Chapter 31: Aftermath
Friday 24th February 1995.
Hermione closed her eyes and relaxed against Harry's back further as she felt his magic well up in and around them signalling their favourite form of travel. There was none of the squeezing of apparition that the adults used when they needed to be taken somewhere. No nausea-inducing spinning and yanking on the stomach that the portkeys created as they were dragged from point a to point b. Were she not still a little damp and uncomfortable, Hermione could have fallen back to sleep during the translocation. When she opened her eyes again, however, she was still surprised.
She had expected to see portraits and books, the familiar trappings of home, but they were surrounded by carved stone walls covered in shelves on one side and weapons on the other. Over Harry's shoulder, she could see a familiar face staring back at her with surprise evident even on his goblin features.
His eyes narrowed slightly and he mumbled to himself in the guttural throaty sounds of Rhovak. #How many times have I told them…#
"Apologies for barging in, but we have a problem," Harry stated, stepping towards the desk without greeting Griphook in any form, leading Hermione to dig her knee into his side. "Sorry, how are you, Griphook?"
"I'm fine, Mister Potter. Miss Granger. What problem is that? Surely you should be preparing to partake in the second task right now."
"The task is over. I'm what was taken." Hermione replied, finally letting go of Harry and sliding to the floor. It felt weird to have cold dampness at her back contrasting with the warm mostly dry robes at her front. It felt as though she had laid down in a puddle, then stood up.
"Taken? I'd not have thought you would consent to such a thing." Griphook queried, looking at her anew as if assessing her all over again.
"She didn't," Harry growled his skin reddening once more. Hermione laid her hand on his arm and pushed him into a chair, settling herself once more in his lap and holding him closely.
"We think that I was taken directly from my bed. All I recall before waking at the surface of the lake was going to bed the night before."
"I'm not sure I understand. I've witnessed your abilities on several occasions. In combination with your portkeys, I'm not sure how someone could take you against your will."
"And therein lies the problem," Hermione added. "We've tested the portkeys time and time again. If we lose consciousness, we go. But what would happen if someone stunned us while we were already asleep?"
"Why would anyone do something so cowardly?" The goblin asked aghast and Hermione realized the problem.
"You've never tested them against such a thing, have you?"
She could feel Harry's anger rising again and she tried to settle him without breaking her gaze on Griphook. The goblin wasn't averting his own gaze in reply, but she could see he was considering the concept for the first time.
"While we may take the opportunity for subterfuge whenever possible in banking, with interpersonal disagreements, a goblin holds honour higher than any other trait. To willingly attack someone in their sleep… They would be subject to the worst punishments we could contemplate. So, no. We've never even considered the idea that someone would be taken while sleeping."
He let loose a torrent of what Hermione assumed to be expletives she still did not know in the goblin language before he settled and stood from his place. "Give me a moment, I'll fetch someone with greater knowledge about the magic. Feel free to freshen up while I'm gone."
"Could you also summon a healer?" Hermione chirped as the goblin passed them, pausing for only a moment to nod before he exited the room, clearing needing the journey to clear his own anger at the foreign concept rather than simply sending a summons.
"A healer? You said you were fine." Harry asked.
"I am, but you are burned all over from your anger. We left before Madame Pomfrey could look it over."
"I won't apologize for that."
Hermione smiled and kissed his forehead. "I'd never ask you to. But I still need to know you've been fixed up. I don't like seeing you in pain any more than you do me."
"It doesn't hurt."
"Because you're still angry. You haven't come down yet. What are you holding onto that's upsetting you so much?"
Hermione threaded her arms around his shoulders and drew him to her chest. He sighed heavily and pulled her tighter as he breathed in her scent. "You don't know what it was like down there. When I saw you..."
Without warning, Hermione felt a flash in her mind and suddenly she was surrounded by deep green water with very little light. Particulate and silt floated all around her as she spun and a jet of water from her wand cleared the water around her, revealing her own form floating in the darkness then rapidly getting closer only to be replaced a moment later with something she had never seen before.
Red hair splayed out on the floor in a halo around a familiar face that also looked wrong. The green eyes she knew so well had none of their shine, and her face was even paler than usual. As the flashes passed, she understood Harry's pain.
She pulled him close and stroked her hand through his hair. Somewhere in the morning, he'd lost the binding she'd gifted him a few years ago that he usually used to contain the hair into his prefered ponytail, and was now hanging loose.
