Oh, you guys are super excited for the tournament! I'm going to go over some reviews here so everyone can see the answers.
Guest: At first I thought 'you mean Charliex right? Family we haven't seen for... OH MY GOD DO YOU MEAN MICHAEL AND LUCIFER
WHAT IF IT'S THEM.
OR CASTIEL.
OR ANYONE REALLY.
OH MY GOD YES.
Noooooot quite. The family I'M talking about has never actually appeared in the show...and as for Supernatural canon, it's unclear if they actually exist. But for the purposes of this story, I'm assuming they do.
23dae5dal03ist :And so it begins. Can 'Moody' actually see anything wrong with Gabriel with the magic eye? Is Gabe's grace being affected by the horcrux? If there was one actually made, of course.
That magic eye is powerful, but it can't see souls. So no. And his Grace isn't being affected by the Horcrux; like Harry's soul it got sort of pushed out way back before first year. I can't tell you how many times I get this question, so READ THIS CAREFULLY: THE HARRY-HORCRUX DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE. It hasn't for a long time.
Paxloria: I'm really curious about the Lake challenge. its not like the know enough to take Gabriels Grace or the ability to do so. Will they that his human friends instead or try for Balthazar or something?
Most likely Hermione or Michael; everyone knows he's good friends with them, after all. And since Krum gets Hermione, probably Michael.
Anyway, I hope this chappie lives up to your expectations!
PS: 300+ reviews?! You guys are awesome. Also, thank you to the Guest reviewer who finally told me who Terry Goodkind was.
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.
Gabriel woke up disconcerted.
He'd felt like he'd had a dream again. Once was weird enough, but twice meant something might actually be going on - that, or his Grace was getting worse and not better. The most frustrating thing was his complete inability to remember anything that had happened in them, if anything had. There was just the vague sense of being someplace odd.
And then he woke up.
It was maddening.
Classes were not as bad. Luckily, Gabriel had been able to give up Divination, or they might have been a lot worse. Arithmancy was rather easy - the only difficult part was the time-consuming calculations.
Moody, however, was difficult to categorize.
He was certainly a decent teacher - determined to teach them spells and the like. But he had an odd way of going about it.
"Curses!" He barked at the class once attendance was done. "You've got a good grounding in creatures, but you're behind - very behind - in dealing with curses."
Several people glanced curiously at each other, but most were paying attention to Moody.
"According to the Ministry, I'm suppose to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you illegal, Dark curses until you're in sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with them until then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of you. He reckons you can cope, and I say the sooner you know what you're up against, the better prepared you'll be. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? You can't. You need to be alert. You need to be vigilant."
Moody turned around and scrawled Unforgivable Curses on the blackboard. "Who can tell me what an unforgivable curse is?"
Several people warily raised their hands. Moody pointed at a Hufflepuff on the other side of the room. "You. What are they?"
"They're the three worst curses, sir," the Hufflepuff answered. "You go straight to Azkaban if you use one."
"Exactly. Who thinks they know what the three curses are?" Moody looked around expectantly.
There were a few more hesitantly raised hands.
"You. Corner."
"Er...the Imperius curse."
"Yes, that's one." Moody plunked down a jar containing spiders on his desk. "Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time...couldn't sort out who was fighting willingly and who was under someone else's control."
He dipped a hand into the jar and dumped one of the spiders onto the table.
"Imperio."
The demonstration, in Gabriel's mind, had been entirely unnecessary.
A lot of the class had been disturbed by the Cruciatus curse, and the Imperious was just creepy. The Killing curse was almost an insult - death was never meant to be something handled so lightly.
Moody seemed to have impressed most people, however, and again Gabriel wondered why these students were so calm. They'd seen a teacher use a death curse, and a torture curse, in front of them, and no one seemed to fully realize the implications of how easily those spells could be used on humans, and not just spiders.
Moody's lesson on curses, however, was the last thing on Gabriel's mind.
Hermione found him and Michael by the library on Monday [Michael had to do a Divination project] with a box full of brightly-colored badges which rattled around.
