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"That was something." Said Portia as she changed into her standard issue uniform nightgown. She hated it; plain white didn't suit her at all. No, blue was her color.
"That was mad, wasn't it?" said Persephone in a mocking tone as she brushed out her hair. She was not happy. She wanted to be at her normal school with normal people who didn't start crazy fights for no good reason. Now, a fight over something worth wile would have been worth something. It had been fun though.
"It was fun." Said Portia letting her hair out of its braid. She sometimes wished that she could cut it but as a girl she was only allowed to trim her bangs. She played with a lock idly; it was much blonder at the ends.
"I'm not contesting that but those people are completely mad. And they made us look bad in front of the other schools." Said Persephone
"I know cousin, why is everyone so bloody obsessed with something that happened when we were babies?" said Portia as she laid down on her bed. Some unused rooms in Hufflepuff were repurposed for the students of Spellwick's. It was a small school and there were rooms to spare. She remembered her mother talking about a rapidly falling population and that being the reason why she was having so many babies. Harry had just said that they liked to shag which was disgusting, parents weren't allowed to do that ever. Galatea had thrown in her two knuts and said that it may have had something to do with his animagus form being a rat, they were notorious breeders. After that they all vowed never to discuss Addie and Peter's shagging habits again.
"I think they have nothing better to do. They haven't got any other sport besides Quiddich, no matinee, no theatre, no nothing! At least we got a weekly matinee and monthly social." Said Persephone trying to get comfortable on this unfamiliar bed. What did they do at Hogwarts, stuff the mattress with rocks? She was used to a feather mattress, only the best for her. Even when they were on their world tour she had her shrunken mattress with her. She could have sworn that she could hear Galatea's voice in her head telling her she was looking for things to complain about.
"I'll agree from what I remember it was rather dull but then again I was eleven. Lots more fun things to do now ." said Portia switching out the gas lamp. Persephone lit her wand and Portia gave her a look which she chose to ignore.
"Such as?" said Persephone facing the wall
"The tournament!" said Portia jumping a little on her bed.
"Hmm." Said Persephone turning to face her cousin
"What?" asked Portia
"I could have sworn you were going to say shagging." Said Persephone. Portia stuck her tongue out and threw her pillow at Persephone. Persephone responded in kind. They played for a bit until they head footsteps coming down the hall. The doorknob turned and they returned to their beds quick as lightening and pretended to sleep. Stupid bed checks. It was going to take forever to get out of their summer sleeping habits.
"Persephone?" said Portia beginning to wind down
"Yeah?"
"I'm getting an idea." Said Portia. Persephone sat up suddenly.
"That's never a good thing." Said Persephone speaking from lots and lots of experience. Portia gave her a dark look.
"I know this is a good one and I won't leave you out." Said Portia as she turned to drift off to sleep.
"Please do." Muttered Persephone.
It was official, everybody hated Harry Potter. It was through no fault of Harry's own, of course, but they hated him all the same. Thank Merlin Dumbledore decided that having the Spellwick's students stay in Gryffindor would have been a bad idea. That honor was reserved for the Beauxbatons students. The Durmstrang students stayed in their ship, Dumbledore didn't want any of the students to be polluted by their darkness. Harry was rooming with another boy from Spellwicks in a tiny room on a hard bed in a place he didn't want to be. He splayed himself out; he missed Galatea's warm body next to him. He missed Galatea. He missed everything about her. He wanted to badly to be with her, more than he wanted to go home to be with his false parents, and that was saying something. She was married though but he was old enough to legally marry and he was from what used to be a good family. He just needed something good, a hook, to reel her in.
"Brilliant!" said Harry and he groped around in the dark for his glasses and wand. He put them on and then scribbled his name down onto a piece of paper. If this didn't work he could always get fame and fortune by introducing the wizarding world to the concept of the ballpoint pen and standard issue paper. He crept out of his room and towards the Great Hall using all of his sneaky sneak skills. He even put on a black dressing gown to blend in. When he reached the Great Hall he saw another figure, this one wearing a white bed sheet like a ghost drop something into the goblet. This person did a little dance and muttered something about this being a great plan. He'd know Portia anywhere.
"Portia Pettigrew." Whispered Harry loudly. Portia jumped high in the air and threw her wand. Harry held up his hands defensively. She saw it was him and tried to salvage some of her dignity.
"Harry, fancy seeing you here." Said Portia in a stiff, proper voice.
"The same to you, Lady Pettigrew. May I say, you look rather dashing in your newest frock." Said Harry in the same voice. She offered her hand and he kissed it. It made her feel strange, but good strange if there was such a thing.
"Why yes Lord Potter, it the very latest from the fall collection." Said Portia draping the sheet around herself and flipping her hair in an exaggerated manner.
