Yo!

Not too late this time.

Thank you all for your support, I really appreciate it.

Review:

plums: Unfortunately for you, my man Chaos isn't bothered my Harry's friendships. He could befriend Greyback for all he cares. However, try not to hate Ron too much, I tried my best not to make him react as badly as in canon.

Again, I want to thank Webstriker for the amazing services! He once again double-checked my sorry excuse for a chapter and made it look great!

Be ready, the serious stuff begins now!

Enjoy.

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During the First Task

Chaos was not one to be easily swayed by extraordinary feats, far from that. After all, he saw most of what the world had to offer. From the strongest human to the most mysterious of them all, he had seen them all, and their countless counterparts. He had observed Myrddin and Herpo but none of them could make Chaos do more than lift an eyebrow. They were impressive, and certainly humans that only appeared once in a millennium but to him they were mere passing casualties who were no use to him.

Herpo created a way to become immortal by killing, and while in the end it did not prevent his death, it was a feat that required an intellect rarely seen in a human being. Sure, people could now follow his step and do the same but in his place, no one could do it. However, immortality was never a concern of Chaos so he merely looked at him appreciatively when it happened.

Myrddin for his part was the most talented human Chaos ever saw. Not only did he understand what he was taught, but he also learned by himself since he was thirteen. And he managed to become the most famous wizard throughout history. That in itself was already quite the feat, but not enough. No, what made Chaos lift his eyebrow was his magical senses. Myrddin was actually able to feel his presence, he, who was in the void space where no human ever has set foot in. That was something no one had done before and something that was never repeated after.

That is why he disappeared without a trace, no way those three would let that happen.

Despite all these incredible feats, Chaos never reacted the same way he did when he witnessed Harry Potter's first task. He would never admit it, but his eyes were wide, and his mouth was slightly open. He was totally flabbergasted before what had just taken place before his eyes. That did not last long though, he recovered fast and burst out laughing.

"Fabulous, wonderful." He kept laughing for a while. "To think he would succeed. I should have focused on his training instead of…" He interrupted himself for a while. "I didn't imagine for a second he would do that. Even if he didn't realize what he had done."

When he finally stopped laughing, Harry was back in his dorm.

That's my time now!

Present Time

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Said Chaos.

Being alone for as long as he had, he quite liked the sensation of surprising someone. That's why prepared the scene in Harry's dream. The latter would be in total darkness not knowing where he was. Chaos' voice made him jump and scatter on the ground as if he was a broken doll.

So much fun.

"Damn it Chaos! Don't do that! I almost died of a heart attack here." The teenager said weakly.

"Now, now. Nobody would want that. After all, you're the chosen one."

The wizard frowned at that, most likely not knowing where the moniker came from.

"What a horrible nickname. It's not because I accepted to help you back then that it makes me 'the chosen one.'" He actually did the quotes signs with his hands. "At first I only accepted because I thought it was a dream, and now it's more like a mutual transaction. I help you with your rock and you get me stronger. No need to come up with names or whatever."

Chaos smiled internally, the boy was wrong. On so many levels. He actually was the chosen one, but twice. The first being him described by the three wretched ones, and the second was his story with the dark wizard. And yet he did not know any of those. Chaos did not explain to him, but it was only because he did not ask. As for his dark wizard issue, it was none of his business to begin with.

"I see your training has gone well without me." It was true, his power, focus, and precision had increased by leaps and bounds. It was incomparable to the Harry he first talked to. The proof was the way he handled his first task. He had seen that just before going to sleep he promised his dormmates to teach them how to do it. Chaos almost laughed when he saw that. The boy did not seem to realize what he accomplished.

"Stop making fun of me. I know I still can't perform silent or wandless magic, but I did manage to accidently do it a few times though." Harry sulked.

"Boy," As expected the young wizard did not seem to like the appellation. "You are clearly not aware of what you've done." The last Potter frowned at that. "Did you not wonder why everyone seemed so shocked when you did that? Even your headmaster looked stunned, the man you call the greatest wizard alive couldn't believe his eyes when he saw what you did."

