Title: Truth behind the name and the lies pt.4
Pairings: DracoxHarry, twincest, OliverxPercy, RemusxSeverus, CharliexBlaise,ViktorxHermione, future BillxFleur. Stalker Ginny! SeamusxColin, AdrianxNeville*hides*
Fandom : HP
Notes: An abused
boy finds out he's a wizard and a hero; his tormented mind rebels. One person sees through the misconceptions to the real Harry and treats him the way he deserves. How does this change them both and those around them.
Chapter 45- Deception Revealed and the rise of the Lion
The start of the summer term would normally have meant that Harry was training hard for the last Quidditch match of the season. This year, however, it was the third and final task in the Triwizard Tournament for which he needed to prepare, but he still didn't know what he would have to do. They had been doing O.W.L. Practice tests with papa for over a year and last summer after homework they had been doing them with Remus too.
Finally, in the last week of May, Severus held him back in Potions.
"You are to go down to the Quidditch field tonight at nine o'clock. Harry," he told him. "Mr. Bagman will be there to tell the champions about the third task."
So at half past eight that night Harry left Draco, papa and his dad in their apartment and headed for the shortest route to the First Floor. As he neared the main Stair, Cedric came up from the vague direction of the Hufflepuff common room.
"What d'you reckon it's going to be?" he asked Harry as they went together down the stone steps, out into the cloudy night. "Fleur keeps going on about underground tunnels; she reckons we've got to find treasure."
"That wouldn't be too bad," said Harry, thinking that he would simply ask Blaise where to find a niffler to do the job for him. Blaise had been reading 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them' aloud when he came across a particularly funny creature. A niffler definitely counted as a funny creature; though quite adept at finding treasure they were a right menace in houses.
They walked down the dark lawn to the Quidditch stadium, turned through a gap in the stands, and walked out onto the pitch.
"What've they done to it?" Cedric cried indignantly, stopping dead.
The Quidditch pitch was no longer smooth and flat. It looked as though somebody had been building long walls all over it that twisted and crisscrossed in every direction.
"They're hedges!" Harry said, standing on his toes to try to examine the nearest one.
"Hello there!" a cheery voice called.
Ludo Bagman was standing in the middle of the field with Krum and Fleur. Harry and Cedric made their way toward them, climbing over the hedges. Fleur beamed at Harry as he came nearer. Her attitude toward him had changed completely since he had saved her sister from the lake.
"Well, what d'you think?" said Bagman happily as Harry and Cedric climbed over the last hedge. "Growing nicely, aren't they? Give them a month and Hagrid'll have them twenty feet high. Don't worry," he added, grinning, spotting the less than- happy expressions on Harry's and Cedric's faces, "you'll have your Quidditch pitch back to normal once the task is over! Now, I imagine you can guess what we're making here?"
No one spoke for a moment.
"Maze," Viktor grunted.
"That's right!" said Bagman. "A maze. The third task's really very straightforward. The Triwizard Cup will be placed in the center of the maze. The first champion to touch it will receive full marks."
"We semply 'ave to get through ze maze?" said Fleur.
"There will be obstacles," said Bagman happily, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Hagrid is providing a number of creatures… then there will be spells that must be broken… all that sort of thing, you know. Now, the champions who are leading on points will get a head start into the maze." Bagman grinned at Harry and Cedric. "Then Mr. Krum will enter… then Miss Delacour. But you'll all be in with a fighting chance, depending how well you get past the obstacles. Should be fun, eh?"
Harry, who knew only too well the kind of creatures that Hagrid was likely to provide for an event like this, thought it was unlikely to be any fun at all. However, he nodded politely like the other champions.
"Very well… if you haven't got any questions, we'll go back up to the castle, shall we? It's a bit chilly…"
Bagman hurried alongside Harry as they began to make their way out of the growing maze.
Harry had the feeling that Bagman was going to start offering to help him again, but just then, Viktor tapped Harry on the shoulder.
