Disclaimer:
I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...
Mischief Managed Damn It!
Uploaded On: 7th August 2018
Story Type: Short crack story to be read with as much seriousness as the Weasley Twins on crack.
=(Chapter 4)=
Yes, there were so many matters that year which went wrong and so many plans shredded to pieces, majority of which came about from Sirius Black who decided to escape Azkaban to get to Peter Pettigrew and Harry Potter. That blasted man messed up so many of his schemes that Dumbledore had to use his patented Beard Growing potion to get back his oh-so-lovely beard after tearing it out from sheer frustration. Worse was the bit where Sirius found the will in the Gringotts and went about executing, one of which was making sure Harry understood his heritage, his Lordship and all the power it entails. While he may have obtained knowledge of his lordship, the good thing was Harry still could not go on the Wizengamot since he was still a minor so only Sirius could vote on his behalf as his proxy. There were other bits that Dumbledore himself was not sure of regarding the inheritance, but if Harry cannot get it, then that was still safe since it would only be upon his coming-of-age that he would gain full access and information. That would be the time Dumbledore would need to persuade Harry to make him his 'real' guardian.
But this was still not good enough for Dumbledore. The boy had learned that he was never meant to go to the Dursleys or the fact that he had other properties to go to, and that made the boy antagonistic towards Dumbledore, alongside Sirius who seemed to barely hold back his animal side from coming out and tear the old man apart, especially when he found out about the unauthorized marriage contract for Harry and Ginny. When they found out about the unauthorized transactions from his trust vault, Sirius made sure to replace all the keys linked to that and the main vault while asking the leader to track down all those who had used it and demand back the stolen Galleons with interest. Dumbledore was just thankful he hid his tracks enough to hide his involvement with the trust vault.
But darn it all, it was already hard enough trying to get the Galleons from the trust vault for the Order, let alone other expenses all because of Lily Potter's meddling. Without it, he could not bribe some of the Wizengamot, pay off the education fees for Molly's children, purchase services to kill off the competition, or buy his colorful robes or his supply of lemon drops!
Others like Augusta Longbottom, Cygus Greengrass and Patrick Parkinson were demanding why Dumbledore was withholding information on his heritage or not performing the duties of a guardian as he kept claiming he was. Even Remus and Hagrid were starting to question his motives now that they were thinking about the odd inconsistencies.
How dare these people doubt Dumbledore?! They should not be questioning him like he was a common criminal! He was Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, holder of the Order of Merlin, First-Class, and the Headmaster of Hogwarts! The boy was under his 'care' so that he could be guided to his destiny of facing Voldemort and dying to fulfill the prophecy.
In some manner of speaking, it was that rage that prevented him from getting all the details in place before he executed his idea to get Harry under his control using the tournament. If only he realized how much of a mistake that was...
=(Year 4)=
~~Act 1~~
Dumbledore took his time to prepare for the Triwizard Tournament to make sure it was all in order while ensuring that Harry's placement could be included without any complications. There were after all so many details related to the tasks that he had to be certain of, and one of which he wanted to do was to make the tasks so insane, it was almost criminally disastrous to even consider attending, let alone compete. This would of course make the situation for Harry very difficult since people would no doubt accuse him of cheating to enter the tournament, and with Igor Karkoroff coming in as one of the judges, Harry would be in hot water indeed. This would most certainly make Harry look to him and some choice pawns for assistance.
There were other bits of information and matters that came about as the new school year approached. He had information that while a few of the Inner Circle members who managed to get away were now pariahs in their society, Lucius Malfoy made a trip out to Albania where he knew was the last known location of dear old Tom Riddle, leaving dear little Draco Malfoy alone with his mother and with little money and influence left. That was one of Tom's old habits, always going back to the place that held one of the origins of Dark Arts. He had reason to believe that Lucius would be the key to Riddle's return if the drunken Trelawney was correct with her prophecy. Peter would have been his preferred choice to give that desired look of destiny, but the cowardly rat was subjected to the Dementor's Kiss after getting all the information pumped out of him.
Secondly, there was the bit of the Ministry trying to secure the dates for the three tasks and a judge to represent them. He managed to get his contacts to tell him that the selected judge would be Dolores Umbridge, a woman that was quite frankly a headache-inducing menace who would likely use this chance to go after Harry Potter due to his publicity stunt with Cornelius and the recent take-downs of the 'outstanding citizens of society'. She was always one with a rather problematic attitude issue, not content that someone had bested her in anyway especially if they were not 'pure' in her mind.
As for the dates, he decided to throw a bone at Tom Riddle by adjusting it such that it would coincide perfectly with the summer solstice. He knew of a few rituals that would allow Voldemort to gain back a body, and he also knew that with the man's obsession with the prophecy and his defeat by Harry, the dark lord would no doubt go after the boy for his blood, limiting the ritual options by a fair number. It was just a matter of the type he used to achieve the prefect body.
Remus quit his job after Severus decided to ruin his job by revealing his 'furry little problem' since Sirius Black got away with the death sentence. The werewolf merely shrugged before leaving, forcing Albus to find yet another DADA professor for the post. But the reason this bothered him more was because the werewolf was also starting to question things, especially when Harry persuaded him to take a health screening and the results revealed the special alchemic potions Dumbledore made specifically to bypass the werewolf's immunity to mind alteration. Though it was hidden and made to point the finger at others, the brains of the Marauders clearly got suspicions and decided to stay away.
