"Tu pensais que j'étais une Royaliste, mais en réalité, je cherchais seulement à protéger le corps étudiant du danger d'idées qu'ils ne peuvent pas comprendre!" (You thought I was a Royalist, but, in reality, I only sought to protect the student body from the dangers of ideas they cannot grasp!) Alejandra explains herself.

  "Ne pas vouloir en parler ne signifie pas que tu es en désaccord avec!" (Not wanting to talk about that does not mean you don't agree with it!) Nurcan adds.

  I might have been the resident genius at Beauxbatons, or Karakalem, but Alejandra is clearly very intelligent herself, at least to my eyes. I grew closer to her here at Hogwarts, despite not being sorted into the same House, Nurcan reflects on her whole experience as it relates to Alejandra.

  Luc, on the other hand, is off to recover Thierry's body from the champions' tent, as do the Care of Magical Creatures professor present for blowing the whistle for Hadrian's, and Durmstrang's chef de mission for Britta's.

  Meanwhile, the matron tends to the injuries all 3 headmasters sustained when fleeing the cockatrice on rampage. Mostly broken bones, but Dexter also seems to have traces of cockatrice venom in his ears.

  "It seems like there's cockatrice venom in your ears!" the matron tries to tell Dexter.

  "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Dexter yells at the matron.

  The matron, realizing that cockatrice venom caused hearing problems in him, prefers to write a note about what's really going on in him, beyond the fractures he sustained in his fall from the broomstick. There's cockatrice venom in your ears. You should survive the treatment, but your hearing will be affected permanently. Other than that, your fractures should heal; however, please don't push your body too much for a while.

  While the matron administers the treatment for removing the cockatrice venom from Dexter's ears, a lot of people are coming for the headmasters.

  Including the five foreign judges of the Triwizard Tournament, all of whom are from countries whose residents made it to the Goblet of Fire, but failed to qualify as champions. And faculty and some other students.

  "I knew the Triwizard Tournament had its dangers, but never did I imagine you would face them yourself!" Swoopstikes starts crying over his boss' injuries. "Get well soon..."

  After their respective chefs de mission are done collecting their champions' corpses, along with the Care of Magical Creatures' professor, who's going to keep the corpses in a safe location until funeral services can be held. However, time is short.

  But, at the same time, the Daily Prophet, Cri de la Gargouille, as well as the wizarding media of both Denmark-Norway and Sweden, which are already present for the Triwizard Tournament, relay the scoops from it to their colleagues in other countries.

  Most notably the countries the finalists who failed to qualify come from, such as the Ottoman Sihirli Gasitesi.

  That, even though, for some of these countries, it's the first time they might even have heard about it during this cycle, or one of their nationals even being in the running. Like Vaidilute's native Poland-Lithuania.

  And yet, the three headmasters assemble an emergency meeting in the infirmary about the future of this tournament, along with the other foreign judges Dexter called in to ensure the fairness of the competition's scoring.

  Several matters seem to be discussed in this meeting: whether the preliminary results should be allowed to stand, which would declare Hogwarts the winner by default, and whether future editions will be held. And, of course, how would the prize money of 1000 Galleons be allotted to the families of the deceased champions.

  At the end of the meeting, it's also decided that all the families of the deceased would be issued invitations to attend their funeral next week, with all travel costs covered by the British Ministry of Magic, both to get them to the funeral and to return their bodies to their home countries. Yet, to save on costs, a single funeral will be held for all 3.

  But, after this tragedy that took place during the first task, rumors start to circulate about the Triwizard Tournament, and its future. About how it's going to be axed. About the tragedy being caused by a cockatrice sickness, yet, somehow, none of the rumors point at anything remotely resembling Revolutionary or Royalist sabotage.

  The question is: where did Hadrian lie on the Royalist vs Revolutionary spectrum? Alejandra can rule out the Revolution as a motive because she was essentially a Royalist in name only, Nurcan starts to ruminate about the rumors regarding what happened. I never interacted with Hadrian, so I have no idea about how he feels about the Revolution, but for what I know, he might have wanted to drag Britain into the War of the First Coalition, at least on a wizarding theater.

  That, even though, according to today's Evening Prophet issue, past TT editions were often marred by cheating.

  For the following week, it seems like the morale is down, as the whole community is still shocked by the disaster of the first task.

  And, of course, the student body manifests that with fears that who, or what, caused the disaster might come for them, so their focus in class might not be what it usually was.

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  One week after this disaster, the funeral begins, with Hogwarts' student body and the 23 surviving finalists from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang assembled in the Great Hall, with the families of the deceased, the media of every country of origin of the survivors, as well as a few faculty who taught the deceased.

  Such as Pelléas, Mélisande, Sandrine and Ronaldo at Beauxbatons, as well as Mehmet and Ioannis at Karakalem. And a few Durmstrang professors for good measure.

  Oh boy: I never expected Ioannis and Mehmet to be here. For some reason, I never paid much attention to the exchange students of other years when they themselves came to Karakalem, so while it may be possible any of them were on exchange there, I might not have realized that I might have already met them! If any of them went to Karakalem on exchange, they never asked me for aid, not even for Arithmancy or Divination! Nurcan's memories of these professors resurface, and combs her memories for whether any of the deceased interacted with her during their time at Karakalem.

