Hi everybody, here is chapter six. Thanks for all your reviews. As a general comment to some reviewers, I ignore insulting comments. I take constructive critics of my writing serious as I know that I can always improve. My native language isn't English but German, so I know that I lack some insights to others that live in England, America, Australia or other countries where English is spoken daily.
Now happy reading, I hope you like the chapter.
Goblet of Fire
Harry sat at a meeting room of the MI6 headquarters. They were discussing the attack at the Quidditch World Cup. Due to him being massively involved in the events he was allowed to attend the meeting with the adult agents.
"Alright. Everybody is here. I'm happy to say that our precautions at the Quidditch World Cup probably saved many lives. We captured seven Death Eaters. While they may claim that they were controlled by the one who cast the mark of the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort into the sky and the idiotic Minister of Magic Fudge is willing to be bribed like always we have one big advantage. That advantage is Agent Potter's position in the magical world.
"He has already given several interviews, making sure to have the journalists swear to report truthfully, which have the public enraged that teenagers were the ones that had to act mature because most of the adults lost their heads. If Fudge tries to get his financial backers out of punishment, he will commit political suicide. Which he won't risk. From our spies at the Ministry we know that this year the Triwizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts to promote international cooperation.
"That's Fudge's last real chance to sway public opinion. He's up for election in early summer. His political standing has suffered because Agent Potter installed a proxy to vote his and Agent Black's seats at the Wizengamot and voided the law against werewolves. We have already used the opportunity to contract three of the acclimated werewolves for our forces. Their enhanced strength and senses even without being transformed is great in our line of work. As they are mostly isolated in the community nobody will miss them, when they do missions for us.
"We also hired a Swedish potion master for our forces that is tasked with supplying enough wolfsbane potion for them all; next to developing other potions for our department. Once they finish special training, they will be able to work using the effects of the potion to the full benefit."
Many agents nodded approvingly. They had read reports about the strength werewolves had. Being able to use this strength for the good of their country was a good thing. And there were enough terrorists to deal with out in the world. Somehow every time they crushed one, a new one came up.
"At the moment nobody at the Ministry of Magic has realized that the additional aurors weren't their own men, there was too much confusion. If the wizards had been left to their own devices the Death Eaters would have probably escaped. I'm really satisfied with that part of the mission. Agent Potter, good work on minimizing the casualties. Your example and leadership helped with damage control and prevented hysteria with the younger people."
Harry nodded towards M. His part had been small but important.
"Now we have just one thing that is troubling, the Dark Mark in the sky. It wasn't connected to the Death Eaters that acted out; they got more disorganized after it appeared. So there is another player out there we don't know about yet. I want Team Gamma to start an investigation on all known Death Eaters, all who are unaccounted for and all the ones who died at Azkaban. Something is fishy. And if we don't dig this out to the bottom, we might get nasty surprises."
Team Gamma nodded confirming the order.
"Now, for the coming year at Hogwarts I want Agents Potter and Sinistra to get as much information as possible on the guests from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. You'll be supported from Hogsmeade. You'll be informed which agent will meet you there on short notice. Agent Sinistra, keep continuing diverting any suspicion about Agent Potter being more than he appears to be. We still haven't found a way for him to have an excuse for excessive training. If they would allow underage wizards to enter the tournament, I'd say that would be our opportunity, but the participants have to be off age." M explained.
"Do you know how the participants in the tournament are chosen, sir?" Harry asked.
"They use an ancient artefact called the Goblet of Fire. The goblet itself doesn't distinguish between the competitors for the three spots of champion, but you can be sure after the disasters Dumbledore had to deal with the last years he will find a way to prevent underage students from entering."
Harry sat at the stairs around the hall where the Goblet of Fire was positioned. The tournament would be great to compete in. He needed a way to up his official level. But at the moment he enjoyed the entertainment Fred and George Weasley presented. Their attempt to fool the age line was amusing. If they wanted to fool the precautions, they had to do it the muggle way. No magical hoax would be able to pass the line. Harry decided to make a little visit to the hospital wing.
