"Harry Potter." Dumbledore eventually called out softly, causing everyone's head to turn towards him. Numbly, Harry found himself standing and marching up to Dumbledore. It was only when he got close enough to read the slip of paper himself did Dumbledore finally speak to him, leaning in so that nobody else could hear them.
"Tell me, Harry. Tell me you did not go behind my back for this."
"Of course not sir! I don't want to take part." Harry replied honestly.
At his words, relief broke over Dumbledore's face. "Good. I'm sorry I had to ask, but I needed to be sure. Don't worry, we'll sort this out, but for now I need you to go into the back chamber."
Nodding, Harry made his way up past the teacher's table, which was awful. Hagrid looked completely astonished, while Snape looked betrayed and for some reason angry. As he stepped into the chamber, he couldn't help admiring how impressive the three champions looked, even as they turned to stare at him.
"What is it, 'Arry?" Fleur asked, throwing her sheet of long, silvery hair behind her. "Do zey want us back in ze Hall?"
At her question, any explanation Harry could've used died in his throat, leaving him truly speechless. Just as his silence was beginning to grow awkward, the sound of scurrying feet echoed from behind him, as Ludo Bagman entered the room. Effortlessly taking him by the arm, Harry was unwillingly led further into the chamber and closer to the champions.
"Extraordinary! Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen… lady, may I introduce - incredible though it may seem- the fourth Triwizard champion?"
In response, Viktor Krum straightened up. His surly face darkened as he stared at Harry, before settling on perplexed. In comparison, Cedric looked nonplussed, staring between Bagman and Harry, clearly lost. Then Fleur decided the whole thing must've been a joke. "Oh, very funny joke, Meester Bagman."
"Joke?" Bagman repeated, bewildered. "No, no, not at all! Harry's name just came out of the Goblet of Fire!"
Frowning, Fleur said "But evidently zair 'as been a mistake, 'e cannot compete. 'E is too young, 'E didn't want to compete."
"Well… it is amazing," Bagman admitted, rubbing his chin and smiling at Harry. "But, as you know, the age restriction was only imposed this year as an extra safety measure. And as his name's come out of the Goblet… I mean, I don't think there can be any ducking-out at this stage…" At this Harry's heart plummeted, with his one hope of a disqualification being denied. "It's down in the rules, you're obliged… Harry will just have to do the best he -"
Once again the door behind them burst open, this time admitting a much larger group of people. Dumbledore led the procession, closely followed by Mr. Crouch, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime. Then Professors Flitwick, Moody, McGonagall and Snape led the rear.
"Madame Maxime!" Fleur cried immediately, striding over to her Headmistress. "Zey are saying zat 'Arry is to compete also!"
That of course sparked a brief argument over there being two Hogwarts champions, which led to Dumbledore being blamed, until Snape stepped up and said "If it's anyone's fault, then the last person to blame is Dumbledore. He set up the age line, which was there to prevent those underage from entering. Seeing as somebody decided to circumvent the protections put in place, then I suggest the blame be placed at their feet."
It was a reasonable comment, except for the fact it now placed the blame in his court, reminding everyone that he was in the room.
"Thank you, Severus." Dumbledore commented lightly, "As it happens, I have already talked to Harry about this, due to the fact I had already given Harry a chance to have his name entered before the age limit was put into place. I then gave him the same chance moments before I drew the age line. Both times I received a firm no. But, for the satisfaction of everyone here, Harry, did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?"
"No, professor, I did not. Nor did I ask somebody else to enter my name for me, or in any way get my name chosen by the Goblet." Harry replied honestly.
"Ah, but of course 'e is lying!" cried Madame Maxime.
"I will thank you to not accuse my student of lying, Madame Maxime." Flitwick cut in coldly, glaring at the headmistress. "In the four years I have known Harry, he has never been one to show off or take unnecessary risks. He is at heart a researcher, not a performer."
"Mr. Crouch… Mr. Bagman," Karkaroff interjected in an unctuous tone, "you are our - err - objective judges. Surely you will agree that this is most irregular?"
Everyone turned their attention to Mr. Crouch, who had been standing outside the circle of firelight, half hidden in shadow. In his usual curt voice he announced "We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the Tournament."
