So sorry his chapter took so long in making!

This is honestly entirely up to reader-interpretation, but speaking from a writer's standpoint, I tried to emulate the original Golden Trio with Astra, Albus, and Wren (very loosely, of course). They're actually what I originally labeled as the "Golden Trio of the Next Gen" way back in the first book. However, I have to say that Colette should probably make it a Golden Quartet, in all honesty. James is more of a Neville or Ginny type of character, because being a year older he's got his own concerns and friends and hasn't spent as much time with them, but Colette doesn't, and she's very central to their group of friends, I think. So it's a Golden Quartet, according to me, but I'm really pumped to see such varying answers. Do you know how cool it is to see and hear so many differing opinions on my work? Beyond amazing.

Honestly, that question kind of depends on which book you're looking at. Colette wasn't even in the picture in the first book, and Wren's been gone for two now. James and Astra were quite the team at the beginning, but I hope I shifted that more towards Astra and Albus (because they're best friends!) in the past book. It all depends on how you see the characters, I guess.

~~~~

Sunday morning, Fred Weasley had an idea.

Now, normally, this wouldn't necessarily be a good thing. Fred Weasley was known for some crazy ideas (like dropping a box of dungbombs on the Slytherin Quidditch team from the roof, or dying his sister's hair purple in her sleep). However, this one wasn't too bad. In fact, it was a great idea. I mean, sure, a highly competitive match of Quidditch against another school might not spark that international magical cooperation all of our professors were pushing, but it was a bloody good idea, all right?

As soon as I'd walked down the stairs, he popped out. "Astra! I need you!"

I was startled (with good reason) and glared at him. "Why?"

"You're the best Seeker in the school, of course." Before I could protest or ask any more questions, he propelled me over to a chair and told me to wait just a moment.

Colette, Wren, and Albus glanced at me uncertainly. "Um... Should we wait too?" Al asked.

"Go on, I'll catch up in a minute." I rolled my eyes. Fred had rushed back up the stairs to the boys' dorms, and I really didn't know when he'd be back. As they walked over to the portrait hole, I decided I'd follow them if he didn't come down in exactly two minutes.

Two and a half minutes later, Fred almost fell down the stairs in his hurry, followed by James, who looked half asleep. "Just hear me out, this'll be amazing!" he was saying. "We've just got to find the best of the best. Dom, obviously, as a Chaser, but do you have any ideas for Keeper?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, raising an eyebrow as James stumbled over to a couch and fell over, before cuddling a cushion. "Quidditch?"

Fred grinned. "Yep! I've decided to challenge Durmstrang to a friendly, deadly Quidditch match! I just need a few more players."

"Have you asked Pouri?" It was a good idea, to be sure, but I didn't fancy getting in trouble for it when Pouri found out as we were heading out to the pitch.

Fred frowned. "No. Didn't think about that. I guess I'll have to, though..." He sighed. "Anyway, who are the best Keepers and Chasers in the school?"

"Fomayhose?" James muttered, his face still buried in the cushion he was hugging.

"What?"

James rolled over. "From any House?"

Fred thought about that for a minute. "I guess so. I hate to say it, but that Slytherin Keeper is probably the best, isn't she?"

"Jacobs?" James asked. "She's pretty tough, yeah."

"Okay, so we'll ask her." Fred frowned. "Now for Chasers..."

"You said Dom already?" I confirmed. Fred nodded. "Okay, how about Grant Bendon, too? They're both on the Ravenclaw team, so they'll know how to play together."

"Good idea," Fred agreed. "One more."

"I suppose it'll have to be a Hufflepuff," James said. "We've got someone from all the other Houses. They'll feel left out. Anyway, Gryfflepuff still lives on!"

I started laughing, but Fred was in too deep of thought to notice much of what James had said. "That girl on the Hufflepuff team, I think she's a fourth year...?"

"Poppy Stevens?" I suggested. She was the only one in my year on their team.

"Yeah, her. She's pretty good, I guess." Fred nodded. "So we've got our all star team! Perfect! I'll go talk to Pouri, and you two go find them." Before James could even roll off the couch, Fred was out the portrait hole.

"The Durmstrang students are a bit scary," I said, as James attempted to break up with the cushion. It looked quite difficult, because neither seemed ready to give the relationship up. "Why couldn't Fred have wanted to challenge Beauxbatons?"

"Because Durmstrang looked like more of a challenge," James said, finally sitting up. "Fred wanted us to spread the word, I bet."

"Yeah, well, I think I'll just go get breakfast, thank you." I rolled my eyes. "Pouri will probably say no." When I got to the Great Hall, though, it was already buzzing with the news.

"Fred Weasley's challenging Durmstrang to a Quidditch match!"

"He's stupid, Viktor Krum went there!"

"Who's his team going to be?"

"They are so going down!"

"Astra and James'll know everything!"

And we were swarmed.

