Chapter 38 -
"Luna," Harry asked as he sat opposite Luna. "Does that happen often?" He asked.
"Does what happen often?" Luna asked back, smiling dreamily as she pulled out what appeared to be a magazine of some sort named 'The Quibbler'.
"Do people bother and threaten you? Point their wands at you? Insult you?" Harry asked as calmly as he could.
"Only once every few weeks," Luna said with a small shrug of her shoulders, speaking as if it was one of the most common things in the world. "For the most part, they like to leave me alone." She added before turning her magazine upside down and starting to read it. Harry took a second to process what she was doing before deciding that he was not going to comment on it.
"Have you ever told anyone? Like Professor Flitwick or somebody?"
"Oh, no, I don't want to bother him," Luna explained calmly.
"Luna, they're bullying you, you do realise that, right? It's kind of his job to stop that." Harry replied.
"Oh, no, it's not bullying," Luna told him patiently, looking up from her magazine to smile at him. "One of the older Ravenclaws told me in my first year that it's just the way that the Ravenclaw house works," She explained patiently before going back to her magazine.
'Venom,' Harry mentally started communicating with his alien bestie. 'I am going to inform Professor Flitwick of this, and if nothing happens on his end...'
'Then I can eat them?' Venom asked hopefully.
'No, but you can scare the sh*t out of them.' Harry replied. 'We'll keep eating them as a potential backup plan if things get too out of control.' Harry added just as the compartment doors opened, Hermione and Ron both walked in.
"Harry, there you are," Hermione said, dropping into the seat next to him. "We were looking for you."
"Loony, what are you doing here?" Ron blinked, staring at the blonde girl.
"Wait, you know her?" Harry asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"Yeah," Ron nodded. "She lives near our house."
"Then you should know her name is 'Luna', not 'Loony'." Harry glared at him.
"Oh, it's okay, Harry Potter," Luna told Harry, still reading her magazine. "Everyone calls me that, I think it's a nickname."
"It's not a good one or a nice one," Harry told her firmly before shifting his gaze back to Ron. "Don't you think you should apologize to Luna?" He 'suggested'.
"Oh, um...sorry, Luna," The redhead said half-heartedly before plopping down into his seat and pulling out a pair of chocolate frogs. "You want one?" He offered Harry. Harry glared at him for a few more seconds for his weak excuse for an apology but stopped in favour of taking a chocolate frog.
"Luna, if anyone calls you 'Loony' again then please let me know," Harry told her before opening his packet.
"Okay, Harry," Luna chirped.
'She is adorable,' Venom commented just as the doors to the compartment opened to reveal Draco Malfoy along with his ever-present friends/bodyguard.
"So, Scarhead, enjoy yourself at the world cup?" Draco sneered at Harry before turning to Ron. "I bet you must have enjoyed it Weasel-bee, did you have to sell your house for those tickets? Nah, your little hovel probably wouldn't sell for half a ticket."
"Piss off, Malfoy!" Ron growled while Hermione held him down in case he decided to get up and fight.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry asked in a bored voice.
'We should eat him,' Venom suggested.
'No, the prick's covered in hair gel and who knows how many other products, it would upset your stomach.' Harry told him.
"Just wanted to see if you'd enter," Draco said in a conversational voice. "I imagine a show-off like you couldn't resist the opportunity."
"Enter what?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"You don't know?" Draco laughed. "Well, not surprising really. It's just a benefit of being a Malfoy. My father has access to all the knowledge that the ministry does, of course, still, I'm surprised that you don't know."
"Okay, you're boring me now, are you going to tell us or what?" Harry rolled his eyes.
"Hmm, I'm thinking about it," Draco said in a smug voice before pretending to hum. "Hmm, should I or should I not? That's a difficult question."
"Alright, you know what? Bollocks to this." Harry declared.
"Language, Harry," Hermione said automatically, as she was prone to do with any word that she considered bad.
"You're boring and you're irritating and I don't want to hear from you anymore," Harry said as he pulled out his wand. "Oh, and for the record, the only thing I intend to enter this year is your mother," Harry added before flicking his wand, causing the door to slam shut in Draco's face before Harry cast a locking charm on it.
"His mother?!" Ron chortled. "That was bloody brilliant!"
"Language, Ron," Hermione told him before turning to Harry as Draco struggled to open the door. "And that was really crass, Harry." She said disapprovingly.
"What? His mother is hot as hell," Harry said defensively.
"I heard that!" Draco shouted from outside the compartment.
"Like I give a f*ck!" Harry shouted back.
"Harry, language!" Hermione hissed.
"Besides, if that prick won't shut his mouth then I shouldn't have to." Harry continued, ignoring Hermione.
