Yay finally updating!
Ok the votes are in, the exorcists will be participating in the tournament... despite it having nothing to do with them.
And the lucky exorcist who will be the champion, by popular demand is... Kanda!
Thanks for saving me the trouble of making excuses for one of the younger ones getting across tha age line.
Just think of all the fun we can have with Kanda in the tournament, just imagine what he could do to the dragon!
I also rather fancy giving him cat ears and tail again at some point, maybe during one of the tasks, that would be hilarious.
Hope you enjoy this new chapter. Btw the big speeches by Dumbledore and Crouch are taken from the book. Enjoy.
Finally after a meal containing a lot of strange dishes that were obviously native to the other schools, Allen didn't care and tried some of everything while Kanda was surprised to find that they'd also put soba on the table, it was time for the announcement of the Triwizard tournament. Dumbledore stood up from his chair and the exorcists could practically feel the tension spread out across the room.
"The moment has come," announced Dumbledore. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket just to clarify the procedure which we will be following this year. But firstly, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation and Mr Ludo Bangman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."
There was a noticeable difference in the amount of applause each man received, Ludo was obviously the more popular and well know of the two although Yana thought it was just because he looked more approachable than Crouch who looked quite severe.
"Mr Bangman and Mr Crouch have been working tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxine on the panel which will judge the champions' efforts," Dumbledore explained. "The casket, then, if you please, Mr Filch." Even the exorcists couldn't find their curiosity as the old caretaker brought forth a jewel encrusted wooden chest and placed it on the table in front of Dumbledore.
"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by My Crouch and Mr Bangman," continued Dumbledore, "and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways; their magical prowess, their daring, their powers of deduction, and of course, their ability to cope with danger."
He then went on to explain that one champion from each school would be selected and that the champion with the highest score after the three tasks would win the tournament. Then he opened the chest and pulled out a large wooden cup full with dancing blue-white flames and put it down for everyone to see. Then he told them that if they wished to enter their name and the name of their school had to be on a slip of paper in the cup by tomorrow night, then the Goblet would return the three names it had judged most worthy.
His announcement that he was putting up an age line to prevent underage participants caused a bit of an outrage amongst the Hogwarts students and no one really seemed to be paying attention when he announced that entering their name would be like a binding magical contract and as such they could not back out if their name was chosen.
"One final announcement if you will before I send you all of to bed," called Dumbledore through the quiet chatter. "I would like to remind those from B.O. academy that you will also be allowed to compete and represent your school."
"What?" yelled the exorcists. Dumbledore chuckled.
"It appears our exchange students were not informed that they would be allowed to compete in the tournament," he said eyes twinkling.
"Hell no we weren't!" cried Yana jumping up from her seat. "Komui is so-" Allen quickly placed his hand over her mouth to stop her from shouting obscenities, then he dragged her back down on to her seat.
"Calm down Yana," he said. "You heard what Dumbledore said right? You have to be seventeen to enter, Lavi and Kanda are the only ones old enough to do that." She raised an eyebrow at him. "Ok so Lenalee is nearly seventeen and we don't actually know how old we are but everyone thinks we're fifteen so we can't enter, so Lavi and Kanda are the only ones who can enter this tournament." Kanda scowled and glared at Allen.
"There is no way in hell I'm going to enter that stupid thing," he grumbled. "We have a mission, that takes priority over some tournament." The dark haired teen completely missed the looks Yana and Lavi were exchanging, if he'd seen them he probably would have left the castle right then.
"So we're going to put Kanda's name in the goblet?" clarified Yana as she and Lavi crept into the Entrance hall later that night.
"Yep, it'll totally drive him insane," laughed the red head. "Especially since his will be the only name down for our 'school', he'll have to be the champion and I Dumbledore said it's a binding contract so there's no way he'll be able to get out of competing." She raised an eyebrow at him.
"You do realise he's going to suspect one of us, right?" she asked. "He's going to be so mad when he finds out." Lavi just shrugged and pried open the hall door.
"So? He'll have been entered by then and he'll have to compete," he said. "He won't be able to change that."
Yana wrote down Kanda's name in kanji so it would be more believable that Kanda had written it, and then Lavi crossed over the age line and dropped the paper in the goblet watching as it emitted a blue flame, signifying that the name had been accepted. They chuckled and made their way back to the Gryffindor tower, the look on Kanda's face when his name was read out was going to be priceless.
The exorcists entered the hall the next morning just in time to see Fred and George get thrown out of the age line and sprout identical, long white beards. Even Kanda snorted with laughter as the twins were sent off to the hospital wing and they followed Harry, Ron and Hermione into the Great hall for breakfast.
Lenalee and Yana gasped with delight as hundreds of live bats swooped across the ceiling and scores of pumpkins decorated the hall, since the bats looked a lot like the golems that surrounded the Order it almost seemed like they were back home. They ignored the wizards discussing who would be picked as their school champion until Harry asked them who was going to enter from their group.
"So have any of you put your name down?" he asked curiously. Lenalee smiled at him cheerfully.
"Well only Lavi and Kanda can enter since the rest of us aren't seventeen," she explained.
