CH 16
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
On the day of the third task the families of the Champions arrived to spend the better part of the day with them. Instinctively, Harry knew that his godfather, Sirius, wouldn't be there and some part of him that still feared that he wasn't wanted also meant that Remus wouldn't show up.
However in the room where the other parents were waiting Harry's eyes lit up at the sight of one of his new fathers. Remus was there standing next to Mrs. Weasley, looking better than he ever did, in new robes to suit his station as Regent to the Potter and Black Heir. It looked like Mrs. Weasley and Bill had come here on his be-half too, although Bill was busy in another part of the room chatting up Fleur and meeting her family.
"Remus," he said with a large happy, child like grin on his face. It was the first of its kind that Mrs. Weasley had ever seen. He walked over to them quickly and hugged the man, scenting him with a rub of his nose into the man's chest, as he felt the man push his nose into his rats nest like hair for a sniff of his own. After they let go, he looked to the Mrs. Weasley and said, "Thank you for coming."
"No worries young man," she said with open arms. "I want a hug of my own." As soon as she had wrapped her arms around him, he felt the difference between family and chosen family…there was none, so he just accepted the affection. "Now, I want you to tell me about your studies and such."
Harry laughed and then led them about the school telling them both about bits and pieces of his adventures. He took them back to the meeting room and left them there when he had to go get ready for the last task of the tournament. The 'parents' were guided to the stadium stands to wait with the rest of the invited guests.
He walked up to his private closet and tent, where he took a quick shower to wash all the scent away from his body. He used a personal lotion spray to mask all of his natural scent. It was one that he'd researched, altering one that created scent for the purpose of using it during the third. He called it the Anti-Perfume Potion. This was after he found out about the maze that they'd have to go through in order to complete the tournament.
He glanced in the direction of the doorway to his ritual room and smiled at the thought of the only rituals that had ever been done in it.
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
FLASHBACKThe ritual where Sirius added Remus to the Godparent Magic bond he had with Harry was done fairly quickly. A few words and an oath to the child was all that was needed. The same words and conditions were accepted and Remus felt the difference in relation to the oaths he'd declared in the past. He knew that he had instant loyalty to his old friend and it was stronger than any feeling that he felt he 'owed' to some other people. The oath to the child was simple and as long as he let his inner wolf acknowledge the boy as a cub of his pack, then everything was accepted by the magic that bound them as Godparent and Godchild.
The blood adoption ritual was different. There had been more steps to it, more of an exchange occurred with the blood and acceptance for all that they are. Minor physical changes were the accepted norm when young children are adopted, but in Harry's case he gained something else from his adopting parents, since he was too old for many physical changes to occur. It was something extremely useful anyway, since magic itself was involved. The factors were normally random, but they could be guided with an additional rune or two to the larger ritual circle required for the child or receiver.
Harry made the larger circles, since he was going to be the recipient. A smaller circle had to be drawn, joining the larger in a small over lapping, touching way and were always drawn by the prospective parents. Since, in this case, the parents were not bonded in matrimony two separate adoptions were taking place and that meant two sets of ritual circles needed to be drawn by him.
His ritual room was large enough to make the two sets of ritual circles required. His multi-casting ability enabled him to do the two larger circles at the same time much to the surprise of the men in the room, guiding chalk to only one small ritual circle.
"Would you look at that," Sirius said, as the rune markings formed from the squeaking chalk pieces that were guided to draw specific patterns. "You've got your Mother's gift."
"What," Harry said, as the chalks paused when his concentration shifted.
"Your Mother had that ability," Remus explained, after cuffing the back of his friend's head for breaking the young Gryffindor's concentration. "She didn't let everyone know that she could multi-cast because it was an advantage to keep such a thing secret, especially with the growing conflict."
"Do your friends know about it," Sirius asked.
"No," Harry said and returned his efforts towards drawing the circles he needed to use in order to receive gifts from the adopting parents.
The circle attached to Sirius' had additional runes for gifts in the Mind Arts. The man agreed that any additional help in that quarter would better protect the young man. The man recommended two additional runes to be added to the conditions for the Mind Arts and said that they were only enhancers to each skill of Occlumency and Legilimency.
The circle attached to Remus' had additional runes for gifts of the Werewolf. They had talked it over and the boy had found that the man had constant gifts from the wolf, like an enhanced sense of smell and physical strength. Harry wanted those too and argued that it would make him feel closer to the man, which was what allowed the werewolf to fully accept the boy as a cub of his pack.
