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The Choosing of the Champions

The school was abuzz with rumours about the raid at Gringotts; some claimed they had heard it was a new security device that had blown up, others that it was the start of a new goblin war. Walking down a corridor on the way to Transfiguration one day they overheard Luna Lovegood telling someone that it had been a Crumple-Horned Snorkack that got loose in Diagon Alley - a notion which Hermione immediately felt the need to disabuse her of. But by the end of the week they had something new to talk about and as ever at Hogwarts, the news about Gringotts was pushed to one side if not forgotten.

The minute the notice went up announcing that the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were to arrive shortly, a sort of fever seemed to take over the school.

"Is there a wizarding school in every country?" Alice heard Harry whispering to Ron in History of Magic. "I mean there would need to be wouldn't there? For the amount of wizards there must be everywhere."

"No idea mate," with his tongue poking between his teeth Ron was concentrating on drawing a detailed, if rather inaccurate, fortress on the edge of his notes as Professor Kreevain explained to them all about a tenth century siege and how Harald the Hapless had been inadvertently instrumental in breaking it. With ten minutes to go before the lesson ended, Harry stuck his hand up in the air.

"Professor?"

Kreevain glanced up and her hair, today caught up behind her head in a wide silver clasp, bobbed about and several curls flew loose as she moved. "Yes, Harry?"

"I was just wondering Professor, about other wizard schools; I mean there's Beauxbatons and Durmstrang obviously, but how many other ones are there? What are they like?"

At his question every single head in the room lifted to stare curiously at the teacher; as good a teacher as she was - and certainly an improvement on Binns - this was a much more interesting and immediate topic for them than thousand year old sieges. With a slight smile she stood up and leaned against her desk, jade robes swirling around her feet as she moved. "A good question, Harry. Obviously there are other schools, most countries do have there own one. The United States has two I believe: The Salem Witches Institute and the National Academy of Wizardry, which is I believe in Louisiana. Most schools however are like Hogwarts and so are shrouded in secrecy so there can never be any definite number put on them, similarly for many the location remains unknown."

"Is Hogwarts hidden then, Professor?" Seamus belatedly raised his hand and then changed his mind when he realised she was already looking at him, covering the movement by pretending to scratch the back of his head. As Professor Kreevain began describing the different ways Hogwarts was hidden from both magical and Muggle eyes, information which Alice already knew, she glanced out of the window at the pouring rain outside. They weren't exactly going to be able to show the school off to its best advantage when the visitors arrived if it was weather like this. Then again they were coming to Scotland at the end of October; they couldn't really expect the weather to get much better than this.

"How will they choose the champions?"

The Professor smiled enigmatically at them. "You'll just have to wait and see Miss Perks."

From the corner of her eye Alice could see Hermione feverishly taking notes on everything their teacher was saying, her quill flying across the parchment so quickly that tiny bits of feather were being dislodged and clinging to her hair. "Hermione," she hissed. So engrossed was her friend that she had to repeat herself.

"Hmm?"

Alice raised an amused eyebrow. "You know we aren't going to get tested on this, right?"

"I know, but I don't know all of this, and it's important. I really do need to get down to the library and read up on other wizarding societies. I mean for a start there's that book on…"

Shaking her head in bemusement Alice decided it was wiser and probably safer to leave her to it. After all once Hermione got something into her head, there was no deterring her from it.

"Where do you suppose you're going to stay?" Ron asked later as they all filed down to the Great Hall for lunch. "I mean they need to sleep somewhere obviously. Will it be in Hogwarts or do you think there will be somewhere in Hogsmeade?"

"I don't know; not in the dormitories I wouldn't think," Hermione answered with her usual knowledge about all things Hogwarts. "But then there are plenty of other rooms in Hogwarts that they could use, I mean on the first floor alone there are at least fourteen classrooms that are never used…" She continued listing off different sleeping arrangements for their guests as they took seats for dinner.

As she slowly chewed her roast beef sandwich Alice considered the schools. She had obviously known that there were wizards and witches all over the world, she had read enough about them, had even seen hundreds of them at the World Cup, but she hadn't really thought about them as real, proper people before. They were all just a vague and relatively unknown concept like human-transfiguration or the reason for Malfoy's continued existence. It would be interesting to properly meet some and have them stay at Hogwarts.

