Hello, welcome to this week's installment of North American Tournament. Over 1,000 words this time! It actually was originally supposed to cut off after the line break, leaving it around the normal 700-800, but I didn't because I had five more days to complete it. Explanations at the end.


Harry, Katie, and Hermione walked down to Dorothy after breakfast; Angelina and the Twins were searching the library and grounds for any clues or pretending to. Upon closer inspection, the house appeared to be an actual house built to code and made to be lived in, not a magical construction. The white sideboard shone from a recent wash and the door stood open. Around the house, some of the Liberty students lounged with large textbooks and at least one laptop. The one nearest them perked up.

"You must be Harry," The boy said on a soft Texan accent. He looked to be a year older than them, with blond hair and blue yes. "Erik Koelbel, nice to meet you. Emily's inside if you want to talk to her." The three nodded and continued on. True to Erik's word, Emily and several of the other candidates were sitting inside, discussing something. As they entered, Emily turned to them.

"Harry!" Emily cheered. "We were just talking about the Tournament. Julie and some friends back home have been researching the Tournament and, generally, the first task involves fighting a magical creature."

"Like trolls? Basilisks? Dementors? Werewolves?" Harry asked. Julia frowned at the oddly specific list. From her open laptop, a tinny voice rang out.

"That's an… oddly specific list. Maybe dementors or trolls on the weak end," the voice replied in an even tone. "Basilisks are illegal to breed by international law and werewolves have a risk of attacking spectators. Now that I think about it, dementors would be banned for that too."

"It would have to be a four or five X animal, though," another voice added. "First task has the highest death and maiming rate of champions. Did they drop hints on what kind of animal?"

"No. The wording was that, and I quote, 'the first task is designed to test your daring, so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard… very important…' It could be anything."

"If they're bringing in beasts," Hermione guessed, "especially large ones, they'd have to keep them in the Forbidden Forest. We could go down there and check."

"Isn't the Forbidden Forest well… forbidden?" one of the younger Liberty students asked, looking up from her homework.

"Yes, but there are no defenses around it," Katie explained.

"People go in there on detentions," Harry pointed out.

"They do?"

"Malfoy, Neville, Hermione, and I were assigned one there once."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, and it was at night. The forest can't be that dangerous." Katie put her head in her hands.

"Please tell me you weren't first years."

"Uh…"

"Goddammit Harry, can you have a year of school where you don't almost die on at least three separate occasions?" Emily and Julia turned to look at Katie. "First year would be the detention, the Troll, and the gauntlet. Second year was the basilisk, which luckily only petrified four people. Third year was the Dementors and Sirius Black, not to mention Professor Lupin."

"Actually, Sirius wasn't trying to kill me. He didn't betray my parents."

"But he was conv-"

"No trial."

"Of course not."

"Can you please explain that?" the computer voices asked.

"Joanna, Lamia, why do you think I know?" Emily asked.

"Well, since you are actually in Britain and not your living room-"

"-or an abandoned choir room-"

"-I think you would be more inclined to know the answer."

"Harry, do you care to explain that comment to us who aren't here last year?" Irina asked. "We are quite confused."

"Well, first year, a toll managed to get into the school on Halloween, someone jinxed my broom, and we had to save to stone from Voldemort. He killed my parents and a lot of other people before I supposedly killed him. His Death Eaters terrorized the last World Cup."

"Magic KKK?"a younger student asked.

"Magic Hitler," an older one pointed out.

"Evil Magic Jesus, too," one muttered.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Nevermind. I'll explain later." Emily said.

"Second year, a basilisk went through the school pipes and petrified four people. Last year, Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban."

"Isn't that the Magical Abu Ghraib?" An older boy asked.

"What?"

"Nevermind. I'll explain later."

"Sirius was imprisoned for betraying my parents because he was supposedly their secret keeper. He was also imprisoned for killing a bunch of people, but that's kind of a side note because they were nonmagical and the Ministry didn't really emphasize it."

