"Whose idea was this again?" said the peeved young woman.
"Dumbledore's and his crony's in government."
She looked over at the dark haired young man with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. "I never even signed up for this! They are so going to owe me!"
Harry got a mischievous look, "Well, you're up first, so if you can handle a dragon."
The red head got the same look, "They're sitting in the stands, right?"
Harry's grin was even wider. He also didn't want to be in this. "Oh yes!"
The grins were large. They were huge. They scared the others.
"The first competitor is a true unknown. She has refused to reveal her biography for us to tell you. May I introduce, Lina Inverse!"
Lina came out of the tunnel and set her eyes on the dragon in front of her and shouted. "What do I get paid for this?"
The people in the stands started to mutter at the question. She was in the Tri-wizard tournament, and would be getting fame, and if she won, a fortune.
The judges were not as amused. Many of them were staring and frowning at a competitor trying to get money for competing. This was not something that was polite.
Ludo Bagman was especially not amused. He had too many galleons riding on the events. "Ms. Inverse, you will be paid if you win."
Lina stared at the guy and snorted. "Harry and I didn't enter and we are being forced to compete. In something that will kill us if we are unprepared. Now you want us to do so without compensation?"
Ludo was now looking around and quickly spotted the reporters who were now listening intently. He could just imagine the front page of the prophet in the morning. "I'm afraid the competition is set."
Lina huffed and turned to the dragon and pointed to the stands. "If you don't want a Dragon Slave up your ass, you'll help me with the fools in that stand."
"Miss Lina!" shouted a voice from the audience.
"Forget it Amelia. Just get the sunglasses and hang on to the ground." came another voice.
The dragon looked at the young person in front of her and her throat visibly gulped down air. In less then ten seconds, the dragon had walked over to the stands, and with pleading eyes, looked at the judges stand. It woofed in a pleading voice that also had a bit of fear in it.
This unprecedented incident was now causing a flurry of voices, many calling the competition rigged, and wondering who had handed out the polyjuice.
Bagman and Fudge were both incensed and in trouble. This whole thing was supposed to bring good publicity, especially after the World Cup, and now they were being accused of cheating. Fudge stood up and cast a Sonorous on himself, "What do you want?"
Lina grinned, "Well, since Harry and I have to compete when we didn't want to, and because you are forcing us to Minister Fudge, the two of us get a hundred thousand galleons per event, you remove the so-called Professor Snape from the school, and you actually investigate things instead of collecting gold to release Death Eaters and imprison Sirius Black without a trial on account of your Death Eater advisor Lucius Malfoy."
The audience was stunned at this demand, and Fudges face was steaming red. "Outrageous!"
"Oh well," Lina said, "I wasn't going to ask this, but since you refused, you can also explain how you were willing to have Dementors kiss Harry and an innocent man despite evidence to the contrary at the end of last year."
The reporters burst from their place and were now surrounding the soon to be former Minister as he was now quickly trying to escape. Being blocked from all sides, he finally relented, "OK! I AGREE! CALL THE REPORTERS OFF!"
Lina snorted and turned to the dragon, "Hand me that golden egg, will you? Also, tell your friends that if the see a young man with green eyes and a lightning scar on his forhead, he's to be given the golden egg as well. If not, well, a Dragon Slave for each of you sounds nice."
The dragon nodded and quickly did as told.
The judges had to award Lina full points, especially after the dragon came up to them and started to breath fire for not doing so earlier.
When Harry's dragon did the same, they had to give him full points as well.
Dumbledore was pacing in his office, wondering at the stupidity of the Minister.
He had tried everything, and was now in danger of loosing an entire lake.
What else could go wrong.
Sighing, he left his office, off to see the debacle that would finally end the career of one Cornelius Fudge.
There was nothing left for the politician to trade to either Harry or Lina, and keeping on the good side of those two was the only thing keeping him in office.
Lina had taken to teaching Harry her version of politics.
Make sure the politician owed you a lot, reveal their dirty laundry, a lot, and do it publicly, a lot.
The politicians retreated, as when Cornelius had to pay, from the taxpayers money, two hundred thousand galleons for just one appearance of the event. Another four hundred thousand was still in trust.
The politician folded their hand almost immediately, as was evidenced with the sudden determination of the DMLE to rearrest all the previous death eaters who were out and put them on trial with Veritaserum, and the allowance, with full public gallery and reporters evident, of when Sirius walked in and demanded a trail by Veritaserum. That act alone had the ministry paying out money, and allowed Sirius the right to claim vaults of certain criminals as compensation, such as the Malfoy and Lestrange. It was too bad that young Draco had to leave the school, but surprisingly there were less headaches.
As there were less headaches with Severus gone.
Oh, Dumbledore was still supporting him, but it was nice to know there were a lot less complaints about classes, and more students actually smiling.
"YOU KIDNAPPED ONE OF MY FRIENDS!"
Oh yes. He was now at the lake. Taking one last look at the lake, he walked up to it, and then knelt down and signaled.
He then told the Merman who appeared what was going on.
The merman paled, and then gave a deadly look at the Minister, then splashed beneath the waves.
Dumbledore walked up slowly and noted the large tank which he had Hagrid use to store the Squid. Alas, the poor thing would be there for at least a couple of days.