Gabriel raised his eyebrows at the badges. "What are those?" They all bore the same four letters: SPEW.
Michael picked one up curiously. "Spew?"
"S-P-E-W," Hermione corrected. "It stands for the Society for the Protection of Elvish Welfare."
"Never heard of it." Michael let the blue badge fall back into the box.
"Well, it's not a real organization yet," Hermione admitted. "I've only just started it."
"Seriously?" Michael asked in surprise. "What's got you so riled up about the house-elves?"
"Didn't you see the way Crouch treated his at the World Cup?" Hermione demanded. "We've got to do something!"
Gabriel joined the conversation. "And something would be...?"
"Freeing them!"
Michael nearly choked on nir pumpkin juice. "Free them?" ne asked incredulously.
"Yes." Hermione looked put out. "I'd have thought you'd agree!"
"Hermione, trying to get better conditions is one thing...but freeing them? House elves don't want to be freed!"
"They've been brainwashed," Hermione snapped. "They don't know any better! I've been researching it in the library, elf enslavement goes back ages!"
Gabriel was staring at Hermione with one eyebrow raised. "So you're going to force them into freedom?"
Hermione stared back. "It's not forcing them-"
"Do they want it?" Gabriel didn't think Hermione saw what she was doing.
"Of course they do! They just don't-"
"Hermione, have you even talked to any house elves? Ever?"
Hermione visibly faltered. "But - they're enslaved, Harry!"
"Hermione, you're going about this the wrong way. House elves work differently than humans, you can't treat them like you'd react to people."
"Harry!" This served only to make her more indignant. "You're saying you'd rather see them enslaved?"
"I'm saying you're going about it the wrong way! Forcing freedom on them isn't going to help anyone, least of all them!" She could at least have the decency to ask them about it.
"There are hundreds of house-elves working in the kitchens," Hermione said angrily. "Are you telling me you don't care about them?"
"Do you have proof that they're mistreated?" Gabriel asked, eyebrow still raised. "Anything at all that would show that they're unhappy? Even visited the kitchens at all?" He gave Hermione a look when she had no answer. "Do you know anything about hose elves? What if they turn out to be some sort of magicl creature that depends on work? I don't know how many times people have to say that they enjoy work for you to understand it."
Hermione had actually been rendered speechless. Gabriel shrugged in a what can you do sort of way and turned around, intending to find somewhere to take a break from school for a moment.
Their next Defense class, Moody announced his intention to put them under the Imperious curse to test their resistance to it. There was an underlying current of nervousness as Moody swept the desks to the side to create a clear space in the center of the room. Gabriel wondered if he was seriously allowed to use illegal curses on students - had Dumbledore given him permission or something?
It didn't seem like something the old headmaster would allow, but it wasn't Gabriel's business - he only kept an eye on Michael when ne went under, and all Michael ended up doing was trying to jump over one of the desks. Ne seemed very embarassed when ne stood up again, and Michael's cheeks were flaming when ne came back over to nir seat.
"I'm not doing that again," ne muttered as Moody barked "Potter! You're next!"
Gabriel stood up, and a single stride brought him to the center of the room. Moody raised his wand.
"Imperio!"
It was a very odd sensation, as though something very soft were being shoved insistently on his forehead. Something which contained a speaker of some sort which was talking to him faintly. Gabriel ignored it and gave Moody a well? Go on look.
Moody seemed impressed. "D'you see that?" He barked at the rest of the class. "Potter's resisting!" He looked back at Gabriel, and the shoving and the faint voice grew slightly more insistent. Gabriel continued ignoring it and stood perfectly still in the center of the classroom.
Moody took another five minutes to give up on ever getting through to Gabriel, and by that time class was nearly over. Moody dismissed them early and they all scattered, eagerly discussing the class.
"That's not really fair," Michael muttered. "It's just because of what you are."
"It's because I have better mental protection," Gabriel corrected. "Species has nothing to do with it."
There was a notice pinned up in the entrance hall before dinner that night, announcing that the foreign visitors would be arriving a week from then on the thirtieth. That left only one day for anyone to submit their name, Gabriel noticed, but everyone else was buzzing with the news.
