Tarot glared harshly at three people before him. Sitting in the tent with the other champions he was content to sit and wait for the idiots to 'surprise' them by revealing the task they'd be facing shortly he hadn't anticipated the group of people granted entrance. Beside the school representatives were what appeared to be either family members or particularly close people to champions. While Rose practically flying tackled him and hugged him tight, his eyes were glaring daggers at the two people behind Albus Dumbledore. The two adult forms of James and Lily Potter were unmistakable. "What are you worthless shit for brains doing here?" he asked with a hateful tone and a sneer to put the Hogwarts Potion master to shame.

"You will show your mother-"

In the blink of an eye Tarot separated from Rose and was in the the spot in front of the Potter couple with his hand extended like he'd swatted at a fly. After that blink though, barely a split second of actual time, Lily Potter was flying out of the tent backwards with her head twisted sharply to the side. As much as he wanted them both dead, he wouldn't murder anyone in front of Rose. "I don't have a mother or father. That worthless cunt and her dick husband tossed me away like I was trash after that damnable megalomaniac tried to kill the only family I recognize. Claim any title for you or that wife of yours again and I will break the one rule I have imposed on myself since I was reunited with my baby sister" he threatened purposefully baring his fangs.

James Potter felt a spike of uncertainty and borderline real fear. The scolding was an automatic response since Rose had a few times over the years where she'd been rebellious and disrespectful. He hadn't even realized it slipped out til he saw Lily be backhanded out of the tent by what seemed to be raw physical strength and those hateful eyes glaring at him. "We know we made a mistake Harry but you must realize it was a mistake! The matter was far bigger than the four of us!"

Tarot's sneer grew as his hands begin to twitch. "Harry James Potter died at four years old when Vernon and Petunia Dursley abandoned him at an orphanage in Essex only to be taken as property of the Umbrella Corporation!" he snarled with his eyes going pitch black. "He was used and prodded like a lab rat after they realized he could do things they only read about in fantasy novels. He was experimented on, subjected to tortures that Cruciatus induced insanity was preferable!" His aura flared black around making people nervous as the fabric of the tent began to rot away before their eyes.

James stumbled back reaching for his wand instinctively until an ominous click sounded in his ear. Right behind him his son had a matte black object pressed to his temple. "W-we tried to-"

"I don't care what you tried to do or not do." Tarot noticed in the periphery of his gaze everyone but Rose looking at him go tense as stone. He was almost amused how relaxed his sister was just sitting there on the bed he'd previoudly sat on kicking her feet like she was watching her favorite show. "Twitch your fingers so much as one nanometer further toward your wand and I'll kill you. That's a warning to everyone in this tent" he said cycling his glare, the hateful pitch black golden serpentine pupil expanding from its thin slit to a bold column that projected nothing but pure malice and hatred as it settled on Albus Dumbledore. "Haven't you destroyed enough lives? Take your pet mindless slave and leave!" he hissed shoving the Potter patriarch toward the ancient wizard, his guns hammer cocked and aimed squarely at where James Potter's heart was.

"Headmaster, I'd suggest you leave with the traitor before this turns into a slaughter field out of your worst nightmares" Rose said with a casual tilt of her head. "Or you can stay and run the risk of my big brother murdering you and the traitor. It's your perrogative whose life or lives is important. Or not, I really don't care anymore. Not after all you caused to happen to big brother Tarot."

Albus was stunned by the callous tone that escaped Rose's lips as she said wha shet did. In the time he had known her, that is to say all her life, Rose never had a bad word to say about anybody no matter who they were. "Rose, it's not-"

"Well well, you surprise me my beautiful Rose" Tarot said with a quirked eyebrow. "Here I was holding myself back from killing them for your sake and you announce you don't care if I do? I do believe I'm rubbing off on you."

Rose blushed at the new nickname but smiled prettily. "It's hard to tolerate a blood traitor who discards a member of their own family, their eldest child no less, and expects no consequences to arise from it. I'm simply choosing not to tolerate him" she said with a mean spirited glimmer in her eyes "It's why he lost the Lordship according to the last post I got from the Potter account manager at Gringotts. Isn't that right James no name?" she asked with a malefic tone.

