The end of me being invisible. The end of my ordinary life as I knew it. The end of everything simple.

It started, on the 30th of October, in my sixth year at Hogwarts….

It was a crisp autumn morning; dawn was breaking, the birds were singing happily, and sunlight was just beginning to spill throughout the Great Hall from its mighty magical ceiling. I was more thankful on that day than ever for its comforting glow, casting a much-needed optimistic light on my current situation.

What was my current situation, you ask? Well, let me paint you a picture…

I was standing five foot nothing and as still as a statue in the middle of the Great Hall with my stupid quivering hand hovering over the stupid Goblet of Fire. My hair was monstrously tangled as usual, and my mouth was hanging open like a half-wit, searching for the words to get me out of the trouble I had just made for myself… and the entire student body of Hogwarts was filing in for breakfast.

Great.

Only moments before, I had let my ego get the best of me, and now there I was, regretting every single silly word I let spill from my big lips. I had never intended to put my name in the Goblet, not in a million zillion years, yet there I was, making a fool of myself while doing so.

"What's wrong, Wood? Not as brave as you think you are, huh?"

"Shut up, Scamander!" I barked back, my eyes never leaving the crumpled paper dangling from my fingertips.

I kept my posture straight as a board in an attempt to make myself look bolder, taller, and more sure of myself. But I knew my face was giving away how I was really feeling.

Absolutely bloody, terrified.

What are you thinking? A voice screamed at me in my head. You're Regina Pavlina Wood! You do your schoolwork, you sit quietly in class, you do as you are told, and you never EVER bring attention to yourself!

The small crowd of spectators around me was multiplying. Their whispering became a loud roar in my nervous ears. This is the exact opposite of how I wanted to start my day. I wanted to eat breakfast, chit-chat a little, catch up on some homework, and go to class. Done and done.

"Regina…" Holly took a step toward me, her hands out, "you don't have to do this."

This had all started out so small; it was just a passing conversation I overheard in the hall on the way to breakfast. I didn't have to get involved, but my temper got the better of me.

Lorcan Scamander had been leaning against a wall with his usual posse, talking himself up, 'there is no way I won't be the Champion of Hogwarts. I mean, have you seen who I am going up against?'

They all laughed and agreed like mindless sheep.

His posse consisted of a sizeable ugly boy named Ralph and a girl as equally small as Ralph was large, named Phoebe. They usually stood on either side of him like bodyguards.

Then there was his twin Lysander, waify and androgynous. Who eternally stood by Lorcan, looking like he was forever bored with what was happening.

Lastly, there was Hattie Carrow - the girl I set on fire - who was always draped on Lysander or Lorcan's arm, limp, beautiful, and solemn. Her eyes were forever rolled into the back of her head like she was perpetually annoyed. Except when she was around the twins, the twins were her prize, and she pretended they were both somehow madly in love with her. Hoping that one of them will finally give in a tell her that they want to spend the rest of their life with her. I honestly couldn't keep up with which one she was 'dating' or if she was at all.

As I passed, Lorcan's eyes zeroed in on me like I was the target and he was an oncoming arrow. I tried to ignore him - I really did try this time - but he wasn't going to let me go that easily.

'Too bad none of your father's blood was passed down to you, eh Wood? Maybe then there would be a little bit of a challenge for me.'

'Why don't you shove it, Lorcan?' James spat back at him without even turning.

'Why don't you just shove it,' Hattie mimicked James, 'you're just as bad as she is, and a Potter? Ha! A sad excuse for one, I would have to say.'

Ignore them, I told myself, mind your business and go to breakfast.

Before the school year had started, I had made a vow to myself in the mirror that I would not let myself get wrapped up in petty drama anymore. I was going to have the most uncomplicated year possible.

But what he said next only dared me to fight back.

'Ha, she can't even respond to me herself! Has to have her guard dogs do it for her… do you think your daddy is proud of you, Wood? Acting like this.'

