The violent downpour that hit London on September the first was not quite the reflection of Maya's mood, and she refused to let it ruin hers even though the short way from the parking lot to the station more than sufficed to get her soaked to the bone. She walked up to the barrier, leant casually against it and slid sideways through. The first sight that met her eyes after she had emerged onto platform nine and three-quarters was the Hogwarts Express, a gleaming scarlet steam engine with clouds of steam billowing from it. The platform was packed and noisy as always, with many parents seeing off their children and various owls hooting loudly. Maya gently fought her way through the crowd and climbed on board. She walked through the train until she found what she was looking for, a compartment filled by her friends. They all greeted her cheerfully and asked her how her summer was. 'It was boring, so nothing unusual' Maya said once she sat down next to Draco. The train began to move.
'Shame. We went to the World Cup, and had Top Box tickets of course. Father was the Minister's special guest, in fact. Saw all those players right up close, I could practically touch them' Draco said importantly. Maya just looked at him as she listened. It was precisely because of this she considered it of paramount importance to keep Draco close; he, or his family rather, had plenty of money, power and influence, in other words basically all the good stuff. She was sure that some day her being Muggleborn would not matter anymore and she would be able to piggyback on their success, and subsequently create her own success story.
'Sounds amazing,' Maya forced herself to say after Draco had finished telling them all about the match itself, which she did not care about, 'but what was the deal with those Death Eaters? Was your father involved by any chance?' That question had been on her mind ever since she had read the article and she wanted to get it out of the way immediately.
Draco considered her for a few moments. The train was picking up speed and the thick rain was splattering the windows so much it was all but impossible to see out of them. 'Surely you realise I'm not quite allowed to say, Maya? But you know what, you're a smart girl, you can figure it out' he said meaningfully, peering over her shoulder to make sure their compartment door was closed. Maya just nodded, and Draco quickly changed the subject. 'D'you know what's going to happen at Hogwarts this year?' he asked them eagerly.
'No, so how about you tell us?' Maya suggested.
'The Triwizard Tournament will be held again, for the first time in over a century! It's basically a tournament between three schools, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang, rather than Hogwarts. He knows the Headmaster, you see. According to my father, Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts when it comes to the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, instead of the rubbish we do. But my mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away' Draco told them.
'Go on about the tournament, please' Maya said, extremely excited. If there was a tournament, there would be prizes and prizes usually meant money and glory.
'Sure. A champion will be selected for every school, and the three champions will then compete in three magical tasks. So what about it, Maya? Are we entering?' Draco asked her.
'You bet!' Maya said. She pictured herself as Hogwarts champion and standing in front of the whole school, holding a gigantic, golden trophy high above her head and gracefully receiving thunderous applause and cheers. They spent most of the journey fantasising about what the tasks could possibly be, which was a lot of fun. The rain became heavier and heavier as the train moved further north. It was very dark outside and when the Hogwarts Express slowed down, Maya actually did not feel much like leaving the warmth and comfort of the train. When they did, it was as though buckets of ice-cold water were repeatedly being emptied over their heads. Maya and her friends ran towards the horseless carriages with their heads bent and gratefully climbed into one of them. A few seconds later, the long line of carriages was splashing its way up the track towards Hogwarts. In about a minute, Maya would be home at last.
It would be an understatement to say that it was a relief to enter the torch-lit Entrance Hall and then the Great Hall, which looked its usually splendid self. For obvious reasons it was much warmer in here than it usually was. Maya was very pleased with herself that she had had the sharpness of mind to put her extremely long hair in a bun this morning, because otherwise she might as well have been wearing a heavy, soaked cloak now. As the students sat down, chattering happily, Maya looked around the Hall and at the staff table. She saw no new faces there and inadvertently wondered who their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher would be. The Hall fell silent when Professor McGonagall entered, leading a long line of terrified and soaked first years. Sure enough, they were shivering with a combination of nerves and cold as they came to a halt before the staff table. Professor McGonagall then placed a three-legged stool on the ground before the first years and the old, patched wizard's hat on top of it began to sing. Maya, who was feeling very hungry, did not enjoy his song about Hogwarts, its founders and its houses much. In her eyes, if you had heard one song you had heard them all, but she did clap along with everyone else when the hat had finished.
