Chapter Twenty One: Foreign Arrivals, Unforgivables and Champions
It was now a few months into the school year and the whole school was abuzz over the arrival of the delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Slytherin House especially had a high sense of anticipation as Durmstrang was a school that traditionally specialized in not only teaching Defence against the Dark Arts but also taught the Dark Arts themselves. They didn't know much about Beauxbatons other than that it was in France but they didn't really mind that.
The school was lined up on the front steps and waiting semi-patiently for the first arrivals. Beauxbatons was first and they gasped at the enormous carriage and flying horses that pulled it. When it landed and the door opened, the reason for the size was made apparent as the largest woman Raiden had ever seen stepped out of it, followed by several young women who looked around 17 years old. They walked up to Dumbledore and the Headmistress, who was introduced as Madam Maxime talked with the staff for a moment before waiting for the arrival of Durmstrang.
Durmstrang chose to arrive in a slightly more unusual way; they had a ship which rose from the depths of the Black Lake like a ghost. The students that got off were again around 17 but one student caught Raiden and Draco's attention in particular. Following the Headmaster, Igor Karkaroff, up the steps, was the Bulgarian Seeker Viktor Krum. Whispers spread around the Hogwarts students as he walked inside, followed by the rest of the guests.
The announcement of the Triwizard Tournament rules had many 6th years shouting in anger but they were quieted swiftly by Dumbledore. The Goblet of Fire was left in the Great Hall with instructions that any eligible candidate, that is those students 17 or over could put their name in if they were prepared to play. The tasks would be dangerous, which was why the age limit had been imposed in the first place. In order to keep out younger students Dumbledore had drawn an Age Line round the Goblet. The Slytherins knew better than to test it, although they had laughed themselves sick at the silly students in the other houses that had tried aging potions to make themselves look the proper age. The results were amusing; the students had grown lovely long white beards and hair similar to Dumbledore's.
The former Slytherin Quartet plus Hermione had gathered in their study corner to discuss their animagus studies, plus a new name for themselves. Blaise had suggested the Avengers, while Daphne had suggested The Mischievous Devils or TMD for short. With no other names they had debated on those two. TMD seemed a bit odd unless they were planning on going into the pranking business, which they weren't. They were more into study and spying rather than pranks. The Avengers seemed better, especially with what they were ultimately planning. With the name of their group decided, they turned to their personal animagus names. It had been decided that their group would form the core of the sub group within the Death Eaters, with Raiden of course as their leader. Sirius would be the adult advisor of that group and any new members had to agree to become Animagi. The idea was that Raiden's group would be the spies and information gatherers of Voldemort's organization and as such they would have to swear loyalty to the Dark, but not get the Dark Mark. Instead they would get a Mark of Raiden's choosing, once they were old enough, ie 17. Not even Raiden would be Marked until his seventeenth birthday, so they had three years to think of an appropriate symbol and start feeling out potential followers.
A few days later the fourth year Slytherins and Gryffindors were waiting for their first DADA lesson. The teacher was a retired Auror named Alastor Moody, or at least that was what he appeared to be. Raiden knew better as Voldemort had informed him that the real Moody had been kidnapped and Barty Crouch Junior had taken his place using Polyjuice potion. Crouch had not been informed of the relationship between Raiden and Voldemort, he thought of Raiden as just being Harry Potter.
Moody entered the room and stood at the front. "Settle down you lot. Today's lesson will be on the Unforgivable Curses. Which one of you can tell me how many there are?"
Raiden raised his hand. "Three sir, the Imperius, the Cruciatus and the Killing Curse."
Moody nodded his head. "Good Potter, good. Do you know what they do?"
Raiden did know but he had to play ignorant. "Not really sir." Moody shrugged. Looking at the rest of the class he said, "Using any one of the three Unforgivable curses is enough to earn you a life sentence in Azkaban. The Ministry of Magic doesn't want you to know what the curses do. They think you're all too young. I say different!"
The class looked at each other as Moody continued, "You need to know what you're facing. Since I can't demonstrate on you lot, I'll show you with spiders."
So saying, he reached into a jar and pulled out a spider. A whispered enlarging spell had the spider growing in size so the class could easily see it. Moody put it down on the desk and pointed his wand at it.
"Imperio!" he hissed. The spider twitched as the spell hit and then relaxed. Suddenly it got up and began tap dancing on the desk and then wandered around the class. Most of the Gryffindors were snickering, but the Slytherins were silent and watchful. Moody seemed displeased at the Gryffindors' reaction.
"You'd think it funny if it happened to you?" he growled menacingly before continuing, "After the end of the war many witches and wizards claimed they'd only done You Know Who's bidding under the influence of this curse. It gives the caster complete control of the victim."
Moody looked round and saw that the class was fully attentive and hanging on his every word. Raiden in particular was highly interested. Moody then pointed his wand at the spider and hissed "Crucio!"
