Chapter 12 - THE FOURTH CHAMPION

Cedric POV

As I entered the champions room I saw both the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champion standing stoically next to the fireplace. They kept there distance and were seemingly ignoring each other.

Seems like I am needed to break the ice!

I walked over to greet the two of them. When I shook hands and introduced myself to Krum, it was okay. However, when I shook hands with Delacour, I almost wanted to jump her pants and make out with her. There was some sort of aura around her.

Maybe that is why Krum kept his distance! She must be a veela!

I mustered whatever strength I had to move away from Delacour and stood near one of the glass cabinets near the fire in the room. Seconds later the door had opened.

The judges were about to explain the first task!

To my surprise, instead of judges... in came Harry Potter. He seemed slightly angry. Although his face was not showing it, I could feel the irritation role off him. Delacour then took a few steps forward and called at him.

"What iz zee matter, do zey want us back in zee hall?

Harry didn't respond, he waved his wand at the door he just came through. His slight anger from before had recoiled a bit. Then Dumbledore, the school teaching staff and the rest of the other School Headmasters, along with the two Ministry Officials, Barty Crouch, and Ludo Bagman came rushing in.

"Harry!"

Dumbledore rushed Potter immediately once he got into the room.

"Did you put your name in the Goblet of fire?"

"No sir" replied Potter.

He was now calm... it seems he had quelled his earlier annoyance. I thought Potter was quite emotional... many people have spread stories of how he and Snape would go at it in potions, and how Potter lost many house points for Gryffindor before...

"Did you ask an older student to do it for you?"

"No sir" repeated Harry.

"Are you absolutely certain?"

"Yes sir"

The Headmistress of Beauxbatons then slammed a light that was hanging from the ceiling. It was in the way of her head as she was so tall.

"Butz of corz he iz lying!" yelled Madam Maxime.

Harry didn't seem at all bothered by the commotion and arguing until Professor Moody starts speaking. He interrupted Karkaroff of this being a conspiracy theory.

"THE HELL HE IS! The Goblet of Fire is an exceptionally powerful magical object, only an exceptionally powerful confundus charm could have hoodwinked it... Magic way beyond the power of a fourth year..."

Karkaroff walked in front of Professor Moody and stared him in the face.

"You seem to have given this a bit of thought Mad-Eye!"

Professor Moody growled slightly.

"It was once my job to think as dark wizards do Karkaroff, perhaps you remember?"

Dumbledore then angrily cut in between them to stop the squabbling.

"That doesn't help Alastor!"

Dumbledore strode over to where the two Ministry officials were standing.

"I'll leave this to you, Barty..."

I looked over and saw Harry's eyes snap up to look at him.

"The rules are absolute... The Goblet of Fire constitutes a binding magical contract... Mister Potter has no choice! He is... as of tonight... a Tri-wizard Champion".

The room then descended into chaos once more. This time it was even harder to stop. I looked over at both Krum and Delacour. Delacour seemed reserved, or slightly worried even that there was a fourth competitor.

She can't be scared of Potter right? Although he did beat Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup... but could you trust the over exaggerated stories from the Daily Prophet? Of course not!

Krum looked like he could care less. Finally, the squabbling came to end, Dumbledore told everyone to leave, whilst having Harry remain behind. As I walked out the doors and back to my common room, I couldn't help but feel a little bad for Harry. He was just forced into this competition... where he could potentially die.

Harry POV

Oh, I want to expose your ass so badly right here right now Barty... you son of a...

I previously had waved my hand to put down a ward that helped me isolate fake Moody's magical aura. His bloody aura was like a brightly lit light bulb, probably cause of his natural magical aura, his magical artifacts like his eyeball, and the blasted polyjuice potion!

"Common Harry, we discussed this... you will tell Dumbledore of your discoveries and try figure out what his objective was before you expose him!" said Godric.

Yeah! Clearly trying to kill me by entering me into the tournament was his plan!

"No Harry... if he wanted to kill you, he would have done so by now. He could have asked you to stay behind in class and just surprised you with an Avada Kedavra..."

! Thanks, Godric!

"My point is... there is something else at play, right now us knowing he is an intruder benefits us... whilst he has no idea that we know... we can figure out his true motive".

As much as I hated Godric's idea, it did make logical sense. I was trying my hardest to not show my absolute irritation on my face when Moody was talking, and the other people in the room were arguing. Once Dumbledore shut them down, only him and I remained in the room.

"Fawks!" called Dumbledore.

The phoenix then appeared on his shoulder. Dumbledore held out his arm for me to take. I grasped it, and in a burst of flame, we teleported to his office. Once we were there, Dumbledore immediately began talking.

"I assume Harry, that you had an idea of who had entered you into the tournament... you seemed a lot more calm than usual..."

"Yes, sir... However, I would like to explain my theory from the start if you won't mind..."

I summoned my wand into my hand and quickly casted muffliato and multiple sets of detection spells of any form of listening devices that were listening into Dumbledore's office.

Nothing... we were a hundred percent talking without somebody overhearing our conversation.

Dumbledore grimly nodded his head as I took out the Maurder's Map and proceeded to explain my theory of Moody and Polyjuice.

Around an hour had passed. Dumbledore seemed impressed by the map, but later became very serious when I showed him the nametags of Barty Crouch and Alastor Moody. Both were near each other in the DADA classroom. We discussed many things about Professor Moody and Barty Crouch.

There were two Barty Crouches! One junior and one senior? Interesting...

Dumbledore finally brought the conversation to a close as he insisted that I return to my common room now, it was getting late.

"I understand how grave the situation is Harry... I must offer my sincerest apologies, I seemed to have overlooked your report of Alastor last month and now you are forced into this tournament..."

Dumbledore's eyes had lost its twinkle for a moment.

"... However, I do agree with you and Godric's plan. Knowing that the imposter is acting as Alastor gives us an advantage. Perhaps in time, we will know why he is impersonating Alastor. We know the real Alastor is at Hogwarts thanks to your Map... this matter on Barty Crouch though... I will look into and Owl you back soon".

"Thank you sir... this is going to be a tough time... I want to expose this imposter so badly, but I must suppress my desire to bring him to justice to learn why he did this to me..."

"Indeed, however, I do not think it will be very long, based on what you have told me, the pieces of the puzzle have already begun falling in place. It has been clear that his aim is not to harm students or staff as if it were, he would have done so already... I have a good couple of guesses as to why he entered you into the tournament, but now it is all about confirmation of my guesses..."

"Yeah... well... at least tournament shouldn't be too much of a problem, sir, after all, I am quite far ahead in my magical studies".

I wanted to lighten the mood a bit as things seemed to have gotten too serious. Dumbledore looked at me for a moment before a smile graced his lips. There was a mad twinkle in his eyes.

"If it were anyone else, I may have been very worried... However, you remarkable improvement in magic has led me to believe that you are best suited for the situation you have been put in... very well then, goodnight Harry, I will get back to you soon!"

"Goodnight sir!"

I walked out of Dumbledore's office and started heading back to Gryffindor Tower.