Before we get into the chapter. I have several things to say.

Some of you may have noticed the new cover for this story. That would be the Queen. The left side of it is her younger self (not her third year, a little bit later), the one that's right now in Hogwarts. On the right side is her older self, back in her original world in the middle of a battle decimating foes.

I am proud of this piece and even more proud of the one that drew it. @Chococustart (Twitter/Instagram) go show her some love as her other artworks are also good... Of course not as great as the one and only Queen... But they will suffice.  And if you want to perhaps take on a commission for yourself, just copy this link which leads to her website: https://chococustard.carrd.co. 

Now, I also have made a new Pottermore account as Luna Crimson, the Queen. I took the main 'quizes' and I have the wand, the Patronus, and the house to which she would have been sorted if she allowed the sorting hat to do its job. And to be fair, almost all of the things fit her perfectly. The most confusing would be the Patronus, but that too is good as that's a showing of her future self more than what she is now.

Greyhound - The Greyhound is an intelligent, gentle creature. Sure, they are fast when need to be and are prey-driven, but for the most part, they are calm, affectionate, and easygoing with a sensitive nature. If your Patronus is a Greyhound, you’ve likely been wrongly accused of laziness or indifference by those who do not understand your calm disposition. You’re not lazy at all. You know exactly what you want and focus your energies on your target, but you don’t chase every opportunity. This focus allows you to live peacefully with others and not let every little thing upset you.

And so, let this be the official meeting between the Queen and all of you.

Now back to the chapter, have fun reading.

~ The Selection of Champions ~

Four days later, the night time of Friday.

Pretty much everybody from Hogwarts is gathered inside one room, the room which holds the Goblet of Fire. Beauxbatons and Drumstrang people are in the same room as well. Thus leaving the room absolutely packed to the brim.

Albus, Snape, McGonagall, and other teachers can barely get past the students while getting to their position behind the Goblet.

The Queen is also not helping the others have an easier time navigating the room.

She, being her natural self, has taken over one table for herself not allowing anybody else to sit beside her. If anybody tries to sit at the table or is polite enough to ask if they could, she quickly shuts down their attempts by twirling her wand.

That twirl makes them spin around and face where their back was facing just a moment ago. Eventually, people stopped trying to sit at that table, opting instead to get their buttocks planted on the ground.

However, there are several people sitting alongside the Queen at that table. Two of them being the week-long couple of Ginny and Luna. The Weasley Twins, George and Fred, who to the Queen's amusement asked her if they could join her at 'her' table for the reasons of 'scouting' the opposition... Which is her.

She allowed them to do so because this is quite fresh for her. An enemy, be it a small insect just blatantly and casually telling her of their plans to investigate her isn't a thing she has experienced much. Most of her previous adversaries tried sending spies, infiltrating her ranks, and such practices of similar caliber.

Oh and also because Ginny put in her word to the Queen... On second thought, that's ninety-nine percent the reason why she allowed the Twins to sit at her table.

Then there's also, on the opposite side of the table, far far away from the Queen.

Priscia Alpin, or Pri for short as named some time ago by the Queen. The quiet and shy Ravenclaw girl, who is Lun's partner during charm class.

Pri had made her way towards the table of the Queen slowly and shyly, little step by little step... And eventually, she arrived at the table, and stood there for a minute or two, thinking if she should talk, ask or even say anything to the Queen.

Priscia likes the Queen and would like to be her friend, as she has helped her a lot during charm class. Especially with her confidence, being with the Queen had given the young girl a major boost with it.

Because of Lun's influence, she can now speak with most professors and other students without feeling like she should just stop talking, she can even look at Dumbledore and Snape nowadays without having to look away after half of a second because of the feeling of intimidation.

However, that confidence all but disappears when facing the Queen. When trying to speak to her, she always goes back to how she was before she met the Queen... This is why she stood near the table silently and only had the capability to stare at the back of the Queen.

Eventually, the Queen who had enough of ignoring the lost child just twirled her wand and instead of making her turn around like the other students, she made Pri sit down at the table.

