The other miss Granger
Chapter 5
"I don't believe it!" Ron said, in a stunned voice, as the Hogwarts students filed back up the steps behind the party from Durmstrang. "Krum, Harry! Viktor Krum!"
"For heaven's sake, Ron, he's only a Quidditch player," said Hermione.
"Only a Quidditch player?" Ron said, looking at her as though he couldn't believe
his ears. "Hermione - he's one of the best Seekers in the world! I had no idea he
was still at school!" He was really starting to get on her nerves. There were more important things than a grumpy Quidditch player. Like looking for her own sister.
"Who cares Ron! Honestly there are much more important things!" She hissed at him. But he just ignored her. As they walked to the great hall she heard many silly people fussing about Viktor Krum just like Ron. She couldn't help but say a few words of sarcasm as she passed by these people.
They walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down. Ron took care to sit on the side facing the doorway, because Krum and his fellow Durmstrang students were still gathered around it, apparently unsure about where they should sit. The students from Beauxbatons had chosen seats at the Ravenclaw table. They were looking around the Great Hall with glum expressions on their faces. Most of them were still clutching scarves and shawls around their heads.
"It's not that cold," said Hermione defensively. Annoyed that she couldn't see their faces. After all she wanted to try and pick up which one was her sister.
"Why didn't they bring cloaks?"
"Over here! Come and sit over here!" Ron hissed, interrupting my thoughts. "Over here! Hermione, budge up, make a space -"
"What?"
"Too late," said Ron bitterly.
Hermione rolled her eyes as Viktor Krum and his fellow Durmstrang students had settled themselves at the Slytherin table. You could see Draco Malfoy sucking up to Viktor Krum. Hermione couldn't help but shake her head. He is only a Quidditch play for Merlin's sake!
"Yeah, that's right, smarm up to him, Malfoy," said Ron scathingly. "I bet Krum can see right through him, though. . . bet he gets people fawning over him all the time.. . . Where d'you reckon they're going to sleep? We could offer him a space in our dormitory, Harry. . . I wouldn't mind giving him my bed, I could kip on a camp bed." Hermione snorted at his silly behaviour. All she wanted to say was Grow up!
"They look a lot happier than the Beauxbatons lot," said Harry. The Durmstrang students were pulling off their heavy furs and looking up at the starry black ceiling with expressions of interest; a couple of them were picking up the golden plates and goblets and examining them, apparently impressed. Up at the staff table, Filch, the caretaker, was adding chairs. He was wearing his moldy old tailcoat in honor of the occasion.
When all the students had entered the Hall and settled down at their House tables, the staff entered, filing up to the top table and taking their seats. Last in line were Professor Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime. When their headmistress appeared, the pupils from Beauxbatons leapt to their feet. A few of the Hogwarts students laughed. The Beauxbatons party appeared quite unembarrassed , however, and did not resume their seats until Madame Maxime had sat down on Dumbledore's left-hand side. Dumbledore remained standing, and a silence fell over the Great Hall.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and - most particularly - guests," said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."
One of the Beauxbatons girls still clutching a muffler around her head unlike most of the others who had removed theirs gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh. Hermione noticed a girl with her back to Hermione and her friends, with jet black hair in neat lose curls pull of the muffler to show brown hair. She bowed her head slightly as if the other girl was of higher rank of some sort.
"No one's making you stay!" Hermione whispered, bristling at the girl who just had her muffler removed.
"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," said Dumbledore.
"I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!" then he sat down still smiling. The plates in front of them filled with food as usual. The house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them most of them she had ever seen, including several that were definitely foreign.
"What's that?" said Ron, pointing at a large dish of some sort of shellfish stew that stood beside a large steak-and-kidney pudding.
"Bouillabaisse," said Hermione.
"Bless you," said Ron. She rolled her eyes.
"It's French," said Hermione, "I had it on holiday summer before last. It's very nice."
"I'll take your word for it," said Ron, helping himself to black pudding. Hermione glared at him slightly. He should at least try it.
The Great Hall seemed somehow much more crowded than usual, even though there were barely twenty additional students there; perhaps it was because their differently colored uniforms stood out so clearly against the black of the Hogwarts robes. Now that they had removed their furs, the Durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep bloodred.
Hagrid sidled into the Hall through a door behind the staff table twenty minutes after the start of the feast. He slid into his seat at the end and waved at Harry, Ron and Hermione with a very heavily bandaged hand.
"Skrewts doing all right, Hagrid?" Harry called.
"Thrivin'," Hagrid called back happily.
"Yeah, I'll just bet they are," said Ron quietly. "Looks like they've finally found a food they like, doesn't it? Hagrid's fingers."
At that moment, a voice said, "Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?"
It was the girl from Beauxbatons. A long sheet of silvery-blonde hair fell almost to her waist. She had large, deep blue eyes, and very white, even teeth. Ron went purple. He stared up at her, opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out except a faint gurgling noise. Hermione rolled her eyes at his yet again silly behaviour.
"Yeah, have it," said Harry, pushing the dish toward the girl.
"You 'ave finished wiz it?"
"Yeah," Ron said breathlessly. "Yeah, it was excellent."
The girl picked up the dish and carried it carefully off to the Ravenclaw table beside the girl with jet black hair. Ron was still goggling at the girl as though he had never seen one before. Harry started to laugh. The sound seemed to snap Ron back to his senses.
"She's a veela!" he said hoarsely to Harry.
"Of course she isn't!" said Hermione tartly. "I don't see anyone else gaping at her like an idiot!"
