Knowledge is Power

by WulfStone

On that fateful day, Voldemort didn't attack the Potter family but sent his Death Eaters - James was killed but Lily was put in a permanent coma. Now an older Harry is joining Hogwarts on his journey to heal his mother. In this fic Harry is 2 years older then in canon.

26. Chapter 26

First: We're not Apple fanboys, the original fic went with MacBook we went with MacBook aswell. Doesn't really matter.

Second: We forgot to add in the first chapter AN, that Harry started Hogwarts in 2000. Almost at the chapter the original work ended hopefully you keep reading :D

Chapter 26: A Cunning Stratagem

"Viktor, follow me," Karkaroff urged his school's champion impatiently. The Quidditch star looked up to his headmaster with confusion, his half-eaten dinner sitting on a plate in front of him, before nodding and excusing himself from the Slytherin table.

Without a word, Karkaroff stalked off at a brisk pace, Viktor hot on his heels, as they made their way out of the castle and towards the Forbidden Forest.

"Vy are you taking me out here High Master?" his question was promptly ignored as Karkaroff shushed him and led him further into the forest.

Viktor face was marred with a worried frown when their surroundings continued to become darker as they continued walking through the ominous forest. Light was a rare commodity where they were now, with it barely being provided by few patches of holes in the canopies of the trees allowing the moonlight to struggle through.

"I have discovered the secret behind the first task Viktor," Karkaroff told him in a hushed voice as they finally stopped moving, "I brought you out here because they have arrived only this evening," Karkaroff quickly whipped out his wand and cast a few quick charms over himself and the confused boy. "Be sure not to make a sound and try to touch as little as possible – these creatures are extremely sensitive and will not hesitate to kill us if you alert them to our presence."

"Vot is dat smell?" Krum scrunched up his nose in distaste as the horrid smell assaulted his senses.

"It is us," Karkaroff in a whisper as they crept closer to the large bush obscuring their path not ten feet before them, "I have charmed us to smell like dung, these creatures have great senses of smell, if we did not alter our scent, they would have for sure spotted us."

Krum nodded his head in understanding, pinching his nostrils shut as he followed the elder wizard towards the large bush.

When Karkaroff, ever so gently, pushed aside a small portion of the bush, Krum was able to look inside briefly right before Karkaroff covered it up again. He tried to hold in a gasp at the twelve creatures he saw all seated around a campfire in the clearing. They were each roughly three feet tall with black skin and large claws on their hands and feet. Their faces were covered with masks made of different creatures' skulls while their backs, probably ornamental, he thought; their shoulders and legs were covered in a shaggy coat of thick black fur.

"Vot are dey?" Krum urgently asked the man as he covered up their peephole once more.

"They, Viktor, are known as Gorpack," he began, "they are a species of creatures that live off hunting. They are extremely fast and have a high sense of smell, which only helps them in their profession, as you could imagine," he humorously joked as Krum nodded distractedly, "they are also extremely fast and ruthless when hunting their prey."

"How do dey fector into de furst task den?" the seventeen-year-old boy frowned in confusion, "Will dey be tasked to hunt us?"

"Well done Viktor," Karkaroff praised the boy, "that is exactly what they will be doing. I do not know the exact purpose behind the task, but they are what you will need to be looking out for, I assure you. Dumbledore arranged for them to arrive for this purpose; come," he began to walk away, Viktor followed without question, "I must teach you some spells that will aid you before the task is scheduled to begin in just under two weeks."

"Yes, High Master," Viktor obediently replied, following the silver haired man back out the way they came. A snapping twig made the two wizards jump in fright and spin around, their wands at the ready, only to see a black cat digging a hole innocently by one of the large, mouldy trees.

"It is just a cat," Karkaroff murmured, "quick Viktor, the Gorpack probably would have heard that, we must make haste!"

Noticing the urgency in the man's voice, Viktor quickly reached for something in his pocket before throwing it at the floor in front of them. The small twig-like object quickly increased in size as he threw it and became a broom – a Firebolt, to be precise.

"Get on High Master," Viktor urged, "I vill get us out in quickness."

Karkaroff mounted the broom behind Krum, not bothering to correct the boy's poor English, as he urged his star-pupil to fly away as quickly as possible.

"Vhy didn't 'ou just tell me instead ov doing zis?"

The real answer was that Karkaroff was a dramatic little cretin, but he certainly wasn't going to reveal that fact, instead kicking off on the broom for his pupil.

Had they remained a moment longer, they would have noticed the black cat from earlier emerge from behind the tree and make its way back towards the castle, its job done for the evening.

XXX

Students usually spent their free periods catching up on homework, socializing with friends or mainly goofing off in their common rooms at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. During a student's NEWT years, the number of free periods one gets increases in number, the longer you study the less classes you study for as the schooling becomes pseudo-personalised to each person's interests – you learn less but in more detail. That didn't mean that the workload was any less though, as any sixth or seventh year would tell you.

Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter were exceptions to this fact though. They had an ample number of free periods between them and no homework to do during them. With the Triwizard tournament being held though, and Harry being Cedric's advisor, their free time was pretty much spent the same way every time.

"Can you teach me how to Transfigure dirt into water?" Cedric asked eagerly.

"No." Books could teach him that without Harry's intervention.

Cedric frowned in disappointment before smiling once again, "Can you teach me a new, powerful charm that will help me in the tournament?"

"No." Exceedingly vague, almost any new charm could be considered 'helpful' and 'powerful'.

Cedric didn't seem to get the hint though, "How about teaching me how to use a sword – Archie says you're really good with a blade…"

"Most definitely," Cedric grinned happily, until Harry finished his sentence, "not." Did Cedric really expect to learn swordsmanship and be able to use it in a magical tournament? In a few weeks at that? Harry idly wondered if his friend was mocking him or really was that stupid and he was just learning of it.

Cedric let out an irritated sigh as he sat down heavily on the bench beside Harry. Students weren't generally allowed into the other house's common rooms. Many snuck in anyway, if there was a party or something, but you could pretty much expect it to be impossible to do so during the day, or if your name was Harry Potter or Cedric Diggory. International Quidditch prodigies and Triwizard champions aren't exactly inconspicuous – people generally took notice of your presence wherever you were.

"You're supposed to be helping me," Cedric whined in a manner that reminded Harry eerily of Sirius – those two were spending way too much time together – before turning a disgusting pleading look towards the ebony haired teen, "It's just under two weeks to the first task and you haven't even helped me like you're supposed to."

"That contract," Harry began, "only bound me to help you like I am bound to attend classes, it's not as serious as you participating in the tournament, for example," Harry said, pretending he hadn't already broken the 'contract', and ticking off a finger as he moved onto his second point, "secondly, the things you are asking me to teach you would, in no way, be helpful for you during the first task," he informed the stunned Hogwarts champion, "thirdly, where the hell is Archades?"

"With Stephanie and Fleur," Cedric answered automatically, before snapping out of his daze, "Does that mean you what the first task is about then?"

Harry sighed before whipping out his wand and casting an obscuring charm around them. Anyone trying to listen in on their conversation from now on would only hear them speaking about mundane things like Quidditch and girls – sure, it would be an instant tip-off to someone who knew Harry that something was amiss, but not many people did actually know him here, so they were fairly safe. Actually, he had abused this charm so much that it might account for all the girls who thought he was interested…

"Gorpack hunters," Harry informed Cedric, so suddenly, that the boy thought he might have been hearing things.

"Sorry, I must be hearing things," Cedric apologised, "you didn't just say Gorpack hunters, did you?"

"I did," Harry confirmed, "twelve of them, three for each champion."

The colour practically drained from Cedric's face, "Y-you're serious?"

"Starting to regret wanting to show the world how great Hufflepuff is?" Harry asked sarcastically, Cedric wasn't paying attention though.

"Are you sure? No, never mind that, of course you are, how do you know?" Cedric asked, worry clearly the overpowering emotion that he was feeling at the moment.

"I tailed Krum and Karkaroff last night," he answered with a shrug, "they obviously know too, by the way. If Karkaroff could find out, my guess is that Maxime could too; I wouldn't be surprised if Fleur knows by now. Hagrid would have had to be the one to arrange their arrival, odds are he told Longbottom too, so there is no real advantage for you by knowing this, unless getting rid of a massive disadvantage counts."

Cedric remained silent for several moments in contemplation; he finally spoke up after he was done, "Why won't you teach me any spells then? I don't see how I wouldn't benefit from defending myself against these guys," he let out a humourless laugh. "These things are hired by governments all over the world to kill dangerous creatures, heck, three of them would be enough to kill a dragon!"

"Probably," Harry shrugged again, "and why would I teach you spells? How would it help you in this case?"

"Oh, I don't know," Cedric casually replied "I was kind of thinking something on the lines of, disable them before they can kill me."

Harry supressed the urge to ask Cedric to do that part himself – the main goal of school is to teach students to teach themselves after all, a skill that currently fails to impart itself on the vast majority of people. If Cedric couldn't be bothered to pick up a book and experiment, even faced with such motivation, he deserved his fate – or so he would have thought with almost any other person. For some reason he was unwilling to abandon his friend to his fate.

In the end, he just sighed in exasperation, "Cedric," he began calmly, "what did Crouch say the first task was supposed to test?"

"Resourcefulness and cunning, I think, why?"

"How is trying to kill a member of a small team of Gorpack hunters show you using your cunning?" he asked with a raised brow, "sure, you may hurt them, if lucky, you may even be able to kill three of them – then what?" Harry asked rhetorically, "You'll alert the nine other Gorpack hunters that their comrades have been killed – by you – and then they'll come find you, quickly, and remove your head from your torso."

Cedric looked a little green after Harry explanation of what could happen, "I very much doubt your task will be to kill them, especially since Dumbledore or Hagrid must have given them something in return for their help in the task – they are sapient beings and other than volunteering, people don't look kindly upon slavery. I don't see the 'you'll probably get killed by helping us' working on these guys, to be honest."

"Then what do you think?" Cedric asked weakly, expertly ignoring the mini rant, "Advise me, that is your job, what should I do?"

