"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real..."
But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him. The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment.
Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out:
"Harry Potter."
Harry sat there, anger setting in behind the shock, just one year he wanted to be a normal student, just to have the normal troubles of a 14 year old boy - homework, girls, grades. But no, of course this year the bloody Goblet of bloody Fire decided that he needed to compete with better magicians and more than likely deadly tasks.
By this point Harry was hearing the mutterings of the students surrounding him, he turned and looked at his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.
Ron was staring incredulously, seeming like he couldn't believe his best friend was competing, then when Harry caught his gaze the stare morphed into a glare 'Great' Harry thought 'He's going to be pissed'.
Hermione wasn't much better but at least she looked like she could be reasoned with, that inquisitive look gave Harry the hope that he hadn't lost both friends because of these situations that always seemed to happen to him.
"Harry! This way if you will." Dumbledore spoke out across the hall, indicating towards the antechamber that the other champions had gone though.
Harry stood, staring at as many students as he could, dead in the eye. The general feeling Harry got was that this year, most of the students would be against him 'Just like in my second year, bloody fantastic' he thought.
Walking towards the door he passed the Teachers table seeing many of the faces look worried, helped soothe the current rage he possessed, but it only took the edge of the heat was there numbing the shock of being in danger for yet another year. 'Dumbledore better fix this' Harry thought darkly.
Making it to the door, he pushed through looking back seeing all eyes on him, it added gave the rage it's edge back, focused, precise lightning waiting to strike whoever provoked him. "Through the door Harry, quickly" Dumbledore ushered him through the door.
The three other champions were lounging by the lit fireplace by the far wall, all three turned to look at who entered, all seeing who had come and were perplexed to see Harry with the old headmaster.
Fleur spoke up first "Do zey want us back? Why sent ze both of you?". Krum grunted in both agreement and impatience whilst Cedric had a blank face, probably having a good guess at what Dumbledore was about to say.
"No, no nothing like that my dear, this here is Harry and his name came out of the Goblet as well, now" Dumbledore turned to look Harry " Now, did you put your name in the goblet of fire"
That was what set Harry off, he thought of all people the professor would be the one he most expected to understand that Harry just wanted to be a normal boy. The boy stared Dumbledore dead in the eye, letting his magic run wild, the flames in the room shot up, the flame the rest of the champions were around roared turning blue in intensity, shocking everyone in the room, even Harry but he pushed it to the back of his mind, focusing on the rage "No Sir I didn't. There was one chance of believing in me sir, that was it"
Harry stared at the headmaster, enraged, why was he being asked this, surely there was no doubt that Harry was skilled for his age but even if Harry felt that he could compete he just wanted a normal year, just one.
"Did you have to ask? Did I ever want something other than a normal life? No! I just wanted friends and family and people I could trust and cherish. Almost everyone in that hall thinks I put my name in, even my best friends doubt me. Now, Sir, tell me do I need to answer that question?" Harry ground out.
Dumbledore and the others were shocked, the 14 year old boy in front of them was pushing magical power out like nothing, supply fuel for fire all around the room, Dumbledore more surprised to find the amount of anger in the boy was dangerously high, 'why was he so angry?i just needed him to answer the question, then we would be on our way.' Dumbledore was not as in tune with the youth as he knew he should be, but he didn't see how this anger came to be in the short time of a summer break.
"Harry Potter, Stand! Down!" Said a voice from the door, Harry turned to see Barty Crouch Sr hold his wand pointing at Him, seeing the situation escalating, Harry obeyed. He did what he thought was the smart thing at the time, and pulled his magic back to him instead of letting it dissipate. Sensing his magical output die down the room started to calm, until they noticed that with the magic the flames also came hurtling towards the boy, before anyone could stop it, they collided with him.
Dumbledore's wand was out within a fraction of a second pointed at the boy "Aguamenti" a clear mist of water was spewed at Harry, attempting to putting out the flames on Harry's robes. The water evaporated before it could smother the flames, "Glacius" Dumbledore shouted with fear starting to kick in, there were few flames he couldn't put out with the water spell, one in particular was fiendfyre, which was the only flame that retained the orange color when hit.
The spell cooled the air around the fire, making it expend more energy to sustain itself, the flames started to die down, leaving set of smoldering robes and an unconscious Harry. As the last of the flames died out Dumbledore spoke "Well after that excitement I'd like to propose we postpone Mr Potter's explanation and take him to the hospital wing, he needs a medic to examine him"
"Albus what happened, why was he attacking you?" asked Karkaroff "That was some impressive Pyro-magic, wild but not tame yet completely spontaneous."
