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Black’s trial and acquittal was the big news of the summer. Pettigrew confessed to everything with little prompting and was sentenced to life in Azkaban. Sirius was found guilty of being an unregistered animagus but got off with time served for the years he did for his false conviction. Lupin stayed with him through the whole process and took the year off teaching so he could help his old friend readjust.
<0>
Harry’s summer project was combining with Melinda. He could cast a patronus which was supposed to be high level magic, now Melinda wanted to do some high level magic of her own. Familiars were supposed to be able to share abilities with their owners. For example, Dumbledore could apparate in and out of the castle if he used Fawk’s magic. Most urgently, Melinda wanted to share her venom immunity with Harry. Harry was more interested in her enhanced senses, honestly.
<0>
Dad didn’t care for Quidich so Harry joined Hermione and Draco’s family for the world cup. Melinda didn’t like crowds so she was staying home with Dad. The Malfoy’s had seats in the Ministor’s box, which would give an excellent view of the game but Harry planned to keep Mr. Malfoy between him and any chatty government officials.
Mr. Malfoy had apparently decided that if Hermione was going to be friends with his son then she would wear fancy clothes, be paraded in front of high society just like Harry and Draco, and have proper etiquette so that nobody would ever guess that she was muggleborn. On the etiquette front she was already better than Draco so he voiced no complaints.
Harry had bought an extra pair of magic binoculars but couldn’t find the Weaselys to give them away until they were heading for their seats. While he was walking up the stairs with Draco, Mr. Malfoy, and Hermione, he spotted the Weasley clan on the nearby stair case.
“Hey!”
“Potter,” Ron answered.
“Ginny, catch.” Harry half-tossed half-levitated the enchanted binoculars to her. “That’s your Christmas present. I’ll be using professional moves against you next game.”
“You’re on, Potter!” Ginny shouted back. The twins laughed even as Ron looked like he had swallowed a lemon.
“What, we don’t get anything?” One of them, they weren’t wearing their labeled sweaters so Harry couldn’t tell which, leaned over the railing.
“You want my muggle ones?” Harry held up the pair he had brought from home.
“Yeah, give it here.”
“We can regift that to dad, later.” Harry threw them the pair then waved a quick goodbye so the people on the stairs behind him could walk past.
Harry rejoined Mr. Malfoy who really looked like he wanted to say something. Fortunately, Harry was saved from that lecture as some rich wizard came over to greet them.
Case in point, about their wizariding manners; when the Irish team came out, Draco bent to pick up the leprechaun gold and Hermione didn’t. Like the good friends they were, she and Harry pulled him upright before he could embarrass himself. Hermonie then had to kick both Harry and Draco when the Veelas arrived.
The game ended late in the evening. Mr. Malfoy apparated them back to the manor where they planned to sleep over. While getting ready for bed Harry got a visit from Dobby.
“Master Harry Potter is still alive, sir, Dobby’s glad.”
“Dobby? You’re…you’re the Malfoy’s elf?”
“Yes sir.”
“Hold on, does that mean the Malfoys had something to do with the Chamber of Secrets?”
“Dobby cannot say, sir.” He quickly kept talking over Harry’s frown. “But Master Harry Potter needn’t be worrying. No one in Dobby’s family be hurting Harry Potter again. Dobby’s family not even hurting Dobby anymore.”
Harry knelt on the floor so he was level with the elf. “You’re really okay, Dobby?”
“House elves not be gossiping.” He said this as if it were a mortal sin. “But only Master ever hurt Dobby, and Mistress makes sure Master hits other things now.”
Well, that fit with what Harry knew about the family. “That’s good. Draco’s part of your family so you’ll be able to tell him if anything bad happens, won’t you?” When Dobby looked unsure, he added. “Draco’s a good person, Dobby, you can trust him, I promise.”
“Dobby will do as Sir Harry Potter says.”
With that cleared up Harry went to bed. His chronic insomnia, unfamiliar surroundings, and lack of familiar nearby woke him around sunrise. He went to the bathroom for a glass of water but didn’t plan on walking around, the Malfoy manor was a bit spooky even in daylight. However, he heard Draco’s angry voice.
“How could you do that!” Harry went to investigate, it sounded like Draco was shouting at someone but he couldn’t hear a second voice at this distance. “There were wizarding families there!”
“Quiet, Draco!” Now Harry could make out Mr. Malfoy’s words.
“I will not be quiet! I’m associating with a half-blood and a mudblood, will my own father attack me for being a blood traitor?”
