DZ2's 'The Princess and Me' Challenge Response
Plot: Harry was hated, abandoned, betrayed and forsaken by everyone: first because of the Parseltongue thing and then because of the Tournament. However, in his isolation, he finds he has one steadfast believer who has a few secrets of her own...and an offer for Harry that will turn everything on its head.
Rules: Grey or Dark Harry Grey with hints of Dark
Harry/OFC pairing ONLY
The story MUST start with either of the above times of abandonment (Duelling Club/Night of Champions Selection)
As a result of either, Harry is abandoned by everyone who believed in him at Hogwarts, even Dumbledore, McGonagall, Ron and Hermione
The morning after, Harry is feeling down, lost and alone when a female student from ANY House approaches him and shows support, friendship and even a sense of care for Harry and his thoughts and feelings
Whichever House this girl is in, they MUST be in his year
When Harry asks who they are, they explain they are actually more than 'just another student' but they will only tell Harry if he swears not to say a word to anyone else
After making his oath, Harry learns his new companion is the heiress to the throne of Magic/Magical Britain
What the 'alias' they're at Hogwarts under may be is up to you, but they CANNOT be known to staff or students as 'Pendragon' or any other royal family name
The girl in question MUST then explain that she is willing to give Harry the tools to rise above this challenge, but only if he takes up his mantle and role as the Last Potter and allows her to name him as her consort and, eventually, the King to her future role as Queen
What the reactions of ANY member of the Ministry/Wizengamot/ICW may be is up to you
The royal family MUST have 'fingers in every pie' and have allies/resources in almost all corners of the world/magic/retail/other
No matter what, neither Harry nor any member of the royals can join Voldemort or the Order
Even after agreeing to the deal, it MUST be some time before the girl's official/true identity is known to anyone else at Hogwarts (how they achieve this is up to you)
Guidelines: Crossovers
Super/OP Harry
Creature-OFC
Creature-Harry Unlocked as part of accepting consort status
As part of the bargain, Harry acquires/is gifted the right to wield Excalibur Maybe
The princess' parents are still alive and help guide and train Harry Accepted
Sirius becomes a vassal of the Crown and, therefore, becomes immune to prosecution Accepted
After agreeing to the offer, Harry gains a personal bodyguard/group/faction who helps train him Accepted but not immediately(his capabilities will be tested in a way to see what he excels in and what he needs major help in)
Harry has the Dursleys punished for their treatment of him Obviously accepted
The Muggle Royal Family knows of the Magical Royals and helps/is neutral/on good terms with them Sort of accepted? They have a mutual beneficial arrangement
Ancient powers associated with royalty are still alive (e.g. Merlin, Knights of the Round Table etc.) No
Harry 'knights' his true friends Maybe, depends on who his true friends wind up being
Harry and his princess become bonded in more than just their agreement (e.g. soul bond) Undetermined at this time but possible
Harry/the princess has a familiar
One of Harry's friends and/or enemies becomes a vassal/servant/aide to the new Prince
A canon family is actually a servant/ally of the Crown and, therefore, helps Harry Accepted, my personal bias is leaning towards the adorkable Luna
Dark families are servants/allies of the Crown Maybe
Magical Races are allies of/involved with the Royal Family Accepted
A prophecy speaks of the Crown Prince Not a prophecy spoken by a British charlatan who thinks she's a 'Seer'
The 'offer' from the Princess is actually her fulfilling an ancient contract between House Potter/Evans/Peverell and the Crown No
Forbidden: Evil Harry
Harems or Three-Way pairings
The princess as a canon character
Harry NOT accepting the offer given to him
Harry, the Princess and/or the Royal Family siding with Dumbledore or Voldemort
The Princess NOT in Harry's year
The Princess enrolled under her real/regal/official name/title
Harry being used/manipulated by ANY member of the Royal Family
The Princess treating Harry as her lesser
Other than that, it's up to you...
Harry couldn't help the gnawing in his gut as he sat at the Gryffindor table, his eyes just one set of many on the Goblet of Fire. He had a bad feeling ever since his eyes had first laid on the artifact. Every year was a masterpiece of danger for his life and he suspected that this year would be worse than ever with a magical artifact in the castle in charge of picking champions for some long dead tournament that was resurrected by Dumbledore.
"You alright mate? You look like you're going to be sick."
Harry ignored Ron's 'concerned' question and kept his eyes focused on the goblet. He had long ago figured out when Ron showed concern for him to be suspicious. Not that he didn't appreciated Ron as a friend, he really did, but underneath Ron's laziness and self-righteous Slytherin hating attitude was a calculating mind. It was what gave him his edge at being so good at Wizard's Chess but seemed to be trained on him and the wider world around him as the last year or so. Why Ron was so focused on everything going on around him he didn't know but Harry didn't like it.
"Harry's most likely suspicious someone put his name in the Goblet of Fire to try killing him, Again."
