CH 9
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
"I'm telling you Hermione," Harry said. "His attitude is bloody ridiculous." He was talking about Ron Weasley and the fact that the boy still hadn't started to talk to him again. In fact that particular Weasley brother had taken to hanging around Seamus Finnigan and a few others of the fourth year boys from different Houses, except Slytherin, of course.
"Well, you know he's always been jealous of the attention you get," Hermione said. She then huffed when she noticed that Viktor Krum had entered the library. "Why's he always here?"
"Maybe he's trying to find a way to stay away from the crowds, like I do," Harry said. "Let's join him to find out," he suggested. "You know, to further international magical cooperation and all that..." He grinned at her cheekily.
"I guess there's nothing wrong with that," she said with a nod, as they picked up their books to go and sit in front of the foreign teenager, surprising him with their presence.
"Hey there," Harry said to the old boy. "I'm Harry and that's Hermione."
"Viktor," the Durmstrang student said. "Vy do you alvays come to the library," he asked Hermione.
"Because this is where you come to find the books you're looking for," she said.
"Maybe I help," Viktor asked, he'd hoped to get to know the interesting girl better. She was more interesting to look at than the standard buxom females that always approached him because of his fame. It was like the girl wasn't impressed with it.
"You know about the first task, yes," Harry whispered. He sent a chilling zap to the approaching girls that were about to interrupt their private conversation. The girls were immediately chilled and left the library quickly to seek someplace warmer.
Hermione looked at him with such an expression on her face that basically said, 'I know you had something to do with that, and I'm going to find out what you did,' which Harry completely ignored.
"I do not vant to cause trouble," Viktor said. He looked embarrassed to know about the first task.
"No trouble, I figure we all know anyway," Harry hinted about the dragons he'd found out through Hagrid. "Just researching for a solution, since I don't have that many spells under my belt, like you older students do, that's all."
"Ah," Viktor replied with a nod. "Maybe I help vith that, yes?"
"Um," Harry hedged and asked, "How are you at summoning charms?"
"Okay," Viktor said. "Ve find a practice room, yes."
They agreed and found one that was empty of desks. Viktor did a scanning spell in the room to see if there was anything in it set up to spy on them and then he let them in. He explained his version of the spell while Hermione conjured up some objects and placed them around the room to practice summoning.
They spent the better part of the morning practicing before they had to return to their scheduled classes. "You do good," Viktor said. "Vatch the vand motions and make sure that your vords are spoken correctly."
"Thank you," Harry said, as he banished the objects. "I'm going to see Professor McGonagall and see if I can book a room somewhere to practice my spells."
"Good idea," Viktor said. "I see you at vand veighing tomorrow." He said and waved at them, as he left the room.
Harry nodded and Hermione followed as they made their way to their Charms class, where they were learning more about the summoning charm that they'd just practiced.
The wand weighing ceremony was not something that Harry had ever been told about, but he was ready for it. He polished the wood of his wand to make it look like new. He didn't know when it would take place that following day, but he had his hopes that it would be during Potions class, as Professor Snape was becoming more intolerable towards him. The man had implied that he'd poison his students in order to test their antidote potions and the research that they were to have done on the subject.
"Excuse me Professor," the courier student said. "We need Harry Potter and he's to bring everything with him."
"Whatever you miss, Potter, you'll just have to study on your own for the test in a week's time," Professor Snape growled out. "Or try to find a competent tutor to show how to properly do it, now get out of my sight."
Harry packed his school bag quickly, but carefully and followed the student to the area where the other Champions were waiting. The other student left him there and so he moved forward to join the others before the man who was there to weigh their wands.
There was a woman there that had his internal alarms bells warning him of a dangerous person, and he wasn't wrong. The woman was the infamous Rita Skeeter, a reporter, who tried to get him alone for a private interview, which he adamantly refused on the grounds that he was contractually unable to be interviewed by anyone working for the Daily Prophet.
Rita didn't believe him and made several attempts to get statements from him, but kept getting zapped with shock and chill spells in several places. Her hand was burning cold when she tried to get a hold of his arms to drag him away from the others or her nose tingled with a static zap that affected all her sinuses, making her sneeze when she leaned in too close to him.
"Ah finally," Mr. Ollivander said. He was the expert called in to measure their compatibility of their wands to their magics. "Your wand, Mr. Potter," he did the same thing as he'd done with the others. He closed his eyes and let his magic guide him to see if the wand was compatible. The old man's eyes opened up so fast. Then he turned to look at Harry and said, "You're going to need a new wand before your next year of school. Come see me sometime in the summer and we'll discuss it."
The Professors had never heard of something like that happening to someone so young. It happened sometimes after a child has reached the age of majority, but not before. It was the only juicy tidbit that Rita Skeeter had been able to obtain about the Boy-Who-Lived, which would only make about a two-paragraph article of no consequence.
"I understand sir," Harry replied politely with a slight bow to acknowledge the man's expertise in the matter.
Days later the woman was understandably upset when a full interview appeared in the magazine called the Quibbler with full photographs of all of the Champions and their backgrounds. The article was further found in the Underground Courier, which included tidbit commentaries about the failed attempts by the Prophet to produce an unbiased article about all of the Champions.