"Do you want to know how you can fool the age line?" He asked the twins seriously.
"You know how to do it?" They asked astonished.
"It's obvious that Dumbledore thought of all ways to prevent magical ways, the easiest way is mostly the one not to be thought of. You can't cross the line; it's probably bound to the trace; that would take care of all underage wizards and witches being kept out. But paper doesn't have a trace. Or an older student. Just some ideas. But if I were you, I'd seriously think about the risk being worth the prize. But you're the ones who have to decide. Bye."
Harry left two shocked red haired twins who thought how obvious those solutions were.
The names were about to come out of the goblet. Harry hadn't entered his name. It would put him into a bad position. He needed a clean image for some time. If he couldn't enter legally it wasn't worth the risk. They would have to find another way for Harry showing off more abilities in his magic than just now. M had also ordered him not to use any of the loopholes they had found in the security measures.
"The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour." Dumbledore announced.
The part Veela stood and gracefully walked past the head-table into the chamber behind it.
"The champion for Durmstrang is Viktor Krum." The next champion was announced.
After much applause and praise from Igor Karkaroff, one ex-Death Eater, whom he and his contact to the MI6 headquarters through the year, Aurora Sinistra the Astronomy teacher, had orders to observe and investigate closely, all students waited with baited breaths for the Hogwarts champion to be chosen.
"The champion for Hogwarts is Cedric Diggory." Dumbledore said and the Hufflepuff table broke into applause. Cedric shook several hands smiling before joining the other champions.
Just when Dumbledore was about to conclude the ceremony a fourth piece of parchment shot out of the goblet.
"Harry Potter." Dumbledore said, genuinely shocked and surprised this time.
"Just un-fucking-believable." Harry groaned.
Well this could work out to his advantage. If he did this right. He needed to destroy any doubt he had entered himself into the tournament right now before it took hold. He knew the students too well to trust them thinking things through this time.
He walked up to the head table and cast a sonorous charm on himself.
"Ok, I know this looks like I cheated but I didn't enter my name into the goblet. I'll admit I knew how it would have probably been possible to enter my name, like if I asked an older student or just aimed well and threw the piece of parchment into the goblet. But you have to consider one thing. I was called out as a fourth champion. Cedric Diggory was chosen as the Hogwarts champion. While I may be smart enough to find a way to enter my name despite the age line, which I'll swear a magical oath if necessary that I didn't do it, I have no clue how it's possible that I was chosen as a fourth champion." Harry informed the whole audience.
Many were stunned at this speech. They began to think properly and had to admit that he was right. Many students were berating themselves for not thinking of those obvious methods to cheat the age line.
"I'd really like it if you could just leave me alone. I don't expect for you to support me in the tournament if the officials can't find a way for me to get out, with Professor Dumbledore telling us that a binding magical contract was made when the name was entered, I doubt that, but I'd like if you didn't shun me for something I had no hand in. I had enough of that my second year. Quietus."
Harry went past the head table and went into the antechamber.
He was met with surprised faces.
"What are you doing here, Harry?" Cedric asked.
"My annual crash with insufficient security measures, Cedric." Harry sighed. "Somebody really wants me in this tournament and somehow made the goblet shoot out my name as a fourth champion. I already set the Great Hall straight that I didn't enter the Tournament. I knew how to do it, but I'll swear an oath to prove that I didn't if it becomes necessary. Sorry for stealing some of your spotlight. I already have enough on my own."
The three other champions were stunned by this declaration. None of them made any comment. If a wizard was ready to swear a magical oath he had to tell the truth. There was no way around it, even if the story was just unbelievable. Then the three headmasters came into the chamber, discussing loudly and were accompanied by Professors Moody and Snape, Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch.
