He wasn't sure what was worse, the newspaper or the looks he was getting at the breakfast table. Half a month had gone by since the interview and the first official meeting of UC, Uninvited Champions met to trade tips and tricks before they were stuck winging it for themselves, they had met up a couple more times that month, Alexander to try and practice basic combat magic, something Harry was happy to help with and Adaliz so she could buy a support Cedric Diggery badge without being teased by her housemates.
"We don't have a lot of boys at our school." Adaliz had admitted when she asked Ness through Ginny with a sheepish blush, "And a couple of my friends think that Malfoy kid's cute."
Ginny had choked on her drink while Ness simply said, "He's something alright," and left it at that, getting Adaliz's badge from Selvis who burst out laughing at Malfoy being called cute, "He's going to hate that!" Selvis had snickered before he left their club room for Boundless one night.
"I. hate the news." Ness thought as he grimly reread the champion's statements, sure, everyone had a fair blurb of their interview in the paper stating what they liked and disliked, their plans for what to do if they won the tournament and what inspired them to enter. But below Ness and Harry's blurb was a 'Flip to page 27 for juicy news!' which was causing his stomach to perform flip-flops.
"That no good-," Hermione exclaimed, clapping a hand over her mouth to muffle a curse as she did as the newspaper instructed and scanned the gossip.
"Well, prepare for a lot more hate." Ginny grimly said as Ness turned the page and felt his stomach drop into the earth's core.
With the Tri Wizard Tournament on the rise a lot of people have to wonder, why seven champions? And why are four of the seven so young? Well, Rita Skeeter found out one of the reasons how seven champions came to be after overhearing Harry and Ness talk about meeting up with the younger champions and creating a support group to ensure that they would win first prize, suggesting that the four students had somehow found a way around the age barrier to enter the tournament.
Now the question is, who created this brilliant scheme? The Boy who lived? or the black eyed American formerly known as a Sunday morning comic?
"We were alone. Outside a tent. Whispering." Ness deadpanned, suddenly feeling self-aware of how many people were looking at him, "And we ditched her at the Qudditch Locker room!"
"Apparently, she found a way." Harry darkly muttered, sneaking a look at Ron who was shooting them both furious glares, "And convinced the entire school."
"Ignore them." Ginny ordered, looking extremely annoyed, "They don't understand anything."
"True, but just in case, I think we should be very careful about what we talk about." Ness advised, "If Rita has the same cloak Harry does, she could be lurking around this very minute."
Harry looked over his shoulder while Hermione grumbled something about people being unable to keep their nose out of other people's business.
Breakfast ended on a sour note as someone actually threw a biscuit at Ness and Harry (A Hufflepuff no doubt since Slytherin's table was too far away to properly hit the back of their heads.) as they got up to head for class, a couple students even tried to trip Ness hissing 'American werdio,' and 'Comic-book cheater' as they walked pass.
Ness was tempted to say, 'Thanks for that lovely insult!" and follow it up with a sarcasm one but after noticing how quiet Ginny was he kept his mouth shut. This probably wasn't any better for her since was one of his closest friends and now probably outcasted by Ron (Who was going to get a Rockin headache from Ness the next time they met.)
"Talk about it during lunch break?" Ness whispered as they entered the Charms classroom, Ginny nodded and sat beside him, not wanting to push her luck with trying to sit with someone else.
Classes seemed to go on forever, and the various glares he got from almost every house (Even Ravenclaw as mad at him!) didn't help lighten his mood, or any of his other friends who were just as annoyed with the unwanted attention and newspaper story as he was.
"I'm going to kill that woman!" Selvis snarled as he paced back in forth in their club room, his arms behind his back and his feet knocking away any dust bunnies and bug they encountered.
"I wonder how she did it." Luna mused, but the dreamy veil over her voice was gone, replaced with blunt annoyance, "I mean, you didn't see anything, right Ness?"
"I sensed something and felt like I was about to be attacked but no, I didn't see anything." Ness replied, tossing his hat up and down and reliving stress by making it freeze in the air and then resume falling. He was actually pretty good at that when he wanted to be.
"Maybe her quill acts as a radio?" Ginny offered, starting on her Potions essay about Maroon Bulb mushrooms.
