Sensing Magic
by Teddylonglong

Please refer to chapter 1 for my disclaimer and warnings. Thank you.

"How did you get here, and why did you arrive together? We need a winner." Crouch was the first to find words, while Harry noticed that Dumbledore and Madam Maxime were smirking in obvious amusement. Karakoff seemed to be fuming.

Harry shook his head in annoyance. "As you probably know, it is not possible to apparate within Hogwarts. Therefore, this task gives me as the owner of Hogwarts a huge advantage over the other champions, which is totally unfair. Therefore, we decided to finish this together."

"Well, then we'll just decide by the points from the first task that Mr. Prince wins." Bagman shrugged.

"No sir. We won't accept that. The one who would finish the third task and come back here first was supposed to be the winner. Therefore, this tournament has been won by no one in particular. We have a tie here." Harry's voice was firm.

Crouch's eyes narrowed. "How old are you, boy, to tell us what to do?"

Harry scoffed. "Yes, I am only fourteen, which means that I shouldn't have been in the tournament in the first place. Let me say mismanagement by the organisers from the beginning."

"Harry is right." Viktor agreed, only to add, "Although he was the best of us."

"That is not true," Harry contradicted. "Who knows what these creatures would have done to us without your charms and spells?"

Fleur shrugged. "You 'ave 'heard ze boys. We are all winners."

Crouch helplessly lifted a bag and put it in front of the champions, giving Bagman a questioning look that caused Dumbledore to chuckle.

"Ah, but Bartemius, nothing easier than that." With a small flick of his hand, three smaller bags appeared in place of the one bag, one in front of each champion."

"Congratulations to you all for winning the tournament." Whisker's voice was laced with amusement.

"Thank you, Whisker, for seeing to it that we all survived the tournament," Harry directly addressed his colleague. "We appreciate it."

HP

The guests from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang remained at Hogwarts for another week. Seeing that Fleur and Viktor seemed to develop a friendship exceeding the usual relationship between two champions and spent more time with each other than with their friends from their own schools, Harry decided to simply attend classes together with his classmates. 'I've missed enough during this school year anyway, so I'll give them some space,' he thought, although he was not exactly worried about having missed much, as Hermione and Teddy had used every free minute to keep him updated about their classes.

For the following weekend, he organised a Quidditch tournament between the three schools, thinking, 'That gives the Hogwarts team some much needed practice, considering that we only won the matches against teachers and parents during the first-years' parents' weekend last month because I caught the Snitch on time.'

While Dumbledore had wanted to forego the parents' weekend for once due to the Triwizard tournament, Harry had insisted that all events should take place as usual, not only Quidditch.

Needless to say that Hogwarts won the matches both against Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, as Harry always caught the Snitch as usual.

When Whisker, who had been refereeing all three matches, announced the result and handed Dumbledore some kind of cup for winning the Quidditch tournament, Karakoff harshly protested.

"That was cheating. Mr. Prince was flying with his dog, who helped him catch the Snitch. Otherwise, he'd never have been able to win against Mr. Krum, who is the best Seeker, world-wide."

"Well, let's do a replay then, in which I am going to fly without my dog." Harry's voice was firm, but Karakoff was the only person to agree, while the teams refused to play, and Dumbledore, Madame Maxime and Whisker merely looked from the professor to the students and back in apparent disbelief.

"Harry is the better Seeker," Viktor then announced.

"We accept 'Ogwarts' victory," Fleur added, smiling. "We 'ad a wonderful time 'ere at 'Ogwarts, and for zat, I wish to zank all ze professors and students of 'Ogwarts."

Huge applause followed her statement, efficiently ending the discussion. After dinner that evening, the guests from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang returned home, and the fifth table vanished from the Great Hall by an invisible hand.

HP

During the last four weeks of the school year, Harry busied himself catching up on his studies, but also spent several hours per week in the Office for Elves' Affairs, which he had not abandoned of course, but at least slightly neglected during the tournament. He also saw to it that he was back at home in the evenings to help his mother with Eileen, who was now ten months old and slowly became more alert. Just like Felix, she seemed to absolutely adore their big brother. Somehow, Harry revelled in his siblings' affection. He still needed the reassurance that he was a proper member of the family, even if Regina and Severus had emphasized many times that he was their real sibling due to the blood adoption between Severus and him and the blood donation from him to Regina.

"It's evident that they have your magic along with some special traits such as the affinity for the Animagus transformation," Minerva pointed out, when they observed Felix jump around the room in his majaroo form.

HP

On the day after their guests had left, Dumbledore cornered Harry at breakfast. "Harry, from now on, please come to my office every Sunday evening after dinner."

Harry grudgingly agreed, knowing that the old wizard had already wanted to teach him in whatever it was that he deemed important to him during the previous summer. 'I wonder what he wants,' he thought in annoyance.

"If he does anything nasty, just pop away," Luna advised him, when they enjoyed their Saturday at Hogsmeade together, causing Harry to chuckle.

"Oh, believe me, that I will do, and I know that Godric will keep an eye on him from his portrait, too."

HP

To Harry's surprise, Dumbledore merely wished to show him a memory in his Pensive. It was the memory of how he had first met Marvolo, Tom at that time, when he visited him in the orphanage and told him about Hogwarts.

'Setting the wardrobe on fire?' Harry thought in disbelief. 'What teacher does such a thing?' However, he knew better than to voice his thoughts and merely thanked Dumbledore for the insight, before he left the office, accompanied by a few funny trills from Fawkes.

'Marvolo,' he thought to his friend, once he returned home, and informed the older wizard about the memory he had been shown that evening.

'Ah, he's a manipulating old coot.' Marvolo's response came immediately. 'He wants to show you how bad I was and that I didn't need the second chance at life I was given. Does he know by now that you're on my side?'

'I'm not sure. We're all trying to keep him in the dark.'

'Anyway, thanks for telling me about it. If you ever have questions about what he shows you, feel free to ask anything.'

'I will. Thanks, Marvolo, and don't worry. I won't let him manipulate me. He would have been able to do that, before my father adopted me, but not now.'

'Thanks, Harry. That's good. Congrats for winning the Triwizard tournament, by the way.' Before Harry could point out that he did not win the thing, he continued, 'I know that you made a tie, but I watched the whole event in my serpent Animagus form, and you were clearly the best. Remember, the other two champions would have been out of it in the first task already, had you not helped them.'

HP

The lessons with Dumbledore as the old wizard called the memory sessions continued until Harry left for the Isle of Elves. During the last memory, Dumbledore showed Harry a scene between Tom still as a student and Professor Slughorn. Harry had never met Slughorn; however, his father had told him a lot about his former head of house, and Harry was not sure that he overly liked him.

"When you have a spare hour sometime this holiday, I wish to visit Horace Slughorn together with you," Dumbledore announced. "We must find out what he told Tom about. As you might have noticed, this memory has been tampered with, and we need to convince Slughorn to give us the real one."

"Excuse me, sir, but why is my presence needed for that?"

"He always had a soft point for your mother, my boy, and I am sure that he will be thrilled to meet you. He might give in if you ask him."

Harry decided to not discuss the matter any further but instead simply ask Marvolo about that specific memory's background.

tbc...

Thank you so very much for the kind reviews for the previous chapter.