- CHAPTER THREE -
Bazinga
"Tom Marvolo Riddle."
"Merlin!" McGonagall gasped.
Hagrid, too, wore a shocked expression, and all colour had left Moody's face. Snape and Flitwick also looked shaken, but the other teachers and the judges were clearly unfamiliar with the name and seemed confused.
Most students looked at each other and wondered why the Headmaster and the senior staff were so upset by the name of the last champion.
"Tom who?"
"Who's that?"
"Isn't that the barkeeper of the Leaky Cauldron?"
"What kind of name is Marvolo, anyway?"
The murmur rose again.
Harry noticed that Ginny Weasley was very pale – she obviously knew the name. Ron frowned, deep in thought, probably trying to remember where he had heard the name before. Fred and George looked at Harry and Hermione expectantly, clearly hoping for an explanation. Apparently, no one had told them the details of how the Chamber of Secrets had been opened two years ago.
Harry wondered why the origins of Lord Voldemort were not widely known. He had never thought of it before, but exposing the leader of a terrorist group fighting for Pureblood supremacy as the son of a Muggle seemed like a smart thing to do. Harry didn't understand why the Headmaster hadn't made this information public long ago. He decided to take action and took a few steps towards Dumbledore at the head table.
The Great Hall quieted down when The-Boy-Who-Lived addressed The-Greatest-Wizard-Alive. "Headmaster, Sir, won't you tell the school, and all those not in the know, who Tom Riddle is? What name he is more commonly known by, today?"
Dumbledore had a pained expression on his face as he answered, "Harry, I really don't think that would be wise-"
"Then I'll do it," Harry interrupted. He turned towards the hall and said with a raised voice, "Tom Riddle-"
"Harry, stop!" Dumbledore shouted, but Harry ignored him.
"Tom Riddle is named after his Muggle father. But he detested that fact and took another name. Tom Ri-"
He paused when he was distracted by a shocked gasp from Hermione. He followed her gaze and saw that back at the head table, Dumbledore had drawn his wand and aimed it at him. Hermione, too, had just pulled out her wand and was about to raise it in defence.
Quickly, Harry continued, "Tom Riddle is the birth name of-"
"Silencio!"
"Protego!"
"-VOLDEMORT!" Harry shouted just as Dumbledore's spell dissipated against Hermione's shield.
The students screamed. A young girl at the Hufflepuff table fainted.
Hermione and Dumbledore both lowered their wands. The Headmaster had a very resigned expression on his face, and Hermione gazed in shock upon the wand in her hand. She was obviously shaken by the fact that she had just (kind of) cast a spell against Albus Dumbledore, and then (kind of) won.
At the same time, many students at the Slytherin table jumped up in rage, among them several students from Durmstrang.
"YOU LIE, POTTER!" Draco Malfoy shouted.
"The Dark Lord is no son of a Muggle!" an enraged older Slytherin boy insisted.
"Мудак! Иди на хуй!" a boy from Durmstrang yelled at Harry, drawing his wand.
"SILENCE!" Dumbledore hollered and created a loud cannon bang with his wand.
The Great Hall quieted down again, but the students at the Slytherin table remained standing.
"Sit down, everyone," Dumbledore ordered impatiently.
Harry glowered at the wannabe Death Eaters. "If you have a problem with the Dork Lord's heritage, I suggest you take it up with him," he shouted, causing all the students that were just sitting down to shoot up again.
"SIT DOWN!" Dumbledore yelled. "And Harry, please stop this! This is getting us nowhere."
Harry glared at all of them defiantly but remained silent. He had achieved his goal and expected the revelation to be on the front page of the Daily Prophet the day after tomorrow at the latest.
The Headmaster sighed and addressed the Hall, "Very well, the feast is over. Please return to your common rooms or your accommodations, respectively. All the students whose names came out of the Goblet, please join the judges, professors, and other champions in the antechamber. Harry, please join us, too. There is much to discuss."
Harry nodded and together with Hermione, Fred, and George, he walked towards the head table. At the same time, the other students rose and slowly left the Great Hall while talking to each other with low voices. Some looked angrily at Harry, Hermione, or the twins, some of the Gryffindors patted them on their shoulders as they passed by, but most students just looked confused or a bit frightened.
#
The four Gryffindors followed the judges into the antechamber. Snape, dragging along Crabbe and Goyle, was the last one to enter the room.
Cedric Diggory, Viktor Krum, and Fleur Delacour got up from the benches they had been sitting on, looking confused, annoyed, and curious all at the same time.
"What is going on?" Cedric asked the crowd, "We've been waiting for almost half an hour."
