Honey Bee

Chapter 20

"Melissa David."

"What!" I whispered without thinking.

"Melissa. Go up to Dumbledore." Fred told me.

"But I didn't put my name in that thing." I whispered back with tears rolling down my face.

"Just go, I'm sure it's Peeves playing up." Fred reassured me.

I quickly stood up and walked up to Dumbledore.

"I didn't put my name in the cup. How is it possible?" I said to him, my throat was quiet and dry but over the silence of the crowd everyone could hear.

"Don't worry Melissa. Just enter the back room." Dumbledore said.

Viktor, Cedric Diggory, and Fleur were grouped around the fire. They looked strangely impressive, silhouetted against the flames. Viktor, hunched-up and brooding, was leaning against the mantelpiece, slightly apart from the other two. Cedric was standing with his hands behind his back, staring into the fire.

"Hello." Cedric said before I collapsed to the floor in tears, the others ran over to hug me. "Whats up?" I showed them the note.

"I didn't put my name in. I don't want to compete." I cried.

"Does anyone think you put your name in?" Cedric asked.

"I don't think so..."

"Then there's no problem." Cedric said before the door opened and Harry walked in.

"Oh no." I said.

"What is it?" Fleur said. "Do zey want us back in ze Hall? Do zey want Melissa?"

She thought he had come to deliver a message. Harry just stood there, looking at the us 'champions'.

There was a sound of scurrying feet behind him, and Ludo Bagman entered the room. He took Harry by the arm and led him forward.

"Extraordinary!" he muttered. "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen...ladies," he added, approaching the fireside and addressing us. "May I introduce - incredible though it may seem - the fourth and fifth Triwizard champion?"

Fleur, tossed her hair, smiling, and said, "Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman."

"Joke?" Bagman repeated, bewildered. "No, no, not at all! Harry's name just came out of the Goblet of Fire! As did Melissa's."

"But evidently zair 'as been a mistake," she said. "'E cannot compete. 'E is too young. And Melissa, she 'as come in 'ere crying. She cannot compete."

"Well...it is amazing," said Bagman, rubbing his smooth chin and smiling. "But, as you know, the age restriction was only imposed this year as an extra safety measure. And as their name's come out of the goblet...I mean, I don't think there can be any ducking out at this stage....It's down in the rules, you're obliged... you two will just have to do the best you -"

The door behind us opened again, and a large group of people came in: Professor Dumbledore, followed closely by Mr. Crouch, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape. I heard the buzzing of the hundreds of students on the other side of the wall, before Professor McGonagall closed the door.

"Madame Maxime!" said Fleur at once, striding over to her headmistress. "Zey are saying zat zese little children are to compete also!"

Madame Maxime had drawn herself up to her full height. The top of her head brushed the candle-filled chandelier.