The Tale of a Gaunt

The Mysterious Engraving

Dear Ominis

The year so far has been, well, not great.

To be honest, I'm not sure if I will enjoy this year, despite what you said on the Platform. You see, the Goblet of Fire made its decision last night. It said the other three's names as normal, but then it shot a fourth name out and Dumbledore read Harry's name, but that's not even the worst part.

You see, after that, the Goblet shot another piece of parchment out and out came my name. I promise I had nothing to do with it, I'm not sure who put my name in but I've been chosen anyway. The other Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory in Hufflepuff, by the way.

Hope you are well,

Arabella

Arabella tied her letter to Lunaris and he set off, making his way back home to Ominis.

She sighed, and approached the door to the Owlery, but almost bumped into someone else. Arabella recognised the person to be Amari.

"There you are! I was looking for you, you need to come with me" Amari smiled.

"Oh, why?" Arabella asked.

"The Daily Prophet wants to do some interview, I think" Amari told her, as they walked to the castle.

"Great, more publicity" Arabella muttered.

"Yeah, I can imagine" Amari said.

They approached the classroom the other champions were in.

"Oh, and by the way, I feel I need to tell you that I don't believe in the slightest that you put your name in the Goblet, and neither does Charlotte" Amari smiled assuringly.

Arabella waved Amari goodbye and walked into the room.

"Ah! And here is our fifth champion! Nothing to worry about, just the Wand-Weighing ceremony" Bagman said.

"This is Rita Skeeter, she's doing a piece on the Daily Prophet" Bagman introduced, gesturing to a blonde witch next to him, who was staring at Harry and Arabella, smiling.

"Do you mind if I have a word with these two for a moment, Mr Bagman?" Rita Skeeter asked the man.

"Certainly!"

"Lovely, let's start with the youngest" Rita Skeeter smiled, pulling Harry away.

After a few minutes, Harry appeared from the broom cupboard he was having an interview in, looking annoyed.

"Good luck" Harry mouthed to Arabella as she was pulled into the broom cupboard too. Arabella and Rita Skeeter sat down.

Rita Skeeter's quill started skidding across her roll of parchment.

"Attractive blonde Rita Skeeter, forty-three, whose savage quill has punctured many inflated reputations-" The quill said.

"I think you forgot the 'un' at the start of 'attractive'"Arabella thought.

"Lovely, now, what made you decide to enter such a dangerous tournament?" Rita Skeeter asked.

"I didn't enter, I don't know who put my name-" Arabella started, but was cut off by Rita Skeeter.

"Oh, there's no need to lie, our readers love a rebel" Rita Skeeter smiled.

"But I-" Arabella started, but was cut off by Skeeter again.

"How do you feel about the tasks ahead? Confident? Worried?" Skeeter asked.

"I don't know-" Arabella said, starting to get annoyed with this woman as she cut her off again.

"If your parents were alive, how do you think they would feel? Proud? Worried? Angry?" Skeeter asked.

"My parents are alive! But I guess they'd be feeling proud seeing as I could die in this tournament" Arabella said angrily.

Before Skeeter could say anything, Dumbledore opened the door to the broom cupboard.

"Dumbledore! How are you? I hope you saw my piece over the summer about the International Confederation of Wizard's Conference?" Skeeter asked.

"Yes, I particularly enjoyed your description of me as an obsolete dingbat"

"I was just making the point that some of your ideas are a bit old-fashioned" Skeeter smiled at him.

"Well, the Weighing of the Wands ceremony is about to start and it cannot if one of our champions is in a broom cupboard" Dumbledore said.

Arabella got out of the cupboard, feeling quite glad to be away from Skeeter.

"May I introduce Mr Ollivander?" Dumbledore said, gesturing to the old wizard with pale eyes who was the wand maker in Diagon Alley.

Fleur Delacour made her way to Ollivander and handed him her wand.

"Hmm..." Ollivander said, examining the wand.

"Yes, nine and a half inches, inflexible, rose-wood, and containing, dear me" Ollivander said.

"An 'air from ze 'ead of a Veela, one of my grandmuzzer's" Fleur explained.

"Yes, yes, I've never used Veela hair but I find it makes for rather temperamental wands. Orchideous! Ollivander exclaimed, and a bunch of flowers burst from the top of the wand. He scooped the flowers up and handed the wand back to Fleur.

"Mr Diggory" Ollivander said as Cedric handed his wand to him. "Ah yes, this is one of mine, I remember very well. You treat it regularly?" He asked.

"Yes, polished it this morning" Cedric said.

Arabella looked down at her wand to see many finger marks on it. She grabbed a bit of her robes and cleaned it. She looked at it again, it seemed clean enough. However, as she was looking at her wand, she saw something.

There seemed to be a little engraving on her wand, some sort of helix shape, it was gold in colour and the design had pieces of the helix shape crossing over each other like blades. How had Arabella not noticed it before in her three years of owning this wand?

She became so distracted by the engraving, that when she took her eyes off it, it was now time for her wand to be examined.

"Now, that leaves... Miss Gaunt" Ollivander said, smiling. Arabella handed him her wand.

"Ah yes, I remember this wand very well. Pine, 13 and a half inches, surprisingly swishy and an unknown core..." Ollivander explained, handing the wand back.

After having her photo taken, Arabella made her way to the Great Hall to have lunch. But she didn't eat much, as she was too distracted looking at the engraving.

"You seem to have become really interested in that wand since that wand weighing thing" Charlotte laughed.

"Yeah... it's this engraving, I never noticed it before!" Arabella said, showing Charlotte the engraving.

"Hmm, that is weird, let me check if there is anything on it in here" Charlotte said, reaching into her bag and taking out her Ancient Runes book.

She then took the wand from Arabella, and looked at the engraving, holding the wand at the bottom. She examined the engraving, which suddenly glowed bright red.

"What the- Ow!" Charlotte shrieked, as she dropped the wand on the table and looked at her hand, which now seemed to have burn marks on it.

"That is not a normal wand, and I don't see anything in this book about that symbol" Charlotte said, staring at the wand. Arabella took it, but the engraving didn't glow red for her. Arabella wondered why, maybe it was a powerful anti theft enchantment?

Arabella pocketed her wand, and ate her lunch, still wondering what was up about the wand.