DISCLAIMER: I do not own Mahou Sensei Negima or Harry Potter. Mahou Sensei Negima is the property of Ken Akamatsu, and Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling.
Italics text = character thinking to themselves.
Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy
Bold text = shouting
Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability
Chapter Six
Female Wrath, Loudmouthed Idiots and Foreign Rivals
The weekend following Harry's fist week of classes, he woke up early in the morning and headed for breakfast with a slight smirk. Ron never woke up on his own, especially on weekends, so it brought Harry a bit of – admittedly petty – satisfaction that the red head would miss breakfast. The Nebula Hypnotica he cast on him had nothing to do with it, nothing at all.
But by the time he was halfway to the Gryffindor table, however, he was surrounded by a few people, stopping his advance.
"Good morning. Is there anything I can do for you ladies?" Harry asked cautiously. His passive Legilimency was picking up embarrassment, anxiousness, indignation, fear and impatience from them in various amounts and combinations. It only made him more curious.
"Yes, there is. We need to talk to you, Harry. In private." Luna said, her usual dreamy appearance now serious.
"Very well." Harry said after a few seconds of looking at her curiously. "Let's find an empty classroom and I'll put up a few privacy spells." he suggested and led them out of the Great Hall and to a usually unused classroom.
As they entered, they wrinkled their noses at the amount of dust but before any of the girls could comment Harry's custom wand had snapped into his left hand from the wrist holster and he vanished the dust, as well as casting a few air freshening charms.
"I thought you were right handed." the Hufflepuff girl asked curiously as he placed the privacy spells on the door. He didn't know her name, but he was pretty sure she was a forth year.
"Ambidextrous actually." Harry commented as he put his wand away. "Now while you ladies know my name, I'm afraid that other then Luna's I don't remember yours. So…" he trailed off looking at the Hufflepuff girl expectantly.
"Right. My name is Susan Bones, forth year Hufflepuff." she introduced herself and blushed slightly at his smile.
"Daphne Greengrass, forth year Slytherin." the blue eyed blonde with a cold attitude introduced.
"Tracey Davis, forth year Slytherin." the final girl said.
"Well, what did you ladies want to discuss with me?" Harry inquired, taking in their appearances.
During his time spent with Sirius, he had quickly been taught by the old womanizer how to appreciate beauty. And considering how beautiful and well developed these four were, he was quite appreciative indeed. Thanks to Sirius's 'rigorous training', despite the conservative school robes, he only needed a glance to know that Luna had mid to high C-cups, Tracey had high C-cups, Daphne had high D-cups and Susan amazingly had high DD-cups.
Harry briefly considered that he should be embarrassed of his current thoughts, but he quickly cleared his head of that ridiculous notion.
"…You're joking, right?" Daphne blinked, her Ice Queen façade momentarily slipping.
"You don't KNOW?" Susan stared at him in shock.
"Know what exactly?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"That you're betrothed to the four of us." Luna answered simply.
Harry didn't say or react in any way for a few seconds before taking off his sun glasses and rubbing his forehead with his free hand. Placing the shades in an inner pocket he looked at Luna with conflicted emerald eyes. He absently noticed that the girls were all blushing slightly at how he looked without his glasses, but he was not in the mood to tease or flirt at the moment. He needed answers.
"Please explain to me how exactly did this happen and how do you know of this while I don't." Harry said in a calm voice.
"Well, at the beginning of the summer I received an owl from Gringotts saying that Lord Peverell has claimed his position and that the betrothal contract between the Lovegood and Peverell families had become active, with my and your name on it." Luna explained.
"Same for me, only it was between the Greengrass and La Fey families." Daphne said coolly.
"Bones and Ravenclaw for me." Susan smiled nervously.
"Davis and Black." Tracey finished.
Harry stared at them for a few seconds before sighing and taking a seat, rubbing his forehead.
"I take it that these contracts are magically binding?" he inquired.
"Indeed. Now mind telling us why are we betrothed to you?" Daphne demanded.
"Well, I don't know why the contacts chose you in particular from your family, but as to why… they most likely became active because those Ancient and Noble House have a new Head." Harry stated before finally glancing at them. "Me."
"You're Lord La Fey/Black/Ravenclaw?" Daphne, Tracey and Susan yelled in shock before glancing at Luna who was oddly quiet.
"I knew that Harry was descended from Ignotus Peverell." Luna shrugged in reply.
