AN: Bear with me with this one. I decided the plot of the entire story halfway through this chapter. It'll be a lot more interesting this way than the way I had it before. Also, pardon my French if it's atrocious. I used G.T. Enjoy! hope you like it! :D

"Okay, Shrinking solution: GO!"

"Um… um… caterpillars, leech juice, wormwood, a shrivelfig, daisy roots, um… cowbane, and… um…"

"Need a hint?"

"Oui."

Cosima imitated her innards falling out, accompanying the gesture with a sound effect similar to that of an explosion.

Delphine looked at her strangely, not understanding what an exploding stomach had to do with her potions test, "I do not understand…"

"Come on. Really?"

Delphine shook her head.

"Rat spleen, Delphine?"

Delphine smacked her head in self-punishment, "How could I forget that?"

Cosima shrugged, "Dunno. It was obvs."

"Wait, what does a stomach explosion have to do with a rat spleen?"

"It wasn't an explosion, I was pretending that my insides were out of my body."

"It was not helpful," Delphine said honestly, "especially with that sound effect."

"You gotta think outside the box, Delphine. Don't blame the help."

"I do… appreciate this, Cosima. You have helped a lot," Delphine said honestly. She was much more confident now than she was an hour ago when the girl started helping her study.

"I know. I'm an expert study-buddy. I should start charging per hour," Cosima said with a toothy grin.

"Perhaps not, I may not be able to afford it."

"Eh, I'll give you a discount," Cosima said folding her hand behind her head, leaning back in her chair.

"Miss Niehaus."

Cosima turned her head.

"May I remind you to keep both of your feet on the floor and not on my desk," Madam Pince scolded.

Cosima took her feet off the desk and put her hand in the air, "Sorry, sorry."

"Cosima, where are your manners?" Delphine joked, feigning surprise

"You hush your pretty little mouth, Cormier. Tell me the ingredients for Wit-Sharpening."

"Um… ginger root-"

"Cosima!"

Cosima turned to see her sister walking into the study area. She straightened up in her chair, "S-Sarah, um… hey."

The two hadn't been speaking ever since their quarrel in the hospital wing a week ago. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen Alison in a while either, Cosima had been spending most of her time with Delphine.

Cosima had forgot about Delphine for a moment, and looked back at her. Delphine was unashamedly staring at (and analyzing?!) Sarah, no doubt because she hadn't seen one of Cosima's sisters before.

"Hey, can we talk for a minute?" Sarah said.

"Yeah, uh just a sec," Cosima said as she took multiple books off of her lap. She looked at Delphine, "To be continued, mademoiselle."

"I will be here," Delphine responded with a smile. Sarah raised her eyebrows, but stayed silent as Cosima followed her to a space behind another bookshelf.

Delphine watched them interact and almost laughed. The girls looked identical, but they were so different. Cosima looked to be taller than Sarah, maybe because the other girl seemed to be slouching. Also Cosima seemed to have this… cuteness factor that attracted people to her, while the other seemed a bit more cold and intimidating. And… was Cosima's chest bigger?

"How's your shoulder?"

Cosima looked it, moving it around in the sling, "Eh. It's been better."

"I told Paul about what he did, he said he was sorry and that he didn't know."

Cosima chuckled humorlessly, "Yeah, I bet."

Sarah sighed, "Look, I didn't come here to fight with you, I'm just comin' to apologize, alright? I didn't mean to make you… say anything you didn't want to or anythin' like that," she said, scratching at the back of her head.

Cosima nodded.

"I just want you to know that I'm here for you, yeah? I mean, it may not show sometimes, but I love the shite outta you, and I support any decision you make one hundred percent. Alright?"

Cosima nodded again, "Yeah, okay," she said with a smile.

Sarah chuckled and brought Cosima in for a hug, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and squeezing.

"Ow, ow watch the shoulder!"

"Oh shit, sorry," Sarah said releasing Cosima, who rolled her shoulder around.

"It's fine, it's just a little sore now. They said I can start playing again by next week."

"Yippee. Now you can acquire more injuries."

"Ooh, 'acquire'. That's a big word for you, Sarah," Cosima teased.

Sarah slapped her good arm, "Cheeky."

"Anyway, I gotta get back to studying, so…" Cosima said, pointing a thumb in Delphine's direction.

"Woah, hold on, I wanna meet blonde beauty."

Cosima frowned, "What."

"I wanna meet your friend. What, is that bad?"

"Uh… no, no. You can. That's…" Cosima trailed off, hands flailing, and walked in Delphine's direction, ignoring the smug smirk on Sarah's face.

Delphine gave them a nice smile as she looked up from her notes.

"Soo, Delphine this is crazy sister number one."

