Chapter 4
I feel the need to put a disclaimer on this chapter, and then there's the fact that I should have put on on the first chapter, so...
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of these characters or settings. The rights to these characters, places, and some events belong to JK Rowling and various publishers. No copyright infringement or plagiarism is intended, so please don't sue me!
A/N: This is one of those "necessary" chapters, I tried not to make it sound too Rowling-esque. I reworded some things, Please don't sue me! Just a reminder, direct quotes from GoF are in bold, thoughts of people, for this chapter, and flasbacks, are in plain italics (oxymoron?). This chapter is a bit shorter. What did you guys think of the last chapter? Read and review!
... A glance became a stare, and before he knew it, they were walking into McGonagall's room, holding hands. Harry gasped and dropped Cedric's hand as he looked up, right into the unwavering eyes of Draco Abraxas Malfoy...
Draco mouthed "I know" and Harry's eyes were fixed on him. McGonagall admonished the boys for being late, and Harry's face reddened under Draco's stare as he hurried to his seat beside Cedric near the back of the room.
Class passed slowly, and Harry felt uncomfortable as he felt Draco's eyes boring into him. Cedric sensed his tension and placed a hand on his thigh, rubbing in calming circles. Harry tried to take notes, but by the end of the period, he was horrified to realize he had doodled Cedric's name in elaborate calligraphy, which wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't intertwined with the name of the Slytherin he refused to acknowledge was sitting right in front of him. Harry, sighed heavily and shoved the offending parchment into his bag, stood and abruptly left the classroom. The rest of his day passed in much the same fashion, he had Divination with Cedric, luckily no platinum blondes were present in that class, then, when Trelawny was finished predicting his demise for the tenth time that semester, he headed down to the Great Hall for dinner, where he was abruptly reminded of Hogwarts' guests, having yet again forgotten.
Everyone was practically jumping out of their skins with excitement They, unlike Harry, had all day been intent on and were minutes away from knowing who the Triwizard Champions would be! Eager to be thinking of something other than the voices in his head and his inner emotional turmoil, Harry allowed himself to be swept up in the excitement. He honestly did want to know who the champions were, he was eager to know whether Cedric would be kept safe.
The Hall fell silent as Dumbledore finally rose to his feet and spoke.
"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make it's decision", said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them to please come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table and go through into the next chamber"-he indicated the door behind the staff table- "where they will be receiving their first instructions."*
Dumbledore magically extinguished the torches lighting the Great Hall, leaving the student body softly illuminated by only the warm, dancing light coming from inside the carved pumpkins levitating above their heads. The now brilliantly bright blue-white flames dancing within the Goblet of Fire were painful on the eyes, so Harry focused his gaze on Dumbledore's calmly waiting face.
The Hall watched with bated breath for another minute, until the flames within the Goblet turned bright red, and it began to emit a stream of sparks. Then, suddenly, a piece of parchment jetted out of the goblet on a flame that shot into the air, causing many students to gasp and yelp with surprise. Dumbledore deftly caught the piece of parchment and read through his half-moon spectacles, in a loud, clear voice, as the flames in the goblet morphed back to blue-white, he announced:
"The champion for Durmstrang..." Dumbledore paused, reminding Harry of that annoying host on that Muggle television show that Aunt Petunia got so worked up about, Britain's Got Talent.
"...will be Victor Krum!"
The Hall erupted into applause, cheers, and congratulations, but the ruckus died abruptly as Dumbledore raised his hand to continue.
The atmosphere in the Hall tensed, and the silence was once again broken by a flame erupting from the goblet, bearing another scrap of parchment, which Dumbledore caught, and read aloud:
"The Champion for Beauxbatons", said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!"
More applause, mostly from the boys. The straight ones anyway.
"And now", said Dumbledore dramatically as a third piece of parchment was ejected from the Goblet, "The Hogwarts Champion is...Cedric Diggory!"
The noise in the Hall was ear-shattering, applause, cheers, and some cries of objection (from Ron and the Slytherins) Harry had to suppress the urge to hit something, Of all the people that put their names in that blasted goblet, why did Cedric have to be the one it spit out? He let his head fall to his hands in defeat. If there was a god, why did these things keep happening?
Harry glanced over at the Hufflepuff table and caught Cedric's gaze, which went from beaming to apologetic in an instant as he Cedric met his eyes. Cedric gazed at him and mouthed "I'm so sorry". Harry stared back at him and mouthed numbly "It's okay, I love you". Cedric smiled, and Harry knew that meant he loved him back.
"Well now", said Dumbledore cheerily, "we now have our three champions! Champions, please come up and go through that door behind the staff table. He gestured to the door that led into the next chamber. Then Dumbledore turned to address the rest of them
"Please show your school's champion the utmost support and give them as much encouragement as is wizardly possible. Merlin knows they will-"
Dumbledore stopped talking midsentence, and the cause was immediately apparent to everyone. The Goblet once again began spewing red sparks, and another column of flame jetted from it. Dumbledore for once looked perplexed, as he reached out and grabbed another piece of parchment from middair and read:
"Harry Potter"