HARRY'S POV
In the end, Marcus took his time hasn't completed the task, he was brought back by the mermaids with his best friend, Harry wasn't sure what changed, it might be that he had to deal with more obstacles, or that Myrtle didn't help him, but he didn't seem to find the redhead in time.
It took twenty minutes but the points were
HARRY 49 FLEUR 48 VICTOR 48 MARCUS 25
Meaning that Fleur was first place, Harry second, Victor third and Marcus last which of course didn't matter much because not only unless he had less then 43 points for both tasks, which he didn't, only the last task truly mattered, as for them entering the maze first? Fake Moody would sure help him.
Going back to the cake with Luna in hand, Harry was blocked by Crouch Junior.
"Peverel, come with me to my office." He said, said goodbye to Luna who was going to change clothes.
As they walked Harry wondered what could Crouch possibly want from him, reaching no conclusion, which made him be on guard more then he was.
Reaching to the Professor's office, Harry let the man walk before him as he entered.
Crouch pointed on a chair for him to sit, but Harry made no move to show he noticed.
"You are on guard, that's good. CONSTANT VIGILANT!" Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes, did the man heard one conversation with the real Moody and used it like a broken record or was this how Moody truly speak?
"Well, as you seem to not want to sit, I will get to the point. you need to lose the third round, more specifically We need Marcus to win."
'Did he just revealed himself?' Not wanting to show so much he said "Em... no." The Professor grinned. "You don't understand, the light side need Marcus as a hero, and heroes can't lose, ever." Now, if he was standing in front of the real Moody, Harry would have never say what he is about to say, but since it is Crouch...
"If that's your light side, I prefer the dark, at least they have cookies." The man looked at him with a murderous look before laughing.
"Join the dark side, we have cookies! That's the best thing I have heard since the war." His face then serious. "If not for the light side, how about you lose to take revenge on the Potters?" 'Bloody hell," thought Harry 'he truly is about to show who he is." "How on earth Would letting Marcus win will be revenge, I think winning while humiliating the boy is better."
"So you are the reason why the tales were passed quickly by all the three champions! Boy, while you are average at magic, you sure have a way to use the spells you know to the maximum."
"So? Can I leave? I don't plan on letting Marcus win."
"No, you will let Marcus win, if only because it will kill him." Taking a step back as if he was struck, Harry said "WHAT? HOW? Why would I want that? Why would YOU want that?" Harry felt his talents in acting are wasted, only for Crouch to shutter his illusion by taking a wand out and saying "Merlin's beard, you know!"
"Know what? Why do you point your wand at me?"
"Don't play games with me, I disguised myself as Moody for half a year, I know acting when I see one."
"Well, shit." Harry said "So what now?"
"Now you are going to tell me how did you figure out I'm Barty Crouch and..." "Wait you are Barty Crouch? But I saw both of you together" The man slapped his forehead. "I'm that man's son, just started talking."
"It wasn't that difficult, when you performed the unforgivable curses in class and seemed happy I started paying attention to you, did you know you drink at least once an hour from that bottle of yours? And I have seen you drink from other places water, so the only reason you would do it was if it was something else.
Considering our first year's DADA Professor was possessed and the third a werewolf, I guessed it's a potion.
That and the month I listened to you change personality when talking about curses, Polyjuice."
"Oh boy, you are good." The man smiled before taking a sip of the mentioned potion and grimacing. "But now you need to give me a reason why shouldn't I kill you."
"I can make unbreakable curse to not tell anyone who you are and help Marcus win..."
"That works"
"but I want something in return."
"Oh, and is your life not enough?"
"You can't kill me, not now at least, people know we are together, and if I get out of here I'm telling everybody."
"You really were born to join the Death Eaters."
"Thank you? I guess..."
"Sure, what do you want?"
"Your, or more like Moody's magic eyeball, for today."
"Only for today?" The man asked hesitantly.
"Promise."
"Good, let's start the oath."
After finishing making the oath, fake Moody took the eyeball out and passed it to Harry.
"Return it tomorrow 6 AM sharp."
Taking the eyeball with him, Harry left to the ROR, ready to spend an all nighter and copy the greatest detection ability he ever seen, one that can see through even the cloak of Death.
