Chapter 23: Dodging That Spell

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If Harry thought he was going to get out of trouble from dodging Hermione, he was mistaken. She was waiting for him in the next class, ladened with all his missing homework.

"Don't think I didn't notice you weren't in DADA," Hermione said with a sniff as she handed him his missing homework. "I was kind enough to get this for you," she said.

"I'm sorry, Hermione, I got sick," Harry stated, giving her a sheepish grin as he took the pieces of parchment from her hands. He didn't think he was going to get away with it, but he had to try.

"No, you didn't. You bought one of the twins' candies. I saw you buy it from them. That's why I didn't come to visit you in the hospital wing," she said with a huff as she folded her arms angrily. She was very upset that he would do something like skip class. It was something that was not within her realm of possibility.

"I had a very good reason for why I did that, Hermione," he said, trying to placate her. He knew she was very upset with him, and he didn't want her mad at him right now. She was his best friend after all. If he didn't have her, he would be lost. Well, no he had Millie, but he wouldn't be complete without Hermione.

"Oh, are you going to tell me why, Mister?" she asked, glaring at him. In her opinion, there never was a good reason to skip class. Unless you were genuinely sick, which he had not been.

"Barty Crouch Junior was in that room," Harry explained in a hushed whisper. He leaned forward so only she could hear. He then straightened up, so it didn't look like he was sharing secrets in class. That was a surefire way for a secret to get out. People started eavesdropping when they thought there was something juicy to share.

"How do you know that?" she asked in a low voice. She knew who Barty Crouch Jr. was, from what he had told her on the train, but she didn't think he'd be here in the school. Yet if what he said was true, then it was important that the man was gone.

"I'll tell you later, I can't tell you here in class," he said, waving her question away as not urgent.

"You had better," she said, a bit imperiously.

"Careful, Hermione, your mum is showing," Harry said, using one of Millie's favorite terms for when Hermione started getting above herself.

"I'm sorry, Harry, I've just been so distressed about what you had to do," she said, sounding a bit contrite. She didn't like it when she got too bossy, and she was glad when somebody pointed it out to her. It was a habit she was having a hard time breaking, even after all these years.

"Don't worry, you're still my best friend and I'll let you know what's going on. I promise," Harry said, giving her a one-armed hug. He would always think of her as his best friend. She had been by his side through just about everything.

And with that, the two turned back towards the front of the room, waiting for Professor Flitwick to start the class.

When class was finished, Harry took her aside and told her everything that had happened during the day. She was impressed with the map and how it worked. But she did have to wonder how Amelia Bones had gotten through the entire school without the headmaster knowing.

"Yeah, that's a really good question," Harry said, haven't really thought about that. So he scoured the map and noted that the headmaster was not on the map at all. "I guess he's not here today. I wonder where he is."

"Well, he has three rather important jobs. I wonder if he's at one of those," she said, tapping her chin in thought. She was always impressed that the man was so important. That was one of the reasons why she wanted to be in Gryffindor, because of his importance. She admired the man for holding such highly influential jobs.

"That's entirely possible but doesn't that kind of spread him thin?" the dark-haired teen asked, looking at her like she was barmy. He, on the other hand, didn't like the fact that the headmaster held three jobs. He thought that was too much power in one hand. And like he said, it did spread the man too thin.

"I guess it does," she said, conceding the point.

"He's going to be upset that one of his teachers is in the hospital wing and that there was a criminal on school grounds," Harry said, thinking that the man should have known in the first place that there was a criminal on the grounds. This would be the second, no, third time that this has happened. As a matter of fact, this would be the 4th year in a row that this would have happened. Well, he really couldn't count second year. They never figured out who froze Colin.

"I wonder if he already knew," said Hermione, getting a faraway look in her eyes as if thinking of the ramifications.

"I don't know," Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders. "They say he knows everything that goes on in the school," he added, looking around the room as if there were spies on them at this very moment.

