CHAPTER 12 – The Goblet of Fire and the First Task
After all the initial turmoil, the next few days were much calmer. Amelia was still guarding the Riddle mansion, but the movement was small, restricted to the purchase of food and some other items, by what they could observe. Lucius spent most of his time away, while Snape, on the other hand, did not leave the mansion once.
At Hogwarts the mood was festive, except for a few Slytherins, desperate to lose their greatest ally in school and horrified by the sudden invasion of Muggle goods. With the cheerful mood and the students (at least most) even more eager to learn, Albus Dumbledore was waging a solitary battle to try to stop those changes. His own employees were constantly upsetting him, and with the Board of Directors also contrary to his ideas, the old mage had to accept defeat, at least for the time being.
As for the attacks and bullying, only one more attack was directed against Pansy, but several attempts were made against the younger students. Since it was no use waiting for appropriate punishments by the faculty, the group took on the role of putting some pressure on the attackers. Their wands were destroyed and their names, with a description of the offenses committed, forwarded to the Weasley twins. Few of them ever tried anything again. Because teachers were limited in the punishment they could give these students, they took advantage of the loss of the wand and the disruption that the pranks done by the twins caused as a reason to take some more points and determine some more detentions for the attackers.
To the headmaster's surprise, Sirius and Harry attended the meeting he had asked for a week after their last meeting. It lasted a short time, with Harry spending most of the time pleasing Fawkes while Sirius and Dumbledore quickly came to a new impasse and said goodbye to each other, disenchanted with the stubbornness of the other. Dumbledore did not even realize that the real reason for Harry's presence and staying with Fawkes was the opportunity to install and camouflage a spy mirror in the headmaster's office.
The group was now relatively stable. Of the 293 students currently attending Hogwarts, 142 were actual members of the group, taking the standard oath and receiving access to almost all available information, while another 98, mostly students from the first two years, were aspiring members that gave just a basic oath of secrecy and mutual help, and received access to only part of the information.
The core of the group was still mostly the ones gathered during the summer, plus a few new members who stood out for one reason or another, such as Alicia Spinnet of Gryffindor, Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff or Brenda McCartney of Ravenclaw.
If the first weekend had already been a bicycle hit, the first weekend with a visit to Hogsmeade surpassed any expectations. Only half the usual number of coaches was needed to get the students to the magic village, and only a fraction of them returned with students to school. If the teachers realized how many students left without but returned with a bicycle, they did not comment with the children.
None of the adults gave any sign of having noticed the change from Crouch Junior to the real Alastor Moody. The old Auror, despite his gruff and rude appearance, was taking a liking to teaching and was helping the children who showed interest not only with his own knowledge but also acting as a facilitator to put them in contact with the teachers of their favourite subjects. The group made use of this willingness of the teacher to achieve the creation of various study and research groups on topics taught at school.
A few days after the celebration of Hermione's birthday, Harry was approached by a nervous and timid Dobby (which shocked the boy by his shyness) with a different request. The Winky elf, who had belonged to Crouch, was desolate because she had lost her family. This problem was easy to solve with Astoria and Daphne taking the elf, which gave the girls an additional level of protection in Slytherin. But this reminded Harry that Crouch's father had taken away his son from Azkaban, creating a very dangerous situation. It hurt a little the boy's sense of justice to know that old Crouch would escape without punishment due to the need to keep a secret about the true Alastor and on Crouch Junior's final destiny.
Not that Harry was ever going to charge, but Dobby paid royally for their kindness to Winky. Finding they were in need of a safer place for their meetings and training, the enthusiastic elf showed Harry the Room of Requirement, something the group soon considered the greatest and most complex magical accomplishment of all time. Nothing they knew compared to that room. The ability it has to extract from their minds what they wanted and to materialize that desire with such precision was something that supplanted even the legendary deeds attributed to Merlin. Still more, the room was able to open passages to any place inside the castle and, in one of its configurations, was serving as depot for items lost for many centuries. The group was arranging all those items, retrieving many rare books for the Island library, as well as items of monetary, artistic or historical value, but the great surprise was finding there one of Voldemort's horcruxes: Rowena Ravenclaw's beautiful tiara, which that abject being had irreparably tarnished.
