Chapter 12

Dumbledore didn't attempt to stop Harry, and he led the rest of the party to the fallen body ahead as Harry marched up the grounds towards a sprinting James and Justin. James reached him first grabbing both of his arms, "Merlin, Harry, are you okay? Cedric Diggory was screaming at me like the devil was after him when I came to investigate the explosion that rocked the castle. All I could get was 'rogue Moody', and 'Harry trying to kill him.'"

Harry snorted, and started feeling the impact of the adrenaline rush ending, "That's pretty much the gist of what happened. I have a lot of answers for you, dad, but I need you to get me out of here first. To your personal quarters. Contact mum and the other Marauders; they all need to hear this. Justin, I have a job for you as well, go hunt down Neville Longbottom and bring him to dad's quarters. I will explain everything then."

Justin didn't question Harry in the slightest as he took off running back towards the castle, and Harry threw an arm through his dads claiming, "My legs are gonna give out shortly. Adrenaline dump to the extreme. Can you cast scourgify and clean me up as we walk?"

James nodded gladly to accept some of his son's weight shouting at Dawlish nearby, "John, you are in charge of this scene. I am going to see to my son's health, and will get you the answers for a report. If you plan on making an arrest, come to my quarters, and we will discuss it."

The Auror looked like he wanted to question it, but Shacklebolt shouted, "Dawlish, you need to see this."

With the Auror now in charge of the scene distracted, James began moving his son away from it all and began swirling his wand around as they made entrance to the castle grounds, cleaning him off before they made it to the main courtyard where Penny and Cedric were waiting.

When they saw him, he saw Penny nearly slump to the ground in relief that he was okay. Cedric came over taking his other arm helping James support him even easier, "Harry, are you injured?"

"No. Just an adrenaline dump. Mostly from jumping out of the castle without my broom than from the duel itself. I will admit that was some of the craziest stuff I have ever done." He said grinning at the boy lightly.

This caused Cedric to snort and Penny to turn red with anger, "YOU MEAN JUMPING OUT THE WINDOW WAS CRAZIER THAN CHASING A PSYCHOPATH THROWING KILLING CURSES AROUND LIKE CONFETTI YOU ABSOLUTE PRAT!"

Cedric laughed, but it sounded slightly forced as Penny clearly wanted to start hitting him, but James stopped her. "Ms Clearwater, I have heard great things about you from my wife, but now is not the time to berate my possible idiot of a son. You will have to save it for later."

James said as he never stopped his walk into the Grand Entrance Hall. Harry saw the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students scattered around looking at the trio that came in, clearly surprised that Harry was alive. Fleur looked like she wanted to rush to Harry's side and see if he was okay, but he winked at her in reassurance, and everyone stayed away.

When they made it to James' guest quarters, Cedric offered to stay and help, but James politely refused and thanked him for making sure Harry made it without falling over. Once he got Harry in a seat his shaking slowed down after a few minutes, and the arrivals began showing up.

The first was Lily Potter, and she looked absolutely apoplectic, "JAMES POTTER, you are in this castle, and our son still has to fight for his life?"

"Honey, I can't be everywhere at once." The man said calmly, keeping his eyes on his son just in case he started freaking out or throwing up.

Lily walked straight to Harry taking his chin in her hands looking over his face, arms, and everywhere her eyes could visibly glance at with a single look. She even began casting diagnostic charms, warning him what she was going to do first.

Remus was the next to arrive, "We got the Marauder Code 1, what happened?"

James held his hand up indicating to wait as Sirius came spilling through the door with Neville and Justin. When Sirius arrived, Harry stood, and the man catapulted himself towards Harry embracing the boy as hard as he could, "You did the world a good service. That fucking bastard deserved what he got."

Lily growled out, "I've been patient enough, someone tell me what happened now!"

Harry pulled out a wand slowly, and displayed it for all to see, "This wand belongs to you now Neville. I had no right over you to take the man's life, but I got the first shot at him, and couldn't let him escape. This is a gift from House Potter to House Longbottom, and if I get my hands on the other three they will share the same fate, you have my word."

Harry walked over to the tall boy who had lost both of his parent's to the Death Eaters, "This is the wand of Barty Crouch Jr. It did despicable things to your parents, and if you wish to keep it for a trophy for house Longbottom or destroy it for all I care, but it belongs to your family. She was my Godmother, and if there was anything I could do to bring her back, I would in a heartbeat."

