Thank you to all of my supporters, with a special thank you to my awesome tear supporters: Jo Daviz, Antar Das, LegendaryWasabi, Ibuki Mioda, SvenGTX, Optimum Prime and Jack Schriner. I love you all.

so after a little confusion at the start of the month, we did meet our goal and the art was commissioned. the artist Sowordash got the completed wort to me last night just in time for today's update. fanfiction can apparently take a few hours to change cover art but it has been done. what does everyone think of the artwork?

as always the next two chapters are available already for my supporters on pat re on under the name Lowten

Chapter 11

When Harry, Hermione, and the five French witches walked into Hermione's house, they were all enveloped in hugs immediately. Sirius had managed to locate the parents of the five girls, two sets of sisters whose parents were old friends, and had brought all four of them to the Grangers to wait. After all the parents had fussed over their children and made sure everyone was uninjured (save from the budding black eye Harry had when Marie, the youngest of the French girls, had accidentally elbowed him when the sudden jump of the Knight Bus had sent her flying), the father of the two girls tried to give Harry and Hermione a reward for helping his daughters, but Harry and Hermione refused to take anything for doing what they considered the right thing. Sirius ended up offering the French families a place to stay for the night, as it was already quite late and they had nowhere else to go. All their money was in Galleons, Gringotts was already closed for the night, and places like the Leaky Cauldron, Hog's Head, and Three Broomsticks would already be full. Having no better options they gladly accepted, and after Harry gave Hermione a hug they made their way to Grimmauld Place.

It was after breakfast the next day when two grateful families disappeared through the floo in Grimmauld Place, leaving the place feeling a little empty. It wasn't long after that when an owl came in carrying a copy of the Daily Prophet.

Shocking revelations as World Cup Riot investigation starts.

Ladies and Gentlereaders, as many of you experienced or read about yesterday, we can confirm the rumours that the rioters who attacked the fans at the conclusion of the World Cup were in fact dressed in Death Eater regalia. Not only that, but one Ministry official who spoke to me anonymously has confirmed that each of the rioters they have in custody does in fact have the symbol of You-Know-Who tattooed on their left arm. We can also confirm that one of the rioters died when a panicking member of the public cast an explosive curse at the group of death eaters, although the caster is currently unknown.

The dead Death Eater has been confirmed as one Lucius Malfoy. The late Mr. Malfoy was charged with being a Death Eater in his youth, but claimed to be under the Imperius curse and was subsequently let go by the Wizengamot. That he was now found rioting while dressed as a Death Eater and had a Dark Mark brings his earlier innocence into question. It also can't be ignored that his sister in law is the escaped convicted Death Eater Bellatrix LeStrange.

One muggle and his newly discovered muggleborn daughter were hurt in the attack, when the masked rioters dropped the family they were holding hostage after losing control of their levitation spells. It is suspected that the young girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was spotted doing accidental magic by one of the previously unknown Death Eaters. Both are currently undergoing treatment and the young witch is expected to make a complete recovery. Her father is also expected to live, though he will not regain the use of his legs...

Harry felt the tension he didn't know he was carrying lift from his shoulders as he read the newspaper. The death eater he had killed had been Lucius Malfoy, one of the few people that Harry didn't have to convince himself needed to die. The man was a bigot and a straight up murderer; even in this timeline he already tried to pass Riddle's diary onto Ginny so that she could be controlled into freeing Slytherin's monster so that it could kill muggle borns. He was concerned about Hermione though. She was going to read the paper and think that she had failed, and beat herself up over not being able to catch all of the muggles. Hermione was going to see the father's injuries as her fault, when in truth they were Harry's; it was his plan to change things at the World Cup when he knew that if he did nothing nobody would have been hurt, but he did it anyway.

The rational part of his brain was breaking down the numbers: Malfoy was dead, a number of Death Eaters were facing charges, and all it had cost was one man his ability to walk. Hermione, during one of their planning sections, had once told him about what was called the equation of war, costs vs gains, risk vs reward. The equation was definitely in their favour this time, but his conscience didn't seem to give a shit about that. Harry got his bike and cycled over to Hermione's house, knowing almost instinctively that the two of them needed each other today.

-ϟϟϟ-

Fourth year started September the first as normal. Harry and Hermione said goodbye to Dan, Emma, and Sirius at King's Cross, and not long after claiming their compartment, the engine of the Hogwarts express fired up and started pulling them north. Luna soon joined them and the three of them spent their trip north catching up. One thing Harry noticed was the absence of Malfoy, the blond git didn't come and bother them once. That was a change in the behaviour of the Slytherin, so Harry decided that he would need to keep an eye out for the boy. It was possible that the death of his father was enough that he realized that joining Dark Lords was dangerous, or he could be worse than before; either way it was worth keeping an eye out.

