The expected consequences of Harry's little 'stunt' with the Goblet of Fire never actually came, much to the chagrin of the recently named 'Tournament Saboteurs' and consisting of most of the de-magified population of Hogwarts along with a handful of their supporters.
This because two main reasons.
Firstly, Harry was no longer a student at Hogwarts, the Goblet's judgment was clear on that point. From the moment his name came out of the artifact and his former Headmaster/guardian agreed to it, he stopped being a student there, therefore there was no feasible way that the administration could punish him (not that they intended to do so, despite his actions pretty much crippling the British magical society), much to the chagrin of those affected.
(Due to the quite absurd amount of people the Goblet's judgment affected and the overall state of chaos in Magical Britain, it was was deemed impossible by the Hogwarts staff to just send the magic-less population of the school back home.)
Those who still retained their magic knew better than to attack Harry Potter, despite having had family members, friends and acquaintances turned into 'squibs'.
The resident Death Eaters, Severus Snape and Igor Karkaroff had been neutered when, just after having their magic stripped from them, they suffered the equivalent of 2 incredibly overpowered Cruciatus curses all of a sudden. Tom Riddle's foray into Death violently stripped what little remained of their magic from their bodies.
Overall they were alive, not healthy but they would manage to survive a couple of years, decades if they were careful with their health.
Oh, and they were now, officially, muggles.
The same phenomena happened to every marked Death Eater that had their magic stripped by the Goblet's Judgment.
(Shame that the muggle-repelling charms that protected Hogwarts and much of the Magical side of the world was now actively acting against them.)
Those that only suffered the 'mercies' of Tom Riddle's death throes still kept their magic, much more diminished now…
The same could not be said about their mental state, however. It wasn't weird to see a sudden increase on St. Mungo's Janus Thickey Ward, where those afflicted by permanent spell damage resided.
Secondly, those who would've sought to punish (either killing or sending him on a one-way trip to Azkaban) Harry were now either victims of the Goblet or were majorly Death Eaters… safe to say, most, if not all of the anti-Harry Potter faction of society now had no voice, money or power to do anything to him.
The Judgment had them to below squib levels, more magical than a Muggle, enough that they could still see the concealed parts of the world, and yet less than a squib, since the latter could at least use what little connection they had to magic to power and use basic Runic schema.
As such the very laws that most of them advocated for in the Wizengamot now worked against them. Not even being capable of being recognized as squibs, they couldn't participate in the law-making process, the runes and magical constructs that littered the Ministry of Magic and made their lives so much easier just couldn't be activated by them anymore.
Likewise, by law they could hold have no property nor money inside the Magical side of Britain. Magically they were more similar to a Muggle than to a squib. It didn't matter if technically they were not muggles. The parchment in which the laws were written were magically-binding and concise enough that, in the eyes of the law they were no more than Muggles.
Muggles with a somewhat higher-than-average life expectancy but muggles nonetheless.
Oh and severely physically unfit to boot.
As such, the bunch of laws that were curiously approved without much fuss in the past two to three decades now was actively working against them.
And they could do nothing about it.
Undoubtedly most of them would just die in a hare-brained plot or scheme to get money/food from the muggles given the fact that most of the people that lived in magical Britain had little to no knowledge of the 'real' world.
For some of them, their remaining family members or friends could help them out.
For the vast majority, however… Let's just say they weren't the most charismatic of the bunch…
Regardless, Harry was able of enjoying a relatively consequence-free couple of days.
Ironically, despite the not so few people who would've wanted to see Harry dead or worse, the atmosphere in Hogwarts improved by leaps and bounds.
Having all of the most egregious promoters of house rivalry socially and politically 'culled' did wonders for the overall liveliness of the school.
It wasn't strange to see students of all houses sitting together, sometimes even some the professors joined them. In one fell swoop the house-divide and the infallible image of the faculty was broken beyond repair.
Without Albus to dictate how the faculty should interact with the students (and without the poisonous tongue of Severus Snape and with Minerva McGonagall having been given a reality check), a much more involved faculty now sought to teach, to the better of their abilities, not only about magic, but also about skills that would serve them well outside the halls of Hogwarts.
Socializing, some etiquette for those who needed it, history and customs of the wizarding world, even a bunch of Muggle-born and Half-Bloods joined together in order to teach their more secluded peers about the ins and outs of the 'normal' world.
