DISCLAIMER! This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy. This story is just a castle built in the clouds for some enjoyment of readers.
The Triwizard Tournament brings loneliness and isolation for an angry and disillusioned Harry Potter. When the financially astute goblins use a loophole to help Vault-holder Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived begins to break free of Magical Britain.
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The First TaskThe day for the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament arrived with bright sunshine compliments of a series of wizarding charms holding back the clouds that promised to bring rain as soon as the charm expired. Few students were brave or stupid enough to mutter disparaging comments within the hearing of Harry Potter – the young wizard was cold and unapproachable except for Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger who sat with him at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, and in the two classes he attended – Charms and DADA.
After lunch, everyone in the castle made their way to the stadium where thousands of spectators gathered to watch the champions battle dragons – nesting mother dragons. Word of the beasts to be used in the task leaked out from a thousand sources to the newspapers and wireless services to generate increased interest and attendance.
In the stadium, watching over the students from Hogwarts for misbehaviour, Professor Minerva McGonagall glided around the stands, silent and forbidding. She remained silent regarding the Lion who turned against her so completely – that she had failed so completely. The detailed articles on her negligence of all the Gryffindor students generated daily letters demanding she give up her role as head of house at least. Other letters called for her to resign from every position at Hogwarts.
In the area of the stands where the Slytherin students and alumni gathered, Professor Severus Snape shuffled between the seats and levitated himself up into a seat. His stature continued to diminish each week and the growth potions he'd brewed merely increased the size of his belly, not his legs and arms. By Yule, he would be shorter than Flitwick and unable to properly brew potions. He would be forced to stand on top of the table to be able to see the cauldron, add ingredients and stir the mixtures. It was only his ever-present wand that kept the Slytherin alumni from casting spells at him.
On the platform reserved for the judges, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore struggled to maintain his pleasant demeanour, and dealt with the heads of the other two competitor schools, ministry officials, reporters with uncomfortable questions, and Minister Cornelius Fudge.
Today, the minister brought news that the Unspeakables had withdrawn all interest in comatose Severus Snape. The Department of Mysteries declared the potion master's diminished height and collapse of his mind were a result of the magical bolt of lightning that struck him in the Great Hall and the negligence of Headmaster Dumbledore denying the wizard proper medical care from Saint Mungo's who would have brought in the Department of Mysteries to consult.
The drawing of lots had been completed in the champions' tent earlier and Dumbledore was slightly worried – the Boy-Who-Lived had selected the fiercest dragon – the Hungarian Horntail. Albus suspected that Ludovic Bagman had rigged the selections to force the famous Harry Potter to deal with a dragon easily twice the size of the other dragons. And he was last as well.
'Definitely rigged to build up excitement – I hope Ludovic is prepared for the bad press if anything goes sideways,' Dumbledore thought as Cedric Diggory stepped out of the tent to deal with a Swedish Short-Snout. It took almost 45 minutes for Diggory to wear the dragon out with transfigured animals that made her lunge to the end of her chains. The young wizard was caught by the dragon's fire three different times but managed to maintain his transfigurations while fighting the flames in his clothing and hair. He finally escaped with the golden egg to seek the care of Poppy Pomphrey.
Albus evaluated the champion's performance fairly and wondered, 'Was someone else helping with the transfigurations?'
He glanced around and noticed several prominent Hufflepuff alumni with smirks on their faces.
The champion from Beauxbatons, Fleur Delacour entered the arena second and she appeared to be successfully enchanting her dragon with her natural magic until the moment the Welsh Green lunged forward and grabbed the young witch in her jaws, slung her about for thirty seconds, and then threw the witch away from the nest. The young witch did not retrieve the golden egg and was rushed to the medical tent and within minutes transferred by international portkey to Sacred Heart Hospital in Paris. Her scores reflected her performance accurately.
The third contestant, Viktor Krum of Durmstrang dealt with a Chinese Fireball – the dragon was furious after listening to the first two dragons protecting their eggs from thieves. She immediately began throwing fireballs at the wizard when he appeared in the stadium. Krum appeared to conjure a magical broom from the sand in the stadium, but he merely restored the shrunken broom to normal size – it had been stuck to his fingers for the entire morning.
Mounting his broom, he dived and swooped around the frantic mother dragon until she collapsed on top of her nest of eggs. Landing and running forward, Krum grabbed the golden egg and retreated. However, the angry dragon managed one last lunge forward and caught the Bulgarian seeker's left arm in her mouth. She chopped down hard and tore off the hand and lower arm.
Krum staggered out of the stadium, a classmate tying a magical tourniquet on the bleeding limb before rushing him to the medical tent. Pomphrey summoned healers from Saint Mungo's by that time to help with Diggory's burns and they were able to help with Krum's amputated limb. But the dragon chewed and swallowed the hand and arm before the dragon handlers could retrieve it for reattachment.