A few minutes later, when Pouri walked in, Fred right behind him, the idea had caught on like a wildfire, and the whole school was following Luke and River in a chant of "I believe that we will win!" much to the confusion of our visiting schools.

Fred looked like he'd been begging the whole way downstairs, and Pouri had been refusing him. However, when he walked through the doors, he and Fred both could do nothing but stare.

Fred got over it first, and excitedly said something I was too far away to hear. Pouri, shook his head, dazedly, then made his way to the front. I didn't see how he could say no. Sure, it wouldn't exactly be fostering unity between schools, but look at our school. There were Slytherins and Gryffindors and Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs chanting side by side, arms around each other. All the Houses were merged together at the front, yelling so loudly you could hardly hear yourself think. I'd never seen the whole school come together over something in my life, and I didn't see how Pouri could put that to an end.

Pouri stood up at the front, but it took over ten minutes to regain order in the Hall. Finally, he sent everyone scurrying back to seats, though no one paid much attention to Houses as they sat down. When I finally found Wren, Albus, and Colette at the Gryffindor table, I had to squeeze between Arthur Longbottom and Dominque Weasley and a Slytherin prefect.

Pouri sighed as he finally raised his hands for silence. "I don't see how I can turn down your request now, Fred Weasley." Cheering broke out, though it was quickly silenced. "You have my permission."

Fred jumped to his feet and ran to the front. Standing just next to Pouri, he faced the Durmstrang students. "We at Hogwarts would like to challenge the students from Durmstrang to a friendly, competitive Quidditch match. We'll have our best, and you'll have yours, and it'll be this afternoon on the pitch." He grinned. "Do you accept?"

There was a quick, whispered meeting among the Durmstrang students, it looked like, before one girl stood up and said, "We accept."

The Great Hall burst into talk once more, and Albus pointed at me. "Seeker?"

"Yeah." I frowned. "Fred should've made it next weekend, and given us some time to practice."

"Well, Fred's never been one for planning ahead, unless it's a prank," Albus said, shrugging.

After breakfast, Colette tried to convince us to go up to the Room of Requirement and practice Patronuses some more, but I caught sight of the Dubois twins headed our way. I didn't necessarily want to show them the Room of Requirement, or that I could do a Patronus, so I suggested we just give them a tour of the grounds.

The twins spent most of the time chattering on about gossip from their school (and saying how much better it was there compared to cold, drafty Hogwarts) to an unresponsive Colette. I couldn't tell if she remembered any of the people they mentioned or just didn't care. Eventually, Albus, Wren, and I ended up several paces behind them.

"Astra, when is my dad giving you another private lesson?" Albus asked suddenly.

"I... I don't know." I frowned. I hadn't really thought about it recently, and I guessed Mr. Potter hadn't either. He hadn't spoken T me about it, anyway. "He's a bit busy this year, don't you think?" I asked. "I don't think they'll really happen."

Suddenly, I walked right into the twins. They'd stopped, and I hadn't realized, apparently. I glanced in the direction they were looking.

James, surrounded by first and second years who were probably muggleborn, was demonstrating how to use the Quidditch equipment. He tossed the Quaffle into the air, talking. I couldn't hear what he said, but most of the kids nodded.

"Who ees zat?" Françoise asked, her voice a bit dreamy.

"Oh, that's just my brother James," Albus said, shrugging. "He's a prat. Why?"

"'E does not look like a prat to me..." Amélie trailed off.

Françoise frowned at her sister. "I saw 'im first."

"No, you did not!"

"I did!"

"You did not!"

"Calm down, it's just James," Colette said distastefully. "It's not like it's anyone special."

"Not anyone special?" Amélie gasped. "I beg to be differing! 'E ees beautiful!"

"Magnificent! I am in love!" Françoise exclaimed, pretending to swoon a bit. "See 'ow 'e plays wiz ze children?"

"'E ees my âme soeur!"

"No! 'E ees mine!" Françoise exclaimed.

"No!"

Before I knew what was happening, they were in a cat fight. You know, your stereotypical shoving, slapping, and scratching that you associate with badly choreographed fight scenes on television. I glanced at Colette, who didn't seem alarmed at all. She rolled her eyes, and took her wand out. "Protego."

The two girls were forced away from each other by a magical barrier. Colette frowned. "He's not either of yours, and definitely isn't your soul mate. He's never met you. Calm down."

"I am in love," Amélie said, sighing romantically. "I am seeing 'ow beautiful our children will be!"

"Zat is the only way you will be seeing zem," Françoise said, staring at James with a dreamy look on her face. "Seence it will be my children in reality."

Albus pretended to puke behind their backs, and I did my best not to laugh. Wren frowned at him disapprovingly.

"Okay... Let's go inside," Colette suggested, rolling her eyes again. As the twins slowly turned to walk inside, she whispered to us, "They'll get over it soon, I'm sure."

