The Wall of Stone

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.

++***++ Introduction:

The Goblet of Fire isn't a simple artefact – it possesses vast amounts of magic, a rudimentary sentience, and multiple sets of rules for past Triwizard Tournaments. The goblet gets aggravated by interfering wizards, throws out the rules, and takes steps to protect the underage contestant who is drafted into the contest.

There will be plenty of Dumbledore bashing, Weasley smashing, and Magical Britain crashing.

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Chapter 1 Revising the Rules

The Goblet of Fire was an ancient artefact that had attained a level of sentience after three thousand years of witches and wizards pouring their magic into the cup and then ignoring it for century or two. Then magical men and women dumped more magic into the raw power in the goblet that power mixed and morphed with the existing magic. The cup was not sinister or kind; it observed mankind and provided pushes and shoves when it wanted.

After a century hidden in a catacomb underneath the ministry for magic in the extinct Hapsburg Empire in Vienna, the Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald discovered and brought the goblet into the light once again in 1933. The wizard foolishly tried to harness the goblet's magic for his own uses, but these efforts by the upstart dark lord earned the worst curses available to the goblet. And those spells damaged Grindelwald's magic and contributed to his eventual fall.

In 1944, the goblet was collected from the battlefield by British wizards. Hidden among their belongings, they slipped the goblet through customs at the border and the ancient artefact spent the next fifty years collecting dust in the Department of Mysteries underneath the British Ministry for Magic. Then in 1991, the goblet was examined briefly by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore as the wizard began a campaign to bring back the Triwizard Tournament.

That wizard and others returned every six months to once again check the power levels in the goblet, and examine the runes carved around the base. Not once did any wizard look inside the cup or at the bottom of the base for the runes about resetting runes and asking the goblet's magic for advice.

In 1993, Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, spoke of holding the Tri-Wizard Tournament at Hogwarts in 1994 or 1995. After, the wizards departed, the goblet considered the new opportunity. 'Should We allow Our magics to grow and explode this time?' The mortals at Santorini thought they were the equals of Atlantis and look where that got them…blown to bits in a volcanic explosion. Perhaps We shouldn't have made the explosion quite so large…destroying all the civilizations around the Middle Sea wasn't Our plan.'

The goblet paused, thinking of the distant past, before it remembered, 'But it was good fun watching the mortals struggle and suffer for a few hundred years.'

Dumbledore returned twice in the first months of 1994, and the goblet learned it would be rolled out that autumn for a revival of the Triwizard Tournament. In summer, the goblet reviewed the rules cast into the cup's ceramic sides and if a grin had been possible, the Goblet of Fire would have appeared to be the poltergeist Peeve's twin brother.

'Fools!' it thought. 'Mortals are fools! Did no one ever think to remove or cancel all the old rules and confine Our magic to a set of new rules?'

The goblet reviewed the rules provided by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. 'Protect the champions, uh no. that's not Our job – We just judge the best qualified candidates and enforce the rules.'

'Only accept of age champions,' the goblet considered that rule. 'But there's nothing defining what they consider to be an adult. Wait, here it is – seventeen years. Perhaps they take better care of their children in this age.'

'Three champions – one from each school – well, duh…this is a 'Triwizard' tournament,' the goblet's magic fussed.

Reviewing the old rules and the compulsions residing in the porcelain, the goblet mused, 'Hmmm. We seem to be functioning mentally like an adolescent rather than an ancient, powerful and wise artefact. What other magic did that old wizard cast on Us?'

'We have free reign!' the goblet realized. 'This time We shall watch the mortal creatures dancing to Our tune of magic!'

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NOTE: The Goblet of Fire doesn't think of itself as an individual. That's why it uses We and Our pronouns.

A Wall of Stone

On Halloween, when Harry Potter's name came out of the Goblet of Fire as a fourth champion, everyone was surprised except two adults in the Great Hall – Albus Dumbledore, and Bartemius Crouch, Jr. The students – including Harry Potter – were shocked. The rules said no one under seventeen could be entered in the tournament.

In the moments after the announcement, while considering the events of the past three years, Professor Filius Flitwick determined to remember every detail and send the memory to his family at Gringotts. He studied the headmaster, the judges, and the goblet. The goblins loved gambling about the status of wizards and witches. Then Flitwick turned his attention to the fourth year Gryffindor and realized that Potter was petrified after hearing his name called out by Headmaster Dumbledore.

The head of Ravenclaw was unaware that Hermione Granger had shared with everyone in Gryffindor the recorded statistics of deaths among the champions, judges, and audience of the last three tournaments and her effective lectures had curtailed the attempts by the Weasley twins to enter their names.

None of the seventh years from Gryffindor had entered their names and the Deputy Headmistress investigated the 'cowardice' of her lions until she read Miss Granger's report. She understood their reluctance to enter but ignored how Dumbledore intercepted the report before it could be delivered to the other houses.

The Goblet of Fire had expelled three slips of paper that each named a champion for the three school, and then a fourth slip of paper had flown out with Potter's name. As the voices grew loud in the Great Hall with everyone's attention on the boy, the goblet continued burning while it studied the compulsions that the false wizard had cast on top of the rules provided by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. The compulsions violated most of Dumbledore's rules and the Goblet of Fire gleefully referenced the many sets of rules available. The goblet's feeling of self-satisfaction would have caused the headmaster great concern if he'd bothered to examine the goblet before forcing the boy to complete.

Ignored by the mortals, the goblet adjusted its magic to meet the rules it decided to enforce.

'The boy is not of age. The adults are forcing him to participate. Let us see what magic he has?' the goblet asked as it quickly examined Harry James Potter.

