Disclaimer and warnings: refer chapter one
A/N: review time!
evans16: Dumbledore has no magic in Hogwarts. As soon as he steps out of the Hogwarts campus (grounds included) he regains his magic.
Luna13: (concerning chapter 9) while I appreciate the French lesson, I think that is what Annabeth says in canon. Not sure, but I didn't have the book around. And no, I don't have a Beta.
Blaze1992: While HPverse may seem like a side verse, it plays into the main plot... Eventually. At the very least, some characters do.
Chapter Fourteen
The next day began as the one before. Harry getting up early, having a nice breakfast, this time without his sister, and then waiting for his friends. One more thing did change, though.
A redheaded, freckled boy approached him. Just by glance, Harry wanted nothing to do with him. The boy was a messy eater (he had food smudges on his collar and cheeks), possibly with a very low intelligence level, and most of all, he was convinced that he knew Harry. To be accurate, he felt that the two of them were best buds. Also, for some reason he believed that Harry was a spy for Hogwarts in Beacon.
Harry had never met someone so annoyingly stupid and ignorant. Even Ares and his brood were smarter than this one.
And Harry had no idea what his name was, given that the boy had never introduced himself.
Luckily, he was an expert at ignoring annoying people, so that is what he did till the other Beacon students arrived. Or at least, till one of them did.
"Who's this?" Sun asked. He could clearly see the annoyance on Harry's face, which meant that this redhead was that special kind of stupid. It did take a lot of stupidity for Harry to be visibly annoyed.
"Some idiot who thinks that I am his BFF or something," Harry replied evenly.
Before Sun could ask why, the redhead turned to Sun, "Can't you see that you're not needed here?" the boy had almost yelled. He would have caused a scene, but there weren't many students in the Hall. "Unless you called him here 'cause you're a spy for Hogwarts!" he added as he turned to Harry.
Sun burst out laughing, while Harry replied with, "Way to blow my cover! How will I ever get the information I need!" If the sentence could be harvested for sarcasm and if that sarcasm would be converted to electricity, it would be enough to power a commercial building for a decade.
Sun only laughed harder. He almost lost his control over his bladder when he realized that the redheaded boy had not caught the sarcasm.
"Sorry!" He yelled, "I was just telling this guy to mind his—"
"Mr. Weasley!" came the strict voice of Professor Mcgonagal, "Are you disturbing our guests?"
The redhead, now known as Weasley, sputtered. "Of course I wasn't!"
"He is. Completely disturbing my peaceful morning," Harry said.
The Hogwarts student looked at him in betrayal. "But I am your best friend!"
"I don't even know your name!"
Mcgonagal looked ready to murder Weasley. "Ronald Weasley! I haven't a clue where you got the idea from, but you will leave our guests alone! Also, fifteen points from Gryffindor for your improper behaviour!"
Ronald looked ready to blow off some steam himself. Harry and Sun took this opportunity to walk away. They did hear that the aged professor gave him a detention.
"She is a lot like the Librarian," Sun commented as they got clear.
"I am pretty sure that Professor Goodwitch would kill you if she heard that you were the one who started calling her that..." Harry replied. "But where are the girls? It's quite late."
"Waiting for your girlfriend, Harry? I mean she does take more than a hour to do her hair, and then an hour extra for makeup," Sun was about to say more, but then they noticed the girl in question walking towards them.
"What are you guys doing here? And what's for breakfast?"
Harry sighed. "Long story. Shortened version: annoying redhead boy seems to think I am his BFF and then got in trouble with the Transfigurations professor."
"What?"
(No. 12 Grimmauld Place)
Sirius Black turned on his laptop with a grin. He had gotten the entire estate bugged. CCTVs, microphones, and more covered every room, corridor and threshold of the house. Everything was connected to his laptop, and the footage stored in an external hard drive.
Since these new toys of his were genuine spy material, they were quite hard to notice. Add to the fact that these were designed by a muggleborn witch who currently worked in MI5, even Moody would have a hard time noticing the object, much less the camera/microphone embedded within.
How did he get his hands on them?
Well, after Diane dumped him and went back to Germany (she didn't want to stay in UK for any reason) he had met the witch who designed these gadgets in a chance meeting at a nearby café. She had recognized him immediately as she kept an eye on the Magical Government for a living.