Harry had prepared the Adoption Potion just in case the men had accepted and had told them, "It was better to be prepared for a yes with the potion ready," he said. "Rather than have to make the potion and wait until it was ready to be used. It would have taken too long and I'd have been late back to school. This way we would still have time to go to see the Gringotts representative in Hogsmeade and pay him to file the paperwork for us."
"What if we'd said no," Sirius asked the difficult question.
"I may have had my hopes dashed," Harry said with a rueful smile. "But I would have understood your reasons. However you'd have had less of say in what I do, as well."
"Now you know we won't try to confine you," Remus said. "But once all is said and done, we do want to know what your future plans are."
"Understood," Harry said.
The rituals had then taken place and once the two were done, he'd needed to sleep, but before that, he demanded wand-oaths from the both of them to never reveal his private activities to anyone, not even the Headmaster or the Ministry of Magic, unless he gave them leave to do so.
"It's too important," he explained. "The different prophecies made by other magical races can't get out to them or else they'd do their level best to try and control me through either of you."
The men looked at one another and wondered just who was the adult here. But they agreed and gave their oaths. Sirius explained what he knew about the prophecies to his old friend and then Harry finally introduced them to his thread-born teachers.
He opened the door that had been closed when they first entered the tent. "Fathers," he said and received a couple of goofy grins in his direction. "May I present my private teachers, Tiber Septim, who you probably know better as Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and Godric Gryffindor." He snickered at the gob-smacked expressions. "My precious tutors, may I present my new parents, Sirius Black the Third and Remus John Lupin."
"The Third," Sirius barked out. "What?"
"I looked it up," Harry said. "You're the third man in your family to carry the name Sirius."
"Why you," Sirius noogied the boy's head and pushed him off the washroom. "Go shower and have a nap, pup." He said, "We need to talk to your elders here."
Harry nodded and received a hug from his other parent, before he allowed himself to be nudged in the direction of the bathing room. The ritual was messy and it had to be done naked on his part because of the potion he used. It was a symbolic ritual too, indicating birth and all the messiness involved. The other men were only in a pair of natural cloth drawstring pants. They had potion and blood on their upper bodies, but they'd agreed that the boy needed the chance to clean up first.
The two men then turned to the portraits to just learn how long the boy had access to the greatest minds of the age, when wand wavers were just emerging from the population of magical humans.
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
FLASH FORWARDHarry grinned and stood before his portrait tutors. He turned around when bid to do so and asked, "Well…do I look like I'm ready?"
"Of course you look ready," Godric said. "Only wish you can use my sword again. I'd feel better about that."
"I can't," Harry said. "The Headmaster has it locked up in his office. Besides I have two of mine prepared and broken in for the task." He point to the two at his hips. He had several pouches that contained healing potions and potions to bring his energy levels back up. He even had a couple of potions that will 'Fortify' his magical reserves, in case he gets magically exhausted during the task.
"You're using the new leather armour," Tiber said. "You did break it in, right?"
"Of course," Harry said. "I used conjured creatures to practice 'Hand-to-Hand' fighting with. I figured that's a Skill I should work on whenever I can and the moves required allowed me to break in the leathers, so that they're not stiff, see." He did a handstand and a few flips about the room to show them.
"All right, that's enough," Rowena said. "Use your bow when you can too and you'd better come back as soon as you can."
"We'll be visiting the portraits in the area, so we'll know when you get back in the school," Helga said.
Harry strapped on his quiver with special arrow tips of exploding potions and powder. As soon as he was set, he bowed properly to his tutors, since the women had been instructing him in etiquette, and left the room.
"I hope he comes back safely," Helga said. She had a soft spot for him. They all did because they knew how hard he worked.
The youngest Triwizard Champion arrived at the entrance of the maze at the same time as the others. His armed appearance was not so much a surprise, as the other three had followed his lead and found that they could arm themselves if they wanted to.
Fleur had chosen to wear a tight fitting garment under a set of battle robes that were fastened tightly on her upper torso and loose in the arms for movements. The robes didn't reach the ground, but that was the standard for battle robes. At her hip there was a coil of rope and a truncheon with ribs of some metallic substance around the top of it.
Viktor was dressed in his regular robes, but he had a large spiked mace carried over one of his shoulders. He looked more warrior, like in that pose.
Cedric was in a set of battle robes too, but he didn't look too comfortable in them and at his hip he had a small sword and a set of bracers on his forearms securing his robe sleeves. The sleeves of his robe were tight like the upper torso of the robes, but the bottom of his robes, were opened and only down to his shins.
