Chapter 3: Chapter 3
"Joy to the world, Snape's class is dead. Death to the Greasy haired bat!" Ron Weasley sang at the top of his lungs in a very off key voice as the Gryffindors walked out of their potions class –ideally placed in the dungeons- just half way through the normal lesson, much to the enjoyment of the mass of red and gold students. There was many sighs of relief as they all escaped the dreary and dead air of the dungeons.
"Ronald, I would advice keeping your singing to yourself" Hermione hissed as they walked towards the main part of the school, wincing slightly at the sudden burst of bright light as they walked into the Entrance Hall of the castle. Hermione raised her hand up, attempting to shield the bright light from her eyes, flicking out a lock of frizzy brown hair in the process.
"Hermione are you actually saying that you would want to stay in that damp, depressing class room with that greasy bat of a teacher hovering over you? A teacher I might add that was just waiting for the perfect moment to try and poison our best friend under the reasoning of wanting to check his antidote assignment, Traitor" Ron practically shouted causing everyone's attention to draw towards them. Yet the tall and rather lanky red haired teen payed them no need as he jabbed an accusatory finger in Hermione's face.
Hermione's face turned a light shade of pink, not overly enjoying the sudden intensity of everyone's eyes on her back. "No Ron," she said heatedly "I did not say that. I was trying warning you of the possible implications of insulting your potions teacher while still in ear shot of his class room."
Harry laughed at the bewildered expression on Ron's face as he thought through what Hermione had said. Their was no question as too why he hung out with these two. As soon as you got used to the nearly constant bickering and nearly never ending fights, everyday with these two became a nearly never-ending sitcom. Not that he would ever tell them that. Ron would probably stare at him as if he was crazy asking "what in bloody hell is a sitcom?" while Hermione wouldn't talk to him for the rest of the day. Yes somethings are better left unsaid.
"Well it's obvious that Snape did not hear Ron's comment or we would have been in detention by now. So I think it is safe to say how lucky we are that the one day that all of these foreign schools decide to show up is the one day that we have potions last period" Harry said happily pushing open the door to the great hall. The giant room was practically filled to the maximum with students,. The entire school had gathered there, waiting for further instruction from their head of houses. Harry, Hermione and Ron practically had to fight there way over to the Gryffindor table, nearly getting trampled by a confused group of first year Hufflepuffs along the way.
"I know right! Lady luck was actually on our side for once! This needs to go down in the books." Ron said happily as they sat down beside Dean and Neville. "Hey Hermione?" Ron asked watching as the staff of Hogwarts all filled into the room.
"What?" Hermione asked pushing a lock of her bushy brown hair out of her face as she reached into her book bag to pull out a book that had to be at least 3 times the weight of her head. Placing the book down onto the table with a thud she flipped through the pages trying to find her bookmark before settling down to read.
"Who are all the schools that are coming to this thing? I know you told me on the train at the start of semester, but I kind of forgot..." Ron asked sheepishly rubbing his hand through his mess of red hair as Harry peered over Hermione's shoulder trying to figure out what she was reading, those little symbols really made not sense to him what so ever.
Looking up from her book, Hermione took a deep breath, her expression taking on that of when she answered a question in class."Well from what I have read the 3 normal schools that participate in the triwizard tournament are Durmstrang, Beauxbatons and Hogwarts of course. Although, I over heard Professor Vector telling Professor Sprout that a 4th school is going to participate this time, I didn't hear exactly what they where saying but the name sounded like... Rose Cross? I'm not sure however because I haven't read about them before, anywhere. Harry would you mind not reading over my shoulder? It makes it extremely difficult to focus"
Ron nodded "Yah those are the schools you mentioned, but I've never heard of Rose Cross before in my life, what about you Harry?" he said poking Harry in the shoulder.
"Ron, if you and Hermione don't know the answer to a question like that, what are the chances that I'm going to?" Harry said as if stating the obvious causing all of the people who where listening to the conversation to laugh.
"Yah I see your point, but if Miss walking, taking, text book over here doesn't know who they are, then what hole did they crawl out of?" Ron asked causing Hermione to glare at him over her book.
