"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins--not through strength but by perseverance."
-- H. Jackson Brown
Oh not another bloody tournament, I swear Professor Dumbledore is obsessed with these things. I glanced at Ron and Hermione, Ron looked unsure of himself and Hermione looked frantic muttering various spells under her breath as if she were trying to quiz herself. I'm sure this is all dueling hopefully. All the students were talking nervously amongst themselves, there was one person missing through the group, which I was thankful for. It was Cho Chang. Dumbledore cleared his throat and the hall fell silent.
"You will group up in teams of seven, there will be three groups. You will have an hour to properly make a group and, acquaint with each other, and think of a name. If there are any difficulties contact a Professor. After you are organized you will take a part of a castle and work up a strategy, after that you will then put your strategy to work by going through the castle stunning and disarming opposing teams. One person in you team will be wearing a red and silver ring with an orange phoenix on it. You must protect this ring at all costs. If you lose the ring to another team, your whole team will be disqualified from the tournament. If the person with the ring has been stunned or disarmed you may take the ring and put it on to protect it. If any person is stunned or disarmed they are disqualified, the surviving team wins. Remember no unforgivables or deadly curses, you may begin!" Dumbledore announced.
Hermione, Ron and I immediately teamed up looking for four more students. We got Neville next. He seemed extremely nervous, it took a lot of encouraging to get him on our team, and he didn't want us to lose because of him. Next we got Ginny, Ron was reluctant to have his little sister on his team, but Ginny said she would punch him if he didn't let her on the team with that stupid excuse. Next we Colin Creevey, we were reluctant to have him on our team, but he wasn't as star struck as he used to be. He was talented anyways. He used the excuse of trying to separate from his younger brother.
Luna Lovegood joined us next; it was good to have at least one ravenclaw on our team. So it seemed to be half of us 6th years and half of us 5th years, which was a good mixture.
Then we went on about our name it took awhile, mostly because we spent half the time making up spoof names and crack up laughing. Hermione was the one who got us serious again.
"How about the griffins." Ron suggested.
"Hello, a ravenclaw, right here" Luna replied, with a mild scowl.
"How about Merlin's weapon" said Colin.
"Corny." The rest of the group said simultaneously.
"War Gods?" Ron suggested.
"Ron do you ever pay attention to the obvious, there are girls here." Said Hermione irritably, gesturing to the girls in the group.
"How about the Spartans?" Suggested Hermione.
"Didn't they lose in the end?" I asked.
"Yeah, but they made a brave and noble effort." She said defensively. All of us snorted.
"How about Vengeance's Light?" I said, they looked at me blankly, "Well you know, we want to get revenge, or at least I want to, and we are the phoenix fires, so you know." I looked at them, the all muttered amongst themselves.
"Works for me." Ron said grinning; the others nodded, so we got our name with ten minutes to spare. By the time the tens minutes were over everyone had a group and a name. Personally I thought everyone else's name were corny and stupid. Ours was the best. They put the list or groups and names in the air.
Merlin's Militia
Abbott, Hannah
Brown, Lavender
Bones, Susan
Patil, Pavarti
Thomas, Dean
Finnegan, Seamus
Creevey, Dennis
Voldemort's Nightmare
Boot, Terry
Corner, Michael
Finch-Fletchley, Justin
Goldstein, Anthony
Patil, Padma
Macmillan, Ernie
Smith, Zacharias
Vengeance's Light
Potter, Harry
Granger, Hermione
Weasley, Ron
Weasley, Ginny
Longbottom, Neville
Lovegood, Luna
Creevey, Colin
Our whole team tried to stifle there laughter at the stupidity of the names. Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling as mad as ever. Sirius was eyeing all my opponents as if daring them to lay one finger or spell on me. I just rolled my eyes, and pointed it out to Hermione and Ron through mind speech. Hermione and Ron started snickering, while our group was looking at us as if we had gone mental.
"You will take a side of a castle for your planning; there will be an extra set of rules for you students. Aurors and Teachers will be supervising this tournament to make sure there isn't any foul play. You may disperse; a trumpet will sound when you must begin."
Everyone separated in there groups, trying to figure out where they should set up there "Fort."
"We should do it in the chamber of secrets." Ron said, I rolled my eyes.
"Eurgh, and find a dead basilisk, no thank you." I said disgustedly.