Realization seemed to have hit the green-eyed boy. "What did I do?"

Nevermind, he did not realize anything. What was I expecting.

"Allow me to enlighten you about something. The spell you call "Diffindo" is not supposed to do what it did today. That spell is used to cut the surface of something or someone, not the inside. It's as if you created a spell. No, it's more accurate to say that you asked your magic to act a certain way and it did. I'm pretty sure you could do the same non-verbally now, the spell was just useful to you because it helped you visualize what you wanted to do." Chaos lied to him, it was not a complete lie nor was it the complete truth. It did cut the inside and Diffindo is for the surfaces. However, it was not magic.

Harry was left speechless for a while after those explanations. It quickly started to annoy Chaos, who interrupted whatever was going on in his mind.

"Don't overthink it so much. If you don't believe me you can just try it when you wake up or something. Now let's talk about how to protect your mind. From what I could see, there are some nuisances that could take advantage of your lack in that department." Harry opened his mouth to interrupt him. "Yes, memories about me are safe. However, your time spent in the Chamber training, the knowledge you shouldn't have, are things that could be used against you by a lot of people. That could get you killed."

As Chaos expected, Harry did not even flinch at his last sentence, he was used to death menaces, he just looked curious about something.

"Would protecting my mind help me be unreadable like Professor Snape or Dumbledore?"

Chaos, even if he did not show it, was astonished, and offended that this brat did not mention him as an example when he was always wondering about his ability to look so unreadable.

"Brat, forget about them. I can show you how to get like me."

The brat smiled widely.

"First of all, you have to master the meditation thing. You have to be able to do it whenever you want, just like you did when you were waiting for the first task."

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Harry was utterly demolished. He slept a lot during his lessons, the professors decided to let it slide for once, thinking the dragon thing drained him. In all fairness it did not, what tired him was the night trying to understand how to protect his mind. From what Chaos told him the original method was a mix between meditation and organizing his mind. However, the method Chaos used was, as his name suggests, utter Chaos. To manage it, he needed to meditate, that was the only way to access his inner mind for now according to Chaos.

He was now walking towards the owlery with his two best friends while he filled Ron in on his conversation with his godfather. Harry was going to send a letter to the latter with Pigwidgeon, Ron's owl, as Hedwig was too noticeable to be sent to a presumably wanted murderer, she showed her dissatisfaction by beating furiously his fingers every morning. That is also why he came here, he had slices of bacon in his pocket for her, she loved bacon.

Harry was quietly listening to his two friends bickering. Hermione was saying the tournament just began and that Harry should not slack off while Ron was praising his performance saying he could win the tournament. How he missed those arguments when Ron stopped talking to him. It was little things like that that made him accept his apologies. The happy moments he spent with him were countless compared to what Ron did. Honestly what happened was nothing compared to all Ron did and endured for him. Plus, he did not insult him, or anything, he just stopped talking to him.

It was actually something Harry found more mature than Ron ever was. If it was the old Ron, he could have called him a liar and Harry would not be surprised. If he did, Harry would not have accepted his apologies or at least not that fast.

While he was lost in his thoughts, they arrived in their Common Room that looked fuller than usual.

"Oh Dragon Slayer…"

"Could you please do us, lowly beings…"

"The honor of signing our biceps please."

The twins welcomed him by bowing their heads and presenting their arms. Harry laughed and mimed a signing movement with his hand.

"Harry the egg!" Said a voice in the crowd.

People started chanting "Egg!" over and over again, the voices becoming louder until Harry raised his hands.

"Alright, alright. Let me fetch it from my dorm and we will see what the clue is about."

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Ugh, that's the first and the last time I try to open this egg. I don't care about the clue anymore, it only gave me a headache.

Harry was now in the Chamber, following Chaos advice to test his theory by himself. If Harry was honest with himself, he did not really believe what Chaos said. He had no success with his silent casting for months, and he was supposed to believe that he succeeded after putting his training aside? No way I could ever do that.

