While the students were occupied tasting the foreign food, two more people entered the hall. It was none other than Bartemius Crouch and Ludo Bagman, who Alice knew from the World Cup. She was, none the less, surprised to see them.

"What are they doing here?" asked Amara beside her.

"I think they organised the event, maybe that's why," said Cedric. Alice nodded in agreement and looked over to the twins. Both had their eyes glued to Bagman and she knew all too well why.

Once the golden plates had been wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the Hall now. Alice felt Cedric next to her lean in closer, as he surely wanted to hear everything the headmaster would be saying about the Triwizard Tournament. She also saw Fred and George lean forward, on the Gryffindor table, staring at Dumbledore with great concentration.

"The moment has come," said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces.

"The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket, just to clarify the procedure, which we will be following this year. But firstly, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation and Mr Ludo Bagman, Head of Department of Magical Games and Sports."

There was a much louder round of applause for Bagman than for Crouch, perhaps because of his fame as a Quidditch player. Either way, it didn't really matter to Alice, as she was still asking herself why he would give them false money.

"Mr Bagman and Mr Crouch have worked tirelessly over the las few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore continued, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff and Madam Maxime on the panel which will judge the champions' efforts. The casket, then, if you please, Mr Filch."

Filch, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the Hall, now approached Dumbledore, carrying a great wooden chest, encrusted with jewels. He placed it carefully on the table, while Dumbledore went on with his explanation of the rules. Apparently the three champions would be marked on how they perform each of the tournaments tasks and the champion with the highest mark after the third task would win the Triwizard Cup. The champions would be marked on their magical power, their daring, their power of deduction and their ability to cope with danger. All in all it didn't seem to Alice as something she would want to do. She looked to the twins, who were excitedly listening to Professor Dumbledore, in fact the whole Hall was quiet and it seemed like no one was breathing.

"The Champions will be chosen by an impartial selector...the Goblet of Fire," went Dumbledore on.

He then continued to take out his wand, and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. The lid creaked slowly open. Dumbledore reached inside it, and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It was full to the brim with dancing, blue-white flames. He placed the Goblet carefully on top of the now closed casket.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment, and drop it into the Goblet," said Dumbledore. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Hallowe'en, the Goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The Goblet will be placed in the Entrance Hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete. To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation, I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the Entrance Hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross the line."

Then the feast ended, but not before the Headmaster warned them to not take the Tournament lightly, as to drop their name into the Goblet would be like agreeing to a contract. Once someone would be selected as a champion by it, he or she could not go back, because there is no way out of the contract.

Alice, Amara and Cedric made their way across the Hall to the doors into the Entrance Hall. Alice was looking for the twins, but they had been too fast in leaving the Great Hall. Alice sighed deeply; she had wanted to see what their plan was to enter the Tournament. She certainly did not want to enter it, even if she had been old enough, but she really wanted to see what they were going to do.

"Hoping to see a certain someone, are you, Alice?" asked Cedric suddenly.

Alice nearly jumped out of shear shock, as she had been entirely zoned out because of her thoughts.

"Uhm..I...I don't know what you're talking about," said Alice warily.

"Oh don't say that, you know just fine who I meant," said Cedric, grinning.

"Well, if you know it that well, than I might just tell another certain someone how you could not stop staring at her the whole evening," said Alice.

Cedric took a step back, his hand on his heart as if he had been severely wounded. "You would not!" said Cedric.

"Oh, would too," said Alice, grinning just as he had some seconds ago. "Okay, I won't, but only if you stop saying such things," said Alice, giving in. Then they went to the Hufflepuff dorms and went to sleep.

As the next day was Saturday, most students would normally have breakfasted later. Alice, however, noted that many students had the same idea as her and Amara in rising much earlier than they usually did on weekends. The two met Harry, Ron and Hermione downstairs, who were too heading to the Entrance Hall.

The Goblet had been placed on the same stool the Sorting Hat was normally placed onto and a thin golden line had been traced on the floor, forming a circle ten feet around the stool in every direction. About twenty people were currently milling around the Goblet.

"Anyone put their name in yet?" Ron asked Ally, who too had come downstairs with Ginny, eagerly.

