New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|48| Chapter Forty-Eight

F O R T Y  E I G H T 

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The Great Hall had never looked more packed when Saffron made it with the rest of her fourth-year Gryffindors about ten minutes before the selection of the champion was due to start. It wasn't exactly the number of people that made it look so full but it was the chatter of speculation that was so loud that left her with that impression.

Even though she wouldn't admit it to anyone, Saffron was worried. It was Halloween and that day didn't exactly hold the fondest of memories of her. From being sent to the Grey by a mountain troll, to the Chamber of Secrets being opened to last year, when Sirius attempted to break into the Gryffindor common room. The Sirius incident might have turned out well in the end but in spite of that, the date didn't have a good track record for her in Hogwarts. But who it had an even worse track record for was Harry, as that day was the anniversary of his parent's death, something that Saffron had forgotten until she was sat in the hall beside him.

"Have you spoken to Sirius and Sage recently?" Saffron asked him softly, as all of the Durmstrang students entered the hall.

Harry nodded. "They sent me a letter about my parents anniversary, said they'll take me to see their grave when they get back from Germany. They offered this Summer, but... but it didn't feel right. I didn't want any sad memories of that time with them and going there would have been hard, for all of us, I think,"

"Yeah," said Saffron understandingly. She wouldn't relate as Ms. Squire had brought the Mitchell children to their parent's graves several times. She used the visits to remind them not to make the same mistakes as they made by having children at such a young age and to not stray from what she wanted them to do. Therefore, the visits were sad on top of the sadness of seeing what remained of their parents. "Go when you're ready, there's no point in putting pressure on it. It's already overwhelming enough having people who knew us when we didn't even know ourselves, as infants, back," Saffron sighed, her voice sounding forlorn. "It is crazy, isn't it? I mean we basically grew up together for a year, and now here we are..."

"It's really weird to think about," agreed Harry nodding profusely, his eyes fixed upon the top of the hall where Professor Dumbledore was looking as though he was about to get out of his chair. "I can't even imagine a life for me that wasn't with the Dursleys,"

"Same with me and Squires," responded Saffron. "Maya remembers little bits, and I think I made some stuff up at times but they're not real like hers..." 

At the mention of her sister's name, Saffron looked over to the Ravenclaw table, as she had grown so accustomed to doing over the past two months. As per usual, she saw Rowan sat next to Emilia, Olly beside Lisa and Padma and then Maya. The eldest Mitchell sibling couldn't see her watching but Saffron had a nice feeling in her stomach when she looked at her. As of late, they had been working in conjunction with one another to work out what it was the adults in their lives were hiding. Although they hadn't been able to find anything, doing something like that together brought them back to feeling like they were back in Squires when it was just the two of them and two babies, and that was all they had. They were glad to not be in that situation anymore but they were still capable of missing it. As it was their beginning and had got them to the point they were at now, which was a nice place.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore and Saffron snapped out her reverie to watch the man pacing in front of the Goblet of Fire. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber where they will be receiving their first instructions."

The hall was completely silent as Professor Dumbledore used his wand to dim the candles to be on the verge of dying creating an eerily dark dining hall, allowing the Goblet of Fire to be the main focus of the hall as it's light had not been dimmed. The blue flames had started to flicker more wildly that they could only see Dumbledore's face from behind them. 

In a flash, the blue dissolved into a bright red and sparks began to spit out of the Goblet. A split second later, a large flame rose out of the fire and sent a slip of paper into the air that Professor Dumbledore had no issues in catching.

"The champion for Durmstrang," he announced, speaking in a very formal and clear voice. "will be Viktor Krum."

"No surprises there!" Saffron heard Ron yell over the rampant applause of the hall. Krum had risen from the Slytherin table, looking uncomfortable by the extent of the applause. He followed the instructions given to him and swiftly made his way into the next chamber.

"Bravo, Viktor!" The Durmstrang Headmaster Karkaroff yelled so loudly that he could be heard outside of the hall. It was clear that he wanted Krum to be the one to be selected. Saffron wouldn't have been surprised if he had forced the other students not to put their names in, though, Rowan did say that they all had placed their names in one-by-one that morning but regardless Karkaroff got the result he desired. "Knew you had it in you!"

The clapping only stopped when everyone noticed that the goblet's flames had turned red again and another piece of parchment had been spat out of it.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore slowly, "is Fleur Delacour!"

The applause was much more subdued when the name was called out initially as Fleur wasn't a famous Quidditch player. However, when the girl stood up and made her way towards the staff table and people realised who she was, the applause rivalled Krums, as the boys of Hogwarts realised that she was the veela looking girl and applauded her loudly for that alone. Saffron even heard whistling and catcalling from around the hall.

"Oh look, they're all disappointed," Hermione tapped Saffron on her shoulder and she looked over to see many students from Beauxbatons decidedly not applauding Fleur. Two girls had gone as far as to sob, shielding their heads on their arms. Saffron wasn't sure if it was because they hadn't been chosen or because Fleur had, but either way, it left a bad taste in her mouth as seeing as there weren't many of them in Hogwarts, she thought they'd put up a united front though apparently not.

Once Fleur had disappeared into the chamber, the hall went dead silent again as the Hogwarts students realised that they were going to find out who was representing them.

"Come on, Angelina," Hermione practically moaned and Saffron found herself agreeing with her. 

The Goblet of Fire turned bright red for the last time, and after the sparks burst out of it a flame shot out of it, sending the third and final piece of parchment into Dumbledore's hand. 

Saffron saw out of the corner of her eye that many people were taking it as a given of what was going to happen. Several Ravenclaw students were readying themselves to push Roger Davis out of his seat and several Hufflepuff students were on the verge of doing the same to Cedric Diggory. 

But as fate would have it, Dumbledore didn't read out either of their names. No, he read out the name of:

"Maya Mitchell,"