He did not try the spell directly for one reason. He had no idea on what to use to actually see the results. If he did it on a pillar or a wall, it would not make any difference since he was supposed to cut the inside of it. Two results could come from that. Either nothing would happen, or the pillar would collapse.

I'm not testing my luck, even if it seems that the Chamber is self-repairing. I'm sure it will miraculously stop doing it when it comes to me and just collapse on my head.

After a while he decided to experiment on a conjured snake, he did not want to at first but a quick conversation with Sadye convinced him. According to him, conjured snakes were just his magic taking the appearance of a snake, not a real one. He was still a little reluctant to do it, but it was the only way he thought of. So, he finally tried it.

It worked, he finally casted a spell non-verbally. However, if he could see the face Chaos did at the same moment he would have doubted himself but for now he was just overjoyed by his feat.

"Wait, Harry." Sadye interrupted hislittle dance of victory. "Sssomething isss wrong, can't you feel it?"

"What do you mean?" Harry set his eyes on the dead snake at his feet and picked it up.

"Open it."

"Why would I open a dead sssnake." Harry knew it was to examine its insides, but it did not prevent him from complaining about it. He opened the snake, with a standard "Diffindo" this time.

"What the…"

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Chaos, in all the time he passed inside that globe, did not just observe humankind. At first he did, but as time passed he discovered a new pastime. It was not hard to guess what it was since the only things he had access to was either the earth or the space. Having seen so much from the former, he started to interest himself in the latter.

He knew what humans said about it. Some talked about aliens, others about monsters and even other humans. But he knew better, the only form of life present in this vastness was him. That was the reason he was here actually.

He did not learn anything worthwhile though. The only thing he thought was useful was the void in itself. It was fascinating. No air, no magic, only a deadly emptiness that left no place for anything to survive. Except him. He still wondered how he was able to survive where no one could, Chaos thought it was thanks to the globe. It was a prison and at the same time the only thing that was keeping him alive.

He immersed himself in deep thinking, trying to use that "void", but it was unsuccessful. He could not even feel it, it was there but at the same time it was not. For a being like him, it seemed impossible to wield that sort of power. Because yes, Chaos thought the void was a power that could be wielded.

For a long time, he wondered if he really wished to be freed. It would just mean death to him, he could be as strong as he could, he knew he could not survive more than one minute in there, and one minute was not enough for him to go back on earth. He still contacted the young Potter because he was his only way out, but it was more a "what if" act. He knew he would have time after to decide if he wanted to go on or just give up. For now, it was no more a way to be involved in the human world and pass the time.

However, with the first task, he finally had a glimmer of hope to hold on to. The boy, who knows how, managed to do something no one ever did. Something even he could not do. He used the "void". Chaos did not know how, nor why but he did it. He was sure of it, because it was not magic that was used, he could feel it. Or more precisely, he could not. It vanished what was inside the dragon's throat. When Harry said to his friends that the dragon would not die, he was wrong. It would, soon. After struggling for its life for a few more hours.

"Let's do it. For real this time." Chaos said with a feral smile.

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It has been some weeks now since Harry discovered that his new spell vanished the insides of things. At first he had found it funny, he invented a spell, and he did not understand it. However, the cold shower came quickly when he received a letter from Charlie telling him that the Horntail was dead. He had spilled his pumpkin juice when he read that letter, making everyone at the Gryffindor look at him worriedly. The letter also said that it was an unfortunate accident and so the reserve would not ask him for any compensation.

The shock did not come from the fact that he had killed a dragon, no it came from the fact that he was able to. He, little Harry, a fourteen-year-old wizard, had killed a dragon.

The story quickly made the tour of Hogwarts. Even if he only told it to Ron, Hermione, and Daphne. Astoria would not take it well, so Harry and Daphne decided not to tell her. However, one day, an article in the Daily Prophet came out. It talked about how Harry killed a dragon with some dark magic. If Harry was honest, it was not that bad of an article. The people who had bullied him after being chosen as a champion stopped doing so. The only issue was at the end of the article, it mentioned the love adventure he had with a mysterious blonde girl. No photo was attached but Harry obviously knew it was Daphne, so did his friends.

