22nd March 1995 - Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Glencoe Highlands, Scotland.
Hogwarts or its headmaster had very graciously decided in the time before his arrival to carve out a tiny pseudo sitting area along one wall of the Great Hall for him to sit and relax without treading in and out of the Gryffindor common room.
It was quite basic, consisting of several couches and armchairs arranged around a small fireplace that was currently unlit. The chairs were all different colours and patterns, likely off pieces from the teachers rooms or the various common rooms that hadn't been in use and there was a patchwork rug on the floor between them that looked like someone had taken several different hunks of other old rugs and haphazardly stitched them together.
There were several small tables scattered between them and a low tea table that looked like it had seen better days.
But despite the hodgepodge of pieces, it still felt quite cozy, if a little awkward with basically the entire school sitting a few paces away eating lunch and stealing looks at him while he sipped at his tea and nibbled on the dainty little cakes Hildegara had commandeered from the kitchens.
But it was good in a way, it was giving him more real world chances to get used to dissecting what he was feeling, especially when other people were involved. It was something Frederick called his 'homework'.
So he was sitting there, being stared at while he lazily drank tea and pondered over his annoyance at being stared at.
Though honestly it was something he had been supposed to be doing since he had first started talking to the man that had become his personal healer and somewhat friend all those months ago. He tended to make a lot of excuses for why he hadn't been doing it, most of them revolving around being too busy and not having the time in the moment to do so.
Frederick had gotten in the habit of giving him the same look when he asked and got those answers each fortnight during their sessions. The one that said that he know that Harry knew that he knew that Harry was just hedging because he wasn't quite ready to deal with some of the things he was thinking and feeling, but was giving him the freedom to decide when they actually got stuck into dissecting it all provided it wasn't actively hurting him or anyone else.
It had felt a bit awkward at first, especially since for once Harry hadn't known how or where to start that next morning after his not so small meltdown with Sirius.
But then Frederick had set aside his cup of tea and fixed his mismatched eyes on him.
You told me one that your relatives told you and the world, growing up with them, that your parents were layabouts, drunkards and generally terrible people which resulted in their dying in a car crash?
It had taken the older man an embarrassing short amount of time to work out that what Harry had been feeling was a combination of things that largely stemmed from a sense of vindication.
Harry had known, deep down, all along that his mother and father weren't the sort of people his relatives told everyone they were.
Knew it with the same fierce certainty that all young orphans believe in their parents.
Then he had remembered and had been able to share that with the world. Now the world knew the same things he had always believed, his parents were good people and they had loved him.
They were brave and strong and loyal and wonderful despite their faults and now everyone else knew it too.
And it was too late.
Too late for James to know he was respected for being a doting husband and father, for willingly making a last stand to buy time for his love and heir.
Too late for Lily to know that she had shown the world what a young witch, muggle born and raised could become. That her last act of love, of sacrifice, could leave the world in awe
The world knew, but they weren't there to see it.
They were dead and gone.
And it wasn't fair.
A soft cough dragged Harry's attention from where he had been staring into his tea to a spot opposite him where Hermione was standing next to one of the available armchairs.
"Harry...can we talk?" She asked quietly, one hand resting on the back of the armchair and expression uncertain.
"Always." He responded immediately, setting his cup aside and pushing himself to sit up straighter.
Moving to sit, the older girl fiddled with arranging the hem of her skirt for a moment before she finally stopped her fidgeting hands and folded them in her lap. "I'm not sure where to start honestly, I've had a lot of things running about in my head that I wanted to ask you about, but I couldn't just ambush you in the common room or prod you at meals or between classes like I used to."
"You can always write, I enjoy getting letters from you and Ron each week about everything I've been missing." He suggested, finding that he wanted to encourage her like normal, despite his own mood still being largely all over the place.
"I know, and I thought about it, but I decided that I wanted to talk about them in person, without the delay of having to wait on mail." She explained, giving a little shrug.
Harry nodded slowly before inclined his head in her direction. "We could start with that."
She blinked, looking first down then around herself trying to see what he was talking about. "What?"
"The last time I was able to visit, you were wearing a badge that Ron said you wore everyday." He told her and noted absently when understanding settled in her.
"I called it S.P.E.W, it stands for The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare and I-" She cut off, biting her bottom lip while she pondered how to order her thoughts. "I went to the Quidditch World Cup with Ron and the rest of the Weasleys, do you remember?"
Harry nodded, his hands folding in his lap. "You wrote about it in one of your letters, though you didn't say too much about it, just a brief bit about what had happened, the fact you were all okay and that the treatment of the elves you had seen while there was deplorable and you were very angry about it."
"Right." She nodded. "I thought if I could form a group and protest the treatment then I could gather enough awareness and force change. I even thought about knitting caps and socks and such so any elves that were living in slavery could pick them up and free themselves."