"So any new ideas how my name came out as a fourth champion? By the way, Professor Dumbledore, you really need to better think your safety measures through." Harry said resigned.
His attitude didn't sit right with Snape of course.
"Potter, how dare you speak with the headmaster like that?" He sneered.
Harry raised his eyebrow.
"Perhaps because this is the fourth year in a row he messed up keeping me safe? I'm fourteen years old; these three are three years older than me. They have three years more of education on me. While you still stubbornly believe that I'm an arrogant, attention seeking brat because you can't distinguish between my father and me and abuse your power as a teacher each potions lesson to bully me, I'm not suicidal." Harry gave back.
"Twenty points from Gryffindor, Potter, how dare you speak to me like that?" Snape barked.
"I want to borrow your pensieve, headmaster. I'll submit all my memories of Professor Snape's lessons from the first one to the one last Monday. I can prove my statement." Harry calmly said.
"That won't be necessary, Harry." Dumbledore quickly said.
"Typical, hushing up the truth. Like every other year. You always take the side that is harming me, why would it be different now? You say you're trying to protect me, but your actions tell the opposite. So what do you intend to do now?" He asked addressing Barty Crouch.
Dumbledore was stumped. That wasn't what he did, or was it?
"Well, Mr Potter, even if you didn't enter your name, the contract made with the Goblet of Fire is binding. There is no way out. You'll have to compete to the best of your abilities." He said.
"Great, Professor Moody, you're a retired auror, do you have any idea how this mess could have been made possible?" Harry angrily now addressed his DADA teacher.
"I'd guess a really powerful confundus charm was used. Otherwise the fourth champion isn't possible to explain. Nothing a student even a powerful seventh year would be able to do. I'll see to it that this is thoroughly investigated, Potter, you have my word." Moody promised.
"Better than nothing." Harry mumbled.
"Well, to the formalities. The first task is designed to test your daring, so we'll not tell you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard … very important … The first task will take place on November 24th. The students are not allowed to ask for or accept any kind of help from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. You'll face the first challenge armed only with your wand. Information about the second task will be revealed when the first task is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the Tournament, the champions are exempted from the end of year tests." Crouch said and then turned to Dumbledore.
"I think that is all, or can you think of something else, Albus?" Crouch asked.
"No, I think, you covered everything, Barty. Well, it's getting late; I think it's time to return to your common rooms or accommodations." He said.
Harry and Cedric went part of the way together.
"I'm curious, Harry, why are you taking this so calmly?" Cedric asked.
"I'm anything but. I just hope my declaration in the Great Hall was enough to stop a repeat of my second year. I'll be honest, if I had been of age, I'd have entered my name on my own. But now, I'm at a massive disadvantage against you three. I just think panicking will just harm me. I'll have to work something out to survive this. Too bad I can't ask any teacher for help. Moody would have been a fountain of information and spells."
"Still resenting the other teachers?" Cedric asked.
"It's really hard not to do so. You have seen Snape. He hates me just because of a student rivalry with my father. From what Professor Lupin, who was a close friend of my father, told me last year, both parties were at fault. Professor Snape just happened to be on his own when he tried something. It's despicable that a teacher isn't capable of showing professionalism. I don't ask the man to like me, it would just be nice not to be singled out and insulted because he hated my father, who is long dead. Then Dumbledore failed again to keep my out of danger. He also refuses to take any action on my complaints against Snape's behaviour. Professor McGonagall didn't really believe my words in the hall, I can read her face by now. And she is my head of house.
"Professor Sprout is somewhat resentful because of the one-time her house is getting massive positive attention, something happens to steal it away. The other teachers are more or less just guilty by doing nothing. I just don't trust them to help me anymore. It's not like I don't listen to them in class. If I didn't have Hermione as a best friend I'd have failed Potions all the years. I pass the final tests alright because nobody can sabotage me there. But all my marks under the year are a result of Snape distracting me from concentrating on the instructions, or the Slytherins throwing wrong ingredients in my potions. And nobody bothers changing the set-up of the lessons. It's common knowledge that Slytherins and Gryffindors don't get along. But our dear headmaster puts us together every year in one of the most dangerous subjects." Harry complained.
