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The Treasure Hunter.

Aside from a few more questions about what he had seen on his holiday abroad, and what looked like Weasley trying, and failing, to hide his jealousy that he had managed to leave whereas the redhead couldn't because of a lack of cash to finance such a trip, the train ride was almost sedate.

Sure, Hermione did give him a bit of grief that he had a few other novels to read, but he wasn't worried; Granger could huff and she could puff, she could tell Dumbledore he was reading muggle novels…. But he doubted the old man would likely cause any problems; Dumbledore wanted him to be kept on an average level, likely because of how powerful Voldemort had become so quickly, and while Hermione and Ronnie boy may not like it too much, he wasn't going to get more magically powerful reading a novel about an invisible man written by a muggle author.

Dumbledore may not exactly be good at learning from his mistakes, but that didn't mean he couldn't mitigate them over time. Truthfully the time he had spent reading gave Harry time to think.

Something big was coming to Hogwarts this year.

Malfoy knew it. The blond imbecile might have made the whole thing up, but Harry knew he hadn't. Draco Malfoy was a parrot, he listened to what people like Snape or his bastard father said and regurgitated it without a thought of his own. When Harry had insulted his intelligence earlier, he had meant it. Draco was good at huffing and puffing he was a powerful wizard, but he didn't have the brains or the imagination, never mind the cunning required to lie about anything elaborate; that time where he had tried to get him (Harry) into trouble with that duel had been as good as he could have gone into the field of thinking on your feet. If that was as good as he could do, it amazed Harry the tosser had survived this long in Slytherin. Sure, Harry knew a lot of it stemmed from Malfoy senior's influence, but Harry wondered what was so cunning about being the shadow over his own son.

While Harry viewed the Malfoy family as scum, he wondered what on Earth had possessed Lucius to literally be the power behind the throne. The best he could guess was Draco had shown he had no aptitude for thinking on his feet or finding cunning and imaginative ways of gaining power. At the same time, he wondered what would happen to Draco when dear old daddy was gone. Draco depended on his father far too much to do his thinking for him. It would have been very funny if it wasn't so pathetic, but truthfully he believed it would be tragic.

The problem with the Malfoys was they hadn't really given Draco a taste of the real world, and as a result, he didn't know how to survive without mummy and daddy there to hold his hands. When they were gone, Draco would likely not survive as he lacked his father's skills. Personally, Harry hoped the whole Malfoy family just disappeared.

But Harry was curious.

What had Malfoy been talking about?

Harry rubbed his eyes as he wondered what kind of horrors were going to happen this year. Someone more naive would say he was being paranoid, but then they didn't have to deal with everything he had. Each year something nasty had happened; in their first year, he had had to deal with the troll, he had almost been thrown off of his broomstick during the first Quidditch match, the Philosopher's Stone, and Voldemort. In the second year he had had to deal with the rampant suspicion of everyone in the castle, accused and hexed when they found he could speak parseltongue, although that all changed when, during a moment of frustrated rage, he had sworn an oath on his magic and his life he had done nothing wrong.

In third year he had had to deal with Sirius Black. He might have known the stupid marauder was innocent, but he truly wished Black had shown some degree of intelligence. In the past, he had kept him out of his mind while he had focused on his own life and his own future, and besides Black should have used his common sense rather than gone after Pettigrew. If he had exercised his rights as the godfather and proven conclusively he hadn't betrayed the elder Potters, then Harry knew he likely wouldn't have been sent to prison, although he wasn't sure considering he had no idea even now just what was going through Dumbledore's mind.

So many things did not make any sense. So many things were just coincidental; Pettigrew becoming the Secret Keeper and then betraying his parents, Voldemort's attack, the Longbottoms' being driven insane, Sirius sent to Azkaban… all within the span of a few days.

Thanks to his mother's memories and knowledge and what he had found out for himself, Harry knew how quickly everything Dumbledore had plotted had been perfectly executed, it also helped that everything going on at the time of Voldemort's defeat had been so chaotic nobody had noticed anything different.

