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chapter seven | the tri-wizard tournament

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TIME PASSED and after a while, Dumbledore stood up yet again.

"So!" he said. Kaya was stuffed and so ready for bed, she physically couldn't wait. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out notices."

"Here we go," Maisie yawned. "Something from Filch, no doubt,"

"Mr Filch, the caretaker-"

Maisie, Kaya and Cedric quietly chuckled.

"-has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended. It now includes Screaming Yo-Yo's, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises somewhat four hundred items, and can be viewed in Mr Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."

He paused, Kaya then exchanging a tired glance with Jaeden across the room.

"As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year..."

"No offence, but could he please hurry up?" Maisie muttered.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year,"

Kaya shot up from leaning forward on the table and her eyes widened.

"WHAT?" she and Cedric said entirely in sync. Maisie raised her eyebrows in surprise.

There was a huge uproar from students of all years in all houses. Kaya had completely frozen in shock. Jaeden looked like he'd just been slapped in the face and Milo like he'd lost a limb. Maisie was laughing at them all.

"Why?!" Kaya said. Cedric shook his head, also not having a clue.

"It better be a fucking good reason," she said. "I practiced all summer! I was gonna kick Jae's ass!"

"This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up as much of the teachers' time and energy. But I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely,"

"We better," Kaya mumbled.

"I have a great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-"

The massive doors that were the entrance to the hall swung open with a large crash, causing many students to jump. Every head in the hall turned to see a man standing in the doorway, before he began to limp to the teacher's table.

"Oi, oi, stranger danger," Kaya whispered to Maisie.

"If that was the case, it would be stranger danger every year with a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

Kaya watched with curiosity as the man passed, as did so many of the other students. He had a missing eye that had a magical replacement, his face covered in scars and he was missing a foot. Not to mention the large stick he carried. He had quite an intimidating presence, Kaya feeling a little more uneasy now than she did five minutes ago before he appeared. Everyone else must've been feeling the same - nobody spoke a word, apart from Jaeden making a face and mouthing to Milo,

"Who the fuck's that?"

"Who's that?" Maisie whispered.

"I dunno,"

"May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher? Professor Moody,"

"Why's he late?" Kaya wondered.

"I dunno, shut up," Maisie said, as Dumbledore returned to his speech.

"As I was saying, 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 shouted. Kaya grinned at him and Maisie sniggered at Kaya smiling at the boy. Kaya kicked her.

"Am I the only one who literally doesn't have a clue what that is?" The brunette girl said, making a face.

"I am not joking, Mr Weasley," Dumbledore said, before going on a bit of a ramble about some kind of joke he heard - Maisie used that time to try and explain to Kaya what the Tri-Wizard Tournament was. She didn't get very far.

"Where was I? Ah, yes, the Tri-Wizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks,"

"Magical? You don't say?" Maisie joked.

"Shut up,"

"These schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities - that is, until the death toll mounted so high the tournament was discontinued,"

"Hold on," Kaya said. "Why bring it back?"

"Yeah, I don't really know why they'd want to," Maisie said. Cedric was too interested in the explanation to comment.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued. "None of which had been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is right for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find him or herself in mortal danger,"

"Nice to know,"

"The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short listed contestants in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place on Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Tri-Wizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money-"

"I just wanna go to sleep, to be honest,"

"Kaya, close your mouth for a damn second,"

"Eager though I know some of you will be to bring the Tri-Wizard Cup to Hogwarts, the heads of the participating schools, along with the Minstry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on our contenders this year. Only students that are of age - that is, seventeen or older - will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration,"

There was a smaller outburst than the Quidditch one, as many people complained. Kaya caught a glimpse of Fred and George shouting something. She couldn't really hear. Dumbledore continued to talk about the reasons behind it, which Kaya thought were pretty obvious in the first place. He also talked about welcoming Beauxbatons and Durmstrang and giving support to whoever the Hogwarts champion would be. And then, he said the words Kaya was begging to hear.

"Bedtime, chop chop!"

Kaya jumped up.

