For a split second the whole room was silent in shock before suddenly a huge wave of shouts and gasps filled the room. Across from Lyla, George and Fred were high fiving and shouting random plots to each other with huge grins on their faces. Hermione and Ginny were whispering with straight,serious expressions however you could see that Ginny was trying to hold back her excitement, whilst Ron and Harry were staring at each other with shocked faces. Was she the only one who didn't know what this thing was? Desperately she eyed the table in search for someone she knew that wasn't already talking or staring at someone else, she didn't want to look like an idiot in front of everyone, she already didn't know enough about wizardry. Seamus noticed this, he was sitting next to Dean and he chuckled quietly before whispering in Deans ear, Dean smirked.
"Confused?" Lyla heard someone say in her direction, she turned around to face Seamus and Dean who were both smiling at her. She giggled a little shrugging.
"Guess I don't know anything yet!" She replied causing both Dean and Seamus to chuckle once more.
"Don't worry, this is quite a rare Tournament I'm sure not everyone in this room will know about it. Professor Dumbledores about to explain." Dean said before winking slightly causing Lyla to blush as she nodded and quickly turned away to look back towards Dumbledore.
"Silence please!" He belted and the chatter came to a halt immediately to allow Dumbledore to continue. "This is quite an exciting yet shocking Tournament but let me assure you that once you are chosen to take part, you will stand alone and that this is a serious matter. This is an Inter-school Magical Competition which means more than one school shall be taking part. We are competing against The Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and The Durmstrang Institute. One champion from each school shall be chosen to take place in three different challenges against eachother. This is a magical tournament so magic is allowed to be used but up to a certain extent. Now let me tell you this, before you decide anything to quickly, that this tournament can be extremely dangerous and people may even die whilst taking part. It has been banned since 1792 and was only just reopened, so if you are considering taking part then please keep this in mind. You will be able to enter by putting your name on a slip of paper and into the the Goblet of Fire!"
Dumbledore then reached over to a large object that was being covered by a huge blanket. With one flick of his wand the blanket was removed revealing the Goblet. It was massive made completely out of ancient stone covered in many different markings. The whole room gasped as blue, dancing flames glided out of the top of the Goblet and swirled around it creating different images and pictures.
"This is the Goblet of Fire. It is where those of you who wish to take part shall place your names on a slip of paper, the Goblet is the one who will decide the champions, the staff and I have no responsibility or choice over that decision. Now there is one more thing I must inform you before this exciting event can begin. You must be seventeen or over to enter the Triwizard tournament."
The whole assembly errupted into large shouts and moans of dissaproval. Harry and Ron turned to face eachother, Ron moaning loudly with a 'I can't believe it' look on his face, whilst Fred and George where shouting random things towards Proffessor Dumbledore, "WHAT THATS NOT FAIR!", "ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" they both cried.
Dumbledore stood silent for a few seconds, allowing his students to take in the last extremely important and unexpected detail before he silenced the whole room with one loud clap. "Let me just say that this rule is for you're own safety, people who have more experience in magic have a better chance of survival. Now as we are hosting the event here, our guests shall be arriving soon. I want you to all make them feel welcome. Thank you and good luck."
............The arrival of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang........
The whole time leading up to the arrival of the two other wizardry schools was excruciating. They had been scheduled to arrive on Friday the 30th of October meaning that lessons would end half an hour early, much to Ron and Harry's delight. Each day that passed Lyla found herself beginning to feel more calm about her current situation, since the Triwizard Tournament had been announced the chatter among the students had mainly been about the competition so consequently most of them had forgotten to think about her. At least now she could walk into the Great hall without being stared at 24/7.
When finally the 30th arrived the excitement could hardly be contained. Hogwarts was going to be having guests! Something that was extremely rare, so of course the only natural reaction would be to have a sense of anticipation in the air. As soon as the clock chimed 6 the heads of houses were ushering their students into lines and leading them out of the entrance hall to line up again outside of the castle.
There was no doubt that most of the teachers were extremely nervous, telling the young wizards and witches off for the most unimportant and ridiculous things. It could also be seen that quite a few of the students were nervous as well, standing up straight and trying to flatten out their uniforms in order to look smart and presentable. Hermione was still combing her fingers through her curls in a frustrated manner, whilst Ron sighed and shook his head in frustration, whispering to Lyla about how stupid the whole event was and that people like Hermione should not be bothered by it seeing as they can't even take place. He continued like this for a few minutes as Lyla laughed silently at how worked up he was getting until suddenly someone let out an excited scream.
