Hey peoples!

{Sorry that this took so long.}

We have many excuses. An entire list!

1. School

2. we are hopelessly addicted to reading as well as writing stories on this site

3. School

4. Just when we were about to finish the chapter Ica and Ala got prodjects in both history and german

5. We had a family vaction for three days

6 just blame everything on school

{That about sums it up. Again, we would like to say sorry for making you wait so long, but this is a good sized chapter, and really w should all enjoy the simple fact that we can write and share these ideas. It is a wonder privlage and I, for one, would be very dissapointed if we did not have this luxury-}

Sorry about that. She's been really into speeches since we had to write one in class. NOW! I have some fun little interesting facts:

The most used letter in this story: E (used 13,779 times)

The least used letter: Z (used 82 times)

The most uniquely used letter: S (mostly because it was used 6,789 times. Get it? 6, 7, 8, 9.)

Closer to a last note, if you haven't yet, you all need to go out to theaters and see the movie Ender's Game. It is pure AWESOMENESS!

{And now, on a last note;}

{HAPPY THANKSGIVING (even if you don't celebrate it)}

I'm thankful that my ancestors were not killed during the Bubonic Plauge. Then I wouldn't exsist.

I'm thankful for you guys, meaning anyone reading this!

{And I am thankful for creativity.}


Chapter 13

The Goblet of Fire

Ron stared at the short blonde near him. "D-did you just ask who Krum is?"

"Congratulations, you don't need your ears checked."

"You don't know who Krum is?"

"You're right, I don't. Now, will someone tell me what's so great about him?"

"He's only a Quidditch player," said Hermione.

"Only a Quidditch player?" Ron looked as if someone had told him that zombies were invading Hogwarts. "Hermione, he's one of the best Seekers in the entire world! I had no idea that he still went to school."

As the group walked into the entrance hall they could see people searching their pockets. The snippets of their conversations made Ed, Hermione, and Harry roll their eyes.

"Oh, I don't believe it, I haven't got a single quill on me-"

"Do you think he'd sign my hat with lipstick?"

"I wonder if I could get him to sign my head?"

"I touched him! I'm never going to wash this arm again!"

"Really?" Hermione was staring at some of the squealing girls.

"I'm getting his autograph if I can," said an excited Ron. "Do you have a quill that I can use, Harry?"

"Nope, they're upstairs in my bag," said Harry.

That walked over the Gryffindor table and sat down with Ron making sure that he was facing the door. The students from Durmstrang were standing around the door, looking unsure about where to sit. Those from Beauxbatons were already sitting at the Ravenclaw table with glum expressions on their faces as they looked around the hall. Ed had a similar look as he put his head on the table. Ron was really starting to get annoying.

"Over here, over here! Hermione, move over so they can sit," Ron hissed.

"What? Why would I want a stupid jock sitting here?" she countered.

"Too late," Ron said bitterly.

Viktor Krum and the other students were sitting at the Slytherin table. Harry spotted Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were looking very smug as Malfoy went to Krum and started to speak.

"Yeah, that's right, smarm up to him, Malfoy," said Ron with a glare. "I bet Krum can see right through you… bet he has people fawning over him all the time… Where do you think there are going to sleep? We could offer him a space in our dormitory, Harry."

"No, no, we can't, Ron," whispered Harry.

"He could have my bed. I wouldn't mind giving up my bed. I could sleep on a camp bed. I wouldn't mind sleeping on a camp bed-"

"Shut up, already!" Ed said as he sat up abruptly. His voice hadn't been raised, but it was dripping enough poison to kill a three ton elephant with one dose. Ron promptly shut up as quickly as humanly possible. In order to avoid any necessary or unnecessary bloodshed, Harry changed the topic.

"They look a lot happier than the Beauxbatons lot," Harry said the first thing that came to his mind. "But there are only two extra people. Why is Filch putting out four chairs, who else is coming?"

