Chapter 8
Earlier that morning, Harry had made a mistake. In his haste to get out of the castle and get to Zonko's early, he hadn't paid the slightest attention to his surroundings. So when Angelina Johnson led the rest of the chaser line and a number of others to him at the breakfast table he hadn't listened to them and just gave a rushed, "Yeah, sure," and ran out of the great hall to get past Filch as quickly as he could.
He did catch the first carriage into the village, but he missed the roughly quarter of Gryffindor who, led by the captain of the quidditch team, all asked Harry to meet with them for lunch at the Three Broomsticks to talk about his leaving the Quidditch team, and how he had been more and more distant lately.
The Gryffindors were concerned because Harry was finally costing them more points in Potions than he made them anywhere else. McGonagall and Flitwick had been guiding Harry toward twin masteries, and had stopped being concerned about points around him. Moody rarely gave points, Trelawney didn't, and Crouch wasn't a professor and so couldn't. Hagrid gave him a few for his attention in class, but without Harry's performance in quidditch, his lack of care about points resulted in him was finally becoming an active drain on the house.
Beyond that, Harry had stopped eating meals with them, and he had taken Neville with him. The two had begun eating all of their meals at the Ravenclaw table with Luna, and outside of meals they spent most of their free time with her in the library. Free time for Harry had also taken a dive in general as he spent a significant amount of time working with McGonagall and Flitwick, which no one save Neville and Luna knew about.
The group had taken a large booth and several tables at the Three Broomsticks, and they noticed when Harry followed Neville out of the fireplace, shook his hand, and set back off to the castle. Johnson was furious, and Hermione and Ron (he was halfway through the food he had ordered from Madam Rosmerta) were both incredibly suspicious of where he had come from and why they had not been invited along.
Hermione and Ron had not failed to notice the growing distance between themselves and Harry. He had yet to play a single game of chess with Ron, and whenever Hermione had tried to check Harry's work she had been rebuffed (and on one occasion when she had made a move for a transfiguration essay of his anyway, Harry had told her to bugger off in those exact words).
Hermione was bothered because Harry had stopped needing her help. She too, spent a week watching him in class, and he wasn't even paying attention! Then after doodling the whole lecture away, he seemed to always wait for her or Neville to finish, then the first time he actually tried to do it instead of just muttering and idly waving his wand, he got it perfect! It drove her mad! She spent even more time in the library studying and practicing after that, she saw him there a lot too, and even with all her practice she could never match his getting it right the first time. The way he acted, it was like all of it was just review. Every new thing they learned seemed like something he had learned before, and he was just biding his time until class got out.
She... She began to suspect him of.. of using dark magic to get to where he was. When they had gotten Lockhart to write them a pass to the restricted section she had seen some hints of blood rituals that might give a boost in intelligence. She didn't know how to check, and she wasn't sure, but it seemed like she just didn't know him at all anymore. She didn't really know what he was capable of doing, ethically and literally.
The Gryffindors in general had growing doubts about him. They hadn't quite felt this way since the heir of Slytherin thing about two years ago. Watching Harry snub them (whether or not he was really aware he had) really set them off. Johnson had talked a lot of them into confronting him, demanding he be seeker again the next year and demanding he keep his head down further around Snape. And here they saw that he had broken the rules again, he had left Hogsmeade entirely, and he had brought another lion with him when he did it!
The group dispersed shortly after they watched Harry head out, apparently in a hurry. Some wanted to go after Longbottom and demand an answer, but they knew that Longbottom was practically a Hufflepuff in his loyalty. Harry was one of Neville's only friends, so they knew Malfoy would praise Gryffindor before he gave Harry up. They were angry, but before they all split Johnson cautioned the group to keep their anger from the Twins, Harry was very close to the pranksters and they didn't know how they would react.
Harry actually didn't even notice that most of the Gryffs were acting coldly towards him, He didn't eat with them, and he had gotten to the point where the only time he spent in the tower was to sleep. He had so much work to do, not the least with his classes, that he was entirely distracted. He was learning the art of enchanting from Professor Flitwick in his off hours, it was heavily related to charms (really, Harry thought, it was just permanently applying a charm to an object) and his half-goblin mentor had turned out to have quite a flair for it. Now that he had Ollivander's notes as well, he had a huge new project to spend time on top of all the rest of his work.
