2/4

"This celebration of the next generation of witches and wizards was first dreamt up by our esteemed Heads of the Departments of Magical Games and Sports, and of International Magical Cooperation, here. Their idea inspired what I, as your Minister, have designed for this coming year. Starting this October, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will be hosting the newly restarted Triwizard Tournament!"

The press immediately started in on their questioning, frenzied and desperate to be the one to ask the most vital questions. Similarly the students had all but forgotten the disappointment of the cancelled Quidditch, instead now mentally linking this announcement with the obviously displeased countenance of the teachers. Clearly this was not the harmless diplomatic exercise the Minister was implying.

"Please, hold all of your questions until the end. Some of you may remember from your history books the long and glorious legacy of the Triwizard Tournament in centuries gone by, when young wizards and witches would compete from Europe's three greatest magical schools for the prize and honour that accompanied the coveted Triwizard Cup. Like those times, three students, one from Hogwarts, one from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in France, and one from the Durmstrang Institute of Scandinavia. Right now their Ministers and headmasters are giving this same announcement, but I am the only one who has the privilege of hosting this celebration in my own country.

"The tournament will consist of three Tasks, each more dangerous and challenging than the last, designed to test the entrant in their strength, their compassion, and their courage. Groups from both of the visiting schools will arrive on the thirtieth of October for the official opening ceremony of the Tournament, for which the fine young men and women of Hogwarts will provide a presentation of their magical prowess and our cultural heritage."

It occurred to Harry and a number of muggleborn students that this opening ceremony sounded remarkably similar to the start of the Olympics and suspected that Ludo Bagman, who along with Crouch was looking rather peeved to have been sidelined on a project they obviously spearheaded, had been made aware of the grand muggle sporting event and had taken inspiration from it. Those same students then felt a pit of fear of settle in their stomachs when they realised they might be expected to perform in such a spectacle.

"For the twenty-four hours following the showcase, students will be able to submit their names to the Goblet of Fire and from them, the most worthy will be selected as their school's Champion. By the request of the three headmasters, only students of fourteen years or above will be eligible to enter."

In reality, Dumbledore had demanded such an age limit be placed since this dangerous publicity stunt was too perilous to allow just anyone to enter. As it was, he felt wretched that the limit wasn't higher. If he had his way, and they were still holding this tournament, he would have seen no one under the age of seventeen or eighteen enter. It was unforgiveable for adults to force children to die, especially for no reason like this.

"On November the twenty-first, there will be the traditional Wand Weighing Ceremony, followed by the first Task on the twenty-sixth. The second Task will follow on the twenty-fourth of January, and the Third on June the twenty-fourth. The day after that will have the award ceremony, the parade and the closing ceremony at the Ministry of Magic."

The pushy reporters tried interjecting with questions regarding the specific nature of the challenges but Fudge would offer no insight into them. They would remain a strict mystery until the events themselves.

"Between the Tasks, Hogwarts will also be host to a number of ancillary events to further promote the cooperation we are striving for. On the ninth of December, following the First Task, there will be a friendly duelling tourney for those seventeen and older, including professors of the schools, not including the headmasters or headmistress, which any interested student or staff may enter at their own discretion. Later that month, on the twenty-fifth, there will be the Yule Ball, for which all eligible students of fourteen and over and accompanying guests of all ages may also attend. As a further token of the Ministry's esteem, we will be outfitting every attending student with a fresh set of dress robes at our own expense.

"And lastly there will be a two-day inter-school Quidditch tournament on March the twenty-sixth and -seventh, into which teams made from each school's best players will be entered. As with the duelling tourney, Champions will not be permitted to enter, although I suspect they would have greater priorities at those times."

Fudge chuckled, no one else did.

"These events, both the tasks and the extra events, will be entirely open to the public who wish to come and see firsthand. Tickets going on sale before each Task and event. Furthermore, each student staying at Hogwarts will be allotted one ticket for a random Task so everyone might get a chance to see the pride of our magical communities compete for riches and glory."

