"Hey, newbies! Welcome to Slytherin!" Ariel, Merida's fellow Slytherin, smiled at the first years. "I'm Ariel, I'm a soon-to-be prefect, so if you need any help, ask me! And this is Merida, she's kinda grumpy but you can ask her too!"
Merida groaned.
"How come the house symbol is a snake?" A girl asked.
"Cus Salazar Slytherin, the bloke who founded Slytherin, could talk to snakes and had this massive snake of death for a pet and stuff. Or something." Merida sort of answered.
"How come the Hufflepuff symbol is a badger?" Asked a boy.
"That is something I don't know. You'll have to look it up, or ask a Hufflepuff." Merida shrugged.
"How come we have separate tables?" Another boy asked, "Are we allowed to sit at the other ones?"
Ariel took over the answering of that question. "We only have separate tables for feast days, normally they're all pushed together and you can sit wherever you want."
Merida really wished that she could be sitting with her friends, instead of with pestering kids and Hans, who was using a freezing spell and pretending that he couldn't control it, and that it was turning his hair white, which definitely not like anyone they knew. Man, that guy was annoying!
Meanwhile, there was a party happening at the Gryffindor table.
Two sixth years had set up some of WWW's fireworks, and a second year had taken out a muggle object called MP3 that played music. Then Jack pulled Anna up on the table to dance and one of the teachers came to tell them all off.
"You're being an awful influence to the new first years!" Professor Bunny scolded.
As soon as he'd turned his back, Jack stuck his tongue out at the professor and all the little eleven year olds laughed.
Before Bunny could give him detention, the headmaster stood up at the front of the room and waved for quiet.
"So!" Said Professor North, smiling around at them all." Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices.
"Phil Yeti, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Yeti's office, if anyone would like to check it."
The corners of North's mouth twitched. He continued, "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year.
"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."
"What?!" Jack gasped. He looked at Anna, his fellow member of the Quidditch team. She was mouthing silently at North, apparently too appalled to speak.
North went on, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy – but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have the great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts we are going to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year!"
"You're JOKING!" Said Tadashi, loudly.
Nearly everyone laughed, and North smiled appreciatively.
"I am not joking, Mr. Hamada," he said, "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a fairy, an elf, and a yeti who all go into a bar..."
Professor Tooth cleared her throat loudly.
"Er – but maybe this is not the time...no..." Said North, "where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament... Well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely.
"The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly compiled between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities – until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."
"Death toll?" Rap whispered, looking alarmed. But her anxiety did not seem to be shared by the majority of students in the Great Hall; many of them where whispering excitedly to one another and seemed far more excited in hearing about the tournament than worrying about deaths that had happened hundreds of years ago.
"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," North continued, "none of which have been successful. However, our own Departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger.
"The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their shortlisted contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are the most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."
"I'm going for it!" Jack whispered to Anna, his face lit at the prospect of such glory and riches. He wasn't the only one who seemed to visualising themself as the Hogwarts champion. At every House table people were either gazing raptly at North, or else whispering fervently to their neighbors. But then North spoke again, and the Hall quieted once more.
"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," he said, "the Heads of participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this years. Only students who are of age – that is to say, seventeen or older – will be allowed forward their names for consideration. This" – North raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words – "is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinked our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion." His eyes twinkled from Jack's mutinous face to Merida's. "I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen.
"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you all will extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your wholehearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"
North sat down as the students began filing out of the great hall.
As Jack was about to leave the Great Hall, a miniature, black dragon landed on his shoulder.
"Hi Toothless, whatcha got there?" Around Toothless's neck was a ribbon with three rolled up pieces of parchment tucked into it. Jack selected the one coloured blue and let Toothless fly off.
The note read:
Jack,
Meet up at our usual place, midnight.
From, Hiccup.
P.S. Bring Anna.
It was a common method of communication that the four friends had been using since their second year. They sent out their animal (Hiccup's dragon, Toothless; Rap's chameleon, Pascal; Jack's fairy, Baby Tooth; and Merida's not-so-subtle giant owl, Angus) with a message for each of the other three, each person's marked a particular colour, orange for Merida, pink or purple for Punzie, blue for Jack, and green for Hiccup. It took less time than sending individual messages.
Jack sighed, guess I won't be as 'alert and rested' as I should be after all.
A/N
Sorry, I kinda cheated with this chapter, basically the whole thing was copied out of GoF with only a few character changes.
Next chapter will definitely be my own writing, though.
