Chapter 173: The Goblet of Fire

 

The Goblet accepted its first name at breakfast.

Angelina Johnson crossed the age line with two witnesses, stated that she had read the risk terms, and dropped her parchment into the blue-white flame. The fire turned red for a moment and swallowed it.

Fred and George applauded from outside the circle.

They attempted no ageing trick. The public test had removed both mystery and incentive, although George claimed this proved only that they were saving their genius for profitable work.

Cedric entered later that morning. Hufflepuff gathered quietly around him while Professor Sprout and a Ministry clerk witnessed his attestation. He emerged to broad applause from every house.

Draco watched from the Slytherin table. "If one champion represents Hogwarts, it should not be decided by popularity."

"It is decided by the Goblet," Pansy said.

"An object whose selection method no one can explain."

"That is a fair criticism," Edward said. "It is not an argument for letting you enter."

Draco stabbed a sausage.

The foreign students used the day to explore Hogwarts. Beauxbatons attended Charms demonstrations. Durmstrang students watched an advanced Transfiguration class. Edward's public safety session gained six visitors after Adeline translated its summary into French and Bulgarian with help from school interpreters.

Fleur Delacour came because the published emergency map showed only English labels. She pointed out that a visiting champion under stress might not recall the local term for every exit.

They added symbols and colour bands.

Viktor Krum attended for ten minutes, studied the route from the library to the infirmary, and left without speaking. A Durmstrang student explained that he disliked crowds, not planning.

No one invited either student into the alliance.

At lunch, Hermione brought news from Gryffindor. Harry had no intention of entering and was tired of younger students asking how he would cross the line. Ron thought being chosen would be brilliant until Hermione made him read the withdrawal terms.

"Still brilliant," Ron said. "Just in a terrifying way."

Edward joined them near the Goblet. He examined the gold line without touching it. A Ministry clerk sat at a desk recording every authorized entrant.

"Could someone alter the record afterward?" Hermione asked.

The clerk turned the ledger around. Each entry carried a witnessed magical seal. Alteration would leave a visible break.

"What if someone never uses the desk?" Harry asked.

"The Goblet is keyed to reject unattested names," the clerk said.

"Keyed by whom?"

"The tournament panel."

The answer described responsibility, not mechanism. Hermione requested the published inspection report. They read it in the library.

The attestation check had been tested against false names and unwilling volunteers. The report admitted one limit: the Goblet's ancient selection enchantment could not be opened for full inspection without destroying it. The new safeguards operated around a piece of magic no living member of the panel entirely understood.

Edward copied that limitation.

An opaque magical object sat at the centre of a public contract. Tradition supplied confidence where verification ended.

That did not prove sabotage. It described where sabotage might hide.

Near dusk, Karkaroff submitted Krum's name with two Durmstrang witnesses. Madame Maxime witnessed Fleur's entry herself. More Hogwarts seventh-years followed.

The Goblet's flame behaved consistently each time.

Moody patrolled the hall. His blue eye watched through the back of his head while he spoke to Filch. Edward wondered whether the age line could see through Moody as easily as Moody saw through doors.

The thought was unfair without evidence. He wrote it in a private column marked speculation and did not share it as fact.

After supper, Dumbledore ordered the Great Hall cleared except for the Goblet, guards, and tournament officials. Entries would close at midnight. The selection would occur the following evening, allowing clerks to verify the final register before the flame chose.

That delay was another new safeguard.

Edward returned to the common room. Adeline waited near the entrance with Cho Chang. As a fifth-year, Cho could not enter, but she had helped the Ravenclaw applicants review the terms.

"One entrant withdrew before midnight," Adeline said. "He thought putting in a name was symbolic and learned the contract begins if chosen."

"Good reason to withdraw," Edward said.

"He is being mocked for it."

Pansy offered to address the Slytherins responsible. Cho and Adeline would speak with Ravenclaw prefects. They agreed to frame withdrawal as use of a stated right, not cowardice.

The intervention became the alliance's first cross-house action involving Adeline. She still had not accepted membership. The group helped because the issue matched its charter, not as an audition.

Later, Edward found a folded parchment beneath his pillow.

Edward Black, Hogwarts.

The writing imitated his own.

He did not touch it.

Snape, McGonagall, and Dumbledore came to the dormitory. Dumbledore levitated the parchment into an evidence box. A revealing charm showed no fingerprints or magical signature.

"Did you prepare any entry?" McGonagall asked.

"No."

"Did you authorize anyone to do so?"

"No."

Snape inspected the bed curtains and floor. The dormitory wards recorded no outsider entering since supper. Every roommate had been in the common room for part of that period, leaving opportunities but no proof.

He interviewed them separately with McGonagall present. Draco had returned once for a book. Theodore had lent Edward notes earlier that day. Blaise could not remember whether the parchment had been visible when he changed robes. None was accused from uncertainty alone.

The evidence box received a numbered seal. Edward wrote his account before hearing theirs and surrendered the pillowcase because it might hold residue. He slept in a different room under prefect supervision.

Pansy wanted the alliance to question every Slytherin who knew Edward's handwriting. Edward refused. The list included most of the house, and private questioning would spread the copied name faster than the saboteur could have hoped.

Instead, Snape issued a neutral reminder that delayed-writing charms on another student's possessions violated school rules and might contaminate a Ministry inquiry. Anyone with information could report privately through three different professors.

The response preserved a path for witnesses without turning the dungeon into a tribunal.

Dumbledore sent a Patronus to the Great Hall. The guards confirmed that no unattested name had crossed the age line.

The false parchment might be intimidation. It might be a test of Edward's reaction. It might be a spare after another copy had already been used.

"We need to verify the Goblet register now," Edward said.

The clerk opened it under four witnesses. Edward's name did not appear. Neither did Harry's.

The Goblet itself offered no list of what the flame contained.

Dumbledore doubled the guard and moved the selection to the morning rather than leave the artifact active another night. The participating headmasters and Ministry officials were summoned.

Edward returned to the dormitory but did not sleep.

At dawn, the Great Hall filled under a sky the colour of iron. The Goblet's flame still burned blue-white. The gold line remained unbroken.

Every visible safeguard appeared intact.

That was what made the copied name frightening.

The panel assigned separate guards to the artifact, the evidence boxes, and the entrance ledger. No one person could alter all three records without another witness. Their shifts overlapped during every handover, closing the quiet interval an intruder might otherwise exploit.