So just to make this clear, we have to tame the hippogrif and then it will lead us to our clue or to an area where the clue is hidden. Is that okay? 

Colette-

"You have interviews today, Colette! C'est génial!" Ann cried as we sat at breakfast. 

I tried to swallow the bacon that was already too crunchy but couldn't. I felt like I might be sick any moment.

"Coco!" I turned around, knowing exactly who it was.

"Qu'est-ce-que tu veux? What do you want?" I demanded angrilly. 

Leila flounced her straight hair, eyed some male student from Hogwarts and then slipped onto the place next to me. "Are you going to mention me in your interview? I'm sorry about everything I've ever said to you." 

Ann and I exchanged glances. I couldn't believe it. My sister was trying to bribe me so that her name would get into the so-called Daily Prophet. Did she think I was stupid? Apparently. 

"Tu es une imbécile! Pense-tu que je suis stupide? You are an idiot! Do you think that I'm stupid?!" 

Leila scooted away from me, glaring. "Oui. I doubt you'll do well. You're an embarassment to all of us!" This was too much. I pulled out my wand and pointed it at her, going through all the curses I knew. 

"Get away or I'll ruin your oh-so-pretty face!"

Leila glared so ferociously that I thought she might murder me, yet she backed off and stomped out of the hall. I looked around and noticed that the hall was quiet. Hundreds of eyes stared at me in shock. I guess they didn't think that I was capable of almost cursing my sister. Though probably very few of them knew what we had just said to each other as it was all in French. 

I sat back down.

"Do you think that I'm really that bad?" I asked Ann, remembering what my sister had said.

"Non! She's just jealous." 

I bit my lip in doubt, but didn't utter another word.

***

The three of us, the champions, stood together our arms over each others shoulders as if we were good friends. A camera (okay, 18th century, but I think the wizards could've already had cameras) clicked and then we let go of each other.

I brushed off my skirt, but stopped when I noticed a stocky woman standing with a note pad in the corner. She had a long dress on and looked like she might fall over any minute from lack of air. It looked like her corset was too tight. 

"Who is zat?" Spara asked in a way that sounded more than disgusted.

"That's Magical Porter. She's one of the reporters from the Daily Prophet." Erica answered, seeming just as revolted. 

"It looks like zee air from 'er lungs iz being pressed out of 'er body." I commented. To my surprise, Spara and Erica giggled. I didn't know if it was because of my accent or because of what I had said.

Magical had a wide, toothy grin on her face. Her cheeks were dark red from the rouge that she'd put on and matched her lips. "Why hello!" She shook our hands in turn, gripping them tightly. Her skin was like that of an alligator. "I'm Magical Porter, reporter from the Daily Prophet and I'm going to interview every one of you today." 

She turned to Spara. "Let me try my Bulgarian. I can't speak it to well. Soev sos ! Az sŭm na Magical Porter i az sŭm ot prase na ferma ."*

Spara stared at her with an expression of shock and laughter on her face. "I can speak English, Miss Porter." I told myself to ask Spara what she had said later. 

"And you, Miss Luciferé, your English probably doesn't go that far either. Croissants! Je suis Magical Porter et je suis un cochon d'inde.**" I couldn't surpress a giggle. She really needed to work on her French. 

"I can speak English, too, Miss."

"Oh." Her cheeks became a little red under all the rouge. "Well, I'll take you first. Come with me." She grabbed my wrist and led me to a small closet. I sat down in the back and watched her try to take her entire hoop skirt through the door. After she'd suceeded, she plopped down on the floor and stared at me intently. 

"Well, first off, how do you feel about the Triwizard Tournament?"

"Excited." What type of answer was that? Oh well.

"Excited... Hm. And how is your sister taking it?"

How did she know that I had a sister? "Vell." I watched the red feathered quill move across the page writing down much more than just "well". I sneaked a peak, but Magical covered the notepad with her hand.

"You'll see it in the Prophet, dearie. Anyway..."

She asked me many more questions and I was almost going to burst out of the closet when she said. "We're  done now. Go out and wait with the others. Tell Erica, it's her turn." So I left, happy to get out of the stuffy closet. 

