Author's Notes: I'm just going to say lack of motivation and real life suck for me at the moment. This is why I haven't updated anything and some of the reviews I have gotten of my work on fan fiction has gone towards me not wanting to write. Not sure how many times I can say this but if you read the premise of a story and don't like it, hit the bloody back button and don't message me or comment on the story. Find something else that suits your fancy if my stuff isn't interesting.
Due to a lack of muse currently for some stories such as Moon Fawn, plus my inability to keep up with several stories at once, I have decided to only focus on my Pokemon story, Parrot Design, and this new story which is titled Kingdom of Heaven and based on Belgrath's A Trip to Shangri la challenge. I have been doing some research on China and some other things for the story that I have accepted within the things that must be explored, ordering three books from Amazon today which should be here within the next week or two to help with, at least China and maybe give me a beginning understanding of Buddhism.
This chapter, not counting the challenge information, is eight and a half pages written in a notebook but only four pages typed up in Microsoft Word. I am rather interested in Asian countries and have been communicating with Belgrath on how far I can go with the story in terms of darkness as well as getting acceptance/confirmation for some ideas within my head. I have never been to Asia myself, but China is one place I would like to go. I'd also like to point out that I do not know Mandarin or Cantonese, though I am unsure if I will include actual Chinese words in here as I would need to use Google Translate and we all know Google Translate isn't the most reliable when translating to foreign languages. In case anyone asks, Harry and likewise Cho are going to be powerful but they will not become powerful overnight. It will take them time to become as powerful as Dumbledore, if not more and be through hard work and partly due to Harry putting in effort for his studies. Also, I haven't really written any romance stuff before and honestly don't like romance books but there will be romance in this. I will just be making the relationship slow like in real life, at least that is my hope.
The main pairing for this story will be Harry/Cho Chang though I am unsure at this time what other pairings will be. Perhaps a Neville/Luna pairing though I do have something in place for both Neville & Luna in the future, however this will be a few years story wise down the road. My goal is to complete this challenge and story and as I am doing research before writing chapters out, it may take a while as I would like to attempt to make it somewhat accurate historically. If anyone is interested, and wants a hint as a special surprise, you may find KOH Map on my deviantart page at stormwolves dot deviantart dot com (replace the dot with . obviously and remove the spaces.) Updating schedule for this story and Parrot Design, I cannot give you a definitive answer but I hope to have luck with updating both stories every week, or doing one update one week and another update another week. As I am writing this out on paper and then typing it up, it may be a while before getting chapters on here but I hope that everyone will enjoy the story.
Key:
$word$=Parsletongue/Parslemagic
:word:=spell
Pairings:
Dark Harry/Cho=main pairing
Other Pairings: TBD
Challenge Info: A trip to Shangri la
By: Belgrath
Plot: China one of the oldest civilizations on earth and perhaps the key to Harry's survival and happiness time to explore the kingdom under heaven
Rules
Starts 4th year and goes through year 7
light grey dark or evil harry=Dark
Harry must compete in the tournament
Harry must go to the Yule ball with cho
Harry must at some point visit wizarding China and learn their magic and culture
The Chinese must have a different form of doing magic than the west
Optional
Hermione and Ron both betray Harry during the tournament=accepted
(If dark) then harry must take over wizarding China somehow=in a way
Harry and cho have a marriage contract=not accepted
Harry learns Buddhism and martial arts=accepted
Harry is expelled during his trial=accepted
Things in China that must be explored
Traditional Chinese dragons
Buddhist monks
The great wall
The terracotta army
Shangri la
Concept of chi
The philosophy of yin and yang
Main pairing must be harry/cho
Anything else is up to the reader
One
"Hogwarts will play host to a competition that hasn't been held in years…the Triwizard Tournament!" Immediately murmurs broke out within the hall as students turned excitedly to each other as they began to talk about entering for their own houses, however everything went silent as they watched as Professor Dumbledore rose from his golden throne-like chair in the center of the staff table. He walked down the steps of the dais to stand next to a jeweled casket and waved his wand, revealing a heavy hewn-wooden goblet. "The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector... the Goblet of Fire. As a result of the tournament taking place, there will be no Quidditch this year."
"No!" Cries from all four houses, those most notably being the captains and team players of Hogwarts being the loudest of all, voicing their protest to this news. Seeing the disappointed faces, Professor Dumbledore raised his wand and fired off a few fireworks to get silence and the attention of the student body.