He had started collecting ingredients for the curing process of the Tebo leather. Ollivander's notes had included a contact address for a pair of goblins in Gringotts who could procure gemstones and higher end ingredients for alchemical processes and potions. Harry established contact with the goblins, a female named Gemshaper and her mate, Ragnok. Harry had used Ollivander's name in his opening letter to the pair, and he had established what he thought was a good relationship with them. Ollivander's notes had included proper forms of address and a few notes on how the goblins preferred to be treated, Harry had taken them to heart and showed only the highest respect to the pair. He thought it prudent, if not what he would have liked to do anyway. He was again grateful to the strange old man for his help.
He started looking up ways to concentrate and focus power in an object. He was planning on creating as balanced and powerful a focus as he could, but he wanted it to appear to be just a fancy wand holster he designed himself. It turned out that the pentagram that Christians reviled so much as a sign of devil worship, was actually a very arithmetically stable form. Five points on the figure led to stability, and in its original form the shape had been used by Sumerians and a cult of Greek wizards as a way to concentrate power for the creation of spaces that were larger on the inside than the outside, like the tent they had used during the World Cup. The shape had also been used by Chinese wizards as a form demonstrating elemental balance between wood, fire, earth, metal and water. They evidently hadn't been big on air or wind for some reason. Harry and his love of flying demanded he find a way to incorporate it into the scheme, but he figured he had time to develop that.
Harry thought he could use it as a way to both hide his wand in the bracer, and as a way to create a focus. He had no knowledge of arithmancy, so in the lead up to Samhain and the arrival of the other two schools involved in the tournament, he could be found more and more often in the Library surrounded by pages of notes on the subject.
Hedwig was also getting a workout (and she was loving it, Harry thought), as Harry had been sending notes to Sirius asking after arithmancy knowledge and just to keep in general contact with his closest family member. Sirius had turned out to be a goldmine of knowledge. The marauders had used a lot of unique spell work in their pranks, and while Moony had been the expert, Sirius was no slouch. Harry couldn't bring himself to send letters to the werewolf, despite constant prompting from Padfoot. Harry harbored some resentment that Moony had spent all of third year with him, including extra lessons to figure out the patronus charm, and had never once mentioned his parents or what he knew of Sirius. Harry guessed that Dumbledore had told Remus to not seek him out, likely for the same reasons that no one but Arthur had seen fit to tell him the first thing about Sirius, but he was a marauder for Odin's sake! Harry expected better.
October wound down, and tensions wound up in the castle. Filch could been seen practically foaming at the mouth at anyone who so much as scuffed a shoe in the hallways. Students from every house found out that they had 'volunteered' to help clean, and were taught a few household charms to clean the suits of armor, paintings, or stone work, and set loose on the castle to shine up anything and everything. By the day before the groups from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were due to arrive, the castle seemed brand new. The suits of armor could be seen preening and staring at themselves in each other's breast plates. The woodwork in the beams of the great hall and all across the ground glowed from within after having been treated and oiled by scores of students three or four times apiece. The paintings across the castle could also be heard constantly asking students to conjure up mirrors for them so they could see themselves. The colors across all of Hogwarts had never seemed brighter.
Harry had been taught a number of painting charms and charms for the care of the copper roofing used over large sections of the castle, and between classes could often be found on his firebolt cleaning wide swathes of the school as he passed over it.
His connection to Lady Hogwarts had also never been closer. His fulfilling his bargain with Peeves and his work taking care of her, which was paralleled only by the contributions of the professors themselves, endeared the 14 year old to the ancient living castle. As he walked the halls the feeling he got when he had first arrived this year had only increased. Harry had never been happier, and it showed when he talked to Neville and Luna.
Luna had been mirroring Harry's mood for the last few weeks. She had felt her own connection to the castle grow as she cleaned and helped it. The Lady of the Castle had always loved her, and Luna could feel the glow of the castle's love around Harry as well.
As far as the boy-who-lived went, Luna was confused. He seemed happy, and he was one of her first true friends. She really like him, but she was just really confused. The plimpies in the lake and the blibbering humdingers that loved flying around the hallways (and strangely enough, infesting Hermione Granger's hair) had been telling her that Harry would soon be very angry and sad. They were urging her to become closer to Harry, they whispered at her that she should be hugging him at every opportunity.
She knew they had never steered her wrong before (unlike those damned nargles, those pesky things led her directly to Mrs. Norris and Filch all the time, which she just couldn't understand) so she did what they asked. Which wasn't to say that she didn't enjoy it, she thought as she smiled to herself.
