Hey all, sorry that it took so long to post this, but its been an emotional rollercoaster for me lately. and ive been very busy with my school's production and upcoming exams (Noooooooooo) anyway, this chapter is brought to you by the mailman. we apologise for his lateness. enjoy
Harry woke early the next morning, confused as to why he had woken to the sound of heavy snoring, before he remembered his journey back in time.
"I really ought not to travel in time again, it's such a headache," thought Harry, pulling on his robes and making his way down to the common room and out the portrait hole. He walked quietly down the marble staircase, wandering aimlessly before breakfast, taking the time to walk around the grounds once more. He stopped outside the Great Hall, thinking about getting some breakfast, even though it was still early. He stepped inside and saw that only a few others were awake at the moment, mostly from Hufflepuff. He passed by the table, receiving greetings from Hannah Abbot and Ernie Macmillan as he walked along to the end of the Gryffindor Table, before a voice called him back.
"Hey, Harry I need to talk to you," shouted someone from the end of the Hufflepuff table. Harry turned around and his breath caught in his throat, as Cedric Diggory walked over to him.
"Of course. He died in the graveyard when Voldemort came back to power, why didn't I think about this," thought Harry, as Cedric jogged over to him.
"Do you mind if we take a walk Harry?" asked Cedric, glancing at his fellow Hufflepuff's as they looked at the two with interest.
"Uh, sure that sounds fine," said Harry, forcing a smile as they walked back out of the Hall, and continued on until they were walking over towards the lake. Just as they reached the lake, Cedric turned to Harry and his expression became serious.
"Harry, I need you to answer me truthfully on this. Did I die?" asked Cedric, completely serious. Harry was gob smacked. What was he going on about? Then, suddenly Harry had a thought.
"It wasn't in a graveyard or something was it?" asked Harry, choosing his words carefully, as he spoke to the older boy.
"Exactly! And it was right after the third task!" exclaimed Cedric.
"Oh my god, Cedric we both travelled back in time!" said Harry, practically shouting as the realisation hit him.
"But how, and why us?" asked Cedric, as they overcame their excitement momentarily. Harry quickly ran Cedric over the same story he had told Dumbledore, skipping over the part with Sirius and the Horcruxes.
"So, that means that we can prevent You-Know-Who from returning this time and we can make sure no one is hurt this time round," said Cedric excitedly, skipping a small stone across the lake with ease.
"Yeah, but we need to actually get through the tournament again without getting ourselves mauled by dragons, drowned in a lake or getting lost in the maze again," said Harry, smirking as he recalled the first time he had entered the maze that was the third task. Then, with a sudden lurch in his stomach, he realised something.
"Cedric, if we do anything differently this time around in the tournament, we might change something in the future. Like, say we take a wrong turn in the maze, or we do something different in fighting the dragons, what do you suppose could happen?" asked Harry, feeling a bit nervous as he realised that time travel could have consequences like this. Cedric also looked a bit uncomfortable with the question, trying to answer it as best as he could, before Harry waved it away.
"Don't worry, as long as we can do the last task without any problems, then we'll be fine," said Harry, beginning to walk back to the castle, while Cedric looked a bit doubtful.
"What makes you so sure though?" asked Cedric, as Harry turned to face him.
"You want to know why I can tell?" asked Harry in a whisper. Cedric leaned forward to hear his answer, before Harry started waving his arms in the air and giving him a look of mock-seriousness. "Because, I'm Harry Potter," he announced dramatically, making Cedric laugh as he and Harry began the walk back to the castle.
Harry came to a stop at the Gryffindor table and took a seat in between Ron and Hermione, before piling his plate high with kippers, bacon and sausages and started eating.
"Hey Harry, what were you doing talking to Diggory?" asked Ron around his mouthful of eggs. An amazing feat considering he had so much stuffed in his mouth and could still speak coherently.
