The early mornings had finally taken their toll on James, and so on Tuesday morning he and Matt only just managed to beat the post owls to breakfast. However, James noted, this was probably a good thing as it meant that the other people in school had less time to stare at him.

As they started in on their mountainous breakfasts – despite arriving later , there was still plenty of food, as they had arrived earlier than many of the older students – James was pleasantly surprised when Horatio landed on the table before the two boys. He hadn't really expected his owl to be as fast as the man had promised, but he wasn't going to complain about the fact.

Leaning forwards to untie his letter from the owl's leg, he subconsciously offered him a bit of bacon from his plate, a habit he had picked up from his father. He also noted, with some surprise that there was a package attached – he didn't think he'd forgotten anything, but maybe he had.

"Who's the letter from?" asked Matt around a mouthful of toast. Victoire, sat across from the boys, rolled her eyes at him, before turning to Teddy who sat beside her, only to find that he was displaying much the same approach to eating.

"My parents, I think," responded James. Matt was apparently unimpressed by this, as he immediately returned to his breakfast, before becoming engaged in an argument with Victoire about table manners.

James simply rolled his eyes, and repressed a chuckle as Teddy jumped into the argument in Matt's defence. Unrolling the letter, he put his fork down so he could read it properly, and smiled as he recognised his mum's curly handwriting.

Dear James,

We are both very of proud of you for being sorted into Gryffindor! Of course, we would have been proud of you wherever you ended up, so I don't want you to read anything into that comment that wasn't there.

James smiled fondly at his mum's attempts at impartiality. He knew it really didn't matter to her, but she would never quite be able to put aside her Gryffindor pride like his father had.

I'm really glad that you've made friends so quickly, and I hope that you'll look out for them as well as relying on Teddy to. Just because he's older than you, it doesn't mean he should have to look out for the younger years all the time, he does have exams this year… Your father wants me to stress to you not to hesitate in making friends in other houses, or with girls. (I didn't say it because I didn't think there'd be any need to, but now that it's been raised…)

Anyway, I'm pleased that you've taken an interest in the wider school life already, and I'm impressed that you've been up to the trophy room to use it for its intended purpose. I hope that this means you won't be following in your father's footsteps, and using it as a convenient place to hold duels. WAIT! Hold on, I'm not condoning duelling ANYWHERE! I was just saying – never mind. If I hear you've been duelling James, I will make McGonagall look like a pushover.

James was really laughing now – he'd forgotten how much his mother could make him laugh. Noticing the change in hand, he carried on with the letter, now written by his father.

Your mother's in a bit of a state – she rather nervous about getting the letter perfect. I told her not to worry, but what can you do? She is right though, I don't want to hear that you've been duelling.

Now, I have something to ask you. Did you, perhaps, take something from my office back home?

James could practically see his father raising his eyebrow, and he swallowed nervously – he really hoped his dad wasn't too cross.

Don't worry – I'm not cross – I'm just disappointed that you did that without telling me. I'd have let you take it if you'd asked. The only reason that I didn't give it to you was because I didn't think to give it to Teddy when he left for Hogwarts in his first year, and given that, I didn't think it would be fair to give it to you…

However, this does bring me round neatly to the package. Ron told me where the map probably was when I mentioned it to him, and, as he very bluntly put it, "What the heck is point of one without the other?"

So, I decided I'd send it you – I'm sure you've worked out what it is by now – but please, please, do not use it to break the rules/get caught breaking the rules. I know I'm hardly one to lecture on breaking rules, but there's a difference between sneaking out after hours to visit the kitchens (I know Ron told you about them) and doing something stupid. Remember, it wouldn't just be your head on the line if you got caught breaking rules…

Anyway, that's about it for now. Like your mother said, we're very proud of you, and I hope that you have as good a time at Hogwarts as I did. Write soon, and let us know how your first week went.

All our love,

Mum and Dad.

He stared dumfounded at the package sitting innocently before him. It couldn't, he thought, it couldn't be what he thought it was…

Poking the package experimentally, he realised that it really might be the cloak – the package was distinctly squidgy, and about the right size to be the infamous garment. Chewing his lip, he debated what to do – he could open the package here, and risk letting everyone see the cloak (which somehow didn't feel like a sensible thing to do) or he could take it up to the dormitories to open, and risk feeling a fool if it wasn't the cloak.

He still hadn't reached a conclusion when Matt nudged him as he searched through his bag. Looking up, James saw a rather frustrated looking boy.

"Have you finished your breakfast?"

"Yeah, why?" asked James, not sure where this conversation was going, and still half occupied with what to do about the package – soon someone was sure to notice it sitting there unopened.

"I've left my Potions text book in the dorms; I wondered if you wanted to come up and dump your package?"

"Sure," smiled James, pleased that one problem at least was solved…

In his excitement about the cloak, he had entirely overlooked the fact that neither of his parents had picked up on his subtle hints about the awards.

