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Harry Potter And The Game of Death
Level 1
Chapter Twenty-Five: A Suspicious Deal
Ding!
You Have Been Transported to a Special Area
Welcome to the Ministry Managed World Quidditch Cup
Current Location: Public Zone
Ding!
Spell and Rune Wards Detected
Active:
Anti-Apparation Ward
Anti-Floo Ward
Muggle-Repelling Ward
Basic Surveillance Ward
Inactive:
Anti-Portkey Ward
Lockdown Ward
Spell Detection Wards
Tracking Wards
Harry groaned as he pulled himself up from the ground. His head ached where it had clipped a stone while his wrists were scraped and sore from where he had tried – and failed – to catch his body from falling; the Game's notification coming in the midst of everything had not helped, especially when it only told Harry information that Remus and Sirius had given him before they had left the Cottage.
It was official; travelling by portkey was the worst type of magical transportation he had yet to encounter. And as usual, he was the only one who had suffered the bad effects.
All around him the various wizards and witches who had accompanied Ludo Bagman were giving him strange looks. Harry figured that they, who were used to having their feet materialize nearly a foot off the ground, were not expecting the oh so great Boy-Who-Lived, saviour of Magical Britain, to be a bumbling fool when it came to magical travel.
If so, then maybe something good would come of this stupid little incident.
As Remus checked Harry over to make sure that he was alright, Harry noticed Ludo give Sirius a friendly wave before moving away to hand the used portkey to a fellow ministry wizard. Looking harried and overworked, the stationary wizard just tossed it into a small pile of ratty looking objects before hurrying over to another group that had just arrived. Constant flashes of light heralded group after group as witches and wizards of all stripes began to appear in the designated port-key area.
Seeing an opportunity to gather some information, Harry took advantage of Remus' concealing form to cast several observes. He managed to catch some of Ludo's followers as well as several of the people around him before the press of human flesh made it dangerous to continue using the ability. Harry minimized the Game's notifications as Sirius came over.
"Alright boys, here's what's going on," Sirius said softly. "Good ol' Ludo, ever eager to get his face and name into the public consciousness, has agreed to get the three of us backstage V.I.P. passes for the remainder of the Cup. I'll tell you more about them later, but the highlights are that the passes will let us go everywhere except the security stations and individual team facilities; to get into those places we'll need to be invited or have an official escort."
The dark-haired man then shot Harry a sombre look. "In return, Harry, you'll need to put up with him every once in awhile. I don't think that he'll ask for much, but my guess is that the man will at least stick by your side on both the day of the duel and the Cup's finale."
Harry sighed. He had figured that something like this would happen, but just because he had allowed it to go on did not mean he needed to enjoy it. "Should I be worried at all? The man seems unreliable at best and madder than a hatter at worst."
His godfather's serious face lit up at Harry's words. "Ha! Nice one, kiddo. I'll have to remember that for later. But the answer is no, you won't need to worry about Ludo. The guy is a former Quidditch star, a beater, who happens to enjoy being in the spotlight a little too much; we met a few times at some of the wilder parties I went to back when I was young and he doesn't seem to have changed much since."
Sirius made a dismissive motion with his hand. "Stroke the man's ego even a little and he'll treat you like his best friend. Just don't count on him to be of any use if the going gets tough; he'll crumble like a wet biscuit under the slightest of pressure."
Harry nodded. That fit with what he had observed of the man in the short time since they had met. But it was good to know that Sirius agreed with Harry's instinctive distrust of Ludo Bagman and had the facts to back it up.
"In any case I'll need to follow him so that we can get the passes. The sooner we get them the better." Sirius then gave a grimace. "Unfortunately, this means we'll need to split up earlier than we had planned. So long as Harry's Party system is in play we should be able to communicate no matter where we go… but just in case it doesn't work, Harry, be sure shoot off your Patronus should you ever get into any danger. We've taught you well, but you're still no match for the average Death Eater."
