A/N: Just a friendly reminder that in this fanfic, the rules of the Triwizard Tournament have been changed. There will now be two champions per school who will act as partners, and the minimum age to enter is 15.

Analeigh Heart would by lying to herself if she said she wasn't nervous about the mere thought of putting the piece of parchment containing her name into the Goblet of Fire. It was simplest part to do in the Triwizard Tournament, yet Analeigh was very anxious. Yes, she wanted to join, but the feeling of voluntarily agreeing to take part in something dangerous was unnerving. At the same time, the tournament wasn't just dangerous; it was a great honor if you got to be chosen, and Analeigh wanted to fill up that spot so badly.

The 31st of October was the deadline for submitting names into the Goblet of Fire. Only a few days before that, Analeigh was accompanied by Hermione as she went into the Great Hall and dropped her piece of parchment into the blazing Goblet. There was only a small number students at that time, including Dean, Seamus, Angelina Johnson (who entered her name a few moments before Analeigh did), and a few more she did not know the names of, and they all gave an encouraging round of applause. Following that, Analeigh and Hermione sat down on one of the benches pushed to the side of the Great Hall and agreed that they'd watch the rest of the students entering. Analeigh breathed a sigh of relief when she was finally able to relax next to her bushy-haired friend.

"It's official, then," said Hermione, watching her friend intently. "You have a chance of becoming one of the champions for the Triwizard Tournament."

Analeigh laughed it off. "Sure, among hundreds of other students."

"I thought you were trying to believe in yourself more?"

"I am, but at the same time, I can't expect too much," she replied with a shrug.

"It's funny," Hermione then said after a pause. "There's still so many people submitting their names. I wonder how many applicants there are?"

As if on cue, Analeigh looked up and scanned the Great Hall. Sure enough, there was quite a number of people from all three schools stepping into the Age Line and putting their names into the Goblet one after another, as well as loads of students watching and waiting by the sides.

"I guess all of them want to bring honor to their school, too," Analeigh said thoughtfully.

"Or they want to get a thousand galleons and be famous like those morons," Hermione interrupted. The two girls watched, one in irritation and the other in curiosity, as a group of fifth year boys with a mix of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs laughed and pushed each other playfully before they all threw in their pieces of parchment into the blue fire.

"You never know, Hermione," Analeigh tried. "They could just be excited..." But as they were leaving, Analeigh overheard them talking about the prizes for the final champion and what they would do when they won the tournament — one of them mentioned being on the cover of not only the Daily Prophet but also on Witch Weekly. "Yeah, okay, never mind. You're right — they're dimwits."

Hermione giggled and shook her head. "I told you so."

Without other words needed to be said, the two girls drifted into silence as they killed time by reading their school books to prepare for their upcoming classes. But when Viktor Krum walked into the room, both of them immediately stopped what they were doing, and so did everyone else. Krum walked with his shoulders set back and his face as serious as ever, not missing a beat as he strode towards the Goblet, his right fist tightened around a ripped paper that no doubt had his name written on it. Finally, he made it past the Age Line and dropped slip of later inside, causing the flame to burn even brighter. The hall burst into another round of applause, breaking the previous silence when he first walked in.

Viktor Krum turned on his heel to exit the hall. His gaze landed on Hermione as he did so, mildly taking Analeigh aback. She smirked at this stare-off between them, and when she glanced at Hermione's face, she could see a faint blush spread across her cheeks.

"Interesting," Analeigh said teasingly.

"What is?" Hermione asked, shaking her head and looking back down at her book as if nothing happened.

"Fifteen year old Hermione Granger, brightest witch of her age, and eighteen year old Viktor Krum, the world's youngest and greatest Seeker of the most known sport in the Wizarding World," Analeigh said out loud as if it was a headline on the Daily Prophet she was reading.

"What are you even talking about?"

Analeigh ignored Hermione's words and just nudged her lightly. "For some reason, I can just see it happening."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "When you say it like that, you sound sort of like Professor Trelawney making her fake predictions. Don't remind me of that fraud."

"At least you don't have to actually see her almost everyday for class."

"Then you should've just taken Arithmancy with me this year instead of Divination."

"Please, I've taken that at Beauxbatons and never want to repeat it," Analeigh chuckled. "Anyway, now that I've seen the most exciting thing of this night, which is your little exchange with Krum —"

"There wasn't any —"

"I am going to head back to the Gryffindor Common Room." Hermione glared at Analeigh's continuous interrupting. "You coming?"

"Oh, alright. Let me just pack my things." Hermione had ended up spreading some of her homework on the space on the bench next to her, wanting to get as much things done even when she and Analeigh told each other they would only stay at the hall to watch for a little while.

"I'm going," Analeigh told her in a sing-song voice.

"Thanks for waiting for me." Analeigh chuckled at Hermione's sarcasm before she continued on her way out of the Great Hall.

Analeigh walked out of the hall, the only sound coming from her footsteps as she started going up the marble steps. But just as she turned the corner to walk down the next hallway, she heard laughter and before she knew it, she had crashed into someone — and that someone's robes were dripping wet, almost as if he or she was out in the rain this whole time.

