Bold Text: Characters speaking in French

A.N/ I was amazed when I uploaded this story and less than twenty minutes later someone had already read and favourited it! I wasn't expecting anyone to even see it for weeks, however such a strong response from this first reader 'SloppyBludger' and then all the other compelled me to keep writing more of the story. So here is chapter 3 after less than 24 hours, but don't get your hopes up that I will be updating daily. I only have half of the next chapter written and my muse frequently likes to abandon me to play Destiny rather than writing, but House of Wolves has just come out so there has to be exceptions somewhere.

Chapter 3: Four Champions?

"What iz it? Do zey want us back in the 'all?"

Michael Potter simply smirked and was about to respond when the door behind him suddenly crashed open to reveal Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, Barty Crouch, Ludo Bagman, Madam Maxime and finally Igor Karkaroff. Immediately Dumbledore went over to Michael Potter and forcefully asked him; "Did you enter your name into the Goblet of Fire?"

"No sir" Was said with the continuing smirk that Fleur longed to wipe off of his face.

"Did you ask an older student to enter your name for you?"

"No sir" Was again the answer. Here however Fleur's headmistress Madam Maxime cut into the conversation; "Ah but of course 'e is lying! 'Ow else would his name of come out of the Goblet!"

The Hogwarts champion then took this opportunity to ask the question that had been on all of the champion's minds since Michael Potter and the teachers entered the room; "Excuse me Headmaster, but what is going on?"

Before Dumbledore could respond Ludo Bagman cut across him with a gleeful expression; "Lady and Gentleman, let me introduce you to the fourth Triwizard champion!"

This statement left all three champions in a state of shock, but after a few seconds Fleur was able to respond; "Madam, do they really mean for zis leetle boy to compete!"

Fleur could see Michael Potter visibly bristle with anger at being called 'little boy' but he kept quiet as the other teachers were once again speaking. Karkaroff had been quiet for only a few minutes before cutting loudly back into the conversation; "I demand that the Goblet be relit so that we can resubmit student names so all schools may have two champions!"

"It doesn't work that way Igor. The Goblet has gone out and won't relight until next tournament!" Was all Bagman could say in response to Igor Karkaroff's demand.

"One which Durmstrang will certainly not be competing in!" Was the man's rather petulant answer.

After Karkaroff's outburst was over the greasy haired professor stepped forward and sneered at Michael Potter before addressing the room; "You shouldn't take it as such a personal insult Igor, Potter has been crossing lines ever since he arrived at this school. Apparently being a celebrity exempts you from rules, at least in Potter's mind!"

"That's enough Severus!" Came the sharp response from Dumbledore.

This set Karkaroff off again and before long he was ranting about how he had half a mind to leave now before the tournament had begun.

"Empty threat Karkaroff!"

Everyone looked round to see the source of the voice and their vision came across Alastor Moody making his way into the room with clunking footsteps due to his fake leg. "You can't leave now; your student has to compete. Now all this nonsense about Mr Potter having submitted his name is stupid to persist with, only a skilled Witch or Wizard could have hoodwinked the Goblet into accepting Mr Potter under a fourth school so that he would be the only choice. Such a confundus curse is way beyond the capabilities of a fourth year!"

"You seem to have put a lot of thought into this Mad-Eye!" Was Karkaroff's curt response.

"It was once my job to think like dark wizard's do, perhaps you remember Karkaroff!"

"Alastor!" This singular word sharp warning came from the Headmaster before he turned to one of the tournament organisers; Barty Crouch, who had been quiet up until this point and asked for his input as he knew the tournament's rules inside and out.

Mr Crouch took a while to answer and seemed to be mentally recalling the rulebook before speaking; "The Goblet of Fire undertakes a binding magical contract in which there can be no backing out of. As of tonight Mr Potter is a Triwizard champion."

The room fell completely silent at his words and almost in unison the room's occupants all turned to look at the Boy-Who-Lived who still looked somewhat smug that he was in the tournament before they all looked away again in mild disgust at his behaviour.

