Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord", enjoy!

* Review response:
The Sinful, yeah, that was the spell-transformed version of that "Naruto" technique.
reven228, Zarosian Chaos, WritinGod05, Dericof Diname, Lord Xantos A. Fowl, raw666, Penny is wise, Naginator, ElementalMaster16, xArtehx, foggraven, shugokage, nopparitari, pandora vanity, JPElles, Emerald777, Joe Lawyer, twilightnemo, The Swordslinger, Artela, Cre A. Tor00x, thank you for your reviews, folks!
Zikarn Krais, hopefully, the edited version sits better with you.
Danget the critic, I do indeed plan on Harry using many 'mutated' medical spells in combat-like situations.
Wyrtha, who knows, who knows... Though Fleur is neither planned nor wanted as his partner. Maybe she'll get a dance with Harry at the Yule ball, though. But nothing more than that.
ErikArden, um... yeah. Gotta fix that.
acrazysmile, you ask it, you get it =)

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "Freezing" anime/manga series.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"powered speech / true prophecies by the seer"
"spells / parseltongue"
messages

chapter 58: Good happenings and bad news

Dumbledore was sitting in his office, deep in his thoughts: his champion and the chosen one of the Great Britain had been so soundly defeated in a duel just about an hour ago. And since the duel was a public one with an independent judge, the old warlock couldn't do much to change the situation into something more favorable for him – people were going to start losing their faith in his Light because of this, and seeing that Voldemort was getting ready to return, it was unacceptable!

Trying to salvage his Greater Good and his reputation of the greatest wizard since Merlin aside, the Hogwarts headmaster was also trying to understand how Mr. Potter had won so easily for in his mind no fourth-year should be this good compared to his champion. Was he turning dark? It was definitely a possibility, but achieving such power so quickly without dark rituals was unheard of, and Dumbledore was sure that he would have noticed the signs that the boy had performed some. No, that was not it.

Was everything even worse? Was it possible that in place of Harry Potter there was some powerful evil entity now? The boy did go abroad this summer, and no one could guarantee that he didn't became possessed like it had happened to poor Quirinus Quirrell. And if that had happened, well, it was not a bound spirit like Voldemort's wraith as the wards he had been forced to re-activate two years ago didn't detect anything.

Dumbledore sighed again: he could not think of any plausible explanation of how Mr. Potter could possibly be better than the one, destined to be Voldemort's equal. And, despite being throwing sand in the wheels of his Greater Good, the boy wasn't doing anything actually bad. Thus, the Hogwarts headmaster chose to observe and wait, while preparing for the worst...

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Some annoyances – like Ron, angry from the humiliating defeat he had suffered, or just general Hogwarts populace that kept buzzing about the duel – aside, Harry's Transfiguration lesson and lunch were rather uneventful, and the green-eyed teen was rather thankful for this. The Herbology was also starting like that, but about twenty minutes into the lesson this changed as a folded piece of parchment found its way onto his worktable.

Inside, there was a message from Draconica, in which she was asking for a meeting in their 'usual' place later today. And Harry wasn't quite sure how he should react to this – even though the blond witch was among the first ones to start cheering for his victory earlier today, he didn't think she had already forgiven him for whatever he had done wrong the day before... Still, the dark-haired wizard found the girl in question among their classmates and, once their eyes met, he nodded to her briefly, returning to his work before he could even see her reaction to his response.

Likely, it was just his mental tiredness from the events of the last thirty-six or so hours, but for whatever reason, the young Potter didn't really worry much about his tet-a-tet with the Malfoy heiress during the rest of the Herbology or the entirety of DADA... But once the long break before the fifth lesson started, his nervousness finally caught up with him, only growing stronger as he approached their usual meeting spot.

And even though professor Moody let them leave as soon as the bell rang today, by the time Harry reached the semi-secret passage, his Slytherin girl friend was already there, leaning against the tapestry-covered wall lightly. Seeing that he was now there as well, she pushed herself off the wall gently and turned to look into his eyes.

"Harry..." She whispered quietly as she tried to reach for him with her hand. And as the green-eyed teen did nothing to make her stop, Draconica placed her hand lightly on his chest, just over his heart. Then she pulled herself closer to him till their bodies were almost touching, yet maintaining their eye contact, her big blue-gray eyes filled with the mixture of emotions that the young Potter couldn't completely identify. "I'm sorry, Harry..." The blond witch whispered. "Back then I shouldn't have reacted like that..."

"Shh... I forgive you." The dark-haired wizard replied, unconsciously wrapping his arms around the beauty's waist and pulling her closer to himself, till her head rested on his chest. For maybe a minute the two just stood like this, both not so secretly enjoying their closeness, but then she gently extracted herself from his embrace and once again looked into his eyes.

