A/N: Hello again. I know it has been a long time since the last update and I apologize most sincerely. I should have mentioned this in the last chapter, but I have moved to a different city and country in the last month. That took much more time and effort than I expected, so I was not able to write. But I am back now and I hope to keep a more reasonable schedule. I also have a few things to say about the story, but they are not essential so feel free to skip them.
I realized after posting the previous chapter that I forgot to write the conversation between Harry and Remus, where Harry tells him about being entered into the Triwizard tournament. Remus is obviously worried but there is nothing he can do about it. And Harry also convinces him to not come to the school for the first task. He thinks it might make people suspicious. I apologize for the oversight. I write scenes out of order sometimes. In my defense, I was sick and didn't proofread the whole chapter before posting.
Also a reviewer asked about Remus and Harry's finances. Remus is working in the muggle world in a company that provides financial services. London, where they live, is considered the banking capital of the world. And banking is a profession that pays well. So it would make sense that Harry, who knows about the muggle world, would suggest such a job to Remus. He could use magic to convince his employers that he had the necessary qualifications. Remus left his old job at the beginning of third year to teach at Hogwarts and took another muggle job when the anti-werewolf laws came out. I know I have mentioned in earlier chapters that Remus still thinks that he is poor. This is because he is paying for Harry to go to Hogwarts (I assume) and also because Remus would need more potions and is in poorer health than the average wizard (which is why, it helps that Harry makes all the potions). In this story, Remus inherited a house from his parents. But he had to sell it because he couldn't hold a steady job. He has a small cabin in the woods where he goes at the full moon and the house he lives in with Harry in London is rented (because buying a house in London costs a small fortune).
After Madam Pomfrey was satisfied that he was not injured, Harry walked out to get his score. But it seemed that Dumbledore had a few questions. Or accusations.
"Mr. Carter, I am very disappointed that you felt the need to cast a dark curse on the dragon," he started.
Harry expected this objection but had no patience for it. "And I am disappointed that you felt the need to risk the lives of four nesting mothers for entertainment," Harry replied.
"He has a point Dumbledore," Karkaroff said with an amused grin.
"I have reversed your spell but that dragon will never recover its full vision," Dumbledore said. Harry wondered if the old man thought he would feel bad about it. He could have died in this task!
It turned out that Dumbledore and Madam Maxime gave him eight out of ten each, the two Ministry judges gave him ten each and Karkaroff gave him four. Harry thanked them politely and walked back to the common room.
He heard that he had performed the best of all the students and was the only one to suffer no injuries.
"What was the curse that you used on the dragon?" Susan asked.
"It was just a curse to cause blindness," Harry said in an irritated tone.
"What's wrong with you? She was just asking a simple question," Justin said.
"Sorry, Dumbledore already accused me of using a 'Dark Curse'," Harry said.
"So what? You were fighting a dragon," Justin objected.
"And this particular curse isn't illegal either," Harry said, smiling to put Susan at ease.
"So why was Dumbledore complaining?" Hannah asked.
"Because he couldn't restore the dragon's vision completely. The curse does some permanent damage. And it gets worse over time," Harry told them.
"But it was only a few minutes. The dragon will still be able to see," Susan said.
"Yes but a few minutes are enough to do some permanent damage," Harry told them.
"So what now?" Justin asked.
"Now we figure out what to do with the egg," Harry said raising the golden egg in his arms.
"You just took that from under a dragon's nose. We're going to have a party. We'll worry about that later," Justin said pulling him into the centre of the common room. He really loved parties.
Harry had spent some time at the party, mostly because he wanted to hear about the performance of the other champions. The rest of Hufflepuff house was only too glad to tell the stories. He listened to them and answered questions on his own performance. His housemates were very impressed, especially the younger students, who had always seen him as the invincible teacher of the self defense group.
Harry was actually starting to feel slightly guilty about the way things were going. He had promised Uncle Moony that he would stay out of trouble and not attract attention. He was clearly not doing that.