"My Ronald that was even more eloquent then usual. Although you do have a point I have read all about international schools of magic and the name Rose Cross has never come up. I'd imagine that they are just really secretive about there schooling, and are only really making their presence known now." She said softly so not to be over heard by an overzealous teacher or prefect who was just waiting to knock points off of students who where not listening to the head of house's instruction.
Ron raised an eyebrow as Professor McGonagall walked down their table forcing all the students in her house to stand up and make what could almost be considered a line. "Bloody hell, that would make them more paranoid than Durmstrang is. I didn't even think that was possible." he said as the Gryffindor line was practically pushed out of the grand hall and out on to the field to await the arrival of all the schools.
There was a chill in the air that night and a cool breeze ruffled both the damp grass and the students hair as they stood in lines shivering. Most of the students had left their very nice, and very warm cloaks inside their dormitories, noting as they had literally been pushed out of the great hall by a very disgruntled group of teachers. It seemed that the staff of Hogwarts where practically at wits end in there goals to make there school and the students that lived inside of it seem perfect.
They had been in over drive for the last month giving detentions out in a heart beat for things as simple as pressing hands up against a glass window or forgetting to wipe their feet as they entered the school. Filch had been particularly bad, literally stalking students who forgot to wipe their shoes before entering the school.
"So how much longer do we have to wait?" Harry heard his fellow Gryffindor, Lavender whine to Dean as she crossed her arms to ward of the cold.
"Not to much longer, I hope" Dean said as he stomped his feet in a vain attempt to return blood flow to them. True enough just as the words left Dean's lips Professor Dumbledore had stood up sightly making the announcement that Beauxbatons was about to arrive.
The result was instantaneous as the students soon craned their necks to try and catch the first glimpse of the first foreign school. In the end the prize went to a sixth year who was excitedly pointing up over the forbidden forest where a Gigantic Powder Blue horse drawn carriage, the size of a house, flew towards them, drawn by a dozen winged horses.
The carriage collided with the Earth with a thundering crash before rolling to a stop a few feet from where the students stood. A few of the Ravenclaws jumped back a few feet as their line of vision was suddenly filled with stamping Palomino.
A few seconds later the doors to the carriage opened reviling a small boy in pale blue robes jump out and fumble with the golden stairs that connected to the door, and jump nimbly out of the way just in time to avoid getting his hand squished by the shiny, black heel that stepped out soon after, a heel that was almost the size of a child's sled. Although the shoe was not quite so out of place when you saw the woman that followed it. Harry was quite sure as he watched the carriage sag down into the grass that he had never seen such a large woman in his life. She had to be just as tall as Hagrid a possibility that Harry had never that possible before now.
"Ah welcome Madam Maxime, To Hogwarts." Dumbledore said applauding loudly as he steeped foreword into the light flooding from the entrance hall.
"Dumbly-door" Madam Maxime said in a rich booming voice thick with a French Accent. "It 'as veen to long"
"Indeed it has. I hope that the journey here was enjoyable?" Dumbledore asked as he kissed Madam Maxime's extended hand, not even having to bend in the slightest.
"Wonderful, quite wonderful, ah dear me, 'efore I forget. My pupils" Madam Maxime said with a wave of her hand drawing everyones attention away from herself and towards the dozen or so students who stood shivering in her shadow. They all looked to be in their late teens, and looked absolutely miserable in their pale blue silk robes staring up at the castle, not one of them bothering to hide the disapproval that was written clear as day on their faces.
" 'as any one else arrived yet" Madam Maxime asked as her students moved out of the middle of the field trying to get as near to the warmth of the castle as they could with out their head mistress' permission..
"No not quite yet. Would you like to wait with us? Or would you like to enter the castle and warm up a little bit before hand" Dumbledore said as cheerful as ever.
"Go inside I think, but ze 'orses" Madam Maxime replied with a quick glance over her shoulder at her suffering students, non of which had cloak and where all dressed in very thin silk.
"Not to worry our grounds keeper will take care of that, believe me he is more than qualified." Dumbledore said quickly to prevent the comment that would be soon to follow her disbelieving face.
"Well if you are sure. Come pupils, inside we shall go." she said with Clapping her hands before walking to wards the school her students follow along behind as quickly as they could.
