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Chapter 22 - First Steps of Justice

First lesson on Monday was normally the first year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws for Professor McGonagall, but today she had decided to have one of her NEWT students cover the class. The student had expressed interest in a teaching career once she had gotten her mastery, so this would be a good experience for her. If it was a complete disaster, it was only one class; if it worked out, maybe Professor McGonagall would do this more often. Teaching the basics to others was a good way to reexamine the fundamentals for yourself, so it would help her NEWT students as well. Maybe then she would have the time to do all her work, as well as the extra work Albus often dumped on her so he could attend the Wizengamot or run off to the continent for the International Confederation of Wix.

Today, though, she would be too busy to catch up on her work. After the massive number of points Severus had deducted last week and the tales she had heard of Snape's (to be frank) bullying, she had decided that as the headmaster was out of the school again she would use he authority as Acting Headmistress to inspect Severus' class. She had asked for Severus' classes to be inspected a few times. The headmaster had always assured her he was on top of everything, but recently McGonagall had been questioning the headmaster more and more.

As much as she respected Albus, a few things recently just didn't add up right, like finding out Sirius Black had never had a trial. Sirius was a member of the Order and one of her lions, even if Mr. Black had been guilty Albus should have gotten him a trial. As for the Dursleys, she had warned him that they were the wrong sort, but not only did he ignore her (someone whom James and Lily had chosen to watch Harry), he let things get so bad the DMLE had to intervene. Albus' decisions were suspect at the moment, and she didn't know if it was Albus just making mistakes or if her mentor's age was starting to catch up to him. It didn't really matter right now, what mattered was seeing if one of her colleagues was abusing his position to bully her lions.

She had considered how she was going to do this. If Snape knew she was there then he would be on his best behaviour, so she would have to do this without him seeing her. She had considered asking to borrow Mr. Potter's invisibility cloak but had abandoned the idea almost instantly. Still, it was probably best if none of the students knew she was there either, after all there was the possibility that the students misbehaved in the class, making Severus's behaviour more understandable.

So now it was just before the class started and a disillusioned Professor McGonagall was waiting with the students to enter the class. She watched as students from Slytherin harassed Miss Granger and Mr. Potter for their inclusion in the Triwizard Tournament. They were nearly all wearing badges that said Support the real Hogwarts team. Mr. Nott was purposely goading Harry, showing off his badge loudly and asking if any of the Gryffindors wanted one. The amount of noise that was filling the dungeon corridor should have already drawn Severus to see what was happening.

"That's not all they do, Potter. After what you did to Draco last week we modified them. Watch this." He tapped the badge with his wand and the front of the badge shifted, replacing the words and adding an image to the badge. Potter's whores really suck said the words, while the image was of three silhouettes, two on their knees. The one standing had a lightning bolt scar, and the two kneeling had their heads at the height of the crotch of what was meant to be Harry. One had cat ears and a tail and the other had a bird's head like a transformed veela, obviously meant to be Misses Granger and Delacour.

Both Mr. Potter and Miss Granger suddenly went red, only for completely different reasons. Miss Granger was blushing in obvious shame and embarrassment, but Mr. Potter's flush was one of anger. He rushed forward, obviously intending to defend the honor of his teammates/girlfriends. Professor McGonagall was just about to drop her disillusionment and step in when the door to the potions classroom burst open, and with the most suspicious timing McGonagall had ever seen, Severus caught Mr. Potter with Nott's robes in both his hands and about to slam the uncouth youth into one of the solid stone walls of the dungeons.

Severus proceeded to take twenty points from Harry and assigned him detention. When her Gryffindors had tried to tell their professor what had happened before he arrived, Severus just docked them points for lying instead of investigating the badges. Her lions bristled under the injustice but quickly filed into the potions dungeon when they were so directed. McGonagall slipped in between two groups and then stood herself in the corner where she could watch the class and be out of the way.

The next hour and a half was a real eye opener to the Scots witch.