As the underage wizard walked from the Gryffindor table to the meeting room with the other champions, the goblet discovered the magic surrounding the boy to protect him from the Dark Lord Voldemort and the Avada Kedavra curse.

'We shall magnify that protective spell…the sacrifice by the parents will not be in vain. We shall watch with amusement as the adults who do not protect the child experience that great protection,' the goblet decided. 'Perhaps these adults will suffer the consequences of not doing their job.'

'Hereafter, the protection created by the deaths of the father and mother will manifest in the magical world to protect Harry Potter,' the Goblet of Fire declared and spent the magical power to make it happen.

This expanded protection appeared almost as soon as Potter stepped into the anteroom. The official judges, Alastor Moody, Minerva McGonagall, and Severus Snape followed the young wizard into the room and before anyone could say a word, Snape acted against the fourth champion.

"Potter! You imbecile!" Snape shouted as he moved to lay hands on the boy. However, before the evil wizard could grab Potter's robes, a wall of stone appeared, slammed into Severus Snape, and threw the wizard across the room, where his body knocked Crouch, Sr, and Alastor Moody against the wall. All three men lay on the floor and did not move.

This wall of stone vanished as quickly as it appeared, and the infirmary matron was summoned when Snape did not rouse. Madam Pomphrey quickly diagnosed Severus to be concussed and she called for a house elf to pop them both to the infirmary.

Headmaster Karkaroff demanded, "What was that magic, Dumbledore? A wall appeared around the boy!"

"Yes, it did," Dumbledore agreed. "Harry, what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" Harry insisted.

Beauxbatons Headmistress Olympe Maxime frowned and castigated the headmaster of Hogwarts, "Dumblesdore! You must be respectful! Refer to your student as 'Mr Potter'! He is not your relation!"

Forgetting himself for a moment, Albus explained, "But I am his magical guardian!"

Karkaroff immediately interjected, "Then you can demand that he be excused from the tournament!"

"What?" asked Harry Potter, Bagman, Crouch Sr, and Headmistress Maxime simultaneously.

"No, it is too late," Dumbledore replied. "As soon as Harry – Mr Potter – stepped through the doorway of this room, he was confirmed as a champion in the contest."

For the first time in Harry's four years at Hogwarts Minerva McGonagall exploded in anger with the headmaster's manipulations and demanded to know, "Then why by Merlin's bloody nose didn't you stop the boy from coming into the room?"

Albus misjudged the situation and pulled out his wand, preparing to cast a spell to make everyone forget that he'd mentioned being the guardian for Harry Potter. As the headmaster raised his wand, the wall of stone appeared again, and threw the spell back at the headmaster, who flew backwards, knocking Bagman, and Moody into the wall. The three wizards lay on the floor, but no one sent for Pomphrey this time.

The wizards were affected by the spell and forgot what had been said about Harry Potter and magical guardians, and how the wall of stone appeared to protect the boy. They were left on the floor to recover on their own.

Headmistress Olympe Maxime and Headmaster Karkaroff shared with the four champions that the first task would occur on 24 November, and they would have to retrieve a valuable artefact from a dangerous situation.

In the bruhaha that continued about Potter's inclusion in the tournament, the students from all four houses were aggravated. When they filed out of the Great Hall to return to their dormitories, many jinxes were thrown at Potter by his Gryffindor house mates. But the wall of stone appeared multiple times and reflected each spell back at the wizard or witch who cast the incantation. In great discomfort, a dozen Gryffindors stumbling along the hallway toward the infirmary. Several students had claws now instead of fingers, or long green hair. Three hurried along faster as the backside of their robes began to smoke and burn from a Weasley specialty – exploding winds.

Already angry, Ron Weasley's temper slipped off a short leash when he saw Fred and George waddling as quickly as their duck feet allowed toward the infirmary while the backside of their robes smoked.

In Ron's mind he raged, 'First, Potter cheated to get into the tournament and didn't share the secret with me – his best friend! Now the half-blood bastard dared to throw spells back at good purebloods like Fred and George.'

Pulling out his wand, Ron waited in the shadows until Potter walked by and then cast a bombard at the back of the wizard who was supposed to be his best friend. Following the Gryffindors into the tower, Professor McGonagall saw Weasley cast the spell and observed the wall of stone appear to protect Harry Potter's back. The underpowered bombard was reflected at Ron Weasley, throwing the boy against the wall of the alcove.

Minerva called for a house elf to pop the injured student to the infirmary while she made certain the other students were in the tower. In the common room, she stated plainly, "If you're not an idiot, don't throw any spells or jinxes at Mr Potter! If you do, your spell with return and knock you down!"

One second year student asked, "Professor, will you assign detentions if we…if anyone throws spells at him?"

Sighing, Minerva replied, "Twenty points for asking an idiotic question!"

Confused by the non-answer by Deputy Headmistress McGonagall answer, no one said anything else about casting spells at Harry Potter. Hermione Granger waited until Professor McGonagall was gone to question Harry. She asked, "Why did you enter your name in the contest, Harry?"

"Hermione…"

Unwilling to let the boy speak, the young witch continued, "You heard my lectures on the death toll in the earlier tournaments! Are you an idiot?"

Neville Longbottom spoke up. "Granger, you better be careful when calling Harry names. That stone wall might appear and throw you across the room like it did those professors and the spells everyone cast at Harry."

Hermione fell silent and allowed Harry to assure her that he had not entered the tournament. Realizing her friend was worried, she promised to help him research spells in the library and to talk with her new friends from Beauxbaton to share Harry's story with them.

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