Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its related works. The rights to the books, movies, and everything else belong to J.K. Rowling and her many business affiliates. This is a fan made work of fiction that will never earn me a single penny. Now buy something official so you can support the woman who made this world possible for us to play in and explore.

Harry Potter And The Game of Death

Level 1

Chapter Twenty-Five: A Suspicious Deal

Ding!

You Have Been Transported to a Special Area

Welcome to the Ministry Managed World Quidditch Cup

Current Location: Public Zone

Ding!

Spell and Rune Wards Detected

Active:

Anti-Apparation Ward

Anti-Floo Ward

Muggle-Repelling Ward

Basic Surveillance Ward

Inactive:

Anti-Portkey Ward

Lockdown Ward

Spell Detection Wards

Tracking Wards

Harry groaned as he pulled himself up from the ground. His head ached where it had clipped a stone, while his wrists were scraped and sore from where he had tried – and failed – to catch his body from falling after the portkey's transport had left him hanging several feet above the ground.

It was official. Travelling by portkey was the worst type of magical transportation Harry had yet to encounter. And as usual, he was the only one who had suffered the bad effects.

All around him the various wizards and witches who had accompanied Ludo Bagman were giving him strange looks. Harry figured that they had not been expecting the oh so great Boy-Who-Lived, saviour of Magical Britain, to be a bumbling fool when it came to magical travel.

Remus came over to make sure that Harry was alright. As he waved the older man off, Harry noticed Ludo give Sirius a friendly wave before moving away to hand the used portkey to a fellow ministry wizard. Looking harried and overworked, the stationary wizard just tossed it into a small pile of ratty looking objects before hurrying over to another group of fresh arrivals.

Constant flashes of light heralded group after group as witches and wizards of all stripes began to appear in the designated port-key area. Men and women; young and old; dark skin and white skin; the different types of people who were as varied as Harry could have imagined. The sound of strange accents filled the air as the different groups headed out of the transport area and towards the giant Quidditch stadiums which loomed in the distance.

Seeing an opportunity to gather some information that he and Hermione could use later on, Harry took advantage of Remus' concealing form to use 'Observe'. He managed to catch some of Ludo's followers and several other adults before the press of human flesh made it dangerous to continue using the ability.

Harry minimized the Game's notifications as Sirius came over.

"Alright boys, here's what's going on," Sirius said softly. "Good ol' Ludo, ever eager to get his face and name into the public consciousness, has agreed to get the three of us backstage V.I.P. passes for the remainder of the Cup. In return, Harry, you'll need to put up with him every once in a while. I don't think that he'll ask for much, but my guess is that Ludo will, at the very least, stick by your side on both the day of the duel and the Cup's grand finale."

Harry sighed. He had figured that something like this would happen. "Should I be worried? The man seems unreliable at best, and madder than a hatter at worst."

Sirius made a dismissive motion with his hand. "Nah. Stroke the man's ego even a little and he'll treat you like his best friend. But in any case, I'll need to follow him so that we can get the passes. The sooner we get them, the better, so I'll meet up with you later on."

"Alright," Harry said with a shake of his head. "Send us a message by Patronus or through the 'Party' feature when you're done."

"Will do. See ya!" With that, Sirius handed their tickets over to Remus and then jogged off in the direction Ludo had gone off. The dark-haired man was soon out of sight, leaving Harry and Remus on their own.

Remus looked at Harry and raised a questioning eyebrow. "So, Harry, do you want to start by wandering around the grounds while I head over to the private booths?"

"Yep. Let's stick to the plan we came up with earlier. I'll meet back up with you at the agreed time." An hour past noon should give Harry plenty of time to wander around and cast Observe on things of interest. "I'll be sure to let you or Sirius know if I run into any trouble."

Remus gave a quick nod of his head. Then he too left the portkey area, disappearing into the rapidly growing crowd of bizarrely dressed witches and wizards making their way towards the giant stadium off in the distance.

Harry looked around to see if there was a map or something which detailed the stadium's layout. After a bit of searching, he spotted a nearby sign labelled with arrows marked out different points of interest.

