Returning his consciousness to his now stiff body, he turned to Luna and congratulated her, disappointed he had lost but happy he had gotten to spend time with his friend.
"Thank you, if you hadn't fallen for my trick then you would've won." Luna replied knowingly, as if she knew for a fact she would've lost. Even after knowing her for so long, Harry still didn't know if she just pretended to know or if she was using some form of divination to predict her own future. Both were equally possible, but he stubbornly refused to give in and ask.
Now that he wasn't busy, he checked his workshop's staircase, to see if his visitor had just gone straight through the passageway. To his surprise, whoever had entered was still inside the staircase. Fortunately, his workshop remained both sealed and empty, meaning whoever it was hasn't penetrated the defences.
"Well, I've got to go find out who's trying to break into my workshop." Harry said instead of replying to Luna, leaving it up to her if she wanted to join.
"Have fun, remember she is under an oath to keep your secret." Luna returned cheerfully as she skipped off into the forest.
Levitating both ships into his outer coat pocket, Harry took off towards the workshop. Upon arriving at the painting, he activated his invisibility cloak then let himself inside. Once he was on the other side, he was able to see the alert enchantment somebody had set up just inside the doorway. Unfortunately for them, his Cloak let him pass right through their enchantment without triggering it.
Even his mithril sensors were unable to detect him when under the Cloak, although they could tell that something had temporarily blocked the magic. The sensors worked by detecting whatever magic was in front of it, then when anything passed through it would try and detect individual signatures. It wasn't perfect, since even if three people were under the same invisibility cloak, the sensors would only know one cloak had passed through. That was why one of the steps had another beam of invisible magic, which went straight up, giving a perfect sight under any invisibility cloak.
Near the top of the staircase, he found the would-be invader running her hand over the inner column of the stairwell.
"Good Morning Daphne." Harry greeted her cheerfully, having expected to meet her after he had spoken to Luna by the lake.
"Oh, Harry. Hi, how are you, fancy meeting you here!" She stammered, clearly startled.
"I'm doing good. Have you figured out my secret yet?" He asked as he led her back down the staircase.
"Yes, I have! I think you have figured out the secret on how to make Goblin made items. You were seen walking into Gringotts over the summer only to exit with first a plain sword then a Gringotts' bag, which they never give to outsiders. Then when I asked Professor Flitwick about his floating cube he mentioned that you had given it to him."
"Huh, smart. Unfortunately you don't quite have the full picture. Just remember you are under oath to not reveal this secret."
Instead of letting her answer, he slapped his hand against the keystone, opening the door and making it visible for Daphne. Only he had that ability, while everyone else was only able to open the door for themselves. He was also able to bypass the broom cupboard, opening directly into the workshop proper.
"Welcome to my lair." He announced dramatically as he swept into the room, arms open wide to indicate everything.
She didn't seem to notice the door automatically closing behind her, far too entranced with the appearance of the workshop. With the morning light streaming through the 'windows' the room was filled with bright yellow light, making everything gleam wonderfully.
"What is all of this?" She asked softly, slowly spinning in order to take everything in.
"This is my workshop, this is where I create new inventions and try to figure out how my magic works. You see, I have the extremely rare ability to create mithril, which I suspect the goblins tried to replicate. With it, I can make almost anything. Apart from one or two things, everything in this room is made of mithril."
"Can you show me?" She begged, finally turning to face him.
Grinning, Harry held his hand out and let his mithril form a simple sphere. He had given it the ideology to receive magic and channel it into light. He deliberately slowed down the process, so she could see the sphere being created by numerous tendrils of liquid magic.
"Here, this is a ball of mithril. I've enchanted it so that it will turn whatever magic you feed it into light."
Gingerly taking the ball, Daphne frowned before the ball began to glow with her turquoise light. Experimentally she passed the ball between her hands, getting a feel for it before tossing it into the air and nimbly catching it. Moving around his workshop, she began pointing at different objects and asking for explanations about their purpose. To Harry's joy he found she was able to easily keep up with him as he talked, once he explained the purpose of each.