"Actually, I'm Lord Potter Black Peverell Gryffindor Ravenclaw Slytherin La Fey." Harry corrected, stunning all four of them into openmouthed shock. "I would appreciate it, however, if you keep this information to yourselves until it becomes public." he requested in a kind but firm voice, receiving nods from them. "Still, I wonder why these contracts have suddenly become active…"
"What do you mean?" Tracey inquired.
"Well, besides yours to the Black Family, the others are guaranteed to be centuries old." Harry explained. "The Peverell line became extinct on a male line sometime in the thirteen hundreds. The La Fey line probably suffered the same fate before the Founders' time. So this isn't like the head of these families created these contracts after we were born and put our names on them. I most certainly didn't."
"Well, we only have copies linked by a Protean Charm to the Original Contracts Gringotts has. You also must have one as well." Susan informed him before frowning. "Come to think of it, why didn't you know about the active contracts? Didn't you look through the paperwork when you took on your Lordships?"
"Well…" Harry chuckled nervously "I did look through it, but I let someone else go through the documents more in depth."
"That's pretty irresponsible. Who knows what that person could do? Unless it's a solicitor." Daphne frowned.
"She's not a solicitor, but she's more then experienced in such matters. I trust her with my life." Harry said firmly.
"Her?" Daphne raised a delicate eyebrow, her demeanor becoming naturally frosty.
"A close friend of mine." Harry answered.
"Don't tell me it's Granger." Tracey grimaced.
"Hell no!" Harry blurted out before regaining his composure. "No, it's someone I've been around most of my life, even before Hogwarts."
"Then why didn't she tell you about the contracts?" Daphne narrowed her eyes at his outburst.
"I have a vague idea, but it would be best to ask her directly… a Floo call, maybe?" Harry muttered, knowing that the telepathic connection of the pactio card would not allow them all to talk to Eva at the same time.
Just as he was about to suggest they find a fireplace, there was a knock in the window and opening it Hedwig flew in with an envelope from Eva. It contained what looked like a glass casing the size of a pactio card with a magic circle carved on one side and countless minuscule Ostian runes carved on the other side, and a short note.
"Put your pactio card inside with the circle on the casing matching the one on the front of your card, and channel a bit of magic into the casing. E.A.K.M."
"Huh…" Harry muttered. Shrugging, he did as instructed under the curious eyes of the four girls and watched expectantly for the result.
He was both surprised and delighted when an image began to be projected from the carved circle, like from a holographic mage latter, especially when the image was that of Eva taking a bath.
"Hello, Harry." she greeted with a provocative smirk and was likely about to get up from the water covered in white foam when she noticed that he was not alone. "I seem to have forgotten to mention that it would be preferred for you to activate that item in private."
"W-What is that?" Tracey asked in shock.
"It's a real time holographic projection…" Harry began before noticing their lost look. "… think of it as a portable Floo call."
"Oh."
"Well, I'm glad you sent me this, Eva. We were about to Floo call you." Harry told the holographic emerald eyed blonde.
"Is that so? What is the emergency?" Eva asked in amusement.
"Apparently, some marriage contracts became active when I accepted my lordships and they're betrothed to me." Harry explained. "They are Luna Lovegood, Susan Bones, Tracey Davis and last but not lest Daphne Greengrass."
"Oh, right. I remember those contracts." Eva nodded as she stretched languidly, showing part of her generous chest.
"And you didn't fell it was something I should know?" Harry asked in shock.
"Well, they won't become due until both of the contracted parties are 17, so there are 2-3 years before the marriages would occur. I though you had enough on your plate this year, so I was planning on telling you next summer." Eva explained with obvious disinterest.
"So we're not even worth mentioning, is that it?" Tracey asked furiously.
"Girl, you should know two things." Eva looked towards Tracey with a bored, half-lidded stare. "First of all, with Voldemort still out there, weakened or not, there's always the chance, though small, that Harry won't live long enough to carry out those contracts."
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." Harry rolled his eyes as three of the girls flinched and paled while Luna frowned.
"You're welcome." Eva gave him a mocking smile. "And the second thing, before any of you can be his, you should know that he is mine. If you want to marry him, you don't need to earn just his approval, but mine as well. The blonde on the left is the closest to gaining it, so far. I refuse to have cowards in the family that flinch at the mentioning of a made-up name of a half-blood coward!" she sniffed. "At any rate, Harry, you should know that even if these marriages do happen, you will still need a Lady Gryffindor and Lady Potter."
