•This story takes scenes from the Harry Potter series. I want to make it clear that I don't own those scenes. That's owned by
J.K. Rowling. Thank you•

~Scarlett~

I didn't really pay attention to any of the conversation in the Great Hall.

People were conversing happily, catching up with their friends. Forks and knives scraped against plates as people eagerly ate away the huge feast that had been prepared. The Professors up at the front were smiling brightly at the students, making small talk with their neighbors. I noticed all of these things, but yet I couldn't even focus on the conversation in front of me.

Every time I tried to participate it seemed they were speaking a foreign language. I couldn't focus on the voices around me because there were so many voices buzzing in my head.

Fred'll never talk to me again. Why would he? He probably just kissed me because he felt bad for me.

Yeah. That was it.

"Scar?" Alicia's voice brought me back into reality. "Did you hear me?"

I sat up a little, clearing my throat awkwardly. "Uh, no, what was it you said?"

Alicia raised an eyebrow at me skeptically but shrugged it off, laughing at my obliviousness. "We were talking about what's going on this year. Everyone's been talking about something big happening. Any guesses?"

"Erm, no, not really," I replied, shrinking back into my seat.

George shot me a look of sympathy, nudging me under the table with his foot.

"So!" Dumbledore's voice rang around the hall, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices."

"I guess we're about to find out," Lee pointed out.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming
Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it." Dumbledore continued, his eyes twinkling in amusement behind his half moon spectacles. "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year."

I grumbled slightly, just wanting to get to my dorm and sleep. I've listened to this speech five times before. I'm not going to start following the rules just because I'm having to listen to them for a sixth time.

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

I winced as people shouted in protest. "What do you mean?! You can't cancel Quidditch!"

"This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy – but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts–"
But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black traveling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swiveled toward the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling. He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark gray hair, then began to walk up toward the teachers' table.

"What the hell?" Angelina muttered, knitting her eyebrows together.

Alicia smacked her arm, glaring at her warningly. "Mind your language, there are children here."

There were indeed a few first years to the left of us, eyes wide as they followed the mysterious man to the teachers' table. A clunk echoing every time his staff hit the ground.

He reached the end of the top table, turned right, and limped heavily toward Dumbledore. Another flash of lightning crossed the ceiling, making everyone jump slightly.

The lightning had thrown the man's face into sharp relief, and it was a face unlike any I had ever seen before. It looked as though it had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces are supposed to look like, and was none too skilled with a chisel. Every inch of skin seemed to be scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal gash, and a large chunk of the nose was missing. But it was the man's eyes that made him frightening.

One of them was small, dark, and beady. The other was large, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue. The blue eye was moving ceaselessly, without blinking, and was rolling up, down, and from side to side, quite independently of the normal eye – and then it rolled right over, pointing into the back of the man's head, so that all we could see was whiteness.

Katie let out a squeak, covering her eyes with her hands.

The stranger reached Dumbledore. He stretched out a hand that was as badly scarred as his face, and Dumbledore shook it, muttering inaudible words. He seemed to be making some inquiry of the stranger, who shook his head unsmilingly and replied in an undertone. Dumbledore nodded and gestured the man to the empty seat on his
right-hand side.

He sat down, shook his mane of dark grey hair out of his face, pulled a plate of sausages toward him, raised it to what was left of his nose, and sniffed it. He then took a small knife out of his pocket, speared a sausage on the end of it, and began to eat. His normal eye was fixed upon the sausages, but the blue eye was still darting restlessly around in its socket, taking in the Hall and the students.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."

"Huh, how fitting," George muttered under his breath.

The Hall was filled with Dumbledore and Hagrid's loud applause, and Fred and Lee's muffled laughs.

"Wait. Do they mean Mad-Eye Moody?" Alicia questioned.

"Probably. Why?" I replied, watching Moody's blue eye dart around the room. It definitely made me think "Mad-Eye".

"Woah," Alicia muttered. "He's like, the coolest Auror ever."

I nodded, not really understanding but pretending I did.

I was going to say something but was interrupted by Dumbledore clearing his throat.

"As I was saying," he said, smiling at the sea of students before him, all of whom were still gazing transfixed at Professor Moody, "we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" said Fred loudly.

I furrowed my eyebrows, sending him a curious look.

What on earth is a Triwizard Tournament?

"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," he said, "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar..."

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Er – but maybe this is not the time...no..." said Dumbledore. "Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament...well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely.
"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 tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities – until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

"Death toll?" I gasped, turning to Angelina, Alicia, and Katie. All of which shared the same shocked expression.

