Title The Boggarts Meaning / / / Rating M
Warnings Features a character death, Ron bashing and some swearing. This story also contains some mentions of sex (both heterosexual and femslash) in some chapters…
Contains text from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire…
After thinking about it, in this chapter, I decided to change one of the official pairings...you will find out in this chapter which pairing it is….
-The Boggarts Meaning-
Previously on The Boggarts Meaning…
" Anyway, as I was saying, usually the older boys, as in those who are Fifth Years or more, seem to be the ones who help the ladies. The only House that the boys seem to have to start younger than that is Slytherin, who have a habit of having sex with girls as young as the end of Third Year! Pansy told me a few months before the end of the year that Malfoy was trying to get her in his bed."
It had been four weeks since the talk that Harry had with Lavender and he had been invited to the Granger's to spend a couple of weeks, prior to returning to the Brown's for the Quidditch World Cup and he had to admit that he was unable to see Hermione in the same way as what he had before the end of term.
He had met the older Grangers, Adam and Sophie Granger, and was pleasantly surprised about how Sophie had remembered him as a child, how she had been friends with his mother and admitted that she had notice that Lily had changed significantly between being a child and after Hogwarts.
When Harry told the older Granger female about what he had found out about how his father had treated Sophie Granger's friend, he watched as she broke down in tears, the shock of what had happened to Lily Evans making her wonder what would have happened had life had been different.
Reading the next year's text books, Harry saw how she had strategically placed a blanket over herself, and that he could see that her hand was moving in a slightly noticeable manner, and that she had started to squirm all over the place.
Eventually Hermione had finished and had lifted herself up slightly, obviously to adjust herself. It was then that Harry realised that he had certainly lost some of his innocence over the summer...
The Great Hall, Ground Floor, Entrance Wing, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland
31st October 1994
Harry was sitting in the Great Hall, hand in hand with Hermione, listening to the Headmaster announce who was to become the Hogwarts TriWizard Champion. Suddenly there was a large number of groans when Cassius Warrington was announced as the Champion.
Despite the boos from the crowd, Harry stood up, Hermione following, and applauded the young man, not seeing the smile whilst they were doing it from their Head of House, Minerva McGonagall, who was muttering under her breath an award of points to Gryffindor.
"What are you doing clapping for that slimy snake?" He heard Ron say to him from a few places down the table, the red head getting up to confront him. "You are betraying your House by supporting a Death Eater wannabe."
"Shut up Ronald." Harry said, smiling. "He is a Hogwarts student, just like I am, just like you are. Don't you remember what happened at the Quidditch World Cup?"
"That was because of some slimy snake!" Ron shouted back, not noticing that several other students in the Great Hall was applauding the newly declared Champion as well "Anyway, if I remember right, didn't you already disgrace your parent's memories by getting yourself betrothed to a Death Eater spawn?"
"Ronald. How dare you!" Hermione said, "It was either getting betrothed to Pansy, or leaving her to a fate that was worse…being forced to submit to the ferret!
Eventually the applause died down, everyone was sitting down at their seats ready to listen to the Headmaster and his speech, but despite what he had said to Hermione, he knew that something was going to happen… and he suspected the new History of Magic Professor…
The Great Hall, Ground Floor, Entrance Wing, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland
1st September 1994
Harry looked up at the staff table. There seemed to be rather less empty seats there than usual, especially with a returning Remus Lupin sitting at the staff table. Hagrid, Harry assumed, was probably fighting his way across the lake with the first years; Professor McGonagall was presumably supervising the drying of the entrance hall floor, but there was another empty chair too, and Harry couldn't think who else was missing.
"Maybe Binns has been sacked?" Hermione said to him, noting the confusion on his face. "Or even exorcized?"
"I presume so." Harry said, smiling. Suddenly he felt someone pass him and touching him. Looking around, he saw Pansy had passed him, placing a note in his pocket.
"Harry,
Malfoy has threatened to have you entered in the Tournament that the Headmaster is going to announce. He says that the Dark Lord is going to have one of his servants do the deed.
We need to meet later. Bring Granger with you to the abandoned Classroom opposite the Transfiguration Classroom on the Fifth Floor.
If the Weasel starts, I will sort him out for you.
Pansy"
Harry had to smile about how his betrothed, thanks to Lord Parkinson forcing the change in betrothal contract on him, even with the attempts by Lord Brown to stop it happening, was showing the cunning that Slytherin House was known for.
