David Korhol and the Rise of Chaos

They all walked together towards Gringott's Wizard Bank. The tall, white building loomed over Diagon Alley, it's long, inconsistent stone slabs that were enormous, some of the stones as large as other shops in the alley. They made a quick stop by the bank, taking out some gold for supplies and a little extra for stops in some shops in Hogsmeade during the year. As they walked out of the bank, David began to walk off.

"Where are you going?" asked Cho.

"I have to go pick up a new wand from Ollivander's, meet me at Quality Quidditch Supplies in an hour," said David turning around, walking backwards.

"I'll pick up your books for you!" Samir said over the crowd, David gave him the thumbs-up. David kept walking backwards when he suddenly bumped into someone behind him. David tripped over the person's foot and fell onto the street ground. He looked up and behind him. It was a friend of his parents, Bernard Arbury; he was a friend of David's parents. He was a balding, overweight wizard with a bushy, but short beard. Mr. Arbury worked in the Ministry of Magic, but David wasn't sure which part. He smiled at David and offered him a hand up.

"Hello, David. How nice it is to see you," said the familiar voice.

"Oh," said David, thoroughly glad it wasn't someone more hostile, "Mr. Arbury, how are you?"

"Quite well, buying your supplies, I suppose," Mr. Arbury said, pulling David to his feet.

"Yeah, I was about to go off to Ollivander's to pick up a new wand."

"Good, I'm heading off in that direction," he said beginning to walk off in the direction, David walked along side him. They passed a pair of guard's outside of a potion shop when David asked, "Mr. Arbury, why is the ministry doing all these raids, aside from the obvious reasons."

"Well, David, we fear that some of the shopkeepers, especially the ones on Knockturn Alley, may be dark witches and wizards. And the fact is that we need to root out the wicked before they can do real damage. Many old Death Eaters walked away from the trials and are now returning to the Dark Lord. Even the ones that were never discovered now are flock to be in his service. We need to find evil wizards and witches; we can only begin to fathom what they plot at this very moment. It's best to strike now while the evil has not yet taken full root," Mr. Arbury said, sounding as if he were a veteran from a distant war. David understood, a preemptive strike, it was essential if they were to try and quell the now growing evil.

Within no time, David was in front of Ollivander's famous shop. Mr. Arbury parted ways with David and went into a shop across the street. David walked into the dusty old shop just as a chipper young girl, who looked like she was just going to Hogwarts skipped out. David took in the familiar shop, the countless long, thin boxes that covered the area and the small, but, bright candles on the wall. Mr. Ollivander wasn't behind the desk; David coughed loudly to alert Mr. Ollivander to his presence.

"Just a minute," said the wizard from the back of the shop, behind one of the shelves.

"I'll wait," said David

"The new students always make such a mess of things, that last girl nearly blew a hole through the wall back here," Mr. Ollivander said walking out from behind the shelves and towards the counter.

"Hello again," David said, smiling.

"Ah, Mr. Korhol, a pleasure to see you again. I hear you did quite well on your O.W.L. exam," Mr. Ollivander said smiling.

"I think I did fairly well. Anyway, down to business, I'm afraid I need a replacement wand."

"Oh, how terrible! I was quite proud of that old wand; Redwood, Dragon Heartstring, 8 ½ inches long. Good for transfiguration, I'm sad to hear it is no longer useable. What happened to it?"

"I was foolish enough to accidentally explode it during my charms exam last year," said David, feeling his face going red with embarrassment.

"Oh, goodness, well, let's get down to finding you a new wand. But, really, let's just help a new wand find you," Mr. Ollivander said, a grin growing on his face. He clearly loved the search for the proper wand. He walked briskly back to the shelves and pulled out a long, black box. "Birchwood, Unicorn Hair, 10 inches; quite sturdy." David pointed it at a rock on the floor.

"Combusto!" David said, the rock, which was supposed to explode, simply shook a little. Mr. Ollivander snatched it from David's hand.

"Please don't risk it, sometimes the wand can't abide the wizard it's given to. Just shoot sparks into the air," Mr. Ollivander said putting the wand back into the box. He already had another box ready. "Phoenix Feather, Oak, 7 inches; springy," Mr. Ollivander said handing him another wand. The process continued for about 15 more minutes until David found a wand that suited him perfectly, it was Dragon Heartstring, Mahogany and 9 inches long. Mr. Ollivander informed David that this particular Dragon Heartstring was taken from a Hungarian Horntail and it was quite rare. The wand was fairly expensive at 9 galleons.

