Chapter 18

"The champion for Durmstrang," Dumbledore read in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."

As a storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall, Dumbledore handed the slip of parchment to his co-Heads for verification, and then to the other judges.

Exactly one minute later, the Goblet turned red once more and a second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore," is Fleur Delacour!"

The parchment made the mandatory round and the girl disappeared through the door behind the staff table.

Silence fell again, a much more charged silence. Most faces in the Great Hall looked positively excited, except for those belonging to the Hogwarts' candidates, which exhibited various degrees of fear and nervousness. Potter, on his part, looked nauseated. He had never looked less like his jerk of a father, Severus reflected to his own shock. James Potter probably never in his life had had any reason to feel truly scared, except perhaps right before dying murdered by the Dark Lord.

Severus' anxiety was reaching a painful level, but he still made sure of keeping up his Occlumency mask. He knew he shouldn't be staring at the brat, with Moody no doubt watching him, but he couldn't help it.

The Goblet turned red for the third time. Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment from the tip of the tongue of fire.

"The Hogwarts champion," he called," is Cedric Diggory!"

If he could afford to show any sort of weakness, Severus would have collapsed with relief. Potter didn't need to show such restrain, so he did visibly relax, his face recovering some colour, and soon he was applauding Diggory much more enthusiastically than any other Gryffindor student.

Severus took a deep breath to ground himself. False alarm. No need to panic. Although Severus should remain vigilant, since there was clearly someone in Hogwarts that ought not to be, and that someone might not be pleased that Potter had not been chosen. Moody would suspect him if he began tailing Potter, though, and in any case the Auror was in charge of security this year. Perhaps Severus could relax a bit...

Stupidly, when the Goblet of Fire turned red again and sparks began flying out of it, Severus didn't immediately suspect what was about to happen. He had completely ceased fearing the evil object the instant that the third name had come out of it.

"Harry Potter," Dumbledore read out.

Severus vowed to himself to someday find out if Dark Quirrell had placed an additional curse on Hogwarts when he had been here a few years ago. A Halloween Curse. That had to be it. He also swore to himself that, if Potter was still alive next year, he would make sure the brat was nowhere around Hogwarts on this particular date.

As if he needed more reasons to hate Halloween. Lily had died on a day like this one, and today her son had been pretty much sentenced to death as well.

The deep relief he had just experienced when Diggory's name had come out of the Goblet made the blow a thousand times worse. Fool!, he spat to himself. This is Harry bloody Potter, and the Dark Lord is behind this!

While horror was his main emotion at the moment, he was also extremely confused. A fourth Champion? How was that even possible?

Trust the Dark Lord to come up with yet another unexpected trick. Part of Severus felt a certain grudging admiration, but mostly he thought the Dark Lord was an insufferable show-off. If he wanted to kill Potter, wouldn't it be easier to just use whatever agent he had inside Hogwarts to do it and be done with it? Was this really necessary? No doubt this was the reason why the Dark Lord had never gotten around to take the Ministry during the previous war. He had been more interested in terrorizing the country than in taking control.

The boy looked deadly pale in the dim, blue-white light, and for a moment Severus had no trouble picturing his failure. He knew, right then and there, that this was his punishment for everything he had done in the past and for getting Lily killed in particular. He was doomed to stress himself out trying to protect Fate's number one target over and over again until he failed or dropped dead of a heart attack.

He didn't give a damn that Moody was no doubt watching him nor that it would be highly suspicious for one of the two Death Eaters present at Hogwarts to leave the castle this precise night. As soon as all the students had been sorted out, Severus threw a cloak over himself and made his way through the silent grounds. He didn't bother with Disillusionment Charms either, since Moody could see through anything.

An hour after Potter's name had come out of the Goblet of Fire, Severus was standing in Godric's Hollow's Graveyard looking down on Lily's grave.

He had come to see her on Hallows' Eve every year since her death, to apologize and to renew his promise. The last three years it had felt embarrassing, though, to promise to keep her son safe only hours after the boy had almost been victim of a troll, Slytherin's monster or a mass murderer. And tonight...

