While I was fearing it, it came,

But came with less of fear,

Because that fearing it so long

Had almost made it dear.

There is a fitting a dismay,

A fitting a despair.

'Tis harder knowing it is due,

Than knowing it is here.

The trying on the utmost,

The morning it is new,

Is terribler than wearing it

A whole existence through.

 

by Emily Dickinson

 

~~~~

 

Chaos.

Utter chaos.

Once Harry’s name was mentioned, the students of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang alike protested in complaint.

Harry, however, was confused and afraid. He was sitting in the corner of the room, not moving, as he didn’t believe what he had just heard.

"Go Harry." Hermione whispered to the boy. "Go to Dumbledore."

"But- I- I didn’t-"

"We know, but just go." Hermione insisted. Harry just nodded meekly and started moving, while Ed sat in silence, observing everything.

"He’s a cheat!" Ed heard someone shout in French. "Hogwarts’ students are cheaters!"

A lot of people were protesting, shouting, and throwing insults at Harry and Hogwarts, making Dumbledore frown.

"Silence!" The old man shouted, using his authority to ‘calm’ the situation down.

"Why did you pick Ron!?" Hermione whispered/shouted to Ed beside her. "Look at this mess!"

"It’s fine, it’ll die down." Ed said.

"That doesn’t mean it won’t affect the two!" Hermione refuted, a bit frustrated.

"You said you trusted me with the choice, so I picked what I thought was right." Ed said. "If we choose Ron, the two won’t have to fight because they’re thrown into the same boat, Cedric won’t have to die, Ron probably won’t be sucked into the graveyard because he probably won’t get past the maze, and Ron will be more famous, just like he wants." Ed shrugged in between the murmurs and protests of the students.

"This is not the way..." Hermione murmured. "What if Ron got killed in the first task?"

"He won’t." Ed dismissed it. "We’ll help those two."

"You mean I will help those two… you will just watch me suffer training those dimwits. " Hermione frowned.

Ed chuckled at Hermione’s words. "No, I’ll help you." Ed said. "I’ve got a few ideas that will help him train a bit..."

Hermione just hummed reluctantly, and they saw that Harry was dragged to the next chamber where all the champions were gathered.

McGonagall then stepped up to replace Dumbledore as the one in charge, and she announced that the feast would be cancelled, and the food would be delivered to their dorm room.

Ed and Hermione, along with the other Gryffindors, stood up and walked to the tower, guided by the Prefect of Gryffindor.

On the way to the tower, Ed and Hermione constantly heard from the Gryffindors about how Ron and Harry got the spot of the Champions in the tournaments, the twins even praised their brother for his ‘courage’ and ‘wit’, because he’s able to enter, bypassing the age line…

Only a couple of people knew that that is absolutely not the truth.

And two of them happened to be Hermione and Ed. Ed was calm, while Hermione was worried a bit, worried that her friends would get hurt in the tournament.

"This is messed up..." Hermione murmured beside Ed, holding his hand tightly, a sign that she’s really nervous.

"It’ll be fine Hermione, we’ll help them… I’ll help them." Ed reassured the girl.

"That’s not helping." She mumbled. "You’re the one who made this happen, of course you need to be responsible."

Ed nodded. "I know that you don’t like this, but it’s for those two own good, Harry will have a friend in the first task, and Ron will ‘grow up’ quicker, hopefully after this, he won’t be stuck up like he used to."

Hermione hummed, but she was still holding Ed’s hand tightly.

After that, the Gryffindors entered the tower, waiting for the food to be delivered, but Ed and Hermione didn’t wait at the common room, they waited in Ed’s dorm room, where Hermione cuddled with Ed a bit to calm herself down.

---

Before all of that happened, Ron was walking slowly to the chamber where the champions were supposed to gather. He's thinking about what actually just happened… He was chosen as the champion of Hogwarts... a champion! He didn’t know if he should be scared or happy about this... But one thing’s for sure, his name was called by Dumbledore, so as of now, he’s a champion of the Triwizard Tournament.

