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Chapter Text

Principal Bump cared for his students. That’s why, when he saw they were getting restless because nothing life threatening had happened in the school for over a week, he started looking into field trips he could take them on.

While reading the inter-dimensional newspaper, The Inter-Stellar Times, Bump noticed that three magical schools in the human realm were getting ready to host a inter-school competition. He remembered this “Twi-wizard Tournament”. The danger the tasks presented were always good reading in the next day’s newspaper.  He remembered that it was canceled some time ago due to the death toll. As if that ever stopped anyone at Hexside. Cowards.

Maybe it was time to branch out to more magic schools. It would do his students good to learn more about another type of magic and the human realm from more than just Luz.

—

“Okay, students. Does everyone have their permission slips and bags packed?” Principal Bump asked the assembled kids in front of him. It was October 30th in the human realm and they were on their way to Hogwarts.

The Board of Governors at Hogwarts and the various other schools were more than happy to meet a new magical school and have them join the games. It would be a special event with four champions. Hexside would win, of course.

While the other schools would be bringing their oldest students, Bump figured that the level his fourteen year olds were at was about the same, magic wise, even with their specializations. Edric and Emira Blight volunteered to help chaperone the younger kids for extra credit.

Somehow, and oh how Bump hated this, Eda was the only adult that was willing to spend months in the human realm with Bump and a bunch of teenagers. Though, she was pretty much a teenager herself, if he was being honest. It may have something to do with avoiding the Emperor’s Coven, her sister, and guards, but if she was letting them use her human world portal while asking for nothing in return except for coming on this trip, he was going to do it, even though Bump was sure he would come to regret this.

He sent an assessing eye over the teenagers. Gus was almost vibrating out of his skin he was so excited for the human realm while Willow tried to calm him down. Luz and Amity were discussing the types of magic the human realm had. Boscha and her friends were scrolling on Pensta-whatsit. Edric and Emira were counting heads and collecting slips. As they did so, they threw the luggage into the bus’s open mouth.

“Everyone’s accounted for, sir,” Edric said, handing him the permission slips. Bump flipped through them, sighing at the drawing of Eda winking next to her signature on Luz’s slip.

“Perfect. Get them on the bus. We’re just waiting on Eda, now.”

“What do you mean, ‘waiting’? I’m here,” Eda said, walking up behind Bump. In one had she held her Palisman and in the other, that small demon that pretended to be a teacher that one day.  He glared at the demon.

It shrunk away in fear. “I’ll just ugh…”it said, “go be with Luz.” It hopped out of Eda’s arms and ran over to Luz, hiding in her’s.

“Why?” Bump asked.

“King would get lonely in that house all alone with only Hooty for company.  Come on, Bumpikins, let’s get this show on the road.” Eda jumped onto the bus and leaned against the head.  He let it go because she needed to be at the front to open the portal. He got onto the bus. 300 years.  He only had 300 years until retirement.

“Remember, students, we’re not only representing Hexside, but Boiling Isles. I expect all of you to behave and show everyone what we can really do.  Whomever gets chosen as champion, we will support them.  Understood?”

He got some murmurs of agreement, which was good enough for him.  He signaled the bus to take off. It rose into the air and Eda jumped off, riding her Palisman just in front of the bus. She did something and the portal appeared in the form of a large brown door with a glowing yellow snake eye on it. For a moment, Bump feared that they would crash into the door, but it opened with a bright white light and Eda sped through it first, followed by the bus.

They emerged in front of a large castle and an assembled group of students. Eda had landed just outside of the doorway, which closed with a barely audible snap once the bus was through. He landed the bus closer to the Hogwarts students and stepped down to meet with Headmaster Dumbledore.

“Principal Bump, I presume,” Dumbledore said. “It’s great that you and your students are able to join us.”

Behind him, he could hear whispering from the humans about his Palisman, as well as the odd look of his students. They’d have to get over it, or he wasn’t responsible for what his students did.

“Thank you for having us. This will be a great opportunity for them to not only see more types of magic, but learn about your realm,” Bump replied.

They finished getting off the bus and Emira tickled it on its belly so it would cough up all the luggage.

“What the bloody hell?” he heard a student ask.

The bus spit out all the luggage, Edric doing a quick count to make sure it was all there. He nodded and Bump turned back to Dumbledore. “Is there somewhere we can put our bags?”

Dumbledore waved him off. “I’ll have a house-elf bring your bags up to the guest quarters.” A small elf clad in what looked like a pillowcase popped in and snapped, popping away with all the bags.  The bus, sensing it’s job was done for now, wandered away towards the forest. It would be fine.

Dumbledore motioned for Bump to go ahead of him into the castle.  It was truly beautiful.  The founders of the school were geniuses.  Bump could feel the ley lines converging on this spot, strengthened by generations of children learning magic within its walls.

He looked back at his kids.  They chattered excitedly as they entered the Great Hall, looking at all the magic and human things.  The kids took a seat at the end of the red and gold table.  A group of still slightly shivering students dressed in thin uniforms sat at the blue and bronze table, while students wearing thick furs were at the green and silver table.

The Hogwarts students trickled in from outside and made their way to their house tables.

“This is gonna be fun,” Eda said, smirking at the students.

“You are not allowed to enter,” Bump replied, as he and the other adults waited in the entry hall for all the students to be seated.

She scoffed. “Why would I want to enter some silly tournament anyway? No, imagine what cool human things are in this castle!”

“Eda,” he started, as they entered the Great Hall themselves and moved towards the top table and took their seats to the right of Dumbledore. “We’re here to make an impression.”

“That’s what I’m doing.”

The students at the blue table (Bump really needed to remember the other school’s names.) leapt to their feet as Madame Maxime took her seat, to the amusement of some Hogwarts students.  Oh, to have that kind of respect.  He could only wish.

Dumbledore remained standing and a hush fell over the hall.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and — most particularly — guests,” he said, beaming around at the foreign students. “I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable.”

One of the cold girls still clutching a muffler around her head gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh. Bump scowled. She was a guest. At least none of his students were that disrespectful to the school…yet.  It was early days after all.

“The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast,” said Dumbledore. “I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!”

“See, Bump, he’s basically telling me I can move in,” Eda said.

“By all means, do so,” Bump replied, spearing what looked like a leg of poultry on his fork, “And don’t come back.”

Eda barked a laugh and engaged with the stern woman who’s hair was pulled back in a bun next to her.  It was going to be a long year.

Chapter Text

For most of the students at Hexside, they knew very little about the Human Realm.  Gus, and of course Luz, were the exceptions, but nothing they knew about the Human Realm could have made them ready for the looming castle that housed a school and the beautiful illusion magic on the ceiling of the Great Hall.

Luz has no idea that the Human Realm even had witches.  She had meant to ask Eda if this was still her world before the trip, but forgot.  Her cell phone had very bad reception.  She’d have to fidget with the glyphs on it once they were in their dorms.

She could tell her classmates were apprehensive of the food, while she had no problem digging it to the non-sentient food—finally!

“You’ll like this,” Luz said, spooning some mashed potatoes onto Amity’s plate. “What kind of meat do you want?”

Amity looked around at the dishes. “Do they have boar?”

“This looks close,” she replied and pointed out what looked like pork.

“Luz, can you believe it?!” Gus squealed from across from her.  Willow was next to him munching on some vegetables. “We’re in the Human Realm!”

Luz laughed. “Yeah, Gus, pretty amazing.”

“I wonder if they have any pay-per-clops.”

“Probably.”

A black girl with bushy hair leaned over. “I’m Hermione Granger.  Welcome to Hogwarts.”

Luz smiled. “Thanks! I’m Luz!  This is Gus, Willow, and Amity.  It’s awesome to see another magic school. I missed the bus last time we tried to go to a rival school.”

“Where’s your school located?”

“In the Boiling Isles in the Demon Realm.”

“Demon Realm?”

“Hey, Luz!” King shouted, crawling out of her bag under the table. Hermione jumped, shouting.

“What the bloody hell is that?” a red headed boy cursed.

“Oh, this is King,” Luz said, smoothing her hand over his head.  “Are you hungry?”

King’s eyes gleamed at the table full of goodies. “Oh, num-nums!” He started grabbing various food stuffs off the serving dishes and stuffing them in his mouth.

“What…what is he?” Hermione asked.

“You’ve never seen a demon before?” Amity asked.

“Demons don’t exist in the Human Realm,” Luz replied. “Or at least, I thought they didn’t. I never saw any back home.”

“They’re missing out,” King bragged.

“Right,” Hermione deadpanned, sharing a glance with the red head and the Desi boy next to her. “This is Ron and Harry,” she introduced, realizing she never said their names.

“Hi,” Ron said, mouth stuffed full of food.

Harry finished chewing. “Hello. You don’t look as old as the students from other schools.”

Gus and Willow twisted in their seats and Luz and Amity stood up a little to look at the other visiting students.

“We’re fourteen,” Willow said, shrugging, “Except for Gus, but he’s a genius.”

Gus blushed. “Oh you.”

“Eda had mentioned something that we’re at the same level schooling wise to the oldest kids,” Luz explained, “Well, she said it differently, but that’s what she meant.”

“She was laughing, wasn’t she?” Amity asked.

“It was a cackle,” King confirmed. “Scared Hooty, and let me tell you, that’s hard to do.” Luz and her friends shuddered at the mention of Hooty.

“One day, that bird tube will die,” Amity growled.

“What?! Amity, no!”

Hermione interjected, “Is Eda the woman up there next to your Headmaster?”

“Principal, and yes,” Amity said.

“She’s my mentor,” Luz said, grinning. “Taught me all kinds of cool magic.”

“What does she teach?” Hermione asked. Luz shared a look with her friends and all four burst out laughed.  Eda? A teacher? Too funny! “What?”

Willow was the first to calm down. “Eda’s not a teacher.  She’s just the only adult that could chaperone.”

“More like would chaperone,” Amity said.

“She has a portal to the Human Realm,” Gus added.

Luz calmed down enough to also add, “She agreed for Principal Bump to use her portal if she could come along and hide from the Emperor’s Coven.  I’m pretty sure she’s going to take the time to collect more human things for her stall at the market, too.”

“Why’s she need to hide?” Ron asked.

“Oh, she’s wanted for crimes in the Boiling Isles,” Luz explained.

“She’s a criminal?”

“Ehhhhh,” Luz said at the same time as Amity said, “Yes.”

“It’s not all her fault,” Luz argued.

“Most of it is,” King said.

“King is right,” Willow said, “Eda’s list of crimes is pretty long.  Her reward is one of the highest in the Isles.”

“And your principal still let her come along?” Harry asked.

Luz shrugged. “It’s not as if she’d harm us.  It’s mostly stealing and property damage.  We’ve done a lot of the same just messing around.”

Hermione looked thoughtful. “And she’s your…mentor?”

“Yep!”

“How’d that happen?  Don’t you go to school? What’d you also need a mentor for?” Ron asked.

“Well, I didn’t go to school at first.  Well, I did, but here in the Human Realm. Then one day Owlbert stole my Good Witch Azura book and I followed him to get it back and met Eda.”

“Then she bullied her into teaching her magic,” King said, laying on the table in a food coma.

“Pfft, no, that’s not what—no!  I wormed my way into her heart.”

“Ew,” Gus said, “Can all humans do that?  Are you going to do that to me?!”

“What, no! It’s an expression,” Luz explained.

Dinner was replaced with dessert, which revitalized King. “Be careful, or you’ll have a stomachache,” Luz said to him.

“Pah!  Food cannot harm the King of Demons!” and he shoved an entire slice of cake in his mouth.

Luz smiled and shook her head, already noting that she needed to get a stomach soother from Eda for the little cutie here.  She knew he would regret his choices later.

“Have you thought of anything for your end of semester project?” Amity asked.

“Still trying to work out the glyphs.  I want it to wow my teachers!  Also, trying to fit in as many disciplines as possible so that I don’t have to do multiple projects is hard.  How’s your Abomination coming?”

“It’s good.  I’m trying to get it to learn our Grom dance.” Luz blushed.

“Oh,” she squeaked. “Are you?”

Amity blushed in response, leaning closer to Luz.

Willow snapped a picture on her scroll and the two flung apart.

“You guys are too cute,” Gus gushed.

Willow turned the scroll around to show them the picture.  Luz and Amity’s faces were bright red and only inches from each other, soft smiles on their faces.  They blushed harder.

“Are you dating?” Ron rudely asked from next to them.

Amity scowled. “Yes. What of it?”

He flinched and held up his hands in surrender. “Nothing, sorry.”

She turned back to Willow. “Can I…um have that picture?”

Willow smiled and sent it over to Amity’s scroll.

Luz leaned over Amity’s scroll as she posted it on Penstagram, both their faces turning red as she did so.  Once it was posted, Luz pressed a quick kiss to Amity’s cheek.  Gus made a noise that was almost subsonic.

Amity rolled her eyes and made a magenta circle in the air, sending a glow towards Gus.  He tried to ask what happened but all that came out of his mouth was silence.  He pouted.

“Amity,” Luz drawled.

Amity rolled her eyes. “Ugh, fine!” she made another circle and the silencing spell went away.

“How’d you do that?” Hermione demanded.

“Magic,” Amity replied like the other witch was dumb.

“No, without a wand—”

The food vanished from the plates and the Hogwarts headmaster stood up again.  Luz leaned forward in anticipation.

“The moment has come,” said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. “The Tri-wizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket —”

“The what?” Harry muttered.

Ron shrugged. Luz had heard weirder.

“— just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation” — there was a smattering of polite applause — “and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports.”

There was a much louder round of applause for Bagman than for Crouch. He acknowledged it with a jovial wave of his hand. Bartemius Crouch did not smile or wave when his name was announced.  Which, in Luz’s opinion, was quite rude.  They set this whole thing up and can’t even be bothered to care? Rude.

“Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Tri-wizard Tournament,” Dumbledore continued, “and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, and Principal Bump on the panel that will judge the champions’ efforts.”

At the mention of the word “champions,” the attentiveness of the listening students seemed to sharpen. Perhaps Dumbledore had noticed their sudden stillness, for he smiled as he said, “The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch.”

A scary looking man, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the Hall, now approached Dumbledore carrying a great wooden chest encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely old. A murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students.

“The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman,” said Dumbledore as Filch placed the chest carefully on the table before him, “and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways . . . their magical prowess — their daring — their powers of deduction — and, of course, their ability to cope with danger.” Hexside got this.  They faced danger everyday!  No one could beat them!

At this last word, the Hall was filled with a silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing.

“As you know, four champions compete in the tournament,” Dumbledore went on calmly, “one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Tri-wizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire.”

Dumbledore now took out his wand—witches used wands here?—and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. The lid creaked slowly open. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, choppy looking wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames.

Dumbledore closed the casket and placed the goblet carefully on top of it, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the Hall.

“Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet,” said Dumbledore. “Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the four it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete.

“To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation,” said Dumbledore, “I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line.  Since the majority of the Hexside contingent are under that age, any who wish to participate from their school will submit their names tonight before I place the Age Line.

“Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all.”

While the other schools started to get up and move out of the room to their beds, there was a scrambling of Hexside students to find paper and a pen.

Luz tore a page out of her notebook and starting ripping strips off of it for her classmates.

“You’re really entering?” Hermione asked, still hanging around.

Luz looked up from her search for a pen.

“Of course.  Can’t be any worse than Grom.”

“Grom?” Harry asked.

“Demon who shows your worst fear.”

She found a pen and scribbled her name on the paper, passing the pen to Amity, then Willow.  Gus was content to wave flags and not participate in the tournament.

“We have those, too,” Hermione said. “They’re called Boggarts.”

“You have multiple?” Amity interrogated.

“Yes…?”

“How have you all not been consumed by your fears?”

“Erm, there’s a spell,” Harry explained.

“Oh,” Amity cleared her throat. “Right.  Let’s go submit our names.”  She scooped up King and started to walk.

Ron grumbled behind them as they walked back to the entrance hall. “Why are they allowed to be a champion. We’re the same age.”

Luz rolled her eyes.

Principal Bump, Eda, and Headmaster Dumbledore were standing next to the goblet, making sure no underage students from the other schools put their names in.  A large number of students were hovering—not literally—in the hall waiting for Hexside to submit names.

Boscha pushed her way to the front and smugly put her name in, following by Skara, Amelia, and Cat. A few other students who she didn’t know submitted their names.

Amity moved to put her name in. “Yeah, Mittens!” Edric cheered. Amity scowled at her brother.

“You can do it!” Emira added.

She dropped in her name and stomped back to Luz. “I hate them,” she growled. Luz rubbed her arm soothingly.

Willow was the next to drop her name in. “Ugh, like you’ll get it, half-a-witch,” she muttered to her friends who snickered back.

As she walked back past Boscha, Willow said, “If you’re champion, Boscha, I’ll still cheer for you.” Boscha scoffed.

Luz was the last to submit her name and Eda smiled encouragingly at her.  She grinned back and dropped the slip of paper in.

Dumbledore smiled and waved his wand again, setting the Age Line.

As they walked to their dorms, Principal Bump explained they would be figuring out their class schedule tomorrow, but for now, sleep.  He didn’t have to tell Luz twice.  She was asleep within minutes of laying down.  It would be a fun year.

Chapter Text

“They were weird, right?” Ron asked, unsure.

“Yeah.  One girl had three eyes,” Harry said.

“Have either of your ever heard of the Boiling Isles?  Or Hexside?” Hermione asked.

Ron shook his head. “Nothing about demons either..”

“Didn’t that Gus say something about the ‘Human Realm’?”

Hermione hmmed in thought. “They did arrive through a portal.”

“Their magic is weird,” Harry said.

“Yeah,” Ron agreed, “they didn’t use wands.  Also, why are they allowed to enter?  They said it themselves that they were fourteen.  We’re fourteen!”

Harry looked thoughtful. “Maybe they count their years differently and they’re actually around seventeen.” Hermione looked at him, eyebrows raised in disbelief. Harry drooped. “Yeah, it was a stupid reason.”

“A bit, yeah,” Hermione said. Harry laughed.

—

The next morning, a Monday, Hermione sat down next to Amity and filled her plate with breakfast. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” Amity mumbled around a cup of what looked like coffee.  Hermione didn’t even know that the younger years could get coffee.

“What classes will you be in?”

Luz groaned into her plate from Amity’s other side.

“What?”

Willow spoke up from across from Luz. “Principle Bump is having all the teachers give us placement tests in our chosen classes to see what level we’re at. They shouldn’t be that hard, but we’ll all be testing all day.  We should be joining actual classes either tomorrow or by the end of the week.” Hermione looked at Luz who was still groaning while eating bacon.

“She doesn’t test well.”

“It’s not that,” Luz explained. “I just don’t like tests. They’re boring. I’d rather be doing magic.”

Amity looked a bit more awake at this point. “Depending on what level we’re at, will determine what classes we’re in,” Amity told Hermione. “We can be placed in any class from fourth year and up.”

“Why is that?” Hermione asked.

Ron and Harry drifted down to their seats and started eating.  The faster they ate, the sooner they could go watch people put their names in.

Gus spoke up, “We have specialized tracks at Hexside, so some of us are going to know more about certain topics than others.”

“Tracks? Like what?”

“Well, for example, I’m in the Illusion track!” Gus waved his hands and blue sparks seemed to burst from his fingertips for a moment.

“I’m in the plants track,” Willow said.

“You should talk with Neville,” Ron said around the food in his mouth. “He’s brilliant with plants.” Neville looked up at his name and waved shyly.

Willow beamed. “That’s a great idea.” And waved back.

Hermione looked at Amity’s purple sleeves and Luz’s rainbow ones.

“I’m in the Abomination track, which I’ve been told you don’t have here.”

“Not that I’m aware of, no.”

“I’m studying all the tracks.  First student at Hexside to do so,” Luz said proudly.

“Wait,” Hermione stopped them, “When you’re in a track do you only study those things?”

Amity shook her head. “Not exactly.  We all have basic knowledge of every track.  Sometimes people will take a class or two in something that interests them, but otherwise, most of your classes are in your chosen track.  That’s why they need to test us.”

“Yeah,” Luz said, “Like Boscha is probably going to be brilliant at potions and in one of the higher classes, but in a lower class for like charms or something.”

“Interesting.”

The day passed quickly after that.  Right after breakfast, she, Ron, and Harry watch Fred and George attempt to submit their names, grow beards, and get escorted to the Hospital Wing.  After that, it was pretty normal.  Hermione saw the Hexside students in passing throughout the day.  They had been going to each teacher to get tested during the teacher’s free periods that day.  At lunch they were all very focused on eating as much food as they could before a long afternoon of testing.

“Are you all alright?” Hermione asked concerned.

Luz paused in eating. “Magic is tiring, and since we’re being tested on it, we have to try our hardest at each class.  So, we’re hungry.” She went back to her food.

Hermione left them alone, but the mystery grew.  What kind of magic do they use that tires them out so much after constant use?

“I think some of them can eat more than you, Ron,” Harry joked.

Ron shoved a laughing Harry. “Sod off.” But he was grinning.

They visited Hagrid after their afternoon class and discussed SPEW, watched Hagrid escort Madame Maxime into the Great Hall, and followed the Durmstrang party into dinner. The Goblet of Fire had been moved; it was now standing in front of Dumbledore’s empty chair at the teachers’ table. Fred and George — clean-shaven again — seemed to have taken their disappointment fairly well.

“Hope it’s Angelina,” said Fred as Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down.

“So do I!” said Hermione breathlessly. “Well, we’ll soon know!”

The Hexside students were eating as much as possible once again.  There was a buzz in the room, people’s visible excitement and nerves getting the better of them for the choosing of the Champions at the end of the feast.

Hexside seemed to be the only ones unaffected by the growing tension around the room, too focused on regaining energy.

At long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the Hall, which died away almost instantly as Dumbledore got to his feet. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff, Principle Bump, and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr. Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.

“Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision,” said Dumbledore. “I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions’ names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber” — he indicated the door behind the staff table — “where they will be receiving their first instructions.”

He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. At least two students from Hexside’s eyes were glowing in the darkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting… A few people kept checking their watches…

“Any second,” Lee Jordan whispered, two seats away from Harry.

The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Hermione squinted at the sudden brightness. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it — the whole room gasped.

Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm’s length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.

“The champion for Durmstrang,” he read, in a strong, clear voice, “will be Viktor Krum.”

“No surprises there!” yelled Ron as a storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall. They saw Viktor Krum rise from the Slytherin table and slouch up toward Dumbledore; he turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.

“Bravo, Viktor!” boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. “Knew you had it in you!”

The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone’s attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

“The champion for Beauxbatons,” said Dumbledore, “is Fleur Delacour!”

“It’s her, Ron!” Harry shouted as the girl who so resembled a veela got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables.

“Oh look, they’re all disappointed,” Hermione said over the noise, nodding toward the remainder of the Beauxbatons party.  Two of the girls who had not been selected had dissolved into tears and were sobbing with their heads on their arms.

“Pathetic,” Amity said. “They should be supporting her.”

Silence fell again once Fleur Delacour had vanished into the chamber.  The fire burned red once again, and a third name flew out of it on much lighter paper,

“The champion for Hexside,” said Dumbledore, “is Willow Park!”

Luz immediately cheered as loud as she could, causing Willow to blush slightly as she stood up and made her way to the door.  Gus was waving flags and the rest of the group were clapping and cheering lightly.  Well, the three eyed girl was glaring at Willow as she walked away, but her friends were clapping politely.

“Unexpected,” Amity said.

“She’s going to do great!” Luz gushed.

When Willow too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it. The Hogwarts champion next…

And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the fourth piece of parchment.

“The Hogwarts champion,” he called, “is Cedric Diggory!”

The uproar from the next table was so great that nothing else could be heard. Every single Hufflepuff had jumped to his or her feet, screaming and stamping, as Cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off toward the chamber behind the teachers’ table. Indeed, the applause for Cedric went on so long that it was some time before Dumbledore could make himself heard again.

“Excellent!” Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. “Well, we now have our four champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons, Hexside, and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real —”

But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him.

The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment. Hermione had a bad feeling about this.

Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out —

“Harry Potter.”

Chapter Text

Eda tried to resist laughing at the gobsmacked expressions on everyone’s faces. Everyone should know that the more powerful a magical artifact, the more likely something weird is going to happen in relation to it. Case in point: Hooty.

The kid sat there, well aware that every head in the Great Hall had turned to look at him. He looked stunned. There was no applause. A buzzing, as though of angry bees, was starting to fill the Hall; some students were standing up to get a better look at him as he sat, frozen, in his seat.

Eda felt a rare rush of affection towards the boy.  In her wanderings throughout the day, she found out that most of the weird magic shit seemed to happen to him.

McGonagall got to her feet and swept past Bagman and Karkaroff to whisper urgently to Dumbledore, who bent his ear toward her, frowning slightly.

Harry turned his friends; and beyond them, the long Gryffindor table all watching him, openmouthed. Hexside and the visiting schools looked confused.

“I didn’t put my name in,” Harry said blankly. Eda’s owl hearing picking up the low words. “You know I didn’t.”  She also knew he didn’t.  She had Owlbert watching the cup all night.  Only shy students and teachers had walked by.  At one point there was a large crowd that Moody had broken up and Owlbert had lost sight of the cup for a few moments.  That was the only time he could’ve done anything.  She’d have to check his alibi, but he didn’t look like he was lying.

At the top table, Dumbledore had straightened up, nodding to McGonagall.

“Harry Potter!” he called again. “Harry! Up here, if you please!”

“Go on,” his friend whispered, giving Harry a slight push. Harry got to his feet, trod on the hem of his robes, and stumbled slightly. He set off up the gap between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. The buzzing grew louder and louder. After a moment, he stood in front of Dumbledore. “Well . . . through the door, Harry,” said Dumbledore. He wasn’t smiling.  Fuck, no one was smiling. On the other hand, Eda was so excited that little Willow was going to show all those mini-bitches of her classmates what for and tried to resist grinning at the thought.

Harry moved off along the teachers’ table and went through the door out of the Great Hall.

Dumbledore dismissed the waiting students and gestured for the heads of schools, Bagman, Crouch, Snape, McGonagall, and Eda to follow him.  Well, he didn’t look at Eda, but she was going anyway.  As Dumbledore quickly chatted with the teachers, she followed Bagman into the small room.

Bagman entered the room first. He took Harry by the arm and led him forward. Viktor Krum, Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Willow were grouped around the fire. They looked strangely impressive, silhouetted against the flames. Krum, hunched-up and brooding, was leaning against the mantelpiece, slightly apart from the other three. Cedric was standing with his hands behind his back, staring into the fire. Fleur Delacour was still looking at Harry.  Willow just looked nervous, the poor girl.

“Extraordinary!” he muttered, squeezing Harry’s arm. “Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen . . . ladies,” he added, approaching the fire- side and addressing the other four. “May I introduce — incredible though it may seem — the fifth Tri-wizard champion?”

Viktor Krum straightened up. His surly face darkened as he surveyed Harry. Cedric looked nonplussed. He looked from Bagman to Harry and back again as though sure he must have misheard what Bagman had said. Fleur Delacour, however, tossed her hair, smiling, and said, “Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman.”  Willow is the only one that looked concerned for Harry, even though she only met him last night.  Good girl. Eda moved to be next to her.

“Joke?” Bagman repeated, bewildered. “No, no, not at all! Harry’s name just came out of the Goblet of Fire!”

Krum’s thick eyebrows contracted slightly. Cedric was still looking politely bewildered. Fleur frowned.

“But evidently zair ’as been a mistake,” she said contemptuously to Bagman. “ ’E cannot compete. ’E is too young. ‘E already ‘ave one child.”

Willow frowned, the plant by the window growing just a touch bigger.

“Well . . . it is amazing,” said Bagman, rubbing his smooth chin and smiling down at Harry. “But, as you know, the age restriction was only imposed this year as an extra safety measure. And as his name’s come out of the goblet . . . I mean, I don’t think there can be any ducking out at this stage. . . . It’s down in the rules, you’re obliged . . . Harry will just have to do the best he —”

The door behind them opened again, and a large group of people came in: Dumbledore, followed closely by Crouch, Karkaroff, Maxime, McGonagall, and Snape. Bump came after, not really concerned about one more student in the competition. Eda heard the buzzing of the hundreds of students on the other side of the wall, before McGonagall closed the door.

“Madame Maxime!” said Fleur at once, striding over to her headmistress. “Zey are saying zat zis little boy is to compete also!”

Harry scowled.

Maxime had drawn herself up to her full, and considerable, height. The top of her handsome head brushed the candle-filled chandelier, and her gigantic black-satin bosom swelled.

“What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr?” she said imperiously. Hah! Dumbly-dorr!

“I’d rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore,” said Karkaroff. He was wearing a steely smile, and his blue eyes were like chips of ice. “Two Hogwarts champions? I don’t remember any- one telling me the host school is allowed two champions — or have I not read the rules carefully enough?”

He gave a short and nasty laugh.

“C’est impossible,” said Maxime, whose enormous hand with its many superb opals was resting upon Fleur’s shoulder. “ ’Ogwarts cannot ’ave two champions. It is most injust.”

“We were under the impression that your Age Line would keep out younger contestants, Dumbledore,” said Karkaroff, his steely smile still in place, though his eyes were colder than ever. “Otherwise, we would, of course, have brought along a wider selection of candidates from our own schools.  It’s bad enough that the Hexside students are younger.” Bump scowled.

“It’s no one’s fault but Potter’s, Karkaroff,” said Snape softly. His black eyes were alight with malice. “Don’t go blaming Dumbledore for Potter’s determination to break rules. He has been crossing lines ever since he arrived here —”

“Thank you, Severus,” said Dumbledore firmly, and Snape went quiet, though his eyes still glinted malevolently through his curtain of greasy black hair. Ugh, she hated teachers like that.

Dumbledore was now looking down at Harry, who looked right back at him.

“Did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire, Harry?” he asked calmly.

“No,” said Harry. Everybody was watching him closely. Snape made a soft noise of impatient disbelief in the shadows.

“Did you ask an older student to put it into the Goblet of Fire for you?” said Dumbledore, ignoring Snape.

“No,” said Harry vehemently.

“Ah, but of course ’e is lying!” cried Maxime. Snape was now shaking his head, his lip curling.

“He could not have crossed the Age Line,” said Professor McGonagall sharply. “I am sure we are all agreed on that —”

“Dumbly-dorr must ’ave made a mistake wiz ze line,” said Maxime, shrugging, “All zous little children submitted zeir names.” Referring to Hexside.

“My students put their names in before the line was drawn, as was the agreement, and we watched to make sure no other underage students submitted their names.”

“It is possible, of course,” said Dumbledore politely.

“Dumbledore, you know perfectly well you did not make a mistake!” said McGonagall angrily. “Really, what nonsense! Harry could not have crossed the line himself, and as Professor Dumbledore believes that he did not persuade an older student to do it for him, I’m sure that should be good enough for everybody else!”

She shot a very angry look at Professor Snape. Eda liked her.

“Mr. Crouch . . . Mr. Bagman,” said Karkaroff, his voice unctuous once more, “you are our — er — objective judges. Surely you will agree that this is most irregular?”

Bagman wiped his round, boyish face with his handkerchief and looked at Mr. Crouch, who was standing outside the circle of the firelight, his face half hidden in shadow. “We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament.”

“Well, Barty knows the rule book back to front,” said Bagman, beaming and turning back to Karkaroff and Maxime, as though the matter was now closed.

“I insist upon resubmitting the names of the rest of my students,” said Karkaroff. Eda rolled her eyes.  She glanced at Bump and saw him sighing. Karakaroff  had dropped his unctuous tone and his smile now. His face wore a very ugly look indeed. “You will set up the Goblet of Fire once more, and we will continue adding names until each school has two champions. It’s only fair, Dumbledore.”

Eda tuned out for a moment, not caring about their dumb complaints.

“—all got to compete. Binding magical contract, like Dumbledore said. Convenient, eh?” Moody said, entering the room. He limped toward the fire, and with every right step he took, there was a loud clunk.

“Convenient?” said Karkaroff. “I’m afraid I don’t understand you, Moody.”

“Don’t you?” said Moody quietly. “It’s very simple, Karkaroff. Someone put Potter’s name in that goblet knowing he’d have to compete if it came out.”

“Evidently, someone ’oo wished to give ’Ogwarts two bites at ze apple!” said Maxime.

“I quite agree, Madame Maxime,” said Karkaroff, bowing to her. “I shall be lodging complaints with the Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards —”

“If anyone’s got reason to complain, it’s Potter,” growled Moody, “but…funny thing…I don’t hear him saying a word…” It’s not like they were giving him room to speak.

“Why should ’e complain?” burst out Fleur Delacour, stamping her foot, like a toddler. “’E ’as ze chance to compete, ’asn’t ’e? We ’ave all been ’oping to be chosen for weeks and weeks! Ze honor for our schools! A thousand Galleons in prize money — zis is a chance many would die for!”

“Maybe someone’s hoping Potter is going to die for it,” said Moody, with the merest trace of a growl. Well, then.

An extremely tense silence followed these words. Bagman, who was looking very anxious indeed, bounced nervously up and down on his feet and said, “Moody, old man . . . what a thing to say!”

“We all know Professor Moody—”

Eda tuned out the argument and turned to Willow, sending her a toothy grin of encouragement.  The girl stood slightly straighter, and the plant in the corner went back to its normal size.

“Because they hoodwinked a very powerful magical object!” said Moody, snagging her attention again. “It would have needed an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that only three—four this year—schools compete in the tournament… I’m guessing they submitted Potter’s name under a fifth school, to make sure he was the only one in his category…”

“You seem to have given this a great deal of thought, Moody,” said Karkaroff coldly, “and a very ingenious theory it is — though of course, I heard you recently got it into your head that one of your birthday presents —”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Eda whispered to Willow. “You think they ever shut up?” Willow laughed.

“Alastor!” said Dumbledore warningly. Moody fell silent, though still surveying Karkaroff with satisfaction — Karkaroff’s face was burning.

“How this situation arose, we do not know,” said Dumbledore, speaking to everyone gathered in the room. “It seems to me, however, that we have no choice but to accept it. Both Cedric and Harry have been chosen to compete in the Tournament. This, therefore, they will do. . . .”

“Ah, but Dumbly-dorr—”

“My dear Madame Maxime, if you have an alternative, I would be delighted to hear it.”

Dumbledore waited, but Maxime did not speak, she merely glared. She wasn’t the only one either. Snape looked furious; Karkaroff livid; Bagman, however, looked rather excited.

“Well, shall we crack on, then?” he said, rubbing his hands together and smiling around the room. “Got to give our champions their instructions, haven’t we? Barty, want to do the honors?”

Mr. Crouch seemed to come out of a deep reverie.

“Yes,” he said, “instructions. Yes…the first task…” Finally.

He moved forward into the firelight. “The first task is designed to test your daring,” he told Harry, Cedric, Fleur, Viktor, and Willow, “so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard…very important…

“The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges.

