*Sigh* Guys, this is a fanfiction... things are going to be different. And based on the infinite alternate universe theory, every fanfiction is possible and true in another universe. I don't expect every reader to like what I write, and it's fine if you don't.

To the reader who asked for the Sirius and the toaster story... There my be outtakes at the end of the story about the Marauders, the toaster story being one of them.


Harry couldn't dress himself fast enough. He and his roommates hadn't been this excited all year. The day was finally here. Everyone was packed and ready to go home the next day, but before they left, there was one last thing to do.

It was Games Day, and the four houses were ready to compete for the Challenge Cup. Harry was confident he and his fellow Quidditch players would score in Madame Hooch's Flying Challenge, and he had good reason to believe that he'd do well in the Defense Against the Dark Arts Challenge as well.

"Come on! Let's go already!" Ron called impatiently from the doorway.

Harry and Neville joined him and they met Ginny and Hermione in the Common Room. Together, they made their way into a crowded Great Hall for breakfast.

After everyone was done eating and the platters and dishes cleared away, Dumbledore stood, and all chatter died away.

"Good morning to you all, and welcome to the first-ever Hogwarts Games Day. In a few moments, you will be released from the hall, and you will make your way to Hogsmeade, where we have set up a carnival of sorts, complete with food, drink, and games at various stalls. The people of Hogsmeade have closed their shops today in order to run these stalls. Upon entering the carnival grounds, you will receive ten tickets. You may buy more if you wish. Each game costs one ticket to play, and if you win these games, you will win prizes. At the food stalls, each drink, treat, or item on the menu also costs one ticket.

"Of course, the major event of today are the challenges. There are thirteen challenges you may take on. You may do each challenge once, whether you pass or fail it. Depending on how well you perform, or how fast, in some cases, you will receive either one, five, or ten points for your House. The House with the most points at the end of the day wins the Challenge Cup. I will announce the winning house at tonight's feast, as well as the winner of the House Cup.

"I expect you all to practice good sportsmanship today. These challenges will be difficult, but I know you will each find something you can succeed at. This is a competition, but today isn't just about that, it is also about having fun. There are dark times ahead of us, and it is our duty to enjoy these moments of happiness before they are gone. Now, for the sake of all our sanities, I will release you by years, the first year's first. Professor McGonagall will be waiting for you in the Entrance Hall to lead you to Hogsmeade Village."

"Geez, I didn't even notice she left." Ron muttered from Harry's side.

"All of the professors left, Ron. It's just Dumbledore up there." Hermione pointed out.

The first years filed out of the hall.

"And now, second years, please follow Professor Flitwick to the village."

"Third years, I hope by now that you know the way."

"Fourth years, off you go." Ginny left them, promising to meet them in front of the DADA challenge in fifteen minutes, where they had decided to start off. She immediately caught up with Luna, and the two girls left the hall together.

"Fifth years, it's your turn."

Harry and his friends stood and tried their best to walk instead of run. When they reached Hogsmeade Village, they were given ten tickets, as Dumbledore had said, and a map of the carnival's attractions.

"Wow! Madame Rosmerta has two stalls set up. One just for drinks and one for food. We should go there for lunch." Ron said, his mouth watering.

"I don't see one for the Hog's Head." Hermione noted. "I suppose it's not really student-friendly."

"The challenges are on that side of the village." Harry said, pointing in the direction of the Shrieking Shack, and area that was usually quite barren, but today it was dotted with thirteen signs, each with a special challenge below it."

"Ooh, the Runic Riddles Challenge looks like fun!" Hermione squealed.

"Arithmancy Hopskotch? How do you play that?" Ron asked. "I think I'll try Hagrid's 'Find the Magical Creature' challenge after the DADA Target Challenge."

"Sirius and Remus put a lot of work into this." Hermione said. "The sign says we have to use our wands to shoot the targets. If we hit enough targets, we move to the next stage. Getting through all three stages is ten points for our house. Two stages is 5 points and one stage is one point."

"Brilliant." Ron said.

