There's been an addition to Damned Tournament, nothing too significant, I just realised that left out the Wand Weighing Ceremony, so I had them refusing and Harry turning it into an abuse of rights and corruption story with Ollivander's help because of the fact that the Ministry arbitrarily demands that people hand their wands over at the security desk in the Atrium to be scanned and maybe kept at their discretion, when there's no justification or reason given.
I'm probably wasting my time trying to clarify this up front, but I will anyway. While Harry and Hermione's official ages are twelve and thirteen at this point in this world, they have lived at least nineteen and twenty years in the most adverse conditions and magic has made their bodies around fifteen to sixteen, so to all intents and purposes they are mentally, physically and emotionally mid to late teens, adults in the old world. Fleur is a sixteen year old Veela who has gone through the change so she is the same. Luna is officially still eleven, but the amount of time she has effectively spent in the future, experiencing the events of the possible futures has given her the mental and emotional maturity of a world weary young woman in her late teens and magic has accelerated her development so that she was physically mid-teens, and while Gabrielle is also eleven officially, as a Veela she is only half human so human rules don't apply to her and the change, Veela bonding and other developments have made her effectively mid-teens mentally, physically and emotionally. Daphne and Astoria have neither the experience of the future nor the Veelas' half-human nature to accelerate their development, so while magic has made them thirteen to fifteen physically, they don't have the mental or emotional development to be able to handle the consummation of their marriages, and they and Harry are quite aware of this.
Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I find things that didn't come out the way I wanted.
They'd found out some interesting things when Miroslav came back to judge the first task….. the fact that he wasn't happy at first to see Bulgaria's Pride of the Nation, the youngest professional seeker ever having fun as he played in the informal inter-school quidditch competition wasn't too much of a surprise as the Bulgarian government was hanging their hopes on the brooding young quidditch star's image to make their country look better, but it didn't take too much to get him to step back and look at it from a different angle. Once they'd planted the seed of the idea and nudged him in the right direction, he began to see how contrasting the happy, friendly schoolboy Viktor was here with the brooding, intense professional added a depth to Viktor's image that could only improve it. Being a politician, it was of course reframed as his idea as soon as he was on board with it, but they were prepared to take that along with the benefits for Viktor and others.
The biggest news was the fact that Karkaroff had been tried and executed when he returned to Bulgaria, so Professor Branimir was now Durmstrang's Headmaster. What they hadn't realised, because they had enough to worry about in Magical Britain, was that after Albus Dumbledore was replaced as Magical Britain's representative to the ICW by the Wizengamot's nomination, a lot more information was shared about the Death Eaters and how they were now being dealt with in Britain, and most other European countries in the ICW adopted Magical Britain's automatic try and punish rule for Death Eaters and their ilk. The thing was, it hadn't been generally known that Karkaroff was a Death Eater in Bulgaria until Hogwarts' wards reacted to his dark mark and he hurriedly got out of Britain before he could be arrested, tried and punished for his crimes when he was supporting Riddle, but Bulgaria's Aurors were waiting for him when he returned because Popov had reported the reason he had been kept out of Hogwarts.
They had known that Grindelwald was quietly tried and executed for his crimes after Harry outed the fact that Dumbledore had been secretly keeping his ex-lover alive in Nurmengard after he attacked him from behind and captured him, rather than killing him to end the threat as he'd implied to the rest of the world. Apparently Nurmengard was now being used to house dangerous criminals who escaped the death penalty, rather than being kept just as a secret hidey hole for Grindelwald. While no-one was overly happy about that, they had to concede that it was better to have those types locked away, and Nurmengard didn't approach the foulness of Azkaban with its dementors.
Of course, as soon as the rest of the students were told about the ball, they were all besieged with requests to be others' dates to it. The girls had to get quite aggressive with some of their would be paramours, as they wouldn't accept that the fact that they were betrothed was a good enough reason to refuse their invitations…. Harry, Sirius, Remus, Ulfr and Snorri had to step in more than a few times to ward off the trouble that would have come from the enraged girls killing or seriously damaging the arseholes who wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.
Who was to go with whom was eventually resolved by Fleur and Hermione going with Harry, Susan and Ginny with Neville, Angelina and Luna with Fred, Katie and Daphne with George and Alicia and Astoria with Lee….. Jean-Pierre was attending as France's Head of International Cooperation and one of the signatories of the tournament contracts, and no-one would dare object to Apolline and Gabrielle accompanying him. The rest of the family were going as staff and Ulfr, Snorri, Efa and Emyr went as part of the goblin guard (under glamours as 'ordinary' goblin guards of course).
