Everybody Party Till the Gasman Comes

Professor Moody deemed the next lesson to be the right one for trying out the Imperius Curse. He announced it right as the bell rang that signaled us to be in his room, and I could feel my hands shaking. Hermione made to protest on the behalf that the curse was, of course, illegal. Moody was unswayable, though.

He turned around to walk to a better position in order to give us room to do whatever he wanted us to do while under the Imperius Curse, and I spoke up quickly to voice my side. "Excuse me, Professor Moody?"

"Yes, Ms. Foster?"

"Um, I can't- I can't be put under that curse, sir."

He limped back around to look at me. "Oh? Is that the case? Why don't you explain to me why you can't be put under this curse? Enlighten me, please."

"I get bad panic attacks when I can't control my body. I was paralyzed for a few days when I was little," I said, voice shaking the entire time.

"I suggest you ready yourself by next lesson then, missy. You'll be first."

***

Still in a foul mood after Care of Magical Creatures that afternoon, I marched into the entrance hall behind Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I skidded to a stop in front, though, as they did. Everyone was congregated in front of a large sign that had been put up.

Triwizard Tournament
The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early. Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.

I stared up at the announcement, uninterested. Recently I'd been ignoring all talk of the tournament. It was a hard feat to partake in, as the twins and Lee were still talking of using an Aging Potion to get into it, but I did it quite well. Every time they began speaking of it in my presence I would stand up and walk away from them. I was very unamused by the talk of the tournament. Feeling very Hermione-ish, I'd been saying to Ginny that I'd rather just have normal school activities going on than what actually was.

During the following week, all anyone ever did talk about was the tournament. They seemed overjoyed and oh-so excited for the other schools to arrive so that it could start. I seemed to be the only one who didn't give a crud that people were going to be staying at our school; that a great competition that held a very high fatality rate was coming to Hogwarts.

The school, which had never really looked bad in the first place, was being scrubbed spotless. It saddened me a bit, to be honest. Why clean up? They were going to be here for most of term; they should get used to the dust and few spots of grime just as we'd had to do.

Friday came quickly and I wasn't in a good mood. The happy buzz that seemed to be igniting smiles and excited chatter in all of the other students wasn't present in me. George and Fred, along with Lee most of the time, had been off together the entire duration of the pre-arrival week, corresponding with I had no idea who. They wouldn't tell me, as I was against almost everything they had to say at the moment, and we barely spoke the entire time.

Like everyone else, the twins were in excellent moods that day. After dropping off my things in my dorm along with Ginny and Hermione, I walked back down to the common room only to be swept off my feet by two gingers, and dragged out the portrait hole and down the many flights of stairs. I was only set back down once we'd gotten outside and had found a place to stand, crowded next to the dozens of other students in our house. I scowled up at them both, receiving bright grins from the two of them in return.

"Lighten up, Sammy," Fred said.

"Yeah, c'mon," George added, scooping me up and throwing me onto his back.

"George!" I yelped, earning a very scornful look from Professor McGonnagal, who was standing only maybe fifteen feet away from us. She'd been on us all the past few days about being on our very best behavior. We had Hogwarts' reputation to uphold.

I sighed and wrapped my arms around George's neck. His arms were locked together behind him, right beneath my bottom, in order to keep me up without my having to strangle him. I leaned my head on his shoulder, hiding my face in his neck until such a time that the other schools had arrived.

Professor Dumbledore suddenly started speaking, causing me to jump and bump my head into George's. I mumbled a quick apology then tuned in to what my Headmaster was saying. "Unless I'm very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"

I brought my head up all the way from George's shoulder to scan the skies. A dark object was flying through the air off somewhere a ways away over the Forbidden Forest. Many students made speculations as to what it was, but it wasn't until it got closer and the lights from the castle's windows illuminated it that we saw what it really was; a large horse-drawn carriage the size of a house.

"Well, look at that," Lee commented as the gigantic vehicle landed on the ground ahead of the large group of students accumulated in front of the school.

