Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own anything!

Chapter 77

It was a week after Albus had been to Crouch's house. Severus was currently glaring at him from across his desk. He had managed to delay this conversation for various reasons for a week, but he eventually ran out of excuses.

"Albus, what's wrong with him?"

"Nothing is wrong with him."

"Dammit. I saw it with my own eyes. He went into a sort of trance. His scar became inflamed and then started bleeding. His pulse was racing. He's been going to see Poppy almost every week since the second task. What's wrong with him?"

"Did you really have to barge into her office and just start going through Harry's file?" asked Albus as a diversion. "What happened to discretion?"

"There wasn't anyone around when I done it. I'm not a complete fool. Poppy was at dinner, so instead of waiting on her, I decided to look and see for myself."

The Headmaster rolled his eyes. "And how well did that excuse work when she caught you?"

"Not very well, to be honest, but I want to know what's wrong with him. She can't tell me because she doesn't know that he's my son. You're not telling me anything, and he won't tell me because he was told to only talk to you. How else was I supposed to find out what's wrong with him? I'm concerned. I'm a Potion's Master for Merlin's sake. If he's sick, I might be able to find a way to cure him."

"Severus, he's not sick. I do not know why he has had a sudden influx of visits to the hospital wing but I seriously doubt it has anything to do with what you witnessed."

"What did I witness then?" demanded the irate potion's master.

"Severus, I only have theories, nothing concrete."

"Theories are fine," he snapped.

"No. They are not. I will not have you get worked up over something that might not even be right."

"I deserve to know, Albus. He's my son," he reiterated.

And to that, Albus could only nod. The man did deserve to know, but he was afraid that if he imparted what he suspected then Severus would clam back up and Harry might never learn the truth. Between what he observed at Crouch's house and Harry's letter, he could pretty much say with certainty that Voldemort was behind Harry's name finding it's way into the goblet.

But he still didn't know how Crouch actually fit into the picture. The man was a stickler for the rules and a strong supporter of the light. As Severus had said before, he sent his own son to Azkaban because he had been discovered as a Death Eater.

Why would Voldemort feel safe at that house?

"You do deserve to know Severus. I have the pieces of the puzzle in front of me, but I'm just not sure how they all fit together. Give me time to find the picture that it's trying to make and I'll share it with you."

"I can help you with that picture if you just tell me what the pieces are."

Albus shook his head no. He couldn't take the chance that Severus would refuse to tell Harry the truth.

Furious at being denied information about his own son, Severus stormed out of the Headmaster's office.

Harry grinned as he looked around. He had done it. He had found another way into the Founder's Library that didn't require him going down a pipe and climbing over rocks.

He had been unable to sleep ... again and figured it was time to try the Room of Requirement idea. He still doubted this was the only way in, but at least he could use it and be able to spend more time in there.

The Room of Requirement had given him five puzzle doors to get through. Each one harder than the previous one. In fact, the last door had stumped him for at least 45 minutes. He entered the room, grabbed the book he had left out, and sat down to read.

But as soon as he had done that, his wand warmed against his arm. "Meh, figures," he muttered.

Putting the book back down, he exited out the same way he came in hoping that he didn't have to figure out puzzles to leave because that would really suck.

Twenty minutes later he was back in bed. He figured he had enough time for a small nap before he had to get up for classes.

"When do you find out about the 3rd task?" asked Gabriella.

Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Gabriella, Morgana (a 3rd year Ravenclaw), Luna (also a 3rd year Ravenclaw) and Astoria ( a 3rd year Slytherin) were sitting in the nearly empty Great Hall.

The 4th years were working on Transfiguration and the 3rd years were doing something with Arithmancy.

Well most of them were. Harry and Gabby were mostly whispering to themselves.

"May 23rd, a month before the task."

"So three more weeks?"

"Yes. Sometimes I get nervous thinking about it - wishing it was here already - then another part of me hopes that it doesn't get here at all."

Gabriella pouted. "You don't want me to congratulate you when you become the worlds youngest Tri-Wizard Champion?"

Harry turned red.

"Get a room already," the entire group said. Then they all burst out laughing.

"Herm-oh-ninny?"

Everyone turned towards Krum's voice.

"Oh, Victor! I completely lost track of time. Harry will you - ?" She pointed to her books.

"Yeah," he said smiling.

Ron, thankfully, had calmed down some towards Krum but it had taken Harry about three hours to get through to him one night. The figurine of Krum that Ron has is still missing an arm though. He still couldn't understand why Ron was being so temperamental about the whole thing but figured as long as no one was yelling or throwing curses that it was fine.

