FicWad

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter do you think there ever would have been a chance of Harry and Ginny?



This story is set back in the timeline of The Mummy Returns so here's a basic rundown of the Harry Potter timeline in relation.
1922: Harry Potter is born to Lily and James Potter.
1923: Harry is a year old and his parents are murdered by Voldemort.
1927: Harry is five and goes to Egypt with his relatives.
1933: Harry turns eleven and starts Hogwarts.



Classes passed rather quickly the rest of that day, though Hagrid clearly needed to get over his fascination with the Blast-Ended Skrewts. Kedar was tempted to stick his knife inside one and see if there was actually anything interesting about them at all, but he was afraid his knife wouldn't survive contact with the hard outer shells of the creatures. That and they probably would take his knife away after seeing it and the blade was one of his favorites, Ardeth had given it to him right after he had been adopted into the Medjai all those years ago. Glancing over at Ron and Hermione, who had gotten involved in some argument or another, Kedar decided to stay out of it and thought of possible ways to get out of studying the Skrewts any further. His contemplation, and the argument, lasted all the way up until they arrived at the school's entrance hall and found themselves unable to proceed any further. Standing on tiptoe, both Kedar and Ron were able to read the large sign that had arrested everyone's attention and in turn related the news to an impatient Hermione.

TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT

The delegations from Beauxbatons and
Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock
on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will
end half an hour early-

Ron whooped happily at the thought of getting out of Potions early, but Kedar merely shrugged. He understood the value of potions, poison was a way of life in the desert, and Professor Snape had pretty much left him alone since first year after he had proved that not much riled him.

Students will return their bags and books
to their dormitories and assemble in front
of the castle to greet our guests before
the Welcoming Feast.

"Only a week away," some people were murmuring nearby, "wonder if ..." The rest trailed off as they walked away.

~~ ~~ ~*~

The only topic deemed worthy of conversation during that next week was the Triwizard Tournament. Rumors flew on who would be entering the tournament or who was going to try what spell to fool the age restriction. Speculation was rampant on what the task would entail, many students were hoping for duels among the champions, and how different the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons would be from them. Kedar didn't really care much about the last, it didn't really matter how they differed but how good and knowledgeable they were when it came to magic and dueling. It was slightly amusing to see everyone get strung out over the approaching date of the arrival of their guests though, at least until poor Neville was reamed out by Professor McGonagall. It was true that Neville wasn't the most proficient at magic, but it was more due to a lack of confidence than anything else, and having his own Head of House yelling at him instead of providing support didn't help matters any.

So while amused by all the drama, Kedar was actually relieved by the time the 30th rolled about so that things could hopefully relax a bit after everyone realized that the visiting students were still just human. Kedar directed a brief bit of amusement towards himself, remembering how he had felt entering into his first year in this strange place with foreign customs that was so far from the desert; Ardeth had been the one to remind him before they had headed to the platform that day that even though people might look different, they were still human and all bled the same color. Then in the next breath Ardeth had sternly warned him that he wasn't allowed to cut open any of his classmates to prove this point, Rick adding in an unless it is absolutely necessary, and Kedar had been sent off to brave this new world full of Englishmen while reminding himself that he was a strong and brave child of the desert. It had helped greatly when he realized that he didn't have to worry about the other children going to Hogwarts carrying daggers that could be stuck in the back without warning, they preferred spells over actually dirtying their hands in physical combat. In the beginning this had been a relief, but after a while he had actually missed getting into fistfights and remembered how in the training compound Medjai children were always attacking one another at any sign of weakness. Speaking of attacks, it looked as if Ron was attempting to pry some information out of Fred and George without much success. Kedar wasn't sure why Ron bothered anymore, the twins never told him anything because he had a habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong times.

"Kedar," Alex got his attention and motioned to the owl that had landed in front of him, "dad sent me a package and the letter says some stuff is for you. Bill added something too and shrunk it for dad. Can you unshrink it?"

Ron stopped arguing with the twins, who were looking up in interest as well, "Bill sent you something? Why would he send you anything?"

Kedar shrugged although he had a very good idea what Bill had sent him, "it's probably something my dad asked him to pass onto me when he got back to England. Horus and Ra can't carry heavy packages like owls can, but most of your English post owls don't do very well in the desert climate. The package will have to wait until later, Alex, it is time for classes to begin and I don't think the professors are in the mood for tardiness today."

With an exclamation of dismay, Hermione stood up and grabbed her school bag, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for everyone else to join her, "come on, we can't be late!"

