"Ah! Harry! We were starting to get worried." A man greeted Harry as soon as he wandered into a tent that had been marked for the 'Triwizard Tournament Champions'.

Harry had delivered his errands, gotten rid of his headache by having the house-elves procure him a small mountain of various types of alcoholic beverages, the kinds of which Harry had never heard of yet the house-elves seemed to be glad to provide them once Harry convinced the small creatures that he was, in fact, a 'Ministry of Magic recognized for-realsies adult (do not look at the fine print)'.

In the end he was left quite lethargic, but the excitement in the air from the tournament was slowly flicking his adventurous, thrill-seeking side to life and filling him with newfound willpower after the stunt he had performed earlier in Myrtle's bathroom- And which had definitely not been very safe as far as the timeline, or time-stream, was concerned.

"Sorry 'bout that. I was… Busy." Harry didn't feel like telling the story to the strange man in checkers-patterned suit that was thoroughly outrageously yellow. "Excuse me, I didn't catch your name, sir…?"

"Bugman! I am one of the casters of this tournament. As well as the bet-handler- You know that this event airs on the magical radio all over Britain, yes?" The man seemed to titter on the spot from excitement. "Not to mention, there have been a lot of very interesting bettors in the race, so to speak! Speaking of which, if you wish to bet, I'd be most interested in telling you the rates and collecting your deposit, Mr Potter!"

"No thank you. The betting system is rigged as hell." Harry yawned a bit. "Sorry. Played dice with a mage who knew Entropy and I'm still traumatized."

"I see." Bugman seemed to be a bit offended but recovered in a flash while in turn flashing a radiant, if slightly fake, smile. "Well then! Normally mr. Crouch would have been present as well, but unfortunately his health has deteriorated quite a bit, seeing that he fired his house-elf during the summer and I fear Winky had been taking care of mr. Crouch more than he liked to admit."

The man shook his head. "But here I am, getting sidetracked. Ahem! Champions- Your First Task involves creativity and ability to think fast under pressure, as well as your magical capabilities against powerful opponents!"

Harry glanced around and noted that Cedric looked quite pale but determined, and the boy sent occasional glances at Harry.

Fleur was tossing her hair back while looking bored, and quite clearly used the motion and expression to mask the fact that she was definitely feeling more nervous than she'd likely want to admit.

Krum merely looked grim.

"For your first task, you shall retrieve a miniature from this pouch. You will be facing the creature that you have pulled out, full-sized of course, and your task will be to grab a golden egg from the creature's nest." Bugman explained while bringing out a bag that was squirming a bit. "The egg has been enchanted to be immune to most forms of magic as well as highly resistant to outside forces, so do not attempt to 'Accio' it, and do not worry that it'll get squished during the struggle. Once you have retrieved the egg, return to the starting area and the beast will be caged once more and your task will be done. You'll be evaluated based on your time and method- Other criteria for judging will be revealed as it becomes relevant."

Silence followed the man's words, and then Bugman offered the bag to Fleur. "Ladies first."

Fleur reached into the bag, and pulled out a draconid of some sort.

"A Norwegian Bloodserker! A fierce, headstrong beast with worrying bloodlust! I hope for the best, miss Delacour!" Bugman left Fleur staring at the red dragon miniature who was staring back at her, and then the man offered the bag to Krum.

Krum retrieved another wyvern from the bag, all the while Harry was slowly starting to realize that he was seriously in trouble.

'...Lesser dragons? I think I heard about them, once… Bygones, they can only exist near places of magic where they can hide in Consensus… Don't tell me that Hermetics gathered up what Dragons they could, and offered them a deal to be shrouded into the micro-Consensus so that they wouldn't be crushed by the Consensus? And now the Hermetics are using dragons as slave-beasts?' Harry was starting to get seriously worried- If he would actually have to face a real dragon, or worse, a Celestial Dragon, he'd be flattened in an instant and he would likely have no idea what even happened, because he might just die in the past and his current self hadn't caught up with the fact that the dragon had already killed him.

"...scale. Very good." Bugman left Cedric to stare at his dragon, which looked a bit more like a dinosaur with wings than an actual dinosaur, and then moved to offer the bag to Harry. "Mr. Potter, your turn. Well, there's only one choice left in there, but patterns are important, you know?"

