Hello everyone, once again I, Vander Delton, have done a Harry Potter fan fiction. This is my third fiction concerning Harry Potter and I can only hope it does half as well as my first and doesn't bomb like my second. For those who know my work and enjoy it I thank you and welcome you back. For those who do not, I welcome you all the same and hope I keep your interest. As I said in the summary this story contains no Deathly Hallows spoilers for all you who have not read the book because it is not a take on this story from the end of DH. I wrote most of the main storyline in my head almost a year ago and just never got around to typing it out until now. So for those of you have read the seventh book, rest assured, you won't be reading a bunch of regurgitated DH storyline I'm attempting to pass off as my own. I hope you all enjoy my fic. So, without further ado, The Champions' Academy, enjoy.
Chapter one---Start Of Term
September the first, for almost eleven centuries it had been the day on which young witches and wizards started or continued their magical education and this year's would be no different. She, of course, had not left the school over the brief summer. She, like so many of her schoolmates lived at the castle year-round and therefore tomorrow's start of term was a mere return to a life of classes and homework. Though, perhaps "a mere return" was the wrong way to describe what would be taking place the following day. After all she would be a sixth year as of tomorrow morning and would start down the most grueling path that led to the toughest End-Of-Year Exams she would endure outside those of her final two years. She was ready for such a path and knew that there was little chance of her failing. The school had always had the best teachers from around the world, there was no denying that, and there had only been one student to ever fail their sixth year exams in the school's forty years; and he came back and passed with flying colors the next year, moreover she had been ranked 5th in her year the previous year; a personal best.
She stood before the small mirror on the wall beside her bed spending that day as she always did, preparing to look her best for the arrival of her classmates and that night's start of term feast.
It was mid day and her reason for being in front of her mirror was that she was trying to decide which of her ribbons looked best with her shoulder-blade length, shiny yellow-blonde hair that she had done tightly in a complicated and flattering five-strand braid. She did not ordinarily spend as much time on her hair as she had today, but then she did not ordinarily go almost two months without seeing Rudolph either. They had met in her first year and this had been the first summer that he had chosen to spend with his father rather than with her. This meant that she was left, most unfortunately, to whittle away the holiday without Rudolph or her other two best friends whom also had family members to visit over the summer. She finally decided on a wide, sage green silk ribbon, which she tied in a bow around her braid.
She stepped back from the mirror and examined the effect, straining to turn her head sideways to view it properly; and it looked fantastic if she said so herself.
"Well, aren't we all dolled up!" said someone from the dormitory door, their southern American accent giving away the identity of the speaker immediately. "You didn't have to get dressed up on my accounts, Cedrea."
"It's not for you, Jesse, as you perfectly well know. And you're not supposed to be in here!" said Cedrea, turning to face him.
Jesse was tall and very scrawny, a fact mostly hidden by the dark blue school robes he was wearing, a bear with a waving banner in its mouth embroidered on the left breast. Jesse was a seventh year prefect that had been born in America to muggles who used to own a farm. He had been brought to the Academy by the Headmaster personally, meaning that he had exceptional magical talent, and sure enough he proved that he did and he was never shy about proclaiming it either. And though the school in large part was practically in love with him (especially the girls), Cedrea had always found him to be rather pompous and thought he was the only Muggleborn she had ever met that she didn't like.
"Yes, yes, I'm not supposed to be in any of the girl's dormitories what with me being a boy and all that, but…" Jesse was saying and Cedrea quickly cut him off.
"No! I meant being in our tower. Just because you can finagle the password out of one of the Portraits or one of those prattling little girls doesn't mean you have the right to come up here whenever you please! Or at all!" Cedrea said, heatedly. This was precisely one of the things she disliked about him.
"Oh, that, it's probably true. But you know I only come up when I know most everyone's gone and I won't be seen, besides, I just came up to see if Sunny had arrived yet but it doesn't look like she has."
"No, she hasn't. See you got an early ticket as always."
"Well they have to get the best and brightest here first." Jesse said, running a hand through his short brown hair with a look that clearly implied he thought he was the very best. "I'll see you at the feast."
Jesse walked out of the dormitory and closed the door with a snap, Cedrea turned towards her bed as she sighed and rolled her eyes. She just couldn't understand what Sunny could possibly see in Jesse that would compel her to go out with the prick, not that she was going to tell her this.
