Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585181
Chapter 2: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585386
Chapter 3: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589099
Chapter 4: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589999
Chapter 5: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003590737
Chapter 6: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003592048
Chapter 7: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003593450
Chapter 8: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003594715
Chapter 9: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003595876
Chapter 10: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003596713
Chapter 11: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003597502
Chapter 12: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003598647
Tags: @MeowTasticCat @Bellatrisblack @Diantha Angelina Black @CatsAndRoblox @Kakaonut
Chapter Thirteen: Beauxbatons and Durmstrang
By breakfast the following morning Harry was still feeling anxious. He really wished that force once he could have a normal school year not filled with dangers around every corner, he could only hope that his worry’s were without cause. Harry was so lost in his own thoughts that he wasn’t quite registering the movements of those around him, not until someone tapped him on his shoulder to get his attention.
‘Wha-? Oh, hey Colin.’
Colin Creevey was standing beside him with a wide smile on his face, looking quite chipper.
‘Morning Harry,’ he said happily. ‘Have you seen Theo today?’
Harry thought for a moment, he was positive Theodore had come down with them, but he had been so lost in thought that he had no idea where he was now. ‘Sorry Colin, not sure where Theodore went off to.’
The chipper smile of the third year diminished somewhat, he then tried to force it back to what it was. ‘Oh...I see.’
‘I’m sure he’ll be around, but you can sit with me if you’d like.’
Colin stayed standing for another moment, looking up and down the long tables, then sat next to Harry and helped himself to some scrambled eggs.
‘So how has your first week back been, Colin?’ Harry asked, grateful to have something take his mind off his worries.
‘It’s been really great. I chose Care of Magical Creatures as an elective, as well as Muggle Studies. I wanted to learn more about how the magical world interprets my parents world. I’ve also been showing Dennis all around.’
‘That is really great, I remember getting to show Canini around last year, it’s fun being the older sibling,’ Harry said while gently elbowing Colin, which got him to chuckle.
‘Yes, it is fun being the oldest. The classes are getting harder though. For Defense class we did some quick review on the creatures we learned about last year and are now going straight into defensive spells, and in Potions there was no review class and we jumped right into learning shrinking potions.’
‘Yeah, Snape really doesn’t believe in easing into the school year.’
‘What about Snape?’
Harry and Collin turned to Theodore approaching.
‘Oh, just that he is a hard-case and a bit unfair. Colin was looking for you.’
Colin smiled, a bit embarrassed, and if Harry wasn’t mistaken he swore Colin’s cheeks were a little pink.
‘Hi Colin, you look happy today. Mind if I sit then?’
‘Course not,’ Colin blurted. The three finished up eating and then headed to their classes.
Over the next couple weeks Harry’s worries subsided, although they never truly went away. He found that without Quidditch he had a lot of extra time on his hands and wasn’t quite sure how to fill it. One of the things he used to fill that time was deal with Canini’s bullies, he implied to them that they might not want to mess with her as Harry was known for making people disappear. The rest of the time though he found himself often quite bored. Just homework to fill the time.
However in class he did not find himself bored, their lessons were becoming more difficult and demanding than ever before, particularly Moody’s Defense Against the Dark Arts. To their surprise, Professor Moody had announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of them in turn, to demonstrate its power and to see whether they could resist its effects.
‘But—Professor, as you said it is illegal to use these spells on humans,’ said Tracey uncertainly as Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room. ‘What if the Ministry finds out, won’t you be in—‘
‘Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like,’ said Moody, his magical eye swiveling onto Tracey and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. ‘If you’d rather learn the hard way—when someone’s putting it on you so they can control you completely—fine by me. You’re excused. Off you go.’
He pointed one gnarled finger toward the door. Tracey shook her head, and embarrassed, walked back to the group. Tracey meant no offence, she just didn’t like seeing others get hurt.
Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. Harry watched as, one by one, his classmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence. Dean Thomas hopped three times around the room, singing the national anthem. Millicent did a handstand while chirping like a bird. Neville performed a series of quite astonishing gymnastics he would certainly not have been capable of in his normal state. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.
‘Potter,’ Moody growled, ‘you next.’
Harry moved forward into the middle of the classroom, into the space that Moody had cleared of desks. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Harry, and said, ‘Imperio!’
It was the most wonderful feeling. Harry felt a floating sensation as every thought and worry in his head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. He stood there feeling immensely relaxed, only dimly aware of everyone watching him.
