Chapter 94: The Upset
The decorations in the Great Hall had changed this morning. As it was Halloween, a cloud of live bats was fluttering around the enchanted ceiling, while hundreds of carved pumpkins leered from every corner. Harry led the way over to Dean and Seamus, who were discussing those Hogwarts students of seventeen or over who might be entering.
"There's a rumor going around that Warrington got up early and put his name in," Dean told Harry and I. "That big bloke from Slytherin who looks like a sloth."
Harry shook his head in disgust. "We can't have a Slytherin champion! I'll cheer for Durmstrang if that happens, I swear to God!"
"And all the Hufflepuffs are talking about Diggory," said Seamus. "But I wouldn't have thought he'd have wanted to risk his good looks."
"Listen!" said Hermione suddenly.
People were cheering out in the entrance hall. We all swiveled around in our seats and saw Angelina Johnson coming into the Hall, grinning in an embarrassed sort of way. She came over to us, sat down, and said, "Well, I've done it! Just put my name in!"
"You're kidding!" I exclaimed, impressed.
"Are you seventeen, then?" asked Harry.
"Course she is, can't see a beard, can you?"
"I had my birthday last week," said Angelina.
"Well, I'm glad someone from Gryffindor's entering," said Hermione. "I really hope you get it, Angelina!"
"Thanks, Hermione," said Angelina, smiling at her.
"Okay, I'm Team Hogwarts again." laughed Harry.
Yeah, better you than Pretty-Boy Diggory, said Seamus, causing several Hufflepuffs passing their table to scowl heavily at him.
"What're we going to do today, then?" I asked Harry and Hermione when we had finished breakfast and were leaving the Great Hall.
"We haven't been down to visit Hagrid yet," said Harry.
"Okay, just as long as he doesn't ask us to donate a few fingers to the skrewts."
"I've just realized, I haven't asked Hagrid to join S.P.E.W. yet!" Hermione said suddenly. "Wait for me, will you, while I nip upstairs and get the badges?"
"What is it with her?" I said, as Hermione ran away up the marble staircase.
"Hey, Ron, it's your friend." said Harry in a sing song voice.
The students from Beauxbatons were coming through the front doors from the grounds, the veela-girl in front. Those gathered around the Goblet of Fire stood back to let them pass, watching eagerly.
Madame Maxime entered the hall behind her students and organized them into a line. One by one, the Beauxbatons students stepped across the Age Line and dropped their slips of parchment into the blue-white flames. As each name entered the fire, it turned briefly red and emitted sparks. I watched as the veela girl dropped her elegant name (whatever it was) into the fire.
Merlin she was absolutely lovely. I hoped she would be picked. That way, I could root for her, and she could see me cheering for her, and appreciate it. Then, we would date, get married, and have all the beautiful children she wanted.
"What d'you reckon will happen to the ones who aren't chosen?" I muttered to Harry. "Reckon they'll go back to school, or hang around to watch the tournament?"
"Dunno," said Harry. "Hang around, I suppose. Madame Maxime's staying to judge, isn't she?"
When all the Beauxbatons students had submitted their names, Madame Maxime led them back out of the hall and out onto the grounds again.
"Where are they sleeping, then?" I wondered out loud., moving toward the front doors and staring after them.
"Gonna try to join her for a nightcap?" said Harry. "Hermione would just love that."
"I'm sorry?" I uttered, still staring.
"Nothing."
A loud rattling noise behind them announced Hermione's reappearance with the box of spew badges.
"Oh good, hurry up," I said, snapping out of it and pulling her along.
As we neared Hagrid's cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, the mystery of the Beauxbatons' sleeping quarters was solved. The gigantic powder-blue carriage in which they had arrived had been parked two hundred yards from Hagrid's front door, and the students were climbing back inside it. The elephantine flying horses that had pulled the carriage were now grazing in a makeshift paddock alongside it.
Harry knocked on Hagrid's door, and Fang's booming barks answered instantly.
"'Bout time!" said Hagrid, when he'd flung open the door. "Thought you lot'd forgotten where I live!"
"We've been really busy, Hag -" Hermione started to say, but then she stopped dead, looking up at Hagrid, apparently lost for words.
Hagrid was wearing his best (and worst) hairy brown suit, plus a checked yellow-and-orange tie. That wasn't the worst of it, though. He had evidently tried to tame his hair, using large quantities of what appeared to be axle grease. It was now slicked down into two bunches - perhaps he had tried a ponytail like Bill's, but found he had too much hair. The look didn't really suit Hagrid at all.
He actually made my dress robes look alright, if that's saying something.
For a moment, Hermione stared speechless at him, then, obviously deciding not to comment, she said, "Erm - where are the skrewts."
"Out by the pumpkin patch," said Hagrid happily. "They're gettin' massive, mus' be nearly three foot long now. On'y trouble is, they've started killin' each other."
"Oh no, really?" said Hermione, shooting a repressive look at me that I saw pit the corner of my eye. My focus was on Hagrid's odd hairstyle, and I was just about to comment on it.
"Yeah," said Hagrid sadly. "S' okay, though, I've got 'em in separate boxes now. Still got abou' twenty."
"Well, that's lucky" I said sarcastically, earning a pinch from Hermione.
We sat down in his cabin and started conversing about the Tournament.
"You wait," he said, grinning. "You jus' wait. Yer going ter see some stuff yeh've never seen before. Firs' task...ah, but I'm not supposed ter say."
