The Twisted Path

by Xetarma

When Minerva McGonagall discovers that Harry Potter's relatives intend to keep him from attending Hogwarts, she takes matters into her own hands. But when Harry comes to Diagon Alley one day early, it sets events into motion that end with him and his friend, Hermione Granger, sorted into Slytherin. Now the two of them must somehow tame the House of the Snakes.

28. The First Task

Chapter 28: The First Task

When Harry finally returned to the Slytherin common room his friends were waiting. Hermione immediately ran up to him and hugged him.

"So?" asked Daphne.

Harry shook his head. "I have to compete. It's a nice trap they've laid for me."

"But for what?" asked Tracey.

"Someone wants to kill Harry," said Blaise.

"I wouldn't be so sure," said Ginny, "I wouldn't make any assumptions about why Harry was put in this tournament. It certainly isn't a guaranteed death sentence, and if Voldemort is involved he will almost certainly want Harry to survive to face him. Voldemort needs to show his followers that he can defeat Harry."

"A very good point Ginny," said Hermione, "We need to come at this from facts, not assumptions. How did this happen?"

"I'm pretty sure Barty Crouch Jr. did it," said Harry, "the second age line Dumbledore drew wouldn't have affected him."

"Then what was the use of it?" said Blaise.

"I doubt the Headmaster thought that Crouch could get into the school, but with his father's help he might have been able to," said Daphne.

"But how did Crouch get into the school?" asked Tracey.

"I mean the easiest way would be for him to use polyjuice potion," said Ginny, "And the easiest person for him to replace would have been his father."

Harry wasn't able to deal with this all right now. At this moment all he wanted was to go to sleep. Of course, Malfoy chose the exact moment he thought that to walk into the common room.

"Potter!" he said snarling, "How did you enter your name! I always knew you were a good cheater."

Harry pondered how to reply to this for a moment. Then, with a completely straight face, he said, "I had to do a ritual to drain another person's brain completely of information. Fortunately, I used you as the focus, so no one lost anything."

Malfoy snarled, "Very funny Potter."

"I didn't enter myself," said Harry, "Now piss off."

Harry made his way towards his room. Daphne intercepted him before he got there, however.

"Harry, I need to speak with you privately," she said, her urgency plain on her face.

Harry nodded, and both of them entered Daphne's room.

"First, I want to cast a spell on you," said Daphne.

"Okay," said Harry.

Daphne cast a simple reveal magic spell on Harry. It detected nothing.

"Fuck," said Daphne.

"What's the problem?" asked Harry.

"You no longer have the Trace on you!" said Daphne, "This is bad! It means that your magic has decided that Dumbledore has completely failed you."

"Does this mean I'm emancipated?" asked Harry.

Daphne rolled her eyes. "Of course not. The laws of Magical Britain don't allow for a 14-year-old boy to be emancipated! Have you been talking to Ernie? For some reason, he thought that if he entered himself into the tournament he'd be considered an adult."

"That isn't the case?" asked Harry.

"The rule about underage competitors is modern, and it isn't part of the magic of the Goblet of Fire," said Daphne, "it is just words on a page in some paper-pushing Ministry document. The only thing backing it up was the age line. The Goblet was willing to bind you regardless of your age because it was never designed to determine your age. That isn't why you lost the Trace"

"No," continued Daphne, "you lost the Trace because you are in so much danger that you need to be allowed to defend yourself with magic. The Trace is older than Reasonable Restriction on underage Sorcery. Hell, it's older than the Statute of Secrecy. Its primary purpose was to help find muggleborn wizards in the middle ages and ensure that their parents weren't trying to burn them as witches or something. But sometimes the magical guardians assigned to these children didn't have their best interests in mind. When a magical guardian completely fails their ward, occasionally the Trace simply removes itself from the child in question. Usually, if the child in question has already tried to address that failure. This allows them to use magic without risking their bad guardians using the Trace to hunt them down."

"I did try to warn Dumbledore his plan wouldn't protect me from Crouch Jr.," said Harry.

