It had been a week and Harry was still irritated. He was in last place and was sure the judging for the tournament was pointless. Madame Maxime had given him a 6 while Igor bloody Karkaroff had given him a 4. He heard from Daphne that the judges had all been extremely biased. Maxime and Karkaroff had both given their own champions 10 while giving the other champions clearly unfairly low scores. The other judges weren't much better as Bagman had given everyone at least a 9, while Crouch had been surly and given everyone low scores. Dumbledore had been the only fair judge and he had still given Harry a 7.
While he was irritated with his current placement it wasn't as though he could say he had out performed any of the other champions. Diggory and used a far better solution than he had, Delacour had simply used magic on a level he didn't think he could and Krum had completed the task far quicker than he had.
Diggory had distracted his dragon with transfiguration, which figured as it was his strongest subject. Harry thought this was probably the most elegant way to get by the dragon. He found out that Diggory had transfigured rocks into ever larger animals to entice the dragon away from its nest. His solution was simple and brilliant considering he hadn't had any time to plan. He had also managed to avoid any real risk to himself, all in all not a bad showing from the Hufflepuff.
Delacour had done some enchanting and put the dragon to sleep, which would probably be the most impressive solution if anyone asked him. The sheer power it would take to enchant a dragon was impressive, she would be a challenge to beat to be sure. The deductions she had received were because the dragon had singed her dress after it was asleep. Harry thought it was rather a foolish reason to take away points, it wasn't like she had been in any actual danger at that point.
Krum on the other hand had simply blinded his dragon and gone in and stolen the egg while it was writhing about in pain. But it fit in with what Harry had assumed about him after the weighing of the wands ceremony, he was rigged both with his magic and his strategy. He had simply fired conjunctivitis curses over and over until he had successfully blinded his dragon. The dragon handlers were less than pleased with him. Not only had he blinded the dragon, but she had stomped on some her own eggs in the process.
When he thought about it Harry figured that the thing which was irritating was probably the clue he had gotten itself. He had opened it at the behest of Blaise when he got back to the Slytherin common room, the noise that had come out had nearly gotten him hexed. The wailing that came out of the egg was deafening and was nothing more that pure screeching.
The egg was a challenge for another day, somewhere quiet and alone. Though what he was going to do for solving it he had no idea. There had to be a way to solve it, or maybe the screeching was going to be their only clue, perhaps they were going to face another creature in the next task. The only creature he could think screeched like that were banshees, and what they would be doing with a banshee was beyond him.
A more pressing matter was what to do about the Yule Ball. He needed a date, and he was going to need the right kind of date as Tracy pointed out. This was going to be the first time that he stepped out into the wizarding world in a formal manner, even if it was just a school dance.
He had already started making mental notes on who he would want to take and the list was small. At best, he could count maybe five girls he was on good enough terms with to think about asking to the ball. Daphne and Tracy from Slytherin, Padma Patil from Ravenclaw, Susan Bones from Hufflepuff and then Hermione.
Harry would also have considered Hannah but he was sure that Neville was going to be asking her. That left him to figure out which of these girls was the best for him to take. The problem with Padma was that she and her sister were not of the pureblood aristocracy of Britain. Sure, they could trace their magical ancestry back generations but they still were considered outsiders in the British magical community. As for Hermione, there were a couple problems, firstly she was muggle born not that he cared but it would cause issues. Secondly he was almost positive that Viktor would be asking her, he had been staring at her across the library for the better part of the month since the beginning of the tournament. And lastly he didn't think he would like attending the dance with her, Harry thought that the better part of his evening would be spent listening to Hermione recite mundane and trivial facts about random Yule Balls of the past, something he could do without.
That just left the Slytherin girls and Susan. Susan was from the right sort of family, as Malfoy often said. Her aunt was the current head of the DMLE, and the Bones name had been prominent in British wizarding society since almost as far back as the Roman empire. The problem was that Susan was incredibly shy, Harry had known her since his first year and yet she had spoken to him maybe ten times during the many classes they shared and the innumerable group study sessions they'd had. Come to think of it Harry wasn't entirely sure he had ever had a proper conversation with her at all.
As for the two girls from his own house he wasn't sure either of them would say yes. Tracy was an interesting case as far as Slytherins went. Her father came from one of the older pureblood families, but her mother had been a muggle-born witch just like his own. In fact, if it weren't for Harry's presence in the house of snakes she would probably be the biggest pariah in the house just based on her blood status. Daphne on the other hand would be a perfect date for the Yule ball, her father was a prominent member of the Wizengamot and her family was well respected both within the country and internationally as she had family somewhere in Scandinavia. The only problem was Harry was almost positive she no interest in going to the dance, not just with him but in general. Daphne was a bit of an enigma to him; she rarely spoke to anyone and when she did it was usually something caustic. However, having spent enough time around her Harry knew she was kind, at least to Tracy who was a friend of hers from before Hogwarts.
