The journey to Platform nine and threequarters was uncomfortable, owing to the fact that they were jammed in the back of the taxis with their trunks. They were very relieved to get out at King's Cross, even though the rain was coming down harder than ever, and they got soaked carrying their trunks across the busy road and into the station.
The Hogwarts Express was already there, clouds of steam billowing from it. The four set off to find their seats and were soon stowing their luggage in a compartment halfway along the train. They hopped back down onto the Platform to say goodbye to Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie.
"I might be seeing you all sooner than you think," said Charlie, grinning as he hugged Ginny goodbye.
"Why," asked Fred keenly.
"You'll see," replied Charlie. "Just don't tell Percy I mentioned it...it's 'classified information, until such time as the Ministry sees fit to release it,' after all."
"Yeah, I sort of wish I was back at Hogwarts this year," said Bill, hands in his pocket, looking almost wistfully at the train.
"Why?" said George impatiently.
"You're going to have an interesting year," said Bill, his eyes twinkling. "I might even get time off to come and watch a bit of it..."
"A bit of what?" said Ron.
But at that moment, the whistle blew, and Mrs. Weasley chivvied them toward the train doors.
"Thanks for having us stay, Mrs. Weasley," said Hermione as they climbed on board, closed the door, and leaned out of the window to talk to her.
"Yes, thank you for everything!" Estella added as Harry thanked her.
"Oh, it was my pleasure, dears," said Mrs. Weasley. "I'd invite you for Christmas, but well, I expect you're all going to want to stay at Hogwarts, with what-"
The pistons hissed loudly, and the train began to move.
The four of them went back to their compartment. The thick rain splattering the windows made it very difficult to see out of them. Ron undid his trunk, pulled out his maroon dress robes, and flung them over Pidwidgeon's cage to muffle his hooting.
"Oh Ron, I meant to ask; do you prefer a certain color of robes, or is black okay?" Estella asked.
"He said yes?!" Ron looked at her excitedly.
"Yeah, he has a lot left over," she replied.
"Black and white are fine, or just plain black," Ron said. Estella nodded; she'd letter her father later.
As Hermione informed Ron of the history of Drumstang, Harry laid his head on Estella's lap and glanced up at her.
"Hi," she said, grinning.
"Hi," Harry smiled at her.
Estella ran her hand through his grown-out hair, grateful it wasn't as long as Fred and George's. It seemed this year; all the boys refused to get a haircut.
Harry's eyes drifted to her lips. Merlin, did he want to kiss them again. He glanced at Ron and Hermione, both immersed in whatever was happening outside in the corridor. He leaned up, pressing a quick and lingering kiss to her lips. Estella smiled and cautiously glanced at Ron and Hermione, both of whom now stepped out into the corridor. Her mouth found his, the kiss open and deep, a clash of tongues. She tilted her head and leaned into the kiss. Their lips moving together. Estella reluctantly pulled away as she heard a hand hit the compartment door.
Seconds later, in walked Ron and Hermione, who waved goodbye to a hidden figure.
Estella didn't think she'd ever get enough of his lips.
The rain became heavier and heavier as the train moved farther north. The sky was so dark and the windows so steamy that the lanterns were lit by midday. The lunch trolley came rattling down the corridor, and Harry bought a large snack of Cauldron Cakes for them to share.
Several of their friends looked in on them as the afternoon progressed, including Seamus, Dean, and Neville. Estella sat reading Ancient Ruins Made Easy as the boys kept insisting on endless Quidditch talk. This year she decided to take Ancient Runes, as she dropped Divination due to it being too easy. She'd earned a letter from Professor Trelawney insisting she take the class, which Estella politely denied. She learned nothing new in that class in the span of a year; it was time to move on. Instead of starting in the initial Ancient Runes class, she was placed with Hermione as she caught up on the material over the summer.
Hermione sat across from her, reading the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4, and trying to learn a Summoning Charm. Hermione was secretly envious that Estella had already mastered every charm from the book.
Estella looked up as a new voice joined the room.
"For the first and last time in your life, Weasley."
Draco appeared in the doorway. Behind him stood Crabbe and Goyle, both of whom appeared to have grown at least a foot during the summer. It seemed everyone had a growth spur but Estella and Hermione. Even Harry towered over her, but she wasn't mad at that.
"Don't remember asking you to join us, Malfoy," said Harry cooly.
