Marik

His body began to twist and turn as the portkey contorted his body through a tunnel the size of a galleon. Just as his body was starting to get used to the ever-awkward feeling, the sensation came to an end and the world around him began to slow. Focusing all of his attention towards his feet he slowed his descent enough so that he could land gracefully and softly. He laughed quietly as he watched one of the second years land about as smoothly as a pigeon with no legs. The poor bloke fell chaotically and was now currently lying face first in a patch of dirt. The last few blurry spots from the effects of the portkey left his vision as the destination before them came into view.

"Wow. . ." he found himself saying involuntarily. Durmstrang Institute was huge! Probably just as big as Hogwarts, if not even larger. It was definitely taller than Hogwarts was that was for sure. His head turned on a swivel as he attempted to take a look at the rest of the area around where they had portkeyed.

From atop of whatever hill they were currently on it seemed as if you could see across the entirety of the German countryside. All around them were small villages, green rolling hills, and roaming blue rivers stretching in between the hills and towns dotted around the landscape. The view looked almost like the type of scene one sees in a movie. It was truly a beautiful sight to behold, and he could feel the magic in him swelling at the sight of seeing the German castle for the first time; just as it had done on the lake during his first trip to Hogwarts. In front of them, on what appeared to be the largest hill in the seeable area, was the school they had come for.

Durmstrang stood towering above everything else on the landscape, unmissable to any magical eye on the horizon. The castle had large grey bricks that made up its walls and an even darker roof sitting atop the tall castle walls. Outside of the castle was a immense white brick stone wall, that circled the entire castle grounds. Dark black-stained windows were strewn every so many feet along the walls, similar to those at Hogwarts. While Durmstrang did not have as manytowers as Hogwarts did, the few towers the castle did have were much taller, reaching far up into the clouds above them.

The castle looked much more like a medieval castle, ready to defend itself from an attack from a rival house, than it did a school for wizarding. Hogwarts always gave a warm, welcoming sort of feeling each time Marik laid eyes on the school; Durmstrang, however, gave off a much more serious sort of tone. Still, the school looked incredible, and if it was half as amazing on the inside as it was on the outside they were all in for a treat.

"It is quite beautiful, and yet ominous at the same time isn't it?" Luna chimed from beside him.

"Yeah, it is. I don't know why, but I was expecting the school to be much smaller. I always read that Hogwarts was the biggest in Europe, but it doesn't look like it is by that much now," he replied, still in awe at the sight before them. It was always a good feeling to be awestruck by magic.

"Alright, it appears the last few stragglers have arrived. Everyone gather round now," Dumbledore requested and the thirty or so odd students who had made the trek here gathered around the Headmaster. "I have a few last minute words I would like to share with you all before we enter into Durmstrang. First, I will again stress the point that it is of utmost importance that everyone remembers that we are guests here, and that if I get any word of one of my students misbehaving. . ." Dumbledore didn't finish his sentence but instead just let the words linger. Everyone got his point, and no one there was dumb enough to mess with Dumbledore.

"We will be entering the castle shortly. When we enter we will make our way to the dining hall. During dinner a few more words will be spoken on the tournament and after dinner you will be divided into smaller groups and given a quick tour of the castle. Champions," Dumbledore looked at Hermione, Harry, and himself. The word champion still had no real meaning behind it to him and it still didn't feel like this was real. It still felt like a crazy dream that they, of all people, had been chosen by the Goblet of fire to be Hogwart's Triwizards' Champions. He had to reassure himself that Dumbledore was in fact talking to them.

"As per tradition, you three will be the last three to enter the hall. You will follow Kingsley when he enters. Now let us all go." Dumbledore started off towards the castle and a train of his fellow Hogwarts students followed.

"Why do we have to enter last?" Hermione asked Kingsley as the rest of the group headed off.

"It is a tradition of the Triwizards' Tournament. This tradition is just a way to mark your status above the other students coming from Hogwarts," Kingsley answered her.

"What do you mean above the other students? Most of them are in grades above us," Harry asked.

"But none of them are Triwizard Champions. You three are. Dumbledore was not exaggerating when he said it is an extreme honor to be chosen by the Goblet of Fire as a Triwizard Champion. It truly sets you above the others of your class and you should be recognized for that. Now follow me," Kingsley answered Harry and led them towards the castle. It was a fairly short walk to the front gate of the castle and at the slow pace they were traveling it allowed Marik to observe more of the castle around them.