"Could I haff a vord?"
"Yeah, all right," Harry said, slightly surprised.
"Vill you valk vith me?"
"Okay," said Harry curiously.
Bagman looked slightly perturbed. "I'll wait for you. It's not much trouble dear boy. We must be sure all the Champions are safe Harry, mustn't we?"
"No, it's okay, Mr. Bagman," Harry said, suppressing a growl of annoyance- his mother's temper again, "I think I can find the castle on my own, thanks." He'd been a student for how long? Besides they were heading back from the Quidditch pitch.
Harry and Viktor left the stadium together, but Viktor did not set a course for the Durmstrang ship. Instead, he walked towards the forest.
"What're we going this way for?" Harry asked as they passed the oaf's cabin and the illuminated Beauxbatons carriage.
"Don't vont to be overheard," Viktor said briskly.
When at last they had reached a quiet stretch of ground a short way from the Beauxbatons horses' paddock, Viktor stopped in the shade of the trees and turned to face Harry.
"I vant to know," he said, nervously, "vot the relationship is between you and Ahren."
Harry, who from Viktor's secretive manner had expected something much more serious than this, stared up at Viktor in amazement.
"Nothing," he said.
Harry, somehow struck anew by how tall Krum was, elaborated. "We're friends but she's like a big sister. I have Draco and he's more then I deserve, I want 'Mione to be happy and that's what you make her so for what it's worth I give you my blessing."
"Ahren talks about you very often," Viktor said, looking nervously at Harry.
"Yeah," said Harry, "because we're friends, no closer then friends. She is like a sister to me but she acts like a mother hen or a mother bear sometimes." He couldn't quite believe he was having this conversation with Viktor Krum, the famous International Quidditch player. It was as though the eighteen-year-old Viktor thought he Harry Potter, was an equal - a real rival. He knew Viktor claimed he saw him as such but he couldn't bring himself to believe it quite yet.
"You haff never… you haff not…"
"No," said Harry very firmly. "I have never seen what you've clearly seen, Hermione the woman. I see just my sister who seems to care for you very much. The only person I see is Draco; he's my best friend, my first friend and the person I love with my whole soul."
Viktor looked slightly happier, he stared at Harry for a few seconds, then said, "You fly very veil. I still zee best after votching and playing two more matches against uzer houses. Zhat Cho and Sedrik can't fly like you."
"Thanks," said Harry, grinning broadly and suddenly feeling much better about himself. "I saw you at the Quidditch World Cup. The Wronski Feint, you really -"
But something moved behind Viktor in the trees, and Harry, who had some experience of the sort of thing that might lurk in the forest, instinctively grabbed Viktor's arm and pulled him around behind him. He adapted a protective posture by instinct and with a calm demeanor.
"Vot is it?"
Harry shook his head, staring at the place where he'd seen movement. He slipped his hand inside his robes, reaching for his wand and it leapt from his holster into his hand.
Suddenly a man staggered out from behind a tall oak. For a moment, Harry didn't recognize him then he realized it was Mr. Crouch.
He looked as though he had been traveling for days. The knees of his robes were ripped and bloody, his face scratched; he was unshaven and gray with exhaustion. His neat hair and mustache were both in need of a wash and a trim. His strange appearance, however, was nothing to the way he was behaving. Muttering and gesticulating, Mr. Crouch appeared to be talking to someone that he alone could see. He reminded Harry vividly of an old tramp he had seen once when out shopping with the Dursleys- he's been forced to carry bags heavier then himself that time without a featherlight charm. That man too had been conversing wildly with thin air; Aunt Petunia had seized Dudley's hand and pulled him across the road to avoid him; Uncle Vernon had then treated the family to a long rant about what he would like to do with beggars and vagrants.
"Vosn't he a judge?" said Krum, staring at Mr. Crouch. "Isn't he vith your Ministry?"
