The Durmstrang students were pulling off their heavy furs and looking up at the starry black ceiling with expressions of interest; a couple of them were picking up the golden plates and goblets and examining them, apparently impressed. Up at the staff table, Filch, the caretaker, was adding chairs. He was wearing his moldy old tailcoat in honor of the occasion.

"But there are only two extra people," Harry said. "Why's Filch putting out four chairs, who else is coming?"

"Eh?" said Ron vaguely. He was still staring avidly at Krum.

When all the students had entered the Hall and settled down at their House tables, the staff entered, filing up to the top table and taking their seats. Last in line were Professor Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime. When their headmistress appeared, the pupils from Beauxbatons leapt to their feet. A few of the Hogwarts students laughed. The Beauxbatons party appeared quite unembarrassed, however, and did not resume their seats until Madame Maxime had sat down on Dumbledore's left-hand side. Dumbledore remained standing, and a silence fell over the Great Hall.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and — most particularly — guests," said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable." One of the Beauxbatons girls still clutching a muffler around her head gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh.

"No one's making you stay!" Hermione whispered, bristling at her.

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," said Dumbledore. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

The food appeared and I saw that in addition to the usual stuff, there were also a variety of things I'

d never seen before.

"I assume this is a load of French and Scandinavian food" I said, pointing to some of it.

"Yes, ooh that's Artsoppa, my favourite!" said Magda. She grabbed a bowl full of what looked like pea soup and began slurping it down loudly.

"What's that?" said Ron, pointing at a large dish of some sort of shellfish stew that stood beside a large steak-and-kidney pudding.

"Bouillabaisse," said Hermione.

"Bless you," said Ron.

"It's French," said Hermione, "I had it on holiday summer before last. It's very nice."

"I'll take your word for it," said Ron, helping himself to black pudding. I decided to try it though.

"Hermione's right" I said to Ron "this is very nice". He still didn't look convinced.

The Great Hall seemed somehow much more crowded than usual, even though there were barely twenty additional students there; perhaps it was because their differently coloured uniforms stood out so clearly against the black of the Hogwarts' robes. Now that they had removed their furs, the Durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep bloodred. Hagrid sidled into the Hall through a door behind the staff table twenty minutes after the start of the feast. He slid into his seat at the end and waved at Harry, Ron, and Hermione with a very heavily bandaged hand.

"Skrewts doing all right, Hagrid?" Harry called.

"Thrivin'," Hagrid called back happily.

"Yeah, I'll just bet they are," said Ron quietly. "Looks like they've finally found a food they like, doesn't it? Hagrid's fingers"

"What's it gonna take for him to give up on those?" I asked

"Probably getting sacked, and we can't allow that to happen" answered Demelza

At that moment, a voice said, "Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?"

I looked up and saw someone who was clearly part veela, as several boys, including Ron were staring at her speechlessly. Harry gave her the bouillabaisse and she left, with Hermione for some reason insisting that she couldn't be anything other than a normal girl.

"I'm telling you, that's not a normal girl!" said Ron, leaning sideways so he could keep a clear view of her. They don't make them like that at Hogwarts!"

"They make them perfectly fine at Hogwarts!" said Harry, pointing at me. I was very grateful for this, at least he hadn't forgotten me this time, like he had with the veelas at the World Cup. I wrapped my arm around him.

"Thanks" I said "Tell you what" and now I was whispering into his ear "I think you deserve a little present as a reward. Care to share a small space with me tonight? Think it's about time we experimented if you know what I mean"

I pulled away from him and saw that he was slightly red in the face, but nodded.

"What did you-" Ron began, but I shot him a dangerous warning look, and he wisely shut his mouth.

Demelza and Amy giggled on my other side.

"Ooh is someone proposing a first experience?" Amy said

"About time, both of us got that done last year" Demelza added

"Yep" said Andrew, from Amy's other side "and let me tell you, this one here has a very good style, make no mistake". He gestured towards Amy, who kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"Bet you're nothing compared to Stefan though" Demelza said

"I'll have you know that I'm at least twice as good as him!" Andrew replied

"No way, Stefan is two years older, you won't know even half as much as he does!"

