Author's note: Please be aware that I own ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, everything, except my character OC(S) I place here, belongs to the wonderful Lady J.K. Rowling. THIS IS A TRIAL RUN! I would very much like to hear your thoughts. I was originally never going to upload this fiction, however, I know it was something I was looking forward to sharing. This is a Sirius Black/OC, maybe Severus Snape/OC, Fanfiction. So, welcome back, readers! I hope you enjoy this one as much as you have the first 2 Harry Potter stories! :) Do enjoy, this is the Harry Potter Era, so it's going to be a bit. Keep your heads up. Enjoy!

Updated: 12/2021

Chapter 16

" 'Arry Potter!" The voice obviously belonged to Madam Maxime, rushing up behind Dumbledore.

Dumbledore nearly stumbled in his quickened pace and caught himself with Harry who had stumbled back at the sudden contact and closeness. "Harry! Did you put your name in the Goblet of fire!"

"No, sir!" Harry said in a panic.

"Are you absolutely sure!?" Dumbledore had to know, he could have been cursed, Imperius maybe, but it doesn't explain how his name was able to stay in the fire if he put it in himself.

"Yes, sir!" Harry answered, his voice filled with panic, his green eyes filling with fear. He really didn't want to be there.

"To the Gods, he is lying!" Maxime screamed viciously, smacking a lantern out of her way.

"LIKE HELL HE IS!" Harry's two guardians shouted in rage that shocked them all into near silence, and they were quickly backed by Alastor to their tremendous gratitude, and honestly, they were shocked as well.

"The Goblet of Fire is extremely powerful magic, it would take an extremely powerful Confundus charm to have Hoodwinked it into believing Four champions were to compete, not three! That, in itself, is impossible for a fourth year to complete!" Alastor shouted finally making it a bit late to the 'party'.

Harry had heard enough, he was looking around, trying to find a place to hide. He was grateful when Cedric walked up next to him and patted him on the back with a calming and friendly smile at him, nodding to Harry and letting the frightened, and obviously upset, fourth-year know that he was not alone. But their brief moment of calmness was ended when Karkaroff opened his mouth yet again.

"You seemed to have put a lot of thought into this, Mad-eye!" Karkaroff growled at the retired Auror, a stone-like glare steering towards him. The groups arguing had been growing louder and louder, and very much out of control. Both parties of Hogwarts Guests were threatening to leave and withdraw from the tournament because a second Hogwarts champion had been selected, something Harry had nothing to do with, yet they were all blaming him.

"ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU!" Sirius's voice shouted, echoing through the Trophy room, he was half out of breath and angrier than a dragon whose nest had been robbed.

Everyone turned to find Sirius, giving him a look of shock and slight fright and nearly everyone was wide-eyed at him, but they had effectively been silenced. "That is enough, Mad-eye is right. The Goblet of Fire is a very powerful Magical object, Harry hasn't the power to back him to do that. Dare I say it was someone older with years of skills to back them up to not only get through Dumbledore's Age Line but also to trick the Goblet into choosing four people, not three. Alastor is right. Not to mention the charmes Sage and myself put in place to straighten Albus's protocols." He said with a huffed sigh. Trying to remain as calm as possible even as he trembled.

"Well, I dare say I'm very close to leaving as we speak! For weeks, to previous months, we Headmasters of our schools negotiated our terms of this Tournament! Now those very terms have been burned to the ground by this degraded inbreed of a boy!" Karkaroff growled once again.

"That boy is more victim in this than anyone here!" Cedric snapped with aggravation. He couldn't believe this, the guy was acting like this was Harry's fault!

"Silence rat!" Igor snapped at Cedric, but Igor's words, both towards Harry and Cedric, had been the cause of his face burning with pain when someone had swung a solid punch at him. Everyone had looked to Sirius expecting it to be him. However, it was the fuming redhead holding her wrist with a slight pain that had shocked them into pure silence. She had swung at the Wizard wrong and the punch, where it may have been delivered with its intention of pain, it had hurt her wrist as well.

Barty stood shocked at how fast that had escalated, Dumbledore rushed to Sage and moved her back to assess her wrist while Maxime and Fleur both gasped. Viktor coughed back a few chuckles while Cedric laughed, not only at the scene that had just occurred but also because Alastor and Sirius were also laughing. Cedric couldn't help his own belly-rolling laughter.

