A/N: Many thanks for your support and your feedback! This chapter is a bit more serious in parts and contains allusions to child neglect and/or abuse. I try to keep things light, but I don't want to ignore canon, either, and therefore have to somehow resolve some issues first.


- CHAPTER FOUR -

Plausible Deniability

It was half-past eight on Sunday morning, and Harry and Hermione were having breakfast in the Great Hall. Despite the impending meeting with the Headmaster, Harry couldn't help but smile contently.

After all, it had been a great morning so far. He had discovered that the only thing better than falling asleep cuddled into his beautiful girlfriend was waking up next to her. There had been a slight awkwardness, with him being a boy and waking up with a female body pressed against him and all, but Hermione hadn't been bothered by his condition, and so he hadn't been too embarrassed about it.

Hermione had retreated to her dorm under his Invisibility Cloak early in the morning. When they had met in the common room after they had showered and dressed, he had suggested that she might just keep the cloak for now. The enthusiastic kiss he had received in return left him hopeful that the last night's arrangement would be a regular occurrence from now on.

He was brought out of his musings by the post owls swarming into the Great Hall and descending upon the tables. Neville, who sat across Harry and Hermione and next to Dean and Seamus, received his copy of the Daily Prophet, and after a quick glance at it, he smirked and tossed it to the couple.

Expectantly, Harry and Hermione reached for the newspaper and began to read.

TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT SABOTAGED

Disgrace for Hogwarts and Ministry
By Rita Skeeter

The selection of the champions for the Triwizard Tournament on Halloween evening left Hogwarts and the British Ministry the laughingstock of the entire world. Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Ministry Department Head Bartemius Crouch, and the other judges of the Triwizard Tournament watched on like fools when the Goblet of Fire selected not three, but eleven champions for the tournament, among them Minister Fudge himself, and – if the shocking rumours are to be believed – He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The implications of these events are still unclear.
We at the Prophet wonder: Who is responsible for this clear lack of security around the Triwizard Tournament? And was this fiasco caused by malicious sabotage, or was it the result of an ill-considered prank?
At the moment, all evidence points towards the Muggle-born witch Harmony Ranger (15), the girlfriend of the Boy-Who-Lived, and the twin brothers Fred and George Weasley (both 16), sons of Ministry official Arnold Weasley...

"Evidence? What evidence? And they didn't even get your name right. Nor Mr Weasley's," Harry muttered angrily.

Hermione took it in stride. "Are you cheating on me already, Harry? Who is this Harmony Ranger? I think I should have some words with her."

Harry chuckled and gave his girlfriend a small peck on the lips. "Never!"

He then glanced over the other headlines and was surprised that there were no articles on Tom Riddle's heritage.

"Why do you figure they didn't write more about Riddle?" he wondered.

Hermione shrugged. "Well, they probably wanted to verify the story first and investigate diligently," she speculated.

Harry chortled, and Neville, Dean, and Seamus all burst into laughter, much to Hermione's irritation.

It took several minutes for him and the boys to calm down again.

"But, seriously, why didn't they bring the story?" Harry asked again when he finally had gathered his breath.

"The Prophet would never waste two sensational headlines on a single edition," Neville explained, still chuckling over Hermione's hilarious joke.

"Ah, that makes sense," Harry said, nodding sagely.

The Gryffindors continued with their breakfast. At a quarter to nine, Harry noticed Fred and George entering the Great Hall. Their meeting with the Headmaster had apparently come to an end. Harry waved to the twin brothers, and one of them winked and the other gave a thumbs-up in response. From this distance, it was completely impossible to tell them apart.

Harry was relieved to see that the twins were as cheerful as ever as they sat down with Alicia and Angelina at the far end of the Gryffindor table. Their interrogation with Dumbledore couldn't have gone too badly.