Harry and Hermione were thrown a curveball when they got to the school. Instead of an empty seat waiting for Barty Crouch pretending to be Moody, the seat was occupied by Professor Lupin again. Dumbledore even brought attention to it during his speech saying that this was the first time in over thirty years that Hogwarts had the same Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for more than a year, before he went on to announce the Triwizard Tournament. After the feast, though, things were almost identical to last time. The male Weasleys were bemoaning the fact that they couldn't enter while vowing to find a way to do so anyway. Some of the Gryffindors were also saying that they would enter, and others were trying to goad the rest of the of-age Gryffindors to go for it.

Harry and Hermione had other things on their mind, though. Harry (at Hermione's insistence) rushed up to the boys dorm and dove into his trunk, grabbed what he was looking for, and tried to bolt back down the stairs, only to have to wait as the mass of boys coming up was impassible. He eventually got back to the common room to find a nervous Hermione waiting for him. He laid out the Marauders Map, and after a wand tap and the password, they both started studying the map intently until Hermione pointed, saying, "There, in Professor McGonagall's private quarters with McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout."

Harry looked where she was pointing, and sure enough, there was the marker labelled Remus John Lupin. "So it really is Professor Lupin, not Barty Crouch Jr."

"Looks that way, you said the map sees through polyjuice," Hermione hedged. She had never seen Crouch's name on the map so just had to take Harry's word on it.

"But if Moony is here instead of Crouch, who is going to put my name in the Goblet?" Harry asked. Trying to find a way to keep their plan going.

"Maybe that won't be a problem this year. Our other years have been relatively quiet by comparison to our first run through."

"And maybe Tom is going to repent, give up on his world domination plans, and join a circus headlining as the Noseless Wonder," Harry joked. "There are two things bothering me here. One, if I'm not in the tournament this year, that means we are now flying blind. Two, how is Moony here? What did we do to end the curse?"

"Well the curse seems pretty simple, we destroyed the horcrux that was in the school. The curse was probably anchored to the diadem, and when you stabbed it with basilisk venom you destroyed the curse along with the horcrux. And as for flying blind, maybe we need to consider that you can't use a sample from a werewolf in Polyjuice. It has the same problem as using animal hair, or maybe a combination of human hair and animal hair would be more accurate," Hermione shivers as she remembered the furry consequences of her accident in the previous timeline. "And, there is a good chance the drinker could catch lycanthropy, so that is probably why they didn't try to replace the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. So it wouldn't surprise me if they've come up with another plan to get you into the tournament."

Harry nodded understandingly. "Any idea what they will try?"

"I have no idea. What about the rest of the teachers, could they have replaced one of those, or perhaps a student?" She pulled the map to herself and started going over the names there, looking for Barty Crouch in the student dormitories and checking every teacher's name off a mental list. However, it seemed that everyone was indeed themselves, and the two teens spent an hour going over the map and trying to work out how Voldemort was going to try to kidnap Harry this year. They couldn't find anything, though, and eventually just went to bed.

-ϟϟϟ-

The next two months passed without incident. In the run up to Halloween, all the Hogwarts students became more excited for the start of the Triwizard Tournament and the visitors from other schools. In contrast to this, the professors became almost neurotic, punishing students disproportionately for anything that they perceived would sully the castle's reputation and leave a negative impression on the visitors that would soon be in the school. Mr Filch even reduced one group of first years to tears when, after a sudden heavy rain, they ran into the castle tracking in a little mud.

Harry (who was still the son of Prongs) took exception to this, and with a little help from the Weasley twins he spelled a bucket of glitter to float into the air and spell out "Don't make firsty's cry!" when Filch got near, and then explode down the corridor outside the man's office. The best part was that the Weasley twins had spelled the glitter so that it couldn't be vanished. That meant that the cleanup had to be done by hand, so the professors weren't any real help getting rid of the sparkly mess. In the end, Filch was able to get rid of most of it, but the corridor outside his office seemed to sparkle whenever anyone walked down it now, proving that it was impossible to ever get rid of it all.

