A/N: Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling and her associates. Please support the official release.

The Great Hall

"SILENCE!"

The magically enhanced voice of Albus Dumbledore tore through the Great Hall, stifling any discussion currently going on between the students seated at any of the four gargantuan tables. It was the Start-of-Term Feast, and before the Headmaster had spoken up, an incessant chatter had filled the hall as students both old and new were reunited and met for the first time. The excitement of starting a new year at Hogwarts always felt eerily similar to the excitement one usually felt at Christmas or New Year's Eve, and even Harry had been caught up in the festivities, happily engaging in conversation with the people around his table.

Now, though, everyone's eyes were fixed on the Headmaster, most anticipating him to give the usual speech he always gave at the start of every year.

"Welcome, any and all, to yet another year here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! My name, as I suspect most of you already know, is Albus Dumbledore, and I am the Headmaster of this school."

A loud cheer went up from amongst the crowd of students, before Dumbledore promptly silenced them again with a wave of his hand.

"Now then, before I continue with the customary speech that is given at the start of every term, I have some very thrilling news to share with you all…" he continued, his eyes twinkling under the light of the floating candles. "You see, tonight, it is my great pleasure to announce that a very special event will take place at Hogwarts this year! Our school has been selected to host an extraordinary competition known as the Triwizard Tournament! As Headmaster, and on behalf of all the staff here at Hogwarts, allow me to offer our utmost thanks to the Department of Magical Games and Sports from the Ministry of Magic for bestowing this honor upon us."

From behind the teachers table, a man clad in black robes arose from his seat, eliciting an eager, yet slightly confused applause from the students present. The man had short, almost unnaturally straight grey hair and a narrow toothbrush moustache, rounded out by a black fedora resting comfortably on his head, completing the image of a stereotypical government official.

Tipping his head in a symbolic bow towards the Headmaster, the man put on a warm smile that almost managed to come off as genuine.

That's the smile of a man who has several years of experience in the world of politics under his belt, Harry noted to himself as he absentmindedly clapped along with the other students. Warm on the outside, cold and withering on the inside.

As the man found his seat, Dumbledore raised his voice yet again, promptly silencing the applause as if it had never even been there.

"Allow me to explain: the Triwizard Tournament is a magical contest held between the three largest wizarding schools in Europe: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Durmstrang Institute and Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. Each of the schools will pick a Champion to act as their representative, and these Champions will then compete against each other in strenuous tasks that will ultimately result in a victor."

The entirety of the Great Hall held their collective breaths as they waited for Dumbledore to continue his speech. The tension hung thick in the air as he adjusted his glasses, purposefully dragging out the pause for dramatic effect.

Drama queen, Harry silently thought to himself.

"Now, please do not misunderstand me: the Triwizard Tournament is no easy undertaking. It is designed to test the limits of your intelligence, your magical ability and… your courage". His stare seemed to linger on Harry for a moment as he uttered those last few words, before continuing its sweep of the Great Hall.

"The winner of the Triwizard Tournament will be rewarded with eternal glory, recognition by his peers, a monetary price and the prestigious Triwizard Cup!" As he finished his sentence, a magical current of wind flew through the Great Hall, ruffling hair and eliciting gasps from several students. The gusts stopped at the front of the hall, melding together into a bigger, tornado-shaped torrent, increasing in both power and ferocity. And there, in the middle of the tornado, Harry spotted a goblet-like object made of the finest metal.

As sudden as the winds had started, they also disappeared, leaving behind a truly magnificent cup that caused most of the students gathered in the Great Hall to gasp. The sparkle in Dumbledore's eyes seemed to intensify just a little as he gazed out over the baffled students, the Triwizard Cup illuminating the words "WIZ" and "ARD" that were ingrained on its side.

"The process of selecting these Champions will be taken care of by a magical artefact known as the Goblet of Fire. Each student that wishes to enter the Triwizard Tournament will have to place a piece of parchment with their name written on it into the Goblet, and when the time comes, it will select the Champions it feels are the most worthy to participate. Now, due to the rather harsh nature of the tasks involved, the Ministry of Magic has put in place an age restriction for participation in the Tournament. Only wizards from the age of 17 and up will be allowed to enter their names into the Goblet of Fire."

The response was instant. The undisturbed silence that had previously reigned was immediately replaced by the deafening shouts of frustration from all the students that were under the age of 17, all of them screaming out in opposition of this new, unfair rule. Only Harry and his band of friends seemed to remain silent, seeing as none of them had been planning to enter their names to begin with. To Harry, the Tournament seemed like a very stylish way of committing suicide, and he couldn't say the prospect of eternal glory was overly tempting either. He already had celebrity status, after all, due to him being the Boy-Who-Lived and all.