Ah, dependable Hermione to the rescue. While the two bickered like cats and dogs Harry kept his ear on the speech Dumbledore was making. The announcement of the Beauxbaton champion was met with roaring applause from the male population of Hogwarts. He didn't understand why the glazed eyes and roaring applause for the blonde girl was so enthusiastic. She was just another witch right?
The announcement of the Durmstrang champion was met with uproaring applause again but from both genders but more so the male side again. No surprise there since Viktor Krum was an internationally quidditch star and every guy wanted to be him while every girl wanted to be with him
When Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff was announced as the Hogwarts champion Harry sighed in relief. Maybe his gut was wrong after all and-
"Harry Potter!"
That's when the gnawing feeling returned tenfold. The hall fell into silence as all eyes turned to Harry. Most eyes were curious and suspicious, some were outright hateful.
"I didn't do this."
"Mr. Potter!"
"I didn't fucking do it!" Harry snarled with a venom in his tone that surprised even himself. "The last three years have nearly killed me and the entire staff of Hogwarts has done jack shit about it til it was too late or long after the danger was passed!"
Those sitting around Harry were shocked at the vulgarity that was escaping his mouth. The last Potter was far more mild mannered and kind than he was ever angry, unless it was at Snape or Malfoy, so for him to be spitting such vitriol was jarring. Ron was already fuming internally at Harry cheating his way into the tournament and Hermione, despite her intelligence and allegiance to her friend, cast a doubting eye. She knew Harry was nowhere near the goblet to put his name in it and those under seventeen who tried failed, the attempt by Fred and George jumped to the forefront of her mind, to get it in but Harry had surpassed a lot of things in their time at Hogwarts... Unbeknownst to Hermione, several others who were firmly in the friendly camp with Harry felt a similar unease. An incident of this magnitude, an international incident at that, was bound to make Harry the most hated person in Hogwarts. Supporting him would be social suicide but they couldn't abandon him to the wolves..
"The antechamber now Mr. Potter!" Dumbledore ordered with a rather harsh finger pointed where the other champions had went through. He'd been testing the boy for two years, the year prior incident with the Dementors had not been planned but yield information that would benefit training in the long run, but for the boy to do something like this was beyond stupid! He was undertrained! His course work was barely passable at best and that was not even touching on his atrocious attempts of an 'effort' at Potions! He conceded Severus did not make it easy and continually belittled and tortured the boy academically in that department for the sins of his father despite his stern order to stop doing so but still!
"Fuck you!" Harry stood with a belligerent almost feral sneer taking over his lips. "I was nowhere near the damn artifact at all today before we had to come in here for this shit show! I was constantly in the company of my fellow Gryffindors from last night when you unveiled the damn thing up through this entire day! Wraith possessed Quirrell in my First Year when you had the nerve to hide what I found later to be the Philosophers Stone in this school. Second year was the basilisk that I had to kill while you and your staff were more than happy to sit on your candy asses as the school at large tortured me as Slytherin's Heir just because I'm a parselmouth from defeating Voldemort! A basilisk that bit its giant ass fang through my arm and would have killed me if it wasn't for Fawkes, a magical creature, giving more fucks about my being alive than you or your lackies!"
The Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students that weren't the champions exchanged glances. It was the majority opinion in Europe Proper and The Continent that Hogwarts backsliding as a magical school but if what the boy who was declared the fourth Triwizard Champion, the declared Boy-Who-Lived that was supposed to have been the downfall of the worst Dark Lord since Grindelwald, then things were far worse than they thought.
The Hogwarts teachers at the staff table bristled at the young Potter, all but Severus Snape who looked ready to strangle the boy til he was dead. How dare the child accuse them of such negligence?!
"That's not even counting the near hundred Dementors that you allowed on the school grounds last year that nearly sucked out my soul in the middle of a fucking quidditch match during a thunderstorm!"
The Ministry personnel were wide eyed as they stared at Dumbledore and the teachers of Hogwarts. How could they allow such lunacy to reign?! They had never heard so much as a peep about a basilisk running around the school! How many Purebloods had been injured or petrified by the monster?! Allowing a possessed wizard to teach in the school while housing such a dangerous artifact too?!
"If I'm going to die because of the incompetence of anyone, I'm going to choose my own over your and your staff including your pet Death Eater Snape or the Ministry of Magic for not doing their fucking job!" With that last piece of vitriol spit from his lips, Harry stomped toward the halls entrance ignoring the roaring demands from Dumbledore, the school staff and the Ministry. The doors slammed shut before he could reach them making his ire raise. "If my understanding is right, the Bulgarian and French represent a separate school. Whoever put my fucking name in the goblet knew Hogwarts could not have twochampions so I'm obviously listed under a made up school name that you do not control but that doesn't matter. This is false imprisonment and I'm sure every magical news outlet in Britain is going to LOVE hearing how Albus Dumbledore and the British Ministry of Magic held their precious Boy-Who-Lived hostage against his will!"