Who in their right mind would risk the lives of three students every five years?

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which has been very successful. However, our own Department of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger.
"The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their shortlisted contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

"I'm going for it!" Fred exclaimed excitedly.

I pursed my lips, refraining from scolding him.

If Fred was put in a tournament that has a history for deaths, I'd pass out on the spot.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," Dumbledore continued, "the Heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age – that is to say, seventeen years or older – will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This"– Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words, and Fred and George suddenly looked furious–"is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion." His light blue eyes twinkled as they flickered over Fred's and George's mutinous faces. "I therefor beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen.
"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. Alright now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"

With that, we all rose from our seats and made our way to the Common Room.

"They can't do that!" George huffed in frustration. "We're seventeen in April, why can't we have a shot?"

"They're not stopping me entering," said Fred stubbornly. "The champions'll get to do all sorts of stuff you'd never be allowed to do normally. And a thousand Galleons prize money!"

We had finally arrived at the portrait of The Fat Lady and after giving her the new password we made our way to the boys dormitory, deciding to hang out for awhile.

"Who's this impartial judge who's going to decide who the champions are?" Alicia asked, sitting next to Lee on his bed.

George allowed Angelina onto his bed, taking a seat on the floor in front of his bed. Fred was sprawled out on his bed, and Katie took a seat next to Angelina. Leaving me to find a spot.

Normally I would sit with Fred, but that would be awkward. So I settled on sitting next to George.

"Dunno," said Fred, "but it's them we'll have to fool. I reckon a couple of drops of Aging Potion might do it, George...."

"Dumbledore knows you're not of age though," Katie pointed out.

"Yeah, but he's not the one who decides who the champion is, is he?" Fred replied. "Sounds to me like once this judge knows who wants to enter, he'll choose the best from each school and never mind how old they are. Dumbledore's trying to stop us giving our names."

"People have died, though!" I reminded him, worry flooding through me.

"Yeah," Fred started, pausing for a second as his eyes lingered on me. "But that was years ago, wasn't it? Anyway, where's the fun without a bit of risk?"

His brown eyes found mine and time seemed to stop as we just stared at each other. My eyes threatened to look down at his lips. The ones that were on mine what seemed like forever ago.

George nudged me slightly, bringing me back into reality.

"Um, yeah, I suppose," I nodded, clearing my throat awkwardly.

He's probably wondering why he ever kissed me. It's not like he likes me. Just like he said, it was just in the moment. I'd didn't mean anything.

At least not to him.

To me, it meant the world.

For just one second I was happy. The boy I love had his lips against mine, and then they were gone. Just like that, all chances of me being happy just disappeared.

I looked up at the boy that always seemed to be on my mind.

He was listening to Lee ramble about a prank he was thinking about, nodding along in agreement.

His brown eyes were shining with anticipation at the idea of causing trouble. His flaming red hair stuck up in different directions after he had it ruffled by Lee. His freckles were like stars scattered on his cheeks and nose. You could almost form constellations out of them. His pink lips almost called to me, begging me to push my own against them.

My heart aches for him, but I know it'll never happen.

I don't stand a chance with him.

Fred looks back over to talk to George, but catches my gaze. I quickly look down at my small hands, heat rising to my cheeks as I scold myself for getting caught.

"Are you alright, Scar?" Fred asks.

I could feel my breath catch in my throat. Panic taking over. "I-I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" he pushes, raising an eyebrow at me.

How the hell is he finding it so easy to talk to me.

"Um, actually, I'm quite tired. I think I may head to bed," I admitted, pushing myself off the ground.

"Night!" everyone waves.

I wave back, weakly smiling at everyone.

I drag my feet to the girls dormitory, falling onto my bed.

Even though I was tired, it took me a good while to fall asleep. Thoughts of Fred were running through my mind and it seemed almost impossible to fall asleep.

How could you fall asleep when the guy you love doesn't love you back?
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Finally! For some reason this took me forever to write!

But you should hopefully expect another update soon because I'll be driving to Florida next week and I'll be bored out of my mind. So hopefully I can write a few chapters on the way.

Moving on to the chapterly question. Which my phone never forgets to remind me is not a word. Another question from MissMaddelyn
Do you think there is the smallest possibility that the wizarding world is real?

My answer, definitely. But I think they've had some issues with the owls. For some reason nobody's been getting their letters on time. I'm still waiting for mine.

Thank you all for being so patient with these chapters! I know it's frustrating how inconsistent these are, but I am trying! I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic day!
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