53 Arrival Part 3

As for my second spell, it was my objective all along. I was able to convert "temperature" to Kinetic energy. I won't bore you with the detail, but the results are impressive so far. The spell still needs a lot of work before it can be used either in enchanting or for offense.

As for my Runic Processing Unit, it was already finished by now. A problem remained though: its size. As it is right now, we can't use it in a device you should be able to fit in your pocket. But it was still useful nevertheless. I need to hook it up with the Ravenclaw Artificial Spell Casting Unit, and program it to make copies of itself, albeit in a much smaller variant.

You see, theoretically speaking, runes had a size they occupy in whatever it is you applied them to. You can imagine them as a way to change the universe's code for said object. But it's not exclusive to objects either, you can bind them to liquids (a Pensieve would be a good example), air, space (Wards), or even time (though this one was purely in theory, only a single example exists and that would be the time turners, but to this day, nobody knows how it actually works. Not that they'd ever make it known if they did.)

Also, the runes you can apply to a cubic meter of matter, you could apply the very same ones to a single atom. But in order to pull it off, you'd need to be precise to a ridiculous degree, something that wizards are incapable of. They can still apply runes to small objects, but the time necessary to do so is so absurd it's not worth it. To oversimplify things, we need to replace wizards in the carving process (note that carving here is metaphorical. Runes aren't physical symbols as many would think.).

Right now, my team is familiarizing themselves with the artificial spell caster's blueprints, before we start making it. I will have to drop school for a month, since this was too important to fail. But I've still got some time.

My musings were interrupted by the headmaster's booming voice.

"'Now that we are all fed and watered…" he began his annual speech, warning us about all the items that have been blacklisted for the year by the caretaker, then emphasizing just how forbidden the FORBIDDEN forest is, as if the name was not enough. Actually, it totally wasn't. If anything, it encouraged a few idiots from Gryffindor to do just what the headmaster is warning them against, which generally ended badly for them. '… May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody.'

As soon as he said that, I discreetly took out my map, and checked his name. if everything went the same as in the original story, he shouldn't be the real Alastor Moody, but Barty Crouch Junior under Polyjuice. I looked for the part of the map that showed the Great Hall, then for Dumbledore's name as a reference. Once I checked the names of everyone surrounding him, my face drained of all colors. 'No, no, no, no… This is not supposed to happen.' To say that I was panicking would be an understatement.

The name read "Alastor Moody". Meaning that it was in fact the real Alastor. It was impossible to trick the castle about your name, as it used Silent Contract on anyone who wished to enter the premises. If you refused it somehow, it would attack you immediately, and trust me, there was no man on earth that could survive an attack from Hogwarts. Why? It's because the location it was built on was special. Mana was concentrated at this specific location, underground the castle, to insane levels, if the founders were to be believed. Which gives her a near limitless supply of Mana.

Barty was not here at Hogwarts, which could mean a lot of things, and I did not appreciate any of the possibilities. The most direct consequence of this is that none of my knowledge of the future is useful any longer. I was now on my own. I was not sure which of the events would still happen, or how the Triwizard tournament would progress.

In the original story, Voldemort had Barty infiltrate Hogwarts without anyone's knowledge, but the idea was not even funny. (Such feat was just impossible, unless you had the Harry's invisibility cloak. As a Deathly Hollow, it provided more perks than just making you invisible to the eye. It hid your presence completely from the world. At least, the castle can't sense him when he's using it. )

Then, Barty would play professor disguised as Alastor Moody, the most paranoid man on earth and a close friend of Dumbledore without being detected, for a whole year. And then, under everyone's noses, make a portkey to take the winner back to the starting point. I can't begin to understand why a Hogwarts' professor would be the one to make the portkey. As far as I understand, that's the tournament's committee's job, and they were made of British, French and Bulgarian wizards. Why would they ask a Hogwarts' professor to make a simple portkey for them?

As for the reason why Voldemort wanted to lure Harry Potter to the graveyard, where the portkey would take him, it's to use him in a ritual that requires the blood of an enemy. And at the same time, kill him in front of all of his followers to prove that the boy never vanquished him, and that he is still the superior wizard. I'm not going to comment on the battle that ensued because it's just ridiculous and unrealistic. If Harry ever had the misfortune of facing Voldemort in a 1v1 situation, he'd be a hundred and twenty percent dead. No "Power of Love" would save him, not that such a thing existed in the first place. You should've seen the look on Salazaar's face when I asked him. I never imagined I'd see him of all the people laughing hysterically.

"… As I was saying, we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event which has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the TriWizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year…" Dumbledore gave a brief history of the Triwizard tournament, what it is, why it was reinstated, and how it would proceed. "…The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Hallowe'en. 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…" He then told us that only those of age would be able to participate in the tournament, which earned him boos from the students, especially Fred and George who were very vocal in their discontent. "… Now off to bed, Chop Chop!"

Unsurprisingly, Quidditch was not cancelled this year. Not that it could ever happen, the one thing you can never take away from young wizards and witches is Quidditch. As the only sport available to them, it actually became more of a religion than a sport. If Dumbledore as much as insinuated that Quidditch would be cancelled, everyone would draw their wands on him, including the professors. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but it's somewhat true.

As we made our way out of the Great Hall, I turned to my friends: "Go on without me guys, I've got something to do first." They all nodded except Daphne, who quickly added: "I'll go with you."

I raised an eyebrow at her, as if saying 'What are you doing?', but she just shrugged: "I have the same thing." I just shook my head, as we both made our way slowly towards the stairs. Luckily, there were no professor in our way when we checked the map. I really wasn't in the mood to sneak around. We did notice some couples however, who couldn't wait and immediately claimed a few broom closets and empty classrooms to themselves. A shame professor Flitwick would deal with all of them shortly, I could already see him making his way there.