As everyone began to make their way out of the great hall, Fleur remained seated and fixed him with an expectant gaze. Just as he was about to make his own exit, a small burst of phoenix fire erupted in front of him, leaving behind a small note in Dumbledore's neat hand-writing.
'Unless you are in a hurry to leave, I'd suggest remaining within the hall for an hour or two. You may learn something new.'
Normally, he'd be thrilled to have an opportunity to 'learn something new', but he had already planned on talking to Fleur. Making eye contact with Dumbledore, Harry nodded and did a thumbs up gesture, before nodding at Fleur and holding up his hand, trying to convey 'Yes, I will meet you, but I want to talk to Fleur for five minutes.'
How well that message was received was questionable, but Dumbledore nodded as if he understood. Standing, he looked at Fleur and nodded towards the side of the hall. Ideally, he would've used somewhere private like his workshop, since doing it in the hall lacked the gravitas he wanted.
Once she joined him, he threw up his strongest notice-not ward around them, ensuring nobody else would learn of his secret.
"So, as I said in my letter, when we originally met and danced at the world cup, I was under a disguise. The best way I can prove that is to apply the disguise now, which I hope is good enough for you." Without any further ado, he ran a finger over the Mutatio watch face, activating the magic and turning into the same sandy haired disguise.
"It really is you." Fleur murmured, staring at his face intently, as if looking for a flaw in his disguise.
"Yeah. Listen, I'd like to talk some more, but I've got something to do right now, but I'd love to be able to talk tomorrow morning?"
"Oui… I'd like that. We will be entering our names tomorrow before breakfast, so we could talk then?" she suggested, getting a nod from Harry.
Parting ways, he made his way over to Dumbledore, who was carefully transporting the Goblet into the entrance hall. "You'll find it's a truly fascinating artefact, Harry." the Headmaster greeted, keeping his eyes on the Goblet.
As they moved into the entrance hall, a flagstone rose out of the floor and turned into a basic plinth, which Dumbledore purposely walked towards. As they neared the plinth, Harry was surprised when the Goblet began growing, from barely a foot tall to over four feet tall. When it was finally set down upon its plinth, the flames were easily over six feet off the ground. Ideally, Harry wondered if the mere height of the flames would be the deterrent against underage students.
"So, what can you tell me about the Goblet, Harry? Now that you have a chance for a closer look, that is." Dumbledore asked amiably, even as he began to set up some defences, starting with a strong privacy charm. With them protected under the privacy charm, Harry released the charm on his coat, which had made the coat look like a standard school robe.
Following the headmaster's prompt, Harry stepped up to the Goblet and fully activated his mage sight, only to regret his decision immediately as he almost went blind. While the Goblet was nowhere near as strong as Hogwarts, the magical power of Hogwarts was concentrated over an entire castle, while the Goblet's power was focused entirely upon a four foot tall cup.
It was easily one of the strongest artefacts he'd ever seen, even stronger than the Philosopher's Stone or the Mirror of Erised. However, its power simply made it easier to understand, seeing as the intent of all its enchantments and runes had seeped into the very essence of its magic. So even though he didn't have a chance of being able to read the runes, it was easy enough to understand how the cup worked.
"Well, I suppose the most important part to me is how wherever somebody enters their name, they sacrifice a part of their magic to the cup. But, the sacrifice isn't a one time thing, it's for the volunteer's entire lifetime. Luckily, for the individual it's only as draining as signing your name every day. But, all of those hundreds of students put together? Well, I think it has stored at least four times your entire magical core."
"Oh my…" Dumbledore replied slowly, looking legitimately frightened for a moment, unable to hide his glance towards the seemingly harmless cup.
"Luckily for us, it looks like whoever designed this realised this issue and took steps to protect against it. For a start, it can only use its magic on its core principles, namely to determine a champion for each school competing and to uphold its contract. Then, any time its core principles get modified it will result in its stored magic being completely flushed… violently."
"How violently are we talking about? For… hypothetical reasons." Dumbledore prompted
"Well, this is just a guess, but I'd say from this position, given all of Hogwarts wards… Well the mountain range around the school would most likely be levelled."
"Perhaps… Perhaps it was a mistake to allow Ludo to take the Goblet out of retirement…" an ashen faced Dumbledore admitted.
"Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with you there. The plus side is it should be impossible to trigger the flushing, since any attempt at changing its principles manually will result in the perpetrator getting vaporised as a warning. I should add, a decent part of its magic is going towards keeping itself immutable.
"You'd need something like FiendFyre to be able to do enough damage to trigger a flush. Unfortunately, I'm not even sure my mithril can bypass it. If it didn't have the flush I'd like to say I could make something to break it, my sabre would almost definitely be enough given the Chamber of Secrets' entrance was similarly protected."
"However, upon trying to cut into the cup, you would be destroyed instantly… Yes I see the issue. It's no wonder they never decommissioned the cup and instead put it in storage for two centuries. Harry, I must insist that this conversation does not go any further than the two of us. Not even Nicholas should be told, at least until the tournament is over and this cup is safely hidden away."
Dumbledore fixed Harry with a penetrating gaze, unwilling to even blink until Harry nodded and swore to maintain the secret.
"Excellent… Well no point dwelling over what may be. Now, this will sound positively ridiculous given your recent discovery, but before I draw the age line, are you certain you do not want to enter your name?"
"Oh, I have never been more certain of something in my life, professor. I have no desire to enter myself into a tournament where there's a solid chance I'll die, especially since there is no way out if I get cold feet."
The relieved smile Dumbledore sent his way was all the confirmation he needed in order to know the professor approved of his decision. Then, walking in a circle around the Goblet, the professor began to chant under his breath and used the Elder Wand to draw fiery runes upon the ground. When he completed his circle, he then tapped the wand against the Goblet, causing a wave of fire to jump out of the top and run along the floor.
Harry instinctively jumped out of its way, but the fire stopped the moment it reached the runes, leaving behind a perfect faint light blue circle around the Goblet. While the age line looked as if you could easily jump over it and avoid it, his magesight revealed the true ward was a large cylinder, stretching from the floor to ceiling.
It's magic was quite simple: it scanned any magical signature crossing the line and determined how old it was. In theory, it was infallible, since even with Tonks' level of internal control, it was impossible to change your magical age. However, both the Invisibility Cloak and his Dementor Cloak would allow him to remain undetected.
When he pointed out this flaw to Dumbledore, the headmaster chuckled and pointed at a faint magical line connecting the Goblet to the ageline.
"There are indeed a few ways you could bypass the age line, hence why such a ward is very rarely used defensively. However, the Goblet will only let a person enter a name if they have successfully passed through the line. Anyone attempting to enter a name without passing the line, or having failed the check, will get rejected."
Nodding, Harry reached out with his magic and tried to test the limits of the ward, only for the anti-magic within the ageline to absorb his probe. He expected it, but he couldn't help frowning and spitefully sent a spike of magic at the ward, which barely rippled.
"What's to stop somebody of age entering another person's name?"
"Regrettably, nothing. Part of the rules the schools have to sign is that we allow our student's names to be entered by a Professor. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to actually define who a professor is, aside from saying they are of age, meaning anyone of age can enter names. The only real defence is that it is the magic of whomever is being entered must have written their own name. Simply writing the name of another student is not satisfactory."
"Surely it would be safer to just say students have to enter their own names?" Harry asked
"Perhaps, but there are circumstances where such a system is useful. For instance, Madame Maxime has two of her student's arriving tomorrow just before the feast. While they might arrive in time to enter their own names, we can't know for sure. As such, they wrote their names down and Madame Maxime is going to enter their names tomorrow morning.
"There are of course a few safeguards. The first is that when a student has a proxy vote, the teacher adding their name must be from the same school, so a Hogwarts professor couldn't enter the names of Madame Maxime's students. However, the best defence we have is that none of the students have been told of this security flaw, so it is imperative you keep it to yourself."
"Of course. Knowing my luck, if I told anyone then somebody would enter my name as a joke."
"Quite. Well then, could I ask you to step over the ageline, to ensure it works?" Dumbledore asked casually, although the excessive twinkling in his eyes made Harry hesitate momentarily. The professor also handed a piece of parchment to Harry, which unoriginally read 'Test Name'.
