Harry Potter Squib Tales Chapter 97: Starting Year 4 with a Surprise (Patreon)

Chapter 97: Starting Year Four with a Surprise

Harry POV

“…and remember to let us know the moment anything weird happens at school,” Ed said, finishing a long list of things for Harry to look out for and keep and eye on while at Hogwarts.

Harry simply nodded, though he was a bit distracted by the thought of going back to school and, well, seeing Susan again.

“Alright, I can see that I’m far less appealing than a big ol’ steam locomotive or a pretty blonde, so I’ll stop holding you up,” Ed chuckled, and Harry felt his cheeks heat up a little.

His older brother than patted Harry on the back and urged him along towards the Hogwarts Express.

Stepping onto the train made some of Harry’s tension leave him, and his shoulders slumped a little. The whole place was full of fond memories, and there were plenty of people who greeted him as he did so.

Two of them were waiting for him in one of the compartments, and he gave a smile at Neville and Hermione as he put his trunk up along with Hedwig’s cage.

“Had a fun summer?” he asked.

“It was pleasant,” Hermione said. “Seeing you at the World Cup was nice, but so was spending a few weeks with my family.”

“Yes, the game was amazing!” Neville said happily, though his smile dimmed a bit as he said, “Shame about what happened after, though.”

Everyone frowned at that. The whole thing was, quite frankly, a mess. As Ed had predicted, the Minister had tried to cover it up, but between him, Sirius, and their allies with media connections, the truth came out.

The articles all painted Madam Bones in a good light, and while carefully composed to not cast any shade on Fudge, it was clear that some were doubting the man’s ability to lead.

‘If it comes to it, he has only another two years in office, assuming nobody demands an emergency session to recall him in the Wizengamot,’ Harry mused.

Despite his best efforts, Harry had spent quite a bit of his summer vacation being tutored by Aunt Andromeda about what exactly being a noble entailed. Given his importance to the Wizarding World, Harry had reluctantly complied, if only to learn more about everything.

Ed did his best to help, but his brother would be the first to admit he knew only the bare minimum of social norms for the magical side of the world.

“What’s with all the glum faces?” Ron asked as he entered the carriage a minute or two after Harry.

“Just discussing the Death Eaters at the World Cup,” Hermione said as Neville flinched a little.

“Ugh. Bad all around, that,” the youngest Weasley boy sighed as he put his stuff away. “Dad’s been running around like mad at work, and at home, too. Says he might be getting a promotion, but only because a bunch of people are getting sacked.”

“At least there’s a silver lining,” Harry said, trying to see the bright side to this issue, slim though it may be, and Ron nodded.

“Yeah. Careful ‘bout the twins, though. They’re, uh…” he trialed off. “They’ve been really happy recently. Generous, too.”

“And that’s a problem?” Neville asked, confused.

“Considering who it is? Yeah,” Ron nodded. “Half expecting the ‘gifts’ to explode, or turn into something else if I look away.”

“Think they might be planning something big at school?” Hermione wondered.

“Probably,” their brother sighed. “Ever since Percy moved out, they’ve been a lot more open about their antics and pranks and stuff. Giving mum something of a fit trying to figure out where they got all the money they’ve been spending, too.”

“They’re selling their joke items?” Harry guessed. He knew that was what Fred and George wanted to do.

“Probably. So, uh, be on the lookout for any odd toys and such,” Ron warned as he sat down.

“Well, let’s talk about something else,” Hermione suggested.

“Lavender and Parvati have corrupted you,” Harry said with a wince, and the curly-haired girl sniffed imperiously.

“Perhaps. But there are worse people to be friends with.”

Harry groaned theatrically, but in truth, he was glad for his friend. Hermione had really started to loosen up last year, more so than in their Second Year, and was really getting along with the other girls in Gryffindor.

She was still a studious person, but she stopped being so uptight about everything and also hung out with other people besides Harry, Neville, and Ron. It’d helped her a lot, and he was glad she was smiling more often. And less strict when it came to things like Ron and Neville’s classwork.

Somehow, Hermione had learned to just let them get on with it on their own and not nag so much. It’d worked wonders, since without her leaning over her friends’ shoulders, they quickly learned how badly they were doing, and worked harder to catch up.

‘Though I do wonder how she managed to do all those classes last year,’ he couldn’t help but wonder. She’d taken every class except Divination and Muggle Studies! Where’d she found the time?

When the train finally pulled into the station, Harry was feeling rather eager for the feast. Not so much for the food, but to see Remus – sorry, Professor Lupin – again.