The room was silent as Harry and Neville stared at each other. Neville and Harry, who had probably exchanged a few dozen words their entire lives, now had the attention of the whole room. James, Lily, and Remus, all looked to Sirius to confirm Harry's words, but the man's face was a picture or rage saying nothing, but the look confirmed it enough to the rest of the group.

Sirius was as close to the Longbottoms as the rest, and the fact that one of their attackers had been so close to them for three months now was outrageous.

Neville took the wand from Harry, and tried to speak twice before getting real words out, "Thank you, Harry. I...I...I need to be alone right now, but my house won't forget what you did for us."

Harry nodded at the boy, but before he could leave he surprised everyone by pulling the boy in for a hug, "I'm sorry it's not their lives, but I hope it counts for something."

Neville patted Harry gently and his shoulders began shaking as he slowly began walked out of the room not meeting anyone's eyes. Before the adults could start asking questions, Harry wandlessly summoned a pensieve slowly to the middle of the room, "I admit my suspicions were very minimal when this all started, but by the time the lesson of the unforgivables was over I knew we had an imposter and confirmed it with the map."

Harry raised his wand to his head, and dropped the memory in it carefully. All the adults and Justin gathered around, and Lily looked like she wanted to stop her youngest from entering, but Harry said, "The only really bad part is at the end, but he can handle it."

Lily looked like she wanted to argue, but James put a hand on her arm, "It's okay Lils, let's face it as a family."

They all looked to Harry to see if he would join them, but he shook his head, "I just lived it, I don't need to see it again. I am going to meditate for a bit and gather my thoughts."

No one argued as they all entered the pensieve.

Harry, for his part, walked across the room taking deep breaths before sitting down cross legged, closing his eyes, and focusing on his magical core. He took long, deep breaths to calm himself down, and began to allow his mind to overrule his emotions. He wasn't sure how long he was sitting there, but he heard the others exit the pensieve. All present looked shocked.

Lily stared at her son, "You volunteered to have two of the three unforgivable curses cast on you, and then jumped out of a window to pursue this psychopath. Are you sure you don't belong in Gryffindor?"

"The man stood no chance against me. I knew it, and he was going to figure it out quickly. It was a very calculated plan actually and I owed it to Alice to make sure the man wouldn't escape." Harry said easily.

James shook his head, "So the Auror in me needs to confirm, what were the giveaways?"

Harry shrugged, "The biggest one was actually what he said about you and the Auror academy. That was my biggest red flag that actually made me check the Map. His power with the Imperius was odd, and the Cruciatus was downright wrong, but when he said he broke you with the Imperius in the academy I knew something wasn't right. There is no way with the combination of being competent in the mind arts, powerful, and being an animagus that he broke you in the academy. If he had any control over you it would've been very limited. At first I thought he was trying to goad me, but the look in his eyes said otherwise. I wouldn't have made a move, but Sirius told me the map never lies, and this one was my personal map, so I knew he was right. I had also seen Barty Crouch and Alastor Moody in the same room a few weeks ago, and knew the two had no love for each other, so enough suspicions gave me my clues to attack. As you all saw I tried to clear the room, but all those idiots just stared."

Justin snorted, "You probably scared the shit out of all of them."

Lily smacked the boy gently behind the head, "Language."

Sirius and Remus shook their heads, but James Potter scratched the side of his face in thought, "Justin is right though. Between that, or thinking that Moody was testing them, I don't think most of them realized that it was real until you summoned that massive ward, and the killing curse was being flung around. Even still, most of them just sat there like idiots."

Sirius chuckled, "I want to learn how to do that ward. I've never seen one brought up so fast. It resembled Protego Totalum, but it was clearly different, AND stopped one killing curse."

Lily stared at her son curiously, "I've never seen anything like it either. What was it?"

Finally Harry smiled, "My own invention actually."

All eyes widened in surprise, but Remus was the first to ask, "You invented your own ward?"

Harry put his hands behind his head cockily, "Sure did. That's the first time I've tried to stop a killing curse with it, but theoretically the way it was designed with the arithmetic calculations it should've been obvious. The foundation of the shield is solid, so it would be as if I summoned a brick wall or something, without the downside of creating debris in the fallout."

Everyone stared dumbly at him, and Lily said, "Harry, that is above mastery level work. No one has invented a real new ward that can do something even close to that in centuries. I said you could use your modification of the map to get an apprenticeship, but if you decided to let me present this to the masters board, or the unspeakables, they would probably grant you instant mastery level status in the subject. You could make a fortune off of this."