Harry remained silent for several moments, seemingly contemplating his answer, before giving it, "It could be a number of things: an obstacle course, a treasure hunt, a race, something like that. Whatever the task is though, I guarantee you that avoiding the wrath of those Gorpack will be your number one priority."

"Okay," Cedric nodded his head slowly, that seemed probable, "can you teach me some spells that could help me with camouflaging myself? Disguising my scent, making me invisible, stuff like that?"

Harry shrugged, "Go look them up in the library, they're not exactly difficult to find," he finally disclosed his frustration, "but, I have another idea. One that I assure you, no one but Archades and I could think of."

Cedric leaned in eagerly, an excited gleam in his eyes – he knew he made the right choice in choosing Harry to be his advisor!

XXX

Archades had been looking for Harry and Cedric for the better part of fifteen minutes. McGonagall had approached him while he was talking with Stephanie and Fleur earlier in the Ravenclaw common room and asked him to fetch them for some wand ceremony or what not – he didn't really care.

What he did care about is that he was forced to scour a huge freaking castle to find his wayward friends when he could be sitting back on a large comfy chair and talking with the girl of his dreams.

Sure, she still saw him as a friend, or a brother, but that could change, right?

His thinking was put on hold when he saw Harry and Cedric talking in hushed whispers on the other side of a courtyard, a small group of third to fifth year girls were sitting not far away, trying to listen in and giggling as they did so.

Archie approached them casually, about to tell them to get their arses to that ceremony, when he heard Harry say a certain word Archie was convinced he'd never hear uttered out of the teenager's mouth – ever.

"Archie is a really great friend, don't you think?" the spectacled teenager complimented the Potions expert to the Hufflepuff Triwizard champion.

"I know what you mean, if only all friends were like Archie," Cedric said wistfully, thought for some reason, he looked incredibly excited. It was all incredibly confusing, and just before Archie was about to ask what in Merlin's name was going on, Cedric looked over in Archie's direction with a look of surprise, "Look, here comes our best friend now."

Archie's eyes narrowed when he saw Cedric's lips saying one thing, but his voice saying something different.

"You figured it out, did you Archades?" Harry asked with amusement, "Was there anything in particular that gave it away?"

"You mean other than you calling me 'Archie'?" the boy asked rhetorically, "The topic of your conversation was kind of queer, I'm not gonna lie to you… did you invent that spell?"

Harry shrugged casually, "Modified an existing one to better suit my purposes, is a better way to put it, I think." Might have to blacklist a few words though.

"You going to tell me what you were discussing that was so important, that it warranted such a charm?" Harry looked at him with a raised eyebrow while Cedric was just grinning jovially, "Whatever, I don't care – McGonagall asked you to go to the Entrance Hall, like, ten minutes ago for some wand weighing ceremony. Harry needs to go too," seeing the puzzled frown on Harry's face, Archie figured he's cut him off quickly, not willing to answer his question, "I don't know, I don't care, she specifically asked for you two, and you're going to go. If I get my conversation with Stephanie interrupted one more time because you two douches were off gallivanting around the school instead of going to that ceremony, I'm going to find a way to incorporate your testes into my next potion," he threatened darkly.

Cedric looked a little queasy at the notion, and slightly intimidated. He'd seen how well the boy could handle that knife of his; he didn't doubt he could come through with that threat.

Harry, on the other hand, looked unimpressed, "I don't 'gallivant' Archades," he chided mockingly, "I strut, there's a difference."

"Whatever, I don't care," Archie rolled his eyes with a small smirk, "just go already before the old minx of a woman comes looking for you."

"She's definitely a minx," Cedric agreed, "if I was around fifty years older, I'd so… you were joking, weren't you?"

Harry and Archie were looking at the boy weirdly, "Yeah, I was joking," Archie said needlessly.

Cedric laughed nervously before making a tactical retreat, he had a ceremony to go to after all.

"I'll never understand that boy," Archie said in dramatically, "he worries me sometimes."

Harry just snorted and followed Cedric, silently agreeing with his friend. Was he always like that or did Sirius have a bigger impact than originally anticipated?

Cedric seemed to know where they were supposed to be going, as they made their way towards the Entrance Hall. On the way, however, they spied several students wearing badges supporting Cedric and insulting Longbottom, showing them off proudly to the world and pressing them to make their message change.

"That's not very nice," Cedric frowned in disapproval, "you said it yourself that he didn't put his name in deliberately."

"Still doesn't mean he's not a tosser," Harry leaned in close to a random Gryffindor wearing the badge, causing the poor girl to freeze up and almost pass out. Without her noticing, he stole the badge right off her chest and continued on walking, as if nothing ever happened, the girl in question, Katie Bell, wouldn't snap out of her daze for another few minutes.

"Sweet Merlin Harry," Cedric said in awe, "You have no idea what you just did, don't you?"

"Sure I do," Harry responded, holding the badge up above his head and examining it closely, "I used my 'Potter' charm to coax a random female into a state of heightened arousal, temporarily indisposing her, so that I could pilfer her little badge here."

"Well, yeah, but I wouldn't have put it that way…" Cedric mumbled under his breath, "I wish I could do that…"

"Whoring yourself off to every girl in the castle already lowers your desirability somewhat," Harry deadpanned, love, like every other commodity, was valued by scarcity, whores like Cedric and Rhona had a correspondingly low value regardless of their physical appearance, "she's just like the rest of them, probably willing to spread her legs the second I asked her to."

"Bell?" Cedric asked in surprise, "Nah mate, she's one of those weird 'good girls'," Cedric chuckled, "that's not to say I didn't try, very hard, but she wanted nothing of it. Makes her even sexier, I think."

"She's still a useless fan girl," Harry mumbled distractedly as he flipped the badge over several times before promptly disposing of it, "it has a switching spell implanting within the badge, it activates when you press it and switches to the other message," Harry explained in a bored tone, "pity, I thought it would have been a little more complicated than that."

Cedric just stared at the boy in surprise for several moments before shaking his head in amazement, "Only you Potter, only you."

XXX

Bartemius Crouch, noticing that everyone necessary was present, addressed those in the room.

"The Triwizard tournament, as you have no doubt been told numerous times already, is an extremely dangerous and difficult competition," he said in his usual curt yet bored voice, "because of this, the Weighing of the Wands is a ceremony that is a necessity so we can ascertain whether or not each wizard, or witch," he motioned to Fleur, "is wielding a functional wand. Your wand is your only weapon in these tasks, after all."

"That's all well and good," Harry frowned in irritation, "but why am I here?"

"I can answer that Harry," a sickly-sweet voice spoke up from behind Crouch. A woman with blonde curly hair, horned glasses and a set of teeth marred with four golden caps. She was dressed absurdly, even for a witch, in different sets of animal skins, while holding a crocodile skin purse.

"Rita," Harry greeted with false amusement, "Still alive, I see… how unfortunate."

"Don't say things you don't mean, Harry dear," Rita Skeeter, star journalist from the Daily Prophet chided.

Just then, the door to the room creaked open to reveal Ollivander being led in by a much taller Dumbledore. The short wand crafter spied everyone in the room before locking eyes with Harry. The look didn't last for much longer than a few moments, but it was enough for the teenager to notice.

"Answer a few questions for me Harry dear?" Rita asked with a predatory smile. Harry was content with just ignoring her, wiling to leave as soon as possible to rid himself from the parasite of a woman. Ignoring your problems and hoping they solve themselves is a very ineffective and optimistic mindset but calling Skeeter a 'problem' would be giving her too much credit.

"Dumbledore!" Skeeter cried, appearing delighted by his arrival, but Harry knew better, "How are you?" she greeted, holding out large vulture talons for Dumbledore do shake, "I hope you saw my piece over the summer on the International Confederation of Wizards conference?"

"Enchantingly nasty," he replied with twinkling eyes, "I particular enjoyed your depiction of me as an obsolete dingbat."

"Lovely," she didn't look abashed in the slightest, "I was merely making the point that some of your ideas are old-fashioned, many people on the street say…"

"I would be delighted to discuss the reasoning behind your rudeness later, Rita," he replied with a courteous bow and a smile, "but unfortunately, the weighing of the wands is about to take place, and I'm afraid it cannot take place unless I am presiding over it."

Dumbledore took his place at the centre of the judges table alongside Madame Maxime, High Master Karkaroff, Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman, "May I introduce to you all," Dumbledore said, "Mister Ollivander," he motioned to the short, silver eyed man, "he will be checking your wands to make sure they are in good working condition for the Tournament."

Harry decided that this was a grandiose waste of his time. Even not considering the fact that he was not being 'checked', if a champion couldn't keep a single piece of wood that the use every day in usable condition, they aren't going to last long in such a 'dangerous' tournament anyways. He could be doing something else, anything else…

Each of the champions looked over to the window to see the legendary wand-maker standing there and waiting for his queue to make his presence properly known.

"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you forward first, please?" Ollivander said, stepping into the space in front of the judge's table to begin his examination.

Fleur approached the wand-maker graciously, an extra sway to her hips when she spotted Harry eyeing her out of the corner of her eye. Madame Maxime sent the Quidditch star a dark glare when she noticed the blatant flirting going on between the two.

After handing the man her wand, Ollivander examined it closely, "Hmm," he exclaimed. He twirled the wand around in his hands like a baton, eliciting an array of gold and pink sparks. He then held it close to his eyes and examined it again much more closely, "Yes," he muttered quietly, seemingly done with his examination, "nine and a half inches… inflexible… rosewood… and containing as a core… dear me…"

"An 'air from ze 'ead of a Veela," Fleur finished for him proudly, "one of my grandmother's."

Fleur's grandmother, yes, the terrible poker player, Harry remembered her clearly. She was the one back in that game with the goblins that was enchanting the males in the room to fold their cards, good hand or not, before they could discover how good their cards were, the only one he would have been able to beat without cheating. If her appearance was a sign of things to come for Fleur Delacour, the girl was very fortunate, hopefully she didn't also inherit her grandmother's intellectual prowess.