For the next few days the teachers seemed determined to drum as much good behaviour and knowledge into them all as was humanly possible. None of them said it, but it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that they wanted to impress their visitors. McGonagall even insisted on inspecting the uniforms of every Gryffindor she passed on her way out to greet them when they arrived before dinner on Friday.

"I heard Cedric Diggory is going to enter," Lavender informed them with relish as they all began to drift outside to the designated assembly point. In the distance Alice could see a clump of students being directed into their houses by Professors McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick, who was standing on a small podium to elevate himself to the level of the crowd. Snape was standing, silent, aloof and imposing as ever, not needing to utter a word for his students to quietly line up before him. "You know the sixth year, the really handsome one."

"Pffft," Ron scoffed, much to Lavender's evident disgust. "Why would anyone choose that idiot as our Champion?"

"You just think he's an idiot because he beat Gryffindor at Quidditch last year." Hermione informed him.

"He didn't beat us!" The red head seemed outraged at the mere suggestion. "Harry fell off his broom. If he had any sportsmanship he wouldn't have caught the snitch. Besides, you're just saying that because you think he's good looking too."

"I most certainly do not!" Hermione turned red and shoved her arm rather forcefully through Harry's, nearly knocking him off his feet in the process as though to prove her point. Harry who hadn't been paying attention looked round in startled confusion. "Just ignore him Harry," she informed her boyfriend as he looked to her for an answer. Alice had to contain a giggle at the look of bewilderment on her brother's face as he looked from him best-friend to his girlfriend and back again then shrugged his shoulders and did as he was told.

Despite her friend's apparent disinterest in the subject, Alice had to admit even if only to herself, that she was quite interested in Lavender's gossip for once. She hadn't spoken to Cedric since the night of the World Cup, but she had see him plenty of times since and he would always smile and nod or say hello whenever they passed in the corridor. Each time had sent a little flutter of inexplicable nerves through her and although she always returned the smile, albeit shyly and with a very red face, she had never worked up the courage to say hello back. She had a sneaking suspicion that her voice would emerge several octaves too high for human comprehension.

As they shuffled into place behind the third years Ginny smiled at them and Alice noticed Colin Creevey wave eagerly at Harry before calling to a miniature version of himself standing in the front row and pointing Harry out. The youngster was so similar that he had to be Colin's brother. A sudden image of the pin badges they had been sent flashed through her mind and she had to look away with a smile. As she looked round she caught sight of Cedric standing at the back of a group of Hufflepuffs - well if she was really honest with herself she stood on tiptoe to catch a glimpse of him. He was laughing at something and completely oblivious so she took the opportunity to capture a mental image of his face.

"Who are you looking for?" Ron asked, craning his head up beside her and staring at the students.

"No one," she dropped back down again as much to hide her blush as anything else. "I was just seeing if Susan and Morag and the others were here," she lied quickly.

"Why?"

Alice shrugged and immediately changed the subject, asking how they thought the foreign students would be arriving. Her question was almost immediately answered as several students let out cries of amazement and pointed towards the sky. Looking up Alice saw a speck in the distance hurtling towards the castle at an alarming rate. As it sped towards them the shape solidified to reveal an enormous coach, which would have blended perfectly into the sky had it not been a grey and overcast day, pulled by four enormous winged horses. Nearing the grounds the carriage slowed enough that it could land safely, but that didn't mean it didn't shake the ground beneath them on impact.

"Wow," Ron whistled as he steadied himself next to her, "what a way to make an entrance."

"Aren't those horses beautiful?" She could hear Lavender marvel. Alice rolled her eyes; she had never been very interested in horses, even when the other girls in the Home had papered their room with pictures of them… her train of thought was interrupted as a powder blue door opened and a slightly bewildered looking girl, dressed in robes of a similar shade and wearing three scarves stepped daintily out onto the damp grass. Close behind her were the rest of her fellow students who Alice would have counted had she the time, but, like everyone round about her, she was preoccupied with gawping at the impossibly tall woman that followed them.