Harry reached into the bag, and pulled out a quite wide wyvern that had a particularly spiky-looking tail. "Oh. Phew."

"My, you're confident, mr Potter." Bugmant commented at Harry's relief. "Did you expect something mightier than a Hungarian Horntail?"

"In honesty I expected that you'd have put a Celestial Dragon in there as a joke." Harry confessed.

"And what would you have done if we had?" Bugman lifted his eyebrow.

"Run off in the opposite direction and, most likely, die horribly anyway."

"Good lad. Very smart of you." Bugman was very serious. "But don't worry, the Triwizard Tournament is a competition for young wizards, not a group execution."

"'Elestial Dragoons?" Fleur asked faintly and Bugman seemed to snap out of his sudden serious mood.

"Do not worry, miss Delacour, it is merely a subspecies of dragons. However, the task awaits- Let us begin!" Bugman announced and pulled out a trumpet from somewhere, blew on it, and an orchestra began playing in the distance while a furious roar came from somewhere outside the tent. "Mr. Viktor Krum, you're first!"

The boy nodded gravely and walked out of the tent, after Bugman.

"...You're not nervous, Harry?" Cedric leaned in to talk to Harry while the young man looked like he was quite pale.

"Ye, but I think I have a plan…" Harry was thinking quite hard. 'I could probably Rend the mind of the dragon, but if it's strong-willed then it might just turn the situation around and I'll be bleeding my brains out of my nose instead of it… Bygones can be really scary… Although… The Micro-Consensus works with the magic sticks, so if I have a convincing enough 'cast', I could probably damage the dragon… But I'd have to actually use a convincing magic spell, there's a lot of eyes on me. Not to mention that I haven't actually practiced much with the stick. There's a big chance that if I just go 'Oblitera maxima hocus pocus: Poof goes dragonium' then the observers, and the micro-Consensus, probably won't accept it as 'real spell', and I'll get turned inside-out with the Paradox I'll incur… Hm… The shotgun-caliber shell probably won't do much good, even when reinforced by Forces. However, perhaps…'

At the same time, if Harry just 'went back' to kick the dragon when it was still in its egg and haven't hatched yet, however far ago that might be, possibly measured in hundreds of thousands of years, the attempt of which would definitely be pushing massive amounts of Paradox by itself, Harry would definitely get splattered all over the frayed strands of Time from Paradox if he actually managed to kill something in the ancient past that was supposed to exist in the current moment.

Time was a stream, and if one wasn't careful when manipulating it, one could easily slip and drown.

A series of 'ooh's, 'aahs' and a couple of worrying 'eeeks' came from the crowd in the distance, muted by the thick cloth of the tent, and the trio within turned to listen to the sounds with various degrees of dread. Mostly because the sounds were accompanied by furious howls that likely came from the Bygone Lesser Dragon that Krum was facing.

And after some time, a huge cheer rang out alongside the sound of a 'thump' like something massive being forced to the ground.

"Very good! Mr Krum has retrieved his Egg! Now for the judging… And we have the numbers! Excellent performance from Durmstrang!" Bagman's voice echoed all the way to the tent, and was followed by a lot of loud yelling and cheering.

A few minutes later Bugman appeared in the tent once again, this time with a huge smile on his face and streaks of sweat on his temple. "What an exciting display! Mr. Cedric Diggory, you are up next. Please follow me."

Cedric swallowed hard, nodded, and then followed the checkers-suited man out of the tent.

Harry hand-waved at the boy as he left, as he had come up with a cunning plan during Krum's trial.

Fleur began to pace around the tent while she was biting her lip quite hard, clearly deep in thought while the miniature in her white-knuckled grip was squirming uncomfortably.

"...And ou?" The girl finally came to stare at Harry. "There is still time to run, enfant."

"Il est encore temps d'élaborer une stratégie. Ou êtes-vous simplement en train de vous distraire en essayant de vous mettre sous ma peau. (There is still time to come up with a plan. Or are you just distracting yourself by trying to get under my skin?)" Harry responded halfheartedly while he was deep in thought, working out the potential kinks of his plan.

"I'll ask you to never speak French again, that was 'orrible." Fleur gagged a bit. "I have a plan. 'Zat is all you need to know, garçon."