"No, she has some cloaking device." Selvis said, his voice laced with anger and irritation.
"Plus, I destroyed it with my powers," Ness said, "I wasn't going to let that demonic pen get away with slandering Harry!"
"Well, look how nicely that went." Selvis snarled.
causing Ness to frown and almost snap, "What are you upset about? You aren't being treated like a cheater."
"She stole my scoop!" Selvis hissed, spinning and angrily facing Ness, "I'm the only one allowed to sneak around and listen in on secrets! Not that witch!"
"Also, she wrote a scathing review on his family's carpets a couple years ago." Luna yawned earning an annoyed look from Selvis, "Okay, that too. But still!" Selvis protested as Ginny threw her hands up in disgust, "Let's just move on from this topic, it isn't like she's going to be back for a while."
"Yea, just until the first round." Ness glumly reminded them causing them to pause.
"Oh yea…" Luna mumbled as Selvis asked, "Did they give you a clue? Anything to prepare yourself with?"
"No, and I don't think we're going to get one." Ness said, "Meaning we'll be forced to form a plan right off the bat." He glanced out the window and said, "And speaking of bat, I have to get Mom and Tracey to send me mine."
"What?! You're going to fight an unknown challenge with a baseball bat?!" Selvis demanded as Ginny exclaimed, "Ness! Just use your wand and fake magic!"
"And tire myself out? No way." Ness replied, "If I do get stuck in a fight, I'm going to fight using my brain and body. And that means getting my baseball bat."
"Plus, Ness is terrible at magic," Luna reminded them, "He might blow something else up in the process of faking a stun spell."
"…True." Selvis agreed as Ginny sighed, "But a bat? Really?"
"Said bat helped me fend off a bunch of monsters Ginny," Ness said with a teasing smirk, "I hit them right out the park and scored home runs on my journey!"
"Oh god, here comes the baseball jokes." Selvis groaned, before he stiffened and looked up, "Oh! Ness, be careful of Durmstrang's headmaster."
"Kakraroff or whatever his name is?" Ness questioned, frowning slightly, "Why? What did he do?"
"He used to be a death eater." Selvis explained, "The very same group that attacked the Qudditch World Cup over the summer. He outed a lot of fellow Death Eaters, claiming that he was under You-Know-Who's control thanks to one of the unforgivable curses and a bunch of other lies to avoid getting killed."
"You don't think he set Ness and the others up, right?" Ginny asked nervously, remembering Kakraroff's treatment of his students.
Ness shook his head no, "He was genuinely upset to find four extra champions, if he wanted to aim for me and Harry to appease the new leader of the Death Eater's then maybe, but someone else put in Alexander and Adaliz's name, someone he didn't know about."
"So… We have two possible suspects now," Selvis theorized, "Mr. Crouch-,'
"He isn't due to arrive until the first match." Luna interrupted, "I think Peter did this."
"Maybe. But Peter's a coward. He would have hightailed it out of Hogwarts the moment he realized people knew about him." Ness reminded her.
"As I was saying," Selvis loudly announced, shooting them all glares as he continued, "We have Kakraroff and possibly, Peter Petigrew to worry about, especially since the Ministry isn't trying their hardest to find him."
"What?! Why not?" Ness asked, "We proved that he was beyond faking his death and murdering a bunch of mug—peoples as well as pinning the blame on Black!"
"Yes, but they have their ego to worry about." Selvis explained with a roll of his eyes, "Plus, Black isn't exactly off the hook either since he's still on the run and not coming in for an interview."
"Can you blame the poor guy?" Ginny asked, "He isn't going to trust the Ministry after this whole mess!"
"True, but with the rumors dying down the Ministry have a lot of backlash in terms of support," Selvis pointed out, "No one likes to be wrong, especially not about something as big as that. Now people are wondering what else they probably got wrong."
They thought about that before Luna nodded in agreement, "That's probably why Rita included Ness in such vague terms, to try an win back support by possibly having Ness, an outsider make up the evidence to help his friend out."
"…I didn't even think about it." Ness admitted as Selvis's flushed an angry red and growled, "I am going to get this woman and end her!"