Sighing, Harry purposely stepped over the line, which fluttered as if moved by a breeze. Stepping through the ward however was like walking through a waterfall. While there was no physical pressure, he felt every part of his magic getting scanned. But, once the scan reached his gauntlet ring, he could feel the pressure lifting instantly, along with a flash of magic passing into the Goblet.
After a few moments of inactivity, he turned to Dumbledore who said "You'll have to add the paper to the Goblet to see if it has worked. And don't worry, doing so won't enter your own name."
Nodding, Harry followed his instructions, reaching up and throwing the slip of parchment into the flames. Instantly, the parchment vanished, the slight flicker being the only indication anything had happened. Just as Harry was starting to think he had tricked the ageline, several fireballs erupted out of the Goblet, swirling around until they struck him in the chest and sent him flying out of the ageline.
Groaning, he sat up and glared at Dumbledore, who was laughing heartily. As he frowned, Harry became aware of an itching along his lip and chin. Reaching up in an attempt to scratch the itch, he was shocked when his hand encountered a thick beard. Summoning a mirror, Harry got to see he now sported a pure white beard that rivalled Dumbledore's.
"I believe we can confirm the protections are working correctly." Dumbledore ascertained, still chortling. "You should go to Madam Pomphrey to get it removed, otherwise it will stick around for quite some time. Oh, you should also know that I have taken over your Alchemy lessons for now. Our first lesson will be overmorrow."
"Erm, 'Overmorrow' means the day after tomorrow, right?"
"Exactly. Well then, if that is everything, have a goodnight."
With that clear dismissal, Harry exited the privacy ward and started to leave the hall, only to run into Daphne Greengrass.
"Took you long enough." She commented, rising from her bench and putting her book away. "I had assumed you were only going to be there for a few minutes."
"Well I am sorry to have disappointed you… why were you waiting for me anyway?"
"I wasn't planning on it, then I saw you and the Headmaster talking and wanted to know what it was about."
"You do know I don't have to tell you anything, right? For all you know it could've been personal."
"I doubt you'd have been talking about personal information in the middle of the entrance hall. Especially given a simple talk shouldn't involve you, an underage student, trying to enter their name into the Goblet. Nice beard by the way."
"Okay, I wasn't entering my own name. Dumbledore wanted me to test the ageline, but I had no intention of entering my own name. The last thing I want is to be forced to take part in this tournament." Harry answered, while simultaneously running his hand down his beard and pushing his own magic into it.
The magic of the Elder Wand made it impossible for him to actually remove the beard, but he found he had some room for modifying it. As such, using the mirror as his guide, he shortened the beard to just over an inch in length, along with colouring it to match his hair.
"So you were helping him set up the ageline?" She asked leadingly, clearly expecting him to explain it further.
"More like I stood around while he set up the defences. Mostly he let me use my magesight on the Goblet to see what I could learn. Along with being his guinea pig, apparently. And before you ask, no I cannot tell you what I learned. I swore to Dumbledore I wouldn't reveal what I learned."
"Shame. So are you keeping the beard? I must admit, it does give you a rugged sort of charm."
"Why thank you, but could you imagine how the other students would react if I started walking around with a full beard? Nah, I need Madam Pomphrey to actually remove it."
"The other students already talk about how you walk around in that trench coat instead of a normal robe, never mind all the rumours about how powerful you are or the adventures you go on. Personally, I'd suggest keeping it for a while and see what you think of it. Then the next time you get your haircut you can decide if you want to keep it longer." Daphne said wisely.
"What do you mean, I didn't think magicals needed to get their hair cut…" Harry asked slowly, getting an incredulous look from the girl.
"No, we still need to get our hair cut… I normally go to Madam Pomphrey to get mine cut three times a year. Are you telling me you've never gotten it cut while at Hogwarts? How is your hair so short?"
"I have no idea. It's not like Dumbledore or Tonks get their haircut either."
"Have you seen the length of Dumbledore's hair? And isn't Tonks your metamorphmagus friend? The one who can change her hair length at will?"
"Err… yes?"
I will be moving my uploading days to a Thursday for a bit, to see if it will be easier for me. If it doesn't work out I will go back to Fridays.
Things I think I need to explain:
- Fleur trusting Harry: She has more reasons than just him proving his disguise, which will be revealed over the coming chapters.