「008. hogwarts champion(s) 」

THE WALK back seemed to be full of chatter and gossip about a certain-

"victor krum!" she heard ron say as hermione suddenly looped arms with her, causing honey to stumble and nearly trample a first year. "krum, victor krum-! oh, hello honey."

"don't mind me," she drawled, "continue to fanboy about him."

"i'm not- he's a fantastic quidditch player! a star! the youngest-"

"god, calm yourself." mumbled honey, "he's just a student-"

"just a student?" chorused ron and a couple of fifth year girls who were passing by.

"ron has found his people, it seems." muttered hermione, shaking her head. she looked at honey- an almost look of disgust on her face as her nose scrunched up just a bit, "it's revolting how much these people obsess over him. he's just a quidditch player. it's not a big deal as i see it. for all we know he might be fantastic-" she mocked ron's wording with a nasally but low sort of voice that didn't really sound like ron much- "quidditch player! a star! but he might be dumb as rocks. which- as far as i'm concerned, means he's of no interest to me."

"what if he is smart?" asked harry.

"then i will have an intellectual conversation with him," hermione replied prudently. then, as an after thought she added, "if those gaggle of groupies would get away from him."

"don't call them groupies- ron's among them," honey said, trying to play fair (not because she was being nice. she just knew it would rile up hermione).

"i stand by what i said."

honey snorted, and then shook her head.

after harry proceeded to grip ron by the collar to pull him away from the suffocating crowd of students all trying to get a glimpse at krum (he was, if anyone is interested, about to get trampled by a herd of sixth year girls on a war path and looked like might drown in the robes of three giddy fifth year boys), they said their goodbyes and walked to their respective house tables.

the fifty or so students from each school had scattered themselves everywhere across the room. most of the durmstrang students seemed to have taken a liking to the slytherin green and a few must have found a semblance of home in the roaring red of gryffindor's table. the durmstrang students seemed to actively avoid the hufflepuff and ravenclaw tables. a huge gaggle of beauxbaton students sat primly at the ravenclaw table, a group or two  at the slytherin and gryffindor tables and maybe a small group at best at the gryffindor table.

the rest of the magical students from france were at the hufflepuff table.

hannah and the rest of the girls had caught up with her, and she waved at them before honey said, "you lot want to sit with my cousins?"

"the french ones?" freya asked, "from the world cup?"

"the exact ones," nodded honey. she pointed over to where they usually sat, making a small circle motion at her cousin's heads, "those two: fitzgerald- we usually call him fitz." she gestured to fitz, who was making himself quite at home next to lee- and seemed to be annoying him (with the weasley twins, as much as she could tell, egging him on).

she then pointed over to her other cousins. "and maeve. we just call her maeve, really."

"who are the people next to them?" asked vi, squinting.

"friends, maybe?" shrugged honey, "i have no idea. they'll be nice, i promise. they don't bite."

well, she could promise that from her cousins.

the four of them walked over to the group of beauxbaton students.

there were obviously a familiar face (maeve), but there were two other faces. there was a girl with curly blonde hair. she looked quite young, actually. certainly not in honey's year. she could pass as perhaps a second year or first year. third year if you were to push it. she had these shimmery blue eyes. she reminded honey a bit of a muggle fairy- she was small and a bit alluring.

the girl next to her elbowed her, before smiling up at the group. she was certainly gorgeous- putting it bluntly. honey wondered to herself what sort of water they had in france, because that might be the reason everybody seemed to look like they were glowing. the girl was older- perhaps the fairy-girls sister. she had the same blonde hair but a shade or so lighter than the fairy-girl's. instead of princess curls the younger girl adorned, she had her's mostly straight bar the ends which were slight curled.

"enchanté," the younger blonde girl said before she switched to english in a bit of a heavier french accent than maeve and fitz's, "my sister and i have heard a lot about you, honour. it is your name, yes?"

"er... yeah?" she stared at maeve as if to say who is she?

"my sister's english is worse than mine," piped up the younger blonde girl again, gesturing to the older and more silver-haired girl, "she is... incompo-" the older girl elbowed her and the younger one yelped. she said something in rapid-fire french which honey did not understand (no matter how much she knew) before she grinned. there was that sort of pixie-grin on her face: a bit mischievous but mostly well-meant.

"i am gabrielle delacour," the younger girl said, "and that is my sister- fleur."