Harry was currently sitting across from Tracy at breakfast pondering all this, thinking he should just ask her now and get it done with, when Tracy started staring at him.
"Umm Harry your nose...its turning into a beak"
He would never be able to prove it was them, but he had fallen for one of the Weasley twins' pranks. He'd made a habit of checking his food at every meal after having spent the better part of a month being tormented by the two in his second year, but with the tournament and the Yule Ball on his mind he had become lax.
"I'm heading to the Hospital Wing; tell professor Vector I won't be in class"
"Ok, think you'll make it to charms?"
Crossing his eyes looking at the beak now beginning to protrude from his face Harry attempted to say no, but all that came out was a rather loud squawk. Those who had seen Harry's misfortune had mostly been Slytherins, who other than Draco wouldn't laugh at any prank pulled on a member of their own house. The squawk however notified everyone in the hall, to Harry's misfortune.
For a moment, there was stunned silence, then just about the entire student body began laughing at him. Harry would have been furious but at this point he had been pranked enough that was beyond caring about it.
Of note his fellow champions reactions were interesting. Krum, sitting at the far end of the Slytherin table appeared like he could not have cared less about Harry's situation. He and the rest of the Durmstrang students looked unconcerned. Probably something to do with the nature of their schooling, from what he could gather punishments were much stricter at Durmstrang. Per the gossip around the common room teachers at Durmstrang could do whatever they wanted to discipline students, everything short of the unforgivables was supposedly allowed.
Cedric seemed to be trying to get the Hufflepuffs to quit laughing as best he could. He was failing miserably. He met Harry's eyes and seemed to be trying to apologize for the actions of his housemates. It was honorable of him but not a gesture that meant much, it wasn't Cedric who had pranked him.
Delacour on the other hand looked apoplectic when he looked at her. Harry was truthfully taken aback by the amount of anger rolling off her. He was the one who was pranked, not her. What reason could she possibly have for being mad at him? Then it dawned on him, she was Veela. She must have thought he was making fun of her, or that the prank was making fun of her heritage at the very least. She gave him one last hateful glare before making for leaving the great hall with several of her friends in tow. Harry thought he would likely need to explain the situation to her later. It wouldn't be good to have her feel personally insulted, her father was a rather important member of the French ministry.
Madame Pomfrey was quick to fix the beak he had sprouted from the twin's prank. What most impressed Harry about the matron was the fact that in the innumerable times he had visited her she could always sort him out in a matter of minutes. Whatever it was that people had done to him, from the abuses he had suffered early in his first year from his fellow Slytherins to the pranks the twins had taken on pulling on him since early on in his second, she always seemed to know how to fix it.
Sure, he had run into a few she had been unable to fix, the hair bleaching from the twins was one, but he suspected they had used muggle products on him somehow for that. Harry had made use of that prank himself just to make fun of Draco for a week. For the most part however she could take care of it all; jinxes, hexes, and potions were no match for the matron.
The only thing she hadn't gotten to go away completely was a mild amount of squawking.
"Mister Potter, is there a reason that you no longer need to use your glasses?"
This was not a question that Harry was prepared for. It's not that the ritual he had performed was dark per say, just that the only families who would use such magics were considered dark. He knew for a fact that had his father been alive that he would not have been allowed to do it. His father famously wore glasses as a sign of what a "light" family the Potters were. At this point lying was not an option, Madame Pomfrey already likely knew.
"Well you see Madame Pomfrey, I found a book in the library that had a ritual in it to fix eyesight. And the book said that it was easy enough for a person to perform on oneself with very little chance of messing it up"
"Mister Potter, I would suggest you not perform rituals on yourself willy nilly. They are often much more dangerous than the authors would have you believe. Furthermore, the ministry does not look upon rituals with favor, if they were to find out about this…and as for the ritual you've done on yourself, did the author happen to explain what would happen if you had not completed it correctly?"
"Umm no ma'am I don't think that they did"
"Two potential things could have happened to you. One, had you underperformed the ritual you be blind and you would never be able to see again. Or had you put too much magic into the ritual any light at all would cause you excruciating pain, meaning we would have needed to remove your eyes anyways just to save you from the pain"
Harry blanched at that. The author in the book he had gotten the ritual for his eyesight had not mentioned either of those things. In fact, his only warning was 'if performed incorrectly this ritual will be null for one's sight'. He was going to have to go back and look at the other two rituals he had performed and see what their potential side effects were. In fact, he was going to be checking for them in other sources as well just in case.
"Yes, Mr. Potter, I'm glad you understand the severity of what could have happened. Now I would suggest you head to class, and remember to keep checking your foods so you don't have to start seeing me regularly again."