Apparently, after the last time Voldemort and his band of merry followers killed and tortured muggles, and since the magical government didn't really care about the dead muggles, the non-magical government decided to employ wizards and witches, mostly muggleborn as they never got any jobs in the Ministry, and use their extensive technology to keep an eye on the Ministry to ensure nothing of the sorts happens again.
While Sirius didn't know who she really was back then, he had turned on his charm. It did not work at first, but eventually he got through, and now they were dating.
Back to the plot, Sirius had to see what Dumbledore and his ilk had done here yesterday. It was a routine Order meeting, except kept at a time when Sirius was invited by the Minister for a friendly (political) lunch.
Sirius had to leave, as it would be rude to decline, but the whole thing reeked of Dumbledore's doing. He didn't care, Dumbledore couldn't hide anything here.
On the screen, he could see Dumbledore, Molly and Arthur Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mundungus Fletcher and Nymphadora Tonks seated in the dining room. He didn't expect Arthur or Kingsley to speak much; Arthur hardly spoke around his wife and Kingsley preferred to listen well before speaking. He was just the silent type.
As for Mundungus, he was asleep on the table.
"As you may have heard," Dumbledore said, "Harry Potter has come back."
Molly gasped in surprise, then her expression got serious, and looked a bit angry. "Well, about time! We can finally get the money we deserve!"
Sirius blinked. Money she deserved for what? Being an overbearing mother/housewife/wife?
"What money?" questioned Tonks. She was confused as the next person.
Molly blushed. "Um, I placed a bet on whether he was alive or not..."
Sirius had to applaud her for the lie. And yes, that was sarcasm.
Tonks and the others seemed to understand.
"Later, Molly," Dumbledore said, as if chiding a child. "But, how are we going to keep him in the country?"
"Why?" Tonks questioned again. "We can simply ask him to stay and defeat You-Know-Who."
Dumbledore shook his head. "I have met the child. He is lost, alone in this world. He doesn't trust us easily. But if we keep him, he may just listen to us."
Sirius blinked again. Was Dumbledore seriously going to play by that angle? Surely they would remember him as Harry's godfather, right?
"That poor boy," Molly said sadly. "It must be so hard on him..."
Sirius slapped his forehead as he realized everyone had bought that. Kingsley excluded; but that was again to be expected. Kingsley was an intelligent soul.
"What of Sirius Black? The man is his godfather, right?" Kingsley asked.
"Sirius was in Azkaban for over twelve years. Who knows how much of his mind was damaged by dementors?" Dumbledore said. "And even if it wasn't, Sirius is simply too immature to raise a child."
At this point, as the more doubtful members of the meeting were convinced as well, Sirius began wondering if James and Lily would have been alive if the three of them would have been able to tell the aged headmaster's lies as well as Sirius was doing now.
Minister Fudge was in a relatively good mood. His 'friend' Lucius Malfoy had made another generous donation, and even more, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, had finally been found.
Why had Dumbledore put him in Beacon was anyone's guess, but if that Rita Skeeter was correct, and Fudge felt that she was the most honest reporter, then Dumbledore had truly gone senile and mistakenly enrolled Harry in Beacon.
Not that it mattered; Harry Potter was back in England. As the Minister of Magic, it was his duty to keep national treasures like the Boy-Who-Lived safe and sound within the country.
Immediately getting an idea to pass a law that stated that all British born wizards cannot leave the country, he began to write it on a parchment. Lucius would love to see it.
Too bad he used an owl, and not the Floo.
At least he made Ministry Owl 213's day...he got to meet his Mistress's son.
Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Harry and his friends had originally thought that this class was similar to, if not the same as, Offensive/Defensive Magic. What they got was the idea that certain spells, which were quite useful in everyday life depending on your profession, were categorized as 'Dark' if it made you get so much as a small cut, and how to defend yourself against them. Like the cutting curse. Used worldwide by chefs to cut and slice meat. But the British Ministry had declared the spell as Dark.
Or at least that was what the textbooks said.
The classes, that were taught by this grizzly old man with a magical eye, who called himself Moody, were however similar to Off/Def magic. He was a good teacher, and kept the class interested either by spying on them with his magic eye to ensure that no one was sleeping, or by the content of his lectures.
Well, interesting to anyone not named Harry Potter, that is.