Tall and imposing, the woman reached heights that even Hagrid would envy. Her black, satin robes billowed around her in a slight breeze, reminding Alice of some giant Grecian sculpture she had once seen at the British Museum. Large, dark eyes scrutinised the assembled masses from beneath regal and severe looking brows, before alighting on Dumbledore and crinkling into a smile.

"Ah, Dumbly-dore," the woman purred crossing the space between them in several long strides and offering her hand to him. Alice noticed with amusement that the top of the Headmaster's hat barely reached her chin. "It is good to see you again, non? And `Ogwarts, c'est magnifique, as always!"

"Welcome Madame Maxime," Dumbledore lowered the volume of his voice and spoke a few more words to the Beauxbatons Headmistress which Alice couldn't hear, but a moment or two later the new arrivals began trouping up to the castle and Hagrid took charge of the enormous horses tethered to the carriage.

"How big do you suppose the Durmstrang carriage is going to be?" Neville hissed curiously.

"Dunno," Harry shrugged, glancing at Hermione to see if she had the answer.

"They might not come by carriage, I've heard rumours that the school is in the mountains up north somewhere so it wouldn't exactly be the best terrain for them would it?"

"Yeah, but Hermione," Ron began to explain patiently, "it would be a flying carriage, so it wouldn't matter would -"

His next words were drowned out by the sound of someone sucking through an enormous straw. At least that was what it sounded like to Alice. She was just about to ask where it was coming from when someone gave a shout and she could see one of the Slytherin first years pointing excitedly towards the lake. The centre seemed to have transformed into a swirling, bubbling froth as though it were slowly being boiled and stirred at the same time. Before she could make sense of this fully what transpired to be a mast popped out of the water, swiftly followed by the rest of a ship.

Alice was aware her mouth was hanging open as the waters stilled and a magnificent ship began to glide slowly towards the shore. It was only once several students wearing furs had swung a plank down to the shore and helped the rest of their peers disembark that she had enough presence of mind to close her mouth.

"Now that," she whispered to Neville and Ginny, "is impressive."

Once Dumbledore had welcomed the Durmstrang Headmaster, a wiry, humourless looking man wearing silver furs to match his hair and, in Alice's view, frankly ridiculous looking goatee, he began to lead them all back towards the castle. It was at this point that she realised that one of his fur-clad students looked very familiar. And she wasn't the only one. All at once nearly every student who even had a passing interest in Quidditch, which was almost everyone other than Hermione, was straining on tiptoe to get a good view of the new arrival.

"Is it really him?"

"I hadn't realised he was still at school, never mind that he went to Durmstrang!"

"Do you think he'll sign my Bulgaria scarf?"

"Is that Victor? Victor Krum?"

The less that subtle whispers raced around the students and Alice marvelled that the object of their attention seemed completely unfazed by it all, because there was no way he couldn't hear them. Either his English really wasn't very good, or he was so used to the attention that he was well practiced at ignoring it. As he walked past them all with his own Headmaster and Dumbledore in tow, the ranks of Hogwarts students fell silent. The minute he had passed by McGonagall informed them all they could return to the Great Hall. Almost immediately there was a rush as people tried to press their way up to the castle as quickly as possible. It took several sharp reprimands form their Heads of Houses to get the students under control and even then Professor Sprout had to threaten several sixth year girls with detention before they stopped running.

At the back of the group Alice glanced in bewilderment at her friends. Honestly, she loved Quidditch, but not enough to go chasing some celebrity player up to the castle. They made their way much more sedately up to dinner and entered the Great Hall as most of the rest were taking their seats. Alice noted, with some pride that the place had been decked out in sumptuous banners, each displaying a different set of House colours and one up at the teachers table that displayed the Hogwarts crest. If it was possible there were more candles floating above the tables than usual so that when she looked up at the rapidly blackening enchanted ceiling it was as though millions of bright stars were descending towards them.

Sitting up at the staff table she could see that in addition to the Headmaster from Durmstrang and Madame Maxime there another two new faces: Ludo Bagman, the man who had been commentating at the World Cup and another rather severe looking man, with a thin moustache and an expression of constant aggravation, who Ron identified as his brother Percy's boss. She assumed they were both there as Ministry representatives.

"Look at them," Parvati whispered to her.

For a moment she was completely confused. "Who? The men from the Ministry?"

"No, silly, the girls from Beauxbatons. Aren't they all so beautiful?"