"Well one school down." Hermione said softly in the boys ears as Ron stared to the sky excitedly, "All right then, I wonder how Durmstrang is getting here? Because I don't think Hogwarts could handle anymore horses," he said in a whisper his eyes searching the skyline so quickly that Harry was surprised that they didn't fall out.
"I don't know, but if what your dad said about the need to show off is true than its probably going to be something rather different, remember all those tents at the world cup? I don't think that there where two of the same anywhere in that entire campground." Hermione said as she drew her cloak tighter around herself to ward of the cold that was steady getting worse as the minutes drew on
"I know right, Hey what was that noise?" Ron said changing the conversation in a heart beat as his head whipped around to try and locate the source of the sound. It took a couple seconds but Harry soon picked up on what Ron had heard, it was a strange almost sucking sound, one that he couldn't quite place.
"The Lake, look at the lake!" someone shouted a the top of there lungs as the whole student body turned around to face the body of water nearly knocking a few kids down as they stretched their necks up to try and see the giant ship that was slowly rising out of the whirlpool that had formed in the centre of the lake.
"That's different..." Harry said as the Gryffindors all nodded in agreement. The ship looked as if it had seen better days and the eerie light that shown from the portholes gave Harry the feeling of those cheesy old pirate movies that Dudley had been so addicted to when they where kids.
Soon the ship had completely risen to the surface and a plank was dropped down the shore of the lake. Followed by the thud of heavy boots on wood as people started to disembark. All the students that got of the ships seemed to have at least better sense then those that had arrived before. These people actually looked a little too hot, wrapped up in those fur cloaks like they where.
A man walked out behind them from the ship and all the students respectfully steeped out of the way as he walked up the field towards where everyone was gathered. He too wore a fur cloak but unlike his students, whose where made out of a very strange kind of shaggy fur his looked to be a very expensive looking sleek silver that seemed to catch every once of the moonlight in its glow.
"Dumbledore, good to see you" the man said happily as he walked up to the castle reaching forward to shake the Headmasters hand a gesture that was replayed with equal enthusiasm.
"The same to you Professor Karkaroff!" Dumbledore replayed happily as Karkaroff stared up at the castle.
"Ah its good to be back at dear old Hogwarts" Karkaroff said in what most people would consider to be a warm voice but to Harry it seemed rather distant as if he didn't believe in what he spoke. "Dumbledore do you think that I could take my students inside? Viktor here has a slight head cold, and the warmth would probably be the best for him right now."
Dumbledore smiled softly "Of course my dear fellow, go on right ahead Madam Maxime is already inside and we will be following in a few minutes"
"Perfect, Viktor? Come up here please. We are going inside the school now"
As Karkaroff waved, a student stepped out from behind him, a Student than Ron recognized almost immediately.
"Harry its Krum, Viktor Krum, from the World cup! Harry!" He shouted pointing at the famous seeker but Harry wasn't watching in fact most people weren't "What is everyone staring at?" Ron asked "There's a world famous athlete walking into our school at this very moment and nobody cares! What in bloody hell is wrong with you people"
Hermione sighed as she reached forward to turn the red head's face to the centre of the field just in front of them where a series of glowing white Diamonds where materializing before there very eyes.
"What is that? I've never read about anything like it before in my life." Hermione asked in shock as the Diamonds took a more solid looking form and the number 29 engraved itself into the tip. The Professors where even more shocked than she was. None of the students had ever seen that look on their faces before and in another moment it probably would have seemed pretty Funny.
"Wow" Harry breathed as the Diamonds came to there full brilliance in front of them still glowing brightly as if it was fulled by its own sun.
"Is that Rose Cross?" Hermione asked as the Surface of the largest diamond seemed to ripple as if it was water.
"I guess so, I can't think of anything else" Harry said staring at it as if it where the most beautiful thing in the world, yet wary as if it could explode at any second.
"Hey look, some one is coming out" Neville said excitedly as a body seemed to push its way through the largest diamond just where the ripples had formed. The body turned out to be a tall thin faced Chinese man wearing what looked like a cross between a white lab coat and a military jacket with silver trim. A white beanie was placed lightly on top of his almost shoulder length black hair and a stylish pair of glasses framed his face.