The Prophet had only written a puff-piece on the Boy-Who-Lived making it sound like he was the only participant in the whole tournament.
Rita's editor was furious with her for failing to obtain the interview in the first place and didn't believe that the Boy-Who-Lived was contractually unable to allow interviews, since the boy obviously was interviewed by, what they believed to be an inferior piece of Wizarding news. All single images of the boy that his photographer had taken had been botched and every image taken with him and the other Champions, never once showed the boy's face.
The Quibbler and the Underground Courier had no such problems and the editor of the Daily Prophet, no happy about it, docked Rita's pay because of it.
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
The day of the first tournament task approached quickly and Harry was glad.
The students had been shunning him again in school. Only this time they were doing it with advertising buttons. Nearly everyone had one that said, 'Support CEDRIC DIGGORY!' While many of the Slytherins wore those same buttons, theirs had been additionally charmed to say, 'POTTER STINKS', whenever he approached them or had the same classes as them.
The four Champions were in a tent listening to Ludo Bagman drone on about the Dragons and how they were creatures that repelled magic and that they sometimes nullified it. He also mentioned that some could sense the intent of a person, but that the four breeds that they currently had here, were not of those types.
The Champions faced them in the order that they pulled the figurine out of the neutral bag. Harry being the youngest, shortest, and last chosen by the cup was the last to pick his dragon. Of course, he pulled the hardest dragon out of the bag with the number four on belly to indicate that he would be the fourth to face his task.
He had a backpack with him, since there was nothing written in the Triwizard regulations against bringing extra supplies. The Professors wanted to prevent him from bringing it or using the contents, but he pulled out a copy of those regulations which stated that any student may bring what they feel is necessary to any task.
The other Champions were confused because they had been told that they could only bring their wands. "That's not really fair," Cedric said. "You could have told us too."
Harry snorted and said, "Yeah right. I approach any of you and your 'fans' would interfere. Besides you guys are older than I am, you should have known to look into the regulations yourselves. I'd have done it for any contest just in case there was some kind of fine print or hidden clause that I didn't know about."
It was about the only good thing he'd ever learned from the Dursleys, 'Always read the fine print so you don't get cheated,' Vernon had said to his son, but Harry had heard him anyway. He then told them, "Now you all know and will be better prepared for the next task."
Cedric shook his head and walked out, as he'd pulled the figurine with the number one on its chest, a Swedish Short-Snout.
Twenty minutes later Fleur was called out to do a similar task, since she was second and had to fight a Welsh Green.
Viktor finished in due course with his Chinese Fireball, when he'd been called to do the task.
Now it was Harry's turn. "Get the golden egg," he mumbled to himself, as he looked around the stadium. "From a bloody nesting mother dragon, too, what were they thinking?"
He put his pack on the ground and then he took out his Firebolt, two canvas cloth bags and a large flask that looked to contain a lot of thick blue-green liquid. He put the large flask in one bag and then he expanded the other bag. He tied the bag with the flask to the front of his broom and then flew up to dizzying heights.
His nervousness disappeared in flight and he flew circles around the dragon. The mother dragon refused to lift her forelegs off the ground. 'That's all right,' he thought. 'Stay where you are.'
He flew into a position just above her head, shattered the potion container with a small 'Bombarda' spell and directed the liquid to fall onto her head like a normal rain shower. He avoided the spiked tail, as though it was a bludger ball to dodge.
(...Into the eyes and nose...) he hissed in Parseltongue. Not that anyone could hear what he was saying over Bagman's loud announcements. Once the liquid was dispersed, he hissed (...Torudensus, Twenty-four hour, Soporsomnus...) He'd found that using Latin words in conjunction with the snake-language intensified the spell's intensions. In this case it amplified the sleeping potion, added a heavy-muscle feature, time of spell duration and additional sleepiness to the effects.
The crowd wondered what was happening as they watched the boy hover over the dragon. It was becoming drowsy and looked to have weakened muscles or that it was having a difficult time supporting its own weight. They couldn't decide which it was.
The dragon though, a huge Hungarian Horntail, aptly named by the way, let out a few roars that were getting softer, with one final fire bursting yawn and the dragon finally closed its eyes. She curled around the nest with her young and fell into a deep undisturbed sleep. Not even the loud announcements or the crowds loud muttering woke her up.
It was no surprise when Harry swooped down, levitated and summoned the golden egg from the dragon's nest and into the second sack he carried. He flew out of the dragon's range and was back in the tent with the other Champions. He winced when he saw that they all had varying degrees of bandages and burnt clothing. He was the only one to have returned from his task, without even a singed twig on his broom.
"Vhat did you use," Viktor asked curiously.
"Sleeping potion," Harry said and pointed to the wet cloth bag on the end of his broom. "I just made sure that there was some in her eyes and nose. Used a spell to amplify its properties and that as many say, is that. Then I summoned the egg into another sack."
"Mr. Potter," Professor Snape said with avid curiosity and incredulity that the boy had used a potion to help him in his task. "I'll take that bag from you."
