Chapter 9: Chosen by Fate
The entire school was full of whispers and conversations about who would be the representative for Hogwarts in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. When the Headmaster announced that a witch or wizard from the school would represent Hogwarts, more than one eye turned Harry's way, despite him only being a Fourth Year. When Dumbledore had announced that only students who were legally adults could participate, only Seventh Years and some Sixth Years eligible, there had been quite the furor. Harry had breathed a sigh of relief. Especially considering what had been said next.
"While it is understandable that many of you will be excited by adventure and challenge of presented by the Tri-Wizard Tournament, it is for good reason that students below the age of seventeen will not be permitted to submit their names," the Hogwarts Headmaster had said to quiet some of the protests. "While every effort will be made to ensure the safety of all participants, there is and always has been an element of mortal danger in this tournament. A wizard or witch not fully prepared for the challenges could die. Even well prepared wizards and witches have met with serious injury and even death throughout the history of the Tri-Wizard tournament, which is in part why not only the winners but all participants are held in such high regard and considered champions for the rest of their lives. It is for the protection of you, my dear students, that I have drawn an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire to prevent the possibility of any too young to enter putting their names in.
"As for those of you that are of age who may consider putting your name into the cup, I ask you to consider carefully your choice. Once your name is placed into the Goblet of Fire there is no turning back. If you are selected to represent your school you will be bound by an unbreakable magical contract. Failure to participate would have dire consequences for the one who backs down. And by dire, I mean the loss of your magic and a curse of ill luck that has felled more witches and wizards than all the challenges of the Tri-Wizard tournament put together." After speaking those foreboding words of warning, the entire Hall had become deathly silent. After a beat, Dumbledore had smiled, clapped his hands together, and asked, "So, who wants to go first?"
It had been a week since then, and the time for the selection was nearing. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had discussed who would represent the different schools as much as anyone. Ron was sure that Durmtrang would be represented by Viktor Krum, an assertion that neither Harry nor Hermione disputed. The young man was built like a freight train and had an air of confidence about him that made everyone step back when he walked through the halls. The French school was a harder call to make, as they had very little knowledge of the Beauxbatons students, but there were certainly a lot of discussion about which of the French witches was the most attractive, much to Hermione's annoyance. When it came to the Hogwarts champion, though, there was a huge split in opinions among the three over who would represent the school. Hermione favored one of the 7th year Ravenclaws, Mary Hart, whom the younger witch thought was the smartest student attending Hogwarts. Ron could admit Miss Hart probably was, other than Hermione, but Ron was sure that one of the older Gryffindors would be chosen over that bookworm. Harry was not so sure. He was on record as being happy for whoever it was, as long as it wasn't anyone from Slytherin. Or himself. Ron, however, was of a different mind about being selected.
Ron had spoken of being able to enter the competition in dreamy terms. "Wouldn't it be something if one of us could be chosen, Harry?"
"Yeah, Ron, it would be something. Something out of a nightmare. You wouldn't catch me entering this tournament in a million years. Not a chance."
"Oh come on, mate! It would be incredible!" Ron had a wistful look on his face. "Imagine, me holding the Tri-Wizard Cup. Ronald Weasley, rich and famous…" He trailed off, then somewhat guiltily added on, "Or it would be swell if you were chosen. I mean, you are the Boy-Who-Lived, and all."
"The less said about that the better," Harry said with a roll of his eyes.
"Yeah, well, too bad Dumbledore put that Age Line around the cup. I would enter the tournament for sure if it weren't for that."
Harry chuckled. "But you do have to admit your brothers looked funny with long white beards and hair after they tried to get past it with that aging potion."
Ron smiled cheerfully at the memory. "Yeah, that was brilliant. I just wished I could have gotten a picture of that. Still, too bad that hadn't worked or I would have put my name in, too."