Harry was staring with his mouth hanging open. But after that punch, they should have put a blindfold on her eyes. She was staring at Karkaroff with hell's fires burning deep behind her bright blue eyes. She was fierce and a force not to be played with at all. In truth, Igor had definitely deserved that, however, it may be in a lesser volume of violence.

Sirius simply covered his wide grin with his hand and tried not to laugh at the fool, but he couldn't stop the laughter.

"Igor Karkaroff," Sage said his name with a malice-laced snarl, her blue eyes burning with hateful rage. She didn't know why. He'd simply pissed her off and gave her a sick feeling, as did Alastor. But right now she was at Igor's throat.

Igor had pulled his last straw by saying what he had, his stupidity and rudeness while being here at the school was ridiculous, and while Albus had put up with it, she would not. But the vicious tone deep her voice had him wanting to pee himself. If not curse the woman. Though he figured the latter would not only be highly frowned upon, but likely be the cause of his arrest, or worse, his death.

Sirius moved around Dumbledore and wrapped his arms around her shaking form, "Okay love, take it easy." He said rubbing her back.

"Barty, you'll be our final judge," Dumbledore said with a soft sigh, he didn't want Harry in this tournament any more than they did.

"Quelle can we do… Do we 'ave any 'ope in removing ze boy from ze Tournament? 'E's only Fourteen!" Maxime asked with sheer concern for the boy's safety.

"The Goblet of Fire has a magically binding contract. It is unable to be undone. I am afraid, that as of tonight, Mr. Potter is a Tri-Wizard Champion." Barty said with a fallen face, that was the worst news he'd had to give in a few years. His heart fell for the boy when he found his and Mr. Diggory's face fallen completely, both Hogwarts boys sharing a look of worry and fear for the other.

Translation- 'Quelle' = What

As the days trailed on, Draco, Neville, occasionally Hermione, were the only ones out of his small group of friends that would speak to him and try to encourage him.

Badges had come out very quickly regarding "the real Hogwarts Champion" with a face of a smiling Cedric Diggory then they would swirl into a wonky face of Harry with the words melting around it, reading in simple words, "Potter stinks".

Hufflepuff and Slytherin were the worst towards him. Hufflepuff, because Harry was the second Champion of Hogwarts.

This issue was causing a lot of trouble.

Draco had nearly punched one of the sixth years Hufflepuff classmates one afternoon, "He never even put his name in the damn thing in the first place! He was with me and the others the entire night, you morons!" Draco shouted, he was having enough of it, Harry had cried himself to sleep just the other night because of him and Ron getting into it, none of them needed this, least of all Harry.

Even Cedric was making a fuss over the badges, asking many of his fellow students to not wear them, because it was wrong and degrading. He'd wanted nothing to do with being a part of Harry's downward spiral into feeling attacked. But no one was listening, they'd remove them for a while then put them right back on as soon as Harry was walking near and block him in, aiming the badges right in his face.

Teachers were having an issue with confiscating these items. In three days they had gathered too many to remember how many they actually had. Dumbledore had even made a small speech about them, announcing that once the person was caught that was producing them, they would not only confiscate the entire collection but the person, or persons, responsible would have detention for the rest of the school year.

Harry had not gone to anyone, he only spoke to Draco and a few others, which only included Sirius and writing to Remus, simply because Sage was away because she'd physically attacked a guest in the presence of others and the Headmaster of Hogwarts School. He really didn't want a recap of her and Igor again, no matter how funny everyone had thought it was. It was still a physical attack. And she had been removed from her Teaching statues, understandably so, Albus couldn't have her wandering around after such actions free from punishment. However, everyone had agreed that Sage had 'technically' been in the right to slug him for his behavior and words towards Harry and Cedric but at the cost of being temporarily put on suspension. Though, she would only be allowed back onto the school grounds to watch the Tasks and was to keep her distance away from Igor.

When morning came around, Harry found himself going back to the Trophy room with the other three champions, supposedly they were supposed to have pictures and Rita Skeeter was apparently going to be doing an article about them.

Draco had dragged him from the bed and towards the trophy room against his will, "Just get it over with Harry. It's just a picture and an interview, it's painless." He said, poking about for fun at the sulking and irritated boy.

