Chapter 161: Tournament Launch: Captain Selection

If one saw students of Hogwarts assembled together in the Great hall, that usually meant that it was meal time and the children were ready to fill their stomachs with food. But today — the students had assembled in the hall, outside of meal timings and that too of their own volition.

Just today, big colorful posters were found stuck in four house common rooms and Beauxbatons and Dumrstrang residences, telling them that quidditch was returning to Hogwarts and that it was open to all — Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang.

It read that if people wanted to know more, then at 6 O'Clock in the evening they could come to the Great hall to learn more. Nowhere in the poster was it stated that attendance was mandatory, but if one were to count, ninety-seven percent of Hogwarts students were there with Beauxbaton and Durmstrang present in full.

The chatter was intense with the students. No matter the corner of the hall or social group, the topic of conversation was quidditch — something that was publicly canceled by the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.

"I think Krum went to Dumbledore and got him to restart the tournament," said a boy.

"Nu-uh," countered a girl, "I think it was Diggory; he might've asked for the tournament to start again."

"I don't think it was either of them," chimed in another one, "I think Harry Potter is behind this. The Boy-Who-Lived as the champion — his word will carry some weight."

"How about a fourth option — the seeker alliance. Krum, Diggory, and Potter — three seekers coming together to get quidditch back."

At a distance from the group of boys stood two girls dressed in green trims.

"Didn't these guys see the logo?" said the blonde with cold blue eyes.

The brunette shrugged, "Well, it was in the corner; maybe they truly didn't see it. The poster's contents itself were pretty eye-catching."

Daphne Greengrass didn't look satisfied with the reasoning. "Do you think his sister came to school for this?"

"It does seem that way," replied Tracey.

Daphne looked around her, and she could hear the rumor about the "seeker alliance" and how they were the reason behind the restart of the quidditch tournament. As Daphne was looking around, her eyes caught a figure at the door. Seeing that figure made a small smile bloomed on her face.

Quinn entered the Great hall and paused just inside the threshold. He took in the gathered crowd and nodded in satisfaction at the strength.

'First, need to set the scene,' he thought. From his robes came out his fake wand, which he raised above his head and pointed it at the hundreds of overhead floating candles. With a surge of magic, the candles turned colors, and from plain yellow, the flames turned into red, blue, dark-blue, yellow for four houses and mixed in equal quantities, were light-blue and a dark-maroon for Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, respectively.

The change in lighting attracted everyone's attention. Everyone in the room craned their necks up to look above, and a soft wave of 'ooh' and 'aah' was heard through the students.

"Alright, looks like everybody who wants to be present is already here." Everyone heard the same voice they heard yesterday.

They saw Quinn walked towards the front of the hall from the gate, and as he walked, the crowd parted for Quinn, giving him the way to his destination.

"Given that all of you're here, I assume you all saw the posters or at least heard of it," spoke Quinn's voice amplified, "Exciting news, is it not? We all get to see the new and thrilling Tri-wizard tournament along with the familiar excitement of the quidditch tournament. A good year for us hardworking students."

Quinn reached the head of the hall and climbed up the steps to the elevated platform. He waved his fake wand out of thin air, and a set of hiking marble squares appeared, which Quinn climbed the blocks till he was at a height where he could see everyone in the hall.

"Well, rest assured, people," announced Quinn with a smile, "the news is true. This year, Hogwarts, along with the Tri-wizard tournament, will be hosting a Tri-school quidditch tournament."

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Quinn paused, and the crowd cheer as quidditch was officially returning.

He let them cheer for a bit before gesturing them to quiet down. "Let me be reiterate myself — while officially Hogwarts is hosting the tournament, AID is the one who in charge of the tournament. Which means *I* am in charge of the tournament.. . not a professor, not the headmaster, not the seeker alliance, no one else but ME. So before we start, everyone should get it in their minds that going behind my back to any professor will not do any of you any good. This is an AID initiative; as such, I make the rules. If any of you have problems, suggestions, doubts, you come to me and not the professors; go to them, and I will throw you out."

His eyes roamed on their entire crowd and asked them, "Understood?"