However, as soon as Fred and George had sat down, a huge flock of owls descended upon them. Within moments, they were swamped with seemingly hundreds of letters, and howlers exploded all around them. Among those howlers, drowning out all others, were at least three sent by their own mother. As the howlers all went off roughly at the same time, Harry couldn't make much sense of Mrs Weasley's screeching, but she was obviously very upset with her sons.

Harry suddenly was very glad that the Prophet had gotten Hermione's name wrong. It meant that any howlers aimed at her would be addressed incorrectly.

But then he remembered that he himself had also been named in the newspaper article. He looked up and groaned when he noticed several owls heading towards him. A minute later, there was a pile of almost two dozen letters before him on the table. Thankfully, he had not received any howlers.

Very carefully, he reached for one of the envelopes and slowly opened it. He skimmed over the letter that was from an enraged wizard, who urged Harry to 'keep his woman in line'. Knowing Hermione, Harry was pretty sure that attempting such a thing might very well be the last thing he would ever do. Not that he had any inclination to try.

He shook his head and moved on to a bright pink envelope. It contained a letter on rose stationery, which informed him in a very girlish cursive hand that while he regrettably was only a half-blood, as a hero to the wizarding world, he still had an obligation to choose a girl of better breeding than some upstart Muggle-born. Harry was actually surprised that the sender didn't use the other M-word. He tore the letter apart and crumpled the shreds in his hands, not bothering to read further or look who had signed the letter.

Harry sighed. "Don't bother," he said to Hermione, who had also reached for an envelope. "Best to ignore them. Or if you have enough space in your bookbag, you could of course gather the letters to burn them in the fireplace later..."

His girlfriend glanced over the letters, but then she shrugged dismissively and returned her attention to her breakfast.

#

Shortly before nine o'clock, Harry and Hermione made their way to the headmaster's office.

"Stay calm and stick to the story," Hermione said nervously, and Harry had the impression she was telling this to him as much as to herself.

"Yes, and maybe try to keep him off-balance, just like the twins did with the judges yesterday," Harry added and squeezed the girl's hand. "Don't worry; he has absolutely no evidence against us."

Hermione nodded, and they walked in silence until they reached the gargoyle in front of the headmaster's office. The statue moved aside when the two Gryffindors neared and opened the way to the stairs to Dumbledore's office.

Harry and Hermione walked up the stairs and knocked on the office door, which immediately swung open.

Dumbledore was awaiting them behind his desk.

"Harry, Miss Granger, please enter and sit down," he said with a grave voice, and the couple took their seats on two comfy chairs in front of the desk.

Harry knew the situation was serious when they weren't offered any lemon drops.

"I can't say how disappointed I am with you," Dumbledore said with his trademarked disappointed-grandfather-look.

"We're sorry. We won't do it again," Harry said ruefully but then eyed Dumbledore with curiosity. "But how did you know that we were helping the Weasley twins to put itching powder into Professor Snape's underwear?"

Dumbledore blinked. "What?"

"What?" Harry replied, trying to keep the old man off-balance.

Dumbledore shook his head in annoyance. "You know that's not why you are here. You are here because you have embarrassed Hogwarts and the whole of Britain on the international stage. You entered not only Miss Granger's name into the Goblet of Fire, which was highly irresponsible, but also the names of others. You destroyed-"

"Allegedly," Hermione interjected.

"Excuse me?"

"Allegedly, Sir. Your evidence, for all of this, is circumstantial at best. You have no proof whatsoever that we are responsible."

"Messrs Fred and George Weasley already confessed and told me how you did it."

"Oh, please," Hermione said dismissively. "With all due respect, Sir, but that's the oldest trick in the world. The twins said no such thing."

"So, you will remain silent?"

Hermione only gave a decisive nod in response.

Dumbledore sighed and turned towards Harry. "Harry, do you have anything to say?"

After a moment of hesitation, Harry nodded.

"Yes, Sir. I want to unequivocally state that we didn't do nothing, and if, hypothetically speaking, we had done something, it would have been because we were put under the Imperious Curse."

