The Triwizard Tournament (a FrUk Hogwarts AU)

Chapter Two

Arthur awoke the next morning with his mind set on entering his name into the Goblet of Fire. As you can expect, every other seventh year (and the years below who thought they could deceive the age line, of course) in the Slytherin Common room had the same idea. He bounced out of bed, nearly tripped on his own two feet, and brushed his hair out of his face as he ran to the Goblet to submit his name in.

"Hey, Arthur!"called a familiar voice eagerly from across the room.

There stood Alfred, who showed the signs of scrambling down here as fast as Arthur did. This was plainly shown through the fact that his dirty-blond hair was sticking up in the air left and right and that he had forgotten to put his glasses on. Beside him was Matthew, who gave a huge grin and looked slightly more presentable with his combed hair and neat robes. Both had already indulged their names into the Goblet and were impatiently waiting for Arthur to throw his name in, as well.

Well, here goes nothing, Arthur thought as he tossed his fragment of parchment into the smoldering flames of the Cup. Everyone continued the action of cheering for him, as they did for everyone else who submitted their name in the Goblet. The cheers just made Arthur even more anxious with the hope of winning. Oh, how he longed to be Hogwarts's representative in the approaching event. He could almost see the Goblet sparking and spitting out the piece of ripped paper that read "Arthur Kirkland." Not only would this bring pride to the Slytherin house, which was certainly not a crowd favorite by any means, but to his whole school.

After accomplishing his first mission of the day, he proudly joined Alfred and Matthew and was about to accompany them to the Great Hall for breakfast. Just as the trio was about to exit, they froze when they heard what sounded like a group of boys chanting huskily.

"Oh boy, here comes that narcissistic Quidditch snob." Matthew uttered through gritted teeth towards Arthur. "Quick, let's get this one out of here before..."

Alfred frantically delivered a painful punch in the shoulder to both Arthur and Matthew in his attempt to try and "secretly" signal that his celebrity idol was in the room.

"Would you just calm down, you git?" hissed Arthur, elbowing Alfred in the stomach. "We don't need the Durmstrang lot thinking we are a load of creepers, you hear?"

After calming Alfred down, the three wizards sneakily took a glance at the stocky Ivan Braginski who was also entering their name in the Goblet of Fire to participate in the Tournament. When the Goblet respond in tiny red flames erupting from the brim, Braginski's posse hailed loudly in celebration. Just like anyone else, Arthur, Alfred, and Matthew finally decided they've had enough of the jeers of joy, and agreed that it was certainly time for breakfast. 

"Thank God," Alfred exhaled thankfully, "I thought I was about to starve to death!"

"Oh, shut up," replied Matthew quietly under his breath, "We all are aware that you were more than happy to see that icy, heavy-set, blond-haired, conceded..." He scanned the room to make sure no one could here him whispering and continued to ramble on until he was scarlet in the face.

"Hey, I have a great idea! I'm gonna ask for Braginski's autograph, but if he gets exacerbated by my nagging, you can pretend to be me and he'll lash out on you instead!" Just as Alfred completed this sentence, he was halfway down the corridor and ahead of Matthew.

"wHat?!" trembled Matthew, who was now chasing Alfred as fast as he could, leaving Arthur in the dust.

Arthur closed his eyes, braced himself for a day full of the twins arguing, and took a step forward. His foot didn't even reach solid ground before he was knocked off his feet.

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING NEXT TIME, WOULD Y-"

Arthur briskly stopped screaming his irritation when he realized apologetic, ocean-colored eyes were staring into his own.