Percy Jackson and the Triwizard Tournament [Book 4]

51) Chapter 51 and We Still Haven't Seen the Goblet of Fire

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," Dumbledore said. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!" Dumbledore finally sat down, and I watched Karkaroff lean forward to talk to him.

The plates in front of us filled with food, but some of the food I had never seen before.

"What's that?" Ron pointed at a large dish of some weird shellfish stew that I would definitely not be touching.

"Bouillabaisse,"Hermione said.

"Bless you," I said.

"It's French," Hermione said. "I had it on holiday summer before last. It's very nice."

"I'll take your word for it," Ron said, piling black pudding onto his plate.

Hagrid sidled into the Great Hall through a door behind the staff table about twenty minutes after we had started eating. He slid into his seat and waved at us, and I saw that his hand was heavily bandaged.

"Skrewts doing all right, Hagrid?" Harry called.

"Thrivin'," Hagrid called back happily.

"Yeah, I'll just bet they are," Ron said lowly. "Looks like they've finally found a food they like, doesn't it? Hagrid's fingers."

At that moment, a voice said, "Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?"

It was the girl from Beauxbatons who had laughed during Dumbledore's speech. She's removed the scarf from around her face, and I finally understood why she had kept it on. She was beautiful. Silvery blonde hair fell almost to her waist, and she had large, deep blue eyes.

Ron evidently agreed with my beautiful statement, as he went purple. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"Nah, you can have it," I said, pushing the dish towards her.

"You 'ave finished wiz it?"

"Yeah," Ron said breathlessly. "Yeah, it was excellent."

"You didn't even want to try it, Ron, what are you talking about?" I looked at my friend, but he didn't respond, staring up at the girl.

"Iz he okay?" The girl asked.

"No," I said. "He's got something wrong with him. I think it's called hormones."

The girl laughed, thanked us for the food, then carried it carefully away to the Ravenclaw table. Ron continued to stare at the girl even as she sat down, as if he had never seen someone pretty before. I'm fairly certain he saw my gorgeous ass every day, so I don't know why he would have reacted that way, other than being a horny, straight, teenage boy. Harry soon started to laugh, and that seemed to bring Ron to his senses.

"She's a Veela!" Ron said hoarsely.

"Of course she isn't!" Hermione said bitterly. "I don't see anyone else gaping at her like an idiot."

"Gods, if you can't see the drool dripping out people's mouths, then you're just as blind as Harry," I said. Many boys' and some girls' heads had turned when the girl walked by, and some even seemed to have been shocked speechless like Ron.

"I'm telling you, that's not a normal girl!" Ron leaned sideways in his seat to get a better view of her. "They don't make them like that at Hogwarts." (I nearly choked when Ron said that).

"They make them okay at Hogwarts," Harry said, also staring at someone at the Ravenclaw table, but I couldn't tell who.

Me and Thalia shared a look as Hermione said, "When you've both put your eyes back in, you'll be able to see who's just arrived."

She pointed up at the staff table, and I saw that the last two empty seats had been filled. Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch had shown up.

"What are they doing here?" Harry questioned in surprise.

"They organized the Triwizard Tournament, didn't they?" I said. "I suppose they wanted to be here to see it start."

When dessert arrived, I could see a bunch of other foreign stuff too. Ron examined some pale looking blancmange closely, then scooted it to the side so that it would be in clear view from the Ravenclaw table. The Veela girl didn't come to get it.

Once the golden plates had been finally wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A good kind of tension filled the Great Hall, and I felt a thrill of excitement, wondering what was coming next.

"The moment has come," Dumbledore said, smiling around at us. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket —"

"The what?" Harry asked. I shrugged.

"— just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation" — there was some polite applause — "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

Bagman got a much louder round of applause, probably having been recognized for his time as Beater, but maybe just because of how much kinder he looked than Crouch.

"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore continued, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Chiron, and Mr. D on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts." Dumbledore seemed to notice our excitement at the word 'champions,' and smiled as he spoke. "The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch."

Filch, who had been lurking in a corner, now approached the staff table carrying a great wooden chest that was bedazzled with jewels. It looked very old. A murmur of excitement rose from the students.

"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman," Dumbledore said as we watched Filch place the chest on the table before him, "and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways... their magical prowess — their daring — their powers of deduction — and, of course, their ability to cope with danger." At his last word, the Great Hall was filled with absolute silence that no one dared to break. "As you know, three champions usually compete in the tournament, but this year there will be four — one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire." Dumbledore took out his wand and tapped against the top of the casket three times. The lid crawled open. Dumbledore reached inside, and finally pulled out the Goblet of Fire.

I started listening to Welcome to Night Vale again. I freaking love podcasts. I never get to listen to them cause I don't have the time or I'm way too distracted for it. I'm probably gonna listen to the Magnus Archives as well. If you've never listened to either of those podcasts, I fully recommend them, they're awesome. Oh and yesterday, it was storming really bad. There was the usual annoying lightning and thunder, but there was also this really, really loud boom. Like just louder than all of the other ones, it was weird. Also, I think my favorite anime ended today. And I mean like ended ended. I was so sad, but the ending was happy. The second season just felt so rushed though, and a lot of people were mad it didn't follow the manga's storyline. I hope they didn't end it early because of the people.

Anyway, I hope you guys have had an awesome Thursday (the song I'm listening to literally said Thursday while I typed that, I love it when that happens), and I'll see you on Saturday. Love ya!