"Don't worry, I believe you." Harry commented idly while deep in thought, and then ate a direct headshot as Fleur threw her miniature dragon at him.

"You are not affected by my Allure. Why is zat?" The girl growled at Harry while changing the subject quite dramatically, causing Harry to lift his eyebrow a bit after prying the squirming miniature off his hair. "Am I not pretty?"

"My dear, you are positively enchanting. But it is difficult for a Hermetic to influence the mind of a Sahajiya- Even if I must say that your attempts have been very good." Harry pointed out. "I take it that you were intending on seducing me and having me blurt out whatever tactic I was going to employ, and then you'd use it instead of me? And you are nervous since I am the last boy in the tent instead of, say, Cedric or Krum, both of whom you could easily influence with your charm? And you do not think that I am capable of coming up with a plan that you could copy, therefore you are only left with poor ideas of your own?"

Fleur sent Harry a very hostile glare.

"Hit the nail in the head, then." Harry noted a bit dryly. "You could have just asked, you know. I'm not above cooperation. You might have noticed that I'm not a Hermetic- But at the same time, my help comes at a hefty cost."

"Date is out of the question."

"Damn, foiled." Harry sighed. "Well, it was worth a shot."

" 'Ou are hundred years too young to be even thinking of dating me." Fleur harrumphed with gleefully smug expression.

"And you don't have a plan for facing a dragon." Harry pointed out.

Fleur's smug look wavered and then turned to a frown. "'Ery well. I shall accompany you to a place of my choosing for an 'our. You shall pay for everything. In exchange…"

"...I shall say a single word of a plan." Harry nodded. "This is reasonable, here you go: Simply. Here, my part of the contract is now fulfilled."

"What?" Fleur came to a halt. "'zat is not how haggling works!"

"My dear, I fear that I hold all the cards." Harry pulled out his tarot deck and fanned it out on his hands like an experienced gambler. "I dictate the terms."

"...And 'ou want to go on a date with me, yes?" Fleur sounded a bit uncertain, almost as if she felt like her lifeline was slipping from between her fingers.

"Ma belle, I merely swim with the direction of the flow, and it flows with me." Harry commented in turn. "Whether you swim with me is our decision, and we are swimming apart."

"I need ideas not platitudes, garçon." Fleur started to get annoyed and a bit pale as the crowd cheered loudly somewhere outside the tent. "Fine. I'll go on a date with you, but I'll bring sycophants so you do not get ideas."

"Alas, I fear that the cruel march of Time has robbed us the chance. So let us part this life, in good graces." Harry bowed deeply to Fleur who started to shake quite a bit as she must have heard Bagman calling for judges to give points for Cedric in the background, as well as a healer.

"Fine! Fine! Merde! I'll go on a date with you on your chosen spot- As long as you promise to act like a gentleman and not like an English savage!" Fleur blurted out while paling quite a bit. "Now zell me- What is your plan? I am not going to be able to seduce a Norwegian Bloodserker with my Allure!"

Harry sighed while the miniature of the mentioned red dragon was squatting on Harry's head, then he rubbed his eyebrows a bit, and finally drastically re-made his original plan by changing it to suit Fleur instead.

Harry pulled out a chocolate egg from his pocket and handed it to Fleur.

Fleur stared at it a bit.

"Once you face the dragon, just make a grasping motion at the nest and unwrap that chocolate egg." Harry told the girl. "That's all. Your egg is in there."

"You- but- Oh zis is such-" Fleur looked like she was ready to throw the egg at Harry in rage, but Harry's expression had turned quite severe while his face became deathly pale from sudden vertigo. "'Arry?"

"Don't worry about it. Just go and do it. A magic trick, you know the sort. Don't worry, I haven't tricked you… And if you don't believe me, just hit the thing in the eyes, pull a rabbit out of your hat and stab it to distract the dragon with the scent of blood." Harry sat down to quell the shaking that he started to feel. 'Uuugh… Man. I shouldn't have been that forward. I should have just said 'I enchanted the chocolate egg and the dragon egg to swap places or something… Dammit, the micro-Consensus is really a stickler for rules…'

Fleur glanced at Harry, at the egg, and then the tent's entrance swung open to show a slightly nervous-looking Bagman.

