V5.2

And Then There Were Five

Viktor moved down the gangplank of the Durmstrang ship, subtly looking everywhere for her. She had intrigued him, made him want to know more about her. How did she fall off of her broomstick when she was younger? Why didn't she try to play? He wanted to know what America was like and about her siblings, her family, her life.

If only my English were better. He planned on studying up on his English while he was there. If only to talk to her more.

Still, that man, though…the one who had protected her in the entrance hall when the Marine had been sexually harassing her. Were they together? His teeth ground together just thinking about him touching her. She didn't seem to be the type to lead two different men on. Then again, she was a woman, and he didn't know how all of their minds worked.

The fact that she didn't know who he was made him feel wonderful. She didn't know that he was "Viktor Krum," World-Class Quidditch Seeker, and hadn't followed him around like all of the other women did, and some of the men. It made him feel even more powerful. Normally he loved the attention. He took the money and he knew that he was the best. The women, the money, the power, all of it was But when she hadn't figured out who she was, and when she'd flirted with him even so...

When they entered the Great Hall, it was almost full. The Goblet of Fire had been moved and was now standing in front of Dumbledore's chair at the staff table. He spotted Leigh Ann sitting with a few people around her, raptly listening to a story that the man who had protected her was saying. She laughed and, when she did, her entire face lit up.

He felt a stab of jealousy. Though it and his ego quickly deflated when a thought hit him: What am I thinking…she doesn't even belong to me.

Yet, something in his head was saying. She doesn't belong to you yet.

He felt a little better at that and decided to watch her eyes to see what she could see in them. She'd talked about seeing a goodness in his eyes. He wanted to be as good as she saw him. He wasn't. He'd done so much wrong to get where he was. He'd done too much as a dark wizard to turn away.

Her eyes had been the good ones. They told him everything about her. They had been a startling green-brown, dark brown one moment, then a flashing yellow, then an olive green. He couldn't look away from the curve of her high cheekbones, the blush that had formed whenever he had complimented her. He could tell that she wasn't used to being complimented, even with broken English like his.

When will this feast get over? he asked himself impatiently, looking over to meet her eyes for the first time that night. She was holding his fur cloak, looking down to it with a pink blush on her cheeks. The woman next to her with dark skin and strangely braided hair looked at her with confusion while the twin redheads poked fun at her.

Their eyes finally met. He smirked to her and she smiled back. It was a beautiful smile. He wanted to see it more. Pretty pink lips around straight white teeth... Someone stole her attention and she gave him an apologetic glance before turning to talk to them.

Finally the gold plates cleared themselves and the level of noise died when Dumbledore got to his feet. On his left and right the three other Headmasters looked just as expectant as the students. Only the General was looking happy, ready for anything.

"Well, the Goblet is almost ready to decide on the Champions," Dumbledore said, sounding excited. "I think some explanation is in order. When the champions' names are called, I ask them please to walk to the front of the hall, along the staff table, and go through into the next room where they will be receiving their instructions for the First Task."

He took out his wand and made a great, sweeping wave with it. All at once, the light went out, all but the ones within the pumpkins, making the entire room semi-dark. Everyone watched the bright cup, waiting, watching…

Suddenly the flames in the goblet turned bright red, and sparks began to fly. In mere seconds, a plume of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttering out. The entire room gasped, watching on bated breath. Viktor felt a cold wind blow over him, just as he had when he'd put his name into the goblet. Like it was meant to be.

Dumbledore caught the piece of paper and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the now-blue flames. "The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum!"

There was a storm of applause as Viktor was pounded on the back by those of his schoolmates. He felt instant pride and stood, looking over to where Leigh Ann was sitting. He expected her to be cheering and excited. She finally learned his name, after all. It was too bad that their game had to end. She looked slightly confused, nodding in congratulations to him. He'd expected a look of awe...but now, all he saw was a slight disappointment.

Still, he couldn't help but smile as he walked along the staff table, disappearing through the door into the chamber, Karkaroff booming, "Bravo, Viktor! Knew you had it in you!" in Bulgarian.

The room was small, surrounded with portraits of wizards. There was a large fireplace keeping the room warm and four seats situated around the fire. Outside, he could hear that there were no more noises as everyone waited for the next champion.

All that Viktor knew was that this was a great moment in his life, almost as great as catching the Snitch at the World Cup, or even getting onto the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team. He took those few moments of peace to think about his life and what he needed to do to win the competition. He had no clue what the tasks would be or how to finish them. All he knew was that he had a lot of work in front of him and that moment would be the last peaceful moment for a while.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," came the loud, clear voice of Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!"

