31ST OCTOBER 1994 - 04:00 PM

Meera had spent a substantial amount of time showing around the first two floors of Hogwarts to the Beauxbatons girls. As she and Evie spent more time with them, she realised that they were actually a lot friendlier than she thought they'd be.

Instead of progressing to the next floor they decided to go to the libary as despite being potential candidates for the tournament they were still expected to complete their schoolwork independantly. According to Freya Madame Maxime had a highly regimented schedule plotted out for them and would not hestitate to send anyone who didn't comply back to France.

Whilst the French education system had some differences in terms of the content they taught in lessons such as History, the core principles of Transfiguration or Charms were pretty similar. Somehow Meera had never noticed that Madem Pince infact held translations of some textbooks in her library and the dust crusted volumes had been rather useful to the French students.

Their conversation was sparse but nonetheless interesting despite the language barrier. "...so my dad went up to the waitress and he could have ordered in English...you know pointed at the menu or somthing, but no he had to be a show off. He went up there and with utmost confidence he said: 'Je suis la limonade.' " Evie finished.

"Non!" one of the girls exclaimed. Evie nodded solemnly. Despite hearing this story being told many times by Evie it was one that never failed to make Meera laugh at least a little due to the sheer absurdity of the situation.

"So tell me...how do you two know Harris?" Freya asked after their laughter subsided.

"He moved here a while ago and since then has become a really good friend of ours...wait you know Harris?" Meera asked, just clocking that the Beauxbatons girl's question.

"Were you guys friends in Beauxbatons?" Evie asked.

"Friends would be an understatement." a heavily accented voice interjected before Freya could say anything. "From what I remember my friend and yours were...zey were very close."

The veela girl Meera had seen was leaning against a bookshelf next to Freya's armchair. Freya's gaze remained averted. "Thank you for that Fleur."

"Harris never mentioned you." Evie said, straightening in her seat a little.

"We didn't end on the best terms Evie, but I have no hard feelings. I'm sure from the time you guys have been friends you know what a great guy he is...kind of guy who's hard to hate or dislike for long." Freya smiled. "So tell me has Harris entered the tournament? I mean I wouldn't be surprised, he did always love having an opportunity to showcase his tricks to people."

"No actually, he's chosen not to as he doesn't really feel the need to showcase his skills in the spotlight and wants to focus on his work." Meera replied.

"I'm not surprised really, this Tournament is a highly publicisied event and Harris is a quite a private quiet kinda guy you know who wants to avoid the spotlight. He only seeks the respect of those he respects and care about." Evie added.

"Oh." Freya almost seemed disappointed at the fact Merlin wasn't joining the tournment. "I just thought...I don't know I guess I thought it would be a fun way to catchup."

"Through a highly dangerous tournament?" Meera questioned. "Interesting perspective on fun."

"You know Freya, I didn't see you enter last night...all ze others were zer but I couldn't see you." Fleur said. "Where did you go?"

"I reacted badly to something I ate, I will be entering when the crowds quieten a little...I don't appreciate being stared at when I go over you know." Freya replied. "Anyone you guys know entered?"

"A friend of ours named Cedric Diggory. He and Harris are thick as thieves actually. They can be quite insufferable together. He also plays on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team with Evie...she's the Keeper and he's Seeker." Meera said.

"Friend, Meera?" Evie asked amusedly. "I thought you guys were rivals?"

"I didn't really think we needed to get into the pedantic details in front of our guest Evie." Meera shrugged.

"Rival, Meera? Seems a little extreme for school." Freya said.

"I consider Diggory to be my academic rival yes, he's a pretty high achieving student and I like to set myself high standards." Meera shrugged.

"Are pretty and high achieving seperate adjectives in that sentence?" Evie asked, a playful glint in her eyes. Meera glared at her. "Don't glare at me, you're the one who lurks around the darkened empty halls of Hogwarts with him."

Freya rose her eyebrows at the Ravenclaw and Meera shook her head, vigorously. "Diggory and I are barely friends, she's just saying that because we have prefect duty together sometimes. So we run into each other sometimes."

"Well you definitely ran into him last night." Evie said. "What were you doing together for so long?"

"Rechecking the classrooms, anyway, the only other people I know who have entered are Lorelei Black and Angelina Johnson." 

"Black az in Sirius Black?" Fleur asked. Meera nodded. "I didn't know he had a daughter."

"Yes, she's also pretty good friends with Harris. Pretty good candidate for the tournament, very eager to compete." Evie replied.

