Viktor Krum

Why was Harry even making an effort with Triwizard Tournament? Why not just show up and twiddle your thumbs for the next couple of hours? What's the Goblet of Fire going to do, yell at him? Fleur probably could have tried harder on the second task, but the Magical Cup of Child Endangerment didn't hurt her.

So why isn't Dumbledore just having Harry show up and screw around for an hour or so, or work on schoolwork in the corner or something while the ones who are of age do the tasks? Dumbledore could've hidden him during the tournament while the tasks took place That seems like the safest thing to do.

Letter: K

Character: Krum

Cho Chang is two last names

Viktor Krum is two first names

JKR made a grave error💀

(Get ready for some beautiful dresses)

Previous Chapters:

https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003804769

https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003805533

https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003806102

https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003806803

https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003808304

https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003810956

Tags:

@SaphireStark @Missy Clara Oswald @CatsAndRoblox @Pervaza972

Chapter Seven: The Wedding

Three o’clock on the following afternoon found Harry, Ron, Fred, and George standing outside the great white marquee in the orchard, awaiting the arrival of the wedding guests. Harry had taken a large dose of Polyjuice Potion and was now the double of a redheaded Muggle boy from the local village, Ottery St. Catchpole, from whom Fred had stolen hairs using a Summoning Charm. The plan was to introduce Harry as “Cousin Barny” and trust to the great number of Weasley and Prewett relatives to camouflage him. If a Prewett asked who he was he was a Weasley, and if a Weasley asked he was a Prewett.

All four of them were clutching seating plans, so that they could help show people to the right seats. A host of white-robed waiters had arrived an hour earlier, along with a golden jacketed band, and all of these wizards were currently sitting a short distance away under a tree. Harry could see a blue haze of pipe smoke issuing from the spot.

Behind Harry, the entrance to the marquee revealed rows and rows of fragile golden chairs set on either side of a long purple carpet. The supporting poles are entwined with white and gold flowers. Fred and George had fastened an enormous bunch of golden balloons over the exact point where Bill and Fleur would shortly become husband and wife. Outside, butterflies and bees were hovering lazily over the grass and hedgerow. Harry was rather uncomfortable. The Muggle boy whose appearance he was affecting weighed slightly more than him, and his dress robes felt hot and tight in the full glare of a summer’s day.

‘When I get married,’ said Fred, tugging at the collar of his own robes, ‘I won’t be bothering with any of this nonsense. You can all wear what you like, and I’ll put a full Body Bind Curse on Mum until it’s all over.’

‘She wasn’t too bad this morning, considering,’ said George. ‘Cried a bit about Percy not being here, but who wants him? Oh blimey, brace yourselves—here they come, look.’

Brightly colored figures were appearing, one by one, out of nowhere at the distant boundary of the yard. Within minutes a procession had formed, which began to snake its way up through the garden toward the marquee. Exotic flowers and bewitched birds fluttered on the witches’ hats, while precious gems glittered from man of the wizards’ cravats; a hum of excited chatter grew louder and louder, drowning the sound of the bees as the crowd approached the tent.

‘Excellent, I think I see a few veela cousins,’ said George, craning his neck for a better look. ‘They’ll need help understanding our English customs, I’ll look after them…’

‘Not so fast, Your Holeyness,’ said Fred, and darting past the gaggle of middle-aged witches heading the procession, he said, ‘Here—pozvolete mi da vi pomogna,’ to a pair of pretty Bulgarian girls, who giggled and allowed him to escort them inside. George was left to deal with the middle-aged witches and Ron took charge of Mr Weasley’s old Ministry colleague Perkins, while a rather deaf old couple fell to Harry’s lot.

‘Wotcher,’ said a familiar voice as he came out of the marquee again and found Tonks and Tulip at the front of the queue. She had turned blonde for the occasion. ‘Arthur told us you were the one with the curly hair. Sorry about what you experienced last night, the Minister had no right to burn you with his wand,’ she added in a whisper as Harry led them up the aisle. ‘He’s under a lot of pressure but that is no excuse.’

‘It’s fine, I don’t care what he says,’ said Harry.

Remus, Theodore, and Canini were right behind Tonks and Tulip. Theodore was in his black and silver dress robes with his dark brown hair slicked back, upon a closer look complimentary silver eyeshadow coated his eyelids. Canini was wearing a golden yellow knee length dress with black detailing. She looked very pretty and mature. Remus gave Harry a smile and a nod.

‘I'm sorry you ended up in the Weasley greeting team, it just was the best way to keep up the disguise,' said Remus. 'Though to make up for it I volunteered Theodore for clean up duty at the end of the night. You'll be ok right now?'

'I'll be alright. Cani, you look great.'

'Thanks "Barny", we'll see you later. Don't die from the heat.'

Harry's attention was pulled to Hagrid, who was causing a certain amount of disruption. Having misunderstood Fred’s directions he had sat himself, not upon the magically enlarged and reinforced seat set aside for him in the back row, but on five seats that now resembled a large pile of golden matchsticks.

While Mr Weasley repaired the damage and Hagrid shouted apologies to anybody who would listen, Harry hurried back to the entrance to find Ron face-to-face with a most eccentric-looking wizard who Harry was fairly certain he had met before but couldn't place where. Slightly cross-eyed, with shoulder-length white hair the texture of candyfloss, he wore a cap whose tassel dangled in front of his nose and robes of an eye-watering shade of egg-yolk yellow. An odd symbol, rather like a triangular eye, glistened from a golden chain around his neck.

'Xenophilius Lovegood,' he said, extending a hand to Harry, who now remembered he had briefly met Mr Lovegood just after the Quidditch World Cup but the events f the previous night had made that memory fuzzy, 'my daughter and I live just over the hill, so kind of the good Weasleys to invite us. But I think you know my Luna?' he added to Ron.

'Yes, a little,' said Ron. 'Isn’t she with you?'

'She lingered in that charming little garden to say hello to the gnomes, such a glorious infestation! How few wizards realize just how much we can learn from the wise little gnomes—or, to give them their correct name, the Gernumbli gardensi.'

'Ours do know a lot of excellent swear words,' said Ron, 'but I think Fred and George taught them those.'

He led a party of warlocks into the marquee as Luna rushed up.

'Hello, Harry!' she said.

'Er—my name’s Barny,' said Harry, flummoxed.

'Oh, have you changed that too?' she asked brightly.

'How did you know—?'

'Oh, just your expression and body language,' she said.

Like her father, Luna was wearing bright yellow robes, which she had accessorized with a large sunflower in her hair. Once you got over the brightness of it all, the general effect was quite pleasant. At least there were no radishes dangling from her ears.

Xenophilius, who was deep in conversation with an acquaintance, had missed the exchange between Luna and Harry. Bidding the wizards farewell, he turned to his daughter, who held up her finger and said, 'Daddy, look—one of the gnomes actually bit me!'

'How wonderful! Gnome saliva is enormously beneficial!' said Mr Lovegood, seizing Luna’s outstretched finger and examining the bleeding puncture marks. 'Luna, my love, if you should feel any burgeoning talent today—perhaps an unexpected urge to sing opera or to declaim in Mermish—do not repress it! You may have been gifted by the Gernumblies!'

Ron, passing them in the opposite direction, let out a loud snort. Harry rolled his eyes, while Luna could be a bit strange and silly, she was well meaning and kind and Harry disliked people who were purposely rude to her.

'Ron can laugh,' said Luna serenely as Harry led her and Xenophilius toward their seats, 'but my father has done a lot of research on Gernumbli magic.'

'Really?' said Harry, who had long since decided not to challenge Luna or her father’s peculiar views. 'Are you sure you don’t want to put anything on that bite, though?'

'Oh, it’s fine,' said Luna, sucking her finger in a dreamy fashion and looking Harry up and down. 'You look smart. I told Daddy most people would probably wear dress robes, but he believes you ought to wear sun colors to a wedding, for luck, you know. I see your sister did the same.'

'Yeah but for her I think its Hufflepuff colours,' suggested Harry. 'You do look very nice in your sun dress though, Luna.'

'She looks even more beautiful,' said Luna pointing behind Harry and he turned to look in that direction.

Three of Harry's friends had just entered the marquee. Terence was in modest dress robes and hand he and Tracey were linking arms. Tracey had the left side of her head in tight cornrows while the rest of her hair was soft curls, her dress was a nice emerald knee length that matched her purse that hung on her shoulder. Neither of them were in compare to Allison who was behind them.

Allison seemed to have embraced her secret love for the colour pink, because along with her headband she was wearing a sleeveless light mulberry dress that appeared to be mermaid style with inspiration from flamenco. It had adorable ruffles and black embroidering that gave the dress a goth aesthetic. Allison's short black spikey hair looked extra silky, and along with her regular silver piercing in her ears she now had the round silver studs in her lobes and nose with small pink topazes. She was so radiant that if his cover wasn't important to his safety he would have run over to her and kiss her like there was nobody watching.

Harry was so distracted by Allison's beauty that he didn't register as Luna drifted off after her father, only coming back into focus as Ron reappeared with an elderly witch clutching her arm. Her beaky nose, red-trimmed eyes, and feathery pink hat gave her the look of a bad-tempered flamingo.

'...and you hair’s much too long, Ronald, for a moment I thought you were Ginevra. Merlin’s beard, what is Xenophilius Lovegood wearing? He looks like an omelet. And who are you?' she barked at Harry.

'Oh yeah, Auntie Muriel, this is our cousin Barny.'

'Another Weasley? You breed like gnomes. Isn’t Harry Potter here? I was hoping to meet him. I thought he was a friend of yours, Ronald, or have you merely been boasting?'

'No—he couldn’t come—'

'Hmm. Made an excuse, did he? Not as gormless as he looks in press photographs, then. I’ve just been instructing the bride on how best to wear my tiara,' she shouted at Harry. 'Goblin-made, you know, and been in my family for centuries. She’s a good-looking girl, but still—French. Well, well, find me a good seat, Ronald, I am a hundred and seven and I ought not to be on my feet too long.'

Ron gave Harry a meaningful look as he passed and did not reappear for some time. When next they met at the entrance, Harry had shown a dozen more people to their places. The marquee was nearly full now, and for the first time there was no queue outside.

'Nightmare, Muriel is,' said Ron, mopping his forehead on his sleeve. 'She used to come for Christmas every year, then, thank God, she took offense because Fred and George set off a Dungbomb under her chair at dinner. Dad always says she’ll have written them out of her will—like they care, they’re going to end up richer than anyone in the family, rate they’re going.'

'I can imagine, I loved my paw-paw Lyle but I'd be lying if I said he had never once said something uncomfortable at the Christmas or Easter dinner table,' said Harry. 'Well, if nearly everyone is seated I'll go and sit as close to my family as possible without being suspicious. Maybe next to Luna and her father.'

'Hermione said she might sit near Luna too so I might see you in a bit,' said Ron as Harry went off to find his seat.

Sitting next to Luna also was opportune as it put Harry right behind Allison.

'You look absolutely stunning,' whispered Harry, Allison smiled. 'You're at risk of outshining the bride.'

'Thank you Beau,' she said, turning her head just enough in his direction to hear. 'Although don't worry, with her veela ancestry Fleur could walk down the aisle in a paper bag and still be the prettiest witch here, because of that she said she was ok with everyone wearing as nice of clothes as they want. So, what held you up with the Weasley's?'

'Oh, was just helping Ron with his great-great aunt. She was actually pretty rude to him, insulted his hair and said he looked like a girl.'

'Talking about Muriel?' inquired George, as him and Fred seemed to appear out of no where but were just leading Hermione to her seat. 'Yeah, she’ just told me my ears are lopsided. Old bat. I wish old Uncle Bilius was still with us, though; he was a right laugh at weddings.'

'Wasn’t he the one who saw a Grim and died twenty-four hours later?' asked Hermione.

'Oh, that's terrible,' said Allison.

'Well, yeah, he went a bit odd toward the end,' conceded George.

'But before he went loopy he was the life and soul of the party.' said Fred. 'He used to down an entire bottle of firewhisky, then run onto the dance floor, hoist up his robes, and start pulling bunches of flowers out of his—'

'Yes, he sounds a real charmer,' said Hermione, while Harry roared with laughter.

'Never married, for some reason,' said Ron as he sat down on one side of Hermione.

'You amaze me,' said Hermione.

They were all laughing so much that none of them noticed the latecomer, a dark-haired young man with a large, curved nose and thick black eyebrows, until he stood next to Hermione and said, 'You look vunderful.'

If his voice and compliment to Hermione wasn't enough of a clue as to who this was to Harry, Theodore abruptly standing up straight as a board and his face turning pink was.

'Viktor!' Hermione shrieked, 'I didn’t know you were—goodness—it’s lovely to see—how are you again?'

Ron’s ears had turned bright red. Harry had never asked, but he often couldn't tell if his old friend was dating Hermione Granger or not and he never dared to ask. Ron took a deep breath and said much too loudly, 'How come you’re here?'

'Fleur invited me,' said Krum, eyebrows raised.

Harry, who had no grudge against Krum, shook his hand. Then Theodore turned to face the quidditch star, and nervously put out his hand.

'Hi Viktor, I know you probably don't remember me but I—' he said in a voice much higher than normal and his face so pink it made Allison's dress look bland.

'No, I remember you, you're thee flattering brother of Harry Potter,' said Krum as he took Theodore's hand. 'Good to see you. Is you're brother around?'

'Er-no,' Theodore managed to squeak.

Harry managed to hear Canini jokingly whisper to Tracey, 'Maybe it's best Colin isn't here, or else he'd have to honour duel Krum, and Krum would just squish him like a bug.'

Before Theodore could turn any more pink, Harry decided it was best to remove Krum from Ron and Theodore's vicinity, so he offered to show him to his seat.

'Your red haired friend is not pleased to see me,' said Krum as he entered the now packed marquee. 'Or is he a relative?' he added with a glance at Harry’s own red curly hair.

'Cousin,' Harry muttered, but Krum was not really listening. His appearance was causing a stir, particularly amongst the veela cousins: He was, after all, a famous Quidditch player. While people were still craning their necks to get a good look at him, Ron, Fred, and George came hurrying down the aisle.

'Time to sit down,' Fred told Harry, 'or we’re going to get run over by the bride.'

And so Harry quickly ran back to his seat in the second row behind Allison, Remus, Canini, Theodore, Tracey, Terence, and the twins. Next to him Hermione looked rather pink and Ron’s ears were still scarlet.

A sense of jittery anticipation had filled the warm tent, the general murmuring broken by occasional spurts of excited laughter. Mr and Mrs Weasley strolled up the aisle, smiling and waving at relatives: Mrs Weasley was wearing a brand-new set of amethyst-coloured robes with a matching hat.

A moment later Bill and Charlie stood up at the front of the marquee, both wearing dress robes, with large white roses in their buttonholes; Fred wolf-whistled and there was an outbreak of giggling from the veela cousins. Then the crowd fell silent as music swelled from what seemed to be the golden balloons.

'Ooooh!' said several members of the crowd, swiveling around in her seat to look at the entrance.

A great collective sigh issued from the assembled witches and wizards as Monsieur Delacour and Fleur came walking up the aisle, Fleur gliding, Monsieur Delacour bouncing and beaming. Fleur was wearing a very simple white dresses and seemed to be emitting a strong, silvery glow. While her radiance usually dimmed everyone else by comparison, today it beautified everyone it fell upon. Ginny and Gabrielle, both wearing golden dresses, looked even prettier than usual, and once Fleur had reached him, Bill did not look as though he had ever met Fenrir Greyback.

'Ladies and gentlemen,' said a slightly singsong voice, and with a slight shock, Harry saw the same small, tufty-haired wizard who had presided at Dumbledore’s funeral, now standing in front of bill and Fleur. 'We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of two faithful souls...'

'Yes, my tiara sets off the whole thing nicely,' said auntie Muriel in a rather carrying whisper. 'But I must say, Ginevra’s dress is far too low cut.'

Harry’s mind wandered a long way from the marquee, back to afternoons spent alone with Allison in lonely parts of the school grounds. They seemed so long ago; they had always seemed too good to be true, as though he had been stealing shining hours from a normal person’s life, a person without a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. Would it even be possible to one day stand in front of friends and family with her to say wedding vows...

'Do you, William Arthur, take Fleur Isabelle..?'

In the front row, Mrs Weasley and Madame Delacour were both sobbing quietly into scraps of lace. Trumpetlike sounds from the back of the marquee told everyone that Hagrid had taken out one of his own tablecloth-sized handkerchiefs. Canini turned and beamed at Harry; her eyes too were full of tears.

'...then I declare you bonded for life.'

The tufty-haired wizard waved his wand high over the heads of Bill and Fleur and a shower of silver stars fell upon them, spiraling around their now entwined figures. As Fred and George led a round of applause, the golden balloons overhead burst: Birds of paradise and tiny golden bells flew and floated out of them, adding their songs and chimes to the din.

'Ladies and gentlemen!' called the tuft-haired wizard. 'If you would please stand up!'

They all did so, Auntie Muriel grumbling audibly; he waved his wand again. The seats on which they had been sitting rose gracefully into the air as the canvas walls of the marquee vanished, so that they stood beneath a canopy supported by golden poles, with a glorious view of the sunlit orchard and surrounding countryside.