Damn it!
That was not all; Sirius was not idle and got his friend on board with an idea to start a business with Harry as a fellow founder and creator of items they had considered during their days as Marauders, something that appealed greatly to the Weasley Twins when they found out about that. With Harry's input, they were given apprenticeships and the five started a business that combined ideas from the muggle world with some of their innovations, creating new products for the populace to try. One of the products in question was some special recording crystal that would be field-tested during the Quidditch World Cup and the tournament for the spectators.
Blast it! Sirius had taken one of his avenues for information away from him, and with the others not trusting, trying to get Harry under his sphere of control was becoming a hassle! Not to mention this business of theirs was disrupting traditions and creating new trends that was not appropriate for his ideal Magical Britain!
Regarding the Weasleys, well... Dumbledore more or less gave up on the majority of the family since they were either incompetent or defiant to his will. The twins were certainly problematic since they were practically wild cards that would never conform to his plans properly, and with the discovery of potions in their system, they were now cautious of everything they drink and eat, not to mention the number of times they checked their bodies and items for tracking charms courtesy of their mother would make Alastor proud. Add to the fact they practically worshiped Sirius and Remus and they viewed Harry more as a little brother than Ronald Weasley meant they would be against him all the way.
William (Bill) Weasley and Charlie Weasley were also not considered too much. The both of them fled their home immediately after finishing their courses to escape their mother, and they were too attached to their work and too independant. Dumbledore would try to get Bill on to his side in order to utilize his talents and his position as primary heir to the family, but the man was loyal to his family first, so this would need some fine handling.
Arthur Weasley was mostly dead to him because he was now questioning a few decisions that Dumbledore had made in the past. The old wizard suspected that Molly must had used some other potions to keep Arthur compliant without asking too much, and her arrest stopped the potion intake allowing him to get back his faculties. Thankfully the patriach was a bit over his head so Dumbledore could handle him with some tweaking.
Percy Weasley may have once peaked his interest, but it was clear that his attitude was not to his liking, not to mention his near-religious devotion to the rules and the Ministry made it very problematic for Dumbledore to control. The most he could do would be to feed false information against the Ministry if necessary and perhaps direct him against Harry. The latter part should be easy enough since Percy held a grudge against Harry for 'stealing his girl'.
Not that Miss Clearwater cared too much, she made it very clear Percy was not to go near her or Harry, otherwise she would get very good practice with her hexes. Something she picked up after Sirius helped her get a job post with Olivander while working part-time at their shop.
It was the other three Weasleys that held some use for him even if they were damaged goods of sorts. Molly was still useful as a potions queen whom he could use in conjunction with Snape to provide potions to ensure the cooperation of Harry, not to mention her 'teachings' to her younger children to have their loyalty. Ronald Weasley was now more useful in antagonizing Harry than being a friend, since the boy bloody messed up on so many levels it was impossible to patch it up and become Harry's friend. As long as the boy kept holding on to delusions of grandeur, Ronal Weasley was his mini bulldog to use.
Heck, Draco Malfoy stood a better chance than him to become friends with Harry Potter, and they practically hated each other!
As for Ginny Weasley, Dumbledore still held some hope that he could entice the young Potter to the girl, although that would prove quite challenging since Harry, being surrounded by many other young females that were more beautiful and certainly more mature in their minds and behavior, barely noticed the young girl, and the girl herself has rather horrifying delusions of her own regarding young Potter as she kept proclaiming herself to be betrothed to him, despite going around other teenage boys like a dog in heat, if the rumors of her being in multiple broom closets were true.
Quite honestly, Dumbledore was genuinely disturbed at the obsession that she harbored for the boy. Clearly, Molly did too well a job at raising the girl with the stories of Harry Potter. He got a general idea when Snape rushed into his office, got onto his knees and actually begged him to obliviate him of his memories when he peered into her mind. Out of curiosity, Dumbledore peered into his mind to see what he saw.
That day, the both of them went to Madam Pomfrey for her assistance to remove both of their memories, and they made her swear an oath to never show them these memories to them or to anyone, only leave behind a message that he would understand that it was so horrifying, it had to be removed for the Greater Good of his mind.
Alas, he was regressing into the past again. Time to get back to the present.
Dumbledore had wanted Harry to at least stay in closer contact with the Weasleys just so he could be seen with a 'Light' family (of his own choosing) as opposed to the numerous 'Grey' and 'Dark' families that Harry was associating with (those that don't support his views of the Greater Good), and he also wanted Arthur back on his side at least so he tried to get them tickets to the World Cup, but Sirius already got tickets for Harry so that plan was a bust. Dumbledore could only sit back and listen to his contact about Harry enjoying himself at the World Cup before he got involved with the drunk Death Eaters who made a scene at the campsite.
Dumbledore was of two minds at that. On the one hand, Harry has come a long way from being a defenseless boy that needed to rely on luck of others. He was successful in handling the attacks and putting them down, and then went about making sure the people who were attacked were safe, as well as children who got separated from their parents during the confusion, presenting the image of the hero he was to be made into, especially with the few recording crystals that were still operating and broadcasting the images on an international scale. On the other hand, the boy was using a few questionable spells and lots of deadly force to take them down, no doubt enforced by Sirius Black who took up his training to make sure no one attacked the boy. From what he gathered, Harry took down 5 Death Eaters and at least six known and unmarked supporters.
