4 Back to School

The next couple of days passed by quickly with not much happening. I had sent a letter to McGonagall about switching from Divination to Ancient Runes and Arithmancy and I got a response that I would be put in the 3rd year classes unless I could test out of them when I arrived at school. I planned to study as much as I could about the subjects to see if there was a chance I could test out of the class.

Our booklists came, which led to Ron and Hermione finding out that I had switch classes.

"What do you mean you're not taking Divination," Ron said.

"I said what I said, Ron. Divination is a waste of a class. I think Arithmancy and Ancient Runes will be a lot more interesting and useful."

"Well I for one think it's good that you're taking your studies more seriously for once Harry," Hermione said.

"Thank you, Hermione."

Ron grumbled some more, but I just ignored him. After getting our book lists we headed to Diagon Alley to get our school supplies. We exited the floo, and this time I didn't mess it up and end up in Knockturne Alley. I needed to go to the bank to withdraw more money, so I made my way there while Ron and Hermione went to look around.

As I walked up the steps of the bank, I saw the goblin's eyes widen at the sight of me.

'Was that a sigh of relief when I walked past?'

The rest of the bank trip went smoothly, but the goblins were constantly on edge as I did everything, and spoke extremely respectfully as I withdrew my money.

'Seems like magical creatures can tell what I am then.'

Leaving the bank, the rest of the shopping trip passed by normally as we picked up the supplies we would need for the coming year. I grabbed as many Arithmancy and Ancient Runes books as I could find so that I could study as much as possible and try to get ready to place out of the 3rd year class.

With our supplies collected, we were ready to get on the train in a few days, so I spent those last few days studying as much as I could on my two new subjects. It turned out that becoming a Campione had boosted my comprehension speed to ridiculous levels. I found myself picking up the subjects in no time, moving on from the third yearbooks to the fourth yearbooks soon after. I hadn't gotten a chance to put anything I learned into practice, but on just theoretical knowledge I would soon know everything from the books I had picked up.

It soon came time for us to get on the train. The trip to the station was mundane and once we arrived at the train, the groups split off, with Ron, Hermione, and I finding a compartment for ourselves.

Along the way, we heard people muttering about the events at the Quidditch World Cup as well.

"It seems everyone's worried about what the Death Eater attack could mean," Hermione said once we were sat down in our compartment.

"They'll probably forget about it soon enough," I replied. Thinking about going back to Hogwarts, I wasn't sure how to feel. It seemed like every year something bad happened and I had to deal with it while the staff sat in their chairs and did nothing about it.

'So much for the safest place on earth. Greatest wizard in the world and a student has to deal with all of his problems.'

I had been thinking about the events of the last few years and realized that I had never gone back to the chamber and looked around at all. For a place that was the secret of one of the founds, it would be surprising if it only had the basilisk in it. I wanted to go down there as soon as possible and look around to see if there was anything interesting to find.

It was a little way into the ride that we heard a knock on the door. I stood up and moved to the door, opening it to find Draco standing with Crabbe and Goyle.

"What do you want Draco?" I said, not really feeling like dealing with him right now.

"I was just wondering if you were going to attempt to compete, Potter," Draco replied, sneering.

"Compete in what?" I asked, confused about what he was referring to.

"Oh, so you don't know then. I know, of course, my father told me."

"Either tell me what it is or go away."

"I think I'll do just that. You can find out with the rest of the rabble." Draco said and turned on his heel, leaving with his goons.

Closing the compartment door, I sat back down.

"I wonder what he was referring to," Hermione said.

"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." I said, but I was really thinking about the way he had referred to it.

'Draco asked if I was competing in it which means there is going to be some kind of competition held at Hogwarts this year. Knowing my luck, even if I don't participate I'll end up in it somehow. Once I know what it is, I need to plan for it.'

The rest of the ride passed smoothly without any more interruptions and we made our way into the castle, heading to the Gryffindor table when we arrived.

The first years were led in and sorted and we were able to eat. After some time where everyone caught up and ate, Dumbledore clapped his hands and drew attention back to himself.

"Now that you are all fed and watered, I have a very important announcement to make..." Before he could continue the roof of the Great Hall, which was enchanted to emulate the outside weather began to show lightning and thunder. The front door of the Great Hall bangs open as a grizzled man walks in, his false eye looking around, taking in the entirety of the room.