"I'm alive, Harry. I'm so sorry you had to see that. We'll talk to the family and see what we need to do. But I'm here, I'm not going anywhere without you."
Harry began to sob softly into her form, and Hermione let him, cradling him against her as he let go of the pain he'd been hiding since the moment he saw her seemingly lifeless form in the lake. It both thrilled and chilled her to learn he had associated that sight with his mother. That he loved her as deeply as he did the woman who gave birth to him, but that he now had a memory in his mind that linked her to his mother's death.
Hermione sat in place, gently stroking Harry's hair and allowing him to finally stop and deal with all that he had felt that morning, but had been avoiding in order to remain strong enough to find and rescue her from the lake.
Their solemn reverie was broken by the sound of the door opening and within a second she felt Harry calm himself and wipe away the tears on his face. She loved him to bits, but he was such a boy sometimes. The goblin healer was an imposing example of the species, and she wondered if he had once been a warrior in the race before something turned him to healing.
"Bloody hell, did you boil yourself or something?" He asked, taking in Harry's well red skin.
"Pretty much exactly that," Hermione replied a smile on her face at Harry's groan.
"Alright, hold still and I'll get to work. Usual payment method?"
Harry nodded and held Hermione gently as the goblin began setting up his gear and casting the required healing spells and incantations. Hermione watched with her typical fascination at how the goblins had mastered their magical arts. It also made her chuckle that the Ministry considered them no threat these days as they were forbidden to wield wands, something that the goblins thought would be nice as an option, but clearly did not need in order to pose a threat.
The group lost track of time as the process continued and were only broken from their thoughts by a loud pounding sound coming from the hallway beyond. A giant familiar black dog came bounding into the room, overextending and slamming heavily against the stone wall under the shelves, knocking several books free before righting itself and hobbling over.
Harry chuckled lightly at the limping figure as it approached. "Looks like he might need your touch before you go, too." Padfoot placed his head on Harry's free thigh, getting a warning glare from the goblin in the process, and stared balefully up at the boy. "I'm fine, Padfoot."
The dog whined loudly, and Harry began to scratch his favourite spot just a few inches behind his neck, making the dogs eyes roll in pleasure. Hermione continued to stroke Harry's hair in a similar fashion and it was to this scene that the rest of the Family and Griphook returned.
"If you're nearly done. I've come with visitors that were making a scene on the bank floor. Apparently, you two weren't at home."
"You gave us quite the fright, Harry," Natalie said, kneeling beside the group at the chair. "Popping in and out like that."
"By the time we managed to get clothed and down to the lake, the Champions were all dripping on the dock and you two had vanished," Remus added, standing behind the chair and resting a hand on Hermione's shoulder. "Are you alright?"
"Fine, I was out through the whole thing. Some form of stasis spell that was broken by contact with the air."
"Any ideas?" Andromeda questioned the small figure beside her as the female goblin stepped up to the group and fished Hermione's portkey up from inside the robes.
She cast several spells over the small pale stone, tapping it occasionally with a thick fingernail. The surface tinted with several colours as the woman worked before she let it fall from her fingers, seemingly satisfied with the results of her tests.
"A few of the minor charms could do with updating. The cleaning charm is beginning to wane, but the portkey itself is still functioning perfectly. What is the problem you're having with it?"
"Would I be correct in thinking the way it works is by sensing a change in body chemistry?" Hermione asked, the adults in the room looking at her curiously.
"Indeed. Though the specifics of that magic are trade secrets. I will not reveal how." The woman replied, looking almost affronted at the young girl cutting to the heart of how their secret magics worked.
"Would you say that stunning puts the body into a similar state to sleep?"
"Again, yes. Magically they're almost identical. Why?"
"So if someone were stunned while asleep, would the portkey activate?"
The woman's eyes bulged and a low growl began to emanate from her snarling mouth. #You bastard! You should have told me!#
#Please answer the question.# Harry interrupted, surprising everyone in the room but Hermione with his guttural vocalization. "What, we deal with the goblins a lot. So we thought it would be worth learning Rhovak."
"Rhovak?" Ted queried from his place by the door.
"You wizards call it Gobbledegook. Most offensively I might add. Gibberish. Just because you can't understand a language..." Griphook growled.
"To answer your question," The enchanter said, "no. I do not believe that the portkey could sense such a mild change in body chemistry."