This should not happen! The 'Boy Who Lived' must not be using deadly force or dark spells to take down his foes! How else would he be able to redeem them?! Dumbledore needed the boy to learn forgiveness so that he could be sacrificed for the Greater Good!
There was also the matter of Harry's relationships with the female teens around him. Dumbledore had tried to find Harry with tracking and compulsion charms on the females, but they seemed to disappear shortly after he tagged them. With his ears to the ground, Dumbledore heard with some unease at how a few had rejected advances from others with a fair bit of force. Granted the advances were by Malfoy's group and like-minded individuals believing in the whole blood-purity propaganda, not to mention their heirs hated Harry for his 'harem' and sought to take the ladies by force to hurt him in the process. But the girls in question retaliated quite violently in some cases and with Amelia checking on them, the advances were temporarily put on hold. This ended up giving the ladies a chance to go to Harry's side, with Sirius and Amelia helping to keep an eye on them.
Those girls were certainly going dark from Harry's lack of control over his power of love, and with them influencing him, Harry was also getting dark with his use of spells to protect them, letting his power get stronger and making them go to him more. This cannot be allowed to continue, he must separate them at once so that Harry can be brought into the light, use his power of love for his own supporters before sending him to Voldemort to be killed. With the power in his hands and controlled with his chosen supporter, he would be rid of Voldemort and set to be the greatest of them all.
It had to be done... For the Greater Good!
~~Act 2~~
The year had arrived and as planned the two schools arrived in their usual flamboyant manner to try and impress his students. Dumbledore mentally gave Beauxbatons an eight for presentation if not for the near collision with Hagrid, and had to raise an eyebrow at Durmstrang's boat arrival. How on earth does coming out of the water like Davy Jones be considered as making a good impression? Not to mention the sound it made when emerging from the lake was considerable to the flushing of the chamber pots.
Then when the two schools were being introduced, Dumbledore politely applauded while barely holding back the urge to roll his eyes at their performance. Madam Maxime played up the whole 'French are sexier' routine by having the male students try to charm the skirts off the Hogwarts female population, while the ladies come up, let out some sighs, conjure up birds and butterflies, and go about shaking their behinds to entice the hormonal males, something that worked with a vast majority of the male populace standing up cheering at the top of their voices while the female populace glared at them with such intensity that he would not be surprised if the targets combusted on the spot.
Notably Harry was one of the few who seemed quite resistant to that routine, something that certainly pleased Hermione Granger and the other girls in his life. And rather problematic for Dumbledore, some of the ladies of Beauxbatons also noticed that and started to keep a curious eye on him.
For Durmstrang, Karkoroff seemed to desire playing up the 'Macho Men of Bulgaria' routine and got his students to come in banging their sticks, shouting like Vikings and do some new-age dancing crap he saw the muggles do, ending off with Krum walking alongside Karkoroff trying to glare menacingly but looking like he was having issues with his bowels.
Really no finesse~
After that it was just a matter of introducing the students to the Goblet of Fire that would select the competitors. Dumbledore could see Harry frowning alongside some of his friends, and with a quick glance at those without Occlumency training, he could see that they were being a little paranoid that this would not be a safe year for them, especially Harry.
Too bad for Harry, he needed to be entered into this competition to bring Voldemort back to life and for Dumbledore to guide him to his final destiny. It would be easier for Harry to just let him 'help', but since he was resisting it had to be done this way.
For it was all... For The Greater Good!
As predicted, Dolores Umbridge cannot resist the temptation of trying to get Harry into the tournament, but the manner she did it had Dumbledore and a few of the portraits in his office face-palming in disbelief. She honestly thought that just sneaking in the middle of the night and throwing in Harry's name on any old parchment would be sufficient to be considered, bloody woman would be lucky that she would get out of the tournament with her magic intact. She better be grateful that he had to overpower a Confundus Charm to make the Goblet recognize his name as a student under a fourth school. He even went the extra step of removing a vast majority of Alastor's extreme wards and copying Mr Potter's magical signature so that any parchment baring his name would be wrapped in it, thus tricking the goblet into thinking he submitted it.
Just as well he did that, because Karkoroff made his move soon after that. After stunning and binding him, Dumbledore peered into his mind to find that Lucius had contacted the traitor to help get Harry Potter into the tournament. This was even better for the old wizard since this would help legitimizing the danger to either them or Dolores, with him not to be considered. He made sure that Karkoroff dumped the parchment bearing Harry's name before modifying his memories of him getting captured.
Not too soon, the selection of the champions came and Dumbledore made sure that he could control his expressions as he announced the names, making sure he sounded both shocked and angry when Harry's name got thrown out of the goblet. He repeated his name twice and demanded that he entered the chamber to complete the contract.
He had done it, he had the boy where he wanted!
The boy however did not go without a fight. Harry Potter came to the front of the Great Hall and made a Wizard's Oath in front of all that, referring to all the different interpretations, he did not enter his name willingly, nor did he get someone else to help him do so, and he did not know how his name got in. After he did that, he cast a Patronus Charm to prove that he did not lose his magic in violation of an oath. He even pointed out how it would be possible to bypass some of the so-called protections using simple Muggle ideas like throwing a ball of parchment into the goblet.
