The Healer | Part 1: The Hogwarts Years

Fifth-Year

George

'Can you believe it, George?' Fred turned to me excitedly after we'd been dismissed from supper.

The entire Great Hall was vibrating with excitement. Temporary outrage at the age limit, but surely that would be simple enough to maneuver.

'A thousand galleons,' I mused out loud.

'We could forget all about Bagman if we had that!' Fred went on.

There was an appealing idea. If both Fred and I were to enter, then we'd have twice the chances of any other single student that one of us would be chosen as the Hogwarts Champion.

Of course, there was the minor problem that the entire school already knew we weren't seventeen, but surely it was close enough. We were a mere seven months away from our birthday. There never used to be an age limit for the Tournament. My mind was already whirring with ideas. All we probably had to do was work out a way to get our names in the Goblet of Fire, which was so old that it likely didn't even know there was an age limit this year. So, that meant that we simply work out how to get past whatever the magic the Ministry and Dumbledore would use to try to keep the younger students out.

Should be simple enough. We'd achieved far greater than that in our practically-seventeen years of life.

Fred and I had bet most of our savings on the outcome of the World Cup match this summer, won, but the gold Bagman had settled us with turned out to be leprechaun gold and had disappeared after a few hours. By the time we realized what he happened, he was nowhere to be found.

Fred and I had sent him two letters so far, one right after the match and one just a few days before returning to school with no response so far. The whole situation was making me feel quite uneasy. We had earned that money, we'd saved and worked hard for it. It was the only thing left that we needed to keep inventing things. We had the ideas and the brains to work them out, but the little money we'd had was now gone.

Fortunately, we didn't need much money now that we were back at school. There was no shortage of supplies that could be found, or nicked, easily enough. That, and there were plenty of people willing to buy our products.

I couldn't believe Percy hadn't told us about the tournament, and he had known about it, working at the Ministry. The self-righteous prat. We would have had more time to sort out what to do about the age limit if he'd have told us.

'What d'you reckon?' Fred asked eagerly.

'Dunno,' I told him. 'Depends on how they try to keep us out.'

'We'll be able to work it out,' he smirked.

'Course we will,' I grinned back and rubbed my hands together. I loved a good challenge.

We literally had nothing to lose.

Edith

Sure enough, the first week of fifth-year passed in a blur of lessons and homework. The hours and days felt long, but the week went by quickly. Before I knew it, it was Friday night and I had the largest mountain of homework I had ever seen in my life ahead of me.

Mia, Cho and Marietta were already poring over their books and rolls of parchment when I returned to the common room after dinner. I had been having an internal battle on whether I should get started tonight or give myself a break until tomorrow. It seemed like they had already decided for me.

'Professor McGonagall's essay will probably be the best to start on.' Cho said when I sat down. 'You only need to reference the textbook we already have. We'll need to go to the library tomorrow to research for Herbology and Potions.'