As he entered the chamber, everyone in the room instantly looked at him, making him a nervous wreck.

"What happened? Where’s the Hogwarts champion? " Fleur asked him, which made him more nervous.

"I-I-" he stammered, as if he'd just seen a monster.

"Are you okay? Do they want us back? " Viktor, aside from Fleur continued, making him more of a nervous wreck.

But before he could answer, everyone heard loud shouts from the hall, making the other champions more curious.

Before they could check, they could hear a lot of footsteps coming towards them, rushing for something.

"What is the meaning of this Dumbledore!?" Exclaimed Madame Maxime. "Two Hogwarts champions! All of them are underage as well!"

Ron then saw that Harry was walking nervously besides Dumbledore, which surprised him.

"Harry? What are you doing here?" Ron questioned Harry, between all the arguing.

"I- I don’t know…" He murmured. "Something’s going on."

Then, Dumbledore answered Madame Maxime. "I don’t know how this happened myself Madame." he then turned to Harry.

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

"N- No sir…"

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes sir…"

Dumbledore then turned to Ron, who was looking paler as time went on. "Mr. Weasley, did you put your name in the goblet of fire?" he inquired calmly once more.

"N- No Professor…"

"Did you ask your seniors?"

"No, no..."

"Lies!" Karkaroff shouted angrily. "He probably wants to enter the tournament!"

"Shut your mouth, Igor." said Moody suddenly. "These two boys can’t possibly fool the age line, nor tamper with the goblet."

"Yes…" Dumbledore hummed. "The goblet will choose based on their worthiness and skills… and Harry and Mr. Weasley over here are still quite young, so the goblet can’t possibly choose them. "

"Unless someone casted a powerful Confundus charm to it." Moody grunted.

"Who could possibly have the skill to do that in this school?!" Madame Maxime exclaimed. "That’s just absurd!"

Dumbledore ignored her rant, and looked at Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch, who was listening to the debate intently. "The decision is yours Barty, Ludo."

"These two must compete…" Barty wiped his sweat from his forehead. "The contract cannot be broken, so whether we like it or not… those two must compete."

"Durmstrang will not allow this!" Karkaroff angrily declared. "We will not come again in the next tournament!"

Karkaroff then left the chamber alongside Viktor, who had been dragged by Karkaroff.

After that, the rest of the Champions were told to leave the chamber and rest. On the way to the Gryffindor tower room, Ron finally asked a question to Harry.

"Did you put your name?" Asked Ron.

"What? Of course not! How about you? How come you became the champion?"

"I- I don’t know!" Ron refuted. "Something’s happening here…"

"You think Ed knows something?" Harry questioned, frowning at the thought.

Ron snorted. "He knows everything, so surely he knows…"

"Let’s just ask him about this…"

—

As soon as the two entered the common room, they were met with a round of applause from the Gryffindors.

Both of them were confused, why were they clapping?

"I didn’t know you had it in you Ickle Ronnie!" the Twins said to Ron as they wrapped their hands around Ron.

"Well, at least it's Gryffindor that became the champion." Angelina Johnson said casually. "Anyway, congratulations to you two, although I don’t know how you did it…"

"Yeah, tell us! How’d you pass the age line?" questioned Fred.

"I- I didn’t…" Ron murmured. "I didn’t enter!"

"Aw… Don't lie, Ron, we knew you wanted to participate... how'd you do it?"

"Yeah, you too Harry, how’d you do it?"

"I didn’t enter!" Harry insisted, becoming annoyed.

The rest of the Gryffindors continued to "harass" him about how he did it, with loud shouts reverberating throughout the common room, demanding the two of them to explain how they did it.

Then, Harry broke.