"And as usual, we can't do anything but keep our heads down until the storm blows over." Ginny sighed.
"Me especially," Selvis grumbled, "I overheard Malfoy boasting about his tight connections to Rita after bumping into her after the interviews ended, she's probably going to be the head journalist of The Daily Prophet for this tournament."
"I liked Mr. Goldmen." Ness sulked as the bell rang, forcing them to abandon their club room and sneak downstairs to class, careful not to be seen with each other to avoid more backlash from their classmates.
It took a week before something good popped up that wasn't a huge scandal, and it was in the form of Hagrid who had pulled Ness aside one day after Magical Creature Care whispering for him to talk to Harry before nightfall.
"Why?" Ness had asked only to get shooed along before Selvis and the other Slytherins' noticed. Selvis did, and sent him scathing glares, silently demanding to know what exactly had Hagrid had told him as Harry pulled him aside during lunch,
"Hang out in the common room after dinner, Hagrid sent me something." He mumbled, careful to make it seem like he was just quietly apologizing for bumping into Ness.
"Sure," Ness replied, forcing a smile of acceptance on his face as Harry moved to sit beside Hermione, shooting Ron his usual weary look at his friend happily chatted with Dean and some other Gryffindors.
"It'll take an iceberg to melt before Ron gets over himself." Ginny grumbled, "He actually asked me if I was in on the plan!"
"Did you hit him?"
"Nearly decked him with my history book." Ginny answered, looking a little sad that she hadn't, "Hermione stopped me before I could actually do it."
"And here I thought you were an adorable little cinnamon roll," Ness teased earning a glare as he ducked behind his sandwich with a laugh, "That's right, cower." Ginny huffed but she couldn't wipe away the smile on her face.
"Geez, did you take lessons from Paula on how to be scary?" Ness asked.
"If I had then I would have smacked Ron with a frying pan, not a book." Ginny pointed out, "By the way, how is Paula?"
"She's alright, hanging out with friends and bugging Tracey who keeps kidnapping her for sleepovers." Ness replied, before he frowned slightly, "Although, someone sent her, Jeff and Poo issues of the Daily Prophet for some reason."
Ginny nearly choked on her water and looked at Ness in surprise, "Really? Who?"
"Didn't come with an address," Ness replied, "Paula and Jeff said they just found it in their room with a note saying, 'beware of those in black robes' and the article talking about Harry and I planning everything was highlighted with a red pen."
"Do you think-," Ginny stopped herself and quietly mumbled, "Do you think our second-year suspect was behind this?" making sure to glance at the teacher's table where Mad Eye Moody was scanning the room, his eyes always lingering on him and Harry for some reason.
"I don't think so." Ness replied, "Year two suspect warned me about the threads of fate binding Harry and I together, why warn practically nobodies to his possible plan about looking out for other wizards?"
"Maybe… maybe You-Know-Who is back?" Ginny whispered, her eyes growing wide with fear, "And he knows about your secret?"
Ness shuddered at the thought and hoped it wasn't that. Even though the Wizarding World didn't seem to care about his comic book adventures, the information about his attacks and powers were still out there, on old issues of the Prophet and other newspaper. Easily allowing the enemy to see his strengths and weaknesses.
"Let's hope not." Ness replied as they stood up and headed for Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Moody had gone overboard with classes and lessons, focusing on self-defense magic and practicing attack spells.
Thankfully, they hadn't done anything crazy like they had for their first class but the spells they were practicing were… a bit out there. Spells to bind people's hands and feet, powerful stun spells, jinxes to force to person to speak backwards and more.
Ness tried his best to fake what he was supposed to do but as usual but doubted he could keep up the charade for long once they moved into jinxes.
"I hate Professor Moody." Ness grumbled his head killing him as he reclined in an empty armchair as Ginny started on her homework, "He's going to be the death of me."
"Snape might have a rival then," Ginny said, grumbling slightly as she accidentally ruined an I, forcing her to start her essay on Boomslang skin all over again.
"Yea, double potions homework, both an essay about Moonslang and venomous archetypes." Ness groaned, "He hates us."
"I think you mean, Boomslang, Ness."
"I rename it Moonslang." Ness proclaimed, "And you cannot tell me otherwise, Carrot-Top."