While they were all training to make it through the second task, there was one major point of the preparations that they were putting off until after the Christmas break, the dragonhide armour that they would be wearing as or under their robes. Fleur and Gabi's grandmother Agathe was the current Veela Matriarch, because her Veela bonding was one that only happened once every two or three centuries at most, so this had only happened about a dozen times since Veela first came about from the Ancient Greek Avian Sirens mating with powerful wizards (the origin of the eternal feud between Veela and Mers)…. This bonding created what they called a Veela Matriarch, one who had been given access to the collective energy and knowledge of the Veela race, similar to how the Head of a House gains the House's Magic and Knowledge but on a much larger scale. There was a curse attached to these bondings though, the odds were astronomical against all the myriad required conditions being met, but the Veela's mates died when they were, not one of the Matriarchs' mates had survived to date, and usually their attendants at the bonding died as well.
Agathe had made a request of Harry and the girls when the nature of the second task was made known, that they allow Fleur to seal her Veela bond with Harry before she had to go beneath Black Lake to reduce the disadvantage that she would be under down there. They all knew that the Veelas' fire and air powers largely deserted them under water, but the Veela bond usually doubled a Veela's powers, if not more, so that should help her get through the task without harm. Agathe had pointed out that the bond could sometimes result in as many physical changes as the change at the end of a Veela's child cycle itself did, and to a lesser this applied to their bond mates as well, so they were waiting until after the Yule Ball to perform the bonding, and would have Fleur and the others' armour made up afterwards.
The Veela were actually excited to see what might happen at Fleur's bonding, because while they had records of familiar bonds and twin and other sibling bonds existing and being enhanced by the Veela bonding, they'd never heard of a Veela's mate being already bonded to six exceptional partners and eight extraordinary familiars, especially with the depth of the bond between Harry and Hermione, and to a lesser degree Luna, so they were delving into virgin territory here. The fact that Harry was the first man in known history to have resisted a Matriarch's allure being turned on them full bore was also a matter of extreme interest to the Veela, Agathe was shocked that he had resisted her allure and had thought to herself that that, combined with his incredible magical power and reserves, would normally have made him a prime candidate to be a Matriarch's mate, except for the fact that Veela legend said that there could only ever be one Matriarch so there wouldn't be another one created until she passed on.
On the night of the ball, Abbott and the other Ministry officials of course tried to stop Harry and the others making their entrances with two girls each, but Harry was angry enough that the magic leaking from him was a palpable threat so most of them scuttled off. The Umbitch of course had far more mouth than sense and stridently demanded that Remus (she obviously refused to accept St Mungo's certification that he had no trace of Lycanthropy in him), the goblins and Apolline and Gabrielle be ejected as creatures who weren't fit to associate with proper witches and wizards. She suddenly disappeared mid rant when Harry asked Hogwarts to get rid of the vile creature and Fudge demanded that she be returned at once. Fudge didn't see the humour when Harry said quite honestly that he had no idea where she'd disappeared to and then turned to ask Minerva. "Do you know of anything in Hogwarts' wards that might eject unpleasant toad creatures, or perhaps those who are behaving totally unacceptably from Hogwarts Headmistress McGonagall? Those are the only things that I can think of that might explain Miss Umbitch being removed like that?"
Minerva was having a hard time fighting her laughter at the question and Fudge's expression as she shook her head musingly. "I know of nothing of that nature Duke Potter, but then as we've discovered, my predecessors have interfered with Hogwarts' wards so much, especially over the last fifty years, that we really have no idea what may be in there. I'm sure that Delores is fine though, Hogwarts would have only sent her somewhere appropriate….. Oh dear.…. Cornelius, perhaps you should check with the Warden at Azkaban? If Hogwarts believed that her actions here were criminal she may have actually sent her there?"
Fudge ranted and blustered about the insinuation that his Senior Undersecretary would have done anything wrong or criminal, or that a castle could make decisions and send upstanding citizens to Azkaban, as that could only be done by a proper Wizengamot trial.
Harry fixed him with a chilling look at that. "Your statement is patently incorrect Minister, considering that my own Godfather, Duke Black, was sent to Azkaban for a decade by the Minister, Chief Warlock and Director of the DMLE of the time without a trial, or even any investigation into his alleged crimes, which he was completely innocent of! So don't try to peddle shite like that to us Minister! I know for a fact that your Undersecretary is guilty of far worse crimes than Duke Black ever was, and furthermore, I would trust the integrity of Hogwarts over a court infested with corrupt individuals to impose justice any day!"