Their conversation died down to an occasional question here or there about the work after that and a little while later Freya and her friends left. Fleur's presence heavily dampened the moods of some of Freya's friends who'd exchange sullen looks as they muttered under their breath in French about the veela girl who paid no attention to them as she busily made notes. In fact Freya was the only one in this particular group who didn't seem to mind Fleur's presence.

"They're not too bad actually." Meera said gathering the books back to return them to their shelves. She grimaced a little at the dust that stuck to her hands and hastily patted her hands together to get it off.

"They're ok." Evie said, in a rather diminished tone.

"You good?" Meera asked noticing her friend's evident change in mood. Evie nodded. "Freya's Merlin's past Evie, I'm sure if things were good between them he'd not have compltetly neglected to mention her. Besides, it seems she doesn't really know what kind of guy he is if she thinks he'd go for some 'no guts no glory' tournament and you're the one of the only people he has told about who he is."

Evie shrugged. "I don't know. Harris has never seemed like someone who'd leave a relationship with any hard feelings. If he just left things unresolved between them, it sounds pretty serious. That explains why he looked so shocked this morning. I just don't want him to end up in a bad situation again. From all the things he's told us about his life it seems like he's been through enough heartbreak and loss you know, don't need to add another to the list."

Meera smiled. "Fair enough. Now let's go and get something to eat."

People were beginning to file into the Great Hall, gathering early despite the absence of food eyeing the Goblet which was now stainding in front of Dumbledore's empty chair.

"None of that ladies...we need you to stay in your respective houses tonight." McGonnegal said curtly as she noticed Evie trying to drag Meera along to the Hufflepuff table. Evie sighed dejectedly before taking a seat in between Roman and Cedric.

"So who are you hoping for?" Padma asked as Meera seated herself at the Ravenclaw table .

"Hello to you too." Meera replied. "I don't have any particular preference, but it would be nice if we had a Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw champion you know. We're part of Hogwarts too and we're just as capable as the Gryffindors and Slytherins.."

Meera winced a little as she accidentally bit her tongue whilst chewing on a cake bar.

"Anyone in particular from Hufflepuff?" Padma an unusually teasing smirk gracing her features.

"Hmm?" was all Meera could get out as she struggled to finish chewing the particularly large bite she'd taken out of it.

"Hoping for a particular dashing sixth year who happens to be a Prefect and Captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team?" Padma asked wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, a smirk on her face.

"Hmahhwa?" Meera fought to get out a denial regretting eating so fast yet again.

"No. No! I just hope it's someone from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw because they are the more overshadowed houses in Hogwarts. Diggory or our candidate can easily win this tournament " Meera exclaimed, rapidly before Padma could make any more suggestive comments. "Right Evie?"

"What am I agreeing to?" the blonde girl asked looking back towards Meera a little cluelessly.

"Meera thinks Pretty Boy Diggory's the best candidate for the tournament." Padma responded quickly.

"That is a gross understatement of what I just said." Meera protested she turned back towards the Hufflepuff table to find Cedric looking in her direction frowning.

"Why exactly does everyone insist on calling me that?" Cedric asked.

"Because I guess someone or multiple someones decided to spread it because they think you're pretty. Even Meera said so in the library today." Evie said, Meera gaped at the Hufflepuff girl. 

A toothy grin grew on Cedric's face. "Now is that right?"

"For the love of God will people please stop misquoting me?" Meera exclaimed exasperatedly. "I said you're 'pretty high achieving'. Evie for some reason thought that my statement was that you're 'pretty and high achieving' like as two seperate descriptions. When it's not what I meant."

He kept grinning nonetheless. "Thanks for letting me know Evie...I didn't think I'd live to hear about the day Meera gave me a compliment."

"She also said you were her friend." Evie added. 

"Wow Meera, I'm touched, didn't realise we'd become so close. But please pace yourself I don't think I can take all this kindness at once." Cedric said with mock solemnity. 

 "You're despicable." Meera said, shaking her head. "Both of you."

"Thank you." Evie responded bowing and Meera rolled her eyes and shook her head, turning back to the Ravenclaw table as she noticed the food appear.

The students were either barely touching the food or eating as quickly as possible clearly eager to move along the process and find out who the champions were. However, the staff seemed to be in no hurry and took their sweet time, chatting and reconnecting after perhaps years.

"He's finally up!" a boy from her house said pointing towards the front of the Hall. Seconds later the golden plates were empty and the buzz of conversation in the room simmered down rather quickly. Dumbledore was standing in front of the Goblet once again and a pleasant sort of tension filled the hall once again.