"What this means is that the situation you are now in is potentially lethal," said Daphne, "The Trace won't break for anything less. Though at least you can use magic now outside of school, at least as long as no one in authority sees you."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"It's still against the law for you to use magic outside of school," said Daphne, "Now they just can't track when you do it."

Harry didn't like the sound of that.

"On a brighter note, since you are a Champion, that means you are going to be opening the Yule Ball," said Daphne, changing the subject in a breakneck shift of tone, "You will need to learn how to dance, and you will need a date. I can offer you dance lessons if necessary. As for a date…"

"I want to take Hermione," said Harry. If he was going to be opening the Ball, he wanted a date he could depend on. That meant Hermione.

Daphne smiled. "You aren't so stupid after all. Good man. I'd ask her soon."

Harry nodded. "Thanks, and good night," he said as he left the room. He went into his room where Hermione was waiting for him.

Hermione was about to say something when Harry held out a hand. "I want to talk to you about this Hermione. But tomorrow. I just want to sleep right now."

"Of course," said Hermione.

Harry paused. "Actually," he said after a moment, "there is one thing. As Champion, I have to open the Yule Ball. Would you be so kind as to be my date that night?"

Hermione blushed and smiled. "Of course Harry," she said.

XXXXX

November 8th, 1994

The reaction of the school had been more muted than Harry had feared. Oh, some thought Harry was being a glory hound (Draco especially), but most people in the school attended IUC meetings at least occasionally. And everyone knew Harry had given up leading the IUC despite it being a runaway success. This led most of the students to conclude that Harry was telling the truth when he said he didn't enter his name, especially when Harry was backed by Dumbledore as well as the other champions.

Draco was still trying to rally people against Harry though. This issue had given Draco's little pureblood faction a shot in the arm. Instead of trying to get around the IUC, they just targeted Harry. A short-lived campaign in which Draco and his allies wore pins that switched between the messages Support Cedric Diggory - The Real Hogwarts Champion and Potter Stinks backfired horribly when Daphne instructed the IUC to keep an eye on the people who were wearing them as they had already demonstrated they were willing to bully Harry. Privately, Harry had written down the names of every student who had worn them. Harry suspected most of them were in Draco's group.

Cedric had been great. The Hufflepuff reaction to Harry being named champion had initially been indignation. But Cedric had shut that down the very first night. Cedric was upset, but he at least understood that Harry had enemies, and they were after him.

The other schools were a bit wary of Harry, however. Well, the Beauxbatons delegation was. Madam Maxine seemed to have ordered Fleur to steer clear of Harry and his friends, an order which she flouted regularly. Madam Maxine couldn't do much about that, as Fleur was of age. Krum was more distant, but that was probably because he was an international Quidditch star. The rest of the Durmstrang delegation either thought that this was a power move by Harry or that he had very powerful enemies. Either way, the way Harry went around as if nothing had happened seemed to impress them.

And Harry was trying his best to focus on his classes. Ancient Runes hadn't been his favorite class last year, but this year now that he had the basic syntax down he was starting to warm to it. Arithmancy was interesting and useful but demanded much of his time. Care of Magical creatures wasn't so interesting, but it was eventful. Hagrid had them raising some sort of horrible hybrid creatures he called blast-ended skrewts. They were creatures that, in Harry's view, had no useful purpose, but were dangerous and difficult to raise. He had a strong suspicion that they had something to do with the tournament, but he kept that to himself. Not that he thought anyone could do anything about it anyway.

Snape was being nasty to everyone in Potions, but Harry saw through that right away. He just wanted to snap at Harry, but he couldn't single him out, as Harry was in his house. So he tormented everyone. Charms was a nice haven from that, it had always been the most fun class, but Harry wasn't challenged by it at this point. The practice he did with his Slytherin friends had put him at the charms level of an early sixth year. He was beginning to work on silent casting. Harry supposed that being so ahead boded well for his participation in the tournament.

Transfiguration was not so easy, however, which Harry respected. Transfiguration was in theory very simple, but there were subtleties to it that Harry had only recently begun to appreciate. Even though all transfigurations were essentially the same few spells, there was a wide variety of ways one could shape their magic to perform them. Transfiguration wasn't a discipline so much as it was an art form. The only thing that made you better at Transfiguration was intense practice. Harry was ahead of the class, but not so much that he didn't get anything out of it.