Herbology was just as good. Harry was sure that if they had such a system, then the professor would easily possess a PhD. But what interested him more was that Neville was excellent at Herbology, but sucked at Potions. Both subjects went hand in hand. Herbology provided the ingredients, and a good Herbologist knew how to handle them. A better one knew how to make a decent potion out of them.
Of course, he had never gone to, because he had never taken up the subjects, Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. He was a demigod, and COMC also covered the more dangerous creatures that hunted down demigods. Also because most of the subject matter (the theory anyways) was covered in Monsters Class in Camp.
While Silena had the same schedule as he did, Weiss had COMC, and Yang and Sun had both. Which was why, the two of them were sitting in the Hogwarts library.
Silena sighed as she tried to find a book on the Unforgivables. Moody had asked for a 24 inch essay on each curse. So three essays in total. How was she going to do that if she could not find any reference material? She didn't want to ask her boyfriend, as then Harry would try to convince her to do it later.
Then she would have to do it herself, bringing her back to square one. He was really unsupportive at times like these.
Or at least had been when they were 'just friends.' She didn't know what he would do now.
"Trouble finding these?" Harry asked, bringing her out of her thoughts. In his hands were three books, one on each Unforgivable.
Silena humphed. "What, a special power of Athena's that lets you find the exact book you are looking for?"
Harry chuckled; she was obviously frustrated at not being able to find the books. "Nope! I just figured that the library would have a organised manner by which they arrange their books. Like all libraries do."
"And where were they?"
"In the so called Restricted Section. I don't really know how a simple rope, that has no enchantments on it, mind you, supposed to denote Restricted, but whatever."
Silena raised a brow. Beacon's library didn't have any restricted sections, though there were a few books that were meant for teachers only. "What kind of idiot designed this system?"
"Probably the same one who runs the place..." Harry muttered.
"Excuse me," came a familiar voice from behind him. "I don't know how they do it back in the US, but you're supposed to ask for permission before getting books from the Restricted Section."
Harry turned, not noticing the small smile on Silena's face. Another potential threat to her perfect relationship dropped. Hermione was a book smart sort of a girl, and Silena had seen a child of Athena or two fall for such people.
But she was a huge fan of rules, which meant Harry would never even want to be friends with her.
"Well, maybe they should have tightened up security around the place." Harry replied.
Hermione looked ready to protest. "But what if a book would have cursed you?"
Harry raised a brow while Silena decided to watch the show. "Curse me? Right, because cursed books are so common."
Cursed books were rare finds, mostly because such books would be destroyed before they did much harm. Smart people usually kept these books well away from schools, but if this girl was to be believed, then the school administration was quite stupid. Besides, Salazar could easily tell between a cursed book and a normal one, so it was no harm done.
Silena, who had now picked up the book on the Cruciaticus, smirked lightly. She was only pretending to read, of course. The look on Hermione's face was far too entertaining to miss.
"But you need permission!" the bushy haired girl spluttered. This was not how she had expected the saviour of the magical world to be. Surely Dumbledore taught him to follow rules? But he was in Beacon, and Dumbledore would never put him there, would he? Hermione was as confused as any other Hogwarts student regarding this.
Harry raised a brow. "Permission? Possibly yes, that would be a sensible thing to do. Unless you take into account that the Restricted Section is guarded off by a single rope, that is give or take at least a hundred years old. Whatever enchantments were placed on it have long since worn out, and hence, is accessible to anyone. No need to go to the librarian about it. Also, good luck finishing the homework to which you have no knowledge of."
Saying thus, Harry began to walk away. "Where're you going?" Silena asked.
"Well, to get more books on the subject."
"But you already have three!" Hermione pointed out. "Why do you need more?"
"Because, one book is never reliable. To do good research, you need multiple books. One of them might be a flat out liar, after all."
Hermione, who at this point was quite angry, refused to believe that a book could lie. With a huff, she left Silena alone.
"I first thought she was a boring version of Annabeth," Silena commented once Harry got back with another book.
"Nah," Harry said off-handedly, "Annie knows how books can lie. She knows her limits, and most importantly, knows that rules can be bent to suit your needs in suitable situations. Hermione, she only reads and memorizes. I doubt she understands the crux of the matter she reads. Evident by the type of answers she gives in class. They're too mechanical."
