A/N: Does anyone use ff anymore? I guess I am right now, but I've got an attachment to this place, it's where I first started. Ok first things first FUCK JK ROWLING. She doesn't make any money off of this so this is one of the only ways I feel safe engaging with fandom content anymore.

I originally wrote this series back when I was 12 and I've been meaning to return to it. Since I got COVID and have been on literal house arrest (don't worry it's only mild) I figured I have the time so why not actually write this sucker. It has been a while since I've written anything, so please be kind. Or not, tell me how much I suck, constructive criticism and all. I can't promise regular updates but please feel free to give me a kick in the ass if you want to see more.

Oh and don't forget to read, review and enjoy!

Albus Severus Potter had great expectations for his sixth year at Hogwarts.

Firstly, and most importantly, for the first time in his schooling career he would get to experience the joy of free periods. Secondly, he was finally getting to choose the classes he wanted to do. No more sitting through Astronomy staring at a telescope which showed him absolutely nothing 99% of the time. No more History of Magic with a teacher who was so boring, not even death could stop him from droning on about goblin wars. Thirdly, and this fact was really just icing on the cake, he no longer had his older brother around, leaving him to pave his own way for the remaining two years of his Hogwarts life.

However, an expectation Albus had failed to consider, was that a newly elected and little too over ambitious Minster for Magic just might revive a centuries old death tournament and throw the whole plan for sixth year out the window.

Everything began as it usually did, with Albus arriving at Platform 9¾. In a few months' time, Albus would think back to that moment when he stepped through the wall onto the platform, and wished he had actually run headfirst into the brick and been knocked out.

Everyone stared at Albus as he pushed his trolley alongside the train, well they weren't staring directly at him per se. They were actually staring at the man walking closely behind Albus, his father and local wizard hero, Harry Potter. A man who had mastered the art of smiling politely whenever people gaped at him.

"Look at that," Harry glanced at his wristwatch. "Made it to the train with fifteen minutes to spare. I think that's a record time."

"Amazing what you can achieve when you don't have to haul James out of bed," Ginny, wife to said local hero and also Albus's mother, remarked.

Lily, Albus's younger sister, was pushing her trolley ahead of the family group. She had exactly one goal in mind and that was to find her friends. Over the summer she had given herself a choppy haircut that consisted of short, uneven bangs. The spontaneous change of style had been a point of contention in the house, as James had immediately taken to poking fun. This resulted in a chase scene involving an almost successful attempt by Lily to use scissors as a weapon.

As Albus and his family came to a stop in front of one of the carriage doors, he searched for his friends, trying to make them out on the platform. This was a task that proved difficult with all the smoke billowing out of the engine and covering the area around them.

Harry put a hand on Albus's shoulder. "They'll be around here somewhere," he said to his son, knowing all too well the look on a person's face when they were desperately searching for friends.

Sure enough, a distinctly platinum blonde head of hair became noticeable to Albus amidst the smoke. The person attached to the hair started walking over, and Albus smiled ear to ear.

Scorpius Malfoy was tall, pale and gangly, and already dressed in his green Slytherin robes like a true overprepared weirdo. Albus liked to consider him as the rational voice among their friends, but in reality he was more of a massive know it all with a desperate need to be right about everything. Despite being in separate houses, and the fact that their dads were high school enemies, he was also Albus's closest friend.

"I've been here a good ten minutes, didn't we agree to meet outside carriage five at 10:40?" Scorpius used a tone of voice that indicated he was trying to scold Albus, but the grin on his face gave away his delight at seeing his best friend.

"No pleasantries?" Albus joked. "Not even a simple little 'How's your summer Al.' It was a great summer, thanks for asking Scorp."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. Standing behind him, flanked on either side were his mother and father. Albus briefly saw their father's share a glance and smile politely. Since their sons had become best friends pretty early on, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter were forced to form an unspoken truce. Unspoken in the sense that they never said a word to each other and stood around awkwardly anytime they had to be in the same room.

"Ron and Hermione should be around here somewhere," Albus heard his father mutter behind him.

"I'll go look for them," Lily brightened up, looking for an excuse to get away from the very strange energy of the polite but tense fathers scene.

