Chapter 190
(First, officially this chapter will be the longest chapter I have written in the story, it might be 3000 words or more... to express my effort for you, I hope you write a beautiful comment like yourselves on this chapter to encourage me to continue, because by God, when I read your sweet comments, I gain an invincible effort to write chapters đđâ¤ď¸)
Present Time
Harry woke up early the next morning. He got up and dressed in the pale predawn light, then left the place without waking Ron and headed to the common room, which was completely empty. He picked up a parchment from the table, which still held Divination books and charts, and began writing a new letter.
"Dear Sirius, I'm fine, and I'm studying well at school. Everything is alright, and I don't want you to worry about me. My head is perfectly normal."
Harry felt immense happiness inside. This was the first time he wrote a letter inside the school to send it to someone dear to his heart!!
Then Harry exited the Tower through the portrait of the Fat Lady and walked until he reached the Owlery, which was located at the top of the West Tower. The Owlery was circular and very cold because all its windows were without glass, and the floor was covered with straw, while the place was crowded with hundreds of owls covering the walls of the tower. Despite all this number, Harry managed to see Hedwig, so he approached her and woke her up. She was still angry from what she had seemed last night, but Harry thought she was still tired from the long journey she had made.
Therefore, Harry mentioned borrowing Ron's owl, but as soon as he looked towards Pig, Hedwig got up and extended her leg so Harry could tie the letter to it before saying to her, "Search for him until you find him... and give him this letter!!"
He stroked her with his finger as usual. She spread her wings and took off from the window at sunrise. Harry watched her until she disappeared from his sight, feeling that her absence from him would be long again. Although he thought Harry's letter would reduce his feeling of anxiety, it only increased this feeling!!
Harry met with his friends and spent the whole day attending all their scheduled classes!!
All the fourth-year students noticed the clear increase in the amount of work they were doing this year. Professor McGonagall explained the matter to them when they shouted in protest at the tasks she asked of them: "You are on the verge of the most important stage in magical education. The O.W.L. exams are approaching." But Dean Thomas said, "We don't take this exam until the fifth year!" McGonagall replied, "Perhaps not, Thomas, but believe me, you need all the preparation possible. So far, only Miss Granger and Mr. Albert have succeeded in transforming a hedgehog into a pincushion, and therefore, I would like to remind you, Thomas, that the pincushion you transformed is still wriggling in fear whenever any pin approaches it."
As for Hermione, whose face flushed again, it seemed she was trying not to be happy with herself.
As for Albert, his facial features had begun to return to normal, as after a full week of enduring that torment from the golden statue, he began to get used to that enormous amount of pain in order to learn powerful curses from Salazar Slytherin.
Harry and Ron felt great joy when Professor Trelawney told them their high grades they received for estimating their respective Divination charts. She also advised them not to let fear dominate them and to perform their work at the same level in the month after next... Meanwhile, Professor Binns, the History of Magic teacher, asked them to submit essays on the history of magic in the eighteenth century, and Professor Snape was pushing them to research protective potions, and they had to take the matter seriously, especially when he told them that he might poison one of them to ensure the correctness of his potion composition. Also, Professor Flitwick asked them to read more books, and even Hagrid increased their burdens. Those white creatures grew during that period, although no one has discovered their food type yet, so Hagrid asked them to go to his hut, observe any unusual behavior, and write it down.
Finally, after Albert had helped Hagrid for months with teaching him letters and writing, Hagrid can now read and write well!!
When they arrived at the Entrance Hall, they found a terrible crowd of students there around a sign placed at the beginning of the marble staircase. Ron stood on his tiptoes and began to read the sign aloud so that Harry and Hermione could hear, as he was taller than them:
"THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT"
"^The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive this evening, October 30th, at 8:00 PM ^"
Ernie Macmillan, a Hufflepuff student who was close to Ron and Harry, said as he emerged from the crowd, "There's nothing left. Did Cedric know?!"
Ron asked, seeing Ernie hurrying, "Cedric?!"
Harry said, "Diggory... He must be participating in the Tournament."
Ron said as they ascended the stairs through the crowd, "That imbecile is going to be the champion of Hogwarts?"