-ϟϟϟ-

Harry was having another terrible potions lesson. He had so far lost points for fighting, squinting too much as he tried to read the board through the haze the potions where giving off, breathing too loudly and using his wand when he cast a Lumos to try and read some small writing in his text book in the badly-lit dungeon. It was just coming up to the end of the lesson when Malfoy finally plucked up his courage for his regular attempt at sabotage. Harry didn't know what it was, but the blond Slytherin threw something, aiming for Harry's cauldron. It was an obvious idea that Malfoy had used before, to mess up Harry's potion towards the end of class and Harry wouldn't have a chance to make another, earning him a failure for the lesson. For Harry, this was an old trick, and Harry was a seeker. As the object flew through the air, almost lazily Harry's hand snapped out and caught it.

"Potter, 20 points from Gryffindor for playing with potions ingredients," Snape bit out at him.

Harry didn't react, only noted it while he looked at what was in his hand. It was a dragon's tooth. The inherent fire properties of the ingredient would have caused his potion, or any other it landed in, to explode in a boiling hot mess. And as the potion they were brewing today was rather thick and sticky, it would have splattered sticky scalding liquid (that was not unlike jam as it was cooking) over everything and everyone nearby. Harry and Hermione, who were working at the cauldron together, would have been covered in it, but so too would about a third of the people in the dungeon, including some Slytherins.

Harry went to the store cupboard to return the ingredient and Snape snapped at him again. "Potter, detention with me Thursday night for leaving your potion unattended. You can scrub cauldrons all night untiI I am satisfied"

That got Harry angry. The whole school knew that the first task was Friday, they all knew that Harry's name was entered with a death threat attached, and yet here Snape was trying to sabotage him (and by extension Hermione and Fleur) by keeping him from getting a good night's sleep before the task. "No."

"What!?" Snape bellowed at him.

"I have the first task the next day. I can't be exhausted before the task, so I won't be doing the detention. I won't risk my life and the lives of my teammates."

"You arrogant piece of shit. I am your professor, you will do what I tell you when I tell you, and now you will serve every night this week in detention with me. You will learn that just become your name is Potter doesn't mean the rules don't apply to you!" Snape was in Harry's face by the end of his little tirade, his spit splattering Harry's robes as he shouted. Harry was just about to tell Snape he could stick his detentions up his ass, though probably with less colourful language (maybe, he wasn't quite sure), when something happened that shocked the two of them.

"That's enough!" Professor McGonagall was standing in the corner of the room, only a few feet from the two people standing outside the ingredients cupboard, a look of fury on her face. "Professor Snape, as acting Headmistress, I undertook a surprise audit of your class! I was going to wait until the students had left before talking to you about it but your behaviour has forced my hand. Misters Nott, Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini, and Malfoy, as well as Misses Parkinson, Bulstrode, and any other student this applies to, you each lose 5 points for wearing those disgusting transforming badges." The Slytherins all looked shocked at the massive points loss. But McGonagall wasn't done yet.

"All points taken by Professor Snape in today's lesson are returned, Mr. Malfoy you will lose 30 house points for trying to sabotage another student's potion, and I will give you a choice: you can add that dragon's tooth to your own potion, or you can spend a week of detentions as Mr Filch's personal assistant, your choice."

"You can't do t-" Snape started but McGonagall cut him off.

"Quiet Snape!" She took the tooth from Harry and walked across the classroom, and after stumbling over Ron's book bag and stopping to snap at him for a second, she put it on the tooth on the table infront of Malfoy. "Well, Mr. Malfoy, it is your decision."

Malfoy hesitated for a second, and then picked up the tooth and dropped it into his cauldron. Nothing happened. Harry was confused for a moment and he wasn't the only one until professor McGonagall spoke up. "You are incredibly lucky, Mr. Malfoy, that that wasn't a real dragon's tooth but a potions vile I transfigured as I came over." She held up the real tooth for everyone to see. "Who here can tell me what would have happened if Mr Malfoy had added the real tooth?"

