Dangerously Close

“This rain is the most annoying thing ever,” Rayne grumbled as she kept her soaked robe above her head to prevent her hair from getting wet.

“It’s not my fault that the sky decided to pour water over us,” I pointed out.

She rolled her eyes at me as we continued into the Great Hall, our shoes squeaking a bit as it made contact with the floor. Most of the students were waiting in the Great Hall to see who would submit their names from the Durmstrangs, Beauxbatons, and Hogwarts students. Rayne was absolutely ecstatic and anxious to see who would put their names into the Goblet of Fire, forcing me to tag along against my own will.

“So, you reckon the twins will be able to do it?” She asked me.

“Do what?” I asked, blanking out a bit.

“Put their names in, of course! It’d be bloody amazing if they manage to cross the Age Line, let alone if one of them becomes a champion!”

I scoffed. “I seriously doubt an Age Line could be outsmarted by those two blokes, but I do agree - it would be pretty damn cool!”

We opened the double doors to reveal about one or two hundred students sitting around the Goblet, eyeing the seventeen year-old students from every school that were taking turns inserting their names into the chalice that sat atop a large pillar. It emitted a blue glow around the Hall, which lights’ were dimmed.

“The blue lighting gives this place an eerie glow, I feel like I’m about to be abducted by aliens,” I spoke up, crossing my arms.

Rayne chuckled.

I could make out Harry and Ron standing in the crowd by the Goblet, talking. Hermione sat to the side with a book in her hand - which wasn’t something unusual.

I walked up to my brother and his friend, putting two arms on their backs and giving them a slight push, causing them to jump.

“Bloody hell!” Ron exclaimed.

I burst out laughing. “You two are so easy to scare.”

I slung an arm over Harry’s shoulder, letting out a sigh. “So, how was Defense Against the Dark Arts?” Harry asked, raising a brow.

“You make it sound like you know exactly what I’m about to tell you.”

He grinned. “I’m guessing you went rage mode?”

I shook my head. “For once, Mr. Harry Potter is wrong!”

He laughed.

“I was shocked though. And disturbed - he taught us the same thing he taught you guys, and erm, he-”

I was immediately interrupted by loud clapping and cheering. I turned around to face Cedric Diggory and his friends, who were pushing him to the Goblet. He was laughing, clutching the paper in his hand as he crossed the Age Line. His hair was soaking wet from the rain, dripping a bit on the floor.

His fingers, which were holding the paper, let go of the parchment, letting it slip into the chalice and be swallowed by blue flames. Everyone began to cheer and clap and he smiled triumphantly, walking back to his friends. He turned his attention to me and my brother, the corner of his lips tugging into a slightly bigger smile.

“Hi, Rosalie, Harry!” He shouted before running off with his friends out the door as they laughed.

My cheeks heated up instantly into a radiant pink, causing Harry to burst out laughing.

“You like him, don’t you?” He asked, smirking.

I rolled my eyes. “I do not!”

“Blimey, she’s got it bad, Harry,” the red-headed bloke answered, a smirk appearing on his face, also.

I stuck my tongue out at them. “Piss off before I shove you down the Astronomy tower!”

He chuckled, shifting his gaze to the Goblet.

“Eternal glory, imagine years from now how great that’d be,” Ron mumbled, thinking to himself out loud.

“Rather you than me, mate,” Harry replied.

Before we knew it, we could hear two extremely familiar voices yelling, “Yeah!” behind us, causing us to turn around. Fred and George were walking in with two vials in their hands, grinning victoriously as they high-fived some students who were cheering and clapping for them.

I followed close behind, slinging an arm around the two twins. “Is it just me, or do I smell genius?” I asked, causing the twins to smirk and some people to clap and cheer.

“It’s not going to work,” Hermione chirped, looking up from her book.

Both Fred and George raised an eyebrow, walking towards her and kneeling down.

“Hmm, and why’s that, Granger?” George asked.

“You see this? It’s an Age Line, drawn by Dumbledore himself,” Hermione explained, moving her index finger in a circling motion while pointing it to the circular light floating on the ground.

“So..?”

She scoffed. “So, someone so brilliant and intelligent as Dumbledore and as powerful as an Age Line couldn’t possibly be fooled by something so dimwitted as an aging potion!”

“That’s why it’s so genius, ‘Mione,” Fred said, patting her back.

“Because it’s just so pathetically dimwitted,” George finished, the stupid smile still plastered on his face.

He stood up with his brother, pulling off the top of the vial. “Let’s do this.”

“Ready, Fred?”

“Ready, George!”

They both intertwined arms, putting the vial to their lips. “Bottoms up!” They shouted, drinking the potion. After gulping it down, they jumped into the Line.

A few silent moments were shared as we waited to see if anything would happen, but when nothing did, everyone began to chant and cheer. I rolled my eyes, siding with Hermione but still hoping it would work - it’d definitely put on a show.

They counted down to one before tossing the ripped-up parchment with their names on it into the Goblet of Fire. After a moment of waiting again, they high-fived each other and everyone began to cheer.

“Did it actually work for those two blokes?” Ron asked, groaning slightly.

Before me or Harry could reply, the Goblet shot out two blue sparks, hitting Fred and George straight in the chest and knocking them back behind everybody else.

Everyone’s eyes darted to them and I burst out laughing as the twins’ hair begun growing longer and longer. Their ginger hair was now white and they had a beard like Dumbledore’s coming off their chins.

Their short quarrel soon turned to a fight, and everyone was chanting. I smiled, clapping, as I yelled with everyone else. “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

The chanting suddenly stopped when the two wooden doors burst open. In walked Igor Karkaroff, another student, and of course, leading the group with his usual powerful expression, Viktor Krum.

Everyone stopped talking and stayed quiet as the famous Quidditch all-star walked past the Age Line and dropped his name in the Goblet. His gaze shifted to Hermione as he dropped it, and she looked back down at her book, blushing. He began walking back with Igor, ignoring the rest of the students.

“Well that wasn’t bloody awkward at all,” I stated, turning to Hermione, who blushed even more as she realized I had noticed.

“I think we all know who the Durmstrang champion is going to be,” Ron muttered.

Harry nodded, agreeing with him.

“Well, isn’t this year just going to be full of surprises?”