"Not so fast," said Cedric. "Don't forget you're a prefect for the second time today. We've gotta show the first years to our common room,"

Kaya groaned.

"Come on then," she said to both Cedric and Maisie. "First years! First years follow me! And if you can't see me, follow this taller boy in front of me."

"First year Hufflepuff's!" Cedric called. The two Prefects continued to shout similar phrases until they reached their common room, Maisie tagging along with them.

The girls said a brief goodnight to Cedric, before heading off to the girl dormitories.

"I'm knackered," said Maisie, as the two collapsed onto their beds.

"Me and you both," said Kaya. "I wonder who'll enter the tournament? Do you think Jae and Milo will?"

"Well, Jae can't can he? He's not seventeen until December."

"Oh, yeah,"

A few other girls walked in and headed straight for their beds. Nobody had enough energy to speak to each other, so everyone simply said goodnight, before turning the lights out.

Kaya nuzzled into her soft pillow, as though she'd never even had eight weeks off from Hogwarts. She had to admit, it felt good being back.

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The girls met Jaeden and Milo in the hall for breakfast, the two boys joining the Hufflepuff table, as nobody there really cared about keeping in your houses.

"Do you think you'll enter, Milo?" asked Jaeden. The group had been talking about the Tri-Wizard Tournament for the last ten minutes.

"No," Milo laughed. "Be honest could you picture it?"

The group paused, before chuckling. Milo hated almost every element of the tournament. He hated not knowing what was going to happen, he hated not being able to train for all the different tasks as he didn't know what they were. He also hated doing stuff by himself - the boy always needed a team to accompany him - that's probably why he was so good at Quidditch.

"Imagine, though," Maisie grinned.

"I wish I could enter," Jaeden said. "I mean, it's not like I'm far away from seventeen, it's only in December."

"Yeah, only three months away," said Kaya. Jaeden sulked, before glancing behind his friends to see a particular person sitting on Gryffindor table.

"She is so pretty," he said, gazing at Alicia again. Milo and Maisie smirked to each other. "And she keeps looking at me!"

"She's only looking to see if you've stopped staring at her," said Kaya.

"She's still looking..." Jaeden muttered.

"Yeah, because you're freaking her out!"

Kaya's attention switched from Jaeden to a boy entering the hall with his twin. But she immediately looked away as soon as he glanced at her. How'd he always manage to catch her out?

The brunette poured herself a bowl of cereal, and listened to Jaeden complain about his timetable.

"I swear they're set out to give us the shittest days," he said. "Guess what I've got first thing?"

"What?"

"Divination."

Kaya and Milo laughed at the boy's unamused expression.

"What did you take divination for anyway?" Maisie asked. Jaeden sighed and shook his head.

"I thought it would be easy," he said. "You know, I need my full attention on Care of Magical Creatures, so I thought right, pick an easy subject and I'll be able to study harder for that. But it's confusing as fuck, and it's boring!"

Jaeden was set on being some kind of magical creatures breeder. He'd always loved animals and the group always mentioned how he became a massive softie in front of them. Of course, he'd never admit it.

The time came for the group to separate and head to their lessons. Maisie was off to Potions, and Milo to Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"You'll be able to see what Moody's like," said Jaeden to the blonde boy.

Kaya's first lesson was Transfiguration, which she didn't mind. In fact, it was probably one of her most preferred subjects. But no Hogwarts subject really stood out to her as a favourite. Kaya had enjoyed being taught the guitar all summer by her mother. She'd been trying to save up for one of her own, but spent most of her money at the Quidditch Cup and Diagon Alley. The girl wasn't very good at saving money, to say the least.

The group had always messed around saying that Maisie would become a great radio broadcaster and then be able to play Kaya's music. It was obviously a joke, just because Kaya had no idea what she wanted to do when she left. Sure, she enjoyed music. But was it really something she was good enough at to pursue further?

Anyway, the girls and boys left the hall before splitting off to their lessons.

Kaya was unable to leave breakfast without receiving yet another wink from the same boy.