Harry had been missing during a number of the normal meal times, lately. He often ate in the kitchen with the elves (She loved the elves, they were so much fun to talk to, and they knew so many things! They also loved her unique breakfast choices, so she often grabbed late night breakfast snacks with them), but fortunately the humdingers usually told her when he was heading down there, so she met him there more often than not.
They had gotten pretty close in general since the train, she almost thought he was hearing the humdingers and dabberblimps too, given how he seemed to show in the library every single time she had gone there this year to work on homework. He helped Neville and herself with every question they had, and he had even offered a number of excellent ideas toward tracking the illusive crumple-horned snorkack (Which reminded her, she needed to tell daddy to not plan for a hunting expedition over winter break, the giant squid mentioned that she would soon have something better to do here at Hogwarts).
She found herself drawn to Harry even outside of what the Humdingers were urging her to do. When he was around she didn't even hear from her creatures very much. When he was around she found herself just having fun and really enjoying talking to him and to Neville. Susan and Hannah also made a point to eat with the three of them as often as they could, and they often stopped her to say hello in the halls. Her life had gotten a lot better since that awful time on the train. She blamed Harry for it. She blamed Harry for it every day, and with a smile.
Currently she stood outside in the oppressive Scottish cold, waiting for the two visiting schools to appear. The dabberblimps that hovered around the school off and on during the year (She wondered where they went when they disappeared. The mermen were the only ones who had a clear view of the castle at all times, she made a mental note to ask them at some point) told her that the first school would be getting here soon and from the air. She started scanning the skies, which alerted the 'Claws near her to the imminent arrival of one of the schools by air.
The Ravenclaws were smart people. Noticing trends was, in many ways, their entire wheel house. The problem many of them had with Luna was her unpredictability. They couldn't take data that had no context, and data without context was about 80% of Luna by volume. What they had noticed though, was that she seemed to notice a lot of things before they happened. The house's running theory was that she had a touch of the sight that Trelawney was always gassing on about. So when Luna looked up to the air out of nowhere, and began visibly scanning it, the 'Claws that ran the house betting pools began laying 10:3 odds on the first school arriving by air.
When she spotted the quickly growing black dot in the sky, Luna leaned to her left and whispered her thanks to the dabberblimp that had come down from the orbit it had shared with its brothers around the school (being that Luna was on the end of her row, many found it curious that she leaned into empty space and whispered at the fat moth on the ground next to her).
The representatives of Beauxbatons passed by Luna in relative silence. She would be quiet too, she thought, if she had left a flying two story carriage to enter a magical castle at the start of a Scottish winter. Not because such an occurrence was uncommon to her (not that it was common to her either), more because when she got to a new place the humdingers often spent a long time telling her about the area. They were nice like that. She smiled idly, and began looking towards the lake.
Harry was eating at the Gryffindor table for the first time in a long time. It felt very strange, though that could have been because the House of the Lions had left a lot of room open around him, and most were looking at him with thinly veiled hostility in their eyes. He wrote it off as just being something weird that he didn't understand, they studied magic in an ancient sentient castle after all (he wrote a lot of things off like that). Something must have happened while he had been off doing research in the library or something. It'd blow over eventually, it always did.
He chatted idly with Neville for a while. He had made a lot of progress on his bracer, and he was explaining to Neville how the abraxans that carried the Beauxbatons carriage had given him the idea of using follicles from feathers of magical creatures to trace the lines of the pentagrams he was going to put on it (a thestral hair, a phoenix feather, and a feather from one of the abraxans would do, he figured). Harry thought it might provide the influence of air he was looking for, to further balance out the other elements. He wasn't totally sure how he could get good representatives of the other elements, but he knew of a book in the restricted section that detailed elemental influences in magically active materials. He'd grab it sooner or later.
The veela he had noticed from the Beauxbatons contingent crossed over from the Ravenclaw table to take a bowl of some French dish from the Gryffindor table. She went to grab it from near Ron, and all of the guys sitting near him stared at her, (Harry squinted a bit as he looked closer) Ron appeared to be actually drooling as he looked over her. Well at least he wasn't looking at Viktor Krum like that anymore, Harry mused.
Harry shot a very amused look at Neville who had noticed the strange influence around his core as soon as Harry had. Neville returned it. Watching the boys of Hogwarts make asses of themselves around her would become a bit of a sport for them, Harry suspected.
