Greetings all. Very sorry for such a long wait on these chapters, my life is what most people would call a mess, same as my room, and its taken a loooooong time to fix everything up, between new classes, tertiary education fees and a lot of other things i wont list, in short my life has been hectic and i lost my writers enthusiasm for awhile. fear not however, as i shall continue this fic, despite several worries that it was to be discontinued. and, without further interruption, this chapter is brought to you by the following sponsors... oh wait, we don't have any sponsors... in that case, on with the show!
Enjoy :)
Harry woke up early the next day to the sound of Ron's snoring.
"Ugh, I knew I should have put a Silencing Charm on him before I went to sleep," grumbled Harry to himself. Quietly, he pulled on his robes and set off downstairs and out into the grounds, setting a slow pace for a morning job. The air was chilly, as expected from an early morning in autumn. Absent-mindedly, Harry walked towards Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, thinking of visiting the gentle giant who had brought him back to the magical world, all those years ago.
"Although, I suppose looking at it from somebody else's point of view, it was only three years ago. Time travel really does a number on your mind," thought Harry, as his mind began to work its way around the problems facing him. He was so distracted; he almost walked into a Beauxbatons student, before she caught him gently by the shoulders.
"Arry, you really should be more careful when you're walking," said a soft voice somewhere above Harry. Harry looked up, smiling as his eyes caught sight of Fleur, smiling gently down at him. Harry instinctively embraced her, which Fleur quickly reciprocated.
"Would you like to walk wiz me, Arry?" Fleur asked softly, gesturing towards the lake. Harry nodded, before setting off at a lazy pace next to Fleur. A comfortable silence fell between the two, remembering their previous conversations and exchanges from their future. During the long spanning fight against Voldemort's last loyal Death Eaters, Bill and Fleur had been having troubles, escalating to the point where Fleur had walked in to Shell Cottage one afternoon, to find Bill sleeping with another woman. After the incident, Fleur began spending a lot of time with Harry, who comforted her through her troubles. She had still been recovering from Bill's deceit when they had been thrown back in time. Harry glanced at Fleur, noticing that her eyes were rimmed with red, indicative that she had been crying again.
"Fleur, talk to me. I know that you're still hurting, but you know you can trust me right?" said Harry, stopping suddenly next to the lake. Fleur looked back him for a moment, before sighing and sitting down on a large, flat rock next to the lake.
"I do trust you Arry, but eet is ard to simply forget zat it appened," she explained, turning to face him, only to be pulled into a hug by Harry.
"It's ok, just talk to me whenever you're ready," he whispered to her, as she leaned into the hug, laying her beautiful head on his shoulder, a small, but genuine smile spread across her delicate features.
"Merci Arry," she whispered back, hugging him tightly.
Harry and Fleur returned to the castle just as the students began filing in for breakfast. More than a couple of students stopped to stare at the two, some with curiosity, others with incredulity, and most with envy and jealousy. Fleur smiled at Harry before walking over to her classmates at the Ravenclaw table, while Harry went to sit with his friends.
Harry, who was that girl? She was that one that all the boys were staring at the welcoming feast," questioned Hermione, as Harry began to spread marmalade on his toast.
"Just a friend," replied Harry, taking a bite of toast as Ron stared open mouthed at Harry, his breakfast all but forgotten, a rare thing for Ron to forget. "After all, the whole point of the tournament is relations with the foreign schools, so I thought making friends with a few people from the other schools was a good idea."
"That's really good Harry," smiled Hermione, glad to see that somebody was trying to make friends with the foreigners.
"You really should close your mouth Ron, otherwise bugs will fly in," said Harry seriously, waving his hand in front of his face. Ron closed his mouth and turned to face Harry.
"Harry, how did you manage to talk to her?" asked Ron finally, his mouth finally back to working, though his food hadn't been touched, still keeping Harry amazed that the food wasn't gone yet since it had been in front of his friend for over a minute.
"Well Ron, first I walked up to her. Then, I said hi, then we talked," said Harry slowly, making Ron give him an exasperated look.
"I meant how did you become friends so quickly? They only got here last night," said Ron, while Hermione also thought about it and Harry was suddenly sweating bullets.
"Umm, well we figured we have a lot in common," managed Harry, trying to play it off. Upon seeing his friend's confused looks, he continued. "I mean, we both get a lot of unwanted attention for a reason we don't have any control over, so we got along really well," finished Harry, inwardly proud that he had managed to cover for himself that time. Hermione and Ron showed looks of understanding and went back to their breakfast, while Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He felt bad about having to lie to his best friends, but he had no other choice for the time being.
