T W E N T Y - E I G H T

⋮✰⋮

Adeline felt as if she was about to vomit.

Normally, she loved the Halloween feast. Sure, it had been subject to a few disasters in the past from the troll who escaped into the dungeon to Sirius Black breaking into the castle. Those crazy events rarely interrupted the actual feast itself though, so it never really mattered to her. Her favorite part of Halloween night was always all the dishes in the Great Hall.

But with the Goblet of Fire looming in front of her, Adeline could barely even take a sip of her pumpkin juice without her stomach churning. So she was thankful for the distraction when Amelia called the attention of the small group of sixth years in the area.

"Alright kiddies," Amelia grinned, slamming her hand on the table. "Place your bets on the Hogwarts champion."

Estelle reached for her small coin purse and pulled two sickles out of it. "Two sickles on Ms. Adeline over here."

"That's really sweet," Adeline said with a soft smile before reaching into her small purse. "But I'm going with the safe choice. I'll put two sickles on Cedric."

Patrick agreed with Adeline and placed two sickles in the center of the table as well, proclaiming that it was almost guaranteed that it would be Cedric.

Beside her, however, Delilah rolled her eyes and scoffed at everyone's choices. "You guys are so stupid," She said to the group before slamming a couple of silver coins in the middle of the group. "Four sickles on Harry Potter. He's been a little too quiet this year, and as we've seen way too many times, if there's something dangerous happening, Harry's going to end up roped in it."

"There's no way his name could've gotten in there."

"Oh trust me, Estelle. If Harry Potter's involved, there's always a way."

When the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons champions were announced and it came time to choose the Hogwarts champion, Adeline was a pile of nerves as she sat, clutching onto Estelle's hand so tightly that both their knuckles turned white.

The flames turned a bright shade of red and a small piece of paper came flying out of it. Professor Dumbledore plucked the paper out of the air and read the name neatly scribbled upon it.

"The Hogwarts champion is...Adeline Reyes!"

The Ravenclaw table burst into loud screams of excitement over not only their beloved prefect being chosen, but also that the Ravenclaw house was finally going to be celebrated for once after years of being overshadowed by the Gryffindors and Slytherins. Adeline sat in an almost dazed shock for a few seconds before a cheering Estelle shoved her forward and out of her seat. She couldn't believe that she had been chosen for the Tournament, and the sounds of everyone cheering her name were something she had never heard before.

All around the Great Hall, the Hogwarts students were celebrating. While Adeline had always been quiet, her sweet and kind demeanor had made her loved by almost everyone she came across. There were a certain few students – largely at Slytherin – who were furious that a Muggleborn had been chosen as the "most worthy" wizard at Hogwarts, but those students were so few and far between that their protests were drowned out by everyone else in the room. Melanie and Ophelia were both on their feet, earning several confused looks from members of their house as they screamed Adeline's name and cheered her on. George was clapping loudly and grinning as he watched Adeline make her way from the Ravenclaw table to the front of the room.

In the midst of all the celebration, Adeline caught almost all of the Hogwarts teachers grinning at her, and Professor Flitwick seemed to be standing in his seat and had ditched nearly all of his normal decorum as he cheered on Adeline. Next to him, Professor McGonagall was beaming and couldn't help but remember the first time she had met Adeline, who was only eleven and hadn't even known that magic was real, and had now become a Triwizard Champion.

Adeline shook hands with a grinning Professor Dumbledore and made her way down into the downstairs chamber where the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions were waiting. Fleur and Viktor were quiet as she approached and while Fleur gave her a nod of acknowledgment and a small smile, Viktor just stared at her and didn't even say a word. Adeline smiled at the pair but was silent as she took a seat by the fire, fiddling with her hands in her lap as she tried to distract herself.

A figure appeared at the top of the staircase, and at first, Adeline thought it was one of the teachers or Ministry officials coming down to talk to them. But when that small figure came closer, Adeline realized that it wasn't a teacher but a student.

Specifically, it was Harry Potter.

While Fleur and Viktor stared at Harry in confusion, Adeline realized immediately why he was there. "Holy Merlin..." Adeline whispered, her mouth practically dropped to the floor. "Delilah was right."

Before anyone could question why Adeline had said this, a million things seemed to happen at once. All the top professors and headmasters came rushing into the chamber and immediately began furiously questioning Harry. The three champions sat back in shock, watching all of this unfold before them. Harry looked absolutely terrified and panicked, trying his best to answer Professor Dumbledore's questions despite not even knowing himself how his name ended up in the Goblet of Fire.

"Excuse me?"

The sound of Adeline's quiet voice cut through the argument, and all the attention was focused onto Adeline, who had seemingly been forgotten about in the midst of all the Harry Potter chaos. "If I may," She began in a nervous voice. "If Harry did put his name in as a Hogwarts student, then how am I here? Wouldn't I have never been chosen as the Hogwarts champion?"

