The next several weeks of class were of a rare form – that is to say, they were quite normal. Selene had made every effort to occupy herself with graded essays and constellation memorization in an attempt to keep her mind off of worrying about her husband's safety whilst he travelled back to Hogwarts. Every morning, she scanned the Daily Prophet in search of any news about Sirius, breathing in a sigh of relief when his name was absent from that day's edition.
She finally felt like she could relax when she received another letter from him, meaning he had safely returned.
Dear Selly,
I'm writing to let you know I've made it back near the Hogwarts grounds, so you can rest easily (I'm sure I can safely assume you've been worried). I'll write you when I feel I have the opportunity to see you, so be on the lookout for future owls.
Keep an eye on Harry.
With much love towards my beautiful wife,
Sirius
Selene had rolled her eyes at his last comment, sure that he was trying to be funny.
"What are you smiling at?" came McGonagall's voice briskly.
Selene picked her head up from the letter, blinking. "Was I smiling?"
"Certainly," said McGonagall. "It's the first smile I've seen on your face in weeks."
Selene shrugged noncommittally. They were standing in one of the corridors, and the older woman was continuing to stride away from her, so that Selene had to hurry after her to continue the conversation.
"Never mind that, anyhow," McGonagall said, not looking at Selene. "Are you prepared for the arrival of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang?"
"As much as I can be," Selene said promptly. They had made it into the entrance hall.
Selene stood back as students began to file in, and their Heads of Houses began filing them into lines, shouting commands imperiously.
"Weasley, straighten your hat," barked McGonagall. "Miss Patil, take that ridiculous thing out of your hair." She began ushering them out to the front of the castle. "Follow me, please," she said. "First years in front... no pushing..."
Slowly but surely, within ten minutes the entirety of Hogwarts stood quietly out on the grounds in front of the castle, staring around in waiting.
"This is exciting, isn't it?" Selene said absentmindedly, looking up towards the night sky alongside Professor McGonagall, who kept checking her pocket watch anxiously.
"More like a fat lot of unnecessary trouble," the older professor muttered under her breath.
Selene chuckled. "Well, you know us at Hogwarts, we like to keep things interesting."
She could've sworn that McGonagall's face broke into a quick smile, before Dumbledore called out, "Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"
Selene whipped her head around, much like many of the students, gazing around for the French school's arrival. She found it rather quickly, a speck in the sky growing larger by the second, before it became a large blue carriage touching down on the ground before them, pulled by a dozen large flying horses. As soon as they had hit the ground, the door to the carriage sprang open, revealing the largest woman Selene had ever seen.
"Does Hagrid know this lady exists?" Selene muttered before she could stop herself.
"Professor Black!" McGonagall said roughly from beside her, elbowing her sharply.
Selene held her ribs gingerly. "Sorry..." she whispered.
"My dear Madame Maxime," Dumbledore said, catching Selene's attention. "Welcome to Hogwarts."
"Dumbly-dorr," Madame Maxime said in her deep, elegant voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"
"In excellent form, I thank you," Dumbledore said politely.
"My pupils," Madame Maxime said, waving a careless, glittering hand behind her.
A dozen – snobbish, in Selene's opinion – boys and girls were lining up behind their teacher, gazing at her in rapt attention and respect. They were wearing fine silk uniforms, very unlike the cloaks the Hogwarts students wore. Selene figured that Madame Maxime would disapprove of her yellow Converse.
"'As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.
Selene froze in horror. Karkaroff? At Hogwarts? Surely not...
"He should be here any moment," Dumbledore responded. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?"
"Warm up, I think," Madame Maxime said. "But ze 'orses – "
Selene tuned the rest of their conversation out. She leaned toward McGonagall, not bothering to hide the anxious expression on her face. "I reckon you knew that Karkaroff was headmaster at Durmstrang?"
"Of course, I knew," she whispered briskly. "How could you not?"
Selene frowned. "I don't make it my business to keep up with the happenings at Durmstrang. It's just caught me off guard, considering –"
McGonagall nodded in understanding, cutting her off. "Considered."
"It's just all too much of a coincidence... with Moody as the DADA professor this year, the ruckus at the World Cup... and now this? I'm just worried we're in for more than we've bargained for this year."
McGonagall regarded her seriously, looking through her spectacles at Selene. "Well, what's new?" Despite her words, though, her tone suggested that Selene was not alone in her fears.
Their whispered conversation was punctuated by a large suctioning noise, coming from ahead of them on the grounds.
"The lake!" yelled Lee Jordan, pointing furiously. "Look at the lake!"
Selene looked, indeed. What resembled a large, skeletal pirate ship was now rising out of the Black Lake's waters, disturbing its usual stillness. It moved ghostly towards the shore. Someone aboard threw out the anchor, and a plank was thrown down onto the bank.
Figures were disembarking the ship and coming towards them. These were all heavyset boys wearing thick fur cloaks, and they were following a very familiar looking man.
"Dumbledore!" he called to them in a hearty voice. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"
"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore said genially.
As Karkaroff came up on them, he shook Dumbledore's hand with both of his own.
"Dear old Hogwarts," he said warmly, grinning with his yellow teeth. "How good it is to be here, how good... Viktor, come along, into the warmth... you don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold..."
Karkaroff ushered one of his students forward, which made the Hogwarts crowd gasp in interest and awe.
"Is that the Viktor Krum?" Selene said interestedly.
"Yeah," a voice amidst the Hogwarts students answered her, who were filing into the castle behind the students from Durmstrang. "Ron is currently having a fit over him."
Selene turned her head towards her godson. "I didn't realize he was still of school-age."
Harry shrugged.
