Annabeth Chase the Triwizard Champion

Chapter Five

The hall went completely silent. Everyone was looking at the stranger, who lowered his hood and shook out his hair like a dog. A blaze of lightning flashed, and the stranger started walking up the aisle between two tables, heading for the front.

Every other step the stranger took, there was a clunk, like a piece of wood hitting stone. Annabeth wondered if he actually had a wooden foot or if his shoes were made from wood like in the 1300s. When he reached the front of the hall, he turned towards Dumbledore, and another flash of lightning illuminated his face.

He was scarred more badly than anyone Annabeth had ever seen, and that was saying something. His face looked like it had been used as a wood block, it was so scarred. His mouth was lopsided, like the muscles in one side of his face didn't work. There was a chunk of his nose missing, making one of his nostrils much smaller than the other.

Even his eyes were mismatched. One was small and dark, like a button, and the other was perfectly round, a lot bigger, and as blue as Thalia's, but it didn't have a pupil. It moved around constantly, not settling on one thing for more than a half a second.

Then it did settle. Right on Annabeth. She had the sudden urge to run, to get out of sight of that eye. It sent a shudder like ice through her, and she wanted to take out her dagger, just for the comfort of having it in her hand.

Then the eye moved on, and Annabeth could breathe again.

The man shook hands with Dumbledore, and they exchanged a few quiet words. Then the man walked down the head table and took the empty seat, where he warily sniffed a piece of sausage before taking a knife out of his pocket and sawing through the meat.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Dumbledore said, breaking the silence. "Professor Moody."

He looked Moody, all right. Annabeth wasn't sure how good at Defense this new teacher would be. Clearly he wasn't very good at defending himself.

Only two people clapped for Professor Moody. One was Dumbledore, and the other was Hagrid, the seemingly half giant. The students only just stared, but Moody didn't seem to care. He just pulled out a flask from his pocket and took a deep drink.

"As I was saying," Dumbledore continued, smiling, "we are to have the honor of hosting a very special event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" someone yelled.

The hall filled with laughter, dissipating all the tension from Moody's arrival.

Meanwhile, Annabeth's mind was reeling. So this was the tournament with tasks of three.

"I was not joking, Mr. Weasley," he said, "though I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar..."

Next to him, Professor McGonagall cleared her throat.

"But maybe this is not the time... no," Dumbledore said. "Where was i? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament... Well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation and allow their attention to wander freely."

Annabeth leaned forward in anticipation. Finally, she was getting the information she needed.

"The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beuxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities— until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."