Disclaimer: I do not own HP, at all. So don't ask.

Beta: Touhoufanatic

Chapter 2

Stepping through the doors to Hogwarts was like entering another world. Sure, Harry had seen many supposedly lost civilizations, and he had encountered creatures that most magical beings never would. However, it was the fact that he was one of the only Witchers ever allowed to set foot in this school that instilled him with so much awe and respect.

As the shock started to wear off, Geralt beckoned for Harry to follow him into the great hall. Obliging the older man, Harry followed behind at a decent pace and was rewarded with an almost unimpeded view of the charmed roof of the hall. A gasp left his lips as he took in the sight. Geralt left him during this time to go gather their seats at the staff table, allowing Harry to take in as much of the magic as he wanted to.

Realising that he was alone with Sirius; Harry rushed over to where Geralt was already seated. Preparing to sit down, Harry was interrupted by a harsh and taunting voice.

"Mr. Rivers, I do believe that this table is only for the staff. Now, I hope you have a reason for attempting to sit here."

Turning around, Harry came face to face with a fairly tall man with dark, greasy, hair and a hooked nose. Immediately, his mind went to work as he tried to place the man's name. Finally placing it, his eyes lit up in excitement.

"You're Professor Severus Snape," Harry exclaimed in awe. "The potions master here."

A sneer appeared on the man's face and his eyes hardened as he took a good look at Harry; but, before he could say anything, Geralt intervened.

"This boy is not who you think he is professor, so I would hope that you could refrain from doing anything humiliating while in public."

The cold tone in Geralt's voice was enough to stop whatever comment Snape had building, but the other man efficiently attempted to get the upper hand.

"My apologies witcher," Snape said, disdain oozing out of his voice. "I meant no offense, but wouldn't it be better if young Mr. Rivers sat with people closer to his own age? Get to know some of those that he'll be around for the rest of the year?"

"An excellent idea Snape," Geralt hissed. "Why don't you go sit with some of the students here Harry. It will probably be for the best."

Harry quickly grasped onto the hidden message that was being conveyed and left the area. If a fight broke out in there, he didn't want to be anywhere close to the center of it. As such, he soon found himself making his way towards one of the four tables spread out in the hall.

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Harry's eyes skimmed over the four tables as he stepped away from the staff table. The Beauxbatons students had all gravitated towards the Ravenclaw table, if his knowledge of the house sigils was right, while the Durmstrang had gravitated towards the Slytherin ones. Looking for any sign of Fleur, Harry was disappointed to find that she was within a fair sized crowd at the Ravenclaw table. Ruling out joining her, he began to move towards an empty spot at one of the other tables.

Sitting down at the end of one table, he looked at the collection of food and began to fill his plate. Even though he was unable to sit with the staff, which he was technically part of, or anyone he knew, which counted for one person, Harry was going to make the best of this situation. Munching on a fresh bun, the teen entered a state of reverie. It was rare that he was able to eat freshly baked bread.

"Hello there," a feminine voice said, startling him out of his thoughts.

Looking for the origin of the voice, he sidled to his right when he found a redheaded girl sitting extremely close to him. Her deep scarlet hair was tied in a plait down her back, and the girl's sapphire eyes and wide grin hid some sort of sinister intent, or so Harry thought as he created distance between the two of them.

"Hello," he finally replied, attempting to bring back all of his Witcher training. "And who might you be?"

"The name's Susan," she said, extending her right hand. "And yours?"

"Harry, my name's Harry," the Witcher-in-training said as he tentatively shook her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Harry. First time at Hogwarts?"

Harry nodded his head, dumbfounded by the friendliness of the girl. It was suspicious and he knew that she was up to something. However, with the pleasantness of her body language and expressions, he couldn't figure out what it was for the life of him.

"Well, I hope you enjoy. Oh, I'm sorry; you came off of the Beauxbatons carriage. Can you speak English, or am I losing you?"

Susan's eyes widened further as she tilted her head. Harry had to swallow nervously as his face started to heat up. Her actions were adorable, and he wasn't sure how to describe what she was doing to him. He needed to answer her question, but he was also very suspicious. It wouldn't be too much of a surprise to find that he was being targeted already. Geralt had suffered a similar situation with a pretty blonde in Italy about a year back. Granted, he was more prepared, and had plenty of potions to help.

"I speak English fluently," he finally said.