Next, a pool of molten gold spread from the center of the tent to form a gleaming dance floor; the hovering chairs groped themselves around small white-clothed tables, which all floated gracefully back to earth around it, and the golden-jacketed hand trooped toward a podium.

'How spectacular,' said Terence in awe at the magic as the waiters popped up on all sides, some bearing silver trays of pumpkin juice, butterbeer, and firewhisky, other tottering piles of tarts and sandwiches. Harry had forgotten Terence had said he had never been to a magical wedding, so this was likely the first enchanted party he had ever been to.

'We should all go to Bill and Fleur and congratulate the couple,' said Remus in a fatherly tone as he stood up to see the place where bill and Fleur had vanished amid a crowd of well-wishers.

'Well I'm going to go grab a table while most of the tent is distracted,' said Allison as she picked up some butterbeer mugs from a passing tray, 'Harry, you want to come?'

'Sure,' said Harry as he took one of the butterbeers and followed his girlfriend.

Allison led the way across the empty dance floor, glancing left and right as she went. By the time they had reached the other side of the Marquee, most of the tables were occupied: The emptiest was the one where Luna sat alone.

'May we join you, Luna?' asked Allison.

'Oh yes,' she said happily. 'Daddy’s just gone to give Bill and Fleur our present.'

'That's kind of him. You look very pretty today Luna, by the way,' said Allison, who seemed to be in a pleasant mood.

'Thank you.'

Hello Everyone! I haven't been active in quite a long time so I thought why not chime in more recently! I have recently been creating some ships that I found nice that weren't heard in the books where I shipped random characters and wrote a name and short bio for the offspring. I'm a little lazy so I made only one child per ship.The ships are mixed with characters that I created, like for the first one.

Parvati Patil x Druv Chandigar:

SAHANA CHANDIGAR: House - Hufflepuff: Bio- A milk chocolate girl with brown eyes and dark brown hair, she has a birthmark under her nose and near her lip, she also has one on her chin. She is "4'9" and quiet, constantly with a book.

Cho Chang x Daniel Su:

KORINA CHANG: House- Slytherin: Bio- A fair light skinned girl with hazel eyes, long flowy hair and bangs which cover her eyes. She constantly wears a bun and is always focused on homework and visiting the teachers for extra credit.

Viktor Krum Y/A x Trina Vall

ALAN KRUM: House- Ravenclaw: Bio- A pale boy with blue-green eyes, short messy brown hair, and 3 small birthmarks. He’s “5’6” and very shy. He knows all the answers, and is very smart except for when it comes to social situations. He is a half-blood and watches tons of muggle television. He is mostly compared to Young Sheldon, which makes it his favorite show!

That's it for now, I have a bunch more but I’ll leave it at this and might make another later/soon.

(Triwizard Tournament FINAL ROUND; the obstacle maze)

Karkaroff: Victor, you NEED to win.

Krum: ofc, Headmaster!

Karkaroff: *glares at Moody* Be careful with the traps. Moody is acting like he isn't himself.

(the round begins)

Cedric: *screams*

Harry: What was that? *searches for Cedric*

Cedric: You keep going. I'll keep up.

Harry: *hesitates* No. I will not. *tries to help Cedric up*

(sees Krum getting close to the cup)

Harry: I'll get back to you. *runs off toward the Triwizard Cup*

....(Krum and Harry touch the cup at the same time and get brought to Voldemort. They hide.)

Krum: It's dark. I can't see anything.

Harry: Shut up Mal-Krum. Be quiet.

Krum: LUMOS!!!!!!!!!!

Harry: dO yOu HaVe To Be ThAt LoUd?

Krum: YES!!!!!!!! *mocking*

VOLDY MOLDY: I hear HAARAY POTTAH!

Harry: Oh great...

Krum: Show yourself, DEMON!

Harry: SHUT YOUR MOU-

VOLDY MOLDY: Keel da spareeeeeeeee.

Wormtail: Avadaca Davra

Krum: *dies*

Harry: Good ridd- ahem. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Viktor I love u, viktor i doooo!

When we’re apart, my heart beats only for uuuuuuu

Did you know that Krum was techniqually a Pedophile? In the wizarding world, you become a legal adult when you turn 17, which Krum was. During the Triwizard Tournament, Krum grew feelings for and even kissed Hermione, who was 14. And during Bill and Fleur's wedding, he showed interest in Ginny, who was 16.

Yeah, maybe Ron was right about Krum being too old.

Comment the character you want eliminated:

1. Harry Potter

2. Ron Weasley

3. Hermione Granger

4. Ginny Weasley

5. Luna Lovegood

6. Neville Longbottom

7. Draco Malfoy

8. Fleur Delacour

9. Viktor Krum

10. Cedric Diggory

11. Fred and George Weasley

12. Bill Weasley

Viktor Krum was 21 when he said he wanted to dance with Ginny and called her attractive and about 18 when he asked Hermione to the dance

( if we’re going off of my very limited research)

Previous Chapters:

Chapter 1: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585181

Chapter 2: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585386

Chapter 3: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589099

Chapter 4: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589999

Chapter 5: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003590737

Chapter 6: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003592048

Chapter 7: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003593450

Chapter 8: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003594715

Chapter 9: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003595876

Chapter 10: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003596713

Chapter 11: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003597502

Chapter 12: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003598647

Chapter 13: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003600597

Chapter 14: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003602821

Chapter 15: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003605031

Chapter 16: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003605690

Chapter 17: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003607525

Chapter 18: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003607955

Chapter 19: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003608845

Chapter 20: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003609937

Chapter 21: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003612000

Chapter 22: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003613068

Tags: @MeowTasticCat @Bellatrisblack @Diantha Angelina Black @CatsAndRoblox @Kakaonut @Potatopanda2121

(I am going on a couple day trip in a few hours, and won't be able to respond to messages until I return, so if I don't respond until Friday that is why.)

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Second Task

‘You told me you had already figured out the! That you solved the clue!’ said Theodore, a little ticked off.

‘Keep your voice down!’ said Harry crossly. ‘I just need to—sort of fine-tune it, all right?’

He, Theodore, and Tracey were sitting at the very back of the Divinations class with a table to themselves. They were supposed to be gazing into their crystal balls, but Trelawney was more focused on her prized pupils so it was easier to get away with talking about things other than the nonexistent prophecies they were supposed to be seeing.

‘Just forget the egg for a minute, all right?’ Harry hissed as Professor Trelawney was giving another gloomy rant to the class. ‘I’m trying to tell you about Snape and Moody...’

This class was mostly an ideal cover for a private conversation, as long as it looked like they were focused, and Trelawney kept ranting, then they were all good. Harry had been recounting his adventures of the previous night in whispered installments for the last half hour.

'So Snape has had his office searched twice this year by people who used to work for magical law enforcement?' Theodore asked while waving his hands around the ball in a parody of Trelawney. 'Do you think the Ministry is suspicious of Snape? Because Snape has been here for years, I think he would have done something by now if he had ulterior motives.’

‘I don’t think the Ministry asked either to look into him, it is just something both of them did on their own,’ said Harry, staring deep into the ball and seeing nothing but his reflection. ‘Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he’s giving him a second chance, and he also said that Snape’s hiding something dark...’

‘Really?’ said Tracey, her eyes widening with curiosity, at this point she wasn’t even pretending to be paying attention to Trelawney. ‘Harry...maybe it wasn’t Bagman who put your name in, maybe Moody knows something about Snape’s past and thinks he’s the one putting your life in danger.’

‘Tracey,’ said Harry slowly, ‘I have spent a year of my life thinking Snape was trying to kill me already, as much as I hate him what Dumbledore says is true, he’s holding a grudge but would never actually try to hurt me. Not physically at least.’

This was true, Snape definitely loathed him, just as he’d loathed Harry’s father and godfather when they had been at school together. Snape loved taking points from Harry, and had certainly never missed an opportunity to give him punishments, or even to suggest that he should be suspended from the school, but he had also saved his life and was always on the side of the school whenever there was serious danger.

‘Besides, Dumbledore has never been wrong yet, a regular employer would never hire Hagrid or Remus but Dumbledore didn’t care about there monstrous side. Quirrell only turned evil long after Dumbledore hired him, and his foresight has saved me on multiple occasions. If Dumbledore thinks Snape isn’t scheming, then at least for now that is what I think too.’

‘Still,’ said Tracey while trying to once more pretend she was paying attention to the class, ‘why would Croach get out of his deathbed, and find a way to sneak into Hogwarts to raid Snape’s office if he’s got nothing to hide?’

‘I don’t think he’s actually sick,’ Harry confessed. ‘One of Bagman’s theories was that Croach is secret taking a vacation and getting away from the Ministry, and I think he is half right. I think Mr Croach wanted to take up the law enforcement role one more time and give a deep look into the odd events that have been occurring this year, but he couldn’t do that from his office in the Department of International Magical Co-operation. Whatever he is doing, he’s doing it alone.’

‘Harry, you mentioned that Dumbledore was giving Snape a second chance. I wonder what he did that he needed a second chance, I don’t remember my father ever bringing him up so he couldn’t have had a severely dark past,’ asked Theodore, trying to think of a reason.

That night Harry decided it best to fill Sirius and Remus in on what he had learned the night before, about Mr Crouch breaking into Snape’s office, and Moody and Snape’s conversation, finally Moody’s idea that Harry would make a good auror. Then Harry turned his attention in earnest to the most urgent problem facing him: how to survive underwater for an hour on the twenty-fourth of February.

Theodore thought a potion would be the best bet, but after going through all the books he had he came up empty for spells to let him breath underwater. There was a chance that a more complex potion book held an answer, but the more complicated the book, the rarer the ingredients and longer it took to brew. Theodore might not be able to collect the ingredients and brew the potion in time.

Allison than suggested transfiguration, but all four of them could barely turn a hedgehog into a pincushion, let alone a human into a freshwater fish. Harry had seen the abominations created when a transfiguration spell was only half complete, he didn’t want to become one himself.

‘Well the solution is obvious than,’ said Tracey in confidence. ‘We use a charm.’

So Harry, thinking that he would soon have been to the library enough to memorize every isle, buried himself once more among the dusty volumes with his friends, looking for any spell that might enable a human to survive without oxygen. However, though he, Tracey, Allison, and Allison searched through their lunchtimes, evenings, and whole weekends, they were coming up empty.

It was only after Tracey pretended to ask Professor Flitwick about charms to fill a ballon that they finally found something. Flitwick have her a book from his personal collection, and although the balloon filling spell didn’t help, it did contain a different charm, the Bubble-Head Charm.

It turned out they had been looking in all the wrong places. Instead of a complex charm or a charm that changed Harry’s body, they just need a charm that was originally meant to keep bad smells away.

They hadn’t won yet, despite being simple enough, it still was taking Tracey time to learn it. That time was when the familiar flutterings of panic were starting to disturb Harry now, and he was finding it difficult to concentrate in class again. The fear that Tracey wouldn’t be able to perfect the charm and he would suddenly run out of air at the bottom of the lake consumed his every thought. The lake, which Harry had always taken for granted as just another feature of the grounds, drew his eyes whenever he was near a classroom window, a great, iron-gray mass of chilly water, whose dark and icy depths were starting to seem as distant as the moon.

Tracey slowly manage to get the charm to work, but at first only minutes at a time. Every day of practice only seemed to add a minute or two to her time. Her constant practice was starting to put a strain on her life, including her relationship with Urquhart. Because Harry couldn’t risk anyone finding out he was receiving help for his task, she couldn’t tell him why she was spending so little time with him, and it was becoming obvious Urquhart thought she was purposely avoiding him.

Just as it had before he faced the Horntail, time was slipping away as though somebody had bewitched the clocks to go extra-fast. There was a week to go before February the twenty-fourth (there was still time)...there were five days to go (Tracey could only make the charm last forty-five minutes)...three days to go (fifty minutes)...

With two days left, Harry started to go off food again. The only good thing about breakfast on Monday was a response from his parents. He read it quickly.

“Dear Harry,

For the banter you heard between Moody and Snape we cannot comment as it isn’t our business nor is it yours. As for Crouch being in Snape’s office, we find that more interesting. We’d almost say the map must be faulty but we made it ourselves, if you want to discuss it in further detail we could meet up again at Hogsmeade. Finally being an auror may indeed really suit you, you are a skilled fighter, have a curious mind, and have a knack for running into dark wizards. However being an auror isn’t easy, it takes a lot of work and commitment just to be considered for auror training which takes years to complete. We are just saying if you want to be an auror to be a hero than start thinking about other options, but if it’s really what you want to do and you’re willing to put all your effort into it than you of course have our support. Job luck on your second task and stay safe.

~Sirius and Remus”

At lunch he sent another owl saying when the next Hogsmeade weekend was and that he’ll be there. He then traveled across the frosty grounds to his last Care of Magical Creatures before the challenge.

Whether Hagrid was trying to make up for the Blast-Ended Skrewts, or because there were now only two skrewts left, or because he was trying to prove he could do anything that Professor Grubbly-Plank could, Harry didn’t know, but Hagrid had been continuing her lessons on unicorns ever since he’d returned to work. It turned out that Hagrid knew nearly as much about unicorns as he did about monsters, though it was clear that he found their lack of poisonous fangs disappointing.

Today he had managed to capture two unicorn foals. Unlike full-grown unicorns, they were pure gold. Gryffindor girls Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown went into transports of delight at the sight of them, and even Pansy Parkinson had to work hard to conceal how much she liked them. Three years after her father bought Millicent’s family company and baby unicorns still over powered her constant mood.

‘Easier ter spot than the adults,’ Hagrid told the class. ‘They turn silver when they’re abou’ two years old, an’ they grow horns at aroun’ four. Don’ go pure white till they’re full grown, ’round about seven. They’re a bit more trustin’ when they’re babies...don’ mind boys so much...C’mon, move in a bit, yeh can pat ’em if yeh want...give ’em a few o’ these sugar lumps...’

‘You okay, Harry?’ Hagrid muttered, moving aside slightly, while most of the others swarmed around the baby unicorns.

‘Yeah,’ said Harry.

‘Jus’ nervous, eh?’ said Hagrid.

‘Bit,’ said Harry.

‘Harry,’ said Hagrid, clapping a massive hand on his shoulder, so that Harry’s knees buckled under its weight, ‘I’d’ve bin worried before I saw yeh take on tha’ Horntail, but I know now yeh can do anythin’ yeh set yer mind ter. I’m not worried at all. Yeh’re goin’ ter be fine. Got yer clue worked out, haven’ yeh?’

Harry nodded, but even as he did so, an insane urge to confess that the task involved swimming to the bottom of the lake and he needed Tracey’s Charm experience, but she was still five minutes off of an hour and was worried he would drown. He looked up at Hagrid—Harry just couldn’t bring himself to wipe the happy, confident smile off Hagrid’s face.

‘Yeh’re goin’ ter win,’ Hagrid growled, patting Harry’s shoulder again, so that Harry actually felt himself sink a couple of inches into the soft ground. ‘I know it. I can feel it. Yeh’re goin’ ter win, Harry.’

Pretending he was interested in the young unicorns, he forced a smile in return, and moved forward to pat them with the others.

The rest of the day Harry felt as though he were trapped in a nightmare. His fear for what would happen the next day was overpowering him, but a small amount of relief came that night.

‘I’ve done it,’ Tracey announced triumphantly. ‘I can consistently cast a Bubble-Head Charm that’ll last just over a full hour. On Wednesday I’ll cast it on you Harry just before you enter the lake.’

Harry was overjoyed with relief, he pulled her into a tight hug. ‘Tracey, you are the absolute best.’

‘You’re welcome, although after all that time and effort I almost wish you took a page out of your father and godfathers book and just became an Animagus like Sirius.’

An Animagus was a wizard who could transform into an animal.

‘You might be right, being something like a frog probably would have really helped. If I ever have to stay underwater for a long time in the future I’ll consider it.’

‘Harry,’ said Allison, ‘I am pretty sure you would just turn into a stag, nearly all Animagi have the same animal for as their Patronus.’

Theodore than piped up, ‘Not only that, but as you already know Harry it can take years to become an Animagus, and if you don’t want to face legal repercussions you have to report your status right away.’

‘I know I probably won’t actually do it Theo,’ said Harry, getting tired from the long day, ‘it’s just something fun to think about. I’d be more like two of my three dads.’

The day before the second task had arrived and Harry for once felt somewhat confident. He managed to eat breakfast, and actually take some notes during class. Just after his final class of the day he realized he needed to ask Tracey something, so she wouldn’t get caught for helping would she cast the charm from afar just before Harry enters the lake, or did she manage to make the charm last long enough that she could cast it and then Harry could get into position? He went to the common room but she wasn’t there. Harry did a quick sweep of her most common spots but she wasn’t there either. Harry asked Niall Urquhart but he didn’t know.

Harry eventually found Theodore in an abandoned classroom being Colin’s model for his photo album. He hated to interrupt them, as they were clearly having a good time, but Harry needed his question answered.

‘Hi Colin, hey Theo. Have either of you two seen Tracey, I really need to talk to her.’