Hermione snorted next to him.

The Headmaster looked at the couple with annoyance.

"This attitude is really most unbecoming to you, Harry, Miss Granger," he said with gritted teeth.

The teens didn't answer, and Dumbledore, too, remained silent for a while.

Then, he sighed, turned his attention fully towards Hermione, and looked her in the eyes. Hermione stared back defiantly, ignoring the slight headache she was getting as she looked into the Headmaster's twinkling eyes.

After a long while, Dumbledore blinked, straightened up in his chair and looked at the teens before him with a grave expression on his face.

"Now, I know for a fact that you two have entered your name, Miss Granger, the names of Messrs Crabbe and Goyle, of Minister Fudge, Peter Pettigrew, and Tom Riddle into the Goblet of Fire. I even know to which schools you assigned each name. St Brutus Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys for Tom? A most fitting choice, even if I have never heard of the school."

"I- we- we don't-" Hermione stuttered, but Dumbledore waved his hand dismissively and continued.

"I'm also aware of the extenuating circumstances, Miss Granger, namely that you did this to make a point about the lack of safety in the tournament and that you expected Harry to get chosen as well... But that does not excuse what you did. You both will have to face the consequences of your actions."

Harry and Hermione shared a frightened look.

"I- I don't know what you mean, Sir. We were just as surprised as everyone else," Hermione replied very nervously. "Of course, even if, hypothetically speaking, I had entered my name into the Goblet, it would have broken no school rules. After all, there was no school rule that forbade such a thing. We were not forbidden from circumventing the Age Line. You, Sir, just stated that we wouldn't be able to do it. A challenge for inquisitive minds, if there ever was one."

"Be that as it may," Dumbledore said with annoyance, "the same cannot be said for entering other names into the Goblet, especially the Minister's. And what in the name of Merlin were you thinking when you entered the last two names into the Goblet?"

This time, it was Harry who answered, "Well, we- I mean, whoever did this thought – probably! – that this would force Riddle and Pettigrew out in the open and allow them to be captured. Why are you so upset about this, Sir? I think it was brilliant of u- uhm, I mean, of whoever did this!"

"So, what would you do if Tom shows up?" Dumbledore asked, visibly agitated. "You are endangering the entire school!"

"Oh, so we shouldn't use this school as a trap for a Dark Lord?" Hermione said with an arched eyebrow. "Is this truly where you want this discussion to go, Sir? Do you remember our first year at Hogwarts?"

The upset Headmaster brushed her comment aside. "These things are not even remotely comparable. And what about Minister Fudge? Why did you do this? The Minister is furious and is out for blood. Mr Crouch will probably lose his position at the Ministry over this, and I might have to call in quite a few favours if I want to prevent you two from getting expelled and having your wands snapped. And frankly speaking, at the moment I'm not very inclined to do so."

Hermione looked very frightened by now, and Harry felt similar. However, he wasn't ready to fold, yet. "Fudge is a spineless opportunist who tried to get Sirius killed by a Dementor. He deserved to be pranked like this. And all of that- it doesn't matter anyway, because you can't expel us without proof. And there isn't any."

Harry remained silent as Dumbledore turned his gaze towards him. Their eyes locked, and Harry winced when he felt a slight pain behind his forehead. But he ignored it, not wanting to be the one to blink first.

The Headmaster remained impassive for a while, but soon he got a hardly noticeable grim smile.

But then, suddenly, Dumbledore's eyes got wide.

"What?!" he gasped. He paled and got an anguished expression. "No! ... no... these... but Lily... how..."

Harry was completely bewildered, but he continued to stare back at the mumbling Headmaster.

After several minutes, Dumbledore slumped back into his chair. The shocked couple could clearly see the tears glistening in the Headmaster's eyes before he buried his face in his hands.

