Monday morning came sooner than I would have liked as Emily tried to force me into eating breakfast.
"Come on Alice, you'll have to come out of our room at some point." She begged.
"No I don't." I called through the covers.
"But we have classes today! If you don't go you could fail!" She said trying to pull the covers off of me, but I wouldn't give up easily I tighten my grip and shouted through the covers again.
"Good! Then I won't be a stupid Hogwarts Champion anymore and everyone will leave me alone!"
"And what would Remus think if he saw you acting this way?" she asked giving up on our violent game of tug-of-war.
"Probably that I shouldn't have put my name in if I didn't want all the attention." I sulked.
"I don't think that's true…" Finally I pulled the covers off of my head glaring at her.
"What does it matter, he's not here, he can't do any…"
"Oh Alice Potter you can be so…frustrating at times." She yelped. It was the first time Emily was ever really mad at me. "First year," she said holding up one finger. "Yes you and Harry defeated Voldemort but you hardly included me or Hermione in your plans. Second year," She now held up two fingers on the same hand, "You Ron and Harry go running off to fight a basilisk without even bothering to get adult help. And last year…" She added a third finger to her hand. "We went chasing after a man thought to have been an aid to your parent's murder without a second thought!"
"I get it, I make reckless decisions. So what are you saying this Triwizard Tournament is payback for the countless times I've put you, and Harry, and Ron, and Hermione and Draco in danger?"
"No!" She said tossing her hands up high. "I'm saying you're brave, braver than anyone else I know! You've faced the Darkest Wizard of all time, man eating spiders, a basilisk, a professor who tried to erase your memory, and almost caught one of He-Who-Must-Be Named biggest rats. If you can do all that, why let a few whispers in the hall stop you? You're Alice Potter, you can do anything if you set your mind to it, and you've proven that more than once. So if you want to lay in bed all day feeling sorry for yourself, be my guest, but if you want to be the brave Alice I know and love you'll get out of bed, go to all of your classes and show whoever set you up in this tournament that Allison Potter won't take things lying down!" She stood with her hands on her hips waiting for me to reply. We stared at each other for about a minute or two as I really thought about what she said. The truth was that Emily was right. I may have made a lot of reckless choices over the years but those reckless choices had led me to accomplish great and brave things. Compared to Fleur, Viktor and Cedric I'd probably done more brave things before lunch than they'd done in their whole lives. I tossed my bed covers aside and sprung out of the bed.
"Emily you're right! I've never cared before what anyone thought about me, and I'm not going to start now!" Once I was dressed I glanced down at my watch and frowned. "I think we're going to miss breakfast, there's no way we'd make it up to the Great Hall in time, but if we leave now we'll have plenty of time to get to charms on the other side of the castle."
"It's good to have you back." Emily said hugging me.
"Thanks Em." I told her hugging her back. "If I ever get like that again, feel free to let me know."
"Any time best friend." With plenty of time before charms there was no need to rush into the Entrance Hall.
"Have you seen Draco this morning?" I asked her as we neared the bottom of the steps that lead to the Entrance Hall.
"I saw him early this morning he stayed in the common room for a while, but when I told him you wouldn't leave for breakfast he left. He said one of us should go to breakfast in case any of the professors came looking for you." By professors that would be Severus. Though I was sure Sev didn't even bother asking Draco, he probably assumed I was up to more troublemaking.
"Well if it isn't our favorite mischief maker!" a voice called from the doors of the Great Hall. The voice wasn't nasty or mean spirited; instead it had a light hearted tone. Fred and George were not the only students in the Entrance Hall, but they were the only students propped up against the Great Hall doors watching everyone else pass by.
"Come on Alice we can go this way…" Emily started pulling me away so that we didn't have to walk past the twins.
"Emily, it's alright. I'll have to hear it all day any way, what's the point of avoiding them?"
"I suppose your right." She whispered letting go of my arm. Instead of walking past them, I walked directly up to Fred and George.
"Good-morning boys, what's new with you?"
"We've brought you breakfast!" George announced as he handed me a large variety of breakfast pastries.