And then he heard Mad-Eye Moody’s voice, echoing in some distant chamber of his empty brain: Jump onto the desk...jump onto the desk...
Harry bent his knees obediently, preparing to spring. Jump onto the desk...
Why, though? Another voice had awoken in the back of his brain. Stupid thing to do, really, said the voice.
Jump onto the desk...
No, I don’t think I will, thanks, said the other voice, a little more firmly...no, I don’t really want to...
Jump! NOW!
The next thing Harry felt was considerable pain. He had both jumped and tried to prevent himself from jumping—the result was that he’d smashed headlong into the desk, knocking it over, and, by the feeling in his legs, fractured both his kneecaps.
‘Now, that’s more like it!’ growled Moody’s voice, and suddenly, Harry felt the empty, echoing feeling in his head disappear. He remembered exactly what was happening, and the pain in his knees seemed to double.
‘Look at that, you lot...Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it! We’ll try that again, Potter, and the rest of you, pay attention—watch his eyes, that’s where you see it—very good, Potter, very good indeed! They’ll have trouble controlling you!’
‘The way he talks,’ Harry muttered as he hobbled out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class an hour later (Moody had insisted on putting Harry through his paces four times in a row, until Harry could throw off the curse entirely), ‘you’d think we were all going to be attacked any second.’
'You heard Remus and Sirius,' Theodore began, 'Our world is getting more dangerous again. I think Moody is taking it to far, but his logic is sound. We don't know what could happen tomorrow, or the day after that.'
'It is quite intense though,' said Tracey, 'hopefully he tones it down a little bit. I want to learn, but not get traumatized in the process.'
Moody did not tone down his lessons however, and as all the fourth years had noticed, the other teachers had increased there amount of work they were required to do as well. Professor McGonagall explained why, when the class gave a particularly loud groan at the amount of Transfiguration homework she had assigned.
'You are now entering a most important phase of your magical education!' she told them, her eyes glinting dangerously behind her square spectacles. 'Your Ordinary Wizarding Levels are drawing closer—'
'We aren't fifth years!' Malfoy shouted, 'are your glasses working?'
'Maybe not, Mr Malfoy, but believe me, you need all the preparation you can get! Miss Granger from the Gryffindor remains the only student in your year who has managed to turn a hedgehog into a satisfactory pincushion. I might remind you all that your pincushions still tend to run away when approached with a pin!'
'She's a Mudblood,' Harry heard Pansy whisper to Zabini, 'she grew up using those useless tools, of course she'd be more familiar with them.'
Harry glared at her for using such a filthy word, but since Professor McGonagall didn't hear anything there wasn't anything he could do.
Harry, Tracey, and Theodore were deeply amused when Professor Trelawney told them that they had received top marks for their homework in their next Divination class. She read out large portions of their predictions, commending them for their unflinching acceptance of the horrors in store for them—but they were less amused when she asked them to do the same thing for the month after next; both of them were running out of ideas for catastrophes.
Meanwhile Professor Binns had them writing weekly essays on the goblin rebellions of the eighteenth century. Professor Snape was forcing them to research antidotes. They took this one seriously, as he had hinted that he might be poisoning one of them before Christmas to see if their antidote worked. Professor Flitwick had asked them to read three extra books in preparation for their lesson on Summoning Charms.
Even Hagrid was adding to their workload. The Blast-Ended Skrewts were growing at a remarkable pace given that nobody had yet discovered what they ate. Hagrid was delighted, and as part of their “project,” suggested that they come down to his hut on alternate evenings to observe the Skrewts and make notes on their extraordinary behavior.
'I will not,' said Draco Malfoy flatly when Hagrid had proposed this with the air of Father Christmas pulling an extra-large toy out of his sack. 'I see enough of these foul things during lessons, thanks.'
Hagrid’s smile faded off his face.
'Yeh’ll do wha’ yer told,' he growled, 'or I’ll be takin’ a leaf outta Professor Moody’s book...I hear cowardly Slytherins make excellent ferrets.' Everyone but Malfoy laughed, however Malfoy turned a bit red, clearly not wanting to share in Pansy's fate. Harry, and his friends returned to the castle at the end of the lesson in high spirits; seeing Hagrid put down Malfoy was particularly satisfying, Malfoy may not be as bad as Pansy, but he was still quite a thorn in their sides.