Hermione and Ron found the story very funny and did not stop teasing him about it. It annoyed Harry that even Ron was teasing him. Where did Ron who hated every Slytherin go? It seemed that since their "thing" he felt that he had no say in Harry's friends that helped him when he, himself did not. Daphne for her part acted as if nothing happened. But everyone agreed that Rita Skeeter was a pig.

They were still talking to each other, picnicking from time to time. Astoria, Hermione, and Ron joined them from time to time. And everyone was surprised by how well Ron and Astoria got along. Their love for Quidditch seemed stronger than House differences.

During these weeks his training to protect his mind was advancing quickly. He was now able to meditate whenever he wanted, it required only a few seconds. He was now supposed to choose between Chaos' or the classical way. The classic was to erect a sort of barrier that could shield incoming mind attacks. According to Chaos at a higher level, the barrier could become a maze that would show whatever the defender wanted, or even trap the assailant. It looked interesting, and still according to Chaos, Snape was using it that way and was quite proficient.

Chaos' way was weirder. It consists of squeezing all his memories in a tiny ball, the smaller the better. It left the rest of the mind empty and all the emotions coming from the compressed memories would mix and mingle. That was why his voice always seemed so full and empty of emotions at the same time. The almost emptiness of the mind added to a squeezed ball of memories made him that way. That method was crazy, it comported high risk, Harry asked him how he came up with that idea. He only answered a word "void" and refused to elaborate.

It was now Thursday, and Harry was in Transfiguration. He, as usual, ended his work quickly and started playing with the fake wands Fred and George gave him. Inevitably, being boys, Ron and Harry started a sort of quiet sword fight, before being reprimanded harshly by Professor McGonagall.

"Now that the two babies are done with their playtime, I have something to announce." She irritably said. "As most of you may know, the Yule Ball is approaching. It is a way to socialize with our foreigners guests and at the same time a tradition of the Triwizard Tournament. It is open to students from fourth year and above, however you are authorized to be accompanied by a younger student if you wish —"

She was interrupted by giggles coming from Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. However, Professor McGonagall did not say anything, and seemingly decided to ignore them.

Now that's unfair. We are babies but both of them didn't even get a frown.

The Transfiguration teacher continued with her explanation until the bell finally rang. Harry quickly packed up, he was famished and was eager to finally get something to eat.

"Potter." Professor McGonagall called him. "A word if you please."

A sense of doom started to take place in his stomach. It was either about his impersonation of King Arthur a few minutes ago, or it had something to do with the ball. Neither was something he wanted to talk about with his Head of House.

"First of all, I wanted to congratulate you for your improvements in general. As the Head of Gryffindor's House, I encourage you to keep going, even if you should be more serious in class." Her voice was stern but kind. "I'm sure your parents would be proud." She finally said in a softer voice.

Harry raised his head quickly, he was not expecting her to mention his parents out of nowhere.

"Now onto more pressing matters. The Yule Ball." The uneasy feeling grew more. "As a champion, you are to open the ball with your partner—"

"Partner?" Asked Harry in a funny voice.

Professor McGonagall looked at him as if she was trying to determine if he was serious or not.

"Your dance partner, Potter." She finally said.

"But — I don't—"

"I do not want to hear any excuses, Potter." She interrupted him harshly. "You are to open the ball with a dance, with your partner. Like every champion did and will do. I will not have you put shame on Gryffindor's name." And just like that she left, not letting Harry any time to argue more about the fact that he was not really an official champion.

Harry would take the dragon any day if it could save him from finding a partner. He almost gave up when Ron refused to be his partner. It was a good idea, neither of them had a partner, and Professor McGonagall did not specify the partner's gender. However, Ron preferred "have a go with the Squid", in his own words.