"Yes," said Mister Ollivander, "I've never used the hair of a Veela for a wand – I find that it makes for rather temperamental wands… however, to each his own, and if this suits you…" he trailed off mysteriously, as usual, the old man had an extremely eccentric way of speaking. He ran his fingers along the wand, checking it for bumps or scratches; he then muttered, 'Orchideous' causing a bouquet of flowers to burst from the tip. Pleased with the reaction, he handed the wand back to the part-Veela.

"Very well, very well, it's in fine working order," he confirmed, before scooping up the flowers and handing them to Fleur, along with her wand, "Mister Diggory, you next."

Fleur approached her seat again, brushing past Harry as she did so, "Your eyes, zey are wandering 'Arry," she teased him, earning a lazy smirk from the green-eyed boy.

"They aren't wandering," he assured her, "they are exactly where I intend them to be," he snorted in amusement, "I don't think your headmistress likes me," Indeed, Madame Maxime was trying as hard as she could to kill Harry with her glare – without magic that is.

"She was not very impressed by your behaviour ze ozzer week," Fleur smirked, taking Cedric's seat beside Harry. She crossed her arms just under her bosom and crossed her legs in a way that caused her to lean slightly into the boy, "I find it most amusing; I must say."

Harry nodded distractedly, eyeing the furiously scribbling Rita Skeeter with amusement, "You may want to read tomorrow's morning of the Daily Prophet, I'm sure your headmistress will love it."

He didn't elaborate on the meaning of his statement as Cedric handed his wand to Mister Ollivander, "Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn't it?" he said with enthusiasm clear in his voice, "Yes, I remember it well. Containing a single hair from a particularly fine male unicorn… a rather proud one at that… nearly gored me with his horn after I plucked his tail. Twelve and a quarter inches… ash… pleasantly springy. It's in fine condition, you treat it regularly?"

"Polished it last night," said a grinning Cedric, proud by the praise of his wand.

Ollivander sent a stream of silver smoke rings across the room from the tip of Cedric's wand, pronounced himself satisfied with its condition and performance, and then said, "Mister Krum, if you please."

Krum stood with a scowl, slouched his shoulders, and made his way over to Ollivander. The Bulgarian seeker handed over his wand and eyed the shorter man sternly.

"Hmm," said Mister Ollivander, "this is a Gregorovitch creation, unless I'm much mistaken? A fine wand-maker, though the styling is never quite what I… however…"

He lifted it to his eyes, examining it closely, turning it over before his eyes before nodding his head.

"Yes, hornbeam and dragon heartstring?" he shot at Krum, who nodded, impressed with the analysis. "Rather thicker than one usually sees… quite rigid… ten and a quarter inches… Avis!"

Krum's wand let out a shotgun-like blast, as a number of small, twittering birds flew out of the end, and through the open window and into the cloudless sky, where they most likely would re-join the gushing wind.

"Good," said Ollivander, handing Krum his wand. "Finally, we have… Mister Longbottom."

Neville walked over to Ollivander proudly and handed the man a finely polished wand, "Ah yes," said the man, "Yes, yes, yes. How well I remember."

Neville looked proud as Ollivander was spending much longer time than the rest examining his wand, Harry had no idea what he was proud about, it is like being proud when a healer spends an inordinate amount of time examining your penis, if anything he should have been concerned.

"Holly, eleven inches, single feather from the tail of a Phoenix. A great wand, a great wand indeed… one of my finest creations."

After examining it closely, he swished the wand extravagantly and conjured a brilliant glass goblet. Harry idly noticed, with amusement, that the man added a few too many wand movements than necessary in that spell. A fine wand-maker he may be, but a great spell caster he was not. Ollivander then produced some wine out of the tip of the wand and filled the glass to the brim before vanishing it and handing Neville back his wand.

"It is in magnificent condition, as expected of my best work," he beamed at Dumbledore, who nodded in thanks, a smile marring his bearded features.

"Thank you all," Dumbledore said, standing up from the judge's table, "You may go back to your lessons, or perhaps it would be quicker to go straight to dinner, lessons are about to end…"

Harry, wondering what the hell he was doing here, was about to get up and leave when Ludo Bagman and a man carrying a large black camera jumped from their seats.

"Photos, Dumbledore, photos!" Bagman cried excitedly, "All the judges, champions and advisers, what do you think Rita?"

"Er – yes, let's do those first, then perhaps we can jump onto individual interviews," she finished, eyeing Neville hungrily. The woman was a pest, Harry knew from experience. At least she was focusing her attention on Longbottom, rather than him, for once.

The photographs took a fairly long time, only serving to annoy Harry further. Every time Harry tried to sneak out of the room, Dumbledore would fix him with a stern gaze, one that clearly said he wasn't to leave until everyone was done. Oh, how he couldn't wait to be free of this school. If it weren't for the Room of Requirement, he would have left already. And the fact that he needed to do his NEWTs for his masteries… it was like the system is trapping him in mediocrity, or trying its very hardest at least.

The photographs were tedious and took a rather long time. Madame Maxime, being the giant that she was, cast a shadow wherever she stood. Also, whenever the photographer tried to get a picture with her in the frame, he would have to back up to the farthest wall to do so. Even if that were the case, the others would be too far away from the camera to make a good picture. Eventually, she had to sit as everyone else stood around her, wrongly making her the focus of the photo, but the was nothing to be done about that.

Karkaroff kept twirling his goatee, willing it to give that noticeable curl he was so fond off as his photo was taken, while Krum, who was constantly at Karkaroff's side, seemed to be handling the opportunity like a professional – he didn't look happy about it though.

To Harry's amusement, the photographer seemed more than eager to get Fleur to the forefront of each photo while Rita would be pushing for Harry to either stand beside her, or Neville to be in the forefront. Harry could practically see the headlines for tomorrow morning's prophet regarding some other love scandal or another regarding him. Seeing the giant Beauxbatons headmistress' reaction to said article would more than make up for any annoyances it would cause though.

Finally, after separate shots of all the champions, and then some shots of the champions with their advisers, they were free to go.

XXX

It was only a few days to the first task now; most of them were spent with Cedric holed up with one of Harry's books, practising furiously with any spell he found within that he hadn't learnt yet.

It would do him no good, Harry had said several times. The plan that they had concocted made it completely unnecessary, so long as everything went to plan, but that was the problem. Cedric didn't want to leave it to chance, he wanted to be prepared for anything. A good mindset to have of course, no good plan didn't leave some room for flexibility, but a few days of diligence wouldn't repair a lifetime of neglecting his skills.

Either way it was probably the smartest thing the Hufflepuff had ever said.

"You look upset," Harry commented mildly, as he sat down opposite Archie, by the fire in the Ravenclaw common room, "you do know that those rashes are curable, right?"

Archie chuckled softly at Harry's attempt to lighten the mood, or perhaps, to simply annoy him. He couldn't tell what Harry's motives were ninety percent of the time, but he was thankful regardless.

"It's not that," seeing Harry grin, Archie rolled his eyes in annoyances, "there are no rashes, you tosser," Harry sighed in disappointment, much to Archie's amusement, "It's Stephanie."

"Did she get another boyfriend?" Harry asked, a little too eagerly. Archie wondered if Harry relished in other people's pain very briefly before banishing such a thought from his mind.

Of course he did!

In fact his sadism has been intensifying over the course of their schooling career. He suddenly felt extremely bad for Fleur, if his plan to set them up was going to work.

"No, and that's kind of the problem…" Archie said miserably.

"That's very kinky of you Archades," Harry deadpanned, "I didn't know you had it in you."

"Sweet Merlin, will you shut up?" Archie asked in exasperation, before looking at Harry and grinning slightly, he enjoyed the banter the two would often engage in, despite his reactions to it, "I'm trying to find a way to get her to notice me, in a non-brotherly kind of way… the problem is, the more I try, the more she seems to think that I'm happy with the way things are."

"That's amazing," Harry said in a voice that said the complete opposite, "let me know how that works out for you."

"Harry, wait!" Archie called out to his friend, who was about to leave him to wallow in his self-pity and depression, "Can you please help me? It's driving me crazy having her so close, yet so far, at the same time!"

"I would love to hear your reasoning behind thinking that this is somehow my field of expertise," Harry deadpanned again, his signature tone of voice, taking a seat near Archie once again as the boy insisted to speak in hushed whispers.

"What are you talking about? You and Fleur flirt with each ninety percent of the time you're within ten feet of each other," Archie almost hollered, "that seems to be working rather well for you, if you hadn't noticed."

"That's not really flirting," Harry lied smoothly, "that's a game we're playing to see who can cause the other to become flustered the quickest… something I had never lost yet."

"Wow," Archie exclaimed in a deadpan, "Do you actually believe half the shit that comes out of your mouth? If you do, I've never met someone more deluded than yourself."

"Whatever, ask a girl or something," Harry shrugged, "they'd know more than I would."

Their conversation was interrupted when a random first year entered the common room looking extremely flustered about something. She looked innocent now, Harry thought, but that would only last until the slutty older girls got their claws into her, influencing her beliefs and turned her into one of them, and thus, the cycle of Hogwarts producing unremarkable slutty teenagers continues.

Nature vs nurture, he thought cynically.

"Cedric Diggory is asking for someone named Cho Chang," the girl said in a quiet voice, the only people that heard her though were Harry and Archie. Seeing as no one was paying attention to her, the shy girl spoke louder, "Excuse me!" she shouted. "A boy named Cedric Diggory is asking for someone named Cho Chang outside!"

The Ravenclaw seeker looked up from her books in surprise, she was studying by herself in the corner of the room, as many of the smarter students did during the majority of their times in their OWL year. Cho seemed flustered at the mention of the Triwizard champion's name, but she packed her books up regardless and went to meet with him.

Curiosity getting the better of them, Archie and Harry followed, mainly just to see what their 'Casanova' of a friend was up to. As they exited the common room, right behind Cho, Cedric looked to them in surprise – he seemed a little flustered himself.

