Hello again! Welcome back to this ongoing trainwreck. Enjoy your stay!
Harry entered a classroom that was too small for the five champions, wand master, Ludo Bagman, and Rita Skeeter. Emily grinned and nodded at him. Oddly, Matthews was the only school head there.
"Ah, here he is! Champion number five! In you come, Harry, in you come… nothing to worry about, it's just the wand weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment-" Ludo spoke so fast Harry could barely distinguish words.
"Wand weighing?" Harry asked.
"We have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they're your most important tool in the tasks ahead. The expert's upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there's going to be a little photo shoot. This is Rita Skeeter. She's doing a small piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet…"
"Maybe not that small, Ludo. I wonder if I could have a word with Harry before we start?" Rita Skeeter was a middle-aged woman trying desperately to look young, with dyed blond hair permed into curls. A pair of jeweled glasses made her eyes seem huge. Her fake nails were almost clawlike.
"Not unless you have express permission from his guardian," Matthews pointed out. "He is a minor, according to British common law, which you must follow. Minors can only be interviewed or photographed by the press with the presence or explicit consent of their guardians." Rita scowled. "I believe it is time for the wand weighing?" Sure enough, the judges came down, along with Ollivander.
"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?" Fleur nodded and stepped forwards, handing Ollivander her wand handle-first. "Hmmm… Yes, nine and a half inches… inflexible… rosewood… and containing… dear me…"
"A hair from the head of a veela. One of my grandmother's."
Yes, yes, I've never used veela hair myself, of course. I find it makes for rather temperamental wands… however, to each his own, and if this suits out… Orchideous!" A bouquet of white roses shot from the tip of Fleur's wand. "Very well, very well, it's in fine working order. Mr. Diggory, you next." Cedric stepped forward and followed the same procedure as Fleur. "Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn't it? Yes, I remember it well. Containing a single hair from the tail of a particularly fine male unicorn… or maybe it was the hair of a particularly sparkly vampire, you never know with some suppliers… Twelve and a quarter inches… ash… pleasantly springy. It's in fine condition… You treat it regularly?"
"Polished it last night." Cedric's smile was oddly vapid, like a beauty contestant.
"Well, it does diminish the magical conductivity of the wand, but to each his own." Ollivander sent a stream of silver smoke rings out of the end of Cedric's wand. "Mr. Krum, if you please." Viktor stepped forward and offered his wand to Ollivander. "Hmm… this is a Gregorovitch creation unless I'm much mistaken? A find wand-maker, though the styling is never quite what I… however… yes… hornbeam and dragon heartstring? Rather thicker than one usually sees… quite rigid… ten and a quarter inches… Avis!" A loud bang and a small amount of smoke resounded around the room, leaving several small, twittering, yellow birds in its wake to fly out the window. "Good. Miss Falk?" Emily twirled her wand in her fingers and gave it to Ollivander. "Cedar wood, I presume… ten and five-eighths inches… pliable… and a core of… oh, my…"
"Primary feather of a female thunderbird," Emily replied easily. "Back in Illinois, they're rather common and are used fairly frequently as wand cores, especially by Fogleman Magical tools."
"I have never heard of this Mr. Fogleman."
"Fogleman is run by a woman, actually. Opal Fogleman is the matriarch of the family and the primary wand creator. It makes sense you haven't heard of them, though; they only provide Illinois and a bit of the area around it with wands." Ollivander lifted Emily's wand and a soft glow filled the room.
"Excellent, simply excellent! Which leaves… Mr. Potter." Nervously, Harry gave Ollivander his wand. 'Aaaah, yes. Yes, yes, yes. How well I remember. Eleven inches… holly… one tail feather from a young phoenix… supple. Quite powerful." After creating a stream of wine, Ollivander handed Harry back his wand. "Still in perfect condition."
"Thank you all. You may go back to your lessons now - or perhaps it would be quicker to just go down to dinner, as they are about to end "
"Photos, Dumbledore, photos! All the judges and champions, what do you think, Rita?"