Hermione's hand shot in the air, but as Professor McGonagall looked around the room she asked Tracey. "Miss Davis, maybe you can help your house win back a few of the points lost today."

"The inherent fire properties of the dragon's tooth would have super heated the potion and caused it to explode, covering half the class in a scalding hot sticky potion that burns right through your skin. Anyone standing next to the cauldron would need emergency medical intervention or they would probably die," Tracy said in a small voice.

"Precisely, Miss Davies, 10 points to Slytherin for a full and complete answer. Mr. Malfoy, you will still be serving that week of detentions with Mr. Filch. That was merely a test to see if you knew what that fang would do. If you had refused, you would be having your next conversation with a representative for the D.M.L.E. Now, all of you please turn off your flames and cast stasis charms on your cauldrons. There is ten minutes to the end of the lesson so you may go to break early once you are done."

The students were quick to follow Professor McGonagall's orders and leave the dungeon as fast as they could leaving the Transfiguration Mistress and the Potions Master in the rooms by themselves.

-ϟϟϟ-

Over the next few days the rumors around the castle were rife with what had happened between the Deputy Headmistress and the dungeon bat. The one that McGonagall had hexed Snape so he bounced around his own classroom was not believed by anyone, but they were entertaining to think about. However, that Professor McGonagall had placed Snape on probation was pretty much confirmed. Neville had told Harry that his gran, who sat on the governors for the school, had told him that Professor McGonagall had them all at the school that same day to vote on the probation before Dumbledore had returned to the school. Nobody knew what happened in that meeting, but as professor McGonagall was wearing a self-satisfied smirk and the dungeon bat was scowling up a storm but hadn't given out a single detention or taken a single house point since then, pretty much confirmed what they suspected.

Harry, Hermione, and Fleur had taken the night off before the first task; apart from a quick check that all their preparations were complete, they were going to relax. Fluer had taken the time to brew them each a couple of calming draughts and a dreamless sleep potion. The idea was that the calming droughts would help if they had a panic attack, and the dreamless sleep would make sure they were well rested and at 100% the next day. Fleur had given them a warning,though, about abusing dreamless sleep; apparently if you used it more than three times a month, the potion started to build up in your system and you started to experience side effects. As those side effects were basically going crazy from lack of dreams and addiction to the potion, it was a good idea to be careful.

Instead of training, they decided to reconfigure the Room of Requirement into a place they could relax and invite their friends to join them, inviting Neville, Daphne, Tracey, and Ali; with Ali came the de Villiers twins Marie and Alexandre and after getting a promise from them to not judge and to be nice to Daphne and Tracy they added Fred and George. Dobby had put out a buffet for the eleven of them so that both the inter-school team and the Beauxbatons team could have a relaxed meal without a bunch of well wishing to get in the way.

The de Villiers twins, once it was confirmed to them that Daphne and Tracy were not the type of Slytherin whom Daphne referred to as blood snobs, warmed up to the two Slytherin girls quickly. The Slytherins' reputation had apparently spread quickly among the visitors. Marie and Alex both were wound up a little tight at first, but relaxed soon enough when it was made obvious that they were there just to have fun with Alison's 'cousin' and her friends, not to be pumped for information on the tournament. Harry's impression of the two of them that he formed during the weighing of the wands was altered a bit. The two of them were decent people but were hard working and focused on using the tournament to climb out of their family's poverty trap.

Apparently their father was not well, and his medical treatments were not cheap. Their mother was a muggle who had, in a bout of teenage romanticism, gotten pregnant and married right out of school. With their mother having no further education and their father not being able to work as much as normal, their family income was low, and while the two could afford Beauxbatons it wasn't without some tightening of the belts. If they wanted an apprenticeship, then they knew finding the gold was on them.

The Weasley twins had taken to the de Villiers twins, and the red haired pair explained that they had put their names into the goblet for a similar reason. The difference was they had planned to put the gold towards opening their own business if they had won. They explained that they were looking to open Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, a joke shop where they hoped to sell their own prank aids, fake wands, joke sweets, and potions as well as a whole list of other things. Apparently the only competition in Britain was the Zonko's joke shop in Hogsmeade. As Zonko's hadn't updated their stock in over 50 years, with dung bombs being the most recent addition, the twins felt that there was a hole in the market for a new range of entertaining pranks.

