Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its related works. The rights to the books, movies, and everything else belong to J.K. Rowling and her many business affiliates. This is a fan made work of fiction that will never earn me a single penny. Now buy something official so you can support the woman who made this world possible for us to play in and explore.
Harry Potter And The Game of Death
Level 1
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Seizing the Initiative
"Yaxley!" Sirius yelled as he punched his fist into a nearby tree. The action was sure to leave bruised knuckles and torn skin, but at the moment he did not care.
Not after his less than enjoyable encounter with Rita Skeeter and the unsatisfying romp that had followed. And maybe because Sirius felt more than a little mad at his godson for endangering himself while Sirius had been cornered by the blasted wretch of a woman.
"Of course he's involved," Sirius ranted as he began to pace. "Yaxley has been one of dear old Lucy's stooges since their days back at Hogwarts. And Morgan… well, the man's as big of a bottom feeder as they come, so hearing that he's skulking around makes perfect sense as well."
Remus voiced his agreement. "While you were confined to Azkaban, Lucius helped both men make impressive inroads in the business community. Along with Lucius, the two of them are responsible for taking on much of the Black family's less than savoury businesses. Getting taken over by Malfoy and the rest kept them from going under once your mother died eight years ago."
"Argh! That's just another reason for me to hate them. Those businesses deserved to rot! Forced breeding programs for House Elves; the enslavement and abuse of other sentient species like Centaurs and Veela; even the illegal hunting of endangered magical creatures like Unicorns! They deserved to have been banished to the fiery depths of hell! And I promise that I'll see that it happens if it's the last thing that I do!"
The mere thought that his family's less than reputable businesses might still be around – let alone thriving – was like a shot to his kidneys. Sirius had hated everything that the Black Family had stood for when his parents had run the House, and to hear that others had taken up their work got under his skin like few things could.
Once Harry was safely back in Hogwarts for the school year, Sirius planned to enlist Andromeda's aid and go on the warpath. Between his ascendency to Lordship around that time and his cousin's position as Chairman of the Daily Prophet, he and Andromeda would have the power to make some waves and finally begin to tear down their family's despicable legacy.
"Sirius, Remus, please! We need focus on the issue at hand. Which is stopping Malfoy's planned attack on the World Cup." Harry said as he stood up from a makeshift seat on a bunch of gnarled roots. The kid ran a hand through his eternally messy hair, so much like his father's that it sometimes hurt Sirius to look at the boy, as he spoke. "Observe didn't work on them because all three were too high in level for me to read, but from what I overheard it seems that they're our best bet to complete the quest. So the important questions at hand are who are they, why are they helping Malfoy, and how can we use this knowledge to stop them from succeeding?"
Sirius growled at that. He loved his godson's focus on helping people, but all of this focus on the Game of Death only made his temper shorten. If he had not given his word that he would stop complaining, suffice to say that the conversation would have been going a very different way. Starting and ending with why the kid had ignored Sirius' message and gone haring off on a dangerous chase by himself.
But Sirius had given his word. And he would do his best to obey it even when it rankled him to no end.
After taking a deep breath to calm himself, Sirius levelled a stern glare at Harry as he responded. "Both of the men you tailed were Death Eaters who managed to slip free from Azkaban. Yaxley pleaded the standard Imperius Defence that most used, while Morgan managed to successfully argue that some other Death Eater had used a Polyjuice potion keyed to his likeness to carry out the only crime he had been positively identified as committing."
"Why am I not surprised that two of daddy Malfoy's pals are former Death Eaters?" Harry rolled his eyes at the obvious nature of Sirius' words. "And while I know about Polyjuice potion, what's the Imperius Defence? I've never heard of it before."
Sirius gave a shaky laugh as memories of the War against Voldemort came rushing back and chose to let Remus explain the Imperious Curse to Harry. The man would be teaching Harry and the kid's year mates all about the three Unforgivables later this year anyway, so the boy was only learning about their existence somewhat sooner than was meant to happen.
Once Remus had finished explaining Sirius saw that Harry's face had turned somewhat pale.