It was immediately assumed by many, and asked by a number of reporters, whether the tickets would be exorbitantly expensive, but such questions were deferred for subsequent press conferences which would communicate the finer details.

"This Triwizard Tournament will be the start of a renewed era of cooperation between our Ministries and between our young witches and wizards. Now, I have time for a few questions… yes, you in the back…"

A 'few questions' turned into the better part of two hours on subjects ranging from the number of tickets Champions would be allocated (a maximum of two family members and two friends) to fabrics used to make the students' uniform dress robes. Still all mention of the Tasks was steadfastly withheld no matter how circumspect the questioner tried to be.

Meanwhile, Draco was excitedly chatting Gaara's ear off despite his depressed surety that he would not be selected for the school Quidditch team, speculating on what the Tasks might be, on who the Champion might be ("It better not be Potter!"), what the Yule Ball would be like, and on…

Still, at least he and Gaara were agreed on one point: neither boy had any intention of entering the Tournament. Regardless, no matter what his father would do, his mother would declare war on all three of the Ministries of Magic personally if they tried to compel him to compete. Not that he harboured any personal desire. He continued his talking even after berating Gaara for carving at his wand again.

In the aftermath of the announcement, the initial pervading shock had faded relatively quickly and the student body had switched to exaltation, all excited to be able watch the Tasks and for most to attend the Yule Ball.

The reporters followed suit, no one thinking to ask the obvious question of why Fudge and Dumbledore were clearly at odds, nor about the reason why the Triwizard Tournaments had been cancelled in the first place all those years ago, nor about the exploitative nature of this obviously political move and dangerous imposition on the students to shift blame for the dementor attack on Hogwarts. Instead they just continued to ask positive questions about the logistics and the Ministers' individual hopes for the outcome of the event.

After Fudge finally stopped taking questions and his aides were able to drag him out of the limelight and into the Trophy Room in the back, Dumbledore rose back to his unsteady feet and thanked all of the journalists for coming before signalling his put-upon professors to begin corralling the intrusive men and women of the media out of the Hall.

True to form, one particularly tenacious reporter slipped by Hagrid and stayed low, behind the high-backs of the chairs, intending to grab a quick few moments with the Boy-Who-Lived to gain an impression of his reactions to the announcement. Since the reporter happened to be Rita Skeeter, all she needed was the vaguest reaction to work with and she would have her next two or three articles written by the end of the night. Unfortunately, she found herself trapped on the wrong side of the Hall with only a few moments before one of the upper-year Slytherins noticed her and alerted a teacher. The trouble she was going to be in for having snuck around to talk to a student would not be worth it for just any student, she decided, looking along the backs of partially obscured heads and tried to work out who to pounce on for a quote.

The backs of children's heads were totally indistinct for her so she shuffled along to where she saw the only distinguishable trait: short platinum-blond hair on a Slytherin could only mean the son of Lucius Malfoy, suspected former Death Eater and Ministry hotshot, on the decline apparently. That was good for two articles, at least, one on the reaction and one on the decline and fall of a once prominent power within the Ministry.

She crawled along, preparing her most incendiary question to prompt the best response when she spotted the brightest red hair she ever recalled seeing, spiked on a head well below the Slytherins sat next to him. She felt a flutter of excitement, reminiscent of the prospect of covering Fudge's PR stunt later this year, when she realised sat next to Malfoy's son was Gaara, Defender of Hogwarts!

She had been trying to get a statement from him and his guardian, Sirius Black, all summer and here he was ripe for the picking.

She stopped behind the Malfoy boy's chair and started, "Psst, hey." She whispered to get his attention. Gaara turned to her, his eyes narrow and suspicious. "Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet. What can you tell me about the rumours that you and Sirius Black, notorious mass-murderer, were behind the attack at the Quidditch World Cup? What do you have to say about the Minister's announcement?" Her fumbling hands reached into her pocket and tried to grab her Quick Quill for his response but before it could start up making lies and exaggerations of his reaction or lack thereof, her upper arm was yanked around to see Severus Snape, Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House, glaring at her and keeping a firm grip on her arm.