"Eternal glory! That's what awaits the student who wins the Triwizard Tournament, but to do this, that student must survive three tasks. Three extremely dangerous tasks. Hogwarts has the honor of being the host of the Triwizard Tournament. Delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive here on October thirtieth and the event will last all year. Dismissed," said Dumbledore. With those parting words, the students rose from their seats and began making their way back to their respective houses as the Headmaster returned to his own seat between Professor McGonagall and Professor Sinistra. As the student body filed out of the Great Hall, they began talking again; the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins splitting up to go down the lower corridors leading towards the kitchens and the dungeons while the Ravenclaws and Gyffindors walked towards the Grand Staircase and began ascending it as they followed their respective Prefects up to their houses where it was likely there would be talk of the tournament for the next several hours.
In the midst of the pride ascending to the seventh floor were the Golden Trio, Hermione Granger whom was Muggleborn, Pureblood Ronald Weasley and Half-Blood Harry Potter. "I can't believe this," said Hermione. "Bringing a tournament like that back. It was banned for a reason."
"What is the Triwizard Tournament anyway?" asked Harry whom had never heard of such an event before or of these other wizarding schools since entering the wizarding world though he realized now that he had been foolish. He had seen plenty of wizards from other countries at the Quidditch World Cup and should have realized that Hogwarts didn't house all the children in the wizarding world.
Hermione sighed. "Weren't you paying any attention to Professor Dumbledore Harry? The tournament is a competition involving the three magical schools of Europe; Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Durmstrang Institute and Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. The tournament is designed to promote international relations and for the best of the best to represent their schools for a chance to win the Triwizard Cup which consists of a trio of tasks that tests the wizard's or witch's abilities but it was canceled due to the number of deaths in the previous tournaments. I don't understand why they're bringing it back after that."
"Where did you learn this?" asked Harry. "Ron did you know about this?"
"I've heard of it," said Ron, "though I'm surprised Hermione knows anything about it, being Muggleborn and all. Let me guess, you learned this from…"
"Hogwarts: A History?" put in Harry and Ron together.
"No. I learned about it from checking out a book from the library on magical games," said Hermione. "I wanted to understand why wizards are so obsessed with Quidditch and came across the Triwizard Tournament being mentioned there but didn't know how important the information would be," the bushy-haired brunette said. Seeing the confused looks on the faces of her friends, she rolled her eyes. "I checked the book out last year."
"Leave it to Hermione to remember information from a book she read last year," said Ron as Harry chuckled at his friend's memory.
Hermione huffed at her friends' teasing though was also pleased with the comment all the same for she knew it was true. Neither of her friends cared much for their studies; Ron only seemed to care for food and Quidditch while Harry excelled on the Quidditch Pitch and in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Her raven-haired friend was mediocre at beast within his classes though she had to admit he was beating her in DADA. Sometimes she thought Ron's bad studying habits rubbed off on Harry but he never listened to her when she told them both to study and try harder in their classes. Neither Ron nor Hermione knew or bothered to inquire why Harry didn't put more effort into his homework or classes. It just showed that for being his best friends, they didn't know Harry like they thought. While Hermione might be forgiven for her ignorance, surely Ron would know something was going on since he and the Demons had rescued him during the summer of his second year from the Dursleys. Hermione didn't mind Harry's lacking progress in classes, it allowed her to be at the top of her classes and show purebloods like Malfoy she was more talented and better than those who had magic for generations. Wanting to be the best, to prove that she belonged at Hogwarts and was worthy of having magic, to be as good as Lily Potter…to be the next Lily Potter.
Harry never spoke much of his childhood with anyone, not his friends nor his professors. He had tried in primary school and his teacher had disappeared over the weekend, resulting in his first-grade class getting a new teacher who had treated him horribly. After the beating he'd gotten in addition to being locked in his cupboard for the next two weekends, never again had he dared speak of what went on at home. His treatment at the hands of the Dursleys for thirteen years, the abuse if he performed better than Dudley in school, his desire not to lose Ron as a friend caused him not to put in the effort into his studies. Why would anyone at Hogwarts be any different? Professor McGonagall would likely brush him off as she had done in his first year though he sometimes felt that she was disappointed in him. Professor Dumbledore wouldn't believe a word he said and Snape…Snape would never believe him about anything that happened at home and just say he was arrogant like his father.
Lost in his thoughts, Harry automatically climbing up various staircases, no realizing that the Gryffindor's had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Balderdash," spoke the sixth-year prefect Eric Murley.
