Duel Enrollment

Monster in Heels

"What is this about?" Igor bellowed only to flinch when Severus shot him a look and the cat-bat creature growled at him from above. He cleared his throat. "Why is there a fourth school when the Tri-wizard Tournament only has three?" He asked and gasped like everyone else when the large windows opened revealing a wolf shaped cloud bounding towards them. The large doors of the Great Hall shook when the massive wolf howled.

"Actually that's a common misconception." Cornelius said just barely catching everyone's attention. "The Tri in Tri-wizard is for the three tasks, not the number of schools participating."

Severus snorted in amusement, "As I was saying ... our final guest is the Legerdemain Academy of Sorcery!" He announced as the smoke-like wolf cloud descended towards the windows.

The wolf separated into three wolves and each smoke-like beast floated through a different window of the Great Hall. Out of the smoke trail left by the wolves came dozens of glowing bubbles. As the gold glowing bubbles floated to the floor everyone realized the students, who were not wearing uniforms like the students from the three other schools, were inside the bubbles. While the bubbles floated down to the floor the windows closed and the smoke like wolves merged back into one large wolf.

"Severus! I'm glad to see you're doing well as a headmaster." The wolf said as it shifted into none other than Brian White.

Severus smirked, "Trying to be subtle, I see." He said dryly as the bubbles all landed gently on the floor one at a time and popped revealing several dozen students, who ranged from 5 to17 years old, standing in a few neat rows.

The minister smiled and stood tall, "Now that everyone is here we can start the tournament! There will be three mystery tasks. Two people from each school will be picked to participate and you'll work as a team to complete each task. Today will be a relaxing day of getting to know each other and a chance to put your name in this goblet if you'd like a chance to participate! This goblet will pick the people on about the same level so everything is fair. The drawing will take place at the end of the day!"

Severus raised his hand so the excitedly chatting students would quiet down, "Keep in mind Hogwarts is watching and so are our portraits and ghosts so I want everyone to have fun and eat, but behave." He said as the magical castle added several tables for everyone and the food appeared.

No one noticed the minister looking at one particular student. After all, giving everyone the chance to mingle was so one person could meet and look at as many people as possible. However, Julian hasn't signaled that any student, headmaster, caretaker or the drivers of the different modes of transport were actually Dumbledore in disguise. They hoped he'd turn up or the trap would fail ...

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From behind a pair of classy glasses the annoyed eyes of Rita Skeeter watched the students chatting outside as she sashayed towards Hogwarts, "No uniforms... that's disrespectful." Rita smirked when she spotted an interesting detail about one child and used a little magic. She whispered something and suddenly a fight started and the very amused witch strutted away letting the chaos unfold.

With her matching red high heels clacking across the stones she made her way to a bathroom. A very specific haunted girls bathroom, to be exact. When she went in she found a ghost of a young girl crying.

"It can't be! There has to be a mistake! Albus would never ... he had me. When was there even an investigation?" The ghost ranted through her tears.

Rita scoffed in amusement, "Haven't you been paying attention, stupid girl?" Rita said condescendingly.

The ghost, widely known as Moaning Myrtle, scowled at the witch, "You didn't know him!"

"Sure." Rita said with a smirk. "Despite the romantic promise to pass over with you if you stayed there were 30 girls after your death who were also romanced and killed by-"