"What are ze leetle children doing in 'ere?" Fleur asked with an annoyed expression that was matched by Krum.
Any answer was forestalled by Snape slamming the door of the antechamber shut behind him. He then lunged towards Harry and grabbed him by the collar of his robes.
"FIVE THOUSAND POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR AND DETENTION UNTIL YOU GRADUATE, POTTER!" screamed the enraged Potions Master.
"Why?" Harry choked out.
"YOU KNOW WHY!"
"Severus, you will stop manhandling one of my students at once!" McGonagall demanded, coming to Harry's defence.
Grudgingly, Snape let go of him. Despite his shock, Harry couldn't help but be surprised that Snape was even bothering with points and detentions and didn't just demand his expulsion.
"Now, Severus," Dumbledore said sternly, "I think we should talk to the suspected culprits before we take any disciplinary actions."
Snape only wrinkled his nose in response.
"What is going on?" Cedric asked once more and turned towards his Head of House Professor Sprout.
Dumbledore sighed. "It seems that we have some additional participants for the tournament."
Karkaroff huffed. "That remains to be discussed."
"Oui, zat's true," Madame Maxime agreed with the Durmstrang Headmaster.
"Let's try to get to the bottom of this first, shall we?" Professor Sprout suggested.
"Quite right, Pomona," Dumbledore agreed and turned towards the four Gryffindors.
The four students remained silent and looked defiantly at the Headmaster and the other enraged tournament organisers that gathered behind him. Both Harry and Hermione couldn't hide their nervousness, but the twins appeared surprisingly relaxed and quite a bit amused – clearly, they found themselves in situations like this frequently.
"Now, please tell us what happened today," Dumbledore then demanded with barely suppressed anger.
"Gladly," Fred said, "Today, at around seven, I woke up from a rather pleasant dream involving three most charming Gryffindor chasers, then-"
"Enough!" Professor McGonagall shouted. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for your disrespect and detention with Mr Filch tomorrow!"
Dumbledore nodded in agreement and turned his gaze towards Hermione.
"Miss Granger, would you be able to shed some light on this situation?" Dumbledore asked with an intimidating look, apparently going after what he presumed to be the easiest target.
Hermione gulped and squared her shoulders.
"I- I think I will exercise my right to remain silent," she informed the Headmaster and the other adults.
"So will I," Harry immediately concurred.
"There is a right to remain silent?" Fred wondered.
"It's a Muggle thing," Harry replied curtly.
"Oh, in that case," George said, "I will not exercise my right to remain silent, but my right to make loud wailing noises." And he proceeded to do just that, with his delighted twin brother joining in immediately.
"AAAAAAUUUUUUUU-aaaaaauuuuuuu-AAAAAAAUUUUUU-"
"UUIIII-uuuuiiiiii-UUUUIIIIII-uuuuiiiiiii-UUUIIIIII-uuuiiiiiii-"
"SILENCE!" Snape, Crouch, and Karkaroff all screamed at the same time as they drew their wands.
"Stop-!"
"-Infringing-!"
"-Upon our-!"
"-Rights!" the twins shouted as they dodged silencing spells cast by Snape and the two judges, but soon they were hit and could only move their lips in muted protest.
Harry had difficulties to suppress his laughter at the twins' antics, even though he could not quite see the wisdom in enraging the judges and professors even further.
"Fifty points from Gryffindor each, and a full week of detention with Mr Filch!" a seething Professor McGonagall informed the Weasley brothers and then turned towards Harry and Hermione. "You can start talking now, or join them in their detention."
"I'm sorry, we have no idea what happened," Harry replied. "I'm only here to support my girlfriend anyway. But we're just as bewildered as everyone else. Why is no one questioning Mr Crabbe or Mr Goyle, maybe they know something?"
"I think we can all see that no one here is more confused about this situation than these two gentlemen," Crouch said dismissively, and given the blank looks of the two Slytherin boys, Harry wasn't surprised that his attempt at diversion had failed.
"Now," Dumbledore spoke up again, his annoyance clear in his voice, "You have one last chance to come clean and admit to a prank that has gotten out of hand, and we shall show some lenience. Or, we will be forced to take further action, and the consequences for you would be much more serious. You would probably be facing expulsion."
Harry gulped and glanced towards Hermione. They shared a look and came to the silent agreement to stick to their story. They were pretty sure that there was no incriminating evidence.
"I'm sorry, Headmaster, but I don't know what happened," Harry said.
"Nor do I," Hermione concurred.
