Harry flung a spell at a Death Eater that was unfortunate enough to cross his path. The masked figure was thrown back by the force of his spell even as Harry ignored the defeated enemy and continued to lead his wife through the burning tents, with the goal of getting her to safety.
"Behind us," Sirius shouted, causing the group to turn and face the approaching threat.
With so many underage witches and wizards with them it fell to Sirius, Remus, Arthur and Harry to protect the group until they could get to the treeline where they would be safer. However their group's efficiency managed to attract the attention of the other death eaters who did not like that some people were fighting back against them and started to converge on their group, making it harder for them to escape.
"They're coming from every direction," Arthur shouted nervously. He wasn't a fighter but right now when the safety of his children was on the line so he would become one. He was thankful however that he had others to help him in this frightening time. At least it was frightening for other reasons because while he knew that Sirius and Remus had fought in the last war and were said to be quite competent back in the day, the father had not expected to see Harry display so much skill and power that the young man was leading the group and taking out most of the death eaters before they could even get a spell off.
Harry could see many figures moving through the smoke with their shadows flickering in every direction. "Cover your eyes," Harry ordered as he raised his wand. "Lumos Solem." casting the sunlight charm which created a massive flash of harsh bright light in the sky, lighting up the entire air.
It also earned the surprised shrieks of pain from the death eaters many of whom were blinded by the sudden light. At that point Harry moved on to clearing out the fires surrounding them so they had a path to go through when they found an opening. "Aqua Eructo," aiming his wand as a torrent of water erupted from the tip and doused the roaring flames. With another flick Harry conjured winds that swept away the obscuring smoke and steam, giving him total visibility on his opponents.
The death eaters in the area that failed to recover their sight were quickly dispatched with the others abandoning their comrades to escape the onslaught they were facing from the ones protecting a group of children.
In the next few minutes the rapid sounds of pops nearby indicated that the aurors finally arrived, a bit too late to be of any use. "Amelia," Sirius smiled when he saw the head auror coming over to the large and recognizable group after telling her aurors to secure the scene and find any injured.
"Why is it when there is a problem, I'm always finding you at the center of it Lord Potter." Heaving a dejected sigh at the thought that Harry Potter would forever be a constant when it came to trouble.
Harry gave a shrug because he had simply gotten used to it after three years. "What can I say Madam Bones, everybody loves me." beaming a smile at the woman who rolled her eyes.
"Were any of you hurt?" Looking over the group and getting a response of shaken heads. "Well that's one relief."
"Nothing wrong with a bit of excitement I always say," Sirius smiled and stood up with his chest puffed out.
"Cut it out," Harry said, slapping his godfather's gut with the back of his hand causing him to wheeze from the impact. "She's on the job, save your flirting for when she's not going to be stuck doing hours of paperwork."
"Appreciated Lord Potter," Amelia smirked at the pair, before giving a saucy wink to Sirius to let him know she didn't dislike the attempt.
"Too much excitement for me," Arthur patted his brow dry from all the sweat that had built up but he was feeling pretty good knowing that his children were all safe. They were eager to cheer for him for standing up to fight the death eaters for them.
"Should be the end of any of it, everything should be going back to normal," Remus deflated from having to get into the thick of combat after so many years of a sedentary life.
"Oh what the fuck?!" Harry shouted in rage as Luna skipped away from the Gryffindor table after her name was called by the Headmaster that she would be participating in the Triwizard Tournament.
While Luna had a smile on her face waiting with the three older champions in the trophy room, a furious Harry Potter stormed into the room arguing with the three headmasters, Mad-Eye Moody, Barty Crouch Sr. and Ludo Bagman.
"This is lunacy, she cannot enter, she's underaged," Harry shouted. "The only person who could have entered her into the tournament would have been me, and I would never put her in this death gauntlet."
"What's going on?" Cedric nervously asked of the adults and one younger legal adult.
"It seems that the Goblet of Fire has chosen a fourth champion," Ludo Bagman happily stated, seeing potential fame and riches to be had from this tournament now being more crazy than before.
