Chapter 12: Sound and Fury
Ginny Weasley was blushing with unabashed admiration as she stood in front of Harry. Around them, a massive crowd swirled in the Gryffindor Common room as everyone celebrated Harry's being named the Fourth Champion (except for the Ninjas, who were celebrated Naruto's being the Fifth); Harry would have thought that it was funny, everyone being in a mood for celebration except for him, the poor sod who actually had to champion Hogwarts in front of everyone, but at the moment he was too tired and too shocked to find anything funny.
And, horrible as it sounded, he was too tired and too shocked to have much time for Ginny Weasley at the moment.
"I, I'm really glad you made it Harry," Ginny said softly. "I just, I just wanted to say,"
"Thanks Ginny," Harry muttered, making his way out of the madness and the mob and towards the staircase that led up to the fourth years dorm. He needed to find Ron, find someone who could be relied on to supply some sanity, find someone unaffected by all the madness. Someone who would believe he hadn't put his name in that ruddy goblet. "I appreciate it."
He left her standing there, in the middle of the party, staring after him as he climbed up the stairs, brushing past Colin and Dennis Creevey in a similarly brusque manner, "Good luck." she finished quietly, and rather lamely; with no one to hear her.
"He doesn't mean it," Ginny jumped as she saw Hinata standing behind, pressing her forefingers together in a nervous gesture. "He doesn't mean to be cruel he just, he doesn't realise."
"What do you know about it?" Ginny demanded, angry at someone presuming to know her, to interfere in her business.
"I know that you only want him to recognise you, that you only want to be equal with him, to walk beside him. I know that the only thing we can do is keep getting stronger and hope that one day, we will be good enough for him to notice."
Ginny frowned, "Who are we talking about now?"
Hinata immediately blushed bright red, "I-I don't, I'm sorry." And she disappeared out of sight into the press.
Well that was weird. Ginny thought to herself.
Ron was sitting up on his bed, his limbs sprawled across the crimson and gold bedcover, his arms spread over his pillows, his face set into a falsely hearty smile, and his eyes as cold as the Lake in winter as he stared into Harry's bottle green eyes.
"So," he said, with nothing hearty or friendly about his manner. "Who's a lucky boy then?"
Why is he acting like this? Harry groaned inwardly, it seemed that he was going to have to deal with all the problems that Ron had been having lately.
"What do you mean, Ron?"
"You got your name into the Goblet of Fire in spite of everything. You get to be a school Champion. No exams, shot at a thousand galleons prize money. No punishment. Must be because Dumbledore likes you."
"Or maybe it's because he knows I didn't put my name in the goblet," Harry said.
Ron's lip curled derisively into a sneer, "Yeah, right. Try the other one Harry, it's barely more plausible. You know what those ninja are calling you, downstairs? The Yondaime Champion. And that Naruto, he's the Godaime Champion apparently. Don't ask me what it means, some stupid ninja thing I s'pose, but whatever. You know, I reckon you two were in it together."
"What?"
"You heard me," Ron spat. "Just like you heard me when I asked them if they could use their chakra to crawl up the ceiling and get around the age line from above. You stole my idea Harry; well done, spirit of the tournament, really."
"I didn't put my name in the Goble of Fire," Harry repeated. "And I certainly didn't steal your idea-"
"You stole my idea, just like you steal everything from me!" Ron yelled. "Because you know what, it wasn't until this year that I realised just how truly selfish you are."
"Selfish?" Harry said. "What are you talking about?"
"You're selfish Harry, you always have been. I'm just surprised I didn't see it before," Ron shouted. "I've stuck by you for four years now, and what do I get for it? Shunted aside every time someone catches sight of the great and marvellous Harry Potter who, I could tell them if they'd only listen, is no bloody better than I am! In fact in some ways he's a damn sight worse!"
"Oh is that so," Harry's temper was beginning to boil now, he could hardly stand to be in the same room as Ron, he wanted to pummel that freckled face in. "Well if I'm so useless then why do you keep following me around like a lapdog? Who saved the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort? Who saved your sister from Riddle in the Chamber?"
"Who got his leg broken for you and was still willing to risk their life defending you from Sirius Black?"
"He turned out to be one of the good guys you dickhead!" Harry yelled back. "Who's rat turned out to have been the real criminal all along?"
"Who couldn't even get past the Age line without stealing my idea?" Ron said. "Just like you've stolen…" he trailed off, his voice fading as the grimace on his face tightened and he looked down at the floor, breathing heavily.
"Stolen what?" Harry demanded.
Ron glared daggers at him, "You bloody well know what." He growled, closing the bed curtains around him, shutting him off from the world.
Harry felt a sudden draining feeling, as if all the energy was being ripped from his body in a single great wave. Exhaustion hit him like a stunning spell, and he fell rather that got into bed, and tried to ignore the sounds coming from the bed of the person who had, until a few minutes ago, been Harry's best friend in all the world.
The Weasley Twins had produced practically a second feast from somewhere, and Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji were lounging beside a table filled to groaning with delicious food. Or rather, Kiba and Shikamaru were lounging while Choji stuffed his face with everything in sight.
"Hey Choji, take it easy, that food's for the whole house, remember," Shikamaru said.
"If they wanted it, they shouldn't have left it lying here," Choji said, his mouth full of cake.
Kiba chuckled, "So, do you think he really didn't put his name in that cup?"
"Don't you?" Shikamaru said.
"I think he did it, who else would've wanted to enter Naruto into the tournament," Kiba said. "But, saying he didn't, doesn't seem like him to pass up an opportunity to brag."
The two of them studied Naruto, who was talking to Colin Creevey and Ginny Weasley, both of whom seemed to be drinking his words in intently.
