A/N: Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition.
Wimbourne Wasps - Beater 2.
Prompt: Write A School Day. (Year 1198)
Optional Prompts: 2. (word) crimson; 6. (word) destiny.
"Tsch… ugh…" Phaeton Black sighed heavily, shoving his spoon into his porridge with unnecessary force; he sighed again, thus reiterating his current preoccupation. Sitting next to him at the Slytherin table, and used to his less than vocal manner of informing those around him that he was unhappy, was Tarabellum, Phaeton's twin sister.
"What?" She asked exasperated, as Phaeton sighed for the third time in the past few minutes. "No seriously, what?" Their friends around them ignored this questioning, used to Tara being the twin that was in charge.
Despite Tara being a girl, which by the standards of the Black family meant that she was the lesser of the two of them, everyone at Hogwarts knew that she was the dominant one. She had been born seven minutes before Phaeton, and that appeared clear in their relationship. Through her family did not recognise her status because of her sex, Tara was the one who desperately wanted to follow the family ways –her parents constantly reminded Phaeton that "at least" Tarabellum was a faithful and obedient child, while he was the wayward and disrespectful son. He was a disappointment and he knew it; he wasn't academic or inclined to care too much about blood status or purity…
"Nothing," Phaeton mumbled, still playing with his porridge rather than eating it.
"Your face is saying it's not nothing." She responded, pursing her lips at him.
"There's no quidditch this year." He finally supplied the reason for his foul mood.
"Where did you get that piece of information?" She asked him superciliously, knowing fine well that Phaeton had a tendency to believe most things regardless of who it was that told him, he was the definition of gullible.
"Tarsus Loxby found me last night, he's Slytherin captain this year," He seemed to give up with his breakfast, shoving his spoon in so deeply that they heard it scrape the granite of the bowl. "He said that all of the quidditch captains have been told that there's no tournament."
"Is that why you're in such a bad mood?" She questioned, and Phaeton flared up at her.
"I'm not in a bad mood!" He snapped, folding his arms across his chest.
"Perhaps without quidditch practice every evening you'll be able to focus on actually doing your homework this year." She suggested, Phaeton made a wounded noise. Tara rolled her eyes at him, but he had already stood up from the table and marched out of the great hall. "He'll get over it." She muttered to Fionnlagh and Marta, who had watched the interaction between the siblings with a resigned apathy.
"I'm sure…" Fionnlagh said rather dryly; Tara was shaking her head slightly, clearly annoyed by her brother's immaturity.
"Anyone would have thought that he's the hormonal one!" She let out a sharp laugh, flicking her curly ponytail over her shoulder.
"I wonder why there's no quidditch…" Fionnlagh mused, it did seem rather odd; there was always an interhouse tournament. Phaeton was a chaser on the Slytherin team, with a specialty of goal scoring. Slytherin hadn't won for the past three years, the Gryffindor team had been having a run of good luck, but Phaeton had been practicing religiously over summer, convinced that this year was Slytherin's year to reclaim the title! Now it seemed that this year was no one's year.
"I can't imagine that they've cancelled it forever!" Marta chipped in.
They weren't going to be kept in the dark long, however during the rest of the day, the news that there was to be no quidditch tournament this year spread round the whole school, and a unifying indignation was felt throughout all the houses. By evening time there was a fair amount of resentment being displayed from students of all the houses towards the professors, yet as they filed neatly into the great hall for dinner they noticed that the podium had been set up on the professor's platform, and there was an extra seat set up next to Headmaster Everard's. Several rows of benches had been laid out down the two sides of the hall, extra to the amount of seating that was actually necessary.
What with the amount of grumbling that had gone on during the day, Phaeton seemed to have worked out his frustration about there being no quidditch this year (just as Tara had predicted he would), and now seemed to be making it his personal mission to draw attention to the empty chair next to the Headmaster's and the extra benches down the side of the hall. Nothing could have prepared any of the students for the honour that was about to be given to them. The food was vanishing from their plates, and they were waiting to be dismissed for the evening, when the Headmaster stood up and made his way round to the podium.
"Boys and girls," His crisp voice cut over the chatter in the great hall. "Tonight we are going to be welcoming some very special guests, who are coming to share with us in a very exciting venture!" Any noise that had been happening in the hall ceased immediately, as though all of the students had drawn a collective breath.
The doors to the great hall creaked open, and everyone's heads whipped round from looking at the Headmaster, to the new arrivals. Filing in through the heavy wooden doors were sixty students, half of whom seemed to be clothed in deep crimson fur robes, the other half in periwinkle silk uniforms. Phaeton was staring at this set of individuals, feeling wary about their sudden appearance – yet excited at the possibility that something extraordinary was about to begin. A murmuring had broken out among the Hogwarts students as they cast glances at this bundle of people who had just arrived. Behind all of the students were three towering figures, by the looks of it two of them were accompanying the students as they wore similar sort of robes. The third was in simple black robes, and it took a few concentrated seconds before people began to recognise him.