Albus knew his best bet was to get on the train before his uncle arrived with snarky comments. Scorpius was thinking along the lines of something similar, although he found Ron much more intimidating. This was mostly likely because, unlike Albus, Scorpius hadn't been witness to the act of Ron balancing gingerbread cookies on his nose at their family Christmas party.

Both boys broke away from each other to say goodbye to their parents.

"Good luck with your NEWTS this year," Ginny said, catching Albus tightly in a hug. "Don't slack off too much on your free periods."

"You can slack off a little," Harry added, pinching his fingers together before he also gave his son a hug. "Only a little."

"Just enough to enjoy yourself for maybe, ten minutes," Ginny said. "But after than ten minutes you better get right back to the misery."

Albus nodded dutifully. "Of course mum, too much extended happiness goes to the head."

She smiled. "I mean it Al, be good."

"Remember which son you're talking to mum. I'm always good," he joked.

Harry and Ginny watched their son as he waited at the carriage door for Scorpius to finish hugging his parents, and then the two boys boarded the train, waving over their shoulders as they climbed aboard and made their way down the carriage.

"Don't know why I even bother trying to make plans with you lot," Scorpius said, trailing behind Albus as they walked in a single file down the carriage.

"Before you continue moaning, just remember I'm actually here," Albus stated. "Still no sign of Clara or Octavian."

As if he had been lurking around, waiting for his name to be called, Octavian Barnett-Crow made his presence known by ca-cawing loudly from the other end of the carriage. Scorpius and Albus locked eyes with him and he grinned. From behind Octavian, came Clara Nystrom, wearing her long dark hair in a comically fat bun that bounced around on the top of her head as she approached them.

"Carriage five monsieurs, as requested," Octavian bowed before them.

"Do the words 'outside' and '10:40' mean nothing to you?" Scorpius asked.

"Scorp you really can't expect me to listen to more than 14% of your sentences. Just be thankful for what you get."

Octavian was short, an unfortunate detail only heightened by the fact that his three closest friends were tall. He only reached Albus's chin at the best of times, so obviously he made up for his lack of stature with an abundance of personality. He was chubby and had shoulder length hair that a teacher would threaten to cut off almost daily, but Octavian always persevered. Even worse was the days when Octavian decided he wanted to transfigure his hair into a bright colour rather than his usual mousy brown. He thrived off committing acts of casual disobedience.

"I'm so sorry I was late," Clara jumped in with a genuine apology and a guilty grimace in Scorpius's direction. "Anton couldn't find his enchanted flute and then my trunk was too big to close."

In almost complete contrast to Octavian was Clara. She was tall, and although she never quite reached Scorpius levels of gangly and awkward, she stood above most other people. Although Albus noted with a bit of personal pride that over summer he seemed to have finally matched her in height. The Anton she mentioned was her twin brother. The Nystrom twins were half Swedish, half Chinese and Muggleborns. These were facts that made them oddities at Hogwarts, but Anton was so reclusive that it was usually Clara that would bear the brunt of the stares. In response, she always tried to do whatever she could to fit in and be accepted, sometimes trying too hard.

She rambled on for a little bit as the four friends searched for an empty compartment. Scorpius of course was the one to spot it, and pointed to Octavian who was at the front of the group. Octavian made a complicated hand signal in response, and ended with a rude gesture before he slid open the compartment door.

"Do you have prefect patrolling duties again?" Albus asked Scorpius as they put some of their belongings on the top rack.

"Yes Al, I have to do it every year," Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Do you think the three of you can survive without me for an hour."

"Last year it was an hour and twenty three minutes," Octavian said, hand over his heart. "We almost died."

Scorpius mock laughed in response. He had moved to face Octavian, and so put himself in the foolishly compromising position of standing with his back to the door. This was a mistake, as Albus who saw the door out of the corner of his eye, saw a familiar figure approach. He didn't have enough time to signal a warning, so could only watch in horror as the door opened inches from Scorpius's back.

"There you are Al," Rose Granger-Weasley smiled at her cousin, peering around Scorpius's slim, but annoyingly long back.

Scorpius jumped forward, twisting his body in the sort of way a rodent might turn half his body in terror upon hearing what might be a predator approach from behind. In this instance, it was a predator. If Rose-Weasley had been a tiger, Scorpius would be dead.

