Chapter Thirteen
Harry sat at dinner, picking at his food and rubbing his aching scar. The pain had been getting worse and worse over the course of the day, ever since he'd seen Moody preform the unforgivable curses. He looked over to the Gryffindor table and saw that Neville was looking equally down. Harry waved him over, he didn't to go over and get into a lengthy conversation with Ron.
Neville picked up his plate and went to sit with Harry, Draco, Pansy and Daphne, "How you doing?" He asked.
Harry shrugged, "About as well as well as you I think. What's up?"
Neville sighed and leaned forward, "Moody told me something, just before I went into class."
"What?" Draco whispered.
Neville shook his head, "Not here, we can go find somewhere quiet after we've finished dinner."
Daphne nodded, "How's Thomas doing?"
Neville grinned, "I have no idea. He's off with his own friends, very inter-house friendly so I'm told."
"Yeah younger siblings seem to have a knack for making friends. Astoria has more friends than I ever have." Daphne smiled.
"Well, I suppose we shouldn't hate them for it..." Neville laughed.
Daphne smirked, "If you say so."
Harry looked down the table, Corvus was sitting alone, his head in a book, eating without looking at his plate. Gemini and Rodolphus were still insisting that he sat with them but he seemed to have no interest in the gang of followers surrounding them.
Harry sighed, he hoped that Corvus would be able to make some friends; Gemini and Rodolphus seemed to have very little interest in him and Hogwarts was a big place when you were alone.
They quickly finished their dinners and found an empty classroom they could use. Harry waited until everyone was in before closing the door.
"Where's Hermione?" Pansy asked.
"She's in the library. She's kinda obsessed with house elves at the moment." Neville told them.
Harry made a mental note to go and find her later and make sure she was OK, "So what did Moody tell you?"
Neville leant back against a chair and ran a hand through his shaggy, shoulder length hair, "There was apparently a… a plot to hurt my Mum and Dad, after You-know-who fell."
"Why?" Daphne asked, shocked.
Neville shrugged, "They were suspected of knowing something, I guess. Moody didn't really go into details or anything. They didn't bother to go after them when Lily told everyone what happened, but it got close. He said they were going to use the Unforgivable Curses on them."
"Why would he tell you this?" Draco snapped, he didn't understand why Professor Moody would even bring up something like that, apart from to upset his friend.
Neville shook his head, "I have no idea. Watching that spider… suffer though..."
"You as well then?" Pansy said, wrapping her arms around her chest.
Neville nodded, "Ron loved it. He hates spiders, but even he wasn't so fond of the torture bit though." Neville took a deep breath, "Professor Moody gave me this though." he pulled out an old, crumbled looking book.
"Magical Mediterranean Water-Plants and Their Properties." Daphne read, "Sounds interesting."
Neville nodded, it was well known that no one was better than Neville at Herbology, his marks were even better than Hermione's.
"Yeah it should be pretty good, not something I've read much about. It was just such a weird lesson." Neville said, he felt lost in his head.
"It'll be OK." Harry said, "Whatever was planned it didn't happen. Mum said that Professor Moody is a bit jumpy and paranoid really. He used to hunt death eaters and the like so he's become a bit afraid of his own shadow, always looking for plots and stuff."
Neville nodded, "Yeah I know, you're right."
The 'interesting' Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons continued without fail. Harry arrived at his next lesson and was shocked to hear Professor Moody say that he was going to be spending the next few lessons putting them each under the Imperious Curse one by one and getting them to try and resist it.
The class looked at him like was insane as he called them up to the front, one by one.
"Up you come Miss Greengrass." Professor Moody said, pointing to the space in front of him.
"I thought it was illegal to use them on another human being?" She said slowly.
"Dumbledore has given me permission, up you come." Moody growled.
Daphne looked awkwardly at him and slowly walked up to the front. Moody waved his wand over her and she swayed slightly.
"Dance for me." Moody ordered.
