Harry Potter
And the
Doomspell Tournament

Sorry, all. Three's won. Harry's doing this on his own. But be sure to vote again-remember, Harry's fate is in your hands.

When we last left off, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, were making their way to King's Cross. While listening to the Wireless Wizarding Network, they heard some awful news.

It seemed that none other than Voldemort himself had entered the broadcast station and had something to say. It turns out, after being told no more hijinks last year, that it would be mandatory this year. Voldemort had challenged Harry to The Doomspell Tournament-and if Harry doesn't show up, he threatened, he would execute the Error Curse. But just what is it about this curse that has Hermione completely speechless? Is it an even more advanced form of one of the Unforgivable Curses?

Or is it even worse?

Chapter 2
The History Behind the Mystery.

"Hermione? Hermione, what is it?" Harry shook her. She looked about to faint.

"What's wrong with her?" Ron looked over.

"You guys..." Hermione whimpered. She looked spooked beyond words. Then she turned to Harry, grabbing his robes. "Harry, you've got to fight in that tournament! You're gonna have to call Voldemort's bluff! This is beyond serious!"

"Take it easy, Hermione!" Ron put his arm across her to restrain her. "What's wrong, anyway? What's up with this Error curse, anyway?"

Hermione swallowed. She turned to Ginny. "Could you leave for a moment, Ginny? I need to talk to these two alone."

Ginny, visibly confused, merely nodded and left the car. Hermione shut the door behind them. Then she turned to Harry and Ron and began to speak in a low whisper. "You guys have no idea what the Error Curse is?"

They both shook their heads no in reply.

"I'll tell you, then. But we can't let it leak out into the student body, very few people know this. And we don't want to panic everyone. You've got to promise to keep what I tell you in this car a secret."

"All... all right." Harry agreed.

She sighed. "Where do I begin? Harry, do you remember your muggle schooling, before you came to Hogwarts?"

"Yes, yes I do." Harry told her.

"Do you remember anything about space?"

"Hardly. That was high school stuff."

"Okay... okay... Professor Sinestra's Astronomy class, what about that?"

"Oh, yes loads. What about it?"

"All right. Now imagine..." She began. "Imagine... a black hole. You remember what she said about those, don't you?"

"Sure."

"All right. Thousands of years ago, when magic was still in it's greatest experimenting years, there was a Wizard. He was obsessed with the apocalypse, and furious at the evils in the world. He developed a spell, one that slowly gathered from within a wizard's entire source of magic, and slowly developed it into..." She took a deep breath. "Into a black hole."

"Whoa, just a second!" Ron started, but Hermione clamped her hand over his mouth, and continued.

"This spell is unbelievably dangerous and would destroy everything if it were executed." Hermione told them. "I read about it once in a very old edition I found in Flourish and Blotts, but few know about it. If they did, we would have seen a lot of panic going on in the station."

"But... if he invented this spell, why didn't he execute it?" Harry asked.

"He did." Hermione said darkly. "The only way you can stop the spell once it is cast is to kill the caster. But the magic emanating from them is impossible for the strongest of wizards or spells to penetrate."

"Then how did they stop him from casting it?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. It's all a mystery. You see, there was only one person there at the time to stop him. And he disappeared along with the caster. They were never seen again."

"Harry, you know what this means." Ron removed Hermione's hand from his mouth. "This means that you have to face Voldemort. We can't tell if he's bluffing. Maybe we should go to Dumbledore about this."

"Not a bad idea. But he would never let me learn the curses I would need to know to stand up to Voldemort."

"That's true. But didn't You-Know-Who say he was listening, anyway?" Ron pointed out.

"Right, but we can't let him know I'm practicing these curses. They're illegal as it is." Harry replied.

"Hmm. But I'm sure Lupin'll cover for you. If he's there."

"Yeah." Harry muttered. As the day wore on, they got more and more bored, Ginny came back and told them she'd be with some other friends, and finally the lunch tray came by.

"Anything off the cart, dears?" The plump Witch asked politely. They all went over and bought a mound of sweets, and sat there eating, more and more bored. The sun was streaking the horizon crimson as they stopped at Hogwarts, finally.

They got out of the car, and started walking with the other students toward the castle.

"Oy, there!" A voice called over the crowd.

"Hagrid!" Harry replied with delight. Hagrid stood towering over a crowd of first years, all of them getting into canoes to take their first journey across the moat to Hogwarts.

"See you at the sorting!" Hagrid shouted to them, and pushed off the land toward the cavelike entrance to the castle.

They crossed the bridge and entered the great hall, where a huddled group of nervous-looking first years stood waiting. Professor McGonagall led them into a back room, and the older students filed into their seats by house.

