Chapter 10: The Goblet of Fire
When all went downstairs for breakfast on the morning of October 30, discovered that during the night the Great Hall had been decked out. On the walls hung huge silk banners representing the different houses of Hogwarts: red with a golden lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver snake for Slytherin.
Behind the professors' table, a banner larger than the others displayed the Hogwarts crest: the lion, eagle, badger, and snake were united around a huge axe. Harry, Ron, and Hermione saw Fred and George at the Gryffindor table. There was a pleasant impatience in the air that day. No one paid much attention to the lessons, for they were much more interested in the arrival that night of the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Even the Potions class was more bearable than usual because it lasted half an hour less.
When, sooner than usual, the bell rang, Harry, Ron, and Hermione hurried out to Gryffindor Tower, left their knapsacks and books there as instructed, put on their cloaks, and returned to the hall.
The heads of the houses placed their students in rows.
"Weasley put your hat on properly," Professor McGonagall ordered Ron. "Patil, get that ridiculous thing out of your hair."
Parvati frowned and removed a huge ornamental butterfly from the end of her braid.
"Follow me, please," Professor McGonagall said. "The first ones in front. Without pushing..."
They lined up the front steps and lined up in front of the castle.
It was a cold, clear night. It was dark, and a pale moon was already shining over the forbidden forest. Harry, standing between Ron and Hermione in the fourth row, saw Dennis Creevey trembling with excitement among other first-graders.
"It's almost six o'clock," Ron announced, checking his watch and looking at the path to the gate. "How will they get there? On the train?"
"I don't think so," Hermione answered.
"How, then? On a broom?" Harry said, looking up at the starry sky.
"I don't think so, either..." Not from so far away...
"On a Portkey?" Ron suggested. "Can they appear? Perhaps in their countries, it is permissible to appear before the age of seventeen."
"No one can appear inside the Hogwarts grounds. How many times do I have to tell you?" Hermione exclaimed, losing her patience.
Everything was calm, quiet, and the same as ever. Harry was starting to get a little cold, and he hoped they would hurry up. Perhaps the foreigners were preparing a spectacular arrival... He recalled what Mr. Weasley had said at the campsite before the World Cup: "It's always the same. We can't resist ostentation every time we get together..."
And then, from the back row, where all the professors were, Dumbledore shouted, "Aha! If I'm not mistaken, the Beauxbatons representatives are coming!"
"Where? " Many asked impatiently, looking in different directions.
"Over there!" A sixth-grader shouted, pointing toward the woods. A long thing, much longer than a broom (and, indeed, a hundred brooms), was approaching the castle through the dark blue sky, getting bigger and bigger.
"It's a dragon!" One of the first-class shouted, losing his temper completely.
"Don't be an idiot, it's a flying house!" Dennis Creevey told him. Dennis' guess was closer to reality. When the gigantic black form passed over the treetops of the forbidden forest, almost touching them, and the light from the castle illuminated it, they saw that it was a colossal carriage, pale blue and the size of a large house, flying towards them drawn by a dozen winged horses of tan color but with white manes and tails. each the size of an elephant.
Before the carriage door opened, Harry saw that it was carrying a shield: two golden magic wands crossed, with three stars rising from each. A boy dressed in a pale blue robe jumped from the carriage to the ground, bowed, searched for a moment on the floor of the carriage with his hands, and unfurled a golden ladder. Respectfully, he took a step back. Then Harry saw a shiny black shoe, with a high heel, coming out of the interior of the carriage. It was a shoe the same size as a children's sleigh. The shoe was followed, almost immediately, by the greatest woman Harry had ever seen. The dimensions of the carriage and horses were immediately explained. Some stifled a scream. In all his life, Harry had only seen one person as gigantic as this woman, and that was Hagrid.
As she took a few steps, she stepped right into the light-lit area of the hall, which revealed a beautiful brown-skinned face, large black crystalline eyes, and a sharp nose. Her hair was pulled back at the base of her neck in a shimmering bun. Her robes were of black satin, and a multitude of opal beads glittered around her throat and on her thick fingers.
Dumbledore began to applaud. The students, imitating their principal, applauded as well, many of them on tiptoe to get a better look at the woman. Smiling gracefully, she advanced towards Dumbledore and held out a gleaming hand. Although Dumbledore was tall, he barely had to bend down to kiss her.
"My dear Madam Maxime," he said, "welcome to Hogwarts."
"Dumbledog," said Madame Maxime, in a deep voice, "I ope that you are well."
"In excellent shape, thank you," Dumbledore replied.
"My pupils," said Madame Maxime, pointing behind her with a languid gesture. Harry, who had noticed nothing but Madame Maxime, noticed that about a dozen pupils, boys and girls, all of whom seemed to be in their early twenties, had stepped out of the carriage and were behind her. They were shivering, which was not at all strange given that the robes they wore looked like fine silk, and none of them had cloaks. Some had put scarves or shawls over their heads.
