Shoulder bump. "We'll have to see, I guess."

"As always."

Despite a media storm around the World Cup - deftly avoided by never reading newspapers - nothing major happens before September First, or, even, on the train. It's a rather pleasant trip, actually, and Anathema's in a decent mood for the ride up to the castle.

After the Sorting, Dumbledore stands, and the students turn to him with interest. Most people have heard about the mystery event happening this year by now, after all.

There's the usual opening spiel - stay out of the Forbidden Forest, no pranks in the halls, no dueling without professor supervision. Then, Dumbledore cheerfully announces: "We are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held in about two centuries. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You were half right," she whisper to Anathema. "Doesn't sound like a Quidditch tournament."

"Awww..." she whispers back. "Maybe we can arrange a Quidditch game anyways, though."

Dumbledore keeps speaking. "The Triwizard Tournament takes place among schools party to the Triwizard Alliance - Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and the Durmstrang Institute. A Champion is selected for each school, to compete in three tasks spread out over the school year."

"While in previous centuries, the tournament has been opened to any student, this year we'll be limiting it to students seventeen or older for safety reasons. There will also be other measures in place to ensure Champion safety - while the exact nature of the challenges is currently a secret from students, I am working with my counterparts at Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, as well as all of our respective Ministries, very closely to ensure effective oversight and response in case of emergencies."

"The delegations from both schools will arrive late Friday, October the Twenty-Eighth, and eligible students will have through Sunday, October the Thirtieth, to enter their names. While only the Champions will stay at Hogwarts the entire school year, in the interests of increasing inter-school bonds, we are arranging several exchange days and group events for everyone."

He ends with a few cheerful remarks then sits, commencing the feast.

"Huh. Should be fun to watch."

"Yeah! It'll be neat seeing other schools' specialties, too."

"And the exchange days."

"Yeah. Though I think I'd rather sign up for Beauxbatons exchanges than Durmstrang."

"Probably has a better climate."

"Yeah. I bet prettier architecture, too."

"They are French, after all."

"...You know, I don't think I actually know that much about different countries' architecture traditions..."

"Probably have to get Muggle books to really dig into that."

"Next time we're in London, maybe."

"Sure."

The rest of the opening feast goes fairly well - their History professor this year is a mousy, shy-looking woman named Sayuri Dunn. She looks younger than any professors they've had before. People are taking bets on whether she's secretly evil.

Classes start up pretty soon - Professor Dunn speaks very softly, but seems to have a fairly deep knowledge of the subject, and actually is the first of their professors to declare she'll be teaching muggle history, too. ("They affect us," she says, "And our communities were largely intertwined until recently - and we still interact more than we'd like to admit.") Quidditch isn't too long after, though Captain Davies informs them that because of the tournament the usual game days are getting moved, and they might have to reschedule something on relatively short notice, or have some practices off the Quidditch pitch. The school's abuzz about the upcoming tournament the entire two months leading up - and nearly everyone manages to attend the welcoming ceremony.

The Beauxbatons delegation arrives first, in blue carriages drawn by large flying horses. The students' uniforms are a crisp light blue long jacket with pants or skirt, more modern-looking and fashion-forward than Hogwarts' robes. Their Headmistress is a large woman, who greets Dumbledore jovially. The students stand off to the side once they all file out of their carriages, to await Durmstrang's arrival - which comes in a magic ship that surfaces from the lake. Durmstrang's robes are more somber, more traditionalist, and the students all look serious. All of them have their hair cut short or bound tightly to their skulls. One of them's Victor Krum, sending the Hogwarts students around Ellie and Anathema into a flurry of whispers.

The ceremony is mostly fairly dull and long, but they do eventually get to go inside for a feast. The school heads chivvy their students into spreading out around the Great Hall rather than all clumping together as a delegation.

Still, more of the Durmstrang students clump in Slytherin than elsewhere, and the Beauxbatons students seem to favor Ravenclaw a bit. They're mostly sitting with the older students, so Ellie and Anathema are left to their own devices - or to listen to the gossip around them. Obviously all of the visiting students will enter their names in the dramatically revealed Goblet of Fire, but there's debate about which Hogwarts students will - all the seventh years and a lot of the sixth years are old enough, and some students are wondering if they can get past the age line Dumbledore draws.

Anathema jokes her schedule's way too busy to add breaking into a tournament - she might have to cut down on Quidditch! Or studying!

They're going to have their hands full just trying to find the time to watch the events.

It'll require very careful budgeting, that's for sure. Maybe they can sneak books in and read during the boring parts.

Assuming there's going to be very many of those. What with all the age restrictions and safety precautions.

Safety precautions seem like the type of thing pundits complain makes games more boring.

But the game organizers don't usually go this hard on them unless there's compelling precedent. And they may still undershoot.

Fair, yeah - apparently historic tournaments were really often fatal, which was why they got canceled for two hundred years.

Hopefully things aren't quite that exciting this time.

Definitely.

The exchange students aren't at all interested in the fourth years, and Krum's apparently avoiding 'eager fans,' so there's not actually a lot of interest for them over the next day and a bit other than some gossip about which students put their names in, who people think will be each Champion, which Hogwarts students tried (and universally failed) to cross the Age Line...

The drawing of the names is held after dinner Sunday - all of the schools have next week as a break, so no one's very concerned about getting back to classes on time.

Hogwarts, as the hosting institution, is called first - Cedric Diggory's name is spat out by the Goblet to general applause. (Anathema approves; he's a decent sort, and good at Quidditch.)

Durmstrang's next, and to basically no one's surprise (and a lot of students' excitement), Victor Krum is announced as the school's Champion.

Beauxbatons is last. The Goblet spits out Elodie Delacour, then goes quiescent as Dumbledore cheerfully asks the three Champions to come forward.