While Fudge went white and spluttered before scuttling off to floo Azkaban to see whether his Senior Undersecretary was in fact there. Harry asked Merlin over their link where the Toad had gone to and Merlin chuckled. "She is at Azkaban now My Lord…. Lady Hogwarts had initially dropped her into Black Lake, but she agreed with you that Headmistress McGonagall's suggestion of Azkaban was quite apropos so she retrieved her and sent her to Azkaban. The Toad was half frozen and coughing up water but alive when she arrived there.
Harry had to laugh at that, because unless they'd tested the water, which Wizards would never think to do, it would most probably be put down as taking a few tries to get the Toad to Azkaban. The Ministry could never pin it on any of them because no-one would believe that any of them could send someone straight from the Great Hall of Hogwarts to Azkaban, and if he tried to make Auntie Ami charge Hogwarts with anything, Auntie Ami would laugh him out of her office.
It just got better when Amelia decided that the supposed perception of crimes by the sentient castle was cause to begin an investigation into Spinster Umbridge (she could never have enticed anyone to marry something like her). With Harry and Hermione telling her what to look for, they'd soon found quite enough evidence against the Toad to get her sentenced to Azkaban for twenty years. The illegal blood quills and the proof she'd been keeping to blackmail those she'd arranged for nefarious acts to be committed for ensured that no-one could save her or those who'd carried out her dirty work (like John Dawlish, who went through the Veil of Death for the murders he'd committed on her orders). Fudge only escaped punishment himself because she'd kept his name out of the records, but some of the others weren't so lucky because after they had been tried and sentenced by the Wizengamot they used the Wizards Council Laws to degrade or destroy over half a dozen houses on the basis of that evidence. The people behind Fudge were starting to seriously question the value of keeping him on as Minister, because they quite rightly laid the blame for this at his feet.
A group of tables had been reserved near the High Table for the rest of the family, so once the dinner and obligatory Champions' dance was done with, Harry, Hermione, Fleur, Jean-Pierre, Apolline and Gabrielle relocated to the family tables. Harry had at least one dance with every lady at their tables, he even got in dances with his 'Aunts' but most of them spent much of the night warding off would be interlopers of both sexes.
After the ball, the immediate family and their familiars all went straight to Chateau Delacour because it had been agreed that the sooner Fleur's Veela bonding ritual was done, the longer she'd have to get used to the changes, and with so many unknowns Agathe wanted them all there in case there were any complications. They were grateful for this when they proceeded with the bonding, because the unthinkable happened, Fleur and Harry had a Matriarch Bonding, and that was only the first of the supposedly impossible occurrences.
Some of the key requirements of a Veela Matriarch Bonding were that a powerful Veela had a much deeper than normal bonding with an extremely powerful wizard, and that their child was conceived at the moment that the bond was consummated in a mutual climax (the odds against all these and the other conditions being met together at the precise moment of the consummation were of course astronomical), and then there was the fact that Veela lore stated that no more than one Veela Matriarch could exist at any one time, so Agathe had never considered the possibility that her own granddaughter could have a Matriarch Bonding not forty years after her own bonding. Agathe had told Apolline what had happened to her father (also Henri, oddly enough), the Veela attending her bonding and the cottage where the bonding was performed, so when all of their bond mates and familiars appeared to have simultaneous seizures and collapsed at the same moment a massive blast of Veela energy ripped through the Chateau, it was obvious to her what had happened. She screamed and as soon as she'd confirmed that Gabrielle and the other bond mates were alive, she raced for the bedchamber where her eldest was sealing her Veela bond with her incredible bond mate, attended by her grandmother.
When she burst into the room, Agathe was already stirring, apparently unharmed even though she'd almost been blasted right through the wall by the energy released. Apolline rushed to the bed, almost fainting from relief when she found her daughter still alive, but then Harry groaned and she almost fainted from shock, because everything that she'd ever heard said that this was impossible!
As soon as she'd recovered enough to think straight, Agathe pushed Apolline out of the way and scanned Fleur and Harry, several times because she couldn't believe what she was seeing. The bedchamber became quite crowded as she was doing this, because all of the couple's other bond-mates and familiars suddenly appeared in the room silently. Once Agathe had confirmed that Harry and Fleur were alright, Hermione managed to calm herself enough to assert her authority over the rest of them and make them settle down, and that was another shock for Agathe and Apolline, because her silent command over their links instantly quieted them all down and the Devil Birds and Mngwas changed back into their owl and cat forms. Agathe looked at her musingly, because she recognised a true matriarch's authority being exercised over the family by this young woman, but this made things a lot easier so she had Hermione command them to submit to being scanned.