Inside of the gate and the large outer wall, the grounds of Durmstrang looked much like Hogwart's grounds, minus the large lake and whomping willow. Up on top of the hill that they were on the air was crisp, allowing them all to see traces of their breath as they marched. The grounds here were covered with large oak trees, a few of which had leaves that were already changing their colors. In between the trees there was nothing but shaded grass that all looked like fantastic relaxing spots to sit and read a book. As they arrived to the front door to the castle, Kingsley waved for them to wait briefly while the rest of the Hogwarts students entered.

"I will pay you fifty galleons to trip Harry when we walk in," he whispered to Hermione as they waited impatiently. He let his eyes wander over to the two large doors leading into the hall. Two large red phoenix's were carved into the wood of the doors, both of which looked much more intimidating than the phoenix he had seen in his visit to Dumbledore's office.

"I heard that!" Harry shouted.

Kingsley motioned for them to enter, and slowly they made their way through the entrance hall of the castle and into the larger dining area.

Durmstrang's dining hall resembled the Great Hall at Hogwarts in many ways. Hundreds of glowing red candles were enchanted to hover above the six long tables that ran through the hall. Huge stained windows lined the sides of the hall, allowing student's sight outside onto the beautiful German landscape. The ceiling was about the only major difference between Durmstrang's dining hall and Hogwart's Great Hall. Instead of an enchanted ceiling that showed a live feed of the sky above, Durmstrang's ceiling was just stone and wooden beams.

Following Kingsley's lead, the three of them walked at a slow pace down the center aisle of the hall. He could feel everyone's eyes on him and his friends as they marched on slowly. The feeling of everyone's eyes watching him didn't bother him in the least bit though. Each of the summer dueling tournaments had had audiences fifty times larger than this. If anything he liked the extra attention, he liked people knowing that he was the best. Plus, the extra attention always seemed to make him grin. Slowly still they made their way past the last few seats and arrived at the teacher's podium at the front of the hall. There they shook hands with the three Headmasters, one from each school. He was surprised his hand didn't break when as shook Beauxbatons Academy Headmaster's hand. She was certainly a giant, literally, and made even Hagrid look like a midget in comparison.

After introducing themselves and shaking the Headmasters' hands they followed Kingsley over to where the rest of the Hogwart's section was seated. The found a seat next to Alina Luna and made themselves comfy as the attention of the hall left them.

"Is that him?" Hermione whispered to Alina beside him as they all sat down. He tried to follow where the both of their eyes were looking across the hall but was unable to find out who this him he kept hearing get brought up was.

While he couldn't see who him was, he was able to make out the rest of the occupants inside of the dining hall. Seated in the middle four tables of the hall was the much larger population of Durmstrang students. They were all dressed in red robes that had a deep black trim on their borders. On the far side of the hall was seated, what he could only assume, was the Beauxbatons Academy students. All of them were dressed in light blue robes, and many of them wore hats that looked more like something from a wizarding fashion magazine than the normal simple pointed school hat.

His eyes immediately landed on a familiar face on the far Beauxbaton's table, it was a hard face to miss after all. The drop dead beautiful Veela, Fleur Delacour, was sitting towards the far side of the Beauxbaton's table. The girl looked every bit the same as she had over the summer when he had dueled her in the finals of the dueling tournament. She still looked hot as hell and was looking to be full of the fire he knew she certainly had in her. After letting his eyes linger for a few more seconds he turned to see if he could see any of the Durmstrang students that he had dueled in a tournament before. After a few seconds of searching though he gave up, admitting to himself that there were just too many Durmstrang students in the hall for him to actually spot anyone specific.

"Welcome, to The Durmstrang Institute of Witchcraft and Wizardry," The man he recognized as Durmstrang's Headmaster, Igor Karkaroff, from the tournament in Germany announced from the podium to the hall of students. "I would first like to thank our guests for making the journey out to our home. We thank you for joining us this year and are excited to have you here. I would next like to thank Albus Dumbledore and Olympe Maxime for all of their assistance in making this year's tournament happen. Without their assistance this all would have never been able to happen." Karkaroff turned and bowed to the two other headmasters who bowed politely back.