~~ ~~ ~*~

Despite Hermione's eagerness to get to class, no one was very attentive during the lessons. The only class Kedar noticed any of his Gryffindor year mates pay attention in was Potions, but that was because they all knew how Snape reacted to anyone who wasn't completely focused on the lesson. Needless to say, when they half-hour early dismissal came everyone shot out of the class eagerly leaving Kedar raising an amused eyebrow as both Hermione and Ron cajoled him to hurry up as they headed to Gryffindor Tower to deposit their bags. After pulling on their cloaks, everyone headed back downstairs to the entrance hall where the Heads of Houses were ordering their students into lines.

"Weasley, straighten your hat," Professor McGonagall snapped at Ron. "Miss Patil, take that ridiculous thing out of your hair. Mr. Potter, where is your hat?"

The last was said with a sigh and Kedar relented with a small smirk by pulling out his hat from under his cloak; McGonagall knew his habit of flouting the dress code, but he had also assured her earlier that he would wear his hat this once. Nearby, Parvati was scowling as she removed a large ornamental butterfly from the end of her plait.

"Follow me, please," said Professor McGonagall finally, "first years in front...no pushing..."

Kedar shot a grin at Alex when the younger boy turned to look at him before dutifully filing down the steps to line up in front of the castle. It was a cold, clear evening; dusk was falling and a pale, transparent-looking moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest. It was enough to make Kedar want to run off and explore the wealth of life to be discovered within the Forest. Down in the front row, Kedar pitied Alex for having to stand next to the overly excited Dennis Creevey.

"Nearly six, "said Ron, checking his watch and then staring down the drive that led to the front gates. "How d'you reckon they're coming? The train?"

"I doubt it," said Hermione.

"It would be too far for broomsticks as well," Kedar commented as he spoke from experience, "they'd be traveling in something enclosed most likely, given the distance."

"A Portkey?" Ron suggested, "Or they could Apparated-maybe you're allowed to do it under seventeen wherever they come from?"

Kedar rolled his eyes as Hermione started in on Ron about how it was impossible to Apparate inside Hogwarts grounds. Really, after the fifth of sixth time Hermione had told Ron this fact, you would think he would finally remember it just to get her to shut up on the topic. He just hoped they arrived soon before Hermione and Ron really started going. As if he had wished it, Kedar's prayers were answered, Dumbledore sighting them first.

"Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"

Following the direction Dumbledore was gazing in, Kedar looked out across the top of the Forbidden Forest as a gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops towards them. It was a giant blue horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring towards them as it was pulled by a dozen winged horses. The carriage landed before them with a tremendous crash, many of the students jumping backwards. Kedar ran an appraising eye over the horses, they were magnificent creatures, but it seemed they must have been bred for the sole purpose of pulling the large carriage for their size would make riding them impractical unless you were the size of Hagrid. Of course, the very large woman climbing out of the carriage immediately explained the size issue. She had to have been just as big as Hagrid, though she certainly took more care about her appearance than Hagrid had ever done so far. Dumbledore walked forward to greet the woman, and barely having to bend at all, laid a kiss upon the back of her hand.

"My dear Madame Maxime," he said, "welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr," said Madame Maxime in a deep voice, "I 'ope I find you well?"

'Dumbly-dorr,' Ron mouthed from where he stood next to Kedar, but Kedar ignored him in favor of examining the students who had filed from the carriage behind Madame Maxime.

Their robes were made of fine silk that was completely inappropriate for this climate, and it was obvious that they were extremely cold due to their lack of cloaks. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls about their heads, but from the faces Kedar could see, they all seemed to be looking up apprehensively at Hogwarts. Obviously they were all used to much more genial surroundings. Thankfully for the Beauxbatons students they didn't have to stand outside and wait for the Durmstrang delegation to arrive, but were allowed to pass through to the warmth of the castle.

"How big d'you reckon Durmstrang's horses are going to be?" Seamus Finnigan asked, leaning around Lavender and Parvati to address Kedar and Ron.

Kedar shrugged, "we don't know if they're coming by horses, but if they are better hope they are any bigger than these. Even Hagrid won't be able to handle them then, that is if he hasn't been attacked by his skrewts."

"I wonder if they've escaped," Ron sounded hopeful.

"Oh don't say that," said Hermione with a shudder, "imagine that lot loose on the grounds..."

Kedar grinned at the image of mayhem that conjured as they stood about waiting for the Durmstrang students to arrive. Most everyone was shivering by now, gazing hopefully up at the sky or longingly back at the warm lights of the castle. Kedar just pulled his cloak around him a bit more so that he was comfortably warm and stood gazing about the grounds, unsure how the other school would be arriving. He was one of the handful not shivering, the others being those smart enough to have cast a warming charm on their cloaks. He hadn't bothered with the charm though; he was used to the extreme temperatures of the desert where the scorching heat of the day suddenly plummeted into the freezing depths of the night. A gurgling, sucking sound caught his attention and his roving eyes fell upon the lake where a slight churning was occurring on the surface. Excitement broke out over the gathered students once again as a mast and then the attached ship broke through to bob on the surface of the lake.