"I'll get you for this, Scarface!" Draco yelled, slamming on the door.
"You couldn't get a golden snitch if its wings were ripped off, you sorry excuse for a wizard!" Harry yelled back. "Now, tell your mum I said 'hi' and get lost!"
"Watch your back, Potter!" Malfoy yelled before storming away with his two minions following after him.
'I'm already doing that, asshole!' Venom growled.
"He's quite an irritated person, isn't he?" Luna asked, not removing her gaze from her magazine. "Must be all the chicky-chicky-boom-boom leapers in his nose."
(.)
Eventually, Harry found himself sitting in the great hall, sitting at the Gryffindor table along with Hermione and Ron. He looked around, seeing that the students were mostly focused on discussing the attack at the world cup, the situation was no different at the Gryffindor table.
"Ma and I were there, you know," Seamus Finnigan was telling everyone. "We had gone home straight after the cup, luckily enough, we could have been in the attack if we hadn't."
"I never went," Neville said, sounding somewhat glum yet also relieved about it. "Gran didn't let me."
"We were there," Ron said, seeming almost proud about the fact, likely just liking the fact that he had a story to tell. "Dad woke us up midway through the night and all we could hear was all the explosions going off."
"It was terrifying," Hermione confirmed, a shiver going through her body. "Once we got out of the tent, we could hear screams and all we saw was just a lot of people running around in a panic, but then we spotted the death eaters and we quickly ran."
"What about you, Harry?" Parvati Patil asked, sitting alongside her best friend Lavender Brown. The two gossip queens looked more than happy to listen to as many stories as possible.
"I was in a separate tent," Harry shrugged. "I was staying with my godfather and some of his family. We were awake when it happened, after that it was pretty much the same. Went out, saw chaos and then we booked it to safety."
"It's mad, ain't it?" Dean Thomas spoke up. "Wonder why the hell they'd do that?"
"Scare people, I guess," Harry replied in a thoughtful voice. "Maybe it was just a bunch of drunk idiots having what they thought counted as a laugh."
"Well, either way, we should be safe at Hogwarts," Hermione replied, hoping to liven up the atmosphere.
"Yeah, because nothing dangerous ever happens at Hogwarts." Harry snorted just as Professor McGonagall walked in with the new first years. Harry half-paid attention to the sorting, clapping lightly whenever a Gryffindor was sorted. After a while, it had eventually finished and Professor Dumbledore stood up from his seat at the teacher's table.
"Good evening, good evening, welcome, welcome one and all to Hogwarts. It's a pleasure to see our old students and to greet our new students. Now, I always have believed that there is a time and place for speeches, and fortunately, this is not one of them. Let the feast, begin." He smiled before clapping his hands, large quantities of food and drinks appeared on all four house tables and the students promptly began digging in.
"I've always wondered how he does that," Lavender said to her other Gryffindor classmates. "Does he conjure the food or something?"
"Without a wand?!" Parvati gaped at her.
"I know he's quite powerful but even Professor Dumbledore couldn't possibly conjure such various and large amounts of food with a simple clap of his hands," Hermione cut in. "Besides, nobody can produce food out of thin air," said Hermione. "No one can, not even Professor Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall. Food is actually the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration and..."
"He didn't conjure it, basically," Harry cut in for the benefit of the two girls that were starting to look a bit glassy-eyed.
"It's probably just the house elves," Neville spoke up.
"House elves?!" Hermione gasped, her gaze quickly shifting to Neville who shrunk slightly under the intensity that she was staring at him with.
"Um...yeah, the whole castle is cleaned and looked after by house elves, they make all of the food as well," Neville explained quietly. Hermione let out a disgusted noise before pushing her plate away from her.
"What's up with you?" Ron blinked before biting down on a chicken leg.
"It's slave labour!" Hermione said, revolted by the high-quality food in front of her. "I refuse to eat another crumb of it."
"Yeah, because that will all of a sudden make things perfectly fine for the house elves, won't it?" Harry asked with a roll of his eyes. "Hermione, are you really going to starve yourself? What is that going to accomplish? Besides, you're the one who trusts Dumbledore so much. I highly doubt the old geezer would be happy to let the house elves be treated like slaves."
"Well, I..." Hermione paused for a second, a mental war briefly happened inside of her head. "...No, I'm not going to take another bite until I'm sure that all of the house elves are treated with human decency."
"They aren't human though," Seamus pointed out, only to earn himself an intense glare from one Hermione Jean Granger. The rest of the Gryffindors wisely chose to move on from that particular topic and continued eating.
"Attention please," Professor McGonagall called after everyone had finished eating. Everyone looked to the front of the hall and saw Professor Dumbledore standing in front of the owl podium.
