Chapter Twenty-One
The Enchantlympics got plenty of sign-ups, including a handful of the foreign students. The Duelling Competition was fairly self-explanatory, but we got a lot of questions about the Invention Fair, especially among the non-muggleborns who hadn’t ever attended a school science fair. It was pretty much a free for all, since it was so new.
Multiple people working on an invention were allowed, there would be booths set up outside on the Friday afternoon it was taking place. The Charms and Potions Guilds had already confirmed that they would be sending someone and there was a lot of excitement. Getting your invention noticed by a Guild representative would greatly increase someone’s chances of getting an Apprenticeship, Professor Slughorn told us at a Slug Club meeting. He was delighted by the idea of an Invention Fair and was encouraging everyone in the Club to participate.
Spring break took place on the second week of April. All four of us were staying at Hogwarts, although Ginny was going home to the Burrow and Maggie was going with her. Luna, who lived a short walk away from the Burrow, was also going home for the holidays.
Over spring break, the four of us planned to go check out the construction of the fortress on the island that I had gotten in anticipation of seventh year.
The dwarven team was hard at work when we arrived. The dwarves were a small, closed off community who worked on construction of almost every magical building in the UK. The leader of the construction team, Throkrarlug, stomped over to meet us as we arrived.
“Madam Hawk, as you can see everything is going according to schedule. We have the foundation built and are working on the structure,” they said, gesturing to the bare bones of the building behind him.
“It’s very impressive,” I complimented.
“Of course it is. We’ll have it done by the end of the wizard year 1996, just like you wanted,” Throkrarlug grunted. “We can’t make your floating boxes move, but you’re a wizard so you can do that yourself or get someone else to do it.”
“You can’t do elevators? Didn’t dwarves build the Ministry of Magic, which has elevators?” Hermione asked in confusion.
Magical elevators, operated on runes and magic rather than technology, but the idea had been drawn from muggle elevators even though most would deny that.
“My team specializes in traditional wizard castles and manors. Dusturr’s team does the more modern stuff,” Throkrarlug explained.
“Got it. If it’s not too much trouble, could we look around?” I asked.
“BHAVILA!!” Throkrarlug hollered.
Another dwarf stomped over to us.
“Yes?”
“Bhavila will show you around,” Throkrarlug said.
“Thank you,” I told them.
Throkrarlug grunted before walking off. Bhavila gestured to us and led us to the fortress.
It was located on a small island. The fortress would take up most of it, but there would be space for gardens and greenhouses. The fortress itself would be five floors; an underground floor, a ground floor and three additional floors.
“Everything is being done according to the plans that you approved. Kitchen, house elf rooms, duelling rooms and storage rooms are underground. Your hospital wing, entrance room including a floo, the dining hall and recreational areas are on the ground floor. The first floor is meeting rooms, offices and bedrooms. The second floor is that big classroom you wanted and more bedrooms. Then the third floor is more bedrooms and storage. There will be walkways around the edges of the castle on the first and third floor. All the stones used in the castle have strengthening and protection runes on them and the glass for the windows will have the same,” Bhavila said.
The various dwarves that we passed didn’t even glance up from their work. The only ones who paid us any attention were the dwarves moving supplies who needed to steer out of our way. I found them very practical and down to earth, yet it was easy to see how the dwarves had gotten their reputation as brash and rude.
“The secret passageways?” I asked. Of course my custom castle would have secret passageways.
“Yes, yes. Your secret passageways go by every room and hallway. They can be opened by tracing a series of runes on any stone in the closed off entryway,” Bhavila told us.
“Wicked,” Ron said.
Bhavila completed their perfunct tour and escorted us back outside. We thanked them and then portkeyed back to Hogwarts.
The Hogwarts Army meeting on Saturday had a very small group of people, as it was still spring holidays and the train wasn’t arriving back until tomorrow. Most students had gone home, especially as everyone had stayed during winter break because of the Yule Ball. Rather than have a lesson, we had a bit of a free for all. Some chose to duel against each other, others practiced spells, some read books from the bookshelf, others came up to one of the four of us for advice on something specific.
On Sunday, the rest of the school came back from break. During the following week of school, we spent our time finalizing plans for the Enchantlympics. We had two more private lessons with Moody, where he switched to talking about wartime planning and how everything needed multiple backup plans for each possible scenario.