"I thought you felt you were too young for that last year Andrew?" I said

"Yeah but we thought we'd try it one night, decided to use our Gryffindor bravery and oh boy was it worth it, you'll see what I mean later"

"Can we not discuss this while we're eating?!" snapped Ron bitterly

"Jealous much?" I asked and we all laughed, apart from Ron

"When you've all stopped this dirty talk at the dinner table" said Hermione, "you'll be able to see who's just arrived." She was pointing up at the staff table. The two remaining empty seats had just been filled. Ludo Bagman was now sitting on Professor Karkaroff's other side, while Mr. Crouch, Percy's boss, was next to Madame Maxime.

"Ludo..." said Amy, and I saw her catch Fred and George's eyes.

"What are they doing here?" said Harry in surprise.

"They organized the Triwizard Tournament, didn't they?" said Hermione. "I suppose they wanted to be here to see it start."

"Perhaps we can all confront Ludo at some point while he's here. Us three plus the twins" I whispered to Demelza, who in turn passed this on to Amy.

Amy looked at me and said "Definitely"

During dessert, Ron tried to get the part Veela girl's attention again by moving something so that it was visible to her, but she didn't seem interested. Once the golden plates had been wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the Hall now. I was excited, now was finally the time where we'd discover how the champions would be chosen.

"The moment has come," said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket-

"The what?" Harry muttered. Ron shrugged.

"— just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation" — there was a smattering of polite applause — "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

Ludo obviously got a much bigger reception than Crouch did.

"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore continued, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts"

"That's a decent range of people" I said "hopefully it'll be enough for school bias not to seep into the scoring"

"Think that's optimistic to be honest mate" Demelza said "there's gonna be some bias in the scoring no matter what"

At the mention of the word "champions," the attentiveness of the listening students seemed to sharpen. Perhaps Dumbledore had noticed their sudden stillness, for he smiled as he said, "The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch." Filch, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the Hall, now approached Dumbledore carrying a great wooden chest encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely old. A murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students; Dennis Creevey actually stood on his chair to see it properly, but, being so tiny, his head hardly rose above anyone else's.

"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman," said Dumbledore as Filch placed the chest carefully on the table before him, "and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways . . . their magical prowess — their daring — their powers of deduction — and, of course, their ability to cope with danger"

"I wonder if Ludo will try and rig the thing to select Amy" I said

"Wouldn't put it past him, but if I am chosen, I want it do be solely the judge's decision, I don't want to be cheated into it" Amy said

The Hall was filled with a silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing.

"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament," Dumbledore went on calmly, "one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Dumbledore now took out his wand and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. The lid creaked slowly open. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames. Dumbledore closed the casket and placed the goblet carefully on top of it, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the Hall.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said Dumbledore. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete.

"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation," said Dumbledore, "I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line. "Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all."

"An Age Line!" Fred said, his eyes glinting, as we made their way across the Hall to the doors into the entrance hall. "Well, that should be fooled by an Aging Potion, shouldn't it? And once your name's in that goblet, you're laughing — it can't tell whether you're seventeen or not!"

"There's an easier way of doing it" I said "A much easier way in fact, no potion making required. All you'd need to do is levitate the scrap of paper with your name on it over the age line and drop it into the Goblet. That's the way Amy and I will do it!"

Fred and George stopped suddenly and turned to me.

"How on earth did we not think of that?" they said simultaneously.

"God knows. You'll do it that way though right?"

"Of course!"

"But I don't think anyone under seventeen will stand a chance," said Hermione, "we just haven't learned enough . . ."

"Speak for yourself," said George shortly. "You'll try and get in, won't you, Harry?"

Harry didn't answer. I was just glad he wasn't trying to stop me.

"Dumbledore will be so angry if anyone underage does get their name in" Demelza said "it's really not a good idea"

"Hardly" replied Fred "The age line is such a dumb idea, Ginny's only 13 and she's thought of an easy way to beat it. I reckon Dumbledore wants some of us to try. Perhaps he's booby trapped it with a joke or something"

"Well, it's your own fault if he has and you still try" Demelza said, "don't say you weren't warned"

"We wouldn't care. The more people who have our sense of humour, the better, it's a win-win situation for us!" said George