“Draco!” He shouted this then quieted a bit. “No one was killed and now I’m in their confidence. I’ll know when they plan the next attack.”
“That’s it then? You’re a Death Eater again?”
“In name only, Draco. My father…” Harry quickly but silently walked away. He didn’t want to eavesdrop on family matters. He knew what he needed to, Mr. Malfoy was on their side of the war now and willing to go undercover.
Harry dozed and read the book he brought for just this occasion until morning. He went down to breakfast only to hear more shouting. This time between Hermione and Draco.
“I can’t believe you have slaves!”
“They’re not slaves, they’re house elves!”
“That’s no excuse, do you pay them?”
“They’re bound to our family, we don’t have to pay them.”
“So you own them, that makes them slaves!”
“Morning,” Harry entered the room where his friends were arguing over plates of eggs benedict.
“Potter, explain house elves to her.”
“Oh yes, Harry, explain away this atrocity.”
“You know, Hermione, you could just ask them. Assuming that another race of creatures believes in the same human morality is a bit speciesist.” Harry had had this conversation with his dad and the Hogwarts elves. Hermione gaped at him opened mouthed and Draco smirked. “I knew the Hogwarts elves while I was growing up. They babysat me a lot.”
“Hogwarts has elves too?”
“Of course they do. Who do you think cooks all the food?” Draco rolled his eyes at her.
“And I’m supposed to believe they’re happy?”
“I can show you how to get into the kitchens if you want to meet them.”
“You know how to get into the kitchens?” Draco perked up. “Why didn’t you ever say something?” Harry didn’t have a chance to explain why he had no reason to go into the kitchens when house elves would bring a snack to any student that asked nicely because the post arrived. Three owls flew in, Draco’s dropped the newspaper next to him, Mrs. Malfoy’s dropped the paper and a magazine by her chair and the third flew off in the direction of Mr. Malfoy’s study.
Draco completely abandoned their conversation in favor of unrolling the newspaper and frowning at the front page. Based on what he overheard Harry knew to expect something and Hermione quickly picked up that something was amiss from their eagerness to read the news.
“What is that?” She leaned over to read over Draco’s shoulder.
“The Dark Mark, Riddle’s symbol,” Harry explained.
“There was an attack at the Quiddich Cup, ‘the entire encampment of spectators burned to the ground.’” Draco read from the paper. Draco sulked but didn’t mention his father’s involvement. It wasn’t his secret to share so Harry didn’t say anything either.
<0>
Again, this was a terrible idea and again, only so much of the blame could be placed on Dumbledore. The Ministry, that tribe of fools, had wanted to restart the Triwizard Tournament for years. This year they had finally got it put together. Headmaster or not, there wasn’t much Dumbledore could do when the government and the neighboring schools clamoring for an event. Part of the reason Drumstrung and Beauxbatons were suddenly so eager to join in was because they wanted to see The Boy Who Lived, he just knew it. Thank Merlin the Ministry had added an age limit. This was exactly the kind of fool-heartly adventure Harry’s inner-Gryffindor would have enjoyed.
<0>
It was nice to meet people their age from the global wizarding community but Hermione was right about this disrupting their class schedules. Classes were extra full now and inter house quiddich matches replaced with promised Tri-wizard events. It would be fun to watch but Harry also had to deal with Dad being stressed, both from extra work load and having so many strangers nearby, and people staring at him and Melinda. After four years Hogwarts had largely gotten accustomed to The Boy Who lived and his familiar, now there were French and Norwegian/German? students pointing and whispering in foreign languages.
Harry pondered all this while trying to go to sleep one evening.
“Harry, you awake?” Draco appeared at the curtain.
“Yeah? What is it?” Draco came in and sat on the bed next to Harry. He cast a silencing charm on the curtains, Harry picked up his wand from the bedside table and expanded it to include Melinda’s terrarium. She got annoyed when she wasn’t included in conversations. “Severus is your guardian, does it bother you that he killed people during the war?”
“A little bit, I tell myself it was self defense. My mom killed people too.”
“That’s different. My parents hurt a lot of people.”
“They’re trying to make up for it now, aren’t they?”
“Does that make it okay? Even when they might have to do it again?”
“If they go undercover with The Death Eaters then they are trying to do the right thing. If they have to hurt people then I don’t think it’s any different than an auror having to hurt people.”
“I guess,” Draco admitted. “I still don’t know if I can forgive him for what he did during the war, though.”
Harry thought for a minute then had to admit. “I think I’d be able to forgive my father but I can’t know for sure. I think you’re going to have to decide for yourself.”