"Wonderful! It's nice to meet you Harry and I hope we can become chums," she said quickly.

Extending her hand again, Harry shook it slowly; his suspicion still very high. A jolt spread through his body as he did and he released his grip swiftly. Clutching it to his chest, he looked at the girl, whose head was tilted quizzically again.

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Uh," Harry eloquently replied, "y-yeah, everything's fine."

"Good. Well, I'll see you around Harry," she said, a grin upon her face.

Standing up, the girl walked a few feet down the length of the table and plopped herself beside a blonde with very soft features. Giggling soon burst from Susan, and Harry was left even more confused than before. Even with all the training that he had from Geralt, he had no idea what had just happened.

"She got a mental image of every inch of your body," a male voice said.

Turning to the speaker, Harry found an older boy standing behind him. A decent height with handsome features, the boy was probably one of Hogwarts' pretty boys. Or so Harry thought. Sirius had told him a lot about Hogwarts' reputation amongst the magical schools. While Beauxbatons had the gorgeous girls, and Durmstrang had the warriors, Hogwarts was the school of the gorgeous boys. At the time, Harry had wanted to ask why his godfather would say that, but then he had been shown an image of his father, who he resembled greatly, and had a hard time arguing Sirius' claim.

"Hi," he finally said. "What was that about a mental image of my body?"

Sitting down, the older boy grinned at Harry.

"You just had an encounter with the biggest pervert in the entirety of Hogwarts. I've had to stop her boxer raids twice in the past four weeks alone."

"Boxer raids?"

"Yes, similar to the panty raids of old, only this time aimed at the underwear of the school's male population," the boy said, chuckling.

"By the way, I'm Cedric; it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Harry, and likewise."

The two young men shook hands, Harry feeling a lot more comfortable around Cedric than he had Susan.

"The scan of your body was just for her personal pleasure, so don't worry too much about it. Susan's relatively harmless. And if she continues to harass you, take it as a term of endearment. Growing up under the care of the head of magical law enforcement has warped her in ways we couldn't begin to fathom," Cedric said with a grin.

"If that's what being the child of law enforcement does to someone, I'm glad I was never one," Harry grumbled; unsure of how to feel about his body being used for an unknown girl's self-pleasure. Granted, he was now able to identify who the girl was.

Not that he was completely innocent of using his mental images of a girl for his own pleasure; a brief flash of Fleur entering his mind. Pushing that thought away, he returned his attention to the young man speaking with him.

"I know that look Harry," Cedric teased. "You've got someone of your own, don't you mate?"

"Uh," Harry said, just as eloquently as when Susan had caught him off guard.

"Don't worry, you don't have to tell me," Cedric said with a laugh. "Although I do suggest eating your food before the headmaster starts to speak."

"Why's that? It doesn't even look like the staff table's anywhere near done," Harry said.

"They're not, but once they are, Professor Dumbledore will command your full attention. He just has a certain way with words; or, a very strong compulsion spell."

Harry chuckled at Cedric's comment. The young man was very easy to get along with, and Harry was glad that someone, other than the pervert girl, had decided to speak with him. Spending most of his time on the road, searching for jobs so that they could continue living, Harry didn't make very many friends. However, Cedric seemed like someone he would like to befriend, so Harry decided he'd actually make the effort.

"Excited for the tournament?" he asked after a few moments of eating.

Cedric looked up from the plate he had just filled and gave a sly grin.

"Absolutely, I've been anticipating since it was announced at the start of the semester."

Harry laughed at that, and the two settled into comfortable conversation as the dinner continued.

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Geralt's eyes were narrowed and focused on Snape for the entirety of dinner. He had very little patience for the man after how he had treated Harry. Even though Snape was right about who the boy was, that didn't give him any reason to treat Harry that way; especially when Harry was absolutely ecstatic to meet the man.

"Mr. Rivers, how has it been, being one of the only witchers to set foot inside this hallowed school?" Fillius Flitwick asked; drawing Geralt's attention away from Snape.

"So far it's been quite nice," Geralt answered as diplomatically as possible.

He wasn't pleased with the treatment that they had been receiving so far. There were far too many suspicious glances being directed at him, and at Harry; who was now sitting at the far end of the Hufflepuff table. Just because they didn't carry wands, use the same magic, or make a living in the way that the rest of the magical society deemed 'natural' didn't make them monsters.