Blast that boy, Dumbledore was tempted to curse and hex the boy in the back for his insolence! By doing that he effectively cut off a huge majority of the expected animosity and made the populace question the situation. It was very difficult to garner that hatred if Potter cut it off early, even with Ronald Weasley and Draco Malfoy helping to start the discontent towards Potter. The muggle-borns and muggle-raised were quick to go to Harry's side with many others following suit.
No matter, he got what he needed. Despite the insistence by him and Sirius who was attending to promote the recording crystal, Dumbledore was able to get the boy into the tournament, with the stupidity of Dolores helping out both him and Karkoroff by letting her point out that Harry would still have to participate either way, knowing that Harry could lose his magic either way and not bothering to hide her glee.
Honestly, the woman was not even bothering to hide her thoughts properly. Even Karkoroff had more discipline to hide his cowardice after he gave up the names of his fellow Death Eaters. She was basically broadcasting her hatred for him for everyone, especially after she insulted his mother in front of everyone in the room, with a half giantess and a quarter Veela to boot.
To quote the muggles, 'Really~ she pulled that shit?'
Oh well, more power and attention to her so that he could carry out his schemes without being spotted. There was a reason the Quibbler had taken to coining the term 'Umbitch' to describe her.
But the enforcing of Harry into the tournament would prove to be a mistake of his own doing and grow to become a huge problem for Dumbledore in the near future.
~~Act 3~~
Sirius had apparently planned for this as he brought Harry out on 'official Triwizard Tournament matters' and went straight to Gringotts to file emancipation papers due to him being forced into the tournament as a precaution in case the Goblet deemed him breaking the rules as an under-aged participant. In doing so, Harry was able to obtain his Lordship privileges and gain access to the actual Potter Vault, among others. When Dumbledore got the information from a contact who followed them, he was lucky to be in his office where no one would see the tantrum he threw. It would not do to have the students see him outside of his grandfatherly facade.
Now Dumbledore had guessed that Harry was of the Peverell Family Line, and there was a high chance of Sirius designating Harry as his primary heir in the event Sirius could not have children of his own. That would mean that Harry would be the Head / Primary Heir of three families, something that has not happened for many years. That much was confirmed.
What nobody would have expected was Harry actually gaining seats and positions of other family lines that were linked to his.
A big portion of it was from other families who owed a debt of gratitude to Charles for either his work or to Harry and so bequeathed their seats to him, which Charles went further with aid from Ragnok to help preserve their family lines in the event of attacks from the Death Eaters. This helped since said families had at some point intermarried with the Potter Line and the war was getting worse. That turned out to be prophetic as the families were tragically removed from the society because of them, some of whom were selected by yours truly since they disagreed with his views of the Greater Good and so given the details to Snape to pass to selected plants in the Death Eater Ranks.
The second portion came from those that Harry took down during the World Cup. Based on the judgment of Magic, Harry had obtained their family lines by Right of Conquest since those taken out had no heirs to speak of or were deemed ineligible by both Magic and Gringotts, despite what the Ministry Officials ~cough, Corrupt Pureblood Bigots, cough~ say otherwise, giving Harry some control over the Dark Side of the Wizengamot, something that gave Dumbledore a bit of a conundrum as this could give Dumbledore more control over the council but he did not want Harry associated with the Dark Side.
The third portion would probably be a surprising one for the populace once the news broke out. Dumbledore had suspected that Harry could be a possible candidate for the House of Gryffindor by Right of Blood since his father was confirmed to be of the family line. What he did not expect was Harry to not only be that, he also ended up being the new Head to the House of Slytherin and Heir to the House of Gaunt by Right of Conquest, because of his defeating of Voldemort. On that note, Magic seemed to conclude that Harry defeating the Dark Lord at the age of one, his first year, and his horcrux shade, made Harry more than worthy to be Slytherin's true heir. If that was not enough, Harry was apparently the new Head of Ravenclaw and the last heir to the Myrddin Line from his mother's side, meaning that somehow Harry was now the overall owner of Hogwarts and actually related to Merlin himself!
Pardon the language but...
This was BLOODY-FLIPPING-FUCKING-HELL insanity! Harry Potter was practically gathering women, allies and now family seats like Chocolate Frog Cards, this was utterly unacceptable! Harry Potter was not some fictional character that some authors would go about making to be the next Merlin or political powerhouse of Magical Britain! The boy should be a tool for him to use and dispose, but the boy was going out of his reach!
Not too soon, the news broke out of his emancipation and more importantly, Harry being the head / heir of numerous Houses and Clans, especially of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. That alone made quite a few purebloods in the school go crazy with the two houses wrapped in eternal rivalry being the loudest. Led by Ronald Weasley and Draco Malfoy, those discontented with Harry Potter demanded proof of his bloodlines, something the goblins took glee in proving and charging them in the process. When a few tried to get physical with Harry, they found themselves dragged to the Ministry for questioning, mostly for their own safety from the goblins who take their client's protection very seriously. A few of the older students ended up getting a few days in the DMLE cells for harassment, while the younger years got off thanks to his network.
