If after all this time, you still aren't convinced that I'm not J. K. Rowling, then I don't know how to get through to you.
Even as wandless magic was the thing Harry's friends thought about almost all the time, they still couldn't forget about the rest of the world altogether. First sign that they were forgetting themselves was that they got news of Moody repeating the Imperius presentation in every class when it was long said and done. They nearly missed the sign saying when Beauxbaton's and Durmstrang's delegations were to arrive.
With classes, homework, their extracurricular studies, and now the wandless training to boot, it was hard to do things in such a way that the rest of the school wouldn't notice small group of friends missing. The oncoming Tournament could be a curse or a blessing for them, but whatever it turned out to be, Harry was already thinking of a way to make their training easier.
It was a week later when every inhabitant of the castle was called outside to form a greeting party for the guests that were to arrive. Even with all of the teachers watching that everything was in order, Harry and his friends were still able to stand close to one another to be able to talk.
"I think it's time we played a round," Harry voiced.
The game he was referring to was the one he introduced a week earlier, and which his friends knew quite well by now. Rules were simple – to name as many ways to do a certain thing, disregarding the obvious ones. In fact, the more incredulous concept you could defend, the more points you got.
At first, they were getting quite few stares, debating about ways to deal with non-important topics like they were the most important dilemmas in the world. Ways to solve them got their own set of stares. But soon it was took in as another strange Hogwart behaviour, and no one spared a glance after couple of occasions. Yet, it still remained the best way that Harry know to train their wandless magic "in the open". Because, like Slytherin had him think about words, debating problems just another way to deal with possibilities. It also saved their time, as their training sessions were now focused only on checking which of those possibilities worked best.
"So, what is the topic here?" Rose asked, scanning the grounds, already thinking of what she might do.
"How Beauxbatons could be able to arrive in such a way, but without the horses," Harry announced.
After quickly scanning the grounds, his friends stared at him.
"What are you talking about?" Hermione was first to ask.
Harry smiled softly, then shifted his eyes from her to a point somewhere in the sky. His friends turned just when some sixth year student yelled "There!", attracting attention of the rest of the school.
"How do you do that?" Hermione asked standing right by his side, still gazing at a dot in the sky that was beginning to grow quickly.
"You get better with practice," Harry responded with a shrug, "Because too many people operate on assumptions bordering with automatic pilot. But if you don't, and you can spot a difference that no one else sees, you can use it to your advantage,"
At his last words, Hermione turned to face him with a mischievous smile.
"Alright. If you're so good at it, then how will Durmstrang come here?" she asked while rising a brow.
Harry frowned shortly, then grinned, and simply pointed the lake with his head. Hermione gazed in that direction, but could not understand what he meant. The lake was flat, if not for the occasional wave... She stopped, and glanced at the waves. They weren't quite normal as she thought at the first sight, and also, the lake wasn't so flat as she had thought. Far away, the lake was indeed flat, but the closer to the castle her gaze came, she could see two creases on the water, almost joining to form a symmetrical V on the surface of the water.
In nature, it was uncommon to find such a sight... But then a book about a supersonic flight came before her eyes. More exactly, a particular passage about how air-plane travelling at high speed left a cone like air disturbance in their wake. If that effect was to be applied to water, then it was easy to guess that there was something moving quickly under the surface of the water.
She came to that conclusion just as a whirlpool begun forming in the place the trace ended, and a mast poked out from under the water. Hermione huffed shortly in annoyance that Harry spotted it at once, and she turned to say something to him, but noticed that the game was going on without her.
"How about a big slingshot?" Rose voiced, remembering one of more ambitious ACME sets, "I mean, just to get you airborne. Once there, you could glide your way through. Even landing isn't such a hard thing to do, a parachute or anything like that,"
"Okay, I think that's good enough," Harry said, and got a nod from Nevill and Luna, "That's a point. Who's next?"
"How about a flying tree?" Neville said, and the rest of the group turned to him to listen about the strange idea. "You know, plants evolve, and if fish can rain from the sky, since the eggs hatch in the clouds, after that strange circular wind passes over the water like Hermione said couple of days ago-"
"It's called tornado, Neville," Hermione reminded from the side,
"Yes, yes, that thing," he continued his explanation, "And if you did it enough times to a plant, it could evolve to drift with the clouds, where it can have water and at least a litte denser footing. Whenever the cloud evaporated for good, it could drift on the breeze, seeking another cloud to settle on. Now, take wood from that tree, cast it on the currents, and you have an aircraft that seeks best winds all by itself," he finished, "Though, I wonder how much such a thing could carry before it crashed," he murmured while scratching his chin.