"your parents named you flower?" honey said, without missing a beat.

silence.

the older girl, fleur, sighed as if this was something she hated. "yes. it is... bad. no matter- english people must find it sounds nicer." her accent was a bit thicker than the gabrielle's, "we are here for the tournament- with your cousins..." she glanced at maeve, a bit beady eyed, "maeve was to introduce us, hm?" she raised an eyebrow, "will you do that or no?"

"she's just annoyed because i sat us at the table that wasn't blue," maeve said, looking up at honey before she seemed to clock that there were more people than just honey, "my goodness! sit- sit! we can do our introductions once you sit, yes?" she stared at honey, "sit next to fleur- honey. she must be contained. she will scare your english friends away!"

"i will do no such thing," fleur muttered, a bit betrayed, "i would never do so!"

"oh?  is that so?" gabrielle said. she pitched her voice up high as she said in french, "je vais les effrayer, croyez-moi!" she turned and grinned at her sister, "sound like something you said, no?"

i'll chase them away, mark my word.

"she's joking," hurried maeve, adding, "fleur just doesn't like long journeys."

"she could not do her skincare," piped up gabrielle.

fleur glared at her, "why are you here?"

"siblings are allowed to accompany of-age candidates finally picked to put their name in." gabrielle said, "you remember this, hm?"

fleur grumbled. she caught a few french words hastily hissed that she believe translated to 'menace' and 'forsaken with a sister'.

"it is educational," continued gabrielle, "i will learn much."

"er..." honey said, looking at the four of them. "well i'm honour- but er, call me honey." she pointed at each of her friends. "that's hannah-" hannah waved, smiling pleasantly, "that's freya-" freya grinned, "and that's violet- we call her vi." vi gave a wave. she gestured to maeve, "i've already told you about maeve. but that's her. as for those two-"

"fleur and i are in the same house," explained maeve, "ombrelune. fitz is in papiliones. but- we are siblings, so he comes with us. he is-" she squinted, "i believe annoying lee at the other table." she peered up and said, "FITZ, REGARDE ICI!"

fitz turned from what must have been a gripping and compelling conversation to stare at maeve and honey- waving.

maeve turned to them after fitz went back to his conversation, "he will join us at breakfast, no doubt. as for fleur and i-" she grinned, "we are the best of friends."

"i tolerate her," corrected fleur.

"they're best friends," confirmed gabrielle. suddenly, the girl pouted. "i wish fitz would sit here- but he must want to sit with others of his... year, or- age? but he must be sad." she turned to the four hufflepuff girls as she said, "his friend, louis could not join him because his older brother is dumb as rocks."

"léo is not dumb," argued maeve, "he just didn't want to come."

"maeve and léo used to date," added fleur blandly. "romance, yes?"

"oh for flammels sake..." muttered maeve, looking a bit too embarrassed.

honey could tell it was going to be quite an evening.

the chatter in the hall died down the minute dumbledore stood up.

mad as a hatter, but he knew how to handle a room.

"good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and-  most particularly- guests," said dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "i have great pleasure in welcoming you all to hogwarts. i hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

"there are no ice statues in sight," hissed fleur to maeve.

maeve swotted her arm and honey snorted.

"the tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," said dumbledore. "i now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

"the shortest speech he's ever made," vi complimented. she grinned as she placed her elbows on the table, "how long do you think before sprout has too much brandy?"

"wagering a good half an hour," freya said before adding, "i have hope this year."

"i assure you that snape will get high as a fucking kite," honey said sagely, "have you seen him? his mouth is twitching. how much money are you betting that there's straight firewhiskey in there?"

"what is this?" fleur asked.

"every year," hannah said, a bit star-struck by fleur's blue eyes. "on the opening feast, the older years bet on who will turn up the next day looking like a hag dipped in bubotuber puss. we don't usually place bets- but it's a big thing for the seventh years. there's a betting pool and everything."

"i'll no doubt win when we are in seventh year," freya said confidently. "i have my money on mcgonagall."

"what?" snorted honey, "you think she'll let her hair down? quite literally?"

"don't mind them," hannah said earnestly, looking at the three beauxbaton students, "we are..."

"that one," gabrielle said with the most confidence honey had seen from a young girl (who she assumed was in second year) ever. she pointed to dumbledore. "dumble-" she frowned, she muttered something, "your headmaster. he has the... brandy in his hand."