The young king gave her a smile, understanding her well meant intentions, though not bothering to tamper down the wry edge to it. "Didn't take it well, did they?"
"No." She admitted freely, pulling a face at her own fidgeting hands. "Hildegara has been kind enough to explain some things to me the last few times you've visited, and she's helped me explain to the Hogwarts elves what my intentions had been and to help me apologise for the accidental offense. But...But it's just made me realise that there's so much discrimination and cultural supression going on that I never knew about."
"There is." Harry agreed, because it was true, at its heart there was a great deal of it going on in Wizarding Great Britain that he hadn't known about when he had lived here. Things that no one talked about that were swept under the rug of polite society. "It's why I spent so long talking with Goldhammer and Tillander to try and make sure none of the laws I was building for Volstar would do the same there, that they had done here."
Hermione nodded. "I took clippings of the articles from the Prophet so I could refer back to them and cross reference them with a study of the British laws that I decided to do. I thought after Hogwarts that I might go into the Ministry and try and help change things."
Harry cocked his head to one side and regarded her evenly. "Do you still want to, seems like it'll be a lot of work?" He asked her. "Practically an uphill battle with all of the opposition you'll probably end up facing."
She fixed him with a look that was part glower, part pout and all around determined. "I'm not afraid to stand up and do the right thing." She growled.
Holding his hands up in surrender, Harry smiled at her. "I know, I've known that since I was eleven."
She held her scowl for a moment longer before deflating, fingers fiddling once more. "How did it even get so bad?" She muttered, brows drawn down. "Surely someone must have seen that all those laws were hurtful."
"A compound of a lot of things, I think. Fear, inherent biases, lack of proper education and awareness, bigotry. A lot of laws tend to be made with good intentions, though not all of them really weigh the morality and possible long term consequences of each. Then the others are bullied and bribed through by people that want to shape their society in accordance with their views and beliefs." Harry explained, head cocked to one side as his glowing eyes focused on a point beyond the unlit fireplace in his little alcove. "Technically I and Volstar fall into that latter category as well, it just happens that my views and beliefs help to craft a mutually beneficial symbiotic environment that plays out on paper as a Welfare State."
"I suppose." Hermione hedged, voice a bit distant as she mulled over it herself.
They sit in silence for a while. Hermione contemplated what Harry had said while Harry pondered on how very unsubtle teenagers really were, all the while he scans the rest of the hall out of the corner of his eye.
It's because of this he managed to catch sight of Fred and George barreling towards them and braced himself just in time for them to slam into the back of Hermione's armchair making her start in fright and give a little scream.
Something that earned both a slap on the arm.
They used the half hearted slaps as an excuse to tumble themselves onto the floor in front of Harry's own armchair in a great display of dramatics, bemoaning their swift comeuppance in grand fashion that would have looked out of place on anyone else.
Hermione rolled her eyes at the behavior and bounced to her feet and smoothed out her skirt. "If you excuse me, I think I'll stop by the library for a new book before the task."
Giving her a wave, Harry watched as she disappeared out of the hall before he turned to the twins and gave them a raised brow. "She been disappearing into the library again?"
"Only most days." George answered with an easy shrug. "Freddie dear's been keeping an eye on her."
"Like a gentleman should!" Fred shot back, cheeks just a little rosy. Though whether it was from embarrassment or the sprint through the Great Hall was anyone's guess.
"Not Ron?"
"Our Ronald willingly in the library?" George asked archly. "Oh no, little Ronniekins has been walking about with a certain Indian goddess as of late."
"Been tripping over himself to get every door, carry every book and write poetry so horridly soppy it'll curl your hair." Fred agreed, propping himself up onto his knees, head turned to where Ron was sitting perched next to Padma Patil despite the different houses. "Besides, he and Hermione haven't been as close since their row at the end of the Yule ball."
Harry frowned. "Row, what row, they were fine when I left and neither of them have mentioned anything in their letters."
George shook his head. "They wouldn't would they, they're both being a bit pig-headed to be fair."
"They started bickering after you left the ball and it managed to escalate into a screaming match outside the Great Hall-"
"Bloody terrible!" George shot in.
"-until Snape happened by them on his rounds and separated them. It's been a bit of a cold war ever since." Fred explained, shrugging a little half-heartedly.
"No one's said anything." Harry muttered, deflating in place a little.
At his feet the twins exchanged a look before slouching down so their chins were each resting on one of his knees so they could look up at him from beneath ginger lashes. "Cheer up, O' noble king!"
"They'll work it out, and besides, you've always got us!"
"You're faithful servants!"
Harry gave them both a small smile and lightly tapped each on the head. "I know, just been a bit jumbled lately." He told them quietly.