He could understand that so many people had been delighted with the fall of Voldemort, and with that came the messy and lengthy trials where so many Death Eaters had gotten off with the Imperius curse lie. Lily had fought the Death Eaters more than once, they had not shown any signs of being dazed or confused, which was what would have happened if they were under that particular Unforgiveable.

Harry closed his eyes and refocused on the potential dangers for this year. He immediately discounted and dismissed any of the things he had seen and encountered over the last years he'd been a student, Malfoy had said something about entering something, and while he knew many would claim the bastard was making it up, Harry knew he wasn't. Malfoy may have been a Slytherin, but Harry knew he was not cunning enough to be in that House. If it had been one of the more Slytherin Slytherins - Daphne Greengrass or Blaise Zabini, for instance - then he would likely be worried. But then again, at the same time, he knew that none of those more cunning or forward-thinking Slytherins would make such a stupid mistake as to tell him about it or give clues something was happening in the first place. No, they would have prepared some elaborate trap, and he wouldn't have even known about it until it was too late. Malfoy didn't have that quality; he leaked his plans like a sieve dripping water from rice or pasta, and he never knew when to shut his big fat mouth whenever he taunted his enemies. And the blond twat wondered how he (Harry) was able to outthink him?

That was a big problem with Slytherin nowadays. So many of the House believed being in Slytherin meant they needed to be bigoted bastards like Voldemort was, but then you had dickheads like Malfoy who blabbed his plans without considering if he should be keeping his trap shut. No, whatever was happening this year, it was going to be big. As he considered it, he looked at the two friends in the compartment with him. Hermione had given up speaking to him, and now she was busily reading through one of the new spellbooks she was reading and experimenting with some of the more basic spells with her wand. Harry eyed her with some degree of approval; while he despised the bitch for spying on him, he had to admire her desire for knowledge even though there were major differences between Hermione Granger and Lily Potter.

Hermione read books verbatim and regurgitated that knowledge, but she was not creative. Lily Potter had read books herself, but at the same time, she had a thirst to developing her own knowledge, inventing new spells and coming up with new imaginative theories and ideas. That was what had made her such a prodigious charms mistress and spell creator.

Hermione would never reach that level and he knew it. She didn't have the brains or the intellect needed for free-thinking, regardless of that stupid moniker she had of the Brightest Witch of the age. Yeah, right. Hermione was a sponge, soaking up knowledge but loving rules and authority figures until she refused to see there were other ways of discovering things. She was good at memorising facts, but she wasn't innovative enough to experiment or explore other branches of magic, believing in crap that said those branches were dark and evil.

He looked at her quietly, wondering if she knew what was happening this year. It was likely she did, although at the same time there was a chance she had no idea what was happening and would be getting her instructions from Dumbledore himself. Thanks to the Marauder's Map and thanks to his mother's knowledge in how the spells on the map worked, Harry knew that since their first year, Ron and Hermione had periodic meetings with Dumbledore. The Map had features the Weasley twins hadn't even known about, including a memory feature that allowed Harry to witness the comings and goings of students during the time of the Marauders. When he'd gotten hold of the map after the twins gave it to him, Harry had used it to keep track of Ron and Hermione's movements.

He had known they were spies, but he had no idea just how many times they visited Dumbledore originally, but thanks to the Map he quickly worked out they had scheduled meetings with him three or four times a week, although they could see him if the matter was urgent. He hadn't known that originally, even with legilimency.

Just because he sifted through their minds didn't mean he knew everything about them. In any case, legilimency left traces and he didn't really want to give the old man any clues. Thanks to the map, he discovered it was actually quite frequent. They always had a meeting with the old bastard at the start of every year. They would go to his office and give him the rundown of what happened on the Express. From there Dumbledore would give them his commands.

