6 The Choosing

We all made our way inside and sat down in the Great Hall. The students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang spread out along the tables, with a majority of the Durmstrang students sitting at the Slytherin table and a majority of the Beauxbatons students sitting at the Ravenclaw table. Fleur walked over and sat down next to me at the Gryffindor table, but didn't get a chance to speak before Dumbledore stood up and began to speak.

"Welcome Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to Hogwarts. For those of you unaware, to my left is the Headmistress of Beauxbatons, Madame Olympe Maxime. To my right is the Headmaster of Durmstrang, Igor Karkaroff. On either side of them are two people who will act as judges for the tournament, Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch."

As he introduced them the four people stood before returning to their seats again.

"Now that everyone is here we can announce the method that the champions will be chosen." As Dumbledore said this, Filch walked in an with him he brought a glass case which contained a giant golden cup.

"This is the Goblet of Fire. It is an impartial judge. Each student of age may write their name and school on a piece of paper and place it in the flame. On the day of the choosing the goblet will choose the champion of each school to compete. With that said, tuck in." Dumbledore finished.

Everyone around us began to eat as I talked with Fleur. "So this is what you meant about seeing you sooner than I think."

"Yes, I thought it would be a nice surprise."

"So you're going to enter your name into the cup then?" I asked.

"Of course, it is a great honor to compete in the Triwizard Tournament." Fleur answered.

"I've read that it's quite deadly. Are you sure you want to compete? It might be too dangerous." Hermione chimed in.

"It wouldn't be much of an honor to compete if it was easy." Fleur responded.

"I wonder what kind of defenses they'll put around the Goblet to stop people who are underage from competing." I said, trying to change the subject.

"I'm sure Dumbledore will have defenses planned that will stop anyone who shouldn't enter from entering." Hermione said.

Turning to look at the old man chatting with the other headmasters, I wasn't so sure with his track record. He didn't have the greatest showing in the defense department. Turning back to the group, I finally noticed that Ron was caught up in Fleur's allure, absentmindedly shoveling food into his mouth while staring. Now that I really glanced around, I could see a lot of guys were paying extra attention to Fleur, with some being better at resisting the effects than others.

Fleur noticed me looking around and spoke up about it. "They will adjust like my classmates did. It takes some time to get used to the passive allure of a veela."

"Yes, I'm sure it's so passive." Hermione muttered under her breath, but I could hear her and I could tell Fleur could as well, but she chose to ignore it.

From there we made small talk over the course of the rest of dinner. Eventually it was time to make our way up to the dorms. With a promise to hang out later, we parted ways with Fleur and made our way up to the Gryffindor dorms.

As we walked, I finally asked Hermione what her deal was. "What do you have against Fleur?"

"What do you mean? I don't have anything against Fleur" Hermione lied.

"Really, then what was with the snide comments."

Hermione sighed and said "Just be careful Harry. You seem to be relatively resistant to her allure, but that's when she's not trying. Veela are known to ensnare men."

"You know Hermione, you shouldn't believe everything you read in books. Basing your view on someone on their race sounds pretty racist to me." I replied and sped up, walking ahead of Hermione.

"Wait Harry, that's not what I meant." Hermione called out after me, but I already was too far ahead of her. Saying the password, I entered the Gryffindor common room and made my way up to the fourth year boys dorms.

Making my way to my bed and sitting down, I pulled out a Salazar's journal and began to read it. I had gotten to a part where he began to describe his interactions with other magical communities. It seemed that in his pursuit of knowledge, he began to branch out, being one of the few wizards to make contact with other groups.

Before I could get very far into it, the rest of the guys in my year filtered in. As they entered and took notice of me, Dean took the opportunity to speak.

"Harry, mate, why didn't you tell us you knew a veela."

Sighing and closing my book for a moment, I said "Because it doesn't matter."

"Hell it doesn't matter. Could you introduce us." Seamus said.

"I'll pass. Build some resistance to the allure and do it yourself" I said and moved the curtains around my bed. I could hear them still muttering outside though. "Doesn't have to be so stingy. Probably wants to keep her all to himself."

Putting a silencing charm around me I continued to read the journal into the night before going to sleep.

--------------------------------------------------------------The next day was a weekend so we didn't have classes. Making my way down to breakfast, I found a group assembled in the atrium connected to the Great Hall.

They were all looking at the Goblet of Fire sitting in the middle of the room, lit with blue flames. While I was looking, Fleur came into the room and I moved over to talk to her. Noticing the piece of paper in her hand, I said "Entering right away?"

"The sooner the better." Fleur responded and walked forward, crossing the line drawn around the goblet and placed her paper into the fire. She then walked back over to me and I asked her something I was curious about.

