A/N: Hey all, sorry it's been a long time, I've been so busy these last couple months, but I finally have a new update! I'll admit, it's been a bit since I wrote, so please let me know if there are any continuity errors and the like. As for reviewers, thank you very much!
doopy52 - Honestly, I'm not sure what to do with the Potters yet. I think I'm at a good spot to go pretty much any way with them, but I'll try to include a bit more interaction there. The third year electives are a good point, I don't believe I ever did include them - that and the answers to a few more of your questions are in this chapter.
Thanks again for everyone's reviews!
The rest of the student body arrived that evening, and the Sorting proceeded as usual. Harry had not paid attention to the names of any of the new Slytherins this year, but he noticed gladly that there were far fewer of the usual jeers whenever a new student entered Slytherin. As for the professors, for a record second year in a row, the staff remained entirely unchanged, with Gilderoy Lockhart once again reprising his role as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. However, most of the country knew by now that he was simply there to give pretense that there was a class at all.
The students happily dug into their feast, eating and catching up with the friends they hadn't seen on the train, as one did during the welcome feast. After the students had finished dessert, Dumbledore stood to give his closing remarks, as was customary.
"So, a sixth year now, huh?" Theo asked Harry.
Harry just nodded in response.
"You can't get a job before you're seventeen anyway," Tracey said. "Why bother skipping?"
"Oh, after what would be seventh year, we still come back to Hogwarts, but we help teach classes and start work beyond N.E.W.T. level. Pretty much every professor here skipped a grade or two while at Hogwarts," Harry responded.
"Fun, so you'll still be here a while," Blaise said.
"Yeah," Harry responded. At that moment, Dumbledore rose from his seat at the head table, and began to speak.
"Students! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! A few announcements before I send you off to bed, and a few exciting ones they are! First of all, I would like to remind you that the dark forest on the grounds is forbidden, and that there is an extensive list of banned items here in the castle. Consult the list on Mr. Filch's office for more information. Now, on to more exciting, less usual news. I offer my congratulations this year to a few of our students, who have proved themselves ahead of their age. Miss Ginny Weasley of Slytherin House, Miss Hermione Granger of Gryffindor, and Miss Daphne Greengrass of Slytherin, congratulations to all three of you on your promotion to fifth year. Mister Harry Potter, special congratulations to you on your promotion to sixth year."
At this statement, the hall began whispering. Harry did not catch much, but from what he did hear, most of it was about him, as he had passed the O.W.L.s on independent study, a feat which had not happened since before the first war with Voldemort. He also caught the surprised and simultaneously annoyed looks of both Jason Potter and Ronald Weasley, neither of whom, it seemed, enjoyed being one-upped by his sibling. Matthias Yaxley, now a sixth-year Slytherin Prefect, walked over to Harry, clapped him on the back, and shook his hand.
"Yes, yes, all very exciting news," Dumbledore said after the whispers had died down a bit. "I'm afraid I have yet more to tell. This year, Hogwarts will play host to the Triwizard Tournament."
Immediately, some of the hall was buzzing with excited chatter. The other people in the hall just looked bored, as this was common knowledge for those with parents who were employees at the Ministry.
"Due to the danger associated with the tournament that also led to its end many years ago, we will be stipulating that all potential participants must be seventeen or older to participate in the tournament. I will draw the age line myself, so do yourself a few favors and do not attempt to hoodwink it. Now, I have talked enough. To bed with all of you!"
Loud complaints came from many in the hall, most notably the Weasley twins, who desperately wished to participate. Jason and Ronald did not look too happy about this development either. Most of the hall indeed looked surprised, as this had not been specified by many parents. While there were some disappointed individuals, the majority of the student body had not been planning to enter it anyway, so they were altogether unaffected by the age restriction.
Regardless of this fact, there was still a sense of excitement about the castle in the next few weeks, as everyone could not wait to meet the students from the other two schools. Classes proceeded as normal with the four who had skipped years attending their new classes. On the first weekend of the year, six Slytherins and a Gryffindor headed to the Room of Requirement for their own training and to meet once more with Sirius Black. They entered the room, which contained all of the pieces they had collected thus far, and waited for the fire to roar to life. It did so a couple minutes later, depositing Sirius Black on the floor.
"Hello," he said cheerily.
"Hello," they all responded.
"Well, we're almost done setting up," Sirius said. "In another month, we should be done with this, and then it's got to sit until the end of the school year. It's extremely powerful, after all."
"It was absolutely brilliant to base it on Muggle machinery," Hermione gushed. "I mean, some of it has to be magical, obviously, but it's a genius design."
Sirius laughed. "What can I say? I'm just that good."
"Sure, except you didn't design this, you said so yourself," Harry pointed out. Sirius laughed again, and just nodded.
"So, I hear the Triwizard Tournament is back," Sirius said. "Anyone here entering?"
"They placed a restriction on it," Daphne responded. "That particular secret was well-kept. Only seventh years can enter, basically."
"Good thing to hear he's finally doing something right," muttered Sirius. "Any thoughts as to who it'll be?"
