Percy Jackson and the Triwizard Tournament

32) The Quadwizard Tournament, Technically

"What happened to him?" Anna whispered. "What happened to his face?"

"What happened to yours?" I shot back immediately, though I was also curious. All I knew that Moody was a famed Auror, and had taken on many, many bad guys.

Moody seemed indifferent to the student's shock, instead reaching into his cloak, pulling out a hip-flask, and took a long drain from it. When he lifted his arm to drink, his cloak was lifted a few inches from the ground, and I could see that one of his legs were wooden.

"As I was saying," Dumbledore cleared his throat, smiling at the shocked students before him, "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!" Fred said loudly.

The tension broke suddenly, and nearly everyone laughed, including Dumbledore.

"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore 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 al go into a bar..."

McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Er — but maybe this is not the time... no..." Dumbledore said, "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 will not allow their attention to wander freely, as there are a few key differences from past tournaments.

"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. This will also be the first year Camp Half-Blood will be included in the tournament. A champion 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?" Hannah whispered anxiously, though almost everyone else ignored that bit. People were whispering excitedly together, and I was much more interested in hearing about the tournament than deaths that happened ages ago. Though I did have one little issue. If camp was also going to be a part of the tournament, shouldn't it have been the Quadwizard Tournament?

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which have been very successful. However, our own departments 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 themselves in mortal danger.

"The heads of Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Camp Half-Blood will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the four 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 prize money."

"I'm going for it!" Cedric grinned. He wanted to leave some memory of himself behind once he left Hogwarts, and that would definitely be a good way to do it. Several other people seemed to have the same idea. Fred and George were grinning like mad-men, and others whispered with their neighbors or stared fervently at Dumbledore.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," Dumbledore said, "the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on most contenders this year. Only students who are of age — that is to say, seventeen years or older — and all campers will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This —" Dumbledore has to raise his voice slightly, because several people had made noises of outrage — "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, unless they have advanced training, 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. I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen or are not a camper.

"The delegations from Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Camp Half-Blood 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 whenever they are selected. And 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!"

To everyone who reads my other series, I will be changing the updating schedule to every Saturday. Anywho, today my sister came to pick us up while we were going to eat. We passed by this boy — I didn't see him very well, but I thought he was around my age. Emblem thought he was like ten. Now he was just walking up and down the street, and Emblem had seen him earlier, so she turned around to make sure he was all right. She rolls down the window, and low and behold, it was an eighty year old woman. It was hilarious. Then tomorrow, I get to go to a friend's house, so that'll be cool. I also ate an orange tonight. That was cool. For some reason my step-mom thinks I was being mean to her. I told her that she shouldn't approach a friend of mine — who she has never talked to — and tell her how to become a pilot because "my dad was a pilot." It's weird. Like this friend has no clue who my step mom is. And she's going to a pilot's training thing, she obviously knows what she's doing. It's just really weird. And then she got onto me for having an attitude whenever I said sorry for leaving the window open — after being told to leave the window open. It was so weird.

Anyway, I hope you guys have had a good Thursday, and I will see you on Saturday!