This launched Karkaroff into yet another argument, this time broken up by Moody. "If anyone's got reason to complain, it's Potter," he growled "but… funny thing, I don't hear him saying a word…"
"Thank you." Harry replied emphatically before anyone else could talk over him. "Now, when my parents died 13 years ago today, they left me more money than I could ever spend and more fame than I ever wanted. The last thing I need is more money and more fame. Admittedly, I like the possibility of being able to prove myself, but I can do that by just doing exams, events which are less public and far less dangerous."
"But zen, why did your name come out of ze Goblet?" Madame Maxime asked after a moment of stunned silence.
"Evidently a skilled witch or wizard put the boy's name in the Goblet, who was then able to hoodwink a very powerful magical object into forgetting there were only three schools competing. It is not hard to believe they are using this as an assassination attempt against the boy, hoping that one of the tasks kills him off."
"You seem to have given this a great deal of thought, Moody," Karkaroff scoffed coldly, "and a very ingenious theory it is… Though of course, given your history with conspiracies, you'll understand if we don't take you entirely seriously…"
"There are always those who'll turn innocent occasions to their advantage." Moody retorted menacingly "It's my job to think the way Dark wizards do, Karkaroff, as you ought to remember…"
"Alastor!" Dumbledore called warningly, before taking a calmer voice as he addressed the room.
"How this situation arose, we do not know. The fact of the matter is that Harry's name has come out of the Goblet, which is regrettably now out of our control. But, what we do now is within our control. Given Harry's desire to not compete, along with the judges desire for him to not compete, there may be a way to remove him from the tournament.
"However, doubtless such a discussion will be time consuming, so I suggest a compromise. For the moment, we pretend that we have found a clever way of removing Harry from the tournament. Then, should we actually find a way, then nothing has been lost. But just in case we fail in our task, then we should allow Harry to stand in on any champion relevant event until such time as we have confirmed his withdrawal."
Seeing as there were no immediate arguments, Mr. Crouch stepped forward and began telling them the rules, which seemed to be a complicated way of saying "You are by yourself, only use a wand. Turn up on November 24th."
"Excellent! Well, unless there is anything else we require of our champions, I suggest it would be best if Mr. Diggory, Mr. Krum and Miss. Delacour return to their beds. Although undoubtedly their classmates will be up waiting to celebrate with them. As for the rest of us, I suggest we retire to my office. Not only is it warmer than this draughty chamber, Harry's guardian is waiting for us."
For a wild moment Harry wondered if he'd get to see Sirius. That was until he realised that between the two ministry officials, three professors and one ministry official professor, it would be suicide for his godfather to show up. He was also fairly sure Sirius was still somewhere in the Caribbean, making it difficult for him to suddenly appear in Hogwarts.
To his great surprise, when Dumbledore let them into his office it was Nicholas Flamel who rose to greet them. While he certainly did not abhor his tutor's presence, quite the opposite in fact, he couldn't help thinking it would've been nice to see his godfather in person again.
"For those of you who don't know, this is Nicholas Flamel, the famed alchemy master and philosopher." Dumbledore announced, crossing the room to sit behind his desk. "As Harry is his apprentice and in lieu of any other magical guardian, I believe he is capable of speaking for Harry."
"I trust this tutorship has been officiated with the ministry?" Mr. Crouch asked smartly, reaching into his robe pocket and removing a briefcase.
"It has, although the contract itself is under a secrecy oath, given Harry's minor status and our respective fame. Coincidently, everyone present will also need to abide by the oath." Nicholas replied, getting a nod from Mr. Crouch.
"That is fine. So long as Harry's government, which in this case is the British ministry, recognises your claim, then the Triwizard charter should also recognise it. This should open a few more clauses that would otherwise have been voided."
"Excellent. Now Barty, I know you said earlier that the goblet's decision is final, but I distinctly remember reading something about an inability subclause."
"Hmm, yes. That does sound familiar, I will have to check for the correct phrasing of course." As he talked, he opened his briefcase and stuck his entire arm into it before withdrawing one of the biggest books Harry had seen.
"Let's see… ah, here we are 'Ineligibility of competing: a Champion can be deemed ineligible of playing, and thus disqualified, if any of the following is true; 1. The Champion is unable to attend the task under their own power. 2. The Champion is magically unable to perform magic of sufficient calibre, such that trying to harness their magic could be detrimental to their health. 3. The Champion has been deemed unfit to represent the school, resulting from the Champion having been expelled from their institute of learning.'"
