A few days have elapsed since the beginning of classes, and the list of students wanting in on the Triwizard Tournament has significantly grown. There seems to be well over a hundred names, a relatively narrow majority of whom signed up on opening day.

  As soon as the deadline to sign up for the Triwizard Tournament approaches, Armand summons Griet, the Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions, to his office, with the list of volunteers willing to participate.

  “Griet, je veux que la liste longue sorte demain matin, compris?” (Griet, I want the long list released tomorrow morning, understood?) Armand gives her instructions to build the long list of Triwizard Tournament hopefuls.

  “Il y a une petite complication!” (There’s a small complication!) Griet points at the two foreign exchange students on the preliminary list of potential participants.

  Namely, Paulinho, on exchange from Castelobruxo, and Nurcan, from Karakalem.

  “C’est quoi la complication?” (What’s the complication?) Armand asks the Austrian Dutch witch.

  “Il nous manque leurs dossiers de discipline!” (Their disciplinary records are missing!)

  “Fais comme s’ils n’ont pas commis d’infractions l’année dernière!” (Do as if they didn’t commit infractions last year!)

  “Mais pourquoi?” (But why?) Griet has a lingering memory resurface of Nurcan’s so-called complications with the Bab-I Humayun from Nurcan’s previous stay, but weren’t induced by disciplinary issues.

  “Tu as peut-être eu affaire à des étudiants en échange, mais tu ne te rends peut-être pas compte que des problèmes disciplinaires pourraient les empêcher de venir ici!” (You might have dealt with exchange students, but you may not realize that discipline issues might prevent them from coming here!) Armand points out that Griet might not know why being on a good behavior should be taken for granted from an exchange student.

  Calm down, only the infractions committed in the previous year count for the purpose of Triwizard Tournament selection, Griet starts breathing heavily as the daunting task to make a first cut begins. However, first-year students have no academic records, so unfortunately, they must be eliminated.

  So those who committed infractions in the previous academic year are eliminated, which only seemed to have eliminated a minority of hopefuls at this stage of the selection.

  Then comes the presence of failing grades. Again, it seems like only a handful of students are eliminated at this point. Yet, for some reason, it would seem like one or two could be reinstated based on them having failed History of Magic, Muggle Studies, Study of Ancient Runes, Astronomy or Divination, which would likely be deemed useless at the Triwizard Tournament.

  But even after these sorting exercises, Griet still feels like there are too many names remaining for that to be useful as a long list. As the fatigue starts to get the better of her, Griet wonders what else she should prioritize, grades-wise, to shorten the tentative long list to a more manageable size.

  For sure, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration are key, so at least Efforts Exceptionnels in these subjects for all, with Potions, Herbology being pluses. Unless the tasks require potion-making, but historically, TT tasks tended to shy away from potion-making. We may never know, though, so perhaps no grade below Effort Exceptionnel in these 5 courses… Griet starts wondering why she was even put in charge of putting together the long list after eliminating people with only Acceptables in any of these.

  “Mais pourquoi m’avoir attribué cette tache?” (But why did you give that task to me?) Griet moans as she starts crying, feeling that it shouldn’t have been hers.

  Armand overhears her, while Griet cries over the remaining long list, made shorter by ratcheting up the grade requirements on candidates. “Personne d’autre ne voulait faire cette tache ingrate, et ton travail n’induit aucun biais!” (No one else wanted to do this ungrateful task, and your work doesn’t induce biases!)

  Professors lead busy lives at this point, yet Griet’s core tasks of keeping the school supplied, along with taking care of payments to suppliers and assigning dorms to students, tend to become more manageable after the school year begins, Armand then returns to his usual tasks while Griet is left wondering whether she did enough to ensure this long list is, well, not too long. Or perhaps too short. She hands the tentative list to Armand, who glances at it.

  “Pour des étudiants de deuxième, troisième ou quatrième année, on veut des Optimaux en sortilèges et en défense contre les forces du mal!” (For second, third or fourth-year students, we want Optimals in Charms and DADA!) Armand adds one final criterion for Griet to comb through before the long list is made final.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Dealing with the remaining transcripts for yet another round of sorting makes Griet’s head spin, and, from there, lie flat on the floor as she keeps working with these documents.

  Once she regains some semblance of energy, the witch casts a spell to put the disciplinary records away, along with the transcripts of fifth, sixth and seventh-year students, so she’s left with a smaller chunk of transcripts to comb through to finalize the long list. But requiring Optimal grades in both Charms and DADA cut the number of second, third and fourth-year students available by almost two-thirds.

  When the final long list is ready, the headmaster is about to go to bed, and so is Griet, since both worked well past nightfall on their own tasks.