"Just when I thought that the wizarding world could not get worse," the boy murmured. "That's almost as bad as what Voldemort did to Quirrell in my first year, or what the Diary did to Ginny in my second. Only, instead of it being something rare and difficult to do, anyone with enough power can do the Imperius Curse and not even get caught afterwards."
"It's a piece of work alright, kiddo. But this' also why you should never assume that you know everything there is to know about magic," Sirius remarked. "Trust me when I say that there are rituals and spells so dark and evil in this world that they make the Imperius Curse look nearly benign in comparison."
His godson gave a shudder at Sirius' comment. But the boy was made of stern stuff and pushed on ahead. Not that Sirius would have expected anything less considering who his parents were.
"Anyway, now that we know two of the people involved – and at least part of what their plan entails – I think that we should start following them around," Harry said softly. "That way we'll be in a position to stop them from affecting the Quidditch matches when they try something."
"That's a fine idea, kiddo," Sirius drawled. "But how do you propose we stop them? Our original plan was kept vague on purpose so that we could leave our options open until we got more information. Now that we have that information, what we need next are specifics."
Specifics which would, with any luck, preclude the boy from running off on his own after two Death Eaters and an unknown conspirator for a second time. Anything less would be unacceptable to Sirius, especially considering that Harry seemed to think that he was invincible. It was a trait that the boy shared with his father, and Sirius was determined to do a better job of protecting Harry from it than he had done with James.
"I dunno," Harry replied with a shake of his head. "Coming up with a detailed plan was never one of my strong suits. That's Hermione's strength while I'm more of an 'adapt to the moment' sort of person. But if we all put our heads together, then I'm sure we can come up with something."
A wolfish grin began to grow across Sirius' face at Harry's words. The display of innocent trust his godson had just given him and Remus with that statement was cute and adorable, and so much like his mother that it hurt a little to witness, but the boy's prior action of going off on his own called for some punishment. Sirius was not okay with the kid going off on his own and ignoring the messages Remus and Sirius had sent, and a mere verbal rebuke of the kid's actions was not nearly enough.
Besides, as a former king of pranksters, the opening his godson had just left was far too easy an opportunity to pass up. Sirius could use it to keep Harry safe and get a little revenge from the boy ignoring Sirius' wishes. He shot a look over at Remus and saw that his old friend had a vague idea of what was going through Sirius' mind. The nod Remus soon gave was an indication that he would follow Sirius' lead, which is all Sirius needed to know to take hold of the initiative.
"So you're saying that you will abide by whatever plan we all come up with?" Sirius asked his godson in a falsely innocent tone. "No matter what it might be?"
"Of course I am!" Harry responded defensively. "Why else would we come up with one together?"
"Hm. I see. That sounds like a fine proposition then, a fine proposition indeed." Sirius rubbed his hands together with glee. "I'm sure that, with your help, Remus and I can come up with a working plan. One which will take full advantage of each of our unique strengths and skills while keeping in mind our varying levels of proficiency in other areas. Does that sound good?"
"Ummm… sure?" The boy stared at Sirius with a wary look in his eyes. "Though something about the way you phrased that bothers me."
Well, the kid was right. Sirius had intended to be rather ambiguous with his wording. But now that he had the Harry's agreement it was too late for the boy to back out. Besides, it was high time Harry learned that allowing others to set the rules was tantamount to surrendering control of a situation.
The fact that Harry was going to hate what Sirius had in mind would just make the lesson stick all the more.
"Thank you for using Fizzban's Duelling Emporium, best in the duelling business since before the First Goblin War. Your opponent will be Blue Team, number four. We hope that you have a fun and exciting experience. Now please move aside so that the next customer may be served."
The dull, droning voice of the pretty young witch tasked with running the duelling registration desk caused Harry's eye to twitch. After making sure to grab the red arm band with the number three inscribed on it that the young woman was supposed to have handed to him but had not, Harry turned and left the desk as quickly as possible.
The woman's droning voice encapsulated Harry's general mood in a perfect nutshell. Ever since that day in the forest he had found himself relegated to 'searching' or 'keeping watch' over a select few areas. Ostensibly because he fit in better than either Remus or Sirius, but Harry knew what was really going on.