"I... I am so, so sorry, Harry," the old man said haltingly with a weak voice. "I didn't know... please... please, believe me... I should have never left you there... I should have checked up on you... I should have investigated when you asked to stay here over the summer..."

Harry realised that somehow, the Headmaster must have read his mind and had inadvertently discovered some of his childhood memories with the Dursleys. Hermione gasped and reached for Harry's hand, tears welling up in her eyes, too. Clearly, she had come to the same conclusion.

The Headmaster continued, nearly sobbing, "I am... beginning to understand how much I failed you... how much I failed James and Lily... how anyone related to Lily could ever behave in such a despicable manner..."

It took a while for Dumbledore to gather himself.

"I... I am deeply sorry, Harry... If you are willing to give me another chance, I shall try to do better, and maybe, in time, you can forgive an old man his foolish mistakes," he finally said.

Harry only nodded numbly.

With a much calmer voice, Dumbledore continued, "Thank you... Now, I think it is safe to say that Petunia and Vernon Dursley will very soon find themselves in deep trouble with the Muggle authorities. For this, there won't be any second chances. Naturally, you won't return to Privet Drive over the summer."

Harry gasped, and Dumbledore went on, "No, you'll never return there. Please inform me where you intend to stay instead, so that I can arrange for appropriate security measures. With Sirius out of prison, the matter of guardianship is easy to resolve. He will act as your guardian in every and all matters related to the school or Gringotts. For any dealings with the Ministry, I think my signature should suffice. In those matters, I will, of course, abide by any decisions Sirius and you make and shall only act as an intermediary."

"Thank you, Sir," Harry choked out.

"There is absolutely no need to thank me, Harry," Dumbledore said sadly. "It is I who has to thank you for being willing to still work with me."

Harry didn't know how to reply to that and remained silent.

After a pause, the Headmaster sighed.

"You may go. There is much I have to think about," he said.

Harry saw that Hermione was just as surprised as him by their sudden dismissal. They rose from their seats and remained silent as they made their way out of the Headmaster's office.

"And," Dumbledore spoke just as Harry was about to close the door behind him, and the teens turned around.

"Five points from Gryffindor. For a prank gone awry. The matter is closed."

Before the couple could reply, Dumbledore waved his hand, and the door closed in front of them.

#

They had only passed the gargoyle to the Headmaster's office when Hermione engulfed Harry in a bone-crushing hug and broke down in tears.

"I am sorry, too, Harry," she choked out between sobs. "I've been a terrible friend... I should have noticed... I should have done something..."

"No, Hermione," Harry protested, "I didn't want anyone to know. And it got better after I went to Hogwarts... not good, but better..."

Hermione sniffed. "At least you'll never go back there." She squeezed him again. "You don't have to say anything, but I'm there if you ever want to talk,"

"Thank you, 'Mione," Harry mumbled while he disentangled himself from her. "Not now, but eventually, that might be good."

He straightened up and took a deep breath. "Let's go to the library."

Those were the magic words for Hermione's mood to perk up immediately. Holding hands, they left the corridor to the Headmaster's office.

But then, Hermione halted again and looked at Harry with an arched eyebrow. "Mione?" she wondered.

"Oh, well, not good?" Harry asked, well aware of his girlfriend's dislike for nicknames.

Hermione frowned for a moment, but then she smiled. "No, I guess it's all right. It's sweet, actually. As long as it's only you who calls me that."

"Great," Harry replied, "So, Mione, what is it we shall do in the library? Look up spells that might help you in the tournament?"

"That, too," Hermione answered enthusiastically, "But actually, I thought that you might want to write a letter to Sirius and inform him of what Dumbledore has said. He might also be able to give us some advice for the tournament."

Harry agreed immediately, and when they arrived in the library, he began to draft a letter to his godfather.