Hermione said, "He's not an imbecile... You hate him because he was the reason Gryffindor lost. I heard he's a wonderful student!!"
But Ron replied to her, "You only like him because he's handsome."
Hermione replied, "Excuse me... I don't form a good opinion of people just because they are handsome." She then cast a quick glance at Albert, who was helping Professor McGonagall clean the Great Hall!!
After one hour passed, and as Harry, Ron, and Hermione descended for dinner, they found that the Great Hall had been decorated during the night, and multi-colored silk banners were hung in it, each bearing the name of one of the Houses. There was the red with the lion image for Gryffindor, the blue with the golden eagle for Ravenclaw, and the yellow with the badger image for Hufflepuff, and the green with a silver serpent was for Slytherin. Behind the teachers' table, a large banner was hung bearing the symbols of the four Houses, with the letter (H) between them, which is an abbreviation for the word Hogwarts.
The evening was cold, although the sky was clear with the moon rising above the Forbidden Forest. Harry stood between Ron, Hermione, and Albert in the fourth row from the front to watch Dennis Creevey, who was eagerly standing among the first-year students. Then Ron looked at his watch and said, "It's almost eight... How do you think they'll come?! By train?!"
Hermione replied, "I don't think so."
Harry looked up at the sky and asked, "How then? On broomsticks?"
Hermione replied again, "No... it's a long distance."
Ron then asked, "So, will they use a Portkey, or are they allowed to use Apparition under the age of seventeen in the schools they came from?"
Hermione said impatiently, "They don't Apparate on Hogwarts grounds... How many times do I have to tell you that?"
They began contemplating the dark courtyard around them, but they didn't see anything moving. Everything was quiet and calm as usual, and Harry began to feel cold, wishing they would arrive quickly... Maybe they were arranging a spectacular entrance, and he remembered what Mr. Weasley said at the World Cup: "Always the same thing... we can't resist the love of showmanship when we gather together!!"
Finally, Dumbledore shouted from behind them, where he was standing with the teachers, "Aha... If I'm not mistaken, the Beauxbatons delegation is approaching."
The students began to look around eagerly, asking, "Where?!"
A sixth-year student shouted, "There!!"
And there, in this dark blue sky, something was approaching, something huge, bigger than a broomstick, and it was growing in size the closer it got to the castle.
A first-year student shouted, "It's a dragon!!"
But Dennis Creevey said, "Don't be silly... it's a flying house!"
And Dennis's guess was close to correct... especially when this black object approached above the treetops and the castle lights began to reflect on it. It was a carriage pulled by horses... a gigantic, blue carriage the size of a large house, flying in the sky by the power of twelve gigantic winged horses, each one almost the size of an elephant.
The students standing in the first row retreated when the carriage approached the ground at a very high speed until its huge wheels settled on the ground. Harry stood waiting for the carriage doors to open, and indeed the doors opened, and a pale-skinned boy in blue clothes descended and stood in front of the carriage to extend a golden ladder before backing away and standing beside the carriage out of respect. Then Harry saw a shiny black shoe emerge from the carriage door, a small-sized shoe, immediately followed by the largest woman he had ever seen. And here everyone realized the reason for the carriage's enormous size.
The only person whose size was close to the size of this lady was Hagrid. As she began to advance towards the front stairs, her soft, beautiful face appeared, her black eyes, and her delicate nose. Her hair was elegantly pulled back behind her head, and she was wearing a black silk cloak on which some jewels shone.
Dumbledore began to clap, and the students followed him, and a wave of applause spread among them as they stood on their tiptoes so they could see the lady who smiled and advanced towards Dumbledore and extended her hand to shake his. He smiled at her before bowing and kissing her hand, saying, "My dear Madame Maxime, welcome to Hogwarts."
She replied in a deep voice but with a clear French accent, "Dumbledore... I hope you are well."
He replied, "Perfectly well, Madam... thank you."
Madame Maxime turned to gesture with her hand, saying, "My students."
Harry turned to see twelve students, male and female, who appeared to be sixteen or seventeen years old, had emerged from the carriage and lined up behind her, shivering because their clothes were made of thin silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks, and they were looking at the castle in anticipation.