"Evangeline… are you proposing to me? You want to be my wife? Lady Slytherin?" Harry asked in surprise, a wide smile on his face.
"It's not about me being your wife; it's about you being my husband." Eva smirked, and Harry understood she was referring to the permanent pactio. "I always get what I want, you know that all too well, don't you?" she teased.
"Oh yeah." Harry nodded.
"At any rate, do as you feel fit with your betrotheds. We'll talk again later." Eva smirked as she got up revealing her perfect naked body covered only by a bit of foam before the transmission ended.
Harry could not help but chuckle as he put the card and casing away. That was Eva, alright, no ounce of modesty when concerning her body.
"THAT is the person you trust with your life?" Tracey crossed her arms over her chest self-consciously.
"Indeed. She would and has risked her life for me, and I hold nobody in higher trust." Harry nodded with a smile.
"Who is she anyway? She looks around our age, but I've never seen her before." Susan inquired.
"Her name is Evangeline A.K. McDowell. And she never attended Hogwarts. She was home schooled." he explained. "Well, that's technically true. She was on the run and the world was her home while she learned magic." "That's all I can tell you. It's her story to tell." he added when she saw curiosity shining in his eyes.
"Still, she has some nerve!" Tracey said in annoyance.
"Well, she's used with everyone obeying her without question." Harry chuckled.
"Why should we obey someone like her?" Daphne narrowed her eyes.
"She's powerful, very powerful." Luna whispered.
"That's one of the reasons, yes." Harry nodded.
"How powerful? As powerful as a professor or…" Susan began.
"I saw her beat a Nundu into submission without breaking a sweat. She could beat Dumbledore, Voldemort and Grindelwald in their prime all at once. THAT powerful." Harry told them.
"Y-You're joking…" Daphne's eyes widened in shock, but the serious look Harry gave her said it all.
"A-And the second reason?" Susan asked, not quite sure if she wanted the answer.
"She's a sadistic bitch that likes to see people squirm." Harry chuckled nervously.
"And we didn't make a very good first impression on her." Luna pouted. "It's going to take a while to gain her approval."
"Well, she appreciates strength of character, as well as power." Harry decided to throw them a bone. "She doesn't care much for wealth, but values her comfort. And, this one's important: she doesn't like suck-ups."
"I see… well, let's focus on getting to know you, for now, Harry." Luna smiled brightly, grabbed his arm and began leading him to the door and removing the privacy spells. "Every inch of you…" she added as she dragged him out of the classroom.
The three remaining girls exchanged shocked glances before running after them.
Monday morning, Harry was in a very good mood. His weekend had been more pleasant then he could have imagined. He did not get intimate with his four betrotheds, no, they did not go further then a kiss on the cheek, but he was in no hurry. He understood that they barely knew each other and that they were far from ready of having sex with him. He, of course, was mentally in his lower twenties after spending so many summers training in the Diorama Spheres, and if others knew they might have considered him a pervert. He had long ago admitted to himself, however, that it was something about the bodies of younger girls that turned him on, which he first noticed when he met Evangeline, and he knew that it had only become more pronounced after delving deeper into his instincts after mastering Magia Erebea, but just like Evangeline he had accepted that with him having a lifespan several times longer then a regular human it would be a bother to wasted his time on such inhibitions. A few talks with Sirius about sex also helped, though Harry decided that he would keep at least some of his inhibitions... unlike the dog animagus.
"Oh, lookie here, it's Scar-Head." Malfoy's drawling voice reached his ears as he left the Great Hall and headed for the grand staircase.
"Stalking me again, Malfoy?" Harry asked in a tired voice as he looked over his shoulder at the Slytherin, noticing that along with Crabbe and Goyle he also had Nott and Parkinson with him.
"Who would want to stalk you?" Parkinson sneered.
"I could answer that, but I would probably only be wasting some brain cells just from spending more time near you." Harry deadpanned. "And Malfoy? I said it before and I'll say it again: I don't swing that way. So stop staring at my ass." Harry said before walking away from the increasingly red Slytherin.
"Y-You! I-I am not GAY!" Malfoy yelled… before noticing the deathly silence surrounding him, broken only by snickers and giggles. Nearly everyone in hearing range was staring at him in amusement. "Damn you Potter!" he yelled in anger as he pointed his wand at Harry and sending a Stunner.