Dumbledore looked to his Bulgarian counterpart "It would appear he has had enough of being the boy-who-lived, I didn't see this coming this. He has had enough of being in danger, to put it simply; He's just… dropped his mask" He looked back to Harry's form and stared with a far away expression. "In any case I must get him to the Hospital wing, if I may?"
"Take care of your student, I'll inform you of you and your school's duties during the tournament in your office after this" said Crouch, staring at the singed body being levitated out of the room.
"I'll head straight there after I am sure Harry's health is cleared to make a recovery" Dumbledore said, walking out the room. "The password is Jelly Babies, if you would like to make yourself comfortable should you arrive before me."
Hospital Wing:
Dumbledore strode through the massive doors levitating Harry in front of him. "I'm afraid Poppy Mr Potter will require your services, again" He called into the seemingly empty room.
"For heaven's sake, this is ridiculous Albus, the night where you announce the champions, this is a record even for him" Madam Pomfrey "What happened? Choked on a chicken bone? Headbutt a wall? Set himself on fire?" She exclaimed as she walked out from behind a pillar at the far end of the room, where the door to her office is.
"Yes" Dumbledore said with a deadpan expression
The healer stared at Albus incredulously, then to the boy still hanging like a rag doll, then back to Albus and repeated then half shouted "Sometimes… I swear to Merlin. Well what are you waiting for! Get him to bed"
Albus silently obeyed and placed him onto the bed closest the large entrance, conjuring a comfy arm chair next to the bed waiting for the healer to come back with her potion kit.
'Harry has been through alot in his time here, but I was so sure that he could handle it, he reminded me so much of myself and his Grindelwald at his age, always trying to stand out whether it be by having the best grades or being the best at casting magic. But I now Know that this boy who wants no more than to be normal, can never achieve it, silly thing really, normal is a fickle limitation, always changing and based on the gossiping of mother witches. I will try to keep a closer eye on Harry from now on.' Dumbledore was pondering the enigma that was Harry Potter whilst Madam Pomfrey came back and tended to the boy.
As the healer finished up after just a few minutes, she said to the headmaster "He'll be fine, there were no burn marks that I could find the only thing that was off was his magic seemed erratic and his body was hot."
'How odd' Dumbledore thought "Then I shall leave him in your capable hands, I have the Head of International Magical Cooperation from the Ministry waiting in my office, probably best not to keep him waiting too long." And with that he took one last, concerned glance at Harry and strode out, his pearlescent robes flowing and shimmering around him.
"... When he was brought here, he didn't have so much as a burn on him, he should have had at least 3rd degree burns all over his body, if not scorched to the bone, but he seems to just have a slight temperature and to top it all off he should be waking up soon. How will he ever learn that he needs to take care of himself when nothing lasting affects him after doing all the inane, dangerous things he does?"
Harry heard voices in the background but in his immediate focus was the searing pain running through his veins, like his blood being replace by magma. He tried to pull himself into a sitting position, but alas, his body instead thought that rolling forwards over the end of the bed was a much more appropriate reaction to his command.
"Mister Potter, what in Dumbledore's socks do you think you're doing" came a shrill scream to Harry's left, which he could only guess was his head of house, Professor Minerva McGonagall.
Harry opened his eyes to discover everything in clarity he could never have dreamed of, sharp corners, definitive colour and the sallow, stern face of Madam Pomfrey stalking towards him with a dangerous look on her face.
"One month, it took you all of one month to do end up in the hospital wing, we will have to have a plaque reading your name above this bed before you leave the school the more the years pass, the more you seem to end up here"
Harry stared up at her, not remembering how he got where he was or why his body was overreacting to his will, he decided to push himself to his feet, slowly, as not to jump straight up into his head of house.
"Professor I have no idea how or why I'm here, rest assured it was not a planned trip. On another note, why is my body acting like it wants to jump, I feel like I'm waiting to jump at a moment's notice." Making eye with Professor Mcgonagall, he noted he had seemed to have grown a few inches over the summer.
"Mr Potter, I can tell you with utmost certainty, you are the strangest student I have ever seen walking our halls" declared the healer, seemingly agitated about being ignored by her charge. "Now sit on the bed and let me see if you are any different from yesterday morning"
Harry did as he was told and walked over to the side of the bed not wanting to further upset the only woman in the school who could keep him confined to a bed a single look. As he did he felt that his movements were less drastic but still feeling the strength within them, the feeling was strange to him - very strange indeed.