"Umm, we were talking about the World Cup," said Harry, making sure to swallow his food before talking, noticing Hermione looking there way with an appraising look. Ron seemed to believe the explanation (or he just wanted to go back to eating, it was hard to tell), and they finished their breakfast amidst the talk of the Triwizard Tournament. Afterwards, they headed off to their classes, and Harry almost tried to jump out a window when he found out their first class was Divination.
"Ron, please tell me why we didn't do a Hermione and walk out of that old bat's class last year too?" asked Harry miserably, as they headed up the Marble Staircase and towards the seventh floor which held the Divination room.
"Because Harry, we're stupid remember?" said Ron, who also was contemplating an injury serious enough to be excused from class. They finally found their way to the class, and went up the ladder into the stifling room, taking residence at one of the circular tables in the back of the class. All too soon, Professor Trelawney came into view and began handing out star charts. Soon after, she created a solar system on the ceiling for them to observe and write down the things about the stars. Mostly, it was just the boys making bad jokes, until the bell finally rung. They made their way to the Great Hall for the lunch break, to find Hermione eating at top speed.
"Library again?" asked Harry rhetorically. He knew she was going to the library.
"Of course. I need to do some more research," said Hermione, still shovelling pie into her mouth at an incredible rate, before standing up and sprinting off towards the library.
"Mad, that one is," said Harry calmly, before sitting down to eat, followed by a bemused Ron.
They finished the day's classes, suffering only minor burns from Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts, and only receiving a pile of Divination and Potions homework due at the end of the week. The rest of the week passed without too much happening, apart from Malfoy being turned into a ferret (Harry had borrowed Colin's camera this time and made a video) and writing increasingly miserable misfortunes for their dream diaries for Divination (Harry had to stop Ron from writing that he would accidentally push a star gazing teacher from a tall tower, due to the position of Neptune). Finally, it came to a practical duelling class with Moody, after they had each attempted to resist the Imperius Curse. Harry was just watching, as Moody effortlessly disarmed Ron and hit him with a weak Stunning spell.
"Right then, Potter, your turn," barked Moody, gesturing to Harry with a gnarled finger. Harry stepped forward, intent on showing this impostor that he was not to be messed with. Moody counted slowly to three, before firing a slow Stunner at Harry, who in response sent his own Stunner, watching in amusement, as Moody's face changed to shock, as his Stunner easily broke through his own, narrowly missing him.
"Impedimenta!" shouted Moody, firing a faster moving spell at him, hoping to catch him off guard. Harry smirked to himself, planning to do some overkill.
"Espejo de Disparo!" shouted Harry, a small, unnoticeable rift opening between himself and the spell, absorbing it and firing it back at Moody a second later, blasting him off his feet. The class stood stock still, completely shocked at the outcome, before Moody struggled to his feet, looking back at Harry, with a smile on his face, and a hint of admiration playing in his normal eye.
"Very well done Potter, that was very impressive, you must show me that spell sometime," he said, clapping Harry on the shoulder, before he dismissed the class, surprising people on his now cheerful attitude. He seemed to be happy that Harry had defeated him. As soon as they had left the room, Ron and Hermione turned to Harry.
"What kind of spell was that Harry?" asked Hermione, still shocked that Harry had so easily beaten Moody.
"Yeah mate, where did you learn that awesome spell?" asked Ron, looking amazed at Harry's spell work.
"I accidentally used it once, and I thought it was useful, so I developed it as a new spell," explained Harry, as they walked to lunch. "It basically creates a small rift where you point your wand and it absorbs a spell, before redirecting it back at the caster with twice as much power. The only downside is that it wouldn't be very useful against more powerful spells, like the Unforgivable Curses," finished Harry, sitting down at the Gryffindor table for lunch. Both Ron and Hermione nodded dumbly, before they joined him and began eating lunch.
The week seemed to drag on forever, but finally, the day of the arrival of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had come. The Hogwarts students left classes early to greet the delegations of the foreign schools, lining up at the house tables in the Great Hall. Harry stood with Ron and Hermione, wondering if Fleur or Krum had travelled back in time as well. He caught Cedric's eye and began using Occlumency to contact him, having taught it to Cedric over the past weeks.