The two men had sidelined him from his own quest, and while they were off tailing Malfoy's goons they had stuck Harry with the 'safe' assignments.
It was infuriating. For while watching professional Quidditch games in person and taking part in his first duels were exciting – both of which Harry had done quite often since that day in the forest – the knowledge that he was being cut out of his own investigation had cast a long pall over the entire week's activities. One which even the presence of a string of friends throughout the week was not enough to overturn.
Because as Sirius and Remus both knew, amongst Harry's friends only Ron and Hermione were aware of the Game of Death; Harry respected the abilities of witches like Andromeda and Professor McGonagall too highly to tempt fate and use its abilities in front of their sharp gazes. A fact which Sirius no doubt had in mind when asking them to watch over Harry for several days while he and Remus handled some 'important business'.
The three days Harry had spent under the watchful eyes of both Molly Weasley and Andromeda had been the most dull of the lot, even with a rapidly sprouting Ron – what was his mother feeding him this summer – winning the International Wizard's Chess Youth Tournament and the twins nearly causing an international incident at the awards ceremony. Thank goodness for Ginny's wry sense of humour; discovering it had been a pleasant surprise, as without it Harry may have gone stark raving mad by this point.
Though watching a Quidditch Game in the private box the next day with their Head of House had proven to be quite amusing; it had been the one day neither Malfoy nor his goons had shown up, and everyone had taken the opportunity to watch a game from Sirius' private box. Seeing the usually stern woman's face flushed from excitement as she screamed at the players was something he would never forget. Nor would Harry forget when, upon the Irish team's victory over Portugal, Professor McGonagall had slugged Andromeda's shoulder so hard out of sheer excitement that it had caused the other woman to topple into Sirius, knocking the man over and giving him a lump on his head.
It had been a fun moment, and Harry had gained more than a little bit of dark satisfaction at seeing it happen.
As he made a mental note to get the pictures Remus had taken of the event developed sooner rather than later, Harry felt Dora's powerful arm reach out and bring him in for a hug when he made his way out of the registration line. The young woman and her current girlfriend, Hestia Jones, were his minders for the day. And to say that they had been driving Harry up the wall since the moment Sirius and Remus had left him in their care would be an understatement.
"Awww, is my little 'ickle Harrykins feeling down because the pretty witch at the counter didn't smile and giggle at him?" The menace rubbed his hair fondly as she spoke. "Don't be sad, I'll comfort you in her place. Now c'mere so I can shower you with love and affection!"
Harry tried to brush her off. But in spite of his best efforts to the contrary Harry found himself unable to escape her powerful grasp. Maybe it was something about being a Metamorphagus, or maybe Dora just worked out a lot, but the woman was seriously strong.
Resigning himself to his fate, Harry felt a brush creep down his neck as the woman buried his face right between her firm breasts. This was the reason why the woman and her girlfriend had been driving him up the wall. Because both women had taken every opportunity to mess with his head after Dora had seen Harry blushing and stammering when Hestia had first done it to him upon their initial greeting that morning.
"See? Don't you feel better already?"
Harry tried to mumble something out in reply, but his current circumstances muffled his words beyond all recognition. Besides, as usual Dora took what he said and interpreted in the way she desired.
"Told ya! Next up is Hestia's massive valley. Her boobs are twice as big as mine and really soft too. I should know since I spent most of last night…"
His danger senses tingling, Harry managed to forcefully pry himself free of her grasp. Or enough so that he could yell at her. "Dora! Please, not in public! Not again. Two times was enough."
Having people stare at you while a girl recounted – in explicit and rather vibrant detail – her sexual activities of the night before had been mortifying. To the point where even Harry's annoyance at being sidelined had taken a back seat to it.
"Awww. But that's no fun at all. You should think of it as gaining valuable second-hand experience, Harry. It'll do wonders whenever you bag your first lay, as nobody knows a woman's body like another woman." Dora gave Harry a salacious wink as she laughed and drew him back into her modest chest. "Oh, the stories I could tell of the broom closets at Hogwarts. There's a reason why old man Filch checks them like a hawk searching for a mouse, believe you me! But we can go over those later. It's time for you to go off to do your little duel while I find Hestia – and her enormous bosom – so that we can both cheer you on!"
