AN: Hey Everyone, I had originally planned to do this big updated to celebrate big news. I recently wrote an original Short Story and aim to publish it. I had planned to release this big update to announce it, but the copyright center is taking far longer to get back to me than I expected so I'm just going to go ahead and post it now. I'll prepare another when the copyright actually goes through.

King of the Amazons

Chapter 29

-Harry-

"Now that the last of us is here we can begin the meeting." Harry said, nodding to High master Karkaroff who was easing into a chair. With him in the room were Narcissa, Karkaroff, the French representative, as well as members from the three ministries currently involved in the tournament, and the ICW. It had been two weeks since the first task and the group was meeting to begin planning the groundwork for the next tournament, should there even be one.

"For the first order of business I feel that France's representative should be called to account." Karkaroff said, glaring daggers at the man who sat calmly drinking tea with a smirk.

"Called to account for what?" Jean-Luc asked idly, "I have done nothing contradictory to the rules and regulations for this tournament."

"You deliberately underscored everyone but Ms. Delacour!" Karkaroff snapped, the raged shared by most everyone who watched the task apart from a good-sized chunk of the French contingent, although Fleur herself didn't like advantage it had given her, or perhaps just how people reacted to it. Jean-Luc had given Fleur a ten and scored everyone else with a zero. "We are permitted to judge the Champions as we see fit, did Bartemius Crouch not say that the points allotted are up to our discretion." It was abusing the rule to the maximum, but it was still allowed, and the man knew it.

"That is technically correct," Crouch nodded, the man having abused so many rules himself during his career that this didn't even phase him "now we have other issues to address. First we should decide which of the three schools should host the tournament next."

"France of course," Jean-Luc scoffed "our academy is a far nicer accommodation than this damp and dreary old ruin. Perhaps you could even learn a thing or too about proper cuisine while there." The last was said with a smirk at Karkaroff and Narcissa.

"That would be a highly poor idea," Harry spoke up calmly before the insulted parties could snap back "after all while you may have the right to allocate points at your own discretion that doesn't mean said allocation will win you any favor. As it stands now Beauxbatons, and by extension France itself, has taken a popularity hit because of your time as judge. England and Durmstrang are outraged at how you scored, and that's not even stating the Kingdom of the Amazons. Even many of the students from Beauxbatons who wished to earn their victory are upset at your actions and the light it puts them in. Should it be announced that the next tournament be held in France during this current climate then there will be a great deal of outrage." Jean-Luc tried to protest more in his defense but even the French Minister recognized that France wasn't at its most popular at the moment.

"As usual I withdraw Durmstrang from being a possible host." Karkaroff spoke up without a moment's hesitation, something everyone had already expected. Since its creation, Durmstrang had been not only a school but a fortress designed to defend should the magical community of Bulgaria ever be attacked. A smaller portion housed the school but there was a great deal of empty space, enough to host the majority of their magical population if not all of it during times of war. The school was also held under a fidelius and those who attended were required to take unbreakable oaths to never reveal its location to an outsider and to not attack it. With those facts Durmstrang had never hosted the tournament, not wanting to compromise their security as getting a group of teenagers from other countries to obey those restrictions was far from likely.

"So, it seems that Hogwarts will host once more," he said with a small smile, having hoped for that "the next matter of business is a proposal I have to change both the nature of the tasks and the champion selection for future tournaments." As the more diehard traditionalists roared and raged at the very notion of doing anything new or different he sat, calmly waiting for them to wear themselves out. After close to five minutes, when the ranters were stopping to get their breath back, he asked "Are you done? I do have reasons for my proposal."

"And those would be?" Narcissa asked, her eyes sparkling mischievously as she already knew exactly what he intended.

"First is the method of selecting Champions. The goblet has already shown itself to be fallible through the selection of a fourth champion. I propose that the goblet be moved to a museum as an artifact of history, remembered but retired. Instead the schools participating in the tournament should host their own set of competitions the year before to decide, deciding based off grades, talent, and their own tests to select a champion. This will also allow students to feel better about the selection as they can see just why they weren't selected." Threes a bit more back and forth debating but eventually a vote is called, most having come to accept that the goblet was no longer the effective judge it had once been.

"I believe you said something about changes to the tasks as well?" the ICW representative for the day asked, "Are you saying you have specific suggestions for the next tournament or something else?"

"Every tournament the three, or four in this case, champions are put through dangerous and rigorous tasks to prove their school's superiority. Rigorous is a decent think but dangerous? These are students who are studying and learning to have a job, not soldiers training to combat life threatening situations. Make the tasks less about life threatening danger and more about skill, talent, and knowledge. Have dueling tournaments between champions, obstacle courses, challenges where they have to solve riddles, displays of their magic. If they must combat something dangerous then let it be a controlled situation. Perhaps a golem controlled by a judge so that way they can make sure champion isn't killed like sixty seven percent of all champions selected have been. If you want blood-sport, then look somewhere beside your students." This vote was much faster and had far more supporting his idea, this tournament having already been given more safety regulations to limit the death toll.

The debate after that turned to what to make the tasks for the next tournament. In the end it was decided to make the first task an obstacle course for the champions to get through, the second would be a three-way duel between those selected, and the final would involve the chosen battling a golem controlled by a skilled auror who would take an unbreakable oath to make sure he did not favor any champion or go too far. Added to that other events were selected such as competitions for academics, gobstones, quiditch, spell creation, and other such events for those not selected as champions to still compete and win glory for themselves and their school.

"One last order of business then." he said with a grin as the others began to get up, all but Narcissa confused as to what he could mean. "I have checked the charter for the tournament and found that the hosting school for each tournament is to select which schools shall join in the competition for that year. I have decided that France shall not be invited to the next tournament, instead an invitation shall be sent to Ilvermorny."

"What?!" Jean-Luc roared in outrage, the man's calm arrogant veneer shattering at this declaration "How dare you?! Beauxbatons is one of the premier schools in the world!"

"But you aren't the only school of such renown," he shrugged "and at the moment I have seen little from Beauxbatons administration that will make me wish to invite them back. Perhaps one day when someone competent is at the helm of your academy they'll be invited back into the tournament, maybe expanding the number of schools. Either way, it is my decision who to invite for the next one and it shall be Ilvermorny and Durmstrang, not Beauxbatons." As he took a sip of his drink he wondered if Jean-Luc was about to invent a new shade of purple.