"Sorry to interrupt your meal but the Headmaster demands you two come to his office immediately," Flitwick told them while looking at the head table
"Of course Professor," Marcus said standing while giving Emma a hand up as she stood.
Alice and Luna gave them worried looks as well and then Luna got a dreamy look before smiling. "I'll get Alice to classes my schedule is clear till after lunch today."
They nodded to her as each lay a hand on Alice's shoulder to put her at ease.
Stepping away from the table and taking their bol bags with them, they follow the Professor out of the hall and to the gargoyle guardian to the Headmaster's office, after giving the password Flitwick steps on the rotating stairs.
Marcus and Emma were just behind, Flitwick didn't even knock on the door he just walked into the office, they followed him in to find an irate Snape sitting on a stool while the Headmaster was behind his desk.
"Ah, Filius thank you may go," the headmaster said.
"No Albus I am their head of house and after this morning's daily prophet, I believe I should stay," the head of Ravenclaw said before conjuring a plush loveseat for the teens and a chair for himself.
Sighing Dumbledore sat back in his chair looking at the students over his half-moon glasses his mental probe rebuffed, glancing over to Snape for a second before looking back to the others in the room.
"Very well, I must ask why you slandered Professor Snape so," Albus asks.
Shaking his head Marcus takes Emma's hand in his own, "After leaving your office yesterday we went straight to lunch and spoke only amongst ourselves about the meeting you forced onto us after we left his class," he said while waving a hand in Snape's direction.
"Also I claimed the house in public so everyone knew about it, the only thing I can see is that Reeta got word about that and then the meeting and ran with it, although I am surprised that she was very close to the truth," Emma said while gripping Marcus's hand.
The headmaster stared at them unbelieving their words while Snape scoffed, Professor Flitwick on the other hand was nodding.
"They were in the great hall right before you and Sevirous came in for lunch, I did not see them speaking to any of the other students other than than Miss Lovegood and Maresato," Flitwick said.
Surprisingly it was Snape who spoke up next, "I do not recall that Skeeter woman being in the castle yesterday, she and her photographer left just after Potter was called the night of the drawing," spitting out the name Potter as he spoke.
Sighing after hearing both sides and realizing he may have been hasty in calling the two up the headmaster waved them to leave after slumping into his chair, after they left he looked to Sevirous.
"I may not be able to stop the coming storm over this, even if they didn't speak to that muckraker you and I both know that article was truthful," saying that the headmaster stood followed by Snape they left the office.
Before parting Flitwick promised again that he would be with them for any other meeting, he then looked at them critically,
"I'm amazed by how close to the truth that article was but I must ask again without the headmaster here, did neither of you speak to Skeeter?" he asked keeping an eye on them both.
"No professor we never saw the woman after she and the photographer left," They said in unison causing the professor to shiver.
Nodding he noticed that they emphasized the word woman but was thrown off by them speaking at once, "Please do not do that again, the Weasley twins are bad enough as it is,"
Laughing a bit Marcus says, "Sorry professor we will try but sometime we should do that around Professor McGonagall, her reaction is so worth the look she gave us once."
Laughing himself he waves them along while picturing Minerva's face if they spoke to her like that, this thought caused him to start laughing harder, and he was still laughing as he entered his classroom to grade homework and wait for his next class.
After separating with Flitwick they went to the library to study, they had just sat down when Luna joined them pulling out her book and parchment.
Just before lunch, they were joined by Harry and Hermione both looking at them with unreadable expressions, signing Marcus spoke.
"We didn't have anything to do with the newspaper this morning although what it said was true, that woman seems to be able to get a story when she wants but also look at it like this, Harry won't be the center of her bad reporting for a while at least," he said while pushing a book on XXXX and higher creatures to Harry.
Looking at the book Harry paled a bit after seeing that the book mostly covered creatures Hagrid hadn't covered in class
"Don't forget to study but you do need to look into stuff covered in sixth and seventh years because the tasks are meant to be for students in those years," Emma said while looking over Luna's homework.