"Lessons end half an hour early!" Michael read cheerfully. "I wonder how they're getting here...I don't think they'd take the train."
"I'm sure they've got their own methods," Gabriel said, frowning, since he was still too short to read the notice properly over the crowd. Not that his last vessel had been much taller, but still.
The sign going up caused a flurry of fresh interest in the tournament. People swapped ideas as to how the other two schools were going to arrive, who was going to be Hogwarts champion, what the students of the other two schools were like.
The school was changing a bit as well. The paintings were suddenly brighter and restored, the suits of armor suddenly polished and not at all squeaky. Even the teachers were affected by the mood, tenser as if trying to make sure that every single student made a good impression on the guests. The caretaker, Filch, was behaving so ferociously to anyone who made the slightest mess that Gabriel was a minute away from pulling another Trickster move.
And then, October thirtieth came.
When they all came down to breakfast it was to discover that the hall had been decorated. Large, sheer banners now decorated the walls, one for each House and emblazoned with the four crests. Behind the teacher's table an even larger banner showed the Hogwarts coat of arms around a large letter H.
There was a simultaneously pleasant and nervous air that day - even Gabriel, who spared barely any attention to the proceedings, felt it. Nobody paid much attention in their lessons, the idea of the upcoming arrival of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students proving to be much more interesting. When the bell rang early everyone hurried to put their things away and rush back down to the entrance hall.
The four heads of Houses were ordering their students into neat rows and moving along the students, snapping for people to fix their hats or remove that ridiculous thing from your hair, Miss Patil.
"Follow me, please!" Flitwick called as loudly as he could. "First years in front, and no pushing!"
They all gathered in front of the castle after descending the tall set of stairs. That evening was cold and clear, and a pale moon was already hovering over the forest.
"Nearly six," Michael muttered, checking nir watch. "No ideas as to how they're going to get here?"
"No more than the last six time you asked," Gabriel muttered.
There were several moments of silence, and the other students shivered while Gabriel wondered if the foreign students were just planning a dramatic entrance to show off. Then Dumbledore called out.
"Aha! Unless I am much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"
Everyone started looking around, trying to spot what the headmaster had. Then someone else shouted "Look!"
Oh, very helpful.
But it was becoming readily apparent what they were looking at. Something was soaring closer in the sky, getting bigger with each passing second.
"It's a dragon!" shrieked one of the first years.
"Don't be stupid, it's a flying house!"
The second guess turned out to be closer. A gigantic, powder-blue carriage thudded to the ground, pulled by a team of horses easily the size of elephants, which all had even larger wings and fiery red eyes. It was a little disconcerting, seeing as the last time Gabriel had gone up against something with red eyes like that, it had been a Knight of Hell.
The doors of the carriage bore a coat of arms, two crossed wands emitting sparks, but there was no time to look closer as the door sprang open. A boy in pale blue robes jumped to the ground and fumbled with something at the bottom of the doorway before a set of steps sprang out. The woman who left the carriage next immediately explained the large scale.
She was just as tall as Hagrid, looming over the crowd, and was olive-skinned. Her robes were some sort of black, sheer material, and dragged slightly on the floor as she walked forward, the students parting in front of her.
Dumbledore began to clap, and everyone else soon followed. While the large woman had been striding forward, about a dozen boys and girls [all dressed in the same blue robes that nearly matched the carriage] had exited as well, and they were all standing around awkwardly and shivering. Their robes, obviously, were not meant to stand up to a Scottish evening in October. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls around themselves, but these were similarly useless.
"Madam Maxine," Dumbledore greeted the woman. "How nice to see you again. Welcome to Hogwarts."
"Dumbledore," Maxine replied. She had a very thick accent which contorted her words so that it sounded more like Dumbly-dorr. "I hope I find you well?" Her h's were nearly silent.
"In excellent form, thank you." Dumbledore was smiling graciously. "Would you and your students like to go inside and warm up, or would you like to wait for the Durmstrang students? They have not yet arrived."