Granted, it was possible Dumbledore had indeed told them, but he wasn't worried. If there was something big coming that even Malfoy knew about, then Dumbledore would likely announce it in front of the entire school. It sounded like some sort of competition, although he couldn't be absolutely sure. Malfoy did say after all something about entering something.

When the Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmeade station, Harry walked in silence to the Thestral drawn carriages and pretty soon all the upper years were taken to the castle where they quickly sat down at their House tables. As Harry entered the Hall, he sighed at the sight of the tables under his breath when he saw that the students were sitting down at their own tables for the feast.

He had never liked the House system of Hogwarts. Four Houses, each one an elite within the elite of the school itself, with children from various backgrounds. The Gryffindors were meant to be the bravest of the bunch, although Harry hadn't seen many signs of that trend among any of the current day lions. That was one of the biggest problems with the Gryffindors today, they preferred to posture and look heroic rather than be heroic. They also had the habit of judging people who didn't fit the mould. Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom were perfect examples of this; Harry honestly thought Neville was braver than most, considering everything he had to endure and tolerate, especially since everyone believed he was useless as a wizard, but the fact he still kept trying spoke volumes of his character.

Hermione, on the other hand… Harry had heard many times over the years people wondering why she was a Gryffindor, not a Ravenclaw, but the truth was she wasn't smart enough to be a Ravenclaw. She soaked up knowledge and regurgitated it, whereas the Ravenclaws knew that all the knowledge in the Hogwarts library had likely been superseded long ago, meaning all the facts in them was likely replaced. Granger just couldn't see it.

The Hufflepuffs were supposed to be loyal and hardworking, but where the latter was accurate enough, Harry didn't see any signs of Hufflepuff loyalty anywhere else in the school. He had been in the sights of Hufflepuff aggression twice in his school career, the first mostly due to their prejudice towards parseltongue, whereas the second was because of Sirius Black. Last year Hannah Abbot led the charge against him, saying that the school was in danger because of him, she had virtually created a Lynch mob, and she would have succeeded if Dumbledore hadn't intervened.

And then there were the Ravenclaws. The so-called nerds, but Harry liked to view them as scholars, and he was pretty positive they believed the same thing. Harry wished he had gone into Ravenclaw, but the Sorting Hat had sorted him into Gryffindor without even checking his underlying personality. When he had come to Hogwarts, Harry had planned to enter Ravenclaw because the House had access to a great deal of knowledge, befitting its Founder's personality. Okay, he knew his preference came from that set of memories implanted in his head from Lily, who had realised too late her sorting into Gryffindor was a mistake, especially when she had been exposed to Gryffindor stupidity. Harry had not wanted to make the same mistake, Boy Who Lived or not. And after he had been exposed to the shameless handshaking and people staring at his scar, discovering they had their own ideas on what he was like in personality and his hobbies, his appearance…. They even had misconceptions and beliefs on what he liked to eat for crying out loud!

Well, he had decided to shake them up with his sorting.

He had wanted to go into a different House, in theory, he should have gone there, although Slytherin was likely a close contender, even if many people would have been annoyed that he had gone into any other House other than Gryffindor. He had a love for knowledge and had several inventive traits, and he was unafraid to experiment with his knowledge.

But no, Albus Dumbledore had meddled in his affairs once again, only nobody had noticed. They all had ideas of him, about his personality, which hadn't been helped by those stupid Harry Potter adventure books, depicting him as a hero at the age of three, where he was supposed to have defeated a violent manticore! In their minds, Harry Potter was a Gryffindor. End of story. He just was. The end.

And then there were Slytherin. The House where supposedly every wizard or witch who went bad came from. Harry knew that was not true, and it sickened him everyone in this Hall, perhaps barring exceptions, believed that was the case. Even several of the teachers believed the Slytherins were evil. Harry knew it wasn't as black and white as people liked to think. Okay, Malfoy was a fool and several of the Slytherins were cruel and nasty, but Harry had also met several people from other Houses who were much worse. What sickened him the most was every kid in this Hall were meant to be the future of the magical world. They were destined to take over positions of government, become Healers, Curse-Breakers, Aurors, etc.

