Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord", enjoy!

* Review response:
The Sinful, Naginator, The Swordslinger, reven228, Akuma-Heika, shugokage, nopparitari, ElementalMaster16, Wyrtha, x-marks-the-spot1974, pandora vanity, keinen, huntsman3, thank you for your reviews, folks.
mliyanagamage, nope, but the redhead will get into some troubles in two chapters. It will also be the first time when I will show 'dark-medic' Harry - in my definition that would someone who uses medical knowledge and skills not just to help others.
Zarosian Chaos, well, wizards' do lack logic in the books.
JPElles, hehe )
Lord Xantos A. Fowl, thanks. And to be honest, I myself am not really sure, why I made an OC the new seeker. Maybe because I really couldn't see this recovering Ginny as someone who could handle attention - even that just from the tryouts - well enough. Remember, she had been possessed for a long time in her first year, and that is something that couldn't leave no damage to her psyche. She's not a social person and a spitfire anymore.

* AN: I think I should do it this chapter. The Triwizard tournament tasks in this story will be different from canon ones. Some more so than the other, but. I decided to try being a little original there.
first task: the general idea will remain the same, but the execution of it will be different. Hopefully, it will be better than canon, but... Anyway, as I have planned it, it would definitely be more fun to watch if you suddenly found yourself watching it from the tribunes.
second task: completely different.
third task: still a maze, but a harder one, and the rules will be slightly different.

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"powered speech / true prophecies by the seer"
"spells / parseltongue"
messages

This chapter is not beta-read yet.

chapter 55: Arrival of the guests

The last week of September went away really quickly for the young Potter as he barely had any spare time between his classes, his self-studies and quidditch practices where he was training the new seeker, Arnold: no matter how much Ron had whined and raved, Dumbledore didn't help him any with getting onto the team through some not exactly fair means.

Of course, this only made the redhead's mood even worse, and he kept accusing Harry and the rest of the team in 'crimes' ranging from favoritism to collusion with the evil Slytherins. But only a few of the more naïve Lions believed him – many had been there at the tryouts themselves and had seen Ron's rather so so performance – and so the 'chosen one' didn't have enough support go beyond his poor attempts at character slander...

At the same time, while the Gryffindor team was the first one to start using the pitch for their training session this year, the advantage they got from this was very small actually – once the other houses' teams learned that they weren't banned from training for the year because of the Triwizard tournament, they too started booking the pitch for themselves. Thankfully for the house of Lions, though, all those teams were facing pretty much the same problem with some of their most experienced players having already graduated or graduating this year.

Though, to be honest, Harry wasn't really worrying about quidditch anymore. Sure, he still wanted Gryffindor to win the cup, but... Anyway, he had more important things to worry about nowadays. And one of those 'things' was a certain friend of his in Slytherin. Of course, Draconica was still saying that she didn't need his help, but the green-eyed wizard could see that she was getting more and more nervous as the day when a new contracts for her could be signed approached.

And as much as he wanted to help her keep her freedom, now that he had thought about it with greater detail, Harry found his original plan to make the winning bid for her hand to be nigh impossible to execute. If he used the Potter name, he will be denied simply because Potters and Malfoys had different political affiliations. And openly calling yourself lord Slytherin around anyone connected with the Death Eaters was not a good idea either... Maybe it was time to start using not exactly legal means?

During his travels this summer, the green-eyed wizard came across quite a few spells that were unknown or at least not widely known in Great Britain. And among those spells there was one that might help him a lot in his quest to help Draconica. It was a charm commonly referred to as 'recall me not' in Asia. Once attached to something – even a single written word – it will make it almost impossible for anyone to consciously remember what this something is... Of course, using something like this on the legal documents was illegal – at least in those parts of the world where this charm was known. Thankfully for Harry, magical Britain wasn't familiar with this particular piece of magic...

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Sometime in the middle of the second week of October, Draconica received a letter from her father that had made her decisively uneasy. Normally, if and when her father shared something with her, he gave her all of the relevant information, but this time, it looked almost like he had been put under the effects of confundus charm or something: in the name of Merlin's socks, how was it possible not to remember who you planned to marry your daughter to, when you were writing to her to inform about this very marriage?

Yet, here was the letter, in which the Malfoy heiress was informed that she will be marrying to some jerk named Hadrian that supposedly came from 'a house of good standing'... Actually, the lack of the family name wasn't the only thing that bothered the blonde witch – being raised by her mother as a Black, she had learned by heart family trees of all important families of magical Britain that were still out there, yet she couldn't recall anyone still alive, who bore name Hadrian.

Was her father planning to sell her to some foreigner? Well, that was a possibility as it wasn't likely that people outside magical Britain knew about the fate of her previous contracted one. Maybe she should follow her aunt Andromeda's example? Draconica ruthlessly squashed this idea, at least for the moment. She knew she shouldn't be jumping to conclusions, and if worse came to worse and there indeed was some 'sinister plan' in place, she will be able to run away later...

