Harry Potter and Voldemort's Champion

by Red Phoenix Dragon

The true power of the Master Illusionist is to trick you to focus on what he has not done and to control the chaos he creates. During the GoF Harry and Hermione work out the headmaster's trick of the Age-Line and that changes everything. Ronald has another bad experience due to his greed, fears and jealousies. HHr NLLL MOF Dumbledore 2 Secret Dark Lords (SS & NM). Character deaths.

4. The headmaster's nightmare begins

Harry Potter and Voldemort's Champion.

Chapter 4. The headmaster's nightmare begins.

I don't own the Harry Potter verse. Just playing.

14/11/17 beta by alix33. 20/11/17

Moments before, from the headmaster's Point of View.

The headmaster had been carefully stalling as he contained his building excitement while he waited for the Goblet of Fire to spit out the surprise fourth name. He loved surprises, particularly of his own making, and especially when a plan came together. His brilliant Age-Line had worked flawlessly as it monitored who had crossed it, their true identity, age, orientation, and the all important name on the piece of parchment in their hot little hands, plus it recorded any magic and potions used. So he knew the names of everyone who had attempted to cross the Age-Line and what names had been entered. Plus he loved the opportunity to finally prank the Weasley twins and turn them into a pair of his very own mini-me Dumbledore groupies with his trademarked long white Merlin beard, but more importantly it monitored the fact that the boy's name had been entered five times and what dark magic Barty junior had used to confound the Goblet to accept a fourth school.

The headmaster chuckled to himself, what a Pure-Blood bigot that Barty junior was. As if, such a powerful enchanted ancient magical artefact could be confounded with a simple curse. If he had bothered to read the instructions that he had been given when he, as the DADA professor, was assigned to check the Goblet of Fire for any malicious curses, he would have discovered that the Goblet of Fire had been enchanted to be able to select champions for up to ten schools and if he had bothered to check the settings of the ancient runes, he would have seen that the Goblet had already been configured for four schools. Instead the idiot tried to force his magic into the Goblet of Fire which could have destroyed it along with half of the castle.

The headmaster thought back over the last year of hard work, and all that effort would have been wasted if Tom hadn't followed all his obvious vague, obscure and incomprehensible hints and clues. He had been an extremely busy bee, (He chuckled at his own joke.) with all the scheming, planning, manipulating to resurrect this long forgotten death trap of a Triwizard Tournament, giving that idiot of a witch, big mouth Bertha Jorkins, enough juicy secret information and details about the Tournament and sending her on a holiday to beautiful Albania for the rat to find, and to entice Tom to come back and try again to kill the boy. Then arranging for little Barty junior to escape his father's control during the Quidditch World Cup, so he would return to his master and assist Tom and the rat. Blackmailing his dear old friend Alastor to play the DADA professor this year and then setting him to be trapped by the rat and junior, and thereby giving junior a means for high level access to the school. Manipulating that pompous bigot, Slippery Lucius, to donate a spare dragon just for the boy. Not to mention manipulating and interfering in two schools and two foreign Ministries plus a cast of a thousand extras. No one suspected a thing and he, the illustrious Leader of the Light, and Master Machiavellian Manipulator, would have complete Plausible Deniability, when it all hit the fan. The Triwizard Tournament would be his Cecil B. DeMille moment and the crowning achievement in his long career as a Master Illusionist.

And once Tom is back and finally kills the boy, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, will be there to save the day. In front of Hogwarts, the Ministry, and the two most prestigious schools in Europe with the world press in attendance to capture the moment. His name will be on everyone's lips and the dark will fear and tremble.

He will have his Eternal Glory for the Greater Good.

And it would all come together in a moment, real soon, now!

Showtime!

Then the Goblet of Fire changed colour and spat out the burnt piece of parchment. The headmaster caught it carefully before anyone could react but he didn't need to read it as he already knew whose name was on it, but he just had show off. This was his moment to shine.

"Harry Potter!" He said twice expecting the meek downtrodden boy to follow his wandless compulsions, but the boy stared at him with those fiery emerald green eyes and defied him, just like his mother. Lily's stare could make you feel so small and pathetic if you had a heart. He smirked as he remembered how Lily would stared down those two idiots, Potter and Black, so many times when they had done something stupid, and then there was the three times she had stared down Tom as well as himself. Fortunately for the Greater Good, he had removed his conscience so he wouldn't be haunted by all the sacrifices he had made and the pain and suffering he had caused.