Just then, Professor McGonagall walked up to the stage, carrying the ragged and patched old Sorting Hat and a scroll of parchment. She stood back as the brim of the hat began to rip to form a mouth, and sing.

"Oh,
I'm the Hogwart's sorting hat,
And soon you all shall see
Who's who of all you first years,
And just where you will be.
You could be in Gryffindor
The brave and strong and courageous
To be great like them I promise you
Involves facing the dangerous.
Or maybe you're in Hufflepuff
The loyal and the just
To make anywhere it in this house
Hard working is a must.
Or maybe you're a Ravenclaw
Common sense and intellect
One of them helped me practice this song
So my rhymes could connect
Or perhaps you are a Slytherin
Cunning, sneaky and ambitious
To achieve your ends you'll need vigilance
Wit and to be suspicious.
So go ahead
And put me on
And I'll tell you where you belong.
Don't wait, don't leave
Don't hesitate
The Sorting Hat has sung!"

The great hall once again burst into applause, and professor McGonagall began to read the list of first years.

"Allen, Gary!" Stood up, went to the chair, and as soon as the hat touched his head, shouted. "Ravenclaw!"

"Buliwic, Thomas!" Became a Slytherin. Goldhart, Godric was the first new Gryffindor.

"Wesley, Geoffrey!" Was the last to be sorted. But Professor McGonagall just stood there after that.

"Students," Dumbledore began. "I'd like you to welcome some new students we're going to have sorted this year. They are already in sixth year, however, they are not from this country. They are on a special foreign exchange program for the next two years from America." He finished. A mumble began to come from the crowd, clearly interested. "Before they are sorted, I'd like for them to tell us who they are, what they like to do in America, maybe what it's like, one by one. Students, if you please?"

Five new sixth year students walked up to the stage, and the first one, a girl, began to speak. She wasn't wearing robes, however, she was just wearing a regular tank top and cut-offs.

"Hey, I'm Sharon, from Denver, Colorado. America, well, it's a pretty cool place. School's never this cool, though, it's just like muggle school except for what they learn. We don't get dorms or so many teachers like this, it's just not as cool." She was pretty cute, Ron thought. Next, a tall boy stepped forward.

"Sup, all? I'm Stan da Man McCoy from BROOKLYN!" The whole hall jumped as he shouted. "You know, New York. I listen to hip-hop bands and stuff like that, you know, Jay-Z, DMX, Shaggy, all that. You got a nice castle here, we usually go in regular schools to learn magic and stuff, but this is pretty sweet." He stepped back, and an even taller boy walked up.

"Hey. I'm Marshall Oak, from Harrington, in Delaware. I'm into traveling, that's why I'm here. I heard England was a nice place, and from what I can see it is." He met eyes with a few of the girls in the crowd. "I'm into magical defense, you know, and I've come up with a few spells you all might think is kind of cool." He stepped aside, and another boy stepped forward.

"Heeeyyy... I'm Chuck. I'm from Pittsburgh, you might like it there. It's a nice place, uh, but we don't get no castle to learn in. You might have heard of me before, though. If you've ever read the book "Five Hundred and One Ways to Obliviate a Potato With Magic," I wrote that. Yeah. I'm glad to be here, too. Thanks, all." Finally, the last person stepped, up, a slender bleach-blonde girl.

"Hi." She had a beautiful smile. "I'm Nikki Greene, from Florida. I like your country a lot. It's awesome, I've been sightseeing already. I can't wait to get the year started 'cause I love magic." She didn't have as much to say, but most of the boys paid rapt attention to her gorgeous voice.

"Well, it's nice to meet you all." Dumbledore smiled warmly. "I'm afraid, however, that we do have a sort of dress code. You'll all need to get robes, I thought that was stated in the supply list, wasn't it?"

"Yo, yo, yo, hold up, chief!" Stan started. "You tellin' me we have uniforms? I didn't jump off the cafeteria of the Brooklyn School of Magic because I wanted robes. I wasn't all over the news for filling the principal's office with a garbage truck full of waste because I wanted uniforms. I did it for just the opposite."

"It's true." Marshall piped up. "I saw a video clip of it myself. It was all over the East Coast."

"I remember that! That was you?" Chuck turned to Stan.

"Yup, all." Stan slapped him a high five. The two girls were silent. They obviously didn't like the idea of robes.

"Ahem. I'm afraid you'll have to get robes, I'm sorry." Dumbledore gave Stan a piercing look. Stan decided not to push the matter. He already had an idea up his sleeve.

"Now, it's time for you to be sorted." Stan sat down first, and put the hat on backwards. Dumbledore sighed as the hat mumbled something in Stan's ear and then shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" He got up, took off the hat, and sat down at the Gryffindor table.

