Link to previous chapter: https://theowlhouse.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000189445
Luz noticed that every student at Hogwarts was a human, or at least they looked like humans, they had round ears. Luz had thought that she was the only living human with any form of magic, thanks to Stringbean, but clearly she was mistaken. The students seemed to be sorted into four groups, a red one, a blue one, a yellow one, and a green one. She wondered what types of magic each of them learned.
They saw a trio of people, a boy with black hair, glasses and a scar that seemed to resemble a lightning bolt on his forehead, very cool! Luz thought, a boy with fire red hair who was probably taller than Eda, and a girl with curly brown hair. No one was really bothering them. Something about the boy with the scar seemed familiar, though she had no idea why.
“Hi, I’m Luz Noceda, and this is my girlfriend, Amity Blight! Who are you three?” she asked of these three witches. The tall one made a face for a split second when Luz said ‘Girlfriend’.
“Erm, I’m Harry, Harry Potter,” The black-haired one answered, “And these two are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.” Harry seemed to be trying to subtly hide the scar on his forehead to no avail. Luz couldn’t put her finger on why, but Harry’s name and that scar made him seem very familiar.
“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” Amity replied to him. His attempts to hide his scar seemed just as pointless as they were futile. Luz finally realized how much she had been looking at it.
“Oh, sorry for staring at your scar, it just looks so cool. May I ask how you got it?” Luz immediately realized how personal her question had been, “o-only if you’re comfortable sharing, of course.” Nice save, she thought.
“No, I-I’d rather not share, sorry. It’s personal.” Harry replied. Damn it, Luz, that response shouldn’t make me more curious! Luz thought to herself.
“So, what do the different colors represent?” Amity asked.
“They represent the four Hogwarts houses, the three of us are in Gryffindor, the red one. The blue one is Ravenclaw, the yellow one is Hufflepuff, and the green one is Slytherin.” Hermione started rattling off. Her demeanor was bossy and knowledgeable, like she thought this was simple knowledge everyone should’ve known by now.
“Gryffindors are brave, Ravenclaws are intelligent, Hufflepuffs are loyal, and Slutherins are ambitious. At the start of the year, first-years are sorted into whichever house suits them the best.” She continued.
“What about your different colored sleeves?” Harry asked, his eyes full of curiosity.
“The different colors for Hexside uniforms represent the nine different magic tracks, Abomination, Bard, Beast Keeping, Construction, Healing, Illusion, Oracle, Plant, and Potions.” Luz answered, “Before I came around, students were only able to take one of them, but as you can see,” she glanced at the other students, most of whom have multiple colors on their sleeves, “That’s not the case anymore!” The human witches nodded in understanding.
“So, do you know how this whole tournament thing works?” Amity pestered, “Bump kinda just decided we were gonna do this thing. With no explanation, are we staying in this castle, or are we going through the portal door back to Hexside every night?”
“We don’t really know either, this tournament hasn’t been held in over two hundred years.” Ron explained. He scratched his head while he spoke. Luz really wanted to know more, but she supposed that had to wait.
Gus came over to join the five of them. He introduced himself, then he was soon followed by Hunter and Willow. They also introduced themselves. The humans kept staring at the ears of the Witches.
“So why do you four have pointed ears?” inquired Harry. Willow explained it to him. The Hogwarts trio all seemed to understand to some extent. The human witches then asked about the creatures on our staffs, and Hunter started to explain them.
"These creatures are called palismen, they're made from a special kind of wood native to the Boiling Isles, where Hexside is, called the Palistrom tree. I am actually an apprentice palisman carver under Dell Clawthorne!" He was starting to get excited, Luz was happy that he had found something he was passionate about.
"Every witchling receives their own palisman when they come of age. They don't come to life until it bonds with you over telling it what you truly, deeply wish. Like for me, it was helping others. And for Luz, it was being understood. palismen have two forms, a staff form and an animate form. When in the staff form, they fly around, and we use them for transport. When they're in animate form, they can help with all sorts of tasks! For example, our principal Bump uses his palisman, Frewin, to help him see!" Hunter continued info-dumping enthusiastically. The human witches seemed to barely follow along.
"So you mean to say that everyone from your part of the Wizarding World has one of these?" Ron asked, perplexed.