After some discussion on whom the champion for Hogwarts may be, and watching Fred and George try to get past the age line (It was even funnier this time round watching them both sprout beards) Harry, Ron and Hermione headed back to the castle to see the choosing of the champions. Harry was inwardly groaning at the thought that soon, three quarters of the school would once again hate him. Hermione noticed his depression, though Ron, who was attempting to transfigure a particularly annoying fly, did not.
"Harry, are you okay?" she asked quietly.
"I just have a bad feeling that something is going to go wrong tonight, and knowing my luck, I'm going to be right in the middle of it all," replied Harry, casting a quick warming charm on his jacket to keep from shivering.
"Don't worry, I'm sure nothing will go wrong," said Hermione, giving him an encouraging smile.
"That's what they all say, right before things go boom!" answered Harry, puffing out his cheeks and stretching his arms out for dramatic effect. Hermione gave him a playful punch on the arm, just as they reached the entrance hall. Harry sat down between his friends, just as the feast appeared on the golden plates. While Ron and Hermione conversed with their fellow classmates, Harry was in deep thought about how he could best handle the tournament, as well as making sure that everybody else was kept safe this time round. Finally, as the last of the treacle tart vanished from the now clean golden plates, Dumbledore began explaining the procedure in which the champions would follow after being chosen, before the candles were extinguished, casting the great hall into a state of semi darkness. Just as he remembered the first time, Harry watched as the Goblet turned red and began to spark, before a tongue of flame shot out of the cup, a charred piece of parchment fluttering out of it to be caught by the headmaster.
"The champion for Durmstrang is Viktor Krum!" announced Dumbledore, as a tumult of applause swept through the hall and Krum slouched off towards the chamber at the end of the staff table. A second tongue of flame shot out again, with a second singed piece of parchment being caught by Dumbledore. "The Champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour!" another round of applause, while many boys stared after Fleur, Ron included.
"They look disappointed," said Hermione, nodding her head towards the other Beauxbatons students. Harry saw that many were seconds away from tears, while two actually had their heads on their arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Just a bit disappointed, yeah," replied Harry, turning his attention back to Dumbledore, as everyone tensed with excitement, as the Hogwarts champion was drawn.
"The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory!" yelled Dumbledore, struggling to keep himself heard over the thunderous applause and cheering from the Hogwarts students, with the Hufflepuff table being the centre of it all. Cedric smiled out at everybody before heading up to the staff table. And just as he remembered, everybody gasped, as during Dumbledore's speech, a fourth tongue of flame shot out of the cup, along with a singed piece of parchment, while Harry felt a familiar knotting sensation in the pit of his stomach. Full well knowing that this would happen from Harry's explanation, Dumbledore put on a good façade of confusion, as he pulled out the fourth name.
"Harry Potter," he announced, feeling very grave indeed. Harry felt the stares of hundreds of students focused on him, caught like a deer in the headlights. Very much aware of the whispers of the rest of the school, Harry had the perfect look of horror and disbelief painted on his face, as he turned to Ron and Hermione. Both were looking blankly back at him, neither able to believe what was in front of their eyes.
"Harry Potter, please come to the front table," called Dumbledore from his position at the top table. It felt even worse this time round, as the increasing noise of angry whispering amongst the houses increased, while the walk to the top felt like it took forever. As he approached the top table, he took in Hagrid's look of disbelief and shock, of McGonagall's look of abject worry, Snape's of suspicion, Dumbledore's slight eye movements that meant he knew what was going on now, and something he hadn't seen in the impostor Moody's eye the last time. It was a look of triumph and victory, covered with a hardened face of indifference. Slowly, Harry disappeared behind the door to the room beyond, as the Great Hall erupted in yells of protest.
Harry walked down towards where the other champions, his fellow time travellers, waited for his arrival. He came to the scene to see all three by the fire, though differently to how he remembered. Cedric and Fleur were talking animatedly, and even Krum was looking less surly and was even smiling a bit, and stepped forward to greet Harry as he came in.
