Disclaimer: I don't own Harry. I don't even own Dudley.
Hermione seemed to take the attempt to pass the age line personally. She was in the library over eight hours a day now. And every time she passed the cup while in the Great Hall, she'd mutter another spell. Each one would fail, bringing increasingly dour looks to her face. The first few spells she tried Harry seemed to remember hearing about in class. But pretty soon, she was making complex incantations, ones which Harry had never heard about. Ron seemed as stumped as Harry what the spells she was using were.
Harry and Ron were talking, when Hermione tried yet again at lunch.
"Wow, that was a whole paragraph of a spell!" remarked Ron as Hermione left the Great Hall in a very sour mood. Harry was about to agree, when an idea popped into his head. Harry turned it over and over - it was too simple. He started to chuckle, and then laughed out loud.
"What is it?" asked Ron.
"I'm going to try something. Stay here and watch," Harry muttered. I can't make it obvious, he thought, otherwise they'll know what I'm doing and figure out a way to stop it. He grabbed a bread roll from off the table, and started to walk towards the head table. Out of the corner of his eye, he kept track of where the goblet was. He stopped and looked at Professor Snape. Good, he thought, the age line is between us. Time to test my theory out.
"Professor Snape!" he yelled, then tossed the biscuit at the potions professor. It sailed through the air and hit Snape on the forehead as he looked up.
The whole hall went suddenly silent. The majority of the Gryffindors were killing themselves trying not to laugh. The rest looked completely shocked. Even the staff at the high table didn't know what to say.
"Potter!" Snape sputtered. Then the professor's fury built, and he yelled louder than anyone had ever heard him before "POTTER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! YOU HAVE DETENTION!" Still, Snape seemed mostly at a loss for words. This probably was a good thing for Harry; he didn't want to imagine what Snape would have done with him if he wasn't still recoiling from shock. Harry quickly made his way back to his seat, with every eye in the Great Hall on him.
Somehow, Ron managed not to laugh, and wheezed "What were you doing? Trying to get yourself killed?"
"You didn't pay good enough attention. Where did the roll go?" whispered Harry.
"Into Snape's forehead. Nice toss," Ron sniggered.
"I mean before that," Harry responded. Ron replayed the scene in his mind. Ok, Harry walked up to about there, and tossed it at Snape, who was sitting there, so the roll must have gone...
"You tossed it across the age line!" Ron exclaimed, "But how does that help us?"
"Don't you see, we've gone about this the wrong way! Dumbledore is a far better wizard than us. He already knows about all those spells Hermione used, and the ethereal potion. But nothing's stopping us from using something other than magic," Harry whispered excitedly.
"Muggle-Style! So we're going to just... wad the parchment up and throw it in from outside the age line?" Ron asked.
"Well, we can't do that. If we missed, which we'd probably do quite a few times, someone would notice the crumpled up piece of parchment. I've got a better idea, instead," Harry said. "Let's go get Hermione, first, though. She wouldn't want to miss this."
"Are you kidding?!" Ron burst "We're going to do this without Hermione. I want to see her face when she decides to give up, but Alicia's name is called anyway." Harry didn't want to hide anything from Hermione, but couldn't resist the image of Hermione's face when Alicia's name was called.
Later that night, Harry and Ron wandered back to the Great Hall under the invisibility cloak. The Marauders map and a piece of parchment with Alicia's name were with them, along with a more unusual item: a 20 ft long plank of wood. Harry was busy consulting the Marauder's map. Since they couldn't fit the plank under the cloak, they needed to make sure they had a clear path to the Great Hall. Twice they needed to set the plank down against one of the walls and wait for a professor to pass through. They finally made it to the Great Hall, which as Harry's map had let them know, was empty.
Ron put the parchment one end of the plank, and the two walked to the other. Although it was easy to lift their end up, it was far more difficult to get the other end lifted from where they were at. Ten minutes and countless grunts later, the two managed to lift the far end up.
"Ugh. No, Ron, more to the right." Harry grunted. Ron was behind Harry, and couldn't see the other end. Very awkwardly, they finally got the other end resting on the top of the Goblet of Fire.
"Ok, now we need to lift it back up and twist it," Harry instructed. Slowly, they managed to get the board in the air again and twist it sideways. The parchment slipped off and onto the rim of the goblet. Harry and Ron looked at it without breath. Finally, the parchment slipped off the edge into the goblet's flames. Harry and Ron let out a sigh of relief and dragged the board away from the cup and out of the age line.