"Thank you." She whispered softly. Then, her usual slight aloofness returned. "But, still, you should have told me that you'd do that." The Malfoy heiress said, referring to him making a bid for her hand. "Do you know how I felt when my father told me that I'm to marry some 'Lord of good standing' whose family name I don't even know?" Draconica berated him. Harry rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well..." Even though the blond witch wasn't really angry with him anymore, the young Potter was still feeling rather uneasy as he was excusing himself. "I informed you that my contract got accepted as soon as I learned about that myself, and..." The Slytherin girl just sighed, somehow causing him to think about what else he did wrong back then. And, while it took him a couple of seconds, he got it. "And, well..." He paused, just unable to continued under the gaze of those blue-gray eyes. Noticing this, Draconica looked away from him, while some pinks appeared on her pretty face. "Maybe I shouldn't have approached you with this in public like I did..."

"Well, it certainly would have saved you from professor Snape's wrath" The blonde said after a second of silence. "I've heard he gave you quite a punishment for your supposed misdeed." She made a pause, before continuing: "Want me to talk to him? I may be able to convince him to cancel your detentions." Harry smiled at her, but he still shook his head.

"Don't. Somehow I can't see this ending well for us, given how much professor Snape dislikes me. Plus, I've already made an appeal to the Board of Governors about this earlier today. Don't think that they will be able to give back those point, but they are quite likely to cancel my detentions. They actually should inform me about their decision sometime after the Aritmancy today." Draconica nodded, before quickly casting tempus charm: the bell hadn't rang yet, but she had a feeling that the brake will end soon. And, indeed, they had only about a minute before their fifth period will start.

"Let's go?" She asked, canceling her charm. Harry answered her with a small smile, and the two of them headed towards the Arithmancy classroom, not really caring if someone saw them leaving their semi-secret meeting spot together...

In the early evening, just before the dinner was to start, a house elf delivered Harry a note from the Board of Governors – well, the only member of the board that was on 'duty' that day – saying that the detentions that Snape gave him yesterday were canceled as they were found to be excessive and against the rules. The note also said that the professor in question had been notified about the cancellation of the detentions as well, and the green-eyed teen was rather thankful for this as he sure as hell didn't fancy explaining this to Snape himself...

Unfortunately, the point that the Potions master took back then couldn't be restored without the majority of the Board of Governors voting for it – more than a day had passed since that had happened, thus making the punishment 'accepted' both by the school administrators and by the young Potter himself – but not being someone who cared much about the house points, the dark-haired wizard wasn't too upset by this.

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The 'Daily Prophet' was yet to publish anything regarding Harry being an unwilling entree into the Triwizard tournament, but the green-eyed teen wasn't vexed by this. He did understand that even the best barristers might need more than one day to force the main wizarding Britain's newspaper to acknowledge that they weren't entirely truthful with their subscribers. And the young Potter wasn't forgetting that he gave Howard L Bridget other tasks as well...

Anyway, the morning and he afternoon passed without any out of ordinary happenings. This, though, changed in the evening with the appearance of the owls carrying a special edition of the 'Daily Prophet'. And if this wasn't unusual enough, an evening post, like the letter Harry received along with his copy of the newspaper, definitely was... Deciding that the letter is more important, the green-eyed teen read it first.

But as it turned out, the letter was just a note from Violet, saying that the situation with the 'Daily Prophet' and their article about the champions being selected was resolved. Attached to this note, was a Gringotts missive, which said that five thousands galleons were added to his Potter vault.

As for the 'Prophet', indeed, this special edition of the newspaper for the most part was about him being an unwilling entree into the Triwizard tournament, complemented by various experts' thoughts about this situation. And the simple fact that more than a half of these experts agreed that he was forced into the tournament by some dark elements showed what a good job the L Bridgets had done...

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For Harry, Thursday passed without any incidents and so did the Friday morning. But just as the lunch started, professor McGonagall told him that he had a visitor waiting for him in one of the 'guestrooms' on the first floor. Nodding to his head of the house, the young Potter quickly finished his meal and headed there.

The guestroom in question actually was just one of the slightly refurnished classrooms used for the meetings between those who lived in the castle and those who didn't. There was only of those unlocked at the moment, and whoever was inside was definitely waiting for him, but, still, the green-eyed teen knocked politely on the door before walking in. Almost immediately he spotted Violet sitting at the professor's table with several stacks of papers lying in front of her.

"Good day." He greeted her with a polite bow as he took a seat across the table from her. The pretty barrister returned the greeting, though she used more restrained 'Hello' instead.

"Let's get straight to the business, lord Potter." Upon his nod, she continued: "I'm very sorry, but I'm bringing you bad news today. Despite everything my father and I had done, we were unable to provide you with a way out of the tournament." The dark-haired teen was silent for a moment, obviously unhappy with this.

"There are no loopholes that would allow me to leave the competition?" He asked then. And he was rather surprised when Violet shook her head in response. Finding the proper page among the documents she had in front of her, the blond witch explained:

"Actually there is one: within twenty four hours of your name coming out of the Goblet, you could have left the tournament by ripping that parchment apart and putting it back into the fires of the Goblet. 'Eternal dishonor' as the rules say, would be your punishment, but that is nothing more than pretty words: magic wouldn't have taken any actions against you if you did that. Your schoolmates would be another thing, though, but as you appear to be on your own in this farce of the tournament, it is not a problem for you either."

