The Coven 0008: Welcome Ceremony

(A/N: Please read the second author's note at the end before calling me out on the age thing.)

"Well now that we're all settled in, I'd like to make an announcement." Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, overlooked all of the students from behind the podium in the brightly lit Great Hall. Thousands of enchanted candles were floating in mid-air above four long tables, each of which had differently colored long cloths covering them. Each cloth sported a unique sigil and color. The table to Dumbledore's rightmost side had a red cloth that was hanging from the front, displaying the side profile of a golden lion. The next table had a blue cloth with a bronze eagle, the one following it had a yellow cloth with a black badger and the final, leftmost one had a green cloth, displaying the sigil of a snake.

The tables were all laid with glittering golden plates and goblets as the students all patiently sat at the tables, listening to the headmaster's speech. At the top of the hall, behind Dumbledore, laid another long table where the teachers were seated, overlooking the entire hall. Behind the teachers' table, a large banner bore the Hogwarts coat of arms, the lion, badger, eagle, and snake all surrounded the letter 'H' written in beautiful calligraphy.

As the headmaster overlooked the students who had all gone quiet after his initiation, he continued speaking, "This castle will not only be your home this year but home to some very special guests as well." A few gasps were heard in the hall, originating from some of the more mischievous ghosts who floated all around the hall.

"By golly!" One of the ghosts who was dressed in the outfit of a court jester flew around the hall, spooking some of the scarce first-year students who had arrived this year. Weirdly enough, none of the ghosts were getting even close to the table at the leftmost side of the hall, the table draped with a green cloth. That was especially the case with the ghost dressed as a jester, who weirdly seemed to be missing an arm.

Dumbledore ignored the interruptions as usual and continued speaking, "You see, Hogwarts has been chosen to host a legendary event, the Tri-Wizard Tournament."

"You're joking!" A distinct voice rang through the hall as a red-haired girl with faint freckles on her face quickly lowered her head and hid her face as if those words took all of her courage to speak.

Suppressed whispers immediately broke out amongst the students at Dumbledore's words.

"No, Ms. Weasly, I am most certainly not joking," Dumbledore said with an appreciative chuckle. "Now where was I? Ah, yes," He recalled and spoke, "Some of you may be aware of the tournament, but allow me to clarify for those who are unaware."

"The Tri-Wizard Tournament brings together three schools, for a series of magical contests. From each school, a single student is selected to compete," Dumbledore's expression suddenly turned solemn, which, with the scar that ran from just below his eye to his lip made his expression seem all the more serious, "Now, let me be clear. If chosen, you stand alone. And trust me when I say, these contests are not for the faint of heart."

Dumbledore's expression softened as he continued, "But all of that comes later. For now, please join me in welcoming, the students of the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and their Headmistress, Madame Maxime."

Following his words, the students of Beauxbatons entered the hall. Wearing pale blue robes, the couple dozen students walked with a noble gait. Most of the students' eyes zoned on the large woman who was walking the furthest at the back, identifying her as the headmistress.

In front of her, three students walked with a slower gait than the other students. It was Harry, Fleur, and Gabrielle. Under the guise of a charm, the students were all ignoring them.

As the students started cheering for the new entrants, Harry felt something interfering with his charm and his eyes twitched as he saw most of the students' eyes moving from the headmistress to Fleur who was walking while holding his hand. The cheers increased by an octave as the students noticed the unrealistically beautiful Veela.

On both sides, the students closest to the center row all fell under the passive effect of Fleur's allure and stopped clapping as they gazed at her with mesmerized expressions. Still, even with many of the students stopping, the applause and cheers only grew louder as the students whistled and catcalled.

Harry and Fleur both reached the end of the hall and allowed Madame Maxime to pass by as she conversed with Dumbledore. They both gave her a subtle dirty look before turning around and bowing to the crowd in greeting. As for Gabrielle, she was completely clueless and just held Harry's hand, following his lead as he bowed along with Fleur. She was enjoying the attention that she was getting.

After a perfunctory greeting with Madame Maxime, Dumbledore addressed the students again, "And now our northern friends, please greet the students of Durmstrang and their high master, Nikolai Dragomirov."

Unlike the cheery students of Beauxbatons, the Durmstrang students all had a serious presence as they walked with a measured gait and stood straight like military men. Their number was much lower than the almost fifty students from Beauxbatons, merely a dozen or so students.

As the high master and his aide entered the room, hushed whispers ensued.

