Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chris: If you're still reading, give me your E-mail address, and then I'll be able to answer your questions more clearly, without putting spoilers out for everyone else.
The Rules
After Harry and the rest of the Gryffindors were finished with astronomy. Most of them hurried down to the great hall in order to drop their names into the cauldron. While everyone was busy running down to the dining hall in order to enter the school wide wizard's duel, Harry was calmly heading towards the owlry, where he planned on writing Sirius his response.
"Hey Harry!" A voice called out.
Harry looked back and saw a first year Slytherin running towards him.
The first year stopped as soon as he caught up and tried to catch his breath.
"Who are you?" Harry said, giving the first year a suspicious look. Every since his first year, Harry had a severe mistrust of all Slytherins, and this included first years.
"My…name…is…Jason Adams," The boy said between pants.
"You shouldn't be here at this time," Harry said a little harshly. "Why aren't you in your common room?"
"Uh…well…you're here too aren't you?" Jason came back.
"I'm a prefect, I'm allowed. You are a first year student, you could've gotten lost coming here all alone."
"Sorry," Jason said, lowering his head a little. "It's just that I really wanted to meet you. I've read all about how you defeated…"
"What do you want?" Harry interrupted, already getting a little annoyed.
"Well, uh, you see," Jason started stuttering. He put his hands behind his back and quickly said, "Can I have your autograph?"
Harry looked a little surprised when he heard this. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped a little. 'Since when do Slytherins want my autograph? It's got to be some kind of trick.'
"Sorry Jason," Harry said. "I really don't give out autographs. Now you better head back to your common room before I have to report you."
Harry turned around to leave, but was stopped once again when Jason grabbed onto his arm.
"Please," Jason whined. "I really, really need it."
Harry just sighed and rolled his eyes. He faced Jason and was about to tell him off, but was stopped when Jason said, "It's for my sick little sister."
"What?" Harry said, sounding surprised.
"It's for my sister," Jason repeated. "She's very sick, and she's always been a very big fan of yours. She's worshipped you since the day she heard about you."
Harry didn't say anything; he just looked down at Jason sympathetically.
"She said that before she died, what she wanted more than anything in the world is to meet you," by now Jason had tears forming in his eyes. "And I just thought that this is the closest thing I could give her now."
Harry still said nothing. In his mind he was still debating whether or not he should trust this boy. He seemed really sincere, but nevertheless he was still a Slytherin. He could've had some kind of ulterior motive for this.
"She has a terminal disease that can't be cured by wizard or muggle medicine. I just want to do my best to make her last moments of life happy."
Harry still didn't say anything; all he did was nod his head.
"Really!" Jason shouted. "Thank you so much!" Harry could tell that he really made this boys day. His face shined like it would if Christmas had come early.
Jason quickly dug into his bag and took out a piece of parchment, and a quill with some ink, and handed it to Harry.
Harry took the quill and parchment and asked, "What's your sister's name?"
"Connie," Jason answered, almost too enthusiastically.
"To Connie," Harry spoke as he wrote the words on the parchment. "Hope you get better, your best friend…" Then he moved the quill down to the bottom of the page and signed, "Harry Potter."
"There you go," He said, as he handed it back to Jason. "I really hope your sister gets better."
"What?" Jason said, as he looked up at Harry a little curiously. "Oh right!" He exclaimed, while slapping himself on the forehead.
Once again Harry started looking at him suspiciously.
"Sorry," Jason said looking a little embarrassed. "I was just so happy that I forgot. Thank you very much, I'll be sure to tell her how nice and generous you are."
Harry still a little suspicious, turned on his heel and started to head off to the owlry once again, when-
"Harry!" Jason called.
Harry once again turned around, just as annoyed. "What Jason?"
"Can I have an autograph for my other sister?"
Harry just sighed and said, "What's her name?"
Jason stood there for a second not saying anything.
"Well," Harry growled, getting a little impatient. "What's her name?"
"Jason," Jason said looking a little red.
"Go back to your common room Jason, before I report you!" Harry said a little too harshly.
"Okay, I'm sorry," Jason lowered his head, picked it up, turned around and starting running back to his common room. "See you later!" He called while he was running.