Rose-Granger Weasley was surprisingly not being shadowed on this occasion by her usual pack of Gryffindor friends, and stood alone at their compartment door. She had a bright smile that indicated friendliness, but after years of practice in the art of masking what she was thinking and feeling, Albus had no way of guessing if he was in trouble or not. He was used to seeing her with her bright red curls lose and falling all around her head, but she had tied her hair back that day, presumably so the shiny prefect badge pinned to her shirt wouldn't be covered up.

Rose didn't pay much attention to Scorpius's extremely odd and utterly inconspicuous reaction, and maintained eye contact with Albus who responded to her greeting with a polite smile and a wave.

"I didn't see you on the platform," Rose continued. "You excited for sixth year? I know I am."

"So thrilled," Albus nodded, every syllable drenched in sarcasm.

Rose recognized the sarcasm of course, but chose to ignore it and finally moved her attention to the other three occupants of the compartment. Comprised of one mortified and startled Scorpius, and Clara and Octavian who were engaged in an epic internal battle of trying not to laugh.

"Hi all, how were your summers?" She asked politely.

"Really good," Clara smiled, and gave an honest answer.

"I got lost in Istanbul. Some bloody parrot told me the place was called Constantinople, and then the next thing you know I got trapped in these underground catacombs. It was a nightmare." Octavian did not give an honest answer.

"Mhhm," was the only noise that Scorpius made.

Rose breezed right past the strangeness. She was a master of the social art, so much of an expert that not even the toughest efforts of Albus's friends could shake her. Although, Octavian was the only one intentionally trying to shake her.

"Best be off, I have to meet the other prefects in carriage one. We should see when we have free periods together though Al, I feel like I never see you," Rose said to him and smiled. Albus nodded in response, and then Rose's eyes fell once more onto Scorpius. Without missing a beat, she said; "See you in carriage one."

As soon as she left the carriage and walked out of sight, Scorpius collapsed onto the seat next to Albus. Octavian meanwhile, collapsed in a fit of hysterical laughter.

"She's literally haunting me now," Scorpius murmured, still in recovery. "Everywhere I go, reminding me of my failures. She's evil."

"Mate, she's not evil," Albus said. "She barely even notices you, and she certainly doesn't care about who gets the best grades."

"That makes it worse Al!" Scorpius exclaimed. "She doesn't even try and gets the best grades! I study day and night but I still can't beat her. It's not fair!"

Scorpius Malfoy considered Rose Weasley to be the Morgana to his Merlin, the Grindelwald to his Dumbledore and the Voldemort to his Potter. Rose however, had no opinion on the situation whatsoever. Albus wasn't sure exactly when it started, it was one of those things that had gone on for so long it felt like there had never been a time before it. Scorpius cared about many things in the world, getting the best grades, being the smartest and being successful were among those things. Rose however, prevented him at every turn. In all of their Hogwarts history Albus had never remembered a time when Rose didn't beat Scorpius in an exam. This only made Scorpius more determined to beat her, and more anguished each time he inevitably came second in the class. The worst part for Scorpius, (which Albus considered the funniest part), Rose was unintentionally winning, and didn't even know Scorpius was trying to compete to beat her.

"You might have beaten her in the O. ," Clara spoke up, trying to make Scorpius feel better. Albus frantically made a motion for Clara to stop talking but it was too late. "The O. are much harder than the rest of our exams before that, and you were studying day and night. This time I'm sure you've beat her in at least one class."

Albus sunk a little lower in his seat, cursed with the knowledge of both Scorpius and Rose's exam results. He had a brief premonition of Scorpius breaking down and rolling himself up into the foetal position to cry, and resolved to keep his mouth tightly shut.

Scorpius wasn't going to let him off that easily however, and turned to Albus to ask the fated question. "Do you know what Rose got in her O. ?"

Curled up in his seat, a fist scrunched up in front of his mouth, Albus tried to look as normal as possible as he shook his head. Of course, it didn't work. Scorpius's stare grew more intense as he refused to stop making eye contact with Albus and even widened his eyes.

"How many Outstandings did she get?"

Albus mumbled something in response, prompting Scorpius to repeat himself in a darker tone.

"How many Outstandings Al?"

There was a pause as Albus braced himself for impact, before he finally whispered:

"eight,"

"EIGHT!"

