Author's Note 1: While writing this year I had an epiphany. The HP-verse has a whole "wizards lack logic" thing, but I don't think it exists for the sake of worldbuilding. No. I think it exists so that JKR has an excuse to use whenever someone points out an illogical aspect of her story (and her inability to use a calendar.) In light of this, things will happen in a different order from canon because SOME OF US like consistent calendars!

Author's Note 2: Segments of this chapter will have direct quotes from the book.

Thursday September 1st, 1994

It was a dark and stormy day as the Hogwarts Express ushered them to a new school year. Horrid as the weather was, inside of the train Melissa was having a lovely time catching up with some friends.

"They used Dungeons & Dragons as part of their defence?!" Corin asked, open-mouthed yet looking gleeful. "Oh, that is genius!"

"And this is a… muggle game?" Rachel asked.

"Mhmm!" Melissa nodded. "It's a roleplaying game where muggles pretend to be warriors, wizards, or rogues who fight villains and monsters. It's a lot of fun for the imaginative, though I haven't really had a chance to play before. What about you, Corin?"

"I have," Corin nodded. "I showed my dad a copy of the Monster Manual when I was a kid to figure out which ones were real and which weren't. You'd be surprised how many are, or are close to something that actually exists."

"Hmm," Eloise hummed, "no wonder they won the case."

"It does set a tricky precedent," Domonkos commented. "If muggles treat things from our world as fantasy, wizards may use those beliefs to skirt the Statute a lot more and risk exposure."

"I can hear the headlines already," Eloise joked. "Have your parents been talking about it?"

"A bit, but not really," Domonkos answered. He then gave a snort. "If anything, my mum's been complaining about which articles she can write. Apparently she and Rita Skeeter have been fighting over wanting to cover the same story for the last two days."

Melissa gave a laughing huff. "Good luck to her. Skeeter's a menace at the best of times."

"That's for sure!"

"Speaking of articles," Rachel said conspiratorially, "did you all read that article about the Twins' DMLE inventions?"

"I did," Corin said excitedly. "At this rate they're going to be famous."

"And rich," Melissa added.

Corin huffed with, "That's a given."

Melissa gave a teasing smile. "You regret not taking on their offer for splitting profits now?"

"And keeping both of my arms, in the process?" Corin asked dryly. "I'm feeling pretty good about it, actually."

"Yes, yes, they're making lots of galleons now," Rachel waved dismissively, "I'm more interested in the research developments. How and when did they figure out that the lightsabers can cut through shield spells?!"

"I don't think the Twins knew," said Corin. "I mean, I know they did tests to cut through physical objects; but this is a new one."

"They could have gotten the Department of Mysteries to look into it?" Eloise suggested.

"It's possible, unless the Ministry has another form of research department," said Domonkos.

Corin gave a shiver. "Can you imagine having volunteers for all of their inventions?"

Melissa raised her hand, "Speaking as someone who was Fred and George's guinea pig; yeah, it's not fun. I think my spine nearly broke at one point."

"...Why?"

"Six words, Corin: Giant, body-trapping Slinky, in motion."

"...That sounds so much more terrifying than the article made it out to be."

"Mmhmm! And just think, other Ministries are asking for their patents, too."

"Oh god, WHY?!"

"I'm not surprised," said Domonkos. "People from all corners of the wizarding world came to the World Cup. Word travels fast when aurors are seen taking down terrorists with a type of magic no one has ever seen."

"Like I said," Melissa repeated, "at this rate, those two are going to be rich."

When they slipped into the Slytherin table, Garrick gave a brief nod up in acknowledgement. "Meeting in the old duelling hall after the feast."

Melissa gave him an odd look, "And 'Hello' to you, too."

"What's going on?" Domonkos asked.

"The sixth years need to have a meeting," he answered vaguely, "and it needs to be before you go to the common room. So be there!"

"Alright, alright," Melissa lifted her hands in mock surrender, "no need to get testy."

Then again, a small portion of the Great Hall seemed to be feeling testy, particularly with the fourth year Slytherins. Not that she was surprised. Nott, Crabbe, Goyle… their dads made up half of the group that got arrested at the Quidditch World Cup. I mean, serves them right, though it does suck that their sons will suffer scorn as a result.

