Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
...
Harry strode away from the arena casually, the golden egg he had retrieved tucked underneath his arm. What had been left of the crowd had, understandably, been a bit flummoxed by his last minute performance against the Hungarian Horntail. He had truly expected the judges to reward him with straight ones for the sheer time that he had taken but somehow he had been gifted a splattering of twos and threes. He was still last by a long way but that was to be expected.
"Mister Potter, a word if I might," sounded out the painfully familiar voice of Rita Skeeter.
Turning on the spot to look at the woman who had been rushing after him, he answered her in the most diligent way possible. "My apologies, unfortunately while I can't prevent you writing about my exploits during the Triwizard Tournament I am contracted to only give interviews for another publication."
"Come now Harry, don't play coy with me," said Rita playfully. "You and I both know that the Quibbler's audience pales in comparison to that of a proper publication. It would be much more beneficial for you in the long run to get your voice out to as many people as possible. After all, you just held a dragon hostage and walked away unscathed and while I can tell people the manner of how it happened your words would mean so much more to them."
"My target audience already knew what to expect," countered Harry. "If you had read my article in the Quibbler, as I'm sure you must have at least been aware of, I had informed my direct contact exactly how I planned to do as little as possible for as long as possible. That was all the information I could give at the time as, as you must know, the contestant did not know what to expect in the task."
"That's old news however," said Rita trying to brush off what had been the more boring part of the task. "The people want to hear about how you bravely tackled a dragon in a way few would dare and would love to hear from you directly."
"If they wish to hear from me directly then they will have to do so from the Quibbler," said Harry shooting Rita a dry smile. "Given that they have me under an exclusive contract, if I were to discover that you had fabricated me telling you anything or using a quote of mine then I would have to look at taking some drastic measures. I'm sure neither you nor the company you work for would want me to take those drastic measures now, would you?"
"I'm sure that there will be no need for such..."
"Might I get on on this 'ere contract 'Arry?" asked Fleur, the Beauxbatons champion as she wondered into the fray with Lily by her side.
For the first time, genuine worry came across Rita's features. "I assure you, the Daily Prophet only wants what is best..."
"I'm sure that the Quibbler would be more than happy to offer you an exclusive contract," said Harry, speaking over whatever it was that Rita had to say. "If you would like to come with me I'm sure we can organize something with Luna and perhaps even have you featured in tomorrow's edition."
"That sounds quite remarkable," declared Fleur, clasping her hands together in what was clearly an over the top motion in order to irritate the older woman. "Zat would be lovely."
Her antics worked as Rita stormed off in a huff, possibly going to rope the other two contestants into legally binding contracts for the remainder of the tournament provided she could find them and convince them of how it would be best for them. Harry knew that if that was indeed what was happening, odds were that she wouldn't be able to sink her talons into Krum, the man was a world renowned Quidditch player after all and likely had his own contracts already in play.
Cedric on the other hand...well hopefully he had some manner of idea of what he was doing.
"You really like stirring the cauldron don't you Harry," said Iris.
"As he should little flower," said Fleur, giving the younger girl I light push. "The world's eye, while ze may be on ze tournament as a whole, are solely focused on 'Arry. Me and ze other contestants are merely afterthoughts."
"You're much more than an afterthought Fleur," declared Harry with a wily smile. "If anything you could consider yourself as my entourage."
"Look who iz so full of themselves," said Fleur flashing Harry a cheeky smile in return.
"So, out of curiosity Harry," said Iris, drawing the attention of the two champions on her. "That potion you took earlier, are you really going to be awake for a few days?"
"I wasn't particularly sure what the task was going to entail but I knew that a dragon was involved. I don't know how often dragons have to eat but like with every animal, eventually they're going to get hungry. I would have liked to have wasted an extra few hours but seems that I was on the menu. To get back to your question though, yes, once that potion has kept me awake for the next couple of nights I am going to crash and crash hard."
"If you wish it, I'm sure zat I can arrange something with Madame Maxine in order to get you some respite in our carriage," offered Fleur.
"While tempting, I can't help but feel that I might be somewhat of a target from your classmates," said Harry sheepishly. "I mean no disrespect."
"No, I zink that you are being rather wise," said Fleur with a cheeky smile. Iris couldn't help but feel as if Harry would have been in more danger from Fleur herself or from her classmates.
"I've got a couple days to find somewhere secure," said Harry with a shrug. "Gives me a bit of time to figure out what this thing does as well."
"If you're looking for somewhere secure, I might know a place," offered Iris. Fleur and Harry shared a look with one another, wondering just what kind of secret area Iris was talking about.
...
Albus sat at his desk, having finally gotten some space away from Bartemius and Ludo, the two Ministry officials effectively having ridden his coattails for a majority of the day. It didn't matter that both Madame Maxine and Igor both held the same amount of power over the tournament as he did, they only wished to beg to him. It was rather sad to see the two official delegates begging him to change the rules because a teenager wasn't playing the way that they had wanted him to.
In all honesty, he had to give credit to Harry purely for the fact that he had wanted to get under their skin and had done so tremendously. He could only imagine how much hatred he would receive in the Daily Prophet for having wasted the time of so many people who had come to witness him in action. Given Harry's mannerisms, Albus knew that the words thrust at him would do little to phase the boy.
