A/N - Hello again. It's update time. A bit of a shorter chapter this week. Thank you MonCappy and LadyPhoenix68 for your comments about Snape. I don't yet know his ultimate fate in this story. We'll just have to see what happens with him.
Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.
Quotes taken from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
-Parseltongue-
17) THE WEIGHING OF THE WANDS
The next couple of weeks passed without much of any real note happening, something Harry was glad about. He did all of the things he usually did: got up, worked out, trained with the X-Men, went to Ilvermorny, had lunch with Ororo a couple of times, went flying once or twice, and generally tried to live as best he could.
And of course there was trying to think of how to handle a possible face off against a dragon, or, if it didn't turn out to be a dragon for the first task, just come up with general ways to deal with a dangerous magical creature that could be used for many different kinds of creatures.
"Dragons are highly resistant to most magic" said Sirius to Harry one day when they were discussing the subject, "the one weak point is their eyes. The Conjunctivitis curse would blind them and keep them from seeing you but don't forget that even so they would still be able to smell and hear you."
"If it is dragons" said Harry "I wonder what we'll have to do? They can't expect us to fight them. The tournament's supposed be safe – er this time."
"We'll just have to wait and see I guess" said Sirius.
Ororo had a few things to say as well when Harry talked to her about the first task.
"Just be glad they can't use Wakandan Warrior Dragons" said Ororo, "at least I hope not."
"What are those?" asked Harry in curiosity.
"The strongest, most intelligent and cunning dragons in the world" said Ororo, "native to Wakanda and found nowhere else."
"I don't think I've ever heard of Wakanda" said Harry.
"There's a good chance you haven't" said Ororo, "it's a very secretive country and not many outsiders are allowed to go there. I know about it because it shares a border with Kenya and as the heiress to the throne I had to learn about it as we're one of the very few countries that have diplomatic relations with it due to us being neighbors. Also there are a number of students at Uagadou from Wakanda. They don't talk much about their homeland though."
"Have you ever been there?"
"Yes, twice" said Ororo, "on state visits with my parents. That's where I saw a few of those dragons. They're beautiful, magnificent, and terrifying. The Wakandan military uses them as one of the country's defenses. That's why they're called Warrior Dragons instead of war dragons to show that they themselves are warriors in their own right, not just animals used in battle like a horse would be. Somehow the military is able to work with them effectively but I don't know how."
"Wow" said Harry, "I sincerely hope the tournament won't be able to use one of them."
At Hogwarts Moody had recovered from his ordeal but decided he didn't want to be a teacher after all and told Dumbledore that he was going back to his work at the DMLE. As a result Remus was once again the permanent DADA professor. As Dumbledore had predicted there wasn't much fuss from the parents over this. It seemed that as long as the proper precautions were taken to keep the students safe from him at the full moon parents really did prefer having a werewolf teaching their children instead of a Death Eater.
After lunch on November 17th Harry and Headmaster Pope took a portkey directly to Dumbledore's office.
"Ah Furnell, Harry" said Dumbledore, "I'm glad to see you both. If the two of you will follow me..." Both Pope and Harry nodded and Dumbledore led them out of his office. He took them to where they needed to go and ushered them inside before leaving again to fetch someone else.
Harry looked around the room. He was in a fairly small classroom; most of the desks had been pushed away to the back of the room, leaving a la rge space in the middle; three of them, however, had been placed end-to-end in front of the blackboard and covered with a long length of velvet. [Six] chairs had been set behind the velvet-covered desks, and Ludo Bagman was sitting in one of them, talking to a witch whom Harry immediately recognized as Rita Skeeter.
Viktor Krum was standing moodily in a corner as usual and not talking to anybody. Cedric and Fleur were in conversation. Fleur looked a good deal happier than Harry had seen her so far; she kept throwing back her head so that her long silvery hair caught the light. A paunchy man, holding a large black camera that was smoking slightly, was watching Fleur out of the corner of his eye.
Bagman suddenly spotted Harry, got up quickly, and bounded forward.