"So we have a problem. We either need far more sensitive portkeys, or we're not going back to Hogwarts. I won't have us being at risk in the open." Harry stated firmly. "Looks like we're going to be spending some time at home again. Are you ok with that?"
Hermione smiled at the boy beneath her. "I'm always ok with spending time at home. As long as we're there together. I will miss our friends though. We've never had anyone so close outside the family before. I really like them."
"Me too, but family comes first." Their eyes locked and the world around them became unimportant as they lost themselves in one another. They probably would have stayed such for hours had Padfoot not barked between them and drawn them back to reality once more. The pair glanced at the arrayed family which even Nym had now joined and sighed. "So, I guess it's explanation time then."
ϟ
Amelia shoved the crotchety old man into the chair facing the desk and walked quickly around, taking her place in the one behind it to his booming laugh. "Make yerself at home."
She resisted the urge to blush at the fact she had requisitioned his desk from the man as she collected her notes in front of her, trying to settle her mind after the oddest morning she'd had in a while. "Talk."
"'Bout what?"
She glared at him and both his eyes remained firmly fixed on her. This was the part she hadn't been looking forward to. Alastor had always been a good man, but he wasn't one for idle chit chat. "About the fact that a fourteen-year-old student of yours can bring enough power to bear to rip apart the merfolk village with a single spell. How he can silently cast in his fourth year. What the hell he used to toss a trio of Aurors aside like they were leaves on the wind."
Moody smiled in response, his face stretching horribly and reminding her of just how much the man had put of himself into his former work. "Not me you wanna talk to, Amy."
"Explain that. You're their defence teacher, are you not?"
"Not really. Those two are so far ahead in my class it's ridiculous. They could test straight into the Auror program tomorrow if you let them. Day one I tried to take 'em by surprise and they not only returned me own spell, they cast several of their own that overwhelmed my shield. As long as they don't disrupt the class, I'm happy ter let them do their own thing. They come to me when they have a difficult problem or questions about high-level theory. But other than tha'." Moody shrugged.
"You truly think they're both on that level?" Amelia questioned, trying to find fault in his advice from what she'd seen and coming up with nothing that could contradict it.
"The pair of 'em could pass their NEWT in Defence right now." Alastor's grin was wider than she'd seen it in years.
"You knew he would take apart those three idiots, didn't you?"
"Course. Though, with the way they didn't even notice the lad til he scolded 'em, I think a few of my sixth years could have taken that lot. Useless."
"Right." Amelia leant back in her chair rubbing the occasionally sore elbow she still retained from her time on the beat. "According to the Champions, he disintegrated the entire statue the hostages were tied to. With one spell."
"They took what Potter values most in this world. Big mistake."
Bones refocused on Alastor. "You think she's that important?"
"I know that if any true harm came to that lass, the boy would burn the world. But good luck trying. She's a shade slower to pick up a new spell than him, but I swear she's got even him beat for power. Gets the theory on a deeper level too. Think that's why she takes longer. Needs to analyse the spell in her own way first."
"You think they're a threat?"
Moody's laughter filled the room and the man actually clutched his stomach in reply. "Jesus, girl. I haven't had so much fun in years. That lot are only a threat if we make 'em one. That boy came here for two reasons. Because the Ministry decided that a lethal binding artefact was a good arbiter for a children's competition, and because he wanted to make friends. But if you wanna lose a war, go ahead and make 'em yer enemy. Me, I'm quite happy to sit back and watch this one."
"You've an awful lot of faith in them."
"Not at all, I'm just old enough to know when I'm thoroughly outclassed. If the Ministry wants to push their buttons, tha's their funeral."
Amelia took a moment to think about what Alastor was telling her. If what he was saying was true, the Ministry was either in big trouble or had just dodged one hell of a bullet. "Top right drawer, lass. Pour two."
Her eyes flicked back to the gnarled man before she opened the drawer in question with her wand and withdrew a large bottle of unlabeled amber liquid. "You'd let me pour you a drink?"
"It's my grog and I've been stood side-by-side with you for the past three hours. You're not polyjuiced and I know you well enough to know you're not an imposter. Now pour."
She smirked and poured out two generous helpings before returning the bottle and taking a sip from her own glass. The burn helped to settle her nerves even further. What she was hearing was incredible for two as young as they were. But it seemed the Ministry was coming closer and closer to pushing the pair into direct conflict with them. They would need to proceed carefully to avoid an incident.
