Robert Culinare's Story

The great hall was filled with silence, but not an empty silence. This one was filled with anticipation. Everyone in Hogwarts was likely filled to the brim with excitement. Brandon Arisu, seated at the Slytherin table was no exception, indeed he was sitting at the edge of his seat peering up at the head master who headed up to a goblet, undoubtedly the Goblet of Fire.

"In this time of prosperity, the other headmasters and I have come together to bring you all this tournament. When the last tournament years ago ended, it ended in tragedy. True, many young witches and wizards have always perished in this competition and as such this is indeed not for the faint of heart. But we hope that during this time of peace, the tournament will live on and that one of you fine young students," They turned their eyes to the crowd as they approached the front of the room where a heavy looking wooden goblet rested upon a pedestal. "Will leave this tournament in glory." The hush that had covered the room intensified, as though everyone in the great hall had suddenly sucked in a breath. Brandon wouldn't be surprised if they all actually had as he watched the shimmering and crackling blue flames which sprung up from the goblet. "This, is the Goblet of Fire. Any student who wishes to enter the tournament and is at least seventeen years of age, may write their name upon a piece of parchment and toss it into the fire before this hour on Thursday. From this moment on, the TriWizard Tournament has begun!" And just like that, the silence fell away and it seemed like the entire school burst into chatter - Brandon's own table was abuzz, many students either complaining about being too young or talking about how they were going to enter. Instead of chiming in, Brandon turned his eyes to the two schools that would be competing against. The Durmstrang Institute and the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, easily identifiable by their uniforms - the Beauxbaton's powder blue and the Durmstrang's blood red. Many would likely say they found the Beauxbaton students unimposing and the Durmstrang the very opposite, however Brandon knew better than to make assumptions based upon appearances and decided he would make no assumptions until he saw and met each school's champion for himself as the headmaster called for the feast to commence and for the students to mingle and get to know each other. Brandon peered around as the food appeared on the tables for his friends.

He scanned the room for his friend's dark brown hair and after a moment spotted who he was looking for. Star Baudelaire was sitting at her table along with her fellow Ravenclaw, Malachi Devon. He was one of the brightest minds in Ravenclaw even though the guy never looked like he cared about much of anything including right now to his surprise. Star caught his eye and offered Brandon a wave, which he smiled and returned. He'd have to try and catch up with her later and ask how her day had gone. Bran and Star had been good friends ever since they'd met during her first year there.


"Can't wait to get my name in. Is it picked by random or do they go off of abilities or...?" A thickly accented Durmstrang inquired of his fellow members who were seated nearby.

"Oh please, Fenris. It's picked by the goblet, the goblet decides because it is impartial." Came a female voice - A girl with half of her wavy blonde hair shaved off and cat-like eyes. Her accent was different than the other Durmstrang's. "Didn't you read up on this?" She asked of her friend.

"...No." Fenris said, not without shame, frowning slightly and picking at a piece of chicken. "Are you sure it doesn't rank us?" He didn't seem entirely convinced there wasn't some sort of biased opinion.

"If you're chosen then you're chosen. If you aren't, you aren't. She's right, the goblet is impartial. Also, I think the headmasters have taken additional precautions after the last tournament to try to ensure that it can't be tampered with." Brandon heard himself saying suddenly, surprising himself slightly that he had just found himself butting into the Durmstrang's conversation. He felt his face grow hot as the three students closest to him turned to look at him.

"Thank you!" The blonde girl with a laugh and a smile, making a gesture toward him. "You see, normal people go into these situations knowing what they're about other than fighting dragons." She said, looking at the other boy disapprovingly.

"There's no guarantee there will be dragons again either." Brandon felt he had to add, shyly.

Fenris sighed mournfully and resigned himself to eating his chicken.

"Well, that's certainly disappointing then. He was convinced that facing a dragon was going to be his key to getting a date. 'Face a dragon and there probably isn't a single woman who won't go out with you, you can bet.'." The girl mimicked the other boy's accent with a smirk. "I'm Arielle by the way." She added. He felt slightly better about barging in on their conversation since they didn't look irritated at all, in fact they all seemed pretty friendly.

"I'm Brandon. I'm from Slytherin, as you can probably already tell." He said, offering her a small smile in return.

"It's nice to meet you, Brandon." Arielle said politely, though her grey eyes flickered up to his snowy white hair with thinly masked curiosity. "The one to my left is Fenris and to my right is Adrian. That's Aleksander, Leif, Thomas, Heri..." She rattled off several more names, a few of them he knew for a fact he'd have a hard time pronouncing on his own.