After three years of AID going into the fourth, along with the prefect title, Quinn West was very well known in Hogwarts. Yesterday, he hosted the first task, and now he was handling the quidditch tournament. All of that, along with Quinn's reputation, made the Hogwarts students nod their heads and speak their 'ayes.'

"Good," noted Quinn and then smiled, "With that, the serious stuff is over, and it's time to get to the fun part, so cheer up, will you?"

"Let's get started with some details about the tournament," he continued, "First of all, this tournament will have ten teams — each team will be a mix of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang students.. . you can't have more than three students from the same in each team.. ." there was almost instantaneous opposition from the crowd, ".. . I told you guys that I'm in charge, so I can't and won't change the team template. You guys won't be seeing house teams this year, so buckle up to find new teams to support."

"The ten participating teams will be playing in a double-elimination tournament — essentially, for a team to be eliminated out of the tournament, they would have to lose twice, meaning that every team would have a second chance," explained Quinn. "If we add all the matches up, that will be a total of eighteen games — nineteen if a team is able to get to the finals undefeated; then they will get another chance after losing the finals.. . highly competitive and extremely fun."

Someone in the crowd raised their hand.

"Yes, Ms. McLain?" asked Quinn to the girl in yellow trims.

"Who decides the teams? Is it you?" said the Hufflepuff girl.

"No," answered Quinn, "I chose the captains; the captains will build their own teams. In total, seventy students will be participating in the tournament."

"Who are the captain?" asked someone else.

"Now, now, don't be impatient, people," beamed Quinn, "I'll now announce the captains."

He took out a scroll of parchment from his robes and rolled it open for effect; there was nothing on the parchment excepting a single word, 'PROP.'

"The first captain is my fellow Ravenclaw, the suavely handsome prefect with a mind of fox, give it up for the current Ravenclaw captain, ROGER DAVIES," said Quinn and clapped, prompting everyone to clap as Roger came sliding out of the crowd. He chest bumped a couple of Ravenclaw quidditch blokes before dancing his way to the front. Roger climbed up the short steps and dapped Quinn before standing to the side.

"The second captain is a brave lion, but I guess in the quidditch scene she is more popularly known as a vixen of Gryffindor; I present to you, the leader of Gryffindor quidditch team, ANGELINA JOHNSON." The dark-skinned, athletic girl came jogging out of the crowd and high-fived every Gryffindor in the way. The boys roared for her, and the Weasley twins kneeled in her, and she passed in between them, ruffling their heads. She and Quinn exchanged a nod and wink before she took her place beside Roger.

"The third captain is someone I personally like a lot; he has the tongue of the viper and is famous for his trash-talking in and out of the field. Let me invite up ADRAIN PUCEY, the Slytherin captain, the snake who has the skill to back it all up." There were some boos from Gryffindor's side, but Adrain remained unfazed as he strolled out of the crowd and stuck out his long tongue out to every Gryffindor and gestured his hands towards his crotch, asking them to suck it. He and Quinn exchanged a simple glance with each other before he stood beside Angelina, who wanted to move away, but Adrain shamelessly stuck close to her.

"The fourth captain, as you might've guessed, is also a captain — the Hufflepuff captain, to be precise. We all know who I'm talking about," grinned Quinn as everybody chanted the fourth captain's name, "One of the newly minted seeker alliance, the champion of Hufflepuff and Hogwarts, the school heartthrob, CEDRIC DIGGORY." Cedric appeared out of the crowd with his hand up and head slightly leaned down with a smile on his face. The champion didn't hurry and interacted with as many as he could before he reached Quinn, who squatted down to shake his hands. The fourth captain jogged and joined the selected ones by Adrian's side.

"These were the four house captains who gained captain positions in the tournament. Now let's move on to the next batch of captains," said Quinn once again, unfurling the scroll.

"She is the epitome of what people think of when hearing the word quidditch gal, one who fits in with both the guys and gals. Known in her school to be a mean seeker, a highly scouted prospect with eyes of the eagle and mind like a steel trap, I introduce to you the Durmstrang red bullet, KARI HAUGEN!!!" Kari walked out of the crowd with confidence and marched to the front with an attitude like she owned the entire place. The knock of her heels only halted when she stopped beside Cedric before giving Quinn a chin jut of recognition.