Harry nodded, "When I have perfected it I will place it in the Potter Grimoire just for us. I want our descendants to know how to do it, but it's a good trump card. Better to have it in our back pocket than let the world have it, and find a way around it."

Lily looked like she wanted to protest, but James nodded, "Maybe you can reconsider after we have solved our problems with Voldemort, but I agree for now it is probably best kept in the family."

Lily took in her husband's words and then nodded saying nothing further. Sirius however whistled, "I wish I could do that double wand trick you have up your sleeve. You never pulled that card at the dueling tournaments we went to?"

Harry grinned, "Never needed it. Besides I had hoped to unveil that trick in a fight for my life, not in a stupid weighing of the wands ceremony."

Harry didn't know it, but he had stumped all three marauders and his mother. They all thought about how fast he ripped apart Barty Crouch Jr, and thought back to when they had dueled with the man on their own occasions. He was a powerful wizard and a very competent duelist, and Harry made him look like a child who had taken his parent's wand.

Harry rose to his feet, "Dawlish never came by so I am guessing he isn't going to try and press charges."

James shook his head, "He is probably questioning dozens of witnesses, and knows the department could never build a case against you. Besides, the Minister himself would probably issue you a full pardon if they even tried. Crouch Jr was public enemy #1 for a very short while. He was going to get the kiss no matter what, and his father may follow if I am right."

"Dumbledore will have told the others what I found out, and will be on their way to take in Crouch Sr if it hasn't been done already." Harry said evenly.

James nodded, standing, "Padfoot, Moony I think we have some work to do."

James walked over to his son and embraced him tightly, "You did good today, son, and what you did for Frank and Alice's kid, that was a real good thing. Proves to me that you still have the light in your heart, and that will always be what matters. You've got a good one in there, and don't you ever stop using it."

These words were said quietly, and Harry was grateful to hear them from his father, the ultra light wizard. When they separated, James smiled at his son and patted his cheek pretty roughly, and made the Marauders follow him out.

Lily and Justin were the final two there, and he gave them smiles, but Lily spoke calmly, "You will have to tell me who your teacher is someday, Harry."

Harry froze at this, "What do you-"

"You don't grow to this level of power, or competency, without someone extraordinarily powerful behind you, and if Voldemort were still in corporeal form I would suspect him, and if Dumbledore and yourself were on better terms I might suspect him, but neither are possible. This secret you are carrying, Harry. I know it's a someone. It has to be."

Harry turned his back on his mother and began making his way towards the door, "It is."

He never turned back to look at her or his brother, but he exited the room and tried to still his racing heart.

MURDERERS AND CONTROVERSY AT HOGWARTS

Rabid readers, I write to you today carrying the wildest of tidings. Ex-Master Auror Alastor Moody and current Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was found today in a trunk in his classroom where he had been for nearly three months!

You might ask how that is possible considering the term started three months ago, and Alastor Moody has been teaching his classes for at least that long, but that is where you would be wrong. That's right, the professor that was teaching the class was none other than long time believed to be deceased, Barty Crouch Jr. A DEATH EATER was teaching classes for three months at our children's school, and the Great Albus Dumbledore had no idea. Many are already pondering how Dumbledore, who had been friends with Moody for the last fifty years, could not have known that an impostor was teaching in his school, but the simple answer is Dumbledore is getting old.

While Dumbledore getting older is certainly nothing new in itself, the discovery of our impostor was by Harry James Potter, who this journalist called a rising Dark Lord just a few weeks prior, and I must offer my sincere apology for not fully understanding the boy. It was said that Impostor Moody was giving a lesson on the unforgivables. This had been approved by our Ministry and the Headmasters of each respective school. The class was full of volunteers of people who wanted to learn what it would be like to fight the dark curse that plagued our great country, and the only good thing in the situation was that at least only two students received the curse. Many would say that it is a loss that any witch or wizard were held under the forsaken curses, but eyewitnesses claim nearly fifty just above age students were in that class, and prepared to take the curse and learn to Defend themselves. The first of the volunteers was the son of our Head Auror, Harry James Potter.

Harry Potter (17) stood up to the impostor Moody, and allowed the man to attempt to cast the curse over him twice. As my witnesses told me, he seemed virtually unaffected. Apparently when the man attempted to cast it a third time Harry Potter WANDLESSLY blasted the man back, angrily citing that no one would be allowed to wave a wand in his face. It was then when the heroics truly started. Harry Potter then volunteered to be held under the Cruciatus curse, which this impostor Death Eater was all too happy to do to our young hero. It is agreed upon by all that although the boy succumbed to the pain briefly, he was quickly able to repel the curse and fight back to his feet.