"she's my favourite person here," vi confirmed solemnly. she grinned at the three french students, "you lot aren't bad, this year will be fun."

"it will be," grinned maeve. then, she side-eyed fleur, "if fleur isn't a stick in the mud for the whole of it."

"i will not be!" fleur said in a shocked tone, "i have come here to support my friend- and to enter myself."

"who do you think will likely be chosen from your school?" asked honey.

"either of us," replied fleur. then, she glanced around the hall, "a few others, i think. but i am biassed."

there was more idle chatter as they ate and a few laughs as well.

the beauxbatons who were spread across the hufflepuff table would sometimes come up to great mave and fleur whilst gabrielle chatted happily with the hufflepuff girls, speaking as fast as her mouth would allow her to. it should've been jarring and agitating- but gabrielle was oddly endearing (and very funny).

maeve was smiling ear from ear (even if she had caused a near catastrophe when she nearly knocked over a large decorative cauldron of pumpkin juice and seemed quite content to tease fleur like it was nobody's business. the group were conversing quite comfortably and by the end it was easy to strike up a new topic.

fleur, though quite snarky and perhaps a bit cold, had the wittiest remarks to share in response to maeve's silly teasing. she also took a certain amount of joy in the goggling students of hogwarts staring at her.

"let them stare," she shrugged as hannah asked if it made her uncomfortable. "they see the surface. if anything- it tells me who to avoid. smart, no?"

they went back to eating in a nice and content sort of silence- chatter splitting out from time to time.

it was obvious as the end got nearer and nearer that with all the students here they were going to talk about the tournament- and honey couldn't help but have a slight twinging headache as she thought about that. she instead chose to distract herself with a slice of cake, shoving a good portion of it in her mouth to try and forget about the headache.

once everybody had falling into a sea of silence, dumbledore stood up again and said simply, "the moment has come." (honey saw gabrielle look a bit sad. it seemed the young girl's bet had not turned out well). "the triwizard tournament is about to start. i would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket-"

"casket?" hissed freya, "is this a funeral."

something in honey told her that was terribly ironic.

shut up, she said to her whispers.

"-just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. but first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, mr. bartemius crouch, head of the department of international magical cooperation" -there was a smattering of polite applause- "and mr. ludo bagman, head of the department of magical games and sports."

there was a much louder round of applause for bagman than for crouch, perhaps because of his fame as a beater, or simply because he looked so much more likeable. he acknowledged it with a jovial wave of his hand. bartemius crouch did not smile or wave when his name was announced. which, if her memory of the quidditch cup served her right- was quite on theme for him.

"mr. bagman and mr. crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrange- ments for the triwizard tournament," dumbledore continued, "and they will be joining myself, professor karkaroff, and madame maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."

a few heads, at the same time, turned to look at friends- a few at older years. honey saw cedric's friends whisper something to him- turning him a funny shade of magenta (surpassing red in the matter of a second) as he whispered something back- perhaps telling them to be quiet.

then, the attentiveness of the listening students seemed to sharpen.

"the casket, then, if you please, mr. filch."

filch, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the hall, now approached dumbledore carrying a great wooden chest encrusted with jewels. it looked extremely old. a murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students with fleur craning her neck to look at it a bit.

"the instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by mr crouch as well as mr bagman," dumbledore explained as filch placed the chest carefully on the table before him. "and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. there will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways.. their magical prowess - their daring - their powers of deduction - and, of course, their ability to cope with danger."

at this last word, the hall was filled with a silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing.

danger? honey thought to herself. she frowned a bit, and maeve caught it and gave her a look. she tried for a smile instead of a silent conversation. later, she thought to herself.

"as you know, three champions compete in the tournament," dumbledore went on calmly, "one from each of the participating schools. they will be marked on how well they perform each of the tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the triwizard cup. the champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the goblet of fire."

dumbledore now took out his wand and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. the lid creaked slowly open.

dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. it would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames. dumbledore closed the casket and placed the goblet carefully on top of it, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the hall.

"anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said dumbledore. "aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. tomorrow night, halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. the goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete."

"when are you two going to enter?" freya asked, nodding to maeve and fleur.

"tonight, probably." replied maeve. she looked at fleur and grinned, "i'll be the first to do it."

"imbecile, you won't!"

"i will."

"to ensure that no underage student yields to temptation," said dumbledore, "i will be drawing an age line around the goblet of fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line."