Luckily Voldemort's plan did not anticipate contact with Crouch Junior except in some really emergency case. Amelia had discovered that one of the protections installed in the Riddle mansion required the presence of Voldemort's mark so that the person could enter with impunity. Alastor would have problems if he needed to report directly.
The question the group was most concerned with was the Triwizard Tournament. In order for Alastor's situation not to be revealed, it would be necessary to enter Harry into the tournament, but his entry certainly would result in much criticism and bad publicity against the boy.
-o0o-
Harry almost arrived late for the reception to the visiting schools. He had spent the night in the Room of Requirement with Morag, and had spent far more energy than he had expected. Interesting as it was always the quietest in public the most demanding in intimacy. This reminded him of Juca Chaves' definition of perfect woman: a lady in society and a slut in bed. Juca complained that his was the exact opposite.
The general opinion of the group was that the arrival of the other schools turned out to be a somewhat too formal and impressive event, but acceptable in view of the character of the competition. The newcomers first entered the Great Hall and chose their seats, Beauxbatons at the Ravenclaw table and Durmstrang at the Slytherin table. To prevent these tables from becoming overpopulated, some members of the group switched tables, those of Slytherin joining Hufflepuff, Ravenclaws to Gryffindor, Luna in Harry's lap.
"All set for tomorrow night, Harry," she said as she filled the same plate for both, putting her preferences on the left and the boy's to the right.
"Yes, everything is ready. What about the article for The Quibbler?"
"Dad already has the new edition printed and ready for shipping, do not worry."
Harry would not worry. He had finally learned the lesson that he now had many faithful and trustworthy friends whom he could count on at any time. He just smiled; happy with that thought.
-o0o-
In the last two days the group members have tried to get closer to the visitors, both to form friendships and meet them in person, as well as to obtain information about the other schools and the countries they attended. Progress was slow; the visitors were reluctant to mingle with the Hogwarts students, they were still too involved in the mood of competition and kept suspicious and reserved.
Halloween night had finally arrived, and with it the selection of competitors by the Goblet of Fire. Fleur Delacour had been chosen to represent Beauxbatons, Quidditch star Viktor Krum would represent Durmstrang and Cedric Diggory, Hogwarts. Harry Potter had also been selected, though no school was quoted, generating vehement protests and accusations from visiting students and staff at the teachers' table, but soon they all fell silent at the sight of the Goblet of Fire throwing up another piece of parchment.
"Draco Malfoy ..." said Dumbledore, turning to Slytherin, trying to remain serious, but his eyes gleaming with malice, "...by the Association of Aborting Androgynous Aberrations."
Half the present population summed up the outraged protests against the farce that became the Tournament, while the other half laughed at the fear and humiliation stamped on the face of the Slytherin who had spent the day telling everyone that he would win the Tournament were it not for the age restriction.
Dumbledore's frustration and sadness was visible when he once again picked up a parchment thrown by the Goblet of Fire.
"For the Retreat of the Risible Reporters Reporting Ridiculous Reports, Miss Rita Skeeter."
In the corner of the Great Hall next to the Slytherin table and opposite the teacher's table, where there was no one until then, now there was a woman in a garishly dressed and more makeup than the one recommended for someone of that age, parchment and pen in hand, loud crying: "What does this means? I did not put my name on that vase of flames! What's going on here, Dumbledore?"
The old headmaster did not even bother to look at that sad figure. Picking up another parchment from the air, he announced angrily, "For the Secret Secretariat of Sly Servants Serving Sordid Services, Mr Bartemius Crouch."
Luckily, this time the Goblet of Fire had gone extinct, indicating no more surprises for that night. Now it was just a matter of Albus to find a way to save his reputation and his position in the midst of that whole mess. As if he had not too much worries already!
-o0o-
In the midst of all that confusion Harry and Cedric were soon dismissed and went to meet the others in the Room of Requirement. It seemed that few adhered to the curfew. The Hall was huge, in the shape of an auditorium, with a small tribune on the opposite side of the entrance door and many rows of chairs, mostly occupied.
