A/N: I love you guys so much. Sorry for the cliff-hanger last chapter. Won't confirm anything yet, you have to wait just a little longer to see how that scene ended. We are back to Harry in this chapter. This picks up on Halloween night as Harry gets back to the tower. Didn't realize until after I reviewed the chapter that it was a little out of place with the last chapter, considering events happened first in this chapter before the next. Though more time does pass in this chapter so I guess its okay.

Whatever on with the fanfiction!

Read and review my pretties, it will help me write faster.


Chapter 44 Reporters and Wands

A cheer went up as soon as Harry entered the tower. Stumbling back, he would had fallen had it not been for the hand reaching for him and pulling him towards the crowd.

"Wha—"

"How did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Get passed Dumbledore's age line of course."

"And no beard, that's no fair."

Harry couldn't speak as he was bombarded with questions from all sides by his housemates. The twins were pulling him off to the side and patting him on the back congratulating him.

"We've got food!" One of the twins announced to the cheering crowd. Someone tried to push a plate in Harry's hands while he tried to tell them he wasn't hungry.

Harry tried looking around for his friends and tried to see if he could spot Ron or Hermione. He couldn't even see Neville in the crowd.

Lee Jordan approached him and draped a Gryffindor banner across his shoulders that he found somewhere. He dragged Harry back over to where the twins were and started talking with them. Their distraction allowed Harry to escape and make his way to the dormitory staircase. He just wanted get in his bed and sleep this nightmare away.

He had to keep dodging people as he made his way across the room as they all wanted to talk with him and congratulate him. He was finally able to reach the bottom of the stairs after dashing around the Creevey brothers who were converging on him.

Harry sighed as he made it into the room and leaned against the door. He looked up to see Ron lying on his bed and Neville close by on his own bed reading a book.

"There you both are, I was looking everywhere for the two of you." Harry said flopping down on his own bed on the far side of the room. Both Ron and Neville's beds were on either side of his.

"Figured you needed the practice of escaping the crowds, who knows what you'll have to deal with this year." Neville joked dodging the pillow Harry through at him.

"Not funny, look at this!" Harry exclaimed tugging at the banner that was draped around him Lee had tied the damn thing on tight and it was hard to get off. "They wouldn't let me get a word in edge-wish, it's a mad house down there."

"Suppose I should congratulate you." Ron mumbled turning over from his place on his bed and sitting up. Sharing a look Harry and Neville both sat up and regard Ron warily.

"What are you on about Ron?" Harry asked nervous of the strained smile that Ron was sporting.

"On getting in the tournament, even the twins didn't get in. How did you do it? Did you use your dad's cloak?" Ron asked.

"You can't actually think Harry entered himself, do you?" Neville asked in disbelief.

"Ron you know I didn't enter, I never wanted to enter. Besides the cloak wouldn't have fooled anything." Harry argued.

"You must have found another way. Why didn't you tell me also? We could have entered together." Ron asked ignoring everything Harry just said.

"It wasn't me, someone else must have entered me." Harry shot back angrily at his friend.

"Why would someone do that?" Ron asked skeptically finally hearing Harry's protests.

"I don't know, kill me maybe?" Harry said sarcastically.

"Do you really think that's was it?" Neville asked in concern his thoughts going to what had happened a few weeks ago when the Sorting Hat had talked about coming conflict.

Neville knew that the issue was going to come soon but he didn't think it would take this route. Harry would need all the help and support he could get from his friends and family. Neville knew that Emma and Sirius would provide that unconditionally and he wouldn't abandon Harry either. Malfoy was also gearing up to be a strong friend for Harry. He just wished the same had stayed true for Ron.

"You can tell me the truth you know. Violet came earlier and told everyone that Dumbledore is letting you compete so it's not you'll get in trouble if you tell me. Must be nice, a chance at that prize money and no exams."