As the feast closed, Harry conjured a small scrap of parchment and an inked quill, and penned a small note of thanks which he left on his plate. It quickly disappeared with the last of the leftover food. Harry smiled, he knew the house elves appreciated thanks, and he really liked them. They were all very nice, and he knew they would appreciate the note. He had felt the castle whisper the idea to him one day when he was trying to figure out how to thank them, and he had been doing it for a week or two now.
Harry laughed internally at the fact that the elves genuinely appreciated his notes of thanks, but despised both Hermione and cleaning Gryffindor tower because of all of the knitting she left about to try and release them. She wasn't the one the elves were bound to, she couldn't release them, but they hated that she wouldn't just talk to them about how they felt about serving. She actually had a Voldemort style hyphenated name among the elves, She-who-knits. It was great.
The hall quieted very quickly as Dumbledore stood with the headmasters of the other school. Madam Maxine, who dwarfed him by a solid two and a half feet, and Karkaroff (who had removed his outer layer of furs revealing even more beneath it, the man looked like a large white ferret, reminding Harry further of a certain Slytherin) each moved to a side of the Hogwarts headmaster.
Dumbledore gestured to Filch, who moved to the center of the hall in front of the headmaster's favorite lectern, pushing a cart which had a large intricately carved and jewel encrusted wooden box on it. Dumbledore removed the lid from the box with a gesture, and a hexagonal flagstone rose from the floor next to the headmaster. He gently lifted a massive wooden cup from the depths of the box and with great ceremony, placed the cup on the raised stone. Each of the headmasters touched the cup with their wands and the moment the last wand made contact with the cup, the inside of the cup burst into blue flames.
Harry's senses weathered a brief magical assault, as the magic of the cup filled the room and made itself known. The magic itself filled him with a sense of unease, but it was channeling so much of it that Harry felt compelled to take a closer look at it to see what he could learn from it, and if there was anything in it that might help him develop his bracer project.
Dumbledore's deep voice rose from his place at the front of the room. "This is the Goblet of Fire. It is our impartial judge. It has been used since the times of the Romans and their trials and tests in the Coliseum to choose the most worthy of a group of potential entrants, and bind them to a competition. The Goblet of Fire will chose one champion from each school, and that person will be magically bound to the tournament, which will feature three challenges spread over the rest of the year.
The three challenges have all been designed and agreed to by the Ministry of Magic from the each of the countries with a participating school, as well as the headmasters of each school. They have been designed to test the wit, strength, daring, and skill of the champions. With us from England's own ministry are Bartemius Crouch and Ludo Bagman, the heads of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and the Department of Magical Games and Sports respectively, they will be joining my fellow headmasters and I in judging the competition. Each event will be scored based on the completion of the objective of the event, and the scores will determine the order of participation in the final event.
I will be drawing an age line (Fred, George, and Lee all sat closer together and began whispering at this) around the Goblet, and it will be left out following the conclusion of this feast. The age line will permit only those above the age of 17 years as of tonight through, any who are interested in entering must write their name and the name of their school on a piece of parchment and drop it into the magical fire of the goblet. Thank you all for your attention."
With his speech finished, he drew a glowing circle on the ground around the Goblet, and stepped out of it. Once out of the circle, he raised his voice a final time for the night, "I believe it is late, and would urge all of you to attend to your beds, I believe we will have much to discuss tomorrow."
The schools broke up, and most of the Hogwarts students headed to the entrance hall and from there to either the dungeons or staircases as befit their house. Harry stood and walked to the front, angling for the headmaster, as he drew near he called out, "Sir! Professor Dumbledore!"
The aged man stopped walking towards the anteroom at the end of the hall, and stood still as Harry approached, "Sir, if you don't mind, I would like to take a look at the goblet for a moment. I can feel it channeling an immense amount of magic and as you probably know, I'm studying enchanting with Professor Flitwick. If you don't mind, I'd like to cross your age line and take a quick look at the enchantments on the goblet."
Dumbledore displayed a look of great surprise at this, Harry wasn't sure if it was because he had never before sought out the headmaster and spoken to him of his own free will, or if it was because of his claim to be able to just walk through the age line, but surprise was there in spades. Dumbledore paused as if in thought for a moment, and then simply nodded his assent, turning to look at the Goblet as Harry approached it.