Harry knew it was coming. He had already turned around and noticed that he only needed to lean to the left and the spell would miss him. But that would not send the proper message, not at all. Instantly reinforcing his right hand with magic into a small Reflexio-like shield, he bitch-slapped the Stunner out of the air and towards the ground a few feet away from him.
Before anyone could do more then gape in shock at him, a spell hit Malfoy who was instantly replaced by a white ferret. Glancing at the source, they saw 'Moody' limping towards the ferret with an angry look on his face.
"Attack from behind, will you? That's a disgusting example of…" 'Moody' began.
"Well, he's gay so he has a particular interest with people's behinds." Harry commented with a shrug.
'Moody' merely glanced at him with what could have been an amused smirk as he pointed his wand at the squealing ferret as it tried to run away.
"I'll teach you what happens when you fight dirty!" 'Moody' growled as the ferret was thrust up and down, always being allowed to hit the stone ground before being lifted again. "Never… do… that… again!" he punctuated with a swish of his wand each time.
"Moody!" McGonagall arrived at the scene carrying a stack of books. "W-What are you doing?" she asked in shock as she witnessed the 'animal cruelty'.
"Teaching." 'Moody' answered smoothly.
"Is that… is that a student?" McGonagall went pale.
"It's just Malfoy." Harry provided with a small shrug.
"No!" McGonagall screamed as she drew her wand while dropping the books. As moment later a ruffled Draco Malfoy was on his knees before them. "Moody! We don't use Transfiguration as punishment! Surely Dumbledore has told you this!"
"He might have mentioned it." 'Moody' said, not really affected by her attitude. "But I though a good shock would be better…"
"We have them write lines or maybe talk with their Head of House." McGonagall insisted.
"Or send them into the Forbidden Forest to the Acromantula colony." Harry provided 'helpfully'.
"Really?" 'Moody' asked in interest as everyone else, McGonagall included, gaped at him.
"Well, not necessary the colony, but she did send me, Hermione, Neville and Malfoy with Hagrid to find out what was killing unicorns and draining their blood." Harry shrugged. "It was just Voldemort possessing professor Quirrell back then, but you never know what might be in there these days."
By now even 'Moody' was staring at him in shock.
"You don't say." The 'professor' blinked.
"Yeah and… for the love of Merlin, Malfoy, stop staring at my ass!" Harry looked to the side at Draco who was still on his knees and positioned to be looking straight at Harry's upper thigh.
By the time McGonagall had snapped out of it Harry had already left and Malfoy was being dragged towards Snape's office in the dungeons by Moody as nearly everyone watching laughed their hearts out.
Over the next few days the gossip of the entire school focused on three subjects: Draco Malfoy, the poofer; Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret; and Minerva McGonagall, crueler then Snape.
The first two were obviously the most well known and spread, causing laughter to erupt occasionally when Malfoy showed up. But it was the third that caused the most discussions among the students.
After all, Malfoy had always been at least slightly effeminate, unlike his father who could taken for a woman if seen from a distance, and quite a few people were present when Moody transfigured him into a ferret, while even more got their hands on a picture Colin Creevey had taken discretely while in the crowd – it was not as high quality as his other photos due to the lack of the distinctive magical flash which would have drawn too much attention, but it was still good.
But McGonagall sending four first years into the Forbidden Forest in the dead of night while unicorns were being killed? That was not just harsh – it was irresponsible beyond excuse. This led to debates not only among the students, but the staff as well. To say the least, Sprout and Flitwick had been beyond outraged and had told McGonagall that on no uncertain terms was she allowed to make any member of their houses ad much as write a line without informing the them first. Snape said the same, only for it to backfire on him as McGonagall rounded on him and reminded him that he had known all along where Malfoy would be doing his detention and had not made any complaints. To which Snape reminded her that the location of the detention itself had been imposed on the two of them and Hagrid by the Headmaster.
Suffice to say, by the time the Beauxbattons and Durmstrang delegations were announced to arrive at, no student was attending any detentions that was not personally approved by their Head of House, which of course made any detention received from Snape bearable.
As they stood outside on the steps before the Main Entrance, the students could not help but be annoyed by the cold weather, especially the wind. Harry himself was not even listening to Ron's banter about… whatever he was talking about. He was reading a small book, the size of his palm, full of wavy lines that to anyone else around him would look like complete gibberish. To him, however, it looked like English, if old English. It was one of the few things he had managed to discover within the Chamber of Secrets since he had begun cleaning and searching it.
