[1st POV, Talion Macnair, three times international dueling champion in recent past, lord with the fastest growing lordship in the present, Hogwarts representative in the near future]
"My father was insistent I remain on good terms with you," Carina said as I was walking her and Fleur out of the castle and toward their enchanted carriage dorms once the welcome feast was over.
I nodded, quietly adding, "He said as much in his last letter before his passing."
"Really? What did he say?" Fleur inquired with shining eyes.
Arcturus Black exiling himself to sunny Montpellier in the south of France near the Pyrenees Mountains was a big deal for the French. The fact that he financed a failing minor noble house on the verge of bankruptcy after the last lord's untimely death to have the widow birth him another heir was a topic among many high-society gatherings since then.
Fleur Delacour, as daughter of a French dignitary, was naturally part of these soirées and was a curious person by nature.
"I don't want to get into that," I deflected with a wave of my hand and a wry grin. Muttering under my breath, "It's, uh, personal."
"My father's will stated, and I quote, 'Find a capable man and exploit him for all his worth to ensure the resurgence of our bloodline in case the whelp fails. If love blooms from this union, even better. You deserve it,'" Carina said with a helpless smile and a small shrug. "But on his deathbed, he told me to look you up specifically. A 'lad to his liking'."
I didn't know how to reply to that. Arcturus Black had made his position quite clear in his last letter to me… but despite being mature enough, telling it to the young woman myself still made me shy.
Instead of saying anything, I noticed that her posture was getting a little stiff because of the cold winds outside, so I absentmindedly and silently cast a warming charm on the two witches I accompanied like I always did for Luna and the other girls when we were outside together in colder months. For example when I walked my classmates to the greenhouses to loiter around in Sprout's presence when I would have otherwise had some free time.
From the corner of my eyes, I saw Fleur smirk. She did that a lot during the feast.
"So, what's your opinion on your nephew anyway?" I asked, thinking about the wizard Arcturus Black had called 'whelp' in his will. The nephew who was a good twenty years older than her because Carina's father was so old when he had her.
"Sirius?" Carina asked with a shake of her head. "Despite his name, he is a deeply unserious person. I can see why my father didn't want to rest his hopes on him. Though, in all fairness, he thought him a lost cause with that unjust Azkaban 'stay'."
"Well, he is continuing the bloodline," I countered half-heartedly despite knowing exactly where she came from.
"Lady Bones and he are not betrothed," Carina pointed out with a small frown, her shoulder's squaring a little as she gained the posture of a proper noble lady. Not that her posture wasn't impeccable even before. "With Sirius' temper, I doubt he'd make sure they remain House Black children if she insists on naming the children they'll have Bones."
"Well, Sirius already proclaimed Harry as the heir to his titles in the absence of eligible offspring… so you're probably right."
Carina turned to me with a raised brow, inquiring almost urgently and in complete disbelief, "Harry? Harry Potter will get the Black lordship?"
"You didn't know?" I asked, dumbfounded that this information didn't make it to her. "How?"
The raven-haired witch gave Fleur a small look instead of blurting out an answer, but explained despite her reservations, "Like I said, Sirius is a flighty weirdo. I inquired into the state of his affairs and he sent me a picture of an almost empty bottle of Firewhiskey a few months ago. Imagine sending an owl across the seas for a picture like that."
I shook my head in amusement, chuckling under my breath when she quietly added, "At least he is a somewhat entertaining drunk, I gather."
"Any ambition to wrest the lordship from him outside of continuing the Black lineage for your father's sake?" I asked after a short silence.
"Yeah, Carina," Fleur coaxed with a weirdly amused smile. "Will you claim the noble heritage for your litter's sake?"
"I will not throw a 'litter'," Carina shot back angrily. She huffed, straightening her posture even more and explained, "But I will follow tradition and honor the care my father has shown me all my life. On my own terms, anyway."
"Lord Black was a good father?" I asked with a raised brow. Honestly, if you looked past his quirks I could totally see it. But he definitely wasn't a normal wizard either.
