The next twenty-four hours, although exciting to many others, were boring to Harry. While almost everybody else was talking about who would enter the tournament, Harry was complaining to his girlfriend about the fact that normally twenty-eight kids from Hogwarts participate in Quidditch while only one will get to participate in the stupid tournament. Hermione consoled him by snogging him senseless.

He and Hermione had witnessed Fred and George's pathetically dim-witted attempt at putting their names in the Goblet of Fire the next morning, which resulted in them growing huge white beards to rival Dumbledore. They also watched everyone from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons enter their name, while several seventh years from Hogwarts did the same.

Ron was sitting with Harry and Hermione during the Halloween Feast when he said with a stupid grin on his face, "Imagine winning that tournament. All the glory you'd get, along with the fame, money, and of course female admirers. Wouldn't it be great?"

Harry looked at Ron like he'd sprouted an extra arm. "Maybe for you, but I wouldn't want to die for a plastic trophy, even if I could enter. Secondly, I'm already too famous, have plenty of money, and I've got the only female admirer that matters." He put his arm around Hermione as he said the last part of his statement." She responded by blushing and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Ron shook his head. "Suit yourself, mate."

Before Harry could respond, Dumbledore interrupted them by making an announcement. "Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision. I estimate that it requires one more minute."

He instructed the champions where to go when their names were called, and the goblet's blue flames turned red. A piece of parchment was thrown from the fire, which the headmaster caught. He read, "The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum."

"No surprises there!" said Ron as the applause began. Krum walked to the champions' waiting area.

The Goblet of Fire released another name, and Albus announced, "The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour."

Ron and Neville (who was sitting near them with Ginny), along with several guys from all over the Great Hall, started whistling as she got up and walked, effectively covering up the disappointment among the other French students. Hermione was pleased that Harry wasn't among Fleur's admirers.

Upon catching yet another piece of parchment, Dumbledore announced, "And the champion for Hogwarts is...Cedric Diggory!"

When the Hogwarts champion had left the room, Albus began talking about showing support for your champion until the goblet's fire turned red yet again. When another parchment was ejected, Dumbledore reflexively caught it. When he read it, his face paled. "Harry Potter."

Both Hagrid and Sirius muttered, "Impossible!" from the head table.

"No," whispered Harry as every eye turned on him. He saw some looks of admiration, but mostly contempt.

He turned to Hermione, who gave him a look of sympathy as she said, "Go on."

"Harry Potter!" was this time shouted by the headmaster.

He stood up and made up his mind what to do. "No, sir," he said loudly.

"What do you mean, No?" asked Albus.

"I did not enter this tournament, and I refuse to participate! I don't know who put my name in the goblet, but they are no friend of mine!"

"But the Goblet of Fire is a legally binding contract!" shouted Ludo Bagman, who appeared excited about Harry competing.

"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" shouted Harry from where he stood. "That would mean that anybody could enter anyone's name in the tournament and they'd be stuck! Professor Dumbledore, you said not to enter your name lightly! How can people do that when anybody with parchment and ink can enter anybody's name they want? How could that be a binding contract? At least in the muggle world, you have to sign your contracts!"

"But it's the rules of the tournament..." continued Ludo, who appeared disappointed.

"I refuse to participate, and you can't make me!"

At this moment Sirius stood up. "As Harry's guardian, I concur that he cannot participate! He is underage."

Hermione stood up next to Harry and shouted, "Surely there's a magical way to prove that Harry didn't sign that parchment! People die in this tournament!"

A small smile formed on Albus' face as his eyes began twinkling again. "Of course. Come up here Harry and I'll perform the test."

As Harry started to walk away from the Gryffindor table, Hermione grabbed his hand. He looked at her, and she smiled at him. "You're not alone," she whispered, as together they walked up toward their headmaster. The other headmasters, as well as the ministry representatives and Sirius Black, joined them as Dumbledore performed a spell on both of Harry's hands, and then the parchment, which glowed red for five seconds.

"Harry Potter did not sign this form," Dumbledore announced happily, "and therefore will not be participating." His face then turned grim as he looked around the hall. "However, whoever entered Mr. Potter's name is required to participate. When something like this happens, either the individual named or the one who wrote the name must participate. Otherwise when the first task ends, the one who wrote the name will die from breaching the magically binding contract." There was a hush around the hall as everyone looked at each other horrified. No one noticed the culprit's eyes bulge out as sweat began to pour down their face. "Whoever you are, I implore you for your own sake to come forward," the aged headmaster pleaded as he looked around the hall once again. He sighed. "Very well, should you change your mind, speak to either myself or any teacher here. You're all dismissed. Those of you from Hufflepuff should know that Mr. Diggory will be joining you shortly. I'm sure that you will wish to arrange a celebration."

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When Harry and Hermione arrived in the Gryffindor Common Room, it was to several disapproving glares.

"Why on earth didn't you want to join the tournament?" said Seamus.

Lavender said, "Don't you want to represent Gryffindor?"

Ron glared at him more angrily than the rest. "You get handed what everybody else wants and you just refuse it like it was worthless!"

"HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE FORCED INTO A LIFE-THREATENING COMPETITION AGAINST YOUR WILL?" Harry was looking at Ron, but his question was to everyone.

"I guess you're not as brave as we thought," said Colin Creevey as everyone left them.

"Good night Hermione," said Harry as he marched toward the boys' staircase, anger very apparent on his face. He didn't notice Neville and Ginny walking toward him to say that they understood.