"So, what's this?" She asked, pointing at what looked like two quidditch hoops lined up a metre apart, each having a quartz display attached.
Instead of answering, Harry stood in front of both and launched a stunning spell through the first hoop which then carried on until it entered the second hoop and vanished. As the spell passed through each hoop, it triggered the tempus spell, which was then stored in the quartz.
"It make spells vanish?"
"Well, yes, but that isn't anything special. Because both the spell and the mithril were made with my magic, the mithril can absorb the spell without triggering it. The important bit is the two displays."
"What, the fact it records the time of when the spell passes through? What good does that do?"
"Okay, what happens if you take the time in the first display and take it away from the time in the second display?"
"You'd be left with a fairly small number… Which you could use to see how long it took for the spell to pass through the hoops?" She guessed.
"Exactly! Using this I'm able to accurately find out how fast my spells are, since the distance between the two hoops won't change. So I can get a finite to make the distance in around 0.25 seconds, making it around 4 metres per second, or just over twice my height in one second. I can then also know that a blasting curse is twice as slow, so in a duel I have a rough idea about how much time each spell will take."
"Cool… What's this?" She asked, pointing at his experimental Mutatio watch.
Unlike the watch on his wrist, which was composed entirely of mithril, from its thin band holding the watch onto his wrist to its face, the experimental watch had several parts that weren't mithril. The first improvement had been a soft black dragon-leather strap, which was about as wide as his hand. Luna had drawn a basic Celtic knot, which she had then enchanted to be a shiny silver.
The leather looped round until it reached the special mithril buckle, which was hidden within the watch. The buckle kept the strap comfortably tight, while also preventing anyone but him, or someone with a mithril key, from removing the watch.
The key had been suggested by Dumbledore after they had once again struggled to remove some of his mithril after he had to go to Saint Mungo's after his chest plate had exploded. The idea was that Dumbledore, Bathsheda and Snape would all have a key, which would then be capable of 'unlocking' his mithril.
The second non-mithril edition was the quartz disc which served as the watch face. When the watch face was active, a tempus spell would be triggered every fifth of a second, letting the watch actually display the time. He was hoping he could eventually get it to display a silhouette of whatever he wanted to turn into.
Unfortunately, every time the spell was cast it would draw a bit of magic, which was normally negligible. However, with the spell being cast five times a second, the negligible amount of magic built up to something substantial. He could easily fix it by adding a mithril core, but that would further add to the bulk.
Instead he had the watch project a still image of Dumbledore's variant of the Deathly Hallows, the triangular Cloak within the circular Stone underlined by the horizontal Elder Wand. In order to see the time, all he would have to do was tap his finger against the watch face and the time would be displayed for 30 seconds before fading back into the still image.
After Bathsheda had revealed how quartz was very good at retaining magical illusions, he had figured out a way to transfigure rocks into quartz crystals, rocks he was easily able to find in the forbidden forest.
"That is a device I'm making that will hopefully let me turn into any animagus form. From what I've found out, the animagus transformation works like a mix of self transfiguration and the metamorphmagus transformation. Basically, it transfigures your actual magical core, making it think the animal is what you are meant to be, which then changes your body. No idea why you can only have one animal though. Unfortunately, I won't know until I get to watch somebody learn how to become an animagus and I've been told I'm not allowed to try it myself."
"What if… What if I learned how to become an animagus? Would that help your research?" Daphne hesitantly asked.
"Absolutely, but are you sure you want to go through with it? It can be extremely dangerous…"
"I've always wanted to become an animagus but my father refused to get me a tutor unless I got an O in NEWT Transfiguration… but seeing as the two of us are at the top of our year, I'm sure we'll be fine. Maybe your mithril can even help the process?"
"If you're sure, then I'm not going to turn down your offer. I have a friend who's done the transformation so I'm sure he can give us a few pointers. If you want to wait till next year I'm fairly sure Professor McGonagall wouldn't mind helping-"
"No! If any of the professors learn then I'll be forced to register, where's the fun in that? I'm sure we can do this ourselves, maybe with the help of your friend if they can be trusted to keep it a secret." Daphne said adamantly.