Daphne started to twirl and dance around him like he was a Maypole. Harry watched worriedly as she dance faster and more slowly by turn as she tried to resist.
After several minutes Professor Moody waved his wand again and Daphne stopped, looking around her in confusion.
Moody shook his head at her, "Next. Mr Malfoy why don't you have a turn?"
Draco, pale faced, stood up and moved over to the front of the classroom. He's face too went blank as Professor Moody placed him under the curse.
"Act like a ferret."
Draco dropped down to all fours and started to run around the room squeaking. Professor Moody let it continue for a few moments before Draco tried to bite at Millicent Bulstrode's ankles. Draco, embarrassed made his way back to his seat and sat down quickly.
"Potter, you next." Moody ordered.
Harry really didn't want to walk up there and be made a fool of in front of the class. Tracy hadn't even waited for him to be put under the curse to be sniggering at him.
Harry wasn't sure what to expect as he watched Moody raise his wand. He wasn't expecting a warm and pleasant feeling to fill him. He felt like he was in a dream, warm and floating in nothingness.
"Jump on the desk." a voice told him.
"Ok." he thought but then there was another voice, a small annoying voice in the back of his head.
"Why?"
"Jump on the desk." the foreign voice ordered again.
"No, silly thing to do really."
"JUMP! JUMP NOW!"
"NO!"
Harry was brought round to reality with a huge pain coming from his knees. He was in a heap on the floor, clutching at what felt like his very broken knee caps.
"Now that's more like it!" Professor Moody beamed, "Well done boy."
Harry tried to smile but the pain was far to distracting. It seemed that he had gotten trapped halfway between wanting to jump and trying to stay on the ground, resulting in his knees smacking into the edge of the desk, followed by the solid stone floors.
"Well done! See it's not impossible just takes some practice, you'll get there." Moody smiled. He waved his wand over Harry's knees leaving them feeling much better.
They left the classroom all feeling emotionally and physically exhausted, although they all had a good laugh at Tracy when she had been forced to walk around on her hands for ten minutes.
It wasn't just Defence Against the Dark Arts that they were feeling the work load with though. Every class seemed to be giving them more and more work. Even Professor Binns had them writing extra long essays on tiny details of the Goblin wars.
Hargid was over joyed at the rate of growth from the Skrewts, especially given that no one yet knew what they ate. He suggested that they all come down on alternate evenings to make notes on the Skrewts behaviour.
"No way." Tracy said flatly, "Not going to happen. I have to spend enough time with the hideous things here in class, I'm not giving up my evenings for them as well."
Hagrid glared at her, "You'll do as you're told."
Tracy threw her hands up in frustration and stalked off to sit on a bench. Truth be told, Harry hadn't been dreaming about the idea of spending extra time with the Skrewts either but at least he could talk to Hagrid.
They trudged back up to the castle and saw a large sign had been put up, with several students milling around it.
Harry and Draco waited until the crowd had cleared enough to be able to see what was written.
TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT
The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early. Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.
"Brilliant." Harry smiled, "We've got Transfiguration then, can't say I'm sad to be missing half of that."
Draco nodded, "Lets go find the girls."
They found them coming from the opposite corridor, where the Arithmancy class room was.
"Have you seen?" Harry said as they wondered towards the Slytherin common room.
"Seen what?" Pansy asked, "Smagoo."
The door to the Slytherin common room swung open and they sat in their favourite set of armchairs. Harry was very grateful to get off his feet, Moody may have healed most of the damage done to his knees but they still ached when he had to stand for a long period of time.
"The other schools are arriving on Friday. We get out of Transfiguration half an hour early." Draco told them.
"How exciting!" Daphne grinned, "I can't wait to see them. It's going to be brilliant, I wonder who's going to be our champion?"
"I heard that Diggory is entering, from Hufflepuff, William also said he wanted to enter but he's to young." Pansy said, getting out her homework.
