Hogwarts Competition

Summary: To prepare the Hogwarts students, year five and above, for a live outside of the castles security, Dumbledore starts a project.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine.


Chapter 1

Again the great hall was filled by students, it was the first of September and another Hogwarts year was about to start. What the pupils didn't know was the fact that something quite interesting would take place, interesting at last for the older students.

The feast had ended, the pupils were waiting for their headmaster's annual speech, some growing tired already with their stomachs filled.

Dumbledore rose and looked down at those promising young witches and wizards. "Welcome students! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts."

The last chatter had died out, now the full attention was on Dumbledore.

"Sadly enough I have more than that to say. By now, you all know that Voldemort has returned!" When saying the name, the forbidden name aloud, many pupils, and even some teachers shuddered, one was temped to forget about the war when being in Hogwarts, where everything was comparatively safe. "I won't let my students departing from Hogwarts in the world, without being prepared. Because of that I have arranged a three-month long program here at Hogwarts. All the years below year five are billet out to the old Ravenclaw Castle in Wales, where they'll have regular lessons. All students from fifth year and up can decide between the two following options: You can either go to Ravenclaw Castle and have normal lessons like all others, or you stay here at Hogwarts, participating in the program. If you choose to do so, just tell your head of house, they'll tell me and I will form groups. Every group is assigned a certain territory, they have to defend and guard it. Apart from defending your home, you can complete certain tasks, finishing them will award you points. Other possibilities to achieve points are kidnapping a member of another team, taking some others territory, taking another teams badge, or stealing their treasure. You'll loose points when you are captured, or disarmed with a spell or potion. Every team is wearing badges, if you steal them you have to keep them for at least three hours, then points will be awarded and the badge will disappear, back to it's original owner. As I mentioned before, there are treasures. Every team has three treasures, they are deposited outside of their territory and cannot be moved. If you find another teams treasure, and overcome any possible guard, you have to guard it for five hours, than it will disappear and you'll have earned points. The treasure will reappear somewhere in the castle, the team that is finding the treasure at first can claim him as their own, then they have to guard it against the others. A shield spell is placed upon every member of the program, if he or she is hit with a curse the worst thing that can happen is falling unconscious. But the spell is able to remember the spell that had been cast, and every evening Professor McGonagall and I will go through the cast spells, awarding points for some of them. I can't tell you all possibilities of earning points, because there are too many, but I'm sure you'll discover them soon enough. Then you'll maybe wondering about how to take your exams when not learning anything during the first three months. First of all, every team has a mentor, a professor who will care about them. This professor will teach them some hours a day, when exactly is absolutely the teams choice, and you'll all find a personal library in your assigned territory. So you should be able to learn on your own. And the lessons for the remaining time of the year are already prepared, professor McGonagall and I are sure that you'll be able to follow the coursework and you'll be able to take your tests at the end of the year."

Everyone started to whisper at once. Those news were interesting, several children were complaining about why they couldn't participate, and the elder were talking about the game, as they called it.

"Students, listen!"

At once, a deep silence fell and all eyes were on Dumbledore.

"We are not doing this to motivate you to be brutal or enjoy power and might. No, we are allowing you to train for the life after Hogwarts. All those who are interested, please report to your head of house before you go to bed. Everyone else, please don't unpack, you'll be transferred to Ravenclaw Castle first thing tomorrow morning!"

--

Young Ginny Weasley was already looking forward to the game. She walked up to the Gryffindor common room, just behind Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The golden trio, as half of Hogwarts referred to them.

"Are you going to participate?"

"Sure thing mate. Just imagine, cursing those Slytherins," answered Harry, a broad grin in his face. He was clearly imaging cursing Malfoy with something nasty.

"They don't have to participate you know," said Hermione. As always she was thinking rationally. "And actually, they don't need to. I mean, most of them are going to be deatheaters anyway, the moment they drop out of Hogwarts, they won't have to fight as hard as we will have to."

Ginny smiled slightly. "Not always so rational, hm?" thought the girl. She knew possibly more about Slytherins than all other Gryffindors combined. Since third year she was friends with Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini, two sixth year Slytherins. And because of them she knew that not all Slytherins were pure evil.

/ Flashback

Ginny Weasley, a third year Gryffindor, was trailing behind some students, taking more time than necessary to reach greenhouse number three. She never liked herbology that much. Suddenly she heard a noise, sounding strangely like someone crying. The young girl turned around and followed the nearly unnoticeable noise until she reached the lake. Still she could see no one, only her sensitive ears were listening to the noise.

Suddenly the girl noticed someone sitting in the tree, right above her. Though she was not able to recognise the person sitting in the tree, she looked up and asked softly:" Why are you crying?"

The person looked down, and Ginny could see that it was a boy. "Clear off Weasley!" the boy snapped, apparently angry that she had noticed him crying.