Harry gave a snort. If Voldemort's Death Eater's could go toe to toe with a trainee Auror like Dora, who managed to smack Harry's bottom around seemingly at will in practice, then to say that Harry was not yet able to face such an opponent at this time was a massive understatement. Even if Harry personally felt that Sirius and the rest had exaggerated the skills of the Death Eaters in an attempt to frighten him off.
After Sirius handed their tickets over to Remus and exchanged a few quick words with the other man Harry's godfather was soon gone.
Remus looked at Harry and raised a questioning eyebrow. "So Harry, do you want to start by wandering around the grounds while I head over to the private booths?"
"Yep. Let's stick to the plan. I'll meet back up with you at the agreed time." An hour past noon should give Harry plenty of time to wander around and cast Observe on things of interest. "I'll be sure to let you or Sirius know if I run into any trouble."
Remus gave a quick nod of his head. Then he too left the portkey area, disappearing into the rapidly growing crowd of bizarrely dressed witches and wizards making their way towards the giant stadium off in the distance.
With his absence Harry found himself on his own. Truly on his own for the first time in well over a month. And it felt… odd. Almost unwelcome.
But unlike how his life used to be, Harry knew that he could go and find one of the two older men should something actually happen. Unlike in the past, Harry now had adults in his life that he could count on. So he pushed down the odd feeling in his chest and concentrated on the task at hand, grateful that the massive amount of foreign witches and wizards meant that he was likely to go unrecognised.
Sirius cursed whatever divine entity had currently taken an interest in his life. Whomever or whatever it was, said entity had apparently cursed him to experience a run of truly foul luck.
Thus far his day had consisted of an argument with Harry, an encounter with the Malfoy's and the less than stellar company of Ludo Bagman. Yet none of it had prepared him for the truly awful development currently staring him straight in the face.
But could anything truly prepare a man to face the horror of a woman on the prowl? Sirius had no answer to that loaded question, although he desperately wished he did as he furtively glanced around for an escape point while a blonde nightmare stalked his way. Ludo had taken one look at her, handed Sirius the passes and then darted away faster than a Thestral on the wing. Once again proving that the man was less reliable than a dirty sock with a hole in it.
"Ah, Sirius, darling! It's a pleasure to see you again now that you are a free man," Rita Skeeter purred as she advanced towards him. The woman's overly applied lipstick, gaudy glasses, and gauche handbag were just as terrible as Sirius remembered. She did not have the right skin tone for that blouse and skirt combination of green and red either. "Do you have a moment to have a chat with me regarding your terrible treatment at the hands of the ministry? I'd love to have a private spill all conversation with you. I've only gotten better at my one on one… interviews since we last met, my dear."
Sirius felt both his eyes involuntarily twitch at her words. Especially at the pause just before she said the word 'interview'. He felt the need to back away from the carnivorous woman standing in front of him, but knew that showing any weakness in front of her would end with his being devoured. And while he could think of far worse fates and creatures to be devoured by – such as the Dementors – one drunken night after a party twelve years ago had already given Sirius all the information he needed when it came to having another 'spill all' conversation with the woman standing before him.
"Now now, Rita, I've already said my piece to the Prophet and others multiple times. We'd just be going over well trodden ground by this time, and I remember how much you dislike going over well-trodden ground," Sirius said with a forced grin. One of the few things the Black Family had taught their scions that had actually stuck with him was how to turn on the charm, and right now Sirius felt as though he were in need of every bit he could summon. "A stunning woman such as yourself would rather go after fresher bits, right? How 'bout I bring my friend Remus over and you can chat with him instead?"
Unfortunately, Sirius' legendary charm failed him. Rita gave his reply a disdainful sniff and a severe cutting motion that nearly took out a passing Ministry employee.
"I've met Mr. Lupin before for a previous piece, Sirius, and I am far more interested in you. Don't try to talk your way out of this, darling. You should remember just how forceful I can be when I want to place my hands on the juicy bits of a story."
Dear God in Heaven, please no!