"You're an idiot Ron, I didn't enter. I don't know what kind of friend you are for thinking that I would risk myself for a stupid competition like this." Harry said angrily.

"Oh, but its fine to risk others when we go on your silly little adventures?" Ron spat back.

Harry recoiled in shock, that Ron would say something like that, he couldn't believe it. Most times Harry had wanted to go alone so not to put his friends in danger, Ron had always willingly come along.

"You should get to bed, might have a photo shoot or something in the morning." Ron glared getting into bed and closing the curtains.

"Git." Harry mumbled getting into bed.

"Maybe he'll come around." Neville said hopefully.

"Who knows with Ron." Harry sighed. He was beginning to realize that this must be why Emma didn't want to tell Ron anything. He couldn't believe that Ron would turn against him this easily. All for what, because he was jealous?

"Night."


Harry woke with a groan as he heard the dormitory door open. He rolled over and glanced at Ron's bed, empty.

"He's down at breakfast." Neville said sitting down at the end of Harry's bed. "I wouldn't recommend going down there by the way. Not everyone is as accepting as the Gryffindor's of the situation."

"Course, why would they." Harry replied grumbling and getting up. He walked over to his wardrobe and riffled around looking for something to wear today.

"I think I even saw a few Slytherin's sulking by the doors looking to ambush you as soon as you walked in the hall." Neville added.

"Great anything useful to say Nev, or is it all bad news?" Harry asked sarcastically shooting his friend a look.

"Tsk, you're no fun."

"You've been spending far too much time talking with my dad."

"I've got breakfast that way you don't have to go down. I figured it was still nice outside for the beginning of November, we could go out by the lake and eat there. Get away from your angry hoards." Neville announced holding up a wrapped-up napkin.

"Genius you are Longbottom." Harry said smiling and pulled out a sweater.

Thankfully there were very little people down in the common room this time in the morning. The few that were there only said hi to Harry and let him get on his way. Luckily no one stopped him to talk.

"Hey do you have any idea where Hermione is? I didn't see her at all last night." Harry asks as they open the portrait hole almost running into someone.

"I imagine right there." Neville says with a laugh at the flustered look on Hermione's face.

"Harry! Oh, how are you? I figured you wouldn't want to go down to breakfast, so." Hermione said in a rush holding up a wrapped napkin with food.

Harry laughed as he and Neville stepped out and he gave Hermione a hug.

"You and Neville think alike it seems Hermione." Harry said motioning to Neville who held up another wrapped napkin. "We were just about to head down to the lake, want to come?"

The trio walk outside together and Harry explains what happened the other night with Dumbledore and the other champions. He adds how Neville called Sirius and how his godfather had come and started yelling at Dumbledore asking how the man could let something like this happen.

"Man I wish I could have been there to see that." Neville said.

"Hermione?"

"Don't worry Harry I believe you when you say you didn't put your name in. One look at your face when your name came out was enough. It just took me a few minutes to think over everything. But who could have done it and why? No student would have been able to pull something like that off."

"Have you seen Ron? Does he still believe that rubbish about me putting my name in?" Harry asked not wanting to get on topic about how his name might have come out. He didn't want to worry Hermione about what had happened. Neville shot him a concerned look knowing that both had discussed Ron and how his name had gotten in the cup.

"I saw him this morning." Hermione admitted. "I don't think he believes you put your name in but… oh well, Harry, he's jealous. He's always had his brothers to contend with and you always get attention. You're his best friend, but your famous, and now this has happened. It's a lot for him to take in seeing you get all the attention once again."

"He can't think after all these years that I actually want all this attention." Harry argued.

"Well no, but people don't normally see him. He's only Harry Potter's best friend. It was like that at the world cup also, him seeing you introduced to all those ministry people and talking with the minister."

"That's no excuse Hermione. You tell him he can take the fame if he wants. You think I like being known for my parents' death and destroying some Dark Lord?"

"Tell that to him yourself Harry. I'm not your messenger."