Our eyewitnesses say that Harry Potter next asked his long time friend Cedric Diggory to volunteer, and now it seems that Harry was trying to come up with some sort of strategy to take the impostor out as Mr. Diggory (17 year old Hufflepuff student) was only put under the curse one time before Harry started attempting to get people out so he could have his standoff with the man. Of course, most of the students were in shock, or believed that he was still suffering after the effects from the curses, but instead a duel began that involved blasting a huge part of the castle apart, and Harry Potter even threw the impostor through the window and glided after him like some kind of muggle skydiving daredevil!

The duel that followed on the grounds was said to be short, and after Harry Potter defeated the man, he extracted information on his and his little brother's entrance to the Triwizard tournament. It was at this point the Death Eater broke his unbreakable vow by telling Harry that he had entered his name in, and the man lost his life with the truth.

Hours later, Barty Crouch Sr, head of the International Magical Cooperation department at the Ministry was arrested and sentenced to life in Azkaban for releasing a prisoner, and holding his son under the Imperius for two years.

So many questions are left unanswered, and for now that is all the information I have. Stay tuned readers, and more will come!

The article had changed things for Harry. It was amazing how fast the tune of the public can change when they believe something good was done. It was clear that his dad's influence in what knowledge got out was present, as some of it was entirely accurate, but he was grateful for the little inaccuracies.

It was now the night before the first task, and it was currently quite the headache for Harry. Penny was harassing him every which way to go over his plan for the dragons, and no matter what she said he refused to ruin the surprise.

"Harry, this is insane. You have to tell someone your strategy. What if you overlooked something blatantly obvious?"

Harry rolled his eyes at this. Gellert and himself had gone over dozens of scenarios, and came up with counters to each and every one of the bad things that could happen. He had perfected his master's old spell, and fiendfyre was something he could cast since he was fifteen. He doubted his magic would fail him in such a fight or die situation, "Penny, I am telling you I went over my plan with someone very magically astute. The odds that both of us would miss something blatantly obvious is seriously unlikely."

The girl looked like she wanted to scream, "At least tell me who it was! It would make me feel better if your mom, dad, or Dumbledore knew your plan and approved it. I know what you are like in the face of danger, and those are the days I seriously question why you weren't put into Gryffindor."

"I resent that accusation." Harry said amusedly.

The girl glared at him, and clearly wanted to say more when a patronus in the shape of a stag came prancing into the room, "Harry, your father and I need to speak with you in the headmasters office. Please come at your earliest convenience."

Harry looked at the stag as it bowed to him, and he groaned, putting his hand in his head.

Harry took a deep breath and tried to reign in his emotions before his magic started flaring with irritation, "I see that I have to deal with some family stuff that I am sure will improve this day tremendously."

The sarcasm in Harry's voice was not missed by anyone in the common room at this hour, and Penny looked at her watch saying, "It's almost curfew."

Harry gave the girl a look that clearly said the next words came at a price, and the girl raised her hands in surrender allowing the young man to stroll out of the common room towards the headmasters office.

It did not take long to navigate through the castle, and when he got to the Gargoyle it didn't budge, and the boy growled out, "I have been summoned by the headmaster. Care to let me up?"

At first nothing happened and Harry drew his wand fully prepared to blast the thing to do some of the convincing, but as he did the gargoyle began to move allowing Harry to trudge his way up the steps towards the big office.

Arriving at the door, he thought about barging in, but didn't want to appear to be in too bad of a mood before the arguing started, so Harry politely took a deep breath and knocked four times.

The door was immediately opened and Harry was greeted with the sight of his family plus Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and headmaster Dumbledore. Dumbledore said, "Ah, Harry my boy. Thank you for joining us with such haste. We know you are very busy."

Harry gave the man an emotionless look saying, "Should I have summoned my head of house with me, headmaster? This looks like an interrogation room."

Harry's father just shook his head, "No, son, it's not an interrogation. We just wanted to update you on some things."

"It couldn't have waited till tomorrow? The Head Girl was about to be on my case for leaving so close to curfew." Harry said in an almost joking manner.

Dumbledore merely chuckled saying, "Dare I say you could have talked your way out of anything with Ms Clearwater. The rumor mill has reached my old ears that you two are quite invested in one another."

