Published at 27th of May 2024 12:15 am

Chapter 253: Shining Bright

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31 October 1994, Beauxbatons, France

The Tournament hadn't even begun, and Neville felt like he was an impostor trying to infiltrate an event that he hadn't any right being invited to.

This wasn't because his grandmother had insisted on giving him new robes which were identical copies of the ones his father wore at his age. It wasn't because of the gold and silver, the statues and the paintings all around Beauxbattons that dwarfed any luxury he had ever seen before in his life.

No, he had looked upon the other delegations and found nothing but confidence as the ICW representative made his speech about the tournament. Sure, Neville had grown considerably during the previous summer and the girl on his left played a large role in that.

Hermione coming back was the kick in the backside he needed to jump out of his depression and start working again on building a suitable future for himself. After all, he had lost the Longbottom name; the moment the rest of the Wizarding World realized this, he would become barely better than the average muggleborn in their eyes, barely better than Hermione.

The muggleborn taught him that there was something freeing in the lack of expectations. He would not have to join the Wizengamot and become a political figure. He was free, in a way, to choose his own path.

Oh, he was still the boy who lived, and that came with more than enough danger from Voldemort and his followers. And normally, that would have been enough in Britain. But here, in France, he was utterly ignored.

He hadn't realized just how local the war with Voldemort truly was. No one cared about him outside of Britain. Would anyone even cringe at Voldemort's name, or even recognize it in this place? The nice thing was that while people did not care about his status as the boy who lived, they also did not care about his mistakes in any way.

For the first time in his life, Neville was just a face amongst the crowds, and it was amazing.

That alone had made the trip worth it.

Of course, all things came to an end, and Neville's brief moment of comfort and relaxation ended when the ICW representative announced Albus Dumbledore as one of the tournament's judges.

He couldn't help but ask, "How the fuck did he pull that off?"

Hermione elbowed him in the gut, making him realize that he had spoken out loud. When he had turned to complain, Neville froze when he saw the faintly scared look on her face. There wasn't much that really scared her anymore.

For all the similarities, Hermione came back different from the Department of Mysteries. Oh, it was still her; there were habits that were hard to fake, but she felt more mature, for the lack of a better world. She gave him advice that he would have expected from an adult, and she was less emotional. She tried to fake it to hide her changes, and for a while, it did work, but Neville did notice the differences. He never commented on them. Whatever happened in the Diary was something that Hermione obviously didn't want to talk about, and he wasn't going to risk upsetting his only friend.

Just as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared, and the muggleborn answered, "He was never declared to be a criminal and Britain never called for his arrest. They never would without him being defeated and chained. The truth of the matter is that Dumbledore hasn't been defeated in any form of magical combat since his victory over Grindelwald and the ministry was never going to risk going to war against someone of this power, especially considering the damage he could make."

"Yes, shouldn't the ICW not let him near other schools? Considering the crap he pulled in Hogwarts."

Hermione simply shrugged, "Power has its perks. Dumbledore's presence alone is enough to give a certain form of power to the countries he supports. It's why no one tried to antagonize Britain for decades, and why the ICW is pouncing on us the moment they could, since we can't hide behind Dumbledore anymore. Crimes or not, any country would love nothing more than to have him there, and this is a discreet show of power. He'll probably be getting letters from the progressive families in the Wizengamot, begging him to return as quickly as he could."

The sad thing was that Neville could see it. Members of the Wizengamot tended to spook rather quickly, and the ICW was doing a good job at spreading its influence all over the ministry. Already, his grandmother had complained many times about the way the ICW was affecting the ministry, and he would bet she wasn't the only one dissatisfied with the situation.

It was always the case whenever the ICW spread its influence. As much as the institution liked to say that it was international in nature, its influence was greater in Europe and the regions close to it. It held very little influence on the American continent, which was mostly under MACUSA's control in everything but name. It was even worse in Eastern Asia, where they didn't even have any ambassadors… They were already lucky that India had joined the ICW officially after the Great War.

Hermione continued, "Dumbledore resurfacing in another country to pressure Britain was the most likely scenario, but I never expected the ICW to accept him as a judge to this tournament, especially considering his track record last year. I think he probably asked for this position specifically for some plan of his and they just didn't refuse. The fact that he was never formally considered to be a criminal definitely helped them speed things up, not that it was ever going to happen."

Now that he thought about it, the ministry calling for Dumbledore's arrest would be like the ministry calling Voldemort a criminal. There was very little they could do against someone of his calibre, and it would obviously not have any result but cause unnecessary trouble. That honestly made Neville wonder what the hell was the ministry's plan during the war with Voldemort. Were they hoping Dumbledore would just arrest him for them or something?

That said, would the Wizengamot truly try to invite the former headmaster back and give him power, just to avoid the ICW's influence? There were already grumblings about how much was changing. There had even been a bill about the ICW supervising the Department of Mysteries, which was insane. Thankfully, it didn't come to pass, but still, the fact that it even made its way to being voted was ludicrous.