When they arrived in the Entrance Hall, they found themselves unable to proceed owing to the large crowd of students congregated there, all milling around a large sign that had been erected at the foot of the marble staircase. None were tall enough to see over it so they tried waiting for the crowd to ease up a little, however Terence who is over a foot taller than them soon came down the stairs and he agreed to find out what was happening. He read the sign aloud to the other four:
'TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT
The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at six o’clock on Friday the twenty-eighth of October. Lessons will end half an hour early—'
'Brilliant!' said Harry. 'It’s Potions last thing on Friday! Snape won’t have time to poison us all!'
Terence continued:
'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.'
'Only a week away!' said Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff, emerging from the crowd, his eyes gleaming. 'I wonder if Cedric knows? Think I’ll go and tell him...'
'Cedric Diggory?' said Terence, 'He'll be competing?'
'I guess he must be entering the tournament,' Harry agreed.
Terence face was of mixed feelings, 'I still wish I could compete, but if I can't I am glad Cedric is. He might be on a rival team but I have to admit he is very skilled and very honorable.'
Harry nodded, he had been competing against Cedric in Quidditch for over three years, and Harry had to admit he was equally a good flyer, and nearly an equally good Seeker. And what Terence said was true, unlike the Gryffindor Seeker Kenneth Towler, Cedric played fair and didn't resort to using brought force to win. 'Yes, Cedric would probably make a good champion.'
The appearance of the sign in the entrance hall had a marked effect upon the inhabitants of the castle. During the following week, there seemed to be only one topic of conversation, no matter where Harry went: the Triwizard Tournament. Rumors were flying from student to student like highly contagious germs: who was going to try for Hogwarts champion, what the tournament would involve, how the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang differed from themselves.
Harry noticed too that the castle seemed to be undergoing an extra-thorough cleaning. Several grimy portraits had been scrubbed, much to the displeasure of their subjects, who sat huddled in their frames muttering darkly and wincing as they felt their raw pink faces. The suits of armor were suddenly gleaming and moving without squeaking, and Argus Filch, the caretaker, was behaving so ferociously to any students who forgot to wipe their shoes that he terrified a pair of first-year girls into hysterics.
Other members of the staff seemed oddly tense too. 'Runcorn, don't let Beauxbaton know you haven't mastered the Full Body-Bind yet, we can't let them see even the tiniest of flaws!' Professor Flitwick begged at the end of his last class before the schools arrive. Nearly every teacher had a similar message, show off what you have perfected but hide your struggles.
When they went down to breakfast on the morning of the twenty-eighth of October, they found that the Great Hall had been decorated overnight. Enormous silk banners hung from the walls, each of them representing a Hogwarts House: red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Behind the teachers’ table, the largest banner of all bore the Hogwarts coat of arms: lion, eagle, badger, and snake united around a large letter H.
Harry, Theodore, Allison, and Tracey sat down beside Terence at the Slytherin table. He and Allison both shared a gloomy look despite everyone else being so excited.
'Are you too still in melancholy over being too young?' Theodore asked, some annoyance in his voice.
'Its just unfair,' Allison protested, 'the requirement to enter should be based on skill, not age.'
'And by the time the tournament comes around again we'll already have graduated,' Terence added on.
'Think of it this way,' suggested Harry, 'Dumbledore said the death toll was really high, with these rules you'll actually live to see graduation.'
'I guess,' said Terence, 'but I still think if I could figure out who chooses the champions I could convince them to give me a shot.'
'So you still haven't figured out who it is?' Tracey asked tentatively.
'No,' answered Allison. 'We have asked all around but the teachers all have tight lips when it comes to this. I almost wonder if they have charm on them.'
'What do you think the tasks will be?' Harry asked the group.
'I've read all about the Tournament,' Terence said proudly. 'Every five years the tasks are different, but they usually require a combination of skill and puzzle solving. They are rarely solved with just brute force. And whoever does it best gets the most points from the judges.'
'Who are the judges?' Harry asked.
'Not sure if there are more, but usually the Heads of the three schools are always on the panel,' said Terence, and everyone looked around at him. 'Seriously, none of you have read Twiwizard Tragedies? In the 1792 Tournament it mentioned those three judges getting hurt, although there probably would be more than just those three as they would be too biased to their own school.'
