A war that started with a game… again? Don't they ever get tired?
The Ravenclaw common room was located in one of the highest towers of Hogwarts Castle, occupying a wide and elegant circular space, designed to inspire creativity, concentration, and study.
The walls were covered in deep blue and soft bronze tones, decorated with tapestries that depicted starry skies. Or at least, that was what they should have shown, because now the entire room was stained with a red liquid splattered across every corner, spread without any sense of order.
Even the furniture had not been spared. Sofas, chairs, and the fireplace were covered in that same color, everything except the bookshelves tucked away in the corners, which seemed to have been saved by nothing short of a miracle.
And in the middle of that scene, dozens of people surrounded the room with confused looks, not daring to approach the center. The reason was obvious. Four students stood there with completely serious expressions, pointing their wands at one another, ready to cast a spell at any moment. No one dared to intervene; a single wrong move could end in a stray spell.
On the floor, Terry Boot, a fourth year student, lay sprawled out. His body was covered in the same mess that coated the room, completely motionless. Like a corpse. Or rather, he was a corpse.
The students who arrived late to see what was happening could not help but turn pale at the sight. Some ran off to fetch Professor Flitwick, while the rest remained where they were, silently watching the scene unfold.
Harry, Daphne, Hermione, and Draco were the ones pointing their wands. Their gazes shifted from one to another with clear suspicion, and any sudden movement was immediately called out by the other three, as if they were ready to fire at any second.
"I'm sure one of you killed him," Harry said in a cold tone. "Surrender now and I might spare your lives," he added, looking at his three friends as if their friendship had shattered the very moment the corpse was discovered.
"Hah. And how do we know it wasn't you, Potter?" Draco replied with a mocking, arrogant tone, watching his former friend with open disdain.
"You're the most suspicious ones. You all had motives," Hermione cut in immediately, pointing her wand at both Draco and Harry.
"No. I think the one with a motive is you, Granger. After all, Terry had better grades in Runes than you. And that bothered you, didn't it?" Daphne said, leaving behind her usual cheerful and calm tone to adopt a colder one, her gaze nearly devoid of emotion.
"That's not true!" Hermione shouted immediately.
Astoria and Luna, who stood among the other students, wore expressions of mild panic as they watched the four of them, unsure of how to stop things. Astoria was the only one who dared to speak.
"Sister, you have to stop this. This is going to end badly. You're going to hurt someone."
But none of the four listened. The others could not interfere either, since any attempt could trigger an accidental spell. Billy, for his part, watched the scene in complete shock, as if he had never expected things to end like this. And maybe, deep down, he felt that it was his fault.
"What the hell did I do?" he muttered, watching the four continue to aim their wands at one another.
Michael Corner arrived at that moment and turned pale when he saw his friend lying on the floor. Instinctively, he tried to run toward him, but Anthony stopped him immediately, shaking his head with his eyes closed, as if telling him that it was already too late.
"B… but what happened?" Michael asked, desperate for answers.
"Well… this started after the welcome feast," Anthony began.
…
After eating until they were completely full and leaving even the dessert plates spotless, the atmosphere in the Great Hall had grown relaxed. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, chatting lightly while waiting to be dismissed to their common rooms.
Sirius stood up once more, as the rain continued to pound heavily against the tall windows.
"Well, I suppose it's time for the announcements now, right?" he began. "Filch told me that the list of forbidden objects grew again. It includes things like a screaming yoyo, a fanged frisbee, a banana… Well, it's up to 437 items or something like that now. Haha. You should know that at least 300 of those are on the list thanks to me and…"
"Ahem," Professor McGonagall growled, fixing Sirius with a deadly glare.
"Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked. The Forbidden Forest is forbidden and blah, blah, blah. You already know that," Sirius continued in a bored tone. "Now, what really interests all of us," he added with a grin, while McGonagall watched him with visible irritation for not handling the warnings properly, though she did not interrupt him. "This year's Quidditch Cup is suspended."
"Wow, power really went to his head fast," Daphne commented suddenly, as several students began complaining loudly.
"Well, it's Sirius. That wouldn't be surprising," Harry added calmly, looking toward his godfather.
Sirius raised both hands to calm them down.
"This is due to an event that will begin this year, one that will consume a lot of energy and, of course, is much more exciting," he said with an amused smile.
The Great Hall fell silent instantly, everyone waiting for the announcement.
"The Triwizard Tournament."
Tension swept through the room. Some students began cheering, while others did not understand what all the excitement was about.
Noticing this, Sirius spoke again before continuing.
"This tournament started about seven hundred years ago. Three European schools, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang, competed by selecting one champion each. Dangerous, exciting, and entertaining trials… for those watching, obviously. It was meant to bring the three schools together, but the number of deaths increased so much that they decided to suspend it," he explained with an amused expression, clearly delighted by the story, provoking mixed reactions among the students.
Especially from Professor McGonagall, while Snape wore an annoyed expression. Professor Sprout and Flitwick, on the other hand, seemed somewhat entertained.
"Number of deaths?" Hermione asked, practically the only one who seemed alarmed, while the students around her grew more and more excited.
"Well, they tried to revive the tournament a couple of times, but without much success. Still, the idiot… ahem, the Ministry types want to try again. And of course, as acting headmaster, I'm really looking forward to it," he said with a grin, continuing to poorly explain the judges and other details.
"Oh, so he's acting," Harry said as he realized it, especially because of the tournament part. Sirius probably wanted to be headmaster just for that.
"That makes a lot of sense. Why else would he be chosen? Though I wonder if he even knows how much work a headmaster actually has," Draco commented while Sirius kept talking.
"Does a headmaster have to work a lot?" Daphne asked with genuine confusion.