He could hear sobbing through the wild clapping, thinking that perhaps the women who hadn't been chosen had dissolved into tears. The door opened and a beautiful woman with long silver hair and sharp blue eyes walked in gracefully, tall, thin, and lithe. She smiled to him. "Coongratulations," she said nodding in his direction with a pull of some kind of magic.

Viktor instantly knew that she had Veela blood in her system. After having the Veela mascots for two years for the National Bulgarian Quidditch Team, he could tell. It took him a moment to think of something other than her Veela charm. He nodded and didn't say anything.

It was either Hogwarts or the American Academy next and the silence was tense. Suddenly there was a whoosh of flame from outside as Fleur took a seat in one of the plush armchairs, then an intake of breath. "The American Academy of Magic's Champion…is Leigh Ann Nelson!"

There were many "HOOAH!" cries, mostly all at once, and the loudest applause yet. Viktor himself felt confused. She…is a Champion as well?

She walked through the door, ringed by a circle of light, nodding politely to Fleur. She looks like an angel… "Hi." He had never seen a more beautiful girl. He only knew that his conquest would be the most intriguing yet. Many of his colleagues would disagree with his attraction to her. It was the light she admitted and the beauty of her smile, not her weight that attracted him. Although the thought of running his hands along her curves wasn't lost on him.

"Hello," Fleur said snootily, looking angry that Viktor was paying more attention to Leigh Ann than to her.

The quiet moment made Viktor uncomfortable. He tried to say something to her but he couldn't find the English words to tell her how happy he was for her. He tried to place a hand on her arm to show it physically but she pulled away.

"Did you mean to make me feel like an idiot?" she asked with rather angry eyes. "Because I feel like an idiot."

"Leahn—"

"First of all, because I couldn't figure out a 'K' name as simple as Viktor." If it hadn't been such a serious moment, he would have laughed at the face she was making because of her inability to think of such a name. "Second of all, because we talked about Quidditch this morning, and I didn't even think about who you could be. Then again, I didn't even know that the famous Viktor Krum went to Durmstrang. My mother would be disappointed that I don't know every single fact about you. You're probably disappointed about that, too." She threw him his fur coat, a look of bitterness on her face, but he couldn't read her eyes.

"The Hogwarts Champion…" Leigh Ann instantly turned towards the door, listening. "Is Cedric Diggory!"

Viktor tried to talk to her, reaching out one more time to figure out why she was so upset with him. He didn't understand—normally women were all over him because of who he was! "Leahn—"

She held her hand up. "You're barkin' up the wrong tree, Krum."

He hated that he couldn't even pronounce her name correctly. It sounded like "Lee Ann." He kept saying "lean".

Cedric then walked in, his brown hair disheveled. He was very handsome and Viktor wondered what Leigh Ann thought of him. He instantly felt a string of jealousy although he shouldn't have; he didn't even know her. All that he did know was that ever since he had seen her leading her troops, with such pride, with such power, he had wanted to know everything about her. It was maddening.

I'm a world-famous Quidditch star. I don't need a woman to validate my achievements.

"Wotcher," Cedric said, smiling to her. "Congrats, Nelson. Is it okay if I call you that? I mean, I heard the others calling you that and…"

"Everyone else who isn't related to me does," she said with a roll of her eyes, smiling playfully. Viktor again felt a stab of jealousy. "And congratulations to you, too! Just the name, 'Champion'…it sounds so exciting!"

Cedric was looking at her like she was a prize to be won. Viktor had to clench his fist to keep from saying anything, instead leaning against the wall and staring into the fire. Cedric stood with a hip cocked to the side, talking animatedly to Leigh Ann. He noticed that Fleur, sitting, was still trying to get his attention, but he only had eyes for the fire.

"Delightful!" Dumbledore cried from outside. "We now have our four champions. I beg of you to give your champions every once of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you—" But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and there was another gasp. After that, there was a long silence.

"What happened?" Leigh Ann asked, peering at the door.

Fleur instantly snapped, "SHH!" and Leigh gave her a disgusted look.

They listened to the quiet, until finally Dumbledore muttered, "Harry Potter."

Leigh Ann Nelson
Well, that was a sucker-punch to the gut.

The poor boy had then walked in, his striking green eyes meeting mine. How had a child gotten past Dumbledore's age line? Well, he couldn't. As far as I knew, it was impossible to bypass an age line. It wasn't like hacking into a computer and bypassing a firewall—with magic, there were no cheats. There were no special tricks to bypass a spell.

