A/N: As always, I give my heart felt thanks to every single reader that takes the time to review.
And anyone complaining about the cliffhanger last chapter, that is almost identically where a corresponding chapter in the book ends.
I have a feeling I am going to start having to exorcize plot bunnies. May have to put a 'story' of one shot/first chapters up soon. Head's getting a bit full.
Sorry it isn't longer, but the 10k word chapters are rather hard to get out...
Pre-Post A/N: Looking at my traffic I have had absolutely no hits since the 8th, and I've been managing at least 2,000 hits a day (give or take a few hundred) since... (eyes bug out when going back over traffic) I stopped posting every three days. I wonder if something is up...
Chapter 38: A Reactionary Beginning
"Bloody hell!"
"Harry! Language!"
Harry shot a glare at his best female friend, and decided that he really needed to to start getting back at her for stopping his use of certain parts of the English language.
Harry shook his head as he stood up. Even expected as it was, the fact that his name had come out of the ancient tort – err – relic was still upsetting. As he got to the front of the Hall, he hopped up onto the dais and turned to fact the assembled students, before he opened his mouth and executed plan A-1 or as he otherwise called it, 'cover my ass'.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let us get the following out of the way." He pulled his wand out and held it tip up and said, "I, Harry James Potter, hereby solemnly swear on my life and magic that I did not contribute, by word or deed, to my name coming out of the Goblet of Fire as a champion of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. So mote it be." The tip of his wand flashed to confirm the oath was in effect. He quickly threw off a spell that mimicked a magnesium flare to show that along with being alive, he still had his magic. "Now with that taken care of, I want you all to know that anyone who spreads rumors about how I am a glory seeking prat will soon be in contact with my solicitors about a pending defamation lawsuit." He then stalked off through the door the other three champions had gone through.
As Harry slumped through the door, Fleur, showing a rare lack of elegance said, "Crap."
Harry grunted as he went to lean against one of the walls, and said, "That about sums it up Fleur. Cedric I want to apologize, though you will find out I just swore a magical oath in front of everyone in the castle besides you three that I had nothing to do with my name coming out of the Goblet."
Cedric shook his head and said, "No need to apologize if it isn't your fault Harry, though I will enjoy competing against you."
"Thank you. Though I will tell you three something that my research has turned up. Universally the first task involves single combat against some sort of magical creature. And it has been about a dozen Tournaments since they have used dragons. Just warning you lot."
The three older students stared at Harry with various looks of incredulity on their faces when the door to the Great Hall opened again to admit the Heads of the three schools, Professor McGonagall, Bagman, Crouch, and Moony.
Bagman was rather animated, rubbing his hands together and saying, "Well this is quite unprecedented, it looks as though we have a... fourth... champion."
Madame Maxime and Professor Karkaroff started to argue about withdrawing their schools from the competition, but were pointedly told about the 'binding, magical contract', to which Harry started laughing. All of the adults present, save for Moony, gave him various dirty looks.
Wiping a tear from his eye, and straightening as though he was completely unaffected by the glares. "If you are going to go through the trouble of saying a phrase like that call the situation what it really is. The Goblet of Fire will torture any of the champions that refuse to compete into insanity."
Everyone present, with exceptions again for Moony and now also Fleur, stared at Harry like he was a complete and utter madman.
"What? Have none of you done your research on just where the extremely powerful magical object you are using on school children comes from? I found out that the descriptions of the Goblet of Fire and an artifact used in the Colosseum in Ancient Rome are frighteningly similar with only an hour or so of research. Are you telling me that no one in the history of this Merlin forsaken Tournament has done that?"
As everyone save the prior two mentioned continued to stare at The-Boy-Who-Lived, Harry decided to splutter to himself a few times, and then mutter an extremely disparaging 'wizards'.
Having effectively cut through all of the arguments that would crop up about either pulling out their champion or whether Harry would have to compete.
Rolling his eyes, Harry tapped his foot against the floor, waiting the people who were supposed to be in charge to gather themselves back together, while Mad-Eye was railing on about how this was an assassination attempt...