Harry nodded, hesitated for a moment, then walked slowly toward Mr. Crouch, who did not look at him, but continued to talk to a nearby tree.
"… and when you've done that, Weatherby, send an owl to McGonagall and Lord Governor Malfoy confirming the number of Durmstrang students who will be attending the tournament, Karkaroff has just sent word there will be twelve…"
"Mr. Crouch?" Harry said cautiously.
"… and then send another owl to Madame Maxime, because she might want to up the number of students she's bringing, now Karkaroff's made it a round dozen… do that, Weatherby, will you? Will you? Will…"
Mr. Crouch's eyes were bulging. He stood staring at the tree, muttering soundlessly at it. Then he staggered sideways and fell to his knees.
"Mr. Crouch?" Harry said loudly. "Are you all right?"
Crouch's eyes were rolling in his head.
Harry looked around at Krum, who had followed him into the trees, and was looking down at Crouch in alarm.
"Vot is wrong with him?"
"No idea," Harry muttered. "Listen, you'd better go and get someone, papa. I mean Professor Snape or Headmistress McGonagall -"
"Hurry, von't you?" Viktor called behind him as he sprinted away from the forest and up through the dark grounds. They were deserted; Bagman, Cedric, and Fleur had disappeared. Harry saw him tear up the stone steps and through the oak front doors,
"McGonagall!" gasped Mr. Crouch. He reached out and seized a handful of Harry's robes, dragging him closer, though his eyes were staring over Harry's head. "I need…to…see… McGonagall…"
"Okay," Harry said in a soothing voice, "if you get up, Mr. Crouch, we can go up to the-"
"I've done…a…stupid…thing…" Mr. Crouch breathed. He looked utterly mad. His eyes were rolling and bulging, and a trickle of spittle was sliding down his chin. Every word he spoke seemed to cost him a terrible effort. "Must… tell… McGonagall…"
"Get up, Mr. Crouch," said Harry loudly and clearly. "Get up, I'll take you to McGonagall!"
Mr. Crouch's eyes rolled forward onto Harry. "Who… you?" he whispered.
"I'm a student at the school," said Harry, looking around at Viktor for some help, but Viktor was hanging back, looking extremely nervous. With the curse scar burned away by Basilisk venom and the damage healed by phoenix tears he wasn't as memorable when he didn't want to be but his glamour usually had the scar on his forehead.
"You're not… hers?" whispered Crouch, his mouth sagging.
"No," said Harry, without the faintest idea what Crouch was talking about.
"McGonagall's?"
"That's right," said Harry.
Crouch was pulling him closer; Harry tried to loosen Crouch's grip on his robes, but it was too powerful.
"Warn… McGonagall…"
"I'll get McGonagall if you let go of me," said Harry. "Just let go, Mr. Crouch, and I'll bring you to her…" actually he wanted them to find papa first.
"Thank you, Weatherby, and when you have done that, can you have my secretary see to it that I get a cup of tea. My wife and son will be arriving shortly, we are attending a concert tonight with Mr. and Mrs. Fudge."
Crouch was now talking fluently to a tree again, and seemed completely unaware that Harry was there, which surprised Harry so much he didn't notice that Crouch had released him.
Harry sighed, "I'll be yelled at later but, Stupefy." He conjured a stretcher and started to make his way to the castle. The path from the forest' was deserted.
XoooooX
Viktor hurried inside the castle, muttering the Russian equivalent of the point me spell, "Точка меня Professor Snape." Snape he knew, McGonagall he didn't, his Gregorovitch wand spun in the direction and he hurried there weaving between other students. He found himself in the dungeons, outside Professor Snape's apartments where he lived with Professor Lupin, Harry and Draco. He called out forgetting the password, "Professor! It's an emergency! Harry needs you!"
XoooooX
Harry was just about to pass the Oaf's shack when he heard a familiar yet loathsome sound of the scraping of a wooden foot. He stopped and listened before casting a powerful shield spell non-verbally that completely surrounded himself and Mr. Crouch.
