I don't own Harry Potter, so I make do with Fanfiction.

Anyway, I am sorry it's taken so long to update this story, but I hope the wait was worth it with this latest chapter as I have been concentrating on writing my own original novel and other stories.

Enjoy, and please let me know what you think.


The Hell of Fourth Year.

"Help!" Charlotte narrowed her eyes when she heard the sound of Granger's voice, but it was quickly followed by the sounds of other voices, two of then were accented, but there was so much noise it was virtually impossible for Charlotte or the other Champions to pick them out properly unless they were really listening.

"Gabrielle!" Fleur screeched, and she moved to try to head up the rigging of the pirate ship to get to her sister, but half a dozen pirates blocked her way, leering at the French witch before she could even climb up.

"Avast there, boys!" An authoritative voice barked, dragging the Champions attention to an enormous, barrel-chested man wearing a tricorn hat with a white embossed skull and crossbones, with a battered peg leg and a parrot who looked like it had seen better days. Sticking out of the pirate captain's belt was an enormous pistol and a cutlass. The face of the pirate was fearsome with the weather-beaten skin lank, greasy locks and the straggly beard, the gleaming ring in his already admittedly damaged ear which looked like it had been gnawed by a wolverine. But the gold teeth gleaming in his mouth, the one eye covered by a patch….

If I needed any more proof people are so blind when it comes to pirates and highwaymen, who are seen as romantic rogues rather than thieves on horses, I've got it in spades, Charlotte thought to herself while she looked from one pirate to the next, seeing they looked more like the stereotypical pirates you found in picture books and Captain Pugwash cartoons than what was real. They were more jokes than real.

The pirate captain limped over to them, the peg leg stump scraping across the deck as he moved. "Arr, and what d'we 'ave 'ere?" He asked, more to himself than to his own crew.

Charlotte lifted an eyebrow at his voice, which was yet another strike against realism. She had never understood why people had this romantic crappy view of pirates, but being confronted by it now made her feel she was face to face with Robert Newton.

"Looks like we've got boarders, lads," the captain grinned maliciously, sharing a sly look of anticipation with his men. "They be here to take our prize!"

Fleur caught on quickly. "They are not your prize!"

Charlotte mentally shook her head, hoping they weren't doomed although she would never allow the pirates to do anything to them She wanted to grab her own hostage, even if it was Granger, and just end this prolonged Task which had been growing longer and longer than it needed to be by a bunch of people who'd organised the farce to make it more interesting than it needed to be. But what she was worried about the most was how the pirates would react to Fleur. These may not be the realistic types of pirates she had learnt about from more reputable history books rather than the lying, foolish sources when she had conducted her research before she'd arrived at Hogwarts, but they seemed to have been based on the Disney version of Treasure Island and other 50s movies.

But they were probably as nasty as real pirates, which meant they had no inhibitions.

The pirates, meanwhile, laughed. "And what're ye goin' ta be doing, lassie?" The captain mocked her.

"It's not her you need to be worried about," Charlotte interjected, noting the position of every pirate as they turned and paid more attention to her.

"And who be you, missy?" The captain chuckled.

"Someone who is really pissed off and just wants to be left alone to do what she likes the most," Charlotte replied.

The pirate captain chuckled again, however, there was no amusement in his voice. "Arrrgh, you're a spitfire, you are," he commented. "Pity ye'll either be clapped in irons, or forced to walk the plank-"

"Oh come on," Charlotte spat derisively. "Where did this stupid myth pirates forced their prisoners to walk the plank come from? It never really happened. It's just a common myth, just like that bollocks highwaymen always swept gooey-eyed girls off of their feet."

Her derisive attack made the pirate captain clench his jaw. "I'm warning ye, missy," the pirate growled, jabbing a long finger her way, "one more word o' your saurce, and I-"

None of the Champions nor the worldwide magical audience would ever know what the pirate captain had in mind for a threat. Charlotte had had enough, and she began by whipping out her wands, aiming them at the deck. Instantly flames shot up, burning through the wooden deck boards. The pirates yelled and screamed in surprise at the suddenness of the flames and they jumped back, but it was more than enough time for the Champions, who were just as surprised to fire their own spells at the pirates.

The pirates, already held back by the flames which were slowly consuming their way through the ship, were yelling in anger and pain as the Champions spells broke through, and injured them. While she was busy going through her own repertoire and using it against the pirates, Charlotte was mentally going over the situation. The flames were spreading everywhere, especially to where the Champions were currently firing one curse after another at the pirates. A while back, Charlotte had visited the old maritime ships on the Thames; the HMS Belfast was one of them, but she'd also found a replica of Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hind, and the more authentic Cutty Sark.