Alice looked in the direction of the French students perched on the end of the Ravenclaw table. The girls were difficult to miss, Parvati wasn't wrong there. Each one seemed more radiant and coiffed than the next. Good looks seemed to be a prerequisite for entry to the school. There was one however that stood out from the crowd; her long blonde hair literally shone in the candlelight as it rippled down her back. When the girl turned around Alice could see she had the most exquisite face and judging by her expression she knew it too. She was drawing more than a few admiring glances from Hogwarts boys sitting nearby.

"Is she a Veela, do you think?" Sally-Anne Perks leaned around Alice for a better look.

Alice shrugged as the two girls began speculating excitedly, she was too busy watching the girls in their blue satin uniforms, the way their hands fluttered around their hair, the grown up way a few of them had it twisted elegantly to the side of their head, their general poise… Her thoughts were interrupted as dinner suddenly appeared on the table and everyone began tucking in.

"Mmmm," Ron licked his lips delightedly some time later as the main courses vanished to be replaced by just about ever dessert Alice could ever think of, "Hogwarts has really outdone itself tonight."

"I don't know how you even have space for more food," she informed him, cutting a slice of fancy-looking apple pie and loading her plate with steaming hot custard. "How many helpings of shepherd's pie did you just have? Five?"

Ron just threw her a look in response and grabbed the nearest dish.

"I don't even know what half of these are. Are they French?" Harry muttered throwing curious glances around the table.

"Well," Hermione immediately seized on the opportunity to impart knowledge to her boyfriend and began explaining about the provenance and ingredients of each dish. Harry soon looked as though he wished he hadn't asked.

Once they had all eaten their fill, and Ron had eaten enough to fill several people, Dumbledore finally stood up to speak. An expectant hush fell over the Hall as the students eagerly awaited his words, glancing down the table she could see that Fred and George were almost bouncing in their seats with excitement. As the Headmaster began explaining about the Tournament and how it worked she cast her eyes around the Hall; most people were looking at him with the same rapt attention they always did, but there were a few wandering gazes like her own. Some, mainly the boys, focused on the Veela girl from Beauxbaton and her friends, others on the Durmstrang students and Victor Krum who was swarthy and glowering as ever in their midst. Krum, she noticed, wasn't paying attention to the speeches either; he was looking over at the Gryffindor table, at Hermione in point of fact. When he saw Alice had spotted him his frown deepened - if that were even possible - so that she could barely see his dark eyes, before he looked away again. Odd.

"Let me introduce," Dumbledore was saying as she dragged her attention back to him, "for those who do not know them, Mr Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation," there was a less than enthusiastic round of applause, "and Mr Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports." Alhtough Bagman seemed to be greeted more rapturously by most of the Hall, Alice had to smile when she noticed that several of the teachers, McGonagall in particular didn't look overly impressed. She suspected Bagman may not have been a model student.

As he continued speaking Dumbledore had Filch, the irascible caretaker carry a rather heavy looking chest encrusted with jewels up to the staff table. Alice had to wonder how he managed to even lift the thing; it would probably have weighed a tonne even without all the added decoration. It was from this that, once he had explained how the Champions would be selected, Dumbledore drew forth a wooden goblet spilling over with flickering flames that appeared to be white hot: The Goblet of Fire.

The flames were mesmeric in the way they danced and shifted inside the goblet, at times there seemed to be a hint of the bluebell flames Hermione often produced before the colour would vanish to be replaced by a golden shade that was swallowed almost as quickly by the silvery white light. It was almost as though they were alive. She was so absorbed in gazing at the fire that it came as something of a shock when Professor Dumbledore dismissed them.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the day's excitement Alice found it all too easy to drop straight off to sleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. The following morning though she made sure to get up early, gathered her clothes and crept quietly past the sleeping girls to the bathroom. Once there she hurriedly washed and dressed before fishing out the box of hair pins she had left there before going to bed. Spilling the contents out across the gleaming marble shelf below the mirror she brushed through her wavy hair, allowing the red curls to settle out in a fan about her shoulders as she did so. Scooping it up experimentally several times she examined her reflection critically before pursing her lips thoughtfully and setting to work. Once she was satisfied she gave her new bun a little experimental pat to ensure it would stay up then scuttled off to the Library until breakfast time.

