Before anyone could react, the twins were blasted across the hall and landed with a painful sounding thud. Students rushed from their places and surrounded the boys, hoping to get a glimpse of their possible injuries and disfigurements. Blair even got up from the bench and wandered over, trying to appear calm and only curious about the situation. She ignored the Beauxbatons boys that followed after her who laughed among themselves at the moments of airborne the twins suffered.
Blair watched as the twins sat up with groans of pain and showed their faces, revealing long grey hair and overgrown beards that took up the space from their noses to their chins. The school burst out into laughter and Blair bit her tongue in order to hold back the loudest laughs of them all. The twins looked around confused at everyone first before turning to each other, seeing their beards and grey hair.
"I did try to warn you," Professor Dumbledore's voice came from the entrance of the hall and everyone went silent as the old man smiled at the twins. "But you're beards will never be as impressive as mine. Off to the hospital wing you two."
Lee rushed from the crowd while still giggling and helped the two to their feet, taking them out of the hall and towards the hospital wing. Professor Dumbledore soon followed after them and let the remaining people in the hall continue their watching of the goblet's flame. Blair had half a mind to go after the twins, but was stopped by the voices of the three Beuxbatons gossiping behind her.
"Quel couple d'imbeciles!" Ruben laughed. Blair didn't know any French but she was aware of the word 'imbecile' and whipped around with a flare in her eyes.
"Can I help you three with anything?" she spat and they turned down to look at her, glancing at each other with smirks on their faces.
"Well now that you ask-" Marceau smugly said and Blair didn't even let him finish. She pulled her wand out from her sock and caused a mist to explode around her, making the three boys cough and stumble backwards.
"Quoi au nom de Merlin!" Gustave didn't finish as he opened his eyes and found the spot of where Blair stood to be empty.
Blair put her hands on her knees while panting and sighed in relief of being out of the presence of the three pains in the neck. She stood to her full height and glanced over her shoulder towards the Great Hall, before continuing down the corridor, hoping she'd never come across those three boys again.
"Miss Rosier, may I speak with you for a moment?"
She turned around and saw Professor Dumbledore standing there with his usual kind smile. He had his hands clasped together and looked at her with his clear grey eyes, stepping towards her calmly. She had never talked to the Headmaster before but knew he was a kind man who was understanding and forgiving. But she couldn't help but be nervous to be confronted by him and lowered her head once he stopped in front of her.
"I apologise for not coming to talk to you earlier-" he started as he peered down at her through his spectacles. "-I have been rather busy with preparations for the tournament. But I've wanted to ensure that you are comfortable with Professor Moody being one of your teachers for this year."
Blair gulped at the mention of the man and raised her gaze from the floor up to the Professor. She saw that he was sincere in his words and looked generally worried for her situation. The man knew of Professor Moody's involvement with her father's death as he was there the day he was convicted for his crimes. He was also there the day Professor Moody was first seen without the chunk in his nose.
"Are you comfortable with him as your teacher, Miss Rosier?" he questioned again as Blair didn't respond. "I will personally take his place as your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher if you truly wish."
"Now that you mention it Professor..."
---
At dinner time that night, Blair walked into the Great Hall praying that the Ravenclaw table wouldn't be full with its usual share of Beauxbatons. She had now developed a hatred for the school just because of the three faces she just couldn't seem to get away from. Whenever she'd see the silk blue uniform, she'd head the opposite way regardless if it was the three she hated in particular.
But much to her dismay, there was the obvious space next to Marceau that was bound to be meant for her. She noticed Gustave look up from his plate and in her direction, making her mindlessly begin walking straight ahead in order to avoid his gaze. Walking between the Hufflepuff and the Gryffindor table, she continued walking until she came to the group of redheads that sat to her left. She stopped behind them and Ginny, their younger sister, looked up from the opposite side and motioned her head towards Blair to the twins.
"Hey Blair," George greeted with raised eyebrows, noticing her nervous gaze and fidgeting fingers. "You okay?"
"Can I sit here today?" she asked, glancing towards her original table. The group of Gryffindors looked at each other and seemed to be conversing telepathically, confused and partially worried.
"Sure," George answered and slid further down the bench, creating a space between him and Fred.
Blair saw that no one was going to object and slid into the space, flickering her eyes up to Ginny, Ron, Harry and Hermione who sat opposite them. They shot her small smiles before returning to their meals with an awkward tension in the air. Blair squirmed in her seat and grabbed some salad from the platter in front of her, quietly wishing she'd have sucked it up and sat at her usual table instead.
"So Angelina put her name in for the tournament," Fred decided to state.
"Cedric Diggory did too," Ginny added.
"Ew I hope he doesn't get chosen," Ron bitterly said. "At least Angelina's a Gryffindor."
"Have any Ravenclaws entered?" George wanted to include Blair and the rest of the group looked to her.
"O-Oh I'm not sure. I think my dorm mate Mina did," she answered with a shrug. George nodded and looked to the rest of the group to do the same. They acknowledged her input and continued their conversation in attempts to make the atmosphere a little less tense.
"Well whoever gets chosen, competition is not what this tournament is about," Hermione started and Blair could sense the eye roll coming from the twins either side of her. "It's about international cooperation and to make friends!"