"finally, i wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. once a champion has been selected by the goblet of fire, they are obliged to see the tournament through to the end. the placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. there can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet."

you have to become a champion.

no way out.

again, that didn't sound too good.

"now, i think it is time for bed. good night to you all."

(true to maeve's overconfident words. she was the very first student to enter her name into the goblet of fire. but, not without making a fool of herself and nearly tipping it over. for somebody with such poise and grace- she was quite clumsy).

maeve's actions caused a chain reaction, put simply. after maeve, it was fleur. after fleur- it was all of the durmstrang students the next morning. and after that, well-

"ageing potion," grinned lee happily.

"they want to make a fool of themselves," corrected hermione at the table as honey sat down. maeve had slid in next to fitz, snatching his toast and grimacing before eating it regardless. fleur, as it seemed, was a late riser. because from what honey could gather from last night, they were never usually seen apart.

"they can't make more of a fool out of themselves then maeve, no?" fitz said thoughtfully, smiling adoringly at his sister before he yelped. "do not stamp on my shoes! i just shined them!"

"i see you've met my cousin," honey said, glancing blandly at them- a stubborn grin she hid under her 'unamused' expression not showing in the slightest.

"we're fantastic, really." fitz grinned.

"he is like a clone of fred," ron muttered.

"he's got a bit more sparkle, really." george corrected, "a certain essence."

"bloody idiots," ron replied.

honey stared at them all, buttering her toast before eating it (shocker) without jam. honey made her alliances to the jam she liked very clear to the hufflepuff table- but snape had thought it was blasphemous to take a jam to another table, and had refused her and forced her to put it back.

"any hogwarts students entered yet?" honey asked, trying to sound pleasant so early in the morning.

"i think cedric diggory wants to enter," hermione replied thoughtfully.

"yeah- i heard him talking about it last night." nodded honey.

"how do you know cedric?" harry frowned, looking at her confused.

"he's in my house, isn't he?" honey mused. "besides, he was the one who helped me at the world cup." she shook her head and smiled fondly. "you're lucky you have your looks going for you harry. terribly lucky."

"is this a daily occurrence?" maeve inquired.

"we're lucky when she's not in our house. it'd makes harry's ego far to fucking big if she was."

"thanks for that, ron."

"enough of this!" fred declared grandly, "we're going to put our names in now! one drop of the potion each- we're practically of age now!"

the trio of troublemakers (not to be confused with harry, hermione, ron and occasionally honey which did technically make them a quartet but technicalities-) walked to the goblet of fire, each carefully tiptoeing over the age line with one foot. that was clearly all the confirmation they needed.

"this will be fun," honey assured her cousins as they all walked a bit behind the twins and lee who were on their way to the entrance hall, "i wish hogwarts allowed cameras. i want to record this and show lee his biggest embarrassment every day."

"our lezzers will be fine. he's-"

the three of them practically leaped past the age line (a thin gold line).

for a split second honey thought it had worked. george had let out a yell of triumph whilst lee cheered, doing a little victory dance.

it was all short lived, because in the next moment there was a loud sizzling sound and in the blink fo an eye, the three of them were hurled out of the golden circle as though there was an invisible sling-shot they'd walked into.

they 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.

even the three of them had joined in, once they had gotten to their feet and taken a good look at each other's beards.

"i did warn you," said a deep, amused voice, and everyone turned to see professor dumbledore coming out of the great hall. he surveyed fred and george, his eyes twinkling. "i suggest you both go up to madam pomfrey. she is already tending to miss fawcett, of ravenclaw, and mr. summers, of hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. though i must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours."

"FANTASTIC BEARD, LESLIE!" yelled honey, cupping her hands around her mouth before she burst out into laughter.

"what in the name of merlin has just happened here?" laughed another voice. emmery now stood beside her, looking quite bemused.

"oh, they actually did it?" came the voice of kai. he greeted honey with a nod (which was a bit less friendly than usual, but still).

"up for some breakfast, then?" emmery asked honey.

"we left ours to go watch them, but yeah. my cousin's have decided to plague me every day."

"plague? you're the plague!" declared fitz stoically.

as they walked back into the hall, they found that the now bearded sixth year boys' places had been replaced by seamus and dean, talking and theorising who would put their name into the goblet of fire from hogwarts.