However, the ones who were raised in the magical world had been brainwashed by their family into seeing the Houses from their point of view, and in many cases, it was so extreme if they were sorted into a different House they were disowned. But one of the most tragic issues behind the Founder's original plan to create elites by sorting students to see who mirrored the Founders' own personalities was the brainwashing was passed down from one generation to the next, so the children saw one House as superior to the others.

The Weasley family saw Gryffindor as the best, whereas the others had their own preferences.

For muggleborns, this wouldn't be an issue, but once they were sorted into their own Houses, they would quickly become brainwashed themselves to see their House as the best. The inter-house rivalries were so bad, even one student eating with another or marrying another was rare, even though it wasn't impossible. The problem was the Sorting Hat sung a new song every single year to make the students stop, but the Hat's efforts were in vain. The rivalries were strong even now. The teachers didn't care, and even in classrooms, they did nothing to stop the students from sitting in clusters instead of mingling with their peers.

Harry sat down at his table and waited for the feast to start. He ignored the Sorting Hat and the students sorted into Gryffindor although he shuddered when he learnt Colin Creevey had a brother starting this year. Harry didn't have much against the younger boy, but he wished Colin showed a bit more tact and restraint.

It was one thing being a fan, but the line was drawn whenever Colin asked to take photographs of his fucking scar. Didn't the boy even realise what he had lost during that night, or was he completely thoughtless? Harry had lost his parents, and very quickly he was almost burnt to a crisp by the family of his mother's fucked up sister? Of course, the story of what had happened shortly after Dumbledore had dumped him on that doorstep was not widely known. At the same time, Dumbledore kept trying his futile efforts to send Harry back to the Dursleys….

Once the sorting was over, Harry looked at the new faces that he could immediately see, and he pitied them tremendously. He knew it wouldn't be long before they too became indoctrinated by the House shit. As the tables groaned under the weight of the food, Harry slowly picked up some pork, vegetables, potatoes, and covered it with gravy. Once he had filled his plate he began to eat slowly, letting his eyes scan the hall.

It didn't take him long to be satisfied the majority of the school were unaware of anything coming up this year, however, if Malfoy knew something that meant he was either boasting about it quietly to those who'd care enough to listen to the blond arsehole, or those who worked at the Ministry were ignoring him. Then again, Malfoy had one of those personalities you would rather ignore.

Realising he was getting nothing from looking at the students, Harry instead turned his attention to the staff. They looked the same as always, but he didn't know if it was because they were better controlled than the teenagers they had spent a lifetime teaching or not. Harry sighed under his breath and carried on eating.

When the last of the puddings was cleared, Dumbledore stood up and walked to the lectern to deliver his usual start of term announcements. Once he had delivered the main speech, a bright smile crossed his face.

This is it, Harry thought to himself.

"I have the greatest pleasure to announce that this year Hogwarts will be hosting the Triwizard Tournament, an event that has not happened in a century now."

What? Harry thought while he kept his expression as cluelessly excited like everyone else. Inwardly, however, he went through his memory for anything relating to the Tournament. But he came up empty-handed. His mother hadn't come across anything about the Tournament, but whatever it was it was big enough for Malfoy to know.

"You're JOKING!" One of the Weasley twins shouted.

Harry's face was set as he watched Dumbledore smile, his eyes twinkling madly. Out of reflex, Harry looked away slightly, knowing thanks to his occlumency training that the twinkle was a means those trained in the mind arts used to attract people's attention to the eyes. Harry had more subtle ways at his disposal, but he always made a habit to either wear dark tinted glasses or he would just look away.

"No, Mr Weasley, I am not joking. However, I did hear an amusing anecdote just this summer-," Dumbledore paused when McGonagall let out a loud, impatient noise, making some of the younger students chuckle. "Oh, right, the Tournament."