Colin shook his head, but thankfully Theodore didn’t, ‘I saw Terence talking to her a few hours ago and than the two headed in the direction of Snape’s office.’

‘Thanks Theodore, sorry for interrupting.’

Harry went down to Snape’s office but didn’t find Tracey, Terence, or even Snape. Harry didn’t truly start to worry though until supper, Tracey never showed up, nor was she in the common room afterwards. At around eight Harry pulled Terence aside.

‘Where is Tracey, I heard you were the last to see her.’

‘Snape pulled me aside and told me to fetch her, I did as he said and brought her to his office. I wanted to wait for her outside but she told me not to as she is still a bit mad from Yule Ball.’

‘So you don’t know where she is?’

‘Sorry man, I don’t.’

The common room emptied slowly around Harry. People kept wishing him luck for the next morning in cheery, confident voices like Hagrid’s, all of them apparently convinced that he was about to pull off another stunning performance like the one he had managed in the first task. Harry couldn’t answer them, he just nodded, feeling as though there were a golfball stuck in his throat. He was starting to worry Tracey wouldn’t come back, if she didn’t by the time the task started the next day he would be doomed. Around eleven people started to keep telling him to go to sleep, so to stop them from bothering him we went and got his invisibility cloak and kept waiting. By ten to midnight, he was alone in the room, she still hadn’t returned.

It’s over, he told himself. You can’t do it. You’ll just have to go down to the lake in the morning and tell the judges...

He imagined himself explaining that he couldn’t do the task. He pictured Bagman’s look of round-eyed surprise, Karkaroff’s satisfied, yellow-toothed smile. He could almost hear Fleur Delacour saying ‘I knew it...’e is too young, ’e is only a little boy.’ He saw Pansy flashing her Diggiry ribbons at the front of the crowd, saw Hagrid’s crestfallen, disbelieving face...

What he didn’t realize was that his imagination had turned into a dream as he fell asleep waiting for Tracey in the common room under his cloak. Nightmares and stressful situations plagued him for hours as he slept.

The mermaid in the painting in the prefects’ bathroom was laughing. Harry was bobbing like a cork in bubbly water next to her rock, while she held his Firebolt over his head.

‘Come and get it!’ she giggled maliciously. ‘Come on, jump!’

‘I can’t,’ Harry panted, snatching at the Firebolt, and struggling not to sink. ‘Give it to me!’

But she just poked him painfully in the side with the end of the broomstick, laughing at him.

‘That hurts—get off—ouch—‘

‘Harry Potter must wake up, sir!’

‘Stop poking me—‘

‘Dobby must poke Harry Potter, sir, he must wake up!’

Harry opened his eyes. He was still in the common room, lying on stone sofa near the fireplace, his head had shifted out from under his cloak. He sat up, straightening his glasses, blinking in the bright daylight.

‘Harry Potter needs to hurry!’ squeaked Dobby. ‘The second task starts in ten minutes, and Harry Potter—‘

‘Ten minutes?’ Harry croaked. ‘Ten—ten minutes?’

He looked down at his watch. Dobby was right. It was twenty past nine. A large, dead weight seemed to fall through Harry’s chest into his stomach.

‘Hurry, Harry Potter!’ squeaked Dobby, plucking at Harry’s sleeve. ‘You is supposed to be down by the lake with the other champions, sir!’

‘Is my friend Tracey Davis there?’

‘No sir, now hurry.’

‘Than it’s too late, Dobby,’ Harry said hopelessly. ‘I’m not doing the task, I don’t know how to preform the bubble charm myself—‘

‘Harry Potter will do the task!’ squeaked the elf. ‘Dobby thought Harry had not found the right book, so Dobby did it for him!’

‘What?’ said Harry. ‘But you don’t know what the second task is—‘

‘Dobby knows, sir! Harry Potter has to go into the lake and find his Davis—‘

‘Find my what? Tracey?’

‘Yes sir, Miss Davis isn’t at the tournament because she is at the bottom of the lake.’

‘What?’ Harry gasped. ‘They’ve got...they’ve got Tracey?’

‘A thing Harry Potter will miss most, sir!’ squeaked Dobby. ‘‘But past an hour—’’

‘—‘the prospect’s black,’’ Harry recited, staring, horror-struck, at the elf. ‘‘Too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back.’ Dobby—what’ve I got to do?’

‘You has to eat this, sir!’ squeaked the elf, and he put his hand in the pocket of his shorts and drew out a ball of what looked like slimy, grayish-green rat tails. ‘Right before you go into the lake, sir—gillyweed!’

‘What’s it do?’ said Harry, staring at the gillyweed.

‘It will make Harry Potter breathe underwater, sir!’

‘Dobby,’ said Harry frantically, ‘listen—are you sure about this?’

As much as Harry appreciated the help he couldn’t quite forget that the last time Dobby had tried to “help” him, he had ended up with no bones in his right arm.

‘Dobby is quite sure, sir!’ said the elf earnestly. ‘Dobby hears things, sir, he is a house-elf, he goes all over the castle as he lights the fires and mops the floors. Dobby heard Professor McGonagall and Professor Moody in the staffroom, talking about the next task...Dobby cannot let Harry Potter lose his Davis!’

Harry’s doubts vanished. Jumping to his feet he pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, stuffed it into his bag, grabbed the gillyweed, and put it into his pocket, then tore out of the common room with Dobby at his heels.

‘Dobby is supposed to be in the kitchens, sir!’ Dobby squealed as they burst into the corridor. ‘Dobby will be missed—good luck, Harry Potter, sir, good luck!’

‘See you later, Dobby! Thank you!’ Harry shouted, and he sprinted along the corridor and up the stairs, three at a time.

The entrance hall contained a few last-minute stragglers, all leaving the Great Hall after breakfast and heading through the double oak doors to watch the second task. They stared as Harry flashed past, sending Colin and Dennis Creevey flying as he leapt down the stone steps and out onto the bright, chilly grounds.

As he pounded down the lawn he saw that the seats that had encircled the dragons’ enclosure in November were now ranged along the opposite bank, rising in stands that were packed to the bursting point and reflected in the lake below. The excited babble of the crowd echoed strangely across the water as Harry ran flat-out around the other side of the lake toward the judges, who were sitting at another gold-draped table at the water’s edge. Cedric, Fleur, and Krum were beside the judges’ table, watching Harry sprint toward them.

Previous Chapters:

Chapter 1: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585181

Chapter 2: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585386

Chapter 3: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589099

Chapter 4: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589999

Chapter 5: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003590737

Chapter 6: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003592048

Chapter 7: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003593450

Chapter 8: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003594715

Chapter 9: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003595876

Chapter 10: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003596713

Chapter 11: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003597502

Chapter 12: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003598647

Chapter 13: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003600597

Chapter 14: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003602821

Chapter 15: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003605031

Tags: @MeowTasticCat @Bellatrisblack @Diantha Angelina Black @CatsAndRoblox @Kakaonut

Chapter Sixteen: The Weighing of the Wands

When Harry woke up on Tuesday morning, it took him a moment to remember why he felt so miserable and worried. Then the memory of the previous night rolled over him. He sat up and ripped back the curtains of his own four-poster, and ready to go talk to Allison. Harry dressed and went down the spiral staircase with Theodore into the common room. The moment he appeared, the people who were in the room broke into applause again. The prospect of going up into the Great Hall and facing the rest of the Slytherins, all treating him like some sort of hero, was not inviting; it was that, however, or stay here and allow himself to be cornered by over energetic first years.

As Harry and Theodore maneuvered their was to the enchanted wall they were joined by one other. Harry felt his harm be tightly gripped and he was now looking into the hazel eyes of Tracey.

‘I’m going to ask this once and you better answer truthfully, did you put your name into the Goblet?’

‘No Tracey, I swear. Where’s Allison, I need to tell her the same.’

‘Not sure, she was already gone when I woke up. She might still be at breakfast if we hurry.’

They walked quickly over to the enchanted wall, walked through it, and found himself face-to-face with his sister.

‘Did you do it Harry! Did you put your name into the Goblet?’ Canini asked almost franticly.

Harry was not expecting this ambush. ‘I didn’t know you knew where the Slytherin Common Room was?’

‘I didn’t, I’ve been searching for over an hour, now did you actually do it?’

‘No Cani, I’m just as confused and in the dark as the rest of the school. Now I don’t mean to be rude, but I am hungry and getting really annoyed with people asking me if I put my name in. Can we drop the subject and just head to breakfast?’

She thought for a moment then nodded, ‘Yes, let’s get breakfast before class starts.’

So they climbed the steep stone steps, making their way to the great hall. A lot of whispering started the moment he entered the Great Hall but thankfully he wasn’t swarmed again. He scanned the Slytherin table and sported Allison’s shoulder length pitch black hair sitting around the middle, to Harry’s shock she was sitting with Draco, Daphne, and Millicent. Harry, Theodore, Canini, and Tracey made their way over to her.

‘Hey Allison, we need to talk.’ Harry said calmly, but she just kept her attention to her cereal.

‘Allison, I know you’re mad, but I didn’t do it. I don’t know how-‘

‘Leave her alone, snapped Millicent. ‘She doesn’t want to talk to traitorous liars.’

This was to much for Tracey, ‘He didn’t do it Alli, I know why you’re mad but you got to understand that he’s innocent.’

Allison may have made some sort of commitment to not speak to Harry, but it didn’t apply to the others. She took her last spoonful of cereal the stood. She looked so furious Harry had half a mind to run away, but he stood his ground, as did his friends.

‘You two!’ she said while referring to Theodore and Tracey. ‘I thought you were on my side, I thought we were in agreement that he was in the wrong! How much did he have to say to get you back into his good graces, on sentence, two? You’re both gutless cowards, get out of my sight, all four of you, now!’

Not seeing another option at the moment, Harry, Canini, and his friends backed off. Canini went to sit with her fellow Hufflepuffs and Harry and his gang sat at the other end of the table to have their breakfast.

When Terence came down for breakfast Tracey ran over to him and explained everything, he looked like he understood, but like Theodore had expected he would need some time to cool down from his frustration, so he went and sat with Lucian. Harry was ok with this as he knew Terence would soon come around, but Tracey wasn't taking the drama to well. Two of her closest friends at odds with the rest of the group, she obviously felt split in two.

It wasn't just Harry's friends that were at odds however, once classes started it became clear that the rest of the school, just like the Slytherins, thought Harry

had entered himself for the tournament. Unlike the Slytherins, however, they did not seem impressed. The Hufflepuffs, who were usually on good terms with Harry since the end of his second year, had turned remarkably cold toward him and his friends. One Transfiguration lesson was enough to demonstrate this. It was plain that the Hufflepuffs felt that Harry had stolen their champion’s glory; a feeling exacerbated, perhaps, by the fact that Hufflepuff House very rarely got any glory, and that Cedric was one of the few who had ever given them any, having won several Quidditch games. Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley, with whom Harry normally got on very well, did not talk to him even though they were sitting in desks right next to one another—though they did laugh rather unpleasantly when Harry's guinea pig still had several feathers at odd spots. Professor McGonagall, who was Head of Gryffindor house and normally had a small soft spot for Harry, was cold and dismissive.

That evening he received an owl from home. He opened it instantly, it was in Sirius’ handwriting.

“Harry, I don’t want to cause you to panic, but this is very worrisome. Something or someone malicious is manipulating events and I highly doubt that the final goal is to simply increase your fame. I know better than anyone that you can look after yourself and while you’re around Dumbledore and Moody I don’t think anyone will be able to hurt you. However, someone seems to be having a good try. Entering you in that tournament would have been very risky, especially right under Dumbledore’s nose. Be on the watch, Harry. Before I told you to keep an eye out, but now I am telling you to truly keep your guard up for the foreseeable future. Something foul is boiling, and I want you not taken by surprise when it arrives. For now, just focus on the tasks, being prepared isn’t simply the strategy to winning the challenge, it is also the key to simply surviving them.

Stay safe my growing fawn.

~Sirius Black”

The message wasn’t quite the encouragement he was expecting, but the advice was helpful. With no way of knowing the first task however, Harry’s focus remained on his classes. The only class he looked forward to at this point was Care of Magical Creatures, taught by a teacher that still liked Harry, and was partnered with the Gryffindors who very rarely were against Harry.

But when Harry arrived at Hagrid’s hut Monday afternoon there were two disappointing shocks waiting for him, the first being that besides Ron, Hermione, and Neville all the Gryffindors were equally mad at him as the Hufflepuffs, and that Pansy and her goons were waiting for him.

‘Oh look, the famous celebrity decided to honour us with his presence. First you’re famous across our world for doing nothing, then you just had to join Quidditch a year before the rest of us are allowed, you shared the spotlight with Lockhart any chance you got, and now you just had to compete in the first Twiwizard in over a century. An attention freak like yourself should be up at the castle trying to fix that rats nest of a head.’

Blaise Zabini laughed so hard at what Pansy said, that Harry thought he might keel over. ‘She’s right Potter, you just crave attention, so when the first task begins you’ll be so distracted by the cameras that you’ll be dead before the first minute is over.’

Harry was used to these jerks insults, he normally didn’t take them to personally, but he was emotionally warn down from people he cared about not believe him, and his own godfather not sugar coating the fact that he was in danger. So were he normally would just have a snarky comeback, he marched over to Pansy and got right up in her face.

‘I’m going to make myself clear, if one more person insinuates that I put my name in the Goblet of Fire I will drag them to the center of the forest and let fate decide what happens.'

Pansy temporarily backed off, but even Tracey and Theodore looked a little intimidated. 'Harry, that was intense.'

'Well I am not in the mood to deal with their insults.'

Hagrid then emerged from the back of his cabin balancing a teetering tower of crates, each containing a very large Blast-Ended Skrewt. To the class’s horror, Hagrid proceeded to explain that the reason the skrewts had been killing one another was an excess of pent-up energy, and that the solution would be for each student to fix a leash on a skrewt and take it for a short walk. The only good thing about this plan was that it distracted Pansy completely.

'We are supposed to tie these dangerous things to us?' she said slightly horrified, staring into one of the boxes. 'And then just hope they don't take their pent-up energy out on us? Where do we even put the leash?'

'Roun’ the middle,' said Hagrid, ignoring the first part of her question. 'Er—yeh might want ter put on yer dragon-hide gloves, jus’ as an extra precaution, like. Harry—you come here an’ help me with this big one...'

Hagrid’s real intention, however, was to talk to Harry away from the rest of the class. He waited until everyone else had set off with their skrewts, then turned to Harry and said, very seriously, 'So—yer competin’, Harry. In the tournament. School champion.'

'One of the champions,' Harry corrected him. He was running out of energy constantly talking about the tournament.'

Hagrid’s beetle-black eyes looked very anxious under his wild eyebrows. 'No idea who put yeh in fer it, Harry?'

'You believe I didn’t do it, then?' said Harry, concealing with difficulty the rush of gratitude he felt at Hagrid’s words.

'’Course I do,' Hagrid grunted. 'Yeh say it wasn’ you, an’ I believe yeh—an’ Dumbledore believes yer, an’ all.'

Harry's mood was lifted somewhat, when Harry first arrived at hogwarts Hagrid treated Harry differently for being a Slytherin, he didn't trust him. But over the last three years Hagrid had gotten to know Harry and now when everyone was saying Harry was just a sneaky Slytherin Hagrid believed he was telling the truth. 'I just wish I knew who did do it.'

The pair of them looked out over the lawn; the class was widely scattered now, and all in great difficulty. The skrewts were now over three feet long, and extremely powerful. No longer shell-less and colorless, they had developed a kind of thick, grayish, shiny armor. They looked like a cross between giant scorpions and elongated crabs—but still without recognizable heads or eyes. They had become immensely strong and very hard to control.

'Look like they’re havin’ fun, don’ they?' Hagrid said happily. Harry assumed he was talking about the skrewts, because his classmates certainly weren’t; every now and then, with an alarming bang, one of the skrewts’ ends would explode, causing it to shoot forward several yards, and more than one person was being dragged along on their stomach, trying desperately to get back on their feet.

'Ah, I don’ know, Harry,' Hagrid sighed suddenly, looking back down at him with a worried expression on his face. 'School champion...everythin’ seems ter happen ter you, doesn’ it?'

Harry didn’t answer. What Pansy had said earlier was partially right, everything did seem to happen to him, but it was never by choice. Harry didn't choose to be orphaned, he didn't choose to be the youngest Seeker, he definitely didn't choose to be Lockharts favourite student, or to be a Parseltongue, and he did not choose to have fought Lord Voldemort three times.

The next few days were some of Harry’s worst at Hogwarts. The closest he had ever come to feeling like this had been during those months, in his second year, when a large part of the school had suspected him of attacking his fellow students. But back then Allison had been by his side, she and Tracey had gotten Harry through that dark year.

Allison still wasn't talking to him, she would either sit with Draco's group, or with her second cousin Terry Boot. Occasionally she would talk to Tracey, but anytime Tracey brought up Harry she would shut her out to.

'I think she is hanging out with Terry more than just to have someone to talk to,' Tracey soon revealed, 'she wouldn't tell me why, but I think there is something else going on then just her being ma at you Harry.'