History and Astronomy were, as Hermione put it, largely useless.

And then there was Defense

Moody was getting weirder. Now he was demanding to test the Imperius Curse on the fourth-year students. Harry was pretty sure this wasn't legal, but he was rather curious to see how he would do against the Imperius, so he went along with it anyway.

It went about as well for Harry's friends as he thought. Tracey had virtually no ability to resist the curse, but Blaise and Daphne at least hesitated before they fell under its control. Hermione briefly looked as if she was going to be able to resist it, but ultimately gave in. Malfoy on the other hand instantly gave in.

Finally, it was Harry's turn. "Imperio!" said Moody.

Harry felt like a blanket had fallen over his mind. It felt strange but distant. He could feel the curse digging through his occlumency shields.

"Jump on the table Potter," said Moody.

Harry felt the curse claw at his mind, but it found no egress there. Harry was not inclined to obey in the slightest.

"On the table!" shouted Moody.

"No," said Harry calmly, "I don't think so."

The Defense against the Dark Arts class let out a collective gasp. Moody, however, looked ecstatic.

"Fantastic job Potter! You've put a lot of effort into shielding and training your mind," said Moody enthusiastically, "If only more wizards did the same!"

After class Moody pulled him aside. "I think that whoever put your name in that cup seriously underestimated you, Potter."

"Possibly," said Harry.

"Look, I'm not supposed to help you with the Tournament Potter, but if you do need help, I might be able to point you in the right direction," said Moody.

Nothing else Moody could have said at that moment would have made Harry more suspicious. Harry had become convinced that the person who had entered him wanted him to win, and Moody shouldn't have been offering to help him at all.

"I'll keep that in mind," said Harry. Could Mad-Eye be the one who Crouch replaced? No, it couldn't be. Moody was under the constant eye of the Hogwarts staff, he would require months of supplies of polyjuice potion. It would be far easier to imitate Crouch Sr.

Moody was probably just another crazy Defense professor. Harry filed this away in his mind though. Just in case.

XXXXX

November 9th, 1994

The next day, an owl dropped a package in front of Ginny at breakfast. Harry didn't think much of it until he heard her give a small gasp. Ginny got up and walked over to Harry, and sat down squarely between him and Hermione, pushing them both out of the way.

"Hey!" said Hermione, but Ginny put a letter she was reading in front of her.

"This is from Percy," said Ginny in a low tone. "The first task is dragons. You'll have to recover something from a dragon's nest."

Harry's eyes went wide. How was he supposed to get by a dragon?

Five minutes later Harry and his friends had gathered in an empty classroom.

"Why did Percy send this?" asked Daphne.

"Because he thinks it's far too dangerous, even for the of age contestants," said Ginny, "I don't know what the letters you sent to him have done, but it seems like you've knocked some sense into my brother."

Harry looked a bit smug at that.

"A dragon isn't that bad," said Ginny.

"Not that bad?" said Blaise, "Are you mental?"

"Harry has one ability that I doubt was considered when they decided to use dragons," said Ginny, "Dragons are intelligent beasts, but they are just beasts. They're easily tricked. Especially if you use legilimency on them."

"Oooh," said Hermione, "But that might not be enough. But maybe if Harry uses that in conjunction with his Invisibility cloak…"

"He can only bring his wand Hermione," said Ginny.

"He could summon his cloak," insisted Hermione.

"Or I could try the disillusionment charm," said Harry, "I think I could pull it off."

"How would legilimency work though?" asked Blaise.

Harry grinned. "I'd have to plant a memory in the dragon's mind. And I know exactly what I'm going to do…"

XXXXX

November 10th, 1994

Nott had finally begun to realize that Malfoy was completely out of his depth. Harry had him on the ropes, and it had taken Nott ages to figure out why. And in the end, it had been simple. Harry had been sorted into Slytherin and had acted like a Gryffindor. And no one knew how to deal with it. Especially not Draco.