The train shuddered underneath them as the clock struck 11 and they finally set off. The sudden movement of the train caused the four of them to be shaken forward and then back. The timing of the shout had made it feel like the sheer force and volume of Scorpius's voice shook the world around them.

"Wait, we all did nine classes. So that means Rose didn't get an outstanding in everything," Clara, seeing the light and soul drain from Scorpius's face made one final, valiant effort to save the day. "Maybe you beat her in one class?"

Scorpius looked up to Al, a glimmer of hope in his eyes that Albus regrettably had to take in his hands and crush. "The only class she didn't get Outstanding for was Arithmancy, she got an E."

"the one class," Scorpius whispered softly to himself. "The one class I didn't have to take with her."

He slid down in his seat, his head bowed in shame, agony and turmoil. The way his entire body had deflated, it was almost as if he might crumble into dust. Never had a man been so broken to hear another person's academic results. The group of friends observed a moment of silence.

Octavian leaned over to patted Scorpius's leg reassuringly. "Anyway, enjoy prefect duties with her!"

"You're a monster," Scorpius hissed at him.

Scorpius attempted to compose himself, and took a deep breath in before rising to his feet. Octavian hummed what Albus guessed was an attempt at a marching song as Scorpius exited the compartment, his face almost expressionless. Clara and Albus saluted him as he walked from their sight.

"What a drama queen," Octavian rolled his eyes.

Albus hmmed in agreement, and Clara refused to react out of her extreme devotion to nicety, but Albus saw the shared thought glint in her eyes. Albus felt bad for thinking it but he was glad to not hear any more about the one sided feud for at least an hour. Scorpius was his best friend after all, but at the end of the day he could be an annoying prat.

Albus often thought about their unlikely friendship, when you assessed all the facts there was no way it should've happened, but somehow it just did, and it worked. He had met Scorpius in their first year, due to a myriad of factors and uneven numbers of students, Albus had ended up next to him in the boat that took them across the Great Lake on their first night at Hogwarts. Octavian and Clara had been in the same boat of course. That first bonding moment shared between the four of them had caused something to click. Maybe it was because they had actually seen Albus as a person and didn't just gawk at him for having a famous father. Maybe because the three of them were the same special variety of different. Their initial found friendship on the boat had nearly been shot down by their sorting into completely different houses, but they had persevered, and stayed glued as friends for five years.

Scorpius and Albus, despite being in Slytherin and Gryffindor respectively, somehow had the strongest glue. The two boys couldn't be any more different, except in the ways they were the same, and even when Albus didn't understand anything Scorpius was talking about, somehow at the same time, he did understand.

"So, what do you think sixth year is going to be like?" Clara asked the group, finding a nice little topic of conversation to occupy them until the return of Scorpius.

"Might be wishful thinking, but I reckon it's going to be our best year yet," Albus confidently answered.

He would soon find out just how wrong he was.

"Gah," Octavian's two feet landed heavy on the platform as he jumped down off the carriage.

He was closely followed by Albus, Scorpius and Clara. They saw how cold it was before they felt it as their breath turned into whisps as soon as they were exposed to the night air. Then they felt it, crawling up their arms and seeping in under their coats.

"Does it have to be freezing every year?" Octavian said and wrapped himself up tightly in his own arms.

"This is Scotland, so yes," Albus answered.

Octavian threw his head back and gave a quiet wail to the heavens. Clara had to grab him forcefully by the wrist and drag him along to the carriage line. He protested at first but Clara was impossible to fight back against so he resigned himself to his fate of being carted away. Despite best efforts, the group hadn't managed to make it ahead of the crowd and faced a queue as they joined the line to wait for a carriage that would take them up to the castle.

Despite being situated up on a hill, it was difficult to catch a glimpse of Hogwarts Castle from the ground at the station. The tall trees disguised it eloquently. Albus would often try different angles of peering through the forest to try and catch even a brief sight of one of the towers. This had the unfortunate side effect of making him look like a chicken sometimes, a fact that he realised all too late, as Rose and her friends approached while he was in the middle of said activity.

Albus usually wouldn't have minded his cousin seeing him do something weird, it was the nature of family that they both did weird things around the other with no comment. It was more about the company that Rose kept who was also witness to Albus being strange.