After a rather boring Sorting Ceremony, which Maya could barely even follow due to Vincent and Gregory's rumbling stomachs next to her, it was finally time for the feast. Maya stuffed her face; in terms of quality the food at Hogwarts was truly unequalled. Maybe the excellent food was the reason she had grown quite a lot over the past year. She had always been relatively small for her age, but now she was more of average height. While the rain was still drumming heavily against the high, dark windows and the occasional clap of thunder drowned out all other noise, Maya and her friends had a really good time at the Slytherin table. They were all looking forward to what would hopefully be a successful year, with maybe Slytherin winning the Quidditch and/or House Cup for a change. One could always dream of course, and Slytherins would not be Slytherins if they had not been very ambitious. When finally the last crumbs had faded off the plates, Albus Dumbledore got to his feet and the Hall went quiet again.
'So! Now that we are all fed and watered, I must give out a few notices. Mr Filch has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has been extended and the full list now comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items. It can be viewed in Mr Filch's office. I would also like to remind you all that the Forest in the grounds is out of bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year. It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Quidditch Cup will not take place this year' the Headmaster spoke. These last words came as an unpleasant surprise and a lot of students started to mumble in displeasure.
'Well, that's one prize we can't win this year' Maya said drily. She did not really care, though. Sure, it would be awesome to finally win the Quidditch Cup, but the extreme disappointment of losing it last year was still fresh in her mind and so at least that would not happen again this year. Besides, she still found the game itself to be very poorly designed.
'This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and lasting throughout the school year. I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely, though, at least as much as the Quidditch games. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts…' Dumbledore continued, but at that point the doors of the Great Hall banged open. A man appeared, leaning upon a long staff and shrouded in a black travelling cloak. While every head turned to look at the stranger, he calmly began walking, or rather limping, towards the staff table. On his every other step a dull clunk echoed through the Hall. When Maya looked closely at his face, she was rather taken aback. It was like every inch of skin was scarred and the mouth looked like a diagonal gash. On top of that, a large chunk of the nose was missing. The most intimidating bit about the man, however, was the man's eyes. One of them was large, round as a coin, and a vivid blue. It was moving ceaselessly, without blinking, and was rolling up, down and from side to side, and then it rolled right over, pointing into the back of the man's head, leaving whiteness as all they could see. Maya and Draco looked at each other, not at all sure what to make of this person.
When the man reached the staff table and shook hands with Dumbledore, he sat down on the empty seat right next to the Headmaster. 'May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody' Professor Dumbledore said brightly into the silence. Nobody clapped; it seemed that the students were rather appalled by the man's very unusual appearance and everyone was just gazing at him. Moody seemed totally indifferent to this less than warm welcome and reached into his travelling cloak, pulling out a hip-flask and drinking from it. 'Anyway, as I was saying, we have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event which has not been held for over a century. With great pride, I will inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year' Dumbledore continued. Maya already knew this of course, but the buzz of excitement that now swept the Great Hall was unmistakeable. The Headmaster then talked about the Tournament for a bit, but Maya had already heard most of it from Draco. The only new detail she found interesting was that apparently the Tournament had been discontinued due to the high number of fatalities that had occurred in it. This did not exactly intimidate her; on the contrary, that must mean that the tasks would be very challenging indeed, which would only make it more fascinating and impressive to overcome them. 'The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school and a thousand Galleons personal prize money' Dumbledore went on.
'What? A thousand Galleons? I'm definitely going for it now!' Maya hissed excitedly, her face lit with enthusiasm. Winning the Tournament would not just bring her fame and glory, but in the process catapult her out of poverty forever. And why could she not win? She was an extremely talented witch, armed to the teeth with a very extensive repertoire of spells, curses, hexes and jinxes and they were bound to come in handy during the tasks, which she imagined would require some quick thinking at times.
'Now, I am sure all of you are eager to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts, but the Heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age, which is to say, seventeen years or older, will be allowed to compete. This is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the Tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, despite all of our precautions. We deem it quite unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to overcome them. I expect you to extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and to give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now it is bedtime! Chop chop!' Dumbledore finished.
Maya was positively fuming with anger as she made her way to the Slytherin common room with the rest of her house. Why was it that every time there appeared to be a possibility to become rich and famous, or basically anything to bring her some glory, it was promptly taken away from her? There was no way she could not outperform most of the sixth and even seventh year at those tasks. When she had bid her friends good night and entered her room for the year, she inadvertently wondered if there would maybe be some kind of loophole which would allow her to enter anyway. It seemed like Dumbledore was trying to stop the underaged students giving their names, but that 'impartial judge' he had mentioned had no idea how old they were. However, when she got into bed a few minutes later and laid there alone in the dark with nothing but her own thoughts, she already gave up on the idea of entering. Realistically, there was no way she could outsmart the likes of Dumbledore, extremely talented fourteen-year-old Maya Dursley might be, and the fact she realised this was certainly a good sign. If you wanted to become powerful and famous you definitely needed confidence and spunk, but never lose touch with reality.