The rest of the evening was pretty relaxed, only Professor McGonagall and Madame Maxime turning up surprised the teens. The two witches wanted to check up on their students and to impose a curfew on the champions, reminding them they needed their rest for the task tomorrow. But given the approving smiles on each of their faces the two witches appeared to condone the little inter school party that they were holding.

-ϟϟϟ-

Harry was surprised to see Director Bones at the school the day of the task but one he talked to her he was kicking himself for not expecting it. "Well Mr. Potter, we have credible evidence that someone, or someones, are trying to use this tournament as an assassination. My people can't intervene in the tasks themselves, but they can prevent any interference and hopefully find some evidence at the same time." She explained when talking to Harry about an hour before the task.

It made sense to Harry. "I'm just surprised, is all. I thought you would be busy preparing for tomorrow's trial."

Madam Bones chuckled at that. "Harry, I am the prosecutor tomorrow. It's part of my job as head of the D.M.L.E., actually it's my main job as head of the D.M.L.E. I don't normally get involved with the actual investigation side of things much anymore. Though I do step in sometimes, if a case takes my interest or the case involves something sensitive, politically speaking. " she gave Harry a look as she said the last bit. "You don't exactly want the prosecutor doing too much preparation before a trial, especially when I think the guy is about as guilty as my left sock. That reminds me, Sirius wanted me to give you this." She handed Harry an envelope. "It's been checked by the D.M.L.E., it's just a letter, no magic on it whatsoever."

Harry accepted the letter, only managing to mumble a "Thank you" as his attention zeroed in on the letter from his godfather. Director Bones, seeing how distracted he was by the letter, wished him luck for the task and left to deal with her aurors. Harry opened the letter and started reading.

Harry

Hey Prongslet, I hear I have you to thank for finally getting the trial I should have had years ago. I'm not going to do that in a letter. Amy (Director Bones to you) told me you are going to be a witness tomorrow, not that I know why she hasn't told me nor can I think of anything you would have witnessed that could help with my trial, you were too young back then. But if you will be there, I will just have to thank you after my trial.

I was also told you have been entered into the Triwizard Tournament against your will and that you will be facing the first task today. I wish I could be there to watch your back, but I'm stuck in the secure ward at St. Mungo's right now, getting my head screwed on straight enough for tomorrow. Amy said she would be there though, with a few for her best to watch over you for me. If anything happens, go to her. You can trust her.

Remus said you got yourself two lovely witches. Your betrothed Miss Delacour, and another witch, a Miss Granger. Way to go Prongslet! Your dad would have been proud. Your mum would have given you a lecture on treating your girlfriend right but she would have been proud of you too. The only advice I can give you is don't treat either one as better than the other and never let them go. Two witches who are willing to share a wizard are rarer than mithril.

Good luck today, watch your back, the backs of your ladies, and wish them luck from me as well.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow,

Your godfather,

Sirius (Padfoot)

Harry reread the letter a few times. He was a little surprised that this man he didn't know was spending the time worrying about him. The man had a trial tomorrow that would decide if he was to spend the rest of his life with the Dementors. Harry shuddered at the idea, but he just couldn't understand how someone in that situation could be worried about him.

He wandered the grounds of the castle alone for a while. The first task wasn't until this afternoon, and the champions were excused from lessons for the day. Hermione, however, had arithmancy (her favourite class) first thing and had decided to attend. This was Harry's free period for self study; technically he was supposed to be dedicating the time to learning how to become an animagus. However, as Hermione was also learning with him and Professor McGonagall didn't have time during class to help them, they were squeezing in the lessons where they could.

