stardust ⋮ george weasley

twenty-eight :

T W E N T Y - E I G H T

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Adeline felt as if she was about to vomit.

Normally, she loved the Halloween feast. Sure, it had been subject to a few disasters in the past from the troll who escaped into the dungeon to Sirius Black breaking into the castle. Those crazy events rarely interrupted the actual feast itself though, so it never really mattered to her. Her favorite part of Halloween night was always all the dishes in the Great Hall.

But with the Goblet of Fire looming in front of her, Adeline could barely even take a sip of her pumpkin juice without her stomach churning. So she was thankful for the distraction when Amelia called the attention of the small group of sixth years in the area.

"Alright kiddies," Amelia grinned, slamming her hand on the table. "Place your bets on the Hogwarts champion."

Estelle reached for her small coin purse and pulled two sickles out of it. "Two sickles on Ms. Adeline over here."

"That's really sweet," Adeline said with a soft smile before reaching into her small purse. "But I'm going with the safe choice. I'll put two sickles on Cedric."

Patrick agreed with Adeline and placed two sickles in the center of the table as well, proclaiming that it was almost guaranteed that it would be Cedric.

Beside her, however, Delilah rolled her eyes and scoffed at everyone's choices. "You guys are so stupid," She said to the group before slamming a couple of silver coins in the middle of the group. "Four sickles on Harry Potter. He's been a little too quiet this year, and as we've seen way too many times, if there's something dangerous happening, Harry's going to end up roped in it."

"There's no way his name could've gotten in there."

"Oh trust me, Estelle. If Harry Potter's involved, there's always a way."

When the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons champions were announced and it came time to choose the Hogwarts champion, Adeline was a pile of nerves as she sat, clutching onto Estelle's hand so tightly that both their knuckles turned white.

The flames turned a bright shade of red and a small piece of paper came flying out of it. Professor Dumbledore plucked the paper out of the air and read the name neatly scribbled upon it.

"The Hogwarts champion is...Adeline Reyes!"

The Ravenclaw table burst into loud screams of excitement over not only their beloved prefect being chosen, but also that the Ravenclaw house was finally going to be celebrated for once after years of being overshadowed by the Gryffindors and Slytherins. Adeline sat in an almost dazed shock for a few seconds before a cheering Estelle shoved her forward and out of her seat. She couldn't believe that she had been chosen for the Tournament, and the sounds of everyone cheering her name were something she had never heard before.

All around the Great Hall, the Hogwarts students were celebrating. While Adeline had always been quiet, her sweet and kind demeanor had made her loved by almost everyone she came across. There were a certain few students – largely at Slytherin – who were furious that a Muggleborn had been chosen as the "most worthy" wizard at Hogwarts, but those students were so few and far between that their protests were drowned out by everyone else in the room. Melanie and Ophelia were both on their feet, earning several confused looks from members of their house as they screamed Adeline's name and cheered her on. George was clapping loudly and grinning as he watched Adeline make her way from the Ravenclaw table to the front of the room.

In the midst of all the celebration, Adeline caught almost all of the Hogwarts teachers grinning at her, and Professor Flitwick seemed to be standing in his seat and had ditched nearly all of his normal decorum as he cheered on Adeline. Next to him, Professor McGonagall was beaming and couldn't help but remember the first time she had met Adeline, who was only eleven and hadn't even known that magic was real, and had now become a Triwizard Champion.