Pri being surprised by the action looked in awe at the Queen and silently murmured 'thank you'. She had not received any answer of indication of Lun hearing her soft-spoken gratitude, but she didn't mind... Just being allowed to sit at the Queen's table where nobody else seems to be able to sit is enough for her.

And surprisingly there's one last person sitting at the table, a girl draped in Gryffindor robes, dirty blonde hair which is darker than Luna Lovegood's... This girl is Lavender Brown, a fourth-year and a dorm-mate of Hermione and Parvati.

The reason why she is sitting at the Queen's table is that she was already there before the Queen showed up, thus the Queen didn't chase her away. Mainly because the Queen who came to the room of the Goblet hours prior to everyone wanted to occupy a table for herself and saw that she wasn't the first one to be there. Lavender Brown was somehow first.

The Queen chose the table Lavender was sitting at as oppose to every other empty table at that moment because she decided to see if the girl would eventually leave the table after she has seen how the Queen treated the other students who wanted to join the table.

But that never happened in the upcoming hours as more and more people entered the room, which left less and less room for others. Lavender barely paid attention to the Queen or whatever she was doing. It was only at the very start as she took a glance at whoever sat at the table, but that was it.

No, the girl was much more busy staring at a certain individual. Her crush for the time. That's all that mattered to her. The Queen's semantics weren't in her mind at all.

Thus, Lavender, the only one technically outside of the Queen's 'group', was the only one to sit with the said group at this specific table.

The Queen also tried inviting Hermione once she showed up alongside Harry and Ron by using her signature floating message written on paper. But the book smart Granger shook her head at the Queen once she read the paper and that was it.

Lun didn't try inviting Fleur though, as the French Beauty sat with other students of Beaxubatons for this event and the Queen completely understood it.

And so in everybody's eyes, quite a random assortment of people sit at one table while nobody else is allowed.

The Queen, Luna, and Ginny sit to the very left of the table on one side. The Twins sit in the same spot but on the other side, facing the Queen. A Ravenclaw student at the very edge of the right side, furthest away from the Queen. And in the middle, another Gryffindor girl whose staring at some unknown location while everybody else is looking at the Goblet.

"Sit down please" Dumbledore tells everybody who was still dilly-dallying. After a momentary pause as they did as they were told.

Hogwarts' Headmaster continued "And now the moment you've all been waiting for, the champions
selection!"

Dumbledore approaches the blue flame and it glows red. A burnt paper containing the first name
comes out. Everyone looks on anxiously as Dumbledore catches the paper.

"The Durmstrang champion is..." the Headmaster starts reading, doing a pause for a dramatic flair, and then finishes "Viktor Krum!"

The Durmstrang crowd cheer as Viktor gets showered with multiple joyous movements from his friends. He then stands up and confidently walks up to Dumbledore, whose hand is already extended in wait for a handshake, which Viktor takes with the utmost respect.

Dumbledore then gestures to the side where the champions should go and with a nod, Viktor starts walking away.

After a moment another name comes out of the Goblet, Dumbledore takes it to his hand and reads it aloud.

"The champion from Beauxbatons... Fleur Delacour" Fleur hearing her name smiles pridefully to other Beauxbatons students, and just like Viktor got applause, so did she.

Most of which, or at least the loudest, came from the few people sitting at the Queen's table.

The Queen powerfully, which overshadowed everybody else, applauded her future wife. Her Moon applauded her new friend dreamily. Ginny, who to be truthfully honest didn't like Fleur, also applauded after a moment of pause joining her girlfriend. The Twins were just being their usual selves and boisterously added to the beautiful Veela's already amazing applause.

While the other students have quieted down, the Beauxbatons girls and the Queen's table continued to cheer as Fleur walked up to Dumbledore. She too gets to do a handshake with the Headmaster, but she also gets a pat on her shoulder before being gestured to the direction where Viktor has left.

And so, one more burnt paper shows itself, the last one.