"Hey!"

"Enchantée," Delphine said nicely.

"Hey, how's it goin',"

"Great, now that that's settled, we gotta study so," Cosima waved her off, "shoo."

"Hey, now. I wanna get to know 'Enshantay'!"

"Not happening. You're gonna scare her off with your recalcitrant personality."

"Oi, don't be insultin' me with words I don't even know."

"It's alright Cosima, I want to know what talking another you would be like," Delphine said innocently.

"A lot better, I'm sure. I'm not sure how you can stand this knucklehead for so long," Sarah teased. Cosima just huffed and plopped down in her chair.

"It is no problem. Cosima is my buddy," Delphine said, with a smile directed towards the pouting girl.

Cosima brightened with that statement, and sent a smug look to Sarah, who shook her head with a chuckle.

"Alright, alright, I'll go. I'll see you at dinner, yeah? I heard they were announcing the names of the 'champions' or whatever."

"Yeah I'll see you."

"Don't be late," Sarah said pointing back at her as she walked off.

"No promises!"

"Ssssssh!" a young Hufflepuff hushed aggressively.

"Buzz off, dude," Cosima said to the pudgy boy, shooting him a look before turning back to Delphine. "As if two words ruined his studies."

Delphine giggled.

"Alright, sweetness, where were we?"

All the students were gathered in the Great Hall, awaiting the selection of the tournament's champions. Alison, Sarah, and Cosima were all sitting together this time, since the students were not instructed to sit at their assigned tables.

"Which house do you think Hogwarts' champion will be from?" Sarah asked.

"Gryffindor, obvs. I doubt anyone from Ravenclaw even put their name in the cup, the odds of dying in this tournament are a bit high. Slytherins would cheat their way through the whole thing. And Hufflepuff… well… just no," Cosima trailed off.

"Hey, I resent that!" Alison said, offended, "Hufflepuffs are perfectly capable of being courageous or… whatever else a champion is."

"I'm just saying, a Gryffindor would be the most logical choice-"

"Yeaaaah!"

"-because they would blindly sign up for that kind of danger for the sake of their egos without researching the consequences," Cosima finished, smirking at Sarah.

"Oi, oi… watch your mouth, Cos."

Cosima raised her hands in mock surrender, "Just speakin' facts, man."

"Sit down everyone, please! Gather 'round!" Dumbledore called over bustling students.

Various students sat at random tables, gathering around the glowing goblet. It was easy for Cosima to spot the Beauxbatons students, as they were neatly seated at a table close to the Goblet. She spotted Delphine easily, and when she made eye-contact, gave her a little wave. Delphine smiled at the girl and eagerly waved back at her, catching the attention of one of her friends.

"Hey," Sarah said, nudging Cosima, "You listenin'?"

"What?" Cosima said, breaking eye-contact, "Yeah, whatever, 'moment we've all been waiting for', blah blah blah. I got it." She reassured.

Dumbledore whipped his hand and hovered it over the crowd, making some students gasp and others give weird look.

"What do you suppose he's doing?" Alison whispered to her sisters.

"'Dunno if he's really doing anythin'," Sarah replied, "Shit, it's all just theatrics, innit?"

As the fires in the hall dimmed down, Dumbledore touched the goblet. After he released it, the fire in the goblet turned from blue to red, and spat out a messy scrap of paper.

"The Durmstrang champion is… Viktor Krum!"

Cheers from the Durmstrang students filled the hall as Viktor stood up and walked toward Dumbledore, shook his hand and stood behind him.

The fire turned red once more as it spat out a frilly, gold-rimmed piece of paper.

"The Beauxbatons champion is… Fleur Delacour!"

The Beauxbatons students applauded as Fleur stood up and shook Dumbledore's hand, standing next to Viktor.

The goblet spat its last piece of paper, "The Hogwarts champion: Cedric Diggory!"

Hogwarts students applauded, including Alison, who was vigorously clapping beside her sisters.

"Alison, chill out, yeah?" Sarah said with a laugh.

"He's a Hufflepuff," she said proudly.

"Are you kidding?" Cosima said as she looked closer at his robes. Sure enough he was wearing a yellow tie. "Huh."

"I told you Cosima, we're not all useless," Alison huffed.

"Hey, hey! I didn't say that! I was just saying it was unlikely. Good for you guys," Cosima said, clapping for the boy.

"Excellent! We now have our three champions!" Dumbledore began excitedly, "But in the end, only one will go down in history. Only one will hoist, this chalice of champions, this vessel of victory: the Triwizard Cup!"