"Phaeton! It's Merlin!" Tara had nudged him so sharply that he was sure she had caused a bruise.
"I can see that!" He hissed back, rubbing his ribcage; all the other students appeared to be noticing him also.
"What's Merlin here for?!" Marta exclaimed rather excitedly; Merlin was possibly the most famous wizard of the time. He was a very old now, but his mind had apparently remained as brilliant as it had been when he worked alongside King Arthur.
"Ssh!" Phaeton commanded, and he wasn't the only person to be doing it; the great hall was suddenly filled with what sounded like the hissing of a snake.
The great hall was beginning to fall silent, the two groups of people who had just arrived were led down either side of the hall and sat down on the benches that had been provided. Merlin had not joined them, but had walked firmly down the centre of the great hall, the eyes of everyone upon him, and up onto the teacher's platform. Headmaster Everard had stepped out from behind the podium to greet Merlin, he showed him to his seat before returning to the podium to address everyone in the hall.
"Students of Hogwarts!" Everard continued after the interruption, "We have just been joined by delegations from two of the most reputed Wizarding schools in the world!" The Hogwarts students turned their gaze from one side of the hall to the other. "We have students from the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and the Durmstrang Institute." Headmaster Everard had indicated to the students in blue when he said Beauxbatons and those in crimson for Durmstrang. "Many of you will have heard today that there is not going to be an interhouse quidditch tournament this year, but this is due to another tournament that is going to be taking place for the very first time here at Hogwarts!" Excited murmuring broke out throughout the hall once more, but for once in his life Phaeton was not at all interested by what those around him were saying – he wanted to know more about what was going to be happening. "I have the great honour of handing over to a wizard, whose history you will all know! He is one of the greatest wizards to have ever lived; and he has been instrumental in the collaboration of this tournament… Without further ado, Merlin!" Headmaster Everard began the applause that swelled rapidly to fill the cavity of the great hall, the noise rattling around inside the high acoustics of the place. The silence that fell, however, as Merlin took to the podium was the most absolute that had occurred within the hall. When Merlin opened his mouth to speak, Phaeton was surprised at the voice that came out.
"Thank you for welcoming me so warmly," His voice was soft, much less than Phaeton would have expected from the most influential wizarding figure of the period. "May I take this opportunity to welcome the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, I know that you are excited as to why you have been invited to be here – and I am here to enlighten you all! Throughout the summer I have conducted several meetings with your Headmasters, and I am delighted to announce that this year we are going to be holding a contest which will bring together our three schools, in the search for unity and adventure!" The students at the tables and in the extra benches were looking around, excitement apparent on their eager faces; it was at this moment that Phaeton disregarded any annoyance about there being no quidditch tournament this year, this was infinitely better than the quidditch cup! "A student will be selected to represent each school and will undergo certain tasks which will test ingenuity, logic and use of magical resources… Only the best from each school will be chosen as the champion."
"I'm going for it!" Fionnlagh whispered from the other side of the table, his eyes alight with the prospect.
"Ssh!" Phaeton reprimanded again, he wanted to hear everything that Merlin had to say about this new tournament.
"Don't be fooled – these tasks will be testing, they are designed to push those selected to compete to their magical limits!" Merlin warned, and despite his thin voice, his intention rang through. "They are not to be undertaken lightly, so I urge those of you who are considering putting your names forward to take some time to seriously think, for once you have put yourself forward you will not be able to pull out." He warned gravely, "Tonight, in this hall will be placed a cup – a chalice into which, if you wish to put yourself forward you must place your name in." He paused to survey the faces which were all staring at him, "In the end there will only be one winner, one individual whose destiny it will be to go down in history as the first winner of the Triwizard Tournament! Thank you – and good luck!"
The instant that Merlin had taken a step down from the podium a buzz of chatter erupted from the students who had listened so attentively.
"That's me!" Phaeton had announced, his head turning to look at his sister, who rolled her eyes. "What?! Do you not think I could do it?" He asked sharply.
"I didn't say anything Phaeton." Tara said calmly, "You go for it if you think it's your "destiny"!" Phaeton narrowed his eyes at her, as though not sure whether she was being sarcastic or not.
"I will!" It did not matter what she thought – a light, excited fire had lit inside Phaeton's body, he felt as though the flames were licking through his veins and coursing through every section of his body. This could be the making of him! He closed his eyes and could picture himself winning the tournament, being looked up to and respected by the rest of his peers; his parents finally beginning to recognise him, rather than looking down on him for not being good enough, not being worthy… Perhaps this would change their minds; if he was chosen – Hogwarts champion, and won, then the Black family name would be forever immortalised as the first, and best, winner of the Triwizard tournament! This was the day that he could take control of his time at Hogwarts forever…
A/N: Thank you very much for reading :)