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When I woke, I was not surprised that it was so silent in my bed.
I was the one to ward the bed of all incoming sounds after all. I had even chosen one of the more powerful variants of that spell, because Ron's snoring could pierce the basic ones. Not really, I was just paranoid like that.
What I was surprised at, was the lack of body odor than normally permeated this room. Young teenage boys tended to sweat when they slept, especially Neville. Not to mention their normal lack of hygiene at this age. Yet that was not something that I could complain about this morning. I swung my legs over the side of my bed and didn't bother to hide the fact that I was only in my underwear. I was the only one of the boys to sleep that way.
Of course, the sun had yet to peek its head over the horizon so there was no way the other boys would wake up anytime soon. I found my wand and the miniature trunk laying underneath my pillow before enlarging the trunk and throwing it on the bed.
When I took a look around, after I summoned my invisibility cloak in the form of a pair of black sweatpants, I found that I wouldn't be waking anyone up in my room because there was nobody in my room. Every single bed was empty and the sheets hadn't been bothered. I noted it, but didn't think anything of it before throwing on my workout shirt.
I shrunk my truck and put it in my pocket. It was a habit recently. I preferred to sleep in the Room of Requirement and I didn't like to have to come back and retrieve my trunk at night. Nor did I like overworking Dobby. The events of the night before led me to avoid that room for the time being however. All eyes were on the Seventh Floor, after all.
I left the room that had been my home for the past four years, and was not prepared for what greeted me on the other side.
Long story short, it was a stink bomb primed to go off as I opened my door.
I stood there, so surprised that I didn't have a single bit of a reaction. The green gas just floated up around the room and hallway that I now stood in. Once again, the cruelty of teenagers reared its head. My sense of smell was so advanced, that it was a struggle not to allow the tears in my eyes fall.
I wasn't tearing up because of my emotions, even if I was feeling particularly down on myself with that prank. I was tearing up because the stench was just so awful that I couldn't help it.
The doors to the hallway that I stood in burst open. The first ones to enter the hallway on the boys side of the Dormitory were the Twins, as if that was any surprise.
"Ha!" The one I recognized as Fred hollered before he met my eyes.
Anger, the likes with which I can hardly describe, started inside of my heart. Anger, hate, and all other negative emotions that one normally tried to avoid. It howled inside of me. My blood boiled and my pride demanded payment.
The Twins' faces sobered up once they saw how I looked at them. Their smiles slowly dropped to reveal a sort of somber look. It pissed me off even more.
"Just having a bit of fun, Harry." George muttered, as soon as the rest of the Gryffindor students ran into the hallway to check out the explosive noise.
I stood there, in the middle of a green gas staring at the Twins with hate in my eyes. Girls filled the hallways, boys from other years, and I could even see boys from my year start to climb the stairs. Ron was the first one, and he looked just like the Twins first did. He ran up the stairs with a smile, waiting to see my reaction.
That was probably the part that hurt the most.
It was obvious that Ron was in on the prank. Hell all of my other classmates were as well. My classmates that had managed to be amicable to me this entire year. They had hidden their fear, and tried to treat me the same. I didn't hold it against them. But now, after a night that Hermione and I had been attacked for my condition they do this?
Something inside of me began to hate the people around me. Something inside me broke that day. Despite the numerous duels and confrontations because of my new condition, it wasn't until the Weasley Twins, along with their brother and my best friend, pulled a simple prank that I broke for the first time in this life.
Laughter rang in the hallway. I clenched my jaw, and gripped my wand hard, but I did not move.
How quickly could I summon a flame to snuff out every single one of their lives…
I pondered it, I really did. But I managed to talk myself out of it in the end. They were just kids with no real empathy for their fellow man. Hell they didn't even think of me as their fellow man.
"How cruel!" I heard Hermione's voice yell in the hallway. "You know he has a heightened sense of smell!" She muscled her way towards me through the crowd of cruel teenagers.
