Albus Dumbledore sat down, smiling at his students. The news of the TriWizard Tournament rang fresh in their ears. Even the age-limit had not brought down their spirits. The teachers watched the children, most with a pleasant smile except for Snape who looked disgusted. Arthur sat pleasantly besides an empty chair. He looked at it with slight amusement. When the doors swung open, and the children quieted down, Arthur understood. Walking in was a large man as wet and grumpy as a cat in a bath. He hobbled in, one eye swerving and eyeing each student and the other staring straight ahead. His jaw jutted out and his matted hair lay frazzled on his head. He pulled up the chair besides Arthur and sat down.
Arthur took a good long stare at him. You see, nations can easily see through disguises. Arthur did not speak out, but the man knew. His regular eye looked at him in bewilderment and his other eye, for once, stared at Arthur. The man looked back at the eyes, grinning playfully. O, how much fun will he have with this one. With his fingers laced up, he waited for Dumbledore to finish introducing him. When Albus sat back down and an uneasy silence fell, Arthur picked up his wine glass, and paused. He felt eyes on him. Uneasy and watchful eyes that distrusted him. He set the goblet down and scanned around, trying to find who it was that gave him such a queer look. First, he turned to Mad-Eye, but the man was not looking at him. The stare was raising the hair on his neck, therefore it was not Mad-Eye that simply turned away. He looked at Snape and the other teachers, nope not them. Arthur knew very well who was looking at him, but he was playing. Everything was a game from now on. To toy on, he picked up his glass and drank from it. "Poisoned," he said suddenly. The teachers turned toward him, and the eyes shifted away. Arthur smacked his lips and looked thoughtful. "Cyanide too! Someone is ambitious, I say. Highly toxic, if you chose the right one and alas, you have not! You've chosen the one of lower toxicity. Even if it was the real one, well, then it still wouldn't have done its job. Am I right?" He turned and faced one of the ghosts. The ghost was of a young woman who screamed and vanished. Arthur sighed and set his wine down, shaking his head. "Did you not believe I was real?" he said softly, too quiet for anyone to hear.
Harry and his friends watched the whole problem. When the ghost vanished everyone went back to their conversations. "He's blooming mad!" Ron exclaimed. The twins looked over.
"Have you seen that ghost before?" Fred asked.
"Come to think… There was this question mark floating about the map, among other things," George replied.
Harry looked at him, a brow raised. "A question mark? I think I've seen that. Is it an unmarked ghost?"
"No, it is no one," Fred said, he looked at something in the distance.
"What?" Ron asked, joining the conversation. "It must be someone's ghost,"
"It is no one, they don't exist," George said, looking in the same direction as Fred. They were not all there. It was as if something strange had overtaken their minds. Ron nudged Fred's arm but he said nothing.
"She might have existed once, maybe in another world," Fred continued. George began to say something but they both gasped and shook their heads. Taking deep breaths, as if they had come out of water, they looked at each other and laughed. They continued on with their conversation as if nothing had happened. Hermione looked at them, with the same shaken expression as Harry.
Days passed and before they knew it, the other schools had arrived. First came the Bulgarian school, along with Viktor Krum and none other than Bulgaria himself.
Bulgaria walked briskly in front with the headmaster, brown hair sleeked down his face and a grim expression. The boys behind them stomped on, introducing themselves gallantly.
Afterwards came the French Witch School. The headmistress walked with France smiling next to her. The girls walked on gracefully. They were more airy and light footed than the Bulgarian school. France wore a lovely French costume with shining frills and gems glittering on his suit. The pudgy woman walked along with him, as they talked in French. "D'accord, madam! Oui… Oui, il est Dumbledore…" France was saying and Hagrid was on the opposite side of the woman, watching her happily and quite smitten.
The trotted in, introduced by the headmaster. England meanwhile, was anticipating their arrival. He did not, actually, expect the nations to come along. It was unfortunate that he was drinking when Bulgaria walked right in. The water sprayed out into a serviette he had kept in his pocket. He stared at them. Though France had told him before he was coming, he never actually believed him. France was terribly angry, and anger causes one to say odd things. Therefore, he might have decided against coming. England was so sure of his reasoning that it surprised him to see France walking up, and so glittery as well.
As we know, the Goblet of Fire chose Viktor, Fleur, Cedric, and Harry on that faithful night.
