I either earned major respect points with the Hufflepuffs, or got on their eternal shit list. The first one I saw wearing the stupid badges, which admittedly looked different from what the book and movie both suggested, I lost it. The badges were yellow and black, Puff colors, rather than Slytherin. That made it a little bit worse. I gave them a rousing lecture in the middle of the hallway about loyalty and their farce of it, abandoning a student of their own school who was already being screwed over by the entire tournament in the first place, and then topped it all off with a helping of shame for abandoning the prized principles of their own house. Cedric Diggory's hearty agreement got me places, I'm sure. I handed out a few detentions with Filch, which they actually seemed relieved about. They'd heard of the detention the Slytherin got from me. They were in no hurry to join him.

The whiny bastard had complained about it to everyone, not that I particularly cared. Rewriting famous Muggle documents into Gobbledygook with only a token dictionary and no magic allowed had apparently grated on him. It didn't help that I blasted muggle christmas carols on an old record player I'd convinced Minerva to loan me for the day. I'd caught him absentmindedly humming jingle bell rock a few times in the halls. Not that he told anyone what he was actually doing for his punishment. It was tame really, just annoying to someone of his sensibilities. He simply refused to relate the 'horror' of it. I could have made him scrub the floors with a toothbrush or something, though I was saving the idea of making a particularly rowdy student be helper to the House Elves for a special occasion and the perfect victim. They had to be stupid enough to not realize they could take advantage of it, horrible enough the House Elves would help me, and their family just uninfluential enough for me to get away with it.

The weighing of the wands came to pass, and I decided I wasn't going to allow Skeeter access to Harry. I was barely in time, hearing Bagman agree wholeheartedly. I saw her lay a hand on Harry to drag him to the broom closet and cleared my throat, arms crossed. She halted, raising an eyebrow,

"Can I help you?"

I refused to back down, motioning to Harry,

"Even if he had given his consent to this, which he hasn't, you haven't cleared it with a teacher, or a guardian. Even discarding all of that I find it wholly inappropriate for you to drag him into a broom closet. A silencing spell would have done it, but even that's pointless. What does it matter if we hear what you're going to say, hm? It will end up in print either way. And the noise in the room is negligible at best."

She glared at me, huffing.

"The people have a right to know-"

"And Harry has the right to keep his private business private. If you want a statement then go through the proper channels. I would hate for the Prophet to be accused of libel and sued or something of the sort."

Her eyes glittered dully,

"Oh, I doubt we'd face that, our reputation precedes us."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Indeed it does. Which is why I must ask that you unhand my student."

There was fire in me that I rarely used for intimidation nowadays, fire that I was imitating, having learned beside the last of the Time Lords. I didn't let that side of me out much, what with only students around to frighten into behaving. Rita Skeeter though...I hated her when I read the books. And she wasn't shaping up much in person.

She dropped Harry's arm as if she had been burned, and took a breath as if to insist that she get some sort of interview when Dumbledore arrived.

The wands were weighed, Ollivander doing his creepy thing as per usual.

When it came time for pictures I glared at Rita until she desisted from being so pushy, the cameraman getting the same treatment. Cedric was front and center, seemingly the only one of the champions who didn't mind holding that position. Madime Maxims shadow was an issue until I temporarily charmed it away. That got me a few stares but I just shrugged. No need to let them know that I'd spent hours searching for some sort of protection against Vashta Nerda. The nightmares didn't leave me be once the mood struck me, right up until I found the obscure thing and mastered it. The charm didn't last long, but it was enough for my peace of mind, and the picture.

Sirius stuck with Harry as much as possible, and without the article there was less bullying abound. I'd like to take some credit for that, I think my speech knocked sense into a few people at the very least. I found myself plotting ways for him to get passed a dragon, now that Moody wasn't around to push him in the right direction. Sure, the broom thing had worked fine, but it was incredibly dangerous, and surely not the only option.

Now that I had found a way to access the wards of the castle in a manner only slightly inferior to that of the Headmaster I found myself abusing the talent. Rita Skeeter, the moment she tripped the wards, animagus form or no, suddenly found me hovering near her. I managed to quash all important talk before she could hear anything, and several times stopped her from getting into any of the common rooms. If I kept popping out of nowhere to 'convince' her to leave the grounds then I would probably end up as her boggart. The thought amused me a little too much to be healthy.

The first Hogsmeade visit I spent randomly appearing whenever she wanted to talk to someone. I had a short conversation with her where I silently and wandlessly charmed all of her quills. I met Harry in the Three Broomsticks, not hiding under his cloak, which I wondered about until I realized he and Ronald couldn't be at odds, I'd proved that he hadn't done it, their friendship was saved. Well, that required calculation on my part. I leaned onto the table with the trio, grinning unashamedly. I'd already seen the three of them avoiding Skeeter at all costs, smart kids.

"Just thought you'd like to know that our dear resident reporter has had all of her quills charmed to only write love ballads about goblins. Strange that, no idea who might have done it. Poor dear hasn't even noticed yet."

