Chapter 176: The Fourth Champion

"Cedric Diggory."

Dumbledore's voice carried through a hall too tense to celebrate normally.

The Hufflepuff table erupted anyway. Cedric stood, startled and smiling, then crossed to the side chamber where champions had been told to wait. His entry appeared in the verified ledger with two witnesses.

The Goblet flared again.

"Fleur Delacour."

Beauxbatons applauded. Madame Maxime watched the artifact rather than Fleur as the champion left the hall.

The third parchment named Viktor Krum. Durmstrang students struck their tables in approval. Karkaroff allowed himself a satisfied smile.

Three schools. Three verified entries.

The Goblet's flame returned to blue-white. Dumbledore waited for it to extinguish.

Instead, the fire turned red again.

A fourth slip rose.

Dumbledore caught it. He read the name silently before looking at the sealed evidence boxes on the staff table.

"Edward Black."

No one cheered.

Edward heard the Slytherin table inhale around him. Sirius's hand closed on the back of his chair. Across the hall, Harry stared at the Goblet.

Dumbledore showed the parchment to Madame Maxime and Karkaroff before reading it aloud a second time. The handwriting matched the copy found beneath Edward's pillow.

"My name was not submitted with my consent," Edward said from his seat. "It does not appear in the entry ledger."

The Ministry clerk confirmed both statements.

The Goblet's flame remained red.

Karkaroff rose. "Do not touch the boy or the cup until our specialist examines the parchment."

Edward stayed where he was.

Madame Maxime moved between the Goblet and the Beauxbatons students. Dumbledore raised a ward around the artifact without covering its flame.

The fifth parchment emerged through the ward and landed at his feet.

Harry's name was written across it.

Mrs. Weasley pulled Harry behind her. Hermione gripped the edge of the Gryffindor table. Ron looked as though he had forgotten how to stand.

Harry spoke before anyone accused him. "I did not enter."

"The ledger confirms no attestation," the clerk said.

The Goblet went dark.

For several seconds, the only light came from the floating candles.

Dumbledore ordered the students to remain seated. McGonagall and Snape sealed the doors. Moody limped to the central aisle, magical eye sweeping the room for movement.

Edward's brass whistle stayed beneath his robes. The threat was not an attacker he could identify or an exit he needed to reach. For now, remaining visible beside Sirius was safer than moving.

The three legitimate champions returned from the side chamber under escort. Cedric looked from Harry to Edward and understood that the selection had gone wrong.

The panel examined the fourth and fifth parchments without breaking their seals. Both carried a binding mark absent from the first three. The mark resembled the soul-shaped hook copied earlier from the Goblet.

"Are they champions?" Karkaroff demanded.

"Politically, their entries are invalid," Bones said. "Magically, the attachment may already have formed."

Crouch had arrived by Floo during the inspection. He read the contract and said the selected names were required to answer the tasks.

"Answer can include formal forfeit," Hermione called from the table.

The specialist confirmed it. If the contract recognized Edward and Harry, either could forfeit each task and accept no points. The magic did not compel them to attempt the danger.

Mrs. Weasley seized that option. "Then Harry forfeits all three."

Sirius looked at Edward. "So do you."

Edward wanted to agree. Heat had begun beneath his ribs, fed by the copied handwriting and the knowledge that someone had reached through every visible safeguard.

He named the feeling before answering. "I will forfeit unless the binding can be removed safely or the risk changes."

Sirius heard the limit. "We decide together."

Harry nodded to Mrs. Weasley. "Together."

Karkaroff rejected any continuation until Durmstrang's legal advisers reviewed the altered contract. Madame Maxime agreed. Dumbledore suspended the tournament and dismissed the students by house under staff escort.

Before Edward left, the Goblet specialist called him back.

A revealing charm showed four identity channels within the selection chamber, not three. Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang remained attached to the legitimate champions. A false school channel held both Edward and Harry through separate hooks.

"Why two?" Edward asked.

"We do not know."

"Could the attacker have intended only Harry and used me to hide the target?"

"Possible."

"Could I have been the target?"

"Possible."

"Could both be?"

"Possible."

Before anyone moved, healers examined Edward and Harry for immediate effects. Both carried a faint mark at the edge of their magical signatures, invisible until the Goblet's parchment came near. The mark tightened when the boys stepped toward the doors and relaxed when they turned back toward the hall.

The response suggested attachment, not compulsion to remain in the room. The healers tested no farther. They refused Crouch's suggestion that one boy cross the castle boundary to see what happened.

Each parchment entered a separate transparent case. The first three names showed a single contract seal linking person, school, and Goblet. Edward's and Harry's showed two seals: the old tournament mark and a darker hook attached from outside it.

Professor Babbling compared the hook to the trace studied that afternoon. The shape matched closely enough to guide investigation, not closely enough to identify a caster. No part of the mark behaved like a conscious soul fragment.

Edward asked whether the false school channel held a name. The specialist revealed only a damaged title, letters rearranging whenever read. It could be deliberate concealment or a side effect of the alteration.

The clerks also checked every legitimate entrant. No name had been removed from the ledger, and no witness seal was broken. The attack had added obligations rather than replacing a chosen champion.

That detail protected Cedric from rumours that Harry or Edward had stolen his place. Dumbledore announced it before dismissal, along with the confirmed fraud. He ordered every house to treat harassment of any selected student as a disciplinary matter.

Students still whispered as they left. The difference was that the school had supplied facts before speculation filled the silence.

The uncertainty followed Edward into the side chamber.

Cedric approached first. "For what it is worth, I believe you did not enter."

Fleur folded her arms. "Belief is not the question. The competition cannot continue with one school holding three names."

Krum said nothing, but he nodded.

No champion blamed Edward or Harry for the sabotage. Their concerns about fairness remained legitimate.

Dumbledore arranged separate guarded rooms for the five selected students and their guardians. No one signed a new agreement. The panel would spend at least three days reviewing the binding and possible remedies.

Moody objected to the delay. "The attacker gets time to act again."

"The attacker expected panic and haste," Bones said. "We will provide neither."

Moody's blue eye fixed on her. He backed down.

In the guarded classroom assigned to Edward, Sirius paced while the family solicitor read the tournament contract. Kreacher arrived with the sealed archive copy of the false parchment record.

Edward looked at the fourth and fifth names written in the incident report.

The Goblet had selected five people. Tradition called only three of them champions. Magic had attached all five.

The distinction would determine what happened next.

No one would settle it in the Great Hall by applause.