"there's a rumour going around that warrington got up early and put his name in," dean told harry.

"that big bloke from slytherin who looks like a sloth." harry, who had played quidditch against warrington, shook his head in disgust. "we can't have a slytherin champion!"

"the bloke looks so sour all the time," seamus chorused, "suppose it's all the bloody gooseberries they eat and whatnot. sour little feckers."

"cedric's going to try," said honey, turning from emmery and her cousin's conversation for just a second.

"a hufflepuff?"

"what's so bad about that, finnigan?" snapped honey.

"nothing- just... i thought he wasn't the sort of person. he's just a bit too pretty for it, isn't he?"

"sorry maeve," honey declared, "you can't enter the tournament."

"and why not?"

"seamus says 'pretty people' can't enter. whatever that means- personally to me you look a bit like a troll."

"lovely, i'll tell fleur she'll be damned to failure, then." replied maeve pleasantly.

honey turned back to seamus and smirked, "yes, finnigan?"

"i'd take diggory over that sour slytherin man," he finally admitted.

"good."

"i think it would be good to have a hufflepuff hogwarts champion," added emmery, "or ravenclaw-" she grinned at honey, "we are often overlooked, aren't we?"

"speak for yourself," guffawed ron. he jabbed ino honey's direction, "she's a menace- it's hard to overlook that."

"watch yourself, biscuit boy." snapped honey.

"see what i mean?"

"i hope it is that diggory boy," maeve said, a little smirk on her face (which was a very odd thing to se), "good competition."

"good on the eyes, more like." fitz mumbled appreciatively.

"you've entered, then?" harry asked her cousin.

maeve smiled at him in a sort of 'silly boy' way. then she looked at honey and then did this terrible cheshire grin. "you were the harry who's been bowling my cousin all summer, then?"

"er-"

"answer his fucking question, maeve."

"nevermind then," maeve hummed. "but yes- i entered last night."

"she was the person who raced out the hall," added honey.

"i wanted to be first." shrugged maeve, "fleur and i were having a competition."

"who's fleur?" ron asked.

"she'll be around soon," shrugged honey, looking at maeve to confirm. "but i think you've probably seen her yesterday."

"you were the one who nearly broke a bone?"

"i only partially twisted my ankle, actually."

(and that was breakfast).

honey was rather sure nobody had concentrated in any lesson that day. it was, of course, the day they'd find out who was the champion from each school was. the teachers (except binns. his lesson was full of nobody listening) deserved a medal for at least trying to teach- because every lesson seemed to have a smattering of 'i think the champion will be-' and 'my money is on-' in it.

by the time dinner rolled around, honey had joined the fun too.

"sure, it would be nice for angelina to get it," she said, "but cedric's a hufflepuff, isn't he house pride and what not. he's dead good at magic. he tutored hannah after all."

"i hope he gets it," hannah agreed, "our house deserves a bit of time to shine."

by the time they entered the candlelit great hall, it was almost full. unlike previously where a few of each school where sat everywhere- peppered within hogwarts students, they'd all clustered up today. groups of beauxbaton students were clustered at the very end of the hufflepuff and ravenclaw table- with the drumstrangs choosing to sit themselves solely on the slytherin table (which did mean they were quite cramped actually).

honey are her roommates sat themselves near a group of seventh years simply because they the hall was so packed- brimmed with more students that there normally where and far too many durmstrang coats which were thick enough to be considered a small human child when bundled up.

the wide-spread chatter in the hall filled the room with excitement and the goblet of fire had been moved, now standing in front of dumbledore's empty chair at the teacher's table which only seemed to heighten the excitement.

"cedric's got to get it," she heard some hufflepuff seventh year say from beside her. her hair was pulled up into a bun, her platinum blonde dyed hair looking shiny with a few stray strands falling to the sides of her face. "he's got the looks going for him, hasn't he?"

"god you're a menace." laughed cedric and his group of friends a few seats away laughed loudly with him.

"i hope it is cedric," repeated hannah after the older year's sentiments. "he really does deserve it, doesn't he?"

"i'd prefer him to warrington," freya added.

honey nodded, "slytherin or not- he's a nasty piece of shit, isn't he?"

the halloween feast seemed to go on longer than necessary in honey's opinion. it wasn't like anybody was doing much but talking about the tournament and who would get chosen.

like everyone else in the hall, judging by the constantly craning necks, the impatient expressions on every face, the fidgeting, and the standing up to see whether dumbledore had finished eating yet, honey simply wanted the plates to clear, and to hear who had been selected as champions.

at long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the hall, which died away almost instantly as dumbledore got to his feet.

on either side of him, professor karkaroff and madame maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. ludo bagman was beaming and winking at various students. mr. crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.