Harry drew near the age line, and put more power into the shield he had forged around his center. Since that day at the World Cup and Bill's later comments about occlumency, Harry had put a fair amount of time into making it stronger and being able to extend it around himself both to the limit of his skin and beyond his body. The shield couldn't effect offensive magic being employed against him, but it rendered him nearly impervious to passive magics like the age line and all but the strongest compulsion spells. He had taught most of his advancements to Neville and had given a few to Fred and George as well during his infrequent meetings with the diabolical pair. Harry grew a small smile just thinking of his brothers in all but blood, they were capable of this same feat, but had likely just not considered it.
Harry took the extra energy he put into his shield, and used it to extend the shell out to the very edge of his skin, and simply stepped through the line. Behind him, Dumbledore's mouth actually opened in abject surprise. Harry lifted his hand and brought it into contact with the goblet, he closed his eyes and pushed his awareness through his palm and into the object.
He experienced something akin to what he saw when he meditated and looked at his own core. The goblet's magic pulsed a bright blue, the same shade as the fire inside it. The goblet was an object of truth, he sensed. Its purpose was to sense the absolute truth of any who dropped their name into it, to pick from those names and truths to select the one who would give the greatest spectacle. It was an incredible work of enchantment, and Harry was glad he looked at it. The goblet was useless for his project, however. It simply channeled an immense amount of ambient magic through itself and pushed all of it through the cup's opening as flames. He also saw what had concerned him about the magic of the Goblet. Its purpose wasn't actually benign, it didn't look for the most qualified, it looked for the best show, and then bound the participant's magic to the intent of participating and winning. Not even winning without deceit or trickery, just winning.
Harry opened his eyes and removed his hand from the goblet. He looked around and noticed a look of surprise on the face of dozens of people who hadn't left the hall yet. Harry stepped out of the age line, and sketched out a quick bow towards the hall at large. He thanked the still stunned Dumbledore, and started badly whistling a jaunty tune as he walked out of the hall towards the enchanting lab. The tower would soon be filled with people asking him how he had done it, so he had no desire to be there. He also wanted to write down a couple thoughts he had about the truth enchantments he saw. The binding intrigued him, but offended something deep inside him. He would be glad to never encounter another object with the same power.
He noticed people following him with their eyes as he left and laughed a bit. If there was one thing his brothers had taught him, it was that people were always going to be staring at him. And as Fred had put it so eloquently, if they're gonna be staring, might as well give'em something to stare at.
Harry arrived at the lab and sketched out a few ideas, and then laid down on the cot he kept under his workbench and quickly fell asleep.
The next day was a Monday, and all of the students were excused from normal classes. The day was filled with the ceremonies and festivities that Mr. Crouch had been describing for the last month. Special bonfires were set up to be lit as darkness fell. Snape (against his will, no doubt) could be seen in the courtyard with conjured black boards explaining the steps in the brewing of the luck potion, Felix Felicis , to a large crowd of students from all three schools, highlighting why this day between the summer and winter solstices was important to the potion. Hagrid was on the edge of the forbidden forest explaining his gathering and herding of the thestrals this time of year to a group, and strangely enough, Luna was leading yet another group of students near the Black lake in talking to what appeared to be a small number of water nymphs.
Halloween was not the best day for Harry, so he decided to stick with his friend and spent all day talking to the nymphs and hanging out with Luna. It turned out she had some fairy blood in her ancestry, which made it easier for her to communicate with fairies of all kinds. She had been quietly approached by her head of house and asked to assist explaining how the fey was connected to this time of year and its traditions.
Harry had joined the majority of the student body and undergone a language ritual earlier that year to learn a number of languages, among them the language of the fey. The professors had offered the ritual (one of the few rituals not forbidden by the ministry) in order to facilitate communication between the schools later in the year.
The nymphs in the black lake turned out to be excellent conversationalists, it seemed there wasn't much to do normally, so they spent most of their time playing with the giant squid and bothering the merpeople who lived in the deepest part of the lake.
Harry had been getting worried feelings from Lady Hogwarts all day, but he didn't think he could do anything about it and the Lady hadn't communicated any kind of need to him. It bothered him a lot on top of his normal feelings for the day, but without any clues, he just stuck with Luna and hoped for the best. Somewhere during the day he found himself holding her hand as they sat at the edge of the lake, talking to nymphs and explaining the Samhain traditions of this part of the world to the foreign students. She didn't seem eager to let go, and it gave him comfort so he didn't either.