"And the Hogwarts champion..." Albus pulls out a dramatic pause once more "Cedric Diggory"

The students of Hogwarts go nuts as they cheer for Cedric who takes the stage. The Hufflepuff hot shot shakes hands with the Headmaster and heads on down to the direction in which he was pointed by Dumbledore.

Dumbledore turns away from the Goblet, showing his back to it.

"Excellent! we now have our three champions! But in the end, only one will go down in history. Only one will hoist this chalice of champions, this vessel of victory the tri-wizard cup!" He exclaims loudly for everybody to hear.

People cheer as they see the cup which awaits the true champion. However, they get confused as they see Severus Snape step up slowly while quizically looking at the Goblet. The fire of the Goblet glows red once more and another name flies out as if it were limping around.

As Dumbledore reaches for it, the paper swerves to the side and just flies away in a direction he knows well. The Queen's table.

Everybody now sees the paper containing a mysterious fourth name being held by the Queen.

Luna Crimson locks eyes with Albus, she smiles cheekily "You don't mind, do you?"

Dumbledore puts out a smile of his own, a patient one, his magnificent beard rising with it.

"Go ahead"

The Queen finally looks at the paper in her hand and when she sees the name which resides on the paper, she can't contain herself from snorting unladylike.

She feels the eyes on her get even hotter than they were when she 'stole' the paper from the Headmaster.

Her eyes travel all around the room slowly, gazing inquisitively. but her stare stays for a moment longer on one certain individual in the room. And that is the 'new' DADA teacher, Alastor Moody. But it was barely any more time than the gaze on others, thus nobody noticed such a discrepancy in the Queen's subtle act. All but three teachers. Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, and Alastor himself seeing as he was looking right back at her.

"The Queen has changed her mind" The Queen floats the paper back to Dumbledore, who picks it up from the air.

His wise gaze stays on the Queen, he's lightly surprised that Luna didn't continue on with her 'theatrics'.

But then he looks at the paper and the name... And he understands why both the 'laugh' and him getting the paperback happened. He seems to have lost.

Around a month before the school time of Hogwarts and the Queen's arrival at the place. She made up a bet 'game' with Dumbledore.

She did that after she had read all of the information on the students, teachers, and so on.

The only 'male' name that stuck out to her was Harry Potter, now it wasn't for the reason that everybody else knows his name, she doesn't care for it as she is far greater in every imaginable way. The outer world just doesn't know that simple fact yet.

No, it was because he reminded her of a fly that loves spiderwebs a little bit too much. Trouble seems to exist around him just for the sake of existing. As it either finds him while he does nothing or he finds it by breaking rules which never apply to him.

The game she made up was probably one of her simplest yet.

Will Harry be the first to find trouble or will it be the opposite and trouble will find him first?

As the creator of the little game, she chose, first, that trouble will see to him sooner than he catches it himself.

Which left Albus with the latter option.

And since the Queen knew that neither of them need anything as a reward for victory, seeing that they have made a deal between themselves already for the only one thing that had a need from each other. There is no reward for this game, just 'bragging rights' for the victor.

Back to the present.

"Harry Potter" Comes out of the old Wizard's mouth, which easily reverberates over the room.

And the room goes quiet, even more than it previously was. All eyes jump around the room in search of Harry, when they find him, they stay there.

"No... No" Says Hagrid quietly while Harry tries to sit down even harder in his seat so as to not be seen by anybody else.

Dumbledore seeing that Potter isn't showing up raises his voice and calls out again "Harry Potter!"

"Go on Harry" Hermione says, seeing her friend not moving, she gets somewhat impatient, thus both her voice and the push come out with more force as she repeats herself "Harry for goodness sake"

Harry, being so frantically pushed on, finally gets up and starts slowly walking up to the headmaster. Dumbledore gives him the paper with his name.

Mr. Potter walks towards the direction where the other three champions walked. But unlike with them, he's not getting any applause or 'proud' gazes thrown at him. For him, it's only silence and stares of judgment.

Until eventually some voices broke through the silence, adding to the list of the only things reserved for Harry.

"He's a cheat!"

"He's not even seventeen yet"

"Yeah!"