HARRY'S POV
Researching the magical eyeball really took all night, and that's really long considering the first thing Harry did was using the time turner to have more time.
The reason was simple.
The glass had over 3000 runes in it.
It didn't take long for Harry to figure out how the master who made this did it, and yet he couldn't believe there is a wizard who takes the simple solution to life's problems.
The man who made it made the glass eyes larger, house like large, craved runes on it and then made it return to its original size, miniaturizing the runes with it.
After Harry made the eyeball big enough, he started studying the runes on it.
Studying an artifact's runes isn't simple, especially if there are a lot of them.
You need to study each rune separately, then each scheme, and then how every one of the schemes reacted to one another.
If that wasn't enough, if there are more then one language in the artifact you need to study how they react to one another.
Not to mention even the shape and size of the object has effects on how it works.
Doing all of that can't be done in a night, no matter how smart you are.
Luckily, Harry had a lot of AI helpers to accelerate the process.
First he made sure they scan all the runes, the shape, and measure the size to create a digitized version of the product.
Then, while they check all the runes and rune schemes affect, Harry focused on the biggest reason the eye is so unique, it is goblin made.
It is known to be impossible for a wizard-made magical artifact to change sizes as the runes will always cancel each other out.
The runes' way they look is how they work, the belief in those shape to be magical is why they work, which is why even they don't look right they don't work.
Of course, a goblin somehow managed to work around it.
When Harry held the eyeball, even before he started to research it, he immediately knew it is goblin made, it has the same feeling any one of his products held, something other magical objects didn't, as if the artifact itself was magical, instead of having magic attached to it.
The goblins called it the aura of life, and used it to separate true artifacts and the products of other races.
Once the AIs started to study the runes Harry looked into the eyeball.
Interestingly, when he used the methods the Ragnok taught him to identified materials he found out it is actually made from a metallic glass and not the usual glass it would have been made of, other then that, he was able to find the affect the goblin who made this product gave it- layers.
The adaptability the eye ball took regarding the runes was making the glass into layers, each of them have one rune scheme that doesn't affect the others.
It was surprisingly a lot like the folding Harry make in his creation only in Harry's he make them into one product and in here there are multitude of products connecting into one, which when they grow they become one, so you never notice there are multiple layers.
That made Harry excited as he thought this eyeball is the first third level product he has seen, not including the invisibility cloak which he still can't seem to figure out how to study it, only to be disappointed when figuring out it was a semi-third level not a true one.
The second stage he is on is about putting your intent into your creations. With the peak reaching when you put your beliefs into your artifacts.
The third level is when you can put other people's intents and beliefs into your creation by other methods of magic, with its peak by using the world's belief in your products, making them immortal and unbreakable until the world is destroyed.
No one truly knows what the fourth level is, though, it is believed to be about changing the world's belief as you wish.
No matter how much Harry use hybrids of goblin's methods and wizard's, he hasn't managed to reach the third level, hell, the only reason he is progressing to the peak of the second level where his products would be considered semi-third level is that his rune creating is strengthening his belief and his ability to use it.
The reason the AIs can create copies of the products he invented is that he leaves them on the stage of intent, if they were inserted with beliefs it would have been impossible.
The eyeball isn't a third level because the goblin who made it used only his belief and intent to create the product, even the runes didn't manage to reach a stage where he use people's belief.
After Harry finished studying the eyeball, he had the AIs to explain to him each scheme and to l their interaction with different as he quickly read the runes in it.
Most of the schemes were basic, giving the eye the ability to move, to see 360 around, to see hidden things, no matter if they are behind walls, enchantments or spells, etc...
There were only two schemes Harry had never seen before.
The first was one that Harry believed gave the eye ball the ability to see The Invisibility cloak.
It was about seeing the truth, it didn't let the user to truly see through the cape of Death, but, as Harry checked, it gave the user the ability to see magical affects as magical.
It reminded him of Luna's sight as she explained it, though less as accurate, letting the person only see vague magical aura an object has.
If the eye sees the cloak it doesn't let you know who is behind it, but you know something is there.
As for the second scheme, Harry was even more shocked about it, even though he really shouldn't be.
It's ability was to connect the eyeball to the brain.