The ship had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and the dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes. Slowly the ship began to glide towards the bank and then the splash of an anchor was heard and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank. The silhouettes of the disembarking people led the eyes to believe that they all seemed to be built along the lines of Crabbe and Goyle, but as they came nearer Kedar could see that their bulk came from the heavy fur coats they all wore. Again Kedar only listened half-heatedly as Dumbledore greeted the man called Karkaroff, his interest lying more with the students and their reactions to their surroundings. And the Durmstrang students were certainly interesting, at least more interesting than those from Beauxbatons had proved so far, Kedar could see that at least two or three of the new arrivals had a knife tucked amongst their clothing and they were examining their surroundings shrewdly. Oh yes, very interesting indeed.



Finally given leave to get out of the cold and back into the warm sanctuary of the castle, the Hogwarts students headed for their usual tables. This effort was hampered slightly by the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students milling around in confusion; Kedar felt slightly sorry for Viktor Krum, the professional seeker was surrounded by a whispering horde of people who were unwilling to actually approach the teen. With a bit-a lot-of elbow-maneuvering Kedar managed to make his way through the edges of this besotted throng to the spots he, Alex, Hermione, and Ron always took near the emptier end of the Gryffindor table so they weren't bothered as much when they were scheming at some plot or another. Thankfully the rest of the students also began to gradually take their seats as the professors arrived to dispel the confusion. The foreign students remained standing the longest before the Beauxbaton teens made a beeline for the Ravenclaw table and scrunched in, a few being forced to take refuge with the Hufflepuffs when it became apparent that there just wasn't enough room; apparently the Ravenclaws appeared the most pleasing to the shivering and delicate-seeming Beauxbaton delegates.

Those from Durmstrang took note of the seating problem, their eyes flicking quickly between the two tables after a few tersely exchanged words before decisively splitting up between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Kedar felt a slight smirk flit across his lips as a handful of the Durmstrang boys sat down in the empty area next to and across from him. Immediately Kedar started sizing them up, taking advantage of his closer proximity and knowing that they were doing the same. Two of the group that had motioned interest in sitting at the Gryffindor table had knives on them and had glanced at him before making their way over to sit down, one next to him and one across from him; they had probably noted the knife he wore under his robes just as he had been able to spot theirs. The third boy Kedar had observed in possession of a knife had gone to the Slytherin table and was currently being harassed by Malfoy; Kedar couldn't help but feel a stab of pity for the Durmstrang boy and hoped he didn't have a short temper fuse or Kedar might find himself out of luck for being the first to put a knife in Malfoy.

Across from Kedar on the other side of the table, Ron was practically about to faint. The awe-struck boy's eyes were wide and his mouth was silently moving around the words 'Viktor Krum' and Kedar knew that Ron was suddenly wishing they could switch places so the redhead could sit next to his Quidditch idol. It was enough to make him want to laugh, but instead he turned to Krum and stuck his hand out in a typical English welcome that nearly stuck in his throat and caused Alex, who was sitting on his right, to choke on a laugh; Kedar hated the false politeness of the greeting, but decided to act as English as possible until he knew more about the knife-carrying foreign students.

"My name is Kedar Potter, nice to meet you."

"Krum," the other boy grunted; either he wasn't too keen on talking, or like Kedar he didn't hold much stalk in false pleasantries, "Viktor Krum."

~~ ~~ ~*~

Dinner had passed pretty peacefully after Dumbledore made a half-decent and actually sane speech about the tournament during which he had welcomed their guests to Hogwart's hallowed halls. The speech had been lost on about half the school though as they stared in rapture at some of the various visitors; Ron had spent most of the speech and subsequent meal staring at Krum while randomly blurting out inane remarks. Kedar had to admit that the Durmstrang seeker wasn't that bad of a fellow and actually got into a small conversation with him much to the jealousy of Ron, who was mostly being ignored, but that still didn't mean he was ready to trust Krum as a friend-trust didn't come easily to him except for with a select handful, Ron and Hermione hadn't earned the official title as trusted friends until partway into their second year after they had proved they would stand by him despite his being a parselmouth. He did promise to show Krum some of Hogwarts when they both had a free moment though; the Durmstrang students seemed to be quite impressed with what little they had seen of Hogwarts so far and Krum had admitted that Durmstrang was pretty spartan in appearance.

