The International Qudditch Tournament
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Okay, anything that happened in the fifth book you can forget—fifth or above, because this is set in the fifth book. Okay? The Half Blood Prince and Order of the Phoenix are irrelevant to this story.
Prologue
Harry Potter entered the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione and took seats at the Gryffindor table. The teachers were all lined up in their usual places and filling the post of Dark Arts was some woman Harry didn't know. She had curly dark mousy brown hair, deep brown eyes and tanned skin. She wore lavender colour robes and sat up straight and tall as did the rest of the Professor's. She was rather attractive too, come to that. Harry soon shook the thought from his mind and thought back to his summer holiday.
It hadn't been that eventful aside from a Hearing from the Ministry and a couple of Dementor attacks. Nothing serious in his opinion unless you counted nearly being expelled and having your wand snapped in half. Other than that his summer had been like everyone else's. But everyone else didn't get the snide remarks from the Ministry of Magic welded into the Daily Prophet making him and Dumbledore out to be liars. Everyone else was believed when they reported trouble. But because he was Harry Potter they decided that he was lying and they didn't need the trouble they had when Voldemort had reigned fourteen years ago. It also didn't help that everyone was staring at him as the new first years were being sorted.
Harry did his best to ignore the stares from the other students and turned back to the High Table. He was definitely grateful that Ron and Hermione were standing by him. Soon the Sorting finished and the new students piled up to their new houses which would be their homes for the rest of the year.
"Excellent! Food!" Ron exclaimed as the feast appeared before him.
"You and food, honestly Ron," Hermione snapped, starting to eat herself.
Harry listened to Ron and Hermione's newest argument for a few minutes, mostly consisting of Ron talking with his mouth full, Hermione retorting vilely and Harry just agreeing with both sides. It was far easier and having them fight was starting to become normal although he honestly didn't enjoy being their go-between and sympathized with Hermione when he and Ron had been fighting the year before. Soon the feast was finished and Ron and Hermione had finished arguing over whether or not Ron liked food and if he ate too much of it. Dumbledore then stood up silencing the Great Hall as all the students looked up.
"Well, I can tell each of you enjoyed our welcoming feast. This means of course the start of a new school year and hard work," Dumbledore said, getting a small titter of laughter out of the kids, "also every six years the schools as some of you may know, hold an International Qudditch Tournament that will be taking place this year. We have been asked to assemble our finest Qudditch players on one singular team and take them to Rimutaka Academy for Witchcraft and Wizardry where the Tournament will be held. Eight other schools will be joining us there—schools from around the globe. Places like France, Japan, Australia, Brazil, and Bulgaria—anywhere you could think of. They all will have a team each that will be used throughout the tournament and bring along with them several reserves. This means that we will be holding tryouts in two days time. The bonus is we are allowed reserves which mean we can take as many players as we like and possible supporters."
Harry looked nonplussed at Professor Dumbledore. A school Qudditch Team? Tryouts in two days time? How were they going to be getting to this Rimutaka Academy for Witchcraft and Wizardry? Where was the school for starters? Thousands of questions swirled around Harry's head as the Headmaster began explaining other rules like what was banned and the fact that the Forbidden Forest was actually Forbidden.
Soon, the trio and the rest of the Gryffindors trooped up to their dormitories talking loudly about the International Qudditch Tournament and making guesses as to which schools would be competing. Fred and George seemed really excited; the previous Tournament had been held in their first year of Hogwarts and had been played at their school.
"I'm betting it'll be Durmstrang and Beauxbatons back again," Fred announced that morning at the breakfast table, "and Salem's Sorcery, maybe Kirada, Golden Bay will definitely be there because they are fierce rivals with Rimutaka Academy."
Harry looked stunned, how could there be so many schools? Last year he had accepted that there had to be way more than Hogwarts, but obviously, there was more than he could ever have possibly guessed.
Tryouts had been rather a shambles. Most of the Slytherin's did poorly and seeing as it was all the House Leader's choosing the Qudditch Team none of them got in. The Team ended up consisting of Harry Potter, as the teams Seeker, Cho Chang who plays reserve Seeker, the Chasers were: Angelina Johnson, Ginny Weasley and Michael Corner. Fred and George, who of course were already excellent Beaters, both made it onto the team. Zacharias Smith, a Hufflepuff made it onto the team as its Keeper. Funnily enough, this Hufflepuff had the attitude of a Slytherin.