Hermione too was not helping, being mysterious about her partner, and with her comforting smile when he told her he had no one to ask. It was infuriating.

The icing on the cake was the fact that Daphne was sulking for whatever reason. Her sister was not helping, laughing every time he brought up the matter. At first he had thought about asking one of them. However, he knew Daphne did not want to be seen with him in public, so at the Yule Ball? There was no way. And when he asked Astoria when they were flying, she laughed, refused him, and asked him to show her the Wronski Feint once again.

Of course there were a lot of girls that asked him. However, they were all girls he never had a discussion with. He did not want to have an awkward ball dancing with a random girl who approached him only because he was famous.

He had assisted in a stunning show, where Fred casually asked a girl out. Just like that, without batting an eye in front of the whole Common Room.

That's how a real man should be.

And then Angelina refused, leaving the Common Room in a dead silence.

Well at least he tried like a real man…

Fred started begging her on his knee, faking tears and rolling on the ground like a spoiled kid throwing a tantrum. After a few minutes of uncontrollable laughter, Angelina finally accepted.

He got a partner — I guess — like a real man?

That made Harry desperate even more, he was not ready to get rejected if he asked someone from his house (since it was the only girls he knew). And he was certainly not ready to whine like Fred.

He had an idea on who to ask, it was either Katie Bell, or one of the fourth-year girls. He thought about Parvati and Lavender. He would first ask his teammates since they were closer than he was with the two gossips.

One week before the fateful day, Ron and Harry decided it was time for them to take their courage in their hands and ask girls with the same confidence as Fred, not exactly the same though. They had no desire to roll on the ground. Harry would ask Katie and Ron said he had a plan.

Katie was talking with the two other chasers, Alicia, and Angelina. He was not deterred though, he knew them enough, the problem was that they were in the Common Room and a lot of people were present. Harry tried to make a discrete approach, arriving next to them naturally as if he stood where he was supposed to. It seemed to work as no one in the room seemed to look in his direction. However, the three girls he just joined watched him with a weird smile on their face.

"What a pleasant surprise we have here," said Angelina. "Harry Potter himself." That made her two friends laugh.

"Shh, please." Harry pleaded quietly. "I'm undercover right now."

Harry looked around him to see if the noise had attracted some eyes, but fortunately they were none.

"And what could an undercover Harry Potter want from us, poor and weak girls we are." Harry felt the twins' influence in her voice. Angelina talked exactly like them. However, he decided it was not the time to think about that, he had something to do before it was too late.

Harry steeled his resolve, took a deep breath and looked at Katie straight in the eyes. She was really pretty now that he really looked at her. She did not evade his eyes, maintaining eye contact with him, a faint red color starting to fill her cheeks. Harry himself felt his body temperature rise by at least twenty degrees.

"Katie, will you marry—" What in the world am I saying? Did someone dose my pumpkin juice with some poison?

The three girls looked at him, gobsmacked. Katie's face was now as red as Ron's hair.

"I mean accompany me." He quickly corrected himself. "Accompany me to the Yule Ball."

A few seconds passed where no one of them said a word, and then, Angelina and Alicia burst out laughing. They had tears in their eyes, and it obviously attracted attention to them. Every pair of eyes present were now turned on them. And a lot of people were starting to understand what just happened.

The twins, who were hunched up in a corner, hearing the commotion started walking towards them with huge smiles on their faces. Harry started panicking and looked at Katie's face who had recovered a normal shade now.

"I'm sorry Harry, I would love to—" She marked a pause and smiled deviously. "Accompany you," Harry sighed in relief, he thought for a second she would say the other one. "But I already accepted to go with someone else. I could ask him to—"

"No, no. It's okay Katie. I appreciate the gesture though."

He stood up and hurriedly left to take refuge in his dorm. He was not the first one here though, Ron, Seamus and Dean were already there. The two latter had tears from laughing while Ron was sitting on his bed, his hands covering his face.

He must have been rejected too.

"What happened?"

