Love Is In The Air: The Angelic Witch And Draco Malfoy (Book 4)

Beauxbatons And Durmstrang

When Heroneka and Hermione went down to breakfast on the morning of the thirtieth of October, they found that the Great Hall had been decorated overnight. Enormous silk banners hung from the walls, each of them representing a Hogwarts House: red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Behind the teachers' table, the largest banner of all bore the Hogwarts coat of arms: lion, eagle, badger, and snake united around a large letter H.

They sat down on the Gryffindor table observing the beautiful decorations.

"How are you feeling?" Hermione asked her abruptly.

Heroneka looked at her, slightly confused. "I feel alright. Why - how am I supposed to feel?"

"No, I mean," Hermione lowered her voice. "I keep thinking about what Dumbledore said - that you should participate in the Triwizard Tournament."

"Mione," Heroneka made sure nobody was hearing them. "You know that's not possible. I am underage! If I really want to die, I will find some other way."

"But the tournament will give you an excuse for another death!" Hermione said impatiently. "People won't ask too many questions about how you died. They already know that a lot of students have died in the Triwizard Tournament before."

"It doesn't matter!" Heroneka began to butter a toast for herself. "I am not seventeen! I am fourteen."

Hermione was about to say something, but Harry and Ron had just entered the Great Hall, they walked past the Slytherin table and sat next to Heroneka and Hermione.

"Why don't they decorate the Great Hall like this every day?" Ron's eyes twinkled.

"Probably because it will be too much work for everyone to maintain the decorations," Hermione said being reasonable.

Fred and Geroge had just arrived. Once again, and most unusually, they were sitting apart from everyone else and conversing in low voices. But close enough to Heroneka, Harry, Ron and Hermione, so they could hear them talking.

"It's a bummer, all right," George was saying gloomily to Fred. "But if he won't talk to us in person, we'll have to send him the letter after all. Or we'll stuff it into his hand. He can't avoid us forever."

"Who's avoiding you?" said Ron, as Fred shifted towards them.

"Wish you would," said Fred, looking irritated at the interruption.

"What's a bummer?" Ron asked George.

"Having a nosy git like you for a brother," said George.

"You two got any ideas on the Triwizard Tournament yet?" Harry asked. "Thought any more about trying to enter?"

Heroneka wondered why Harry and Ron were being so keen on entering the Triwizard Tournament. She was trying hard not to talk about it and they just wouldn't stop talking about it.

"I asked McGonagall how the champions are chosen but she wasn't telling," said George bitterly. "She just told me to shut up and get on with transfiguring my raccoon."

"Wonder what the tasks are going to be?" said Ron thoughtfully. "You know, I bet we could do them, Harry. We've done dangerous stuff before...."

"Not in front of a panel of judges, you haven't," said Fred. "McGonagall says the champions get awarded points according to how well they've done the tasks."

"Who are the judges?" Harry asked.

"Well, the Heads of the participating schools are always on the panel," said Hermione, and everyone looked around at her, rather surprised, "because all three of them were injured during the Tournament of 1792 when a cockatrice the champions were supposed to be catching went on the rampage."