When they entered the candlelit Great Hall it was almost full. The Goblet of Fire had been moved; it was now standing in front of Dumbledore's empty chair at the teachers' table. Fred and George— clean-shaven again— seemed to have taken their disappointment fairly well. (Y/n) waved at the trio before joining the Ravenclaw table.
"Where have you been?" Chija cried as (Y/n) sat down.
"Huh?"
"You haven't answered any of our texts," Marietta explained. "Nor were you here for breakfast or lunch."
"I spent the day with... Hermione, Harry, and Ron," (Y/n) said.
"...why'd you hesitate?"
"I was debating about whether or not I wanted to call them Spider-Man characters but they don't get that level of effort when they didn't even bother to dress up," (Y/n) said. She looked over at Marietta, Chija, and Padma again. Padma was dressed up as a personified Scooby-Doo and had dog ears on her head. Chija and Marietta did superbly with their Strawberry Shortcake costumes in (Y/n)'s opinion. "Cute costumes."
"I could say the same," Padma mused.
"Do the web-shooters genuinely work?" Chija asked.
"Mhm. I'm not going to test them here though," (Y/n) said. Chija smiled.
The Halloween feast seemed to take much longer than usual. Perhaps it was because it was their second feast in two days, not everyone seemed to fancy the extravagantly prepared food. Like everyone else in the Hall, judging by the constantly craning necks, the impatient expressions on every face, the fidgeting, and the standing up to see whether Dumbledore had finished eating yet, (Y/n) couldn't take the anticipation and just wanted the plates to clear.
At long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless stare; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the Hall, which died away almost instantly as Dumbledore got to his feet. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr. Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.
"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber—" he indicated the door behind the staff table "—where they will be receiving their first instructions."
He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting... A few people kept checking their watches...
The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it— the whole room gasped.
Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.
"The champion for Durmstrang," he read in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."
"No surprises there!" yelled Ron as a storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall. Viktor Krum rose from the Slytherin table and slouched up toward Dumbledore; he turned right and walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.
"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over the applause. "Knew you had it in you!"
The clapping and chatting died down. now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.
"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!"
Marietta, Padma, Chija, and (Y/n) squealed as Fleur gracefully got to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables.