"We should go to the third floor, where Fluffy used to be, I mean nobody has ever been there, except for us, and it's really secret, and we're right in the middle of Hogwarts. Everyone else probably picked dormitories." Suggested Hermione. We all agreed and headed for the Third floor corridor.
We were right in front of the room when Ron asked a usual Ron-like question.
"Are you sure Fluffy is not in there?" he asked, Hermione rolled her eyes and opened the door, walking in. It was a huge room with a lot of old chairs and desks and this and that. We took a bunch of candles and levitated them to hover above us; we lit them up, lighting the whole room, making it look morel Livable. We put a big long table in the middle with dusty plush chairs around it. Scourgified every inch of it. Then we sat down, and envelope appeared out of nowhere.
We opened it and a ring fell out, as well as a letter in it, with a new set of rules. It congratulated us and told us about the aurors once again. It said that we got to pick a person who we think is the best member of our group to wear the ring. It also said we can use our room for refuge, but we cannot all be in here and the person with the ring cannot not be in there, when the game has commenced. They gave a rough list of the spells we can't use, and said no weapons of the sort, except wands. We all skimmed through the letter and got on with our strategy.
"Okay, I think Harry should have the ring." Hermione said.
"Wait-!" I said
"I agree." Said Colin
"You're only just saying tha-!" I was interrupted again
"Me too." Said Luna.
"Wait, wha-?"
"Me three." Said Ron, grinning mischievously.
"You don't have to vote for me-"
"I agree, No one better" piped in Neville
"Guys are you-"
"Yeah, you're right Hermione." Ginny said blushing.
"Guys! You don-"
"Then it's settled!" Hermione said, giving me the ring, I just stared at them; "were you saying something Harry?" she said perplexed. I sighed.
"No, No, nothing at all." I said putting the ring on my finger.
"Okay now that that is figured out, I think we should transfigure silver rings, nothing with a phoenix on it, that would be cheating but just enough to throw them off." Said Luna. We all looked at her, Wow, having a ravenclaw on your side DOES have it's benefits. We all ended up wearing silver rings.
"We should go in twos, and check out the dormitories, where they'll most likely be. But we should cover each others backs.' Said Ron, All those years of chess paid off. We nodded at this.
"But shouldn't we have a few people at the Fort, just for backup, incase someone goes down." Neville spoke up. We all looked at him surprised. "What, I'm not an idiot!" he said, we laughed and agreed.
"We should have some sort of walkie-talkies." Said Hermione. Everyone who wasn't familiar with muggle toys looked at her strangely. Which everyone except, Colin and me.
"Something to communicate to each other when we aren't near." Said Hermione exasperatingly.
"We could maybe charm our rings to do that, but it might not work with Harry's, because we can't put any spells on it." Suggested Ginny.
"Your right! Everyone give me your rings, I know just the spell, that'll work." Said Hermione. She spelled all our rings, except mine. I would just have to deal with no cool magical walkie-talkie. But I could mindspeak, which would work fine.
We practiced shielding spells and our stunning spells. I taught them a few tips on martial arts, and how to dodge. After all the shadow training, I taught them how to nimble, and stealthy. Which everyone thought was cool. We charmed our robes black, so we could sneak around people. No invisibility spells were allowed. I wish we could, but I guess it's for the best. Though no one invisible could sneak past me, I would be able to hear them.
Suddenly I had a brilliant idea, I accioed my marauders map, this wasn't cheating technically. We put it out on the desk and we were going to leave Luna here, she'll have a master walkie-talkie to speak to all of us, so she could order us around. We teamed up; I got together with Ron, Hermione with Ginny, and Neville with Colin.
The trumpet sounded and we were off, we went out separately, heading in different ways. Merlin's militia took the Room of Requirement, Go figure, and Voldemort's Nightmare took the library, out of all the places, Ron and I walked in the shadows of the fourth floor, behind statues and we saw some of Voldemort's nightmare there. They were in groups of three; the one with the ring was in the middle. They had one person wait outside of their refuge.
They passed by us without even noticing, these people were blind. They left a girl to guard the fort, Padma Patil; if she was anything like her sister she would be doing her nails. But she wasn't, she was hiding in the shadows, with her wand ready. I noiselessly snuck behind her, by walking behind suits of armor, and I Stupefied her before she could utter a word. She disappeared suddenly. I guess that's what happens when you are disqualified.