Crouch sneered. "Fine, then. I'm curious if that story of yours will hold up when you are questioned by the DMLE under Veritaserum."
Harry and Hermione tensed. This was it. Hermione had told Harry of the Truth Potion when they were discussing the possible consequences of their actions in the library a few hours earlier. She had also explained that the use of Veritaserum was highly restricted, especially its use on minors. It could only be used by Aurors and required the permissions of the Minister or the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, the permission of the minor's guardians, and the permission of the Headmaster. The Minister would, of course, permit the DMLE to employ Veritaserum, and at least in the case of Harry, the guardians' permission would also surely be granted. The Dursleys would always be glad to cause him trouble.
But when Harry and Hermione had discussed things, the couple had been almost certain that the Headmaster would not allow for them to be questioned by the Ministry under the Truth Potion. Too many things could come to light that Dumbledore would not want to be made public. Things like him hiding the Philosopher's Stone that was hunted by Voldemort behind deadly traps in a school full of children. Dumbledore would not risk such information to surface during an interrogation. At least, they hoped so.
To Harry's relief, the Headmaster seemed to have come to the same conclusion, because he suddenly got a very concerned expression on his face.
"Let's not rush into things, Bartemius," he said. "I will question these four most troublesome students myself tomorrow. Let's see how things go from there."
Crouch protested, but Dumbledore didn't budge. "Don't worry, Bartemius," he said, "I'm sure the guilty party will be identified soon enough."
Snape snorted angrily at that, but Crouch nodded reluctantly. Then, the Ministry Department Head frowned and asked the Headmaster, "What about other forensic evidence? Should we ask the Aurors to examine what spells were cast onto the Goblet and by whom?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "I doubt that would have revealed any useful information. But in any case, the Goblet of Fire is utterly destroyed. We won't find any significant traces of residual magic on it."
Harry and Hermione shared a guilty look. That had not been an intended outcome.
Moody suddenly perked up. "Now that the Goblet is destroyed, doesn't that mean that the champions are no longer required to compete in the tournament?" he asked, looking very relieved for some reason.
Dumbledore looked at the old Auror quizzically. "I'm afraid that is not how this works, Alastor. You should know this. That would be like trying to get out of a contract by breaking the quill it was signed with. The contracts are still in effect. They cannot be revoked."
"Right, of course," Moody muttered. He looked very pale at hearing this. Harry wondered why that was. Maybe the retired Auror was worried that his secret lover Crouch would be blamed for the tournament's lack of security and get fired? Harry decided to put the matter out of his mind when Madame Maxime raised her voice.
"Mais Dumbly-dorr, clearly zese students cheated to get into ze tournament. We 'ave to exclude zem! And, naturellement, we should only allow students to compete! No ozzers."
"Alas, my dear," Dumbledore replied, "that is neither here nor there. The name coming out of the Goblet constitutes a binding magical contract. All the people selected have to compete; there is no way around it. And as the judges, we are bound by very similar contracts to allow their participation. There is nought for us to do about it."
"If the additional champions are not removed, Durmstrang will withdraw from the tournament," Karkaroff shouted angrily.
"So will Beauxbatons," Maxime agreed.
Dumbledore sighed. "Your students may of course return to their respective school, but your champions are just as bound to compete as the others."
In the meantime, Cedric approached Harry, an upset look on his face. "So, we will compete against each other once more?" the Hufflepuff asked.
"What?" Harry replied. "Oh, no! Not me. Hermione will compete. And the twins. And, well, Crabbe and Goyle over there." Cedric raised his eyebrows, and Harry continued, "And, well, for some reason some more names came out of the Goblet. Minister Fudge, and Peter Pettigrew, who's a Death Eater, and... Voldemort."
Cedric's eyes got wider and wider as Harry listed the names, and he flinched at the last one.
"You- you are kidding me, right?" Cedric asked and looked at Professor Sprout for some assurance.
"Nope." Harry grinned. "But don't be too mad. You're still the official Hogwarts champion."
"That's not really what I'm mad about," Cedric muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.
There was a short silence in the antechamber when all discussions had come to an end.
Bagman took this as an opportunity to speak up. "Well, shall we move on, then?" he said cheerfully, smiling at the assembled crowd. "Got to give our champions their instructions, right? Barty, want to do the honours?"
"Yes," Crouch said absentmindedly, "Yes... the first task..."
"The first task is designed to test your daring," he told the students who gathered around him. "You will not be told what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard..."
Hermione cleared her throat and Crouch looked at her briefly.
"Or witch, of course... yes, very important," he continued. "The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the judges."