Other than the boy's waste of time, Albus had to acknowledge that he had a great deal of skill and not necessarily in regards to his spellcasting. The magic Harry had cast had been nothing overly complicated bar from a conjuration or two. Rather, it was the way he utilized his spells and more importantly, how he utilized the time in between his spells.
Many wizards and witches often remained in place when casting or if necessary shuffled a couple of steps from side to side. Importantly, they always kept their eye on where their spell landed. Harry did not. Every time he had cast Depulso to launch one of the boulders in the terrain at the dragon, he had not remained rooted in place to watch his attack land. Against such a foe, every second was crucial and consequently Harry had not wasted any time watching what was happening and instead used that time to move to his next area of shelter. Had he remained in place after having aggravated the dragon the first time round they could very well have watched a very different type of event.
Regardless, Albus had gotten the information that he had needed. Harry had been trained and had been trained well. The Depulso's he had cast were equivalent of where he would be were he to have been studying at Hogwarts, although the speed at which they had been sent indicated a great deal of raw power. The conjuration's however were a different story. The birds Harry had summoned forth could be learnt in sixth year Charms but the manipulation of the ground was a different story altogether. That wasn't something that could be learnt at Hogwarts and even he would have some difficulty casting it with the swift timing that Harry had. A brief lapse in concentration could have spelt disaster and Harry was either very lucky or very focused.
Somehow, Albus doubted that Harry was lucky.
While he would like to learn where Harry had worked on such a technique, given how tight lipped Harry had been about many things it was unlikely that he would answer such a question. That was provided Harry would even give him the time of day to begin with. If he wanted to garner a bit of information he would have to seek an alternate method. Thankfully there was always more than one option.
...
While Iris didn't know how to speak French, she didn't need much in regards to translations to know that Fleur had said something not suitable for children. Having spent enough time with uncle Vernon Iris was aware of how just how colorful language could be.
"None of that now Fleur," said Harry as he stepped past the French champion. Iris couldn't really tell if Harry had been able to understand what Fleur had said or just assumed in much the same way she had.
"I zink zat I am well within my rights to say what I want when zere is a terrifying creature ze size of a house dead in front of me!" exclaimed Fleur as she gestured towards the carcass of the basilisk. "Look at it!"
"I am, it's quite impressive," admitted Harry.
"You don't sound like you're impressed," said Iris doing her best not to sound hurt.
"You told me about how you took this big boy down when we were in the Beauxbaton's carriage. You had no reason to lie to me so I believed it every step of the way," said Harry, raising Iris' spirits slightly. For her it was nice to know that Harry hadn't seen her as any sort of liar of braggart in regards to her exploits.
"How did you kill it?" asked Fleur as she got closer to the corpse. "Basilisk's are notoriously dangerous and zeir hide is magically resistant. You were a second year student when you slayed it, what magic did you use?"
"Stabbed it through the head with a sword," admitted Iris. "I ca honestly say that I did not cast a single spell while it tried to kill me."
Fleur burst into another likely expletive riddled tirade that neither of the Potter's could understand.
"The good thing about it is that the whole thing is relatively still intact," declared Harry. "Years down the track once it decays some more and is nothing but bones you can hang it in the living room of your manor as a way to tell people not to mess with you."
Iris temporarily fantasized Lucius Malfoy striding into her home to discuss whatever it was that the wizarding government needed support for only to be met with the sight of what he had unleashed on the school. Were such a moment to ever occur it could almost be positive enough to power her patronus. "So," she started once she had stopped daydreaming. "Giant basilisk corpse aside, do you think this place will be suitable?"
"Easily, and given that it can only be opened by the way of Parseltongue it would mean that only you have access to come in and out. I could happily spend some time, brew some potions, read a book or two and, as the next day or two will require of me, sleep."
"I'm sure Hermione and I can bring you some supplies over the next couple days, not making it too obvious that we're coming down here to see you," declared Iris.
"Make it as obvious as you like," shrugged Harry. "Dumbledore will want to offer his assistance but keep telling him that you've got everything under control and that I'm working on getting ready for the second task. That'll keep him happy, or at least keep him away from me. He wants me on Hogwarts grounds and down here I am, most definitely, on Hogwarts grounds."
"Speaking of the second task, what do you think that egg does?" asked Iris, closing the gap between the siblings.
"Might as well find out," said Harry as he started to play with the item he had sourced from the dragon nest, only for it to open up and unleashed a high pitch shriek. Iris couldn't help but slam her hands over her ears as Harry worked on closing the device, saving their ears further pain. "That was...painful."
"No kidding," agreed Iris.
"I know zat sound," said Fleur, mildly shaking in what could very well been a mix of terror and rage.
"Does that me we should?" asked Iris. "If that's something you often hear around Beaxbaton's then I won't be coming round anytime soon."
"Zat was Mermish," stated Fleur.
"Mermish?" repeated Harry before turning his attention to his sister. "Are their Merpeople in the lake?"
"Not that I'm aware of," admitted Iris. "I know there's creatures that live in there like the giant squid so I wouldn't put it past there being Merpeople down there."
"So, do you know any way to translate Mermish from hellish shrieking to something we can understand Fleur?" asked Harry.
"You listen to it underwater," stated Fleur matter of factly.
"Ah, that makes sense."
...
Hope you enjoyed.