Against his better judgement Harry found that he did not really object to that statement. It was for the simple reason that Dora was right. Hestia's breasts were quite large and soft. And though Dora's were nice – though he would be caught dead before telling her that – there was something… different when he was held by the much larger endowed woman. There was a warm and sugary feeling that spread throughout Harry's entire body, a nice one, but one which was very, very, very different than the one he got when Mrs. Weasley gave him a similar type of hug.
It was all so very strange and confusing to him, and Harry had found the faces of more than one girl he knew popping into his brain immediately after it had first happened.
Cho had been a certainty given how much he liked her; while the next stars of his imagination, Daphne Greengrass and Susan Bones, had the best combination of good looks and developed figures in their entire age group. But Harry had felt very weird when Hermione's face and breasts had made their own appearance in his brief delusion. It had broken him out of his daze and sent him scampering far from Dora and her girlfriend faster than might be considered manly. But Harry absolutely did not want to think about that could mean at all, so he did not.
Harry managed to raise his head enough to level a glare at the pink-haired menace to society that was currently giving him a smile brimming with cheer. "Then hop to it, Dora." Harry commented with as much dignity as he could muster given the situation. "I've got a duel to win."
Dora gave an airy salute in reply as she finally let go of him. "Yes sir Mr. Potter sir. Just make sure to show these foreign chaps what a cute little British stud like yourself is made of, okay?"
"You can count on it, Dora." Harry said, thanking every deity he could think of that the woman was ending her teasing there. He did not know how much more he could take before he snapped. "I won't let what you and the rest have taught me these past few weeks go to waste."
"That's the spirit! Oh, and by the by, should you actually happen to win, then Hestia and I will sandwich you between us while we hug. And maybe add in a little something extra if you manage to win in style, if you get my meaning."
Harry's mind stopped working for a second as he tried to process what Dora meant. And when his mind started going down a certain path Harry felt his earlier blush bloom into something which probably resembled the setting sun.
"Ha! Looks like your mind is going down the right path. Enjoy the parting gift, Harry, and think of what your future might hold in store!" So saying, the pink-haired girl tossed him another wink before dashing off into the crowd, laughing at the top of her lungs as she searched for her missing girlfriend.
Meanwhile Harry just turned around and stomped towards the duelling platforms, his ears and neck still burning from her parting tease.
"Stupid Dora. Stupid girls. Stupid hormones! And stupid Sirius for sticking me in the middle of this mess." Harry muttered under his breath as he walked. "Why can't they be easier to handle? Any of them? Even one would be nice."
Dealing any one of them was a tiring experience. But with all four in his life on a near constant basis, and with three of them thrusting themselves into his face on a day like today, Harry was finding his usual patience and control beginning to wear. Combined with his annoyance at being sidelined and Harry felt like he was a tea kettle filled to the brim with boiling water.
If only he had a way to distract Dora and escape to work on his quest. Then he could be free of this nonsense and actually doing something productive. But an opportunity to do so without her noticing had yet to present itself, so for now Harry could only vent his frustrations upon the unlucky individuals who stepped into the duelling ring with him.
Harry looked around and found his opponent standing nearby, signified by a blue shoulder badge with the number four inscribed on it. She was a young girl, maybe a year or two older than himself, who was wearing the red and white colours of Japan's national team. The girl was wearing some sort of formal looking Japanese clothing that vaguely resembled the robes worn by British witches and wizards.
A quick look at her stats with Observe caused a tiny smile to grow on his face.
Kagome Tendo
A young girl training to be a Miko, or Japanese Shrine Maiden, Kagome is a girl trapped between the past and the present. Her two older sisters and one younger brother, along with their parents, live with her maternal grandfather at an ancient shrine. She likes cute boys who are good at sports and enjoys baking in her spare time.
