2 weeks ago, I woke up to a terrible stinging pain in my forehead, more particularly, on my lighting-shaped scar. When I was a baby, about one years old, a wizard lord named Voldemort (or “He-who-must-not-be-named”/ “You-know-who” for those who think his name is tabooed)  decided to walk right into my house uninvited, and kill both my parents. Inexplicably however, I somehow lived, leaving me with a lightning shaped scar on my forehead, and landing me in my aunt and uncle’s house with my pig like cousin Dudley.

So back to last night, I woke up in a cold sweat after an extremely vivid dream; I could recall three people, a small man called Peter nicknamed Wormtail, an old man/muggle, and Lord Voldemort himself. I got shivers just thinking about him, his cold, high voice piercing through the darkened room. 

The next day I received a postcard from my best friend Ron Weasley’s mum; she invited me to come visit them at the Burrow and watch the International World wide Quidditch match right here in Britain! We were having a blast at the match, right up until the Dark Mark appeared in the sky. Thousands of people began running away for safety, away from the tongues of fire and marching hooded people who were causing destruction to the tents and campsites all around the stadium. We ran straight to the woods where we had an encounter with representatives from the Ministry of Magic question us and accuse us of putting the Dark Mark in the sky. To say the least, it was terrifying.

Today, I’m just about to get onto the Hogwarts express to take me and my friends all the way to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

I hope this year is going to be at least a slight bit better than the last; hopefully nothing too crazy like enraged dementors or escaped prisoners going after me. On the train I go. 

The house sorting for the first years had just finished when Headmaster Dumbldore announced that the Triwizard Tournament will be held right here at Hogwarts for the first time in a century. There is to be 4 trials against the three major wizarding European schools: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang for the triwizard cup. Just as he was about to announce that though, a loud thunder echoed throughout the room as the doors to the Great Hall banged open to reveal a frightening cloaked man in the doorway. He had a great lot of scars on his disproportionate face, with a single blue eye swivelling around independently at everyone in the room. He walked right up to Dumbledore as they shook hands and Dumbledore announced  “May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, professor Mad Eye Moody”.

A few days later, during Halloween feast, I could hardly believe my ears.

Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrived at Hogwarts and Dumbledore began reading the slips of parchment erupting from the magical blue flames of the Goblet of Fire: Viktor Krum of Durmstrang, Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons, and Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts. These were to be the 3 competitors/champions in the tournament. As Dumbledore finished announcing the champions’ names the noise in the hall was dying down when all of a sudden sparks began to fly again from the goblet, the fire turning red and spitting out yet another piece of parchment. Everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore in astonishment awaiting the name to be read until he finally said “Harry Potter.”  And suddenly all the attention in the room fell on me.

Speeding up to the first task, it’s my turn to face the dragon (Unfortunately, I got landed with the Hungarian Horntail; one of the most vicious dragons). When I step into the stadium, I see hundreds and hundreds of faces staring down from the stands, and a monstrous, scaly black Hungarian Horntail crouching low over a golden egg. I quickly sputter out the words “Accio Firebolt!” and seconds later comes my broom speeding towards me; I swing my leg over and kick off from the ground. I fly around dodging the Horntails every move, taunting it until it finally let it’s guard down; it flew up into the sky ready to attack when I dived, reached out and whisked away the egg.

It was amazing, and later that night in the Gryffindor common room, I opened the egg only to be welcomed by a horrible loud and screechy wailing noise that filled the room. Everyone was confused as to what this could possibly mean, so we did as much guessing and investigating as we could but nothing seemed to quite make sense.

Luckily for me, Cedric Diggory was ready to re-pay me for helping him out for the first task. He told me to “take a bath”... Weird. But I did anyway, finding the secret entrance to the prefect’s bathrooms and getting inside the bathtub. I placed the egg underwater and this time, a gurgling sound, kind of like a song came out of it. I dunked my head underwater and heard a chorus of eerie singers. I listened to the lyrics, putting the pieces together and decoding the song: the next task is Merpeople.

It’s the day of the task and I’m ready to go in. I start rapidly chewing my gillyweed as the timer begins and I hop into the water. It’s icy cold and I start feeling strange until I realise I had gills… And flippers! I swim along the freezing pond, fighting water creatures that get in my way until I finally spot Ron, Hermione, Cho, and Fleurs sister. Hostages. I remember the song from the egg and cut Ron free. I try to free the others but the merpeople stop me. I wait for the other champions to come and they do, except Fleur. Panicking, I scare away the mermen and cut the little girl free, hoisting her and Ron up to shore. Fleur thanked me and we received our scores. 45 points! Not bad! 

