PRELUDE: THE DISCUSSION

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Come thou, thou last one, whom I recognize,

unbearable pain throughout this body's fabric:

as I in my spirit burned, see, I now burn in thee:

the wood that long resisted the advancing flames

which thou kept flaring, I now am nourishing

and burn in thee.

~

My gentle and mild being through thy ruthless fury

has turned into a raging hell that is not from here.

Quite pure, quite free of future planning, I mounted

the tangled funeral pyre built for my suffering,

so sure of nothing more to buy for future needs,

while in my heart the stored reserves kept silent.

~

Is it still I, who there past all recognition burn?

Memories I do not seize and bring inside.

O life! O living! O to be outside!

And I in flames. And no one here who knows me.

~

-By Rainer Maria Rilke

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In a room filled with owl decorations, four teenagers sat down at a round table in the middle of the room, one was tapping his finger to the table uncontrollably, one was twirling her hair, a sign of nervousness, one was playing with her hands, and one was quiet, too quiet.

It was of course Daphne, Ed, Hermione, and Richard.

"What did Crouch want to talk to you about, Richard?" Ed asked the boy.

"You know, sponsoring the tournament with our items..." Richard said. "He said he wanted us to give them a couple of protective necklaces in exchange for more exposure..."

Ed hummed. "Did you accept it?"

"I said I'll think about it." he shrugged.

"Then accept it."

"But, is it just exposure? We have plenty of that."

"No, we need to make sure the necklaces have my blood in it, so I could blink to them."

"Oh..." Richard nodded. "Alright, I'll talk to them tomorrow."

"Daphne." Ed turned to her. "Any whispers from the Slytherins?"

Daphne shrugged. "Nothing much, they're only talking about what you said to Crouch Jr. the other day."

"Still?" Ed raised his eyebrow.

"What can I say, purebloods don't have much to talk about except those kinds of things."

Ed sighed, then turned to his girlfriend. "When are you going to talk to Harry about it?"

Hermione's face went sour. "Maybe after this champions stuff..."

Ed hummed. "So, who wants to replace Cedric?" Ed said to the group.

"Why don't you do it yourself?" Daphne said.

Ed shook his head, "They will change their plans if I'm the one who becomes champion."

"Well, I can't be the champion, you know that." Daphne continued.

Ed hummed. "So does Hermione… they'll change their plans too..."

Then, all of them looked at Richard.

"So, me?" Richard questioned.

Ed thought for a while before shaking his head. "No, it'll have the same result, we need to find a replacement from outside of our circle."

"Well, who do you propose?" Hermione questioned.

"I don't know… that's why we're discussing this." Ed shrugged. "We need to find a weak wizard, yet not weak enough so that he can't pass the tasks."

"Warrington?" Daphne suggested.

Ed thought for a while, but ultimately, Hermione was the one who answered. "Too dangerous, we should rule out Slytherins, who knows what they will do to Harry once it's the third task."

Richard hummed. "Davies?"

"Roger Davies?" Ed questioned. "Possible… but if we read the books, he can't even handle Fleur..."

"Cho?" Daphne suggested just for the hell of it as she was smirking.

"Really?" Ed raised his eyebrows in amusement. "She'll die in the first trial."

"She won't if dear old Richie helps her." Daphne giggled.

Ed shook his head in amusement, and said. "What about Cormac McLaggen?"

"He's just all talk Ed, you know that." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Then who will it be?" Ed asked again. "Should we include 4th years in the list as well?"

"Just wait a minute." Hermione calm Ed down. "What about Angelina Johnson?"

"That could work." Daphne said. "But are you sure she's qualified? She's good at quidditch… but I don't know about spells and stuff..."

"Katie Bell is quite a good student." Ed pointed out, which made Hermione frown.

"I think she's still a bit weak for the tournament..." Hermione murmured.

Ed hummed. "I think we should consider fourth years as well..."

"You want them to get themselves killed?" Hermione questioned with a high tone.

"The ones who have qualification of course." Ed added. "How about Draco Malfoy?"

"I thought I told you-"

"He's not like the rest of Slytherins, he's like Daphne now I guess..." Ed quickly clarified.

"Is he qualified?"

"I mean… we could train him..."

"We're not close enough to him." Richard said. "Let's go back to beyond fourth year for now..."

"Fine." Ed hummed. "What about Alicia Spinnet?"

Hermione frowned. "She's just like Angelina Johnson, only good at quidditch..."

"Then who else?" Ed asked impatiently.

"Weasley Twins? They wanted to enter, right?" Richard suggested.

"They're good potions… but are they good at fighting?" Daphne questioned.

"I don't know..."

"You know what?" Ed said. "What if we just pick a blank slate?"

"What do you mean?" Richard questioned.

"We picked one of our fellow fourth year students, and trained him or her."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"No, but at least we can somewhat control how he or she will pass the trial." Ed stated.

All of them then went into thinking mode. "Who are you going to pick?"

"I don't know just yet, but I've got a good idea on who it is..."

Richard hummed, and he yawned. "You know what, why don't we leave it to Ed to choose who it is? I'm really sleepy right now..."

Daphne nodded. "I'm tired too, can you just pick it?"

"We're a team, we need to discuss it."

"Well, as part of the team, I choose you to choose for us." Daphne then stood up. "Just make sure that he or she actually wants to enter the tournament..." Daphne and Richard then left the room, intending to go to their own dorm room…

And now, only Ed and Hermione stayed in the room…

Ed sighed. "Who do you think is good?"

"I don't know Ed..." She yawned. "I think they're right… I'm a bit biased in terms of this, and I don't want my friends to get hurt, so I think you should choose it by yourself..."

"Okay..." said Ed, he noticed that Hermione was also tired. "Do you want to sleep here or in the dorm room?"

"I'll go to the dorm room." She stood up. "You should submit his or her name now Ed, it's almost midnight, no one's going to submit it now."

"Okay, good night." Ed said as he kissed her forehead.

"Good night." She hummed tiredly, and she left the room, leaving Ed by himself.

Ed then grabbed a piece of paper, and thought about whose name he would put in the goblet.

He tapped his fingers to the table for a good minute, and once he made up his mind, he wrote the name on the piece of paper.

After that, he stood up, and disappeared from the place, leaving no trace at all.

---

Ed now stood in front of the goblet, the blue fire was continuously burning on top of it, and Ed could see the age line surrounding the goblet.

Ed looked at the age line, he looked at what's beyond it, and he blinked inside the barrier, so he didn't walk over the line.

He then put the paper inside the goblet. The paper burned from contact, and Ed quickly cast a powerful Confundus charm on the goblet, so the paper will have a guaranteed chance to be chosen.

After that, Ed blinked again, not leaving any trace at the scene.