The room went nearly silent as all the professors thought about this revelation. Harry was the most surprised to see Adeline speak up his defense. Normally, students and teachers seemed to assume the worst in Harry and would think he wanted to get involved in all these deadly incidents. On top of that, Harry was sure Adeline would've been furious with him for being chosen as one of the Hogwarts champions and stealing away the glory she would've surely gotten.

But, despite having never spoken to her, Adeline was still defending Harry, who couldn't have been more thankful to have her there.

Adeline continued with, "For both Harry and I to be chosen, his name would've had to be put in there from a different school. Since the Goblet of Fire seems to be this incredibly powerful magical object, someone would've had to perform this insanely powerful charm to change it so it included four schools. I don't believe Harry – no offense – would be good enough to cast a spell like that, or even any of the Hogwarts students even if they wanted to. And surely, none of the professors would've done it for him, right?"

"You seem to know an awful lot about how to bewitch the Goblet," Headmaster Karkaroff sneered, causing Adeline to flinch back and take a step away from the group of teachers. "A muggleborn's never been chosen as a Triwizard champion! How do we know that you didn't–"

"Headmaster Karkaroff!" Professor McGonagall interrupted furiously, shocked of what he was even suggesting. "I can assure you that after years of having her in my classes, Ms. Reyes is more than deserving of being the Hogwarts champion."

If it weren't for the situation at hand, Adeline would've been grinning from ear to ear. A compliment like that from Professor McGonagall was practically unheard of, and Adeline had always looked up the brilliant witch ever since she met her on her eleventh birthday.

"Ms. Reyes is right," Professor Dumbledore said in a soft voice, earning a grunt of disagreement from Headmaster Karkaroff. Headmistress Maxime looked to be nodding in agreement, but she still appeared furious over the whole situation. "There is very little chance that Harry somehow put his own name in. However, he must still compete."

Even though the whole issue seemed "settled", the professors and Ministry officials still appeared furious as they filed out of the chamber. Headmaster Karkaroff and Madam Maxime grabbed Viktor and Fleur and led them off, whispering angrily with them in their foreign languages as they shot furtive looks back at Harry and Professor Dumbledore.

Adeline and Harry exchanged an awkward look, not entirely sure of what to say to each other, before leaving the chamber. Before Adeline could go too far down the corridor, however, a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Why did you stand up for me?"

Surprised, Adeline turned around to look back at Harry. He looked so small under the looming archways and in the darkness, and it only seemed to act as a painful reminder of just how young Harry was.

"Well you didn't put your name in, right?" Adeline asked, and Harry answered by shaking his head quickly. "I already didn't think you did when I saw you walk into the room. But I got to thinking while everyone was yelling at you, and the more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed logically that you put your name in."

"Why?" Harry questioned curiously. "You believed me so quickly. But everyone else seemed to immediately think I put it in myself."

Adeline had to think for a second as to why she was so sure Harry didn't enter his name, and she finally landed on an answer. "I think it was the terrified look in your eyes. It wasn't this look of fear that you had been caught in the act. It was more of an expression of pure and genuine fear. That's when I was sure you didn't put your name in."

"I'm really sorry. I never wanted to be apart of this Tournament, and now I'm taking all of these amazing things away from you and–"

Adeline cut him off her a shake of her head. "What's done is done," She replied softly, trying to smile in an attempt to reassure Harry. "Neither of us can change what happened with the Goblet. All we can do now is move forward and hope that things will be alright in the end."

"I'm really sorry for all the awfulness that's probably coming your way these next few months," Adeline continued sympathetically. "You shouldn't be competing, and I have the feeling that there aren't going to be so many students who believe you."

Harry stared at her in surprise, as he felt like he should be the one apologizing in that situation. But before he could, Adeline gave a small wave goodbye and a sad smile and walked off towards her dorm.

When Adeline pulled open the Ravenclaw tower door, the normally quiet tower was bursting with noise. The Common Room seemed to be decorated with Ravenclaw flags and signs that had Adeline's name painted across it in blue and bronze colors. It reminded Adeline a lot of the Gryffindor Tower the night of the Quidditch Final, and she couldn't help but grin with surprise as the whole tower chanted her name.

"What's going on?" Adeline asked with a laugh.

"Party for our Triwizard Champion of course!" Melanie answered, earning whoops and cheers from the Ravenclaw tower.

Adeline didn't question how both Melanie and Ophelia got into the Ravenclaw tower. Partly because she knew Estelle probably snuck them in, but also because the party was already picking up again.

"Isn't it a little late for a party?" Adeline questioned with a giggle as someone turned up the music up. "I feel like Professor Flitwick is going to come down and yell at us."

"Even if Professor Flitwick did care, we definitely don't," Estelle shoved a cup of butterbeer in Adeline's hand. "It's time to celebrate you tonight."

⋮✰⋮