Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 43 – The Fourth Champion
Harry felt all the blood drain from his face and Ginny's grasp on his hand became painful.
"Harry Potter?" Dumbledore called out again, this time looking towards the Gryffindor table. "Harry, up here, if you please." Harry looked to Ginny, Ron and Hermione, all of whom looked as shocked as he did.
"You know I didn't put my name in, right?" He almost begged of the three people he cared most about. Ginny and Hermione nodded instantly while Ron still just looked shocked.
"Ron does as well." Hermione assured him. "But you need to go, Harry." With Ginny at his side, for she refused to release him, Harry stood and began making his way towards the head table.
"Harry…" Cornelius had jumped up from his seat when his charge's name had been read, but he didn't seem to know what to say. Harry looked to his guardian, uncertainty in his eyes, before turning to Dumbledore, who held out the piece of paper with his name on it. It wasn't in his handwriting, was the first thing he noticed, though Harry wasn't sure if that meant anything.
"Well…through the door, Harry." said Dumbledore, the smile he'd worn when Cedric's name had been called was gone, nor did he offer his hand to shake. Harry made his way through to the trophy room, with Ginny still at his side, the Headmaster having thankfully ignored her presence. Viktor, Fleur and Cedric stood around the fire and turned when they entered.
"What is it?" Fleur asked. "Do zey want us back in ze Hall?" She thought he was there to deliver a message, though Cedric's expression made it obvious that he knew something was wrong.
"What's happened, Harry?" The Hufflepuff and Gryffindor seekers had always been friendly, if not exactly friends, but Harry didn't know how to tell Cedric that his moment of glory as Hogwarts Champion had been overshadowed. Thankfully he didn't have to, for the door from the Great Hall banged opened and a large contingency all but ran inside.
"Harry, did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire?" Dumbledore asked calmly, though he spoke loudly above the din of the other adults, all of whom were speaking at once.
"No, sir." He replied just as calmly, though forcefully.
"But of course 'e iz lying!" Madame Maxime said, coming to stand beside Fleur.
"Pardon?!" Fleur gasped. "But 'Ogwarts already 'az a champion. And 'e cannot compete. 'E is too young."
"What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr?" Madame Maxime demanded.
"I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore." Said Karkaroff. He too came to stand beside his student and his eyes blazed with anger. "I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed two champions. Or have I not read the rules carefully enough?"
"C'est impossible." The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang led the charge against this new development, their opinion on the matter very clear. " 'Ogwarts cannot 'ave two champions. It is most unjust!"
"We were under the impression that your Age Line would keep out younger contestants, Dumbledore." Karkaroff continued. "Otherwise, we would, of course, have brought along a wider selection of candidates from our own schools."
"Dumbly-dorr must 'ave made a mistake wiz ze line." Madame Maxime was ready to place blame anywhere she could.
"It is possible, of course." Said Dumbledore politely.
"Dumbledore, you know perfectly well you did not make a mistake!" said Professor McGonagall angrily. "Really, what nonsense!" She turned to Harry. "Potter, did you ask one of the older students to place your name in the Goblet for you?"
"No!"
"Lies!" Karkaroff spat.
"Now wait just a moment, Karkaroff." Cornelius came forward and stood beside Harry. "Harry has been under my care since he was seven years old and not once has he shown a penchant for lying. If he says he didn't put his name in then I believe him." Harry looked over and smiled his thanks to his guardian.
"What does it matter how his name was entered?" Moody spoke up from the back of the group. "The fact remains that an exceptionally powerful magical object was hoodwinked into choosing a fourth champion. Only an equally powerful bit of magic could have fooled it, which is way beyond the talents of a fourth year."
"You seem to have given this a lot of thought, Mad-Eye."
"It was once my job to think as dark wizards do, Karkaroff, perhaps you remember?"
"That doesn't help, Alastor." Dumbledore gently reprimanded.
"Doesn't it?" Ginny now spoke up, drawing attention to herself for the first time since she stood up with Harry in the Great Hall. "Regardless of what some people believe, I know Harry didn't put his name in, which means someone else did, and-"
"And 'oo are you?" Fleur interrupted. "'E's leetle girlfriend, yes? Of course you believe 'im! But 'e 'as ze chance to compete, 'asn't 'e? We 'ave all been 'oping to be chosen for weeks and weeks! Ze honor for our schools! A thousand Galleons in prize money - zis is a chance many would die for!"
