Disclaimer: All characters, concepts and settings are owned by J.K. Rowling. Any characters that seem to mimic real people or situations do so by accident as the storyline is all fictitious.

Chapter I

Another Quiet Year

The Great Hall fell silent. Prof. Dumbledore stood in front of his podium with arms raised, waiting for the last few plates to stop clattering, he had their attention.

"I would like to welcome all our new students, and all our old ones of course. Firstly, our Caretaker Mr. Damson has notified me that several students are suspected to have left rather irritating devices in the castle over the summer. We will be required to talk to them tomorrow, if they do not come to my office tomorrow morning before breakfast, the punishment will be at Mr. Damson's discretion."

The Marauders looked glumly at one another, Mr. Damson's punishments were notoriously evil. He would make students clean out toilets the muggle-way, polish furniture the muggle-way and even do gardening the muggle-way. This was extremely difficult and laborious, as grime and dirt would mysteriously appear on anything that had just been cleaned.

"Secondly, it should go without saying that The Forest is forbidden to all students without permission to be there, as well as the Black Lake and Hogsmeade Village. Of course third year students are permitted visiting trips and sixth and seventh years may visit freely on weekends."

"I can also welcome the newest teacher to our ranks, Professor McGonnagal. She will be taking over from Professor Maynard in Transfigurations. She is also an Animagus, so be careful what you say behind her back!"

The room was filled with applause as the woman stood proudly. Her crooked black-pointed hat was bunched with pheasent feathers, and a long green robe covered the black gown beneath. With her silvery spectacles she cast shrewd eyes over the hall.

"She looks like a bit of a battle-axe don't you think?" Sirius nudged Peter, with a grunting chortle he answered. He had not once disagreed with Sirius over the years, and now he had seemed to use the three as a protection against anyone else. James shook his head with a smiled.

"My Fourth Notice is an unfortunate one. For all Quidditch matches are postponed this year"
An uproar came from the students, all houses banded together in shouts and calls against the announcement. But were silenced with Dumbledore's smile, the noise faded.

"It is however, my great pleasure to announce that the Triwizard Tournament is to be held this year, and the hosts will be Beauxbatons Academy of Magic."

The mood changed as most students began to cheer and laugh, where as some were baffled. The students who knew began to talk amongst themselves and the ones who didn't looked urgently to Prof. Dumbledore.

"SILENCE!" he shouted. The hall was quiet again, the glinting eyes looking at him with hope. "Of course, some of you already know about it, but I will ask for your silence as I explain to the few who may not"
"The Triwizard Tournament is a competition between Europe's Leading Schools for Magic; Hogwarts of Britain and Ireland, Beauxbatons of the Western Continent, and Durmstrang of Eastern Europe. Each school will have one champion, who will compete against the other two in challenges that will test mind, body and magical aptitude. But I warn you that none of these tasks will be easy or perfectly safe." A twinkle in his eye set the students minds at rest.

"Because of the nature of the tasks ahead, I have decided that it would be best only to take students of fifteen years of age or older. Students younger than this would be too inexperienced and too vulnerable to compete in the tasks. So I will be putting a list in each Common Room for students to sign-up for a chance to go to Beauxbatons and possibly be elected as the Hogwarts Champion."

James Potter sidled a look at Sirius, they held a gaze that meant the same thing; they wanted to be the champion, to hold the Triwizard Cup in their hands and be showered with Hogwarts praise. With a grin to each other, they returned to the speech.

"I urge everyone to carefully think before putting your name down on the lists, because they are contracts for your permission to be entered for a chance to be the champion, and once you have been selected there will be no going back. But for now, I think we should all get a good night's sleep. After all, we have a full day of classes ahead tomorrow."

His grin beamed to the excited students, most of them left immediately but some lingered in the Hall.
Lily Evans was spooning vanilla ice-cream with Amanda and Georgina. The three laughing about everything that happened over the summer. "All I'm saying is that I wouldn't want to be mauled by a dragon or a cockatrice," Lily smirked, "Those competitions aren't easy or safe, do you know how many people have died?"

"Oh come off it Lil, they just say that to spice it up a bit. There'll be nurses and teachers there so no-one gets badly hurt. I bet you would be great at it." Amanda said.

Their Ravenclaw friend Georgina smiled at them both, "Look, I say we all sign-up anyway. We may not even get chosen, and if we do it's a free trip to France!"

"And loads of cute boys!" Amanda added, "Don't you want to know what a real French kiss is like Lil?"

"Please! All I want is to have another quiet year. With Potter and his cronies gone, we can do that without them trying to impress us. I mean, this is our OWLs year, can you imagine how hard it would be to do the proper studying and lessons in another school?"

"Yeah, but us three are way ahead of everyone else right? I mean we started our Fifth Year studies last year and we can all do most of the spells that are on the requirement list." said Georgia

"George, it's not just that. I mean, I don't want Potter fawning after me again. I know he'll be egotistical enough to sign-up and he'll probably get it too, I want to stay here."

"Come off it Lil, you've just got the hots for him, that's all this hatred is; love in disguise." Amanda harped. Lily went scarlet. The deadly silence in the air made it thick and heavy, Georgia rose to part the girls.

"Okay ladies, I am going upstairs to sign-up now." She saw the two girls' glares turn into smiles, "See you in the morning." she harped as she gathered her books and skipped down the hall. Turning at the doors she shouted back, "But if we are going to sign-up, we should get started on some extra studying straight away, we don't want to get dragged behind do we"
"Huh, Ravenclaws!" Amanda smirked quietly. Lily picked up her bag and smiled. They began for Gryffindor chatting again.