I sat in my seat in silence. It felt like everyone in the school was looking at me because apparently everyone knew what I did, but more than that, I was extremely upset. This was supposed to be something that Harry was supposed to do. Why had I been selected? Why had he put my name into the goblet instead of Harry's? All I knew was that I suddenly wanted to be in this story a lot less. I definitely didn't want to be a girl right now. I felt like I had been petrified because I couldn't move at all. All I knew was that I didn't want any of this.
"It seems that she's nervous and overwhelmed." Ludo remarked. "Let's all give her some encouragement so that she can find the courage to come up here."
At that point, people started to applaud me, including Cedric, Fleur and Viktor. I had to go up there. I slowly got out of my seat and walked to the stage. I knew everyone was looking at me. I imagined the majority of them were wondering how it happened. Not only was I the fourth competitor in a competition that literally had three in its name, but I was much younger than the rest of them. I was pretty sure that I knew how it happened. Moody aka Crouch had put my name in there, but I didn't know why. Dumbledore did not look happy, but he had to at least preserve his composure for the rest of the ceremony.
"Please give it up for the contestants of this year's Triwizard tournament." He replied before there was more applause.
After the ceremony was over, I tried to sneak off so no one would see me, but I had no such luck.
"Miss Corner, in my office now." Dumbledore commanded. I knew that I was about to get yelled at. I nervously followed him into his office. It was a big office, but his phoenix Fawkes was not there. "HOW DID YOU DO IT? HOW DID YOUR NAME GET IN THAT GOBLET? DID YOU HAVE ONE OF THE OLDER STUDENTS DO IT FOR YOU?"
At that point, I didn't think the old Dumbledore would be able to pull something like that off. I mean I hadn't seen him in anything else but based on his performance in the first two films, it probably wouldn't work. Though, I knew that he wasn't supposed to. The main thing was that Dumbledore was supposed to ask calmly.
"N…no sir." I stammered. I felt pretty uncomfortable at the moment. Harry hadn't known was he was going to get himself into. He didn't know that his life was going to be in danger and he didn't know that Cedric was going to die and I was pretty sure that I couldn't save him either. "I don't know how my name got in there, but I swear that I didn't put it in there. I didn't have anyone else put it in either. Professor, I don't want to do this."
"I'm afraid that you don't have a choice." He told me. That sounded a little bit contrived, even though I knew that I didn't have a choice. There was no way that I could just volunteer Harry to do it. "Even if the goblet was tampered with, you are still required to participate."
I just hung my head down. Had I somehow become the main character? Had this become my story? Was the book now called Addie Corner and The Goblet of Fire? Speaking of which, that wasn't a great name for the book. The Goblet of Fire was only in the first few chapters. Calling it The Triwizard Tournament would be a better name. Also, The Order of the Phoenix didn't do anything in the fifth book. Maybe they had their names because they sounded more ominous.
"I understand that you've had a hard time at this school with what happened your first year and getting bitten by a werewolf this spring. It was a good thing Madam Pomphrey was able to get you the antidote before it became permanent." He explained. Okay, now that was news to me. "Nevertheless, you had extraordinary gifts. Finishing third in your class as a first-year despite not being able to attend multiple classes and not being able to give undivided attention when you did attend is remarkable."
"But Professor, everyone still remembers what I did. I don't think I'm worthy to represent Hogwarts." I argued. I wasn't sure why I was even trying to talk my way out of it because the story had already been made up and I was going to have to do it.
"It is for that reason, you are indeed worthy." He countered. I didn't really get that reasoning. How did that suddenly make me worthy to compete? "You have something to prove. Professor Flitwick would tell you the same thing. By competing in this tournament, you can show everyone how strong you are."
It seemed like it was good for my character arc. What better way to raise a character that had been beaten down so much? Though usually, characters were beaten down after some kind of triumph and had to come back from that. As far as I knew, I hadn't had any kind of triumph. Also, if the books were about me now, did that mean that the first book was basically me being possessed the whole time? That sounded really dark, even darker than the actual book.
"I guess I'll try my best." I declared. I didn't have anything else that I could do.
I still had a hard time dealing with the guilt no matter what face I put on. I couldn't help but wonder if it was something that Ginny actually had gone through. She didn't do much in the third and fourth books, so maybe she had. It seemed like a bit of a wasted opportunity not to explore how she was affected Plus I would be an easy target for dementors considering the pain in my body and in my mind.
The following day, I sat by myself in the courtyard. I wasn't sure why I was being controlled by my darkness so much. It wasn't even my darkness. I hadn't really experienced any of these things. I wasn't even that concerned with the fact that I was a girl. I was wearing a blue sweater and jeans.
"Are you okay?" A voice interrupted. I looked to see Ginny sitting beside me. She was not the person that I expected to run into.
"No." I admitted. "I've been trying my best to move on, but I just can't seem to. I was doing fine before Maria brought it the other day and last night when they announced my name, I realized that everyone still remembered exactly who I was."
"Look, everyone knows that you didn't mean to do any of that." Ginny says. It was kind of ironic who was giving me this pep talk. "People like you and you are a good person."
"I guess." I agreed.
"So, I heard that you made the Quidditch team this year." She replied.
"Yeah, but I don't even know if I'm going to get to play." I stated. I still couldn't think of a reason why quidditch was mentioned when they didn't play it in this book.
"Oh poor Adelaide." Daphne says. "I see that you're hanging out with blood traitors now."
"Leave her alone, you bitch." Ginny replied as she got up to defend me, I was starting to not like this character. It's a good thing that she wasn't in the books.
"Aw, you have a new girlfriend." Daphne teased. "That's sweet."
