In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter CXXIV: The Champion for Hogwarts

HARRY:

The dream I had the second night Lucy was gone wasn't nearly as catastrophic as the first... in a sense. In another sense, it was even worse.

It was the night of the Goblet of Fire ceremony, exactly as I remembered it at first. Lucy kept stealing glances at the Hufflepuff table to see how her brother was doing. I didn't want to turn around and risk making Cedric uncomfortable, so I caught Lucy's eye one time and raised my eyebrows in a Well? sort of gesture.

She bit her lip and glanced over my shoulder before meeting my gaze again. "He's nervous, but I don't think he regrets putting his name in."

"That's fair." Fred shrugged. "I reckon I'd feel the same way if I had been able to enter my name, nervous but not regretting it."

"You? Nervous?" Lucy asked incredulously.

"I don't exactly make a habit of putting myself in potential mortal peril in front of the whole school," he quipped. When Lucy bit her lip again, he grinned. "Not that I think anything will happen to anyone, but this isn't exactly your typical school event. Prefect and Quidditch Captain are very different titles compared to Triwizard Champion for Hogwarts, but I'm sure he'd handle all three very well."

Lucy nodded her agreement, looking a bit reassured.

George tugged on one of her braids. "You do the same type of thing when you're nervous, you know."

"What?" Lucy turned to me. "Do I?"

I made a show of looking down at her relatively untouched food, then looking back up at her, then down again, then up again. "Nope. Not at all. You eat everything in sight and run your mouth when you're nervous."

She immediately turned bright red, a slight embarrassed smile flickering across her face.

"Mhm, that's what I thought," George teased.

Lucy reached forward for her cup, and I grinned. She had a habit of reaching for it whenever she was embarrassed or nervous, but I wasn't sure if it was to hide her face or to give her hands something to do or to settle her nerves or some combination of the three. She usually seemed nervous about one thing or another and she was easily embarrassed, though, so she reached for her cup quite often.

Before anyone could tease her further, Professor Dumbledore spoke.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision! 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, where they will be receiving their first instructions."

Lucy set her cup down and glanced over my shoulder for probably the twentieth time that night. She smiled and offered a thumbs up, but after a couple of seconds, her smile gave way to a nervous expression again and she locked her gaze on the Goblet of Fire. I searched for her foot under the table and pressed gently on her toes. She looked at me for half a second, a tiny bit of the tension draining from her shoulders, and managed the smallest I'm okay nod before looking back at the Goblet, which had just glowed red.

"The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum!"

Cheers and applause filled the Hall. I began to feel a bit nervous. I knew how this memory ended. It would be Viktor, then-

"The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour!"

Cheers and applause again filled the Hall. Then it would be Cedric, then me.

The Goblet glowed red again, ejecting a third scrap of parchment into the air.

"The champion for Hogwarts is Lucy Diggory!"