"Well, that went… well… Um. Yes! Miss Delacour! You're up! Don't worry! Mr. Diggory is still with us, even if, uh… well, Hogwart's healer is certain that she can put most of everything back where they were supposed to be." Bagman announced, causing Fleur to shake quite a bit. "Follow me, please."

Fleur nodded, sent a glance at Harry who was holding his head with his hands to stop the world from shaking, and then followed Bugman, all the while she had hid the chocolate egg into her long sleeves.

Harry started to take deep rips from his bong as soon as the flap of the tent closed- Even if he recognized that straining himself again after such a short recovery period would be really pushing it.

"Be right back. Bathroom." Harry announced to the empty tent, and walked out.

Harry, who had been waiting in the tent under the invisibility cloak, took the cloak off, and sat down on the bench to wait for Bugman to call him next.

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There was a collective 'Ooh!' in the crowd as Fleur sashayed into the arena, and then turned to see a towering red dragon on the opposite end of the area.

The dragon was looking like it was utterly done with all of the wizarding nonsense, and was ready to turn everyone and everything that approached it into chunky salsa.

'...I'll come back as a ghost and claw at your eyes for all eternity if you have betrayed me, Potter!' Fleur thought as she sweated buckets internally from the infernal gaze that the beast was giving her, all the while she kept her Allure up and plastered a smug smile on her face.

The dragon was utterly unaffected by the Allure, like Fleur had guessed, and she discarded her first plan right there and then in order to go for Potter's 'solution''.

Fleur dearly hoped that she had managed to hide her actual thoughts as she lifted her hand up towards the nesting dragon, and then grasped her fingers together as if she had grabbed something.

The crowd seemed to lean forward.

Fleur brought her other hand up… And showed the chocolate egg that she had slipped down from her sleeve and to her hand.

She cracked the chocolate egg open, hoping for the best and fighting off a dreadful premonition that Potter had played a prank on her, to have her make a fool of herself in front of everyone after she had insulted him…

A golden egg popped out of the chocolate egg that was way too small to contain it.

Fleur almost passed out from sudden relief.

The dragon glanced down and saw one egg missing from it's clutch, and let out a terrifying roar before taking off and beelining straight to Fleur with blood, death and murder in its eyes, and it's maw opened to show countless teeth as long as Fleur was tall-

A guillotine-blade like rod of iron came down from the sky, slamming the dragon down against the arena mid-flight and pinning it in place, and forcing it's head down to the sand so that it could do nothing but roar in anger and defiance at Fleur.

Fleur wobbled away in shock, and only barely heard Bugman call for judges to evaluate what they'd seen.

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"Greetings." Harry plopped a golden egg on a mahogany wood counter, the same egg that he had gone and stolen from the nest of one angry red dragon under the guise of Invisibility Cloak. "I would like to hire one of you to enchant this egg in a manner that it fits into this here chocolate egg, and so that it resumes its shape when the chocolate egg is broken."

"This egg has already been enchanted. I take it that you wish that the prior enchantments are not destroyed, but that they will resume their effect once your described effect is gone?"

"Yes, please." Harry bowed slightly.

"Good. That will be added to the costs." The goblin at Gringotts flashed a way-too-toothy smile, which to Harry's addled brain looked like it had way too many teeth than what was healthy or physically possible. "And how would mr. Potter pay for this operation? According to our records, the key to mr. Potter's vault in Gringotts is currently held by one Albus Dumbledore, who is currently the headmaster of Hogwarts and thus warden of mr. Potter as per ministry of magic ruling regarding orphan wizards."

Harry pulled a stack of dollars from his pocket and slid them to the teller-goblin. "I heard that you convert muggle money to local money."

The goblin sniffed a bit and glanced over the stack of dollars, and noted that it had a few splotches of blood. "Naturally. Client confidentiality is, of course, our number one priority. I suppose that mr. Potter does not wish to deposit the Galleons that this money exchanges into his Vault, but wishes to instead take it as a direct withdrawal? Minus, of course, the amount that Gringotts charges for your… enchantment commission?"

"Naturally." Harry nodded.

"For the record, Gringotts has no idea how someone happened to die when they tried to eat a chocolate egg. Quite horrifying." The goblin's smile widened even further.