David walked out of the shop twirling his new wand in his fingers. He was quite pleased with himself, new wand, day before they go back to school; David was feeling pretty good. David went strolling by the ice cream parlor where he spotted one of the more unpleasant sights of the day, Ardius Xavier Ladver. He was a 7th year at Hogwarts, he always picked on David and Ardius always happened to have a couple of his friends nearby, ready to pounce whenever David was about to fight back. Ardius, or Art as he liked to be called, (David and Samir called him Ardius anyway) was a very popular Slytherin boy who always seemed to have a few thickheaded cronies hanging around with him. Ladver had always been nothing but unpleasant to David and Samir throughout their times at Hogwarts and didn't seem to show any sign of stopping soon. In the past, Ardius was known to break into the Ravenclaw team locker rooms and put baby silver snakes in the robes of the Quidditch team to show Slytherin spirit. Also, he seemed to never tire of the occasional beating on David and Samir, usually inspired by a Ravenclaw victory on the Quidditch field or whenever David refused let Ardius copy his papers. Ardius, while a year above David and Samir was in many of the same classes as they were. Ardius had managed to fail 3 of his classes in his 4th year, putting him in David and Samir's Transfiguration, Rune Studies, Muggle Studies and Arithmancy classes on a regular basis.

"HEY KORHOL! YEAH KORHOL! COME OVER HERE!" Ardius said, calling to him from one of the tables. David rolled his eyes and walked towards him.

"Hi Ardius? How are you? So revolting, I mean, pleasant to see you again," David said with mock cheerfulness.

"Hey, I see you hanging out with that Chang girl all the time," Ardius started in the typical horny idiot teenager voice, "how 'bout you try and get me a date with her?"

"Why should I?" David said looking at Ardius, shaking his head.

"Because if you don't, I beat the living crap out of you," Ardius said, looking smugger.

"Well, gee, Ardius, I would, but, I don't know how comfortable she'll be dating someone who looks and smells strongly of a Blast-ended Skrewt," David said, smirking. He knew it was a stupid thing to say, but the guy deserved it. His cronies, of course, rose to their feet and cracked their knuckles along with Ardius.

Ardius smirked and said, "Get him!" Ardius said, pointing at David. The three guys that had been sitting with Ardius charged forward at him, raising their fists. They knocked over the thin, aluminum, table they had been sitting at and kicked it out of the way.

"SHIT!" David said as he turned around and ran. David was off, running down the alley. His mind simply thought of nothing else but what was probably going to happen to him if he were caught. David ran past a pair of old witches on the street and rolled around a mother with two young children. David took a quick glance back and saw that one of them had tripped over the other and the third was helping them to their feet. David quickly ducked into a store on his left and watched looked out the window from inside the store. He was just catching his breath as he watched the oaf-ish thugs of Ardius sweep past the store, prowling for a sign of David.

David breathed again; he tore his eyes away from the window to see where he had ducked into. David took a quick look around what appeared to be a potion shop. Just remembering he had to pick up some more equipment for his potions class. Just as he began looking around the shop for anteater hairs and batwings (they were the first on the list). After David had paid for his supplies, he headed for the door and out into the alley. As he was walking out the door, he saw that the two pinheads had lost David's trail.

For about 15 minutes, David strolled around Diagon Alley, only casually greeting students from Hogwarts. For a moment, David tried to make himself scarce, seeing Professor Snape. David didn't hate Snape; Snape just tended to give him the willies. Snape had a quality that David shared, logic, but the feeling David always got when Snape talked was that Snape was the kind of man who had that cold, unfeeling logic that often left out emotion completely. David, successfully dodging conversation with Snape. David walked towards Quality Quidditch Supplies, looking in the windows seeing Samir and Cho browse around the shop. The Ireland Quidditch Team robes were on display, they had bought the robes that the Ireland Team had worn at the final match of the Quidditch Cup. The Firebolt demo model was in the window along with the robes; a group of about 8 3rd years were excitedly chatting about the extraordinary broomstick.

David walked into the shop and walked in-between the tall shelves, trying to find Samir and Cho, he found them looking at a magazine in the 5th row up. They had an at least a dozen bags of supplies around them, it was obvious they had been much more efficient with their time then David had been.

"Hey kids," David said putting down a pair of bags full of potions down on the ground.

"Hey David," said Samir and Cho, not looking up from the magazine. David looked down at the magazine, which was "Quidditch Sport Weekly," to see a picture of their former Quidditch captain, Davies in a Appleby Arrows uniform with the cover saying, "New young player for Arrows turning troubled team around."

"Oh...Davies is on the Arrows?" said David.

"Apparently, he always said he wanted to go pro after school," Cho replied.

"Jesus, David, why so sweaty?" said Samir looking up.

"Oh, whoops, I've just been running from some idiots with intelligence and muscles the sizes of a fair sized dinosaur," David said wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Ardius?" asked Samir. David yawned as he nodded. David was very tired despite fairly light activity all day.

"What did the jackass want this time?" asked Samir casually, glancing back at the magazine.