"Yeah well I'm not going to go running around after him telling him he's being a right git. He needs to grow up. When he's ready to apologize fine by him, but I will not chase after him when I have my own problems to deal with besides his jealous ass." Harry countered angrily.

"Fine." Hermione said sitting down and pulling out the food she brought for Harry and handing it over. They sat quietly and ate after that.


The following week wasn't any better. Most of the whole school had turned against him yet again. The Hufflepuff's, who were usually on good terms with the Gryffindor's, were quite angry with Harry. They viewed it as a betrayal seeing him taking away the glory they had finally earned themselves with Cedric as champion. The few Hufflepuff's that he did get along with weren't talking with him. Both Ernie and Justin were ignoring him and even Professor Sprout was being short with him.

The Ravenclaw's reaction had been a bit surprising. He didn't know a lot of them, but mostly they stayed neutral and he had thought some of them would support him slightly. But many of them thought he had cheated to get in.

Slytherin house he wasn't surprised with at all. Their reaction was to be expected. He had never gotten along with that house. And they would do anything to torment him. The only ones he knew from the house that supported him were Draco and Zabini, but they were silent in their support not being able to openly say anything for him.

When Harry got to Care of Magical Creature's that week he knew that it was going to be bad solely on the fact that they shared it with Slytherin's. He could see Draco and his group of Slytherin's making their way down to Hagrid's hut, typical sneer in place. Oh, what he wouldn't give for this week to be over, heck this year to be over.

"Oh look its Potter, boys, better get your autograph books, there's no telling how long he'll actually last in the tournament. High death rate and all." Draco sneered causing the other Slytherin's to laugh beside him.

"Ignore him." Hermione urged trying to pull Harry away. Harry wasn't going to lie to himself, he knew that the comments that Draco would throw at him would hurt, even though he knew there was no malice behind them, it was still hard to hear.

"You know Potter. I've got a bet going. I don't think you'll last 10 minutes. What do you think?" Draco asked causing another round of laughter among the Slytherin's.

"I think Malfoy, that I had no idea you had so much faith in me." Harry smirked back causing the others around him to gap. Draco looked like he had no idea how to respond, this was not how their usual taunts ended up.

"Wha—"

"I mean, it really means a lot that you think I can finish the first task so quickly. 10 minutes? I'll try my best." Harry replied turning away.

"That's not what I meant!" Draco fumed. "You're going to die! I bet your going to die within 10 minutes!"

"That's not how I heard it." Harry counted as Hagrid came out stopping Malfoy from replying further.

"I hear he actually does have a bet that you won't be in the first task longer than 10 minutes you know. Open ended bet, could be interpreted either way, very Slytherin of him." Neville whispered to Harry as Hagrid explained that due to pent up energy they are going to walk the Skrewts in hopes that it lessens their desire to kill the others. Harry shares a look with Neville.

"Does he really expect me to finish in 10 minutes? I have no clue what the task is."

"And where exactly are we supposed to put the leash?" Draco asked redirecting his attention from Harry to Hagrid when he heard that they would have to walk the Blast Ended Skrewts. "Around the sting, blasting end, or sucker?"

"Er, around the middle. Use your dragon hide gloves as extra precaution though." Hagrid said scratching the back of his head. "Harry why don't you come over here and help me with this one?"

Harry shrugs and goes up to Hagrid, at least he doesn't have to struggle and put a leash on the Skrewts alone. The others were probably going to have a hard time just accomplishing that.

"How are you Harry? Do you have any idea who put your name in?" Hagrid asked.

"I don't know who put my name in." Harry answered. He looked over to the class and saw that some of them had gotten the leashes on the Skrewts and were now scattered around the grounds trying to walk them.

Over three feet long now, the Skrewts were powerful and could be seen dragging a few of Harry's classmates around like Neville and Lavender. Every now and then one of the Skrewts end would explode propelling them forward and dragging whoever was walking them. That's how Neville and Lavender ended up into their positions. Unfortunately for Neville, his Skrewt seemed to be prone to blast more often and the boy had no chance to get up.

