Chapter 5: Mad Eye

The next day was our first day with Professor Moody. We all walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and saw all our usual desks. Hermione and I grabbed one together, with Harry and Ron's desk directly across from us. As soon as we all seated, Moody came down from his office and stood in front of us.

"Alastair Moody." He said introducing himself and wrote his name on the board. "Ex-auora. I am here because Dumbledore asked me to be. End of story. Good-bye. The end." He stated. "When teaching, I believe in a practical approach." He said, turning to the black board and began writing something. "Now, I'm going to teach you about the Unforgivable Curses. But, the Ministry has prohibited the use of these. I say different!" he spat. "You need to know what you're up against! You need to be prepared! You need to find a better place to put your chewing gum besides the underside of your desk, Mr. Finnegan!" he bellowed.

"Ah, no way! The old codger can see out of the back of his head." Seamus whispered. Suddenly, Moody threw his piece of chalk at Seamus, barely missing him.

"And clear across classrooms!" he exclaimed. "Constant vigilance." He stressed. "Now, can anyone tell me how many there are?"

"Three, sir." Hermione squeaked, not looking him in the eye.

"And they are so named?"

"Because they are unforgivable. The use of any one of them will-"

"Earn you a one way ticket to Azkaban. Correct. Now, can anyone name one?" he asked. He looked at Ron. "Weasley!" he exclaimed, scaring Ron.

"Yes, sir?" he asked.

"Stand. Do you know one?" Moody asked, eyeing Ron.

"Well…my dad did tell me about one once. The Imperious Curse."

"Ah ha! Correct. Sit." He wrote it on the board. He then opened a jar and got out a spider. "Hello." He said to the bug. "Engorgio." He said and the bug doubled in size. "Imperio!" he said and then the bug began to levitate. Moody had the bug do all sorts of things. "Talented, isn't she?" he asked. "What should I have her do? Jump out the window?" he asked, flinging her to the window. "Drown herself?" he then levitated her over a jar of water. He then put the bug back onto his hand.

"Scores of witches and wizards, claimed, that they only did You-Know-Who's bidding, under the influence of the Imperious Curse. But here's the problems: how do we sort out the liars?" he asked evilly. He then went to Neville's desk. "Longbottom, isn't it?" Neville nodded. "Professor Sprout says you've got an aptitude for Herbology." Neville nodded again. "Perhaps you can give us one?"

"There's the…the Cruciatus Curse."

"Correct! Correct! Come, come." He said, gesturing him to the table in front. He set the spider down. "The torture curse, nasty thing." He pointed his wand at the bug. "Crucio!" and the spider began to squeal and cry. You could see on Neville's face that he didn't like watching this. After a few too many seconds, no one had said anything.

"Stop it!" I cried at Moody. "Can't you see it's bothering him? Stop it!" Moody then pulled his wand away, and the spider stopped screaming. Neville shuffled back to his desk, traumatized, and I couldn't look up at Moody as he walked to my desk.

"Perhaps you could give us the last one, Ms. Phillips?" Moody asked, putting the spider on my desk. The poor thing looked frightened. I shook my head.

"No?" he seemed to sigh and then shouted those horrible words. "Avada Kedavra!" and with a green bolt of light, the spider died instantly. "That's all class." He said, and we rushed out of there as quickly as we could.

As we walked down the stairs, we talked about our lesson.

"He's brilliant, isn't he? Completely demented of course, but he's really been there." Ron raved about Moody.

"That was unprofessional." I spat. "There's a reason those curses are unforgivable. And to perform them in a classroom. Absolutely unprofessional." We then saw Neville staring out the window, the rain coming down hard.

"Neville?" Hermione said, patting his shoulder. "Are you alright?" suddenly a different arm turned Neville around.

"Son, are you alright?" Moody asked. Neville nodded gently. "Come on, we'll have a cup of tea. I want to show you something." Moody said and Neville followed him back up the steps.

I looked at all of the sixth and seventh years putting in their names into the Goblet of Fire. Dumbledore had explained that the Goblet would choose who the three students would be. All of a sudden we saw Cedric being pushed by his friends to put his name in the cup. He walked up slowly and then plopped his piece of parchment into the blue fire. It turned orange and red as it consumed the paper. He looked over at me and smiled. I smiled back.

Fred and George came bursting through the door with a bunch of their friends, my brother included.

