Crossed Wands
The Hogwarts champion...
...is Ominis Gaunt.
The entire hall filled with gasps and whispers, with everyone trying to stand up from their tables to look for Ominis, who now looked more confused than ever.
“Ominis,” Sebastian started slowly, looking at his friend sitting beside him. “Did you put your name in the goblet of fire?”
“I,” Ominis stuttered, struggling to find his words. “I didn’t. I...”
“Mr. Gaunt,” Professor Black called. Both Sebastian and Enoch were getting very worried and befuddled over the whole thing. Enoch racked his brain over how Ominis’s name could’ve possibly been in the goblet of fire. He knew for a fact neither him nor Ominis ever went up to it in the entrance hall. It was impossible, and Ominis would’ve never wanted it anyway. There was no way he could be champion.
Ominis stood up hesitantly and all eyes were on him. Sebastian and Enoch almost wanted to grab him and sit him back down, there was no way his name was really on the piece of parchment Professor Black pulled. He had to have been lying.
“Professor!” Sebastian called, jumping out of his seat right as Ominis was leaving the table, causing him to stop in his tracks. All the whispers came to a hush in anticipation of what Sebastian was doing. “Please excuse me, sir, but that can’t be right. Ominis didn’t put his name in the goblet of fire.”
Professor Black cleared his throat, obviously surprised he was being challenged. “I wouldn’t be lying, Mr. Sallow. Whatever the goblet produces is just, Mr. Gaunt is the Hogwarts Triwizard champion, whether anyone likes it or not.”
Sebastian couldn’t believe a word he was saying, but Enoch tugged at his arm to drag him back down to his seat before he could even think of doing anything rash. Sebastian sat down with a scowl, and Ominis continued making his way to the platform.
The other professors also gave nervous looks towards Ominis as they watched Professor Black forcefully shake his hand and then exit the hall with him, Professor Weasley and the other two headmasters close behind. Once the door had closed Sebastian slammed his hands on the table and jumped out of his seat again.
Enoch scrambled to get out of his seat to stop Sebastian as he made his way to the other side of the room. "Wait, Sebastian, stop!" He yelled as he grabbed his arm. The entire hall now filled with various talks about the champions chosen, most of them focusing on Ominis.
"Let go!" Sebastian yelled in return, shaking Enoch off his arm. He continued stomping off and Enoch followed behind, confused of what he was doing until he reached the Gryffindor table.
"It was you, wasn't it?" Sebastian bellowed, approaching a Gryffindor student still sitting at the table. “Tell me the truth, Prewett!” Sebastian grabbed the boy’s collar and yanked him up out of his seat. All the students around gasped at the sudden fight as Leander smugly smirked in his grasp.
Enoch watched in horror at Sebastian jostling the other student around in anger, putting the pieces together. There was no way Ominis put his own name in the goblet, it had to have been someone else. And Leander was picking a fight with Sebastian just a few hours prior. But how Sebastian pieced that together so quickly, Enoch would never know.
“I didn’t do a thing,” Leander responded, venom in his words. His eyes narrowed staring back at Sebastian, and didn’t look scared one bit considering Sebastian was gripping his collar so tightly his knuckles began to turn white.
“You’re lying.” Sebastian pulled out his wand and poked it against Leander’s neck, more gasps coming from the surrounding students. Enoch was about to pull back Sebastian himself before a teacher pushed him out of the way.
“Boys, boys!” Professor Sharp bellowed as he limped over and pulled Sebastian off of Leander. “What are you, mad? Fighting in the great hall? Ten points from Slytherin and Gryffindor.”
Leander looked back at Professor Sharp shocked. “But sir, he’s the one who attacked me!”
“He put Ominis’s name in the goblet of fire!”
“Where’s your proof, Sallow?”
“I don’t need proof when you’re a worthless dolt.”
“Do I need to give you detention, too?” Professor Sharp sounded exasperated. “Out. All of you. Everyone in the hall, out! Back to your dormitories!” He started ushering for everyone to leave as students began piling out the door. Enoch had to pull Sebastian away from staring daggers at Leander. And once they were out of the great hall and on their way to the Slytherin common room, Sebastian started to rant.
“I can’t believe it. Are they not going to give Prewett some kind of punishment?” He went on and on as Enoch quietly listened, making their way to the dungeons. “They can’t let Ominis compete. They have to have some kind of rule, right? I’m sure of it. They’ll have to redraw. They just have to.”
Ominis walked through the wooden door into the dimly-lit room surrounded by hundreds of paintings of various wizards lining each wall. The two other champions stood in front of the fireplace, and turned around to see Ominis walk in. They both smiled, finally seeing the complete set of champions for this year’s tournament, until they realised how different from them Ominis was.