While the situation devolved rapidly from that point, two girls sat at the Ravenclaw watched with obvious interest hidden under intense blue eyes. The first girl was a petite blonde with silver-blue eyes. Her expression morphed into a frown before she tapped her companions thigh twice.
The second girl, a raven haired girl with eyes a shade of frosty blue she nearly looked blind, frowned and shook her head. She agreed with the silent message but now was not the time to act. Going up to Harry in such a state as he was, the raw magic pouring off him actually turning the doors to the Great Hall into splinters of wood before the boy stalked off, and trying to explain things to him was a recipe for disaster if not their death with how emotionally charged the boy was. "Tomorrow" was her response as her eyes locked on Professor Snape whose sneer seemed to overtake the entire lower half of his face. Eyebrows furrowed before she saw the man move to draw his wand. A gesture of her hand, a very subtle gesture, saw a knife float and speed through his eyeball into the back of his skull killing the man in an instant. She wouldn't let anyone lay hand on Harry Potter with any intent to harm. Harry deserved so much better than he got before this point and if things went the way she hoped they did, not to mention how her fellow Ravenclaw saw in her vision, things would get there but it would require time and patience. The raven haired witch tapped the blondes thigh twice then thrice before pulling her hand back onto her lap as the pandemonium grew over the slumped corpse of Severus.
"Of course Milady, his safety and ours" the blonde said softly in gaelic, a language both girls learned growing up with a strong mutual irish heritage dating back to the celtic tribes. Saying something of the sort was a move that would be ill advised if the content was far more sensitive but no one at Hogwarts that was naturally born in Britain bothered to learn any other language except english and the trace amount of latin that was used in the majority of spells taught during the seven year curriculum. The only students to speak another language were immigrants like the Patil twins who often could be seen speaking Hindi to each other about one topic or another; in other words they were safe to discuss what they need in gaelic since the only person who had any idea of the language was the Deputy Headmistress and neither she nor her raven haired Lady used the Scottish-Gaelic but the far older and more traditional irish gaelic of the nomadic tribes.
"Precisely Luna." The raven haired witch shot a soft and warm look to the slightly younger witch. Lady and Servant they may be, the family histories made the titles immutable to change, but the warmth she held for whom she considered to be a dear and supremely treasured friend was clear as day. Seeing the blonde blush faintly made the raven haired young witch chuckle before taking her friends hand.
The raven haired girl and her fellow witch stood with the rest of their House as the Deputy Headmistress called for the Heads of Houses to lead the Hogwarts students to their common room. The chaos this was going to cause as the headmaster tried to revive the now dead Potions Master but to no avail. There was no test or spell to trace wandless magic and with the sheer number of students there was no way to pin down exactly who cast it. One could make guesses to who did it, mainly the children of the Dark aligned families in the Wizengamot whose rights to practice their ancestral gifts were being smothered by Dumbledore and his puppets of the Light aligned families like the Weasley's & Bones', but assumptions and guesses without concrete proof would see him out of office before he could say quidditch.
Up on the Seventh Floor Harry was pacing like a mad man in front of the stupid tapestries. He scoffed through his frown at one of a man trying to teach trolls ballet. It was utterly ridiculous to try even remotely teaching a low brow, brain dead creature like trolls to do anything but kill and their instincts did that more than well enough.
"How dare they!"
One circuit completed in front of the wall.
"The insignificant, neck-beard, mouth breathing sons of bitches would be dead or injured if I never came to this mad house! What do I get in return? Turned on! Again!"
A second circuit completed as the faintest impression of a door seemed to begin emerging from the masonry.
"Fuck it! I'm not coming back next year! Fuck Albus holier than thou Dumbledore! Fuck the Ministry of Magic! Fuck all of my so called spineless 'friends'! Fuc-"
A third circuit and the click of an open door interrupted his fury filled ranting. On a dime, he turned with wand drawn only to be facing a room with a slightly ajar door that most certainly hadn't been there a moment before. Entering cautiously he saw the walls lined with thick tomes and what looked like implements of torture. The door slammed shut on its own causing him to spin around again only to see the door fade.
"Your fury is strong young one. Misguided in the regards of some of my charges but mostly well placed on the guilty party."
Harry's lip curled as he turned in circles searching for the source of the female voice speaking to him. Scolding him really. "They're all spineless and have done nothing for the school. I nearly lost my life three times in this trap and this now marks number four through x!" he snarled.
"I know but there are two. You will know them when they come. You want salivation and safety? To escape the machinations of those who have lost sight of what the world truly looks like and not what they want it to look like? Listen to them. Give them a chance."
Harry stopped as a light shone down on a pedestal with a thick rule book on it. Approaching cautiously, he peered at the title making his eyes harden into emotionless gems. The tile?
Official Rule Book of the Triwiard Tournament