Around lunch time Harry called out to Dobby and asked him to bring a picnic lunch for Luna, the nymphs, and himself. Dobby disappeared and reappeared with a basket of sandwiches (Who knew water nymphs liked roast beef?), evidently a lot of people were asking the house elves to bring them lunch outside, so they had a large number of baskets of lunch food just readymade and waiting. Harry asked Dobby to join them, and when he refused Harry thanked him profusely and he popped away.
Harry and Luna whiled the day away, and before they knew it the bonfires set earlier the day were lit, and it was time for the Samhain feast and the announcement of the champions. Harry and Luna split for their house tables at the entrance hall, and after another excellent feast (Harry's thank you to the elves made sure to mention the lunch and the fact that the nymphs really appreciated their excellent work) Dumbledore lowered the lights in the hall with a wave of his hand.
As the lights lowered the conversation died off in the hall. At the head of the hall Dumbledore left his seat and went to stand next to the goblet. The other headmasters seemed very tense, and everyone at the staff table seemed to share the tension.
Dumbledore removed a pocket watch from his robes somewhere and took a look at it, his voice filled the hall, "I believe the goblet will need only another minute to reach its decision," Harry could feel the tension in the room increase with that statement, and the Lady Hogwarts seemed to share it all, "I wish to thank everyone who entered their names, and I would like to further thank those who attempted to enter their names."
At that the Headmaster inclined his head towards the Gryffindor table, where at the edge closest to the Goblet sat Fred, George, and Lee, all sporting waist length silvered beards. They took a moment to stand and bow to Dumbledore and the rest of the hall to much laughter, even from the foreign students.
"After the names of the champions are announced, I would ask that they move down the hall to the anteroom at the end, where they will be given the only clue they shall receive regarding the first event in the tournament," at that Dumbledore checked his watch again, and with another wave reduced the lights in the room even further.
The Goblet, in an instant, traded it's blue glow for a deep red and nearly violet, flame that raged from it, reaching three feet into the air. The sudden change stole the breath from everyone in the hall, and cast the room in a red glow. The fire died down after a moment, and a single tongue of flame licked out, leaving a slightly smoldering strip of parchment fluttering in the air near the Headmaster. Dumbledore's hand snapped out with a dexterity that belied his age, and he snatched the parchment from the air, "The champion for the Durmstrang Institute is Viktor Krum!"
A dull roar met the proclamation, and Krum stood and walked to the room Dumbledore indicated. Before the roar had completely faded, a second tongue of the fire flared out, leaving another piece of parchment fluttering above Dumbledore. As the tongue formed and flared, the roar was immediately silenced, and into that silence he read the name of the next competitor, " The Champion for the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic is Fleur Delacour!"
The veela who had so enchanted Ron the night before stood, and with a grace that displayed her ancestry better than any neon sign, followed Krum's route to and through the door behind the staff table. The students of Beauxbatons showed a lot less support for her than the students of Durmstrang had for Krum. Several girls at the Ravenclaw table had actually burst into tears at the announcement. Harry could see Luna gently pat one of the crying girls on the back. From the Goblet a third bolt of flame lashed into the air above it. Dumbledore grabbed the parchment, "The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory!"
The Hufflepuff table exploded into cheers. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor followed suit quickly, and after a further moment even the Slytherin table cheered for the handsome boy that stood and went to the end of the hall. Dumbledore waved his hand and the lights returned to the hall. Attention left the goblet and moved to Dumbledore as he announced the end of the feast.
"I expect there will be several parties held tonight, I ask that you all save them for your common rooms and-"
In that instant, Harry felt a tendril of magic impact the shield he kept around his core and attempt to worm its way through. Harry reinforced his shield immediately, and his perception of time seemed to slow as he fought with the unknown magic.
The tendril was almost successful, so Harry abandoned his attempt to reinforce the shield and simply layered another underneath it. When the tendril penetrated the outer shield, Harry vanished it and focused on layering yet another underneath the one the tendril was currently grappling.
He didn't know how he knew, but Harry could feel that letting the tendril reach his tie to magic would be a very, very bad thing. It felt like the magic of the Goblet, which only served to increase his nervousness. For what felt like hours, Harry struggled against the foreign magic, setting up layers and layers of shielding, and dropping penetrated layers as soon as the tendril found a way through them. After an amount of time Harry couldn't begin to define, the tendril seemed to grow weaker and slowed down. It wormed through a final layer, and then simply bonded into the shield layer beneath. Harry stopped it from reaching his core, but he was near magically exhausted from the effort. His perception of time moved back to normal and he heard his headmaster finish forming the word "and" before looking up and seeing a fourth whip of red flame flash into being and leave another piece of parchment floating down towards the headmaster. Dumbledore didn't bother to snatch this one from the air, and merely let it fall into his open palm. The hall was silent as he raised the parchment and called out, "Harry Potter."