"It's not fair!"

And so the golden boy walks amidst the 'adoring' public.

But he's forced to stop in place, alongside everybody else who was silent and shouting at him, as everybody in the room hears a very loud "Silence!"

The Queen had shut everybody up with her family's spell. The nonsense she was hearing from these children was quite enough for her. Of course, before raising her voice at them, she used Protego on the ears of Linny. Unlike how she directs the 'Kneel' and 'Silence' spells onto one person, she doesn't get to choose so lightly when doing it on a group of people, thus she had to protect those two beforehand.

"A cheat? Not fair?" the Queen chuckles mockingly for everybody to hear.

"Get real, you stupid children. What? Need your mom teats to suck on? The world isn't fair, to begin with, you morons. While I don't see Harry being worthy of whatever he gets as none of it comes from actual ability, that doesn't matter he is in the same league as all of you. From his 'birth' he was already much more than any of you. So him being picked a champion with the rules set by the Goblet, simply means he was worthy to be picked by its standards, no matter it all. Most of you cheered on the Weasley Twins when they tried to 'falsely' enter the Tournament, yes they got rejected quite fast, but tell me then, if they, or even one of them, got chosen to compete, would your prior cheers turn into such stupid ideals like now? Or is it because Harry is just above you in everything and has been from his first year so you throw your welled-up hate at him?"

The Queen calls them all out on their ridiculousness and blatant hypocrisy.

"Frankly speaking, your stupid naivete baffles even the great me. You should be rejoicing at him getting picked. Two champions for Hogwarts? While the other two schools only get one? That's a win in every sensible notion of battle. I would understand Beaxbautons and Drumstrang students being enraged by it as Hogwarts has essentially doubled their odds to win the whole tournament... Yet, they are handling this news better than you... What a disappointment you all are, even more than I initially thought. None of you deserve to attend Hogwarts or even be taught magic, to begin with. Worthless lot. Here's honest advice from the Queen to you seventh-rates. How about you all sit behind the backline of battle and resume cheering the Golden boy on, along with Cedric, and hope for one of their success as that's apparently the only thing you're good at. And only start blaming him when he lets you down and doesn't win because that's the only appropriate time to do what you were just doing" The Queen shakes her head after finishing her continued verbal onslaught on almost everybody in the room.

The room is silent after the words of the Queen...

Until Dumbledore breaks it.

"Quite a speech, ms. Crimson. I am glad that another student would protect another one so vividly" The Queen hearing that opens her mouth to interrupt the old man and call out him on his particular chosen words.

Protecting him? Ha! She was just making fun of everybody else as an opportunity presented herself.

But she wasn't fast enough to say anything to Dumbledore as a question was thrown her way "But would you be so kind and lift the spell?"

The Queen blinks in confusion at the old man's calm request. And then looks around the room and then it clicks in her royal brain.

"Right" She snaps her fingers and just like that everybody can open their mouths to speak again.

Her spell affected almost everybody inside the room. Except for a few teachers and Albus himself.

Harry breathes in and out, he doesn't like the Queen but nevertheless, he is thankful as nobody is paying any attention to him anymore. Instead, all of the hateful, scornful looks are now directed right at the Queen whose pride alone is enough to shut down any care for such meager attempts.

And so, while still being free from the attention he slips away and makes it to the room where Fleur, Viktor, and Cedric stand waiting for something to happen.

Of course, when a certain Potter enters the room, that was definitely not a part of 'something' they were waiting to happen.

Harry is now in a room with the other champions who are looking at the young lad with some confusion. Soon after, many people come inside the room followed by Dumbledore. Teachers of Hogwarts, Beaxubatons, and Drumstrang sent representatives and even Crouch who is foreseeing the Triwizard Tournament as a whole.

Dumbledore conjures himself and the young boy a chair, and Albus sits down. Then calmly points to the second chair and etches Harry on "Sit down Harry"

Harry gulps nervously while sitting down.

"Harry, did you put your name in the goblet of fire?" Dumbledore asked CALMLY, really calmly.