"Ah yes, it accents your distinctive Pettigrew eyes very well." Said Harry offering his arm. Portia linked arms with him and gave her eyelashes an exaggerated flutter.
"Only the finest pureblood inbreeding could make such a thing possible. May I say, Lord Potter, that your dressing gown certainly brings out the green of your eyes. I feel myself growing weak in your presence. Ooh!" said Portia, her knees giving out in a fake buckle. Harry caught her and she was aware of their closeness.
"Oh Lady Pettigrew I do believe that you must sit down, a Lady such as yourself must not exert herself in such a way." Said Harry leading her down to the floor. He missed this, just being able to mess around not a care in the world.
"Lord Potter so oblige me so." Said Portia leaning into his shoulder. It occurred to her then that this would have been more innocent before. Well, they were siblings before. Now they were just a boy and a girl sitting close together on the floor of a dark empty room in nothing but their pajamas. It felt both scandalous and exciting.
"What are you doing here?" said Harry having similar thoughts to Portia's. This would have been nothing if they were still siblings but now things were…different and the same at once. He looked down at her, his hand was at the curve of her waist as is flared into her hip. He always loved that about Galatea. Galatea. He loved Galatea. He stood and up she followed suit.
"Same as you I'd imagine. Don't worry I put in all of our names." Said Portia putting the bed sheet over herself like a ghost. If anyone asked her was either sleepwalking or being juvenile; whichever their minds went to first.
"All of ours?" asked Harry. Portia nodded.
"Except for Galatea of course." Said Portia. Harry got a strange look when she mentioned Galatea. she decided that it was worth pursuing.
"Harry, is anything going on between you and Galatea?" said Portia deciding to jump right in and say it. Harry looked at her with shock…that was very forward. He scrunched his face, he was staring to think of her as another lady in training, not Portia.
"I don't know. I mean yes but she left and…well she left me." Said Harry grateful for someone to talk to. If anything, he realized how alone he was aside from the three of them.
"Fate of the world?" asked Portia. On the outside she was comforting but on the inside her organs were getting all twisted up in a knot. It felt like her stomach was going to climb out of her throat. On the outside she smiled.
"As usual." Said Harry sullenly. Portia patted him on the back. Galatea had a husband, the fate of the world, and a mistress, her actual husband. Harry could never permanently be a part of that polygamist relationship.
"Well, she is married to that fey, anyway as well as to her work. Don't worry, if something is meant to happen it will." Said Portia. Harry smiled, she was smart when she thought things through. They retired to their separate dormitories with many things to contemplate.
Barty Crouch Junior smiled as he put the powerful compulsion on the cup. Now the odds were heavily in his Master's favor. His master would be reborn and purge the filth from the wizarding world ushering in a new era of pureness and prosperity! No longer would they have to skitter about the ground like cockroaches while muggles had the audacity to think that they had the upper hand.
Albus Dumbledore was very pleased with this turn of events. Harry Potter would fight in the tournament, it would all work out perfectly. He expected his old friend Moody to at least have reservations about this but for some odd reason he had been all for it and even volunteered to help. Alastor must have seen it his way finally. Yes, all the pieces were coming into play like some grand game of wizards chess. He idly flipped through an issue of the daily prophet until he got to a small article pushed in with human interest. It seemed that Galatea Black fancied herself a chess master as well. Hmm, he have to turn a night to topple a queen. That's wizard's chess by the way, she would have to be obliterated.
The next few days passed without much incident. The upcoming tournament coupled with the fact that Harry never left the protective cocoon of Spellwick's meant that there was no more opportunity for violence. He liked it that way…bodily harm was never really his thing. Currently he was filing to the great hall with his fellow school mates, the goblet was going to choose it's victims. He sat down across from Portia and Persephone, Portia looking with rapt attention at Dumbledore who was once again explaining the tournament and the cup. Soon the goblet began to glow and spit fire before a paper flew out into Dumbledore's outstretched hand.
"From Beauxbaton's we have Fluer Delacore." Said Dumbledore. Fluer got up, did a curtsy, and went off to the champion's area. Harry watched her as she walked away, half vela all gorgeous. Several of the girls were giving her dirty looks, as if she could help it.
"Floozy." Muttered Portia under her breath as she flounced away in her tight, short dress. She wasn't even wearing proper pantalets and judging by the amount of jiggling she wasn't wearing a corset either. People would look at her like that if she went about without underwear on as well.
"From Durmstrang we have Victor Krum." Said Dumbledore. This time many different tables erupted in cheering. Harry finger clapped under the table, he did enjoy Quiddich.
"Boy floozy." Muttered Persephone. Portia knew when she was being mocked and gave Persephone a little kick in the shin. Persephone retaliated and stuck out her tongue. A look from a her headmaster effectively stopped the kicking game.