The two walked alongside each other into the castle, towards the back of the Hogwarts crowd. Ahead of them, Selene could see students craning their heads, even jumping up and down, to get a glimpse of the famous Quidditch player. She rolled her eyes at a couple of sixth-year girls ahead of them giggling and squealing dramatically.
"Ron wants his autograph," Harry said conversationally.
Selene laughed. "I'm sure a lot of people will be wanting one." She eyed him humorously. "Are you going to try for one?"
Harry wrinkled his nose, shaking his head. "Definitely not. I'm not a stranger to the 'famous' thing. If he feels anything like I do, then I won't bother."
Selene raised her eyebrows. "I kind of forget about that sometimes... About you being famous, I mean."
"I wish I could," Harry huffed.
Selene frowned. Despite the situation, she constantly forgot her godson's fame. To her, Harry was the son of two of her closest friends. She watched him for his parents occasionally when he was a baby, and she was nearly always over at their house playing with him. She and Sirius were "Selly" and "Padfoot." When he got older, he would've stayed at their house to visit some weekends, and they'd see him when they came over for Sunday night dinners.
And that was how it was supposed to be.
Selene wrinkled her nose slightly. "I suppose you do."
They had reached the entrance to the Great Hall. Selene could hear the clatters of students sitting at their House tables and chatting to one another about the excitement of the Tournament.
"I'll see you later, Selene," Harry said, waving to her and making his way to a seat that Ron and Hermione had saved for him.
Selene passed them with a smile, heading up to the teachers' table and taking her usual seat in between McGonagall and Snape.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and – most particularly – guests," Dumbledore began, looking around at the occupants of the Great Hall. Selene hadn't even noticed that Madame Maxime and Karkaroff had taken seats next to him. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."
The Beauxbatons students looked as though they begged to differ. They didn't look nearly as impressed with Hogwarts as the Durmstrang students did. The boys from Durmstrang were inspecting the golden plates in front of them with great interest, while the Beauxbatons group seemed to be almost bored.
Selene wasn't surprised. Her father had nearly sent her to Beauxbatons years ago, and so he had made sure that Selene was well-acquainted with their stuck-up ways.
"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," Dumbledore continued. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!" He sat down to tuck into the feast, and at once, Karkaroff leaned towards him to engage him in conversation.
Selene rolled her eyes in frustration. Of course, he would try to smarm up to Dumbledore.
"I always thought Karkaroff was a spineless moron," Snape said disinterestedly from her left. He must have noticed her irritation.
Selene turned to look at him with raised eyebrows. "Thought you two would be pals. You know... all things considered."
"Don't act as if you were any better," Snape scowled. "You made the same mistake."
Selene stared at him, her jaw slack. She shut it quickly. "I – I –"
Snape stared back at her expectantly.
"Fine," Selene said flatly. "I suppose I deserved that one."
"Certainly," Snape said, and he turned resolutely away.
Selene internally sighed. She didn't realize that this year she would continually have her past thrown back at her, especially after the year she had had last year. She supposed the one upside this time was that her brief time spent as a Death Eater was not common knowledge. She didn't suppose Snape or Karkaroff would be loose lipped about it either, so perhaps there was nothing to worry about.
However, she didn't particularly like being reminded of the worst mistake she had ever made in her life.
Selene sat there silently, picking around at the food on her plate, until finally Dumbledore stood up again from his seat, and their golden plates were wiped clean.
"The moment has come," Dumbledore said, looking out amongst all of the attentive faces that were trained upon him. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket –"
"Well, that's morbid," Selene muttered under her breath.
Snape swiftly kicked her under the table.
"– just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation" – there was some polite applause, more than Selene expected for a Ministry employee that she doubted any of the students knew – "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."
There was a collection of much more enthusiastic applause for Bagman, who was famous for his Quidditch-playing for the Wimbourne Wasps. Selene couldn't deny that it was cool seeing him in person, despite not being a Wasps fan.
"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore pressed on, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."
The students seemed to be drinking in his every word.
"The casket then, if you will, Mr. Filch."
Mr. Filch had evidently been waiting for these words, because as soon as Dumbledore had said them, he came stalking in with what Selene conceded could only be called a casket. It looked ancient, and it was covered with glittering jewels.
"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman," Dumbledore said, as Mr. Filch placed the casket carefully before him, "and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways... their magical prowess – their daring – their powers of deduction – and, of course, their ability to cope with danger."
Selene could not help but feel extremely relieved that her godson was not of age at this very moment. She didn't think she could handle having to watch Harry place himself in the midst of danger more times than he already had. She had enough to worry about already.
"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."
Dumbledore chose this moment to pull out his wand and tap the top of the casket three times. The lid opened slowly, revealing a large wooden cup, which looked just as old as the casket. It was also full of roaring blue flames.
"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," Dumbledore said. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete
"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation," Dumbledore said, "I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross the line.
"Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all."
At once, there was a loud scraping of chairs and conversation as students got up to return to their dormitories.
Selene got up as well, able to catch up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione before they were able to leave the Great Hall. The Weasley twins were also with them, and Selene saw through at once the innocent looks they had plastered onto their faces as soon as she had walked up.
She eyed the twins suspiciously. "Whatever you two have planned, don't."
"What makes you think we have something planned?" Fred asked immediately.
"Because we definitely do not have anything planned," George added.
Selene raised her eyebrows. "Don't make me tell your mother."
"You wouldn't dare," Fred said, appalled.
Selene stared them both in the face, and they stared back. She was determined not to break their stand-off.
Of course, it seemed, neither were the twins.
"Fine! No, I wouldn't!" Selene relented. "Just don't do anything stupid!"
"Us?" Fred said.
"Do something stupid?" George said.
"Never!" they chimed together, wearing identical grins.
Harry and Ron laughed, while Hermione tried to stifle a smile.
And in that moment, Selene thought she had never missed the Marauders more.