"That's Viktor Krum." "It's him!" "Didn't he already pass out of school?"

Harry looked at the students who were intimidatingly approaching the end of the hall as they split and stood on the other side as the Beauxbatons students. Headmaster Dumbledore approached the high master Nikolai and they shared a solemn handshake.

"My condolences for your teacher," Dumbledore said to the young newly-appointed headmaster, "It must be hard to have lost your mentor."

"Our past catches up to us all, Headmaster," Nikolai said to Dumbledore with a gaze that contained a thousand words, "No one can escape it," He said while focusing on the scar that extended from just below Dumbledore's left eye to his mouth.

Dumbledore coughed and nodded, "Please," He gestured and led them to an aged woman wearing a pointy hat, "This is my vice-head, Professor Minerva McGonagall, she will lead you to your seats." He said to Nikolai Dragomirov, Madame Maxime, and Viktor Krum, who was here as the Durmstrang high master's aide.

"Please," Dumbledore once again addressed the students, "Another round of applause for our guests." With his words, the students all burst into applause once again.

With his words, Dumbledore waved his wand such that four tables appeared at the forefront of the hall, seemingly extending the tables for each house, but there was a distinct gap between the new tables and the house tables.

The students again burst into whispers at Dumbledore's display. The house tables had been very close to the four stairs that led to the top of the hall, without much space for even a small desk, let alone the long tables that had appeared.

"That's an impressive display of the extension charm…" Fleur commented in French to Harry who was feeling peeved at the people who were constantly gazing at Fleur. Their attention was focused on her and prevented Harry from casting his concealment charms once again.

"Hm?" He looked at Fleur before gazing at the newly added empty tables, "Yeah, you're right," He said nonchalantly as his eyes darted to the table at the leftmost end, "I don't like those guys…"

"The snake house?" Fleur asked with a raised brow, "What about them?"

"Slytherin is the house that's filled with the most pure-bloods, i.e. death eaters and their children," Harry said. Since they were both talking in French, only the Beauxbatons students around them were able to understand what they were saying. Even then, most of them were busy keeping themselves sane while making sure that Fleur's influence was at bay, so they couldn't pay attention to the contents of the conversation at all.

"Oh?" Fleur glanced at the people at that table and could feel some of them looking at her with an all too familiar gaze, "You're right," She narrowed her eyes with a disgusted look, "What about the other houses?" She asked him while regaining her previous gentle yet noble expression.

"That one's Ravenclaw," Harry said while gesturing to the blue table with the bronze eagle as their sigil, "The Beauxbatons delegation will be staying there."

"What about that one," Fleur gestured to the table with the black badger as their sigil.

"That's Hufflepuff, I presume that the Durmstrang delegation will either stay with them or with the Slytherin students." He said.

"So we'll be getting our rooms with those lion guys?" She asked. Since she, Harry, and Gabrielle along with Celine were going to be living in separate quarters, they had been assigned to another house entirely,

"Gryffindor," Harry said, "Yes. Apparently, I have some sort of heritage with Gryffindor or something, I don't know." He shrugged.

Among their whispers, Dumbledore continued with some simple words of encouragement that both of them were mostly ignoring. Eventually, he sent the students to sit at their seats. The Durmstrang group took the bench in front of the Slytherin group while the Beauxbatons students populated the other three benches. The ratio was significantly uneven when it came to the students from both schools.

Harry, Fleur, and Gabrielle found themselves on the Gryffindor side of the bench with them sitting at the corner closest to the Gryffindor students.

Harry sat at the corner with Fleur on his side and Gabrielle beside Fleur. Celine took the seat beside Gabrielle as Headmaster Dumbledore announced the next order of the ceremony which was a performance of the choir to welcome the guests.

…

Eventually, the dinner commenced and the teachers all took their seats at the teachers' table, talking amongst themselves while eating.

"What do you want to bet that she's telling Headmaster 'Dumbly-dorr' about how the Abraxans only drink single-malt whiskey?" Harry asked Fleur in French after noticing that Madame Maxime was talking to Dumbledore about something.

"I'm not betting on that," Fleur instantly refused to take the bed, "That's obvious. She loves those horses more than her position as headmistress. She's obviously going to get them the best accomodations."

"You're no fun," Harry said as he picked up the bowl of bouillabaisse and served himself some, "Hm?" He offered it to Fleur with a questioning hum as she nodded, letting him serve it for her, "Gabi?" Harry asked Gabriele who was focused on her food.