"The last thing I need is a Slytherin version of Colin Creevey," Harry said to himself as he turned around and started walking towards the owlry.
'Let's see, what should I write?' Harry thought to himself. He was sitting in the owlry, with no one but Hedwig there to keep him company. "I can't tell Sirius about the book, or the unicorn, or memoritia, or my mysterious injuries." Harry grunted. Harry really hated when he had to lie to his godfather. Even if it was imperative that he did, he still felt really bad about it. He felt as if Sirius was watching and frowning down on him at the same time. He only had to lie to Sirius once before in order to try and keep him safe, and it had still been very hard for him then.
"I have to write something," Harry sighed, as he looked down at the blank parchment he was holding. "Here goes."
Dear Sirius,
I got here just fine.
So far all of my classes (except potions) have been great. Professor Trelawny came through and predicted my death once again, so that means I'm going to be just fine.
This year Professor Dumbledore decided to have a school wide wizard's duel in the school where all students above fourth year can enter. Personally I think this is an attempt to prepare us for Voldemort.
Harry leaned back and thought about what else he should write about. 'He wrote me to tell me to be careful with Malfoy in his last letter, maybe I should respond to that?' Once again he leaned forward and continued writing.
In your last letter, you told me to look out for Malfoy. Ron and Hermione are thinking the same thing. Ever since Malfoy came back he seemed to be acting very weird. Today he even did something nice for Neville and Hagrid, although I assume he only did it to intimidate me. Anyway I promise I'll keep an eye on him and the rest of the Slytherins.
Professor Dumbledore is also thinking on the same lines as you because he also asked me to talk to him if I feel anything.
Well that's about it for now. Owl me with any new developments.
Sincerely
Harry
PS: Be careful around those death eaters. Harry stood, rolled up the parchment and tied it to Hedwig's leg. "Find Sirius," Harry said. "And be careful. Flying is a lot more dangerous now-a-days." Hedwig gave Harry an appreciative hoot, and took off.Harry slowly headed back to Gryffindor tower. The whole time his mind was on Sirius. He was really scared for him, being on the run from the ministry, and hiding out with death eaters. If either side caught him they'd expose to a torture worse than death.
"Lionheart," he muttered as he approached the fat lady. As soon as he climbed into Gryffindor tower, he saw that the whole common room was packed with people talking to each other about the wizard's duel.
Harry looked round and saw Ron, Hermione, and Olivea were sitting near the fire with one empty seat next to them.
Harry started to walk to them when he was stopped by a very annoying voice. "Hiya Harry!" The voice called.
Harry already knew by the enthusiasm in the person's tone that this voice belonged to none other than Colin Creevey. Harry slowly turned to the originator of the voice and found himself to be right.
"Guess what Harry?" Colin said, very enthusiastically.
'You finally got that lobotomy?' Harry thought to himself.
Harry twisted his face in to a fake smile and said, "What Colin?"
"I have just entered the wizard's duel," he said proudly.
'That's it?' Harry thought moodily to himself, as he stared at Colin. 'That's what you came here to bother me about?'
"That's great Colin," Harry said. "I really hope you win." He then turned and tried to sidestep Colin, and head towards his friends, when Colin also sidestepped into the same direction once again blocking him.
"Yeah," Colin continued rambling. "All students in the fourth year and above are allowed to enter, so I decided to enter this year."
"That's great Colin," Harry said with dismissal in his voice.
Colin obviously didn't get it because he continued talking. "I'm going to show all those Slytherins that just because I'm muggle born doesn't mean I can't beat them."
Harry just nodded and tried to side step again, when again he was blocked.
"Wouldn't it be great if you and I get to face each other in the duel?" Colin continued just as enthusiastic as when he started.
"That would be wonderful Colin, but now I really must get to-"
"Of course I probably wont be a match for you Harry," Colin continued, while interrupting Harry. "I mean, you're probably the best wizard in school!"
Harry just tried once again to sidestep him, but once again he failed.
"I mean you even won that tournament last year, and you had to face off against people in their seventh year of school. That was really amazing. By the way, are you okay, you look like you haven't been sleeping much lately?"
"Say Colin," Harry said lightly. He had obviously just thought of a way to get rid of Colin for a while. "Do you see that girl over there?" Harry pointed to some random girl.
