After a quick shower, I met my Gryffindor friends at our table for breakfast. The owl post swooped into the Hall before long, and I perked up when I saw Jimmy Tallon coming in hot with another bright red letter in his beak.
This far into the school year, Howlers from my family were normal enough that the Hogwarts students in the Hall weren't surprised anymore. If anything, they looked forward to the Howlers almost as much as me! Even if they didn't understand half of what my family was saying. But about two dozen students in the Hall were completely new, and had never seen this before.
Hopefully my family would put on a good show.
Jimmy landed, and I gently took the envelope from his claws. The foreign students in the Hall were whispering and looking over at me, and whenever I glanced at them I got to see the twins' mischievous faces grinning too, knowing the surprise the new arrivals were about to get. Some of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students were given explanations by Hogwarts kids, but others were about to get the full shock value.
"CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING A TRIWIZARD CHAMPION ALEXA!" came the screaming voices of most of my family. I smiled, and the smile only grew when I caught sight of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students looking seriously scared and confused.
"WE'RE ALL SO PROUD OF YOU! KICK SOME ASS AND SHOW 'EM HOW WE STARKS DO IT," came my dad's voice. "AND WE'RE GONNA FIND A WAY TO COME VISIT. IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME."
"YES! WE WILL MEET THESE WIZARDS AND SEE YOUR NEW SCHOOL!" Thor, again. The only difference between this and my first Howler was this time, my dad had asked him to participate.
"AND IT'S GONNA BE SO COOL TO SEE YOU AGAIN NOW THAT YOU CAN DO MAGIC!" came Peter's excited voice.
"STRANGE WILL NOT SHUT UP ABOUT ALL HIS MAGIC, SO YOU REALLY NEED TO COME BACK HERE AND PUT HIM IN HIS PLACE." Rhodey.
"HE'S NOT KIDDING!" Wanda jumped in, cutting off a scoff that almost definitely came from Strange. "THAT TOURNAMENT WE TALKED ABOUT IS MORE NEEDED THAN EVER. IF YOU, LOKI, AND I CAN ALL MAKE SURE HE'S AT THE BOTTOM THEN MAYBE HE'LL FINALLY STOP TALKING."
"I DOUBT THAT WOULD DO IT," Loki scoffed.
"YOU'RE ALL JUST BITTER THAT I'M THE MOST POWERFUL MAGIC USER ON THE TEAM," Strange jumped in. "AND YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO DENY IT ANYMORE AFTER I DEFEAT YOU ALL WITHOUT WORKING UP A SWEAT."
"NORMALLY I WOULDN'T GET INVOLVED IN THIS, BUT ALEXA, YOU REALLY MIGHT HAVE TO STEP IN AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT STRANGE." This time it was Pepper's voice, and I could practically see the shocked and delighted expressions on the faces of my family. Pepper usually just shook her head, smiled, and kept us from setting anything on fire, so when she spoke up we listened. I couldn't help but laugh a little, even in the middle of the Great Hall.
"AND IF PEPPER'S STEPPING IN, YOU KNOW IT'S SERIOUS," my dad said. I could hear the smile in his voice. "WE CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU SOON SWEETHEART. KEEP US POSTED ON THE TOURNAMENT."
His statement was joined by a chorus of "yeah!"s and "goodbye"s, and then just before the letter ripped itself up my Uncle Clint chimed in.
"AND GET READY FOR SOME PAYBACK FOR THE TEACUP WHEN YOU GET HOME! PROTIP: WATCH THE VENTS!"
With that, the letter tore itself to shreds, and suddenly the grin wasn't on my face anymore. Uncle Clint was coming back at me with a vengence.
Shit.
Oh well, at least I still had some time before I had to deal with that. Maybe the twins could help give me some prank-avoidance tips or something. Or better yet, maybe one of the twins' siblings. Some of them had probably been dodging pranks as long as the twins and I had been alive.
While the rest of my friends went to History of Magic after breakfast, I mused on Uncle Clint's warning a little more before getting started on some muggle homework. The next few days passed normally, except that all the Triwizard champions were getting a lot more attention than usual.
Cedric and I could hardly walk anywhere in the castle without people following us around like we were famous. I got some truly acidic looks from a few of the girls too, who looked at Cedric like a knight in shining armor and were clearly not happy to see that he was already dating somebody. I didn't let it bother me though. Cedric and I cared a lot about each other, and I trusted him.
