The attack at the Qudditch World Cup became a bold statement in every newspaper. Even the muggle newspaper which had half written theories behind the terrorist fire attack that had happened that day.
It was a bit unnerving to see the bold statements and headlines for the next two days as the mail owls dropped off their packages and angry letters that were aimed at Mr. Weasly for some unknown reason.
Paula, Ginny and Ness could only watch as they quietly enjoyed the last day before school (And before Paula headed back to America.) with theories and hushed whispers as they glanced around, making sure that no one was listening in. Thankfully, everyone was distracted to pay attention to the usually trio of friends as they prepared for school and work.
Even neat and school obsessed Hermione was distracted as she started reading up on Elf rights and working conditions, her latest hobby after Winky was fired by Crouch. Which according to Ron was a fate worse than death to be fired by your Master.
"I bet he did it. He summoned the dark mark" Paula announced as Ness dozed on an oak tree branch, enjoying the warm summer heat and cool breeze.
"What makes you say that?" Ginny questioned as she looked up from her wilted Four leaf clover.
"She was so nervous when Mr. Diggery confronted her," Paula reminded her, "And she kept looking at Crouch for some reason."
"Plus, we saw here mere minutes before the spell went off." Ness recalled, "There's no way she could have possibly backtracked around to use Harry's wand."
"Unless Crouch gave her an order to do it," Paula said, "She's quite obedient to obey her higher ups."
"True…" Ginny murmured, "But why would Crouch make her do it? He isn't involved with the Dark Lord."
"Is he?" Ness argued, sitting up slightly from his perch, "After all, it seems like a lot of people were cheering for Lord Voldemort as they paraded through camp. He probably was a minor supporter when Voldemort was a big deal."
"Like Malfoy's dad." Ginny recalled with a frown, "He was a HUGE supporter back then, but Dad can never get anything on him."
Paula shuddered and wrinkled her dress, "Lovely, now I'm going to have to look over my shoulder for possible cultist members."
"We aren't cultists-," Ginny gently argued when Paula cut her off with an angry snap, "I saw those monsters did to those muggles, and how Winky was treated! She's a living creature same as we are! She shouldn't be treated as a slave!"
"Says the housewife in training." Ness teased, then he yelped as Paula attempted to use Freeze Alpha on him, "Shut it Mr. Hero." She huffed before she smoothed and dress and studied the random patches of flowers among the thick weeds.
"Fine, fine," Ness relented, "But what do we do now? Every news reporter is out searching for the spell that saved those Muggles lives."
"I wouldn't worry about it," Paula said, "After all, we're a bunch of kids. Everyone believes that the spell was casted by a crazy powerful vigilante."
"So, you didn't save the muggles?" Ginny questioned, looking a little disappointed.
"I merely set everyone on fire." Paula said with a small smile.
"Yea, I saved the muggles." Ness said, "Not exactly sure how since I just wanted them to get to safety after I stopped them in the air."
"Didn't you use teleport?" Paula asked,
"Yea, but I had no idea where they live. I just pictured someplace that offered them safety." Ness sheepishly admitted, "Not the best idea, but it was better then nothing."
"Agreed." Ginny said, "Hopefully the Ministry caught most of those masks wearing freaks by this point."
"Hopefully." Paula agreed as they heard a faint yell, no doubt signaling them for their last homecooked meal before they all headed to school. Ness was tempted to race the girls back to the Burrow but Ginny's questioned stopped him.
"Paula, are all your PSI attacks elemental?"
"Yes and no," Paula said with a small shrug as they made their way back, "My main attacks are elemental, but I can buff and debuff people as well as heal."
"She's basically the mage in our group." Ness deadpanned, "Poo's all around with offensive and defense PSI as well as physical attacks, Jeff has his rockets and I just have one offensive PSI attack."
"One? What about fire?"
"I'm still trying to learn that." Ness admitted, "So for the time being I only have one." Then he tilted his head, "Why do you ask?"
"Just theorizing." Ginny mused as she pushed the backdoor open and headed into the dining room. Ness and Paula exchanged a baffled look but didn't question her, instead they finished the day off by suffering through Ms. Weasly's cooking and headed for bed for the busy morning ahead of them.
And busy it was, from Mr. Weasly having to drop Paula off to Mrs. Weasly barking orders as everyone scrambled to grab suitcases, luggage's, pet birds and last minute supplies before they piled into company cars and headed for King's station where they were rushed onto the train with hurried goodbyes and promises that they would meet again.
Ness ignored this part and the twinkling smiles as he scrambled onto the train with Ginny and grabbed an empty compartment car, "Hopefully, school will be normal this year." Ness groaned as Ginny studied the newspaper which was still talking about the World Cup.