Behind Ominis came Professor Black, Professor Weasley, and the two others headmasters Professor Romanov and Madame Auclair. The two other headmasters went to their respective students as Professor Weasley held her hands on Ominis’s shoulders and Professor Black stood to the side of the room with his hands clasped behind his back.
“Well,” he started, clearing his throat. “We have our three champions.” He sounded slightly unsure as he spoke. Teodora and Aloysius just continued staring at Ominis, who looked more worried out of anyone in that room.
“Professor, if I do interject,” Professor Weasley started, still holding onto Ominis’s shoulders as she stood behind him. “Certainly there was an issue with the goblet of fire. I’m sure there were plenty of other students that threw their names into the fire, certainly more capable, I mean,” she stopped, stumbling on her words. “Mr. Gaunt is a bright student, indeed, but he cannot compete.”
Ominis couldn’t help but feel like it was a jab, even though he completely agreed with her. Competing in the Triwizard Tournament was the last thing he wanted. As much as he would like to say he was capable in his studies, something so dangerous and laborious as a competition against other wizards was not something he thought he could do. There had to have been a mistake somehow.
“Nonsense, Professor Weasley,” Professor Black started. “We all know the goblet of fire is just. Do not tell me you haven’t forgotten the very rule of the Triwizard Tournament.”
“The goblet of fire is binding,” Professor Weasley responded, sounding defeated. Her grip on Ominis’s shoulders tensed. “So there truly is nothing we can do...”
Ominis felt his heart drop hearing that. There truly is nothing we can do. He might as well just prepare to die during the first task, whatever that may be. He wondered what his friends were thinking about it all. He started to get more nervous at the thought of Sebastian losing his temper and doing something rash, but felt more at ease knowing Enoch was there to keep him from doing something he might regret. All he had to do was worry about himself now.
“Seriously, if the professors don’t do anything about this, I will!”
Sebastian still hadn’t stopped going on about Ominis’s name being pulled, even after they had reached their dormitory, changed into their sleep clothes, and were getting into bed. Enoch was silently folding his robe to place it in his drawer, heaving a heavy sigh, wondering when Sebastian was going to calm down to sleep.
“And the next time I see Prewett, I don’t know if I can hold myself back, I’ll-”
“Sebastian,” Enoch called, exasperatedly. Sebastian stopped and looked back to Enoch, still looking like he had way more ranting left in him. “Can we continue this tomorrow? It’s late. Maybe you’ll be more calm once you sleep a bit.” Enoch glanced over at the other boys that were getting into bed as well in their dorm room, and was hoping they weren’t fed up with Sebastian either.
Sebastian thought about it before letting out a loud breath. “Fine.”
As the two boys laid down in their beds, the door to their room creaked open slowly. Sebastian shot up as if he weren’t tired at all, hoping it was Ominis entering the room. And it was. Ominis walked in and closed the door behind him quietly, head sunken down.
“Ominis!” Sebastian called, a little too loud, as he threw aside his sheets and jumped out of bed. Enoch felt glad to see Ominis back, but rolled his eyes at the fact Sebastian was back out of bed, even though he worked so hard to get him to agree to go to sleep. “Ominis, what happened?” Sebastian asked as he followed Ominis to his bed, trying to talk quieter this time as he realised the other Slytherin sixth-years were trying to sleep now.
“Nothing exciting,” Ominis answered, sounding defeated as he took off his school robe.
Enoch was now sitting up in his bed listening to their conversation. “Nothing exciting?” Sebastian started. “You’re a Triwizard champion now. I wouldn’t call that boring.”
“And that means I can only count the days until my inevitable death.” Ominis sounded solemn, and Enoch couldn’t help but feel more worried about his friend.
“No, that’s not going to happen.” Sebastian held onto the poster of Ominis’s bed frame as Ominis started to change his clothes. “We’re not just going to let you die, Ominis. If they won’t take your name out, we’ll try everything we can to make sure that won’t happen, Enoch and I.”
“Wait,” Enoch joined in. “How are we going to do that? We can’t just join Ominis in the ring, or wherever the tournament takes place. Certainly that can’t be allowed.”
“We’ll find a way,” Sebastian answered confidently.
Sebastian’s words had been proving to be more difficult than he anticipated. Almost an entire month went by since the calling of the three champions and the three boys had gotten nowhere in finding out what the first task was going to be (and Sebastian had no luck convincing Professor Weasley to redraw.) They still had a little over a month left to figure it out, and prepare Ominis for the worst. Luckily, he hadn’t been faring too poorly at the regular duelling sessions Sebastian and Enoch dragged him to at Crossed Wands.