Harry was lanky, with little meat on his bones, and a thick head of black hair. Handsome, too, but too young for me. It was hard to believe that he was this big legend that we'd all grown up with. I expected him to almost have a god-like glow around him, an aura, and be a 20-foot giant, towering over everyone. But he didn't and he wasn't. He was an average teenage boy.

The General looked grim and I tried, very subtly, to perfect my stance at his look of disappointment. "I did not allow my older students to compete, leaving them out so that the same age groups could work together. And now I find that I could have brought along the younger ones as well?"

I turned and tried to reason with him. Obviously he didn't understand that Harry couldn't have put his name in. "Sir, permission to speak plainly—"

"Denied, Second Lieutenant." His eyes were hard, distant.

I took a deep breath, turning my head away. It wasn't everyday that I got reprimanded, especially by the General. He was definitely in a bad mood.. He had opted—not the Triwizard Council—to not bring our older students, because they would have been more experienced and none of the other schools had students as old as ours. I understood where he was coming from but I was also using common sense.

And listening to the adults argue really made me just want to yell at them all. Really, weren't they teachers? Didn't they have any common sense? There was an age line put there for a reason, and by a very powerful wizard!

"Dumbly-dorr must 'ave made a mistake wiz ze line," the half-giant, Madame Maxime, said, her feathers ruffled literally, as her shirt was made of feathers.

Dumbledore was polite about it, though I was furious. "It is possible, of course."

The General made a sound in his throat that sounded incredulous. "Dumbledore, I have full trust in you and your Age Line. This young boy could not have crossed the line himself. He must have had someone else do it."

I tried to block out the ensuing argument and took that time to size up my competition. Cedric, he was tall, Quidditch-toned, and handsome. What, with that charming smile, the mussed brown hair, and those light brown eyes, who wouldn't fall for him? Me. Because I still kept looking over to that infuriating man, Viktor Krum.

Yeah, he was still handsome. And his eyes, Merlin, I would never get over those eyes! My stupid girly stomach made me tell myself that it didn't matter if he was a Quidditch player. But my head kept screaming for me to just run in the other direction, covering my tail with Fiendfyre.

And why? Well, my ex-boyfriend could attest to that. He'd been all sweet smiles and words until I didn't give him what he wanted. Then he, like all the other Quidditch players I'd dated, turned his head at the prettiest girl in the room. Sometimes they wouldn't even wait to be told that I was waiting until marriage to have sex—they'd cheat on me even before that.

I'd even dated a man like Viktor before—young, successful, a rising star in professional Quidditch. He'd been the last straw. He'd used me to get to my mother, who was a powerful force in the government and an ex-Quidditch star. I'd overheard him telling his teammates that he'd never truely date a fat girl with no future prospects in anything but staying in her mother's shadow.

I shook my head and turned my eyes away from Viktor before he saw that I'd been staring at him. Glaring, more like it. I turned my eyes to Fleur. At first I'd been grateful that there was another woman in the tournament, but I was starting to regret that. She hadn't stopped glaring at me since I'd walked through the door. She shushed me, too. Rude.

I was suddenly pulled out of my thoughts when loud THUDs happened in rapid succession. There was another man in the room besides the champions and the Headmasters and the judges; this man was short, with long, shaggy grey hair and the meanest looking fake-eye I'd ever seen. He instantly started arguing, and, even though he sounded like he was out of his mind, he was actually sounding the least-crazy of all of them.

"Well I agree with Professor Moody," the General said, and everyone looked at him as if they hadn't even noticed him. "Good to see you again, Alastor."

"Harrington. I didn't think I would see you here, of all places," the man said, both eyes—real or not—settled on him. "Your Champion?"

He gestured to me. "Leigh Ann Nelson." I nodded half-heartedly, wondering if my smile looked like a grimace. I always hated arguments, whether they were settling disputes or not.

The man nodded before turning back to the others. "As I was saying…if anyone's got a right reason to complain, it's Potter. But, hear this, it's a funny thing…I don't hear him saying a word."

"Why should 'e complain?" Fleur asked snootily, stamping her foot like a child. "'E 'as ze chance to compete, 'asn't 'e? We 'ave all been 'oping to be chosen for weeks and weeks! Ze honor for our schools! Eet ees the Triwizard Tournament!" She sent a glare my way. "One school should noot even be here."

I got read to pounce on her but the General put a hand on my shoulder and made me stay back. I never got along well with girls. The only one I had ever gotten along with had been Alex and she was half way around the globe. She'd get a kick out of this girl. Probably joke with me about sticking a sandwich down her throat.

The rest of the argument ended swiftly, it being full of crazy accusations against either Moody or Karkaroff. Dumbledore ended it with a tone I'd never heard before and hopefully never have to, especially if it was used on me. He decided that it was time for the judges to give us our instructions.