But it was not really his fault that he was in this stupid tournament. And Uncle Moony knew about his self defense group and had even said that it was a good idea. Although Harry doubted that he understood the implications of the group. He was on track to have his own vigilante group. And unlike Dumbledore, his group was going to have experience fighting together and taking orders from him. He had taken enough martial arts classes to know that you had to be decisive against a violent opponent.
Now that Harry had survived the first task, he had asked the members of his self defense group to start recruiting more aggressively. Particularly among the younger students. Uncle Moony was worried about the incident at the Quiddich World cup and also about the dream Harry had, where Voldermort had killed someone. He was worried that Voldermort was coming back. And Harry had no doubt that any untrained students would be easy targets for those who supported him.
It was one of the students that had been recruited after casting a wider net that caught his attention. He was walking to the Great hall from Charms when he saw a student who he was quite sure was called Luna Lovegood. He stopped to talk to her because she was walking barefoot.
It turned out that she was prone to blame her missing belongings on nargles. Harry had tried to explain to her that they didn't really exist. He had lost that argument. But Luna was sweet and aggressively non judgemental. Or at least very reluctant to accuse her housemates of taking her shoes and other missing things.
Harry had of course put two and two together. He then separated the Ravenclaw girls at the next meeting of the self defense group. He wondered what they thought the reason was. Some of them probably thought they were going to be asked for help with researching the second task. They were going to get a nasty shock.
"I want to speak with all of you about the serious infestation of nargles in the Ravenclaw girls dorms," Harry started. The girls all looked worried, guilty or scared. He was sure they would have been amused if Luna had said the same thing.
When none of them spoke, Harry continued, "I hope all of you will do your part in eradicating every last nargle. By the next meeting, I want you to make sure that nobody's possessions disappear without an explanation." He kept his tone pleasant but serious.
"After all if the infestation gets worse, who knows whose shoes will walk off next…" The threat was obvious. By now all the girls were looking alarmed. He was now sure that everyone knew about Luna being bullied, even if all of them didn't participate.
Luna it seemed noticed the change in her house and had commented to Harry that all the nargles who seemed to like her things in the past, had finally tired of her. Harry wasted no time in argument about the existence of nargles and congratulated her on getting rid of them.
The next Triwizard tournament disaster was a Yule ball. Harry was very keen to avoid it. But it turned out that Harry could be denied permission to leave the castle at Christmas if he had any prior engagements over the holidays.
Harry had fumed, especially because it meant that he would not meet Uncle Moony until the summer holidays. That too, only if the survived the remaining Triwizard tasks.
But the biggest problem with the ball was that he was expected to dance with a girl. Harry had learnt how to dance, but he had no interest in taking a girl to the ball. In the minds of many young witches, going to a ball with a boy was as good as a marriage proposal. And Harry was apparently the perfect hero. His reputation for being invincible made him the most sought after student at Hogwarts. And that was an impressive feat considering that the Beauxbatons champion was part vela.
Harry had decided that he needed to get a date to the ball as soon as possible and he had the perfect candidate in mind. He asked Luna the day after the ball was announced. She had said yes, much to his relief. And she had not looked even slightly disappointed when Harry said he only wanted to go with her as friends.
And by the end of the week he was in high spirits since Uncle Moony had promised to meet him at Hogsmede.
Harry had managed to lose his friends by going to the used book shop in Hogsmede. He had promised to meet them again in an hour at Honeydukes, but he doubted they would be suspicious if he was even a couple of hours late. A lot of students and even some Professors joked that the hat should have put him in Ravenclaw.
Harry wasted no time in going to a secluded corner of the shop and pulling an Invisibility cloak over himself. He had no idea why Dumbledore had his father's cloak or why the old man had returned it to Sirius. Uncle Moony suspected he was trying to regain Sirius and Harry's trust. But if that was his plan it had clearly not worked.
Harry walked out of the shop behind an elderly wizard. Then he went to the Shrieking shack and waited. Uncle Moony arrived in disguise. He had brought pizza for lunch. They didn't bother cleaning the furniture. He just conjured a table and two chairs.
Harry had already taken a bite of pizza when Uncle Moony said, "An auror came to ask about you."