Not usually a devout man of any sort, Sirius' hackles raised fully at the woman's blatant forwardness. Desperate to escape, he looked around and saw nothing that would be of any assistance. There were two pretty young witches talking to one another a few feet away, but they seemed more interested in pouring over a moving picture of the young Bulgarian Seeker than in helping Sirius. Meanwhile the only wizard in sight, one of Ludo's hanger ons, ducked his head into a nearby security station, the man's glassy eyed stare making it unlikely that the man either knew or cared about Sirius' situation.
Left with no other recourse, Sirius finally gave in and retreated a step to buy himself time to think. And just as he had previously feared the action was taken as a sign of weakness. Rita's full red lips pressed together in a vicious grin and in short order Sirius found his back pressed against the corridor wall as the buxom woman raised a long-nailed hand towards his face.
Frantic and not thinking clearly, Sirius blurted out the first thing that came to his mind which might possibly distract the woman from dragging him off to the nearest broom closet. He wanted his first sexual experience post Azkaban to be with a tall and well stacked hottie. Not with the moderately attractive shrew who stood before him.
"Well, Rita, as much as I would, uh, love to renew our acquaintance, I might have a lead for you on a different story," Sirius said with a gulp. "From what I hear tell, you're currently pursuing information on my cousin's divorce from little ol' Lucy, right?"
Rita's eyes flashed at the statement. The woman's rising hand came to a halt and her predatory stare changed. No longer was it that of a cat stalking a rabbit in an open field. Now it was that of an Acromantula stalking a Centaur in the forest. One that was currently wondering which part of the Centaur it should rip off first before its screams alerted the rest of the herd.
This rather poor development caused Sirius to silently curse yet again. Not only had his words angered the woman in front of him, but he had not been supposed to mention that little titbit in public; nor in front of the woman to whom he had just uttered it. A fact which had escaped his panicked brain while the words were blurting out of his mouth.
"I see that your relationship with the new chairwoman is as strong as I had heard." Rita's deceptively soft green eyes smouldered as she adjusted her horn-rimmed glasses. "I was indeed thinking about writing a story on that very subject. But I… dislike… being led to a story by anyone other than sources I select, Sirius, and now find myself wondering if I shouldn't pursue something else instead. Such as an autobiographical piece on our nation's favourite child hero."
"Whoa! Uh, I don't think that that would be a good idea, Rita. I'm sure that you know not to bring Harry into this," Sirius said with a grimace. This is why he hated dealing with Rita. While she was easily dealt with if you were prepared to face her, the woman was a master at ambushing people when and where they were most vulnerable. She would have been a shoe-in for Slytherin had she gone to Hogwarts. "Besides, you remember the lead that I mentioned? Well, I ran into little Lucy and his brat just before coming here, and a whole bunch of stuff happened between us that you would probably be really interested in learning. I swear!"
Rita stared into his eyes for a long moment, an inscrutable look on her face as she seemed to consider his words. Sirius felt a drop of sweat drip down his neck. He hoped that she found his offer tempting enough to sidestep her more carnal desires, as well as to put aside her threat to cover his godson in one of her gossip laden stories. While Andromeda would be able to block her from using it in her column at the Prophet, Rita was a guest contributor at other publications which might not do the same.
"Very well, darling. I suppose that I can spare the time to go over it with you if you're willing to speak on record." Rita's hand darted into her putrid green handbag to retrieve an acid green quill. Sirius let himself breath a sigh of relief at the sight, only to silently curse yet again at her next words. "But I'll only promise to lay off from pursuing that piece about your godson if I get that private interview we were talking about before. Got it?"
Ridden with indecision, Sirius raised his head and looked at the ceiling. Not for the first time, he dearly wished that James and Lily were still alive. Because sacrificing his body for the sake of his godson had not been listed among the possible duties expected of their child's godfather.
Damn that deity for cursing him with such terrible luck!
One hour after he had separated from the others found Harry feeling quite frustrated.
