It was his fourth year, and already he hated it. It wasn't enough that he had somehow gotten roped into this damn tournament. It wasn't enough that Ron finally showed his true colors and had abandoned him out of misguided jealousy when he could have used his support.
No, the entire school had to jump on the "Let's harass Harry for something he didn't do...again!" bandwagon.
So really, it wasn't that surprising that he decided to spend his weekend in the one place there wouldn't be anyone to harass or heckle him for something he wanted no part of...the infamous Chamber of Secrets.
And to think, Hermione had yelled at him when he told her he was going someplace quiet to get away from the idiots that inhabited the school.
Hermione didn't seem to realize that she would be left alone to read, that it was only Harry that the school was out for.
Harry wandered around the Chamber, feeling his rage dwindle down as he was able to think for a change.
It was because of the fact he wasn't really paying attention, that he completely missed the old man walking past him in formal robes and a silvery-white beard. Had he paid attention to his surroundings, he would have noticed that the man wasn't a ghost, and was looking unbearably smug as he vanished without a sound.
Inevitably, Harry's wandering feet took him through the same tunnel the old man had just left.
It was there that he found a set of books. Not just any books either.
"Summoning Servants? Holy Grail War: Path to Akasha or waste of magic? How to Awaken and Use Your Magic Circuits, A Beginner's Guide to Magi?"
Harry was completely bewildered by the titles, but that quickly turned to shock when he read the short, but to the point note left by the same geezer who had vanished.
"Harry Potter...
As you're reading this, I'm sure you're wondering who I am and why I left those books for you. The short and blunt answer was...I was bored and decided to mess with Fate in your world for a bit. Inside those books are certain rituals and spells that will help you defeat the annoying Dark Lord you have and annoy Dumbledore to no end. Now I'm guessing you're starting to get annoyed with the fact that I am blatantly messing with you. Don't take it personally, I do this with practically everyone at some point.
Zelretch."
Harry was torn between irritation that someone was deliberately screwing with him and surprise that they were admitting to it before they actually did anything.
Still, it was either read some of the books or go back to wandering the Chamber out of boredom.
And his feet were murdering him. So he sat down in the convenient armchair, propped up his feet and started to read the one about Magi.
By the time dinner came around, Harry had managed to activate his circuits (judging by the book he had at least fifty well sized ones...painful as hell to wake them up though) and had found another book which wouldn't draw as much attention as the other ones he planned to keep in the Chamber to avoid Hermione finding them.
If she caught wind he had one-of-a-kind books in there, she would either strangle him or jump him. And since he viewed her as a sister at best, the idea of the second option made him gag.
It had been a surprise when he looked up the Potter genealogy and found out that Molly Weasley was in fact his second cousin, one who wasn't removed from the family tree.
That immediately knocked her daughter Ginny out of the running as a potential girlfriend. Harry wasn't into incest.
Hermione raised an eye at the book, but simmered down when he explained that reading was an excellent way to ignore everyone and a way to block conversation or rising to Malfoy's baiting.
Surprisingly, this tactic worked perfectly and soon it wasn't uncommon for Harry to be seen with a book in hand avoiding all chances to talk about what he planned to do for the first task.
In truth, he did have a plan, one that Dumbledore would no doubt be angered about.
One of the books he had read was about the tournament itself, and according to a by-law the only way he could be a champion was either A) by filling in for someone else, particularly a family member, B) by entering himself complete with his magical signature, or C) by having his magical guardian agree for him to enter.
Since Harry had changed his guardian when he went to Gringotts for his school supplies (Molly had offered to buy them for him, but he had decided to go himself because he wanted to get something from one of the stores) to Sirius, who almost certainly wouldn't want his godson in a tournament like this, there was actually very little reason for Harry to be in the first task.
This choice to ditch the first task, magic or no magic was only cemented when he learned that the task would involve dragons.
And thanks to his brief glance at the wards around the Chamber (Salazar had put a lot of them up and tied them to a second ward stone inside the Chamber itself) he knew that magical scrying would keep his location a secret until the end of the task.
Which was why he chose to use that time instead to summon a Servant, according to the book's directions.
Back in the stands...
"Ms. Granger, have you see Mr. Potter?" asked Dumbledore kindly.
"Last I checked he was still in the library," she answered. Which was true.
