Chapter 35:

On June 24th, all of the champion's families came to Hogwarts. At lunch, I finally got to meet Fleur's parents who were more or less the same as Celestia's. Both french, kind, and good looking.

"Eez zat one of zee red 'air boys 'ou were talking about?" asked Fleur, pointing to a tall guy with long red hair and fanged earrings. He was talking joyfully to Weasley and Potter.

Calypso nodded, "I think that's his older brother. Go talk to him"

Fleur hid her face in her hands before slowly standing up. "I'm being ri'zziculous. Watch me fail" she flipped her hair out of her face and walked over to the older Weasley who looked like he had never seen someone more beautiful before.

His younger brother was not as pleased. Weasley's face had gone as red as his hair and hid behind Potter and his mother.

Celestia smiled at Fleur encouragingly, "Ee looks very 'appy."
"Yeah" Calypso nodded. "Hmm. Wait...can you teach me french?"
Celestia stared at her, "Of course. Ee'nglish eez much easier z'ough."
"That's okay" Calypso didn't even know why she wanted to learn. It was just a sudden inspiration she had.

"Z'ets start with zee letter soun's. F, L, M, N, O, S sound e'ggactly zee same een Ee'nglish. Zere eez also a 'gee' and zee 'jay' sound which eez opposite in ee'nglish."
"So 'jay' is G and 'gee' is j?"
Celestia nodded. "Mhm. Also ze letter 'i' eez sound like 'eee'"
"So, E instead of I?"
"'Es. An' ee eez going to teach 'ou letter song now:

'Ah' 'beh' 'say' 'day' 'euh' 'eff' 'jay' 'ash' 'ee' 'gee' 'cah' 'el' 'em' 'en' 'oh' 'pey' 'cue' 'air' 'es' 'tay' 'ou' 'vay' 'doublah-veh' 'eeks' 'ee-grek' 'zed'

Calypso repeated it back to her and Celestia nodded happily. "Good! Ee very good. But 'ou said 'ar'. To say 'air' finish zee sound by pushing zee air from zee back of z'oat"

"Ai-ruh?"

"'Es! Some common wor's now! 'Me' eez 'moa'"

"Moa?"
"Good good. Now let's see… Ee es 'Je'?"

"Je"

"Mhm, so me and ee es moi et toi"

"Moi et toa?"
"Z'es! And look- ze bell eez going to ring. See 'ou?"
"Yeah!"

"Hi"

"Ahhh!" Calypso spun around to see Theo. "What?!"

He rolled his eyes and waved a letter in her face, "Your new owl, Apollo or something, couldn't find you. He turned up halfway through Muggle Studies, circling the place."
"Oh thank you?"
Theo shrugged, "He lost the letter"

"WHAT?!"
"It's an empty envelope." Theo unfolded the envelope to show a rip where the letter should have been stuck.

Calypso wrung her hands, "Was there anything important in it?"

"How would I know."
"Is there any way to find out?"
"No- and there's the bell. Go ask Snape maybe"

"Well do you have any ideas then?"

"Try legilimency on the owl or something"
"Where's the owl?"
"Don't know- and classes are starting, bye"

Calypso looked up at the clock, "Oh shit- bye" she ran off to her next class, History of Magic where they would be having another exam.

"Three, two, one start-" muttered Professor Binns.

Calypso looked down at the roll of parchment,

"1. Which goblin was most featured on a Chocolate Frog Card after participating in the 18th-century goblin rebellion?"

Sighing, she picked up her quill and began to write, desperately trying not to fall asleep as she did so.

Once all their exams had ended, Calypso ran to the Owlery to get Apollo to bring to Professor Snape before the third task started.

"Yes, Miss Lestrange?"
"Sir- my owl turned up late today and someone had stolen the letter. I was wondering if you could tell me what the contents were?"
"And what makes you think I can do that?"

"Well sir, Theo said that you could read the owl's thoughts perhaps?"
Snape stared at her, " is correct, I could. But that would take a few days of careful examination. I'm an extremely busy man right now Miss Lestrange"
"Oh! Can you think about helping me after the term has ended then?"
Snape sighed, "Very well, leave it here and run off to dinner"

Calypso nodded gratefully but decided to get to the Quidditch pitch early instead.

Surprisingly, Daphne was already waiting at the door for her, "There you are. Theo-" she grumbled a bit, "-Theo said that you were visiting Snape. Here- I brought a bit of dinner"
Calypso nodded her thanks as she accepted the bowl of ravioli from Daphne.

They walked onto the Quidditch field, which was now completely unrecognizable.

A twenty-foot-high hedge ran all the way around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of them: the entrance to the vast maze. The passage beyond it looked dark and creepy.

Five minutes later, the rest of the stands had begun to fill; the air was full of excited voices and the rumbling of feet as the hundreds of students filed into their seats.

The sky was a deep, clear blue now, and the first stars were starting to appear.

Hagrid, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick came walking into the stadium and approached Bagman and the champions.

