Haley Potter and The Goblet Of Fire

The Triwizard Tournament

The Hogwarts Poltergeist, Peeves, drops a water balloon on Ron as soon as they all turn up at the gate. Professor McGonagall comes storming out to escort the arrivals into the Great Hall. The annual Sorting is about to begin, when the new Hogwarts students get placed in each of the four different Hogwarts Houses namely, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Haley notices that all of her old professors are there – including her personal enemy, Potions teacher Severus Snape – but one person is missing. There is no new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. 

Last year, the DADA teacher was Rosalyn Lupin, an old friend of Haley's parents and Sirius Black. But she had to resign when Professor Snape leaked the information that Lupin is a werewolf.  And the post still apparently hasn't been filled. The Sorting starts. The Sorting Hat – a dirty, patched wizard's hat with a long tear near the brim opened wide like a mouth, welcomes the new students. Finally, after the Sorting is over, everyone gets to tuck in to dinner. Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost looks enviously at all the delicious food.

At the end of the feast, Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, stands up to make some announcement. Apparently, there will be no Quidditch tournament at Hogwarts this year.

"What?!"

"It can't be!"

A storm is raging outside, which makes what happens next even more atmospheric. The door to the Great Hall bangs open, and a man walks in. The lightning had thrown the man's face into sharp relief. Every inch of skin seemed to be scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal gash, and a large chunk of nose was missing. But even more extraordinary is the man's eyes: one is a regular eye, but the other is large, round as a coin, and a vivid electric blue. 

Professor Dumbledore introduces " This is our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody" 

 Everyone is totally dumbstruck.

 Professor Dumbledore continues, "It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year" 

 At this, everyone gets cheerful again. The Triwizard Tournament is a competition between Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. It hasn't happened for the last hundred years because the death toll mounted so high. But it's starting up again! A champion will be chosen from each of the three wizarding schools on Halloween. These three students will have to compete in three magical tasks. 

In order to make this all work, Hogwarts will be hosting students from both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang during the school year. There are rules, of course. Because the competition is so dangerous, only students over seventeen can enter. And then, with the air still buzzing from this news, Professor Dumbledore sends them all to bed. Fred and George Weasley are already planning on how to get around the age restriction since they're still sixteen. 

As Ron is going upstairs, he announces, "I might go in for it, you know , if Fred and Cass find out how to ...". 

Haley fantasizes and wishes that she has gotten in to the Triwizard Tournament, won the whole thing, but she feels a little ominous about something inside her mind that she can't stop thinking about.

The next morning, Haley is disappointed to find that no letter has arrived from Sirius. She's starting to worry. The first class of the day for the Gryffindor fourth-years is Herbology with Professor Sprout. They're learning to collect pus from Bubotubers, which sounds completely revolting. The pus is used in acne medicine (handy, but still – pus). 

Next up, there's Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid. Hagrid is also the Hogwarts caretaker and a good friend of Haley's since his first year at Hogwarts. The Gryffindors share this class with the Slytherins, which means more Malfoy. Hagrid's assignment is to raise a bunch of Blast-Ended Skrewts. These are lobstery-looking things with "stings" and "sorta sucker things on their bellies that suck blood". They also blow up periodically.

 Malfoy asks the snide but still fair question, "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting, and bite all at once?". 

Hermione though agreeing with Malfoy's point herself snaps back at him sassily "Just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful, Dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?" 

At this the trio and Hagrid share a smile. Haley, Ron, and Hermione knew only too well — he had owned one for a brief period during their first year, a vicious Norwegian Ridgeback by the name of Norbert. Hagrid simply loved monstrous creatures, the more lethal, the better.

Later, Hagrid basically tells everyone to calm down and figure out what the skrewts eat.

After Lunch, Haley and Ron go up to their Divination (a.k.a. reading the future) class taught by Professor Trelawney. Haley hates this class in particular because Professor Trelawney is always predicting that Haley is about to die. Even though she seems like an old fraud, there was that time at the end of last term, when she had made the prediction about Voldemort rising again. Even Dumbledore himself had said that he thought that trance had been genuine. 

Still, that one true prediction doesn't improve Haley's opinion of Divination as a class. At dinner, Malfoy makes fun of Ron again, this time because of a newspaper article. Mr. Weasley has made into the Daily Prophet a second time.

Ron of course is on the verge of hexing him with a series of spells even he doesn't know of, so Haley dragged him away from there before it could come to reality.