The Weighing of the Wands

Arthur woke up the next morning on Sunday and he recollected what happened last night, feeling miserable and numb again.

He sat up and pulled back the curtains of his four poster bed, seeing David and Mike waiting for him.

Arthur got dressed and went down the spiral staircase with them into the common room.

Everyone that was there who had finished their breakfast looked at Arthur with looks of sympathy and understanding, clearly realising he was right and telling the truth. A few of them even patted his shoulders as he left with David and Mike.

But as they walked out of the portrait hole, they found Chrys standing there.

"Hi." She greeted them, holding up a stack of buttered toast that she carried in a napkin. "Want to have breakfast elsewhere?"

"Good idea." Arthur said, knowing that everyone would look at him if he entered the Great Hall.

So all four of them went downstairs and crossed the Entrance Hall quickly without looking in at the Great Hall.

They strode across the lawn and towards the lake, where the Durmstrang ship was moored, reflected blackly in the water

The morning air was chilly as they kept moving and munching on their toast.

Arthur then explained to the three exactly what happened after his name was called out and left the Gryffindor table the previous night.

Arthur was thankful that Chrys also believed him.

"Of course I believe you." She said. "The look on your face alone told me that you didn't enter your name. Of course, the question of who did put your name in will take a while to answer."

"Of course, with what you said about your dream, this for sure has Voldemort's name on it, but why would he have you enter? You'd have a good chance to take on the tasks, having taken on a Basilisk before." David said.

"Maybe his faithful servant has a plan that is yet to unfold and requires perfect timing." Mike pondered.

"Of course, there's a chance it's Karkaroff. Remember Draco saying that Lucius knows him? He'd have to be a former Death Eater." Arthur reminded them.

"Fair point." David said.

"Of course, you will have to write to Sirius about this. He'd find out about this, regardless." Chrys then said.

Arthur knew she was right. Something as big as the Triwizard Tournament isn't going to be unnoticed, especially with the reveal that Arthur's now the fourth Triwizard champion, being famous already. And Sirius would rather hear of it from him and not the Daily Prophet.

"I'll make sure to write to him when we get back to the castle." He said, deciding to throw his last piece of toast into the lake, where a large tentacle rose out of the water and scooped it beneath the surface.

"That squid is surprisingly cute." David noted as they returned to the castle.

"Is it alright if I borrow Goliath?" Arthur asked him.

"Sure."


They went up to the Owlery, where Chrys handed Arthur a piece of parchment, a quill and a bottle of ink.

Arthur then wrote down his letter against a wall.

Dear Sirius,

You said to keep you posted on what's happening at Hogwarts. Well… I don't know if you've heard, but the Triwizard Tournament is happening this year and on Saturday night, I got picked as a fourth champion.

I didn't put my name in the Goblet of Fire, but someone else did, most likely for bad reasons. The other Hogwarts champion is a Hufflepuff named Cedric Diggory.

Hope you and Buckbeak are still okay - Arthur

"Done." Arthur said and David grabbed the letter, telling Goliath to deliver it to Sirius before the little owl flew off.


The following day proved to be absolutely unbearable.

It was clear that all of the school, excluding Gryffindors, actually thought that Arthur entered himself for the Tournament. And unlike the Gryffindors initially, they weren't close to being impressed.

As Arthur predicted, all of Hufflepuff house loathed him.

They were usually on good terms with the Gryffindors, but they now grew cold towards all of them. One Herbology lesson proved this.

Arthur knew that they thought he stole their champion's glory and tried to get back at him, as it was common knowledge how he felt about Hufflepuff's victory over Gryffindor last year. This was also stemmed from the fact that Hufflepuff house very rarely got any glory, with Cedric being one of the few who gave them any with their defeat of Gryffindor in Quidditch last year.

Both Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley, who got along with Arthur normally, didn't talk to him even though they repotted Bouncing Bulbs at the same tray. Even Sprout seemed distant with him, which he knew was because she's Head of Hufflepuff.

Care of Magical Creatures now became terrible, considering how the Slytherins would react as this would be his first time face to face with them since being a champion.