Madam Pomfrey cast a few diagnostic spells, she felt something off but as of yet couldn't find the cause 'perhaps the way his magic was being channeled' she thought to herself. she cast a spell similar to echolocation that bats and dolphins use, but instead of sound waves it bounced back a small wave of magic that saw the magical core and the path from there to other areas of the body. What she felt caused her to frown, it was as if the magic had no defined path, or simply that the magic was flaring, stretching the pathways.
"Mr Potter, your wand is on the table could you cast a simple Lumos please, it seems that your magic is a little erratic, perhaps if your magic were used it would channel your magic back through the proper paths" theorized the residential Nurse, never seeing this reaction to any usually schoolboy accident.
Harry didn't feel much different except an abundance of energy that he didn't feel before, he supposed this was his magic. Reaching over he picked up his wand, feeling a strong tingling sensation, just like when he entered Ollivanders a little over 3 years ago, and cast said spell
"Lumos" He called. No one was ready for the intense, yellow tinted light coalesce at the tip of his wand, it was slightly slower than the normal instant ignition, but this light felt different, Harry felt a warmth emitted, 'A mild summer's day' he smiled gently 'Is this because of the erratic magic or the fact it's daytime?'' He thought a moment, thinking if he'd ever cast it during the day, he couldn't say he had.
"Is this because of the magic thing?" He asked. His reply was Madam Pomfrey waving her wand in very complex motions, pointing up and down his body, one spell after another like a possessed woman. 'Well that can't be good' Harry thought.
"Unbelievable, simply unbelievable" the nurse said as she finished up her intense diagnosis, "How do you even do these things to yourself, first melting Quirenus's face, then bitten by a basilisk, then almost kissed to death by a dementor and now you've only gone and burned your magical core, physically burned it, Potter, you've burned a non physical entity within your body. And that's not all, you've given your magic a fire attribute, it looks more erratic but more powerful, it looks fluid yet flickers outside of your magical paths. All in all you should have a burned core with no way of using magic, but instead you have an altered core with fire qualities. Where do you get all your luck Potter, I think I'll need some for the staff pot for if you'll live through the next 3 years here." Her rant over she tutted and walked away towards her office.
"You're free to go when Minerva has had a word with you. I do not want to see you outside of the tournament, and even then only to get a pepper-up potion, do you hear me?" she turned as she reached her office door, piercing eyes staring at Harry, daring him to disagree.
"Yes Ma'am, you won't hear a peep from me for the next few months, I promise." with that said she walked into her office and Harry let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding, turning to look at his professor he noticed a small, almost unnoticeable smirk formed on her face.
'Traitor'
"Well Professor, what did you want to talk about?" Harry asked, slightly put out because she found his misfortune amusing.
"There is no easy way of putting this." she said as her smirk fell from her face "But, you were entered into the Triwizard tournament three days ago, it is now the Third of November, you've been in a magically induced coma due to standard medical procedure for unseen phenomena."
This took Harry by surprise, it was morning that much he could see out of the many windows around the wing, but it didn't feel like he was unconscious for that long, more like a night's sleep if anything. Looking back he saw the seriousness on the woman's face, thinking he wasn't going to like whatever came next. 'What did she mean he was a triwizard champion - What magical phenomena?'
"After you had been chosen you walked to the antechamber behind the hall, looking distinctly distraught, after reaching the room Dumbledore asked if you had tried to trick the goblet and put your own name in it." Her expression soured. "Your magic, and I can't seem to find a better word for it, exploded all over the room - all the fires rose and everyone felt a weight bearing down on them. That's some power Mr. Potter I can tell you that. Then when you reigned in your magic, you pulled the fire in the room into your core, and after that you were knocked out and bought here."
Harry stood there shocked - He had lost control in front of Dumbledore and the other contestants. He remembered the burning rage vaguely, he remembered the fire and then he awoke here in the hospital wing. It seemed he had dropped his submissive mask, or at least chipped away and others saw a glimpse of what's underneath.
"I didn't hurt anyone, did I?" He asked. He was sincerely hoping he hadn't.
"No, luckily the flames were oddly spectral and passed through anything in the way, still produced heat, but didn't cause any lasting harm." the deputy headmistress looked relieved that he wasn't hung up on the fact he had been entered in the tournament
"Interesting, I'm just going to try something" Harry whipped his wand away and thought of the fire's he'd seen during his life, pulling some magic to his hands as if it was towards his wand, and called out "Incendio" at the completion of the word, both hands burst into flame.
