Chapter Twenty Eight

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When the sun began to descend, the students of Hogwarts trooped outside to await the arrival of the foreign schools. Many older students returned from Hogsmeade early to prepare, and even Arabel and Alecto had donned soft, silky robes that certainly weren't Hogwarts uniform.

"All this for some international students?" Hermione said, amused, as the Slytherin's walked through the Entrance Hall.

"My future husband could be about to arrive," Arabel said. "I've heard the crown prince of Bulgaria goes to Durmstrang."

Regulus scowled, and Arabel affected not to notice.

"Holy shit," Rabastan said, as the students stepped through the great oak doors and into the cold. The grounds had undergone a transformation. The thousands of footprints that had turned the snow to muddy slush had vanished and the air was bitingly cold as though the entire temperature of Scotland had suddenly plunged.

In front of them was a sweeping vastness of white - great swathes of snow and ice that sparkled and created rainbows in the fading light. High up in the air a thousand globes of light hovered, far above the students and the snow-covered ground.

Hermione had never seen so many magical lights. The whole of the Hogwarts grounds was lit up as if the grandest midwinter party of all time was about to take place. She breathed out and her breath fogged in front of her eyes.

"I've never seen the black lake freeze so early in the year," Arabel said.

"How are the international students arriving?" Severus asked.

Hermione frowned. She had assumed that the Durmstrang students, at least, would arrive on a ship the same way that they had for the Triwizard Tournament. But if the lake was frozen over…

"I don't know," she said out loud.

"There's Dumbledore!" Alecto gasped, and Hermione turned around.

Professor Dumbledore was walking through the grounds from Hagrid's hut, with Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall beside him. All three professors wore finery far-removed from their usual teaching garb. Dumbledore had donned robes of deep purple, with silver stars that flashed in the light.

"Why is this such a big deal?" Hermione said. She lowered her voice. "In my fourth year, we had a Triwizard Tournament, and when the schools arrived we just lined up to wait, we didn't put on this sort of event."

Severus shrugged, but Rabastan and Arabel nodded knowledgeably.

"It's because there are so many schools represented," Arabel explained. "This isn't just a European event; it's international. Hogwarts is on display to the wizarding world."

"The Americans are coming," Rabastan added. "Hogwarts wants to prove that Britain is small, but it has a magical presence worth reckoning."

"Look!" Alecto said, and everybody who heard her turned to see. Behind Professor Dumbledore was Hagrid. He came slowly and with difficulty because he was pulling a huge cart laden with branches, logs, and what looked like a whole tree trunk.

The whispering and murmuring of the students fell silent as Professor Dumbledore reached a large open space in front of the assembled crowd. He drew his wand and Hagrid let the cart full of wood go, and stepped smartly backwards.

Professor Dumbledore waved his wand, and the branches in the cart flew into the air. As they came to rest on the ground, the wood ordered itself into a stacked formation which resembled nothing so much as an enormous bonfire.

"I know what this is," Arabel exclaimed suddenly. "They're doing an outdoor floo. I've never even seen one before!"

At once the wood made sense, and Hermione nodded. "I've read about them. They're supposedly incredibly hard to make, and they use so much floo powder!"

"Dumbledore seems to know what he's doing," Severus observed.

Dumbledore did indeed seem to know. As soon as the wood stacked to his satisfaction he began twirling his wand in a tight series of formations. Hermione watched intently and thought she could decipher the methods he was using to connect this pile of wood to the floo network.

"How the hell did they get permission from the ministry for this," she said.

"Money," Rabastan said drily. "I think my father had a hand in it. Show off how great Britain is."

"Mine too," Regulus said.

Hermione's feet were beginning to feel numb with cold, but just as she was about to cast a warming charm Dumbledore performed one last wand gesture and then leapt backwards. He was just in time. The bonfire exploded into flames and heat washed over the students. Hermione put up a hand to protect against the sudden glare. The flames were so high that they almost reached the globes of light hovering above.

Dumbledore joined the other professors beside the fire. He beamed at the gathered students and raised his voice so it could be heard against the crackle of flames.

"I believe our delegation from Ilvermorny is about to arrive. Make way!"

The students directly in front of the bonfire shuffled nervously backwards. As they did so the flames turned emerald-green with a roar. An acrid scent filled the air, and then a figure appeared in the flames, spinning like a top. The figure solidified, and then leapt out of the fire to land with perfect balance on the grass.