"Why do the teachers adore her, then?"
"Isn't it obvious? Most of them are equally mechanical." Harry replied as he left to find more books. Stupid 24 inch essays...
'You know that the eye guy didn't put any word limit, right? You could simply write really big words and get away with it!'
Harry grinned. The teachers' fault for not specifying a word limit.
Voldemort was extremely confused.
None of the letters he had sent had been received. The owls that sent them never came back. And all the letters he had been getting had something completely useless, like a monthly subscription for something called JustUsBoys Magazine.
But the most recent one had been quite interesting.
To,
The one who calls himself Voldemort.
This letter has been sent to inform you of your eminent demise. If you're wondering who I am, its that one guy who you failed to kill as a baby. Ha! The great and almighty Voldemort can't kill a baby! You could have just tossed me out the window! Or stomped on my spine! But you used magic, and now you're... well... I don't exactly know what you are.
But I will be killing you one day.
Caio!
~Harry Potter
P. S. Follow me on Twitter hjpotter
"It could be a trap, Milord," Lucius said as he read the letter.
"Of course its a trap you fool! He is asking us to follow him on this... Twitter. But once I find him there, I will kill him. Find out where this Twitter is. Then kidnap him once he comes there, and bring him to me. Do not mess this one up, Lucius," Voldemort hissed.
Lucius bowed. "Of course, my lord." He left immediately, set out to find out where this 'Twitter' place was.
Harry found his sister and a ghost talking like they were old friends as he entered her room.
Technically, he had no formal reason for this visit. But, since Rowena had not exactly taught Harry any of the Unforgiveables, he was here only to ask something that went against the fundamentals of magic.
Why were these three spells unstoppable by a magic shield.
"Uh... Hi?" Harry questioned as he entered.
The ghost lady shimmered, as if to leave, but Rowena stopped her. "Harry," Rowena raised a brow, "This is Helena, my niece. Helena, this is Harry, whom I suppose would be your uncle."
Helena's ghost turned towards Harry. She had waist length hair, possibly black, but could be any other dark color (ghosts appeared as white and black figures, and Helena was no different), and a robe that covered her entire body. Her looks were almost the same as Rowena's, except for her nose, which was smaller, and her eyes that were certainly not grey.
"You mean the young Potter you raised," Helena said serenely.
Rowena nodded. "But what are you doing here?"
Harry decided to get to the point. His sister looked like she and Helena wanted to be left alone for a while. "Why are the Unforgivables considered undefendable by magical means?"
Rowena allowed a small smile to grace her face. "They can be stopped using a magical shield. But you find out how. And send that idiot outside your mind."
'Tell her I am not here!'
'She knows you are.'
"Indeed I do, Salazar. Get out of my brother's mind right now."
Helena looked confused. "Uncle Salazar is..."
"The most important ghost in all of the world!" Salazar made his entrance. "Now available in tangible form as a limited edition."
"Quit that. Mind telling me why you could not answer Harry's question? You know the answer," Rowena enquired.
"Well, I was preoccupied."
"What could be more important than Harry's education?"
"His mental defences. When did you teach him to convert his memories into their digitalized binary forms? All I can make out are 1's and 0's! And break that encryption only to find out that it leads to another encryption!"
Harry would have pointed out that the secondary encryption was actually ASCII, but Salazar was better off not knowing. Helena, however was confused. What was binary, digit whatever, and what did numbers had to do with memories.
Rowena blinked. "Hiding memories behind an encryption and then converting them into binary... That is quite ingenious."
Harry felt his ego rise through the roof with his sister's praise. It had taken him a while to do it, like 6 months or so. But he decided to get back to his original question.
"What about magical vacuum? Would that work?" Harry asked, causing Rowena and Salazar to turn to him. Helena was still confused.
Rowena answered after thinking about it for a while. Magical vacuum was a spell theory she created back in early 1900s. The basic idea was that the spell would create a field around the user that would convert any incoming magical energy to other forms and disperse the extra energy into nature.
Of course, 'vacuum' was a misnomer; but magical energy transformation and transduction field was too much of a mouthful. Why Rowena decided on 'vacuum' was anyone's guess, not that Harry or Rowena cared much.
"Harry, even after a century I haven't been able to complete the spell. Theoretically, though, it might work." Rowena answered.