Naturally, Draco arrived at Hagrid's cabin with his usual sneer firmly in place.

"Ah, look, boys, it's the champion." He said to Crabbe and Goyle the very moment he was within earshot of Arthur. "Got your autograph books? Better get a signature now, because I doubt he's going to be around much longer… half the Triwizard champions have died… how long d'you reckon you're going to last, Pendergast? Ten minutes into the first task's my bet."

"You wouldn't even last thirty seconds, Draco, so just shut up before you get into trouble." Arthur retorted as Hagrid emerged from the back of his cabin, holding a teetering tower of crates, each containing a very large Blast Ended Skrewt.

Much to the class' horror, Hagrid proceeded to explain that the Skrewts have been killing each other because of an excess of pent up energy and so the solution was that each of the class had to fix a leash on a Skrewt and take it out for a short walk.

The only positive was that it completely distracted Draco.

"Take this thing for a walk?" He repeated in disgust, staring into one of the boxes. "And where exactly are we supposed to fix the leash? Around the sting, the blasting end or the sucker?"

"Roun' the middle." Hagrid demonstrated. "Er - yeh might want ter put on yer dragon hide gloves, jus' as an extra precaution, like. Arthur, you come here an' help me with this big one…."

His real intention was so that he could talk to Arthur away from the rest of the class.

He waited for everyone else to set off with their Skrewts before he turned to Arthur and said very seriously "So, yer competin', Arthur. In the Tournament. School champion."

"One of the champions." Arthur corrected him.

Hagrid's beetle black eyes looked very anxious under his wild eyebrows.

"No idea who put yeh in fer it, Arthur?"

"So you believe I didn't do it?" Arthur said, feeling grateful towards Hagrid.

"'Course I do." Hagrid grunted. Yeh say it wasn' you, an' I believe yeh, an' Dumbledore believes yer, an' all."

"I just hope to figure out who did it." Arthur then said.

The pair looked out over the lawn, the class now scattered widely, and with difficulty.

The Skrewts were now over three feet long and were extremely powerful. They were no longer shell-less and colourless as they had developed thick, greyish shiny armour. They now looked like a mix of giant scorpions and elongated crabs, though still without heads or eyes. They've grown strong and therefore, very hard to control.

"Look like they're havin' fun, don' they?" Hagrid said happily. Arthur knew he was talking about the Skrewts because his classmates weren't.

Every now and then, with a rather alarming bang, one of the Skrewts' ends would explode, causing it to shoot forward several yards, and more than one person got dragged along on their stomachs, trying with desperation to get back on their feet.

"Ah, I don' know, Arthur." Hagrid then sighed suddenly, looking back at him with a worried expression. "School champion… everythin' seems ter happen ter you, doesn' it?"

Arthur didn't answer, but he knew he was right. Everything did seem to happen to him, even when he's not looking for it. He just hoped for once that nothing happened and he could just have a normal school year.


The next few days became some of the worst that Arthur ever had at Hogwarts. The last time he felt anything like this was in his second year, when a majority of the school thought he attacked fellow students.

The amount of dislike pouring in on him from all sides was just miserable.

Arthur understood the Hufflepuffs' attitudes, regardless of how he felt towards them. They did, after all, have their own champion to support.

He naturally expected nothing but vicious insults from the Slytherins, being very unpopular among them for helping Gryffindor beat them at both Quidditch and the Inter-House Championship.

Due to this, he was prepared for the Ravenclaws to despise him, even though they're supposed to be intelligent and smart. He was right. It seemed that most of them thought he was desperate to earn a bit more fame by tricking the Goblet into accepting his name.

What didn't help was that Cedric had the look of a champion in comparison to Arthur. He was exceptionally handsome, something Arthur begrudgingly agreed with, had a straight nose, along with dark hair and grey eyes.

Of course, it was hard to say who got more admiration these days, Cedric or Krum. Arthur, with his own eyes, saw the same sixth year girls who were keen to get Krum's autograph beg Cedric to sign their school bags during lunchtime.

As all this happened, there was still no reply from Sirius.