I grinned and gave Ron a thumbs up out of the shadows. Ron spoke through his ring to notify a person from Voldemort's Nightmare was disqualified. Luna was telling us that Dennis Creevey was lurking around moaning myrtle's bathroom. I guess they sent him out as a scout to figure out if we were there. Colin volunteered to get him, right along with Neville. Really everyone that wasn't in our group were amateurs, sending a third year alone to scout.
Lavender and Pavarti were teamed up together as usual; they were hanging out near the divination room. Ron and I smirked from hearing this, Hermione wanted to get this one, and Ginny was just as eager. Pavarti and Lavender had told their share of Rumors on Hermione and Ginny. They went out. Suddenly we heard some noise of someone walking to the library, they were being extremely loud. It was Ernie from hufflepuff.
"Merlin, where did Padma go? You can never trust ravenclaw to do you good!" he was muttering to himself, obviously he didn't have the ring. We were wondering where his partners had gone. He had his back to us and Ron wanted to have this one. He snuck up behind Ernie but accidentally made a noise. I hit my forehead in the shadows. Ernie turned around abruptly yelling stupefy, but Ron going by instinct ducked and yelled "Petrificus Totalus!" Ernie slumped to the ground and disappeared. Ron came back to the shadows and told everyone another member of Voldemort's nightmare was disqualified.
We got a message from Hermione that Ginny was disqualified, but they got both Pavarti and Lavender. We sighed, one man down, or girl, whatever. We started to head to the seventh floor where the Room of requirement was, while we were walking on the 5th floor, my shoulder was grabbed and I was pulled back I was about to scream but a hand was put over my mouth.
"SHH! Harry! Ron! Stop struggling!" said a familiar voice; I turned around swiftly and glared at my Godfather. He looked at me nonchalantly and shrugged,
"Just keeping you guys on your toes, you guys need to keep in mind that other people might be hiding in the shadows also." He said, Ron and I rolled our eyes and stealthily walked off. Ron who had immediately alerted everyone, said it was a false alarm and said quote, "Some bozo relative of Harry's." I hit him on the back of the head for that comment. Dennis Creevey was down, and Colin was gloating so much, that we all said shut up at the same time.
We bumped into Hermione on the sixth floor, she smiled at us and we teamed together. We saw Voldemort's nightmare at the other side of the corridor and quickly hid, There were three of them, and I caught at the corner of my eye Justin with the silver ring. They were going slowly, their eyes darting around. We all smiled secretly together, Anthony Goldstein was on one side and terry boot was on the other, Terry boot was lagging though which was perfect.
They passed by us and Hermione whispered "stupefy!" at Terry and levitated Terry slowly to the ground till the student disappeared. The others hardly noticed till they were at the end of the corridor and looked back. They yelped, which gave them away perfectly, and started to look around frantically waving their wands around. Ron walked out alongside Hermione and disarmed Anthony; he disappeared, with a stricken look on his face. Hermione got stunned and I cursed, I jumped out and stunned Justin.
Ron went and grabbed the ring and put it on his finger, just in case they got me. Voldemort's Nightmare was gone. We looked at the spot Hermione was and looked sullen; we sighed and got to where we were. We started to go off to where Merlin's militia was, on the seventh floor. We were treading dangerous ground with that.
Rumor was that Dean had the phoenix ring and was guarded by Seamus; Luna said that it looked like they were both hiding in the shadows while Susan and Hannah stood right out as bait or a trap. They didn't know that we had two rings. Ron wanted to split up and give the enemy's ring to Neville or something, but we had to stay together, right now Neville and Collin were on the fourth floor heading up.
Once we were on the seventh floor we saw Hannah and Susan, they were acting as if they were not paying attention, but we knew better. We checked every part of where we were to make sure that we weren't being stalked by Dean and Seamus. Suddenly we saw both Dean and Seamus walk out, that wasn't right; why were they doing that? Dean was indeed wearing the ring, Ron and I thought we could take them.
We jumped out and shot a curse at Susan she fell to the ground and disappeared. Ron and I were both putting up shields and dodging curses, I shot one at Hannah and she was stupefied, we watched her disappear. We stunned both Dean and Seamus, Ron whooped and went to get the ring, wait a minute why wasn't Seamus gone yet, and hey! Did I just see Dean flicker! everything was slow motion after that!
