Harry and Hermione touched down lightly in their snow-covered clearing, the lights from the castle and the ball lighting up the night in the distance. Their fancy attire looked out of place in the dark forest. A bubble of condensed magic holding a furiously struggling beetle followed behind them.
I'll secure the clearing; you can focus on the bug.
Hermione was not happy about having her evening interrupted.
Harry felt her magic condense and cover the clearing in powerful wards. No one was getting in or out. Except maybe Luna, but he wasn't worried about that.
Harry let his magical containment fade and the panicked animagus immediately tried to fly away. A loud crack echoed in the clearing as the wards shocked her and she fell twitching into the snow.
Hermione was very irritated indeed.
Harry just chuckled menacingly. "Rita, we know that it's you. We may or may not have a clairvoyant Angel who already told us. As much fun as it is to watch you struggle, I would prefer to get back to my date."
The bug continued to roll around in the snow as it tried to move its electrified legs.
"I suppose I could try and figure out the spell to force you to change back, but I've never done it before, and the first time I tried to apparate without practice I lost both legs, sooooo…"
There was suddenly a very rumpled looking blonde woman lying in the snow. Her trademark glasses were askew and her normally perfect hair was in disarray.
"What is the meaning of this, Potter? This is kidnapping, I'll-"
"You'll do nothing, Rita. You're an illegal animagus, sneaking into Hogwarts to spy on children. Besides, I can't imagine that anyone knows that you're here. It would kind of defeat the point, wouldn't it?"
"I… I don't…"
"Even if we were inclined to turn you in, you would definitely come out worse than me and Hermione. We just heroically uncovered not only a trespassing gossipmonger, but a potential security risk to the ministry. I wonder how many juicy secrets of theirs you've spilled over the years."
"Let me go, I won't-"
"And none of that even matters, because no one knows that you're here, and I'm not sure that it's worth the risk of letting you go."
Harry reached out with his power and pulled her to her feet, floating her over until she hung in front of him. He idly floated up until he could look into her terrified eyes.
"I could just break your soul," he hissed, his magic saturating his voice and making it echo eerily in the frozen night. "Dominate your weak and insignificant mind. I could turn you into a mindless meat puppet, a pet reporter to help accomplish my goals."
He could taste the conflict in Hermione's soul. She was enjoying watching the poisonous reporter suffer but wasn't sure about the threat of mind control. She was also concerned by just how much she was enjoying Rita's fear. She probably wouldn't stop him, though.
"Or… I could allow you to maintain your autonomy while you work for me in a mutually beneficial relationship. You have ten seconds to choose, Rita. Accept the chains of my permanent employment or become nothing at all."
Rita's wide eyes spun around the clearing as she strained against his power. They landed on Hermione, floating behind him and not helping in any way as she gazed at the bug with shining blue eyes, lit from behind with eldritch power. She looked back at him, quailing under his glowing green gaze like a bug under a descending boot.
"Fine! Alright Potter, you win. I won't write anything negative about you or your precious ministry, or-"
"Who said anything about the ministry? Let me be clear, Rita. I have my own plans. We have our own goals. You now have the opportunity to be a useful cog in them. Isn't that wonderful for you?"
Rita looked confused. "I'm not… what do you want then?"
"You will put a subtle, positive spin on any publications that include me or mine. You will be rewarded for doing so with classified tidbits of information that no one else has, interviews that no one else has access to. You will slander and discredit my enemies and my rivals without making it clear that you are owned. This includes the ministry, the Wizengamot, Voldemort, and anyone else who opposes our plans."
Rita's eyes lit up at the idea, even as she was suspended in his power.
"Like I said, mutually beneficial, Ms Skeeter. Do we have a deal?"
She still looked unsure but nodded. "We do, Mr Potter."
Harry's answering smile was decidedly ruthless.
…
Harry's back hit a wide tree trunk hard enough to splinter the ancient wood. He crushed his Ice Queen against him as she claimed his lips with enough force to break anyone else. Their magic thundered around them in a violent storm as he kissed her, his mouth moving with hers as he tasted her and-
"I definitely shouldn't have enjoyed that," she gasped in his ear as he kissed her jawline. "We could… we should be better-"
Harry brought his lips back to hers, growling as her hands threaded through his hair and pulled, welding their mouths together until he gasped for air.