"How do you think Potter managed it?" asked Draco, who was lying in his bed, fuming.

"Managed what?" asked Nott as he read a Quidditch magazine.

"Getting into the tournament," said Draco.

"I think he has no idea why he's in the tournament. Or maybe he does, but he didn't enter himself," said Nott.

"You believe Potter?" asked Draco, "That's what you get for being on friendly terms with him the last two years. Consorting with the enemy is what that is."

"No, it's Quidditch," said Nott without looking up, "And I'd be spending more time with him this year except it got canceled."

"Oh, that's why you've been eyeing the Weasley girl?" asked Draco maliciously.

"Hey, Ginny's a pureblood, and she's cute," said Nott, "I have nothing to explain there."

"Listen," said Nott as he put down the magazine, "I get it. You hate Potter. He's constantly upstaged you. That's because you keep treating him exactly like this. He's not a normal Slytherin. He's a Gryffindor that got sorted into Slytherin. He's a bull in a china shop. Which is why he is going to be perfect. Like it or not, Potter is the power in Slytherin now. You keep trying to intimidate him, to flaunt your power and wealth, but Potter just sees that as a challenge. He likes challenges."

"Potter's soft," said Draco.

"Undoubtedly," said Nott, "but he's powerful enough he can afford to be soft. Now I'm going to bed."

And Nott closed the curtains around his bed. But before he laid his back down, he heard Draco murmur, "Well, we'll see about that…"

XXXXX

November 13th, 1994

One thing was clear, Harry had to warn the other contestants what was going on. A dragon was far too dangerous to not be taken seriously. An opportunity to do so came when Harry was summoned in the middle of potions class to a wand weighing ceremony.

Ollivander was there, checking their wands for any damage or defects. The Daily Prophet was there as well, with a photographer and Rita Skeeter. Rita's presence was worrisome to Harry. She had a reputation, and this situation was exactly the sort she liked to use to raise trouble.

So when she pulled Harry into a broom closet for an interview, he was rather annoyed.

"Well this is rather awkward," he said pointedly.

"It is a bit cozy," said Skeeter, "But now you can tell me what you feel about things."

"I could have told you out there," said Harry.

"Now Harry, I know you probably want to keep certain things private…" started Skeeter.

"In which case, I certainly wouldn't tell them to you," said Harry, "If you want an interview we can do it in public with witnesses."

And he left the broom cupboard just as the Headmaster was walking up.

"Ah," said Dumbledore, "I see you have managed to free yourself from Ms. Skeeter's clutches."

Harry shook his head. Walking out into the room he signaled to the other Champions to come over. Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor all came over.

"I just got a tip from inside the Ministry," said Harry, "The first task will be Dragons. We'll have to recover something from them."

"I haff heard some similar rumors," said Krum, "But why to tell us?"

"Dragons are dangerous," said Harry, "I want everyone to have as much time to come up with a plan for them as they can."

"Thanks, Harry," said Cedric.

"Merci," said Fleur, "Once again you prove Madam Maxine wrong about you." And Fleur kissed Harry on the cheek.

As Harry's cheeks turned red, Cedric grinned. "So that's why you did it huh?" he asked as they left the weighing.

Harry didn't trust himself to speak.

XXXXX

November 16th, 1994

"You need to be careful of Rita Skeeter," warned Daphne a few days later. Her article on the Champions had just come out. It had been a total shambles. Not only had it failed to mention Cedric at all, the whole article largely focused on Harry and his role in the tournament. Not only that, but Rita had promised more exclusives on Harry to come.

"In what way?" asked Harry.

"She's a type of threat you haven't had to deal with yet," said Blaise, "she has a powerful media platform and she's unscrupulous. And she's very good at avoiding libel lawsuits."

"You think she's going to make something up?" asked Harry.

"She's done it before," said Daphne seriously.

"If she does publish anything false, you could always respond in the Quibbler," said Luna, "I'm sure Daddy would run an interview with Harry Potter."