To add further insult to Dumbledore, Harry claiming the House of Gaunt allowed him to authorize the goblins to inspect the lands and check the finances. This led to the goblins to find the horcrux made from the Gaunt Ring which he suspected to have the Resurrection Stone, and they remove the both of them while giving Harry a replacement ring for the house. At the same time, Sirius got the goblins to strip his ancestral home of dark objects and curses, thus leading to the discovery of another horcrux that was apparently taken by Regulas Black from Voldemort's secret cave. With the two in their hands and at least two destroyed, the goblins were now convinced that Voldemort had created multiple to ensure his longevity and set out to find and destroy them all.
Curses! The release of Sirius and Harry's attaining of Lordships had led to more horcruxes being destroyed. This was going too quickly, there needed to be at least one for Harry to search for, and for that matter seek Dumbledore's guidance. At least Dumbledore could be assured of the one in Harry's head, but there may still be one or two more. And if the goblins found the one in Harry, his plan would be ruined!
And the part that gave Dumbledore a major headache was the portion of laws set aside for anyone who had obtained a number of houses. Because Harry was now the head/heir of many houses, laws set aside by Merlin himself stated that he must have at least one wife per family to preserve the family line and magic, further enforced with the Founder's Family Lines included. Despite the objections of the Dark Families led by Nott and a few Light Families led by Dumbledore or other stubborn fools, the other members in the Wizengamot were adamant to ensuring the boy got his positions and seats. Not even Dolores's pathetic attempts to circumvent his ascension could stop the support, especially when the populace rallied to let Harry take it up. This got further support when Harry at Sirius's advice showed the memory of him being forced into the tournament with the woman stating that he was to be considered of-age to attend, alongside video footage from the recording crystal.
Coincidentally, Sirius also showed the bit of Dolores insulting Lily Potter and other people related to Harry, making her a very disliked person in the country as many remembered Lily in their year and did not enjoy someone smearing her name in that manner. Snape, Flitwick and apparently Slughorn made their displeasure very clear by using their expertise to make Dolores's life very miserable.
He would give Flitwick an O for ingenuity and originality, while Snape and Slughorn an E for sheer cruelty. Dumbledore never knew how a person's body could sprout that many appendages or bend in such a manner.
Harry in a brilliant move made some of his allies the proxies of the families that he could would have trouble fulfilling due to his need of understanding for the darker families and needing to fulfill particular conditions upon his physical age, giving them power to change a fair number of laws that had stagnated the society, making Harry effectively quite the shadow king especially with Sirius as the proxy for Gryffindor, Amelia for Ravenclaw and Cyrus for Slytherin. His association with Gringotts also got boosted to new heights since he was now the most lucrative customer the goblins have at the bank, and in a move that shocked many humans and goblins alike, Harry gave the account managers a great deal of control of the vaults for them to invest and practically ordered them to take a higher percentage of the profit investments for their payment. His words to them were simply "Make me money, as long as it is not illegal."
That was perhaps the first time Dumbledore, or anyone for that matter, ever saw the goblins cheered and tossed their parchments in the air with a few linking their arms and dancing in the Diagon Alley. Ragnok himself brought out their hardest liquor to celebrate that moment for everyone to partake, especially since Harry went to Ragnok to ask for advice and grant him access to one of the higher security vaults to return the goblin-made artifacts and weaponry as a sign of good gesture. Ragnok looked ready to worship the very ground Harry walked on for that generous gift.
If that was not bad enough, Harry Potter now has legal right to not be in Hogwarts because he was registered under a different school, with the words 'Salem Exchange' evident on the parchment Dolores used to write his name with Karkoroff's piece helping with the name. That also gave Harry the chance to enforce that he was not going to steal Cedric's, and by extension Hufflepuff's, chance for glory as Ron and Draco kept trying to say. Ragnok worked with the Law-Wizards representing the Black, Greengrass, Bones and Longbottoms to help Harry on that front when Rita reported about his involvement and tried to insinuate Harry of cheating. Dear old Rita got sent to jail for this and got her sentence extended when they found out about her animagus abilities to spy on others, even in the bank. It was a bit of a toss which would be worse for her, Amelia's punishment or Ragnok's eternal dung shoveling.
Professor Babbling and Professor Flitwick were the first to point out that since he was registered under a different school, there was nothing to stop them from teaching Harry, even with Dumbledore attempting to enforce that they can't help Harry since he was still residing in Hogwarts. This brought in support from Minerva and Hagrid to help Harry, the latter who had trouble with the term 'subtlety'. At least Professor Sprout was not aiding Potter too much, since she was helping Cedric in her own way but even she was making sure that her Hufflepuffs were not antagonizing Mr Potter. One Ernie Macmillan and one Justin Finch-Fletchley learned this the hard way when they were found wearing the badges made by Malfoy. One month's worth of detentions and 30 points each made sure of that, with Malfoy getting other punishments.
Curses, this was totally going out of hand! Harry was gaining power fast, power that Tom could only dream of having at his age that quickly. Harry was likely going dark now, he needed to be contained.
Harry must be controlled… For The Greater Good!
~~Act 4~~
Dumbledore made good use of Harry's forced entry to modify the tasks of the tournament, using the excuse that this would first help to clear doubts that Harry would know of the tasks beforehand and to make sure that it was reflective of the skill-sets used by the four.