"Harry, Archie!" he yelped in surprise, "What are you doing here?" Cho seemed to want the same question answered, as she was sending a weak glare at them. Archie wasn't fazed, especially after being the victim of Harry's glare on more than one occasion; this girl was an absolute rookie in comparison. As the perpetrator of said glare, Harry was even more unfazed.

Harry made a show of looking around him, but mainly at the common room door, "This is the Ravenclaw common room," he deadpanned, "We live here."

"And what exactly are you doing here Diggory?" Archie asked with a grin, "Trying to take the innocence of another of our fellow housemates?"

Cedric resisted the urge to comment on the fact that it usually wasn't that hard and trying was a moot point, but he figured that would be a bad idea around the girl he was currently interested in.

"Actually," he sent a hopeful look towards Cho, "I was going to ask Cho if she wanted to accompany me to the Hogsmeade trip this weekend, in celebration of the First Task being completed…" he trailed off hopefully.

"Assuming you don't die," Archie helpfully pointed out.

"You know he just wants to shag you, right?" Harry informed the flustered Chinese girl with a grin, cock-blocking Cedric was fun, "He's like one of those dirty guys you hear about, only interested in the sex and doesn't care about the relationship."

"He's just asking for a date," Cho frowned, not approving of Harry's crude language, "It's not like I'm going to spread my legs for him just because we're going on a date, give me some credit," she said in exasperation, "I'm not like the other whores at this school."

Harry smirked in the girl's direction, reminding her just who she was talking to, causing her to become even more flustered. Anyone who knew anything about Quidditch practically worshipped the ground this boy walked on! He was a legend at the age of sixteen!

"I approve," Harry suddenly said, snapping her out of her daze and shocking Cedric slightly, "Cedric really is a man whore, but apparently, he's taken a genuine interest in you, and while I don't think you'll last for more than two-weeks, tops, it will be amusing to watch, either the slow collapse of your doomed relationship or Cedric's descend into despair, either way the entertainment will be top-notch."

With his two cents given, Harry walked away, as he normally did, to do his own thing, leaving three gaping teenagers behind.

"Well," Archie spoke up, "that was unexpected."

"Didn't you tell me he was your friend?" Cho frowned, "he doesn't seem very nice to you… or anyone."

"Harry's a dick," Archie helpfully informed the girl, "hang around him for long enough and that becomes apparent, but he's a funny dick, and he genuinely cares about his friends… in an extremely warped kind of way."

"He bought me my Firebolt as a 'thank-you'," Cedric informed the shocked, and slightly envious girl, "That's got to count for something." Though saying that… it must have been a drop of water compared to the veritable ocean his bank account must be…

"Anyway," Cho interrupted with, snapping the three of them out of their contemplative dazes, "I need a break from studying, let's go take a walk by the lake," Cho practically ordered Cedric, who complied immediately, "and tuck in your shirt, I'll not be seen with a scruffy boy walking me around," she commented with a smile as Cedric quickly did as she asked.

"Wow," Archie said in amazement, "you've already got him whipped…" suddenly, a thought popped into his mind, something Harry said earlier.

Cho was a girl, right? Maybe he'd talk to her later, assuming she was still on speaking terms with Cedric when they were done with whatever they were doing. If they were, Cedric could convince her to help him!

That just had to work!

Because if it didn't, he was out of ideas… or at least ideas that didn't tie his ego to it and therefore risk hurting his self esteem if failed. His self-esteem is low enough after the events over the summer anyways.

XXXX

Harry was making his way to the Room of Requirement, intent on getting in a good three hours of battle practise before he would go to dinner. This year, he'd found that he'd begun to use all of the time he used to spend practising with his Quidditch team and used it instead in this wondrous room.

It was certainly a better use of his time, in the grand scheme of things – he was a thinker, not a fighter, meaning he needed to practise fighting, or he wouldn't get old enough to think.

Just then, he was surprised to hear a shriek of fright followed by a little blonde blur rushing towards him, three Slytherin boys on her tail, laughing raucously as they did so. It was Malfoy and his friends, and the little blonde blur was none other than Gabrielle Delacour.

This situation had the potential to be either really annoying, or highly amusing. Unfortunately for Malfoy, Harry opted for the latter.

Without realizing, as her head was always angled towards her chasers as she ran, Gabrielle ran headfirst into an amused Harry. The girl felt like she ran into a brick wall, and she probably would have thought she did were it not for the 'brick wall' in question looking down on her with a smirk.

Harry could read the mixed emotions coming from the girl as if she were yelling them to him: Fear, hope, helplessness, delight, anticipation and resignation. It was actually father funny to see them all pass through her features at once, she looked a little constipated as they did.

Malfoy and his two friends suddenly stopped running when they saw Harry standing over the downed form of Gabrielle with an amused expression. Feeling brave, Malfoy approached Harry with his head held high.

"Are you going to help us teach this little half-breed a lesson then Potter?" Malfoy demanded imperiously, "the little brat had the nerve to step on my recently polished shoes and not beg for my forgiveness immediately after doing so."

Crabbe and Goyle were still panting from the run they had just been on, it was rather obvious that the large boys weren't used to physically exerting activities, at all.

Gabrielle watched as her ex-hero crouched down to her level, completely ignoring the mean boys that were chasing her and looking directly into her eyes.

"You're part-Veela," Harry said needlessly, "are you not?" He was still unsure about how accurate the 'part' bit of 'part-Veela' she was, neither his knowledge of genetics of magic seemed to support it, but rolled with it when he wasn't corrected.

"Y-yes," she answered shakily, seemingly terrified by the situation.

"Why don't you use your charm to help you out of this situation then?" Harry inquired, trying not to seem to threatening. He needed her to be alert and willing for this to work, after all.

"Mother and Grandmother," she began in a shaky voice, "they always say that I shouldn't use such abilities lightly," she said, her voice laced with emotion.

"So you're trained in how to use them then?" the grin on Harry's face eased her nerves slightly as she nodded shyly. She hadn't had a civil conversation with 'Harry Potter' before, and even though he was a big meanie, she was still waiting for him to apologise to her so she could forgive him for acting the way he did towards her.

Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle looked on with confusion, Draco being the only one who could slightly follow the conversation thanks to the basic lessons in French he received from his mother as a child, although he couldn't be called fluent so most of it was beyond him.

"Use them then," Harry urged her eagerly, "This is the kind of situation where powers like your Veela charm would come in handy."

Gabrielle looked towards the confused boys before turning her gaze onto Harry once again, "What good would that do?" she asked, still obviously fearful of the older and larger boys, "Mother and Grandmother always tell me that to use my powers for such trivial things is unbecoming of a lady, they would be most displeased if they heard of me using it…"

"Gabrielle," Harry said kindly, "your mother and grandmother are idiots, don't worry about what they say," he informed the gobsmacked little girl – no one had ever dared to call her mother or grandmother an idiot before!

"W-what do you mean?" she asked shakily, "You must understand the dangers of using my charm so lightly."

"Lies, all of it," Harry assured her, before speaking again "This is what I want you to do, don't question it, just do it, okay?"

Gabrielle nodded, eager to do just about anything to get out of this situation. Harry leaned towards her and brushed her hair away from her ear, an action that caused the little girl to flush brilliantly, before whispering a few words into the flustered girl's ear.

Once done, she looked at him with shock and a little trepidation, not sure if such a thing would work. As she was about to question his motives, he held up his hand to silence her, and pointed to the three Slytherins.

"Don't question," he reminded the blonde part-Veela, "just do it."

Nodding, Gabrielle bent her head forward slightly and turned towards the three Slytherins. They looked at her curiously, wondering if she was going to beg for their forgiveness, when she suddenly whipped her head up and gave them a large, dazzling smile. Her large blue eyes, much like her sisters, were twinkling merrily as she did so. Despite how wrong the situation would seem to most, the three boys couldn't help but gape incredulously at her, as a sudden euphoria assaulted their senses, causing them to let out simultaneous pleased sighs. Harry considered immortalising this moment in a picture to call them paedophiles later on, but dismissing it, they weren't important enough to bother.

"Boys," she asked slowly and kindly, hoping they would understand her; her Veela charm working at full blast, "you are going to apologise to me for scaring me like that, are you not?"

Harry frowned, that didn't seem to work. He figured they couldn't understand her, so he chose to remedy that situation.

"The lady asked you to apologise," he informed the three stumped Slytherins who were too far gone to realize just what the hell was going on, "you don't want to keep her waiting do you?"

They all enthusiastically shook their heads in the negative before stumbling over their words and mumbling poorly constructed apologies. They seemed to have trouble accessing even the lower functions of their brains, as they struggled with stringing together coherent sentences.

"You forgot the main part Gabrielle," Harry chided, "You need to leave them with a reminder, something to think about if they ever think of bothering you again."

"Will it not hurt them though?" she asked with a worried frown, they seemed like such nice boys now! "I don't want to hurt them."

"They're nasty boys," Harry urged, "they would have hurt you had I not helped you, are you going to let them off so easily?"

A determined frown came over her cute features as she squared her shoulders and walked right up to Malfoy. Draco looked at her with a little confusion and reverence, the girl's Veela charm still flaring wildly and affecting his senses.

Before any of the Slytherins could understand what was going on, Gabrielle reared her leg back before swinging and planting the tip of her buckled shoe into Malfoy's testes. Hard. Harry mentally cheered as he struggled not to roll on the floor laughing – lock me up in Azkaban, will you Lucius? Try to enter me in the Triwizard cup?

'I will be the Grinch of your family's future!' He suddenly regretted not taking the picture, oh well, Pensieves existed for a reason.

Malfoy grasped his crotch as his face turned a weird shade of green. Letting out a mixture between a gasp and a squeal, he fell to the floor grasping his family jewels and crying like a little girl. Harry couldn't really fault him for that, he'd probably be crying too if he'd been kicked like that.

Crabbe and Goyle, too far gone by the flaring Veela charm didn't even attempt to stop the little girl's mean kick, as they too, were sent to the floor with their buddy.

