Disclaimer: No matter how much I want to, I don't own H.P

Chapter 8

That's How You Show Off

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness…

-Endymion/ Keats

I was suddenly grabbed by someone into a dark passageway and something hit me on my head hard .I blacked out.

I groaned as I tried to stand up. I saw two identical faces smiling at me apologetically. Either I was seeing double or I have just been woken up by the weasly twins.

"Hello, Harry- "

"We're really-"

"Sorry for-"

"What happened. It was –"

"All his-

"Fault" They said at the same time pointing at each other.

"Guys, Stop with the twin talk. Not now" I had my wand in one hand and was clutching my head with the other.

"Er, okay. We wanted to talk with you." Twin#1 began.

"Alone, That is. Wants to show us our gratitude for saving our sister" Twin#2 added.

"So you decided to knock me out?" I asked failing to see the logic.

"It wasn't supposed to be like that. I casted a grabbing charm on you and he added a cushioning charm. We didn't know that it would have that effect when combined." Twin #2 said.

"Right" I said. That still didn't make up for the splitting pain I had. But their body language made it clear that they were telling the truth.

"Come on, Harry. After the show you put on last night, which was fantastic by the way, do you think we would attack you?" A quick passive legilimency scan showed it was Fred.

"Alright" Twins were a force to be reckoned with. Even with Riddle's skills I have no idea how they pulled off more than half of their pranks. They just didn't know their potential. I was going to show them that.

"So dear Harry, as a sign of our gratitude for saving our sister we give you our greatest treasure,"

" A legacy from a forgotten time,"

"A master piece,"

"We present thee with," They paused dramatically. It was impressive if the truth was to be told.

"The Marauders Map." They said simultaneously and George pulled out an old parchment with a flourish. He kneeled in front of me and offered the parchment as if he were a knight.

I felt a tinge of magic from that paper. I placed my wand on the parchment and gave the parchment pulse of magic. Instantly I felt it push me back.

"Wow, For a piece of parchment it's well protected. It's connected to the castle somehow, isn't it?"

There was no way this old parchment could survive this long unless it drew its energy from the castle. They just looked at each other and kneeled in front of me simultaneously.

"Oh, great one. Take us as your minions."

"Rise my faithful minions and enlighten your master about this wonderful map" I mock commanded them.

They grinned evilly and showed me how to operate the map. It was amazing. I didn't know who created this map exactly. Whoever these four pranksters were ,they were pure geniuses. They had somehow keyed the parchment to Hogwarts wards. If I can just tweak it I will be able to monitor the wards too.

"Thanks guys" I was really overwhelmed. It must have meant a lot to them.

"No, Harry. Thank you. We can never thank you enough. You lost an year of your life because you tried to save our family. If you hadn't, Ginny would be…" I have never seen twins emotional before.

"Don't mention it, guys. Now get out of here. This is getting too emotional. Look at you guys crying like Ron" I tried to lighten up the mood.

"Sir, Yes, sir" They saluted and ran out of the passageways. I now had two people with whom I can trust my life with.

In the following week Hogwarts rumor mill worked furiously. Every class I attended ended with the professors with open mouths. Runes and Arithmency were as easy as pie. Charms ended with a dumbstruck Flitwick. I didn't hold back even a little bit. But I didn't let them know my true potential either. I had Riddle's knowledge. But I knew that I was no match for Voldemort. If he had that much knowledge when he was sixteen how much does he know now? So I studied as much as I could. I need the professors to teach me advance material. Well beyond N.E.W.T curriculum. Hermione took it hard. She was so used to being first. She couldn't understand how I became a protégé so fast. But for the sake of our friendship she kept quiet. She told me that she found it tough but was glad that I had finally unlocked my potential. She was slowly earning my trust back. In fact the only problem I currently had was the girls following me. They followed me in groups between the periods and giggled whenever I looked at them. I heard snippets of conversations about how Harry Potter was no longer holding back in classes. I even over heard a second telling a first year how I had conjured a dragon that ate Filch's cat. I just smiled and kept going. The class I was looking forward to was DADA.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE"

I jumped and pointed my wand toward the source. My wand pointing towards thesource of the sound and my body was crouched low. It was dueling stance which was used when the enemy's position was unknown.

"All of you are dead except Potter. Take two points for Gryffindor" Moody shouted as he limped from his office to the blackboard. His fake eye was focused on Seamus who was picking his wand up from the floor.

"Always be prepared. Your enemy doesn't care whether you are prepared or not. He'll try to kill you at the first chance he gets. You lot are worth nothing without your wand. So no matter what happens, NEVER put your wands away. That's lesson one." He turned and pointed his wand towards the black board where words were forming. It read" NO WAND=DEAD"

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE" Moody roared making everyone jump. I liked his style. It was ruthless and to the point.