"Oh, my God! This tournament is a big deal if it's making the Weasley twins concentrate on what a teacher is about to say." Evie whispered. Meera chuckled and a boy who was a few seats down from her shushed them. Cedric nudged the Hufflepuff girl shaking his head as she moved her hand to swear at him.

On either side of Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime were as tense and expectant as the students. Bagman was beaming brightly at them; in contrast to Crouch who looked quite bored.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision." Dumbledore said. "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" - he indicated to the door behind the staff table - "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

He took out his wand and gave a sweeping wave that extinguished all candles except those inside the carved pumpkins at once, plunging the Great Hall into an eerie state of semidarkness.

It would be an understatement to say that Meera disliked the dark. She didn't understand what caused this innate fear of the dark within her and it bothered her as she'd never really grown out of it and couldn't really find a remedy to it. After her visions this fear had only worsened as the darkness reminded her of the bottomless pit she had been falling in and reminded her of the feelings of helplessness and misery from her vision. Thankfully, the sparkling bluish white flames were brighter than ever now, giving the room a luminescent glow the source of which was almost painful to look at.

"Any minute now." Evie muttered.

Meera looked around and saw people checking their watches. She could hear the quite taps of some feet and saw Adrianna the Ravenclaw candidate holding onto the cross around her neck in between two fingers.

Meera then glanced at Cedric noticing how his grey eyes were tinged with the reflection of the blue glow of the Goblet's flames; he seemed almost entranced by it. His gaze flickered down to his watch and then towards the Ravenclaw table as if he'd felt or noticed that someone had been watching him. She focused on the Goblet again quickly, hoping he hadn't noticed her starting at him.

"Are you sure nothing is going on Meera ?" Padma whispered to her. A Ravenclaw boy shushed at them again make her kick him "I mean, it's a bit pecular to gawk at your frenemy, you know."

"I was not gawking." Meera hissed.

Truthfully, Meera was hoping he won't get picked. She didn't know why but she's beginning to see him in a different light: as her friend not just someone who she competes with or as a friend of her friend. To be perfectly honest, Diggory was not a bad guy at all...he was just annoyingly perfect...or at least chose to maintain that kind of an image which bugged her.

Her gaze returned to the Goblet of Fire and she saw the flames had become crimson; sparks began to fly and a moment later a tongue of flame shot into the air, and a charred piece of parchment flutterred out of it. Meera heard many gasps from around her.

Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so he could read it. "The champion for Durmstrang will be..." he paused and surveyed the room around him.

"...Viktor Krum!" he finished.

The hall burst into cheers that was so loud that Meera had to cover her ears. "No surprise there!" Roman yelled.

Meera saw Krum rise and slouch up toward Dumbledore, he also turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.

"Bravo, Viktor!" Karkaroff boomed so loudly that everyone could hear him even over the applause. "Knew you had it in you!"

The clapping and chatter died down and once more everyone's attention was focused on the Goblet which turned red for at third time. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

"The champion of Beauxbatons is...Fleur Delacour!"

The silvery haired veela girl passed between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables, haughtily, sweeping her hair behind her. A few Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students almost fell out of their seats as they clapped for her, appearing to be mesmerised in a trance.

Meera jumped when she heard a loud noise from the opposite side of the table and realised that two of the girls who weren't picked were sobbing with their heads on their arms.

When Fleur Delacour too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence stiff with excite­ment and anxiety. The Hogwarts champions were next. The champions can't back out now. They had signed their life off to the Tournament when they entered their name.

It had been their choice to make but for some reason the very idea of this tournament gave her a bad feeling, a feeling which kept to herself to avoid being complained at for being a spoilsport.

The Goblet of Fire turned red once more, Meera's eyes never left Dumbledore. The tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third and final piece of parchment. "The Hogwarts champion is," he called, "Cedric Diggory!"

Every single Hufflepuff including Evie jumped to their feet screaming and shouting, shaking Cedric's hand as he made his way past them grinning broadly. Evie patted his shoulder spiritedly, making the boy stumble a little. "I knew you had it in you!"

He looked toward the Ravenclaw table and was glad to see that Meera clapping. He was surprised when he noticed that she held out a wavering hand, but gladly took it in a firm grip, at which she frowned before shaking it.

"I was going for a high five but okay." Meera laughed, as more Hufflepuffs clamoured to congratulate him, after he let go.

"My God you've got a set of lungs." Padma commented as Meera's voice carried over the cheering students next to them. 