Geralt had to fight back a chuckle at that thought. His time with Harry had softened him. After all, they were monsters; just not the type that the ministries of the world thought they were. However, Harry needed to interact with other people; enduring the company of only two lonely old men, as much as Sirius would argue the fact, did not bode too well for the boy's future.

"Fillius, Mr. Rivers seems to be in the midst of watching over the Beauxbatons students, as per his job," Albus Dumbledore said. "I think it may be best if we let him focus on his task. Dinner is almost over and we will have plenty of time to speak with the man up until June."

The diminutive professor relented and Geralt forced himself to focus on the Beauxbatons students. Gathered at the Ravenclaw table, they were interacting pleasantly with the Hogwarts students. Thankfully, that meant that Geralt didn't have too much to worry about right then. Rather, he would probably be pushed even further into his duties the next day when the tournament 'officially' started. It would also give Harry some time to interact with the other students. The boy really did need friends closer to his age.

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Dinner finished as Harry and Cedric were talking about the Hogwarts curriculum. Harry was interested in what was taught to the wizards and witches at the school, having heard a lot about what his godfather had gone through in school he wanted to compare. To his pleasure, Cedric was more than willing to chat about the courses he took and what he knew of some of his friend's courses.

In return, Harry told him about some of his travels. Having been across Europe and into some of Asia, he had a lot to say. However, before he could get too into one adventure he had, accidentally, ended up on in Turkey, Dumbledore stood up.

"Now that everyone has eaten, I have some important information for all of you," he said.

Harry and Cedric's conversations stopped and they focused on the garishly dressed headmaster. It was quite true that his voice commanded attention, as Harry picked out numerous other students watching intently.

"I welcome all of you to Hogwarts and hope that our guests will enjoy their stay. As we are hosting the Triwizard Tournament, there is some housekeeping I must get out of the way…"

Dumbledore's words trailed on, and Harry barely registered anything the man said at that point. He remembered something about the forest being forbidden, but other than that, he didn't clue in to what Dumbledore was telling them until the Goblet of Fire was pulled out.

"Gorgeous," Harry gasped out as he stared at the magical object.

"So Ms. Bones scared you, but you'll gush over a magical object," Cedric teased; having heard what Harry said.

His face flushing, Harry tore his attention away from the goblet. If there was anything other than potions that could get, and hold, his attention it was magical objects. In specific, he was fascinated with cursed objects.

"The working of these objects intrigues me. There's something about getting an object like a goblet to be permanently enchanted that…"

Harry began babbling for a moment, but was quickly, and gratefully, cut off by Dumbledore resuming his speech.

"Now, only those who are of age, 17, may enter their names into the goblet. To ensure that those not of age don't attempt to get in, an age line will be set."

Groans echoed through the hall, two students at one of the other tables in particular seemed to be disappointed by the information. Harry just smirked, as he had already known about the age requirement. That was the reason that all the students who had come to Hogwarts were of age.

"You knew," Cedric whispered. "You knew, didn't you?"

"And that's an issue why?" Harry inquired.

"It's not; you just have a very smug grin on your face."

Cedric shrugged as he spoke, grinning at Harry innocently.

"So, you're not of age then?"

"Oh, I am. It's just that I've never seen someone new to the school look so smug, even after getting a tongue lashing from Professor Snape."

"You saw that…"

Harry groaned at the thought. He had never been given that much contempt from a professor before and hoped that he wouldn't have to face it again. Sure, even at Beauxbatons there had been professors who didn't like his, or Geralt's, presence, but they were never as rude about it as Snape had been. As he thought about it though, there were plenty of people in Eastern Europe who held nothing, but disdain for the two of them.

"Yeah, though no one knows what he said," Cedric said. "It just looks like another Snape-fit, as we've been given for the past three years."

"Yeah, he seemed to be PMS-ing about the fact that Harry Potter never showed up."

Harry squeaked in surprise as he found Susan once again in his immediate vicinity. Her giggles at his sound did not go unnoticed, but he prayed that she wouldn't say anything about it. Geralt would destroy him in their next training session if word got out to him.

"Hello Susan, staying out of trouble I hope?" Cedric inquired, drawing the redhead's attention away from Harry.

"Of course Ced; what could I possibly be doing at the feast?"

Her look of innocence was so forced; Harry felt that whatever it was that she had been doing… well, he'd rather not know. Cedric seemed to believe the same thing, as his face fell into his palm; his head shaking in disbelief.

