Year 04 Chapter 06- Raise the Ark

TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT

The delegations from Beauxbatons and

Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock

on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will

end half an hour early. Students will return

their bags and books to their dormitories

and assemble in front of the castle to greet

our guests before the Welcoming Feast.

The thirtieth of October came quickly, and the students were talking non-stop about the tournament, discussing who was going to enter, what the challenges were going to be, and of course the thousand galleon prize. When they went down to breakfast that morning, they found that the Great Hall had been decorated overnight. Enormous silk banners had been hung from the great hall ceiling, sporting the Hogwarts crest and the individual house crests. The castle had been undergoing a thorough cleaning, a number of paintings had been scrubbed, and the armour suits oiled so they didn't squeak when the magic of the school had them moving.

Harry was ready to call lessons a miss after just the first class of the day, when it became obvious that people were more interested in talking about the tournament, than the information the teacher was trying to impart. Finally classes ended and Harry walked with his friends up to their dorms to drop off their books and pull on their cloaks. They returned to the entrance hall, where Professor McGonagall was trying to organise the students, giving the occasional student an instruction to smarten themselves up. They were led outside, where they were organised into lines in front of the castle. It was a clear and rather cold evening, so Harry adjusted his natural body temperature to warm himself up.

"I wonder how they are arriving here." Bella said.

Harry wondered that too. The last tournament, the one Harry and Hedwig had attended, was hosted at Beauxbatons. At that time, the Durmstrang contingent had arrived via a magical boat, where as the Hogwarts contingent had arrived via a magical flying version of the Hogwarts Express.

"I don't know." Harry muttered.

"Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!" Dumbledore called from the back row where he stood with the other teachers.

"Where?" A number of students wondered aloud.

"There!" Shouted a sixth year, pointing over the forest.

"It's a dragon!" called a scared first year.

"Don't be stupid... it's a flying house!" said Dennis Creevey.

Harry increased his eyesight, and opened up his corneas to be able to see in the darkening sky. He recognised a huge carriage, the size of a large house, pulled by flying horses. The carriage landed heavily in front of them, causing the students in the front to jump backward, even though they were nowhere near the carriage. Harry noticed the Beaxbatons crest on the door, two golden wands crossed with three stars emitting from each, when the door opened. A small boy dropped out of the carriage, and kneeling, fiddled with a set of golden steps, pulling them into position.

Out stepped Madam Maxime, the headmistress of Beauxbatons academy. Harry recognised her from the time he spent teaching at the academy under his Nicolas Flamel persona, ten years earlier. She was a large woman, Harry assumed she was half giant, like Hagrid. She was dressed all in black satin, and had many opals glistening at her neck and on her fingers. She was a handsome woman, with olive skin, and had her black hair pulled back in a bun.

Dumbledore started to clap, followed by the rest of the staff and students. As the applause died off, Dumbledore spoke.

"My dear Madam Maxime, Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr," Madame Maxime's deep voice spoke in the night. "I 'ope I find you well?"

As they began to speak, Harry saw about a dozen boys and girls exit the massive carriage.

"In excellent form, I thank you." Continued Dumbledore.

"My pupils." Maxime off-handidly commented, waving carelessly at her gathered students. The students in question seemed to be shivering in the the cold, which made sense to Harry as their robes were made of thin silk.

"Has Karkaroff arived yet?" Maxime asked.

"He should be here any moment," said Dumbledore. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?"

"Warm up I think." She said, observing her shivering students. "But ze 'orses."

"Our groundskeep and assistant to the care of magical creatures teacher, Mister Hagrid would be delighted to care for them. If you would, Hagrid?"

The large man stepped forward, almost knocking over some of the students in his rush to comply.

"My steeds require — er — forceful 'andling, Zey are

very strong..."

"I think I'm up to it." Hagrid said.

Maxime seemed pleased to see how large Hagrid was. "Ze 'orses drink only single-malt whiskey."

"It will be attended to." The headmaster said, "Isn't that right, Hagrid?"

"O' course, Professor." Hagrid said, as he moved forward to wrangle the horses.

"Come." Maxime said to her students, as she led them up the steps into the castle. The Hogwarts students watched as Hagrid moved about figuring out how to unhook the horses from the carriage, when Hedwig hooted at him, telling him that she could hear something strange. Harry increased his ears ability to hear, and picked up a strange sucking sloshing noise, moments before he watched as the same magical boat that he had seen at the last tournament he attended rose from the surface of the lake.

Once the boat was moored, they saw a line of students being led by a silver haired man approach the students of Hogwarts.

"Dumbledore!" called the silver-haired man as he approached. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore replied.

Harry had read about the trial where Karkaroff was tried as a death eater, but had never met the man in person. He was tall and thin like Dumbledore, but with a curled beard, and rather weak chin.

"Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle.

"How good it is to be here, how good... Viktor, come along, into the warmth... you don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold..."

He drew one of his students forward, and Harry instantly recognised Viktor Krum, the seeker he had watched play in the Quidditch World Cup. Harry was forced to raise an eyebrow at the way the Karkaroff was ignoring all his other students and solely focusing on Krum, though Karkaroff wasn't the only one. A number of the Hogwarts students were searching their pockets, and Harry overheard multiple comments about people wanting his autograph. Harry sighed heavily. He was never this famous when he was a professional Quidditch player.

Once Krum was inside the castle, the Hogwarts students followed the rest of the Durmstrang contingent inside. As Harry and his friends sat at the Gryffindor table, Hermione saw the french students shivering and holding scarves and shawls around their heads.

"It's not that cold," Hermione commented. "Why didn't they bring cloaks?"

"Cloaks aren't part of their uniforms," Harry answered. "Since Beauxbatons is located in the south of France, where it's much warmer then here. It'd be like you wearing a jacket. They'd probably get in to trouble for it, for being out of uniform."

Harry couldn't help but notice from across the hall the look of adulation that came upon Ron Weasley's face when Vicktor Krum sat at the Slytherin table. He sidled closer, but was cut off when Draco Malfoy and his goons began talking to Krum, looking particularly smug.

Harry noticed Filch, who was wearing a mouldy old tailcoat, add four chairs to the head table. The school staff entered the great-hall from a side room, and as soon as Madam Maxime entered the hall, the French students all stood respectfully, causing a number of Hogwarts students to laugh.

Once the teachers and French students were seated, Dumbledore began to speak. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and - most particularly – guests, I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

Ignoring the derisive laugh from one of the French girls, Dumbledore continued, "The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast, I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

The food appeared on the table, and Harry was happily enjoying the meal when Hermione spoke up.

"I didn't know you like Bouillabaisse, Harry."

"I'm always happy to try new things." Harry noted, while putting a bit of the stew into a bowl for Hedwig.

"What is it?" Bella asked.

"It's kind of a shellfish stew." Harry answered. "You should try it."

"Alright." She tried a spoon full and seemed to like it.

They ate and relaxed for twenty minutes before Hagrid and Professor Grubbly-Plank entered the hall.

"Hey, Hagrid." Harry called.

"Alrigh' you lot?" He asked in return, getting a number of nods.

The meal continued until a Beauxbatons girl approached, them, asking for the Bouillabaisse. As she spoke, Harry felt a presence pressing against his occlumency barriers, which he had taken to keeping up all the time now that his story of learning from Nicholas Flamel was cemented, a presence he recognised as a Veela allure, coming from the girl.

"I'm sorry to say, but we ate most of it." Harry explained. "You can have what's left, though."

"You like bouillabaisse?" She asked, surprised.

"It was good." Bella said.

"Well, z'ank you." She took the bowl and returned to the ravenclaw table.

Harry glanced at the head table, and noticed that the other two seats had been filled by men that Harry recognised from the Quidditch world cup, one of who was Barty Crouch. Harry assumed the other man must be from the ministry as well.

Dessert came and went and dinner finally ended. Dumbledore stood and began his speech.

"The moment has come," Dumbledore announced. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation" - to which the students lightly applauded - "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

The applause was louder, and Harry had to ask. "Why are they applauding him so much?"

"He was a beater," Bella answered, "For the Wimbourne Wasps."

"Oh, makes sense, then that I wouldn't know. I'm an Arrows fan." Harry replied.

"How does that make sense?" Hermione asked.

"The Wimbourne Wasps and the Appleby Arrows hate each other."

Hermione seemed to want to ask, but chose not to. After all, she didn't really care about Quidditch.

Dumbledore then continued. "Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament, and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."

At the mention of the champions, the students stilled. Harry had to admit, that Dumbledore really knew how to play a crowd. He requested the casket be brought forth. Mister Filch brought out a jewel encrusted chest, which the students watched with trepidation.

"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman, and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways... their magical prowess - their daring - their powers of deduction - and, of course, their ability to cope with danger."

"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament," Dumbledore went on calmly, "one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Dumbledore tapped the casket with his wand, causing the lid to creak open. He reached in, and removed from within a roughly hewn wooden cup that was filled with blue flames. He set the cup on top of the casket, shutting it once more.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," Dumbledore explained. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it

has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete."

Harry listened as Dumbledore explained that he was going to place an age line around the goblet. "I guess they are pretty serious about the age limit."

"I wonder if anyone under age is going to try to enter." Ginny said.

Dumbledore continued his speech. "Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion

has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to

see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all."