"No sir" Potter answers the headmaster.

"Did you ask one of the older students to do it for you?" Albus continues to question the young Gryffindor.

"No sir" Answers Harry once more.

"You're absolutely sure?"

"Yes sir"

Madame Maxime having had enough of the calmness surrounding the two individuals in such an unprecedented situation, interrupts with a shout thus creating some general chaos amongst the experienced people.

"Well of course he is lying"

"The hell he is" Alastor Moody interjects "The goblet of fire is an exceptionally powerful magical object, only an exceptionally powerful conjurer could have hoodwinked it. Magic way beyond the talents of a fourth year"

"You seem to have given this a fair bit of thought Mad-Eye" Igor gets in a piece of word of his own.

Mad-Eye gets right up to Karkaroff's face "It was once my job to think as dark wizards do, Karkaroff. Perhaps you remember?"

"That doesn't help Alastor" Dumbledore cuts the rising escalation of the argument before it happens. while still casually sitting in a comfy chair. He then cranes his head sideways to where Crouch is standing looking thoughtful.

"I leave this to you Barty" Albus states to him.

After a short and silent pause. Barty answers to nobody in particular. More or less talking to everybody inside the room.

"The rules are absolute, the goblet of fire constitutes a binding magical contract. Mr. Potter has no choice, he is as of tonight... a tri-wizards champion"

"I see..." Dumbledore lets out in the, now, silent room.

"Well then, Barty, convey the details to the champions. Everybody else, let's leave" The Headmaster states, getting up from his chair.

He starts walking back towards the goblet room. The others follow after him none of them are too happy about the outcome.

The students who were whispering to each other while waiting for the teachers to return silenced themselves immediately once they show up.

Dumbledore takes center stage once more.

"We have conversed amongst ourselves. And it was decided that this year's Triwizard Tournament will have four champions" The students gasped out loud.

"Let the Tournament begin!" Albus shouts out. And with that, he starts walking away back to his office.

Not before throwing a subtle glance at the Queen, whose staring right back at him gloatingly. But of course, she is, she has won after all. And no matter how small a victory might be, it's still a victory.

A few dozen minutes later.

The Queen is standing outside the Goblet room, with her Moon who has said goodnight to Ginny.

The two were waiting for Fleur to show up as the Queen has something to say to the French beauty.

"Moon, how has your new relationship with Ginny been going?"

Lun asks Luna a question because she might as well when there's not much more to do when waiting.

"Well. We scheduled several dates for the future. A few in the upcoming weeks before the first tournament trial. Then a few after that. Even one on Valentine's day" Lovegood answers both dreamily and happily at the same time somehow.

"Really?" The Queen looks surprised at her Moon "Valentine's day? That's quite a while away. Both of you think that this relationship will last until then?"

Luna stays silent for a bit, not answering the Queen. The Queen thus thought that her Moon was being her usual self and simply ended the conversation in her own special way.

But the Queen was mistaken as her Moon eventually answered with some sort of a prayer instead of an actual answer.

"I hope so" Is what Luna had said to Lun's words.

"Don't worry" The Queen puts her hand on her Moon's shoulder in a comforting manner. And yes the Queen does know how to do such a thing which normally seems way out of her power arsenal.

"You two are quite a decent fit for each other. Complimenting one another in ways that neither of you probably realize yet... Well, at least Ginny. And besides most relationships, no matter the kind, require effort from every possible side. And seeing as both of you agreed to a date which is months away without, what I assume little trouble, it only shows that both of you are putting effort into this. It will all be fine"

Luna smiles warmly at the Queen and her encouraging words.

"And hey, if you two have some problems arise at some point, be sure that the Queen will be there to fix them. I was the one that got you two together, so I sure can keep it that way"

And just like that the soft magic from the previous words from Lun got dispelled by the Queen's sheer narcissism.

Thankfully there was no need for more words to be said from either side, as Fleur finally arrived. She and the other three champions followed after Crouch out of the room.

Crouch wishes the champions 'Good Luck' and goes on ahead.