"Cedric, do you think that the other two might have come back as well?" said Harry in his mind.
"No idea, but look for changes. If neither of us has had contact with them, and were sure that no one else has travelled back, then if anything is different from last time, then that should be a dead give-away," explained Cedric back.
"That makes sense," replied Harry, before the connection was cut, as they both looked towards the opening doors of the Hall, seeing the Beauxbatons students lining in, followed by the enormous form of Madame Maxime. Harry spotted Fleur, walking along between the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables, clad in many warm garments. Unfortunately, this meant that she did not notice Harry; as she continued on to sit at the Ravenclaw table, following the rest of her classmates. The Durmstrang students followed in after, causing many whispers to erupt, as people caught sight of Viktor Krum. Luckily, Viktor Krum caught sight of Harry, nodding in his direction, silently sending Harry a message.
"Well, I'd wager a guess that Krum came back too then," mused Harry to himself, as the Durmstrang students took seats at the Slytherin table, while Ron muttered curses at Malfoy under his breath.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and – most particularly – guests," announced Dumbledore, getting to his feet and beaming around at the new arrivals. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable." Harry turned to look at Fleur, thoroughly convinced that she had also returned with them, seeing her paying attention to the speech, remembering that last time she had laughed during Dumbledore's welcome.
"The Triwizard Tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast, and I now invite you to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!" he finished, as the food magically began to appear on the golden platters in the Hall. He sat down, and was soon engaged in conversation by Karkaroff, while the rest of the Hall broke out into conversation. Harry was talking with Ron and Hermione and trying some of the foreign dishes he hadn't last time, surprising some of his classmates, before they were interrupted by Fleur.
"Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?" she asked, stunning Ron with her Veela beauty, along with several other boys around them.
"Yeah, you can have it miss," said Harry cheerfully, pushing the dish towards her. She smiled at him, before bending forward to pick it up. Her silvery blonde hair fell over them both and she winked at him and whispered something to him.
"What's my favourite thing about Ogwarts?" she asked quietly.
"I'd say it was me, Miss Delacour," replied Harry cheekily, making Fleur blush a little, before she straightened up, the entire affair only taking two seconds. She walked away with the dish, leaving Harry content, knowing that all of the champions had gone back in time, and leaving Ron and the other boys goggling at the retreating form of Fleur.
"Put your eyes back in Ronald," said Hermione crossly, as he continued to stare at Fleur.
"Harry, she's a Veela," he said hoarsely, tearing his eyes away from the Ravenclaw table where Fleur was sitting.
"Yeah, I got that feeling when she came over to," replied Harry, going back to his steak and kidney pie.
"And you can see that Harry isn't goggling over her," said Hermione, satisfied that at least one boy wasn't breathless over her. Harry continued his meal listening to the conversation of his friends around him, until Dumbledore got up to speak again. Harry tuned a good deal of the speech out, as Dumbledore began explaining the rules of the Tournament. After what seemed like a particularly long time, Dumbledore dismissed them for bed. Exiting the Hall, Harry caught sight of Cedric, giving him the thumbs up which he returned with a grin. Harry made his way to Gryffindor Tower with Ron and Hermione. As soon as they entered the Tower, talk erupted into the Triwizard Tournament, along with ideas of how to sneak into it, without being 17. Harry, feeling thoroughly exhausted, made his way up to the dormitories, and climbing into his four-poster bed.
"Well, this time around, I'd say this is going to be pretty interesting," murmured Harry to himself, before smirking and rolling over and falling asleep.
Yay, and there's another chapter up. once again, i do apologise for the huge wait in this chapter taking so long, but it has been a difficult time.
R&R plz people
And the results on the polls (including several votes i got from people at school who dont have a FF account)
Harry?Fleur - 30
Harry/Ginny - 3
Harry?Hermione - 1
Harry/other - 2
and its Harry/Fleur by a landslide, so this will be a Harry Fleur fic. until next time folks