He wrote that some pranksters – who might have been the son of Prongs and his girlfriend – might have confounded the Goblet of Fire and caused the champion selection that had been reported in the Prophet. He asked his godfather whether he could offer any advice for the tournament. Then, he also wrote that from now on, Sirius would be his guardian and that he might have to coordinate with Dumbledore on some matters.

Hermione next to him read the letter as he wrote it and chuckled. "With Sirius as your guardian, it will almost be as if you were emancipated. He will probably let you do anything you want."

Harry laughed and nodded, but then he got a thoughtful look.

"Hey, couldn't you claim to be emancipated because you compete in a tournament for of-age wizards and witches?" he asked excitedly.

Hermione looked at Harry with a mixture of concern and amusement. "No, Harry, that is not how this works. Why would you think that? That would be as if I went into a liquor shop, somehow managed to buy a bottle of Whisky despite being only fifteen, and then claimed that I, therefore, ought to be considered of age. Do you see how ridiculous that would be?"

"I guess," Harry admitted reluctantly.

He then finished the letter to Sirius by reporting that he no longer had to live with the Dursleys but didn't yet know where he would spend his summer.

"Too bad that you can't live with him while he's on the run," Hermione said. She frowned contemplatively and started to nibble on her bottom lip.

"You know," she began hesitantly, "With Sirius unavailable, you could stay with me over the summer."

"Really?" Harry wondered. "I would love to! But would your parents be okay with that?"

"Well, if I asked them if my boyfriend could stay with me for the entire summer, they wouldn't be. But that just means that I'll have to ask differently."

She grinned, fetched a parchment out of her bookbag and started to write.

Dear Mum and Dad,

I am feeling a bit sad today because I just learnt that a good friend who's an orphan was mistreated at home. The Headmaster learnt of it, too, and said that my friend's guardians would be prosecuted. But now, my friend has nowhere to go over the summer. You see, the wizarding world does not have any orphanages, nor a child protective service. It is all just so sad and depressing. Do you have any advice on what I might do to help?

Your loving daughter,
Hermione

"That should do," Hermione said, "No mention that you're a boy at all."

Seeing Harry's questioning look, she explained, "My parents are really nice people, if a bit conservative. I'm pretty sure that in their response letter, they'll say that I may invite this girl to spend the summer with us."

Smiling mischievously, she continued, "Then I'll answer: 'Thanks! I did that, and by the way, it's not a girl, it's a boy, it's Harry, I've told you about him.' But they won't be able to rescind their offer, then. And maybe a week before we leave for the summer hols, I'll write and say: 'And, by the way, Harry and I are a couple now!' But by then, they won't be able to back out."

"You would've made a fine Slytherin," Harry said, both impressed and amused.

The couple then left the library and headed to the owlery to send off the letters. Harry thought about lending Hedwig to Hermione and using a school owl for the letter to Sirius. Hedwig was quite noticeable, after all. But in the end, he decided against it. His letter just contained too much incriminating information to be entrusted to any other owl than his loyal and smart feathered friend.

The couple spent the rest of the day in the library, researching for the tournament. Harry's objections that the first task was still several weeks away, and that they didn't know what the task would entail, anyway, were thoroughly ignored by Hermione. Instead, she informed her boyfriend that he had gotten her into the tournament, so he would help her now, period. A disgruntled Harry then joined his girlfriend in combing through the fourth to seventh-year Defence and Charms books. They compiled a long list of spells that might be helpful for the tournament, to then select and try to learn the most useful ones.

Harry sighed, buried in a huge pile of books in the school library on a sunny Sunday afternoon. He had known that he would regret convincing Hermione to put her name into the Goblet, but he hadn't expected it to happen so soon.

#

Elsewhere, later on the same day

In a small cabin somewhere in the woods of the Canadian province of Alberta, 29-year-old witch Harmony Ranger, dragon handler at the nearby dragon sanctuary, was sitting at the breakfast table, enjoying her coffee and her pancakes with maple syrup. Apart from the rustling of leaves in the wind, it was completely silent.