"Harry, it is good to see you again, ve haff been vaiting for you," rumbled Krum, shaking his hand warmly. Harry and Krum had become better friends after the war against Voldemort, when Krum had taken Harry to Quidditch practice with the Bulgarian team. Fleur rushed forward and hugged him tightly, while Harry returned her hug, feeling much better all of a sudden. In the background, Cedric started sniggering but promptly stopped when Fleur glared at him. Hearing approaching footsteps of the teachers, the champions quickly got into place, pretending to look bewildered as to why Harry was there. Dumbledore strode quickly into the room, followed by a disgruntled looking Madame Maxime, a livid Karkaroff and Snape, an excited Bagman, and Moody, McGonagall and Crouch bringing up the rear.
"Extraordinary!" muttered Bagman, grabbing Harry's arm as he strode between the champions. "It would seem… as unexpected as it is… we have four Triwizard champions!" announced Bagman, staring excitedly at the other champions. Krum and Cedric pretended to look politely bewildered, while Fleur put on a look of puzzlement and stepped forward to Madame Maxime.
"But surely E is too young?" she asked of her Headmistress, shooting Harry an apologetic look.
"Quite so," answered Madame Maxime, looking thoroughly upset.
"Harry, did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire?" asked Dumbledore calmly.
"No sir, nor did I ask an older student to do it for me. What I do wish to know is whether there is a way for me to get out of this Tournament or not?" replied Harry.
"I'm afraid not Mr Potter, the Tournament constitutes a powerful binding magical contract, which means you must compete," answered Bagman, looking excited at the unexpected outcome.
"But of course e is lying!" protested Madame Maxime.
"Non, I believe monsieur Potter, if e says that e did not submit is name, e did not do it," said Fleur, shocking her Headmistress as well as most of the other teachers.
"Same here," agreed Cedric. "I've known Harry for a little while and I know that he isn't the sort to lie about something important like this. If he says he didn't do it, he didn't do it," finished Cedric, walking to stand with Harry.
"I vood also like to state my backing of him as vell," added Krum quietly, amazing the teachers even more that the surly teenager had said anything at all. All hell broke loose essentially, and it was only quelled when Mr Crouch told them it was all pointless as Harry would have to compete anyway. He briefed all the champions on the first task, before the masses began to disperse. Krum and Karkaroff left in silence, Krum in deep thought and Karkaroff in deep anger, while Madame Maxime left in bemusement at the change in her student, while Fleur turned back briefly to smile at Harry. Harry felt his cheeks redden at her beautiful smile, but quickly pulled himself back into the real world.
"Harry, Cedric, I suggest you go up to bed," said a smiling Dumbledore. "I am sure Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise," he said, before the two of them started making their way to their common rooms.
"So, here we go again," said Harry, grinning at Cedric, who smiled back.
"Hopefully this time we can try even more ideas out, since we already know what's going to happen," replied Cedric, as they neared the marble staircase. They were just about to part ways, when Cedric shouted back to Harry.
"Don't worry Harry, I'm going to talk to everybody tonight, try and keep everybody off your back this time round," he called, before disappearing down the corridor. Harry sighed, resigning himself to the celebration in the Gryffindor common room, before making his way upstairs.
After half an hour of partying, this time slightly enjoying it, though still eager to get away from it all, Harry managed to get to the dormitory, finding a still fully dressed Ron lying on his bed.
"Just so you know, I didn't put my name in for the Tournament," said Harry at once. Ron's eyebrows raised in disbelief.
"Harry, you know you can tell me, I'm your best mate," said Ron, trying to sound casual.
"I already told you Ron, I didn't put my name in the cup," said an exasperated Harry.
"Yeah, whatever. Do you really think I'm that stupid Harry?" asked a sceptical Ron.
"Doing a pretty good impression at the moment," muttered Harry, lying don on his four-poster bed.
"Fine, I won't bother you, I'm sure you need to be up early for a photo shoot or something, said Ron bitterly, wrenching the curtains around his bed closed. Harry closed his eyes in frustration before changing and getting into bed.
"Hopefully, the worst of it is done, and once the first task is finished we can resume our friendship," thought Harry, rolling over onto his side. "The worst thing about a situation like this is I'm not old enough to be able to just go get a Firewhisky," Harry groaned out loud at this thought, before slipping back into unconsciousness.
And there we have it, another chapter down, now just a long long wait for the next (we hope not). read and review all, i always appreciate feedback and ideas, even if i don't end up being able to use all of the suggestions i recieve, i do enjoy fitting in as many as i can.
see you soon (hopefully).