"Still, that's quite a nice theory. Much better than my dull 'Stick magnets to it so that you can use earth magnetism' story," Harry said, then turning to the girls, "How about 3 points for that?" at which the girls nodded, before the game started all over again.
They entertained themselves, mindless of the chaos invoked by the appearance of students from another schools, or one Quidditch superstar in particular. They haven't even stopped to listen to the announcements concerning the Tournament in which not one of them had any interest in, though the Goblet of Fire started another round of their little game.
Throughout the next day everyone in the school talked only about the Triwizard Tournament, and after only couple of hours of that, Harry and his friends had enough of that, seeking solace in reading their scrolls that Slytherin gave them, access to which everyone managed to find surprisingly quickly. Though, while his friends were busy with that, Harry stopped his research to wonder about a curious thing. Seeing them all in one place, using their connection with their wandless magic, Harry noticed that they all got the same strange look in their eyes – he probably had it too whenever he was talking with Magie. It wasn't just dreamy, though you could take it as such at the slightly far-away-gaze, looking but not seeing. But it was more than that. It had a strange wisdom to it, because with dreamy, you could pass such a person by, as here you simply had to wonder what exactly that person was seeing or thinking about...
His contemplations about what exactly could it be, since he wouldn't like to be caught like that and not having any cover story to give to the person that asked, thus covering his tracks, filled most of his day, and even in the evening, when the names of the champions were called, he still was a little preoccupied.
He haven't paid any attention to Viktor Krum being called, nor Fleur Delacour that followed his footsteps. Cedric Diggory being picked as Hogwart's champion, or rather uproar that followed, made him spare a glance to ensure that it was all over... But what got his attention fully, was:
"Harry Potter," Headmaster read in what normally could be called a mere whisper, but was quite audible in the silence that followed the fourth parchment shooting out of the Goblet of Fire. No figure stood to follow three previous champions, and as the hold up got longer, everyone started looking around in search of fourth champion.
Everyone, including one Harry James Potter. Seeing his behaviour, his friends went along with it, having spent some time with Harry, and now knowing of the famous mischievous Magie. Twins who sat nearby joined them too, but because they respected Harry, for wherever he went, he brought mischief with him. Truth be told, he could be called their inspiration.
So, a group of friends was still glancing in all directions, even when people focused on Harry as the person being called upon. Seeing everyone staring, Harry stopped for a while.
"Why are you all looking at me?" he said, confusion all over his face, "I am too waiting to know this Potter guy that entered himself in the tournament," and joined his friends who were still scanning the hall in search of the fourth champion.
"Harry Potter, please, do come forth," Dumbledore said again, a little louder to be heard over the murmur that now filled the room.
"Yeah, Potter, hurry up," Harry chorused quickly after, "The nerve of that guy! To do a stunt like this and not show up..." Harry said to the people sitting the closest, starting to get annoyed.
"Harry, if you could stop behaving like that," Albus said looking straight at Harry using a voice fitting for chiding a young child.
"Excuse me, Headmaster, but what do you mean?" Harry stopped his act, turning to talk with the older wizard before him, using his best, polite tone.
"You have just been chosen as a champion in the-" Dumbledore begun, but was interrupted.
"Oh, no I haven't. There must be some kind of mistake," Harry begun, and from the way he was acting, his friends knew that they were going to enjoy this, "For once, you can't possibly tell me that there is only one Harry Potter living on this earth. I mean, I don't want to be responsible for everything another Harry Potter messes up – Such as this misunderstanding right now," he said, but didn't even make a pause that would give Headmaster a while to respond, before he got on another topic.
"But even if I was the one to put my name in the Goblet, you couldn't possibly validate the "binding contract" Mr. Crouch said us before, because to sign such a contract, one have to be of sane mind, and you really have to be quite insane to join this Tournament as it is now – I mean no disrespect to the other champions" Harry said to the gathered crowd, but more to catch a breath than anything else, "I mean, eternal glory? That's just stupid. Who from the people gathered here remembers the name of the last person that won?" he asked, and waited for a second scanning the crowd.
No one raised their hand, Hermione simply to not spoil his show. Seeing that Headmaster was treating this break as an opportunity to interrupt, Harry got back on track.