The one who made it must have researched the eye and nerves for a long time as Harry knew it to be the only magical eyeball to grant sight in the world, which is the reason why Moody is known as mad eye.
By the time Harry finished studying the eyeball he had to return it as he was under oath.
Giving it back to Crouch, the man took one look at him and said "wow, you really pulled an all nighter didn't you?" He then chuckled "Not that it mattered, even the dark lord couldn't understand how someone made the runes be one on top the other and still work. Get some sleep."
He said before slamming the door in his face.
Smiling, Harry went back to the ROR, happy that he not only has a direction on his recreation on Luna's sight, but that the scheme connecting nerves will make his life easier when he creates Voldemort's body.
SEVERUS' POV
Severus was having a really crappy year.
He thought the peak of his terrible years as a potion Professor was reached last year, when he had to live once more in the castle with his childhood nemesis- James Potter, the women he used to love - Lily Potter, and his biggest fear- the werewolf.
He thought that finding out his childhood tormentor was innocent and that the man he used to look up to, even if he stopped a long time ago, who promised him that if he gives the wolf his potion he will make sure Black will get kissed, lied and saved the man was as bad as it gets.
It wasn't even close.
This year started out better, only having to deal with Lily, Moody and the band that use his face for laughter.
He kept his promise to Basitill and gave Harry the time turner even though he didn't have anything he needed help with.
He planed to ask the boy to become his apprentice after Halloween, when the champions would be decided and almost certainly won't be anyone from Slytherin- he knew the abilities of sixth and seventh years, and the only few he could think of being chosen were all from other houses.
Of course the second the headmaster said it is impossible for anyone under 17 to pass the age line he has bad feelings.
It wasn't Harry's first time taking a challenge like that by the horns, Basitill's updates about the boy's progress of finding a cure to the incurable blood curse was one example.
And the boy did it.
He not only managed to find a way past the age line, but get chosen.
Now, the boy might be smart, he might be clever, but he was also an average wizard in all things wand related, which made Severus want to prevent Harry from participating in the tournament, or at least help him prepare, yet he can't, nor can he take Harry as an apprentice, as he was bound by magical oath not to help the boy.
He thought he would use potion's class to prepare the boy as best as he can, maybe teach specific potions to deal with dragons and talk about gillyweed.
But the boy stopped showing to classes, saying he learns better alone.
Seriously, if he wasn't liking So much like Potter and has Marcus as a twin he would think he was his child.
Seeing the boy standing in front of a dragon, Severus has to admit he was scared for the boy.
And then the boy use a switching charm and finished the task in seconds.
Some may think one of the other champions thought about this, but Severus knew his student, using what he had the ability to was just like him.
It was two weeks later that Minerva came to him with a problem, she feared Harry won't come to the Yule Ball.
Honestly? Severus didn't care. If Harry didn't want to go it is his choice.
But the women knew how to annoy a man.
In the end he had to threaten the boy with taking his time turner but the boy went to the Ball.
Though by that time he couldn't care less, as the dark mark started to darken.
It wasn't the first time the dark mark darkened, it happened once more, which is why most Death Eaters that are free wouldn't think much about it.
Severus, on the other hand, knew the last time it happened, three years ago was when the dark lord possessed Quirrle, just before he almost got the philosopher's stone.
He told that to the headmaster, hoping the man would think of a plan to stop it, only to find out the leader of the light wanted the dark lord to return.
Severus was in the middle of a war between two maniacs.
It was a truly crappy year.
FRED'S POV
Two months has passed since the second task of the Triwizards tournament and a lot has changed.
In the time since the last card dueling tournament the twins have had come to two conclusions of their own, and decided to change their and their family's life based on them.
The first thing understood was about their two older brothers, Bill and Charlie.
It was after the third howler their mother sent to them demanding they stop selling the 'silly game' and focus on their studies as they need good grades to get into the ministry.
After each of the first two letters, the twins, with Luna's advice, sent their mother a letter of their own, explaining they don't want to become ministry workers and that they make good living with their game, they also sent 1% of their share of the profits to her each time, to show her that they have it now.
Yet, after getting the third howler they finally understood it will never matter to her what they do, if it isn't what she wants, it isn't good enough.