"Oy! I thought I heard some troublemakers." Sirius walked over to the sign where they were reading the rules. "What do you think? Remus wanted to put you through an obstacle course, but I told him McGonagall's already doing one. Have you been over there yet? It's pretty neat. She had me test it to make sure it wasn't impossible."

"Actually, we were going to start with yours." Hermione said.

Sirius' smile widened. "Well, I'm honored, then. Right this way. One of the ranges is open. Who's first?"

"Me!" Cried a voice from behind them.

They all turned to find Ginny, accompanied by Luna. She stepped past them, and Sirius led her to the shooting range. He waved his wand, and several targets appeared on the wall ten feet away. Ginny shot them down easily, but more took their place, many of them moving. Despite this, she cleared the first stage in just over a minute.

Sirius glanced at Harry as Ginny cleared the second stage. "She's a lot like your mother."

"He's right. Ginny is as fierce as Lily." Remus said, coming from where he'd been assisting a group of first years.

"Professor Lupin!" A group of Fourth Year Ravenclaws called his attention, and Remus left to help them.

"Luna, aren't they your roommates?" Ron asked.

"Yes, I suppose they are." Luna said thoughtfully. "But I'd much rather be with all of you.

"You're always welcome with us, Luna." Harry assured her, knowing how mean Luna's fellow housemates could be.

Luna smiled. At that moment, Ginny cleared the third stage and challenged Ron to beat her time. Ron failed to and Harry managed to beat her by one second. Hermione beat Ron but finished a few seconds slower than Ginny. Luna took the longest but she didn't seem concerned about her time in the first place.

"Well, you've each earned ten points for your houses. Good thing the rules say you can only try each challenge once, or you lot would win way too easily." Sirius said, as a group of Gryffindor second years approached him. "Good luck on your other challenges! I'll see you later."

They waved goodbye to Sirius and Remus and went on their way.

"So, what next?" Ron asked.

"I want to try the the Runic Riddles Challenge." Hermione said.

"That sounds interesting." said Luna. "May I join you?"

"Of course! Are you taking Ancient Runes?" asked Hermione.

"Yes, it's one of my favorite classes." Luna told her.

"I want to try the Find the Magical Creature Challenge." Ginny said. "I bet it'll be interesting. Hagrid helped design it."

Ron and Harry both agreed with Ginny.

"Let's meet back at McGonagall's challenge after we finish these." Hermione said.

Their plan made, the group split into two, with Ginny, Ron and Harry going to the very edge of the area to find the Care of Magical Creatures challenge. Hagrid was there, happy as could be, and he greeted the group cheerfully.

"Look here!" Hagrid motioned to Neville, who stood next to him. "Firs' student to find all five creatures. He's earned ten points for ya'.

"That's fantastic, Neville!" Harry said, genuinely proud of his friend.

"Thanks, Harry. This one's pretty difficult, and there's a time limit. Hagrid and Professor Grubbly-Plank trained the creatures really well, and they've each got several places to hide." Neville told them. "Best of luck to you. I'm going to try Professor Sprout's Living Maze Challenge next."

"Thanks, mate. Good luck to you, too." Harry said. When Neville was gone, he turned to Ron and Ginny. "I don't think I'll be trying the maze. I've had enough experiences in one for a lifetime."

"Yeah, no kidding." Ron agreed.

Hagrid then led them to the paddock where the five creatures were hiding. "Righ' then, ye can all go in together. There's several of each creature, but ye each need to find yer own. You'll need these." He handed them each a piece of parchment with the names and drawings of each creature they needed to find, and a bottle of ink. "See those boxes beside each picture? Tha's for the creature to draw it's own little signature on, an' prove ye found it. Mind ye don't touch the ink yerselves. It'll dye yer skin, and you'll be disqualified for cheating, trying to draw the signatures yerselves and whatnot."

"Alrigh' then, in ye go and don' worry, nothin' dangerous in there." He closed the paddock, which was a small wooded area, behind him.