"Okay, so that's one from the list. A thousand galleon prize?" here he snorted, "What kind of prize is that? During the last time this Tournament was held, that amount was a small fortune, allowing someone to live, while not awfully reach, but comfortably without a day of work till the end of their lives. After all that happened to the world, at this point in time, you would have to propose a prize of six million, six hundred and sixty six thousand galleons to even compare the amount," he calculated quickly, using information that he gained from his discussions with Ragnok.
The hall that got louder and louder as his speech progressed, quieted with every six he mentioned, ending at the state that you could hear a pin drop.
"So, that's for the praizes. And I haven't even started on the challenges. Because it takes seriously disturbed person to sign himself to be beaten, cut, stabbed-"
"Harry-" Albus, tired of waiting, tried to gain control over his student.
"-burnt, bitten, torn-" Harry kept on counting on his fingers.
"Harry, please-" Dumbledore tried a little louder while rubbing his brow.
"-stomped, bruised or anything else that might be prepared, for as much as pocket change for the trouble. And since I'm still sane," there were couple of audible snorts at that statement, "I don't think that it's possible that it's me you're referring to," he at last stopped, and with a pleasant smile, once again concentrated on Headmaster.
The man sighed, and noticing that at last he had his student's attention tried once again.
"Harry, please. May we talk it through in private?" Dumbledore asked somewhat weary of Harry's behaviour.
"Of course, but I wouldn't want for it to take too long. I have still much homework to do" Harry just shrugged and went with the party that gathered to the room where other champions were still waiting.
Like always, Harry's behaviour brought confusion and chaos to the proceedings. Everyone had their own thoughts about the whole thing, but those were easily brought to three basic groups. Some thought that Potter didn't had enough of getting himself into the Tournament, had to boast about it too. Others concentrated on Harry's words, and thought that it really didn't add up. The last group, a very small one consisting of his friends and some more observant students, noticed that Harry was once again stating that he would do everything on his own terms. Nowhere in his speech did he say if he did, or didn't place his name in the Goblet, and he even went with Headmaster not because he was the supposed champion, but because the man invited him for a talk in private...
The group that entered the chamber where champions were waiting was a little bigger than planned, since during Harry's speech a dispute about the rules broke out, consuming pretty much every teacher in the school, and no one wanted to back their words.
Harry, slowly following the large group, and mindless of the confusion among the students, had much time to exchange couple of remarks with Magie.
'Mind not closing the door? I wouldn't want lack of airflow in such a steamy atmosphere,' Harry commented while crossing the doorstep.
Magie, who knew exactly what he meant, blocked the doors from closing. It was a shame that the only thing big enough to hold the heavy door that she possessed was a loudspeaker that she, by pure chance, had with her.
What came next, and quieted the hall for as long as it lasted, was not-so-private conversation among the judges, during which people responsible for organising the Tournament said times and times again that there was no way to say if it was Potter himself that put his name in the Goblet of Fire, and even if, there were no means to get him out of it. During all that, Harry didn't say a word, being content to let others fret over trouble that, at the moment, nothing could be done about.
AN. Yeah, I know, this isn't my best, but I wanted to write something today, and I've noticed that I really need to get the plot going on again.
About the Galleons. I have enough of people saying "OMG! Galleons are made from gold! They should be worth more than that!" over and over again. Yeah, right, and pounds are worth more than dollars because they're made of finer paper or have more detailed drawings on them...
Even I, with not really much interest in financial world, know that money behave in their own way – Ever heard of inflation? If you have a currency, and it's in the system long enough, the thing that it's made from means nothing. And as for why you can't sell Galleons as pure gold... I don't know. Maybe they're charmed so that they can't be reformed, or any other anti-theft thing, since you gain money from nothing... I don't know, leave it to a goblin to make sure his work is thorough.
Okay, rant done, lets go to:
***OMAKE*** (simply because I didn't know where to put it in the text)
The judges were trying to explain the situation to the three champions already in the chamber, but it was hard to do when you were dealing with a person as temperamental as Fleur Delacour.
"What?" she scoofed at the news, "He? Compete? Look at him, he's just a little boy!" she snapped, and everyone turned to Harry to see his reaction to the accusation.
Harry on the other hand wasn't really interested in responding, as he was too busy with sucking his thumb...
AN.2. Erm, yeah. Don't expect much "accent dialogues" from me. I can't write them. I haven't done them for Hagrid or Dobby... Fleur or Krum won't get them either. Sorry.
Next chapter (of the usual kind) will be out shortly (I think), and in it: Weighting of the wands.