"He—" Seamus tried to say but started to laugh uncontrollably. "He tried to— And he just ran away —"

Wow, it seems more serious than my rejection.

He looked at Ron waiting for a clearer explanation.

"I was walking, looking for Susan Bones, you know, the Hufflepuff. And then I saw her." He said. "I don't know why but I lost myself for a second, and I asked her to be my partner."

"Come on, it's not that bad, she's kind. Why did you run away." Harry asked, not understanding what the big deal was, asking a fellow fourth year.

"Kind?" Ron looked at him as if he was crazy. "She looked at me as if I was a larva."

Harry frowned, he did not know her that well, but she was not the type of person to do that.

"Susan would never—"

"Not Susan, Harry," Dean interrupted him, a tad calmer than before. "He asked Fleur Delacour." And he started laughing again.

When it finally clicked in Harry's mind, Ron already started moaning, his head sunk into his cushion, as if he was trying to suffocate himself. Harry tried not to laugh but could not keep a smile out of his face.

"She's part Veela, Ron. It's not totally your fault." He tried to comfort his friend. "Plus, I also got rejected a few minutes ago."

He told them what just happened in the Common Room, without mentioning the blunder he made. This was something that should never be mentioned again, he hoped his teammates would not mention it either. He did not want to make the front page of the Daily Prophet, saying he was about to get married.

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"Both of you are ridiculous," Hermione admonished them the next day during their lunch. "How could you still not have a partner for the Ball. Even Ginny is going, and she is not even in fourth year!"

"What do you mean Ginny is going?" Ron said furiously. "With whom?"

"Get off your horses, Ron. She asked Neville because she wanted to participate."

Ron calmed himself. Neville did not do anything wrong, he just accepted a favor and it benefitted to them both.

"You know what, I will do the same." Ron suddenly turned towards Parvati, his face dark red. "Hey! Do you want to go to the ball with me."

Parvati looked caught off guard for a second and started giggling.

"Why not." And then she started whispering to Lavender who was still giggling.

Ron turned to them with a victorious smile on his face. Harry was stunned by his friend's sudden audacity. It wounded his ego, if Ron was able to do it, so would he. He turned to Lavender to ask her. However, the moment he did, he felt a stinging pain in his back. He immediately turned himself, thinking it was Malfoy who casted a hex on him, but was rather welcomed by a blizzard. Daphne was looking at him straight in the eyes, hers were cold, colder than he ever saw them. She did not blink, as if she dared him to ask someone to be his partner while she looked.

Harry gulped audibly and came back to his plate quietly. Hermione looked at him with a brilliant smile.

"I guess you should ask her permission first, Harry." She said smugly.

Ron did pay attention to what just happened, still gloating from his success. The only ones in Gryffindor's table who saw the quick interactions were the smiling Hermione, the terrified Harry, and the angry Ginny.

Harry was walking towards the usual place, head down, and his feet dragging. He did not know why but he felt as if his lunch was the last of his life. He walked like he was going straight to his death. Hermione took Ron away, pretexting she needed him for something, Harry was alone to face the great disaster that was coming. He would rather face a Basilisk again, even teaming up with a dragon, he would take it any day compared to an angry Daphne. Talking about her, she was already waiting for him, standing with her arms crossed at their usual place. He approached her, careful to not make any abrupt movements.

"Hello Daphne," He said quietly, a drop of cold sweat rolling down his back. "How are —" He could not even finish his sentence, that she was walking towards him. He was scared, he lifted his arms in front of his face to protect himself from what was coming.

"You, Me. Yule Ball." She said in a cold voice.

Harry was gobsmacked but the frozen glare she was giving him right now gave no room for hesitations.

"Yes, ma'am."

Then Daphne's gaze became a lot gentler than before, and she actually smiled sweetly.

"Great, I will see you tomorrow, same place, for details." And just like that, she left.

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And that's it for this week.

Don't forget to REVIEW! It's still as important to me as it was to the first chapter!

See you next week!