Author's notes:

You may want to have watched the Goblet of Fire movie recently so you can keep up with the story. This is written mostly from the perspective and/or location of Victor Rasputin, my replacement for Viktor Krum. I replaced Krum because I didn't want to add a character and Krum's role in the story seemed like a good place to start.

Books VS Movies

I have used the movie as my primary reference but I may add details from the book to expand the story.

I don't own Harry Potter or any of the original story's characters. The are owned by J.K. Rowling and BLA BLA BLA. This is a fan fiction, if you are reading this you already understand that. I shouldn't need to spout that legal junk.

Chapter 1: Beta Testing

As Harry walked outside the tent at the quiddich world cup, all he could hear was screaming and explosions. Then he saw them, the men in hoods and masks destroying everything in their path. As they marched forward, they threw fireballs everywere as though trying to burn down the world itself.

Suddenly there was a massive BOOM as a wizard in red robes crashed through the sky at supersonic speeds. The men were knocked to the ground - along with half of the people fleeing form them - as the shockwave hit. He turned to make another pass. Green spells wizzed by him as the men shouted "AVADA KEDAVRA!" but none could hit such a fast target. As he made his second pass he knocked the hooded men to the ground again. Then one of the men got a lucky shot and knocked him from his broom, hitting the ground hard and shredding his robes. But harry didn't see his broom go anywhere...

Harry now realized how close he was standing and started to back away. Fifty feet from a wizard fight was NOT a good idea. As he turned to run he caught a glimpse of the red robed wizard getting up, the wizard didn't seem phased at all and he seemed gigantic. He stood strong to face the group of men.

The tattered remains of the the robe fell from the wizard, then harry realised why he seemed so big and why he didn't see the broom crash. This was no wizard, it was a machine. A 10 foot tall construct of steel and iron that towered over the men in the robes.

The machine slowly raised its arms, which seemed to click into place, and let out a robotic voice, "CEASE AND DECIST ALL TERRORIST OPERATIONS AND SURRENDER OR YOU WILL BE DESTROYED."

The wizards responded with a hail of spells.

The construct opened fire with twin arm mounted machine guns.

Two of the wizards went down immediately. Two more disapparated. The rest started firing avada-kedavras but it wouldn't go down. The machine wasn't alive to be killed. The wizards started dissapparating and just plain running... They managed to grab their wounded as the last few of them disapparated. Harry was frozen, he was struck with complete awe.

The machine began looking around, perhaps for further targets. Harry started backing away again as he saw the face of the machine. It was tall and narrow with no eyes, only a light scanning back and forth in a wide V pattern. Suddenly the light froze on one side - it had seen him. "FREEZE!" the behemoth shouted. Harry just fell over backward. He looked around, but everyone else had already fled. The machine started tromping toward him. "YOU ARE TO BE HELD FOR QUESTIONING UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC!" Harry continued to try to crawl away backwards on the ground.

Out in the distance Harry saw a skinny white man send a spell into the sky and a massive glowing skull with a snake flowing around it formed in the sky with the sound of a thunder strike.

The machine turned around and looked for a moment, seeming to ponder what to do. For a few moments it seemed to be confused.

Suddenly the machine launched a flare into the sky. The flare exploded, dispersing the skull for a moment or two before it reformed. The machine turned around as several aurors apparated next to it. Barty Crouch, among them.

Crouch ran up to Harry and grabbed the collar of his shirt. "You did it didn't you! You cast the mark!" The construct walked up and spoke in a different voice "SIR! RELEASE HIM AT ONCE!" It was not mechanical, it was a boy's voice. "Remember, this drone records everything it sees! It was looking at him when the mark was cast elsewhere. Now release him you fool!" "How dare you speak to me in such a manner! Show yourself!" A wizard appearing to be not much older than harry apparated in front of Crouch.

"What." He said entirely unconcerned. Crouch glared at him in anger but started to walk away. As he passed Harry, Crouch mumbled to himself "Damn Rasputins, they think they're so much better than the rest of the ministry, especially that brat." Harry called after crouch, "There was a man over there." he pointed in the direction he saw the skinny wizard. Crouch and his aurors moved to investigate.

The young wizard walked up to Harry calmly. "You OK? Why the heck did you stick around when those idiots started blowing shit up? Everyone was supposed to be evacuated." The wizard started mumbling something about useless security people.

Harry's friends seemed to come out of no-where. "Harry, are you OK? We've been looking everywhere for you!" Ron yelled as he ran up with Hermoine. "I'm fine. This is..." Victor took a step forward, "Victor, Victor Rasputin. Well, Harry Potter, I must apologize for my manners. This is indeed an honor. Would you mind coming to my lab sometime? I would love to run a scan on you." Harry looked at him with a bit of concern, Victor took the hint and moved on forgoing any further mad-scientist comments. "And who might this lovely lady be?" Victor bowed slightly to Hermoine. "I'm Hermoine Granger, and I've heard of the Rasputins. You've nearly exposed the wizarding world to the muggles several times. Grigori Rasputin was even one of the most well known wizards in muggle history." Victor's attitude switched to hostile, "Hey! My grandfather's actions are not my fault, nor my problem! And I don't like being judged by my heritage thank you." Hermoine backed off, seeming a bit embarrassed. Suddenly the silver mechanoid a few yards away made a popping sound and smoke came out of the cracks in the chest piece. "Sorry I shouldn't have..." "No you shouldn't, now if you'll excuse me I have to see to my machine." He walked away and opened the front panel of the construct. Victor started mumbling to himself about the armor needing to be replaced...

