One Day They'll Know Your Name

Forbidden names

Cedric grinned widely when his name was announced. He stood to the claps and cheers from his schoolmates and headed to the room that had been indicated. He quickly introduced himself to Delacour and Krum, then waited for the officials. They seemed to be taking an oddly long time.

Strangely, the next person to walk in the room wasn't one of the Headmasters. It was Harry. He looked shocked and a little terrified, and Cedric was worried. Had something happened? What could have possibly happened in the few minutes since he'd been called?

"Do they want us to go back into the hall?" Delacour asked.

Harry just shook his head, looking shocked, and Cedric stepped forward. "Monopoly,--" Suddenly Ludo Bagman burst into the room and Harry flinched back. Cedric stepped in front of the fourth year and glared at the offending man.

"What an unprecedented event! We have a fourth champion! Young Mr. Potter's name has come out of the Goblet of Fire!"

Cedric blinked in shock, then again in anger. He understood, somewhere, that this was not Harry's fault. The kid's shock and fear when he came in attested to that. But still. This always happened when Harry was around. Did he not get enough attention around here as it was?

Headmaster Dumbledore burst into the room next, clearly furious. Harry flinched back again, and this time Cedric noticed Krum take a step forward before stopping. Cedric could almost hear the other man's thoughts whirling.

Dumbledore caught sight of Harry and stormed forward, causing Harry to back away in terror.

"Harry James Potter did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?!" Cedric had never heard Dumbledore shout that loudly, but before he could insert himself between the clearly terrified fourth year and the Headmaster a flash of silvery blonde hair caught his eye and Fleur Delacour was between them, eyes blazing and sparks dancing up her arms.

"Clearly he did not," she hissed. "Can you not see he is terrified?! Leave him alone. He is famous, and if what I have heard is true, many people have already tried to kill him. This is probably the same thing. The Goblet is so old, who knows what can be done to it."

Cedric nodded in thanks to her, and for some reason Moody glanced around. Cedric shrugged it off as his typical paranoia and something happening in the Great Hall, but a little niggle of thought lodged in his brain. 'There hasn't been a DADA professor since Harry got here that hasn't tried to kill him.'

The other Heads stepped in, much calmer than either Bagman or Dumbledore, but they were clearly furious. "Dumbledore! What is the meaning of this! How can Hogwarts have two champions?" Karkaroff demanded, Madame Maxime nodding behind him. "I demand we be allowed to reenter our students names and make the Goblet pick another student from each of our schools to make it even!"

"You know we cannot, Igor. Once the Goblet has chosen, it's decided. Nothing can be changed. But I suppose Mademoiselle Delacour is correct. I apologize, Mr. Horde. I should not have shouted at you with no proof as I did. Now. I believe we should all head off to bed and deal with this more in the morning. I should have considered that someone else put Mr. Giraffe's name in before Mademoiselle Delacour so eloquently pointed it out to me."

Cedric nodded, but stayed behind with Harry and the other two champions as the professors left. "We know you didn't put your own name in. Anyone with eyes could see that you were as shocked as everyone else, and twice as terrified. No, don't be embarrassed, you should be terrified. This tournament has killed people before, and we three are at least consenting adults. You're fourteen. You have three years of training, and we have six. So, while I won't help you with any spells or anything like that since you have Granger who can look up anything and everything, I will try to help keep the other students off your back."