Trelawney was now predicting Arthur's death with even more certainty than she normally did.

Thankfully, all of this didn't affect him being able to do the Summoning Charms, which he can now do with such little effort that it seemed natural.

As they left Flitwick's class, Cedric walked past them, surrounded by a large group of girls, all of them looking at Arthur as though he were a Blast Ended Skrewt.

"Honestly, as if Double Potions wasn't bad enough…." Arthur groaned, referring to their next lesson.

Double Potions was already horrible by itself, but lately, it has been nothing but torture of the highest degree.

Being shut in a dungeon for an hour and a half with Snape and the Slytherins, all being determined to punish Arthur as much as possible for even becoming school champion was truly like he was in the nine circles of hell itself.

It was the most struggle he had to try and ignore them all.

Today's lesson was going to be the latest of this.

When the trio arrived outside of Snape's dungeon after lunch, they saw the Slytherins all waiting outside, each of them wearing a large badge on the front of their robes.

As they got closer, they all bore the same words, in luminous red letters that burnt brightly in the dimly lit underground passage:

SUPPORT

CEDRIC DIGGORY

THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION

"Like them, Pendergast?" Draco said loudly as Arthur approached. "And this isn't all they do - look!"

He pressed his badge into his chest, and the message vanished, being replaced by another that glowed green:

PENDERGAST

STINKS

All the Slytherins howled with laughter, each pressing their badges, resulting in the message PENDERGAST STINKS shining brightly all around Arthur.

His temper was on the very minute edge of breaking.

"If you think that's funny, clearly you have no sense of humour and just love stating nothing but dragon dung." Chrys said to Pansy Parkinson and her gang of Slytherin girls, who laughed harder than anyone.

David glared hard at them all.

"Want one, Ranger?" Draco asked, holding out a badge to her. "I've got loads. But don't touch my hand, now. I've just washed it, you see, don't want a Mudblood sliming it up."

Arthur's temper finally broke and he pulled his wand out, pointing it at Draco. People all around scrambled out of the way, backing down the corridor.

"Arthur!" Chrys said warningly.

"Go on, then Pendergast." Draco said quietly as he drew his own wand out. "Moody's not here to look after you now, do it, if you've got the guts."

"I've got more guts than you any day, you stupid coward." Arthur spat back.

The two just stared into each other's eyes until they both acted at exactly the same time.

"Furnunculus!" Arthur yelled.

"Densaugeo!" Draco screamed.

Jets of light had shot out from their wands, hitting in mid air and ricocheted off at angles. Arthur's hit Goyle right in the face, and Draco's hit Chrys.

Goyle bellowed as he put his hands to his nose as great ugly boils sprung up. Chrys was whimpering in panic, clutching her mouth.

"Chrys!" David checked to see what was wrong.

Arthur turned and saw David drag Chrys' hands away from her face.

It wasn't a pleasant sight. Her front teeth were growing at an alarming rate, now looking more like a beaver as her teeth elongated past her bottom lip and towards her chin. She felt them and cried.

"And what is all this noise about?" Snape's deadly soft voice said as he arrived.

All the Slytherins clamoured to give their explanations, but Snape pointed a long yellow finger at Draco saying "Explain."

"Pendergast attacked me, sir -"

"We attacked each other at the same time, idiot!" Arthur roared back at him.

" - and he hit Goyle, look -"

Snape examined Goyle, whose face currently resembled a poisonous fungi in a book.

"Hospital wing, Goyle." Snape said calmly.

"Draco hit Chrys!" David pointed out. "Look!"

He forced Chrys to show Snape her teeth, doing her best to hide them with her hands, though that was difficult as they grew past her collar.

Pansy and the Slytherin girls all doubled up with silent giggles, pointing at Chrys behind Snape's back.

Snape coldly looked at her before saying "I see no difference."

This caused Chrys to whimper before her eyes filled with tears and turned, running down the corridor and out of sight.

Arthur didn't care if he got detention as he and David both started shouting at Snape at the same time, their voices echoing so much in the stone corridor, making it impossible for Snape to hear exactly what was being said and what they were calling him, though he got the gist.