"Stupefy."
The spell bounced harmlessly against Harry's domed shield, he thought 'Draco Hurry. I need assistance.' He growled, "I know you're out there Moody! I still haven't forgiven you for harming my dragon. Leave! Papa said you aren't welcome here. Mr. Lucius and I want you to pay for hurting Draco!"
"Did little Potter's balls drop? Or is he under the Imperious cast by the Malfoys?" the former Auror spat the name out like the holders of it were worse then Liberals.
"I don't know what you're doing here but I don't like it. You're a bad person. You hurt Dray and he was only trying to protect me! Petrificus Totalus!" Harry cast the Full-body Bind curse at the shadowy ex-Auror who hurt Draco.
Moody managed to deflect it at the last second, "Protego. Don't meddle in things that don't concern you boy!"
"I'm not meddling!" Harry snapped, "I'm protecting someone who is too ill right now to protect himself. He asked for help and I'm going to get it for him."
"I told you for the last time give me Crouch!"
"Incarcerous!" Harry snapped.
"Protego."
"Immobulus."
"Protego. Confringo." Moody cast it trying to destroy Harry's shield, when the spell comes into contact with it, it attempted to explode the shield into flames.
Harry growled, "Protego totalum." His shield snapped back, three times as strong.
XoooooX
"Professor! It's an emergency! Harry needs you!"
Draco looked up as he heard Viktor hollering outside their rooms, which was unexpected. Harry had just gone down to the Quidditch pitch with the other champions to learn about the Third task.
Severus opened the portrait, "Come in."
"Mr. Crouch. He's here. Harry iz bringing him here. He sent me to get you Professor."
Draco stiffened.
'Draco Hurry. I need assistance.'
Draco leapt to his feet, "Adder's in trouble. He's casting spells." He tried to focus on Harry to go to him but Harry wasn't afraid. His lover, the Lion was angry. His eyes flashed open, "Moody. Adder's fighting Moody."
Severus paled and staggered, "Oh hell!." He limped out the door in pretty damn close to a run, casting a Patronus, "Expecto Patronum!"instructing the silver wolf to track down Lucius.
Remus was behind him running past him, that bastard wasn't hurting his pup. He growled, "Expecto Patronum!" he instructed the large snake to go to Minerva alerting her to danger.
Draco paused out of fear for a moment and then cursed in French before summoning his godfather's healing kit. He ran out the door, 'I'm coming Adder.'
XoooooX
Lucius was reading at trying desperately to ignore the itching of the darkening Mark, he didn't want to alarm Narcissa.
Then he sensed Severus' magic and looked up to see a wolf Patronus. His son's godfather had had a doe as his Patronus until he started seeing Remus; it was an interesting change.
Severus' voice came from the silver wolf, "Moody's at Hogwarts. He's attacking Harry. Come at once."
Narcissa paled, "Lucius? Not Moody!" Moody had hurt her son badly, Harry had been so terribly frightened by the whole experience and it changed him. That poor little boy was fighting a formerly distinguished but clearly mad Auror?
Lucius kissed her cheek, "Stay home. I'll go to the school and try to help. Floo the minister for me would you Cissy?" he couldn't let her think he thought she wasn't strong enough to help, "Perhaps Shacklebolt as well."
Narcissa knew she couldn't leave Carina alone, "Come back safe and don't let Harry be hurt."
"I'll do my best." Lucius promised before hurrying to the floo.
XoooooX
Blaise was curled up with Charlie; then he stiffened. He felt a rush of cold; he sat up abruptly, "Some things wrong."
Charlie blinked, "What's the matter?"
Blaise closed his eyes, "It's not Draco." his eyes flew open, "It's one of my flock." his mouth went dry, "It's Harry." he leapt to his feet. "I have to go." he ran from their rooms, "Stay here." Reluctantly leaving his mate and his children behind but his place was with the Lion at this moment.