"I have never thought about it like that. You have a point. I just didn't realize it as we have Potions with Ravenclaw and it never arts out like that." Cedric admitted.
They reached the point where Harry had to go up to Gryffindor tower and Cedric to take the corridor past the kitchens.
"Well, good luck, Harry. I'll make sure that even the thickheads in my house won't give you problems." Cedric promised.
"Thanks, Cedric. Well, good luck to you too."
Both boys went to their common rooms.
Agent Aurora Sinistra stood in M's office. Somehow the leader of MI6 couldn't stop grinning.
"This is just perfect. Without our interference Potter gets to participate in the tournament and nobody will question him when he starts training like crazy. Very well. Agent Sinistra, you'll secretly point him to the best books the Hogwarts library has to offer to help him preparing. We can't take a chance of him being found out. And organize for him getting a pass for the restricted section. We can get a lot of knowledge from those books.
"This will be a perfect test for Agent Potter's abilities. We'll see if he is ready to participate in higher ranked missions after the Tournament. Inform Potter, that he has to go all out to win this tournament. Nobody will ask him why he can do certain things now."
"Understood, sir." Aurora answered before leaving the office.
M pushed a button on his desk to call his secretary.
"Miss Moneypenny, get me Team Delta into my office in fifteen minutes." He ordered.
"Yes, sir." Came the answer.
Harry meanwhile sat in the Gryffindor common with Hermione and Ron, looking through spellbooks.
"Do we have to do this now?" Ron complained about the amount of books that lay on the table in front of them.
"Yes, we do!" Hermione answered. "Harry is at a disadvantage with the other three champions being three years older than him. He only has until November 24th to at least catch up a bit. So we need to find useful spells as soon as possible so he can practice them. As we don't know what the task will be about, we need to cover a wide spectrum." She said bossily.
"I think we are doing this the wrong way." Harry said. "I won't get up to the level of the other three in just three weeks. We should research the Tournament in itself and what kind of tasks there were in the past. Perhaps there are similarities in all the Tournaments."
"A good idea, Harry, but we should also look up useful spells." Hermione insisted.
"Of course we'll look up spells. But it would make more sense if we had a clue which kinds of spells would be best to learn. For example it wouldn't make any sense to learn a flame freezing charm if I had to get something from the lake for example. While it would be a useful spell to know in other situations, it would be useless in an environment of water where I'd be better off with a means to breathe underwater or know about how to battle water creatures. Or if they sent us into the forest. There I would need to know how to get rid of Hagrid's pets. After the first task we can branch out. But for now I need to find out what I could be facing. They said the task is about testing our courage, so we'll face something that frightens most wizards. What could that be?" Harry said.
They began making a list and then enlisted Neville, who had offered his help with research, the twins, just the best minds to think out of the box, and Ginny to look up books about the things they thought of and about the Tournament in general.
Rita Skeeter had made a grave mistake. She had written an article that showed Harry Potter in a false light. She didn't expect to be the recipient of masses of howlers. Normally only people she wrote about got howlers from her enraged readers. What the hell was going on? She had written that Potter was just an attention seeking brat that had cheated his way into the Tournament.
He had denied her an interview before the wand weighing ceremony. Flat out denied her, Rita Skeeter. She never let something like that go. But now she was at the receiving end of hate mail. How she dared to spread those lies about that nice boy. Or that she should just give up writing as she clearly was unsuited to be a real journalist. The worst part was that her editor had put her on probation. He didn't want to be the next one Harry Potter socially killed.