"Oh yeah?" Ron, of all people, was the one to answer. "Why is that?"
I was too quick to answer. "Because I'm a werewolf, Ron." I said flatly.
All of the laughter, all of the snickers, and all of the whispers in the hallways stopped.
I pointed to the scar on my head. "It cost me a family to save all of your sorry asses from Voldemort and I gained a scar as a reminder." I told them all calmly.
My hands moved to my shirt and I peeled it off of my frame. I lifted my arm and showed them the massive scar from the Basilisk.
"I saved your sister and the entire school from a fucking basilisk, thinking I would die of the poison! I gained a scar as a reminder." I told them calmly once again, despite the rage I was feeling inside of me.
I then pointed to the bite shaped scars on my shoulder.
"I saved all of you from Sirius Black, and the raging form of Remus Lupin's werewolf.I got more than just a scar then…" I told them. "I get attacked physically at least once a week. I get attacked verbally everyday. And still that is not enough for you." I added, as the rage inside of me continued to grow.
There was more silence in the Gryffindor Common Room.
"All of this is ok, because I'm a werewolf now." I hissed at them. My anger was so high that I knew I had to leave at that very moment, or I would get violent. I was already in enough trouble, I didn't need more.
I walked past Hermione. I walked past Ron. And I left with the urge to workout the rolling rage inside of my skin.
I sprinted 8 laps around the Black Lake before my Head of House found me.
She waited for me to finish the lap that I was on, waiting for me near the grounds closest to the castle. I didn't bother to avoid her. I ran straight up to her ready for whatever punishment I would receive because I was a werewolf and I had a prank played on me.
Stop throwing yourself a pity party. Nobody cares.
The anger, the rage, the hate. It had yet to leave my system.
"I understand there was a… commotion in the Common Room this morning." Professor McGonnogal said. Her lips were drawn in a thin line, as they normally were when dealing with disciplinary matters.
"Yes ma'am." I gritted out as the memories of the event came rushing back.
"I have managed to pry the details of the event out of Miss Granger. Yet she is the only person out of all of my lions to speak. Not even Mr. Weasley would admit to what happened. I have decided that there will be no detentions rewarded for the event. " She said, calmly. She even opened her mouth again to continue. No doubt it was to berate me for what happened. Somehow it would be my fault.
I'm not sure why, but that seemed to set me off.
"No detention." I hissed at her. If I would have done that to someone, I would have to spend a fucking semester in the dungeons scrubbing grime off of the walls.
"Let me finish, Mr. Potter." She said as she tilted her head at me. Her hand rose and a finger dabbed at her eyes. It was then that I saw the way the light reflected off of the tears gathering in them.
Somehow, that made me even angrier. What the fuck did she have to cry at? Me?! I didn't need her tears, nor her pity!
"I understand that it must be difficult…"
"You understand!?" I yelled. Once again I was flabbergasted at the audacity she held inside of her.
She flinched at my words.
"You understand nothing!" I raged. "Did you know that I've had more duels outside of last night?! Do you know what they whisper as I pass them!?"
Her lower lip trembled, and a tear crept down her face. "Of… course…"
"Don't you dare!" I retorted as I clenched my jaw. The anger was so much that it began to hurt in my chest. "Nobody understands! The only person that does understand put himself in the fucking ground because…"
I clenched my jaw, and stopped myself.
All of a sudden, the anger I was feeling flipped. It wasn't anger that was pouring out of pain in my chest. It wasn't that at all.
It was sadness…
It gripped me and despite what I did, it wouldn't let me go.
I turned away from her and faced the Black Lake to hide the tear that fell out of the corner of my eye. I hated that tear, and I cursed it in my mind. I wasn't sad, I was fucking angry.
"I'm so sorry Harry." She said as she choked up. "But you can't… speak like… that."
I took a deep breath and turned back around to her. "I'm not a coward, Professor! I will never…"
I had to stop again, because the emotions I had bundled up in my chest were threatening to burst forth.
