I don't own Harry Potter. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling. The only thing I own is Ami.


Chapter Forty Four

Exposing the Truth and the Elemental

Everyone fell silent when Harry's name was called. Ami had to practically push him out of his seat in order to get him to stand up and walk up to the Headmaster in front of everyone. It was clear that most of the school was glaring at him, save for herself and Hermione. She was shocked to see that Ron had what she guessed was the most powerful glare of all, and it worried her that he would think that his best friend would enter his name in a tournament that has had competitors die in.

Watching Harry disappear into the Trophy Room was nerve-wracking, tears were threatening to spill from her eyes because of the tension that was wound so tightly inside her body. It took all of her self-restraint to stay in her seat, but she found herself glaring at the Goblet of Fire with fierce intensity, wondering what someone had done in order to get Harry's name to come out of the Goblet, because there was no way anyone could have tampered with it because the backlash would have been obvious to everyone. They would have also been immediately apprehended for trying to mess with an ancient Eterna family heirloom, since it was illegal to do such a thing to the Elemental family.

Ami was brought out of her musings by Ron, who was loudly complaining about how Harry hadn't told him he had managed to enter the tournament. She was more than ready to defend him should the need come.

"How could he? He didn't even tell me, his best friend!" he cried. "We could have done it together! But no, he wanted the glory all to himself!"

The Elemental resisted the urge to slap him, but decided to lash out with her words (one of her favourite weapons) instead.

"You think so lowly of him, that you think he would enter a tournament that could kill him, all for the sake of eternal glory? Can you tell me any names of previous winners? And didn't Harry say that he wanted a normal year for once?" she snapped.

She would have said more, but her instincts told her that there were more important views to deal with, namely the magical officials that had congregated with the Champions in the Trophy Room.

Dumbledore looked back at her for a moment, gestured with his hand for her to follow, and then made his way into the Trophy Room with the other teachers. Ami nodded her head. Of course he knew who she was, and they all wanted an explanation about what had happened, and who better than to ask the only surviving member of the Eterna family, the creators of the Goblet of Fire? Stealing a glance at her friends she got to her feet.

"I have to go and try to explain why the Goblet did what it did. I'll see you both later," she whispered before ducking into the Trophy Room.

How she managed to go through without anyone else noticing she would never know. She could only assume it was because of the chaos that had broken out after they announced Harry's name as the fourth champion.


Back straight, stomach in, shoulders back, head high. This was the mantra that she repeated in her head over and over again as she stepped through the door, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides. Ami found Harry nearly backed into a corner, keeping his green eyes on the adults; he glanced up at her for a moment, his eyes widened at the implications of her presence. She was going to be exposed as the Elemental, in an effort to prove his innocence in not entering the competition. The other champions were practically glaring at him while the officials were discussing possibilities, having already asked Harry whether he had entered himself, or had asked someone to do it for him.

In the hopes of drawing attention away from him, the Elemental cleared her throat.

"You summoned me, Professor Dumbledore?"

Everyone's eyes turned towards her. Snape glared at her.

"Why are you down here?" he sneered.

Dumbledore waved his hand to calm everyone.

"I asked her here to explain the Goblet of Fire's unusual behaviour. Thank you for assisting in this matter, Miss Eterna."

The headmaster made a point of mentioning her last name so that everyone knew what they were dealing with. Ami sighed heavily and crossed her arms in thought.

"For the Goblet to have selected a fourth champion, someone who would have been able to cast an exceptional Confundus on a magical artefact created by the Elementals to make it think that there was a fourth school entered in the tournament. Even if his name was entered under Hogwarts, the chances of him being chosen would be considerably slimmer, since several students entered. It would have made it inevitable that he would get chosen if he was named under the fourth school, since there would have been no one else," she explained.

Her eyes then shifted to show the four colours of the elements.

"Although, what I would like to know is why the Goblet of Fire was even used? It was locked up in the Eterna family vault at Gringotts, and I certainly did not give permission for it to be used."

The flames of the torches lighting the room were flickering under the influence of her emotions, growing higher with every breath she took. Crouch saw this and decided to diffuse the situation before things got any hotter.

"My apologies, Miss Eterna. Because you are still underage, we asked permission from your father if we could use the Goblet for the event. We did not ask if you knew, since it was assumed he was speaking for you," he told her.

The fire calmed slightly.

"In accordance to my mother's will, I still have power and right over the dealings of my vault and the Eterna family, even if I am underage. You should have come to me about this."

Ami didn't know how she was managed to hold her nerve in front of all these people; she was being thrust into a situation where she had to act like an adult, when she was only a few days away from her fifteenth birthday. She sighed again and continued to speak.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter now. The damage has already been done. An adult would have been the only one who could have entered without being affected by Dumbledore's Age Line. But the question I have to ask is this. Will Harry have to compete in the tournament, even when he didn't enter himself?"

Barty Crouch turned away.

"The rules are absolute, we have no choice. The Goblet of Fire holds an all-binding magical contract. Mr Potter has no choice, he is, as of tonight, a Triwizard Champion."

All of them turned to Harry, who could only stare back at them with a nervous expression on his face. Ami was close to tears at the thought of him competing in the deadly competition, but did her best not to show it. Only Harry really knew what she was feeling because he could see how watery her eyes were amongst the crowd of glares and pitying stares.


