The Triwizard Tournament
The journey to Platform 9 ¾ went surprisingly well given Hope’s track record. In her first year, she’d been accompanied by Remus and Vincent Crabbe had started calling her a teacher’s pet as soon as they’d stepped foot in their first Defence class. She’d tried going with Hermione in her second year, only for the pair of them to have been accosted by the fourth year Weasley twins, tricked into missing the train, and coerced into driving their dad’s flying car to Hogwarts (safe to say, Hermione had not been happy). She’d actually managed to board the train without much trouble in her third year, only for dementors to swarm the train in search of Barty Crouch Jr., who’d escaped Azkaban that summer – as far as Hope knew, he was still at large. Fourth year had been fine until Peeves decided to waterbomb the entirety of Gryffindor table at dinner – and Hope had had to wring out her robes right in front of Cedric Diggory. Mundungus Fletcher had offered to apparate her to the station in fifth year, and as well-intentioned as Dung was, they’d ended up in the outskirts of Belfast (missing a few fingernails each). Safe to say, Tonks had offered herself up this year before he could again.
“So Tonks,” she started, putting on her best smile. The older witch eyed her carefully, bubble-gum pink hair turning a pale green. “Padfoot was telling me something about needing dress robes this year. Ministry business, I’m guessing – you hear anything as work?”
In a way Hope almost regretted not having Dung try to take her to the station this year – whatever was going to happen would have been far easier to swindle out of him. Then again, Tonks was only a few years older than her and that was something Hope could use. As expected, Tonks’ hair turned a bright shade of red.
“Oh, you know Hope – I’m not really supposed to say,” she said, squinting up at the entrance to the station. “Ministry business, you know. Moody’s got us all ready to go just in case anything – “
“The auror department?” Hope asked. What in Merlin’s name could the common denominator between dress robes and the DMLE be? “So whatever it is – it’s going to be dangerous, then?”
Tonks stumbled on the step up into King’s Cross and blushed to match her hair. “Dangerous? Oh, uh – c’mon Hope. Moody will have my head if I let anything slip about the damned thing. It’s supposed to be a surprise, especially after all these years-”
Hope grinned, green eyes flashing mischievously. She was a Gryffindor of course – Sirius would have killed her if she’d been anything but. And yet the sorting hat had said she’d have done well in Slytherin. So, with a growing smirk she turned back to a nervous Tonks: “After all these years? So the Ministry is brining something back to Hogwarts? Oh, go on Tonks! You’ve already told me half the story. I won’t tell anyone – I swear!”
Muggles swarmed around them as they moved towards the platform, all tanned and burnt from their holidays abroad. Hermione had spent the summer at the Weasleys but Hope had stayed in London all summer to spend time with her recluse godfather and uncle. And well, to see if her father would stop home at all – though she wasn’t going to admit that out loud.
“What I tell you here doesn’t reach anyone else’s ears?” Tonks told her in a whisper, eyes and hair darkening till they were black. “Seriously, Hope – I’m in hot water with Moody as is.”
“I promise,” Hope said with a bright grin, briefly turning away to push her trolley through the enchanted wall that led to the platform. She turned back to Tonks as soon as they boarded the platform. “I swear, honestly. Go on – I’m just curious. You know what I’m like.”
Tonks glanced left, then right, and only once she’d established no one was listening in, did she lean in to mutter in Hope’s ear. “The Triwizard Tournament,” she whispered. “They’re bringing it back and Hogwarts is hosting this year.”
Hope blinked once, then again. “But Tonks,” she said, eyes wide. “They banned the old thing ages ago – people died. Didn’t someone get – oh, I don’t know – eaten by a chimera?”
Tonks winced and scratched at the back of her head. “Oh well, maybe. Anyway, they’ve adjusted it this year – introduced safety measures apparently. Either way, you’ll find out at dinner.”
Hope nodded and nudged Tonks in the side. “I appreciate the warning, Tonks. Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know what schools – “
“Oh no!” Tonks snapped fearfully, pointing her finger at Hope. “No, no – you’re not getting anything else out of me. Merlin, you’d have thought you were a Slytherin if it weren’t for that bloody badge. See there Hope – you won’t have any time for a tournament being Quidditch captain and all that. There you go – mind your own business.”
