Skylar couldn't believe her ears. She turned to Harry just as everyone else in the Great Hall did. Harry himself it seemed had gone into a state of frozen shock, unable to move.
There was no applause. A buzzing, as though of angry bees, was starting to fill the Hall; some students were standing up to get a better look at Harry as he sat, frozen, in his seat.
Up at the top table, Professor McGonagall had got to her feet and swept past Ludo Bagman and Professor Karkaroff to whisper urgently to Professor Dumbledore, who bent his ear toward her, frowning slightly.
Harry turned to Skylar, Ron and Hermione; beyond them, he saw the long Gryffindor table all watching him, openmouthed.
"I didn't put my name in," Harry said blankly. "You know I didn't."
They stared just as blankly back and he looked at Skylar who pursed her lips and now turned to the teacher's table.
At the top table, Professor Dumbledore had straightened up, nodding to Professor McGonagall.
"Harry Potter!" he called again. "Harry! Up here, if you please!"
"Go on," Hermione whispered, giving Harry a slight push. Harry got to his feet, trod on the hem of his robes, and stumbled slightly. He set off up the gap between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. Skylar was watching him, almost wishing this wasn't right and that she was about to wake up, or someone was going to admit it was a prank.
Everyone watched Harry as he walked up towards the teachers. The buzzing grew louder and louder. All the teachers' eyes were also upon him as he reached them.
"Well… through the door, Harry," said Dumbledore. He wasn't smiling.
Harry moved off along the teachers' table. Hagrid was seated right at the end. He did not wink at Harry, or wave, or give any of his usual signs of greeting. He looked completely astonished and stared at Harry as he passed like everyone else. Harry went through the door out of the Great Hall, and the entirety of its contents erupted.
Skylar couldn't think of anything to say as many people were complaining, excited, discussing how Harry might have done it, and some, like Hermione, looked frightened. Why would someone enter Harry's name into the Tournament? What on earth did someone gain from putting Harry into such a situation?
And then she remembered. Harry had had a dream, a dream about You-Know-Who, plotting to kill Harry. But how on earth that was supposed to happen inside the castle…?
Only, it did happen… if Harry participated how would he survive it?
Dumbledore dismissed the Great Hall and all those in it, before he, Karkaroff, Maxime, Snape, McGonagall, Ludo Bagman and Mr. Crouch all vanished through the door where the champions were waiting.
As they were dismissed, the atmosphere changed slightly, the entire Gryffindor house became very excited, they had their own champion! Who cared if he was three years too young or likely to be hurt! Hufflepuff however was looking mutinous, Harry Potter had stolen their glory, stolen the attention away from their champion.
"What are we going to do?" Skylar asked Ron and Hermione.
Hermione shook her head.
Ron however looked very different to how Skylar expected.
"How did he do it?" He questioned.
"What?" The girls chorused.
"He told you right," Ron asked Skylar. "how he did it?"
"You think Harry put his own name in the goblet? When did he have time for that?"
"Last night? He said that's how he'd do it."
"He was speculating." Skylar looked at Ron in shock and disappointment. "You share a dormitory with him, you think he snuck out without you!?" She demanded.
Ron however, didn't look any better, he looked upset and annoyed and Skylar knew how he felt. Ron didn't think Harry really put his name in the goblet, but his judgement was currently clouded with jealousy and envy. It was always Harry, always Harry who got the excitement and the attention. And for Ron, who was always competing with his family, and Harry, this was the final straw.
"Harry could be killed Ronald! But I'm glad to know that glory is more important to you!" Skylar snapped at him before she shoved herself up from the table and towards the Entrance Hall.
Hermione hurried off with her.
"You shouldn't be mad."
"I shouldn't be?! He's Harry's best friend! He believed him when everyone said Harry was petrifying people two years ago, how's this any different?" Skylar snapped.
"Sky!" The two girls turned to see Stephen pushing towards them through the crowd. "I don't understand? We were with Harry all day? Did he do it last night?"
"Harry didn't put his name in." Skylar said annoyed.
"Then how'd it get in the goblet?"
"I don't know, clearly someone wants to kill him." She snapped obviously before turning and leaving Stephen looking rather surprised. Hermione apologised to him for the auburn-haired girl before hurrying after her again.