"For you maybe," Harry grumbled. He'd nearly stumbled down the steps when Draco slapped him on the back and laughed.

And so, it went.

Rita hadn't even listened to them and simply written what she wished, meaning she put words in their mouths and misinformation. This very much irritated Harry and the other three, especially Cedric, who had given the woman a rude glare.

"You okay, Cedric?" Harry asked them as they all walked from the room.

"She's ridiculous and rude. All she did was put words into our mouths… It's completely unethical as a journalist to do what she just did… This whole situation is completely unfair to you. I mean, your fourteen, Harry, and we all know you want nothing to do with this, it's not your fault." Cedric fumed a bit.

Harry waited for Cedric to calm himself, he had gone red in the face with embarrassment from Rita Skeeter writing what she had and had become offended on Harry's behalf for what had happened. Harry greatly appraised it. Cedric could have been petty and cruel to Harry for being a second champion for Hogwarts, yet he was upset no one tried to help Harry get out of it as they had actually hoped.

"Harry, just be careful as you go with these tasks, please," Cedric said holding a hand out to Harry with a smile.

Harry had done the only thing he could think of doing, he shook Cedric's hand and smiled back with a glad smile shining in his eyes, "Thanks Cedric, may the best win, and honestly, I hope it's you." This had given the Hufflepuff Seeker a moment to smile and blush a faint pink. Even Harry Potter wanted him to win, and he too hoped he won, but he didn't see it fair to Harry that he had been hit in the crossfire of this Tournament, "Thank you… Good luck, see you around Harry." And they left that as it was, a happy parting as friends and friendly competitors.

Ron had convinced an already irritated Hermione to tell Harry something because he didn't want to say anything to him. With the boys going back and forth the way they were, Hermione had screamed at Harry from trying to do the same to her which Ron had done. She was not an Owl, least of all a messenger girl.

"Well, that went well," Draco sighed, groaning and stalked after a fuming Harry, "Hey! You need to calm down. Hermione is pissed because everyone is attacking her for trying to defend you! Cedric is even getting ignored. Stop with the pouting and think for just a few minutes, will you…" Draco had had just about enough of this stupid crap.

The Tournament was causing so much drama and stress it was making him sick, that and he was just glad he hadn't hit anyone, yet,

With a sigh, Harry nodded and moved back to the tree and continued reading through Neville's' book while Draco laid back in the dirt with a sigh of relief.

'Finally, he listens.'

Once night fell, Harry sighed as chills ran through him while he trudged through the cold, night air. His two sweaters were barely keeping him warm and the small blanket he had wrapped around him with a scarf tightly held to him, and his father's invisibility cloak held tightly in his grasp, trying to keep the warmth from leaving as he met up with Hagrid. "Why did you want me to meet you out here… Hagrid? Is that a flower and a… is that a polka-dotted tie? You've combed your hair, what's going on Hagrid?" Harry was officially confused. Hagrid looked like he was heading out for a date! Now he just felt weird being out here if Hagrid was meeting someone while trying to supposedly tell him or show him what the first task was.

'This is going to be a long night,'

"Well… Yes, as a mat'er o' fact it is, and yes, I combed me hair. May wan' ta try it out on yer own hair if yeh ask me. May help yeh with that bit o' a mess you got goin' on 'here- Oh, get under the cloak, quickly." Hagrid said, rushing the poor boy under the cloak and walked out from behind the bushes towards a shadowing figure approaching them.

"'Agrid? Ooh 'Agrid, I zought, you may 'ave forgotten me."

'Madam Maxime! What in the blazing broomsticks is going on!'

"Forget you Olympe? Never."

Harry silently gaged from under the cloak as he watched. 'Grose!'

"You zaid zere was zomezing you needed to show me?"

He had abruptly stopped her before she had finished leaning in, in an attempt to kiss him, this left the poor woman confused and a bit embarrassed, "Ah, yes follow me, I thought you would like to know what the first challenge was. It's not right tha' they not tell ya what to expect besides some crazy clues to figure it out."

