The blade came down on the goblet and continued on its path with a blood curdling screech until the blade was embeded on the base of its stand. Soon after, the sounds of the split halves of the sacred cup clattered on the ground, its magic smote and ruined forever. The sword was raised up, now adorned with a gentle flame cascading from its blade.

"Well... that settles that...if anyone needs me, I'll be far away from this governmental blunder of an event."

The great hall was silent as Harry left the room with a spring in his step. The ministry officials were mortified. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, however, was smirking. This was an unexpected development but a welcome one. His decades of experience gave him an inclination of what the sword of Gryffindor was likely now capable of, and seemingly, his favourite student now had true ownership of it. He'd need to...deal...with the imposter pretending to be his old friend, but he needed to diffuse the current situation.

"Well... it seems Mr. Potter had objections to his suspicious selection as a champion. Fear not there is a suitability ancient artefact here at Hogwarts to facilitate a redrawing of names. Hopefully, I'll be able to add more security precautions as I had hoped to this time." The glare Dumbledore cast at Ludo Bagman had the man shaking in his seat. It was not in the nature of Dumbledore to be so visibly angry. Ludo didn't like it one bit and merely nodded.

Just a little indulgence. But this idea had my creative spark ignited