The career-ending injury to the Bulgarian seeker generated many conversations – more than the burns to the handsome Puff, or the bite marks on the lovely Veela champion.
Ludovic Bagman waited while the dragon handlers removed the Chinese Fireball and her eggs and then positioned the Hungarian Ridgeback – it took every dragon handler to keep this dragon under control. She screamed regularly and more than one attendee chose to leave. Betting on the amount of time that Potter would live increased dramatically in the minutes it took to prepare for the Boy-Who-Lived to be called from the Champions' Tent.
Finally, Bagman called for the fourth champion, Harry Potter to begin the task of retrieving the golden egg from the nest of the queen Hungarian Horntail.
There was a slight movement in front of the tent and the young wizard appeared magically and many persons drew a deep breath. Here was a young lord, not a teenaged wizard dressed in a garish uniform selected by the headmaster. Harry Potter appeared in expensive, green, Acromantula silk robes that bore three family crests. Exclamations began around the stadium when persons with spy glasses reported, "He's wearing Potter, Black, and Slytherin crests! What does this mean?"
The Hungarian Horntail was unimpressed by the wizard's robes and roared her challenge toward the thief who would dare to steal one of her eggs. She had listened to the first three dragons be tortured by the wizards and she would not permit any human to touch her nest of eggs.
While the audience waited to see what would happen, Potter appeared to pause for a moment.
"He's scared and doesn't know what…" Draco Malfoy began to say before Potter raise his wand and the magic began to flow from the wand. Bright green smoke appeared and swirled around between him and the dragon. The smoke appeared in the air – it didn't issue from the tip of the wand and thoughtful wizards in the stadium realised the smoke was conjured or summoned – not simply created by a spell in the boy's wand.
Then Potter's voice could be heard by everyone in the arena. He called out, "King of Serpents, I summon thee. King of Serpents, hear my call! I call the King of Serpents to aid me this day!"
Draco Malfoy continued to berate the young wizard in the arena, and he failed to notice how the rest of Slytherin House fell silent as did the adults with Slytherin tendencies. The Ravenclaws watched intently – the wand was being used in strange moves and the smoke was impressive. The Puffs – students and adults – tried to be dismissive but fell silent. And the adult Gryffindors fell silent when they noticed the students from Gryffindor house were silent and almost fearful.
The judges scoffed – how could a fourteen-year-old complete a ritual to summon a dangerous creature like a basilisk. Bagman grew nervous that Potter would fail to get the egg or worse, fail to die in the first task. There were many bets in place on the dragon roasting the boy or swallowing him whole.
Albus Dumbledore knew this was not a true ritual – there was no sacrifice of dragon's blood, gold, and someone's innocence to conduct a true magical ritual. 'What is the boy about?'
Among the knowledgeable persons who were impressed by the conjuration of smoke from the fresh air, a feeling of unease was born – wasn't the king of serpents the basilisk?
"Has the boy hatched a basilisk?" asked a few persons.
Replies included, "The ICW will ignore the protections of the Triwizard Tournament if he'd bred the Class XXXXXX creature! And it couldn't be very large after only a month…could it?"
Minerva McGonagall gripped her wand – she didn't know any spells to repel or kill a basilisk. Sprout stared hard at the figure of Harry Potter but also concentrated on controlling her bodily functions. She could not control her bladder if a basilisk appeared, but she would not soil himself. Albus Dumbledore's wand was ready, but his mind succumbed to the chaos of wild thoughts, 'What can I do if the Boy-Who-Lived summoned a basilisk? How dark has Potter become? Is Tom Riddle in control of Harry Potter?'
The green smoke grew thicker, spread high and covered half of the floor of the arena – the dragon fired her breath of flames into the green smoke, igniting it; when the smoke burned away with sparkles and whizzes it filled the air with the smell of burning leaves. All the while, Harry Potter chanted, "King of Serpents appear!"
He alternated between English and Parseltongue in his calls as the smoke whirled around faster and faster, until it suddenly vanished.
In the blink of an eye, the smoke was gone and there on the sand was a 30-meter-long basilisk, thicker around than the dragon. The basilisk moved its head around, gazing at the dragon and the crowds in the stands. For the moment, the creature turned its attention on the dragon that shivered in fear. The basilisk lifted its head, opened its mouth and hissed before spewing venom across the sand.
A monster from nightmares was before them – the Hungarian Horntail was a niffler compared to this creature. Sprout wet herself as did many other persons. Around the stands, many capable wizards and witches apparated away. Children screamed and tried to flee, clogging the stairs and not noticing that invisible house elves popped them out of harm's way to the safety of the Great Hall. None of the students were injured and while a few adults splinched themselves while apparating, that was their own fault.
At that moment, only Harry Potter watched the Hungarian Horntail. The fierce dragon cowered before the King of Serpents – the basilisk could kill her and poison her eggs easily. She leapt forward to cover the fake nest and her eggs with her body and then wrapped her wings around her body to provide just a moment of protection.