"He said he learned a lot from the mistakes of his first children and grand-children," Carina confirmed with a small nod. "He was rigid and demanding in just the right doses. A splendid role model that my future children can learn plenty from."
"And he was a good father to your half-brother, too," Fleur agreed with a nod, her eyes absentmindedly searching the stormy cloud cover above us. "Hugo turned out to be the perfect example of a gentleman."
"And yet you still kissed Talion," Carina accused dryly.
"On the cheek! And your brother and I have not talked about or confirmed our courtship," Fleur huffed with an upturned nose. "I followed Madame Maxime to this humid, glacial hellhole because of a teaching from my dear mother. 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder,' I believe is the appropriate translation. Plus, he'll come running if I make him jealous."
I scoffed and both girls turned toward me.
"You have an opinion to share?" Carina asked, a smile threatening to break out on her pretty face when I said nothing after both witches stared at me for a while.
"What? The saying is stupid," I pointed out with a shrug. I addressed Fleur directly, "You're very pretty. Gorgeous, in fact. If you confess your feelings he will just stupidly accept them and agree to a courtship until you show him why he shouldn't be with you. All absence will do is create an idealised version of you in his mind that you can only hope to live up to. Sounds tedious. And like recipe for an unfulfilled long-term relationship."
Mockingly, I added when they both remained quiet, "And making him jealous will just show him how little you think of him and how much work he needs to put into a relationship with you. I pity the fool."
Both witches remained quiet.
"That is oddly insightful for such a brute," Fleur said while studying me like I was an art exhibit.
"Brute?" I asked, offended.
"You made me fall on my shapely bum during our last dueling match," she answered with a haughty sniff.
"I made you fall out of bounds instead of smashing your picturesque face in with a conjured rock," I answered with a playful, pretentious sneer. "And don't change the subject."
We all stayed quiet in the courtyard we were walking in, briefly remaining next to a fountain with floating imp figurines.
"Getting love advice from a British wizard of all people," Fleur mumbled indignantly as she searched the skies with her eyes in an exaggerated manner. "It is not raining pigs, non?"
I shoved her a little, almost making her fall into the fountain because she didn't expect it.
"Brute!" Fleur exclaimed with wide eyes after she steadied herself. She still smiled, though.
"You started it," I scoffed and looked at Carina. "What is your take on playing mindgames in a courtship?"
"Oh my, you are direct," she said as she softly laughed into her hand. "I guess you will just have to find out."
Carina walked toward Fleur, hooked the witch's arm with her own, and dragged the blonde to the path leading toward the carriage on the slope beneath the courtyard.
— — —
I made my way into the Ravenclaw common room meeting close to nobody thanks to a notice-me-not charm, found a book in my pouch and began reading on one of the sofas.
"What have you got there?" Luna asked as she tilted her head, sitting very close to me.
Checking quickly that it was indeed Luna and not a polyjuiced Lara, I answered, "Alchemy Studies Through the Ages: A Complete Compendium by Argo Pyrites."
"From the time you raided the Lestrange vaults?" Luna asked, completely ignoring my need for personal space.
"Yep," I confirmed with a nod.
I didn't wonder why Luna was the only one to see me despite the charm still on me.
I had long confirmed that she had Eagle Vision just like me.
"Is that where you got the recipe for that runic ink from?"
"The barebones version, yeah. But it also listed the Roman inventor and Stati Magia had the original notes from the Roman alchemist, Paphnutia the Virgin, in their library. Professor DiMatteo found the recipe in her notes and we remade it with modern ingredients," I explained patiently.
"The book is golden," Luna whispered after a short nod to show she understood.
I lifted a brow, inquiring, "Oh?"
"That means it is important, right?"
"Yeah, that's what it does for me," I confirmed, though I was a little worried that she didn't use her magizoologist metaphor for the color 'gold'.
"Are you looking for something in particular?" She asked, her eyes glued to the page I was on.
"Nope, just looking to see if I could find something to give me an edge in the upcoming tournament."
She briefly looked at me, pointing out, "You're awfully sure you are getting selected."