"Ah, best be checking up on everyone." Hagrid commented seeing the mess around them.


"If I hear that I am going to die one more time." Harry threatened leaving history of magic one day later that week.

He had already gotten an earful of death remarks in double divination the other day. And today Binn's had decided to veer from his usual lectures of goblin wars and started to give a lecture on the history of the Tri-wizard tournament, specifically the death tolls. He had so many looks during that class he was ready to scream.

And to top an already bad day off, they had potions next with the Slytherin's who would be sure to make more disparaging comments. He really wasn't looking forward to double potions later in the week.

Not to mention with all the stress he had been under since his name came out, he had been doing worse in classes. None of his transfigurations were coming out right, no matter how McGonagall tried to help him after class. And Charms was frustrating because he knew they were going to start summoning charms that week and he just could not grasp the material. He knew the next charms class was going to be bad.

"Ah, it's not that bad. Just be sure not to repeat any of their mistakes." Neville commented bring Harry out of his depressing thoughts.

"Right, I'll try not to get stung to death by a Manticore, eaten by a Sphinx, or drowned by a Grindylow." Harry replied.

"Don't forget rampaging Cockatrice's." Neville added helpfully.

"Right." Harry said sarcastically.

"Good, then you should stay alive hopefully." Neville shot back with a smile.

"Can we just skip potions for today?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Harry you know you can't skip your classes." Hermione chastised.

"But Hermione, I had enough of the Slytherin's yesterday. I won't be able to survive a whole class with them and Snape!" Harry complained.

"Just think of it as practice for Friday's double potions." Hermione answered.

Harry groaned as they made their way down to the dungeons. He deflated when they got to the potions classroom and saw that all the Slytherins were wearing large badges on their chests.

For a moment, he thought they were all SPEW badges, which Hermione had introduced to them after the Moody debacle with the unforgivable curses. It stood for the Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare. She had attempted to get them to join and other students as well. Most people just brushed her off or looked at her like she was crazy. She really was going into this whole house-elf issue. But looking closer at the badges the Slytherins were wearing he saw the difference in the luminous red letters on the badge. They all read 'support Cedric Diggory the real Hogwarts champion!'

"Like it Potter! Took me the weekend to finish them." Draco taunted. "But look it's not all they do."

Pressing the button the badge turned a sickly shade of green with the words 'Potter Stinks' on it. Laughing all the Slytherins did the same to their buttons.

"I would give one to you Granger, seeing how into buttons you are suddenly. But I don't really want to touch you, just washed my hands and all. Wouldn't want to get any mu—"

"Finish that sentence I dare you to Malfoy." Harry said suddenly pulling his wand at Draco. He knew this was expected of them but he hated it. He didn't want to fight with Draco anymore, Harry could see the silent apology in Draco's eyes asking him to forgive him for the things he was about to say. Harry deflated some, if Draco went through with what he was planning on saying, it would be hard for them to get past this, they would really need to talk about this when they could.

"Mud—"

"Furnunculus!" Harry shouted aiming at Draco, trying to ignore the apologetic look in the others face as he was forced to continue due to everyone watching and expecting it.

"Densangeo!" Draco yelled out changing his sentence midway as Harry shot off a spell at him.

The spells ricocheted off each other and Harry's hit Goyle, while Draco's hit Hermione in the face. Boils popped up all over Goyle's face but everyone's attention was on Hermione whose teeth were now growing at an alarming rate. Harry moved to check on Hermione but Ron beat him to her glaring at him as he did.

"What's going on out here?" Snape demanded coming onto the scene.

"He started it! He attacked me!" Both boys shouted at the same time pointing to each other.

"Look what he did to Goyle!"

"Look what he did to Hermione!"