"What a dreadful scenario that would be. I'm glad that a certain person will listen to what she's told and such a thing won't happen." Harry shook his head mournfully.

"Very good." The goblin nodded.

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Half an hour later Harry put the bag of Galleons and a chocolate egg into his pocket.

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Hour earlier Harry huffed as he and six other Harries tried to pull a huge metal thing from its housing, but failed.

One of the Harries lifted his hand in sudden idea, and few minutes later the Harries, all of whom wore balaclavas and second-hand military uniform, or technically they were all clad in the same uniform, had dragged the metal thing from it's housing by means of a winch system that had been attached to a truck, and loaded the box into the truck's flatbed.

The truck drove out of the hall just as a muggle noticed the theft and un-slung his rifle in preparation to confront the thieves… But when the muggle soldier raced after the truck, the truck was nowhere to be seen.

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One and half hours later the metal box had been assembled, and Harry realized that he had missed the whole tournament- Only for him to pull out the fake Time Turner and spin it once.

Hour ago and back on track, Harry sat on the leather seat of the metal box and put his face against the telemetry device.

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"Hey, Draco, can you tell me what are the words of a particularly forceful spell? Something that causes an explosion?" Harry asked as he took off his invisibility cloak while sitting next to Draco Malfoy, who was sitting nervously amidst Slytherin students in the tournament crowd that filled the spectators' seats of the arena.

Malfoy jumped in fright and almost dropped the small green flag that wrote 'Potter rules' and which had a red opposing side that wrote 'Cedric Diggory Stinks'. "M-m-m-my lord?"

"Gotcha, I'll try that. Do you happen to have something else as well?" Harry lifted his eyebrow at Malfoy's attempt of misdirection.

"Um… Bombarda Maxima, my lord?" Malfoy looked like he was sweating quite a bit.

"Gotcha. Well then, I'm off." Harry sat up and put the invisibility cloak back on himself.

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Draco Malfoy slowly, shakily turned towards Lucius Malfoy, who had decided to attend the tournament as well and was sitting next to Draco.

"'My lord'?" Lucius drawled slowly as he head seen and heard the exchange between Draco and Harry.

Draco shook even harder while sweat began to streak down his temple.

He knew that his father was correct- Draco had been worried that Lord Voldemort (in disguise) would become annoyed at the way Lucius had glared at the 'boy' the moment he had come from under the invisibility cloak, but in retrospect Draco realized that Lucius had been correct: It wouldn't do if they accidentally blew Lord Voldemort's cover by being too open about it.

And Lucius Malfoy bowing and scraping to Harry Potter would definitely blow Potter's cover.

In fact, even Draco calling Potter 'my lord' in public was definitely pushing it.

Specifically as Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge was sitting on Lucius's other side and was lifting his eyebrow in confusion at both Draco and the spot from where Potter had appeared and disappeared

Draco knew what he needed to do.

"Sorry." Draco announced loudly, making sure that everyone around them heard. "It was a childish prank- I lost a bet and am contractually obliged to call Potter 'my lord' for a week."

"I hope that you'll learn from this, and won't let the name of Malfoy be humiliated like this again- You are freed of that contract, I shall make it so." Lucius drawled coldly. "Now sit down, you are embarrassing us."

Draco sat down, nodding slightly as it looked like his father had seen through the first layer of Draco's words, and in turn told Draco that the boy had gotten away with his mistake by concealing it under the guise of a small public humiliation.

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Harry sighed as he took off the invisibility cloak and sat down on the bench in the Triwizard Tournament's champions tent, and waited for Bugman to come and call him forward.

The intoxication of the bong had faded away, and Harry patched it up with a few slightly sharpened beers while he waited for Bugman.

"Ah, Harry!" Bugman burst into the tent after some time, this time with a wide smile on his face. "What a spectacular show of guile from miss Delacour! I am not sure what Beauxbatons are teaching, but that was sure something! Striking, even! Ah- but I am getting ahead of myself- Mr. Potter, if you would follow me."

"Of course, sir." Harry stood up and followed the short man.

