Professor McGonagall was visibly weary as she knocked on the door at the top of the stairs. Dumbledore's voice bid her to enter the room and she walked into the Headmaster's office for what felt like the thousandth time since the start of the Triwizard Tournament last Halloween. All of the Hogwarts staff seemed to be feeling the pressure caused by Harry Potter's mysterious entry in the tournament but no one was showing their stress like McGonagall except for Dumbledore himself.
The Headmaster was seated at his desk, the bowl-like Pensieve sitting on the top. He peered down into it as he waved her over. Professors Snape, Moody, and Sprout were standing to one side of the office and Karkaroff and the huge Madame Maxime were seated on the other. Dumbledore stood up as McGonagall moved to stand beside his desk and looked into the dish steadily.
"We will now select people to be used as captives for each of the champions. The representatives from each school will retrieve the selected people and bring them here and I will put them to sleep so that they can undergo their journey into the lake with no ill effects," Dumbledore said, looking at each teacher in turn. The glowing surface of the liquid swirled and he smiled a little as a memory of Cedric and Cho Chang at the ball floated to the surface.
"Professor Sprout if you would be so kind as to retrieve Miss Chang shortly it would be appreciated." She nodded and Dumbledore returned his gaze to the bowl. An image of Fleur with her sister came up and Dumbledore looked up at Madame Maxime.
"If you could be kind enough to collect Miss Delacour's younger sister when we conclude, Madame." The giant woman nodded as well and Dumbledore again turned to look into the Pensieve.
An image of Harry Potter seated in class rose to the surface and the Headmaster watched the boy lean over and whisper into the ear of his seatmate, Hermione Granger. The girl in the memory leaned over and smiled as she pointed at something on Harry's paper and laughed.
Dumbledore looked up at Professor McGonagall and smiled. "It looks like we'll need Miss Granger as well Minerva."
The Gryffindor Head nodded with a small smile and replied, "I should have known Albus. The two are hardly separated."
Looking again into the bowl, Dumbledore frowned as an image of Krum watching Hermione with Harry and Ron at the library floated up from the depths of the liquid. "Is there no one else?" he murmured, stirring the shimmering surface. Again the same image of Krum in the library floated up. Dumbledore cleared his throat as he looked up again.
"It seems like we've got a problem. Miss Granger is supposedly the thing Krum will miss the most as well as who Harry will miss the most. Both champions cannot go into the lake to retrieve the same person. We'll need a new captive for one of them."
"Potter is rarely separated from the youngest Weasley boy," Snape suggested, looking disgustedly at the images in the basin. Professor McGonagall nodded in agreement and sighed.
Dumbledore studied the contents of the Pensieve for a moment longer before speaking. "I suppose we'll need to collect Mr. Weasley as well."
The assembled professors dispersed, seeking the people their champions would miss the most. Among them was a girl who had no idea that she was the person her best friend would miss more than anyone else.