Ginny gave a halfhearted hum of agreement as she slowly turned the page, flinching slightly as the train lurched to life and pulled away from the station.
Ness sighed and looked around, studying the velvet red carpet and the benches before he glanced out the window to watch the rain and acres of land fly by. Wondering what Luna and Selvis's day clothes looked like, would it be like Ginny? Who was wearing a simple brown dress with mended leggings or something more casual? Like his tee shirt and shorts.
Or, maybe Luna would show up wearing looking like a hippie with a love for dainty clothing while representing the entire house system, since she wore a butterfly covered lavender dress, a snake green jacket with actual snake scales dotting the fabric, honey yellow leggings with black stripes, a fire red bow in her pale blonde hair and plain brown sandals.
"Hello!" Luna greet as she sat beside Ginny and adjusted her tote bag, which was covered in pins from all over the world, "How was your summer?"
"Would have better if we weren't attacked by cultists and magic food." Ness answered while Ginny groaned, "Awful, a bunch of You know who's followers showed up and ruined the after game party."
"There was no party." Ness reminded her, "Just people being loud and disturbing the peace."
"After party." Ginny argued as a voice drawled, "It's a miracle that your father and his friends still have a job after that mess." And Selvis slid into the train compartment and sat beside Ness, who was thankfully less colorful than Luna as he wore cold colors and a scarlet vest praising Bulgeria.
"Oh, shut up." Ginny grumbled, "The only good thing about this mess is that your dumb team got crushed in the dust."
Selvis flushed an angry red and huffed, "Well for that crude remark Granger, I won't tell you any of my big scandals!"
"Scandals?" Ness questioned then he smirked and teased, "Did someone steal the famous Rug of Aladdin and make counterfeits?"
"Har-har." Selvis dryly retorted as he pulled out his notebook and flipped to a page, "But no, there about Barty Crouch."
"Oh yea… He fired his house elf for some reason." Luna mused frowning slightly, "Poor thing, it sounds like she was there at the wrong time at the wrong place."
"I dunno…" Ness admitted, "We saw her moments before the mark went off in the air running away from the clearing we were hiding at only for her to reappear."
"You were there?!" Selvis asked in disbelief.
"Yea, Ginny invited Paula and me to see the game."
"Oh, of course your girlfriend gets to go." Selvis sulked ignoring Ness's protest of, "We're just friends!" as Ginny retorted, "I would have invited you but you were acting all high and mighty."
"So… What exactly happened?" Luna asked, "All the paper published was that an attack happened and that someone summoned the Dark Mark."
"They didn't mention the muggles being recused by a mysterious blue light?" Ness questioned,
"Vaugaly, but everyone assumes it was a powerful wizard-," Selvis started when he froze and looked at Ness in realization, "Explanation. Now." Selvis ordered. Prompting Ness and Ginny to explain what happened and their theories on Barty Crouch.
"Sounds about right." Selvis said, a coy smile on his face, "The Crouch family or rather, the remains are a mess. Wouldn't surprise me if Crouch was indeed the one who summoned the mark."
"Was he a double agent?" Luna asked, her eyes growing wide.
"No clue," Selvis admitted, "But I do know that he had a son, who was a big fan of You-Know-Who and followed him around like a lapdog, and that his wife mysteriously died after his son was executed."
"He was executed!?" Ness exclaimed, feeling his breakfast perform a loop-de-loop in his stomach as Selvis somberly said, "By his own father no less. Gave the order for the Dementor's Kiss without a second thought."
"That heartless monster!" Ginny growled while Luna nodded in agreement, her dreamy smile slipping a little as she murmured, "I wonder why?"
"He's old money Luna." Selvis said with an exaggerated sigh, "With a huge scandal, getting him publicly executed was the only redeeming thing he could do to save his reputation."
"Well that explains why he was so eager to blame us." Ness grumbled, "If he had his way he probably would have thrown us in jail and seemed like a hero while the Boy who lived turned into a villainous crook."
"I wouldn't be surprised if he himself wasn't a Death Eater, according to Mum, people did crazy things to prove their worth to You-Know-Who." Selvis said.
"Didn't one wizard blow up his entire muggle neighborhood before he joined You-Know-Who?" Ginny questioned.
"Wouldn't surprise me." Selvis said, "As I said, Death Eaters were crazy."
"Speaking of blown up neighborhoods." Luna said, plucking the newspaper from Ginny's hands, "Mad Eye Moody was heard setting off his traps late last night."
"So that's why Dad was in a rush." Ginny realized then she frowned, "Oh dear, I hope no one got hurt."