Then, after dinner was over and the plates had been wiped clean, Dumbledore once again stood to go into more detail about the tournament. What it boiled down to in Kedar's mind was that three champions, one from each participating school, would compete in the tournament for honor and glory. They would be marked on how well they performed each of the three tasks that would be given and the champion with the highest total after task three would win the Triwizard Cup. It was then that Dumbledore revealed the Goblet of Fire, a plain and roughly hewn wooden cup that would be the impartial judge of who got to compete. In truth the thing would have been passed over as unremarkable and possibly even thrown away if not for the dancing blue-white flames that filled the goblet to the brim. Immediately at the revelation of the impartial judge hushed conversations broke out amongst the Hogwarts students, most of it coming from the younger students who were trying to come up with ways to hoodwink the Goblet of Fire. Many of the harebrained schemes flying about the Great Hall were immediately squashed though as Dumbledore announced that he would be setting up an age line and various other deterrents to keep those who were not eligible from submitting themselves into the tournament.

"I'm going to go for it," Ron announced, a gleam in his eye, "I bet we can come up with something and after all we've been through I have plenty of experience for this sort of thing. I bet you have an idea on how we can do it, Hermione."

Hermione gave a sniff and glared at Ron, "don't look at me to help you cheat your way into the Tournament. Besides, Dumbledore set up the age line. Do you think he'd make any sort of mistake that students could exploit? No. I won't help you."

"Kedar?" Ron turned to him with pleading eyes, sure that Kedar would back him up.

"Sorry Ron," Kedar shook his head slightly, "I don't see the point. I have no interest in the Tournament other than to see who makes it and who doesn't. Besides, there is obviously an age restriction for a reason. We might have some experience in unusual tasks, but we also have no where near the spell knowledge that the older students do. Give the age, most of the students will also have come into their full magical ability as well."

"Fine," Ron sulked, "If you don't want to help me like true friends should then I'll just see what Fred and George have planned."

As Ron stamped over to where the twins were sitting Kedar shared a long glance with Hermione and Alex as they despaired over the hotheaded temper their friend possessed. They would have to watch out for him until he calmed down or he might end up doing something stupid. Then with a vague shrug Kedar turned back towards Viktor in time to see the Bulgarian Seeker exchange a glance with his friend Fiers before turning to stare at him. Idly Kedar wondered if that glance had been over Ron's actions or because of something else, his wariness of the knife-carrying Durmstrang students returning a bit more despite the dinner conversation they had just shared.

~~ ~~ ~*~

Viktor studied the younger boy sitting next to him as he interacted with the people around him. He had known he would most likely meet Harry Potter, who was now going by the name Kedar, at some point during his stay at Hogwarts for the Tournament, but hadn't quite expected what he now saw. Like all wizarding children he had grown up on the stories about the baby who had done the unimaginable and not only survived the unstoppable killing curse, but had taken down He-who-must-not-be-named as well. In one imagination the Boy-who-lived was a vibrant and outgoing boy who was surrounded by friends, confident and visibly brave like the Gryffindor he was. In the other he was a solemn young man who took life seriously and graciously accepted that which was his due as a savior of the world, someone who was untouchable by most.

Instead Viktor had found a pretty normal seeming boy with a handful of close friends, no different from anyone else in the room except for the noticeable lightening bolt scar upon his forehead. That had been his first impression as his friend Fiers had first pointed out the Boy-who-lived to him, but then he had raked his eyes over the trim figure and noticed small things incongruent with this instinctive picture of the boy's character. There was something in the way that Kedar moved, his bearing and ever-scanning eyes as he slipped through the crowd. It hadn't been until someone had brushed against Kedar and disturbed the careful lines of the boy's robes that Viktor found the explanation-a knife was artfully concealed under those robes. Instantly Viktor's curiosity had been piqued and as a quick debate was started among his classmates on how they would divide up to sit he had found himself volunteering to sit amongst the Gryffindors along with Fiers and a few others. Viktor knew his friend had noted the same things he had and together they would discover what they could about Kedar Potter, not only because they were intrigued about the boy, but for the basic principle of self-preservation since Kedar carried a knife as they did.

Then the redheaded boy who had been fawning over him all through dinner like a fan-struck puppy stormed off and Viktor exchanged a long glance with Fiers before turning back to get another glance at Kedar only to find himself staring into the other boy's eyes. For a long moment Viktor was held in that stare, knowing that behind those clear emerald eyes Kedar Potter was assessing him, but for the life of him he had no idea what was running through the mind of the Boy-who-lived; had no idea if the boy viewed him as a threat or not. All he knew was that Kedar had spotted the knives he and Fiers wore just as they had spotted his, what remained was the question on how they were all going to handle this seeing how they were unknown entities on the Gryffindor's territory. Viktor broke the gaze; they would just have to wait and see how things played out and hope understandings could be reached if they crossed any lines.