Nina's Destiny

Triwizard Tournament

I spent the rest of summer break at the Burrow. Fred, George, and I had a prank war against Bill and Charlie. The my hair ended up being green for a full week before Charlie relented and changed it back. The silver streak from carrying the Titans curse had stayed silver which I thought was strange. Bill, Charlie, and Mrs. Weasley were using side along apparition to get us to London. I told them the name of a back street, the one I always transport too. They thanked me a lot. Mrs. Weasley grabbed a hold of Ginny and Ron and with a pop, she was gone. There were still five of us who couldn't apparate. That would be a problem. Charlie grabbed Harry and Hermione and disapparated. "Erm...how do I side along with three underaged wizards?" asked Bill more to himself. I grabbed Fred's hand and he and George each grabbed one of Bill's. Thank the gods, I thought I would have to tell them I was a Water Mage.

While we were saying our goodbyes, Bill and Charlie kept dropping hints about something going on at Hogwarts. All I could figure out was that it would be interesting and would involve Charlie coming to the school. It must have something to do with dragons. Mrs. Weasley dropped a hint about there being something going on during Christmas at Hogwarts too.

On the train, I looked for Lav, vati, Nev, and hopefully Luna. I told them about the hints the elder Weasleys had dropped. We spent the first half of the train ride trying to guess what event was coming up. "Maybe it's the Triwizard Tournament," I gasped, suddenly remembering the tournament from Hogwarts: A History. "Three schools send in a bunch of candidates to be their champion. Their names are all put in a goblet which chooses the most worthy. The three champions compete in three dangerous tasks. The Yule Ball is held on Christmas Eve and would explain what was going on over Christmas. Charlie could be coming up because one of the tasks has something to do with dragons." Everyone nodded. It did seem very plausible.

It was raining outside. Now, there's drizzling, there's raining, there's pouring, and then there's those times when Zeus is really cranky and he let's everyone know it. Today was a Zeus is cranky day. When we got into the Entrance Hall, Peeves was throwing water balloons at people. I beckoned to him and he flew down to me. "Add some neon pink dye to it," I murmured in his ear. He grinned and flew off. He came back very soon with more balloons. I heard Malfoy shriek as one of the balloons hit him. His hair was bright pink. I shot Peeves a thumbs up as I walked into the Great Hall.

During dinner, Hermione found out that house elves cook and clean here at Hogwarts. Really, who did she think cooked the food? The teachers? She pushed her food away and refused to eat. Idiota. After the feast, Dumbledore stood up to make his feast. He told us that Hogwarts would be hosting the Triwizard Tournament. Ha, I was right! He also said no one under the age of 17 could partake in the tournament. The two other schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, would be arriving October 20th and the champions will be selected on Halloween. Even if there hadn't been an age restriction, I wouldn't have thrown my name in there. I get into enough life or death situations, thank you very much and the death toll for the tournament is rather high in my opinion.

We were all chatting about the Triwizard Tournament when the doors to the Great Hall burst open. A grizzled, old man walked into the room. He was missing a chunk of his nose and his face was heavily scarred. One of his eyes was dark and beady and the other was wide and electric blue (Thalia's was brighter). The way he walked, it sounded like he had a wooden leg. He limped up to Dumbledore and shook his hand. Then, the man limped around the table and sat in the DADA teachers seat. Dumbledore stood up again. "May I introduce your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Alastor Moody." There was timid clapping for the man, the students were all a little stunned.

"He's a retired auror,"Fred whispered from across the table.

"Best there was," George added.

"He'll be a good teacher," they said together.