She had learnt a fair bit about the old-fashioned sailing ships like there were several flights of stairs leading from the top decks to the lower decks. With that in mind, Charlotte went to Krum, Cedric and Fleur. "We've got to get into the rigging now," she told them, "while they're still occupied. There's likely a staircase somewhere near them, and they can go down and then come back up, on the other side. We have to head up now. Hopefully, we can get up there before they find a way around."

Cedric was looking at the devastated ruins of the deck. The magical flames were burning through the wood, eating it in the same way a cat slowly chewed through meat, splinter by splinter. The flames were so bright, stopping Cedric from seeing through them, making it very very hard for him to see what the pirates were doing. Had they left? Were they moving through their burning wreck of a ship to get to them? "I'll say something about you, Charlotte," he commented as he watched the burning flames. "You certainly know how to make things exciting!"

Charlotte slipped off her sunglasses and showed Cedric her remaining eye. As always the sight of her single eye and the terrible scarring in the closed eye pit made Cedric flinch and pity her. He still blamed himself for what Susan had done, and he knew he always would even if the deranged little bitch had done it herself without any instructions from him.

Frankly, Cedric was surprised it had been Susan and not Cho, who was more high maintenance than Susan. And Cho had been growing more and more annoyed with how Cedric had been defending Charlotte, saying she hadn't put her name into the Goblet. She had blown up at him more than once simply for being gullible. Well, she was certainly eating a Great Hall's worth of Humble pie now following Charlotte's oath following the First Task after she'd torn it to shreds.

Charlotte grinned at him. "Good to know a drop-dead gorgeous guy appreciates it," she flirted back, but her grin dropped. "We have to go. Quick."

With that, they raced towards the rigging. It took time for them to get over the high rail but they managed to find the footholds and they started to climb up the rigging to the top.

XXX

James looked at the mirror in anger. "W-was that boy flirting with my daughter?"

Lily sighed. "And she flirted with him as well, James. In any case, if they are together, what does it have to do with us?"

"But he flirted with her-."

"James," Lily sighed again, wondering how she could make her husband understand. "We haven't seen Charlotte for years, and if you confront her over this Cedric, how do you think she will handle it?"

James paused while his wife's logical question entered his mind. Truth be told, he knew she had a point. In any case, he used the moment to think about everything else. Aside from when she had been a baby, they hadn't had any real presence in Charlotte's life. The thought of what she had gone through, especially with those filthy muggles… James Potter had never been a blood supremacist, not like so many of his pureblood peers, but now he was starting to wonder if people like Voldemort had a point about them.

What had possessed Dumbledore to leave Charlotte there in the first place? They had made it clear that she was not to even know about the Dursleys, they were a disgusting family. Petunia was nothing but a jealous old bitch with delusions of grandeur, and her husband was a fat thug. He had proven it when he had raped Charlotte.

The thought of the filthy muggle daring to touch his daughter made James hope that Vernon Dursley was still around; he would love to teach the muggles their place in the world. The fact he was even thinking of the same thing the Death Eaters would make him ill, but this was his daughter.

But at the same time, he and Lily had gone over everything they had been steadily collecting about Charlotte. Their discovery of how she had survived the killing curse itself on Halloween when she was supposed to have died three months before, which was the main reason why he and his wife had left the country in the first place brought up more questions than they would have liked. But there was no doubt in their minds someone had faked Charlotte's death, deliberately engineering that awful night, just for her to be dumped on the step of the Dursleys.

"You're right, Lils," James whispered. "It's just….so hard… I thought, I mean we both thought she was dead. It's just so hard to see her as a teenager. She should never have gone through that hell, especially with that animal!"

Lily closed her eyes, nodding in agreement. "I know. I hate the wizarding world, James. I know it's blunt and harsh of me to say that, but they allowed a war to go on because the combatants were innocent purebloods," she sneered the two words with the contempt they deserved, "I hate the fact they refuse to change. Not only did their war result in the deaths of so many, the so-called Leader of the Light decided to secretly disdain his vaunted titles by abandoning a baby to a family without even bothering to check on her. Their philosophies are going to be their downfall, and I don't know about you, James, but I would be happy to see the entire blood shit torn down. Dumbledore is the worst; he puts so much stock into crackpot prophecies, conveniently forgetting that many of them don't even get fulfilled, and they're just made by cranks. At the same time, he talks about a Greater Good, yet he never says what the Greater Good is. He also has put great stock into the expression the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Believe it or not, I don't have any real problems with that since I know sometimes sacrifices need to be made, but I don't like the fact Dumbledore believes he had the right to decide who will live and who will die. Now he plans to do the same with Charlotte. There's no doubt in my head he has a nasty plan in mind for her. Why else would he manipulate her the way he has? Now that she's grown up, she's forced into this farce; Dumbledore and McGonagall allowed my baby to suffer, and she has lost an eye. If I had my way, those two would be on the floor, bleeding to death. In those books, Charlotte is regarded as a hero, but she is treated worse than scum."