They were wearing large, red, luminous stars on their hats, all except Hagrid, who had his on the back of his moleskin vest.

"We are going to be patrolling the outside of the maze," said Professor McGonagall to the champions. "If you get into difficulty, and wish to be rescued, send red sparks into the air, and one of us will come and get you, do you understand?"

The champions nodded.

"Off you go, then!" said Bagman brightly to the four patrollers.

Calypso hugged Fleur good luck and lightly smiled at Warrington before heading off to find seats with Daphne.

"I hope fleur wins" Calypso whispered.

Daphne eyed Celestia and Fleur contempt before shrugged, "Eh. Why were you visiting Snape?"
"Oh yeah, I'll tell you later" she hissed, glancing at everyone around them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! In the first place, with eighty-five points- Harry Potter of Hogwarts School!"
The cheers and applause sent birds from the Forbidden Forest fluttering into the darkening sky.

"In the second place, Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute!"

More applause.

"And in third place — Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!"

"And last but not least- the fourth place is Mr. Cassius Warringotn, also from Hogwarts School!"

The Slytherins around her cheered loudly and Cassius looked up at them, smiling.

"So . . . on my whistle, Harry!" said Bagman. "Three — two — one —"

He gave a short blast on his whistle, and Potter hurried forward into the maze.

A minute later, Krum entered, then Fleur, then Cassius.

Soon, all the champions had been swallowed into the dark hedges of the maze.

Calypso sighed, "And now we wait. Honestly, this was the worst sport she had ever seen.

Just out of the corner of the maze, she could see Professor Moody shooting things in the maze, but she remembered what her mother had said to her in the third task.

"Death eaters have mingled into the Hogwarts staff themselves"

So Moody was a traitor? Or was he in disguise...But then why in Merlin's beard was he shooting obstacles out of the way?

About 20 minutes into the round, Fleur's scream was prominent all throughout the stadium. No red sparks went up though, strangely.

"That's not good" though Calypso. "What if she had been knocked out- or worse, killed?"

She could tell Celestia was thinking the same thing because she had halfway stood up, worriedly.

Then suddenly, the air was filled with Warrington's screams.

Most of the Slytherins stood up as well.

"What the hell-" muttered Calypso. Many of the teachers looked worried as they told everyone to remain calm. But soon, red sparks were shot up from two different locations completely, one far east, and the other quite close to the center.

The professors with the red stars rushed in and appeared, seconds later, with Krum and Fleur. Both unconscious.

Celestia jumped up, "No!"
"Quiet Miss Noire" Snape hissed. "She is fine"
Celestia glared at Snape but sat back down all the same.

A few minutes later, a blinding flash of blue light appeared, right at the center. "What is that?" she whispered.

Many of the other students around her were also panicking, why had there been a portkey- and more importantly, who had won?

Snape glared at them, "That will merely take the champion back to the entrance, do not panic!"

But when nobody appeared, even after a long 5 minutes, Snape drew his wand, "Do not panic!" even though he looked on the verge of panicking himself. He rolled up his sleeve, glanced at it for a moment, and hurried down to join the rest of the professor who were- guess what- panicking.

Mutters filled the stadium. "Where were the other two champions?" "Had something gone wrong" "Who had died"

Suddenly, Potter slammed into the front of the maze, holding the cup and the limp, unmoving body of Warrington. But he couldn't be...no, Calypso refused to believe that Cassius was dead and many other Slytherins seemed to agree. There were shouts, filling the air, and Calypso felt herself be yanked out of the way by Theo or Daphne, she couldn't tell, as people rushed forward.

"No! CASSIUS, NO!" Calypso could hear the hurt, strained cries of his parents, the shouts of protests from her classmates.

Dumbledore rushed forward, clutching Potter's body. "Harry! Harry!"

Potter stirred a bit and muttered incoherent words as the Minister ran forward as well. "Oh my god- Dumbledore, Cassius Warrington- he's dead!"
"He's dead" the words echoed all around the stadium, but Calypso did not repeat them. She was in shock, never, in her life, did she think that this would happen.

I mean, he was a pureblood- everyone always said that only the muggle-borns were in danger of the Dark Lord. But now...nobody was safe obviously.

She felt someone hug her from behind, "It's not your fault." he whispered in her ear. "Don't blame it on you, the death eaters killed him, he's back."

Calypso finally turned around, Theo was staring, just as she was a moment ago, at Warrington's dead body before looking at her. "He's back...wow."

Celestia hadn't moved from her seat yet, she was silently crying and Daphne, strangely, was comforting her. Calypso didn't know it then but the war had officially begun and everything was about to get a whole lot darker.

Before she knew it, the prefects of the Slytherin house were herding everyone back to their dormitories.

"LINE UP! COME ON THEN- yes, we are going back to the common room- no, there isn't going to be a funeral right now- COME ON PEOPLE!"
Eventually, they gathered enough order to lead all the Slytherins back into the dungeon common rooms.