He could give excuses, sure. Severus had tried to convince Dumbledore of sending the boy away before the term started. He had watched the damned Goblet, and suggested the expulsion. He had tried to avoid this and then to find a way out. What good were excuses, though?

Potter was a champion in a Tournament with a ridiculous death toll.

He's only fourteen, Lily, and rubbish at magic. And reckless. And lazy. He doesn't think. He's too proud, he won't ask for help. He won't take seriously the danger. He will care more about his image than about his survival. And he will rely on luck, as always. But luck can only go so far...

He sighed. Ranting wasn't helping this time.

He looked so scared, Lily.

Dumbledore looked almost afraid when Severus walked into his office well after midnight. Clearly he had been expecting him. He heard several portraits held their breath. Really, one might think Severus was the Dark Lord in person to elicit such a reception.

Severus didn't beat around the bush.

"You should have expelled him!" he roared slamming his hand over the desk.

"I did expel him, Severus."

That answer completely threw him off and made him forget how his rant had been organized.

"What?"

Dumbledore sighed.

"Last night, after you left, I thought about it some more and finally decided to give it a go. I expelled Harry, even though I didn't expect that to help. Now I'm afraid expelling him might have been what condemned him."

Severus stared at him without understanding.

"What?"

"I can't be sure of how it was done what happened tonight, but... I believe the Goblet of Fire must have been interfered with before it was even activated. A fourth school was added, although I'm guessing it's a sort of replica of Hogwarts, answering to the same Ministry and Headmaster. I also suspect the only student enrolled in such fictitious school is Harry Potter. However, it's magically impossible for a student to be legitimately enrolled in two different schools at the same time, so until yesterday Harry was probably not legitimately enrolled in that other school yet."

It wasn't easy to follow Dumbledore's reasoning, but Severus was feeling increasingly uneasy. And he suspected that he would want to curse himself once the old man finished explaining.

"I believe that me expelling Harry was part of the plan," said Dumbledore finally, sounding a thousand years old. "When Harry ceased being a student of the real Hogwarts, he must have become a real student of the fake Hogwarts, rendering him eligible as the fourth champion."

Yes, now was when Severus wanted to blast his own head off.

"But..." he pretty much mumbled "We weren't supposed to know that Potter had entered his name... you almost didn't expel him..."

Dumbledore shrugged. It seemed to cost him horrors to lift his shoulders.

"Perhaps we were meant to catch Harry after he put his name in, or to find out some other way. Perhaps me expelling the boy was predictable, even if I almost didn't do it, or I would have been persuaded at some other point if I hadn't done it last night at your suggestion. I don't know, Severus."

Damn.

If Dumbledore's long chain of guesses was correct, then it was all Severus' fault. He had made sure of catching the invisible Potter, and then had advocated the boy's expulsion to the point that Dumbledore had been persuaded to try.

Damn.

If Severus needed any other confirmation that the Dark Lord was somehow behind this, this was it. Who else would be powerful and obsessed enough as to make up from scratch a fictional magical school just to enrol Potter in it?

They remained in silence for a long time contemplating how they had been fooled.

Severus' only comfort was that Dumbledore's theory was so convoluted and unverifiable that likely no one would ever believe it, assuming that they told anyone.

"Don't tell Moody," he almost begged. "He will see it as confirmation of my perfidy."

Dumbledore made a dismissive gesture.

"He doesn't need to know the details. I dare say he will be more interested on Karkaroff from now on, anyway, since the Goblet of Fire was being stored at Durmstrang before it was activated this summer."

Severus raised an eyebrow. He hadn't known that. Igor Karkaroff struck him as the last Death Eater the Dark Lord would ever contact unless it was to execute him, but if he had had access to the Goblet as well as to the Bulgarian Minister...

He was beginning to miss his spying days. At least back then he had been mostly aware of what both sides were doing. Now he was ready to resume his role as spy, but he hadn't been summoned yet. He was not trusted, and therefore he was being left in the dark regarding whatever the Dark Lord was doing. It would be truly insulting if Igor had been contacted before Severus.