This went both ways since most of the Pureblood still-magical students went on to 'educate' their peers on the magical society's point of view in many issues, sometimes dispelling preconceptions, other times reaffirming them.
That Harry participated in all those activities also indirectly protected them from the malicious designs of the saboteurs, who vastly outnumbered them.
The only time anyone tried to harm Harry after the Goblet's judgment occurred a week afterwards.
Draco Malfoy, unwilling to admit his new status in life without magic, convinced a group of disgruntled Slytherins, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws (and a not too smart Ronald Weasley) to attack Harry Potter (he would've tried to convince some of their still magical supporters but he knew no one would be willing to risk their magic just to harm Potter), confident on the fact that, now that they had almost no magic left, the Goblet would not be capable of harming them further.
Needless to say, it didn't end well at all for them.
The Goblet remained active, knowing that one of the Champions' life was still in peril, always vigilant of those that would seek out to harm Harry.
The plan was to ambush Potter when he was alone, preferably near one of the castle's many staircases, after bloodying him up a bit, they would throw him, hopefully to his death.
The result? As soon as someone from those gathered threw the first punch, the whole lot of them saw their left arm surrounded by the Goblet's ethereal flames. The sight was entrancing at first, purple – almost violet flames wrapping around the would-be assailants left arms, neither cold nor hot to the touch…
The smell afterwards was not so much. Without a warning the totally safe flames weren't anymore. If it only were an instant process, it would've been a mercy for the lot of them, sadly everyone involved fell to the ground crying in pain as their arms began burning, inch by painful inch, by the Goblet's flames, the magic of the artifact working so that they wouldn't simply fall unconscious, for what kind of punishment would it be if they didn't suffer it?
Obviously such a cacophony of screams alerted the rest of the castle's inhabitants and, soon enough, there was an audience filling the stairs and hallways standing witness to the (quite literal) disarming of their peers.
Some of them took pity on the still screaming and trashing and attempted to stop the flames and, when that failed, to stun the poor sods.
They stopped when a voice echoed throughout the old castle's halls.
"Heed this warning, defilers. This is the second time you've been judged guilty. There will be no third."
Right then everyone connected the dots, looking between the suffering bunch and the, remarkably composed, if a bit pale, Harry Potter. Suddenly most of the pity felt towards the now 'all right' bunch dissapeared.
"Seriously… what on earth were they thinking?"
"That's the problem… I believe they weren't…"
"It hasn't even been a week since they lost their magic and they still tried to hurt Potter again?! Bloody hell…"
"Well… at least they seem to be all right."
"Fred… Seriously?"
"What?! You can't tell me you weren't dying to crack that joke!"
"…. point."
Yup, all sympathy towards them was truly gone if the bickering happening around them was any indication of it.
The faculty, in the meantime, was having a much more serious discussion.
"Can't we at least do something for them?"
"Sorry to say, Minerva, but nothing we've tried has worked… It seems the Goblet wants this lesson to stick…"
"Merlin…" McGonagall looked at the students writhing on the floor, a grimace of sadness on her face "first their magic and now this? Whatever shall we tell their families?"
"Well… that they deserved it?"
"Filius!"
The smallest professor shrugged "You know I'm not wrong… they were punished once already and you all heard the Goblet, they obviously attempted to harm Potter once again…"
"Yes, you are right, but don't you think this is taking it a bit too far!?" Sprout pointed at the still-screaming students, noticing how the flames had consumed their way up to the elbows of most of them, judging by the flame coverage on their arms, however, it'd still take around 30 minutes or so until their punishment was finished, at which point they estimated the flames would finally reach their shoulders.
One poor, unlucky bastard with abnormally long arms still had a good two to three inches to go before reaching that point… at the pace the flames were moving, he would have to suffer for a dozen of minutes more than the rest of them…
It was a bad day for one Jeremy Armlong.
Wincing a bit at the pain-filled scream still ongoing, Flitwick cast a general silencing charm in the area.
Fortunately for all of them, the charm kind of worked, not completely muting but muffling the sound considerably.
"What do you want me to say, Pomona? That I feel sorry for the lot of them? Well, I don't. You know exactly what they did, they attacked a child, a child that was once our student. With the intent to maim or kill him… And we did nothing"
"And now, they once again gathered to maim or kill that very same child. A child we all repeatedly failed over and over. Merlin's sake, woman, Dumbledore lost his magic! Do you understand what that means?! For years he'd been telling everyone that Harry was safe and happy, that he has been doing anything and everything to ensure his safety… He's been lying to us and we've been too stupid to fall for it."