"If you're not responsible for getting them to this level?" She left the question hanging.
Alastor downed half his glass in a single gulp and leant back in his chair, relishing the flavour for a moment before he spoke. "Black, Lupin and the Tonkses. I don't know who teaches 'em what, but they're definitely the ones who've been tutoring the two for a good while now."
"Great, extremely powerful teens taught by people with an axe to grind against the Ministry."
"You're not listening, girl. All of 'em are willing to live and let live. They just want to do it on their own terms. The only risk to the Ministry is if they keep poking the damn dragon. The third task better not involve the kid's family in any way or he might just call enough enough."
"Think that Black will meet with me if I ask?"
"Right now? After what happened this morning, not a chance. He's been avoiding Albus for months, and it's starting to irk the old man. He thinks he has important information to give them, but instead of just giving it, he wants to deliver it in person. Yet another reason I'm not going anywhere. This place is too much fun to leave behind."
ϟ
Saturday 25th February 1995.
Minerva glanced at the parchment in her hand as she walked the hallways. The now familiar handwriting only ever seemed to bring bad news to her desk when it wasn't some form of extra-curricular essay or question. She was so focused on the writing she almost didn't notice the body about to collide with her own until it was too late. Her heightened senses that her animagus form gifted her were all that kept the impact from occurring.
"Bartemius. You seem in a right hurry today." She questioned, taking in the figure before her who it seemed was also seeking entrance to the Headmaster's Office.
"I've been summoned. On a weekend no less. Like I don't have enough to be dealing with right now."
Minerva gave a knowing hum in response as she folded the letter in her hand. "Very well, shall we?"
She indicated the open statue and Barty nodded briskly before heading upwards. Minerva gave a slight shake of her head as she considered the harried man. The students of the school considered her a strict harsh taskmaster, but she wondered how they might receive being taught by someone so ruthless as Crouch.
She took her time ascending the stairs but still found herself arriving in the midst of whatever meeting Albus was holding today.
"Come in, Minerva. There is no need to hang about in the hall." Dumbledore offered.
Minerva followed his request and moved inside. She was surprised to find that Barty wasn't Albus' only visitor today. Arrayed before his desk in various states of standing and sitting were the Minister and his forever tag-along, Barty, Ludo, and Amelia, with Alastor tucked off in the corner.
Albus gave a frown as he noticed the letter in her hands. "I take it that this is a communication that is of import to our discussion. May I?"
Minerva considered a moment before she nodded and passed the letter to Albus, taking up a place behind his shoulder as he read it for himself, her eyes watching the assembled Ministry members who seemed to become more impatient with every moment.
"I see. And who could fault them? It only adds further weight to what I wished to discuss. I have spoken with the Mer-chieftainess Murcus. She is most displeased with the result of yesterday's task."
"I am well aware of her complaints, Dumbledore. The pile of issues relating to the second task have been growing on my desk all morning." Barty growled.
"Yes, well, the damage to their village was considerable, including the loss of a statue of great importance to their society."
"The damage to their 'village'" Dolores interrupted, "was the fault of the Potter boy, or so the Champions all claim."
"You are the ones in charge of the Tournament. That makes the actions of the Champions your responsibility, Dolores. The unfortunate other side of power. More importantly, though I am loath to suggest the issues of the fine denizens of the lake are unimportant, was the kidnapping of two of my students without even the courtesy of a notification, along with two foreign citizens."
"Yes, yes. The Delacours are making their displeasure quite plain. I don't need you harping on about it as well." Crouch nearly yelled. His normal demeanour cracking and an almost demented look taking its place.
"It seems that you do. You personally made me assurances, Bartemius. How many times did I say no to you? That what you had planned was too risky for students of my school to be involved? Nowhere in the edition I signed off on did you list human," Dolores gave a quiet huff, but remained otherwise quiet, "hostages as a requirement of the second task. I would never have agreed to it."
"They were not kidnapped, Dumbledore." Cornelius finally spoke. "As the Ministry in charge, we have the authority to change and adjust the plans for any event we run without prior notification."
"Not if it involves my students you don't, Cornelius." Albus didn't raise his voice, but Minerva could feel the anger in it and noticed that a few of those before her seemed to sink back before it. "I've spoken with Mister Diggory and he was never even asked if he would consent to be involved. Given Mister Potter's reaction, I think we can all see it's obvious Miss Granger wasn't. You took two Hogwarts students from their beds without asking them, their parents, or myself. Miss Celice was accosted the moment she arrived on the school grounds by no less than four Aurors. I will not tolerate that behaviour."