He knew better than to say a single word to her, instead he simply unceremoniously dragged her out of the Hall and threw her out of the castle entrance. It was only her years of experience being thrown out of places that kept her on her feet. She sadly had nowhere near enough to do a whole column on Gaara and by extension Sirius Black, but she could at least reference the redhead in a scathing indictment of Hogwarts staff hiring policies. If Albus Dumbledore, who was no longer being solicited for advice from the Minister's office, according to a close source, was hiring dangerous and otherwise shady wizards and witches to teach at the school, the public should be duly alarmed.

She climbed into a lingering carriage and was ferried back to Hogsmeade where she would floo straight to London. She had better get writing since she needed to send her copy in less than three hours for it be published in the morning. Maybe she would grab a bite to eat first. That would still leave her plenty of time to jot down something the readers would lap up.

As she travelled, her mind wandered back to her interaction with the so-called Defender of Hogwarts, and a story did indeed come to mind. It would have to remain a column since her opinions would far outweigh any actual content she had to put in, but it would certainly garner a little interest.

Back in the Great Hall, since the reporters left, the students had resumed loudly talking of the impending visit by two other prominent schools, including one that housed a famous young Quidditch star, as well as the Tasks themselves and the other supplementary events they had to look forward to. In the heat of the moment, with excitement running high, the professors dreaded to think of the number of children intending to apply to take part in the Tournament.

Dumbledore once more stood and took his place at the forefront of the room, his face showing none of the warmth and joy that many of his guileless pupils were beaming at one another. Sadly this was exactly the effect Cornelius wished to have when he announced this plan, and it would likely be felt by a great many magical folk across the world, except for those parents who would now have to worry about their endangered children entering.

There was nothing anyone could do to stop them, regrettably.

It was in times like these he envied Aberforth for spending his later years running a pub instead of being involved in international politics and running a world-renowned educational facility.

"The hour is late and I for one would dearly like to get some sleep, so I will say only these last few words: for those of you who are old enough to submit your names for the Triwizard Tournament, know that eternal glory and riches may be yours but over the coming months you must weigh this hope with the very real dangers involved with competing. And most of all, do not neglect your schoolwork dwelling on distractions. Some happenstances are inevitable but it is your foremost priority to focus on your schooling, as it is ours, and all of the chaos and excitement beyond that must be kept in our peripheral.

"Now, I hope you all sleep soundly in spite of this news. It is the start of a new year and with it will come the greatest forms of magic, which I assure you have little to do with battling or questing, but instead are the simplest of phenomena: music, learning and friendship. If you can enjoy one of these things, no matter the tribulations ahead, you have little to fear. Good night."

With that, Dumbledore stood back and waved for the Heads of House to coordinate their prefects to empty the Hall. With the press conference running long, this welcoming feast was finishing a full hour later than usual, meaning that there were going to be a great many very tired teenagers in the morning.

Albus told all of the professors who covertly tried to get his attention and ask him perfectly valid questions, that they would all have to wait until the annual start of term staff meeting the night after tomorrow. They would discuss what had been said tonight then. They understandably were less than pleased to be dismissed for the night but he was too old to be staying up all hours of the night and they would be just as upset in two days time, so there was no real harm in waiting.

On the way down to the Dungeons, one of the current Slytherin prefects tried to hold Gaara up, to have a word with him, but without physically impeding him he couldn't seem to stop Gaara from continuing down to the dormitory. Instead, the considerably taller and older boy had to walk next to the disrespectful fourth-year and tried to command him to surrender his small gourd, as per the new school guidelines. Gaara told him no, not privately as the prefect expected him to do, but instead in earshot of most of their House.

Gaara believed he had been more than reasonable in downsizing his gourd already, and asking him to further disarm was not a request to be taken seriously.