Harry choked. When he had stopped coughing, he asked, "About me? But why?"
"They were apparently investigating an unusual incident at the school. He didn't even mention the Triwizard tournament. It seems that it's quite common for muggleborns to not tell their parents about the dangerous things at Hogwarts."
Harry was surprised to say the least. But it made sense. Justin had not told his parents he had been pertified. The school had sent someone to tell them that he was suffering from a magical condition and they would treat him soon. His parents had assumed it was a disease and Justin had not corrected them. The reason was obvious. If they knew the whole story, he wouldn't have been able to return to school. Harry decided to think about this later.
"So Kingsley Shaklebolt came to our, or rather, Harry Carter's house to inquire about his life outside of Hogwarts. I told him the same old story. Model student, won a scholarship to a private school, good at at academics and sports, well liked by everyone…"
All of that was true, and Harry hoped the auror asked his neighbors and classmates about him. They would tell the same story and hopefully end his investigation before he found something troublesome. "Did he ask about you?" Harry asked.
"Not much more than the basic questions. I don't think he was interested in me. He didn't suspect anything," he said. Harry let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding.
"Any problems at Hogwarts? Other than the tournament, I mean," Uncle Moony asked.
"Not really. I'm trying to figure out who put my name in the Goblet, but no luck yet," He replied.
"I have no idea what we can do about it either," Uncle Moony said.
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Harry was debating whether he should mention his suspicions.
"Uncle Moony, you said that You Know Who might have something to do with putting my name in the Goblet. Do you think he knows that I'm Harry Potter?"
Uncle Moony dropped his soda glass. He had clearly not thought of this possibility. He pulled out his wand, cleaned up the spill and repaired the glass. His hand was still shaking. "Why do you think that Harry?" he asked.
"Wouldn't it be too much of a coincidence if he was targeting a muggleborn boy who was Harry Potter in disguise, if he didn't know?" Harry asked rhetorically.
"But you're not just any muggleborn boy. You have been teaching people to defend themselves, and you got a Death Eater out of Hogwarts. He has enough reasons to target you even if he doesn't know," Uncle Moony protested. But Harry knew him well enough to know that he didn't believe that.
"Please don't worry about me Uncle Moony, I'll be fine," Harry said trying to reassure him. If Voldermort really knew, there was nothing more they could do about it. Maybe they would go into hiding when he went home for the summer. But he couldn't leave Hogwarts in the middle of the tournament. He didn't want to find out what would happen if he did.
Harry met his friends at the Three Broomsticks at lunch. They were not particularly surprised that had spent the whole morning at the bookshop.
The Yule Ball arrived in no time at all and there was an uproar when everyone saw that Hermione was going with Victor Krum. When they saw who Harry was taking as his partner, McGonagall had to threaten to threaten anyone who didn't behave with being sent to their dorms immediately, before order was restored. Harry thought Luna might actually have some sense of self preservation when she told people that they were going to the ball just as friends.
It seemed all the females at Hogwarts thought themselves better companions than Luna. They often voiced this opinion within his hearing and Harry only resisted the urge to curse them because Luna was doing a spectacular job of ignoring them.
Dancing with her turned out to be fun. It seemed that she loved dancing. And her knack for saying the most outrageous things was very entertaining to watch as long as she was saying the outrageous things to someone else.
Harry was as surprised as anyone to see Hermione with Victor Krum. He would have thought they had nothing in common, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves too.
But surprisingly Hannah and Susan didn't seem to be having fun. Harry had no luck in solving the mystery of their bad mood. They had been excited when the ball was announced, but now they were sulking. He finally gave up of improving their mood and went back to dance with Luna.
Harry had again enlisted his friends in the self defense group to help him with the egg. Cedric was surprisingly the one who gave him the answer. The egg had to be opened under water.
Harry was quite confused about what they were going to take from him. He definitely didn't own anything worth dying for. Not even the invisibility cloak or the broom Sirius had given him. But he would have to participate. So Harry decided to be prepared. He spent his time researching merpeople.
"Harry, why are you researching merpeople?" Susan asked him in the library one day.