He had asked her if she had been on vacation for the past half a year. Everybody knew how Harry Potter had destroyed Dolores Umbridge's political and social career and had been the hero of the riot at the Quidditch World Cup for organizing a safe retreat of all the children that had been separated from their parents in the hysteria. And he didn't need to lie, he used the truth. Using lies was one thing, somebody could recover from a hit like that with time, people would forget about rumours with time once the truth has been proven, but rock solid facts couldn't be destroyed like that. He had warned her. Blacks were not to be underestimated and the boy had inherited Black blood from his grandmother Dorea. Who by the way had an extensive collection of detailed information on people she knew about that her grandson had found somewhere. That book was legendary and every journalist would sell his firstborn to even get a glimpse into it.
Now she had to scrounge around to get the lowest stories. Oh, she would make Harry Potter pay, and she would use his method. She would find out the truth about the boy and then she would reveal it. Nobody crossed her and got away. Sadly she wouldn't get far as a certain Astronomy Professor kept a very keen eye on the grounds of Hogwarts with her personal marauder's map.
Harry sat on his broom, thinking how he could get past a dragon. True to their research of previous tournaments, almost always the first task dealt with large and dangerous magical creatures. At least the organizers had refrained from bringing the ones that would kill the champions with special abilities like a look; somebody had had the stupid idea of bringing a basilisk three centuries ago, or a breath, an even stupider official that brought a Nundu.
But dragons were nothing you could relax around. They had figured out that the task had to do with dragons when Ron and Ginny had told them that Charlie was coming. Then Hagrid had shown Harry the dragons, it paid off to be friends with a half-giant who simply loved dangerous creatures sometimes. Now Harry knew what would await him. He had taken his Firebolt to get out of the castle for some time and to think clearly.
Well one way would be outsmarting the dragon in the air. But he didn't know if his Firebolt would be enough to outspeed the dragon. There were reports that a dragon that had gathered momentum was pretty fast in the air. So he had to disable the long-range weapon, the fire. In short-range he had to additionally look out for the tail and the claws.
Points were always awarded for a spectacular performance and the least possible injuries. Well, the only real weakness a dragon had were the eyes. But Harry didn't think it would be wise to blind a dragon if there were real dragon eggs in near proximity. The conjunctivitis curse was painful and if the dragon accidentally trampled its own eggs, Harry didn't want to be responsible for the loss of those lives.
So the best choice to disable the fire would be a flame-freezing charm. He also needed a distraction. Perhaps he could try his rooster transfiguration again. A big, fat, grilled rooster should interest the dragon. More than it trying to eat him. Okay, he had to review his rooster transformation technique and give the dragon some big, tasty targets. Next thing was a way around the tail. With his luck he would probably get the Hungarian Horntail. And if not he had prepared for the worst case scenario.
Dragons had a lot of power. No shield that he could conjure would be able to stand up to the force a dragon tail could unleash. Well, time to get his team to help him find a way to solve the open spots in his strategy.
Ironically it had been Ron who found the perfect solution for the problem. Growing up with Charlie he had a lot of knowledge about dragons. They were creatures of fire. They didn't like water in greater doses. But it still took more water any wizard could conjure to put out a fire. The solution? Get the dragon over the lake, cast a well-aimed stunner between the wings, it will only sting the dragon a bit, but it's sufficient if it's distracted while flying high speed and with missing perhaps two swings with the wings the dragon will drop into the water.
So if the plan of mollifying the dragon with roast chicken and stealthily stealing the egg didn't work, he would drop it into the lake. He had his summoning charm perfected and had Ron hold onto his Firebolt in case plan A failed.
Harry stood in the champions' tent and listened to Bagman and his instructions of the task. Harry, wanting to prevent Cedric from dying or being heavily injured had pointed the Hufflepuff in the direction of the books about the previous tournaments. This way he at least knew that he would have to face a magical creature of massive size or danger. And if Cedric read the part that cheating was tradition in the Tournament, he could have found out about the creatures being dragons.