I nodded in assent because I was and idly turned the page of the giant tome in my lap.
"And you think… Magicule Anarchy is going to help you?" Luna read out, incredulous as she squinted to read the next topic on the page I opened.
I looked down with a tilted head, briefly skimming through the new chapter. "Uh, no. Greek alchemists thought they could turn magicals into non-magicals through a 'liberation ritual'. A punishment for all they thought were unworthy of magic. At the end of the chapter, Argo suggests that the birth of squibs in modern was a punishment by magic itself for their actions."
"Argo thought magic was a sentient entity that punished all magicals for denying those punished wizards and witches their gift of magic?"
"Well, can you prove him wrong?" I asked in return and Luna shook her head quickly. I was quite sure that Luna believed that magic was sentient herself. Possibly in the form of a collective consciousness shared by an unending number of magical beings. I still explained Argo's reasoning, continuing, "Squibs didn't exist until around the time of Moses. That may be because we simply don't have any recordings from that time, because they didn't have a word for it, or because something changed in the way magic existed and squibs really weren't a thing then. Maybe it happened through the act of an entity or a universal law, whatever you want to call it. It's hard to tell, obviously."
"Hmmm," Luna hummed from her position on the rest of my armchair.
"I could lend it to you," I proposed as I watched her continued study of the pages as her brows scrunched together cutely as she focused on the moving magical picture on the page on the right. A depiction of what Argo thought were 'magicules'.
Something that was proven didn't exist since then.
"Yeah, sure. I'll be sure to tell you if I find anything that could help you win," she accepted, huffed a little in sheer physical exertion as she lifted the heavy book from my lap and skipped away, though with noticeably shorter jumps than usual.
I shook my head in amusement. I was sure that was her way of trying to help me survive the tournament and satisfy her own curiosity at the same time.
— — —
Noon the next day, a little different from what I remembered happened in the canon events – possibly because the actual Moody was now in charge of the tournament – Dumbledore revealed the Goblet of Fire. The impartial judge that would choose the three champions, one for each school.
After outlining the rules once more for everyone to hear just before the food was served, a storm of students threw in parchment slips with their names on them the moment lunch was over. Fifth years, sixth years, seventh years – more than half of all Hogwarts students from those years threw in their names.
Everyone else was either too young or simply didn't have an O.W.L, which was one of the rules to make sure no untrained wizard could attend.
I didn't see what kind of enchantment Dumbledore put up to make sure nobody ignored the rules, though I doubt it was a simple age-line this time around. The ward line he drew around the giant goblet was encrypted, even my Eagle Vision just showed me the existence of a ward line.
"May the better wizard be chosen," Fred Weasley said to me after the room quieted when the goblet accepted my name.
"He will," I agreed with a cocky, shit-eating grin.
I ignored the rest of the murmurs and left the Great Hall toward the courtyard leading to the Beauxbaton carriage. Several minutes later, Carina sat next to me.
"I will not go easy on you if you are selected," Carina said as we both stared ahead.
"I did not expect you to," I said with a soft smile. "I'd be upset if you did."
She sighed in contentment as the noon sun was shining on our faces.
"Fleur regrets graduating a year early now," she said conversationally.
"The bane of us geniuses," I answered with a smile and closed eyes.
I heard her laugh a little.
"I'll have you know that I have achieved my N.E.W.T.s in enchanting, too, just like you," Carina said, though her tone wasn't haughty or confrontational, just amused.
"That couldn't have been easy," I answered, fully understanding how much work it must have been if you didn't have a Norse god learn the craft in your dreams as you hitchhiked on his journey.
"Aren't you full of yourself," she said with a chuckle. "You're two years younger than me and did the same."
"Special circumstances," I waved off.
"Sure," she softly mumbled, shaking her head.
Just as I wanted to ask more, an owl swooped down, landing on my lap with a heavy thud.
"Merlin's dusty buttcheeks!" I exclaimed. "Nyx, what the hell is wrong with you!?"
"Hooooh!" The black bird angrily answered and pointed a wing to the sky. Looking up, following where she pointed, I saw an eagle circle high up.