"Exactly what someone is hoping for, no doubt!" Ginny growled. "That he will die. The number of people who have tried to kill Harry is staggering, including a few times in this very castle, which is frankly astounding considering it's supposed to be a school."
"Miss Weasley…" McGonagall said warningly.
"Well am I wrong, Professor? Most of the people in this room went through Hogwarts, how many times did madmen try to kill you when you were students here?" Harry was the one to squeeze Ginny's hand in comfort this time, trying to calm her down. It seemed to help a little and so Harry looked back to the adults, his eyes finally coming to rest on Snape. The potions master had stood in the back not saying a word, but Harry was suddenly hopeful that that would change. Meeting Snape's eye, his opened his mind and allowed the man in, allowed him to see that he was telling the truth and had not in any way tried to enter the tournament. Snape's lips thinned and he nodded, silently telling Harry that he believed him, before speaking that belief out loud.
"Miss Weasley makes a fair point." Everyone turned to face him, more than a few with surprised expressions; Snape was not known to defend anyone, let alone Harry. "Potter does have enemies that undeniably have tried to kill him, and no doubt will try again. The Triwizard Tournament was discontinued because the champions died too frequently, and while measures have been taken to ensure such an outcome won't happen," He nodded to Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman, two parties that had been instrumental in making the tournament safer, and who had been conversing quietly off to the side. "There is still risk, especially for one so young and inept. What a convenient way to ensure his death, entering him in a tournament he is ill-equipped for and yet is magically bound to compete in?" Snape saying someone had entered Harry into the tournament to try and kill him held much more weight than when Ginny had said it, though the third year wasn't sure about his last statement.
"Is he magically bound to compete though?" She asked. "I don't know much about magical contracts, but Harry did not enter into one himself, and the only other person who could legally enter into one for him is his guardian, but I highly doubt the Minister did this,"
"Certainly not!"
"So how could Harry be bound by the contract?" Dumbledore turned to Bagman and Crouch, the two organizers of the tournament who knew the most about the Goblet of Fire and the magical contract it created.
"The magic surrounding the Goblet of Fire is ancient, from a time when anyone, of any age, could enter the tournament." Crouch said. "It is why we needed the Age Line. The magic of the Goblet could not be altered to only accept the names of those who are of age, so other means had to be taken to ensure only those of age could enter. Its contract is also not with the person who physically places the paper inside the Goblet, but with the person who's name is written on it."
"Which means that regardless of how, why, or who entered his name, Mr. Potter is a Triwizard champion." Said Bagman. "He has no choice."
"That is not exactly true, Mr. Bagman." A voice spoke and everyone turned to see two beings, both of whom Harry recognized well.
"Dobby? Griphook?" They were the first words Harry had spoken since saying he hadn't put his name in the Goblet.
"My apologies for the intrusion." Said Griphook, the one who spoken before. "We sent a letter to Mr. Potter a few minutes ago and his elf appeared moments later. He was rather upset so I agreed to accompany him here to his master."
"And what does Gringotts have to do with the proceedings here tonight?" Cornelius asked, confused, though respectful. After both Griphook and Director Ragnok, the leader of the Goblin Nation, had been invited into the Chamber of Secrets a couple years ago he had developed a new respect for the goblins, Harry having explained why he'd asked the goblins there in the first place.
"Directly, nothing. However, at 7:34 this evening Gringotts registered a disturbance with the Potter accounts, the timing of which appears to have coincided exactly with the moment Mr. Potter's name came out of the Goblet of Fire." Griphook now turned to Harry. "Mr. Potter, we at Gringotts take the privacy of our clients very seriously, so to continue I will need your consent. Alternatively, I would be happy to speak with you privately in my office at the bank."
"It's all right, Griphook, please just tell us what you know." Harry could care less about privacy right now.
"Very well. The disturbance registered this evening was the Potter accounts attempting to acknowledge a new head of the family, something which was set to happen upon Mr. Potter's seventeenth birthday, though should be impossible beforehand, unless he be emancipated by the Ministry."
