Right so now we're getting into the good bits. Fourth year is going to be in two parts because it's quite long and I don't want to hit you with a huge chapter after all these short ones. I'm going to ease you into long chapters.
Still the same as previous at this point, everything is canon except what you read here.
Chapter 5: Fourth Year- Part 1
Albus Dumbledore settled into his seat around the table, there were already a large number of people in the room and most of them nodded to him in greeting. The chattering continued until Barty Crouch rose to his feet and cleared his throat loudly.
The sound in the room diminished slowly until all attention was on the Ministry official. "Now that everyone is here I would like to announce that the Ministry for Magic is restarting the Triwizard tournament."
Albus raised an eyebrow and looked around at the sudden outburst of noise. The announcement certainly explained the presence of a few of the unknown and obviously foreign wizards, representatives of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons as well as the rumours about the tournament's return. "Where is the tournament to be held?" He asked politely, and just loud enough for his voice to penetrate through the shouting.
"Hogwarts, if you have no objections Headmaster." Crouch said in a tone that suggested that objections would be dealt with severely.
Albus just smiled calmly. The Triwizard tournament, while dangerous, was a wonderful way to bring about international unity and Albus had a feeling that international unity would most certainly be needed with Voldemort stirring. Once again Sybil's second prophecy ran through his mind. "I have no serious objections, I assume you are going to address the reason the tournament was initially stopped." He didn't need to mention the number of students who had died in the tournament in previous years, everyone here was aware of the deaths.
"Of course, only wizards and witches over the age of seventeen will be permitted to enter." Crouch informed them. The whispering died down slightly, the restriction held the tournament to those students who were technically legal adults already and that was probably for the best. It would hopefully reduce the danger to the students. Albus's already buzzed with plans for further ways to reduce the danger to his students.
"I don't think that will make much of a difference." An elderly wizard that Albus didn't recognise croaked irritably. The old man had long white beard and studied them seriously through a fringe of scraggly white hair.
"Who are you?" Crouch demanded glancing at some of the other Ministry officials, but they looked just as confused as Crouch over the old man's identity. This confusion made Albus frown in consideration.
The old man shrugged his shoulders. "It doesn't matter now does it?" He accused coldly and levered himself to his feet. "Waste of my time." He grumbled and strode towards the door with more purpose someone his age should possess. Albus smiled at that, surely the man was no older than he himself and he had always been told that he never acted his age.
As the meeting continued on, with Crouch addressing the various issues that each individual had with the tournament's reinstatement Albus's mind wandered invariably to Harry. After the problems with the dementors last year and Sirius Black's innocent revelation Harry had been understandably shaken. Albus could only hope that whatever force had been watching over the boy all these years continued to do so.
The meeting wound to a close with the statement that the Triwizard tournament would be announced at the beginning of the school year. The other schools selected students would arrive a week after that and remain at Hogwarts for the duration of the tournament. Albus had agreed to the arrangements with as much cheer as he could manage. Having so many unknown students at the school would present a variety of risks which he hoped he could overcome.
Avoiding the conversations that Ministry members tried to strike up with him Albus made for the Atrium. He needed to get back to Hogwarts and inform the teachers of the coming event and his plans for the security of the students. He made a mental note to lean a little more heavily on Alastor. Having the ex-Auror as this year's Defence against the Dark Arts teacher would certainly settle his mind, particularly in concern for Harry.
The prophecy that Sybil had presented Harry with floated to the surface of his mind again, no matter which way Albus turned it around in his head everything pointed to Voldemort's return.
Albus stepped out of the elevator and into the Atrium, his mind was still on other matters as he dodged quickly through the crowd pausing only to nod to the wand-check wizard. Voldemort's return would put Harry in a great deal of danger; it was the riskiest thing about the tournaments return. Albus shook his head with a sigh as he headed for the apparition point. At least the age limit would prevent Harry from being in the direct line of fire during the event.
As Albus stopped at the edge of the apparition area he bumped shoulders with someone.
He glanced down with apologies on his lips and stopped. The old man looking up at him with a pair of bright blue eyes was the same man who had left the meeting in an irritable huff. "Great group of old man said firmly. "I don't know what you're all thinking, but returning the tournament is going to end in catastrophe, you mark my words."
Raising his eyebrows and shifting to allow the line of people behind them to push past, Albus eyed his cantankerous companion. "What makes you say that?" He asked as politely as possible. Inside he was nervous; this man was voicing the worries which gnawed at Albus's soul.
"Experience and a good eye for trouble." He muttered frostily and stepped off, heading for the Floo fireplace. Just before he stepped into the magical flames the mysterious old man glanced back over his shoulder and looked Albus straight in the eye. "You keep an eye on Harry Potter or so help me I'll feed you to Aithusa." With a whirl of green flames he was gone and Albus could only stare at the empty place with a vague feeling of worry and desperate desire to check up on Harry.
Merlin strolled through the streets of Hogsmeade with a growing sense of trepidation. After the debacle of the Quidditch World Cup, which Merlin had only learnt of after the event, security measures had been increased.