"Yes ma'am" Madam Pomfrey had been the one to teach him some charms in his second year to check his foods for different potions and the like. She had done it after he had made his 12th visit in 9 days. He still had no idea just how the Weasley twins messed with his food in the first place. He had thought of switching spells, or them being disillusioned and dumping it in when he wasn't looking, but neither of those seemed to bit it.
Deciding that he didn't feel like heading to his arithmancy class, they were still working on a problem he had finished last year when he had worked through the fourth-year book. The problem with arithmancy was that they never changed the books. The books that were currently being used were the same ones that Hogwarts had been using for the past 50 years. Not that Harry could blame the class for that, not much had changed in the field over the last century.
That and anything relating to curse breaking and spell creation wasn't covered until NEWTs. Harry had been hoping to start looking at that material over the coming summer, but the tournament had gotten him well behind in his advanced reading. Harry had been favoring his progression in charms and transfiguration as he didn't see much use for anything else for the tournament.
Potions might come up, but was unlikely as advanced potions were brewed over hours and sometimes days, not ideal for people spectating. As for Herbology, there was a chance that he would need to make use of it for a task but he couldn't very well know what plants would show up at any given time.
The only class Harry was regretting having not taken as an elective was creatures as this tournament often featured creatures in just about every task. That and he was sure that his competition all had strong backgrounds in the subject.
Cedric was taking the class at NEWT level at Hogwarts, being taught by a half-giant who was well known for his love of dangerous creatures. He had almost been sent to Azkaban at one point for trying to raise a baby dragon in his hut. So, it was sure that his education was probably better than what had been taught at Hogwarts in the years previous.
Fleur was herself some percentage Veela, or was Veela, the exact way Veela heritage was passed along from generation to generation was unclear. Harry was aware that Veela themselves weren't creatures but demi-human, but magical Brittan's laws had them classified as such. He had attempted to do some research on the matter shortly after being named a champion, but the books in the Hogwarts library on the matter seemed to have all been written by very jealous women. In any case, she was likely far more familiar with the subject than he was.
As for Viktor, creatures are a required course at Durmstrang from their first year. The school wasn't notorious for turning out the best dark creature hunters without good reason. They were famous for making students deal with creatures that were deemed too dangerous for study at schools elsewhere. Harry often heard Draco lament the fact that his mother wouldn't send him to Durmstrang, but from what Harry had become aware of he was lucky he hadn't. The incident with him getting clawed by a hippogriff in last year had been legendary. Harry found out from those who were taking the class that Draco had made the grave error of disrespecting the hippogriff before trying to ride it. Had Draco been at Durmstrang instead, he would likely have had to deal with trolls as a third-year which were far more dangerous than hippogriffs. It was even rumored that Durmstrang had a class where they studied a turned werewolf during the full moon, something that would never happen at Hogwarts, unless of course the werewolf was killed at the end of the lesson. When it had come out at the end of last year that the defense professor Lupin was himself a werewolf, the board of governors had nearly sacked Dumbledore.
Deciding that he was going to have to do some serious studying on creatures to try and shore up his gap in knowledge over the coming weeks, Harry made his way back to the Slytherin common room.
The Slytherin common room was a nice place to be during mid-morning, the sun would be hitting the lake at an angle that would mean his normally dark and dreary room would lit up for a change. Harry couldn't understand why the Slytherin common room was built half way into the lake, it made the dorm rooms cold and miserable during most of the year. That and every class except for potions was at least 4 floors away, and likely on the other side of the castle too.
Making his way into his dorm Harry found the common room to be mostly empty. There were only a few NEWT students studying in one corner and some second years who must have an off period as they were playing a game of exploding snap near the fire. Pulling out the book he would need for Charms and putting away his arithmancy book Harry noticed the clue from the first task.
Figuring that now was as good a time as any to try and figure out what the wailing coming out of the egg was he removed it from his trunk. Being sure to set up a silencing ward on the room to avoid disturbing the rest of the students in the common room he opened the egg.
Harry was again by the wailing that came from his clue. He set it in the middle of the room and went back to his bed, thinking that perhaps if he left it long enough it might make some sense. Half an hour or so passed and nothing became any clearer, except the fact that he was developing a headache. Whatever the clue was he wasn't going to be able to solve it right now.
Getting up from his bed and closing the egg brought the sweet relief of silence. Turning to put the confounding object back in his trunk Harry was startled to see a face in dorm window that was below the lake. Harry's first instinct was to think someone was swimming, but the fact that it was the face of a young child immediately changed that. Seeing that he had been spotted the child darted back into the depths of the lake swimming out of Harry's view.
Harry was surprised, he had no clue that merpeople lived in the Black Lake. For that matter he had no idea that they lived in lakes at all. It brought up so many questions, how did they get to a lake this far inland, how did they have enough space to live in the lake, just how big was the Black Lake, and how did they manage to live in fresh water when they were typically known to live in salt water.
All were good questions but if he didn't leave now he would miss lunch, and after only getting to eat part of his breakfast, Harry found that he was famished.