"Warm up, I think," Maxine answered. "But the horses-"
"Our Care of Magical Creatures professor will be delighted to take care of them." Dumbledore said instantly. "I assure you, he is up to the job."
Maxine looked as though she rather doubted that Hagrid could handle them, but didn't protest further. "Please inform him - they drink only single-malt whiskey."
Single? Lightweights.
"Come," Maxine said imperiously to her students. They all followed obediently as she led them up the stairs to the entrance hall, the crowd parting again to let the students through.
Many people were now gazing up at the sky hopefully, probably wishing that Durmstrang would come soon, but Gabriel doubted they'd use the same method. Wizards seemed to like to show off - no doubt they would use some other crazy method to get to Hogwarts.
"Can you hear that?" Michael asked suddenly.
The crowd went quiet as the strange noise grew louder, trying to figure out what it was. It was vaguely reminiscent of water draining after someone had pulled the plug.
"The lake!"
There was something similar to a drain in the lake, water swirling around and falling. From their position at the base of the stairs, it was only too easy to see down to the lake.
Gabriel craned his neck up to see properly. There was something rising out of the whirlpool, something long and thin and followed by something much bigger.
It was a ship.
The portholes were lit with a pale, misty light, making the ship look dark and ghostly as it rose out of the water and glided towards the bank. Movement began, and it became apparent what the movement was as people started disembarking and making their way up the lawn.
All the students looked large and hulking, but as they get closer Gabriel saw that it was just their robes, which were made out of thick fur. As the Durmstrang students passed, led by a man with a white goatee, a wave of muttering rippled over the crowd of Hogwarts students.
"Oh my God." Michael started and looked at Gabriel, as if realizing what ne'd said. "Sorry."
"It's fine."
Most of the attention seemed fixed on a taller boy at the front, walking next to the man with the goatee. There were several girls wondering whether he'd autograph their hats in lipstick. Gabriel assumed the boy was some sort of celebrity.
The man with the goatee certainly seemed to pay him special attention as they all walked back into the school, the Durmstrang students at the front.
"You haven't got a quill," Michael asked Gabriel, "Have you?"
"No. What do you need a quill for?"
"Don't you know who that is?" Michael seemed astonished.
Gabriel gave him a dry look. "Michael. Why would I?"
"Right. But that's Krum. Best Seeker ever - I had no idea he was still in school. He played at the cup, you know."
"Thrilling." So he was a sports star. That would account for why everyone seemed to know him, despite the magical world having no internet.
The great hall seemed more packed than usual, though there were barely twenty extra students. It might have been the stark difference between their robes and the black Hogwarts ones - the Durmstrang students, once they took off their furs, were revealed to have robes of bright red.
The Beauxbatons students settled at the Ravenclaw, not very close to where Gabriel and Michael ended up sitting. They seemed to be primarily girls, though there were several boys, and Gabriel wondered how they'd chosen who was going to come. Was it based on talent? Did they only bring those who were seventeen or older?
Durmstrang ended up at the Slytherin table, something Draco looked thrilled about. Gabriel saw him lean over to talk to the Quidditch star. Those from Durmstrang seemed much more impressed than the French, looking up at the ceiling and examining the gold plates, apparently impressed.
There were four extra chairs at the staff table, two on either side of the headmaster. "What do they need four for?" Gabriel asked aloud, attracting Michael's attention. "There are only two headmasters, who are the other two for?"
"Dunno," Michael said, glancing up. "Maybe someone else is coming?"
Dumbledore, Maxine, and the man with the goatee [who Gabriel had heard Dumbledore call Karkaroff] were last to enter the hall. The Beauxbatons students all leaped to their feet when their headmistress entered. Some of the Hogwarts students laughed, but the blue-robed students appeared completely unembarrassed, and continued standing until Maxine had sat down at the staff table.
They must institute more respectful policies at Beauxbatons. Sure, all the Hogwarts students called their teachers 'professor', but they never went quite as far as the French, apparently, did.
