Julia Swan-Black

Chapter 5

The students enjoyed all the food in the dishes. The other dishes from all over the world just showing the house-elves in the kitchen had pulled out all the stops to show off for our guests. "Hey Krum so your the seeker for the Bulgarian National Quidditch team, right?" Harry said excited as Julia facepalmed, Draco held back a chuckle. "Yes that is correct." Krum said with an obvious accent. 

Harry seemed a little embarrassed, Julia though knew how to make it worse. "Harry here is an amazing seeker, it is possible to do a seeker off sometime?" Julia said as Harry suddenly looked startled and grabbed her shoulder, shaking her a little. Seeing his reaction Krum had a little laugh, "Sure it could be fun." he said with a smirk. Draco looked at Harry with a small smirk, "Great news, we can set it up for some time later." he said. 

They continued with the polite banter and chatter as they ate together. It was a good dinner and the new food intrigued everyone at their table. When the second course of deserts arrived so did Ludo Bagan and Mr Crouch. Everyone enjoyed their deserts and chatter and once their golden plates had been wiped clean Dumbledore stood up again. 

A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the hall now. Julia felt a thrill of excitement, wondering what was coming. Fred and George could be seen leaning forward desperate to know how to enter the tournament. "The moment has come, The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket just to clarify the procedure which we will be following this year. But firstly, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr Bartemius Crouch, head of the department of international magical Co-operation." Said Dumbledore to a light applause. 

"And Mr Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports." Dumbledore continued. There was a much larger round of applause for Bagman than for Crouch, perhaps because of his fame as a past beater, or simply because he looked so much more likable. 

"Mr Bagman and Mr Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last couple months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament. They will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxine on the panel which will judge the champions' efforts. " Dumbledore says continuing. At the mention of the word 'champions' the students attentiveness doubled. Dumbledore smirked a little though only a few noticed. 

"The casket, then, if you please, Mr Flinch." He says as Flinch approaches Dumbledore. He was carrying a great wooden chest, encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely old. A murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students. "The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr Crouch and Mr Bagman. They have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year. They will test the champions in many different ways. Their magical prowess, their daring, their powers of deduction and of course their ability to cope with danger." Dumbledore continues on. 

Flinch placed the casket in front of Dumbledore as the hall was filled with silence and anticipation. Nobody seemed to even be breathing. "As you all know, three champions compete in the Tournament. One from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after the three tasks will win the Triwizard cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector ... the Goblet of fire." Dumbledore finishes. 

He took out his wand and tapped the top of the casket three times. The lip cracked slightly open. Dumbledore reached inside and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable , had it not been for the blue-white flames dancing on the brim. Dumbledore closed the casket and placed the cup onto a stone platform in front of the hall, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the hall. 

"Anyone wishing to submit themselves as champions must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet. Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Hallowe'en, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be left here until then for anyone of age to enter. To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation, i will be drawing an age line around it." He says to the Students. 

He then in front of everyone drew a line with his magic with a nonverbal spell around the Goblet. Julia recognized the spell and laughed to herself. He really is to full of himself. 'So yeah I'm totally nullifying that spell later to cause chaos.' Julia thought to herself with a smirk. "Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this Tournament is not to be entered into lightly." He starts again, looking around seriously. 

"Once a champion has been selected by the goblet of fire, he or she is obliged to see the Tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very very sure, therefore, that you are whole - heartedly prepared to play to the end before you drop your name into the goblet. Now I think it is time for bed. Goodnight to you all!" He finishes up. 

We wished the Durmstrang videos goodnight before heading to the Slytherin dorms. We spent time doing homework before heading off to bed. Once everyone was mostly asleep Julia snuck out the dorm under Harry's invisibility cloak. She headed to the great hall where she discovered Professor Moody in front of the goblet. She followed him as she noticed him Put Harry's and her own name and even different schools on the paper before putting them into the goblet before leaving. 

'I knew there was something off about him. Harry is not going to be happy.' she thought bitterly to herself. She started the spell and soon destroyed the age line, though it wasn't obvious. The spell Dumbledore put on it would only work on people not strong enough to compete from her own assessment. 'Hopefully the twins will try and enter now.' she thought with a smirk. 'It would be brilliant. '

She was about to leave before looking back at the cup. 'This is gonna suck. I'm in the stupid death tournament now..' She sighs before looking at the cup annoyed knowing there isn't a way out of the tournament. She then put the invisibility cloak back on and headed back to the Slytherin dorm and off to bed.