Before us great Death stands

Our fate held close within his quiet hands.

When with proud joy we lift Life’s red wine

To drink deep of the mystic shining cup

And ecstasy through all our being leaps—

Death bows his head and weeps.

 

– Rainer Maria Rilke

 

~~~~

 

At Hogwarts castle, it was still raining heavily, thunder growled every now and then, lighting up the skies above. A trail of carriages are parked in front of a large wooden door, and students flood out of the carriages, entering the building. At the entrance, a poltergeist in the name of Peeves was throwing water filled balloons to the arriving students, some hit, some didn't, but one thing was for sure, the students were not happy.

One of the victims is Ronald Weasley, who was now soaked in water. Peeves was about to throw a balloon to a girl, named Hermione Granger. He threw it, but thankfully, the girl had avoided it thanks to the one besides her who dragged her on time.

“Peeves, just go.” Ed said to the poltergeist, but Peeves ignored him and continued to throw balloons at the students.

“PEEVES! GO!” someone suddenly shouted, it was Professor McGonagall with her green emerald dress. “Peeves! I warned you! I will report this to the headmaster!”

The poltergeist stuck his tongue to the professor, throwing another ball to the students. McGonagall then tried to catch Peeves, but he had run away, and McGonagall slipped because of the slippery floor that was caused by the poltergeist.

McGonagall tripped to Hermione, and she held Hermione rather tightly around her neck, almost choking her.

“Oh, Sorry Miss Granger, are you alright?” McGonagall questioned in guilt.

“I’m okay professor, it’s nothing.” She gasped, massaging her neck, but Ed saw that she was throwing glances at him for some reason.

“Oh, well, move along, the feast is about to start.” McGonagall said, continuing on guarding the entrance.

The group then walked through the halls of Hogwarts, and a thought suddenly popped into Ron’s mind.

“By the way… who’s going to be our DADA teacher… Lupin resigned last year right?” the ginger questioned.

“Perhaps Dumbledore didn’t find anybody…” Harry added.

Hermione and Ed just hummed and didn’t say anything, but both knew the answer to that.

As they entered the great hall, it was already full with people. For some reason, they were one of the later ones who entered, probably because of Peeves' ordeal.

“Look at that.” Harry pointed at the Slytherin’s table. “it’s Goyle…”

Ed then also looked at the Slytherin’s table, he saw Goyle sitting gloomily in the corner, with people around him whispering about him.

“His father’s a death eater.” Ron spat. “If I ever come to meet that owl who killed his dad, I’ll thank him personally.”

Hermione just looked at Ed and giggled, while Ed just rolled his eyes. The boy then scanned the table again, and all around, the table had a grim mood, he saw Nott nervously staring at Ed himself, probably that his father told him the truth.

Ed just smiled at the boy, which made him avert his gaze quickly. He then continued to survey the Slytherin’s table, and was surprised to see a somewhat cheerful Daphne, he thought ‘somewhat’ because her face is still the same, a neutral face, but Ed could tell that she was happy about something, probably about Richard. He also saw that Astoria, her sister, noticed her sister’s change of mood, but she didn’t say anything,

“She looks quite happy.” Hermione whispered to Ed as they sat down.

Ed shrugged. “Barely had a change in her expression.” Ed commented, which made Hermione giggled in agreement.

He then changed his surveying area to the Ravenclaw table, he’s only interested in two people in there, Richard and Luna, and he saw both of them chatting rather happily together, which made Ed smile.

Then, he turned towards the Professor’s table, and saw that two professors were staring at him, Snape, and Dumbledore.

Ed sighed at this. “I hope those two won’t question anything… I hate it when people demand answers from me… I have a gigantic library as a home, that doesn’t mean I am an answer machine…”

After a couple of minutes of settling down, the first years entered the room with their soaked uniforms, the sorting Ceremony went smoothly, and after that, the feast started. Ed heard that Dennis Creevey, Colin’s little brother, got saved by the giant squid at the lake when he fell to the water. He also heard talks about the night of terror, Ed was enjoying hearing their theories about who the masked owl men could be, they didn’t believe the words of the ministry at all, as they probably saw first-hand how it happened.

Then, the Weasley twins suddenly spoke about house elves, which made Hermione frown, but thankfully, she didn’t say anything at all.

Dumbledore then stood up to speak. “So! Now that we are now fed and watered. I must ask for your attention as there are some notices that I have to announce.”

The room instantly turned quiet and was listening to the old man.

“First, I would like to-”

But before the old man could say anything more, the bewitched ceiling of the great hall started to act up as it was raining outside, thunder and lightning started to spawn, and the students started to be afraid of it.

Then a rough looking man, with a fake eye suddenly interrupted and cast a spell to the ceiling, stopping it from acting up.

Dumbledore saw this, and as the rough looking man walked to him, he introduced the man to the students.

“Everyone please welcome Professor Alastor Moody, he will be teaching you all Defence against the Dark Arts this year.”

The students snapped out of their thoughts and started to clap.

“Bloody hell, It’s mad eye moody!” Ron exclaimed.

“Who’s that?” Dean questioned.

“An ex-auror, half of Azkaban is filled because of him.”

“What’s an auror?”

“Dark Wizard catcher.”

Dean just hummed, and the professor continued to talk.

Dumbledore coughed lightly to earn the attention back. “Now, first, I would like a moment of silence for the students who have been affected by the recent tragedies…”

The hall instantly turned gloomy, Ed noticed that some are gloomier more than others, perhaps that they are one of the victim’s family.