Madame Maxime asked, "Has Karkaroff arrived yet?!"
As if Karkaroff had heard Maxime's call, the Great Hall door opened majestically with his students entering through the Hall door. They were wearing robes of fur that bulked up their appearance and gave each of them a size larger than their own, but the man leading them was wearing a cloak of another type with silver lines, like the color of his hair.
He shouted as he headed towards the castle entrance, "Dumbledore... How are you, old boy.... How are you?!"
Dumbledore replied, "Perfectly fine, thank you, Professor Karkaroff."
Hermione turned to Albert in astonishment and said, "Is this the one you told us on the train was previously a follower of - you know who -?"
Albert nodded in agreement and said, "Yes... As I told you before, by informing the Ministry of the names of the followers of Voldem--- - you know who - he was able to go free."
Karkaroff had a thin voice, and when he stood in front of the light coming from the Entrance Hall, the students saw that he was tall and thin like Dumbledore, but his silver hair was short and he had a small beard covering his pointed chin. As soon as he approached Dumbledore, he extended both his hands to shake his, looking up at the ceiling and saying, "My dear old Dumbledore."
Harry noticed that the smile he drew on his lips did not reach his eyes, which remained cold, and he continued, "How wonderful it is to be here, how beautiful. Viktor, come here, into the warmth... You don't mind, Dumbledore... do you? Viktor is feeling very cold."
One of the students came forward to stand next to Karkaroff, and as soon as Harry saw his crooked nose and bushy eyebrows, he recognized him immediately; he didn't even need the nudge Ron gave him as he said, "It's Krum!! Viktor Krum!!"
All the Hogwarts students were already sitting in the chairs at the feast tables before the arrival of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang delegations.
Harry and Ron saw Ludo Bagman and Head Barty Crouch in front of Ron and Harry. Harry said in astonishment, "What are they doing here?!"
Hermione said, "They are organizing the Triwizard Tournament, and I think they came to witness its opening." As soon as the meal ended, Dumbledore stood up again, and a kind of tension began to spread through the Hall again, as everyone was waiting for what would happen until Dumbledore began speaking, saying, "The time has come, and the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin, and I would like to explain a few things before announcing the start of the Tournament to clarify the steps followed this year, but first let me introduce you, or for those who do not know them, Mr. Barty Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."
His introduction was followed by applause from the students, which increased slightly with the mention of Bagman's name, perhaps because of his previous fame as a Quidditch player. Dumbledore returned to say, "Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have made great efforts over the past few months to arrange this Tournament and will join me, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the judging panel that will evaluate the efforts of the three champions participating... Bring the box, please, Mr. Filch."
Filch then came forward, carrying a large, jewel-encrusted wooden box. It looked very old, and a great wave of curiosity and anticipation spread through the place, to the extent that Dennis Creevey stood on his chair so he could watch the matter well, but because he was small, his head was not visible between the heads of the others. Dumbledore then resumed his speech, saying:
"The instructions for the tasks that the champions will face this year have been approved by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman, and they have made the necessary arrangements for each task. There will be three tasks during the school year to test the champions in various aspects, such as their magical strength, their courage, their educational level, and of course, their confrontation with danger."
And with this word specifically, absolute silence prevailed in the place, as if no one was breathing in the Hall.
Dumbledore continued, "As you know, the competition will be between three champions, one from each school, and they will receive scores according to their performance in each task, and the champion who receives the highest total score after the third task will win the Triwizard Cup, along with a reward of the Order of Merlin, Second Class from the Ministry, and also one thousand gold Galleons. As for the champions, they will be chosen by the Goblet of Fire."