“The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament.” Lame, Eda thought. Good thing she’s not technically a teacher. “The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests.”  That didn’t make sense.  Didn’t the rest of the students have their big tests for like careers at the end of the year?  Dumb.

Crouch turned to look at Dumbledore.

“I think that’s all, is it, Albus?”

“I think so,” said Dumbledore, who was looking at Crouch with mild concern. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to stay at Hogwarts tonight, Barty?”

“No, Dumbledore, I must get back to the Ministry,” said Crouch. “It is a very busy, very difficult time at the moment… I’ve left young Weatherby in charge. . . . Very enthusiastic . . . a little overenthusiastic, if truth be told.”

“You’ll come and have a drink before you go, at least?” said Dumbledore.

“Come on, Barty, I’m staying!” said Bagman brightly. “It’s all happening at Hogwarts now, you know, much more exciting here than at the office!”

“I think not, Ludo,” said Crouch with a touch of his old impatience.

“Professor Karkaroff — Madame Maxime — Principal Bump — a nightcap?” said Dumbledore.

But Maxime had already put her arm around Fleur’s shoulders and was leading her swiftly out of the room. They were both talking very fast in a language Eda didn’t know as they went off into the Great Hall. Karkaroff beckoned to Krum, and they, too, exited, though in silence.

“Harry, Cedric, I suggest you go up to bed,” said Dumbledore, smiling at both of them. “I am sure Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise.”

Harry glanced at Cedric, who nodded, and they left together.

“I’ll take you up on a drink, Dumbledore,” Bump said. He looked down at Willow. “I’m proud of you and I know you’ll make Hexside proud.” He paused as Willow smiled. “You’re exempt from end of year tests, but not your end of year project.”

“I know, sir. I’ll work hard.”

Bump smiled. “I know.  Eda could you walk her back to the dorm.”

Eda smirked and nudged Willow to get walking. “Sure thing.  Come on, Wonder Witch.”

Chapter Text

“You know,” Emira said, leaning against the wall next to where the Weasley twins were plotting in a corner. “We watched you try and get past the Age Line the other day.

Edric leaned on the wall across from Emira. “Solid plan, bad execution.  An aging potion is temporary.”

“Or at least the version you used.”

“It also only ages your body, not your magic.”

“That’s what the Age Line was testing: is your magic mature?”

“And there’s no way to age that up.  That just comes with time.”

“You would’ve had better luck to try and throw a crumpled up ball into the cup.”

Fred and George had turned to the other twins when they started talking.

“Forge, did they just insult us?” Fred said.

“I’m not sure, Gred,” George replied.

Fred and George couldn’t figure out the visiting twins.  They were older than the other Hexside students, but didn’t put their name in.  They were in some of the most advanced classes, but so were some of the younger Hexside kids.  The big difference is that the two of them were acting as apprentices to Professor Flitwick at times.  Why did the school only bring two kids that were of age?  Why did it seem like the Hexside student’s knowledge level varied from person to person?  Their school didn’t seem to make sense.

“We have a question for you,” Edric said.

“Did that Harry kid put his name in?” Emira asked.

Fred and George immediately started scowling.

George spoke first, “Harry’s a good kid—”

“—just gets involved in trouble a lot.”

“Not his fault.  He just gets caught up in it.”

“Defiantly what happened this time.  He looked terrified when his name came out.”

“We’ve been trying to help,” Fred explained, “in our own way, but our brother is a prat.”

“Most of the school are prats,” George countered. “Why are you asking?”

Emira sighed. “Our sister is angry on Willow’s behalf since Willow isn’t angry, just accepting of the situation with Potter.”

“Why didn’t you ask him yourself?” George asked.

“Well,” Edric said, “we don’t know him.  It’d be rude to go up to someone and immediately accuse them of any wrong doing.”

“Not a kid, anyway.  He’s younger than Mittens and doesn’t seem to have anyone in his corner.”

Fred and George shared a look.  The other twins weren’t wrong.  The thoughts of the students regarding Harry were fickle and ever-changing.  They tried to protect their honorary little brother, but being in a different year and not living in the same house outside of school made it difficult.

Fred was hesitant to answer, but did anyway. “He…doesn’t really.  His family is not good—”

“—And the students change their minds about him what seems like every week. We try—”

“—But we can’t always protect him.  We believe him, though.—”

“—Harry says he didn’t put his name in,—”

They both spoke, “—he didn’t put his name in.”

Edric stared at them for a moment before pulling off the wall. “Alright. I believe you.  We’ll get the Hexside kids to chill.”

“Or at least our sister,” Emira said. “There’s not much we can do about the other kids, but most could care less, but we’ll pass on Potter’s innocence, anyway.”

“Thank you,” George said.

“We owe you,” Fred promised.

“But nothing life threatening,” George amended.

Emira and Edric smirked. “Of course not,” Emira said. “See you later, twin buds!"

—

The next time the two sets of twins interacted for more than a few minutes it was yet another time when the Blight twins interrupted the Weasley’s planning a prank.  They agreed to not tell any teachers (not that they would anyway) if they could help.  This school was too tame.

“Well,” Fred said, “If you’re going to help us—”

“You have to answer a question for us,” George finished.

“What?” Edric asked.

“What’s with the ears?” Fred and George asked together.

The blight twins looked confused. “What do you mean?” Emira asked.

“They’re pointy!” George exclaimed.  “You all have pointy ears.”

“Luz doesn’t,” Edric said, “but she’s human like you guys.”

No one said anything in response to that.  George threw up his hands in anger. “That only leaves us with more questions!”

Edric shrugged. “Don’t know what to tell you.” Fred groaned.

“Fine, you can help anyway.  We’re trying to prank as many people as possible at breakfast in a few days.  Here’s the plan…”

—

Morning came bright and early for all of Hogwarts.  It was a beautiful day.  The kind of day Quidditch players dreamed of.  That’s not the important part, though.  The important part about this crisp day in early November is that it was time for breakfast, and breakfast was pastries.

Those were rare days when the house elves outdid themselves with making all kinds of delicious doughnuts and pastries from around the world.  Sure, they still had some healthy options, but the majority was pastry.

Every Hogwarts student looked forward to this day.  There was a black market just to find out the dates of pastry day.  Fred and George were usually the ones that found the day and traded that knowledge for both gold, supplies, and the occasional alibi.

Even some of the Beauxbatons students, who had had fresh French patisserie many times in their lives, praised the house elves on their skill.

This was the kind of day where only the die-hard sleeper-ins would miss, and even then, most would either bribe a friend to save them a favorite pastry, or drag themselves out of their warm bed early to get the ones they liked.

Teachers tended to love pastry days, too, because students were less likely to be late to their first class since they had been at breakfast.  The pastries helped, too.

Fred and George being friends with the house elves gives them a creative advantage when planning pranks.  Now, usually, they don’t have the man-power for school wide pranks, but with the help from Emira and Edric, they were able to pull it off.

The food at Hogwarts is tamper-proof.  Once it goes from the kitchen to the table, no one can add anything to the food in the serving dishes.  Once it’s on a plate, only non-harmful spices can be added.  The house elves took the safety of the students very seriously, and didn’t want a repeat of 1875 when an entire group of Hufflepuffs were poisoned. (They all lived, but it was scary.)

However, as mentioned, Fred and George are friends, and the house elves love a good practical joke as much as the next person, so a deal was struck.

Fred and George could add the potion to the various pastries, if the house elves could get a couple new Muggle recipe books.  They wanted to try some new things from other cultures, but most the recipe books in wizard shops were very British and European.

So, it’s morning.  Most of Hogwarts, teachers and visiting students included, are eating a yummy breakfast of their favorite pastry. Only a handful of students are not partaking in sweets, including two diabetics and one person with celiac disease. (There are a couple of diabetics who have planned ahead for this spike (either knowing their limit or taking insulin to counteract the carbs just because they enjoy the pastries so much).

Classes start at nine am, and it was currently 8:30, peak time when most, if not all, students would still be in the Great Hall eating breakfast and not running to pick up last minute books.

The trick to a good prank was to make people think it was caused by something else.  So, let’s take the pastry, for example.  The two sets of twins had spent the last couple days frantically brewing enough potion to go into the dough, while at the same time, rigging an illusion into the ceiling, that when set off by one of the Blight twins, would make it look like it was snowing indoors.

They worked with the ceiling, tweaking it’s illusion to have soft drifts of snow coming down that steadily got fatter and puffier throughout breakfast.  If anyone had bothered to look outside, they would’ve noticed that it was a sunny day with no hint of snow.

At 8:30, Emira triggered the second part of the illusion where the snow actually started to drift to the tables and land on people.  They looked up in confusion.  Dumbledore chuckled at the falling snow that was starting to pile up on the tables and floor, but did nothing to stop it while McGonagall and Flitwick scowled at him and tried to resolve the issue.

Meanwhile, the impact of the snow hitting the faces of the people in the Great Hall caused the first illusion cast by Edric to vanish.

All around the room, depending on the first pastry people had eaten, they were getting the ears, nose, whiskers, and eyes of various animals. (There was a reason why the Weasley twins wanted to know about the ears.  Sure, general curiosity, but also they didn’t want to accidentally harm anyone.)

Most of the doughnuts made people had features of a rabbit.  The jelly filled ones were raccoons.  The plain croissants were cats, while the chocolate filled ones were dogs. Cream horns were, interestingly enough, walruses. There were hamsters and mice and rats and one notable zebra.

A first year Ravenclaw giggled at her friend’s face, whiskers twitching in adorable anger.  Her friend sniffed, trying to keep a straight face, but broke down into laughter.  That broke the tension throughout the hall and people laughed at the various forms people had taken.

Those exempt from the prank were those who had not had any of the pastries, so not even most of the teachers were safe.

Karokaff, Maxime, and Snape were scowling and trying to magic away the whiskers.  Snape had an adorable set of black cat ears upon his head.  McGonagall in a fit of irony, had dog ears, but she was taking the prank with a much better attitude.

The snow faded away once the first illusion started to fade.

Dumbledore stood up and the hall quieted.  He had raccoon ears and new whiskers sprouting over his beard.

“Bravo to whomever did such a lovely prank.” This did not endear him to the more die-hard Slytherins. “Despite most of our new facial additions, classes will not be canceled, and I do hope that this is only temporary.” He glanced at the Weasley twins, who were both sporting hamster whiskers, then sat down and took a bite of another pastry.

By lunch time, most people’s added animal traits had worn off, only a few remained. Everyone was clear by the end of afternoon classes, and while everyone enjoyed their dinner that day, there was defiantly a wariness to eating that evening.

—

“We did good work today,” Fred said to the Blight twins after dinner.

“It was fun,” Edric said.

“Let us know when you’re going to do more,” Emira confirmed their continued involvement.

“Will do,” Fred and George said together, and they parted ways.

All in all it was a good prank.

Chapter Text

Hexside had the Hogwarts students and teachers so confused. When Hexside had come, Hogwarts was under the impression that all the students were fourth years, but once classes started, only a handful of Hexside students were actually in the fourth year classes.  Each student seemed to have their own custom made schedule that included classes from fourth year all the way to seventh year.  Somehow everyone managed to get into all the classes they wanted at the level they needed. Almost like it was magic.

Almost all the Hexside kids were in upper level Ancient Runes.  They could read the runes like it was their first language (Luz was the exception, but she was working as hard as she could to catch up). This frustrated our resident smarty-pants Hermione Granger to no end.  How were all of these students so knowledgable in some things but not in others?  They had explained the structure of their school briefly, but Hermione was still confused. Why were they in tracks? Did they test for those or just choose based on what they liked? Could they change later?

The teachers, while not liking that they had a variety of Hexside students in all their upper year classes, had to admit that they all had different skill levels.  The students would’ve been at a disadvantage if they had been all put in the fourth year classes.  Boscha was amazing at Potions, almost as smart as Professor Snape, except for the fact that she doesn’t know how all the ingredients in this realm worked together yet.  Willow could make any plant grow and became one of Professor Sprout’s favorite students.  Professor Babbling was just excited to have so many students in her class that knew what they were talking about.  She almost cried when she found out that the entire Hexside class passed her tests.

Most of the Hexside students were in fourth year Defense since they didn’t have a track for that.  A couple people had scored higher on the test and were in the fifth year class, but this was the one class that differed greatly between the realms.  Some monsters were the same, but what this Human realm considered “Dark Arts” some of the Hexside students considered pets or neighbors or lawn care.  It was not anyone’s favorite class.  According to Professor Moody, some of their classmates would be considered “dark”, even King, their unofficial mascot of the trip would be “dark”.  Principal Bump excused a handful of students from the class much to the annoyance of Moody.

None of the Hexside students were in History.  Why would they be?  This wasn’t their world.  (It’s not like Binns would notice either way, anyway). They don’t need to know about Goblin Wars in another world.  Principal Bump had collected some worksheets and readings from his history teacher and vowed to have a class at some point for his students. (He would keep putting it off until mid-December when that one student who always asked about the homework would remind him.  He gave them detention where the kid was forced to make copies of all the paperwork so there would be enough for everyone.  It was pretty tame compared to normal detention, so the kid was grateful.)

Some of the other teachers, though, hit a snag with teaching.  They could see the students figuring out a way for their magic to do the spells, which was great, but how were the teachers to help them if they didn’t know exactly how they were doing the magic?  It was brought up at a staff meeting and the classes with the most wand usage would bring it up with the Hexside students who were really struggling.  They didn’t know if they could use wands, but it was worth a try.  No one really wanted to go talk with Principal Bump, and no one was really sure where Eda went during the day.  Also, last time someone tried to talk to her about one of the students, Eda laughed and said she was just there for moral support.  She wasn’t paid to discipline those brats.  She had then wandered off to go bug Principal Bump about getting paid for being here.  He did not agree.

As for how the new students were doing? Well, pretty good.  The main challenge all Hexside students had was adapting the human magic into a circle.  What was the basis of the spell and how do they adapt it to do what they want with their own magic?  Magic has been, and will always be, powered by intent.

Depending on their tracks, some students found this easier than others.  Gus was a wiz at Charms, but the more physical aspect of Transfiguration baffled him at times.  Amity, on the other hand, had Transfiguration mostly down since she was used to manipulating Abominations, but the more finicky things like Charms and Creatures class stumped her. Willow excelled in Herbology, and that, like our friend Neville, unfortunately did not translate well to Potions.  The plus side is that she, Gus, and Luz were all in fourth year Potions suffering together.  Amity was in seventh year classes for that.  She had found some cool new ways to power her Abomination.  Her end of year project was going to rock!

Luz still took every class that was offered, even Muggle Studies, where she had been placed in the sixth and seventh year class along with Gus.

The real struggle came when she tried to cast spells. Her glyphs were great—for demon realm magic—but the magic in this world was different.  They said spells and waved wands.  It was like everyone had their own staff and Palisman, except without the Pal.

The teachers watched the Hexside students struggle without wands and pulled them aside after class.  Not everyone got this talk, but the lone human of the group had been told it would help.  Luz told Professor McGonagall that she would bring it up with her classmates and Principal, which seemed to appease her.  Professor McGonagall didn’t like to see her students struggling and also offered to take anyone interested to get wands.  Luz said she’d ask.

—

“We need wands?” Amity asked.

“That’s what Professor McGonagall said,” Luz said after class. “I tried to capture the glyph that she used during class, but the wand seemed to block it.  After Willow managed the spell, I was able to draw a passable glyph based on her work, but the Professor said almost all their magic is done with wands.”

“I’ve noticed that,” Amity said. “They don’t look like training wands.”

“This is a kind of human magic,” Gus said. “We just need to figure out how to do it our way.”

“I was chatting with Neville while at the Greenhouse after classes the other day.  Wands are a normal thing.  Apparently, they can’t do magic without them,” Willow said.

“I can do magic without them,” Luz said.

“Are we sure this is your world, though?” Amity asked. “Weren’t you going to ask Eda about that?  You’re still having trouble with your phone, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I am.  It would make sense if I had to go through two worlds to get back to mine for phone signal. And I’ve never heard of magic in my world.”

“Fascinating. An entire alternate human world,” Gus said.

“Do you think I could get a wand?” Luz asked. “I’m human like them.”

Amity shrugged. “It’s worth a try.”

—

Amity was one of the first in the classroom for seventh year Potions.  Another Abomination track kid sat two rows in front of her chatting with a Ravenclaw.  Boscha sauntered in, took a look around the room, and sighed heavily before walking up to Amity’s table and putting her books down.

“You’re the least offensive, even if you do hang out with losers all the time,” she sneered.

“Thanks, Boscha.  Always great to chat with you,” Amity said, rolling her eyes.

“Wands away,” Snape said, gliding into the room. “Books open to page 132.  We’re working with poisons today, so if there’s any goofing off, it’ll be detention until you graduate.  Understood?” Everyone nodded.

“We’ve been working on antidotes.  Who can tell me how you find an antidote when you have more than one poison blended together?”

—

“Uuuuuugh,” Luz groaned flopping back onto the couch she was doing homework on.

“What?” Amity absently asked, drawing a picture of a Manticore for Creatures class.

“I thought math was hard before, but this is impossible.”

“I told you not to take every class.”

Luz groaned again.

—

“Thanks for coming with me,” Neville said as he and Willow walked into Greenhouse Five. “We aren’t supposed to come into this one alone, and I don’t know any of the seventh years well enough to ask them to come with.”

“It’s no trouble.  These plants are fascinating.  Professor Sprout said I could take some cuttings back to Hexside.”

“Wicked.  What are you going to take?”

“I haven’t decided yet.  Probably some Devil’s Snare and maybe a Mandrake or two.  They would be good home defense.

“Devil’s Snare hates sunlight.”

“I know, but we have a lot of large trees in front of our house, so hopefully it’ll like to climb around the base.  I know some shade charms, as well.”

—

“Harry,” Amity said outside of Charms, “I talked with my siblings and they said they believe your twins when they said that you didn’t put your name in, and I believe them.  So, what I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry about how I acted last week. I was angry and thought you were trying to steal Willow’s thunder.”

Harry shifted nervously, Hermione at his side.  Ron was still acting bitter and with their other dorm-mates. “It’s…erm…okay.  I get it.”

Amity nodded. “I’m still sorry.  If you want help with the tasks, you can join our group.” Harry nodded slightly and she turned back to her friends while they waited for class to start.  Fourth year charms had Willow, Luz, and Amity all together.  This was not a class they were particularly good at, all of them better at working with physical objects.

This was also the class that Emira and Edric Blight TA’d for, much to the annoyance of Amity.

“So, did you apologize to him?” Emira asked her during practice time.

“Yes.”

“Were you nice about it?”

“Yes.”

Emira stared at her for another moment. “Pull back sharply from the completed circle.  You want the pillow to come towards you.” She walked away after.

“Pull back sharply,” Amity mocked quietly. Luz laughed next to her and drew another glyph on a paper. Amity tried again and the pillow flew half the distance towards her. She sighed an tried again.

Luz activated her glyph and her pillow flipped over one end and flopped down—inert.

“At least it moved.” Amity and Willow laughed.

—

Gus gasped, looking up from his Muggle Studies book where he was reading ahead at lunch. “Luz, did you know humans have been to the moon?”

Luz nodded, mouth full of food. “Yeah.”

“What?” Ron asked. “That can’t be true.”

“Wait, what?  Ron you don’t know about the moon landing?”

“Muggles haven’t been to the moon.  The book must be lying.”

Hermione looked scandalized, while Harry and Luz just looked concerned.

“How…” Hermione found her voice again. “How can you not know that we’ve been to the moon?”

“It’s impossible.  If wizards haven’t gotten to the moon, how could Muggles have?”

“Giant rockets,” Harry said.

“What’s a rocket?” Ron asked.

“A rocket is a type of…ship that is propelled through the atmosphere using a controlled explosion.  Kind of like fireworks, but bigger.”

“And they sent a person to the moon?”

“Multiple people,” Luz confirmed. “They’ve come back.  I don’t think anyone’s actually died on the moon.  There have been a couple accidents on the launch pad, though.”

Ron scoffed. “Next you’re going to tell me that everything is made up of tinier bits of stuff.”

Harry laughed and Hermione scowled, crossing her arms. “It is. Those tiny things are called atoms.”

Ron just gaped, not seeming to have an answer to that.

“I think our moon is sentient,” Amity mused. “Someone tried to visit it once, but they were eaten by something.  Probably the moon.”

“That sounds about right for the Boiling Isles,” Luz said.

“Humans are so cool.  I want to go to the moon.  What does it look like?  The book doesn’t have any pictures.”

Luz pulled out her phone, fiddling with the glyphs and opened the internet.  She googled moon landing pictures and held her phone out to Gus, and by extension, Ron.

“Cool!”

Ron still looked disbelieving so she pulled up the video of the moon landing. He grumbled, but she couldn’t tell if he accepted it or not.

“Hey, Ron,” Harry said, smirking, “Did you know that Muggles have satellites orbiting the Earth that can track the location of anything on the surface?”

Ron threw a bun at Harry, “Piss off.” Harry laughed.

Chapter Text

“Oh my Grom, you will not believe what I just found in the forest,” a Beast track kid said, coming up to their group in the library during their break after dinner.  They had short, bright blue hair and pointy teeth that didn’t fully fit in their mouth, but they were grinning, so you couldn’t tell.

“What?” Gus asked.

“Dragons!” they squealed quietly. “Five of them!  They were so beautiful! We haven’t seen dragons as big as these in the Boiling Isles in thousands of years.”

“Are those the first task?” Luz asked.

Beast track shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care. I’m going to sneak over and ask if I can keep one.  Maybe they’ll give me an egg.  Oh Professor Manilegs would love to have a dragon in class.” And with that, they ran off.

“Well, dragons,” Willow said. “What do we know about dragons?”

“Big, scary, breath fire,” Luz ticked off, “Comic relief that dispenses wisdom.”

“That last one sounds like it’s not accurate,” Amity said.

“Have you ever met a dragon?” Luz accused. Amity shook her head. “Then you don’t know if they do or don’t.”

Willow stood up. “I’m going to find a book on dragons.  Gus, can you find that student and get them to describe them.  We can narrow down the kind, then.”

Gus stood and saluted. “On it!” He ran out of the library after the student.

“Luz, can you help me find some books?  Amity, maybe think of some spells that might go against a dragon.”

Amity looked thoughtful. “I need to know more about them.  What’s their skin like?  How hot is the fire?  Are you actually fighting it?  I’ll start making a list as you get books.”

“Right.  Let’s go, Luz.”

Luz smiled and followed. “I love magic school!”

—

The group of four sat in their common room the next day at one of the tables, books spread across the table, open to sections on dragons and spells. Gus started to explain his adventure to the dragons. “Ok, Avalon and I—”

“Avalon?” Luz asked.

“Beast track kid,” Gus replied. “We snuck back to the dragons and overheard them say these names.” Gus pulled out a piece of paper. “Hungarian Horntail, Swedish Short-Snout, Chinese Fireball, Hebridean Black, and Common Welsh Green.”

“So one dragon each?” Amity asked.

“Wouldn’t it just be easier to have one dragon?” Luz inquired.

Willow replied, “Then whomever goes first is at the biggest disadvantage and whomever goes last has the easiest time, unless they let the dragon rest, but that seems unlikely.  Plus, I still don’t know what I’m going to have to do.”

“Did you see anything else?” Luz asked.

Gus shrugged. “Just some eggs.  They were being real careful with them.”

Amity froze. “Wait, like real dragon eggs.  Are these nesting mothers?”

“Is that a problem?” Luz asked.

Amity flipped through a book and pointed at a passage. “Nesting mothers are extremely vicious to anything they perceive to be messing with their eggs.”

“So anger plus,” Luz agreed.

Willow looked thoughtful. “So if they’re using nesting mothers, it would make sense that they’re protecting something, right?  Maybe I have to get something.”

“While not angering a mom who thinks you’re after her kids,” Gus added.

“And while not catching on fire,” stated Amity.

“And not smashing any unborn babies,” Luz continued.

“Seems simple enough,” Willow agreed.

They were silent for a moment.  Luz slammed a hand down on the table, and they all jumped. “Right!  What spells do we need?”

“Fire proof, protective for both Willow and possibly the eggs, retrieval?”

Gus shook his heard. “They may protect against a retrieval spell.  What’s the point of getting past the dragon if the thing comes to you?”

“How do I distract the dragon?  Even if I’m fire proof, it’s not going to just let me walk right up.”

“Anytime I need to distract King or Hooty I usually give them something shiny.” Luz looked thoughtful. “It works on Eda, too.” She trailed off.

“Okay,” Amity said. “Besides the worrying fact that one of our chaperones is distracted by shiny toys, that might work.”

“Dragons are not giant cat-demons.” Willow paused. “Are they?”

Amity shrugged. “It’s a start of a plan anyway.”

Luz flipped through a book on magical plants. “Is there like a plant you can grow to put it to sleep or make it high or something?”

“That’s just what we need: a high dragon,” Amity teased, nudging Luz.  Luz gently pushed Amity back.

“Any sort of sleeping plant might be too dangerous, especially because the size I’d have to make it, would put the people in danger, otherwise, plants are a good idea.”

“You could wrap them around it’s legs and neck and wings so it can’t attack you!” Gus explained excitedly.

Willow looked nervous. “I don’t think I’m that powerful.”

“Of course you are!” Luz exclaimed.

Amity put a calming hand on her arm. “Maybe start with a plant that can distract it.  Dragons don’t have many weaknesses.  Their skin is super strong and they’re smart.  We don’t want to harm it, but we want it away from whatever it’s guarding.”

“Which will probably be in or near the eggs,” added Gus.

Willow thunked her head onto the table. “Great.”

They spent the afternoon looking into various plants and spells that could help.  After lunch, Eda handed Luz an old book she had found in a room filled with junk.  Well, the room was filled with junk, but Eda liberated a lot of the things back into the Boiling Isles to sort through later.

“Wait, I found something,” Luz said. “This plant is fireproof.”

“What?” Willow asked. “I’ve seen fire-resistant plants, but not fireproof.  I know there’s an upperclassman working on that back at Hexside, though.”

Luz summarized her book. “It’s called a Regisvine and there’s pyro and cyro varieties that they’ve found, but it’s expected that electro ones exist as well.  What makes it fireproof is that it’s kind of made of fire.”

“So, I attack with it?”

“No, no. You wrap yourself in something fireproof like water or I don’t know, something, then wrap yourself with the plant and just walk right past the fire breathing dragon and get whatever you need to get then walk away.”

Willow looked dubious. “Not a bad plan.” Luz beamed. “Sorry, but not a good one either.  Why not just attack with the plant?”

Luz sighed. “I guess.”

“It’s not so much made of fire,” Amity said, reading on, “but looks to be immune to any type of fire damage. So it shoots fire out of the like flower part.” Amity made shooty motions with one hands.

“Are dragons warm or cold blooded?” Luz asked, absently.

“What does that mean?” Gus asked after a moment of silence.

Luz looked up from her book to the looks of confusion. “What? You don’t know what that is?  None of you?” They shook their heads.

“Is that a thing humans can do? Make their blood warm or cold?”

“No, no. Like um, humans are warm blooded because we can regulate our body temperature. If we’re cold, we make ourselves warm.  If we’re warm, we cool ourselves off.  Make sense?” They nodded. “Cold blooded is like reptiles. Their body temperature changes based on the outside temperature.  So if it’s sunny, they’re warm, but if it’s snowy, they’re cold.”

“That doesn’t seem like it’d be very helpful.”

Luz shrugged. “Reptiles usually live in warmer climates.”

Willow realized where Luz was going with her original question. “You’re wondering about dragon’s blood because if it’s cold blooded—”

“—You use the Cyro Regisvine and freeze it!” Luz took over.

Gus looked through a book called Xanathar’s Guide to Everything that had a very comprehensive guide on dragons. “It says they maintain a constant internal temperature using the elemental energy flowing through the bloodstream regardless of external environment.”

The girls deflated. “There goes that plan,” Luz said.

“Maybe I can still use part of it.  Let’s look up more about these Regisvines.”

—

Turns out Regisvines are only found on this one hidden continent and it’s nearly impossible to get one imported.  They could try, but it would probably take them years, and they didn’t have that.  So, plan B, it was. (Luz had roped Eda into trying to get one anyway. Doesn’t hurt to have a backup plan.)

What was plan B? Figure out something to distract the dragon.  Which was going to be hard.  They were smart, and these dragons had the advantage of being overly protective of their eggs.

Willow needed to be careful.  She didn’t want to harm the eggs, nor the dragon.  They were a protected species and she’s pretty sure the Beast tracks kids would murder her if she harmed it or the babies.

“Harry!” Willow called while walking to practice growing things outside.

Harry turned from his journey up to the library.  Hermione was nowhere to be seen. He came to a stop next to her.

“‘Lo, Willow.”

“Has anyone told you about the first task?”

“Er…we aren’t supposed to know what it is, right?”

“If they wanted it to be a secret, they should’ve warded the forest.  My friends and I have overheard that the other two school champions know.  I wanted to make sure that the one champion who didn’t want to be in it, knows.”

“Oh. Yeah, I know it’s dragons.”

“Nice.  I’m going outside to go practice some stuff, but if you find Luz, Gus, or Amity, ask them for our notes, okay?”

“Okay.  Thanks.  You don’t have to do that.”

Willow smiled shyly. “Like I said, you didn’t want to be in this.  You should have an advantage that we don’t, but…” She shrugged. “See you in class!” Willow walked away and Harry went to go find the other three Hexside students.

Chapter Text

In the end, only four students ended up going to buy wands: Luz, Cat, Eileen, and Groanson, a construction track student.

Eda and Professor McGonagall collected the students and took them to Diagon Alley via Floo. They had been excused from their classes that day until lunch.

Ollivander’s was as empty as it always is, and when the owner startled them by coming out of the stacks nearly silently, all four students screamed.

Ollivander took in the students in front of him: older than a typical first year, different uniforms, and strange features.  One student’s whole face was an eye.  He took a breath and flicked his own wand to have the tape measure run over to the closet student—Eileen.

She blinked indifferently at the tape measure measuring her arms and bangs.

“New students?” he asked.

“Visiting,” McGonagall said. “They mainly use wandless magic at their school, but have been having some trouble with lessons. I offered to bring those that wanted it, to buy some wands.”

Ollivander took a box down and handed it to the cyclops. “Apple with Unicorn hair.” Eileen grabbed it for a moment before it was snatched out of her hand. “No.”

Five wands later and Eileen found her ten inch larch wood with phoenix feather wand.  Groanson took seven tries before finding his rigid nine and half inch hornbeam wood wand with dragon heartstring, and Cat only took two wands before getting her thirteen inch willow wand with unicorn hair.

Luz watched, fascinated by the tape measure encircling her head. “This is so cool,” she whispered to Eda.  Eda rolled her eyes, but was smiling at her student.

“I thought you wanted a staff?”

“I do,”she said, “but until I earn it, this will do.  Besides, I still want to learn all the magic I can.  I’m still going to learn the glyphs.”

Eda ruffled Luz’s hair, proud of her willingness to earn the staff and continue learning Eda’s kind of magic.

Ollivander held out a pine wood with dragon heartstring.  Luz waved it, and a vase on the other side of the shop shattered.

He took the wand back and dismissed her concerns. “Happens all the time,” he said.

Luz went through another ten wands, all with dragon heartstring until he handed her a light brown wand with small red circles engraved into the wand, wrapping up to the top.  She flicked the wand and purple glitter slowly drifted down around her.

He clapped his hands together. “Lovely!  Twelve and a quarter inches.  Holly with dragon heartstring, nice and supple.”

“Thank you, Mr. Ollivander!” Luz said, clenching her wand close.

Professor McGonagall paid for the wands with money from the school and they left the shop, heading over to a small cafe for lunch.

Eda had vanished for a few minutes while they waited for their food, returning when the food arrived.

Conversation flowed freely within the Hexside kids as they relaxed, even in the presence of a teacher.  McGonagall and Eda bonded over the antics of students—McGonagall’s Gryffindors and Luz specifically.

After lunch, they headed back to school for afternoon classes, ready to try some of the spells that have been tripping them up again.  As they walked in the school, they passed one of Ron’s siblings who should’ve been in class, and was caught by McGonagall.  She took points, hesitating slightly at the color of tie, and gave him detention.

Eda pulled Luz aside before she could get too far and held out a slim box she pulled from her hair.

“Did you get me a gift?” Luz asked.

“Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

Luz smiled and opened the gift.  Inside, nestled in some tissue paper was a red leather wand holster with tiny owls engraved on it.  Luz beamed wider and put it on her arm, sliding her wand into its place.

“Thank you, Eda!” She lunged at Eda, hugging her tightly.

“Ugh, the parallel arm thing,” the older witch groaned, but accepted the hug and patted Luz’s back. “Don’t you have class?” she asked after a full minute of hugging.

Luz jumped back and looked at her phone for the time. “Shoot, I’m late!  Thanks again Eda!” She ran off.

—

When Willow, Gus, and Luz arrived at Potions after lunch the next day, they found the Slytherins pressing a large badge on their robes and laughing.  The bright red letters that spelled out: ‘Support CEDRIC DIGGORY — The REAL Hogwarts Champion!’ changed to a glowing green: ‘POTTER STINKS’.

“Oh very funny,” Hermione said sarcastically to the gang of Slytherin girls, who were laughing harder than anyone, “really witty.”

“Want one, Granger?” said the blond Slytehrin, holding out a badge to Hermione. “I’ve got loads. But don’t touch my hand, now. I’ve just washed it, you see; don’t want a Mudblood sliming it up.”

Harry reached for his wand at those words and people all around them scrambled out of the way, backing down the corridor.  Willow and her friends were the only ones who remained where they were.  They weren’t scared.

“Harry!” Hermione said warningly.

“Go on, then, Potter,” Malfoy said quietly, drawing out his own wand. “Moody’s not here to look after you now — do it, if you’ve got the guts —”

For a split second, they looked into each other’s eyes, then, at exactly the same time, both acted.

“Furnunculus!” Harry yelled.

“Densaugeo!” screamed Malfoy.

Jets of light shot from both wands, hit each other in midair, and ricocheted off at angles — Harry’s hit one of the big Slytherins in the face, and Malfoy’s hit Hermione. The Slytherin bellowed and put his hands to his nose, where great ugly boils were springing up — Hermione, whimpering in panic, was clutching her mouth.

“Hermione!” Ron and Luz shouted.

Ron had hurried forward to see what was wrong with her; Harry turned and saw Ron dragging Hermione’s hand away from her face. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Hermione’s front teeth — already larger than average — were now growing at an alarming rate; she was looking more and more like a beaver as her teeth elongated, past her bottom lip, toward her chin — panic-stricken, she felt them and let out a terrified cry.

“And what is all this noise about?” said a soft, deadly voice.

Snape had arrived. The Slytherins clamored to give their explanations; Snape pointed a long yellow finger at Malfoy and said, “Explain.”

“Potter attacked me, sir —”

“We attacked each other at the same time!” Harry shouted.

“— and he hit Goyle — look —”

Snape examined Goyle, whose face now resembled something that would have been at home in a book on poisonous fungi. “Hospital wing, Goyle,” Snape said calmly.