The twins regarded him for a long moment before turning ever so slightly to exchange glances with each other, the minute shifting of brow or tilt of head all that clued Harry into their silent conversation.
Eventually they nodded in unison, chins digging uncomfortably into the tops of Harry's knees.
"You need to take a tour of the workshop." Fred announced.
"We've got loads of new stuff for you to look at." George added with a grin. "And you should take a look at the floor plans for the two shops."
Fred nodded again, making Harry grimace a little as his chin dug into his already tender leg, though he made no move to chase the two away. "Business has been booming."
"Absolutely booming!"
"We've managed enough profit from all the sales from the tournament so far and our own side sales between that we've gotten enough together to afford a shop we were looking at in Diagon Alley and the chestful of galleons we needed for a place in Skyfall." Fred finished, expression settling into something both proud and excited.
"Plus a bit!" George added with a grin. "Enough to pay wages so we've got some help running things."
Harry smiled down at them both, genuinely pleased by their success. "That's great, guys. I knew the sales were going really well, but I didn't know they were going that well."
George nodded then finally sat back with a grin when the younger teen glowered at him. "We've been milking the tournament for all it's worth. While it's up and running we've been able to have those stands in all three schools, plus that one you set up in Skyfall and the small one they set up in the Ministry and Diagon Alley. We've had to change up the stock for some of them, like the one in the Ministry so it's more attractive to older customers but everyone's been massively keen."
"Right, the memory orbs for the tasks have been selling like wildfire in all the stalls. We've barely been able to keep up with the demand, we've had to expand on the owl orders between the tasks to keep up." Fred agreed, shifting to sit with his legs crossed and idly scratched at his chin. "We've had to spend some of the profits on a few more owls for that but they're company owls so at least the funds are being reinvested back into the company."
"Which is what you want to be doing, as much as possible at this point." The young king reminded them.
They had spent several hours over several days before the first task both discussing and creating merchandise for the stalls to sell, but also learning what they'd need to get the stalls up and running and keep them running smoothly.
Or at least Harry had learnt, since as it turned out the twins had already known all the things he had been learning about how to run a business. They had, in fact been teaching themselves for a couple years between Hogwarts lessons and over summer breaks when they weren't inventing new ways to make their mother scream at their antics.
But while Harry had flicked his way through books on business management they had drawn up - at Harry's insistence - a detailed breakdown of their plans and goals for the business. How they planned to reinvest the money they made, how they were sourcing raw materials, plans for employees like preferred skills and ideal wages.
The plan to branch out into accepting and promoting owl orders had been on the books as it were from quite early on, however they hadn't honestly anticipated actually needing to incorporate that particular dynamic until they had a permanent shop. So they'd had to get special permission to leave school grounds during term in order to purchase several owls to use and were keeping them in a small eyrie the Hogwarts elves had constructed for them, in order to keep them separate from the general purpose school owls.
The last thing they needed was to go up with an armful of orders only to find their owls had been sent off with someone else's mail home.
"Yeah, so we also managed to talk McGonagall into taking us to Diagon last week so we could visit the elf placement place." Fred told him, grinning broadly.
"You're looking at the proud partners to four elves. We figured two for each shop when they're built and some dedicated hands in the meanwhile to help with production and order processing." George added, looking particularly pleased with the turn of events.
Fred nodded, rocking a little in place while his fingers wrapped around his ankles. "Right and we remembered all the stuff about names and uniforms you told us so they're all dressed up in the snazzy uniforms we designed for the shops-"
"- complete with the golden W for Weasley Wizard Wheezers." George finished, sharing a grin with his twin. "We copied your employment laws and taught them about 'em so they know we're not withholding work as a punishment."
"There were a lot of tears involved." Fred said.
"Yeah, Gred wouldn't stop sobbing."
"Oi!" Fred cried, reaching out to shove his twin which only made the other laugh.
Harry smiled at the antics and shook his head, amused as usual by their light hearted behaviour. "Good, I'm glad you're managing to work things out."
And it was.
It made him feel warm, seeing others deciding on their own without pressure or bribery to follow the example he was setting. He had given them a different option, a different perspective and they had grabbed hold and let it lead them somewhere new.
He could only hope that others would start following that same example.
Staring out over the Great Lake, Harry found himself wondering a few things.
First, if each of the tasks were each meant to play to the particular skills of each champion, how had they decided on which skillset best represented which champion?
Which task and its associated challenges?
Why this or that challenge?
How were they planning around the anomaly that was Harry Potter who had - quite honestly - been smashing through each of their tasks with his honestly unfair advantages?
The first task with its raging dragons and the golden goal of the egg and its puzzle could have been meant for any of them. Three of them played Quidditch and quite used to hunting for a golden prize in hectic situations and all three were quite adept with Defense.