As far as Harry could make out (as they were obscured by the huge shadow cast by Madame Maxime), they all looked at Hogwarts Castle with apprehension.
"Has 'Kagkagov' arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.
"He will arrive at any moment," Dumbledore said. "Would you rather wait here to say hello or stop by to warm up a bit?"
"Secondly, `Prefeg´," replied Madame Maxime. "But the `jorses´... "
"Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will gladly take care of them," Dumbledore declared, "As soon as he returns from solving a little difficulty he has encountered with one of his others…obligations."
"With the skrewts," Ron whispered to Harry.
"My steeds `guant´... eh... a `pogerful´ hand," Madame Maxime said as if she doubted that a simple professor of Care of Magical Creatures would be able to do the job. "They are very `stroncs´..."
"I assure you that Hagrid will be able to do it," said Dumbledore, smiling.
"Very well," assented Madame Maxime, bowing slightly. "And, `pligs´, tell that `pgofesog Haggid´ that these horses only drink `pug´ malt whiskey."
"Don't worry." said Dumbledore, bowing in turn.
"Allons-y!" Madame Maxime said imperiously to her students, and the Hogwarts students stepped aside to let them pass and climb the stone steps.
"How big do you think Durmstrang's horses will be?" Seamus Finnigan said, leaning over to address Harry and Ron between Lavender and Parvati.
"If they're bigger than these, even Hagrid won't be able to handle them," Harry said. And that's if he hasn't been attacked by the Skrewts.
By then they were shivering with cold, waiting for the arrival of the Durmstrang performance. Most looked up at the sky expecting to see something. For a few minutes, the silence was broken only by the snorts and chirps of Madame Maxime's huge horses. But then...
"Don't you hear something?" Ron asked suddenly. Harry listened. A mysterious, loud, strange noise came to them from the darkness. It was a muffled murmur and sucking sound as if a huge vacuum cleaner were passing through a riverbed.
"The lake!" Lee Jordan shouted, pointing at him
Great bubbles appeared, and then waves formed that were going to die on the muddy shores. Finally, a whirlpool sprang up in the middle of the lake, as if a giant plug had been removed from the bottom... From the center of the whirlpool what looked like a black pole began to emerge very slowly, and then Harry saw the rigging...
"It's a mast!" He exclaimed.
Slowly, majestically, the ship rose from the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It produced a strange corpse-like impression as if it were a sunken and resurrected ship, and the pale lights that gleamed in the portholes gave the impression of ghostly eyes. Finally, with a resounding splash, the ship emerged in its entirety, bobbing in the turbulent waters, and began to plow across the lake toward land. A moment later they heard the fall of an anchor thrown into the shoal, and the dull sound of a plank stretched to the shore. By the light of the ship's portholes, they saw the silhouettes of the people disembarking. All of them, it seemed to Harry, had the constitution of Crabbe and Goyle. But then, as they drew nearer, up the esplanade toward the light that came from the hall, he saw that their corpulence was really because they were all wearing layers of some kind of very thick skin.
The one in front had skin of a different kind: smooth and silver like his hair. "Dumbledore!" He shouted effusively as he climbed the hillside. "How are you, my old fellow, how are you?"
"Great, thank you, Professor Karkarov!" Dumbledore replied.
His teeth were quite yellow, and Harry noticed that the smile did not include his eyes, which maintained their expression of cunning and coldness.
"It's great to be here, it's great... Viktor, go over there, into the heat... Don't you mind, Dumbledore? It's just that Viktor has a slight cold..." Karkarov motioned for one of his students to come forward. As the boy passed, Harry saw his nose, prominent and curved, and the thick black eyebrows. To recognize that profile, he didn't need Ron's blow on the arm, or even for him to whisper in his ear, "Harry! It's Krum!"
"I can't believe it!" Ron exclaimed in amazement as the Hogwarts students lined up, and climbed the steps again behind Durmstrang's motorcade. "Krum, Harry! It's Viktor Krum!"
"Ron, for God's sake, he's just a Quidditch player!" Hermione said.
"Is he just a Quidditch player?" Ron repeated, looking at her as if he couldn't believe his ears. "He's one of the best seekers in the world, Hermione! I would never have imagined that he would still go to school!"
Everyone was in an uproar as they walked to the dining room and Ron almost died of disgust when he watched Victor and the rest of his companions sit with the Slytherins.
"Good evening, ladies, gentlemen, ghosts, and, most especially, good evening to our guests," said Dumbledore, smiling at the foreign students. "It is my pleasure to welcome you to Hogwarts. I hope that your stay here will be both comfortable and pleasant, and I trust that it will be so."
One of the girls in Beauxbatons, still clutching the scarf around her head, gave what was unmistakably a contemptuous laugh.