Ed sat up once again and glared at the two extra chairs as if the glare alone would give him all of the answers. His scientific mind was going into overdrive. His couldn't continue his research that he had been doing before being sent here, and he had already found an answer to the biggest question he had when he came here. He needed something more scientific to do then the mundane homework for the classes at Hogwarts if he was going to keep from going insane. Maybe he should ask his brother to send him some scientific books soon, or even some simple puzzles from the newspaper. He idely wondered if the paper he always got at the local college still offered the advanced word search. At least those offered some sort of challenge, usually. The last one had been pretty easy, but they were better than the stuff here.

Dumbledore was giving some sort of speech. This was all just so boring. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't been getting all that much sleep recently. Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, argon, potassium, calcium, scandium, zinc, and no. No, zinc didn't come next. He was going by the atomic number. That would make… iron, no titanium would be next. Wow, he really was tired. There must be something wrong with him. Not enough science, he decided. Made he should do a transmutation. Just something small in a place where no one could see, he was supposed to be keeping it a secret after all. It would help him clear his head.

Edward was pulled out of his thoughts by Ron. "What is that?" Ron was gesturing to a food that looked like some sort of shellfish stew. Now that he looked around the table, there were a lot of dished that he didn't know. Almost without realising it, he had spotted a dish and had started reaching for it before he even thought about what it was. It was dango. The same type that was sometimes sold at the train station. The same kind he would buy to eat on long train rides. He took a bite and was instantly reminded why he had written his brother asking for food only to cross those sentences out before he sent it. The food from this country was nothing compared to the local dishes he had tried in the many towns he had been to. Ed was so engrossed in his discovery that he had once again tuned out the conversation.

"Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?" asked one of the Beauxbaton girls who was standing behind Ed. She had waist long silvery-blonde hair, large, deep blue eyes, and very white, even teeth.

"Which one is the bouillabaisse?" Ed asked back as Ron stared slack jawed at the french girl.

"Zat one," she pointed to the strange shellfish stew like dish that Ron had pointed out earlier.

"Yeah, have it," Harry said, pushing the dish towards the girl.

"You have finished with it?"

"O-oh yeah," Ron said in a slightly squeaky voice. "It was delicious!"

The girl took the dish and walked back to her classmates at the Ravenclaw table. Ron's eyes followed her, causing Hermione to snort.

"You really shouldn't stare after a girls, Ron. It really says something about your character," said Hermione.

"But she's a veela!" Ed didn't know what a veela was, but he assumed that it had something to do with the multiple heads of guys turning and drooling as the girl walked past. He wouldn't dare to stare, though. That would be practically signing his death wish. If Winry didn't kill him with that stupid wrench then Hawkeye certainly would. The thought of it alone made him groan and bang his head against the table as he started making a list of the people who would kill him.

Winry and Hawkeye were definitely on the top of the list. Mustang would most likely roast him alive for making Hawkeye mad. Teacher would kill him just because she could, a reason was just a bonus. His brother would do him in for being rude to a woman. If Lan Fan got word of it he would have a knife in his back. There was also May. Oh man, if May got a hold of him she would probably have another break down about him crushing her dreams. Who else was there? Armstrong. Armstrong would torture him. Silent tears started running down his face as he thought about it. He hadn't even counted the number of people who wanted to kill him anyways.

"Ed, are you alright?" asked Harry, seeing that his friend was acting strange.

"All of them are going to kill me. There's so many. I shouldn't need more then both of my hands to count the number of people who want to kill me," Ed muttered. Harry looked at the blonde with worry evident on his face as the short boy continued to mutter.

"Ed, how much sleep have you been getting?" asked Neville. Ed looked up at the question. After a few seconds of thought, he replied.

"I guess that you could say . . . not much."

"Define not much," said Hermione.

"Um, less than normal." It was now obvious that the boy was avoiding the question.

"Ed, when was the last time you were asleep?" Neville pushed.

"I think that it was . . . five days ago." Neville, Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at the boy with shock.

"Harry, Ron, Neville, you boys are forcing Edward to sleep tonight. I don't care if you have to tie him to the bed. Got it?" ordered Hermione. They nodded in agreement.

"Lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium . . ."