Plus things were on hold as the final step required a thunderstorm after taking a potion, that takes over a month to brew and there weren't likely to be any storms before the spring so all they could do for now was meditate on what their forms could be. Harry was still stumped for what his form could be but Hermione had confirmed hers was some type of cat.

-ϟϟϟ-

The four teams of the Triwizard Tournament were ushered into a tent. Harry was nervous, he considered trying to hide it but there was little point as all twelve of them looked the same. They were all a little different in showing it, though. Ali was pacing back and forth, the Durmstrang guy Poliakoff, was sweating a lot, and Hermione was cuddled into Harry's side looking for reassurance. The only two who looked somewhat calm were Fleur and Krum.

In Fleur's case he knew it was an act, she wasn't the type to sit so stiff and still if she was relaxed. In Krum's case his body was actually relaxed, probably a benefit of being an international quidditch player in that he was used to being nervous before a match. It was however in his eyes you could see he wasn't calm. They were darting everywhere, looking at everything, possibly for a clue as to what the task was about.

There was a little commotion outside the tent they were all waiting in. From the sound of it, Rita was trying to get into the champions tent but the Auror that Madam Bones had stationed outside the school-side door wasn't letting her or her photographer in. Harry considered trying to help her by telling the Auror it was OK but decided against it. Not because he didn't trust the journalist/gossip columnist, they had a working relationship, it was the fact that the other champions probably didn't want to be questioned right now that had him stay seated.

Time started to drag on. Harry was sure that the pocket watch that the Grangers had given him last Christmas was broken, it said only five minutes had passed since he last looked at it but it felt closer to an hour. However, eventually the tent flap that led to the arena opened and in walked the panel of judges, with a grinning Ludo bagman at the front. Harry was surprised that instead of the minister as the judge standing in for the late Bartemius Crouch, his secretary, the pink clad toad demon Umbridge who looked down on Hermione, was there.

Bagman looked like he was having the time of his life and his cheery tone matched. "Well it looks like everyone is here, so unless anyone has any objections let's get this show started. We-"

"Hem hem." The pink toad interrupted.

"Yes Delores you wanted to say something?" Bagman asked politely, but it was obvious he didn't like her interrupting his moment.

"Yes Director Bagman, and I would prefer you refer to me by my title while we are doing Ministry business." The sweetness in her voice was grating to more than a few of the people in the tent.

"My apologies, interim Director Umbridge." Bagman said, obviously adding the qualifier to her title just to spite her for interrupting him.

Umbridge didn't look happy at how Bagman referred to her, but it didn't look like she could do anything about it, so she turned back to everyone. "We need to consider the integrity of this tournament. We just need to look at the name to know that we risk spitting on our ancient and noble traditions if we continue as we are. I propose we make one small little change to put the tournament back on track."

"And what change do you propose Director Umbridge?" Karkaroff asked. He had been nodding along with her as she spoke.

"Why, it's simple. We remove those elements that should not be part of the tournament to begin with, it's a tournament for of-age witches and wizards, not cheating children and half breeds. Luckily, this subversive element is all contained in one group, so I propose we disqualify the inter-school team."

The tent exploded into noise as pretty much everyone started shouting. Harry couldn't understand anyone in the tent as it all sort of merged into a wall of sound, not that he was trying to understand anyone he was too busy adding to the cacophony himself to listen. He did, however, notice that all of the Beauxbatons students looked ready to go to war with the toad.

Eventually Dumbledore let off a cannon blast with his wand, shouting "Silence!" Everyone in the room grew silent almost immediately. "Miss Umbridge you are either not aware of the facts or you are willfully ignoring them. Your name coming out of the Goblet of Fire is a magically binding contract, if these three do not compete then they will lose their magic and possibly, definitely in Mademoiselle Delacour's case, their very lives."

"What does that matter? If the half breeds want to try and muscle in on our ancient traditions, it's not our fault if it blows up in their face. They accepted the consequences of the tournament when they entered their names." Umbrich sneered at Fleur and Hermione as she spoke.