"The boy has to compete, then?" he asked finally, deciding not to dwell anymore on how this had come to happen and instead focus on what was to come.

"I'm afraid so, yes."

Severus took a deep breath.

"All right," he said gathering all the resolve he had found in Lily's grave. "If we can't pull him out, then we'll push him through. It will be hard, since Potter is a useless moron, but we can do it. You know what the tasks will be, and I... I will train him myself if I have to."

He would have to do the training secretly, so as to not blow up his cover, and he might have to take a few calming draughts to keep himself from insulting the brat all the time, but it was feasible. Although it might be better if Moody took care of it. The Auror might be insane, but he knew his stuff and he didn't have a cover to maintain. Also, Potter would be more willing to learn from him than from Severus.

"Severus..." said Dumbledore carefully. "I'm afraid there's nothing you or I or anyone can do to help Harry through the tournament. The rules are very clear: the champions can't receive any sort of assistance. Cheating is strictly forbidden."

Severus snorted and looked at the Headmaster in disbelief.

"So what?" he spat. "I don't bloody care about the rules or laws. I've killed and tortured people, Dumbledore, a bit of cheating will be nothing for me. And if you really care about the boy as much as you always said, then you will cheat too. Or don't, if you don't care to. Just stay the hell out of my way while I do it."

Dumbledore took a deep breath and slowly let it out. There was something in his eyes that Severus didn't like, something like... defeat.

"I would cheat if I could, Severus, I assure you. I would cheat to keep Cedric alive as well. There is nothing I would not do to keep my students safe. That's precisely why the Triwizard Tournament is refereed by the Goblet of Fire. We Headmasters and Headmistresses could never stand aside and watch our charges come to lasting harm. Parents and siblings and friends would also do most anything to help their loved ones survive the tasks. The Goblet of Fire prevents all that." Severus was following his every word, but still didn't understand why the old man looked so resigned. He was obviously stalling, like he always did when he didn't really want to say something. "Severus, the rules are not just human rules. In this case they are... explanations of the Goblet's function. Cheating is not simply forbidden, it's magically impossible. The Goblet of Fire is an extremely powerful magical artefact."

Understanding was slowly dawning in Severus' brain, but he was getting the feeling that he wanted to hear this even less than Dumbledore wanted to say it.

"Speak plainly", he demanded, half wishing to cast a muffling charm all around him so as not to hear.

"There is a reason why the tournament was discontinued, and why the death toll was so high. The Goblet... The Goblet is magically designed to put in effect a powerful compulsion charm, or more exactly a dispelling charm, that discourages anyone from offering help to the Champions. Once they are chosen, they become... unhelpable."

"That's... absurd," said Severus, although he didn't feel very confident of his own statement. He knew that the Goblet of Fire was powerful, awfully so, but this... this would be too much. Compulsion Charms were magic of the darkest or at least the evilest kind. And what the hell was a Dispelling charm?

"I'm afraid it's completely real. You can verify it yourself right now. Try to offer Harry any kind of help, direct or indirect, intended to help him win or just survive the tournament. You'll find you can't. No one can."

Was the old man messing with him?

Dumbledore must have noticed his skepticism, because he retrieved a piece of parchment and a self-inked quill from a drawer and pushed them towards him.

"Write any kind of advise you think Harry could use as a Champion. Fawkes will deliver the message instantly, if you manage."

Severus glanced around to see if there was some portrait snickering at his expense, but they were all deadly serious. Without being able to shake the feeling that he was being mocked, he leaned forward and picked up the quill. He considered what he was going to write and then lowered the quill to the parchment. His hand stopped suspended in mid-air, however. What the hell? It wasn't just his hand that had stopped, somehow he no longer wanted to write those words, even though he was determined to do it. It was as if his brain refused to give the command to his hand.

He closed his eyes. Whatever this was, he would not be defeated by it. Dumbledore had said something about intending to help Potter, so perhaps it was just a matter of mentalization. Such an accomplished Occlumens as Severus surely would be able to get around whatever this was. When he opened his eyes, he had entirely different reasons to write some less specific words, and just as he had expected he had no trouble writing them.