"Annnd now you need to head to bed." Ginny said, rolling her eyes at her new name.
"Can't, Harry wanted to talk to me-," Ness started when something warm brushed against his hand, Enemy approaching! He sat up, Rockin' Alpha on the tip of his tongue as he grabbed the warm object and looked up to see nothing.
"Ness! Relax! It's me, Harry!" a frantic voice hissed, the warm object—a hand Ness realized, fighting to stay under a piece of scratchy fabric.
"Harry?" Ness repeated, forcing his body to relax as he let go of Harry's hand and grabbed his school book to make it seem like he was mumbling notes. The Common wasn't exactly empty after all, students who were preparing to burn the night oil were relaxing on couches to study and trade notes were there, as well as the few who just wanted to play some chess and trade gossip.
"What are you doing? Why are you under the cloak?" Ness asked as he heard Harry shuffle his feet, "Hagrid, he wants to meet us by his house before eight. Has something important to show us."
"Important enough for me to hide under that cactus cloak?" Ness questioned, remembering how itchy he had felt from sneaking out with Harry to visit Hogsmeade.
"Yes, now come, the hallways are empty and Flich is two floors above us."
"Got the map out as well, interesting." Ness muttered before he stood up and pretended to yawn, "I'll meet you outside, by the hallway entrance near the Fat Lady's portrait."
"Wait, how are you going to-," Harry started to ask when Ness abruptly said, "See you there." And headed up for bed, sprinting at the last second and picturing himself in the hallway outside the Gryffindor entrance.
"He's never going to believe I'm a PSI user." Ness sighed as he ducked into the shadows, waiting for the Fat Lady's dozing portrait to move aside to signal that Harry was outside.
It took a couple moments but it slowly slid open and closed with a small snap.
"How did you?" Harry asked as Ness joined him under the cloak, "Special powers." Ness deadpanned, "Now come on, I really don't want to be here any longer than I need to."
Harry nodded and slowly lead him down the stairs, occasionally looking down at the Marauder's Map now and again to ensure that no one was coming around the corner as they slipped into the entrance hall without making a sound.
"I wonder what Hagrid has to tell us." Ness whispered as they walked on the castle grounds.
"He said it was urgent, and very important in his letter." Harry explained, "But he didn't say-," he abruptly stopped and looked into the darkness of the trees his eyes widening in disbelief.
"What? What is it?" Ness said, feeling on edge as Harry slowly said, "I think… I saw a plume of fire go up in the sky. It was faint but…"
"Great. We're fighting fire breathing monsters." Ness groaned as Harry started to move, picking up the pace and forcing Ness to break into a light jog to keep up with the older boy.
"Hagrid! It's us!" Harry whispered, knocking on the door and cringing as Fang broke into loud barks.
"Harry? Ness?" Hagrid gruffly asked, his eyes squinting into the darkness as he opened the door a bit, "No, we're two aliens from outer space trying to invade the school." Ness joked.
"Yes, it's us." Harry said, nudging Ness with his foot as Hagrid let them inside. For some reason, Hagrid was wearing an ugly bow tie and was attempting to comb his unruly hair and beard with little success, "Ohh, someone's going on a date," Ness teased, muffling a laugh as the giant man blushed in embarrassment.
"Really? Who's the lucky girl?" Harry asked, lowering the cloak slightly so Hagrid could see the smile on Harry's face.
"Madam Maxine," Hagrid proudly answered, "I'm taking her to see something wonderful."
"Unicorns?" Harry guessed while Ness joked, "Fire breathing dragons." His stomach dropped as Hagrid jerked back in surprise, "You know? Did Charlie tell you?"
"I was joking." Ness weakly said while Harry asked, "Why is Charlie here with dragons?"
"For the-," Hagrid started, sounding a little worried when someone knocked on the door, Harry quickly dove back under the cloak and lead Ness over to the back door as Hagrid ran his toothless comb through his hair and opened it with a broad grin, "Madam Maxine!" he boomed, his nervousness and excitement coming through full blast as he happily shook the woman's hand who was only a foot shorter than Hagrid, "Lovely as usual." Hagrid praised, not noticing how the small giant woman lead him out of his house.