"It didn't do anything, all it did was spit out a burnt scrap of paper, maybe the cup just had indigestion?" Harry said angrily. "Find me the rules that show she's in the tournament so I can find a way to get her out of it."
"Unfortunately, that may not be possible, once the goblet has decided then she is now one of the champions." Albus sighed heavily.
"Probably a means to get back at her," Moody suggested. "I could investigate it."
"No way, I'm bringing in Amelia and her people for this, I want to know who put my wife's name in that cup and I am going to find out," Harry threatened while moving to the fireplace and pulled out a pinch of floo powder and tossing it in the flames turning green on contact with the magical dust.
"Sirius, get to Hogwarts, someone might have just made an attempt on Luna's life and I want answers and heads on spikes," Harry said through the flames to Grimmauld place.
"You know it is possible that the little girl entered herself," Madam Maxime put out the possibility that this little girl had snuck her way into the tournament.
"Not possible, she was at all of her classes and we ate together at every meal, when she went to sleep last night she didn't leave the dorm until the morning," Harry dismissed the idea. "I saw her on the marauder's map until I went to sleep, she was in her bed the whole time."
"That's both adorable and slightly disturbing that you watch your wife sleep Harry," Albus coughed into his hand to try and distract a bit from how that sounded.
A minute later a disheveled and tired looking Sirius and Remus came into the room directed by Minerva who looked exhausted from dealing with people already. "Who tried to kill Luna and where are their corpses?" Sirius asked frantically, having expected to have walked into a warzone from his godson slaughtering people who tried to hurt his wife, he just hoped to have a chance at whatever remained of them.
"No one tried to kill Mrs. Potter," Albus reassured the other two adults.
"Not directly," Harry folded his arms. "Someone entered Luna into the Triwizard Tournament somehow, but they don't know how her name came out."
"Maybe it is all a ruse. Ehh," Karkaroff pushed through the other adults to stand in front of Harry. "He admitted only he could have put her name in the goblet, it would be a simple thing to do so he could dispose of such an inadequate woman and trade up."
"Bad move, bad move," Cedric shouted trying to get to Harry before he did anything but he was too slow and Harry was already on top of the Durmstrang Headmaster.
"Say that again, I fucking dare you!" Harry demanded while being pulled off the man by Sirius, Remus and Madam Maxima and together they were barely able to accomplish such a feat, the Durmstrang Headmaster picked himself up and felt blood running down his face from his broken nose.
"An animal," Karkaroff spat, with some of his own blood spraying Harry's face.
"Igor, many have learned in this castle to not disparage Mrs. Potter in front of young Harry here, he is quite protective of her." Albus warned.
"Harry it's okay," Luna said finally speaking up now that she knew she was needed to deescalate the situation. A single gentle touch from her and Harry was far more subdued than before. "I know you didn't put my name in, I just don't know how anything with my signature got in the cup. Headmaster, may I see the slip of parchment please?"
"Of course my dear," Albus happily handed over the burnt paper to her. He was happy to see she still remained the level headed one in the relationship.
Taking a moment to inspect the paper, it finally dawned on her where it originated from. "This is from one of my homeworks," Luna tapped her chin and closed her eyes trying to remember when she last wrote an assignment. "But I can't seem to think of which one. I wrote so many papers recently for my classes."
Giving Luna a tight embrace, Harry looked at Dumbledore fiercely. "Albus, you will question all of your staff, find out who did this."
"What makes you so sure it's one of the professors?" Albus inquired, but not out of doubt just curiosity.
"Because even if none of them did, if we find out which class it was from then we can check for fingerprints or something to that effect to find out who tore off a piece of Luna's homework to slip her into the tournament and why."
"I understand, I will gather my faculty at once," Albus nodded and made to leave the room with Snape, Minerva and Moody following behind him. However when he turned to leave he gasped out because a knife had been driven into his back.
"You just had to grab the wrong Potter," Moody hissed and twitched. "Just had to be going through too fast and not realize you had the third years instead of the fourth years."
Moody turned to attempt to continue stabbing anyone near him with his knife only to find a bright light a fraction of a second away from impacting his skull which in the next moment punched a hole straight through leaving a smear of blood and brain on the wall. "Get him to Pomfrey," Harry shouted as he pushed Luna behind him towards Cedric who had the decency to stand guard while Harry moved around the room to get a better angle on those he didn't know.