The first task came quite quickly and Dumbledore made sure the task was difficult enough to force Harry's hand at some point. Originally the task involved getting past a dragon to get an egg, but Dumbledore added a spin of his own by having the champions deal with wards restricting their access and the terrain changing constantly, forcing them to work under the clock to get to the egg before getting roasted by dragon fire. Not an easy task for seventh years, certainly a nightmare for Harry. Just enough to make Harry sweat but not too much.
He tried to get some of his chosen 'students' to approach Harry and give him advice, but the boy figured it out with his female companions and devised a safer approach of getting the egg, with quite a few able to bypass quite a number of the obstacles, darn it!
Dolores on the other hand decided to go for destruction from the start by making sure the meat served to the dragons was tainted enough to increase their aggression, then making sure the safety barriers were set to ensure no outside party could interfere under the excuse of keeping the dragons in control. As a bonus, she even interfered with the chains holding the creatures back after ensuring which slot Harry would be taking, and bribed one of the handlers to interfere with the terrain rune. That meant Harry had to deal with at least two dragons in quick succession with a third coming from behind when he was about to grab the egg while the others were stuck outside trying to help him. Harry however was able to stall the dragons enough for Professor Babbling and a few of the girls to remove the runes interfering with the barriers. The biggest surprise to all was Harry using Parseltongue to calm the dragons down and letting their handlers know about the tainted meat.
Of course Dolores was quick to say that Harry should be disqualified for having people interfered in the task, and be arrested for using dark spells and what not. She even got Aurors by her side and demanded that him to be in cuffs. Sirius and Remus had pointed out with a dangerous glint in their eyes that being the Heir of Slytherin allowed Harry to access some magic, including the use of Parseltongue. Furthermore, they pointed out that Harry may have been using borderline dark spells, but as shown he had to deal with 3 dragons chasing after him while the barrier interfered with the rescue. With the spectators as their witnesses and with the recording crystal displaying the footage, Dolores had no choice but to drop the charges and keep him in the competition. She got her petty revenge by giving him 2 points, while the rest of the judges gave Harry higher. Karkoroff gave the full set while looking like he had seen a ghost, likely drawing parallels to his former master.
As much as he hated to admit, Dumbledore had to tip his hat to the Marauders for using the Slytherin House as a cover for Harry's abilities. No one would question it at all, damn it!
When the Yule Ball was announced, Dumbledore knew there was going to be trouble of some sort. He was right about the trouble that came in the form of a Daily Prophet article proclaiming the different betrothals of families for Harry Potter. It seems that Harry had gotten along with the first group of friends so well that Sirius and their parents or guardians got together, discussed with a few drinks, get drunk on more drinks, the men brawling and women crying tears with more drinks, and finally got their act together to form marriage and concubine contracts for them so that all sides could be protected.
This made Daphne Greengrass, Tracy Davis and Susan Bones to name a few very happy as they had been inundated with offers for the past few years, with the darker families trying to use a lot of pressure for the first three while some of the older 'Light' families who believed in the pureblood propaganda tried to make Amelia sign a Consort agreement with the worst conditions made. Harry with Sirius made sure that the girls were protected by making contracts with enough escape clauses for them to ensure they were given free will to leave if necessary while ensuring that no one could interfere with them. Dumbledore suspected that Remus and Sirius leaked the information about the other families as they found themselves getting marginalized with the amount of dirt on them, with the 'Light' Families going after Susan and the others getting the stink eye from a few and investigations by an enraged Amelia who took great pleasure in throwing their behinds into jail cells.
Woe betide the one that pissed off a DMLE head, especially when the troop of Aurors were surrogate uncles to said niece.
As for how the ladies respond to this protection, it made for quite the scene with the girls actively snogging Harry in the Great Hall with everyone present and with the crystal recording that bit. Daphne and Susan were particularly enthusiastic with their appreciation and Sirius amidst all the laughing he was giving out had to turn the recording off to keep the images 'PG', whatever that meant.
Dumbledore thought this could be the break he needed to get Harry to his side. After all, Harry should know girls from the Light Families and perhaps some Grey of his choosing, but he would make sure that Harry drop the whole nonsense of keeping the Dark Family Lines, the boy should not be associated with them after all. And at least he could try to broker a contract with the Weasleys.
But alas, he could not even get near to the boy and quite a few of the families were now safe from exploitation. The boy made it clear he was not opposed to the dark side, merely those who dared to propagate the pureblood propaganda. That attitude, his Houses and Nobility, and his associations with the ladies made it clear to everyone that he was going into the Grey Faction, something that was certainly beneficial for those on the Wizengamot that wanted a mix of both sides to get things done. But to Dumbledore, all that meant was Harry going dark and out of his control even more.
Harry was now becoming of an obstacle that could not be allowed in his plan for the Greater Good.
Perhaps… it was time to consider the alternative.
It was time to take Harry Potter out of the equation and use Neville Longbottom instead.
It would need some convincing for Ginny Weasley, but it should be feasible. The girl seemed more attracted to the fame and fortune of the whole Boy-Who-Lived thanks to Molly's raising, so pointing her at Neville's direction was not too problematic since the boy was supposedly unattached. But when the girl tried to get near Neville with potions, she got verbally rebuffed by the boy, and later physically rebuffed by his female friends looking out for him in the form of Hannah Abott, Mandy Brocklehurst and… Millicent Bulstrode?