“The event that transpired just about a week ago was cruel…” Dumbledore continued. “The ministry does not wish you to know this, but I digress… you all are the future of the wizarding world, and whether or not you wish it or not, you will have to protect it…”

“The event last week was not an accident… or was orchestrated by a new group…” Dumbledore spoke. “It was the legion of Lord Voldemort.”

The students started to murmur, some were excited by the words(mostly Slytherins), and some were afraid, though they already knew that the one who attacked was death eaters.

“The ministry may say that it was something else… but they were wrong.” He spoke. “The ministry had the audacity to frame the ones who helped them contain their situation… I am disgusted by it, I spoke to you right now because it is the truth, not because I want to besmirch the name of the ministry, no, because I am speaking the truth.”

The students and Professors alike are surprised by the small speech that Dumbledore just spoke, it was completely off character to him.

“Why do you think he’s defending us?” Hermione whispered to Ed.

“I don’t know…” Ed frowned, looking at the calm look of Dumbledore. “But I’ve got a feeling it’s not as simple as that…”

“Anyway, onto the next topic.” Dumbledore quickly changed the Speech’s theme. “It is also my painful duty that the inter-house Quidditch cup will not take place this year.”

The students instantly shouted in protest, especially the Gryffindors. Ed and Hermione however looked calm as they didn’t really care about it.

“However!” Dumbledore continued, silencing the students. “This year, we are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year.”

The students exploded in murmurs, wondering what that is, but the Weasley twins shouted. “YOU’RE JOKING!”

“I am not Joking Mr. Weasley.” Dumbledore informed. “Although I heard a joke about-”

McGonagall coughed lightly, reminding the old man.

“Err.. right, please forgive me for I will have to give you a short explanation for the tournament.”

Dumbledore coughed lightly to clear his throat. “The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host-“

The professor then continued to explain what the Triwizard tournament is, and the effort it took to reinstate it, several people already had a look of ‘i-want-to-enter’, especially the young ones like Ron, but was quickly shut down to the announcement that anyone under the age of seventeen aren’t allowed to enter.

“The delegations will arrive at Halloween, and will remain at most of the year, so I expect that you treat the guests kindly.” Dumbledore stated. “Now! Off to bed! Chop-chop!”

The students started to stand up and leave the hall in an orderly fashion, but Ed stayed, he was looking at Dumbledore, who was talking with Moody(Crouch Jr.).

“What are you doing?” Hermione asked the boy as she started to leave.

“You can leave now Hermione, I’ll stay first.”

Hermione just hummed and walked back to the dorm room. Meanwhile, Ed walked towards the headmaster, who noticed Ed.

“Ah! Ed! I was just about to find you, I assume you heard my speech, this is Professor Moody.” He introduced.

Ed smiled at ‘Moody’. “Hello… ‘Professor’.” Ed made sure to point out the ‘professor’ part, making moody frowned.

Moody just grunted. “I’ll leave you now Albus.” He said, leaving the two alone.

“Now, Ed, I want to talk to you about something.” Dumbledore said.

But Ed asked first. “Why did you go off character like that Dumbledore? I thought you don’t like politics?”

“I was just stating facts, Ed.” Dumbledore answered. “Not only did Fudge lie to the public about it, he framed the one who helped contain the situation…”

Ed just hummed and didn’t say anything again. “What did you want to talk about?”

“It’s about the Triwizard tournament.” Dumbledore continued. “But I guess I have to talk to Mr. Neil as well about it…”

Ed raised his eyebrow. “What about it?”

“The ministry is asking me to ask you if you have some kind of item to help with the coming event.”

“Why did they ask me through you?”

“Because they know that you will refuse if the ministry itself goes to you.” Dumbledore. “After all, they know that the owl was somehow connected to you, they just don’t have evidence to arrest you.”

“So they asked you to ask me, thinking that it will be like a headmaster’s favour.” Ed nodded. “Ask Richard about it, I don’t really care to be honest.”

“Very well, I will ask Mr. Neil about it.” Dumbledore nodded, and Ed started to leave.

“Oh Ed?” Dumbledore called the boy again, making the boy stop. “If you ever need anything, you can ask me.”

Ed chuckled. “I doubt that’s from your heart sir, you probably have a scheme to monitor me or something.”

Ed then walked to his dorm room, making Dumbledore sighed.

In the dorm room, Ed found that Hermione was talking to Ron and Harry about something, and he sat beside the girl, wrapping his hand around her which made her put her head on his shoulder, making Ron frowned.

“What are you guys talking about?” Ed questioned.

“We were talking about the Triwizard tournament.” Harry answered. “Do you want to enter it, Ed?”

Ed shrugged. “Too bothersome.” He said. “What about you Hermione, you want to enter?”

Hermione instantly frowned at this. “You want me to enter?”

“I was just asking.” Ed said.

Hermione still frowned. “I don’t want to enter it, it's too dangerous…”

“That’s fine.” Ed said. “What about you Ron?”

“I mean, I can’t… I’m not seventeen yet.”

“But if you have the chance?”

“I guess I’ll take it.”

“Even if you can die from the tasks?”

“I mean, they’ll probably put some guards just in case…”

Ed hummed and didn’t say anything. “Well, don’t hope too much that you have the chance.” Ed stood up again. “I’ll sleep first, good night.” Ed kissed Hermione’s forehead and walked to the dorm.

“When did you become so… touchy towards each other?” Ron questioned Hermione, who was seeing Ed walking towards the spiral staircase.

“What? relationships develop Ronald.” Hermione snorted.

“You two have done it yet?” Suddenly, Ginny popped out of nowhere, scaring Hermione.

“Ginny!” Hermione hissed. “That is an inappropriate question!”

“So?” Ginny winked at Hermione.

“None of your business.” Hermione stood up angrily and bolted off to her dorm room, although she was blushing really hard.