Ron gave the board a quick look, and cast Inflamare upon it. Within a few minutes, the board had completely burned up, leaving the smallest amount of soot. Harry banished the soot out the window, and the both started laughing. They had done it! Alicia's name was now entered! What would Hermione think!
However, Harry and Ron wisely came to their senses, and realized that it was three hours past curfew. They walked back to the commons and their beds with gigantic grins on their faces.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked down to the Great Hall for the Triwizard announcements. Even though they were 15 minutes early, it seemed everyone was already there. They found a seat at the Gryffindor table, only a few spaces away from Alicia.
"So, Hermione, did you find a way to enter Alicia in the Goblet?" Ron asked. Harry heard the note of glee in his voice and kicked him under the table. Hermione, who didn't notice the glee, or Ron's yelp when Harry's foot connected, shook her head, a little sadly.
Ron was practically jumping up and down, but his attention was drawn to Alicia and Angelina talking down the table. "I should've put my name in!" Alicia wailed.
"You had a good reason," Angelina comforted.
"No, I didn't. What was I thinking! At least you weren't fool enough to keep from entering." Alicia said.
"Ummm...."
"You... did... enter, right!" demanded Alicia.
"No," Angelina replied.
Alicia had a horrible realization, and asked the rest of the table, "Did anyone from Gryffindor enter?!" Most of the 6th and 7th years looked away; the ones that didn't were mumbling. Alicia blanched at this, and demanded "Did anyone from Ravenclaw enter? Or Hufflepuff?"
It didn't seem as though anybody wanted to answer her, but Harry worked up his courage and said, "The only people I heard about entering were three people from Slytherin." Almost everyone at the table already knew this, but it still seemed to surprise them. Alicia had her mouth open; she clearly had no idea that only Slytherin had candidates.
Fred, Hermione, and Ron were about to console her, each for a different reason, when Dumbledore spoke up, "Well, the Goblet is about ready to announce the three champions. We can only ask two things. First, if you are not chosen, please do not feel disappointed." Harry and Ron glanced over at the Beauxbaton party, who had a very poor record for that sort of thing. "Second, we hope the Goblet will stop at three names this year," Dumbledore finished with a smile. Harry felt a lot of eyes on him, and couldn't help a guilty little smile.
Everyone's attention was drawn back as the Goblet's spewed out the first name. "The champion for Durmstrang," Dumbledore announced, "is Petrina Ivonov." Harry was surprised by the reaction from Durmstrang - everyone was patting their champion on the back. Maybe they're not so bad after all Harry mused. Petrina walked up, nodded to Dumbledore, and proceeded to the back room. The Durmstrang headmaster followed her back, which Harry had learned was named Alexander Kalin.
"The Beauxbaton champion is Jean DeGalle," Dumbledore announced, reading off the second slip the Goblet expelled. Sure enough, the majority of the Beauxbaton candidates were fighting tears. As Jean and Madame Maxime got up and went through the same door as the Durmstrang champion, a few Beauxbaton students lost their fight and started crying. Hermione sighed, exasperated.
"Finally, the champion for Hogwarts," cried Dumbledore, "is Alicia Spinnet." The whole Gryffindor table went into an excited frenzy. Everyone, that is, except Alicia, who was sitting in extreme shock. Harry had borrowed Colin Creevey's camera, and was taking photographs of Alicia at half second intervals. Alicia got up shakily, and made her way to the back room, amid three tables of frenzied cheering and one table of extreme loathing.
"But... How... She said she didn't enter..." Hermione sputtered. She looked at the 6th and 7th years, all who were confused but excited. She turned to Harry and Ron, and noticed that they were trying to hide laughter. "YOU!" she yelled, "How did you enter her name!"
"I got a detention from Snape," Harry sniggered, and Ron burst out laughing. Hermione was visibly struggling with whether she should be very happy or very suspicious. However, before she could decide, Dumbledore clapped his hands and addressed the crowd.
"I'm sure everyone is excited about the Tournament starting up again. But it's time for everyone to be going off to bed." At these words, everyone got up and started to leave the Great Hall. Harry was halfway to the door when Colin tugged on his sleeve.
"Harry," said Colin, "I think Professor Dumbledore wants to see you now."
"Ok. Oh, Colin, thanks for letting me borrow your camera. I'll get it back to you tomorrow - I want to do something special with these photographs," Harry replied. Colin gave him a quizzical look, and then left with the rest of the students.