Harry shook his head at Hagrid's obliviousness. He hated watching adults getting all cozy. But Harry felt bad for the dear woman, she seemed to have thought Hagrid was not interested in her, really he was but his mind had moved from one thing to another so fast the situation of Maxime wanting to kiss him had quickly left his mind and went back to work. Because work was all he ever knew. Harry's mind had been blanked out when Hagrid moved the tall brush aside and cages and fire bursting through startled him and Maxime. Harry strained his eyes to see a bit, but when the creatures began screeching and spitting fire, Harry's heart fell to his stomach with fear swelling up in him. He had ripped the cloak off him and rushed forward, "Dragons! That's the first task? Are they insane!"

"Well, I don' have the answer to most o' that. But yes, Dragons. Ter'ibly misund'rstood dragons are… All though, that Horntail is a right nasty thing don' yeh think? Poor Ron nearly fainted just seeing 'em. Ron's brother, Charlie, brought them over from Romania… Didn't Ron tell yeh that?"

"No, he didn't tell me anything!" Now Harry had a reason to be pissed at Ron, he had the chance to tell him earlier, instead, he sent Hermione to tell him someone said something about another person claiming that Hagrid was looking for him and that he needed to see him that night.

'You are so in for it Ron. Draco won't even be able to help you out of this one.'

"Thanks, Hagrid, I gotta get to bed though, long day. Good luck with your night." And with that, he left. Everyone had been asleep already when he got back to the Dorm room, letting him ready for bed without issue, but even that seemed to want to avoid him.

The next day was a roller coaster, Draco had to attend detention because he knocked one of the Beauxbaton girls down the stairs with him trying to avoid someone's stupid pranks they had set for someone. It still had not ended pretty. They had both been hit by the blast of color-charmed powder. And Draco was being blamed for it.

Task 1 - Dragons

Sage sighed with nervousness as she paced the stands, she had done this for weeks at her Cottage. But, Remus had kept her company for those weeks. Though, he seemed to be doing more babysitting than anything. Her health had once more dropped, and she'd been bedridden. Truthfully, she wasn't even supposed to have been there in the first place since she was still not well. The constant dizziness and fainting spells were getting worse, but what had everyone worried about were the nosebleeds. Her magic would even become unpredictable like an Obscurial, though they were all thankful her magic never lashed outwards. Unfortunately, it was lashing inward, destroying her body. Albus had gone as far as calling Newt Scamander into her health. Sage was under restrictions from doing any big magic or any form of dueling since they discovered that Magic seemed to be playing against her health.

Newt and his wife, Tina, seemed to even take an interest in her, knowing she was different but kept much of their assumptions to themself. However, he had told her he'd like to hear her story when they got the occasion. And to be as careful as possible.

Sage was momentarily stunned by the gentle hold of a strong pair of hands that came up from behind her and gently grasp ahold of her arms, softly rubbing the cold away. Looking at the owner of the strong hands she found a smirking Sirius.

"Nice to see you, feeling better?" He asked her.

"Technically, I'm not even really supposed to be here." She admitted softly. A gentle blush on her cheeks from the last time they'd seen one another.

"That is why I am here," A sudden and soft voice said from behind them.

Turning with slight shock at the voice, she smiled at the aged face she saw, "Mr. Scamander,"

"Newt, please call me Newt. Tina is actually around somewhere, ah, there she. Tina, dear, I found her!" He called for his wife. A happy smile was always on his face, Sage adored the man and his wife. They were so sweet, and amazing people.

Tina's smiling self walked her way to them, hugging Sage tightly. Her eyes darted to Sirius, "Oh, is this your husband?" She asked curiously with a smile.

Sirius coughed a bit with shock. He supposed he wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or to not breathe so his body must have gone straight to coughing while Sage stuttered with a heavy blush with some laughter.

"No, d-definitely not."

"Well, no need to answer so quickly love," Sirius spoke up at her sudden answer. He wouldn't lie, he was slightly offended at her tone.

"I am not your love, Sirius Black." she sighed with a slight blush and an embarrassed huff.

"Well, you surely didn't complain when I kissed you." Sirius teased

"It was a kiss to the forehead, there is nothing romantic at all about that." Sage quickly said. Her blush deepened as they continued to speak about it.

Sirius held back his grin at her blushing reaction. He rather liked it when she blushed. "Don't tempt me,"

Huffing, she crossed her arms as she looked at him with a stern mask, though her blushing cheeks must have said plenty. "No intention to do so."