Harry was the only one without robes of any kind on his body with a quiver of arrows at his back and two swords at his sides. He stood straight and waited with the rest for the conditions of the last task to be explained to them.
"All right," Ludo Bagman announced. "It's time for the third task. Since Cedric and Harry are tied for first they will enter the maze at the same time, followed by Viktor in ten minutes and then Fleur an additional ten minutes later. Understood?"
The Champions nodded their heads and the man then said, "On your mark, get set…" The firecrackers exploded as he yelled the word. "Go!"
Harry and Cedric entered the maze together, but set off on different paths at the first intersection they came to. The Gryffindor went left while the Hufflepuff chose the right path.
Harry round a corner and frowned as the running commentary told everyone his actions. He shook his head and hissed, (…Obscura Totalus…)
The spell hid his future actions and his general location in a grey foggy cloud about fifty feet in diameter. He then hissed at a piece of scrolled parchment paper, (…Map Hedge Maze, half foot, front, right…).
This caused the map to levitate half a foot in front of his and to his right. He had already figured that there would creatures in the maze, which is why he masked his scent with a potion, but the potion worked better, if he covered himself with the scent of his ambient environment too. So he stepped into a hedge and spun about in order to get the scent of the hedge on him. He then cancelled his weak 'Lumos' from the end of his wand to cast a better version.
(…Lumos…) He hissed in Parseltongue, calling forth a familiar bubble of magical light. He hissed instructions at it, (…Follow one foot up and back, left…) The instructions caused the bubble of light to follow him, a foot over his head and one foot behind on his left side, away from his physical position. He chose to walk quickly in one direction avoiding the obvious dead-ends, as indicated by faded outlines on his map.
He heard a noise behind him, so he whirled with is wand at the ready. It was only Cedric, but that didn't mean that the older boy should be ignored. This was a competition after all. However the older youth shook his smoking robes to put out their singed edges and explained, "Hagrid's Screwts are in here and they're huge."
"Thanks," Harry said and then he took off in the direction his map indicated, what looked like the best path to take from that point. He encountered some kind of golden cloud, when he heard Fleur yell some things in French. A whip was cracked several times, until he heard her scream, as though she was being tortured.
"Fleur," he yelled and then stepped into the mist. His world tilted, but he immediately said, (…Securitas…), securing all of his belongings to him. He only lost an arrow to gravity. He walked a few steps further and then his world righted again.
'That was weird and cool at the same time,' he thought. 'The twins could make that into some kind of joke item, I'm sure.'
He couldn't find the girl from Beauxbatons, so he continued on using his map. He avoided several more dead-ends and then came to a clearing and face to face Blast-Ended Screwt. The Hufflepuff had been right, that thing was huge! Ten feet long, at least, and it looked like a giant scorpion with a sting curled over it's back. Its thick armoured carapace glinted in the light of the bubble following Harry around.
He calculated everything he knew about it and then rolled out of the fire, blasting end. He cast the Destruction spell 'Snowball' in bursts, which caused them to have a higher intensity. It didn't like the cold nor did it appreciate being pelted with arrows that wedged between the armour plating of is bone shell. They burst with some kind of liquid that burned. The liquid was just a plain alcohol and camphor, based recipe with mint to cool it even more. It produced a chilling sensation on impact to humans, but this with the combination of the ice destruction spell, burned the strange hybrid creature.
Harry kept it up until the creature was complete immobilized in a block of ice. He used his swords, quickly and efficiently to kill it and then to sever the tail from the main body. He hacked the body into portable parts, which he quickly stashed in a large capacity bag that he'd brought along for that purpose. The creature was his kill so he needed to take it away before someone else came along to claim it. As soon as he was done, he moved away from that area.
'I should have studied the spells for dissecting bugs, like Helga had suggested when I studied Alchemy with her,' he thought. 'That would have taken less time.' He moved to another section of the maze and the only thing that the spectators in the crowd could see was that he was somewhere inside a fifty foot cloud of grey.
He then heard Cedric yell, "What are you doing?" This was followed by the teen's agonizing screams.
(…Flare…) Harry hissed, creating a hole in the hedge. He jumped through the hole and saw that Viktor Krum had his wand trained on Diggory.
(…Stupefy…) he said. It was a spell that resulted in disarming him opponent as well as stunning them, when spoken in the snake-language. The Durmstrang youth was knocked unconscious by it.