"Ah, here he is! Champion number four! In you come, Harry, in you come . . . nothing to worry about, it's just the wand weighing ceremony...we have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they're your most important tools in the tasks ahead," said Bagman..."and then there's going to be a little photo shoot. This is Rita Skeeter. She's doing a small piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet. . . ."
"Maybe not that small, Ludo," said Rita Skeeter, her eyes on Harry.
"How do you Ms. Skeeter" said Harry politely, "I read your articles on the fight at Hogwarts last April. I thought they were very good."
"Thank you Mr. Potter" said Ms. Skeeter, "I was wondering if I might have a word with you after the ceremony is over? You don't need to worry about being underage. Your headmaster can stand in as your guardian if necessary as he has in loco parentis for you."
"Well, okay" said Harry, "but only if you promise not to make the story solely about me but spread the coverage around equally."
"Of course" said Skeeter, "we'll talk after the ceremony is over. It won't be anything big, just a few questions." Harry knew that Rita's writing had gotten a lot better and more professional ever since she covered the fight at Hogwarts. He hoped that would continue to be the case now.
The last person in the room that Harry noticed was Percy Weasley whom he assumed was still acting in place of his ex-boss Mr. Crouch. Percy was looking around the room and watching everything as closely as he could as if to make sure nothing in the ceremony went wrong. Harry wondered if he would remain in his position through the whole tournament. He thought it would be a good place for Percy as it was the sort of supervisory role that someone like Percy tended to like.
Just then the door of the room opened and Dumbledore came back in followed by another man.
"May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?" said Dumbledore, taking his place at the judges' table and talking to the champions. "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament."
Harry looked around, and with a jolt of surprise saw an old wizard with large, pale eyes standing quietly by the window. Harry had met Mr. Ollivander before — he was the wand-maker from whom Harry had bought his own wand over three years ago in Diagon Alley.
"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?" said Mr. Ollivander, stepping into the empty space in the middle of the room.
Fleur Delacour swept over to Mr. Ollivander and handed him her wand.
"Hmmm . . ." he said.
That was the beginning of the official checking or 'weighing' of the wands although Harry didn't understand why it was called that as he didn't see a scales anywhere. One by one Mr. Ollivander checked the wands of each champion. After Fleur he checked Cedric's wand, then Viktor's, and lastly Harry's. He would inspect each wand closely and then perform a little magic with it before handing it back to its owner declaring it to be in fine working order.
When he looked over Harry's wand Harry was briefly afraid that the wand maker might tell everyone about its connection to Voldemort's wand. Fortunately Mr. Ollivander didn't do this and Harry was glad of that as it was something he'd rather not be publicized. As far as Harry was concerned a wand didn't determine what kind of person the owner would be like, even if it was made with the same materials another person's wand had been made with. However not everyone had a sibling wand to someone like Voldemort and despite Harry's opinion on the subject who knew how the public might react to something like that?
Once the weighing ceremony was done the photographs were taken of the champions and the judges. The photographs took a long time. Madame Maxime cast everyone else into shadow wherever she stood, and the photographer couldn't stand far enough back to get her into the frame; eventually she had to sit while everyone else stood around her. Karkaroff kept twirling his goatee around his finger to give it an extra curl; Krum, whom Harry would have thought would have been used to this sort of thing, skulked, half-hidden, at the back of the group. The photographer seemed keenest to get Fleur at the front and Harry wondered if Fleur's veela allure (she had mentioned her grandmother was one) had something to do with that. Eventually, however, all of the photos, both group shots, and individual ones were taken and people were allowed to leave.
Once the photographs were done Harry and Pope followed Rita Skeeter over to a corner of the room where she turned to face them.
"Well Mr. Potter" she began.
"Call me Harry" Harry said, "everyone does."
"Thank you, Harry" said Ms. Skeeter with a smile, "In that case please call me Rita. We already know how you were entered into the tournament, by whom and even why. What are your thoughts on your situation?"
"As you can well imagine" said Harry, "I'm not happy about it but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do except manage as best I can."
"Do you have any ideas on what you will do for the tasks?"
"I just want to survive them. My fellow champions all have two to three more years of magical education than I do. I'll be happy just to make it through unscathed."