The silence continued for several moments at this final announcement, as every eye in the hall moved to the boy sitting nearly alone at the Gryffindor table. In that moment Harry moved his hand to his face, wiping off the sweat that had formed during his battle of will with the tendril of unknown magic and the whole hall heard his simple declaration.
"Oh bugger."
Harry stood slowly, and looked to Dumbledore, who inclined his head towards the door the other champions had entered. As he moved from the bench he had sat on and slowly down the hall, whispers and soon cries filled the chamber.
"Cheat!"
"I saw him pass the age line!"
"Potter is a cheater!"
"Shame on you!"
Harry heard the cries continue until he got to the door and closed it behind him. Inside the room, the Veela (Fleur, he amended internally) was the first to react to his presence.
"Do zey need us back out in ze 'all?"
Harry shook his head glumly and Cedric, either from being used to the shenanigans that followed Harry around or just be being quick on the draw, sighed out loud and sunk into one of the arm chairs that filled the room. Harry walked over to the window. Krum simply grunted and Fleur looked on with a confused expression.
Harry leaned his forehead against the cool glass, and looked outside at the bonfires that still burned on the grounds. Lady Hogwarts tried to fill him with warmth. She knew it wasn't his fault, he thought. At least the castle was on his side, his mouth twisted into a small and sad grin.
After a few minutes of silence, the three headmasters entered the room with Professors Snape, Moody, and McGonagall as well as the ministry representatives.
"-makes no sense, Dumbly-door. Zere simply cannot be four champions in ze tri wizard tournament, no?", came the unmistakable voice of the massive French headmaster.
Bagman met her question, "I'm afraid it must be, madam. I agree it's unusual, but if his name came out of the cup he is magically bound to compete. Just ask Barty here, he has the whole rulebook committed to memory!"
Crouch moved in front of the three headmasters at that and said somewhat mechanically, "There can be no mistake in this. It is a highly irregular development to be sure, but anyone whose name comes out of the Goblet of Fire is part of a magically enforced contract and must compete or lose their magic entirely. A fourth champion is strange, and is certainly worth investigation, but our course, and Potter's are set."
They had all fully entered the room now, and with the conversation as a clue, Fleur caught on to what was going on.
"Zis leetle boy ees to compete with ze rest of us? Zere is no way!"
Harry had enough at that. This was the anniversary of the day he lost his family. This was the anniversary of the day he was moved to the Dursleys, where he spent the next nine years being degraded and beaten. It was part of the bad feeling he had been having all day. On top of that, he was damn near magically exhausted, but that French tart 's comment (Fleur, he amended again, this time a bit slower) pushed him over the edge, he was pissed off.
Before another word could be uttered, Harry whipped around and with a hand movement, incinerated a chair that had the misfortune of being at his right side. This served to gather the room's attention.
Harry began speaking in a quiet tone that dripped with suppressed violence, "I've survived a being bitten by a basilisk, I have survived the tender mercies of the darkest wizard since Grindelwald, and I have survived face to face encounters with a werewolf and an Acromantula colony. I have faced, with the exception of my headmaster, more danger and violence than any three of you. Let there be no doubt about my abilities. Now if I wanted to be here and if I wanted in to this tournament, I would be happy right now. I am not happy. Today is the thirteenth anniversary of the day my parents died and I lost everything. Give me my clue and let me go."
Everyone in the room, save Dumbledore and Moody, took a step back from the combination of the raw vitriol of his tone, his words, and the decidedly angry magic the filled the room. Dumbledore adopted a look of contrition, and Moody slowly took a swig from his flask. Mad-eye's movement brought life back into the room, and Bagman spoke up, his voice cracking slightly as he began, "The first task is designed to test your daring and your courage in the face of the unknown. You will be given no other information. The task will be on November 24th. The champions will enter the task with only their wands, but will be given ten minutes prep time before the task begins. Due to the time constraints for training and general preparation, champions are exempt from attending classes and end of year tests. All champions will have access to the entire Hogwarts library, including the restricted section. Champions will be given a small budget for use on materials in preparation for the tournament. Any questions?"