Colin looked and said, "yeah?"
"Well, I hear that she really likes you, but is always too afraid to talk to you."
"R-really," Colin stuttered, turning a little red.
"Yeah," Harry said, with a hint of sarcasm. Obviously Colin didn't catch it because he was still staring at the girl. "Why don't you go over there and talk to her?" Harry gleamed.
"Oh, are you sure?" Colin lowered his blushing face so as no one could see it.
"I'm positive," Harry said putting his hand on his heart. "I think you two will make a great couple."
"Well, okay then, if you're sure." Colin slowly turned around and started walking towards the girl Harry was pointing at.
'Well that got rid of him,' Harry thought to himself, feeling a little relieved. 'The last thing I need is two of them in one night.'
He headed over to where his friends were sitting and sat down in the empty chair next to them. "So, did you guys enter?" he asked.
They all nodded and said "yes."
"I hope one of you wins," Harry said honestly.
"Well, I just hope that I at least get into the top four," Hermione spoke up. "That way I could get that O.W.L. That's the only thing I really want."
"You would," Ron muttered.
"Are you sure you're not going to enter Harry?" Olivea asked.
"Positive," Harry said. "I've had enough tournaments to last me a lifetime. Plus I really don't need anymore work this year."
"Speaking of work," Hermione said. "Our first arithmancy tutorial will be this weekend, so get ready."
Harry nodded, while Ron just scoffed.
"Why are you taking arithmancy Harry? It's bad enough they made you a prefect."
"Ron," Hermione started with impatience in her voice. "Don't start with that again."
"Fine," Ron grumbled.
"Do you guys know what the tournament will be like?" Olivea asked trying to change the subject.
"I spoke to professor McGonagall right after I entered my name," Hermione said. "She told me that it would not be like a conventional duel. There will be all sorts of new rules. She said that most of us would enjoy it."
"What do you think she means by that?" Ron asked.
"She said to wait until tomorrow night to find out the rules.
"Well," Hermione said as she stood up and yawned. "I'm going to bed early, good night."
"Yeah me too," Olivea said. "We have potions tomorrow morning and I want to get there early; I can't wait!"
Ron and Harry just rolled their eyes as the two girls headed off to the girls' dormitory.
"You know we should get to bed too," Ron said as he got up. He turned to Harry and said, "It looks like you haven't been getting much sleep lately."
"I'm fine," Harry said shortly. "You go on, I'll be there soon."
"Good night," Ron said as he headed off to the boys' dormitory.
"Good night," Harry said, and then he turned to the fire and started staring inside it.
"Everyone thinks that this is just a game," Harry said to himself, in almost a whisper. "Am I the only one who sees this tournament for what it really is?" Harry just sighed and lowered his head. "Has everyone already forgotten that Voldemort is back. Has everyone forgotten the announcement that Dumbledore made last year after…"
Harry sighed again and quickly shook his head to try and get last year out of mind. "They heard the stories, they read the books, but none of the students here know how horrible he truly is. They're afraid to say his name, yet the fact that he once again walks among us doesn't even phase them."
Harry once again looked into the fire. "I wonder what Dumbledore is doing to try and stop him?"
Harry was the last one to leave the common room that night. He spent most of his time staring at the fire, and thinking about everything that happened to him so far. It was one of those times when Harry really wished he'd had a pensieve of his own. All those thoughts at once, were becoming unbearable.
In fact it was so unbearable that Harry hardly had any sleep that night. And when he did manage to actually fall asleep he dreamed of Malfoy facing him in a wizard's duel. At first everything was going fine, but then Malfoy transformed into Voldemort, and shot a huge beam of green light directly at him. Harry quickly woke up in a cold sweat right after that happened.
Harry couldn't sleep for the rest of the night. Every time he closed his eyes he once again saw Voldemort, staring down at him with murder in his eyes. 'Was that how he appeared to everyone he killed?' Harry wondered every single time he closed his eyes. 'Did he have that same look when he killed my parents? And when he tried to kill me the first time?'
The next day, Harry's potions class seemed to become worse for him than ever. Snape was feeling more vindictive than ever, since professor McGonagall made him look inferior in front of all the Gryffindors and Slytherins.