He caught eyes with Isla Weaver and immediately stopped, clearing his throat as he attempted to look cool and collected. Scorpius was pulling a similar expression, not because he was trying to look cool, but because that was the face he pulled when the sight of Rose sent him into a sullen silence.

Rose was accompanied by no less than three other Gryffindor's at any given moment. As she and her friends took their place in line about two groups behind him and his friends, Albus counted them off and found there was eight of them on that occasion. He knew most of their names, especially the boys because he and Octavian had to share a dorm room with them. From the first day of their attendance at Hogwarts, Rose had proven her talent at drawing in as many friends as possible and usually travelled in a pack of fellow Gryffindors. When she saw Albus in line ahead of her she gave a quick wave, this prompted all other Gryffindor eyes to lock onto him and wave as if they were also close friends with him. They were decidedly not, but Albus couldn't help but smile back at Isla Weaver and return the wave.

Unfortunately, the act did not go unnoticed by his friends.

"What are you doing waving like that? Do you think you're the crown prince of Denmark?" Octavian teased.

"Is that Isla Weaver?" Clara craned her head to see, which was deliberately silly since she was already tall enough to see over everyone's heads anyway.

"Shut up," Albus said. A futile demand.

"Haven't you already dated half the girls in our year? You should think about slowing down or you'll run out of girls," Scorpius said with an eyebrow raise.

"Oh come on, I haven't gone out with that many girls," Albus tried to defend himself.

"Hmm let's see there was Grace, Marsha, Tess," Octavian went down the list. "Who was the Hufflepuff again?"

"Elsie," Clara reminded them.

"Please don't count," Albus said with a groan.

"Well we have to since you clearly don't," Octavian said.

He was mercifully saved from further humiliation with the arrival of two boys who couldn't've looked more different from each other, cutting through the line of people waiting to join the group of four. There was some complaints as Anton Nystrom and Gawain Tremosa cut through the line but Anton was too focused on starting up a conversation to realise, and Gawain was simply very good at ignoring people.

Anton Nystrom was Clara's twin brother, which showed in the exact same dark colour of hair that they both shared. Otherwise there wasn't much in terms of physical similarities, Anton was significantly shorter and had softer features than his sister. If there was one thing Anton excelled at above all others, it was talking. He immediately launched into a conversation with Clara about something to do with their summer.

Gawain Tremosa on the other hand was tall, dark and quiet. Every time Albus had seen him, he had always been glued to Anton's side. Both boys were in Ravenclaw together but other than that Albus always struggled to identify what they had in common. In fact, he knew next to nothing about Gawain. Octavian, who was family friends with him, would always shrug and say that 'Gawain's just like that.'

The two boys joined them for the carriage ride up to the castle where Scorpius and Anton attempted to outtalk the other about the upcoming subjects they were studying that year. Albus was only half listening, because every time he tried to concentrate on the concentration his head felt like spinning from how fast both boys were chattering. Albus made knowing eye contact with Clara who was sitting on the other side of the carriage from him.

Their carriage eventually rolled to a halt at the bottom of the castle's stone steps. Albus looked up as he stepped out of the carriage. Seeing the turrets and windows silhouetted against the night sky should have been an ominous sight, but Albus only smiled, finally comforted by the sight of his home away from home. He walked side by side with his friends as they hurried up the stairs to the giant front doors and together the ragtag group of six wandered into the Entrance Hall. They stopped right in the center of the large open doors that would take them into the Great Hall, and faced off against the four different tables.

Anton and Gawain went straight for the Ravenclaw table without so much as a second glance, almost moving in tandem.

However Clara, Octavian, Scorpius and Albus were more hesitant to part ways. They broke apart from each other slowly, like a melting ice cap. For the start of term feast all students had to sit at their house tables, which meant a temporary separation for the four friends. IT was probably the worst thing about having your closest friends in different houses.

Albus knew he was lucky, he had Octavian with him in Gryffindor, but it was still sad to watch both Clara and Scorpius go in different directions. Clara made for the Hufflepuff table at the other end of the hall, while Scorpius took a begrudging seat at Slytherin in the center of the grand room. Neither of them were able to sit with people that they could call their friends. Albus wasn't sure which was worse, that Scorpius didn't have any other friends because he didn't try, or that Clara didn't have any other friends because she tried too hard.

Octavian and Albus found a place next to each other towards the end of the Gryffindor table.