"I don't think he did it," Shikamaru said after a while. "I believe what he said, he doesn't know how his name got in there."
"What makes you say that?"
"He was too surprised when his name got called," Shikamaru said. "Naruto isn't that good an actor."
"Huh," Kiba said. "You got a point I suppose. But why doesn't he seem more worried?"
"I think we both know the answer to that."
The two of them turned to look at each other, slight smirks across their faces, "Because he's Naruto." They said simultaneously.
The Riddle House, Little Hangleton, had long been an object of curious suspicion for the residents of the area. Older villagers stayed away from the place, but the younger kids occasionally broke in to it for a dare. None of them had done that for a while however, but if any of them had done so on this particular night they would have soon been scared off by the screaming, seeming to combine both rage and agony, that issued forth from the depths of the house and rattled through corridors, a sound that the most terrifying ghost or poltergeist would have killed to possess.
"How could you allow this to happen?" the person who was doing the yelling was sitting stiffly in an armchair in the Riddle House, his grey and putrid arms clamped to the arms of the chair while his pale body hunched in pain, and every syllable was an expression of disgust and suffering. "You promised me that your plan would get us both what we wanted."
Kabuto Yakashi, tucked his arm behind the back of his head and scratched his neck, putting on the innocent smile that had served him so well in his work as an agent of the Sound within Konoha itself. He hoped it would serve equally well in pacifying his irate, "My lord, there is no reason why we cannot proceed with a slight adjustment in our plans-"
"Do not patronise me, Kabuto! You know there is every reason not to proceed," Orochimaru paused to yell in agony and curse the name of the Third Hokage who had condemned him to this anguish. "Do you really think that Naruto is an acceptable substitute vessel? The entire purpose of this plan was to capture Sasuke for my next regeneration. Sasuke, with his Uchiha blood and his Sharingan eyes. Sasuke with all his power. What do I care about Naruto, the nine tailed brat? It is Sasuke I want, and it is Sasuke that I must have."
"Lord Orochimaru, the power of the Nine Tailed Fox-"
"I must have Sasuke!"
"Oh will you shut up about this wretched Sasuke," in his chair, with his back to the two ninja who were his unlikely houseguests, Lord Voldemort's babyish form waved its stubby arms in frustration. "If I have to hear one more word about Sasuke from you then I am going to put the Crucio on you."
"Oh like you're so much better my lord," Orochimaru said acidly. "When you can go a whole day without mentioning Harry Potter then you can criticise me. No, when you throw out your entire plan and just send Wormtail to bring in any old wizard for use in your resurrection then you can criticise me."
"Any wizard will not do, the boy is everything," Voldemort spat. "I have explained often enough why Harry's blood is so important to me."
"Just as Sasuke's eyes and his power are important to me."
"They are nothing alike you insane pig headed egotist!" Voldemort shouted. "My desire to capture Harry is a vital need if I am to be secure from suffering the same fate twice. What you have is an unhealthy obsession with a twelve year old boy."
"Obsession! Egotists!" Orochimaru paused to scream in agony once more. "You're the one who was calling himself Lord Voldemort at fifteen!"
"When I get my body back I'm going to Avada Kedavra you into oblivion! Then I'll feed your scraps to Fenrir bloody Greyback!"
"And when I recover the ability to use Ninjutsu then you had better believe there will be consequences."
Kabuto sighed. These two had arguments like this almost every night, he hoped that once they both got what they wanted they would all calm down. Hopefully.
"Now, now my lords," he said in a pacific voice. "I'm sure that in the morning you'll both regret all the harsh things that you've said to one another."
"What did I tell you about not patronising me, Kabuto?"
The door to the master bedroom creaked open and Wormtail entered carrying a baby's bottle in his hand; he was followed by Barty Crouch jr, taking a short break from his guise as Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody to resume his true form.
"I've brought you Nagini's milk, my lord," Wormtail announced, shaking the bottle in his hand.
Voldemort stared at him coldly, "Wormtail, you have got a baby's bottle in your hand."
"Yes, my lord."
"With which you are about to feed the most powerful Dark Wizard in history the drink that is one of the few things keeping him alive."
"Yes, my lord."
"And you don't see anything wrong with his picture at all?"
Wormtail frowned, "No my lord."
Voldemort rolled his eyes, and reflected that of all the Death Eaters still at large who might have returned to his side he would have to get stuck with his one. The one member of the Order of the Phoenix who had never been suspected- because everyone had thought he was too stupid to possibly be the traitor.
"Wormtail, if I were to tell you that a turnip has more brains than you do would you take it as an insult?"
Wormtail frowned, "I don't know, Lord V, turnips can be quite intelligent you know."
Voldemort threw up his hands in frustration, "The prosecution rests its case. Crouch! How could you let this happen?"
"I put Sasuke's name in the Goblet like you told me to," Barty Crouch said. "But that Itachi they were talking about, he must have put Naruto's name in as well."
Kabuto chuckled.
"What are you laughing at?" Orochimaru demanded.
"I just appreciate the irony," Kabuto said. "You spend so much time fixating on Sasuke, and denigrating Naruto, and then in the end an impartial object famed as a judge of character decides that Naruto was the better man all along."
Orochimaru growled, "Nothing is funny unless I am laughing, Kabuto, do you understand? And do you see me laughing now, Kabuto?"
"Fear not my lords," Wormtail said. "I have a cunning plan."
Voldemort rolled his red serpent eyes, "Wormtail, does this cunning plan of yours by any chance involve turnips?"
Wormtail looked rather shocked, "How did you know that my lord?"
"Lucius, Avery, Macnair, even Crabbe or Goyle but oh no it has to be you, doesn't it," Voldemort muttered to himself.
"I have a plan," Kabuto said. "All we have to do, is wait until the Second Task…"