The mission to stop the attack on the World Cup had been a bust thus far. Through the use of Observe, Harry had found so many dangerous things present that he had nearly broken into a cold sweat. Amongst other things, never had Harry dreamed that he would see someone openly waving a millennia old sacrificial dagger – confirmed by Observe – in the street whilst asking who was willing to give their lives to guarantee the win of their chosen team. The man had thankfully been stunned and taken away by a pair of Ministry Aurors just as he had begun leading one interested fan away from the public area.
After that experience, and seeing various other Ministry wizards darting about as they confiscated dangerous goods left and right, Harry turned his focus away from objects and towards observing the people around him. Doing so garnered immediate results, as it seemed that he was finally a high enough level to use Observe on most of the adults around him!
Harry celebrated by casting a wide net to get as much information as possible.
Lisa Atkins:
A working woman who is mother to six children, Lisa is a seventh generation Londoner. Upon finishing her primary magical education at Grimwart's School of Magic, she landed her dream job at Madam Malkin's store in Diagon Alley. Her favourite thing to do is to read the latest Quidditch News while sipping a steaming cup of tea.
Age: 45
Level 124
Stats:
STR: 43
DEX: 74
CON: 54
INT: 154
WIS: 112
CHA: 89
Traits:
Normal Citizen
Prude
Quidditch Fan
Vasile Bobrov:
A Russian born wizard, Vasile's parents were both muggleborn survivors of a Communist purge. Russian wizards found him at an orphanage and, upon seeing him use magic, enrolled him at a now deceased school for wizards and witches. He is a brewer by trade.
Age: 57
Level 149
Stats:
STR: 52
DEX: 65
CON: 64
INT: 264
WIS: 137
CHA: 119
Traits:
Normal Citizen
Follower
Quidditch Fan
Akiki Rwamirama:
A man of mixed tribal descent, Akiki works for an international trading group. He often poses as a Muggle shipping employee, and is experienced in their practices. He favours muggle fashion over that of magical.
Age: 36
Level 115
Stats:
STR: 65
DEX: 74
CON: 44
INT: 189
WIS: 105
CHA: 108
Traits:
Normal Citizen
Overbearing
Quidditch Fan
Andre Lavoie:
Andre thinks that he is God's gift to women. The fact that he rather good-looking and easy on the eyes helps him, but it's his smooth talking that truly sets the hearts of women aflutter. He prefers older ladies and seeks to marry a rich dowager and have a bevy of mistresses by the time he is thirty.
Age: 25
Level 108
Stats:
STR: 58
DEX: 73
CON: 57
INT: 120
WIS: 93
CHA: 139
Traits:
Normal Citizen
Don Juan
Quidditch Fan
After what felt like the thousandth ding, and with a seemingly endless parade of new wizards and witches flowing in from the portkey areas, Harry sat himself down on a small bench located at the edge of the nearby forest and proceeded to go through what he had gathered. He found nothing of importance regarding the quest, but the stat pages were interesting nonetheless.
From what Harry could see, both he and Hermione were heads and shoulders above most other people in terms of their stats, traits, and titles. Just like the students at Hogwarts, most of the adults Harry had observed only had a few traits like the rather generically named 'Normal Citizen' and 'Quidditch Fan' traits.
Overall it was interesting but not helpful in regards to completing the quest given to him by the Game.
Once Harry had finished reading through and saving the stat pages for later recording – he knew that Hermione would love to get her hands on the data – he stretched his shoulders to get the stiffness out of them. Then, feeling the call of nature, he chose to duck behind a nearby group of bushes in order to relieve himself.
The lines in front of the public loos had been ludicrous and there was no way Harry would subject himself to them if there was another alternative.
Yet just after he had unzipped his trousers and had begun to pee, Harry had heard two voices coming from behind him. Neither had sounded familiar, so he had at first ignored them and gone about his business. Then one of them had mentioned his family name, causing Harry's ears to perk to attention.
"Damn the Potter brat and Black for getting in the way this morning," the first man muttered. "They nearly ruined everything!"