The prefect who had been so openly defied had no delusions of forcing the fourteen-year old to comply with his order, not after the show of power he and so many had witnessed at the end of last year. Nonetheless, Professor Snape had ordered him to reiterate the rules to Gaara and he had. It was entirely the redhead's fault if he failed to follow that relayed order.

Draco scoffed when their prefect retreated to the back of the procession of Slytherins, keeping track of any firsties who might get left behind.

In the Common Room Gaara found himself surrounded by his housemates who had decided now would be the time to flock toward him and showcase their admiration or gratitude, which they had tried to resist before in public. Now in private they continued to do what the other Houses had been doing, annoying their new saviour, with even Crabbe and Goyle failing to adhere to the customary boundaries of terror. Consequently he snuck off into the boys' dorms to rest in his and Draco's room.

Gaara left just as Snape had shown up, ready to give his annual welcome speech to the new Slytherins, which the foreigner had inadvertently also skipped last year. He found different names on his room from last year which meant he and Draco had been allocated a new one which he would have to search for.

He search down the long hallway until he found his name, underneath Blaise Zabini's…

He immediately removed his name from the door and walked onwards to find Draco's, which he did, sat above Theodore Nott's. He switched his name for Nott's and walked into the room, picking up the things the he didn't recognise as belonging to Draco and swiftly carried them back to where he was originally supposed to be staying. Rooms were probably supposed to be randomly allocated but Gaara was confident Snape had a hand in trying to separate him from his best friend in this school.

He swapped out his things for Nott's and carried them back to where he intended to live this year, ignoring Nott who was stood in the passageway, watching impassively as he was moved into a different room.

Gaara attached his name to the door, finally, and entered with his trunk of possessions and settled on his bed, which he ensured was on the same side of the room as last year.

Not long after Gaara had changed into his night clothes, intending to enjoy a night's sleep for a change, Draco showed up, ecstatic to find that he and Gaara would be rooming together again by some miracle. What luck!

Draco immediately unpacked the bare necessities for the night and tomorrow, too tired to bother hanging all of his robes and unpacking the rest of his school supplies. As he changed, feeling the lateness of the hour, he idly chatted with his again-roommate.

"I can't believe father didn't know about all of this. Fudge must have been keeping it a secret from him. I can't wait until he gets thrown out of office. Pulling a stunt like this! There is no way I'm going anywhere near this Tournament. I hope you feel the same. I suppose you do. You dislike attention, don't you, so entering something like that would be pointless, wouldn't it. Of course, Dumbledore probably came up with this ridiculous idea first. Anything to redeem himself for last year's debacle."

As Draco had been talking, largely to himself, and changing, Gaara's eyes had been drawn to the prominent bruise on Draco's side, at the bottom of his ribs. It looked painful but most likely no breakages.

Draco pulled his nightshirt over his head and off and only then did he notice Gaara's eyes on his sizable bruise. Knowing Gaara's tendency towards melodramatics, he quickly spoke, "Oh, this? This is from when I... when I fell over this morning getting out of the bath. It's not nearly as painful as it looks."

"You fell in the bath. This was because of the stitch in your side?" Gaara asked.

"Yes! That's it. The stitch I said I had earlier was… that was why I fell…" Draco avoided eye contact and broadcasted with every sign of typical body language that he was lying.

Gaara said nothing more on the subject, simply pulling out a book from the top of his expanded trunk and began reading. He had planned on sleeping tonight but suddenly he didn't feel so close to sleep anymore. After Draco had turned in for the night, Gaara entered into his gargantuan trunk and read in there by wand-light without the fear of waking Draco up.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The next morning at breakfast, the school was still so abuzz that students almost ignored their new schedules as they continued to make boasts about their chances of selection or predictions for the Tasks. When Snape came to give the timetables to his House, he bundled Gaara's with Draco's and ignored the redhead entirely; Gaara was perfectly happy with ignoring the man for another year.

He glanced at his schedule and went straight back to his breakfast. He was in the same class as Draco for the first period of the day so he didn't need to commit the classroom to memory.

