Loki Laufeyson and the Goblet of Fire

Chapter 7; Insanity

(Told from Ron's point of view)

"Loki?"

He had already gone to sleep. Or he was just pretending as though he couldn't hear me. I take a deep breath and let sleep carry me off.

Now, I rarely have dreams, so it surprised me when I woke up in the middle of the great hall. I didn't even think I was dreaming, because I had so much control over what I was doing, but the windows rippled slightly, and it was eerily quiet.

A large, golden goblet was sitting on one of the house tables. Next to it was a pen and a piece of paper. I walked over to it and just stared at the paper for a while.

It occurred to me what I had to do. I picked up the pen and wrote my name on the slip of paper. I dropped it into the blue fire coming out of the goblet.

"Do you think Harry would do that?" A voice says behind me. I whip around to see Loki sitting placidly on one of the house tables across the room. His voice was airy, and there was an unearthly echo to it.

"I dunno." I said. My voice had the same, strange echo within it.

Loki took a deep breath through his nose. "Have you ever considered that you're more similar to me than to Harry?"

He stood up and walked through the air toward me in a very floaty way. He landed soundlessly beside me and looked up at the goblet. "The Goblet of Fire. People who want to submit themselves into the Triwizard Tournament simply throw a piece of paper with their name on it into the fire."

He looks back at me. "I don't think I've ever told you that Harry and I were both supposed to be put in Slytherin. But yet... I see similarities between you and me."

"This seems... weird." I comment. Loki smiles at me. The flames from the goblet turn red, and a signed piece of paper flies out of the flames and lands on the table.

I walk over cautiously to the piece of paper, which has my name on it. Without warning, it flips itself over. On the back, Loki's name is written on it.

"See? We aren't that different, you and I." He says, walking closer to me. "Just think, what would you do with all that money?"

The great hall dissolves before my eyes, and the next thing I know, Harry is shaking me awake.

"Come on! Come on. You've missed breakfast!" He said, shaking me awake.

"Whaaa—" I said, checking my clock. "No! Why didn't you wake me?"

I followed Harry to our first class, Herbology, where we were supposed to squeeze pus from Bubotubers. I was paired with Loki, which was nice because that meant I could talk to him about what happened last night.

"Did you... uhh... visit me last night?" I asked timidly.

"Pardon?" He said, bottling some pus. "Oh, yes. I can't see why you'd have any questions." He winked.

"What did you mean?" I asked.

He sighed exasperatedly. "The whole reason I did that was to give you a cryptic hint. I dare say that explaining it would defeat the purpose."

I tried to get him to talk about it, but he kept changing the subject, so I just gave up. After that, we went to Care of Magical Creatures, where Hagrid introduced us to some of the worst creatures ever. They were called Blast Ended Skrewts, and they were just as bad as they sounded. All of us left that lesson covered in scorch marks.

After that we went to Divination, which was as boring as usual. Unfortunately I made a joke that would have made Loki jealous, and we got a boatload of homework.