"Number six is a Frenchman, from Beauxbatons, where elegance is bred. When you look at our next captain, one word pops up in your mind, and that's a gentleman. But don't get deceived by his posh and polite looks; he is known to send a buldger towards his opponents with the same smile on his face; I welcome up here, as called by his schoolmates, the vicious bastard, ALBERT ACY!!!" A boy that looked in his late teens stepped out of the crowd, dressed in such impeccable fashion that he could even give Quinn a competition. As described, he wore a polite smile on his face as he head-bowed to the people multiple times before he could reach Quinn, where both boys shook hands. He walked to beside Kari and tried to initiate a conversation with her, but the Russian simply nodded to anything and everything Albert threw at her.

"For number seven, we remain in France and choose another one from Beauxbatons. He might be one of the most polite and good guys I've ever met; he was so nice that I gave him a 50% discount for all AID services. But when he is on the field, he defends the goals so well as a goalie that the opposing chasers regularly think of rage-quitting the game. I take this golden opportunity to call upon GAEL DUPONT!!!" A tall late-teen with equally long limbs walked out of the Beauxbatons camp and waved his hands to everyone. Gael climbed up the ascending blocks to hug Quinn before joining his fellow captains. Everyone liked that.

"Now, number eight is someone I thought I wouldn't be able to get to participate, but to my surprise, he was more than happy and enthusiastic to participate. Once in a generational talent who has already represented his country at the international level, give it up for another member of the seeker alliance, VICTOR KRUM!!!" Victor Krum wasn't one to indulge in fanfare. He simply walked to the front, looking straight ahead. He nodded to Quinn and then just as silently walked to the captains' lines. Despite that plane/boring nothing, Krum got the most applause from the student crowd.

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"Now, I wanted to involve you guys in the captain selection process, so I decided that the final two captains will be selected in front of you guys," said Quinn, and once again, there were 'woohoo' calls.

He took out a shrunk-down glass globe from his robes before expanding it into a glass bowl with a lot of slips inside, "The names here were carefully curated by me from Hogwarts students. And to ensure there is no cheating involved, a neutral party will be picking out the name.. . And for that, I would like to call upon the very lovely, superbly talented, and the person who trumped over the entire seeker alliance, make some noise for the champion-in-lead, FLEUR DELACOUR!!!"

The light, without the influence of any external magic of any sort, seemed to bend to put a spotlight on Fleur as she walked towards the front while waving her hand like a Miss Universe candidate. It was like she was destiny's favorite child, and the world itself was supporting her. Gone was the powerful magical who had taken down a dragon; right now, the Veela was all about glamor and beauty; she could make even the top models feel conscious.

Quinn stepped down from his ascended marble blocks and released the magic. He walked down the steps, and when Fleur reached the base, he took her hands in his and escorted her up the stairs like a perfect gentleman.

"Ms. Delacour —"

"Quinn, the way you address me makes us sound distant; please call me Fleur," the Veela smiled so brightly that the people standing in front clutched their chests.

".. . I see. I understand.. . Fleur."

Quinn and Fleur both had cast Sonorus on themselves to amplify their voices. As such, everyone heard the sweet voice of Fleur and Quinn's response. The boys in the crowd instantly glared at Quinn from all directions, while the girls looked jealous of the creature named Fleur Delacour.

"Ah, he switched," said a certain bubbly brunette wearing green trims.

There were a couple of people in the crowd who both knowingly and unknowingly didn't like when Quinn switched from Ms. Delacour to Fleur. One knew the reason, while the other seemed clueless about the displeasure.

"So, Fleur," restarted Quinn, "What do you think of our eight captains? At first glance, who is your favorite. Who do you think will be able to build the best team — the team that will take home the cup."

Fleur glanced over at the captains. "I think Acy and Dupont will be able to build the best teams here. Though if I had to choose one, I will give Acy an edge on team building; Dupont might be better a goalie than Acy is a Beater, but Acy has better leadership skills.. . so, yeah, I think Acy would be able to make the best team."