As the day continued there was a pleasant feeling of anticipation in the air. Nobody was very attentive in lessons, being much more interested in the arrival that evening of the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang; even Potions was more bearable than usual, as it was half an hour shorter. When the bell rang early, Harry, Tracey, Allison, and Theodore hurried up to Slytherin Dungeon, deposited their bags and books as they had been instructed, pulled on their cloaks, and rushed back upstairs into the entrance hall.
The Heads of Houses were ordering their students into lines.
'Potter, try and do something with that mop of a head of yours,' Professor Snape snapped. 'Miss Parkinson, take those of your ears.'
Pansy scowled and removed two large green crystal ear rings.
'We're leaving now,' said Professor Snape. 'First years in the front...Go single file.'
They filed down the steps and lined up in front of the castle. It was a cold, clear evening; dusk was falling and a pale, transparent-looking moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest. Harry, standing between Tracey and Allison in the fourth row from the front, saw the Carrow twins positively shivering from both excitement and the cold among the other first years.
‘We’ve been waiting over an hour,’ Theodore quietly whined as the clock tower struck six o’clock. ‘Are they actually coming today?’
‘They should be, but maybe whatever mode of transportation they are using got delayed,’ Harry responded. ‘For such a big even they probably aren’t using simply a Portkey to Hogsmeade and walking the rest of the way. Allison, what do you know about Beauxbatons?’
‘Very little, it was my grandmother that had went, and my father hasn’t let me see her since I was born. Not even sure if she’s alive anymore. What about Durmstrang? Did Canini ever talk about how they got to the island you mentioned?’
‘She said they traveled by boat,’ Harry answered.
They scanned the darkening grounds excitedly, but nothing was
moving; everything was still, silent, and quite as usual. Harry was starting to feel cold. He wished they’d hurry up...Maybe the foreign students were preparing a dramatic entrance...He remembered what Mr Weasley had said back when they first arrived at the campsite before the Quidditch World Cup: ‘always the same—we can’t resist showing off when we get together...’
And then Dumbledore called out from the back row where he stood with the other teachers—
‘Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!’
‘Where?’ said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions.
‘There!’ yelled a sixth year, pointing over the forest.
Something large, much larger than a broomstick—or, indeed, a hundred broomsticks—was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time.
‘It’s a dragon!’ shrieked the first year Scarlett Lympsham, losing her head completely.
‘Don’t be stupid...it’s a flying house!’ Harry heard Dennis Creevey call out from the Gryffindor line.
Dennis’s guess was closer...As the gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the lights shining from the castle windows hit it, they saw a gigantic, powder-blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring toward them, pulled through the air by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant.
The front three rows of students drew backward as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed—then, with an almighty crash that made poor Neville jump backward onto a fifth year Slytherin named Jack Vaisey’s foot, the horses’ hooves, larger than dinner plates, hit the ground. A second later, the carriage landed too, bouncing upon its vast wheels, while the golden horses tossed their enormous heads and rolled large, fiery red eyes.
Harry just had time to see that the door of the carriage bore a coat of arms (two crossed, golden wands, each emitting three stars) before it opened.
A boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully. Then Harry saw a shining, high-heeled black shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage—a shoe the size of a child’s sled—followed, almost immediately, by the largest woman he had ever seen in his life. The size of the carriage, and of the horses, was immediately explained. A few people gasped.
Harry had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in his life, and that was Hagrid; he doubted whether there was an inch difference in their heights. Yet somehow—maybe simply because he was used to Hagrid—this woman (now at the foot of the steps, and looking around at the waiting, wide-eyed crowd) seemed even more unnaturally large. As she stepped into the light flooding from the entrance hall, she was revealed to have a handsome, olive-skinned face; large, black, liquid-looking eyes; and a rather beaky nose. Her hair was drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.
Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many of them standing on tiptoe, the better to look at this woman.
Her face relaxed into a gracious smile and she walked forward toward Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, had barely to bend to kiss it.
‘My dear Madame Maxime,’ he said. ‘Welcome to Hogwarts.’
‘Dumbly-dorr,’ said Madame Maxime in a deep voice. ‘I ’ope I find you well?’
‘In excellent form, I thank you,’ said Dumbledore.
‘My pupils,’ said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her.
Harry, whose attention had been focused completely upon Madame Maxime, now noticed that about a dozen boys and girls, all, by the look of them, in their late teens, had emerged from the carriage and were now standing behind Madame Maxime. They were shivering, which was unsurprising, given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls around their heads. From what Harry could see of them (they were standing in Madame Maxime’s enormous shadow), they were staring up at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.