"That's impossible," Hermione said, though she too glanced around. "It's a very big school."

"That's what I've heard," said Harry.

"Oh well, that's a mystery for another day," she said, not really wanting to argue. "Let's go do our homework. If we get it done right away, then we won't have to worry about it later."

"Sure," said Harry, and the two went off to do their homework. With Hermione as a friend, Harry never really got into lazing off and not doing homework. He was one to get it done when it was assigned.

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Mad-eye Moody did take over class. The real one. And he was a lot like the fake one. Nobody seemed to notice that there was a difference. Except this one was much skinnier. He had recuperated in the hospital wing for a couple of days, then he was back to his old form. He taught the class with vigor.

He did point out to the class that they had been duped for the last month. But he didn't go into detail. He did yell about constant vigilance, a lot. And how they should not be conned again.

The real Moody did take Harry aside and commend him for his vigilance and thank him for saving his life.

Harry soon figured out that Barty Junior was the one that was pretending to be Alastor Moody. He didn't know that before, but he confirmed it with Sirius.

"Sirius," he said on his nightly talk with him on the mirror, "was Barty Crouch Junior pretending to be Alastor Moody?"

"Oh, you figured it out, did you?" said Sirius, who is doing his normal pacing. He did stop every now and then to look at Harry's face to judge how he was doing.

"It wasn't that hard," Harry said, his tone suggested that it was rather easy, as a matter of fact.

"We're trying to keep that hush, hush," said Sirius, stopping for a moment and giving Harry a serious look. It was something they were trying to keep a secret.

"Why?" asked Harry. That didn't make a lick of sense to him.

"Alastor is a very private man, and he doesn't want it let out that he had fallen for that trap," his godfather stated, knowing just how the paranoid man felt. He too fell for a trap from Wormtail. Granted, the rat had helped this time.

"Oh," said Harry. "Well, nobody will hear it from me," he said, making a cross his heart motion. He'd keep it a secret from everybody, including Hermione. However, knowing her, she'd already figured it out with their conversation this afternoon.

"Good on you," said Sirius, smiling at his godson proudly.

"The other schools are going to be showing up soon," said Harry, fingers were worrying his blanket a little bit. He wasn't nervous, per se, but he wasn't exactly in his comfort zone either.

"Are you looking forward to that?" The dogman asked. He was pacing again. He wasn't sure how he felt about all those foreigners being at the school either. He knew that the headmaster for Durmstrang was a Death Eater.

"I don't really know. They're going to be a lot of foreign people around and I'm not sure how to act," Harry confessed. He was uncomfortable around all the people at Hogwarts. He wasn't sure how he was going to be around all the people from foreign nations.

"Just be yourself. If they like you, they like you. If they don't, they don't. There's really not much you can do about that," was his godfather's advice. Sirius, on the other hand, was comfortable with pretty much everybody.

"I guess. It's just that…" Harry said, trailing off. Not sure how to express his feelings.

"There's really no reason to worry about it, Harry. There's going to be a lot of people there. What do you care what they think anyway? They're gonna go home and they're going to do what they do. They're gonna say what they say. There's nothing you can do about it. Just be yourself," Sirius once more, giving the only advice he knew how to give.

"I guess," the teenage boy once more said, still not sure how acting himself is going to do himself any good.

"That's the best advice I can give you, Harry. If you want, you could talk to Millie, but I'm pretty sure she's gonna tell you the same thing," Sirius said, giving a shrug of his shoulder.

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"Anyway, I'm going to go to sleep now. Talk to you tomorrow," Harry said, giving a huge yawn. It was way past his bedtime anyway. He usually went to bed long before now, but he had stayed up too late talking to Millie and he wanted to give a quick call to Sirius before he called it a night.

"No, tomorrow, call Millie. I've got plans tomorrow," the older man said, giving him a leer.

"What are you talking about? I always call Millie before I call you," Harry said, looking at him like he was crazy.

"Oh, I didn't know that," Sirius said with mock indignation.