"Let's see." He said with his most silkiest voice. "Fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention each for Pendergast and Merlon. Now get inside, or it'll be a week's worth of detentions."

Arthur now desperately wanted to curse Snape with whatever for the injustice that just happened, but he just passed Snape and walked with David to the back of the dungeon, slamming his bag down onto the table.

David was shaking with anger himself as he sat next to Arthur.

On the other side of the dungeon, Draco turned his back on Snape and pressed his badge, smirking. PENDERGAST STINKS flashed again once more across the room.

Arthur sat, staring at Snape as the lesson began, picturing the worst things happening to him. He even thought of using the Cruciatus Curse on him as he desperately wanted Snape to suffer for all that he has done.

"Antidotes!" Snape said, looking around at them, his cold black eyes glittering unpleasantly. "You should all have prepared your recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then we will be selecting someone on whom to test one…."

Snape's eyes met Arthur's, the latter knowing what would happen. Snape would poison him.

A knock on the dungeon door was suddenly heard.

It was Colin Creevey, having edged into the room, beaming at Arthur and walked up to Snape's desk at the front of the room.

"Yes?" Snape asked curtly.

"Please sir, I'm supposed to take Arthur Pendergast upstairs."

Snape stared down at the boy, whose smile faded from his eager face.

"Pendergast has another hour of Potions to complete. He will come upstairs when this class is finished."

Colin went pink from Snape's cold reply.

"Sir - sir, Mr Bagman wants him." He then said nervously. "All the champions have to go, I think they want to take photographs…."

Arthur would've given away whatever (not his Firebolt) to stop Colin from saying those last few words. He always managed to embarrass him.

"Very well, very well." Snape snapped. "Pendergast, leave your things here, I want you back down here later to test your antidote."

"Please, sir - he's got to take his things with him." Colin squeaked. "All the champions -"

"Very well!" Snape said. "Pendergast, take your bag and get out of my sight!"

Arthur swung his bag over his shoulder and headed directly for the door, ignoring all the Slytherins flashing their badges at him.

"It's amazing, isn't it, Arthur?" Colin said, speaking the moment Arthur closed the dungeon door behind him. "Isn't it, though? You being champion?"

"No it isn't, Colin." Arthur spat, not even bothering to hide his annoyance at him. "You were there when I said I didn't put my name in and I'm not some attention seeking celebrity that you think I am. So can you just please shut up and actually leave me alone most of the time?"

Colin looked like he was told Santa Claus wasn't real and looked very crestfallen as they made their way into the Entrance Hall.

"Good luck." He then said once they reached the right room.

Arthur knocked on the door before he entered.

He found himself in a fairly small classroom, with most of the desks being pushed away to the back of the room, leaving a large space in the middle.

Three of them, though, were placed, end to end, in front of the blackboard, covered with a long length of velvet.

There were five chairs set behind the desks, with Ludo Bagman sitting in one of them, talking to a witch Arthur had never seen before, who wore magenta robes.

Viktor Krum stood moodily in a corner as he normally did, not talking to anyone.

Both Cedric and Fleur were in the middle of a conversation. Fleur currently looked much happier than before, constantly throwing back her head for her silvery blonde hair to catch the light.

There was also a paunchy man, holding a large black camera that was smoking slightly, watching Fleur out of the corner of his eye.

Bagman finally noticed Arthur and quickly got up, bounding forwards.

"Ah, here he is! Champion number four! In you come, Arthur, in you come… nothing to worry about; it's just the Wand Weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment."

"Wand Weighing?" Arthur asked in confusion.

"We have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they're your most important tools in the tasks ahead." Bagman explained. "The expert's downstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there's going to be a little photo shoot. This is Rita Skeeter…" He then added, gesturing to the witch in magenta robes. "...she's doing a small piece on the Tournament for the Daily Prophet…."

Arthur was now scared and knew that he had to avoid that hag as much as possible.

"Maybe not that small, Ludo." Skeeter said, her eyes on Arthur.