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore shouted yet again, this time putting even more power behind his words. The hall immediately fell silent. "This new regulation is put in place solely for your own safety, and whilst I am sure that many of you are highly disappointed that you will not be able to participate, the rules are ironclad, and I will not have it any other way."

Nobody said a word. There were none in the Great Hall ambitious or stupid enough to confront Dumbledore openly, after all, not even Harry. The old geezer might be a meddling old fool, but he was still one of the most powerful wizards in the world, one whose words carried a great deal of weight.

"Now then: in exactly two months, on October the 30th, the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons will arrive here at Hogwarts. On that day, another ceremony will be held in this hall to celebrate their arrival, and to reveal the Goblet of Fire and open up the chance for students to enter their names into the Tournament. Until then, I hope all of you will take your classes seriously, and not use the excitement surrounding the Tournament as an excuse to slack off."

The Headmaster then went on to explain the general rules at Hogwarts for all of the new students, at which point Harry promptly stopped paying attention to his speech.

A deadly Tournament, huh… Well, it looks like I wasn't wrong about this being a wild year. But even if I was old enough to enter my name, I would have zero interest in participating. I have so much to do this year already, so much to learn and study. I don't have time to mess around and take part in some contest when the Dark Lord is still out there, biding his time. I have to focus on getting stronger, no matter what.

Lifting his eyes, he was surprised to see Hermione staring intently at him from across the table, her eyes sending him a look that seemed to shout: don't you even think about it. Shaking his head, he quickly dissuaded her of her fears. There was no way he was going to waste his time participating in the Ministry's party games. He had promised her that he would stay safe this year, and he had every intention of following up on that promise.

"So… W-Who do you think is going to be s-selected as the Hogwarts Champion?" Neville stuttered as the couple made their way towards their first Transfiguration and Herbology lessons of the year. They weren't going to the same classroom: Gryffindors and Ravenclaws never shared classes, but their respective rooms were in the same direction, and so the two of them had joined up and decided to walk together.

"Hmm… I don't know, actually. But from what I've heard, most people seem to be rooting for Cedric Diggory, so I guess I'll go with him as my guess," Harry shrugged, finding it difficult to really care about who was likely to get chosen or not. The Triwizard Tournament didn't matter to him: he wasn't involved in it, and so who would ultimately end up representing Hogwarts was of no concern to him.

"I r-reckon you're right. He's always b-been really popular, and good at magic too. It would be a s-surprise if he wasn't chosen. Dumbledore wasn't lying about how d-dangerous the Tournament is, though. I did some r-research and found out that the reason the Triwizard Tournaments were cancelled originally was because the c-contestants kept dying all the time. A-Apparently they made it too difficult, and s-so the students participating would always end up getting severely hurt, and some would always die."

"Huh, you don't say…" Harry muttered, not really surprised by the news. The Wizarding Community had always lacked a certain sense of tact when it came to matters like these, and so to hear that they had somehow managed to make a Wizarding Tournament meant for teenagers too deadly was hardly an earth-shattering realization.

"I-I wish I was b-brave enough to participate in events like that… Gran always said I was too much of a scaredy-cat," Neville sighed in a wistful tone.

"Hey, if this Tournament turns out to be just as deadly as the previous ones, you'll be glad you didn't throw your name in the Goblet of Fire. Take it from a guy who's been in mortal danger more than a few times in his life: it isn't as fun and heroic as it sounds," Harry noted in an attempt at comforting Neville. It was true: the Hufflepuff boy really did lack self-confidence, but in this particular instance, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. An overabundance of courage and bravado could just as easily get you killed as it could get you famous, after all.

"Hah, that's e-easy for you to say Harry! You've done enough h-heroic stuff to last you a lifetime!" Neville shot back, shaking his head. "E-Even if you never did another heroic act in your l-life, you would still be remembered as one of the bravest w-wizards alive!"

"Neville, stop it…" Harry groaned, cringing from the flattery. "It's bad enough that everyone else seems to think I'm some "knight in shining armor", I don't want you to have that perception of me as well. Truth is, I'm kind of a selfish guy. I never really do anything unless it'll first and foremost benefit ME."

"No, I d-don't believe that. You're too kind to be a bad guy, Harry. Y-You're not like Malfoy, or any of those guys. Even if you think you are."

"Well, you're damn right I'm not like Malfoy. Unlike that imbecile, I actually have a functioning brain," Harry noted, inwardly wondering what Draco was actually up to. He realized he hadn't seen the Malfoy heir for quite some time, now that he thought about it.

In fact, the last time he saw him was the day his goons…

Attacked Hermione.

A wave of pure malice washed over him at the thought of Hermione on that cold stone floor, and he had to consciously restrain himself from sneering in fury. How could he have forgotten something so bloody important? Malfoy had orchestrated an attack on Hermione, and Harry hadn't done anything to punish him for it. The thought of that made him so furious it was hard to think straight.