It was a young man in his late teens, tall and broad-shouldered with cropped blonde hair. He didn't seem self-conscious at all to suddenly feel hundreds of eyes upon him, but moved out-of-the-way of the fire with practised ease, waving at the British students in a friendly way.

"He practised that landing," Arabel sniffed. "Americans."

"Here comes another one," Alecto said, craning her neck.

The Ilvermorny students arrived one after another, each making a perfect landing and lining up until there were six tanned, athletic-looking teenagers beside the fire.

"Who's next?" Rabastan said.

His question resolved for him when the next figure to emerge from the fire was an ethereal blonde girl in pale blue robes.

"Beauxbatons…" Rabastan breathed. Hermione slapped him around the back of his head when she thought he was about to begin to drool. As the rest of the Beauxbaton witches emerged, Hermione noted that there were no real veela among them this time.

It was fascinating to see the students from various wizarding schools. Hermione was seeing representatives from Japan, Africa, Australia...schools she had only read about in books before now.

"Is that…" she said, letting her words trail off.

"Brazilians," Regulus said breathily.

Hermione narrowed her eyes as six Latin-American girls with long dark hair stepped from the fire wearing robes that were tight, skimpy, and revealed a great deal of thigh and midriff.

"They could skin you alive," Arabel advised Regulus.

The tall women had knives strapped to their belts, and Hermione thought Arabel's comment probably wasn't too far off the mark. The students continued to arrive until there was a crowd stood by the fire. They eyed the Hogwarts students with interest, or in the case of the Beauxbatons, disdain.

Durmstrang was the last school to arrive, six stocky young men in fur-lined robes. Hermione, to her surprise, saw Igor Karkaroff, already with the beginnings of a wispy goatee. But it was only when the final Durmstrang student stepped through the fire that there came a commotion in the crowd. Arabel let out an audible gasp, and beside her, Rabastan sneered.

"What is it? The heir of Bulgaria finally arrived?"

"Shut up!" hissed Arabel. "Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about."

"What's going on?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't you know who that is?" Arabel whispered.

Rabastan looked again, and his face blanched. Hermione frowned. Alecto too seemed confused, but Regulus' features set in a cold line. Hermione didn't like not knowing something and she frowned at her friends.

"What are you talking about? Who is it?" she asked.

The boy had the same Slavic features and short-cropped hair as all the others.

"Don't you know who that is?" Arabel asked.

"No, I don't, which is perfectly obvious by now!" Hermione snapped. "Who is it?"

Arabel shook her head. "I...That's…"

"That is Ivan Grindelwald," Rabastan said stiffly. "Great-Grandson of Gellert Grindelwald."

"What are you talking about?" Hermione said. "Grindelwald never had any children, we'd know about it."

"We do know about it," said Regulus. "That's why we know who Ivan is."

"But…" Hermione frowned. "But I never heard...but no-one ever said...in none of the books, he...I don't…"

"What, you'd never heard of him?" Regulus said. "Well in your time, perhaps he was still at Durmstrang. Perhaps...I mean, how old were you when you came here?"

"I was twenty-one!" Hermione snapped.

Severus looked at her and Hermione shook her head quickly. Not now. They were risking a commotion, and she lowered her voice.

"Where was he during my time, in my world?" she whispered. "I don't understand."

But before she could follow that train of thought any longer Dumbledore clapped his hands and the emerald flames extinguished.

"Welcome one, welcome all. International students. Hogwarts students, teachers and guests, please join us inside for the Hogwarts Halloween feast," Dumbledore declared. And there was no more time for talking because at once the students began to head back inside into the Great Hall where the promise of warmth and food was tantalising after the cold outside.

The students from the other schools all sat together at one long table to the left of the other house tables. Hermione tried not to remember how during her own Tri-Wizard Tournament the international students had mingled with the Hogwarts students because it only brought back memories of Harry and Ron. Ron complaining about the bouillabaisse, and getting snared by Fleur Delacour's veela charm.

There were no veela this time, Hermione observed. Perhaps Fleur Delacour's mother was not at school during this period. The meal went quickly. Hermione and her friends dared not speculate further on the foreign students while surrounded by other Slytherins. And it was hard to catch a glimpse of them. Ivan Grindelwald sat with his back to them.

As the feast drew to an end Dumbledore stood up the murmuring of voices began to die away and all faces turned to him expectantly.

"Now that you are all fed and watered, let me say again what a pleasure it is to have our international visitors at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said. "We hope your stay with us will be enjoyable, and that we will learn much from our time with each other."

