Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

19 November, 1994 - Tournament

Summer faded into fall and fall into winter and Lavinia would have loved to be able to say that her life had continued almost exactly as it had in the past few years. But there were enough notable and slightly painful exceptions to that statement that by the time the new year came, she'd all but given up trying to pretend anything about this was normal.

The first upheaval had been mild and rather detached from her at the time she'd read about it. Apparently some idiot had decided to reinstate the Triwizard Tournament, a choice Lavinia couldn't even begin to fathom because she didn't understand where three Ministries and their associated magical schools got off being so incredibly stupid. She hadn't known much of anything about the Tournament at first, but it had taken very little time for her to understand that the entire thing was a ridiculous excuse for each school to try to make themselves look better than the others without much concern for the safety of anyone involved. In short: it had been discontinued for a reason and she didn't understand why everyone had suddenly forgotten what that reason was.

True, the new version had a few more restrictions such as an age limit and apparently toning down the danger of the tasks, but even before both of those precautions turned out to be complete and utter horse shit, Lavinia didn't think that one of them at least made much of a difference. In her considered opinion, it didn't matter if you were sixteen or seventeen because you were still far too young to be dealing with any of the sorts of things that past tournaments had included. Really, she thought, no one was old enough to be dealing with such things. What mattered was training and if the Ministry mandated at least an E in NEWT Care of Magical Creatures as well as two years of departmental training before they allowed adult wizards who were already done with school to handle rampaging cockatrices, then students, regardless of age, were far from prepared.

Not that anyone listened to Lavinia when she pointed this out. Or rather, no one with any power to change it listened to her and Dumbledore apparently elected to completely ignore her letter on the subject. Which, Lavinia supposed, was fair. It was hardly her place to tell him what to do at his school, but still. The whole thing was idiotic beyond measure and while she might have kept quiet about it... well. Spectators had been subject to injury thanks to the tournament before Lavinia cared very much about the well being of at least two people who would be sitting in those stands even if they weren't in the competition.

Thankfully, however, Miriam and Heather both wholeheartedly agreed with Lavinia and the three women spent plenty of time pointing out all of the incredibly dangerous and equally ridiculous elements of the Tournament. Even Jasmine, excitable and adventurous though she was, didn't much see the point of the whole thing, though she did argue that at least it would be interesting to watch since usually the disruptions to her school year had been more dangerous than fun and inevitably involved, as she called him, "the Potter boy". Lavinia was of the opinion that watching wasn't exactly safe either, but she didn't say this. Jasmine would have told her to stop being overbearing and would have ignored the advice anyway. But at least the girl, and Harry, would both just be watching.

Or so she'd thought.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the next time Lavinia read about the tournament in the paper, it very much did have to do with Harry. How four champions had been chosen and how one of them was an entire three years younger than the supposed age limit, Lavinia didn't know. But at least this time, Dumbledore did answer her letter on the subject and invited her to meet him at the school, which she agreed to, fully prepared to give the old man a thorough dressing down. She would have too, but when she stepped into that office, all the rage went right out of her at the sight of him.

Dumbledore was standing over a glowing stone basin, his hands braced against its sides. Which wouldn't have come at all close to stopping Lavinia, but when he glanced at her... the look on his face... Lavinia knew that look. She had seen it before. For months and months and that look... that look meant that bad things were going to happen - were probably already happening - and Dumbledore didn't know how to stop them.