"No one is forcing you to stay!" Hermione whispered, irritated with her.
"The Tournament will be officially open at the end of the banquet," Dumbledore explained. "Now everyone is invited to eat, drink, and enjoy as if they were at home!"
Before them where the greatest variety of dishes Harry had ever seen, including some that were foreign. "What is this?" Ron said, pointing to a long tureen filled with some sort of seafood stew next to a familiar meatloaf and kidneys.
"Bouillabaisse," Hermione said.
An argument ensued between them until they heard a singsong voice behind them.
" `Soggy´, don't you eat bouillabaisse?"
This was the same girl from Beauxbatons who had laughed during Dumbledore's speech. At last, she had taken off her scarf. A long curtain of silver-blond hair fell almost to her waist. Her eyes were very blue and her teeth were very white and regular. Ron blushed. He looked at her and opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came from it but a faint chirp.
"You can take it," Harry said, handing the girl the tureen.
"Have you `finished´ with it?"
"Yes," Ron said breathlessly. "Yes, it's delicious."
The girl took the tureen and carefully brought it to the Ravenclaw's table. Ron kept staring at her with wide eyes as if he had never seen a girl. Harry laughed, and the sound of his laughter seemed to snap Ron out of his reverie.
"She's a veela!" He said to Harry hoarsely.
"Of course, she's not!" Hermione replied harshly. "I don't see that anyone else has just stared at her with their mouths open like an idiot."
But she wasn't entirely right. As the girl crossed the Great Hall, many boys turned their heads, and some were speechless, as Ron was.
"I'm telling you, she's not a normal girl!" Ron exclaimed, stepping aside to get a better look at her. "The girls in Hogwarts aren't so hot!"
"There are girls in Hogwarts that are so hot, " Harry said, not thinking as he smiled at his girlfriend.
That snapped Ron out of his reverie, wincing at the thought of a boy weighing on his little sister like that.
"Yes, it's a veela, at least part of it." Ginny said to herself as she looked at the nasty girl. Hermione gave the blonde an equally bitter look.
Apparently, for the first time, they agreed on a feeling.
o-o-o-o
For Ginny, the dislike she felt for Fleur was surprising, it makes her question many things regarding feelings in the future, was she so fickle with her affections? In her memories, she loved her future sister-in-law, who was with Bill despite everything, but at that moment, when she finally met her, the sudden displeasure was too much.
It wasn't even out of jealousy, she knew Harry found a lot of girls pretty, but she was sure of his affection and Fleur didn't even cross his mind. It was something else, she just had an instinctive dislike for the girl, which virtually every other woman shared.
That night, she finally decided to talk about a topic that was troubling her. Usually during the week, she would only chat with Harry for a few minutes and both of them would fall asleep, long talks being reserved for the weekend.
She waited for everyone to close their canopies as usual, closed her own, and put in the invisibility cloak on top of her, she tiptoed out and headed for the fourth-grade boy's dorm room. Before entering Harry's bed, she muttered a protective incantation and lay down beside him. Harry was excited, already sitting there waiting for her, anxious.
"Harry, we need to talk…" At those words, Harry's smile faded and his face took on a panicked expression.
"Forgive me if I did something you didn't like, I won't do it again, just tell me, and I'll do anything." This panic attack would have otherwise amused Ginny, but she was too scared for Harry, if she made a mistake he could die, she should never have opened her mouth that someone would die, now he would think the worst when he was elected, and he would think she was okay with risking him.
"Honey, it's not something you've done, it's something someone does to you," Ginny leaned back next to him and took his hand, both of them turning to face each other. "There's something you need to know, I'm telling you because I don't want you to be caught by surprise, or scared. Someone's going to put your name on the goblet, and you'll be chosen as one of the two champions of Hogwarts."
"Will there be two?" Ginny was surprised by Harry's calm at this news, but she wasn't surprised.
"So, the one you said it'd die is..."
"The other champion of Hogwarts..." Ginny prevented him from interrupting her by covering his mouth (he was willing to protest, to advocate to save the other champion) "Love, if it's in my hands I'll save anyone, but if I have to choose, I'll put you above everyone else, you're more important to me than anyone else and I won't let anything happen to you. I won't allow you to die, and a champion is destined to die. It's something we can't change, but I'll do everything to prevent it from being you."
Harry didn't know what to say, most of him was scared, the idea of trying to participate and someone would make him do it had not even crossed his mind, surely to kill him. He also felt his face turn red at Ginny's words, no one had ever put him first, not since his mother had given her life for him.
They were only silent for a moment, and then he began to ask more. Some things he answered, like that everyone would turn their backs on him because they thought he had cheated on the goblet, how they would be furious with them because they would think that Ginny had done it and had planned to help him cheat with the tests. Even the teachers would step in and forbid her in any way to help Harry. The disdain Ron would have for him, and that he wouldn't even believe Ginny. She told him everything so that he would prepare herself and not hurt so much.