Harry couldn't tell if this was true or not, all he could tell was that she wouldn't talk to him. He thought he could have coped with the rest of the school’s behavior if he could just have his best friend back back, but he wasn’t going to try and persuade Allison to talk to him if she didn’t want to. Nevertheless, it was lonely with dislike pouring in on him from all sides.

He could understand the Hufflepuffs’ attitude, even if he didn’t like it; they had their own champion to support. But he had not expected the hate he was receiving from the other two houses. He had so many friends in Gryffindor that he thought they would have persuaded the others to be on his side but they weren't, and he had hoped the Ravenclaws might have found it in their hearts to support him as much as Cedric. He was wrong, however. Most Ravenclaws seemed to think that he had been desperate to earn himself a bit more fame by tricking the goblet into accepting his name.

Then there was the fact that Cedric looked the part of a champion so much more than he did. Exceptionally handsome, with his straight nose, dark hair, and gray eyes, it was hard to say who was receiving more admiration these days, Cedric or Viktor Krum. Harry actually saw the same sixth-year girls who had been so keen to get Krum’s autograph begging Cedric to sign their school bags one lunchtime.

Professor Trelawney was predicting his death with even more certainty than usual, and he did so badly at Summoning Charms in Professor Flitwick’s class that he was given extra homework—the only person to get any in the shared Slytherin-Ravenclaw class.

'I can help you if you want, Harry,' Tracey offered him as they left Flitwick’s class—she had been making objects zoom across the room to her all lesson, as though she were some sort of weird magnet for board dusters, wastepaper baskets, and lunascopes. 'You just need to know the exact wrist movement.'

'Yeah...thanks...' said Harry, his focus wasn't on her offer though, his attention was on Cedric Diggory who had just walked past, surrounded by a large group of simpering girls, all of whom looked at Harry as though he were a particularly large Blast-Ended Skrewt. 'Um, er— what other classes do we have today?'

The rest of the day they had Defence Against the Dark Arts and Tracey helping Harry catch up in Charms, and before they knew it Friday had arrived with more double Potions.

Double Potions was always a horrible experience, but these days it was nothing short of torture. Being shut in a dungeon for an hour and a half with Snape, seven angry Gryffindors, Pansy's gang, and Allison still ignoring him. It was if the universe was determined to punish Harry as much as possible for becoming school champion against his will. He already struggled under Snape's Potions class under normal circumstances, Harry didn't know how he was going to get through Potions under these knew challenges.

When he, Theodore, and Tracey arrived at Snape’s dungeon after lunch, they found that Pansy's gang was waiting outside, each and every one of them wearing a large ribbon pinned to their robes. He wasn't entirely sure what they were at first—then he saw that they all bore the same message, in bold yellow letters that burnt brightly in the dimly lit underground passage:

"Support Diggory, the True Champion!"

'What do you think Potter?' said Pansy loudly as Harry approached. 'They're becoming quite popular, look-'

She pointed at the Gryffindors waiting for class to start, several of them were wearing the ribbons as well, though they looked hesitant with Harry seeing them.

'Cute,' Tracey said sarcastically to Pansy and her gang, who were laughing harder than anyone, 'how many brain cells did it take you to come up with this?'

Harry spotted Allison with Draco, Daphne, and Millicent, her just standing there really bothered Harry.

'If you like them so much Davis you can have one,' said Pansy coldly, 'but I'll have to toss it at you, don't want your filthy blood traitor hands touching mine.'

Tracey never let insults about her muggle father go to her head, and usually Harry followed her lead, but some of the anger Harry had been feeling for over a week seemed to burst through a dam in his chest. He had reached for his wand before he’d thought what he was doing. People all around them scrambled out of the way, backing down the corridor.

'It isn't worth it,' Theodore said warningly.

'Coward, you are all bark and no bite,' Pansy said quietly, drawing out her own wand. 'I knew your threat from the other day was empty—'

For a split second, they looked into each other’s eyes, then, at exactly the same time, both acted.

'Furnunculus!' Harry yelled.

'Calvorio!' screamed Pansy.

Jets of light shot from both wands, hit each other in midair, and ricocheted off at angles—Harry’s hit Goyle in the face, and Malfoy’s hit Tracey. Goyle bellowed and put his hands to his nose, where great ugly boils were springing up—Tracey, whimpering in panic, was clutching her head.

'Tracey!' Allison cried out.

Allison and Theodore hurried forward to see what was wrong with her; Harry turned and saw what the curse had done. Tracey's beautiful big afro of curly tight locks where falling out in hug clumps. In a manner of seconds all her hair was on the floor, leaving her head completely bald. Panic-stricken, let out a terrified cry.

'And what is all this noise about?' said a soft, deadly voice.

Snape had arrived. All the Slytherins clamored to give their explanations; Snape pointed a long yellow finger at Pansy and said, 'Explain.'

'Potter cast a spell at me, I fired back in self defence, sir—'

'We attacked each other at the same time!' Harry shouted.

'— and look what he did to poor Goyle—just look—'

Snape examined Goyle, whose face now resembled something that would have been at home in a book on poisonous fungi. 'Hospital wing, Goyle.'

'Sir, look what Pansy did to Tracey,' Allison said angrily. 'Harry just used a jinx, but Parkinson used a full on curse on her.'

Tracey was just in shock, holding pieces of her hair in her hands. Pansy, Zabini, and Crabbe were doubled up with silent giggles, pointing at Tracey from behind Snape’s back.

Snape looked coldly at Tracey, then said, 'Its just hair.'

Tracey let out a whimper; her eyes filled with tears, Harry was disgusted with what Snape said. He had no idea how long it took to grow to that length, how much effort it took to maintain it, years of work was now on the floor. Tracey couldn't take the starring or humiliation any more, and ran off.

It was lucky, perhaps, that Harry, Theodore, and Allison started shouting at Snape at the same time; lucky their voices echoed so much in the stone corridor, for in the confused din, it was impossible for him to hear exactly what they were calling him. He got the gist, however.

'Let’s see,' he said, in his silkiest voice. 'Fifteen points from Slytherin and a detention each for Potter, Runcorn, and Nott. Now get inside, or it’ll be a week’s worth of detentions.'

Harry’s ears were ringing. The injustice of it made him want to curse Snape into a thousand slimy pieces. He passed Snape, walked with Theodore and Allison to the back of the dungeon, and slammed his bag down onto the table. Allison was shaking with anger too—for a moment, it felt as though everything was back to normal between them, but then Allison turned and sat down with Draco, Daphne, and Millicent instead, leaving Harry and Theodore at a table by themselves. On the other side of the dungeon, Pansy turned her back on Snape and started imitating Tracey grabbing at her hair.

Harry sat there staring at Snape as the lesson began, picturing horrific things happening to him...If only he knew how to do the Cruciatus Curse...he’d have Snape flat on his back like that spider, jerking and twitching...

'Antidotes!' said Snape, looking around at them all, his cold black eyes glittering unpleasantly. 'You should all have prepared your recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will be selecting someone on whom to test one...'

Snape’s eyes met Harry’s, and Harry knew what was coming. Snape was going to poison him. Harry imagined picking up his cauldron, and sprinting to the front of the class, and bringing it down on Snape’s greasy head—

Idk I just thought of this and wanted to say this, not meant to offend anyone in whatever way.

So a lot of people think that Krumione (Hermione x Krum) is… wrong (I don’t want to say the word) because Krum is an adult while Hermione isn’t, and I can see the logic behind that.

But it’s technically sorta both because in the Muggle world coming-of-age happens at 18, not 17, so according to those standards Krumione is an acceptable ship.

Just saying I don’t ship it, I just thought of this in that weird world where you’re half asleep and half awake.

Previous Chapters:

Chapter 1: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585181

Chapter 2: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585386

Chapter 3: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589099

Chapter 4: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589999

Chapter 5: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003590737

Chapter 6: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003592048

Chapter 7: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003593450

Chapter 8: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003594715

Chapter 9: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003595876

Chapter 10: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003596713

Chapter 11: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003597502

Chapter 12: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003598647

Chapter 13: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003600597

Tags: @MeowTasticCat @Bellatrisblack @Diantha Angelina Black @CatsAndRoblox @Kakaonut

Chapter Fourteen: The Goblet of Fire

‘This is mind-blowing!’ Theodore said, in a stunned voice, as the Hogwarts students filed back up the steps behind the party from Durmstrang. ‘The greatest Seeker of all time! Harry! Viktor Krum!’

I think me and Terence could give him a run for his money if we were allowed to practice,’ said Harry.

‘Are you joking?’ Theodore said, looking as though he couldn’t believe his ears. ‘He is sensational. You couldn’t beat him if you trained from now until graduation straight. I’m just in shock he is still school aged.’

As they recrossed the entrance hall with the rest of the Hogwarts students heading for the Great Hall, Harry saw Terence Higgs keep going on the tips of his toes to try and get a glimpse of even just the back of Krum’s head. Several sixth-year girls were frantically searching their pockets as they walked—

‘Oh I don’t believe it, I haven’t got a single quill on me—‘

‘D’you think he’d sign my hat in lipstick?’

‘They’re all pathetic?’ mumbled Tracey as they passed the girls, now squabbling over the lipstick.

‘I might be the only student in this building with a quill right now and I am not going to waste it,’ said Theodore happily.

Harry then leaned over to Tracey and whispered, ‘And who are you to call those girls pathetic, I thought you liked tall Quidditch boys?’ which just made her go red in her ears.

For over a year now Tracey had occasionally been receiving sweet cards from an anonymous student, and she had let slip to Harry once that she hoped it was Terence. Harry had told her to just ask him multiple times, but she had managed to convince Harry to keep her confession a secret.

They walked over to the Slytherin table and sat down. Theodore took care to sit on the side facing the doorway, because Krum and his fellow Durmstrang students were still gathered around it, apparently unsure about where they should sit. The students from Beauxbatons had chosen seats at the Ravenclaw table. They were looking around the Great Hall with glum expressions on their faces. Three of them were still clutching scarves and shawls around their heads.

‘I hope their Headmaster allows them to have uniforms more inline with northern Scotland weather,’ said Harry. ‘That or they’ll all have Pneumonia by December.’

Theodore then suddenly grabbed Harry’s arm. ‘Harry! Harry! Look! I can’t believe it!’

Viktor Krum and his fellow Durmstrang students had settled themselves at the Slytherin table. Harry thought Theodore just might explode. They had sat at the other end, but it was enough to put a rare smile on Theodore’s face.

‘After whatever speech is given, you should go get your autograph, Theo,’ Allison encouraged.

Terence then sat next to them, 'Do you think the ship and carriage have bunks, or will they be sleeping here. We'd have to enchant a lot of the seventh year dormitories to fit them.'

'Not sure, but I think the Durmstrangs would be much more comfortable in the coming winter than the Beauxbatons lot,' said Harry. The Durmstrang students were pulling off their heavy furs and looking up at the starry black ceiling with expressions of interest; a couple of them were picking up the golden plates and goblets and examining them, apparently impressed.

Up at the staff table, Filch, the caretaker, was adding chairs. He was wearing his moldy old tailcoat in honor of the occasion. Harry was surprised to see that he added four chairs, two on either side of Dumbledore’s.

‘But there are only two extra people,’ Harry said. ‘Why’s Filch putting out four chairs, who else is coming?’

‘Not sure,’ shrugged Allison, ‘maybe its for whoever picks the champions?’

When all the students had entered the Hall and settled down at their House tables, the staff entered, filing up to the top table and taking their seats. Last in line were Professor Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime. When their headmistress appeared, the pupils from Beauxbatons leapt to their feet. A few of the Hogwarts students laughed. The Beauxbatons party appeared quite unembarrassed, however, and did not resume their seats until Madame Maxime had sat down on Dumbledore’s left-hand side. Dumbledore remained standing, and a silence fell over the Great Hall.

‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and—most particularly—guests,’ said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. ‘I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable.’

One of the Beauxbatons girls still clutching a muffler around her head gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh.

‘Why’d she even come if she’s to used to warmth and luxury?’ Allison whispered, bristling at the girl.

‘The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast,’ said Dumbledore. ‘I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!’

He sat down, and Harry saw Karkaroff lean forward at once and engage him in conversation. The plates in front of them filled with food as usual. The house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them than Harry had ever seen, including several that were definitely foreign.

‘What’s this one?’ asked Tracey, pointing at a dish of some sort of broth with kelp, crab meat, prawns, scallops and a type of berry Harry didn’t recognize.

‘It’s called Arctic Ukha,’ Theodore informed. ‘It’s a Russian type of fish soup.’

Harry tried small portions of the new dishes, and was pleasantly surprised with most of them, but mostly stuck to food he was more familiar with. Instead of food, he found his attention focused on the exhilaration in the air.

The Great Hall seemed somehow much more crowded than usual, even though there were barely twenty additional students there; perhaps it was because their differently colored uniforms stood out so clearly against the black of the Hogwarts’ robes. Now that they had removed their furs, the Durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep blood-red. Being stuck at the Dursley’s Harry had never gotten to see Canini in uniform two summers previous.

Hagrid sidled into the Hall through a door behind the staff table twenty minutes after the start of the feast. He slid into his seat at the end and waved at Harry, and his friends with a very heavily bandaged hand.

‘Did the Skrewts do that to you, Hagrid?’ Harry called.

‘Me own fault. Wasn’ expectin’ how much they’d be thrivin’,’ Hagrid called back happily.

‘I can’t believe they are still alive considering they’ve barely eaten since they were born,’ Tracey whispered. She had turned to say something to Theodore, but all she found was his empty seat. ‘Where’d he go?’

Harry turned all around and then spotted Theodore practically skipping back towards them, his face beaming. ‘I got it. I got his autograph.’

Harry was about to congratulate him, but something then caught his eye.

It was the girl from Beauxbatons who had laughed during Dumbledore’s speech. She had finally removed her muffler. A long sheet of silvery-blonde hair fell almost to her waist. She had large, deep blue eyes, and very white, even teeth. She was walking away from the Gryffindor table back towards the Ravenclaws carrying a dish of some kind, and Harry, along with most boys in the room, were watching her every step.’

A nervous chuckle escaped his mouth before he broke from his daze.

‘She must be part veela,’ Allison declared while rolling her eyes.

‘Part what?’ asked Tracey.

‘A beautiful creature that practically hypnotizes anyone attracted to woman. I’ve only seen Harry and Terence look that pathetic once and it was when the veela were performing at the World Cup.’

‘I mean, she might not be veela, she’s just very beautiful,’ said Terence, who after looking at Tracey then quickly added. ‘Though she’s equally beautiful as many of the girls here...’

‘Yeah...beautiful Hogwarts girls,’ said Harry without thinking. Cho happened to be sitting only a few places away from the girl with the silvery hair.

‘Yeah Harry,’ said Theodore while pulling on his sleeve, ‘isn’t that the man who got the Weasley’s their tickets?’

He was looking up at the staff table. The two remaining empty seats had just been filled. Ludo Bagman was now sitting on Professor Karkaroff’s other side, while Mr Crouch, was next to Madame Maxime.

‘What are they doing here?’ said Harry in surprise.

'Mr Bagman is head of Department of Magical Games and Sports, right? He and Mr Crouch probably organised all this,' guessed Allison. 'They might be the impartial judges, though I can't see how.'

When the second course arrived they noticed a number of unfamiliar desserts too. Something Harry really liked was a French flan-like dessert with black-berries inside and some sweet cream on top. The others seemed however to more enjoy a Russian pastry filled with custard and fruit puree.

Once the golden plates had been wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the Hall now. Harry felt a slight thrill of excitement, wondering what was coming. Allison and Terence were leaning forward, staring at Dumbledore with great concentration.

'The moment has come,' said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. 'The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket—'

'The what?' Harry muttered.

But the others looked just as confused as he was.

'—just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation'—there was a smattering of polite applause—'and Mr Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports.'

There was a much louder round of applause for Bagman than for Crouch, perhaps because of his fame as a Beater, or simply because he looked so much more likable. He acknowledged it with a jovial wave of his hand. Bartemius Crouch did not smile or wave when his name was announced. Remembering him in his neat suit at the Quidditch World Cup, Harry thought he looked strange in wizard’s robes. His toothbrush mustache and severe parting looked very odd next to Dumbledore’s long white hair and beard.

'Mr Bagman and Mr Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament, Dumbledore continued, 'and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions’ efforts.'

At the mention of the word “champions,” the attentiveness of the listening students seemed to sharpen. Perhaps Dumbledore had noticed their sudden stillness, for he smiled as he said, 'The casket, then, if you please, Mr Filch.'

Filch, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the Hall, now approached Dumbledore carrying a great wooden chest encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely old. A murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students; Dennis Creevey actually stood on his chair to see it properly, but, being so tiny, his head hardly rose above anyone else’s.

'The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr Crouch and Mr Bagman,' said Dumbledore as Filch placed the chest carefully on the table before him, 'and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways...their magical prowess—their daring—their powers of deduction—and, of course, their ability to cope with danger.'

At this last word, the Hall was filled with a silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing. Harry could almost hear his own heartbeat from the shear quiet.

'As you know, three champions compete in the tournament,' Dumbledore went on calmly, 'one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire.'