It was written in what he realized was parseltongue. At first he had been completely shocked – unlike English, French or other languages of the civilized world, parseltongue was an animal language, so written accounts of it were quite shocking. Even if a greater community of human speakers had existed at one point in time, the concept of them creating a written language from scratch was hard to conceive.
And it was soon after that that Harry had discovered something hidden in the same hidden compartment as the handbook: a quill. Not just any quill, though, but the very first Dicta-Quill created by Salazar himself with Rowena's help. After all, what better way to create a written version of a normally strictly spoken language then by recording it directly from a speaker's mouth?
The handbook and the enchanted quill were not the only items he had discovered hidden in secret compartments along the Chamber's walls. There were not many, true, but they were the 'Secrets' of the Chamber, something that Tom Riddle, an arrogant muggle-raised pureblood supremacist was not clever enough to find. Harry himself had gotten lucky as he had the Mage Sight to help him find the more magically reinforced and conceived portions of the Chamber's walls, and then the vast knowledge gained from Voldemort and groomed by self study and practice to help him bypass the protections. Tom Riddle, had been a talented student, true, but he had been just that – a student. The secrets of Curse Breaking and Ward Making and Breaking, as well as Enchanting were not something even the Hogwarts Library was fully documented on, as they were mostly skills outside of the school's curriculum. And Tom Riddle had only gained his Mage Sight through a dark ritual performed nearly twenty years after graduating.
But the handbook was without a doubt Harry's favorite as the knowledge it contained was nearly priceless in his eyes. Not only did it contain the parseltongue variants of every spell known in the Founders' time, but also the method to find out the variants of other spells. Many would scoff at the idea of learning a whole new set of incantations, but Harry immediately saw the value in this: when spoken, all the incantations came as hisses of various intensities and generally short lengths, definitely shorter then any regular incantation. And, even more enticing, the parseltongue variants did not require wand motions, while the spell itself manifested in different colors then those if the traditional ones. Truly, it was an advantage against any regular witch and wizard, with the possible exception of Voldemort since he would understand what Harry was saying and thus knew how to react… that was true, of course, until Harry read a certain note written with the instructions, which detailed a way to censor the ownership of the parseltongue variants of the spells through a rather simple ritual performed before the translations of the newer spells into parseltongue. Through this, only those of the same blood as the caster could understand it.
"Look!" Ron screamed into his ear, snapping him to attention and barely stopping himself from blasting his head off his shoulders.
Looking in the pointed direction, Harry saw the flying carriage drawn by huge winged horses. Harry was quite interested in what Beauxbattons had to offer, but he was caught slightly by surprise by the clearly part-giant woman that was greeted by Dumbledore.
"A so called half-breed as Headmistress? They definitely have far less bigotry then us." Harry mentally remarked with a bit of envy.
Once he had reached this conclusion, he decided to take a glance at the Beauxbattons students, to see if there were others of mixed heritage among the Tournament applicants. Quite a few had non-human blood running through their veins, he saw their distinctive racial magical signatures with his Mage Sight, but only one person had those genes active and in use, a silvery-blonde girl with blue eyes that to his eyes exuded a thin aura of magic.
"Veela." he recognized the signature. "And a powerful one at that. I'm surprised her aura isn't bigger, with the amount of magic in her body… something's holding it back…" his eyes followed her just like those of many other boys, but unlike them he was not entranced by her, merely curious.
That did not stop Hermione and most of the other girls from huffing indignantly.
Unlike the arrival of the Beauxbattons delegation, it was that of the Durmstrang delegation that caught Harry's attention from the start, mostly due to the amount of magical power it was using and the warning of the wards.
"Teleportation using water as a Gate. Something that big… incredible." he whispered in fascination.
"How do you know that Harry?" Hermione asked in shock, causing him to mentally curse at speaking out loud.
"I read on methods of magical transportation, trying to find a pleasant one. Guess the result." Harry grimaced.
"None, huh." Hermione smiled in amusement.
"What was that about a Gate?" Neville asked in confusion.
"…Well, think if it as using the Floo, only with water instead of fire." Harry shrugged.
"Ah." Neville nodded in appreciation at the simplified explanation.
"I doubt they came that way directly from Norway, though. That kind of magic takes a lot of power even for short distances. They likely sailed near Northern Scotland and then teleported here." Harry mussed as his eyes narrowed on the Durmstrang Headmaster. "Death Eater."
"Harry! That's Krum! Viktor Krum!" Ron screamed in glee.