Estella ignored the rest of the conversation and went back to reading. Only looking up once Draco had left. Ron's bad mood continued for the rest of the journey. He didn't talk much as they changed into their school robes and was still glowering when the Hogwarts Express slowed down at last and finally stopped in the pitch-darkness of Hogsmeade.
As the train doors opened, there was a rumble of thunder overhead. The four walked down the path to the carriages pulled by the Thestral before arriving at the Castle.
People who had occupied the carriages in front were already hurrying up the stone steps into the castle. Ron, Hermione, Neville, Harry, and Estella piled out of the carriage and dashed up the steps, looking up only when they were safely inside the cavernous, torch-lit entrance hall with its magnificent marble staircase.
"I freaking hate the rain," Estella groaned as she murmured the drying spell for the four of them.
Neville's eyes snapped to her, "You can do wandless magic?" he gasped.
She nodded, not adding on.
The Great Hall looked its usual splendid self, decorated for the start-of-term feast. Golden plates and goblets gleamed by the light of hundreds and hundreds of candles floating over the tables in midair. The four long longhouse tables were packed with chattering students; at the top of the hall, the staff sat along one side of a fifth table, facing their pupils. The four of them walked past the Slytherins, the Ravenclaws, and the Hufflepuffs and sat down with the rest of the Gryffindors at the far side of the Hall.
Estella sat to fill the seat next to Hermione before being pulled down to sit with Harry.
"Really?" she grinned. She secretly loved the attention, although she'd never admit it.
"Yes," Harry hissed as he took her hand under the table.
"Hope they hurry up with the Sorting. I'm starving," Harry said.
The Sorting of the new students into the Houses took place. Estella caught her grandfather's eye and sent him a wave. He'd been at their house over the summer more than usual. It seemed his, and her father's relationship was finally beginning to mend.
"Hiya, Harry!"
The four heads turned, and it was Colin Creevey, whom Harry was a hero for.
"Hi, Colin," said Harry warily.
"Harry, guess what? Guess what, Harry? My brother's starting! My brother Dennis!"
"Er-good..." Harry replied, eliciting a laugh from Estella. Harry playfully glared at the girl next to him, who was clearly enjoying his awkwardness.
"He's really excited!" said Colin, practically bouncing up and down in his seat. "I just hope he's in Gryffindor! Keep your fingers crossed, eh, Harry?"
"Yeah, all right," said Harry. He turned back to the three of them. "Brothers and sisters usually go in the same Houses, don't they?"
Estella shook her head, "No, depends on their traits. Parvati Patil's twin in Ravenclaw, and they're identical," Estella commented.
"Where's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" asked Hermione, noticing an empty chair at the head table.
Would anyone ever last more than a year?
"Maybe they couldn't get one!" said Hermione, looking anxious.
The four grew silent as the Sorting took place. Of course, Dennis Creevey was placed in Gryffindor, who immediately ran up to his brother and celebrated falling into the lake.
Through a door behind the teacher's table opened, and a large burly man with tangled hair and slightly alarming, to be frank, walked in with Hagrid. And as the last student was Sorted, the annual Hogwarts feast began.
When the pudding, too, had been demolished, and the last crumb had faded off the plates, leaving them sparkling clean, Dumbledore got to his feet again. The buzz of chatter filling the Great Hall ceased almost at once so that only the howling wind and pounding rain could be heard.
"So!" said Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. "Now that we are all watered and fed, I must ask once more for your attention while I give out a few notices."
"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."
Fat chance of that. There was no way Fred and George would ever stick to that list.
The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched. He continued, "As ever, I would like to remind you all at the forest on the grounds is out – of that bounce to all students and is the village of Hogsmeade to all below the third year."
"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year." Shocks and gasps of disbelief filled the Great Hall.
"What?" Harry gasped.
Dumbledore went on, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing through the school year, taking up much of the teacher's time and energy, but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that at Hogwarts-"
But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder, and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.
A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black traveling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swiveled toward the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling. He lowered his hood, shook out a long Mane of grizzled, dark gray hair, then walked up to the teacher's table.
A dull clunk echoed through the Hall on his every other step. He reached the end of the top table, turned right, and limped heavily toward Dumbledore. Another flash of lightning crossed the ceiling. Hermione gasped as Estella's eyes narrowed.
It was a face unlike any she'd ever seen. It looked as though it had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces are supposed to look like and was none too skilled with a chisel. Every inch of skin seemed to be scarred. A large chunk of the nose was missing, but it was the man's eyes that made him frightening.