Age: 15
Level 58
Stats:
STR: 38
DEX: 55
CON: 32
INT: 70
WIS: 53
CHA: 77
Traits:
Duellist
Kind Heart
Humble
Vain
Foreign Quidditch Fan
By the standards of Hogwarts students Kagome was strong for her age, but the girl's stats were not nearly as high as his own. Which meant that she was not much of a threat to him unless Harry were to relax his guard or get cocky. Neither of which was going to happen. But just to be on the safe side, Harry began working on visualizing the people he would love nothing more than to hex to get himself mentally prepared for the fight ahead.
It was a useful technique Dora had taught to him, and one which Harry had found that he took to rather well.
Draco, Snape, Lucius, Crabbe, Goyle, Quirrell, and Lockhart's faces floated in and out of his mind. As they did, Harry felt himself begin to calm down from Dora's earlier teasing. His skin grew cool and his thoughts became quiet. By the time he heard the referee call out numbers three and four to the ring Harry had settled his emotions and felt ready to fight.
He climbed up a series of short steps and hopped into the ring. Circular in shape, it had a diameter of roughly fifteen feet. There were many far more elaborate duelling rings within the tent, but this one had been setup for the use of amateur minors like Harry and had been left rather plain.
"Duellists. Present your wands for inspection."
Harry and his competitor walked over to the referee and passed their wands to him. Upon checking them to make sure that both were in working order, the man handed the wands back to their owners.
"Since it's the first time that I've seen either one of you, allow me to explain the rules. In Amateur Level International Duelling there are three rounds, and whomever wins two of the three shall be the winner. You are allowed to do the following: stun, bind, or otherwise incapacitate your opponent with level 2 spells and below. No level 3 or above spells are allowed. This means that spells such as Expelliarmus and Petrificus Totalus are acceptable while spells such as Stupefy and Incarcerous are forbidden. Finally, you are allowed to make physical contact with your opponent, but you can only win the duel if you render your opponent immobile through the use of magic. Understood?"
Harry gripped his wand and nodded his assent. He had already heard them dozens of times by this point. Besides, the rules for this type of contest were much simpler than the ones he was learning for his upcoming duel against Malfoy.
The referee looked between Harry and his opponent, each of whom had assumed a ready stance. "Very well. Then in 3… 2… 1… begin!"
Harry whipped his wand up to fire off a quick strike hex Remus had taught him and made sure to aim it slightly off-centre. "Colloshoo!"
The spell was avoided by his opponent, but it forced the girl to dodge to the side. Right where Harry wanted her. "Expelliarmus!"
The red jet of light blasted into the girl's chest, throwing her body back while sending her wand sailing through the air and into Harry's waiting hand.
"Round 1: Over! Red competitor wins."
Harry smiled and jogged over to where the girl. He offered her a hand up, which she took with a grateful smile. After exchanging some quick pleasantries – the girl spoke remarkably good English – he returned her wand and moved back to his original position. The girl did the same opposite of him, her dark eyes settling into a look of pure determination.
The referee looked between Harry and his opponent. "In 3… 2… 1… begin!"
Harry once again went for the quick out. "Steleus!"
This time Kagome blocked with a spell yelled in what Harry assumed to be the preferred magical language used by Japanese magicians. Their spells met in mid air, bursting apart in a flash of multi-coloured sparks.
But the simple light show was nothing compared to what came next as the girl raised her wand and pointed it directly at him.
"Taiyō Furea!"
One second Harry could see. Then the next second a blast of dazzling white light burst forth from the tip, blinding Harry's vision and sending white hot arcs of pain shooting through his eyes. Harry felt himself start to stumble backwards, but he caught himself before he took more than a step. The girl's attack might have been unexpected, but he had been trained to handle this exact sort of scenario.
Harry cast two quick hexes in the general direction where felt that he last saw her. A grunt of discomfort from his opponent made Harry think that he had forced her to dodge to the ground, so he changed the angle of his wand and tried to fire where he had heard her voice. As he did, Harry also desperately blinked his eyes in an attempt to hasten the return of his vision.
A snapped curse in Japanese told Harry that he had gotten close yet again. But when the girl shouted something which could only be the words to a spell it was Harry's turn to dodge.