"We have discovered the way to enter!" They yelled.

"It's not going to work." Hermione sing songed. The twins stood on either side of us.

"Oh yeah?" Fred asked.

"Why's that Granger?" George responded.

"You see this?" she asked pointing to the blue circle surrounding the Goblet. "This is an age line. Dumbledore drew it himself." She explained.

"So?" They both asked.

"So, a genius like Dumbledore couldn't possibly be fooled by something as pathetically dimwitted as an aging potion."

"But that's why its so brilliant." George claimed.

"Because it's so pathetically dimwitted." Fred said. They both drank from their potion bottles. They then jumped over the line and into the ring and everyone cheered. But before they could take another step, they were repelled out of the circle. Their potion backfired as grey beards and hair began to sprout on their heads. We all started to laugh hysterically as they began to fight on the floor. Suddenly, Viktor Krum came through the doors heading for the Goblet. As he put his name into it, he looked at Hermione. He lightly smiled and she returned the smile.

"I didn't think you were the bad boy type." I stated to her. She shut her book.

"Don't be ridiculous Eleanor." Hermione stated. But she couldn't hide the smile that was tugging at her lips.

"May I have your attention please?" McGonagall asked the Great Hall a week later. Dumbledore stood up and the Goblet of Fire stood beside him.

"It is now time to find out which three students, will participate in the Tri-wizard Tournament!" he exclaimed and everyone shouted and cheered. The fire's bright blue flames licked at the ceiling.

"Know this…" Dumbledore said, silencing us. "Once chosen, there is no turning back." The fire exploded and a piece of frilly blue paper floated to Dumbledore's hand.

"From Beauxbatons Academy, Miss Fleur Delacour." He exclaimed. A blonde haired beauty stepped up and shook Dumbledore's hand before heading down to the dungeons. A brown piece of parchment burst from the fire, and Dumbledore caught it.

"From Durmstrang, Viktor Krum!" All of the men yelled and cheered as Krum walked up and shook Dumbledore's. He then followed after Fleur. Finally, the last piece of parchment flew into the air. All of us students from Hogwarts waited in anticipation, because this would be our champion.

"And from Hogwarts, Cedric Diggory!" all of the Hufflepuff cheered and yelled. This would be a first for Hufflepuff, considering they never really got entered in anything. Cedric walked up to Dumbledore, received his handshake, and followed after the other two champions.

"Thank you everyone. We now have our three champions! Of course, only one will go down in history and will receive the honor and glory of being the Tri-wizard Champion!" he pointed to a cloaked object and the cloth flew off, revealing the Tri-wizard Cup. It glowed and shined brightly without a spotlight. But suddenly, the Goblet of Fire turned bright red and orange, and spit out another piece of paper. Dumbledore took the paper, and read the name to himself, then out loud.

"Eleanor Phillips!" he cried. I stared wide-eyed at the floor. "Eleanor Phillips!" he cried again.

"Go!" Hermione whisper-yelled at me and she and Ron pushed me up onto my feet. I walked, trying to keep my eyes on the floor, but I could feel all eyes on me: especially my siblings. Dumbledore handed me the paper as proof. And there, in what looked like my handwriting, was my name. I looked up at him, and then I followed after the others. The students in the hall started to whisper and a few shouted at me.

"That's not fair!" one boy from Ravenclaw yelled.

"She's not even seventeen yet!" a girl from Slytherin yelled too. I looked at all of the teachers who stared at me as I went down to the dungeon where the other champions had gone.

As soon as I entered, I could hear all the other headmasters clamoring down to put in their opinions about the situation.

"I object! I object!" Madame Maxine exclaimed as she came down the steps. Dumbledore came straight up to me.

"Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire, Eleanor?" he asked sternly.

"No, sir." I stated.

"Well of course she is lying." Madame Maxine cried.

"The hell she is!" Moody shouted above them all, silencing them. "The Goblet of Fire is a very powerful magical object. Only an exceptionally powerful Confundus Charm could have hoodwinked it. Something way beyond the talents of a fourth year." He explained in my defense.

"You seem to have given this a fair bit of thought, Mad Eye." Karkarof stated, narrowing his eyes at Moody.

"It was once my job to think as dark wizards did, perhaps you remember Karkarof." Moody said, returning the glare.