"Yes, yes, very nice." Harry smiled indulgently. "Shut the fuck up already you worthless worm." he mentally growled as he glanced dismissively at the Bulgarian Seeker. He had high levels of power for someone his age, but it was mostly raw and uncontrolled.
The dinner was somewhat unpleasant in Harry's opinion despite the high quality foods as the noise levels were higher then ever and he was standing next to one of the loudest and stupidest people in the Great Hall. His attention was drawn, however, to the Veela Beauxbattons student who came to the Gryffindor table to ask for a French dish which had apparently been completely consumed at the Ravenclaw table where the Beauxbattons students were sitting.
"Yes, feel free to take it." Harry answered in French, pleasantly surprising the blonde. "But may I ask you a question before you leave?"
"Yes?" the girl inquired in her native language.
"How exactly are you restraining your Allure to this extent? From what I can tell, it should be much stronger and covering a larger area." Harry continued in French.
"You noticed that I was restraining it?" the blonde asked with no small amount of shock, and only received a mysterious smile in return. "We'll, it is mostly due to this ring I'm wearing. It was originally meant for children with too powerful accidental magic, but it serves my purposes quite well." she explained while eyeing him intently. "Now, would mind telling my your name? I am Fleur Delacour."
"Ah, my apologies Miss Delacour for my rudeness." Harry smiled sheepishly as he took her hand. "My name is Harry Potter." he smiled as he kissed her knuckles.
"The famous Harry Potter?" Fleur asked in surprise.
"Yes, but please take whatever the press say about me with a grain of salt. I most certainly did not become the Ultimate Ruler of the Dragon Race, not the Last Pharaoh, before starting school." Harry shared a chuckled.
"I see. Well, Mr. Potter, see you around." Fleur smiled as she returned to the Ravenclaw table with her desired dish.
"What?" Harry raised an eyebrow at the way a good portion of the Gryffindor table and others were staring at him.
"You never told us you knew French." Hermione looked at him accusingly.
"Well, it never came up. I studied it in my last year of primary school." Harry said truthfully. Not that he had mastered it to such degree in that year…
"Oh." Hermione blinked in surprise.
"So, what did ya talk about?" Ron asked aggressively.
"Oh, I just asked her about the reason why most of the guys are staring at her like a piece of meat." Harry shrugged.
"Oh? What did she say, Harrykins?" Fred asked, the twins being among those less affected.
"Just that they're a bunch of weak willed imbeciles, just in much prettier and polite words. Don't spread it around though; it's amusing to watch stupidity at its finest." Harry smirked as he looked at Ron, who had not heard a word he said and was still staring at Fleur.
Hermione seemed to want to chastise him, but one glance at how Ron was drooling at Fleur while stuffing himself was enough to make her grudgingly agree and look away before she was disgusted to the point of throwing up.
Once the feast was over, the students listened carefully as Dumbledore introduced Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch Sr., the later whom Harry knew was under the Imperius Curse and had no intention to change that since the greedy fool had sent Sirius in Azkaban with no trial. When the tension reached its peak Dumbledore brought out the Goblet of Fire, the magical object which would act as the impartial judge in the choosing of the champions.
Watching the Goblet with his Mage Sight active, Harry could not help but cringe at the amount of magic the thing had, and he was sick to his stomach as he recognized the source of that magic. Nearly all of it had been taken from the past champions when they died, literally ripping the magical cores out of their bodies and absorbing them. Had blood begun to drip out of it at some point, Harry wouldn't have been surprised in the least – enough blood had been spilled because of it, after all.
He barely listened to Dumbledore as he explained the procedure, but he still heard the bit about the Age Line and he barely held back a scoff. He would merely have to touch the line and it would be negated, and even without that he could think of at least ten other methods of getting a name in the Goblet.
"An Age Line!" Fred Weasley said, his eyes glinting, as they all made their way across the Hall to the doors into the entrance hall. "Well, that should be fooled by an Aging Potion, shouldn't it? And once your name's in that goblet, you're laughing - it can't tell whether you're seventeen or not!"
"Why bother even crossing the damn Line?" Harry asked distractedly. "A first year levitation charm would be enough to get a piece of paper into the Goblet. Is Dumbledore even trying to make this Tournament safe? What?" he asked as he noticed everyone in a three meter radius staring at him in shock.
"A levitation charm… brilliant, Harry!" George grinned in excitement. "So, you're putting your name in the Goblet too?" he asked and everyone listened for the reply.
