The other champions didn't seem to get why Wolf was there, in fact Krum's first words directed at Wolf were, "Did they send you as a servant?"
"Krum," Cedric said, "They wouldn't seriously send Harry Potter to be a servant. Why are you here?"
Wolf sighed, "You wouldn't believe it coming from me, I don't even believe the reason I'm down here."
A large amount of footsteps coming from the doorway behind Wolf made him move to the side as at least twenty people shuffled in, Fluer, Cedric and Viktor's parents all congratulated them for making it in the tournament. Meanwhile, Dumbledore, Madam Maxime, Igor Kakaroff, Cornelius Fudge, Remus, Sirius and half of the Hogwarts staff were in heated discussion, Karkaroff the star of the floor at the moment, "We aren't letting him participate, are we?"
"I fully agree that he should not be allowed, at his age this is putting him at a huge risk," Sirius said, his jaw locked.
Dumbledore sighed, "I would have him removed from the tournament if I could, but the magic surrounding the tournament has already bound all four of them to the tournament, there is no way around it, he must compete."
"Serves him right." Madam Maxime chimed in, "He should be punished for getting around the shields."
Then Snape came to the rescue, strangely enough, "You seriously believe that a fourth year student could get around Dumbledore's age line?"
"Then he got an older student to put it in the goblet for him." Karkaroff argued.
"That doesn't sound like Harry." remus said, "He's not stupid to go looking for danger."
"Prove it." The Durmstrang Headmaster demanded of the werewolf.
Annoyed Remus walked over to Wolf and looked him in the eyes, "Did you put your name in the Goblet, have someone put your name in the Goblet, or otherwise find a way to enter the Triwizard Tournament?"
Keeping eye contact, although weary of all the eyes on him, Wolf answered truthfully, "No, I don't have a death wish."
The look in Remus' eyes said that he trusted Wolf, he turned back to the others, "That's enough proof for me that it wasn't his intention to enter."
"He could have lied." Madam Maxime suggested.
"No," Remus said firmly, "No matter how hard he could try, Harry could not lie if his life depended on him, he was born with out the ability."
After everyone seemed to accept this fact Dumbledore began prepping the champions, "You four have been chosen to compete in this tournament, which I assure you will be at no loss for danger. You are to use your knowledge and magical ability to get past three tasks. You are not allowed to get help from any adult or staff members. As you may have heard, you are all bound to the tournament until it has ended and a champion declared or until death. Precautions will be taken to prevent the latter. The first task will take place on November 24, you have until then to prepare."
Everyone nodded, the other three champions left with their parents to go to their respective dorms, Remus and Sirius had found some reason to stay back and talk to Dumbledore, and therefore didn't notice Moody walk over and start talking to Harry. After a minute the people remaining in the room had their attention caught by Harry's rising voice, "…So leave me alone!" Moody was doing an excellent job of hiding the fact he was affronted by the student as Harry stalked past the whole group of them as if he was insulted.
Moody was questioned for several minutes on the nature of his conversation, his claim was that he was offering Harry his friendship and though he couldn't help him would be glad to help him learn some more advanced. When asked what Harry's reaction was Moody said, "He seemed insulted that I was offering him help, told me he didn't need my help and he could do this on his own. If I was him and was against people who were three years farther into their education I would get all the help I could."
Remus looked exasperated, Harry was not fond of being told he needed help, much less by strangers. McGonagall told him the password to Gryffindor tower, hippocampus, in case he wanted to talk to Harry, he said he would, but Sirius bowed out. Sirius knew that Harry was generally uncomfortable around him and that in his godson's current state it probably wouldn't be wise to push him.
Tempus Praeter
"What do you mean he's not here?" Remus asked Hermione who was doing her homework in the common room alone, well, Neville was across the room but that doesn't really matter.
Hermione sighed, "Ron is convinced that Harry entered himself in the tournament, so when Harry told us he absolutely did not they began fighting with each other. No one saw him leave, or when Vaughn did for that matter, but they aren't in Gryffindor tower."
Remus shook his head, generally Ron was a good friend, but he got jealous easily, "Do you think I have any sort of chance of finding him?"
"Truthfully? Not at all, if he doesn't want to be found, either of them for that matter, you won't be able to find them." Hermione said, "Don't worry, even if Ron's being a prat, me and Vaughn will make sure that Harry's ready for the first task when it comes, or at least as ready as he can be."
Alius Positus
"You've been quiet, are you okay?" Vaughn asked, she and Wolf had fled to the top of the Astronomy tower. It was after curfew, but neither really seemed to care.
"I've been entered into a tournament in which I might die, I'm bound to it, from what I've heard half the school hates me because they think I cheated to get into the tournament, including Ron, I'm finally able to confirm that our Defense teacher is an imposter, and-" Wolf said dropping his head as he leaned on the stone railing and gave a ragged breath, "I think I have a mental connection through this bloody scar with Voldemort."
"You must have been born cursed to be unhappy for the rest of your miserable life, I've never met anyone with as bad of luck as you do." Vaughn said leaning on the ledge about a foot to his left.
"My whole life hasn't been miserable." Wolf said quietly, "After all, I did meet you."