Hermione looked torn between amusement and slight trepidation.

"Isn't that illegal?"

I snorted,

"Charming a quill? Nope. The niffler that managed to find it's way into her quarters? Meeeeh."

Ron snorted Butterbeer out of his nose, and Harry grinned,

"Thank you Professor. She's downright frightening sometimes."

I shrugged,

"No need to thank me, it's my pleasure really. I hate the press here, almost as much as the Ministry honestly. Only thing I read anymore is the Quibbler, good for a laugh and sometimes you find nuggets of truth among what some think to be insanity. As good a cloak for truth telling as any I suppose…"

I saw Hagrid approaching out of the corner of my eye and sighed,

"Well, I should really go, then. Hagrid doesn't know where that niffler went to yet, and you didn't hear it from me."

I was one of the professors that was tasked with helping the dragon tamers, since my health had been cleared I was the youngest and most physically capable of fast movement, right there beside Snape, but as a potions master he was obviously more valuable than I was from a strategic standpoint. It was a pity that I had to abandon my plans for the Gringotts heist, even if it was just for the night. I was given a crash course in the stunning spells they used, but mostly I spent my time avoiding the flames and protecting the trees against the beast's wrath. There wasn't much that I could do, I wasn't very far from the edge of the wards, but it was enough to help me up the power I could use, Hogwarts being a natural well for that kind of thing. It helped keep them pinned down, though there had been an incident with the horntail. I scowled at it for a while, muttering a lullaby I'd heard during my travels under my breath. It was in Silurian, and thus the translation matrix took care of it for me, the lizard like language apparently appealing to Dragons. The Doctor would be thrilled to know this. The Horntail was, of course, still difficult to get a handle on, but we finally managed. I was able to let go of my hold on the wards, feeling Harry hiding in the trees. I sent a tired smile his way before reporting in with the head of the Dragon Tamers. Charlie asked after my health briefly but I managed to fend him off and escape. He let me go with a sympathetic nod, I wasn't trained for this, just loaned for the night.

I passed by Karkaroff as he was searching for Harry and rolled my eyes,

"It's just me, back from risking my neck for God knows why. I swear, the Doctor would keep one and put it in a fuzzy sweater if he could."

I was rambling a bit, but I managed to keep Karkaroff away from Harry, who I could hear following me. It was probably somewhere in my job description that I should be busting him and assigning detention or something, but he honestly didn't deserve it. I got back to my rooms, hearing Harry pass by me on the way to the tower. I sighed,

"Remember, I'm here to help."

He paused and I swept into my room, collapsing into a chair. The Doctor was once again vibrating in his frame,

"Dragons, Mara! Real live Dragons!"

I ended up showing a little illusion of them, a complicated charm that sucked the rest of the energy out of me. I woke up the next morning in my armchair, with my back aching. But the Doctor had seen his dragons, so it was worth it.

Sirius had likely already explained to Harry about the Conjunctivitis curse that had ended disastrously when actually used in the tournament. I was worried about how to introduce the method he had utilized so effectively in the books, but I shouldn't have. Hermione approached me after barely a week, waiting until the class emptied and holding Harry and Ron back with her. I closed the door with a thought, raising an eyebrow,

"Can I help you?"
"The only curse Sirius could think of would end disastrously. What have you got?"

Well, Hermione was blunt today. She looked determined, though Ron looked proud of her for having managed to talk like that to a Professor.

I settled onto my desk like usual, legs crossed under me.

"Well, I have a bit. The things that might be in the range of possibility for a Fourth year number very few. Not that I lack confidence in your ability, but I would probably lose my job for teaching you some of it. So, what are your strengths, Potter?"
I watched him struggle for a bit before I rolled my eyes, deciding that unlike with Moody it was obvious why I would care, I'd known him longer and taught him. My student, my responsibility. Not getting killed or maimed on my watch.

"Quidditch, Harry, you tend to be good at Quidditch. All that dodging and those hairpin maneuvers. These dragons more than likely will be confined to an arena. Therefore, their flying shall be limited if they can at all."

His face lit up for a second before he realized something.

"But Professor, I can't bring my broom to the task."

I hmm-ed.

"Hey, Hermione what are you guys learning in Charms these days?"
The change in subject confused Ron and Harry but Hermione brightened,

"Summoning charms, Harry you can summon the broom!"

I grinned,

"Why, excellent idea Miss Granger."

I allowed the chance for practice during my class. The three of them had dropped Trelawney's class for my own, which switched up the timeline a bit, but was extremely good for my ego. It was probably the only reason they were allowed to quit the class, because they were able to replace it with another elective they'd already taken the introductory course in. I assigned projects involving medieval knights and fantasy novels that had a lot of the girls swooning over their projects. If the trio were summoning pencils across the desk instead then all power to them. I knew they wanted to skip the class that would be this period, and it ended up being mine, I might as well allow them the practice they would have done anyway. They were all three quite good at it once the task rolled around.

I was able to infiltrate the champions tent before the first task, determined to keep up my beetle watching. I really loathe that woman.

~TimeLordOfPie