"From Hogwarts we have…Cedric Diggory!" said Dumbledore. And enthusiastic Hufflepuff lept onto the table and tore off his shirt to reveal the badger painted onto his chest. He was shouted at to sit down and get dressed. He quickly complied. To Durmstrang and Beauxbatons he made Hogwarts look like a bunch on uncivilized barbarians but to Spellwick's what he did was scandalous. Utterly scandalous. Not even boys ever went around shirtless, combinations were short sleeved short legged jumpsuits that buttoned up the front and acted as very modest underwear. Persephone, only thirteen, had never been to Aphrodite's Palace or the Diamond Dog so she stared. And stared. And stared even after it was over.
"Cousin, we're all going to slip in your drool." Said Portia. Persephone turned red and then looked at the floor. She had to conduct herself with more decorum when seeing shirtless boys.
"No, we're going to drown in it." Muttered Harry quietly so that only they could hear. Portia gave a little giggle and Persephone elbowed her in the side.
"And finally from Spellwick's-" started Dumbledore before he was rudely interrupted.
"Say the full name!" shouted an upper year before he was dragged out by his ear by the very irate looking Headmaster.
"Continue." Said the Headmaster as he dragged the upper year out. Portia pouted a bit, she wanted to hear him try to say the full name with a straight face.
"Our forth competitor is…Portia Pettigrew?" said Dumbledore as he read the name out loud. He read and re-read the paper. It should have been Harry Potter.
"What? Me? I'd like to thank the good people at Spellwick's for teaching me, my family for believing in me, and the good people who make the Every Flavor Beans without which I would have never had the sugar based energy to study so much. Thank you all!" said Portia giving a bow, a curtsy, and blowing kisses as she went to the competitors area.
"Portia put her name in three times." Muttered Harry quietly. Persephone shook her head.
"No, it spits out multiples of one name." said Persephone. If you could oncrease your odds like that those Weasley twins would have gotten an entire roll of parchment thrown back at them.
"No, the other night she had three pieces of paper she wrote. I think that it sensed that she had written different names but they were all by her."
"That's speculation." Said Persephone. Maybe it the goblet just liked Portia better than him for whatever reason goblets liked people.
"Well either way it's her and not me." Said Harry. Maybe this wasn't so bad…or maybe it was. He'd have to find some other way to be the kind of boy Galatea was attracted to. Besides, people had done crazier things for girls than risked their lives in crazy death tournaments.
Dumbledore stared and stared at the Goblet. Harry's name was supposed to come out, he had made sure of it. He waited and waited for what seemed like ages until the Goblet glowed purple and out popped Harry Potter's name.
"What the fu-" started Harry before all hell once again broke loose. Honestly, they needed some kind of shield charm to separate the schools.
"Harry Potter!" said Dumbledore even more loudly. Harry had a choice between a small room where most of the people hated him and the great hall where they were going to burn him at the stake like the witches of hold. He'd pick the small room anyway. He ran as fast as he could until he go to the small trophy room. Before the other competitors could say anything Harry pushed a trophy case in front of the door.
"What is the meaning of this?!" should Fleur Delacore in her thick French accent. Portia rushed to Harry's side. Hogwarts must have gone mad again.
"Apparently I'm a champion too." Said Harry. There was a slight pause before the shouting began.
"Let's run away and freeze to death with Galatea." said Portia motioning towards the window half joking.
"No, we wouldn't survive the drop." Said Harry as he sat down in the corner with Portia and decided to let this thing burn it's self out like a grease fire. Or he could always risk his life out the window, that was always an option. Eventually they stopped shouting when here was pounding on the door.
"What's going on in there? Open this door?" shouted Albus Dumbledore
"We can't." shouted Harry. This stopped the pounding,
"Why not?" asked Dumbledore, a million things going through his head none of them good things.
"We're um…" started Portia before Harry cut her off
"We're having an orgy!" said Harry. Everyone stared at him for a good long time before Cedric and Victor pushed the trophy case away from the door.
"No we're not." Said Cedric opening the door. Portia stuck her tongue out at him, they had managed to scandalize everyone and get some time to collect their thoughts. What was wrong about that? Well, except for the part where he said orgy that is. She would have gone with killing each other with all kinds of dark rituals.
"Harry Potter did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?!" said Dumbledore with fake anger.
"Obviously. Also, don't blame me if you're stupid goblet thing is broken." Said Harry with a slight drawl. What did this daft old codger think; the Goblet liked his sparkling personality and decided that he simply had to compete?
"We'll have to choose another candidate from every other school." Said the Spellwick's Headmaster. The leaders of every other school nodded in agreement and Dumbledore was silently out voted. Barty Crouch Jr. was seething. This was going to make his plans all the more difficult but in the end it would be worth it.