"What?" Harry was confused. "But I haven't-"
"We know, that is why I said 'attempted.' The process of recognizing a new family head is seamless, so had you been legally emancipated there would have been no disturbance." Griphook explained. "The trouble came because the magic that binds you to the Potter accounts registered an attempt by you to enter into a contract that only an adult can enter into." He turned to Bagman. "This is why your words are not exactly true, Mr. Bagman. While historically you are correct, the change in rules to the tournament did indeed alter the magic of the Goblet of Fire…to a certain extent."
"And how do you know all this?" Karkaroff asked rather rudely.
"Both the Goblet of Fire and the Triwizard Cup are goblin made objects." Griphook didn't seem to take Karkaroff's rudeness personally. "We know everything there is to know about them, which is more, I daresay, than wizards, if for no other reason than the goblins of the time are very unlikely to have imparted every detail to the Wizards Council that commissioned the items." This was not surprising, goblin/wizard relations today were not good, but in the 13th century when the tournament began they were quite bad, even downright hostile. While it was believable that the goblins would have made the two objects for wizards, and for an obscene amount of gold, it was also believable that they wouldn't impart all the objects' secrets.
"Which means?" Harry asked.
"The Goblet of Fire is intrinsically tied to the tournament, it has to be to determine the most worthy champions for the tasks to come, otherwise you might as well just pull names randomly from a hat. When the rules of the tournament were officially changed to only allow those of age to enter, the Goblet would have registered the change. Your Age Line, Professor Dumbledore, is unlikely to have been needed, for the Goblet's magic should uphold the rules of the tournament and rejected the names of anyone who is not seventeen."
"That's good then, isn't it?" Ginny tried not to sound too hopeful.
"It would be, were the Goblet not tricked into choosing a fourth champion." Said Griphook, sounding genuinely upset. "However, a contract was created with Mr. Potter. Mr. Crouch is correct that the contract is created with the person who's name is entered, not the person who actually does the entering. Whatever magic was used to trick the Goblet into choosing a fourth champion also bypassed the magic that would have stopped an underage student being entered."
"But how can someone bypass the Goblet's magic?" McGonagall wanted to know.
"I cannot say for certain," Griphook admitted. "But most likely there was a fictitious fourth school, under which only Mr. Potter's name was entered. The Goblet would have been tricked into believing there were four schools instead of three and the fact that only Mr. Potter's name was entered for the fourth school would have given the Goblet no choice but to choose him, regardless that he is underage, and thus bypassing that particular rule. How someone tricked the Goblet to begin with, though, I cannot say."
"So then I have to compete." Ginny squeezed his hand again and Griphook nodded and silence reigned for a moment as everyone thought on what that meant.
"I think it best if we resume this discussion tomorrow." Dumbledore said finally. "We will all think more clearly with a good night's sleep." Harry doubted he would be sleeping at all tonight, but he quickly agreed with the Headmaster.
"I must go and tell Aldora." Cornelius said and Harry cringed. She would not take this well.
"Better you than me." He said and Cornelius scowled at his ward, though it softened almost instantly.
"I'll be back tomorrow, Harry, and we can discuss this further. You will not face this alone, though, that I promise you." Harry almost wanted to hug Cornelius for that, but managed to refrain. With a quick good night, he and Ginny were the first to leave – aside from Griphook, who'd gotten Dobby to pop him out without anyone noticing – and head up to Gryffindor tower. They never made it, though, for when they were barely halfway there, Dobby popped into their path.
"Master Harry must come with Dobby!" Knowing the little elf would never take him into danger, and knowing that for him to be here at all it must be important, Harry agreed.
"Ginny comes with me, though." That he wasn't willing to budge on, and Dobby was quick to agree before grabbing on to them both and popping out, his elf magic allowing him to bypass the Hogwarts wards. They reappeared in a room made almost entirely of marble and that had a crystal chandelier hanging in the centre. It was the large ornate desk, though, and the person sitting behind it, that drew their attention.
"Ah, Mr. Potter, excellent." Said Griphook. "Please have a seat so we may get down to business."
A/N - Review please!