With the dark part of his mind calling out for revenge, Harry took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself before he turned to look at Neville again. The boy had apparently noticed Harry's little "episode", as his skin had turned white as snow and his eyes were filled with worry.

"H-Harry, are you okay? What just happened?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, choosing to act as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"You just… did something. I-I don't know how to e-explain it, but… you felt… evil. And angry. As if someone had done you wrong."

"Huh, that's odd… I was just lost in thought, that's all," Harry shrugged, desperately hoping Neville would just drop it. The most likely explanation was, of course, that he had let slip a little bit of the Obscurus within him, but that wasn't something he wanted to have to explain to Neville right now. It was quite possibly the last thing the boy needed to hear.

Luckily enough for Harry, they arrived at the Transfiguration classroom in that very moment, allowing him to say goodbye to Neville and dodge the metaphorical bullet before it had a chance to hit.

Whew, that was a close one… I'll have to learn to be more careful in the future. Don't want to risk having another Obscurus outburst, after all. But I'll need to find a way to punish Draco. After what he did… the little fucker has it coming.

Room of Requirement

"Do it one more time, just to make sure," Hermione instructed, allowing herself to fall into teacher mode as she watched Harry apparate back and forth across the room. It had been a couple of days since they came back to Hogwarts, and in that time, Harry had made some notable improvements to his Apparition. He was now able to reliably apparate across short distances without losing his balance or focus, which was impressive considering the fact that he was only a Fourth Year, and Apparition was a Sixth Year spell. Hermione was still a little better at it than him, but he was catching up, and soon enough they would be able to start attempting long-distance Apparition.

The reason they were doing this in the Room of Requirement was because the rest of Hogwarts was protected by an insanely strong set of Anti-Apparition wards that would bounce you to high heaven if attempted breached. These wards seemed to not apply to the Room though, as it was apparently not considered an "official" part of the castle. Hermione couldn't claim to know the reason behind this, but she suspected it had something to do with how the Room didn't show up on any maps of the castle either. Maybe it existed "outside" of time and space? Unlikely, true, but who really knew?

"I'm telling you Hermione, I've got this. There is no need for any more practice," Harry answered confidently, a cocky smile plastered on his face as he turned to look at her after doing one last apparition. "I can do it flawlessly now."

"Oh really?" she replied, raising an eyebrow before apparating across the room to a standing position right in front of him, catching him off-guard. The motion caught him by such surprise he actually faltered for a minute, taking a small step backwards.

"God, I hate it when you do that…" he muttered under his breath, coughing lightly to regain his composure.

"Well, what if I combine it with this?" she laughed in response, before leaning in to plant a quick yet passionate kiss on his lips.

"… Then it's suddenly not so bad anymore," he smiled once she ended the kiss.

"You're hopeless, you know," she sighed, walking a couple of steps away from him before pulling out her wand.

"I know. But you like that about me," he replied earnestly before pulling out his own wand. "I'm assuming we're going to be practicing spells now, seeing as you pulled out your wand?"

"Correct. We're going to be attempting to cast something called the Quietening Charm. It's not a charm that's normally taught here at Hogwarts, and as such, was rather difficult to learn about, but I believe it can prove to be an extremely useful tool in our fight against the Dark Lord," Hermione noted candidly, mentally trying to recall the exact wand movements she had to perform in order for the charm to work correctly. "Although, there is a slight catch…"

"And that is?"

"We're going to be casting it on ourselves, and not a target."

"Huh… Is that normal?"

Hermione paused for a moment, emitting a low "hmmm" sound as she thought about his question.

"Well… not really, I suppose. The Quietening charm is normally used to quiet sounds that the caster feels are annoying or deafening. But that's not why I'm interested in it."

"Wait, let me guess… You want us to use it to silence ourselves instead, so we can sneak around without getting noticed," Harry guessed, a small smile starting to creep its way across his face.

"Exactly. And, if we combine it with your Invisibility Cloak… Well, let's just say we'll be as close to unnoticeable as human beings can possibly get."

"Ahaha… You know, it's because of things like this that I really do love you sometimes," Harry sighed, before immediately tensing up as he realized his mistake.

Fuck.

Looking over at Hermione with newfound concern, he measured her reaction to his words.

It wasn't good.

Her mouth drawn into a strict line, Hermione looked positively distressed as her mind spun in circles trying to figure out what to say in response.

Neither of them had ever used the word "love" to describe their relationship before. Not surprising, one might say, considering that "I love you" was a pretty strong statement, and not one you made lightly. It usually wasn't before later into the relationship one would start using such a phrase to describe one's feelings for a romantic partner.

Harry, being the usually rational human being that he was, knew this of course. Which only helped to make things worse.

"U-Uhm… I didn't… Ehrm… you know… mean to…" he started, virtually dying of shame as he searched for the right words to say.