  Front and center are the three coffins of the champions, surrounded by 125 candles.

  Seated in the front row are the headmasters of all 3 schools in the tournament, with the families of the deceased, with the British Minister for Magic, Unctuous Osbert, arriving just in the nick of time.

  Dexter delivers the eulogy, louder than he previously spoke prior to the disaster: "Today, we acknowledge three really terrible losses. Thierry Pirenne, from Beauxbatons, Hadrian Scrimgeour, from Hogwarts, and Britta Steinberg, from Durmstrang. Their deaths are painful reminders of the dangers of the Triwizard Tournament. May their deaths not be in vain, and their bravery, be remembered!"

  And then comes the turn of the deceased's parents to talk about how their children were in life, in alphabetical order of their children's last names.

  They deliver their eulogies in their native languages in the case of Thierry's and Britta's, so it seems like most attendees didn't understand anything,

  Once their eulogies end, Unctuous reads a scroll about the main decisions about the future of the Triwizard Tournament:

  "In light of the deaths that occurred at this year's Triwizard Tournament, it's decided that it will be discontinued permanently: the lives of young wizards will no longer be put in danger for entertainment! Also, it was decided that the prize money will be given in three equal shares to the families of the deceased champions!"

  "With our share of the money from the Triwizard Tournament, we announce that we shall build a monument to past participants who died participating in it, on the Durmstrang grounds!" Britta's father announces in a heavy Swedish accent.

  "After due consideration, it was decided that the preliminary results would stand, and hence Hogwarts is declared the winner, albeit by default..." Jadranka declares, in a heavy Hungarian accent, under the boos of the crowd.

  Dexter raises his voice, while struggling to hear everyone else. "This decision was very difficult, because of Ministry pressure!"

  What an insult to their memory! They died before they could even compete! Relja starts thinking about transferring away from Durmstrang. No Beauxbatons nor Hogwarts, they're unwitting parties to it. Maybe I could try Karakalem?

  "One final thing: all Beauxbatons and Durmstrang survivors are to vacate Hogwarts by December second at midnight!" Armand adds a remark for the survivors.

  So as soon as the coffins of both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions are loaded onto their schools' transports, the Mourning Feast begins.

  Relja then approaches Nurcan before getting to the Hufflepuff tables, before talking in Turkic to her. Here's a loose translation of this conversation from Turkic:

  "Miss Irad-i Cedid! As a survivor of the Triwizard Tournament, don't let everything you learned..." Relja starts, confident no one else would overhear the pair talking in Turkic.

  "All twenty-three of us, really!"

  "Everything we all learned, then, must not be in vain! You have no regrets over trying to get to the Triwizard Tournament, you should be able to assume your Revolutionary positions openly without regrets!"

  "In the wizarding world only, may I add. I'm afraid that Muggle Revolutionaries are about to radicalize!" Nurcan then makes her predictions using mental arithmancy. "By now, you know that, as a Revolutionary, I'm not a radical at all!"

  "And yet, you're the greatest wizarding expert on the Revolution, I'm sure of it. We can all return home with our heads held high..."

  Relja, now seated with his back against the wall, believes that the time is ripe to reveal Nurcan's position as a Revolutionary. He yells, in English this time, and in a heavy Serbian accent, to lighten the Great Hall's atmosphere:

  "Nurcan is also known as Miss Irad-I Cedid, a Revolutionary! For all questions you might have about the Revolution, please ask her!" Relja yells in a somewhat facetious tone.

  Oh boy. He somehow presented my being a Revolutionary as a joking matter... Nurcan starts to feel bombarded by questions, the first coming from Vaidilute.

  Vaidilute turns to face her. "How did you become a Revolutionary?"

  I vaguely heard Relja talk about The Rise of Miss Irad-I Cedid after he got it confiscated a few years back, as he was questioning why it was banned, Vaidilute's memories of that book resurfaces, but she never heard about its contents.

  But Nurcan then tells Vaidilute about how it began with the royal messenger coming to Visigny to carry the message of the Estates-General's convocation, and how it took weeks for her to prepare to get her hands on the village's cahier de doléances.

  And, of course, the other questions all seemed to revolve around the whole context the Revolution occurred, with surprisingly little about the implications of the Revolution on the wizarding world's relationship with Muggle governments. Yet, she expected more questions on that topic.

  Damn, are these Muggles really driven into a frenzy over stuff such as bread prices and unfair taxation? Why does she feel it was the starting point of something that could change the Muggle world forever? Jace starts wondering if Nurcan really is joking.

  "Surely you feel the Revolution is a cruel joke?" Jace asks her.

  "No, it's not a joke. I'm afraid it will make the jobs of people who deal with Muggles much, much more difficult, at least in the short run!"

  A Lumos charm is cast in her mind. But maybe, if I presented the more unsavory bits of the Revolution as a joke, I might be able to assume my Revolutionary positions openly without much trouble! So long as I stay in the wizarding world, anyhow. As tempting as it might be for me to think that Royalists might be responsible for the Triwizard Tournament's disaster, I'd be walking on eggs if I openly made such a claim.

  Luc, on the other hand, seems to feel a bit differently. The Triwizard Tournament disaster is just one of the failures of the Convention Nationale... it shows just how willing the Convention is to throw the nation's best and brightest to the wolves, just to further its own aims! And it's not just Muggles, but wizards, too!