"SHUT UP!" he shouted, which silenced the room instantly. He grabbed Ron’s hand, who was overwhelmed with the sudden ‘popularity’, and both of them ran towards their dorm room, looking for some peace.

Once they climbed the spiral staircase, and entered the room, Harry was about to shout in frustration, when suddenly, a boy said.

"Quiet down will you? Hermione’s sleeping."

Harry and Ron turned to the source of the voice, and saw that it was Ed, with Hermione sleeping on his lap. He’s caressing Hermione’s head, comforting her.

"E-Ed…" Harry murmured.

"Hello." He then looked at Hermione’s face and said. "She’s a bit stressed because of you two…"

"Did you know about this?" Harry went straight to the point.

Ed hummed, confirming Harry’s thoughts.

"Then why didn’t you stop it?" Harry asked, angry at Ed.

"It’s complicated."

"We’ve got time." Harry and Ron sat in front of Ed, demanding answers.

Ed sighed. "Let’s wait until Hermione wakes up, then we’ll tell you."

"Hermione knew too?"

"She knew about you getting to the tournament, Harry, but not Ron."

"Wait, what?" Ron questioned.

Ed sighed again. "Anyway, let’s just wait until Hermione wakes up."

"Can’t you just wake her up?"

"I don’t dare too." he chuckled. "Just be patient."

After that, they waited for about an hour, no one entered the dorm room while they were waiting, probably because they were ‘celebrating’ in the common room.

When Hermione slowly wakes up, she is greeted by Ed’s face, looking at her with a smile. She smiled back and questioned. "Where’s the two?"

Ed just pointed at Ron and Harry, she looked at them, and sat up from Ed’s lap. "How is it?" she questioned the ginger and the black haired boy.

"Madame Maxime was yelling at Dumbledore the entire time…" Ron murmured. "Anyway, can you talk about it now?"

"About what?"

"You know… How did I enter the tournament..." Harry said.

"Oh…" Hermione’s face fell as she heard that. "Um…"

Hermione then looked at Ed as if she wanted to confirm something, Ed just nodded, and Hermione prepared herself.

"Listen… Harry… What I’m about to tell you is a bit… sensitive… So if you can, don’t tell anybody." said Hermione weakly. "You too Ron."

"Okay…" Harry said halfheartedly.

"You have to promise me." Hermione stated firmly. "Don’t tell anyone, even Dumbledore."

"Fine, I promise."

"Good." Hermione nodded meekly. "We… need you, Harry, to enter the tournament."

"But why? Was it you who put my name in the goblet?" Harry said accusingly.

Ed shook his head. "It wasn't me nor Hermione, it’s someone else."

"Who is it?"

"It’s better if we don’t tell you Harry."

"Why? I have a right to know!"

"Because if we told you who it is, you'd do something stupid."

"Why? It’s one of the Slytherins isn’t it?"

Ed looked at Harry weirdly. "Why would they? They wanted to enter themselves."

"Then is it one of the professors?"

"Don’t push it Harry." Hermione scolded. "We’re getting off topic here."

"Right… what did you want to talk about?"

Hermione cleared her throat, then spoke. "We wanted you to continue participating in the tournament, because something big will happen at the end of it if you continue this…"

"What will happen? Just get to the point." said Harry, annoyed a bit.

"Voldemort will try to do something to you…"

"Hermione! Don’t say his name!" Ron hissed at the girl, a bit pale as he heard the name.

"Stop overreacting, I’m serious." Hermione told the ginger.

"What will Vold- You-Know-Who do to me?" Asked Harry, he said 'You-Know-Who' because Ron was glaring at him.

"Well, to simply put, he’d want to do a resurrection ritual with your blood."

"WHAT!" Ron shrieked. "ARE YOU MAD!? YOU WANT TO RESURRECT YOU-KNOW-WHO!?"

"Shut up." Ed said as he tapped his wand to the bed, casting Muffliato.

"W-What? Y- You want to resurrect Voldemort?"

Ed nodded. "Yes."

"But… Why?"

"It’s the only way to kill him really."

"How does that even make sense? We need to resurrect him to kill him?"

Ed sighed. "It’s complicated, I don’t want to tell you everything because you don’t have an Occlumency shield."

"A what?"

"I’ll tell you later Harry, but you need to listen to us for this." Hermione murmured.

"Okay…"

"Harry, don’t take this the wrong way or anything…" said the girl weakly. "But you need to die."