Harry's luck held true and was to face the Hungarian Horntail. Cedric had been first to go and got the Swedish Short-Snout, then Fleur followed with the Welsh Green, Viktor was next against the Chinese Fireball. Now Harry walked into the arena. He directly began transfiguring small rocks into normal sized roosters, which he then enlarged. Harry made an interesting discovery. Basilisks were not the only reptiles that hated crowing roosters. Nesting dragons did too. Harry's mega roosters began crowing and running around the arena in panic and annoying the shit out of the dragon.
She soon began roasting the roosters and completely ignored the boy that had disillusioned himself. With the smell of roasted chicken drafting through the air, the dragon was unable to smell Harry. He had all the time necessary to take the golden egg without disturbing the real dragon eggs. He disillusioned the egg, when he reached the nest, had a look if there were enough roosters left to distract the dragon and then stealthily sneaked to the finish line. There he cancelled the disillusionment charms on himself and the egg.
Roaring applause greeted him. He was uninjured, he had beat Krum by a big margin and his dragon contently chewed on the roasted chicken.
"Well, blimey, our youngest champion has shown his older competitors how it's done. He beat the best time from Mr Krum by three minutes. And he even made it look easy." He heard the voice of Ludo Bagman commentating.
Madam Pomfrey looked over Harry and seemed to be surprised.
"I didn't think that I'd live to see the day, when you get into a dangerous situation and would not be injured." She said waving her wand over Harry again to be sure he wasn't injured.
"Aw, Madam Pomfrey, you hurt me. I don't try to get injured. But wouldn't you miss me if I didn't visit you at least once a year in the hospital wing with a capital injury?" Harry teased her.
"No, I wouldn't." She answered grinning. "Now get out and get your score."
"Aye, aye, Madam!" Harry saluted and left the matron.
"Harry, you were great." Hermione greeted him, hugging him.
She was quickly followed by Ron and Neville who slapped his back, Ginny who shyly hugged him and the twins who whistled and catcalled.
"Thanks guys. I couldn't have done it without all of your help. Now, I need to get my score. Should have been enough to score high." Harry said smiling brightly.
They all waited next to Harry when he looked at the judges.
Madam Maxime was first. She didn't seem happy but she shot a ten in the air.
"Wow, well from her face I guess she would have liked to deduct some points but with you getting out without injury and in the best time she would just draw the scorn of the other judges towards her." Hermione said.
Barty Crouch was next and also shot a ten into the air. The same was true for Ludo Bagman and Professor Dumbledore. The three were smiling or at least looking content.
Next was Professor Karkaroff, who looked like he had swallowed a lemon but he shot up an eight.
"Unbelievable. He gave Krum a ten and he had his dragon trample over the real eggs." Ron ranted.
"It doesn't matter, Ron. From his face he would have liked to give me less, but with the others giving straight tens he couldn't justify it. Where do I rank in the Tournament now?" Harry asked, suspecting the answer.
"You're first, followed by Krum. He shot some spell into the dragon's eyes. As Ron said the dragon trampled on the real eggs due to that. Next is Fleur, she lulled her dragon to sleep somehow but was hit by a flame from the snoring dragon, which she put out with water from her wand. Then last place is Cedric, he also used transfiguration to distract the dragon, he transfigured a rock into a Labrador, but the dragon got bored with the dog and shot fire at Cedric when he just had the egg and gave him a bad burn." Neville reported.
"Hah and that is the reason why you have to think like Ron to defeat a dragon. Whatever you do, think with the stomach." Harry joked, getting a slap on the back of his head by the mentioned redhead.
And Cut. I hope you liked my version of the first task. With Ron not being a jealous git after Harry directly made it clear that he didn't put his name into the Goblet there would be more support from his side. And for those that fear that this will be a Harry / Ginny pairing, it won't be. It doesn't fit into the concept of Harry being more like Sirius and James Bond.
But that will become clearer later on. Till in two weeks. (for this story)