He started with roll call, and when he reached Harry's name, he ordered him to come sit right in front of his desk.
As soon as Harry sat down in front of Snape's desk, Snape slammed down a bottle of yellow looking liquid in front of him. "Drink it!" He commanded.
"What will it do?" Harry asked.
"It will make looking at you more bearable, now drink!"
Harry quickly downed the liquid, ignoring the extremely bitter taste. As soon as he was finished, he felt his face tighten up a bit. He felt under his eyes and noticed that his bags were gone.
"Thank you," Harry said in a low voice.
"I didn't do it for you," Snape growled. "I did so I wouldn't want to throw up every time I look at you.
"Now!" He shouted to the whole class. "Can any of you slackers tell me what Uricilum is, and at least three ingredients?"
Olivea immediately threw her hand up and started waiving it around while the rest of the class just sat still. Even Hermione, who knew the answer sat still, because she knew that there was no way Snape would call on her.
"Anybody?" Snape snarled.
Olivea now jumped out of her seat and started waiving even harder. Ron looked at her for a second, rolled his eyes, and muttered, "rookie" under his breath.
"Okay people," Snape reached over to his table and took hold of a book that was on it. "This," he pointed to the book. "Is a book!" He snarled like he was talking to a bunch of idiots. "They open like this!" And he opened his book and flashed it in front of everyone. "And these funny little scribbling are called words! You usually READ words!" At this statement Olivea waived her hand harder than ever, but Snape still ignored her.
"POTTER!" he yelled turning his attention to Harry. "It's obvious that you know more than the rest of us, since you're not paying attention to anything I'm saying!"
"But I am-" Harry was starting to say.
"Perhaps you can tell us what Uricilum is? And would please inform us of at least three ingredients?"
"Er…Uricilum is a potion that almost instantaneously re-grows hair. Three of its components are a tail of a lizard, twelve hairs from a rat, and a toenail of a hippogriff."
Snape just stood there transfixed for a second, then immediately shouted, "Five points…will be deducted from Gryffindor!"
Immediately every single Gryffindor in the class started protesting this.
"If you know the answer, then you raise your hand and wait till I call on you!" Snape snarled to Harry, as well as to the rest of the class.
"But that's not fair," Olivea called out. She obviously thought that what Snape did was cruel and unjust. "I have been raising my hand forever, and you didn't call on me!"
"And that's ten more points from Gryffindor for talking, when you're not called on!"
Olivea was shocked. She was about to say something when Parvati Patil pulled Olivea back in her chair, and shook her head.
The rest of the lesson became even worse. Snape told the class to make a batch of Uricilum. And the entire time, Snape just stood around Harry and kept commenting on how badly he was doing. The truth was that Harry knew how to make the potion, but he was having a hard time concentrating with Snape breathing down his neck, and criticizing everything he was doing.
"Can you believe that guy?" Olivea complained as all the Gryffindors headed to their transfiguration class. "I have never met anyone so vindictive!"
"Believe me, he can get a lot worse," Ron commented.
"If I had a teacher like that at S.I.T., I would have never picked potions to be my major!"
"At least it's over for this week," Harry said. "We should at least be thankful that we only have potions twice a week."
Everyone just nodded their heads in agreement.
"And at least he helped you out a little Harry," Hermione added, pointing towards Harry's face.
The rest of Harry's classes seemed to be a lot more easy going than potions.
I transfiguration, professor McGonagall had them transfigure a parrot cage into a parrot. Hermione's was actually able to speak fluent English.
They continued doing the switching charm in charms class, and this time Harry was actually able to do it. The only problem was, he was the only one. Everyone else seemed to have a hard time with it still.
In care of magical creatures they continued learning about billywigs, and a lot more students let themselves get stung.
The last class they had before dinner was: History of magic, which was as boring as ever. Professor Binns, the ghost teacher, was teaching them about the history of the four Hogwarts founders, which would've normally been fun, but because of professor Binns' drawling, the whole class almost fell asleep.
That dinner, everyone was excited to hear about the wizard's duel. In fact everyone was so excited that they didn't notice dinner go by, nor did they notice that Dumbledore did not attend this dinner. And those that did, didn't really care. The only thing on everybody's mind was the announcement was supposed to be made that night.