"She was an unacceptable security risk. And we couldn't miss the opportunity to get her on our side. She's too treacherous for anything less than total control."
Hermione's eyes glowed ice blue with power as she rested her forehead against his and fell into his eyes.
"That doesn't mean I should like it."
And then she was kissing him again and Harry couldn't think about anything else for a long time.
…
Harry returned to visibility right beside Cedric, making the older boy trip as Harry fell into step beside him.
"Hey there, champion!"
Cedric recovered quickly. He did a better job than most of handling Harry's quirks. "Hey, Harry. Fancy seeing you here. What's up?"
"Figured out your egg yet?"
"I'm working on it; got any more weirdly accurate secrets to drop into my lap?"
"Yup! You'll have to rescue a hostage from the bottom of the Black Lake. They won't be harmed if you fail or anything though, Albus made a deal with the merpeople."
Cedric paled but nodded. "Thanks for letting me know, again. I'm not sure what I was expecting with the tournament but…"
"Yeah, the ministry is having trouble balancing the drama and the actual challenge. It's like they've never seen reality TV before."
"What's reality TV?"
"Purebloods. Jeez."
Harry turned invisible and flew away.
…
"Whatcha doin'?"
Krum looked like he would have jumped about a foot if he hadn't been swimming in the ice-cold water of the lake.
"What?" He snapped irritably.
"Just wanted to let you know that they won't kill the hostages. They signed a permission slip and everything."
Krum still looked wary as he glared at him. Harry was floating in a bubble of condensed magic like the one that he had used to go to space. It worked nicely for cold water too.
"Anyway, just thought you ought to know before everyone got twisted into knots over it. Toodles!"
Harry turned invisible and flew away.
…
Delacour was sitting alone at the Ravenclaw table, which was unusual. Even this early, she normally had her flock of awestruck admirers. Maybe she had managed to dodge them today.
Harry returned to visibility in the seat across from her. She started and almost spilled her breakfast into her lap.
"Good morning, Fleur. No posse today?"
Huh. If looks could kill, indeed. Good thing he was unkillable.
"What do you want, Potter?"
"I just feel that it is my civic duty to inform you that the hostages won't actually be killed if we fail. You may already know that since Maxime is cheating almost as hard as me, but still. Just in case."
She opened her mouth to reply, but Harry had said his piece, and he didn't actually like her all that much, so he turned invisible and flew away.
…
Harry grinned widely as the air rushed past his face, his half cloak snapping in the wind as he flew. He spun and twisted, catching sight of Hermione's similar expression as they spiraled over the grounds.
"Yippeeeee!"
Luna liked doing loop-de-loops.
Her brilliant white wings of light shone even in the cold winter sun, her arms expended as she giggled and soared through the open sky.
Hermione had been correct that Luna's wings were only metaphorical. They weren't even really there, just constructs of pure light that reflected some aspect of her broken soul. They were just Luna's subconscious expression of her power, the same way that his eyes glowed green and Hermione's hair crackled with ice-blue lightning.
They were pretty, though.
Harry decided that loop-de-loops sounded like fun as well, and they corkscrewed away through the clouds together.
…
"Wow…"
Even though she was capable of it on her own, Harry currently maintained the bubble of air, heat, and pressure that allowed them to exist in the vacuum of space.
He and Hermione floated in their sphere of condensed power, so high above the surface that they weren't even really above it anymore, so much as they were outside of it.
The earth hung below them like a great sapphire gem, the distant stars bright and brilliant in the void.
"It's… difficult… to feel like anything really matters, out here," she said.
"That's because it doesn't, not really. Everyone's lives, all the feelings and connections and wants and dreams… it's all just screaming into the void, wishing that it mattered. But it doesn't, on a wide enough scale. People only matter to each other, not to the universe."
"I guess that's the point, right? Even if we're just… specks of cosmic dust, it doesn't change what we experience."
"Specks of dust are important to other specks of dust, even if they aren't important to us."
She glided over and kissed him, detached and removed from the concerns of the planet below.
"It's important that we remember that, in all this mess. People are important to each other."
Harry nodded and hummed in agreement before pulling her back for another kiss as they sailed through the empty Dark.
…
The whistle blew and Harry casually formed his bubble of condensed magic around him. He knew that the ministry wanted a spectacle, but he wasn't inclined to give it to them this time.