Dumbledore chuckled, "Unless I am mistaken, that is the Beauxbatons approaching." This caused a huge commotion as all of the pupils began shouting in excitement and pointing as they noticed a gigantic, powder blue, horse drawn carriage flying through the air. It was being pulled by a dozen winged horses. The site was incredible, so incredible it even shut up Ron. Once the carriage landed a boy dressed in the same powder blue jumped down from the front and opened the door. A large, very magnificently dressed women stepped out graciously. A few people gasped sliently as they watched her walk towards their headmaster. She was massive, taller than Hagrid even (who was blushing madly) she looked like a giant, at least a half one.
She greeted Dumbledore and engaged him polite coversation as her students began to slowly pile out of the carriage. They were almost more gracious than their giant headmistress, all dressed in tight, powder blue uniforms they walked towards Hogwarts as if they were Ballerinas performing a piece. The Beauxbaton witches were all extremely beautiful. All of the wizards lined up outside the castle were gaping, mouths wide open as they stared at the young ladies approaching their school. Lyla looked up at Ron who was blushing so much that he was as red as a tomato, his mouth was hanging open as he stared them up and dowm. "Bloody hell!" He muttered, Lyla turned away feeling annoyed, she hated that he was looking at them like that, just because they were unnaturally pretty. Was she feeling...jealous?
Soon after this gracious arrival Durmstrang had appeared. Their presentation was less gentle and more scary. As they marched out of a large ship towards Hogwarts Rons face had turned from delight to shock until he noticed something. "Harry!" He shouted grabbing his best friends shoulder, "Look that Viktor Krum!" This seemed to change his first impression of the school as he watched the world wide famous seeker with suprise and admiration. Harry watched too, intrigued but not as effected as Ron.
After both of the schools had arrived all three of them headed into the Great Hall to have a large welcome feast. There was so much food, it was glorious, and normally Lyla would have eaten five whole portions however she wasn't feeling very hungry. She couldn't help but the urge to be sick every time she noticed Ron turn around in his seat to stare at the Beauxbatons, one blonde girl in particular whose name she had learned was Fleur. Lyla didn't know her but for some reason she already felt the need to rip off Fleur's head. Lyla was confused as to why she was feeling so annoyed and ignored but she didn't like it, so after about 20 minutes of staring hopelessly at the back of Rons head she announced that she was tired and was going to bed.
On her walk to the dormitories she found herself extremely angry. She ran up the moving stairs, kicking random bits of the floor as she did, flinging her arms around in frustration. She continued like this for a while until she heard a soft chuckle behind her. "Someone's a little bit annoyed..." Lyla quickly flung around only to meet the eyes of dean Thomas. In an instant her face her turned from pale white to sun burnt red, she covered her burning cheeks with her hands and shook her head in embarrassment.
"Omg, let me die right now!" She muttered to herself in what she thought was a quiet tone, however it had obviously met the ears of Dean Thomas as he chuckled once more and began to walk towards her. This caused her insides now to burn up in destraught and twice as much embarrassment. Why was she so unlucky?!
"You don't need to die Lyla, we all get embarrassed sometimes." He chuckled as he gently grabbed her hands and pulled them away from her face. Lyla looked up to face him and realised just how close he was. She gulped as he smiled down at her. "So...are you gonna tell me why your in such a bad mood?" He questioned as her blushing grew slightly.
"um..." Lyla didn't know what to say, seeing as she didn't exactly know why she was so angered herself. She waited for a few moments before quietly answering. "Um... I uh don't like the new schools because most of them can take place in the tournament and I can't."
This caused Dean to chuckled yet again, Lyla realised he still hadn't let go of her hands. She looked down at how he was holding them with her deep red blush. "If you say so..." He replied before slowly but suddenly closing the gap between them. Lyla gasped slightly, Dean Thomas was kissing her! At first she didn't know what to do, so she kissed him back, but as she did she noticed wild butterflies were taking over her stomach and she didn't mind at all that he had been brave enough to make this move. Did she like him? As the kiss came to a close she was convinced this was the truth.
He smiled at her and she smiled back.