"You'd think they could at least put some snacks out while we wait for the first years," Octavian muttered, tracing a finger around the rim of his empty plate.

Albus rolled his eyes. They didn't have to wait long for the Sorting, once the hall was filled with the remaining students, Professor Flitwick led the first years down the middle of the hall. Waiting for them at the tiny wooden stool was a patchy old hat, and behind that stool at the head of the staff table was the Headmistress of Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall. She was analysing the first years from behind her spectacles in that quiet unreadable way that honestly scared Albus a little.

As was tradition, the Sorting Hat came to life and delivered its annual song. It was always fun to watch the first years jump when the hat showed the first signs of sentience. This year, the hat ended its song with the line 'united as one' which prompted a scoff from Octavian.

"Awfully hypocritical coming from something that's sole purpose is to divide us into four predetermined groups," Octavian whispered into Albus's ears.

The first new student was called and sorted into Slytherin, and so they went one by one into the new houses until the least came towards the end of the alphabet. The last student went to Ravenclaw, and Professor McGonagall barely gave anyone a chance to celebrate that fact before as she stood up from her chair and brought them to silence just by clearing her throat.

This was the first sign that something was wrong, and in some sick vague feeling of premonition, it was something that immediately unsettled Albus.

"Enjoy the feast. I have an important announcement for you all after dinner."

She sat back down, her façade cracked for all of a millisecond, and Albus saw her face fall in worry. Alarm bells rang in his head.

"What do you think that's about?" Albus asked his friend, whipping his head away from McGonagall in the hopes that Octavian had caught the strangeness as well.

Octavian wasn't interested in what Albus had to say, in fact he hadn't even registered what McGonagall had said. He was far more captivated by the plate of Yorkshire pudding that had materialised in front of him. He caught Albus watching him scoop mashed potatoes into his mouth, and then generously passed him down a plate of steak and kidney pie which he knew was one of Albus's favourites.

Albus glanced to the Slytherin table where he could see the back of Scorpius's pale head. He wondered if Scorpius was also trying to guess what was behind McGonagall's cryptic announcement. He stared intently at the back of Scorpius's head, trying to establish some kind of psychic link.

He was no legilimens, but luckily he didn't need to be. Scorpius had already beat him to the punch and was rolling McGonagall's words backwards and forwards in his mind trying to decipher what was going on. There were too many possibilities, but whatever it was, Scorpius knew it was bad. He caught the same crack in McGonagall's expression that betrayed her true feelings of worry. Something was leaning him towards the conclusion being connected to the new Minister for Magic.

Historically, when the Minister's office changed hands, it meant weird things for Hogwarts. And it had just changed hands from one of the best Ministers the wizarding world had ever had, Hermione Granger, and now it was in the hands of Hyde Lacewood. Scorpius didn't know much about him but he had overheard his father muttering about how he shouldn't have been the one to become Minister after Hermione Grander. Scorpius knew at the very least that Lacewood was considered to be unqualified. Which meant he was a man looking to prove himself.

The urge to know was eating him up inside the same way Octavian was devouring his slice of blueberry pie for dessert over at the Gryffindor table.

Albus and Scorpius were on the edge of their seats by the time desert finished, and held their breath as McGonagall stood up out of her chair once again to address them.

"I have some general announcements first thing, reminding both new and returning students of our school rules," McGonagall started speaking.

Albus and Scorpius shared a groan as they realised they would have to wait even longer for answers.

McGonagall cycled through her usual speech. This year, she had no James Potter, Dominique Weasley or Fred Weasley to frown at as she talked about the restrictions on Weasley Wizard Wheezes products, so instead she opted to glare in the general direction of the Gryffindor table. Many Gryffindors, who Albus knew had never done a thing wrong in their entire school lives, nervously avoided her glare.

"Listen closely please. This year, Hogwarts will be host to an event that will take place over much of the school year. Due to this, the Quidditch Cup has been cancelled for the year."

Outrage broke out, murmurs and angry gasps were exchanged across the tables. Albus looked for Clara amidst the chaos and saw that her face had fallen. She looked devastated, and Albus felt unnecessarily guilty. He wasn't sure why, he wasn't the one that had cancelled Quidditch, but he felt awful anyway.