Of course, Draconica had shared all this with her two closest friends – Daphne and Tracey, and both witches agreed that she shouldn't act without more information about this Hadrian.

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It was Sunday, October twenty third, when notifications about the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang delegations arriving in one week appeared in the common rooms of all four houses. And of course this got everyone very excited: one couldn't go anywhere without hearing various and often rather outrageous theories about what the students from the other schools will be like and how they will arrive to Hogwarts... The tournament itself once again was a hot topic as well: pretty much everyone was making their guesses about who the Hogwarts champion will be and what challenges the champions will have to face.

Meanwhile, it looked like all members of the staff joined Filch and house elves on the quest of keeping the castle as clean as possible. And, Harry could easily say that they were quite successful there – the green-eyed teen had never seen the place in such a good shape in all those three years had spent there: the suits of armor were suddenly gleaming and moving without squeaking and some of the most grimly portraits were all cleaned, much to their obvious displeasure.

A day before the delegations from the other schools were to arrive, the Great hall was decorated with enormous banners for each of the houses on one wall, and even more enormous one for the Hogwarts itself over the professors' table. The said table kept its normal size for the moment, though the young Potter was sure that it will be expanded to accommodate Beauxbaton and Durmstrang officials once those delegations arrive.

Next Sunday started pretty much like any normal weekend would, but that feeling quickly disappeared when everyone was reminded that the delegations from other school will be arriving in the evening. To that end, all students will have to fall into rank in front of the castle about fifteen minutes before the delegations were to arrive. While some time earlier in the semester it would have been a good idea, it seemed that the administration had conveniently forgot that it was the end of October now – evenings were far from warm up there in Scotland, and even the cloaks all of the students were supposed to have wouldn't be a great help if everyone was to stand still. Oh well...

Harry didn't knew how it was in the other houses, but at four thirty in the evening – and an hour and a half before Beauxbaton and Durmstrang delegations were to arrive – professor McGonagall, already wearing her dress robes, entered the Gryffindor tower and, threatening one-tracks with detentions, made everyone change into their uniform plus cloaks and line up in the common room. Once that was done, the transfiguration professor personally inspected everyone's clothes, berating quite a few students, including Ron, for not keeping their robes clean.

Once the head of the Gryffindor house was more or less satisfied with her students, she led them down to the Hogwarts' front door, where the students from Hufflepuff and Slytherin were already lined up. Ravenclaws arrived a minute later, and as soon as that happened, Dumbledore himself led everyone outside, where something akin a small tribune of seven rows could be seen.

The first years were to fill the first row, second years – the second and so on. Thankfully, as each row rose slightly above the previous one, everyone had a good view of... well, Black lake and a glade in front of it... The professors made some final checks, which mostly consisted of prettying their houses up, before they themselves lined up in front of their students. Then everyone waited...

For the next ten or so minutes nothing of any interest had happened – everything was still, silent and quite as usual on the darkening ground – and quite a few students started feeling impatient, not to mention cold. But they weren't allowed to chat or even move a little as professors were closely watching their charges' discipline.

"Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbaton approaches!" Dumbledore said suddenly, his eyes skimming above the Forbidden forest. All of the students followed his gaze, but so far could see nothing. Then a dark shape appeared, and as it grew closer, it became clear that whatever it was, it was huge. When the shape was already over the far end of the forest, everyone could see that it was a gigantic carriage, pulled through air by a good dozen of abraxans, each the size of an elephant.

The pale-blue carriage with the Beauxbaton coat of arms on the doors made a circle over the lawn, before it descended onto the ground not so gently. Once it came to a halt, the door opened and a boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. Then he sprang back respectfully, allowing his headmistress – madam Maxime – to come out.

And she was quite a noticeable woman, and not just because only Hagrid could compare to her in size: despite being this ...big, she was handsome with olive-skinned face, large black liquid-looking eyes and a rather beaky nose. She had hair drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.

Madam Maxime was followed by about three dozens of her students – most of them being girls – who now stood in two neat rows behind her. All of them were dressed in pale-blue uniforms that likely were made from silk. Those few wizards that could be seen among the Beauxbaton delegation wore no hats, but the witches did, and those hats also were pale-blue and, unlike Hogwarts' ones, were slightly inclined to the left.

Professor Dumbledore approached madam Maxime and they exchanged some words, before the delegation from the French academy of magical arts headed into the castle, which, in the light of their uniforms, was a good decision. Meanwhile, Hagrid showed everyone why he was Hogwarts' best specialist in magical animals as he skillfully guided the abaraxans (still harnessed to the enormous carriage) away from the lawn...

Just about five minutes later many noticed a disturbance on the surface of the Black lake. The said disturbance quickly was revealed to be an emerging sail ship, likely a frigate, which looked strangely skeletal in the dim light of the evening. Once the frigate was fully emerged, it glided towards the bank, where it threw an anchor. Then, a gang plank moved, creating a path from the deck and onto the ground, and the arriving delegation started disembarking.