"You look different," Harry frowned as she sat down at breakfast and helped herself to some porridge. Without answering Alice just smiled mysteriously at him and kept on ladling the gloop into her bowl. Catching Hermione's eye as her friend opened her mouth she gave a little shake of her head. Let the boys work it out for themselves. Hermione rolled her eyes with a smile and left her to it.

"Does she?" Ron asked, barely glancing up from his bacon.

"Yeah…" All three boys stared at her, brows wrinkled in confusion, for a minute before Neville's expression finally cleared.

"You've done your hair differently, it's… up… or something," he gestured at the back of his own head to demonstrate. "It makes you look older."

"Yeah," much as she had hoped they would notice, Alice still blushed at the attention her hair was getting.

"Well I think it looks nice," Hermione declared, unable to keep out of the conversation any longer. Alice smiled gratefully at her as they all settled down to breakfast. All along the table students were discussing the Goblet of Fire and who would put their name in.

"Morning all." The twins landed in seats next to Ron. "Morning midget, what happened to the pigtails?" Fred asked scooping toast into his mouth, staring at her curiously over the slice as he did so.

"Why did you get rid of them? We won't be able to pull them anymore!"

"Maybe that's why?" Alice stuck her tongue out at them, pulling a face as they sneered sarcastically at her remark.

"Well, we're older and wiser now, so maybe we wouldn't have anyway." George gave them all a significant look as he said this.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked unable to resist taking the bait.

"Just took an ageing potion didn't we? So that we can enter the Tournament." His comment produced a flurry of curious and congratulatory comments from up and down the table as Hermione huffed impatiently at their ridiculousness.

"I'm sure a wizard as wise and powerful as Dumbledore will have thought of an ageing potion and set up precautions against idiots like you two. I mean they're not exactly difficult to make are they?"

"But that's the beauty of it Hermione. Never underestimate the power of simplicity. And besides, we can't let pretty-boy Diggory be the only one from Hogwarts to enter, can we?" Fred added.

"Has he put his name in already?" Alice asked; she couldn't help herself.

"Haven't seen him do it yet," he responded with a scowl, "but I've heard people say that he's going to."

"I heard Parvati say that Angelina's going to enter, she just turned seventeen so she doesn't need to cheat," Hermione informed him sniffily.

"Well since I'm not entering," Harry rejoined the conversation rather loudly and pointedly in order to avert an argument, "Hagrid asked us to go down and help him with something today." He waved a note that had just arrived with the owl post.

"Help him with what?" Ron asked.

Harry shrugged. "I've no idea, some new creature he's gotten his hands on and wants us to study in class. Blast-Ended-somethings… He mentioned them the other day. Ring any bells?" He asked the girls.

"Nope," Alice shook her head as Hermione shrugged, clearly still put out about Fred and George's behaviour. "But why not, it sounds like it could be… fun."

As it turned out, their day helping Hagrid transpired to be many things - fun wasn't necessarily one of them. The `somethings' he had acquired were called Blast-Ended Skrewts and were the most repulsive, troublesome and potentially lethal things Hagrid had probably produced for a class yet. They reminded Alice rather forcefully of a half-eaten lobster she had seen in a restaurant once; the experience had put her off shellfish for life. The only difference was that the lobster hadn't been spitting fire at random intervals, nor had it tried to sting or sucker her to death, something which the Skrewts did frequently without compunction.

By the time they returned to the castle for lunch Alice's hands were covered in small burns, the bottom of Ron's robes were smoking gently and Harry was nursing a sting on his hand that was beginning to go a rather alarming shade of purple. All of them looked fairly dishevelled.

"Honestly," she was saying over her shoulder to Neville as they walked past the entrance to the Great Hall, "one of these days Hagrid is going to - ouch!" Her arms flailed wildly for a second as she banged into something solid and tried vainly to prevent herself from falling.

"Are you alright?" It was a good job that Alice was sitting on the floor already as she recognised the voice, it was just a pity she couldn't have it open up and swallow her at the same time. It was Cedric.