Ludo Bagman is about to give the whistle to me and Cedric. Three…Two…One.

We sprint off towards the maze.

I light up my wand running aside Cedric until we reach crossroads. I whisper an incantation to my wand and it turns into a compass, pointing me north. I know the centre of the maze is northwest so I make my way there encountering strange creatures and obstacles. Suddenly, I hear Cedric's voice yell: “What are you doing!” then I hear Krum’s voice: “Crucio!” . I panic and throw a spell at the hedge and though it’s quite ineffective, it burns a hole small enough for my leg to fit through and I force my way through, kicking the brambles. I struggle through an opening and see Cedric twitching in pain on the ground, Krum standing over him. I point my wand at Krum and yell “Stupefy!” and he fell to the ground. I make sure Cedric is all right and I keep going. I encounter a sphinx who riddles me. I correctly answer and she lets me through. I sprint as fast as I can through the twist and turns until I finally reach the centre. I could see the gleaming cup and Cedric running up towards it! A massive spider comes out of nowhere almost running over Cedric and combined we hex the spider making it fall to the ground. 

We’re now both standing at the cup. I tell him to take it, I could see the longing expression on his face. He responds and tell me to take it instead, I refuse. We decide then to take it together. Suddenly I felt a jerk and my feet lift off the ground.

The cup was a Portkey.

The person seems to be holding something that looks strangely like a bundle of robes, and when I look my scar explodes in pain. I then hear a high, cold voice say “Kill the spare” and Cedric drops dead next to me. My body goes numb. I feel myself being pulled to my feet, I was being dragged across the graveyard towards a marble headstone that reads TOM RIDDLE.

The man in the hood hit me and I realised who it was. Wormtail.

He conjured ropes around me and shoved a black cloth into my mouth before turning away and returning with a massive cauldron filled with water, which he heated with fire. He unwrapped the bundle of robes to reveal a hideous slimy creature in the shape of a human child. He lowered it into the cauldron and spoke words, like an incantation. Dust swirled around the cauldron and Wormtail raised his right hand in front of him, gripping a dagger in his other hand and -crying- cut off his own hand.  A scream pierced the night. The potion in the cauldron turned hot red as Wormtail approached me, slit me, and collected my blood in a vial before pouring it into the cauldron.

Sparks and steam flew from the cauldron and a thin, pale white man with a flattened nose stepped out of the cauldron.

Lord Voldemort has returned.

The Death Eaters closed in a circle around me. Voldemort faced me and asked me if I have been taught how to duel. I said nothing and we began. We bowed and he hit me again with the Cruciatus curse. Twice. He paused and hit me this time with the Imperius curse. I felt my mind blank and I yelled “I WON’T!” the curse stopped and I rolled away, trying to hide from Voldemort’s curses. Just as Voldemort yelled “Avada Kedavra!” I shouted “Expelliarmus!” our curses connected as beams of light met in midair and we were lifted off the ground. Beads of light connected our wands, getting closer and closer to me. I felt my wand vibrating and I knew it would break if the beads got any closer so I focused every ounce of my body onto moving these beads away. It was working and when they reached Voldemort's wand smokey figures emerged from his wand and from one of the figures came the smokey ghost-like body of Cedric Diggory. I saw more ghostly figures, the old man that was killed in my dream, a woman named Bertha Jorkins, and numerous other shadowy figures emerged from his wand, all saying the same thing “Don't let go Harry” . Then my parents emerged from the smoke. I almost dropped my wand. My mother said that after the connection is broken, they would buy me some time to return to Hogwarts. So I jerked my wand away breaking the connection and ran like I had never run before. I reached the portkey, grabbed Cedric, and escaped.

I could hardly believe it as he explained to me how he had done it, he put my name in the goblet, he helped me win the tasks, he turned the cup into a portkey. He reached his hand into his pocket to pull out his wand when suddenly the door blast open and Moody was shot across the room. Dumbledore stood there, along with Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall, a look of pure, cold fury on his face as he stared down at Moody. Dumbledore then told me that that was not the real Alastor Moody, and proceeded to take a vial and keys from the impostor’s pockets. He sent away Snape and McGonagall and opened a trunk next to “Moody’s” desk. I gasped when it revealed a thin, starved real Alastor Moody. Dumbledore explained to me how the impostor had done it (using Polyjuice potion), and suddenly the impostor transformed to reveal the real person behind everything. Barty Crouch Jr. As if on cue the professors arrived with a house elf named Winky, and Veritaserum (a powerful truth potion). They poured the Veritaserum down Barty Crouch’s throat and made him talk. He explained his whole scheme again, how he escaped Azkaban and stole Moody’s identity.