The selection of the fifth and sixth Champions was much less dramatic than the original selection had been. Harry put this down partly to being to the lack of the Goblet of Fire being involved, partly because there was no theatrical lighting, and partly because it was announced at breakfast when only a third of Hogwarts students were present.

All of the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students were there – which was understandable since they were the ones who a chance of being chosen. Their Headmistresses must have explained the possibility of two more champions being chosen, because they had all straightened in anticipation when Harry and the other Champions followed Sirius and Bagman into the hall.

The Hogwarts students obviously had no idea what was happening, but once Dumbledore explained what was going to happen a few of the older students shot Harry envious looks. Then Bagman stepped forward, with a bright yellow hat in his hand, and made a show of pulling out a name.

"The second Beauxbaton Champion is… Aceline Moreau!"

Harry wasn't surprised to hear him announce a female name, after all Beauxbatons had brought almost twice as many female students as male ones, but he was a little startled at how attractive the girl who stood was.

Aceline Moreau was a tall brunette with very pale skin and she was easily one of the most attractive girls in the room. Well, she was until Harry saw her shoot Fleur a spitefully triumphant smirk. Then she just looked mean.

Fleur's chin rose defiantly in response to Aceline's smirk, but otherwise she seemed to ignore her fellow champion – not even clapping along with the rest of the students.

Next, Bagman read out the name of Durmstrang's second champion and Harry was surprised to see a girl standing in response. Sure Nina Viserova sounded like a girl's name, but what were the chances that one of the five female Durmstrang students would have been selected instead of one of the nine male ones?

Viktor, who had been grinning crookedly ever since her name had been called, clapped a hand down on Nina's shoulder in congratulations.

After that was done, they were ushered back into the antechamber where Bagman gave them their instructions.

Apparently the first task would test their daring and their improvisation, so they weren't allowed to know what it would be. They were given the date though, the 24th of November, and were warned not to ask for any help from their professors or the judges (which Harry thought was a bit unfair given that it meant he couldn't ask Sirius or Remus for help).

The worst part of it was that they were going to be exempted from their exams. Sure that wouldn't make much a different for Harry's fourth year exams, but he was supposed to take his Ancient Runes OWL this year. Besides which, the other Champions were all in their final year at school. How were they supposed to apply for apprenticeships or jobs if they hadn't taken their NEWTs?

When he mentioned his concern to Sirius and Remus over tea and scones later that morning, Sirius laughed at him.

"I highly doubt they'll stop you from taking your exam if you really want to, Harry." He pointed out. "It's just that the expectation is for you to spend most of the year preparing for the tasks, which will negatively impact your grades."

Harry grimaced. "Why in Merlin's name would anyone voluntarily sign up to something that would mean they would get bad grades?"

Sirius barked out a laugh. "Who needs good grades if they have fame, glory and riches?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "I have fame, glory and riches. Does that mean you would support me in flunking out of school?"

Sirius choked on his scone. "What?"

"Calm down, Padfoot." Remus chuckled as he thumped Sirius on the back. "This is Harry we're talking about. He's not going to flunk out of school."

Sirius coughed for a few seconds, before shooting Harry a pained glare. "Don't do that to me!"

"I'd apologise, but it wouldn't be sincere." Harry smirked in amusement. "Let's call it payback for that tickling curse you hit me with last week."

"You should have blocked it." Sirius told him unsympathetically. "But speaking of our duelling practise, we have a bit of a problem."

Harry raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Merlin, you look like Narcissa when you do that." Sirius grumbled.

Harry grimaced in horror. "Really?"

Remus chuckled. "I don't think he means it like that, Harry."

"I don't mean it like what?" Sirius asked, looking between Harry and Remus.

"You don't think he looks like your female cousin." Remus explained.

Sirius' mouth dropped open. "Merlin, no. I just meant that you look so dignified."

"Oh." Harry let out a relieved breath. "Normally people just tell me I remind them of Lord Malfoy."

"Yeah," Sirius smirked. "I can see why that might go down better."

Harry rolled his eyes. "So there's a problem?"

"Technically neither Remus nor I are allowed to help you prepare for the Tournament." Sirius explained. "So we can't teach you any new spells."