Idly flipping the pages of the small booklet he had been given Harry was a little disconcerted about little the rules actually had changed from the last time the Tournament had been pulled out of mothballs. And if what was written about that particular iteration is correct, no one survived past the first task.
But then again the idiot who had planned the task had somehow gotten his hands on a nundu. There were no reports that explained just how the most dangerous magical creature in existence had been; a, captured; b, transported to Durmstrang; and c, how anyone watching the task has survived.
And then a stray thought brought Harry to a full stop, his eyes widening as much as humanly possible.
"I am staying as far away from Africa as humanly possible. I am not going to end up with a bloody nundu as a familiar. No. It is not going to happen."
He continued on in that manner for few minutes while he shuddered at the thought of having to keep company with one of those killing machines, and then read the last page of the rulebook. He nodded and slipped it into an inside pocket of his robes. The rules on the side of the champions boiled down to two phrases, both of which brought a rather feral grin to Harry's face when they were combined.
'That which is not forbidden is allowed' were the first words written in what he had just read. That did not seem like something which promoted international cooperation, but then again, the last words in the book were 'it is only cheating if you get caught before the task starts' which gave an even better view of just how the committee who wrote this version of the rulebook view the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
But, given that he had read excepts from the very first competitor rulebook, and that what was in that seemed to be in line with the 'purpose' of the Tournament, it could be attributed to an idea that was born in good intentions becoming tarnished over the years.
Another good thing is that there was no standardized 'uniform' for the champions, so he could start fabrication on the armored clothing he was planning, and finding a way to smuggle his equipment into the task with him.
Bad news was that the first task was scheduled to take place on Wednesday the Twenty-first. And the only hint that had been given was that the task was going to 'test their daring'. He'd have to get in on whatever pool the school's resident student bookies would be setting up. He was almost certain the the advice he had dropped on his fellow champions was correct.
He idly started to list all of the things he needed to do. Near the top was getting Padfoot to move into Hogsmeade, fetching the family book of shadows from Potter Manor, setting up whatever it was he was going to end up doing with time compression... He continued adding objectives to his ever growing itinerary, shuffling about the various tasks to get some of the more important ones to the fore.
He'd need to get off the grounds at one point, and was glad that part of the rules allowed for him to get off school grounds for upwards of seven hours a week, so long as he was accompanied by a member of the faculty.
Muttering distractedly to himself in Gaelic, Harry continued on his way to the Gryffindor Common Room.
After being mobbed by the entirety of Gryffindor, many of whom asked him who had entered him into the Tournament or wished him good luck in winning (or as a few of the more pessimistic put it, surviving), Harry had managed to win through to the boys' dorms.
He looked at where Alistair sat on one of his bed posts, and though he had spoke a few times with the Hat, they had talked a little about what the hell was going to end up troubling Harry this year...
:.:.:Flashback Begin:.:.:
Harry sat crossed-legged on his bed, the night of the First. One of the school elves had popped in with Alistair a little after ten at night, and the Hat was now set on the bed with him, the curtains of the fourposter drawn with a bevy of spells applied to them to ensure that there was some privacy.
"So, Alistair, Tri-Wizard Tournament?"
"Nothing good will come of this Harry. As one sentient artifact speaking of an other, that blasted cup has nothing in its workings to prevent someone from being bound to compete against their will. What is more that is when the damn thing is active, it puts off enough energy to confuse the wards in a sphere with a dozen yards radius. Take a look at the map after they light the bastard and you'll see what I mean."
"I've got a few rough plans that I can start rolling, but I want to know for sure whether or not I will be competing before I start putting resources into use."
"Aye, laddie, I would suggest that. There is nothing we can do until the Goblet is lit, and even less in the period there is between then and the naming of the champions."
"So, we're basically in a holding pattern until next Sunday."
"Yes. Get some sleep Harry, though I think we'll put off seeing what is new and different about you Occlumency until a day or two after the champions are named."
"Night Alistair."
"Goodnight Harry."
:.:.:Flashback End:.:.:
"Well, Alistair, the expected as come to pass."