"Not really," Theo said. "I mean, there are obvious choices for each house, but among those there's no clear choice."
"Jessica Harrison is definitely the best in Slytherin," Blaise said. The Slytherins present all murmured their agreement, although Harry was reluctant to do so due to his defeat at her hands in the dueling tournament his first year.
"Angelina Johnson is the favorite in Gryffindor," Hermione added.
"Really?" Harry asked. "Gryffindor has many better competitors than Johnson. I'd have put my money on one of the Weasley twins if they were seventeen."
"There are only really one or two better than Angelina, and they don't want to compete," Hermione replied defensively.
"Well, it's definitely not going to be Johnson," Ginny said. "She's good, but she's definitely not as good as Jess."
Sirius watched, amused, as they began a debate as to whose name would come out of the goblet for Hogwarts. In the end, all of the Slytherins agreed on Jessica Harrison as the top candidate, while Hermione argued for the Hufflepuff Cedric Diggory, who was the top contender for the Hogwarts championship at the moment.
"In any case, please don't try to put your names in," Sirius interrupted. "I don't know why anyone wants to do this, it's just reckless." They all nodded, not having wanted to put their names in the goblet, even if they had been allowed to do so.
The seven stayed in the room until it became quite late, and they left the room to go to their respective rooms.
In an office in another part of the school, Albus Dumbledore moved into the secret room he had avoided for some time now. In it, he kept the remains of the so-called Lord Voldemort trapped, and he hoped that the spirit would eventually lose all power in it. However, as he walked into the room, he got a shock when he found that there was no spirit in there at all. The dome had been impenetrable, or so Dumbledore thought. After all, he himself had created it, and there was no way Voldemort could overpower a wizard as powerful as himself.
Life in the castle progressed as it normally would, but this year, there was much more excitement in the air. The official Hogwarts Quidditch season had been canceled that year officially due to the Triwizard Tournament occurring, though most people assumed it was due to the lack of interest after the continuation of the IHQL. Before the cancellation had been announced, every house had went to recruit players, and Ravenclaw and Slytherin had failed to even form one team. The IHQL, on the other hand, added a new team, and had even more people try out than the last year. As it was also not an official league, but rather a student-run league, it could not be canceled by the administration. However, everyone was rather happy with this, as the IHQL had been a staple of the previous year. Only the Gryffindors, particularly the fourth-years, were upset over the dissolution of the official Quidditch league. Jason Potter had written an angry letter home to his parents, practically demanding it be reinstated, and could often be heard loudly complaining and belittling his brother after what he considered to be the greatest insult to his ability as a Seeker. He was largely ignored, but many of his fellow Gryffindors agreed with his opinion of Harry, though they were the minority. The most surprising thing for Jason was the letter he received back from his parents, which told him in nicer terms to stop whining and that there was nothing they could do about it. This rumor did go around, and Harry was rather shocked by this. While his parents had lightened up on him considerably, he had not expected anything even close to an endorsement or support for his actions.
Finally, the day that all of the student body had been anticipating had come: the day of the other schools' arrivals. At the expected time, seemingly all of Hogwarts stood outside, awaiting the entrance of the contingents from their fellow schools. An eerie silence fell upon everyone there, as the students waited in anticipation of the other schools. Suddenly, a whisper started in the students, accompanied by a finger pointing at a figure in the sky. Soon, all of the students were looking at the approaching flying object, watching as it came closer.
"It's a carriage!" one of the students yelled. Sure enough, a carriage approached the students, drawn by flying horses, wings beating in tandem. It slowed down as it approached the ground, and eventually touched down. After it had stopped completely, a door opened on the side of the carriage, and a large woman emerged. She was greeted happily by the headmaster, who loudly announced to the student body that the woman was Madame Maxime, the headmistress of Beauxbatons. Many students from the academy then filed out behind Madame Maxime, but perhaps the most noticeable was a girl with long silver hair. The eyes of most of the male population of Hogwarts were immediately drawn to her, and followed her every move. Harry watched as she moved gracefully towards the entrance of Hogwarts, and was only pulled away by a smack on the back of his head. He turned to the side it had come from and saw Ginny rolling her eyes at him.
"Not you too," she said. "She's not that pretty." Harry just muttered something under his breath, blushing a deep red, and determinedly did not look at the girl with the long silver hair. He soon found that he was lucky to have gotten away with a smack on the head, as Blaise was punched by Tracey and Theo was left to stare, though he very slowly managed to pull himself away. By the time he had, everyone was now intently looking at the lake and yelling, as a mast had just emerged from the lake, and bit by bit, a massive ship emerged.
"That's Viktor," Blaise said, pointing to one of the figures at the front of the boat. "You know he's the favorite to win the Triwizard right now?"
"Honestly, Blaise, we've never even see him do magic, how do we know he's not awful at it?" Hermione asked.
Blaise shrugged and said defensively, "I was just saying!"
Much the same procedure then happened, with Dumbledore introducing the Durmstrang headmaster Igor Karkaroff, though oddly, he did not look happy about it.
