LoP: Chapter One:

Tournament Talks

Harry looked down at the two editions of the Daily Prophet that sat on his kitchen table. One had arrived earlier that morning, the other just a few minutes ago. Apparently, someone had come up with news that rivaled that of the marriage of the Boy Who Lived, or the Hero of the Phoenix as they called him now, and the youngest of the Weasley siblings.

TOURNAMENT ANNOUNCED!

By: Leif Underwood

The Daily Prophet is proud to report that once again, for the first time in over half a century, there is going to be a Worldwide Wizard's Dueling Tournament! While the hosting country is still in question, World Tournament sign ups will commence in exactly two weeks from today and will go on no later than the 1st week of August. Registration fore the contestants will begin August 24th, followed by the traditional Tournament Ball on the 25th. The World Tournament Preliminary Round will run the full day of the 26th, and the top 32 contestants will then begin a grueling 5 round tournament scheduled to run over the course of three days.

As many of you well know, the two finalists from the last tournament both hailed from England. What makes it even more astounding is that one was a teacher and the other a student in his seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore defeated Tom Marvolo Riddle to win his second World Championship, in the noble wizarding art of dueling.

The prize for winning such a Tournament brings glory to the wizard's home country and 400,000 Galleons. The champion wizard will go down in history as being one of the World's Finest.

Now Harry thought he was losing it. 'Both Voldemort and Dumbledore, it's impossible, insane even!' thought Harry to himself. 'No wonder why Voldemort would never directly confronted Dumbledore right out in the open!' He was snatched out of his own thoughts when he heard two large pops behind him. It was his two best friends, and now brother-in-law and hopefully future sister-in-law, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry silently laughed to himself. It was amazing, a full year had passed since Voldemort was defeated and they still hadn't gotten married. 'At least Ron managed to ask Hermione to marry him,' thought Harry, who smiled at this thought. They had been engaged about two months before Harry and Ginny's wedding and still hadn't set a date.

"Harry have you heard about the tournament yet?" asked Ron excitedly, "This is gonna be great! We'd win for sure!"

Harry frowned, he knew where this was going already and the last thing he wanted was more publicity.

"C'mon Harry! Don't be like that! Look, the Champion even gets 400,000 Galleons!" said Ron happily.

"No," said Harry firmly.

"Why not Harry? You beat You-Know-Who! He got second in the last one," said Ron, "and I'm sure Dumbledore had to have shown you a thing or two!"

"We spent the whole time fining out about Voldemort," Ron flinched slightly, the Wizarding world still hadn't gotten used to saying his name, despite Harry's encouragement, "and how to beat him. Besides, we don't really know anything about dueling."

"How hard can it be? How many other people do you know were even able to stand up to You-Know-Who let alone beat him?" Ron was desperate now to try and convince Harry to enter.

"Honestly Ronald, are you really so daft!" Hermione had finally spoken up, and apparently she had become agitated, because that was the only time that she ever called Ron, Ronald. "Fighting for one's life is much different than dueling for a competition, there are rules and restrictions! Besides, there are other wizards who have defeated Dark Wizards and creatures nearly as powerful as Voldemort in other places in the world!"

"Like who?" asked Ron, refusing to believe that ANYONE could actually defeat Harry, let alone be in his league.

"Well, for one there is Arcturias Hall, he just defeated a 10,000 year old mummified wizard pharaoh and his guardians. Then there is James Collins who defeated that Rocky Mountain Gold Dragon single-handedly last year and they are supposed to be more vicious and resistant to magic than a Hungarian Horntail! It's really anyone's tournament."

"Fine," said Harry interrupted. They both looked at him with confused looks on their faces. 'It might not be so bad if what Hermione says is true,' Harry thought to himself, 'At least I won't be the only wizard in the spotlight.' "I'll THINK about going, but I have to talk to Gin first."

"I think it's a wonderful idea," said Ginny coming down the stairs, "In fact, I think I'll enter as well!" Ron and Hermione were surprised to see her, thinking she might be at work, let alone announce she wanted to compete, "What? It's not like you two weren't thinking about entering as well! Why else would the BOTH of you be here trying to get Harry to enter?"

Hermione blushed while Ron just looked away with embarrassment. They both actually had come to convince Harry to enter with them in the World Tournament, however neither one had any idea the other had gotten the same idea.

"I guess I'll go too," said Harry with resignation.

"Oh bugger off Harry!" said Ginny giving Harry a look that would rival one of Mrs. Weasley's. "You know you've been terribly bored this whole year! You won't admit it, but I could see it in your eyes whenever you came to see me!"

Harry knew she was right. It was the first time since Harry had found out that he was a wizard and started going to Hogwarts that he hadn't spent the whole year trying to uncover a conspiracy or fighting for his life. Nobody was conspiring against him, no one was plotting anything, and no one was trying to manipulate him except galleon hungry companies who wanted him as a mascot or a spokesperson, or the Media like the Daily Prophet or Witch Weekly. In fact, the only wizarding magazine that ever left him alone was The Quibbler, which Harry thought that was because he was a good friend of the editor's one and only daughter. For the past year, Harry had been just like any other normal wizard who just kept to themselves, which after a time actually was a little boring.

"Well then, shall we owl Rita with the news or just let her find out on her own?" asked Harry, "She's only been reporting about everything in my life since the Tri-Wizard Tournament."

"Does EVERYTHING you do have to end up on the front page?" asked Ginny sarcastically.

"Well, not EVERYTHING," Harry replied with his own sarcastic tone, "I did suggest that she just run a small article on our wedding on like page 50 or something… You know just as a minor footnote, but she insisted." Harry smiled.

"Hey!" Ginny yelled and then hit Harry playfully.

They proceeded to tell everyone they knew by either owl or floo. Remus and Tonks both congratulated them and said they'd only be able to watch due to the fact that in was around the time of the full moon and Tonks would be almost 6 months pregnant. Arthur Weasley was glad to hear Harry was finally doing something, though he did not voice this particular opinion. Molly on the other hand, was less understanding and was worried about what could happen to her son-in-law, daughter, son and his fiancée. Although she was less than thrilled, she would still support them. Bill said he couldn't get off work due to his new promotion, but Fleur said she would enter as well. Kingsley Shacklebolt said that he'd be there, because he would be part of the security force for the tournament, while both Professors McGonagall and Hagrid both said they'd be proud to cheer on their favorite, former, students. Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody's response was a bit more surprising.

"If you're going to be entering, then I'm going to train you!" said Moody.

"Y-You'd do that?" asked a surprised Harry, his head sticking out of Moody's fireplace.

"Of course Potter," said Moody, "As strong as you are, you don't know the first thing about dueling. Besides, with all those Death Eaters still out there, your mind needs to be trained to maintain Constant Vigilance!"

"Yes sir," said Harry, "When and where do you want to meet?"

"Hmmm… How about you, Mrs. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Ms. Granger meet me…" said Moody, "In Hogsmead. From there I will take you all where I'll be training the four of you."