He went on to explain that the champions would face the task only armed with their wands and that they were not allowed to receive any help from their teachers.
Finally, he came to an end. "Last but not least, due to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from the exams at the end of the year."
Hermione gasped in horror.
"WHAT?" she shouted, utterly appalled. "That's unacceptable!"
Crouch gave Hermione a startled look, but McGonagall almost smiled despite her clear anger over the situation and answered, "While you are exempted from the exams, you may of course voluntarily participate in them if you wish, Miss Granger."
"Oh, all right then," Hermione answered, much relieved.
"Yes, well," Crouch said and turned towards Dumbledore. "I think that is all. Headmaster?"
"Quite," Dumbledore agreed, "I think we should end this meeting now, as Bartemius, Ludo, and I have a pressing meeting with the Minister." Both Crouch and Bagman grimaced in response but nodded.
Dumbledore then turned towards the four Gryffindor students. "Messrs Weasley, Miss Granger, Harry – this is not over. We will talk about this tomorrow. Messrs Weasley, I expect you in my office at eight in the morning, Harry and Miss Granger at nine, is that understood?"
Harry and Hermione nodded, but Fred and George gesticulated wildly in response.
"Oh, right," Dumbledore muttered and waved his wand. "Finite."
"Thank you, Headmaster," the finally un-muted twins chorused, uncharacteristically cowed.
Harry gave a curt nod towards Cedric and took Hermione's hand. Followed by the twins, they quickly left the antechamber to make their way back to Gryffindor Tower.
#
They had only made it to the second floor when Fred and George overtook Harry and Hermione and stopped before them, causing the couple to halt, too.
The twins knelt down in front of the couple and bowed.
"Never..." Fred started, and they began in their usual twin speak.
"...in the history of pranks..."
"...was or will there ever be..."
"...a prank as amazing..."
"...as astonishing..."
"...as perfect as this."
"In fact, I don't even know if we want to continue pranking people."
"How could we ever hope to top this?" George ended.
"Well," Harry said and shared a look with his amused girlfriend, "I'm glad that you liked it. So, you're not mad at us for stealing you the show back there?"
"Mad at him, he says!" Fred exclaimed.
"Never!" George said with conviction.
"Really, just to have been there and to have seen this," Fred said and slightly shook his head, tears welling up in his eyes.
"It was the most beautiful thing we have ever seen," his equally moved brother finished.
"Thank you," Hermione replied with a smile. "But you realise that this was not only a prank, but also a political statement, and a move in a war that now hopefully will never happen?"
"But those are the best kind of pranks," George answered as if stating the obvious.
"Fine," Hermione said, "now get up! If I'm not totally mistaken, there's a party waiting for us in the common room."
#
Indeed, the noise when the four students opened the portrait of the Fat Lady was deafening. Students were cheering, screaming, whistling and applauding as the three Triwizard Champions and The-Boy-Who-Lived walked into the Gryffindor common room.
As their 'prank' had been a full success, Harry was in quite a party mood as well. He enjoyed navigating the common room with his arm around his girlfriend, receiving congratulations and deflecting any questions on how they had managed to get around Dumbledore's Age Line. They also refused to comment on how the other names had come out of the Goblet.
However, they used the opportunity to spread the word that Pettigrew hadn't been killed, that he was the true betrayer of the Potters, that Sirius Black was innocent, and that Voldemort was most likely still alive. But since the couple wasn't willing to explain how they had acquired this information, many of their fellow Gryffindors remained unconvinced.
As the party went on, Harry tried to convince Hermione to share a glass of Firewhisky with him, but he quickly shrank under her disapproving glare and opted for a Butterbeer instead. He fetched them two bottles of the beverage and opened them, passing one to his girlfriend. Before he drank, he raised his bottle.
"To Hermione Granger, Triwizard Champion!" he toasted, eliciting cheers from the surrounding crowd.
Harry then leaned towards Hermione. "And to the downfall of Riddle," he whispered contently.
"To a Halloween that has been kind to you, for a change," she responded for only Harry to hear, clinking her bottle to his.
The party continued late into the evening. Harry was unsurprised that Ron was nowhere to be seen while he and Hermione made their rounds in the common room. However, they were soon approached by another Weasley.
Ginny also had a Butterbeer in her hand, but her expression was more sombre than those of the partying crowd as she faced the couple.
"Thank you – for doing this to Tom," she said sincerely. "And good luck in the tournament, Hermione, don't get yourself hurt, okay?"
Hermione smiled in response and nodded, and Ginny hesitated.
"And... Congratulations you two! I guess I haven't gotten around to say it before," she said with a slightly sad smile, but a smile, nonetheless.
