A/N- may I remind you about the small AU factor in this fic? Angelina and everyone is seventeen now!!! Don't flame me on it!!!
PART TWO
~*Chapter One*~
~*…If I had one wish it would be to see you again/… how come the world won't stop spinning/now that you're gone/ I know every end has beginnings/but this one's so wrong/ Caught in the middle/ wrong place, wrong time/and I'm hopelessly missing you/and I can't stop…/Nothing's fair anymore/and I know there's a better place/and I'll never stop dreaming of you/… How can the seasons keep changing/since you disappeared? /… Sweet tears are shed/this pain we lay to rest/...How come the world won't stop spinning…? ~*How Come the World Won't Stop*~*Anastacia*~
Angelina Johnson stepped off the train to a gust of wind. She clutched the handle of her broom in her right hand and pulled her cart of baggage along with her left. Alicia puffed along beside her, pulling her own cart with both hands, her broom balanced precariously between two suitcases.
"Alicia!" Wood bellowed from across the platform. "Tell me, how many Chocolate Frogs did you eat over summer vacation?"
Alicia was silent.
"Tell me!"
"Seven hundred twenty eight," Alicia shouted indignantly. "Not that it's any of your business."
Wood puffed up like a blowfish. Alicia shoved him out of her way and almost knocked him over with the cart. Angelina smiled and shook her head, grinning and following her friend down the ramp to the carriages.
"Déjà vu," Angelina murmured. "Same argument every year."
"Well it wouldn't be déjà vu if Wood's bony ass would mind it's own business," Alicia argued, her cheeks red as she heaved the last suitcase into a carriage.
"Ouch!" came a voice from within. "Watch it, will you!"
"Sorry Fred," Alicia said grumpily, climbing inside. Fred rubbed his temple as Angelina threw her broom in and tossed her baggage into the pile of Gryffindor luggage.
"Why didn't you put your bags into the pile, Alicia?" Fred wanted to know. "They have it so that things like this don't happen!" Fred banged his head against the wall of the carriage. "Duh."
"I have valuable possessions in my bags that I don't want other people handling!" Alicia said.
"Like Chocolate Frogs?" Oliver said grumpily as he hoisted himself into the carriage and sat down next to Alicia.
"Worse," Angelina offered.
"I don't want to know," Oliver mumbled. Alicia's lips thinned out as she looked at their captain, and then she sighed and looked out the window.
"There's Potter," she murmured. Fred grunted and twirled a shamrock-spangled hat in his hands.
"You went to the Cup?" Angelina said, smiling and gesturing at the hat.
"Yup," Fred said proudly. "Top Box."
"Wow," Katie said, stroking the hat with her index finger. Oliver's brows drew together.
"I heard there was some Dark stuff going on," he said, his voice low and concerned. Fred's brow furrowed and he stopped twirling the hat.
"Yeah," George said. "The Death Eaters."
Angelina heard a sharp intake of breath all around the carriage. Katie bit her lip. Alicia's bright eyes were dark. Angelina wrung her hands.
"And the Dark Mark?" Oliver said.
"Stop it!" Alicia said sharply. "Can we talk about something else?" there was a pleading note in her voice. Fred looked a bit guilty as the carriage pulled up to the castle. Small lights twinkled in the darkness as the first years pulled up across the lake. Angelina could make out Hagrid's heavy outline as he ushered the nervous students into the castle. The door swung open- Professor McGonagall.
Katie pushed the carriage door open. Alicia hoisted her bags onto the cart and pulled them out behind her. Angelina grabbed her broom- she wouldn't entrust it to the mercy of the pile- and followed her friends up the path to the castle, falling in step next to Wood and Fred. She scanned the crowd for Cedric but had no luck in finding him. She frowned in disappointment. They had traded letters all summer except for these last few weeks, he had not replied. Alicia turned around to wait for her. "Go ahead and drop off your bags," Angelina said. Alicia nodded, a worried look in her eyes- Angelina had mentioned the letters before in a sad tone, and then didn't want to talk about them. Alicia hurried up the stairs and opened the portrait hole (she had overheard the password from the prefect) and threw her bags into the dormitory, where the other luggage was arranged in neat piles at the foot of the beds. She shook her head and joined the feast just as the Sorting was wrapping up.
Angelina was loading up her plate, being carefully watched by Wood. Alicia dropped into her seat and gratefully spooned large portions of everything onto her golden plate. Oliver sighed in resignation and took a little more food- but just a little. Angelina smiled. Celebrate small triumphs.
"This pudding is excellent!" George said through a mouthful. Even Oliver had to agree. But the dessert-fest was cut short as Dumbledore stood. The pudding melted from the plates (much to George's disappointment) as the Headmaster clapped his hands for silence.
Dumbledore gave the ever-expanding list of forbidden objects ("Not the Fanged Frisbees!" moaned Fred) and then he said the twenty-one forbidden words:
"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."
"What?" Harry shouted from a bit down the table. Oliver banged his fist on the table, overturning a goblet of pumpkin juice onto Katie's robes, who shrieked from both the bad news and the cold liquid seeping through her clothes. The twins remained silent, their eyes stormy and looking as if they were about to pop. Alicia gasped wordlessly as Angelina stared in horror at the Headmaster.
"WHAT did he say?" she asked. Her question didn't need to be answered. She wouldn't have heard it if it had been answered anyway, because she had just caught Cedric's eye from across the Great Hall. He looked enraged and confused, his eyes mirroring Angelina's feelings. He held her gaze for a moment.
"This is due to an Event that will be starting in October and continuing throughout the school year," Dumbledore said. He was cut short by a loud clap of thunder. The doors of the Hall swung open with a great force and crashed against the walls; the booming sounds echoing off the high, bewitched ceiling.
A man stood in the doorway. At least, Angelina thought it was a man. She wasn't quite sure. He had a strange, scarred face and carried a worn walking staff. His robes hung off his arms in drapes, light shining through holes and mats in the fabric.
And his eyes! There was the small one, as small as a bead and as black as the midnight sky and as shiny as a diamond. The other eye was large; at least thrice the size of his other eye, and it was bluer than a sapphire. It moved on its own accord, rolling to and fro and back into the man's skull occasionally. The man walked to the High Table, had a word with Dumbledore, and then sat down to eat.
Professor Dumbledore then introduced the man as their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. "Professor Moody," he called him.
"Mad Eye Moody?" hissed someone from down the table. Fred and George said something about their Dad.
"As I was saying," Professor Dumbledore continued, "It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."
"The Triwizard Tournament?" Katie said excitedly.
"You're JOKING," insisted Fred.
Dumbledore laughed and went on to explain about the tournament. Angelina listened even though she knew more about the Tournament then most of the others. Her grandfather had been champion. His best friend had died in the last task.
Beaxbatons and Durmstrang would be the other two schools. Angelina had heard of them before. They were two other wizarding schools in Europe. Then Dumbledore explained about the age limit. Angelina and her friends didn't have to worry about this, as they were all seventeen. Fred and George were grinning happily about the prospects of the promised prize and envisioning themselves rolling about in mountains of Galleons.
Angelina sat back in her chair, thinking about the Tournament. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad year after all.