The charms professor finally gave a sigh "So no, I don't feel sorry for them, they are merely reaping what they sowed… Obviously the way we've been disciplining them isn't working, point loss, detentions? Ever since Albus became the Headmaster there has been seven… SEVEN suicides and no expulsions… If them suffering is what it takes to change that well… I honestly believe it's a small price to pay."
The rest of the professors were shamed into silence. They knew all too well that Flitwick was right.
The truth of the matter was, despite all the evidence pointing towards the culprits, Dumbledore merely swept it all under the rug, claiming the whole thing was either due to the victim's family situation, being hearth broken or their falling (fabricated) grades… or a combination of the three.
Never the fault of the constant harassment, threats, attacks or mocking from their peers.
That in all cases except one the victims were muggle-born didn't help either. A simple charm and their families and friends all but forgot about the deceased.
Even in the case of the half-blood student, his parents were merely chucked into Azkaban for 'child abuse'…
Finally after the longest hour lived by any person in attendance, the punishment was over. Pomfrey wasted no time to scan (and try to heal) the students.
It was a futile effort. The diagnosis charms reported nothing wrong in them, their arms were simply gone, even their stumps looked healthy and natural, not charred or burned, just as if they were born that way.
Mentally however… To say they were left traumatized was putting it mildly.
It was soon evident that all of them developed a (healthy) phobia to fire. The mere sight of a candle or a matchstick, unlit or not, was more than enough to sent them into hysterics.
Needless to say, on a castle whose main source of illumination was candlelight that one fact made their stay an impossibility.
That made things easier for the tired staff. They could not keep the 'righteous ones' (no one knew who coined the new nickname but it stuck better than all the other ones) in the castle, so they sent them off home, explaining their families (in gruesome detail in some cases) what had transpired and making it clear, in no uncertain terms, that any attempts at retaliation against either Harry Potter or the rest of the students and staff would be dealt with extreme prejudice.
The era of symbolic platitudes and slaps on the wrists died when Albus lost his magic. For once the staff was ready and willing to protect all their students, still enrolled or not. It was time for Britain to remember just why they were hired to teach on Hogwarts (Trelawney notwithstanding). Each of them was one of the very best in their respective fields of study and were no longer going to be cowed into passiveness.
Even McGonagall, her magic diminished as it was, could still do feats of Transfiguration that could baffle the masses.
That small hiccup aside, things were going smoothly following the upheaval at Hogwarts.
Despite the remaining resentment against the lighting-scarred boy, all his ill-wishers now knew better than to even think to harm him. It was also clear that the faculty was no longer going to merely watch idly as students attacked and abused each other, made patently obvious when just two days later a string of expulsions hit three seventh years who were harassing a second year, leaving them with the dubious achievement of being the first students to be expelled from Hogwarts in over forty years.
Overall things were much better for the remaining students. Sure, some of them had to curb their impulses, brought by years of being spoiled and allowed to do almost everything without consequence. For the vast majority, however, it meant that they had a much more pleasurable experience at school.
Harry hadn't been idle either, focusing all his efforts and attention, now that he didn't have to look out for his life inside the castle, to improving both his magical repertoire and mastery of it in preparation for the mysterious First Task.
His now improved social circle did wonders in achieving that goal. Without the pressure of house-loyalty, Slytherin harassment, a magical leech siphoning a good chunk of his magic and mental prowess and Snape's 'sabotage', his understanding and proficiency in several subjects skyrocketed, finally achieving some of his true potential.
That all four champions reached a kind of understanding and were often seen together, sharing knowledge and training, was another plus. No one wanted to go to the first task unprepared and Harry's progress had certainly surprised more than a few people.
Besides, the whole deal with the tournament was to 'promote the friendship and cooperation between the three schools', right?
AN: Another chapter done!
This time we saw some of the consequences of the Goblet's little rampage.
Deserved? Too much? Who knows, at the end life still goes on for Harry, he still has a Tournament to compete on and some challenges to bulldoze over. Although the biggest threat to his existence is all but gone, who knows what could come next...
After all, he was chosen by fate for a reason. A little school kerfuffle is nothing in the grand scheme of things.
... Alright, in all seriousness, this particular story will most likely wrap up on the next chapter. Maybe I'll reference back to it on upcoming stories, maybe not.
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