"Is that it? There are only three possible ways to leave the tournament?" Harry demanded angrily.
"You have to understand, it is almost completely unheard of for a champion to be chosen who didn't want to be chosen. Occasionally there would be a champion who would get cold feet, but in such a case the Goblet had already decided there is no better student in order to replace them." Crouch replied, a touch of irritation making itself known.
"Gentlemen, please let's be civil. Obviously clauses 1 and 2 are notwithstanding, seeing as Harry is both physically and magically capable. However, for clause 3, do you think I would be able to expel Harry, thus invalidating him, then reinstate him as a student without recurring his championship?" Dumbledore asked.
"I think the Goblet would reinstate him as a champion if his expulsion got overturned. However I am certain that line of questioning is a moot point regardless, given that as far as the Goblet is concerned, you are not Harry's headmaster. The only person with the authority to expel Mr. Potter is potentially whoever tricked the Goblet into thinking there were four schools…" Mr. Crouch trailed off at the end.
"And undoubtedly whoever entered Harry would be reluctant to have him removed, especially if he has been entered maliciously." Nicholas finished.
"There is also the question about whether we should find a way to free Potter. If we are to truly discover the meaning of these events perhaps we should for the time being let them… unfold." Snape broke in, stepping forward from the shadows.
"Do nothing? Offer him up as bait? Potter is a boy, not a piece of meat." McGonagall exclaimed, rounding on the man.
"A boy of exceptional power." Moody commented. "The lad can handle himself, meanwhile we can track down the culprit at our leisure. If we do remove Potter, the culprit may decide to cut his losses and flee."
"So you're just going to sacrifice me to appease your own curiosity?" Harry demanded.
"Harry, please. We would never 'sacrifice' you." Dumbledore replied with a pained voice.
"But you aren't going to do anything to even try and release me?"
"You have to understand, I agree with Alastor. We need to find out who entered your name before they can do any actual damage, so for now it's for the best if we keep you in the tournament."
"Yes, but I don't want to compete! They have already done actual damage. It shouldn't matter if I might be able to handle it, I shouldn't be forced to find out!"
"I have to agree with Harry. While I would love to have whoever did this brought to justice, I will not put Harry's life in danger to do so. As such, I want it noted that if Harry is made to continue it is done without my consent or my approval." Nicholas stated firmly.
"That is understandable, however the nature of the Goblet means it doesn't require the guardian's approval. As we have just witnessed, it doesn't even need the champion's approval." Crouch pointed out, somewhat sympathetically.
"Well then, there is no reason for me and Harry to stick around then, is there. Come along Harry." Without a single look back, Nicholas went to leave the office.
But Harry hesitated before saying "I just want everyone here to know, if I compete and get killed, then everyone here is responsible for my death. Even if there isn't a loophole to get me out, you are all at fault for not making a loophole before binding students into a death tournament. Goodnight."
Once outside the office, Nicholas said "Now, Harry, it's important to know that both Albus and myself believe you. I personally will be doing all I can to ensure you have the best possible chance of winning. As such, I have been allowed a room here, and we will meet in our normal classroom tomorrow morning after breakfast. Till then, I suggest you try and get a good night's sleep and don't think too much about tonight's events. For all we know, you could show up tomorrow and be told you won't have to compete."
Upon reaching the Ravenclaw common room, all he wanted to do was find his bed and fall asleep. Given how late it had grown, he had expected this to be an easy task. Instead he opened the entrance and found almost the entire House sitting around, seemingly waiting for him.
"So, are they allowing you to compete?" One of the older students asked, making him wish he had actually bothered to try and learn more of the people's names.
"It seems so, apparently there isn't a way to get me removed." Harry answered cagily.
To his great annoyance, his answer brought a wave of cheers to the gathered students.
"Go on then, how much trouble are you in for getting yourself entered?" someone else called out.
"I didn't get in any trouble, because I don't want to compete!" Harry snapped.
"Well… you're competing now right? Better do us proud Potter."
In reply, Harry let his magic release, coating the entire room with his power. Then, using his Gauntlet, he transmuted the air itself, preventing any soundwaves aside from his own from traveling. Instantly all sound in the common room died. Quite a few people reached up to their ears, while a few students got out their wands and tried to dispel the magic.