The headmaster turned his focus back on the boy who had resisted the wandless compulsion hex, so he escalated the issue to involve the students surrounding Potter and compel them to eject the boy. But the boy ignores their glares. So he tried his wandless silent Imperius Curse to force the boy to obey him but the boy resisted and the headmaster cursed Barty junior for teaching his weapon how to fight off the Imperius curse. The whole purpose in letting Barty junior free rein to play with the Unforgivable Curses, was to break the boy's will.

Then his pet Death Eater did his job, and spoke up to distract, anger and abuse the boy. But the boy stared him down as well and pointed out the secrets of how the Age-Line actually worked and what it had reported to him. He had unknowingly smirked and glanced at Not-Moody, and then he used both hands to beckon and cast another more powerful wandless silent Imperius curse at the boy to force him to cease and desist from his foolish actions and obey his will, but his minion continued to defy him! He cursed Not-Moody again for failing to break the boy's will as both Tom and he needed the boy to be compliant. He glanced at Not-Moody only see him enjoying the moment.

Things were getting out of hand quickly, as the boy had drawn everyone's attention to the headmaster's Age-Line that the sheeple seemed to have forgotten about. He needed to direct their attention on the all-important piece of parchment in his hand that came out of the Goblet of Fire, and not what had gone in. Then Barty the Obnoxious Crouch senior spoke up for the Ministry and the headmaster let him do his dirty work. Bless his miserable little heart.

"Be that as it may it doesn't matter how your name got into the Goblet of Fire, Mr. Potter. What is important is that your name came out…." The headmaster tuned out the pompous official as he declared authoritatively as if that was that, the Ministry of Magic had spoken.

Undaunted, the boy answered back and stared down the stuffy old Ministry Official. "I read the rules; the Goblet of Fire can only select one champion for each school, and it is the placing of your name in the goblet that constitutes a binding, magical contract.The wizard who entered my name did so for St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys, and confounded the Goblet to accept a forth school. As you can see from the colour trim on my robes that I am in Gryffindor House, and therefore a student of Hogwarts. I am not the 'Harry Potter' from St. Brutus's which has a bright orange jumpsuit for a uniform. The wizard, who placed my name in the Goblet of Fire, identified his own magical signature as the 'Harry Potter' from St. Brutus's, and he is the one with the unbreakable binding magical contract with the Goblet of Fire, and he must participate in the Triwizard Tournament, or lose his magic."

Dumbledore was surprised that the boy remembered his warning that entering your name constitutes the binding magical contract as everyone else seems to have forgotten that important point. He turned to look around to see that the sheeple trying to digest that simple bit of logic as then the boy continued.

"This is obviously another lame attempt by Voldemort!"

The headmaster smirked as the boy said the 'V' word just like his interfering mother while the sheeple hissed at the name.

"To circumvent the headmaster's protections and put everyone in danger, especially me."

Dumbledore flinched as he felt the barb aimed at his illustrious image. The boy was saying that Tom was greater than him, but of course no one was in any real danger while Albus Dumbledore was there to save the day. He needed to take control quickly. Fortunately controlling the chaos was something Albus Dumbledore excelled at.

The boy continued. "If you were to trick me to accept the championship for St. Brutus's, and take the place of that other wizard, that would make me."

"VOLDEMORT'S! CHAMPION!"

'What the hell!' Thought the headmaster as that note struck a chord with the sheeple as they hissed in fear.

"SOMETHING I WILL NEVER DO!"

"Bloody hell!" The headmaster whispered, it had amused him greatly that the fourth champion would actually be Voldemort's Champion. "When did the boy grow a brain and work that out? Damn that Insufferable-Know-It-All. Young Ronald was supposed to keep the boy isolated and busy being lazy, ignorant and stupid! If only the boy had identified the name of the wizard, who they both knew had placed the boy's name in the Goblet of Fire, then the boy would have destroyed all his credibility to accuse a dead man or his high-ranking Ministry Official father. It is too late for him to expose that little black hole, now that so brilliant Insufferable-Know-It-All has worked out that the boy would be Tom's Chump."

The headmaster's twinkling blue eyes stared down at the brilliant witch who sat beside the boy with the bright emerald green eyes. He was tempted to transfigure the boy's robes into the bright orange jumpsuit of St. Brutus's uniform but thought that would be too obvious and way below his standard for manipulations and besides he had already thought of a better way.