The stunning spell would be a useful thing to know.

"There," he said triumphant, pushing the parchment towards Dumbledore. "Send it."

Dumbledore looked at him sadly, but complied. He took the parchment and held it over his head.

"Fawkes", he said clearly, "Please take this to Harry Potter".

The phoenix didn't move.

Severus was still skeptic.

"Fawkes doesn't prove anything," he said stubbornly, retrieving the message. "Gilly!"

A House Elf appeared by his side with a pop.

"Yes, Master Snape?"

"Take this to Harry Potter in Gryffindor Tower."

"Yes, Master Snape!"

The House Elf took the parchment, but didn't pop away.

"What's wrong with you?" he snapped. "Go, now!"

"I is can't go, Master Snape! Gilly is not knowing why!"

She looked at Dumbledore in fear, and then tried to punish herself by hitting her head against the desk. Severus grabbed her by an arm just in time to stop the blow. He really hated to see House Elves punishing themselves, it was pitiful and annoying.

"It's all right, Gilly," said Dumbledore gently. "No need to punish yourself, we were just doing an experiment. Forget that last order. You may go, now."

The Elf popped away, and the office subsided into silence once more.

"I don't know what the hell is going on with Fawkes and Gilly," he admitted. "For all I know they can't obey because they answer to you and you are a judge."

"That might be so," conceded Dumbledore with a thoughtful frown. "I, as a judge, am expected to ensure that the Tournament runs smoothly, and that includes to prevent cheating. I would probably die if I didn't perform my duty, so yes, perhaps that's why Fawkes doesn't want to go. However, what I told you about the compulsion is absolutely real, Severus. Harry can't be helped. I'm sorry."

"If I go right now to Gryffindor Tower, nothing will be able to stop me from saying those exact words to Potter," said Severus standing up and still refusing to accept what Dumbledore was saying.

"You can try. You won't succeed, however. If somehow you manage to write something, then the Goblet stops its deliverance some other way," explained Dumbledore. "It will seal your lips if you try to say something to a champion that might be considered help. It will also stop your hand, if it has to. But mostly you will just find yourself not wanting to offer help in the first place, and even making sure you don't help by accident. It's a very subtle, very old magic."

Severus ignored him and drew his wand, intent on casting his Patronus and send it to the boy, secret be damned. Nothing happened. Feeling almost panicked, he closed his eyes and tried for some mentalization again, this time managing to call the silver doe. She refused to go, however, just standing there with sad doe eyes. For the first time, as he slowly lowered his wand, he considered the possibility that Dumbledore might be telling the truth.

"This... This can't be!" he yelled in frustration. "Are you saying that we can do absolutely nothing? Do you really expect me to just sit and watch as Lily's son dies?"

"There's nothing we can do, Severus."

"There has to be something!"

"There isn't. Harry can't be helped, Severus. I'm afraid that he will have to do his best effort, we can just hope for the best."

Dumbledore's words enraged him.

"Hope for the best? Potter is completely useless! Who the hell invents such a thing?"

"Customs were different in the Middle Ages," the ancient wizard said. "Having an object that could prevent cheating might have been seen as an interesting notion..."

"It's a barbaric notion! Why didn't you tell me the entire truth about the bloody Goblet two months ago, Dumbledore?"

He asked, but he didn't need to hear the answer since he already knew. The old fool must have known that Severus would have tried to take the boy away himself if he had known exactly how dark the damned thing was.

Dumbledore was definitely just as dangerous as the Dark Lord. Between the two of them they would get Lily's son thoroughly killed before Christmas.

This was unbearable. He could see in Dumbledore's eyes that he didn't expect Potter to survive. And he was a judge, so he must know what the first task was about. And of course he would not tell Severus, just in case the Goblet killed him.

Lily's son was going to die in front of his eyes, and Severus wouldn't even want to help him. How cruel was that? He had to grant it to the Dark Lord: he knew how to device the best torments.

No one would be able to move a finger to help the Boy-Who-Lived.

Severus left the Headmaster's office before he completely lost his mind and tried to curse the second most powerful wizard alive.