Harry then refocused on the complicated Transfiguration drawing he was supposed to be doing.

"Harry, when are you going to let me tell the Headmaster?" asked Madam Pomphrey as he sat down in a chair across from her desk.

"Not yet. I'm not ready for anyone else to know."

"Have you not told your friends?" asked the medi-witch with just a touch of suspicion in her voice.

Harry shook his head no.

"Why not?"

"Because then they'll know how big of a freak I really am. If I can help it, they won't ever find out."

"Mr. Potter. I've told you before that you are not a freak. I don't know where you heard that you were, but you need to forget it." Madam Pomphrey paused for a minute and looked at him curiously. "Where do your friends think you are going to once a week?"

"Oh they know that I'm coming here. They just think that I'm after a headache relieving potion."

Madam Pomphrey sighed. "How are your classes coming along now that you know the truth and it's really had time to settle in?"

"They're going alright. I've been paying closer attention to my power usage though. It's just natural for me to know how much power to use to try to get the spell right, so concentrating on it has caused more than one thing to blow up." Harry recalled the clock he had been trying to transfigure in class that had simply exploded into a million pieces. McGonagall had made him write an extra essay because of it.

"You need to be aware of how much power you're using but if concentrating on it causes things to blow up, then you may need to go back to the way you were doing it previously."

"But what if I accidently put too much power behind something?"

"Has this ever been a cause of concern for you before?"

"No ma'am. I've just always known how much to use. Sometimes I get told to use a bit more power ... normally as a way to show my classmates what can happen when you use too much," he muttered under his breath before he continued speaking, "but even then I just know how much to put behind it. Thinking about it causes bad things to happen."

"Which professor asks you to do that?" inquired Madam Pomphrey curiously.

"Professor Flitwick."

"You know. It's entirely possible that he knows ... or at least suspects just how powerful you really are."

Harry's eyes widened. "I hope not!"

"Harry. Come the end of term, I'm going to be telling the Headmaster the truth, whether you give me permission to or not. You need to get it around your head now that someone else will know your secret."

"No!"

"I can't truly help you understand what you're going through. He can."

"You said you wouldn't tell anyone."

"I was hoping by now you would at least have agreed to let me tell the Headmaster."

"I'm not having any real problems in class. I don't have any questions about what I'm going through. Why would you tell him? I don't want anyone to know!" Harry stood and picked up his book bag. "I'm starting to wish I never asked what was wrong with me."

Before Madam Pomphrey could stop him, he stormed out of her office - which was supposed to be locked and only able to be opened by her hand.

Upon leaving her office, Harry made a beeline for the lake. It was starting to warm up some since it was early May, but there was still a slight chill to the air from the rain that had momentarily stopped, but at the moment he didn't care. He just wanted to be numb ... to be invisible.

As he stared out over the lake, he sighed.

He didn't ask to be different, he didn't ask to be powerful.

Telling his friends was definitely out of the question. They would both be understanding and supportive but he knew that eventually Hermione would bombard him with questions about what everyone's magical signatures looked like plus demand to know what all those books he had read said. Ron would be hurt that he didn't trust him originally with the knowledge that he could see the 'glowy things' as he had previously called it and now ... well ... he was afraid that Ron might get jealous again and he didn't want to lose Ron's friendship. Neville might understand but then again, he might also not want to be friends if he found out how big of a freak he was. Gabriella might break up with him if she learned the truth.

No, it was best to keep them in the dark.

As for the Headmaster. He didn't want the man to know because what if he screwed up somewhere along the way and disappointed him? He couldn't handle that, couldn't handle the disappointment that he imagined would appear in the Headmaster's eyes.

He wanted to tell Sirius and Remus but was afraid they wouldn't talk to him anymore because of how much power he supposedly had. It clearly wouldn't take much for him to blow them up. He didn't want his god parents to be afraid of him.

Harry threw a rock out on the lake and watched as it skipped on the water.

McGonagall? She was his head of house and while he liked her, he didn't feel close enough to her to go get advice.

Flitwick perhaps? No. While he felt closer to the tiny professor than he did McGonagall, he didn't want to give him anymore of a reason to see him any differently than the rest of his classmates.

Snape ...?

No.

Sure the man is the only person around that has really sat him down and talked to him ... or at least tried to (he was trying desperately to not think of the sex talk). He trusted him, has for a while now, but would he be able to help him understand what he was going through? Of course, there was also this unexplained comfort that he received from the man. He sometimes liked to imagine it was what a son would feel around his father. (He snorted at the horror that would appear on Snape's face if he knew that Harry actually looked up to him.)

