A/N: I'm sorry I haven't written for a while, but I've been on holiday. I will try and get chapters up quicker from now on though.
In this chapter there is a bit of spoken French. What I'm going to do is write it in English but it will all be in italics when it's spoken in French. A couple of times I will write the French, which will be in italics but I will write the English in italics and in brackets after it as well. I apologise for my French if I get the small amount that I do write incorrect in any way.
Chapter 2
As always when she saw Hogwarts from the 'horse-less' carriages, Lily broke off her sentence and looked at it for a couple of seconds, taking in her second home. The castle, with its towers and its magnificence, was always breathtaking, but this year Lily tried to notice every small detail, knowing that in a couple of months' time she would be comparing it to Beauxbatons, and she would need to know everything about Hogwarts to prove to Alexiane that Beauxbatons wasn't as good as Hogwarts – ever since Angélique had gone to Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts, the Weasley cousins had been arguing over which was better (the majority always chose Hogwarts, but the argument had never been won for certain because no one except Angélique had seen both schools, and she was biased towards Beauxbatons – but soon another four of them would have seen both which would be much fairer). After another second of attempting to imprint Hogwarts into her memory, Lily carried on chatting with her friends.
They reached the castle and came to the Great Hall, where Lily took in the starry ceiling and the floating candles, smiled to Gemma as she passed the Hufflepuff table, and sat herself down at Gryffindor's. Soon after, the Sorting Hat and the first years were all brought into the hall and the Sorting began. Lily cheered loudly as just over a quarter of the new students became Gryffindors. After eating the delicious feast, and discovering that none of her friends other than Hugo would be able to enter the Triwizard Tournament, the new headmaster stood to begin the school year.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. Most of you will recognise me, but for those of you who don't, I am Professor Flitwick, Hogwarts Headmaster now that Professor Kingswood has retired, ex-Ravenclaw Head of House and ex-Charms teacher. Due to this first change in staff, their have been two others: Professor Cassock will take my place as Charms teacher, and Professor Vector will take the place of Ravenclaw Head of House." The two teachers stood and acknowledged the students.
"Our caretaker has asked that students be reminded again to view the list of the eight hundred and twenty-three banned items, four of which are new this year. He also tells me that only one student looked at it during all of last year, and he wishes that number to increase." Many of the students laughed at this, wondering who had been the single student who had looked.
"Now, as many of you know, this year the Triwizard Tournament will be happening at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in France. Although only students who come of age before Halloween are permitted to participate, it will, in a small way, affect you all, as, not only will the sixth and seventh years be diminished in size, but also, I will be travelling to France to help judge the contest, and anyone in the fourth year or above will be permitted to travel to Beauxbatons during the Christmas holidays to participate in the Yule Ball. Whilst I am in France, Professor McGonagall, as our Deputy Head, will take my place as Head, and should our Head Boy or Girl, any of the prefects or the Quidditch Captains decide to go to France, they will be substituted as well. Now, could all those students wishing to try out for Hogwarts Champion in the Triwizard Tournament please go into the antechamber, whilst all other students may go to bed. First years, please follow your house prefect." Professor Flitwick sat down as the students began to stand and move towards the entrance hall whilst prefects attempted to find all of the first years. Lily and Hugo left their friends, met with Leanne and Gemma and walked almost nervously towards the antechamber.
"I thought your friends were coming?" Lily questioned Leanne.
"Well, they were going to, but then Flitwick – I didn't realise he would be headmaster, I thought McGonagall would be over him, being Deputy and all – but anyway, when Flitwick said that anyone could go to the Yule Ball anyway, whether they try for Champion or not, they decided that they wouldn't bother to try out – for one thing, they hardly speak a word of French. 'Bonjour (Hello)' is about the best they can do. A couple of people Gemma know are coming, though. And Lucas and Tom are coming, but I don't know them all that well. You'll recognise them – they're both Gryffindors and Lucas was prefect – they're over there." Lily, Hugo and Gemma looked, and Lily recognised Tom Welling from Quidditch – he had played reserve Keeper for years whilst Al had been the actual Keeper, and Lucas Abercrombie who, as Leanne had said, had been Prefect, and his badge showed him as the new Head Boy.
The four cousins were the first to reach the antechamber, so they had time to look at the other possible Champions. First came five Ravenclaws – one sixth year who could only be described as 'very Ravenclaw' – intelligent, logical and always wanting to learn more, called Tamara Mason – and four seventh years, who Leanne said were called Stiles, Moon, Brackett-Taylor and O'Donnell, who had a sister in Lily's year. Next came two Hufflepuff seventh years who Gemma knew slightly – Ian Wright and Michael Zeller – with the two Gryffindors. Four Slytherins arrived next – three seventh years who Leanne said were all horrible – Malfoy, Regan and Webb (Lily recognised Webb as Slytherin Chaser, where she was one of the more brutal players) – and a sixth year, Cassiopeia Meliflua, who was disliked on principal but wasn't known well enough to be hated. Freya Lindsay, a Hufflepuff who Gemma said was nice but too shy to make friends with, walked in last with Professor Flitwick following her. He called for quiet and silence fell immediately, showing just how interested everyone was.
"Merci, tout le monde. (Thank you, everyone.)" Everyone was surprised as the professor began speaking fluent French. "Now, you are all here because you wish to try out for Hogwarts' Champion this year. I am here to ensure that you will get on well at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and that you are prepared for it. I will try to prevent you from going and then discovering that you do not have the proficiency in either the language or in anything else you may find that you need at the Academy which is necessary to get along there." Flitwick paused to see how the students had reacted. He had been speaking slowly, but Lily had only managed to understand part of the speech, though she had understood the general gist – the students all wanted to become the Champion, and Professor Flitwick wanted to ensure they knew what they were getting in for.