"My boy, you can't believe how fascinating the betting scene is in this tournament- In fact, your appearance has caused the speculation to go absolutely wild!" Bugman practically glowed. "Either the bettors bet that you'll die in agony at the first test, or that you'll win the entire tournament! Even if the chances are so small for both!"

"I am glad to have rocked the boat, but I wouldn't bet on my death." Harry noted. "After all, I am still here."

"So you are. True, I suspect that those that bet on your death have not probably had much dealings with the Cult of Ecstasy." Bugman nodded jovially. "I can't say that I am familiar with your Tradition either, but that just enhances the excitement, no?"

"And I'm certain that you'll refrain from adjusting the betting odds of my death in the tournament after hearing what I said some time ago?" Harry pointed out. "For the record, I said nothing."

"Good lad. You did mention that the game was rigged." Bugman chuckled a bit. "Well then, off you go!"

The man pointed at a doorway.

Harry nodded and walked through it, and ended up in a short chamber of some sort that had a wooden double-door at the end of it, somehow resembling a gladiatorial entrance to an arena.

"And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have the Fourth Triwizard Tournament Champion, for the first time in History! Welcome, Harry Potter of Cult of Ecstasy, who will be facing a Hungarian Horntail!" Bugman's voice echoed all around and then the wooden doors swung open.

Harry walked into the arena.

"Let the match… Begin!" Bugman announced.

Harry slipped his stick into his arm from his sleeve, like he had seen Draco's gang do.

He lifted the wand up… And did a pirouette.

The crowd leaned forward in puzzlement, excitement, and wonder.

Harry swayed to one side, and then to another, while drawing a magical circle into the ground with his foot and the ballerina dance.

And in a few seconds he had completed the circle, spun around, fell to one knee, and thrust the stick at the dragon.

"Bombarda Maxima Invisibili Tae!" Harry announced.

His wand did nothing.

The crowd blinked.

The dragon's head exploded.

The crowd stared in stunned daze as the blood covered the sand and the bone fragments flew all over the arena and bounced off the protective field that covered the spectator's seats.

The dead creature flopped to the sand.

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A second ago, Harry pushed a button while he was sitting on a leather chair, as the telemetry screen showed that the fire control computer reached a firing solution.

Project MARAUDER plasma railgun fired its projectile, causing the flatbed truck that it had been transported on to catch fire as the massive capacitors of the weapon discharged and heated up, yet without a static cooling system they were unable to safely vent the massive amount of excess heat that the complex naval-sized weapon generated.

The projectile was launched out of the weapon at speed of three point three percent of the speed of light, well outside the range of Hogwart's anti-tech Hermetic field, and as the compact plasma toroid that the weapon fired was 'only' a piece of plasma, it was unaffected by the anti-tech field.

That was, before Harry added his own expertise in Forces to it, causing the projectile to pass the 'real' speed, and instead move as if it traveled in vacuum, causing zero sonic booms or dispersion by hitting air molecules, and instead causing the projectile to travel completely silently while it did not slow or disperse down over distance, breaking the rules of gravity and energy, before finally hitting the target dragon square in the temple.

Harry jumped off the burning truck and quickly rolled on the grass to extinguish the flames on his robes, before taking a few deep rips of his bog so that when he walked into the nearby woods in a stoned daze, he appeared out of the Forbidden Forest, some few hundred feet away from the Triwizard Champions tent, covered from view by the invisibility cloak.

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Harry hippity-hopped out of the dragon's nest after grabbing the golden egg, and then sat on the dead dragon's neck to wait for his points.

"Ahem… Yes! Now then, Judges, please give your points of Harry Potter…" Bugman had a slightly faint voice as he announced for the judgment to begin.

Mr. Crouch waved his wand, causing a number 'Five' to rise to the air, followed by a 'Ten' from Karkaroff who suddenly looked very nervous, a 'Four' from Maxima, and a 'Four' from Dumbledore alongside a very sad look.

Harry bowed to the panel, and then wobbled off with the golden egg.

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Lucius Malfoy turned to glance at Draco. "I can see why you were nervous earlier. Interesting. Do not lose your way, but continue what we agreed on. If things get too dangerous, do not hesitate to contact me and I will have Potter dealt with."

Draco nodded multiple times while glancing nervously at Fudge, who was too busy staring dumbly at the dragon's corpse to be even registering what was spoken next to him.