The married couple couldn't help but smile at the two as they went back and forth. It was rather entertaining. And they knew something was deeply hidden behind their words. She did want him to kiss her, but then, she also didn't.

Champions Tent

Hermione snuck around the back of the tent and the badly placed security. She had to see Harry. Her best friend was about to go up against a damn Dragon and the last thing that had been said between them had been her screaming at him. Then again, he and Ron had deserved her scolding, but it was not the last thing she wanted Harry to remember if something went badly. "pst, Harry? Is that you?"

Confused beyond belief he moved closer to the tent flap near the back, "Hermione?"

"Uh-Huh… The key is to concentrate, after that, you just have to… Well," She didn't know how to say he had to go up against a dragon, her stomach was in terrifying knots for her friend.

"Battle the Dragon? Yeah, kind of figured - ouf." He'd been completely taken off guard by Hermione suddenly jumping through the tent folds, throwing her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

She was terrified he'd get hurt, or worse killed, that was something she knew would devastate them all, worst of all Ron and Draco.

They were frightened apart by a sudden flash that came from out of nowhere. To Hermione's horror, Rita Skeeter, and her photographer, stood before the two of them with wide grins on their ridiculous faces.

"How… Charming, if anything unfortunate happens today, you two may just make the front page." Rita said with little care.

They grinned when Rita's perverted attention turned on Krum as he told her she was not welcomed there, seconds later Hermione found herself latched to Harry in an attempt to stay in the blind spots of the Professor and the others that had decided to grace them with their presence. Dumbledore had been the only one to not notice her at the moment, something she was grateful for until he did a double-take in Harry's direction and asked, "Mss. Granger, what on earth are you doing here?" to say he was shocked he hadn't noticed her there when he walked in, but really he'd been focused on getting the Champions ready for the task at hand.

"Right, I should be going, good luck…" And with that she walked out, cheeks blushing with tremendous embarrassment. Her embarrassment floated away when her eyes caught sight of a long-haired redhead in the stands with Sirius and a couple she didn't recognize from afar. "Sage!" Hermione had to keep herself from asking the couple so many questions when she approached Sage and Sirius, "Newton Scamander?"

"Newt, please, it always sounds too formal to hear my full name. And you are?" He asked softly, curious at the young Witch. He and Tina could clearly see she had questions but they were glad she decided to keep them to herself.

"Um, Granger, Sir, Hermione Granger." She introduced herself, smiling widely at the two.

"Lovely to meet you, Miss Granger," He said.

"Hermione, please." Hermione smiled, nodding her welcome to them to Hogwarts.

Tina smiled as she nodded to the young Witch who took a seat between Sage and Sirius. She was sweet, and she saw the same vast knowledge in Hermione's eyes as she still saw in Newt. They were both brilliant in their own ways.

Turning his attention to a different topic, Sirius leaned to Hermione with curiosity. He'd been meaning to ask Ron or Harry, but he'd been constantly busy. "What's been going on with Ron? I've noticed he hasn't been around Harry lately. It's like those two are avoiding one another?" Sirius asked curiously.

"That's because Ron and Harry have sticks up their behinds." A new arrival said.

"Draco, how wonderful of you to join us. Why aren't you sitting with Ron?" Sirius laughed at the teased glare the Malfoy boy gave him.

"Because I'm trying not to smack logic back into him and Harry. No offense Sirius." Draco admitted as he took a seat next to his guardian.

The task began, everyone cheered for all of the champions and flinched every time they came close to nearly having an arm taken off or getting too close to the dragon. Sage had covered her eyes with her hands when Cedric was sent flying after being hit by the dragon's tail.

Then it was Harry's turn, and her fear set in. Sirius had switched seats with Hermione and held Sage's hand in comfort the entire time with everyone smiling and laughing and cheering when Harry flew off with his broom. Sage was not alone when she screamed with excitement and hugged Sirius when Harry came flying back into the ring with the dragon no longer on his tail. Leaning herself into Sirius's arms and warmth from the chilling weather she sighed with relief.

Sirius laughed and hugged her tightly, his stomach unknotting and his heart returning back into his chest as he settled his nerves from the terrifying idea Harry may have just been severely hurt or, worst, lost somewhere in the heavy mist that was rolling in. But he loved the feeling of this woman in his arms, and he didn't know why. But he felt whole.

*HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY/NIGHT! thank you! :)