Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 46 – International Magical Cooperation
The goblins acted fast and by lunch the following day a large tent had been erected on the grounds between the quidditch pitch and Hagrid's hut. Courtesy of magic, the inside of the tent was vastly larger than the outside would indicate possible and consisted mainly of a training area, for both Harry and the goblins that would remain as part of his 'entourage' for the length of the tournament, though also had sleeping quarters for said goblins, an infirmary, a dining hall, a study area with dozens of books – Harry had to pry Hermione away when she saw the goblin texts never before available to humans – and an office for Griphook and Bill to share.
Naturally the appearance of the tent drew much attention, and initially several complaints. Some of the tournament's organizers, as well as several of the more bigoted members of the board of governors and Ministry officials, complained about the goblins' presence and interference. With the Minister of Magic on their side, however, such arguments were quickly shot down, even more so when it came out that both Harry and Ginny had been awarded that status of Friend to the Goblin Nation. Goblins were prohibited under the current laws from interfering in wizarding affairs and from living outside of Gringotts, so their involvement in the tournament and the news that at least a dozen goblins would be staying at Hogwarts throughout the tournament drew the most ire. Ragnok's move of awarding Friend status, however, gave both Harry and Ginny legal standing within the Goblin Nation and meant that the goblins had every right to help them and look out for their well-being. Cornelius was also quick to point out that the Triwizard Tournament wasn't exactly 'wizarding affairs', but a friendly competition meant to promote international magical cooperation. Add in his other point that the goblins that would stay on Hogwarts' grounds were not creating a permanent settlement but very clearly a temporary one with a departure date already set, and those bigots who tried to stir up trouble didn't muster much support.
It helped also that Sirius was apoplectic that his godson was being forced to participate in this tournament. As a distinguished auror and the last remaining member of an old pureblood family – who's ass most people within the Ministry were still trying to kiss after he'd wrongly spent twelve years in Azkaban – Sirius held rather a lot of power in their society. He was best, though, at reigning in the other purebloods. If nothing else, the purebloods like Lucius Malfoy who clung to the past couldn't say too much against Harry, or the methods being employed to help him, without calling into question the honour of the head of the noble and ancient house that stood by his side, and if they did that, then it wasn't too big a leap to themselves being questioned, something they would rather die than have happen.
The tournament organizers also didn't have a leg to stand on as it was their rules that stated there could only be one champion per school, and they who had laid out the provisions each champion was entitled to, so they could hardly complain about those provisions being met, while Harry competing under the Goblin Academy instead of as a second Hogwarts champion actually did them a favour in dealing with that awkward circumstance. Karkaroff and Madame Maxime complained as well saying that they had not known they could bring such facilities and so their champions were left with whatever additions they had made to their mode of transportations. The Beauxbatons' carriage and Durmstrang's ship were of course magically enhanced as well but they were hardly designed with the sole purpose of training their champion. Harry himself had been the one to stop their arguments by inviting Fleur and Viktor, along with Cedric, to train with him.
"The whole point of the tournament is international magical cooperation." He'd said. "Any training we want to keep secret to have an edge in the competition we can do separately, but there's no reason we can't do general physical and magical training together." Cedric had smiled and quickly accepted the offer, knowing Harry well enough to know he was in earnest and that this wasn't a trick of some sort, while Fleur and Viktor had been more hesitant, but both had agreed as well, and neither seemed regretful of their decision as the days and weeks wore on. In fact, both of them seemed to be spending more and more time in the Goblin Academy training room, and unsurprisingly it was up to Ginny to tell Harry why.
"Krum likes Hermione and Fleur likes Bill." She explained with an eye roll that clearly said boys were oblivious. Now armed with that knowledge Harry could see that Viktor was often watching Hermione when he thought she wasn't looking while Fleur was much more overt in her attraction and flirted shamelessly with Bill, much to Ginny's disgust. She didn't like the older French girl, not because she was stunningly beautiful – the only one she would get jealous over was Harry and he seemed ignorant of her looks – but because she clearly thought herself so much better and more mature than everyone else. She had continued to call Harry a 'leetle boy', or at least she had, until the first magical training session with all four champions where Harry had flattened her in their duel; the Beauxbatons champion had gone easy on the 'leetle boy' and Harry had used that to his full advantage.