The other schools arrived the same as they did last time, but this time Hermione waved her wand over the Beauxbatons visitors and cast a warming charm on them when she saw them shivering, earning her a grateful nod from a few of the visitors and a few House points from Professor Dumbledore. During the feast, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation Bartemius Crouch brought out the Goblet of Fire. In turn, each of the head teachers tapped the Goblet with their wands and declared that their school would be participating in the tournament, and that the goblet was to select the best of their students to represent their school. That hadn't been done in the previous timeline, but Hermione said that it was how the Goblet was activated and the three heads must have done it in private last time after the feast.

On their way back to the common room after the feast, all of Gryffindor was one again saying how they would enter or were trying to push someone else to enter themselves. When some of the students said they were going to try and find a way around Dumbledore's age line, Harry was tempted to tell them to just get an older student to do it for them. It would serve them right for turning on him last time if one of them had to go through what he did, but as cathartic as it was to think about and to joke with Hermione about it, Harry didn't do it. It was a minor miracle that the tournament hadn't killed anyone the first time.

-ϟϟϟ-

It was with a sense of foreboding that Harry and Hermione entered the great hall for the Halloween feast and the drawing of the champions. The Great Hall was almost full, and the Goblet of Fire had been moved; it was now standing in front of Dumbledore's empty chair at the teachers' table. Harry and Hermione sat at the Gryffindor table and looked around them. Fred and George were telling everyone that they hoped it was Angelina now that their attempts to get their names into the pyrotechnic cup had failed. The two of them still sported a bit of gray stubble as the beards would persist for a few days, and the two of them were yet to gain proficiency with a razor.

The feast was filled with the regular Halloween fare, as well as a few foreign dishes that were equally enticing. Once everyone had eaten their fill and the deserts devolved into nothing, Dumbledore stood up and addressed the hall. "Well, the Goblet is almost ready to make its decision, I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" - he indicated the door behind the staff table - "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semi-darkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting; a few people kept checking their watches. Suddenly the flames turned red and spat out the first name. Krum got the 'honour' again and disappeared through the door to the trophy room. The second name came out of the goblet, lifted high on a tongue of flame. Delacour rose from her seat and followed Krum into the trophy room. The third name came out, and Diggory got the loudest cheer of all the champions so far, but that was mostly from the Hufflepuffs who greatly outnumbered the visitors. The Hufflepuff followed the other 2 champions through the door to the trophy room.

Everyone else relaxed while Harry watched the cup with anxiety. He knew what was coming. It was gonna be the same as last time, except the difference this time was he was expecting it. The 4th name came shooting out of the cup, Dumbledore read it and said "Harry Potter." Harry sighed, resigned to his fate, and stood up. With a nod to Hermione, he followed the three official champions into the trophy room.

"What is it? Do zey want us back in ze Hall?" Fleur asked.

Harry didn't want to be the one to tell them that the tournament they had entered had been messed with, but decided not to stall. "No, my name came out of the goblet as well. Professor Dumbledore said he would be here in a minute to sort everything out." Harry explained as plainly as he could.

"But that's ridiculous, Hogwarts can't have a second champion. That is most unsporting." Krums words were polite, but his tone said he was upset.

"Agreed, and you are just a little boy, this tournament is far too dangerous for you. You will just-" Fleur started, until she was cut off by Dumbledore, Snape, Karkaroff, Maxime, Crouch, and Bagman strode into the room. Dumbledore strode up to Harry, and in his regular calm voice asked, "Harry, did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire?"

Harry looked the man right in the eye and said, "No sir, I didn't."

"And did you ask an older student to put your name in for you?" His voice was still just as calm as before.

"No sir. And if that's all it took, I'm disappointed in your security, sir." Harry said truthfully. He had thought about this flaw in Dumbledore's security as the Triwizard Tournament approached. What if, in a fit of pique, one of the school's blood purists who were of age decided to enter all of the younger muggle born students, hoping to kill one of them off.

"Your arrogance knows no bounds Potter, you are disappointed with the headmaster's security. Just because you found a way around it and then stand there lying to our faces doesn't give you the right to degrade the headmaster." Snape sneered at Harry, getting into Harry's personal space.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Here we go again, Snape calling me a liar, on evidence, no investigation, he just knows I'm at fault. What are you even doing here? There are no Slytherins here, you aren't mine or Cedric's head of house. Where is Professor McGonagall?"

"You will show me some respect Potter, I am your professor!" Snape bellowed at him.

"Severus, if you would please go to my office so I can speak with you later? Your presence is obviously going to be counter productive," Dumbledore said to Snape, and the dungeon bat left the trophy room after sneering at Harry again. "Barty, you know the rules better than anyone else, what do we need to do?"