Their efforts were of course fruitless. To start with, they were trying to find and dispel an enchantment, when they should've been trying to unravel a transmutation. Then there was the fact transmutation was only taught at NEWT level transfiguration, meaning unless one of the Ravenclaws also had a secret Alchemy tutor, there was only a small minority that could theoretically know how to deal with it.
But, even if they somehow stumbled into the correct answer and had the knowledge of how to deal with it, they would then need to compete with his power. Assuming they could match his personal power, then counter the power of the Gauntlet. It certainly wasn't impossible, but extremely improbable.
However, the problems didn't stop there. That was assuming the student was using incantations, which was currently impossible due to the very transmutation they were trying to counter. When forced to use their spells non-verbally, their magic would see a sharp decrease in power. Harry only knew of four people who were certainly capable of the feat, two of which were Dark Lords and the other two were on the other side of the castle.
Thus, having failed to dispel his magic, several students decided to point their wands at him instead.
"Please, how many of you here can actually use any form of non-verbal magic?" Harry asked mockingly, his voice echoing around the soundless room. "Then, out of those that can, do you really think you can match me? I'll be nice though, if any of you can actually hit me with a spell, I'll lift my magic."
In response less than a dozen wands lit up, half of which only sent out a few sparks, which dissolved long before they reached him. Of those spells which formed correctly, only three of them were actually on target. A flick of his coat was enough to absorb them, with the dragon hide easily dealing with the spells.
"Pathetic." He sneered, earning him angry but still silent looks. "Now that we've proven an entire tower full of witches and wizards can't even handle one of my spells, I am going to talk and you are going to listen."
Fixing his gaze at those in front of him, he carefully spat out "I. Did. Not. Want. To. Enter. This. Tournament! I don't need a mere 1,000 galleons, I don't want any more fame. I certainly don't want to risk my life to entertain people as pathetic as you lot. However, somebody decided to enter my name, with the current theory among the professors being that I was entered as an assassination attempt. As such there is a very real chance I will die before the year is out.
"As such, I will not be aiming to 'Do you proud'. I will be doing my best to survive. Alongside that, I will not be representing Ravenclaw, not after all I've had to put up with from this House. Now, I am going to bed. I will not be sleeping here again, I suggest none of you try to follow me, otherwise I will make this silence spell permanent."
With his message done, he silently summoned what few belongings he had left in the tower, before opening the entrance and leaving. He only lifted the transmutation when he had put an entire floor between himself and the common room.
First thing's first, this is sort of the second half of the previous chapter (Which was almost… 2 months ago… whoops.) As such, in 1 week it will be removed and merged with the last chapter (The Fourth Champion)
Now, something I have been wondering about for a while is reviews. I don't need reviews, I am quite happy writing regardless. However, it was hard to miss how when I started writing I would normally get a few reviews per chapter, but now that I have almost 100x views per chapter, I almost never get reviews. As such, I'm curious if the few who consistently reviewed got bored and quietly dropped the story, or if it was my lack of public replies which discouraged people?
Those observant of you will notice during this time, I have managed to improve a total of 1 old chapter. However, that improvement resulted in over 2,000 additional words, which was uploaded just under 2 weeks ago, meaning I'm still sort of on time.
I realised that if I took the same amount of time to do the 2nd chapter then it would be most of the way into 2022 before I actually uploaded again, hence why I sat down and started writing this chapter immediately upon finishing the last one.
Currently I am planning on moving back to chapter 2 and working on that, then I will be writing the next chapter. So on and so on until I feel like I can stop improving the old chapters.
Things I think need explaining:
- The chamber behind the hall scene: Most of the dialogue was carried over straight from the book, although I tried my best to have Harry reacting as befitting his own character. Part of that also included cutting stuff that canon Harry did see or adding stuff that canon Harry didn't see. My Harry never saw Crouch in the world cup, so he doesn't note how he looks ill.
- Harry's attitude: First of all, obviously he's both extremely tired and under a lot of pressure by the end of the chapter. That alone makes most people grumpy. Then you have the fact so far almost everyone he has talked to believes he entered himself. On top of this, I have tried to ramp up his bad mood across the last few chapters, with the Ravenclaw's being the fuse that ignited his temper. (But you'll have to tell me how well I did with that).