Dark Lord Dumbledore

The Halloween feast seemed to take much longer than usual, everyone eager to see who will be selected as the Champion of their school. At long last, McGonagall rose from her seat, followed by her fellow judges, and announced the beginning of the selection process.

"The goblet is almost ready to make its decision, I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them to please come up to the top of the Hall and go through into the next chamber," she indicated the door behind the staff table, "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

Taking a page from Dumbledore's flamboyant book, the Headmistress waved her wand theatrically, and all the candles except for those inside the carved pumpkin Halloween decorations were extinguished, plunging the room into a state of semidarkness.

The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes.

The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it, and the whole room gasped.

McGonagall snatched the piece parchment from the air and read it out loud to the students intently listening on the edge of their seats.

"The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum."

Chad was slightly surprised to hear the famous Quidditch player was selected once again since he was a year younger than his canon counterpart, and the other Durmstrang students had an extra year of experience on him.

"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. "Knew you had it in you!"

The clapping and chatter soon died down, and now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. The second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

"The champion for Beauxbatons is Lâche Couture."

Chad was stunned to see one of the pathetic male students that had been shivering from cold rise up amidst applause from the crowd. Surely a guy that couldn't even cast a charm to keep himself warm would be flame-grilled in the first task.

Before he could think too deeply on the goblet's selection process, the third piece of parchment was snatched out of the air and read aloud.

"The Hogwarts champion is Miles Bletchley!" McGonagall couldn't help but exclaim loudly, he was only sixteen after all.

The slender dark-haired Slytherin stood up with a sh*t-eating grin to thunderous applause from his House, and ridicule and denouncement from the Gryffindors.

Chief among those crying foul and demanding a redo for the Hogwarts champion was Ron Weasley. It didn't help matters that Miles Bletchley was a mean-spirited Slytherin Quidditch player, that saw no problem with foul play against members of the Gryffindor team.

"No!" cried Ron loudly, "the slimy snake cheated, how can he be the Hogwarts champion!"

His loud protests were met with derision from the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables since they understood that his feelings and school rules meant nothing when up against a magical contract.

That and everyone was well aware that Miles was one of those that had paid Harry Potter to enter his name. If you were going to spend a hundred Galleons to enter a competition, you were not exactly going to keep quiet about it.

Even if you were not selected, you could still get bragging rights for having the balls and wealth to enter a dangerous competition when you were underage! You had to get your money's worth somehow.

The objections didn't bother Miles at all since he gave the Gryffindor table a mocking salute as he disappeared into the chamber for the champions to receive their instructions. But before McGonagall could quiet down the vocal protesters, the Goblet of Fire turned red again.

Sparks were flying out of it, and a long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment. Automatically, it seemed, the Headmistress reached out and seized the parchment.

Chad had focused his attention on only one person at the front of the Dining Hall, and it wasn't on McGonagall catching the fourth entry into a tournament meant for three participants.

No, Chad was looking at Remus Lupin's smug smile, while the rest of those gathered had looks of shock and disbelief. It was clear that he had expected a fourth champion.

"Ronald Weasley!" Minerva read out in stunned incredulity.

The boy was barely passing his classes, and he was selected to compete in the most prestigious wizarding tournament in Europe?

There was no applause, and a buzzing started to fill the Hall; some students were standing up to get a better look at the idiot that had just been yelling about cheating.

Remus Lupin also looked on in shock at the red-headed boy whose face was quickly matching his hideous hair colour.

'How is this possible, it should have been Harry Potter's name that came out. The plan is ruined! I must contact Dumbledore as soon as possible, he will know what to do.' The werewolf thought anxiously.

Chad watched Lupin's panicked facial expressions with glee. Ever since he understood how overpowered magical contracts were, and that they could be bypassed by artifacts such as the Goblet of Fire, he had never signed his name to anything.

Never mind the magical vow he had taken to change his name, Chad had Boppy sign his homework for him and had a stamp made with 'Harry Potter' to fill out any projects in class.

The extra hassle seems to have paid off by the look on Lupin's face, screw getting dragged into a contract he never intended to by signing his name on something innocuous months or even years ago!

Ron Weasley was evidence of that consequence!

Chad had grown tired of the annoying boy's rude and confrontational behaviour. Even Malfoy seemed to be growing tired of the idiot, as he had been ignoring Ron more and more instead of verbally slaughtering the child as he usually did.

The Age Line really was a poor defence to stop underage kids from entering, especially when you had a house-elf to do it for you. Boppy had retrieved some class assignment Ron had signed his name too, written a made-up school on it and then popped over to drop it into the goblet.

"I never put my name in, someone else must have done it!" Ron tried to desperately defend himself under the judgment of all those gathered in the Hall.

Quite a few heads turned to seek Chad out since he had very publically done just that.

'Sh*t,' Chad scolded himself while outwardly showing no change in expression, 'I overlooked that! Oh well, there are still plenty of ways to deflect the blame.'

But just as he was going to muddy the waters, Draco Malfoy decided to take a shot at Ron. The opportunity to publically shame the Gryffindor menace must have been too much to resist.

"Come off it, Weasel. You have been bragging to any who would listen that you would win the Triwizard Tournament easily and planned to enter. I though Gryffindors were supposed to be brave."

Before Ron could explode and shout insults at his nemesis, McGonagall interrupted.

"That's enough, it's too late to argue if you entered or not, Mr Weasley. Your name has come out of the goblet so you must compete. Up here, if you please!" She ordered.

Hundreds and hundreds of eyes were upon the loud-mouthed boy as he disappeared with McGonagall and the other judges behind the door where the selected champions waited.

Chad couldn't help but throw fuel on the fire. "To be honest, I thought Ron would be too stupid to find a way to bypass the Age Line, it's surprising enough he hasn't failed out of school, let alone be selected as a champion."

And just like a spark igniting a wildfire, the Hall was suddenly aflame with people talking about the youngest Weasley male.

"He is pretty good at chess, so he must be great at strategy and tactics!" Said a boy wearing red and gold, loyally trying to defend his housemate.

"Pfft, trust a Gryffindor to think chess makes someone a master tactician! I hear the buffoon struggles to spell his own name or cast basic spells!" The mocking retort from a Slytherin seventh year supplied.

"I wonder what school he registered himself under to be selected as the fourth champion." Asked Penelope Clearwater to no one in particular.

"What do you mean?" Came the inevitable reply.

"We had to write our name and our school before putting it into the goblet. Everyone just assumed we had to use our own school. Maybe the kid that eats like a troll is not as dumb as one." She clarified, causing even more questions than answers to be thrown around the Dining Hall.

Unlike in canon where Harry Potter was universally disliked for sneaking into the tournament, Chad's outlandish way of blatantly entering people's names for money had desensitised them from seeing it as dishonesty.

Therefore, even though Ron had Slytherin insulting him, his own House didn't turn against him like they did to Harry Potter. Chad was slightly disappointed that his own actions shielded Ron from a taste of his own medicine.

But then again, he would have to face a giant fire breathing nightmare, that was resistant to any spell the less than mediocre wizard could force out of his decrepit, hand-me-down wand.

Yeah, maybe it was a bit too harsh entering him into the tournament.