Hunter got stuck on the term 'Wizarding World' for a moment, but then explained that since Belos had stolen the palismen of many people for his own selfish consumption, and over-harvested the palistrom tree, not every Witch had one, in fact, most of his friends had hand-me-down palismen, ones that had been abandoned.
"But the trees are making a recovery!" He said enthusiastically, "Probably in twenty years or so, every Witch on the Boiling Isles who wishes for a palisman can have one again! Just like the days before the Emperor's Coven!"
The Hogwarts students nodded, Luz couldn't tell if it was actual understanding, or if they just wanted Hunter to stop talking so much.
"Well, over here, we just have our wands. I remember when I got mine on my eleventh birthday, Ollivander told me that the wand chooses the wizard, and I ended up with this Holly wand with a Phoenix feather core. Do you play sports with your palismen? When they're in staff form they sound a lot like a broomstick." Harry said. "We play a few sports on brooms over here!"
Harry proceeded to explain Quidditch, then he somehow got onto the subject of his pet owl, Hedwig.
Hogwarts seemed pretty cool, they had broomsticks, wands, and animal pets; though it sounded a lot more like Azura than it did the Boiling Isles. Luz couldn’t wait to get to know more!
Albus thought it odd that a school in another realm wished to join the Triwizard tournament, but he had decided to humor them. It would have been rude to turn down someone who had specifically asked to join, after all.
“So, headmaster Dumbledore, when will the champions be chosen?” Principal Bump inquired.
“The Goblet of Fire will choose its champions tomorrow night, on Halloween.” Albus told him in his typical wise demeanor. The two headmasters made their way to Albus’ office.
Waiting for them were Madame Olympe Maxime of Beauxbatons and Igor Karkaroff of Durmstrang. Olympe was a very tall woman with olive skin and black eyes, while Igor was almost as tall as Albus, with short white hair and a goatee.
Maxime seemed annoyed at the delay, while Karkaroff seemed mildly amused by another school’s attendance. Bump took a seat next to Madame Maxime, and Albus took his seat on the other side of his desk.
“Good afternoon. As I’m sure you all are well aware, a fourth school is in attendance for this year's Triwizard Tournament. Or I suppose you could call it the Quad-wizard Tournament now.” Albus chuckled at his own joke. “Luckily, I have already re-enchanted the Goblet of Fire to account for the fourth school.”
“Why did you allow zis school to join us?” pestered the French Headmistress, “zat is messing with ze traditions!”
Albus paused, wanting to form a proper response. “I have allowed Hexside to join us, dear Olympe, because I think it is rude to tell someone no when they have asked to join this tournament.”
“We allowed Ilvermorny in this tournament back when I was headmaster. Two champions died!” One of the portraits piped in, “I thought we learned our lesson! Four schools is too many!”
“Headmaster Duncan, I can assure you that Hexside is nothing like Ilvermorny. I have been to Hexside’s campus, and I believe their students will make very competent champions” Albus assured the old headmaster.
Finding the argument useless, Duncan receded to another portrait. Karkaroff grumbled about Dumbledore being too willing to let go of tradition.
“Need I remind you, Igor, that it was my idea to even bring back this ancient tournament. Its existence is enough to honor tradition.” Albus told the Durmstrang headmaster. His voice stern, but calm. “The Triwizard Tournament has not been held since seventeen-ninety-two, over two hundred years ago. Even I’m not old enough to have been there.” Albus failed to keep in a chuckle.
"This tournament will be different from years past, but there is more to honoring tradition than being unchanging. You must also learn, change and grow." Albus told them. Igor, however, didn't seem convinced. "This tournament will run as smoothly as possible in order to ensure fair competition."
“If I could be of any assistance to you, Headmaster Dumbledore, I would be pleased to do so.” Bump said to him.
“That won’t be necessary, Hieronymus, I have everything under control” Dumbledore calmly told the demon-headed principal. But did he?
Albus kept wondering what he was going to do about the tasks, he only had three dragon eggs, and he had only asked for three dragons, a Hungarian Horntail, a Chinese Fireball, and a Swedish Short-snout, what would the fourth one be? He had asked the merpeople that they would have to capture three people, not four. This entire tournament would be quite overwhelming. But he was Albus Dumbledore, he could handle it.
Albus dismissed the three other headmasters, wishing to be alone in his study. He called out for Fawkes to join him. Dumbledore had much thinking to do.