Not all training took place as a group though, at least not the group that the outside world knew about. Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione continued their own training, now with the addition of goblin tutelage, and they found that the training room the goblins had provided was much better than an empty classroom. Snape was still a constant presence in their training, able to easily disillusion himself to sneak out of the castle for their sessions so as not to alert anyone to his involvement. As Director Ragnok had instructed, Bill had gone straight to Snape immediately after their meeting that day and had relayed the Director's request for a visit, though Bill hadn't thought it necessary to sugar-coat the summons and told Snape plainly that if he didn't get his butt to Gringotts first thing in the morning then he could kiss his vault goodbye. Not that the goblins would steal his gold, that would be against the contract that had been signed when Snape first opened his vault, and no goblin would knowingly break a contract. That being said, there were a million ways that the goblins could stall and run interference every time Snape tried to access his vault and they would not hesitate to use every single one of them, meaning that Snape would never access his vault, or do business with Gringotts again, even if his vault was still technically there for him. Luckily Snape had heeded the warning and had gone to visit the Director the very next morning. No one knew exactly what had transpired in that meeting, but both seemed to have come out of it with a deep respect for each other, or so Bill said based on his observations of the newfound respect Snape showed the goblins and vice versa; the latter of which could only be caused by the goblins' own observations of the respect their Director showed this man and their emulation of that.
-H/G-
In late November the First Task finally arrived, and Harry couldn't have felt less prepared, even though he'd never felt more prepared to face Voldemort than the exhaustive training that Bill, Snape and the goblins had given him these last weeks. The First Task was a complete surprise, none of the champions knowing what was to come. They had all been gathered in a tent outside of the stadium that had been erected for the task. Ginny was there clinging to Harry as she fretted about what was to come.
"Gin, calm down." Harry was annoyingly calm given that he was the one about to face whatever the task held, and Ginny shot him a glare.
"Let's go over it again." Harry groaned but was ignored. "We know the First Task historically involves having to collect some item that will be used to help you prepare for the Second Task. So, what do you do first?"
"I try to summon it." He recited. It was highly unlikely the organizers would forget to prevent something as simple as a summoning charm, but Ginny had pointed out that wizards were more often than not complacent and so knowing that the champions wouldn't attempt to summon the item, because surely it couldn't be that easy, they may forget to ward the item against it. It was a long shot, but anything that had the possibility to keep Harry out of danger was something Ginny was all for trying. Harry himself wouldn't try it if he hadn't promised Ginny he would; he felt like it he would make a complete fool of himself trying something like that.
"And if that doesn't work?"
"I try anything I can think of to get the item to come to me so I don't have to approach or trigger whatever is protecting the item."
"And if that's not possible?"
"I take as long as I need to figure out the safest way to complete the task, forget timing or how many points I might lose." He'd said those exact words at least seven times since breakfast this morning.
"Exactly. You were entered in this tournament by someone who is probably trying to kill you, so your first and only goal is to get through this unharmed." Those words too had been uttered at least seven times since breakfast. "Let Fleur, Krum and Cedric fight for first place, which is exactly how it was supposed to be if someone wasn't trying to kill you again. You just live!" Harry could hear the tears she was trying to suppress and leaned down to kiss her. A poof was heard and a flash went off that had them both groaning, knowing exactly who it was.
"Young love!" The acid green of Rita Skeeter's outfit was the same colour of the bile Harry knew he'd spew if he had to be around her right now. "How…stirring." As usual, her Quick-Quotes Quill was ready to write whatever she said. "Harry, how about-"
"Sorry, Ms. Skeeter, but we're needed over there." He pointed randomly to somewhere else in the tent, not caring that the corner was empty, and pulled Ginny along.
"If she says one more nasty thing to you I'll Bat Bogey her." Ginny usually found Skeeter amusing, or at least she found Harry's attempts to avoid her amusing, but today wasn't one of those days.
"I really can't stand her." He muttered. As the Minister's ward he was used to the press, but Rita Skeeter was something else entirely.
"Well, go say hi to someone you can stand." Ginny nodded to the nearest of the tent's openings where she had seen Hermione lurking. Harry dutifully went over and was glad to see Ron there as well. The evening he had returned from Gringotts after his name had come out of the Goblet of Fire had been tense as Ron seemed to have gotten it in his head that Harry had entered himself in the tournament without telling him. Needless to say this opinion hadn't lasted for longer than breakfast the following morning. In front of the entire Great Hall Ginny, who had been incensed on hearing her brother's opinion, had cast her new favourite spell, the Bat Bogey Hex, at him. It had earned her a detention and the loss of twenty points, but it had been worth it to see Ron squirm. Fred and George had helped Hermione pick Ron up once the bat bogies had stopped attacking him and the three of them had talked some sense into him. He'd apologized to Harry and things had gone back to normal after that and Harry was glad for his best mate's support today.