"Because they are going to take something from me, and I'm going to have to go to the bottom of the lake to get it back. You don't think they will just give it to me, do you?" Harry asked.
"But what about breathing under water?" Susan asked.
"I'm going to summon scuba diving gear. My dad bought it. I am practicing using it," Harry told her. Breathing under water was a problem that had already been solved, by muggles. He would summon the scuba gear at the start of the task and he would be able to breathe under water.
Susan was worried about using something only muggles used, but Harry had eventually convinced her that it would be safe. Then they both went back to looking up information on merpeople.
Harry was nervous on the day of the second task. But had set his alarm early to make sure he would have time to find out what he needed to retrieve from the merpeople. It turned out he was not missing anything valuable. But as he went down to breakfast he realized that Justin was not in the dorm. He was not at breakfast either. Harry was considering going to Professor Sprout, when Ludo Bagman called the champions to the lake. His friends assured him they would find Justin before the task.
Harry was too shocked to be angry when they told him that he would be rescuing Justin from the lake. He wasted no time in summoning the scuba apparatus. He was the last one in the lake. Cedric and Fleur were using Bubble Headed Charms. Harry had decided against them because they were quite unstable and couldn't be recast under water. There was no air to form a bubble. Krum was using partial transfiguration on himself. It was dangerous under the best of circumstances, and he had done it badly.
In spite of being last in the water, Harry had overtaken all his competitors within ten minutes. He had the advantage of having flippers and a lot of experience swimming. He reached the village where the merpeople lived, and put his atrocious mermish to use. He had read that the merpeople were not particularly violent nor were they interested in money or gold. That meant he didn't want to hurt them and they were unlikely to accept bribes. But they were not capable of much magic. They were quite similar to muggles, except that they lived under water.
Harry said in mermish, "I offer you my help with magic in exchange for my friend." A merwoman who looked like she was the leader asked him, "What can you do?"
Harry it seemed could do a lot for the merpeople. He spent the next half an hour mending broken furniture, enlarging or shrinking clothes and bedsheets and drying herbs. All the practice casting spells under water was well worth the effort.
Harry finally went to the village square where he could see Cedric untying a girl from a statue. He knew that Krum had already rescued his hostage. He wasted no time in freeing Justin. But their time was almost up. He looked around. There was no sign of Fleur.
Her hostage was a child who was still tied to the statue. He wondered if she would really drown after the hour was over. It was unlikely, but he didn't have much confidence in the tournament organisers. He pulled off his scuba gear and approached her. The merpeople tried to stop him, but when he explained what he was doing, they agreed. They didn't want the girl to die in the lake either.
Harry caught hold of Justin's arm and pulled the mouthpiece out of his mouth and put it in the girl's. She didn't wake up but started breathing again. Harry was out of time and kicked off the ground. He cast flotation charms on himself and Justin. Dragging another person out of the water was not an easy task, even with the spells. His lungs were on fire when they finally broke the surface.
The audience was cheering. Harry was relieved to see that Justin had woken up, was not injured and could swim on his own. They were soon out of the water.
Harry was surprised to see Dumbledore having a conversation with a merwoman and then some merpeople brought the young girl out of the water. Fleur went halfway into the lake to take her from them. She seemed surprised by the scuba gear, but ignored it in favor of embracing her sister.
It seemed that the judges were impressed by Harry's actions in helping the merpeople and in giving the oxygen tank to Fleur's hostage. He got a fairly high score. Harry was not particularly worried about scores. He was just glad that nobody had drowned.
Because the rest of the school had not seen what happened underwater, stories of his exploits in the second task were wildly exaggerated. Students were telling each other that he had fought off half the merpeople in the lake to clear the way for the other champions and then rescued both Justin and Fleur's hostage.
Fluer and Gabrielle had thanked him very publically in the Great Hall at dinner adding fuel to the fire. By the end of the week Harry had gotten tired of correcting the stories, and given up.
For the first time since his name had come out of the Goblet, Harry had free time. His self defence group had a lot of members but he had delegated some of the teaching responsibilities, the next task was months away and he didn't have a clue to work out. They were going to tell him what it was a month in advance.