Bagman, Crouch Sr., Maxime and Karkaroff soon found themselves facing down multiple wands. Sirius and Remus backed Harry's decision no matter how wrong it might have been and that left Minerva feeling confident enough to get the nurse while Severus tended to the wound as best as he could.
"This is an outrage," Madame Maxime shouted. "We have done nothing wrong to deserve being treated in such a disgraceful, disrespectful and disgusting manner."
"I would not be so sure of that," Severus chimed in as he watched the corpse of Mad-Eye start to change, now that the body was dead the polyjuice potion would wear off. "Considering that is not Alastor Moody and is in fact a man who supposedly died in Azkaban on the word of Igor, I believe that transparency might be the best policy at this time."
"I can't believe I'm saying this but, good point Snape," Sirius cringed from having to compliment the man.
Karkaroff looked at the dead body of the man he sold down the river for his own freedom, then looked over at Bartemius Crouch Sr. the man who looked not as shocked as one should have that his dead son turned up alive, or dead really but in a different place than he was supposed to be. He knew the facts and that he would look pretty guilty if he didn't get ahead of the situation. "I had nothing to do with this and I am willing to testify to that."
"Save it for when Madam Bones gets here," Remus said and motioned for everyone to take some seats.
Amelia arrived shortly after getting the word of what happened in the castle. She arrived with a number of aurors and the minister of magic in tow. "Shacklebolt, Tonks, start getting statements from the people here. Minister, come with me, we'll see what Dumbledore and McGonagall have to say."
This was quite a scandalous affair. The students who had been waiting in the Great Hall after all the champions had been brought back watched as Albus Dumbledore was levitated back out with clear signs of blood on his back. That the aurors came in by the dozen a few minutes later was leading to a lot of rumors.
Kingsley started with Lord Potter as he'd been the one to cast the spell that killed Mad-Eye's imposter and everyone else in the room corroborated that was the proper sequence of events. With only the difference being that the champions did not see what had happened in the Great Hall after they had each come back. "Guess we get to the real meat of it then," the tall auror sighed and turned towards Bartimus Crouch Senior who had been kept under watch by his partner.
It didn't take much prodding to get Mr. Crouch to confess to his crimes. How he had broken his son out of Azkaban for his wife's dying wish, that he had kept him under invisibility cloak and imperiused for years in his home. But also that the last couple of months for himself were fuzzy.
"Likely he either obliviated you or you were under the Imperius that your son cast on you when he escaped," Shacklebolt hummed in thought. "Either way you will be taking his cell when this is over."
"I know," Bartimus hung his head in shame, it had been a foolish and not well thought out plan because it hinged on him keeping his son at home for the rest of their lives.
Harry let out a frustrated sigh, because that didn't solve his immediate concern. "So Barty Crouch Jr. is the one who put Luna in this tournament, so how do I get her out of it?"
"Unfortunately, she is in the tournament," Bartimus chimed in to Harry's question. "There isn't anything one can do about that."
"And how can we trust this information," Sirius questioned, it seemed awfully convenient that there wasn't a way to get Luna out of the tournament.
"It will be in the bylaws, I wrote half the contract myself. Now that I think about it, I don't recall all of it. So it's possible I wrote in rules while under the imperious," Barty realized that it's possible his son had been manipulating him for quite some time.
"I'll get Ted to look it over," Sirius promised his godson.
"My dad's a good barrister Lord Potter," Nymphadora affirmed what her cousin had said. "If there's a way for her to get out of this he'll find it or know someone who will."
"Thanks Tonks," Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He drew it back to rest it on Luna, holding her against his body. "I'm sorry about all this."
"It's alright Harry, I know you're doing your best, but maybe this will be fun," Luna hummed while letting her husband take solace in her presence. "This time you can sit back and watch someone else be the one to have a dangerous adventure."
Harry blinked before looking down at his wife. "That, that didn't reassure me at all?"
"Oh, I'm sorry," Luna responded while sounding completely innocent