37 Chapter 35 - Goblet of Fire

***** BONUS CHAPTER ***** A/N: I'm off hiking this weekend with my doggo. Got my Chapters scheduled, so hopefully, they'll release properly lol because I doubt I'll have service. Anyways.... Hope you hall enjoy! *****

"The 3 champions will be chosen by an impartial selector. The Goblet of Fire!"

Filch who was seemingly waiting off to the side for his queue, walked into the Great Hall carrying a large wooden chest encrusted with jewels, which he dropped off in front of Dumbledore.

Khan immediately recognized this jewel-encrusted-casket, as he had collected the field guide page for this very item, from the Hogwarts Trophy Room.

Thinking back to his field guide entry, Khan was kicking himself internally. He should've known the impartial selector was the Goblet of Fire. The field guide page itself even states:

"The Goblet of Fire rests within this ancient, jewel-encrusted chest. The Goblet has served as a means of selecting champions for the Triwizard Tournament since the contest's establishment in the late 13th century."

Dumbledore with the chest now in front of him, again with flourish, took out his wand and tapped 3 times upon the top of the chest.

The lid creaked slowly open, displaying a large, roughly-hewn wooden cup.

It would have been entirely unremarkable, if not for its size and the blue-white flames dancing on its brim.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment, and drop it into the Goblet." Dumbledore continued to explain. "All aspiring champions have 24 hours from tonight, in which they must put their names forward."

"Tomorrow night on Halloween, the Goblet will return the names of the 3 it has judged most worth to represent their school!"

"The goblet will be placed in the Entrance Hall tonight immediately after this feast concludes, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to complete." Said Dumbledore. "And to ensure that no underage student yields to temptation, I will be casting an age line surrounding the Goblet of Fire that will ensure that nobody under the age of 17 will be able to cross this line."

"Finally, I wish to impress upon those wishing to participate in this tournament... the tasks we have prepared are not to be taken lightly." He warned. "They are very dangerous, and will test you on all levels magically. Furthermore, once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end."

"It constitutes a binding magical contract, once your name is placed into the Goblet." He finished. "Therefore, there can be no change of heart once you have become champion. Please be very sure that you really want this, and are whole-heartedly prepared, because you cannot quit once the tournament has started."

"Now I think it is time for bed." He said in dismissal. "Goodnight to you all!"

*****

'I was going to speak with Dumbledore about my participation this morning.....' Khan mused to himself. 'But I might as well let the 'impartial' Goblet of Fire decide.'

It was quite early on Saturday, October 31st, the very next day after the welcoming feast, and Khan was in the Entrance Hall watching the Durmstrang students all enter their names into the goblet, with quite a few students crowding around, overlooking the spectacle.

Krum in particular, caused quite the commotion, when he put in his name.

'I should probably put my name in before it gets to crowded...' Khan mumbled to himself, as he listened to the commotion caused by the international quidditch star.

Walking up to the goblet after the Durmstrang students had vacated, he passed the age line without issue. Unsurprising really, as he was technically over 116 years old, not to mention head of his house, and legally of age in the eyes of magic.

The commotion stilled, as the students now noticed Khan at the Goblet taking out a piece of parchment.

Silence came over the hall.

Khan looked down at the goblet, noting to himself how completely unremarkable it would have been, if not for the magic fire dancing around its brim.

He dropped his name in, watching the parchment glow red, and emit teal magic sparks, upon touching the magical fire.

The hall erupted with commotion once again, as the Hogwarts students in particular were all excited to have the first Hogwarts representative drop his/name name in.

Excited whispers were heard from all around.

"I didn't know Prof. Khan could join!"

"I overheard Professor McGonagall say that he still had to finish his O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts, the first day we got to Hogwarts... That means he's still a student right?"

"You heard his stories in Defense..... How can he have that much combat experience, if he's still a student?"

"Hogwarts is going to win for sure with him as our champion!"

Khan, used to the attention at this point, paid the whispers no mind, and spotting Hermione, Harry and Ron, who had just arrived in the Entrance Hall, began to make his way over to them.

By the time Khan had made his way through the growing crowd and over to them, they had been joined by the Weasley Twins, and Lee Jordan (the twins' best friend), and were talking conspiratorially amongst themselves.

"-rop each!" said George, as he rubbed his hands together with glee. "We only need to be a few months older!"

"We're going to split the thousand galleons between the 3 of us if one of us wins." Followed up Lee with a grin.

"I'm not sure this is going to work you know..." Hermione said with warning. "Dumbledore will have surely thought of th-"

She cut herself off, noticing Khan had joined them.

"Hey Jordan! Surely you can stop them.... Tell them aging potions won't work on the age line!" She greeted him, requesting back up, pointing at the 3 troublemakers in righteous fury.

"Hey guys!" Greeted Khan with a grin. "Taken some aging potions I hear?"

Fred, George and Lee all nodded at Khan with a matching grin. They were confident Khan would not stop them, even as a Jr. Prof, due to a recent meeting.

It happened the previous night.

Khan originally had wanted to Floo to Hogsmeade to finally check on the state of his Hogsmeade shop, and hopefully pick up some rare potion ingredients. Unfortunately when he tried, he had found out that his original scouted Floo Fireplace locations in Hogsmeade, were no longer connected to the Floo Network.

In combination with the new school rule (to Khan anyways) of only visiting Hogsmeade on designated specific days, and Khan's new role as Jr. Prof, he hadn't found any time to visit before that night.

Lucky for him, Garreth Weasley had shown him this secret passage under the 'One-eyed Witch', allowing him to sneak off to Hogsmeade, at the very least, to connect new fireplaces to his Floo Network.