As he repeated his question and held out a hand to help her to her feet, the only thing she was conscious of was the fact that her hair was a flyaway mess, her robes were filthy from chasing Skrewts around in the mud and she probably had charred smudges across her face. Adding to what was undoubtedly an unattractive picture she flushed an appealing shade of beetroot and allowed him to pull her up. She could see a few of Cedric's friends smirking behind him.

"Yes," she cleared her throat and looked down at her shoes, "sorry… I eh - I didn't see you there… sorry."

"It's all right," Cedric chuckled. "There's nothing broken." He addressed Harry behind her. "How are you Potter? Missing Quidditch yet with all this Tournament stuff going on?"

Harry grinned. "Like you wouldn't believe."

"Well, you're welcome to join a few of us. We were going to go flying in a few days and take a muggle ball up with us, just to keep in practice."

"Yeah I might do that, thanks."

Alice found herself the uncomfortable object of his level, grey gaze. "You play too don't you Alice? I remember seeing you fly a few years ago, you were quite good if I remember; you're welcome to come as well."

It was all she could do to mumble an embarrassed thanks. He had thought she was quite good! She was in too much of a daze to really register what else he said to Harry, but after a few moments he and his friends went to move towards the Great Hall. It was as he was passing her that she noticed the slip of paper clutched in his hand.

"Cedric." Her squeak caused him to stop and turn back curiously towards her. For a few seconds she floundered, not quite sure what to say, shouting at herself mentally to spit out something, anything. "Good luck," she managed eventually, her voice sounding peculiar and detached even to her own ears, "with the Tournament…"

"Thanks," he grinned after a moment once it became obvious she wasn't going to say anything else. As he turned away she was left wondering whether he had been laughing at her or was just being nice. Why was she so socially awkward?!

Fortunately the boys didn't seem to notice her embarrassment and wandered off in the direction of the stairs talking about cleaning themselves up. Hermione, to her credit, just stood and looked at her for a moment, a knowing smile in her eyes, before taking her arm and leading her after them.

"Hermione…" she began.

"I'm not saying a word," was her friend's amused response.

Not only was dinner that night to be the moment when the champions were selected, but it was also the Halloween Feast. She had to admit that Hogwarts had really gone above and beyond their usual standards with the décor this year, though it didn't look as though the Beauxbatons girls really appreciated the live bats. Alice's attention was distracted as she sat down at the table however. The minute she caught sight of Fred and George she immediately burst out laughing; it was impossible not to.

"I take it the Ageing Potion didn't work then?" She waved her hand with amusement towards the clipped white beards both boys were now sporting with misplaced pride as she doubled over clutching her sides.

"You should have seen them earlier," Fred rubbed his chin ruefully.

"Yeah, they came all the way down to our feet."

"Couldn't Madam Pomfrey do anything about them?" asked Ron grinning at his brothers' predicament.

"She tried having us shave them off -"

"- but they just grew back again. Apparently by tomorrow we should be back to normal, but the best she could do was to tell us to cut them short."

"Still, I always wanted to know what it would be like to have a beard. Now I know without having gone through the effort and commitment of growing one."

Alice thought she heard Hermione cough the word "Typical" at this, but she didn't want them to start another argument, so she didn't ask her to repeat it.

Like almost everyone else she wolfed down her food once it arrived to speed on the arrival of the champions' selection and by the time Dumbledore stood up the Hall was bristling with anticipation. Once he had given a rather foreboding speech about the dangers the Champions would face Dumbledore got down to business in earnest.

"Now let me be clear," he said, casting his normally twinkling blue gaze over the upturned faces before him. "If chosen, you stand alone."

Alice glance at Neville and Harry sitting next to her and raised her eyebrows. Talk about being gloomy! As she looked back up towards Dumbledore her eye was caught by Karkaroff, the Dumrstrang Headmaster, at the staff table. He seemed to be paying almost no attention to Dumbledore at all and instead was peering, or rather scowling, down the table towards where Mad-Eye Moody sat. She couldn't really tell if Moody was returning the look because although his normal eye was trained on Professor Dumbledore his magical one appeared to be completely white and he was looking at something else entirely. What was going on between those two?

"And so now to business," Dumbledore was saying, and with a start she realised that Mr Crouch had joined him by the Goblet of Fire, the flames inside of which had now turned a red worthy of Gryffindor. As she watched a long tongue of flame suddenly erupted into the air, spewing out a slip of parchment which Crouch snatched as it floated towards the ground.

