A/N - Happy Sunday everyone. It's update time again.
Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.
11) EXCHANGE STUDENT
Harry frowned as he read over Hermione's letter which had arrived a few days after the start of September. He hadn't expected to hear from his Hogwarts friends quite so soon so her letter was a bit of surprise. He carefully read the contents of the letter and when he was done he sought out Sirius and Remus.
"Hello pup" said Sirius when Harry found him. Sirius was alone as Remus was out somewhere.
"Hi Sirius" said Harry.
"Did you need something?"
"Yes" said Harry, "what do you know about the Triwizard Tournament?"
"That's an old tournament between Hogwarts, Beauxbaton, and Durmstrang" said Sirius, "that was held for centuries but was stopped about 200 or so years ago because there had been too many deaths."
"Well if what Hermione says it true" said Harry holding her letter out to Sirius, "they're starting it again this year."
"What?" asked Sirius as he took the letter and read it, "I wonder how this happened?"
"Can they really make something like that safe?" asked Harry.
"I don't know" was the reply, "without researching the new tournament I couldn't tell you. My personal opinion is that maybe they can make it safer than it used to be but there's no way to make something like this completely safe."
"I don't like this tournament" said Harry, "could I stop it? I'm the owner of Hogwarts. Maybe I could pull the school out – "
"No Harry you can't do that" said Sirius.
"Why not?"
"First of all" said Sirius, "you're still underage so you don't have control of the school yet. As your guardian I could do it but at this point it wouldn't be a good idea. Everyone would then know you own Hogwarts, with all of the attention, pressure, and demands that would bring. I don't think you're ready for that."
"I'm not" admitted Harry.
"Secondly" went on Sirius, "canceling the tournament now would make a lot of people very unhappy with you. The people involved must have been working on bringing the tournament back for a long time, probably a few years. Canceling it just as it's coming to fruition won't win you any friends and might actually make you some enemies. I know you don't like it but it's too late to do anything about it. I suggest you put it out of your mind for now. It's not like Ilvermorny is going to be participating so it doesn't affect you."
"I guess you're right" said Harry, "I just have a bad feeling about it. Hermione said they're selecting the champions on Halloween. You know what Halloween is like for me."
"It wasn't so bad last year, was it?"
"Oh no" said Harry with some sarcasm, "the X-Men just fought Magneto for the first time when he took over Cape Citadel. Nothing major at all."
"Point" conceded Sirius.
Over the days leading up to the start of the school year at Ilvermorny Harry thought a good deal about the Triwizard Tournament. He considered writing back to Hermione to see if she could tell him more about it but decided that he wouldn't. As it was such an old and long established event Harry figured that there had to be some information about it in the Ilvermorny library. He decided to research the tournament when he was at the school. As a student, even if only part time, he had access to the facilities all the time, even on weekends. Harry thought that this weekend would be a good time start his research.
First, however, he would enjoy the opening feast and the sorting of the new students. In the early evening of Friday, September 9th Harry took his portkey to Ilvermorny and joined all of the students who were arriving at the school. After they entered the front doors the returning students were directed up to the second floor balcony that overlooked the circular entrance hall. Harry leaned on the railing opposite where the four house carvings were so he could get a good view of them during the sorting. The four carvings were of a large bird, which was a Thunderbird, a snake with horns which was obviously a Horned Serpent, a large cat of some kind which was a Wampus, and a creature that looked vaguely humanoid but resembled a goblin more than a dwarf. This last carving was a Pukwudgie and it was holding an arrow in its hand.
The first years were all brought in and arranged in a semi-circle against the walls opposite the carvings. Ororo was with them at one end of the semi-circle but also somewhat apart from them. Harry could see her from where he was and thought she looked good in her new school robes. As if sensing that she was being watched Ororo turned and looked up at where Harry was. He waved to her and she smiled back at him.
"Do you know her?" asked a younger student who was standing next to Harry, probably a second year, maybe a third year at most.
"Yes" said Harry, "I met her over the summer and we've been writing to each other."
"She looks big for a first year" the student observed.
"She's not a first year" said Harry, "she's an exchange student from Uagadou who is here for the year."
"Interesting" said the student, "I wonder what she'll think of our school?" Harry would have replied but Headmaster Pope came to the middle of the room and spoke to everyone.
"Good evening" the Headmaster said, "welcome to a new year at Ilvermorny. I'm happy to see all of you returning students and delighted to welcome all of you new students to our school. Our first order of business will be sorting the new students after which all of the first years will be taken to another room to receive a new wand if they don't already have one. Afterwards we will head to the main dining hall for the opening feast.