"Fine, it's your choice. So long as you don't get in trouble you should be fine. However, I do have to warn you, I am under oath to tell Professor Babbling if I am planning anything major with my 'extracurricular activities', helping you with the animagus process won't count, but if I want to use anything I learn then theres no way I can avoid it. Luckily, I won't have to mention your name or the fact I got my research from another student."
"I suppose that will have to do… So, do you want to get started now?"
"You can try and find any books on it if you want, I don't want to start anything until I've heard back from my friend. Mainly because I only have a vague idea on how to start. Now, I've got homework to get done, but you're welcome to join me if you want."
The next day, Professor Flitwick was so excited during their charms class he had them revisit their calming charms from the last year. He would rate their results by how calm he became after being hit. Due in part to his own nervousness, Harry's calming charm was strong enough to make Flitwick completely pensive, which only wore down as they were leaving the class.
As the class left, Flitwick reached behind his podium and removed what looked like a large wooden dish, but which was actually a disguised mithril platform. After Flitwick had experimented with the cube Harry had given him, the professor had apparently figured out a way to move the cube with specific spells.
Harry was amazed that Flitwick had been able to get it work, seeing as he needed to possess the mithril to get a similar response. Flitwick had tried to explain, but the theory had regrettably gone over his head. Regardless, all that mattered was that Flitwick had proven it was possible. As such, Flitwick had hesitantly gone to him in private with a request, a mithril dish shaped platform with the exact same 'enchantments' as the cube, that was big enough for the professor to comfortably sit on it cross legged.
Having done so and upon discovering Flitwick intended to use the platform as a means of transport around the school, Harry had made the mithril look and feel like plain oak, along with a few cushioning ideologies on the seat. When using his new platform, Flitwick was easily able to keep up with even the tallest of his students, without sacrificing his dignity.
As they walked to the entrance hall Flitwick asked Harry "So Mr. Potter, excited to welcome our foreign visitors?"
"Yeah, I have a friend I met at the World Cup, who goes to Beauxbatons, so I'm looking forward to being able to see her again. What about you Professor? I couldn't help noticing that you also seem excited to meet them."
"Ah, well I must admit, while I am thrilled that Hogwarts is playing host to new students, I may have ulterior motives. We teachers don't really want the students to know, but I know you are trustworthy. You see, every time a tournament was held, it was an unspoken tradition to 'show off' as it were. As such, the staff have made a bet on how the schools will arrive.
"I know Durmstrang owns a number of submersible sailing ships to get their students to school, which can somehow teleport to any significant body of water. I've put several galleons down on them using one of them to arrive, simply because they don't have any other viable means of transport from Eastern Norway to here."
"What did some of the other teachers bet on?" Harry asked curiously.
"Ah, well, I don't want to speak ill of my colleagues… but Rubeus believes Durmstrang will use dragons somehow, because the school is rumoured to be located near a dragon preserve. Charity seems to favour an enchanted zeppelin, which would be entertaining, if we had somewhere to store such an airship."
"And Beauxbatons?"
"That is a tad more difficult. Due to the relatively short distance between our schools, a number of opportunities present themselves. I believe they will use their herd of Gargouilles, large bat like water dragons. Albus has said that Beauxbatons were building a large carriage when he visited last year, so I suspect they'll use that. The last time the tournament was held in Durmstrang the Hogwarts students designed and created a giant caravan, pulled by our thestrals. So, what about you then Mr. Potter, any passing observations?"
"Well, unless they can turn invisible it must be hard to hide these Gargouilles from the Muggles if they were flying from Paris. I'll assume the dragons have the typical resistance against magic, meaning disillusionment and notice-not charms wouldn't be very effective. It's not like the thestrals which are completely invisible to Muggles."
"An astute observation. However, Gargouilles lack the magical resistance of most dragons, meaning they could easily be hidden under an invisibility spell. Ah, excuse me for a moment, I need to address the students." Flitwick apologies before turning on the now assembled Ravenclaws "Alright you lot, line up neatly. First years at the front, five per row. Yes the Gryffindors are very entertaining, but that is not what we are here for! Now, follow me and stay in order."
