Tied for First

Tied for first. Oh, my God.

Dad is so not going to be happy.

Hey, I know what you're thinking. "You're tied for first in a competition as tough and challenging as the Triwizard Tournament, you should be happy that you made it that far! Your dad will think the same!" Ha! Obviously, you don't know my dad. See, I'm not just playing that Bulgarian seeker, Krum (who Dad calls a flying, idiotic show-off), or that veela girl, Fleur (whom Dad doesn't know much about, luckily). No, it's not just the other schools. I'm playing Harry Potter.

Yes, that's right, the famous Harry Potter is in the Triwizard Tournament. That caused a big hullabaloo because absolutely no one knew how he got entered into the contest--not even Harry. There was supposed to be an age line, keeping students under seventeen out. In addition to that, there was only supposed to be one champion for Hogwarts. At first I thought he'd entered himself, but after the first task, I wasn't so sure. Mad-Eye Moody, our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, said that obviously, whoever put Harry's name in had to trick the Goblet of Fire into believing that there were four schools competing instead of one...that they'd entered Harry's name under a different school so that he'd be sure to get in. Come to think of it, Moody had the whole thing worked out pretty well. I wonder...

Anyway, back to the first challenge...The reason I started reconsidering whether or not Harry put himself in was because of the first task. He told me that it was going to be dragons. How he found out I'll never know, but somehow he did. That way, I was able to prepare for it. I spent ages learning how to transfigure a rock into a Labrador retriever. My plan was to make the dragon go for the dog instead of me, and I'd be able to get past it. Well, it almost worked--I got this golden egg we were supposed to be collecting, but the stupid dragon--a Swedish Short-snout--wouldn't behave. It changed its mind halfway through--decided it'd rather have me than the dog. Ouch! Even now, months later, my face still hurts sometimes if I blush or touch it too hard or something.

That night, I really got to thinking. If Harry didn't put himself in, who did? I mean, personally, I don't think any of the teachers would do it. That's just stupid--and they'd show themselves by showing preference to Harry. Bagman, maybe? No, that's just silly. Bagman works for the Ministry of Magic, he'd get fired for trying to botch the tournament. Still, he seems to give Harry the highest marks he can. The only other person I can think of is Karkaroff, and the only reason I say that is because I remember when he went to Azkaban, and Dad told me about the trial when he was released. Karkaroff was a Death Eater, a follower of You-Know-Who. But if Karkaroff had put Harry's name in, he wouldn't always give him such low marks. I tell you, it makes no sense.

We had been given the eggs that we had collected. They held our clue--a whole lot of ear-shattering screeching. I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Then--this is the weird part--Mad-Eye Moody gave me the hint I needed. He told me to open the egg underwater. It took me forever. There was this crazy chant, but it was like nothing I'd ever heard. Well, it made sense that since they couldn't sing above the ground, they must be underwater creatures. I just sat in the bathtub, talking to myself, until nearly all the bubbles had gone. Then my eyes fell on a picture of a mermaid on the wall, who looked extremely annoyed. It turned out that she'd been giggling and flashing her fins for the last two hours, and I realised that that was the answer. That's what was in the lake--mermaids. They had taken something, and I had to get it back. I noticed a pair of eyes peering at me from one of the taps and quickly got out of the tub.

The next task before the second one was--finding a date for the Yule Ball. If that had been an actual event, I'd have won full marks. I got Cho Chang, my girlfriend, the very first day. At the ball later, she told me that Harry had asked her. Then she laughed. She said that she made it seem like she was sorry she was already going with someone, but she wasn't--she doesn't like Harry all that much. Cho, Harry, and I play the same positions on our respective house teams--Seeker--and I'm the only one who's ever beaten Harry. Cho has only won two matches, both against Hufflepuff, and both before I joined the team. She just doesn't like the fact that Harry always beats her. Quite honestly, I think she sucks at Quiddich, but the Ravenclaw team was desperate for players. And on another note, I don't think she really likes me as much as she acts like she does...I think she's only hanging out with me because I'm the only Seeker that beat Harry, and that wasn't his fault.

I got to thinking at that ball, and I realised something. Harry was probably having trouble with that egg clue...so after the ball, I gave him a hint. As a matter of fact, I gave him the same hint Moody had given me. I almost told him exactly what was coming, but Cho was standing nearby, and she was already angry with me for telling him what little I told him. I could tell that Harry was a little hurt that I hadn't told him the answer, because he didn't do anything about it until only a few days before the task.

It turned out that the mermaids had taken Cho. My first thought was, this is supposed to be what I'd miss the most? Then I realised that the person who I really didn't want to lose was already a champion. Harry was a nice kid, and a really good friend. He may not realise it, but we are more or less friends. It's great. I've never really had a friend before, except for Draco, and we drifted apart when he became a Slytherin and started to live up to the pressure of his friends and parents.

Now, get this--Harry's marks were lower than mine by a measly two points, but my first task score had been lower by a measly two points, so now we're tied for first. Dad isn't going to be happy, like I said.

See, I beat Harry once at Quiddich, but only because he fell off his broom, but that's a long story. The point is, Dad embarrassed me at the World Cup by going on a tirade about it, and that made the Weasley twins think I was a total jerk. I tried sticking up for Harry, but it didn't work. When Rita Skeeter (who goes out of her way to cause trouble) wrote the article on the tournament, she wrote mostly Harry's highly coloured life story, squeezed the names of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions in at the bottom without even bothering to spell them right, and completely forgot to mention me. Dad was rather unhappy about that. I met him this morning, and I've been showing him around the school, but he made another scene in the room we met in. I've been trying to steer clear of Harry, who's showing the Weasleys around, and so far it's working. Tonight, though, is the final task. I'm nervous, that's for sure. I'm not sure exactly what lies ahead for me in this challenge,! but I know one thing.

I did my best, and that's what's important.