"Woohoo, I don't live in the most racist place!" Liz cheered.

"What?"

"Nevermind. I'll explain later."

"Anyways, Sirius didn't betray my parents and actually broke out to save me. After that, things get… complicated. He's living on the run with a hippogriff."

"That's… interesting. Is he still wanted?"

"Yes."

"Was he convicted?"

"No."

"No trial?"

"Yes."

"Is Azkaban Magical Gitmo?" Sean asked.

"What?"

"Nevermind. I'll explain later. Deputy Johnson!"

"What?"

"Do the magical US and UK have an extradition treaty?"

"No. Why?"

"I want to change the government's control of Harry." Julia yelled.

"How?"

"Sirius Black."

"The one in Azkaban with no trial?"

"Yes."

"Fine. We're doing long-range transfer for the First Task anyways. Just make sure the nonmagical governments can't get involved."

"Why?"

"Nonmagical governments have extradition. The magicals don't because purebloods kept getting off for it."

"An interesting history lesson and plan aside," Matthews interrupted. "You two need to be prepared for the First Task."

"We have no clue what it is," Emily pointed out. "There is no way we can memorize how to fight every XXXX and XXXXX creature in existence. There's not enough time. They'll have to bring the animals in within the next week. We can sneak down there and find out then."

"Dirty, sneaky, and functional. I like it. Study your nonmagical subjects between now and Thursday. We'll reassess then.


"The Liberty students are weird, aren't they?" Katie asked. "Abu Ghraib, KKK, Hitler, Gitmo… what are these things? Are they stuck in the past?" Hermione frowned.

"I know some of those," Hermione murmured guiltily. "They're nonmagical culture references. Really bad references. They're not in the past; we are. They're in the future."

"That's… kind of disturbing," Katie replied. "I mean, we're all told Hogwarts is the best, right? We're stuck what, fifty years in the past?"

"More like three hundred," Hermione answered. "Wizards broke off in 1692 and stopped caring about the nonmagical world. We are taught nothing about the nonmagical world, which is so much bigger than us it could squash us easily. If they knew about Voldemort, there'd be a decent chance he'd never have gotten to power and the entire UK would no longer exist."

"How?"

"Nuclear weapons," Harry muttered.

"What?"

"Nukes!"

"What are nukes?"

"Nuclear warheads are essentially bombs that can wipe out entire cities or countries, depending on which bomb and country you're talking about," Hermione explained. "Currently, there are enough active warheads to destroy the world 23 times over. If nonmagical governments viewed the magical world as a threat, we would literally be wiped off the face of the earth."

"That's… reassuring. Why do the muggles have nuclear weapons?"

"It's… complicated. Basically, there was a giant arms race, and we're living with the consequences. even if they aren't used, we could still be destroyed easily by the US or Russia, even by the UK. The magical world doesn't know it, though, so we push boundaries."

"So… we're ignoring something that can destroy us easily and is way more advanced than us?"

"More or less."

"Woohoo. Watch out world, we're destroying ourselves."


Like Hermione said, the "Nevermind. I'll explain later," comments are generally not nice. In order, what they reference:

KKK - Klu Klux Klan, America's longest-living white supremacy group. It has it's own website. A teacher of mine googled it in class. We through the description was a joke.

Hitler - leader of the Nazis in World War II, for anyone that hasn't heard of him despite the Law of Internet Conversation.

Evil Jesus - the whole rising-from-the-dead thing. Not meant to offend.

Abu Ghraib - US military prison scandal a few years back.

Gitmo - Americans' nickname for Guantanamo Bay, another possible human rights violation.

Liz's comment of "Wohoo, I don't live in the most rascist place!" - Liz is an Old South girl, and the Old South has a long, long history of being... intolerant, to put it nicely (refer to Civil War, KKK above). She doesn't like this, like many people who moved to the Old South for X reason.

Thanks again to EMMYANN, by beta-BFF and metaphorical sister, for working her magic and not killing me for the story I started writing.