*Soy Sauce! I'm Magical Porter and I'm a pig on a farm. 

** Croissants! I'm Magical Porter and I'm a guinea pig.  

Who wants to do the Daily Prophet article?

Oh I love it!! Nice job!

Erica

I was the first one down to breakfast, just in case Porter wrote something bad enough that I had to save my face.

Sadly, a few people were down there already.

The minute I walked into the room, everyone shrank away from me like I had some aweful disease. When I sat down at my table, a few of my friends rushed to get another seat.

Uh oh, I thought.

With shaking hands, I grabbed the Prophet and read the article.

I nearly threw up the little breakfast I had had. My father wanted to take over the wizarding world? Where the heck had she gotten that idea from? And the part about me wanting to help him... this was bad. Very, very bad. I looked over and saw Elizabeth sitting nervously near me.

"Elizabeth!" I whispered hoarsly. She jumped and gave me a nervous look. "Oh! H-hi Erica!" she said shakily. "Lovely weather. Great hair. Gotta go, see you later!" She jumped up and started heading out the door.

"Wait!" I grabbed her wrist and stopped her. A few students gave us frightened looks. "You don't believe the rubbish in the paper, do you?" Elizabeth looked at the floor. "DO you? She tried to go against my hand. I tightened my grip. "Elizabeth, you're my best friend! You know me better than anyone! How could you think this was true?" She gave me a frightened look. "I-I've never met your father, Erica. He could be a mass murderer for all I know! And as for you..." She took a shaky breath. "You've always been hungry for power. On the quiddich team, on your grades... everything. What makes people think you wouldn't help your dad on this?"

Tears stung my eyes. I let go of her wrist. "I'm sorry, Erica," she said, backing away. "But I can't be your friend anymore." She turned around and rushed out. I took another shaky breath and, in despair, ran as fast as I could away from the Great Hall. A few Slytherin boys yelled after me, "Hey, traitor! Where's your muggle father? Trying to take over the world?" I ignored them, and finally ducked into a bathroom. Locking myself in a stall, I sank onto the ground and let myself sob.

Erica~

The French girl finally coaxes me out of the stall, until she sees my red eyes and chalky face. "Oh dear... ," she says. "Look, if you want to criticize me for my looks, I would appreciate it if you did it somewhere else." She shakes her head. "No, just put vater on your eyez und it vill go away." I try it and, to my amazment, the red slowly seeps away. "Thanks." She shrugs. "I 'ave to go, but good luck on ze tournament." She quickly gathers up her robes and goes out the door.

When I finally get the guts to walk out of the bathroom, everyone who sees me backs away from me. I try to look straight ahead and not listen, but it's kind of hard not to when all you can hear is "Did you hear about....? Father wants to take over the world... dangerous family...." I speed up and, almost to my relief, almost crash into Colette. Spara is right behind her. "Erica?" Colette says, looking at my chalky face. "What 'appened? Where 'ave you been?" "Ve have been looking everyvere for you," Spara says. Her eyes look upset and puffy. Colette looks ready to murder someone. "Come," Colette says, dragging me along into an empty classroom. "Ve need to talk."

"'ow  could zat voman do zat to us?" Colette storms, pacing the room. "Vat id ve ever do to 'er?" "We saw her for what she is," I say, wiping my runny nose. "We weren't in complete awe of her. Besides, it's reporters' jobs to elaborate everything. She wanted her article to be on the front page, so she added a few twists and turns to it."

"If I ever get my hands un her... ," Spara growls, "she vill vish she vuz never born." I looked over at her. "What happened with Evan?" She looked at the ground. "Nothing good."

"Well, you should be the happiest, Colette," I say. "Your article had the least affect on you. Actually, I think it made you even more popular." She snorts in disgust. "Yes. Popular vit my sister, at least." Spara looks around. "The tourament is tomorrow," she said. "Vat do we do? Evan isn't going to give me any help, and absolutely no one vill root for Erica."