“Malfoy got Hermione!” Ron said. “Look!”

He forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth — she was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had now grown down past her collar. Pansy Parkinson and the other Slytherin girls were doubled up with silent giggles, pointing at Hermione from behind Snape’s back.  Willow glared at the girls and they were smart enough to quiet.

Snape looked coldly at Hermione, then said, “I see no difference.”

Hermione let out a whimper; her eyes filled with tears, she turned on her heel and ran, ran all the way up the corridor and out of sight.

Luz shouted at Snape wordlessly for a moment before turning and running after her.

Harry and Ron started shouting at Snape at the same time; lucky their voices echoed so much in the stone corridor, for in the confused din, it was impossible for him to hear exactly what they were calling him. He got the gist, however.  Willow vowed to do something during class.  There were a lot of plants in that classroom.

“Let’s see,” he said, in his silkiest voice. “Fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention each for Potter and Weasley. Now get inside, or it’ll be a week’s worth of detentions.”

Willow and Gus sat with Harry at his empty table. On the other side of the dungeon, Malfoy turned his back on Snape and pressed his badge, smirking. POTTER STINKS flashed once more across the room.  Gus made a circle and the badge turned into a spider, scaring the blond and scuttling away.  They high-fived quietly.

“Antidotes!” said Snape, looking around at them all, his cold black eyes glittering unpleasantly. “You should all have prepared your recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will be selecting someone on whom to test one. . . .”

And then a knock on the dungeon door burst in on Snape’s threats.

It was a younger Gryffindor; he edged into the room, beaming at Harry, and walked up to Snape’s desk at the front of the room.

“Yes?” said Snape curtly.

“Please, sir, I’m supposed to take Harry Potter and Willow Park upstairs.”

Snape stared down his hooked nose at the boy, whose smile faded from his eager face.

“Potter and Park have another hour of Potions to complete,” said Snape coldly. “They will come upstairs when this class is finished.”

The boy went pink.

“Sir — sir, Mr. Bagman wants them,” he said nervously. “All the champions have got to go, I think they want to take photographs…”

“Very well, very well,” Snape snapped. “Potter, Park, leave your things here, I want you back down here later to test your antidote.”

“Please, sir — they’ve got to take their things with them,” squeaked Colin. “All the champions —”

“Very well !” said Snape. “Potter — take your bag and get out of my sight! Park, you as well.”

Harry swung his bag over his shoulder, got up, and headed for the door. As he walked through the Slytherin desks, POTTER STINKS flashed at him from every direction. Willow followed behind and made a small circle as she left the room.  All the plants on the Slytherin’s desk started to grow and break out of their containers.  They closed the door behind the shouts of surprise.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it, Harry?” said the boy, starting to speak the moment Willow had closed the dungeon door behind her. “Isn’t it, though? You being champion?”

“Yeah, really amazing,” said Harry heavily as they set off toward the steps into the entrance hall. “What do they want photos for, Colin?”

“The Daily Prophet, I think!”

“Great,” said Harry dully. “Exactly what I need. More publicity.”

“Good luck!” said Colin when they had reached the right room. The kid wandered away and Willow couldn’t help but think that this felt like anytime she went on an adventure with Luz: a sense of doom.

Chapter Text

“It’ll be fine. Just stay by me.  They can’t interview you without your guardian.”

“I’m not too sure about that,” Harry replied.

“Gus’ dad is a reporter.  I know the basic rules, even in a different world.  Trust me.”

Harry nodded and knocked on the door and entered.

They was in a fairly small classroom; most of the desks had been pushed away to the back of the room, leaving a large space in the middle; three of them, however, had been placed end-to-end in front of the blackboard and covered with a long length of velvet. Six chairs had been set behind the velvet-covered desks, and Bagman was sitting in one of them, talking to a witch wearing magenta robes.

Viktor was standing moodily in a corner as usual and not talking to anybody. Cedric and Fleur were in conversation. She kept throwing back her head so that her long silvery hair caught the light. A paunchy man, holding a large black camera that was smoking slightly, was watching Fleur out of the corner of his eye. Creep.

Bagman suddenly spotted them, got up quickly, and bounded forward.

“Ah, here they are! Champions number four and five! In you come, Harry and Willow, in you come . . . nothing to worry about, it’s just the wand weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment —”

“Wand weighing?” Harry repeated nervously.

“We have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they’re your most important tools in the tasks ahead,” said Bagman.  Did they know that Willow didn’t have a wand?  That she didn’t use one?  Oh well, that’s a later-Willow problem.  “The expert’s upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there’s going to be a little photo shoot. This is Rita Skeeter,” he added, gesturing toward the witch in magenta robes. “She’s doing a small piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet…”

“Maybe not that small, Ludo,” said Rita Skeeter, her eyes on Harry.

Willow thought she looked like one of those predators with the pretty looking outsides but were poison once you bit into it with her elaborate curls, jeweled glasses, and two-inch crimson nails. 

“I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry before we start?” she said to Bagman, but still gazing fixedly at Harry. “The youngest champion, you know…to add a bit of color?”

“Certainly!” cried Bagman. “That is — if Harry has no objection?”

“Er —” said Harry.

“Actually,” Willow interrupted, grabbing Harry’s arm lightly so he didn’t move, “I may be from a different realm, but back home, if a minor is to be interviewed, they need a guardian with them to make sure nothing…untoward…happens.”

“Willow, dear—”Skeeter started.

“Come on, Harry.  Let’s go see the other champions.” She pulled him over to Cedric, who helped shield Harry and hide him away from the reporter.

“Thank you,” Harry breathed, slouching against the wall.  Fleur looked at him critically while Skeeter glared at Willow from across the room.  Willow smiled sweetly and waved.

“She’s a viper, that one,” Cedric confirmed. “Writes the gossip column in the Prophet.”

The judges entered the room and the champions were told to sit in chairs near the door, and Harry sat down quickly next to Cedric and Willow before anymore interviews could almost happen, looking up at the velvet-covered table, where five of the six judges were now sitting — Karkaroff, Maxime, Principal Bump, Crouch, and Bagman. Skeeter settled herself down in a corner; slipped a parchment out of her bag, spread it on her knee, sucked the end of an acid green quill, and placed it on the parchment.

“May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?” said Dumbledore, taking his place at the judges’ table and talking to the champions. “He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament.”

Willow figured this was the old man that Luz described from the wand shop the other day.

“Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?” said Mr. Ollivander, stepping into the empty space in the middle of the room.

Fleur swept over to Mr. Ollivander and handed him her wand.

“Hmmm . . .” he said.

He twirled the wand between his long fingers like a baton and it emitted a number of pink and gold sparks. Then he held it close to his eyes and examined it carefully.

“Yes,” he said quietly, “nine and a half inches . . . inflexible . . . rosewood . . . and containing . . . dear me . . .”

“An ’air from ze ’ead of a veela,” said Fleur. “One of my grandmuzzer’s.”

“Yes,” said Mr. Ollivander, “yes, I’ve never used veela hair my- self, of course. I find it makes for rather temperamental wands . . .however, to each his own, and if this suits you . . .”

Mr. Ollivander ran his fingers along the wand, apparently checking for scratches or bumps; then he muttered, “Orchideous!” and a bunch of flowers burst from the wand tip.

“Very well, very well, it’s in fine working order,” said Mr. Ollivander, scooping up the flowers and handing them to Fleur with her wand. “Mr. Diggory, you next.”

Fleur glided back to her seat, smiling at Cedric as he passed her.

“Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn’t it?” said Mr. Ollivander, with much more enthusiasm, as Cedric handed over his wand. “Yes, I remember it well. Containing a single hair from the tail of a particularly fine male unicorn . . . must have been seventeen hands; nearly gored me with his horn after I plucked his tail. Twelve and a quarter inches . . . ash . . . pleasantly springy. It’s in fine condition. . . . You treat it regularly?”

“Polished it last night,” said Cedric, grinning.  What?

Willow watched from the corner of her eye as Harry tried to surreptitiously clean his wand until Fleur gave him a patronizing look and he stopped.

Mr. Ollivander sent a stream of silver smoke rings across the room from the tip of Cedric’s wand, pronounced himself satisfied, and then said, “Mr. Krum, if you please.”

Viktor got up and slouched toward Mr. Ollivander. He thrust out his wand and stood scowling, with his hands in the pockets of his robes.

“Hmm,” said Mr. Ollivander, “this is a Gregorovitch creation, unless I’m much mistaken? A fine wand-maker, though the styling is never quite what I . . . however . . .”

He lifted the wand and examined it minutely, turning it over and over before his eyes.

“Yes . . . hornbeam and dragon heartstring?” he shot at Krum, who nodded. “Rather thicker than one usually sees . . . quite rigid . . . ten and a quarter inches . . . Avis!”

The hornbeam wand let off a blast like a gun, and a number of small, twittering birds flew out of the end and through the open window into the watery sunlight.

“Good,” said Mr. Ollivander, handing Krum back his wand. “Miss. Park, if you please.

Willow stood up and walked over to Mr. Ollivander but didn’t hand him anything.  She glanced at Principal Bump in question.

“Your wand, dear,” Mr. Ollivander said, hand outstretched.

She turned back to him. “I don’t have one.”

“What?” Bagman said. “Dear, why didn’t you say you needed one.  I’m sure Albus could’ve arranged it.”

“He did.  Some of my classmates went and got wands the other day, but it was never mentioned that a wand was mandatory.  My spells are good for what I need them for.  I’m not struggling in any classes that need a wand.  They offered; I refused.”

“Principal Bump,” Bagman said. “How is this possible?”

“You don’t you show them, Miss. Park?”

Willow nodded and concentrated on the ivy she felt outside the window.  She drew a green circle in the air and the vine snaked into the room, growing bigger than usual.

“Wow,” she heard behind her.

The judges and Mr. Ollivander talked in whispers for a few minutes before saying she was fine.  She returned to her seat.

“Which leaves . . . Mr. Potter,” Mr. Ollivander said.

Harry got to his feet and walked to Mr. Ollivander. He handed over his wand.

“Aaaah, yes,” said Mr. Ollivander, his pale eyes suddenly gleaming. “Yes, yes, yes. How well I remember.” Mr. Ollivander spent much longer examining Harry’s wand than anyone else’s. Eventually, however, he made a fountain of wine shoot out of it, and handed it back to Harry, announcing that it was still in perfect condition.

“Thank you all,” said Dumbledore, standing up at the judges’ table. “You may go back to your lessons now — or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as they are about to end —”

Harry and Willow got up to leave, but the man with the black camera jumped up and cleared his throat.

“Photos, Dumbledore, photos!” cried Bagman excitedly. “All the judges and champions, what do you think, Rita?”

“Er — yes, let’s do those first,” said Rita Skeeter, whose eyes were upon Harry again. “And then perhaps some individual shots.”

The photographs took a long time. Maxime cast everyone else into shadow wherever she stood, and the photographer couldn’t stand far enough back to get her into the frame; eventually she had to sit while everyone else stood around her. Karkaroff kept twirling his goatee around his finger to give it an extra curl; Viktor skulked, half-hidden, at the back of the group. The photographer seemed keenest to get Fleur and Willow at the front, but Rita Skeeter kept hurrying forward and dragging Harry into greater prominence. Then she insisted on separate shots of all the champions. At last, they were free to go.

Willow and Harry met up with Gus and Amity at dinner.  They informed the two that Hermione and Luz were still in the infirmary and they were going to go check in after they ate.  It was a plan and dinner passed by quickly before the group of four left and made their way to see their friends.

Chapter Text

Luz hummed to herself as she walked down the hallway.  Hogwarts was huge and it was always fun to wander around.  She would prefer to wander with friends, but this was one of the rare class times where she didn’t have anything and they all did.

She turned the corner and collided with something tiny.  The thing she ran into fell to the ground with short yell.

“Oh my gosh!  I’m so sorry!” Luz quickly offered a hand to help the girl up.

“It’s okay,” she said airily as she got to her feet. The girl was slight, and probably only a year younger than Luz.  She had long curly platinum blond hair and a curious look on her face.  She had on super cute radish earrings and no shoes.

“Oh! I love your earrings!  Where’d you get them?”

She looked startled at the compliment. “…Thanks.  I made them.  You’re different from the others.”

Does she mean because she’s human?

Luz grinned and held out her hand. “I’m Luz Noceda.”

The girl stared at her hand for a moment, almost trying to see if there was a trick.  She hesitantly took it and they shook. “Luna Lovegood, but everyone calls me Loony.”

Luz frowned. “That doesn’t sound very nice.”

“No.” Luna didn’t say anything else, just continued staring at Luz like a very fascinating puzzle.

“What were you um doing in this part of the castle?” Luz asked, breaking the silence.  She knew this wasn’t near any of the dorms since she had found those all already.

Luna blinked and looked down at her bare feet.  “Looking for my shoes.  They seem to have ran off again.”

“Is that a normal thing at Hogwarts?”

“Only for me, I think.  The Nargles like to take them.  My necklace should keep them away, but they must grab my shoes while I’m not wearing them.”

Luz frowned.  She had never heard of Nargles, not that that meant they didn’t exist, but this sounded more like people stealing from her. “Have you told a teacher?  Maybe they have something to stop the Nargles.”

Luna looked off down the hallway. “…I don’t think they’d like that.  I might find more than my shoes and homework missing.”

This poor girl.  She was bullied and no one was doing anything. Well, she would do something.

“Why don’t I help you look?  I was just exploring anyway.  My mentor taught me a spell to find lost things.”

Luna looked shocked and turned back to Luz, trying to figure her out. “I…thank you.  That would be very nice.”

“It’s no problem.” Luz pulled out her notebook and drew the glyph full of arrows and question marks. Luna watched entranced at the drawing. “So, since it’s your things that are lost, you’ll need to also touch the glyph and think about what you want to find as I activate it, okay?”

Luna nodded. “Yes.” She reached out and touched the edge of the circle.  Luz took a breath and concentrated on the feeling of looking for something.  She tapped the center of the glyph.  Luna gasped as the paper glowed and folded itself into a crane.  It fluttered in front of them for a moment before flapping down the hallway in the direction Luz was originally heading.

“Let’s go,” she said and grabbed Luna’s hand before running after it.

The crane lead them up to the seventh floor and to a rarely used cupboard.  It tapped on the door and Luz nudged it open.  The paper crane landed on a pair of red and white high top shoes and went inert.  She loved keeping all the little cranes.

Luna gasped and reached for her shoes. “Thank you.”

“It was no trouble.  Plus, we found this cool room.” Luz looked around the unused dusty classroom. “Okay, it’s not that cool, but we found your shoes, which is awesome.”

Luna giggled and put her shoes on, tying the laces in a neat bow.

“Do you want to keep the crane?” Luz asked.

Her head snapped up. “What?”

Luz moved the wings of the crane gently. “The magic’s run out, but I like to keep them.”

“I…yes. I would like that. Thank you.” She reached out and gently took the crane.

In the distance they heard the bell ring signaling that classes for the day were over.

“Come on, let’s go to dinner.”

—

Luz waved goodbye to Luna when they got to the Great Hall, separating to go to their tables. Luna shyly waved back.  Luz watched Luna sit in an empty seat and the kids around her moved away slightly.  No one joined her in the seats that were right next to or across from her. Luz frowned at the Hogwarts students and joined her friends at the Gryffindor table.

“Oh no,” Amity said, “That’s you’re ‘I have to help somebody’ face.”

“I don’t have a face for that.”

“You do,” Willow, Gus, and Amity said at the same time.

Luz very maturely stuck out her tongue at her friends.

“So, what’s wrong?” Willow asked.

Luz sighed. “There’s this girl in Ravenclaw.  Year below us, I think.”

“The one you waved to when you came in?” Amity asked.

“Yeah.  I don’t think she has any friends.  And I’m pretty sure she’s getting bullied.  I helped find her shoes today.”

“So tell a teacher,” Gus said.

“She said it would probably get worse if she did.”

“She’s not wrong,” Willow confirmed.

Luz groaned and laid her head on the table in frustration. “I just don’t know what to do!”

“We hang out with her,” Willow said. “That way she has some friends.  Plus, we can help her look for her things, too.” Luz perked up.  That was actually a good idea, and if they manage to catch any of the stealing meanies in the act, they would go to a teacher.

“Yes!  Great idea!  Thanks Willow!”

—

The next morning Luz waited in the entrance hall for Luna to show up.  She was trailing softly behind a group of younger Ravenclaw girls as they came down for breakfast.  The girls weren’t including Luna, but they weren’t pushing her away either.  Must either be her year mates or older students bullying her.

“Luna!  Morning!” Luz shouted, getting the smaller girl’s attention.  She startled the young Ravenclaws, but they continued walking to breakfast after a moment.

Luna stared at Luz. “Oh.  Good morning, Luz.”

“Want to have breakfast with us?”

“Us?”

“Me and Amity and Willow and Gus.  They want to meet you.  We weren’t sure if you’re allowed to sit at other tables, but we saved you a seat at Gryffindor.”

Luna beamed.  Her smile took up her entire face.  “I would love that.” Luz came to a realization that this poor girl had no friends, or at least no good friends.

Luz held out her hand and Luna grabbed on for Luz to lead her to the table.

“Hi Luna.  I’m Willow.”

“I know.”

“I’m Gus!  Do all humans have bottle top necklaces?”

Luna sat, looking at her necklace a bit confused. “No, I don’t think so.  It’s to keep the Nargles away.”

“Cool!” exclaimed Gus. “How do I get one?  I don’t want any Nargles.”

“I made this one.  I can show you how?” she asked hesitantly.

Gus nodded so fast it looked like he’d give himself whiplash. “Oh Titan, would you? Thanks!”

“I’m Amity.  It’s good to meet you, Luna.”

Luna smiled lightly back, seeming not to know how to respond to all of them being so nice.

They chatted about classes and homework for a bit.  Gus mentioned he was obsessed with humans and connected to Luna about strange creatures that no one believed in.  Luz told them a story about her Griffen book report to everyone’s enjoyment.

“Good morning, Luna,” a red headed girl said, sitting down next to Luna. “What’d are you doing here?”

Luna smiled. “Hello, Ginny.  Talking with my new friends.”

Ginny assessed the four Hexside students, like she was making sure they weren’t going to harm Luna.  Good, the girl needed someone in her corner.

Luz spoke up from Luna’s other side. “Luna’s been telling us about the creatures she and her dad try and find.  They’re so cool.  I wish I had some wizard money to get the magazine.  I think the Boiling Isles would love it.”

“I can mail daddy.  We can work something out.”

“Gems and gold are usually universal,” Amity said.

Luz turned to Amity. “And where am I going to get gems and gold? I’m not made of money.  I’m pretty sure the only reason why Eda hasn’t been kicked out of her land is because of Hooty.”

“You can trade human things for some.”

“…That’s not a bad idea.”

Luna giggled at the argument. “I’m glad you’re making friends,” Ginny whispered to Luna, not quite quiet enough for Luz to not overhear.  Oh, she approved of them, good.

“Me too.”

Breakfast passed pleasantly enough after that and right before they had to head to class, Luz spoke up.

“Hey, Luna,” Luz said, “do you want to sit with us during the first task?  We’re obviously cheering for Willow, but you can cheer for anyone you like.”

“We’re also supporting Harry,” Gus said.

“The cup was tricked,” Luna said.

Amity nodded. “We thought so, too.”

Willow spoke up. “Moody suggested as much to the judges on that first night.  That’s why we’re trying to be as supportive as possible to Harry since he didn’t sign up for this like I did.”

Luna smiled and nodded. “I will sit with you, thanks.”

“Great!” Luz grinned. “We gotta get to class, but see you later, okay?”

“Okay.” They went their separate ways to class, Luz vowing quietly to herself to help Luna as much as she could before they left.

Chapter Text

Luna didn’t have many friends. Her dorm mates thought she was weird, and so did most of her year mates. The older girls stole her things and hid them around the school, which, while an inconvenience, it wasn’t to an extreme where she was going to go to Professor Flitwick.

She hid behind hidden creatures and obscure statements.  If she acted aloof, then they couldn’t tell they were getting to her.

Ginny, she had known since they were babies.  They weren’t the best of friends, but Ginny never tried to hurt her, and Luna was pretty sure Ginny kept the Gryffindor girls from making fun of her.  Regardless, most people at her age level called her Loony.

The Hexside students confused her, though.  Meeting Luz was strange.  She did magic differently from both Luna, and her own classmates, but she could find Luna’s shoes much easier than any Point Me spell.  And she was nice.  Not for her own gain, but just to help out Luna.  It was a strange feeling.

And meeting Luz’s friends, who were all nice to her and accepting of her creatures, countering back with strange ones of their own.  They didn’t think she was weird.  Gus wanted to make his own cork necklace.  No one had ever wanted that.

Then they invited her to sit with them both at meals and at the first task.  Luna was over the moon with excitement.  For once, she was looking forward to a school event and mealtimes.  She had people to talk to and friends to sit with.  She hoped they were her friends, and not playing the long game, like one of her dorm mates in first year.  That was a bad time.

The first task was in two days.  She had to figure out what she was going to wear.  What were the Hexside colors?  Did she cheer for Willow, or Cedric, or Harry?  All three?  So much to figure out!

—

The day of the first task dawned. It was a sunny day, barely any clouds in the sky: perfect weather for watching a tournament.

Luna got herself ready, making sure to stay quiet since her dorm mates were still asleep.  She had the three sets of colors of ribbons in her hair.  She charmed her robe to change colors when she tapped the Ravenclaw emblem.  She would keep it black for now and change it when the Hogwarts champions and Willow were up.

Tucking her wand behind her ear, she went up to breakfast.  She settled in between a bouncing Luz and Gus.  King was on Luz’s lap shoving breakfast into his mouth.  The Hexside students had really decked themselves out in their school colors: face paint, flags, sweaters, the works.  It looked like they were going to one of those Muggle sports games.

“Good morning, Luna!” Luz greeted. “I love your ribbons.”

Luna blushed. “Thank you.  I charmed my robe to change color, too.”  She tapped the emblem and cycled through the three sets of colors.

“Awesome!”

“Are you ready, Willow?”

Willow looked a bit nervous, barely eating her food. “As much as I can be, I guess.”

“You’ll do great!” Luz said. “Just remember what we talked about.”

Willow nodded and picked at her food some more.  Principal Bump walked up to Willow and collected her for the first task.  The group wished her luck and she was lead away.

Five minutes later, Professor McGonagall hurried over to them in the Great Hall. She stopped in front of Harry. “Potter, the champions have to come down onto the grounds now… You have to get ready for your first task.”

“Okay,” said Harry, standing up, his fork falling onto his plate with a clatter.

“Good luck, Harry,” Hermione whispered. “You’ll be fine!”

“Yeah,” said Harry in a voice that was most unlike his own.

“Good luck, Harry,” Luz said, and it was echoed by Gus and Amity.  Luna didn’t know him that well and stayed silent, watching his face get more nervous and he left the Great Hall with Professor McGonagall.

A few minutes later, all the students in the Great Hall made their way out to the stands.  People tended to stick to their own group, but the noise level rose regardless.  It was so exciting.

In the stands, people from all houses were waving Hufflepuff colors.  Even Gryffindors were waving Hufflepuff colors.  The Weasley twins were cheering for both Harry and Cedric, one waving Hufflepuff colors and the other Gryffindor.  The visiting schools all had on their own school colors, but the Hexside group was the most colorful.  While Hogwarts just had some banners and flags, Hexside was a wave of yellow and blue.

As the spectators got comfortable, a group of wizards lead in a dragon and a clutch of eggs with a golden egg in the middle of it.  Oh, these poor mothers.  She looked so angry.

The judges took their seats at a podium at the other side of the arena.  Bagman rushed out just as some fanfare was produced from someone’s wand.

“Welcome Wizards and Witches, students, parents, and visiting guests, to the first task of the Twi-wizard Tournament!” Bagman announced to the cheering crowd.

“Our champions today will each go against their own dragon and collect the golden egg!  Champions will be scored out of ten by each our judges for a total of sixty points!”

“The mothers are not going to like that,” Amity said.

“Willow’s prepared.  This was a theory,” Luz replied.

“The worst theory!” Gus exclaimed over the cheering.  Bagman called in the first champion: Cedric. “We are all hoping they would do literally anything else with the dragons.”

“Too late now,” Amity replied and turned her attention to the arena.  Luna tapped her badge and changed her robes yellow and black.

“Super cool,” Luz gushed.

Luna blushed. “Thanks.”

A whistle blew and Cedric walked out into the area.  He surveyed the area, paying attention to the steely-eyed glare of the Swedish Short Snout.  It let off a puff of smoke and curled tighter around her eggs.

Cedric hid behind one of the rock barriers and started a particularly tricky bit of Transfiguration on another rock.  He finished just as the dragon blew fire at his hiding spot.  Cedric darted out of the way.  The crowd gasped.

“Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow,” Bagman said.

“Boo!” King called. “Catch the human!  Fry him up!”

The smoke cleared and there was a Labrador barking opposite Cedric.  The dragon focused on the dog and tried to catch it as Cedric raced towards the nest.

“He’s taking risks, this one!” Bagman exclaimed.

“Is that a real dog?” Luz asked, at the edge of her seat.

“Not really,” Luna replied.

“Okay, good.”

The dog was bounding in a circle, trying to keep the dragon’s eyes on it.  It’s steps froze for a moment, the transfiguration wearing off slightly, before turning back into a dog. The next moment, the transfiguration fully wore off and the dog was a rock once more. “Clever move — pity it didn’t work!” Bagman said, regarding the dog.

The dragon looked back to its eggs as the dog vanished and saw Cedric leaving the nest with the golden egg under his arm.  The crowd cheered in excitement.

The dragon roared and started to breath fire in Cedric’s wake.  The crowd gasped in fear.  Cedric ran at full speed out of the arena, clothes slightly smoking.  Flames followed him to the edge.

“Very good indeed!” Bagman shouted. Cedric was still breathing heavy as he came back out to look at his scores. “And now the marks from the judges!”

The six judges held up glowing numbers, giving him a total of thirty-eight points. The crowd clapped and cheered, especially the Hufflepuffs.  Cedric had come out for his marks and was smiling tiredly.   After a moment, he went back into the med-tent to get his burns treated.

Luna changed her robes back to black.

“That was so cool!” Luz said as they removed the Swedish Short Snout and her eggs and brought in the Welsh Green with her eggs.  She stood protectively in front of her eggs.

“One down, four to go!” Bagman yelled as the whistle blew again. “Miss Delacour, if you please!”

Fleur came out of the tent visibly on edge.  She stood facing the dragon, but not daring to approach it, yet.  She started to cast a complicated looking charm at the dragon.  It started to sway back and forth lightly, as if hypnotized.  It followed Fleur’s wand movements.  It’s eyes started to droop and it lowered it’s head to the ground, asleep.

Fleur crept forward, keeping the movements of her wand light.  The crowd was hushed.  The dragon snored and shot out a jet of flame, nearly catching Fleur on the skirt.  She shouted in surprise and jumped back.

“Oh I’m not sure that was wise!” they could hear Bagman shouting gleefully.  The dragon snorted again, waking up.

Fleur waved her wand again, the dragon going back to sleep.  She got closer to the nest, within arms length of the golden egg—“Oh . . . nearly! Careful now . . . “—when the dragon snored again, snorting more fire at Fleur, this time catching her skirt.  She quickly put it out with a blast of water and retreated away from the dragon’s face.

“Good lord, I thought she’d had it then!”

It took her another ten minutes of inching closer and waving her wand to have the dragon turn it’s head to another direction.  She was finally able to grab the egg and bolt it out of the arena.

The crowd erupted into applause.

“Miss Delacour’s marks please?” She came out of the med tent still scorched.

Once again glowing numbers were put into the air.  Fleur got a thirty-nine, just beating Cedric.  Luna frowned.  Karkaroff was really rigging these scores.  They cheered again and the dragons were swapped.  They placed a Hebridean Black in the arena with her nest of eggs.

“What do you think the eggs are?” Gus asked.

“Probably a clue for the next task,” Amity replied.

“Maybe it has treasure inside of it,” Luz suggested.

Luna smiled and looked at her new friends. “I think it looks like it has a song inside of it.”

The group looked back at the egg nestled in the nest.  It was a shiny pure gold covered in swirling lines, like waves, with a small flower clasp at the top.

“Yeah,” Luz said softly, “I can see that.”

“Our third champion is Miss Park.  Please join us!” Bagman announced.  Luna changed her robe to Hexside colors: yellow and blue.  Gus held up his flags, cheering.  The other Hexside students waved their banners and yelled in excitement.  Luz and Amity yelled as well.  King cheered for the dragon, again, even though he liked Willow.

Willow stepped out of the tent, a nervous smile on her face, but head held high.  The light glinted off her glasses, hiding her eyes from sight as she took in the large dragon across from her.  The dragon stared back.

Willow took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders while the crowd hushed.  It was Willow’s time to shine.

Chapter Text

Willow walked out into the arena, sun glaring down into her eyes.  Distantly, she could hear the crowd cheering, Hexside taking up their normal chant at Grudgby games for her.  She stared down the menacing dark purple eyes of the mother dragon.

She took a deep breath and relaxed the tenseness in her shoulders.  The crowd hushed.

Willow concentrated on the shrubbery around her, while not taking her eyes off the dragon.  Her eyes started to glow green as the greenery grew to be ten feet tall, dense, and cover half of the arena.  It grew tall enough to cover the smaller rocks and block most of the arena from view.  The leaves thickened as they enlarged, almost becoming new plants entirely.  Some even gained a large flower that opened up and had teeth.  It thrashed in place a bit, being a distraction.

The dragon growled lowly at the now larger plants while Willow ran over to the side, narrowly missing a stream of fire, while still maintaining cover behind a rock and a new much larger bush.

“Interesting tactic,” Bagman said over the loudspeaker.

Willow focused her meager abomination skills to the bundle of plants below her to make a vaguely human shaped thing.  The golem got up and kept to the plants as it made it’s way towards the nest.  Willow cast a fire resistant spell over herself and stepped out into the open, swinging a bundle of thick spiked vines at the dragon’s head.

It turned towards her and roared, breathing fire.  She dodged, the resistance spell holding up as some fire clipped her arm.  She swung another bundle of spiked vines towards the dragon and caught a horn with it, the plant wrapping tightly around.  The dragon reared back, dragging Willow forward for a moment before she let go and was flung to the ground and skidded across the dirt.

“Oh, that’s gotta hurt!”

Willow stood up and wiped the mud off her glasses with a quick water spell.  The dragon stomped down hard onto the ground, shaking the earth, and causing her to lose her balance again.

She scowled and concentrated on the vine still attached to the dragon.  It thickened even more, growing tiny white flowers as it grew, and started to wrap itself more securely around its horns, while the other end anchored itself to the ground, going deep.

The dragon’s head was forced towards the earth by its horns.  It tried to use its arms and legs to push up, but it was unable to get any leverage or move it’s head.  It lashed it’s tail towards her and she had to quickly throw herself out of the way into the enlarged shrubbery.  The dragon breathed fire on the vines holding it and they snapped under the strain of fire and pulling pressure.

The faint connection with the plant abomination flared as it completed it’s first task of getting the golden egg, but it died a swift death when the dragon breathed fire onto her eggs, burning up her creation.

“She was so close!”

  Willow smirked and buried her hands into the earth.  The ground under the egg, which was dropped outside of the nest, rumbled before the egg sank beneath the ground.

The crowd gasped as the egg vanished.  The dragon roared in distress.

Willow focused on moving the egg through the ground and over to her.  She shrank the shrubbery down, back to it’s original height at the same time.  She stood up and the egg popped out of the ground and flew into the air.  She caught it gently in her arms.

The crowd was silent for a moment before someone in the Hexside group—probably Luz—screamed in excitement.

“Miss Park has completed the challenge!”

Dragon handlers swarmed the arena to take out her exhausted dragon and her eggs while Willow waited off to the side to get her scores.

The judges drew numbers in the air with their wands (Principal Bump cast some illusion magic). Altogether she got forty-eight points from the six judges.  Not bad, but she did wonder what she got taken off for.

After that, she was bustled into the nurse’s tent and was told to sit on a bed as her minor scrapes and bruises her healed.  She dropped the fire resistance spell as she got comfortable.

“That was some impressive fighting, kid,” Ena said, leaning against the entrance.

The crowd cheered on the other side of the wall for Viktor.

“Thanks.  Don’t you want to watch the rest of the task?”

“I am. This is just a double.  Wanted to make sure you were okay.  That one tumble looked bad.”

Willow smiled. “Ah, you do care.”

Eda rolled her eyes. “Don’t get used to it, Wonder Witch.  You’re a friend of Luz’s and if you get hurt, I have a sad apprentice.”  Illusion Eda ruffled her hair and popped into a shower of sparkles that faded to nothing.

After a while Viktor appeared in the tent to get healed. Distantly, she could hear shocked murmurings and cheering from the crowd.  What did he do?

The crowd quieted while the dragons were swapped.  Harry was announced and the crowd remained started heckling Harry—a stark contrast to every other champion—well quiet except for Luz and a few other lone voices yelling encouragement.

The noise from the crowd raised as Harry probably did something.

“What a daring move!” Bagman announced.

The crowd cheered again and then gasped as Willow heard a blast of fire.

“Great Scott, he can fly!” yelled Bagman as the crowd shrieked and gasped. “Are you watching this, Mr. Krum?” Viktor was not.  He was sitting on his cot, like the other champions, being healed and resting.  No one made any move to go watch the rest of the champions.

After a few minutes, the dragon roared in the arena and a gust of wind ruffled the tent flaps.

A few seconds later, the crowd erupted into cheers once again.

“Look at that!” Bagman was yelling. “Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mr. Potter!”

The nurse stepped out of the flap, likely waiting for Harry.

“Dragons!” she said, in a disgusted tone, pulling Harry inside. She examined Harry’s shoulder, talking furiously all the while. “Last year dementors, this year dragons, what are they going to bring into this school next? You’re very lucky . . . this is quite shallow . . . it’ll need cleaning before I heal it up, though. . . .”

She cleaned the cut with a dab of some purple liquid that smoked and stung, but then poked his shoulder with her wand, and it healed instantly.

“Now, just sit quietly for a minute — sit! And then you can go and get your score.”

She bustled over to Cedric, “How does it feel now, Diggory?”

“Knew you could do it, Harry,” Willow said, smiling.

“Thanks,” he said as he stood up.

Before Harry could go far Ron and Hermione rushed into the tent. “Harry, you were brilliant!” Hermione said squeakily. There were fingernail marks on her face where she had been clutching it in fear. “You were amazing! You really were!”

“Harry,” Ron said, very seriously, “whoever put your name in that goblet — I — I reckon they’re trying to do you in!”

“Caught on, have you?” said Harry coldly. “Took you long enough.”

Someone snorted behind Willow and she turned to see Amity covering her mouth to hide her mirth.

“You did great!” Luz squealed, leaping forward and hugging Willow, putting all her weight on her. “What you did with those plants!  You have got to get extra credit for that for sure!”

“How’d you do the plant Willow?” Amity asked.