On his way to Hogsmeade Merlin had nearly been caught twice by over enthusiastic Aurors. Even within the town there was a constant buzz of activity now that news of the Triwizard tournament had finally reached the general population.
He was now facing the inevitable problem of how to keep an eye on Harry without seeming to. A life time of avoiding the detection of his magic followed by centuries of strict non-interference seemed to be a bad habit. He didn't like using his magic in front of people, even if those people had magic themselves. Merlin's whole life had been one of secrecy; three days of utter honesty with Arthur had done nothing to bring him out of his magical shell. As such his response to any situation which required magical intervention was to find a way to do so without being noticed.
However even here caution was probably for the best, after all the wizards of the modern times used wands and despite having evolved as much as possible with the times Merlin had never mastered the use of a wand. The magic he could do with a wand was so limited compared to the manipulation of magic in its purest form that he had abandoned the idea of practicing soon after beginning.
Merlin pushed open the door to the Three Broomsticks and stepped inside. A few people gave him a glance, but nothing more. Merlin hurried through the crowd and made for his room.
Once inside Merlin pulled out the scrying crystal. He had never thought that keeping an eye on Harry would be this difficult. Entering Hogwarts itself was out of the question. He could certainly pose as a student, de-aging was easy enough, but the problem was that none of the three schools participating in the tournament had a large number of students. He would be recognised as a stranger immediately.
Turning the crystal over in his fingers Merlin lay back on his bed and sighed. Apparently being involved was just as difficult as watching from afar when you had such a well guarded subject who didn't need a personal servant to follow him around all day.
Chuckling at the memory Merlin stretched out and as his spine crackled he let the aging spell go and relaxed in his much younger body. He turned the crystal over in his fingers and tried to see an image. It was harder here, the magic of Hogwarts and the distance from the Crystal Cave meddled with the ability of the crystal to see the future, or even the present for that matter.
Rolling onto his stomach and setting the crystal on his pillow Merlin focused. He had a flashback of lying on a much less comfortable bed intensively reading an ancient magical book in an attempt to learn a spell which rapidly became second nature to him. Smiling Merlin focused instead on the crystal. Harry's face swam into view; he was smiling and chatting happily with the other students as they watched the Goblet of Fire. Merlin found himself smiling with them.
The Goblet was safe behind an age line Dumbledore had created, out of reach for Harry. Merlin returned the crystal to his pouch. It seemed that this year at least Harry was going to stay out of trouble.
Merlin snuck through the forest as silently as possible. He was most certainly glad he had decided on his younger body for this journey, particularly after he caught his toe on a root and nearly sent himself sprawling on the forest floor. Cursing quietly and righting himself Merlin wished again he had been able to work out who had managed to confuse the Goblet into naming Harry as a champion. If he ever did find out Merlin was going to drag them to Avalon and hand them over to the Sidhe.
Sneaking carefully to the edge of the clearing Merlin looked around. The four dragons were huddled in their cages their cold eyes watching the various humans moving around the temporary camp site.
Merlin settled down to watch the humans, half an hour passed but it seemed that there was never going to be a good time to approach. Many of the dragon keepers were settling down on make-shift beds, but just as many were still moving around tending to the dragons and their clutches of eggs. Taking a deep breath Merlin raised his hand and whispered "Sleep untroubled by sound". The magic spread around the clearing as a series of yawns and slowly the dragon-keepers settled onto the hard ground and closed their eyes.
Stepping out from his hideout Merlin approached the dragons without fear. As they saw him approaching the black dragon stretched out her neck and let loose a belly full of fire in Merlin's direction. A flick of his wrist deflected the flames. "Be still dragon by my voice I command you." The words settled around the Horntail like a chain and she sunk down to rest her head on the stones at the base of her cage. The other dragons snarled, but seemed to possess more sense.
Merlin sighed in faint relief. The new race of dragons, born of the deformed Aithusa had none of Kilgharrah's intelligence, wisdom or power. These dragons had inherited only the dragon's wrath and near invincibility and while they still responded to the call of a DragonLord he couldn't explain the situation to them and enlist their help.
Pacing between the cages Merlin extended a hand to the smaller green dragon who snarled and backed towards her eggs. Magic was out of the question as well, it just wouldn't stick to dragons. Running his fingers through his hair Merlin realised that he had only one option.
He had to be at the first task.
Fighting a dragon was far more than anyone who was untrained as a knight or DragonLord was capable of and Merlin certainly didn't want Harry to end up like the last lot of knights to attack Kilgharra.
(The Following Day)
Merlin looked through the crowd with trepidation. There were people everywhere and he meant everywhere. There were three overexcited giggling Hogwarts girls to his left, two hulking Durmstrang boys behind him and a gaggle of serene, if slightly irritated, Beauxbatons girls to his right. Merlin's stomach was pressed firmly against the protective barrier in front of him.