"A date with Cho," David said smirking, looking at the utter look of disgust that had suddenly appeared.

"What a frightening proposition," Cho said with a grimaced face. David looked at Samir and saw that he had a look of anger on his face. Cho shook the thought from her and said, "So, where should we go now?" said Cho, smiling, obviously trying to drive the thought from her mind.

A few moments of pleasant conversation and browsing through Quality Quidditch Supplies, the trio of Ravenclaws started to head back to David and Samir's flat, deciding to catch a muggle taxi back to the flat. Despite her better judgment, Cho took Floo Powder back to her house with all her supplies. Samir and David helped haul Cho's things back to her house, which her parents obviously kept very tidy. Samir and David said farewell to Cho until the train the next morning and stepped back into the fireplace and back to the flat.

*********************************

The next day came, but very slowly. This morning Samir had a very difficult time waking up, he might have had a bit too much ale along with David and his parents. David's parents had allowed David and Samir to have some ale with them the previous evening, to celebrate the returning to school. Samir, David, and Mr. and Mrs. Korhol all squeezed into a muggle taxi; it was extremely difficult, considering all the luggage they had to haul around. But, luckily, the Korhols kept their owl at their house, David's mother, Gale, didn't trust the family owl in David's possession, despite much protesting from David.

After an extremely long cad ride, they all rushed into King's Cross station, with only a few minutes to get on the train. The all nearly sprinted out of the cab and through the station; David even knocked over a balding man with red hair. Mr. Korhol went back to apologize to the man, but the rest of them continued their rush through the station. They ran through the barrier and onto the platform just as a whistle informed them that train was leaving in 5 minutes. David and Samir rushed onto the train and into the nearest compartment, which had 3 sets of luggage in it, so, the put their bags in the compartment overhead and ran out to say goodbye.

"You two be careful, I'll miss you," said Mrs. Korhol hugging both Samir and David and giving each a kiss on the forehead. David's father walked up to Samir and shook his hand and gave a hug and then he hugged David, they broke apart and shook hands.

"Goodbye, son, your mother and I will miss you. Oh, and the man you bumped into was Mr. Weasley, the head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department in the ministry."

"Oh, geez!" said David, he had heard of Mr. Weasley's work, it had been referenced to in several books David had read on muggle studies, David personally saw him as a great wizard of the day. "Tell him that I'm sorry!" said David as the whistle blew again and Samir rushed off to the train. With a final hug from his mother, David sprinted off to the train as Samir held the door open as the train began to move ever so slowly. David hopped on the train and Samir shut the door.

David and Samir smirked as they headed back for their compartment, which they found that three of their mates had been occupying when they had dropped off the luggage. Two Ravenclaw chasers and the keeper had all filled in the compartment, Charles Horwitz and Andy Maguire were both 5th years and Hal Kennedy was a somewhat pudgy keeper that they had on the team.

"Samir! David! How the hell are you?!" said Charles, getting to his feet and shaking Samir's hand and then David's.

"Good, good. How are y'all?" said David in a jovial voice.

They talked for a while and eventually got to the topic of current events in the magical world and the year ahead.

"Apparently investigators found a huge underground ring running under a potions shop in Diagon Alley," said Andy, unwrapping a bit of chocolate that he had packed in a paper bag.

"Really? Diagon Alley? I figured most of the shops in there were on the up and up," said Hal, interested.

"Apparently not," said Andy, pulling out an article from the Daily Prophet to Hal. Hal took a quick look and passed it to David, who was sitting next to him. David took a quick glance at the photograph, noticing the familiar shops like Ollivander's Wand Shop and Talo's Sweetshop, a candy store that David often.

"The world is getting darker, the evil looms," said Samir staring out of the window.

"Eh, focusing on a more pressing issue," started Charles, trying to steer the conversation away from depression, "my dad tells me that there's going to be another international competition going on this year."

"Like what?" asked Hal.

"My dad wouldn't tell me, he said that he wasn't even supposed to tell me anything was happening at all," said Charles.

"I bet it'll be another tournament," said Andy.

"Maybe, but I hope we get to do Quidditch this year, at least," said David.

"Speaking of which, with Davies gone, who do you think should be captain?" asked Samir.

"Well, off the record, either David or Cho," said Andy.

"Thanks, man," said David, smiling, David didn't think that he was that good at Quidditch to be a captain, David always got the impression that Cho was a better player. "I don't think I'm that good."

"Ah, c'mon David, you've made a bunch of good plays, remember that match in your 4th year against Gryffindor when you hit the Bludger right in front of Potter before he caught it, that was skill, man."

"Eh, lucky shot," said David, smiling broadly. "Samir knocked 2 of the 3 enemy chasers off their brooms in our Hufflepuff match in our 4th year."