One of them was small, dark, and beady. The other was large, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue. The blue eye was moving ceaselessly, without blinking, and rolling up, down, and from side to side.
The stranger, who Estella assumed to be the new DADA professor, reached Dumbledore. He stretched out a hand that was as badly scarred as his face, and Dumbledore shook it, muttering words no one could hear.
"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."
It was usual for new staff to be greeted with applause, but none of the staff or students clapped except Dumbledore and Hagrid.
"Moody?" Harry muttered to Ron. "Mad-Eye Moody? The one your dad went to help this morning?"
"Must be," said Ron in a low, awed voice.
"Didn't your dad work with him, Stella?" Hermione whispered.
She nodded, "A while back, yeah," Estella said as she recalled stories of her father and Moody facing death-eaters.
"What happened to his face?"
"Dunno," Ron whispered back, watching Moody with fascination.
"As I was saying," Dumbledore continued, "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 Tournaments will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."
"You're joking!" said Fred loudly.
The tension that had filled the Hall ever since Moody's arrival suddenly broke. Nearly everyone laughed, and Dumbledore chuckled appreciatively.
"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," he said, "though not that you mention it, I did hear an excellent over the summer. Oh, Estella already knows this. Anyways, a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar..."
Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly as Estella laughed, recalling the joke, which truly wasn't that funny, but she typically laughed at all jokes.
Harry looked over at the chuckling girl and couldn't fight the smile that spread to his face. Even without hearing the joke, she sat already dying of laughter.
"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 Drumstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took turns hosting 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. That is, until the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."
"Death toll?" Hermione whispered, looking alarmed.
"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which has been very successful. However, our very own Department of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt."
"The Head of Beauxbatons and Drumstrang will be arriving with their shortlisted contenders in October, and the selection of the three 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 personal prize money."
"I'm going for it!" Fred Weasley hissed down the table, his face lit with enthusiasm at the prospect of such glory and riches.
"However, only students who are of age, that is to say, seventeen years or older, will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts Champion." His eyes twinkled as they flickered over Fred and Geroge's mutinous faces.
"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Drumstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. 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!"
There was a great scraping and banging as all the students got to their feet and swarmed toward the double doors into the entrance hall.
"They can't do that!" said George, who was standing up and glaring at Dumbledore. "We're seventeen in April; why can't we have a shot?"
"They're not stopping me entering," said Fred stubbornly, also scowling. "The champions get to do all sorts of stuff you'd never be allowed to do normally. And a thousand Galleons prize money!"
"George, I can help with the shop money-" Sienna started.
"Sie, I'd never let you do that," George shut her down without hesitation.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Estella, George, Sienna, and Fred set off for the entrance hall, Fred and George debating the ways in which Dumbledore might stop those who were under seventeen from entering the tournament.
Estella silently chuckled, knowing her grandfather no spell or potion would help anyone other than seventeen enter. It'd take strong and potentially dark magic to do that. Or someone to submit your name for you.
They made their way up to the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.
"Password?" the Fat Lady asked as they approached.
"Balderdash," said George, "a perfect told me downstairs."
The portrait swung forward, and they all climbed in. A crackling fire warmed the room.
"Wait up," Harry whispered.
"Stella, you coming?" Hermione asked. Estella shook her head and plopped onto the common room couch. The room cleared up quickly until it was the two of them.
Without hesitation, Harry pressed a kiss to her jaw, making Estella chuckle before moving away.
"Harry?"
"Es?" he replied, pulling back to look at her face.
"What are we? Like, I know we're soulmates, but in terms of-"
Harry grinned, "Are you asking me to be your boyfriend?" He'd planned to ask her in a more romantic way.
Estella slapped his shoulder and sent the boy a playful grin, "Hey, I'm just asking. I mean, we kiss-"
Harry pressed a quick kiss to her cheek before pulling back, "Estella Aurora Dumbledore, I'd love to be your boyfriend," Harry laughed. It felt surreal. He'd been crushing on this girl since he first met her, which only grew with each passing day.
Estella laughed, "Okay, Harry James Potter, thanks for being my boyfriend." Estella grinned; Harry's smile was infectious. It was also clear love was his touch language; since their first kiss, he found every reason in the book to touch her, which she certainly didn't mind.
She pressed a slow and lingering kiss to his warm lips, pulling away before he could reciprocate. "Good night, Harry," she whispered.
"Good night, Estella."
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