But she wasn't entirely right about that. As the girl crossed the Hall, many boys heads turned, and some of them seemed to have become temporarily speechless, just like Ron.
"I'm telling you, that's not a normal girl!" said Ron, leaning sideways so he could keep a clear view of her.
"They don't make them like that at Hogwarts!"
"They make them okay at Hogwarts," said Harry obviously looking at Cho who happened
to be sitting only a few places away from the girl with the silvery hair.
"When you've both put your eyes back in," said Hermione briskly rolling her eyes at both of her friends behaviour, "you'll be able to see who's just arrived."
She was pointing up at the staff table. The two remaining empty seats had just been filled. Ludo Bagman was now sitting on Professor Karkaroff's other side, while Mr. Crouch, Percy's boss, was next to Madame Maxime.
"What are they doing here?" said Harry in surprise.
"They organized the Triwizard Tournament, didn't they?" said Hermione. "I suppose they wanted to be here to see it start."
When the second course arrived they noticed a number of unfamiliar desserts too. Ron examined an odd sort of pale blancmange closely, then moved it carefully a few inches to his right, so that it would be clearly visible from the Ravenclaw table. The girl who looked like a veela appeared to have eaten enough, however, and did not come over to get it.
Once the golden plates had been wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the Hall now. Several seats down from them, Fred and George were leaning forward, staring at Dumbledore with great concentration. Probably trying to scheme a way to become Hogwarts champion. And then there was some thing said about the tournament and what not. Hermione didn't really pay attention. Looking at the Ravenclaw table where the students from Beauxbaton were sitting. Any of these girls could be her sister.
Filch, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the Hall, now approached Dumbledore carrying a great wooden chest encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely old. A murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students; Dennis Creevey actually stood on his chair to see it properly, but, being so tiny, his head hardly rose above anyone else's.
"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman," said Dumbledore as Filch placed the chest carefully on the table before him, "and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways.. their magical prowess - their daring - their powers of deduction - and, of course, their ability to cope with danger."
At this last word, the Hall was filled with a silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing.
"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament," Dumbledore went on calmly, "one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."
Dumbledore now took out his wand and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. The lid creaked slowly open. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames. Dumbledore closed the casket and placed the goblet carefully on top of it, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the Hall.
"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said Dumbledore. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete.
"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation," said Dumbledore, "I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line."
He then went on went on about who if you weren't prepared for the dangers not to enter. Hermione had zoomed out. "Now of to bed."
"An Age Line!" Fred Weasley said, his eyes glinting, as they all made their way across the Hall to the doors into the entrance hall. "Well, that should be fooled by an Aging Potion, shouldn't it? And once your name's in that goblet, you're laughing - it can't tell whether you're seventeen or not!"
"But I don't think anyone under seventeen will stand a chance," said Hermione,
"we just haven't learned enough. . ."
"Speak for yourself," said George shortly. "You'll try and get in, won't you, Harry?"
Hermione glared at her friend, she didn't wanted her friend in any more danger.
"Where is he?" said Ron, who wasn't listening to a word of this conversation, but looking through the crowd to see what had become of Krum. "Dumbledore didn't say where the Durmstrang people are sleeping, did he?" Hermione now turned and glared at her other friend. But this query was answered almost instantly; they were level with the Slytherin table now, and Karkaroff had just bustled up to his students.
"Back to the ship, then," he was saying. "Viktor, how are you feeling? Did you eat enough? Should I send for some mulled wine from the kitchens?"
Harry saw Krum shake his head as he pulled his furs back on. "Professor, Ivood
like some vine," said one of the other Durmstrang boys hopefully.
"I wasn't offering it to you, Poliakoff," snapped Karkaroff, his warmly paternal air
vanishing in an instant. "I notice you have dribbled food all down the front of your
robes again, disgusting boy -"Karkaroff turned and led his students toward the doors, reaching them at exactly the same moment as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry stopped to let him walk through first.
"Thank you," said Karkaroff carelessly, glancing at him. And then Karkaroff froze. He turned his head back to Harry and stared at him as though he couldn't believe his eyes. Behind their headmaster, the students from Durmstrang came to a halt too. Karkaroff's eyes moved slowly up Harry's face and fixed upon his scar.
The Durmstrang students were staring curiously at Harry too. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw comprehension dawn on a few of their faces. The boy with food all down his front nudged the girl next to him and pointed openly at Harry's forehead. Then Moody came and rescued them.
Thanks for all the reviews!
Charlie Weasely: 8 votes
Oliver Wood: 6 votes
Sirius Black: 6 votes
George Weasley: 2 votes
Harry Potter: 2
And Severus Snape: 10 votes so Snape wins! ONLY joking. Snape has no votes and the voting isn't finished yet.
So here's some answers to the reviews!
Readergirl99: Thanks for you review. Yes Oliver is obsessed with Quidditch. But don't you think it would cause some drama between him and Jolie?
OC-Lover: Thanks! Charlie doesn't have to leave.
Miss Malfoy-Mellark: Thanks for your review. :)
Amyb11: Thank you for all the reviews. Yes I think there will be some chapters in Jolie's POV. And I guess you really like Charlie. Its a shame there aren't more Charlie/OC stories.
Ashrachellexx: Thanks for the reviews. To tell you the truth I don't think Jolie and Harry would be right for each other. But after this story I might write a Harry/OC story. I've been thinking of a plot. :)
Cathie Cathie: Thanks for the review. I'm not to sure if she'll play Quidditch, but she does like it. :)