"I see" said the journalist, "what about the prize and the glory? Does that have no appeal to you?"
"It would be nice to win" said Harry, "I won't deny it, but I don't need the prize money and I already have enough 'glory' what with the whole "Boy-Who-Lived" thing to last me a lifetime. Someone else can have the glory this time."
"That's true" said Skeeter, "I'm glad you mentioned that. You know that Crouch Jr. said that he entered you on the orders of You-Know-Who. A lot of people don't believe him that he's working for You-Know-Who. Some rumors say that Crouch is working for someone else who is pretending to be You- Know-Who or that he's just crazy. What do you think?"
Harry had to be cautious here. Without actually catching Voldemort it was hard to prove that he was the one behind it all even with Crouch Jr.'s confession. He had gone over what to say with both Professor Xavier and Professor Dumbledore if he was asked this very question.
"I don't really know what to think" he said slowly, "I understand why a lot of people don't want to believe that he could come back. I don't want to believe it. The only thing I can say for sure is that somebody is trying to harm me. Maybe it's You-Know-Who, maybe it's someone else. A lot of his followers were never caught and they wouldn't have any love for me."
"That's true" conceded Ms. Skeeter, "how have your classmates at Ilvermorny reacted to you being in the tournament."
"They've been very supportive" said Harry, "I couldn't ask for better from them."
"And your friends here at Hogwarts?"
"They have too" answered Harry, "it's probably a good thing I'm not a student here now. If I'd still been attending Hogwarts and my name had come out of the goblet who knows how people would have reacted? I bet some of them would think that I cheated to get my name in, trying to get more 'glory' or being an attention seeking brat as one of my former professors would say. Being far away from Hogwarts and obviously innocent has really helped there." Rita Skeeter finished transcribing their conversation and held out her hand.
"Thank you for talking with me Mr. Potter" she said as Harry shook her hand, after which she shook Pope's hand too.
"You're welcome" said Harry, "I look forward to reading the story. Like I said please make it about all of us, not just me. I know my participation is news but the other champions are the real ones and shouldn't be overshadowed."
"And they won't be" said Skeeter who moved away from them to join her photographer who was talking to Dumbledore and Bagman.
"Did I do okay?" Harry asked Pope.
"You did just fine" said Pope, "shall we go?" Harry nodded. They took a moment to say good-bye to Dumbledore before leaving the room.
As Harry and Headmaster Pope moved down the hall away from the room where the wand weighing ceremony had been held they were intercepted by Ron and Hermione.
"I'm glad we caught you" said Hermione.
"Yeah mate" said Ron, "you can't visit Hogwarts and not at least say hello. Besides we have something important to tell you."
"I'll wait for you in the entrance hall" said Pope to Harry before leaving the three friends alone.
"Harry" said Ron in a very low voice that both he and Hermione had to strain to hear, "Charlie arrived here today with a bunch of his fellow dragon handlers. I didn't get to speak to him beyond just a 'hello' but Hermione and I are both sure now that the first task is dragons."
"I see" said Harry, "do the other champions know about this?"
"We don't know" said Hermione, "but how will they not know? It's not like a dragon can be kept secret too easily."
"They might use the Forbidden Forest" pointed out Ron, "they could hide them from the students there."
"Hagrid would know" said Hermione, "you know how he feels about dragons. I also heard him invite Madame Maxime to take a walk with him this weekend. Maybe he'll show them to her. As a school headmistress and a judge she has to know what the tasks consist of."
"Then Karkaroff, Dumbledore, and Pope must all know too" said Harry, "but will any of them tell their champions?"
"I'm sure Karkaroff will" said Ron, "he's been coddling Krum ever since they got here. I can see him telling his champion."
"I think Madame Maxime will too" said Hermione, "I don't know about Pope."
"He hasn't told me" said Harry, "at least not yet. It doesn't matter if he does or doesn't say anything now thanks to you two. If there's any headmaster who won't tell their champion I'm afraid I'd have to say it will be Dumbledore. I know he wants an honest competition and that means not helping his champion because as a professor the rules say he's forbidden from doing so. Unfortunately that means that Cedric will be the only one of us who doesn't know. I don't like that."
