Harry was ready. The dream from the summer had been continually on his mind since he'd had it; he was sure that it represented a warning. And the ending of the previous year had left him with the seeds of an idea in mind. He'd returned to Hogwarts with the goal of mastering one particular charm, which he had researched independently and practiced in secret. He believed he now knew that one piece of magic inside and out.
He now also was sure of what the dream had warned him of, and he was going to act. He was going to preempt and completely derail whatever goal Lord Voldemort had in mind for this Triwizard Tournament.
It was extremely fortunate for Harry that he knew the evil wizard's birth name, and that Hogwarts professors saved old papers at times. It so happened that Albus Dumbledore, had been the Transfiguration teacher when Lord Voldemort was at school, and Albus had kept a file with many of the dark wizard's old assignments. He had asked to see any papers that the dark wizard, then Tom Marvolo Riddle, had written in his first three years. Dumbledore had given him three, one for each of those years, and only asked that he return them whenever he was done with them.
That had been at the beginning of the year. It was now the very early hours of Halloween, and Harry was ready to act. If his plan succeeded, he would be able to return the essays in a few days. He slipped out of the Gryffindor dorms under his invisibility cloak, armed with his wand and the Marauder's Map, and made his way towards the entrance hall.
A little more than two hours later he was back in bed, his plan successfully set up and in place. He hoped.
That evening, Harry sat at the Gryffindor table with his friends, waiting to see if his plan had worked. The sight that morning of Fred and George Weasley with the long white beards they had been forcibly given by the Age Line had been hysterical. Harry had not tried to cross the line; he'd simply charmed the Goblet from afar and hovered the slip of paper into it.
He watched as Viktor Krum became the champion from Durmstrang. Somehow, he wasn't really surprised; he thought Krum was likely to be the most exciting possible contestant from that school and he was clearly the favorite of its headmaster, Igor Karkaroff. The whole hall clapped uproariously for Krum when his name was read out by Dumbledore.
He watched as someone named Fleur Delacour became the champion of Beauxbatons. It was the girl who seemed to be part Veela. The male applause in the hall was very loud; the female, not so much.
He was then a little surprised when Cedric Diggory, the Seeker for Hufflepuff, became the champion for Hogwarts. He clapped loudly for Cedric, and resisted the urge to cross his fingers or in any other way indicate that he was hoping for a fourth contestant.
It then happened. Dumbledore started to announce that the champions had been selected and that the tournament was on, when the Goblet's flames intensified and a fourth piece of paper was shot out. Harry held his breath; this was the moment of truth. Would it be the paper he had inserted, or the paper the presumed hidden agent of Voldemort may have done?
Dumbledore caught the fourth slip deftly, and seemed to be momentarily taken aback by the name on it. His eyes twinkled as he looked at it, seemingly in awe.
"Representing Crimson Shit-stain Institute … Tom Marvolo Riddle."
The silence that followed was deafening. Harry wondered who would break it.
He would not have guessed at Ginny Weasley. She all but slid from the bench in tears, laughing fit to burst. That seemed the cue for Fred and George to do the same thing; Ron and Hermione followed, and Harry did so in order to keep up appearances.
The whole hall was soon in a great clamor despite more than ninety-five percent of the people in the hall having no idea who the fourth person named was.