"And so hope once more goes unanswered. They spill the beans about the first task?"
"A 'test of daring'. I say that it is going to have something to do with dragons. The first task is always magical creatures, and it has been awhile since the Tournament has used them."
"Hopefully there won't be a repeat of what happened last time..."
"Last time there was a nundu..." Harry shivered at the mention of that particular creature.
"Well you could be wrong and end up fighting a chimera."
"Which is why I am going to put together a 'bag of tricks' that I can (hopefully) summon to myself with ease."
"And just what are you planning on stocking said bag with?"
"My latest test staff, various magical explosives, spears with heads coated in basilisk venom, a couple hundred feet of chain that is the very least rune reinforced if not made of some high test magical metal..."
"Harry, just how much overkill are you going for?"
"There is no such thing as overkill. There is only 'open fire' and 'reload'. Where was I?"
"Chains."
"Oh yes, and various other... oddities that I feel may or may not be useful."
"Do I even want to know?"
"Probably not. Any suggestions?"
"Nothing I feel comfortable making. You'll likely blow it out of proportions."
"Or just blow it up."
"That too. How are you planning on getting this done?"
"I'm fairly certain I can get a space that I can use time compression magics on fairly soon."
"Just how compressed are we talking about?"
"I reliably and efficiently compress a day down into an hour, and have it run for seven real hours. The chamber will then need to reset for three days from the point compression began before it can be used again. Though the rune structure will collapse after fifty two compressed weeks. I'll be heading to Potter Manor tomorrow and seeing if House Potter managed to keep their hands on their house time turner..."
"If Potter doesn't have theirs, ask you reprobate of a godfather. Black will almost certainly have access to theirs still. Are you going to be turning full days?"
"Don't know. Mostly I want to use it so that I can get the compression chamber up and running by Wednesday night at the latest. That'll get me three compressed weeks in addition to nine days, not counting Wednesday the Twenty-first."
"Well if you double up on days, you'll be able to attend class (Harry scoffed at that, while he got some insight into the magic from watching the teachers do examples, and the addition explanations of theory was helpful at times, there were also many times where he was dreadfully bored) and continue to act as a quasi-normal teenager, while still having very full days to prepare yourself."
"We don't even know if I can get my hands on a time turner, so all it is right now is idle planning..."
"Planning is a good thing Harry."
"I know, I've been making a list of things I'd like to get done..."
"That is a start young man..."
Harry had caught up to his Head of House as she exited the Great Hall after breakfast the following morning.
"Good morning, Professor McGonagall, I need to speak with you about a few things concerning the Tournament."
"Of course Mister Potter, what is it?"
"There is an... allowance... in the competitors' rules that allows champions to leave the host school's grounds for seven hours a week, either to seek help from family members, purchase research materials, or as it is most often used, make a Will. This is of course with the caveat that champions who are minors must be accompanied by a member of the faculty. I need to make trips to Diagon Alley, Potter Manor, and the Marauders' Manor."
"I can see why you need to do that Mister Potter, I will see about getting a member of the staff to escort you..."
"I was thinking of asking you if Hagrid is free. He is the only person on the faculty that is both in on the Secret of the Marauders' Manor and is still keyed for entry through the Potter Manor wards."
McGonagall stopped for a moment, thinking, and then she nodded. "Yes, I believe that Hagrid is not doing anything too pressing for a moment. Go collect your cloak and whatever you will need to bring with you, and I will send a message to Hagrid via one of the House-Elves. Meet him at his cabin. Tell me which classes you have this morning, and I will about sending messages to you professors about missing your morning class. But that does not mean if you finish quickly that you are excused from whatever classes remain."
"Thank you Professor. What I have planned may take place very quickly, or it may drag on toward lunch."
"Though I may not be able to render you the help I would want to in the Tournament Mister Potter, I do wish you good luck."
Harry jogged to keep pace with the half-giant as they reached the gates of the school. As soon as they got beyond the wards, Harry grabbed Hagrid by the arm, and warned him that he was about to activate his House portkey to Potter Manor.
