The next morning, Aubrey and Lexy were up crazily earlier although neither were tired, the excitement completely cancelled out any feeling of exhaustion. By the time they got to the cup, a small crowd had already gathered, watching as a pair of Durmstrang boys went up, dropping their names in before curtly walking away. Across the room, they spotted Angela sitting alone, her glasses perched precariously on the edge of her nose.
As she saw them approaching a vague look of amusement appeared on her face, "Feeling better, Aubrey?"
"I was but your gloating will probably put me in a worse mood so girl, DON'T do it," She warned. Angela said nothing, simply smirking slightly.
"I wasn't going to gloat, I'm all gloated out from Kenny," She replied.
"Gross," Lexy said, wrinkling up her nose. Angela raised a dark eyebrow at Lexy.
"Wasn't a euphemism, I literally mean I've been lecturing him all night," Angela replied.
"Ew, still gross," Lexy replied, sniggering slightly, "You know because you said all night and it sounds like..."
She trailed off under the watchful glares of her friends, neither of whom were amused. Lexy continued to giggle though as the other two began talking.
"So anyone put their name in yet?" Aubrey asked, sitting down next to Angela, "And where's Kenny?"
"He's in bed, thought I'd let him sleep after yesterday, my poor fool. And in answer to your first question, nobody of interest yet,"She replied, her head bobbing up slightly, "Oh wait, someone's going forwards..." Within a few seconds, her head sunk again, "Just another Durmstrang. It's like we get it, you're organised!"
"So nobody from Hogwarts?"
Angela's brow furrowed slightly, "Yes, a couple of them did, fairly uneventful. Actually, something cool happened with a couple of them come to think of it. You know that girl Janine Fawcett in Divination? I think, she shot right back out again, with a great white beard too. I have no idea what was happening there."
"How long have you been here, Angela?" Lexy asked curiously to which Angela gave a shrug.
"I was the first one to arrive," She replied, "Well, second to a bunch of Durmstrangs but they don't count."
With that, the three girls watched in silence as a few people edged forward to the cup and the crowd slowly increased. As she sat, she briefly noticed the creepy new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher watching the crowd so intently it sent shivers down her spine but didn't look too closely. This was mainly because she'd just seen a flash of red hair and her interest was sparked until she quickly realised it wasn't George, just his younger brother. Her interest was dampened yet again.
"Oh my God, look! Roger is here!" Lexy screamed, leaping up so abruptly that a few people turned to her.
Aubrey's mouth curved into a faint smile, "I thought you were trying to be subtle about this, hon, keep it on the down low, will you?"
At this, Lexy's hands clamped over her mouth, "Oh God, I am the worst, he'll know now! Oh God, this is awful, what if he puts his name in the cup and he will, won't he..."
"No. He won't, his body is his everything, he simply wouldn't risk it. Look, he's just sitting down," Angela replied, peering over her glasses, "Doesn't look like he's going to enter."
"Oh thank God!" Lexy put her hand on her forehead in a swooning gesture before returning to her seat, "I thought he was going to die... no, no, WAIT, he's standing up again, oh no! Never mind, he's sat back down, think he was just greeting someone...."
The other two didn't know how long this would continue as Lexy tended to get into a bit of a panic when it came to Roger's safety. Aubrey watched with faint amusement until Angela violently jabbed her under the ribs, causing her head to snap around.
"What the hell, Angela!" She yelled but Angela shushed her, pointing over to the twins who had entered, their joint best friend, Lee Jordan in tow.
"You see why I did that?"
"Not really, you could have just said," Aubrey grumbled even if she was vaguely grateful that she'd been alerted to their presence.
"Do you think they'll use ageing pills? You know, maybe you took them wrong, perhaps there was a special way," Angela suggested, following the twins with her dark eyes as they neared Ron, whispering something triumphantly.
"Yes, ageing pills become vomiting pills if you take them wrong ... amazing logic, girl," Aubrey replied sarcastically, "Look, they're not taking anything either, they're just going for it."
"Just like Janine!"
The three girls watched with baited breath as one of the twins took a step forward towards the cup, balancing on the line for a few moments before stepping over. A broad grin spread across his face as his twin followed him, the two standing there with matching smiles. Aubrey was genuinely impressed... for a few moments before it went horribly wrong.
Moments before they put their names in, the twins were launched into the air as if fired from a canon before dropping several feet away on their backs. Aubrey's hands leapt to her mouth in shock which came in handy for stifling a laugh when two large white beards sprouted off of the boys' faces. Slowly the entrance hall filled with laughter to the point where even the twins began to join in, pointing at each other's faces.
"I did warn you," A loud booming voice came from behind them. Aubrey looked around with a start to see none other than Professor Dumbledore standing there, his eyes twinkling with amusement, "I suggest both of you go up to Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to Miss Fawcett, of Ravenclaw - "
"I told you that!" Angela said, clapping her hands with triumph.
" - and Mr Summers, of Hufflepuff - "
"Didn't tell us that," Lexy sniggered.
"I said a couple," Angela protested, effectively ending the conversation.
" - Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours," Professor Dumbledore finished as the two boys were helped up by Lee and made their way out of the Hall. The three girls sat in silence again until the boys were out of sight before Lexy chimed in:
"Don't see why they need to go to Madam Pomfrey. They could literally just shave."
"It's a massive beard," Angela replied, her glasses somehow slipping off the end of her upturned nose, "It might be a bit hard to shave."