He wandered over to it and considered the options. After mulling them over, he chose to start with the overnight camping area before heading towards the merchant stalls. A giddy feeling filled his heart as he headed off, happy to finally embark on solving the Game of Death's latest quest.


Three hours later, though, found Harry feeling quite different.

The mission to stop the attack on the World Cup had been a bust thus far. Not because Harry had failed to find anything suspicious or dangerous. But because he had found so much that was dangerous and suspicious that he had broken out in a cold sweat.

A Hag who loved to eat human flesh was posing as a travelling Seer.

A table of Dark Artefacts from the plains of Africa, its purveyor a man who wore a cursed turban with the feather of a phoenix set in its brim.

Even a potion shop filled with poisons so deadly that they could have wiped out a quarter of London's population. And whose owner could have given Snape a run for his money in the greasy haired, sallow skinned department.

Amongst other things, never had Harry dreamed that he would see someone openly waving a millennia old sacrificial dagger – confirmed by 'Observe' – in the street whilst asking who was willing to give their lives to guarantee the win of their chosen team. It seemed that everywhere Harry looked there was a person or collection of items which screamed out 'danger' with a capital D, with the crowds of people being either completely oblivious or uncaring.

It was days like this which made Harry think that wizards and witches as a whole lacked common sense.

Thankfully, Ministry wizards were cracking down on things. The man with the sacrificial dagger had been stunned and taken away by a pair of Ministry Aurors just as he had begun leading one interested fan away from the public area. While others, like the Hag and the owner of the poisonous Potions, had run away when a Ministry official spotted them.

Still, none of the dangerous objects or people seemed to be related to the Game's quest. And after three hours of searching, Harry was getting tired. So he decided that now would be as good a time as any to take a break.

Harry sat himself down on a small bench located at the edge of the nearby forest and looked through some of the notifications he had gained by using 'Observe.'

Thanks to his level gains, Harry was now able to see the levels of most adults. Which meant that, with the assistance of the large sample size that the World Cup provided, Harry now had a good idea as to how strong most adults were.

Lisa Atkins:

A working woman who is mother to six children, Lisa is a seventh generation Londoner. Upon finishing her primary magical education at Grimwart's School of Magic, she landed her dream job at Madam Malkin's store in Diagon Alley. Her favourite thing to do is to read the latest Quidditch news while sipping a steaming cup of tea.

Age: 45

Level 124

Stats:

STR: 43

DEX: 74

CON: 54

INT: 154

WIS: 112

CHA: 89

Traits:

Normal Citizen

Prude

Quidditch Fan

Vasile Bobrov:

A Russian born wizard, Vasile's parents were both Muggleborn survivors of a Communist purge. Russian wizards found him at an orphanage and, upon seeing him use magic, enrolled him at a now deceased school for wizards and witches. He is a brewer by trade.

Age: 57

Level 149

Stats:

STR: 52

DEX: 65

CON: 64

INT: 264

WIS: 137

CHA: 119

Traits:

Normal Citizen

Follower

Quidditch Fan

Akiki Rwamirama:

A man of mixed tribal descent, Akiki works for an international trading group. He often poses as a Muggle shipping employee and is experienced in their practices. He favours Muggle fashion over that of wizarding fashion.

Age: 36

Level 115

Stats:

STR: 65

DEX: 74

CON: 44

INT: 189

WIS: 105

CHA: 108

Traits:

Normal Citizen

Overbearing

Quidditch Fan

Andre Lavoie:

Andre thinks that he is God's gift to women. The fact that he rather good-looking and easy on the eyes helps him, but it's his smooth talking that truly sets the hearts of women aflutter. He prefers older ladies and seeks to marry a rich dowager and have a bevy of mistresses by the time he is thirty.

Age: 25

Level 108

Stats:

STR: 58

DEX: 73

CON: 57

INT: 120

WIS: 93

CHA: 139

Traits:

Normal Citizen

Don Juan

Quidditch Fan

From what Harry could see, both he and Hermione were heads and shoulders above most other people in terms of their stats, traits, and titles. Just like the students at Hogwarts, most of the adults Harry had observed only had a few traits like the rather generically named 'Normal Citizen' and 'Quidditch Fan' traits.