"Attention, everyone!" said Harry as he reached the podium. "First of all, my thanks to all those who helped to make this tournament the biggest embarrassment Dumbledore and our dear Ministry ever suffered."
After a pause so that everyone could laugh and congratulate themselves again on success, Harry continued to explain, especially to those who had not been included in the details of the plan so far: "Voldemort wanted me to participate in this tournament as part of a plan for abduct me during the last task. As you know, we discovered the presence of his spy here at Hogwarts and neutralized it by replacing the real Alastor Moody."
Here he paused again to indicate the Auror who, smiling, waved to the students from his place in the last row of chairs.
"Their plan was simple. First, a spell to confuse the Goblet of Fire as to the number of participating schools. Second, put my name, taken from one of the homework signed by me, as sole representative of a fourth school, to ensure that I would have no competitors and would then be forcibly chosen. What we did was expand on this idea so that the population and authorities could not accuse only me of having cheated to get my own inclusion. Then came the idea of including more participants. And these participants were chosen for a good reason. Draco Malfoy has been the biggest supporter of the privileges of the purebloods, and one of the most scathing in insulting all those he considers unworthy of attending school. Rita Skeeter is an animagus in the form of a beetle, and has been haunting the school since the arrival of our visitors. With the amount of special researches and secrets we are dealing with, her presence has become a security issue for our group. Finally, for those who do not know, Bartemius Crouch is the father of the spy that Voldemort had planted here at the school in the place of Professor Moody, and was responsible for the escape of his son from the Azkaban prison."
"How did you get the signature of the adults?" asked someone Harry did not recognize from one of the chairs in the middle of the group.
"Easy. They, like us, were students here at Hogwarts, and the school keeps all examinations of all students filed. A house elf, incidentally my personal friend Dobby here, got the signatures for me from this file."
Dobby, present at one corner of the platform, was embarrassed but immensely happy to receive all that attention. But Harry had not yet finished: "Tomorrow The Quibbler will bring a complete story about today's events, revealing Skeeter's animagus form and placing all the blame for tonight's events on the inefficiency and neglect of Albus Dumbledore and Bartemius Crouch. Fantastic how they got access to all this information and closed a new edition to the point of delivery it the morning after the facts, don't you think?" He concludes, smiling and winking at Luna, who was truly happy. She loved every time her father's publication was able to score a point against The Daily Prophet.
-o0o-
The next day was very busy at Hogwarts. Aurors, Unspeakables and all sorts of Ministry of Magic officials were everywhere, investigating, interviewing students and teachers, examining the Goblet of Fire and the pieces of parchment it had issued, consulting compendiums of laws and tournament regulations, both in the current version as in the previous one, of 1692.
Harry was interviewed and questioned several times. Luckily the night before Halloween he had slept in Gryffindor's dormitory in the sight of his companions, or the secret of the Room of Requirement and the identity of whoever had spent the night with him could be compromised if he did not want to become a suspect in the case.
Luna had another day of great happiness. On the one hand, she was greeted by many for the articles in The Quibbler describing the events, mainly for having completed the matter four days before the events! On the other hand, these same articles have been sold to thirty-seven other publications around the planet. She was now an internationally renowned reporter!
Another one who was having a good time was Daphne. With Harry already a 'graduate', she had resolved to help Neville 'awaken his potential' and 'release the lion that was trapped inside him', as she had expressed herself. Knowing that her father would force her to marry a pureblood, it was in her interest to have at least one acceptable choice available and well trained. The effects were already evident by the continuous smile and greater confidence that Neville had been exhibiting. Not that she had totally left Harry aside, which turned out to be a great lesson to both boys. It was interesting how girls were much more open to sharing affections. The boys were much more selfish. They showed a disposition to fight for the exclusive possession of the girl, treating the other boy as a rival and the girl as a mere object, a prize to the winner; or they tended to abandon the struggle by rationalizing the loss with nonsense like 'she's too fickle', 'she is not worthy' or even 'what a slut!'. The strong friendship Harry and Neville had developed helped them both see that girls should have the same rights; somebody liking someone was not an impediment to like another as well, and the macho trap of using two-and-a-half measures when evaluating the acts of males and females of the species. Daphne, knowing all that long ago, only smiled in satisfaction that another important lesson had been given successfully, and not just to those two. The whole affair had been watched and followed by most of the boys in the group, and even some from outside, and caused a lot of reflections.