"Susan, don't do anything stupid this year, please," he requested. "Last year was enough."

"Alright, alright," the girl said as she distanced herself from the two. "I won't do anything tonight."

Harry felt a wave of relief wash over him as she said that. He wasn't sure what she had done before, but he wasn't eager to find out. The girl had already invaded his personal space twice, and he didn't want to have it happen again; at least if he could prevent it.

"So, Ced, are you entering your name?" Susan asked, taking the conversation away from her troublemaking.

"I do plan on it, at least if I get a chance," Cedric answered. "Even if I don't get to participate, the fact that I entered should please my father."

"Oh poo," Susan grumbled. "Do you do everything to please your father?"

Cedric scowled at Susan, but hid it quickly. Putting back on a pleasant smile Cedric began harassing Susan about her aunt, the girl pushing back with her own stories. Feeling out of the loop, Harry looked towards the staff table, and was thankful that Geralt was getting up and approaching him. The man moved discreetly, keeping the attention off of himself, and headed out of the door. Knowing exactly what that meant, Harry excused himself.

"Meet me at breakfast Harry," Cedric whispered, "I'll introduce you to some people and show you around the castle, if you're not busy that is."

"Shouldn't be until after the champions are chosen," Harry replied. "I'll see you then."

Cedric nodded before returning to his argument with Susan, who was looking suitably cowed down; especially when Cedric mentioned something about her foray into the boys' dorms and a floo call to her aunt. Harry chuckled at the sight, moving away from the table as discreetly as he could and heading out into the hall.

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Fleur watched as the two witchers exited the hall. Although they kept attention off of themselves as they exited, that hadn't prevented the Beauxbatons student from noticing their departure. She had been paying close attention to Harry since he was sent away from the staff table. Actually, she had hoped that he would have come and joined her once he had been sent away, but understood why he had gravitated towards the emptier seats at one of the other tables. Even if she didn't try, crowds tended to surround her.

It had bothered her when he had ended up speaking with two of the Hogwarts students; especially the redheaded girl who seemed to be pressing up to him quite tightly. However, Fleur's attention had been drawn away by a charming witch at the table by the name of Cho. This had kept her distracted from watching all of Harry's interactions as dinner progressed.

Now that the feast and announcements were ending, she hoped that she could catch him before turning in for the night. However, a glare from Madame Maxime kept her from moving from her seat. The headmistress didn't seem to like the witchers very much, something must have happened in the negotiations that had gone on, and Fleur was going to suffer for whatever it was. Or, that was what she mused as she tried to get comfortable in her seat.

She didn't have to sit for long as Dumbledore dismissed the students relatively soon afterwards. Rising almost unanimously, the students began to filter out of the hall. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang headed back outside, returning to the carriage and ship respectively. As they left, Fleur couldn't find Harry or Geralt anywhere, and her curiosity almost got the better of her.

"Stay in line," one of her classmates hissed at her.

Turning a fearsome glare on the girl, Fleur had to admit to being mildly impressed at her indifference to the look. However, before the two of them could get into a spat, Madame Maxime spoke up.

"This is our first night in a different country, and though we are guaranteed protection while on the school grounds, I would expect all of you to stay within the carriage after curfew."

The headmistress' booming voice carried over all of the gathered students.

"Don't do anything to endanger yourselves, or the school's reputation," she continued. "We are the best and brightest of magical France; make sure you live up to that."

All of those gathered gave their affirmation, and were then let into the carriage. Proceeding to her shared room, Fleur slipped in before the others and changed into her nightwear. Slipping into bed, she determined to find Harry early in the morning. She knew his schedule and would be there before his daily training ended. It wasn't often one got to watch a witcher after all.

End Chapter 2

A/N: It's been an extremely long time since I last updated this story. Heck, it's been a long time since I updated anything, but I am still alive and this story is still moving forwards. I have nothing to say about the long delay other than 'Real Life' and even that hasn't been much of an excuse. I've just not been very motivated to do as much writing as I had been and I'm working on breaking out of that. And this is the start of it, so to any readers who read and/or follow a lot of my other works: updates are coming.

Now, I hope that this chapter is enjoyable and that any thoughts and opinions will be left in the reviews or in a PM. I appreciate any attention this gets and will be eager to continue writing and posting once again. Until next time,

Nanashi Wanderer