Charlie was proud of him, he worried that Blaisé's attack would leaving with permanent emotional scars but he was pleased his husband proved him wrong.
XoooooX
Harry snarled, "Stay still you rotten bastard. I can't believe you aren't stopped yet."
"I don't go down easy Potter. You should have realized that. Did you think after the treacherous Malfoys challenged me that I would do as I was told? I'm not like them, I have loyalties that I stand by." Moody laughed, "Now give me Crouch. Don't make me kill you."
"Kill me? The Dark Lord tried to kill me when I was a baby. My own blood family tried to kill me. My father's friend, someone he trusted sent the Dark Lord to kill me. The Dark Lord tried to kill me when I was eleven. Dumbledore tried to manipulate me. I refuse to let anyone choose when and where I die." Harry snapped, "I can't believe a man like you would do such terrible things. I heard before you went a little crazy you were an Auror. You were supposed to protect people." Harry yelled casting a variety of jinxes and curses in Moody's direction.
"Harry!"
"Pup!"
"Adder!"
"More interference?" Moody blindly cast stunner spells.
"Took you long enough!" Harry yelled, "I haven't cut this bastard down to size. I'm sure Crouch needs treatment papa but I was held up."
Harry was dueling an Auror? Remus blinked, he had his father's guts alright. "Be careful pup."
"That this man is free after attacking my dragon is an abomination. It's supposed to be illegal to injury an heir to an ancient bloodline." Harry growled.
Moody smirked, "Rules don't apply to me. I follow my allegiances. Unlike you lot. Remus Lupin, not even loyal to his childhood friends. Severus Snape saved from Azkaban by Dumbledore- a spy and a traitor. Malfoys, saved from Azkaban claiming to have been under the Imperious curse. Harry Potter, the great Hero of the Wizarding War and the so-called Boy Who Lived siding with a Mudblood, the sons of a member of the Order of phoenix- pets of Dumbledore, the son of Malfoy and some filthy half-breed."
"I am not a filthy half breed," Blaisé's silken voice filled the night air, "I am a seer, guided by forces I can't deny and you cannot change. I can't be other then I am." His wings spread ready to cover them all at a moments notice. "I haven't forgiven you for attacking the one I claim as a brother. I claim allegiance to the House of Malfoy, who raised me, sheltered me and granted me justice as well as blessing my mating." His black eyes flashed, "I owe them my life and the lives of my children. I stand here because of them and I'll be damned if I let you harm them again."
Blaise the protective was back, in the end Dumbledore and Nott failed he had not been made so weak that he couldn't rise again.
"I am not a filthy half-breed, I was created in love. I am the last gift of my father to my mother. Be not afraid of a woman scorned; be afraid of a protective Veela. You attack my brother, you attack his mate, you dare attack the flock of a Veela and for that you will pay." Blaise sneered.
"I'm so afraid. I'm quaking with fear." Moody snickered.
"Oh you should be." Blaise smirked.
While he been speaking Moody had been surrounded.
"Now!"
"Incarcerous."
The spell fell from the lips of the lion, the dragon, the eagle, the snake, the wolf and surprisingly the fox.
Moody could not dodge them all.
"Expelliarmus." Harry said with a pleased grin. "We win. Whatever you didn't want Crouch to tell us you failed."
Moody smirked, "Not true." He spoke an unfamiliar spell; Crouch and Moody's bodies glowed and then imploded.
Severus blinked, "Fuck."
Lucius blinked, "Slytherin's tongue."
Remus stared at them, "What the hell just happened?"
"That spell…can only be used by a deep cover spy of the Dark Lord himself. Whatever Crouch knew, the spy didn't want shared."
There was a pop.
Blaise blinked, "Winky?"
The tiny house elf went from one body to the other, "Winky good elf. Winky keep master's secret." She bashed her head into the ground, "This is Winky's fault, poor master. Winky fail. Oh oh Winky should be dropped from the Highest Mountain. It worstest punishment and Winky deserve."