"Go on, Hagrid!" we urged him, but he just shook his head, grinning.
"I don' want ter spoil it fer yeh," said Hagrid. "But it's gonna be spectacular, I'll tell yeh that. Them champions're going ter have their work cut out. Never thought I'd live ter see the Triwizard Tournament played again!"
We ended up having lunch with Hagrid, where we amused ourselves with trying to make Hagrid tell us what the tasks in the tournament were going to be, speculating which of the entrants were likely to be selected as champions, and wondering whether Fred and George were beardless yet.
Soon, Hagrid was arguing with Hermione about house-elves, for he flatly refused to join spew when she showed him her badges.
"It'd be doin' 'em an unkindness, Hermione," he said. "It's in their nature ter look after humans, that's what they like, see? Yeh'd be makin' 'em unhappy ter take away their work, an' insutin' 'em if yeh tried ter pay 'em."
"But Harry set Dobby free, and he was over the moon about it!" said Hermione. "And we heard he's asking for wages now!"
"Yeah, well, yeh get weirdos in every breed. I'm not sayin' there isn't the odd elf who'd take freedom, but yeh'll never persuade most of 'em ter do it - no, nothin' doin', Hermione."
Hermione looked very cross indeed and stuffed her box of badges back into her cloak pocket. In a way, I felt bad for her not being able to persuade the man to join her cause, but, as we had told her a million times, the elves did indeed enjoy it.
By half past five it was growing dark, and we decided it was time to get back up to the castle for the Halloween feast - and, more important, the announcement of the school champions.
"I'll come with yeh," said Hagrid. "Jus' give us a sec."
Hagrid got up, went across to the chest of drawers beside his bed, and began searching for something inside it. Suddenly, the cabin smelled of a dead cat.
"Hagrid, what's that?" I asked, coughing.
"Eh?" said Hagrid, turning around with a large bottle in his hand. "Don' yeh like it?"
"Is that aftershave?" said Hermione in a slightly choked voice.
"Er - eau de cologne," Hagrid muttered, blushing. "Maybe it's a bit much," he said gruffly. "I'll go take it off, hang on..."
"Eau de cologne?" said Hermione in amazement. "Hagrid?"
"And what's with the hair and the suit?" said Harry in an undertone.
"Look!" I said, pointing out of the window. Madame Maxime and the Beauxbatons students had just emerged from their carriage, clearly about to set off for the feast too. Hagrid seemed to almost run to her side and began talking to her, his face as red as a tomato.
"He's going up to the castle with her!" said Hermione."I thought he was waiting for us!"
"He fancies her!" I said, laughing at the thought. "Well, if they end up having children, they'll be setting a world record. Bet any baby of theirs would weigh about a ton."
"Hard to believe Hagrid fancied anything that much but dragons" said Harry, as we headed out of Hagrid's cabin.
"He looked like Ron looks when he sees Krum" I heard Hermione tell Harry.
"You shut your mouth." I said.
"Speaking of Krum, look!" Hermione whispered.
The Durmstrang party was walking up toward the castle from the lake. Viktor Krum was walking side by side with Karkaroff, and the other Durmstrang students were straggling along behind them. He looked fabulous and manly, as if he had just finished playing a hardcore game of Quidditch.
When we entered the candlelit Great Hall it was almost full. The Goblet of Fire had been moved; it was now standing in front of Dumbledore's empty chair at the teachers' table. Fred and George - clean-shaven again - seemed to have taken their disappointment fairly well.
"Hope it's Angelina," said Fred as we sat down beside them.
"So do I!" said Hermione breathlessly. "Well, we'll soon know!"
"If it's a Slytherin, don't blame me for being a traitor to my school." said Harry.
"Right with ya, mate."
The Halloween feast seemed to take much longer than usual. No one seemed to be really focused on the meal, as we were all excited to see who would be the champions.
At long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state. The conversation instantly died as Dumbledore got to his feet. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr. Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.
"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" - he indicated the door behind the staff table - "where they will be receiving their first instructions."
He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semi darkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting...
"Any second," Lee Jordan whispered, three seats away from me.
The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it - the whole room gasped.
Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.
"The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."
"No surprises there!" I yelled as I joined in with the storm of applause and cheering. Viktor Krum got up from the Slytherin table and slouch up toward Dumbledore; he turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.
"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. "Knew you had it in you!"
The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.
"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!"
"It's her, Ron!" Harry shouted as the wonderfully made veela girl got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables. She looked like an angel.
"Oh look, they're all disappointed," Hermione said.
Disappointed was a bit of an understatement, actually. Two of the girls who had not been selected had dissolved into tears and were sobbing with their heads on their arms. So dramatic. They should have known the beauty that was Fleur Delacour would top them.
When she too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it seemed even more deafening. Hogwarts champion was next to be announced.
The Goblet of Fire turned red once more and sparks showered out of it. Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment.
"The Hogwarts champion," he called, "is Cedric Diggory!"
"Dammit! " I yelled loudly, but no one heard because the uproar from the next table was too great. Every single Hufflepuff had jumped to his or her feet, screaming and stamping, as Cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off toward the chamber behind the teachers' table. Indeed, the applause for Cedric went on so long that it was some time before Dumbledore could make himself heard again.
Damn Diggory. The guy was alright, but I was really hoping Angelina would get it. She would have been brilliant.
"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real -"
But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and looked at the goblet. The room fell silent again, as the fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment.
Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. He looked completely bewildered, and read over the paper at least three more times before he read out-
"Harry Potter."