"Enter," said the Fat Lady, her portrait which had been repaired after being slashed by the escaped mass murderer Sirius Black, a man who was also Harry's godfather and innocent of his crimes. Not that anyone knew of it but for Dumbledore, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Sirius, Remus and the traitor Pettigrew.
"Harry. HARRY! What's gotten into you mate? We need to hurry or else we'll get left out of the common room," said Ron.
Harry turned his gaze towards his first and best friend who was staring at him. "What? Oh, I'm fine Ron. Think I'm going to turn in. See you tomorrow?"
"Sure mate," said Ron as he followed Harry through the portrait hole. While Ron went to join the others in talking about the upcoming tournament, Harry made his way up to the fourth-year boy's dormitory. He headed to his trunk which was set at the foot of his four-poster bed like it was every year, a wooden stove in the center of the room to provide warmth, the same red curtains dangling from the five four-poster beds. It made him happy to be in the one place he considered home. Hogwarts would always be his real home since it was the first place he'd ever made friend, friends who weren't scared away by Dudley. If only he knew how wrong he would be and how easily said friends, that he thought he knew, would betray him.
That night, Harry lay in bed, looking up at the canopy above him. The curtains being drawn provided privacy and one of the first spells he'd made sure to learn was the silencing charm. It helped with the nightmares he often had, nightmares that he didn't tell anyone about for fear that they would give those who hated him ammunition to use against him or make him look weak as everyone seemed to think he needed to be strong and just like his parents. Even Sirius and Remus, two of his father's friends that he had met for the first time that he could remember the previous year, appeared to expect him to be at least like his father. His father, James Fleamont Potter, chaser and superb Quidditch player. A man who had been excellent in Transfiguration, a Marauder and apparently a prankster. A stag Animagus and best friend of his godfather. But what did he really know about his parents? All he knew was his father's wand and that he, Harry James Potter, was a superb flyer like his dad.
If he knew little of his father, then he knew next to nothing of his mother. He knew her wand, having been told the wands of his parents when he had gone to Ollivanders with Hagrid before his first school year and that he had his mother's eyes, but next to nothing of her personality, what she had excelled in, who her friends had been. Of course, he was forbidden from asking questions at home, not that the considered the Dursleys as his family or home. From the time he was able to talk, he had been punished for asking questions at home and that had extended into his school life as well, both before finding out he was a wizard and then after when he went to Hogwarts. Yet nobody noticed or questioned him about his home life, not why he didn't ask questions in class when he didn't understand something or even why he came to school in clothing that was three sizes too big for him though it was true that he changed into his Hogwarts robes on the train ride so only Hermione and Ron would have known about his clothing. He always ate so little at the beginning of the school year and ate a lot before heading home for the summer due to his stomach always being queasy from lack of food and the rich meals at Hogwarts for the Welcoming Feast always took some time for him to get used to after months of practically starving and at the end of the year during the Leaving Feast he would try to fill his body with as much food as he could as he couldn't be sure when his next meal would come.
Sure, some might say that he had it better than Muggles that were homeless, at least he had food and shelter as well as clothing on his back but he wasn't loved and he didn't receive medical care at the Dursleys. That had stopped when he had entered Hogwarts and he didn't remember ever having a checkup since arriving at Hogwarts, except for the times he had been injured at school and then been sent to the Hospital Wing. Surely one of his professors or even his friends would notice how he acted? Harry had read once that abused children sometimes acted out as a way to get attention, but at Hogwarts…at Hogwarts it was attributed to him being arrogant like his father in Professor Snape's words or behaving like a dead man he couldn't remember. He could forgive his godfather and Remus, they didn't know Harry long enough to know how he was treated at the Dursleys and his godfather was on the run, Harry never knew where his godfather was located as the man never said anything in their letters for fear of the letters being tracked. But Ron, Ron and his twin brothers had rescued him towards the end of the summer prior to his second year. They had seen the bars on his window that Uncle Vernon placed there. Why then had they not questioned him further, especially his supposed best mate?
Such thoughts made his head hurt and he wasn't sure why he had even been thinking of his life before Hogwarts. Footsteps sounded on the stairs along with the sound of excited voices coming towards his dorm room. Recognizing Dean and Ron's voices, he knew that if they saw him awake then they would want to continue talking about the tournament and get his opinion on it. Harry hadn't given it much thought truthfully. Sitting up, he grabbed his wand from his bedside table and pointed it at his drawn curtains. :Muffliato,: he whispered, all sound vanishing with the charm cast. Setting his wand back on the table by his bed, he lay down and drew the curtains just as the door opened. But Harry Potter was already turning on his side and sinking into sleep.