Barty Crouch! I loved his work with International Magical Cooperation (IMC) and would love to talk to him about an internship. I didn't mind if it was in England or the US—an internship with him would be the open door that I needed to get my foot in the door for the International Confederation of Wizards (ICW, very different from IMC but still important.)

He cleared his throat before he started. "The First Task is designed to test your daring. So we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard…very important…

"The First Task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges, including General Harrington, Madame Maxime, Professor Dumbledore and Karkaroff, Ludo Bagman, and myself, Barty Crouch. The Champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the Tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the Second Task when the First is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests."

Also explaining why there was no Hell Week. Didn't need to tire us out before what could be a battle to the death with anything a demented mind can think up.

Deciding that that was that, Dumbledore decided to ask everyone who was old enough for a drink before bed; at least that was what I thought a nightcap was. I'd learn all of those British English terms eventually. Mr. Crouch turned it down, though. Dumbledore turned to the Headmasters, asking, "Harrington? Karkaroff? Madame Maxime? A nightcap?"

But Madame Maxime had already taken Fleur and led her out into the hall, talking in rapid French. I only caught parts of it, seeing as how I had taken classes when I was younger, but they were talking so fast that I couldn't understand a single word. Karkaroff had beckoned to Viktor and they walked off silently. Though not before Viktor purposely left his coat on the back of his chair.

Grr…

"Well, I would love a drink, Albus," the General said with a jolly laugh. "Moody? Would you like to join?"

"Can't. Gotta get back to work."

"Of course, of course…I'd ask you, Leigh Ann, but you're still too young to drink, even in Britain. Too bad. I'll have your brother wait outside to walk you back to the barracks. Don't stay up too late celebrating!" He winked at me. "Inspection at six."

I nodded seriously—was the General giving me that tidbit so none of the Army would get into trouble? Well, at least he was in a better mood.

"Harry, Cedric, I suggest you go up to bed," Dumbledore said with a smile. "I am sure Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise."

They all left me alone in that giant room. I took a few calming breaths, suddenly realizing that I was trembling. I'll be fine. I can do this. This is exactly what I wanted, right? But what could the first task be? It could literally be anything. Where do I start? Transfiguration, spells, potions?

I knew I had to stop thinking of what ifs because I was going to drive myself crazy. Siging, I snatched Viktor's cloak from where he'd left it and turned and opened the door. My brother was standing there with a hand raised, like he'd been about to knock. "Hey," he said softly, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. "How you holdin' up?"

"I'm about to puke all over your shoes," I mumbled, leaning into his shoulder. I folded the cloak under my arm and held it there.

He rubbed my back protectively, the beat of his heart soothing me. "It'll be okay, kid. I mean, you wanted to get in, right?"

"You kidding' me? I was ready to die on the spot when I heard my name called! I just didn't because it would have looked unprofessional. I mean, I still need to message Dad and Mom and tell them exactly what happened." Just the thought of what Mom would say made me smile. And Dad, even though he didn't know a single thing about what the tournament was, would still be ecstatic for me.

"Well then relax and come enjoy some beer with the rest of us!" I gave him a look. "Oh, I know that you don't like beer, but hey, grab a wine cooler and chill out. You're as uptight as they come."

"We can't drink yet," I said teasingly. I knew that there would be better things than beer at the party and I'd probably have something.

"Law says eighteen in Britain. So I'm fine."

I rolled my eyes and allowed him to take me back to the barracks. AC/DC was blasting from speakers that someone had gotten somewhere, and I knew that the other Branches were there, too, because someone was singing horrible karaoke and it was usually the Marines or Air Force that did that.

"You go on ahead," I said to him, stopping in my tracks. "I'll be in in a moment."

He turned around and put his hands on my shoulders. "You know you can talk to me, Anna."

"I know. But right now, I think I just want to be alone and email Mom and Dad." I needed to ask Mom for advice and hear soothing words from Dad. He knew how to talk sense into the most anxious of recruits.

Jason leaned forward and kissed my forehead, hugging me to him. He was much taller than me, so my head was under his chin. "Love you to the moon and back."

"Love you too I guess."

He flicked my nose and smirked at me. "See you in a minute?"

"Or so, yeah."

Jason gave me one last look before he turned around and went inside. The door opened and I saw hundreds of bodies pushed together, dancing. I just shook my head and took a walk to my room to where the desktop was that we'd set up the first day. On it sat a note. 'Electronics don't work in Hogwarts. This is a useless hunk of circuits and lights."

I sighed and took out a piece of paper and knew it'd be a long night. Hey, Mom...