Next was Marshall, who didn't have the time to sit down before the hat called "GRYFFINDOR!" again.

Sharon also ended up becoming a Gryffindor. Then came Nikki Greene.

"Hmm." The hat mumbled n her ear after she put it on. "Very intelligent, yes. Loves magic, I'd say a RAVENCLAW!" She removed the hat and sat down at the Ravenclaw table.

Finally was Chuck. He stood, put the hat on his head, and it immediately shouted "Slytherin!"

He took it off, looked over at the Slytherin table, shrugged, and went to sit down.

"Now, to celebrate our exchange student's arrival, I've had the kitchen prepare us some American cuisine, which I hope you'll all enjoy. Let's eat!" He clapped his hands, and the trays on the table filled with food.

At the Gryffindor table the three exchange students sat talking and eating. Marshall put about a dozen red peppers, which nobody else had touched, into his cheese steak, and began to eat it. Stan picked up one, tried it, and nearly jumped out of his seat.

"Whoo-wee, those are hot!" He shouted.

"No they're not." Marshall retorted.

"Bet you a dollar you can't drink that dish full of pepper juice they're in without scoffing."

"You're on!" And in one fluid motion, Marshall picked up the dish and drained it. The Gryffindor students just stared in amazement.

"You charmed your mouth or sumptin' yo." Stan grumbled and gave Marshall a dollar.

Over at the Slytherin table, however, no one barely spoke, except for Chuck.

"So, what's this house thing all about?" He asked.

"Simple." Pansy Parkinson piped up. "We're the best here and everyone else is just jealous."

"Oh, really." Charles gave her a stupid grin to mock her. "You know I don't like your attitude. Just because some hat told you so doesn't make you better. I'd bet the hat is smarter than you." He turned to Crabbe and Goyle. "So what's your guy's names?"

"Crabbe." Crabbe said simply.

"Goyle." Goyle grumbled.

"Nice to meet you." He turned back to Pansy, who was still looking shocked. "So do we have, like, a house leader, or something?"

"Professor Snape." She said coldly.

"Can't wait to meet him." Chuck replied sarcastically. Just then, however, they heard a commotion from the Gryffindor table.

"CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!" Several Gryffindors were shouting, and they saw Marshall drinking a large bowl of pickle brine. As he did this, another Gryffindor was pouring in some hot-pepper sauce and vinegar. Marshall finished the bowl, and everyone groaned, and began to hand him several Galleons apiece.

"YOU DA' MAN!" Stan patted him on the back, and Sharon just sighed and shook her head.

"What is going on over here?" Professor McGonagall demanded.

"Yo, yo, wassup?" Stan stood to greet her. "Hey, listen teach, we just, uh, having a little fun over here and all. S'okay?"

"No, not s'okay." McGonagall said coldly. "I will have no more foolishness," She glared down at Marshall. "Or disrespect. Understand?"

"Comprende, yo." Stan sat down.

"Stan, why ain't you standing up like that time you filled the principal's office with garbage?" Marshall demanded.

"I'm just playing along with this foreign school discipline crap. In my freshman year, I was a Japanese exchange student. I got whipped twice a day. And I still left that teacher in the dust by the end of the year. Believe me, this is gonna be no problem. I've got a plan."

"Okay. Whatever." Marshall replied.

"You'd better not cross McGonagall." Nearly-Headless Nick told them. "She can get real mean real fast."

Stan took one look at Nick and screamed. The entire hall stared in his direction.

"What is it?" Nick asked.

"You're dead! People, this man is dead!"

"Y-yes." Nick acknowledged him, confused.

"Wha-wha-this man is dead! Why is this man dead? This is not right! We have a serious shortage of opaqueness here!" He stared through Nearly-Headless Nick. "Did anybody notice that this guy currently ceases to live? What-what is he doing here?"

"He's our house ghost." Harry told Stan.

"But-but-how can he be here? He's dead! Oh, this is all not right! Oh, I'm so confused I'm not even gonna ask anymore questions." He threw his hands up and sat back down.

"Students!" Dumbledore said suddenly. "Our entertainment has arrived. We have here two of the greatest magicians in the world today. They have come to perform one of their acts. Though most people think they are muggles and they even perform for them, they are in fact wizards, please welcome Pen and Teller!"

Two men stepped up onto the stage, one very tall with glasses, and the other was shorter, with curly hair.

"Good day. My name is Pen. Or at least you may call me that. And this is my assistant, Teller." Teller bowed. "Today, we will be performing a popular trick we like to call the magic bullet. Now, I'm going to need three volunteers from the audience."

Several hands shot up at once, and Pen picked out Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were sitting next to each other. They stepped up to the stage.