"Yes, please," She nodded and moved her plate a little toward Harry as he served it for her before putting the stew at the side.

"Hey, 'Arry," Fleur nudged his shoulder, "How much in love with the headmistress do you think Hagrid is?" She asked him. They had been introduced to Hagrid when they were being led to the temporary accommodations.

Harry looked at the teachers' table and noticed Dumbledore telling something to Hagrid while Madame Maxime looked at the large unkempt man, "Yeah, this Hagrid dude has just been given the duty to tend to the Abraxans," Harry said.

Both Harry and Fleur then witnessed Hagrid stabbing his fork into the hand of the man at his side. Harry and Fleur had to stifle a laugh as they saw the comically large man stab the dwarf-height man with a fork, "He's a goblin, right?" Fleur asked Harry with a stifled laugh.

"Yeah," Harry nodded, "He's the same as the ones I've seen in Gringotts when I go there with Mum." Harry and Lily had kept their funds in Gringotts instead of the French bank since Gringotts had a better security system and the investment opportunities with them were very good. Not to mention the vault of House Potter that was contracted with Gringotts.

"It still surprises me that you and your mum regularly come to England and leave after merely going to the bank," Fleur shook her head.

Harry chuckled, "Mum has her reasons," He said, "She'll tell me when she thinks I'm ready."

"You got her to send you to Hogwarts, didn't you? I think by the time we go back, you won't have any more ready left," She laughed.

"I guess…" Harry said, not too thrilled about the implications of Fleur's words.

"'Arry," Gabrielle called Harry, "They're adding more seats…" She pointed at the teachers' table where two extra seats were being added.

"Don't point like that, Gabi," Fleur pulled Gabrielle's arm down, "It's rude."

"Then how do I tell you where to look?" Gabrielle shot back at Fleur.

"By subtly gesturing toward them," Harry said to her, "Use your eyes, even if you gesture toward them with your hand, make it subtle and not seem like you're pointing at someone."

She understood, "I see… But why are they adding more seats?" She brought the conversation back to her question, "Is someone else coming?" She asked.

"I guess the actual organizers of the tournament should be arriving any time soon." Harry told Gabrielle, "They're probably late."

"Didn't Hogwarts organize the tournament?" Gabrielle asked Harry curiously.

He wasn't impatient at her lack of knowledge. She was merely in her third year of school, she didn't need to know everything. He patiently explained to her, "Hogwarts is the host of the tournament. The organizers are the British Ministry of Magic. From what I know, those seats should be for the Minister of Magic herself and the Head of the Magical Sports department."

"Ohh…" Gabrielle nodded and focused back on her food, she was just curious. Now that that curiosity was satiated, she brought her focus back on the important stuff.

"'Arry—" Fleur had just called Harry when he felt his shoulder being poked by someone.

Harry's face twitched as he inwardly cursed Madame Maxime for dispelling his concealment spells before turning to face the newcomer. Harry was ready to blast the man with a hex if he noticed even the slightest intention to approach Fleur through him.

"Are you Harry Potter?" The newcomer asked, surprising not only Harry but also Fleur.

"You know me?" Harry asked.

"Of course, I know you," He said, "You're the son of the famous James Potter – Oh sorry, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Colin Creevey." He extended his hand to shake Harry's who only looked at his hand before looking at his face with a narrow-eyed look.

Harry took a few seconds to shake Colin's hand, "Hi … Colin." He said.

"Would it be fine fine I got a picture with you?" He asked, "Your late father was my hero. He sacrificed himself to hold back You-Know-Who and brought us years of precious time to prepare against the man."

"Right," Harry nodded with an uncomfortable smile, "How about no?" He said. As he saw that Colin was about to try and convince him, Harry continued, "You do realize how messed up your actions are, right?" He asked, "I get that you think of my dead father as an idol, but it's extremely weird to approach me because of that." Harry explained.

"I-I'm sorry…" Colin felt overwhelmed by Harry's words and quickly left.

"I think you made the poor kid cry…" Fleur teased with a giggle from his side.

Harry shrugged, "He was the one who came first," He said uncaringly, "I had to set an example. I don't want to be looked at as the son of the hero James Potter. That would be so stressful, not to mention extremely depressing."