"Now before the first years are sorted we have an exchange student joining us this year who will be sorted first. I'd like to introduce Ms. Ororo Munroe who comes to us from Uagadou in Africa. She will be here for her fourth year. I hope you will all make her feel welcome. Ms. Munroe, if you would step forward and stand on the Gordian Knot symbol you will be sorted."
"Thank you headmaster" said Ororo. She came to the middle of the room and stood on the symbol of a complicated knot set in the center of the floor. It was the same symbol which Harry had stood on the previous year when he was sorted and which he now knew was a Gordian Knot. She turned to face the carvings. To the surprise of everyone all four carvings immediately came to life. The Thunderbird beat its wings, a crystal in the forehead of the Horned Serpent lit up, the Wampus roared, and the Pukwudgie raised its arrow into the air. There was silence in the hall from everyone.
"This is a surprise" said Pope recovering himself, "all four houses want you Ms. Munroe. That's quite an honor. It hasn't happened in over a decade. You must now choose which house you want to be a part of."
Ororo considered her choices for a long moment before choosing to become a Thunderbird. Harry clapped loudly when she did that along with the other members of the house.
Once she was sorted Ororo was sent up to the balcony to join the other non-first years. Harry waved to her from where he was and she came over to stand next to him.
"Nice to see you again Harry" said Ororo as she joined him at the balcony railing.
"Likewise" said Harry, "congratulations on joining Thunderbird House." Ororo nodded at him but didn't say anything because the regular sorting was now beginning and they both turned to watch. One by one the first years were called forward to stand on the Gordian Knot and face the carvings. Most of them would only be claimed by one carving making their sortings easy enough. There were a couple of people who were claimed by two houses each and had to decide where to go but no one else had a reaction from the carvings like Ororo did. Once a student was claimed by a house they were sent through another door leading out of the entry hall in order to get their wands. Unlike at Hogwarts and many other schools Ilvermorny first year students often didn't have wands until they came to school and they got them there. They would go on to the dining hall after that. Since Ororo already had a wand she didn't need to do that so she was instead sent up to the balcony to join the returning students.
Once the last first year was sorted and sent to get a wand Headmaster Pope addressed the rest of the school.
"Welcome to another year at Ilvermorny" he said, "I will save any other announcements until the end of dinner. Let's all go eat. I'm sure you're all hungry." This was met with general approval by the students and everyone moved out of the front hall to the dining hall.
Harry had rarely eaten in the dining hall as he usually arrived for class after lunch and left before dinner but rarely wasn't the same as never. He had, on occasion, eaten there. It was different from the Hogwarts Great Hall in that it was more of a cafeteria type of diningroom. Food was made available on one side of the room in a large buffet area and the houses were not assigned tables. The room was full of smaller round tables that could usually seat around twelve or so. Both Harry and Ororo filled their plates and then selected a table at random that was currently unoccupied although other students would soon fill it up.
As they ate Harry and Ororo got to know each other a little better. Ororo told him what her life was like as part of the Kenyan Royal Family.
"It's pretty nice" said Ororo, "but a lot of the time it's very structured and my time is taken up with formal affairs or learning about my future role when I become queen. It's nice to be here for a while as I can be less formal and more open."
Harry told her a bit about his own life, mostly about what Hogwarts had been like as compared to Ilvermorny now. He also told her that he was actually a part time student.
"I also attend the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters in New York" said Harry, "that's where I am most of the time. I come here in the afternoons to continue with my magical education."
"Interesting" said Ororo, "what is this Xavier's School like?"
"Extremely selective" said Harry with a bit of a grimace, "there aren't many students and all of them are older than I am although they're all great people. I can't really tell you all that much about it as a lot of it seems to be classified for some reason."
"Oh really?" asked Ororo with a raised eyebrow, "are you training to be in intelligence? Or maybe military special forces?"
"Hardly" said Harry with a bit a of a laugh, "let's just say that I had certain needs that required me to leave Hogwarts and move there. Professor Dumbledore, the Hogwarts Headmaster, who happens to know Headmaster Pope, arranged for me to transfer here too. While I'm mostly here in the afternoons during the week sometimes I come here on the weekends to use the library or if there's a Quidditch game or something like that. I'll actually be here tomorrow because I have some research I want to do. Would you like to meet up for lunch? You can tell me your first impressions of the school."
"All right" said Ororo, "meet here at noon tomorrow?"
"Sure" said Harry.
Not long after that dinner came to an end with Headmaster Pope standing to make some standard beginning of year announcements which included telling all of the new students to meet the heads of their houses outside the dining hall to be shown the way to their houses. Harry and Ororo said good night to each other and Harry went out the front doors of the school before taking his portkey home.
"Where have you been tonight?" asked Bobby when Harry returned to the mansion, "you missed dinner although Dobby didn't seem to mind."