Ludo Bagman was first to speak; "Very well champions. The first task will take place on the 22nd of November and will be a test of your daring. For this reason we shall not be telling you what it is, and I'm now going to let Barty fill you in with the rest of the details." As he finished speaking he withdrew a handkerchief from his robe pocket and wiped his round face with it to mop up the sweat that had gathered due to his excitement in revealing the details concerning the first task.

"Yes thank you Ludo" Mr Crouch continued from where his colleague left off, although everyone in the room could hear his cold tone when he said Bagman's name, as if his mere presence was an insult to his person. "As Triwizard champions you are exempt from standard lessons if you need to train or study for the tasks, however we strongly recommend that you still attend some lessons as you never know what spells you might need in the days ahead. Secondly all teachers are barred from helping you out with tournament preparation so don't bother asking them. And lastly there shall be a weighing of the wands in a few weeks to make sure that all of your wands are operating at peak performance."

Here Dumbledore spoke up and addressed the room with his eye twinkle going at maximum shine; "Good if we are all done here then I suggest we turn in for the night. Michael and Mr Diggory, I'm sure you houses are staying up to congratulate you on being chosen so we don't want to keep them waiting much longer, off you go." Both Hogwarts students left the room shortly before Fleur and Madam Maxime followed them out.

"It's truly a disgrace to see cheating this early on in the tournament. And from our hosts as well!"

Fleur agreed with everything her Headmistress was saying, but didn't verbally respond, only nodded along as they made their way back down to the carriage. However she almost ground to a halt when madam Maxime started talking about her friendship with a particular Ravenclaw student.

"However aside from the cheating I'm glad that you're taking the spirit of international co-operation so seriously. Only one day and you have already made friends with students from Hogwarts, although I am curious as to what you have been doing all day. I only saw you at breakfast today and then not again until you walked into the hall arm in arm with the brother of the Boy-Who-Lived!"

There was ice in Madam Maxime's voice as she talked about Michael Potter, but also an almost gossiping tone when talking about Harry. Fleur felt herself blushing slightly at what her Headmistress was implying but she was quick to cut any misunderstanding off at the knees.

"I was in the Hogwarts Library Madam, my friend Harry Potter was helping me find information."

Here Fleur paused in conversation and ponder briefly whether or not to tell her headmistress about the incident when they had arrived at Hogwarts that had led to Fleur meeting and becoming friends with Harry. Eventually she relented to tell her what had happened as she would have to tell people what had happened in the end anyway; however she was going to be careful about how she worded things as Madam Maxime was incredibly protective over her students, especially Fleur due to her status as part Veela.

"When we arrived at Hogwarts and were walking up to the school, that little boy Michael Potter decided that he would grope me. I slapped his hand away but I was unable to take any further action as it would have been my word against his as no-one else saw what happened."

Madam Maxime made an angry noise that sounded almost like a growl at how one of her finest students had been treated. All because arrogant boys thought they could get away with blaming Fleur for entrancing them with her allure and get away scot free, whilst Fleur was vilified by everyone and looked down upon as being sub-human by the bigots of the world.

Fleur continued on despite the slight interruption from her Headmistress. "The way I met Harry is that as I was about to enter the Hogwarts Library I saw a boy who looked like Michael Potter exit and it brought back the anger I had felt last night at him, so in my anger I cursed him. However I quickly learnt that I had mistaken his identity when he turned around and I saw his eyes were emerald green rather than being hazel brown, as well as no scar on his forehead. I immediately apologised for my actions, but to my surprise once he heard the reason for my cursing him he shrugged the incident off while calling his brother an asshole. I realised that Harry was immune to my allure after talking to him and not having him try anything or glazing over, so I decided to cultivate a friendship with him as someone I could really talk to without issue. He then helped me find information until we came down to the feast."

Madam Maxime looked somewhat surprised at Fleur's explanation about how she had met Harry Potter and showed her displeasure that Fleur had acted on anger and instinct only, which had lead to her cursing an innocent boy. Despite this she was happy that Fleur had finally found someone who was immune to her allure and could be a true friend during what would be a difficult tournament.