The results of the others scans were almost as shocking as Fleur and Harry's, and after discussing it with Harry and his brilliant witches, they all agreed that this must have been how Harry survived the Matriarch bonding. All of them, Veela, wizard, witches and familiars alike, were now showing large amounts of Veela energy, and the physical development acceleration that came with absorbing so much energy, as well as having much stronger links and other shared attributes. The bond-mates were also displaying Veela attributes and had absorbed quite a bit of the Veela knowledge base. There was little doubt that the strength of Harry's links with his bond-mates and familiars (especially Hermione and Luna) had channelled the excess energy into all of them, and this was what had prevented him being burnt out by the massive outburst of energy that came from the bonding, and the seven of them and their eight familiars absorbing most of the energy had also prevented Chateau Delacour being levelled by the energy blast and everyone inside the building killed, as had happened at Agathe and the previous Matriarchs' bondings.
They could all (bond-mates and familiars) now do something akin to the phoenixes' flame travel, but without the flames, they could instantly and silently appear beside any bond-mate or familiar they were linked to, or any location that they could identify, they had also seemed to have acquired the phoenixes' healing powers and were largely resistant to physical or magical attacks. Their familiars were all more intelligent and powerful now with significant magical cores, and the Devil Birds could fly much faster in their owl forms and effectively turned into Veela in their Devil Bird forms. It was as if magic had evaluated every part of their bond in the instant of the bonding and shared the most useful traits of each part with the rest, as the bond-mates now all had both Devil Bird and Mngwa animagus forms which shared all of their familiars' new capabilities and they all had Harry and Dora's metamorphmagus ability, Harry's parseltongue ability as well, though it spared the others the curse of Luna's seer's ability. Fawkes had a spontaneous rebirth once she'd confirmed that Harry and the others were alright, but she rose from the ashes as a white phoenix and told them that she had chosen a new name for herself, Mara, as she had put aside the name associated with her existence as Albus Dumbledore's slave. This bonding had broken all of the known rules of magic and would have to go down in history as the most extraordinary bonding of all time, though only the leaders of the Veela Nation would know of it.
With the other elements under control, Agathe quickly confirmed that Fleur was indeed pregnant, and taught her how to use the Veela ability to put her pregnancy safely in stasis until she was ready for it to proceed, for years if necessary. Hermione and the other girls paid close attention to this, hoping that this was one of the Veela talents that they'd acquired, as all women would like to have the ability to do this. Once the initial panic was past, Agathe had examined Gabrielle more closely and confirmed that as she had suspected, the energy released through Fleur's bonding had initiated the change in her a few years early, so that within a week she'd have the physical size and maturity of a young woman in her mid-teens, and the mental, emotional and magical capacity and maturity to go with it. She tried to explain this to Harry and the others.
"You understand how the human growth cycles work… from birth to seven is the infant cycle where they develop to the point where they can begin effectively training their minds, bodies and magic, from eight to fourteen is the child cycle where they develop their capabilities to the point where they're usable, from fifteen to twenty one is the juvenile cycle where they're learning to develop their capabilities and life path and from twenty two they move into the adult cycle where they practice and study to improve these capabilities while operating in the world?" The others nodded.
"Then I presume that you also know that for most of the Magical world, children's basic magical and cultural training begins around five or six to help prepare them to control and use their magic when it starts showing itself on a regular basis, and how to operate in both the Magical and Mundane cultures that they live in, and that even Magical Britain did this up until the middle of the Nineteenth Century when the practice petered out for some reason…?" They nodded again, but Hermione spoke up at that.
"We believe that that may have been a result of the decline of magical ability in the more bigoted Pureblood families who held much of the power due to excessive inbreeding Mémé. Their children were taking longer for their magic to present so there was little point in starting to train them to control it until it awoke, and they taught them what they believed was important about magical culture at home." It was Agathe's turn to nod musingly, but she went on.
"One thing that you should understand about Veela is that in the Child Cycle especially, their human side develops slower than most full humans until the end of the cycle, where they will have a sudden change and pass the development of the human girls who had up until then been developing faster than them in the space of a week or so. This is what is now happening to our Gabrielle because of being included in Fleur's bonding…. At this moment she is still a child, but before the week is out she will be a full grown woman in every sense of the word….. Henri, for this reason, and because of the trials we know that she will have to face with you, Fleur, and Hermione in two months I request, non, I beg you to allow Gabrielle to have her Veela Bonding with you before you all go back to school, so that she will have the power to face what we know she will have to face down there…. I must warn you that this bonding may well be another Matriarch Bonding, you and my petite fille Fleur have already disproved the Veela lore which insisted that it was impossible for more than one Veela Matriarch to exist at any one time, and as our Gabrielle shares the power that came from me and my Henri through her mère and her père's line through him, while you are even more powerful now than you were before you bonded with Fleur, I believe it probable that she will become a Matriarch as well. While this frightens me, the fact that she and Fleur will have the power of the Matriarchs and all of you to keep them safe makes me thank the gods…. So…. Will you grant me the boon of doing this to keep my Gabrielle safe Henri?"