~~~~

The match was set to start to one o'clock sharp, so my friends walked me down to the pitch at twelve thirty. The rest of the Hogwarts team was already in the changing room when I walked in. Fred was enthusiastically laying out the plan for the Chasers. Dominque was criticizing him quite a bit, and Grant was telling her to shut up quite a bit, and Poppy was simply bouncing excitedly on her seat. James was swinging his club around, and almost hit Dom in the head. Adriana Jacobs was standing off to one side, though she smiled at me when I walked in. Last year, her little sister Hannah had been sorted into Gryffindor, and I'd helped her get the courage to go talk to her older siblings. Not only that, but Adriana's brother, Davis, had been Headboy last year. And had been petrified. By a basilisk. That I might have killed. All that to say, Adriana was one of the few Slytherins who actually liked me.

"All right!" Fred announced after we'd all gotten ready, standing up on a bench. "This is our game! We've got this! Those Durmstrang guys don't know what they're getting into, do they?"

"No!" James yelled, pumping his fist in the air.

"And we're going to win, aren't we?"

"Yes!" James yelled.

"And the rest of you have got some enthusiasm too, right?"

"No!" James yelled, grinning, before Dom swatted him on the shoulder.

"Maybe not as much as James," Grant said, "but of course we do!"

"All right!" Fred grinned. "Let's do this!"

We walked out onto the pitch to deafening cheers. I'd never had the whole crowd cheering for me before, and I had to say, it was quite nice. On the other end of the pitch, the Durmstrang students were walking out, oblivious to the crowd and their five cheers from their school friends.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle. "Mount your brooms!"

I swung my leg over my Nimbus, and at her next whistle, took to the sky.

Along with the Durmstrang Seeker, a burly boy who was about twice my size, I flew high above the stands, looking for the Snitch. Patrick Shaw and a Durmstrang girl were both commentating, though it seemed to contain a lot more jabs at the other person's team and flirting then normal. I tuned them out.

James and Fred were trying to keep a monopoly on the Bludgers, but one of the Durmstrang Beaters, the girl named Kirsten I'd noticed last night as being more intimidating than everyone else, was making it difficult. She kept swooping down right in front of them and smashing it at Poppy or Dom or Grant. I just prayed I would never be in the path of one of her Bludgers, because they were going much faster than we were used to. One hit a goalpost and bent it.

Other than that, we were doing pretty well. The teams seemed to be evenly matched, but as time went on ours creeped ahead. Honestly, though, we all knew it would come down to the Snitch. The Snitch that neither of us had seen (though I'd done a few fake dives), and that probably would be the death of me if Kirsten noticed I was going for it.

I was just thinking about this when I saw the Durmstrang Seeker go into a dive. There was a flash of gold behind Poppy, on the other side of the pitch. I quickly dove in pursuit. He was much closer than I was, but I would just have to trust in the power of a faster broom and a smaller body.

The wind was whistling past my ears, so I could hardly hear the shouts of the crowd as they realized what was happening. I had eyes only for the golden orb that was zooming away as I neared it. I caught up to the Durmstrang Seeker, and then it was a neck and beck race to catch the Snitch. Hopefully, though, I'd start inching forward.

I heard someone shouting, "Look out!" but I couldn't spare a glance in their direction. Something grazed the back of my head, it felt like. It burned, but I bit back any noise. I was so close to the Snitch, and I wasn't about to give it up.

Albus told me later that Kirsten had hit a Bludger at me, and it had scraped my head. Apparently, I'd been bleeding, and though we were going so fast that people couldn't tell whose it was, there were still drops of blood flying out behind us. I have to admit, I was completely unaware of that. It hardly even hurt after a second, really. All that mattered was the Snitch, which I was rapidly drawing closer to.

The Durmstrang Seeker and I both reached out at the same time, stretching out to reach the Snitch as it flew in front of us. I had a brief thought that we might crash into each other when someone caught the Snitch, but I pushed that away.

Our hands both closed, and I grinned. The cool metal on the Snitch was in my hand. I pulled up, holding the Snitch above my head. Everyone was cheering, and I felt a hump as someone (Poppy, I think), flew into me. She was soon joined by the rest of the team, and we slowly flew down to the ground in group hug, too excited for words.

The first people who met me when I'd touched down were Kirsten Sorenson and Mrs. Longbottom, the school's new nurse. Kirsten looked quite distressed as Mrs. Longbottom pulled me out of the frenzy of hugs and over to the side, where she started bandaging my head.

"I did not think that vood heet your head," Kirsten said, eyes wide. "I am very sorry."