Viktor and Cedric go their way just as fast as Barty did. Krum however throws a glance at the Queen when he sees her on the side. He knows what happened some days ago... He knows well. Everybody from Drumstrang knows, albeit the knowledge of the actual culprit. That right is only spared to Karkaroff and himself. Drumstrang students want repentance for what happened to one of their people, but Igor had stopped it and told everybody that he will deal with it.

But Viktor doesn't know if Igor can deal with it and it may only have been a pretext to buy time for everybody's emotions to settle.

Fleur stops in place when she sees the two Lunas standing, presumably waiting for her.

And the Veela was right as Lun makes her way to her "Took you a while, that ministry man say anything worthwhile?"

"Ze basics. Code of 'onor between ze champions and zings like zat" Fleur throws a simple answer.

"So just blabbery and nothing else" Comments the Queen.

And then out of the corner of her eye, she sees the golden boy staring at her. Unlike the other champions, he hasn't left yet.

Harry seeing that he has been noticed finally, moves in to do what he set himself to do.

He steps closer to his fellow champion and the two Lunas beside her.

"Thank you for helping me back there" He says kindly to the Queen.

Silence.

That's all the boy who lived gets.

Awkward.

Is how the living boy feels right now as three pairs of eyes stare right at him.

"Are you dumb?" The Queen asks blatantly.

"H-huh?" Let's out, the pottery plant.

"I know that you're in Gryffindor and all, but you have to have some brain behind all that blown-up facade at the very least, right?"

Harry is lost right now. He only wanted to thank for the attention reversal back when he got unexpectedly chosen by the goblet.

"Me helping you would only be in the case of me sending you to meet your parents sooner. That's what 'helping' would be in your case" Harry's eyes widen in shock at the harsh words he just received. And now in his own mind, he's choosing between two approaches on how to deal with this situation. His nature is telling him to just let it go and leave, he has already thanked her, he doesn't need to hear any more of this... But the Gryffindor side of him is telling him to be brave and retaliate against her.

Unfortunately due to his slight pause in choosing between the two, the Queen continues on.

"What I did was merely use your very own 'audience', be it they were a bad kind of audience, for my gain. I made them appear to be idiotic while raising my own superiority over their existence. Some more 'smart' ones will realize that they made a lapse in their judgment to shun you for giving Hogwarts better odds, while the lesser ones will just continue to blame... But instead of their target being you as it was supposed to be if I didn't intervene, their target now will be me for mocking them way beyond repair. Do you understand what I am getting to, Mr. Golden boy?"

"...I do" Is all that Harry says.

"Good, now get lost. I have important business with the upcoming winner of the Triwizard Tournament, Fleur Delacour. And nowhere in this conversation do I see a Gryffindor child existing"

Potter can only glare at the Queen... But it was too late for him to retaliate as his nature had won him over, thus he just leaves without saying any more words. Only with the realization that he will never start a conversation with the Queen again, just like Hermione told him not to.

"Well, I don't know why 'Arry Potter was expressing 'is gratitude towards you, but zat was too much" Fleur says after a moment after Harry's leave.

"Was it? I thought I was going at it mildly at best" The Queen says in wonder.

"It was" Fleur adds with confidence "If a person decides to zank somebody, zat somebody should not spit at zeir atempt. Ze same applies with apologies"

"I see. I will take that into consideration the next time. Thank you, Fleur" The Queen states honestly.

"You're welcome" Fleur does what she preaches "Why did you wait for me?"

"To tell you that you're going to win the Triwizard cup"

"Naturally. But zat was what I was going to do anyway"

"Indeed. However, the training sessions of the Royal three from now on will be even more arduous, more taxing, and more convoluted than before. Which in turn is going to give you more positive results in more areas of expertise..." The Queen smirks maliciously, as the other two frowns... Their training has already been ridiculous and now it's going to be increased?

"Let's make them cry in shame as they realize that they should have never entered their names into the Goblet"

"Annihilate the competition" The words of the Queen are the epitome of absolution.

~ End of Chapter 30 ~