“Barking mad,” said Ron, shaking his head. “Harry, c’mon, they’ll be putting up your scores. . . .” The trio left the tent to get his scores, Harry taking his egg and broom.

“I know some abomination magic.”

“Huh.” Amity looked thoughtful.

“Willow, that was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen and I’m currently in the human world!” Gus exclaimed.

“I’m glad you didn’t hurt the dragon,” Luna said.  From the corner of her eye, she saw Viktor flinch.

The champions were herded back to the original tent, the four of them entering together, meeting up with Harry who was already there.  Her friends broke off and hung out just outside, waiting for her.

Cedric and Willow grinned at Harry in greeting. “Good one, Harry,” Cedric said.

“And you,” said Harry, grinning back.

“Well done, all of you!” said Bagman, bouncing into the tent and looking as pleased as though he personally had just got past a dragon. “Now, just a quick few words. You’ve got a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth — but we’re giving you something to think about in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you’re all holding, you will see that they open . . . see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg — because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!”

Harry and Willow left the tent, rejoined their friends, and they started to walk back around the edge of the forest, talking hard; Harry and Willow wanted to hear what the other champions had done in more detail. Then, as they rounded the clump of trees behind which Harry had first heard the dragons roar, a witch leapt out from behind them.

Amity screamed a sent a blast of fire at her; Luz raised her hands in a karate type move while King squeaked from his place on Luz’s head and slid down into her hood.

It was Rita Skeeter. She was wearing acid-green robes today; the Quick-Quotes Quill in her hand blended perfectly against them.

“Congratulations, Harry!” she said, beaming at him and completely ignoring Willow. “I wonder if you could give me a quick word? How you felt facing that dragon? How you feel now, about the fairness of the scoring?”

“Yeah, you can have a word,” said Harry savagely. “Good-bye.” And they set off back to the castle with their friends.

Chapter Text

Amity and her friends split off from the Hogwarts students and headed back to their dorm.  They were planning a big party to congratulate Willow and the timing was working out perfectly since it had been a fair bit of time since the task ended.  It was Luz’s job to stall Willow long enough so they can finish setting up.

“Luna,” Gus said, as they walked, “do you want to come over to our dorms for a bit?”

Luna smiled. “That’d be lovely, thank you.  I’ll need to tell Professor Flitwick, just in case I stay late.”

The boy nodded and the group changed directions.

Luz was informing Willow of the other champion’s feats, while wondering what the next one could be.

Professor Flitwick smiled at the group knowingly and handed Luna a hall pass. “Behave yourselves,” he warned with a wink.

The party was in full swing by the time they got back.

“Willow!” the group inside cheered as they walked in.  Some of the popular girls dragged Willow into a conversation about how cool her moves were and Willow blushed.  Boscha sulked in a corner, scrolling down her Penstagram. Luz sidled up next to Amity and handed her a cup of punch.

“Today’s been fun!” she said over the music.

Amity took a sip of punch and immediately choked—not punch.  It was mead.  She glanced at the “punch” bowl and Emira and Edric smiled back at her, waving with their fingers mockingly.  Of course they managed to get Apple Blood Mead to a party of fourteen year olds.

“Are you okay?” Luz asked, hand on Amity’s back in comfort.

“Yeah.  Wasn’t expecting alcohol.”

“Wait what?” She looked down at her cup. “There’s alcohol in this?”

Amity laughed. “Yeah, dummy.  It’s Apple Blood Mead.” Amity took another sip, this time ready for the slight burn.

Luz looked around the room, trying to find, Amity assumed, Bump or Eda. “We’re going to get in so much trouble.”

“It’s been approved.”

“What?  Mami is a nurse, and she’s told me that alcohol is bad for developing brains.”

Amity frowned.  She knew that her siblings were on drink bowl watch duty so that no one had more than two glasses.  Eda and Bump had approved the small amount of alcohol as a treat for the party.  It’s why they were also there supervising. They were just better hidden.

“I can get you something else.  My dumb siblings are making sure no one has too much.  They’re good at that.” The amount of times she tried to get food from the kitchen, only to be blocked by a spell cast by those two, ugh.

“Hmm, okay, yeah.”

Amity pulled Luz over to the cooler and handed her a soda.

They ate some food and chatted with their friends, even taking a moment to dance on the make-shift dance floor someone magicked up.

“This party is great!” Willow shouted as she came over to them later in the night.  Her cheeks were flushed pink and she was smiling widely.

Luz squealed and hugged her friend. “I’m glad!  Do you know what’s in the egg?”

Willow shook her head a little too hard.

“Put it in my room.  Didn’t want to break it, or something.  Let’s dance!” Willow declared and pulled Luz to the dance floor.

Amity watched, a small smile on her face, as her girlfriend made ridiculous moves to get Willow—and by extension, Amity—to laugh.

Luna drifted over, her robe long since discarded in one of their rooms, and hair going everywhere, ribbons askew.

“Are you having fun?” Amity asked her.

She smiled and nodded, eyes wide. “Yes.  Thank you for having me.  I’ve never been invited to a party like this before.”

“It’s my sibling’s doing.  They’re good at this kind of thing.”

“Yeah.” The conversation moved onto other topics as the night wound down and people drifted off to their rooms to sleep.

Around one in the morning, Eda came into the main room and sent the rest of them to bed.  Luna ended up bunking in with Amity, Luz, and Willow.

Amity and Luz shared Amity’s bed while Luna took Luz’s.  It ended up working quite nicely.

The next morning, the Hexside students made their way down to a late breakfast, only a handful of them not nursing headaches.

A couple of the healing track students practiced their spells on the hungover students.

Amity was grateful and vowed to get them something nice.

“Better?” Luz asked.

“Much.” Amity gently kissed Luz’s cheek, both girls turning bright red after the action.

“Thank you for not making a big deal out of me not drinking.”

“It’s your choice.”

“Drinking?” Hermione asked, looking up from her book.  From the look of the Gryffindors (and the Hufflepuffs) there were also parties going on in those dorms last night.

“My siblings got some apple blood mead and we could have a little in celebration.”

“Don’t you mean apple juice?” Harry asked.

“Aren’t you fourteen?  It’s not good to be drinking that young,” Hermione said, shocked. “Your teacher allowed that?”

“No, she doesn’t,” Luz said to Harry.  She turned to Hermione. “Principal Bump and Eda were there to make sure everyone stayed safe, and Emira and Edric only let people have like two small glasses.  And they were watered down.  I agree with you, but the adults were there if anything happened.”

Hermione frowned, and opened her mouth to argue.

“Oh boy!” Gus exclaimed sitting down at the table and unknowingly cutting off Hermione’s rant. “Yesterday was amazing!”  Willow sat down next to Gus and laid her head on the table, groaning into it.

“I’m so tired,” Willow whispered, “Gus, my head hurts, please stop yelling.”

Gus calmed slightly. “Sorry.  Hey, Cat!” Gus immediately yelled down the table.

Willow moaned and covered her ears, eyes clenched tight.

Amity giggled quietly at her friend’s misfortune.

“Gus,” Luz scolded. “Stop hurting my friend.”

“What?” He stopped gesturing for Cat to come heal Willow and looked at poor Willow with her head on the table. “Oh, sorry, Willow.”

“Just…be quieter, please.”

“Right.” He sat back down, almost vibrating in his seat.

“What’s going on?” Luz asked suspiciously. Luz was right, Gus was too excited for a day off.

Gus shook harder as Cat healed Willow’s hangover and walked away.  Once Willow started eating, her face looking much less pale, the words seemed to burst out of him.

“We get to go to the wizard village!”

“What wizard village?” Luz asked.

“At the bottom of the hill.  An actual human wizard village. I wonder what weird and cool human things I can find!”

Luz squealed. “And I thought Hogwarts was cool!  An actual village filled with tiny shops selling cauldrons and spells and love potions and pointy hats and gross things in jars.”

“What do you need to go to some random village for? You can find all of that in the Boiling Isles,” King said, popping up from under the table.

Luz picked him up and set him on the table so he could grab food.

“Yeah, but some of those stalls at the market try to take my body parts for recipes.  I’ve also almost been eaten by a large butterfly before.  I think this village will be a lot less scary.”

Hermione, Harry, and Ron looked horrified at Luz’s statement.

“I’m sorry—what?” Hermione asked.

“What?” Luz asked, confused.

“Eaten by a butterfly?” Ron asked. “That can’t be that scary.”

“Well, it was twelve feet across, eight feet tall, had teeth on all four wings, and its actual mouth was filled with a long slimy tongue that dripped blue drool that I’m pretty sure dissolved the grass at our feet.  Oh, and it also had like shark teeth in its mouth.  It did smell like a fresh morning breeze, though.”

“What the bloody hell?” Ron asked.

Luz laughed. “It’s fine. Eda came by and did a Distraction Spell.  It ate that and we ran away.”

“It could eat spells?” Hermione asked, aghast.

Luz looked confused for a moment, then laughed. “Oh no, Eda’s distraction spell is her throwing a bag of Hex Mix and yelling ‘Distraction Spell’.  It’s worked a surprising amount of times.”

Ron choked on his food, laughing.

“It’s a waste of good Hex Mix,” King groused.

Luz’s face got all squishy as she looked at King. “Aww, poor King.” She cuddled him close.

“Yes, cuddles for the King of Demons!”

Amity snorted at her ridiculous girlfriend and her demon and went back to eating.

“So, Willow, did you open your egg yet?” Hermione asked.

Willow shook her head. “The party started like right after we got in and I didn’t want to damage it.”

“Damage it?” Ron asked, shocked.

Harry laughed and explained, “When I opened it, it screamed really loudly.  Banshee levels of loud.”

“I think our gym teacher at Hexside is a banshee,” Luz said, “She screams loud enough.”

“Every time one of you tell us more about your school—”Hermione started.

“—And world—” Ron added.

“—And creatures—” Harry ‘helpfully’ added.

Hermione rolled her eyes, but continued, “—I get more and more concerned.”

Amity shared a glance with Willow and Gus, not quite getting what was concerning Hermione.  That was just home for them.  If anything, this realm was too tame, and needed more excitement.

Luz was the one to answer them, “It was pretty terrifying at first, but after you get used to it…”She trailed off, staring into space.

“Luz?” Amity asked, concerned.

She shook herself out of the memory. “It’s still pretty terrifying, but I’ve learned so many things, and I have people around me to help with the terrifying things.”

“Ugh, the human is doing that heartfelt feelings thing again,” Boscha said as she walked past them.

“Yeah, well, you’re in the human realm right now, Boscha, so you kinda have to get used to that happening.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, human.”

“Good job yesterday, Willow,” Skara said as she follow Boscha.

“Super cool,” Bo said. “Gus when are we having another meeting?  There’s so much to learn about here!”

“I’m not the president anymore,” Gus reminded her.

Bo shrugged. “I don’t care. Mattholomule wasn’t allowed on the trip and Eileen and I have been talking about how we want to have another meeting.  Maybe some of you human friends can join.” She glanced at the Hogwarts trio.

Gus hummed in thought. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Bo, come on!” Skara called.

“Coming!” she called back. “Think about it!” she said to Gus and ran to catch up to Skara and Boscha.

“What were you president of?” Hermione inquired.

“The Human Appreciation Society.  Maybe Bump will let me start up one here.  I’m going to go ask.” He jumped up and ran to ask Principal Bump.

“Are humans really that rare in the Boiling Isles?” Hermione asked the group.

“Yep!” Luz exclaimed. “I’m the only human in the Boiling Isles, and the first to train as a witch.” She puffed out her chest, proud.

Amity laughed. “Dork.” Luz very maturely stuck her tongue out at Amity.

An explosion of sound happened at the head table.  Amity looked over, bright blue letters hovering over Gus’s head saying ‘He said yes!’.  Gus danced in placed in front of a laughing Eda and a defeated Principal Bump.

“Oh my god,” Luz whispered, bursting into laughter.

Chapter Text

“Should I open the egg?” Willow asked the group as they walked back into the dorms to get their coats.

“They said it was really loud,” Luz cautioned.

“I’m going to have to open it at some point.”

“I know a silencing spell,” Amity said. “I can cast it on the room so we don’t disturb anyone else.”

“I have the smartest girlfriend in the world,” Luz gushed, squishing her face close to Amity’s.

Amity blushed and pushed Luz away.

King gagged while Gus and Willow laughed.

Once they calmed down, Amity cast her silencing spell and the group stood around as Willow clicked the latch open.

An unearthly wail filled the space.  King screamed, dropping to the ground, covering his ears.  Luz dropped her own hands and bent down to cradle the poor demon close to her, covering his ears with her hands to help drown out more of the sound.

“Close it!” Gus shouted.

With some effort, Willow pushed the egg closed again.

“What the fuck was that?” Amity asked.

King sat up, rubbing his ears. “Destroy that egg!  It hurt the King of Demons!”

Luz rubbed his head, but ignored the rest of his statement.

“I hated that,” Willow said.

“Maybe you do have to fight a banshee,” Gus said.

“What is going on in here?” Eda asked from the doorway, outside of the silencing spell. Luz opened her mouth to answer, but Eda cut her off buy making a circle and dropping the spell around the room. “Your spell needs some work.  I could still hear that infernal screaming from my room.”

Amity scowled.

“Eda!  The egg needs to be destroyed!” King ordered.

Eda laughed. “Sure it does.  Wonder Witch needs it first.”

“When I figure out the clue, you can destroy it, King.”

King clenched a fist in victory. “Yes! Vengeance shall be mine!” He ran out of the room laughing.

“Well, that’ll keep him busy for a while.  Learn anything while it was screaming at you?”

“It’s loud,” Gus said.

“I’m pretty sure I lost some hearing,” Luz replied.

“Luna mentioned something at the task,” Amity said, “Do you remember?  Something about a song.”

They looked at the egg.  The embossed waves moved back and forth with an invisible current.

“As fascinating as this is,” Eda said, bored, “If you kiddos want to go to the village, you have to get going.”

“Oh, right!” Luz exclaimed and scrambled for her jacket.

Once the group got to the village, Luz and Amity separated and went to a restaurant called Madam Puddifoot’s.  The outside was painted a nice pink and tiny cakes and teacups crowded the front window.

They stepped inside and settled at a table against the wall, scooting their chairs close together around the small round table.  They held hands while looking at the menu, commenting on what looked good.

“Good afternoon, dearies,” Madame Puddifoot said. “What can I get you?”

Luz ordered a tea with what sounded like pop rocks inside of it, while Amity ordered a peppermint hot chocolate.  They picked a few sandwiches and cakes that sounded good to eat for lunch.

Amity leaned over to whisper in Luz’s ear. “This place is a bit much, right?” Luz snorted and nodded.

“Like I’m all for frilly things sometimes, but this…” They giggled quietly in the corner.

“Here’s your drinks, dears.  Your food will be out soon.”

They nodded and thanked her.  Luz took a sip of her drink, and laughed as pop rocks popped in her mouth, shooting tiny silver sparkles out her mouth.

“Hey, Amity, kiss me!” she demanded.

Amity turned bright red. “What?”

“This feels super weird. Kiss me.”

“I could just take a sip from your cup.”

Luz leaned closer. “You make it seem like you don’t want to kiss me,” she said, a smirk on her lips.

“No,” Amity mumbled. “Fine.”

Luz smiled in triumph and took another sip of tea, swallowing the liquid before immediately kissing Amity on the lips.  They kept it caste: no French Kissing in the restaurant.

Amity pulled back, red all the way up to her roots.  Luz wasn’t fairing much better, and she could feel how warm her face was.

Amity smacked her lips a couple times. “That was weird.  Let me try the actual drink.” Luz handed it over and Amity took a sip. “Woah.”

“I know right!  All the fun drinks—well I say fun, but...” Amity laughed. “Anyways, all the fun drinks in the Boiling Isles are just painful.  This is just like tiny sparkles.”

“It’s pretty fun,” Amity agreed and drink some of her own hot chocolate.  Luz tried it and vowed to never have any other inferior hot chocolate ever again.

Cakes and sandwiches arrived, and the duo spent the next hour talking over good food and drink.  They touched on the latest Azura book, school work, and this human world. 

Luz had gotten confirmation from Eda that this was a different world than her’s.  Eda had explained that this realm was running on a timeline a bit slower than her own.  It was the year 1994, not her native 2020.  No wonder everyone was confused by her cell phone.  The plus side of this was that, when they go back to the Boiling Isles, no time will have seemed to have passed, at least in her world.  They weren’t sure about the Boiling Isles, but they were more equipped to deal with people going missing for a year and then showing back up to get on with their lives.

“Christmas is coming up,” Luz said, finishing the last cake they had.

“What’s Christmas?” Amity asked, pulling out some gold coins from her pocket to pay the bill that Madam Puddifoot dropped off a few minutes ago.

Luz gasped. “You don’t know what Christmas is?”

Amity rolled her eyes as they put their coats back on, stepping into the crisp November air.  They held hands as they walked back to the main street. “Demon realm, remember.  Different holidays.”

Luz laughed sheepishly. “Oh, right.  Well, Christmas is a time for families to get together and celebrate the season.  You put up a tree in your house and decorate it with ornaments and lights.  And you get gifts for your family and put them under the tree.  On Christmas Day, you wake up super early and open all the gifts while eating sweets.  Unfortunately, it’s turned into something companies take advantage of—having Christmas deals and basically having capitalism just ruin things, but the spirit is still there.”

“That sounds nice.  The Boiling Isles celebrates the Solstices, but it’s more to strengthen  our magic and get closer to the world around us than about family.”

Luz frowned. “We could do both?” she asked hesitantly.  “You can show me more traditions, and I can show you mine.  From what I remember from science class, the winter solstice is right around Christmas.  I’m sure Eda would know.”

Amity smiled. “I’d like that.”

“Luz!  Amity!” Gus shouted from in front of the sweet shop, Honeydukes.

Luz waved her arm wildly at their friends and they joined them.

“I’ve wanted to try magic sweets.  What do you think they have?”

Willow looked up from a pamphlet. “They make their own chocolate and fudge, but also have a lot of candy.  There’s something called every flavor beans.”

“Do you think they mean every flavor?” Luz asked, excited, as they walked inside.

They squeezed their way over to the shelf holding the jelly beans and Willow picked up the box.

“Looks that way.”

“Let’s get a couple boxes,” Luz said, throwing three boxes into the basket she grabbed. “There’s a game back in my world where you have two jelly beans that look the same, but one flavor is bad and one good.  I bet we can play that with these.”

“Sounds fun,” Willow replied, grabbing some chocolate off another shelf to throw into the basket.

Amity wandered away for a moment, to grab a packet of fudge with popping crispies on top and a cupcake looking sweet that King would like.  She passed the front door, turning away from the cold as two redheads in green and blue entered the shop.

“There you are,” Luz said when she returned. “Which do you think Eda would like: Exploding Bonbons or Pepper Imps?”

Amity looked at the two candies in Luz’s hands.

“Exploding Bonbons are defiantly more her style.”

Luz nodded. “I had that thought, too.” She added to the basket.

Snacks bought, the group headed back out into the chilly autumn air.

“Where to now?” Willow asked.

“How about the Shrieking Shack?” Gus suggested.

“Oooh, sounds creepy.  What’s that?”

“We overheard some students talking about it at lunch.  The villagers say it’s haunted because they can sometimes hear screams from inside.”

Amity shrugged. “Sounds like a normal house in the Boiling Isles.”

Willow nodded. “Yeah, it’s not that special.”

“Not that special?!” Gus gasped. “It’s a human house that screams.  Luz you said human houses didn’t scream.”

“…They don’t, usually, but they’re right, this isn’t anything that we don’t usually see back on the Isles.”

“But human…”

Amity sighed. “Fine.  We can go look.”

Gus immediately perked up and led them to what Amity assumed was the Shrieking Shack.  It was a run down wooden structure that somehow maintained enough structural integrity to hold up a second floor.  There were no doors and only a handful of small windows that were not even big enough for a person to squeeze through.  It was almost as if it was built to keep something inside.  The most jaring thing about it was that the only thing they could hear was the sound of wind rushing through the cracks in the wood.  Preventing them from getting any closer was a wooden fence that was missing more planks than it had, however, there was also a magical barrier at the fence line that kept people out.

“It’s really quiet for a ‘shrieking shack’,” Luz said.

“Maybe it’s shy,” Gus replied. “It’s okay, house.  You don’t have to be shy around us.  We won’t hurt you.”

Willow laughed quietly at Gus.

“Gus, buddy, I don’t think it works like that,” Luz said.

“You’re just jealous of what we have!”

“…What you have?” Amity reluctantly asked.

“Yes, our connection.”

“Right.”

Willow tugged on Gus’s arm and started to pull him away back towards the castle. “Come on Gus, maybe you can find more information about it in the library.”

“I’ll be back for you!” He reached out, trying to touch the shack.  The group of third years near them shot him funny looks.

Amity caught Luz’s eye and turned her back slightly so Gus couldn’t see and cast a spell.  A distant, almost loving scream, echoed from the shack in response.  The third years screamed and jumped away from the fence, while Gus almost fell over with hearts in his eyes.

“I’ll come back!” Willow continued to pull him away.

Luz and Amity met eyes again and broke down laughing.

They ran to catch up with Willow and Gus.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.  That sent the duo into another round of giggles. “What?”

“I’ll explain when you’re older,” Willow said, trying to pass it off as a legit thing and not a prank.

Gus pouted. “No fair.” Which only caused all three girls to laugh again as they walked back inside.

Chapter Text

Harry was apprehensive.  Last time there was a special class in the Great Hall, he was outed as a Parselmouth to the whole school.  On the other hand, though, he would get to learn about a different world.  His couple Hexside friends didn’t really explain their realm very well.  Everything they said just left more questions than answers.  He knew Hermione was bursting at the seams to get more information.

“This is so brilliant!” she said, bouncing in her chair.  Ron laughed from Harry’s other side at her movement. “I can’t believe that they’re going to tell us all about their world.  The other schools are so secretive.”

“Well, they’re in our world, so they don’t really need to explain how magic works for them,” Harry replied as he looked around trying to spot his other friends.

Ginny was sitting with Luna and some other third years.  All the Hexside students were off to the side of the stage they set up, so Luna couldn’t sit with them, but she was close.  Neville was on the other side of Ron, followed by his other dorm mates.  Fred and George were for chatting with some Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws.  Something was off with their uniform, but he couldn’t place it.  Most of the teachers were scattered throughout the room, both to supervise and to listen.  Malfoy and his goons were across the room.  When he caught Harry looking, he started mocking him.  They all laughed at his scowl as he turned away towards the front of the stage.

Hermione and Ron glanced over where he was looking. “Don’t worry about them, mate.  They’re just being arseholes.”

Harry sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

Before Hermione could say anything, the Principal of Hexside stepped onto the stage.  Everyone quieted down.  Maybe he’d explain the weird red thing on his head.

“Hello, everyone! For those who don’t know, my name is Principal Hieronymus Bump, and I’m the principal at Hexside School of Magic and Demonics in Bonesborough on the Boiling Isles.  We’re from the Demon Realm, and you all are in one of the many realms bordering ours.”

A Ravenclaw raised his hand and Principal Bump called on him. “What other realms are there?”

Principal Bump hummed and turned to Eda.  She stepped up next to him, hand on her hip, trying to act cool.

“Well, at least three more human realms with varying levels of mythical creatures.  Some have no natural magic, while another has it concentrated in very specific locations that make some towns hotbeds for paranormal activity, as an old friend told me.  There’s a world where dogs are the dominate species.  And another where Emus rule.  Considering we banished those bloodthirsty monsters, it’s not surprising.”

“What’s an Emu?” Ron asked.

“Like a big bird,” Harry whispered back. Ron nodded.

“Eda,” Bump warned. He took over talking again. “Students pick one of the nine tracks to study.” Eda cleared her throat and gestured to Luz, who waved with her multi-colored uniform. “There are a few exceptions to that rule, however, it is not the norm, and students must choose one coven by graduation.” He stepped back and Eda stepped forwards.

“I’m Eda the Owl Lady, strongest witch on the Boiling Isles.  You’ve probably seen me lurking around the school.” Students and teachers alike nodded. “The Boiling Isles,” she said and drew a yellow circle in the air.  An illusion appeared of a landmass created by the skeleton, “formed on the skeleton of a fallen titan.” The illusion soared over the bones, it’s ribcage looking to be split open and a knee protruding into the air. “No other land in the Boiling Isles is like this, which makes us unique.  It also makes our magic stronger.” The illusion faded. “We don’t fully know why, but it’s said that the titan was a powerful witch, and when he died, his power soaked into the land as it formed, and as witches and demons moved into the area, they soaked up that excess magic.” The room was silent in awe.

Eda laughed, breaking the silence. “But that’s just a rumor.  I’m sure you want to see some different magic.  Bump says the kiddos have been working on some things to show everyone.”

Bump sighed and shooed Eda off the stage. A couple students raised their hands to ask a question. “Please save all questions until the end.” The hands went down. “I’ve asked a few of my more promising students to demonstrate more of our magic.  I know some of you have seen them in class, and Willow at the task, but what they’re going to show off today is a bit more in line with what we teach at Hexside.”

He stepped aside and Gus stepped forward, well really, three Guses stepped forwards.  Gus showed off some of his Illusion magic with another one of the light blue clad Hexside students.  Amity’s siblings threw something in, as well.  Once they were done, they stepped aside for Amity who raised into the air on the shoulders of a purple goo creature.  She did a few dance moves, dragging Luz up into the air with her.  Luz slapped a couple pieces of paper on the goo creature and it grew ice spikes and some vines that were on fire.  They bowed and stepped back once their part of the show was over and Boscha stepped forward.  She used a potion to transform into a human for a couple seconds.  It wasn’t nearly as exciting as the people before her.  Willow stepped up and grew some plants—these being much more tame than what she probably did for the first task, but she still awed the audience.

The last couple demonstrations were a bit boring—oracle, construction, and healing, but the bard track student had an enchanted instrument shaped like a music note.  It had glowing red eyes on the bottom part and a mouth with teeth that he squeezed open and closed to produce the notes. He called it an Otamatone, and the kind of notes coming out of it sounded both synthetic and demonic.  Harry was glad when he was done.

Principal Bump stepped forward again and opened the room for questions.

A Ravenclaw stood up fast enough to knock their chair over. “I don’t understand. How come you’re only allowed to choose one coven?  That seems like a waste of magical potential.  What does it mean that you choose a coven?  What if you want to change later on?”

“Thank you!” Eda exclaimed, pointing at the kid. “See, kiddos, this random kid gets it. Covens are a sham designed for you to give up your magical indepence to be a part of a crooked system.  Just look at me: I never joined a coven and I’m the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles.”

“Eda,” Bump growled. “This is not the time nor the place for this.” Eda scowled but moved away from the front of the stage.

“When you choose a coven, you choose one branch of magic to practice for the rest of your life. This decision is permanent and thus the main reason for school and Conventions. In school, students are allowed to try out the different tracks their first year and they choose one in their second to focus on.  They cannot change unless they show an extreme aptitude for another track.  Conventions are a way for covens to show off all they have to offer to newly graduated witches.  Next question.”

“Why do they call you the Owl Lady?” asked a small Hufflepuff.

“I like owls. Next question.”

“Why do they call it the Boiling Isles?” a Gryffindor asked.

The teenagers shrugged at each other.  “It’s just what it’s called…” Harry heard. “There’s boiling rain sometimes,” Luz said, cutting into the confused silence.

“Boiling…rain?”

Luz nodded. “It’s like normal rain, but it’s boiling hot and hurts you.” The kid sat down, shocked.

A Beauxbatons student asked the next question, “How many schools are there?”

Principal Bump answered this one. “There’s four more large schools on the Boiling Isles: Glandus High, Barbados School of the Arts, St. Epiderm, and Dargraruuth School for Witches.  There are a few more smaller independant schools on the Isles, as well as many more on the main land.

“We have time for one more question,” Principal Bump said.

A Seventh year Gryffindor asked, “What kind of sports do you play?” A few people around the room groaned at a waste of a question.

Boscha stepped forward, a proud look on her face. “It’s a sport called Grudgby.  I’m the star player and team captain for Hexside. Maybe we’ll pay a game for you one day.” Which didn’t explain anything about what Grudgeby actually was.

Eda rolled her eyes and pushed Boscha back.  She drew a circle in the air and did an illusion again.  This time it was of a sports field with two hoops at the end.  The tiny players were running to score the ball while dodging attacks coming from the ground itself.

“That’s Grudgby,” Eda declared. “Pretty dangerous, but pretty fun.” The illusion faded.  People around the room whispered about the game, some looking to play it, and others wanting to stay far away from it.

“Looks fun, doesn’t it, mate?” Ron asked. Harry shrugged.  He had enough danger from Quidditch.

Principal Bump stepped forward again and the room quieted. “Thank you all for joining us.  If you have more questions, myself and Eda, as well as the students, can answer them at a later date.  I believe it’s almost time for dinner, so let’s let them get this room back to rights,” he dismissed.

Everyone slowly left the Great Hall, talking about the cool magic they saw done and the weirdness of the Demon realm.

“That was pretty informative,” Hermione said, “but the one coven system doesn’t make sense.  It’s like they’re deliberately weakening the populace.”

Ron groaned. “Hermione, maybe they like it like that?”

“I don’t know…”

“We could ask,” Harry said, “He, Luz!” He waved at Luz and her friends.  They made their way over.

“You guys were bloody amazing!”

Willow, Gus, and Amity looked confused. “We weren’t bloody,” Amity said.

“It’s an expression,” Luz corrected. “What’s up?  Did you have fun?”

The three nodded. “I don’t understand the coven system.  Why would you deliberately weaken yourself to only one form of magic?”

“Eda said that witches used to be allowed to practice any kind of magic,” Luz explained, “but then Emperor Belos came in and made the coven system.  It’s illegal to not be a part of a coven, but Eda does it anyway.”

“To be fair, she is a wanted criminal,” Amity pointed out.

“And don’t you forget it,” Eda said from out of nowhere.  When did she get here? “Smarty-pants is right.  Covens are just a way to weaken you and your magic.  Sure, have a focus if you want, but embracing all forms of magic make you a stronger witch.  As for why it’s illegal to not be a part of a coven, well, tyrants will do anything they can to keep their power.”

The group was silent with the shock of that statement.

Eda laughed and Harry jumped in fright at the sound. “Go eat dinner kiddos.  Let the grown ups worry about that.”

“You’re a grown up?” Luz asked, teasingly.

“Cheeky.  Just for that, you’re on cleaning duty when we get home.”

“I’m always on cleaning duty.”

Eda laughed and walked away.  She called over her shoulder, “Then there shouldn’t be a problem!”

Luz grumbled under her breath. “I hate cleaning duty.” Willow patted her shoulder in comfort.

Harry shared a look with Ron and Hermione, shrugged and went back into the Great Hall for dinner.

—

BONUS

“Welcome to the first meeting of the Human Appreciation Society at Hogwarts,” Gus said from the front of the unused classroom. The few Hexside students in front of him clapped. “We have some special guests with us today.” He gestured to Harry and his friends sitting at another table. “Harry, Ron, Hermione, and you all know Luz, have joined us to help answer questions.”

“Is it true humans have gills?” Bo asked.

“No…?” Ron replied unsure. “Wizards don’t anyway. I’m not sure about Muggles.”

Hermione scowled. “Humans, including Muggles, do not have gills.  Honestly, Ron.”

“What’s a Muggle?” Jekaos, the unicorn cyclops, asked.

“Muggles are non-magic folk,” Hermione replied.

Luz frowned. “That seems kind of insulting, though. Why not just call them non-magic humans?”

Hermione shrugged. “The American’s call them ‘no-maj’.”

“That sounds nicer,” Luz declared. “There are ways for humans to breath underwater, but it involves oxygen tanks and breathing tubes.  No gills.”

“Aww,” Bo said, disappointed.

Stub, the goat boy, asked the next question, “What is wee-fee?”

The Hogwarts kids were confused.  Harry had never heard of “wee-fee”.

“Do you mean ‘wi-fi’?” Luz asked. “It’s used to connect technology to the internet.  Like my phone.” She pulled out a glyph covered phone and held it up. “Most people have it in their homes.”

“So it’s not dangerous?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Aw.” Stub sounded so disappointed.

“How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?” Eileen asked.  Harry secretly thought she was one of the weirder looking Hexside students since her face was a giant eye.

Harry and Ron looked to Hermione for the answer. She huffed. “I don’t know everything.”

“I have a couple here,” Luz said, pulling some tootsie pops from her bag.  “We can find out.”

The Human Appreciation Society each grabbed a lolly and went to start licking, paper still on.  Luz snatched her hand out, quick as lightening and ripped the paper off. “You don’t eat that.”

They started licking.  It was going to be a long day.

Chapter Text

Before any of them knew it, it was late December. Principal Bump informed Willow that she needed a date to the Yule Ball on Christmas, and that she would be opening the dance with her partner and the other champions.

Willow had no idea who to ask. She didn’t have many friends, and two of them were dating each other. Gus loved dances, but didn’t really want to open the ball.  Neville had already asked Ginny; and Ron was pining after Hermione without realizing that’s what he was doing. Harry didn’t have a date either, but he and Willow had talked, and he wanted to try and find a Hogwarts student to go with. If they didn’t have anyone as a date by the Ball, they would go together.

“Why don’t you ask Luna?” Luz suggested as they headed to class. “She’s a third year and can’t go unless she’s invited.”

“That’s not a bad idea. Is it going to be too late for her to get a dress?” Willow asked.

“There’s at least one more Hogsmeade weekend,” Amity said. “We can help her shop. Coordinate with your dress.”

“I’ll ask her at lunch.  That was a good idea, thanks, Luz.”

--

“¡Buenas tardes, Luna! How were your morning classes?”

Luna smiled.  They met up with her outside the Great Hall and steered her towards the Gryffindor table.

“Uneventful.  Professor Trelawney doesn’t like my predictions.”

“She doesn’t like mine either,” Luz said. “Oracle classes aren’t my strongest at Hexside either, but at least I can usually see something.” Luz started stuffing her face.

“I think it’s because you and Barcus keep mixing potions to see the effects,” Amity said.

Luz looked up, face stuffed with food. “What’s your point?”

Luna giggled.

“Oh, Luna,” Willow said, “Do you want to go to the Yule Ball with me?”

She froze. “Me?” she choked out.

“Yeah.  If you don’t have a dress, we can help you shop at the next Hogsmeade weekend.”

Luna blushed. “Yes, that would be lovely.  I’ll owl Daddy for some money after classes.  Thank you for inviting me.”

“Thanks for being my date.” Willow smiled at the younger girl. “You’ll be okay opening the dance with me, right?”

“I believe it’ll be fine.  Daddy taught me to dance over summer.  I liked it, but not too much, I think.”

“Do you want to learn a Boiling Isles dance?  We can open with it.  They never specified the kind of dance.”

Luna smiled. “Oh, yes!  That sounds lovely.”

“We have to teach Luz, too,” Amity said.

“We’re going to show all these Hogwarts dorks — not you — how it’s done!” Luz said, laughing.