Dumbledore admitted to taking off his spectacles, rubbing his eyes, checked the spectacles for defects and later charms, checking himself for compulsion and confundus charms before scratching his head in confusion.
Apparently Mr Longbottom had girlfriends looking out for him as well in the same disturbing manner as Mr Potter's friends. Those girls were certainly close to Neville, but the last one was someone he did not expect. Not to be rude, but the girl was… 'beauty' challenged?
That said, this was really getting out of hand! Why were both of his pawns being so uncooperative?! Longbottom was also getting more confident with Harry helping him out with his lessons, while Augusta was actually turning back to the old Augusta that rain terror on her opponents. This was bad!
As one might expect, Harry's association with the ladies made getting dates for the Yule Ball very problematic, and the disgruntled males made it very clear by trying to attack him. Harry was able to take on the vast majority but definitely had issues with the upper year students, who were repelled by Katie Bells and her year group. Those in Harry's year seemed to have a taste for hexing the family jewels, with Miss Greengrass demonstrating her namesake 'Ice Queen' with sadistic glee.
In addition to that, a few other girls started to hang around Mr Potter due to the attitudes displayed from many disgruntled males who attempted to force them to be their dates or future spouses, such as Pamela Alton and Helen Dawlish of Ravenclaw, Leanne Simmonds and Isabella Tintwistle of Hufflepuff, Alison Denshaw and Demelza Robbins of Gryffindor, and finally Imogen Stretton and Alana Runcorn of Slytherin.
Seriously, what was with Potter males and their absurd ability to attract women like honey?! And on that part, would it kill Harry Potter to at least let Ginny or any of his other plants get in?!
And so it made for a very odd Yule Ball where the majority of the disgruntled males had to make do with those from the other schools and those in Harry's group took turns to dance with him, with only Cedric Diggory and Victor Krum the only exceptions to have one dance with some of the others. It was somewhat amusing to see Harry Potter wearing himself out trying to dance with every female related to him. If the rumors were correct, Harry slept past nine in the infirmary from sheer exhaustion alone with a helping of muscle wear potion for his feet.
Serve that boy right!
For the Second Task, Dumbledore modified it such that the contestants needed to go to four different locations to get their objectives in an attempt to split them up so that no one could help Harry, each location being heavily warded to ensure difficulty for them. Said objectives would be hostages, but that was a problem since the judges were not sure whom would be considered as the person they missed the most, even though Ludo Bagman had proposed using the dates of the contestants. Also the bit of 'Not needing permission' proved to be a sticky point for all involved especially with Sirius and Amelia breathing down their necks.
Thankfully for Dumbledore, Dolores did not bother with the whole morality issue and went ahead with her 'plan', which he gave some suggestive hints, basically kidnapping the students without their parental permissions. She clearly had it out for Harry and those whom she considered as unworthy to the pureblood cause, as she used Hermione Granger for Victor Krum, Cho Chang for Cedric and Miss Greengrass for Harry, while she apparently stunned and nabbed the younger sister of the french contestant. With a listening charm, Dumbledore found out that the woman was going to use the Mer-people to attack both Harry and Miss Delacour under the fake pretense that the Ministry would ease up on their chasing out of their kind in exchange for an 'accident' to occur to them both. She would even attempt to tamper with the spells used to keep the hostages under suspension so that they would break earlier.
Too bad for her, Harry Potter had trained quite a fair bit for this task, and with everyone chipping in, they made sure that whoever got caught would be found quickly and not be under duress. Through the viewing crystal provided by Sirius and Remus company, the people could view the contestants getting to their spots, with Mr Potter showcasing his talent with Runes to remove the wards and get to Daphne in the nick of time as the spell apparently worn off, making her wake up prematurely. Harry barely had time to cast a Bubble-Head Charm on to her before he had to defend from the attacks of the Mer-people. He managed to get her free and used a banishing charm on their attackers before getting her to safety. Along the way he went to assist Miss Delacour in getting her sister out, followed shortly with Mr Diggory and Mr Krum who had issues because of the preservation charms interfering with their attempts. It was rather surprising to all when the Grey Lady and Moaning Myrtle appeared to aid in rescuing the hostages by distracting the Mer-people from attacking them.
Again, Dolores tried to use this situation to get Harry disqualified and arrested alongside Fleur with the excuse that Harry used his wand to attack 'innocent creatures with unnecessary violence' and 'interference with other champions'. Not a single person there missed the hypocrisy of her words and actions, and him alongside the other judges gleefully pointed out it was her who managed the whole deal. Her situation got more complicated when Mr Delacour, Prime Minister of France and father of Fleur Delacour, came storming into the scene demanding why his youngest daughter was held hostage without his permission. It did not take long to have a gleeful Amelia Bones and her troop of blood thirsty Aurors swoop down to get her into custody for child endangerment and kidnapping of a political personnel.
Really, how on Merlin's shores did Dolores Umbridge ever got a position in the Ministry?
Then again, if the rumors were true, there was a reason why she was 'Under'-secretary to the Minister.
Oh by Merlin, he must purge his mind of those images! It was for the Greater Good of his sanity!
~~Act 5~~
It was some time after the second task when Dumbledore thankfully purged his minds of the Dolores and started looking through documents pertaining to Family Lines that the situation really went wrong to the point Dumbledore started to question whether there was a higher power working against him for the Greater Good.