-o0o-
Lucius Malfoy had been busy that day too. In the morning, Igor, the mercenary in charge of obtaining a copy of the Daily Prophet of that day, saw the name of his contractor in another publication and brought a copy of The Quibbler to Lucius, who was not at all pleased that his son was enrolled in such a dangerous Tournament. Immediately he started writing and sending letters. First to Fudge, requesting the intervention of the Minister in the protection of his son and complete investigation of the facts. Another to Crouch Junior, in his role as 'Alastor Moody', wondering how his son was included in the tournament. Finally, to his few remaining friends and some Wizengamot members that owed him some favour, urging them to put pressure on the government to intervene at Hogwarts and investigate Dumbledore.
Alastor answered his letter in the afternoon. Briefly, even a little rude, he only claimed to have done as requested: he had placed a Confundus spell so that the Goblet of Fire didn't know the number of participating schools and entered Potter's name. If some students had tried to prank some people and were eventually successful by the effect of the Confundus, it was not his problem. Lucius had no choice but to accept the answer and the rudeness and move on.
During the dinner the Hogwarts inhabitants were surprised by the unexpected visit of the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and a rotund and petite lady dressed in pink whose mere sight made Harry immediately apprehensive.
The minister recognized Dumbledore's presence with a nod of his head and kept the old wizard silent, raising a hand to avoid the amenities that Albus would surely address to him. Turning to his audience as he arrived in front of the teachers' table, the minister went straight to the point.
"What happened here last night was lamentable, and made this august school laughable all over the world. This is an unacceptable situation! The magical government of Britain could not be inert in the face of such shame! That is why I am here to assure you that your government will not be silent on its obligations! This afternoon I signed Educational Decree No. 24 instituting the position of High Inquisitor for Hogwarts and calling for my faithful staff member, Dolores Jane Umbridge, to exercise it."
As the Minister paused to point Madame Umbridge at the students, Susan was telepathically conveying to the core members of the group what she knew about the first High Inquisitor at Hogwarts. In short, the woman was a farce. Born of Muggle mother and wizard, the family had separated before she joined Hogwarts due to the birth of a brother without magic (a squib). Mother and brother returned to the Muggle world, and Umbridge went to live only with his father, trying at all costs to pretend to be pure in blood, telling everyone that his mother was also a pureblood that had died after conceiving her.
Umbridge denied her origin with such force that she was even more fanatical in her defence of the privileges of the purebloods than many members of the oldest and most traditional magical families. For one thing, it was worrisome to have such a person with so much power at Hogwarts, but otherwise they had something against her, a secret she wanted at all costs to hide. It was time to think and decide whether to go straight to the revelation of that secret or guard it as a bargaining item for a propitious occasion.
"Madame Umbridge will have the entire support of my government in the exercise of her new functions," Fudge continued his speech. "Her first activities will be: to lead a thorough investigation into the events of last night; to ensure that no further negative surprises do occur, and finally to make a thorough assessment of the current situation of Hogwarts, from facilities to the curriculum, from teachers and staff to the Rules of Conduct, in order to provide my government with the basis for future interventions if needed."
-o0o-
The meeting of the group leaders was quick that evening, as there was so much to do. Alastor had obtained for them the magical signature of Umbridge. Hermione, Daphne, and a battalion of Ravenclaws would spend the night decoding that signature arithmetically and then proceed to modify some spells and sets of runes to be activated exclusively by her signature. Nothing too dangerous or ostentatious, at least for now. Just enough to delay the activities of the High Inquisitor, so that she could not devote much time to interfering with Hogwarts.
It was still six o'clock in the morning when the Arithmantic group passed the results of their research to their colleagues and went to rest for a while. An hour and a half later, when Umbridge decided to start her first day in the new post, things did not go well for her. Doors refused to open; the corridors presented extremely slippery stretches; voices called her without her being able to identify the origin; her clothes behaved strangely, now seeming too small, now spare in her little figure...