"All the Durmstrang lot," she replied. "But I haven't seen anyone from Hogwarts yet."

"Bet some of them put in last night after we'd all gone to bed," said Harry. "I would've done if it had been me...wouldn't have wanted everyone watching. What if the Goblet just gobbed you right back out again?"

"Well, that would be kind of disturbing to anyone," said Alice just as she heard a familiar laugh.

She turned around and saw Fred, George and Lee enter the Great Hall. They looked extremely excited.

"Done it," whispered Fred triumphantly to Harry, Ron, Hermione and Alice. "Just taken it."

"What?" asked Ron. Alice looked confused too, as she had apparently not been part of the secret.

"The Ageing Potion, dungbrains," said Fred.

"You're a dungbrain," said Alice. "You didn't even tell me, what you planned on doing."

Fred looked at her apologetically. "I know. We couldn't find you yesterday, otherwise we would have done so. You know that."

"Yeah, yeah. I was just joking. Now go on with your plan, I want to see of it will work."

"Oh it will," said George. "One drop of the potion for each of us. We only need to be a few months older."

"We're going to split the thousand Galleons between the three of us if one of us wins," said Lee, grinning broadly.

"You're actually part in mine and George's winning, if we win," said Fred pointing at Alice. "So we can all use it for you-know-what."

Alice grinned, knowing that they meant the joke shop. "Well ,then go an surprise me boys."

"I'm not sure this is going to work, you know," said Hermione warningly. "I'm sure Dumbledore will have thought of this."

Fred, George and Lee ignored her.

"Ready?" Fred said to the other two, quivering with excitement. "C'mon, then – I'll go first –"

Alice watched as Fred pulled a slip of Parchment out of his pocket and stepped over the line.

Alice thought, if only for a second, that it had worked. George seemed to think so too, as he let out a yell of triumph and leapt after his brother.

The next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle. Alice went to them, just to fall into a fit of laughter. The twins both had sprouted long white beards.

The Entrance Hall rang with laughter, to which even the twins joined in after eyeing their beards.

"I did warn you," said Professor Dumbledore, who was coming out of the Great Hall.  "I suggest you both go up to Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to Miss Fawcett, of Ravnclaw, and Mr Summers, of Hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours."

The twins then went to the hospital wing, escorted by a laughing Lee, while the others went into the Great Hall to breakfast.

After breakfast Alice was stopped by Hermione at the entrance of the Great Hall.

"I don't think we can have a lesson together tonight. How about tomorrow? I'm hoping to start on the topics of the fourth year with you. I've already prelearned everything we have to know," said the girl in front of her.

Alice nodded. "Yeah, sounds good to me. It's not much longer until my test..."

"Well, I think you can be confident in yourself. You're doing just fine and I think it won't be long until your spell will work just fine too, after all the Professor said that it will be okay after a while."

"Yes...yes, that he did," said Alice, not wanting to look Hermione in the eyes.

She felt a sudden need to go outside, as she remembered that she, in fact, still had to speak to the Headmaster.

"I'm sorry, I have to be somewhere now," she said quickly and went away.

Outside Alice took a deep breath. It was really not long before she had to do her test and she still had no answer for her problems. She did not want to tell anyone about it, though. She felt that it would just show how bad of an example for a witch she was. Suddenly someone tapped her on the shoulder. Alice jumped out of shock and turned around, just to see Cedric behind her.

"Merlin, Cedric. Don't go sneaking up on people. I nearly had a heart attack, here," said Alice.

"I noticed. Sorry for that. Uhm you know, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with Hermione. What's that lesson you have with her about? And what test did she mean?" asked Cedric concerned. "Is everything okay?"

"You're quite nosy, aren't you?" said Alice, avoiding his questions.

"I know and I'm sorry, but Alice don't just change the topic," said Cedric, sounding honest.

Alice chewed on her lower lip, thinking if she could or should tell him. After all, he had always rather questioned her being a witch at the World Cup. Alice knew she could trust him and that he wouldn't tell anyone about it.

"I'm not in trouble, if you think that," she said finally.

Cedric looked at her, relieved but still confused. "What is it then?"

"I have to take a test, so they know if it is okay for me to be in the sixth year, after no prior education about magic in any kind of way."

