Adventures at Hogwarts

Chapter 17: The Goblet of Fire

The Fantastic Four's next class was Potions with Snape. None of them were particularly happy about this class, but it wasn't all terrible. However, before the Fantastic Four could walk into the classroom, Draco came up behind Meg, grabbed her arm, and pulled her aside so they could talk privately. "What are you doing," she questioned him rather aggressively. Draco shushed her, and immediately began to explain in a hushed tone, "I saw you tearing up in Defense Against the Dark Arts..." Meg wanted to interrupt him to defend herself, but Draco put his pointer finger over her lips and continued. "I know why you were crying." Meg's eyes widened with fear. This could mean one out of two things, either he knows my secret, or he knew that Moody putting her on the spot made her very uncomfortable. Let's be real...it's both, but she wasn't going to tell him the truth. Meg let him explain himself a little further, "I know your secret..." Meg's eyes widened further. She was screaming out of fear in her head. The fact that Draco Malfoy knew her secret changed everything. Draco continued, "I could tell that when Moody said the incantation for the killing curse, your mind flashed back to when Voldemort killed your father." Meg stepped back a little away from Draco in shock. She wasn't surprised that he knew her secret, but it was a little off-putting. Meg didn't really know how to respond to this. Draco looked at her with worried eyes. Meg broke the awkward silence, "How long have you known?" Draco responded rather quickly, "Since second year. My father told me as soon as we arrived back home from Diagon Ally. I didn't say anything before because I wanted our relationship to improve, and I figured telling you that I know your secret, while we weren't on exactly perfect terms. I hope you can understand, and I hope this doesn't damper our growing friendship." Meg paused for a few seconds. She didn't really know how to respond to this. She looked up at Draco; he looked at her with pitiful eyes. She loved to look at his blue-gray eyes. She knew he didn't want her to look at him differently, but it was too late for that. Meg broke the awkward silence, "It doesn't damper our friendship, however I need you to promise something for me." Draco was quick to respond, "Anything!" Meg continued, "Please promise me you will NEVER tell anyone about my secret. I've managed to keep this whole thing quiet and under control, and only the professors and my three friends know the truth. Also, I don't want anything to change between us just because you know the truth. Is that clear?" Draco didn't disagree with her. If he was ever going to get her to go out with him, he needed to gain her trust, and spreading her secret was NOT a good way of doing it. Draco responded to her reassuringly, "I promise I will NOT spread your secret to anyone. As for things being different between us...I agree. I was kinda hoping our relationship would blossom into something more in the future." Meg smirked at him, deep down she wanted the same thing, but she also knew that he was going to have to be kinder to her friends. Although that most likely wasn't going to happen anytime soon, and she knew it. Meg and Draco sealed their deal with a rather long hug, then they went to Potions class.

Once classes had ended for the day, everyone was ordered to go into the Great Hall for the ceremony of the choosing of the three champions for the Triwizard Tournament. The Fantastic Four went into the Great Hall to see the Goblet of Fire sitting on a pedestal in the front of the hall. However, something was different about the ambiance of the area around the giant cup. Surrounding the cup was a barrier of some kind, it looked like an age line to Meg and Hermione, but they couldn't be sure. All of the Hogwarts students gathered around the cup beyond the barrier and watched as many 7th years entered their names into the cup. One of which was Cedric Diggory, the boy the Fantastic Four met at the Quidditch World Cup. The next person to enter their name was the Bulgarian Seeker, Viktor Krum. As he dropped the piece of parchment that contained his name into the Goblet of Fire, he looked directly at Hermione, who was sitting on a bench that surrounded the cup. She looked at him with a similar look. Once Krum had walked away with his group of friends, Meg scooted next to Hermione and smirked at her. Hermione brushes her off and continued to read. A few minutes later, the Weasley Twins came running into the Great Hall with a potion of some sort and everyone cheered for them. Meg joined the group of students who were cheering, but Hermione stayed put and read. The twins parades around the circle of people that surrounded the Goblet of Fire, and everyone applauded them. Hermione, on the other hand, spoke her mind against the twins. "IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK!" Fred was the first to speak against her, "Oh yea? Why's that, Granger?" Hermione began to explain her accusation to the twins, "You see this? This is an age line. Dumbledore drew it himself." The twins brushed her off. Annoyed at their cockiness, Hermione continued, "So, a genius like Dumbledore couldn't possibly be fooled by the preposterously dim witted, as an aging potion!" The twins mocked her again, "That's just it, because it's perfectly dim witted." With that statement, the twins stood up on one of the benches and drank the aging potion. They then jumped over the age line and celebrated. They dropped their names into the Goblet of Fire and celebrated again. Then, suddenly, flames began to fly everywhere and blasted the twins out of the circle and aged them to look extremely old. Everyone ran to where they landed and started to laugh. Taking this as an opportunity, the twins began to fight each other. Everyone began to encourage the twins further, however, they eventually broke up the fight and sat down on the benches.

A few minutes later, Dumbledore and the other professors strutted into the Great Hall and the Choosing Ceremony began. Dumbledore began to make his famous speech, "As you all know, many of you who are 17 years and older have placed your names into the Goblet of Fire. There are two words that will describe what comes at the end of this tournament. Eternal glory...that is what comes to the student who successfully completes the Triwizard Tournament. Now, to see who the three champions are." A small piece of parchment flew out of the goblet. Dumbledore read the name on it. "The champion from Beauxbatons...is Fleur Delacour!" Everyone cheered for her. Fleur got up from one of the tables and went to the front of the hall. Another piece of parchment flew from the cup. Dumbledore read, "The Durmstrang champion is...Viktor Krum!" Everyone, especially the Slytherin guys, cheered for Krum. Meg clapped like everyone else, but she was mainly watching Draco. She admired how enthusiastic he can get over the greatest things. If only his father wasn't a git, not only to him, but to everyone else. Maybe Draco would've turned out to be kinder than everyone says. Meg didn't care what other people said about Draco. She knew the boy she grew up with all those years ago, and that same boy could be the Draco Malfoy that has feelings for her. The last piece of parchment flew out of the Goblet of Fire, and Dumbledore read it loud and proud, "The Hogwarts champion is... Cedric Diggory!" Everyone cheered for him, and he joined the other two champions at the front. Dumbledore continued his speech, "Excellence! We now have our three champions, but only one of them will go down in history." Before Dumbledore could continue, however, red sparks flew from the Goblet of Fire. Everyone was confused and nervous as to what was going to happen. Not even Dumbledore knew what was going to happen. A piece of parchment flew out of the cup...everyone was in shock and was anxious to see what it read. After reading the name to himself a few times, Dumbledore then shouted the name that was on the parchment. "HARRY POTTER!" Meg and Hermione both shoved Harry towards Dumbledore. Silence and anger filled the Great Hall. No one was cheerful, no one was supportive, they were nothing but negative and resentful towards Harry. As Harry walked towards the front where the other three champions were, Meg and Hermione began to question the whole thing. Ron, on the other hand, was the most resentful towards Harry. Not only was he jealous, but Meg could tell he was angry with Harry.

That night as everyone headed back to their dormitories, Meg and Hermione chatted as they walked through the corridor. "How could've this happened? The Goblet of Fire cannot be hexed for messed with in any way, shape, or form! It's only supposed to spit out three names for the tournament, not four! This makes no sense!" Meg vented. Hermione completely agreed with her best friend, but she was mainly worried about the sanity of Harry and Ron's friendship. She knew she and Meg would have to take sides in the matter, but she didn't know how it would work. They were both worried bound measure, so they decided to discuss it more in the morning.