After that day time flew by for them again, and the weighing of the wands passed with the only differences, of course, Marcus being there and Reeta reporting on Harry while still a little overblown it focused on the ministry being incompetent for forcing the young teen to compete.
After the ceremony, Marcus pulled Harry to the side and gave him a sheet of parchment with a list of exercises.
"Follow this as much as you can, Emma and I will try to help you as much as we can," Marcus told him getting a nod from the boy.
After that Marcus and Emma would meet with Harry and Hermione in the room bringing Alice and Luna with them.
They trained both magically and physically, when Hermione would begin to complain about not studying more or doing homework as much as she thought they should, they would sic Alice on her.
The cuteness Alice gave off would stop Hermione in her tracks, there were times when Hermione would just sit with the tiny girl in her lap and a dreamy look that could rival Luna.
One day while resting from practicing the protego Marcus was going over the practice in his mind when he saw in his memories that Harry only verbally called out the name of the spell a few times so decided to give a tip that may help the two fourth years.
"Alright here is a bit of advice most people don't explain further than focus on your spell, intent is important, and learning from books helps yes but the magic is yours so if you can visualize what you want clearly your spells will become easier you may even come up with something new, but the most important thing is that you will eventually be able to cast nonverbaly," Marcus told the two teens.
"But in arithmancy class, the professor says without knowing how is formalized new spells have to be arithmetically broken down before use," Hermione protests.
Sighing it was Emna who answered, "Arithmancy was first used to plot ward schemes and other things that use runes, it's only been in the last two hundred years that it was used in spell crafting, and yes for a big spell it's useful but think of this where did the first spells come from,"
Hermione seemingly without thought reached for Alice who was not far away and pulled the girl into her lap with a thoughtful look on her face it was almost funny to see Harry while slower than Hermione also reach out for Alice and pout when he missed out until luna lept into his lap to get some attention and cuddles, while it wasn't the cuteness of Alice Luna was close enough to it to settle him a bit.
Emma and Marcus both had an amused look at the two teenagers cuddling the younger girls and focusing on the topic at the same time, they sat like that for nearly an hour.
Groaning Hermione was the first to come back to reality, burning her face into Alice's hair she grumbled something about herself being stupid and falling into the mindset of following what she was told over thinking things out herself.
After that session, Harry and Hermione would practice and study with a new outlook on magic, sometimes neither Marcus nor Emma were needed for more than a sounding board, but they still got their cuddles swapping Luna and Alice between the two, much to the amusement of the two older teenagers.
As the month passed Marcus noticed that while Ron was following how he acted in the books unlike the books had nobody following him.
The whole ferret episode was fun to watch after Malfoy tried to curse Harry in the back, but the best part was that Marcus sent a copy of his memory to Narcissa the howler the next day shook the entire great hall, it was funny watching the Slytherin table clear out just before the howler went off.
A few days before the 24th of November Marcus had been out flying over the forbidden forest looking down at the dragons inside cages while frowning.
"Stupid two-legs where is my meal," roared the Chinese fireball.
"You little pest had better not harm my eggs," growled the Hungarian horntail.
The Welsh Green and Swedish short snout while roaring and growling didn't seem to have a language.
It took him several minutes to figure out that the two were speaking parseltongue he must have learned it over time while around Harry who sometimes spoke parseltongue during study time.
Landing near the fireball he looked to see the handlers were in their tents, approaching slowly he looked over at the dragons who all quietened down when they saw him.
"Stay back two legs or I will eat you," the fireball said while crouching over her clutch of eggs.
Bowing to the fireball he spoke, " Great mothers I mean no harm to your children I am just here to see you four,"
All four dragons' heads swung in his direction letting him know they all understood him while only two could speak.
"You speak, how is this possible," the horntail asked while extending her head in his direction sniffing.
Lifting a hand to be closer to her nostrils he replied, "Two of you speak a language known as parseltongue to the wizards and I can speak it as well."
After that, he was bombarded with questions and it was almost amusing to him that the dragons while grown acted like teenagers.