He was on his way there, when he ran into the Weasley twins and Lee. They were using the passage to come back, after stealing some aging potion ingredients from Hogsmeade.

Needless to say, while they were quite surprised to meet each other, The twins already being familiar with Khan, were quite happy to let him in on their plan, even with his status as a Jr. Prof. They had found him using a secret passage to sneak off at night, after all.

"Well... good luck!" Khan wished them well, much to Hermione's chagrin.

"W-W-What did you say?" She followed up in shock.

Khan, ignoring her for now, continued talking to the 3 troublemakers, grin wide on his face with mischief. "If it doesn't work, maybe I can just put your names in for you."

"Would that work?" They asked.

"The rules never said it wouldn't work." He replied.

"NICE!" The 3 answered in unison, before turning to speak to each other about their plans.

"Ready?" Fred asked the other two, voice quivering with excitement. "C'mon then... I'll go first!!"

Khan meanwhile had turned to answer Hermione, grin still wide on his face. "And I was only offering some good luck..... and my assistance should they fail."

"How can you do that?" Complained Hermione. "You should be a good example...."

"It's not like they're going to be chosen for sure if they put their names in..... they only have the CHANCE to be selected." Khan calmly rebuked her logically, moving into Prof. mode. "And they are being creative in their problem solving..... not simply accepting rules, and instead trying to find an alternate way around them to accomplish their goal... Does this remind you of anyone, Hermione?"

A loud fake cough was heard from Ron from the side, which sounded a lot like "House-Elves".

Blushing from being called out herself, she quickly tried to change the subject.

"So.....you were able to put you name in?" Hermione asked. "Aren't you biologically only 16?"

"Biologically yes." Khan answered. "Technically speaking however..... my birthday is March 12, 1876..."

"Whatever.... old man." Hermione finished with a playful huff.

Harry meanwhile, was watching Fred, George and Lee attempt to cross the age line.

Fred was currently on the edge of the age line, rocking on his toes, like a diver preparing to jump.

With the eyes of every person in the Entrance Hall upon him (except for Hermione and Khan who were off in their own world), he took a great breath and steeped over the line, in brave Gryffindor fashion.

For a split second, the watching Harry, thought it worked.

George certainly thought so, as he let out a yell of triumph, and leapt over the line after George.

The next moment however, proved them all wrong, as the were a loud sizzling sound, followed by both twins being burled out of the golden circle age line, as though thrown by an invisible shot-putter.

They both landed painfully, 10s of feet away on the cold stone floor.

Sitting up with a groan, what followed was a loud popping noise, and as if to add insult to injury, they both sprouted identical, long white beards.

The Entrance Hall rang with laughter at the result. Even Fred and George joined in, once they had gotten to their feet, and taken a good look at teach other's beards.

"I did warn you!" Dumbledore announced with amusement, walking out of the Great Hall, eyes twinkling. "I suggest you both head up to the medical with to see Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to a few other students, who decided to age themselves up a little bit too."

"Though I must say, neither of their beards is as fine as both of yours appear to be." He finished chortling.

Fred and George left, accompanied by Lee, who was howling with laughter.

"Hey Ron...." Harry said suddenly, cutting into the still laughing crowd around them. "It's your friend..."

Khan, who was still laughing at the beards of the now departed twins, looked over to where the students from Beauxbatons were coming in through the front doors from the grounds.

Among them of course, was his new friend, Fleur Delacour.

Getting to know her the previous night, Khan had learned that she was indeed part veela, as he had concluded after comparing the differences in auras.1/4 Veela in fact.

Those gathered around the goblet, stood back to let them pass, watching eagerly.

Madame Maxime entered the hall behind her students, and organized them orderly into a line.

One by one, the Beauxbatons students stepped across the Age Line, and dropped their respective slips of parchment into the plain cup with the blue-white flames.

Similar to Khan, as each name entered the fire, it turned briefly red, and emitted sparks.

Fleur was last in line, and gracefully placed her name into the goblet, before turning around and making eye contact with Khan, giving him a small smile.

She was quite pleased with her new friend, especially considering his resistance to her allure. She would never tell him, but she had intentionally released a stronger version of allure after he had returned the previous night, with the bowl of bouillabaisse, to test his control and intentions.

This was due to the fact, that Fleur was quite traumatized regarding people and their intentions. She had lost many of her previous friends, both male and female, due to her status as part-veela and her allure.

Many males growing up, could not control themselves around her allure, and more often than not, turned into bumbling fools. And many of her female friends, often became jealous, not being able to handle the all the attention Fleur received, instead of themselves. A few of them even tried to pretend to be her friend, all the while, talking behind her back and spreading nasty rumors about her.

This resulted in Fleur having very few true friends growing up, always weary of people and their intentions.

But upon heading to Hogwarts, she had met Jordan Khan, who seemed to be resistant to her allure. Not only was he able to hold an intelligent conversation with her, under the full blast of her allure, but he was also quite gentlemanly and noble, raised with proper manners, if his performance the previous night, was any indication.

Even after she had told him about her Veela heritage, Khan appeared more interested in how her allure functioned.

Quite the contrast to the typical male response, when they found out she was a veela. More often than not, they were bumbling fools.... but the ones who were able to hold a coherent conversation, typically alluded to sexual activities often associated with her Veela heritage.

Teenage hormones.

Originally, Fleur was simply looking forward to this event to prove her magical superiority over her peers by becoming school champion, and winning the triwizard tournament... She now however, had something else to look forward to.

It was quite refreshing, to speak with her new friend Khan after all.