"RON WAIT!" Ron bent down to Dean and his hand went through Dean, I was right, they were holographs, and according to Luna, Dean and Seamus were still in the shadows. Seamus jumped out and stunned Ron, accioing Ron's "Voldemort's nightmare" phoenix ring. I stared at them horrified, I started to dodge as quickly as I was taught, they looked surprised, one because of my skills and two because we had two rings, I started shouting stunning spells and disarming spells, like a well-practiced pro. They were dodging also. I stunned Seamus, and he stayed there because of the ring, I wasn't paying attention, a stunning spell was speeding to me, before I knew it…..
(Cliffhanger)
HAHAHAHAHA
(just kidding!)
….Before I knew it, Neville Longbottom, jumped in front of me and Collin stunned Dean from behind. I could hear Luna cheering from Colin's magical walkie-talkie. I let Collin take both of the enemy rings, and I smiled at the spot where Neville was. I was startled as I felt myself being transported to the great hall. Everyone was sitting in their respective groups, I saw my team, they all looked excited, Dean still look stunned, but I think he was in shock.
I got to hand it to them; they did a smart move with the holographs. I walked over to my team and thanked Neville; he just flushed red and muttered that it was nothing. I smiled at him. That's something I'd expect Neville to say. All the aurors and teachers were back in there spots. Hermione filled me in on what they did while they were waiting for the tournament to be over.
"Harry, they brought out the phoenix, and he looked everyone in the eye, and you know how you can't lie, well you had to make an oath while looking into the eye of the phoenix, and Fawkes had to approve you. He's approved of everyone so far, which is a relief; I wouldn't want to know we have spies in here or something. You know what Dumbledore said, that there is two more parts of the tournament, a test and out of us seven only four of us will make it. I can't wait." Said Hermione, talking a mile a minute.
"Good job everyone, your tactics were remarkable, and I am pleased. Congratulations, Vengeance's Light, you will go to the next level, I am sure you are determined and ready, but first three of you need to make an oath in front of the phoenix. Harry will you please step up, look the phoenix in the eye and repeat what's on this paper." Dumbledore said jovially.
I got on to the platform and grabbed the paper, memorized it briefly and stared in the phoenix.
"I'm here to Protect, be courageous and brave
I will stand strong and not be afraid,
I will be loyal, noble, never betray
For others I will be at their aid
I join phoenix fires, let it pave the way
What I say is truth, let the oath be made!" I finished, Fawkes trilled, and I felt a warm and comforted, the hall cheered. Sirius looked proud, and smiled at me. The others made their oath and were accepted, we were eager to get to the next challenge.
Suddenly Dumbledore clapped his hands and I found my self-alone in a room, there were four walls and no roof, the roof look off into the sky. The walls weren't clear, but they showed shadows of my teammates, on each wall was one brick, There was a piece of paper in front of me, with a vial next to it. Great a riddle! Should have known, it's Dumbledore and all.
The walls suddenly started to move in, AHH, better start reading this riddle.
I am the riddle of the humble and meek
And though you might not notice me
I will always give you the strength that you need
This vial should be thrown at the right brick
And if the potion correctly sticks
A door will appear, don't be wary of it
For I am the riddle of the humble and meek
Though I am lowly, modest, and rarely speak
Look to me to find what you seek
Hopefully you will learn something from me
I looked at it and looked at it again, the walls were growing closer. How in the world was I supposed to find which brick it was? What was with the humble and meek stuff? I thought I should just throw the stupid vial at the wall and cross my fingers, but I think I was missing something.
Okay, well if you're humble and meek, than you're not arrogant. What does that have to do with bricks? Maybe it has to do with the way it sticks, no; all the bricks look the same. Walls are gaining, Merlin this is frustrating. I need to look to it to find what I seek, where do I look. Wait, I think I got it! If you're humble, you'll put yourself below, that's why it says, lowly and rarely speaks, so maybe,
I look to the ground and find that I'm standing on a brick, well duh! I throw the vial on the brick, It suddenly dissolves, did I do it right? Am I going to die? I fell through the floor, sliding down a large tunnel. I find Hermione, Ginny, and Ron there. I was relieved to find my friends had made it.
"You guys guessed it!" I asked, they all nodded, suddenly Neville appeared. He looked embarrassed.