"Why should I?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "I mean, what could I possibly win from this Tournament that I don't already have? Money? Fame? I have more of both then I'll ever need. And after my last three years here, I think I'll let some other idiot risk his or her life. I've filled my quota for this lifetime, thank you very much."
"Well, I'm going for it!" Ron grinned. "I mean, after we beat Quirrell, the Basilisk and the Dementors, how bad could a Tournament be?" he asked as he ran off.
"WE?" Harry raised an eyebrow before glancing at Hermione who was looking at a departing Ron in shock. "He makes it sound like he wasn't unconscious during the first and last, and baby-sitting Lockhart during the second. Hey Fred, can I ask you something? Just don't take offence to it."
"Oh?" Fred looked at him in askance.
"What's up with your brothers? I mean, Bill an Charley are cool, then was Percy who's… well, pompous ass seems like a good description, then it's you and George who are again cool, and then there's Ron…" Harry trailed off quietly.
"Who's a jealous ass?" Fred asked, intrigued by the theory and not really offended. "Hm, when you put it that way it does seem like every third child is defective… Dad doesn't have any brothers so we can't take him as example, but Mom DID have two older brothers…"
"Hm… let's drop it for now. I'll lend you my Invisibility Cloak for the night if you want to sneak out and put your names into the Goblet." Harry muttered and led them to the large double doors, arriving at the same time as the Durmstrang group led by Karkaroff. Deciding to be polite for the moment, he stopped and allowed Karkaroff to walk through first.
"Thank you." Karkaroff said carelessly as he glanced at Harry before freezing in place and staring at him, more precisely at his forehead where Harry had allowed his scar to be seen again, though slightly paler then it had been in the previous years.
"Yeah, that's Harry Potter," said a growling voice from behind them.
Karkaroff spun around. 'Mad-Eye Moody' was standing there, leaning heavily on his staff, his magical eye glaring unblinkingly at the Durmstrang headmaster.
The colour drained from Karkaroff's face as Harry watched. A terrible look of mingled fury and fear came over him.
"You!" he said, staring at 'Moody' as though unsure he was really seeing him.
"Me." 'Moody' said grimly. "And unless you've got anything to say to Potter, Karkaroff, you might want to move. You're blocking the doorway."
It was true; half the students in the Hall were now waiting behind them, looking over one another's shoulders to see what was causing the hold-up.
Without another word, Karkaroff swept his students away with him. 'Moody' watched him until he was out of sight, his magical eye fixed upon his back, a look of intense dislike upon his mutilated face.
"Hey, what's up with that?" George wondered as they walked towards the Gryffindor Tower.
"Karkaroff is a Death Eater and Moody was the one that caught him." Harry said before grinning. "Well, at least Dumbledore still has some sense of humour, bringing Moody here when he's also expecting Karkaroff. I mean, did you see the look on his face?"
"What do you mean, he's a Death Eater?" Hermione asked in shock. "Why isn't he in Azkaban then?"
"Why isn't Lucius Malfoy? Or Crabbe Sr. and Goyle Sr.? Or Snape?" Harry shot back. "They either bought their way out or spilled their guts and had other Death Eaters incarcerated instead of them."
"But… that's not right." Hermione said weakly.
"If you're expecting the government of all places to do the right thing, then you better have your will written." Harry snorted.
"But Dumbledore is the Chief Warlock!" Hermione cried out.
"And he let Snape walk away without even a shred of evidence… kind of like he let Sirius get sent to Azkaban without evidence, don't you agree?" Harry stared her hard in the eye, having removed his shades.
"B-But he's Dumbledore!" Hermione whispered weakly.
"And yet he saw fit to bring the Philosopher's Stone to Hogwarts and endanger the students when he KNEW Voldemort was after it, he saw fit to do NOTHING when there was a Basilisk slithering around the school and petrifying students, and saw fit to allow the Dementors on the grounds last year, when I KNOW there are wards around the school made specifically by the Founders to keep them away. And yet Dumbledore saw fit to bring them down, just because he considers himself wiser then every other headmaster the school ever had, the Founders included." Harry finished, not moving and inch and yet Hermione had slowly backed away until her back hit the wall, her eyes all the while staring into Harry's.
"B-But…" Hermione whispered.
"Don't trust, Hermione, THINK." Harry said more calmly as he finally broke eye contact. "You're supposedly the smartest witch of our generation. Use your head. Also…" his eyes narrowed as he looked down to the bottom of the stairs where Dumbledore was leading Bagman and Crouch to their guest chambers "If Dumbledore screws up this year as well, there will be consequences he will most certainly will not like."