Harry moved to the door and made to leave, just before he stepped out Dumbledore called out, "Harry, we really need to meet to discuss your inclusion in the tournament. Let's go to my office."
Without turning Harry replied, "I'll meet you there, I need to clear my head." Harry stepped out of the room and allowed the door to close behind him. The great Hall was deserted, and Harry began making his way to the Headmaster's office. The castle was sending him calming feelings, and Harry let his feet guide him to the gargoyle as he got lost in his own thoughts.
At his center, the tendril of foreign magic was still connected to his barrier. He vanished the barrier, and with it the tendril, then he sunk all his anger and desperation into his core. He idly erected a number of new barrier layers while he began cursing his fate.
Was he not entitled to a single Halloween, a single Samhain, free of a death threat? Was he not entitled to a single school year without the same? He didn't want to be in any stupid tournament. He didn't even want to be here. He wanted to be in a party right now in Gryffindor tower, drinking butter beer with his brothers in honor of Cedric. He hated this. The castle sent him more feelings of love, and without thinking he sent the same back. At least the Lady was with him.
He took a deep breath, and sunk the rest of his anger into his core. It was a lot bigger than it had been at the start of the year, the anger Snape and his snakes inspired had ironically been the source of his increased magical ability. He suppose he ought to thank them, without their torment he would have fallen prey that strange magical attack earlier.
He found himself at the gargoyle. "I don't suppose you'd just open for me, would you?"
The stone griffin inclined its head to him and stepped aside.
"Thank you."
Harry climbed the stairs and entered the office. Fawkes trilled a hello from his perch near the desk. Harry walked to him and scratched him just beneath his beak, where he liked. Harry slowly moved his forehead into contact with the powerful magical being, and spoke to the phoenix.
"Why me, boy?"
Fawkes trilled a note that spoke of sorrow. Harry appreciated the sentiment. It had been a very long few hours and just scratching the itch of an immortal bird was calming. Then he remembered he was standing in front of a phoenix and that he actually had a need for phoenix feathers.
"Hey, forgive me if this is rude, but could I have two of your feathers? I'm trying to build myself a better magical focus and I could really use a feather from a beautiful phoenix like you.", Harry thought a little bit of flattery couldn't hurt.
Fawkes shook his tail feathers, and two fell to his perch and into the ashes from his last burning day. Harry conjured a silk bag and placed the ashy feathers into it. He thought the ashes might bring a bit of extra oomph to the feathers. Fawkes then nudged Harry's shoulder with his head and blinked at him meaningfully. Harry had no idea what the phoenix meant though, until the majestic bird's eye grew watery. Harry quickly conjured a miniature flask and caught the small flood of tears Fawkes gave him.
"Thank you. You have always been incredibly kind to me, and you've saved my life a few times. I really do appreciate it."
Fawkes gave a happy trill and Harry sat down in one of the chairs in front of the headmaster's desk. He didn't have to wait long, as the three headmasters filed into the office a moment later, and they were followed by Harry's head of house.
They had clearly resolved a fair bit between themselves on the way up, as they entered, promptly sat, and McGonagall faced him before starting, "Harry, we have three questions for you, and then we'll let you go. We would ask one thing though, I have here," she produced a clear vial from inside her robes, "A very powerful truth potion, called Veritaserum. If I put three drops on your tongue, you will be compelled to tell the absolute truth to any question we ask you. The questions we want to ask you are: Did you enter your name into the competition, did you have anyone else enter you into the competition, and conditional upon your answers, do you have any idea why you were entered. Is that okay? And you can say no."
With all of their eyes upon him, and with the castle pouring support into him, Harry decided to just do it.
"That sounds fine, at least you all will know the truth."
McGonagall applied the potion and asked the questions. After the potion was put on his tongue, Harry felt an influence similar to when Moody had cast the imperius on him. He knew he could ignore it if he wanted, but he decided to just let it ride, and he slipped into a warm empty place as he answered.
"I did not enter myself. I never asked anyone to enter me, though the Twins did ask me for help brewing their aging potion. I think I was entered by someone who wanted me to be injured or killed by the competition."
Minerva applied the counter-agent before any other question could be asked, and the headmasters accepted his answers. Each looked pensive as he slowly regained his sense of himself after the counteragent took effect.
"Do you need anything else from me?," Harry asked in a deeply resigned voice, "I really would like to go to bed."
Dumbledore said that they did not, and Harry left for the tower.