I spun on my heels, 'you leave my father out of this,' I growled, gripping my books with white knuckles.

'Daddy, daddy, daddy!'

I flared up but kept walking with my head high.

'Come on guys,' Holly urged James and me. We were both beet red and itching to fight back. James' hand twitched at his side, ready to grab his wand.

'Pathetic,' Lorcan said to his friends, 'wouldn't expect anything less because you know what?'

There was a pause, and for a second, all you could hear was our retreating feet. The tension came off of us like a physical presence.

'I'm wrong; they are exactly like their fathers. Pathetic, sad little washouts.'

I turned around so fast I almost fell over, 'If you mention my father again, I swear I will tear you apart!' I shouted.

'Come on, Regina, he's just trying to get a rise out of you.'

'Oh look, it's mad!' Hattie cackled.

'What, Wood? Afraid to face the truth? Afraid of a little-'

My wand was out and pointed directly at his smug face.

All of them backed away except for Lysander, who took a small step toward his brother.

We all stood in silence, watching one another. James put a hand on my back, 'he's not worth it,' he whispered in my ear. His morning breath brushed the side of my face sweeping my hair into my eyes. The sensation made me flinch and brought me back into reality. What was I going to do, hex him? I would only be expelled, and then he would win.

Sighing softly, I lowered my wand and stuck it back into a loop on my skirt.

Everyone relaxed. Hattie rolled her big eyes, 'what were you going to do, set him on fire?'

I glared at her, 'worked with you, didn't it?'

Lorcan was suddenly laughing, 'if your father could see you now, what do you think he would do?'

'Oh, I know exactly what my father would do!' I tore into my school bag, searching for a piece of paper.

Before anyone, even I, could stop me or realize what was happening, I had written my name down on that piece of paper and was sprinting toward the Great Hall...

And that's how I ended up in front of the Goblet of Fire, shaking, red in the face, and desperately searching for a way out.

"Regina. Babes, you don't have to do this," the voice of my ever-faithful friend Holly was low in my ear as she put a comforting hand on my shoulder, "no one would think any differently of you."

I thought, well, no one would think of me anyway, so what harm would it do?

I couldn't let him win.

Not this time.

I ignored the rising whispers and met his grey eyes dead on as I let go of the slip of paper in my fingers. A hot, bright blue fire burst from the Goblet and licked its wooden sides in a dramatic display. His face instantly fell into a deep frown as I threw a mocking smile at him and turned to hug my friends, who were naturally in total disbelief at what I had just done.

"Did you just?"

"She just!"

"I know," I let out a small laugh and forced a smile onto my lips as others came around to shake my hand and tell me how proud they were of me. Which was humous because most of them would have hardly even acknowledged my existence otherwise.

"I didn't know you had it in ya," James elbowed his way through my sudden admirers and put an arm around my side, guiding me away from the crowd.

I shrugged my shoulders. Honestly, I didn't know I had it in me, either.

"Of course, she has it in her. She's a Gryffindor! She's just too humble to admit it," Holly twirled her finger around a curly lock of black hair and smiled, "though you wouldn't even have considered this if it wasn't for that git."

In unison, the three of us glared over at him.

If Lorcan could feel our gaze, he didn't show it. Instead, he sat at the Ravenclaw table looking as brooding and solemn as ever with his brother and gang of loyal followers.

"True," I nodded, breaking away from them and making my way to our long table, "but I just couldn't let him get away with being so big-headed all the time. Acting all tough just because he put his name in the Goblet? Thinking he's the only qualified student here able to compete?" I grumbled and started to pile food onto my plate, "you know he had the nerve to insinuate that I would never be able to do it? That I was nothing like my father. Did you hear him say that? I'm smart! I'm smart!"

James laughed and shook his shaggy head in my direction, "we were right there if you don't remember."

I could feel my face grow pink. I knew I should not let my anger get the better of me... "anyway," I took a deep breath, "what are the chances of the Goblet choosing me, right?"