"Yeah, I guess…" Fleur said, "I can't imagine—" She was interrupted by Harry's growl as he pulled out his wand and chanted something under his breath before waving his wand under the table. An invisible compulsion was released in the entire hall that broke the effects of Fleur's allure and made the students ignore the Veela.

Fleur felt Harry's magic release spread through the whole room and grabbed his wrist with widened eyes. He had a resentful expression on his face that slowly softened as he said, "Finally, some peace…" Just as he was about to cast the concealment spells, he felt a gaze full of malice directed at him along with a neutral gaze. Looking up at the teachers' table, he saw the headmaster himself looking at him with an inquisitive look along with a lanky teacher who had sallow skin, and a large, hooked nose. That man was looking at Harry as if he'd murdered the man's family or something.

Harry ignored the malicious gaze for now and looked at the headmaster with a little smile, showing a slightly embarrassed expression. He gave a look at Madame Maxime who gave him an exasperated look before turning to Dumbledore.

The cold annoyed expression returned on Harry's face as he was finally able to cast the concealment spells that stopped people from ogling at Fleur all the time. It annoyed him to an extreme degree when he saw people looking at Fleur like she was some sort of rare creature.

Moments later, he felt Fleur wrapping her arms around his arm, pressing his arm into her chest, allowing him to experience a unique sensation that no one had the pleasure of feeling. She rested her chin on his shoulder and said, "I love you, you know that?" The glee in her tone was clearly evident to anyone, "I'm happy you stood up for me."

"If I left you to stand up for yourself, why am I even here?" Harry said with a little smile, "I'm the reason that you don't suppress your allure. I have to take responsibility for it."

"My hero…" She praised him and turned herself a little, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Sis, if you praise him like that, 'Arry will get a god complex." Gabrielle interrupted the sweet moment before taking a bite out of a piece of fish in the bouillabaisse.

"You're real smart, are you?" Fleur grabbed Gabrielle's head and pulled her toward him, making the little girl squeal in resistance.

"'Arry!" Gabrielle called him as if pleading for her savior.

"Calm down…" Harry said with a helpless chuckle, "We may be concealed, but we're still in the middle of the Great Hall."

Eventually, the two latecomers also arrived. As Harry had told Gabrielle, it was the Minister of Magic, Madam Amelia Bones. Along with her the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, Mr. Ludo Bagman.

Eventually, The Minister of Magic stepped at the forefront and spoke a few words enhanced by a subtle sonorous charm, "After due consideration. The Ministry has concluded that no student under the age of eighteen…" The hall seemed to burst out in outrage in the middle of her speech, "…may participate in the tournament. This is done in consideration for your own safety." She said, making all of the Hogwarts students in the hall burst out in outrage, many of the students screaming at the top of their lungs in protest. The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students were already aware of this information so they didn't have much of a reaction.

"This decision is final," Amelia Bones' voice seemed to travel through the entire hall as the students were forced to calm down, "I will now hand the stage to the Headmaster."

"Thank you, Madam Bones," Dumbledore nodded, though there was a hint of astonishment in his twinkling eyes at the new Minister's ability to take control of the situation.

Dumbledore turned to the students, "Mr. Bagman and Madam Bones have worked tirelessly for the past few months to make the Tri-Wizard Tournament possible," He said, "That is why they will be joining me, Madam Maxime, and Professor Dragomirov to form the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."

Seeing that the murmurs had completely died down as the students all focused on him, Dumbledore smiled before saying, "Mr. Filch, please bring the casket." He ordered the caretaker who was lingering in the corner, unnoticed by anyone.

Bringing the chest into the hall, the caretaker placed it on the table that had been prepared for it. The wooden chest was encrusted with gems yet looked to be very old. As the excited murmurs among the students rose again, Dumbledore started speaking, "The tasks have already been determined by Mr. Bagman and Madam Bones who will be supervising their execution," Dumbledore continued, "The champions will have to clear a series of three tasks spread throughout the school year. These tasks will test the champions in many different ways — Their magical prowess, courage, dedication, deduction, and most important of all, the ability to cope with danger."

The students lulled at the mention of danger, the atmosphere around the students growing still, "As I said before, this tournament is not for the faint of heart," Dumbledore said, "And once chosen, you have no chance to back out."

Dumbledore let his words sink into the students for a few seconds and in the meantime tapped his wand three times on the casket as it automatically opened. He then continued speaking, "As for the selection of the champions from each school, it shall be done by an impartial selector." Following his words, he put his hand in the casket and brought out an unremarkable wooden cup. It would have been hard to believe that it was anything special had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue flames that seemed full of life, "The Goblet of Fire."