The boy's reasoned argument had silenced the Ministry, but the master Machiavellian manipulator always had a plan for every contingency. He was in a class of his own far above the svelte politicians of the Wizengamot, and He had spent years conditioning the sheeple to accept whatever story he told them as the absolute truth without reservation or question. After all, manipulation was his secret power that no one knew until it was too late. The headmaster decided he was play plan 'S' for scapegoat and blame the Insufferable-Know-It-All. 'Oh, if only Miss Granger hadn't interfered in ancient magic that she does not understand. Then he could have done something to spare the boy this trouble, but now because of Miss Granger's unwarranted and haphazard interference,he feared that removing your name from the Goblet of Fire would have automatically caused the forfeit of your magic.' Just enough concern to win over the sheeple while focusing on their fears of stupid ignorant Muggleborns playing with dangerous dark magic. That would be his ace card and let the sheeple turn their anger on the interfering Insufferable-Know-It-All. She will learn not to play with the big girls now. He transformed his facial expression to sad, afraid and powerless to intervene to stop this travesty of justice as he was about to make his grand move.

"I am afraid, Harry, my dear boy..."

"You're setting the boy up to face a MERLIN DAMN DRAGON?" His pet Death Eater blurted out in a loud shocked voice, cutting off his statement to win back control of the chaos.

The headmaster's mind froze. His pet Death Eater had foolishly let the dragon out of the bag and he didn't have a plan for this contingency. He wondered how his pet had circumvented his loyalty oath for this level of betrayal. He cursed as he hated to wing it.

The headmaster hadn't shared that little secret of the dragons for the first task with Karkaroff and Maxime. He would have waited until after their champion was selected, committed and locked into the Tournament, and then he would tell them separately that the other school head had no problem with dragons and used their pride to manipulate them into accepting the challenge.

But now he would have a big fight on his hands and the boy was the least of his problems and he would deal with him later along with the interfering Insufferable-Know-It-All. He smiled disarmingly at Maxime as he turned his twinkling blue eyes to overdrive.

"Dumbly-dorr, what are you playing at? No one said anything about dragons!" Madam Maxime screamed.

Dumbledore chuckled. "My dear Madam Maxime, we had to start off the modern Triwizard Tournament with a big bang, and there was something in the fine print on the parchments. While I am sure Igor will welcome the challenge for Durmstrang's champion to face a little harmless XX* rated dragon." * (XX is pronounced as Double X.)

"Like hell I will, Dumbledore! We know what you did to betray your lover, Grindelwald!" Karkaroff sneered as he twisted his barbs for maximum impact. "I will not sacrifice my best student for another one of your dangerous devious schemes. And what was Snape talking about a Merlin Damn Dragon?"

"Oh that?" Ludo Bagman asked and answered excitedly as he dreamed about how much money he would make gambling with the champions' lives as they fought dragons. "That is the spare dragon that Malfoy arranged. Its a really nasty XXX XXX+* rated Hungarian Horntail. The headmaster thought it would be good idea to have a spare dragon in case one of the nursing dames got sick." * (The XXX XXX+ is pronounced as Double Triple X plus.)

"What? A spare dragon?" Professor Sprout screamed as she moved to protect her favourite Puff and looked like she was about to use Bagman's guts for fertiliser.

Bagman wasn't completely stupid and realized that no one was happy about dragons in the Triwizard Tournament and quickly changed his tune. He had seen what Professor Spout did with fertiliser.

"Yeah, headmaster, that really nasty XXX XXX+ Hungarian Horntail! Why did you have to bring that big ugly brute into the country, headmaster?" Ludo Bagman said as he tried to redirect the blame onto the headmaster, and then he realized why and turned to Potter.

"Oooh! Sorrrrrry!" Bagman foolishly apologised.

Dumbledore facepalmed himself as he groaned inside. He was surrounded by imbeciles and the pandemonium exploded as things went downhill fast. The old headmaster drew out his trusty, all powerful Elder Wand. Slowly and deliberately he waved it around as he focused in his mind the memory he wanted to change and project.

"OBLI..."

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

Screamed Potter.

The Elder Wand was ripped out of his hand and he felt that he had been hit by the Hogwarts Express as he cartwheeled into the back wall and everything went black.

Terrible things can happen when the memory curse backfires.

- Harry Potter and Voldemort's Champion. -

Thank you for reading.