What she didn't know was that Harry had left the library, gone to the loo in full view of five different people on the fifth floor, and promptly vanished after locking that door and climbing over the toilet. Anyone could unlock it with the unlocking charm from first year, so it wasn't that bad to leave it locked. And since no one looked up to see Harry sneaking out of there behind an older student under his cloak, no one could reasonably give Dumbledore an explanation as to where he had vanished to.
To further confuse the issue, Harry had gone into the Chamber through the second entrance, which was outside near the lake. That way Myrtle couldn't give up his location, and no one could bother him.
Which lead to a very long and rather tiring search of the castle for three hours, delaying the first task while they searched for the fourth champion.
Eventually they gave up, and the original three (considered the 'True' champions) went ahead and ran the guantlet of retrieving the egg.
All of them had been warned before hand (Fluer and Krum by their headmistress/headmaster and Cedric by Harry) which was why aside from a case of nerves, none of them were very surprised.
Back in the Chamber...
Harry drew the circle, using a paint brush he had ordered and two cans of red and white paint. It was massive, but workable. He had the chant memorized as he cut his right hand with a clean potion's knife and began the summoning.
"Hear thee!
I command thee to my side.
And entrust my fate in thy sword.
Heeding to the Holy Grail's refuge.
If thou surrenders to this will and reason,
answer my call.
Offer thine oath.
I embody Virtue in the Eternal World.
I chastise Evil in the Eternal World.
Thou art the Seven Heavens harboring the great spirit trinity.
Come forth O Keeper of the Balance!"
The circle glowed blood red as it absorbed Harry's blood, tainted as it was by basilisk venom and phoenix tears.
He could feel the magical build-up around him, as twin clouds of smoke appeared inside the circle.
The two voices asked in unison, the smoke vanishing.
"I ask of you, are you my Master?" they said.
Harry held up his right hand and noticed his left had markings on it as well. The saw the Command Spells on both hands as he said clearly "I am."
"Then by your summoning, Servant Rider (Servant Archer) have answered your call," they announced.
Harry felt like sweat dropping. Things just got a lot more complicated. He had been expecting animal familiars, not human ones!
Harry looked and finally found the part about Servants.
"Let's see...Servant Archer...good eyesight, often uses a bow and has limited magic... Huh, sounds like you're the equivalent of a Seeker in Quidditch. Servant Rider... decent magical stats, has high speed and limited luck... cool. Sounds like you would be an excellent Chaser."
The two servants remained impassive, though they were confused by the terms.
"Master, I hear cheering and roars above us."
"Thank god...they must have given up looking for me and gone ahead and started that stupid task," said Harry with relief to Archer's words.
"Task?"
"I was illegally entered in a tournament known for getting students killed, and the first task was to get past a dragon. I've had my fill of near death experiences from my first three years here, and had no desire to add to it, hence why I chose to hide here and summon you two instead of hiding above and being found."
Even though the twins had given him the map, he didn't doubt for a second Dumbledore could use the school wards against him.
The two servants looked a bit angry at that news, that someone had dared to kill their master through a deadly tournament instead of facing him head-on.
"Well, while we wait for tomorrow to come, why don't we tell each other about ourselves? My name is Harry Potter, student wizard."
That relaxed them slightly, as they gave brief, if not very informative explanations as to who they were. The second Rider said she recognized the breed of snake still dead in the main chamber and her affinity towards them, Harry proceeded to shock her and Archer with his snake speech.
It certainly endeared him to his purple-haired Servant, learning they had a common language and love of animals.
At least she was able to help him harvest the basilisk, which thankfully hadn't started to smell. Now he just had to pay the goblins to make armor out of it.
(He promised to make a dagger with one of the basilisk fangs for Rider and a smaller one for Archerko, as she insisted on being called.)
By morning Harry snuck out of the Chamber, and went straight to the kitchens for breakfast so he wouldn't have to deal with the teachers or Hermione yelling at him.
(He bribed the twins with five hundred galleons so they could have a start on what they would need to make their prank shop. In exchange for being their partner, they supplied him with info and goods.)
Unfortunately he was caught by McGonagall, as one of the first year Hufflepuffs had seen him enter the portrait.
"Mr. Potter! Why weren't you at the task yesterday?" she all but demanded.
"Because the by-law of the tournament said that unless I entered myself willingly or standing in for another it means that I am not legally obligated to join the damn tournament. If I had faced those dragons, then the magic of the goblet would have forced me to join in the other two as well, and frankly I don't feel like pandering to the magical communities odd desire to see me served up as a sacrifice," said Harry flatly, his eyes cold.