It was when one asked if he knew why they had been brought to the forest,
"The wizards in the castle you can see in the distance are holding a competition, myself and three others will have to face one of you to retrieve a false egg the two legs that came with you will place in your clutch when it is time for us to face you,"
This caused the dragons to growl at him and after a few minutes they calmed down a bit as the horntail asked, "And you are going break our eggs to get this false egg?"
Shaking his head he looked at the four, "No it will be a golden egg so that we will know which one we are to take,"
They seemed to sigh upon hearing their eggs would not be harmed, seeing that they were not going to growl at him more he decided to change something a bit after remembering Krum had gotten the eggs in his attempt crushed.
"If you allow I shall copy your eggs, to better keep them safe so that even if something goes wrong your young will come to no harm," he told them while bending to pick up a rock at his feet transfiguring it into a copy of one of the fireballs eggs.
After each inspected the fake egg they all seemed to hold a silent conference, "Do this to protect our young," the horntail said while poking the fake with a claw.
Going from clutch to clutch he made copies of all the eggs, the mothers had told him that the real eggs could be left alone for a few days before needing to be warmed, and he did throw a warming charm just in case.
He then laid a notice me not charms over the eggs keying the mothers into it so that the handelers would take the fakes.
When he finished laying out the charms another thought ran through his mind remembering that in the books they had starved the dragons before the task, pulling out his phone he dialed the number that would call Cameron.
"Yes I need Jessup to gather eight grown and sheered sheep,.. No, I'm not in danger I'm just going to feed four hungry mother dragons before the first Triwizard task in a day or so,.. Yes, I'm being careful," after a few minutes a portal opened not far from him and the sheep were pushed through before it closed.
The dragons seeing the sheep all began to drool, while the sheep started to panic until he hit them all with stunners.
"Thank you, we will be in London the day after the ball meet us at the station,.. No, we must look like we are staying in the city we are going to come home for a few days something came up that we need to discuss there,.. That's part of it but also something else came up a few weeks ago that Emma and I need to decide whether we stay or leave after the end of the school year,.. Alright see you then, " after ending the call he put the phone away.
Turning back to the dragons he found that they had used their tails to gather up two sheep each and were happily eating.
"Will that hold you four over for a few days," he asks once the horntail has eaten both of her sheep.
"Those were enough to feed us for a turning of the moon," she told him confusing him until he understood she meant a month.
Nodding he smiled as the others finished their meals, he then transfigured another rock to look like Harry, " One more thing there is a youngling, being forced to be a part of this thing, he looks like this, when he faces one of you could the one he must retrieve the golden egg from go easy on him,"
Each looked at the figure before nodding, after working to protect their eggs and feeding them after so long without food they would do almost anything for this two legs.
"Thank you, compared to myself and the two others meant to be in this he isn't much more than a hatchling, but now I must leave it is late and my mate will be worried if I don't return soon," he told them after seeing them agree to take it easy on Harry.
After giving more goodbyes Marcus slowly floated from the forest floor and then zoomed off toward the castle, when he was near the front door he landed in a shadowy spot after finding there was no one around.
Making his way to the suite he found the sitting room full, Astoria and Alice were on a loveseat reading books while Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis were at a small table with Luna and Emma doing homework while also helping with the younger years with something now and then.
"It's almost curfew, and you won't have time to get to your common room, I'll go tell Professor Flitwick you will be bunking in Luna's room so he can inform Snape," he said looking at his watch.
The two Slytherin girls jumped when he spoke, they had been so engrossed in what Emma had been showing them for runes that time got away from them.
Leaving the room, Marcus went to the office of the head of Ravenclaw, knocked on the door he waited to be called in.
"Ah, Mr. Phoenix what can I help you with this late in the evening," the smaller man asked as Marcus entered the room.
"Nothing troubling, I just wanted to let you know that Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis will be staying in our quarters tonight, they have been studying runes with Emma and lost track of time and won't make it to the Slytherin rooms before curfew, but instead of asking a perfect to take them they can share Luna's bed while Luna sleeps with Alice," Marcus said not taking a seat because he didn't intend to stay long.