"Those two don't like each other at all," Theo muttered. The others all agreed. They watched as the Durmstrang students marched in. Harry saw Jason and Ron along with many other students, point excitedly at Viktor Krum, who was recognized by all. After they had entered, the Hogwarts students entered behind them, and passed them to lead them into the Great Hall. As the other two schools entered, the students were told they could sit wherever they chose to do so. Upon hearing this, many students became excited, wondering where Viktor Krum would sit. As Krum entered, there was a loud cheer, and many calls for him to sit. However, Krum ignored this, and looked around the hall. Eventually, his eyes fell on Blaise, who had been waving at him, and Viktor walked towards him, sitting with the group of six Slytherins. Viktor smiled, greeting them all, and introduced his friends from Durmstrang, who had followed him there, to them. Across the hall, Hermione smirked from the Gryffindor table as Jason glared at Harry, who was sitting across from Viktor.
"Think it's funny, Granger?" Ron asked. "He should be sitting with us! He doesn't even know them."
"That's why he's sitting with them, Ronald," Hermione replied sweetly. "He does already know them."
"Oh? Right, and I suppose you know him, too, then?" Jason asked. Hermione simply smiled in response and got up from her seat at the Gryffindor table. She walked over to the Slytherins, and easily greeted her friends. She then turned to Viktor and smiled, briefly hugging him in welcome, laughing easily at what he said, and talking to him for a couple minutes, before returning to her seat at the Gryffindor table. As she sat down, she simply smirked again at Jason and Ron, who both sat with their mouths agape in disbelief.
"You..." Jason stammered. "You hugged Viktor Krum?"
"You know him and you didn't wave him over?!" Ron asked angrily.
"He knew more of them anyway," Hermione said. "And I'm sure he'll have wanted to talk about the IHQL with them. I'm not too interested in that talk, though the sport itself is kind of fun."
"When have you played? Last time I checked, you can't fly a broom!" Ron snorted.
"For your information, Ronald, Theo taught me my second year, and Viktor gave me some pointers over the summer," Hermione informed him.
"You've flown with Viktor Krum?" Jason asked incredulously. Hermione just hummed noncommittally, and went back to her food, smirking.
From the Slytherin table, Harry watched the exchange, understanding the gist from the body language, with great amusement.
"Seems my brother isn't too happy with Hermione knowing you," Harry laughed.
"Ah, so that's your brother," Viktor said, looking at Jason.
"Yeah," said Harry. "He's not so bad when he's not around the other Gryffindors, particularly Ron."
"Ron's an idiot," Ginny piped up from Harry's side. "He's my brother."
"I see," Viktor said. "They certainly seem the jealous type."
"Ron is at least," Harry said. "Jason can be."
At that moment, Albus Dumbledore stood from his position at the head table and began to speak.
"Welcome to our friends from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang! I hope you will find yourselves at home here." his voice boomed. "Now, I will introduce the impartial judge, who, a week from now, will select our champions. As per Triwizard history, may I introduce to you, the Goblet of Fire!"
The students watched, awestruck, as Dumbledore revealed an intricate stone goblet, lit with swirling flames.
"Any student wishing to compete must place his or her name in the goblet within the next week! A week from now, the goblet will select one contestant for each school to participate! As was mentioned to you all, no student under seventeen years of age may participate! I personally will be drawing an age line around the goblet, and as an ancient magical artifact, the goblet is impossible to hoodwink, so I advise you all not to try." Dumbledore said this last part with a glare towards the Weasley twins. The Weasley twins just shrugged. "With that, I bid you good luck and good night!"
Everyone in the hall began to move toward their common rooms. The two new school contingents had been given their own common rooms and dormitories, as in such a large castle, spares had been made.
The week continued in a state of excitement, with a betting pool forming over who would be picked as champions. The betting pool for Durmstrang was the least active, as there were few bets that Viktor Krum would not be champion. On the other hand, the betting pools for Beauxbatons and Hogwarts were very varied. The favorite for Beauxbatons was a girl named Jacqueline Dubois, though she held only a slim lead over Fleur Delacour, the silver haired girl who had many of the boys drooling throughout the day. The Hogwarts pool was so close it may as well have been a three-way tie. The current leader was a Ravenclaw named Monica Jefferson, universally recognized as the brightest witch currently at Hogwarts. Other students, such as Harry, thought that while Monica was extremely talented in areas like Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and the like, she would not fare well in a duel or when faced with physical challenges as opposed to more abstract ones. These others had made Monica tie with Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff and Jessica Harrison of Slytherin, both of whom were also bright and better on their feet than Monica. Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor lay behind as a distant fourth.
Despite the headmaster's warnings, the Weasley twins had in fact attempted, unsuccessfully, to breach the age line. The age line had simply left them unable to cross despite the perfectly brewed aging potion they had made.
In a different room of the castle, a shade of a man who once was looked down at the nearly completed machine and laughed gleefully. Just a little longer, and his pain would be banished. He could once more pursue his goals, and this time, he would not be pushed around by the old maniac that had once destroyed his life.