Meera watched Cedric disappear into the chamber behind the teacher's seats. She exhaled heavily and ran a hand through her hair. It was over. The three champions for the Triwizard tournament had been selected and now they awaited for their tasks a chamber away.

The applause for Cedric went on for quite long as the Hufflepuffs were clearly elated to finally have something of their own to celebrate. "I can't believe he actually got it...a Hufflepuff is the Triwizard Tournament's champion Meera! I can't believe it." Evie shouted gleefully. This win for Hufflepuff was so long overdue and it was great that they were finally getting it.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real -"

Dumbledore stopped speaking as the Goblet of Fire becaming crimson once more. Sparks were fly­ing out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, followed by another and borne upon them was not one but two further pieces of parchment. Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the charred bits. He held it out and stared at the names written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumble­dore stared at the slips in his hands.

People exchanged glances as they waited for the headmaster to explain the occurence and he looked up towards them. He cleared his throat and called out. "Harry Potter and Harris Smithson."

"What?" Meera blurted loudly, her eyes darted to the Slytherin table where Merlin sat. The brunette boy was exchanging wide eyed glances with his friend Lory. On the other side of the room Harry was sitting open mouthed and wide eyed.

A buzzing, as though of angry bees, was starting to fill the Hall; some students were standing up to get a better look at Harry as he sat, frozen, in his seat. Evie was also stood up but instead of anger her eyes showed worry. She and Meera knew Merlin hadn't joined the Tournament...there was no reason for him to lie to them since they were practically encouraging him to go for it.

"Harry Potter and Harris Smithson!" he called again. "Up here, if you please!"

Meera saw Hermione give her dumbstruck friend a push and he rose looking around uncertainly. Merlin rose a little more confidently, clearly determined to find out exactly what the hell was going on? A question Meera herself wouldn't mind knowing the answer to.

Everything had seemed to go well with this tournament so far, everyone was happy and now the other shoe had dropped. Somehow, Harry and Merlin's names had ended up in the Goblet and now they were technically bound by a magical contract to compete in a deadly tournament.

Followed by hundreds and hundreds of eyes Harry made his way over to Dumbledore, nervously, the buzz only grew louder and louder. Harry glanced around the hall and when his eyes landed at the Slytherin table in Lory's direction she gave him a small smile. She thought a friendly face among a sea of angry people might help, Harry did the same for her last year when everyone antagonised her for being Sirius Black's daughter.

Finally, Harry reached Dumbledore who remained unsmiling the whole time, all the teachers were watching him, some with worry, others with confusion. Snape was probably the only one who was resisting the urge to roll his eyes as he had a here-we-go-again expression, but he always have that expression on his face when Harry's mentioned.

Merlin tried to say something when he reached the old man but Dumbledore held up his hand and gestured toward the chamber behind him. Merlin glanced toward Evie who'd begun picking at the sides of her nails as she watched Merlin go away,

Dumbledore then dismissed the rest of the students and Meera was quick to find Evie. She took her hand and ensured to keep Evie's apart to stop her from hurting herself.

"Ok, Harry I'd understand, but Merlin's name coming out can't be a coincidence. It can't be...you know what that means Meera...somehow Morgana's involved in this...somehow..." Evie began rambling.

"He'll be fine Evie...this is a three champion tournament I'm sure he won't have to compete...this is probably just someone's stupid idea at a prank." Meera said calmly.

"That's not how the Goblet of Fire works Meera...its a magically binding contract, prank or no prank Harry and Harris are legally required to compete..." Lory disagreed from behind her, she cut off when she saw Evie's face and quickly added. "I'm sure considering the strange circumstances they'll make an exception. These are quite extenuating circumstances, but the law..."

"Screw the law! Why should Harris have to compete if he didn't want to?" Evie asked with a vehement tone.

"Don't jump down my throat I didn't put his name in Evie...I respected his decision not to enter...I'm just telling you the facts." Lory shrugged. "Either way don't worry too much about Harris...if he has to compete he should be able to considering sixth and seventh years are considered suitable candidates. Harry on the other hand is just entering fourth year."

"They surely won't let him compete, he's just a kid compared to the others." Meera said. "Come on, you should really get going Evie. Try and get some sleep, we'll talk to Harris in the morning."

Meera exhaled forcefully as she made her way up the staircase with her housemates, trying to put what had just happened out of her mind. However, it was difficult to do so when every single Ravenclaw seemed to have an opinion on what had just happened and was keen to express theirs. Meera pushed through them and silently entered her dorm room, more interested in keeping her fears about the tournament at bay till the next morning.