Chapter Two

Getting Started

After lunch, Abril had to go to the Astronomy Tower with the Gryffindors and Lorena went out again to the Greenhouses to take Herbology with the Slytherins. Professor Sprout paired them up, and Lorena was forced to work with a tall Slytherin boy who didn't say a word during the whole class. Except for the incident in which one of the pots they were working on suddenly grew feet and ran away from a shocked pair of students, the class was relatively calm, and when the bell rang for their last class of the day, everyone took their bags and eagerly headed for the castle, as the air grew colder and colder.

Night came, and every one gathered in the Great Hall for dinner. The floating candles lit the Hall as always, and a starry sky decorated the ceiling. Thousands of students laughed, ate and talked after that tiring Friday, but fortunately, they had all weekend to relax and catch up with homework.

"Really, it was the strangest thing ever watching the pot just jump of the table and run away" Lorena said to Emma.

"Believe me, that's nothing compared to what we are going to face this year" Emma answered, eating some pudding.

"I just hope I can make it without any incidents in the other classes" Lorena said amazed.

At that moment, a cup sounded from the professor's table, and Dumbledore stood up. The fuzz from the Great Hall slowly

"So!" said Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices."

"Mr Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

Loud protests rose from all the students, but Dumbledore just lifted his hands and the Great Hall fell silent again.

"This is due to an event that will start in October and will continues throughout the entire course, consuming a lot of the teachers' time and energy… but I'm sure that you will enjoy it immensely. I have the pleasure to announce that this year at Hogwarts…"

"But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open. A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black traveling cloak."

"Every head in the Great Hall swivelled toward the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling. He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark grey hair, and then began to walk up toward the teachers' table.

A dull clunk echoed through the Hall on his every other step. He reached the end of the top table, turned right, and limped heavily toward Dumbledore. Another flash of lightning crossed the ceiling. Hermione gasped."

"The lightning had thrown the man's face into sharp relief "It looked as though it had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces are supposed to look like, and was none too skilled with a chisel. Every inch of skin seemed to be scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal gash, and a large chunk of the nose was missing. But it was the man's eyes that made him frightening.

One of them was small, dark, and beady. The other was large, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue. The blue eye was moving ceaselessly, without blinking, and was rolling up, down, and from side to side, quite independently of the normal eye — and then it rolled right over, pointing into the back of the man's head, so that all they could see was whiteness.

The stranger reached Dumbledore and offered a hand as crudely formed as his face, which Dumbledore shook and then showed him an empty seat next to him. The stranger sat down, pulled his plate towards him and sniffed it. Next, he took out a pocketknife from his cloak and nipped one of the sausages. His normal eye was fixed on his plate, but the blue one kept moving on its socket, staring at the students.

-Let me introduce you to your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher –Dumbledore said enthusiastically -: Professor Moody.

Normally, new professors were welcomed with applause, but this time, everyone was too impressed with Moody's appearance to clap. Still, some murmurs were heard across the tables.

Moody looked totally indifferent with the cold welcome, and instead of taking the mug in front of him, he reached inside his traveling cloak again and took out a flask, drinking a large gulp of it.

Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"As I was saying," he said, smiling at the sea of students before him, all of whom were still gazing transfixed at Mad-Eye Moody, "we are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" said Fred Weasley loudly.

The tension that had filled the Hall ever since Moody's arrival suddenly broke. Nearly everyone laughed, and Dumbledore chuckled appreciatively.

"I am not joking, Mr Weasley," he said, "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar …"

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Err — but maybe this is not the time … no …" said Dumbledore, "where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament … well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely.

"The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities — until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which has been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger."

As you can see, our guests from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons are already here, and the champion selection will take place on Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are the best to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of his or her school and a prize worth one thousand galleons.

Enthusiastic cheers and excited conversation rose from the four tables, but Dumbledore spoke once more, and the Great Hall fell silent.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," he said, "the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age — that is to say, seventeen years or older — will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This" — Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words, and the Weasley twins were suddenly looking furious — "is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion." His light blue eyes twinkled as they flickered over Fred and George's mutinous faces. "I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen."

"Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students will stay with us all the school year and I know everyone will treat our foreign guests with the most courtesy while they are here. Also, I expect all of you to support our Hogwarts champion when he or she is chosen. For now, it's getting late and I know how eager you are to go to have a good night sleep. Off you go now!"