"Hermione, what's Ed muttering about?" The girl frowned.

"I'm not sure. It sounds familiar, but I can't remember from where."

"Ed, what are talking about?" Ron asked the source of the muttering.

"The the inner transition metals, also known as rare earth metals."

"What is that?" The answer had only served to confuse the boy more.

"Ytterbium; atomic mass: 173.04, atomic number: 70, Ionic charge: 3+ . . ." Getting nowhere with the source, Ron turned back to Hermione with an even more confused look on his face.

"I-I think he's talking about the periodic table of the elements." Harry doned a small look of understanding as Ron was just so lost he could have been in Neverland. "It's a part of muggle science," Hermione gave the shortest explanation possible without confusing the wizard raised boy.

Ed ignored the continued conversation going on next to him. "Hey," he said, "who are they?" He pointed to the two men who had, sometime during their conversation, occupied the previously empty chairs at the staff table.

"That's Ludo Bagman and Mr. Crouch, my brother Percy's boss," answered Ron as he looked where Ed was pointing.

"But what are they doing here?" asked Harry.

"Well, didn't they organize the Triwizard Tournament?" replied Hermione. "I suppose they would want to be here to see it start."

"Makes sense," commented Neville.

A few minutes later, Dumbledore stood and spoke to the students before him. "The moment has come. The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket, just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those of you who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

Both men got applause from the students, but there was noticeably more applause for the later of the two men. It might have had something to do with the way that Mr. Bagman smiled and waved at the students with a big smile while Mr. Crouch just sat there stoticaly.

"Mr. Bahman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament, and they shall be joining myself, Madame Maxime, and Professor Karkaroff on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts. We have sent a message to the country that we are building relations with to ask if they will be sending a judge. But, we have yet to receive an answer, so another judge may or may not be joining us. Now then, the casket if you please, Mr. Filch."

Filch walked up carrying an old, wooden casket that was encrusted with jewels. Murmurs of interest rose from the students.

"The tasks that the champions will be facing this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman, and they have made the necessary arrangements for each of the challenges. Throughout the school year there will be three tasks that will test the champions in four ways. It will test their magical prowess, their daring, their powers of deduction, and their ability to cope with danger.
"As you know, there will be one champion from each school. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the tasks. The champion with highest total of points at the conclusion of the final task will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Tapping on the casket three times with his wand, the lid of the casket opened. Reaching in, Dumbledore pulled out a roughly hewn wooden cup. The only interesting thing about it was the blue flames that filled it to the brim. Placing the goblet on the now closed lid of the casket, Dumbledore began to speak once again.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a strip of parchment and drop it into the goblet. You have twenty-four hours in which to submit your name. 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 students yields to temptations, I will be drawing an age line around the Goblet. No one under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line.

Ed zoned out for the rest of the speech, not registering The headmaster's warning nor the interesting happenings in the hallway. All he could think of was how the tournament sounded interesting. Not that he would even consider entering. It was far too dangerous. If a State Alchemist was killed or injured during a time of peaceful negotiations it could start a war. They really didn't need a war, not with the Homunculus still running around. As he fell asleep, his brother's words ran through his mind.

Stay safe. Don't go searching for danger.


{I was writing those elements using the table of the elements in the back of my binder on the bus. It was horrible. The chart is tiny and the road was bumpy and I refused to spell them incorrectly!}

Review time!

Guest- {Sorry...} But... At least this one's longer!

ReginaDC21 (Guest)- {No problem.} Well, we couldn't leave him how he was before, now could we? That would have been no fun at all. {Ica, did you teach her the creepy inoccent voice?} It wasn't me! I swear! POPCORN! You wanna know what's realy good with popcorn? M&Ms. THe perfect chocolet, salt combination.

rilafbrk (Guest)- THANKS! If you tell us them then we'll probably fix them. The earlier are they are in chapters (like chapter one or two) the least likely it will be that we change it, though. {Your wish has been granted!}

BulletWitch1985 (Guest)- Hmm, I might have to put that in a chapter soon. I'M STEALING THE COMPUTER!