"Ah yes, this is Professor Moody, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Dumbledore said.

Moody grunted and moved to his seat at the table. I could hear mutterings around me about "Mad-Eye Moody" which I guess was based on his eye.

"Now as I was saying, I am proud to announce that this year Hogwarts will be the host of the momentous event, the Triwizard Tournament."

'Yep there it is. Knew I couldn't have a normal year. There's no way I'm competing, and it's not like anyone can force me to.'

"You're joking." The twins said.

"I am not joking. It has been decided that the tournament would be reinstated, with some restrictions. The most important of which is that only those of age may participate. If you are below the age of 17, you will not be allowed to join." Dumbledore said.

There was some outcry at that fact, but I wasn't really worried, I knew I'd somehow find my way into that tournament, whether I wanted to or not.

"The other schools will be arriving in October, where the drawing for champions will occur on Halloween. That is all, off to bed all of you." Dumbledore finished.

'And he chooses to do the drawing on Halloween. It's like he's mocking me at this point.'

I followed the prefects up to the dorms and made my way to the room I would share with the other fourth-year boys. Everyone around me was excitedly chattering about the Triwizard tournament when Dean asked me a question.

"So how about it Harry. Are you going to try to find a way to join?"

"Knowing my luck, I'm going to end up in it anyway so why bother," I replied.

"What do you mean by that?" Seamus asked.

"Never mind. No, I'm not going to try to enter."

That seemed to assuage them, so they went back to talking about different methods they could use to get in the tournament.

"Oh Potter, could I speak to you for a second," McGonagall said to me.

Nodding my head, I followed her off to the side.

"You will take your placement test for Arithmancy and Ancient Runes at 8 am tomorrow morning before classes in my office," McGonagall said.

"Okay, do I need to bring anything specific?" I asked.

"No, everything will be provided for you. Just come prepared to show how much you know."

After that, she left and I made my way into my room where my stuff had already been placed for me. Laying down on my bed, I decided to just go to sleep since I had to wake up early for my placement test tomorrow.

--------------------------------------------------------------The next morning I made my way down to breakfast early since I needed to take the placement test during the usual time I would get breakfast. Grabbing a quick snack I made my way up to Professor McGonagall's room.

Knocking on the door, I heard a "Come in." Opening the door and entering, I found McGonagall sitting behind her desk with some supplies.

"Take a seat Potter, we'll get started with the test right away." She said.

Moving to take the seat closest to her, I waited as she placed the quill and parchment in front of me.

"You have 45 minutes to answer all of the questions. You won't be tested on the practical portion of either class because that part is easier to teach quickly. This is solely a theory test. Ready. Begin"

Beginning the test, I found that I easily knew all of the answers for the first 30 minutes of the test. It was when I got to the last 15 minutes that I began to have trouble with answering some of the questions. It wasn't too bad though, I think I puzzled out a good amount of the questions I didn't know.

When the time was up I handed her the parchment and she said: "Give me a second and I'll have this graded."

I waited as she looked over my answers, comparing them with another piece of parchment. After a little while, she finished looking over it and looked up at me.

"You did well Potter. You placed out of the third-year class, so you will be put in the fourth-year class. Very good, I'm glad you were able to pick up the material quickly. Give me a moment and I will have your schedule made and inform your teachers."

She came back soon after and handed me my schedule for the year. It was more full than my last one since I was taking an extra class, but I didn't mind.

With everything done, I left McGonagall's classroom and headed to my first class of the day.

--------------------------------------------------------------My first class of the year was Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. Making my way down to the greenhouse, I met Ron and Hermione on the way.

"Where were you this morning Harry? You weren't at breakfast." Hermione asked.

"I had to go to McGonagall's room to see what class I would place in for Ancient Runes and Arithmancy."

"Oh, it's fine if you placed into the third-year classes. I can help you catch up and maybe you'll be able to move up to the fourth year soon." Hermione said.

"Actually, I placed into the fourth-year classes, so we'll have it together," I said.

Hermione's eyes widened in surprise while Ron clapped me on the back.

"Well done mate, don't know why you'd want more work though."

Hermione couldn't say anything else as we entered the greenhouse and got to work.

Once it was over, we all shuffled out of the greenhouse and Hermione pulled me aside. I waved Ron to go on to Care of Magical Creatures.

"What Hermione?"