Harry threw another rock out on to the lake. He watched as it skipped four times before falling under the water.

No, he couldn't tell Snape. For all he knew Snape would back away from him as if he had something contagious and besides, Madam Pomphrey said that only the Headmaster could help him.

He sighed again. Could Dumbledore really help him understand all this power? Would he be disappointed in him if he screwed up royally, which he was bound to do?

Harry was cut off in his thinking because he saw Gabriella heading his way with a smile on her face. She must have done well on her Arithmancy exam today judging by her look.

"Yer nervous 'arry?" asked Hagrid. It was two weeks before he was to find out what the third task was.

"I'm trying not to think about it actually."

Hagrid laughed.

Harry then turned to glare at Hagrid's latest class project. First Blast Ended Skrewts. Now they were taking care of what Hagrid called a Mani-Squid. It had the hard shell like the skrewts did but also had 8 arms like the giant squid.

They had been working with them for about two months. The Mani-Squids weren't half as hostile as the skrewts were but their bites still hurt.

Seamus had been bitten a week ago and had to spend the night in the infirmary.

The class was currently observing its behavior around different environments. So far, they had not found the type of environment that it preferred.

"AHHH!" Harry looked over to see Malfoy running away (with his arms flailing over his head no less) from one of the creatures while screaming his head off. As Hagrid went over to catch it, Harry and Ron couldn't help but burst out in laughter.

It was currently 2:30 a.m. on May 20th, the Saturday before Harry would find out what the third task was.

He was sitting in the Founder's Library reading a book that dealt with magical signatures that he had come across. (He had devoured all that Madam Pomphrey had on the subject. Since he was a freak, he figured this way he'd be an informed freak.) Or rather he was trying to read it. It was written by some guy named Wordsworth and it wasn't in English. (The book had been in one of the book cases without a house symbol on it.) Evidently this guy could see magical signatures as well and went on to describe what it meant and what other things he could do.

However, it was written in a mix between Latin and French, which made Harry have to stop to look up a word every 2 minutes.

Why a book would be written in both Latin and French was beyond him, but it was.

Ever since Harry had found the alternate access through the Room of Requirement, he had been coming down about every 3 or 4 nights to read.

It had been so tempting to tell Ron and Hermione what he had run across but didn't. Of course, there was also the fact that he couldn't. Every time he tried to mention it or write it down, he would get a searing headache.

Harry was so engrossed in trying to read the book on magical signatures that he never realized he wasn't alone anymore.

He heard a throat clear and nearly jumped out of his skin.

Heart pounding wildly, he slowly turned around and found himself face to face with Nearly Headless Nick.

A/N: Seems the familial bond that happens between parents and children has been tugging at Harry a little. *grins mischievously* I'm not sure how long the next chapter will be. Right now it's about the same length of this one, but I could probably combine it with the next one. It just depends on if I want to leave you all with another cliffhanger or not. ;-) Either way, we're almost to the third task. :)

I, myself, have been a busy bee. I'm doing an overhaul of the future chapter's that I've already written. I moved up 4 things in the timeline by several months, so I'm currently re-working my outline and making them fit in the dates on the calendar while still being believable. (I actually have a 1991-1998 calendar printed off to accompany my notes so that I can keep my dates straight and a sticky note of Harry's class schedule for the year I'm working on next to my monitor.) I have paper's everywhere around me. Some on the wall, some in the floor, some on my bed, and even some on my little lap table that my netbook rests on. Heh. I woke up this morning and found that I had slept on some of them. Evidently I'm hoping to work by osmosis. *chuckles*

My grandfather has three doctor's appointments tomorrow so I'm aiming for Saturday for the next chapter to be posted. =)

Oh .. and before I forget. Some other standard A/N's that I've not posted in a while. =)

A/N: Albus knows that Harry didn't put his name in the goblet and has figured out that Crouch did but even though he knows this, he cannot keep Harry from competing. Harry's entry name was put in the goblet in his handwriting, which formed the magical contract. If Crouch wouldn't have gotten a hold of Harry's signature then this fiasco might never have happened.

A/N: Warning, Harry will be powerful, but he won't be super powerful. He will still have to struggle with certain things as well as deal with other childhood issues. Harry is going to be incredibly smart, but don't worry about him out-doing Hermione ... to an extent anyway. (Evil smirk) And to alleviate some fears, he won't all of a sudden wake up and realize woah, I can take on the world! It will be a slow on going process. (Smile)

Wow.. my A/N section is starting to get as long as the actual chapter. *face_palm*

*Set's out cake for my reviewer's then slinks away to start proofreading the next chapter*