Her hair was set in elaborate and oddly rigid curls that contrasted with her heavy jawed face. She also wore jewelled spectacles. The thick fingers clutching her crocodile skin handbag ended with two inch nails that were painted crimson.

"I wonder if I could have a little word with Arthur before we start." She said to Bagman, her eyes solely fixed on Arthur. "The youngest champion, you know… to add a bit of colour?"

"Certainly!" Bagman cried. "That is - if Arthur has no objection?"

"I OBJECT!" He yelled, attracting everyone's attention. "There is no way I'm talking to that no good, devious and dirty tabloid journalist for even a second!" He then backed away, ending up next to Fleur, glaring with venom at Skeeter.

"Oh, don't play hard to get, Arthur… I just want a word." She said, trying to sound innocent.

"NO! You've done nothing but try to make my best friend's father and his friend look bad and no matter what I say, you'll just twist it into an inaccurate pile of troll dung!" Arthur snapped back.

Seeing that Arthur didn't want to talk with Skeeter, Bagman took back to the table and proceeded to talk with her.

Arthur had a moment to himself, though out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Fleur was looking at him, seemingly nervous about something.

"What is it?" He asked her.

"I… uh… just wanted to apologise…." She admitted. "I was vairy rude ze other night and your words were spoken with zrtuh."

Arthur was a bit surprised by this. He assumed that she would be too prideful to apologise to him, but she just proved him wrong.

"In that case, I accept your apology. I just hope we can get along, despite competing against each other." He replied, forming a smile and feeling much calmer than he did earlier.

"Zank you." She grinned.

"By the way, I'm curious… do you have Veela heritage?" He then asked her.

"I do, my grandmuzzer is one." She revealed.

Arthur was intrigued. It seemed that she does has that kind of affect, though clearly not as strong as a normal Veela.

Eventually, the other four judges, and even Ollivander arrived and the champions all sat in chairs near the door, Arthur sitting between Fleur and Cedric.

Arthur looked and was surprised to see the old wizard again with those large pale eyes that stood quietly by the window.

He had met him once before, being the wand maker that Arthur brought his wand from three years ago in Diagon Alley.

Dumbledore, Karkaroff, Maxime and Crouch all sat with Bagman and Skeeter sat in a corner, slipping parchment out of her bag and spreading it on her knee. Then she took out a long acid green quill, placing it on her piece of parchment.

"May I introduce Mr Ollivander?" Dumbledore said to the champions. "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the Tournament."

"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you forward first, please?" Ollivander said, stepping into the empty space in the middle of the room.

Fleur swept over to him and handed him her wand.

"Hmm…." He said as he twirled the wand between his long fingers like a baton and it emitted pink and gold sparks. He then held it close to his eyes and examined it carefully.

"Yes…" He said quietly. "...nine and a half inches… inflexible… rosewood… and containing… dear me…."

"An 'air from ze 'ead of a Veela." Fleur said. "One of my grandmuzzer's."

"Yes…" Ollivander said. "...yes, I've never used Veela hair myself, of course. I find it makes for rather temperamental wands… however, to each his own, and if this suits you…."

He ran his fingers along the wand, checking for scratches or bumps before muttering "Orchideous!" and a bunch of flowers burst out from the wand tip.

"Very well, very well, it's in fine working order." Ollivander said, scooping up the flowers and handing them to Fleur with her wand. "Mr Diggory, you next."

Fleur glided back to her seat, smiling at Cedric as he passed her.

"Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn't it?" Ollivander said with enthusiasm as Cedric handed his wand. "Yes, I remember it well. Containing the hair from the tail of a particularly fine male unicorn… must have been seventeen hands; nearly gored me with his horn after I plucked his tail. Twelve and a quarter inches… ash… pleasantly springy. It's in fine condition… you treat it regularly?"

"Polished it last night." Cedric grinned.

This made Arthur look down at his own wand, seeing that it was somehow in a great condition despite what it's been through.

Ollivander then sent a stream of silver smoke rings across the room from Cedric's wand, very much satisfied.

"Mr Krum, if you please."

Krum got up and slouched, round shouldered and duck footed, towards Ollivander. He then thrust his wand out and stood scowling, with his hands in the pockets of his robes.