"W-What do you mean?" Hermione whispered, idly noticing that everyone had left the two of them behind earlier, unknown to her it was due to a small compulsion from Harry.
"Well…" Harry smirked. "Let's just say that there's more to me drawing the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat then just me being a brave little Gryffindor." Harry left it at that.
The next day began quite amusingly in Harry's opinion. Fred and George thanked him for the Cloak and told him how Ron showed up after they put their names into he Goblet, how he had mistakenly walked over the Age Line after levitating his name in and then blasted into the opposite wall before being found by Moody and taken to the Hospital Wing along with informing McGonagall.
Apparently, their curiosity got the better of them and they followed the three of them to the Hospital Wing, where Moody threatened Ron with turning him into a weasel which led to Ron spilling his guts, how he was going to be Hogwarts Champion and take all of Harry's glory and money for himself.
"I've seen it coming, to be honest." Harry said when the twins asked why he wasn't surprised. "I mean, the fool is practically oozing jealousy and greed. It would be amusing to have him actually get selected and then beaten to an inch of him life during the tasks."
"No chance, Harrykins, not with me and Fred in the game. And Angelina put her name up as well." George grinned.
Harry was conflicted slightly by Hermione's lack of reaction at the news, but as he took a peek at her thoughts he was pleased to see how she was analyzing her entire time at Hogwarts as through a microscope, without her blind respect for authority blinding her this time. Harry was impressed how much she remembered, and was pretty sure she had eidetic memory.
By the time Ron showed up in public again, the twins had made sure to tell most of the school what Ron had claimed, while also making sure that he was in no way associated to them or Ginny. When Ron did show up, he was met with glares and looks of disgust that surpassed even what Harry experienced in his second year, when he was accused of being the Heir of Slytherin. Stupidly, he walked over to Harry and sat down, immediately beginning to pile food on his plate.
"Why's everyone staring at me?" Ron asked through a mouthful of food.
"It might have something to do with you saying that you'll take all my money and glory." Harry said with a thin, cold smile. "Now why don't you take your plate and sit at the other end of the table before I'm tempted to show you exactly why Voldemort fears me."
By the time Harry had finished his 'suggestion' Ron was sweating and trembling from the killer intent Harry was focussing on him, as well as from the glacial look in his eyes that promised pain. One glance at the wand sticking out of Harry's sleeve and he was off, clutching his overflowing plate to his chest.
Shaking his head in disgust, Harry vanished the food Ron had spilled as he ran and cast a few cleaning charms on the seat and table where he had sat.
As the flames of the Goblet eventually turned red and spat Fleur's name, Harry could not help but wonder what was going to happen. Eva had assured him that she would not allow Crouch to make him the fourth champion in the Triwizard Tournament, but that did not explain why she had to borrow the Stone of Resurrection from him for two weeks at the beginning of the school term.
"And she didn't want to tell me anything either!" Harry mentally frowned while he clapped for Krum.
It was when Dumbledore froze while reading the name of the Hogwarts champion that Harry got a bad feeling about Eva's actions.
"The Champion for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is Harry Potter!" Dumbledore announced. There was a split second of silence when Harry swore loudly before the Great Hall erupted in applause and whispers.
"Someone is going to suffer for this." Harry muttered as he stood up and walked over to Dumbledore who barely repressed a shiver at the scowl on Harry's face, even if it was partially hidden by the shades.
"What is this feeling?" Dumbledore mused as he watched Harry enter the room where the Beauxbattons and Durmstrang champions were waiting for him. "And what has brought all these changes in young Harry? With all these preparations I had so little time to look into it…"
A.N.: Yep, chapter 6 is here. Things finally begin to happen.
Regarding the recent pool on my profile, regarding Hermione's fate here are the results:
Slave - 68 - 47%
Remorseful friend - 39 - 27%
Best friend - 30 - 20%
Enemy - 4 - 2%
No friendship - 3 - 2%
So she'll end up as Harry's slave, though I won't ignore the effort you all put in voting her for the Remorseful Friend route.
The next chapter will have a few darker elements – yeah, Eva's back – and Harry will start throwing his weight around.
On a different note, Ilovebashing requested me to tell you that he has posted a poll regarding the best 'Dark Naruto' fanfiction writer on this site. If you're interested, check out his profile.
At any rate, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did, don't be shy: Review!