"Neither do I" said Hermione, "that's not right."
"If you find out that Krum and Fleur do know about the dragons" said Harry, "and Cedric doesn't could you tell him? You can even say I asked you to do it just so things would be fair."
"We can try" said Hermione, "but I don't know how we'll find that out."
"Fred and George might be able to help us" said Ron, "you know how good they are at finding out stuff."
"Okay" said Harry, "I'll leave it to you then. And thank you for telling me about this."
"Of course mate" said Ron, "we want you to survive this thing."
"We'll walk down to the entrance hall with you" said Hermione, "it's almost dinnertime anyway."
The three friends headed downstairs toward the entrance hall. On the way they ran into Draco Malfoy.
"Look who it is" he said with a sneer, "Potty, Weasel, and Bushy. I heard a joke about the three of you. 'A pure blood, a half blood, and mudblood all walk into a bar – '"
"I'd be careful Malfoy" said Harry, "remember what happened the last time you called Hermione that word in front of me." For a second a look of fear crossed Malfoy's face before he covered it up with an even bigger sneer.
"Are you threatening me Potter?" he asked.
"No" said Harry, "just stating facts. Is there something you wanted?"
"Yes I have something to show you" said Malfoy and pointed to a large badge he was wearing on his robe. In red letters it said SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY, THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION!
"Very true" said Harry after reading the badge, "Cedric is the real Hogwarts champion. Actually he's the only Hogwarts champion. Didn't you know that Malfoy? I don't know of any others. I'm certainly not one. Do either of you know of any other Hogwarts champions?" This last was said to Ron and Hermione who both shook their heads.
"No" said Hermione, "I only know that Fleur Delacour is representing Beauxbaton so it can't be her."
"Krum is representing Durmstrang" said Ron.
"And I'm representing Ilvermorny" said Harry, "which leaves only Cedric for Hogwarts – unless you know of someone else Malfoy?"
"You think you're so clever" scowled Malfoy at seeing Harry unaffected by his badge.
"Not really" said Harry, "but I do know some very clever people. Do you have any more of those badges? I don't mind giving Cedric my support even if I'm competing against him."
"This isn't all they do" said Malfoy with a mean smile as he pressed the badge. The red lettering disappeared to be replaced by green lettering which said POTTER STINKS!
"Still want one?" asked Malfoy with an even nastier smile as Harry stared at the badge for a long moment. It was clear that Malfoy expected Harry to blow up in anger. What he didn't expect was for Harry to roll his eyes and laugh.
"'Potter stinks?'" asked Harry, "is that the best insult you could come up with? I always knew you had the mentality of a five year old. This confirms it. 'Potter stinks.' You ought to be ashamed of yourself for coming up with something as immaturely stupid as that."
"Like you could do better!" snapped Malfoy angered by Harry's reaction.
"Sure, why not?" said Harry putting a hand to his chin, "let's see – oh I've got one: 'Potter never bathes. That's why he stinks so much.' That one's even related to the one you came up with. What else? Oh, what about 'Potter is a crude, ignorant half-blood.' Or maybe 'Potter is the Boy-Who-Lived because Death looked at him, threw up his hands in disgust and walked away –'"
"Harry!" said Hermione in reproof but Harry could tell she was just going through the motions. Ron, however, was laughing – not at the insults but at Malfoy's angry face when he heard them.
"Should I come up with more?" Harry asked Malfoy who stared at him for a moment before turning away and stalking off with a huff.
"Same old Malfoy" said Harry watching Malfoy leave.
"He's been trying to give out those badges to everyone" said Ron, "but except for a few Slytherins no one's been taking them, not even the Hufflepuffs. McGonagall even told him to stop unless he wanted to spend a month in detention."
Harry shrugged. What could he say to that? The three friends continued on down to the entrance hall where Headmaster Pope was waiting for them. He wasn't alone however. Two rather large boys were standing there talking with him and Harry realized with some surprise that they were Crabbe and Goyle.