—

At the next Hogsmeade weekend, Luz, Amity, Willow, and Luna went dress shopping. Gus was trying — and failing — to get closer to the Shrieking Shack while Hogwarts students watched on in amusement.  He would meet up with them for a late lunch.

“Luna, what color dress do you want?” Amity asked as they entered the shop.

She looked thoughtful. “Maybe something silver.  Slytherins seem to pull off the green and silver look quite well and I think we’ll look nice together.”

“I think that’s a great idea. Maybe something with sparkles?” Amity asked.

“Yes!”

Luz laughed. “Sparkles are always needed.  Let’s look over here.” She pulled Luna towards the rack of silver poofy dresses.

They spent the day trying on dresses, finally deciding on one for Luna that was a dark silver dress with light reflective stars on it.  The top was a v-veck illusion neckline with the top of the tank-top style sleeves gathered slightly.  The dress puffed out slightly at the hips and ended just around the knees.  The top layer was a dark tulle with light silver stars embedded on it.  They sparkled as Luna turled in the dress, the gathers around the waist line causing the dress to swing out.  The store had a pair of strappy silver sandels, as well.  Luna said she had some jewelry that would work and glittery clips from her mom for her hair.

“You look beautiful, Luna,” Luz said.

She blushed. “Thank you for helping me shop.”

“It was no problem. We had fun,” Luz assured the younger girl.

“Gus!” Willow yelled up the street at the boy, waving to catch his attention.  He ran over.

“Hey guys!  How was shopping?”

“Great,” Luna said, holding up her bag.

“Great!” He smiled wide. “Who wants to get lunch?  I’m starved.”

—

“Okay, Luna, Luz,” Amity said to the girls.  She was teaching the two humans a couple of traditional Boiling Isles dances. “Watch Willow and I.  I’m the leader.”

Gus started the music and Amity counted out the beats.  On a specific down beat, she and Willow started to move—swirling, jumping, dipping.  After a couple minutes, the whirlwind of motion stopped.

“That was beautiful,” Luna said.

Luz lowered her camera, having caught some of the dance on film. “You’re going to teach it slower…right?”

Amity laughed. “Of course, dummy.  Come on, it’s your turn.  Luna with Willow.”

She walked them through the basic steps of the dance—a step here, a tiny hop, clap, clap, spin, reconnect, spin out, then back in, dip, and then back to the start. They forwent the bigger jump since it was the first lesson.

The lesson took most of the day and after dinner, the group collapsed into bed, exhausted.

—

“Yule is next week, right?  Wednesday?” Luz asked, sitting down at breakfast on Saturday.

Gus nodded, mouth full of food.

Willow spoke up, “We’re using this weekend to get everything ready.  I think Principal Bump is going to assign us tasks to split up the work."

Luna sat down at the Gryffindor table. “Most of the older students are staying for the Yule Ball on Christmas,” she informed them. “The younger ones are mostly going home since they can’t join the ball.”

“They’re leaving today, right?” Amity asked.  There was a distinct difference in outer robes now that she paid attention—the younger kids going home were wearing winter cloaks and coats, hats and scarves shoved in pockets, while the older kids were just in sweaters and lighter cloaks.

“The train leaves at ten.  It’ll be weird not going home to Daddy this year.”

Amity smiled at her. “We’re hosting our own Yule celebration on Wednesday if you want to join, Luna.  And on the 24th, our group is doing some Christmas traditions of Luz’s.”

“That sounds lovely.  Thank you for inviting me.”

The Hogwarts staff, demonstrating a desire to impress the visitors from Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hexside, seemed determined to show the castle at its best this Christmas. Everlasting icicles had been attached to the banisters of the marble staircase; the twelve Christmas trees in the Great Hall were bedecked with everything from luminous holly berries to real, hooting, golden owls, and the suits of armor had all been bewitched to sing carols whenever any- one passed them. It was quite something to hear “O Come, All Ye Faithful” sung by an empty helmet that only knew half the words.

A small brown owl, very different from the golden ones, and not quite looking like a real owl, flew around the trees, hooting at the golden owls.  Owlbert was having a great time getting to know the other created owls.  They didn’t have as much thought as he did, but it was nice to converse with someone who didn’t want something all the time.  The owls in the Owlrey were okay, but full of themselves, thinking they were so great because they could deliver mail and packages.  Well, could they channel magic for the most powerful with of the Boiling Isles?  He didn’t think so.

While his students were at breakfast, Bump was walking down to speak with Hagrid. Albus had given him permission to host their own Yule celebrations, but first he needed to find somewhere for them to light a bonfire.

"Wha' can I do for ye?" Hagrid asked, spotting Bump walking up to him.

"I was wondering if there was somewhere we could light a big bonfire.  Not too close to the forest, but not against the castle, either. Near the lake would be nice."

"There's a firepit on the beach.  If you go past the ship down aways.  The students use it during the fall an' spring.   No one should 'ave it reserved now.  It's too cold out."

"Thanks, Hagrid.  I'll take a look."

—

“Willow,” Harry called, catching the group of Hexside students on their way from the Great Hall, “can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure.” She separated from the group, who stood off to the side and waited.  Harry led her over to an alcove out of the way.

“Did you get a date to the Yule Ball?  Only, I know we agreed if we couldn’t find someone we’d go together, and I haven’t been able to find anyone, so I’m asking you.  That is…if you don’t already have a date…” he trailed off.

Willow grimaced. “Sorry, Harry. I’m going with Luna since she wouldn’t be able to go otherwise.  I think there’s a couple of my classmates without a date, I could introduce you?”

Harry sighed, shoulders slumping. “No, it’s okay.  Thanks though.”

“You’re welcome.” She glanced over at her friends. “I have to go.  We’re celbrating Yule on Wednesday.  You, Ron, and Hermione are welcome to join us if you want.”

“I’ll um mention it to them.  Thanks.”

Willow smiled and jogged back to the Hexside group.  Harry slumped.  There goes that idea.

Chapter Text

Amity walked up to the group holding a piece of paper.  “We’re in charge of decorating and getting wood for the fire,” she said. “Bump gave me directions to the firepit and we can start collecting over there.”

Luz nodded. “What kind of decorations?”

“You’ll see. Come on.  Let’s find the firepit and get the wood moved.”

Luz, Willow, Gus, and Amity trekked outside, bundling up warm.  Luz cast a fire spell that hovered around as they walked giving them some much needed warmth in the afternoon light.

It took them five minutes to walk around the lake to the designated spot.

The firepit was a good size, able to have a fairly large fire built into it.  Around the hole were a mis-match of stumps.  Some were intricately carved, while other looked to be just thrown on the ground from the nearest tree.  There was also a layer of pine needles mixed with the sand from the beach.

Amity took charge. “Willow, start collecting firewood.  There should be a hut around here.  We’re going to build up the wood, so it’s ready to go.”

“I see it,” she said and ran over to a hut off to the side of the beach.  She used her magic to bring the logs over, putting the larger ones into the pit at the bottom for the base.

“Luz, can you grow some new seats.  We’re going to need a few more than this, but don’t go overboard.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Luz said and saluted.

“Gus, start figuring out how we’re decorating the space.”

“Right!”

Amity created an Abomination who helped her sweep all the pine needles out of the sand and back into the forest.

Gus organized where decorations would go in the space, marking out an area for the table that Luz built out of the sand.

“I think this looks good,” Willow said.

“Let’s head back,” Amity said.  While her silencing spells needed some work, her protective spells were top notch.  She cast a bubble over the area to protect it from the elements for the couple days leading up to the solstice.

—

Yule was a Wednesday night.  The Hexside group, plus a handful of Hogwarts students that were invited by various Hexside students joined each other down at the beach.  There were also a couple of Beauxbaton and Durmstrung students tagging along.

Surrounding the unlit firepit was a literal hoard of candles floating in the air, on the surface of the nearby lake, wedged in the sand, etc.  They were glowing softly, giving a slight motion to the dark night.  The sheen of blue around each one protected anyone or thing from brushing against them and getting burned.

The table was covered in a variety of baked goods—gingerbread, sugar cookies, pumpkin cake, (very) fresh fairy cakes, and a variety of pies.  Another table was covered in drinks—cider and wassail having the largest bowls.

Strung up around the area were strings of holly with mistletoe and ivy.  Pinecones and salt cookies hung from the lines.

For the Hexside group, it was all very normal, even if they weren’t with their families, but for the other students, it was magical to look at.  They hadn’t known what to expect since Hogwarts only decorated for the main non-pagan holidays.

Principal Bump gathered everyone around the unlit firepit.

“Good evening, students, guests, friends.  I want to welcome all those who are joining us for our Yule celebration.  It is a time of rebirth and renewal on this day, the shortest day of the year.  We say goodbye to the last year of trails and tribulations, and greet the new year with hope, and we do this with friends and family.  This year we’re celebrating here, away from most of our families, but for tonight, we’re each other’s family.  Guests, you do not have to participate, but you are more than welcome to.  Thank you to my students for helping get everything together.  Everything looks splendid.  For the benefit of our guests, I will explain what we’re doing.  Who has the papers?”

Skara raised her hand and started passing around small sheets of paper to everyone.  Bo and Amelia followed behind with pens.

“Soon, we will light the fire and say a short blessing.  After that, we’ll go around one-by-one and cast our paper into the fire.  On the paper, you can list anything you want to leave in the previous year.  I’ll give you all a few minutes.”

The sound of pens on paper filled the area.  The pureblooded wizards taking a moment to figure out how pens worked.  Most of the guests decided to participate and added their own worries and problems they wanted to leave behind onto their papers.

Once the scratching dyed down, Bump stepped up again and gestured, putting out the candles.  He allowed everyone’s eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness, stars peaking out in the sky.  When he could tell everyone was adjusted to the dark, he motioned to Eda who lighted the fire with a quick gesture.

The sudden light caused more than a few people to cry out in surprise (ah music to Bump’s ears), but they quieted down quickly as the fire caught.

The Boiling Isles residents lowered their heads as one of the Oracle students lead the blessing on the new year.  They were the first to put their paper in the fire, casting off their problems of the last year.  They threw it in, took a moment of silence, then stepped back.  The next person stepped forward and repeated their actions—throwing their paper in and waiting a moment in silence.

This portion of the night took the longest, but no one complained, knowing it was important, no matter how much you believed or didn’t believe.

Bump threw in his paper, hoping that the next year would be better than this one with less diasters and ulcer inducing incidents.

He stepped back and raised the candles’ light again, helping to light the area around the firepit.

“Happy Yule, everyone.  We will be staying out the rest of the night until the morning sun.  There are ample food and drinks for any who want them.  I ask that if you’re planning on walking back to the castle, stick to the cleared path and please let myself or Eda know.” He bowed his head and the group started talking excitingly, going over to the table filled with sweets and hot drinks.

The night was filled with laughter and chatting with conversations ranging from classes to the ball to sports and hobbies. Snippets could be heard over the din of the fire and students.

“Who are you going to ask to the dance, Edward?”

-

“I can’t believe they lost again.”

“They aren’t a very good team…”

“You take that back!”

-

“Look, combining those ingredients will just cause an explosion.  I know, I tried it.”

“That explains the bandages.”

“No, these are from forgetting to put on oven pits.”

“Really.”

They laughed, “No!”

-

“Weren’t you wearing a different tie earlier?”

“No.  Maybe you saw one of my siblings.”

-

“See, up there, that’s Orion!  His shoulder is Betelgeuse, a red giant star that will explode one day.  Sometime between now and like 50,000 years from now.  We don’t know.”

“Those stars give him a dick.”

A thud of someone falling to the dirt and a different voice from the first star gazer, “That area does have the Orion Nebula, so…baby stars.”  The three laughed.

Most of the Hexside students had pulled out tarot decks and did a reading for themselves for the coming year.  Once the practice was explained, a handful of guests either did their own reading or were walked through by an Oracle student.

Most of the non-Boiling Isles residents went back to their respective sleeping quarters by early morning, but there were a few hold-outs—including the Golden Trio and Luna.  Despite the cold winter air, the fire burned merrily, keeping the area an acceptable temperature.  It was helped along by some well placed warming charms cast by Eda.

As the sun started to raise, they huddled in blankets next to each other, tired from the night’s festivities.  It was the perfect end to the holiday.

—

Luz woke up the morning of December 24^th feeling much more alive than she felt the last couple days from catching up on sleep from Yule.

The Christmas celebration they were planning was going to be much smaller since it only included her, Willow, Gus, Amity, King, Eda, and Luna.  Luz knew Hogwarts was doing something for Christmas Eve, but she was pretty sure it was just another feast to go along with the decorations.

Luz recruited a sleepy King to accompany her to the kitchens to get more cookie making supplies.  The supplies in their dorm have been basically wiped clean from the Yule cookie and sweet making preparations.

“How can Nolly be helping?” a House elf asked as they entered the kitchen.

“Hi Nolly,” Luz said. “I need some more cookie making supplies.  I want to make some gingerbread and sugar cookies.” Nolly looked nervous.  She knew how much the Hexside group used the other day. “Not nearly as much as before,” Luz was quick to reassure. “It’s only a group of seven.”

“We’s have some pre-made dough, if miss would like that?” she asked.  King wandered off to get some sweets from the elves over by an oven.

“Perfect!  We can cut it out and decorate it ourselves.  That saves time.  Would it be possible to get some food for seven sent to the Hexside dorm for dinner?  I don’t want to make more work for you, but we’re having our own small celebration.”

Nolly nodded. “We’s can be doing.  What would miss like?”

—

Arms full of cookie dough and frosting, Luz traveled back to the dorm and got everything ready in the kitchen.  King held out a pastry for her to eat and got a cuddle in return.

“More cookies?” Amity asked, getting juice from the fridge.  They didn’t have much in the way of food in their dorm, but enough so that you could have a midnight snack if you wanted.

“We’re going to cut and decorate them.  It’ll be fun.  The elves had some dough, so we don’t have to do that.  Do you want to help cutting them out?”

Amity nodded and handed Luz a variety of cookie shapes including Santa, snowmen, people, snowflakes, trees, and candy canes.  King munched on one of the cookies from the elves.

Once the sugar cookies were in the oven, Luz rolled out the gingerbread and they repeated the process.

“It smells really good in here,” Willow said coming into the kitchen.

Luz removed the one tray of cookies and added the next.  The sugar cookies were all done and cooling now.

“¡Gracias!”

The morning was spent decorating cookies, however, since Luz was the only one in the group that actually knew what Christmas was, the designs were interesting.  There was at least one blue Santa. Luna came by after lunch to help finish the last few cookies and decorate.

They had a small tree covered in conjured ornaments.  The star on top had originally been made from abomination goo courtesy of Amity, but it kept dripping onto the tree and they changed it to an origami star Luna made.

The group put their selection of presents under the tree and lit the string lights surrounding it.

“What do we do now?” Gus asked, one hundred percent involved with this human custom.

“Do?  Nothing.  It’s mostly to look pretty.  Most of the meaning around Christmas decorations have been lost to time and colonization in the human realm.  Some of the traditions you do for your holidays are the basis for mine, but the connections have been skewed and forgotten.  Willow, Gus, why don’t you get the food from the kitchen for dinner, and I’ll get Eda from her room?”

Willow and Gus agreed, taking Luna with them in case they needed another person while Luz got Eda and Owlbert.

The House elves outdid themselves with the pork roast, mashed potatoes, and vegetables.  There was a large collection of nuts and fresh fruit, as well.  They included Eggnog and apple cider for drinks.  For dessert they had made an elaborate gingerbread house modeled after the Owl House (which Luz had shown them a picture of), apple pie, and homemade candy canes shaped into wands with stars at the end. The Hooty on the door even moved around slightly and Luz vowed to eat any part of the house except that part.

They sat around and ate good food, sweet drinks, and told stories of the good times they shared. The party shifted over to the tree and everyone exchanged small gifts and Luz tried to teach the witches a few Christmas songs.  Luna kept debating the words to the classic songs, giving them magical lines, which Luz couldn’t figure out if that’s how the magical people knew the songs or if she was messing with them.

“Are you okay?” Eda asked, sitting down next to Luz.  The rest of the kids were tipsy on the spiked apple cider and trying to remember one of the Christmas songs Luz had taught them an hour ago. Luz was curled up on a couch, slightly removed from them.

She leaned her head onto Eda’s shoulder. “I miss my mamá.  This is her favorite holiday, and even though we haven’t been able to go down and see the rest of our family the last few years, it’s always been special.  We make cookies, and sing songs, and watch all the Christmas specials.” Eda wrapped an arm around Luz, who had started to cry softly. “I can’t even message her because of the time difference.  We’ll get back to the Boiling Isles right when we left, like we didn’t go anywhere, but I’ve lived a year she hasn’t.  And for everyone else, it’s normal.  That happens, but for me.” She sobbed. “If I went missing for that long, mamá would be so worried.”

Eda pulled her apprentice into her arms, burying Luz’s face into her shoulder.

“It’s hard, kiddo. Being away from home, and then traveling to entirely new dimension on top of that.  Then another human realm that’s almost like home but not.  I know.  But you have us—me, King, your friends…Hooty.” Luz snorted. “We’re here for you to help you deal.  We’re the Bad Girl Coven and we stick together, no matter what.”

Luz leaned back and wiped her eyes. “Thanks, Eda.”

Eda grinned. “Now go back to your friends and teach them an easier song.  I think they have this one very wrong.”

Luz laughed and hugged Eda again before running back to her friends and correcting the words.

Celebrating Christmas without her mom was hard, but she had her friends and make-shift family to help her through it.  No te preocupes. Todo va a salir bien.

Chapter Text

Luna was excited. She had never been invited to something like the Yule Ball.  She barely had friends before.  Ginny was the closest thing she had to a friend before Luz, Amity, Willow and Gus.  She liked it—this having friends thing.  It was new and different and good.   

The invitation was also bittersweet.  She was invited to the party, but she wasn't going home to see Daddy.  It would be his first Christmas alone since mom died—she had gone home her first two years of school for Christmas break.

Luna twisted her hair into little twists, pinning the top up so it ran down her back in ringlets covered in sparkling clips that changed colors lightly in the fading light of the day.

In an effort to not ruin her dress before the party, Eda had placed a protection spell over it so only she could get into the bag and it would prank whomever else tried.  Luckily no one tried to get into her dress.  Luz had been glaring at her dormmates for the last few months to make them back off, and it seemed to be working.

She glided down to the common room, shocking her fellow Ravenclaws in her silver dress.  She ignored their gasps and whispers and left her dorm.  They would never understand.

The entrance hall was packed with students too, all milling around waiting for eight o’clock, when the doors to the Great Hall would be thrown open. Those people who were meeting partners from different Houses were edging through the crowd trying to find one another. Willow, Gus, Amity, and Luz were waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs.  Gus was the first to notice her and wave.

He had on a sharp suit in a deep purple, with a white shirt underneath.  Willow turned around, her poofy green dress flowing around her.  A flower was pinned in her hair that sparkled the same silver as her dress in the candlelight.  Around her wrist she had a green corsage that matched her dress to give to Luna.

Luz and Amity couldn't be more different in what they were wearing.  Luz was wearing a flowing, shimmery tank top.  She couldn't pinpoint the color.  It seemed to change from a white to light pink to yellow, and back across the whole thing.  Underneath was a white crop top to make the top solid.  Her stomach shown through the bottom of the top.  She wore dark dress slacks with sharp black dress shoes.  Her hair was also slicked back with a iridescent white flower pinned in her hair.

Amity was in a more traditional style dress.  It had a black scoop neck with three quarter length sleeves.  It clenched in at the waist and flared out, ending just above her knees.  Her dress shimmered in the light, looking like it was covered in the same material as Luz's shirt, but in black.  She had on black shiny flats.

"Luna you look so good!" Luz said when she reached the bottom of the stairs.  She grabbed Luna’s hands and spun them in a small dancing circle.

She blushed. "Thank you."

Willow walked up to her when they made a full turn and they stepped off to the side as to not block the other couples meeting up.

"You look gorgeous." Willow held out the green corsage. "Thank you for coming with me.  I really appreciate it."

Luna held out her right hand and Willow slipped the flower onto her wrist. "Thank you for inviting me."

Sound picked up in the hall as a group arrived from the dungeons led by Draco Malfoy and the main doors opened letting in the Durmstrang students. Over their heads she saw that an area of lawn right in front of the castle had been transformed into a grotto full of fairy lights — meaning hundreds of actual living fairies were sitting in the rosebushes that had been conjured there, and fluttering over the statues of Father Christmas and his reindeer.  Luna felt bad for the fairies.  They were always captured this time of year, and just because they didn’t need real food and could survive off of magic, didn’t mean they liked to.  She and Daddy always made sure to feed the fairies that lived around their house, and they lit up their tree without any trapping.  They were always brighter and more fun that way.

Professor McGonagall’s voice called, “Champions over here, please!” over the rumbling sound of teenagers.

“That’s us,” Willow said, grabbing Luna’s hand in her’s. “See you inside.”

Luz smiled. “At least it’s not Grom, eh?”

Willow laughed. “I wouldn’t have lasted a minute against Grom.  You and Amity made quite the team.” The two blushed, seeming at a loss for words.

Gus smiled and dragged them away.

“Who’s Grom?” Luna asked as they weaved over to the side of the entrance doors where the other champions and their dates were waiting.

“Grometheus the Fear Bringer, or Grom, is a shapeshifter that manifests as someone’s worst fear.  He lives beneath our school gym and every year regains strength to try and attack.  Amity and Luz were Grom Queen this year and defeated him together.”

“He sounds like boggarts, but scarier.”

“Hi Willow, hi Luna,” Harry said. “What’s like boggarts?”

“A creature that lives beneath our school gym named Grom.  He’s a nightmare monster.”

Parvati shuddered at that thought.

Professor McGonagall, who was wearing dress robes of red tartan and had arranged a rather lovely wreath of thistles around the brim of her hat, told them to wait on one side of the doors while everyone else went inside; they were to enter the Great Hall in procession when the rest of the students had sat down. Fleur Delacour and Roger Davies stationed themselves nearest the doors; Davies looked so stunned by Fleur that he could hardly take his eyes off her. Maybe she had something on her face and he was too embarrassed to say. Cedric and Cho were next in line chatting quietly to themselves.  She had twisted her hair into two buns on the side of her head with some hair hanging down below them.  It was very elegant.

Krum walked up with Hermione, who had used something to make her hair sleek and shiny, and then twisted it up into an elegant knot at the back of her head. She was wearing robes made of a floaty, periwinkle-blue material.

“Hi, Harry!” she said. “Hi, Parvati!”

Parvati was gazing at Hermione in unflattering disbelief. She wasn’t the only one either; when the doors to the Great Hall opened, Krum’s fan club from the library stalked past, throwing Hermione looks of deepest loathing. Pansy Parkinson gaped at her as she walked by with Malfoy, and even he didn’t seem to be able to find an insult to throw at her.

“Hi Luna and Willow.  You all look great!”

“Thanks Hermione,” Willow said. “You look nice, as well.  I’m glad the product worked for your hair.”

She beamed. “Me too.  Luna, I love the pins in your hair.  What kind of magic makes them change intensity like that?”

“Oh, um, I’m not sure.  They were my mom’s.” She smiled lightly.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but Professor McGonagall got their attention and told the champions and their partners to get in line in pairs and to follow her. They did so, and everyone in the Great Hall applauded as they entered and started walking up toward a large round table at the top of the Hall, where the judges were sitting.

Luna stared wide-eyed at the room.  It was magical in a way that she never experienced before even growing up surrounded my magic.  They very room sparkled and shown with crystals. The walls of the Hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The House tables had vanished; instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern-lit ones, each seating about a dozen people.  From the enchanted ceiling, soft snowflakes drifted down, vanishing long before reaching the ground.  It made her feel like she was in a snow globe.

“It’s…” Willow trailed off, not able to describe what she was seeing.

“I know,” Luna whispered back.

Dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table, but Karkaroff scowled as they approached. Ludo Bagman, tonight in robes of bright purple with large yellow stars, was clapping as enthusiastically as any of the students; and Madame Maxime, who had changed her usual uniform of black satin for a flowing gown of lavender silk, was applauding them politely.   Principal Bump and Ena were clapping politely.  Luna wondered if Principal Bump had to polish his head demon (it looked shinier in the glittering light), and Eda had changed from her ripped dress to a suit made of material so dark it looked like she was wearing a void. The last seat at the table was occupied by Percy.  Maybe Mr. Couch got involved with the Minister’s army of Heliopaths.

Willow pulled out Luna’s chair for her, placing her next to Parvati.  Hermione was on Willow’s other side. Eda reached down to the floor and pulled King into her lap despite the look of disgust on Madame Maxime’s face.

Willow leaned over to Luna. “Maxime doesn’t like King at the table.  Eda’s gone on rants in the dorm about how she tries to lecture Eda about appropriate places for pets.  Little does she know that King isn’t a pet.”

“He has a collar, though,” Parvati said, inserting herself into the conversation.

“Just because he’s wearing what looks like a collar doesn’t mean he’s a pet.”

Parvati scowled but turned away from them.

There was no food as yet on the glittering golden plates, but small menus were lying in front of each of them. There were no waiters and most of the students looked confused. Dumbledore, however, looked carefully down at his own menu, then said very clearly to his plate, “Pork chops!”

And pork chops appeared. Getting the idea, the rest of the table placed their orders with their plates too. The rest of the hall followed suit.

Viktor Krum was enthusiastically talking about his school.  Luna had heard there were Golden Stannerworts that hid in the snow in the Scandinavian countries. “Veil, ve have a castle also, not as big as this, nor as comfortable, I am thinking,” he was telling Hermione. “Ve have just four floors, and the fires are lit only for magical purposes. But ve have grounds larger even than these — though in vinter, ve have very little day- light, so ve are not enjoying them. But in summer ve are flying every day, over the lakes and the mountains —”

“Now, now, Viktor!” said Karkaroff with a laugh that didn’t reach his cold eyes, “don’t go giving away anything else, now, or your charming friend will know exactly where to find us!”

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling. “Igor, all this secrecy . . . one would almost think you didn’t want visitors.”

“Well, Dumbledore,” said Karkaroff, displaying his yellowing teeth to their fullest extent, “we are all protective of our private domains, are we not? Do we not jealously guard the halls of learn- ing that have been entrusted to us? Are we not right to be proud that we alone know our school’s secrets, and right to protect them?”

“Oh I would never dream of assuming I know all Hogwarts’ secrets, Igor,” said Dumbledore amicably. “Only this morning, for instance, I took a wrong turning on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I have never seen before, containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamber pots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly it is only accessible at five-thirty in the morning. Or it may only appear at the quarter moon — or when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder.”  He must have found the Come and Go Room the House elves have told her about.

Principal Bump was calmly eating his food as Eda and King ordered at least four different dishes off the meu.

“As I’ve been saying, Eda, the students need to get their test scores up.  Our funding is severely limited, especially after all the damage your apprentice did to the school before she was a student.”

“Luz is a perfectly fine student.”

“She, Willow, and Amity destroyed the entire school.  She broke detention.  Anyways, the students want more clubs, but aren’t willing to put in any work to raise test scores.  Last time I asked, the Board of Governor's wouldn’t even consider helping us raise funds, saying it was an ‘affront to all grand learning institutions to need external funding’.  Do they even know how much the supplies cost?  Every year they go up.  Sometimes teachers will put in a request for materials I didn’t even know they would need.  Did you know what’s going in abominations these days?  They don’t make them like they did back when I was in school.  A disgrace!”

Eda laughed at his rant. “I can help you get money, no problem.”

Principal Bump stuttered.

Willow leaned over to Luna. “She means stealing.  Eda is one hundred percent a criminal.”

“She does seem like an odd choice to bring as a chaperone,” Luna replied.

“Luz told me she was the only adult willing to come along.”

Dumbledore stood up when all the food had been consumed, and asked the students to do the same. Then, with a wave of his wand, all the tables zoomed back along the walls leaving the floor clear, and then he conjured a raised platform into existence along the right wall. A set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and some bagpipes were set upon it.

The Weird Sisters now trooped up onto the stage to wildly enthusiastic applause; they were all extremely hairy and dressed in black robes that had been artfully ripped and torn. They picked up their instruments, the lanterns on all the other tables went out, and the champions and their partners stood up.

“Would you like to dance with me, Luna?” Willow asked, even though that was the entire point of inviting her along. She held out her hand in invitation.

Luna smiled. “Yes, I would like that.” She laid her hand in Willow’s and was led to the dance floor.

The Weird Sisters struck up a slow, mournful tune; which wasn’t the best for the Boiling Isles dance that Luna was taught, but Willow counted softly as they spin and dipped and jumped.  After the first minute, other couples joined the dance floor.

Luz and Amity were spinning in a way similar to her and Willow, but with their own flair. Neville and Ginny were dancing nearby—Neville unfortunately trodding on Ginny’s feet a lot, and Dumbledore was waltzing with Madame Maxime. Eda had somehow roped Professor Snape into a waltz, and despite his scowling face, Luna thought he looked like he was enjoying the dance.

The final, quavering note echoed from the bagpipe and when the Weird Sisters stopped playing, applause filled the hall once more.  Willow stepped away from Luna and bowed to her.  She curtseyed back, giggling.

The Weird Sisters struck up a new song, which was much faster.  Luz wandered over.  “Luna, do you want to dance?”

She looked at Willow. “You can.  It’s okay with me.  I’ll grab us some drinks.”

Luna nodded and was whisked off my Luz, who danced much more wildly, and also in any way she chose, almost dragging Luna around.  It was fun, though, and she laughed throughout the whole song.  At one point, she and Luz joined forced with Fred and Angelina Johnson and had cleared a large circle on the dance floor with their dancing.  It was shaping up to be a really good night.

Chapter Text

Avalon was living the dream here at Hogwarts.  There were so many beasts and creatures for them to learn about and play with.  They couldn’t wait to hide some in their luggage to take back to the Boiling Isles.  There was a reason they forced their parents to splurge for the bigger on the inside luggage.

“I’m telling you, Beefany, we can one hundred percent bring something back with us. We just need to figure out what.”

Beefany sighed. “I know you want to do that, but do you even know if they can survive in the Demon Realm?” Beefany had pale, almost translucent skin, and she was tall and skinny.  Her straight brown hair reached down to the middle of her back. Any time she could get away with it, she wore her favorite pink tank top and stretchy purple pants.

“Well, no,” Avalon said, “but we’re doing alright here, and Human Girl is fine in the Demon Realm.”

“Beasts and humans are different.”

Avalon stopped Beefany. “Ok, but here me out, giraffes.”

“Giraffes?”

“Giraffes.”

Beefany sighed again.  She did that a lot around Avalon. “I don’t follow.”

Avalon threw their hands in the air in exasperation. “We banished giraffes to the human realm, and they seem to be doing fine.”

“Giraffes were hardy beasts and kept trying to take over and none of our spells would pierce their hides.”

“And yet they can survive outside the Boiling Isles.”

“I wish the dragons were still here,” Paint said, walking up to his friends. They stared at him in disbelief. “What?  Sorry, did I interrupt another argument?”

Paint was the complete opposite of Beefany.  Short, dark blue skin, and bright red-orange curly hair.  He didn’t really care what he wore as long as it was comfortable.

Avalon huffed. “It’s not an argument, it’s a difference of opinion.”

“Are we trying to figure out which beast to take back?  Because if we can’t get a dragon, my second choice is one of the giant spiders in the forest.  I think they start pretty small.  So it should be easy to hide.”

Beefany screamed, drawing the attention of the students passing around the trio in the courtyard.

Avalon laughed, their long teeth glinting in the light. “We already have giant spiders, though.  I would’ve liked a baby dragon, too.  Hagrid was telling me all about his.”

“He has a baby dragon?!” Paint screeched, grabbing onto their shoulders and shaking them.

“Well, had,” they corrected, shaking their head, blue hair flopping around. “It got too big for his home and so he sent it to the dragon reserve in a place called Roman…gia?  Something like that.”

Paint’s hands slid down their arms and he deflated. “Aww.”

“What if we just take like a...cat?  Just to see if it’ll survive, then we can see about something with more bite,” Beefany tried to reason.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Avalon asked. “Maybe we can have one of the Blast Ended Skerts Hagrid’s having the fourth years raise.”

“Those are pretty freaky looking,” Beefany said.

“We can’t just take one animal,” Paint said. “They would be lonely, and also the last of their species in the Boiling Isles.”

“Even if we take more than one, they would have children who are then related, and thus we can’t realistically have them make a third generation,” Beefany said.

“As much as I want to take home a bunch of the creatures,” Avalon said, “to make an actual viable species on the Isles, we need like five thousand of each creature to ensure genetic diversity.  Five hundred at least to avoid most inbreeding.”

Paint deflated. “That’s not practical.”

“No shit,” Avalan said. “It’s not so much to take more than one home, it’s being able to say ‘I raised this foreign animal and it died of old age!’ or something like that.”

“Are you also trying to get an easy grade on your final project?” Beefany asked.

Avalon stuttered. “What? No.  Why would you—no!”

“The witch doth protest too much,” Beefany countered. “You’re counting on the Beast teacher to not know what you’ve brought back so they give you a passing grade since it’d be an unknown.”

Paint hummed thoughtfully. “That’s not a bad idea, honestly.  We’d have to bring different creatures.”

Beefany turned to him. “You can’t seriously be thinking about cheating.”

“It’s not cheating,” Paint said. “It’s a creative interpretation of the rules.”

“We have to be able to take care of a creature, and what better way to do that than a creature that isn’t native to our world?” Avalon said.  They spread their arms. “Think about it.  We’d have to learn everything there is to know about this beast.  We’d have to start from nothing since it’d be new.  Something we haven’t seen before in the Boiling Isles.  If anything, we’re making our final project harder on ourselves.”

“The problem is,” Beefany started, “that we need to present our findings and the beast for the final project.  I’m not convinced Principal Bump will let us bring something back.”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Avalon said.

“Yeah, he doesn’t need to know what we’re bringing back,” Paint agreed.

“He doesn’t need to know there’s anything besides clothes in our luggage.”

The two stood defiant, shoulder to shoulder, staring Beefany down.  She looked back and forth between them, trying to find a weakness.  After two minutes of searching and staring, Beefany sighed in defeat.  Avalon and Paint cheered.

“I’m going on the record that this is a horrible idea.  And if we get caught and get in trouble, I’m blaming both of you.”

“Noted,” Paint said.

“Wouldn’t expect it any other way,” Avalon said, throwing their arm around Beefany’s shoulders and leading her out towards the grounds. “Now, let’s go talk with Hagrid and see what other cool creatures and beasts he has.  I’m sure he won’t notice a few missing.”

--

“I hereby call the meeting of the Beast track students at Hogwarts to order,” Avalon said.  Avalon, Beefany, and Paint were in an empty classroom they’ve taken over as a base of operations for their beasts.

“This is a meeting?” Paint asked.

“What are you talking about?” Beefany asked.  She put down the pack of feed she got from Hagrid next to her beast.

They had each collected something over the last week, without telling the others what it was.  Today was the great unveiling!