Tarot was intrigued to say at that piece of information. The fact that James had gone translucent pale said that Rose spoke the truth. The fact it was spoken in front of witnesses gave him some pause before his eyes turned from malicious to darkly amused. While Dumbledore ushered James out with an unhidden sense of urgency he turned back towards Rose and crossed to the bed with a few long strides. Leaning down so his lips were right by her ear, therefore rendering eaveadropping impossible, he chuckled lowly.

Rose shivered but leaned into Tarot seeking the warmth of his form. Perhaps he was rubbing off on her. Perhaps she was starting to turn more malicious in nature to all but her brother and her best friend Luna. Perhaps she was even turning 'Dark' in the eyes of others but she couldn't truly find it in her heart of hearts or soul to give a damn. She had her best friend she loved and she knew loved her back & her elder brother, they were all she needed as far as she was concerned.

"Best little sister ever" Tarot said feeling Rose place a small but heavy ring in his hand. He knew what it was and the signifance of the action. With James no name stripped of the Potter Headship and presumably disavowed by the family magic because of his actions, Headship should have gone to Lily by virtue of being Lady Potter but because she was complicit in the acts as well it would nullify her off the Potter family tree with her husband as disgraces. That meant Headship would go to the declared Heir or Heiress, in this case Rose. For her to surrender the Headship to him would have a lot of ramifications in the future but in the immediate they didn't have anything to worry about.

"I am still the little sister. I'll feel a lot better under my loving big brothers protection" Rose said softly as she nestled into him and burying her face in Tarot's shoulder.

By the time lots, or in this dragons and lots, were picked Tarot had already slid the family Headship ring on and briefly fight him before Rose surrendered her claim allowing it to him. The Ministry representatives looked in horror at his demonic smile as he crushed the dragon model in his hand to pieces. He was conscious to the fact his eyes were still pitch black and unsettlngly more serpentine pronounced but that was a purposeful choice on his part. While he went last against a Hungarian Horntail, he spent a fair portion of the between time soothing and assuring Rose would be fine & that he had a plan.

On her part Rose didn't le go of Tarot until the Hogwarts boy Cedric came in slightly less worse off than the Bulgarian champion had. She reluctantly let go only when the four canon shots went off and her brother promised her he would come back.

Walking into the arena Tarot stripped his shirt immediately and tossed it aside baring his chest, back and arms to the entire stadium. While some would he appalled by the scars on him, that or the back hand across the face of decency as thought by Pureblood children, he knew far more would be curious or worried by the tattoos branded into his skin consisting of runic seals and talismans. "Here gekko, gekko… I need a new wallet!" he cackled charinging forward with an arm pulled back.

The Horntail roared and swiped her claws at the wizard. How dare this puny wizard defame her, a noble dragon, to being called a gekko?! Blood red reptilian eyes narrowed with as the worm of a being dodged her claws and struck her limb shattering three of her scales to pieces.

Dodging out of another swipe a maniacal almost psychotic smirk etched itself onto Tarot's lips. "Awe, poor wittle gekko gonna cry? Maybe I should put you out of your misery and eat your children then!" he roared with an unnerving cackling laughter as the Horntail let loose a bellow fire from its jaws.

Horrified screams filled the arena as Tarot's form was completely engulfed in fiery fury.

None of the judges were able to say a word as they shielded their eyes from the glare of the flames reflected light. The was no way the boy could have survived that

"Ze boy was all talk" Madame Maxime said after cautiously lowering the protective charm.

"Unfortunately so. Being trained as a mercenary made him ready for human opponents but-" Albus stopped speaking as the unnerving cackling laughter from moments before returned though it was colder. Dare he say it was darker than the previous instance. As the Horntail let its flames stop mometarily Dumbledore, not to mention the whole of the stadium, was treated to the sight of what could only be called a demon in the spot the young mercenary had been. Black overlapping scales like a basilisk replaced skin, deceptively short claws replaced the nails on the paw like hands thought the digits that should have been fingers were more like jointed blades, a long spiked tail erupted from the base of his spine and massive black wings of shadow drenched in blood-not to mention topped with what appeared to look like a spike on either side- were spread from between his shoulder blades as the once black hair was now an anemic red color.