"Oh good, I thought I was a gonner!" said Neville, he said flushed in the face, "I dropped the vial on my shoes and fell through the floor." He said. We all laughed at this.
Dumbledore suddenly appeared and told us Collin and Luna didn't get through, but we have another riddle. He gave us each a paper. He told us each was a separate riddle, and neither can read each other's. I sighed and looked at my paper as Dumbledore disappeared.
My paper read:
To get to the next level is to find truth
It is to find out who is more important than you
Shake a hand, and there will be a harmful spell
Shake the right one and all will be well
But take the wrong hand, shake the wrong arm
You'll find undeniable harm
For I am the riddle of finding the truth
Tell me now who is more important than you?
This is a horrible spell, I have to shake someone's hand, and if I choose the wrong one then they'll get hurt! Merlin and Godric, how am I supposed to do this? Who is more important than me, how am I supposed to decide? I have to find truth, maybe these are all holograms and I have to find the true one and shake that person's hand. But which one is it. I saw Hermione's eyes light up, she took one of her hairs and wrapped it around her finger, and she disappeared. Man! She got an easy one! I wish I could see her paper.
I don't want to hurt anyone, gosh I hate this. Everyone else looked frustrated. Who is more important than me? Argh! Everyone is! Everyone is, everyone is! …..hmmm….I don't want to hurt anyone, it didn't say shake someone else's hand it said a hand. So obviously I have to shake MY hand, so I don't even risk hurting someone! I shook my hand and disappeared.
I found myself where Hermione was, she gave me a bone-crushing hug!
"You got it, I had to take out someone's hair and wrap it around my finger, I found out I had to take my hair." She said excitedly.
"I had to shake my own hand." I said trying to breathe, after awhile, Ron showed up, he said that he had to hug someone. We smile at this, imagining him hugging Neville. Ginny appeared saying she had to stomp on someone's foot, she said she would have lost, if Ron hadn't left, because she was thinking about stomping on his foot. Neville got it neither right nor wrong, he was just to slow.
Dumbledore appeared so suddenly that we all jumped, he chuckled lightly.
"Ahh so these are my four champions, I guess you will all know that everyone who didn't win the first round are now Sparks, they will be called "Name" of Sparks. The three that lost the second round will be flames, and be called "Name" of flames, you guys will duel, each other, the three that lose will be igniters, and called igniter "name". The person who wins this duel will be called The Inferno and will be the leader."
I went against Ron and Ginny went against Hermione. I wasn't paying much attention to there fight, just the fight with me and Ron; we used our skills against each other. It went on for at least 20 minutes, before I shadow travel while in midair, and landed behind him, thus stunning him. Hermione and Ginny's lasted a shorter period, I was up against Hermione.
She was quick, very quick, it was almost frightening. She had a better strategy than Ron, but she hesitated once and I got her there, she was stunned before she knew. She blushed; I was guessing they'd be called igniters. I was almost happy till I found out that I would be the spotlight, again! Now I'm called Inferno Potter or Inferno Harry, or just the Inferno. Merlin could these get any more bloody corny.
"Congratulations Harry, all of your names will be automatically put on your crests, do not worry. Well let's go to the great hall shall we?" he said smiling, I smiled for them, not for me.
A/N: okay, I know that was the worst dueling scene in the universe, but give me a break, It took me forever just to make the whole tournament, so the dueling thing I didn't put much effort in, but the riddles I did, and the first challenge I did. I always liked making up games so this was a fun chapter, but very draining, I think I'll relax and read a book after this…lol I hope the Tournament was up to your expectations! Thank you for reading and please review!
Reviewers
Ickle-princess: I got it up today, Woo hoo for me, I hope this is a good set off for your trip, or maybe I'll squeeze in another chapter before then! Yeah I like getting emails, so I don't mind! Thanks! Good luck to you!
Luvguurl: Ha-ha, yeah I think I'd do that also…lol I'm glad you found humor in that! Thanks for reviewing, keep on reading!
ambereyes2873: yep that's what makes Sirius loveable, Did you like the tournament, had to add Sirius in there somehow, a chapter isn't a chapter without a small appearance. Lol thanks!
Lady Arwen of Rivendell: Hey how did you know Harry was going to win! Lol! Thanks for reviewing! Keep on keepin' on!
LiLy MaLfOy13: thank you very much! Always happy for compliments1