The students roared in applause at the unveiling of the glowing trophy. As everyone stared at it, shimmering like an ice sculpture, Cosima looked back at Delphine, who was looking weirdly at the Goblet. Cosima turned her attention to the goblet, which was behaving mysteriously; its flames turned red again and were wildly waving about each other.

Cosima nudged Alison who was still clapping at the trophy, "Hey, look."

Alison turned her head and looked at the goblet, "What the dickens?"

It seemed that the goblet grabbed the attention of many others as well, including Dumbledore. As he made his way back to the goblet, he flinched as it spat out one final piece of paper.

Dumbledore caught it and flipped it over, mumbling one last name and causing students around him to gasp and look around.

"What did he say?" Sarah asked.

"Cosima Niehaus!"

Cosima's heart dropped to her stomach. She didn't put her name in the cup. How did her name get in there? What the hell was going on?

"Cos," Sarah said as she shook Cosima's arm, "Hey!"

"Wha- I… How did…" Cosima tried to sink lower into her seat, but Alison pushed her forward.

"It's okay, sweetie, you won't get in trouble, you didn't do anything wrong."

Cosima swallowed hard and stood up, hoping that the fear that she felt wasn't too visible.

"She's not even 17 yet!"

"She's a cheat!"

As she approached Dumbledore, he loomed over her quickly handing her the slip of paper. She looked at it, and saw her name there, in her own script:

Cosima Niehaus

"What the fuck…" she whispered to herself as she stood next to the three 7th years. She felt extremely small standing next to them, only coming up to Fleur's chin, and she was the shortest of them. She could feel everyone's eyes on her, and heard their condescending comments as she struggled to keep her own tears at bay.

The champions were told to meet in the trophy room after the ceremony was over. Cosima slowly walked down several stairs to the room echoing with arguing shouts. As she descended, she heard her name more than once leave Madame Maxine and Dumbledore's mouths.

She had just reached the last stair when Dumbledore turned and stalked toward her, and Cosima did all she could to keep herself from back-tracking. When he reached her, he put his hands on her shoulders and grasped tightly,

"Cosima, did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire?"

Cosima looked astonished, "N-no sir-"

"Did you ask one of the older students to do it for you?"

"No sir-"

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes sir." Cosima said, lip trembling. What was going to happen to her? Surely they wouldn't let her compete…

"But of course she is lying!" Maxine accused.

"The hell she is!" Moody rebutted, "The Goblet of Fire is an exceptionally powerful magical object, only an exceptionally powerful confundus charm could've hoodwinked it! Magic way beyond the tons of a third year."

Cosima could have kissed Moody's real toe at that moment. She was glad someone was looking at it from a logical perspective.

"You seem to have given this a fair bit of thought, Mad-eye."

"It was once my job to think as dark wizards do, Karkaroff, perhaps you remember..."

"That doesn't help, Alastor!" Dumbledore interrupted, shuffling between the two men. He approached Barty Crouch, the tournament official, "We'll leave this to you, Barty."

"The rules are absolute. The Goblet of Fire constitutes a binding magical contract," Barty said regretfully.

Cosima's jaw dropped.

"Miss Niehaus has no choice. She is, as of tonight, a Triwizard champion."

Cosima entered the library, where she told her sisters she would talk to them after the meeting.

As she headed towards the study area, she tried to put on a brave front, acting as if none of this was scaring the shit out of her. She wiped her tears and pushed open the door.

Before she even saw her, she felt Alison hug her around the waist, causing her not-so-brave front to fall instantly. She hugged Alison back tightly as she silently cried into her shoulder.

"It's okay sweetie, let it out." Alison coaxed as she rubbed Cosima's back. Sarah moved from her place on the desk to where her two sisters were embracing, and put her arms around the both of them.

After a few moments, Cosima released Alison and removed her glasses, rubbing her eyes forcefully, pulling her hand back to se a streak of black, "God… fuck eyeliner, man," she joked, voice wavering. Her sisters gave her a sad chuckle as they watched her rub off almost all of her makeup.

"What did the master say?" Sarah asked gently.

"Shit, he didn't say anything. He just asked me if I put my name in the cup or if I asked someone else to do it for me."

"…Did you?" Alison asked.

"Fuck no! I would never willingly sign over my fucking life even if I was eligible," Cosima ranted though her tears, "This is some fucking bullshit. Who the fuck put my name in there? I'm a fucking nobody! I've done nothing wrong since I've been here!"

Sarah didn't say anything, she just continued to rub Cosima's back as she started to sob again, this time louder.

"They're not going to let you though, right? I mean, you're way underage," Alison reassured.

"No," Cosima sniffed, "I have to because apparently putting your name in there is like some kind of binding contract, or whatever the fuck Crouch said. God, this whole situation is fucked."