"Giving Beauxbatons a definite and undisclosed edge, eh, Fleur," smiled Quinn, "You didn't even give the others a chance."

"What can I say; I'm that type of girl," she said, making eye contact with Quinn.

".. . I see, well, fortunately, the names in this bowl are all Hogwarts students, and you won't be able to favor your school here," said Quinn moving the glass bowl near Fleur, "please choose two names from the bowl so that we could get our final two chapters."

Fleur gracefully inserted her dainty and fair hand into the glass bowl and took out two randoms folded slips with her pretty fingers. She showed both slips to the crowd and got cheers in return.

"Please open one of them and tell us who is the lucky number nine."

Fleur opened one of the slips and read the name out loud, "Alicia Spinnet."

"Oh, now isn't this an exciting development," said Quinn and looked at the crowd, spotting Alicia, "Ms. Spinnet is the part of Gryffindor Vixens along with Ms. Johnson. I was sure that Ms. Johnson would ask her teammate out to join her team, but if Ms. Spinnet becomes a captain, that pairing wouldn't be possible.. . so Ms. Spinnet, what's your decision."

Alicia looked at Quinn and then at Angelina. She took a dozen seconds before she spoke up, "I accept!"

"You do?" smiled Quinn. "May I know the reason behind that decision?"

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"I get to play with Angelina every year, but this year, I get to play against her — that sounds exciting," she smiled, "I can do something that wouldn't be possible normally, so why not take this opportunity and see where it goes and hopefully have some fun along the way."

Angelina sighed, but her expression showed that she had accepted the reason.

"That's the spirit, Ms. Spinnet," beamed Quinn, "I love your reasoning. This is what it's all about! Having fun! Come on up and join the champions. Make some noise for ALICIA SPINNET, the ninth!"

There were cheers and applause for Alicia as she joined the captains and entered the line in between to stand beside Angelina.

"Fleur, let's find out who's the next," said Quinn, "Who is the second person blessed by your luck touch."

"Oh Quinn, you and your flattery," smiled Fleur.

The people in the crowd grumbled, seeing the two having fun while they stood watching.

"Let's see.. . the tenth captain candidate is Lucian Bole."

Quinn turned to the crowd and saw that the crowd lost its energy when the name was announced.. . Lucian Bole wasn't a well-liked person, to say the least. He played dirty to the limit and was hated by both the Hogwarts players and the viewers. He had been forced off the team by Adrian because while Adrian was fine with rough, he wasn't on board with dirty play.

"Mr. Bole," called out Quinn. He wasn't bothered by the reputation. Lucian Bole knew how to play and was suited to lead a team. 'Also, a dirty team always adds that dash of spice in the mix.'

"Do you accept the captain position, or would you like to sit out to prepare for your NEWTs?" asked Quinn, seeing that Lucian was a seventh-year student.

Lucian grinned evilly and stepped out of the Slytherin camp, "I'll participate.. . it sounds fun." But unlike Alicia, his version didn't appeal to no one except a select few.

"Excellent, come on up, people give it for LUCIAN BOLE, the tenth and final captain!" But except the Slytherin house, who remained united outside their common room walls, no one clapped.

"Well, now we're done with the captain selection, from tomorrow onwards, the team selection will begin. I'll talk to the captains after this regarding the team selection criteria, and you all will also be made aware of the team template tomorrow via bulletin board all across Hogwarts."

Quinn grinned and raised his fake wands towards the ceiling.

Ten bright spots appeared in the sky, and next to each spot was the image and name of the captain.

"The Tri-school quidditch has officially begun people, let's make it something that hasn't been ever seen before."

The floating candles suddenly went out, leaving the room in the dark, causing everyone to shout like children do when going through tunnels. But the bustle got louder when the hologram of ten captains exploded into colorful fireworks, illuminating the room in its brilliance.

Quinn's largest project had finally been launched.

Quinn West - MC - I decided the rules and on one else.

Seeker Alliance - Krum, Diggory, and Potter - What did we do?!

Fleur Delacour - Leading champion - Has moved to first name basis with Quinn.

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