Lily looked around to see how her cousins had taken the speech. Hugo was squinting into the distance, and Lily knew he was using his exceptional memory to either work out a word's meaning, or to learn the right pronunciation of a word. He had almost certainly understood, though – having been to France on holiday, he had listened to a lot more spoken French than Lily had. Leanne was looking uncertainly at Gemma, who answered her look by giving a brief translation, before Leanne looked around to check that no one had seen her ask for help. Lily looked away quickly and noticed most of the seventh years who looked, though slightly confused, as if they had understood the speech. Meliflua was looking entirely confident and smug and Mason was looking relaxed – they were obviously as good at French as Gemma was. Other than Leanne no one looked entirely clueless – and Leanne's confusion had now gone – so Professor Flitwick continued his speech, now in English.
"I see that all of you have a quite good knowledge of the language, whish should help you over the following year. I have no power to stop you entering the Tournament, but if you feel that the language or anything else will be too difficult, I ask you to please reconsider entering, because if you are chosen there is a binding magical contract and you must take your place as Champion, however hard it is for you. If you do not feel up to it, please do not risk an entire year for the sake of appearances – there are less than a third of possible students in here, so you could not be considered a coward if you do not come to France for the Tournament."
Lily glanced at Leanne and saw her looking torn. Her 'appearance', as Flitwick had put it was different for everyone else – she had a twin. If she were to drop out, when her twin did not, especially when she was the Gryffindor, she would be a coward – she wouldn't be as good as her twin – and that would hurt her pride too much. Lily knew that however much she might want to, her pride would stop Leanne from dropping out without Gemma dropping out too, and the only way Gemma would drop out would be if Leanne asked her to, and that very same pride would stop Leanne from asking her twin to drop out for her. Leanne would definitely be going, however hard she was going to find it.
"Now, the main reason you are all in here is because you need to know more about what will be happening at Beauxbatons when you get there. You were all here five years ago when the Tournament was held in this castle, so you have an idea of the type of tasks set – in the past there have also been tasks such as retrieving something by getting past a dangerous animal, or through complex, though breakable, spells, or by tackling a complicated, magical assault course. The Champions do not know the first or second tasks in advance, unless they understand a clue, or, as is fairly common, they cheat. The Champion always has time to prepare for the third task." Lily remembered how, when she had watched before, the Champions had all known already what the tasks were – for the first task, they must have cheated, but the second they had all (or so she assumed) worked it out from the clue they had been given.
"As you will also remember," Professor Flitwick continued, "no one translates for those who are not good at the language." Leanne gasped and Lily looked at her. "Therefore, a Champion with no grasp of the language could not help but do badly in the Tournament – the best he could do would be to understand the scores, which are all written as well as read aloud." Leanne had gradually been getting a more terrified look on her face as Professor Flitwick had continued – much more, and she would start shaking. "I therefore advise all of you again to think carefully about whether you can understand the language well enough and, indeed, speak it, for the main reason behind the Triwizard Tournament is to get to know witches and wizards from different cultures, and even those with different types of magic, which is difficult when you cannot communicate with those other witches and wizards." Lily had always been fascinated by other magical cultures - it was one of the reasons why she wanted to go to France, and a reason why she had learned the language in the first place. She knew, for example, that Egyptians use runes and written language as a base for spells as often as they use spoken words, and some countries do not use potions, saying that they are not magic as they do not need wands to work.
Lily realised that she had missed some of the speech, and started listening as Professor Flitwick said "Sixth years will be able to take my lessons, but the lessons will be seventh year work so, depending on how you learn best, you can participate in lessons, a seventh year can tutor you or you can learn your subject from a book – it will be your choice. If, however, any of your grades – including seventh years – are not up to standard by exam time, you may have to repeat the year at Hogwarts.
"Aside from lessons, I do not know whether or not Beauxbatons has a Quidditch pitch, or if they play Quidditch at all, but I think it may be possible to bring your broomsticks to Beauxbatons, as well as a Quaffle and, depending on what Madam Hooch says, some Bludgers and a Snitch as well. It would give you a chance to play when you may not normally have one." Professor Flitwick looked around, his eyes picking out Katya Moon, Ravenclaw – his old house's – Quidditch Captain, as well as a few others. "I know you would enjoy that." Lily was certain that Hugo would as well – he enjoyed Quidditch, although he was not particularly good at any position, and was therefore not on the team.
"The next two months will be normal for you, with one or two possible meetings so I can give you more details. We will be leaving Hogwarts on the 29th of October, and arriving at Beauxbatons the following day, with the Goblet choosing names on Halloween, as is customary. Now, has anyone got any questions?" Everyone glanced nervously at each other before one girl raised her hand. "O'Donnell?"
"How do we get to Beauxbatons?"
"We use the same things as we use every year: the 'horse-less' carriages, but they will be decorated extravagantly to show us off to the other schools. We will fly in them to France and then we will gallop into Beauxbatons. Of course, the effect of the horse-less carriages is spoiled for those who can see the Thestrals."
Hugo nudged Lily. "Thestrals?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "Winged horses – pull the school carriages – can't see them unless you've seen death." She murmured.
"If there aren't anymore questions…" Professor Flitwick scanned the crowd. "No? You may all go then." The students left the antechamber slowly, all discussing the Tournament.
A/N: If anyone can think of anything else that Flitwick should tell them about the Triwizard, please tell me because, although I can't think of anything else, I'm sure there's something blatantly obvious I've missed out that needs saying. And also, has anyone got any ideas for tasks? I've only got one so far, so I need more.
Sorry again for the time it took to get this up, and please review.