"Why thank you Hagrid," Madam Maxine said, blushing slightly as Ness caught a glimpse of a dark navy-blue dress that was as dark as the night sky.
"Something's up." Ness thought as he realized that Madam Maxine was practically shrouded in the darkness, the only bright colors being her pale skin and gaudy makeup along with her jewelry.
"We are totally following them." Ness whispered as Harry watched the door close and nodded in agreement.
"I don't trust Madam Maxine," Harry whispered as they took the back door and walked behind Hagrid who was nervously talking about Madam Maxine's beauty and the forest scenery which was shrouded in darkness.
"We're getting close-," Ness started, noticing how the shadows became bigger as they approached a caravan of light when a sudden roar interrupted him.
"Ah! What was that?" Madam Maxine asked, actually jumping closer to Hagrid as he broke into a grin, "Dragons." He breathlessly said, picking up the pace and entering the caravan.
"Wizards are insane." Ness declared as he and Harry quietly chased after Hagrid only to lose him in the crowd of dragon tamers walking around, soothing irritated dragons.
"I don't like the looks of that one." Harry noted, pointing toward a dragon curled around a giant egg, a giant spike incrusted tail angrily swishing around as it glowered at its neighbor who was brightly colored compared to the dragon they were looking at. The spike tail dragon was a stone grey while its neighbor was a light emerald green.
Ness was about to whisper that it was pretty when acid dripped out of its mouth, sizzling on the metal floor as its tail slowly tapped the walls.
"Insane is too nice a term." Ness decided as he and Harry quickly ducked behind the spikey tail dragon's cage to avoid a distracted tamer. "Seven dragons in all." Harry counted, "It's for all of us."
"And so far, I don't want to meet any of them." Ness muttered as they slowly circled the metal cages, studying the dragons which seemed to become more dangerous as they completed a full circle. Ness especially disliked a medium toxic purple dragon that was blowing bubbles of slimy purple liquid out of its mouth with ease. It's bright green eyes angrily studying its companions while its slime covered tail and claws tapped the cage, in an almost annoyed fashion.
"Can you… can you talk to them?" Harry asked, ducking into the shadows as the toxic purple dragon spat out a large amount of slime and anger, snarling as it merely bounced off a shield and landed at its feet.
"We can talk to them," Ness corrected, "Just hold my hand and I'll see what I can do."
Harry nodded and did as told, flinching as a bombardment of gruff female voices suddenly erupted in their heads.
"Bad idea." Ness grumbled, suppressing a groan as he tried to tune into one dragon, which felt like walking into an active volcano considering how angry all the dragonesses were, their minds abuzz of fiery thoughts and anger that prevent him from focusing on just one.
"Hey! Sorry if this is rude, but could you please calm down?" Ness asked, face palming as all the dragons visibly stiffened and lowered into wary attack stances.
"Who are you?" a gravelly voice asked, "And why can't I see you mortal?"
"We're hiding under an invisibly cloak, near the angry toxic dragon." Ness explained, tightening his grip on Harry's hand and forcing the boy to sit down as he felt the hot cloak flutter slightly.
"I'm a New England Mist Bane Dragon boy." The dragon snarled, "Do you know nothing about dragons?"
"Nope, other than the fact that I should stay, far, far away from you guys." Ness chirpily answered.
"He'ssss an idiot." One dragon, probably the sliver blue snake dragon judging by the lisp decided.
"We've noticed Sepri," some dragon rumbled.
"Sepri? Nice name. Are you the snake dragon?" Ness asked, flinching at the cold heat exploding in his mind.
"I'll have you know that I'm a River Frossssst Dragon from the sssshoresss of China!" Sepri snapped.
"Frost? Up in china?" Ness questioned earning a growl of annoyance from Sepri, "I lived up in the mountain rivers until these… humans." She practically spat the word, "Caught me slithering into the lower regions to lay my eggs."
"My babies are going to grow up in a cage." An acid voice bemoaned, "How awful!"
"Don't remind us Asid," A weary voice snarled, probably the leader considering how all the other dragons muttering quickly stopped. "That fact is set in stone."
"Leader of the pack? Ness questioned.