Along with the continued excitement from last night, a few noticed that the ghosts had reappeared this morning, frightening the first years worse than they had in years.

Gaara was briefly distracted by Granger making a scene over by the Gryffindor table, something to do with House Elves, but he tuned her out since the morning post was arriving and it was quite the scene to behold.

Dumbledore could not be certain, but he thought it might be a record number of owls that flew into the Great Hall that morning, with almost every student receiving at least one each. In minutes, all four tables were covered in thick carpets of various coloured feathers, and Albus sighed at the wasted breakfast foods the elves had prepared.

Parents had almost unanimously decided to write to their offspring after Fudge's radio address last night, most telling their children not to even consider entering the Triwizard Tournament under any circumstances. However, that was the extent of their control, as the letters Fudge had sent to every Hogwarts parent last night to coincide with the announcement had informed them. They would not be allowed to actually impede their children from entering, beyond missives like this morning's, and no child could be removed from school until after the selection took place.

Parents' reactions were not moderate. The Ministry also received a new record number of owls and personal complaints, with one or two legal challenges being raised and promptly quashed later in the day. However, reactions from non-parental magical people had been overwhelmingly positive, according to his reports, so Fudge set his extra staff to work reading through his hate-mail and removing the handful of pertinent or useful letters from amongst them and spent his day basking in the positive media attention and publically meeting with his French and Scandinavian counterparts.

As he had heard it, his counterpart Ministers, Francois Entrempe and Woulter Andersen, had both given speeches similar to his own at the same time, with both pretending that it had been their own idea to begin with. Still, what those countries thought of it didn't matter, just so long as Britain knew it was all his work.

Back in the less glamorous sphere of Hogwarts, Draco was surprised to find two of his family's owls standing before him, both holding letters and looking strangely antagonistic towards each other regarding which letter Draco should take first. In the end, to avoid a pecked finger or a bird fight, he gingerly took both simultaneously and then offered two pieces of bacon. Luckily neither had been ordered to await a reply so they squawked loudly at each other and took flight, exiting through separate windows despite heading in exactly the same direction.

Draco watched them go and marvelled at the parallels between the owls and his parents, who had sent the letters and were clearly still fighting. That his mother had seen fit to send her own owl to carry her separate letter meant that she had likely listened to Fudge's radio address on her own last night.

The contents of the letters were largely the same to start with, both sternly warning him to ignore Fudge's vanity project and stay at least twenty feet from the Goblet of Fire during the selection process. His mother went on to ask him a few personal questions like how the train ride had gone and who he was rooming with, saying she hoped he was with a friend again this year. His father's letter was shorter, giving him his command and taciturnly apologising for accidentally pushing him against the side table yesterday morning. He did not elaborate on the apology, nor did he ask if Draco was indeed okay, simply signing off after reiterating the reason for the letter and reminding him to rebuild some of his broken social bridges from last year.

With the sudden popularity Gaara was enduring, Draco figured half of his social issues would evaporate this year. Of more concern was the schism between his parents, having developed probably out of their differing opinions of how to approach Draco's enduring friendship with Gaara despite it placing him at odds with certain circles. The final nail had obviously been the knock Draco had gotten in the ribs from that table which his mother had decided to blame father for.

Loudly!

He would reply to them tonight after dinner. He needed to consult his old etiquette book on how to deal with sending separate replies, especially since he only had one owl to use and he would not deign use one of the mangy school owls.

To his right, Gaara had gotten his own letter and was casually opening it, which Draco envied. It was probably from Sirius Black and would cause Gaara none of the anxiety Draco received every time he got a letter from his father. Maybe it was because of the inherent stress of the father-son relationship rather than because of the blatant differences in then men's characters.

Gaara broke the wax seal and pulled out the letter, deciphering Sirius' elaborate calligraphy:

'Bandit,

I know this was in no way your fault but I cannot help but marvel at your inexhaustible ability to attract trouble. Between Prongslet and you, I worry for Hogwarts. I got a letter from the Ministry saying that I can't stop you from entering that tournament and you aren't allowed to switch schools until they've picked a champion, but I hope you would know better than to enter into something like that anyway. It's a fool's errand.