Most of the international students were smiling, but one of the Brazilian girls murmured something to another and they both smirked.

"And now," Dumbledore announced. "Each of our visiting schools has chosen their six champions, and it is time to name those that we at Hogwarts have chosen to represent us. Would the students whose names I call please stand."

Hermione held her breath and exchanged glances with her friends. Beneath the table, she clenched her fists tightly.

Professor Dumbledore smiled. "And the first student on the Hogwarts duelling team is...Rabastan Lestrange!"

Slytherin burst into applause. Rabastan stood grinning widely, and, Severus clapped him on the back.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "The second is Amos Diggory!"

Hermione stared with surprise. That one she hadn't expected. But then she had never seen Diggory duel properly. She exchanged an anxious look with her friends. They all knew what this meant - at least one of them hadn't gotten through. There were only six places.

"James Potter!" Dumbledore announced. Hermione groaned, and Severus scowled. Across the great hall, she could see James grinning widely.

Then Dumbledore called, "Sirius Black!"

"Fucksake!" said Regulus, and Arabel nodded.

"Shit," she agreed.

At the Gryffindor table, James and Sirius were clapping each other on the back and exclaiming, toasting each other with goblets of pumpkin juice. Hermione ignored them and fixed her eyes on Dumbledore. Two more names.

"Hermione Black," Dumbledore called, and Hermione stood to muted applause. She, after all, had never been in any doubt. She was the best student duellist at Hogwarts. There was just one more name.

"And last..." Professor Dumbledore looked at his list and then looked across the room again. His face gave nothing away.

"Severus Snape," he said finally, and Hermione exhaled. The Slytherin table burst into applause at the news that three of their own had made it into the team. And Hermione, though she wasn't going to pull Severus into a public embrace, squeezed his hand under the table.

"Well done," she murmured.

Professor Dumbledore waited for the applause to finish before continuing.

"The first round of the tournament will take place in three days time. But for now, I would suggest you all retire to your comfortable beds. Goodnight!"

And with that, the students began to rise and leave the Great Hall.

"Where are the international students staying?" Rabastan wondered. But they all seemed to know where they were going, and they filed out of a side door which led towards the astronomy tower.

"They've remodelled the old classrooms under the Astronomy tower into dormitories," Hermione said as they made their way back to the dungeons. "I went over to have a look last week and stuck some surveillance charms in all the rooms."

"You did what?" Rabastan said.

Hermione shrugged. "Better safe than sorry. And no, Regulus. You cannot use the charms to spy on the Brazilian girls in the shower."

Regulus sulked.

Hermione said goodnight to Severus at the foot of the staircase to the girl's dormitory and then headed upstairs with Alecto and Arabel. Only then did she realise how unusually quiet the two girls had been all evening.

"So…" Hermione said as she dropped her bag on her bed and began to take her robes off. "Um. Sorry about not getting into the tournament."

Alecto flopped onto her bed, but Arabel stood in the middle of the room. She looked angry.

"Did you fix it?" she asked Hermione.

"What?"

"The tournament. Did you fix it?"

"Why the hell would I fix it and let James Potter and Sirius fucking Black in instead of you," Hermione said, shaking her head at the absurdity. "Of course I didn't fix it."

"But you could have done," Arabel said.

"Well I...yeah probably, but what would be the point in that?"

Arabel hissed between her teeth. With alarm, Hermione saw the other girl appeared furious - almost as though she was going to attack.

"I don't know. Perhaps because your friend, who has given up everything for you - betrayed her family, handed over a bunch of gold, committed murder for you...could really have done with the opportunity to take part in something like this."

Hermione stopped. "I didn't make you do any of that," she said, staring at Arabel. "You did it yourself. And I had nothing to do with the duelling tournament and the selection process."

"Then maybe you should have been!" Arabel said. "Because you have no problem sticking your nose into other people's business, breaking the law or turning things upside down when it suits your purposes. But not when it's for anyone else."

At that Arabel pulled off her robes roughly and climbed into bed. Hermione couldn't speak. Arabel used her wand to extinguish the light, but her voice floated out of the darkness.

"You know Hermione...at some point, you're going to have to realise if you give up everything to focus on this one fight...there might not be much left worth fighting for at the end of it."

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Sorry for the delay. Had an interview at the college of my dreams and I've been waiting for almost a month for the result. The nervous tension is stopping me from concentrating on anything at all.

Thanks for reading,

Cas