So Harry turned his attention to finding out who had put his name in the Goblet of Fire. He had hoped that the Ministry would investigate and find something. Having a fourth champion in a Triwizard tournament must have upset the other ministries in Europe. But when he asked Moody he said they had made no progress. Moody was investigating, but he had not come up with anything.
Harry decided that instead of thinking like the policemen, he needed to think like the criminals. Instead of asking what was wrong with the security around the Goblet of Fire, he needed to ask, how could someone put Harry's name into it?
The most obvious answer was that it had been someone who was older than seventeen. They wouldn't be stopped by the age line. The person also needed to be good at magic. They had confounded a powerful magical artifact, since Harry had clearly been entered under a fourth school. So Harry doubted it was a current student. He had long since made a list of all the legal adults in the school and decided that they were not likely candidates.
He considered the teachers again. He didn't know Moody, Slughorn or the teachers who taught subjects he didn't take, particularly well. But they didn't seem like likely candidates. None of the current Hogwarts teachers were ever suspected of sympathizing with Death Eaters. None of the students, even the slytherins were likely to be given such a difficult and important task. Nor did he think any of them would take such a big risk.
That left only one option. Someone was not who they claimed to be. But how to find them?
Harry decided on speaking to the students in his self defense group. He first spoke to the ones he knew well. He told them that he was trying to find out who had put his name in the Goblet of Fire. He suspected that someone was impersonating a student and had entered his name. And he asked whether anyone was behaving differently.
Harry soon had a list of suspects. He sent his friends to follow them, and check if they were using Polyjuice Potion. He doubted anything else would work as well.
The first round of investigations yielded nothing useful. Ginny Weasley apparently always acted strangely. But nobody thought she was taking Polyjuice Potion. And she was too young to cross the age line if it was really her.
He then spoke to more students and asked them the same questions. That gave him even more suspects.
It was a first year who gave Harry something promising. One of the Ravenclaw boys was acting strangely for a first year. He would finish his homework in record time. He stayed out after curfew often, but had never been caught, he had no friends and no interest in making any and most interestingly of all, he had a flask that he sometimes drank from but refused to let anyone else drink from it.
A first year was a good choice. Hewould be underestimated by everyone and wouldn't have many friends who knew him well. Harry had him watched and soon enough they were able to find the broom closet where he brewed his Polyjuice Potion. Harry had decided he didn't want anyone else to know what the imposter had to say. Nobody knew he was Harry Potter and he didn't want that to change.
So that weekend, Harry had the "first year Ravenclaw" followed by six members of his self defense group. He didn't seem to notice at first. And since he had chosen to wander the dungeons that morning, Harry had no difficulty in cornering him with four more members of the group. They successfully restrained him, but they had been hit with serious curses. The imposter had stunned two of them, hit one student with a bone breaking curse and another with some kind of suffocation spell.
Harry had the students who had only been disarmed or hit with the jelly legs curse take him into an empty classroom as he dealt with the suffocation spell first. He was able to end the spell in time. He then examined the person hit with the spell that broke bones. He put his broken leg in a splint and gave him Sleke Gro. His bones were in too many pieces to be fixed with spells. Then he revived the stunned students and dealt with the minor injuries. The best kept secret of the self defense group was that Harry was very good at dealing with injuries after a fight.
Harry then went into the classroom to get some answers. He cast Finite Incantem at any students who were still unsteady on their legs and then sent them out. They were understandably reluctant to leave him alone with a man who was so dangerous in a fight. But he had been disarmed and bound and he would be under the effect of Veritaserum. Harry insisted that they leave and they did in the end.
He put three drops of Veritaserum in the boy's mouth. Then he cast Ennervate. The boy woke up blinking.
"What is your name?" Harry asked.
"Barty Crouch Junior," he replied. Harry stared at him. He was supposed to be dead. Buried in Azkaban.
"Why are you at Hogwarts?" Harry asked.
"To enter Harry Potter in the Triwizard tournament."