Startled Harry clenched his fists and to try and put out the fire, strangely, he noticed, it wasn't burning him, just a cloud of flame flickering around his fists. "Well that went better than it could've" Harry stared intently at his fire covered hands wiggling his fingers watching as the flame clung to his fingers.
"HARRY POTTER, I can't believe, of all the insane, ludicrous, stupid things for you to do, you push your magic through stressed pathways and on top of that, you're holding fire around your hands with a massive intensity. Sometimes I think Poppy is right, just once if your merlin damned actions had lasting consequences, you might pay more attention to possible dangers " Rant over, Mcgonagall turned towards the medical office spotting the Healer poke her head through the doorway staring at the two with a deadpan stare.
"I would suggest if you'd like a shouting match to take your leave, I have to go through the third year's Burn paste." She said in a dangerously low tone carrying across the room.
"Well, Mr Potter, I Will see you later at dinner and pass on a message from the Headmaster, you'll need to go over what is expected from you as a Hogwarts Champion." Mcgonagall turned to Harry and gave him one last look "Please don't set fire to the castle, that would be too hard to even find the right form I would take the resignation form."
Harry gave her a small smile, but with his hands still on fire, the reassuring effect he was aiming for may have missed his mark, looking downright maniacal. Minerva tried to push the image of the castle on fire and Harry standing there madly laughing , out of her mind and walked out of the hospital wing with naught but a small nod towards the two other people in there.
Harry, still on fire, decided he should try and 'turn off the fire' before he left and forced the magic to stop being expelled from his hands. This stopped the flames but seemed to bring the erratic heat that warmed his whole body back that Harry had missed whilst he was using his flames.
With that sorted he started walking out of the hospital wing.
Through the large doors and out into the corridor that put him on his path to the Gryffindor common room on the seventh floor. Whilst walking he noticed the lack of people walking about, mainly he noticed the hum he heard when he walked passed the lit torches on the walls. Looking both ways down the corridor he saw no one there.
'Great' he thought, and with his Gryffindor courage and stupidity shoved his hand over the fire and slowly brought it into the flame - not feeling the searing he should've he opened his eyes and saw that his hand was completely fine and looked no worse for wear.
Turning round, focused on his findings he failed to notice the courtyard behind him that a few students were studying in, due to the last of the warm autumn weather. Seeing the famous underage champion and Boy-Who-Lived shove his hand into the fire and not get burned was as strange to the students as it was to everyone else who had heard that Harry had literally eaten fire on the night of the champion selection, just waiting till Harry had gone, those students deemed that the rumor mill needed to be cranked up once again.
Harry, seemingly happy with his results turned back to follow the corridor to the secret passage from the 2nd floor to the 7th round the corner from the Gryffindor common room, he'd found this nifty passageway in the second year when Hermione was paralyzed, it just so happened on the second floor it was near the library behind the painting of Basil Fronsac, an old headmaster or something, and came out behind the portrait of Edessa Sakndenberg - Rumors had it these two ex-Head teachers had a thing for one another and convinced the headmaster twice before Dippet to construct a tunnel behind the paintings so they could get students to pass on love messages.
To Harry it seem a little convoluted but who was he to complain from getting out of walking all those stairs when he wanted to visit the library or get an early breakfast when Ron was being stubborn. He had yet to tell Hermione about the passage due to the reason that if he did she would only return to the dorm when it was almost time for curfew, not that she doesn't do that often, the passage would make it much easier and, inevitably when Hermione found out he knew about it he would get the worst earful in the history of earful, if that was a thing.
He was nearly to the common room when he felt he was a little too relaxed about being able to burn things with the literal palm of his hand and decided to look out the window one turn from the Fat Lady's portrait. Stopping there he reviewed what he knew.
He had gotten angry at Dumbledore - Not his smartest moment - He had absorbed fire qualities into his magic making him have much higher control over fire, and he was oddly calm with everything going on concerning the tournament. Something didn't seem right, he remembered the potion he had to take in the Hospital wing and briefly wondered if it hadn't been a strong painkiller, ultimately he decided, he didn't care he was to happy right now, accepting this he walked round the corner and towards the Fat Lady.
"Balderdash" He called in a sing song voice, 'Okay this is more of an inconvenience than fun now.' He thought to himself, maybe if he channeled his new pyro magic round his body he could burn out the potion.