Dumbledore remained standing, ready to give a speech. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and - most particularly - guests," he said, eyes still twinkling and that had to be a spell. There was no way they did that naturally. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts! I hope and trust your stay here will be both enjoyable and comfortable."
One of the Beauxbatons girls laughed derisively. She was still clutching a muffler around her head. Should have come better prepared.
"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," Dumbledore continued on, not remarking on the interruption. "I invite you all, for now, to eat, drink, and make yourself at home!"
He sat down. Karkaroff immediately leaned forward to speak to him, but whatever he said was covered by the chatter that sprang up with the food on the plates.
There was much more variety that night - foreign dishes decorated the tables, no doubt in honor of the guests. There was a sort of stew another table over that Gabriel vaguely recognized as being French, but he'd never been one for food - there had never really been a need to eat, and if he did it was usually candy.
The girl with the muffler turned a lot of heads when she finally took it off, revealing a long sheet of silvery hair. Gabriel had to smack Michael to get nir to stop staring at her.
"That's not normal," Michael muttered, ducking nir gaze back to nir food. "Normal girls don't do that."
"You're saying she's not normal?" Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Michael, we're sitting in wizard school. What about this is normal?"
Michael was distracted from replying - no doubt something terribly witty that would render Gabriel completely speechless - by movement at the head table.
The two empty seats had been filled by unfamiliar men, one dressed in bright yellow robes. The other had a toothbrush mustache, and looked so official he stood out from everyone else at the table. He must have been a bureaucrat.
"What's he doing here?" Michael asked blankly.
"Who?"
"The one in the yellow robes - he was at the cup, came by while I was talking to Ron. Works at the Ministry for some department - maybe games and sports?"
"That would explain why he'd be here," Gabriel agreed, not looking back up at the staff table. He was already getting tired of people talking about nothing but the tournament. This year was going to take forever.
Everyone seemed eager to get dinner over with; they still had no clue who the 'impartial judge' was going to be, and tomorrow they would be picking the names of the champions. When the last bit of dessert vanished from the plates, nearly everyone turned expectantly towards the staff table.
Dumbledore stood up once more.
"The moment has come!" He announced. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket-"
Casket? Were they going to reanimate some sort of long-dead judge to pick and choose? Wizards. Gabriel stopped paying attention and instead looked up at the new arrivals at the staff table. The one with the weird mustache rubbed him the wrong way; something about the man was just off, though if he was a politician that could be easily explained.
Gabriel had never liked politicians. They were too wrapped up in their own motives and ideas, and not those of the people they were supposed to represent. Too easily corrupt. During his time as the Trickster, he'd dealt out justice to more than one senator or governor or something of the sort.
Filch disturbed his thoughts by hauling forward a large, jewel-encrusted chest. The tense atmosphere seemed to sharpen as he placed it right in front of the staff table, in the spot where the sorting hat stood at the beginning of every year.
Dumbledore opened it with his wand and drew out a rough-hewn wooden cup, which might have been entirely unremarkable save for the fact that it was full of dancing, blue-white flames.
Gabriel sat up straighter in interest. This was new.
Dumbledore closed the casket again and placed the Goblet carefully on top, where everyone could see it.
"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly on a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said Dumbledore. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to submit themselves. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it feels are most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely available to those wishing to compete.
"And please note," his voice held an edge of warning now. "There will be an Age Line around the goblet preventing any of those under seventeen from entering themselves. I will be drawing it myself.
"Finally, I wish to impress upon you the danger of entering the tournament. Once your name is in the Goblet, it constitutes as a binding magical contract. It is not something you can turn away from, and if your name is chosen you will be required to see it through to the end. Please be sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly willing to compete before entering your name. And now, I think, it is time for bed! Good night to you all."
Gabriel took a last glance at the goblet before they left the hall. Despite having lived so long, it was very rare that he stumbled across an artifact like that. It was clearly wizard-made, but possessed power all the same, and the flames cast a blue glow across the hall which made it look rather eerie.
This would require a closer look.
That's all! Long chapter for you guys.
Read and review as usual!