"That's good to hear Fleur. I am not impressed that you cursed him and that's how you met, but he doesn't seem to have any hard feelings so I am all for you continuing to talk to this boy."

They walked in silence from that point on until they were inside the carriage and were going their separate ways before wishing each other good night and retiring to bed.

Elsewhere in Hogwarts a certain Headmaster was quietly chuckling to himself, overjoyed that his plans were all proceeding on course and in good time. He knew that his Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was not his friend Alastor Moody, but someone under the disguise of Polyjuice potion. Who the imposter was, was unimportant at this time, it was almost undeniably a servant of Voldemort. This was all good news for Albus Dumbledore who needed a new set of challenges for his weapon to complete, assuming the tournament didn't kill Michael Potter, but this wasn't the end of the world for his plans. He could always get Neville Longbottom in as his back up Boy-Who-Lived or Michael's twin Harry could be used as he seemed reasonably talented with magic, so there was no reason for panic. As Dumbledore popped a lemon drop into his mouth and savoured the slightly sour taste of the sweet he quietly thanked magic that most magical folk were so easy to manipulate and control due to being so gullible.

As Harry Potter readied himself for bed he could hear his dorm mated talking about how Michael Potter must have cheated his way into the tournament and how it was bullshit that the Headmaster was going to let his golden boy compete, despite not being old enough. For once it was good to be Harry rather than Michael Potter as Harry could hear his dorm mates talking about how much of an arrogant prick Michael was, and how Harry wasn't like that at all. As he began to drift off he was thinking about what might be in store for the champions of the Triwizard tournament, but he only felt a twinge of concern for his brother due to how badly he'd been treated by him over the years. He was however extremely worried about Fleur, too long had people only wanted to be friends with Harry because it would get them close to Michael, but now there was someone who just wanted to be friends with Harry Potter, his brother be damned, and he had to admit it felt good.

It was clear as day it the Great Hall the following morning that most of the students of Hogwarts had not been happy that Michael Potter's name had come out of the Goblet of fire. Normally the Gryffindor students got along fine with Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students, but there was a definite tension between the tables and it wasn't simply due to the Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry. The Hufflepuff students felt that Michael Potter had stolen away from their house and champion's glory by cheating his way in. As the house got so little glory most of the time to have a Gryffindor usurp them in their moment of triumph was making people resentful and angry. The Ravenclaws were almost as angry as the Hufflepuffs, not due to Cedric Diggory being chosen as champion as even most of the other houses agreed that he was the right choice for Hogwarts champion. No they were angry as the seemingly mediocre Boy-Who-Lived had somehow got past the age line set around the Goblet when none of the Ravenclaw students had managed to.

However what was causing some people to look surprised was how cold most of the Gryffindors were also treating one of their own, but Harry was able to get the low down on what had happened in the lion's tower the previous night. As it turned out most of the upper years in Gryffindor had been sick to death of Michael Potter's bragging and generally arrogant behaviour and this was just the final straw for them. Neville described that it was like watching a sacrifice being brought out when Michael Potter entered the common room of Gryffindor last night expecting a hero's welcome, and instead getting cold glares thrown at him from almost every direction. Even his long term mates Seamus Finnigean and Ron Weasley thought that he had cheated his way into the tournament and were giving him the cold shoulder as well as a wide berth. The only two people who believed that Michael didn't enter his name into the Goblet of Fire were Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley. Granger believed him as she knew he was her mental inferior, and was firm in the belief that if she couldn't figure out a way past the age line, then it couldn't be done. She was also so incredibly stubborn and set in her ways that she would not listen to anyone else if they thought she was wrong which had led to the house elves of Hogwarts boycotting the Gryffindor tower as see pursued her mad crusade to free them, despite the fact that she had been told multiple times that they liked the work and if freed then they would most likely die within two or three years.

