A Chance Encounter
Chapter 9
-Martin Delacour-
Reclining in his seat, Martin watched bemused as Dumbledore did his utmost to sway the ICW. So long as the Tri-Wizard tournament was in effect, then Harry was considered a legal adult and therefore Dumbledore didn't have any more rights pertaining to the boy. Martin was admittedly still kicking himself for overlooking that old tradition of the Supreme Mugwump having citizenship in every sovereign nation of the ICW.
"He's quite persistent, isn't he?" Appoline snorted as she relaxed in the box next to him, having come along with Pierre to the emergency meeting Dumbledore had called the morning after the Champion Selection.
"Irritatingly so." Martin nodded, "Then there's Fudge who looks ready to piss himself from stress. The man has spent the past, what, five years lobbying for the Tournament to be revived and come to England first? Gets it the same year the World Cup takes place there, and then Dumbledore tries messing that up for his own agendas." Dumbledore's aim was a simple one.
Given that the tournament, and international laws surrounding it, stated a Champion could not be removed as a contender against their will; the man couldn't forcibly have Harry removed to have him lose his current emancipation. Dumbledore's request to have the tournament cancelled outright, or just have three 'tasks' that could be done in the span of an hour with no real effort was also shot down for a very crucial rule.
The tournament was bound by the power of the Cup and the Goblet, those were old magical artifacts for this sort of competition, older than even the schools who currently used them. They also needed time to recharge between tournaments so if Dumbledore's proposal was accepted, then any tournament after wouldn't be a true Tri-Wizard tournament, it would just be a competition. Given the years spent in deliberation on bringing back this tournament, and the ICW deciding if it wasn't a true Tournament then they shouldn't even bother, Dumbledore was facing an uphill battle.
"But his desperation is our gain." Martin gave a bemused smirk as he stood up, "If I may address this august body." His voice ran out, the silencing charms on his booth lowering as he stood up, "I wish to put forth a motion of my own."
"You do not currently have the floor." Dumbledore worked to hide his scowl and merely sound disappointed, even if the old man's eyebrow twitched ever so subtly.
"You've done nothing but grandstand and control the floor for the past hour and-" Martin paused to check his watch "twenty-three minutes. No, I wish to put forth a motion to permanently remove Albus Dumbledore from the position of Supreme Mugwump." That drew some attention as it was exceedingly rare for the ICW to ever remove a Supreme Mugwump, more common for them to retire or just die in office.
"You cannot be serious." The German representative gaped, "Albus Dumbledore has made some mistakes yes but to strip him of a position has served in loyally for so many years?"
"Ah, yes, but has he been loyal?" Martin pressed, "We all saw before how he attempted to fabricate the facts to punish France when it was England as well as Dumbledore himself who were in the wrong. And here we see him even betraying his own Minister. Albus Dumbledore is currently working to discredit and make a mockery of a tradition older than even the Academy he runs. Not to mention his failure of security to prevent such a situation in the first place. Then there's him abusing a legal loophole to try and force one Harry Potter into a Marriage contract to drag him back to England. If Albus Dumbledore has been willing to do all this in so little a time, who's to say what other sort of crimes he's done? How often has that man used and abused the powers he was given to serve his own self-interest. How many oaths has he broken, or laws defiled? No, that man has shown he cannot be trusted with the power he has, so I move here and now, to have him removed from it."
-Harry-
"There you are 'arry!" hearing the voice of Fleur approaching, Harry put a pause to his exercise, grabbing a towel to wipe away the sweat on his face.
"Hey Fleur." He gave her a grin, noting her own face seemed red. Had she been running to find him? "Is something wrong?"
"I have received a letter from father. It would seem that he achieved a small victory with the ICW, even if it was nowhere near what he wished for." Fleur seemed torn between frustration at the politicians and relief that at least something had gone right to any extent.
"So, what happened?" Harry pushed, knowing an emergency meeting of the ICW had been called thanks to a message from the Delacours, as well as Dumbledore rushing out early in the morning.
"Father pushed to have Dumbledore stripped of power in the ICW." Fleur made a distasteful expression "But due to his 'long years of service' and 'lack of enough evidence of past misconduct' they refused to remove him outright. The good news is that they have stated he's only allowed to finish out the current bureaucratic year, which will end around the same time as the tournament, and father planted seeds of doubt in the brain of Minister Fudge in relation to Dumbledore."
"That's good." Harry nodded, moving from where he'd been doing push ups before to a clear patch of grass, using his arm arrays to manipulate the iron in the earth into some weights, "Not as good as I'd like but better than nothing. How's Gabby doing without us around to pester? She writing you every day too?"
"Once a day at least." Fleur gave a good-natured eye roll, her twitching lips betraying her own amusement, "I'm fairly sure she misses you more than me though."
"What can I say, I'm loveable." Harry gave a cheeky grin to his blonde companion.
"Keep telling yourself that." Fleur scoffed, pushing him back onto a weight bench he'd made via finger to the forehead "Maybe someday somebody besides yourself will believe it."
"Oh, that's cold." Harry gave a mock gasp, "And here I thought you Veela were supposed to be fiery."
"Keep it up and you might just get burned 'arry." Fleur scoffed playfully.
"Ahem." Jerking, Harry looked over to see Ron and Hermione watching them, "If you two are done flirting in public." Hermione had a teasing grin on her face as they approached.
"Hermione? Teasing? Ron! Someone has corrupted our innocent little bookworm!" Harry tried to deflect, working to hide the blush he could feel forming.
"Mate, don't you dare put me on her radar too!" Ron shook his head furiously "Nope. You made the mistake of getting her like this, you can take it like a Gryffindor."
"Not going to say, 'Take it like a man'?" Fleur raised an eyebrow.
"Hermione's a woman and my brother Percy is a 'man'." Ron deadpanned "Hermione's slugged Malfoy in the teeth and stood with me and Harry as we stared down all kinds of fucked up shit."
"Language!" Hermione scolded, but Ron ignored her.
"Percy meanwhile feels faint if someone even remotely thinks the word 'fun'. Granted he somehow got in Gryffindor as well but even the Hat can make mistakes I guess." Ron gave a blasé shrug.
"A-anyway." Fleur coughed "Was there something you wanted?"
"Yeah, we wanted to know if you two had a plan for this mess." Hermione nodded
"Win." Harry and Fleur said in tandem, giving each other confident smirks.
"Sorry Fleur, but all you'll be getting is a pretty silver medal." Harry cracked his neck as he rolled shoulders.
"I believe you have the matters reversed there 'arry." Fleur gave him an impish grin, "After all, you still have yet to defeat Gabrielle."
"Okay, bringing in her pouts? Low blow." Harry grumbled, not denying how thoroughly her baby sister had the man wrapped around her little finger.
"...Are you sure you're not dating?" Ron asked, looking between them baffled.
"See!" Hermione pointed at the redhead smugly "Even Ron can see!"
"Yeah, even I can…hey!" Ron started to nod smugly before whirling on an unabashed Hermione with a pout.
AN: Not gonna lie everyone, this is a tricky story to write. I had ideas in the beginning and momentum but while I still have a rough idea for where to go it's been stubborn to write. I aim to finish it, but it'll be a fight. Luckily for you, and unluckily for this story's unhelpful muse, I'm a stubborn little shit. But this entire update group being 'transition' chapters made it more than a little frustrating.