"Are you all right," Harry asked, as he helped the other Hogwarts Champion up.
"Yeah," Cedric gasped and then asked, "Did you hear Fleur's scream earlier?"
"Yeah," Harry said and looked at Viktor's face. He had whip marks on it and his arms. "I also heard the whip crack before she screamed too. Looks like she got him good."
"You're right," Cedric finished catching his breath and then asked, "How long will he be out?"
Harry place Durmstrang youth's wand next to the boy and sent up red sparks, before he replied, "Long enough!" He chuckled and then said, "I have to leave the area in order for help to find him."
They both heard Ludo beg over the commentary he was giving, "Come on Harry, please drop the fog. Well, folks it looks like three of the Champions have met up in the maze, but I can't tell you if they're hexing each other or helping on another!"
"Later," Harry said and took off in another likely direction towards the centre of the maze, while the other youth took off in another. The competition now seemed to be one of House against House for the Hogwarts School.
They had started going through the maze at dusk, but the sun was going down faster now. His trusty little light bubble seemed brighter and still followed him faithfully. After a few more twists and turns, he found himself walking along a fairly long part of the hedge's row. He saw movement ahead of him, when his light revealed a creature of muggle myth and one that he'd only ever seen a picture of in his Monster Book of Monsters.
It was a Sphinx. It had the large body of a lion, but the head, upper torso and features of a beautiful woman. She was pacing side to side at the end of the long row, blocking the path beyond her.
He knew to be polite to any creature he encountered with human features. It wouldn't do to offend them. The Sphinx kept pacing and didn't notice him until his light was about ten yards away. He'd clearly startled her.
"Hello," he said politely.
She blinked and said in a low rumbling voice, "Hello young human," she leaned down to sniff at him and said, "You don't smell human." She blinked several times, as though to process this interesting information. The boy still only smelled of the hedge and then she said, "You're goal is just beyond this point."
"Thank you," Harry replied and then moved in that direction, when his way was suddenly, blocked by a huge paw.
"You may smell of the hedge," she growled. "But if you refuse my challenge you will die."
He only shrugged, as though to indicate that he had to try bypassing her, especially since she seemed conflicted by his presence or lack of human scent. "What challenge, then?"
"Answer my riddle on your first guess," she said. "Rightly you pass, wrongly you die, agreed."
"Understood," Harry said and then he sat down at the creature's feet. He took a few deep breaths, looked at her and said, "Ready."
She sat on her hind legs. She was still confused. However she eventually recited her riddle:
…First think of the person who lives in disguise,
Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.
Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend,
The middle of middle and end of the end?
And finally give me the sound often heard
During the search for a hard-to-find word.
Now string them together, and answer me this,
Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?…Harry nodded and then he studied each word and phrase like Rowena had taught him, when they played a game called 'Riddles' (…i…). It was, but a moment for him to formulate the following clues, 'Spy', 'ddd', and 'er'. He looked up at the creature and said, "Spider."
He shuddered, remembering the acromantulas from his second year of school. "I definitely wouldn't want to kiss one of those," he said. "I've seen big ones."
"Neither would I," the Sphinx said with a shudder and a yawn, as though she was bored again.
"Um, ma'am," Harry said. It was a rare opportunity and even though he was a Gryffindor, he still was hesitant. "I was wondering, that is, if you wouldn't mind, I mean I don't wish to impose or be offensive, but I was wondering…um…if you'd…um…allow me to harvest a few potions ingredients from your fur and maybe a couple of nail clippings." He pushed out his request.
The Sphinx looked amused and it wasn't something that a child had ever asked of her before. She just said, "For the answer to another riddle, yes."
Harry smiled and nodded his agreement. "Is it my turn to ask the riddle?"
"You may," she said.
They played the game of Riddles, as he harvested willingly given fur from her mane and tail. Helga would have killed him if he had taken the opportunity that had been presented to him to get animal ingredients from the creatures that were potentially going to be part of the maze. He'd been told to treat the maze task, the same as his summer adventure as a chance to supplement is Alchemical supplies.
He'd even been able to harvest small clippings from her back and front paws and was permitted to take two four inch vials of willingly given blood, something that was very rare and hard for Potions Masters to even obtain, before he chose to continue on his way to the centre of the maze.
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
TBC…
(...i...) Believe it or not, I found an old catelogue from the late eighteen hundreds that sold a book called Riddles. It was advertised under a category called, 'Parlour Games'.