"well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said dumbledore. "i estimate that it requires one more minute." (how dumbledore knew that- honey had no idea. maybe the cup and him were just as loony as the other).

"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-" he indicated the door behind the staff table, "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

he took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. the goblet of fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole hall, the sparkling bright, bluey whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes.

everyone watched, waiting for something to happen.

"any second," the girl who'd been teasing cedric moment's earlier said.

the flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. sparks began to fly from it. next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it - the whole room gasped. dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.

"the champion for durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be viktor krum."

a storm of applause and cheers swept the hall quickly. honey watched as victor krum rose from the slytherin table- a bit red in the face- and turned right, walked along the staff table and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.

"bravo, viktor!" boomed karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. "knew you had it in you!"

the clapping and chatting died down.

now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. a second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

"the champion for beauxbatons," said dumbledore, "is maeve baudelaire!"

"MY GOD!" shrieked honey- eyes wide as her hands immediately started applauding her cousin. she, along with the rest of the beauxbaton students stood up a bit. she let out a mad bit of laughter, so giddy that she repeated, "that's my cousin!" to anybody who was near her.

she continued to clap as her cousin stood up and waved- grinning so brightly you'd assume she was a star in the sky. she did a little giddy jump up the stairs (even with her slightly fractured ankle) and managed not to trip as she practically skipped her way into the next room.

she saw fleur's head craning, and the two caught each other's eyes and honey watched as fleur smile fiercely. she clapped loudly and yelled something like, "that's it!" in french- and the applauds carried with her for a few seconds longer.

after honey finally realised she was one of the few still standing up, she dropped to her seat quickly.

silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so full of excitement you could almost taste it.

the hogwarts students, if they hadn't been paying attention before, were most certainly now.

the goblet of fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment.

"the hogwarts champion," he called, "is cedric diggory!"

"hell yeah!" yelled the hufflepuff girl again (who honey must really learn the name of. she seemed fucking fantastic).

the uproar from their table was almost euphoric.

every single hufflepuff jumped to their feet, screaming and stamping mixed with loud cheers as they went simply ballistic. cedric made his way past them- but not without people high-fiving him and a few of his friends hugging him- with a the hufflepuff girl who'd been teasing him pulling him into a headlock. he swiftly got out of it, but not before ruffling her hair and running up the aisle, running into the next room.

the applause for cedric went on for some time before dumbledore could be heard again.

dumebldore had began to speak again, but just because the hufflepuff table had stoped cheering didn't mean in the slightest that they were listening at all.

"fucking fantastic!" the hufflepuff girl said. she turned to their group who were all grinning, "a hufflepuff as a champion!"

"cedric deserved it," hannah added.

"certainly did," the girl snorted. "poor boy was practising spells the past week. bit of a nerd, isn't he?" she squinted at hannah, "didn't he tutor you?"

"he did!" nodded hannah. she tilted her head, as if she wasn't unsure about her next words, "are you lynn ong?"

"the one and only," grinned the girl (lynn- well there we go. now honey knows!). she titled her head, "ceddy talk about me? all good things, i hope?"

"er..."

"he loves to insult me," lynn sniffed in disdain, "it's fine. i call him a twit all the time."

"well er-"

"hold on-" honey said. she frowned and squinted, "the goblet- the fire's turning red again."

"bullshit," muttered vi, squinting too. "no, it's-"

a long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment. automatically, it seemed, dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. he held it out and stared at the name written upon it.

there was a long pause, during which dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at dumbledore.

and then dumbledore cleared his throat and read out,"harry potter."

rosie speaks!

am i completely excited for this and
maybe too excited ? yeah. maybe.
it's fine because <3 i miss writing
for honey and she's so easy to write
for some reason. i really love this
act acc hold up i love this BOOK
like fuck guys what a moment.

i'm literally in love with maeve
so much for no reason. lynn will be
slipping in her from time to time
and i just love her <3

have fun and stay safe WHILST
WEARING A DAMN MASK !

thoughts are always appreciated :)

word count: 6,022 words