Harry wakes up

Harry opened his eyes groggily, to be greeted by a very familiar ceiling: it was the one he saw every time he went on one of his adventures that ended up with him fainting. He was unsurprisingly in the infirmary, for whatever reason he didn't know. He tried to remember why he was here in the first place, but couldn't.

The sun was setting, and looking ahead, he could see a few students coming in in various colors, sometimes with several deformities. Few had horns, some had nails taller than themselves, teeth that reached the ground, with madam Pomfrey fussing about them, admonishing them in the process. He couldn't, however, make out what was being said, as their voices came in a very low volume. His limbs could barely move, and he knew it was the effect of one of the nurse's potions, so he patiently waited for the effects to wear off.

He observed as the nurse cast several spells, asking him to lie down, turning around she tasked one of her aides to fetch her someone, which surprisingly turned out to be Professor McGonagall. As the transfiguration master, she knew better how to cancel whatever was cast upon the poor kids, especially when the spells appeared too complex or different from what the nurse was used to. After she finished fixing them up, she glanced at Harry's bed, and noticed he was awake. Her eyes widened momentarily, before she said something to the nurse.

"Are you awake, Potter?" she asked with her usual stern expression, though there was clearly concern hidden behind her facade.

"Yes, professor…" He said, having regained some of his strength. Madam Pomfrey, however, was unconvinced, and cast several spells over him.

"Why am I here?" he asked with confusion, which prompted the professor to look at the school nurse.

"The memories will slowly come back to you, Mr. Potter, you've been… Ahem, hit on the head you see…"

'Makes sense to me.' Harry shrugged, unaware of how obvious of a lie that was. The real reason why he couldn't remember, however, was thanks to Albus Dumbledore treatment. Being an accomplished Legilimens, he has obviously spent an absurd amount of time learning about the different ways the wizard mind worked, including how our memories shaped them, how they were affected by memories, especially traumatic ones…

He did not obliviate him, as the situation didn't warrant it. He did not wish to lose Harry's trust, which could easily be done had he removed his memories without his permission. Instead, he cast a spell on him that would make him gradually remember what happened that night, while detaching, or attenuating his emotions of the events. It was treatment heavily used in the mental aisle in St Mungo's, for people who had to deal with traumatic experiences, which was what Harry clearly went through.

Harry had to spend the night in the infirmary. The memories of the event started coming back to him around 9 PM, which made him angrier by the second. He then remembered that Ron was with him too, and immediately tried to get up to look for him, but was prevented from doing so by the school nurse, who informed him that Ron wasn't at Hogwarts at the moment. By midnight, he was forced to drink a dreamless sleep potion at the nurse's insistence, which sent him into slumber instantly.

The next day, he was unsurprisingly visited by Albus Dumbledore himself, who was there to check if nothing was wrong with him, being responsible for his treatment.

Harry proceeded to ask him about what happened after the incident, as he remarked he was pretty sure what Malfoy did was not only against school rules, but also against Wizarding Law. Dumbledore, for his part, did not lie to him.

He explained that using any spell on a fellow wizard was strictly forbidden, and was usually against the law in the majority of countries. Needless to say, using offensive spells was a one-way ticket to Azkaban, unless the spells weren't that harmful, and the situation was exceptional, they would only be fined for the transgression. Draco has fallen into the latter category.

Dumbledore explained that, had Malfoy been seventeen, he wouldn't have been able to avoid going to Azkaban, but since he was a minor, his parents had to put on a lot of money to appease the victim's family, who was also a minor. He wouldn't have been sent to Azkaban anyway, so why not accept the money, especially since Harry's so called family could really use it?

Then came the matter of his expulsion. Dumbledore reasoned that, if he kicked them out of the school, they would just find somewhere else to study, and given their family's connections, it wouldn't be difficult to get them enrolled into the notorious Durmstrang. Dumbledore wanted to keep them here to keep an eye on them, as he suspected their families to be supporters of Voldemort.

Obviously, that wasn't the whole story, as Dumbledore withheld a part he deemed 'unnecessary knowledge' for him, like how he earned quite a few favors in the process.