Once Harry finished reading through and saving the various stat pages for later recording – he knew that Hermione would love to get her hands on the data – he stretched his shoulders to get the stiffness out of them. Then, feeling the call of nature, he chose to duck behind a nearby group of bushes in order to relieve himself. The lines in front of the public loos had been ludicrous, and there was no way Harry would subject himself to them if there was another alternative.

Just after he had unzipped his trousers and begun to pee, Harry heard two voices coming from close behind him. Neither sounded familiar, so he ignored them and went about his business.

But when one of them mentioned his family name, it grabbed Harry's attention.

"Damn the Potter brat and Black for getting in the way this morning," the voice of a man muttered. "They nearly ruined everything!"

"Mayhap, Morgan, but don't forget that we've still got a job to do." A second man replied. "The morning's unplanned event just made it harder to Imperius the target. Malfoy -"

"You mean Lord Malfoy, right?" the first voice said with a snigger.

"No, Morgan. I don't mean that. Lucius may be noble born, but the man is certainly no Lord of mine or any other. That was his father, Abraxus. And from what I've heard in the rumour mill, neither Lucius nor Draco have been able to earn the title themselves. It seems to be the one thing their gold cannot buy." A pause. "Well, that and a loyal wife, but Narcissa always was the brains of the operation. Her leaving that pretentious fop was only a matter of time."

A second, higher pitched snigger followed as the first man laughed again, shortly followed by the second man. His curiosity aroused by their topic of conversation, Harry finished his business as fast as he could. When done, he zipped up his trousers and tried to creep closer.

"Anyway," continued the second man, "Malfoy really won't be happy with us if we fail him, and he does have us by throat. So keep tight to me as we walk; the git was able to influence the Ministry's patrol schedule enough to open up this window and we'd best keep to it. We don't want any mishaps because laughing over the fool's issues made us tardy."

The first man gave a sympathetic groan. "Yeah, silencing witnesses can be a real pain sometimes, and if it caused us to miss the rendezvous we'd be right screwed, so we would."

Apparently finished with their talk, the two men began to walk away at a quick march. Their footsteps began to fade off into the distance as they moved away from the stadium area and towards a distant line of trees.

Harry sprang into motion. After three hours of fruitless searching, he was not going to let this opportunity slip away.

Using the 'Party' feature, Harry sent a pair of messages racing off to Remus and Sirius informing the two that he had located two suspicious individuals and was in pursuit. Remus and Sirius both messaged Harry back almost instantly, but he was unable to respond and minimized their notifications.

Then Harry activated his 'Inventory', pulled out his father's invisibility cloak, and swept it over his shoulders. After making sure that the Cloak was fully covering him, Harry closed the 'Inventory' and began to tail the two men through the woods.

The path the two men took was a winding, meandering one. They seemed to be rather paranoid about being followed; every few minutes, they would veer off to the side or double back on their trail, making it hard to know exactly where they were headed.

More than once along the way Harry had been forced to swiftly dodge behind a rock or tree so as to avoid running face first into one of the men. And as the sounds of the Quidditch celebrations faded further into the background, the undergrowth began to grow thicker. Dried leaves and broken sticks littered the floor, making it increasingly more difficult for Harry to move quietly.

After what felt like an hour had passed, the man in the lead came to a sudden stop. He whipped around and then thrust his wand directly at Harry's location. "Homenum Revelio!"

Harry felt his heart lurch against his ribcage as his feet ground to a halt.

The man cocked his head back. A child's mask, of the sort that one could get at a number of merchant booths back at the Stadium, covered his face.

Not daring even to breath, Harry stayed as still as was humanly possible. He had tested the cloak with Hermione before they had left Hogwarts and had found that it blocked against certain spells and abilities, like the Game's 'Observe', but whatever spell the man had just cast was completely unknown to Harry.