That evening found James, Matt, and Ali sat around one of the larger tables in the library. Being so early in the term, there were hardly any other students in there, so they were largely undisturbed, and free to hold their whispered conversations without anyone complaining (except Madam Pince, but she didn't really count).

They were currently sifting through a large amount of school records that documented all of the note-worthy news from 1991 through to 1999. They had initially started by just looking at the records of James' dad's second year, in the hope that they would find mention as to why he and Ron had received their awards, but they had had difficulty making any sense of the records – they were of rather poor quality, lots seemed to have been omitted, and of what was there, they couldn't make much sense of, just a lot of ramblings about some chamber.

Therefore, the three friends had decided that they would just search the records for the entire time that James' parents had been at school, in the hope that they would find some mention of their names that would turn up some solid leads for them.

However, they had been unable to find anything in the three hours that they had been there, and the library would be closing in another hour. They were very close to giving up, when James' eyes fell upon not one, but two familiar names.

"Hey," he said, his voice croaking slightly where it hadn't been used in so long, "I found something."

The other two immediately gathered behind James in order to read the piece of text that he was pointing at. It was at the heading of the summary section for the school year beginning in 1994.

The school year of 1994-1995 was host to the reinstatement of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. (For full details about the accommodations which had be made see section vi) The champions were as follows: Fleur Delacour (of Beauxbatons), Cedric Diggory (of Hogwarts) (for full details of his death see section xiv), Viktor Krum (of Durmstrang) and Harry Potter (of Hogwarts) (for full details of the selection of the second Hogwarts champion see section xiii) ...

The document went on for many more pages, but none of them felt particularly inclined to read the formally written text. Besides, they had clearly found a lead that they could work with.

Whilst they put away the documents, James considered what he had found – he wasn't sure what to make of the fact that it might be because of his dad that everyone stared at him. He had genuinely expected it to be because of his mother – even if it wasn't because of her quidditch career, he still would have expected it to be her. He just felt that she had the more dynamic personality, that she was the one more likely to have secrets.

And then, there was the fact that one boy had died. Try as he might, James couldn't stop his mind returning to those words, so harshly, honestly stated. He knew that people died – he knew that many had died in the not-so-distant war – but to die in a school competition? Something didn't sit right…

Returning to their seats in a contemplative silence, they set about planning what to do next.

"Did you know that your dad was part of this tournament?" asked Ali, opening her notebook.

"Well," James chewed his lip as he recalled what he knew about the competition in question, "I knew that he was part of some competition whilst he was in school – that was how he met Aunt Fleur."

Matt broke in on James' explanation. "Fleur? Like the one in the passage?"

"The same one - she married mum's oldest brother – she's Victoire, Dominique, and Louis' mum." James paused as he caught the looks of dawning comprehension on his friend's faces – it was then that he realised how much time he had spent with his family when he was younger. The fact that he had just assumed that his friends would know who Fleur was, and how she was linked to their housemates, caught him off-guard for a moment, before he pushed it aside and continued with his explanation.

"All Dad had said about the competition was that it was supposed the establish friendships and harmony with other wizarding schools, and was designed to test the participants knowledge of magic. I certainly didn't know it was so exclusive, or that it was dangerous enough that someone would die…"

He broke off, and they all paused as they contemplated where to go from here. It was clear that they needed to look further into the Tri-Wizard tournament, but how was now the question. As far as James was concerned, there was no way that they were going to be able to find out anymore without either reading more of the school report, which was, to say the least, unappealing, or asking his family, which was even less appealing.

"So," Matt said, breaking the silence that was verging on awkward, "Where do you think that we should go from here? Because I was thinking that we should have a look at the back copies of the prophet from the time – it sounds like there probably would have been quite a bit of media coverage…"

He faltered under the gaze of both James and Ali, the latter of whom wore an expression of mixed surprise that he had thought of something that had evaded her, and admiration for having thought up said solution.

"I – uh – thought it was a good idea…"

"It's a brilliant idea!" exclaimed Ali, her enthusiasm renewed, "The library has an archive of all the old copies of the prophet - I saw them when we came in. We can go and start looking now." She was out of her seat before either Matt or James had really realised what she was suggesting.

"No!" shouted James, finally breaking the whispered voices that they had been using, and earning a sharp glare from Madam Pince. Dropping his voice, he carried on, albeit with less passion. "I mean, the library's closing soon, and we have no idea how long it's going to take us to find what we're looking." Catching Ali's somewhat frustrated glare – it would appear that it wasn't only James who wanted to solve the mystery now – he amended his previous statement. "We can come and search tomorrow, so long as we don't have much homework…"

"Pfft," huffed Ali, but she relented, and waited for the two boys to get up as well. "I don't care how much homework we get, I'm coming up tomorrow – I won't be able to sleep properly 'till we've solved this, not now we've started."

Flinging her bag over her shoulder, she stalked out of the library, entirely missing the amused look Matt and James shared at her expense.