"Oh, hurry up," Harry could hear Ron moan from halfway down the table, having been forced by his mother to sit next to the twins and his sister as a punishment for what happened at the World Cup, Ron having lost his wand to a Death Eater, the subsequent confiscation of it by Ministry staff causing him to have to buy a new one. "I could eat a hippogriff."
"Greedy pig" Harry said under his breath, knowing that Ron would not be able to hear him.
Eventually the door opened, Professor McGonagall doing her duty by leading a long line of first years up to the top of the Hall. If Harry and Hermione had been wet on their entrance to the school, it was nothing to how these first years looked.
In Harry's mind, it seems like they had swum across the lake rather than sailed. All of them were shivering with a combination of cold and nerves as they filed along the staff table and came to a halt in a line facing the rest of the school, all of them except the smallest of the lot, a boy with mousy hair, who was wrapped in what Harry recognized as Hagrid's moleskin overcoat.
Harry could tell that the coat that the young boy was wearing was so big for him, so big that it looked as though he were draped in a furry black circus tent. His small face protruded from over the collar, looking almost painfully excited. When he had lined up with his terrified-looking peers, he caught Colin Creevey's eye, gave a double thumbs-up and smiled.
'Oh bollocks…another Creevey!' Harry thought, the dread showing on his face.
Professor McGonagall now placed a three-legged stool on the ground before the first years and, on top of it, an extremely old, dirty, patched wizard's hat. The first years stared at it, as did everyone else. For a moment, there was silence. Then a long tear near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and the hat broke into song, one that he had never heard about before.
The Great Hall rang with applause as the Sorting Hat finished.
"That's not the song it sang when it Sorted us," said Harry, clapping along with everyone else.
"Sings a different one every year," Hermione said, remembering her reading of Hogwarts: A History. Harry could see that she was about to start going into lecture mode so he kissed her, his lips melting into hers, much to the happiness of Gryffindor House, knowing that Hermione had a habit of spouting out facts as if it were to be made illegal!
Professor Dumbledore had gotten to his feet, smiling around at the students, his arms opened wide in welcome.
"I have only two words to say to you," he told them, his deep voice echoing around the Hall. "Tuck in."
"Hear, hear!" Harry said, smiling as the empty dishes filled magically before their eyes. As the Gryffindors were finishing eating, a clap of thunder shook the windows, and the stormy ceiling flashed, illuminating the golden plates as the remains of the first course vanished and were replaced, instantly, with puddings.
"Treacle tart, Hermione!" Harry said, smiling as he grabbed a portion of it, Hermione grabbing some gateaux. "I love it as much as I love you!"
When the puddings too had been demolished, and the last crumbs had faded off the plates, leaving them sparkling clean, Albus Dumbledore got to his feet again. The buzz of chatter filling
the Hall ceased almost at once, so that only the howling wind and pounding rain could be heard.
"So!" said Dumbledore, 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.
"Mr. Filch, 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. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."
Dumbledore tried to point at the Weasley twins without looking as if he wasn't, but everyone saw it and laughed. The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched as he continued with his announcements. "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. 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 great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts as we are 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.
"The TriWizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago, mainly as a friendly competition 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.
"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which has been very 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 short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the TriWizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."
Everyone started turning to their neighbours and conversing with them, missing the conditions that the Headmaster was laying down about the Goblet and having to be of age, and then the rules of the Tournament, subsequently followed by the announcement of the new History of Magic Professor, followed by the reappointment of Professor Lupin for Defence Against the Dark Arts.
Eventually the meal came to an end, Harry and Hermione leaving the line of Gryffindors to head to the meeting with Pansy, a meeting which had changed the whole year…but not before he had pulled a prank on Draco Malfoy first…
The Great Hall, Ground Floor, Entrance Wing, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland
31st October 1994
As Harry was pulled out of his thoughts, remembering how he had humiliated Malfoy after leaving the Great Hall by vanishing his clothes, the Slytherin having had not opted to wear undergarments, he saw that the fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment.
Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand, and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out the name that was on the parchment…
"Harry Potter."
What happened next caused people to be shocked…
-The Boggarts Meaning-
Did you see how a few small changes to canon can cause a large amount of chaos…. For example, Pansy being saved from Draco Malfoy, or Harry finding out he has family still out there… Or Harry persuading Remus Lupin to keep the job of Defence Against the Dark Arts job…
Anyway, Coming Up in Chapter 05 - The Consequences of the Day After…
Disclaimer I don't own the Harry Potter series. Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only. Any text used from the Harry Potter series is used under the fair use allowances of various copyright acts
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Type Multi Chapter / / / Status WIP / / / Distribution FFN, AO3 / / / Story ID 214