"In case you teach me something that would help me." Harry nodded in understanding. "But we can still duel together, can't we?"

"Definitely." Sirius nodded. "But don't think that this means you can stop learningg new spells, in fact I expect you see you learning more than you normally do, but you'll just have to find them on your own."

Harry studied the two men carefully. "I've been thinking of something that might help with that actually."

"Hmm?" Remus prompted him.

Harry lowered his voice. "Have you ever heard of Parselmagic?"

Sirius' eyes widened and reared back slightly. "As in Parselmouths?"

Harry tried to ignore his hurt at his godfather's reaction. "Yes. Parselmouths, speak Parseltongue, and magic that they cast in Parseltongue is called Parselmagic."

Remus leaned forward. "I've never heard of anything like that before."

"I'm not surprised." Harry admitted. "People don't really talk about anything to Parselmouths, except to vilify them."

Sirius winced at his pointed glance. "Sorry, pup, old habits die hard. So, tell us about Parselmagic."

"It's similar to normal magic, in that it can be done with or without a wand – but it's a lot easier with a wand." Harry started. "There are specific spells, all of which are cast in Parseltongue. The best part of it is that Parselmagic can only be blocked, or broken, by Parselmagic. So if I was to send a Parselmagic curse at you, you could only block it with a solid object or with a Parselmagic shield."

Sirius' eyebrows were raised. "So if You-Know-Who was to send a Parselmagic curse at someone, it would be impossible to block with a normal shield."

"Yes." Harry explained. "I've been wanting practise it. In fact, that's the reason I originally bought Sarko and Sativa, but I've never gotten around to it."

"But you don't have your snakes anymore, do you?" Remus asked curiously. "Aren't they living in the forest and messing with the natural food chain by multiplying?"

Harry shot Remus a half-hearted glare. "Yes, but I don't need them to speak Parseltongue anymore. I've learnt to do that by just thinking about snakes."

"And you want to practise this at our duelling sessions?" Sirius asked unsurely.

"If you don't mind." Harry answered cautiously. "With your sword you'll be able to block them anyway, and I'll make sure I don't cast anything too harmful."

"It makes sense." Remus nodded. "That way no one will be able to accuse you of teaching Harry spells."

"Not that we'll be able to tell people what we're actually doing." Harry pointed out. "I don't want people to know that I'm a Parselmouth."

"Alright." Sirius nodded slowly. "We can do that, but we should probably ward the room carefully. We wouldn't want anyone to interrupt us."

Harry smiled widely. "Thanks, Sirius!"

18-18-18

Harry found the many differences between Remus and Sirius amusing. Remus had been at Hogwarts all year, but had never indicated any interest in sitting in on one of Harry's animagus training sessions. Sirius had been at Hogwarts for three days when he insisted on tagging along.

As usual, Harry did his best to get there ten minutes early and was surprised to see that Fred and George were already there. They were talking quietly on the couch, but looked up when Harry and Sirius entered the room.

"Hey." George nodded, his usually jovial expression glum.

"Hey." Harry returned, moving to sit in the armchair opposite them. "How are you guys going? I heard a bit about what happened last night."

Sirius, who had followed Harry across the room, shot him a questioning look as he sprawled out on another armchair.

The twins both looked uncomfortable as they watched Sirius out of the corner of their eyes.

"Don't mind me." Sirius grinned charmingly.

Harry nodded. "You can trust Sirius."

Fred and George exchanged a glance, before Fred spoke up.

"It's the whole bloody drama from last month again. Ron's a bloody wanker!" His fists were clenched so tightly they were turning white.

George sighed. "We got another letter from Charlie this morning. Apparently, Mum's refusing to have them around for dinner until they give up this lordship thing."

Harry grimaced. "That's awful."

"Merlin knows what she'll do if she finds out that we're actually on their side." George continued. "I'm surprised we haven't already received a howler. I'm sure that Ron must have narked on us weeks ago."

"And who bloody knows what he's going to nark to mum about in his next letter." Fred growled. "He'll probably claim that we're bloody Death Eaters again or something."

Harry's mouth fell open. "He accused you of being Death Eaters?"