"Winky!" Blaise snapped.
Winky spun from Moody's body, "Master Blaise? Winky in trouble. Winky punish herself severely. Will Iron hands and then be trampled by an angry Hippogriff."
"I forbid you to punish yourself without explaining. You swore yourself to the house of Prewett and I am the consort of Lord Prewett-Zabini."
Winky paled, "Winky can't. Winky swore. Winky must protect Master's greatest secret and greatest shame. Winky hurt master enough."
Lucius tapped his chin, "Crouch's greatest secret? Greatest shame? His shame was siring a Death Eater."
"Master Barty is a good boy. He just got lost. He didn't do those terrible things."
"Master Barty?" Severus' eyes widened, "Bartemius Crouch Jr.? He's dead, he died in Azkaban not long before his mother."
Winky paled, twisting her tattered, stained tea towel, "Which of you killed Master Barty?"
Lucius looked at Moody's body, "I see. Somehow Crouch smuggled his son out of Azkaban not knowing his son was a true death eater. He would have been the perfect spy, the son of the Head of Magical Law Enforcement and the next candidate for Minister for Magic. No one would have suspected, the Dark Lord knew how to pick his spies. He was sure of their loyalties and taught them a spell to destroy themselves if they were caught and their true loyalties in danger of discovery."
Draco tilted his head, "What was this one accused of?"
"The torture of the Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom. They didn't die, it occurred after Dark Lord was defeated in Godric's Hollow and was assumed gone." His father replied.
"We discussed the possibility of a former Death Eater assuming the form of someone who would never be suspected. Mad-Eye Moody was a good choice, eccentric and prone to seeing a Dark Wizard around every corner." Remus spoke softly.
"What do we do? We have the apparently dead body of Mad-eye Moody and the Head of a Ministry Department." Lucius began, "Even telling the truth will be hard to swallow given the circumstances."
"True Lord Malfoy, though I would like a full report."
Amelia Bones, Minister for Magic stepped out of the shadows Aurors Kingsley Shacklebolt and Nymphadora Tonks were followed by Headmistress McGonagall.
Kingsley swallowed, "Why does it appear that Moody died like a deep cover Death Eater spy."
"We believe that he was impersonating Moody through use of the Poly-juice potion and possibly is responsible for Harry being trapped in a magical contract." Severus began, "He died in the form he was impersonating. It will be very difficult to prove considering he is trapped in this form."
"Deep cover spy for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? What is the World coming to? How long has he been in place?" Amelia asked, this happened? On her watch? She sent Moody here to watch over Hogwarts, eccentric he maybe but he was the best Auror and a known dark wizard catcher.
"I suspect for a few months, he was always drinking from a flask the short time he was here. He may have been the one who cast the Dark Mark at the World Cup. Soon after there was that debacle between Moody and Muggle law enforcement; it is a good thing we have squibs in place that give us information from time to time." Severus said.
Kingsley blinked, "You knew about that?"
"Of course I did. Dumbledore spoke them occasionally in my presence when I was forced to become his spy. He promised to save Lily and Harry but he failed. He's a lying manipulative bastard and self-deluded fool." Severus shook his head, silently seething with rage.
"This spy who was it?" Kingsley asked.
"We believe it was Bartemius Crouch Jr. apparently, Mr. Crouch's former house elf was charged with protecting her master's 'greatest secret and greatest shame.' Which is his son Master Barty. Winky recognized him somehow, probably due to her former vows to the House of Crouch." Lucius sneered.
Harry growled crossing his arms, "That bloody bastard! He killed himself, I wanted to avenge my dragon. This is the Dark Lord's fault! He did this to me, trapped me in this contest that will either kill me or make me even stronger. Was this Tournament Dumbledore's plan? He's out there in the shadows too, I'm tired of being dragged around. I'm no one's pawn," He shifted his glamour, "I am not the Dark Lord's pawn either!"
