𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀, harry potter

twenty two

22 || the goblet's decision

THE NEXT day was too chaotic for Adelaide's liking, her and Laurent had parted after their walk the night before only for her to be met with a party of sorts from her house. And the day after there was too much talk about the tournament.

And so, Adelaide found calm in the astronomy tower, overlooking the views of Hogwarts. It was peaceful up there, no loud noises of the Weasley twins pranks or the squeaky girls trying to get their crush to notice them or the annoying voice of Snape who seemed to find ways to blame Adelaide for literally nothing, like seriously, if the whole school blew up the man would probably blame that on her.

She thought about life in general really. Adelaide had never thought of her life as terrible. She had her mum, her uncle, Mary, her gran (well she's dead now but she did have her for a while) and now Remus. Not to mention her friends at school. The only real issue in her life was her father and the fact that he murdered twelve muggles and worked for Voldemort. But every so often Adelaide found herself doubting that.

If Sirius Black had a child, why would he betray them? He was practically brothers with James Potter and the godfather to Harry, it seemed so sudden that it seemed set up. Why would he kill Pettigrew when they were best friends in school? How could he try to kill Marlene and Adelaide?

It didn't make sense. But Adelaide could never ask this out loud. The Sirius Black conversation was too sensitive for the family and if she asked the portrait of her gran she'd probably be met with nonsense because that thing seemed to make no sense anymore.

As the sun began to set, Adelaide made her way down to the Great Hall, she could see her spot empty and her friends sat chatting to each other, more specifically she could see Astoria sat with a guilty look on her face.

"Who's entered in Hogwarts?" She asked, surprising the lot of fourth years, "Jeez, calm down, I'm not a ghost or anything."

"Not sure, I know Warrington has though," Theo shrugged, reentering his conversation with Lucas.

Adelaide caught sight of Cassius Warrington nearer to the the far end of the table, sat with Adrian Pucey, slowly she made her way to them, "Good luck Cass, I know you'd do us proud if you were picked."

She knew Cassius from quidditch and he was as determined as Adelaide was when she was picking on Snape, "Thanks Adds," he smiled.

Adelaide slipped into her spot, "I swear, if this school gives us another feast I'm gonna pop."

"Literally same," Alex laughed and glanced over to Astoria then back to Adelaide then back to Astoria, "Okay, I'll address the elephant in the room, Tori what do you have to say to Nova?"

"I'm really, really sorry Adelaide. I know how much of a bitch I was, trust me. It's just, after everything with Draco I wanted to move on and I was just in a mood and felt like causing trouble. Believe me, I think you and Laurent make a really cute couple and I don't want to get in the way of that."

Adelaide looked at her suspiciously before breaking out into a smile, "Don't worry Tori, boy troubles is the least of my worries right now. Did you know my mum finally signed something to say she was properly divorced from my dad? Yeah, it's crazy."

Theo slid next to Adelaide and the four of them broke into conversation, just like how it used to be. Of course they have Lucas and Blaise, and maybe occasionally Draco, but everything felt simple with just the four of them.

As the feast finished, the plates returned to their original spotless state, noise died away instantly as Dumbledore stood, Karkaroff and Maxine either side of him. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr. Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. 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," he indicated the door behind the staff table, "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames al- most painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting. . . . A few people kept checking their watches. . . .

"Any second," Theo rumbled from beside Adelaide.

The blonde elbowed him in the stomach, "Shut up."

The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it — the whole room gasped.

Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.

"The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."

The hall burst into cheers and a few seats down Viktor stood triumphantly and made his way past Dumbledore and into the chambre.

"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. "Knew you had it in you!

The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

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

Despite feeling obviously scared for Fleur, Adelaide rose from her seats and cheered as loud as she could not caring of the frowning students from Beauxbatons.

When Fleur too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excite- ment you could almost taste it. The Hogwarts champion next . . .

And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment.

"The Hogwarts champion," he called, "is Cedric Diggory!"

The uproar from the Hufflepuff table was so great it could be heard for miles. Every single Hufflepuff had jumped to his or her feet, screaming and stamping, as Cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off toward the chamber behind the teachers' table. Indeed, the applause for Cedric went on so long that it was some time before Dumbledore could make himself heard again.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real —"

But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was appar- ent to everybody what had distracted him.

The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment.

Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumble- dore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out —

"Harry Potter."