That conversation had taken place just two days before. Now all the students were gathered in the Great Hall once more, sitting together in groups on small wooden stands pushed up against the walls. Harry sat at the top of one of the bleachers flanked by his two best friends. He was looking forward to cheering for whomever the cup chose to represent Hogwarts. As the stands filled up, the noise in the hall grew as the tension and excitement rose. All around Harry and his friends were members of Gryffindor, the red and gold crests of the House distinguishing his house mates from the rest of the Hogwarts students.
The crowd came to a hush as Dumbledore entered the room and raised his hands, the flaming torches lining the walls slowly dampening, the large room slowly darkening. The only illumination now came from the ancient wooden chalice sitting in the middle of the room spewing bright red and orange flames into the air. There was a collective intake of breath as the Goblet of Fire suddenly shot out a gout of flame and a slightly burned scrap of paper floated down into Professor Dumbledore's waiting hands.
"The champion for the Durmstrang Institute for Magical Learning is…Viktor Krum!" Loud cheers erupted from all around the room, both from the Drumstrang section, and from scads of his adoring female fans from the two other schools.
Ron almost sounded like one of them. When he finished whooping, he leaned over Harry to state with a small smirk, "Told you!"
After a second piece of parchment was disgorged by the goblet, this one clearly a fine piece of stationary, the Headmaster announced that the champion for the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic was Fleur Delacour. A number of cheers went up from the French contingent, as well as some cat-whistles from many of the older boys. Then the third piece of parchment went up, this one apparently written on a napkin, and everyone in the Hogwarts section waited with baited breath.
"And the champion for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is…Cedric Diggory!" Everyone dressed in Hogwarts robes applauded, the Hufflepuff section particularly boisterously. Harry let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. He smiled broadly as Cedric joined the other two champions in being escorted down to a chamber connected to the Great Hall.
"Good on Cedric," Harry said with a nod. "Heard from Flitwick he was a right natural at Charms."
When the fourth piece of paper came out of the cup, though, the smile left Harry's face. When Dumbledore called his name, the young student was filled with a sudden sense of dread. His previous good cheer was quenched just as the flames from the Goblet of Fire were extinguished. Harry sat there momentarily, denying that fate had once again decided to meddle with his life.
"Harry POTTER!" Dumbledore called again, this time with a touch of anger to it.
There was a mixture of shock and displeasure on the faces of many as Harry made his way down from the stands. Many of those expressions were downright accusatory. Dumbledore gestured towards the room the other champions had gone to. Harry hesitated. Perhaps last year Harry would have meekly gone. But Harry looked at the angry school headmaster and the rest of the students in the hall and stopped. He turned to Dumbledore and matched the older wizard's gaze.
"Sir, I want to see the piece of paper you are holding." There was a short pause as Albus Dumbledore continued to hold the scrap of paper in his hand and everyone watched. "Professor, I said I want to see the paper. Not that I don't trust you, sir, but I did not put my name in. I want to see if it's even my handwriting." Harry said this loudly so that the entire hall could hear him.
Professor Dumbledore eyed Harry critically and handed him the scrap of paper. "You say you did not enter yourself into the competition?"
"No, sir," Harry said emphatically, "I didn't." Harry looked at the scrap of parchment. It really was his signature. But it was ripped from a larger piece of paper. It took the young wizard a few seconds to realize what had happened.
"So, Harry, is this your name written on this scrap of paper, or not?"
"Professor, this is my name, and I'm pretty sure I was the one who signed it. But I didn't put it in the Goblet of Fire. If I'm not mistaken, sir, this looks like my signature from a parchment I turned in for one of my school assignments." Harry turned to the other students. His eyes immediately homing in on Fred and George Weasley. "Did you guys manage to fool the Age Line and put my name in the cup?" he asked without rancor. "Cause if you did, it was a bloody brilliant prank, but really, but I would appreciate it if you told everyone so they don't think I put it in myself."
Fred and George realized Harry was serious. "No, Harry, it wasn't us. We never did manage," Fred began.