Cedrea checked her hair in the mirror a last time and changed into her own dark blue school robes, making sure to vanish all the lint and dust they had gathered over the last month, before setting off to lunch.
Cedrea ate lunch alone as she was now accustomed to eating every meal, since aside from her friends being gone, her house, Potter, was always the most diminished of the three house tables over the holidays. Though the enchanted ceiling certainly seemed to be as excited as she was about the start of term with the sun shining directly overheard in the cloudless sky.
After lunch she took her time walking over to the library to brush up on some transfiguration as she had run into the transfiguration Professor the previous day and had been given a strong hint that there would be a thorough review in their first lesson. This did not prove very productive however as she happened to find a seat next to a large west facing window that gave her a clear and wide view of the grounds all the way to the sea. She subsequently spent the next two hours repeatedly following the flagstone road with her eyes from the castle to the dock where the main throng of students would be arriving and hoping that Kelly, Rudolph, and Donlan would be on one of the first boats. She then spent the next forty-five minutes trying for what had to be the hundredth time to figure out where exactly she was. She knew, as did every other student, that the school was located on a small island hundreds of miles from the nearest land mass and that the island was only about five miles in length by about two and a half miles in breadth, but that was about all they knew. Only the Professors and the last year students were privy to precisely where they were; and there were not a lot of clues to aid in the investigative pursuits of anyone else.
By four-thirty that afternoon Cedrea had managed to force herself to at least start skimming halfheartedly through a Transfiguration book with highly detailed illustrations of many poorly transmuted objects including some that had gone terribly wrong; she took little of this in. Finally at five o'clock she gave up on reminding herself of anything she had learned, returned the book to the shelf she had retrieved it from and set off for the entrance hall to await the arrival of the first boats.
As expected, the entrance hall was filled with almost every occupant of the castle except for most of the professors, all heading to the front steps to catch a glimpse of the boats as they arrived.
Not being of the tallest stature, Cedrea found a nice spot on the topmost step to get the best possible view. She looked around those surrounding her, curious to see who else had come back early and found a few she knew by sight only, a few in her year that she liked such as Patrick Macmillan , and then others she knew only as friends of others. Jesse, she was most disappointed to see, had purposely wadded his way through the crowd to stand directly next to her with a couple of his friends which she liked none more than him.
"So, guess what it is that I heard?" Jesse whispered to Cedrea and a scowl overtook her face; she had so hoped that he wouldn't talk to her.
"Oh, do tell! What have heard this time?" Cedrea said, keeping her tone level since Professor Grubbyplank was just a few feet from them and she didn't want to get a talking to.
"Well since you're so interested. I heard from a very reliable source that Sunny, Conners and Polov are all on the second boat." Jesse said with a mischievous smile that meant he was not supposed to know who were on what boat; and in spite of herself Cedrea smiled.
"Thank you for that." She said, trying to keep how delighted she was off her face though the pleased smirk on Jesse's face indicated that she had done much to the opposite.
Thirteen minutes of ignoring Jesse's constant attempts to start up a conversation between the two of them about everything from who he thought would win the school Quidditch cup that year to what kind of food was likely to be served for the feast; and a thick wall of fog began to drift slowly toward the shore and dock half a mile away.
For several minutes the fog lingered, building the anticipation of the onlookers. When it receded back into the sea it left in its place two large boats, one following the other into the dock. Each boat had one tall mast with a solitary pure white sail that was billowed to its fullest extent despite there being very little wind.
Both boats came to a stop on either side of the main jetty and tied themselves securely to it. Students promptly filed out of the boats and onto the dock making for the Threstral drawn carriages that had just arrived. A few students stopping briefly as some often did to give them a quick pat or to feed them a little something before climbing into the carriages. There were few students who could not see the Threstrals and some, like Cedrea, were quite fond of them despite their stigma.
Another six minute's wait and the carriages turned and came to a stop in front of the large wooden doors of the castle and the crowd of impatient students waiting to see if their friends had been on the first boats.
The door of the first carriage opened and an old man with white hair and a severely lined and scared face exited with a cane in his right hand. He directly followed by seven or eight scared and astonished looking eleven-year-olds; first years. The second carriage's door opened soon after the first and much like the first, a man emerged followed by a gaggle of first year students; this man however was tall and young with no visible scars and flaming red hair.