“Doesn’t matter,” Avalon waved away their questions. “Do you have your beasts?” they asked dramatically.

“Duh,” Beefany said.

“Yeah,” Paint agreed. “Do you have yours?”

“Of course!  And it’ll get me a passing grade on the final, no problem.”

Beefany scowled and crossed her arms. “Okay, what is it then?”

Avalon gestured around and made jazz hands. “Duh duh duh duuuuh!” they sang and pulled the sheet from their tank.

Beefany and Paint were silent.  “A piece of wood?” Beefany asked, eyebrows raised in confusion.

“What?” they said. “No!  It’s a Dugbog.”

The dugbog looked like a piece of dead wood sitting on a mossy area of the tank.  Half the tank was filled with water.  Avalon tapped the glass and the wood moved, yawning, showing a mouth full of sharp teeth.  It had finned paws as it crawled into the water and floated, going still and looking like a piece of wood again.

“How’d you animate a piece of wood?” Paint asked.

Avalon looked like they were about to kill him. “It’s. A. Dugbog.  It’s supposed to look like that...I think.  The book says it feeds on small animals.  It’s favorite food is mandrake, which is delicious, so I agree.  What’d you find?”

Paint smiled, his rounded teeth shining and pulled the sheet from his slightly smaller tank.

“A snail,” Beefany deadpanned.

“It’s a Streeler.  They’re usually found in Africa, but I found this little guy in the forest with a trail of dead animals behind it.

The snail was the size of a kitten, with a bright aqua shell.  It moved around the tank leaving a shiny trail that looked poisonous, and according to Paint, it was.

“I think this one’s a baby, but I’m not sure. The book just says the adult is ‘giant’, but doesn’t actually give any indication what that means.”

The shell started darkening to a rusty red color to the awe of Avalon and Beefany.

“Yeah, every hour or so, the shell changes color.  I don’t know why.  It honestly seems like it would hurt it more than help, but…” He paused. “The shell is covered in spikes, and my hands itched after I touched it, so it’s probably so predators attack the shell and not its underbelly.”

“You forgot your gloves again, didn’t you?” Avalon asked.

“Gloves are for wimps.”

Beefany facepalmed. “This is why you always have to partner with someone.”

“Well, what’d you bring?” Paint asked, changing the subject.

Beefany smiled and slowly pulled the sheet from her cage.  She didn’t want to startle her beast.

Avalon laughed when it was revealed. “You always were a sucker for the sad and damaged looking things.”

“It’s an augurey.  It just looks like that.”

The augurey in question looked like a thin and mournful vulture.  It’s greenish black features were dull, and large black eyes looked fearfully around from above a sharp beak.  It backed up into its teardrop shaped nest, as if to hide from their stares.

“What does it do?” Avalon asked.

“It doesn’t have to do anything,” Beefany retorted. “But it sings when it’s going to rain.  The House elves keep one to let them know the weather.  Her name is Sunny.  This is one of her kids.  The House elves said I could have him.  I think he’ll be good as a way to know when the Boiling Rain is coming.  The forecasters have been inaccurate lately.”

“That’s actually pretty useful,” Avalon said.

“Looks sad, though,” Paint commented. “Will it always look like that?”

Beefany shrugged. “Probably.”

Avalon smiled and clapped, getting their attention and startling the augurey.  Beefany reached through the bars and settled it down.

“Now that we have our beasts, it’s time to learn everything about them.  And also find a sure-fire way to bring them back to the Boiling Isles without getting in trouble.”

Paint looked nervous. “Would we get in trouble, though?  This is our final project.  We’re required to bring the beast to class.”

Avalon shrugged. “Better safe than sorry.  What if we ask Bump and he’s like ‘No unknown beasts into the Boiling Isles.  It could disrupt the entire ecosystem.’”They wagged their finger. “and then we won’t have the element of surprise.”

Beefany spoke up, “Okay, but that’s actually a valid concern.  Are we sure bringing these beasts back won’t disrupt the entire ecosystem of the Isles?  Or introduce a new disease among the beasts or population?”

Avalon deflated. “Fine.  We’ll make sure everyone—beasts and demons—will be fine when we bring them over.” They sounded exasperated.

Beefany beamed. “Thank you.  Let’s go to the library and see if we can find anything about diseases they carry.”

She started gathering her books while Paint groaned and slid to the floor in a puddle. “I hate the library,” the puddle murmured.

Avalon laughed and reached into the puddle, pulling the boy back into being by his upper arm. “You’ll be fine, come on,” they said and bounced out the door followed by a laughing Beefany and a reluctant Paint.

The augurey trilled a mournful sound in the empty classroom that could almost be interpreted as ominous.  It began snowing outside moments later.

Chapter Text

It was the middle of January and Willow, Luz, Amity, and Gus finally had a moment to examine the egg further. Classes had been hitting them hard recently and with trying to start and figure out what they were doing for their final projects, and tests, and homework, and general school things, it was difficult for them to find some time to discuss the egg.

Gus was beyond excited to be in a human realm.  He’s been getting so much data for his human records.  One day he hopes to publish his findings.  He’d like to visit Luz’s world.  It’d be interesting to see somewhere that doesn’t have any magic.  Maybe he’d be an ambassador?  That sounded like an awesome job!

“Where’s Luna?” Gus asked.

“She has class,” Luz said, dragging a large tub into the room. “Is this big enough?”

“Should be fine,” Willow said and placed the egg into the tub.  She conjured some water and filled it up to the top. “Here I go.” She reached under and twisted the latch open.  Gus cringed preemptively in remembrance of the loud scream.

After a moment, and the room remaining mostly silent except for their breathing and a faint humming sound, he unclenched.

“I think you have to be in the water to hear it,” Amity said.

Willow sighed and sucked in a deep breath before dunking her head into the tub.  She came up for air a minute or so later, gasping for breath.

“You okay, Willow?”

“Poem...It was a poem.”

Luz grabbed for some paper and a pen. “What did it say?”

Willow grabbed the paper and pen and scribbled down the poem.  Gus was pretty impressed she remembered the whole thing. “What’s it say?” he asked.

Amity took the paper and read,

“Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,

And while you're searching ponder this;

We've taken what you'll sorely miss,

An hour long you'll have to look,

And to recover what we took,

But past an hour, the prospect's black,

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.”

“That’s not ominous,” Luz said.

Gus threw his hands in the air in disbelief. “What?” he shouted. “Yes, it is!”

“Sarcasm, Gus,” Willow said.

He lowered his hands sheepishly. “Oh, right.”

“But what does it mean?” Amity asked.

“The task most likely takes place in the water since we had to listen to the egg underwater,” said Luz.

“Well, the only water nearby is the lake,” Gus said. “What’s in the lake?”

“There’s a giant squid,” Luz replied. “It waves it’s tentacles a lot.”

Amity pulled a bag onto the table and started pulling book after book out of it.  More books than it looked like it could reasonably hold.

“Did you bring the whole library?” Gus asked.

“Just about.  These are mostly books on creatures.  I also grabbed some reference books that had specific regions in them.” She held up an aqua colored book. “This is all about sea creatures in England.  Should be really helpful.”

“How am I going to survive for an hour underwater, though?  I don’t know any spells like that,” Willow stressed. “And in the middle of the winter.  I’m not the best with cold.”

“We could get you a diving suit,” Luz suggested. “I’m sure one exists somewhere in this human realm.”

“Why not have that be plan B?” Amity suggested. “We can look through books, maybe the wizards have a spell. Or Eda or Bump might know.”

“Eda probably knows.  She knows all kinds of spells!  I’ll go ask her.” Luz ran off in search of Eda.

“Why is the diving suit plan B?” Gus asked. He would love whatever a diving suit is. It sounds so cool!

Amity started to organize the books. “I’ve noticed that human technology seems to malfunction around the magic here.  Haven’t you noticed the increased amount of glyphs on Luz’s phone?”

Now that she mentioned it, yeah, the phone was more glyph than phone case at this point.

“I’d also have to learn how to use it, and having no idea what a ‘diving suit’ is, I don’t think it’s a good option,” Willow said.

“Maybe there’s another human thing that can help you.  Humans have such weird devices.  Like that tiny rectangle that shouted music at me, called a speak-her.  The voice sounded male, though.”

“I think we’ll have more luck if we stick to the magic side of things,” Amity reasoned. “Willow, do you know of any plants that could help us?”

“There’s one that turns you into a fish.”

“That’s perfect! Gus said.

Willow shook her head. “You can’t turn back.  You also don’t remember being a witch or demon.  You really become a fish.”

“That won’t work.  What about you illusion yourself into a fish?”

“It’s only an illusion.  I still wouldn’t be able to breathe underwater.  Also, I don’t know any illusion spells.”

Gus deflated. Yeah, illusion magic was limited in a lot of what it could do.  At the end of the day, it wasn’t real.

“Cheer up, Gus,” Willow said, punching his arm lightly. “I’m sure there’s something in all these books, we just have to find it.”

Luz came back into the room. “Eda has given me some suggestions, but they’re all pretty bad.”

“Like what?” Willow asked.

“Well, she first suggested this plant to turn you into a fish.”

“Already dismissed that plan,” Amity said. Luz nodded like that was a smart idea.

“Then she suggested she turn you into a fish.  But then she said it only worked half the time and sometimes people end up as half a fish forever.  She said there’s a rare potion that gives you gills, but it can only work if you take the gills from a large creature yourself.  She then tried to hand me a inhaler, saying it had air inside it.  Which isn’t correct, but it’s not wrong, and I hate that.”

“I don’t think any of those would work,” Willow said.

“This diving suit idea is looking better and better,” Gus said, wiggling his eyebrows in suggestion.

“Wait, I think I remember a spell I was learning in bridge building class,” Luz said.

“I build a bridge to get whatever's in the lake?”

“I mean, no one ever said you had to swim to get it.  Whatever took the ‘thing you’ll solely miss’ won’t live on the edge of the lake.  It’s probably towards the middle,” Amity reasoned.

“No, that wasn’t my point, but a good idea,” Luz interjected. “They were talking about how they build into the water. The Construction coven has a spell that allows you to breathe underwater.”

“Doesn’t that require like constant concentration?” Willow asked.

Luz thought for a moment. “Maybe?  We haven’t gotten to that in classes.  The teacher just mentioned it in passing.”

“Okay, you look for that.  Willow, maybe practice making a bridge?  Gus and I can start figuring out what creatures are in the lake.”

“Avalon might know.  They hang around the lake a lot,” Gus said.

“Who’s Avalon again?” Amity asked.

“Beast track.  Bright blue hair.”

“I like them,” Luz said, “They’re nice.  Aren’t they trying to take something home?”

“Yeah.  They and their friends aren’t being very subtle.”

Amity added, “Bump totally knows they’re going to sneak something back, but isn’t going to say anything to see how good they are at hiding live animals.”

“Anyways,” Gus said, “One of the three might know more about what's in the lake.”

“We could just ask a Hogwarts student,” Willow replied, “Or Hagrid.  Luz aren’t you friends with him?”

“Ehh. I’ve spoken with him after class about creatures, but not much.  I can ask him after class tomorrow anyway, though.”

Willow nodded. “What are they taking from me, though?  Everything of value I left at home.”

“Do you really think they won’t give it back?” Gus asked, “That seems awful.”

“It’s most likely just a scare tactic,” Amity said.

“But what if it’s not?” Gus was worried.  What if they took Willow’s magic or one of her favorite plants or a person?  If they were gone forever, that’d be awful!

Willow put her hand on Gus’s shoulder and he snapped back to the present. “You’re spiraling.” Gus took a couple deep breaths. “You okay now?”

He nodded. “Thanks.”

Luz spoke up, “Bump and Eda wouldn’t allow anything to happen. If any of us were hurt, Eda would raze the castle until we were okay.”

“Bump also cares about us, in his own way,” Amity said, “He just can’t always act as overtly as he’d like because of the school board and funding.”

“He was complaining to Eda about funding at the Yule Ball dinner.  I guess our test scores aren’t high enough?” Willow added.

Gus shrugged and started to flip through one of the creature books.  He landed on a page about grindylows.

“What is that thing?” Amity asked, distracted.

The illustration on the page wiggled around in a short animated loop, it’s tentacles making it swim and it snapped its teeth at nothing in aggravation.  It had a large bulbous head with a mouth filled with sharp tiny teeth.  Its fingers were long and looked like they could wrap around Gus’s wrist multiple times with one digit.

“Grindylow.  They live in weed beds at the bottom of lakes and still water.  It says they’re native to Great Britain, so I think you’re safe, Willow.  You won’t have to fight these.” He slammed the book shut.

Luz giggled. “Gus, we’re in Great Britain.”

“No, we aren’t. This is Scootland...I think.  Am I saying that right?”

Luz shook her head. “Scotland, and Scotland is in Great Britain.  It’s two names for a similar thing.”

“That’s confusing,” Amity concluded. “Why not just have it be named one thing?”

Luz shrugged and opened the book back to the page on the scary lake monsters. “What else can we find out about these?  There are probably some in the lake.”

“We haven’t even figured out how I’m surviving in the lake, let alone fighting anything in it!”

“Luz and I will look at creatures while you and Gus look for spells and potions.”

“I wish Google existed for all this research,” Luz mumbled.

Google?  That’s not something Luz has mentioned about the human world before.  It sounds like a wizard who can tell you the answer. “What’s ‘google’?” Gus asked.

Luz stopped flipping aimlessly through the book in front of her and thought for a moment. “It’s like a card catalog at a library but I can search using multiple keywords and it gives me results in seconds.”

“That sounds very useful,” Amity said. “How do they maintain that?”

“I’m not really sure, but it’s algorithms and things I don’t understand.  Anyways, Willow, how good is your underwater fighting?”

Willow grimaced. “What am I fighting?”

Luz shrugged. “Whatever is in the lake, probably.”

“Is the second task fighting?” Eda asked, walking into the room. “I hope they have a good viewing screen.

“No,” Luz said, “we think Willow will have to find something in the lake.”

“My offer of turning you into a fish still stands.”

Willow backed away, frightened. “No, thank you.”

Eda cackled and left, letting Luna into the room as she did so.

“She seemed happy,” Luna said, causing the rest of the group to burst into laughter.

After they calmed down, Gus beckoned Luna over to the table. “What do you know about the creatures in the lake?”

Chapter Text

“What have you been bribing the House Elves with?” Edric asked Fred.

Fred grinned. “Trade secret, my dear twin.”

“They enjoy pranks just as much as we do,” George said.

“Hey!”

“They like to be included,” Emira concluded. “If you add them in the planning and execution stages, they won’t get angry at you later for making a huge mess.”

Fred tapped his nose. “Plus, they’ll most likely help out.”

“Like with the pastries,” Ed said.

Fred and George nodded in unison. “Any prankster worst their shit will make sure the resident creatures are either happy or know about it.  Having a House Elf on your side can make or break a large-scale prank.”

“Not to mention small-scale ones.”

“But this is by no means a small-scale prank.”

“Emira looks at the supplies they gathered in their empty classroom-come-lair. “What’s preventing the teachers from banishing everything before students see it?  A lot of them are up before us.”

George smirked. “What they can’t see, they can’t banish.”

“But also anti-banishing charms.  That’s why we had to collect everything first.”

Em smirked. “Ed and I will start getting the contents ready while you do that.”

Fred and George started casting anti-banishment charms on their supplies, passing them over to Ed and Em to be filled.  House Elves popped in and out, collecting the trays and taking them away.

The group finished about midnight and went to bed for a few hours.

At four am the group woke back up and met in their lair.

“Everyone knows where they’re hitting?” Fred asked.

“Yes,” the other three chorused.

They each grabbed a box and split up, going towards the corridors that would lead students to classrooms, but not to or from the dormitories towards the Great Hall.

The work was tedious, but the end result was gorgeous and now the only thing to do was wait for breakfast and the first classes of the day.

Ed and Em snuck back into the dorm right before the earliest of risers woke up and showered and changed clothes.  They both took an invigorating potion, waking them right up despite being up most of the night.

“I look okay, right?” Ed asked.

“Only one pimple,” Em said, finishing up her hair.

“What?!”

Em laughed. “Wait, that’s just your head.”

Ed scowled. “Not funny.”

Em smiled and looked at him through the mirror. “A little funny.  Let’s round up the kiddos and go to breakfast.”

The oldest students roused the still sleeping witches and dragged them out of bed, throwing them into the shower.  It wasn’t the most pleasant, but it worked, and that was the point.

Amity looked at them weirdly.  Em and Ed were trying (and failing) to hide some of their excitement for the coming prank.

“What’s wrong?” Luz asked Amity, grabbing her hand.

Amity blushed, but answered, “They’re more smiley than usual for eight am.”

Luz looked over.  Ed leaned onto Emira’s shoulder and they waved, wiggling their fingers, in unison.

Luz looked back at Amity. “Yeah, something’s up.” She turned to the twins. “What did you do?”

“What makes you think we did anything?” Em asked.

“We’ve been here all night,” Edric added.

Amity narrowed her eyes. “I don’t trust you.” Luz laughed and pulled her girlfriend out of the dorm and towards the Great Hall for breakfast.

By the time Emira and Edric got to the Great Hall, a large crowd was starting to gather outside the open doors.

“Impressive,” Eda whispered in their ears before hopping onto her palisman and flying over to the teacher’s table, ignoring the chaos.

On the floor of the Great Hall were cups.  Hundreds of thousands of cups.  Each were spaced evenly apart and they were in color coordinated lines making a rainbow effect across the entire room.  The real surprise was inside the cups, though and what they had been doing last night.

Up at the teacher’s table, Eda calmly ate her breakfast as the students figured out the cups.  Teachers were entering from the side door and able to get to their table without any trouble since the cups were only on the main floor.  It seemed like some of them wanted to help the students, but a smile from Dumbledore made them pause and just take their seat.  Snape scowled and tried to vanish some of the cups, only causing more to appear, making a tiny tower in one corner.

A brave student took their wand and poked one of the cups, the wand going right through it.  They laughed in delight at the illusion.  A collective sigh of relief swept through the crowd.  It was only an illusion.

The Gryffindor stepped forward, foot sliding through the cup illusion.  Their next step, though, knocked into a solid cup, which fell over. Water poured onto the ground and the kid had enough time to say, “What?” before they were enveloped in a puff of smoke.

Someone cast a spell to clear it and the person was a solid bright pink.  Their clothes, their skin, their hair—everything.  They tried to wipe it off, but had little success.

The students at the front of the crowd eyed the cups warily.  They were hungry, but did they want to be bright pink all day?

“Oh screw this,” a Ravenclaw said and stomped their way to their table.  She knocked down a few cups, but kept walking.  When she emerged from the smoke she was neon green. She hopped onto the bench and walked all the way down the table and sat at the far end (so as not to block anyone trying to get a seat).

Others got a similar idea and followed the little path she made, hoping to not change colors, however, the smoke worked on one person as long as they hadn’t already been hit, so the first couple people got the lingering smoke and ended up colorful.

The Gryffindors nudged the one already hit to go make a path to their table, which they did, purposefully knocking over more cups than they needed.

Ed and Em grinned before walking through the smoke, knowing they’d change colors.  Ed ended up a light lilac while Em was a fiery red.

As they ate, more and more students were inching their way into the room.  Some so far managed to avoid the smoke, but they still had to leave to go to class.

“How long does this stuff last?” Amity asked.

“I don’t know what you mean, mittens,” Em said. Amity scowled.

“The illusions of the cups.  That’s your and Ed’s doing.  I know your work.”

“How are you powering such a large illusion?” Luz asked. “There are thousands of cups on the ground and it seems like someone always hits one over.  It would’ve taken you ages to fill that many.”

Edric opened his mouth to answer, but Emira slapped her hand over his gaping maw. “I’m not sure how this is being done, but most likely a focusing stone.”

“Oh, I’ve read about those!  You have to find one that resonates with your magic or it will explode when you feed your magic in, right?”

“You did your reading,” Em said. “The best place to find some are on this reef off the coast of Hatching Bay.”

“Isn’t that the bay where animals hatch out of the ground, like all the time?”

Ed nodded and pulled Em’s hand away. “It’s really nice to vacation at.”

“We go every summer,” Amity said. “You place a ward on the ground and it prevents hatching under your towel.  The water is crystal clear, and the reef is off to the side.”

Luz narrowed her eyes. “If the reef is that close, how is it not destroyed, or completely empty of focusing stones?”

Em laughed. “It has very sharp teeth.”

Luz sighed. “Of course it does.”

Amity blushed. “I could...um...that is...we could go—together—to Hatching Bay for um a weekend trip?  The lights above the water are said to be beautiful in the winter.”

Luz blushed. “That’s—yes.  Sounds fun,” she squeaked out.

Em smirked and glanced at her watch.  It was about time to go to class, she thought.

Leaving the Great Hall was a lot less problematic than entering for two reasons. One, most people were already colored a random color and thus any lingering smoke didn’t do anything to them. Two, most of the cups had been knocked down by this point or faded from existence.  The corners of the room still had cups that instead of disappearing were starting to climb the walls—literally.

The Blight Twins shrugged at each other and ignored it.  That was someone else’s problem at this point.  They did warm the House Elves focusing stone magic tended to go weird after a while.

The second part of the park started with yet another blockade of students, unfortunately, this time, it also included the teachers.

“Spencer, poke it,” someone said, nudging the same girl who got smoked first.

She scowled and nudged them back. “No way, Alec.  I got hit first this morning.  You poke it.”

“It” was one of thousands of white plastic sporks magically standing straight up in the hallways.  They were spaced evenly apart, just like the cups, but the major difference, they were all real.  No illusions this time.

The real challenge was finding hallways that would be used, but not before classes and the first prank of the day.  It ended up working out perfectly to be four different spaces, so each twin took an area and set it up.

Flitwick squeezed his way towards the front of the crowd and cast a series of spells over the sporks.  All his spells revealed were that they were perfectly normal muggle sporks.

He tried the one thing that Ed and Em had been hoping he would do: he tried to banish them.

The next moment, Professor Flitwick was falling towards the ceiling, landing gently on his feet.  The strangest thing was that all of his clothes and hair were not following gravity back towards the original ground.  It was if gravity was reversed.

“Well, that’s different.”  He tried to cast his way back to the ground, but was unsuccessful.

Alec was tired of waiting and poked the spork closest to them.  They also fell towards the ceiling, coming to a stop next to the professor.

“No one else touch them, please,” Flitwick ordered. “Mx. Samargin, are you okay?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Professor Flitwick—oh!” a Hufflepuff student exclaimed, running over to the group from the Transfiguration hallway. “You’re stuck, too?”

Flitwick chuckled. “Yes, it seems like I am.  Who sent you, Miss Peters?”

“Professor McGonagall, sir.  She and a bunch of Gryffindors are stuck.”

Flitwick nodded. “Class is canceled. Please try and find your way to your dorm or the library for private study without getting stuck on the ceiling.  If you do get stuck, make your way to the Great Hall.  Come along, Mx. Samargin, let’s see if we can figure this out together.” The two walked away.

The crowd dispersed, most heading down to the Great Hall than back up since they knew that way was safe.

“I didn’t think they’d cancel class,” Ed said.

“Wicked isn’t it?” Fred said, popping out from a secret passage.

“The reversal gravity ward worked better than we thought,” George said.

“How’d you get it to cover all the way from Charms to Transfiguration, though?”

“Why’d you cover that much?”

Em smirked. “Professors Flitwick and McGonagall are the two most likely to work together to figure it out, and their classrooms were close enough to do so. So, we placed sporks along the walls and hid them with tapestries.”

“Ingenious.”

“How’d a bunch of Gryffs get on the ceiling?” Ed asked.

“They were trying to kick the sporks, and they all kind of did it at once, so they all ended up on the ceiling,” George explained.

“I’m surprised you two didn’t ham it up,” Em commented.

“Oh believe me,” Fred said, “ we wanted to.”

“I was about to,” George said. “I was going to touch it and dramatically end up on the ceiling.”

“And I was going to exclaim, ‘Fred, no’!” Fred said, “‘Don’t worry, I’m coming for you!  Just hold on!’ and touch the spork and join him.”

“But Minnie caught my hand before I could grab one.”

“Missed opportunity.” Fred shook his head sadly.

“Well, since Charms, and probably Transfiguration, at least, are canceled for now, what shall we do?” Emira asked.

“We should probably study,” Ed said.

The group was silent for a moment, then burst into laughter.  Study?  Yeah, right!  They headed off towards their lair to start planning the next prank.  It was a long time coming.

Chapter Text

“Have you guys seen Luna?” Luz asked the morning of the second task.

Gus looked up from his breakfast. “Is she missing?”

Luz shrugged. “I was waiting for her to see if she wanted to eat with us, but I didn’t see her.  I did see her roommates, though.”

“Go ask them,” Amity said.

“Duh, of course!” She bounded off to the Ravenclaw table.

“Are you nervous?” Amity asked.

Willow jumped, not expecting someone to talk to her at that moment. She was pushing her food around her plate, not really eating much, both because she was nervous and since she had to go swimming soon.

“A bit.  I still don’t know what they stole.”

Luz came back. “Luna never came back to the dorm last night.  They said Flitwick said she was okay, but…”

Willow locked eyes with Luz.  “You don’t think…?” she asked.

Luz frowned and sat down to eat a bagel. 

“I mean they put you against dragons.  It makes sense,” Amity said.

“The real question is, did they really tell them what they were getting into?”

“I hope so,” Willow said worryingly.

The judges and teachers started making their way out of the Great Hall, which was the rest of the student body’s cue to go towards the lake.

Willow made her way down to the edge of the lake with her friends.  They each gave her a hug in encouragement and took their seats.  She zipped up her skintight surf jacket, activating the warming charms. Underneath she had on a bodysuit modeled after what the divers wore.  It would protect more of her skin, and also had a warming charm sewn into the fabric. Her shoes were made for swimming and running, and her glasses were tied around her head with a strip of fabric and had an imperious charm cast over them. Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor joined her soon after wearing much less clothing despite it being the middle of winter.  The robes they had on looked very impractical for a swimming challenge.  One would think they would’ve tried to find warmer swimwear, too.  The judges were off to the side, watching them, and Harry was running late.

The seats that had encircled the dragons’ enclosure in November were now arranged along the opposite bank from where they were standing, rising in stands that were packed to the bursting point and reflected in the lake below. The excited babble of the crowd echoed strangely across the water. 

The judges took their seats at the gold-draped table to the side.  The Champions—minus Harry—stood next to it.  Willow turned at the sound of feet slapping against the dirt and saw Harry sprinting towards them.

“I’m… here…” Harry panted, skidding to a halt in the mud and accidentally splattering Fleur’s robes. She scowled and waved her wand, cleaning them.  The very bottom hem remained slightly darker then the rest in her distraction.

“Where have you been?” said the redhead at the judges’ table. “The task’s about to start!”

“Now, now, Percy!” said Ludo Bagman, who was looking intensely relieved to see Harry. “Let him catch his breath!”

Dumbledore smiled at Harry, but Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn’t look at all pleased to see him. It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they had thought he wasn’t going to turn up. Bump ignored Harry and nodded at Willow, confident in her abilities.

Harry bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath; and Willow reached out and handed him a glass of water she grabbed from the judges’ table much to the annoyance of the person she took it from. He nodded in thanks and drank his fill, catching his breath just slightly as Ludo Bagman moved among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Willow was on the very end of the line, next to Harry, who was next to Krum, who was wearing swimming trunks and was holding his wand ready.  He didn’t have on any sort of outer robe, somehow not freezing in the cold air.

“All right, Harry?” Willow heard Bagman whisper from her place after Harry as he moved Harry a few feet farther away from Krum. “Know what you’re going to do?”

“Yeah,” Harry panted, massaging his ribs. He placed the glass back on the judges’ table.

Bagman gave Harry’s shoulder a quick squeeze and returned to the judges’ table; he pointed his wand at his throat, said, “Sonorus!” and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands.

“Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One… two… three!”

The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause.

Willow took a deep breath and ignored the goings on around her.  Absently, she noticed Harry throwing off his robes and shoes and shoving something in his mouth.

Construction spells weren’t her strength, but plant spells were, and she could make some pretty strong plants.

She concentrated on the small plants growing on the shore, the tufts of seaweed in the lake, the algae on the surface, and debris coating the lake; and drew on her power, collecting it into a ball in her chest.  Her eyes glowed an eerie, bright green.

She breathed out and drew a circle as big as her arms could reach in the air and slammed it down onto the ground.

The crowd gasped as plants burst from the dirt forming into a long platform stretching out into the middle of the lake.  Seaweed surged from the lake at equal intervals, wrapping around the platform and stabilizing it.

The last touch was a ladder stretching from the end of the bridge into the water made from sturdier pieces of wood she pulled into the spell that were floating in the lake.

Overall, it took about fifteen minutes for her bridge to form and stablize to her liking since it was a quarter of a mile long and she had to build it up piece by piece. Willow withdrew her power, small flowers blooming along the entire bridge as she did so.  Her eyes faded from bright green back to their natural color.  The crowd was awed from her show of power, and she absently registered Bump commenting about extra credit for her construction. She stepped cautiously onto it to test her weight; it held, and she took off jogging across it.  Willow didn’t want to waste all her energy on the running part and not be able to do the swimming part.

It took her about four minutes of jogging to reach the end of her bridge and she reached into her pocket, pulling out a water bottle and chugging half of it before replacing it. Distantly, she heard splashing from behind her and the jeers of the crowd.  Did someone make it back or fail?

The prank a couple weeks go had given Willow the idea to use a focusing stone to not only amplify the breathing spell, but also make sure it held until she needed it to end.

Willow held the stone in her hand, stroking along the sides with her thumbs and concentrated on the spell.  It wasn’t an easy spell for her since it was a Construction Coven based spell.

Once she was confident the stone would hold her magic, she made a circle in the air using it.

It heated up in her hand, grabbing onto the ambient magic she just released.  The stone charged up and cooled back down to its dormant state, but still gave off a faint vibration when she put it against her chest.

She pushed it into her breast pocket and took a deep breath—just in case—and jumped feet first into the water.

Willow blinked her eyes open in the murky water.  The stone continued to vibrate, letting her know it was holding the spell steady.  She took a small breath and let out a sigh of relief when she didn’t immediately start choking on water.  That wouldn’t have been fun.

Around her, she could sense dead plants and algae, which was perfect.  She drew a circle in the water, and the path ahead of her cleared into crystal clear water.  She could only do that in straight lines or a general field around her person, but it was a good start.

Willow started kicking downwards, casting a weight spell on her middle to keep her from floating back upwards.  When she started to see the ground, Willow paused and cast a seeking spell for Luna.

She frowned when it continued deeper into the lake, but she was close.  She cleared the path ahead of her, finally catching sight of Cedric swimming towards what looked like a little town under the water.

She passed over vast expanses of black mud, which swirled murkily as she disturbed the water. Then, at long last, she heard a snatch of haunting mersong.

“An hour long you’ll have to look,

And to recover what we took . . .”

Willow swam faster towards a large rock that had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. It was actually very beautiful and Willow wished she was good with illusion spells to be able to show her friends later. Willow swam past the rock, following the mersong.

“. . . your time’s half gone, so tarry not

Lest what you seek stays here to rot. . . .”

A cluster of stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, Willow saw faces of merpeople. They had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Willow as she swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch her better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.

She smiled shakily at them, showing no teeth, and they let her pass with no fight.  As she swam she was gently clearing her path clear of the murky lake water.  A young merperson darted into the path she left in awe of the clearer water.  This lake really was dirty, and while it was mostly from the forest, she could tell Hogwarts was also contributing to the conditions with its waste runoff.

Willow sped on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weeds around some of them, and she even saw a pet tied to a stake outside one door.  It was angry and snarly, but cute.  She wished she had a moment to try and pet it, but the tournament was more important than petting random pets, no matter what Luz would have to say about that.

Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching her eagerly. Willow sped around a corner and a whole crowd of merpeople were floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.

Cedric had his date in his arms and was swimming back to the surface.  He looked confused at the cleared area of the lake. The debris within the lake was slow to refill the areas despite how dense it was. Harry was floating next to the remaining hostages, ignoring the merpeople glaring at him.  It didn’t look like it was going to be easy to get Luna out of here, and if she was hurt, the merpeople would feel her wrath, she could promise that.

Chapter Text

Willow swam up to Harry, floating close. “You okay?” she asked, unsure if the sound traveled out of her bubble of air or not.

He nodded as she cast a small spell to break the rope holding Luna down.  She grabbed onto her to keep her from floating away. Ron was floating next to Harry and a little girl and Hermione remained tied to the rock.

“Why are you still down here?”

Harry tried to speak, frowned and pointed to the others.

The merpeople started screeching animatedly. Harry and Willow turned and saw something monstrous cutting through the water toward them: a human body in swim trunks with the head of a shark… It was Viktor. He appeared to have transfigured himself—but badly.  Willow wasn’t even willing to attempt that.  The fear of staying a fish forever—no thank you.

The shark-man swam straight to Hermione and began snapping and biting at her ropes; the trouble was that Krum’s new teeth were positioned very awkwardly for biting anything smaller than a dolphin, and Willow was quite sure that if Krum wasn’t careful, he was going to hurt Hermione. Darting forward, Harry hit Krum hard on the shoulder and held up a jagged stone. Krum seized it and began to cut Hermione free.

“Well, that was rude,” Willow said under her breath.

Within seconds, he had done it; he grabbed Hermione around the waist, and without a backward glance, began to rise rapidly with her toward the surface.

They waited another minute or so, but with no sign of Fleur, Willow remembered the jeering of the crowd when she was on her bridge.

“I think Fluer had to forfeit. And she’s a child.  Let’s get them all up to the surface.”

Harry nodded and snatched up the stone, which Krum had dropped, but the mermen now closed in around Ron, Luna, and the little girl, shaking their heads at him. Harry pulled out his wand.

Bubbles flew out of his mouth as he yelled something Willow couldn’t understand, but she had the distinct impression that the mermen had understood him, because they suddenly stopped laughing. Their yellowish eyes were fixed upon Harry’s wand, and they looked scared. There might be a lot more of them than there were of him, but Willow could tell, by the looks on their faces, that they didn’t know magic.

Harry shouted again; a great stream of bubbles burst from him, but he held up three fingers to make sure they got the message. “One . . .” (he put down a finger) “two . . .” (he put down a second one) —

They scattered. Harry darted forward and began to hack at the ropes binding the small girl to the statue. Willow pushed him gently away. ”Come on,” she said and cast a spell, breaking her free and creating a vine to connect Luna and the girl together and tied it around her waist.

The merpeople growled at her actions from the edges of the square.

She rounded on them, eyes glowing green. The seaweed around her grew and attacked the merpeople holding spears, holding them down.

Willow calmed down and gestured to Harry, who smiled toothily at her in approval.

He started swimming upwards, going towards her cleared path.  She removed her weight spell and added a lightening spell to all the hostages, including Ron, which helped Harry swim upwards faster.  Merpeople followed their ascent, but broke off and angled themselves towards the shore of the lake while the humans and witch went towards the bridge. 