As his feet hit the ground after the trip, he said in a slightly loud voice, "Darda?"
A swift 'pop', and a voice said, "Yes, Master Harry?"
Harry spoke quietly to his head elf while Hagrid stared about the room, "Can you fetch me the family book of shadows, or does the magic of it prevent you from touching it?"
"I can get the book for you Master Harry. Is there anything else that you be needing?"
"Yes, do you know whether or not that House Potter still has a time turner?"
The elf nodded enthusiastically.
"Can you also fetch that for me?"
Another happy nod.
"Thank you very much Darda."
The elf popped away, and Harry moved over to the fireplace to begin the process of unlocking the Floo for an hour or so. Since he had taken ownership of Potter Manor, he had kept the wards at a relatively high level of activity, ensuring that only he, the elves, and a few others could even get to the property. Harry had not been entirely truthful to McGonagall about Hagrid still being keyed to the wards, even if Sirius had trusted the monster-loving man with the Secret of his own home. Rather it was the fact that the Family portkey could be used to temporarily allow someone access to the property.
As he had just finished prepping the Floo for his and Hagrid's use, Darda came popping back in with a large book with a velvet bag perched on top of it. They had only spent about five minutes at their current location.
"Here you goes Master Harry, the two things you have been asking for."
"Once more thank you Darda. We'll be coming back here to take a return portkey after I finish my other business."
The elf smiled happily as Harry place the precious, precious book in the bag he had brought with him, and placed the velvet back, after having checked it for its highly controlled contents, into a pocket of his robes.
"Hagrid, we're going to the Leaky Cauldron first."
Harry picked up some Floo powder and made his way through.
Harry's run into Diagon Alley consisted only of a trip into the vaults at Gringotts, which Hagrid begged off on 'holding his hand' commenting on his absolute dislike for the mine carts, before they went to their last stop.
As Harry stepped through the Floo into the Marauders' Manor, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Padfoot, get your mangy arse down here, now!"
Not two minutes later, the prankster made his way into the den. As he entered, Harry said, "I haven't seen today's Daily Prophet yet, but just in case they missed last night's events, I am the fourth Tri-Wizard Champion."
The two got into a huddle, during which Harry handed him the keys to the only Potter property in Hogsmeade (they would take up residence by Friday afternoon), had Padfoot act as a sounding board for actions to take against a dragon ("Go for the eyes"), and then asked Sirius if he could borrow some money (to which he got slapped upside the head and told that if it would help him survive long enough to inherit, it was not borrowing).
As they kicked around a few other trains of thought Bella walked into the room holding the morning edition of the Prophet. The headline was to expected, though part of it relieved Harry.
Boy-Who-Lives Fourth Tri-Wizard Champion
Denies Any Involvement in Being Chosen by Oath
Harry blinked a few times and then nodded. "Alight, well at least that answers one thing on my mind. Anything else you two can think of that might help me live to see fifteen?"
Sirius paused for a moment and said, "Yes, keep your communication mirror on you at all times. I'll do the same."
Nodding Harry said, "Of course, I'll probably be more than properly paranoid by the end of the school year..." before he called out, "Dobby!"
Talking to the house elf after he had popped into the room, Harry delivered a handful of orders to the excitable being. He then gave his goodbyes, and went back through the Floo with Hagrid to Potter Manor, followed by using the return function of the Family portkey.
Returning to his dormitory after having finished his classes, Harry started grabbing things that he thought he may need. He was actually rather lucky in the fact the McGonagall was usually one of the first Professors to take breakfast. He had actually only missed half an hour of Herbology, and had easily caught up to the remainder of the class.
Double checking his mental lists, and snatching his invisibility cloak (if you were going to move around the castle while there were two of you about, and when meeting yourself could result in some very unpleasant results, it would be best if one of your were never seen.) Harry placed the box with his shrunken trunks in his bag. He walked over to the potion that was in progress near his bed and gave it a quick once over to ensure that everything was proceeding smoothly.
He made his way over to the top floor of the North wing, going over the ways to determine whether a space had been expanded or not. He felt an ache forming between his eyes at the thought of having to expand an already expanded space.