Even though Harry was livid Malfoy would still be in class, he seemed to accept Dumbledore's judgement, reasoning that he was wiser than himself, and probably wouldn't keep someone dangerous in the school grounds. Boy was he wrong. Dumbledore would want to keep his enemies closer, even though he knew such incidents were bound to happen again as the Dark Lord's resurrection draws near. 'The unseen blade is the deadliest.'

Albus knew that Malfoy wouldn't have gone to such length without being instigated by someone, probably his father. That did give him a decent amount of information: they were growing more confident, and trying to earn Voldemort's favor by attacking the Boy-Who-Lived. Or maybe they were acting on Voldemort's order, trying to weaken him. Either way, it worked well for Albus' plans.

Harry was visited by all his friends the next day, which was surprisingly not limited to the Gryffindors. Kaiser's circle of friends, including some of the Hufflepuffs with whom he practiced in their Defense Club visited him.

Speaking of which, their defense club was having monumental success. The lesson plans Kaiser and Cedric helped them draft were exceedingly effective, even though they were focused completely on the practical side.

They've all learned by now silent casting on some basic spells, and some of them started moving to more complex charms, like the Protego Charm because of how crucial it was.

They were planning on expanding their numbers, but they would be waiting for Kaiser to return before it happened, as he wasn't at Hogwarts at the moment.

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It was mid october when the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons delegations arrived at Hogwarts. They wanted to go ahead of time to get everyone acclimated to their new school of the rest of the year, including their future champion. They did not wish to be at disadvantage just because they would be operating on "foreign soil".

The Durmstrang delegation was not boys exclusive. Similarly, the Beauxbatons delegation wasn't all female. In fact, their ratio was pretty close to fifty-fifty, as to not favor one gender over the other. Neither boys or girls had the advantage when it came to Magic, contrary to physical activities, in which boys would excel, so it wouldn't make sense to not include everyone evenly.

It was also around that time that Kaiser finally came out of 'seclusion'. It was midday, and the second session had just passed. Students were converging towards the Great Hall for lunch. He spotted Michael, Tracey and Daphne sitting with some Ravenclaws, so that's where he headed. Needless to say, thanks to their lack of internet and things to do, people started whispering about his disappearance, causing all kinds of wild rumors to start flying around, including one where he ran away with his secret lover, but Kaiser paid them no mind.

"'Sup." He said before sitting next to Michael. For their part, they repeated whatever he said as a greeting back.

"Enjoyed your vacation?" Michael smirked, which annoyed Kaiser since he wasn't exactly having a vacation.

"Yeah, very much." He struck out his tongue childishly. "Did I miss something?"

"Not much." Tracey shrugged. "There was this whole Gryffindor and Slytherin drama going on, because Malfoy thought it would be a good idea to use excessive force against Harry." She explained.

"It's not like it's over." Michael added. "You'll get to witness plenty of it. Gryffindors have gotten more aggressive thanks to that incident. Beware of stray spells."

"Noted." Kaiser nodded, with a slight frown that soon leaved his face. "I see we have new additions to the school." He said, noticing the Beauxbatons students sitting at the Ravenclaw table.

"Oh, right! Did you know there would be some kind of tournament this year that's been abandoned for years because of its high death rate?" Michael asked, still unable to believe the ministry would make such a ridiculous decision.

"Meh… People die every day." Kaiser shrugged, earning weird looks from his friends. "Death is but the beginning of the next great adventure." He said sagely, causing them to facepalm. "No seriously, we aren't known for having the smartest ministers around here, so don't bother thinking about it."

"Besides, they must have some reason for reinstating the tournament." Daphne added. "It's certainly not the students' safety, but something beneficial to them."

"Hello Kai!" Susan said cheerfully, as she came over from her table.

"Oh Hi Suzie, Hannah, how are you guys doing?"

"We're doing fine, thank you. Where have you been?" Hannah asked, wanting to get to the bottom of the mystery once and for all.

"In my lab?" Kaiser said. "I thought that would've been obvious."

"Errr… now that you say so…" Hannah said sheepishly. They both sat with them to catch up. They were joined by Hermione, Harry and Ron shortly afterwards, exchanging pleasantries the mood of the group was at it's best, yet their reunion, was interrupted by another arrival.