Darius had a headache. He had a major headache. The Triwizard Tournament had been tossed on its head and was virtually unrecognizable from the canon tournament. He knew that with all the changes he had made in the timeline, there were bound to be some repercussions, but he was hoping he would have some more time before it changed entirely. Sadly, it was not to be so. The Triwizard tournament, for reasons beyond his knowledge currently, had changed a hell of a lot.

The evening started off well enough, other than the heavy downpour of course. However, Darius and his friends were more than capable of putting up wide-range impervious charms to keep the rain from bothering them. Though Darius did pity the first years who had to come across the lake in those dinghy boats in this weather.

The sorting also went rather normally, other than the absence of the DADA professor but Darius knew that Moody was slated for that spot. Though he would have to keep an eye on the professor to see if he had been replaced by Barty this time around as well. Since Bart’s escape happened so late this summer, it was likely that they wouldn’t have been able to take down Moody in that time. If so, there would be someone else he may turn up polyjuiced as, making it a much more difficult task to spot him. Though Darius was sure that he would be able to find Barty over the course of the year.

The feast was also scrumptious as usual. Though Darius moaned over the overly greasy and fatty fare as usual, and had to hunt through several dishes to find himself some greens to ea. He swore that he had never found a place that served an unhealthier fare than Hogwarts Even fast food stores would be putto shame at the amount of butter, fat, lard and grease used in the Hogwarts kitchens. It made it extremely hard to keep up your physical fitness levels for those invested in it, for instance Darius.

And then there was the dramatic entrance. It was the classic evil villain entrance, what with the caped silhouette and the lightning flashing in the sky but Darius couldn’t laugh despite it. The man gave such an aggressive and bloodthirsty vibe, that there was no one who could have managed a laugh at that moment. The man was obviously more dangerous than anything Darius had expected, and he was rather taken aback at that. He could only imagine how powerful the likes of Dumbledore and Voldemort were, if Moody was able to give him such a shock. Of course, Moody himself was no slouch and had a rather fearsome reputation backed up with a solid history but he still wasn’t in the same class as the other two.

And then the bombshell!! “It is my very great honor to inform you that the Triwizard tournament shall be taking place at Hogwarts this year.”

Dumbledore’s announcement let lose all bedlam in the Great Hall, the Weasley twins in particular were rather loud! He went on to add that the Cup hadn’t been hosted in centuries and would bring great honor to the participating schools and Darius tuned out his further blather. But there were some things he couldn’t do so easily.

“And we will have some changes from the classic Hogwarts tournament. Normally each school rotates every five years and hosts the tournament in its own way but due to some extraneous factors, we have decided to make it more inclusive of the other schools practices this time.”

Darius wanted to scream in frustration. What the hell were these extraneous factors? And where would he be able to find out what these other practices were? Thankfully Dumbledore at least clarified some of the countless questions floating around in Darius’ head.

“The tournament will be held at Hogwarts, as I had stated earlier but will follow the advisor system of Beauxbatons Academy. Their system advocates that each champion be paired with one member of staff from their school, excluding the Headmaster and Heads of Houses, who would then serve as their mentor and guide through the year. We also draw on both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang traditions as we will be having a few mini competitions in the middle of the tournament. And much more to come.

I hope we all have a great year with our foreign guests this year and show them a proper sportsmanlike spirit. The other schools’ candidates will arrive in October and stay with us for the rest of the year. Please extend a warm welcome to them. That all for today. Good night!”

With that, the announcements for the night were done and all the students were chivvied off to sleep. Of course, Darius being a Prefect, he was the one chivvying the younger lot off to their dorms. But the night was a long one for him. Despite going trying to go into his meditative state and trying the Vertentes for nearly an hour, he was not able to keep calm enough and gave it as a lost cause for that day. He fell into a fitful sleep soon after though.

Elsewhere in the castle, there was someone else who was not in a very happy mood either and it was for the same reasons as well. Dumbledore was not happy about his change of plans. No sir, he was not. He had planned for a nice and simple three stage tournament, without all the extra flare which came with the Triwizard tournament but the events after the Quidditch World Cup had dashed his hopes. Part of the reason he was willing to host the Cup was that he believed it would draw out Riddle into the open and he wanted exactly that. An enemy hidden in the darkness while you stood in the light was the most dangerous foe. But with all the new stuff, he was not as confident of his chances as he had been before.

The other two schools were furious after they heard the happenings at the world Cup and it was a tough task to stop them from withdrawing altogether or insisting that the Tournament be held in their country. In fact, it was more of the latter, but both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang didn’t budge an inch. If there was merely a minor attack and no captives, Dumbledore may have been able to downplay the even and sweep in under the rug. But Madam Bones had managed to take down several of them and even capture three, who by some strange way he wasn’t aware of, spilt a lot more information than they would normally. While he could not ask Madam Bones to do a better job than this, it really couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time. A final settlement had been reached between the schools after a lot of wrangling and the current state of the tournament was due to that.

Not to mention, there would be a much bigger contingent coming in from the schools now along with a veritable train of the International Press. Both Dumbledore and Riddle wouldn’t want the International Press looking into he country too closely for their own reasons. Riddle didn’t want the spotlight on him while he was in such a weakened state as it would do him no good. And the International Press and the various newspapers abroad wouldn’t be so easy to buy off or intimidate as the Prophet. And Dumbledore definitely didn’t want them looking into the matter and poking their nose in his affairs. He was firmly entrenched in his belief of the chosen one, and nothing would dissuade him from it.

Actually, Dumbledore’s insistent viewpoint didn’t make sense at all. Does the prophecy mean that if a dozen Aurors shot lethal spells at Voldemort from all directions, he wouldn’t die? Of course not, it was just Dumbledore who was feeding people all this crap about Harry and putting the heavy burden on his shoulders. Of course, Voldemort had his Horcruxes, but he could be taken down as many times as required if people only had the courage to stand up to him. Unfortunately, the people of Magical Britain were more sheep than people and tended to blindly follow the one with the loudest voice. The sheeple could have you up in a pedestal one day and set you up as public enemy number one the next.

The new Triwizard Tournament was going to be a headache for all the people across the board and they were all scrambling to keep up with the changes.