Harry nodded, and bid them farewell and left.
It took a moment for Salazar to realize that Harry had left him behind. "WAIT FOR ME!" The ghost yelled, running, er, floating after him.
Helena turned to her aunt. "This is going to take a while," Rowena muttered, knowing that she had to explain everything to her.
Neville Longbottom had no idea how to follow his grandmother's instructions. But then again, he should have expected this when he told her that Harry was back.
Augusta Longbottom had asked, no, ordered him to make friends with Harry Potter. She saw Harry not as the Boy-Who-Lived, or just Harry, but rather as the heir to the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter. While he had no problems with her order, he had no idea how to go about doing this.
If Harry had been raised in England, it would have been as easy as saying that their families were allies for more than 500 years, and hence it was their duty to follow. But from what Neville had gathered, Harry didn't care for these things.
Sure, their parents were close friends. Not best of buds, but still quite close. Alice and Lily were in the same dorm in Hogwarts, and while Frank was a year above James, the two were childhood friends from the many Pureblood Gatherings. But Neville was not sure even if that would work.
Neville knew full well that his grandmother wanted him to befriend Harry solely because of social standing and tradition. Not because she thought it would benefit either of them. He doubted that Harry even knew how much political power he held, or even how much influence he had on the masses despite not being a British citizen, even when he was missing.
For one, the Harry Potter Adventures books were written that were obviously false accounts of what the Boy-Who-Lived did while he was missing. The smarter persons never bought it, but Neville knew of a few of his Uncle's friends who believed that.
Another example was how Dumbledore could easily pass certain laws if he simply said something like, 'That is what James and Lily Potter would want for their child, our hero...'
And most recent example was Sirius Black. He had destroyed many of Umbridge's anti werewolf laws in a single day. All this by simply saying that Harry Potter had told him to do so. Of course, the man was very subtle in invoking Harry's name, but the hidden meaning was quite clear. It always worked like a charm.
Neville wondered if he could approach Harry for Potions lessons and work his way up from there. Hermione would be very angry at him, but between angering Hermione and his grandmother, he would choose Hermione any day of the week.
Neville approached Harry right after the classes finished that day, and his friends seemed to be arguing about some phone calls. Whatever that was.
"And I keep telling you, there is no signal for a phone call!" Weiss snapped at Sun as he was annoying her for his own amusement. He didn't exactly need to call anyone, but there was only a certain amount of time he could go without technology.
Luckily, Ozpin had promised them that they would be allowed a few gadgets once he gets the formalities done. How will they get them? Apparently Amazon shipped to Hogwarts. If not, there was always the Schnee Company. That was how Weiss was the only one to have a Nokia mobile phone.
"Now, now, Weiss," Silena cut in, "I am sure that you can get some network for a call."
Weiss glared at her rival. "There. Is. No. Network!"
"Perhaps you should catch fishes. That would be real net work!"
Almost everyone, including the surrounding few Hogwarts students, groaned at Yang's bad joke, even though most of them had no clue what a network, or a call or a signal was in this particular context.
Neville decided to wait until Harry was alone before he could ask him.
Harry, despite his suspicion that Neville had an ulterior motive, decided to agree. After all, why would a Hogwarts student approach him, an outsider regarding Potions lessons? Sure, Harry didn't really care for these things, but it still made him wonder. Besides, as a son of Athena, who was he deny the growth and spread of education? He was supposed to promote it and that is what he would do.
After agreeing to meet Neville at a place Neville was comfortable with (an empty classroom on the third floor), Harry met up with his friends and girlfriend, bringing them up to speed. Weiss was a bit apprehensive; this was supposed to be a interschool competition. Sun and Yang didn't particularly mind; it seemed like a good way to make friends for them.
Silena volunteered to assist Harry, but only if he needed her. Perhaps it was her wording or simply the fact that she was his girlfriend, Harry agreed. Her motive was only to spend time with Harry, and find out whether Neville had any feelings for Hermione. She, just like her mother Aphrodite, enjoyed pairing people up, sometimes because it was necessary to propagate love, and sometimes because she was bored.
She was still a bit confused with her other classmates, namely Weiss and Sun. On one side, Sun and Weiss fought like a cute married couple, but Sun had a crush on another classmate of theirs who had not come with them – Blake.