Dumbledore now took out his wand and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. The lid creaked slowly open. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames. Dumbledore closed the casket and placed the goblet carefully on top of it, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the Hall.

'Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet,' said Dumbledore. 'Aspiring champions have until the thirty-first in which to put their names forward. On Hallowe'en, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete.'

Allison and Terence stared at each other excitedly, but Dumbldore quickly squashed their dreams of glory.

'To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation,' said Dumbledore, 'I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line. Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all.'

'Theo!' Allison said at once. 'How fast can you make an aging potion?'

But Theodore started shaking his head, 'Oh no. I am not helping you potentially getting yourself killed. You aren't just a few months under age, you are years underaged, these tasks are designed for someone who has already mastered sixth year level classes.'

'That's hippogriff dung and you know it. We literally beat several unbeatable challenges in our first year. Harry has taken on You-Know-Who twice since starting Hogwarts, you're going to try and enter, right Harry?' Allison asked.

Harry thought briefly of Dumbledore’s insistence that nobody under seventeen should submit their name, but then the wonderful picture of himself winning the Triwizard Tournament filled his mind again...He wondered how angry Dumbledore would be if someone younger than seventeen did find a way to get over the Age Line...

Harry’s thoughts were than interrupted by the thick accent and loud voice of someone standing nearby. Karkaroff had just bustled up to his students.

‘Back to the ship, then,’ he was saying. ‘Viktor, how are you feeling? Did you eat enough? Should I send for some mulled wine from the kitchens?!

Harry saw Krum shake his head as he pulled his furs back on.

‘Professor, I vood like some vine,’ said one of the other Durmstrang boys hopefully.

‘I wasn’t offering it to you, Poliakoff,’ snapped Karkaroff, his warmly paternal air vanishing in an instant. Harry now believed Sirius and Remus’ warning, Karkaroff was a man with an inky black soul who was very good at putting up a kind exterior. ‘I notice you have dribbled food all down the front of your robes again, disgusting boy—‘

Karkaroff turned and led his students toward the doors, reaching them at exactly the same moment as Harry, Tracey, Theodore, and Allison. Harry stopped to let him walk through first, not wanting to get on the former deatheaters bad side.

‘Thank you,’ said Karkaroff carelessly, glancing at him. And then Karkaroff froze. He turned his head back to Harry and stared at him as though he couldn’t believe his eyes. Behind their headmaster, the students from Durmstrang came to a halt too. Karkaroff’s eyes moved slowly up Harry’s face and fixed upon his scar. Harry was just absolutely sick of magic folk gawking at him, he wasn’t a relic at a museum. The Durmstrang students were staring curiously at Harry too.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw comprehension dawn on a few of their faces. The boy with food all down his front nudged the girl next to him and pointed openly at Harry’s forehead.

‘Yeah, that’s Harry Potter,’ said a growling voice from behind them.

Professor Karkaroff spun around. Mad-Eye Moody was standing there, leaning heavily on his staff, his magical eye glaring unblinkingly at the Durmstrang headmaster. The color drained from Karkaroff’s face as Harry watched. A terrible look of mingled fury and fear came over him.

‘You!’ he said, staring at Moody as though unsure he was really seeing him.

‘Me,’ said Moody grimly. ‘And unless you’ve got anything to say to Potter, Karkaroff, you might want to move. You’re blocking the doorway.’

It was true; half the students in the Hall were now waiting behind them, looking over one another’s shoulders to see what was causing the holdup.

Without another word, Professor Karkaroff swept his students away with him. Moody watched him until he was out of sight, his magical eye fixed upon his back, a look of intense dislike upon his mutilated face.

As the next day was Saturday, most students would normally have breakfasted late. Harry, and his gang, however, were not alone in rising much earlier than they usually did on weekends. When they went down into the entrance hall, they saw about twenty people milling around it, some of them eating toast, all examining the Goblet of Fire. It had been placed in the center of the hall on the stool that normally bore the Sorting Hat. A thin golden line had been traced on the floor, forming a circle ten feet around it in every direction.

‘Has anyone tossed their name in since last night?’ Harry asked Terence, who was already in the hall when they arrived.

‘All ten of the Durmstrang students,’ he replied, ‘but haven’t yet seen any from ours, or from Beauxbaton.’

‘Bet some of them put it in last night after we’d all gone to bed,’ said Harry. ‘I would’ve if it had been me...wouldn’t have wanted everyone watching. What if the goblet just gobbed you right back out again?’

Someone laughed behind Harry. Turning, he saw Fred, George, and another Gryffindor in their year named Lee Jordan, hurrying down the staircase, all three of them looking extremely excited.

‘This is either going to be spectacular, or a disaster,’ Harry whispered as they approached.

‘Done it,’ Fred said in a triumphantly to the crowd. ‘Just taken it.’

‘What?’ said their brother Ron.

‘The Aging Potion, dung brains,’ said Fred.

‘One drop each,’ said George, rubbing his hands together with glee. ‘We only need to be a few months older.’

Harry overheard Allison whisper to Terence, ‘I wonder how many drops it would take to make us seventeen?’

Lee Jordan than spoke, grinning broadly. ‘We’re going to split the thousand Galleons between the three of us if one of us wins.’

‘I’m not sure this is going to work, you know,’ said Hermione Granger warningly ‘I’m sure Dumbledore will have thought of this.’

Harry hoped her words would knock some sense into the twins, as well as Harry’s own friends, as Hermione always thought things out and was hardly wrong. It seemed however that Fred, George, and Lee ignored her.

‘Ready?’ Fred said to the other two, quivering with excitement.

‘C’mon, then—I’ll go first—‘

Harry watched, fascinated, as Fred pulled a slip of parchment out of his pocket bearing the words Fred Weasley—Hogwarts. Fred walked right up to the edge of the line and stood there, rocking on his toes like a diver preparing for a fifty-foot drop. Then, with the eyes of every person in the entrance hall upon him, he took a great breath and stepped over the line.

For a split second Harry thought it had worked, evidently so did Allison as she starting searching her pockets for what Harry assumed to be Galleons to pay the twins for some of the potion—George then let out a yell of triumph and leapt after Fred—but next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been thrown by an invisible shot-putter. They landed painfully, ten feet away on the cold stone floor, and to add insult to injury, there was a loud popping noise, and both of them sprouted identical long white beards.

The entrance hall rang with laughter. Even Fred and George joined in, once they had gotten to their feet and taken a good look at each other’s beards. The only one not laughing was Allison, who looked very disappointed, and Harry felt a bit sorry for her.

‘I did warn you,’ said a deep, amused voice, and everyone turned to see Professor Dumbledore coming out of the Great Hall. He surveyed Fred and George, his eyes twinkling. ‘I suggest you both go up to Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to Miss Fawcett, of Ravenclaw, and Mr Summers, of Hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours.’

Fred and George set off for the hospital wing, accompanied by Lee, who was howling with laughter, and Harry, Theodore, and Tracey, also chortling, went in to breakfast, accompanied by a non-chortling Allison.

The decorations in the Great Hall had changed this morning. As it was Hallowe'en season, a cloud of live bats was fluttering around the enchanted ceiling, while hundreds of carved pumpkins leered from every corner. Harry led the way over to their teammate Lucian Bole and his friend Peregrine Derrick, who were discussing whether they would be putting their names in.

'I've decided to put my name in,' said Lucian, writing his name and school on a piece of napkin. 'But Peregrine is going to wait to see if any other Hogwarts students put their name in.'

'So far the only Hogwarts student who has put their name in is Warrington,' said the seventh year. 'So if no one but him and Lucian step up to represent, then I'll put my name in.'

Harry didn't like Cassius Warrington and really hoped he wouldn't be chosen. Every year since Harry had started, whenever a Quidditch spot opened up Warrington had tried out, and every time he wasn't chosen, which had made him bitter. Now one of Slytherin's Prefects, Warrington occasionally took out him frustrations out on Harry, because he was the reason he was cut three years previous.

‘As nice as it would be for a Slytherin champion, I really hope it’s not Warrington. I hope one of the two of you are chosen though.’

Harry and his group walked away, but the conversation topic did not change. Theodore spoke up.

‘Remember those Hufflepuffs from last week, I wonder if they were right about Cedric Diggory putting his name forward.’

Harry was about to answer that he was sure Cedric would try to compete, but was interrupted by Tracey.

‘What’s that sound?’

People were cheering out in the entrance hall. They all swiveled around in their seats and saw the Gryffindor Chaser Angelina Johnson coming into the Hall, grinning in an embarrassed sort of way. She was a tall strong girl, with skin just a few shades lighter than Tracey’s near pitch-black. Angelina made her way over to the Gryffindor table and sat down. Harry could over here her triumphantly proclaim, ‘Well, I’ve done it! Just put my name in!’

‘You’re kidding!’ said Ron, looking impressed.

‘You’re lucky your birthday is in October, mines not until mid December,’ complained Alicia Spinnet, another Chaser.

Harry turned back to his friends, ‘Well that is three Hogwarts candidates. Five if Cedric and Peregrine put their names in.’

‘And all ten Durmstrang submitted their names. Now it’s gut...’

But Theodore trailed off, the others all turned to see what he was looking at. The students from Beauxbatons were coming through the front doors from the grounds, among them, the veela-girl. Those gathered around the Goblet of Fire stood back to let them pass, watching eagerly.

Madame Maxime entered the hall behind her students and organized them into a line. One by one, the Beauxbatons students stepped across the Age Line and dropped their slips of parchment into the blue-white flames. As each name entered the fire, it turned briefly red and emitted sparks.

‘I just thought of something,’ said Allison while watching. ‘Monday night, do the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students not chosen just go home? It would be a shame for them to travel all the way here just to leave four days later.’

Harry thought for a moment as he watched the veela-girl dropped her parchment into the Goblet of Fire. ‘I Dunno,’ said Harry. ‘Hang around, I suppose...Madame Maxime’s staying to judge, isn’t she?’

When all the Beauxbatons students had submitted their names, Madame Maxime led them back out of the hall and out onto the grounds again.

‘I hope after the choosing their given somewhere to sleep in the castle,’ said Tracey with a bit of concern. ‘I don’t think the Beauxbaton’s carriage is prepared for one of our winters.’

The following two days were uneventful. Besides their Astrology class they didn’t have much to do. A couple more Hogwarts students put their name forward but by Hallowe’en morning it looked like anyone who was going to put their name in already had. Because today was the choosing the teachers decided to give the students the day off, but this only increased Harry and his friends boredom. They desperately wanted something to do to take their mind off their anticipation.

'What are we going to do until tonight?' asked Theodore, who had run out of homework to occupy him.

'We could go visit Hagrid,' Harry suggested. 'If possible I want to know more on why he was commissioned to make the Skrewts.'

Nothing better to do they all agreed. So they jumped down the stone steps, and headed down the hill.

As they neared Hagrid’s cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, the mystery of the Beauxbatons’ sleeping quarters was somewhat solved. The gigantic powder-blue carriage in which they had arrived had been parked two hundred yards from Hagrid’s front door, and the some of the students who had been outside were climbing back inside it, so it indeed was where they were sleeping. The elephantine flying horses that had pulled the carriage were now grazing in a makeshift paddock alongside it.

Harry knocked on Hagrid’s door, and Fang’s booming barks answered instantly.

'’Bout time!' said Hagrid, when he’d flung open the door. 'Thought you lot’d forgotten where I live!'

'It's been a busy couple months, Hag—' Tracey started to say, but then she stopped dead, looking up at Hagrid, apparently lost for words.

Hagrid was wearing his best (and very horrible) hairy brown suit, plus a checked yellow-and-orange tie. This wasn’t the worst of it, though; he had evidently tried to tame his hair, using large quantities of what appeared to be axle grease. It was now slicked down into two bunches—perhaps he had tried to do a ponytail, but found he had too much hair. The look didn’t really suit Hagrid at all. For a moment, Tracey goggled at him, then, obviously deciding not to comment, she said, ‘Um—what happened to the skrewt crates?’

‘Out grew them, I ‘ave them in individual boxes out by the pumpkin patch,’ said Hagrid happily. ‘They’re gettin’ massive, mus’ be nearly three foot long now. On’y trouble is, they’ve started killin’ each other.’

‘That’s to bad,’ said Theodore, but his eyes read as “I told you so”.

‘Yeah,’ said Hagrid sadly. ‘’S’ okay, though, I’ve got ’em in separate them boxes now. Still got abou’ twenty.’

‘Got to be thankful for that,’ said Harry. Hagrid missed the sarcasm.

‘Yer sister seemed pretty interested in dem when she came by, it’s to bad she’s not third year, as I’ll ‘ave different creatures next year.’

‘Canini came by?’ asked Harry.

‘Oh yah, got a knack for magical creatures that one. Now, let’s all ‘ave seat.’

Hagrid’s cabin comprised a single room, in one corner of which was a gigantic bed covered in a patchwork quilt. A similarly enormous wooden table and chairs stood in front of the fire beneath the quantity of cured hams and dead birds hanging from the ceiling. They sat down at the table while Hagrid started to make tea, and were soon immersed in yet more discussion of the Triwizard Tournament. Hagrid seemed quite as excited about it as they were.

‘You wait,’ he said, grinning. ‘You jus’ wait. Yer going ter see some stuff yeh’ve never seen before. Firs’ task...ah, but I’m not supposed ter say.’

‘Go on, Hagrid!’ Harry, Theodore, Allison, and Tracey, urged him, but he just shook his head, grinning.

‘I don’ want ter spoil it fer yeh,’ said Hagrid. ‘But it’s gonna be spectacular, I’ll tell yeh that. Them champions’re going ter have their work cut out. Never thought I’d live ter see the Triwizard Tournament played again!’

They ended up having lunch with Hagrid, though they didn’t eat much—Hagrid had made what he said was a beef casserole, but after Allison unearthed a clump of feathers in hers, she, Harry, Tracey, and Theodore rather lost their appetites. However, they enjoyed themselves trying to make Hagrid tell them what the tasks in the tournament were going to be, speculating which of the entrants were likely to be selected as champions, and talked about how clever the age line was.

A light rain had started to fall by midafternoon; it was very cozy sitting by the fire, listening to the gentle patter of the drops on the window, watching Hagrid darning his socks and started debating who was the best Seeker of their time.

‘Yer good Harry, no one denies dat. But ya ‘ave a limited perspective. Outside of Hogwarts how many Seekers ‘ave ya seen play.’

‘Less than a dozen,’ Harry admitted. ‘But from those I’ve seen I’ve done just as well as them or better, except perhaps for Krum. I’ve caught the Snitch in under fifteen minutes, I’ve caught it while one of my arms was broken while still being chased by a murderous Bludger, I’ve even caught it while my own broom was trying to kill me.’

‘I would probably say Harry’s the second best Seeker in Europe, possible the world, behind Krum of course,’ encouraged Theodore. ‘He is definitely the best in the school.’

‘I’m not so sure,’ said Tracey to everyone’s surprise.

‘What’d ya mean, I won’t stoke Harry’s ego by saying he’s the number one best, but I’d be daft if I said he wasn’t the best currently at Hogwarts,’ said Hagrid.

Tracey looked slightly uncomfortable but continued, ‘That’s because you haven’t seen Terence train. Every day, after finishing gruelling training with Flint he would get back on his broom and do another hour or two of advanced Seeker training. Even these last two months, when Quidditch has been cancelled, he spends several hours a day training. He’ll never make you give up your position Harry, but he was born a Seeker and puts in just as much if not more hours of training in than you.’

Harry did occasionally feel guilty. Three years previous Terence had been selected as Slytherins Seeker, but when word got out of Harry’s skill on the broom he got demoted to Chaser. Harry had sometimes thought that when Marcus Flint finally graduates he would trade spots with Terence, but the truth was he loved being a Seeker to much and would be very reluctant to be a Chaser.

By half past five it was growing dark, and Harry, Tracey, Allison, and Theodore decided it was time to get back up to the castle for the Hallowe’en feast—and, more important, the announcement of the school champions.

‘I’ll come with yeh,’ said Hagrid, putting away his darning. ‘Jus’ give us a sec.’

Hagrid got up, went across to the chest of drawers beside his bed, and began searching for something inside it. They didn’t pay too much attention until a truly horrible smell reached their nostrils. Coughing, Theodore said, “Hagrid, do you have something decaying in your drawers?’

‘Eh?’ said Hagrid, turning around with a large bottle in his hand. ‘Don’ yeh like it?’

‘What even is that?’ said Harry in a slightly choked voice.

‘Er—eau de cologne,’ Hagrid muttered. He was blushing. ‘Maybe it’s a bit much,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’ll go take it off, hang on...’

He stumped out of the cabin, and they saw him washing himself vigorously in the water barrel outside the window.

‘Eau de cologne?’ said Harry in amazement. ‘Since when did he care for fancy stuff?’

‘Yes, what’s with the hair and the suit?’ said Harry in an undertone.

‘It’s her!’ said Allison suddenly, pointing out of the window.

Hagrid had just straightened up and turned ’round. If he had been blushing before, it was nothing to what he was doing now. Getting to their feet very cautiously, so that Hagrid wouldn’t spot them, Harry, Tracey, Allison, and Theodore peered through the window and saw that Madame Maxime and the Beauxbatons students had just emerged from their carriage, clearly about to set off for the feast too.