"How could you not know that?" Harry stated, shocked.

"I thought I was special," Sirius said, still infringing hurt.

"You're taking the Mickey?" Harry asked suddenly on to what he was doing. He must really be tired if he had fallen for that.

"You're right, I am. But don't call me tomorrow. I do have plans." His godfather finally stopped playing.

"Oh, what are they?" The teenage boy asked, hoping to get some dirty details.

"I'm not likely to tell you, am I," The older man said, not about to tell the boy what he was up to.

"Alright, keep your secrets."

"Goodnight, Harry."

"Goodnight, Sirius."

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Time passed wisely with schoolwork and some fun, and now it was the day before Halloween and the other two schools were coming. Beauxbatons Academy of Magic came by air. Durmstrang Institute came by water. The two foreign schools were very pretentious. They both like to put on airs that they were better than England. The French more so than the Bulgarians.

The French headmistress, Olympe Maxime, was a giant of a woman. She seemed to know Dumbledore rather well. And Hagrid was smitten immediately. She led her delegation of students into Hogwarts' Great Hall to get out of the cold air.

The Bulgarian headmaster, Igor Karkaroff, was a dour looking man. He, too, seemed to know Hogwarts' headmaster really well. His contingent of students didn't seem to mind the cold at all. He had Viktor Krum as a student and the Hogwarts students seem to go gaga over that. Ron was a huge fan.

Everybody was soon assembled in the Great Hall. The Bulgarians were sitting with the Slytherins, and the French were sitting with the Ravenclaws.

Dumbledore gave a ceremonial speech. He made sure to tell everybody just how dangerous the Triwizard Tournament was, and to only put your name in the Goblet of Fire if you were sure, you knew that you were putting your life at stake. Everybody seemed to be content with those words, and the feast was on.

"I hear the twins are going to try and enter anyway," said Ron, as he served himself up from the English food he could see on the table. There was some French food and some Bulgarian food too, but he wanted to stick with what he knew.

"Well, they're only six months away from being seventeen," said Dean, helping himself to a foreign looking stew. It was hearty looking and had lots of beef in it. There are things like carrots and potatoes too, but there seemed to be more meat than anything else. And the spices were different than the British fare.

"Yeah, it's too bad they can't enter," Harry said as he helped himself to something French. It was delicate looking and sweet. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was going to brave through it. He felt bad for the twins because he knew they were looking forward to causing mayhem.

"What about you, Harry? Are you upset that you can't enter?" asked Ron, shoving some cottage pie in his mouth.

"Why would I want to enter a deadly contest?" squawked Harry, dropping his fork on the plate and shocked that somebody would ask him that question. It crushed his, whatever it was. It was good, but he didn't know what it was.

"Because you're the Boy-Who-Lived," was the unexpected answer.

"What the hell does that even bloody mean?" asked Harry indignantly. He really hated that title, and he thought people had stopped using it. He hadn't done anything spectacular since the day that it had happened on that Halloween night when his parents died. He didn't understand why people still thought of him as a hero.

"It means you're a hero," said Ginny, from down the table. She was staring dreamily at him.

"I'm no bloody hero," said Harry, crushing the food on his plate with his fork in anger. He'd lost his appetite now. "What have I ever done that even seems remotely heroic?" he asked the two redheads in front of him.

"Well, he's got you there," said Dean, smirking at the Weasleys. He was with Harry. He didn't think the boy was heroic in any way, shape, or form. He was just some kid that was muddling through life like the rest of them.

"Yeah, our Harry really doesn't go out and do anything heroic," said Seamus, nodding his head in agreement with his friend Dean.

"All I wanna do is sit around and do my homework, play quidditch and maybe even date a bit," Harry said, discarding the plate he was using and grabbing another, this time putting on some Bulgarian dish that looked like pigs in blankets. Only with sausage and some other type of wrap. There was gravy on it too. It was gray gravy, and it had some beef bits in it.