So many choices... What would her mother do?
Neville and Hermione sat in the classroom they had agreed upon. Hermione was here simply because she was angry with Neville for not coming to her for help, and also because she felt that Harry Potter could not possibly match the knowledge of the teacher.
She was jealous of Harry, of course. He had more knowledge than her, and that was something her pride couldn't handle. Unless it was an upperclassman, expert or a teacher, no one should have more knowledge than Hermione in her age group.
Harry came in the class with Silena a good five minutes late.
"You're late!" Hermione snapped. "And what is she doing here?"
"Well, given that the class does not begin till I come in, I am not late, you are early. And Silena is here for the same reason as you: to observe. She is also my assistant, I guess."
"I am your assistant in this case," Silena winked.
Neville had no problems with her being there, one because he was a hot blooded, straight male. What sort of a guy doesn't like it when a really hot girl is around them? Sure, she was taken, but his teenage mind said, 'What's wrong with appreciating the view?' The second reason being that he didn't want to antagonize Harry, despite the first reason kind of contradicting this one.
His grandmother would kill him if she found out that Harry Potter hated him because of a mistake he made.
After Harry began, Hermione knew that he was not qualified enough. Who teaches Chemistry instead of Potions? There was no Chemistry exam. She was silenced when she pointed it out, when Harry simply told her that without Chemistry, there would be no Potions.
Chemical reactions took place during Potion formation, and even magical ingredients were composed of substances that could be traced into their molecular form. If one understood how these chemicals were reacting in different situations, then Potions was as easy as addition and substraction.
Hence, it was crucial to learn the fundamentals of Chemistry first.
After Harry explained all of this, Hermione decided to stay silent and listen. She may hate him at this point, but even she could not deny that the subject matter was interesting.
As November rolled in, so did the other two schools.
Beauxbatons arrived first, through a carriage pulled by giant pegasii called Abraxans. Much to Sun's happiness, the Beauxbatons team consisted of five girls, one of which was obviously a veela. Silena decided that she hated the veela.
She was threat no. 1 at this point.
Their headmistress was a giant woman, well half giant to be accurate, named Olympe Maxime.
Dumbledore and Ozpin immediately greeted her, and led her inside to Dumbledore's office. Rowena followed, smirking inwardly at Dumbledore's back who was forced to use house elves to enter and leave his office. He was doing a wonderful job of hiding it, as even Ozpin had not noticed.
Shortly after the French school's arrival, Durmstrang had showed up through a ship that they commandeered and navigated through the Black Lake. Harry wondered how; Durmstrang was located in Bulgaria and Black Lake didn't have any rivers that connected it to the sea. Maybe there was a channel underground?
Their team consisted of burly men in red and fur themed uniform. They also had Victor Krum in their team, which surprised Yang and Silena. He was that young? Sun was too busy staring at the veela to care, and Harry and Weiss hated Quidditch.
As the four headmasters were having a talk, three more individuals, that Harry recognized as officials from the ICW's International Sports and Games Department entered. Mcgonagall led them to Dumbledore's office.
Harry also noticed that the Beauxbatons girls were seated at the Ravenclaw table and the Durmstrang at the Slytherin table. Salazar was unhappy with the arrangement; the hot French women should be on his table.
Harry also noticed that the Malfoy kid, whom he had met just a few days ago, was trying to 'make friends'.
Harry's meeting with the Malfoy was a bit comical.
Flashback starts...
It was after another class with the Slytherins.
Harry and Silena had just come out of the class when the platinum blonde haired boy, with a nasal voice, stopped them. He was with two other boys that Harry had to wonder if they had de-evolved to Neanderthals.
"My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. This is Crabbe, and Goyle," the boy introduced.
"So, a James Bond fan, eh?" Silena asked.
Draco sneered. "No one is talking to you, mudblood."
Silena, who had never even heard the term 'mudblood' before, but still figured out that it was an insult, replied with, "But you just did!"
As for Harry? Well...
'HAHAHAHAHA! WHAT KIND OF A NAME IS MALFOY! THIS IS THE FUNNIEST SHIT EVER!' Yep, that was Salazar. He continued to laugh loudly inside Harry's mind until he noticed the Slytherin crest and colors on the boy's robes. Then he kept trying to convince Harry and go see if the Sorting Hat was still fully functional. Like hell he wanted the ridiculous kids in his house! And he had no tact or cunning!