  The following day, Griet yawns as she posts the long list for the Triwizard Tournament outside of Armand’s office, while her boss makes an announcement at breakfast:

  “Chers étudiants, la liste longue pour le Tournoi des Trois Sorciers est maintenant sortie!” (Dear students, the long list for the Triwizard Tournament is now released!)

  After breakfast, nearly everyone rushes to look at the long list after its release, hoping that they would still be in the running to represent Beauxbatons. Understandably, a lot of them will be dejected upon seeing that they didn’t make it. A handful of them will even feel like they’re screwed for the year.

  Paulinho notices Nurcan when they’re both trying to get to the list posted on the board, and tries to talk to her:

  “Je me souviens de toi: tu prétendais que ton examinateur était dépendant à la divination!” (I remember you: you claimed your examiner was a divination addict!) Paulinho tells Nurcan in a Brazilian accent.

  “Tu es?” (You are?)

  “Paulinho!”

  “Nurcan!”

  Both appear to be happy they make it to the long list, as are Alejandra and Thierry. However, Nurcan asks a few questions in her mind: What did the 3/32 I initially predicted actually assume? Was that the probability I make it to the main event from the beginning? Would that number change now that I’m on the long list? But, if it does, there’s only one way to go but up, since even I didn’t take the long list for certain.

  So her mind is about to overheat as she wonders what was the probability that she made it to the long list, feeling that her odds of making it to the short one, and hence going on exchange to Hogwarts for 8 months, will depend on it.

  However, the infirmary is filling with students in emotional distress, and a lot of them are taking Euphoria-inducing Elixir. So much so that the infirmary asks Griet to buy more of its ingredients, and maybe even brew it herself if necessary.

  Speaking of Griet, her mood is noticeably down after being assigned by Armand to comb the files of the Triwizard Tournament hopefuls last night. As she approaches the school’s infirmary, she collapses with her body slamming on the marble floor. Without anyone having done anything to her.

  Why couldn’t anyone think of making a student on detention do what I did last night? What made me more trustworthy than a student on detention to get a long list done? Griet starts to ruminate about as she struggles to get back up. And see stars around her as her coordination sharply decreases.

  At that point, Griet is surprised to see so many students checking in, and a handful of them that appear to her to use the resulting emotional distress to skip a class.

  With the magiwizard making his rounds, and administering the Euphoria-inducing Elixir to students in distress, Griet’s turn arrives:

  “Avant que je te donne de la potion, est-ce que vous pourriez acheter des ingrédients pour concocter plus d’élixir d’euphorie?” (Before I give you the potion, could you buy ingredients to brew more Elixir to Induce Euphoria?) the magiwizard asks her.

  “Est-ce que je dois la concocter… moi-même? J’espère que non…” (Must I brew it… myself? I hope not…) Griet’s tiredness shows through in her tone.

  While she lies flat on a bed, Griet’s forehead seems to be searing her, probably a side effect of her accumulated fatigue.

  But when Armand comes to her at the infirmary, realizing that she’s not at her office, he asks her a few questions while she’s bed-ridden for a bit:

  “Que fais-tu ici?” (What are you doing here?) Armand asks her.

  “Je suis un peu… malade!” (I’m a little… sick!)

  “Qu’est-ce qui t’a rendue malade?” (What made you sick?)

  “Fatigue…” Griet sighs, and then details what happened last night for her to still feel tired.

  The magiwizard, realizing what’s happening to Griet, administers her an Analgesic potion, which is brown, opaque. So when she drinks it, she also recovers enough energy to ask a question to Armand about last night:

  “Mais pourquoi c’était à moi de dresser la liste longue hier soir? était-ce possible de confier ?a à un étudiant en retenue?” (Why did I have to establish the long list last night? Wasn’t it possible to make someone in detention do it?)

  “C’était trop délicat pour que quelqu’un en retenue fasse ?a!” (That was too delicate for someone in detention do it!)

  Not to mention the risk that a student in detention could show favoritism towards some people on that list. I believed Griet to be impartial, and, by and large, she was, Armand thinks, while his answer gave Griet pause for a few seconds.

  “Plus vite on dresse la liste courte et mieux ce sera pour tout le monde!” (The faster we release the short list, the better for everyone!) Griet pleads with her boss.

  “à partir de maintenant, tu n’auras plus rien à voir avec la logistique du Tournoi des Trois Sorciers. Je vais engager quelqu’un pour le reste de l’année pour ?a!” (From now on, you will no longer have anything to do with the Triwizard Tournament’s logistics. I will hire someone for the rest of the year for that!)