Ludo was pale as he got to the platform, "Now in this part of the competition, something of value to each of the competitors has been placed in the lake. One of their friends, companions, or family members. They have an hour to find them before they befall a terrible fate...DON'T KILL ME, THE MINISTER WANTED TO DO THIS!"
People were staring at the Minister with hard eyes, in particular, Harry and Lina.
In the intervening months, Lina had taken on the task of teaching Harry a few basics.
Basics that were evidently going to be used.
That was when the Merpeople trooped out of the lake with all the captives, and placed them on the ground.
They then stated, through a water bubble translator, that they never agreed to this.
Harry and Lina nodded to each other, and then said 'RAYWING!"
Floating out above the middle of the lake, they started chanting,
"Darkness from twilight,
crimson from blood that flows;
buried in the flow of time;
in Thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness!
Those who oppose us shall be destroyed by the power you and I possess!
DRAGU SLAVE!!"
The lake went Bye Bye.
Together, they flew towards the now very wet and muddy audience and officials, and then stated, as if they had practiced it, "You know, forcing us to compete is one thing, but kidnapping? I think compensation, not only to us, but to them is in order."
Harry added, "Oh, and you also owe the Merpeople a new village and Hogwarts a new lake. After all, a Minister who condones kidnapping people should be the one to approve the complete compensation packages, in the amount of what we receive as they were unwilling participants. I also want all officials to be questioned with veritaserum, and anyone else who is involved in these events. It really does not reflect well on the Wizarding world and Britain when you continue to be stupid."
Lina grinned, "Agreed. Although I am more than willing to do a magical makeover of the Ministry building."
Fudge crumbled into a crying heap. He had been sure that this idea would calm the two down.
Dumbledore sighed from behind his shield. "I think we should rethink ever holding this competition again, Cornelius. I'm afraid that it is becoming quite expensive."
For once in his life, Dumbledore was glad to see a school year come to an end.
As were the students, though not for the usual reasons. Instead of being glad to get out of school for a couple of months, they were instead glad to have survived the year.
Sadly, the same could not be said of a couple of people who were still technically alive, but without souls to inhabit the bodies.
The two people were, of course, Peter Petigrew and Barty Crouch Jr.
They had not expected the request for Veritaserum to be granted, or for Crouch, once he knew what was up, to attempt to fight his way out.
The information gathered was a windfall, and it allowed the DMLE to readily attack Riddle Manor.
Of course, Cornelius had his fame, and it coincided with the capture of Peter and a homunculus trapped Tom Riddle. He was now known as both the worst minister ever to be in England, and to be the one to force the capture of Voldemort by kidnapping innocent people that were close to Voldemort's enemy, Harry Potter.
Dumbledore was somewhat saddened by what had happened, and was even more worried about getting these visitors off and back to where ever they came from in the first place.
It was the changes that some of his charges were going through that prompted this line of thought.
Harry, of course, apprenticed himself to Lina. The boy was now as mercenary as a person could become. Perhaps more so as Lina was giving him tips on how to extort money for being a good guy, and how no one minds if you take spoils when you kill bandits.
The princess knows as Amelia had taken Hermione under her wing when she learned of what she was trying to do with the house elves. Hermione was an able student, and was more than willing to learn all that could be learned. Cries for justice now rang out around the school when either of the two saw the least little thing wrong.
Xellos had found two apprentices in the form of the twin Wesley's. The less said of what this unholy union was producing the better. Well, if Minerva had her way that is.
Zelgadis had found a good friend and someone to talk to in Neville Longbottom. They were apt to drink tea and make comments while studying whatever magic they could get their hands on.
Young Ronald had been given lessons by Naga the White Serpent. Being a teenage boy, he was more than willing to spend time with her. That the boy was starting to laugh like the woman was something Albus hoped to correct in the next year.
The worst partnership, however, and one that was agreed by everyone to be something that could well destroy the universe if they were not separated as soon as possible was between Gourry and Luna. The two apparently understood each other quite well, especially when talking about animals that couldn't exist. They both seemed to be describing the same creatures and had a skewed view of reality.
Still, this day was the last day of the tri-wizard tournament. Given that the two front runners were tied, Harry and Lina entered the maze.
As soon as they crossed the tresshold, Harry did a point me charm and the two of them took off flying with a 'Raywing.'
Within a minute, the competition was over. A very anticlimactic end, to say the least.
No monsters had been put into the maze, as was the original plan. Nor was there something to prevent flying. The Wizengamot had wanted the competition over since this had already cost over a million galleons and had left Britain the laughing stock of the entire wizarding world.
Instead, the Wizengamot had been devoting time to seeing how to transport these interlopers back to their home dimension. Even Dumbledore had no idea what to do, or how to do it, and everyone was not happy to release these beings, with their apprentices, on the world at large. Lina and her friends were exempt from the Statute of Secrecy, and as their apprentices, so were Harry and his friends. It was desperation that was driving both the Wizengamot and the ICW in making progress.
"Yes," Dumbledore mused to himself, "I should have listened and had Mr. Longbottom removed from potions long ago. I shudder to think what could happen if he was forced to make another."
Snape allowing extra credit homework for the boy, at his insistence certainly didn't turn out the way he wanted.