"That boy is not human!" a terribly pale Bartimus Crouch Senior all but exclaimed in terror.

"Is that all the fire in your belly can produce?!" Tarot asked, his voice as transformed as the rest of him taking on a demonic snarling tone. Flexing his wings and and blade-like fingers he took to the sky, his eyes noting how the dragons eyes followed his ascent.

What followed the skyward rise of the demonic young man could not be called anything but a slaughter. One of the Horntails wings was torn clear off showering a section of the audience in dragon blood eliciting more horrified screams & people getting sick or passing out, an eye being uttery decimated beyond the point it could be saved and by the time Tarot killed the damnable beast all the dragon eggs had been destroyed by the mother dragon in her rage to kill the gnat that not only destroyed a fair number of her scales but also half blinded and removed her ability to fly. A great mighty heave, not to mention a nearly suffocating wave of pitch black magic concenrated to one of his blade-like fingered clawed paw hands and a damn near suicide dive bomb from an extreme altitude, he caved in the dragons skull on itself killing it in one foul blow. As much as he made a gory scene of the dragon, the arena and the audience he didn't escape unscathed. There were missing scales over his body, bloody claw marks marred the scaleless areas and blood streamed down his face over one eye.

Cancelling the transformation so that he was normal and human in appearance he snatched up the golden, verbally claimed the dragon carcass & her slain children by Rite of Conquest making them disappear in a flash of magic and made his way back to the tent pausing only for a moment to reclaim his shirt and put it on. "See, I told you I had a plan" Tarot said shooting Rose a look. "Best fight I had in the last six years. Shame she tried to eat me, I was going to originally try turning her into a zombie familiar but she tried roasting my ass alive." His tone went momentarily sour since he lost a potential weapon all due to primal instincts of a stupid animal.

Rose shot over fussing over her brothers injuries. The blood on his face was easily explained by the cut on his forehead but the blood staining his shirt around his ribcage was another matter completely. "Open your shirt" she ordered pulling out her wand.

"Excuse me?" Tarot asked with a cocked brow.

"Open your shirt so I can check the injuries around your ribs or I will use a full body bind on you and tear your shirt to ribbons myself. Your choice big brother" Rose said with an expression on her face that screamed she was not joking.

"Oi oi, if you wanted to get kinky with an audience adound to watch us all you had to do was ask" Tarot said as his eyes gained a twinkle of dark mischief.

Rose was wholly unprepared for that comeback and stepped back in shock blushing crimson. "I… I di..

Tarot merely chuckled loudly slinging his free arm around Rose's shoulders and lead her back out of the tent. "I'll be fine. The upside to being tortured and experimented on is that unless its a life crippling injury or something fatal I'll heal in a matter of minutes. Plus I'll have a kick ass scar to showoff when I say I killed a real dragon!" he said, his tone dripping amusement.

Rose glared up weakly through her blush before briefly yanking up one side of his shirt and saw what looked like gouge marks down to the bone knitting back together before her very eyes. "I guess that there is an upside" she muttered dropping the shirt tail.

"The process was a cunt to bear with in terms of pain but yeah. Like I'm goin to leave you alone anytime soon. I made a promise didn't I?" Tarot asked rhetorically. "Not that this ring will let me do anything but my utmost for you." The Headship ring glinted at the ruby shone in the light of dying afternoon. "And I wouldn't do anything less for you." He leaned down kissing the top of Rose's head as she leaned into him.

A/N: So another chapter, another mystery. Was James and Lily disavowed by the family magic or has Rose's extended stay done more to change her more than her callousness to all but Tarot and Luna? Was James and Lily's loss Rose's doing?

Some people think that Rose be attracted to her brother but I am going to state this ONCE: she is not romantically or sexually attracted to Tarot/Harry. Just because she's touchy feely and some things can be viewed as otherwise, say her demand of him to remove his shirt to treat his wounds, does not mean she loves as anything more than her elder sibling.

Come next chapter Umbrella hunts for its penultimate weapon, the lead up to the yule ball and a rather explosive confrontation that may or may not see a certain git of a potions professor dead