Chapter 8: Imperio

                                    

                                          
Notes: Okay, one more chapter until the two schools arrive, and then a bit more until you find out how I've changed the first task from canon. If you all remember, there will be seven tasks and six champions. As an explanation of my idea, the champions are split up into two groups, with one from each school. Each group participates in three tasks, which will be different for the groups, and then there'll be a final task where the two best from both groups need to attempt to reach the Triwizard Cup, together with their other group member, or separately. The theme I went with was elements, as well as some sub-elements to make the number up to seven. I hope that when it comes to each of the tasks, you'll like what I've done.
                          
Anyway, I hope you all had an awesome Christmas, Hannukah, Yule, or anything I haven't covered, and enjoy the chapter!
                          
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A day after the successful language prank, the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor sixth-years and seventh-years came down to lunch in an extremely quiet and shocked mood. Fred and George didn't make a single joke throughout the entire meal, only to be cornered by their younger friends after everyone had finished their sandwiches. "What's wrong, guys?" started Draco.
                          
"We... we had history," said Fred.
                          
"Of course you did," Hermione said. "I know your schedules back to front."
                          
"Myrtle's gotten really serious about her teaching role since we appointed her," explained George. "This year, she's had us watching war movies, like Gallipoli and Das Boot, to get us to see how horrible war really is, and that Muggles can be just as vicious, if not more so, than witches and wizards."
                          
"Today, Myrtle said that a new movie came out last year that we all had to see at least once in our lives, which showed all the horrible stuff that Grindelwald made the Muggle dictator Hitler believe when they ran into each other, which caused Hitler to go insane. The movie was called Schindler's List, and there was a lot of death and horrifying stuff in it. Myrtle said that she knew it was really shocking for all of us, so History classes are cancelled for the rest of the week, and we need to hand in an essay about what was the one thing that truly shocked us about the stuff from Schindler's List, and some things we think the Ministry should do to prevent something like that from ever happening again."
                          
Hermione and Colin looked at each other. As the only two Muggle-borns in their group, they alone had heard about Schindler's List and the horror it had evoked in everyone who had watched it, although neither of their parents had let them watch it. Their mothers and fathers had respectively decided that thirteen and fifteen were too young to watch such a shocking movie, especially since it was a true story.
                          
At dinner, the Slytherin and Hufflepuff sixth- and seventh-years were just as silent, Myrtle having showed them the movie as well. Harry thought it showed what an incredibly strong stomach Myrtle had to have watched such a horrifying movie four times in a row; he was sure that, from what little Fred and George had told them, he would've been crying buckets from just watching it once. He supposed that if Dumbledore still hadn't managed to exorcise Myrtle from the living plane, and therefore fire her, by his sixth year, then he'd find out.
                          
The next day, the sixth- and seventh-years were talking a bit, but instead of their conversations being split along house lines, Harry came down to breakfast to find that all the students who'd seen Schindler's List yesterday had commandeered half of the Hufflepuff table and were having a serious, yet lively debate about how they, as future flourishing members of the wizarding world, could prevent anything like concentration camps from ever happening again. It seemed to be shocking the majority of the other students, and all the teachers, to see Gryffindors getting along perfectly with Slytherins and vice versa, as well as Ravenclaws debating obscure blood-purity and child protection laws with eager Hufflepuffs. Dumbledore seemed to be smiling with his usual grandfatherly twinkle, but Harry grinned as he noticed a large number of his fellow students sneak occasional wary glances at the old coot whenever his smile got too strained or his eye twitched. Inter-house unity was working, and there was nothing Dumbledore could do about it.