"You know it's not Stephen's fault."
"I know." Skylar grumbled.
Fred and George were ecstatic with Harry managing to get over the age line and with the rest of Gryffindor excited to have their own champion, a party was instantly being thrown. The Weasley twins hurried down to the kitchen, Lee Jordan somehow found a Gryffindor banner, and everyone in the Common room was talking excitedly.
The noise all vanished however as voices came from the Portrait hole. A moment later, one of the portraits changed as a woman, friends with the Fat Lady who guarded the Gryffindor Common room, came and informed everyone in the house that Harry was being allowed to participate in the tournament, regardless of the restrictions.
Skylar lost it and she went storming up to her dormitory, forcing everyone out of her way in a fit of anger.
The girl fished through her things and pulled out a piece of parchment and her quill, and began to write a letter to her mother and father, both fearful and angry about the event and everyone's reaction to it. She also included the news of Harry's dream, and that Sirius believed it very important, that he'd even come back to London because of it all.
She asked for advice, saying she was worried, before folding the letter up, ready to be sent out tomorrow.
She didn't sleep very well that night and she was up rather early in the morning. She stared at the canopy of her four poster bed, fiddling again with the leaf in her mouth before Hermione woke up and saw she was awake also.
"How you feeling?"
"Shit." Skylar responded.
"Shall we go get some breakfast?" Hermione offered.
"I'm not really hungry."
"You hardly ate any dinner." Hermione frowned, worried.
Skylar shrugged.
"We'll I'm going to go and get some, I think I might bring Harry some too, meet you back here if he isn't already at breakfast?"
"Sure." Skylar agreed.
And Hermione got up, dressed, grabbed some things from her trunk, before leaving the dormitory.
Skylar sighed. Her worry was now eating at her appetite.
The girl forced herself from her bed and got dressed before going down into the common room to wait for either Harry or Hermione. She had the letter to her mother in her robes to be sent if neither of them showed up at all.
Harry came down from the dormitory before Hermione came back from breakfast. He moved over to her, ignoring the people who were applauding him. Skylar glared at them as the Creevey brothers were beckoning Harry frantically over to join them.
"Come on." Skylar nodded her head and headed to the portrait hole. They both climbed out to come face-to-face with Hermione.
"Hello," she said, holding up a stack of toast, which she was carrying in a napkin. "I brought you this. And Skylar, you really should eat something…" Skylar rolled her eyes and took a piece of toast, nibbling at it carefully. Hermione was satisfied with this and turned to Harry. "Want to go for a walk?"
"Good idea," said Harry gratefully.
They went downstairs, crossed the entrance hall quickly without looking in at the Great Hall, and were soon striding across the lawn toward the lake, where the Durmstrang ship was moored, reflected blackly in the water. It was a chilly morning, and they kept moving, munching their toast, as Harry told Hermione and Skylar exactly what had happened after he had left the Gryffindor table the night before. It seemed that Mad-Eye thought someone had entered Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire on purpose, and would have been a very strong wizard. Madam Maxime and Karkaroff had been furious about it all, but it seemed nothing could be done, which was why Harry was being allowed to participate. It turned out that the first task was about daring, so they didn't tell the champions what was going to happen, only that it would take place on November 24th.
It seemed Harry worried that the two girls would believe he put his own name into the fire, like Ron apparently did, and he was immensely relieved when they accepted his story without question.
"Well, of course I knew you hadn't entered yourself," Hermione said when he'd finished telling her about the scene in the chamber off the Hall. "The look on your face when Dumbledore read out your name! Even Skylar looked surprised, and she can read your thoughts." Skylar was pondering all Harry had told them as she looked across the lake. "But the question is, who did put it in? Because Moody's right, Harry… I don't think any student could have done it … they'd never be able to fool the Goblet, or get over Dumbledore's —"
"Have you seen Ron?" Harry interrupted.
Hermione hesitated.
"Erm… yes… he was at breakfast," she said.
"Does he still think I entered myself?"
"Well… no, I don't think so… not really," said Hermione awkwardly.
"What's that supposed to mean, 'not really'?"
"Oh Harry, isn't it obvious?" Hermione said despairingly. "He's jealous!"
