• Thanatophobia ~ {HP} • Discontinued

1.30: The Weighing Of The Wands

—————————>They were in a fairly small classroom; most of the desks had been pushed away to the back of the room, leaving a large space in the middle; three of them, however, had been placed end-to-end in front of the blackboard and covered with a long length of velvet. Six chairs had been set behind the velvet-covered desks, and Ludo Bagman was sitting in one of them, talking to a witch Harry had never seen before, who was wearing magenta robes. In the other one was James, who was fortunately not with the other two.

Viktor Krum was standing moodily in a corner as usual and not talking to anybody. Cedric and Fleur were in conversation. Fleur looked a good deal happier than Harry had seen her so far; she kept throwing back her head so that her long silvery hair caught the light. A paunchy man, holding a large black camera that was smoking slightly, was watching Fleur out of the corner of his eye.

Cassiopeia sent a small jinx his way and he immediately took his eyes of Fleur.

Bagman suddenly spotted them, got up quickly, and bounded forward.

"Ah, here they are! Champion number four and Five! Along with our lovely helper. In you come, in you come . . . nothing to worry about, it's just the wand weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment —"

"Wand weighing?" Harry repeated nervously.

"We have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they're your most important tools in the tasks ahead," said Bagman. "The expert's upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there's going to be a little photoshoot. This is Rita Skeeter," he added, gesturing toward the witch in magenta robes. "She's doing a small piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet. . . ."

"Maybe not that small, Ludo," said Rita Skeeter, her eyes on Harry and Nico.

Her hair was set in elaborate and curiously rigid curls that contrasted oddly with her heavy-jawed face. She wore jeweled spectacles. The thick fingers clutching her crocodile-skin handbag ended in two-inch nails, painted crimson.

"I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry and Nico before we start?" she said to Bagman, but still gazing fixedly at the twins. "The youngest champion, you know . . . to add a bit of color?"

"Certainly!" cried Bagman. "That is — if they have no objection?"

"Er —" said Nico.

"Lovely," said Rita Skeeter, and in a second, her scarlet-taloned fingers had Harry's and Nico's upper arm in a surprisingly strong grip, and she was steering him out of the room again and opening a nearby door.

"I don't think that was a good idea James," Cassiopeia said, walking over and sitting next to him.

"Well, what's the worst that could happen?" James replied curiously.

"According to Rita: Sirius has killed me in my sleep once, I've hooked up with both of my cousins and I broke into your house to poison your son. Do you want me to go on?" Cassiopeia listed as James' eyes widened in shock.

"Though, I've thought about the last one" She added.

"Funny, Lily said the same thing to my dad" James replied, wiggling his eyebrows.

Snap. A bright light went off in their faces.

"Ahh, Family bonding?" said Rita.

"Great, now we're on the front page," Cassiopeia whispered to James

The other champions were now sitting in chairs near the door, and she sat down quickly next to Cedric, looking up at the velvet-covered table, where four of the five judges were now sitting — Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Mr. Crouch, and Ludo Bagman. Rita Skeeter settled herself down in a corner;