She began to suspect interference the second time when she tried to reach the Great Hall and found herself in a completely different place, with no idea of how she had gotten there or which way she had gone. The Weasley twins, mainly responsibles for those strange events, were almost caught by her for the simple inability to contain laughter.
-o0o-
After the initial surprise with the High Inquisitor, the days went by without much news. Umbridge's work progresses slowly by a series of small incidents that continually forced her to ask a teacher for helps or change her mind about what to do next.
The government remade its accounts and was concerned about the additional spending that four more competitors would bring to the tournament, especially with respect to the first task. The case was eventually settled with the Ministry assuming half the additional costs when Dumbledore, to avoid further bad publicity against his name, agreed to pay the other half out of his pocket.
With the strange circumstances surrounding the tournament, the Bulgarian and French governments demanded, and won, the right to send a few extra staff to Hogwarts, both to ensure the safety of their citizens and to assist in investigations. Umbridge did not like this interference in a subject she considered to be her responsibility, but she had to swallow her sourness and still do her best to 'cooperate' with the foreigners.
Harry learned of this fact before most of Hogwarts. He was sipping his breakfast on Hufflepuff table when a very young musical voice called his name from the door of the Great Hall. Turning to see who was calling him, he saw a little girl running toward him, stopping about a meter away, and making a graceful and elegant courtesy toward him, before turning to speak a mile a second in French.
"Sorry, I thought you spoke French," she explained as she realized the misunderstanding on Harry's face. "I'm Gabrielle, Gabrielle Delacour. Do you remember me? We've traded two letters already!"
Harry remembered all of his little correspondents, three of whom had started studies at Hogwarts this year. The girl took advantage of the recognition to sit on the boy's lap and use the snacks on his plate, while quickly explaining the luck she had. Her father had been summoned to come to Hogwarts as the official representative of the French government and she had insisted and even made a real campaign to come together, which only came about when her mother decided to accompany the rest of the family.
And it was exactly the mother of the girl who was approaching now, leaving the male part of the students in stupor and the female part dying of envy. Apolline Delacour was supposed to be close to forty, but easily passed by a not much older sister of her daughter Fleur.
"Pardon, Monsieur Potter," she began in French, but soon switched to English. "My daughter says nothing more than her willingness to meet you personally since she received her first letter from you. And the little damsel rushed forward to see you leaving me behind."
Gabrielle was busy using the flaps of Harry's robe to try to hide from her mother's gaze. Her presence was only discernible by the long silver curls forming a curtain on Harry's chest, blocking the sight of the rest of her, and the unconcealed giggles that escaped from there.
-o0o-
In the days that followed, little Gabrielle became a regular company with the boy. Susan and Megan had to intervene and talk to the little veela, putting some limits on the behaviour of the child, since Harry, although immune to the charm of veelas, was not immune to the little eyes of a lovely child and always gave way. Still, it was much easier to find Gabrielle in one place than in any other: sitting happily on Harry's shoulders, pointing to everything she saw and asking for explanations that the boy, with practice, was already beginning to provide in French, although a telegraphic French.
If the little girl had already admired Harry so much, she went on to simply venerate him when the boy, taking advantage of the strange and inexpressive wand-weighing ceremony, managed to persuade old Ollivander to sell him a wand for Gabrielle's use, there was a breach that Gabi was French and the law said that 'British citizens could only buy wands from the age of eleven', leaving the situation of foreign children in a legal nimbus.
Harry, or any of the girls who were available when he was in class, started teaching Gabi the simplest spells, entering the theory only when the girl's natural curiosity demanded some explanation. The little girl was conquering everyone with her determination to learn magic as soon as possible in order to 'participate in the adventures' of her hero. Hermione and Padma even attempted to restrain the little girl's impetus a little by passing a few 'homework', but the girl diligently did all the suggested reading and exercises and had great pleasure in showing Harry the grades she got from the two 'serious teachers'.
-o0o-
Finally the day of the first task of the Triwizard Tournament had come. Dragons! Harry even had told Skeeter and Malfoy about the subject of the task in advance, since they seemed to be the only ones left unknowingly when they were ten days away from the task. Draco's lack of concern had Harry intrigued, wondering if the boy knew of any special trick he could use.