"Don't you feel better now, Gabrielle?" asked Harry in a fake kind voice, trying to suppress the laughter that threatened to spill out. He was creating a mini-Stephanie! This one, however, would be much more ruthless and deadly to the male species!

"The blonde one threw up," she pointed out blankly, though truthfully.

"Don't worry about him," Harry placed a hand on her shoulder and ushered her away from the scene before talking to her again, "If anybody bothers you like they did again, you do what I just told you to do to them, okay?"

Seeing the worried look on her face, Harry interrupted any protests, "If you get in trouble with your mother or grandmother, I give you my explicit permission to tell them that 'Harry Potter' said it was okay."

"What about my sister?" Gabrielle asked with a cute frown, "She will most likely not be pleased either."

"Tell her what happened to cause you to react in such a way," Harry informed the soon-to-be little hellion, "she'll probably do the same thing that you did, only with more strength," he assured the now smiling girl, reaching out and patting her head. That's it; he needed her to trust him, to adore him again. Especially if he wanted her to go around and smashing the toe of her shoes into Malfoy's testes – that was just hilarious!

Now, all that he needed to do was to somehow get Archie to slip up around her. Some may call him cruel by manipulating a little girl into toe-bashing his friend right in the nut-sack…

Those people would be right.

He stared at the hand weaving itself through the hair of the contented girl, he wondered if this considered Pavlovian conditioning before deciding it ultimately didn't matter – benign manipulation was benign manipulation regardless of how you try to spin it.

XXX

"You nervous?" Harry asked, Cedric was getting a little irritated at how amused Harry was by his unease.

"Yeah," Cedric said incredulously, "just a bit."

"Well, you should be," Harry informed the Triwizard champion, "Gorpack are known to be the best hunters in the world," Harry unhelpfully lectured, well it would have been helpful a few days ago but right now… "their insistence on only hunting and attacking in groups only makes them all the more dangerous, you know, I heard that three of them could take down a fully grown Dragon," he informed the pale face Cedric.

"Given that they're in their element that is. I'd imagine that hunting someone with the cover of a ridiculously large forest and lots of dark places to hide in would be considered their element, wouldn't you?"

"You're not helping," Cedric snapped at Harry, who only grinned happily in response.

"I heard that if Gorpack are hunting you," Harry continued, "that they can spot your footprint amongst a herd of Centaur prints, then, just by glancing at it, can determine the speed and direction in which you were travelling at during the time the print was made – pretty amazing, huh?"

Cedric looked over to his fellow pale-faced champions. They all had the same look that he did on their faces, save Neville – he just looked like he wanted to run and hide. The others, they looked like they were contemplating whether they'd get in trouble if they were to simultaneously use the Cruciatus curse on him.

"They're faster than humans, stronger than humans, smarter – given the right circumstances… you must be scared."

The hands of Fleur, Cedric, and Viktor all twitched towards their wands simultaneously, unbeknownst to the others in the room.

"Will you please stop 'arassing my school's champion, leettle boy?" Maxime asked furiously, "I 'ave 'alf a mind to come over zere…"

"Sorry Madame," Harry interrupted with faux politeness, "Did you not see the sign? I only take sexual propositions between people in," he held his two hands in a height range that closely resembled the height of the average girl, "this height range."

Cedric, and pretty much everyone else in the room (including Karkaroff), gaped at the boy's cheek. Madame Maxime rose to her full, imposing height, trembling in fury.

"You may get away wiz your cheek when you do eet in front of Dumbly-dorr, but I will not stand for eet," she snapped angrily, "mark my words, I will 'ave you expelled by ze time zis tournament is over."

Harry looked at the large woman sympathetically, "I imagine you don't get turned down often then?" he then looked over to Fleur, "I'm sorry Fleur, but I'm going to have to decline that proposition of a threesome with your lovely headmistress, I don't think she likes me much."

Fleur palmed her face as the furious woman rounded on her with an incredulous stare.

"'e eez having you on again, Madame," Fleur informed the large woman in exasperation, "'ou would do better to just ignore him, ozzerwise he'll just keep going."

The champions and their advisers were all cramped up in a tent by the Forbidden Forest; moments away from the beginning of the First Task. Over the past half an hour or so, the sounds of hundreds of students' footsteps making their way over to the makeshift stadium were the only real thing the occupants of the spacious tent had to let them know that they were, indeed, moments away from the true commencement of the tournament.

"We will be having words about your relationship with this boy, Miss Delacour," Madame Maxime spoke up, "of this I assure you."

Harry shook his head in amusement, he didn't know why he tried so hard to annoy Karkaroff and Maxime the way he did. It was just so easy that it really wasn't even a challenge. Maybe his frustrations at having to waste his time at this school when he could be travelling around the world, finding the ingredients needed to cure his mother, were finally getting to him, his behaviour has been noticeably more erratic over the previous few years…

He'd have to do something about that this year, lack of passport be damned – he can teleport god damn it!

The tent flapped opened, allowing in a beaming Ludo Bagman who had a quick few words with the queasy looking Longbottom before moving over to the centre of the tent, ready to address all of those in the room.

Performing a final headcount, making sure that everyone necessary was present, Bagman smiled happily and addressed them, "Well, now that we're all here," he beamed, Harry didn't like how much this man smiled, "Time to fill you in!" he said brightly, "When the audience has been assembled completely, I'm going to lay four rolls of parchment down on those pedestals over there," he motioned to four elaborately decorated pedestals lined alone the far side of the tent, "You will each select one parchment that will dictate your goals in the task ahead. There's one more thing," he smiled happily, "your task, that is to say, is that of a Treasure Hunt! You need to gather all the items mentioned on that list!"

Cedric, Fleur, Viktor and Neville didn't look too pleased by the prospect, mainly because they'd probably have to be wandering around a dangerous forest, a pack of Gorpack out for blood on their tails, all the while searching for whatever was on that list of Bagman's.

Maxime and Karkaroff gave some last words of advice to their champions before making their way out to the judge's table outside. Moody glared down at Longbottom before leaning down and whispering something harshly into his ear, the boy seemed to nod in understanding, while calming down a little, before the ex-Auror too, made his way outside.

"Alright, Harry?" Cedric asked shakily. If Cedric expected a pep talk from him, he'd be sorely disappointed.

"Stick to the plan," Harry informed the Hufflepuff, "it hasn't changed at all, if anything, your job has just become a whole lot easier."

"Yeah," Cedric nodded, gaining a little confidence despite the lack of any real encouragement, "Yeah, you're right. This shouldn't be too hard… unless the plan fails… and then I might have to use the spells I spent so long learning…"

"Oh, one last bit of advice," Harry smirked at Cedric just before he too was about to leave the tent, "Gorpack don't speak English, or any human language for that matter," he added as an afterthought, "I'd imagine that would make your job a little bit more difficult…"

"A little more difficult?" Cedric squeaked in alarm, "Is he insane?!"

As the crowd was finally assembled, a beaming Bagman, accompanied by a bored looking Crouch, entered the tent for the final time before the commencement of the tasks.

"You've all been informed of the basic outline of this task, and what you must do," Crouch spoke up as he had all the champions stand in a line before him, "Mister Bagman has now placed the four scrolls of parchment on the pedestals over there… you will, only after your name is called, go and select one, and only one, before returning back to your position here. The scrolls are charmed not to open until you are in the Forest, any questions?"

Cedric had about a million, but he didn't think it smart to question one of the Tournament organizers about the unmentioned Gorpack just yet and was panicking too much to enunciate them anyways – what kind of friend withholds critical information like that.

"Ladies first, Miss Delacour," Bagman beamed, "go and select a scroll and return to your position in the line."

Fleur did just that, selecting the far left one before returning to her position beside Viktor. The other three champions did much the same thing, taking a random scroll before returning to their positions. Neville was the last to go, not that it really mattered, as Crouch spoke up again.

"The task," he said, "is about to begin, so, it is now that we will tell you what it shall fully entail. Within the forest, as well as its natural deadly inhabitants, are twelve Gorpack waiting for you, lying in wait," Cedric was impressed at how well they all acted surprised by the claim, his panicked expression was genuine though, on second thought maybe theirs were as well, "They have been assigned to hunt for each of you in packs of three, so, as you go on your treasure hunt, they, too, will be hunting you."

Motioning to the scrolls in their hands, he continued, "They have been told to treat this is a game, and not to kill on sight like they would normally do, but I wouldn't risk confronting them to test that fact – Gorpack are vicious creatures," he explained, "once you have collected all the items that are on your lists, you are to proceed out of the forest as quickly as possible. The second you cross the ward line surrounding the forest, the task is over for you and you will be scored based on your performance – are there any questions?"

Longbottom raised his hand, "Are we allowed to fight the Gorpack if they capture us?" he asked, sounding every bit as afraid as he looked. Cedric frowned at the 'Boy-who-lived', letting him compete in a competition that he was obviously unprepared for was cruel and unusual. Nobody said that he had to compete well. He could just as easily exit the forest immediately after he entered to satisfy the contract – sure, he wouldn't score well, but he wouldn't die either.

Crouch snorted in amusement, "There are no rules saying that you cannot, but I would not advise it," Crouch warned with an amused tone, "only if you value your life, that is."

Seeing as there was no more questions, Crouch spoke again, "Follow me to the starting positions, you will each be entering the forest from different positions," Crouch explained, "when the flare goes off, you are to begin, follow me… follow me."

The four champions exited the tent from the back entrance; they weren't going to be seeing the crowd until the task was over. This was probably for the best, Cedric mused, for his nerves, at least.

"So this is one of those Pensieve screens then," Archie exclaimed in awe. The entire school had gathered in a stadium surrounding a large Pensieve screen. As the feed was coming to them, it would be projected to the crowd as if they were watching the events within the forest unfold from within the trees. It was unbelievably realistic; like they cut out a section of the forest and placed it in the space the crowd was gathered around.

The new magical technology worked just like being within an actual Pensieve, but it was projected outwards so many could witness the memory, rather than inwards so that only few could. It was a rather simple, yet brilliant bit of magic.