Ugh, the same will probably happen for the rest of us, too. Joy.

A short while later, the trail of first years entered the Great Hall. The poor things were drenched and shivering from the stormy weather.

Domonkos winced, "I don't envy them."

Jacinth huffed, "Considering they were left with Hagrid, I'm not surprised. Merlin knows what he's got planned for us this year. What happened to that kid?" 'That kid' being a tiny boy wrapped up in a coat so huge that it dragged along the floor as he walked.

"Beats me," Melissa muttered.

They all watched as the Sorting Hat began its yearly song. It sang of the qualities desired by the founders; of Gryffindor wanting bravery, Ravenclaw wanting cleverness, Hufflepuff wanting the hard-working, and "Power-hungry" Slytherin wanting the ambitious.

Melissa and Domonkos shared a look of disapproving exasperation.

Rusalka, too, caught on to the oddness. "Did it really just single out Slytherin as "power-hungry" without even describing the other founders?"

"Yep," they answered simultaneously.

"And so the cycle continues," Melissa muttered with annoyance.

"On the plus side," Adrian commented, "we're not the only ones who caught onto that."

They glanced about the room at his hinting. Sure enough, several people at the other tables had furrowed brows, some even muttering to each other and gesturing to the Slytherin table. At about that time, the song ended. Interestingly, the claps in the room were a mix of genuine and half-hearted, and some not even clapping at all.

Things got more interesting during the sorting itself. The first student, (Ackerley, Stewart) went to Ravenclaw, and the usual applause followed. Then Baddock, Malcolm was called to Slytherin, and the applause got louder.

At least, briefly. The applauding Slytherins had stopped in surprise when the other houses cheered for Malcolm. That… doesn't usually happen. Like, at all. Sure, other houses give a light level of applause, but never anything like this. The Slytherins shook off their surprise, though still unsure what to make of the odd occurrence. Perhaps Baddock is just a well-known person, they guessed? …But then the cheering happened again when Emma Dobbs sorted into Slytherin. The older Slytherins were better this time at hiding their surprise, and tried to go about things as if this was completely normal. The younger ones, on the other hand, looked out to the other tables, giving bright smiles to their friends across the way.

The sight warmed Melissa's heart. She, too, looked over to Hufflepuff, catching Stephanie's eye. Her eyes were shining with unshed tears, and the smile she gave Melissa was beaming. Stephanie's mouth moved silently, the words "We did it" read like a painting of victory. Melissa nodded, her own smile stretched wide. We did it!

The sorting finished, as did the feast, with lively energy from the students. The energy only fell as Dumbledore stood to make the start-of-term announcements. The sounds of the storm served as ambience as he spoke. "So, now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention while I give out a few notices." Which, of course, began with Mr. Filch's list of banned items, and the forbidden forest. "It is also my painful duty to inform you that there will be a change to the inter-house quidditch tournament this year. This is due to an event that will be starting in October and continuing throughout the school year that will be taking up much of the teacher's time and energy. But I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-"

CRASH! BANG!

At that moment, thunder rumbled and the doors to the Great Hall slammed open. There, illuminated in a flash of lightning, stood the horrible visage of Mad-Eye Moody.

Damn, that's a hell of an entrance!

The man made his slow way over, the sound of his wooden leg echoed in the silence of the room's shock. He reached the table, speaking briefly to Dumbledore before joining the table and beginning to eat via a pocket knife. "May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody."

No one applauded him, save Dumbledore and Hagrid, though even that ended quickly.

"As I was saying," Dumbledore suddenly continued, "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?" Fred called out from his seat. His outburst brought the Great Hall to laughter, breaking them out of their stupor from Moody's dramatic entrance.

"I am not joking, Mister Weasley," said Dumbledore. "Though, now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar-" he stopped the joke at the sound of Professor McGonagall loudly clearing her throat.

What a shame, I wanted to hear it.