This of course, thoroughly annoyed the Slytherin House as it meant that none of the Slytherin's would be traveling to Rimutaka Academy for Witchcraft and Wizardry as Supporters. The players were allowed to take five of their closest friends as supporters for the Tournament. Harry of course invited Ron and Hermione, along with Dean, Seamus and Neville. Ginny ended up taking a few of the Gryffindors—Lavender and Parvati, and three other girls from her year which included one Ravenclaw called Luna Lovegood. Fred and George invited Lee Jordan and a few others in their year, and Angelina brought a bunch of girls with her too.
It was a week later and the Hogwarts Qudditch Team was practicing out in the cold with the jeering Slytherin's calling out insults. Suddenly a voice came out of the loud speaker.
"Will the Hogwarts Qudditch Team and their Supporters please make their way to the Entrance Hall where they will prepare to leave?" McGonagall's voice sounded over the loudspeaker.
Harry got off his broom and followed the rest of the team towards the Entrance Hall. They were finally going! Ron and Hermione soon caught up with Harry, Hermione babbling about how she hadn't packed, but, she supposed, the House Elves would have got their luggage ready although it was a huge in justification on their parts because they wouldn't even know what they were supposed to be packing for the students. Ron finally told Hermione to shut it, and that they probably would be getting some time to pack and that McGonagall was probably just informing them of how they were going to get to the Tournament. Harry tuned out as Ron and Hermione's argument got louder by the second as they were soon joined by the beautiful Cho Chang and her gang of giggling girls.
"Good morning all," McGonagall told them calmly, "Today you will be receiving information on the mode of transport you will be taking to the Tournament, some more information on the school and a general knowledge of the rules of the Tournament. You will also find out when we are due to leave for Rimutaka Academy."
Hermione in turn sighed with relief and Ron muttered a low 'I told you so'. Dumbledore then stepped forward with a smile playing across his lips and a glitter in his eye. There was much to look forward to with this Tournament.
"Good afternoon students," Dumbledore announced smiling happily, "Today you will receive the details of the trip and of course, permission forms to send home to your parents, which, of course, is essential. Permission is the one thing I expect you all to have, whether you like it or not. Now, moving onto the more exciting stuff, how we will be getting there. You will remember all the excitement of the Triwizard Tournament last year, how the Wizarding School's came from many a different locale?"
Dumbledore paused and looked around expectantly as McGonagall started handing out permission forms for the students to receive.
"Right. So, of course we will be traveling in style. I have decided to let our school's tamed Theastrals, who currently pull the school carriages to the castle at the beginning of the year. They will be pulling of course, a much larger object than that of the—yes Miss Hazel?"
"What are Theastrals?" The girl asked looking confused, "I've never heard of them before."
"Theastrals can only be seen by those who have seen death," Dumbledore said calmly, "which of course means that most of you won't see them at all. At least, I'm pretty sure none of you will be able to see them except a rare few. Now, our main transport will of course be by a miniature size castle slightly resembling Hogwarts. We had to think of something original, and something what would of course, accommodate all of the students whilst we stayed at Rimutaka Academy."
"That's brilliant!" Whispered Hermione eagerly, "just think how marvelous that will look to others who can't see the Theastrals! Us just turning up out of thin air."
"Out of thin air? Hermione that's impossible!" Harry hissed at her, "and anyway, Theastrals don't look that magnificent. I saw them on the Hogwarts train when we met Luna and so fourth and so on."
"When you're all done talking," Dumbledore said calmly, "Right. All the school rules of Hogwarts will be expected to be followed while we stay at Rimutaka Academy, and I want you behaving perfectly. So that means being better than most schools and having impeccable uniforms. Oh, and we will be leaving on Monday next week, 9 o'clock sharp. We will wait approximately fifteen minutes for those who are late."
The trio were walking back to the Gryffindor Tower as Hermione explained all about Theastrals and their relation to bad luck and how most wizards thought they were untrustworthy. She also explained that Hogwarts was the only school to have a tame herd and that they were really famous for having one and it was all in Hogwarts, a History.
It wasn't long before next week came and it was time for the event of the year. The Hogwarts Qudditch Team had practiced all they could in-between lessons. It had been a rough few days, but when they got to Rimutaka Academy it all would be worthwhile.
AUTHORS NOTE: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Its going to be very humorous, you'll notice there'll be a few references to book five in here. If I get them wrong just review me and I will put up in the next chapter where my mistakes were. Cheerio! AND GOOD DAY!
Oh, and one final word on my story, I'm skipping the traveling bit so we're going straight to arrival. Won't that be fun?