"Are you all right?" Hermione asked in a whisper, not coming into the tent as she and Ron, along with the other students, were supposed to be in the stadium already.
"I'm brilliant." He deadpanned and Ron sniggered, earning an elbow to the gut from Hermione.
"The key is to concentrate." She continued. "After that you just have to…"
"Get passed whatever is going to try to kill me this time." With a strangled cry Hermione launched herself into the tent and Harry's arms, wrapping him in a hug. Another poof and flash went off that had Ron moving to intercept Ginny who had taken her wand out, but any retribution was stopped as the tournament organizers arrived.
"Good day, champions!" Ludo Bagman cried, leading the way with Barty Crouch and the heads of each school behind him. Griphook was among them, another fact which had caused quite a stir. The judges of the tournament were made up of the heads of each school, along with Crouch and Bagman, thus making the judging fair as each school was represented, along with two – supposedly – impartial judges. Like most things governing the tournament, this too was written into the rules and so as Harry was competing for the Goblin Academy they were entitled to have a judge as well. As the one in charge of this whole endeavour, Griphook was the natural choice, even if having a goblin on the judging panel again drew some complaints.
"Well, now we're all here, time to fill you in!" Said Bagman brightly. "In that bag Barty is holding you going to each select a model of the thing you are about to face! There are different…er…varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else too… ah, yes…your task is to collect the golden egg, which you will need for inside is a clue that will help you prepare for the Second Task. Barty, if you will!" Crouch opened the bag, offering it to Fleur first. She put her hand in and pulled out by the tail a miniature dragon. Harry's heart stopped for a moment and Ginny gasped.
"The Welsh Green." Crouch said, for some reason sounding approving. Krum went next and pulled out a Chinese Fireball, while Cedric got a Swedish Short-Snout. When Harry pulled out a Hungarian Horntail he could feel Ginny's fear.
"Well, there you are!" said Bagman. "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers around their necks refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you understand?" They all nodded. "Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr. Diggory, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle." He and Crouch then left, leaving the champions and their headmasters to discuss strategy, these last few minutes before the task began being the only time they were allowed to offer their students help.
"Charlie says Horntails are among the meanest dragons around." Said Ron, who along with Hermione had stayed out of the way and so had not been forced to leave
"A dragon's skin is nearly impenetrable, and very spell-resistant." Hermione added, clearly wracking her brain for anything she had ever read about dragons. "Their eyes are the weakest parts of their bodies."
"I would not suggest attacking its eyes." Griphook said. "It requires exact precision of a specific spell and a great deal of power to actually subdue a dragon that way. Likely you will only make it angrier."
"So what do I do?" Harry was finally beginning to panic; facing the unknown had actually been better than facing a dragon.
"You only have to collect the golden egg, which means you just have to get passed the dragon." The goblin continued. "I would focus on distracting the dragon so you can get in, grab the egg, and get out." Harry nodded.
"Maybe you can transfigure something to distract it." Ginny suggested. "And use a shield to protect yourself when you get close."
"A shield charm won't work though, it's not powerful enough to stop dragon fire." Added Hermione. "It'd have to be a physical shield." Harry nodded his understanding, even the smallest semblance of a plan offering him some comfort.
"We must go now." Griphook said as the other judges took their leave. "Good luck, Mr. Potter." Ron and Hermione followed him out, but Ginny lingered.
"I'll be careful." Harry promised. Ginny nodded and with a strangled cry threw her arms around him, crashing her lips onto his. Harry's arms went around her automatically, and the two lost themselves in each other until Ginny was ripped away. Harry instinctively went for his wand, but the voice that barked "Enough!" stopped him. Ron had returned and was glaring at his best mate.
"What's the rule? No snogging where I can walk in on you!" Ron had taking Harry dating his younger sister quite well, but that didn't mean he wanted to see any public displays of affection. Harry and Ginny were generally quite respectful of that and so there weren't often any issues, but Ron still played the overprotective big brother when needed. So did the other Weasley brothers that were still at Hogwarts, though admittedly Fred and George were more likely to prank Harry than confront him if they felt the need, while they wouldn't dare do anything remotely inappropriate with Bill around, Harry knowing the eldest Weasley sibling could wipe the floor with him and that he wouldn't hesitate to do so.
"Ron!" Ginny growled as she was led away, leaving Harry with the other champions, all of whom looked amused, though Cedric was openly laughing. That laughter ended, though, only a few moments later when the whistle blew, signalling his task had begun.
A/N - Review please!