Harry walked up to him, "You didn't have to get so angry. She can be a bit of a fact fountain sometimes, she didn't mean anything by it." Victor just ignored harry while he pried off a bent piece of armor and put it in a bag.

Hermoine walked up to the machine, though a bit slower than harry did. "Hey I'm sorry, I wasn't judging you. I didn't know it was a touchy subject."

Victor sighed and paused for a moment, "It's fine."

Hermoine looked up. "So what is this thing?" Victor smiled, happy to be asked about is latest invention and have a chance to change the subject. "This is a defense drone. I got the idea from a muggle science fiction movie. Think of it as an automated auror." Harry just thought it looked creepy. The red light was scanning back and forth ominously. "I feel like it's watching me." he said. Victor stopped what he was doing and laughed. "It is watching you. Not to mention everything and everyone else around it. The best part of machines is they can focus on everything in their view at the same time. This one can even see through walls, even Mad-Eye Moody can't do that." Then he got quieter, "At least I think he can't..." Hermoine chimed back in "Didn't I see this on Battlestar Galactica?" making Victor's head whip around.

"You watch TV?" Victor said sounding as though she just told him she frequently visited mars.

"Of course, my parents are muggles."

"Oh yea? My dad was a muggle!"

"Was?"

Mr. Weasly yelled at Harry, interrupting the conversation, "Come on you three! We can't stay here!"

The Drone made a few beeping noises getting Victor's attention. "Wha...?"

"Well it was good to meet you Victor." Harry said, distracting Victor's train of thought. "You too Harry." Victor closed the panel of his 'drone' and stood up, "Especially nice to meet you Hermoine." And apparated away with his drone. Leaving Hermoine confused for more than one reason.

Victor apparated in the halls of the ministry and headed immediately for the hearing. They were about to make a decision on the use of his new drone, after the prototype was so successful in combat he was looking forward to it, he was guaranteed to get it put into production. He entered the courtroom and sat down next to his mother, Maria Rasputin. "As my son has said before it takes years to train new aurors. These new drones could be built quickly and immediately be a fully capable auror. Perhaps even more capable than our current aurors as we were shown at the Quiddich World Cup."

Those against the machines began to make their arguments, "We cannot trust our safety to something that could easily be altered to be against us! These machines have no loyalties! What if they were to turn against us. I watched this 'Battlestar Galactica' that you got this idea from. The machines annihilated nearly the entire human race!"

Victor stood up. "First of all, you don't get the concept of that show. Those machines were sentient, they could make their own decisions based on any parameters they chose. My drones are not, they do not think for themselves and they only react in specified ways we could even program them to self destruct if the programming is altered in any way. Actually..." Victor takes out a piece of paper and writes that idea down. He continues, "My drones are infallible. Not to mention they can be built in a very short amount of time, but most of all, they are expendable. Any auror can attest to the risk involved in their job, but with my drones there is no risk. If they are damaged, they can be repaired or disposed of."

It was Crouches turn to chime in. "What of the battle with the Death Eaters? From the machine's own records it is clear it would have killed every last one if they had not escaped."

Victor's mother Maria glared at Barty Crouch and spoke pointedly, "The only good death eater is a dead death eater. I had hoped you of all people would agree with that philosophy."

The room got quiet. Though Victor wasn't exactly sure why.

Victor broke the tension. "If you have a problem with the actions it took then we simply change the default programming to accommodate more humane treatment of combatants." For an instant Victor could have sworn Crouch had a hopeful look on his face, but it disappeared before he could be sure.

But why would Crouch have even brought this up? Wasn't he one of the wizards who promoted the death penalty for Death Eaters?

Another wizard spoke up and he lost his train of thought, "I for one am not comfortable putting public safety in the hands of an object that was largely designed using the knowledge of inferior muggles!" Starting a murmur of agreement in the large group of wizards. Victor was infuriated, he was about to reach for his wand to shoot the jackass when his mother grabbed his arm under the table to stop him. She whispered to him to calm down. But he stood and yelled back at the wizard."Some of the knowledge of those inferior muggles could destroy the entire city of London in one blast! So don't underestimate their understanding of how the non-magical world works or it will be your downfall!"

Crouch spoke to the gathering of high level wizards, "Enough, I think it is time to take a vote on if the 'drone' is ready for mass production. All against the motion, raise your wands." A good number of wizards in the group raised their wands, but Victor couldn't tell if he had lost or not. He would have to wait for the tally. "And all for, raise your wands." The rest of the wizards raised their wands. "And our tally is?"

A small woman in the corner stood to speak, "28 against, 31 for. Majority agrees but does not break the required 80% majority to pass the motion. Motion will be with-held until next year " Victor slammed his fist on the desk in front of him, getting a few people to spin their head around. His mother placed her hand on his shoulder, "You're not helping your case, they may change their mind by next year's vote." Victor gritted his teeth. "Let's just go." Victor spun, letting his cloak rise behind him, and marching for the door.

As they walked to the flumes to go back home, Victor vented with his mother. "Do you know how much work I've already put into those drones! The imbeciles have no idea what their missing, especially after the attack like the one at the World Cup! We could have had an army of drones there and not one death eater would have escaped!"

"I know Victor but you can't just expect people to allow a change this major just because you put the work in, you have to give them time to come around to your side. Most wizards don't even understand what a muggle computer is, let alone the capabilities of your drone programming system. How can you expect them to put their faith in what is essentially a magic version of a muggle device?"

"Bunch of idiots..."

They entered the one of the ministry floos and headed back to their home.