Instead, she didn't tell him anything else, refused to tell him who had put his name and why, what the tests would consist of, and what would happen. She even refused to tell him who would win.
The next day they continued their normal routine, although both with earmuffs, almost without having slept. Finally, the classes passed and soon the afternoon came. Once inside, they saw that the Great Hall, lit by candles, was almost crowded. The Goblet of Fire had been removed from the hall and placed in front of Dumbledore's empty chair on the professor's table.
Fred and George were excited, betting on who would come out on top, trying to get their sister out of the way who would win.
"I hope Pucey comes out," Fred said as Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down. Since everyone assumed that the champion of Hogwarts would die, they bet that the one they liked the worst would win.
The Halloween feast seemed much longer than usual. Perhaps because it was his second banquet in two days, Harry didn't enjoy the unusual meal as much as he would have enjoyed it any other day.
Like everyone else in the Great Hall—judging by the continually twisting necks, the impatient expressions, the fidgeting legs, and the people getting up to see if Dumbledore had finished eating—Harry just wanted the dinner to end and announce who had been selected as champions. At last, the gold plates returned to their original immaculate state.
There was some commotion in the hall, which was cut off almost instantly when Dumbledore rose to his feet. Next to him, Professor Karkarov and Madam Maxime looked as tense and expectant as the others. Ludo Bagman was smiling and winking at several students. Mr. Crouch, on the other hand, did not seem at all interested, but rather bored.
"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make a decision," Dumbledore announced. "It seems to me that there is only a minute to go. When I pronounce the name of a champion, please come to this part of the Great Hall, pass by the professors' table, and enter the next room. –he indicated the door behind his table –Where you will receive his first instructions."
He took out his wand and swung it in a wide motion in the air. Immediately all the candles were extinguished except those inside the face-shaped gourds, and the room was almost dark. There was nothing in the Great Hall that shone as brightly as the goblet of fire, and the glow of the sparks and the bluish whiteness of the flames almost hurt the eyes. Everyone watched, expectantly. Some consulted their watches.
"From one moment to the next," whispered Lee Jordan, two seats away from Harry. Suddenly, the flames in the goblet turned red, and sparks began to fly. Then a tongue of fire burst into the air and threw out a charred piece of parchment. The whole room stifled a scream. Dumbledore picked up the piece of parchment and pushed it as far away as his arm could give him so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned a bluish-white color again.
"The champion of Durmstrang," he read loudly and clearly, "Is Viktor Krum."
"You can imagine!" Ron shouted, as a storm of applause and cheers filled the Great Hall. Harry watched silently, swallowing hard, as Krum got up from the Slytherin table and walked towards Dumbledore. He turned to the right, walked around the teachers' table, and disappeared through the door into the next room.
"Bravo, Viktor!" Karkarov bellowed, so loud that everyone heard him even above the applause. "I knew it would be you!" The applause and comments died down.
Everyone's attention was once again on the chalice, the fire of which took a few seconds to turn red again. The flames spewed out a second piece of parchment.
"The champion of Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "Is Fleur Delacour!"
"It's her, Harry!" Ron shouted, as the girl who looked like a veela stood up gracefully, shook her head back the wide silver-haired curtain, and walked between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables.
"Look how disappointed everyone is!" Hermione said, raising her voice above the hubbub and nodding to the rest of the Beauxbatons students.
´Disappointed` was saying very little, Harry thought. Two of the girls who had not been chosen had burst into tears, sobbing with their heads hidden in their arms. When Fleur Delacour had also disappeared through the door, there was silence again, but this time it was a silence so tense and full of emotion that it was almost palpable.
Next up would be the Hogwarts champion... And the cup of fire turned red again; Sparks flew, the tongue of fire rose, and from its tip, Dumbledore withdrew a new piece of parchment.
"The champion of Hogwarts," he announced, "Is Cedric Diggory!"
"No!" Ron said out loud, and it was a feeling the Hufflepuff girls shared, they all loved Cedric and no one would wish something bad on him. The poor boy had even turned pale as soon as his name was spoken, but he stood up and marched to where the other champions were.
"Wonderful!" Dumbledore said aloud. Well, we've got our three champions. I'm sure I can trust all of you, including the students of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, to give your respective champions all the support you can. By encouraging them, you will all contribute in a very significant way to...
But Dumbledore suddenly fell silent, and it was evident to everyone why he had been interrupted. The fire in the goblet had turned red again. Again, it was throwing sparks. A long tongue of fire suddenly rose into the air and threw another piece of parchment. Dumbledore reached out and took it. He held it out and looked at the name he had written on it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the piece of parchment in his hands, while the rest of the room watched.
Finally, Dumbledore cleared his throat and read aloud, "Harry Potter."
:D