"Diggory wouldn't be to bad, better if it was a Slytherin though." Harry said, "I imagine every single Gryffindor of age is going to enter."
Harry dragged out his own homework and tried to focus of the difficult Transfiguration charm he was meant to be learning. He couldn't focus though, his mind kept drifting to James. He would have entered for sure, so would Sirius. They had the right mix of bravery and stupidity; Harry however was looking forward to sitting on the sidelines and watching other people risk their lives for a change.
Come Friday the teachers all seemed unusually nervous about the other schools arrival and were wondering up and down the long lines of students, moving their positions and making them look as neat as possible.
"Patil remove that stupid thing from you hair at once." Professor McGonagall said to Parvati who reluctantly removed a large, colourful butterfly from the end of her plait.
"Tracy pull your skirt down, right now." Severus hissed at her, she'd rolled it up at the waist to show off her long legs.
"Best behaviour." Severus said to Harry.
Harry nodded and grinned. Daphne, Pansy and Draco stood around him. Hermione and Neville had tried to move over, earning them a sharp glare from Professor McGonagall. The Lestrange twins were hovering, surrounded by several of their minions, although the crowd was a bit smaller than normal as they were all being made to stand with their year groups as well as houses.
Gemini looked particularly bored waiting for the other schools to arrive. Corvus however just looked pale, and gave a small wave to where Thomas was waiting, earning him a sharp slap on the ear from Rodolphus.
They waited patiently for the other schools to arrive, trying not to get restless as the minutes ticked by.
It wasn't long before Dumbledore smiled, "Unless I am very much mistaken there is the delegation from Beauxbatons now."
"Where?"
"There!" One of the sixth years shouted, pointing up to the sky.
"It's a dragon!" one of the first years shouted, she was clearly very panicked at the thought.
"Don't be silly." Another first year said, Harry thought he looked a lot like Colin Creevey who Harry had met a couple of years before, just slightly younger, "It's a flying house!"
It turned out that the Creevey boy was far closer to the mark. Harry felt he jaw drop as he saw the huge powder blue carriage come close enough to view properly. It was being pulled though the air by a dozen horses, each one the size of an elephant with even bigger wings.
The front few rows of students stepped back, treading on several toes, as the carriage bounced to the ground. The horses were beautiful, each one had a perfect, palomino coat and flaming red eyes. Harry just had time to see the crest on the carriage door, two crossed wands each admitting three stars, before it was flung open.
A boy in pale blue robes jumped out and fumbled with the bottom edge of the door for a moment before puling out a set of golden steps and stepping back respectfully.
Harry gasped, as did several other people, as a shiny black boot, the size of a child's sled stepped onto the first step. It belonged to the largest woman Harry had ever seen. She was easily the same size as Hargid and her size quickly explained the size of the carriage and horses.
She moved forward into the light flooding from the castle and smiled. She was very beautiful, her olive skinned face and elegant movement made it impossible not to feel slightly in awe of her.
She was dressed head to toe in expensive black satin with a lot of opal jewellery, both rings and an enchanting choker. Dumbledore started to clap and Harry, as well as many of the other students, joined in. He could see Gemini firmly refusing to join in, even after her brothers had given in to the peer pressure.
The lady walked forward and extended her hand for Dumbledore to kiss, he barely had to bend in order to do so.
"My dear Madam Maxime." He beamed, "Welcome to Hogwarts."
"Dumbly-dor." She smiled, her voice was a lot deeper than Harry had expected, although he wasn't sure why, "I 'ope I find you well?"
"On excellent form, I thank you." said Dumbledore.
"My pupils." Said Madam Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands gracefully behind her.
Harry, who had been staring at Madam Maxime shifted his attention to behind her were a dozen or so student were standing shivering. Harry wasn't surprised that they were cold, the boys and girls who looked to be in their late teens; their uniforms were made out of fine silk and not one of them was wearing a cloak.
They were all standing in Madam Maxime's rather large shadow looking up at Hogwarts with apprehension.