Harry broke the service just as the gills and flippers on his feet morphed back into smooth skin and feet.

Willow burst upwards a moment behind him, panting.  Ron and Harry struggled up the ladder before reaching down to help her.

“Wet, this, isn’t it?” Ron said. 

She reached behind and passed them Luna, who woke up when her face touched the air.  The girl was passed up next and Willow followed them up the ladder.

Ron spotted Fleur’s sister. “What did you bring her for?”

“Fleur didn’t turn up, I couldn’t leave her,” Harry panted.

“Harry, you prat,” said Ron, “you didn’t take that song thing seriously, did you? Dumbledore wouldn’t have let any of us drown!”

“The song said —”

“It was only to make sure you got back inside the time limit!” said Ron. “I hope you didn’t waste time down there acting the hero!”

“You know,” Willow said, as she climbed onto the bridge, “you could be less of a jerk and more grateful we did haul your ass out of the lake.” Willow was tired and not in the mood for his jealously shit. “Also, at my school, if something says it’ll kill you, it’s usually true, so no, I wasn’t about to leave a little girl to die in the middle of the lake.  I don’t care if my score is lower because I saved someone.  It’s the right thing to do and none of the hostages even signed up for this tournament, so they shouldn’t have been involved in the first place.”

Ron flushed and looked away from her.

“Où est Fleur?” the girl asked in another language following the echoing silence of Willow’s rant, starting to cry and shiver.

“Elle est probablement sur le rivage. Pouvez-vous vous tenir debout?” Luna asked.

The girl nodded and stood.  As a group, they made their way back to the shore, shivering.  Willow hadn’t thought of this part of the rescue through, but at least she didn’t have to swim a quarter of a mile in either direction.

Ron was silent and refused to meet her eyes.  Good. He needs to realize that it isn’t a game when other people, especially children, are involved.

The crowd in the stands was making a great deal of noise; shouting and screaming, they all seemed to be on their feet. Twenty merpeople were singing their horrible screechy songs near the judges’ table. Willow could see the nurse fussing over Hermione, Krum, Cedric, and Cho, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets. Dumbledore and Ludo Bagman stood beaming at the group from the bank as they walked nearer, but the redhead, who looked very pale, came running out to meet them. Principle Bump and Eda were beaming at her, Eda sending her a thumbs up. Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.

“Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Est-elle vivante? Est-elle blessée?”

“She’s fine!” Harry tried to tell her, but he could hardly talk, let alone shout.

“Willow you did it!” Luz shouted from the stands.  Blue letters burst into light above their heads from Gus saying, Congratulations!

The group reached the sand and they helped Fleur’s sister off the bridge. Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister.

“C’était les grindylows…ils m'ont attaqué…oh Gabrielle, Je pensais…Je pensais…”

“Come here, you,” said Madam Pomfrey. She seized Harry and pulled him over to Hermione and the others, and wrapped him tightly in a blanket, and forced a measure of potion down his throat. Steam gushed out of his ears. She followed through with doing the same to the rest of the people who had some up from the lake.  The steam felt hot coming from Willow’s ears, but she was no longer shivering.

“Harry, well done!” Hermione cried. “You did it, you found out how all by yourself!”

“Well —” said Harry. He paused. “Yeah, that’s right.” 

“You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny,” said Krum, trying to draw attention back to himself.

“He’s jealous,” Luna whispered in her ear. “Thanks for rescuing me.  I knew you would.”  Willow blushed. 

Hermione brushed away the beetle impatiently and said, “You’re well outside the time limit, though, Harry… Did it take you ages to find us?”

“No…I found you okay…”

“It seems kind of dumb to expect us to get to the middle of a large lake, find someone in a terrain we’ve never been in, and get back to the surface in an hour.  The time limit was not well thought out,” Willow explained, trying to derail an argument.  Harry did a great job; he just feels the need to save everyone.

Dumbledore was crouching at the water’s edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particularly wild and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water; clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and said, “A conference before we give the marks, I think.”

The judges went into a huddle. Madam Pomfrey rescued Ron from his brother’s clutches; she led him over to their group, gave him a blanket and some Pepperup Potion, then went to fetch Fleur and her sister. Fleur had many cuts on her face and arms and her robes were torn, but she didn’t seem to care, nor would she allow Madam Pomfrey to clean them.

“Look after Gabrielle,” she told her, and then she turned to Harry and Willow. “You saved ’er,” she said breathlessly. “Even though she was not your ’ostage.”

“Yeah,” said Harry. Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek, then said to Ron, “And you too — you ’elped —”

“Yeah,” said Ron, looking extremely hopeful, “yeah, a bit —”

Fleur swooped down on him too and kissed him.  She moved towards Willow and Luna and repeated her actions and thanks.  Luna blushed at the affection.  

Ludo Bagman’s magically magnified voice boomed out beside them, making them all jump, and causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of sixty for each of the champions, as follows...

“Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her thirty-five points.”

Applause from the stands. “Je méritais zéro,” said Fleur throatily, shaking her head.

“Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour.” Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd. “We therefore award him fifty-seven points.”

“Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him fifty points.”

Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.

“Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect,” Bagman continued. “He returned last with Miss Park, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own. Most of the judges,” and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, “feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However…Mr. Potter’s score is fifty-five points.”

“Willow Park was third to reach the hostages and used a large-scale transfiguration to create the plant bridge you see before you.  She made use of a focusing stone to anchor an underwater breathing spell, similar to the Bubble-Head Charm, as well as cleared her path of debris while swimming while also causing no harm to the merpeople, even when defending herself and others.  Her delay in return was due to her assistance to Mr. Potter, and we reward her fifty-six points.”

The crowd started applauding. She was tied with Cedric for second place, while Harry was in first by one point.

“The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June,” continued Bagman. “The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions.”

It was over, Willow thought with relief, as Madam Pomfrey began herding the champions and hostages back to the castle to get into dry clothes. She wondered what was going to happen next.

Chapter Text

Hooty was many things. Smart was not one of them, so when he saw a bright glowing portal formed in front of the house he didn’t think anything of it and decided to go right in.  It wasn’t like anyone was home for him to bother, off at their fancy school.

In an unused part of Hogwarts, a face emerged from a dark corner.  It sneezed at the dust, but no one heard it.  At the moment of Hooty’s sneeze, Eda felt a shiver of unease run down her spine.  She brushed it off at being in a new environment for so long with no major disasters happening.  Hooty started to explore.

Hogwarts was haunted. Most magical schools were haunted.  If you went to a magical school and you didn’t see ghosts or were otherwise spooked, you might’ve been at a normal non-magical school, but I digress.

Hogwarts was haunted, and normally that’s no trouble, but on this sunny afternoon in late March, the castle seemed almost more haunted than normal.

Students could swear they heard breathing in the corner of the room, but when they looked, nothing was there. Some claimed they were being watched.  Classes were tense that day.  The owls refused to leave their tower, and at one point, all the owls stared at one spot in the castle, seeming to try and glare another being into submission.  It didn’t work (mostly because the other being was too dumb to realize that the owls were not trying to make friends).

It came to a head after lunch when Luz and her friends (Willow, Gus, and Amity), including her Hogwarts friends (Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Luna) were sitting on the lawn doing homework in the sunshine.

They felt a faint rumble, one that Luz was all too familiar with, but five months away from it had her second guessing the feeling.  She regretted ignoring the rumble when a brown tube burst out of the ground and snaked its way fast through the air, stopping an inch away from Luz’s face with a shout. “Hi, Luz!  I’ve been looking for you aaaall day!”

“Ahh, Hooty!”

“Fuck!” Amity shouted, snapping her pencil.

“Did you miss me? I missed yooouuu.” His head twisted upside down, leaning closer to Luz, causing her to lean back. Luz swatted at his face, pushing him back.

“Hooty, what are you doing here?”

“Exploriiing.  It’s been sooo boring at home.  I made another verse to my song. Want to hear it?”

“No!” Gus yelled. “We do not.”

“Owlbert,” Luz said, “Go get Eda.” The little owl nodded and took off towards the castle.

“What is he?” Harry asked.

Luz sighed. “This is Hooty.  He’s Eda’s house demon.”

“House demon?” Hermione asked.

“They protect houses,” Amity explained. “They’re really rare magic, and super powerful, but usually aren’t as annoying.”

“Hey, rude, see if I protect you next time you come to the house, hoot!” Hooty turned away from Amity, pouting. “Oh, what’s that?” Hooty asked, shooting back down the hole he emerged from and out a new one closer to the lake.  He streaked towards the Giant Squid who was moving its tentacles above the water in the middle of the lake.  Hooty continued on.

“Um, will he be okay?” Hermione asked as Hooty got slapped by the squid.

“Probably.  I’m more worried for the squid.  Hooty is vicious,” Luz said, watching the beings interact.  Hooty seemed to be trying his hardest to twist the squid’s arms into a knot while not getting tied himself.  He was not doing so well.

“Hmm, that’s new,” Eda said, appearing next to their group. “How’d he get here?”

“He missed you,” Luna said. “That’s why he’s here.”

“Doesn’t answer the how, little witchling.”

Luz shrugged. “Didn’t say.  Will he be alright?” Hooty was truly knotted now.

Eda sighed. “We’re going to have to untangle him again.”

Luz groaned and flopped onto the ground. “I hate that!” Willow patted her shoulder in comfort.

“Where’s King?  He’s good at the tighter knots.”

“He was in the common room sleeping last I saw,” Eda informed her.

Eda unscrewed Owlbert from her staff again. “Go get King.  We need him.” Owlbert looked unimpressed at being used as a messenger…again.  Eda rolled her eyes. “Please.” Owlbert nodded and flew off back towards the castle. “Any of you other kids want to help?”

“Nope,” Amity was quick to reply. “I have to work on my project.”

Willow avoided eye contact. “I have, um, plant things to do.”

“Plant…things?”

“Yep, super important plant things.”

Gus just drew a circle in the air and made himself invisible.

“I know you’re still there, dweebus.”

“No I’m not,” he replied. Amity and Luz laughed while Eda just rolled her eyes again.

“Hogwarts kiddos?”

“Erm,” Ron said, staring out at Hooty like he was the most terrifying thing in existence.

“We have class, sorry,” Hermione insisted.

“Yes, class,” Harry said.

“He looks like he’s having fun.  I wouldn’t want to take that away from him,” Luna said.

Eda stared down at every one of the kids, daring them to break.  When none of them did after a minute, she sighed. “You’re all terrible liars (except you, Luna), but I’ll let it go this time.  Luz get up.  Let’s go fix Hooty and send him home.”

“Uuuuugh.  Fine.”  She forced herself up and gathered her belongings, handing them over to Amity. “So they don’t get dirty.”

“Dirty?” Hermione asked.  “He looks fairly clean to me.”

Luz got a dark look on her face. “Oh, you don’t know Hooty.  Who knows what’s on him.”

Owlbert returned with an annoyed King who started laughing at the tangled Hooty.

“Hahahaha, he did it again!” King howled and rolled on the ground, tears falling from his eyes in mirth.  “It looks—hahaha—worse than the last time!”

In the time it took King to calm down, it seemed like most of Hogwarts, its guests, and many of the teachers found their way out to the lake.

Principle Bump took one look out at the lake and immediately turned around to go back inside the castle.  This was not his problem.

Luz, Eda, and King were on the shore, trying to coax Hooty away from the squid and back to land.  Well, Luz and Eda were.  King just kept bursting into laughter.

“What seems to be the problem?” Dumbledore asked when it was clear that Hooty had worked himself into a state.

“That’s all you ask,” Snape snapped, “What is that thing?”

Hooty puffed up at that, staring at Snape from across the lake.  Luz hadn’t thought his hearing was that good, but she guessed she was wrong.

“Hooty,” Eda soothed. “Come back here and let us untangle you.”

“Nooo,” his voice echoed in the quiet air. “I’m not done plaaaying with my neew friiieend.”

The squid waved its arms again before sinking down into the water and away from site.  Hooty yelled and dived after him.  Bubbles rose to the surface for a moment before stopping.

“Should we get him out?” Luz asked.

Eda waved her off and leaned on her Palisman. “Nah, he’ll come up for air sometime.”

“Does he even need to breath?” Luz asked under her breath.

“Vill someone explain vhat’s going on?” Karokoff asked.

“He didn’t tell us how he got here.” Eda said, scowling and ignoring Karokoff. “Well, knowing Hooty he saw a portal and just decided to go through it.  Minnie, weren’t you saying everyone’s been jumpy today?”

McGonagall cleared her throat at the nickname. “Yes, they have been.  We couldn’t figure out why.”

“Yeah, it was most likely Hooty.  He unnerves people.” Snape snorted. “He’s probably been sneaking around and watching people.  Explains why the owls refuse to leave their tower.  Real owls don’t like him.”

“Is ‘e dangerous?” Maxime asked.

“Not to you.”  That wasn’t as comforting to anyone else as Eda imagined it would be.  She continued to ignore their unease.

The end of Hooty that was near them coming from the ground wiggled and a giant wave of water erupted from the lake.  Hooty’s head was flung towards the group and landed in a heap near them.

Eda crouched down to look Hooty in the face. “Finally found something that can beat you, huh.”

Hooty smiled dopily. “I’m in looove, hoot.”

Eda rolled her eyes and looked at Luz.  “Get to work.  There’s only so long before he’ll fight you.”

Luz grumbled and started pulling at the knot on Hooty.

“Luz, Luz, Luz, Luz.”

“What, Hooty?”

“Luuuuuz, have you ever been in looove?” He twisted his head around to stare at Luz. She blushed and tugged harder, loosing the first knot.

“Eda,” Dumbledore said, frowning down at Hooty like he couldn’t figure him out. “You are not one of my students, but this…Hooty…has disturbed the residents in the castle.  I think it would be best if it did not remain here.”

“Oh don’t worry, Dumbles, I’ll make sure Hooty stays back at the Owl House.  Though this isn’t the first time he’s just gone through a portal that appeared from nowhere, and I bet it won’t be the last.”

“How do you usually get him back?” Snape asked.

“He’s anchored to the front door, so we just reel him in.  It’s not easy. He’s more slippery than he looks.”

“King, distract him.  He’s making the knot tight again!”

“It’s not my monthly cleaning day, what are you doing!” he shouted. “Stop! Get away!”

“Hooty, buddy,” King cajoled, “You’re looking fine today!” Hooty calmed down, loosening the coil of his body. “Did you do something new with your hair?” Luz tensed, Hooty doesn’t have hair.

Hooty’s eyes widened. “You noticed!  I diiid!  Wow, who knew you were such a good friend.  I’m going to tell you all my secrets.” He put his face right next to King’s.

King turned to Luz, frightened. “Hurry, Luz.”

“Okay, folks, show’s over,” Eda announced when it would be clear the only thing that would happen from that moment would be traumatizing since most stories out of Hooty’s mouth were.  The other teachers shooed the students away, some moving away themselves.  Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall remained to keep an eye on things.

“When I was a freshly born babe, I had a rattle that I would shake for hooouuuursss.” Hooty twisted his head around as Luz guided it through a loop made of his body to un-knot him.

Ten minutes later and Hooty was no longer a knot, but Eda was lecturing him on wandering away from the house.

Once Luz was done, her friends had meandered closer. Amity held out her bag.

“Oh no, I’m disgusting.  I need to like shower for a week.”

“I’m going to have nightmares,” Ron said.

“Welcome to my world,” Gus soothed.

“Does this happen often?” Hermione asked.

“Hooty getting knotted, no.  Hooty, yes,” Luz said.

“What does that mean?”

Luz shrugged. “Hooty is Hooty and nothing is going to change that.”  Which explained nothing.

Eda’s lecture wound down and Hooty spotted the group of students.

He gasped and sped towards them.  Ron and Harry shouted, drawing their wands.

“Hooty, no!” Luz shouted.

“Aaaaamiiiitttyyyy,” Hooty sang. “I’ll miss you the mooost, even though you beat me uuup.”  He got really close to her face, but didn’t touch it, knowing she’d punch him.

Amity scowled.

“Time to go, Hooty,” Eda said.

Hooty slowly retreated down the hole, maintaining eye contact with Amity the entire time.

“I hate him,” she growled, shivering.

Hooty went back through the portal he entered through and it snapped shut the moment he was through.  What a great adventure!  He saw his friends.  He fell in love.  He got to eat so many weird fish in the lake. Good times.

Chapter Text

Eda loved the human world.  She specifically loved Luz’s human world.  It was the first one she visited when she found the door, and it will always have the best trash.

This human world, with its magic and creatures and fancy trash, was completely different.

The kids—and most of the adults—were soft.  Even the seventh years in the tournament were soft.  The Hexside kiddos, on the other hand, knew how hard life could be.  Sure, some lead cushier lives than others, but they knew to never take things for granted and that anything can and will kill you if given a chance.

The second task was a perfect example.  The egg gave a warning that their prize would be lost forever, and Willow and Harry took it seriously.  The only two smart ones.  Eda figured if the champions worked together to plan and do these tasks, it would make it a lot easier on them, but if they can’t figure that out on their own, it wasn’t worth it.  Eda also didn’t understand the concept of this tournament.  They take one kid from each school and pit them against each other.  How does that create inter-school cooperation?  Answer: it doesn’t.  

Eda was just glad she didn’t actually have to teach any of the kiddos.  She could barely teach Luz, and Luz was her student.  It was great to see her coming out of her magic shell, though.  She’s taken to this world’s magic like a feral-duck to blood, and it warmed her heart, especially seeing her take what she’s learning and make glyph magic that could produce a similar effect.

What didn’t warm her heart was that she was running low on elixir.  Since Eda wasn’t selling any of the trash she was collecting, just collecting it for a later date, she was running low on snails, and thus even if she went back to the demon realm (which she’s done a couple times to top up on elixir and apple blood), she had no money to buy any.

However, she didn’t graduate from the potion track for nothing!  Eda had figured out what was in those elixirs ages ago, but one of the ingredients was kind of rare and hard to handle, so she figured it was just easier to buy.

Now, Eda definitely didn’t have money to buy anything in this world, but she did know a potions master who could probably do with a challenge.

She had figured out most of the conversions for the ingredients, but she didn’t have access to them, or the money to buy them. It was a good thing Hooty kept any tax collectors away from the house because she hadn’t paid them in years.

Eda gathered up her papers and shoved the entire bundle into her hair.  In her rush, the sleeve of her jacket slipped back, revealing feathers poking out from her arms.  She quickly pulled it back down.

“Where are you going?” King asked from where he was dozing on the bed.

“Out.  Don’t worry about it.  I’ll be back to get you for dinner, King,” she said and left the room.

The curse was progressing quicker than normal and without her usual elixir, well, Eda didn’t want to think about it.

She had been looking into curses and how to cure them all year so far, but the library surprisingly didn’t have much.  She hadn’t found any curse like hers in the restricted section, which was something she was worried about, that it was a curse from another world.  If it’s from her own realm, then at least remedies will keep managing the curse, even if she could never get rid of it.

Eda knocked on Snape’s office door, grinning toothily at the green-clad student walking past her.  They scuttled off rather quickly.

“What?” Snape snarled, pulling open the door. “Oh, it’s just you.” He started to close the door.

Eda slammed her hand flat against the door and pushed it open, her strength overpowering Snape’s rather easily.

“I need a potion made.  I have the ingredients from my realm and what I think will work here, but I don’t know these ingredients and their reactions as well as someone who actually lives here.”

Snape scowled and let her in, shutting and locking the door behind her.

“I’m not your personal potions master,” he drawled. He sat down behind his desk and gestured for Eda to sit across.

“No, but judging from all the potions you created while working at a school, you love a challenge, and this is one hell of a challenge.”

Snape pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine, let me see.”

Eda beamed and pulled the papers out of her hair, confusing Snape.  Ah, she loved being a Clawthorne.  Hair-space was a family trait and it was super useful.

He flipped through the pages, looking at the original ingredients and comparing them to ingredients from his own world.  At the end, Eda had listed what effects the elixir had on the drinker and how it became less effective over time.

“You’re affected by a curse.” Snape stated.

Eda grimaced. “My realm isn’t all sunshine and biting roses, you know.  Curses happen.”

Snape put the papers down. “Why not just buy more elixir?”

“Can’t buy elixir without snails, and the seller won’t take IOUs, don’t know why.”

Snape looked confused for a moment and mumbled “Snails?” under his breath, but moved on quickly enough.

“Have you looked for a cure?”

Eda shrugged. “I looked, my mother looked.  She keeps looking.  Nothing’s worked so far.”

Snape sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Eda grinned. “Thanks, Snapeykins.”

He growled in response.  “Only if you never call me ‘Snapeykins again.”

Eda clicked her fingers into finger guns like Luz had shown her as she backed out of the room. “You got it...Snapeypoo.” She slammed the door behind her and cackled as she fled down the hallway away from his scream of rage.  Oh it was always so much fun messing with uptight people.

One of the baby Hogwarts students (read: a first year), skirted around her.  Their friend stopped and stared at Eda.

“What?”

“You have feathers sticking out of your hair,” he said, pointing.

Eda froze and pulled her hair around, trying to see the feathers.  They poked out through the grey strands, growing longer as she panicked.

“Shit!” She turned and ran, summoning Owlbert and hoping on him once she reached the Grand Staircase.  She had to get out of the castle before she fully transformed or it would be bad.

More feathers appeared on her arms, and her magic stuttered, thankfully Owlbert had his own and was able to keep them flying up and out.

She reached the Owlrey and a sharp pain traveled through her body.  She let go of her staff and blacked out—falling into her mind.  Here we go again.

--

“Has anyone seen Eda?” Luz asked at dinner. “King said he saw her leave right after lunch, but she never came back to bring him to dinner.  They usually eat at the start so he was complaining.”

“Maybe she just forgot,” Hermione suggested.

“No, she wouldn’t do that to King.”

“Maybe she—”

The doors to the Great Hall were shoved open by a pair of running students.  They immediately attempted to close the heavy doors, straining against the magic that pushes them open and close.

The loud roar echoed through the now silent room and a dark shape darted across the open doors right before they slammed shut.

“What the bloody hell was that?” Ron asked, mouth full of food. The noise level rose as people started to panic.

Luz gasped and jumped up from the table. “Eda!  Her elixir—” She dug in her bag for a bottle, but came up empty. “Oh dios mio.  I have to go.”

“Luz, what?” Hermione said.

Amity got up. “I’m coming with you.”

“Silence!” Dumbledore boomed, silencing the room. “Students will remain in the Great Hall while teachers search for the creature.  Prefects, please do a count of students and report anyone missing to the Head Boy and Girl.

Prefects started to try and calm down the panicking students as teachers left via the Staff room.

Luz grabbed Amity and ran over to Bump who was next to Dumbledore and McGonagall.

“Luz, Amity, what’s wrong?” Bump asked.

“That was Eda!  She needs her elixir.  I know where she has it back in the dorms.”

“Miss Noceda, what do you mean that was Eda?” McGonagall asked.

“There’s no time, professor.  We have to get to Eda.”

“Now, hold on—” Luz ignored her and pushed past, running through the Staff room and towards their dorm, Amity still being pulled along.

The three teachers chased after them.

“I don’t see any!” Amity declared after digging through yet another drawer in Eda’s room.

“Did she drink them all?  Why didn’t she get more? Ugh!” Luz groaned and rubbed her face in agitation.

“Oh, there you are, Eda—you’re not Eda,” King said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and walking into the room.

“King!  Have you seen any of Eda’s elixir?”

“You checked all the drawers?” They nodded.  He hmmed and shouted in triumph.  He wiggled under the small space under the bed, emerging with one solitary bottle of gold glowing elixir.

“¡Qué alivio! King, grab the light up pen.  Let’s go find Eda!” She stuffed the bottle into her bag.

“Miss Noceda,” McGonagall said, stopping them in the doorway of the dorm.  The whole time the two girls had been searching, Dumbledore and McGonagall had been trying to figure out what could have caused Eda to change into the mysterious monster they caught a glimpse of instead of helping.  Bump had been soothing Owlbert, who flew back to the dorm after being abandoned in the Owlrey. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Luz looked at her impatiently. “To give Eda her elixir.  She’ll stop being the Owl Beast with it.”

“It is not safe for students to be—”

“I got the pen!” King called, running into the room and into Amity’s arms.

“Let’s go,” Amity said.

“Miss Blight.”

“Sorry, professor, but Luz has the most experience with Eda.”

“Amity is correct, Minerva,” Bump said. Luz was hopping foot to foot, glancing out the door when another shriek echoed through the empty halls. “Luz and King are the most experienced dealing with Eda’s owl form.  They will lead and we will act as back-up, should they need it.”

McGonagall scowled, but let them pass at the word of their Principal.

“¡Gracias!” Luz called as she ran out, Owlbert flying to her as she did.  She hopped on in a fluid motion, grabbing onto Amity’s outstretched hand and pulling her on as well.

Luz didn’t know where Eda was currently, but Owlbert could always find his maker.  As long as he allowed the bond to be formed, he would be able to find her, and find her, he did.

Owl Beast Eda was being held in the Entrance Hall by a forcefield the teachers had erected around her.  She snarled and charged at the barrier, only to bounce off and roll away.

Owlbert skidded to a stop right before the barrier, unsure if he could fly through it or not.  Luz tried to push through, but couldn’t.

“Miss Noceda, Miss Blight, what are you doing here?” Professor Flitwick asked, holding his wand steady.

“You need to let me through,” Luz insisted.

“I will do no such thing!  That beast is dangerous.”

Luz screamed in frustration. “King, the light!”

“Right!” He hopped down to the ground and clicked the pen, trying to get Eda’s attention.  It took a moment for her to catch the glowing gem, but once she did, she followed it and calmed down, putting her nose as close to the barrier as possible.

Amity formed an abomination inside the bubble, goo flowing from her hip flask into the dome, surrounding the Owl Beast, but not touching her yet.

“Professors,” Luz said, catching on to Amity’s idea, “When I say ‘now’, Amity’s going to trap Eda and I need you to drop the barrier.”

“Miss Noceda,” Flitwick started to protest.

“We will do as you say,” Dumbledore interrupted.

“Albus--”

“All will be explained after.  For now, we will go with this plan.”

The teachers nodded and prepared themselves for the worst.

The gem light flickered, the battery dying.

“Uh, Luz,” King whined.

“Ready,” Amity reassured.

Luz waited another moment. “Now!”

The Abomination pounced, holding Eda down with the sheer force of Amity’s will; the barrier dropped, and Luz jumped forward to the thrashing Eda and pushed the open potion bottle into her mouth.

Eda froze in shock for a moment before drinking the glowing liquid.  Her form started to shrink in the Abomination shell: feathers growing back into skin and wings dissolving into nothing.

Amity let go of the Abomination goo, letting it flow back into her flask.

“Heh, thanks kids,” she said softly, pulling Luz and King into a hug. “Everyone okay?”

Luz nodded. “You’re out of elixir,” she said softly, holding up the last, empty bottle.

Eda smiled a broken smile at her. “I got it covered, witchlet, don’t you worry.”

Luz frowned. “I always worry.” Luz helped Eda to stand, Amity coming to her other side and helping, as well.

“Good work with Gooey, kid,” Eda said to Amity.

“Edalyn,” Principal Bump interrupted, “would you like to explain to everyone else what’s going on?”

Eda looked around, finally realizing that she was surrounded by all the Hogwarts teachers and the head teachers from the other two schools.

“Right.  Not here.”

Dumbledore nodded. “Quite right.  Let’s get the students back to their dorms and settled. We’ll meet in the Staff Lounge in an hour.”

The group scattered, most of the teachers going to the Great Hall to reassure the students and walk them to their dorm.

Snape walked up to Eda, staring at her for solid ten seconds while Eda scowled at him. “I have never seen a curse act like yours does, but this should stabilize it while you’re here. I figure it’s shelf stable for about a month and have brewed enough to last.  I will show you the process so I don’t have to do it for you every time.  I trust that you’ll let me know how it affects you.” Luz hadn’t noticed him holding the force field—he must’ve come up towards the end of the struggle.

“Thank you, Severus.”

He scoffed. “Just don’t forget to take it.”

Eda nodded. Snape glared at her for another moment, then walked away, robes swirling around him.

She rolled her eyes and tucked the small vial of bright green potion into her hair for safekeeping.

“Come on, kiddies.  Help me get back to the rooms so I can change before I have to reveal my entire life story to these people.”

Luz and Amity let Eda lean on them as they slowly made their way back to the dorm.  Eda needed a glass—or five—of Apple Blood.  It was going to be a long night.

Chapter Text

It was a slow day for King.  Most days were. This world was a lot harder to take over since no one really wanted to listen to the King of Demons.  He would have his revenge on them, just you wait!

Willow had been told by Eda that she needed to go down to the Quippitch (whatever that was) pitch at nine-o-clock and King wanted in.  Maybe it was something he could rule!

Willow grinned and picked him up, holding him securely as they walked down to the grounds.

In the entrance hall, she ran into Harry, and Cedric, who came up from the Hufflepuff common room (he had wormed his way into all the common rooms by the end of their second week in the castle).

“What d’you reckon it’s going to be?” Cedric asked as they went together down the stone steps, out into the cloudy night. “Fleur keeps going on about underground tunnels; she reckons we’ve got to find treasure.”

“That wouldn’t be too bad,” said Harry.

“They would have to make sure they reinforce the ground, though, otherwise they could create a giant sinkhole,” Willow informed them.

“That would be bad,” Cedric said.

They walked down the dark lawn to the Quippitch stadium, turned through a gap in the stands, and walked out onto the field. “What’ve they done to it?” Cedric said indignantly, stopping dead.

“This is an interesting way to play a sport,” King said, gazing at the low walls that twisted and crisscrossed in every direction.  He had thought everyone here was a baby and played it safe, but playing a sport with hedges—okay!

“They’re hedges!” said Harry, bending to examine the nearest one.

“Hello there!” called a cheery voice.

Ludo Bagman was standing in the middle of the field with Krum and Fleur. Harry, Willow, and Cedric made their way toward them, climbing over the hedges. Willow put King down on the nearest one so he could walk on top of them towards the group. Fleur beamed at Harry as he came nearer.

“Well, what d’you think?” said Bagman happily as they climbed over the last hedge. “Growing nicely, aren’t they? Give them a month and Hagrid’ll have them twenty feet high. Don’t worry,” he added, grinning, spotting the less-than-happy expressions on Harry’s and Cedric’s faces, “you’ll have your Quidditch field back to normal once the task is over! Now, I imagine you can guess what we’re making here?”

No one spoke for a moment. Then —

“Maze,” grunted Krum.

“That’s right!” said Bagman. “A maze. The third task’s really very straightforward. The Triwizard Cup will be placed in the center of the maze. The first champion to touch it will receive full marks.”

“We seemply ’ave to get through the maze?” said Fleur. Willow’s eyes gleamed. Plants were her specialty, and she knew it would help her here more than any other task so far.

“There will be obstacles,” said Bagman happily, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Hagrid is providing a number of creatures . . . then there will be spells that must be broken . . . all that sort of thing, you know. Now, the champion who is leading on points will get a head start into the maze.” Bagman grinned at Harry. “Then Mr. Diggory and Miss Park will enter . . . Then Mr. Krum, and then Miss Delacour. But you’ll all be in with a fighting chance, depending how well you get past the obstacles. Should be fun, eh?”

“Very well . . . if you haven’t got any questions, we’ll go back up to the castle, shall we, it’s a bit chilly. . . .”

King bounced on the hedge, surprised that it held his weight as good as it did, and also didn’t try to eat him.

“Come on King,” Willow called.  King squeaked and hurried along the hedges, jumping the gaps.  He misjudged his last leap, but Willow caught him with a grunt. “Careful.”

Krum tapped Harry on the shoulder and they walked together a bit ahead of them towards the forest. Bagman scowled and walked back towards the castle alone.

“Why don’t they just have you fight to the death?” King asked. “That seams like a lot more fun to watch than five kids wandering a maze and just hoping to get to the middle.  How do you get out from the middle?”

Willow shrugged.

“Maybe some sort of teleporter,” she mused, “Or when you grab the cup, the hedges vanish. You okay with waiting for Harry?  I don’t want to leave him alone.”

King nodded and climbed up to rest on Willow’s head, closing his eyes.  A couple minutes later, Willow jogged over to the duo. King perked up.

“Vot is it? Vat are you doing here?” Krum asked her.

“Waiting on Harry.  What did you see?” she asked Harry.

Harry shook his head, staring into the forest. He slipped his hand inside his robes, reaching for his wand. Suddenly a man staggered out from behind a tall oak. He looked as though he had been traveling for days. The knees of his robes were ripped and bloody, his face scratched; he was unshaven and gray with exhaustion. His neat hair and mustache were both in need of a wash and a trim. His strange appearance, however, was nothing to the way he was behaving. Muttering and gesticulating, Mr. Crouch appeared to be talking to someone that he alone could see.

“Let’s get out of here,” King said, nervously tugging lightly on Willow’s hair.

“Vosn’t he a judge?” said Krum, staring at the man. “Isn’t he vith your Ministry?”

Harry nodded, hesitated for a moment, then walked slowly toward the man, who did not look at him, but continued to talk to a nearby tree.

“…and when you’ve done that, Weatherby, send an owl to Dumbledore confirming the number of Durmstrang students who will be attending the tournament, Karkaroff has just sent word there will be twelve…”

“Mr. Crouch?” said Harry cautiously.

“…and then send another owl to Madame Maxime, because she might want to up the number of students she’s bringing, now Karkaroff’s made it a round dozen…do that, Weatherby, will you? Will you? Will…”

Mr. Crouch’s eyes were bulging. He stood staring at the tree, muttering soundlessly at it. Then he staggered sideways and fell to his knees.

“Mr. Crouch?” Harry said loudly. “Are you all right?”

Crouch’s eyes were rolling in his head. Harry looked around at Krum and Willow, who had followed him into the trees, and was looking down at Crouch in alarm.

“Vot is wrong with him?”

“I don’t know any healing spells,” Willow said.

“No idea,” Harry muttered. “Listen, you’d better go and get someone —”

“Dumbledore!” gasped Mr. Crouch. He reached out and seized a handful of Harry’s robes, dragging him closer, though his eyes were staring over Harry’s head. “I need…see…Dumbledore…”

“Okay,” said Harry, “if you get up, Mr. Crouch, we can go up to the —”

“I’ve done…stupid…thing…” Mr. Crouch breathed. He looked utterly mad. His eyes were rolling and bulging, and a trickle of spittle was sliding down his chin. Every word he spoke seemed to cost him a terrible effort. “Must…tell…Dumbledore…”

“Get up, Mr. Crouch,” said Harry loudly and clearly. “Get up, I’ll take you to Dumbledore!”

Mr. Crouch’s eyes rolled forward onto Harry.

“Who…you?” he whispered.

“I’m a student at the school,” said Harry, looking around at Krum for some help, but Krum was hanging back, looking extremely nervous.  Willow stepped forward to help Harry help Crouch to stand.

“You’re not…his?” whispered Crouch, his mouth sagging.

“No,” said Harry, without the faintest idea what Crouch was talking about.