Nodding Flitwick answered him, "Thank you for letting me know I'll tell Severus, he won't be happy but will say nothing,"
"I'll be off now I may not have far to go but it is far enough to lose points and it's not necessary for a note either so goodnight Professor," Marcus said backing out of the office to Flitwick's laughter.
Returning to the suite the girls were still working on homework, going to their bedroom he got his runes books and homework, pulled a chair to the table beside Emma set his stuff on the table and joined the discussion with the girls.
After an hour more of working and discussion, Marcus found Alice and Astoria asleep on the loveseat, sighing for not getting the girls off to bed.
Getting up he went to pick up Alice but Emma and Daphne beat him to it and took them to bed, while they were doing that he and Tracey packed up the books and parchment making sure to put them in the right person's book bag.
Luna was sitting at the table her head bobbing up and down as she tried to stay awake, after putting the bags away he returned to get Luna to find Tracey leading the girl to her room.
Shrugging he went to get dressed for bed, pulling on a house coat he sat on the bed to wait for Emma, after ten minutes Emma came into the room with Luna following, guiding her into bed Emma went to her dresser and pulled out two oversized shirts and leaves for a few minutes.
"Next time we set an alarm to let us at least get the girls ready for bed, poor Daphne had to fight to get Astoria into the nightshirt We got her from Hogsmeade, it was funny that little girl is like a wet noodle when she is asleep," Emma said getting into bed beside Luna followed by Marcus.
"Yeah, that is an idea," he said as he lay, Emma put her head on his chest.
"Sleep now talk in the morning," Luna said sleepily turning to snuggling into Emma's back.
The morning of the 24th of November dawned with the normal chill for this time of the year, during breakfast everyone was excited about the coming event, Marcus ate a filling but light meal while the other champions were nervous, Harry had told him of the dragons, like he had done in the book for Cedric who was back at school and like everyone he threw a fit about no Quidditch.
When it was time for the champions to leave for the stadium built for the task, Emma had to hold Alice back when Marcus left to join the others, when he entered the tent for the champions he found Retta Skeeter asking questions while the champions answered, after that truthful article she decided to report as much truth on the tri wizard as she could but she still had many articles that caused more trouble for Dumbledore and Snape.
Ludo Bagman came bouncing into the tent followed by the other ministry people Dumbledore and the other headmasters, after forcing Reeta to leave the tent.
Bagman was dressed in an old Quidditch uniform that was several sizes too small and had seen better days, holding up a bag, "Welcome we can now tell that you will choose the dragon you shall face today and retrieve the golden egg they guard, each of you may only take your wand with you,"
He seemed to be upset that they did not react at hearing about dragons, "You each will draw your opponent, it will also give the order you face your dragon, ladies first," he said holding the bag out to Fleur.
With a trembling hand, Fleur reaches into the bag and after a moment pulls out a small copy of the Welsh green with the number two painted on its back.
Next was Krum his hand was steady but hos body language said that he was nervous, reaching into the bag he pulls out the Chinese fireball with the number three on its back.
Marcus looked to Harry who waved him to go next, "Remember I don't want to be here so I'll go last," Marcus reached into the bag and felt the last two figures move around until he had one in his grasp, pulling his hand out he showed the others that he held the Swedish short snout with a one painted on its back.
Sighing he stepped back and watched as Harry pulled the mini Hungarian horntail from the bag.
"Great now that we have the order in which you will face your dragon take a few minutes to get ready while we wait for the audience to settle," Bagman said as he bounced gleefully out of the tent.
Stepping behind a screen each champion changed into robes meant to represent their schools or houses each reviewed the plan each came up to face the dragon.
After ten minutes Marcus was called out to face his dragon, exiting the tent to find the arena built for the task he saw the shortsnout tethered to a large steak by a chain she was crouching over the false eggs, nodding he steps farther into the arena drawing his wand.
(Assume he is speaking Parseltongue when talking to the dragons here.)
With small unnoticeable movements he sent a listening charm to the dragon head tieing it to himself and began whispering, "Let's give them a show, we both know the eggs are fake but act as if they are real,"
Lifting her head and roaring with fire flowing between her fangs, but what nobody noticed was that she nodded.