It was easy to tell from first glance that this man had to be the headmaster of the school even though he required no act of servitude from his students (who had yet to make an appearance) to do so. It was the same thing that people could feel from Dumbledore, even from a distance you could just instantly tell who he was, even if his students didn't bow at his feet as the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had.
"Ah welcome, welcome to Hogwarts. You must be Professor Komui" Dumbledore said warmly walking forward to probably greet the man as 4 more people slowly made there way the through the 'doorway' as it was now called.
The man, Komui smiled. "That would be me yes, But don't worry about the Professor business I prefer Komui just fine. I would have to guess that you are the Professor Dumbledore I have read so much about. I must humbly thank you on behalf of my students on this opportunity to test our schools in this most prestigious of tournament."
"Oh not at all, it was my pleasure. It is always wonderful to be able to try out some new blood in our stuffy old tournaments. Are these your students?" Dumbledore said cheerfully as he glanced towards the teenagers that had calmly gathered around Komui.
"Yes these are indeed my students" Komui said as Harry drew his eyes to the very -well there was no other word for it- Strange looking group of teenagers. Each of them wore a long hooded cloak/jacket type object with a beautiful silver cross on there left chest, and yet that is where any similarities ended.
The first teen had a very harshly beautiful look about him, almost like a diamond. He was a tall Japanese man with a very thin yet muscular build. His long dark blue hair was tied back into a lose pony tail and his dark eyes gleamed in the darkness with a light which could easily match Professor Snape's glare in its hardness. At the same time the teen that stood beside him was almost the exact opposite. His red hair -a colour that easily rivalled that of the Weasley family- was spike down over his face with no obvious styling attempt what so ever. His left eye was covered by an eye path while his right was a bright green colour that glittered in permanent laughter.
There were two more students that had arrived through the 'doorway'. It seemed that there was only on girl in the group. Beautiful, asian teenage girl with Greenish black hair which reached down to her chin and a wide grin on her face as she tugged at the hood of the last teenager who was fighting to keep it where it was. Harry could see much of this teen but that didn't mater that much as they started to head into the school soon after.
It was funny thought, these teenagers didn't seem to have the same relationship with their headmaster as any of the other schools did. Even at Hogwarts everyone walked behind Professor Dumbledore almost subconsciously.
For these teens however, it seemed that their relationship was just a bit more closely knit as they all walked beside the man. Komui even seemed happy with this as had placed his hand on the girls shoulder, affectionately leading her towards the castle.
"And I thought we where strange" Hermione hissed under her breath as they all gratefully trudged back into the castle relishing in the warmth of the great hall as they sat down at the Gryffindor table once again.
"We are, but these guys are the icing on the cake!" Harry said as they watched the Rose Cross students stand off to the corner slightly quietly observing as the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons all merged into the centre of the room.
"Ah who cares about them though, look The Durmstrang students are all picking a seat, maybe Krum will come and sit with us. Dean move over will you, we need to make some room. Ugh too late they've gone to go and sit with the Slytherins. Look at Malfoy that slime git, looking so smug, I bet Krum sees right through him though." Ron said staring at the seeker from across the room as the Beauxbatons students all settled down at the Ravenclaw table.
"Ah Ron I didn't know you swung that way!" Dean said snickering as Ron's ears turned bright red.
"No I don't I just think he is the best seeker on the face of the planet. I wonder where there sleeping tonight, Krum could have my bed."
"Really?" Harry said eyebrows going up underneath his mess of black hair as Ron's ears turned even redder (If that was even possible).
"N-not like that, I'll sleep on the floor, the floor!" Ron stammered pressing his hands to the side of his head to hide his ears.
"Ron what is your problem? he's just an athlete, so unless you plan on joining the fan club over there would you please stop talking about it." Hermione growled as the Rose cross students all started to file over to their table.
"Hi Do you mind if we join you?" the girl asked as they approached
Hermione nodded "Of course here, pull up a seat." she said happily as Harry moved over a seat to open up some room.
"Thank you, my name is Lenalee by the way" Lenalee said extending her hand to Hermione who shook it warmly.
"I'm Hermione and this Ron and Harry" Hermione said as the Rose Cross students all sat down on either side of the table.