"Now before we start the feast and officially begin the Triwizards' Tournament, I have a few more announcements to make. Three champions have already been chosen from each of the participating school, and starting tonight these champions will set off on one of the most difficult challenges of their lives. The Triwizards' Tournament is one of the most renowned tests of magic that has ever been known to wizarding kind. This year the tournament will be no different.

"As in the years before, the chosen champions will compete against each other in a series of three trials, each of the trials more demanding than the next. Each trial has been designed specifically by one of the Headmasters of each of the three schools, and as a result no two trials will be alike. Following each trial, the champions will be given a point total out of ten based on their performances. The team with the highest point total at the end of the tournament will be crowned Triwizard Champions and will take home the Triwizards' Cup!" An assortment of oohs and ahhs could be heard throughout the crowd as Karkaroff revealed the cup.

This was the first time that they had seen the cup in person since hearing about it. The Triwizards' Cup looked a lot more magical than the Goblet of Fire did that was for sure. The base of the cup appeared to be made out of two pure gold dragon's tails. The tails intertwined themselves and curled their way up to the top of the cup, making up the cup's handle as they advanced upwards. The upper half of the cup seemed to be made out of some sort of a blue crystal. The crystal was glowing, and radiating a blue glow throughout the hall. He had to admit this trophy was a lot cooler and badass than any trophy he had ever received growing up. Though he had only ever received one geography and spelling bee trophies before, so that wasn't really saying much.

"Now I would like to introduce and honor this year's Triwizard Champions one final time! Please stand up when I call your name so that you can be recognized. From Beauxbatons Academy, your Triwizard Champions are, Oliver Minoit-Weiss Marceau-and Fleur Delacour!" Karkaroff introduced the three Beauxbaton's champions and the Beauxbaton's section erupted into a series of applause.

Marik wasn't surprised at all to see that Fleur was one of the Beauxbaton's champions, she had, after all, made the EMSDC three years in a row and had proven herself a number of times in the tournament to be very skilled with a wand in her hands.

Standing next to Fleur was another tall blonde girl. From his seat he could tell that this girl looked a little older than Fleur did, so that meant she was probably a fifth or sixth year. The girl named Weiss had bright blue eyes that radiated vividly in contrast to the girl's pale skin. Next to Weiss was a tall boy, who based on his appearance looked to also probably be a fifth or sixth year. Oliver had long black hair that reached down to his shoulders, and skin that was just as pale as the two girls next to him. Altogether outside of Fleur, Marik thought that none of them looked to be that intimidating overall. But, if they had been chosen by the Goblet of Fire they had to be pretty good.

"We wish you three great luck in the months to come. Now, to continue the introductions. From Hogwarts, your three champions are, Hermione Granger-Marik Ose-and Harry Potter!" The three of them stood up as their names being announced. Around them the Hogwarts section had erupted into a small banter of applause for them. He smiled, and took a few miniature bows to the Hogwart's students around him, taking advantage of the attention being put on him. He smiled when he saw a few of them laugh, including Alina and Luna, who shortly after rolled their eyes in unison. After the applause died down the three of them found their seats.

"Drama queen," Alina whispered to him.

"Jealous?" he whispered back, knowing full well that she was.

Alina had been just as surprised as the three of them had been when they were chosen for the tournament. After all, through Hermione's research they learned that an overwhelming majority of the champions in previous tournaments had completed at least their fifth years. So, the fact that three fourth year students had been chosen would be a surprise to anyone; it sure as hell was to them. He knew Alina was jealous that she was the one in their group left out of the tournament, but she had been a good enough sport about it and given them all her complete support in preparing for the trip to Durmstrang and everything else.

"Now, last, but certainly not least. It is time to announce the final three champions! From the Durmstrang Institute your champions are, Viktor Krum-Rosa Westerwelle-and Dedrick Karkaroff!" Karkaroff announced, and a much louder set of applause ensued as the entire Durmstrang section began applauding.

"Hermione that's him!" He heard Alina whisper across the table into Hermione's ear. Marik this time was able to follow their eyes. One of the three standing Durmstrang champions he recognized. He had dueled the tall brawny Viktor boy his first year in the dueling tournament. The other boy, the one that both Alina and Hermione's eyes were locked on, Marik had never seen before.

The boy looked to be shorter than he was and from his appearance alone Marik would be surprised if he was even a fourth year. The boy had short black hair and dark brown eyes. Altogether, he didn't look to impressive and Marik was struggling to figure out why Alina and Hermione were so interested in him and how they knew him.