‘And it would be nice to see Susan as well…’ he thought, before shaking his head. Nope! He wasn’t going to think about that right now!  

Giving a pat to the Thestral pulling their carriage, he boarded the vehicle with his friends, and watched as Hogwarts loomed over them. The castle was as amazing as always, and he grinned a little at the thought of the First Years being awed by Hagrid and the lakeside approach.

Inside, the place was as cozy as ever, and the sight of a few ghosts floating through the halls was nostalgic. Of course, the Great Hall was just as incredible to see as always, and Harry took his seat at the Gryffindor table as other students filed in.

Sparing a glance for the teacher’s table, Harry waved at the ones he knew, namely Remus, though Flitwick and McGonagall returned the gesture as well. Dumbledore just sat there, though he did give Harry a nod when he caught his eye.

Eventually, the newbies poured in, eyes wide as they stared at everything around them, and then at the hat as it began to sing.

Once the song was over, names were called and students sorted to their Houses. And then, the feast began in full with the appearance of plenty of food and drink.

“First off, welcome back to old students, and welcome one and all to the new,” Dumbledore said, standing up as dinner came to an end. “Now, I know we’d all like to rest after a spread such as that, but there are some announcements I must make before that.”

He cleared his throat. “To begin with, I have good and bad news. The bad news, is that this year, there will be no inter-House Quidditch Cup. The good news, is that in its place, for the first time in many, many years, the Tri-Wizard Tournament will be held here at Hogwarts between our school and that of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang!”

“Entry into the Tournament will be allowed only for those who are seventeen or older, or Seventh Years. The method of determining the representative for our school will be explained when our delightful friends from other shores arrive,” Dumbledore informed the students, continuing to talk over the barely suppressed murmurs (and outright shouts from the broom-heads). “Do keep in mind there shall be precautions taken into account to ensure that only those who are allowed to enter can do so.”

“Don’t worry,” Harry whispered across the table to Angelina, who looked like her pet and parents had all died upon hearing there’d be no Quidditch. “We can still play on our own. Maybe even invite the other schools over for a pickup game. That’d show inter-school comradery, wouldn’t it?”

The new head of the Gryffindor Quidditch team nodded slowly at his suggestion, no longer broken by the announcement, and Harry could tell she’d be trying to figure things out how to do just that.

The rest of the announcements went in one ear and out the other after the Tri-Wizard Tournament was revealed, and Harry felt that perhaps the headmaster could have waited until the end to discuss it, since nothing else was retained by the student.

In the end, though, Remus was welcomed back for a second year as a Defense teacher, and students were warned not to enter the Forbidden Forest due to it being forbidden.

When that was all done, everybody got up and headed towards the dormitories, where the chatter was quiet due to everyone being rather sluggish and stuffed. As he flopped onto his bed, Harry was glad to be back.

‘I’ll talk to Susan tomorrow,’ he promised himself as he drifted off. This year promised to be an interesting one. He could feel it in his scar.

111 &&& 111

Amelia Bones POV

“I am going to kill someone,” she declared as she looked down at a handful of documents covering a table within a finely appointed office of the Ministry of Magic.

While most of the people in the room with her shuffled awkwardly and tried to edge away from her, a handful actually nodded in agreement. It was telling that the people who saw the same issues she did were all junior Ministry members and interns, not actually anyone who’d been involved in the drafting of this… this broom wreck of a situation!

“Surely it’s not that bad…” Fudge tried to protest, only to let out a squeak when her gimlet gaze fell upon him.

“Minister Fudge, the first task includes dragons. Dragons!” the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement hissed. “I was under the impression we wanted the first Tri-Wizard in decades to be safer than the previous events. What in Merlin’s name screams ‘safe’ about dragons?!”

“W-well, I have been assured that these are the tamest dragons around,” Fudge stammered. “And the safety measures-!”

“Oh, yes, about those,” Amelia drawled, picking up a sheet of paper. “Enchanted chains… and that’s it! No fireproofing wards, no calming or sleeping charms, the handlers are being kept as far from the dragons as possible during the match ‘to prevent outside interference,’ and the stands! Are! Right! THERE!”

She glared at the idiots in the Department of Magical Games and Sports, especially Ludo Bagman, and felt a flash of vicious joy as they recoiled in terror from her.

“I can fully see why the French and Bulgarian Ministries all but demanded that I be included in this matter and look over your ‘brilliant’ ideas to judge the safety measures,” Amelia hissed out. “Each and every of these trials is stupid, ill-conceived, and poorly set up!”