The Invention Fair was due to start at noon on Sunday, with all of the contestants arriving starting at eleven to set up. Dobby and the Hogwarts house elves happily brought out a variety of snacks for people to enjoy.
By noon, a significant portion of Hogwarts had turned up to see what everyone had come up with. The fair was supposed to go until three, when the winner and runner ups would be announced.
For inventions that were created in less than three weeks, there was an impressive array of items.
Neville, Hannah and Tracey had made a fertilization potion that would help plants grow twice as fast and decrease the likelihood of blemishes or rotting in the plants. They had two plants, one which had been growing normally for a week and one that had been growing with their potion for a week. If it was reliable, it could be a major improvement in magical agriculture.
Some of the Beauxbatons students had an adjustable telescope that could see close enough to view the surface of the moon. They said that they were also looking into the potential of travelling into space and had been paying close attention to muggle astronomy.
Wyatt Oddpick and Dominique Miller, from Slytherin and Ravenclaw respectively, had created a computer that could work in Hogwarts.
“The problem with technology not working in the magical world is the iron, which is used in most muggle technology. Take that out and it fixes the problem. We have radios, but the radios of the wixen world were created by the Charms Guild and don’t have any iron in them. So we reverse engineered a computer using absolutely no iron, and with some help from Dominique’s muggle brother who is going to university for technology, we have a working computer,” Wyatt said enthusiastically.
“It can be used to send emails, make calls and access the internet. Muggleborn students can communicate with their families through our computer for a fee which we will be using to start up a business after we graduate” Dominique explained.
“Fascinating. Do you mind if I verify that it works?” Hermione asked.
“Go ahead,” Wyatt gestured proudly.
Ginny, Luna and Maggie had created a fabric that could deflect all but the most powerful of spells. Most wixen did not use super powerful spells in a duel because it would drain their magical core, the fabric would be very handy in a duel.
The Ravenclaws who had created the projection system that we used during last year's Enchantlympics (Lewis Vector, Julia Poppins, Faye Nettles, Harper Tuttle, Carter Podmore), had evidently been continuing to work on it. They had eliminated the need for a second person to project the image through their wand, thanks to an enchanted muggle projector and could record a video instead of filming live.
There were a variety of potions and charms that were entirely new or modifications of existing potions or spells. Each student proudly showed off their work as we passed by.
Finally, we made our way to the most popular booth, Fred and George’s.
“What is this?” I asked in fear, looking at the twins’ banner that proclaimed Zoogle: The Answer to All Your Questions.
“This, my dear friends, is Zoogle-”
“-a magical search function that-”
“-can answer any question.”
“Ta Da,” George held up a thick book with a handful of questions scribbled on one page.
“You merely write down a question and Zoogle will come up with a list of books that have the answer to your question, including what page it is on. You circle which book you want to choose, then Zoogle will have the entire contents of that book, starting on the next page,” Fred said.
“If you are looking for a specific book, then you just write down that book’s title, Zoogle will have you confirm the book and it will provide that book. So far, Zoogle has the entire contents of the Hogwarts Library and a few of our own books, but we are constantly adding to it,” George said.
“Google. You created a magical version of Google,” I said, breathing carefully through my nose. I cast a handful of anti-eavsdropping charms around us.
“Well, we refuse to officially comment on the inspiration behind Zoogle, but you did mention this muggle Google that knew everything a lot,” Fred said.
“The Z in Zoogle is in your honor Zo, since you told us about Google. Get it, Zo, Zoogle?” George asked.
Ron bent down and wrote ‘What year was the Wizengamot created?’
Three lines showed up. The Wizengamot Through the Ages by Ingrid Ravenclaw (Page 12), Government in the Middle Ages by Ruth Denbright (Page 96) and The Evolution of Albion by Phineas Nigellus Black (Page 143). On the fourth line was See More Titles.
Ron circled the first title and curiously flipped through the Zoogle book.
“This is plagiarism,” Hermione said.
“No it’s not. There is no such company-”
“-or invention in the muggle world currently-”
“-let alone a trademarked one know as-”
“-Google, so you can’t prove anything.”