"So that thing chases you and that makes this attack okay?" I asked, still angry.
"Hoot!"
I narrowed my eyes, arguing back, "You're a scary bird of prey, too! You could totally pick its eyes out of its socket before it could land a beak!"
"HOOT!"
"You'll clip a nail!? Are you kidding me!?"
My black owl scornfully took the sky once more, smacking my face with her wings on purpose during lift off and was gone in no time. The eagle followed and before Carina found the words between soundless chuckles, we heard a pained screech.
From what was clearly an eagle, not an owl.
"You talk owl?" Carina finally asked, her eyes turned to crescent because the smile wouldn't leave her face.
I turned up my nose, boasting, "I'm a man of many talents!"
"Clearly," she said with another soft chuckle.
"Also, I'm an animagus with a bird form. Soooo~"
"Your brains have the same wavelengths?" The raven-haired witch asked in delight.
I was about to agree when I suddenly caught the veiled insult.
"I almost mistook you for a gentle soul," I said, playfully acting sad as I brought my hand to my chest. "You owe me for leading me to believe such a lie."
"What kind of favor did you have in mind?"
This time, it was my turn to be stumped by her boldness.
I scratched my ear, suggesting, "A picnic in the skies?"
"Oh?"
Hehe, thank you Enzo, descendant of Casanova.
That dude really knew how to pick up witches.
— — —
Halloween dinner, with the Great Hall decorated by me and Professors Vector and Flitwick, I enjoyed a good pizza cooked by the mother of my three young house elves. The little excitable elf put special effort into making my meals a spectacle all year, this one included.
She arranged the diced red pepper and pepperoni into what looked like the face muggles would carve into a pumpkin for such an occasion. She even colored the melted cheese in pumpkin orange by sprinkling it with gouda and just a hint of saffron.
"Even the elves of Hogwarts are taken by your charm?" Carina asked from next to me, staring between her own meal and mine.
Potatoes, brisket, and creamed carrots, like everyone else that wasn't me, Harry Potter, and the Weasley twins.
"You could always ask the elves to get you something different?" I asked, bringing a slice of pizza to my mouth with a satisfied smile.
"And they will listen to me?"
Acting haughty, I told her, "If I introduce you? Of course!"
"I could introduce you, too. The elves like me third best, you know?" Luna offered, her cheeks stuffed completely.
It was a wonder that she could talk unhindered while looking like a squirrel preparing for a long, long winter. Maybe even magic.
"So Talion is number one and you are number three - who is second place?" Carina asked, curiously regarding Luna as she put another potato into her mouth without having swallowed first.
"Dwombodo," Luna answered and somehow, I understood her just fine again. I could see that Carina did not, however.
'The headmaster,' I answered by moving my mouth without sound for Carina's benefit and she nodded with an, "Aaah!"
"They like you better than the guy running the school?" Carina inquired before delicately putting another small piece of meat into her mouth – the polar opposite of the etiquette Luna put on show.
"I'm not a hypocrite," I quietly replied with a disdainful scoff. "And I treat them well."
"In his first year, he brought them dozens of recipe books from the muggle world to broaden their horizons and to selfishly enjoy nicer meals," Lara chimed in, sitting opposite us and next to Luna. So far, she had only studied how Carina and I behaved together instead of saying anything. "Then he abducted three newborn elves in his second year."
"I was tricked into naming their babies and they bonded to me as Nitwit and Oddment danced in celebration," I added scornfully, fighting the urge to throw a cooked potato at Lara's head. "And anybody could ask for different meals. It's not my fault that you all suck at finding the kitchens or coaxing the elves into doing you a favor. Something they would gladly fall over backwards doing anyway."
"Gaining three house elves just like that?" Carina inquired in mild curiosity and ignored the rest of my outburst. "That's quite… uh, lucky."
"You don't have any elves at home?" I asked just to make conversation.
The French witch shook her head, explaining, "When my mother's first husband was alive, our family had one. It was from the generation of his great-grandfather. She died of old age before I was born… and my own father never put stock in a house elf."