"I put in a slip last night," cried Lavi punching the air enthusiastically.
"Really?" asked Allen surprised. The red head just shrugged and pointed to Kanda.
"Well he wasn't going to do it was he?" he snorted. "We can't have no one representing us." Yana laughed quiety realising that Lavi never said it was his name he'd written on the slip, Kanda was going to be in for a shock since he thought Lavi was going to be the only one to choose.
After breakfast the wizard trio went to go visit Hagrid in his hut to see how he was doing, they had to drag Yana to make sure she didn't go with them since she really loved going to see what creatures he was looking after.
Unfortunately the exorcists had to spend their afternoon in the library, in the excitement of getting used to a magic school and the Triwizard Tournament being announced they hadn't done very much research into the possibility of Innocence being in the castle. Of course, since this was a school for magic it was a little hard to tell what would be considered unusual, which was how they usually found the location of Innocence.
It didn't help that the announcement of the champions was tonight so they were all a bit distracted which made searching through the numerous books in the library a pain. Then they nearly gave Miranda a heart attack when they stumbled across her down one of the aisles. Since she hadn't been helping a specific teacher she'd taken refuge in the library in an attempt to make herself useful, unfortunately she'd run across the same problem as them in that she didn't know what would count as unusual here. Finding the Innocence was going to be a very long and arduous task.
They sat by the Weasley twins for the feast that night, both of them had managed to get rid of their beards thankfully and didn't seem too disappointed about not being able to enter the tournament.
"It's ok, we just hope Angelina get it," said Fred just as Harry, Ron and Hermione sat down opposite them.
"Me too," cried Hermione.
"Well, even if she doesn't you guys are technically in Gryffindor," chuckled George pointing to the exorcists. "So at least someone in Gryffindor will be in the tournament and we'll have someone to cheer for."
"Hmm… hadn't thought of it like that," mused Lavi. Yana sniggered but stopped when Allen stared at her suspiciously.
"What did you do?" he asked glaring slightly. "And don't say 'nothing', I know that look on your face, you did something and someone is going to want to kill you again."
Yana just smirked and started humming the funeral march under her breath, Allen face palmed and sighed heavily. Why couldn't he have a sister that didn't have suicidal tendencies when it came to her hobbies? It was bad enough she was an exorcist and in danger most of the time due to her job, but she just had to turn her hobbies into pranks that had everyone wish death on her too. If his hair wasn't white already he could swear she would have turned him grey by now anyway.
The feast seemed to last forever since everyone was impatiently waiting for the champions to be announced, finally Dumbledore rose from his chair and the hall fell silent. He told them that the champions were suppose to go through into a separate chamber behind the staff table to receive their first instructions, then he waved his wand and all the lights went out leaving only the blue-white flames of the Goblet to light the hall. Suddenly the Goblet flamed red and sparks began to fly, then a flame shot out from the cup and a slip a parchment fluttered out.
"The champion for Durstrang will be Viktor Krum," Dumbledore read out before there was a thundering applause and Krum walked up the hall and through the small side door into the chamber. Then the Goblet turned red again and a second piece of parchment flew out.
"The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour," said Dumbledore. Lenalee and Yana were disgusted to realise several of the Beauxbatons students were crying because they hadn't been picked.
"What a bunch of ninnies," scoffed Yana. "You'd think it was the end of the world the way they're crying." They turned their attention back to the front of the hall when the Goblet flamed red again.
"The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory." The Hufflepuff table was next to theirs and the uproar from it nearly defended them when the announcement was made as they cheered Cedric as he walked up to the chamber. The Goblet flamed again and the last piece of parchment floated out.
"The B.O. Academy champion is Yuu Kanda," announced Dumbledore happily, Cross burst out laughing and nearly choked on his glass of wine. Kanda was sat frozen in his seat glaring at Lavi who was sat opposite him.
"Go on Kanda," he said cheerfully. "You have to go up since you were called." Kanda growled loudly and stood up abruptly still glaring.
"You are going to regret being born when I get back," he said coldly before stalking off up the hall. Lavi and Yana high fived each other ignoring Allen and Lenalee's incredulous faces.
"You didn't… did you?" asked Lenalee nervously. They both smirked and nodded gleefully.
"Watching Kanda go through these tasks is going to be hilarious," laughed Lavi. Allen stared at them stricken.
"I don't want to have to prepare for your funerals!" he cried. "You're both too young to die yet!"
Dumbledore had carried on speaking while they talked but suddenly came to a stop when the Goblet glowed again and a fifth piece of parchment flew out. The hall fell silent and even the exorcists were curious as even they knew there weren't suppose to be any more champions.
"Harry Potter," Dumbledore called.
The hall was deadly silent now as everyone stared in shock, Harry was rooted to his seat and looked absolutely astounded at the announcement. Hermione prodded him into standing when his name was called again and he walked in a daze up to the front of the hall before going through the side door.
The moment the door was closed the hall broke into an uproar.