"What?" Vaughn jumped in surprise.
"I can't be completely unlucky because I met up with the pack," Wolf corrected quickly having realized what he said, though it wasn't hard to tell he was blushing.
"Good, that's what I was hoping you said," Vaughn took a deep breath, "So now you have just under a month to learn how to get past some unknown task. Fun, like a barrel of monkeys."
"Yeah, a barrel of dead monkeys." Wolf corrected, "It's days like this I wonder whether it was even worth it to fight back there with Quirrell, perhaps I should have let him kill me, save Voldemort the trouble and I wouldn't have to deal with this life."
"Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?" Vaughn said in a flat tone, "The Wolf I knew never took the easy way out, you were born a survivor, albeit a survivor that can't lie. You've never given up before, why stop now? You'll get through this like you have everything else."
"You're right." Wolf sighed before flashing a grin, "I'll get by with a little help from my friends."
"Wolf! No quoting Beatles songs!" Vaughn cried out, Wolf knew that one of her few pet peeves was people saying lines from songs, especially songs by the Beatles.
"Hey Jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song, and make it better-"
"Okay, I'm leaving."
"I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello." He said as she took the Marauders map and left. The two of them had done enough sneaking around at night to know that either one could get around safely with either the Map or the Cloak. Vaughn personally preferred the Map while Wolf favored the Cloak. He was going to stay out a little longer, he just wanted a bit of time to think.
Tempus Praeter
This is probably something really stupid. Part of her brain told herself, but she chose to ignore it for even the slightest amount of praise it would earn her. She mentally called herself pathetic as she walked up to him, "Harry, could I talk to you for a minute… in private?"
He looked a bit thrown by the question, but told his other friends he'd be back and followed her to a nearby empty class room. He looked at her with those bright green eyes that made her knees shake, "What did you want to talk about, Ginny?"
Control yourself or he's going to think you're mental! Ginny told herself, "It's about the Triwizard tournament." She told him, embarrassed that her voice was raspy because her mouth had gone dry.
He blinked a few times, it certainly wasn't what he was expecting, "What about it?"
"My older brother sent me a letter the other day saying-"
"Which one of your brothers? You do have six older brothers." Harry reminded her.
"Charlie." She answered silently cursing the fact she hadn't mentioned that before.
"He's the one with the dragons in Romania, right?"
"Yeah, like I said, he sent me a letter. He knows what the first task is and told me. They're bringing in dragons, apparently you have to take something from them." She told him, anything for his praise.
"Dragons." Harry said in a dismal voice, "Please tell me that this is some kind of sick joke."
"Sorry, but it's not." Ginny said as her spirits fell.
"Don't apologize, it's not your fault everyone wants me to die. You said dragons, should I assume that to mean there is a different dragon for each of us?" Harry asked, Ginny responded with a nod, "Good, that means that they won't learn from old mistakes. I may actually have a slim chance. Thanks Gin, it's good to know before the morning of the task."
"It was nothing." Ginny said softly as she watched him walk away. He didn't need to know that she had begged in several letters for Charlie to tell her about the task since he had let it slip that he knew something about it during the Summer.
Tempus Praeter
It was less than a week until the first task, in fact, it was only six days, nineteen hours, and twenty-seven minutes until it would begin. Once again Wolf marveled at the fact that unless he was with Vaughn or Hermione some adult would figure out how to corner him and ask if he needed any help at all for the first task. Today it was, as Wolf and Vaughn called him but not to his face, Imposter-eye Moody.
"Harry, you ready for the first task?" Moody asked him.
"What do you think?" Wolf asked, why not mess with the man while he had a chance?
"I think that right about now you're reconsidering your decision on my offer," moody answered, "I think you deserve to know since all the other champions know, the first task is-"
"Dragons, there are four of them, a Welsh Green, Chinese Fireball, Hungarian Horntail and a Swedish Shortsnout." Wolf answered, fully amused with the shocked look on the man's face.
"And do you know how you are planning how to get past the dragons?" Moody asked, trying not to look shocked at the boy's knowledge, failing miserably.
"Of course I do," Wolf answered, "In fact, I'm going to go practice my tactic right now if you would be so kind as to excuse me."
Wolf pushed pass the teacher and headed for this room he had found that could change, Hermione had called it the Room of Requirement. She and Vaughn had been bugging him about how he was going to complete the task, but he had refused to tell anyone. Ron was still refusing to so much as talk to him, Luna and Neville were going on 'study dates' and Ginny was often nowhere to be found. And lastly, ninety percent of the students at Hogwarts were wearing stupid glowing pins that said 'Support Cedric Diggory, the true Hogwarts Champion'. In retaliation Hermione had made pins that Harry's friends wore that said 'support the Lone Wolf'. Take that Draco, Draco of course being the instigator of the Anti-Harry movement.
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(A/N: There was questions in the reviews about why Pyg is now Vaughn, when she turned thirteen she decided that Pyg was too close to Pig, and now goes by her regular name. Well, I'm going to be skipping a lot less in the books now. Reviews are happy, brighten up my day, and keep me writing/posting. Flames that don't give me constructive feedback make me want to not post and/or play cruel jokes on you all. So review politely for the greater good!)