"How did you skip the entire third-year class? It shouldn't be possible to pick up the material that quickly."

"I studied hard and picked it up. You always said I wasn't living up to my potential, I just started to live up to it," I answered.

"Well, I'm happy for you. You're taking your studies seriously, and we'll get to be in the same class as well."

"Thanks, Hermione, I appreciate it. Now let's get to class."

--------------------------------------------------------------The rest of the day passes normally. Most of my classes were the same as last year. I did have my first Ancient Runes and Arithmancy classes, which I found interesting.

People were a little surprised to see me in the fourth-year Arithmancy and Ancient Runes classes after having not taken the third-year ones, but after I answered a couple of questions correctly they got over it.

I told Hermione I had something to do and made my way to the second floor girl's bathroom. When I arrived on the second floor, I was surprised to find Kuroka walking up to me.

"Maybe a book here will tell me what kind of magic cat you are," I said, picking her up and putting her on my shoulder.

Walking inside of the bathroom, I was surprised to find that Myrtle wasn't there for once.

'For the best, I don't particularly want to deal with her special brand of weirdness right now.'

Moving to the sink, I hissed ~Open~ and the sink shifted, opening to form the slide.

Moving Kuroka into my arms, I jumped in and slid down the slide, coming to a stop at the bottom. The collection of animal bones were still at the bottom, just like I remembered. Standing up, I walked through the chamber, reaching the door with a face on it, and hissed ~Open~ again.

Entering the main chamber, I found the corpse of the basilisk still sitting where I had left it. Kuroka hopped out of my arms, moving towards the corpse and looking at it with interest.

"A remnant of my second year here," I told her.

Walking past the basilisk, I made my way to the head of Salazar Slytherin where the basilisk had first emerged.

'What was it Tom said?'

~Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four.~

The mouth of the statue opened as I jumped up and walked through it, Kuroka following behind me.

A blue flame formed in the air to give us a light source as we walked through the tunnel. We eventually reached a divide in the tunnel.

"Which way?" I asked Kuroka since it didn't really matter. She decided to go down the left path, so I followed her through the tunnel until we reached a wall with an inscription.

"Only if you are a king should you pass beyond this point," I read aloud.

'Why would being a king matter? Unless he means king as in Campione? Then, were the founders aware of Campione?'

~I am a Campione~ I said in parseltongue, and the wall sunk into the ground, opening another pathway.

"Stay behind me Kuroka," I said, not sure what it was we would find.

Continuing through the tunnel, I began to sense a massive amount of magic, on par or even surpassing the amount I had.

'Don't tell me...'

We reached the end of the tunnel and it widened out into a large room. My eyes were immediately drawn to the center of the room, where a tall, tan-skinned man stood with white hair. He was bound in glowing gold chains, which gave me an odd feeling to look at.

"So someone finally came back down here. The old man hasn't come in a while, so I'm guessing he's dead," the man said.

"Who are you?" I asked, but I had a good idea of what he was already. He was setting my fighting instincts on fire, and with how much magic he had I knew he was a Heretic God.

'How the hell did Salazar Slytherin bind a Heretic God here?'

"You already know what I am boy, just as I can tell what you are. As for my name, I am known as Solomon."

'I don't recognize that name. I need to do more research into gods and famous people in the past.'

"How did Salazar Slytherin bind you here?" I asked.

The man let out a snort of amusement.

"He couldn't bind me here if he sacrificed his life to do it. No, it was not him who bound me, it was his wife. The old man was lucky enough to wed a Campione, so she made use of her authority, the [Chains of Enkidu], to bind me here so he could study Heretic Gods."

'Slytherin was married to a Campione! So that means Voldemort is the descendant of one as well. What do I do about this Heretic God, though?'

"Well, I think that's enough explanation for now. You won't live long enough to need it anyway," Solomon said as he shifted his arms around slightly and the chains shattered.

I put my guard up instantly as I looked at him.

"If you could do that the whole time, why didn't you just leave?" I asked.

"Because I couldn't do that the whole time. The condition for the chains to break was the presence of a Campione other than the caster," Solomon explained, stretching his arms out.

'But the inscription said only a Campione should pass. Why would Slytherin put that there if he didn't want Solomon to escape?'