Lifting his wand arm and swishing it in various flowing patterns then jabbing his wand to the ground where it bedins to rumble and shake, the dragon squatting to get ready for what he may send her way.
While they were getting ready Bagman was trying to get the audience riled up with his commentary, th crowd was cheering but neither paid it any mind.
In the arena the rocks and dirt lifted from the ground, swirling into many bunches and then forming into many animals from dogs to birds.
Then waving his wand toward the dragon, the animals scattered and ran at the dragon from several directions.
The dragon knew they were not going to harm her and gave a rumble that the people thought was a sign of anger but was a laugh, she played along and sent short puffs of flames at several of the animals, seeing the wizard fade away from the corner of her eye she went back to toasting the animals until she felt a hand on her foreleg then the golden egg lifted from the nest.
Seeing the dragon playing along with him he smiled, casting a disillusionment charm on himself he weaved his way between her and the animals until he was at the nest tapping her foreleg he bent to lift the egg and moved away from the dragon nest.
As he neared the exit he let the disillusionment fall away and heard the crowd cheering grow louder as he held up the golden egg, the dragon gave an earth-shaking roar after burning the last animal, and that scared them, looking at the dragon he saw what he could only guess was enjoyment from putting on the show.
"Wonderful simply wonderful, what a great showing of multiple transfigurations to keep the best distracted," Bagman praised through a sonorous ensuring everyone in the crowd could hear.
A few minutes before Marcus entered the arena, Emma, Alice, Luna, and Hermione found some seats that would give them a great view of the show.
"Will Big Brother be ok down there with that big dragon?" Alice asked after seeing the dragon with a hint of fear in her voice.
Pulling the girl against her side Emma smiled down at the little girl, "He will be fine," she said before kissing her head.
They sat watching as Marcus entered the arena when he started waving his wand causing the animals to form from the earth that then darted at the dragon, Alice jumped with every roar or gout of flames, and then was on her feet when she spotted her big brother at the exit holding up the shiny gold egg.
Looking up to Emma who was also on her feet cheering for Big Brother she reached up and tugged on the hem of Emma's skirt, "Can I go see Big Brother," she asked.
Emma nodded then told Hermione and Luna they would be right back but she wasn't sure they heard over the noisy crowd.
Marcus had just exited the medical tent set up just beside the champion's tent, and Alice ran to tackle him.
Laughing he picked her up and hugged her close, "I'm fine little one, now I have to go see my scores then I'll join everyone watching the others," he told Alice as he turned to the side and lifted an arm where Emma stepped into his side as he dropped his arm across her shoulder.
Walking to the judge's stand he passed Alice to Emma and stood in front of the judges.
Ludo Bagman was the first to give points, "Amazing showing of transactions and use of the disillusionment charm," then waving his wand and throwing up glowing numbers showing a ten.
Crouch said nothing but waved his wand throwing a seven.
Karkarof was next, "You hid and did not fight the beast," waving out a six.
Maxime smiled and said, "Wonderful use of distraction and ensuring no harm came to yourself or the dragon and its nest," waving out another ten.
Finally, it was Dumbledore's turn who only frowned before waving out a seven.
Forty points is not bad Marcus thought before turning away from the judges and following Emma and Alice to sit with Luna and Hermione.
They watched as the Welshgreen and her nest into the arena, she was growling and snarling, again he sent a listing carm with him as the focal point.
"Your opponent is a veela she will use her charm to soothe you and get the egg without trying to fight against you it may cause you to sleep, so don't fight it, and this will be over quickly," he said where only the dragon could hear him, the dragon shook her body after the handlers made to leave the arena, Marcus saw the slight nod given.
After the signal, Fleur came into the arena looking around nervously, as she spotted the dragon, everyone could see that she was scared, and for a moment she stood there before raising her wand to her throat.
Canceling the charms Marcus whispered in Emma's ear, "Hold onto Luna she may be affected by the allure that is about to sweep over the place."