They couldn’t hear what Hagrid was saying, but he was talking to Madame Maxime with a rapt, misty-eyed expression Harry had only ever seen him wear once before—when he had been looking at the baby dragon, Norbert.

‘He’s leaving with her!’ said Tracey indignantly. ‘It’s like he forgot we even exist!’

Without so much as a backward glance at his cabin, Hagrid was trudging off up the grounds with Madame Maxime, the Beauxbatons students following in their wake, jogging to keep up with their enormous strides.

‘I think he’s taken by her,’ said Harry very smitten. ‘And why wouldn’t he, it’s probably not every day he meets someone with similar life experience. That or some he couldn’t accidentally crush.’

They let themselves out of the cabin and shut the door behind them. It was surprisingly dark outside. Drawing their cloaks more closely around themselves, they set off up the sloping lawns.

‘Guys, it’s him!’ Theodore whispered.

The Durmstrang party was walking up toward the castle from the lake. Viktor Krum was walking side by side with Karkaroff, and the other Durmstrang students were straggling along behind them. Theodore watched Krum excitedly, but Krum did not look around as he reached the front doors a little ahead of Theodore, Allison, Tracey, and Harry, and proceeded through them.

When they entered the candlelit Great Hall it was almost full. The Goblet of Fire had been moved; it was now standing in front of Dumbledore’s empty chair at the teachers’ table. Harry could spot a clean shaven Fred and George looking like they got their spirits back. Harry and his gain sat down next to Terence and Lucian.

‘Good luck Lucian,’ Harry said to the Beater, shaking his hand.

‘Thanks Harry, we’ll soon find out.’

The Hallowe'en feast seemed to take much longer than usual. Perhaps because it was their second feast in only a couple days, Harry didn’t seem to fancy the extravagantly prepared food as much as he would have normally. Like everyone else in the Hall, judging by the constantly craning necks, the impatient expressions on every face, the fidgeting, and the standing up to see whether Dumbledore had finished eating yet, Harry simply wanted the plates to clear, and to hear who had been selected as champions.

At long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the Hall, which died away almost instantly as Dumbledore got to his feet. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.

‘Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision,’ said Dumbledore. ‘I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions’ names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber’—he indicated the door behind the staff table—‘where they will be receiving their first instructions.’

He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting...A few people kept checking their watches...

‘This is overwhelming,’ Terence whispered, two seats away from Harry.

The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it—the whole room gasped.

Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm’s length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.

‘The champion for Durmstrang,’ he read, in a strong, clear voice, ‘will be Viktor Krum.’

‘Who else could it have been!’ yelled Theodore as a storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall. Harry saw Viktor Krum rise from only a couple metres away and slouch up toward Dumbledore; he turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.

‘Bravo, Viktor!’ boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. ‘Knew you had it in you!’

The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone’s attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

‘The champion for Beauxbatons,’ said Dumbledore, ‘is Fleur Delacour!’

‘It’s that girl!’ Harry shouted as the girl who so resembled a veela got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables.

‘The other Beauxbatons look upset,’ Allison said over the noise, nodding toward the remainder of the Beauxbatons party.

“Upset” was a bit of an understatement, Harry thought. Two of the girls who had not been selected had dissolved into tears and were sobbing with their heads on their arms. Another Beauxbaton looked like he was about to snap his wand, he was that mad.

When Fleur Delacour too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it. The Hogwarts champion next...

And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment.

‘The Hogwarts champion,’ he called, ‘is Cedric Diggory!’

‘No!’ said Lucian loudly, but nobody heard him except Harry; the uproar from the Hufflepuff table was too great. Every single Hufflepuff had jumped to his or her feet, screaming and stamping, as Cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off toward the chamber behind the teachers’ table, Harry had joined in on the applause as well. Indeed, the applause for Cedric went on so long that it was some time before Dumbledore could make himself heard again.

‘Excellent!’ Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. ‘Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real—‘

But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him.

The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment.

Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out—

‘Harry Potter.’

Previous Chapters:

Chapter 1: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585181

Chapter 2: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585386

Chapter 3: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589099

Chapter 4: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003589999

Chapter 5: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003590737

Tags: @MeowTasticCat @Bellatrisblack @Diantha Angelina Black @CatsAndRoblox

Chapter Six: The Quidditch World Cup

Clutching their purchases, Sirius and Mr Weasley were in the lead, they all hurried into the wood, following the lantern-lit trail. They could hear the sounds of thousands of people moving around them, shouts and laughter, snatches of singing. The atmosphere of feverish excitement was highly infectious; Harry couldn’t stop grinning. They walked through the wood for twenty minutes, talking and joking loudly, until at last they emerged on the other side and found themselves in the shadow of a gigantic stadium. Though Harry could see only a fraction of the immense gold walls surrounding the field, he could tell that ten cathedrals would fit comfortably inside it.

‘Seats a hundred thousand,’ said Mr Weasley, spotting the awestruck look on Harry’s face. ‘Ministry task force of five hundred have been working on it all year. Muggle Repelling Charms on every inch of it. Every time Muggles have got anywhere near here all year, they’ve suddenly remembered urgent appointments and had to dash away again...bless them,’ he added fondly, leading the way toward the nearest entrance, which was already surrounded by a swarm of shouting witches and wizards.

‘Prime seats!’ said the Ministry witch at the entrance when she checked their tickets. ‘Top Box! Straight upstairs, Arthur, and as high as you can go. Though Mr Black I’ll have to ask your family to step aside.’

‘What is the meaning of this?’ Sirius asked quite furious.

‘I know as much as you do sir,’ the woman explained, ‘an auror just came and told me to hold the Lupin-Black party.’

Arthur expressed that his family would not go with Harry’s, but they were holding up the line and eventually had to leave Harry and his family behind. They waited only about a minute more when a wizard about forty aparated in front of them.

The man had a confident demeanour about him, and along with his blue eyes he possessed shaggy dark brown hair. When Remus saw him an instant scowl crossed his face.

‘Dawlish,’ Remus said bitterly, ‘Why is my family being detained?’

‘Not detained Lupin, just excluded. This is nothing personal, we just can not allow a known werewolf into a crowded area the night of a full moon. The rest of your family can enter if they want.’

‘For one John, I am currently on the wolfsbane potion so even transformed I am no threat to this crowd,’ Remus was practically steaming at the ears. ‘And second, the moon won’t be rising for another three hours, and with professional Quidditch players a game rarely lasts more than two.’

‘I am sorry Remus, I just can’t risk it.’

‘What if we make a deal, I stay until six and then leave, giving plenty of time for me to go back and transform away from all these civilians.’

‘No, that’s final. I am not breaking the law, not even for an old college.’

Sirius, who up until a moment ago looked as though he was about to box Mr Dawlish to the death, broke a smug smile.

‘What if we make a deal,’ he said echoing Remus’ words, ‘Remus stays until six and then leaves, giving plenty of time for him to go back and transform away from all these civilians, and you get one hundred Galleons.’

John Dawlish seemed to only consider this for a second before holding out his hand and taking a heavy bag from Sirius, ‘Five Fifty you leave, and not a minute more.’

With that they were finally permitted to enter. Remus turned to Sirius in surprise and gratitude, ‘Pads, I don’t think I have every seen you act that much like a Black in my twenty-three years of knowing you.’

‘Well, it’ll probably be another twenty-three more before you see that again. Come on, let go watch this game like any other humanoid here.’

The stairs into the stadium were carpeted in rich purple. They clambered upward with the rest of the crowd, which slowly filtered away through doors into the stands to their left and right. Their party kept climbing, and at last they reached the top of the staircase and found themselves in a small box, set at the highest point of the stadium and situated exactly halfway between the golden goal posts. About twenty purple-and-gilt chairs stood in two rows here, and Harry, filing into the front seats with the Weasleys, looked down upon a scene the likes of which he could never have imagined.

A hundred thousand witches and wizards were taking their places in the seats, which rose in levels around the long oval field. Everything was suffused with a mysterious golden light, which seemed to come from the stadium itself. The field looked smooth as velvet from their lofty position. At either end of the field stood three goal hoops, fifty feet high; right opposite them, almost at Harry’s eye level, was a gigantic blackboard. Gold writing kept dashing across it as though an invisible giant’s hand were scrawling upon the blackboard and then wiping it off again; watching it, Harry saw that it was flashing advertisements across the field.

The Bluebottle: A Broom for All the Family—safe, reliable, and with Built-in Anti-Burglar Buzzer...Mrs Skower’s All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover: No Pain, No Stain!...Gladrags Wizardwear—London, Paris, Hogsmeade...Harry tore his eyes away from the sign and looked to Sirius.

‘Padfoot, how much did you spend on our tickets?’

He just smiled back, ‘Don’t you worry about that. All I’ll say that it made that one galleons back there look like a single Knut.’

Realizing just how expensive this box was, Harry looked over his shoulder to see who else was sharing the box with them. So far it was empty, except for a tiny creature sitting in the second from last seat at the end of the row behind them. The creature, whose legs were so short they stuck out in front of it on the chair, was wearing a tea towel draped like a toga, and it had its face hidden in its hands. Yet those long, batlike ears were oddly familiar...

‘Dobby?’ said Harry incredulously.

The tiny creature looked up and stretched its fingers, revealing enormous brown eyes and a nose the exact size and shape of a large tomato. It wasn’t Dobby—it was, however, unmistakably a house-elf, as Harry’s friend Dobby. Harry had set Dobby free from his old owners, the Malfoy family.

‘Did sir just call me Dobby?’ squeaked the elf curiously from between its fingers. Its voice was higher even than Dobby’s had been, a teeny, quivering squeak of a voice, and Harry suspected—though it was very hard to tell with a house-elf—that this one might just be female. Theodore and Terence spun around in their seats to look. Though they had heard a lot about Dobby from Harry, they had never actually met him. Even Ron and Hermione looked around in interest.

‘My bad,’ Harry told the elf, ‘I thought you were a friend of mine.’

‘But I knows Dobby too, sir!’ squeaked the elf. She was shielding her face, as though blinded by light, though the Top Box was not brightly lit. ‘My name is Winky, sir—and you, sir—‘ Her dark brown eyes widened to the size of side plates as they rested upon Harry’s scar. ‘You is surely Harry Potter!’

‘Yeah, I am,’ said Harry.

‘But Dobby talks of you all the time, sir!’ she said, lowering her hands very slightly and looking awestruck.

‘How is he?’ said Harry curiously, he had not heard from Dobby since the end of his second year of Hogwarts. ‘How’s freedom suiting him?’

‘Ah, sir,’ said Winky, shaking her head, ‘ah sir, meaning no disrespect, sir, but I is not sure you did Dobby a favor, sir, when you is setting him free.’

‘Why?’ said Harry, taken aback and now quite concerned. ‘What’s wrong with him?’

‘Freedom is going to Dobby’s head, sir,’ said Winky sadly. ‘Ideas above his station, sir. Can’t get another position, sir.’

‘Why not?’ said Harry.

Winky lowered her voice by a half-octave and whispered, ‘He is wanting paying for his work, sir.’

‘Paying?’ said Harry blankly. ‘Well—why shouldn’t he be paid?’

Winky looked quite horrified at the idea and closed her fingers slightly so that her face was half-hidden again.

‘House-elves is not paid, sir!’ she said in a muffled squeak. ‘No, no, no. I says to Dobby, I says, go find yourself a nice family and settle down, Dobby. He is getting up to all sorts of high jinks, sir, what is unbecoming to a house-elf. You goes racketing around like this, Dobby, I says, and next thing I hear you’s up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, like some common goblin.’

‘Well, it’s about time he had a bit of fun,’ said Harry.

‘House-elves is not supposed to have fun, Harry Potter,’ said Winky firmly, from behind her hands. ‘House-elves does what they is told. I is not liking heights at all, Harry Potter’—she glanced toward the edge of the box and gulped—‘but my master sends me to the Top Box and I comes, sir.’

‘Why’d he send you up here if he knows you are terrified of heights?’ said Harry, frowning.

‘Master—master wants me to save him a seat, Harry Potter. He is very busy,’ said Winky, tilting her head toward the empty space beside her. ‘Winky is wishing she is back in master’s tent, Harry Potter, but Winky does what she is told. Winky is a good house-elf.’

She gave the edge of the box another frightened look and hid her eyes completely again. Harry turned back to the others.

“So that is what a house-elf looks like?” Terence whispered so only Harry could hear. ‘They’re a little odd looking?’

‘Dobby was a little odd looking too,’ Harry admitted.

Allison then arrived and sat in the row directly behind Harry. ‘I found you. You didn’t tell me you would be in the highest of boxes. Hi Theo, hi Terence.’

‘My dad rarely touches his fortune, but for something like this he wanted us to have the best experience,’ Harry rotated and got Sirius’ attention. ‘Pads, Remus met her last year, but this is my friend Allison.’

Sirius put out his hand and Allison took it. ‘It is nice to finally meet you young lady. Harry has told me a lot about you over the years. You were the girl Harry met at the train storage compartment on your very first days?’

‘I almost didn’t remember that, but yes, that was me. It is good to meet you too Mr Black.’

They all got settled and started going over the program, which was made of velvet and was tasseled.

'There is going to be a performance from the teams mascots before the match begins,' Theodore read aloud.

'Oh that’s always worth watching,' said Mr Weasley. 'National teams bring creatures from their native land, you know, to put on a bit of a show.'

Sirius faced Terence, 'what creature is native to Ireland?'

Terence thought for a moment, 'Well, some of the main land or flying creatures are the Aethonan, Augurey, Banshees, and Porlocks, however they will probably go for the most reconisable. Leprechauns.'

More and more people started populating the box. Mr Weasley, Sirius, and Remus kept shaking hands with people who were obviously very important wizards. Percy jumped to his feet so often that he looked as though he were a jack in the box. When Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself, arrived, Percy bowed so low that his glasses fell off and shattered. Highly embarrassed, he repaired them with his wand and thereafter remained in his seat, throwing jealous looks at Harry, whom Cornelius Fudge was over joyed to meet. They had technically met Fudge before, but Fudge had been unaware Harry was in the room. Fudge started introducing him to the other important people in the box.

‘Harry Potter, you know,’ he told the Bulgarian minister loudly, who was wearing splendid robes of black velvet trimmed with gold and didn’t seem to understand a word of English. ‘Harry Potter...oh come on now, you know who he is...the boy who survived You-Know-Who...you do know who he is—‘

Harry for a moment wondered why Fudge wasn’t using a translation charm, but then remembered the man often didn’t think things through, and the stress from organizing the World Cup probably didn’t help.

The Bulgarian wizard suddenly spotted Harry’s scar and started gabbling loudly and excitedly, pointing at it.

‘Knew we’d get there in the end,’ said Fudge wearily to Harry. ‘I’m not great at languages; I need Barty Crouch for this sort of thing. Ah, I see his house-elf’s saving him a seat...Good job too, these Bulgarian blighters have been trying to cadge all the best places...ah, and here’s Lucius!’

Harry, Sirius, and the entire Weasley family Ron, turned quickly. Edging along the second row to three still-empty seats right behind Mr Weasley were none other than Dobby the house-elf’s former owners: Lucius Malfoy; his son, Draco; and Draco’s mother whom Harry had only met once.

Harry and Draco Malfoy had a rocky relationship, they had been enemies ever since their very first journey to Hogwarts, but had more or less stayed out of each other’s way ever since Harry punches him in the face a year prior. A pale boy with a pointed face and white-blond hair, Draco greatly resembled his father. Narcissa was blonde too; tall and slim, she didn’t quite resemble her sister Andromeda, she would have been beautiful if she hadn’t had her nose scrunched up like she smelt something bad.

‘Ah, Fudge,’ said Mr Malfoy, holding out his hand as he reached the Minister of Magic. ‘How are you? I don’t think you’ve met my wife, Narcissa? Or our son, Draco?’

‘How do you do, how do you do?’ said Fudge, smiling and bowing to Mrs Malfoy. ‘And allow me to introduce you to Mr Oblansk—Obalonsk—Mr—well, he’s the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, and he can’t understand a word I’m saying anyway, so never mind. And let’s see who else—you know Arthur Weasley, I daresay?’

It was a tense moment. Mr Weasley and Mr Malfoy looked at each other and Harry vividly recalled the last time they had come face-to-face: It had been in Flourish and Blotts’ bookshop, and they had almost come to blows if Sirius hadn’t beat Arthur to it. Speaking of Sirius.

‘And obviously no introduction is necessary for between the Black cousin’s.’ Fudge said with a laugh, clearly not picking up on the razor sharp tension rising between the Malfoy’s and Sirius.

‘I see this box wasn’t worth the army of Galleons we paid for it, seeing that it is infested with blood traitors and peasants,’ Narcissa said just loud enough for Sirius and Mr Weasley to hear.

Mr Malfoy’s cold gray eyes swept over Mr Weasley, and then up and down the row.

‘Good lord, Arthur,’ he said softly. ‘What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn’t have fetched this much?’

Fudge, who wasn’t listening, said, ‘Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur, Mr Black. He’s here as my guest.’