"Err, but maybe this is not the time, no. 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-"

They don't really have much in common, do they? Melissa thought. Trolls are dumb, regardless. Maybe the leprechaun tries to make a bet with fake gold? Something about drinking whiskey while the hag 'whisks' children away? …No, that sounds, lame. …Hmm, maybe I should pay attention to what he's talking about?

"-and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities..."

Yeah, but that's not the plan this year. At least… well, hopefully things will play differently with everything we talked about?

"...We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that, this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger…"

Will they succeed, though? Place your bets, folks!

-Actually, that's pretty morbid. I don't want anyone to die. Well, not if I can help it, anyways.

The students whispered excitedly at one point. A mention of galleons had Melissa realize that Dumbledore must have finished explaining the prize. Though she knew that would be followed by hisses of outrage once the age restriction is mentioned.

They did.

Dumbledore tried to assure them of the necessity of the age restriction. Something Melissa completely agreed with. …Then things turned odd.

"In an effort to foster friendly competition with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, we will also host an inter-school quidditch tournament instead of the usual inter-house tournament. An age restriction will also be applied to the Hogwarts quidditch team, fifth year and up, to allow those students wanting to play professionally a chance to be scouted by professional teams."

…Huh. They actually listened.

Voices of dissent rose from the students. "Originally, the plan was to cancel quidditch this year. I'm sure you can all agree that this is a perfectly reasonable compromise." That shut them up fast. "What's more, it allows for six inter-school contests this year, rather than the usual three. The quidditch games will take place in March, April, and May- in between the second and third tasks of the Triwizard Tournament."

Makes sense. Melissa nodded thoughtfully. Already things are changing, it seems. Good. Now let's just see what else the Ministry has in store for us…

When Dumbledore dismissed them for the night, the sixth years were corralled and herded towards the abandoned duelling hall. Chatter was loud as they made their way, with people arguing over the unfairness of a seventeenth birthday, an age only a handful of them would reach before Halloween. People started to conspire ways to fool or convince the 'impartial judge' to allow them entry. Loud as they were, a few commanding shouts from Beatrice Vance and Garrick Orpington had them quieting down.

"I know you're all worked up about the tournament," Vance started, "believe me, I'm miffed about it, too; but we've got until Halloween to figure that out. This, on the other hand, needs to be figured out tonight."

"What does?" Jason Adams asked. "What's this even about?"

"Our NEWT classes," she answered.

Rumbling began, but Garrick stepped in to explain. "I know you all have already considered your classes, but there's a problem with some of the options. Three classes: Alchemy, Advanced Arithmancy, and Ancient Studies, are specialty classes that can only be taken if there's enough interest shown for our registrations, which our Heads of Houses have set for us to complete the moment we go to our dormitories."

The Ravenclaw prefect, Patricia Stimpson, piped in, "And some of us really, really, want to take these classes," she jittered where she stood, "but Professor Flitwick says every class needs at least a quarter of us to sign up for those classes to run. So we need to make sure nine people are going to sign up for them, or else they'll be cancelled!"

A handful of people muttered in annoyance at that. Most others were unfazed by the news. Juliet raised her hand as she spoke, "Well, how about we take a poll? See how many you all have already for each class?"

A quick poll showed 5 for Advanced Arithmancy, 4 for Alchemy, and 4 for Ancient Studies. Which proved the Prefects' point.

"I'll sign up for Ancient Studies and Arithmancy," Eric Murley said with a shrug. "I'll be honest, I didn't think there was a chance the classes would run, so I didn't bother to think about them."

"Neither did I," Rachel added. "I'll sign up for Advanced Arithmancy and Alchemy. I wasn't that interested in taking Astronomy or Divination anyways."

Their names got added to the poll, and a few other Ravenclaws followed, bringing them up to 8, 5, and 7. Looking at the numbers, Corin groaned loudly, "I suppose I can take Ancient Studies, too. Eight classes will be impossible, but I don't want to drop any of the others."

"Eight classes aren't impossible," Leonora Rosethorn huffed. "I will manage mine just fine."

"You?" Jacinth gave a snort. "Aren't you being shipped off to be a society wife, Rosethorn? Why even bother taking that many classes?"