McGonagall shut down the chatter and discontent by continuing with her speech, using her loud booming voice that she typically only reserved when she was punishing someone. "Hogwarts will host a newly formed competition that has been based on a prior contest known as the Triwizard Tournament."

The other shoe dropped. The murmuring amongst the crowd of students erupted into exclamations of mixed responses, half excited and the other half outraged. McGonagall seemed to have been expecting and gave several seconds of pause to let the reactions unfold. Rose in particular shouted from further down the table, Albus picked up key words of "unfair!" and "wrong!" Scorpius's thoughts were firing at top speed as he processed what this meant.

But McGonagall still had more to say.

"In the interest of greater international cooperation between wizarding communities, Minister Lacewood has modified the concept of The Triwizard Tournament, and extended an invitation to compete to all international recognised magic schools. Since it will no longer be three schools competing, it will now be known as the Archwizard Tournament."

The original outrage turned to stunned silence, now the students resolved to sitting quietly and intently to pick up everything they could from McGonagall.

"More information will be provided later in the year when the tournament officially begins. What you need to know for now is that of the eleven schools who were invited to participate, six have agreed to compete including Hogwarts. Come late October, the headmasters of these schools will arrive at Hogwarts with their short listed contestants, and an impartial judge will select a champion from each school."

Octavian started whispering to Albus but he wasn't listening. His vision narrowed in as if he was travelling through a tunnel, and the only thing he could register in front of him was McGonagall's words. If Albus could've retreated into his own collarbone, he would have, because in that second McGonagall made direct eye contact with him. Despite the fact that he was sitting at the back of the hall, he knew she was looking straight at him.

"For anyone thinking of playing the part of Hogwarts champion, there is a strict age restriction in place. Only students aged 17 will be permitted to submit their names as champions. This is for your own protection and I implore you to head my words when I warn you this is a dangerous competition, not for the faint of heart. It may be the greatest challenge some of you will ever face."

If McGonagall said anything more after that, either Albus didn't hear it or it just wasn't important enough to remember. As soon as the speech was done, Albus and Octavian jumped to their feet to join the crowd pouring out of the Great Hall. As they fled they distantly heard Rose loudly called out to the Gryffindor first years to gather in front of her and Albus distantly recognized that he probably should've asked her for the new password. But that was far from important. The two boys didn't hesitate as they pushed past the other students into the Entrance Hall. It was difficult to discern who was who in the crowd walking around them to get to the common rooms.

As Scorpius left the Hall, he managed to spot them and sprinted over so fast he collided into Albus with a thud.

"I can't believe it! The Triwizard Tournament! How could they!"

"Inside voice please," Albus said.

He pushed Scorpius a few steps back and steadied him by his shoulders. A flock of young Hufflepuffs gave the boys odd stares as they walked in the direction of the kitchens. Albus side-eyed them as they did so, prompting them to start whispering.

"The last time they held this tournament, You Know Who came back from the dead," Scorpius hissed. He leaned in closer, completely ignoring the fact that Albus had pushed him away to regain some personal space. "People died!"

"Ok first of all, remember to take deep breaths," Albus tried to talk slowly and maintain eye contact. "Count to ten."

Clara finally found them. "What's all the panic about?" she asked. "Why's everyone so worked up about a competition."

Scorpius gave her a rushed explanation, and the only words Albus managed to even register were 'Cockatrice' 'Durmstrang' 'He Who Must Not Be Named' and 'Task'. Of course, Clara processed none of the frantic gibberish Scorpius had spat at her, so Albus stepped in and gave her the quick breakdown, including the story of how his father had been the last winner. She stared back at them with wide eyes.

"You could do it you know Al."

Octavian, who had been uncharacteristically quiet since the speech, stared up at Albus as he spoke. Clara titled her head in confusion while Scorpius, who never shifted his eyes from Albus, stared with a quiet stunned expression. Albus looked around him, hoping no one else had heard what Octavian had said.

"I can't, I'm sixteen," Albus hissed, trying to silence him.

"At the end of October, you'll be seventeen. You can be a champion."

Albus didn't give him an answer. Destiny was doing that mean thing again where it liked to taunt Albus with the past and then shove him in the exact direction he wanted to avoid. Determined as he was to get the better of fate this time around, he was unfortunately about to get the worst shove of his life.