Cedric was the first to enter, facing a Swedish Short-Nose. His strategy was already known to the group, which helped him train. Hidden behind a large rock, he quickly transfigured all the surrounding medium rocks into monkeys, who would dash off to pester his dragon except for one that went straight to the golden egg and brought it to his safe position.
Crouch followed suit as a typical government official that he was: arrogant and giving orders as if it was everyone's duty to obey. With a Sonorus activated, he soon shouted, "Bombarda! Back, stupid creature! Reducto! Bombarda! I said back! Bombarda!"
It was an impressive entry ... while it lasted. Crouch's confidence and boldness had taken the huge, unsuspecting dragon by surprise, and for a moment even gave the appearance that the dragon would yield. But Crouch had put all his attention on the face of the dragon, forgetting that it had a mighty tail. After all, it was a Hungarian Horntail. A tail that hit him just below his knees, throwing him violently against one of the side walls of the arena. Luckily, the dragon-keepers were quick and efficient, distracting the beast so that the broken, bloody and unconscious Crouch could be removed.
Fleur then went up against a Common Welsh Green. She did not have much trouble putting the beast to sleep, but ended up with her robes burnt as she passed the dragon's head to collect her egg. Luckily she was able to quickly extinguish the flames and did not quite burn herself.
The next dragon was the largest of them all, the famous Ukrainian Iron Belly. Draco Malfoy stepped into the arena with the haughtiness one might expect from one of the finest examples of the British magical elite, glancing back and forth in search of his rival. Suddenly he stopped to look more closely at two columns that stood in front of him. He looked more and more upwards, curving his neck back until he could see the point where those two columns joined in a powerful structure from which came a ... neck? It was then that he saw the dragon's head and recognized the figure as a whole. Something was wrong! Something was very wrong there! The dragon Hagrid had created was not all that size! It fit into a box that Weasley and Potter could carry alone at the age of eleven!
So far back he had bent his neck that it was easy to fall flat on his back as he soil his pants in fear. From that lying position, when he saw the curious dragon's head approaching his, his only thought before fainting was, "Wait until my father knows about this!" To his good fortune, the odour his body now gave off was so repulsive that the dragon decided to leave aside the idea of taking an out of time snack and opted to wait for its usual non-smelling meal.
Rita Skeeter was totally out of her element there at the entrance to the arena. First, she had a magical wand in her hands. Didn't they know that their favourite weapon was the quill, not the wand? Second, she was becoming news, rather than reporting the news. This was all so wrong! It was then that she saw the beast she was about to face, a Romanian Long-horn, and the beast greeted her with a great roar and a blaze of fire that almost reached her, despite the distance between them. From then on she didn't see anything else until she woke up in the Hogwarts Medical ward.
Krum gave no chance to the Hebridean Black that fit him. He entered casting spell after spell, in a Crouch-style repeat, and ended up hitting the dragon's eyes with a Conjunctivitis spell, blinding the beast. He then made his way to the nest to get his golden egg, but the dragon heard his movements and made a jolt, stepping on some of its own eggs and hitting the chest of the famous Quidditch star with a strong hit of his front paw, proving to all that the boy only knew how to fly with the help of a broom. Without it, the result was several broken bones, plus several points deducted for the broken eggs. Groggy from the fall, he made the audience laugh as he sat staring at the monster and then saying, "It's only game! Vy yu heff to be mad?"
Harry walked quietly into the arena, chewing a gum and waving to his friends in the stands. Positioning himself in the sight of the dragon, but far enough away not to be struck by its flames or to be considered a threat, he drew his wand and intoned: "Accio Golden Egg!"
The spell didn't work, and there were many who laughed at the boy for thinking that such a simple trick could work. Harry did not care. He just took the chewing gum out of his mouth, put a strong sticking spell on it, banished it against the golden egg hard and tried again: "Accio chewing gum!" This time chewing gum and golden egg flew into his hand. He then picked up the egg and left laughing at the astonished face of those who had laughed at him.