The girl standing in between the two boys did look a little intimidating on the other hand. She had pitch black hair pulled into a ponytail and a face that meant nothing but business. The girl looked much older than the two boys standing next to her and had to be at least a sixth or seventh year. As the cheers died down the boy his two female friends were looking at turned to face their table. As he sat down Marik could've sworn the boy winked at Alina. Him. . . His mind immediately went to the word. Could Alina be. . . He felt a sting of pain at the thought, not wanting to finish it, and trying to not allow himself to.

"Congratulation's to you all again! We wish you all the best of luck! Now, with that bit of business taken care of I have one more final notice for our champions. The first task of the tournament will take place exactly three weeks from today. You will not be given any clues for the first challenge. All we three will tell you is that you will need to be prepared for anything by then.

"We hope that you will not waste any time and that you will make sure that you are ready to go in three weeks' time. Now, with that done, I officially announce the start of the Triwizards' Tournament! Let the feast begin!" Karkaroff announced and food appeared in the empty plates in front of them. Immediately hands were flying trying to grab the different plates. His plate remained empty at the present though. He wasn't feeling hungry anymore, his mind was too busy thinking.

"Is everything alright Marik?" Luna asked from next to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered, looking across the hall at the Durmstrang table.

"Then why aren't you eating? You were complaining about being hungry and wanting to see how good Durmstrang's food was earlier," Luna asked him again.

"I SAID I'M FINE LUNA!" he found himself shouting at the girl. He immediately felt bad for shouting at her, not knowing where all of the sudden anger had come from. He picked up a piece of bread from the table and tore off a small piece, trying to avoid the awkward silence that he had created with his outburst.

"Soo. . . you guys excited?" Alina asked, breaking the silence that had ensued after his outburst. He could feel her eyes practically piercing through him.

"I am," Harry answered her.

"I don't know how I am going to sleep over the next three weeks not knowing what the first challenge is going to be. They could have at least given us some kind of clue," Hermione answered.

"How about you Marik? MARIK!" He found himself being pulled out of his daze at the sound of his name being called.

"What?" he asked, unsure of who had said his name or why.

"I was talking to you. What the hell is wrong with you?" Alina asked him. On their own his eyes lingered on hers for a few moments, before he painfully forced them back to the hall again.

"Nothing is wrong with me. I was just in a daze taking, this, all in," he answered her, somewhat honestly.

"Mhmm." He heard her say sarcastically. The rest of the feast progressed slowly. Having lost his appetite he sat in silence as the others around him ate and discussed their excitement over the tournament and the school. At last, after what felt like hours, Karkaroff asked for his students to find their groups to give the castle tours and dismissed everyone in the hall.

"You are just as stunning as I remembered." A voice confessed as he sat up and fixed his cloak. He saw that one of Durmstrang's champions, the Dedrick boy that Alina and Hermione had been looking at earlier, had come over and was now hugging Alina.

How did they know each other. . . Why was he hugging her. . . He thought to himself, although those thoughts were quickly interrupted as the boy took Alina's hand and kissed the back of it. It took all of his self control inside of him to keep his magic down and his wand in its holster. And why the hell is he kissing her fucking hand!

"You never told me you were one of Durmstrang's Champions!" Alina said, noticeably playfully to the boy.

"I thought it would be fun to see the look on your face when you found out. It was quite a good look by the way," The Dedrick boy replied flirtatiously. Hermione cleared her throat loudly.

"Oh I'm so rude. Everyone this is Dedrick, Dedrick these are my friends I told you about," Alina told the boy as she pointed them all out.

"I'm Hermione Granger. Nice to meet you Dedrick," Hermione said while shaking the boy's hand.

"I'm Harry Potter." Harry followed suit and did the same. The boy extended his hand out towards Marik. Marik ignored the hand however, and started off towards the entrance of the hall.

"Come on Luna lets go get this tour over with," he told her, not attempting to hide the venom in his voice.

"I will actually be your tour guide this evening." He turned back to see the Dedrick boy grinning. Oh how he wanted to smack that grin off his face. They had been in the castle a short time and with this Dedrick fellow even shorter and Marik already hated him. "But if you will all follow me, we can get this tour over with," he said, winking at Marik as he led their group off into the castle. Marik again had to put all his effort into controlling himself from cursing the kid then and there.