Tugging on his purloined Hogwarts uniform and hunching his shoulders to try and avoid notice Merlin tried to turn his attention to the ground below. In the centre of the great ring of stands was a large expanse of rocky terrain. A dark tunnel had been crafted under the ring, from which the dragons would soon emerge. The noise in the stadium was almost deafening, but that wasn't Merlin's primary problem.
There were too many people. Performing subtle magic in a crowd was certainly a speciality of Merlin's, but this was different. The use of his DragonLord skills was big and impressive and usually involved yelling loudly. There was no way he would get away with shouting in another language in the middle of a crowd of students, some of which would soon realise that he was not one of their school's students.
Shaking his head Merlin started to push his way back through the crowd to the stairs. He need to find somewhere more concealed with a good view.
Jogging down the stairs Merlin ducked under the stands and began to crawl through the small spaces until he was positioned balanced on a beam, under the feet of everyone else and still opposite the opening for the dragons.
He looked around and nodded, this would do nicely.
Merlin nearly fell off his perch as a voice boomed through the air. "Welcome everyone to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. I will call in our first champion in a moment, but may I have a warm round of applause for our judges." The clapping was deafening even for Merlin positioned below the masses.
"Excellent, well let us begin with the first of our champions. Mr Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts..." The applause drowned out the rest of the magically magnified words. Merlin peeked out between the drapes and saw a handsome boy with blonde hair step nervously out onto the rocky ground, clutching his wand.
Merlin settled on his conveniently placed beam and watched the first three champions go through the motions. He intervened only once when Cedric's dragon caught sight of him over his transfigured rock and went for the boy. The other two students did well enough, though Merlin wasn't particularly pleased with their methods, or the methods of getting the dragons back into the cages afterwards.
Gritting his teeth against commanding the dragons to return to their cages quietly Merlin focused instead on the announcer calling Harry out to centre stage.
Swallowing nervously as he examined the ferocious black dragon who was already scenting the air for Harry, Merlin readied himself. He would let Harry get as far as he could before intervening. Harry had done surprisingly well for himself for the last few years, but this was a whole different level of difficult. Dragons did not go down easily.
The applause grew slightly louder, though not to the level that the arrival of the other champions had risen and Merlin tilted his head to get a better look at Harry emerging nervously from the tent.
Harry swallowed past the lump in his throat as he looked out over the rocky terrain. The arena was ringed with the Quidditch stands filled to the brim with cheering people. He risked a shaky smile and stepped carefully onto the first rock. He couldn't see the horntail, but he was willing to bet that she was going to leap on him the moment that she saw him.
Taking a steadying breath Harry muttered "Accio Firebolt." Under his breath and then prayed that the last few days of practicing the spell with Hermione had payed off.
Harry stepped around a rock and came face to face with the large scaled head of the horntail. He had a moment of frozen panic before throwing himself back behind the rock just in time to avoid the blast of flame from the creature's jaws.
The dragon roared, there was a crunch and the rock to Harry's left was shattered.
Harry bolted for safety. The horntail roared and sent another blast of fire in Harry's direction, Harry dodged aside and suddenly the crowds cheering took on a different tone. Harry chanced a look up and saw his Firebolt shoot over the heads of the judges and come to hover just to Harry's right. He threw his leg over the brush and suddenly he was airborne.
The horntail roared again and swung her tail at him. Harry rolled to avoid both flame and tail. In the air the dragon was nothing more than a large Bludger so this would be easy. Redirecting the Firebolt Harry swooped over the pile of eggs and spotted the single golden egg nestled at the top of the pile.
Harry dropped into a dive, but was forced to pull out as the horntail turned swiftly and nearly knocked him clean off his broom with the tip of her wing.
To give himself some more space Harry shot skywards. The horntail took to the sky as well, her wings unfolding like a black cloak. That gave Harry an idea.
Rising high Harry hoped to draw her far enough away from her nest that he could sneak in and snatch the egg. But no matter how tempting he made himself the horntail seemed reluctant to go far enough from her nest for Harry to get in and take the golden egg.
Harry dropped from the sky rapidly and the dragon's head followed him. Pulling out from the dive at the last moment Harry dodged the fireball and rolled under the dragon's neck. She was two flaps from the ground and there was just enough space for him to make it under her belly. As he shot through the ever narrowing gap towards the eggs behind her Harry realised that if this worked it would be beyond spectacular, but if it failed he would be beyond dead.
As the dragon and the rock grew so close together that Harry could feel the heat of the dragon's body he knew he was done for. Then for no reason the dragon gave two powerful downward sweeps of her wings and shot skyward. The crowd roared.
Harry shot through the gap and stretched out his fingers. The golden egg rolled into his palm and Harry shot back towards the entrance tent as the dragon dropped to the rocks where he had been not a moment before.
Suddenly Harry realised that the crowd was screaming his name. As he stumbled to a stop Bagman grabbed his broom off so that Harry could wrap both hands around the golden egg and lift it high. Harry smiled. Everyone was cheering for him. For the first time since his name had come from the Goblet of Fire Harry felt like a Triwizard Champion.
I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up. The next few weeks are not looking conducive to fanfic writing.