"My name is Moody. I'll be teaching You DADA for this year. Introductions part is over and let's get on with the Class"

For the next hour he discussed about Unforgivable curses. I kept quiet. I know much more than anybody at Hogwarts right now about them. And then Moody Surprised everyone by saying that he was going to put us all under imperius. 'Shite' He was looking right at me when he said that.

"What would you do if a witch or wizard casts it on you? Would you rather face it unprepared or do you want to see for yourself if you can stand a chance against it? It is not impossible to break free of it although it is wiser to avoid being hit with it if you can. A witch or wizard with a strong mental capabilities can break free of it, let's see how far along you lot are. Now, Miss Patil, forward if you please."

What surprised me really was that these idiots didn't so as much as protest against it. Who in the right mind would willingly submit to that curse? I know I can break through it easily. You have to be the master of your mind. It has nothing to do with occlumency. Rather it was all about will power. I can control fiendfyre. This is nothing compared to that.

Hermione sang the Hogwarts anthem while tap dancing, Ron imitated a chicken, Neville performed a series of complex gymnastics, and Seamus conjured a bunch of roses and knelt on one knee and proposed to a bright red Lavender Brown and so on.

I could have sworn I saw Moody smirking, he was enjoying this and...to be honest, I would be lying to myself if said I wasn't enjoying the show. Finally it was my turn. I went to the front of the middle and waited. Moody pointed his wand at me.

"Imperio"

I was surprised. I thought being the hard core auror he was he would have put all of his effort into the curse. But it was really weak. He wanted us all to break it. He really was trying to teach us.

"Jump onto the desk" I felt his will trying to crush mine.

I will not break.

"Jump onto the desk now!"

"I don't think so, sir" I smirked and went back to my seat. Moody looked at me with open mouth and started laughing. The rest of the class was looking back and forth between me and Moody.

"Ten points to Gryffindor, Potter" He barked out and dismissed the class.

"How did you do it, Harry?" Hermione asked me curiously as Ron waved at me to join him. I gestured him to go along with Dean.

"It's all about mastering your will. He wants to control you. You must be able to break his will to control you. "I replied. People were moving towards the entrance hall. "You go on, Hermione. I'll need to speak with someone." I saw McGonagall motioning me to follow her into her class room. She motioned me to get in as she entered her private office.

As I walked in I saw Cedric sitting there.

"Hello, Harry" He offered me his hand

"Hi, Cedric" I replied as I shook it. "Heard you won the cup last year"

"Yeah, it wasn't exactly a competition. I am not boasting but the rest of the seekers were not so good. I really hoped that we would have gotten a chance to play off against each other this year. "

"You are graduating this year, aren't you?"

"Yeah. So, do you know why we are here?" He asked. I didn't have to answer as McGonagall chose that moment to come back.

"Good After noon, Professor"

"Good after noon. You must be wondering why you are here?"

"Yes, professor" Cedric replied for both of us.

"As you know, the delegations from Beauxbaton and Durmstrang will be arriving approximately in one hour. I just heard from them that they are going to perform some magical feat as a gesture of gratitude for welcoming them. In other words they are going to show off. But our head master is insisting that we don't need to worry about it," She paused. " If anyone ever asks me about this I shall deny that I ever said this. I can't allow Hogwarts to look bad."

Wow. Minnie would make a perfect M.

"What are you saying, Professor?" I asked.

"I'm not saying anything, Mr. Potter. But I just had a thought, you see. What if two of the brightest students of Hogwarts retaliate in kind? I mean the professors can't do anything against it as it is not against the rules. I'm sure that even Professor Snape thinks so. "She mused. Wow Professor Kitty is cool.

Cedric was gob smacked.

"Say, professor. Will these students be rewarded for their work?" I asked as if I was not interested.

"Hypothetically speaking, they would be getting a mentor if either of them gets selected as a champion, " She pause. "Of course, to pull such a feat off they must be exceptionally talented and must have a flair for dramatics."

Did she just make a joke? Oh Merlin. I turned to look at Cedric and saw him gaping like a fish out of water.

"Come on, Cedric. We have that thing to do. Good evening professor." We both stood up and left the class room leaving Professor McGonagall who was smirking.

"What just happened?" Cedric was grinning as he asked.

"We, Cedric, are going to prank the hell out of those foreigners for our dear ol' Hogwarts" I smirked

"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship" Cedric smirked back.

An hour later I was sitting besides Cedric along with the Hufflepuffs at their house table. The delegations from both Beauxbaton and Durmstrang had arrived about ten minutes ago and were sitting at Ravenclaw and Slytherin House tables respectively. Most of the students were whispering furiously about Krum who was frowning as he examined a golden goblet. Colin Creevey was snapping photo after photo of him.