Until now they always thought their older brothers left the country to be close to their work, yet, a week after the second task their friends talked to them about expanding card dueling to other countries, and when asked how they are supposed to send products to a different country, Harry mentioned 4 different instantaneous magical traveling methods.
If their brothers wanted to live close to home, they could.
They could stay at home like Percy and go each day to their job.
Or if not that, they could have at least live in England so they will have the chance of seeing them more then once a year on a good year.
No, their brothers escaped their mother.
Moving to far away places to not have to deal with the constant feeling of disappointment their mother is sending to anyone who isn't Percy.
But they won't have it.
They won't leave the country as an escape from their mother.
They would make sure they succeed right in front of their mother, if only to shield their two little siblings and let them do what they want in life.
Because no one scares away Timon and Iago.
The second thing they realized was actually about their father.
It was a few days after their mother sent the third howler that their father sent them a letter of his own.
In the letter he told them about how proud he was of them for following their dream, and how he used to be like them, an inventor, till he learned the harsh reality that inventor who had no old money had to face, the only people who make less money then ministry workers are unsuccessful inventors.
And when their mother got pregnant with Bill, their father went to work in the only ministry department he could that still left him with enough time to invent things.
The twins always knew their inventing talent and spirit they got from him.
After all, when they used to be little kids whenever they had the chance they used to sit and watch him tinkering with muggle objects and add magic to them.
Their father might be a ministry worker, but he is an inventor at heart.
What they realized was that now that they were making money and a lot of it, they can convince their father to quit his job and focus on inventing.
It wasn't easy, in fact, it took almost a month of constant letters, one meeting in Hogsmead, and telling their father about them having two silent partners for their father to be willing to concede and be willing to work for them, after meeting the extra partners.
They wanted him to spend time on inventing and just send products he wanted to sell to them, but the Weasley father wasn't willing to concede for their request as it meant stomping on his pride as a man, what he was willing is to become a worker in their company, working under them as he improved until he reached the level of a partner on his own, but no matter what, before agreeing with even that, he wanted to meat their partners.
Convincing Harry was a task all on its own.
While they loved the boy like their little brother (in fact, sometimes more then their little brother.) they would be the first to admit he had a deep paranoia.
No matter if it was using the Fidelius charm to prevent anyone from knowing him as anything but average wand wielding wizard, or acting like a monkey in front of the class to make people unaware he has Occlumency shields, the boy has deep trust issues.
And while it is sometimes sweet, knowing Harry trust you enough to know his secrets, this time wasn't.
"No, I don't trust him." Fred could see from the look on his face that Harry regretted saying it the moment he did, not because he didn't mean it, but because he knew how it sounds.
Which was another thing that endeared Harry to him most of the time, once you break through the wall he put around himself most of the time, the boy had trouble control what he say and his expressions around you.
Once again, this wasn't one of those times.
"What do you mean you don't trust him? He is our father!" George took the words out of Fred's mouth, though the screeching he took from their mother.
"Look I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that."
"No, you did, you just didn't mean to upset us." Fred said coldly.
"No, I meant..." Harry tried to explain himself but George didn't let him.
"We know what you meant. You meant that you don't trust our father with your secrets, but guess what, it is all of ours company, and we get a say as much as you do!"
"I never said you didn't!" Harry proclaimed, and Fred scoffed at it, Harry may never have said it, but they always knew he thought himself as the boss.
"No I didn't! I truly couldn't care less about the company, nor do I care about the band. The only reason I helped you create the two was because you are my friends."
"So you are telling us," Fred said "that if we wanted to s give you back your starters money and 1/4 of the money you would leave the company?"
Fred instantly regretted saying that, because he for the first time since meeting Harry had seen two expressions he has never seen in his face, a hurt look and an angry look.
Now, Fred has seen many looks in Harry's face.
There was the usual fake smile he had around the castle, the true smile he had in the ROR, the scheming look he had when he wanted something, and the annoyed look he had when something didn't work out to him.
But he has never seen Harry feeling hurt, nor truly angry.
Worse, as the seconds moved by, he saw the angry look changes into the cold fake smile he gives everyone as he said "fine, I will wait for my money." As he moved toward the exit.