After everyone else had gone, Harry and Ami stood alone in the Trophy Room, the Hogwarts professors were waiting for a meeting, and the Elemental was asked to be a part of it, since it was her family's heirloom that had been used for malicious ends. She had nearly broken down in tears, so the boy gathered her up in his arms and held her to his chest while she cried into his shoulder, his hand rubbing up and down her back in order to soothe her.

"You're more upset about this than I am," he commented.

"Because it was my family's creation that got you into this; I feel like it's my fault!" she cried, looking up at him with watery violet eyes. "You must hate me so much!"

He wiped her tears away with his sleeve.

"The only person to blame is the person who put my name in the Goblet. I would never blame you for something you have no control over. Being the Elemental is who you are, and you exposed yourself to prove my innocence. I can never hate you for that." Harry told her.

The girl sniffed loudly, but nodded her head. She sighed and removed herself reluctantly from his embrace.

"I have to go and meet with the professors. I don't think I'll be back before late tonight, so I'll see you in the Common Room in the morning?" she asked hesitantly.

He smiled and nodded his head. Ami then left the room, clutching her hands to her chest.


Ami was later brought up to Dumbledore's office with him, McGonagall, Snape and Moody. Dumbledore was leaning over his Pensieve, where glowing silver light seemed to ooze out of it. The teenage girl was standing with her eyes cast to the floor and her arms folded in front of her developing chest.

"This cannot go on, Albus. First the Dark Mark, now this..." McGonagall told the old man.

He didn't look at her as he spoke.

"What do you suggest, Minerva?"

"Don't let Harry compete!" Ami snapped. "Someone clearly entered his name in the hopes that he would get killed, or has something far worse in mind! It's all one elaborate trap to make it look like his death is an accident, should he get killed!"

Dumbledore sighed.

"I know how you feel about this matter, Miss Eterna. But you heard Mr Crouch, the rules are clear."

McGonagall agreed with her young lioness.

"Since when have you cared about accommodating for the rules?" she asked firmly.

It was a surprise when Snape began to speak his opinion.

"Whilst I believe this is not mere coincidence, the only way to find out what is going on is to let him compete."

The Gryffindor Head of House was affronted.

"Do nothing?! Put him up as bait?! He's a boy, not a piece of meat!"

"Like Hell! You're putting him in a worse position than he already is on a regular basis, you're letting him compete, knowing that you're setting him up for something far worse!" Ami roared, the flames in the fireplace rising up to match the ruby redness of her eyes. "You can't do this!"

Dumbledore sighed.

"I agree with Severus. But we don't tell him, he must be anxious enough, knowing what lies ahead."

He deposited a silver strand into the Pensieve and then turned towards the young Elemental.

"Miss Eterna, can I ask you to make an oath that you will not tell Mr Potter about what has transpired here this evening?"

Ami felt shocked, they were asking her to hide something from her best friend, the boy she loved. It may be a good thing to hide from him, but she was angry that they were going to make her take an oath; she couldn't do that to him. With great vehemence she shook her head.

"I won't make an oath..." she whispered before her words came out as a seething hiss. "But I won't tell him that he's going to be used as bait in this scheme! You will just have to rely on my word for that!"

She turned away, her shoulders hunched as if she was about to start crying, she was not that far off.

"May I return to Gryffindor Tower now? I don't want to cause an Elemental Outburst in here."

She was given permission to go. Her departure was swift.


Arriving in the Common Room it was already late. Everyone had gone up to their dormitories and had gone off to bed. Ami scurried up the stairs to her dorm and found Hermione sat on her bed reading Hogwarts: A History, she was dressed in navy blue pyjamas. The Elemental fell back on her bed with a loud thump, causing her best friend to look up from her book.

"Where have you been? Harry came back before you," said Hermione, closing her book.

Ami rolled off her bed and begun to change into her nightclothes, red pyjama bottoms and a black tank top. Once she was done she climbed onto Hermione's bed.

"I had to go and meet with the professors, since I'm the Elemental, they let me be informed since it was my family's heirloom that got tampered with," she explained. "You can't say this to him, but they're planning on bringing out the person responsible by using Harry as bait. Bait! Bloody bastards!"

Hermione grabbed hold of her hands to stop her from shaking.

"Your language is getting worse, but I agree with you, they can't do that. But the contract is magically binding, so Harry has to compete," she told her. "We're going to help him through this. We're his best friends. We can't rely on Ron right now, he actually believes that Harry put his name in, so does everyone else in the school."

The Elemental's emotions spiked.

"Damn them! Damn them all to Hell! You would think after my input they would have announced that Harry didn't put his name in the Goblet, he has no choice in the matter!"

Hermione shook her head.

"The Ministry's probably not saying anything so that they don't cause a panic. You know how they get when something goes wrong."

Ami was reluctant but she nodded her head. Hermione patted her friend on the shoulder and escorted her to her bed.

"We'll get started on helping Harry in the morning. Who knows? Between the three of us, he might actually win the whole thing."

The Elemental was tucked into her bed and rolled over when the lights were put out.

"That's what I'm afraid of... Who knows what's going to happen if he wins? I have the feeling that it's something very, very bad."

It took a long time before she could drift off to sleep that night.


You'll have to forgive Ami, she gets a bad mouth when she's angry. What do you think? Let me know with your reviews. I am more than happy to receive constructive criticism about Ami and this story. Any questions? I am willing to answer them.

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