But Fleur had done quite well there as well, so Harry couldn't honestly say the task had been crafted for one of them specifically without any doubt.
The second task that focused around herbology, care of magical creatures and potions had been a bit more obvious. At least if you had no knowledge of Harry's advancements there.
Viktor had done decently well, though not as well as Fleur or Cedric. And Cedric, while he had done decently well with the finding and gathering of ingredients which showed off his knowledge and skill with herbology and care of magical creatures, had stumbled a bit with the actual potion aspect.
Fleur on the other hand had breezed through all three aspects, doing so well in fact that she had tied with Harry for first place, even with Harry's considerable education and focus boost. Which said quite a lot since she was still in her final year of what was termed 'basic' study and as such, didn't have access to the same resources or reading material that Harry did.
But this third task was so obviously geared toward Harry it was honestly a little funny.
They were meant to dive into the lake and hunt from place to place, finding the hidden runes they needed to recreate an array each of them would be shown before they dived in. Each of their arrays would be different so they couldn't just follow one after another and use someone else's success or knowledge to solve their own puzzle.
And they didn't have to follow the array example they had been given exactly.
They would only be given the most basic array possible to achieve their goal. If they managed to piece together the runes to rebuild the basic array they had been given then they would be awarded the minimum number of points possible for the task and still be counted as a success.
Failure to complete even the basic array would mean a failure, but the name of the game was improvement.
If a champion could discover enough runes - and the correct ones - to improve the array they would be given, then they would be awarded additional for each improvement. For each measure of proof that they understood both the balance of runes and the arithmancy that was used to measure and balance their power and symbolism.
The entire task was a giant puzzle that revolved around improvisation and critical thinking, underwater, where Harry would be able to breathe easily, navigate well and fend off aquatic dangers with a similar ease.
Honestly it couldn't have been more tailored to him unless they scrapped all the other requirements and just made the only condition for success, having the name 'Harry Potter'.
It was entirely possible, he conceded, that he felt a little insulted.
Which was a little silly, since there were perfectly reasonable chances that the other champions could do well.
There were several ways a person could facilitate the need to breathe while underwater. Similarly there were several charms that could be cast on oneself to aid in navigating through low or even no light environments. Charms that could - based on proximity - alert a caster to movement in their vicinity.
And he knew that Cedric had been taking both ancient runes and arithmancy as his elective classes, just like Viktor had - or at least the Durmstrang equivalent - along with Fleur who had admitted to having a long standing interest in the subject of runes.
So it wasn't like the older teenagers would be obviously worse off.
It just sort of felt like an indirect form of pandering, which never failed to rub Harry the wrong way.
The other three were equipped with their standard crystal bands and harnesses in order to capture and relay to the audiences what was going on beneath the lake surface, though the frames that secured the recording crystals had to be further enchanted with a dark piercing charm so that the visuals recorded would actually capture the environment and all the rest and not just the dark waters. They had recognised the possibility of the champions utilising other means of dark-seeing besides a general lighting spell with little input from Harry and had made the request for him to make the adjustments before he could suggest them himself.
Harry though, already realising that he would likely spend the entirety of his time underwater in his animagus form had had to come up with an alternative harness solution for his own recording crystals. He had needed to stand patiently in his animagus form while Hagrid, Frederick, Bill, Ludo Bagman, Ruknukle and Madam Bones all either helped him into or spectated the fitting of a harness that had been created to fit his animagus form.
Where the other champions had a relatively small crystal settled into place on their brow, Harry had a crystal that was halfway between an oblong and a diamond shape resting in the space between his eyes and extended down halfway to his nose at the end of his snout. His mane that usually hung down over his face was carefully braided and tied back, secured to his horns so it wouldn't drift in the way and obstruct the view.
Rather than another stone at his sternum like the others, he had a larger one that was secured at the junction of his long neck and his dense chest that was joined by another at the mid point of his back so everyone else could see if something tried to come up behind him. That same large harness also incorporated crystals on his sides, where the others had crystals on either shoulder, in order to keep the recording points as equal as possible.
Though unlike the others he also had a band of crystal around his tail.
In the event something decided to try and take a bite out of it, Ruknukle had said.
Hovering in the air next to the pier, since he was too big to fit on the pier with the rest of the champions, Harry glanced at the rune array that had been drawn onto the large sheaf of parchment Mr. Bagman held up to him and gave a nod while the man tried to hype up the crowd.
Harry was fairly sure he would have had a better time of it if most of the crowd wasn't gawking at his dragon form.
His fellow champions for their part didn't appear to be particularly intimidated by the crowd or the task.
On the contrary they all looked a bit amused. Though whether it was at Harry, who couldn't fit on the pier, or themselves…
Harry was certain he had no clue.
At least none he would admit to.