Summer to Remember

Harry Potter/ Fay Dunbar

XXII

Spending the day with Fay, Her parents, Sirius and Remus had been fun. Harry enjoyed the banter and the joking between them all; but in all seriousness the 48hrs they spent together, aside from learning some rather interesting definitely dark magic curses and spending the time in the Grand Canarias, drinking alcohol…It felt like to Harry, something akin to family.

"You're ready for this?"

"Moony, things are fine. As long as I can get my kit into the labyrinth of hell, then I should be fine."

"What's the plan this time?"

"Burn, maim and shoot, burn, maim and shoot. Rinse and repeat as much necessary."

"That's rather…brutal."

"Mr. Dunbar…"

"Morgan, please. Mr. Potter."

"Morgan, I am finding myself very much not caring about Wizarding Britain." Harry replied.

Morgan nodded "Honestly, I'm agreeing with you more and more. What are your plans? I mean I know you and my daughter are together…Call me a concerned father who wants the best for his daughter's future."

Harry looked at Fay "If Fay was interested, we'd do another summer travelling, perhaps around Australia and New Zealand, learn some of the magic there, or go around the Bahamas or investigate some of the more…entertaining and interesting regions of America. Wyoming sounds nice; despite all the crazy."

As for the future? Possibly expand my inheritances and portfolio, heck possibly break Magical Britain."

"Break?"

"Either through plotting and blackmail…Fire and Blood are optional; I entered Wizarding Britain when I was eleven to escape an unpleasant household life…and I've been let down considerably every single year."

Morgan's eyes widened "Has your Magical Guardian informed you of anything?"

"He's been a resident at Resort Azkaban, so no. Someone is willingly neglecting what I should be doing and I know who."

"What are you going to do about it?" Artoria Fay asked, cocking her head.

"Deal with him; I'm already subverting my peers and older…Good Old Victorian Britain, I've checked the laws and the best thing is what I'm doing is 100% legitimate. I've even got several fall-guys, one is unwilling and the rest have signed up willingly."

Morgan cocked his eyebrow "You mean the little enterprise you're running inside of Hogwarts?"

Harry grinned "Yup. I'm at the top. You've got no evidence. People suspect my involvement; but they don't know how deeply…I know I sound like I'm self-incriminating…"

Morgan chuckled "We get it. Besides, you've got boundaries don't you."

"Aye, I never meet my clients face-to-face. I have liaisons, who ferry it to select drop-points at specific times. I only take messages from those in my year group and above. I don't make contact with those who use younger years."

"Younger years?"

"First to Third. I keep them out of it. When it's being used in the Common Room, I make sure that the First to Third Years are in bed or if not it's only done as a cigarette. Only during parties does Gryffindor Tower become a hot-box.

Artoria nodded "Hot boxes were fun…Friday and Saturday, clean up Sunday?"

Harry nodded. "Enough about me corrupting the youth of the Wizarding World. But yeah, expand the family portfolio and back Fay in whatever she wants to do."

Fay looked at Harry "You mean that?"

"Fay, I'm not very good at this mushy stuff. I've not exactly experienced it. I'm making this shit up as I fall; anyways I'm not wanting much a family and modest home. That's all I really want and perhaps the right to choose. I'll let you know if I disagree with something."

Fay nodded "I'm tempted to live a farm-life…Somewhere like Kansas."

Harry's eyebrow twitched "I'll see what I've got out that way and as long as we're not obligated to assist superheroes I'm happy."

"Chances are that the nuisance, I got rid of when I was Eighteen Months Old is going to make a re-appearance."

The caused the Dunbar's to pale "I'll see our account manager in the morning tomorrow and start investing in American Real Estate."

(3rd Task)

"Seeing as Mr. Potter is giving me a Death Glare the Final Task begins now." A cannon thundered and Harry darted into the maze, grabbing the bag from a concealed Nymphadora Tonks.

Tonks had been drafted in on the behalf of Remus to assist Harry. Tonks had been hiding on a hidden broomstick and only landed the moment she knew the direction Harry would be running through.

In the bag were his Pennsylvanian knives and some firearms, the final part was a Marauder's map of the labyrinth. What had taken Four Teens to achieve in a year, two adults achieved in three months. Obviously, Sirius had subtly manuevered and wheedled convenient contacts in the Games and Sport and Foreign Office to find out precisely the obstacles placed in the maze.

Harry had not been disappointed. Wand in one hand, blade in the other and his other equipment stashed across him; he charged into the maze. He took a left, swung a right, something resembling an Acromantula launched itself at him. With a murmured incantation and a slashing gesture fire erupted simultaneously incinerating and bisecting it. As it fell to the floor; Harry heard Bagman comment that all participants were in the maze and the game began.

Harry, popped his neck and headed deeper. He quickly found that the maze not only had monsters of all sorts of deadliness in it; there were some pretty unique spells designed to bewitch, befuddle, bedraggle and ultimately beat them down. Harry had on more than one occasion found himself running into a cloud; thinking he was upside down, jumped and found himself on his face covered in dirt.

(Outside)

Everyone was amazed, the Ministry had managed to rig up something the muggleborns had called a projector. Due to the enchantments on the uniforms, the students were able to follow the five competitors with ease. Everyone marvelled at Fleur's Veela charm and how she managed to charm, bewitch and set fire to the offending victim.

Cedric used a combination of techniques from the First task only for much more effect.

Krum and Crane just used pure banishment spells, bone breakers, blasting and bludgeoning spells. Although Crane it appeared was also applying mundane subjects to execute maximum effect for minimum effort. This was aptly demonstrated when he casually banished a granite golem through a hedge only for it to be erased from existence by a surprised Harry Potter.