He focused on Nevilles spark, frozen and idle at the bottom of the cold lake.
With his magic keeping a warm and breathable environment around him, he flew into the lake with a great splash of icy water. He flew down into the depths, arriving in the village of the merpeople in moments.
He glanced at the tiny girl who looked like Fleur, the blonde Slytherin, and Cho Chang.
The ministry really did need to go, at least as it currently exists.
He grabbed Neville, letting the Sword of the Castle casually dissolve his bindings, and then sped back to the surface.
This was much more boring than the dragon. He hoped that they would at least do something interesting for the last task.
…
"So, we just… sit here and look at the lake for the rest of the time?"
Neville and Hermione sat beside him, one wrapped in several warm towels and the other bundled in a coat and hat despite her mastery of warming charms.
"Seems like it."
"What was it that Albus said? 'Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence?' I think that the ministry is maliciously wasting my time."
"You're already going to be far in the lead; the least that you can do is watch while they struggle down there."
"We've established that I'm a masochist, not a sadist. You're the sadist, remember?"
"Shut up. I was filled with righteous anger, and she tried to spy on our date."
"I'm certainly not complaining."
"You're certainly a prat."
…
"Dammit, Potter."
"I thought that you'd be pleased, professor. After all, the whole point of this has been for me to finally get you."
"I can still complain, given my situation. Now help me reattach my arms. I already lost one leg; I can't afford to lose any more limbs."
Harry laughed and reached down to start putting the limbless head and torso that remained of the old auror back together.
…
Harry jogged beside Neville through the snow. Their training sessions had slowed down quite a bit, and Neville was a lot more confident now, but they never truly stopped.
They stood on the edge of the frozen lake for a moment while Neville bent over and caught his breath.
"Are you holding up okay, Nev?"
The other boy stood up. "In the grand scheme of things, yes. It's hard, being so far behind you and Hermione and Luna, but on the other hand… I feel like I'm just kind of floating along, for now. I don't have whatever fire drives you to be like you are, and I'm okay with falling behind. Or at least, it doesn't get to me enough to make me want to push through."
Harry nodded. "If you ever want to step it up a notch, just let me know. It won't be fun for you, but we can keep pushing."
"I think I'm ok, Harry. Thanks though. I appreciate everything you've done, and I like being your friend, but I'm okay being normal, for now."
Neville sighed and looked out over the lake. "When you offered me your hand in that corridor, this is what I wanted. You were right, that even if you couldn't teach me to use magic like you do, you could help me be free. You freed me from the chains of what Malfoy thought, or what Gran thinks. And that's enough, for now."
Harry just nodded again and stared out over the water until they restarted their run through the trees.
…
The fire burned low in the Gryffindor common room as Harry stared into the flames. Hermione had fallen asleep with a book still in her hand and now snuggled up against him as she snored lightly into his chest, her wild hair splayed across his arm as he held her against him.
He brooded over the tournament, and his Enemy.
They were two-thirds of the way through, and he hadn't seen any indication of Voldemort's involvement since that first night. No new dreams, nothing. He had half expected to be attacked in the lake, or while he was distracted by the dragon, but the trap never closed.
If the Dark Lord was going to make his move, it would be during the third task. Harry needed to check in with Albus about what it was.
Harry felt a bit sorry for the other champions, but their role in the play had been determined the moment that Voldemort put his name in the Goblet. He was sure that the tasks felt like arduous endeavors, felt important, to them.
To Harry, they were a means to an end. And he wasn't even sure what that end was yet.
His stomach tightened. Only a few months until he would find out, and he may be forced to face his Nemesis again. He still remembered Voldemort casually catching his hand, the whispered curse as the Dark Lord forced his soul from his body.
He had been outmatched, and that was when Voldemort was just possessing Quirrell. How much more powerful would Riddle be, with his own body and the fragments of divinity at his disposal?
Hopefully it wouldn't get that far, but Harry wasn't optimistic.
He had come a long way since the end of first year. He had beaten Moody, he had destroyed the Death Eaters with barely a thought, he had overcome the hungry Dark of the Dementors and the beast in the deep. He was the master of the Shroud and the Blade.
But his enemy had an extra fifty years of experience and at least three fragments of divinity, possibly more.
He hugged Hermione tighter and watched the fire dance.
…