Of course, I'm going to be purchasing tickets for all four of us for all of the events as soon as they go on sale. I'm not supposed to spend money on things like this anymore but what Remus and my accountant don't know won't hurt me.

Please write back soon and tell me how the train was and who you're rooming with this year. I heard that Slytherins change rooms every year. Probably to reduce the possibility of emotional attachments…

Only joking.

Don't forget to write to me again, and don't forget to do some school stuff as well, while you're there.

Your loving guardian,

Padfoot

P.s. Hello Gaara,

I hope you got to school okay. No dementor attacks on the train this year? Sirius and I are furious about what Fudge has pulled but there is nothing we can do about it now. Make sure you do not accidentally enter yourself into that silly contest of his.

Try to have some fun this year and don't forget about your lessons. I know they might not seem as important to you but consider them as a challenge.

Best of luck,

Remus'

Gaara sighed. Clearly everybody thought he was stupid enough to get himself wrapped up in this bizarre event, apparently reminiscent of the Chunin exams but with civilians taking part. Barbaric and entirely outside of his interests.

From between the two pieces of parchment fell a photo that Sirius had forewarned him he would be sending. Gaara covertly glanced at the scene that played out on the animated paper and deemed it worthless, carefully stashing it in his robes to discard into his trunk tonight. Harry had received on too, by the looks of things at the Gryffindor table, but fortunately he did not pass it around as Gaara feared he might; but his two compatriots would surely see it soon.

Along with the hundreds of letters, including more than a few complaints sent directly to Dumbledore and the Heads of Houses, there came the usual morning delivery of the Daily Prophet. Draco received one every day and Gaara often ended up stealing it from him before he had a chance to finish it. Draco was a frustratingly slow reader.

This morning, Draco voluntarily surrendered the paper halfway through, eyes wide, mouth parted a fraction of an inch. Gaara wondered what in the rag might be so shocking for him but started reading anyway. The front pages were filled with the Triwizard Tournament, analysis, and commentary. Gaara skimmed through the articles, wondering what about this would have been cause for any measure of surprise.

It was, however, cause for concern that the number of negative impressions or speculations was almost nonexistent compared to the acclaim being heaped upon Fudge and the Ministry. Still, none of this was of interest so Gaara read onwards, conscious of Draco watching him as he went.

Until a column title in the middle of the paper caught his eye, 'Hogwarts' Students' Reactions to Minister Fudge's Announcement' by Rita Skeeter. A glance up at Draco's face showed that he was at the right section at last.

'Following last night's earth shattering announcement of the Triwizard Tournament by Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this reporter was able to personally gauge the reactions of the young and impressionable student body of Hogwarts School for Wizardry and Witchcraft. I approached two young Slytherins, and was able to speak with the boy hailed as the Defender of Hogwarts, Gaara (no last name known) – age 12.

He was a small thing, even for a second year student, and looked upon my approach with the wide, cautious eyes of a child who is instinctively fears authority figures. His close attachment to the son of a notable Ministry official and public figure has raised eyebrows in the past, but his more recent connection to the attack at the Quidditch World Cup Finals last month is what has drawn attention for the public, as well as his involvement in the infamous Attack on Hogwarts in March.

Belying his parts in these catastrophic events, what sat before me was not a hardened fighter but a small boy who wears eyeliner and dyes his hair scarlet, who could not bring himself to answer a single question posed to him, his eyes glistening with unshed tears and quiet desperation. Clearly whatever role he has played in these climactic events, he has been forced into.

He could not give any coherent reaction to this newest upheaval when I approached him, beyond the clear emotional outpouring that he dearly wished to give. And it may well warrant it, this latest move by our Minister for Magic to restore his credibility, which may well lead to the injury or death of one of Gaara's brave schoolmates.'