Suddenly, there was a burst of energy and where Daphne was standing, there was a barking dog inside of her robes. It was at that point that I noticed Moody was standing there. I supposed that was supposed to be the part where Malfoy got turned into a ferret. I had to admit that seeing it put a smile on my face even though it was horrible.
"Now everyone can see what you really are." He declared. I couldn't help but laugh even though it was a horrible thing to do to her. I probably liked it more than when he turned Malfoy into a ferret.
At that point, Professor McGonagall ran over.
"Professor Moody, what are you doing?" She asked.
"Teaching." Moody replied.
McGonagall then turned her back and she covered herself up and ran off.
"Alastair, we never use transfiguration as a punishment." She lectured. "Surely Dumbledore told you that."
"He might have mentioned it." Moody admitted. I was pretty sure that he didn't care.
"Well, you will do well to remember it." She stated. It was at that point that I realized a crowd had formed. "Alright, everyone, get on with your business."
I began to walk away, because I didn't want to talk to Moody/Crouch. I had had enough drama for the day and it was only 10:30.
However, as I was walking away, I noticed someone much taller walking beside me. He was 6'1" and I was barely 5 feet at my age.
"I don't really want to talk to anyone right now." I declared. I was probably supposed to talk to him but I wanted to look disinterested.
"I'm sorry, but we've never officially got the chance to meet." He replied. "I'm Cedric Diggory."
"I know who you are." I declared.
"And I know who you are, but I don't know anything about you other than what I've heard from other people." He pointed out. "We've never spoken before, but we're both going to be representing this school in the tournament, so we should try to get to know each other."
"Why do you care?" I challenged. "I don't mean to sound like a bitch, but why are you doing this?"
"Is it really so hard to believe that someone would be just interested in getting to know you?" He asked. "Look, I do want you to do well in this tournament. The way I see it, a win by either of us would be good for Hogwarts and just in case you think I'm doing this because I have a romantic interest in you, I'll remind you that I have a girlfriend and she happens to be your prefect."
"Fine, I guess I'll talk to you." I relented as I took a seat. I wasn't thinking of him that way because I didn't think that he would want to date a girl four years younger than him. I also didn't want anyone to desire me romantically. "What do you want to know about me?"
We talked for a little while. I told him about my family and what I liked about Hogwarts. He told me about his father and how he was the seeker for the Hufflepuff team, which I already knew. I was pretty sure that one of the reasons why I agreed to talk to him was because it was so easy to talk to Robert Pattinson, even though I was more used to him not having an accent. He also didn't want to bring up the things that I didn't want to talk about.
Nevertheless, I felt like I needed to talk to Cho. I went to the Ravenclaw common room hoping to find her. Luckily, there she was.
"There you are. I never got a chance to congratulate you." She declared. "What's wrong? Wait, I shouldn't be asking you that. I'm sorry. I've heard that you've been having a hard time lately."
"It's not that." I replied. "I wanted to tell you that I just got finished talking to Cedric."
"What about?" She asked in confusion. She probably wondered why I had brought this up.
"It definitely was not anything romantic." I stated. You know, maybe I shouldn't have said that. "He wanted to talk to me about the tournament. I am not interested in him in any way."
"If nothing happened, why are you telling me?" She questioned. That was probably a valid question.
"I didn't want you to hear anything from anyone else." I explained. "I'm not sure if anyone saw us and I thought I would dispel any rumors before they started. Plus you know how the media can distort the truth. I mean the star-crossed lovers of the Triwizard tournament would sound really good even though it's not true."
"You can stop talking now." She declared. I felt like that was probably a good idea. I couldn't believe that I was babbling. I probably sounded so much like a girl. "So, is it true that Professor Moody turned Daphne Greengrass into a dog?"
"Yes." I answered with a smile once more.
That night after dinner, I decided that I needed to talk to Upton, since I had basically talked to everyone but her about my problem.
"Hi." I greeted her.
"I'm sorry. Do you want to talk to me?" She asked.
"Okay. I'm sorry that I have been avoiding you." I replied. "I've been dealing with a lot."
"You've been dealing with things that didn't happen." She pointed out. "What you are experiencing is not real. The only real thing that happened is we got turned into girls and you don't seem to care about trying to turn back."
"First, it feels real and I'm even having nightmares about it, so don't tell me it didn't happen when I have to see your petrified face whenever I go to sleep or having to deal with the fact that you refused to leave the Ravenclaw tower until the Basilisk was dead." I warned her. "And that's not the only thing that I'm dealing with. I'm dealing with the fact that I'm now the main character of a story that I'm not supposed to be in. I can't even get a cat to make me feel better. The only small comfort that I have right now is knowing that I won't die in the tournament. Being a girl isn't even a high priority right now."
"I didn't know that you felt like that." She admitted. "I've never seen you like this before, not even when your parents got divorced."
"You're my best friend and whether it happened or not, whether I wanted to or not, I tried to kill you." I pointed out. "I can't help but feel pain from it. I just want to go through this tournament, and I want to try to move on, but it's not easy especially when people look at me a certain way like I'm either fragile or evil or both."
"You're going to get through it." She assured me. "You're a badass witch now. Plus, I have a feeling that you're going to do awesome in the tournament and you are going to be fine if you're the main character."
Of course, the other thing about the tournament that worried me was something that I didn't know how I was going to deal with. I didn't know if I should be afraid or not. If everything went the same, Cedric was going to be dead and I was going to end up face-to-face with Voldemort.
So this chapter was mostly about Addie coming to terms with everything and she even got a pep talk from the person she least expected to get one from. Please don't forget to review.