"Now that's an idea," said Hermione, "Witch Weekly, the Daily Prophet and most of the other major magical publications are all owned by the same organization. Most wizards don't have a lot of options when it comes to combating them. The Quibbler, small as it is, is still an independent news outlet."

"No offense Luna, but the Quibbler has a very small readership," said Daphne.

"None taken. I like to think of it as exclusive," stated Luna proudly.

"But I've never really spoken to the press before," said Harry.

"It would probably triple or quadruple the circulation of the Quibbler overnight," said Tracey.

"Oh!" said Ginny suddenly, "I have an idea! Why don't we set up a contract giving the Quibbler exclusive interview rights for Harry's first interview? That way, if Rita tries to claim she interviewed him…"

"Brilliant!" said Harry with a smile.

It was at this moment that Fleur walked over to the Slytherin table. "'Arry!" she said in a friendly tone, "I was afraid that 'orrible woman had some rather bold designs on you the other day, dragging you into a closet like that."

"Well I'm sure she has designs, but they're more about readership numbers and how much buzz she can get going," said Harry.

"Well, it was good that you left her there," said Fleur, "The day before the first task, there is a Hogsmeade day, as they say here. I wondered if you and Hermione would show me around?"

"Gladly," said Harry.

"I'd be glad to help as well," said Hermione.

"Oooh, maybe I can tell my mum that you're on a date!" said Ginny excitedly, "If she thinks you're dating older women I bet Mum relents and lets me go to Hogsmeade."

Fleur looked at Ginny as if confused.

"Oh her Mum won't let her go to Hogsmeade because she snuck out last year," said Blaise.

"Oh, I should sneak out again!" said Ginny excitedly. "This time I won't get caught. I highly doubt anyone will be kidnapping Hermione this time."

"What?" asked an even more confused Fleur.

"We can talk about that later," said Harry.

"At least you two aren't having competitive dates anymore," said Daphne, "That was getting stupid. Not that I minded spending time with you, Harry."

"What is this?" asked Fleur.

"Not important," said Harry with a blush.

"I'll tell you later," Daphne cut in with a wink, "Maybe we can find a way for you to have some alone time with Harry."

Fleur's eyes twinkled, "Oh this story sounds very interesting. I will have to speak to you later." And with that Fleur spun around and went back to the rest of her schoolmates. Harry noticed Madame Maxine was keeping a rather close eye on her.

Harry turned to Daphne, "You realize that I am not immune to her allure right? It requires a lot of effort to keep under control and not do something silly around her. This isn't helping."

Daphne grinned. "Good, I'm not trying to help."

XXXXX

November 19th, 1994

Fleur found Hogsmeade to be 'charming,' or at least that's what she said. Harry wasn't sure if she was being serious or not. Still, he didn't see Fleur as being passive-aggressive, so he ultimately decided to take her at her word.

Harry noticed that he had several tails. Madam Maxine seemed to be everywhere he looked, which shouldn't have been a surprise. She seemed to think he was dangerous and was going to harm Fleur somehow. He also saw Rita Skeeter a few times, but she seemed to be making an effort to avoid being seen. After the first couple of sightings, she disappeared. Harry assumed she hadn't stopped following him and was using some form of magical camouflage. And Moody was constantly behind him as well.

Fleur was interested in a lot of things about Hogsmeade, but it was clear that what she was most interested in was Hermione's kidnapping. Which made sense, Hermione was her friend. So they told her the whole story about Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, and how Pettigrew had abducted Hermione. Fleur was appropriately horrified, especially at the end of the story where Harry, Ginny, and Hermione had cut a path out of Hogwarts through the dementors.

"Mon père is the Senior Undersecretary for the French Ministry," said Fleur, "I will tell him of this. Perhaps if Sirius is found in France, 'ee will not have to be sent back to Britain."

"Thank you Fleur," said Harry, "Though I doubt your father can make decisions like that based on your word alone."

"Non 'ee cannot, but 'ee can do an investigation based on that." said Fleur, "Are you not worried that Monsieur Pettigrew will attack you again?"

"We think he left the country, actually," said Harry, "but he probably came back with Voldemort. So yes, it is very likely that he or an ally of his will attack me again."