Kanda was quietly fuming in the chamber, the other three champions were keeping well clear of him as his aura was giving off a huge feeling of annoyance right now, they didn't want to risk him turning all those feelings on them. He turned abruptly when the door opened and Harry nervously walked in settling himself against a wall.
"What is it?" asked Fleur tossing her hair. "Do zey want us back in ze hall?"
Harry didn't say anything and stared at the floor to avoid their gazes. Then they heard footsteps hurrying towards the door and Bangman threw open the door before excitedly grabbing Harry's arm.
"We have a fifth champion, isn't this exciting!" he cried cheerfully.
Krum, Cedric and Fleur all looked bewildered and seemed to think that this was all some kind of joke, Harry noticed that Kanda though had narrowed his eyes and was staring at him thoughtfully. Out of the exchange students he knew the Japanese boy the least because he was older and therefore in different classes, he was also not as friendly as Lavi and didn't really try to talk to anyone outside of the other B.O. Academy students.
It occurred to Harry that Kanda hadn't been pleased to have his name come out of the Goblet either, perhaps the same thing had happened to him had happened to Kanda. By now the Head teachers and other members of staff had entered the chamber and were arguing over what to do about Harry's name coming out of the Goblet. Kanda's eyes flickered as Cross slid into the room and came to stand by him.
"What is going on?" hissed Kanda harshly.
"It appears Potter's name came out of the goblet even though there was an age line," explained Cross taking a puff of his cigarette.
"And why did mine come out?" he asked. "I didn't enter!" Cross smirked and ignored his question, turning instead to listen to the argument about Harry while Kanda seethed quietly.
Once it had been established that Harry had had nothing to do with his name coming out of the Goblet it came to the matter as to whether he would still compete. Unfortunately it was determined that Harry was still bound by magical contract to enter despite not entering his name himself, this caused outrage amongst the other Headmasters but as pointed out, their students were bound by contract to compete and they couldn't abandon them.
"And what about my student?" asked Cross interrupting their argument.
"What about him?" asked Bangman confused. Cross chuckled darkly.
"Kanda didn't enter his name either," stated Cross. "Although I suppose since Potter still has to compete and he isn't even of age then Kanda has no choice but to compete too." They turned slightly to consider the darkly glaring teen who scowled at their attention.
"Yes I'm afraid that true," said Crouch. "Since he is of age he has less reason than Potter to withdraw." Kanda cursed under his breath and swore to kill someone the minute he got out of here. "I don't suppose you know how his name got into the Goblet?"
Cross smirked evilly and opened the door before yanking someone inside, he had a tight grip on Lavi and Yana's shoulders to prevent them from running away.
"It appears these two thought it would be funny to see Kanda go through the tasks," he said grinning, Kanda was trying to fry the two of them with his glare.
"We wouldn't have done it if we didn't think he could do it!" protested Yana squirming in Cross's grip.
"Yeah! Besides the only other candidate from our school was me!" cried Lavi. "We needed someone to represent us and I'm more into cheering from the audience." Cross nodded looking thoughtful.
"That's true, we might have been terribly embarrassed if you'd been picked… ok good job for making sure we're represented then," he said. Everyone face palmed as Cross then threw the two miscreants out of the room and shut the door ignoring Lavi cries of outrage at being called an embarrassment. "Right, get along with explaining the first task then."
"The first task is designed to test your daring," a rather sick looking Crouch told the champions. "So we're not going to tell you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard… very important… The first task will take place on the 24th November, in front of the other students and the panel of judges.
The champions aren't permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over, owing to the demanding and time consuming nature of the Tournament, the champions will be exempted from end of year tests."
Kanda snorted, as if he cared about that, since he was here undercover he didn't have to do the end of year tests any way. Everyone left to go to bed after that although Kanda was still slightly curious about Harry being entered. Professor Moody seemed fairly certain that someone had entered him in an attempt to kill him, it all seemed really suspicious.
As long as it didn't interfere with their mission he didn't really care, but he knew it was going to bug him until it was solved. He glared upon seeing Lavi and Yana waiting outside the door sheepishly. He grin was feral as he drew his katana and approached them.
"You two are so dead!" he yelled suddenly running at them. They both squeaked and ran away from his down the corridor.
"Shouldn't you be thanking us for making sure you keep in shape by doing the challenges?" asked Yana desperately as they ran.
"Hmm… I don't care," Kanda said. "You're going to pay for not asking me!" Lavi laughed and grabbed Yana slinging her over his shoulder as they ran.
"Kanda is a champion, Kanda is a champion and he doesn't even want to be," sang the red head. "Is he going to die or is he going to win? Hopefully what ever happens will improve his mood."
The castle rang with Kanda's outraged yell and Lavi and Yana's laughter as they ran away from the homicidal samurai.
Yay hope you enjoyed the new chapter, sorry it was a bit late in getting out i got sidetracked...
Please review and feel free to tell me what you'd like to see happening to Kanda in the tournament.
Oh and don't forget we've got the Yule ball to come as well, hmm will Lavi finally confess to Allen.
Sorry that there hasn't been any romance for you Laven fans, i'm upset too but i had to get the whole tournament announcement thing out of the way.
Please review!