“Dumbledore’s?”

“That’s right,” said Harry.

Crouch was pulling him closer; Harry tried to loosen Crouch’s grip on his robes, but it was too powerful.

“Warn…Dumbledore…”

“I’ll get Dumbledore if you let go of me,” said Harry. “Just let go, Mr. Crouch, and I’ll get him…”

“Thank you, Weatherby, and when you have done that, I would like a cup of tea. My wife and son will be arriving shortly, we are attending a concert tonight with Mr. and Mrs. Fudge.”

Crouch was now talking fluently to a tree again, and seemed completely unaware that Harry was there, which surprised Harry so much he didn’t notice that Crouch had released him.

“Yes, my son has recently gained twelve OWLs, most satisfactory, yes, thank you, yes, very proud indeed. Now, if you could bring me that memo from the Andorran Minister of Magic, I think I will have time to draft a response…”

“You stay here with him!” Harry said to Krum and Willow. “I’ll get Dumbledore, I’ll be quicker, I know where his office is —”

“Why don’t you get Hagrid?” Willow suggested.  “He’s closer and can help us bring him to the infirmary. Then we can call for Dumbledore.”

“Right, just stay with him,” said Harry, starting to get up, but his movement seemed to trigger another abrupt change in Mr. Crouch, who seized him hard around the knees and pulled Harry back to the ground.

“Don’t…leave…me!” he whispered, his eyes bulging again. “I…escaped…must warn… must tell…see Dumbledore…my fault…all my fault…Bertha …dead…all my fault…my son …my fault…tell Dumbledore…Harry Potter… the Dark Lord…stronger…Harry Potter…”

“I’ll get Dumbledore if you let me go, Mr. Crouch!” said Harry. Willow patted Mr. Crouch reassuringly.

“Just keep him here,” said Harry, pulling himself free of Mr. Crouch. “I’ll be back with Hagrid.”

King stayed on Willow’s head to watch for anything coming towards them.

“Krum, keep an eye out in case anything comes by,” Willow ordered. He nodded, taking out his wand and standing guard.

The crunch of a twig breaking broke the silence and Krum spun to face the sound, wand pointed into the forest.

A red beam of light shot out, hitting Krum in the chest and he crumbled.  Willow gasped and cast a spell, reaching out through the plants to sense anyone in the area—there!  She pulled vines to wrap around the person, taking care to force them to let go of their wand or lose their hand.  Another vine brought both person and wand to her.

Large footsteps thundered behind her and Willow tensed. “It’s Hagrid,” King confirmed.

“What’s going on?” Hagrid asked.

“Mr. Crouch is acting erratically, and Krum was knocked out by the person in the vines,” Willow said, drawing attention down.

“Righ’.” Harry panted as he ran up. “Harry, go get Professor Dumbledore.  Quickly.”

Harry took a couple deep breathes, then turned and sprinted towards the castle.

Hagrid leaned down to check on Krum, straightening him out from his crumbled position, then picking him up and throwing him over his shoulder.  He checked on Crouch next, corralling him closer to the tree line instead of the middle of the forest.  Willow dragged her catch behind them.

King remained alert. Who knows what else was going to jump out at them tonight?

Chapter Text

“Where are they?” Willow heard Dumbledore say in the darkness.

“Over here,” said Harry, “Viktor?  Willow?”

“We’re over here!” Willow shouted back. She quickly cast a light spell, not realizing how dark it had gotten so quickly. It glowed softly next to her, but didn’t do much for the rest of the group.

“Lumos,” Dumbledore said, lighting his wand and holding it up. Its narrow beam traveled from black trunk to black trunk until it reached Hagrid’s large form and Crouch, who had just passed out.

“Smart thinking, getting Hagrid first, my boy.  You might’ve saved a few lives tonight. What happened Miss Park?”

“We were waiting for Harry to come back with Hagrid and we heard a footstep.  They cast at Krum, knocking him out, then I caught him with vines.”

“Didn’t stand a chance!” King crooned.

“Should I go and get someone?” said Harry. “Madam Pomfrey?”

“No,” said Dumbledore swiftly, “Stay here.”

Dumbledore gestured for Hagrid to put Krum on the ground, then bent over Krum, pointed his wand at him, and muttered, “Rennervate.”

Krum opened his eyes. He looked dazed. When he saw Dumbledore, he tried to sit up, but Dumbledore put a hand on his shoulder and made him lie still.

“Someone attacked me!” Krum muttered, putting a hand up to his head. “I heard a noise, but they must’ve attacked me before I could see.”

“Lie still for a moment,” Dumbledore said.  He continued to examine Krum.

“Hagrid, I need you to fetch Professor Karkaroff,” said Dumbledore. “His student has been attacked. When you’ve done that, kindly alert Professor Moody we need to look for someone on the grounds.”

“Oh yeah…right y’are, Professor …” said Hagrid, and he turned and disappeared into the dark trees, Fang trotting after him.

Neither Dumbledore nor Harry, Willow, or King spoke again until they heard the unmistakable sounds of Hagrid and Fang returning. Karkaroff was hurrying along behind them. He was wearing his sleek silver furs, and he looked pale and agitated.

“What is this?” he cried when he saw Krum on the ground and Dumbledore and Harry beside him. Willow was standing back aways and King could tell she kept tightening the vine bundle by the grunts coming from it. “What’s going on?”

“I vos attacked!” said Krum, sitting up now and rubbing his head. “I didn’t see—“

“Did the other champions attack you?”

“Igor,” Dumbledore began, but Karkaroff had drawn himself up, clutching his furs around him, looking livid.

“Treachery!” he bellowed, pointing at Dumbledore. “It is a plot! You and your Ministry of Magic have lured me here under false pretenses, Dumbledore! This is not an equal competition! First you sneak Potter into the tournament, though he is underage! Now one of said underage students aim to put my champion out of action! I smell double-dealing and corruption in this whole affair, and you, Dumbledore, you, with your talk of closer international wizarding links, of rebuilding old ties, of forgetting old differences — here’s what I think of you!”

Karkaroff spat onto the ground at Dumbledore’s feet. In one swift movement, Hagrid seized the front of Karkaroff’s furs, lifted him into the air, and slammed him against a nearby tree.

“Apologize!” Hagrid snarled as Karkaroff gasped for breath, Hagrid’s massive fist at his throat, his feet dangling in midair.

“This is getting good,” King said, wiggling on Willow’s shoulders.

“Hagrid, no!” Dumbledore shouted, his eyes flashing.

Hagrid removed the hand pinning Karkaroff to the tree, and Karkaroff slid all the way down the trunk and slumped in a huddle at its roots; a few twigs and leaves showered down upon his head.

“Kindly escort Harry back up to the castle, Hagrid,” said Dumbledore sharply, “Please bring Mr. Crouch to the infirmary on your way.”

Breathing heavily, Hagrid gave Karkaroff a glowering look. “Maybe I’d better stay here, Headmaster…”

“You will take Harry back to school, Hagrid,” Dumbledore repeated firmly. “Take him right up to Gryffindor Tower. And Harry — I want you to stay there. Anything you might want to do — any owls you might want to send — they can wait until morning, do you understand me?”

“Er — yes,” said Harry, staring at him.

“I’ll leave Fang with yeh, Headmaster,” Hagrid said, staring menacingly at Karkaroff, who was still sprawled at the foot of the tree, tangled in furs and tree roots. “Stay, Fang. C’mon, Harry.”

They walked off, Mr. Crouch in Hagrid’s arms as they marched up to the castle.

King was watching the bundle, making sure that their prisoner didn’t escape as Karkaroff and Krum helped each other to stay standing and walked back to their boat.

“Miss Park, can you remove the vines from their face so I may see who it is?”

Willow nodded and concentrated on only moving a portion of plants, keeping some over the man’s mouth so he couldn’t say anything.

Dumbledore sucked in a breath of surprise.  Willow opened her eyes and gasped at the bound form of Moody.

She didn’t like him and dropped his class months ago, but she hadn’t expected him to try and hurt them.

Dumbledore sent off a silvery animal that ran back towards the castle at great speed.

“Miss Park, I appreciate you capturing him for me, but could you please loosen the vines so that we may talk?

“I don’t want to risk it, sir.  He could run.”

“Something’s happening to him!” King warned.

Willow and Dumbledore turned back to Moody and watched as his glowing eye popped out of its socket and rolled onto the ground.  His face was bubbling, as if it was struck with Boiling Rain, and the vine wiggled as if the person trapped inside them was changing shape.  He made grunts of pain through the plant blocking his mouth.

“What is so urgent, Albus?” McGonagall asked, running up with Snape, freezing at the sight of the bubbling man.

The man’s face smoothed out, becoming someone else entirely.

“Polyjuice potion?” Snape asked, wand out and pointed at the man.

“That’s Barty Crouch Jr.,” McGonagall said in shock, “He died years ago.”

“Evidently not,” Snape retorted. The man on the ground glared at Snape.

“Minerva, call for Madame Bones,” Albus ordered. “I will not have a repeat of the dementors last year.” Minerva blurred into a cat and ran back towards the castle. “Severus, help me move him into an empty classroom where we can keep a better eye on him.  Stupify,” he cast at the man, knocking him out. “It is safe to remove the vines now, my dear.”

Willow scowled at being called ‘my dear’, but removed the vines and allowed them to go back into the trees.  The wand and a peg leg dropped to the ground next to the man.

Dumbledore bound the man with ropes and levitated him while Snape collected the eye, wand, and leg.  He then held the unconscious, bound man at wand point.

The three started to walk back up towards the castle.

“Miss Park, I think it might be best if you refrained from telling anyone of what happened here tonight.”

“I’m not really sure what did happen here, sir.”

McGonagall, followed by a stern looking woman and three men, bustled into the entrance hall the same time they did.

“Albus, what is the meaning of this?” the woman asked.

Dumbledore moved the bound man into view and the guests gasped in shock.

“Merlin, he’s supposed to be dead,” one of the men said.

“Yes, thank you, Smith, we hadn’t noticed,” Snape drawled.

“Severus,” Dumbledore warned. “Madame Bones, Aurors, if we could move into a classroom. I think this one nearby will suit our purposes.”

Madame Bones sighed. “You never make things easy, do you Albus?”

The group, including Willow and King, sealed themselves into the empty classroom.

“Why is this student here, Albus?” Madame Bones asked.

Willow was taken aback.  It’s not like she wanted to be a part of this.

“Miss Park was the one who originally captured Mr. Crouch here.  We also found his father in a state of confusion.  He’s been brought to the Hospital Wing.”

Madame Bones sighed again and took out a quill and parchment, setting it up to auto-record to conversation. “I think you best start at the beginning.”

Willow wasn’t released for a couple hours.  At some point, someone had gotten Principal Bump so she had an adult with her.  King had given his account of what happened, even if the so-called Aurors thought he was a weird dog, and thus couldn’t give testimony.

In the end, Madame Bones and the Aurors took the unconscious not-Moody back to their headquarters, and probably jail, and informed Dumbledore that they’d be back the next day to talk with Mr. Crouch the elder, Harry, and Krum.

The teachers spent the remaining part of the evening and well into the night searching for the real Moody.  A fact Willow only found out the next day from a complaining Eda whom was roped into searching.  He ended up being found at the bottom of a trunk and had been taken to the hospital to heal.

A few days later, the newspaper ran an article explaining that Harry’s name was put into the Goblet of Fire by not-Moody as part of a plot to bring back this ‘You-Know-Who’ person.  He had planned to add a Portkey to the cup so that Harry (who he would make sure would win) would be transported to a graveyard and be used to help raise his master.

The judges, after careful consideration, changed how the third task was going to work.  Instead of getting to the center and the first to grab the cup would win. They had to fight creatures and other obstacles in the maze to earn points. The champions would enter at different points around the maze and have an hour to gain as many points as they could. The points would be added to their overall score and the one with the most points would win.  Willow thought this was a much more fair task than the maze before since it tested their skill and not their ability to navigate a maze without a map or any clues.

“Good going, kid,” Eda said that night in the dorms. “Normally it’s Luz getting into all the trouble and finding the bad guys.”

“Hey!” Luz protested and Gus laughed.

Willow smiled, embarrassed. “I just wanted to make sure Harry got back to the castle safely since he seems to be a danger magnet.”

Eda snorted. “You aren’t wrong. Well, anyway, good job on foiling your first murder plot.” She turned to walk away.

“First?” Willow asked. “What do you mean first?”

Eda just started cackling.

Willow turned to Luz and Gus. “What does she mean, ‘first’?”

Luz shrugged. “Eda says a lot of things.  If it doesn’t have to do with magic training, I tend to take everything she says with a grain of salt.”

Gus was confused. “A grain of salt?  Why would she give you that?”

Luz groaned and flopped backwards. “It’s an expression,” she mumbled.

“A human expression?” Luz noddled. “Cool! What else can I get with a grain of salt?”

Luz was silent for a moment before breaking out in laughter.  Willow and Gus didn’t really know what was so funny, but just shrugged it off as a weird human thing and went back to their homework, leaving Luz alone to catch her breath and join them a couple minutes later.

Chapter Text

It was finally getting warm enough to play Grudgby and Boscha had been bugging Bump every day, multiple times a day, to let them play a scrimmage match on the lawn of the school.

While normal Grudgby fields were raised from seedlings and cultivated by the home team year after year until it took over the designated field area and operated on its own, the home team still took care of it.  Games have been known to be won because of the home field advantage.

This Grudgby field would be the work of Eda, Bump, and some of the Hogwarts professors getting together and working various spells into the play area.  Eda wanted to see if she could bring Hooty back over to add a bit more flavor (in her words) to the game, but all the human realm professors vehemently protested and the addition was dropped. Bump was not fully against the idea, surprisingly.

The teams consisted of: Boscha (as captain), Cat, and Amelia; and the opposing team was: Amity (as captain), Luz, and Groanson.  The girls originally wanted Willow to join them, but she was busy studying for both exams and the third task.  She also didn’t find Grudgby as fun as they did.

Groanson was at least an entire head taller than Amity, and double the width. He had dark skin, almost black, with bright white hair, and two thin, rectangular shaped blue eyes.  He was a gentle giant everywhere but on the Grudgby field.  Despite his competitive nature and skill on the field, he only played reserve on the official Hexside team thanks to Boscha wanting to play with her friends.  He hoped to get onto a professional team one day, and down the road when he was too hurt to continue to play Grudgby, build the stadiums the plants flourished in.  His end of term project was a miniature Grudgby stadium.  One of his plant track friends was going to help him grow the field.  Thankfully, he could use a fresh cutting from the home field with no adverse effects to the field since his model was small.

The Grudgby field was set up, ready to go. Each team got two hours to practice on the new field prior to the game. The traps and enchantments were set to randomize their location, area of effect, direction, and intensity every two minutes. It was originally five minutes, but for a scrimmage game, the game time was much shorter, so traps wouldn’t have happened nearly as often.

The temporary bleachers for the tasks had been moved around the field and a safety barrier erected around the grounds.  Wouldn’t want any of the squishy humans to get hurt.

“I’m sorry, but this game makes no sense,” Hermione said to Luz at breakfast the morning of the game.

“Quidditch doesn’t make much sense either, but everyone still plays it,” she replied, eating her breakfast. Luz had come to breakfast with a duffel bag filled with what Hermione assumed was her uniform.  The other team and Luz’s teammates had similar bags.

“Yes, but at least catching the snitch isn’t an automatic win for the team.  That invalidates all the hard work everyone did.”

“That’s not the point,” Amity said.

“What is the point then?”

“The Rusty Smidge is only found like once every two hundred games,” Amity explained, “It’s really rare and alive so it’s only sometimes close enough to the surface to find.  Professional players don’t rely on it unless they’ve worked out the mating season and ground conditions.  So, if a team usually gets it, it’s usually when they’re playing a home game. Since this is a scrimmage match, we aren’t adding any Rusty Smidge into the play area since it takes them at least a year to integrate into the field. Then it’s almost impossible to remove them.”

“You’d be finding Rusty Smidges in your ground for centuries,” Willow added. “Once they burrow, there’s no stopping them.” Gus shuddered.

Hermione just stared at them. If anything, their explanation made less sense than before.

Luz jumped up, startling Hermione, who almost dropped her toast. “We gotta go get ready or we’ll be late!” She shoved an entire croissant into her mouth and grabbed her bag in one hand and Amity in the other.

Amity barely had time to grab her bag before being dragged out of the Great Hall.  They grabbed Groanson on their way out.  The other team calmly collected their things, waved snootily to the other Hexside students, and left to go get ready.

“Ugh, Boscha,” Willow mumbled.

Hermione chewed slowly. “She is a bit of a…”

“Bitch,” Ron cut in.

“Ronald!” Hermione scolded.

Willow and Gus laughed. “He’s not wrong,” Willow said, “She is.”

“She’s Queen Wasp at Hexside,” Gus explained.

“Don’t you mean ‘Queen Bee’?” Hermione asked.

“No, why would she be a bee?  Bees are nice.  Wasps, though…” He shuddered.

The bell rang signaling the end of breakfast.  The group gathered their things and made their way out to the bleachers.  Amity’s siblings had saved their group some seats in the front row and they got comfortable.

Gus wiggled his fingers and created an illusion above their heads with fake blue fireworks and the words “Go Giraffes!”

“Giraffes?” Harry asked.

Willow shivered. “Scary creatures. We banished them years ago, but that’s the name of Amity’s team.”

“Giraffes are…scary?” Hermione asked.  She had seen giraffes, many times, at various zoos. All they did was stand around and eat leaves.

Willow nodded.

“Welcome one and all to the first and only Grudgby match we will be allowed to play here at Hogwarts!” an announcer said over a loudspeaker. “My name’s Tiordan and I’ll be your announcer for the game.” Cheers went up around the stands.

For a game that no one had heard of before three weeks ago, most of the four schools and the teachers had shown up.

“While the players are finishing getting ready, I’m going to give a quick rundown of the game. The goal is to get the ball through the hoop on the opposing side by any means necessary. All magic used is fair game here, folks.  It’s not as easy as it looks, either.” They threw a rock into the center of the field and the ground exploded followed by a vine shooting out and then catching on fire before turning into purple goo and absorbing back into the ground. The crowd gasped while the Hexside contingent cheered. “As you can see, the field is in working order. Thank you very much to all the teachers and students who helped prepare it for this game.” Another round of cheering. “Each half will last fifteen minutes with a fifteen minute break.  Due to various concerns, there will not by a Rusty Smidge in play for this game.

“Now, to bring out the teams!  First up we have Hexside’s home team with Captain Boscha with Cat and Amelia, the BAAAAAAANSHEEES!”

Hermione covered her ears quickly as the Hexside students around her screamed.  She hated sports.  The three walked out onto the sidelines and waved. The Banshees each had on a different colored shirt and corresponding colored knee pads, fingerless gloves, and drippy face paint. Boscha had a maroon color scheme that matched her hair, Amelia had a chartreuse color scheme, that also matched her hair, and Cat was in a blue-purple color. They had on dark blue breathable shorts and a chest guard edged in yellow. The tips of their dark blue shoes and the guard had white spikes, or were they teeth?

The crowd quieted after a few moments. “And playing the role as the visiting team, with Amity as team captain with Luz and Groanson, the GIIIIIRRRRRAAAAFFFSSS!”

Another wave of sound.  Gus exploded more illusion fireworks above their heads.  In comparison to the Banshees, the Giraffes had a more simple design to their uniforms. Amity’s color was a pink shirt, with darker knee pads and gloves, while her precise line eye paint was green. Luz had on a gray shirt and navy accessories. He eye paint was a blue. Groanson had on a dark brown shirt and kneepads, his gloves almost black, blending into his dark skin. His eye paint was bright white, most making his long eyes longer. Their shorts were a bright blue, the same color edging the chest guards, while the main color was white. Their shoes were also white with blue soles.

The mid-morning sun illuminated the Grudgby field, casting an ethereal glow upon the two team’s excited faces as they waved to the crowds.

A referee — one of the Hexside students that Hermione didn’t know — stepped up to the sidelines, drew a circle in the air and levitated the ball in into the center of the field.

Both teams got into position, the crowds were silent, a hum of anticipation running through the stands.

The buzzer screamed.

The ball dropped and both teams sprang into action.

Luz slammed a glyph onto the dirt, the ground bulging up under her feet, propelling her towards the ball. A thick vine erupted in front of her, showering the field with debris and blocking Luz’s forward momentum, throwing her into a backwards skid while Boscha grabbed the ball from mid-air.

 Boscha took off running towards her goal, throwing a sparkley, hot pink, bubbling potion behind her. It exploded and coated the ground in what looked like smooth, pink, ice.

Amity growled under her breath and ran after her, summoning an abomination construct and hopping on its shoulders. Groanson punched the ground, sending them flying towards Boscha and over the pink ice.

She screamed and chucked the ball towards Cat across the field right before slamming into an anti-gravity spell and ending up upside down in the air.

Cat caught the ball and continued running towards their goal, hopping over a pulsating tentacle sprouting from the ground and ducking under a thick green vine from Luz.

She tossed the ball at the goal right as Luz body slammed her.

“AND THAT’S ONE-NOTHING BANSHEES!,” the announcer screamed, “Looks like they’re off to a great start, folks!”

The game continued in a similar fashion with the Banshee’s scoring three more times in the first half and the Giraffe’s only scoring twice.

The buzzer screamed for half time and the teams went off to the side to take a break and talk strategy.

“This is pretty exciting,” Ron said, mouth full of popcorn.

“Where did you get that?” Hermione asked.

Harry leaned forward. “Someone was selling it when we walked in.”

“You just ate breakfast!”

“So?” Hermione shared an exasperated look with Harry and they burst into giggles. “What’s so funny?” That just sent them into another fit.

Ron rolled his eyes, ate more popcorn and turned to Willow and Gus. “How come they’re losing?”

Willow started to explain, “While Grudgby may seem like a simple game, the element of the field can make or break a game. Cat, Amelia, and Boscha have been playing together for years. They know how each other play and can anticipate each other’s moves. Groanson is also on the reserve team, so they know his skill set, and can work around it somewhat.”

Gus took over, “And while Luz and Amity work great together, Groanson is a new element. They were able to practice, but a few afternoons doesn’t make up for years of playing together.”

The buzzer went off again, signaling that the second half would start soon.

Hermione looked at her friends on the field — all traces of humor were gone. They stared at Boscha and her team like they were going to kill them.

“I think they’re serious now,” she said.

“Blimey,” Ron breathed, “that’s scary.”

Harry ‘hmm’ed in agreement next to her.

“We start our second half with four-two Banshees!” the announcer shouted, “Can the Giraffes catch up to our seasoned team?” The referee walked to the edge of the field and floated the ball to the center. The buzzer screamed, and the ball dropped.

Groanson drew a circle in the air, then slammed his hand on the ground. Holes opened up beneath the Banshees, pulling Cat and Amelia down into the dirt up to their necks. Boscha barely was able to hop away in the other direction, away from the ball, and towards her own net in time.

Amity took her moment of distraction and grabbed the ball, Abomination tendrils floating from her back, ready to strike out at incoming attacks.

Luz ran down the field, closer to Boscha, causing the three-eyed girl to swerve to avoid a mud pit that had slowly started to turn green and bubbly due to something on the field.

The purple tendrils dug into the ground and boosted Amity over the toxic sludge and right next to the goal. She slammed the ball through it.

A cheer erupted around the stadium. Most students weren’t really cheering for any one team — just excited to be watching some sort of sport.

“Another score by Amity for the Giraffes! They’re catching up, Banshees!”

As the teams lined up, Boscha looked pissed. From what her Hexside friends told her, Boscha isn’t used to losing, and she especially hated losing to Amity.

Amelia caught the ball this time and took off towards the goal, thorny spines popping out of the ground in her footsteps as she ran.

Groanson tried to chase her, but didn’t see the spikes, stepping on one and falling to the ground in pain.

Luz started throwing fireballs at Amelia, dodging around a swipe from Cat.

Amelia’s uniform caught on fire and she yelped, dropping the ball into a waiting purple hand.

The Abomination threw the ball clear across the field towards Amity, who caught it and smoothly scored again for the Giraffes.

“And we’re tied, four-four! Only three minutes left in the period folks. Who’s going to win it?” The crowd cheered again.

They lined up in the center. Boscha scowled and said something to Amity, who started to frown harder, digging her feet into the ground. Luz said something back in return and Boscha’s third eye turned into a slit, her anger almost palatable.

The buzzer screamed and the floating ball dropped.

Chapter Text

“Hubert is so dreamy!  He doesn’t play pranks like Fred and George.” Megan sighed, drawing little heart in the side of her notes at the table in the library.

“Edward helped me with potions yesterday,” Fatima added, adjusting her hijab, “I tried to find him in the common room later to ask him more questions, but he was nowhere to be found.”

“Who the fuck are you talking about?” Ha-Eun demanded.

Megan looked up. “Hubert and Edward? They’re quadruplets with Fred and George.”

Ha-Eun’s mouth dropped open in shock. “They aren’t quadruplets.”

Fatima leaned forward, “Uh, yes they are.”

“No, they aren’t. They’re just twins and they’re playing a prank.”

“Edward was wearing a Hufflepuff tie. How would Fred or George get a Hufflepuff tie?” Fatima said.

“Yeah and Hubert was in Slytherin.”

Ha-Eun could see where this was going. “What ties were Fred and George—“

“Ladies,” Madame Pince interrupted, “if you aren’t going to be studying quietly and instead gossiping about boys, I ask that you leave the library and congregate elsewhere.”

The three girls sighed, packed up their stuff and left, the topic of conversation shifting as they walked back to the dorms.

--

Angelina was enjoying her breakfast when one of the Weasley twins sat down on her right.  She glanced at him, saw a mole on his cheek, and said, “Hi Fred.” Another Weasley twin sat on her left.  She saw the line of freckles up his chin. “Hi George.”  Red hair moved in her peripheral vision and she turned to look across the table, where another set of twins were taking their seats.  She looked closer at the two on either side of her.  Fred had on a Gryffindor tie, while George was wearing a Ravenclaw tie.  Twin A across the table had on a Slytherin tie and Twin B had on Hufflepuff. Angelina put down her fork and stood up. “Nope. Nope. Nope. I’m done for the day.  Goodbye.” And left the Great Hall.  It was not worth staying for whatever chaos they were doing.

The two sets of twins laughed at Angelina’s reaction as she walked away. Fred thought this prank was turning out better than some of their other better ones, even if it took months of planning and pretending to be in other houses. Even the teachers don’t know what house they’re in anymore. Hubert and Edward even had to turn in homework! (Thankfully the teachers were so used to Fred and George’s assignments being very close to identical that it wasn’t too much of a stretch for Hubert and Edward’s to be as well.)

“What is going on here?” Snape growled as he stalked over.

‘Edward’ answered, “What do you mean, sir? I’m having breakfast with my brothers.” Snape’s eyes flickered between the four identical Weasleys, lingering on their faces and house ties.

“Oh hey, Hubert, Edward, George, you guys all sitting with us today?” Luz asked, sitting down next to Fred. Next to her were Amity, Harry, and Hermione.

Snape narrowed his eyes. “And where are the younger Weasleys this morning?”

“Well, I’m the youngest here,” George said, “I was born last.”

“I meant Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Weasley.”

Hubert ‘ooh’ed. “They’re down there with the other Hexside group.” He pointed further down the table where Gus and Willow were chatting with Ginny, Ron, and Luna.

Snape stomped over and grabbed the two Weasleys by the shoulders, hauling them up and over to the sets of twins.

Fred noticed McGonagall finally get up and rush over to the table.

“Severus, what’s going on? You can’t just manhandle my students.”

“Did you know, that you have two sets of twins in your house? And at least two of the people here are impostors?”

He pushed Ron and Ginny forward, towards the brothers.

McGonagall’s eyes flickered over all of them, taking in the four identical faces, the ties, the fidgeting of the younger siblings, and winked at the real Fred and George without Snape seeing.

“Please stop harassing my students, Severus. If the quadruplets want to sit together, there’s no rule against it. Outside of the feasts, students can sit wherever they want, you know this.”

Snape dropped his hands and hissed, “There are only two dunderhead Weasley twins, not four. Why are you insisting on going along with their prank. Who knows how they duplicated themselves.”

McGonagall, queen that she is, looked disappointed in Snape. “Severus, this Mr. Weasley is in your house, even. Are you telling me you’ve neglected your Head of House duties with him?”

Holy shit, this was better than he thought it would be. Fred couldn’t believe that McGonagall was actually going along with this. He and George would have to get her something nice for the end of the year. What would she like? Catnip toys, maybe?

Snape snarled wordlessly and stalked out of the Great Hall, not even getting anything for breakfast.

McGonagall turned to the many Weasleys. “I don’t care how you did this as long as no one is injured after. And Mr. Weasleys, please stop turning in double homework. I already have enough to grade. Ten points to Gryffindor, boys, end the prank by the end of the day.” She smiled at all of them and walked back up to the head table to finish her meal.

“Damn, can never fool her, huh,” George said.

The day passed quickly after that. The quadruplet Weasleys went to their sixth year classes (Hubert and Edward having more trouble than normal with the lessons) and Ron and Ginny going to their lessons, as well (they also had more trouble then normal with certain lessons).

Some teachers called them out - Snape outright refused to let any of the Weasleys into his class that day. Trelawney took one look at Ron and screamed, seeing horrible visions in his future and a full body cast. Binns didn’t notice, as if he ever did.

Dinner rolled around and everyone stared at the Quadruplets, wondering if McGonagall was right about it being a prank.

Whispering broke out around the Weasleys at the Gryffindor table, the Hexside students, Harry, and Hermione crowded around behind Hubert and Edward, almost blocking them. A puff of pale blue smoke erupted, the same color of illusion smoke, and when it cleared, Ron and Ginny were sitting in too big robes across from Fred and George and Edric and Emira were sitting were Ron and Ginny were.

Lee Jordan yelled in outrage and shoved George good-naturedly. “You fucker! You had me going. Me!”

That set off a chain reaction of people realizing that, no, there was no Hubert or Edward. It was just Fred and George pretending to be additional siblings.

“Could you imagine if I had two more brothers?” Ginny asked her friends, after she had moved back down the table, still in the too large robes. “I would die.”

“How’d you do it?” Katie Bell asked Fred.

“I have no idea what you mean, my dear, Katie,” Fred snarked.

Ron slid down to Harry and Hermione. “That was awful. Taking polyjuice once, disgusting. Taking it almost every hour for a whole day, absolutely bloody horrible.” He shuddered. “At least George didn’t taste as bad as Crabbe.”

Neville choked on his green beans at that statement. Hermione sighed. “Please don’t say it like that.”

Amity glanced up at her siblings as they squished over some Gryffindors to sit down across from her. “Do you always use the focusing stones to change your appearance all day?”

Ed stuttered, “What—no—what? Never. We don’t…”

“How do you figure?” Em asked.

“You had to dispel the one illusion and then recast the one you’re currently wearing. The smoke started to clear when you were doing that.”

“Ugh, Mittens, finding out all of our secrets,” Em groaned.

“Did you see the look on Snape’s face, though?” Fred asked George.

George nodded. “That will live in my dreams forever. What a lovely sight.”

Angelina leaned over, resting her elbow on George’s shoulder. “Someone kept him from taking away points, too.”

Fred and George broke out into identical grins. “Job well done, I’d say,” George said.

“Couldn’t agree more,” Fred affirmed.

—

Out in a small, desolate town, sat an old crumbling mansion, and in that mansion, rested a wrinkled baby-like creature, a large snake, and a nervous rat-faced man. There used to be a gardener, but he became snake food months ago.

Peter Pettigrew, the rat-faced man, had just come back from a “grocery run” (breaking into the nearest grocers at night to steal food fit for human consumption). His lord could survive on snake venom, but Peter could not. He had also managed to find a Wizarding paper from a few days ago that had been thrown away.

Peter put the food away in the kitchen and prepared another bottle of venom and milk for his master when he awoke soon.

He prepared his own breakfast and sat down to read the paper. Barty Crouch Jr. Found Hiding at Hogwarts: Released from Azkaban by his own Father!

Peter choked on his sausage, barely coughing it out before frantically reading the article. Oh no. Oh no, this was very bad. Very very bad. His master would not be happy.

A burning pain on his arm broke him out of his spiral. Oh no, his master wanted him. Not good.

Peter gathered as much courage as he could, folded up the paper, collected the bottle, and went to greet his master.

“G-good morning, my lord. I have your bottle r-ready, and the-the newsp-paper.”

His master stared at him, making no move to reach for either offered item. “Summarize the paper, Wormtail. Something must’ve happened. You’re more rat-like than normal.”

Peter swallowed heavily. “Right, my lord.” He placed the bottle down within easy reach of his master and shifted the paper in his hands. “I’m a-afraid it’s not good-good news. Barty was cap-captured and revealed the p-plan.”

His master rarely showed emotion anymore, but anger, oh, Peter was familiar with anger. He braced for the pain.

“Crucio.”

Every nerve ending lit up, screaming in pain, or maybe the person screaming was him. He curled and withered on the dusty floor, as he felt like he was being flayed alive.

As soon as it started, it ended. Peter gingerly pulled himself up to his knees.

“You will salvage this, Wormtail. We need the Potter brat or the ritual won’t work,” his lord said, a distant, yet angry tone to his voice. He reached out to the bottle.

“H-how should I do that, my lord?” Peter was never the planner of the group. He was always lookout. “I-I don’t…”

His lord paused in drinking and met his eyes. “Well, you better figure it out.” And that was that.

Peter nodded, left the newspaper for his lord and apparated to outside the Shrieking Shack.

Transforming into a rat, Peter ran through the tunnel under the shack and onto the grounds. He would add the portkey to the cup in the maze now. No way they would check for that kind of thing now that Barty was arrested.

The Quidditch pitch was almost unrecognizable with the hedges. He tried to squeeze through the shrubbery, but it almost pushed him back out, the branches were so dense, almost alive.

Peter worried at the edge of the maze. He didn’t know what was in there and he knew he would get lost, maybe eaten. He didn’t want to go through that again. Maybe the cup was still inside the castle.

New destination decided, the rat scurried along into the entrance hall. Judging by the time of day, it was probably the middle of classes. He should wait for dark to try, but he couldn’t be away from his master too long. He would have to do this now and hope for the best. Looking around and seeing no one, he ran straight across the hall to the glowing cup proudly in the center.

He paused again, triple checking that no one was around. He would have to set the portkey fast. He transformed back into a human, wand in hand, ready to cast.

Screech

Peter jumped and whirled around in fright. What made that sound?

A small brown owl dived at him, screeching. Peter shouted and tried to swat at the owl, missing by a wide margin. He heard footsteps running from the dungeons. Maybe it was Snape, but was he on his master’s side? Peter didn’t think so. He didn’t want to risk it, either way.

He folded himself back into a rat and ran as fast as he could out of the castle while being chased by the owl. He heard a distant howl that sounded that that god-awful cat from last year and pushed himself faster.

He failed.

His master would not be happy. He would try again another day. He would get Potter to the ritual, he just had to wait for the perfect opportunity.