"And we reckoned Emily would be with you, so…" Fred told us handing her a similar assortment.
"Thanks! I'm so hungry I could eat…" Then I remembered all the sweets the twins had showed me during my brief stay at the Weasleys' house.
"Wait Emily don't!" But it was too late she had already taken a large bite of something cream filled.
"What did you do to them?" I asked gesturing to the breakfast foods.
"Nothing." George said.
"Absolutely nothing." Fred answered. It was a good instinct to assume that whenever Fred and George said they had done absolutely nothing, that they had in fact done something. But I like Emily said I was starting to get really hungry and lunch was hours away.
"Well, I suppose if it's poison, I'll have a good enough reason to seek refuge in my bed all day." I told them taking a bite of a some sort of lemon tart.
"Poison?!" Fred said pretending to be shocked. "Now why would we poison our favorite Hogwarts Champion?"
"Oh I understand what this is about." I narrowed my eyes but continued chewing. "You two want to know how I got my name into that goblet."
"Now that you mention it Alice, the whole school has been talking about that very subject and so Fed and I have given it a lot of thought."
"We know an age potion doesn't work, and we reckon if you'd asked an older student to do it for you they would have outted you by now so…" I rolled my eyes.
"Come on Emily we have to be on our way to charms. Thank you for breakfast boys!"
"Yeah thanks!" Emily called waving back at them.
"Wait just a second!" Fred called as he and George rushed to our side.
"We'd never tell anyone, would we George?"
"of course not Fed!"
"Should I tell them Emily?" I asked her, she nodded. "Well you see it's very secret and very complicated." I said dropping my voice down low so they had to lean in to hear me. "I got my name in the Goblet of Fire by…" I sighed as if it pained me to give away such a big secret, but when I spoke again it was in my normal tone. "by doing absolutely nothing." And I walked away from them again knowing Emily would follow, so did the twins.
"What do you mean nothing?" George asked.
"You must have done something!" Fred asked. I stopped walking and turned to face them.
"No honestly I didn't." I said shaking my head. "I know that no one believes me, but I honestly did not put my name in the Goblet of Fire, and I didn't ask anyone else to put my name in for me either. I didn't like the idea of the Triwizard Tournament from the very start and look where that got me! I don't know how my name go into that thing, or who did it but I do know they better be hoping I never find out. You know Professor Moody thinks someone put my name in hoping I die in this thing? I understand it's very exciting for you two, but I'm sorry to disappoint you, I just don't know how I got mixed up in all of this." George looked disappointed and Fred looked sympathetic.
"We'll still support you in the tournament, right Fred?"
"Right you are George! You might be a Slytherin…but better you than that Cedric bloke."
"Is this about quidditch?" I asked wishing they'd just let go of the one match last year when Gryffindor lost to Hufflepuff.
"Course not. Then they'd be pulling for Krum wouldn't they?" Emily joked. We all laughed thinking of Ron's near obsession with Viktor Krum.
"Well Emily and I've got to go or else we'll be late for charms!"
"Yeah we'd best be off to Herbology ourselves." George told us.
"I didn't know you two actually went to your classes!" I said only mostly faking surprise.
"Sometimes." Fred answered. "Let us know if there's anything we can do to help you Alice!"
"Especially if there's mischief involved!" George added as we parted ways. Even with our on-the-go breakfast with Fred and George, Emily and I still made it to charms well before Professor Flitwick. The classroom was quite before students started to trickle in. Once the room began to fill up a half dozen whispered voices started to fill the room. Eventually Harry, Ron, Hermione showed up and the interrogation began all over again. The first thing they wanted to know was of course how I had gotten my name into the Goblet of Fire. Ron and Hermione were relieved to hear I had nothing to do with it, Harry seemed less convinced but didn't say much about it. Once we moved on from that Ron wanted to know more about what it was like being in the same room as Krum. Hermione on the other hand wanted to know more about everything that had been said in the small room off the Great Hall. I repeated to whole account to her while we waited for Professor Flitwick to arrive.