"What is your problem?" Alina whispered to him, glaring at him as they followed Dedrick down a hall. He ignored her though and followed closer behind everyone else. Dedrick led them slowly through the castle, stopping way too frequently to show them an important room, flirt with Alina, and tell a personal story about something spectacular that he had done in the school. Marik watched Alina the whole time and took note of how she acted around the boy. Alina seemed to be enjoying every minute of the tour, and eating up each of the boy's words like pudding.

"Marik, maybe we should talk," Luna said to him as they headed up a large flight of stairs towards where they were told their dorms would be. She pulled on his hand and tried to get him to stop walking.

"I don't want to talk Luna. I'm tired and just want to go to sleep," he found himself replying to Luna with an icy venom again for the second time that night. Normally he would have felt guilty, after all she was only worried about him and just trying to help. He was just in too bad a mood right now though. He would apologize to her tomorrow when he had cooled off.

"And this is where I will leave you all tonight. The door on the right is to the boys' dorms the door on the left is to the girls. You will find your class schedules on your beds," Dedrick announced to them all.

"Night," he said coldly, and quickly made his way into the boys' dorms. Following the path of the long hallway he stopped by each door looking for his name on the banner outside of each. After finally finding the room that he would be sharing with Harry for the year he entered and slammed the door behind him.

"Silencio," he cast the silencing spell on the room, and all at once he felt the magic he had been holding back since dinner start to release itself. He let it all pull itself out of him, not wanting to hold it inside any longer. His body was instantly encompassed in familiar dark black shadows. As more of his emotions and magic were let out, the smoky shadows started to radiate off of his body like smoke from a fire. He found himself screaming in anger for a few moments before his throat started to hurt and dried out. After a split second of screaming he and his magic seemed to calm down a little and the shadows began to return back inside of him.

"You want to talk about it?" Harry asked him from the doorway. Marik had never heard him enter.

"Guess you saw that?" He asked back, knowing the answer already.

"Yeah, Marik, I saw that," Harry answered, looking concerned.

"I'm fine now, just needed to blow off some steam," he answered, plopping himself down on one of the two beds inside the room.

"And what happens when you see them the next time? Will you have to blow off steam then too?" Harry asked him as he laid down on the bed next to Marik. He didn't answer. Harry already knew his answer anyways.

"How long?" He asked Harry, feeling his breathing calm down a little more.

"They started talking after the dueling tournament over the summer. They only became official a few days ago as far as I know," Harry answered him.

"And you and Hermione didn't tell me?" he asked again.

"Alina made us promise not to tell you." Harry answered again.

"Why didn't she want me to know?" he asked another question.

"I don't know Marik, Maybe she didn't want you to get hurt. Or maybe she was worried you would act like you just did," Harry answered, sitting up in the bed.

"Yeah. . ." he said not really believing Harry's reasoning, but still followed Harry's lead and sat up too.

"What can I do for you Marik? Me and Hermione need your head on straight if we are going to win this thing," Harry asked to him. Marik picked up the schedule paper next to him on the bed.

"Let me kick that prick's ass," Marik said, smiling for the first time since finding all this out at the prospect of stunning the dick a few times.

"If we get the chance in tournament he is all yours," Harry said, returning his smile.

"Then I will be good," he replied, wiping his eye where a lonely tear had tried to escape. "Now help me out with distracting myself, I was planning on adding two new rune tattoos tonight. I finished carving them this morning." He told Harry as he conjured his shrunken bag from his robe's pocket.

"Ooh, which two spells this time?" Harry asked as he lifted the sleeve on his left forearm revealing the forearm that now was almost entirely covered in rune-tattoos.

"Confringo and expulso. Figured those two would come in handy this tournament if I ever end up losing my wand and need a backup plan," he answered as he went over to his bag to grab some runes.

"Good idea. But you have to help me with some of my wing formulas as well. Switching everything from left to right is giving me headaches," Harry replied.

"Deal. And thanks, Harry, for everything, you're a good friend," Marik answered, smiling again.

"I know. And you are an okay friend too Marik," Harry joked, and the two of them laughed together and began working on their magic for the remainder of the night, allowing him to put everything else out of his mind.

**Please favorite, follow, or leave a quick review if you enjoyed the chapter!**

**Please go to the series forum and join a conversation or start a topic of your own! Link for forum can be found on profile page!**

**Please Check out the Open Polls on my Profile Page!**