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As Harry lay in bed, mad at the world, he glared at the ceiling until he drifted off to sleep. He didn't remember to clear his mind for Occlumency.

He dreamed that he'd agreed to participate, and almost the whole school was against him anyway. He saw Draco wearing a patch that said 'Support Cedric Diggory, the Real Hogwarts Champion.' Draco was touching the patch before Harry found himself somewhere else entirely.

"WHAT!?" he screamed as he looked at a dark face in a two-way mirror. The person he was speaking to was obviously outside on the starless night, so Harry couldn't identify his face. "How can Potter refuse?"

"M-Master," said the cowardly man in the mirror, who sounded on the verge of tears, "Dumbledore said that I'll die if I don't participate."

"Then bring Potter to me before then! Your bungling has forced me to change my plans, and for that you deserve to die! If you succeed, then I'll consider helping you! Here's what you've got to do..."

At this moment, the Occlumency training that Harry had practiced kicked in and he woke up without a scar headache, after only spending two minutes connected to Riddle. He was somewhat pleased that he'd been able to break the connection painlessly without having cleared his mind, but he was also upset that he didn't hear Tom's plan. He sighed and cleared his mind, and went to sleep about a half-hour later.

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The next day, Harry found out that he was now known throughout most of the school as a coward. Hermione, Neville, and Ginny insisted that it was ridiculous, listing actual heroic things he had done for the past three years.

Hermione said, "The only thing is that you only do that sort of thing when someone's life is at stake, not to entertain the school."

He took a deep breath. "I guess so. I suppose it's better to be called a coward than the heir of Slytherin anyway.

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It didn't take long for him to find out the origin of that rumor, as Draco proudly displayed his badge that said, 'Support Cedric Diggory - A Real Champion!' while they were waiting outside the door to take Double-Potions a few weeks later. When Draco touched it, the words changed to 'Potter's scared!'

"Oh that's really witty!" snapped Hermione just before Professor O'Brian walked up to them.

She took one look at Malfoy's badge and summoned it off his robe, leaving a hole in the material. "Fifty points from Slytherin for wearing this piece of garbage!"

She then noticed others wearing the badges and summoned them all, taking ten points from everyone who had them, leaving five Slytherins and three Gryffindors with gaping holes in their robes. Harry and Hermione were saddened to see Ron among them.

After she'd done her usual search for cheaters, Professor O'Brian said, "Today we'll be making antidotes, and Mr. Malfoy has volunteered to test his for the class. We'll be poisoning him in an hour."

"No you won't!" he shouted. "My father will..."

"My point exactly! Malfoy, you don't want to be volunteered to do something dangerous any more than Mr. Potter! However, you have to hide behind your father! You don't have the guts to refuse on your own like Mr. Potter did! If you'd been entered into the tournament you'd have gone along with it, and then begged your father to get you out of it the next day instead of standing up for yourself!"

"Then I don't have to take the poison?" said Draco.

"No, you do have to take it. Hopefully you'll make an acceptable antidote before then."

At that moment, the door opened and Colin Creevey came saying, "Harry Potter's presence is requested for a Triwizard Tournament photo shoot."

"What? Why?" asked Harry.

"The reporter Rita Skeeter wants to interview the champion who refused to participate."

"No thank you," said Harry firmly. He whispered to Hermione, "I want to see Draco poisoned," causing a slight giggle.

"You heard Mr. Potter. She can write a story about the people who wanted to be school champions."

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Draco's antidote didn't work at all, but as he was turning green, Hermione kindly let him take her antidote so he could avoid a trip to the hospital wing. While they were leaving class, Harry said, "You shouldn't have given him your cure."

"I thought it would annoy him more to owe a favor to a mudblood." They both laughed as Draco, who'd overheard him, stormed off without a word.

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The next morning the Daily Prophet carried a fictional interview by Rita that basically said that Harry, while crying on her shoulder, admitted to being too scared to face the challenges of the tournament, and left the impression that Hogwarts didn't have a champion because of this. As Harry watched people laughing at him, he performed the 'Sonorus' charm on himself and stood up in the middle of breakfast.

"Excuse me. I've got something to say. Everyone who had Potions with me yesterday knows that I refused to give that Skeeter woman an interview, so anything she said about me is rubbish. Not to mention that she seems to have forgotten that Cedric Diggory is our school champion! Obviously this so-called reporter doesn't care what the facts are. Therefore my question is, WHY ARE YOU EVEN READING HER TRASH?" He then sat down and removed the charm from his throat.

Dumbledore stood up and said, "Mr. Potter is quite right. He did not give Ms. Skeeter an interview, so any claims she has made regarding him are false. On the other hand, I personally introduced her to Mr. Diggory, yet she did not mention him at all in her article. I wonder if she suffers memory problems, or is simply a liar." Everybody laughed.

This actually seemed to get through to several of the students (none of the Slytherins) who stopped whispering about him. Aside from the fact that Ron still wasn't talking to him, everything was back to normal.

Harry and Hermione were walking toward Hagrid's hut that Saturday when they heard a male voice shout, "Stupefy!"

They both ducked down, avoiding being hit by the red beam. Harry turned and saw Karkaroff running toward them with what appeared to be a blanket. As Harry was reaching for his wand Igor threw it on top of him. Hermione reached for the blanket as Karkaroff shouted, "Activate," and both teenagers felt the familiar tugging behind their navels as they disappeared.