"I see..." Harry breathed out. He was far from happy with this development, but he could see it in Violet's eyes – and the shadows around them – that she had done everything she could to get him out of the tournament only to fail the task. And now that she had mentioned it, he recalled some strange feeling that he had experienced right after the dinner on Tuesday. Apparently, that was Magic binding the contract between him and the damned Goblet of Fire...

"Unfortunately, that is not all, lord Potter." The pretty barrister said. "Now that you must participate in the tournament, the contract says that you also need to do your absolute best to win. Something like forfeiting a task as soon as you start it will be considered a breach of the contract will all ensuing consequences." She made pause as she handed the green-eyed wizard the pages where this rule was described. "It was added to the contract in the late fifteenth century after a rich nobleman had bribed the other champions into forfeiting all of the tasks to him." There was another short pause, before Violet continued speaking: "Thankfully for you, even if you fail a task miserably, as long as you wanted and tried to succeed in it, the contract will not be considered breached."

"I see..." The young Potter sighed. There was an uncomfortable pause then. "Well... Since I now don't have any way out of the tournament anymore, I think we should do something so that my presence doesn't screw the game up for the real champions." The blond witch nodded, and the two of them started brainstorming for the ideas...

"Is there a reason why we were summoned here?" Madame Maxime asked as she walked into the 'guestroom' with Fleur following her closely behind. Headmaster Karkarov with Victor Krum, along with the two representatives of the British Ministry for Magic arrived moments later. The Hogwarts 'delegation' – headmaster Dumbledore, Cedric Diggory and, for some strange reason, professor Moody – joined the assemblage just a couple of seconds later.

"Thank you all for coming." Harry said, starting form afar. "To those who don't know, this is Violet L Bridget, my barrister, and she agreed to help me out today. And, unfortunately, we will have to start with the bad news. Ms. Bridget and her father, despite everything they did, were unable to have me removed from the tournament..."

"Of course they were unable to." Karkarov said sarcastically. "A brat like you, Potter, will never miss a chance to hog more attention. Isn't this why you are here in the first place?" The green-eyed teen glared at the man, but didn't rise to the bait.

"I believe you are mistaken here, headmaster Karkarov." Violet said, rising to the defense of her client. "Or were you not present when lord Potter swore on his life that he did not have himself entered into the tournament?" There was a short pause, before she continued: "Anyway, the reason why, despite our best attempts, we were unable to remove lord Potter from the tournament is the time limit – champions are given only twenty four hours to quit, yet this rule was buried so deep in the rulebook that it was not discovered by us until late evening yesterday." The Durmstrang headmaster wanted to say something hurtful again, but a glare from Moody told him that he should at very least let those two finish.

"Thus, I'm now magically bound to compete in the tournament. Compete and not just participate." Harry continued. "Which means, that no matter what I want, I can't even forfeit the tasks for as long as I can keep going forward, so to speak. And the same goes to all other champions: none of you is even given an option of just walking away from the task – unless I'm mistaken, this is not something that the organizers had mentioned when they were giving the instructions for the first task." Judging by the expressions on the three champions' faces, none of them were aware of this.

"While this is quite informative, I hardly see why you needed to tell us in such a haste. It could have waited until dinner, could it not?" Madam Maxime said, her eyes fixed on the young Potter.

"Well... Forgive me for wanting to have some support while talking to you all." Harry replied with a shrug. "And I'm not finished just yet; actually I just got to the most important part – the scores and the winner of the tournament." He took a deep breath, before resumed speaking: "As the Goblet does not recognize me as the second Hogwarts champion, it is quite easy to set the thing up in a way that my impact on the whole thing is minimal." From there, Violet continued for him:

"First of all, since the winner of the tournament is traditionally chosen based on the third task only, it is safe to assume that lord Potter's presence will only raise a need for some additional materials for the first two tasks..." Ludo Bagman gave an energetic nod. "Thus, during those tasks he can be scored like the other three champions."

"Ms. L Bridget say that the contract between the Goblet and the champions is considered fulfilled by Magic the moment the judges announce that the third task is complete. In other words, if by some offhand chance I manage to win the task, the one in the second place can be safely named the true winner of the tournament, regardless of which school he or she represents."

"This is ...very considerate of you, Mr. Potter." Madam Maxime said after a rather long silence. Maybe she should even forgive him for wasting her and her champion's time – the lunch break had finished by now and the 'third' lesson had already started, after all...

On his way back to the Defense classroom Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise of Alastor Moody let out a barely audible sigh of relief: his master's plan would not be compromised by this. He now just needed to ensure that the Potter brat doesn't die during the tasks. But knowing how the brat managed to live through everything the Fates had been throwing at him, he might not even need to actively involve himself in this.

That's all, folks!
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