"I don't know what all the fuss is about anyway, it's a deadly contest," said Hermione, sawing on a piece of meat. When she had chosen it, she didn't know that it was fully cooked. She's used to her meat being rather rare. She didn't even reprimand Harry for his language.

"Too right," said Harry, eating his wrapped sausage and closing his eyes in delighted the taste of the spices. It was rather good.

"So, you don't even want to enter, not even a little bit?" asked Ron, going after a third helping of cottage pie. He was the only one at the table eating it, so nobody stopped him. Everybody else was enjoying the foreign fare.

"Nope. I just wanna sit back and watch everybody else make fools of themselves," said Harry with a smug look on his face. He really and truly was just going to sit and watch everybody else compete. He just hoped everybody would come out of it alive. Like Hermione said, this was a deadly contest.

"Well, good on you," said Seamus, reaching around Dean, and clapping Harry on the back. He never thought the other boy was in any way brave and forthcoming. Not that he thought he was shy and stupid. Just that he wasn't fearless and the rushing in type.

"Maybe if I were older, I'd want to enter," said Dean, thoughtfully. "But definitely not right now. I don't know enough magic." He nodded his head at that thought as if he just thought of something insightful. He might be the athletic type, but he wasn't stupid.

"Besides, Millie would have my guts for garters if I tried to enter," said Harry, doing a full body shudder at the thought of what Millie would do to him if he thought to sneak his name into the goblet.

"Too right," said Hermione. She too knew that Millie would have fits if Harry did that.

Just then, Amy came over. "What are you lot talking about?" she asked, standing behind Hermione. She started fussing with the girl's hair, getting it in a bun, and holding it there with magic.

"About why Harry doesn't want to enter the tournament." said Hermione, smiling up at her mentor.

"Because he's underage," said Amy, stating the obvious reason.

"Well, there is that too, but we were talking more of because it's a deadly contest, and Millie would kill him if he tried," said Hermione, pointing out the least obvious reasons.

"Well, there is that too," said Amy, giving the girl a winning smile. Then she turned her smile to the rest of the group and said. "Well, I see you lot have it in hand, so I'm going to go back to my friends." With that, she turned around and went back to sit with the rest of the seventh years.

"Why do you pay attention to her?" asked Ron as he watched her walk away. He didn't understand why the group dynamic paid attention to the older students. As far as he was concerned, the only person who could boss him around was his mum.

"She's a friend of mine," said Hermione, giving him a warning glare.

"She's a lot older than you," said Ron, either not noticing or blatantly ignoring the warning glare.

"She's only two years older than me," said Hermione, narrowing her eyes at the other boy. "Besides, she's a lovely girl."

"But you let her boss you around." Once again ignoring all the warning signals going off in his head.

"Harry lets me boss him around, but that doesn't mean we're any less friends," she said with a sniff, then she turned and gave Harry winning smile.

"She's got you there, mate," said Dean, clapping Harry on the back as if he was the victim in the whole thing.

"I don't let anybody boss me around," said Ron, sticking out his chest as if he were a winner in some contest.

"Except me and mum," said Ginny, adding her two knuts worth.

"Yeah, but you're family, that's different," the youngest male Weasley said. He knew his place in the pecking order of that family.

"Wait until you get a girlfriend, you'll see," said Ginny, glaring at her brother as if he were a moron.

"Well, I, for one, can't wait to see what's gonna happen in the tournament. Who do you think is going to be chosen by the Goblet of Fire?" asked Harry, desperate for a change of conversation. He knew the women in his life bossed him around and he had no problem with that. He also had a veto right into not doing what they told him to do. They both knew that. Well, didn't they?

"Well, I'm hoping it's going to be Angelina," said Lavender, who had remained silent up till now. "I'd like to see a girl in the tournament." She looked over at Angelina excitedly. It would be really nice to see a girl in the tournament.