"That doesn't help, Alistair." Dumbledore said, turning to Mr. Crouch. "You're the rule maker, Barty."

"The rules are clear." He stated. "The Goblet of Fire constitutes a binding magical contract." I didn't like where he was going with this. "As of tonight, Ms. Phillips is…a Tri-wizard Champion. In one month's time, the first task will begin. Prepare yourselves, and best of luck to you all." The champions and their headmasters left the trophy room. I looked into the case where the other Tri-wizard Cup was kept, its glow was a bit dimmer than the one in the Great Hall. Dumbledore came up to me.

"Eleanor, I must ask you again. Did you or did you not put your name into the Goblet of Fire?" he asked sternly. I shook my head.

"No, sir. I didn't want this. Honestly. Just because I'm Brad's sister, now everyone will think that I did it on purpose." I sighed. "I just want to make my mark in some different way than all my other siblings, sir. I don't want to be like them." I quickly turned away from him to hid my emotions. He put a hand on my shoulder.

"You, and your three friends, have made your mark much deeper than you realize. The Sorcerers Stone, the Chamber of Secrets, and…well…" He was referring to last year's fiasco with a hippogriff and an escape convict who turned out to be Harry's Godfather. He smiled at me. "Now, go get some rest." He said, ushering me out. From the corners I could see Professor McGonagall, Snape, and Moody waiting for me to leave. Most likely to discuss what was to be done with me.

The next morning at breakfast, I was extremely tired. I hadn't been able to sleep a wink that night because all of that had happened. Hermione was already in bed by the time I had gotten back to the dorms. That morning, she hadn't burned me for questions once. None of them had. But as we sat there in silence, my food untouched, Hermione gently jostled my shoulder, waking me from my sleepless slumber.

"Eleanor, are you alright?" she asked. But instead of answering her, I instantly bolted out of the Great Hall my grey pleated skirt swishing as I left.

I headed down the familiar trail, kicking up dust along the way. I headed to the one familiar place where I knew I wouldn't be judged, and where I could talk openly. I knew Hagrid was home due to the smoke brewing out of his chimney. I knocked on his door and saw the large half-giant standing there, a big grin on his face.

"Eleanor! This is a surprise!" he exclaimed. But, I failed to notice the single tear that had fallen down my cheek. But he noticed it. "What's te madder? Come inside and we'll have a pot a te'." He said ushering me in. I sat down in one of the large wooden chairs, and as Hagrid poured me a cup there was a fervent knock on the door. He handed me a tissue before he answered the door. I dried my tears as he let some others inside. I turned to see my pals. I chuckled at my predictability.

"That easy huh?" I asked as they sat down. They all nodded in agreement.

"So, tell me yer troubles Eleanor." Hagrid said handing out the cups of tea, and taking a seat.

"They've decided what to do." I stated after taking a sip of my tea. Hagrid looked up immediately.

"They 'ave? So soon?" he asked.

"Well, they can't possibly hold off for more than a day."

"Wait, what's going on? Who's decided what?" Hermione asked.

"I'm competing in the tournament." I said softly.

"Dumbledore's lettin' ye'?" Hagrid asked. I nodded.

"They don't have a choice. Mr. Crouch said I've now made a binding magical contract." I murmured. "Except I don't even want this." I said even softer.

"Then, why'd you do it?" Hermione asked. I looked up at her.

"I didn't 'do' anything."

"Well, somebody had to have." She pressed.

"Of course! But that doesn't mean that I did it!" I exclaimed. I looked at all of them. "You think I orchestrated this?"

"Well, you were really excited about the tournament, Eleanor." Ron added.

"Someone put my name in that cup against my will! Why won't you guys believe me?" I demanded. None of them would look up at me.

"But who would want you to be entered into this tournament?" Hermione asked.

"I don't bloody well know, but it would be nice if you would all at least try to believe me!" I said, instantly regretting it. " I didn't want this." I said picking up my cloak and leaving.

I tried to keep my distance from them and I truly felt alone. Even my own siblings gave me the cold shoulder. I wrote to my parents and they said they believed me, but I could tell from their wording that they were skeptical. The only one who seemed not to care were Ron and Athena. Athena, well she was my owl and didn't understand what was going on. Ron, he tried hard to get Hermione to speak to me again. And Harry, I'm not sure where he was on the conflict. All I knew was that he was uncomfortable around me.