Emma nodded and threw an arm over Luna's shoulder, the petite blonde girl looked at Emma smiling and leaning into her side, just as Fleur began singing her voice filling the arena, for a few minutes it seemed nothing was happening until several boys and men stood many started fighting saying that they would aid the beautiful girl in her task.
Luna tried to stand as well but Emma held her down, all around them fights broke out, and some men fell off of the stands, fighting until they hit the ground and were knocked out by the fall.
In the arena, the Welsh Green focused on Fleur, although she did not understand the words the dragon did think the sounds the girl before her were lovely, after listening for a time she felt the magic wanting to make her sleep take hold, doing as the nice two legs said she let it happen and fell asleep.
Fleur continued singing for another few minutes before she stopped, once sure the dragon was asleep she swiftly ran to the nest and took the golden egg before running away but just a few feet from it the dragon snorted in its sleep blowing a bit of fire that hit Fleur's outer robes to which Fleur threw a cutting charm just above the flames, the piece of robe fell to the ground as Fleur ran faster to get out of possible danger.
It took several minutes for the men to calm down and stop fighting each other, the ones that fell were taken to the medical tent most only had bruises and a few scrapes.
The handlers had a hard time getting the Welsh green out of the arena leading the awake dragon was easy, trying to levitate a magically resistant creature, was not a simple matter.
Fleur received thirty-nine points, and the men in the crowd protested the score while the girls and women just shook their heads or berated the men.
When Emma went to let go of Luna the girl grabbed her hand forcing Emma to keep her arm where it was, "You little cuddle bug," Emma said to the little blonde, tightening her arm a bit causing Luna to smile and nod.
As the Chinese fireball was led into the arena Marcus cast his charms and spoke softly to the dragon, "Your opponent is a brute, he will most likely start casting as soon as he sees you, just don't kill him anything else goes,"
The dragon roared as she was tied to the steak and the nest was put in place, once done the handlers ran from the arena.
Marcus's prediction rang true, just like in the books and movies Krum charged in spells flying some hitting the dragon while a few did affect her others bounced off of her hide to splash off of a shield that covered the arena.
The dragon stumbled after a conjunctivitis curse hit her eyes, blinding her stepped on the nest crushing the fake eggs while knocking the golden away.
Krum seeing the egg was away from the nest, ran to take the golden egg he was slow, being bow-legged he did get to it but the dragon was thrashing around he had just grasped the egg when he was hit by her tail throwing him into the wall of the arena, if it weren't for the roaring dragon everyone would have heard every bone in his body breaking.
The handlers rushed into the arena casting finite to cancel the curse on the dragon but upon seeing the nest they all turned to Krum anger could be seen on all their faces several had to hold others back from attacking the unconscious Bulgarian.
After the handlers calmed down enough to lead the surprisingly calm dragon out of the arena, everyone in the stands other than Marcus and his group seemed concerned for Krum.
Unable to receive his points until later because of his injuries, Krum was taken out on a stretcher by Madem Pomphry, and a few ministry workers.
Finally, the horntail was brought into the arena, Marcus heard Hermione gasp at seeing the dragon.
When the chain broke the crowd grew deadly silent as she neared him, once she was standing over Harry she started sniffing him, after a minute of this she huffed nearly knocking him over before gently biting the nape of his robes and lifting the now paralyzed teen.
In the stands, confusion spread as everyone watched as the dragon left the arena and went to where the other dragons were, Hermione was in tears thinking her best friend was about to be eaten.
After picking the boy up she returned to the nest before laying down
When Harry entered the arena the dragon looked at him and agreed this was a hatchling so much so that her mothering instincts kicked in, stepping away from the nest she approached the trembling boy breaking the chain that held her.
When the chain broke the crowd grew deadly silent as she neared him, once she was standing over Harry she started sniffing him, after a minute of this she huffed nearly knocking him over before gently biting the nape of his robes and lifting the now paralyzed teen.
After picking the boy up she returned to the nest before lying down and curling around the nest setting Harry down next to the eggs.
In the stands, everyone was silent as they waited for something to happen but the only thing that did happen was the dragon growling softly every now and then.