"Er - yes, let's do those first and then perhaps some individual shots."
"Miss Skeeter, I'm afraid that we only have time for one group photo," Matthews pointed out. Emily smiled and walked past him, bumping Cedric on her way out, presumably to tell him about the tournament. Harry only thought that fair; Cedric didn't have any assistance, not to mention the fact that he wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree. As Harry finally walked back to the common room, Hermione handed him a letter.
"For you," she said softly before returning to her studies. Harry eagerly opened the letter and read its contents.
Harry-
I can't say everything I would like to in a letter, it's too risky in case the owl is intercepted - we need to talk face-to-face. Can you ensure you are alone by the fire in Gryffindor Tower at one o'clock in the morning on the 22nd of November?
I know better than anyone that you can look after yourself, and while you're around Dumbledore and Moody I don't think anyone will be able to hurt you. However, someone seems to be having a good try. Entering you in that tournament would have been very risky, especially right under Dumbledore's nose.
Be on the watch, Harry. I still want to hear about anything unusual. Let me know about the 22nd of November as quickly as you can.
Sirius
Harry grinned. At least, another adult was looking out for him! Quickly, he penned a letter.
Sirius,
I can be there at the date and time requested, but could I have Hermione and a friend you haven't met with me? She has been helping me a lot lately, (along with a few others who I will discuss with you then) and deserves to know my plan.
Harry.
Harry sent the letter off with Hedwig and marked the 22nd on his calendar.
I am unsure if laws like this differ across the pond, but you need to sign special release forms for school every year for photos taken at school events or for school-related news. I am not joking. When I say express consent, I mean express, there for the interview or signed a form, consent. Of course, Rita can still write her stuff, but there are other ways to deal with it.
Speaking of law, can someone from the UK or with knowledge on this topic inform me about British laws around the press and libel/slander? It would make me very happy as I am a) American, b) residing in a state where the above laws are in full effect, and c) not in a situation granting me the time to research this to where I could be considered factually and contextually correct. I keep thinking this will come up, either in this fic or a possible sequel.
The Twilight joke was completely necessary. I am playing Cedric as not too bright in this because, while he is handsome in the books and movies, he's not exactly displayed as having high intelligence. The dog trick was clever but he had a week to come up with that and it's the kind of thing that he would have learned without a Transfiguration OWL.
Okay, that ends the related author's note. What's down below is skippable.
I know I haven't updated in a bit, but I did add a bunch of random oneshots and ficlets which could be up your alley. Check out my profile for them, drop a review if you want to, and peruse works of mine that are not currently ranked as the longest of my publishable volumes and roughly second-longest overall. The longer one is currently a total mess, but it is six thousand words more of a mess.
Speaking of that mess and my absence, May will be a crazy month for me and my beta. Does anyone remember the FT crossovers I deleted? If so, skip the rest of the paragraph. If not, the plot of Force is that basically some of the Fairy Tail mages are called to Hogwarts to keep it safe in GoF. It's part of a wider universe that questions my ability to plot while on asthma medication and so contains 2 OCs. Its sequel, Rebellion, is in OoP and slightly better, in my opinion, as I sucked at writing when I began Force. As I was writing Rebellion, my view on HP shifted and my schedule got more hectic, so I stopped writing it and started writing other pieces I didn't post. When I looked back at how crappy they were, I deleted Force and Rebellion and decided to attempt rewriting them eventually.
You may be pleased to hear that Force is currently being rewritten and will probably be posted as my chapter-of-the-week in May. It is fairly similar but not as friendly to Dumbledore or Ron and I'm messing around with the OCs. By the time May rolls around, Force as a whole could actually be half-decent as I'm liking the chapter I've rewritten. It's also going to possess chapters longer than my standard thousand-ish. The finished fic will be considerably longer than Force originally was as Force was a pretty bad fic if we're being honest. So, expect that sometime. God, this is like 600 words and it's doing nothing. Oops.