"Why is it," Ron said. "That every time he says there's nothing dangerous, I get a bad feeling?"

"Oh, calm down, Ron." Ginny said. "Professor Grubbly-Plank planned most of it, remember? And besides, none of the creatures on this guide are dangerous."

"We have to find thestrals." Ron said. "Aren't they invisible?"

"Not to those who've seen death." said Ginny, as she picked up a flobberworm. The warm suddenly glowed and dipped itself in Ginny's enchanted ink. It drew a circle on her checklist and she set it back down.

"Well that explains why Neville was the only one who cleared this. He can see them, like me." Harry said, walking forward. "Hey, I found a bowtruckle." The aforementioned stick-like creature signed Harry's checklist and scuttled off.

The three of them quickly found the first four creatures: flobberworms, bowtruckles, crups, and snarls. They had only two minutes to find the thestrals.

"Are we just supposed to walk around until we run into one?" Ron asked.

"No! Look, there's some meat on that branch!" Harry exclaimed. "Just like what Hagrid fed the Thestrals! Must be for people who can't see them."

"Brilliant! Accio meat!" They summoned the meat and held it out in front of themselves, suddenly, the meat began to disappear. Ron and Ginny each set the meat, their checklists and the ink on the ground, and watch as inked hoofprints appeared next to the drawings of the thestrals.

Harry found a third thestral, and then rejoined Ron and Ginny.

A whistle blew from outside the paddock. "Time's up for this group! Everyone bring your checklists!" They heard Professor Grubbly-Plank call.

Ron, Harry and Ginny returned the ink and proudly handed over their checklists.

"Fine work indeed. I see you three paid attention in Professor Hagrid's lesson. Top notch! A full ten points to each of you."

The three of them thanked her and waved goodbye to Hagrid, who was now beaming, and then made their way to McGonagall's challenge.

Hermione and Luna were waiting in front of the challenge for them.

"The Runic Riddles Challenge was wonderful!" Hermione cried. "There were five rooms, and we had to solve riddles that were written in ancient runes to move through to the next room. If you gave the wrong answer, or misspelled it, you were sent back to the beginning and done. Luna and I are the only ones who made it through all five rooms so far."

McGonagall's challenge was interesting. It was, as Sirius said, an obstacle course. The obstacles were impossible to climb and would move so that you could not walk around them. Your only choice was to transfigure them into something smaller or less inconvenient. Only Ginny and Hermione earned ten points. Ron, Harry and Luna each earned one point for taking too long.

"That was just as difficult as I expected." Ron said.

"Well, it was McGonagall."

"So there's thirteen challenges." Ginny said. "And I'm doing eight of them. So I'm going to do two more, eat lunch and then play some games before I do the last three."

"Oh, yeah. We should take some time to try out the games." Hermione said. "Let's do Flitwick's and Madame Hooch's challenges and then have lunch."

The others agreed and they headed over to the Levitation Challenge, where you had to levitate a yellow ball over a pool of pink goop, while blue balls flew across the pool trying to knock down your ball. Getting it across without dropping it in one minute earned you ten points. Getting it across in two minutes earned you five, and getting it across in over two minutes earned you one.

At the Air Acrobats Challenge, Harry and Ginny each earned ten points for Gryffindor by racing from one end of an obstacle course to the other, without a single collision.

They bought butterbeer and mince pies from Madame Rosmerta's stalls, and found seats at a picnic area nearby. After lunch, they tried out a few games, and won some prizes. Harry won a stuffed rabbit that he gave to Luna, as it was her patronus, and some filibuster fireworks for himself.

It was early afternoon when they returned to the Challenges. They avoided Snape's Labyrinth, which was a tunnel with five doors blocking the way. Each door only opened if it's riddle was correctly answered. Students were allowed to turn around and leave through the door they came from, but would find themselves magically transported back to a door next to the entrance of the tunnel, with the word "Dunce" over it.

"Hey, isn't that Tonks?" Hermione asked. "Tonks!"

Sure enough, the woman up ahead was Tonks.

"Wotcher!" She greeted them.