" 'As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madam Maxime asked.
"He should be here any moment." Dumbledore told her, "Would you like to wait here for him or head inside and warm up?"
"Warm up, I zink." Madam Maxime said, she turned her large head to her carriage, "But ze 'orses..."
"Worry not," Dumbledore smiled, "Our Care of Magical Creatures will be here shortly, he's just looking after some of his other, err charges."
"Skrewts." Harry whispered to Draco who nodded back.
Madam Maxime looked slightly awkwardly at Dumbledore, it was clear that she didn't really think any teacher would be able to look after her horses.
"My steeds require, er, forceful 'andling." Said Madam Maxime, "Zey are very strong..."
Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling, "I can assure you that Hagrid will be more than up for the task."
"Very well." She bowed slightly, "Will you please inform zis 'Agrid zat ze 'orses drink only single-malt whisky?"
Harry managed to stifle a laugh at the idea of the horses drinking whisky, no wonder they were strong willed.
"It will all be attended to." said Dumbledore, returning her bow.
"Come." Madam Maxime said to her students.
The Hogwarts students parted along the steps to let the Beauxbatons students through. Harry watched as the students lined up perfectly, girls on the right, boys to the left all with hands clasped behind their backs, and walked into the castle behind their head mistress.
"Wow." Pansy said, "They were.. umm…."
"I think it must be partly a finishing school as well." Daphne said, watching the swish of the pale blue silk uniforms.
Harry nodded in agreement, "Do you think that Durmstrang is going to be the same?"
Draco let out a bark of laughter, "I don't think so. Father wanted to send me there, during the war. They're far more… gritty? I don't know how to explain it but from what he said they do a lot of work around the school and stuff. Much more work on the Dark Arts as well."
"Why didn't you go?" Daphne asked, scanning the sky for Durmstrang's arrival. She was starting to get cold even wrapped up in her cloak.
Draco pointed to Harry, "Partly Lily. Also Mother was never happy with the idea of me being so far away for school."
A few more minutes passed until Harry heard a strange grumbling noise. Harry looked around for the source of the sound and saw the waves on the lake growing larger.
Huge bubbles floated to the surface of the now churning lake surface, it wasn't long before a large whirlpool appeared, as though someone had pulled a plug at the bottom of the lake. A large pole rose slowly from the centre of the whirlpool as, magnificently, a ship rose out of the water.
It gleamed in the moonlight and had a strange, skeletal and ghostly look about it. It emerged complete and sailed slightly further along the lake before there was the loud slosh of an anchor being thrown into the water and a thud as a large plank walkway was thrown down from the ship onto the shore of the lake.
Harry felt a slight annoyance at the fact the walkway had come down on the patch of grass that jutted out that they normally sat at.
He watched as the Durmstrang students disembarked and waited for a figure dressed in white, rather than the red of all the others. The white figure lead the way forward. Harry could see that they were all dressed in thick furs and their uniforms were made from thick, red wool. They all had shaggy, matted fur cloaks over the top, apart from the one in white who's cloak was a silver and sleek like his hair.
"Dumbledore" He called heartily, "How are you my dear fellow? How are you?"
"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff." Dumbledore replied.
Karkaroff had a strange, fake, fruity sort of voice that grated in Harry's head. He was tall and slim like Dumbledore, he also had white hair and a beard. However Karkaroff's was short and neatly styled, he also had only a small goatee which failed to hide his rather weak looking chin.
Once he reached Dumbledore he shook his hand warmly with both of his own, beaming with yellow teeth. Harry noted that the smile didn't reach his eyes, which remained hard and cold.
"Dear old Hogwarts." Karkaroff said, looking over the castle, "How good it is to be here, how good. Viktor! Come along, into the warmth… you don't mind do you Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight cold."
Karkaroff beckoned forward one of his students. Harry watched opened mouthed as the boy walked past him into the castle. The curve of his nose and walk was unmistakeable.
It was Viktor Krum.