‘ ’As Karkaroff arrived yet?’ Madame Maxime asked.
‘He should be here any moment,’ said Dumbledore. ‘Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?’
‘Warm up, I think,’ said Madame Maxime. ‘But ze ’orses—‘
‘Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them,’ said Dumbledore, ‘the moment he has returned from dealing with a slight situation that has arisen with some of his other—er—charges.’
‘Must mean Skrewts,’ Tracey muttered to Harry, grinning.
‘My steeds require—er—forceful ’andling,’ said Madame Maxime, looking as though she doubted whether any Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts could be up to the job. ‘Zey are very strong...’
‘I assure you that Hagrid will be well up to the job,’ said Dumbledore, smiling.
‘Very well,’ said Madame Maxime, bowing slightly. ‘Will you please inform zis ’Agrid zat ze ’orses drink only single-malt whiskey?’
‘It will be attended to,’ said Dumbledore, also bowing.
‘Come,’ said Madame Maxime imperiously to her students, and the Hogwarts crowd parted to allow her and her students to pass up the stone steps.
‘If Durmstrang is traveling by boat, I almost wonder if it’ll be bigger or smaller than that carriage,’ Terence whispered from behind them.
‘I wonder what has happened with the Skrewts that Hagrid had to miss this?’ Harry asked in a hashed voice.
‘I don’t know,’ said Tracey, ‘They’re starving and dangerous, anything is possible.’
They stood, shivering slightly now, waiting for the Durmstrang party to arrive. Most people were gazing hopefully up at the sky.
For a few minutes, the silence was broken only by Madame Maxime’s huge horses snorting and stamping. But then—
‘What is that sound?’ said Allison suddenly.
Harry listened; a loud and oddly eerie noise was drifting toward them from out of the darkness: a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed...
‘The lake!’ yelled the Gryffindor Lee Jordan, pointing down at it. ‘Look at the lake!’
From their position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, they had a clear view of the smooth black surface of the water—except that the surface was suddenly not smooth at all. Some disturbance was taking place deep in the center; great bubbles were forming on the surface, waves were now washing over the muddy banks—and then, out in the very middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared, as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake’s floor...
What seemed to be a long, black pole began to rise slowly out of the heart of the whirlpool...and then Harry saw the rigging...
‘I was right! It’s a ship!’ said Harry to the others. ‘Look at the mast.’
Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and the dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes. Finally, with a great sloshing noise, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to glide toward the bank. A few moments later, they heard the splash of an anchor being thrown down in the shallows, and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank.
People were disembarking; they could see their silhouettes passing the lights in the ship’s portholes. All of them, Harry noticed, seemed to be built along the lines of Crabbe and Goyle...but then, as they drew nearer, walking up the lawns into the light streaming from the entrance hall, he saw that their bulk was really due to the fact that they were wearing cloaks of some kind of shaggy, matted fur. But the man who was leading them up to the castle was wearing furs of a different sort: sleek and silver, like his hair.
‘Dumbledore!’ he called heartily as he walked up the slope. ‘How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?’
‘Bloomingly, thank you, Professor Karkaroff,’ Dumbledore replied.
Karkaroff had a fruity, unctuous voice; when he stepped into the light pouring from the front doors of the castle they saw that he was tall and thin like Dumbledore, but his white hair was short, and his goatee (finishing in a small curl) did not entirely hide his rather weak chin. Harry had a hard time believing what Remus and Sirius had warned him about Karkaroff. When he reached Dumbledore, he shook hands with both of his own.
‘Dear old Hogwarts,’ he said, looking up at the castle and smiling; his teeth were rather yellow, and Harry noticed that his smile did not extend to his eyes, which remained cold and shrewd, much more like he had imagined. ‘How good it is to be here, how good...Viktor, come along, into the warmth...you don’t mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold...’
Karkaroff beckoned forward one of his students. As the boy passed, Harry caught a glimpse of a prominent curved nose and thick black eyebrows. He didn’t need the brief high-pitched squeal from Theodore to recognize who was in front of them.
‘I can’t believe it—‘ Theodore squeaked, ‘—it’s Krum!’
Edit: (I actually forgot to add a small detail, after her 12th birthday (The 3rd of October) Canini starts taking the Casition Potion which allows her to slowly start going through the female puberty.)