"My reasons are my own, Wystan," she said coolly.

Cyril Meakin from Hufflepuff gave Corin a friendly nod, "I'm taking eight, too. We can do a study group to make sure none of us get overwhelmed."

Corin looked genuinely relieved by the invitation. "I'd appreciate that. Thanks!"

Cyril then looked over to the rest of the group. "Anyone else want to learn Alchemy? It's pretty powerful stuff, and Dumbledore will teach us personally. He used to work with the Alchemist that made a Philosopher's Stone to become immortal. I'm sure we can learn loads from him."

A stirring of interest came from that reasoning, and soon Jacqueline, Stephanie, Victoria Cromwell, and even Vance signed up to bring the total to the needed nine.

Which left three spots left for the other two classes. Garrick was giving his Slytherins a stern look. Eventually Domonkos caved, agreeing to sign up for both Advanced Arithmancy and Ancient Studies. When Melissa, too, raised her hand for Ancient Studies, Garrick gave a double-take.

"Didn't you say you failed History of Magic?!"

"Yeah, but it's not a prerequisite, is it? Binns doesn't teach it, right?"

"No," Kenneth answered, "Professor Babbling will have to teach it."

"See? It's probably more magic-based than history dates, anyways. I'm sure it'll be fine."

Garrick looked distressingly unsure, but was willing to accept it since no one else showed a willingness to sign up.

"While we're discussing History," Alex Sykes narrowed his eyes, "do we have enough people for History of Magic?"

An awkward pause fell on them, followed by a poll that revealed only 7 sign-ups. Once again, Garrick looked to the Slytherins. "How many of you failed History?"

Sheepishly, Melissa and Cassius raised their hands. Which meant Jacinth and Adrian became a source of intense focus from Garrick. "You two, sign up for the class." As they started to protest, Garrick bulldozed through them, "I don't care that you don't like the class. You're taking less NEWTs than the rest of us. Just sit there, be on the roll, and I'll give you notes to pass the exam this year. Deal?"

The boys looked to the others for help, but there was enough fear of Garrick's intensity that none were willing to stand up for the boy. Neither were there teens from other houses willing to offer taking a spot, instead.

"...Alright."

"Ugh, fine!"

"Finally," Vance groaned under her breath. "So-! Everyone knows what they're signing up for?" At their nods, she clapped her hands once. "Okay, in that case, this meeting's over. Class registration is going to happen once we go to the dormitories. Double-check each other's forms to make sure the numbers add up right. Goodnight, everyone. See you all tomorrow!"

Later that night, the first staff meeting of the term took place. Discussion mainly focused on the Triwizard Tournament and Alastor's plans for his Defence Against the Dark Arts classes. When the topic eventually turned to the NEWT students, Filius gave the others an amused smile. "Before we arrange the schedule, we need to check the registration numbers. I think we'll find them to be interesting this year."

Intrigued, Septima did a quick spell with the stack of sign-ups to add up the total number of students per class. When the results came in, all of the returning teachers gave a blink of surprise.

"I must say, that is most unexpected," Minerva said softly.

Pomona gave Filius an intrigued look. "Did you know about this?"

"A few of the students made mention that their cohort held a short meeting after the feast," he answered. "I, for one, am delighted to see how dedicated they are to their education."

Pomona nodded with a warm smile on her face, "The way that year-group works together is always wonderful to see."

Severus huffed, "When they're not making inane crafts, at any rate."

While impressed, Bathsheda gave a strained smile. "Sweet as this is, it does mean we now have three extra classes to teach for the next two years. Are you up to the task, Headmaster?"

Albus looked ponderous for a moment, before the twinkle returned to his eye. "I admit that we have much work to do for the Triwizard Tournament this year. However, I believe Filius is right. We should foster the children's desire to learn, as well as their inter-house cooperation. I will send word to Igor and Maxime of the changes, in case any of their students wish to join these classes while they're here. Who knows, perhaps these efforts will encourage the younger cohorts to continue this trend."

The other staff members nodded in agreement, bolstered by the potential of such a future, and spent the rest of the meeting planning the structure of the new year.