Throughout this Harry stood beside Flitwick, desperately trying to stop his grin from being seen. A few of the nearer students sent pointed looks his way, but he was quite content to stay where he was in a position of presumed authority.
"Right, sorry about that Mr. Potter. Now, going back to our discussion, what you need to remember is the Beauxbatons delegation will almost definitely be taking a portkey from Paris to Calais, then from there across the channel, then to southern Scotland. If they are indeed flying then I suspect they will only be in the air for half an hour at most. As such, the need to stay hidden from Muggles is severely lessened."
As they lined up outside the castle, Harry realised the meeting was quite silly. The foreign schools would have no chance to see the Hogwarts under their black cloaks under a dark sky, meaning the whole point of getting the students to stand outside as dusk fell was to allow them to see the foreign students' arrival.
He and Flitwick talked some more in hushed voices about what Durmstrang and Beauxbatons might use to arrive, eventually roping in Bathsheda to get her opinion. He began noticing a few students behind him shivering slightly, very few of them having thought to bring an outer robe. Ever since he had been attacked by the dementor on the train he had noticed was less affected by the cold, so he barely noticed the chill in the air. Sighing at the incompetence of his house, Harry waved his wand and summoned a line of bluebell flames that would float in front of the front row.
The bluebell flames were an interesting charm, as it wasn't actually a fire spell. Its official designation was an illusion charm. The charm summoned an illusion of dark blue flames, emit soft blue light and created a heat source within the illusion which would warm anything in a radius. Unlike normal fire, where the heat would be extremely hot within the fire and rabidly cool the further away you went, the bluebell heat was evenly distributed across its entire radius.
As a plus, it was extremely hard to get the bluebell fire to set anything on fire, unless you happened to stick something flammable inside the heat source and kept it there for a long time. This made it perfect for the students, seeing as Harry didn't trust them to not stick their fingers inside the fire.
The children seemed to grow instantly warm, smiling contentedly as they waited. Seeing the jealous looks the other houses were now sending his way, Harry sighed again and summoned more bluebell fire to float in front of all four houses.
"Oi, Harry. Any chance of having that in red?" Ron yelled from the group of Gryffindors, earning a harsh "Shush!" from McGonagall. Chuckling, Harry changed the illusion and light to become a bright red for the Gryffindors, before making dark green and golden yellow lights for the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs respectively.
"An excellent use and modification of charms, Mr. Potter. Take 20 points to Ravenclaw." Flitwick murmured.
Then, from the back with the rest of the teachers, Dumbledore announced "Aha, unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"
Using his mage sight, Harry was just able to catch the last of the ripples within the wards as something big crossed the boundary. As the students tried to find where they were approaching from, a sixth year Hufflepuff was able to pinpoint the carriage over the forest. Harry vaguely recognised him as his Quidditch team's seeker, which would explain why he was able to pick out something from so far away.
Muttering, Bathsheda started to make her way back to the other teachers, leaving him and Flitwick alone at the front. Turning to Flitwick Harry quietly asked "Am I being put on display to show off to the other schools?"
"Perhaps. The headmaster did suggest that you'd be allowed to remain in front should you wish to." Flitwick replied equally softly, eyes dancing merrily. While he rolled his eyes, Harry wasn't actually annoyed, seeing as it gave him a front row seat.
The gigantic carriage landed with an almighty crash, startling many of the students. The wheels had barely stopped before a boy in pale blue robes jumped out and unfurled a set of golden steps, upon which an equally gigantic lady gracefully stepped down. Even from a distance Harry could feel the raw magical power emanating from the woman, almost equal to Dumbledore's power, but far more wild and untamed.
Dipping into his mage sight, he could see her magic centred primarily around her bones and muscles. From his passive study of Hagrid, a man of suspiciously similar dimensions to this woman, he suspected her magic was keeping her bones strong and muscles artificially lighter.
While she hid it well, Harry could literally see her tensing as some of the students started muttering rudely. Beside him, Flitwick frowned at the students in disappointment, but before he could do anything Dumbledore was able to diffuse the situation by starting to clap. The simple gesture prompted the rest of the students to join in, putting an end to the muttering, getting the woman to relax and send a gracious smile Dumbledore's way.