Draco frowned at him. “Snape raised you, he’s practically your father.”
“He is my father.” Harry said this without thinking about it first.
“You never told him.” Of course Melinda kept track of this, Dad had taught her his paranoia for keeping tabs on Harry’s secrets.
“Oh,” that explained Draco’s current expression. “I thought you knew. Dad was feeding information to Dumbledore since Hogwarts. Mom only married Potter as a cover story.” Draco sat silently for a second then gave Harry a particularly nasty glare before storming away.
“He’s angry.”
“He has a right to be.”
<0>
Arriving in Spinners End to check on the triggered alarm only to find Malfoy snooping through his notes wasn’t as surprising as it should have been. “Can I help you find something, Lucius?” If he hadn’t been pureblood raised, Malfoy would have jumped. He quickly schooled his features into his normal haughty arrogance.
“Perhaps,” he was trying to be mysterious but Severus didn’t blink. Lucius was a few years his senior and a higher rank in the Death Eaters but they both knew who would win in a real fight. “I want poison, something undetectable with a delay, and no antidote.”
“I suppose you also want it odorless and colorless?”
“I’ll make do.”
“And it’s for…”
“Narcisa has made it startlingly clear that if the Dark Lord rises Draco will be in danger." Lucius fidgeted subtly. “Whatever you may think of me, Severus, I do care about my son.”
“Ah, so you need it for vermin,” he put emphasis on his last word. Malfoy was used to doubletalk and caught on.
“Yes, I’m afraid my house is positively infested. Ministry allowed spells just don’t do the trick and it’s only a matter of time until one of them bites my son, I’m afraid.”
Severus nodded and went to a shelf. “This has a slight bitter taste but is easily covered up by food. Not that rats can vomit.” He passed a small container of white powder, of his own creation to Lucious. “Can be baked into bread or dissolved in water. Make sure your clumsy house elves don’t use more than a few drops. A teaspoon will kill an adult human within two days.” Lucious took the poison with a meaningful look.
“I never can count on my house elves to do things correctly. Will you brew extra in case they use it up too quickly?”
“See me if you need more. Those vermin move back in every fall. The Hogwarts elves had to recast the wards around the kitchens just last week.”
“Yes, it was always a shame the Gryffindors were in a tower otherwise we might have been tempted to let a few past.” Lucious slipped the glass into his robes and purposefully continued the lighthearted topic. They chatted animably for a minute more then he showed Malfoy out.
A month later Severous wasn’t surprised to hear that Belatrix Lestrange died of heart failure in Azkaban. Her funeral was arranged by her sister and brother-in-law, who, coincidentally, had visited her two days before her death.
<0>
Draco wasn’t talking to him. Apparently friends told each other who their real fathers were. Harry honestly just hadn’t thought about it. Everyone important knew who his real dad was. Saying this to Draco, though, didn’t make him any happier. Hermione wanted to know why they were fighting so Harry told her all about it, which really didn’t make Draco any happier.
This meant that Harry sat next to Millicent and Zambini at the Slytherin table. Millicent didn’t give a rat’s behind about blood purity and liked all animals including reptiles. Zambini was full of himself and friends with Pansy but didn’t care about wizarding politics and would talk to the house piraha if he decided they were worth his time. Not that Harry was to the level of piraha yet, a single rejection even a Malfoy rejection, could only do so much.
The champion for each school would be announced after dinner. The Weasely twins were taking bets. Harry suspected he was in the running even though he wasn’t 17 nor had put his name in. Really this seemed like too much trouble for a prize like ‘eternal glory’. He’d been famous his whole life and would still rather have his mom back. Melinda was on his lap and raised her head to watch as they got the goblet ready.
He clapped for each champion. The most popular boy in school and quiddich star, Krum also got to be champion? How was this goblet deciding things? Maybe it was just a quiddich fan considering Cedric Diggory, Hufflepuff seeker, became the Hogwarts champion. Rumor was that Fleur Delacour was part Veela, Pansy’s rumor so taken with a grain of salt, but maybe she also played quiddich or whatever they had in France.
The three champions were announced and Dumbledore started to move his speech along but the goblet didn’t stop burning. All the teachers looked confused so Harry sat up in concern. A fourth piece of parchment shot out of the goblet. Dumbledore frowned at it then said “Harry Potter.”
“What?” Harry was struck dumb but Melinda accurately voiced his thoughts, not that anyone could hear her. Someone, probably Zambini, gave Harry a shove. Everyone was staring expectantly. Harry glanced over to Dad but he didn’t seem to know what to do either. With nothing better to do Harry numbly walked the thousand miles up to Dumbledore and took the parchment slip from him. Harry looked down at it, it was definitely not his hand writing. He was going to tell Dumbledore this but the headmaster just shooed him out through the back door the champions had taken.