When she finally finished, a lanky guy with brown hair to her right - he was pretty sure his name was Adrian turned to him. "So, is it true the headmasters have taken extra precautions this year?" He asked. His english was good. Not as good as the blonde girl's, but good.

"From what I've heard, yes. It might have been rumor, but I don't think so. I wouldn't be surprised that they had stepped up security after last time." Brandon felt it kind of would make sense after the year Barty Crouch's son used a Confundus charm to enter Harry Potter into the tournament that they weren't going to take any chances with the goblet and students accidentally getting in - especially underage students. Not to mention the whole Cedric Diggory business.

Both Arielle and Adrian nodded at this, along with several others while Fenris seemed to consider that. Brandon got the sneaking suspicion that if given the opportunity that Fenris would try to wiggle his way around the rules.


A little ways off, a couple of the more rowdy Gryffindors were talking about how they weren't going to give Slytherin the chance to upstage them. Naturally, the Gryffindor and Slytherin rivalry has continued to endure. Brandon wasn't going to think much of it until he heard his name mentioned.

"Yeah, but I don't think he'd even enter. It'd mess up his hair." A stout young female Gryffindor jestingly said, causing several others to laugh. Brandon deliberately ignored them even though he really didn't want to - not that he knew what he would do if he didn't pretend not to hear it and instead turned back to the Durmstrang group. "So," He said, taking a breath. "Were you hoping to meet a lot of Hogwarts students?"

"Well, I certainly was. Hogwarts seems much more lively than Durmstrang." Arielle told him and several of her friends nodded their agreement.

"Perhaps we should invite some of the other students to come join us if they'd like then." Arielle suggested, flicking a strand of wavy blonde hair back over her left shoulder. Not too many Durmstrang students had come to Hogwarts and so there was still room at their table. Several of her fellow members agreed, saying that they thought it would be fun. "Let's see if I can get any of their attention." She said and rose to her feet as though she were about to put on a show. Thus she began to search the room for the various Hogwarts houses, which thankfully were easy to find thanks to the massive banners displaying each house's sigil. Drawing a hand up as though ready to select a random volunteer when she stopped upon hearing a Gryffindor student insulting a very feminine looking Beauxbaton. Before she could even say anything, the other student didn't hesitate to reply back to it. Shortly after, two more Beaxubatons appeared, sitting on either side of the other student. She immediately decided on who to call on first. "Since the whole point of this tournament is international magical cooperation," She smiled a little, thinking perhaps a potato sack race or a hula hoop contest might be a less dangerous way to bring people together. But then again, where's the fun in not potentially getting eaten, drowned, burned or dying in any other way, shape or form? "You might like to sit with some people who are a little more...cooperative." She gestured toward the two Beaxubatons girls who so recently joined the Gryffindor table. "They can come too. We have plenty of room at the Durmstrang table." She said and then looked to the rest of the Gryffindor table. After a brief moment, she made a grand wave and pointed to none other than the Gryffindor seeker. Xavier Hudson was sitting on the complete opposite end of the table from them, talking animatedly with some of his peers, his bright red hair in a disarray. He was a talented Qudditch player and was usually considered a nice guy by most however the long running grudge between red and green was still alive and well today and during Quidditch that was only ever intensified, which made Brandon who was sitting just next to the Durmstrang table a little uneasy. "You with the messy red hair! I choose you for international magical cooperation!" Arielle called out, which earned her the attention of quite a bit of the great hall. While this might have embarrassed a lot of other people, it didn't bother her at all.


Was that a Pokemon reference? Brandon Arisu couldn't help but think, momentarily puzzled. He watched as Xavier Hudson looked up in surprise and then with a bright smile, shrugged, said something to his friends and then stood up and came walking over toward the table in a swish of black robes. Some of the Slytherins sighed or made faces as he passed them and made his way toward the Durmstrang table. He ignored them.


"Anndd...Hufflepuff." She turned toward Hufflepuff, for a moment taking note of the surprisingly quiet table before pointing to yet another redhead. This one, if Brandon wasn't mistaken was Dillon May. He didn't think he'd ever met her before either. "You, from Hufflepuff! Also with red hair. Magical cooperation?" This time she said it more like a suggestion and then turned toward Ravenclaw, without waiting to see if the girl was going to be joining them or even understood what was happening.

"Ravenclaw, Ravenclaw...Hmm." Arielle seemed to be contemplating this one, as though she wasn't sure even though it felt like she almost chose people at random. After a moment she shook her head. "Whoever wants to come join us! I would really like it if at least one person from Ravenclaw would join us though." She said and then sat back down, pleased with herself. If they could have at least one person from each house, that would be ideal, she thought as she smiled and looked to see who all had joined them. She would like to get to know all of the Hogwarts houses if possible, however that would likely take some time.