The Durmstrang delegation moved much like a platoon of soldiers would, with their headmaster Karkarov at the head of the formation. Karkarov was a pretty tall and thin man in his forties with short white hair and a slightly-curling goatee; he was wearing a cloak adorned with sleek sliver fur that contrasted with the reddish shaggy and matted furs of his students...

And while Karkarov was talking to Dumbledore, Harry to a chance to study the Durmstrang students a bit better. There were twenty four of them, and most of them were males, though several not unattractive witches could be seen there as well. It was also clear that despite the bulky cloaks they all wore, most of them had lean and well-trained bodies – something that wasn't as common here at Hogwarts... Suddenly Harry's eyes, along with many of his schoolmates', focused on one certain student originating from Bulgaria: it looked like famous quidditch star Victor Krum was a Durmstrang student...

Once the two headmasters finished talking between themselves, Karkarov led his charges into the castle. And once they all were out of the view, Dumbledore ordered the heads of the houses to lead their students to the Great hall in an organized way.

The Great hall had changed quite a bit since lunch. Durmstrang and Beauxbaton banners were put up to the left and to the right from Hogwarts banner respectively. The professors' table had been enlarged to accommodate four more seats. Two of those were occupied by madam Maxime and headmaster Karkarov, while the other two, though empty at the moment, were reserved for the representatives of British Ministry for Magic: Barty Crouch Sr. and Ludo Bagman.

Meanwhile, the ends of the four house tables that were closer to the professors' got rearranged into two new tables. The one on the Slytherin and Ravenclaw 'half' of the Great hall was given to the Durmstrang delegation, while the one one was occupied by the Beauxbaton students. Between these two tables there stood an ornate golden pedestal. There was nothing on it at the moment, but it was also clear that it was there for a reason.

Once everyone was seated, Dumbledore stood up from his throne-like armchair, causing a silence to fell over the Great hell. Having everyone's attention, the old warlock started his unnecessary-long and gaudy speech that could be surmised to just ten words: 'Welcome to Hogwarts, I hope you will enjoy our hospitality'. Then, madam Maxime and headmaster Karkarov gave their own speeches, but thankfully for the hungry witches and wizards from all three schools, neither of them took as long as Dumbledore did.

And as soon as they were done with their speeches, the food appeared on the plates and the feast started. The house-elves in the kitchens seemed to have outdone themselves again: there was a greater variety of dishes on the tables, and quite a few of them were definitely foreign.

Nothing too major happened during the feast itself, though quite a few Gryffindor and Hufflepuff males paid more attention to the Beauxbaton girls than to their own meal, but it wasn't really their fault, as one of those witches appeared to be a part-veela or something similar to that... Also, sometime during the feast – Harry wasn't sure about the exact timing himself – the representatives of the British Ministry for Magic arrived, apparently to witness the start of the tournament.

When everyone had eaten their share, Dumbledore rose from his seat to make another speech, which he began with the introduction of Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch Sr.. Then he proceeded to explain some things about this reincarnation of the Triwizard tournament, before he asked Filch to fetch some casket. The said casket, as it turned out, contained the Goblet of fire – a large, roughly hewn wooden cup that would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full of dancing blue-white flames. And this Goblet of fire was that 'impartial judge' that would select a champion for each of the three competing schools.

The Goblet of fire was placed onto the pedestal and Dumbledore moved on to the next part of his announcement which was about the way one wishing to become a champion should submit their name. The old warlock also reminded everyone that, because of the dangers involved, this time only those seventeen or older will be allowed to participate – this caused quite a few discontent moans among the Hogwarts students – and to ensure that no one underage tried to enter him- or herself, Dumbledore right there and then cast an age line around the goblet. Not that this was going to stop people from trying, Harry thought as he listened to the Weasley twins and their best friend Lee Jordan planning to use aging potion to get past the line...

As Dumbledore finished his speech, the feast came to an end, but neither Durmstrang nor Beauxbaton students were leaving their tables yet. Instead, from what Harry could see as he was walking out of the Great hall along with his housemates, madam Maxime and headmaster Karkarov approached them and started explaining something to them with the help from the Hogwarts staff...

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Argus Filch, having finished his patrolling rounds, was heading back to his quarters to get some well deserved sleep, when he heard the distinctive clacking sound of professor Moody's wooden leg near the Great hall. Since the retired auror captain usually was already asleep this late in the night, the Hogwarts caretaker decided to see what the man was up to.

"Alastor?" Filch called out as he approached the man, who was examining the locked doors of the Great hall. Moody, his wand already glowing with some curse, turned around with the speed no one would expect from someone using an artificial limb. Seeing, who had disturbed him, the ex-auror lowered his wand.

"Don't sneak up on me, Filch." He barked as Argus let out a breath of relief from not being cursed out of his pants. "And leave me in peace – Goblet of fire is a very powerful artifact, but its power is so easy to abuse. I need to make sure that something like that doesn't happen: I will be vigilant even if no one else would." Shrugging, the Hogwarts caretaker continued on his way back to his room, leaving Moody to do his job in peace.

That's all, folks!
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