They continued on, discussing the nearby Quidditch season, Cho stopped in for a word for a little while and had a quick conversation with them. The witch with the food cart stopped by and David ordered a sandwich and ate it and then dozed off, curled up in a cornet, using his robes as a blanket.

In what seemed like no time, David was awoken by Samir, who told him to change into his robes, as they were approaching Hogsmeade. David, while very groggy, noticed that the train was slowing down. Just as David stepped out of the bathroom, the train had come to a complete stop. They caught the carriages up to castle, and walked through, as always, magnificently decorated Entrance Hall into the even more elaborately decorated Great Hall. David noticed that the professor's table was full, and David also noticed who had taken up the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, it was a witch that David didn't recognize. David and Samir met up with Cho and Jill and sat with them on the house tables, several of the seats closest to the head table were empty, to make room for the new first years.

After everyone had been seated, Professor McGonagall led a large batch of first years out of the side door and out in front of the entire school. The first years looked at the hat; scared it was about to burst into flames or something of the sort. Half of them were scared out of their wits. The hall was full of dead silence, and every pair of eyes was fixed upon the Sorting Hat. Quite suddenly, the hat ripped open and burst into song.

"A tarnished hat am I,

Not pleasant to the eye,

But, what in looks I lack,

I make up for in tact.

The walls of Hogwarts grow old,

And I do as well,

But your place in this school,

Only I can tell.

Your Place may be in Gryffindor,

Where live the brave and bold,

Those courageous Gryffindors

Act strongly without being told;

You may belong in Hufflepuff,

Where dwell the just and fair,

If you a pure heart,

You'll always find a friend whom about you cares;

Perhaps your home will be Ravenclaw,

Where live those with a great mind,

If you be of wit and knowledge,

Many comrades you will find;

Or maybe your house is Slytherin,

You may make some true friends,

Those cunning Slytherin use

Their raw ambition to meet their ends;

So, try me on,

Give me a try,

I'll tell you where to go,

But, you'll figure out why.

With a round of thunderous applause from the students and a sigh of relief from the first years, the hall began to calm down again as Professor McGonagall read off the first name, "Anderson, Beatrice." The chipper young girl David had seen coming out of Ollivander's walked nervously to the three-legged stool. The young girl was sorted into Hufflepuff and looking relieved, walked to the table where her new house mates, who gave her a thunderous round of applause, greeted her.

"Big lot this year," whispered Jill to David, who was sitting next to him.

"Quite," David whispered back.

It took a considerable time before the ceremony had run it's course, finishing with, "Yelka, Jeremy," who was sorted into Ravenclaw. As Professor McGonagall cleared the hat and stool out of the way, Professor Dumbledore slowly stood. The headmasters signaled with his hands for the students to quiet down, the last to do so were a pair of twins at the Gryffindor table.

"Another school year approaches us," said Dumbledore, he spoke softly and with a large smile on his wizened face, "and after a long summer of academic sloth, your minds should be good and ready to become active again. The year ahead of us holds many dangers and challenges, but in the fine tradition of Hogwarts, we should spear forward and face our challenges with determination and a stout heart and we will weather the storm of darkness that looms over us now. Before the year begins, I have a few announcements to make. First, may I remind everyone that the Forbidden Forest is strictly out of bounds. Second, I must remind you, no magic in the corridors. And finally, I would like to introduce our newest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Ms. Arabella Figg."

The Great Hall was filled with applause, mainly from the witches, who were glad to get a witch teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"And the final announcement is one I'm sure many of you will enjoy," Dumbledore continued and the hall grew very anxious of the news, "we will be participating in another international, inter-school, competition, in hopes of building stronger international ties with the witched of other lands. So, the leaders of many of the wizarding government bodies have agreed to hold a Quidditch tournament during the winter and Easter holidays. We have agreed to host the tournament, and, as a result, the schools from all around the world will be coming here to compete. The nations participating in the event are as follows," Dumbledore pulled out a small slip of paper, "Great Britain, France, America, Australia, Canada, Russia, China, Japan. I'm sure you will treat our guests with the utmost respect. However, the school is only allowed to have one team. So, while the regular Quidditch season will proceed as normal, tryouts will be taking place sometime in mid-November. And, with all the announcements finished, it is time to fill your stomachs, so that tomorrow we will fill your brains," Dumbledore finished, giving a wave of his wand and the food magically appeared on the plates.

After a long, excited chat about the tournament to be coming up, the prefects were told to bring their houses up to the dormitories and to go to sleep. David happily abided, he was quite exhausted. The prefect, a 5th year named Terry Boot, led them up the stairs and into the dormitory, instructing them on the new passwords. David felt rather foolish having to listen to someone younger than him, but Terry was a good kid, so David didn't mind. David walked up the stairs, tired as a dog and fell asleep almost the moment his head hit the pillow.