"Mayhap, Morgan, but don't forget that we've still got a job to do." The second man had a lower voice than the first one. "The morning's unplanned event just made it harder. Malfoy -"
The first voice cut in. "You mean Lord Malfoy, right?"
A snigger followed that line, presumably from the second man.
His curiosity aroused, Harry finished his business as fast as he could. When done he zipped up his trousers and tried to creep closer.
"No, Morgan. I don't mean that. Lucius may be noble-born, but the man is certainly no Lord of mine or any other. That was his father, Abraxus, and from what I know neither his son nor grandson has been able to earn the title since the man passed away. A title seems to be the one thing his gold cannot buy." A pause. "Well, that and a loyal wife, but Narcissa always was the brains of the operation."
A second, higher pitched snigger followed as the first man laughed, shortly followed by the second man. It took a few seconds before the laughter stopped and the two men resumed speaking.
"Anyway," continued the second man with the deeper voice, "Malfoy really won't be happy with us if we fail him and he does have us by throat. So keep tight to me as we walk; the git was able to influence the patrol schedule enough to open up this window and we'd best keep to it. We don't want any mishaps to happen because we were tardy."
The first man gave a sympathetic groan. "Silencing witnesses can be a real pain sometimes, and if it caused us to miss the rendezvous we'd be right screwed, so we would."
Apparently finished with their talk, the two men began to walk away at a quick march. Their footsteps began to fade off into the distance as they moved away from the stadium.
All of which allowed Harry to spring into motion.
Using the Party feature Harry sent a pair of messages racing off to Remus and Sirius informing them that he had located two suspicious individuals and was in pursuit. Then he activated his Inventory, pulled out his father's invisibility cloak, and swept it over his shoulders. After closing his Inventory and making sure that the Cloak was fully covering him, Harry then took off as fast as he dared and began to tail the two men through the woods. Remus and Sirius both messaged Harry back almost instantly, but he was unable to respond and minimized their notifications.
After checking to make sure that the cloak was covering every part of his body, Harry moved in the direction the two men had gone as quickly as he could.
The path the two men took was a winding, meandering one. The two men seemed to be rather paranoid about being followed; every few minutes they would veer off to the side or double back on their trail, making it hard to know exactly where they were headed. All Harry could tell for sure was that they were headed far away from the stadium and that they had yet to leave the stadium's wards. He felt certain that the Game would have notified him otherwise.
More than once along the way Harry had been forced to swiftly dodge behind a rock or tree so as to avoid running face first into one of the men. And as the sounds of the Quidditch celebrations faded further into the background, the undergrowth began to grow thicker. Dried leaves and broken sticks littered the floor, making it increasingly more difficult for Harry to move quietly.
After what felt like an hour had passed, the man in the lead came to a sudden stop. He whipped around and then thrust his wand directly at Harry's location. "Homenum Revelio!"
Harry felt his heart lurch against his ribcage as his feet ground to a halt. Not daring even to breath, he stayed as still as was humanly possible. He had tested the cloak and found that it blocked against certain spells and abilities, like the Game's Observe, but had no idea whether that spell was amongst those it could shield against.
The man cocked his head back. A child's mask, of the sort that one could get at a number of merchant booths back at the Stadium, covered his face. Several seconds of no further action on his part passed before he turned to his companion.
"No one's there. Sorry for the scare, Morgan. It must've been some stupid animal that I heard."
The other man waved a hand in acceptance, a similar mask to that of his companion covering his own face. "It's been awhile since we've done something like this ourselves, Yaxley, and we're both a little rusty. But I don't want to end up in Azakaban anytime soon so keep your eyes peeled just in case."
The two men then resumed their walk. It was only after they had proceeded a short distance away did Harry let loose the breath he had been holding.
That had been close. Too close. And though he did not know why their spell did not work, Harry bet that it had something to do with his dad's cloak; for what was probably the umpteenth time he thanked his dad for getting it in the first place and Dumbledore for returning it to Harry several years ago.