The three champions were milling about by the fireplace and understandably looked at him curiously.
“Something wrong?” Diggory asked.
“I think so.” Harry only had to wait a minute before the teachers and headmasters entered, in various degrees of visibly frustrated and confused.
“Harry did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?” Dumbledore asked first.
“No sir.”
“Get one of the older students to do it for you?”
“No sir. I don’t know who did this. It’s not even my handwriting.”
“Let me see it.” Melinda had an idea. Harry lifted it to her nose so she could taste it.
“What? Are you a bloodhound now?” He was used to speaking to her around Hogwarts, even around the Dursleys, so he did this without thinking. Delacour jumped, Headmisstress Maxime twitched slightly but looked more impressed than anything, Krum didn’t seem to care, and Igor Karkaroff turned deathly white.
“All I can taste is smoke and ash,” she admitted, but didn’t deny the bloodhound statement, showoff.
“She doesn’t recognize it either,” Harry translated and handed the scrap of paper back to Dumbledore.
“Surely he is lying,” Madam Maxime accused.
“The Goblet is a very powerful magical item. Someone must have put Potter in as the only contestant from a fourth school. Far beyond the skills of a fourth year,” Moody spoke up.
“You seem to have given this a lot of thought,” Karkaroff recovered enough to get in Moody’s face.
“It was once my job to think as dark wizards do, perhaps you remember,” Moody said back.
“The Goblet represents a binding magical contract,” Crouch from the Ministry stepped away from the teachers. “It can’t be broken.” Harry glanced to Dad, expecting him to say something but he was only glaring at Dumbledore.
“He’s just a boy,” McGonagall was the first to come to Harry’s defense.
“Crouch, you can’t very well expect any wizard to honor a contract his name was forged upon do you?” Dumbledore said this in his congealing tone and put a hand on Harry’s shoulder. “Young Mr. Potter here didn’t put his name in the Goblet, he can’t be held responsible.”
“I won’t allow a fourth in this Tourney, is rigged,” Maxime’s English became more accented when she was flustered.
“It would be disrespectful to the other champions,” Dumbledore agreed.
“And if he did put his name in that Goblet,” Karkaroff broke off his staring contest with Moody, “he shouldn’t be rewarded by getting what he wants.”
“There, we are, all in agreement,” Dumbledore smiled at Crouch.
The others kept talking a bit longer but Harry was excused and Dad volunteered to take him back to Slytherin.
“I didn’t do it,” Harry said the second they were alone.
“I believe you, this is another attempt on your life.”
“Not just a prank?”
“I doubt it.” Dad growled. He walked in angry silence for a minute before looking at Harry again. “I couldn’t be seen showing preference for you in front of those witnesses,” he explained why he hadn’t defended Harry. “Karkaroff in particular. He’s a Death Eater, also a coward so he’ll likely flee before joining Riddle again.” Dad trailed off. Harry nodded to show he understood.
They reached the dungeons. “Keep your wits about you both. I’ll let you know if anything else arises,” Dad said before leaving them.
Harry entered the common room and was immediately swarmed. He spoke up before the bombardment of questions could begin. “I didn’t put my name in the goblet. I’m not taking part in the Tournament. The Professors think it’s someone’s attempt to kill me.” Harry said this all loudly and clearly. Most of the room accepted this and went back to whatever they were doing.
“Again? Merlin’s beard, Potter, The Chosen One for Half-Arsed Assassination Attempts,” Zambini snorted.
“Black was after Pettigrew last year,” Harry felt compelled to say.
“Oh, that makes it sooo much better,” Pansy sniffed, “too bad they didn’t let you be in the tournament I bet you would have loved that.”
“Diggory’s still in, if you want to brown nose, Parkinson.”
<0>
Harry followed Professor Moody into his office. He looked around at the mass collection of artifacts while the man sat down and took off his prosthetic leg.
“That’s a foe glass, lets me keep an eye on my enemies.” he noticed that Harry was watching one item in particular. “When I can see the white of their eyes they’re right behind me!” He chuckled at his own joke then waved for Harry to take a seat. “Dumbledore wanted me to make sure you’re up to defending yourself. Whoever put your name in that goblet’s not going to stop there.”
There was a knock on the door.
“Professor Moody,” Diggory entered then spotted Harry. “Sorry, am I early?”