She sighed contently. It was for this quiet peacefulness that she lived here in the woods, far away from society's usual drama and turmoil.

She looked out of the open window and was surprised to see what appeared to be a strange dark cloud in an otherwise clear morning sky.

Even weirder, the cloud seemed to be moving exactly towards her hut.

The unfortunate witch soon found herself under an onslaught of flocks upon flocks of owls from Britain, all carrying hate mail, howlers, or even booby-trapped envelopes. Until she managed to seal all entrances to her cabin, letters were exploding all around her, while howlers screamed abuse at her.

After a few minutes, the shell-shocked witch had destroyed or vanished all letters, and her cabin looked like a war zone.

Harmony had been too busy destroying howlers and protecting herself from explosions to really pay attention to the content of the howlers. She had only understood that people were upset about some tournament, and even more upset because they believed that she had hooked up with some boy who lived. Why would people be upset about that, when the only alternative to that would be to hook up with a boy who didn't live?

She shook her head with annoyance. People were weird. And her parents wondered why she had moved out here! Obviously, she still lived far too close to society.


A/N: For those interested, I'll just quickly address a few points that came up in reviews:

Hermione shouldn't get chosen over Harry by the Goblet!
Well, I guess it depends on the Goblet's selection criteria. Canon never specifies what those are. I'll just say that if I was the Goblet, and I had to choose between two persons, person A who's determined to win, quite brilliant, but might not do well under pressure, and person B who's more powerful, can better cope with pressure, and doesn't want to compete at all, thus currently has no determination to win, well... the choice would be obvious, wouldn't it?

There should be consequences for Dumbledore for using Legilimency!
You're right. I might look into it. It's not stated that it's a crime in canon. It would make sense, but since when does the wizarding world make sense? Besides, he's the Chief Warlock investigating a crime, here. I'm pretty sure that in this instance, he'd get away with it. Or maybe he won't, we'll see.

Dumbledore is too nice!
I've been unsure of how to handle Dumbledore in this fic, but I decided to not make him into an over-the-top Manipulative!Dumbledore. I decided to write Dumbledore in the way I think he was supposed to be in canon, if JKR hadn't constantly (ab-)used him as a plot device instead of a character. So, my Dumbledore is a powerful, wise, slightly manipulative but good man, who's simply just as fallible as everyone else. But he won't keep a child in an abusive environment and won't keep crucial information to himself just because it's dramaturgically satisfying.

Hermione's dismissive attitude about emancipation is wrong!
It kind of depends on why you think the champions are obligated to compete. If it was due to the Ministry's say so, or if anyone could prevent the champions from having to compete after they are chosen, maybe you could make a case for emancipation. Maybe. But it's still a bit weird to assume that by making this decision, a member of the executive could implicitly and involuntarily override the actual law of the land. The best he could ordinarily do is break the law, and get in trouble for it. He can't change the law by his actions. If a government official forces a minor to do something that is only legal for adults, the government official goes to jail, but the minor doesn't become emancipated.
In any case, I don't think that this is how the Goblet works in canon. That's my take on it, at least. The Goblet simply creates a magical contract with the champion, regardless of age. It never cared about the Ministry's newly added age rule. Which, by the way, can't just be assumed to be a legal rule in canon; for all we know, it's only a... stated intention? Instruction? Something like that. Why should the Ministry have passed any actual laws regarding the participation requirements of a single school tournament? To me, it seems much more likely that everyone just agreed that they didn't want underage students to enter and that they would take steps to prevent it.
In conclusion, Crouch and the others telling Harry (in canon) that he is required to compete are not forcing him to compete, they are merely stating the fact that the Goblet forces him to compete. Because magic. Thus, he has to compete in a tournament that was intended for of-age wizards, but that isn't restricted to of-age wizards as a matter of law. All in all, I don't see how you could make an argument for emancipation out of that. That's how it works in this story, at least.