"Do you wish revenge on him?" asked Fleur.

"I don't think Harry…" started Hermione, but she was cut off by Harry.

"Yes, yes I do," said Harry, "But I need him to prove my godfather is innocent."

Fleur laughed grimly. "Or at least you need his head," she said, "Veela are not particularly merciful to those who harm us." Her grin was almost feral here. Harry remembered the Veela he'd seen at the World Cup, and how they'd transformed. No, he didn't want to get on Fleur's bad side.

"That has its advantages I'd expect," admitted Harry.

"Oh indeed," said Fleur.

XXXXX

November 25th, 1994

The day of the First Task was a nervous one for Harry. Of course, Harry trusted in Ginny's plan, but he was about to go up against a dragon! Moody had tried to give him some advice, but Harry had largely tuned him out. Moody cared too much, and for no apparent reason, so he couldn't be trusted.

Still, Harry was ready. He knew his plan inside and out, and he'd mastered the Disillusionment spell. Everything should go right. Which was not to say it would, but he'd come as close to certainty as he could hope.

Entering the tent, he quickly got dressed in the competitor's uniform provided for him. Then he sat and waited. Hermione was no doubt being restrained by the rest of the Slytherins, otherwise, she'd be down here. Cedric and Fleur both shot him friendly glances, but it was clear they were both worried about him. Which was funny, because Harry was pretty certain that his plan was going to work better than anyone else's.

Ludo Bagman walked in. "Everyone here? Good, Good, gather around."

"Which dragon are we fighting?" said Harry.

"Wh… How do you know about the Dragons?" said Ludo with deliberate surprise in his voice.

"It doesn't matter," said Krum, "But we all know."

Bagman's face seemed to fall for a moment, "Oh, in that case, each of you will pick one of four dragons from this bag," he said, holding out a bag.

Each of the students reached into the bag in turn and pulled out a small lifelike dragon. Cedric had pulled out a Swedish Short-Snout with a number one on it, Fleur a Common Welsh Green with a number 2, Krum pulled out a Chinese Fireball with a 3, and Harry pulled out…

"A Hungarian Horntail," he said as he pulled it out of the sack.

"Damn Harry," said Cedric, "That's bad luck."

Harry smirked. "That is really… really… unfortunate," he said trying to hide his satisfaction. The size and demeanor of his dragon were rather unimportant, and a bigger more violent dragon was useful for his plan. Maybe not so useful for the judges though.

Fleur gave Cedric a look that said "uh oh."

Having drawn the 4th dragon, Harry had nothing to do but to wait for the others to get by their dragons. He could hear the crowd roaring as the other champions faced their dragons. Harry wasn't interested. Well, he was insofar as he didn't want any of the other champions to get hurt, but he honestly was past caring about the competition. He just wanted to get through it safely.

Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, his name was called. Harry got up and walked to the entrance to the stadium. Above the stadium, he saw the stands. As he came out the stands erupted into cheers. And the judges, off to one side. Good, good, all the better.

And of course in the middle was the dragon.

And what a dragon it was! It was huge! Harry took a step back when he saw it. For one moment he almost rethought his plan. A brief moment. But no, he was committed.

He pulled out his wand and the whole stadium went quiet. He pointed his wand at the dragon and said "Legilimens!"

Suddenly he was inside the dragon's mind. Quietly, painstakingly he created an image in the dragon's mind. An image of Albus Dumbledore stealing one of it's eggs.

The moment he released the spell, the dragon spun around towards Dumbledore and the judges stand. Dumbledore immediately realized what had just happened and cast a spell. Just in time, as the dragon began to breathe fire on the judges' stand in short order.

Harry immediately Disillusioned himself and began to walk towards the nest. The dragon quickly realized that it's fire was not having any effect, and it began to go berserk flying up and pulling on the chain that bound it. Suddenly, the chain gave way. Harry winced when that happened, but that wasn't his fault! How could they even think of using a dragon that they couldn't keep contained? Without hesitation, he continued to the nest where he picked up the Golden Egg.

