"I'm so excited for Durmstrang to come," Ron pipes to Harry as they sit in the dining hall, waiting for the two other schools competing in the triwizard tournament to arrive at Hogwarts. "Do you think they will sit with us, or separately?"
"And by they, do you mean Viktor Krum?" Hermione teases Ron, knowing that Ron had been fangirling about Krum for ages, especially after the recent quidditch match.
"Krum? Where?" Ron becomes more alert when he hears Krum's name, looking around the dining hall to see if they have walked in yet.
Hermione rolls her eyes and looks back over to Dumbledore, who is standing up from his seat.
"Greetings everybody. As usual, Nitwit, Blubber and Oddment," He addresses the whole school with pride, but receives mostly confused looks in return. "Anyways, I want to welcome the two schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, who will be joining us this year. First, please give a warm welcome to Beauxbatons."
Everyone's eyes become glued to the dining hall doors as the beauxbatons girls come in with their silky blue dresses.
"Now, a warm welcome for Durmstrang," Dumbledore announces, as the wizards from Bulgaria storm in, with menacing and angry looks on their faces.
Ron stares at Krum as he walks by, his mouth wide open in astonishment. "He's so close, I could touch him," He says, trying to scoot over in his seat to be slightly closer to Krum.
"Please don't touch him Ron," Hermione sighs. "I'm not sure he will want guys feeling him up on his first day here."
Ron doesn't reply and spends the rest of dinner looking over at the table with the students from Durmstrang, not even trying to be subtle about it. When they finished eating and the students were dismissed, Ron tried walking over to Krum with a paper and quill in hand, ready to ask for his signature. But as he got closer, he was pushed aside by another student, and not even his cry: "Krum, wait!" could stop them from continuing forward.
Devastated, Ron walks out the dining hall with Ron and Hermione, putting his quill back in his pockets.
"It's okay Ron, there will be plenty of other times you could speak to him," Harry reassures, giving him a light pat on the back. As they walk out of the doors, Harry feels an aggressive nudge on his shoulder; and as he looks over he sees Malfoy sneering at them.
"What, Ron? Sad that you couldn't get your boy crush to notice you?" He teases, with Blaise next to him laughing as well. "Maybe he saw what broom you have and was insulted. Playing with a cleansweep should be illegal in my opinion, they're filthy."
Ron gets red as Malfoy makes fun of him, not saying a word back because of his embarrassment.
Harry chimes in. "Get a life Malfoy. Why are you so obsessed with what broom Ron has anyways?"
"I'm just trying to help him. If he wants to ask Krum out on a date, he's got to impress him with something better. A nimbus perhaps," Malfoy says, still walking with them towards the staircases.
"Piss off Malfoy," Hermione says, clutching Harry with one arm and Ron with the other, and guiding them towards Gryffindor common room, away from Malfoy.
"You guys still don't believe that he's evil? I swear it was him who cast the dark mark that night of the quidditch match," Harry whispers to them as they walk.
Hermione sighs, tired of hearing about how 'evil' Malfoy is. "Harry. He's an annoying prick, I'll give you that. But he's only in his fourth year. There's no way he's capable of casting the dark mark."
Harry ignores her comment as his head races. Why was Malfoy in the woods that night, clutching his arm and running away from any unwanted attention. There's something that's not right.
As Harry lays in bed that night, he takes the Marauder's Map under his covers, whispers 'Lumos', and watches the little labels move around. He takes his time to follow the label 'Draco Malfoy', making sure that he's not wandering anywhere that he's not supposed to be.
A couple of days later, after students have had the chance to enter their names into the goblet of fire, everyone gathers in the dining hall and waits for Dumbledore to announce the three triwizard champions.
Suspension grows as people walk into the dining hall and fill the tables. Everyone settles in, and the chatter dies down as students see Dumbledore rise and move toward the cup.
"The time has come for the cup to select the three wizards or witches that will be competing in this years triwizard tournament. Thank you to everyone who was brave enough to enter their name, as this is not a tournament for the weak minded."
At this point the dining hall is so silent you can hear the sounds of Professor Snape tapping his nails on the table in the distance.
The first name flies out of the cup in flames and Dumbledore catches it elegantly with his thin, wavering hands.
"Viktor Krum," He announces, followed by a round of applause from everyone.
"No surprise there," Ron mutters to Harry.
The second name flies out and Dumbledore proceeds to call out the next name, "fleur Delaceour", a student from Beauxbatons. Her friends around her gleam and give her hugs to congratulate her.
The third and last name flies out; and all the hogwart student wait eagerly for Dumbledore to announce which one of them will be competing.
Dumbledore reads the name in his head and hesitates to announce it. His face falls as he stares idly at the paper in his hands. Very quietly, a sound escapes his lips. "Harry Potter."
Everyone turns to stare at Harry as Dumbledore calls out his name. Harry is frozen, unable to move and shocked. This cannot be real, it cannot be allowed. Harry is underage and did not even attempt to put his name in the cup.
"Go, Harry, they're waiting for you," Hermione murmurs to Harry, giving him a nudge to stand up. Harry shyly and shakily gets out of his seat and awkwardly walks over to where the other victors stand. Mcgonnagol is whispering something to Dumbledore who is still staring at the piece of paper with Harry's name written on it.
As if things could not get more shocking, the cup spits out a fourth piece of paper. Dumbledore calmly extends his arm to catch the piece of paper, and stares at it for a moment before reading it out.
"Draco Malfoy."
Harry's eyes glide across the hall and fixate on the tall and blonde skeevy slytherin, who sits on the opposite end of the dining hall at the slytherin table. Their eyes meet for a split second, the look sending chills down Harry's spine. Malfoy must have set this up, this is his fault. He's the reason both their names got called even though they are underage.
The whole dining hall is in shock and simply stares at the two fourteen year old, skinny boys who stand next to Krum and Delacour.
"Well," Dumbledore breaks the eerie silence. "Can everyone quietly congratulate our victors."
A few people clap, but most stay silent, their eyes glued to Harry and Malfoy. Some whisper and chatter amongst themselves, some appear annoyed, angry even.
"Enjoy your meal," Dumbledore tells everyone, then turns to the victors. "All of you, follow me."
The victors follow Dumbledore out of the dining hall and Professor Mcgonagall, Snape, Karkaroff and Maxime run after them.
As they find a quiet room to discuss, Dumbledore turns to Harry and Malfoy. "Harry, Draco. Did you put your names in the goblet of fire?" He asks, calmly.
They both shake their heads, no. Dumbledore turns to discuss with the other professors and leaves the students standing awkwardly, watching them argue.
Harry turns to Malfoy and grabs his arm, pulling him behind a tall shelf, away from Dumbledore.
"What do you want, Potter?" Malfoy asks, pulling his arm away from Harry's grip.
"I know you're up to something, Malfoy," Harry says to him, making intense eye contact with him. "I know what you did the night of the quidditch match. And whatever you're up to now, you are not going to get away with it."
Malfoy stares at Harry and it's almost as if Harry can see a glimmer of fear in his eyes. Shakily, Malfoy responds, "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm as confused as you are right now."
But Harry doesn't believe him. Malfoy is definitely up to something, and Harry will find out soon enough.