The door of the carriage opened and a boy in light blue robes stepped out. He leaned down and unfolded a set of steps. There was a collective gasp as a large, and when I saw large I really mean huge, woman stepped out of the carriage. She had gleaming black eyes, the same shade, but with much more feeling behind them, as Professor Snape's, and was dressed all in black. Her dark hair was pulled back at the nape of her neck.

"She's pretty attractive, isn't she?" I giggled into George's ear.

He shook his head in response and chuckled.

Suddenly, Lee yelled, "The lake! Look at the lake!"

Everyone's attention was taken from the now empty carriage (the Beauxbatons students and their Headmistress and retreated into the castle to warm up) and over to the Black Lake. Large waves were rippling its surface and splashing up on to its banks. A large whirlpool appeared in the very center of the lake, and only moments later a great ship emerged from the black water. A plank was lowered to the bank and the ship's passengers began disembarking.

The Headmaster of Durmstrang walked over to Dumbledore, clapping him on the back in greeting. They spoke a few niceties, then the man (whose name was Karkaroff) said, "Viktor, come along," before embarking into the castle.

George exchanged a look with his twin and in the dim light I saw a grin form on Fred's face that I knew would be mirrored on George's. Together they voiced their thoughts. "Krum!"

***

Once inside the castle, the Beauxbatons students took places at the Ravenclaw table and the Durmstrangs took their seats with the Slytherins. I sat down at the Gryffindor table with George, Lee, and Fred, tuning out their excited chatter about the Bulgarian Seeker. Luckily, once all of the students had entered the hall, Dumbledore spoke.

"I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts," he beamed. "I hope and trust your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable. The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast. I now invite you to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

Even though the food had appeared on the tables, the twins seemed to not be hungry, as they were still talking about Krum. I'd had enough of it and hissed, "Will you shut up and eat?"

The two of them stopped talking abruptly and looked at me, as if they'd only just noticed me sitting there beside them. Begrudgingly, they both began to eat. I nodded happily at the two of them and continued eating my own food.

The meal went, for the most part, perfectly fine. The twins quit talking about Krum for good (or at least for the night) and simply ate, throwing in comments to me every once and awhile. The only only problem we had was when a Beauxbatons girl walked over to the table to ask Ron and Harry if they were done with their bouillabaisse. She obviously has a bit of veela in her, what with her shiny blonde hair and the way most of the guys were ogling her. She walked past the three of us and as she did so, the two of them (George and Fred) stared after her.

I glared at the two of them and slapped George upside the head. He turned back around to look at me, pain and sadness in his eyes. He looked back at his food and continued eating, not speaking to me again for quite some time.

After everyone had finished eating, Dumbledore got up to speak to us once again. "The moment has come. The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket just to clarify the procedure we will be following this year." Dumbledore introduced Barty Crouch, Sr. and Ludo Bagman, who both would be helping with the tournament and judging of the tasks, then continued his speech. "The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Misters Crouch and Bagman and they have made the appropriate arrangements for each."

I sighed and settled into my seat, leaning against George for support as I knew Dumbledore would be speaking for quite some time.

"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. As you know, three champions will compete; one from each participating school. They will be marked on how they perform each of the tasks and the champion with the highest total after the third task will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Dumbledore tapped his wand against the casket, whose lid slowly opened upon being touched. Dumbledore reached into it and pulled out a very large, wooden goblet. Inside of its mouth were blue and white flames.

"Anyone wishing to submit themselves as champions must write their name and school upon a slip of parchment and drop it in the goblet. Aspiring champions will have twenty-four hours to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, the goblet will return the names of those students that it has deemed worthy to be placed in the tournament. To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation-"

At these words, I sat up straight, staring at the old man in rapt attention.

"-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."

I turned around to smile smugly at the twins, who only smiled back with identical smug expressions. Shortly, Dumbledore sent us all to bed. As I walked with Fred and George to the common room, they discussed the fact that an Age Line would definitely be fooled by an Aging Potion. The moment we arrived back at the common room, I left them and went to my dormitory.