Time slowed to a crawl as Harry waited. And thought it felt like forever, it was likely that only seconds passed before the man turned to his companion.

"No one's there. Sorry for the scare, Morgan. It must've been some stupid animal that I heard."

The other man waved a hand in acceptance, a similar mask to that of his companion covering his own face. "It's been awhile since we've done something like this ourselves, Yaxley, and we're both a little rusty. But I don't want to end up in Azakaban anytime soon, so keep your eyes peeled just in case."

Finished, the two men resumed their walk.

Only after they had proceeded a short distance away did Harry let loose the breath he had been holding. And for what was probably the umpteenth time, he thanked his dad for getting it in the first place, and that Dumbledore had returned it to Harry back in his first year at Hogwarts.

The rest of the walk passed by without further incident. And eventually the two men came to a stop in an unremarkable part of the forest, where they proceeded to stand and wait.

Harry took up a position nearby.

He was itching to use 'Observe' on the two men, but the cloak's mysterious property to block spells and abilities also applied to Harry while he was under it. Without dropping the cloak or poking the tip of his wand beyond its protection, there was no way to use the ability. And after his earlier close call Harry did not want to take the risk.

After several minutes of silent waiting, the steady crunch of footsteps heralded the arrival of someone else. The two men Harry had followed into the woods tensed and pointed their wands in the direction of the noise.

A third person wearing a child's mask stepped into view. In stark contrast to the fancy robes worn by the two men Harry had followed, this new person wore a mishmash of apparel cobbled together from the Quidditch teams of multiple countries. It served to conceal their build, and when they spoke it was in a voice that sounded magically altered. Or so Harry supposed, as the closest thing he could compare it to was like when a victim or a witness spoke on the telly and used a voice synthesizer to protect their anonymity.

"Let's keep things short. I don't much time remaining before my disappearance might arouse suspicion," the new person stated. "Do I have your promise to help change the outcome of the matches?"

Man number one, Morgan, nodded. "I won't comment on what methods we will use, but they will remain untraceable and impossible to connect back to either of us."

"And what happens if your methods fail?"

"Then we will pay you, handsomely, for your assistance. As was previously agreed."

"And how can I trust you to hold true to your word?"

"Because we are all upstanding gentlemen here who have given our words of honour," man number two, Yaxley, sneered. "That, and if we fail to come through with things on our end, a bag of gold for the sum of 50,000 galleons will appear in your drop spot the night before your assistance is required."

The third man cocked his head as though he were thinking about things. He then slowly nodded his head and tossed something to Morgan. "Then I agree. That portkey will take you to the room you requested. It will only activate on the day you requested, and only when three or more people touch it at once. I can also cancel it should you not hold up your end of the bargain. Is this acceptable?"

Both Yaxley and Morgan assented. The other person nodded their head, then turned and walked back the way he had come. After which Yaxley and Morgan split apart and wandered back into the forest in opposite directions.

Ten minutes passed as Harry patiently waited to make sure that none of them were still nearby. Once Harry felt certain that he was well and truly alone in the woods, he replied to Sirius and Remus' messages. Then he took out his wand and cast the Patronus spell, instructed the ephemeral stag to lead Remus and Sirius to his location, and settled in to await their arrival.

While he was fairly certain that he could pinpoint Yaxley and Morgan if he ever met them again – they had to be the two men accompanying the Malfoy's earlier that morning – Harry had no idea who the third person had been. So while he had been able to make some progress on the quest, it was not enough. Not by a longshot.

A/N: And we are finally at the World Cup. A place where quests and daggers in the dark lurk in abundance. I took some creative license with portkey travel and Harry's invisibility cloak and modified them from their Canon iterations.

Older readers might notice that I removed a fairly large scene, in Sirius' P.O.V., from this chapter. I hemmed and hawed on whether to do so for quite some time, but ultimately pulled the trigger on it because it ruined the chapter's flow. It does contain some important material, however, so I'll touch it up and bring it back in the outrigger fic I will publish upon the completion of Level 1.

Until Next Time,

~Elsil