A hand touched my left shoulder. It wasn't McGonnogal's because she was standing in front of me trying to get herself together. But it was massive and weighed so much. I turned to my left, wondering who it was to produce such force.
It was Hagrid.
Maybe it was the look on his face. Maybe it was what he meant to me. Maybe it was the buildup from the events of the past few months. Maybe it was all of those things combined. Whatever it was, was the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Next thing I knew, I was sobbing uncontrollably in the massive embrace of the half-giant that meant so much to me. If it was possible, he was crying even harder than I was and was patting me on the back.
"It's gonna be alright, lad."
It all started with those damned pheromones.
I strode into the Great Hall with purpose. Just like every other time, I ignored the stares that were sent my way, along with the whispers. This time, I didn't even seem to hear them. Objectively, there were more eyes on me after the events of last night and this morning.
But I had already dealt with both scenarios in my mind. I disliked that I was a crying mess of a boy, but I could not doubt it's effectiveness. Because it was a Sunday, I did not have any classes and was free to spend the rest of the day with Hagrid tending to the Hogwarts Grounds. There were many tasks he needed help with, and a wand had helped tremendously.
Sooner than expected, the sun had begun to set, and my stomach had made the need for sustenance known. That was why I found myself in the Great Hall, determined to face my problems and not to run away from them.
I found Hermione and the open seat next to her. She must have known that I would show up, or she was just that good a friend to save a seat regardless. I squeezed between her and the first year that had somehow made its way to our section of the table. Of course, the firstie got up and relocated once he saw it was me.
"Harry!" Hermione greeted me with a smile on her face. "I couldn't find you all day." That was her way of asking where I had been.
"Sorry. I was with Hagrid all day tending to the grounds. It was therapeutic." I told her truthfully as I began to pile my plate with the various food available to me.
"Ah, that's why he wasn't in his hut." Hermione muttered as she took a bite out of the piece of buttered bread in her hand. I glanced at her, surprised that she had made that much effort to find me.
The conversation died then, and we ate in relative silence. Hermione held conversation with our peers, but I shunned most of them when they made the effort to talk to me. There was a noticeable tension at the table. I couldn't wait to get away from it, and there were some spells that I was determined to learn because of the events of the past few days.
I stood up and patted Hermione on the shoulder as a goodbye before beginning to walk out of the Great Hall.
"Harry, wait!" Hermione called out, causing me to turn back around to her. "Don't you want to see who gets chosen?"
I frowned, not realizing what she was talking about for a moment. Then my eyes flickered to the Goblet of fire in the center of the room.
Why is it here? Don't they still have a week or something to submit their names to the Goblet?
My eyes widened as I realized that I was wrong. I knew that in the books the students only had a single day to make the decision. That day was the day after the other schools arrived. That day was today.
My heart skipped a beat in my chest as I realized that last night was the night I was supposed to be guarding the cup from Barty Crouch Jr. That had been my major plan. I was to catch him in the act and stop him, while simultaneously oust the wanted criminal and save the real Mad-Eye Moody.
But I had forgotten, because of all of the stress of last night. After the pheromones fucking with my emotions and the boy almost dying in my arms I had forgotten completely about my task. Not to mention the fact that somehow, somewhere in my brain, I thought that I would have more time to guard the Goblet from Crouch Jr.
Oh shit, if that's the case then that means…
"Take your seats please!" Dumbledore clapped and gained the attention of everyone in the Great Hall.
Why didn't I realize that there was a reason the ministry employees were still here?
My feet calmly walked back to where Hermione was waiting on me. I sank to my seat, with my legs on the outside of the bench instead of inside. I would need to get up soon, after all. I stared at the blue flame of the Goblet of Fire with a frown. Was there any way for me to circumvent it from spraying my name into the air?
"Eternal Glory!"