"We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament."

"That is preposterous! Hogwarts can't have two champions, it is most unjust," Madam Maxime said after drawing herself up to her full height.

"I must agree with Olympe, the tournament rules also say the Goblet will select one champion from each school. If Hogwarts gets two champions, our schools should as well," Karkaroff said, sounding surprisingly reasonable to Harry.

"I didn't even enter. I don't want to be in this damn tournament. Can't you just disqualify me?" Harry already knew the answer but had to ask anyway. .

Crouch spoke up. "I'm afraid not, Mr. Potter. Your name coming out of the Goblet means you are now under a binding magical contract. If you do not compete and put forth every effort to complete the tasks, then you will forfeit your magic and will have to live as a squib."

"WHAT!" A voice boomed from the doorway, where standing there were Professor Lupin, Professor McGonagall, and Sirius, the one who had shouted. He stormed into the room with a look of absolute fury on his face. "Harry, please confirm to me that you didn't enter this tournament. You're not in trouble if you did, after the stuff you dad and us got up to then I'm not enough of a hypocrite to punish you. But if you didn't enter yourself, then that means someone else did and that can't go unanswered." Sirius was overtly trying to stay calm, and while angry, he wasn't angry at Harry.

"Sirius, I swear I didn't put my name in the goblet, I didn't ask anyone else to do it for me, and I had no intention of entering the tournament." Harry said solemnly but calmly.

Sirius nodded, then turned to the adults who were in the room before he got there. "OK, what's the plan to find out who put Harry's name forward to compete in this deathtrap of a tournament, and how are there four competitors instead of three? As I understand it, the goblet selects one person from each school; if there were only three registered schools, then Harry would be either unchosen or Hogwarts champion."

Fleur stepped in then. "Excuse me, but before you get into all of that, wouldn't it be better to tell us what we need for the first task first? That way the unaffected champions can leave." Everyone stared at the French witch for a bit before deciding that she was right. Bagman gave them the same information that he did last time (that is to say, none) and the three other champions left.

After that was an hour of arguing between the headteachers, Sirius, and Crouch, that all amounted to basically nothing. Harry needed to compete or lose his magic, Hogwarts teachers were forbidden from offering Harry any extra help, and Dumbledore had no clue how to find who it was to put Harry's name in the Goblet. The only real difference was that Sirius was going to go straight to the DMLE once he was finished with this meeting and was going to push them to open a case of attempted murder for whoever had put Harry's name in the Goblet, as well as a case of criminal negligence against Dumbledore, Crouch, and Bagman for not having tighter security on a magical device that created binding contracts while it was in a school full of children.

Finally, everyone left and Harry made his way up to the Gryffindor common room. The Fat Lady congratulated him on being a Triwizard champion, and Harry braced himself before climbing through the portrait hole. As expected, as soon as the door opened he was hit by a wall of sound. All the Gryffindors were cheering for him and begging to know how he got his name into the tournament. Despite the fact that they had just come from a feast, there was a few platters of sweets on one of the tables, and someone pressed a butterbeer into Harry's hands

Hermione had come up with a plan for him that, if he was lucky, would keep at least most of Gryffindor on his side this time. Harry climbed up on one of the tables and used a quick flick of his wand to let out the sound of a gong, getting everyone's attention. "Okay everyone listen up, because I don't want to have to repeat this a few hundred times." Harry said with a forced grin on his face. "I'm not holding out on you refusing to tell you how I got myself into the tournament. I didn't enter my name. The current theory that the headmaster and my godfather have is that one of Voldemort's old supporters is taking the opportunity to kill me off while being as far away as possible." There was some murmuring, and Harry could sense some of the crowd turning against him, but he had expected that.

"But whoever did put my name in is going to be disappointed because I'm not going to die, I'm not going to humiliate myself, I'm not even going to sulk over this. What I am going to do is win. I'm going to win every task, and for the first time in centuries, the Triwizard Cup is going to have the name of a Gryffindor on it." Harry finished his little speech and could tell the crowd was on his side, at least for now. He would have preferred not to give a speech like that, but needs must; now he and Hermione would probably at least have some peace in the Gryffindor common room despite anything else the other houses did. Tomorrow, he would need to face the rest of the school and (with Hermione's help, of course) try to work out a better plan for facing a dragon.

A/N

For anyone who is going to point out that the tournament killed Cedric. No it didn't, Voldemort did, after he was taken away from the tournament. The cup was grabbed and the tournament was over.

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