The Horntail flew above the stands and Dumbledore immediately cast a spell shielding the stands from the dragon's ire. Harry meanwhile had managed to get to the entrance to the stadium again. He again cast his Legilimency and this time put an image into the dragon's mind of the imaginary egg being returned. The dragon flew back down and landed next to its nest.

Harry had reappeared, and it took a moment for everyone to notice he'd recovered the egg. But when they did a roar went up from the crowd, and the dragon handlers ran out to subdue the now free dragon. Harry was about to retire to the tent when Moody suddenly met him.

"I think the Headmaster wants a word with you Potter," said the former Auror, "Though I'll say on a personal level, well done boy."

Harry went up to the judges' desk. Karkaroff and Madam Maxine looked irate, Bagman looked terrified and Crouch looked… surprisingly normal. That wasn't suspicious at all.

"What did you DO?" demanded Karkaroff.

"I put an image of one of you stealing the dragon's egg into its mind," said Harry.

"Didn't that strike you as dangerous?" demanded Madam Maxine.

"Everything about this dragon struck me as dangerous," said Harry, "I'm only fourteen years old! It was the duty of all of you to make sure I didn't have to compete in this competition! Since you didn't keep me safe from the dragon that way, I decided you'd do it a different way. Are you trying to say it's too dangerous for you to face a dragon but not me?"

Dumbledore nodded, "I agree that this is not fair, but the dragon put the entire crowd in danger."

Harry's eyes narrowed, "Well, I wasn't responsible for installing it's restraints. How was I to know it would get free? Isn't that the sort of contingency that is supposed to be planned for?" Harry gave a pointed glare at Bagman.

"Ah, yes, we uh, didn't anticipate just how strong that dragon would be," admitted Bagman, "It was only a last-minute addition after all. I suppose we should have found a less, ah, vicious specimen."

"I suppose we cannot blame Mr. Potter there," said Madam Maxine wearily.

After a moment's discussion, the judges each posted their marks. Bagman gave Harry a 10 (rather shakily though). Dumbledore gave him a 9, as did Crouch. Madam Maxine gave him an 8. Karkaroff, on the other hand, gave Harry a 0. Immediately the crowd started booing at Karkaroff. And throwing things at him. It soon got so bad that Karkaroff had to withdraw from the judge's box.

"That puts you in second place Harry!" shouted Hermione who had run up to greet him, followed by the rest of Harry's friends. Hermione wrapped Harry up in a bear hug as soon as she reached him, and she was joined by both Ginny and Daphne moments later.

"I was so frightened," said Hermione, almost breathlessly, "I had no idea the dragon was going to be so huge!"

"It was wicked the way the dragon broke free and started attacking the stands," said Blaise, "That's even better than anything I've blown up!"

"Do not get any ideas," said Professor Snape as he walked up to them.

He nodded at Harry. "Well done Potter, superior use of cunning to put the risk in a situation elsewhere," he said, "I hate to admit it, but you did Slytherin proud today."

Harry grinned wryly. "Thanks, professor." Not that he had forgiven Snape for trying to turn in his godfather to Fudge. But this win felt good.

XXXXX

November 26th, 1994

The bomb finally dropped with the next day's Prophet.

"'Harry Potter: Wizarding Hero or Budding Dark Wizard Rising?'" read Harry.

"Oooh, apparently Harry tried to kill everyone at the First task!" said Luna excitedly.

"And Harry has been using witchcraft on all us witches to get us to follow him," said Tracey, "And hey, I got a mention. They think I'm madly in love with you Potter."

"Are you?" asked Harry.

"Have you read the papers?" demanded Tracey with a grin, "I'm clearly madly in love with you."

"And your voracious appetite for women is so great you've moved on to Veela," said Blaise, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Apparently I'm using Hermione, but I'm also trying to breed a new race of pureblood wizards descended from me?" asked Harry, "Who gave her that moronic quote?"

"Malfoy obviously," said Hermione, "Apparently Rita didn't do her research, she failed to note I'm a muggleborn."

"In any case, she has what appears to be an interview with me in there," said Harry, "That's damages right there."

"What did the Quibbler promise you that could get you damages?" asked Daphne.