"Come now first years!" the old man from the first carriage said loudly in a strained sounding voice, to get their attention. "You are to follow Mr. Weasley here…" he indicated the young man "…and myself, please do not stray and do not dawdle to look at things, there will be plenty of time to look around and explore everything at a later date."
The old and young man walked to the front of the group of first years and led them up the front steps through the path the older students had quickly made for them; the old man relying heavily on his cane to make it up the stone steps.
The first two carriages were pulled away by the hollow eyed winged beasts to make way for the next two, which were as promptly exited as the ones before; more young students, second and third years. The fifth and sixth carriages possessed more of the same; younger students were always the first to get carriages. The seventh and eighth came and went as did the ninth and tenth, and none had been carrying Kelly and Rudolph; Cedrea was starting to wonder if for the first time Jesse's information had been wrong.
Cedrea looked out towards the dock once again, the second and third pairs of boats had arrived, and there was now a long trail of carriages waiting to unload. She returned her gaze to the carriages to see the eleventh and twelfth emptying and reassured herself that they would be in one of the next ones and that even if they weren't it'd only be another hour until she saw them for sure. And, sure enough, from the fifteenth carriage stepping out just after Sunny was the large figure of Rudolph. Cedrea sighed with delight. In her opinion he had to be the most handsome boy in school, and she could hardly believe he was all hers. Rudolph was tall, had broad shoulders, a strong angular jaw and was in excellent shape even for a beater. For as long as she had known him he had taken great pride in sculpting his body for his pursuits above the Quidditch pitch; and again, in her opinion he had done so to the perfect extent. But then, she did have a bit of a biased view on the subject.
Rudolph was already wearing his school robes along with, most unusually, a matching pointed hat without a brim. He had amazingly stuffed all of his long black hair into the hat so that not a bit of it was showing.
"I'm glad to see you didn't get soft on me while you were away." Cedrea said happily, taking Rudolph off guard by coming up behind him, having taken great care to get down the steps without him seeing her. Easy enough to do given her height. "I'm so happy to see you!"
"And I you!" said Rudolph, his voice gruff.
Cedrea stood on her tip toes and Rudolph bent over a bit so that they could kiss, the top of her head being only about level with his chin.
"Oi, I hope you've brought enough for everyone." A boy said with an Irish accent, stepping out from behind Rudolph and Cedrea threw her arms around her best friend; Kelly Conners.
"I would have gotten to you eventually." said Cedrea, releasing Kelly and taking Rudolph's hand in hers.
"Aye, I'm sure you would have, eventually." Kelly said jokingly, heaving his trunk over his shoulder.
Kelly was not much taller than Cedrea, had dirty blonde hair and was slightly stout.
"Come, let's do something, the feast is not for a few hours still." Rudolph suggested, picking up his own trunk from the ground where he had set it a minute before.
"Shouldn't we wait to see if Donlan shows up?" Asked Cedrea thoughtfully; though walking up to the castle through the many hugging pairs and laughing groups with the other two all the same.
"Nah, he's not commin' till tomorrow at least. Don't know why, said he couldn't tell me where e' was going. Just let me know this mornin' as the boats were about ta leave." said Kelly. "Anyway, what's been going – What have you done! – " Cedrea interrupted with a shriek, stopping dead in her tracks halfway across the entrance hall and starring at Rudolph's head. He had just taken off his hat to reveal a very bald scalp.
"You shaved it all off?!" Cedrea said almost heartbroken. Rudolph quickly shoved his hat back on.
"I did, yes, I'm sorry." Rudolph apologized rather sheepishly, Kelly was stifling his laughter. "I know you really liked it, but it was just getting too bothersome to deal with every day."
Cedrea had already released Rudolph's hand and had now crossed her arms and continued walking, a vexed looking Rudolph and an amused looking Kelly walking along behind her.
"Your hair looks beautiful today, though." Rudolph said to Cedrea a moment later, seemingly trying to appease her the first way he could think of. A smile crossed her face at these words; her efforts had not been in vein; even if Rudolph had committed a heinous act on behalf of his own hair.
"So are you excited about being a seventh year?" Cedrea said a few minutes later in the School Common room, staring at Rudolph's head sadly. This was where she spent most of her free time when with Rudolph since he was in Krum. It was a large oval shaped room with three large fireplaces, and plenty of places to sit with a variety of different chairs and sofas to accommodate most anyone. "I mean, of course you'll have to be with all the new options that it opens up to you." She answered her own question.