"To get past the Age Line. And if we were going to put someone's name in as a prank," George continued.
"It would have been Neville's," Fred finished.
Harry nodded. He believed them. They would certainly be capable of something like this, but they wouldn't lie about doing it if confronted by a friend. Harry stared hard at the rest of the students. "Okay, whoever put my name in the cup, fess up. Funny joke, but the joke's over." His loud demand was met with stony silence. A lot of people were looking uncomfortable, though. Moments ago they were looking accusingly at Harry, now he was returning the favor.
After several fruitless seconds, Harry turned back to Professor Dumbledore. "Well, nobody is admitting they put my name in, Professor, but I didn't do it and I'm not going to participate in the tournament."
Dumbledore stood there, momentarily frozen with a pensive look on his face. Then he turned to Harry with an apologetic expression, "I'm sorry, Harry. But even if you didn't put your name in, the Goblet of Fire has chosen you and if you don't compete then the curse of the cup will fall on you. You must go down and join the other champions."
Harry looked at the school headmaster incredulously. "What? Sorry, sir, but I didn't put my name in, so I can't be expected to compete."
"I'm afraid you can, Harry. The Goblet of Fire is enchanted with some very strong magics. It is a binding contract. If you do not compete…"
"Then I'll destroy the Goblet of Fire," Harry responded, brandishing his wand and turning to the magical object. "That ought to take care of any magics on it," he said with a small snarl.
"Wait, Harry!" Dumbledore called, holding his hand up.
Harry stopped and looked to the school headmaster.
"You cannot destroy the Goblet of Fire so easily, but great harm could come to you from any attempt to do so. Please, Harry, come with me. We can discuss this wizard to wizard."
Harry nodded his acquiescence and put his wand away.
.
Harry and Dumbledore sat across from each other in one of the many small private chambers off of the Great Hall. Professors alone had the means to access these private chambers, they were invaluable for dealing with students in a private manner without needing to travel all the way to their offices from the Great Hall.
"You know I can destroy the Goblet of Fire," Harry stated simply.
"Yes, Harry, I have no doubt you would have obliterated the cup without difficulty. And destroying the cup would essentially nullify any contract or prevent any curse from being placed on you if it were to be destroyed before the tournament commences."
Harry considered Dumbledore's easy admission of such for a moment. "You wanted to preserve the cup for some reason. It wasn't about my safety. Okay, why then?" The Boy-Who-Lived asked inquisitively.
Albus Dumbledore sighed. "As you know, Harry, what the public believes to be true is very important to the stability of magical society. The Goblet of Fire is a magical artifact, one with reputedly great power. More importantly, it is one of the most famous forms of a magical contract. Tell me, Harry, what do you know about the use of contracts and vows in the Wizarding world?"
Harry had to pause and think about this. When Dumbledore asked him a question like this there was always something important to learn. "Well, I know that all the teachers at this school have a contract to teach. And the goblins use magical contracts in Gringotts."
"Yes, some very important examples of magical contracts. There are also vows and contracts employed in government, though these are easily interpreted in such a way that a person can fairly easily get around them. There are also marriage contracts, magical treaties, deeds to magical lands, and magically binding contracts between wizards and also between wizards and other magical beings." Dumbledore gave Harry a moment to grasp the scope of the issue. "What do you think would happen, Harry, if it were publicly shown that a Fourth Year student, no matter how gifted, could get out of a powerful binding contract by simply destroying the object that the magical contract was bound within?"
Harry nodded, considering. "Then anyone who didn't like their contract could just get out of it by destroying the piece of paper it was written on."
"Exactly, Harry."
Harry frowned, not liking the position this put him in. "Then I just won't participate. I'll wager all my galleons that a magical contract requires the person to willingly consent, or at least believe that they are bound by it for the magic to really take hold. I know I didn't put my name in the goblet, so there's no danger of any magic it might have affecting me."