The only other believer was Ginny Weasley, but then she was so hard core a Boy-Who-Lived groupie that Michael could commit murder in cold blood and she's still testify that he had acted in self defence and that there was no other way. Almost everyone could see that she wanted to be Mrs Potter and wife of the Boy-Who-Lived when she was older, if only for the fame and money that such a marriage would bring. However almost everyone could see that Hermione Granger had already sunk her claws into Michael Potter and wasn't going to give him up without a fight, not when she could have the rich perfect husband that she could boss around.

Harry just ate his breakfast quietly, though inwardly smirking at how far Michael Potter had plummeted in popularity almost overnight. His quiet musing was brought to an end by the arrival of Fleur Delacour, whose presence was announced by almost all of the guys in the hall turning to look at her with lust filled gazes and the girls glaring at her. However Fleur ignored them all and instead scanned the Ravenclaw table until she saw Harry and Luna, and once finding them slid into a set next to Harry.

"Bonjour 'Arry."

"Good morning Fleur. Congratulations on being chosen champion, although as ever my brother found a way to ruin things."

Fleur smiled radiantly at Harry before speaking; "Zank you 'Arry, but your brother doesn't bother me. I got a partial revenge on 'im by calling 'im 'leetle boy' in front of everyone in the room last night!"

Harry laughed out loud at this statement from Fleur making several Ravenclaws turn to look at him and what had made him laugh out loud. "I think you may need to share that memory with everyone Fleur, I'm pretty sure you could become an instant hero and quite possibly a millionaire if you showed the rest of the school you dressing him down, and if you charged admission for it. Hell I'm pretty sure people would view it multiple times!"

Fleur laughed at Harry's suggestion and pretended to contemplate his idea which in turn led to Harry laughing at the thoughtful and slightly devious expression on Fleur's beautiful face. Looking around Harry could see most of the guys in the hall looking on in jealousy as he casually conversed with the French goddess, not being able to contemplate how someone like Harry Potter had caught her attention and kept that attention. Most of the guys would happily saw off their legs to get her interested in them.

It was several days later that badges started appearing on the chests of first the Slytherin students before slowly being integrated into the wardrobes of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students. What really shocked a lot of the school was that roughly half of Gryffindor house had started wearing the badges, they would have thought that despite being colder towards their 'champion' they would have supported him, but they were wrong.

These badges looked innocent enough when they were around, if slightly cruel towards Michael Potter, but due to his arrogant nature most of the teachers though it would be a good lesson in humility. The badges bore the legend; 'Support Cedric Diggory, the REAL Hogwarts champion'. However whenever no teachers were around and Michael Potter was within range the badge's message changed to say; 'Michael Potter is a lying, cheating bastard!'

Harry would have felt sorry for his brother, had he not been such a bully to Harry and his friends let alone after all the grandstanding he had done before the champions had been chosen. Harry felt that a good dose of humility was just what the healer ordered when it came to his brother. Although he didn't spend too much time thinking about his brother as he was busy helping Fleur prepare for the first task, he did wonder how infuriated his brother must be with Granger constantly lecturing him about studying for the first task and that he should always and readily accompany her to the library. Harry surmised that his brother must be blocking out the whining noise that was Granger as he hadn't seen him at all in the library since being announced as a champion and guessed his brother was rather arrogantly as ever assuming he would be able to wing it.

Harry was also becoming a much closer friend to Fleur then he originally thought he could ever be as she confided in him about her fears and thoughts about the upcoming first task as well as telling him about her life at Beauxbatons and how she was never able to get close to any other boy or man before due to her allure. In turn he confided in her about having to grow up in his brother's shadow when it came to receiving affection and praise from his parents, something that filled Fleur with rage that his parents could neglect him so. Harry had finally admitted to himself that he was attracted to Fleur, and not just her beauty like the rest of the school, he was attracted to her personality and her love to laugh. Her laugh was such a wonderful musical sound that Harry made a pact with himself to make Fleur laugh as much as possible so he could keep hearing such a wonderful noise. However harry was nothing if not a realist, why would the beautiful Fleur Delacour see him as anything apart from a friend bearing in mind he was three years younger than her and if she wanted she could get gods and kings to worship her on their knees. Why would she even consider it?