She jabbed a finger at the second set of documents. “The second trial, for instance! An underwater adventurer in the middle of February?! Kidnapping students to use as hostages?! And this doesn’t even take into account the stupidity of not including any sort of observation method for the audience! Unless you expected thousands of people to stare gormlessly at the surface of a lake, unable to see what is going on in the middle of a Scottish winter?!”

That, at least, caused the morons setting up the second biggest international event of the year to look away, abashed and ashamed at overlooking this very particular detail.

“And the third trial… it has the exact same problem as the second trial. Not to mention you’ve banned Quidditch for the entire year, despite only requiring the pitch’s space at the end of the year!” Amelia pointed out. “You could grow the hedge maze in a week, you didn’t need to cancel the school’s matches, especially since those are used by talent scouts to look for new players. For many students, you may have just ruined their chances at signing onto a team!”

This, at least, had Ludo look stricken. Fitting, given he himself had been scouted straight out of school by the Wimbourne Wasps after a talent scout saw him play during one such match.

“Not to mention you’re adding a Sphinx to the event! That is-! How did you even get one of those?” Amelia wondered, genuinely curious.

The Mediterranean magical communities were closer with their non-human citizens, and considered Sphinxes to be people, not ‘Dark creatures.’ That meant that they’d have to pay the Sphinx for her services, and couldn’t mistreat her. If they did, then there would be a massive backlash from places like Greece and Egypt.

“Ah, a very generous patron of the arts from Constantinople offered to pay for her contract and transportation,” one of Ludo’s minions spoke up. “In exchange for consideration for including their magical school in the next tournament.”

“Well… that’s fine, then,” Amelia replied after a moment to think it over.

Somebody wanted to have their school included in the next Tri-Wizard tournament? Not impossible, and it could be good for international cooperation.

That was for much later, however, and the matriarch of House Bone picked out something else from the pile of idiocy.

“Now, here’s another issue I noticed,” Amelia claimed. “Here, it says that judging will be done by an impartial committee, but it shows that the three headmasters of the participating schools are going to be the main judges, along with two individuals from the British Ministry. Namely you, Bagman, and Blunthouse.”

Having the head of the Department of Games and Foreign Affairs seemed like a smart move, but the problem was these men were far from being unbiased. Same problem with the headmasters too, honestly, but there wasn’t much that could be done about that.

“Yes, we felt that having members of the Ministry be there during the first Tri-Wizard tournament in ages would be a show of support,” Ludo said, trying to smile and make it seem natural.

‘More like a political stunt,’ Amelia thought, barely suppressing a snort. She was half surprised that Fudge himself hadn’t tried to take a seat as judge for himself.

There was also the chance that Bagman would try to influence the outcome of the events by awarding scores that were not to the benefit of the competitors, but rather, would affect the gambling odds.

It wasn’t well-known, but the man had some serious gambling debts, and Amelia wouldn’t put it past Ludo Bagman to try and avoid having his legs broken by goblin debt collectors by trying to influence events somehow to earn a bit of money.

“While I agree that the Ministry needs to have someone represent us there, I feel like having two of them on the judge’s panel would be too much of a conflict of interests,” she declared.

That made the peons shift nervously, and with a huff Amelia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I would suggest somebody unconnected to the school or Ministry. Perhaps somebody from the ICW?”

She then rapped her knuckles on the table after giving this suggestion. “So! Now that you know I have a number of complaints regarding the safety and structure of this event, we are going to fix them.”

“I-it’s too late to change anything!” Ludo protested, and flinched when Amelia’s fist hit the table.

“Some of it, yes, it is too late to stop. The dragons, for one, are already being prepped, and calling it off means we’d only have a couple months to set up something new,” she admitted. “But we are removing the hostages from the second task! What if the spells fail? Then you’ve got drowned students on your hands! Use some random knick-knack, toy, or bauble instead!”

Amelia then shook her head. “We’re also going to add more protective measures for the tasks. Wearable emergency Portkeys to take the competitors away if they fall unconscious or are hurt too badly. Observation charms tied to enchanted mirrors so the audience can watch the second and third trials without issue. And expanding the seating so more people can actual watch the damn things. Seriously, there’s barely enough stands for the entirety of Hogwarts to watch, let alone the hundreds of other people who are going to come out to see it, like the press, families of the contestants, and members of the foreign ministries to make sure you haven’t bungled the whole thing.”

Hearing what she was demanding to be done made a few people sweat, no doubt dreading the overtime they’d have to be doing to manage all of the changes, but really, this was their own fault for not thinking it all through.