"Well," I say, "first off, we tell everyone what a sneak she is, and we defend ourselves and each other when we hear rumors. It will be harder for them to believe if the three girls who apparently hate each other defend the rumors." The others slowly nod. "And then..." I stop. Herbert the owl flies into the room with a big red envelope. I quietly swear. "Vat iz zat?" Colette says. The envelope starts smoking. "A howler. Cover your ears." I say, and quickly open it.

"ERICA FOSTER!" my mother's voice booms from the envelope. "HOW DARE YOU TELL THE WHOLE WIZARDING WORLD ABOUT YOUR FATHER! I COULD HAVE DIED OF SHAME WHEN I READ THAT ARTICLE! WHAT ON EARTH GAVE YOU THE RIGHTS TO SPILL EVERYTHING TO THAT WOMAN! AND WHY WOULD YOU LIE ABOUT YOUR FATHER WANTING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD? WHAT WAS THAT? SOMETHING TO GET YOU EVEN MORE ATTENTION? YOU SHOULD BE DISQUALIFIED FROM THE TOURNAMENT! IF YOU DON'T STRAIGHTEN YOURSELF OUT, I AM COMING THERE TO TAKE YOU HOME!!!" The howler explodes and leaves us in a very deaf silence. "Your muzzer iz very loud," Colette says, rubbing her ears. "You have no idea."

I found some time to post so here it is! :) 

Colette-

After thinking about it for a while, I found that Erica was right. Saying that I loved my sister and that she's my best friend and so on seemed awful to me but was much worse than having an article about your "true love" or your "father that wants to take over the world".

Erica recieved something called a howler from her mother that scolded her for telling about her father. And her mother was very...loud.

"Vow. You really have a lovely moozer," Spara commented after we'd all listened to the woman scream at Erica who seemed to have gone an even lighter shade of white. 

"So... It's true?" I raised my eyebrows, hoping that I didn't look shocked.

Erica looked down at her feet. "Yes. But just the part about my da being a muggle."

"But you do not vont to take over ze vorld?" I hated myself the moment I asked the question. Of course she didn't want to take over the world!

"No! I'm not insane. I'm just an innocent girl who happened to be chosen for the tournament. I'm not loony, got it?" I nodded. 

Spara had been quiet for quite some time. I noticed that her shoulders were slumped and the corners of her mouth were down in a permanent frown.

"Are you... okay?" 

Spara looked at me in disbelief. "Vat do you think? Evan, my best friend, thinks I'm in love viz him and so does the entire vizarding vorld! I just want to be alone. I'll see you later." With that she stomped out of the classroom. 

Erica and I stood there in silence. "Do you sink I should talk viz Evan?"

"Do you really think that you could change his mind?"

I smiled. "I'm a Beauxbaton, remember? I'm good at zis." I winked. "See you soon!"

*

I talked Ann into coming with me even though she would've rather stayed in the shade of the trees on the grounds.

"Je ne veux pas parler avec Evan! I don't want to talk with Evan! Isn't it Spara's problem?" she grumbled as I pulled her along to where I'd last seen the boy. 

"It isn't 'er problem! On doit lui aider! We have to help her! We're just going to tell him the truth." We were now in a dark hallway somewhere near where the Durmstrang students were staying. Warmly clothed people stood around, whispering as we passed. Somewhere in the middle I noticed Evan. 

"'ello! You are Evan, oui?" I greeted him, batting my eyelashes. He looked at me as if I was the first girl he'd ever seen in his life.

"Um. Hi?"

"I read ze article." Ann started to back away but I held on to her arm.

"Oh." Evan seemed upset, which I guess was sort of obvious.

"Yes and I vould like to say zat ven Spara vas 'aving 'er interview I heard it and she said nozing about ze relationship between you and 'er."

"Vell, she only said zat you ver fwiends,"Ann piped up.

"You ver zer?"

Ann turned red. "Non."

"Spara sent you to do this, didn't she?" Evan crossed his arms.

I shook my head violently. "No! Ve are here because we are her friends."

"Are-" But Evan didn't finish his sentence because in that moment a camera clicked and we saw a woman in a too tight corset and a cameraman who seemed vaguely familiar running away. I dreaded reading the next Daily Prophet article. What would Spara say?