Harry consulted with Gabrielle, Hermione and the others and nodded. "Oui Mémé, we know enough of the lore of the Veela now to understand and accept that this will not harm Gabrielle and that it is the best way to help her, so we will do this when she is ready."
Agathe was almost in tears when she whispered "Merci", but she stopped and looked into Luna's eyes before turning back to Harry. "Your little Lune wishes this as well, and is physically and emotionally ready for it Henri. You still see the girl who needs to be protected because she witnessed her mère's death and a part of her will remain that way, but just as you and Hermione are older on the inside, so is she from all the things she has seen and experienced through the curse of being a seer. I ask you to consider granting her this boon that she so richly deserves…."
Harry looked at Luna and she opened her thoughts and memories to him, so that he could see that what Agathe said was correct, it also made him realise that she was more physically developed at this point than Hermione had been when they sealed their bond, and that sharing their bed had been more physical comfort and the sense that the three of them were meant to be together than protecting her from nightmares about her mother's death for some time now. He could feel Hermione and the other girls laughing at him, because they had all known and accepted this for some time, he was the only one who hadn't picked up on it. He had the sense from Daphne and Astoria that they were happy with this, and that they accepted in themselves that they weren't old enough to take this step yet, even though the others were…. Which their parents would no doubt be quite happy to hear.
Once Xeno agreed to Luna's request, she and Harry performed the same formal bonding ritual as Harry and Hermione had, and Luna's links to Harry and the others were taken to a new level, while she gained a greater share of the magic and knowledge from becoming the consort of the Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Peverell and Most Ancient Druid House of Emrys, as well as the gains accruing from the magical coming of age for four magically powerful Most Ancient Houses.
Agathe and Apolline announced that Gabrielle was ready by the end of the week and she and Harry performed her formal Veela bonding ritual. None of them were surprised that Agathe was correct and Gabrielle also became a Matriarch, but the enhancements to their links that came out of Fleur's bonding meant that the others received a much bigger boost from the Veela energy released than they had with Fleur's bonding. Daphne and Astoria were the weakest magically of the family, and they were both more powerful than any five or six ordinary witches or wizards now, after being recipients of a share of the energy released in two Veela Matriarch bondings, being accepted as heiresses to their family's two magically powerful houses and being accepted as the betrothed of the Head and Heir of two even more magically powerful houses, with the added boost of blood adoptions into those houses. With everything that Harry had received, he was easily ten times as powerful as they were, while Hermione, Luna, Fleur and Gabrielle were four to six times as powerful and they could all draw power from their familiars, each of whom could store as much magical energy as Daphne or Astoria, so all in all, their little family had the magical power of a small army between them.
With this much power and the Black Lady at their disposal, they were more comfortable about being able to deal with whatever they may find at the bottom of Black Lake, but the girls' married status that came with the bonding rituals also gave them an advantage for when they had to deal with their opponents in the courts, as Harry was now Duke Potter-Peverell, Earl Gryffindor-Slytherin-Flamel-Black and Head, Heir or Consort of several more of the oldest and most powerful houses in Magical Britain and France. Hermione was Duchess Potter, Countess Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff-Gryffindor-Slytherin and Head, Heiress or Consort of several more of the oldest and most powerful houses, Luna was Duchess Peverell and again, Head, Heiress or Consort of a number of other old and powerful houses, Fleur was Baroness Delacour-Flamel, Heiress to the French Noblesse Ancienne House of Delacour and Consort of the Heir to the French Noblesse Ancienne House of Flamel, and Gabrielle was Countess Flamel and Baroness Dubois, Consort of the Head of the British Noble and Ancient House of Flamel and Heiress to the French Noblesse Ancienne House of Dubois. Between them, they represented many of the most powerful houses of Magical Britain and France, and aside from Harry, the organisers of the tournament had absolutely no agreement or authority to make them be a part of anything so dangerous, so everyone involved in what was thrown at them down there would be made to pay. Even in France, with the houses that Harry controlled or represented through the Flamels and his own bloodlines, Jean-Pierre's alliance had the power to wreak havoc on any houses which had been involved in Harry's participation in the tournament and any and all attempts to kill off Harry, Fleur and Gabrielle because Magical France had similar laws to Magical Britain when it came to protecting key members of the old and powerful Noblesse Ancienne Houses.