Flashback end
And that was how he had first met Draco Malfoy. The blond Slytherin had learnt not to challenge Silena after that, as when he kept insulting her, she had enough and used her charmspeak to make him jump out of the window.
Luckily or not, they were on the first floor when that happened.
He had also got on Harry's bad side as Silena got angry at Harry as he didn't come to her rescue. It was then Harry realized that even though she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, Silena liked getting rescued by him.
Harry had tried to explain that Salazar was being a bigger headache but she only let him off the hook after a full thirty minutes of ranting about how boyfriends should protect their girlfriends' honor.
Harry let it slide; she was a daughter of Aphrodite, and hence would have some princess fantasies. She may try and break the stereotype, but even Silena had her typical daughter of love goddess moments.
Dumbledore, Ozpin, Maxime and Karkaroff were in Dumbledore's office along with Rowena and the three ICW officials.
"So, we'll be using the Goblet of Fire to decide our champions?" Dumbledore questioned.
"Headmaster Dumbledore, each school has five contestants, and not one. Surely you received the memo," Rowena cut in.
Dumbledore cursed inwardly for forgetting that; but with Harry Potter returning, him being stripped of his magic, and his plans crashing down (the ones that regarded Harry), he had a lot on his mind.
"Surely you can forgive me... I must be getting old," Dumbledore said in a grandfatherly tone. Only Rowena was not fooled by it.
One ICW official, Salvadore Bellandi, cut in. "Do you have the names of the contestants? We need their names and year, Professor Dumbledore. Each school has already submitted theirs." He had a thick Italian accent, and the typical Italian features. Except for his hair, which was snow white.
Dumbledore fumbled again. He had thought about it, but couldn't decide amongst the seventh year students. There was Angelina Johnson, Cedric Diggory, Roger Davies... But Dumbledore had no idea if they wanted to participate. Of course, if he told them to, then they would listen. He was Dumbledore, after all.
"You have not? No matter. You have a week to finalize. The first event shall begin on the dawn of 24th of November. It is a Thursday, I believe. If the Hogwarts candidates are not decided, Hogwarts will be disqualified," Bellandi informed.
"Also," cut in the second ICW agent, Maria Fernández. She was a forty something brunette, with short, neck length hair. "No Headmaster shall be allowed to be the judge for any event. Only the three of us, and Grand Sorcerer Rivers," pointing towards Rowena, "are allowed to judge. If any of us are absent, another official from the ICW shall be sent."
The four Heads of their respective schools nodded. It was fair to have a third party judge. Which was why none of the three officials were American, British, Bulgarian or French.
The final ICW official, Jaques Bernadotte, stepped up. Despite the French first name, he was Swede, and no, he was not related to the Royal Family of Sweden. "You will be informed the details and location of the first event a week prior to the event. Please bear in mind that the next events shall be announced in such a manner. Each event will have it's own reward. The winner shall be declared as the school to be first in maximum number of events. There will be six in total."
Again, the four heads agreed. They already knew of this, but it was the job of the ICW officials to remind them.
The Interschool Competition was finally beginning.
A/N: It's been a month since I last uploaded the previous chapter... And that was because I lost the files for this story. Luckily, I had a backup, which I had forgotten about.
I know Twiiter came out in 2006, but as this is a fictious universe, Twitter came out in early 2005 as far this story goes.
As for Hogwarts not having a team yet, this is done because I don't know who to put. Yet. I am open to suggestions besides the ones Dumbledore mentioned. While we are on the topic, yes, Krum, Fleur, Cedric, Roger Davies and Angelina Johnson have been de aged.
About Hermione being painted in a negative light, I am doing that mostly for fun. She has no relative importance to the plot as such. So, unless most of you guys think otherwise and tell me not to paint her in a negative light, I will continue to do so. She can be redeemed at any point I suppose. And no, she is not the pairing for Neville. That is undecided.
Speaking of pairings, yes, Sirius's pairing is a plot device. I may keep the current one as the final one, but not sure for that either.
And if it wasn't clear, the Order meeting took place after Dumbledore met Harry, but before he had his magic stripped from him.
As always, hope you enjoyed!