Why Harry was Forced to Compete in the Triwizard Tournament
"Professor Dumbledore? Why do I need to compete in the Tournament?" Harry asked. "I didn't enter my name in. You have got to believe me!"
"Of I believe you, my boy." Dumbledore sighed, "You haven't studied studied contracts in charms class yet, have you? I know Filius sometimes mixes things up."
"We haven't learned about them yet Professor." Harry answered.
"Well than," Dumbledore lent back. "Let me explain the magic of contracts to you. Magical contracts are used almost everywhere in the Wizarding World. For example when your parents paid your tuition fees to Hogwarts when you were born, they made a contract between Hogwarts and themselves making sure you would be accepted to Hogwarts and receive your acceptance letter if you had enough magic to use a wand. Unfortunately you didn't receive your acceptance letter until I sent Hagrid to find you after I started to notice all of the school owls going missing every day. Really I should have noticed sooner especially since I never had so much trouble sending mail before that..."
"Ahem." Harry interrupted. "Professor."
"Oh was I rambling again? I really must apologize... er, Ahem. Anyway, when you agree to a contract you are letting a curse be placed upon you that won't come into effect unless you break the contract. Normally a contract is written on enchanted contract parchment and then a contract curse would be placed upon the contract making it so those who sign it are part of the contract. but the Goblet of Fire places contracts between the participating schools. When a name comes from the Goblet the students chosen must compete because if they don't their school is forced to expel them."
"I would be expelled!" Harry gasped in horror.
"Yes my boy," Dumbledore said apologetically. "And expulsion from Hogwarts means getting your wand snapped and it is illegal to practice magic outside of school before you complete at least one O.W.L. And although there are other schools you can go to it is unlikely you will be accepted after being expelled from Hogwarts."
"But Professor, I was assigned to a fake fourth school. Wouldn't it be fine to be expelled from that and remain in Hogwarts?"
"I'm sorry Harry, my boy, the participating schools are bound together magically for the duration of the tournament. Because of this Triwizard Champions are considered are considered temporary students of all three schools, or rather four as it is now. So you would be expelled from all four schools. Because of all this I really must urge you to compete despite the danger."
"Alright Professor Dumbledore," Harry said, determined, "I'll compete and make it through this tournament."
Dumbledore watched as Harry left his office. "I'm sure you will Harry, I'm sure you will." He said with a small smile on his face.
AN: One of the biggest arguments saying Dumbledore is evil or manipulative is that he forced Harry to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. The argument says that if all you need to do to force someone into a magical contract is write the persons name and place a confundus on the contract then any wizard could force any other wizard to do whatever the first wizard wants. Someone could say all wizards are too stupid to think of that, except the problem with that is fake Moody did think of it. So forcing someone into a magical contract is impossible. Dumbledore would have known all this and that he still made Harry compete means Dumbledore is evil. I personally dislike bashing in fanfics because it is usually a cop-out. Fanfiction authors are supposed to expand upon their chosen universe. Dumbledore is supposed to be good. If you want Dumbledore to be evil in your fanfic make something new, give him an alternate history, don't say he is obviously evil because of something that went unexplained in the book. As a fanfiction writer I wrote this to expand upon why Harry was forced to compete in the tournament without making stupid excuses or bashing Dumbledore.