“Proof or not, we all know you took this from my offhand mentions of Google from the future. It’s actually quite impressive. However, did you even stop to think of the possibilities of this being used against us? Once you make something, it can’t be undone and this is revoloutionary. The Hogwarts library is the most expansive library in Albion. If a Death Eater got this, they would have tremendous knowledge easily accessible and their fingertips. I don’t know that they would think of it, or what exactly they would do with this Zoogle, but the possibility is there and the Death Eaters could cause a lot of damage if they got this,” I said.
“We didn’t-”
“-think of that,” the twins said guiltily.
“It’s groundbreaking and revolutionary and could do so much good, but it could also do a lot of bad in the wrong hands,” Hermione said. “Maybe just wait a few years until the war is over to reveal it to the public?”
“But, everyone had already seen-”
“-it. What do we do right now?”
“You should hide it somewhere safe and secure, under a lot of enchantments. Maybe move it to the Order of the Phoenix headquarters once that is up and running. We can use it, it gives us an advantage, but you can’t make this publicly accessible or even available to Hogwarts students. Once the war is over, market it, but keep it secret for now,” Hermione said.
“Ward the Zoogle, then discreetly let off a grenade bomb. Swear a bunch, grab Zoogle, swear some more and run back to the castle. Then when people ask later, say it blew up and didn’t work,” Ron said.
“That’s good. With the rumor mill what it is and this being only the start of the Enchantlympics, nobody will pay any attention to the possibility of it still being usable,” I said.
“Got it,” they said in unison.
“Wait a few minutes though, so that it doesn’t blow up while we’re here,” Harry advised.
We continued on, making a second loop around all of the booths. Sure enough, Fred and George’s booth exploded and after a minute, they dashed up to the castle with the Zoogle book under Fred’s arm.
“So, we do need to discuss who is winning,” Hermione said. “I personally like the computer.”
“So the computer is okay but Zoogle isn’t?” Harry asked.
“The computer is clearly muggle and the Death Eaters hate anything muggle. Not to mention that they would gain no benefit from access to the internet, because the muggle world and therefore the internet does not know about the magical world. Similarly with any muggle methods of communications via the computer, it only works with other computers or phones, which Death Eaters don’t have,” I said.
“In contrast, Zoogle might be clearly based off muggle technology, but nobody else knows that and it is purely magical. It has the entirety of the Hogwarts library, which is a lot of information. It’s probably better than the Guild libraries, because those focus on one specific subjects whereas the Hogwarts library has all the subjects. If a Death Eater got into the Hogwarts library and decided to do research instead of terrorism, that would be bad. But Zoogle can cut down on research time tenfold and is easy access to the entirety of the Hogwarts library at all times. Besides, it’s important that Fred and George realize that any awesome inventions could be used against us.”
“You think so much,” Ron said.
“Thank you,” I replied.
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“I like the computer, but wouldn’t it be bad publicity for something so muggle to win, especially given the importance of appealing to non-Death Eater traditionalists who are powerful in the Wizengamot?” Harry asked.
“That’s a good point. Maybe the computer in second and the fertilizer potion in first? That could make food so much easier to grow and really cheaper. It’s not flashy, but it’s important. Then, the Beauxbatons telescope for improving international relations in third?” Hermione asked.
“Neville is our friend and Zo is friends with Tracey. It could look like favoritism, especially given it’s not flashy and cool,” Ron said. “There would be the same problem with the girls’ deflective fabric.”
“But those are probably the two best inventions now that Zoogle is out of the running,” Harry said.
“So the question is, do we want to veer towards favoritism or veer towards being too muggle?” I asked.
“This is a competition among Hogwarts students, not the geriatric lords of the Wizengamot. It will be featured in the Prophet of course, but this is a Hogwarts activity and the Hogwarts population is more open to muggle stuff. Besides, this is just for people who want to use it. Meanwhile, the risk of favoritism could significantly hurt the general opinion of the student body. If we want people to trust us, we can’t be accused of favoritism. Besides, the computer is a really good invention and has the potential for adapting other muggle technology,” Hermione said.
“Alright, I say computer in first, fertilizer potion in second, telescope in third,” I said.
“I think the deflection fabric should be third, but otherwise I agree,” Harry said.
“That would definitely veer too close to favoritism and too much attention could have the same ‘falling into enemy hands’ problem as Zoogle. I’m already planning to talk to Ginny, Luna and Maggie tonight,” I said.