"Thanks, Ginny, we appreciate it," Hermione said, visibly relieved that the youngest Weasley was not about to emulate Ron.
A little while later, Harry and Hermione found themselves standing in a comparatively quiet corner of the common room.
"Wow, so all that really happened, huh?" Harry said with a slight shake of his head.
"They really shouldn't have used the Goblet of Fire," Hermione replied with a smirk, but then she grimaced.
"Though I'm a bit sad that we destroyed it," she admitted, and Harry nodded in agreement.
"Well, anyway," Harry said after a while, "I think I'll head up to get some sleep. Last night was very short. I'm really knackered."
"Yes," Hermione replied, "Though, I don't know if I'll get any sleep tonight with all the excitement about what happened today."
"I know what you mean," Harry agreed but yawned at the same time.
Hermione blushed slightly. "You know... I slept really well last night snuggled up to you on the couch in the common room."
Harry's cheeks also got a little pink. "Yes, so did I..." he said and looked at the partying students. "Too bad that this party will probably go on for quite a bit longer."
Hermione hummed noncommittally.
"Uhm, you know," Harry said hesitantly, "I could always lend you my Invisibility Cloak, and you could sneak up to my dorm, if you want, that is, not to do anything, just to snuggle up, just because, like you said, it-"
"YES!" Hermione interrupted his ramblings. "Uhh, I mean, yeah... yeah, maybe, why not, that sounds nice. Just to snuggle up, of course."
"Of course," Harry replied quickly.
There was an awkward pause between the blushing teens.
"Brilliant, I'll fetch the cloak," Harry then blurted out and ran up to his dormitory.
He returned half a minute later and handed the tightly folded Invisibility Cloak to Hermione.
They then made a huge spectacle out of saying goodnight to each other at the foot of the stairs to the dormitories, ignoring the crowd's whistles and shouts as they kissed.
"See you in a few minutes," Hermione whispered before they separated and walked up towards their respective dorm.
#
In a large manor house in the small village of Little Hangleton, a middle-aged man with grubby skin and patches of mousy brown hair stared frightened and disbelievingly at a short letter in his hands. After a while, he had gathered himself and entered a dimly lit chamber on the second floor of the derelict house.
"What took you so long, Peter?" asked a cold voice. It came from a small homunculus with pale skin, long fingers, and slightly reptilian features. "What is the message of my servant? Was the boy entered into the tournament successfully?"
"N-N-No, my Lord," Peter Pettigrew answered the Dark Lord with a squeaky voice.
"What? Crucio!" Riddle roared.
He lifted the curse a few seconds later and looked down on Pettigrew, who lay on the ground, still twitching.
"Explain," Riddle demanded coldly.
"Crouch reports th-that he entered the boy's name and confounded the Goblet according to plan. B-But he must have made a mistake. The boy was not selected," Pettigrew whined. "B-B-But other people were."
"Other people? What other people?"
Pettigrew trembled. "The sons of two of your former servants, Crabbe and Goyle. The Weasley twin brothers. P-P-Potter's Mudblood girlfriend. And a-and..."
"So speak!" Riddle yelled impatiently.
"M-M-Minister Fudge, a-a-and and and-"
"Crucio!"
Wormtail screamed in pain and thrashed around on the floor.
"Out with it!" Riddle shouted when he lifted the curse.
"M-M-Me, my L-Lord, my n-name, a-and-" Wormtail closed his eyes and whispered, "And you, my Lord, your name came out of the Goblet."
"CRUCIO!" Riddle shouted in rage.
While his servant was screaming on the floor in front of him, Riddle pondered his next moves. Obviously, his current plan lay in tatters. How could things have turned out so wrong? What had he ever done to deserve this? Why had all his servants have to be such bumbling idiots? Brain-dead dilettantes or spineless cowards, all of them! Except for dear Bella, of course.
Now, he had to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. He! That would require some planning. Luckily, he was stronger now than when he had possessed that fool Quirell. He didn't fancy another year of hanging out of the back of the head of some imbecile. No, he would do things differently, now.
Within a short while, Riddle had devised a rough plan. He smiled evilly and nodded in satisfaction, amazed by his own brilliance.
Then, he noticed that he had been holding Pettigrew under the Cruciatus Curse for the entire time of his scheming, but the screaming had stopped, nonetheless.
Riddle looked down and saw the lifeless, bloodshot eyes of his dead minion staring back at him. Wormtail's face was frozen in an expression of total agony.
"Well, that complicates matters," the homunculus muttered angrily.