Dumbledore's speech from the other night flashed across my mind's eye. I could picture myself holding the Triwizard cup above my head in victory. A victory for the werewolf Boy-Who-Lived. Not a sham victory like the one Canon Harry had, where luck and outside intervention had been the key to his victory.
A victory that would see my skill outshine those three to four years my senior.
The flames of the Goblet of Fire turned red, and I could barely stop the smile on my face as it spit out a smoldering small piece of paper. Dumbledore reached out and snatched the paper out of the air. However my keen eyes saw the slight magic he used to summon the paper to his hand at the last moment. He knew the effect of theatrics very well, that Dumbledore.
"The champion of Durmstrang is Victor Krum!" Dumbledore bellowed, while holding the paper high in the air.
A section of the Great Hall erupted into cheers. Most of them were from the Durmstrang table, but I could see his quidditch fanboys from Hogwarts cheering and clapping along.
The flames of the Goblet turned red again, catching everyone's attention and shushing the crowd naturally. They all waited to see who would be the next champion chosen.
Fleur Delacour.
"The champion of Beauxbatons will be Fleur Delacour!"
Unfortunately for Fleur, the cheers were quieter than Victor's. Yet she did have a lot of eyes attached to her ass, mine included. I ignored the sweet smell that touched my nose and quickened my blood. My focus was elsewhere tonight, and I refused for her pheromones to push me into a spiral like last night.
The flames turned red and spit out another name.
Cedric Diggory.
"And last but not least! The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory!"
I clapped along with the rest of my classmates as Cedric received the biggest cheer of them all. It wasn't that fair, to be honest. The entire Hogwarts school cheered for him, along with the professors and ministry officials.
I nudged Hermione. When she turned to me, still smiling and clapping for Cedric, I leaned into her ear.
"Watch this." I whispered, as I gestured to the Goblet of fire.
It was like it was waiting on my queue because the flames immediately turned red after I said that. The flames lashed out and spit another piece of paper that fluttered into the air.
The entire hall was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop from a mile away. I steeled myself and hid the slight grin on my face. Dumbledore's eyes widened slightly in shock as he read the name before he said anything.
His head whipped to where I sat.
"Harry Potter…"
I met his eyes, and I frowned. I looked at Hermione, wearing the same frown on my face. She looked at me with absolute shock, as did the entire population inside of that Great Hall.
I stood up and began walking towards Dumbledore.
'Clip'
'Clip'
'Clip'
The sounds of my ridiculously expensive wizarding dress shoes hitting the stone beneath my feet was the only sound in the room. I was happy that I had chosen to make myself presentable before coming to the Great Hall tonight. My Gryffindor robes looked immaculate and fluttered with the breeze as I walked. I smelled good from my shower, and I looked even better.
The flash of an old school camera lit up one side of the hall.
"He's not even seventeen…" A random Hogwarts student called out.
"Cheat!" Another yelled.
Professor Moody gestured to the back room attached to the Great Hall. I did notice the smug look on his otherwise abnormally unattractive face.
By the time I opened the door, the entire hall had erupted into chaos. I couldn't help but smile.
The room that I entered wasn't anything that special, if you ignored the millennia worth of trophies and trinkets in the room. There were ornate golden trophies from quidditch, dueling tournaments, and even Triwizard Tournament trophies if you searched the plaques hard enough.
"Harry, what are you doing down here?"
I turned to see Cedric standing there with a curious look on his face. I just shrugged at him. "Not sure yet." I responded, untruthfully.
I stepped to the side as the other two champions in the room looked at me in confusion. Unfortunately, being so close to Fleur meant that I got a whiff of that sweet scent so strong that it nearly caused me to reel my head back. I did my best to ignore how my heart began beating at a pace that would worry most doctors.
I pulled out a folded up piece of paper from the inside of my robes. I touched my wand to the center and brought it close to my lips. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." I whispered so low nobody would be able to hear.
