Undistinguished (H.P.)

Chapter 3: The Announcement

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The next day was hectic. The Great Hall was constantly packed with students from all three schools, all watching the Goblet of Fire, to see who would be entering their name, and thus their life, into this Tournament.

That means Veronica's usually quiet breakfast was interrupted by cheering, yelling, whispering and gossiping students surrounding her. One of them being her closest acquaintance Ernie MacMillan, who refuses to let her leave, despite her numerous attempts to get out of her seat and take off to somewhere more peaceful, as he has a firm grip on her arm.

She was slowly losing all patience that she once had, every time she hears someone talking about this Tournament she gets more and more annoyed at them. Veronica has now had to stop herself from forgetting self-control and screaming at the other fourth years around her to shut up. After all, no one would listen to her, they never have and probably never will.

Veronica just doesn't seem to understand why everyone cares so much about this Tournament. Not only are the majority of people not old enough to take part, but who would want to win eternal fame and glory anyway, sounds tiring. She would much rather be cooped up in the library or her room with a good book or even walking around Hogsmeade quietly window shopping. But instead, she's in the Great Hall watching people get excited over a bloody murdering match. It seems she's the only one who remembers the warnings Dumbledore gave at the start of term when the Triwizard Tournament was first announced. For once Veronica wanted to get through a school year where no one was in danger of being killed.

A sudden cheer from the Gryffindor table pulls her out of her thoughts. Veronica turns to see the commotion, as well as every other person in the room but rolls her eyes when she finds the Weasley twins as the source of the noise. They seem to be holding up tubes filled with some sort of potion and presenting it to their fellow Gryffindors. "Aging potion" she hears Hannah tell Susan. Veronica was puzzled as she had thought that it would be pointless trying an ageing potion on Dumbledore's age line situated around the Goblet. She may not be the smartest of students, usually achieving Acceptable in most of her exams, but she definitely had faith in Dumbledores magic.

She apparently wasn't completely wrong with her previous assumptions about the potion, as she saw the twins getting into a particularly heated debate with the smart, bushy-haired girl Veronica knows as Hermione Granger whose in a few of the Hufflepuff's classes, but she has never spoken to herself.

The twins shrugged Hermione's warning off and after one swig of the potion jump over the age line and place their names into the cup. At first, Veronica believed it to have worked and let out an astonished exclamation, but suddenly a blue beam of light shot out of the Goblet followed by pieces of parchment that hit the gingers in the chest and flung them back onto the floor by the Gryffindor table and just out of Veronica's line of sight.

Even if she couldn't see them herself, the laughter following their fall and sounds of them scuffling around on the floor blaming each other let her know that something grand had happened to them as a result. Ernie turned towards her with humour in his eyes and a large grin on his face. "I bet they've grown long white beards like Dumbledores. I heard a few other people have tried that already today and are in the hospital wing right now" he informed her, which was only confirmed when Dumbledore turned up also with an amused grin on his face and sent the twins to be treated.

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The rest of the day continued in the same fashion as before and Veronica noted a few familiar faces placing their names in the Goblet that afternoon, such as Viktor Krum, followed by a bunch of his fellow Durmstrang friends, and Cedric Diggory, which led to a huge cheer from the Hufflepuff students - Ernie included.

By the time evening had rolled around Veronica was officially sick and tired of watching and listening to people talk about the Goblet and the upcoming Tournament and was more than ready to go to sleep, a throbbing headache starting to appear from around her eyes and in the back of her head.

Firstly though, she'll have to sit through the Halloween Feast, which she was initially excited for until it became clear that the focus of the feast would be on the announcement of the Triwizard Champions following the meal and her mood soon became sour again.

After Dumbledore had silenced the chattering students, he quickly became serious and started his speech about the Tournament and going over what each of the Champions would be required to do. Veronica yawned quietly, thinking that Dumbledore was dragging this out as long as he possibly could most likely to create anticipation and tension in the room, but was only making her more tired.

Finally, the blue fire appearing out of the centre of the Goblet turned a rich red colour and a long flame fired from the top, with a single piece of parchment flying out with it, in a way that reminded her of the earlier event with the Weasley twins who were now back to normal, sitting at the Gryffindor table as invested as everyone else in what was going to happen next.

"The champion from the Durmstrang Institute is..." Dumbledore paused for dramatic effect as he snatched the parchment out of the air "... Viktor Krum!". The seemingly obvious choice that Veronica could've told anyone would happen, but apparently struck everyone else as a big revelation, was followed by a thunderous applause as the other Durmstrang boys stomped their feet and slammed their hands together as a show of support for the young seeker as he sauntered towards the front of the room, shook hands with Dumbledore and disappeared into the back room followed by Karkaroff, the Headmaster of Durmstrang.

The hall quickly went quiet again as the flaming red sparks reappeared out of the Goblet and the second piece of parchment flew into Dumbledore's waiting hand. "The Champion from Beauxbatons is, Fleur Delacour!" shouted Dumbledore, which was once again followed by cheering, mainly from the males in the Hall, and Veronica understood why as a beautiful light silver blonde, gracefully stood up, gliding towards the back room, her giant of a headmistress leading the way.

This time, the air seemed thicker as the third and final parchment took a flight out of the Goblet as the entirety of the Hogwarts population locked their eyes onto Dumbledore, not a single sound being made as the wise Headmaster looked down onto the parchment. "And finally, the champion from Hogwarts is... Cedric Diggory!" An applause to rival Krum's emerged from the Hufflepuff side of the room as the boy in question rose from his seat, stopping along his way to the front to hug and shake hands with a few friends.

Ernie was having a field day next to Veronica as he shook her shoulders and proceeded to claim that he "told her so". She may not be interested in this Tournament and saw it as an awful idea but had to admit she felt the slightest pride in having Hufflepuff finally get the glory, however as she watched Cedric disappear into the back room, a massive grin on his face, her brain started banging against her skull. The feeling was something she'd never felt before as she closed her eyes and rested her head on the table.

The pain she felt was so intense, she barely registered that the Goblet had once again lit up, spitting flames as a fourth parchment was thrust at Dumbledore. A grim feeling filled her stomach and Veronica felt she would throw up her magnificent dinner any second. Dumbledore spun around to face the crowd, his eyes seemed to be searching the Gryffindor table as he screamed angrily across the Hall, his voice echoing around the castle "HARRY POTTER!".

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