"Now, today we have one stipulation." Pen told them. "A lot of muggle rumors have been flying around as to how the trick works. To show you that it's not a fluke, we'll need one of you two to be the one to catch the bullet."

Ron and Hermione swallowed, but Harry said, "I'll do it." Right away.

"Very bold, very bold indeed. Now, please just step over there, and none of us will cross this line." Pen pulled out a wand and drew a glowing red line on the floor with it. "Now, miss, uh..."

"Hermione." Hermione told him.

"Miss Hermione, will you please label a bullet with your initials for us?" Pen showed her a box of bullets, and she pulled one out, and with her wand, carefully etched her initials in.

"Now, Mr..."

"Weasley." Ron said.

"Thank you. Mister Weasley, please etch a picture on there."

"Sure." Ron used his wand to put Smiley face on the bullet.

"Now, neither the gun nor Harry has been charmed, but we will be able to safely transfer it through this glass plate (he conjured up a glass plate on a pole) to his mouth. Since muggle technology goes haywire because of the magical interference, we are using no muggle tricks either. Now this gun will be very loud, so please cover your ears. Everybody ready? Mister Potter, please open your mouth..."

Harry opened his mouth and got ready to "catch" the bullet. Teller aimed the gun...

"BAM!"

"KBSH!"

"PLINK!"

Harry reached into his mouth and spit out a bullet. "That's hot!" He commented. "It definitely went all the way." He picked up the bullet, and put it in a pan Pen extended to him. Ron picked up the bullet and he and Hermione inspected it.

"It's the same bullet." Ron finally said after about a minute of thoroughly examining it.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Pen and Teller!" Dumbledore announced, and everyone cheered.

"So, Mr. Teller, why do you never talk?"

Teller looked down at her, sighed, and started "speaking" in sign language.

"What's he saying?" Ron asked.

"I'm... kept... under... a... mute... charm... during... the... show. Oh, okay."

"Now, if you'll excuse us." Pen told them. "Teller and I have a routine in Las Vegas in ten minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you and good night." And with that, they walked out the door.

"Well, I did also have U2 coming to the feast to perform, but it seems they have been held up. Oh, well." Dumbledore sat back down.

After the feast had ended, the groups returned to their house common rooms, when Harry was reminded of the Doomspell tournament.

"Guys." He whispered to Ron and Hermione, pulling them aside.

"What's this all about?" Ron asked, tired from the feast.

"Listen, I don't know if you remembered, but I've got to learn those curses. Remember? The Doomspell Tournament? I don't know how long it'll be before Dumbledore finds out that I'm learning these curses and all. I've decided to do it with you guys, instead of consult him or Lupin. Like we did for the Triwizard Tournament just before the third task. I think we work best as a team."

"Okay. Why are you telling us this now?" Hermione inquired.

"I don't, uh, well... I just remembered, and I just wanted you to know. Listen, this is very important. You remember what you said, Hermione? On the Hogwarts Express?"

"Yeah, I know." Hermione whispered. "I think we can learn some decent spells. Not just the unforgivable curses, but the real combat spells, like the ministry hit wizards use. Like Deflectus and stuff. But right now, I'd like to go to sleep. Okay?"

"I hear you." Harry replied.

"Yeah." Ron murmured tiredly.

"Me too." Marshall whispered to them, as he passed.

"What?" The three turned to face him, all wearing shocked expressions when they realized he had heard everything they just said.

"I know about the Doomspell Tournament. I'm also worried about this curse You-Know-Who's talking about. All I know is that it's really bad."

"What... you aren't going to go tell Dumbledore or anybody, are you?"

"From what it sounds like, you've got a lot weighing on your shoulders. But I think I can help you with a lot of those curses. If you want." He added. They just stared.

"If you want. It's... just... sort of a hobby of mine."

"We... we'll think about it." Harry told him. Then the three turned, walked up the stairs, Hermione to the girls' dorms, and stopped at a door with the number six on it. Harry and Ron entered, and saw Dean, Seamus, and Neville all talking and unpacking their trunks. Harry fell into his bed, asleep before he hit the pillow.

A/N: Sorry it's kind of short. Pretty soon we'll get to the good part. As for the next chapter, Neville goes insane... oops. I do have a few ideas ready to write, but I still have to hear from you, the readers. Please vote for both of the following two decision categories.

A)

1. Should Harry, Ron, and Hermione trust Marshall Oak?

2. Or could he be trouble?

B) Also...

3. Is Harry going to discuss the Doomspell tournament with Dumbledore (Though not his attempts to learn various curses?)

4. Or will he keep his knowledge of the Doomspell Tournament under raps for now?