Dumbledore sat down and started a conversation with Moody. The students made a lot of noise when they got up and headed for the double doors of the Great Hall. Lorena stood up and followed the girls through the mass of students. She gazed at her left and saw Abril watching her. They both were thinking the same thing.

Mad-Eye Moody.

Next morning, when she was finally ready, Lorena followed her classmates out of Ravenclaw Tower for class. They had Transfigurations with the Gryffindors in the first period, so she hurried to catch up with her classmates so as not to get lost and be late to her first class. The chairs and tables faced the black board, and the desk with its tall leather chair was next to cage with a colourful bird inside.

Every one sat down on the chairs and started taking out parchment, quill and ink. Lorena imitated them as a low murmur of conversations rose while the class started. A striped cat entered the room, and as it walked towards the desk, it transformed into Professor McGonagall. She turned around and eyed the classroom with her severe eyes, stopping to eye Lorena curiously.

"Miss Rodriguez, please do keep your mouth closed. It is not the first time you see me transform"

Lorena realized she had been gaping the whole time, and shut her mouth, embarrassed.

McGonagall turned at her class again. Then, she waved her wand and snails appeared on each of the tables.

"One of the most difficult forms of transfiguration y transforming a living thing" she began, "Their energy makes them harder to control, and sometimes, the living thing will even prefer to die or explode before letting the wizard change it"

She took one of the snails and levitated it for everyone to see. She gave a flicker of her wand and the snail turned into a ornamented candle.

"For this class, you will transform your snail into a candle, and then you will proceed to light it. If the candle stays immobile, you will gain points. Begin"

Immobile? Lorena thought strangely, but when she saw every one taking their wands out she did the same, although she had not the slightest idea of what to do. It was obvious that the other students did know, because they started to make complicated wand movements as the pointed at their snails. The curly hair girl next to her, who she had finally figured out her name was Emma, was frowning at her snail, which was completely unaware of the girl's efforts.

Lorena turned to her own snail, which was slowly leaving a trace of slime across the table. She took her wand, fourteen and a half inches elk with phoenix core, and whipped it. The snail exploded with a tremendous sound and splashed Lorena and Emma's faces. Both girls shrieked in disgust, and Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes as she cleaned both of them with a wave of her wand and gave Lorena another snail. This time, and still disgusted, she tried to be more cautious with her movements. She gave a light flicker to her wand, and she saw with amusement as the snail slowly turned white. As it still didn't look candle-like, she tried with a bit more effort, and this time, she felt a strength struggling against her magic. The snail was defending itself! More confident, Lorena pointed her wand at the snail and tried to imagine it transforming into a candle. Slowly, the snail started to slow down, until it stopped completely, and then its shell started to turn into soft dough until it hardened, and finally Lorena had a perfect snail-like candle in front of her, with a wick on its shell and everything. Happily, she turned to see if the other students had also succeeded. Some were also looking at a candle in front of them that looked just like hers, but some others weren't being so lucky. One student was trying to catch his snail, which couldn't stop slipping and bouncing off his hands, as if it was soap. Others had turned their snails into bright colours, and one Gryffindor girl was even looking helplessly as her snail melted.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and asked the ones who had succeeded to light their snails. The result was a bit disturbing, as some snail-candles weren't completely finished. There were muffled but strangled sounds coming from them and shrieks from the students, and Lorena saw in horror as the flame made her candle shiver.

"As you can see, some of the snails were still alive inside the wax of the candle when you light them. However, do not feel pity for them when you transform them, because if you do, it will make it worse"

"Why?" the girl who her snail had melted asked.

"If you are not firm when transforming it, the living thing will pass its pain or anger into you, making you lose control, and you may hurt yourself or others"

"I doubt this snail will make me lose control" a boy behind Lorena mocked.

"I'm sorry Mr Williams, but I do recall you were one of the few who shrieked when the snails quivered after lighting them" McGonagall chided him.

The whole class laughed, and the boy turned his eyes away, frowning.

"Now please," Professor McGonagall said when the laughs died out "Bring your candles to my desk and then write a paragraph about what you observed and what should or shouldn't be done when transforming a living thing"

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