He found out that one of the family clans that Harry inherited had a magic that allowed for the complete recovery from any known potions, poisons or spells. This could be a great boon for Dumbledore, as not only could Harry enforce his image as the hero, but with this power in the Order, Dumbledore could take on Voldemort and be victorious!
It was at that point when his contact from Saint Mungo floo-called to tell him about the arrest of the Healer in charge of the Longbottoms, something that made the old wizard curse in anger. He got the Healer of his choice, with plenty of oaths and compulsions to keep his identity safe, to monitor the Longbottoms and drugged them accordingly to ensure they would not awaken from the eternal coma, and even got a cure (poison) in the event he had to use Neville for his cause, but with his arrest the Longbottoms won't be sedated for long, and if Harry was there, there was a high chance for them to recover and make sure Dumbledore could not get to him.
But as he was contemplating this, the same contact called again to tell him about Harry Potter arriving to try and heal them. This made his heart stop for a moment. This cannot be, the boy should not be bringing the Lngbottoms back to full health. It was bad enough that Sirius Black was there to take care of Harry as his godfather, having Alice Longbottom back as the godmother was a major disaster.
No, he cannot let this happen for the Greater Good!
Try as he might, Dumbledore only got to the hospital in time to find Harry bringing forth his newly attained family magic to cure the Longbottoms of their ailments, flushing out all the toxins and removing the after effects of the curse. Dumbledore could only focus on his Occlumency shields and congratulated them for their recovery before he returned to destroy his furniture in a fit of rage. That blasted boy had destroyed a fair number of his plans, this was intolerable.
No matter, the end was coming and likely the arrival of Voldemort. Once he returned, Dumbledore shall decide whether to keep Mr Potter or remove him in favor of Mr Longbottom.
It was all… For the Greater Good!
~~Act 6~~
The day of the Third Task had arrived, and Dumbledore made sure he pulled out the stops to ensure that there was no doubt to others that no one could cheat with the amount of changes he had placed there while making sure that Harry would get the short end of the stick. The original task involved a maze in the Quidditch Pitch, filled with different creatures and wards to challenge them before the winner could grab the cup that was in the center. Dumbledore had altered it such that the supposed maze was now hovering inside a special runic array that allowed for the constant shifting of the maze to test the competitors' directional skills, and at the end of it would make the bottom drop to release all the creatures and competitors unless the winner touches the cup. Dolores who somehow managed to escape the trials set for her went for the final stretch herself by bribing a worker to modify the runes such that the time would be shortened and the maze would collapse in on itself, killing all inside thus ensuring the death of Harry Potter while writing it off as a tragedy of the tournament.
There was also the bit where the cup got the coordinates altered to go to whatever location the champion would be taken, and Dumbledore suspected this was the bit where Voldemort would make his move to get Harry, so Dumbledore would have to adjust accordingly to make sure Harry gets taken to him to bring him back to physical form and ready to for Dumbledore to claim victory.
Surprisingly, the four champions decided that it would be more ideal to work together as opposed to competing with one another, setting the scene through the recording crystals of the four alternating tasks to get to their destination, where as one they grabbed the disguised portkey well before the time limit.
Not quite what he had in mind, but Dumbledore would take it. Harry Potter was now on his way to Voldemort as suspected!
Unexpectedly, the recording crystals following the champions tagged along for the ride, showing the scene of a graveyard where Death Eaters were waiting to attack whoever came over, but did not anticipate all four to arrive. Between them, they managed to take down quite a few before more Death Eaters came forth to overwhelm them. Harry manged to get the trophy cup to the others, getting them to safety but got captured in the process. And so on live screening, Magical Britain got to see the resurrection of Voldemort in all of his glory.
Perfect, now that the villain has returned, it was time for Dumbledore to make his mark! Now to see whether Harry would be his weapon or his obstacle. He would take that time to meddle with the rescue efforts made by Sirius and the others so that they could not interfere.
That choice got muddled once Voldemort finished his little speech to his group and ordered them to remove the restraints on Harry Potter and return his wand for a duel. Harry decided not to comply fairly and went straight for lethal attacks, surprising everyone in the audience and especially the Death Eaters and Voldemort, likely under the assumption that he would never use lethal spells to fight. It said something of the situation that when Harry got in a good hit and injured Voldemort heavily, forcing him to retreat with a few of the other Death Eaters. That was when Sirius, Amelia and a few others got to the site to save Harry and take note of those he had killed, before returning him back to Hogwarts.
This cannot be happening! How can these people be cheering at the fact that Harry was using lethal force to take down Death Eaters, he was to be the Golden Boy-Who-Lived who should forgive his enemies and ultimately be sacrificed for the Greater Good! Yet the boy was unrepentant at taking down Malfoy, Avery and other Dark affiliated families, and in the process ending a few bloodlines in the process aside from a few who still had heirs for the moment. And if he was not mistaken, he may end up inheriting those same families by right of conquest.
Harry Potter was certainly going dark, this was not acceptable. It would seem the horcrux in him was corrupting him, perhaps with the destruction of the others it got stronger. This was to be handled properly, especially now that Mr Potter was gaining too much power and influence.
Harry Potter must be eliminated to ensure the success of his plan.
It must be done… For The Greater Good!
Coming to the end soon.
Also for those DFW fans, I am soon getting the chapter out, so stay tuned!