At the head table there were many faces I haven't seen before. It must have been ministry official.

Dumbledore stood up and the entire hall went silent. He went on and on about how this tournament was a marvelous opportunity to do blah blah blah and then,

"With that said, let us welcome the students of beuxbaton to our school," He paused. A girl stood up wearing standard beuxbaton uniform. All the males in the great hall let out a gasp. She was beautiful. There was no other word to describe her. From this distance I could only make out her silvery blond hair and a beautiful body. I was fascinated. No, I was not looking at her because of her looks. But by the sheer amount of power she radiated. I could feel her magic rolling off her. It was huge. Even before she raised her wand I knew that she was going to be a hard opponent.

"Veela" I heard Cedric whispering. Every single male except cedric and I seem to be caught in some kind of trance.

At that moment she raised her wand and whispered something. A huge silver Hawk about the size of an elephant erupted from her wand tip and flew once around the hall before bursting into many small pieces. Each of the pieces then landed in front of the students and reformed into a perfect five inch replica of the original hawk. Everyone cheered.

"Wow" Cedric raised his eyebrows. What she did took immense amount of power and a great deal of concentration. She conjured,animated and enchanted it simultaneously. She sat down looking completely bored. And it pissed me off to no end.

"You or me?" I asked. "You take this one, I suck at enchanting" He replied. I nodded.

Dumbledore clapped politely and continued"And our friends from the north, Durmstrang"

This time Krum stood up in a military fashion and conjured an enormous Dragon made entirely out of fire. It gave a mighty roar and exploded. The temperature inside the hall increased at least five degrees. Cedric smirked. The Durmstrang students cheered loudly. Brute strength. Krum packed a punch. It would take three average wizards to conjure that much fire. To shape it into a dragon, he was a power house. what he lacks in finesse he makes up with brute strength.

The Hogwarts students were quiet. Students and staffs from both Beauxbaton and Durmstrang were openly smirking at us.

Dumbledore flashed his grandfatherly smile and was about to say something but it was time for our show. I yawned loudly and stood up. Everybody looked at me waiting for me to do something.

"What?" I asked as innocently as possible.

"Harry, they are showing off. You are supposed to sit and clap." Cedric condescended as loudly as he could.

"But it wasn't even that impressive, Cedric" I raised my wand and a huge silver Dragon erupted from my wand. It let out a loud roar and exploded into a thousand parts just like the French witch's conjuration. Each of the pieces formed a lion, raven, badger or a snake varying from student to student.

"See" my sound broke the silence in the hall. They cheered loudly but stopped when Cedric stood up.

"But, that's not the point" He shook his head and conjured a large dragon at least five foot bigger than what Krum had conjured. It exploded into snowflakes.

"It's a matter of principles, Harry. We are not supposed to mock them" He said in a mock sad voice. Students were openly laughing now . I saw McGonagall smirking at Karakaroff. Even Snape looked happy. Well he was not sneering any way.

"But you just did"

"Huh, Guess I did"

"So, Can we give them our show now?" I heard the students gasping. This was our plan all along. We would perform whatever feat they would do. Then we would perform our special trick.

We raised our wands simultaneously and started chanting in Latin. It was a two part spell which required two castors. One would provide the power and other would control it. This was something I had founded in Slytherin's personal journal. It was supposed to be invented by Rowena Ravenclaw. The complex part was the controlling bit. Since I knew more about the spell than he did Cedric had asked me to do that bit.

Blue flames surrounded us before vanishing into nothing. Cedric sat down due to the strain. Nothing happened for a few seconds. Durmstrang students started laughing. I looked at McGonagall and smirked.

'Incipere'

Animals of all type made up of blue flames came into existence all around me. Doe, lion, wolf, rabbits .Animals of all breed and type ran around the room. I was in control of each and every one of them. My mind was flooded with information. There were two hundred and thirty one magical constructions and I could see and hear everything they could. I made them do some trick. Foxes ran under the tables, Birds flew around; rabbits and deer's nuzzled the girls. I made a dove land in front of that French girl. I flinched as Krum destroyed a lion.

"Look at the details on this dove, Fleur" I heard one girl calling her. Fleur,so that's her name.

"He can see you, you know" she replied.I'm busted. She knows how the construct works. She waved her hand and before I could have a proper look at her face my dove vanished. My concentration faltered and all constructs vanished simultaneously . Cedric stood up and shouted to a hall full of awestruck people.

"And that's how you show off"

A/N: So how was it? Come on review.

I hope I gave Fleur a strong start. About McGonagall . I've always loved that scene in Deathly hallows where she says"I've always wanted to do that" I always wanted to try something like that with her character. Even though she completely believes that Dumbldore can do no harm she does have a strong personality. So, yeah. That's about it.

P.S. Review