"You didn't see it at the World Cup?" Harry asked with a raised brow, "There were two there, after all."

"Nah," Archie chuckled "If I wasn't looking after little Gabby here, I was watching the game with my own two eyes. It's a nice bit of magic, sure, but I went to the game to see it with my own eyes, not through a Pensieve screen, you know?"

Harry shrugged nonchalantly, to him at least, revolutionary magic is many times more interesting than a sport, especially if you were an observer, "Whatever," at the moment, the screen was sending feeds of random key locations within the forest, mainly, the locations of the items that needed to be retrieved by the champions.

"But Gorpack Hunters?" Stephanie asked from beside them, "Aren't they supposed to be vicious? I heard that they used to kill Nundu in Africa for their Ministry a while ago, and they were very good at it," she said worriedly, "Do you think Cedric and Fleur will be okay?"

Harry shrugged as Archie grinned in amusement, what about Krum and Longbottom?

"The champions all knew about what was going to be in that forest weeks ago," Harry informed them in a quiet voice, "I found out by tailing Karkaroff into the forest, who was telling Krum at the time. They've all had ample time to prepare."

"What's Cedric's plan?" Archie asked interested, "You didn't give him bogus information that would get him killed, did you?"

Stephanie looked worried by the prospect too, Harry found it amusing how little faith they had in him, though, he supposed there was a reason for that.

"I gave him good information," Harry placated them, "Whether it gets him killed or not is another story – you know how much Gorpack love to hunt strong prey…"

Archie scrutinized Harry for a few moments before the boy's eyes widened in shock, "Harry!" he yelled incredulously, "You told Cedric about the location of the Vorpala nest, didn't you?"

"The what?" Stephanie asked in shock, "Why would you do something like that?!"

Harry eyed her lazily, amused by their antics, "Just watch," Harry grinned, "you'll be surprised."

Funnily enough, that didn't seem to placate them.

"Harry," Gabrielle called crossly, "That boy over there poked his tongue at me, should I kick him?"

Harry pat her on the head affectionately, "Maybe later Gabrielle," he grinned at Stephanie's horror filled face, "after we make sure your sister doesn't die during the task."

The girl finally began to understand the seriousness of the contest at Harry's words. Originally, she wasn't concerned in the slightest; her sister was the greatest, after all! But now, she wasn't so sure… those Gorpack beasts Stephanie was telling her about earlier didn't exactly sound weak…

Gabrielle looked up to Harry with two large blue eyes, they were shimmering with unshed tears, "She's going to be okay, isn't she?" it was more of a statement than an actual question, "Isn't she Harry?" She begged him for confirmation.

"She will be fine Gabrielle," Stephanie was quick to assure the girl before Harry damaged her for life.

Harry grinned at Stephanie who glared at him and placed a protective arm around Gabby's shoulder. 'You are too late Stephanie', is what Harry's grin practically screamed; the girl was already in his pocket.

"Hey, I just thought of something," Archie spoke up, "Pensieve screens work by streaming someone's memories, right?" he paused, getting a nod from Stephanie, "Whose memories are they streaming then?"

"House elves," Harry answered the surprised teens, "they can transport themselves throughout the forest, and remain invisible as they do it."

"Serious?" Archie asked, surprised by the claim.

"Can you think of anyone better?" Harry countered. Archie couldn't answer, it was obvious Harry didn't know, but he wouldn't be surprised if the estimation was correct.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Dumbledore's voice boomed over the crowd, "welcome, to the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament!"

The crowd cheered and Dumbledore waited patiently for the noise to die down.

"As you have all been made aware by Mister Bagman earlier," the ex-beater beamed jovially at them all with the mention of his name, "the champions have been tasked with venturing into the Forbidden Forest, collecting three items that have been pointed out to them already, and making it back out, all the while, avoiding a group of Gorpack."

There were more cheers of approval from the excited onlookers, apparently, the more dangerous the task, the more exciting it would be.

"Yes, quite exciting," Dumbledore said happily, "we will be able to watch each champion through the Pensieve screen we have obtained, just for these tasks," his eyes twinkled merrily as he continued to speak, "The judges will score based on each champion's cunning, daring, resourcefulness and overall performance, the best performance will warrant the highest score. To promote fairness and impartiality, the five of us will score their performance fairly to the best of our abilities."

The excitement that was building in anticipation of the task was starting to become easily apparent. Archie was practically bouncing in his seat, Gabrielle practically climbing on top of him to get a better view.

"So," Dumbledore called out, "without further ado," as he wound up to start the task, the space the stadium was built around lit up, showing Cedric standing on the outskirts of the forest. The image flicked over to Fleur in a similar position, then Neville, and finally Krum, "The First task of the Triwizard Tournament has officially… begun!"

He fired off an incredibly loud gunshot like sound from the tip of his wand, alerting the other champions to the beginning of the task. The crowd cheered wildly as the Pensieve screen showed the champions running quickly into the darkness of the forest, the house-elf 'camera-men' following hot on their tails.

Neville looked around nervously. He could no longer hear the roars of the crowd like he could at the starting point. After running in a straight line into the forest for a few minutes, the sounds eventually completely died out.

In fact, all sounds died out.

Quickly sticking to the plan Moody had coached him on, he dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out his wand before shouting, "Accio Invisibility Cloak!"

Positive his spell would work, Neville reached into his other pocket and pulled out the scroll he had picked back in the champion's tent. Breaking the wax seal, he unrolled it to see a blank page. Frowning in confusion, he was about to panic because his page was apparently faulty until writing started to magically appear.

Dear Triwizard Champion Neville Longbottom,

Your task for this portion of the Tournament is to locate three key ingredients for an unnamed Potion.

Tournament officials have already checked, and confirmed, that the ingredients are within the forest.

You must use your skills to help you find:

Seven Petals of a Nightmare Flower

Acromantula Egg Shell Fragments

Furple Grass

That was okay; Neville knew all of those ingredients, and the kind of places he could find them. Nightmare Flower usually grows in the shade, Acromantula shells would be near…. Acromantula and Furple grass grew in damp areas.

Remembering another bit of information Moody gave him, Neville ran over to a pile of mud he saw nearby and scooped up a generous amount. Grimacing slightly, he rubbed it into his uniform and over his face. Moody had told him, back when he first found out about the Gorpack, that it should help to cover his scent. He experienced a brief flash of regret for not bringing spare clothes, his damp uniform was getting extremely heavy as the mud started to soak into it.

Just as he finished applying the mud to his body, a shimmering cloak came zipping right past him and landed in his hand. With a cocky grin, he draped it over his shoulder, vanishing from sight.

In his haste, he missed the three sets of eyes watching on in a predatory fashion.

XXXX

Fleur Delacour walked slowly and meticulously through the Forest they had been dumped in. In the weeks of preparation she had after being informed of the Gorpack now residing here, she figured she would even the playing field in her spare time.

She spent the majority of the nights here, alone, mapping out the forest to the best of her ability. She was confident that she knew at least twenty good hiding spots, and countless routes through the majority of the forest that would allow her to not leave a trail to follow.

The patch she was currently walking through was mainly one of dirt and stones. One would normally be worried about leaving footprints, but Fleur was counting on them to use to her advantage.

At the beginning of the task, the second she set out, Fleur transfigured three large rocks, so they had had feet that mirrored hers perfectly. With the ability to walk, and leave footprints identical to hers, she set them out, casting a mild Confundus charm on them, into random directions into the forest after disguising them with a Disillusionment charm.

Fleur, did not, however, become the Beauxbatons champion by being stupid. She knew that that little stunt was a minor distraction at best. The Gorpack would quickly find the walking stones, destroy them, and find the only other trail left available to them.

In response to that, she devised another plan to buy her more time so that she could complete her task. She made sure that the path she was actually taking was the one with the most visible signs of travel. She made sure to snap as many twigs, leave as many footprints, and ruffle the most leaves so as to confuse the Gorpack.

When confronted with multiple trails to follow, Fleur was certain that the Gorpack would suspect trickery to be the cause of it. They would suspect that she deliberately set up several different trails to follow, and in response to that, they would then suspect the trail with the least visible travel signs to be the one she took.

She was hoping, in that regard, that they would underestimate her cunning and not expect her to do the exact opposite. She hoped that they would first go for the subtler of paths, ignoring the ones that looked like a stampede of Griffins had stormed through.

The best-case scenario, in her opinion, would be if, to save time, the Gorpack would split up, to try and find her. Divide and conquer, as it were. She was not foolish enough to believe that they would engage her on their own, but they definitely could locate her as such. She was hoping, however, that her portable perimeter ward would locate the creature as soon as it crossed the ward line surrounding her in a hundred feet radius. It was one of her more brilliant charms; it was like a portable perimeter ward. As much as she disliked Hogwarts, she had to commend its library, reluctant she may be to admit it.

The only downside was that she had to move really slowly, less she run the risk of losing her concentration and dropping the ward at a crucial moment. That, luckily for her, was a risk she was willing to take.

When the first Gorpack spotted her, she would pounce on it, unleashing the full force of her Veela charm on the poor creature, and then entice it into sending his comrades off her trail. It was the best plan she had; play to her strengths, and always be two steps ahead.

The ingredients on her list didn't look too difficult to find, she knew from her Herbology classes back in Beauxbatons the kind of habitat each plant grew in. All she had to do was stall for time, get her ingredients, and get her ass out of there as soon as possible.

If the Gorpack foiled her well laid out plan, well, she always had her sword…

XXXX

If Viktor Krum knew one thing, it was that his strength didn't lie in subtlety. Karkaroff has reluctantly informed him as much after they had brainstormed the possible reasoning for having the Gorpack involved in the task.

Subtlety was not one of his strengths, that was true enough, but that didn't mean he couldn't be cunning when he needed to be. His father had drilled it into his head, ever since he was a child, that the world was a harsh place, and that usually, the smarter man was the one who could stay alive for the longest.

One didn't live with an ideology like that without learning some key survival tactics.

Setting magical traps and learning to lure his prey into them was one of those said tactics.