"Very astute, Harry. Yes, I believe you are correct that you would have no difficulty throwing off any effects of the curse the Goblet of Fire would cast upon you for the reasons you stated. But do not think that the magic of curses and contracts are not real. They most certainly are, and I will let you in on one of the principles of magic I have discovered—the power of such vows uses the force of your own magic to enforce it. But as you do not believe you have entered into a contract, your magic would reject the curse and it would have virtually no power to cause you harm. Unfortunately, though, Harry, you doing so would be little better than if you were to actually destroy the Goblet of Fire.
"Have you heard of the Unbreakable Vow?" At Harry shaking his head Albus gave him a smile. "I'm glad to hear so, my boy, as you would most likely have been a victim of it if you had, growing up as you did. It's a very insidious bit of magic, requiring the focus of three magical beings to bind one of them into a promise that they cannot break without their own magic causing their immediate, and irrevocable death. This vow is rarely ever used, as more than one witch or wizard has unintentionally failed to fulfill their vow and lost their lives, sometimes merely for believing they failed to live up to it over nothing more than a technicality. This particular vow is extremely powerful because it uses the power of three separate parties to enact, making it impossible to subvert even for someone who understands the nature of magic and the importance of belief in the enchantment.
"There are other magical vows, ones that can be enacted by just two parties, ones undertaken by an individual wizard, commonly known as a Wizard Oath, and even a compulsion placed on another similar to a vow called a geas. While there are currently ways a person can be released from many such vows without incurring whatever penalty breaking the vow would incur, doing so requires a great deal of effort, almost always far greater in cost than it would take to actually simply fulfill the vow. I will not bore you by going into detail about the complexities involved in what would occur if the Wizarding World were to suddenly find such vows could be easily undone or the effects of an unfulfilled vow simply thrown off, but I trust you will believe me when I say that the consequences would be terrible." Dumbledore finished and looked to his young companion for understanding.
Harry found himself frowning again. But then a smile lit up his face. "I understand, sir. You can't have an underage wizard making light of wizard vows and contracts. Every wizard and their owl would take to trying to undo whatever they didn't like. But you could do it, Professor. Everyone knows you're the most powerful wizard in the world. They would accept that you could do such a thing but that they can't."
Dumbledore blinked. "You know, I had not even considered that. You raise a very good point." A minute passed while Dumbledore worked over the idea in his mind, but then he shook his head. "While your solution would be possible, especially if I made enough of a production out of it and made it clear how difficult and dangerous attempting to destroy the cup or break the curse on you would be, I'm afraid it would set a bad precedent. Still, it is an option to consider especially if things become…complicated. But let me make a suggestion to you first, Harry, before further considering your course of action."
Dumbledore paused for a second, then looked at Harry after pushing his spectacles down his nose a little. "I would like you to consider entering the tournament of your own free will. Once you explained that you had not been the one to enter yourself in the tournament, I realized that there had to be another person who intentionally entered you, knowing the danger it would put you in. That means that there is someone in this school who both wishes you harm and has the means to be able to do this."
"You mean, other than Snape?"
"Professor Snape," Dumbledore chuckled as he corrected Harry. "Yes, other than Severus, who I am sure would not be behind this."
Harry had to agree. Snape would never want him to achieve "eternal glory" as Albus had put it.
"So, you want me to enter the tournament to try and see who it is trying to get me killed?"
"Yes, Harry. It is a dangerous choice, but I believe you will be up to the challenge of the tournament. While it is true that this competition will be dangerous, I am sure that it will be even more dangerous not knowing who has done this to you and when they are likely to strike at you again. So, I am asking you to go along with this in order to uncover your attacker. Are you willing to do this, Harry?"
If there was one thing Harry Potter had no lack of, it was courage to face danger. If there was a second thing people would be certain he had in abundance, it was trust in Albus Dumbledore. Harry Potter nodded his head.
Life had, once again, dealt him lemons. He was going to make pumpkin juice out of it. After all, he was a wizard.