In the stands, the judges managed to turn their eyes from the undulating basilisk, to the Boy-Who-Lived. Potter caught the eyes of the judges, grinned and snapped his fingers. The golden egg appeared in the young wizard's hands, and he waved his wand at the basilisk. The creature turned away from the dragon that still cowered over her eggs.
Everyone stared as the long snake-like head lowered to the young wizard. Were they to watch the basilisk eat or kill Harry Potter? Several shouts and calls for the Aurors rang out.
Then, everyone fell silent once again as the powerful young wizard simply patted the snout of the monster as if it was a house pet. Then with a wave of Potter's hand, the basilisk vanished, just as the smoke had vanished.
Without another glance toward the stands, Harry Potter walked out of the arena to stop at the infirmary tent as required by the officials to determine if he was injured or not. Standing just inside the entrance to the tent, stood Cedric Diggory with heavy gauze bandages wrapped around half of his head and most of one arm.
"How did you do that?" demanded Diggory. "A basilisk bigger than all four dragons put together! You're a dark wizard dealing with horrible creatures!"
Frowning at the other champion, Victor Krum struggled to rise from his cot but with the help of a friend got on his feet and approached Harry. The seeker bowed his head and said, "My compliments, Potter. That was a masterful bit of illusion to scare the dragon and everyone in the arena."
"Thank you, Krum!" Harry said, accepting Victor's declaration of an illusion, while Poppy Pomphrey examined and then dismissed him.
"An illusion! Why do you think that was an illusion?" screamed Diggory. He was already full of calming potion so Pomphrey could not give him more of that potion. "It sounded real! The dragon thought it was real! How could that be an illusion?"
The three contestants still in the arena walked back to the open area to receive Potter's scores from the judges. Cedric stood as far away from Harry Potter as possible, but Victor stood as relaxed as he could with the pain from his amputated arm.
Around the judges' stand, reporters challenged the Aurors who held them back. Government officials nervously made jokes about basilisks and green smoke. The stands held only half as many spectators as before Potter began his show.
When Potter was awarded very low scores by the judges, no one complained that the scores were out of whack – Cedric Diggory had the highest scores because of the awards of full points by Dumbledore and the two ministry officials. Krum was second, Potter was third, and Delacour was last. Bagman and Crouch gave Potter full points but Karkaroff, Maxime and Dumbledore each scored the youngest contestant with zeros.
Not caring about his score, Harry Potter simply grinned and then vanished from the arena with his golden egg. Cedric Diggory was collected by his father and taken to Saint Mungo's Hospital for further care of the burns on his arm and face. Victor and several friends returned to the ship floating on Black Lake where they gathered rather than always socializing with the students in Hogwarts. There was nothing to be done about the missing arm and Victor knew his Quidditch career was over before he attained the highest rank available.
The headmistress from Beauxbatons made certain the last of her students were in their pumpkin shaped carriages before she apparated away, heading for Paris to check on Fleur Delacour. She would also give an exclusive interview to the magical newspapers in Paris along with her memory of the young dark lord summoning a giant basilisk to do his bidding.
Harry appeared just outside the front door of Hogwarts and made his way inside. It was only a half hour before supper, so he entered the Great Hall. There were many students who had been popped into the hall from the stadium and several were still scared by what they'd seen.
With a quiet suggestion from Harry, house elves popped into the hall with cups of hot chocolate that the Boy-Who-Lived encouraged everyone to drink and relax. A few of the younger children asked about the symbols on Harry's robes and the older ones managed to ask where he'd found a basilisk to tame…and how he had tamed the dangerous creature. While he explained about his three family emblems, he never answered any questions about the basilisk.
Neville and Hermione joined Harry at the Gryffindor table for supper though none of the primary professors appeared at the staff table. In Gryffindor Tower, everyone moved out of Harry's path, and by unspoken agreement, they would never look sideways at Granger or Longbottom again.
~~~***~~~ CHANGE SCENE ~~~
Underneath Gringotts Bank, Ironstream and Ironriver watched as the goblin animation magic melted away from the carcass of the basilisk. Dobby and a dozen other house elves transported the carcass from the Chamber of Secrets to the stadium and after the show, they moved the basilisk carcass to Gringotts. A memory from a house elf positioned at the top of the stadium provided a great show that would be repeated inside the goblin caverns for many nights.
Great profits would be made selling the venom, meat, and strings from the heart, eyes, and some muscles. The goblins would use the blood to mix with elements of rare earth to make potent drinks to enjoy during celebrations in the next century.
~~~***~~~ CHANGE SCENE ~~~
JudgesIn the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the judges were:
Ludovic Bagman (Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Games and Sports)
Bartemius Crouch, Sr. (Department of International Magical Cooperation)
Albus Dumbledore (headmaster of Hogwarts)
Igor Karkaroff (headmaster of Durmstrang)
Olympe Maxime (headmistress of Beauxbatons)