By the time they went back to school, the changes in each of them had run their course, Fleur, Harry, Hermione, Daphne and Astoria looked a year or two older than they had before the break, while Luna and Gabrielle looked at least three or four years older. While the changes protected those who were going to be at the bottom, they still had dragonhide robes and/or breeches and tunics made up to fit their new dimensions to give them another layer of protection. They decided to use metamorph transformations which mimicked the effects of the gillyweed rather than the gillyweed itself as they could change more quickly and at will, and the time limits of the gillyweed were eliminated, so they were all practising that. Harry and Fleur were planning to enter the lake in this form to cover up their ability, then transform their lower halves into Mer tails to allow them to be faster underwater.
Viktor, Terence and Gemma had all been training since the first task to learn how to swim better underwater in the dragonhide armour using gillyweed (with two years less magical education, Viktor wasn't up to even the half transformation he'd used in the other timeline), so they would be as safe as they could be as well. The only one who wouldn't have this protection would be Hannah Abbott, she would have to rely on her father's protection. They expected that Jones and the Ministry officials would lodge a protest about the fact that the competitors were all apparently using gillyweed and dragonhide armour, but there was nothing in the rules that prevented competitors from helping each other, and if they tried to make up something on the spot it would be easy to point out that this was the epitome of the spirit of international cooperation that the tournament was supposed to be about, they'd shared what they agreed to be the best method so that no-one was disadvantaged, therefore they could not be accused of cheating.
The six weeks from when they returned to the second task were busy, as their studies and training took up much of their time, but they were still working with the rest of the family on revoking or revising many of the unjust laws in the Wizengamot. With the Fudge faction's 'anti-creature' attack toad in Azkaban, they quickly struck out against the anti-werewolf, anti-goblin and anti-muggle laws that she'd been the champion for before the Ministry could come up with someone else to take her place. Proof supplied by St Mungo's about how many people who had been on the werewolf registry had now been certified as clear of lycanthropy a year and a half after the new and improved version of 'Wolfsbane' came into use (They'd marketed Salazar's cure for Lycanthropy as a new and improved version of Wolfsbane because it wasn't hard to argue that Wolfsbane already reduced many of the symptoms, and the improved version went further to eradicate the disease. Once they showed proof of its effectiveness, they had most countries in the ICW and the rest of the Magical world clamouring to buy this new Wolfsbane and their apothecaries made a fortune from the sales, but more importantly werewolf numbers were rapidly dropping around the world. Those countries who wouldn't change their laws to recognise that people had been cured of the affliction lost valuable citizens to the countries that did, and many of the people being hired by the family were ex-werewolves. Amelia was hiring as many of them as she could to be Aurors as well because they kept the werewolves' enhanced speed, strength, recuperation powers and senses after they were cured.) was quite enough to have the abominations of laws that had been enacted to ensure that sufferers couldn't help themselves revoked, and the Werewolf Registry and everything else associated with classifying them as creatures wiped out. In their place, far harsher laws were enacted to deal with the very small minority of werewolves who resisted being cured of the affliction and who deliberately attacked and infected others, giving the DMLE a free hand to eliminate them with minimal risk to others... Remus had cried with joy the day that Fenrir Greyback, the werewolf who attacked and turned him and hundreds of other children was tracked down and killed, because Greyback was the monster who'd haunted his nightmares since he was a child.
Another thing they quickly pushed through with assistance from the ICW was to get Arthur's liaison office functions expanded into a new Domestic Liaisons Department which was now in charge of all interactions between Magical Britain, the British Goblin and Centaur Nations and Non-Magical Britain. Fudge, the people behind him and the Ministry insiders who had lost people and power to Arthur's Domestic Liaisons Department were up in arms about this, but as with the werewolves, they couldn't argue about the unprecedented achievements that Arthur had made in this field. The accolades coming from the ICW showed that the Magical world was watching, so they couldn't do anything when the Wizengamot voted for the new department to be formed with Arthur as its head. Once the goblins, centaurs and Muggles all came under Arthur's purview, they quickly moved to have most of the anti-creature and anti-muggle laws revoked or revised. The other side found it highly suspicious that these were all ready to be presented at the next Wizengamot session after his appointment, and how quickly they were pushed through, but once again there was little they could do about it.
