Nico, Voldemort's Older Brother (Being Rewritten)

Nico XXV

We shadow-traveled to the middle of the Great Hall, earning a lot of scared yells from around us.

Selena rolled her eyes, "Let's get you enrolled at Hogwarts." She pulled Bianca towards the teachers table, making up some story about Bianca.

Albus stood up, "May I have your attention?"

The hall grew silent.

"We have another new student here, her name is Bianca di Angelo, a transfer from Castelobruxo." He continued. "Accio sorting hat." The hat flew towards Albus's hand. He placed it on Bianca's head.

"Gryffindor!" The hat yelled, evidently trying not to screech in panic. "You poor child!"

Bianca rolled her eyes and came to sit next to us. "So, how do I get a wand?"

Selena smirked, pulling out a wand. "I already have one for her," she handed it to Bianca. "Thanatos was kind enough to make another one. It's made of elder wood and thestral tail-hair."

Bianca nodded, "Interesting."

The Weasley family came and sat next to us.

"Hello, Hermione," said Mrs. Weasley, much more stiffly than usual.

"Hello," said Hermione, her smile faltering at the cold expression on Mrs. Weasley's face.

Harry looked between them, then said, "Mrs. Weasley, you didn't believe that rubbish Rita Skeeter wrote in Witch Weekly, did you? Because Hermione's not my girlfriend."

"Oh!" said Mrs. Weasley. "No — of course I didn't!" But she became considerably warmer toward Hermione after that.

We whiled away the afternoon with a long walk around the castle, and then returned to the Great Hall for the evening feast. Ludo Bagman and Cornelius Fudge had joined the staff table now. Bagman looked quite cheerful, but Cornelius Fudge, who was sitting next to Madame Maxime, looked stern and was not talking. Madame Maxime was concentrating on her plate, and I thought her eyes looked red. Hagrid kept glancing along the table at her.

There were more courses than usual, but I was starting to feel really nervous now, so I didn't eat much. As the enchanted ceiling overhead began to fade from blue to a dusky purple, Albus rose to his feet at the staff table, and silence fell.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes' time, I will be asking you to make your way down to the Quidditch field for the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Will the champions please follow Mr. Bagman down to the stadium now."

I got up, Selena and Serena disappeared. They became little wisps of shadow, going into the tattoo. The Gryffindors all along the table were applauding Harry and me; the demigods all wished me good luck, and I headed off out of the Great Hall with Harry, Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor.

"Feeling all right, Harry?" Bagman asked as they went down the stone steps onto the grounds. "Confident?"

"I'm okay," said Harry.

We walked onto the Quidditch field, which was now completely unrecognizable. A twenty-foot-high hedge ran all the way around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of us: the entrance to the vast maze. The passage beyond it looked dark and creepy.

Five minutes later, the stands had begun to fill; the air was full of excited voices and the rumbling of feet as the hundreds of students filed into their seats. The sky was a deep, clear blue now, and the first stars were starting to appear. Hagrid, Professor Moody, Minerva, and Professor Flitwick came walking into the stadium and approached Bagman and the champions. They were wearing large, red, luminous stars on their hats, all except Hagrid, who had his on the back of his moleskin vest.