Fred should have moved, yet, he felt as if he was frozen, luckily, he has a twin brother.
GEORGE'S POV
Hearing Fred say those words, George knew it wouldn't end well.
While Fred thought Harry trusted them with his secrets, and it was somewhat true.
George knew it wasn't 100% the case.
He could see it whenever they complained about their mother and talked about their father.
Whenever they mentioned the headmaster, Marcus or the Potters.
He could especially see it at the end of second year, when he saw the kid leaving the train station, taking a look back and walking alone.
While Harry might not know it, George saw three emotions in his eyes that day, and non of them were positive.
The first one was easy to identify.
It was the sadness he saw in his father's eyes whenever he told them about his parents, the longing in the sadness was obvious enough for him to notice.
The second emotion was harder to figure out. In fact he only figured it out in the middle of the summer, the day of his mother's brothers death, when their mother got slightly tipsy as usual and told them once more about them and about their death.
It was when she talked about their killers and he saw the look in her eyes that he figure it out. It was desire for justice, or revenge.
The third emotion was one he saw every once in a while when Harry was looking at the air in semi daze.
It wasn't one he identified, not until he saw it today.
It was a hurt look, but deeper then that, it was a betrayed blaming look.
George didn't know why he had this look whenever he dazed off, but he did know he wasn't willing to let the boy they consider their little brother, the one who believed in them and their dream to ever look at them like that.
"No!" George said as he moved to block the exit of the room, standing right in front of Harry.
Now, while they consider Harry their younger brother, he is taller then them, and more masculine, making him look extremely scary when he wanted.
"No?" Harry repeated with a cold smile. "I just do what you wanted."
"No, if you did what we wanted you would meet our dad." George said back
"You want your dad to work for you and to feel independent no? Me moving out of the company is the logical conclusion." He hated how Harry could sometimes say what they want in a twisted way.
"No, we want our dad to meet you and work for all four of us, Luna agreed, why can't you?" He remembered the talk they had with Luna, when she suggested only bringing her, or at least have her convince Harry, he now regretted not taking her up her offer.
"Because I don't trust him!" The cold smile left his face, having the angry look come back. "Because he is Dumbledore's man!" Both Fred and he knew this was the core issue in the argument, one that Harry wouldn't have come close to if not for his anger.
"Why does it matter if he is Dumbledore's man?" Fred asked, somehow making Harry even angrier.
Harry, now seething is anger, for the first time since they know him, has, not yelled, but screamed.
"Because someone of his little group killed my parents." Harry said before freezing in shock, as if he didn't believe he actually said it out loud, something that was most likely correct.
Neither Fred nor George know much about Harry's situation outside of Hogwarts except him being kicked out of the Potter family for being in Slytherin.
They knew he lives alone, and he sometimes let things slip, about him running from the family the Potters left him at by the age of five, or living at the orphanage.
But mostly, even when he talked about anything related to his life before Hogwarts he would only tell about the schools he went to, and whenever they asked anything extra he would change the subject, and they would let him, if only because they didn't want the depressive feeling he had around him to stay, not this time.
"What does it mean?" His brother said "Lily and James Potter are alive."
"It doesn't matter," Harry said "forget I ever said anything."
"Like hell we do!" And this was the first time he ever heard Luna curse, and hopefully the last, because it scared the hell out of him.
LUNA'S POV
When the twins told her their plan to hire their father she knew it wouldn't end good.
She tried convincing the twins to let just her meet with their father, but they were standing their ground saying they wouldn't lie to their father when trying to hire him.
She then suggested she would talk to Harry about it, and that she will convince him to agree to hiring the man.
She probably shouldn't have said it.
She could see the twins tense after she said it.
She knew they had a little problem about how Harry seemed to take over most of the business, something that used to be their.
If being honest, while Harry hasn't touched anything that belonged to their original idea of opening a prank store, he did took most of the work about the card dueling, and as the business was mostly about the game right now, Luna could understand why they were ticked off by her words that seem to suggest Harry has the final decision.
"No, we will tell him what we are about to do ourself." They said before leaving the hallway, and as Luna had a lesson, she could only leave the talk to another time.
She should have known.
