Matilda Matlock

Nerve-Racking

No.

There's absolutely no way, Matilda thought.

That's impossible.

"MATILDA MATLOCK?" Dumbledore repeated, his voice now roaring.

She suddenly felt the abrupt shove of Ginny from next to her as the redhead whispered sharply, "go, Matilda, just go on!"

The Hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop as Matilda rose slowly from her seat, every pair of eyes on her. Dumbledore was looking at her with a wide stare, watching as the girl stepped down from the bench and weaved her way through silent students who stared at her in disbelief, all confused, all shocked.

Matilda made her way to the center of the Hall, her heart pounding, as she walked up to Dumbledore who was clutching the small scrap of parchment in one hand and fixing his gaze on the blank-faced girl.

She stepped in front of the man, who gave her the slip of paper on which she never recalled writing her name, and merely blinked at her while not saying a word.

She gulped and delicately held the scrap of paper between two fingers as she slowly turned, beginning to step forward at a cautious, hesitant pace towards the room in which the other three champions would be... her mind was racing, her heartbeat was spiked, nothing was making sense, nothing...

"That's not fair!"

Voices began to shout angrily from the now restless hall of students.

"She's not even seventeen yet!"

"Matlock's a cheat!"

Matilda gripped the parchment in her hand and stared straight forward, passing the scowls of students and walking all the way to where the Professors were lined up, all staring at Matilda in shock and silence.

As she approached McGonagall to get to the back room, the woman paused her for a moment to place a hand on her shoulder, looking at the girl with almost sympathetic eyes, before she motioned for her to continue forward without a word.

After an excruciating several minutes, Matilda found herself entering a dimly lit, large room with gleaming goblets and sculptures all around, not a soul in sight before she saw Fleur, Viktor, and Cedric all walk slowly into view up ahead of her.

"M-Matlock?" said Cedric quietly, his brows knitting together.

Matilda was now standing a short distance from them, parting her lips to speak but finding no response just yet... her fingers quivered around the scrap of paper with her name that she was positive she did not scribble down.

Suddenly, an increasingly loud sound of arguing voices drew near and Matilda twisted around, seeing a group of hurrying men storming towards the room where she, Cedric, Viktor and Fleur were standing in complete silence. Dumbledore was leading the pack, lifting his robe with one hand to walk faster and roaring at the others to be quiet but not succeeding.

"Matilda!" The Headmaster suddenly blurted loudly as he drew closer to the girl. "Matilda... did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?"

"N-no, sir! No, I didn't!" Matilda answered quickly as Dumbledore was now standing in front of her with a fiery look in his eyes.

"Did you get one of the older students to do it for you?" he demanded, analyzing her expression.

"No, sir!"

"Are you absolutely certain of this?"

"Yes, sir, of course!"