"We didn't expect to see you here, Tonks." Hermione said.

"Oh, I'm just here for security reasons. The Minister wanted Aurors here as extra security because it's in Hogsmeade Village. Not as protected as Hogwarts, see?"

"I haven't seen any other Aurors." Ron said.

"Well, Sirius is one, albeit not officially yet. But the others aren't as recognizable as I am."

"Speaking of Sirius, have you seen the challenge he and Remus set up?" Hermione asked. "It's a lot of fun."

"Oh, uh… yeah… I saw it earlier. It looked neat… I gotta go… see you all later." Tonks turned and disappeared into the crowd.

"Hmm… So that's it." Hermione said.

"What's it? What's her problem? Is she angry at something?" Ron asked.

"Ron, you are so clueless." Ginny said.

"It's Remus, isn't it?" Harry said, surprising the girls. "I've noticed some glances between them, and Sirius seems annoyed with Remus every time Tonks is around."

"Why is Tonks angry at Remus?" Ron asked.

Hermione sighed. "Because she likes him Ron, and he's obviously not returning her feelings."

"What? But she's way too young for him!" Ron said, which made both Hermione and Ginny annoyed with him.

They headed for the History of Magic challenge, which was a Magical Trivia game. Three students competed against each other to answer trivia questions, and the person with the most questions answered at the end earned ten points. The person with the second most earned five points, and the person with the least earned one point. You had to correctly answer at least one question to earn any points at all. Luna finished first against Ron and Ginny, while Hermione wiped the floor with Harry and Neville, who had joined them for the challenge.

"I don't think Professor Binns created that challenge." Hermione said. "In fact, the people running it looked like the employees from Honeydukes."

"Well, Binns is a ghost. I bet he wouldn't have understood what Dumbledore was asking." Ron said.

The Star Map Challenge for Astronomy was enchanting. A dome had been constructed, with the interior being completely dark, save for the glittering stars dotting the sky. The Challenge was to accurately place three constellations in the night sky. Harry only earned five points, as he couldn't remember the order of the stars in Orion's belt. Hermione was the only one to earn ten points, although Luna came very close, had she not switched the Little Dipper and the Big Dipper ("It looks better this way, don't you think?").

Only Hermione and Luna tried the Arithmancy Hopskotch Challenge, which took place on a field of tiles, each one etched with a numeral or arithmancy symbol. The object of the challenge was to hop from tile to tile in a certain sequence to get to the other side. Hopping on the wrong tile transported you back to the beginning. They both earned ten points, unsurprisingly.

The Muggle Studies line was surprisingly long. The Professor designed a Triathlon based on the popular Muggle sport. The Muggle Triathlon Challenge was a three-part race: running, swimming, and wall-climbing. The faster you were, the more points you earned.

The last challenge was Professor Trelawney's Mystic Doors Challenge. Harry and Ron decided to give it a shot, but found themselves in utter frustration. Students had to move through seven rooms, each one containing two doors. You had to predict which door led to the next room, and which one would transport you back to the entrance. Harry couldn't tell whether Ron had picked the correct door, since it shut quickly. He had to hand it to Sybil Trelawney: she'd chosen a tricky challenge. In the end, he only made it to the second room, and Ron, to his chagrin, didn't get through the first.

"Look on the bright side. At least she didn't write 'Dunce' over the loser's door." Harry said and that cheered Ron up considerably.

With no more challenges left, the group was rejoined by Neville, and they returned to the stalls to try some more games and buy some candy from Honeydukes. Around 7 o'clock, the stalls began closing and professors began to usher students back to the school. Harry noticed Remus and Sirius magically dismantling their challenge, and he and his friends went over to say hello.

Hermione, of course, saw this as an opportunity. "We saw Tonks earlier, Remus. Did she drop by?"

Remus' face paled, and he didn't meet her eyes. "Um… yes, she tried out the challenge before the students arrived."

Once again, Sirius' was giving him an annoyed look, but this time he also looked at Hermione and raised his eyebrows. She smiled back at him and he shrugged, resuming his work.