He threw his body to the ground and rolled to his right, hoping against hope that he could throw off the girl's aim. The sound of spells splashing harmlessly next to him filled his ears and he knew that it had been a close call. But Harry kept up his roll, his Quidditch trained spatial awareness telling him that he still had eight feet left till he reached the ring's edge. Five or six more spells raced at him from his opponent, but other than a glob of sticky slime that caught the edge of his sleeve Harry was able to avoid them all.
Harry popped out of his roll with a foot to spare and raised his wand from a kneeling position. His eyesight, though blurry, had recovered enough to where he could see the girl's figure. "Expelliarmus! Titillando! Petrificus Totalus!"
The three spells blasted at his opponent, each one dodged with a nimble grace. But with momentum back on his side Harry kept up the pressure and fired spell after spell at the girl's dancing figure.
It was when she did a split to avoid a disarming and jelly legs spell combination that he was able to finally nail the girl with a full body binding spell. Harry then raised his fists in victory after the referee checked the girl's condition and declared him to be the winner.
Harry might not like being sidelined from the quest, or dealing with Dora's madness, but duelling was fun when he was winning… and Harry had been winning a lot.
After shaking hands with the pretty girl and collecting a ribbon signifying his victory, Harry made his way down the steps and back into the waiting throng of duellists. Never had he been so glad that his fame was not so great as to extend to the entire globe, as only one of the crowd members waiting their turn called out his name and tried to shake his hand. It took only seconds for Harry to reach the spot where he saw Dora and Hestia grinning and waving at him.
Their grins were infectious; Harry felt the one covering his own face widen as he gave Dora a high-five. "So? What did you think of the duel, oh great and powerful Auror?"
"It was great!" Dora shouted in excitement. "You've still got plenty to learn, but you've come a long way since we first began duelling at the Cottage. I mean, that blinding spell you got hit with was something else. That was one nasty but brilliant manoeuvrer the girl pulled."
"I was so worried for you when she did that," Hestia said in a breathy voice. The woman's long black hair framed a pale face that did not even look remotely worried, but which still managed to make Harry's heart race for some bizarre reason. "I thought for sure that she had you with that one and that we would need to cheer you up afterwards."
Harry shook his head. "Thanks, but that never would have happened. Remus and Sirius have been blindfolding me in some of our mock duels since the second day they started teaching me. So while her move was definitely surprising it was nothing that I couldn't handle."
"Oh ho ho," Dora crowed. The menace reached over and began slapping Harry's back hard enough to make him stumble. "Look who's acting all high and mighty now that he's won his first duel. I'd be careful if I were you, Harry, 'cause your britches look about ready to split."
"Aw, don't be so mean to him, Dora," Hestia chided as she placed an arm around her girlfriend's supple waist to pull her away. "He's still only thirteen. Let him have his moment of victory and we can give him the reward that you promised."
Wait a tick. Did Dora think that this was his first win?
"Whoa, hold on a moment, girls." Harry interjected with a shake of his head. "My first win? I think that you're both missing something here."
Harry narrowed his eyes at the two ladies as a simple plan to take shape in his mind. Dora's reward would have been nice to experience – very nice – but Harry had something even better in mind. A lesson that he had recently learned from his godfather that Harry intended to put to good use.
Revenge.
Revenge for all of the teasing that the two ladies had been putting him through all day, and revenge for being sidelined by his godfather for nearly the entire week.
With a smile on his face that he knew was smarmy, Harry drew a metaphorical dagger and prepared to plunge it in deep.
"Dora, I've been coming here for roughly two hours a day for nearly an entire week. This is the fortieth duel that I've won, not my first." Harry paused a moment for dramatic effect. "And did I mention that it was forty wins in a row? And that I'm undefeated too?"
Dora stared at him in disbelief. "Codswallop."
The dagger had landed on the mark. Now it was time to twist it.
"Really? Then what are all these ribbons doing here in my possession?" Reaching into the back pocket of his trousers, Harry pulled out a little booklet he had purchased on his first day in the tent. Upon opening it he thrust the ribbon filled pages towards the young woman's face. "Count 'em and weep, Dora!"
For a moment the woman was silent as she did indeed count them. And then, incredulously, count them again.