"Do you know what that line around the Goblet is?"

"That's an age line. It will only allow people of a certain age to pass over it, while those not of the correct age will have something happen to them dependent on who cast it." Fleur answered.

"So this is the defense Dumbledore came up with. I really hope this isn't everything." I said aloud.

"Why?"

"Because it is really easy to enter your name with just the age line as protection." I responded.

Fleur opened her mouth to ask me another question, but before she could the twins entered the room carrying a potion in each of their hands.

"Stand back, stand back. I think it's about time we entered, don't you think Fred?" George said.

"Right you are George. Bottoms up then?" Fred asked.

"Bottoms up." They both said at the same time and downed their potion. As they drank the potion, I finally noticed Hermione sitting on a bench near the goblet.

"It's not going to work" she said to the twins.

At that point they had finished downing the potion and winked at her. "We'll just have to see then." Fred said.

It took a few seconds, but the twins both grew an inch or two. Making a show of it, they slowly lifted their legs up and jumped across the age line.

"Look at that..." George began but before he could continue a loud, sizzling sound began to be heard. The twins were thrown out of the circle and hit the ground. They began to stand up and once they fully were standing everyone around them began laughing.

"What, do I have something on my face?" George asked. He began to touch his face and noticed the long white beard that now adorned his face. Fred was in a similar situation as well.

Fleur tapped me on the shoulder. Turning to look at her, she said "As amusing as that was, I'm curious why you think the age line isn't sufficient."

"Let's walk to breakfast and I'll tell you along the way."

Fleur and I made our way out of the atrium and towards the Gryffindor tables. As we walked I explained my reasoning.

"The age line stops anyone who isn't the right age from passing, but why would you have to pass in the first place. It might take a few tries, but you could probably throw a piece of paper into the goblet from where the line is. That's ignoring just asking someone who is of age to take your paper and put it in."

"I guess I never thought of that." Fleur said.

"I don't blame you. There's something about magic that makes everyone look at magical methods first instead of the mundane ones."

From there we sat down at breakfast and ate while talking. The champions would be announced tonight, so I had the whole day to spend however I wanted. After breakfast was done, I said goodbye to Fleur and made my way to the Room of Requirement. I almost had enough baseline knowledge to begin actually working with the evil piece. I wanted to get that reading done now so I could work on it the next time I summoned Rias.

Most of the day was spent in the room reading. With the room's ability to shift to the user's needs I was provided a really comfortable place to read, which made it much preferable to my own bed.

Eventually it was time for dinner and I made my way back down to the Great Hall. I sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Fleur again. I watched as Hermione and Ron came in and sat across from me.

"So Harry, who do you reckon is going to be our champion. I've been hearing rumors that Cedric and Angelina put their names up." Ron said, ignoring the tension that was still between Hermione and I.

"I don't know. It could be either one of them or someone we aren't even thinking of. As long as it's not me I couldn't care less."

It was at this point that Dumbledore stood up in front of us once again.

"We will now begin the choosing of the champions. If your name is chosen, please head to the room behind me."

The goblet lit up with red flames and spat out a piece of paper which Dumbledore grabbed from the air.

"The champion of Durmstrang is...Viktor Krum."

Durmstrang cheered along with a good portion of Hogwarts students who liked Krum as he stood up and made his way into the back room.

The goblet lit up once again and spat out another name.

"The champion for Beauxbatons is... Fleur Delacour."

I congratulated Fleur as she stood up, with Beauxbatons clapping but not being as rowdy as Durmstrang was. Fleur then made her way into the back room as well.

The next name was shot out and read aloud.

"And finally, the champion for Hogwarts is...Cedric Diggory."

The cheering this time was the loudest of them all since there was mostly Hogwarts students here. Cedric made his way into the back room along with the rest of the champions.

'Maybe I was worried for nothing. I wasn't picked as champion, so I was probably just paranoid.'

In hindsight, I really wish I hadn't thought that.

"Those are your champions..." Dumbledore began but was cut off as the goblet lit up again and shot out one more name.

As Dumbledore caught the paper I felt something try to attach itself to me before being negated by my magic resistance.

'What was that' I thought as Dumbledore opened his mouth to read the name.

"Harry Potter" he read out once.

"Harry Potter" he read out again louder.

Slowly standing up I walked towards the back door, ignoring the muttering that was going on all around me. Opening the door and entering the room, I took a deep breath to calm myself.

"Do they want us back outside?" Fleur asked.

"Nope, it's just my luck showing itself again." I said.

The three champion's faces took on a look of confusion, but before they could voice it the door behind me opened and a group of people entered.

Dumbledore was in the lead, walking towards me and standing in front of me.

"Harry did you enter your name in the Goblet of Fire?" He asked calmly.