XXX

The climb up the rigging had started slowly at first, everyone wasn't used to climbing up on rope footholds, but they quickly got used to it and now they were moving up to the top of the mast where the hostages were. The group of hostages was aware of them, and they were shouting at them, begging them to get them away from this hell. Periodically Charlotte would look down to see if they were being followed, but luckily the pirate ship was on fire, so they were alright for now.

As she climbed she wondered who these pirates were. There was no doubt in her head they weren't actors, but since the flames from her fire spell had kept them back and shielded them from sight, there was no telling what had happened when the pirates had been hit by their spells.

Charlotte sighed with relief when they reached the top of the rigging and got on the crow's nest. She arrived first, the others not so far behind. Now they were up here, the Champions could see all of the hostages were bound to the mast, begging for help. Charlotte scanned each one just as the other Champions appeared. Granger was there, looking at her with hope, but Charlotte quickly looked further down the line. There was a woman who had a passing resemblance with Krum, so she was probably his mother, and there was Cho Chang, who was looking at Cedric with a smile that made the Hufflepuff Champion look uncomfortable. Charlotte was curious about the inclusion of the Chinese witch; either Dumbledore had worked out that she and Cedric were sleeping together without anyone knowing about it, or so they had assumed.

Or he was purposefully trying to play matchmaker as he had done with her and Weasley. Either way, the old fool was delusional if he thought he could manipulate love, even though both she and Cedric knew what they were having was nothing more than a fling.

But the last hostage worried Charlotte the most. It was one thing knowing that a little girl was involved, but she hadn't expected Fleur's sister to be so young! The little girl was straining against the spells holding her to the mast, looking at her desperately that it broke Charlotte's heart. Once more she felt nothing but rage towards Dumbledore, him and the other bastard organisers of this fucked up Tournament. What the hell had been going through their minds when they had set this up? Oh, she had no doubt Dumbledore hadn't thought it through, especially chaining some poor child to a mast. He had not batted an eyelid whenever Tom Riddle had begged him to not send him back to that filthy muggle orphanage, he had encouraged the students of his own school to bully and harass Miranda Pond until she committed suicide. Oh yes, Charlotte knew about that one.

In comparison, Gabrielle Delacour was nothing.

Speaking of which…

Charlotte sighed and waved her wand, speaking clearly in Latin as she scanned the hostages before anyone could even set them free. In fact, Krum and Fleur had been moving in their direction to do that, but Charlotte's spell which created a neutral white aura around each of the hostages stopped them in their tracks. The spell she was using was not your average scanning spell, it was one of the most powerful and the most thorough spells on Earth. Designed and created by Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff, and Rowena Ravenclaw, the spell had been created because there had been many witches and wizards who'd envied the Founders' work at Hogwarts, and for reasons unknown to common sense, they had tried to send spies disguised as students of all things, and they had sent them into Hogwarts to steal as many of the Founders secrets as they could.

Charlotte guessed the story was worse than they'd told her, otherwise they wouldn't have created such a powerful and very thorough spell in the first place. But even now it worked a treat.

The white aura changed to green.

"They're genuine," she sighed with relief.

Fleur was looking at her in confusion, but it was Cho Chang who got there first.

"What are you talking about, Potter?" The Chinese witch sneered.

Charlotte took Cho's attitude with a pinch of salt. "We've gone from one challenge in the Second Task to another. Every time we thought we'd get to you, another problem would come up."

"It has not been fun," Krum said.

Fleur nodded. "Oui," she agreed.

"But you guys are real," Charlotte said with a relieved smile, "and we'd better get you lot out of here."

"How?" The woman who was now freed asked. "Do any of you have a portkey?"

Charlotte frowned and looked at the others. "Do we still have that Portkey?"

Cedric and Viktor checked, but they shook their heads. "No," Cedric shook his head.

Suddenly there was a crack, and Fleur looked down. "They're coming up the rigging!" she yelled.

Charlotte looked down and she wasn't surprised when she saw the pirates climbing the rigging like an army of ants stripping a whole forest to a wasteland. "We need that Portkey, now. Is it anywhere?"

The Champions and the hostages shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders. "I've got nothing," Fleur added grimly while she held onto her sister.

Something suddenly sparked above their heads, and it caught Krum's eye. "What's that?" He pointed.

Charlotte and the others looked up, and they spotted what looked like a jewel that gently gleamed in the light. Hermione, who was closest, gently reached up and pulled it off of the mast and held it out, holding it low for Fleur's sister to touch. As soon as their hands touched the gem, they instantly got hooked into the Portkey vortex….