When the fourteenth piece of parchment flew out of the Goblet of Fire and landed in Dumbledore's hand, he picked it up and glanced at it, his gaze once again sharpening slightly.
This time, however, his pause was much shorter than before, and he read the Champion's name aloud.
"Ron Weasley! Hogwarts."
At the name Weasley, George and Fred instinctively started to jump up, only to realize something was wrong. Ron Weasley?
The students from the other schools were less taken aback, but every Hogwarts student was astonished.
If Harry becoming a Champion had surprised them a little but made sense upon reflection, Ron becoming a Champion too was rather absurd.
Although Ron now had a large number of fans at Hogwarts-all because of his performance on the Quidditch Pitch last year-many young wizards, even those who supported him, found it somewhat hard to accept him as a Champion representing Hogwarts.
In fact, it was not just the other students. Ron himself looked astonished.
Although he had put his name into the Goblet of Fire and had previously declared with absolute confidence that he would become a Champion, the truth was that he had never really believed he could become one.
When Dumbledore read his name aloud, his first reaction was: Could there have been a mistake?
The fact was, however, that Dumbledore could not possibly have made a mistake about something like this. The slip of paper in his hand also had to be passed around among the other heads and the three Ministry of Magic officials to confirm the name on it.
Seeing Ron sitting there in a daze with no intention of moving, Hermione gave him a hard shove. "What are you staring at? Hurry up and go."
Meanwhile, Dumbledore had already read Ron's name out again,