"Now, that I trust that everyone has filled their stomachs up," Professor Dumbledore began. "Welcome back everyone to another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Now, I know that you all most likely want nothing more than to return to your nice and warm beds, however, I would like to remind you of my earlier greeting. There is a time and place for speeches, and this is it. I will do my best to be brief. Now, I have several announcements for you all. All students should be aware that the Forbidden Forest is exactly as the name suggests, forbidden." He paused, his gaze sweeping over the room, resting on the Gryffindor table a tad longer than the others. "Any student from third year and above may attend Hogwarts's trips to Hogsmead, providing they have parental permission, of course. Our caretaker, Mr Filch, has asked me to remind you that the list of banned items is posted on the door to his office and has now reached fifty-nine. He has also asked that all students please clean their shoes before walking back into the castle. Now, I have some sad news for you all. This year, quidditch has been cancelled."
"What?!" The Weasley twins yelled loudly along with Gryffindor's new captain, Angelina Johnson, and they weren't the only ones as many students began protesting loudly about it.
"Silence," Dumbledore said loudly and firmly, causing the students to quieten down. "There is a reason for this, believe it or not. This year, Hogwarts has been selected to host the legendary, 'Triwizard Tournament'." Dumbledore's announcement caused a whole new set of noise to erupt from the students. "Yes, yes," Dumbledore spoke again, the students quickly quietened down so they could hear his every word. "I..." A loud thunder crack interrupted him as the night sky above them suddenly started pouring down bits of rain while loud lightning filled the air, at least it did until a spell shot into it, fixing it. Everyone looked towards the person who had shot the spell.
The man's face looked like it was roughly carved from wood, it was covered with scars, and a chunk of his nose was missing, he also had dark grey, grizzled hair and was missing a tiny bit of his left ear. One of his legs was missing and in its place was a wooden leg with a clawed foot. His eyes, however, were his most shocking feature, one was small and dark while the other was a vivid, electric blue magical eye that moved around independently from his normal eye. The man limped to the teacher's table, a walking cane in one hand.
"Allow me to introduce to you all, our newest Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Alastor Moody," Dumbledore said brightly, nobody clapped as a stony silence filled the hall while Professor Moody sat down.
"That's Mad-Eye Moody," Ron whispered excitedly as the new arrival cast several detection charms on his food. "He's an auror, a legendary one. Dad told me half the cells in Azkaban are filled because of him."
"Show off," Harry whispered back jokingly.
"Now, as I was saying, this year Hogwarts will be hosting the Triwizard Tournament." Dumbledore continued.
"You're joking!" The Weasley twins shouted.
"I assure you, that I am not, Mr and Mr Weasley," Dumbledore replied with a wide smile. "Though over the summer I did hear a rather interesting joke from an old friend of mine. An Irish leprechaun, a Mexican troll and an Ethiopian hag walk into a Scottish bar and..."
"Albus!" Professor McGonagall interrupted loudly, shooting him a disapproving look.
"Oh, sorry," Dumbledore said sheepishly before turning his attention back to his students. "Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the Triwizard tournament is an ancient tournament that has gone back hundreds of years. It involved three competing schools selecting a champion each and then the three champions would undergo a series of tasks until one had won and was declared a Triwizard winner. The original tournament was cancelled due to the unfortunate death toll."
"Death toll?" Hermione gasped.
"But luckily, this tournament should be much safer," Dumbledore said. "The purpose of this tournament is to improve international relationships between our magical communities whilst also giving each school a fresh and healthy dose of competition. We will be competing against the schools Beauxbaton and Durmstrang, they will be arriving a few days before Halloween. The champion selection will take place preciously on Halloween night, an impartial judge will be brought in to decide on a worthy champion from each school to compete in the tournament. The winner of this tournament will earn not just the Triwizard Cup, but also have their name in the history books and a whopping thousand galleons added to their bank accounts. Now, I know that many of you are eager to participate, but I have some unfortunate news for some of you. Due to safety concerns, those in charge of the tournament, including myself, have decided that the competition will only be available to those that are seventeen or over." A large number of boos and protests rose up from various students that were not old enough to compete.
"That's rubbish!" The Weasley Twins yelled.
"This rule was made for your safety which I'm sure you will agree is worth more than a thousand galleons," Dumbledore spoke over the crowd. "Now, I will personally make sure that no student under seventeen will be able to compete so please do not waste your time trying to enter. Now, off to bed with you all, a good night's sleep is just as important as any magic you may learn here. Cheerio everyone." He said, waving at everybody.
"Could you imagine competing for that?" Ron said with a dreamy look in his eyes as all of the Gryffindors stood up to leave.
"Knowing my luck, I probably will." Harry moaned.