"Yes, I am, but what I'm most excited about is this!" said Rudolph, pointing to the silver badge he had pinned just below the embroidered bear on his chest that read "Quidditch Captain"
"That's fantastic!" Cedrea said, almost jumping to her feet and giving him a broad grin. "I had completely forgotten that Christof graduated last year."
At five minutes until seven, the three friends left the school common room and headed for the feast in the Great Hall. At the entrance Cedrea and Rudolph gave each-other a small peck on the cheek and Rudolph set off for his table and Cedrea and Kelly for theirs, which so happened were at opposite sides of the Hall and separated by the Delacour table.
Cedrea and Kelly sat with a couple of other students from their year, all boys, as there were only three girls in the same year, Cedrea, Sunny, and another girl that hung around with the older girls. Also because Cedrea was a bit of a tomboy except when it came to Rudolph.
The Hall was decorated as was custom, with velvet banners in the three house colors lining the walls in a repeating pattern. The ordinary mass of floating candles had been replaced by ones corresponding to the primary colors of the houses especially for the feast. And, of course, hanging behind the staff table were three massive tapestries lined up perfectly with the three large tables. The tapestry hanging in front of Cedrea's table was crimson and gold with a majestic stag, its head lifted proudly and a banner twisted in its antlers which read: "Potter". To its left, before the middle table was a second tapestry of white and powder blue with a wondrous peacock, a banner draped across its wide spread tale, reading: "Delacour" To its left was the final tapestry. One of blood-red and black with a mighty rearing bear clutching a flying banner in its mouth that read: "Krum"
At the staff table, a round faced Professor with short dark hair stood from his seat near the middle, the two seats to his left were empty, one of which was the high-backed, throne-like chair of the Headmaster. Much of the murmuring in the Hall died away at this site, the rest ceasing as he called for quiet.
"To our returning students, which I'm pleased as always to see there are many, I say welcome back." The Professor said in a very kind tone. "And to our new students…" he motioned with an open hand to the group of first years standing with the old man from the carriage at the head of the house tables near a slightly frayed, pointed hat atop a stool. "…welcome and may your stay here be as peaceful and happy as possible." The crowd of first years was much larger than just those whom had arrived in the first carriages.
"Now, before the sorting gets underway I have a couple more comments. Firstly, many of you will have noticed that Professor Krum is unfortunately not present." This announcement was met by a collective sigh from the students, Professor Krum was well liked. "Nor, I'm afraid to say, is Headmaster Potter. They are both presently away on… business…and will not return for a few weeks. Professor Mayamoto will be taking over Curse Studies until Professor Krum's return." Mayamoto nodded at his mention four seats away." Professor Potter's absence was met with much fewer sighs than Krum's and most came from the Potter table.
"Well I'm actually…" Cedrea began whispering to Kelly but abruptly stopped as from the Staff Table came "Excuse me, but I'm talking." A wave of quiet laughter washed through the Hall and Cedrea looked to see the round faced Professor smiling at her and she turned red.
"Secondly, and lastly I suppose," The Professor continued. "As in recent years there will be a list posted in the entrance hall naming those who did not return this year. Should any of you wish to inquire further about the individuals whom did not return to the Academy this year you are welcome to go to your head of house or myself with your questions. And with that said, let the sorting begin."
As if waiting for the Professor's authorization the sorting hat had remained still and silent to this point and an instant after the Professor's words a section of fabric near the brim folded itself into a sort of sock-puppet like mouth and began to speak.
No songs or stories, I'm sorry to say.
But should your wish be to hear as such.
You're best to look my brother's way.
For those things, time, I have not much.
No clapping or cheering followed the hat's short rhyme and the school waited in moderate silence to see to which house the first years would soon belong.
The old wizard with the first years stepped up next to the stool with the hat and turned to face the three house tables. The old wizard then drew a roll of parchment from inside his robes with the hand that was not occupied by his cane, unrolled it with a flick of his wrist and read the first name. "Burns, Anthony!" he said, his voice tired.
One of the boys nervously approached the stool and once the man had lifted the hat out of his way, he sat down. The man placed the hat on the boy's head and it ran through it's thoughts on making it's decisions, though scarcely aloud, limiting it's public comments mostly to "well, well," and "Interesting". Before long the folded fabric mouth of the hat smiled and announced loudly "-KRUM!-" and the Hall exploded in cheering and clapping; the loudest of which coming from the Krum table.
