บท 164: Very Serious Business

"By the way," Oleandra said, wiping off a smudge of chocolate off her lips, "What have you done with the car you stole from Professor Burbage? Have you given it back?"

"First of all, I didn't steal it," said Ginny with an offended look on her face. "I merely borrowed it without asking for permission first. And no, I haven't given it back to her. It's a waste to leave it in her care."

"You stole it, then," said Daphne. "Do you still have it?"

"Well, yes, and no," Ginny said vaguely. "You see, the kinds of enchantments used to bring any item to life tend to make said item somewhat temperamental. For example, enchanted cars don't like being kept in one place; they get fidgety. They don't like being pushed too far either; they're likely to buck you off and run away. Which means, I can't keep it on me at all times, or it'll get all sulky."

"That sounds awfully inconvenient," said Oleandra between mouthfuls of cake. "Why the need to give your enchanted items personalities, and bad ones at that?"

"It's easier to construct enchantments using living creatures as templates," replied Ginny. "And since magic is affected to a certain degree by emotions, well…"

"A flying car…" said Astoria dreamily. "I wish I could have ridden in it."

"Astoria raises a good point," said Oleandra. "If you don't have it, where did you put it?"

"Hogwarts," responded Ginny. "On top of being capricious, even a small car requires a lot of magic power to fly. Enchanted items aren't like us: they can't passively absorb magic; otherwise, all enchantments would last forever. All that to say, I left it in the Forbidden Forest before going home from Hogwarts for the summer. It's got plenty of space to roll around in, as well as a Ley Line to draw telluric energy from."

"Well, at least it'll have company, there," commented Oleandra. "Ron told me your old car never came home."

Before Ginny could answer, Fudge's magically augmented voice rang out once more.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention, please!" said Fudge. "I'd like to thank you once again for your very generous donations and for being here with us tonight. It's a great honour for Britain to host the World Cup Finals, but the excitement doesn't end just yet for our great country!"

Fudge took a deep breath before continuing.

"It's with great personal pleasure that I announce in public for the first time, the return of the Triwizard Tournament!" he shouted. "After great deliberation, our very own Hogwarts was finally selected as the venue for the rebirth of this tournament which hasn't been held in more than a century!"

Ginny gasped in shock. Whatever this Triwizard thing was, it garnered a lot of gasps and cheers from the audience.

"To think the old man would agree to let it make a comeback," muttered Ginny.

"What do you mean, Ginny?" asked Oleandra. "What's the Triwizard Tournament?"

"It's a tournament held by Europe's three Wizarding schools," she explained. "Each school— Durmstrang and Beauxbatons are the two others— selects one champion to represent it, and the champions compete in magical trials to see which one is the best. It was discontinued because the participants kept dying."

"Sounds exciting!" said Oleandra with shining eyes, "What do you say, girls? Shall we all enter?"

"Er—" said Ginny, "it's tempting, but I'll have to say no. But if you want to participate, I'll cheer you on."

What a shame; Tom Riddle had always wanted to participate, but unfortunately, the tournament had never been held when he attended Hogwarts; and Ginny didn't want to alert Dumbledore by winning too easily. If she put her name in the Goblet of Fire, she had no doubt her name would come out!

"I'm signing up for sure," said Astoria. "It's not fair that you three always get to go on adventures without me!"

"Think of your condition," said Daphne soothingly. "What you need is to take care of your health and get as much rest as you can."

"But it's not fair!" whined Astoria. "Stupid blood curse…"

"It's unlikely that any of us would get picked," said Ginny. "If the old man's accepted to host the Triwizard Tournament, then it probably means safety will be his first priority. Which means he'll probably bar anyone below the sixth year from participating."

"Rules were meant to be broken," retorted Oleandra. "We'll find a way, won't we?"

Daphne was about to say something, but she was cut off by a wave of applause. Fudge had apparently just finished giving his speech while the girls were chattering away, and people were already beginning to stream out of the venue to get ready for the main event, the Quidditch World Cup Finals!

It suddenly occurred to Oleandra that the Malfoys had totally skipped on their meeting. Right before Oleandra's exams last session, Draco had told her that Lucius wanted to hold a meeting to talk about the Starshower Club and other world exploration during the gala. So where were they, anyhow?

She suddenly spotted Draco appearing from a door that presumably led backstage.

"Where were you all this time?" said Oleandra reproachfully as she approached Draco. "Weren't we supposed to have a meeting with your father?"

"My father?" answered Draco, slightly puzzled. "Oh, that. Look, you might have taken this a little too seriously. Father only wanted to ask you a few questions if he ever got the chance, not discuss anything major. To him, anything we're doing is just playing around. Er— And I'm not supposed to be talking with you right now."

"Oh," said Oleandra, feeling a little vexed. "Why not?"

"Look, we've been quite busy," said Draco. "Our families were both invited by the Minister, so we'll be sitting close to each other. I'll tell Father you want to talk, if you'd like. I'm sure he'll be able to spare a moment before the match begins."

Oleandra just stared at Draco with dazed look on her face. Lucius Malfoy had been the one to ask for this meeting, so how had it turned into her begging for a chance to talk to the man? The Malfoys had some nerve!