“Besides, we need to give one of the other schools a win, especially if you are going to win the Tournament and the telescope is really cool,” Ron said.
“Alright. Computer, then potion, then telescope,” Harry nodded.
“The winner of the Invention Fair is Wyatt Oddpick and Dominique Miller with their computer!” Ron announced.
Wyatt and Dominique embraced to a round of applause. Rita, who was blatantly on Hogwarts grounds despite being banned, hurried over to talk to them.
“In second place is Neville Longbottom, Hannah Abbot and Tracey Davis with their fertilizing potion!” Hermione said.
“In third place is Mathilda Bessette, Roesia Rousseau, Loys Guilloux and Lennaert Teunder with their telescope!” Harry announced.
“Awards and prize baskets will be given out at the feast tonight. Thank you everyone for participating. If you did not come in first, second or third, we have complimentary Honeydukes chocolates for you,” I said, gesturing to where Dobby was standing.
The free chocolates as a consolation prize of sorts had been Hermione’s idea and everyone had rapidly agreed.
At dinner, we gave out the awards and prize baskets with much fanfare to another round of applause.
The Duelling Competition had a total of 59 signups, including all of the Durmstrang students. Tracey informed me that Karkaroff had ordered all of them to enter the duelling competition, who he said he didn’t want to distract from the Tournament. A handful of the Beauxbatons students joined, although most seemed more interested in the Scavenger Hunt. With just under 64 duellists, we would have six rounds to determine the winner, with short breaks in between.
In the first round, we had to have a handful of people sit out the first duel and then proceed to the second regardless so that we could get 32 people in the second round. Most of the first and second years lost their duels, with a few beating similarly aged or slightly older children.
After the first two duels, Colin and his camera team got quite good at capturing all the details of the duel to project onto the screen.
The second round ended with 16 winners, 2 from Beauxbatons, 4 from Durmstrang and 10 from Hogwarts, who would proceed to the third round. We had a short break so that the contestants could drink some water and any of the available healing potions.
The third round was where things got very heated. The first match, a Durmstrang girl and a Hogwarts boy ended in the sixth year Gryffindor needing to be taken up to the castle infirmary and the rest were only slightly less violent. Of the eight remaining duellists, two were Durmstrang and six were Hogwarts students from all four of the houses.
The first match was a Gryffindor boy, Clark Dawlish, versus Adrian Pucey of Slytherin where Dawlish won. In the second match, Sorinna Pitcura from Durmstrang soundly beat Bianca Fawcett of Ravenclaw. Durko Landowska from Durmstrang beat Gabriella Gryffindor and Maria Mulciber beat David Roberts.
In the penultimate round, Maria Mulciber beat Durko Landowska and Sorinna Pitcura beat Clark Dawlish.
The winner of the final round was Sorinna Piturca from Durmstrang. Her win wasn’t that popular among the largely Hogwarts audience, but most applauded politely and a Durmstrang student winning something, even a duelling competition in a student run contest, would be best considering Harry was likely to win the Tournament.
The Dodgeludger competition of this year was way more violent than last years. I attributed this to the presence of both the Durmstrang students, who were the best fighters of their school, and the Weasley Twins, who were cheerfully decimating everything in their path.
The Weasley Twins started out with an informal alliance with the Gryffindor chasers, however when it got to the last eight contestants, the twins speedily betrayed their teammates and defeated the final contestants. They did not move to attack each other and cheerfully announced their joint win before Lee could do so, which I suppose we should have expected the moment they signed up.
It was a good thing that we had additional medals and prize baskets made for the Invention Fair because the team size varied, so we were able to give them both a medal and prize basket.
The Staircase Shield Sliding was won by second year Richard Bell, much to everyone’s surprise. Richard had tucked himself into a ball, holding onto the shield’s arm strap and slid down the staircases in a crouch, which made him much faster and better at navigating the turns onto and off of the different staircases. He cheerfully informed us that he had been practicing ever since last year’s Enchantlympics and his mom was going to be so mad when she found out he had entered.
The Swimming Competition had a large amount of Beauxbatons contestants. One of the boys told me that swimming was very popular at Beauxbatons and that there were classes and an official club. They had a heated lake that people liked to swim in.