Hell, the second she arrived near the ROR and saw the aura of anger leaking through the door, something she usually saw leaking behind Harry's Occlumency shields whenever he looked at one of the Potter family or the headmaster, but never saw it like that, it was like Harry dropped his Occlumency shields entirely and all there was behind them was anger, sadness and betrayal, she knew.
They didn't wait to give her a chance, instead they went to the room of requirements, where Harry was spending most of his time nowadays, and talked to him about that, causing an argument that reached the levels that Harry finally couldn't take it causing him to burst. Casting a silencing charm on the door for it to not cause any noise, Luna opened the door slightly, as to listen to the argument between the three most important people in her life at the moment, yet the moment she did, she was shocked, as while she still couldn't see any emotional animals around Harry, for the first time since she met him she could see the colors of his true emotions, instead of the constant rainbow like colors he usually had.
It took her time to understand the difference between emotional animals and aura colors, especially since many wizards had Occlumency, making their colors to be shielded by different colors.
In the end she figured it out.
While emotional animals are changing by your current mood, emotional colors, had two parts, emotions you wouldn't let go of, and emotions you came let go of.
The red was of the first kind.
It was one that Harry most of the time made himself remember so he would never forget.
Even now, when she saw the red color that Harry's aura was releasing she knew it wasn't so much that he was angry, the anger was shallow, it was the other emotions, the ones Harry never let anyone see that make him, not even himself, that make him as angry as he is.
Usually Harry was keeping his Occlumency shields, which made him look like a rainbow- he had blue, purple, green and yellow in his aura, and while it always made her feel calm, she sometimes saw the angry red like outside blinking into existence, yet it always felt shallow, she always wandered what was his true color, would it be like one of the first years this year in Gryffindor, innocent purple? Or could it be the angry she got glimpse of is his true color? it is only now, when she saw it that she knew she didn't know anything about her friend.
It wasn't red that was Harry's true colors, nor was it any of the other obvious ones.
In fact, Harry had two colors at his core of being, something that only few people had. The first was sickly green, which Luna knew was mostly for betrayal, though instead of being like a line, as auras such as that usually are, pointing at the direction of the betrayer, this one was spreading to the world, like he blames everyone and everything.
The second color was the gray color of sadness and detachment, it was warped around his body like a cocoon, and as Luna one those kinds of auras were more then just symbolic, she wondered what would there be inside once the cocoon burst.
"Why does it matter if he is Dumbledore's man?" Fred asked, and she knew they were talking about the twins father father.
"Because someone of his little group killed my parents." Luna felt terribly confused, who were Harry's parents? When were they killed? Why was she never told about them? How long was Harry sitting around with this knowledge alone?
The last question was the one that struck her the most, especially when he told the twins to forget about anything.
So she did the only thing she could, she burst in and yelled "Like hell we do!"
HARRY'S POV
Having Occlumency shields always on haas side affects.
Harry might not have known that when he just arrived to the World, but since he was 11 and got the Occlumency book he has known it.
The main ability of Occlumency is preventing intrusion of forgiving mind magic, having it constantly on would have been positive thing, if not for one thing, it also has the ability to make you compress your emotions.
When you need to think rationally, when you have to perform magic, and when you need specific emotions, this ability is the greatest you could hope for, but, if you use it all the time, when you are rattled your emotions would burst all together, crushing your Occlumency for a period of time.
Harry has known that, yet, he never felt like he has the time to put his shields down, nor did he felt the need too.
If Harry could think rationally right now he would probably observe himself and say "So that's why."
But Harry couldn't.
He could right now feel the same emotions he felt the day his parents had died.
He could feel the coldness that spreed in him as he knew he would never see them again.
He could feel the sense of betrayal he felt toward this world of magic, when he realized it was a magical person's work.
But Harry felt the thing that grew from those two the most, he felt anger.
"Like hell we do!" He heard his best friend say just as he was about to call for Dobby and live for the chamber of secrets, shocking him. Luna never cursed.
"Don't you dare to disappear now! Don't you dare put back the walls in your mind! Aren't we your friends? Tell us everything!"
If he was with his Occlumency shields on, Harry would have never said anything, he would have made an excuse and leave.
But he didn't have them on, so Harry did something he hasn't done since the moment his parents died, Harry cried.