Fudge was sweating now, because even he could see what was going on. So far he had managed to hang onto the position of Minister for Magic, but it was Delores who had been doing much of the work to handle things to keep him there and maintain his control…. He did as he was told when she was sent to Azkaban, replacing her with Amos Diggory, but Diggory didn't tell him what to do or make the problems go away, so Cornelius was panicking. Most of the others he'd relied on were lost to him as well now, Dawlish and his people were in Azkaban if they escaped the Veil, the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures had both been disbanded because all of the important offices of both departments had been moved to either Magical Law Enforcement or Domestic Liaisons and all that was left of either was the Pest Advisory Board. Both Algernon and Monty were now talking about selling up and leaving Magical Britain while they could because they'd already lost their positions as the Heads of important Ministry departments where they thought they couldn't be touched, so they were afraid of what these people in the Wizards Council Alliance would do next, and he was beginning to think that they had the right of it.
Even the Department of Magical Transportation had lost its most important office, as the Floo Network Authority had been absorbed into Magical Law Enforcement because Bones had presented what was accepted as irrefutable evidence of many incidents over the last few decades where the Floo network had either been used to give unauthorised access to people's homes and businesses for nefarious purposes, or to prevent people calling for help or escaping when they were being attacked by Death Eaters and others. Somehow the order to have the Floo Network Authority moved into Magical Law Enforcement got passed by the Wizengamot then and there, so Bones and Weasley now controlled just about all of the most important functions of the Ministry between them. They'd even gotten Wizengamot to rule that no-one in their departments was to accept any orders from anyone but their own department heads, not even him, and that they could ignore the standard Ministry hiring, firing and promotion processes in their departments because they had specific needs that weren't met by the standard processes.
This was all a disaster! He had no real control over his own Ministry any more, he'd lost nearly all the people he relied to get things done, and the ability to get the things he wanted buried covered up as well. He was sure that Dumbledore was to blame for this, because it had all started when that Potter boy came out of wherever Dumbledore had hidden him and Black was freed. Nothing had been said that day, but he had seen from the way that Bones and Black were looking at him that they knew about his part in covering up the truth about Black's capture under Minister Bagnold, Director Crouch and Dumbledore's orders. Potter was the one who terrified him though, how had he, a mere child, suddenly appeared with all the power of the Most Ancient House Laws at his disposal? What the Wizengamot had done to the ones tried that day was unprecedented, but then Potter had called on the old magic and stripped them of everything! Including their magic!
He had had a taste of that himself when Potter took a third of everything he owned and forced him to formally accept the children he'd fathered into his family (those they knew about, how many more were out there to come out of the woodwork?). The girl wasn't too bad, she had a brain and knew how to use it so she could carry on the Fudge line, but to be forced to accept that useless little Squib into his family and give him his name, it was an outrage! One thing was for sure, if they did decide to run like his friends were doing, there was no way they were taking the Squib.
But the writing was on the wall now, he'd done what he was told last year to make sure this Triwizard Tournament went ahead as planned, so they could get rid of Potter to weaken his group and make it easier to wrest control of Magical Britain back from them. It had sounded like the answer to their problems then, but now….. in the two months since Delores decided to open her mouth at the Yule Ball he'd lost her and most of the people he depended on and his remaining supporters, Bones and Weasley had somehow wrested control of nearly all of important parts of the Ministry from him and his key people had been fired, or demoted and quit. They had even used the Wizengamot's rulings to force everyone in their departments to take a magical oath to follow their orders, and their orders only, and were hiring Half-Bloods, Muggleborn and supposedly ex-werewolves instead of proper Purebloods to replace the ones they fired for refusing to take the oath or failing to do the job properly! Even if they did manage to kill off Potter, he couldn't see any way to beat this Wizards Council Alliance now, and all those Purebloods who had been kicked out of the Ministry (for life as they'd added some clause to say that they could never work for or with the Ministry ever again) were unfairly blaming him for what had happened, it wasn't his fault!
The recent changes in the Ministry had actually worked out well for the ones pulling the strings on this coming up to the second task of the tournament, because most of the Purebloods who had controlled liaisons with the Mers had been fired, so they were all too willing to help set up what was to happen to the competitors and their hostages, except perhaps Tony Abbott's daughter.
On the morning of the second task, unknown house elves suddenly appeared to grab Hermione and disappear again about an hour before the task was supposed to start, the thing same happened to Gemma (Terence's betrothed), and Gabrielle at Beauxbatons. They were all wearing their dragonhide armour under their robes and had their real wands hidden, so Harry and the others weren't too worried, but they were expected to react so as soon as their people on the disillusioned Black Lady reported that the hostages had arrived in the village and were apparently in good health, the doors of the Great Hall crashed open and Harry charged in, demanding to know where Hermione was because he couldn't find her. He shouted at Jones, Bagman and Abbott that they had no right to take her and demanded that they start the task now!