The high master had pretty much told him that the Gorpack will find him, and they will do so quickly. Krum was counting on that fact, hoping they found his trail to be so ridiculously easy to track that they would rush him recklessly and fall one of his numerous traps.

The trees of the forest were so close together in this section that Krum could easily leap from one to another, without ever setting a foot on the ground. Sure, it was extremely physically exerting, but his Quidditch training made up for that. This gave him the advantage of having a better view of his surrounding as well as being more easily able to plant evidence of his movements as he travelled.

He had magically created pitfalls, log traps, hidden spike walls, rope traps and several triggered charm traps. If the Gorpack were skilled enough to even evade most of his well laid out traps, they would definitely have used a good part of their energy reserves to do so. When they finally caught him, it would be a simple task to bind them and keep them busy until he found these pesky plants. Or they would outright avoid his traps and kill him, but he tried not to dwell on that scenario.

He didn't need subtlety when he had ingenious planning on his side. People thought him stupid and talentless because he didn't speak well or often – he would use that to his advantage and crush his opposition.

Now… to find those stupid plants, what the hell was a Mumbumble Fruit? Who thought of these stupid names?

XXXX

Cedric Diggory sat nervously in an open field. This plan, he knew, was risky, but he trusted Harry to at least not lead him into a situation that he couldn't totally get out of – even if he got hurt a little in the process. Even if he was having other ideas though, the one Harry had provided him with was the one that sounded the best, and the smartest.

A plan that was sneaky and audacious enough that it had Harry's name practically written all over it. Or anyone who knew psychology… Harry was the only person he knew of who knew any psychology though so there wasn't much validating that theory.

He had opened his list immediately upon entering the forest, not entirely focused on getting as far away as possible was surprised with its contents.

It looked to be a list of Potions ingredients.

He was rubbish at Potions, and Herbology, for that matter. His strengths lied in Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures. He also put a fair up a fair display in Charms too, but Herbology and Potions were two classes he definitely was not taking during his NEWT years.

It was a good thing then, that Harry's plan, completely by luck, had saved him from failing in a most embarrassing fashion.

All he needed to do was to wait for the Gorpack to find him.

Hopefully the Gorpack pack knew what these plants were…

He allowed a small snort of amusement to escape at the way in which his actions must look to the spectators who must be watching the proceedings from a safe distance.

Instead of rushing, or acting subtly, or even trying to avoid the Gorpack. Cedric had found the first clearing he could and set up a small camp. He had placed up a perimeter ward he had learned earlier this year in charms, to alert him when the Gorpack finally arrived, and just waited.

To make their task easier, he even lit a campfire – or a signal fire, if you named it based on the circumstances it was used for.

The one part of the plan he had to wing was how he was to overcome the language barrier. That was something that he was really nervous about. He had a plan, and had already implemented it, he just hoped they didn't shoot first, and ask questions later.

He hoped the white flag hanging on a stick by the fire was enough to grab their attention and hoped they had a rudimentary knowledge of human culture to tell them he wasn't going to put up a fight.

Not even in the slightest.

This was a plan devised by Harry Potter after all, the boy with the silver tongue and a business tycoon at the age of fifteen. It was a brilliant, yet extremely risky plan, however, in his opinion, it probably had the highest chances of providing the best result.

That was what he was here for after all, wasn't he? To win? This plan definitely had the potential to win, and that was what he wanted.

Cedric's plan wasn't to trick, to fight, or to hide. Cedric's plan was to bargain.

And considering his soon-to-be business partners loved hunting rare and dangerous creatures more than anything else, he figured his offer would be more than appealing to them.

Which is why he had drawn a really crappy comic strip into the dirt to try and explain his deal

Yes, it was lame, but, given the circumstances, he really couldn't find it in him to laugh. If Harry had informed him of the language barrier beforehand, he would have a better plan but alas…

Just then, his Quidditch reflexes kicked into overdrive as he leaned back to avoid a spear to the torso. Quickly, before his pursuers decided to follow up with another, more dangerous attack – knowing full well that that previous one was a warning shot (a wooden spear? Seriously?) – he held up his arms in surrender and motioned for them to come out.

After a few tense moments, three small black figures dropped to the ground in a triangle formation, completely surrounding him. They let off no signs of emotion, only the way in which they held their deadly looking spears showing off their intentions.

Huh, maybe they had some property that made them more than commemorative, he wasn't Harry, but was almost certain spears are not the most effective weapon.

Moving slowly, so as not to startle them, Cedric motioned to the ground before him.

One of the Gorpack, the leader, Cedric assumed, looked down warily. Cedric didn't dare move an inch as he did so, though he took the time to admire his own shitty artwork as he waited.

It was very similar to a poorly drawn comic strip – he really couldn't do much else with a stick as his quill and the dirt as his parchment.

The top picture had a tall stick figure surrounded by smaller ones holding crudely drawn spears, which apparently turned out to be the most representative part of his illustration. The tall stick figures had his hands up in surrender, in a non-threatening kind of way.

The second picture had a picture of the three plants he needed to find. He didn't know where to find them, sure, but he definitely knew what they looked like. Luckily for him, they each had a distinctive shape. One looked like a cactus, the other like a Venus flytrap and the last like a large bush. Each plant was drawn so that it was held by the smaller stick figures. The smaller stick figures then had lines connecting them to the picture of himself.

The third picture, much to his embarrassment, had a picture of the large stick figure hugging the smaller ones. He could have imagined it, but they looked irritated by that one.

The fourth picture had the large stick figure, followed by the three small stick figures holding him at spear point, leading them somewhere.

The fifth picture had the four stick figures as usual, but this time, they were not the only ones depicted in the picture. Instead of just the four of them, the picture also contained several, large, snake like creatures, each with a wavy aura surrounding them. He hoped they recognized them to be Vorpala.

He figured they must have recognized it, because all three Gorpack, who had immersed themselves in trying to translate the shitty images, were talking quickly in a language that revolved a lot around whistling and clicking, as they pointed to the snakes.

The last picture looked pretty much the same, however, in the middle of it, the Gorpack and Cedric were shaking hands with arrows pointing each group in different directions.

Cedric hoped that the overall point of the story was simple enough to understand. In return for help finding the ingredients he needed, he would lead them to a Vorpala nest, and they would leave him be.

Cedric slowly, and tentatively, stretched out his hand, continuing to remain as non-threatening as possible. He just hoped they accepted the deal before skewering him.

Instead of shaking his hand, a gesture which was probably foreign to them, the leader of the group – who he now noticed wore a much more elaborate skull mask, walked up to him and jumped up once, so they were eyelevel, before giving a quick head-but.

"Whoa, what the?" he exclaimed as he staggered; that freaking hurt! Though it would make sense that a species that prioritise individual strength and aggression would have gestures that represented that.

Looking down at the amused looking Gorpack, it launched a small dagger from out of nowhere right at his face, and had Cedric moved an inch, it probably would have stabbed him in the face. Instead, it merely grazed his cheek, leaving a superficial cut, before passing harmlessly by. The message was received loud and clear – they could kill him whenever they wanted, so don't mess with them.

Cedric nodded and motioned them to lead the way – he just hoped the Vorpala were where Harry said they were, or he was screwed!

XXXX

"That… was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen," Archie exclaimed after two full minutes of silence. The final champion, Neville Longbottom, had finally come out of the forest, his ingredients and parchment with him, ending the first round.

The crowd, who were waiting excitedly for the judges' verdict, were content with cheering the mostly tired looking group of Champions, the one who was worst off being Krum, who had two stab wounds in different locations on his body – his shoulder and his ankle.

"Thank you, everyone, thank you," Dumbledore called over the cheers of the crowd. The Pensieve screen in the centre was showing the highlights of this round as he spoke, "I think you'll all agree with me in saying that all four champions put up a most valiant… if slightly unconventional at times, showing during this task of the tournament."

The crowd cheered wildly again, shouts of the champions they were supporting being the only audible thing through the general consternation. Obviously, Cedric was the one that was cheered for the most. People probably still thought of him as the home school's 'real' champion and had a 'home team advantage' per say.

"Please remain quiet as we go through the scores of each champion," Dumbledore pleaded, knowing that it was futile but figuring he may as well try anyway, "Neville Longbottom," the Gryffindors actually let out a few cheers at the boy's name, it seemed they jumped back on the boy's bandwagon now that he proved to be successful somewhat in the tournament, "who cleverly utilized his environment to remain hidden, as well as a most impressive summoning charm to obtain his invisibility cloak is the first contestant we will be scoring. Despite his clever avoidance tactics, Neville was captured, and almost killed, twice during this phase of the tournament, though he was the first to collect all of his ingredients. Luckily, with clever usage of his surroundings, Neville was able to escape his captors on both occasions relatively unharmed – Judges, your scores, if you will?"

Bagman held up a nine, much to the displeasure of all Cedric Diggory fans, well, the vast majority who didn't support Neville actually. Crouch followed, lazily producing a five, a much more accurate score, according to the stadium. Dumbledore followed Crouch with a seven, a number that wasn't too low, or high, for that matter – cautiously neutral like the man himself. Maxime, and finally Karkaroff, both gave the boy fives as well, clearly not impressed by his performance. His overall score so far was thirty-one.

"Wonderful, wonderful," Dumbledore cheered, as the Gryffindors supported their house representative, while the Slytherins merely jeered at him, "Next up, we have Fleur Delacour. Miss Delacour devised an ingenious 'divide and conquer' stratagem, setting up numerous diversionary tactics to buy her time as she searched for her ingredients. Unfortunately, her plan veered slightly off course when two of the Gorpack hunters caught up with her and confronted her simultaneously," the crowd were listening silently, despite the fact that they had seen it all through the Pensieve, recounting can be interesting too, "she did, however, show her resourcefulness by using her natural abilities to distract them," he continued to explain, as the Beauxbatons students cheered wildly and Madame Maxime beamed down proudly at her.

"Unfortunately, the Gorpack proved to be slightly resistant to her charm, which almost ended up in mortal wound from a thrown spear. Miss Delacour was, however, able to deflect the attack and disable one. She then proceeded to place them both under her charm separately, asking them to report back to their teammate with the success of their mission, allowing her to finish her task unchallenged, and in the quickest time!"