"It's okay." I winced as Mrs. Longbottom applied some sort of healing salve. "I can't feel it, actually, though that might just be adrenaline..." I trailed off, a bit of nervousness returning as I realized who I was talking to—Kirsten, the girl who I'd pinned as the most intimidating of all the Durmstrang students, and the girl who had been hitting Bludgers so hard that one bent a goalpost.

Kirsten only looked worried, though. "I do not try to heet the head, truly. Only ven I play vith my brothers do I do that. I did not mean..."

"It's fine, really." I smiled a bit. She didn't seem very scary now, really. "I'll be just great by tomorrow, I'm sure."

"Hold still," Mrs. Longbottom said. "You'll be fine in a few minutes, if you don't move your head."

Kirsten appeared relieved. "She vill be fine? That ees good."

"Yeah..." I shrugged. "You're a scary good Beater, by the way."

"Thank you," Kirsten said, smiling. "You are a good Seeker, as well." I smiled, before some Durmstrang students called Kirsten over. "Goodbye, Astra," she said, nodding to me. "I am still sorry about your head." And with that, she turned and walked over to her friends.

"What was that about?" Albus asked, startling me. He and Wren and Colette had come up.

"She was just apologizing for hitting me," I said, shrugging. "She's not so scary if you talk to her, actually."

"I'll take your word for it," Al said, glancing at the Durmstrang students. They were huddled together around their Headmaster.

"Beauxbatons challenged Hogwarts to a match," Colette informed me. "They're a little miffed Fred didn't ask them first, but Étienne said they would make up for it by... How did he put it, Al?"

"By 'beating the magic out of you'." Albus said, shrugging. "I suppose it sounds more threatening to French wizards."

Wren gently touched the back of my head. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. I can hardly feel it. Mrs. Longbottom said I'd be all right in just a few minutes." I smiled at her.

Over the next few hours, several Hogwarts students put their name in the Goblet of Fire, to great cheers from their Houses, and people would spontaneously break into chants whenever Beauxbatons students passed, mainly "I believe that we will win." Albus, Wren, Colette, and I stayed in the Great Hall most of the time, after a quick visit to he hospital wing where Mrs. Longbottom pronounced me quite well.

Finally, evening arrived. Everyone was on the edge of their seats all throughout dinner, occasionally glancing at the Goblet and whispering about who would be our champion. I was excited, and I could hardly guess how the seventh years were feeling. Across the hall, Faith Lindsey wasn't eating, and she wasn't alone. Most of the students who had put their name in the cup were glancing at their watches every few seconds and at the Goblet the rest of the time.

Finally, the time came. The food disappeared, and Pouri stood up. The candles seemed to grow dinner as his voice carried across the hall. "The Goblet is about to make its decision," he called. "When the champions are called, I would like them to please make their way through this door," he indicated one beside the staff table, "for their first instructions."

The Goblet shine brighter than anything else in the room. The blue flames danced around, so bright in the dark that they almost hurt my eyes to look at. "Soon," Albus whispered.

Suddenly, the flames turned red, and a charred piece of paper flew out of the cup. Pouri caught it, and read, "The Beauxbatons champion is Étienne Dubois!"

The twins' older brother stood up, grinning as he was applauded. He seemed like a nice guy, though I didn't know much about him yet. The twins, who had been sitting next to him, were screaming and jumping excitedly, and they fought to hug him before he followed Pouri's instructions and entered the room off the Great Hall.

The Goblet was turning red once more, and the noise died down almost immediately. A piece of parchment was shot out again, and Pouri caught it. "The champion for Durmstrang," he read, "is Kirsten Sorenson!"

I cheered louder than most people at the Gryffindor table. Good for her. She deserved it. She was much nicer than she appeared, too.

When Kirsten had disappeared through the door, the noise dropped once more. After a moment, the flames turned red one last time, and one last piece of parchment shot out. Pouri grabbed it, and read, "The champion got Hogwarts is... Faith Lindsey!"

The Slytherins cheers were so loud that they drowned out any dissension. I, for one, was all right with the choice, though a bit disappointed. After all, Drake would've been a great Champion as well. However, there were worse candidates than Faith Lindsey.

"Perfect!" Pouri called over the noise as Faith disappeared through the door as well. "There we have our three champions! I'm sure all of you will be giving your champions as much support as you can. By encouraging them, you do have a real—"

Pouri stopped speaking. Everyone else did, too. Mr. Potter stood up, walking forward slowly, as the flames in the goblet turned red once more. He was the one to catch the paper, not Pouri. And, with a horrified look on his face, he read, "Astra Lestrange."

~~~~

Question of the Day: How much did I increase the cliche-ness of this book just now?

Vote and comment! Trust me, this'll turn out all right! I have a solid reason! I'm not just fishing for a plot from the original series! No, this has a purpose! Just please hear me out because I can make this work. Love you all!

~Ellie