For my part, I ducked into secret passages at every chance I got to avoid people following me around. I knew a pretty good portion of the school from various events, like our O.W.L.s study session last year, and the Gryffindor house movie marathon. None of those people treated me much different than they usually did, with the exception of a few more pats on the back and congratulations than usual. The kids I didn't really know, though, were acting like a lot of the muggles back home did around my dad.
It was driving me crazy.
One of the biggest reasons I came to the wizarding world in the first place was to get away from media attention and fame and everything that came with being a Stark in New York. Sure, now the attention was for something I was doing instead of what my family was doing, but I liked being anonymous in this world dammit! I wanted to go back to that!
Obviously it wasn't going to be that easy, so I just did my best to duck anybody that was treating me like anything other than a peer, and deflect any and all 'fame' onto the other champions.
It wasn't the perfect system, but so far it was working pretty well.
Poor Harry, on the other hand, was having a completely different experience than the rest of us. Hermione and I (and Cedric, mostly) seemed to be the only people who believed Harry about not putting his name in the goblet. The rest of the school and most of the other champions thought he was just lying, and half were happy and impressed while the other half apparently hated him for it. I did my best to say hi and give him a big smile whenever I saw him in the halls, hoping it would help a little. The kid had already dealt with a lot in his life, and I was a little upset that everyone was being so horrible to him, especially for something he didn't do.
I didn't really break until Friday though. Not even a full week after the champions had been selected, and I was already flipping my lid. Oh well.
"We should've dropped History of Magic too," Fred mused as our group walked back up to the castle after Care of Magical Creatures on Friday. They all had a double period with Binns while I was officially off for the weekend. I decided to walk to class with my friends for the hell of it, if nothing else but to put off an English essay I didn't want to do.
"Mum really would've killed us if we'd done that," George countered.
"Besides, you're going to work in the magical world some day!" Angelina chimed in. "I don't like History of Magic either, but it's more important that we learn it, since we're staying here."
The twins both rolled their eyes at that, and I just laughed.
"Ah, leaving the magical world for Stark Industries never seems like a better choice than when we talk about dropping History of Magic," I sighed happily, mostly just to taunt the twins. They groaned.
We talked and laughed the rest of the way to class, the twins dreaming about dropping the class mid-year. I left them to their daydreaming, opting to wander around the castle a bit so I could put off sitting down and writing my essay a bit longer. Hagrid had let us out a bit early, so most students were still out and about in the hallways waiting for class.
I said hi to a few people, ducked a few others, and ended up in the Potions hallway. There were a bunch of Gryffindor fourth years, who I said hi to, and then a bunch more Slytherin fourth years. I was going to smile politely as I walked past, but I stopped dead when I saw the badge Draco Malfoy and a bunch of his Slytherin friends were wearing. They all said, in glowing red letters:
SUPPORT CEDRIC AND ALEXA — THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPIONS!
"What the hell are those buttons?" I demanded.
"Oh, these? You like them?" he asked, sounding like a snotty punk.
"No, actually, I don't. First of all, leave Harry alone. You're being an ass, and he doesn't deserve it. And second of all, take my name off the badges." Draco paused for a second, looking genuinely confused at my second request.
"What?"
"Take my name off your badges. I don't want your buttons to say 'Alexa'. Hell, replace my name with Harry's and call it a day."
"So this is just some ridiculous idea about supporting Potter-"
"No, it's not. I don't like these badges, and I don't like that you're helping the whole school be horrible to Harry. He doesn't deserve it, and you're being an ass to him. Separately, I don't want my name on badges and banners and stuff. I get enough attention elsewhere, and I don't need or want it here."
Draco paused again, looking confused. I didn't wait for him to regain his wits before storming off down the hallway with an irritated huff. I was insanely frustrated, but as much as Draco was being a jerk, I didn't want to take a week's worth of irritation out on him. He didn't completely deserve that, and I had a lot more sympathy for him after meeting his father. I decided I needed to go for a run to bleed off some frustration, so I started heading for the Hogwarts lawn. I just hoped the kid wouldn't bring this whole thing up again.
I rounded a corner and almost ran into another fourth year Slytherin, accompanied by a fourth year Hufflepuff. They were both wearing badges just like Draco's, but instead of the red-lettered message I'd seen outside the Potions room, this one sported a message in green:
POTTER STINKS
I blinked a few times, not quite believing what I was seeing. This had to be a joke, right?
"Are you kidding me with that stupid badge?" I said, stopping both of them as they tried to go around me like normal. "'Potter stinks'? Seriously?"
They both stopped to look at me, the Slytherin looking proud and the Hufflepuff looking a little anxious.