For a moment no one in the Hall breathed as they waited for him to speak. There was a rustle of robes to Alice's left and she could see Dennis Creevey had climbed onto his seat to get a better view.

Crouch cleared his throat. "The champion for Durmstrang is… Victor Krum." The Hall erupted into an exuberant round of applause as Krum slowly rose from the Slytherin table and began walking up to the staff table; Ron was grinning from ear to ear and informing everyone that he had known this would be the case.

"There's no other choice really, is there?"

They were all swiftly silenced however as the flames threw out another name almost immediately. "And for Beauxbatons," Mr Crouch informed them as the powder-blue students all clutched each others' hands nervously, "Fleur Delacour."

As she joined in with the enthusiastic clapping Alice craned to catch a glimpse of the girl that was now walking the length of the Hall. It was the girl that Sally-Anne had thought might be a Veela. In the light of the thousands of flickering candles above them she could see her curtain of silvery hair almost glowing as she swished her way up to the Headmaster. He pointed her in the direction of a door behind the staff table, but before she moved towards it Fleur Delacour spun daintily on the spot and blew a kiss to all of the other students.

Alice thought Ron might be in danger of fainting, and he wouldn't have been the only one; half of the boys in the room seemed to be almost climbing out of their seats to get a glimpse of the girl.

Once she had vanished through the door, some sense of order was restored, but for the Hogwarts students the most tense moment of the evening had arrived. The selection of the Hogwarts Champion. Glancing across to the Hufflepuff table she could see Cedric being slapped on the back and wished luck by a few of his friends. As the flames turned red for a final time, Alice crossed her fingers under the table.

"And the Champion for Hogwarts is…" She wondered fleetingly if Crouch was deliberately drawing out his pause this time. "Cedric Diggory!"

Anyone would have been mistaken for thinking a small bomb had gone off at the Hufflepuff table. Nothing this exciting ever happened to their house and now they had the Hogwarts Champion in their midst! With the exception of Slytherin, who were never expected to be pleased for anyone else, the rest of the Hall joined in. It took a while for a jubilant and slightly shell-shocked looking Cedric to extricate himself from his friends, who seemed determined to carry him on a victory lap around the Hall, and follow the other students through the door.

"Yes, yes," Dumbledore applauded politely with the rest of them, only managing to get a word in edge ways once the ruckus had died down. "They are all to be congratulated, and I hope that whilst you will all give the utmost support to the Champion from your school, you will also be equally charitable and encouraging of the other champions too." He waved them all back into their seats as the Hufflepuff sixth years were all practically dancing on the table.

"Now, I can imagine that some of you will wish to go back to your common rooms to celebrate, some of you may even wish to sleep, so I shall not detain you any longer except to wish you all an exciting Triwizard Tournament."

"Never mind, Angelina," Hermione consoled the Gryffindor girl as they all climbed the stairs.

"Oh I don't mind really, it would have been nice to win, but at least this way I can relax and watch the Tournament with everyone else." Angelina smiled with a relaxation and easy confidence which Alice envied as she skipped up the stairs to join her friends who were all admiring the Weasley twins' beards.

"I suppose I can live with Diggory being the champion," muttered Ron.

"Oh Ron," Hermione admonished, "he practically saved us at the World Cup; you really do need to let the Quidditch thing go." She rolled her eyes and continued talking to Neville and Ginny as they approached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Easy for her to say," Ron crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her back as they retreated. "Sorry Harry," he added contritely as an after thought.

"Don't worry about it," he laughed, "you two wouldn't be yourselves if you didn't fight all the time."

"But… You still think she's right, don't you?"

"I couldn't possibly comment." Harry answered with a grin. "What I will say is I'm glad it's Cedric in the Tournament and not me. I wouldn't enter that thing if you paid me." Alice smirked as the three of them followed the others into the common room, speculating as to what the First Task would involve.

A/N: Had to mention Alice's hair, the poor girl couldn't go through her entire school career with the same hairstyle even if Fred and George did love to pull her plaits. I am also aware that in the books Dumbledore tells them about the Age Line after the foreign students arrive… call it creative license on my part…

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