The rest of the walk was uneventful as Harry made sure to be more careful in his pursuit. Eventually the two men came to a stop and proceeded to wait. Harry took up a position nearby and sat down on the exposed roots of a large tree.
He itched to cast Observe on the two men, but the cloak's mysterious property to block spells and abilities also applied to Harry while he was under it. Without dropping the cloak or poking the tip of his wand beyond its protection there was no way to use the Game's ability, and after his earlier close call Harry did not want to take the risk.
After several minutes of silent waiting, the steady crunch of footsteps heralded the arrival of someone else. The two men Harry had followed into the woods tensed and pointed their wands in the direction of the noise.
A third man wearing a child's mask stepped into view. In stark contrast to the fancy robes worn by the two men Harry had followed, this new person wore a mishmash of apparel cobbled together from the Quidditch teams of multiple countries. It served to conceal his build, and when he spoke it was in a voice that sounded magically altered. The closest thing Harry could compare it to was like when a victim or witness spoke on the telly and used a voice synthesizer to protect their anonymity.
"Let's keep things short; I don't much time remaining before my disappearance might arouse suspicion. Do I have your promise to help change the outcome of the matches?"
Man number one, Morgan, nodded. "I won't comment on what methods we will use, but they will remain untraceable and impossible to connect back to either of us."
The third man was not satisfied. "And what happens if your methods fail?"
"Then we will pay you, handsomely, for your assistance. As was previously agreed."
"And how can I trust you to hold true to your word?"
"Because," Yaxley said in a sneering tone, "we are all upstanding gentlemen here who have given our words of honour. That, and if we fail to come through with things on our end, a bag of gold for the sum of 50,000 galleons will appear in the previous drop spot the night before your assistance is required."
The third man cocked his head as though he were thinking about things. He then slowly nodded his head and tossed something to Morgan. "Then I agree. That portkey will take you to the room you requested. It will only activate on the day you requested, and only when three or more people touch it at once. I can also cancel it should you not hold up your end of the bargain. Is this acceptable?"
Both Yaxley and Morgan assented. The third man nodded his head before turning and walking back the way he had come. Their business finished, Yaxley and Morgan then split apart and wandered back into the forest in opposite directions.
Ten minutes passed as Harry patiently waited to make sure that none of the three men were still nearby. Once Harry felt certain that he was well and truly alone in the woods, he replied to Sirius and Remus' messages. Then he took out his wand and cast the Patronus spell, instructed the ephemeral stag to lead Remus and Sirius to his location, and settled in to await their arrival.
While he was fairly certain that he could pinpoint Yaxley and Morgan if he ever met them again – they had to be the two men accompanying the Malfoy's earlier that morning – Harry had no idea who the third person had been. So while he had been able to make some progress on the quest, it was not enough. Not by a longshot.
A/N: Aaaaaand we are finally at the World Cup. A place where quests and daggers in the dark lurk in abundance. Things will be moving rather quickly as I power ahead; I hope that y'all can enjoy it. I also took some creative license with portkey travel and Harry's invisibility cloak. If you feel that there are any discrepancies with either, then that would probably be why.
Rita Skeeter is in the house! Or is it the dog house? :p Poor, poor Sirius. She's one of those characters that everyone, including myself, loves to hate, and I just had to find a way to use her. Having adult characters interact also lets me use more suggestive bits than I'm comfortable doing with a thirteen year old Harry at this time. But trust me when I say that I have no plans to 'redeem' her in the slightest.
I am also doing something of a stealth rewrite of this story, where I am going back and editing the earlier chapters. Thus far I have finished and posted reworked versions for chapters 1-6. I have not added any new information to them, but have done things like removing extraneous sentences and shoring up dialogue, as well as correcting grammatical mistakes. All edited chapters will have a date at the very bottom signifying when they have been updated.
Last, but not at all least, I am quite interested as to what people will think of the chapter after this one. My current anticipation is that it will become one of my more controversial forays. ;-)
Updated on 1/17/2020
Until Next Time,
~Elsil