Minerva tried to maintain an emotionless visage as she watched the man she had grown to admire resurfacing in full and taking grown adults to task as if they were still students of the school themselves. It was a far cry from the inactivity of a few years prior, and it gave her hope that the future of the school was once again bright.
Barty adjusted his jacket before he spoke. "Sorry you're upset about your kids, Dumbledore, but I'm a little more concerned with the other two hostages. The French have lodged formal complaints with the ICW regarding their involvement, and Krum's publicist is causing all kinds of trouble in the press over his fiance's presence in the lake. Two of your students do not rank highly on my pile of issues right now."
Albus simply sat staring at Barty, his hands clasped in front of his face, icy blue eyes delving deeper into the ragged man. A lesser person might have cowered under the gaze, but Barty had come through the You-Know-Who trouble with his head held high, with the one glaring exception. He would not buckle under a simple stare.
"It troubles me that you're in a position of control over the tournament with an attitude like that, Bartemius. I will make myself perfectly clear on this right now. No student of this school will be further involved in any part of the Tournament without my full knowledge. And by full knowledge, I mean full. I want a full breakdown of the third task, all that it involves. I will assess any risk to the children, and should it not satisfy me, it shall not occur."
"Albus…?" Minerva asked with worry in her voice. The Tournament tasks weren't the sway of the Goblet the four Champions were bound by, but the timeline was. If they didn't compete by the twenty-fifth of June, the Goblet would take its payment.
"Worry not, Minerva. I would not risk their subjugation to that fate. A last-minute task can consist of anything. A simple quiz would suffice if it came to that. But I will not have the Champions or any other student at this, or the visiting schools, subject to risks like they were in the previous task."
The old man swept his eyes from one person to the next, and Minerva could feel the weight of the stare even where she stood behind the man.
"This is not optional. I will fight you to the bitter end on this if I must, but what happened yesterday was utterly unacceptable."
"We can't tell you everything. It would be unsportsmanlike. You could tell the Champions." Ludo reached for anything he could find to counter Albus' ultimatum.
"I should think you all know me better than that. My concern is their safety. I am already aware that you plan to create a maze in the Quidditch Pitch. This much was clear in the initial documentation. But after yesterday's performance, I no longer trust that full disclosure was given to me in those documents. Such a lack of oversight will not happen again."
Barty's face was beginning to twitch. "There was no risk yesterday. The merfolk agreed to their involvement and to hosting the hostages. Now they're haggling over reparations for damages. The stasis was cast on each hostage by the best Unspeakables. None of them were in any sort of actual danger. The merfolk committed to that."
"If there was no danger, there was no need to use people at all." Minerva snapped at the man.
"Minerva is correct. Either one of us could have transfigured for you a perfect likeness of the desired hostages. With zero risk of a child waking underwater. It would still have yielded the implied danger to the Champions without putting four additional people, none of whom agreed to be a part of these events, in actual danger. No plan survives contact with the enemy, Bartemius. You know this better than most.
"There were countless safer options available to you. You chose poorly. I will not allow that to happen again. As for there being no danger, what precautions had been taken to reinforce the stands should the lake swell during the task? As we witnessed twice yesterday?"
Minerva watched every one of the organisers fail to meet Albus' gaze this time. "I thought as much. You claim to have prepared for any eventuality, but had it not been for Amelia's quick thinking yesterday, you could be dealing with a much greater fallout today. I consider us all beyond lucky that someone had the idea to set the dock away from the stands. Had it been directly in front of them, the Aurors would have had a much harder time preventing the debris from causing injury. If this is the standard that you all find to be acceptable, then the third task is looking like it will need a major overhaul before it is allowed to occur on these grounds.
"You are dismissed. I've my own issues to deal with in regards to yesterday's farce."
"Now see here…" Fudge mumbled.
"I said, you're dismissed. Good day, Cornelius. I'll expect the full outline on my desk by March."
Albus stared the four task organisers out of the room in silence, every one of them glancing uncertainly at Amelia as she remained behind.
"You may take a seat if you like, Minerva."
She availed herself of the offer and took the seat beside Amelia quietly. Alastor, however, was anything but quiet as he clomped closer to the desk.