"Me too," said Parvati. She too, looked over at Angelina, but she was doubtful that the girl would get in. She looked around the Great Hall and wondered who's, out of all of the students, name would come out of the Goblet of Fire. Her eyes landed on Cedric Diggory. She was sure he was going to get it. He was the most popular and had the highest score in all this school.

"Well, you're in luck because most of the French are female," said Seamus, his eyes landing on said French females and lingering there because they were very pretty women, and he was a very young male.

"I meant Hogwarts," said Lavender, huffing. She was put out that his eyes were lingering on the French females and not on her. What was wrong with her? What did they have that she didn't?

"I would think you would mean the entire female race," said Seamus, his eyes finally drawn back to his own table, and he looked to see her jealousy and his face blushed. Perhaps he should not stray too far from home. They were out of his league anyway.

"What do you know? You're a man," the blonde said, still miffed that he let his eyes stray that way.

With that, the table dissolved into laughter and the feast went on. The drawing would be the next day when the Goblet of Fire would spit out the names. Harry didn't know what tomorrow would bring, but he certainly hoped it would not bring his participation in the Triwizard Tournament. He hoped that what happened with Barty Crouch Junior was enough to prevent that from happening.

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The next day was spent with everybody over the age of seventeen putting their name into the Goblet of Fire. Well, not everybody, but it sure seemed like it. First went the people from Beauxbatons. Then came the students from Durmstrang. And then went the students from Hogwarts.

The twins tried to do it. They took an aging potion and wound up getting kicked out from the Age Line, and they spouted beards as long as Dumbledore's. Everybody thought it was funny as hell.

Everybody sat and watched, everybody else put their name in and cheers went up when a few people put their names in like Viktor Krum. Fluer Delacour. Angelina Johnson. Cedric Diggory, and so on. People were just cheering when their friends would slip their names in.

Then it was time for dinner. After dinner was done came the time for the drawing. Once again Dumbledore grandstanded, and he made a speech. And the goblet was brought in.

The first name he drew was Viktor Krum.

The second name he drew was Fluer Delacour.

The third name he drew was Cedric Diggory.

And then there was nothing. The goblet went out.

Harry drew a huge sigh of relief, which caused those around him to look at him queerly. He just shook them off and smiled a megawatt smile. That night, when he was talking on the mirror to Millie, he let her know that he was happy that nothing came of it.

"I was so scared," he said, settling deeper into his pillows. He was very ready to go to bed after such a stressful day. He had been worried all day long that his name would come out of that goblet.

"I know you were, but we took care of Crouch, and I couldn't see how else anybody could put your name in, yeah," she said, fiddling with a piece of her hair. Even though she said the words, her actions showed she was just as worried as he had been.

"I was just fearful that maybe Dumbledore would do something," Harry said. His eyes took on a thoughtful look.

"Why would you even think that?" she asked, sitting up a little bit and paying attention to what he was saying. She knew why she didn't trust the headmaster. She didn't know why he didn't trust the headmaster.

"I don't know, there's just something about the way he watches me sometimes that makes me think he's got plans for me," he said, worrying his blanket a little bit. There's just something intense about the way the headmaster's eyes stared at him. It was as if he was a missing piece of a puzzle. Harry didn't know what to do about that.

"I'm sorry that you feel that way, yeah," she said, making a mental note to talk to the headmaster about making her ward feel uncomfortable. She didn't think anything would come of it. Maybe she'd have Sirius do the talking.

"We've really got to find a way for me to get out of this school," he said, in a vague tone of voice, as if he wasn't really seriously thinking about it. But there were times he really didn't want to be around the people in this school. Like the headmaster and Snape.

"You only have this year and the next, honey," she said, trying to be consolatory.

"I'll do my best to keep my head down. That's all I can do," he said with a sigh. He knew he was stuck here until then, but he didn't have to like it.

They talked a bit more about his fears and expectations and then he had his conversation with Sirius and then hung up for the night. He was just doubly glad that his name did not come out of The Goblet of Fire, but for some reason he just had a feeling that this year's danger was not over.