"No" was my response.

"Did you ask one of the older students to do it for you?" he asked.

"No...wait that would've worked? What was the point of the age line if it could be passed so easily?" I asked.

"The age line's purpose was to prevent an unnecessary number of submissions. In the end it was unlikely any younger student would be more worthy than an older one, so we felt it was sufficient." Dumbledore answered.

'Once again, Dumbledore comes through on failing to protect something. He's 0 for 3 right now.'

"Regardless the boy has been chosen as a champion. He must compete." Ludo Bagman said.

"It is not fair for Hogwarts to get two bites of the apple." Madam Maxine said.

"Wait wait wait. Why do I have to compete? It's a Triwizard Tournament, as in tri meaning three. There should only be three champions, why do I have to compete even if my name came out?" I interrupted.

"The goblet enacts a binding magical contract. If you do not compete you are at risk to lose your magic." Crouch answered.

'So that's what that feeling was. I can't say I just resisted it because I'm a Campione, that would lead to even more problems. Without revealing I'm a Campione, I can't think of anyway to say I wasn't bound.'

"I don't know why Potter is pretending he didn't enter his name. We all know he wants the glory and wants to take it from the more deserving students." Snape said.

"Be careful Snape. You're pretty close to those torches on the wall, one spark and your whole head is going up in flames with all that grease in your hair." I sniped back.

I could see Cedric cover his mouth to hide his laugh, while Fleur had a small amused smirk on her face.

"Getting back on track, Harry you will have to compete as the fourth champion." Dumbledore said.

"Let me get this straight. You all decided to use a goblet that could enact binding magical contracts at the risk of someone's magic, then didn't protect it besides an easily passed age line. Wow Dumbledore, you're 0 for 3 on protecting things, I'm beginning to suspect you are incompetent."

"Mr. Potter you will not speak to the Headmaster like that." McGonagall said sternly.

"I think I will. I'm being forced into a tournament due to his sheer incompetence, and he's focused on that instead of figuring out who put me in this tournament. I'll speak to him how I damn well please."

"Right on lad, you're asking the right questions. Someone entered you into this tournament, probably expecting you to die." Moody chimed in.

"Professor Moody, don't encourage him." McGonagall said.

"Can we please get back on track now?" Crouch said.

Nobody spoke up, so he continued. "Now the first task will take place on the 24th of November. It will be a test of courage, so be prepared."

With that said, people began to filter out of the room. I heard Madam Maxine say "It does not matter if Hogwarts has two champions, we will still win."

"Oh yeah, let's clear something up right now. I'm not a Hogwarts champion, that's Cedric. If I'm participating in this stupid tournament I'm doing it as someone independent."

"But Harry..." Dumbledore tried, but I interrupted him.

"No, why would I want to represent Hogwarts when I shouldn't be in this tournament in the first place." I said and walked out of the room, making my way through the halls and heading back to the dorms.

Entering, I found pretty much the entirety of Gryffindor waiting for me.

"There he is, the man of the hour." Dean said.

"So how'd you do it?" Seamus asked me.

"I didn't enter my name into the goblet." I answered.

"Sure you didn't. Come off it, you wanted to steal all the glory again." Ron said, stepping forward.

Dragging my hand across my face, I thought 'I don't want to deal with this stupidity right now.'

"Ignoring the fact that I didn't enter my name, what do you mean by again?" I said.

"You wouldn't have survived the traps to get to the stone without me. Without me you wouldn't have beaten the basilisk, but no, you get all the glory." Ron said.

"You know what, I'll give you the stone part. I wouldn't have done it by myself, but we all got points for that, not just me. As for the basilisk, I fought it by myself. You were injured and stayed back, don't act like you did everything."

Ron opened his mouth to respond, but before he could Angelina stepped forward. "Couldn't handle someone else having the glory for once, could you Potter."

'Alright, I'm not dealing with this all night.'

"Okay, who here believes I didn't enter my name in the goblet?" I asked.

Looking at the group in front of me, nobody raised their hands except for one person.

"Alright, as of right now the only person I like in this house is Neville. If you all want to be this idiotic that's on you. Why would I enter? For the glory, I have enough of that as it is. For the money, 1000 galleons, news flash I have more than that already. Whatever, I'll sleep somewhere else." I said and walked back out of the common room.

I walked up the stairs, going towards the Room all the while fuming. 'How is everyone here this stupid? They think I would put myself in this tournament willingly. And Ron, where does he get off saying he did everything. Hermione thinks I entered myself too.'

I was annoyed the entire way as I entered the Room, with it being configured into a bedroom. Too annoyed to even try to get some work done, I went to bed straight away, hoping to sleep off my irritation, although I didn't have high hopes.