Although Angela seemed to think she'd won the debate, Lexy shrugged, "Use scissors for most of it and then shave off the rest. Doesn't take a genius and that's coming from me, a lowly Hufflepuff muggleborn."
Aubrey hardly heard any of it, trying to figure out what the hell Fred and George had used to get past the line. She doubted they actually had ageing pills, otherwise, the effects would have been different from Fawcett and Summers which left only one option:
"An ageing potion!" She exclaimed loudly.
"Huh?" Lexy gave her a quizzical and bemused look which made her sit down again.
"Fred and George used an ageing potion, they never had ageing pills in the first place," She said triumphantly, "Actually kind of obvious, don't know how I didn't consider it before. Kenny could still do it, I reckon you could make it quickly - "
"No," Angela cut in firmly, "Kenny has been through enough. Let him sleep so he can actually go to the announcement of the champions. If he missed that he would be very disappointed."
"I'm sure he'd much rather have a shot at this - "
"Aubrey ... NO!"
• • •
The evening seemed to roll around very quickly to the point where Aubrey was vaguely convinced somebody had enchanted time to go faster. It had been an amusing day with the girls, 90% of which had been spent taking the piss of the other schools which went against the tournament's aim of cooperation. Still, Aubrey was pretty sure she'd heard some Beauxbatons boys complaining about all the stone décor, if they bitched she could bitch too. It was that simple.
Everyone filed to their seats, the dull chatter slowly quietening to total silence as Dumbledore stepped forward to speak. Even if the other schools were snobby about the building, they all seemed to hold at least some respect for its headmaster, probably instilled into them by their head teachers to create a façade of politeness.
"Well, the Goblet is almost ready to make its decision. I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now when the champions names are announced ... "
"Why do they let a cup choose?" Lexy whispered as Dumbledore continue to talk.
"Objectivity."
"The cup could be subjective though, you don't know that," Lexy replied, "I bet I could do a better job at choosing."
"And by that you mean you'd pick anyone but Roger?" Aubrey snickered slightly. Even though Aubrey could only see Lexy's profile, she still saw the creases on her friend's face deepen into a frown.
"My God, keep your voice down," She hissed, "But yes. Oh God, I hope he doesn't get chosen."
"He didn't enter," Aubrey reminded her although this did little to reassure her friend.
"Quiet!" A seventh-year hissed, "The goblet is about to choose."
"Sorry..." The two girls mumbled as they looked up at the cup, which was now glowing brightly as a volcano prepping to explode. Suddenly, fire began to lick around the brim before a flame, twice as large as any other others, seemed to leap out, propelling a name slip into the air. Dumbledore reached out to catch it, slowly unfurling the small piece of burning blue paper.
"The champion for Durmstrang will be Victor Krum!"
Cheers and applause erupted from around the room although Aubrey wasn't quite sure why. The boy who ran up wasn't anything special to look at nor had she ever heard the name before. Still, she clapped along anyway, wondering why Lexy looked so excited.
As the boy ran out, the clapping finished just as Aubrey felt a sharp pain in her head. It came suddenly as if a lightning bolt had struck the back of her head before subsiding as quickly as it had arrived. She quickly drew her attention back to the cup which was brimming with flames once again, shooting yet another name out.
"The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour!" A slender, exceptionally stunning girl with silvery blonde hair ran up, her red lips parted into a smile to reveal pearly white teeth.
"She's the girl who was talking to Roger!" Lexy said, clapping slightly less enthusiastically than before, "She does have a personality, you were wrong, she must do to enter this!"
"I mean, boring people could enter this..." Aubrey replied awkwardly as the chatter hushed once again, this time for the Hogwarts champion.
"The Hogwarts champion is... Cedric Diggory!"
A loud uproarious cheer rose from the room as the Hufflepuff Quidditch captain stood up. Aubrey thought her voice was going to disappear, the tournament was way interesting now because Cedric, their Cedric had been chosen.
"Lexy, a Hufflepuff! We've actually been chosen for something!" Aubrey yelled through the screams to an equally jubilant Lexy, "It's Cedric! Our Cedric!"
"I know!" Lexy screamed back, an ecstatic grin on her face. Several people including the girls stood up to make their claps go even further, this was a big day for all of them. Cedric was trying to appear modest as he went up but it was clear he was just as jubilant as everyone else.
Aubrey was so happy that she hardly heard what Dumbledore said next. It couldn't be any more important than what she'd just seen however, nothing could. George was completely gone from her mind as she clapped, riding on a wave of excitement and euphoria at someone from Hufflepuff actually getting something.
"Aubrey..." Lexy's voice jolted her back to reality just as she felt the sharp pain in her head again. She managed to look up, clasping her hands to her head as she saw the cup glowing and sparking once again. The room was silent as another flame shot out of the cup, propelling a fourth piece of paper into the air.
You could hear a pin drop in the room as everyone waited for the fourth name to be read out. Her mind began racing for it who could be, for some reason landing on the idea that it would be George, somehow having managed to sneak his name into the cup. She could now understand why Lexy had been worried about Roger, the idea of George being in the tournament was devastating.
"Harry Potter," Dumbledore said at last. Relief and anger seeped through her body; on one hand, it wasn't George but on the other, it was the person that seemed to steal the limelight year after year. Her fingers involuntarily tightened into a fist, which was mirrored by the other Hufflepuffs.
"Of course," Lexy snarled, "He couldn't just let us have one year."
"Amen, girl," Aubrey said, her face morphing into a scowl, "Amen."