So when professor McGonagall stood up and addressed the room, every single person in the room quieted down.
"I am glad that so many of you have decided to enter," Professor McGonagall started as soon as everyone was quiet. "This duel will be nothing like the normal duels you would see everyday.
"First, in the preliminaries, there will be a strict time limit of five minutes per duel. If one person hasn't won by the end of the five minutes, the judges will decide who was superior in the battle and will declare him or her the winner. The preliminaries will be fought in a special battle arena, which was specially made for dueling.
"Once a student loses twice in the preliminaries, he will be eliminated from the duel.
"Out of all of you that entered only sixty-four of you will be chosen to participate in the secondary portion of the duel.
"The secondary portion of the duel will be fought on four different fields, each field benefiting a certain trait that you may poses. You will all have only one battle on each field.
"The first field is: the forest. Professor Rubius Hagrid will fence off a section of the forbidden forest, for the duel to actually take place in. However, that still doesn't mean that you can just walk in there anytime you want. Even that section is forbidden unless you are with a Hogwart's teacher.
"The forest will benefit those of you who are swifter and good at stealth."
A few students gasped, while most of the students' jaws dropped.
"The second field will be: the water. A part of the lake will be sectioned off for you to have your duel there. Don't worry; there will be stepping stones on which you can stand on.
"This field will benefit those who have better balance, and those who can swim well, because I can almost guarantee that you will hit the water at least once.
"The third field is: the ice. Another part of the lake will be sectioned off and frozen, and you will have your duel there.
"This field will benefit those with balance, coordination, and speed.
"And finally, probably the toughest field will be: the air."
Immediately all the students started calling out, asking her what exactly she meant by that.
"Calm down!" Professor McGonagall yelled. "I will explain it now!"
After she saw that the whole room had calmed down, she proceeded to explain. "Aerial duels will be fought on school brooms. They will be fought on the quidditch pitch and they will obviously benefit those of you, who are better flyers. Do not worry about falling off your broom and breaking your neck. There will be at least four teachers on the pitch ready to make a magical net for those of you who fall. Falling, means losing though.
"After wards the four of you who survive the secondary competition will receive an O.W.L. before you duel with each other. The field for the semifinals will be completely random; it could be the arena, forest, water, ice, or air.
"The winners of the semifinals will face each other in the finals on a field of their choosing.
"You all have been divided into four divisions, the northern, southern, eastern, and western divisions. You will only face people in your division until the semifinals.
"For the preliminaries, the rules are: If you get knocked out, surrender, or if the judges decide that you are unsuitable to continue, that will count as a loss. If you lose twice you are disqualified.
"The secondary events will take place after the winter break. There will be one duel per field per day on certain weekends. There will be no time limit, and the same rules apply there as they do in the preliminaries, except you only need one loss to be eliminated.
"The semifinals are the same, and so are the finals.
"You will have to wear your Hogwart's robes, and you will only be allowed to have your wand, except in the aerial duels where we will supply you with brooms."
Professor McGonagall stopped, looked around and continued. "Your first matches will take place on the twentieth of October, the charts of the preliminaries will be placed in your common rooms tomorrow. That is all." After she finished she headed back to her seat at the teachers table leaving the students to discuss the rest on their own.
About a minute after professor McGonagall sat down the whole room burst with chattering. Everyone was talking about what McGonagall had said. Most of the students were already coming up with strategies for what they were going to do in the secondary portion of the duel. And talking about which type of field seemed the more interesting, and which seemed the weirdest.
The only one who wasn't talking was Harry. He was too busy eyeing the Slytherin table.
While McGonagall was making her speech, Harry saw Malfoy, giving him a malicious smile, which Harry ignored, until he saw the same smile coming from Jason Adams, the first year that asked Harry for his autograph the previous night. This bothered Harry a little.
Was he just acting that way in front of Malfoy? Or was he acting in front of Harry?
This thought kept him awake for a good portion of the night; that and the fact that no one else in Gryffindor was able to sleep, because of excitement. And because they weren't able to sleep, they wouldn't let Harry sleep.
A/n: I'd like to thank every one of you who reviewed. Please continue reading.