He decided to try it out since the flames didn't seem to hurt him and gave a great push with his magic and forced the flames within his core outwards, it burned something, he felt it, it wasn't part of his body so he assumed that it was the potion that had the weird effects, and pushed further to completely expel it, with his magic now resting being pushed to just outside his skin, he had a large cloak of flame surrounding his body, from head-to-toe.
This is what those in the Gryffindor common room had seen, the door to the room swing open and a flame bound Harry Potter, that from what they knew was still in the hospital wing, walking though.
After a few seconds of nobody saying anything a voice that was near the forefront of the room screamed "I told you so, Harry stuck his hand in a lit torch and now he walks into the common room on fire. What more proof do you want?" At this point Harry pulled his magic back to his core tightly winding it.
Harry turned to the voice, 'Of course' Harry thought to himself 'Dennis Creevey, I didn't notice him there so I guess I can't be mad at him… even if he is terribly annoying right now' just as Harry finished his inner grumblings he heard Dennis saying that his brother Collin really hadn't exaggerated how cool Harry was and that fighting Basilisks and being on fire was befitting of the reincarnation of Gryffindor.
Of Course, with the rest of his house's look at him, he saw that they weren't pleased with him.
"What?" he said to the now silent room.
"Nice of you to stop by champ..." a voice from the stairs caught his attention, it was Seamus Finnigan a boy Harry shared a dorm with.
The voice was all wrong, last he'd heard it was at the feast the day before the champion selection and him being overwhelmingly happy, yet here he was frowning at Harry as if he had committed a heinous crime.
It wasn't just Seamus, he now recognized the look to be the same on everyone else in the rooms face. 'DAMN, again like the second year, they're gonna turn on me, Morgana damned sheep, why can't they just wait for the full story.'
"Harry I thought you were our mate, always sharing how you get away with things, you could have told us how you got your name in the goblet, but no, Mr Arrogant over there decides that he doesn't want us in the competition in case we steal his thunder" Seamus continued.
"Seamus, we all know I didn't want to be put in the tournament and most of all didn't want more attention" Harry tried to reason
"Your word means dung, right now Potter" Dean Thomas piped up from Seamus' side "You're a traitor to the house Potter, not letting us know how to get into the tournament, even when Fred and George couldn't."
Harry couldn't believe this. Actually, the worst part was, he should have seen this coming. Teenagers are a fickle bunch and if someone else was in his position then he would likely be ostracizing the secret-holding champion till they spill their beans.
"Seamus, fine I won't talk, you won't talk, it'll be fine just leave me alone" Harry tried to walk passed Seamus to go to their dorm but Dean had other idea's.
"Harry, just tell us how you did it then we won't be mad, we can be friends again and it'll be like it was last year." Dean was laying it on pretty thick, appealing to the side he knew Harry would be most susceptible to, wanting to belong.
'That piece of skrewt' Harry cursed him in his head, seeing what Dean was doing. If Harry refused then that would be openly stating he didn't want to be friends, because in everyone's eyes Harry had done something.
""Dean I can't tell you anything, except I didn't put my name in the Goblet" Harry hoped this got some people to change their opinion, although, looking round the room it didn't seem to have changed anything.
"Well, Harry, if you're going to be like that then will you tell us why you were on fire outside" An older student said, something
Mclaggen, Harry couldn't remember, but cursed him all the same
'Damned if I do, Damned if I don't' Harry thought to himself, for some reason he thought telling the truth would make more enemies than he should try to make 'so what else makes fire? Phoenixes!'
"Dumbledore made me use his Phoenix to get here since he didn't think I was up to the walk back to the common room" Harry span this line so quick even he thought it was far fetched but it was more realistic than Harry had absorbed some fire and now could use it almost thoughtlessly due to it being a part of his magic, something he'd been intimately familiar with for the last four years.
"Dumbledore 'loaned' you his phoenix? A phoenix!" A Second year shouted from one of the sofas near the fireplace.
"Yeah, the phoenix is called Fawkes and saved me in my second year." Harry hoped that sounded convincing enough.
"Okay, Mate at least your not a completely lost cause, huh" Seamus gave Harry a disapproving look and nodded for Dean to let him passed.
Reaching the stairs Harry broke out into a run up to the dorm room he was staying in, swung open the door, ignoring the startled Neville who was reading some aquatic plant book, and dived straight for his own bed. Drawing the curtains he cast a sticking charms on the curtains and cast a concealment charm on the interior of the bed so that no-one would see whatever shadow he projected or any light that escaped.
'First things first' he thought 'Let's see what I can do with these flames' Thanking the any deity that listened that the beds were charmed against fires and the likes after a firewhiskey incident a few decades ago.