"He's being stupid." Skylar grumbled.
"Jealous?" Harry said incredulously. "Jealous of what? He wants to make a prat of himself in front of the whole school, does he?"
"Look," said Hermione patiently, "it's always you who gets all the attention, you know it is. I know it's not your fault," she added quickly, seeing Harry open his mouth furiously. "I know you don't ask for it… but — well — you know, Ron's got all those brothers to compete against at home, and you're his best friend, and you're really famous — he's always shunted to one side whenever people see you, and he puts up with it, and he never mentions it, but I suppose this is just one time too many…"
"Great," said Harry bitterly. "Really great. Tell him from me I'll swap any time he wants. Tell him from me he's welcome to it… People gawping at my forehead everywhere I go…"
"I'm not telling him anything," Hermione said shortly. "Tell him yourself. It's the only way to sort this out."
"A club to the head might help." Skylar mumbled.
"I'm not running around after him trying to make him grow up!" Harry said, so loudly that several owls in a nearby tree took flight in alarm. "Maybe he'll believe I'm not enjoying myself once I've got my neck broken or —"
"That's not funny," said Hermione quietly. "That's not funny at all." She looked extremely anxious. "Harry, I've been thinking — you know what we've got to do, don't you? Straight away, the moment we get back to the castle?"
"Yeah, give Ron a good kick up the —"
"Write to Sirius. You've got to tell him what's happened. He asked you to keep him posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts… It's almost as if he expected something like this to happen. I brought some parchment and a quill out with me —"
"Come off it," said Harry, looking around to check that they couldn't be overheard, but the grounds were quite deserted. "He came back to the country just because my scar twinged. He'll probably come bursting right into the castle if I tell him someone's entered me in the Triwizard Tournament —"
"If you don't tell him, he'll come back just to have a go at you for it." Skylar said.
"He'd want you to tell him," said Hermione sternly. "He's going to find out anyway —"
"How?"
"Harry, this isn't going to be kept quiet," said Hermione, very seriously. "This tournament's famous, and you're famous. I'll be really surprised if there isn't anything in the Daily Prophet about you competing… You're already in half the books about You-Know-Who, you know… and Sirius would rather hear it from you, I know he would."
"Okay, okay, I'll write to him," said Harry, throwing his last piece of toast into the lake. They stood and watched it floating there for a moment, before a large tentacle rose out of the water and scooped it beneath the surface. Then they returned to the castle.
"Whose owl am I going to use?" Harry said as they climbed the stairs. "He told me not to use Hedwig again."
"Ask Ron if you can borrow —"
"I'm not asking Ron for anything," Harry said flatly.
"Well, borrow one of the school owls, then, anyone can use them," said Hermione.
"You could probably use Nick or Leon's, they're likely free." Skylar remembered.
They went up to the Owlery, Hermione gave Harry a piece of parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink, then strolled around the long lines of perches, looking at all the different owls, while Harry sat down against a wall and wrote his letter. Skylar walked over to Hedwig who hotted softly at her and jumped onto her arm, allowing Skylar to brush her feathers.
"Finished," he told Hermione, getting to his feet and brushing straw off his robes. At this, Hedwig fluttered from Skylar to Harry, onto his shoulder and held out her leg.
"I can't use you," Harry told her, looking around for the school owls. "I've got to use one of these…"
Hedwig gave a very loud hoot and took off so suddenly that her talons cut into his shoulder. She kept her back to Harry all the time he was tying his letter to the leg of a large barn owl. When the barn owl had flown off, Harry reached out to stroke Hedwig, but she clicked her beak furiously and soared up into the rafters out of reach.
"First Ron, then you," said Harry angrily. "This isn't my fault."
"Hediwg, I've got a letter I need to send, would you take it for me?" Skylar called up to her.
There was a moment's pause before Hedwig came back down and landed on Skylar's shoulder.
"Seeing as you can't use Hedwig, and I don't have an owl, I can give her something to do." Skylar shrugged as she tied the letter to Hedwig's leg. Hedwig nipped Skylar's ear affectionately, before taking off out the window. "Mum and dad would kill me for not telling them about this." She confessed.
Harry couldn't argue.