Hope shrugged – it was worth a try at least. She heaved her trunk off the trolley, refusing to trust Tonks with her charm work. Not after the incident last Christmas. With her broomstick over her shoulder and Hedwig’s empty cage hanging off the end of it she jumped up onto the train and propped herself up on the railing.
“I suppose I’ll see you around then Tonks,” she shrugged. “Christmas maybe – or I suppose not, what with all this tournament nonsense. Drop in on Sirius and Uncle Reggie, would you?”
“Course I will,” Tonks smiled back. “They are family, after all. Have a good one, Hope. Don’t get into too much trouble then, eh?”
Hope nodded and smiled and watched as Tonks moved back towards the platform exit, no doubt back off to work. The witch’s hair shifted to a bright shade of red as she went, likely as a reflection of the crowd of young Gryffindors flocking past her to board the train. For a brief second, Hope’s heart tightened in her chest. If she squinted, and really used her imagination then Tonks almost looked like –
No, she didn’t. Not really. Hope huffed out a breath of hot air and glanced around the platform one more time. She wasn’t searching for anyone in particular – no – just a head of messy dark hair like her own, maybe a flash of the glasses she was supposed to be wearing, even a hint of a crooked grin or a shade of olive skin. As usual, he was nowhere to be found.
She shook her hair out of her eyes and took hold of her luggage, sauntering down the train corridor with her shoulders rolled back. There was no point in getting upset, she thought, as she watched families kiss their children goodbye on the platform. No – in fact she had something none of the other students had once she arrived at school. Hope had Remus for the entirety of the school year, and really, she had no room to complain about some missing kiss goodbye.
She heaved her trunk up onto a rack and settled down in a carriage midway down the train, tossing her feet up onto the seats opposite her as she waited for the train to fill up as she did every year. She almost wished she hadn’t let Hedwig out to fly to school early, wanting after some form of company as she waited.
Looking out the window at the platform she could make out the Weasley family in all their bustling glory. Molly Weasley stood behind all her children, fussing after as many of them as she could. Hope resisted a giggle at the sight of Ginny pointing her wand at her brother Ron, who looked rather green in the face as the little ginger witch snapped at him about whatever he’d done to wrong her that morning. Surprisingly, Fred and George Weasley had come to see their younger siblings off, or rather Fred had come to see Hermione off - the witch was standing to the side, curls of wild hair sticking out in all directions as Fred ran his hand through them. Hermione’s cheeks were almost as red as his hair, of course. The older boy had been flirting with Hermione for years on end - she supposed it was a rather bittersweet that Hermione had only given in once the twins left school. It probably had something to do with the bitter old hag that had come in to supervise the school last year and the way Fred had stood up to her.
Umbridge had spent the year trying to get rid of Remus on the basis that he was a werewolf, of Trelawney on the basis that she was apparently half mad, and of Dumbledore on the basis that he was too old to teach - not to mention the use of blood quills on students. They'd only managed to get rid of the bitch once a number of concerned parents made their complaints to the ministry. Hope absent mindedly rubbed at the scar across her left hand.
I must not tell lies.
Of course Hope had told no lies. Sirius Black was not a criminal, her Uncle Regulus was not in fact a "half mad squib", and her mother - well her mother most likely was lost forever, but Hope was hardly going to let her bitch of a teacher tell her that. When she'd come home from school, Sirius had cried all evening until Remus arrived, fresh out of ministry custody, and then Sirius had started shouting all sorts of crude things about the ministry. Regulus on the other hand had quietly taken her hand in his and looked mournfully out of the window at the street below. "You should have said something," he'd told her quietly. "I would have come." Hope glanced at him doubtfully, but nodded all the same.
Practically every parent of every child had signed to get Umbridge fired, Sirius signing in James Potter's place. Remus was given his job back, and all students received formal apologies from the ministry. Of course the damage had been done, and some students like the Weasley twins had left the school before the year was done, in a final act of defiance.
"You alright there, Potter?"
Hope blinked - Ginny, Hermione and Ron were gone from the platform. Turning to the door of the compartment, she saw the two girls looking at her expectedly. Behind Ginny stood Luna Lovegood, nose buried in an upside down copy of the Quibbler. "Wotcher, girls," she said with a smile. "Nice summer?"