By the third time round Harry felt that the intensity of his smug grin could rival that of his previous opponent's blinding spell as the completely flummoxed woman's hair shot through a riotous mix of colours. From pink to white, to fuchsia, to lime green, and all the way through the entire rainbow before returning back to it's normal shade of hot pink. Dora's hair told the story of her spiralling emotions and Harry fully enjoyed watching.
Oh how he wished that he could do this to Sirius. But Harry would just have to settle for Dora while he planned his vengeance against his godfather. The Weasley twins had given Harry some great advice on the subject when they had been together and it was only a matter of time before he implemented one of their suggestions.
Eventually the young woman handed the book back to Harry in complete silence. She then stepped back and gave a cough as if to clear a dry throat. "Well, er, forty wins doesn't really mean anything, kiddo. Even if they were in a row. Oh sure it's impressive for your age and all, so cheers, but I could do that in a single day if I were really serious."
"Oh? Are you sure about that?" Harry teased with a laugh. But before he could tease the beautifully blushing girl any further a notification from the Game popped up.
One whose timing could not have been better.
Ding!
Lose the Tail
Trick Your Assigned Minder By Playing on her Competitive Spirit
And Regain your Freedom by Making a Quick Escape
Quest Reward:
1 Level
Please Select
Yes or No
The Game had given Harry an opening to get back to doing what he wanted! All he had to do in order to succeed was to seize hold of the opportunity with both hands, and for the first time since he had followed Yaxley and Morgan through the words Harry felt like things were once again going his way.
That, and it was also amusing to see that the Game of Death found tricking Dora to be of the same level of difficulty as defeating Draco Malfoy in a duel.
Harry did his best to dial up the smarmy smile on his face to Malfoy levels of annoyance. The groundwork might have been laid by his previous actions, but he would need to pull out all of the stops in order to succeed. "If you're really serious about backing that up, Dora, then prove it. Otherwise you're just all talk, and I will forever be better than you at Duelling."
Dora's resulting explosion was everything he had hoped to engender with his statement. Harry had the young woman right where he wanted her when she fell for his taunt with all the grace of a hungry Ron digging into his morning breakfast.
From his spot upon a nearby barstool, a polyjuiced Wormtail watched as Potter and his pretty Auror minder got into a shouting match. Whatever it was the two were arguing over it seemed that the boy had won, as upon its conclusion the kid had a rather annoying smile plastered all over his face while the young woman proceeded to stalk away from the boy and toward the duellist registration counter with all the grace of a rampaging Giant. Her pale looking girlfriend, desirable in a big breasted sort of way, followed her, leaving the Potter brat alone with a smug grin on his face.
For a moment Wormtail's wand hand twitched. Potter was unaware of Wormtail's presence. Yet more importantly, the boy was now without the protection of the minders who had been with him for most of the past week. And while Wormtail may not have been the duelling equal of either James or Sirius, Wormtail was completely confident in his ability to take down the son of his old friend in an ambush situation.
But there were too many potential witnesses and obstacles nearby which could complicate an escape, so Wormtail stayed his hand for the time being. Instead, he chose to down the rest of his warm beer and follow a safe distance behind as the boy made his way out of the tent. Taking the Potter brat to his master might have been a nice bonus, but he had been tailing the brat for several days now and the dossier his Lord had commanded Wormtail compile on the boy was nearly complete. Completing his assigned task was more important than an extra achievement.
Some people might think that the boy was lucky to not have been kidnapped or killed. But in Wormtail's mind those people would have been wrong.
For allowing a calf to become fattened before it was slaughtered was no act of mercy.
A/N: I made some unexpected progress with my post-holiday writing, so I felt like posting this guy earlier than I anticipated.
This chapter was all about furthering established themes and showing the beginning of Harry's maturation as a character. Hopefully the parts featuring Dora felt organic, as (per usual) she constantly tried to yank the plot out of my control and take the story in entirely unplanned directions.
The tone of this story is about to change, folks, as the action, adventure and romance parts of the plot begin to ramp up. Style wise it will also be more indicative of what the sequel will be like now that I have (finally!) finished with restructuring the vast majority of the HP canon and universal structure prior to Book 4 and can get on with my own AU.
Until Next Time,
Elsil