The Beauxbatons student's cheers only became louder as the Headmaster's explanation finished. The girl smiled weakly as she clutched her bandaged torso, she had received a heavy gash to her side during that skirmish with the Gorpack. 'Almost' is not quite good enough when talking about life and death, something she learnt first-hand.

The judges then showed their scores for Fleur. Bagman held up a ten, and to the surprise of everyone there, so did Crouch – he didn't seem like the kind of person to judge easily. Dumbledore gave her a seven, probably trying to remain as neutral as possible in his scoring without affecting the competition, while Maxime was proudly displaying a ten of her own. Karkaroff, with a glare at the girl, produced a four, much to the displeasure of all the occupants of the stadium, mainly the teenage boys. The girl scored an amazing forty-one for her trouble, the judges seemed to be impressed by her planning and execution of said plan – it did seem to be a perfect example of her cunning and resourcefulness, after all. Fleur played this round well.

"Excellent Miss Delacour has taken the lead with that score, wonderful job!" Dumbledore praised jovially, "Next up on the list is Mister Krum," The Durmstrang students let out a roar as their champion was mentioned, "Young Mister Krum showed us all that his tactical mind does not only extend to the Quidditch pitch with his performance, as he devised a cunning stratagem to lure his predators into several well placed, if somewhat brutal, traps before they could encounter him. Unfortunately for Mister Krum, his predators were able to catch up with him, very disgruntled and worse for wear, before he was able to make his way out of the forest with his ingredients. Being already damaged from the traps Mister Krum had set up, the Gorpack hunters put up a heroic effort to try and subdue the Durmstrang champion, however, young Viktor showed his skills with a wand, incapacitating two, and unfortunately, killing the third, in his attempt to escape them unscathed. Judges, your scores, if you please?" he finished sombrely; he didn't seem too pleased at Krum's killing of one of the Gorpack.

Bagman raised his card to show a six, he too didn't seem too pleased by the killing either. Crouch, on the other hand, looked amused as he showcased a nine. It was no surprise when Dumbledore, having shown his distaste for the Quidditch star's tactics, produced a five while Madame Maxime produced a four – most likely as a result to Karkaroff's bias decision for the Beauxbatons champion. Karkaroff, of course, gave Viktor a score of ten, putting his total up to thirty-five, only six points behind Fleur.

"Finally, our second Hogwarts champion, and the one to finish second, barely behind Miss Delacour, Cedric Diggory," the cheers from the majority of the Hogwarts students was almost deafening.

"Mister Diggory used, by far, the most unconventional solution to the problem we had presented him with, but judging by the fact that he is the least hurt, we must all agree that his method was extremely effective," more cheered rose up, especially from the large collection of Hufflepuff students on the opposite side of the stadium to Harry, Archades and Stephanie.

"His clever idea to bargain with the Gorpack – breaking the language barrier in doing so in a most humorous display of ingenuity, I must say – instead of avoid them, by using his knowledge of a known Vorpala nest as collateral," Hagrid, the Care of Magical Creatures professor, looked most displeased by that fact contrary to the generally apathetic consensus, "earned him, not only his temporary associates' respect, but aid as they helped him quickly and efficiently track down his ingredients. Were he not bound by his deal to aid the Gorpack by showing them the Vorpala nest, he would have finished half an hour before Miss Delacour, a most impressive feat indeed, for the final time today, judges, your scores please?"

Bagman smiled brilliantly, showing off a row of pearly white teeth, as he produced an eight as Crouch, almost immediately, followed up with a nine. Dumbledore, going back to his neutral scoring method, gave him a seven, while Madame Maxime, recognizing and appreciating the clever tactics used by the boy, gave him a nine also. Karkaroff, albeit reluctantly, gave the Hogwarts champion a seven, the total making his score forty, one point below Fleur.

It took the Beauxbatons students a few moments to discover the overall total of Cedric's score, but when they did and realized their school was in the lead after the first task, despite how short that lead was, they cheered as loudly as they could for such a small selection of students. In a show of good sportsmanship, the majority of the crowd also cheered, pleased with the good entertainment they received.

"Yes, as you all no doubt have gathered, the standings are as follows," Ludo Bagman spoke up, as Dumbledore sat and retook his seat, "Coming in at fourth place is the Boy-who-lived himself, Neville Longbottom, with thirty-one points – good show!" The Gryffindors cheered on their housemate wildly, much to the boy's surprised delight.

"In third place, we have the Durmstrang champion with thirty-five points – Viktor Krum!" the Durmstrang students, wanting to show their support, roared loudly in approval, regardless of his position, "Tn second place, just missing out on first place himself with forty points, we have the Hufflepuff Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory!" the Hufflepuffs cheered wildly, along as the majority of the Ravenclaws and Slytherins joined in, the latter doing so in spite of Longbottom, of that everyone was certain, "And finally, in the lead with forty-one points, we have the Beauxbatons champion, Fleur Delacour!"

More cheers rose from the crowds as the positions were officially announced, "Now, before the champions leave so they can properly attend to their wounds," the champions in question were all seated towards the exit of the stadium, cradling their wounds or looking amused at the spectacle depending on their situations, "we must inform that champions that they are to not dispose of the parchment they were given for this task," Bagman advised, "you will find that they have been charmed with a clue for the next task in the tournament, which will occur on the twenty fourth of February. Also please dispose of your ingredients in your respective cauldrons, I am sure a use will be found for them."

Bagman sat down, done with his speech as Dumbledore rose again, "With that, I dub the first task of the Triwizard tournament complete, if you all would please follow a staff member back to the castle for dinner, as it is getting quite late, I would be most appreciative."

XXX

"I just don't get it," Stephanie said with a frown on her face. They were back in the common room after dinner while the Champions rested for the night in the Hospital wing to recover from their wounds. Harry and Archie found it quite amusing when Madame Pomfrey wouldn't let Cedric go despite the fact that he was unharmed, "Cedric's plan seemed clever on paper, but it doesn't fit the way in which the Gorpack would have usually reacted," she said in exasperation, "with every other champion, it was shoot first, ask questions later, but with Cedric, they actually heard what he had to say, even going so far as to look at those ridiculous pictures of his instead of gutting him like they probably would have…"

Archie frowned when she stopped speaking, "You know, she has a point," he looked to Harry suspiciously, "Why do I smell foul play?"

"That's just your upper lip," Harry said nonchalantly, "I don't smell anything."

"Listen asshole, I know you did something to rig it," Archie said crossly, not liking how Stephanie would giggle at him whenever Harry insulted him, "there's no way they would have understood those ridiculous pictures, let alone waited around for long enough to try to."

"Of course they wouldn't," Harry scoffed, "but what Cedric doesn't know won't hurt him, well, it could have, for all he knew, but it wouldn't have, and that's what's important…"

Stephanie and Archie looked at him with blank faces after that confusing explanation, before Archie broke the silence, "You spoke to them before the competition, didn't you?" he deadpanned, "The Gorpack, I mean."

"Of course I did," Harry said, "I told Cedric that he'd have to convince them himself though before the task started, it was funnier that way."

Cedric did waste a good ten or so minutes trying to communicate with them, something that was entirely unnecessary, ten minutes that would have made him finish before Fleur and therefore most likely secure first place, but neither Stephanie nor Archades cared to disclose this information to him. It was unlikely that Harry would care, knowing his shenanigans cost Cedric his placement would most likely be superfluous knowledge to the generally indifferent teen.

"So when he looked all nervous before they caught up to him," Stephanie frowned, "he was really nervous about the possibility of them gutting him on sight, when you had already met with them and planned out the whole thing all along?"

"Pretty much," Harry nodded as he took a sip of his flask to stay the oncoming headache, "funny, right?"

Stephanie and Archie looked at him incredulously before the latter's face broke into a small grin, "Yeah," he agreed, "just a little – how did you get them to agree, or understand you for that matter. I don't see you doodling in the dirt for some reason…"

"They respect strength," Harry shrugged, "I found them in the forest, ambushed them and disabled them all," he explained as if he were discussing the weather, "When they had calmed down a little, I used a translation charm I lifted from one of the workers from the DRCMC that was here to make sure the Gorpack didn't leave the forest, and I pretty much told them that if they helped the boy in yellow, they'd be able to hunt as many Vorpala as they wanted."

"By 'lifted'," Stephanie asked warily, "What exactly do you mean?" she said, asking the first thing that came to mind.

"Legilimency, what else?" Harry shrugged.

"Actually," Harry stated, remembering something, "if we ever made a bet on this, I win."

"A bet on… what?" Both Archades and Stephanie stared at him, having no idea what he was referring to.

"I distinctly remember both of you harassing me on my virginal status, to which is responded the temporary high from sex is not worth the long term repercussions, to which you two, completely separately I might add, assaulted the fact that I have not, in fact, experienced sex so a cost-benefits analysis would not be my prerogative," Harry recalled casually, unaware of the shocked audience he was performing to. "I must now inform you I was right all along and that troublesome DRCMC worker proved that to me beyond reproach."

"YOU RAPED THE DRCMC WORDER?" Exploded Archades, it was quite a leap in logic, but Harry could see where he got that impression from.

"No, what in God's left areola did you get that from?" He wanted to use that phrase for quite some time and something as simple as 'knowing where he got the idea from' wasn't going to stop him, "I don't have sex because it is uneconomical, rape is far, astronomically more uneconomical. That isn't even mentioning the worker was a man! No I simply lifted the experience of sex whilst I was in his mind and therefore can deem the experience as entirely not worth the hassle."

"This means both of you can forfeit your right to harass me to get a girlfriend or accept one of the oh so generous offers my fangirls provide."

"You are… without a doubt, the scariest person I've ever met. You know that, right?" Archades tried to joke but the sudden revelation left him reeling.

He exchanged a slightly concerned look with Stephanie… Harry was indeed scary. Operation Fleur needed to be executed, and quickly as well!