"I have had enough of this!" Madam Maxime slammed her hand down on one of the tables with a bang. "My student entered her name legally as a student of the Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons. Miss Granger and Mr. Potter have already sworn under unbreakable vows that they had nothing to do with their entry into this tournament. If you do not stop zis foolishness, zen you can face me in ze dueling ring!" The more the French Headmistress shouted, the thicker her accent became, a sure sign that the Hagrid-sized woman was losing her control of her anger.

Umbrich paled as the woman who was literally twice her size threatened her. "As a representative of the Ministry of Magic, I am exempt from formal duel challenges."

Harry took a moment to look around the others, and apart from Karkaroff everyone in the room looked at Umbridge with looks ranging from disgust to anger. Professor McGonagall looked a hair's breadth from offering to be Madame Maxime's second.

"Whoever said it will be a formal challenge?" Madam Maxime leaned forward so her face was right in Umbridge's personal space. "When it comes to protecting my students from small-minded, bigoted fools like you, I do not bother with a formal challenge. I will simply throw you into that stadium, follow you, and shout en garde. Then we will see how much of a witch you are." Madam Maxime waited for Umbridge to say or do anything, but when she didn't the headmistress stood up straight again. "Well, now that that little outburst of unpleasantness is done away with, shall we continue Monsieur Bagman?"

"Um?... yes… right. Um where were we?" The former beater stumbled around for a few moments trying to remember what they were meant to be doing.

"Explaining the first task, Ludo." Dumbledore said to the man in a kind grandfatherly tone.

"Right, the task. First, I need the team representatives to come here. The representative is the person whose name was first on the slip as your team was selected." Bagman tried to get back to the jovial mood he was projecting when he first came in, but it wasn't working.

Harry, Cedric, Krum, and Ali all walked up to Bagman, who held up a money pouch that had the Triquetra Rune stitched into the side. "Each of you will draw one coin from the bag. There are twelve coins each labelled from 1 to 12, the team with the lowest number will complete first, then the next lowest and you get the idea." He held the bag towards Ali. "Ladies fist."

Ali reached into the bag and drew out a coin, and then Krum, Cedric, and Harry all did the same. They all held out their coins. Ali winced when she revealed a four, but was relieved at Cedric showing a three. Krum was holding a seven and Harry was holding the coin with the number 11 on it.

"Well, that's all in order. The Hogwarts team will go first, then the Beauxbatons team, followed by Durmstrang, and finishing off with the inter-school team. Right, all of you listen closely because the rules say I can only say this once. When you hear the cannon blast, that means the next team is to proceed to the area. You will have three minutes in the arena to assess the situation and formulate a plan before the trial by fire begins. You will have up to thirty minutes to complete the task. The goal is for you to collect up to three chests. Each one contains a clue that will help you in your next task. The more you collect, the easier time you will have in the next task. Do you all understand?" Bagman finished his little speech and they all nodded that they understood.

"Excellent, all that is left for me to do then is to confirm none of you are carrying any items apart from your wands to aid you in the task that you yourselves have not made?" They all confirmed that they weren't. "Great, I wish you all good luck and may you do your schools and houses proud," Bagman beamed.

Umbridge sneered at Hermione when Bagman said the part about doing your house proud, and Harry wanted to hex the bitch but couldn't. She was the type to see him arrested immediately and that would cost him, Hermione, and Fleur their magic, as well as giving her exactly what she wanted. The judges left, leaving the champions alone until there was a cannon blast five minutes later and Cedric's team left. The tent was under a silencing charm, so apart from the cannon blast they couldn't hear anything going on outside. Harry suspected it was so that they couldn't hear the commentary and get an idea of the task before they went into the arena.

While the task had a thirty minute time limit, according to Harry's watch it took just as much time to rest the arena for the next team. Harry, Hermione, and Fleur each wished Ali, Marie and Alex good luck before the Beauxbatons team left, and gave the Durmstrang students a respectful nod when they left forty minutes later.

The room was so quiet now that Harry could hear the watch ticking on the table next to him. Then there was a cannon blast and it was time for them to face their trial by fire.