"Yeah, and in front of the whole bloody common room." Fred's jaw clenched. "In a way it was a good thing, since it helped everybody else realise that he's off his rocker, nobody took him seriously after that."

"You didn't have to choose me, you know." Harry told them quietly. "I would have understood if you'd chosen Ron. He's your brother."

"He's a bloody wanker, is what he is!" Fred snapped.

"Just because he's family, doesn't mean he's right." George added. "And we're not going to spend our lives listening to what Ronnie or Mum think we should and shouldn't do. We haven't in the past and we're not planning to in the future, so there was no point in doing it now."

Sirius leaned forward in his seat, his forehead furrowed in concern. "Do you boys mind if I ask what this is all about?"

"Bill accepted the lordship…" George started.

"…and Charlie agreed to be his heir…" Fred put in.

George nodded. "…But Mum freaked out…"

"…She's threatened to disown them both." Fred added.

"Ron's on her side…"

"…bloody wanker!" Fred growled.

"…and Percy, Dad, and Ginny aren't saying anything either way." George continued. "Then last night…"

"…Ron went bonkers…"

"…about Harry being Champion…"

"…because he bloody hates Harry." Fred inserted.

George grimaced in agreement. "…and when we stood up for him…"

"…he tried to make us choose between him and Harry. We chose Harry." Fred finished.

Sirius looked a little shell shocked as he glanced between the twins. "Molly's threatened to disown your brothers?"

"We don't think she actually meant it." George said quickly.

"You don't think she actually meant it." Fred corrected. "I think she's a bloody crazy bint!"

Harry's eyes widened. He'd never heard Fred swear so much in his life.

"Why haven't I heard anything about this?" Sirius asked rhetorically. "I was in an Order meeting with them on Monday."

"Because you're public enemy number one." George explained with a sigh. "You're the one who convinced Bill to accept the lordship."

Sirius reared back slightly. "No, I didn't. There was absolutely no convincing involved. He asked some questions, I answered them. That was it. Though that does explain why she seemed so…"

"Insane?" Fred suggested. "Shrill? Nutty?"

George seemed to curl into himself. "Come on, Fred. She's our mum."

"She's a bloody awful mum!" Fred snapped. "She can't even tell us apart."

George's shoulders slumped. "I know."

Sirius was looking a little wide eyed, but he cleared his throat. "Your mum loves you. So does your dad. Arthur's always talking about how proud he is of the two of you."

George perked up slightly. "Really?"

"Oh, yeah." Sirius nodded. "Just last week he was telling me about how the two of you had made some kind of candy that made people's tongues grow."

"Ton Tongue Toffees." George smiled wanly. "We almost had them right, but then Mum found them and chucked them all out."

"And now, because of bloody Ludo Bagman, we can't even afford to buy the bloody ingredients again." Fred growled.

Sirius looked just as confused as Harry felt. "What did Ludo do?"

"We made a bet with him at the World Cup…" Fred started.

"…that Ireland would win, but Krum would catch the snitch." George explained.

"Nice bet!" Sirius grinned. "You must have gotten pretty good odds on it."

"Yeah," George nodded glumly. "But then he paid us with Leprechaun gold so it had all disappeared by the next day."

Sirius looked startled. "What?"

"And we could hardly tell Mum or Dad." Fred pointed out. "Mum would go spare if she heard that we'd been gambling. She'd probably just think it was good riddance."

"And she'd be relieved." George added. "If we don't have any savings, we can't start up our Joke Shop."

"You want to start a Joke Shop?" Sirius asked in interest.

"I said I'd back you, and I meant it." Harry reminded them. "We could draw up a contract now if you like and I'll help pay for your ingredients."

Sirius smiled warmly at Harry. "Or I could rustle the money out of Ludo for you. How much did you bet?"

"Thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, three Knuts, and a fake wand." George answered, exchanging a hopeful look with Fred.

Harry was impressed, that was a lot of money.

"And what were the odds?" Sirius asked.

The twins exchanged another glance. "We didn't ask."

"Always ask." Sirius told them seriously. "Though, in this case, it's probably best that you didn't. I'll contact one of the official betting places and ask what their odds were for that particular bet and then have Ludo up for the total."

"Really?" George asked hopefully.