The spider curled in on itself the nearly inaudible squeaks of pain it made would have translated to screams if it had been a human. Raiden watched the spider with morbid fascination although he was disturbed as well. For all that Voldemort had threatened him with the Cruciatus, and with all that he'd read of it, reading of the pain it inflicted and seeing it first hand was different. Shuddering inwardly, Raiden once again vowed to try and avoid getting hit with that curse as much as possible.
Finally the curse stopped and the spider relaxed although fine trembles indicated that it was still in a lot of pain. Moody looked round at the utterly silent class and said, "The torture curse. You don't need whips or other things if you can cast this curse. But there's one more."
Looking at the spider, Moody pointed his wand at the creature for the last time. "Avada Kedavra!" he snarled. The spider slumped to the desk top, dead. The class stared at the rush of green light and the dead spider before they swiveled as one to look with fascination at Raiden as Moody said calmly, "The killing curse. No known way of blocking it. There's only one known person to have survived it and he's sitting in this room."
Raiden looked coolly at the class, daring them to comment. None did. Raiden listened as Moody said, "The Unforgivables take a fair amount of power to cast, you could all point your wands at me and say Avada Kedavra and I doubt I'd get even a nosebleed. The point of this class isn't to teach you how to cast them though. It's to give you the necessary information so you can defend against them. Since they can't be blocked the best defence is to dodge or flat out run away."
Raiden left the class and headed for lunch, remaining silent and not talking. The rest of the Avengers as they were now calling themselves left him alone, knowing that the demonstration of the curses, and seeing the one that had killed his parents but not him would have left him shaken. Raiden sat through lunch looking pale but otherwise composed. He felt eyes on him halfway through the meal and looked up to see Snape's eyes on him. The look in them was one of concern. Snape had heard of the lesson and was furious, there was no reason for fourth years to be exposed to the Unforgivables, especially since in that class there had been two that would be more affected than the others, Raiden due to the failed killing curse as an infant, and Neville Longbottom who had had his parents tortured into insanity by the cruciatus.
A few days later it was time for the champion selection. The school packed into the great hall with the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students as well. The Goblet of Fire was flaming quietly with blue fire as Dumbledore explained more about the Tournament. Then the Goblet flared red and a piece of parchment flew out of it.
Dumbledore caught it in his hand and looked at it. All hopeful participants had put their name and school on a bit of parchment and then submitted it to the Goblet over the past week. The Hogwarts Headmaster looked up and said, "The champion for Durmstrang is Viktor Krum!"
A loud burst of cheering rang out around the hall as the world champion Seeker walked up towards the head table and passed through the door at the end. A few minutes later the Goblet flared red again and another parchment shot out of it.
"The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour!" More cheering rang out as the girl that the Avengers were sure was at least part Veela went through the same door that Viktor had gone through. The boys at Hogwarts had been drooling over her with the exception of a few. It was interesting to note that all of the exceptions had girlfriends, or, in Raiden's case, a significant interest in a girl.
Now the Hogwarts students were holding their breath. The Goblet flared for the last time and Dumbledore announced, "The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory!" The Hogwarts students cheered and clapped. When the noise settled down, Dumbledore clapped his hands and said, "We now have our three champions! Please give them your support over the coming year. Good luck to all of them."
He was just sitting down when the Goblet sputtered and smoked before the flame belched red again and another parchment came flying out of it. Raiden's eyes widened, he now had a suspicion as to what Voldemort had meant by "don't fight anything that happens this year" and he didn't like it. Dumbledore caught the parchment and read it.
Looking up and across the hall, his eyes met Raiden's just before Dumbledore said, "Harry Potter."
Raiden sat stunned before Draco pushed him up and towards Dumbledore. He walked slowly up the hall, feeling the weight of hundreds of eyes on him. There was no cheering, only a muttering of suspicion and then a random Gryffindor yelled out "Trust a Slytherin to cheat his way in! He's not even of age yet!"
Raiden glared at them and then met Dumbledore's gaze. He hadn't entered his name; he wasn't knowledgeable enough to get round the age restrictions. He knew who had though, Crouch, while posing as Moody must have somehow hoodwinked the cup. He looked defiantly at the rest of the staff members, most of whom looked shocked.
Dumbledore looked at Raiden and then silently held out the parchment. Raiden frowned, it was definitely his handwriting but he hadn't put it in. Walking swiftly he walked towards the same door that the other three had disappeared through. The last person he saw as he closed the door was Professor Snape, who was looking at him with an inscrutable look in his black eyes.
The aftermath had not been pretty. Snape had tried to get Raiden withdrawn from the Tournament, and Moody had told them that he couldn't have hoodwinked the Goblet as a fourth year's magical talent wouldn't have been strong enough. It ended with the Ministry representatives telling Raiden that his name coming out of the Goblet constituted a magically binding contract. He had to compete. Raiden went to bed that night with Barty Crouch Senior's words ringing in his ears.
"As of tonight, Mr Potter is a Triwizard champion."
Author Note
I'd like to thank Voldemort is Dead for suggesting the name Avengers for the former Slytherin Quartet. Animagus names will be coming soon.
May the Force be with you
Padawan Lynne