So he was right. A Death Eater had put his name in the Goblet. He tried to keep his voice calm as he asked the next question.
"How did you know I was Harry Potter?" Harry asked.
"I didn't know," he replied.
"Then why did you put my name in the Goblet?"
"I put Harry Potter in the Goblet. But your name came out," he explained.
Harry hit his forehead with his hand. How could this have happened? Harry Potter went into the Goblet of Fire and Harry Carter came out. Had this happened because of the Fidelius charm?
Harry doubted he would remember what he had heard under the effect of Veritaserum, but he was not going to take any chances. He pointed his wand at the boy and said, "Oblivate." Harry wiped his memory of the ambush and interrogation, so far. He needed to get Uncle Moony's advice. Luckily he had brought is communication notebook.
Harry explained what had happened to Uncle Moony. To say that he was shocked would be an understatement. But he agreed with Harry that the Death Eater had to be Oblivated. Harry gave him a new dose of Veritaserum and proceeded to ask questions suggested by Uncle Moony.
"Why did You Know Who want Harry Potter entered into the Triwizard tournament?" Harry asked.
"Because he is missing and if his name came out of the Goblet of Fire he would have to compete," Barty Crouch replied.
"Why did You Know Who want him to compete in the tournament?"
"The Dark Lord wants him for a ritual to regain his body. Having him compete in the tournament would force him out in the open."
That made sense. "What is the ritual? What's wrong with Voldermort?"
"I don't know."
"What were you going to do if Harry Potter had shown up at the tournament?"
"I don't know."
"What are you going to do now that you didn't find Harry Potter?"
"Stay at the school and spy on the teachers and students."
"What have you done to the student you are impersonating?"
"I sedated him and put him in a cell in the dungeons." Harry got the exact location of the student from him.
Then he proceeded to modify the man's memory. Uncle Moony had suggested that he should change what the man wrote on the piece of paper he put into the Goblet of Fire. Harry changed the name to just Harry instead of Harry Potter.
After that he Oblivated the Death Eater. He told the rest of the students what they were going to do with their prisoner. Then he poured a very mild sedative down the imposter's throat. He then confounded him and told him to go to the Great hall for an early lunch.
Two of them went ahead, and the rest followed the imposter at a safe distance. Fortunately he walked straight to the Great Hall and sat down at the Ravenclaw table, staring blankly at the plate in front of him.
Harry and his friends sat at their respective tables, with their wands pointed at the Death Eater under the table.
It took only a few minutes for the Polyjuice Potion to wear off. As soon as the first year Ravenclaw started turning into an adult wizard, there was pandemonium in the hall. As Harry had instructed them, two of the Ravenclaws who had participated in the ambush had stunned him. Nobody saw them do it in all the confusion and screaming. He lay immobile on the table surrounded by curious students who were pointing and staring.
The crowd parted as Dumbledore and McGaonagall approached. They took him away from the Great Hall, to the disappointment of the assembled students.
Harry had called a meeting to explain what was going on. He explained that the man pretending to be a first year was actually a Death Eater. He was also supposed to be dead. He told his friends everything except that he was Harry Potter.
Later that afternoon, Harry went to the dungeons under the invisibility cloak with Justin. They found the cell empty, which meant that the first year had been rescued. They congratulated themselves on a job well done and went back to the common room.
Over the next few days, it turned out that Uncle Moony was right. Everyone just assumed that Barty Crouch Junior had entered the wrong name into the Goblet. It was after all the only explanation that made sense. Harry thought it was wishful thinking. He was ordered to put in Harry Potter. Why would he not write the full name on the parchment?
Harry did not dwell on the magical world's ability to ignore things right in front of their faces. He spent his time looking up new spells and curses so that he would not be caught off guard the next time he had to fight someone like Barty Crouch Jr. He had ambushed the man with nine friends. And they had still almost lost. Harry was determined that it would not happen again.
A/N: Once again thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed etc. Now that everything has settled down, I should be able to post the next chapter within a week.
Next time: The end of the Triwizard tournament and all the problems associated with it, can't come soon enough for Harry. But for Remus the problems are of his own making.