"Whose Mad Eye Moody? And why does he have traps?" Ness asked as Selvis stole the newspaper from Luna to read for himself.
"Mad Eye Moody was a famous Death Eater Hunter." Ginny explained, "The best of the best, despite the many injuries he gained until his retirement-,"
"Forced." Selvis reminded her, "The Ministry forced him to retire."
"Right, he was a bit… Paranoid after a bit, mistaking Muggles for Death Eaters and blasting them without a second thought before they let him go." Ginny said.
"He was loco." Luna happily offered before she turned to Selvis, "Although, I'm surprised it took him this long to get into the news. He used to be reeeaaallly active back in the day, well, at least according to Dad."
"Didn't he blow up his trash cans or something?" Ness said, vaguely remembering Mr. Weasly grumble something about trash bins as he took Paula home.
"Trash what?" Selvis questioned.
"He means trash bins." Ginny explained, "They say trash cans in America."
"Americans are lame." Selvis declared, "Honestly! Who says trash cans?"
"I do." Ness said with a small shrug, "And I call rubbish garage."
"You're a piece of rubbish." Selvis grumbled as Ness happily retorted, "Nah! I'm a piece of trash!"
"Isn't that what he said?" Luna questioned as Selvis rolled up the newspaper and waved it in Ness's face, "I have a weapon Earthbound!" he threatened, "And I'm not afraid to use it!"
"I do to!"
Selvis frowned and slightly lowered the newspaper, "You do?"
"Hypnosis Alph-," Ness started when Selvis yelped and dove for the other end of the booth yelling, "Don't do that you freak!"
"But it's funny to see your reaction!"
"No, it bloody isn't!"
"It is to me."
Selvis huffed in protested and folded his arms but didn't add onto to his argument.
Allowing Ginny to change the topic, talking about the actual events of the World Cup and how Paula and Ness were ready to burn her clover pin, earning a cry of "It was a menace!" from Ness as Selvis doubled over in laughter yelling, "Karma! That's what you get freak!"
while Luna asked in a serious voice, "Did you check to make sure it wasn't a Poppy Clover? They're quiet the tricksters." Abruptly ending Selvis's laughing fit as he argued, "Poppy Clovers aren't real!" and started a debate on four leaf and three leafed clovers.
Their fun was quickly ruined as they neared Hogwarts and had to get dress, prompting Selvis to go hang out with his much 'cooler' friends while Luna wandered off to search the train for Motor-mice with Ginny in tow.
Leaving Ness to change and glance at his year three books before he got bored and took a nap until they reached the station.
"I was having such a good dream." Ness complained as he followed Ginny and Luna off the platform and grabbed a carriage with a Gryffindor boy and a Hufflepuff girl who happily ignored him after studying Ness's unusual eyes.
"I wonder what's going to happen this year." Luna mused, amiably watching the trees slowly pass by, "Maybe we'll have to face a dragon."
"I hope not." Ness groaned, "Their annoying to fight against."
"Especially with their armored hides and fire." Ginny said with a small shudder, "I read that one dragon could spit small balls of fire that would explode on contact."
Ness cringed then joked, "He probably has an explosive personality."
"Har-har." Ginny and Luna said giving him half amused yet annoyed looks as Ness shrugged and said, "I'm right." As they approached the castle.
"I wonder what opening speech Dumbledore has this year." Ginny wondered.
"Or the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." Ness reminded her, "Although he'll never be as cool as Lupin."
"I wonder how Professor Kale is." Luna mused as they entered the Great Hall and separated to their houses, "…I completely forgot about Professor Kale." Ness admitted as he spotted said teacher wearing night blue robes and chatting to Professor Trelawney who was glowing with excitement about something while everyone sat down and waited for the house selection process (Which Ginny said was called the Sorting) to begin.
His second year at Hogwarts, and he was probably never going to get used to the floating lanterns, the singing hat—why did the hat sing?
Oh well, the magical plates (And thankfully handmade food that appeared on said plates) the ghosts appearing and disappearing as they watched their respected house gain new members or the magical celling that revealed a calm night sky despite the outside weather being gloomy and dark as it rained cats and dogs. Something Ness had somehow not noticed as he clumsily followed Ginny and Luna to their carriage.
Ness happily clapped along as he studied the four houses, easily picking Selvis out as he beamed happy grins at his new Slytherin members and Luna as she had her silverware clap for her, unfazed as her fellow Ravenclaw shoot her annoyed and possible worried looks, probably wondering if her sanity was in tack.
After the sorting was done Dumbledore stood up and spread his arms prepared to announce his speech which was surely going to make dinner be even later by the time he finished-, "Tuck in."