"So Harry," Dumbledore spoke as Harry approached him at the high table, "You decided to enter Alicia in the Tournament. How is this different from someone entering you last year?"
Harry realized he'd have to explain himself to Dumbledore. "First, Alicia is of age. Her entering did not break the age line. Second, Alicia was only entered, not guaranteed of being chosen, like I was last year. Third, Alicia wanted to enter. The reason she didn't do so herself was because she was afraid of dishonoring Cedric's memory. Just today she was complaining that she didn't end up entering," Harry finished. Dumbledore just looked at him. Harry didn't regret what Ron and him did, but it did sort of look bad. Dumbledore stared for a few more seconds, before breaking into a small grin. Harry let out his breath.
"While I wish you hadn't entered Alicia and that she had entered herself, I'm not going to punish you for what you did," Dumbledore stated. Dumbledore sat for another moment, replaying the last several months in his mind, while Harry waited.
"Brilliant," Dumbledore muttered, "If I'm correct, you bought Alicia's entry with a detention." Harry looked up at Dumbledore, surprised.
"How did you..." Harry started.
"I was wondering why you threw that biscuit at Professor Snape. Now I understand. Did you use ropes?" Dumbledore asked.
It took Harry a few seconds to realize how much Dumbledore had figured out. "No, we used a plank of wood."
Dumbledore's grin grew, and he said, "Pretty ingenious, Harry. 20 points for the solution. 20 more points for accepting a detention to aid your comrade." Harry grinned broadly, until Professor Dumbledore finished, "And 30 points taken away for entering her involuntarily." Harry frowned, remembering Dumbledore's words that he wouldn't be punished. Of course, he thought, technically I wasn't punished. Gryffindor gained 10 points.
"Of course, next year I'll have to modify the age line. And I hope that next year you'll manage to avoid problems with the Goblet. You should get back to your commons. I have no doubt that the rest of Gryffindor want to see you," Dumbledore finished with a smile. Harry walked back to the tower alone. He met Professor Snape halfway there.
"So, the Famous Mr. Potter thinks he can stroll about during the night," hissed Snape.
"Professor, I just got done with a meeting with Professor Dumbledore," Harry explained hastily.
"We'll see," Snape replied venomously, and stormed off. Ever since the biscuit incident, he's been trying to kill me, thought Harry.
Finally, Harry went through the Gryffindor portrait and met an odd scene. Alicia was giving Ron a fat kiss on the cheek. Ron was blushing so strongly that his face was redder than his hair. Hermione was next to him, looking a tad jealous. But all that ended quickly.
"HARRY!" cried Alicia, and before he knew it, Alicia was planting a big kiss on his cheek as well. Harry knew beyond a doubt that he was blushing as much as Ron was. Ron, for his part, was now sniggering at Harry.
As soon as Alicia let up, the entire rest of the Gryffindors circled around Harry and Ron, clamoring to know how they got past the age line. Harry was reminded of last year, but at least this year he had a story to tell.
Harry and Ron told the story, and all the attempts made. Alicia planted a kiss on Hermione's cheek when Ron told the crowd how Hermione wouldn't give up on finding a solution.
"…But then Harry suddenly had this idea. Harry, you tell them," prodded Ron. Hermione leaned closer - she appeared to be more anxious to learn how they did it even more than Alicia.
"Well, we had been trying all sorts of spells. Hermione even did these complex spells I've never even heard of, and none of them worked. So I decided to take a different approach - without magic. I decided to test my theory during lunch and try to throw something over the age line. But I couldn't just toss something over the goblet - Dumbledore would notice and figure out what I was doing. So I decided to play it up a bit. I walked to a spot towards the high table where the age line was between Snape and me. Then I threw a roll at him," Harry narrated. At this, the entire common room shook with laughter. Fred and George appeared to be crying with mirth. Harry laughed too, and then continued, "So, later that night, Ron and I brought a plank of wood. We put a piece of parchment on the end, and then held the plank from outside the age line, tipped the wood over, and the parchment slipped right into the goblet," Harry finished. Everyone cheered, and Alicia decided to give Ron, Hermione, and Harry another kiss on the cheek. This, Harry thought, was a lot better than the party one year ago.
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Please Review!
I know I'm posting the chapters a little fast, but if I don't get feedback, I
might have to slow down the postings.
That, and without feedback, I might do something stupid like have Harry run
of with McGonagall. Hmmm….