All the Wrong Choices

Headmaster Dippet shushed the students in the Great Hall.

“Good evening, dear students. I have a very special announcement to make. After careful consideration between myself, the Ministry, and surrounding magical schools, it has been decided that Hogwarts will be hosting the first Twiwizard Tournament in over one-hundred and fifty years.” The students went mad, cheering with excitement and reaching over tables to high-five their friends.

I had read briefly about the Triwizard Tournament, but Ivy Platt, one of the only friends I had made in Slytherin thus far, explained in detail what it was. It was something that every student knew and dreamed about. The last Tournament was held in 1792, and one of the three tasks involved catching a cockatrice. Said cockatrice went on a rampage and injured three judges – the heads of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. The Tournament was canceled after this incident, and partly because of the student death count in all previous Tournaments.

Each school in the Tournament – Hogwarts, Beauxbatons Academy, and the Durmstrang Institute – had a selected champion that represented it. The three champions would compete in three extremely dangerous tasks, competing for the Triwizard Cup as well as a monetary prize. The Tournaments tested one's magical ability, intelligence, and courage.

Aside from the Tournament was the Yule Ball that was held on Christmas day. It was a celebratory feast and a formal dance, also known as every student's excuse to hook up in a janitorial closet with their sweetheart.

After explaining the rules of the Tournament, Headmaster Dippet unveiled both the Goblet of Fire and the Triwizard Cup. “Students will have until the start of Halloween feast to enter their names into the Goblet. In agreement with the new rules, however, students under the age of sixteen will not be permitted to enter their names.”

The students who felt they were both courageous and strong enough to enter their names did so. I sat back and backed down – my parents would have killed me if I did such a thing, as tempting as it was. I watched as Ophelia whacked Orion as he passed by, threatening to kill him if the Tournament didn't.

It was Halloween day, 31 October, and all students were once again in the Great Hall, abuzz with rumors and speculation over who would be chosen champions of the Tournament. Students from the other participating schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, had both strode in with overbearing confidence.

Dippet and the other two headmasters, Madam Beaulieu and Headmaster Dobrev, chatted in the respective staff's corner of the Great Hall while the students from all schools mingled. Ivy, Ophelia, and I fawned over three boys from Durmstrang as they showered us with strung-together, barely coherent compliments, their voices thick with a brute, foreign accent. Their names were something along the lines of Gøran, Bjoern, and Dagmar (Dag for short, as he silkily explained to Ivy).

Tom sat at his usual spot a few seats down on the opposite side from me, reading through a black leather book. His jaw muscles clenched as a girl adorned in a baby blue dress talked over his shoulder to him – a Beauxbatons girl.

Headmaster Dippet announced the selected champions during the feast: Orion Lovegood, much to Ophelia's demise, was selected first. Then Valery Lamontagne of Beauxbatons, and Gøran Svendsen of Durmstrang. Upon hearing his name being chosen, Gøran pulled me into him and dropped a big, wet kiss on my lips before cheering and running to the podium at front of the Great Hall, leaving me wide-eyed and shocked as I wiped my lips.

The mixture of student bodies that had witnessed the exchange cooed and made teasing ooh sounds. Gøran high-fived a couple of his Durmstrang buddies as I buried my face in my hands, ignoring the squeals and whispers coming from Ophelia and Ivy.

“All right, very romantic,” Headmaster Dippet cleared his throat, shushing the student bodies before him, “Now, champions, if you will follow the rest of the headmasters and me out of the Great Hall to receive further instructions. The rest of the students, enjoy your meals.”