"Ah, there you are Mr. Potter" said Headmaster Pope, "these two young men approached me saying they wanted to have a word with you before you left."
"Oh?" asked Harry looking at them with a raised eyebrow. Both of them looked a little embarrassed but also resolute.'
"Hello Mr. Potter" said Crabbe, "we, um, we just wanted to apologize for how things have been in the past between us."
"We kind of had to follow Draco's lead in a lot of things" said Goyle, "but since he got held back and we didn't that's not true anymore and well, we don't like the way we had to act when we were with him. We're sorry."
"That's okay" said Harry looking at both of them. They seemed to be a lot less thuggish than he remembered them being. Perhaps that also came from hanging around Malfoy. On impulse he held out his hand.
"Hello" he said, "my name is Harry Potter. I'm a fourth year student at Ilvermorny. How do you do?"
"How do you do?" said Crabbe shaking the hand, followed by Goyle, "I'm Vincent Crabbe, fourth year Hogwarts student and this is Gregory Goyle, year mate. Nice to meet you."
"Same here" said Goyle.
"They've been a lot nicer ever since Malfoy was suspended" said Hermione a few minutes later after Crabbe and Goyle left to go back to the Slytherin dorms, "they apologized to all of us and they've been civil ever since. We're not friends per se but we get along now."
"Yeah they've been okay for snakes" conceded Ron. Coming from him that was a major concession.
Harry said good-bye to Ron and Hermione after that and took a portkey back to Ilvermorny with his headmaster before returning to the X-Mansion.
It was early afternoon when he got home and nobody was around so Harry went outside the back of the mansion. Even though it was mid-November it was warm out and Harry didn't need anything more than a pullover hoodie. He wandered over the grass and thought about the fact that the first task was confirmed to be dragons.
-Hey!- he heard a hissing noise at his feet, -don't block the sun!- Harry looked down to see he was standing near a garter snake that was lying on some bare rock and his shadow was falling on the snake. He quickly pulled back from the snake so that it wasn't shadowed.
-Sorry- Harry said to the snake which looked up at him.
-Speaker?- the snake said looking up at Harry before giving a start, -oh it's you. Haven't seen you in a while.-
-Huh? Oh, hi- said Harry as he recognized the snake. He'd first seen it in late August of '93 some time after Voldemort's horcrux had been removed from his scar. This was the snake that had shown him that his ability to speak Parseltongue was not something he'd gotten from the horcrux but a trait he'd inherited from the Slytherin line through his mother. He'd seen the snake upon occasion since then but, as it had said, it had been a while since the last time they'd spoken.
-I'm surprised to see you out and about- said Harry, -in November.-
-A warm day is a warm day- was the reply, -and it's a lovely day for the sun right now.-
-Sorry about blocking it- said Harry.
-That's all right. Just don't do it again- said the snake, -you seemed deep in thought. Is anything wrong?-
-I suppose you could say that- said Harry.
-Maybe I can help.-
-Why not?- said Harry after thinking it over for a moment and deciding that a fresh perspective was always nice, -I doubt you can do worse than anyone else.- Harry took a few minutes and explained to the snake about the tournament and the dragons. The snake listened attentively.
-I see- it finally said, -that doesn't sound like fun. Well why don't you try Speaking to the dragon first?-
-What?- asked Harry in surprise, -they understand Parseltongue?-
-Certainly- said the snake, -they're relatives of ours. Just be careful when you do. Dragons are not to be trifled with. You must treat them with great respect.-
-I know- said Harry, -thank you for your help.-
-You're welcome Speaker- said the snake and it began to slither away, -I have a feeling this will be the last warm day for a long time so I'm off to hibernate. See you next year some time.-
-All right- said Harry as he watched the snake leave, -Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance.-
-Even though I'll probably sleep through them both thank you all the same.-
(To Be Continued)
A/N - That's all for now. Next week is the first task. Unfortunately we will not be seeing a Wakandan Warrior Dragon being used for it (just want to nip that idea in the bud now). I imagine Wakanda is very possessive of them. I created them primarily for background. If they appear in the story at all it will be in Part 3.
All right everyone, as usual please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. As always stay safe and well everyone.