‘How—how nice,’ said Mr Weasley, with a very strained smile, and Sirius kept his mouth shut because anything that came out of his mouth now might get them all thrown out.

Mr Malfoy’s eyes had now focused on Hermione and Terence, who looked as though they wanted to be anywhere else at that moment, but both stared determinedly back at him. Harry knew exactly what was making Mr Malfoy’s lip curl like that. The Malfoy’s prided themselves on being purebloods; in other words, they considered anyone of Muggle descent, like Hermione and Terence, second-class. Terence had done a good job pretending to be half-blood for the past five years, but ever since the muggle-born hating Basilisk had petrified in his third year rumours had spread about his true parentage. However, under the gaze of the Minister of Magic, Mr Malfoy didn’t dare say anything. He nodded sneeringly to Mr Weasley and Sirius, and continued down the line to his seats. Draco simply just stayed quiet, not standing for his father or against, then settled himself between his mother and father.

‘Stuck up purist,’ Harry heard Sirius mutter. Remus had taken Sirius’ hand.

‘You were the better man, you didn’t react like last time, you were a good example to the kids.’

‘That doesn’t stop the fact that I wanted to punch him in his stuck up face once more.’

Harry smiled, and with the others turned to face the field again. Next moment, Ludo Bagman charged into the box.

‘Everyone ready?’ he said, his round face gleaming like a great, excited Edam. ‘Minister—ready to go?’

‘Ready when you are, Ludo,’ said Fudge comfortably.

Ludo whipped out his wand, directed it at his own throat, and said ‘Sonorus!’ and then spoke over the roar of sound that was now filling the packed stadium; his voice echoed over them, booming into every corner of the stands.

‘Ladies and gentlemen...welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!’

The spectators screamed and clapped. Thousands of flags waved, adding their discordant national anthems to the racket. The huge blackboard opposite them was wiped clear of its last message

(Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans—A Risk With Every Mouthful!) and now showed BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0.

‘And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce...the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!’

The right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval.

‘I wonder what they’ve brought,’ said Mr Weasley, leaning forward in his seat. ‘Aaah!’ He suddenly whipped off his glasses and polished them hurriedly on his robes. ‘Veela!’

‘What are veel— ?’

But a hundred veela were now gliding out onto the field, and Harry’s question was answered for him. Veela were women...the most beautiful women Harry had ever seen...except that they weren’t—they couldn’t be—human. This puzzled Harry for a moment while he tried to guess what exactly they could be; what could make their skin shine moon-bright like that, or their white-gold hair fan out behind them without wind...but then the music started, and Harry stopped worrying about them not being human—in fact, he stopped worrying about anything at all.

The veela had started to dance, and Harry’s mind had gone completely and blissfully blank. All that mattered in the world was that he kept watching the veela, because if they stopped dancing, terrible things would happen his brain told him...And as the veela danced faster and faster, wild, half-formed thoughts started chasing through Harry’s dazed mind. He wanted to do something very impressive, right now. Jumping from the box into the stadium seemed a good idea...but would it be good enough?

‘Oh my gosh! Harry, what are you doing?!’ said Canini’s voice from a long way off.

The music stopped. Harry blinked. He was standing up, and one of his legs was resting on the wall of the box. Next to him, Ron, and Terence both looked as though they had been preparing to dive off of the box, and Theodore looked like he was having an identity crisis.

Angry yells were filling the stadium. The crowd didn’t want the veela to go. Harry was with them; he would, of course, be supporting Bulgaria, and he wondered vaguely why he had a large green shamrock pinned to his chest. The only five people complete not effected by the veela were Sirius, Allison, Hermione, Ginny, and Canini, who were trying to stop those around them from ripping their Ireland merch off of them. Mr Weasley, smiling slightly, leaned over to Ron and stopped him from shredding his hat.

‘You’ll be wanting that,’ he said, ‘once Ireland have had their say.’

‘Huh?’ said Ron, staring openmouthed at the veela, who had now lined up along one side of the field.

Hermione made a loud tutting noise. While Sirius reached up and pulled Harry back into his seat she huffed. ‘Honestly!’ she said.

‘And now,’ roared Ludo Bagman’s voice, ‘kindly put your wands in the air...for the Irish National Team Mascots!’

Next moment, what seemed to be a great green-and-gold comet came zooming into the stadium. It did one circuit of the stadium, then split into two smaller comets, each hurtling toward the goal posts. A rainbow arced suddenly across the field, connecting the two balls of light. The crowd oooohed and aaaaahed, as though at a fireworks display. Now the rainbow faded and the balls of light reunited and merged; they had formed a great shimmering shamrock, which rose up into the sky and began to soar over the stands. Something like golden rain seemed to be falling from it—

‘Spectacular!” yelled Terence as the shamrock soared over them, and heavy gold coins rained from it, bouncing off their heads and seats. Squinting up at the shamrock, Harry realized that it was actually comprised of thousands of tiny little bearded men with red vests, each carrying a minute lamp of gold or green.

‘Leprechauns!’ said Mr. Weasley over the tumultuous applause of the crowd, many of whom were still fighting and rummaging around under their chairs to retrieve the gold.

“This is amazing,’ Ron yelled happily, with fists full of gold.

The great shamrock dissolved, the leprechauns drifted down onto the field on the opposite side from the veela, and settled themselves cross-legged to watch the match.

‘And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome—the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you—Dimitrov!’

A scarlet-clad figure on a broomstick, moving so fast it was blurred, shot out onto the field from an entrance far below, to wild applause from the Bulgarian supporters.

‘Ivanova!’

A second scarlet-robed player zoomed out.

‘Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! Aaaaaaand—Krum!’

‘Harry it’s him, it’s him!” yelled Theodore, following Krum with his eyes as best he could. Harry quickly focused his Omnioculars.

Viktor Krum was thin, dark, and sallow-skinned, with a large

curved nose and thick black eyebrows. He looked like an overgrown bird of prey. It was hard to believe he was only eighteen.

‘And now, please greet—the Irish National Quidditch Team!’ yelled Bagman. ‘Presenting—Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley! Aaaaaand—Lynch!’

Seven green blurs swept onto the field; Harry spun a small dial on the side of his Omnioculars and slowed the players down enough to read the word ‘Firebolt’ on each of their brooms and see their names, embroidered in silver, upon their backs.

“And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, acclaimed Chairwizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!’

A small and skinny wizard, completely bald but with a mustache to rival Uncle Vernon’s, wearing robes of pure gold to match the stadium, strode out onto the field. A silver whistle was protruding from under the mustache, and he was carrying a large wooden crate under one arm, his broomstick under the other. Harry spun the speed dial on his Omnioculars back to normal, watching closely as Mostafa mounted his broomstick and kicked the crate open—four balls burst into the air: the scarlet Quaffle, the two black Bludgers, and (Harry saw it for the briefest moment, before it sped out of sight) the minuscule, winged Golden Snitch. With a sharp blast on his whistle, Mostafa shot into the air after the balls.

‘Theeeeeeeey’re OFF!’ screamed Bagman. ‘And it’s Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levski! Moran!’

It was Quidditch as Harry had never seen it played before. He was pressing his Omnioculars so hard to his glasses that they were cutting into the bridge of his nose. The speed of the players was incredible—the Chasers were throwing the Quaffle to one another so fast that Bagman only had time to say their names. Harry spun the slow dial on the right of his Omnioculars again, pressed the play-by-play button on the top, and he was immediately watching in slow motion, while glittering purple lettering flashed across the lenses and the noise of the crowd pounded against his eardrums.

HAWKSHEAD ATTACKING FORMATION, he read as he watched the three Irish Chasers zoom closely together, Troy in the center, slightly ahead of Mullet and Moran, bearing down upon the Bulgarians. PORSKOFF PLOY flashed up next, as Troy made as though to dart upward with the Quaffle, drawing away the Bulgarian Chaser Ivanova and dropping the Quaffle to Moran. One of the Bulgarian Beaters, Volkov, swung hard at a passing Bludger with his small club, knocking it into Moran’s path; Moran ducked to avoid the Bludger and dropped the Quaffle; and Levski, soaring beneath, caught it—

‘TROY SCORES!’ roared Bagman, and the stadium shuddered with a roar of applause and cheers. ‘Ten zero to Ireland!’

‘What?’ Harry yelled, looking wildly around through his Omnioculars. ‘But Levski’s got the Quaffle!’

“Harry mate, you’re still on slow-mo, you’re several seconds behind and missing things!’ shouted Terence, who was visibly shaking with joy and excitement while Troy did a lap of honor around the field.

Harry looked quickly over the top of his Omnioculars and saw that the leprechauns watching from the sidelines had all risen into the air again and formed the great, glittering shamrock. Across the field, the veela were watching them sulkily.

Furious with himself, Harry spun his speed dial back to normal as play resumed.

Harry knew enough about Quidditch to see that the Irish Chasers were superb. They worked as a seamless team, their movements so well coordinated that they appeared to be reading one another’s minds as they positioned themselves, and the rosette on Harry’s chest kept squeaking their names: “Troy—Mullet—Moran!’ And within ten minutes, Ireland had scored twice more, bringing their lead to thirty-zero and causing a thunderous tide of roars and applause from the green-clad supporters.

The match became still faster, but more brutal. Volkov and Vulchanov, the Bulgarian Beaters, were whacking the Bludgers as fiercely as possible at the Irish Chasers, and were starting to prevent them from using some of their best moves; twice they were forced to scatter, and then, finally, Ivanova managed to break through their ranks; dodge the Keeper, Ryan; and score Bulgaria’s first goal.

‘Cover your ears boys!’ bellowed Remus as the veela started to dance in celebration. Harry screwed up his eyes too; he wanted to keep his mind on the game. After a few seconds, he chanced a glance at the field. The veela had stopped dancing, and Bulgaria was again in possession of the Quaffle.

‘Dimitrov! Levski! Dimitrov! Ivanova—oh I say!’ roared Bagman.

One hundred thousand wizards gasped as the two Seekers, Krum and Lynch, plummeted through the center of the Chasers, so fast that it looked as though they had just jumped from airplanes without parachutes. Harry followed their descent through his Omnioculars, squinting to see where the Snitch was—

‘They’re going to crash!’ screamed Hermione.

She was half right—at the very last second, Viktor Krum pulled out of the dive and spiraled off. Lynch, however, hit the ground with a dull thud that could be heard throughout the stadium. A huge groan rose from the Irish seats.

‘Fool!’ moaned Mr Weasley. ‘Krum was feinting!’

‘It’s time-out!’ yelled Bagman’s voice, ‘as trained mediwizards hurry onto the field to examine Aidan Lynch!’

‘That was a nasty trick,’ Terence said trying to sound disgusted but couldn’t hide how he was impressed, ‘Krum lead him right into a trap. I’m sure he’ll be alright though...’

Harry hastily pressed the replay and play-by-play buttons on his Omnioculars, twiddled the speed dial, and put them back up to his eyes.

He watched as Krum and Lynch dived again in slow motion. WRONSKI DEFENSIVE FEINT—DANGEROUS SEEKER DIVERSION read the shining purple lettering across his lenses. He saw Krum’s face contorted with concentration as he pulled out of the dive just in time, while Lynch was flattened, and he understood—Krum hadn’t seen the Snitch at all, he was just making Lynch copy him. Harry had never seen anyone fly like that; Krum hardly looked as though he was using a broomstick at all; he moved so easily through the air that he looked unsupported and weightless. Harry turned his Omnioculars back to normal and focused them on Krum. He was now circling high above Lynch, who was being revived by mediwizards with cups of potion. Harry, focusing still more closely upon Krum’s face, saw his dark eyes darting all over the ground a hundred feet below. He was using the time while Lynch was revived to look for the Snitch without interference.

Lynch got to his feet at last, to loud cheers from the green-clad supporters, mounted his Firebolt, and kicked back off into the air. His revival seemed to give Ireland new heart. When Mostafa blew his whistle again, the Chasers moved into action with a skill unrivaled by anything Harry had seen so far.

After fifteen more fast and furious minutes, Ireland had pulled ahead by ten more goals. They were now leading by one hundred and thirty points to ten, and the game was starting to get dirtier.

As Mullet shot toward the goal posts yet again, clutching the Quaffle tightly under her arm, the Bulgarian Keeper, Zograf, flew out to meet her. Whatever happened was over so quickly Harry didn’t catch it, but a scream of rage from the Irish crowd, and Mostafa’s long, shrill whistle blast, told him it had been a foul.

‘And Mostafa takes the Bulgarian Keeper to task for cobbing—excessive use of elbows!’ Bagman informed the roaring spectators. ‘And—yes, it’s a penalty to Ireland!’

The leprechauns, who had risen angrily into the air like a swarm of glittering hornets when Mullet had been fouled, now darted together to form the words ‘HA, HA, HA!. The veela on the other side of the field leapt to their feet, tossed their hair angrily, and started to dance again.

As one, all the boys besides Sirius

stuffed their fingers into their ears, but Hermione, who hadn’t bothered, kept pointing at the field. He turned to look at her, and pulled his fingers out of his ears.

‘Look at the referee!’ she said, giggling.

Harry looked down at the field. Hassan Mostafa had landed right in front of the dancing veela, and was acting very oddly indeed. He was flexing his muscles and smoothing his mustache excitedly.

‘Now, we can’t have that!’ said Ludo Bagman, though he sounded highly amused. ‘Somebody slap the referee!’

A mediwizard came tearing across the field, his fingers stuffed into his own ears, and kicked Mostafa hard in the shins. Mostafa seemed to come to himself; Harry, watching through the Omnioculars again, saw that he looked exceptionally embarrassed and had started shouting at the veela, who had stopped dancing and were looking mutinous.

‘And unless I’m much mistaken, Mostafa is actually attempting to send off the Bulgarian team mascots!’ said Bagman’s voice. ‘Now there’s something we haven’t seen before...Oh this could turn nasty...’

It did: The Bulgarian Beaters, Volkov and Vulchanov, landed on either side of Mostafa and began arguing furiously with him, gesticulating toward the leprechauns, who had now gleefully formed the words ‘HEE, HEE, HEE.’ Mostafa was not impressed by the Bulgarians’ arguments, however; he was jabbing his finger into the air, clearly telling them to get flying again, and when they refused, he gave two short blasts on his whistle.

‘Two penalties for Ireland!’ shouted Bagman, and the Bulgarian crowd howled with anger. ‘And Volkov and Vulchanov had better get back on those brooms...yes...there they go...and Troy takes the Quaffle...’

Play now reached a level of ferocity beyond anything they had yet seen. The Beaters on both sides were acting without mercy: Volkov and Vulchanov in particular seemed not to care whether their clubs made contact with Bludger or human as they swung them violently through the air.

Remus and Canini stood, the night sky was getting quite dark above and the moon would rise soon after. Canini looked devastated that she would not get to see the end but Remus told her that Harry and the others would tell her all about it in the morning.

Just as they left the box, Dimitrov shot straight at Moran, who had the Quaffle, nearly knocking her off her broom.

‘Foul!’ roared the Irish supporters as one, all standing up in a great wave of green.

‘Foul!’ echoed Ludo Bagman’s magically magnified voice. ‘Dimitrov skins Moran—deliberately flying to collide there—and it’s got to be another penalty—yes, there’s the whistle!’

The leprechauns had risen into the air again, and this time, they formed a giant hand, which was making a very rude sign indeed at the veela across the field. At this, the veela lost control. Instead of dancing, they launched themselves across the field and began throwing what seemed to be handfuls of fire at the leprechauns. Watching through his Omnioculars, Harry saw that they didn’t look remotely beautiful now. On the contrary, their faces were elongating into sharp, cruel-beaked bird heads, and long, scaly wings were bursting from their shoulders—

‘And that, boys,’ yelled Mr Weasley over the tumult of the crowd below, ‘is why you should never go for looks alone!’

Ministry wizards were flooding onto the field to separate the veela and the leprechauns, but with little success; meanwhile, the pitched battle below was nothing to the one taking place above. Harry turned this way and that, staring through his Omnioculars, as the Quaffle changed hands with the speed of a bullet.

‘Levski—Dimitrov—Moran—Troy—Mullet—Ivanova—Moran again—Moran—MORAN SCORES!’

But the cheers of the Irish supporters were barely heard over the shrieks of the veela, the blasts now issuing from the Ministry members’ wands, and the furious roars of the Bulgarians.

The game recommenced immediately; now Levski had the Quaffle, now Dimitrov—The Irish Beater Quigley swung heavily at a passing Bludger, and hit it as hard as possible toward Krum, who did not duck quickly enough. It hit him full in the face.

There was a deafening groan from the crowd; Krum’s nose looked broken, there was blood everywhere, but Hassan Mostafa didn’t blow his whistle. He had become distracted, and Harry couldn’t blame him; one of the veela had thrown a handful of fire and set his broom tail alight.

Harry wanted someone to realize that Krum was injured; even though he was supporting Ireland, Krum was the most exciting player on the field. Theodore obviously felt the same.

“Time-out! Stop the play! Someone has to heal him, he can’t fly like that—‘

‘Look at Lynch!’ Harry yelled.

For the Irish Seeker had suddenly gone into a dive, and Harry was quite sure that this was no Wronski Feint; this was the real thing...