“But if you aim right there, and then cast stupefy, it’ll stun them even longer,” Sebastian advised Ominis as he was getting ready for his last duel of the day. “Not that many people know about that, it should put you at a bigger advantage.”
“I don’t think you’re quite taking into account my eyes, Sebastian. How am I to aim for one specific body part? It’s miracle enough my wand knows to hit them.”
“Well, tell your wand that, then.”
Enoch watched them in amusement as he leaned against the stone wall with his arms crossed. They had already been at Crossed Wands for almost an hour now. Ominis was showing improvement in his duelling abilities, but as time went on he was becoming more noticeably stressed about the first task looming ahead. Understandably so, as absolutely no one knew what the task was going to be. Enoch could tell Sebastian was getting overwhelmingly anxious about it, noticing he was spending more time away from them, doing who knows what, most likely trying to figure out anything that could help him unveil the first task. Enoch even noticed he was kissing up to all their professors, seemingly hoping they had any information. But alas, his efforts have seemed fruitless thus far.
“Enoch, there you are!”
Enoch was dragged out of his thoughts and looked over at the door that had just closed behind Poppy, the Hufflepuff sixth-year Enoch grew close with the year prior. He smiled in welcome and stood up straight to face her. “Were you looking for me, Poppy?”
“Yes, Imelda told me you were at the clock tower.” She looked over at Ominis, who had just successfully landed a hit on Sebastian who stood twenty feet away from him. “So this is where that infamous duelling club is I’ve heard about.”
“Infamous?”
Poppy awkwardly chuckled. “I overhear conversations from other students in my classes, mostly from those who complain they can’t enter.”
Enoch gave a chuckle in return. “It is hard to become a club member here. I only joined because Sebastian recommended me last year. He’s the best duellist here.”
“Until you came along, I bet.”
Enoch rolled his eyes playfully and chuckled. “I’m nowhere near as good as Sebastian. He’s got years of experience over me.”
“I’ve seen how you can handle yourself in a fight first hand, Enoch. That truly is nothing to be humble about, believe me. I think you’re admirable.”
Enoch could feel the heat rise to his face at the praise. “Thanks, Poppy.” He glanced back over to his friends in the middle of their duel. Ominis had just gotten knocked straight to the floor after failing to shield himself from Sebastian’s cast and a collective ‘ooo’ was heard throughout the room. “But, why were you looking for me?”
“Oh,” Poppy exclaimed, bringing her back to focus. “I wanted to ask your help with something.”
Enoch had excused himself from Crossed Wands and followed Poppy outside of the castle towards Professor Howin’s hut. It was a perfect day to be outside, and he could tell Professor Howin’s beasts were enjoying the good weather as well as they approached the multiple fenced-in pens. All except for one.
“Persephone’s been really lethargic as of late,” Poppy started as she knelt down to the pen of kneazles and began to pet one through the fence that was alone in the corner. “She won’t play with the other kneazles, and even hisses at them now. This is really unlike her.”
The fluffy, brown-coloured kneazle purred into Poppy’s hand as she petted her. She definitely looked less enthusiastic since the last time Enoch saw her, and he could tell she wasn’t feeling all the best.
“Professor Howin says she’s fine, and that she’ll bounce back on her own, but I’m just getting too worried. I’ve never seen her like this.
“I’ve been coming to spend time with her as much as possible these last few days, but with my busy class schedule this year and caring for other beasts near the castle, I’m worried she’s getting too lonely.” Poppy looked up at Enoch who was standing beside her. “I was wondering if you’d be willing to come spend time with her during your free time. I’m not asking for you to drop everything to see her, but a visit here and there I believe would make all the difference for her.” She smiled up at Enoch. “And you work so well with beasts, as far as I’ve seen.”
Enoch thought about it for a moment. He was a lot busier this year with a heftier class schedule and helping Ominis with the tournaments that were starting soon, but he couldn’t say no to Poppy. It wouldn’t hurt to come out and enjoy the nice weather they’ve been having as of late to play with the cute kneazle.
“I can do that, Poppy, don’t worry.”
“You will?” Poppy asked, excitedly, as she jumped up. Her smile grew large and she clasped her hands together in excitement. “Thank you so much, Enoch, this means so much to me as it does to her.”
Enoch gave her a warm smile in return. He was glad to help Poppy whenever she asked, as they helped each other a lot last year, and he already felt that he was going to be really busy this year.