"Definitely." Sirius promised.

"What's to stop him from ignoring you?" Fred asked sceptically.

Sirius chuckled darkly. "He wouldn't dare."

18-18-18

Sirius' presence during their animagus practise was both helpful and not.

It was helpful in that it gave Harry the confidence to transform both his arms into wings at the same time, something he'd been too cautious to try before. But it was unhelpful in that it made some of his friends formal and stiff.

Draco wasn't too bad, he'd spent a lot of time with Sirius, but Daphne, Takashi, Theo, and Blaise were painfully formal throughout the entire afternoon. The twins seemed to find the entire thing a little bemusing, though they were entirely sold on the wonderfulness of Sirius. If Sirius' promise to retrieve their money from Bagman hadn't been enough, Sirius later admitting that his animagus form was called Padfoot did the trick. Apparently the twins had the Marauder's Map and had long considered the Marauders to be their idols.

They had all been working towards their animagus forms for two months now and had all made progress. Harry had gotten the furthest, managing to transform his eyebrows into feathers and his arms into wings, but the others had only managed to transform one of their body parts.

Sirius was very impressed and told them all so. Apparently it had taken him and Harry's dad two months of twice weekly practises to transform their first body part, and a year to complete the entire thing. On hearing that, Harry's friends all decided that they wanted to practise more often.

Harry had groaned inwardly at the idea, he was already busy enough and he hadn't even started training for the Tournament yet, but he had agreed anyway and Wednesday evenings had been scheduled as an additional practise time.

18-18-18

The next day was Monday, which meant classes. It seemed a little bizarre that life was returning to normal after such a weird weekend. Harry felt as though something ought to have changed now that he had been forced into the Tournament, but nothing really had.

A few students seemed a bit miffed that Harry had somehow gotten into the Tournament, but none of them were very vocal about it. Well, no one except Ron, but then his vitriol was hardly a surprise.

Thankfully, Harry only had two classes with Ron (Charms and Herbology) and so didn't run into him all that often. Unfortunately, Harry had Charms first on Mondays and Ron seemed to be lying in wait for him outside the classroom.

"Not content with just killing our friends, huh, Potter?" Ron asked, pushing himself off the wall he had been leaning against. "You want to steal everyone else's glory too."

Harry strode past him, into the classroom. Ron's accusations had definitely escalated. First, Harry had just been a ponce, then dark, then friends with Death Eaters, then a Death Eater, and now he was apparently a murderer. It would be amusing, if it wasn't so bloody irritating

"That's right, Potter, run away!" Ron shouted from behind him. "No wonder you weren't sorted into Gryffindor. You're a bloody coward!"

"Ignore him, Harry." Neville advised, as Harry placed his bookbag down on his desk.

"I'm trying." Harry returned, pulling out his chair. Suddenly, a hand gripped his shoulder and spun him around.

"Don't you bloody ignore me, you bloody coward!" Ron snarled.

Harry sneered as he shook his shoulder free. "Get your hands off me, Weasley."

"Why?" Weasley asked. "You too good to touch people like me, huh?"

Harry straightened his shoulders. "Actually, yes, now that you mention it, I am."

Ron's face was turning red. "You bloody bastard!"

"You're the one who said it, not me." Harry reminded him coolly. "Now that you have my attention, Weasley, what was it you wished to speak to me about?"

Ron was silent for moment, before he gathered his wits. "Leave my brothers alone!"

Harry spotted a movement out of his eyes and raised his eyebrow with a smirk. "Or what?"

"Or I'll bloody kill you!" Ron snarled.

"Mr. Weasley!" Flitwick exclaimed in his high pitched voice, a shocked expression on his face. "Forty points from Gryffindor for threatening another student's life, and you're to go see Professor McGonagall immediately."

Ron looked startled as he swung around to face the professor. "But, sir…"

"No buts, Mr. Weasley." Flitwick frowned, summoning a quill into his hand and beginning to quickly write a note. Once he was done, he passed it to Ron. "Give this to Professor McGonagall."

Harry watched as Ron stomped his way out of the room, before taking his seat and exchanging an amused look with Neville. One point to him, zero to Ron Weasley.

18-18-18