The Other Potter. Book Four.

The goblet of unicorns! I wish.

As the next day was Saturday, most students would normally have breakfasted late.

I however, was awoken by Hermione throwing a textbook at my head.

“Ow, what was that for?” I said sleepily.

“You wouldn’t wake up.” Hermione shrugged.

I dressed and realised that Harry, Ron, and pretty much the rest of the school had woken much earlier than we usually did on weekends. When we went down into the entrance hall, I saw about twenty people milling around it, some of them eating toast, all examining the Goblet of Fire.

Apparently that’s what it was, but I didn’t really know.

This is why I should pay attention.

I want toast.

I forget what’s happening...

Oh, Right, the goblet had been placed in the centre of the hall on the stool that normally bore the Sorting Hat. A thin golden line had been traced on the floor, forming a circle ten feet around it in every direction. 

“Anyone put their name in yet?” Ron asked a third-year girl eagerly. 

“All the Durmstrang lot,” she replied. “But I haven’t seen anyone from Hogwarts yet.” 

“Bet some of them put it in last night after we’d all gone to bed,” said Harry. “I would’ve if it had been me… wouldn’t have wanted everyone watching. What if the goblet just gobbed you right back out again?” 

Someone laughed behind me. Turning, I saw Fred, George, and Lee Jordan hurrying down the staircase, all three of them looking extremely excited.

“Done it,” Fred said in a triumphant whisper to us. “Just taken it.” 

“What?” said Ron. 

“The Aging Potion, dung brains,” said Fred. 

“One drop each,” said George, rubbing his hands together with glee. “We only need to be a few months older.” 

“We’re going to split the thousand Galleons between the three of us if one of us wins,” said Lee, grinning broadly. 

“I’m not sure this is going to work, you know,” said Hermione warningly. “I’m sure Dumbledore will have thought of this.”  Fred, George, and Lee ignored her. 

“Ready?” Fred said to the other two, quivering with excitement. “C’mon, then - I’ll go first -”

I watched, fascinated and worried, as Fred pulled a slip of parchment out of his pocket bearing the words Fred Weasley - Hogwarts.

Fred walked right up to the edge of the line and stood there, rocking on his toes like a diver preparing for a fifty-foot drop. Then, with the eyes of every person in the entrance hall upon him, he took a great breath and stepped over the line.  For a split second I thought it had worked - George certainly thought so, for he let out a yell of triumph and leapt after Fred - but next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been thrown by an invisible shot-putter.

Someone screamed.

What a total not llama.

The twins landed painfully, ten feet away on the cold stone floor, and to add insult to injury, there was a loud popping noise, and both of them sprouted identical long white beards.  The entrance hall rang with laughter. And Hermione and I instinctively fell on each other for support as we laughed, but ended up on the floor.