Glaring at the man for a moment, the raven haired boy said, "Business between myself and Ms Clearwater should remain just between the two of us. I am sure you can appreciate and understand that headmaster."

Everyone recoiled a bit at the boy's frosty tone, but no one commented further as the headmaster said, "Of course, forgive an old man's intrusions."

Harry waited for someone else to speak, and then rolled his eyes, "Well, don't try all talking at once. You called me out of my common room this late at night to give me some kind of information, what is it?"

Sirius spoke next, "Dragons, pup. It's what the first task is."

Harry snorted, "No really? Did you guys just figure that out? Justin has known for a while. I figured he had told all of you."

Everyone looked at the boy in surprise while Remus asked, "How long have you known?"

Harry looked at his watch that had the date on it saying, "Two days after my name came out of the goblet. You know bringing six class five magical beasts into a country requires a lot of paperwork, and a paper trail that my contacts at the Ministry were all over. I was contacted the second the papers hit the ground about me being a Dark Lord and being in this tournament."

Lily rubbed the back of her head in frustration and a bit of embarrassment, "We were just trying to be helpful, Harry. We figured something was up when we asked Justin if he needed help with the first task, but all he would tell us was that you and him had worked out a strategy. I suppose that should've been our answer. Can you tell us what you know of the task?"

Taking a deep calming breath for what felt like the hundredth time that evening Harry said, "I know that we are going to have to draw from a bag of six dragons to decide which one we will face, and from there we will have to retrieve a golden egg from its nest of real eggs. They are nesting mothers so they will be in a wonderful mood when I try to approach their nest. Did I miss anything?"

Dumbledore asked curiously, "Have you told anyone else this information?"

"Yes. Two people." The boy answered the question but offered nothing else.

James stared at his son in surprise, "Justin and Penny."

Sneering the boy said, "That Marauder investigative skills is really something impressive there Prongs. I told Justin the morning I found out so we could go over some strategies, and Penny wouldn't stop harassing me.."

This caused the man to deflate a little bit, and for the other two Marauders to snicker slightly while his mother looked at him in disapproval. Harry then said, "Is there anything else or may I go back to my work? I do have a dragon to take care of tomorrow."

Dumbledore held a hand up to gesture to hold for a moment and spoke softly, "I also have wanted to inform you that the Yule Ball will be taking place on Christmas Eve here at the castle. All the champions will be required to bring a partner to this event."

Groaning, the boy said, "Now that is news to me. So what you are saying is I should just let the dragon eat me in the first task to avoid the massive amount of trouble this is going to cause me?"

This caused Sirius and Remus to chuckle, and even made Lily and James smile a bit, while the headmaster gave him a beguine smile, "I doubt you will have any trouble finding a date Mr Potter. You are quite popular with the females from what I overheard Aurora and Septima speaking of."

Harry stared at the man in surprise, "You overheard Professor Vector and Sinistra say I was quite popular with the female students?"

The man grinned at the boy, "Dare I say that is thankfully all I caught of that particular conversation."

The Marauders stared at the headmaster with gaping mouths, while Lily looked at the man disapprovingly, but Harry shrugged, "That doesn't help me. In fact that makes it worse. I have three pretty good female friends as of late, and I could see any one of them asking me or wanting me to ask them. Someone will have to quote unquote lose if I chose someone. I'd rather not do that. Maybe I will disappear for a few days and let the masses speculate on where I went."

Dumbledore looked like he had just swallowed a rather tart lemon drop and said, "I would much rather you not do something like that. The press would have a field day. I daresay more than when your name came out of the goblet of fire."

Harry shrugged, "I couldn't really care less what the people think. It is more clear to me now than ever that the people in this country are nothing but sheep. Now if that is all, I think I will be going back to my common room while I contemplate the latest fickle things in life, like how I will deal with this dragon problem."

With that the boy began retreating out of the office when his mother's voice stopped him, "Harry, do you have a plan?"

Harry turned and gave his first genuine smile of the night, "Just make sure you are there, mom. What happens next is surely going to amaze."

With that the boy turned and walked out of the headmasters office.

(A/N) First task is in the next chapter! Can't wait to show you guys the dragon showdown. If you want to read through chapter 16 you can join my discord today! Chapter 17 is even going to live next Tuesday so you could be looking at 3 weeks of consecutive updates. Cheers everyone, and please leave me your thoughts in the comments.

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