"What do you mean? I thought you were attending an American school prio to Hogwarts?"

"Well, that's what you're supposed to think, Cedric. The truth is, before the Quidditch World Cup , I was not a witch."

She looked at him and sighed, then she began explaining everything that had lead to her being at Hogwarts now because his face was showing even more confusion than before. First he could not believe what she told him, but then it seemed to make sense as he finally nodded.

"Okay, I think I understand. Don't worry, though, I won't tell anyone."

"Thank you, Cedric," said Alice and smiled. "I owe you for that."

"Well, we'll find something," said the boy returning her smile.

"You know, I can probably help you with Cho, if you want," said Alice, as they walked back inside.

"Don't get to full of yourself madam. Get your love life right, then we can talk about mine," he said with a grin.

"Whatever. What about you wanting to enter the Tournament?" asked Alice, to avoid further questioning about a certain red haired someone.

"Well, actually, I have my paper slip with me. We could just go and put it in the Goblet," said Cedric.

"Well, then let's not wait any longer Mister Diggory. Amara hasn't stopped questioning me about it, you know," said Alice and entered the Entrance Hall, where the two found their friend waiting.

"I was looking for you!" said Amara.

"Sorry, we had to discuss something. Doesn't matter anyway. Cedric wants to enter now," said Alice and grinned.

"Finally, now go on, go on, I want to see it," said Amara.

Not wanting to make their friend wait any longer, Cedric took out his name slip and stepped over the ageing line. Then he dropped it inside the Goblet and with a grin, went back to them.

"Well, that was easy," he said.

"You're such a show-off," said Amara.

"Well, but I think someone noticed you, none the less," said Alice and grinned.

Cho Chang was walking to them, well rather to Cedric to, probably, wish him luck in becoming the champion. Alice and Amara then left their friend alone to talk to his crush.

The Great Hall was beautifully decorated for the Hallowe'en feast. It was candlelit and the ceiling showed the night sky with all of its stars. The Goblet had been moved to the Great Hall, where it now stood in front of Dumbledores chair. Everyone was really excited as to who would become the champion of the schools. So it was no surprise that the feast was a very fidgety one, as everyone just waited for Professor Dumbledore to finish eating. Then, finally, Dumbledore got to his feet and announced that the Goblet would give out the names every minute now.

"I'm really hoping it's you, Cedric," said Ernie Macmillan, beaming at him.
A few other Hufflepuffs wished him luck.

"You already have your fans, that's certain," said Alice and grinned.
Cedric just smiled and shrugged.

Professor Dumbledore made all the candles go out, except for those in the carved pumpkins, which made the Goblet the only thing shining brightly inside the Hall. Everyone was watching intently and expectantly, some even checked their watches, Alice notices. Then the blue flame of the Goblet turned red. Then a tongue of flame shot into the air and a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it. The flame then turned back to blue. Professor Dumbledore had caught the piece and read it out loud, announcing that the champion of Durmstrang would be none other than Viktor Krum. Alice saw Krum stand up from the Slytherin table and walk to the staff table and through a door into the next room, all the while accompanied by applause.

The Goblet turned red the second time and it was announced that the champion of Beauxbatons was going to be a girl named Fleur Delacour. Alice saw her too walking into the room. She was a really beautiful girl, reminding her somewhat of the Veelas she had seen at the World Cup. She looked over to the other students of Beauxbatons, just to see that some of them were crying and others looked really disappointed.

"Well, they really wanted to become champion, I guess," said Amara, who had seen just the same as her.

"Now only Hogwarts is left," said Alice.

The Goblet turned red a third time and a piece of parchment flew from it. Professor Dumbledore caught it and read it out loud.

"The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory."

Alice, Amara and every other Hufflepuff jumped to their feet, screaming and stamping happily. Cedric made his way to the room, all the while grinning broadly. His applaus went on for much longer than for the other champions.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily, as at last the tumult died down. "Well, now we have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you , including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give our champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real – "

But Dumbledore stopped, and it was quite obvious why.

The Goblet of Fire had turned red again. Sparks were flying ut of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment. Dumbledore seized the parchment a looked at it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands. Finally, he cleared his throat and called out the name that was written on the paper.

"Harry Potter!"