Dumbledore took out his wand and touched the box with it three times, and the lid opened for Dumbledore to reach his hand inside and take out a large wooden cup from which white and blue flames rose. Dumbledore then closed the box and placed the cup on top of it so that everyone in the Hall could see it, and then he said:
"Everyone who wishes to participate should clearly write their name and the name of their school on a piece of parchment and place it in the Goblet of Fire. Tomorrow evening, on Halloween, the Goblet of Fire will return the three chosen names to represent the three schools, and the Goblet will remain in the Entrance Hall tonight so that it is available to everyone who wishes to participate. I would like to emphasize that those who are below the minimum age limit should not submit their participation at all, and to ensure this, I will set up a magical dividing line that those below the age limit cannot cross... And I would like everyone who hopes to participate to know that there is no turning back... Once the Goblet of Fire chooses you, you are compelled to complete the Tournament until the end. Just putting your name in the Goblet means signing an unbreakable magical contract, so please make absolutely sure of your desire to participate before placing your name in the Goblet. And now... I think it's time for bed."
Dumbledore turned around to sit on the chair!!
But he heard a loud voice coming from among the students of Hogwarts, raising his hand high and saying, "May I have a word, please, Headmaster Dumbledore?!"
Dumbledore turned around to see who this boy was who was asking him, but he was surprised that the person was Albert Black!!
Dumbledore spoke, giving him permission, "Say what you have, Albert!!"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all shocked by Albert's words at this time without prior warning.
After Albert was given the right to speak, he spoke confidently, saying, "You said, Headmaster, that it is impossible for those below the age of seventeen to participate in the Triwizard Tournament, is that correct?!!"
Everyone, including Dumbledore, was surprised by this simple question, as Dumbledore had repeated twice that it was impossible for those below the legal age to participate, but Dumbledore did not want to dismiss Albert and simply said, "Yes, what's the problem with that?"
Albert spoke, dropping a bombshell that made everyone look at him with longing and enthusiasm, "What if someone who is below the legal age was able to participate in the Triwizard Tournament in some way?!"
Dumbledore was astonished, looking at Mr. Barty Crouch!
Dumbledore descended the steps, looking intently at Albert, approaching him and saying, "I am confident in my charm that I will cast around the blue flame, so there is no way for a boy who is not seventeen to place a piece of paper inside the blue flame!!"
Albert saw confidence and strictness on Dumbledore's face, but Albert did not stop here and said, "There are two ways. The first is easier than the second. What if a sixteen-year-old student wrote his name and the name of his school on a piece of paper and gave it to his friend who meets the condition and is seventeen years old to place his name inside the blue flame?!"
After everyone heard this opinion from Albert, everyone began to talk to themselves in a low voice, surprised by Albert's cunning and intelligence!!
Karkaroff and Madame Maxime were looking at Albert, surprised by what they heard!! They did not expect that a boy who was not even fifteen years old would think of this plan!!
But Dumbledore dropped another bombshell, which in turn made everyone silent and feel disappointed, saying, "That is impossible, because for example, as you said, if a sixteen-year-old boy gave a paper with his name written on it to his other friend who is seventeen years old and placed the paper inside the blue flame, then the person who placed the paper, the seventeen-year-old, will not be able to place another paper for himself inside the blue flame. This way, the chance of participation for himself will be gone. What idiot would do this?!"
Silence prevailed in the place after they heard the strong rule that Dumbledore had just issued regarding participation, but Albert was not satisfied with this matter.
Dumbledore, in turn, was waiting for the second way that Albert would say.
Albert spoke without turning in any direction, he only spoke while looking at Dumbledore, saying, "What if there was a powerful charm that could penetrate the barrier you placed around the blue flame?!"
Dumbledore approached Albert very closely and said, "Yes... there is one charm that can perform such roles, but unfortunately... this charm has become extinct from the magical world. I, in turn, am the only one who knows how to master this charm only... Even if a person below the legal age was able to possess this charm, they would need to reach the ultimate level of this charm, which requires strict training for ten years to reach the ultimate level of this charm, just to break the barrier around the blue flame."
Dumbledore saw that Albert could no longer speak, but in one moment, what Dumbledore heard made him stop in his place from the intensity of the shock and he grabbed Albert's arms from the intensity of the shock!!
Albert spoke confidently, saying, "I know this charm... it is the Solomnus Charm, or what is called the Penetration Charm!!"
Dumbledore grabbed Albert's arms, stammering in his speech as if he had heard the news of his brother's death, saying, "How...! How... how do you know about that?!"
To be continued.....