“I will also be stationing a few Aurors at the school for the duration of the tournament,” she declared, earning a few protests. She silenced them by slapping the table. “No complaints! Or do you want to risk foreign guests – students! – getting hurt? This is all about safety and common sense, something you lot seem to have a distinct lack of.”

“I-I suppose if you think it’s best, Amelia,” Fudge coughed awkwardly. “Do you wish to…?”

“Yes, I will oversee this for you,” she replied, holding in a sigh. He looked relieved, and made some empty platitudes before scurrying off.

‘Probably hopes that having me work on this will make it impossible for me to have any hand in the legal proceedings,’ she thought disdainfully.

Joke was on him and all the people trying to bribe him, though! She could do both! Unlike that fool of a minister, Amelia was used to working hard and multi-tasking and coordinating large groups of people. She was more than capable of ensuring the trials went through properly while ensuring the Tri-Wizard Tournament did not end with a pile of dead children.

‘Now, aside from the Aurors who will be out in the open, I’ll need a couple who can blend in with the students… hmm, I think Auror Tonks has finished Moodie’s bootcamp. This will be a good first mission for her,’ she mused to herself, already thinking up ways to get the situation under control.

The director also made a mental note to speak with some enchanters to set up magic mirrors that would let people watch the contestants from afar. That would cost quite a bit due to the last minute-ness of it all, but she knew people who did good and fast work.

It was all coming together. Nothing would go wrong during the Tri-Wizard Tournament!

111 &&& 111

Unknown POV

Gustav knew things. He knew people. And he knew how to get things and find people. That was his job in the seedy underbelly of Vienna’s magical community.

He’d had many an odd meeting before as a result. Few things could top the time he’d had to help a hag bachelorette party, but this was still high up on the list.

“…and I want to know everything as soon as you can, understood?” A beautiful woman’s voice, smooth and strong, commanded.

“Consider it done, ma’am,” a man with a strong, Southern North American accent drawled. Across from him, a bronze clockwork owl tilted its head, eyes the faces of clocks staring back at him.

“Good,” the woman’s voice came from the mechanical wonder. “I expect results.”

The three of them were at a table in a high-end restaurant, though Gustav was a bit hesitant to eat anything due to his nerves.

When he’d been told he’d be meeting a pair of clients, he had not expected to be dealing with them. Gustav recognized the man across from him. Only by reputation, but one of the few remaining immortals was always going to be something anybody dealing in his line of work wanted to know about.

The clockwork animal? That was a bit odd, and he only had suspicions of whom it belonged to. But if he was right… well, he’d either be filthy rich by the end of this deal, or dead.

When both of his clients turned to look at him, he gently cleared his throat. “I can have an untraceable international Portkey ready to go by tomorrow evening,” he promised.

“And the rest of it?” the owl demanded.

In response, Gustav brought out a briefcase and handed it over to the southern dandy who took it. Upon opening the container and looking inside, he smiled.

“Well, damn. You got it all, from the looks of things! Very impressive!” the immortal said with a smile, snapping the case shut.

“It appears selecting you for the job was the right decision. Payment will be delivered as promised,” the owl said, and Gustav let his shoulders sag a little.

Having said its piece, the metal bird vanished. It was utterly silent, so not a Portkey or Apparition. Maybe it’d turned invisible and was waiting to an opportunity to leave? Gustav didn’t know, and he didn’t want to. The less he knew, the better.

“I could use a man like you, fella,” the American declared. “Wanna make a deal with me?”

“Apologizes, but I rather like my simple life here in Austria,” Gustav replied, politely declining.

“Heh, alright, then,” the immortal known as the Lucky Star smirked. “See ya around sometime, yeah?”

“Of course. I will bring the Portkey to you when it is ready,” Gustav assured him.

The immortal just laughed. “No need, friend. I’ll come find you, instead.”

Hearing that, Gustav swallowed nervously, but all he could do was nod.

Whistling a jaunty tune, the Lucky Star got up and left, leaving Gustav alone at the table. After a moment he summoned a waiter and asked for everything that had been left behind and uneaten to be put in a to-go box. No reason to waste good food, after all.

‘I do feel sorry for that poor bastard, though,’ Gustav thought as he left the restaurant a little bit later. ‘To have two immortals taking an interest in him is not a great way to stay out of trouble.’

Whoever that ‘Edward Rose’ fellow was that he’d been tasked with compiling a dossier on, Gustav silently hoped the guy didn’t do anything stupid. Though the information broker had a feeling he should keep an ear out for any news coming out of Jolly Ol’ England in the coming days. Just to be on the safe side.