'Ugh. The calculations are tedious, the anchoring rune arrays overly complex, and the expanding process in and of itself is going to be a massive magic sink if the room I use is already in an enlarged space...'
Dobby twitched several as he waited for Master Harry. He had been asked earlier in the day to secure this room and secure it he did! No one besides a few bugs and a mouse or two had come into it since he had taken up his guard post, besides Master Harry having appeared out of nowhere five or so minutes after he had gotten there.
Yes he had swept the floor, dusted the furniture (after having had to fix some of it), and had even got some scrubbing done, but now he was starting to get bored. He was starting to think about getting cleaning again but what to...
"Hello Dobby."
"Master Harry!"
"So where did I show up?"
Dobby pointed to a corner of the room.
He spoke as he was checking his watch, "Thank you Dobby. I'll probably be in one of the other rooms on this floor of the wing, working. Feel free to check and see if I need anything."
Finishing that, he took the velvet bag out of his pocket and draped an ornate hourglass with platinum workings and a platinum chain around his neck. Taking the diving in both hands, he started to give the hourglass a number of turns before he faded from sight.
Dobby quickly popped through a few of the other rooms, to see if his Master Harry needed anything.
Eventually coming to a room much larger than any of the others he had seen easily the size of a large football pitch with the ceiling raised to being at least twice as high from where the others had been, he saw Master Harry laying on the floor, taking deep heaving breaths.
"Are you okays Master Harry?"
"Ah Dobby, how marvelous to see you... Do you think you could go to the kitchens and get me something to eat? I am a mite bit peckish."
Idly picking at the plate of food with a fork in one, Harry used construction conjuration to start calling forth the materials he would need for the next stage of his project. He was going to need to head to bed soon, and had in fact slept part way through the planning process for enlarging the room.
He cursed under his breath at remembering that. The room was indeed part of an expanded space to begin with, and the process of bringing it up to the dimensions he thought he would need. And even thinking of it made his head swim with visions of calculations passing before his eyes.
He was going to need to work out some kind of schedule to keep himself from falling asleep during the middle of the day. Harry had one thought to sum up the haze of thoughts and plans that were floating in his head.
'This is going to be a long ten days...'
He blinked a few times, before cracking up, and literally rolling on the floor in laughter.
Tuesday had passed quickly enough, though there was the slight issue that Harry had Astronomy tonight, but he shrugged it off and turned himself back to that morning, and headed back to the area he was working on.
Conjuring more material (almost exclusively marble), while for the sake of variation vanishing bits of detritus and excess furniture, Harry idly noted that it looked like Dobby had spent the night scrubbing the floor and walls... and quite possibly the ceiling too.
He'd have to thank the little elf for that later. It would make covering the surfaces in an inch and a half of marble that much easier...
A few hours later Harry used a spell to call forth a few spheres of light before he vanished the lamps on the walls of the room so that he could finish sheathing the walls in marble. Where ever there was a joint between walls, ceiling, or floor, the marble curved from one surface to another, leaving one continuous surface.
Though that was not the only thing that had changed. In the middle of the room, sitting a yard from any of the other surfaces, though supported by a number of columns and beams connecting to various points, was a box of marble cutting off the remaining space in the room from the now outer area. There were still gaps in the marble, one located at the door that led out to the school and the other that lead into the inner area.
Now came the really, really tedious part. Harry had runic arrays that he was going to have to inscribe one the marble in various places... And the number of times he would have to make the arrays increased proportionally to the size of the area the arrays were in...
"Bugger! I shouldn't have made the room so damn big!"
"Too many runes..."
Harry flung himself down on his bed in the dorms, groaning and muttering to himself. He was glad that he had remembered the wheeled boards that he had heard mechanics used, otherwise it would have been far worse. In fact, after sticking himself to the board, and then using one of the... odder adhesion charms he knew on the wheels, he was able to hang himself upside down and work on surfaces that would normally have his nose to the ground, or crouching on the floor.