However, whatever Neville was going to say disappeared as the Beauxbatons headmistress, a woman almost as tall as Hagrid, stood up, dwarfing everyone else in the high table. She spoke in some very accented English, but Neville could still follow what she was saying, "Welcome to Beauxbatons. My name is Olympe Maxime, and I am the headmistress of this prestigious institution. I am very proud to host the first task of the European School Tournament, which will hopefully become a tradition in the future. I wish you would all have a great time, whether or not you will become champions or not. The assets in Beauxbatons are open to everyone here, including our entire library, which I heavily suggest that you visit to make the most of your time here."

The crowd applauded and she continued, "The first task will take place on the seventh of November, and its details will be unknown to you until that very day. Each school will have a team of five champions competing with nothing more than their wands and inspected tournament clothes. It will be up to each school to choose its champions in any manner they wish. This will be the only task in the tournament that the competitors will not know what it will be without competing."

Neville couldn't help but be wary of the prospect of signing up for something without knowing what it was. Sure, sometimes he was reckless, like going to fight a Basilisk as a second year or trying to fight a man possessed by his parents' murderer during his first year in Hogwarts, but he wasn't stupid or insane.

From the way the woman made it sound, the first task could be a Quidditch match, or slaying a dragon. Neville certainly preferred the former to the latter. Anyway, he was probably not going to sign up for the first task, as regretful as it may be.

The reason he had even wanted to compete in the tournament was the number of opportunities he could have if he did so. Without the Longbottom name guaranteeing his future, he needed every opportunity he could get to make a genuine name for himself, outside of being the 'boy who lived'.

The tournament gave him that. It gave him choices, something that he sorely needed.

It was also why he was glad that Hermione had come with him. It was nice to know that someone cared enough to move all around Europe for a year just so that he would be able to make a name for himself. She definitely didn't need to; she probably had a job lined up as an Unspeakable after her graduation, considering how much time she spent there, and he couldn't help but be grateful for her help.

It wasn't just that. Hermione had helped him grow magically as well. Ever since his family crest was removed, he had stagnated magically. The lack of his enhanced learning speed made him feel like he wasn't making any progress in his magical studies.

He was wrong. Sure, he wasn't learning spells in minutes, but he was a lot better than the average person. Hermione had made him realize this when she taught him the vanishing charm, a fifth-year spell, in less than half an hour.

His grandmother had been overjoyed by this discovery and got a former Auror to teach him how to fight properly. It was very hard, but it was very rewarding. It was this improvement that got him to gain the confidence to sign up for the delegation. He only hoped that it wasn't misplaced and that he wouldn't embarrass himself on an international scale.

His train of thought was broken by the headmistress of Beauxbatons continuing her speech, "The representative of each delegation will have three days to submit the names of its competitors. I assure you that the dangers of these tasks are minimal and have been inspected by many ICW representatives and approved, so do not be afraid to compete. That said, here in Beauxbatons, we like to reward bravery and competing in such a task is, in fact, very brave. This is why we have decided to add an additional prize for the final winner of the task. This will be an individual prize, meaning that only one person will win it."

Everyone perked up as the woman waved her wand, and a golden dome appeared from thin air and floated down to the podium. With another flick of her wand, the dome disappeared leaving a normal leatherbound book.

The woman turned towards Dumbledore with a subtle smug look on her face, "As I said, the prize for the winner of the first task, the diary of Nicholas Flamel, found in a secret room where his body was found alongside his wife. The contents of the diary remain mysterious as it is enchanted, but even then, its historical value is considerable, to say the least. And now, let the tournament officially begin. May the odds be in your favour."

Harry and the Unspeakable woman, turned from Dumbledore's fact towards the diary in question as if they had rehearsed. For the first time, Harry had a hungry look on his face. Neville didn't blame him; practically everyone shared the same look. Nicholas Flamel was legendary.

The number of competitors definitely rose significantly with this announcement, and from the satisfied look on the headmistress' face, she knew that she had won this round.

However, Neville failed to notice the pale expression on Dumbledore's face as the Diary visibly disappeared with the giant witch's last declaration.

AN: I know that some of you will say that it's insane that the ICW would let someone like Dumbledore near children, and you would be right. Unfortunately, things aren't so simple.

The sad truth is that trying to stop someone like Dumbledore from something he really wants is almost impossible for normal wizards. The ICW pretty much thought about gaining as much as possible from his demands while staying out of his way. This will be explored more in another chapter.

That said, no official charges were filed by Britain, again since officially antagonizing someone as powerful as Dumbledore and calling for their arrest is generally a bad idea. Even then, in the ICW, his reputation as the defeater of Grindelwald is still enough for him to make his case and convince them to give him the position.

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