"And tha's the other reason." He chuckled, confusing Minerva and drawing a questioning eye from Albus. "You know how long I've waited for that bloody stubborn sod to pull his head out his arse? This is where the action is at Amy, watching the Great Albus Dumbledore finally being bloody great!"
Minerva swung her eyes to the elder man and noticed a light blush underneath the thick whiskers on his face. "Indeed. I'm not sure where you disappeared to, but it is good to have the real Albus Dumbledore back in charge of the school."
"Yes, quite, but it's talk like this that gave him a big head to begin with. Shall we focus on more important matters?" Albus redirected with a light sigh. "The day I turned things about was the first time Barty approached me with the Tournament. I said no back then because nothing was being done to ensure the safety of the Champions and crowd. I truly thought they'd made amazing progress in the last few years.
"The first task was immaculate. Even with the late addition of the Hebridean to the mix, they brought it off without a hitch. And having the models be emergency portkeys to the medical tent was a stroke of genius. But this…"
"I've done what research I can. They made no provision against what occurred yesterday. Though to be fair, do any of us really think we could have foreseen what happened yesterday were we in charge of the task?" Amelia left the question hanging in the room and all four seemed to contemplate it.
"Potter was pissed. Not tha' I blame him. I'd'a done far worse had someone taken the thing I care most about. Those three Aurors are lucky they only got a couple broken bones from a bad landing." Moody chuckled darkly. "Though, where they landed, they're even luckier Amy was quick on the uptake. Coulda been a trio of Auror pancakes had one of those chunks landed on 'em."
"Well, we shall have to wait and see if Mister Potter will ever trust any of us again. The two of them will not be returning until they can assure themselves of their safety. And I cannot blame them. Taken from their bed without so much as a by your leave." Minerva scowled.
"The worst part is I can't charge them with anything over it. The way the Tournament rules are written, the Ministry is immune to prosecution for anything to do with it. Lest litigators come afoul of the power of the Goblet. The best we can hope to do right now would be to make a fuss in the papers like Krum is."
"The Goblet will only be a problem until July." Albus offered.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means tha' dangerous hunk of timber is finally going to be destroyed," Alastor growled. "I can't believe they're still using an artefact they don't even remember the origins of to choose entrants in a children's tournament."
"That is a relief to know. But it doesn't change the legality of what they did. The rules and the laws relating to them are clear on that. Technically they've broken no law for which I can charge them due to it being Tournament related. As much as I would love to do so. You didn't see the looks on those kids faces when they were about to begin. They were truly afraid they were going to lose their hostages. Potter looked half-mad flicking between anger and grief. The worst I can do right now is give Fudge a serve for misusing Auror staff without my prior consent or notification. All four involved in Miss Celice's abduction are on administrative leave until I can decide what to do with them."
"Ever since Halloween things relating to the Tournament have been going awry," Albus added quietly and the others all turned to him. " I fear something far greater is pulling the strings here. At first, I could put it down to negligence, but these things keep happening."
They all sat in silence as they considered the implications. That someone could be influencing some of the highest placed figures in the Ministry enough to corrupt the Tournament. What else could they be influencing without them noticing?
"Alastor, Amelia. Whenever possible, I would like you to keep an eye on Barty. I know the Tournament is a burden on his shoulders, but he seems more out of sorts than that should account for. I'm worried that may be where our outside influence is making its inroads. If we can help the man, we must. But we cannot let whatever it is interfere with the final Task. Until that is completed, those four at least are in imminent danger."
"Aye. I'll keep both eyes open. If he's here, I'll be watching. And I'll have my friends do what they can elsewhere."
Amelia looked as if she was seriously considering the conversation. "I'm head of my Department, Dumbledore. I'm not sure what kind of time I can devote to it personally."
"I'm not asking you to tail the man everywhere, Amelia. Simply be vigilant and take note of odd behaviour. "
"I believe I can agree to that. And I will continue to see if there are any loopholes with which we can act once the Goblet is out of the picture. With any luck, we'll find something we can use."
"I'd rather not leave any of this to luck. I don't think any of us here believe that Mister Potter's entry into this was a coincidence. If there is malicious intent behind the Tournament, then it's not just young Harry at risk. All the Champions are under threat. And I will not stand aside and let harm come to innocents just to save face."
"I think that is something we can all agree to." Minerva finished, letting the silence fill the room once more as they all considered the coming months.
Only a gentle trilling from Fawkes broke the silence for some time to come.