"No… I-It's okay, I realize that… it just sort of… slipped out," she replied, throwing him a metaphorical lifeline to save the both of them further embarrassment. Harry immediately caught it and held on to it for dear life.

"Yes, yes! It slipped out! I didn't, you know, MEAN it, or anything!"

"Oh… I mean, of course… Yes… Of course you didn't mean it…"

A flash of what could be interpreted as disappointment shot across Hermione's features before she regained her usual composure and coughed to clear her throat.

"Well, anyway… Back to the… charm," she declared, diverting the conversation back to its original topic. "So… you'll want to hold your wand in an upright position like this, before swishing it lightly to the left and down…"

After that, Harry dutifully followed her instructions for the remainder of their study session, making sure to keep his mouth firmly shut all the while. He wasn't about to make another mistake like that, after all.

Impressive, Harry... You truly are the definition of a smooth operator.

Somewhere in England

Barty Crouch Jr. was feeling something akin to a mix of anxiety and excitement as he made his way towards the abandoned house in the outskirts of town that his Lord had decided to use as a temporary resting place and base of operations. His quest to deliver the Dark Lord's message to Lucius had been successful, and all that remained now was to wait for the Dark Lord to enact the second step of his grand plan.

It had been a long and strenuous journey to get to this point, and it hadn't all been easy. Barty had been forced to do some truly horrific things, things that would no doubt haunt a lesser man for years. But luckily enough for him, he was no lesser man. And there was nothing he wouldn't do for his Master.

Barty Crouch Jr. had never really believed that Voldemort was dead, not even whilst he was in Azkaban and things were at their darkest. Even in that bottomless abyss of suffering they liked to call a prison, he had held on to the belief that the Dark Lord was still alive, and waited patiently for his chance to escape. Such a chance had never presented itself, sadly, but one beautiful day, his Lord had returned, and provided him with the means to attempt a proper jailbreak, at last.

But that was all in the past. What mattered now was the future. The future he and his Lord would build together. First things first, they had to take care of the Potter heir. His Lord had concocted a rather intricate and impressive plan for that, a plan which involved a great deal of suffering for the poor boy. Not that he particularly cared about his well-being. He had caused his Master an untold amount of pain with that surprise rebound, after all, and for that, he deserved to be punished.

After Potter was dead, they could begin working out how to seize full control of Wizarding Britain and cast out the pathetic Ministry of Magic. His Lord had plenty of plans for the country, after all, plans that could not be set in motion before Harry Potter was dead and buried.

Ahh, and they were so close now. The Triwizard Tournament was only a couple of months away, and at that point, everything had to be ready. This plan could not be allowed to fail. The Dark Lord had to return. Everything hinged on it.

Be strong, my Master. I will bring you back stronger than you were before. The people of Britain will have their true leader back, and the Potter boy will get what is coming to him. It's all a matter of time…

Whistling happily to himself as he walked, Barty did a little spin to celebrate their upcoming victory before suddenly stopping dead in his tracks and violently slapping himself across the face. It wouldn't do to be giggling and dancing like a little schoolgirl in front of the Dark Lord. The time for celebration would come. Later. For now, though…

We have a boy to kill… Live in fear, Harry Potter. Hell is coming for you.

A/N: So... it's been a while, guys. It's almost surprising how fast three months go by when you aren't really paying attention. I'm not going to lie, my life has been pretty crazy these last couple of months. A lot of stuff has happened. Some of it good, some of it... not so much. But it definitely has been interesting at least. Hopefully things will calm down a little now, although with current events being what they are, I am not betting on it.

If you hadn't noticed (lol), the whole Coronavirus thing is getting kinda serious now. The World Health Organization has declared it a pandemic, which naturally caused a bunch of people to panic and buy a lot of toilet paper for some reason. It's especially bad here in my country. All schools, universities, gyms, cinemas, museums, entertainment centers etc. have been shut down, and most people have quarantined themselves in their homes. I swear, it's like an actual apocalypse out there. People are freaking out big time and grocery stores are selling out their supplies faster than they can stock them. It's not a very happy time.

So please, take care of yourself guys. Follow health recommendations and be careful about inviting people into your home. This shit might not be that serious for you (if you aren't old AF or have any underlying health problems) but you could still catch the sickness and infect others. Trust me, my grandparents are in the danger zone and I don't want anything bad to happen to either one of them. So stay safe out there boys, and don't do anything stupid.

But other than that, I don't really have anything else to say. I'm positively exhausted for some reason (I hope it isn't the virus lmao) so I should probably head to bed now. Thank you guys for reading my story though. I really mean that. We're almost at 70,000 views now, which is just... mindblowing. I can't thank you guys enough for that. It truly means the world to me.

And, as always, I will see you guys in the next chapter!

-Twisted