Amelia gasped, "Your scar! What happened to it?"
"It was burned out of me by the venom of a basilisk, Slytherin's Basilisk to be exact. I have faced too much for my years. Papa knew I could handle the Tournament but he made sure I couldn't enter myself even if I wanted too. I didn't chose this, any of this. My life is supposedly controlled by prophecies. I refused to be at their mercy, I will interpret them my way." Harry snarled. "I made it part of my glamour that still covers the rest of my scars, you all want to see the Boy Who Lived so I made it appear to still be there."
"Basilisk venom? You should be dead!" Hufflepuff she maybe but everyone knew a basilisk was a known wizard killer.
"I would be if it weren't for my dragon's phoenix."
Malfoy had a phoenix? He must be very powerful indeed.
"What do we do now?"
"Well to use a Polyjuice potion long term the victim must be kept alive." Severus mused, "I am sure that a search of both Moody's home and the home of Bartemius Crouch must be done quickly."
"How do we explain this?"
Lucius smirked, "Tell them that Mr. Crouch was found murdered at his home and Moody is missing. I suspect if you search Mrs. Crouch's grave it's empty. Place the fake Moody with in it. Claim Dark Wizards are responsible, it would be true." He sobered, "I have no love for Moody but he had a point, constant viligence was important." He paled slightly and raised his left sleeve; "we need to be more aware then ever with Death Eater spies among us and this."
Amelia gasped, that mark! It was so dark, surely HE couldn't be returning to power?
Severus shivered, "Karkaroff has been acting nervous and flinchy for months, I've tried to ignore it but it's getting darker again. It's not as clear as it would be if he was completely returned but it is cause for alarm."
Remus was more worried; his mate was worried about being exposed as a true traitor. Lucius was in the same position…
"We will not let the Dark Lord win."
Amelia sighed, "What about the prophecy?"
Harry stared at her, "What Prophecy?"
"The one about you and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, it was the talk of the Ministry in select circles. I knew your father, we went through Auror training together." Amelia began, "There were two you see, two boys who the prophecy could have been applied to. One was you and the other Neville Longbottom."
Severus snorted, the Longbottom heir was proving that he wasn't truly an almost squib since Adrian Pucey took an interest. He was still a complete dunderhead at potions, in class anyway. He had seen potions that the cowardly lion brewed under Adrian's watchful eye and they weren't bad. That cauldron that the captain of his House Quidditch team had purchased was still intact surprisingly enough.
"Great, just what I wanted to hear. That this whole mess might have been someone else's problem?" Harry rolled his eyes, "I just want to be normal boy and go to school, fall in love and have a family. But no I have to fight a dark wizard who wants me dead all the time! I maybe the lion but I'll do this my way. I won't let Dumbledore or Voldemort dictate anything. I'll save the bloody Wizarding world my way. It's too bad, I had to reasons to want this person. I swore I would punish whoever put me in the tournament against my will and the person who hurt my dragon. He eluded me until the end, even when we had him restrained."
Draco pulled Harry into his arms and kissed his cheek, "I knew you had it in you. You held off a dangerous wizard all by yourself, not many people our age can do that. You're one of a kind Adder."
Harry collapsed in Draco's arms shaking, "I can't believe I did that…"
"Let's go to bed and leave this to the adults. It's not our time to deal with such messes yet. I wish we didn't have to." Draco led Harry back to the castle, with Blaise at his heels.
Amelia watched them go, "Hard to believe he is the same traumatized boy that was in my courtroom less then three years ago."
Remus smiled, "He has his mother's temper and his father's nerve, he'll be a hard one to chase into a corner." But he had a gentle spirit that neither had…
"He's strong. Stronger then I have ever been, he stayed out from under the thumb of anyone especially Dumbledore." Severus said with a small glimmer of pride, Harry would grow up to be a better man then himself…