Analeigh stumbled back and was met with Cedric's bright smile. When he noticed it was her that he had bumped into, his expression changed into one of mild surprise.

"Oh, hello there, Analeigh," Cedric said, looking down at her.

"Hi, Cedric," she replied politely. "How's the weather?"

Cedric laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and said, "It's quite sunny today, in fact." Analeigh rolled her eyes at the bronze-haired boy. "Okay, actually, I was in the courtyard with my friends when it started to rain. They're currently chasing me since I ran all the way here."

"Scared of a little rain?"

"Scared of getting caught by Filch outside the castle at night and getting the corridors dirty," he corrected. "He'd bite my head off he did."

"That wouldn't look too good on a prefect's reputation."

Cedric chuckled, and then he noticed that Analeigh had just come from the Great Hall based on where she had come walking from. His curiosity caused him to ask her, "Hey, did you enter the tournament?"

"Oh, yes," she said, suddenly shy about it.

Cedric was quite impressed that she had the guts to enter. He knew that she was an intelligent and skilled witch — he could still remember that night of the Quidditch World Cup when she had defended herself — so he couldn't help but imagine the two of them being champions together.

"That's amazing," he told her, then lifted his hand to show the parchment with his name written on it. "I'm going to enter, myself."

"Well, good luck on that. Viktor Krum just finished putting his name in the goblet."

"Now, how am I going to top that?" Cedric said, feigning disappointment.

"Certainly not with your appearance at the moment. You look... well, you've had better days," she said playfully.

"Come on, Analeigh. My looks are still as good as ever."

Analeigh didn't want to deny it because he was right; he was as attractive as ever and always will be. But of course, she wouldn't agree to that because he would either let his ego get to him or he'd assume she had a crush on him — which, she did not, right? He was just a very smart, charming, and good-looking person... that's all there was to it.

After a pause, Analeigh said with a hint of unit, "If you say so. Anyway, I have to get going. Good luck on using your looks to top Viktor Krum in the Great Hall." With that, Cedric sent her one last smile as Analeigh turned on her heel to head back to her common room.

When she reached the top of the stairs, she glanced back at Cedric, whose robes were still drenched as he made his way to the hall. She whipped out her wand, pointed it at him, and with one swish and a non-verbal incantation, she watched as he was dried from head to toe.

Cedric was quite startled at the sudden warm sensation, instinctively turning around. When he found Analeigh at the top of the steps with a satisfied expression, he couldn't help but grin broadly before continuing on his way to the Great Hall.

"Leigh! Wait up!"

Analeigh looked over her shoulder to find Hermione running up the steps, having finally caught up with her.

"I almost forgot you were even coming up with me," Analeigh said with a laugh. "What held you up?"

"Fred and George," she explained, sighing tiredly. "They came in the hall with a bunch of papers with their names on them! And then they enchanted them to multiply because according to them, it would increase both their chances of getting picked for the tournament."

"You have to admit it, though, it is pretty clever that they thought of enchanting the papers," said Analeigh to which Hermione just shrugged at. "Was it the Gemino Curse?"

"I'm not sure. It could've been a simple charm, but if it was the Gemino Curse, then I don't approve of it. I don't even understand how they would already know how to cast it!"

"Well, it isn't an Unforgivable Curse at least..." Analeigh's mind drifted back to their first day of Defense Againast the Dark Arts class with Professor Moody. "And Fred and George are actually pretty good wizards, all mischief and madness aside. So, did it work?"

"And this is the good part — no," Hermione answered smugly. "I told them that Dumbledore wouldn't allow any kind of magic to trick the Goblet that easily, and they said that's exactly why their plan would work —"

"Because it's dimwitted?" Analeigh guessed as they neared the Gryffindor Tower.

"Right," Hermione nodded. "But anyway, they put their names in and for a second, it looked like it worked. Everyone was clapping, but then they were suddenly thrown out of the circle and grew beards."

"Beards?" asked Analeigh incredulously. "Why beards?"

"I suppose Dumbledore was only focusing on an appropriate punishment for the people who wanted to deceive the Age Line, and —"

"And not the Goblet of Fire itself," she finished in understanding while Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Well, either way, they got what they deserved."

"Come on, Hermione, they just wanted to get in."

"Yeah... but still," Hermione huffed, sticking her nose up in the air. "But what held you up?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The Fred and George incident did take quite some time."

"Oh," said Analeigh in realization. "Well, I bumped into Cedric."

"Ah," Hermione nodded. "Fifteen year old Analeigh Heart, one of the most talented students in her year —"

"I'm not —"

"And," Hermione cut her off loudly, "Cedric Diggory, the gentlemanly and charming model student of Hogwarts. I can just see it happening."

Analeigh rolled her eyes. "First of all, you just copied exactly what I did to you. Second, I make way better headlines."

As Hermione scoffed at her friend, Analeigh turned to Fat Lady that they had now reached.

"Balderdash," she told her, and then the portrait swung open. Analeigh and Hermione made their way to the girls dormitory and up into the room they shared. After freshening up, they could finally get some rest. The champions would still be announced in a matter of days, but that was all Analeigh could think about as the clock ticked by and she drifted off into sleep.