Ness blinked and looked at Ginny who had a small smile on her face, "Wait, is that it?" Ness asked as the plates filled with food.
"Apparently." Ginny said with a small shrug as she began to pile mash potato and Shepard's pie onto her golden plate, "He's ah… special."
"You were going to say crazy-," Ness said when Ginny sent him a look, prompting him to grab his fork and grab some food. He was just about to dig into his steak when he heard Hermione exclaimed, "House elves work here?!" in horror.
"Hmm?" Ness looked up and glanced at Hermione who was looking down at her food in mixed horror and disgust then at the ghost—Nearly Headless Nick who nodded, "Why of course, we have the largest amount of house elf in all of Great Britain." He explained, "They tend the castle, cook the food, restock the potion and medical supplies you know, things like that."
"I didn't know we had house elves." Ginny said, following his gaze as Hermione stiffened and pressed, "But they do get paid. Right? And have holiday leave? Pensions? Sick leave and raises?" her answer was a fit of laughter from the ghost as he nearly lost his head and floated off.
"Hopefully their happy working here…" Ness murmured as he warily glanced down at his plate.
"Must be if they have over a hundred house elves." Ginny offered as she watched Hermione put her fork down and fold her arms, "I mean, Dumbledore probably treats them right."
"Probably." Ness echoed as he forced himself to swallow a mouthful of delicious yet guilt ridden mashed potatoes, telling himself that he should appreciate their hard work and that it would be offensive if he didn't enjoy dinner.
"You okay? You look… pale." Ginny asked.
"Oh nothing, just remembering some old Muggle history." Ness dryly said as he took a sip of his water. Ginny brightened and eagerly asked, "What kind of Muggle history?"
"The Civil War." Ness answered, knowing full well that Ginny probably didn't have a clue as to what he meant. She didn't. "The what war?"
"American war, happened almost right after WW1 if I remember correctly." Ness explained, "It was a fight between the north and the south over slavery which nearly caused the South to segregate."
"Okay…" Ginny slowly said before she asked, "What's WW1?"
"World War 1," Ness started to explain before he frowned, "Hold on, you don't know World War 1? Pretty sure that Great Brittan was one of our allies during the war."
"I remember the Battle of Warlocks," Ginny recalled, "Where general Fredrick, a Gryffindor battled against the evil warlock of some continent."
"…I'm seriously starting to question this school's history lessons." Ness said after giving Ginny a long look of disbelief.
"Oh! I think we were fighting China!" Ginny recalled, ignoring the fact that Ness had resumed eating his dinner. Once the plates were cleaned and had disappeared into the kitchen Dumbledore stood up for supposedly his second speech, the announcements and changes around the year.
"So!" Dumbledore said, giving everyone a smile, "Now that you are feed and have re-hydrated yourselves-," Ness heard a loud hmph from Hermione about that statement, "—I must once again request for you attention for a couple announcements. Mostly concerning Mr. Flich's new and improved list of items that are banned within the halls of Hogwarts, which are, Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs, there are 400 more items which are also banned but I feel that you all get the gist of it."
A couple students, mainly the tricksters snickered at that, "But, if any of you do wish to see the full list, it is in Flich's office. And, as always, The Forbidden Forest is indeed, still forbidden as well as the village of Hogsmeade to anyone below year three."
"I can't wait to taste the chocoballs and pop rock candies." Ginny gushed, "I heard it tastes amazing!"
"It does." Ness whispered not that it mattered since Dumbledore's next words erupted a huge cry out outrage from almost the entire student body as he said, "I regret to inform you that Qudditch will not take place this year." Dumbledore had to wait a bit before he pressed on without being interrupted, "But, I can cheerfully tell you that we have something much more exciting planned this year as we are going to host-,"
The loud bang of a door opening silenced Dumbledore as everyone looked at the Great Hall entrance, gawking as a flash of lightning illuminated a man with a gnarled and scarred face, his nose missing a huge chunk out of it as his mouth was pulled into a thin line, almost as thin as the stitches across his face. But it was his eyes that sent collected shivers down everyone's spines.
They reminded Ness of one of those horrible mangled dolls that had been forced to get two different eyes to prevent being thrown out with the trash, one was black and beady, like a marble and the other was a large electric blue eye that wouldn't stop moving around in its socket. Performing 360 spins as it searched for something.
"No way…" Ginny breathed, "Mad Eye Moody's our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?"
