The competing champions

Chapter 4.15 (The wand-weighing)

Harry knocked on the door, and both of them entered. They were in a fairly small classroom. Most of the desks had been pushed away to the back of the room, leaving a large space in the middle. Three of them, however, had been placed, end to end, in front of the blackboard, and covered with a long length of velvet. Five chairs had been set behind the velvet-covered desks, and Ludo Bagman was sitting in one of them, talking to a witch Aurora had never seen before, who was wearing magneta robes. Viktor Krum was standing moodily in a corner as usual, and not talking to anybody. Cedric and Fleur were in conversation. Fleur looked a good deal happier than Aurora had seen her so far. She kept throwing back her head so that her long silvery hair caught the light. A paunchy man, holding a large black camera which was smoking slightly, was watching Fleur out of the corner of his eye.

Bagman suddenly spotted the two of them, got up quickly and bounded forwards. "Ah, here he is! Champion number four! In you come, Harry, in you come...nothing to worry about, it's just the Wand Weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment-"

"Wand weighing?" Harry repeated nervously.

"We have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they're your most important tools in the tasks ahead." Said Bagman. "The expert's upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there's going to be a little photoshoot. This is Rita Skeeter." He added, gesturing towards the witch in magneta robes. "She's doing a small piece on the Tournament for the Daily Prophet."

"Maybe not that small, Ludo." Said Rita Skeeter, her eyes on Harry. Rita's hair was set in elaborate and curiously rigid curls that contrasted oddly with her heavy-jawed face. She wore jewelled spectacles. The thick fingers clutching her crocodile-skin handbag ended in two inch nails, painted crimson. "So who is this lovely young lady. Your girlfriend, Harry?"

This made Cedric look up instantly, looking quite curious to know the answer to that question as well. "No, this is Aurora Black, she's one of my best friends."

"Of course." Rita Skeeter said, as if she didn't quite believe that they were just friends. "I've heard all about you, of course, Aurora. Quite the story it was, your grandfather hiding your identity for so long."

"Yeah, well it was quite the surprise for me too." Aurora said awkwardly.

"I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry before we start?" Rita said to Bagman, but still gazing fixedly at Harry. "The youngest champion, you know...to add a bit of colour."

"Certainly!" Cried Bagman. "That's if...if Harry has no objection?"

"Er..." Said Harry.

"Lovely." Said Rita Skeeter, and in a second, her scarlet-taloned fingers had Harry's upper arm in a strong grip, and she was steering him out of the room again.

Cedric took this opportunity and walked over to Aurora. "Hey, Rori." He beamed. "What are you doing here?"

"Hiding from Snape."

"Why?" Cedric frowned.

"Something happened before we got here...I think Snape likes me even less now...I might get expelled." Cedric looked shocked and Aurora grinned at him. "So I thought I'd made good use of the time I still have here and come to see you. Maybe my grandfather can protect me against Snape's wrath if he finds me."

"Whoah....angering Snape. I think you're very lucky Dumbledore adores you." He breathed.

Aurora laughed. "What can I say...I'm just very charming."

"That's one thing I'm sure of. You can probably get anything done if you bat your eyes at someone."

"Oh darnit, you know my secret." Aurora pouted playfully and Cedric laughed.