"More or less." The leader snarled, "You may call me Tira, I am a Volcanic Curved Wing dragon from the Tabernas desert."
"Nice to meet you Tira! I'm Ness Earthbound, the human." Ness replied, resisting the urge to bow, "And this is my friend, Harry Potter, say hi Harry!"
Harry weakly stammered, "Ello," before he fell silently, cringing as all the dragons exploded with disgust and oddly enough, surprise, "So, the boy who lived and a nobody come to visit us?! Why?!" the gruff dragon demanded earning a snap of, "Shut up Earthia!" from Tira.
"A friend invited us, you see, I think you guys were captured for the Tri-Wizard tournament." Ness explained, "Harry and I are one of the seven champions who have to do something to enter the next trial."
"Tournament!? We're for sport?!" Asid bellowed, spewing white hot acid out in a foamy rage as some of the other dragons snorted flames, poison, ice and banged their spike covered tails in anger.
"And during our nesting process as well!" Earthia, probably the sturdy looking forest green dragon who was angrily flapping her small wings, her small size and lean back legs suggesting that she was an active ground hunter. "Have they no shame!?"
"Apparently not." The New England Mist Bane snarled, "Considering how they so nicely invaded my family's cave to capture me."
"I should have done more than bite off someone's arm." The spiked tail dragon grumbled.
"It's not like you knew what they were plotting Sparik," Asid grumbled, "After all, we were preoccupied with our eggs when they invaded."
"Or bussssy moving them to a sssssafer part of the river." Sepri grumbled, her body angrily circling her clutch and spraying confused tamers with blast of ice when they tried to stun her.
"Or going out hunting." An almost timid voice said, a loud shuffle of movement coming from beside him and Harry as they caught a glimpse of a midnight tail dotted with starry blue splotches on the end, "I should rain sleep upon these fools." She finished.
"Good luck with that Midnight," Sparik snorted, giving Ness the impression that she too was a mist dragon considering the soft velvet blue mist seeping out the sides of her cage, prompting Ness and Harry to move on the other side of the New England Mist Bane's cage.
"They keep putting us under sleep spells to keep us quiet."
"I'll show them quiet." A sleepy voice grumbled, earning yelps of, "Don't do it you Mimic!" as the owner of the voice let loose a female screech of fear and anger, causing everyone to duck their heads and clap their hands over their ears as the rest of the dragons roared in anger right back.
"We're right here! Save the noise work for later!" Tira ordered.
"Please, I can barely handle you guys talking at the moment." Harry begged, looking ready to faint.
"Wimp." Mimic huffed, her voice sounding like Harry's as Sepri hissed, 'He'sss a human actually able to undersssstand ussss! Don't make them go deaf you moronic Sssshe-devil!"
"Look who's talking snake breath."
"You little-," Sepri snarled when Tira angrily banged her cage, roaring, "Silence! I wish to know more about this 'tournament' we're in."
"Wish we could help, but we've been kept in the dark." Ness grimly replied, "We just discovered that we're supposed to go up against you guys for some reason tonight. But we aren't sure what we're supposed to do."
"Oh goodie, so we're just going to have to wait on the edge of our hides." The New England Mist Bane grumbled, her voice oozing toxic anger as her inmates grumpily agreed.
"Well, good luck with your eggs." Ness said, nudging Harry who nodded and added, "It was nice meeting all of you."
"Hold on," Tira interrupted, causing them to pause in their attempt to sneak away before the stun spells increased, "How old are the champions?"
"Well, four of us are between the ages of 13-14 and the last three are 17-18 years old." Ness answered, picking up the pace as Tira loudly snarled, "We're fighting mere hatchlings?!"
"The nerve! Did they run out of formidable warriors?!" Asid demanded as Sepri huffed, "Great! I wassss kidnapped for almosssst no reasssson!"
"Yea… we should go." Ness whispered, cutting off his telepathy and following Harry who led him into the woods to avoid the frantic dragon tamers to were desperately trying to either calm or stun the dragonesses into submission.
"Well… at least we know what to sort of expect." Harry muttered, keeping his eyes peeled for something as they inched toward the edge of the forest, "Barely though." Ness commented.