Now Ginny recognised the boy, it was Draco Malfoy, Slytherin and always evil to Harry, Ron and Hermione. Strangely enough, he had never bin tormenting her as much as he had tormented the others.

/ End flashback

Ginny smiled. At that time, she had been too stubborn to leave, and after sometime Draco had told her why he had cried. Ginny had just sat there and listened, and Draco had learned that talking to others could help. It hadn't taken much time afterwards until they got to be great friends, and Ginny had befriended Blaise too, because he was Dracos best and only real friend.

"I just hope they won't mix the teams," said Harry suddenly.

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione surprised.

"Well, you know, just imagine they'll mix the teams. So we would have to work together with Slytherins, for example," explained Harry.

The thought alone made Ron grimacing.

"Won't happen," he said. "Dumbledore knows that we would rather kill each other than working together."

"Maybe it's going to happen because of that. Dumbledore is trying to bring the houses together, haven't you noticed?" thought Ginny, but she didn't say it aloud, it could keep Harry and Ron from participating.

Hermione just shrugged, and Ginny was pretty sure that she was thinking the same.

"Well, anyways, I'm going to McGonagall, you coming too Gin?" asked Hermione, and Ginny nodded.

They went to McGonagall's office. There were already a line of Gryffindor students all waiting to go into the office.

"What's up here?" asked Hermione surprised.

"They don't allow anyone to participate," explained Lavender Brown. "As it seems your schoolwork has to be good enough, so they can be sure that you'll come through your exams at the end of the year."

"I thought something like that will happen," answered Hermione.

At last it was Ginny's turn to enter McGonagall's office.

"Ah, Miss Weasley, I have hoped that you would show up," greeted Professor McGonagall.

Ginny allowed herself a smile. She knew that her academic performance was good enough, McGonagall had offered her to skip sixth year and finish Hogwarts one year early, but Ginny had declined. She didn't want to miss an entire year.

"So I can participate?" the girl asked.

"Of course."

Ginny smiled at her professor and turned to leave.

"Just one thing, Miss Weasley. Professor Snape asked me to send you to him. He has something to discuss with you."

"Okay. Thank you professor," answered Ginny and left the office. She was curious about what Snape wanted, and went to the dungeon immediately. She had a knack for potions, and after Snape had realised that they had come to better terms. He did no longer sneer at her in potions, like he did with Ron and Harry, and he had given Ginny the possibility to use his private lab for experiments. In return she helped him brewing potions for the healing wing, and for whatever else he needed them.

The dungeons were cold an dark. In her first and second year, Ginny had feared that particulate area in Hogwarts, because of the Slytherins strolling through the dungeons, offending every Gryffindor they could. But since she became friends with Draco, no one dared insulting her. Even though their friendship wasn't well known in Hogwarts, Ron and Harry had no idea, Draco had made sure that the Slytherins left Ginny alone. And no Slytherin was stupid enough to alienate Draco Malfoy.

Ginny knocked at the door to Snape's office. Even thought she knew where his private chambers were, a privilege no Gryffindor except her had achieved, she wouldn't dare disturbing him there without being explicit told to go there.

"Enter!"

Ginny entered the office, it was barely lit, professor Snape seemed to enjoy the half-light. How he could stand it without becoming depressive was a mystery for Ginny.

"Ah, Miss Weasley. I presume you already registered for the headmasters program?" asked Snape, his voice as cold and distant as always.

"Yes Sir," answered Ginny calmly. "Professor McGonagall told me that you wanted to talk to me."

"Indeed. Sit down Miss Weasley."

Ginny followed the invitation and sat down opposite to the potion master.

"As you are surly aware, we can't continue our potion experiments during the game," began Snape.

"But stopping it now would be fatal," complained Ginny. They were working at a potion that would allow you to see through polyjuice potion, Dumbledore had ordered Snape to do so, and the potion master had asked Ginny to help him. Ginny had been honoured, and had agreed immediately.

Snape raised his hand to stop her. "Don't whine! There is no need to do so. As you know, the headmaster assigns a mentor to each team. The only possibility for us to work together at our potion is for you to be placed in the team I'll be mentoring. Should that happen, I expect you to sacrifice your free time to help me here. If you are not willing to do so, tell me know, and I will remove you from the experiment and finish alone." The potion master eyed Ginny carefully, he was fully aware of her potential and didn't want to remove her. But, he had to know if she was willing to work, even when her free time was considerably limited.

"Of course I will, professor," answered Ginny, nearly immediately after the professor had finished his sentence. "But what are we going to do if I'm not in your team?"

"That I'll think about later. But I'm sure we can find a solution for that problem. I'll tell you when we start researching again. You may leave now."

"Thank you Sir," answered Ginny and got up. She bid the professor a good night and left to the Gryffindor common room.


A/N: Please tell me what you think! I'll try to update as often as possible, you know, everyone is more motivated when getting many reviews. :)