"Harry takes enough shit almost getting murdered every year. He's a good person and a good friend, and he's done some incredible stuff for this school. You're all just going to forget that, or chuck it out the window and not believe him about putting his name in the Goblet for what? A couple cheap shots and some stupid buttons?"
I ripped the badges off both students' robes, throwing them to the ground.
"It's bad enough to see those stupid things touting me and Cedric as the 'real' Hogwarts champions, but Harry doesn't need to walk around the castle seeing a bunch of hate glaring at him from the chest of people he used to think of as friends and classmates! Now get the hell out of here and quit wearing garbage like this!"
The Hufflepuff scampered off and the Slytherin was right on their heels, although he tried to play it off a little cooler. I stormed out the castle doors, trying to calm down and breathe the fresh air, but it didn't really work. The attitudes of the entire student body about the champions was getting on my nerves, and those buttons had been the last straw to really push me over the edge.
I was not in a good mood.
Thankfully, I didn't meet any other students on my way out to the lake, so I didn't have to worry about taking it out on them. I wasn't running to train, so I didn't bother to change my clothes. I was just going to stretch for a little, then sprint until I was too tired to be upset.
Or at least, that was the plan. I was interrupted just before the start of my run by Cassidy coming down the lawn towards me, looking excited.
"Cassidy! What are you doing here?" I asked, moving up the lawn to meet her.
"Mr. Bagman sent me to come get you!" she answered, practically jumping up and down with excitement. "They want all the champions to come and take photographs and other things."
"Oh! Uh, okay..." I turned to get my stuff so Cassidy couldn't see my reaction. She had come to get me so I could go take pictures for the media. This was the only thing that could have put me in a worse mood than I was already in.
I pushed my bad mood aside as much as I could as I turned back to Cassidy and followed her towards the castle. I didn't want to take any of it out on her. I'd just have to do an extra long training session with Jackson later.
"Are you excited, Alexa?" asked Cassidy, looking at me with shining eyes. "Being a Triwizard champion and all?"
I couldn't bring myself to crush her excitement. So, instead of grumbling about the media like I'd been doing more and more recently, I just smiled.
"Yeah, Cassidy, I am. I can't wait to get to the first task. All the curiosity about what it could be is killing me!"
"I'm sure you'll do amazing at it, whatever it is!" she said confidently. "You're Alexa Stark!"
I smiled and chose not to respond. Cassidy kept chattering as she led me to a small classroom in the castle. I nodded and replied as cheerily as I could, stopping outside the door to say goodbye before heading in.
"Have fun Alexa!" she squealed, unable to resist throwing her arms around me in an excited hug. One of my first genuine smiles all day returned to my face, and I hugged her back tightly. Cassidy was a sweet kid. "Soon the whole wizarding world will realize just how cool you are! Just like the muggle world!"
And just like that, the smile was gone as quickly as it came. Cassidy didn't notice as she bounded off down the hall without looking back, but cranky, grumbles-under-her-breath Alexa was back.
I stepped through the door into the small room, where most of the other champions were waiting on the far side. I smiled a little as I saw Cedric, scanning the room to see Bagman chattering excitedly with a blonde woman wearing magenta robes.
I walked over to Cedric, who was chatting with Fleur. He hugged me, and I got to talk to Fleur for a bit before seeing Viktor sulking in the corner. I excused myself from the conversation to go rope him into the social scene.
"You look weird, brooding over here by yourself," I announced. He just scoffed. "Come on, seriously. Look at Milena. She's making friends with Marc, and neither of them are particularly social. That's exactly the spirit of this whole thing, right? International cooperation? Making new friends and being social?"
"I do not vant to be social."
I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Then I'll stay here and talk to you and make you be social. And maybe drag Cedric and Fleur over here or something..."
Viktor just rolled his eyes right back at me.
"So who's supposed to be taking photos and stuff of us? What's it all for?" I asked, trying to get Viktor talking. I really did want to help him make some friends with the other champions, and besides, trying to pull him out of his mood was distracting me from mine.
"The Daily Prophet," he said. "Rita Skeeter is doing an article on the champions."
My heart stopped. "Rita Skeeter?"
"Da. She is right there."
He pointed to the woman in magenta robes as the door to the small room opened again and Harry walked in. Skeeter zeroed in on him like a heat-seeking missile.
I was dead wrong when I said my mood couldn't get worse after hearing the media wanted pictures. Rita Skeeter being the one people meant when they said 'media' put me in just about the worst mood I'd ever been in in my life.