Amanda Müllhaupt, one of the girls from Beauxbatons, won the swimming competition beating Laura Hopkins, last year’s winner, by a slim margin. Müllhaupt went over to Laura to make sure there were no hard feelings and soon enough the two of them were having an animated discussion.
On Friday, Cedric Diggory once again won the Broom Racing Competition, defending his place as reigning winner to the cheering crowds.
On Saturday, everyone was assembled in the stands facing the Forbidden Forest for the Scavenger Hunt. Colin’s camera team had widened to include Aiden and Beckett, the other third year Gryffindor boys in addition to Bobby. Colin and Aiden would be filming with two different cameras while Bobby and Beckett would project the video onto the bedsheets floating in midair. Fred and George had volunteered to fly Colin and Aiden around while they filmed.
We had decided to use the same objects from last year; crystal balls, walkie-talkies, books, broomsticks, energy potions, dulled swords and stuffed animals although they were hidden much better this time. In addition, we were keeping the same team names as last year instead of having the teams pick new names. The teams had been picked on Sunday and everyone had had the opportunity to plan and prepare.
The items were much harder to find. Some were buried underground, some were high up in the trees, a few were even enchanted to move locations based on different metrics such as how close somebody was, how many times a location spell would be cast in it’s vicinity, whether or not there was another item close by and more. This year had a twist, the Point-Me spell would only point to the nearest item, not necessarily the one somebody needed. That included the items still hidden and the items in another team’s possession. It had been a complicated bit of rune work to pull off.
Best of all was a map that included the location of all the items and each team. It would be shown to the audience so that they could better enjoy the Scavenger Hunt.
“Is everyone ready?” Ron asked, looking over at the assembled teams.
Harry blew a very large trumpet, probably acquired from the RoR, and the teams dashed off into the forest. Team Caffeine immediately disappeared from sight, at least visible sight. They still showed up on the map tracking the teams and items. Team Galleon split off into three different groups. That was rather problematic. The runic tracker, which was being worn as a necklace pendant by the team’s leader, only tracked her group, not the other two. We would have to put no splitting up in the rules for next time.
Team Sparks got the first item, a stuffed animal, however they quickly ran into Team Hugs who had also been directed by the Point-Me spell to the stuffed animal. Rather than leave to find another, Team Hugs challenged Team Sparks to a duel. Team Sparks’ champion, Madison Vance, beat Team Hugs’ champion, Letty Scrimgeour. The two teams awkwardly parted ways.
With the power of invisibility on their side, Team Caffeine accumulated a book and a crystal ball. As they were trying to sneak past Team Awesome, one of the Team Awesome members evidently heard something and shot off a spell. Sally-Ann Perks of Team Caffeine got hit with a stunner, revealing Team Caffeine's presence. After a brief standoff, the two team decided to leave without duelling.
Having two cameras was definitely a good call as the two boys filmed different teams and the audience was never bored. The only problem was when there were two groups talking at once. Maybe the Ravenclaws who created the filming cameras could add subtitles for next year? One of the little Hufflepuffs was partially deaf, so it would be best anyway.
There were a total of elven injuries requiring the injured person to opt out. This year had significantly more duels than last year and Team Weekend’s entire strategy had revolved around waiting for other teams to find items and then challenging them to a duel.
Team Caffeine eventually won, their invisibility cloaks giving them the winning edge. We would have to ban invisibility cloaks for next year, but it was smart of them to come up with and they weren’t going to be disqualified for something we hadn’t declared against the rules.
At the evening’s feast (the only difference between normal dinners and feasts was what it was called and the fancier feast foods that the house elves were more than happy to provide), everyone was in high spirits.
“And now, we ask Team Caffeine to come up here please,” Ron called out.
Team Caffeine came up to accept medals from Hermione, gift baskets from me and a handshake from Harry.
“Can we get all of this year’s Enchantlympics winners to come up?” Hermione called out.
With some confused looks, the winning students from all of the tables came up.
“A round of applause for this year’s Enchantlympics winners!”
The applause was deafening, as people clapped their hands together, banged on the tables and whistled.
“We hope you all enjoyed the Enchantlympics, whether you were competing or watching. I know the four of us had a fun time. Thank you all and we’ll see you for next year’s Enchantlympics!” I said, before setting off a smoke bomb and we all disappeared under The Invisibility Cloak.