Ginny grinned and lurched forward to hug her tightly. "Merlin, Hope. You sure could write a little more - you're in London, not the middle of the desert. Even Bill writes more often than you."
"I really don't mind coming to Grimmauld Place, you know," Hermione said, coming to hug her too. Hope breathed in deeply as her friend's curls engulfed her entirely. "No matter how much old Walburga Black calls me a filthy mudblood."
"There's Kreacher too," Hope shrugged. "The Black family is hardly riveting company. I'm sure you had a much better time at the Burrow - say, what's that on your neck then?"
Hermione reached up to frantically pat at her skin, searching for the blemish that didn't exist. "Oh hush, Hope. Fred is a perfect gentlemen I'll have you know."
But Ginny's wide eyed smile was enough to tell Hope exactly what she needed to know. The ginger witch hid her laughter behind her hand, but Hope openly grinned and tugged Hermione down in the seat behind her. Luna was still in the corridor, staring out of the window as the train began to move. "You alright there, Lovegood? Want to come sit down?"
"I suppose," Luna said with a dreamy smile. "You're looking rather pale, Hope. You should get out in the sun a little more."
Hope raised an eyebrow and looked down at her olive skin. Her great grandmother had been a Shafiq and on a particularly sunny day, her skin could be as dark as Hermione's - who's own mother was Ethiopian. "I'm hardly helping myself by shipping myself off to Scotland then, am I?"
All of a sudden, Hope remembered the conversation she'd had with Tonks on the way to the station. "You'll never guess what I found out!"
Hermione raised an eyebrow and looked at Ginny with a knowing smile.
"Is this about the tournament?" Ginny asked her with a grin. "Because it didn't take much for Fred and George to get it all out of Bill and Charlie - and then Hermione swindled it out of Fred pretty easily. Ron doesn't know though; please don't tell him. I really want to see his face when he finds out he’s the last to know.”
It wasn’t that Hope was particularly fussed about Ginny making fun of her slightly gormless brother - it was more that she’d almost been the last to know herself. “So - what exactly is going to happen?”
“Well I think it’s an utter travesty,” Hermione frowned. “I’m all for inter scholar cooperation, but the tournament was banned for a reason, you know-“
“And that’s why the board have adjusted the tournament to reduce the risk of-“
”Mortal peril?” Hermione interrupted with her arms folded across her chest. “Honestly, between Umbridge last year and this it’s like they’re actually trying to kill us all off.”
Hope pinched at the bridge of her nose. She wasn’t sure whether it was the arguing that was giving her a headache, or the fact that she’d forgone her glasses yet again. “I suppose you’re not going to enter, Mione?”
”Of course not,” the witch huffed. “In fact, no one should enter, and they’ll have to call it off.”
“Oh I don’t know,” Luna sighed, putting down her magazine. “It might be rather exciting. I’m hoping for dragons and sphinxes and all sorts of marvellous creatures.”
At the mention of dragons, Hope sat up straight. “Dragons? Really? Do you really think so?”
Ginny shrugged. “I mean Charlie must have known about the whole thing for a reason.”
Hope wrote to Charlie Weasley on a regular basis - he’d promised to show her the retreat in Romania as soon as she turned 17, and summer could not come soon enough. She supposed her love for dragons might have started in her first year, when Hagrid had shown her his baby Norwegian Ridgeback. Of course Hope and Hermione had had to send the tiny dragon straight off to Romania, but Hope had been rather reluctant to do so.
Sitting back in her seat with her fist under her chin, Hope began to wonder. She didn’t need any sort of reward, or glory - but dragons and magic and all sorts of adventures. Maybe this was what she finally needed to prove herself as something more than the Potter heir.
“I made Quidditch captain,” she said all of a sudden, moving her robes to show off her badge. “I thought it’d go to Katie given it’s her last year and all but -“
”That’s amazing!” Ginny exclaimed, shooting to her feet. “Hope, this is wonderful.” And then Ginny got a little quieter. “What would you think about me trying out as beater?”
Hope grinned. “I think you’re the woman for the job, Ginny.”