"A hug from Luna," said Harry.

"That won't get you very much," said Daphne.

"It is enough to get him a retraction though," said Hermione, "Even with such paltry damages, the existence of a contract and any damages concerning how this story affects that contract will get this before at least part of the Wizengamot."

"I don't think the damages are paltry," said Luna.

"And once it's in front of the Wizengamot Harry's solicitor can bring up the entire story," realized Daphne.

"You know, I'm going to need to tell my mother about this," said Blaise, "Normally I wouldn't bother, but she loves libel suits."

"Well, it does so happen that my father knows a very good solicitor," said Daphne.

"I'd love to correspond with them," said Harry with a grin.

XXXXX

November 29th, 1994

Rita Skeeter was trying to figure out how she was going to get into the Yule Ball when Barnabas Cuffe marched into her office.

"Skeeter!" he yelled angrily as he slammed the door to her office shut, "You landed in it this time."

"Oh, what have I done this time," said Rita, unimpressed.

"Harry Potter is suing us for libel," said Cuffe angrily.

"Heh, good luck at that! He'd have to prove that there were potential damages to him before the Wizengamot would even take a look," said Rita dismissively.

"Well as it turns out, he signed an exclusive contract for his first interview to go to the Quibbler," said Cuffe, "So if they promised to give him anything, even if they promised to blow him a kiss, he has damages he can parade around."

"Oooh," said Rita her stomach sinking. This could be a problem.

"Well you have to admit, there was no way I could have known that!" said Rita.

"That's why you don't invent interviews out of whole cloth!" shouted Cuffe.

"Surely Fudge will…" started Rita.

"Fudge is bending over backward to get on Potter's good side," said Cuffe, "And looking at this article if the Wizengamot digs into it at all they'll determine that it is almost completely fabricated."

"Oh that isn't good," said Rita.

"We've already been contacted by Potter's solicitor. He just wants the story gone," said Cuffe, "So we'll be printing a front-page retraction, and we'll agree to Wizengamot arbitration if we have any further instance of libel against Potter."

That would be annoying, but Rita was sure she could cope with that.

"Rita," said Cuffe, "If you publish anything on Potter from now on, I need to see it beforehand, and we need verifiable sources for it."

"The retraction…" started Rita.

"We are going to disavow the story,' said Cuffe, "If asked we will say that as far as we know, none of the claims the story made are true."

Rita scowled. How dare Potter make a fool of her like this!

"Rita, you screw up like this again and you're done, I don't care how much readership you get," said Cuffe.

Oh yes, Rita was going to take down Potter a notch. Somehow…

XXXXX

With the retraction of Rita's story from the Prophet, Harry's triumph was complete. The most important thing was that the Prophet had said the entire story was not just unconfirmed, but that it was false. This made Malfoy out to be a liar, and what tiny influence he had gained evaporated.

But more importantly, it let everyone in Slytherin know one truth that they had been trying to avoid. Harry had power and resources, not just in school, but without as well. Harry was in charge now. And he wasn't going to let up. Harry and Hermione had won the prefect race. And they'd won Slytherin.

Author's Note: People have been asking about why Dumbledore didn't just ban anyone over the age of 30 from accessing the Goblet. And Dumbledore explained it. He can only put separate age lines so close too each other. And the more ages excluded in the age line, the further apart they have to be. Dumbledore included the maximum number of ages he could and still have the second age line fit in the Great Hall.

As to why they didn't try to prevent Crouch Jr. specifically, the knowledge that Crouch Sr. is probably under Imperius deceived them. The easiest and most simple way for him to affect the outcome is to simply order Crouch Sr. to do something. They now know that Crouch Jr. must have come himself, but the easiest and simplest way to do that is to polyjuice himself as his father. The fact of the matter is that the actual plan is so convoluted that connecting all the dots is not going to be easy. I might, just might be making a small commentary on how overly complicated the canon plan is.

Turns out, Harry only having partial information leads to him making bad decisions. That being said, Harry is suspicious of Moody. He just isn't specifically suspicious that Moody is Crouch.

Anyway, next time we have the Yule Ball.