Harry listened as the old wizard explained the Tournament's back history, how the event would be three tasks long, which would take place over the coming months and how the tasks were designed to test the Champions magical resolve and resourcefulness (the moment he heard that, Harry wanted to laugh; resourcefulness? With the way the schools' standards had been slipping and how everyone seemed to lack intelligence more and more, the most resourceful thing the Champion of Hogwarts would do would be to duck and hide!) while at the same time allowing new ties with the foreign schools to take place, the prize money that would be offered as a reward, and the impending arrival of two of Europes largest magical schools, which would be involved with the Tournament. Harry listened calmly to the explanation about the big event Malfoy had been yakking about on the Express, and he knew this would be something he would do everything in his power to avoid.

At that moment the doors to the Great Hall burst open just as Dumbledore was describing how the selection process for the Champions would be done, startling the students and even making one or two of the older students whip out their wands and level them at the intruder.

"Ah, allow me to introduce you to our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody," Dumbledore announced with a smile, instantly making many of the students talk amongst themselves as Moody strode forward, his peg leg crashing to the ground frequently as he marched as best as he could towards the staff table.

Moody? Harry recognised the name instantly, remembering him from his mothers' memories as an Auror, probably one of the most lethal Aurors in the history of the DMLE. Lily had always been impressed with Moody for his professional attitude and his desire to get rid of the Death Eaters while armed with a brutally powerful spell repertoire. He certainly looked frightening enough, and his face showed the toil his body had gone through just to get rid of the Death Eaters and people like them.

But what the hell had Dumbledore done to get the man to teach?

Harry pushed that aside for a moment so he could study Moody in all his glory. He was tall and thin with long greying hair, a massive chunk was missing from his nose, and his face was scarred so heavily it was impossible to find small intact patches of skin. The most terrifying aspect of Moody's appearance was the electric-blue magical eye that spun in every direction. Harry knew the eye was capable of seeing through anything and everything if Moody so wanted, but he knew a charm or two to make sure the ex Auror didn't learn too much about him.

Harry watched as Moody walked to the staff table, a black cloak and robes covering his battle-scarred body while he used a long gnarled staff to help him walk with the peg leg which reminded Harry of those lying images of pirates. Thinking of pirates made him think of the U-Boat he'd encountered over the holidays. He had sold all but one of the Lugers and the painting. He was now in two minds about selling the fucking thing if he was honest with himself, a part of him wanted to keep the relics as souvenirs, something to reminisce about when he was old, rich, and tired from a lifetime spent adventuring for treasure.

Harry looked around the Great Hall, wondering how the rest of the school were taking the arrival of the new Defence teacher. Many of them, particularly the one's Dumbledore and his ilk termed 'light' were looking happy, even thrilled by the presence of the ex-Auror. He wasn't surprised; they all knew the ex-Auror's well-known reputation, which was more well known than Remus Lupin by a wide degree. At the same time, the ones who were old enough to remember the fame-obsessed con artist that was Gilderoy Lockhart would know if they compared Lockhart to Moody, they'd find the con artist wanting; Moody may have been unattractive, but he was proficient and he was an infinitely better example of a wizard.

But Harry also noted that there were quite a few students in the four houses who weren't happy by Moody's presence. He guessed Moody had done something to their families, or he had done something they didn't like in general; he saw Malfoy look like a cross between angry and scared, but he was masking his emotions with his typical sneer. Yet another example of Malfoy's general ineptitude with handling his emotions, a stark contrast to the cold, ice queen Daphne Greengrass.

Harry looked up and down the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables, seeing their general reactions. Many of them were like Malfoy, unable to hide their fear or anger, but they weren't alone in the rest of the hall. He knew they wouldn't be stupid enough to go after a former Auror, one who had the power and knowledge to reduce them to a pile of goop in moments. But his mind wasn't just on Moody.

The Triwizard Tournament.

Dumbledore might have given a small, abridged version of the history behind it, but Harry knew there was more to it than that. There usually was.