As for the Boy Who Lived; it appeared that purely elemental magic and mundane weaponry was on the menu as a mehir of earth, seemingly latticed with marble slammed into the offending golem. Granite was dense but Marble denser still and more magical.

"Eobard."

"Harry."

The two teens nodded at each other before swiftly parting ways. Harry following his map, Eobard following an enchanted compass in a black-box. "What I would not do for a bottle of rum." Eobard said to himself as he was led to another dead-end. "Righty-o, if I can't go under, can't go over…gonna have to go through." With that Eobard concentrated and murmured a modified spell, instead of an earth tunnelling charm, a drill of fire churned, charred and incinerated a hole in the hedge.

"Is that aloud?" Bagman asked.

"I mean it is not against the rules." Percy replied "Certainly unconventional but this particular tournament has been nothing but unconventional."

As the Judges were discussing this, watching the competitors Fleur's screen went red, she hit the floor twitching and thrashing before a fountain of red sparks erupted into the air. "Fleur Delacour has withdrawn from the task!"

The hunt was on.

Harry blasted his way out of a lake, dragging a Grindylow off his back. A Gnome charged up; with an idle bit off footwork, Harry had the Gnome by it's foot and the Grindylow similarly and he spun and launched them into the lake. Harry sunk again; it appeared he was in a bog. Harry pulled himself out and pulled out a torch.

His torchlight penetrated the swamp, startling the Hinkypunk. Harry, softly made his way across the deceptively solid ground, getting more and more filthy as he did so. His sword/long dagger lashed out severing the hand of something reaching out of the bog.

Harry got to dry land to see a few corpses rising from the depths "Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding? Who brought fucking zombies…" Harry pulled out his shotgun, loaded and took the safety off "Alright, there is One Wizard Too Many, in this tournament!" With that he pulled the trigger and grinned at the recoil. Three rounds, Harry shouldered the gun and ran further into the maze.

It turned out the Bog was a boundary; as Harry nearly ploughed right on into Cedric; who looked like his leg was smoking "Argumenta!" With that bucket of water coated Cedric's leg.

"Harry, did you see the Inferi?"

"Inferi? You mean the Zombie's then yeah…took out a few."

Cedric's eyes widened "How?"

"Took their head off."

"Did you set them on fire?"

Harry stared at him "No…Tend not to make zombie killing worse by setting them on fire."

"Harry, Inferi…I've heard stories but the only way to get rid of them…" They were cut off by groaning as ten Inferi appeared.

"Please, spare him!"
"Stand aside you stupid girl!"
"No, Ple…"
"Avada Kedavra."

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry snarled; a stag erupted. Instead of it looking vaguely spectral, this was fully formed and able to interact on the physical plane. As it rushed the Boggart in the form of a Dementor it left prints on the ground. However, when it connected with the Dementor, Harry had assumed it was a boggart; surprise was apparent on his face as Prongs effortlessly gored and proceeded to trample the dementor. The scabbed hands were revealed and the blank head aside from a mouth of a Dementor was revealed. A spectral hoof later, the head dissolved into a mass of greyish ichor.

Meanwhile Cedric had managed to get rid of the Inferi. Inferi, were not so bad to get rid of; aside from the fact of they appeared in packs and they tended to be summoned by more skilled Dark Practitioner. Voldemort had reportedly allied himself with a Haitian Shaman known as the 'Cracher-Mortel'. Whilst not the most powerful of Wizards, who'd joined Voldemort, Mortel had most certainly been one of the more creative ones. His skillset aside from Necromancy had been that of visual and auditory manipulation.

It was a Cracher-Mortel in Bronson Canyon that had been filmed summoning Inferi, that had started the hit genre of 'Zombies'. Harry, with Cedric headed through the maze; however they'd been spat into two identical areas with sphinxes. The riddles had been easy with the answers being 'Spiders' and 'Time'; followed by a section of the maze of the Repulsive Iron Vine, with a Venomous Tentacular relative.

Finally, the duo reached the Cup only to find Eobard Crane, standing over a stunned Viktor Krum "Hey, you two…Just so you know, this isn't what it looks like and nor is this personal. This one's been under the Imperius curse and tried to kill me."

"Then why does he look like's been yeeted by an enlarged Quokka Female."

Eobard chuckled slightly "Because I may have summoned one and used an enlarging charm on it."

"Anyway, we're going to duel and the Winner gets the cup. Just send some sparks up once we're down."

The duel was fast, explosive and almost poetry in motion. As all three students suffered two vs one and one on one. Harry, whilst the youngest participant in the tournament, demonstrated very quickly why he was arguably the best Seeker in Hogwarts. He would argue that there was not much too him, raw power; fast reflexes and an unorthodox intellect, but it was Fay Dunbar and Hermione Granger who made him something of a human being.

Eventually, Cedric beat Eobard with a leglocker, bodybind and a stunner. Harry sent up the sparks and as one the pair grabbed the portkey. Harry could sense magic as in the properties of magic, as felt the magic grab hold of him; he only realised too late that there had been an overlaid portkey charm, not linked to the Tournament whatsoever. "Fuck! Cedric; welcome to a Harry Potter adventure end of the year style."

Fay, Hermione and the Rest of Gryffindor and a few Hufflepuff's who had managed to get over the fact, Harry had been an unwilling participant, gulped. Hermione realised this was the solo part of the typical Harry Potter adventure of the year. She could only hope Cedric would be coming back.