‘He’s seen the Snitch!’ Harry shouted. ‘He’s seen it! Look at him go!’

Half the crowd seemed to have realized what was happening; the Irish supporters rose in another great wave of green, screaming their Seeker on...but Krum was on his tail. How he could see where he was going, Harry had no idea; there were flecks of blood flying through the air behind him, but he was drawing level with Lynch now as the pair of them hurtled toward the ground again—

‘They can’t pull up in time!’ shrieked Allison.

‘Krum won’t crash!’ roared Theodore.

‘Lynch is!’ yelled Harry.

And he was right—for the second time, Lynch hit the ground

with tremendous force and was immediately stampeded by a horde of angry veela.

‘The Snitch, where’s the Snitch?’ bellowed Charlie Weasley, along the row.

‘He’s got it—Krum’s got it—it’s all over!’ shouted Harry.

Krum, his red robes shining with blood from his nose, was rising gently into the air, his fist held high, a glint of gold in his hand. The scoreboard was flashing BULGARIA: 160, IRELAND: 170 across the crowd, who didn’t seem to have realized what had happened. Then, slowly, as though a great storm was brewing, the rumbling from the Ireland supporters grew louder and louder

and erupted into screams of delight.

‘IRELAND WINS!’ Bagman shouted, who like the Irish, seemed to be taken aback by the sudden end of the match. ‘KRUM GETS THE SNITCH—BUT IRELAND WINS—good lord, I don’t think any of us were expecting that!’

‘Why did he catch the Snitch?’ Theodore asked curiously, even as he jumped up and down, applauding with his hands over his head. ‘There was no way to win!’

‘He knew they were never going to catch up!’ Harry shouted back over all the noise, also applauding loudly. ‘The Irish Chasers were too good...He wanted to end it on his terms, this way they finished very close...’

‘He was is a strategic genius!’ Terence said, leaning forward to watch Krum land as a swarm of mediwizards blasted a path through the battling leprechauns and veela to get to him. ‘Though he looks a wreck...’

Harry put his Omnioculars to his eyes again. It was hard to see what was happening below, because leprechauns were zooming delightedly all over the field, but he could just make out Krum, surrounded by mediwizards. He looked surlier than ever and refused to let them mop him up. His team members were around him, shaking their heads and looking dejected; a short way away, the Irish players were dancing gleefully in a shower of gold descending from their mascots. Flags were waving all over the stadium, the Irish national anthem blared from all sides; the veela were shrinking back into their usual, beautiful selves now, though looking dispirited and forlorn.

‘Vell, ve fought bravely,’ said a gloomy voice behind Harry. He looked around; it was the Bulgarian Minister of Magic.

‘You can speak English!’ said Fudge, sounding outraged. ‘And you’ve been letting me mime everything all day!’

‘Vell, it vos very funny,’ said the Bulgarian minister, shrugging.

‘And as the Irish team performs a lap of honor, flanked by their mascots, the Quidditch World Cup itself is brought into the Top Box!’ roared Bagman.

Harry’s eyes were suddenly dazzled by a blinding white light, as the Top Box was magically illuminated so that everyone in the stands could see the inside. Squinting toward the entrance, he saw two panting wizards carrying a vast golden cup into the box, which they handed to Cornelius Fudge, who was still looking very disgruntled that he’d been using sign language all day for nothing.

‘Let’s have a really loud hand for the gallant losers—Bulgaria!’ Bagman shouted.

And up the stairs into the box came the seven defeated Bulgarian players. The crowd below was applauding appreciatively; Harry could see thousands and thousands of Omniocular lenses flashing and winking in their direction.

One by one, the Bulgarians filed between the rows of seats in the box, and Bagman called out the name of each as they shook hands with their own minister and then with Fudge. Krum, who was last in line, looked a real mess. Two black eyes were blooming spectacularly on his bloody face. He was still holding the Snitch. Harry noticed that he seemed much less coordinated on the ground. He was slightly duck-footed and distinctly round-shouldered. But when Krum’s name was announced, the whole stadium gave him a resounding, earsplitting roar.

And then came the Irish team. Aidan Lynch was being supported by Moran and Connolly; the second crash seemed to have dazed him and his eyes looked strangely unfocused. But he grinned happily as Troy and Quigley lifted the Cup into the air and the crowd below thundered its approval. Harry’s hands were numb with clapping.

At last, when the Irish team had left the box to perform another lap of honor on their brooms (Aidan Lynch on the back of Connolly’s, clutching hard around his waist and still grinning in a bemused sort of way), Bagman pointed his wand at his throat and muttered, ‘Quietus.’

‘They’ll be talking about this one for years,’ he said hoarsely, ‘a really unexpected twist, that...shame it couldn’t have lasted longer...Ah yes...yes, I owe you...how much?’

For Fred and George had just scrambled over the backs of their seats and were standing in front of Ludo Bagman with broad grins on their faces, their hands outstretched.

Previous Chapters:

Chapter 1: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585181

Chapter 2: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003585386

Tags: @MeowTasticCat @Bellatrisblack @Diantha Angelina Black

Chapter Three: Mould-on-the-Wold Cottage

By seven o’clock the next morning, Harry’s travel bag was packed with everything he could possibly need for the next couple of days—wizarding robes that matched the colours of the Irish team, pyjamas, his wand (just in case), the last of his cookies and chocolate frogs, and his copy of Quidditch Through the Ages in case he gets the chance of having one of the athletes sign it. Last minute he also found himself packing his Invisibility Cloak, he wasn’t sure why but he couldn’t shake the dream from the previous night and decided having the Cloak he inherited from his father James couldn’t hurt.

The atmosphere inside number four Privet Drive, as Harry waited to be picked up, was a happy one, any day where Harry won't be around tended to lift their spirits quite high. Since it was daytime Harry had to make his way to a nearby rarely used underpass so no muggles would see what was about to happen. As he arrived the sound of a motorcycle approaching could be heard, but both ways he looked there was nothing coming. Then rumbling sound of the engine stopped and Harry now found himself staring at a late seventies motorcycle with a side car, in the main seat was a man in his mid-thirties with shoulder length black hair, a well kept beard and moustache, and grey eyes.

'Let's get you too Mould-on-the-Wold, we have a very busy day ahead of us,' His godfather Sirius called out to him. 'And I believe we have a nightmare to discuss on the way.'

Realizing Sirius had now read his letter Harry felt a bit nervous. He hopped into the sidecar and placed his packed bag onto his lap.

‘Are you sure you got absolutely everything, you double checked.’ Sirius asked somewhat jokingly.

‘I am all set. Can I hit the invisibility switch?’ Harry asked, in the past Sirius had said he couldn’t hit the switch until he could reach it from the cockpit, and Harry recently had a really big growth spurt.

‘Go right ahead,’ Sirius took his hands off and Harry reached over and flicked the switch Arthur Weasley had installed almost five years ago. There was a slight shake that let them know the enchantment had been activated.

Sirius then pressed down on the gas pedal and pulled up on the handlebars. The next moment they weren’t just moving forward, but they were gaining altitude as well. Soon Privet Drive was out of site and it was just Harry, his godfather, and the clouds.

‘So, has your scar hurt anymore since you woke up from that nightmare?’ Sirius asked in a calm but interrogative way.

‘No, but it took a while for it to stop hurting completely, I could still feel it almost an hour later.’

‘Ok,’ Sirius started, ‘You wouldn’t tell me in the letter, but what was in your dream, because from the secrecy I feel that was what worried you the most and not the pain itself.’

‘Well...’ Harry started, ‘I can’t quite remember everything anymore, but I think I was seeing through someone or something else’s eyes. I was in this run down mansion and Voldemort was there, and I think he was plotting something but I couldn’t figure out exactly what became his snake then attack a random old man and that was when I woke up.’

Sirius looked very grim, ‘That is very worrying, I am sure that everything will be ok though...’

‘No, you don’t fully understand,’ Harry interrupted, ‘it wasn’t seeing Voldemort or watching a person get attacked that frightened me the most. What scared me was in normal dreams things may feel real but once you wake up you realize how odd or ridiculous parts of it was, but the dream I had felt like it actually happened in both while I was asleep and once I had woken up. I think Voldemort somehow was actually at an old mansion and was plotting something dark.’

Sirius slowed down the motorcycles speed so he could focus more on Harry. ‘Ok, I believe you Harry. There is nothing I can currently do, but if this ever happens again what I want you to do is immediately write down what you saw and then tell me or Sirius, you understand. You either use the mirror or send an owl.’

Harry nodded in agreement. He then asked something he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind since the dream. ‘Sirius...Do you think Voldemort is back?’

Sirius did not answer right away, he instead focused his energy on his flying. Only after several minutes did he finally give a partial response. ‘I think we have to be careful Harry, you especially. Times are once again getting darker and if we ignore that it could result in tragedy. I know you are still so young, but I must ask that you start keeping your guard up Harry when you aren’t at the Dursley’s, promise me that.’

‘I promise Sirius.’

Sirius then forced a smile, ‘Good, now wipe that frown off your face, these next few days may be a once in a lifetime experience. I what you to have a good time.’

Soon they were descending upon the countryside Harry was so familiar with, the modest cottage he had grown up in coming into view. They landed and Sirius hit the switch so that they were now visible.

Harry had just gotten out of the side car and was picking up his bag when the front door flew open and his little sister came running. Canini joyfully gave him a big hug.

‘I missed you, I can not believe this is actually happening. Tomorrow he are going to see the World Cup! Come in, come in, your friend is already here.’

She pulled him by the arm back through the front door. There was so much excitement in the air as Harry entered, along with the smell of freshly baked goods including bread and chocolate chip cookies.

Terence Higgs was sitting in the living room, next to the entrance, having tea with Theodore and Remus. When they all saw Harry enter, all three stood up and gave Harry a hug.

‘Missed you my growing fawn.’ Remus said.

‘It’s good to see you.’ Theodore added.

‘Harry, thank you so so much for inviting me to the game! This is the absolute best week of my life and I haven’t even gone yet!’ Terence said gratefully.

‘Hey, don’t I get a welcome back,’ Sirius asked humorously as he entered the door.

‘Of course,’ Remus said, walking over and giving Sirius a welcome home kiss, ‘Hope you had an enjoyable flight, love. Now, we still have a lot of preparation to do so let’s let the kids hang out for now. Oh and children...’

‘Yes,’ all four answered.

‘The bread and sweets are for tomorrow, if I see even a single one missing you won’t be going to the game.’ He was kidding, but his point was made.

To hyped up to think about anything else, the four of them found themselves grabbing brooms from the closet and making their way to a clearing in the trees on his parents property. From the outside it looked like a think orchard, but just past a couple trees it was a big open field where they could fly around as long as they didn't go higher then the tree line.

They decided to play a smaller version of Quidditch, Harry and Terence being far more skilled then the others, split up. Harry was teamed up with Theodore, who wasn’t the best flyer but is an excellent strategist, and Terence partnered up with Canini, who although often got motion sick she had quick reflexes.

They all played for the remainder of the morning and into the early afternoon. Harry’s team had won fifteen games, but Terence’s had won twenty-one. Harry and Theodore were just about to lose another game when Sirius called them inside for lunch.

Along with some lemonade Harry and his friends just had some sandwiches, there was butter and cheddar, as well as smoked salmon with cream cheese. As they ate they regaled Sirius and Remus of the matches they had played with more drama than had actually occurred.

After eating however their collective adrenaline rushes all crashed, and so instead of finishing Quidditch match number thirty-seven they decided to do a marathon of indoor games. This included Exploding Snap, Runok Ko, Wizard Skittles, as well as some logic and thinking games such as Pygmy Puff Pelmanism and Rune Riddles. These games were almost more fun as the playing fields were more even.

Supper wasn’t anything special as Remus was still very busy preparing for the next days adventure. They had spaghetti with tomato sauce, fresh spinach, and mozzarella. They were going to go back to playing immediately after they finished eating, but Sirius stopped them.

‘Oh no you don’t, you are all going to triple check you have everything, and then you will help me and Remus finish preparing everything else.’

They groaned but did as they were told. Terence went to immediately help Remus, Canini went to her room, while Harry and Theodore went to their shared room to get any last minute things into their bags. It was a nice sized room with a decent sized bunkbed. The room used to be Harry’s alone but once Theodore started living with them Harry got a roommate, and he didn’t mind this because he was often either at Hogwarts or the Dursley’s anyway.

Theodore had forgotten to pack socks, and Harry embarrassingly realized their was only a single shirt in his bag instead of enough to last the whole trip. So they quickly grabbed what they needed and stuffed it into their bags, then went downstairs to help.

The four of them spent a better part of an hour helping getting the last of everything ready. Packing the tent, putting food in an enchanted cold box, and collecting any other supplies they would be needing.

When it was all done Remus suggested that instead of Terence sleeping in the guest room and everyone else in their own rooms, that they get out the sleeping bags and have all four of them sleep in Harry’s room. Harry thought this was a great idea and soon they were all in their pyjamas and wrapped in the cozy sleeping bags. They were joking and telling stories, and eventually started playing Truth or Dare, and when Harry’s turn came around he picked date and Canini looked at him with a scheming expression.

‘I dare you to sneak downstairs and steal four of Remus’ cookies for us to share.’

‘But they are probably still down their, I haven’t heard them come upstairs.’ Harry protested.

Terence gave him a little nudge, ‘A dare is a dare.’

So reluctantly Harry got out of his sleeping bag, quietly opened the door, and started slowly making his was towards the stairs. The kitchen was right next to the bottom of the stairs so all he had to do was quickly sneak in, and sneak out. When he reached the bottom of the stair he listened to see if Sirius and Remus were in their but didn’t hear anything at first. He was just about to leave the stairs and enter the room when he heard Remus sigh.

‘Pads, you aren’t understanding what today’s paper means.’

‘I guess I don’t, Bertha Jorkins is missing, but I remember a paper every few years saying the same thing. She seems to go on adventures without telling anyone and stays longer then she meant to, but I don’t see why this has you so worried, love.’

‘It’s not that she is missing, it is where she went missing. Her last known location was in Albania, Sirius.’

Harry didn’t understand the significance of this location, but Sirius obviously did as his tone instantly matched Remus’ in level of concern.

‘Dumbledore, he had said that was the last known location of Voldemort. This isn’t good. First Harry’s nightmare and now this-‘

‘What nightmare?’ Remus interrupted with a great deal of panic and apprehension.

‘Oh, it was probably simply that, a scary but harmless dream, but it dealt with You-Know-Who. It might just be a coincidence, but we must be cautious incase it isn’t.’

‘Are you suggesting we not go tomorrow, I doubt we could come up with an excuse that would satisfy the kids.’

‘No, we shouldn’t miss a one in a lifetime opportunity solely based on a bad dream and a missing woman who is often missing. What I just meant was keep Harry and the others close to us the entire time.’

This was a lot to process. Remus and Sirius were becoming worried that Voldemort may return, and that they are even hesitant to go to a tournament that would have close to a hundred aurors and guards for safety. What should he tell the others, if something bad is about to happen they deserve to know, but on the other hand he didn’t want to worry them if it really was just a coincidence.

As he reached his bedroom once more he decided that he would keep it a secret for now, but if anything happened he’d tell them right away. He entered with no cookies.

‘Sorry everyone, they were in the kitchen, I couldn’t get the cookies.’

Terence let out a sigh, ‘Dang, I was really looking forward to those cookies.’

Harry smiled a bit and went to his bag, he pulled out the tin holding the remainder of his own cookies.

‘They might be a couple days old, but I have some of my aunt Andromeda’s cookies here if you all still want cookies.’

Everyone’s faces lit up like a light and they all got to fill their cookie cravings. The topic of discussion as they started winding down changed to who they think would win the World Cup.

‘Sorry mates, but it is going to be Ireland, hands down,’ said Terence proudly, face covered in crumbs. ‘We absolutely devastated Peru in the semifinals this year.’

‘I think you are a little biased,’ Theodore teased, while using a fake Irish accent. ‘Besides, Viktor Krum is on the Bulgarian team.’

‘No offence to you Quidditch nerds,’ said Canini in an intro to her question, ‘But who is Viktor Krum?’

‘He is a young skilled Seeker, but Ireland is full of talent!’ Terence said with passion, ‘I don’t see anymore of this “United Kingdom” playing, only Ireland came out on top!’

It was true. England was humiliated in their match against Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten. Wales did decently but still lost to Uganda, and Scotland was just devastated by Luxembourg.

They all kept chatting, bragging about which player on which team was better. Theodore though eventually turned to Harry, ‘Haven’t had the chance to ask yet, anything interesting happening at Privet Drive this summer, something that shakes up the norm?’

“Yeah,” said Harry, suddenly reminded of the nightmare and the pain that had accompanied it, and for a moment was on the verge of telling Theodore, Terence, and Canini about his scar hurting again, and about the dream that had awoken him...but at that moment Remus knocked and entered with a tray carrying glasses of warm milk.

‘Thought you all could use some before going to sleep. Once you are done with them you should really try setting down, it is an early and long day tomorrow. Have a good night everyone.’

‘Goodnight Remus,’ Harry and Canini said in unison, followed by Theodore, then Terence said, ‘Goodnight Professor Lupin,’ which put a smile on Remus’ face.