I nodded.
Elves were a total luxury, I was well aware. With magic, almost everything they could do would not be much of an inconvenience without their presence in my life. They still did plenty of menial tasks that I was glad I didn't need to do myself. Of course, Patrick was just a different breed altogether, having made me a muggle multi-millionaire and having killed dozens of my enemies so far.
And they did provide total loyalty under the right circumstances, which was hard to find in ordinary magicals if you didn't literally save their lives.
An hour later the tables were cleared, the Ravenclaw students sat together with the Gryffindors and Beauxbaton students on the right side, the Slytherins, Hufflepuffs and Durmstrang students were on the left.
Dumbledore and Moody stood together beside the Goblet of Fire.
"Now, I believe, is the moment you have all been waiting for!" Dumbledore grandly declared.
"If this thing spits out a name that shouldn't be part of the tournament, I'll skin you," Moody barked, his fake eye spinning around wildly in search of danger.
Our headmaster's smile didn't falter as he chuckled, adding, "Of course, we will also conduct a thorough investigation. You will, however, have to symbolically have to go through the entire event if you end up being selected. This artifact beside us creates a binding magical contract. A little known factoid, indeed."
Dumbledore was stroking his beard with a chuckle as I saw McGonagall and Sprout clench their fists so hard, they turned white. It seemed they hated that the goblet was used, tradition be damned.
It made sense, too. The forced participation was nonsensical, in my opinion.
"Now, without further ado," Dumbledore announced with a flourish and waved his wand around.
My gaze wasn't on the goblet, it was on the golden wand in his hand.
Well, golden in my Eagle Vision.
I didn't see it often because Dumbledore rarely used his wand in our presence, I had only seen the reworked grip of Excalibur a small handful of times before.
It reminded me that I should send Dumbledore to his death soon by retrieving the Deathly Hallow horcrux, the Gaunt lordship ring housing the Resurrection Stone, which was an Isu artifact like all the Hallows.
In a burst of blue flames, the gasps of the students around me brought me out of my thoughts.
"Carina Black," Dumbledore read out after he fished the flaming piece of parchment out of the air. "What delightful penmanship, Miss Black."
The students all around us began to cheer as the raven-haired witch stood up with poise and elegance. She made her way to the front where she was guided to a side door by Madame Maxime, who wore a satisfied but composed smile.
Once the claps began to quiet down and anticipation in the other hopefuls for the champion selection began to rise, another parchment erupted from the blue flames of magical artifact in the center of the Great Hall.
Dumbledore had to jump a little to grab this one out of the air, maybe on purpose to appear whimsical, maybe to not embarrass himself, and read out loud, "Vlad Krum!"
The students on the other side of us erupted into cheers as the quiet Viktor Krum copy stood up with a stoic expression.
My eyes searched Ekatarina and found her quickly. She didn't look upset despite not being chosen. I wondered why since I figured she was plenty competitive. I did see her put her name into the goblet, too.
Instead of looking upset, she just looked at me with a provocative smirk.
Now, the third and final champion was about to be selected and my self-assured demeanor began to crack. Thankfully just inwardly. Others probably thought I looked indifferent or even bored because my Occlumency clamped down on all of my emotions.
"Talion Macnair," Dumbledore announced, sounding almost defeated, after fishing the third piece of parchment out of the air. It wasn't just me who heard it. The old headmaster was definitely much less enthusiastic about me being chosen than he was for the champions of the other two schools.
My applause as I stood up was also much more subdued. Ravenclaws naturally erupted in delight. Hufflepuffs politely clapped like they would for anyone. Gryffindors were a mixed bag as even the Weasley twins playfully booed while clapping.
But they quickly stopped their banter when the Slytherins began to boo in earnest instead of applauding. Well, the loud minority of the Slytherin students centered around Draco Malfoy, anyway.
Just as I made my way to the antechamber where the other two champions were already waiting, gasps rang through the crowd.
I didn't bother looking back as I stepped through the door.
Harry Potter just became the fourth champion, I was sure of it.