"Hmm… this is a Gregorovitch creation, unless I'm mistaken? A fine wand maker, though the styling is never quite what I… however…." It seemed that he didn't want to insult Krum.

He lifted the wand and examined it minutely, turning it over and over before his eyes.

"Yes… hornbeam and dragon heartstring?" He shot at Krum, who nodded wordlessly. "Rather thicker than one usually sees… quite rigid… ten and a quarter inches… Avis!"

The wand let off a blast that sounded like a gunshot and a number of small, twittering birds flew out from it and then through the window and into the watery sunlight.

"Good." Ollivander said, handing Krum his wand back. "Which leaves… Mr Pendergast."

Arthur got to his feet and walked past Krum to Ollivander, handing his wand to him.

"Aaaah, yes." Ollivander said, his pale eyes now gleaming. "Yes, yes, yes. How well I remember."

Arthur remembered as well, as though it happened yesterday.

Four summers ago, before his eleventh birthday, he entered Ollivander's shop with Hagrid to get a wand. He took Arthur's measurements and handed him various wands to try.

Arthur waved many different wands until one had suited him. The very wand he handed to Ollivander at this very moment. It was made with holly, was eleven inches long and contained a single feather from the tail of a phoenix.

He still remembered how Ollivander found it curious that Arthur was so compatible with this wand, explaining how the phoenix feather in his wand came from the same phoenix that supplied the core of Voldemort's own wand.

Arthur never said this to anyone.

He was very fond of his wand, partly because of the end resembling a flame. He knew that Ollivander would never reveal his wand's connection to Voldemort's, something that Skeeter would have a field day over.

Ollivander spent much longer examining Arthur's wand compared to the other champions' wands. But then he made a fountain of wine shoot out of it and handed it back to Arthur, saying it was still in perfect condition.

"Thank you all." Dumbledore said, standing up at the judges' table. "You may go back to your lessons now, or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as they are about to end -"

Arthur got up to leave when the man with the black camera jumped up and cleared his throat.

"Photos, Dumbledore, photos!" Bagman cried excitedly. "All the judges and champions. What do you think, Rita?"

"Er - yes, let's do those first." Skeeter said, her eyes upon Arthur again. "And then perhaps some individual shots."

"As long as you stay as far away from me as possible!" Arthur insisted, pointing right at her.

The photographs took a long time.

Maxime cast everyone else into shadow no matter where she stood and the photographer wasn't able to stand far enough to get her into the frame; eventually she had to sit whilst everyone else stood around her.

Karkaroff kept twirling his goatee around his finger to give it an extra curl. Krum, who Arthur thought would be used to this kind of thing, skulked, half hidden at the back of the group.

Thankfully, Dumbledore was able to keep Skeeter away from Arthur as the photographer was very keen to have Fleur be at the front.

Skeeter had insisted on separate shots of all the champions.

And then finally, they were free to go.


When Arthur went down to the Great Hall for dinner, he saw that Chrys wasn't there, probably still in the hospital wing to have her teeth fixed.

He ate with Mike, who provided him some company until he went off to Gryffindor Tower, deciding to spend time in the dormitory, where he met David.

"Goliath's back." He said, pointing at his owl and holding up a letter from Sirius.

"Thanks." Arthur said as he took it from him.

"And we both have detention tomorrow night in Snape's dungeon." David then growled.

Arthur sat on his bed as he opened up the letter.

Arthur -

I can't say everything I would like to in a letter, it's too risky in case the owl is intercepted - we need to talk, face to face. Can you ensure that you are alone by the fire in Gryffindor Tower at one o'clock in the morning on the 22nd November?

I know better than anyone that you can look after yourself, and while you're around Dumbledore and Moody I don't think anyone will be able to hurt you. However, someone seems to be having a good try. Entering you in that Tournament would have been very risky, especially right under Dumbledore's nose.

Be on the watch, Arthur. I still want to hear about anything unusual. Let me know about the 22nd November as quickly as you can.

Sirius


If only Arthur had a normal school year.