"That was cruel, Hermione." Ron said as soon as they were out of earshot. The six of them were making their way back to the castle.

"It was necessary, Ron." Hermione said.

"Yeah, his reaction said quite a few things." Ginny agreed.

"Like what?" asked Harry.

"I think Professor Lupin is fond of your friend Tonks." Luna said.

"He definitely is." said Ginny.

"Then why is Tonks angry with him?" Ron asked.

"Because even though he likes her, he's refusing to be with her." Hermione concluded. "And knowing Remus, it's for several reasons."

"Are you going to elaborate or should we just start guessing?" Ron asked.

"First, he's older than her. At least ten years." Ginny said. "Although he looks a lot older, doesn't he?"

"Second, he's a werewolf, and he thinks he's a monster because of it." Hermione said.

"And he probably doesn't want to pass on werewolf genes to any children." Neville added.

"And speaking of children, even if they aren't werewolves, he's probably afraid he'd hurt them." Hermione said.

"How do you do that? Figure people out so easily?" Ron asked, incredulous.

"Women's intuition." said Hermione and Ginny together.

"Um…" Neville cleared his throat. "I don't think I have that."

"You're just a good person, Neville." Harry said. "That's why you understand Remus."


Back at the castle, the students took their places at the House tables, eagerly waiting for Dumbledore to announce the winners of the first Challenge Cup as well as the House Cup.

Once everyone had filed in, Dumbledore began his speech. "First, I would like to thank all of the professors and others who helped design the thirteen challenges today, as well as the villagers of Hogsmeade, for their wonderful games and food for us to enjoy. This was a wonderful day indeed, and I was pleased to see you all enjoying it. A decision has been made to continue Games Day as an annual end-of-year tradition. For those of you who are not Seventh years will be able to enjoy Games Day again next year, and in years to come.

"Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for. It is time to tally up the points. In fourth place is Ravenclaw, with 1,133 points."

"Bloody hell! One thousand?" Ron's mouth fell open.

"Yes, Ron, do the math." Hermione said.

"In third place, Hufflepuff, with 1,260 points."

Both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw looked thoroughly disappointed.

"That leaves Slytherin and Gryffindor. In second place, with 1,347 points…"

Dumbledore waited a moment, allowing the whole hall to hold its breath. "Is Slytherin house."

Someone outside the hall might have thought there'd been an explosion as the Gryffindor House cheered.

Dumbledore gave them a moment to celebrate before finishing. "Yes, that means Gryffindor House is the winner of the Challenge Cup, with a staggering 1,486 points. Well done, well done." He held up a white gold trophy, which he then handed to a very proud McGonagall. Harry noticed that Sirius and Remus were both tremendously happy. As Gryffindors themselves, it was no wonder.

"Before we begin our End of Year feast, we do have one more order of business. The House Cup must be awarded. In fourth place is Gryffindor, with 156 points."

There were some angry murmurs at Gryffindor table, but at least they'd won the Challenge Cup.

"In third place is Hufflepuff with 246 points. And in second place, Ravenclaw, with 268 points. Which means Slytherin has won the House Cup with 439 points! Congratulations Slytherin!" Dumbledore clapped his hands, which changed the normal Hogwarts banners hanging from the ceiling to Slytherin banners.

Only the Slytherin House celebrated. The other three houses sat still and quiet. They hadn't forgotten how easily Slytherin had allied with the High Inquisitor. Even Snape didn't have a smug look on his face. In fact, he looked disgusted. But then, Harry noticed, only Flitwick separated him from Remus, who clapped politely for Slytherin, and Sirius, who was speaking quietly to McGonagall and ignoring the Slytherin's cheers entirely.

Dumbledore seemed to notice the bitterness amongst his students. "Now then, I'm sure you're all quite famished, so, if you please, dig in."

Somehow, even after five years, food magically appearing in front of you never gets old.


This was a long chapter... and it took a while to come up with a challenge for each class. But I think I made them pretty interesting.