I unfolded the paper a single turn, and it showed me my position in the castle, along with who I was next to. The Marauders Map called the room that I was in 'the Trophy Room' and it named the four champions in the room, including myself.
The door opened, and the map showed me that Dumbledore had arrived.
"Hogwarts is cheating! You cannot have two champions!"
"Harry." Dumbledore's voice was calm as he approached me.
I was too busy reading the name 'Barty Crouch Jr.' on the map to really notice that he hadn't tackled me yet like the films. I would have laughed at that, if I wasn't so focused on the plan I had cooked up inside of my brain while walking into the Trophy Room.
I looked up to Dumbledore and met his eyes. "Did you put your name in Goblet of Fire?" He asked.
"No sir." I answered immediately and lifted the map in my hands. "But I think I know who did." I whispered as I showed him the inhabitants of the room.
But I did not point at any particular name on the map. I did not need to. I saw how Dumbledore's eyes locked onto the name. I saw how his brilliant mind connected the dots quicker than anyone else could have expected. I even saw him glance behind him, to where his 'old friend' was walking over to take a look at the map in my hands.
My heartbeat thudded in my ears, and the world slowed as it normally did for me when I was in dangerous situations. Dumbledore's hand flicked at the same time that mine did. Even still, the Elder Wand graced his hand faster than mine, and he was already twirling it at his new opponent.
The rest of the room had no idea what was about to happen.
Dumbledore spoke no words, and he barely made a wand motion. Yet a wave of force hit Mad-Eye Moody so quickly and powerfully that I could see the ripples in the man's cheeks as he was pushed backwards twenty feet to hit the wall on the far side of the room.
A white sheen of force continued to push him against the wall, emanating from Dumbledore's wand. Mad-Eye grunted in pain as he hit the wall, and then he snarled as he tried to escape Dumbledore's spell.
He tried in vain.
Dumbledore twisted his wand, and the stone behind Moody melted. The man's arms and legs sunk into the stone before the stone stilled again. He was trapped, and unable to move.
"What is the meaning of…"
Dumbledore did not lower his wand, despite Moody's inability to move. With one more wand motion, Dumbledore cancelled the effects of the Polyjuice potion.
Snape, McGonnogal, Hagrid, and countless other people had entered the room at this point. Most likely, they had heard Dumbledore's first spell and then the ensuing chaos from the other inhabitants of the room. I even saw Kingsley run in the Trophy Room again.
Every single one of them saw Mad-Eye Moody's body start to wiggle and change in a way that only a Polyjuice Potion could force. Everyone stood with a baited breath until it was finished. And then Barty Crouch Jr. was in Moody's place, with his limbs encased in stone and snarling at the inhabitants of the room.
"Take the champions away! Barty do not move!" Dumbledore ordered, but when he spoke he looked to Barty Crouch Sr. in the center of the room.
Nobody moved, as they were still in shock. Well nobody but me. I was happy to move to where I saw Professor McGonnogal near the entrance of the Trophy Room. There was another flash of a camera and a quick glance told me that Rita Skeeter had somehow gotten into the room. That picture would be on the cover of the Daily Prophet in the morning.
Despite the drama that would ensue due to me being in the Triwizard Tournament, I left the room with nearly nobody paying attention to me. It was refreshing. But I knew that the student body would remember in the morning.
I smiled all the way to the Room of Requirement.
A/N: Boom!
Weekend writing shenanigans. Very rarely am I free on the weekends to write on stories that I haven't touched in a while. I hope y'all enjoy this one!
This is mainly a follow up to the last chapter, while showing the direction that the story will go from here on out. Harry definitely didn't expect to be in the Triwizard Tournament, but there were distractions that stole his attention when it mattered most.
Yet, he's already ousted the bad actors at the school. Mad-Eye Moody will be restored. The Triwizard Tournament should go on unencumbered by sabotage and the Imperius curse.
Let me know what you guys think will ensue from these changes. I can see multiple events happening in different ways now.
Let's talk in the reviews!