"I know, honey," Alison said soothingly. The girls calmed Cosima down for a few minutes before asking her more questions.

"What do you have to do now?"

Cosima sighed, "I don't know, I have to wait until the first task, and I don't even know what the fuck it is."

"Hmm." Sarah mumbled.

"Oh, yeah and I have an interview with Rita Skeeter tomorrow."

Sarah guffawed, "Really? She's a bloody nutcase."

"Yeah, I haven't heard good things about her either," Alison added.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

Cosima sulked back to Ravenclaw tower, dreading what her classmates would say when she walked into the room.

As she walked up the fifth set of stairs, she saw someone sitting on the side of the large door, slumped on the ground. Cosima recognized them when she got closer,

"Delphine?"

Delphine looked up from where her head had previously been resting on her knees, "Cosima! Oh thank goodness! I was worried!" she said as she jumped from her position on the ground and gave Cosima a tight hug.

"Mmph!" Cosima tried, voice muffled by Delphine's robes.

"Pardon?"

"My shoulder…!" Cosima grunted.

"Oh!" Delphine said, releasing the smaller girl, "Je suis désolée,"

"It's alright, its just sore," Cosima said, rolling it around, "What are you doing here so late?"

"I was worried that you had gotten in trouble! I did not think you were allowed to put your name in."

"I didn't."

"Vraiment?" Delphine said, surprised.

"Yup, someone put it in there for me. For what reason, I don't know. Maybe to get me killed, there's a reason only 7th years are supposed to compete."

"Merde," Delphine cursed. She hadn't thought about how challenging it would be for Cosima to compete. She was worried she'd get expelled or for putting her name in the cup.

"Anyway, I don't want you to get in trouble for being here so late. You might wanna head back."

Delphine nodded, but then she realized, "Uhm…"

"What?"

Delphine smiled sheepishly.

"You dork. You don't even know where you are do you?"

"I had help getting here, mais…" she trailed off, looking timidly at Cosima.

Cosima chuckled, "You're lucky you're cute. Come on, I'll walk you back," she said heading back down the stairs. Delphine fell into step next to her.

"What are you going to do?" Delphine asked quietly as they walked.

"Well, after I'm done bawling my eyes out, I'll probably curl up into the fetal position and lay there until I waste away."

Delphine smacked her arm.

"Ow woman! You're so abusive!"

"Seriously, Cosima. This is dangerous, you need a plan."

"I know alright?" Cosima shouted, causing Delphine to fall silent. Cosima stopped and sighed, scratching at her dreadlocks.

"This is just… This is how I deal, okay? I make jokes, but after I drop you off, I'll probably just head to the nearest bathroom and clean the shit out of my pants."

Delphine made a face.

"Figuratively speaking, Delphine."

Her face relaxed.

"I'm scared out of my mind. I don't know what to do, I don't know how hard things are gonna be. I just hope that people are allowed help me out because I can't-" Cosima's voice cracked. Delphine rubbed her shoulder gently, urging her to keep going.

"I know I'm smart, but I can't do this all by myself," Cosima said, a tear escaping her eye, "I'm scared, Delphine."

Delphine sighed and hugged Cosima closer, "You know I am always here to help right?"

Cosima smiled and sniffed, "Yeah, but you're only a year older. I need some serious help, mademoiselle. Like, professional."

"I may not be a 'professional', but I know a lot of things, one of them may come in handy for you, non?"

"Maybe," Cosima said dubiously.

Delphine squeezed her tighter, "Stay positive, Cosima. Maybe things won't be too bad."

"Yeah..."

"Come on," Delphine said tugging Cosima forward, "You are too cute to be sad,"

Cosima laughed nervously as Delphine continued to tug her, "Um…"

"What?"

"You're going the wrong way, sweetness."

"Merde. Ce château est une labyrinthe putain…" Delphine grumbled.

"I heard that."

The girls eventually reached the Beauxbatons carriage, hands still clasped together.

"You won't get in trouble will you? For being late?"

"Non, I will just tell them I was with the Hogwarts champion."

"Yeah," Cosima chortled, "Co-champion. Besides, you guys have your own champion, that's no excuse."

"Maybe," Delphine said, "But she is not my buddy."

Cosima smiled brightly, "Right, buddy. Got it."

Delphine kissed Cosima's cheeks as she backed towards the carriage, "Bonne nuit."

"Bone …nyahh," Cosima replied sloppily. Delphine giggled and entered the carriage.

Delphine reached her bed on the upper level of the carriage. After changing she plopped down, hugging her pillow to her chest.

"Delphine?" Majorie called.

"Oui?"

"Où es-tu allée?"

Delphine sighed, "Je marchais avec mon amie."