McGonagall stared at him.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I looked up the tournament rules. Because of the high risk of death, all champions have to enter voluntarily or else the magic doesn't take hold. Since I stayed far from the cup and have no desire to join in the tasks, I get to keep my magic and stay out of this death trap you call a tournament. Dumbledore sure as hell wasn't looking for any loopholes to keep me out, so I looked them up," said Harry angrily.
"Langauge! And that's Headmaster Dumbledore," she corrected.
"Professor, when he found out I had been entered, he told me I had to perform in the tasks or lose my magic. He didn't even bother to look up the original rules, which were only added to, not removed. Had he done so, instead of relying on that man Crouch's word that there wasn't anything I could do, I wouldn't have had to hide from everyone yesterday. I am not pandering to their insane desire to see me jump through hoops," said Harry flatly.
McGonagall seemed to look a cross between relieved and upset.
"I can show you where I found the rule book. Because Hogwarts is one of the original schools that host the tournament, we had a copy in the library."
The moment she read that rule that meant Harry wouldn't have to compete, she gave him twenty points for finding the loophole, and gave him permission to remain in his hiding spot during the next two tasks to be sure he wouldn't be forced to do so.
"Albus! Why didn't you mention that all champions had to be entered voluntarily or else the entry was invalid?" demanded the cat animagus in front of the two other headmasters.
"What ez this about Dumblydor?" asked Madam Maxime.
McGonagall looked at her before she held out the book for the French headmistress to read.
"It's under the by-laws of the original tournament. All champions have to be entered voluntarily or be standing in for another in order for their entry to be valid. Mr. Potter came across this by accident and knew that he had to hide during the first task to avoid be forced to compete against his will," she informed them.
"Is this true Albus? Were you trying to have an illegal champion in the tournament?" demanded Karkaroff angrily.
"Mr. Potter has expressed his desire to avoid coming to the tasks to avoid being forced to enter, thus giving Hogwarts an unfair advantage against the other two schools. According to him, he wants to avoid the 'walking death trap' that is the tournament, even if it means not being able to see the tasks in person," McGonagall informed them.
It took little time for the portraits in the Headmaster's office to spread word about this development.
Almost immediately the student's personalities took a one-eighty towards Harry, to his annoyance. The worst was Ron, who seemed to think that Harry was his best friend again. Harry, however, had other ideas.
"So, you believe that just because I found a way out of this death trap tournament that it's alright to come slinking back like nothing's happened?" growled Harry.
Ron blinked, as Harry rounded on the boy in full view of everyone in the school and half of the foreign students.
"You think that I would let you waltz up like you didn't turn your back on me out of misguided jealousy? That I would automatically forgive you for shunning me just because someone thought it would be amusing to force me in a tournament I vocally said I wanted nothing to do with? That I actually enjoy being famous for my parents dying in front of me when I didn't because of a fluke? Or should I go over the first three years of this school?" hissed Harry angrily.
"Mate, I..."
"Let's go over the facts shall we? First year, you insult Hermione and she nearly gets killed because you were an insensitive prat and called her an insufferable know-it-all without any friends when all she was trying to do was help you. Then there was that illegal duel that I didn't want anything to do with, yet you accepted it for me! We could have been killed because of your stupidity! And let's not forget that gauntlet in the third floor! If you hadn't goaded me into going down to the damn stone, I wouldn't have missed nearly five days of school from the injuries I got!" said Harry with a snarl. As Harry detailed Ron's faults, he noticed that quite a few were looking disapproving towards them. Notably at Ron for the fact he had abandoned someone who was his best friend out of misguided jealousy.
Harry ended his rant by saying quite loudly in the great hall that he wished he had been sorted into Hufflepuff, because at least they understood what house loyalty meant. He also said he didn't blame them for the fact that they had shunned him because some idiot had put his name in, but rather commended them for defending their Champion because of the fact someone had tried to enter him illegally and took the honor that rightfully belonged to them.
Harry left the great hall and saw with some surprise and relief that the Hufflepuff house looked quite embarrassed, mostly because of their treatment of Harry who had been nothing but civil to them. Some even remembered the whole 'Heir of Slytherin' fiasco, and how they had been saved by the same person they had heaped abuse on unfairly.
To make matters worse, Cedric told them who it was that warned them of the dragons, and how Harry had informed him he would be hiding for that day to avoid being dragged into the farce when Cedric had been the true champion that the cup had chosen.