As expected, Abbott was confident that he had the upper hand so he sneered at him. "No matter how important you think you are Lord Potter, the arranged starting time for the task will not be changed at your whim!"
Harry just dropped his Rowan wand into his hand and cast a flame whip which he used to cleave through the High Table close enough to Abbott to set his robes and chair alight before roaring "The task starts NOW!" Then he cancelled the flame whip and used quick summoning and banishing charms to pluck Bagman from the spot where he was standing, frozen in fear, and cast him out through the doors of the Great Hall. Bagman got the point, scrabbling to his feet and running for his life towards the lake with Harry, Fleur, Terence and Viktor on his heels.
Behind them, Abbott had frantically torn off his burning robes and was standing up on the High Table dais in nothing but his shoes, socks and underwear. There was a flash as Colin Creevey took a picture at that point and the entire hall burst out laughing when Abbott demanded that picture and tried to threaten Colin but Minerva cut him off. "You will do nothing to Mister Creevey if you know what's good for you Mister Abbott! It is my understanding that the Quibbler, who has exclusive media rights to all four competitors, has engaged Mister Creevey as its official photographer to cover this ridiculous tournament that you have forced on our school, so if you choose to disrobe in the middle of the Great Hall on the day of the second task of the tournament, I would say that the Quibbler would be expecting Mister Creevey to capture it for them, though personally I found Duke Potter's actions prior to that far more impressive to watch…."
Colin piped up at that. "I got that too Headmistress! Wasn't Harry great?"
Minerva smiled and nodded at him before fixing Abbott with a cool look and suggesting that everyone may want to head down to the lake to see what they could see of this task, not that that would be much, seeing as it was all happening underneath Black Lake.
Bagman was trying to get his breath back as the four champions stalked onto the platform, dropping their cloaks, kicking off their shoes and stuffing (or pretending to stuff) gillyweed into their mouths in readiness to dive into the lake, but it only took one baleful glare from Harry to make him hurriedly announce that the task was starting and set off a canon blast. They all dove into the lake as the gills and webbed hands and feet formed, Harry and Fleur swimming down out of sight before they morphed their legs into Mer tails and shooting off ahead of Terence and Viktor, but the others knew the plan and that Gemma, Hermione and Gabrielle would be protected as soon as they reached the Mer village so they just swam as fast as they could in the direction that Harry had told them.
Down at the Mer village, the French agents heard the cannon blast go off to start the task about twenty minutes early and started moving in to deal with the Veela and the Mudblood and then set compulsions on some of the bigger Mermen to send them into a rampage, but they'd hardly moved before they were hit with massively overpowered stunners from the Lady's schlag-ruthes. The witches and wizards on the Lady used the schlag-ruthes to summon them into the air bubble over the Lady's deck before they could drown, securing them there as they settled down to watch over the hostages and ensure that nothing too bad happened to them, especially Gabrielle and Hermione.
Unfortunately, the ones who'd been fired from the Ministry's Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures had also bribed some of the Mermen to ensure that the Veela and the Mudblood did not survive, so they were prodding them with their tridents and getting angry because they weren't bleeding. When they ripped their robes open, they found the dragonhide armour that covered them from neck to ankle and wrist and they were winding themselves up to cut their throats or something when a strange Merman and Mermaid burst into the village, Harry and Fleur.
They took one look at what was being done to Hermione and Gabrielle and their wands came out, seconds later the Mermen clustered around them began exploding in clouds of blood. That of course made the other Mermen attack, but between Harry and Fleur's wands (and Hermione and Gabrielle's too once they were revived by Harry and Fleur's touch when they tried to free them) and the schlag-ruthes on the Black Lady, it wasn't hard to keep them back until Terence and Viktor arrived. Hermione went to Terence before he could reach Gemma and went through a pantomime to ensure that he knew to have gillyweed ready in case she was set to wake at his touch as well, something that Terence was grateful for because she was. None of them were too surprised to find that Hannah Abbott was the only one not set up to drown at the bottom of the lake when she was rescued.
Once the hostages had all been freed and the three girls had dropped their robes so that they could swim more freely in the dragonhide armour like Terence and Victor, they tied Hannah's robes tight around her so that they didn't get a display of what she was, or wasn't, wearing under her robes and Harry tied her tether to his belt, as he and Fleur were much more powerful swimmers in their current forms than the ones in the gillyweed form. They kept an eyes out for Mers on the way back to the lake shore, and they were being shadowed by the disillusioned Black Lady, but the Mers seemed to have learned their lesson and stayed back.
A/N: The bit about 'human growth cycles' actually has basis in fact, 0-7, 8-14 and 15-21 are recognised as specific development periods for children, FWIW.