"He's supposed to. He's in charge of the entire school," Hermione replied immediately.
"… Oh, right, I almost forgot to add that the prize is one thousand galleons," Sirius said suddenly, cutting off his speech and leaving the Great Hall silent for a few seconds.
"Woooo!" the students began to shout, starting with the Weasley twins, who looked genuinely motivated. Naturally, they gave the impression that they would try to enter with everything they had.
"Well, don't get too excited. The Ministry and the schools want to establish an age restriction so that unprepared people don't end up as corpses," Sirius said, dampening everyone's enthusiasm. He seemed to have perfect control over the mood of the room while clearly enjoying himself. "Of course, the idiots wanted to set the restriction at seventeen and up," he added, immediately provoking protests from the students below that age.
At that point, Professor McGonagall had completely given up on trying to make Sirius speak properly or stop saying words like "corpses" and "idiots" every other sentence.
"But of course, as your brilliant acting headmaster, I managed to get it lowered, and now it will be for those fourteen and older," he announced with a shameless grin.
The cheers erupted once again, except among those younger than fourteen. They were a minority, though, so their complaints were drowned out by the general excitement.
Harry noticed Sirius glancing toward their group and giving them a wink, as if all of this had been done specifically for them. And judging by the expressions on Selene, Wanda, Narcissa, and Susan, it seemed fairly obvious that this was the real reason the four of them were there as professors, making sure that none of their children ended up hurt by that madness.
"Now… our enemies will arrive in October. Remember to treat them the way Hogwarts should," Sirius said, leaning forward on the table with a wicked smile.
This time, Professor McGonagall did not allow things to spiral any further. She stood up immediately and cut in.
"With extreme courtesy. And they are not our enemies, they are our guests," she said in a stern tone, fixing everyone, especially Sirius, with a sharp glare.
"Yes, yes, that," he replied quickly, earning a few laughs from the students.
McGonagall sat back down, shooting Sirius an annoyed look. He clearly did not take his job seriously and seemed to treat everything like a game. She already looked prepared to scold him the moment everything was over.
"Oh, right, I almost forgot. These four are the new professors," Sirius said, pointing at Wanda, Narcissa, Selene, and Susan, who all looked mildly irritated at being introduced so casually. "They're scary when they're angry, so behave yourselves around them. Now, off to your common rooms," he added before leaving at full speed.
Professor McGonagall immediately stood up to go after him, undoubtedly to complain about every single mistake he had made during that announcement.
The students rose from their seats after that emotional roller coaster and began heading toward their respective common rooms.
Meanwhile, Harry and his group walked along, quietly laughing at Sirius's nonsense. He never seemed to mature, always acting like a complete lunatic. If there were a ranking of chaotic, idiotic beings, first place would belong to Red, and Sirius would come right after him.
"So, Hogwarts champion. Are you going to try?" Daphne asked immediately, looking at them with interest.
"I don't think so. Sounds like too much trouble," Draco replied calmly, shaking his head.
"I'm not interested. It would be cheating if I entered," Harry said with a faintly arrogant tone.
Hermione, Draco, and Daphne looked at him for a moment.
"I think it would be cheating if I entered too," Hermione said, her competitive side activating instantly.
"Oh, really? Then I'd be even worse. After all, I'm today's winner, remember?" Daphne said with a teasing smile.
"You only got to the station first. That's not a real victory," Draco replied irritably.
"Oh? Then how are the scores between us?" Daphne asked right away.
"Four hundred each," Harry answered.
"Then I'm at four hundred and one victories. Which means I'm the queen," Daphne declared without hesitation, as if it were inevitable.
That made all of them frown.
Before an argument could start, Billy, who had been walking behind them in silence, could not help but intervene.
"You're really going to fight over something that stupid? Why don't you just have some kind of competition and be done with it? Something like finding an object or figuring out who the murderer is."
The four of them turned around and stared at him.
"Figuring out the murderer?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah. That game where everyone plays a role, you find a corpse, and by following clues, you figure out who the killer is…" he began to explain.
But before he could finish, the four of them bolted toward the common room at full speed. On the way, they grabbed Terry, who had been calmly talking with his friends.
"Hey, what's going on, guys?" he managed to say before being dragged along.
…
Back to the present.
Professor Flitwick rushed into the common room and barely took a single step inside before clutching his chest at the sight of what looked like blood everywhere and a student lying on the floor, covered in it, while his four best students pointed their wands at one another.
They were shouting at each other nonstop.
"You were sitting on the left."
"You were the last one to speak."
"That's exactly what a murderer would say."
The accusations piled on top of one another, leaving no room to respond. And to make things worse, they were accusing each other using completely absurd pieces of evidence.
"It wasn't me."
"You're getting nervous."
"Lower your wand."
"You lower yours."
Breathing as if he were about to have an attack, Flitwick shouted,
"What is going on here?"
All four answered at the same time as they turned toward him.
"It wasn't me."
Terry, who heard the professor's voice and was already tired of lying on the floor, lifted his head with a sleepy expression.
"Can I go now?" he asked, clearly wanting to go to sleep.
"Shut up, you're a corpse," Daphne yelled immediately, as the four of them went right back to pointing their wands at each other.
Seeing that Terry was fine, Flitwick let out a sigh of relief, just before another student rushed over to grab him and keep him from fainting from the shock he had felt earlier.
"I didn't know they were that competitive," Billy commented, having never imagined things would end like this, or that the four of them could become that intense so quickly.
In the end, everything came to a stop when Professor Flitwick, completely furious, used a powerful but unbreakable spell and decided to apply the ultimate punishment: going to fetch the mothers of the four of them. To their misfortune, they were now professors at Hogwarts, and they arrived immediately.