"I don't like him." Ness whispered, the aura of a predator sending shivers up spine as his mind tried to figure out if it was time to defend himself or to stay calm, "I don't like him at all…"
"He won't hurt us." Ginny said, sending him a soothing smile as Mad Eye Moody limped toward Dumbledore, extending a scarred hand toward the Headmaster who happily shook it, like they were old friends before he muttered something, paused and nodded his head at Mad Eye Moody's reply, gesturing toward the empty chair on his left before he faced forward.
"May I introduce, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Professor Moody." Dumbledore announced with a bright smile as 'Professor' Moody sat down, lowered his equally gnarled cane and examined a plate of sausages.
No one clapped. They just stared at Dumbledore, then their new 'Professor' in awe and shock. Even the teachers looked stunned exchanging nervous looks before they looked at Dumbledore, silently saying 'Why is he here?'.
"Now I was I was saying," Dumbledore said, breaking the stunned silence with ease as everyone resumed focusing on him, and only him as he flashed them a proud smile, "Hogwarts have been selected to host a very important tournament, the Triwizard Tournament to be exact."
"You're Joking!" Fred Weasly yelled, shattering the uneasy tension and filling the Great Hall with laughter as Ness looked around, confused and found that almost everyone under year 4 was also lost as the older members shared looks of, "Can you believe our headmaster?" as they laughed.
But their headmaster wasn't joking, instead his smile just grew wider, "No Mr. Weasly, I am not joking." Dumbledore said over the laughter, "Although I did hear an interesting joke about a Leprechaun entering a bar and-,"
Professor McGonagall coughed and sent him a look, silencing the joke, "Ah, very well." Dumbledore said, practically sighing in disappointment, "Now then, this will be very brief explanation since it is growing late, but the Triward tournament was established seven hundred years to create goodwill between the top European schools of magic, Hogwarts of course, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. A champion was randomly selected to represent his or her school to compete in magical competitions, normally each school would host one every five years but we had to discontinue it because of the high death toll-,"
"I get the sinking feeling that I'm not going to have a very normal school year." Ness groaned as he pictured Peter Petigrew somehow using this opportunity to get Harry killed to avenge his Master, "But, after several tries and attempts, our departments of International Magical Cooperation, Magical Games and Sports have decided that the time is ripe for another try."
"If Barty really is a Death Eater," Ginny whispered, "I bet he set this up."
"Agreed." Ness murmured.
"The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang shall be arriving this October with their chosen candidates and the selection shall take place this Halloween with an impartial judge overseeing the final champions for the games to win the Triwizard cup, a thousand gallons and school pride!"
"Whooaaa." Ness exclaimed as everyone broke out in excited whispers, "Is that a lot of money?" Ness asked as Ginny struggled to breath properly managing a hoarse, "A lot of money." Before she found a rhythm.
"However, I must warn you that only wizards seventeen and above will be allowed to enter," another huge outrage as Dumbledore continued silencing most of the rage induced yells with a cool gaze, "This rule has been put in place to prevent less experience wizards from getting themselves killed, a rule we must abide to since the Ministry have only agreed to start the Triwizard tournaments if this rule was followed."
"Now, I ask of you, all of you to be polite and open minded when Beauxbatons and Durmstrang come they are not our enemies or rivals, merely new friends we have yet to meet! And I also ask of you all to give the selected champion your full support, there is no need to feel better that you weren't picked, we must simply press on and cheer our hero or heroine on as they compete." He studied the sea of students before he clapped his hands and said, "Now, off to bed, you have a long day of classes tomorrow and I want you all to be prepared."
"Oh god, I forgot about class." Ness groaned as he got up and followed the sea of Gryffindor's to their dorms, "I am going to knock out so many people…"
"And hopefully don't blow them up." Ginny reminded him, "I can still feel the burn marks from last year."
"It was an accident!"
"Which singed my pigtails."
Ness groaned and threw his hands up, "To any god that is up there, please yet this year be normal!"
And said god merely laughed at him as a loud boom of thunder caused him to trip and get stuck in a trick stair, "Gee, thanks for your encouraging words God," Ness grumbled as Ginny smothered a laugh and helped him up.
You know, I can't help but wonder just how much of the Muggle world the wizards actually know about. They don't seem to know (Or care enough to follow) Muggle sports since I know someone in book 2 had to explain the concept of Soccer to a Pure-blood wizard before the attacks started, and even Muggle clothing and fashion are a mystery to wizards. Which is really, really weird and disturbing since they just wear robes and hats over casual or formal clothing (Unless they have magically clothing that I've somehow missed over the years.) For a secret community that have to be wary of Muggles observing magic or stumbling upon magical items, they don't really seem to understand much more than the 'wipe their memories and book it back to the Ministry.' aspect.
Oh well, thanks for reading!