"Dobby knew I wouldn't be here" said Harry, "I went to Ilvermorny tonight to watch the sorting of the new students and I had dinner there afterwards."
"Oh? Was that girl there? The one you ran into at the Quidditch World Cup?"
"Yes" said Harry, "we're having lunch tomorrow."
"Well, well, well" said Bobby with a grin, "you have a girlfriend."
"No I don't" said Harry, blushing a little, "we're just having lunch."
"That's how it starts" said Bobby, "then it becomes a date, then you're kissing, and before you know it you're climbing into bed together."
"That's not funny" said Harry blushing even more but Bobby just laughed at Harry's embarrassment. Harry considered hexing him but decided it wasn't worth it.
The next morning the X-Men didn't have training so after breakfast Harry portkeyed back to Ilvermorny and headed to the library to find information about the Triwizard Tournament. It took a little while before he found anything. On one of the back shelves of the history section of the library he found a dusty old book that detailed the history of the tournament.
Harry read through the basic description of the typical tournament with interest. According to the book the last tournament had been in 1792. Although the book didn't contain the rules of how the tournament worked it did have a description of what a typical tournament was like. Three champions would be selected, one from each participating school. The schools in question were always Hogwarts, Beauxbaton, and Durmstrang as they had created the tournament. From time to time other schools had applied to join the tournament but none had ever been accepted. The book was vague about how the champions were selected. It just said that an impartial arbiter made the selections and they were final.
The three champions participated in three tasks throughout the year designed to test their magical skills, their courage, and their intelligence. The first task involved facing a dangerous magical creature of some kind. The creature varied from tournament to tournament and had included dragons, nundus, cockatrices, and a number of others.
Some time after the first task but well before the second there was a formal Ball for the three participating schools. Although it wasn't a competitive event it was still officially part of the tournament, probably the only "safe" part.
The second task was a rescue mission where the champions had to rescue hostages from a hostile environment of some kind. This was often controversial as there had been instances over the years where hostages had been badly hurt during the event. A few had even been killed.
The last task was an obstacle course which was exactly what its name said it was as the champions had to face various dangerous challenges throughout the task. Sometimes the course was a maze, sometimes it was a straight course like a track, sometimes it had been a wilderness trail, sometimes it was something else completely.
It all sounded quite dangerous and it was. Harry read that it was ultimately stopped because of the mounting death toll which came to a head at the last tournament in 1792 when a cockatrice had broken free and killed all three of the champions, three of the judges, and several audience members before being destroyed. That catastrophe had permanently rung down the curtain on the tournament – until now.
'What on Earth are they thinking starting this tournament up again?' Harry thought to himself. He wondered if the new tournament would follow the same pattern of events as the older ones and if it did what would they do to ensure everyone's safety?
"I should have had this thing cancelled anyway" Harry said to himself, "regardless of what Sirius said about it making enemies for me. Lord knows I already have enough enemies as it is. What difference will a few more make?"
By the end of the morning Harry had taken down notes of all of the relevant information before returning the book to its shelf. He left the library and went down to the dining hall where he met Ororo for lunch. As they talked Ororo told him that she had her own dorm room which was normal for students at Ilvermorny. Harry was quite envious about that as such had not been the case at Hogwarts although he now had his own room at Xavier's school. Ororo had also met a couple of her hall mates but didn't really know anyone yet.
"What were you researching?" Ororo asked Harry.
"The Triwizard Tournament" said Harry.
"What's that?" asked Ororo, "I don't believe I've heard of it."
"You probably haven't" answered Harry, "it's strictly between the three European schools and it hasn't been held in over 200 years. For some strange reason they're bringing it back this year and it's going to be held at Hogwarts. One of my Hogwarts friends wrote me about it." He went on to explain to her what he'd found out about it.
"It sounds quite dangerous" said Ororo when he was done.
"I know" said Harry, "I wonder how they'll make it safer – or if they even can? I'm glad not to be there. I got into a lot of trouble during my two years at Hogwarts and with my luck I'd probably get all mixed up in it somehow."
"What do you mean?" asked Ororo sounding curious.
"Well..." Harry told her about his various adventures at Hogwarts during his two years there including the troll, the Philosopher's Stone, both trips into the Forbidden Forest, the Chamber of Secrets (but without mentioning his mutant powers), the basilisk, and Voldemort.
"Wow" said Ororo, "you lead a very interesting life Harry."
"You have no idea" said Harry with a grimace.
When they finished lunch they promised to meet up again some time during the coming week when Harry was back at Ilvermorny.
(To Be Continued)
A/N - That's it for this week. Next week's chapter except for one very short scene will be an all Lightning chapter which is at least partly inspired by suggestions from a few of you readers (yes I'll say whom when the time comes). Please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. As always stay safe and well everyone.