The process started again with the next on the list, Burns, Bethany, and soon she too had been sorted, going, like her brother, to Krum, and she was welcomed by more applause. It was Carringhton, Marria's turn after that and she went to Delacour. Another name was called as Cedrea leaned close to Kelly, intending to take full advantage of everyone's occupied attention and the sudden bursts of cheering.
"As I was going to say, I'm quite glad Professor Potter isn't going to be around for a few weeks. The fewer chances of running into him the better, I've never liked him." said Cedrea and Kelly made a sound that she thought sounded like he disagreed with her on the matter but wasn't going to start arguing about it. Cedrea didn't press the matter.
What Cedrea said had been the truth, she had always found Professor Potter to be a bitter and harsh old man with anger and intolerance saturating every inch of his being; despite being in his house and being very proud of that fact. In her fourth year he had taken over temporarily the spot of Defense Against the Dark Arts and though they were some of the best lessons she had ever had, she dreaded every of his lessons for the three weeks he had taught; for the first time disliking one of her favorite subjects. Since then he had filled in twice more but for far shorter terms. She had found him a quite unpleasant teacher all three times. That he was mean and bitter aside, he was still one of the greatest wizards that had ever lived, some said the greatest since Merlin himself. She just hoped that having similar characteristics to him wouldn't mean that she ended up like him when she was old.
She came back to paying attention to the sorting just in time to hear "-POTTER-" and started clapping and cheering loudly with everyone else. She looked quickly to see who had been sorted into Potter and saw a bushy haired girl scurrying over to the house table, still wearing the sorting. The Hall shared a hearty laugh, particularly the round faced professor; the girl quickly returned it. Cedrea paid very little attention to the sorting after this, clapping when she heard the rest of the Hall clap and only listening for the name of her house so she knew when to clap louder; she had never much cared for the sorting.
Finally, some thirty minutes later, the sorting ended with Yo, Yao going to Delacour and the younger wizard from the carriages with the flaming red hair carried the stool and hat out of the hall as the old wizard headed for the staff table.
Once again the round faced Professor stood and this time said but one simple thing "tuck in".
Hundreds of silver platters and pitchers containing a wide selection of foods and drink from all across the world appeared on the tables in front of the students and Cedrea instantly grabbed for her fork to transfer some boiled potatoes to her plate. The Hall was suddenly filled with noise again with the scratching of silverware against dishes and the dull roar of a hundred jumbled conversations.
Cedrea and Kelly laughed at the site of a second year having their hand slapped away by the pitcher of mead they had unknowingly reached for. Both ate heartily, the food was never as good the rest of the year as it was during the Start-Of-Term feast or Christmas so they took full advantage of it. Cedrea was careful to make sure she had enough room for a piece of pie or two for desert and the bottomless pit that was Kelly just kept helping himself to more helpings; he could eat more than any other person she had ever known. In fact she sometimes wondered if he didn't have hollow legs which he stored extra food in.
Kelly was finishing the remains of his fourth serving and Cedrea was almost finished with her second when the dinner dishes vanished to be replaced by just as many filled with every sort of desert one could wish for. Cedrea immediately looked around for the cherry pie, her favorite; next to her, Kelly began unceremoniously taking portions of deserts and dropping them on his plate.
"Attention!" The entire Hall froze mid motion, Cedrea with her hand hovering over the pie and Kelly with a tart halfway into his mouth. The round-faced Professor was on his feet. There was a piece of parchment clenched in his hand and a grave look about his face.
"I'm afraid the feast will have to end early," he snapped his fingers and all desert was gone, including the tart in Kelly's hand. "Likewise, you are all to go to your dormitories early rather than having a bit more time to fraternize. I apologize but it is necessary. Prefects, please lead your houses the appropriate dormitories. I ask of you all not to wonder the castle tonight for any reason, it is of the greatest importance, thank you."
A certain amount of grumbling spread through the students, though none were complaining outright and all were rising calmly from their seats and following the prefects that had congregated at the door. Rudolph smiled and gave Cedrea a weak wave as the Krums and Potters passed each other.
After reaching the Potter common room Cedrea went directly up to bed much earlier than she normally would have and consequently lay awake for almost two hours before falling asleep. Her only solace for missing her favorite desert that she got only once or twice a year was that whenever the feast was cut short it was made up for at the next day's dinner. What could have happened, however, to give the professor such a grave look?
