Harry Potter Short Stories

This tournament needs better security

But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him.

The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment.

Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out —

"Harry Potter."

Then another gout of flame shot into the air, and Dumbledore took the new name in turn.

"Tom-" That was most people in the Hall's first experience of seeing Albus Dumbledore bewildered. "Tom Riddle?!" While he struggled to regain his dignity, the flame erupted again, and he retrieved the new slip with a sort of punch-drunk grace.

"Peter Pettigrew."

The knowledge of their misadventures being limited to a few, Harry cornered his two friends as soon as he could manage to get them alone, which was a surprisingly long time after that unfortunate ceremony. "All right, you two, which one of you did it? Can't be Sir- er, Snuffles, I haven't told him about Riddle yet."

Ron gawped at him. "I thought it was you!"

That left Hermione, who met his eyes with an unashamed look. "I didn't put your name in, Harry, but I knew any ceremony held on Halloween was bound to go wrong for you, especially with all the emphasis on a binding magical contract all year round-"

"How?" Harry cried in frustration. He paused. "Okay, that does seem like a perfect set-up for another disaster, but you couldn't rationally know I'd be doomed to that fate."

"Harry, your life is so strange, it makes me think Divination is valid - if only for you." Hermione shook her head. "If there wasn't such a thing as fate, you wouldn't get caught at the center of all this absurd nonsense every year, even when you're not seeking it out.

"So I Confounded the Goblet - that didn't require me to cross the Age Line - and maneuvered my two slips in with a bit of work with a fishing rod. Of course my Confundus would be too weak to confuse the Goblet of Fire if it was just me, but someone would have to tamper with it anyway if they were going to make it accept your name, and I worked it out so that, if they did that, it would fall for my entries too.

"So Peter Pettigrew is required to show up and prove he's alive and well, and Riddle will be forced to come out of hiding and show himself. I suppose he could try not to attend - especially if he's physically incapable of doing so - but the penalties historically have ranged anywhere from being changed into a Squib to death to permanent and perpetual misfortune, so I daresay he'll manage to compete with that as the alternative. Since he hasn't returned yet, I expect he's in no state to do so, which is all the better."

Harry thought that Voldemort was further along to returning than she thought, but then again, his dream hadn't given him the impression Voldemort was in the best state. So he nodded.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to get you out of it, Harry," she said to him, "but I wasn't able to work out how to get it to reject a name. I'll do everything in my power to help you-"

"Hey, wait," Ron broke in, sounding irate. "You went to all the trouble to get them in, but not me?"

They both looked at him.

"Ron," Hermione said in an uncomprehending voice, "you do realize that I deliberately entered Wormtail and Riddle in the hopes it would turn out to be a deathtrap, and whoever entered Harry was undoubtedly thinking the same thing?"