The Three Champions

Hands in her pockets, Oleandra nonchalantly walked through the Great Hall's double doors, acting as if she hadn't done anything wrong. She would have loved to stay and watch people drop their parchments in the Goblet of Fire some more, but not if Professor Dumbledore was going to hang around. Tracey rapidly trotted after Oleandra, not wanting to be left behind.

"I wonder where Theo got a baguette?" Oleandra wondered out loud as she spread some raspberry jam on a piece of toast. "I looked everywhere, but I haven't seen one in any of the bread baskets."

"From the kitchen, most probably," answered Daphne as she sat down in her usual seat, having just arrived from the common room. "The House-Elves probably bake them for the Beauxbatons visitors; I just saw them leave after submitting their names to the Goblet of Fire, so I'd wager they're going to eat breakfast in that big carriage of theirs."

"Makes sense," said Oleandra, before saying after a moment, "hang on, where are the kitchens, exactly?"

"No idea," came Daphne's reply, and Tracey simply shrugged her shoulders.

"Have you heard about Warrington?" said Daphne after taking a sip of pumpkin juice.

"Who, Cassius Warrington?" said Oleandra. "From our Quidditch team? What about him?"

"He put his name in the Goblet earlier this morning, apparently," said Daphne. "I heard it from Millicent; she likes to get up early to play with her cat, and she says she saw him sneak out."

"That big bloke?" said Oleandra. "I didn't know he could actually do magic."

Tracey giggled.

"He certainly looks old enough to participate," said Daphne, "but I daresay he won't make it as Hogwarts champion."

"Of course not," said Oleandra. "It's either going to be you, or me."

"Or Cedric," chimed in Tracey. "The Hufflepuffs are all excited about him; see?"

Oleandra looked up from her plate; all of the Hufflepuffs were all milling about around Cedric Diggory's seat with excited expressions on their faces. Well; all Hufflepuffs but one: Hannah.

She was standing with her friends behind Diggory, but it looked as though there was something on her mind, Oleandra noted. Perhaps she was concerned about failing Transfiguration; she was somehow even worse than Neville Longbottom. Which was strange, as Oleandra was certain she hadn't been this bad last year.

Hannah soon noticed she was being stared at, so Oleandra rapidly looked away and pretended she was studying the ceiling.

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Oleandra and company had no activities planned for the rest of the day, since it was both a weekend day and it was Hallowe'en. With nothing to do, they headed back to the Entrance Hall and chatted about this and that while watching people throw their names into the Goblet, until Filch and Professor McGonagall arrived to take it away a few hours later. Shortly afterwards, the Hallowe'en feast began.

Theodore hadn't ended up sticking around; with the Age Line restored, he must have judged it a waste of his time to stay if he couldn't inspect the Goblet of Fire. It was a shame, as Oleandra would have liked to ask him how to find Hogwarts's kitchens.

Not that she was particularly hungry; if anything, Oleandra was beginning to get a little sick of feasts. Two days in a row of feasting was perhaps a little too much. Looking at all the sumptuous meats and sauces at the table, she was even beginning to feel slightly queasy.

Normally, by the end of a school feast, most people would have been looking wistfully at the food-laden plates, regretting that they were too full to cram down even a bite more of the delicious food down their gullets. But from what she could tell, Oleandra wasn't the only one who didn't have much of an appetite that night at the feast; most people couldn't wait for the feast to end, so that they could at last see who would be selected as champion.

When Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet and clapped, clearing the food from the golden plates, Oleandra almost cheered. (It would have been fairly awkward if had she done so, as a pregnant silence had fallen over the Great Hall the instant Dumbledore stood up.)

"Well, the Goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Professor Dumbledore, as he looked at flaming wooden cup in front of him.

On what basis he was able to guess it was nearly done, Oleandra had no idea. But then again, she also had no idea how such an instrument was supposed to guess a student's potential as a champion, based on a piece of ordinary parchment bearing only their name and their school.

Their name… the magic of names, perhaps?

"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," continued Professor Dumbledore, pointing to a door behind the teachers' table, "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

Oleandra suddenly became very nervous; after all that waiting, this was going all too fast. What if she wasn't selected? Oleandra quickly began to make a mental list of her feats and strengths: master of runic magic, pretty talented at Transfiguration, she could fly… what else…? Killed a giant three-headed dog, helped kill a Basilisk, duelled Aurors… Surely no other student could do this, right?

The Great Hall was plunged into semi-darkness, as Professor Dumbledore waved his wand, extinguishing the candles inside the jack-o'-lanterns, who served as both Hallowe'en decorations and light sources. Meanwhile, the Goblet of Fire's blue flames were growing brighter and brighter, until…

The Goblet of Fire's flames changed from white-blue to red, and it expelled a blackened piece of parchment from within itself, which Professor Dumbledore caught easily.

"The champion for Durmstrang," he read out loud, "will be Viktor Krum."

Applause rang out from everywhere in the hall, as the Quidditch superstar rose from his seat not far away from Oleandra and walked around the teachers' table and into the room behind them. Moments later, the Goblet's flames, which had returned to their usual colour, turned red again.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!"

Oleandra heard an audible gasp from next to her; Tracey gazed in wonder at the graceful French girl as she bounced to her feet and lightly ran into the room behind Professor Dumbledore.

Now, only the Hogwarts remained to be chosen. Oleandra and Daphne held their breaths as they stared into the Goblet of Fire's hypnotic flames, until at last, the flames turned red, one final time. A tongue of flame shot out of the Goblet and delivered the last piece of parchment into Professor Dumbledore's waiting hand.

Professor Dumbledore frowned as he read from it.

"The Hogwarts champion," he called, "is Oleandra… Greengrass."

Oleandra blinked. She had made it; she had actually made it!

"Get up!" hissed Daphne.

Oleandra hurriedly got up to her feet and started walking unsteadily towards the backrooms, fully aware that every single student in the hall was looking at her. Was she walking weirdly? Of all the times to forget how to walk…

"SLYTHERIN!" Draco began shouting. "SLYTHERIN, SLYTHERIN, SLYTHERIN!"

The other Slytherins finally got over their shock, and began chanting alongside him. The Hufflepuffs were either looking at each other in shocked silence, or staring holes into her head. The Ravenclaws were clapping politely, while most of the Gryffindors were frowning at her.

Grateful for Draco's timely intervention, Oleandra kept on moving; she ignored the teachers' troubled faces and walked past them with her head held high.