On her way down to Dumbledore, she had to pass down the aisle between the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors, where pure white flames burst into life. The slight movement of Flitwick returning his wand to an inside pocket of his robes revealed the culprit, although nobody else bothered to notice.
As the two headteachers greeted each other cordially, Harry noticed the newly revealed Madame Maxime's students exit the carriage. Most of the Beauxbatons students shivered the moment they set foot on the grounds, even the guys in their blue overcoats. Unfortunately for the Beauxbatons students, their coats were both shorter and made of a thinner material than his own trench coat. It was clear their coats were only designed to stop rain, instead of keeping its wearer warm.
One of the students that looked unbothered by the cold caught Harry's attention. While he couldn't see her face beneath her shawl, Harry had no problem identifying Fleur's flickering yellow magic, which had so easily caught his attention at the world cup. Almost every magical signature was a single block colour, Fleur's magic constantly shifted as if it were a small flame.
When they had danced, Harry had noticed her magic gave off a barely identifiable heat, which was no doubt the reason she remained less affected than her classmates. With a mental trigger, Corvus flew down from the tower and landed on Fleur's shoulder. As he expected, she easily recognised the crow from their correspondence. Nobody else showed signs of being able to see Corvus either, with the notice-not doing its job.
With the Beauxbatons students inside, it didn't take long for Durmstrang's ship to rise out of the lake. Unlike the Beauxbatons students, the Durmstrang students were dressed for temperatures far colder than Hogwarts. Then one particular Durmstrang student gained the attention of the Hogwarts students, someone even Harry recognised as Victor Krum.
Upon entering the great hall, Harry was pleased to see the Beauxbatons students had decided to sit at the Ravenclaw table, while the Durmstrang contingent hovered by the doors. As he and Luna walked in front of Fleur's spot, Corvus jumped from her shoulder and flew to his own, causing Fleur to jump in surprise and make eye contact with him.
He would've liked to have sat near her, however she was in the middle of her delegation, making it impossible. Instead they were forced to sit a few seats down, the addition of the Beauxbatons students making the normally spacious table rather cramped. The Durmstrang students had decided to sit at the Slytherin table, with Krum sitting close to Draco, until Theodore Nott tried to push Draco to the side and a small argument broke out.
As one, the Beauxbatons students rose as their headmistress entered, earning mocking laughter from some of the other students. The manners of the Hogwarts students had clearly dropped when he wasn't looking, although given the treatment of Luna in her first year, perhaps there never had been manners. When Dumbledore began his speech, welcoming the students, Harry couldn't help notice Fleur give off a derisive laugh, suggesting it wasn't just the Hogwarts students lacking in manners.
When the food appeared on the table, Harry was pleasantly surprised to see a collection of dishes that must've been foreign. Helping himself to what looked like crispy pancakes. As he was eating, he eyed Fleur rising from her spot and walking towards him, dropping down into a seat across from him.
"'arry?" She asked nervously, eying Corvus hopefully. The crow had long ago jumped onto the table , helpfully fetching him and Luna several fruits. He was slightly concerned with how alive Corvus sometimes seemed, given he should only be capable of basic, programmed logic.
"Yeah, it's good to see you again Fleur." He replied happily, "I can prove my disguise later, but not in the hall."
He introduced Luna to Fleur and they talked for a bit more, until she returned to her original seat and the feast ended. Soon enough, a bejewelled box was brought out, from which Dumbledore retrieved a large wooden goblet, filled to the brim with dancing blue-white flames.
The Goblet of Fire had arrived at Hogwarts.
As I meet up with friends every Friday, I'm thinking of reverting the chapters to every other Thursday, which should hopefully mean I can stop staying up to get it finished in time.
Things I think need explaining:
- Flitwick's mithril cube / bowl: Harry gave it to him on a Christmas. It absorbs a charm sent at it and tries to replicate it.
- Fleur's accent: I'll be trying to keep the accent as minimal as possible, mainly because it's a huge pain to write. I've yet to find a translator for fake French.