Red haired teen smiled as they all stared across the table, "Nice to meet you all, the name's Lavi and the sourpuss over here is Kanda and Allen is the kid sitting beside Harry there." he said as everyone besides Allen took off their cloaks revealing a black military style uniform with red trim, and a delicate golden beading going from there right shoulders to the same silver cross just over there hearts. Harry guessed that it was their school crest.
"Wow nice uniforms" Ron said staring openly at the crests on their uniforms which looked to be crafted from pure silver before staring down at his old, worn and plain faded black robes. "Those must have been pretty expensive all that silver and all, they even look custom made. Kanda's is so different then yours"
Lavi laughed as he plucked at the sleeve of his jacket "They probably are but we didn't pay a cent. You see our school is really small so we have some extra money in our budget for things like custom uniforms. Believe me its a good thing because I seriously doubt that Kanda and Allen could agree on one style. And while we are on the subject, Allen take off your jacket would you!" he said merrily yanking at Allen's cloak/jacket as the teen glared hotly from under his hood. Finally Allen removed the jacket revealing his face the first time.
"Lavi! Did you have to do that, I like my hood, its warm!"
Allen's uniform was just like everyone else's, but was not quite as short as Lavi and Lenalee's and not nearly as long as Kanda's knee length Jacket. But it wasn't the uniform that caught just about everyone in the Great hall's eye. It was his face, or more specifically the bright white hair that gently framed his face. The effect was almost instant as the younger kids all stared at him with their mouths agape and some of the older girls started to giggle,like, well like the school girls that they were.
"Wow look at his hair! I wonder how he got it like that because there is no way that is natural" a fifth year girl giggled to her friend causing Hermione to glare at her with all her strength instantly dropping the temperature surrounding the Gryffindor table by a few degrees.
"Linda, Show some respect would you" Hermione hissed at the girl who instantly looked shocked at Hermione's harsh tone.
"But Hermione, you can't deny that his hair is just to weird! And look at that scar it goes straight down his face! Come on everybody knows that, you love guys with scars. I wonder what it looks like on top? You know underneath his hair."
Hermione's glare intensified as her own personal interests where dragged into the conversation. Her face turned red as her anger rose. There was one rule that Harry had kept dear to his heart ever sense he had met Hermione. Never, piss of someone with a larger than average vocabulary.
Allen was quick to act however as he laughed shaking his head. "Don't worry about it Hermione" He said in a Happy voice, neatly folding his jacket beside him. He seemed unaffected by all the attention he was getting as he started to talk to Lenalee who was sitting across from him as if they where the only ones in the hall
Harry's eyebrow rose, "You actually don't mind?" he asked as Allen blinked at him in speculation.
"Yah, not at all, my hairs been like this for a while now, I've gotten used to all the attention and even the colour, or lack their off" He said watching as Komui made his way up to the Teachers table looking slightly out of place among all of the high strung professors that surrounded him.
"You mean it wasn't always white? How did you manage to get it that way?" Ron asked leaning across Harry so he could better talk to Allen.
Allen's Grey eyes darkened momentarily as a slight frown formed on his face, before it was replaced with another smile as he answered Ron's question "I Had a pretty good fright several years ago, scared the leaving daylights out of me to the point that it removed the colour, I had brown hair at one point in my life believe it or not. I got this scar that day too" He said cheerily as he pointed to the scar on his left cheek, lifting the top part of his fringe to show the red star carved into his forehead.
Hermione's eyes grew large, and her fingers twitched for a moment towards the odd cut and Ron's mouth fell open. "Wha... what? And I thought Harry's was weird, how on earth did you get it that shape." He gasped, not even stopping himself from staring gape jawed at the odd cut.
Allen just shrugged however, a smile on his face. "I don't know really, my memory kind of blanked out. But I would assume that I cut it on something star shaped."
Harry fought down the urge to press a hand to his own scar. Allen seemed so at ease with his scar, not even caring that it scored down his cheek and drew everyone's eye. Yet Harry still flattened down his fringe every-time he walked in a public place. Whether it was Wizarding or Muggle, it didn't matter having an odd shape on your head always drew attention. Coming to think about it though Harry had it good with his own scar, a smallish lightening bolt in his forehead. If it wasn't for the fact that the whole wizarding community already new that it was there it probably would have passed unnoticed with the right hair cut.