None of the students in the hall seemed to make a peep as they looked at the dangerous-looking flame atop the unremarkable goblet. Dumbledore closed the chest and placed the goblet atop it where it would be visible to everyone.

"Anyone wishing to enter the tournament must put their names in the Goblet of Fire…"

As Dumbledore's long-winded speech continued, Harry asked Fleur, "Are you going to put your name in?" He asked her.

"I know I can participate, but can you?" Fleur asked with a raised brow of mock superiority.

"Of course, I can," He said, "She said eighteen and above. Last I checked, I already turned eighteen."

"Yeah, you did, didn't you…" Fleur said with annoyance, "Can you not participate?" She asked while cutely fluttering her eyes, "I wanna compete."

"You can still try," Harry said with a hint of arrogance, "It's not like if I put my name in, the goblet will instantly decide that I'm the most probable person to be the champion."

"It will, 'Arry…" Fleur said, "If you put your name in, it's choosing you. No matter what." Fleur's words had a level of confidence in Harry that even he didn't have in himself.

Their attention was brought to Dumbledore once again as the headmaster spoke, "I will be drawing an age line around the goblet so that no one below the age of eighteen is allowed to enter. Beware, once your name is chosen by the goblet, you are enforced by a magical contract to participate, so tread carefully, you have forty-eight hours."

Harry narrowed his eyes at Dumbledore's words, "An age line?" He said, "Really? That's what the strongest wizard alive has in the name of prevention?"

"We might as well put Celine's name in. All we need is a Polyjuice potion and a few other trinkets to trick the line." Fleur spoke her conjecture, "Couldn't he just modify the goblet's contract instead to ignore the unqualified students?"

Harry gushed at Fleur's analysis, "See? Studying Alchemy dedicatedly came in use, no?" He asked, "This age line itself is a product of advanced Alchemy. I can probably replicate it if I can find a book about the theories of soul age…" Harry started mumbling to himself by the end, having lost his original trail of thought.

"Whatever," Fleur didn't hear half of what he said due to him mumbling it unclearly. She could tell that he was just musing thoughtlessly so she shifted his attention back to herself, "I smell something fishy going on here. Could they be targeting one of us?"

"I'm not that narcissistic, Fleur. Plus this is a very unlikely method for that," Harry said, "I can already pass that age line. And that fishy smell is probably the seafood."

"I'm serious," Fleur pushed Harry a little, "Should we not participate?" She seemed nervous.

A subtle laugh escaped Harry's lips, "Madame Maxime would kill us," He said, "We've already taken more than enough liberties on this trip on the sole premise that we'll bring Beauxbatons the cup and the glory that comes with it."

"Yeah…" Fleur bit her lower lip.

"Where's all that courage that you had previously?" Harry wrapped his arm around her shoulder and held her closer to himself, "You were just clamoring for me to step back so that you could participate."

It took Harry some coaxing to bring Fleur away from her spiral of worry, "Don't worry so much," Harry said, "We have more than enough precautions."

"I guess you're right," Fleur said as the tension seemed to leave her shoulders, making her slouch a little.

"Sit straight," Harry lowered his hand to Fleur's lower back and pressed, making her straighten her back.

She turned to him with a sly expression on her face, "You're acting more and more like my daddy~" She whispered in his ear.

"Not again…" Harry felt the shiver run right along his spine down to his tailbone. Seeing his reaction, Fleur's teasing only got bolder.

As Dumbledore gave some more miscellaneous details, he concluded his speech, "…need only write your name on a piece of parchment and throw it in the flame within forty-eight hours." He continued with a solemn tone, "Do not do so lightly, if chosen, there's no turning back."

"As from this moment, the Tri-wizard Tournament has begun."

(A/N1: I ended up working along the movie variation of the scene since it worked better with the way things were moving. Though there are still some elements from the books added in.

A/N2: Also, the eighteen years age is a discrepancy, I know. Harry is supposed to be sixteen in 1996, but just consider this as an AU where he and everyone from his batch were born in 1978 instead of 1980. Think of everyone's ages to have been fast-forwarded by two years such that Harry is eighteen, Fleur is nineteen, and so on. I think you can understand my reasoning behind this …

If there are any mentions of the 'official' age in another chapter, please let me know and I'll fix it.)

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