October 31, 2001

The Great Hall was filled with boisterously chattering children, eagerly stuffing their faces, oblivious to the contempt he held for them all. The apparent Alastor Moody sat at the end of the staff table surveying the entire hall, but being careful not to linger on the Gryffindor table. In just a few moments his master's plan would commence and he would begin to fulfill his true purpose here. The plates eventually cleared and the entire hall finally descended into silence as Dumbledore stood. With a roll of his one normal eye, 'Moody' observed as Dumbledore dramatically dimmed the hall, per the old man's usual arrogant grandstanding. The goblet turned red and spat out the first name; Victor Krum as expected. The rest of the Durmstrang lot were little more than uncouth children including their traitorous headmaster. The Krum boy was clearly driven and ambitious with no love lost between him and the rest of his schoolmates. The grizzled looking man knew that Krum was too isolated to be a concern to his master's plans and it was likely the boy could be manipulated to serve his Lord's desires. The second name was of little consequence, some French bird, uncommonly pretty, but just another milksop like Beauxbaton always produced. Were some of those other girls crying? And a boy or two as well. The defense professor nearly snorted in contempt; clearly there would be no opposition there. The goblet fired a third time and this time 'Moody' watched with more concern. There was more chance in this selection and the wrong candidate could definitely toss a fly in the ointment. When Dumbledore called out Cedric Diggory, the defense professor could barely contain his smirk. It was too perfect. A more upright character you couldn't find, nor a more naïve one. He could manipulate Diggory's credulity just as easily as Krum's ambition.

Dumbledore began to close the ceremony with more of his pompous ramblings and Moody knew the moment had come to see if his efforts would pay off. Then it happened, the goblet lit a fourth time, just as he knew it would, that Dumbledore was completely flabbergasted at the interruption was just icing on the cake. This time the smirk spread fully across his scarred features, but fortunately no one was paying him any mind. The goblet glowed brighter and brighter, not the same as the three previous time but some deviation would be expected when hoodwinking such a powerful object. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to stop and no name was forthcoming, the goblet continue to glow brighter with the flames shooting higher and higher. 'Moody's smirk had morphed into a frown, this was not what he planned at all. Was his master's plan being thwarted somehow? Dumbledore's confusion was obvious, so he couldn't be doing it. Potter himself? His master had warned him that the boy could be surprising and he had seen as much in Defense class with his unexpected resistance to the Imperius. His own father easily fell to the spell's considerable powers, as evidenced by the man's bored countenance just a few spots away, yet the Potter brat was seemingly immune.

Wait a moment, where was Potter? Searching along the length of the Gryffindor table, he could not see the boy's distinctive mop of hair anywhere. His earlier decision to avoid looking at the brat to prevent arousing suspicion now seemed a terrible error. The two leeches Potter called friends were also missing. Where was Potter and how could he be ruining the Dark Lord's ingenious plot? The false teacher did not have much more time to contemplate his failure as the goblet reached a new level of brightness and exploded.