Alistair clear his (non-existent) throat. Harry decided rather than asking what the Hat want, to instead think on just how it managed it. Sure, the hat talks, very interesting, but how would one clear a throat that isn't even there?
"How in Merlin's beard do you do that?"
And at this point Harry was fairly certain the hat would be staring at him if it had eyes. Though even though it didn't it still felt like it did...
"Harry?"
"Yes?"
"Get some sleep."
A/N2: Needed to do this to get some kind of clearer focus of what goes when...
And yes, Dobby pointing out where Harry showed up would probably involve some manner of information paradox (I believe the crux of this one is where the choosing of that corner in particular came from, Harry having asked Dobby what part of the room he was standing in when he used the time turner, so how would he know to go to that corner?), but what is the fun of writing about time magics if you can't make some peoples' heads hurt?
I really wanted to borrow jbern's Marauder motto from 'The Lie I've Lived' but he apparently disabled Private Messaging, so I have no way of asking. It's really fitting for the group though. Great story too. It's been awhile since I read it, but I think it was where I got the notion of more than three tasks from. I forget how many though.
Canon Nazis stay away from my class schedule guess work/stuff I made up!
Mon
09AM Double Herbology
10AM ~~~~~~~~
11AM Double Care of Magical Creatures
12PM ~~~~~~~~
01PM Lunch
02PM Free
03PM Double Ancient Runes
04PM ~~~~~~~~
05PM Arithmancy
Tue
09AM Charms
10AM Double Transfiguration
11AM ~~~~~~~~
12PM Free
01PM Lunch
02PM Double Defense Against the Dark Arts
03PM ~~~~~~~~
04PM Double Ancient Runes
05PM ~~~~~~~~
12AM Double Astronomy
01AM ~~~~~~~~
Wed
09AM Double Transfiguration
10AM ~~~~~~~~
11AM Double Potions
12PM ~~~~~~~~
01PM Lunch
02PM Double Charms
03PM ~~~~~~~~
04PM Double History of Magic
05PM ~~~~~~~~
Thur
09AM Double History of Magic
10AM ~~~~~~~~
11AM Free
12PM Charms
01PM Lunch
02PM Double Arithmancy
03PM ~~~~~~~~
04PM Double Defense Against the Dark Arts
05PM ~~~~~~~~
Fri
09AM Double Herbology
10AM ~~~~~~~~
11AM Double Care of Magical Creatures
12PM ~~~~~~~~
01PM Lunch
02PM Free
03PM Double Potions
04PM ~~~~~~~~
05PM Arithmancy
I am trying to remember what I think was a one-shot in a series of various one-shots. I cannot for the life of me remember who the author was, or the name of the story, but it had to do with Madam Hooch raising Harry (I think the story was the expressing of the idea that she was related to the Potter side of the family in someway) and one of the largest hunks of the 'action' of the story was the Holyhead Harpies were there to watch Harry's 'first' flying lesson (if I remember the story correctly, Hooch resigned from Hogwarts after Dumbledore attempted to place Harry with the Dursleys and ended up getting a job of some kind with the aforementioned team.
Anyone who can point me back to this story will be much appreciated. And a bit of a semi-related drabble!
Takes place in a quasi-normal Harry Potter verse
"Bloody hell!"
"Harry language!"
"Sorry Hermione, but I've just been scouted by a professional team..."
"So? Statistically speaking you are one of the best Seekers to come out of Hogwarts in the past few decades."
A disgusting sound followed Hermione's comment.
"Ronald, do not speak with your mouth packed to the brim..."
After finishing the food in his mouth, the red-head said, "Which team? Is it the Cannons?"
"No, Ron, it is not the Cannons. Its the Holyhead Harpies. Which confuses me because I still had the bits that make me a guy when I woke up this morning, and I know that hasn't changed in the past two hours."
The non-green eyed contingent of the Golden Trio were struck speechless, until Hermione said something which Harry (Ron's brain, such as it was, was trying to wrap itself around Harry being scouted for an all female team) would remind her of for years to come, "Bloody hell!"
I know, fairly short, almost entirely point less, but at least it is out of my head.