Intolerable Man [SnapexOC]

7. The Tri-wizard Tournament

A few days into the term Dumbledore told the students that had an announcement. So one evening while they were gathered in the great hall, he delayed supper to explain that surprise of his, which he hinted at during their welcoming feast. The students, who were all tired and hungry by the end of their first full week, moaned an groaned when dinner didn't arrive at its usual time. These impatient growls only got louder as they watched Dumbledore position himself at his podium and prepare to give some speech. His words were full of wisdom, but he always had so much to say.

"This year, Hogwarts will play host to a monumental event! The Tri-Wizard tournament, is being reinstated this year!" His voice roared, in an audibly excited tone.

The crowd, went, wild. In an attempt to not disrespect their head master, the spoke in, what was the quietest volume Lana had ever heard Hogwarts students use. She didn't think they were capable of using their inside voices. Most of the older students knew exactly what Dumbledore was going on about. The hushed whispers of excitement came to an end when Dumbledore continued.

He went into extraneous detail on the games origins, and the reasons behind its temporary banning. The tasks seemed impossible, Lana was very curious as to why they thought now would be the best time to host such a thing. Perhaps to increase morale. Whatever the case, she still cringed hearing about past contestants and their injuries they endured from participating, at least Dumbledore was going into detail. This only seemed to make the deranged group of Hogwarts finest teenage boys even more excited to enter their name. Risking your life in such a way confused Lana, no amount of many could get her to enter her name she thought. She thought the whole thing to be silly, but then again, interesting. It was like a broom collision so bad, you just couldn't bring your self to look away.

Lastly, Dumbledore explained that later, in October, a select group of students and their headmasters from two other schools would be arriving, and staying for the duration of the tournament. Since each school could only have one contestant. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were the two other esteemed British schools that Hogwarts would host in the next month. After Dumbledore finished he motioned behind him, for someone else to come forward from the staff table.

From behind Dumbledore came Barty Crouch Sr., a short, thin man, as well as a cruel one, from what Lana had heard. No, he was in no way, shape, or form a sympathizer or affiliate to dark wizards. But he had become just as power hungry and careless as the dark wizards had.

"Due to the violent nature of these tournaments, no one under the age of seventeen, will be permitted to participate."

After Crouch announced the age requirement for the tournament, the crowd erupted in boos. The students were in outrage.

"That's rubbish!"

Lana instantly recognized the twins voices and looked over to the Gryffindor table, they were obviously outraged by the ministry's age restrictions, and were edging toward climbing on top of the table. Lana giggled at the insults they were throwing at Crouch. This earned her a kick in the leg from Severus.

This was strange, he had been ignoring her completely the last few days. Was this his attempt of joking with her? Or was he being a git, as usual.

Lana, who wasn't going to let him get away with, what she could only fathom to be a failed attempt of shutting her up, elbowed Severus' upper arm in retaliation, and continued to listen for the twins insults. Severus glowered at her, slightly impressed.

"Silence!" Said Dumbledore, his voice amplified by the Sonorus charm.

The angry crowd of children fell quiet, after being startled by their headmaster. Lana jumped along with them, she had never heard Dumbledore raise his voice.

Dumbledore once again warned those who were thinking of entering the tournament, it was by no means a game. He also told those who were thinking of entering even though they were under seventeen not to bother, because he would be setting in place precautionary measures, him self.

Once Dumbledore allowed dinner to commence Lana dug into her food eagerly, which caught Snape's attention. He looked down disapprovingly at Lana as she scarfed down her potatoes. She never saw the point in eating daintily. He let out, what sounded suspiciously like a laugh, when Lana dropped a pile of mashed potatoes into her lap. Minerva saw his amusement and quickly cast some spell to clear Lanas lap, then glared at Severus like a mother who caught her child doing something they shouldn't have been. Lana in turn exhaled through her nose at Severus' reaction to his nonverbal scolding. The rest of dinner went on with our any mishaps, just the occasional comments from a peeved off student, which they said as loud as possible.

Every night so far, after the students were dismissed from dinner and sent to their common rooms, Severus would get up immediately and rush out of the room, dramatically, while the rest of the staff stayed and chatted a bit longer. Tonight he seemed to be full of surprises, because he actually stayed, until everyone eventually left. Not only that, he participated in conversation with Minerva and Rolanda, and acknowledged Lana when she would chime in. Lana was obviously astounded by his change in behavior. He was happy, about something. Lana knew she couldn't be the reason why, but she still hoped that she had something to do with it. She always thought foolish things like that, she blamed it on being a Leo any chance she got. The rest of the night she smiled proudly, believing she had changed his attitude.

Soon enough the rest of the staff retired for the night, Lana said goodnight to every single one of them, even Severus. He returned the formality before heading toward his dark, dank, dungeons. The night had ended on such a good note, Lana believed that she would enjoy teaching at Hogwarts very much. Even more so now.

A/N-
Yeah I changed the announcement of the triwizard tournament around a bit because I wanted Lana to be there for it but not see Snape the first day. So yea, it's a little weird. As always, thank you for reading <3