"Yeah yeah whatever," Fred waved his hand dismissively. "I heard someone got both of their legs amputated during one of the tournaments! Apparently they got cursed so bad that he was tap-dancing for days!"
"What rubbish!" Hermione scoffed.
"Is it?" Fred fought back with a smirk. "Georgie and I have been thinking of making tap-dancing tarts to see if it really can go on for days."
The meal went on and Blair found herself enjoying the constant banter. The twins did everything in their power to annoy Ron, Hermione and Ginny, and Harry and Blair sat watching in amusement. It was a nice change from the quietness she usually sat in at the Ravenclaw table. She didn't know how much friendlier Gryffindors were considering the fact she wasn't stared at during the meal. Maybe she could get used to sitting at this table.
"Hogsmeade weekend is coming up again soon," George said to Blair once the others were in a conversation about previous tournaments.
"And?" Blair questioned as she dived into her ice cream.
"I know you don't have your permission slip signed..." he continued and started picking at the strings that hung from his jumper sleeve. "So Freddie and I found a tunnel a few years ago. Leads right into the shop Honeydukes. I was wondering if you'd..."
George trailed off and couldn't finish with how dry his throat had become. He realised half way through speaking that what he was saying made it sound like he was asking Blair out on a date. He didn't want to back down but felt his palms become sweaty from how nervous he was becoming. He had come to terms with his growing crush he had on Blair but was sure that he would eventually grow out of it. Even though he told Fred everything, he still hadn't told him about his minor crush on the Ravenclaw. But considering how nervous he was becoming, maybe it wasn't such a small-scale infatuation like George thought.
"You mean like, sneak out?" Blair finished and George cleared his throat.
"Y-Yeah! Everyone should experience Hogsmeade!" George laughed nervously and Blair's cheeks flared up.
"I suppose so..."
"Really?!"
Blair shrugged her shoulders but was astonished on the inside. She wasn't sure if George was hinting towards what she thought he was, but was still buzzing at the idea of finally experiencing Hogsmeade. And maybe she was buzzing because of the slim chance that George was asking her out on a date. But she would refuse to believe that even for a moment.
"Just tell me where to meet you on Saturday," Blair did her best to appear unfazed and George was inwardly jumping with joy.
"We can meet in the Entrance Hall at ten and then I'll take you to the secret tunnel," George said and Blair nodded.
"Sure."
George grinned and turned down to his bowl of ice cream, unable to remove the smile from his face. He immediately began to plan out their weekend and wanted to ensure that she would have the best experience at Hogsmeade. And Blair was feeling the same. She bit her lip to hide the smile climbing on to her face and didn't notice the look she was being given by Ginny who sat opposite her.
Ginny reminded herself to talk to George when back in the common room later.
The Goblet of Fire was ready to choose its three champions for the tournament. From this announcement, all three schools gathered in the Great Hall on the benches that surrounded the goblet's blue flame. The torches that usually hung around the hall had been extinguished by Professor Dumbledore as he stood next to the goblet, waiting for it to spurt its chosen people for the tournament.
Blair sat next to George at the bench that was mostly occupied by Gryffindors. It had become a common thing to sit with them now as the Beauxbatons students still occupied the Ravenclaw table. She hadn't talked much with the other Gryffindors but George always made sure to include Blair into conversations, to which she was grateful for.
The flame had a burst of energy and spat a piece of parchment out from the goblet. The piece flowed down and Professor Dumbledore grabbed it, opening it up and clearing his throat to announce the name to the hall.
"The champion for Durmstrang, is Viktor Krum!"
A loud eruption of cheers came from the table of muddy brown uniforms as Viktor stood up, looking proud to represent his school. He marched up to Dumbledore and shook his hand, glancing towards Igor Karkaroff who hooted for his obvious favourite student. Viktor then walked to the room out of the hall and disappeared, leaving the goblet to spit out yet another piece of parchment.
"The champion for Beauxbatons, is Fleur Delacour!"
A perfect looking girl stood from the table of blue uniforms and made her way gracefully over to Dumbledore. Her silvery hair swayed behind her as rounds of applause came from her fellow schoolmates, followed by the sobs and bawls from the girls who weren't chosen by the goblet. The girl followed the same path as Viktor and disappeared into the next room.
"That's a bit dramatic, isn't it?" George whispered into Blair's ear as he gestured to the crying girls at the table of Beauxbatons.
"I don't know. None of them grew any beards or grey hair," she mentioned and George gasped with his hand over his heart.
"Did you just make fun of me Blair Rosier?" he asked and Blair rolled her eyes, hinting a smile at his sarcasm.
"The champion for Hogwarts-" Professor Dumbledore spoke up again with another piece of parchment in his hand. "-is Cedric Diggory!"
A cheer erupted from the table of Hufflepuffs as the charming boy stood up and made his way to Professor Dumbledore. After he had left the hall, Dumbledore turned to the remaining people sitting with his arms out wide.
"Excellent! We now have our three champions!" he exclaimed. "They will now go forth to embark on three-"
He stopped his speech midway and as the goblet behind him suddenly flared once more and spat out yet another piece of parchment. The hall eerily watched as Dumbledore reached his hand out and took the piece into his hand, looking puzzled as he opened it up to see the name of a supposed fourth champion.
"Harry Potter..."