"I'm sorry, but this is the bag with the egg," Harry said and clutched the egg shaped bag to his chest. "You can't have it."
"Don't be stupid, boy," Snape snarled. "The one with the potion remnants, the dragon keepers want know which one you used."
"Oh," Harry replied weakly and then handed the wet bag over to the man. It wasn't a potion found in any of the books available in the school's library and he knew he'd be questioned about the origins of it, but then again he knew that the man would probably think he'd just bought it from somewhere.
The man put it into an enlarged jar and put a stopper on it. He'd need time to study it, so he pocketed it and left the rest them to be bandaged by the medical personnel.
They were ushered out of the tent and waited for judgement. Harry wasn't surprised by what he'd received by from the Bulgarian Headmaster, Karkaroff, as that man had glared and stared at him ever since they'd been introduced in October. He just ignored the man like he ignored many of the students' expression or opinions about him and his participation in the event.
Ron and Hermione visited him. All seemed forgiven, but Harry wouldn't forget. This was the final time that Ron would ever pull the jealousy card on him. He had more important things to worry about than maintain a weak friendship based on the fact that he'd been desperate for any friend when he'd been a poor lost first year student in the Magical World.
The Champions all stepped out of the tent and were all scored on performance, preparation and damage done or taken. The results ended with Harry and Krum tied for first place. Ludo then announced that the golden eggs contained a hint about their second task and that it would only take place in February. "Now I wish all of you good luck."
Rita Skeeter, the reporter who'd tried to corner Harry the first time, thought she'd be able to do it this time around. She failed miserably when her awful alligator skin bag caught on fire. She frowned at the back of the Boy-Who-Lived, who was walking away from her. He had told her once again that he was contractually unable to give her, her much wanted exclusive interview.
"Just you wait you little brat," she said to herself. "I will have that exclusive scoop."
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
Harry continued his studies for Hogwarts and for the Canyon School. He was happier in his Ancient Runes class and that he only had to put up with Hermione's gentle pestering about making sure that he memorized as much as he could in order to keep on top of things.
His grades were primarily Exceeds Expectations for many of the Runes essays. His tests in many of his other classes came back with a variety of marks from Acceptable to Outstanding. Many of his Acceptable marks were for Potions, but he wasn't too surprised about it. Professor Snape still didn't like him anymore than any other day and the man did his best to get rid of him. Unfortunately, it was mandatory class and attendance was necessary until the Ministry O.W.L.s were taken.
Harry chose to continue studying on his own most of the time because he did so well in his other tests. He was doing well enough in his Hogwarts studies and he mainly used his Canyon School studies to help him relax. He had finally conjured a Bound Dagger enough times to enable him to grasp the concept of conjuring creatures.
He conjured his first basic animated skeleton, which he promptly destroyed with four flare balls of flame. He hadn't used any active destruction magic in a while and had feared that he'd forget how to cast those particular spells. He was pleased when that wasn't the case.
He was equally eager to begin enchanting things and was pleased that the need for something called Soul Gems could be acquired in the Wizarding World from the magical banks. He was also happy to discover that he didn't have to destroy an enchanted item all the time, if he didn't want to, because the Arcane Enchanter that he owned was a midway-model that was open to new and old methods of enchanting. This meant that if he had a filled Soul Gem, an item and knew a spell he could then enchant the item for a particular effect or destructive ability or he could destroy an enchanted item to gain the enchanting ability, which did not translate into knowing a particular spell though. (…i…)
It also seemed that the more he practiced the spells from the various schools of magic, the more he increased his magical access for the performance of certain spells. Unfortunately all spells from those particular branches and schools of magic had to be purchased by him. The only place that he knew where to get those were directly from the Banks and then only in person.
Luckily, Hogsmeade had a banking branch in town that he visited several time to review the list of available spells. The list changed once in while and it never hurt him to look at the list whenever he was in town, since the spells available were of varying levels he had to be cautious in his purchases sometimes. If he could buy one spell, every time he visited the place, he'd be happy.
Some spells he bought where with the view of creating new spells for his own use after he gained his levels. Although, before he could do that, he'd have to build his own personal spell creating Alter (…ii…), which a project that was going to part of his next summer's course with the US School. This was another reason why he was busy making sure that he had most of his Smithing and Enchanting skills levelled appropriately.
He turned and looked at the Occlumency and Legilimency books and wondered aloud. "Think I can make an amulet or something that will enhance my own abilities to Occlude until I learn to do it automatically on my own." He looked to his teaching portraits. "What do you think?"
"I think that if you can make such an item, that you should use it sparingly," Rowena said. "It will not help you to increase your ability, if you're going to rely on a crutch."
"I hear you," Harry said and settled down with his tapestry Professor to come up with a way that would help him to improve his mind occluding abilities and to figure out how to practice in the subject.
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
TBC…
(...i...) Enchanting will encorporate the two game versions, Oblivion and Skyrim, since I don't believe that many of the JKR's magical objects in the world should be disenchanted, due to their rarity, ex: Invisibility Cloak…
(…ii…) Oblivion version is through the learning spells only. Skyrim version is destroying magical items to gain knowlegde in the enchantments, but does not mean that one learns the spells.