Stay - Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 135

"Kirra, Harry, Cedric, I suggest you go up to bed," said Dumbledore, smiling at the three of them. "I am sure Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise."

Kirra glanced at Cedric, who nodded, and they left together. The Great Hall was deserted now; the candles had burned low, giving the jagged smiles of the pumpkins an eerie, flickering quality.

"So," said Cedric, with a slight smile. "We're playing against each other, it's going to be weird not playing on the same team as you!"

"Yeah, I guess youre right," said Kirra. She really couldn't think of anything to say. The inside of her head seemed to be in complete disarray, as though her brain had been ransacked. 

"So . . . tell me . . ." said Cedric as they reached the entrance hall, which was now lit only by torches in the absence of the Goblet of Fire. "How did you get your name in? And how come you didn't tell me that you were putting your name in, I thought that you were completely agsint the idea of it"

"I didn't," said Kirra, staring up at him. "I didn't put it in. I was telling the truth. I would never lie to you Cedric, you are one of my best friends" 

Cedric felt his stomach drop slightly at the word friends "Ah . . . okay," said Cedric. Kirra could tell Cedric didn't really know what to say to her, it was increasingly becoming incredibly awkward. Kirra and Cedric headed for a door to the rightand they went down the stone steps beyond it, then, they made it to the Hufflepuff basement, entering.

Was anyone except JJ, Maxine Cedric and Mattheo going to believe her, or would they all think she'd put herself in for the tournament? Yet how could anyone think that, when she was facing competitors who'd were kinda 3 years older than her —when she was now facing tasks that not only sounded very dangerous, but which were to be performed in front of hundreds of people?

Someone had wanted her in the tournament, and had made sure she was entered. Why? To give her a treat? She didn't think so, somehow. . . . To see her make a fool of herself? Well, they were likely to get their wish. . . . But to get her killed?

Was Moody just being his usual paranoid self? Couldn't someone have put Kirra's name in the goblet as a trick, a practical joke? Did anyone really want her dead? Kirra was able to answer that at once. No, someone wanted her brother dead, someone had wanted her brother dead ever since he had been a year old, but that person wanted her alive . . . Lord Voldemort. 

But how could Voldemort have ensured that Kirra and Harry's names got into the Goblet of Fire? Voldemort was supposed to be far away, in some distant country, in hiding, alone . . . feeble and powerless. . . .

Yet in that dream she had had, just before she had awoken with her scar hurting, Voldemort had not been alone . . . he had been talking to Wormtail . . . plotting Harry's murder and Kirra's capture. . . .

She had barely noticed where her feet were carrying her. The blast of noise that met Kirra's ears when the she had entered the commonroom along side Cedric almost knocked her backward. Next thing she knew, she was being wrenched inside the common room by about a dozen pairs of hands, and was facing the whole of Hufflepuff House, all of whom were screaming, applauding, and whistling for the two of them.

"Yeah Ced, we knew you would get it!"

"Two Hufflepuffs!"

"You should've told us you'd entered!" bellowed an older student; he looked half annoyed, half deeply impressed. "How did you do it without getting a beard? Brilliant!" 

"I didn't," Kirra said, slowly beginning to freak out from all of the attention. "I don't know how —"

"We've got food, you two, come and have some —"