"If you're wondering about the inscription, that was my doing. The original said that a king should never pass but even bound I still had some of my power. Now it's time to tear down everything that man built. He was so proud of his magic, but it was nothing compared to mine," Solomon said, summoning ten rings on his fingers as he pointed at me. A bolt of lightning leaped from his finger as I summoned a wall wind that dispersed the lightning.

"Kuroka, back up," I said.

Kuroka moved to get some distance, but her movement drew Solomon's eyes towards her.

"Oh, a nekoshou how interesting. Why not show us your true form," he said, gesturing towards Kuroka as a light flew towards her. I tried to move to block whatever it was, but it flew too fast and hit her.

Kuroka's form began to grow and shift. Where there once was a small black cat, now stood a beautiful woman. Her hair was black, with two black cat ears sticking out of the top. She was dressed in black kimono, with a yellow obi wrapped around her waist. Two black tails were sticking out from under the kimono as her eyes were staring at Solomon.

'Why am I not surprised? Of course, my cat is a hot girl, what else should I expect at this point.'

"I'll deal with this later, Kuroka get back," I called out as I summoned a wave of flames and sent it towards Solomon. With a gesture, he formed a wave of water that crashed against the flames, forming a contest to see which would give first.

With the fire still attacking Solomon, I fire traveled to the other side of the room behind him and shot another wave of fire. He turned his other hand towards me and formed more water, creating a cyclone around him in protection.

He then added lightning to it, electrically charging the cyclone as it began to overpower my fire and put it out, as he sent the cyclone towards me.

I let it come towards me as I put up a wind barrier around my body, moving the cyclone around my body and into the wall behind me.

"Interesting, but futile," Solomon said as he gestured towards the walls of the room, causing the stone to shift and change, forming golems that moved to attack me.

Wind blades formed in the air as I sent them towards the golems, decapitating them, but they continued to move towards me despite lacking a head.

I continued to send more and more wind blades, tearing up the golems into tiny fragments, while sparing a glance over at Kuroka who was watching the battle, and indecisive look on her face.

"Don't join, I've got it," I called out to her, knowing she was contemplating trying to help. I didn't need to try to protect her while I was fighting a god who could use different kinds of magic.

I sent a wind blade at Solomon, but he teleported away from it and sent glowing chains towards me that wrapped around my body. I strained to break them, but they held on tight.

'I just need to give my body time to adapt to be strong enough to break them. I need a way to kill him that he can't just counter with another magic.'

I stayed trapped in the chains as Solomon hovered in the air above me.

"Do you see how futile it is trying to contest the King of Magic? I am..." he began but was interrupted as an energy bullet hit his face, although it didn't affect him.

"Really?" he asked, turning to Kuroka who had energy balls floating in the air around her.

"Kuroka move!" I called out, but it wasn't fast enough as he sent a blast of lightning that obliterated her.

My eyes widened in shock before I caught sight of Kuroka somehow completely fine on the other side of the room.

"Girl, I was using illusions before you could walk," Solomon said as numerous copies of him formed.

Kuroka continued to move around, dodging around the attacks of Solomon as I strained against the chains. I could feel them beginning to creak before they shattered as I flexed, my body has adapted to be strong enough to break them.

"Kuroka, clear out, I've got an idea," I said.

"Understood," she said, and I was surprised as this was the first time I had heard her voice. She teleported across the room, exiting from the room and entering the tunnel.

"While noble, you don't have a method to hurt me that I can't counter," Solomon said.

I ignored him and focused on manipulating the oxygen in the air, collecting more and more of it around Solomon's body.

"You're right, direct attacks won't work against you."

"Then what do you..." he began to ask, but I used his distraction to attack. I formed a spark in the air that ignited the collected oxygen around him, causing an explosion to happen around his body. I knew that wasn't enough to kill him, though, so I had made sure to create a trail of oxygen into his mouth and through his body, blowing him up from the inside.

I waited a few moments before absorbing the fire into my body. With it gone, I could see the tattered remains of Solomon's cloak as energy entered my body and I acquired a new authority.

[King of Magic: King Solomon was the progenitor of all magic. He developed, created, and taught all magic that is known today. From this, any magic that he sees can be deconstructed, copied, and strengthened by him.]

'That is a scary authority for any magic-user. I doubt any of my magic would've been useful against him, but I'm glad that I didn't use any.'

"Kuroka, come back. We need to talk," I called out to the tunnel. Kuroka entered the room cautiously as she looked at me, an odd look on her face.

'Now to deal with this.'