Snape looked at the scene calmly. "Goyle, Granger, to the hospital wing the both of you. Potter 20 points for starting a fight and detention."

"But Malfoy—" Harry started to argue as Goyle and Hermione ran off.

Snape sent him a glare. "Another 20 points Potter for arguing. Do you want another dentation?"

Harry shook his head and followed the rest of the class inside. He passed Draco who mouthed sorry to him, Harry nodded back. Sitting down he saw Ron give him a look, Harry hoped that out of concern for Hermione they might make up, but it seemed Ron had no intention and went to sit next to Dean and Seamus. Neville shook his head and sat next to Harry.

"I hope you all have your recipes for your antidotes ready. We will start brewing them today, depending on how many of you finish we will be testing them at the end of class on someone. Most common antidotes that you will be using are fairly easy to make and will not require much time. So, unless you mess up or chose an overly complicated recipe you all should be able to finish within the class period." Snape announced looking around the class as they all scrambled to get their things out for the class period.

"What are you all waiting for, get your ingredients and begin." Snape demanded seeing that none of them had moved.

Harry worked quietly by himself on his antidote. He had chosen one that worked on most mild poisons and would counter them. It wouldn't work on more complex poisons, but hopefully Snape wouldn't be testing those kinds of poisons on them. If things went south Harry had a backup plan, remembering his very first potions lesson Harry had come prepared.

He had a bezoar safely tucked away in his pocket just in case. He had come across the information while researching for his antidote. It was amazing how far he had come since his first year. He remembered how excited he had been to learn potions, but that excitement had deflated over the years with the ire the Potions Master had directed at him.

But he had been improving since the summer, when he could study, and now that he and Snape were getting along, he really hoped that his potions grade would improve this year. He wanted to make sure that Snape knew he was trying to get along with him and take his class seriously.

"Time! Step back from your cauldrons and bottle your antidote." Snape called out bringing Harry out from his head. Glad he had finished his potion a few minutes before, Harry bottled and labeled his bringing it to the front along with everyone else's.

Snape inspected each of the potions as everyone waited by their desks to see who the unlucky student he would chose to poison would be. Many of the Slytherins looked on gleefully confident that he would not chose one of them and if he did their potions would be perfect. Many of them were sending looks at Harry hoping that he would be the one to be poisoned.

"Adequate, let us see if your potions will hold up against poison." Snape announced turning from his desk. "Pot—"

Snape was cut off by an instant knocking at the door. Surprised the class stilled and waited with bated breaths as Snape stalked to the door and wrenched it open. Shrinking back the student to knock held out a trembling hand with a slip of parchment in it for Snape.

Harry was surprised to see it was Colin Creevey.

"Professor, sir, um… the Champions are being gathered and I'm supposed to bring Harry upstairs." Colin began nervously.

"I see." Snape said darkly. "Unfortunately Potter still has class. He will have to attend to his little gathering after class I am afraid."

"Sorry Professor, but Mr. Bagman insists. I'm supposed to get him now." Colin trembled.

"There is 10 minutes left of class Bagman can wait." Snape snarled.

"There's supposed to be some sort of meeting sir, pictures or something."

"Fine. Potter! Leave your things, we will test yours later." Snape snaps.

"He's supposed to take his things sir. I don't think this will be short."

"Potter take your things and go. You will return after dinner on Friday to serve your detention however. We will test your potion then." Snape declared glaring at Colin. Harry hastily gathered his things as the class stared after him.

"Here, just in case." Harry whisper to Neville handing him the bezoar before rushing out. As he left he heard Snape bark out that he would be testing Ron's antidote on him instead.

Harry followed Colin upstairs listening while he chattered on about how amazing it was that they were taking pictures of the champions.

"What are they taking the pictures for?" Harry wondered.

"For the prophet of course. They are doing an article on the champions. I heard that they were planning on covering the tournament before, but are even more excited now that you're the fourth champions. I mean that's never happened before." Colin gushed.