"True, but-," Harry faltered and frowned down at the map, "Kakaroff is here."
"Oh goodie, so everyone knows about the dragons now." Ness said, rolling his eyes and looking up toward the sky from under his cloak, "Not everyone, Cedric." Harry reminded him, "Hagrid only told us since we're the underdogs at the moment."
"Really? Even with our news story?"
"I doubt Hagrid could care less about what the news says," Harry replied, "He was expelled from school thanks to a student framing him for the Chamber of Secrets incident years ago, he probably prefers to hear both sides of the story before he makes his final decision."
"Smart man." Ness commented, "So, you going to tell Cedric? I barely see the dude thanks to my class structure."
"It's only fair." Harry firmly stated, "Adaliz and Alexander are probably going to be informed of this as well since Madam Maxine and Kakraroff want their schools to win, so it's only fair if all of us know."
"True." Ness agreed as they started to walk back to the castle. They were nearly there when Ness asked, "Do you think Peter put our names in the goblet?"
"No," Harry quickly answered, "I ask Sirus—Snuffles, about it when we first found out and he said that it would take a powerful charm to fool the Goblet, something Peter wouldn't be able to do since he failed most of his classes, relying on Lupin's tutoring to help him pass." Harry glanced at Ness from the corner of his eye and asked, "Why do you ask?"
"Ginny and Luna were throwing around possible suspects about who could have done it since the why is sort of out there," Ness explained, sharing Harry's grimace as the boy remembered the target on his back, "Peter came up since the news hasn't given us any leads as to where he was and because he could sneak back into the castle. But now that you pointed that out, it's just Kakraroff and Barty Crouch."
"Mr. Crouch? And Kakraroff?" Harry questioned, dropping his voice to a whisper as they entered the castle, "Why them?"
"According to a friend, Mr. Crouch was involved in some huge scandal, one that took a lot of effort to keep quiet about, something involved with Death Eaters no doubt considering how he fired his house elf with ease when it was possible that she did it. And Kakraroff was once a Death Eater, who sold out a lot of his buddies so he wouldn't die."
"He thinks they probably entered us?" Harry questioned, "Kakraroff maybe, but Mr. Crouch?"
"Yea, it's a stretch but, he was the one foaming at the mouth and eager to pin the blame on us despite saying that we all heard a male voice cast the spell." Ness reminded him, "Plus, he's supposed to be one of the judges, right? He would have access to the castle and the tournament, and no one would question him given his authority."
Harry nodded in agreement as they jumped over a trick step and said, "Can you get Ginny to write a letter to Percy? Asking about Crouch's whereabouts?"
"I'll try, but I think she's considering strangling Ron and Percy at this point, especially since Percy's coming with Crouch as his assistant."
Harry shook his head in disbelief as they finally reached the Fat Lady painting, "Well, let's hope that she doesn't since she and Ron are the closest source of getting Ministry information,"
"And apparently, Selvis." Ness thought, realizing that Selvis seemed to know every shady bit of the Ministry's history despite being from a magic carpet business.
"True, so, any plans on dealing with dragons?"
"I'm thinking of figuring out a way to get extra mobile support." Harry admitted, "I doubt the stun spells I know at the moment are going to help, but if I could fly that would help me out. How about you?"
"I'm bringing my baseball bat and hoping that I can talk which ever dragon I get down." Ness replied with a grin at Harry's look of disbelief, "Don't worry, I'm good with a bat." He assured him as the painting swung open and they entered, heading up to bed to get ready for the weekend with quiet good nights.
Ness climbed into bed, quickly writing down a to do list of writing his mother a letter to ask for one of his bats and informing Paula of the challenge, he would have added Jeff but he didn't want to get another letter writing how it was scientifically impossible for the magic object of the week to exist.
"Yea… I am not reading another four-page letter on mumbo jumbo." Ness said with a yawn, rolling onto his side and falling asleep.
In case anyone forgot (I know I did.) the Second Year Suspect Ginny and Ness were whispering about was Dumbledore.
Also really late thank you but- Thank you Someone! :D It makes me happy to know that people are waiting for my story! Now if only I could remember to update daily without getting distracted by another project. ^_^;