“Not at all, sit down. I gotta get both you boys into fighting shape.”
Professor Moody went over what they both knew and gave them suggestions of spells to practice. When they got to higher grade magic and things specifically about the tournament Harry excused himself.
<0>
“Did you finally turn my familiar into potion ingredients?” Harry entered his dad’s office only to find Melinda sitting in a steaming cauldron.
“This is nice,” she hissed as reassurance and rested her chin on the cauldron lip.
“It’s a way to quickly develop immunity to venom. Invented by snake charmers. It’s a bit dangerous for humans but I’ve modified it,” Dad answered without looking up from the scrolls he was grading.
“And you were complaining about having to do all the work. Will this work with man-made toxins too?”
“One poison at a time. Did you need something?”
“Not really,” Harry sat down on the sofa and got out his books. “Draco’s still being a prat, Hermione has a test in ancient runes tomorrow, Melinda’s with you, the first year Slytherins are all over me in the common room, I’d just be in the way in the kitchens, and the rest of the school is crowded.” He settled in to read his history book. Dad accepted this answer and went back to his work.
<0>
Harry woke up from a nondescript nightmare and couldn’t go back to sleep. He quietly left the common room. A bit of peaceful flying would calm his mind. There wasn’t any rule against going outside at 5 a.m. but aside from the few Ravenclaws in the library Harry had the castle to himself. With both Draco and Melinda still asleep in the dorm, he could enjoy some peace and quiet.
He had almost an hour to himself before he noticed movement on the pitch below him. He hovered lower and recognized Diggory,
“I can come back later,” Diggory offered when he spotted Harry.
“It’s alright. You want to practice?”
“I was just going to fly.” He looked sad.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Harry offered, just in case he felt like sharing.
“My girlfriend ended it,” he sighed and flew in a few lazy circles. “Woke me up early to dump me.”
“Sorry.”
“We weren’t dating very long. I guess it’s good that she figured it out quickly. You know the Ravenclaw seeker?”
“What? You were dating Cho?” Harry couldn’t help but be impressed. She had everything, good looks, good marks, great seeker.
“Not for very long,” Cedric repeated. “I think she’s available now,” he managed a small smile at Harry. Harry flew up a little higher so the older boy wouldn’t see him blush.
“So…how’s the tournament going?”
“Oh Merlin, I’m regretting it already,” he joked. “Such a fuss and we haven’t had the first challenge yet. They actually pulled me out of class for a press conference.”
“Tell me about it, Boy Who Lived, remember?”
“Doesn’t get better, huh?”
“Nope.”
<0>
Hagrid was a good teacher, in Harry’s opinion, despite the terrifying Blast Ended Screwts he had this year. With Draco upset at him Harry had more time to go and visit Hagrid. On one of these visits Hagrid showed him the dragons being brought in for the challenge. Harry saw the other two headmasters there and the next day made inquiries into whether Cedric knew or not. If the other two champions knew it would only be fair he had warning as well. As soon as he confirmed that Cedric didn’t know, he made sure to get him alone and tell him.
Harry also told Hermione what he saw and she suggested that he might be able to speak to them in Parsletounge. Melinda was excited by the idea of talking to dragons. She convinced Harry to try talking to the few portraits of dragons around the school. It turned out that dragons spoke a different dialect of Parsletounge. Harry had to use a translation spell, Hermione looked one up for him, and speaking it took conscious effort. Parsletounge he just looked at or thought of a snake and spoke normally, dragon speak he needed to concentrate on the hiss/growls and speak in simple sentences. This technique also worked for normal lizards when Harry tried it. He needed to find a turtle next.
<0>
Harry and Melinda, she refused to miss it, joined Hermione and the Weasleys in the stands to watch the first challenge. He’d never seen dragons in person so it was amazing. Hermione pointed out it was a bit cruel to be forcing mother dragons to defend her eggs from teenagers. It was really exciting to watch, though.
Cedric transfigured a boulder into a dog as a distraction. He almost got away clean but took a fire blast to the side of the face as he retreated.
Harry and several others, including Ginny and Hermione lingered behind after the event to learn if Diggory was okay or not. He’d been burned pretty badly by his dragon. Madam Pomphery eventually came out of the tent to assure everyone that all the champions were fine and didn’t need ‘admirers’ hanging around.
Thus chastised, the students were all on their way back to the castle when they heard a roar. Looking, up they spotted one of the dragons flying towards them. A couple students, including Ginny, screamed; a few students, including Hermione, froze; but most of them, including Harry, grabbed their friends and ran.
“Translation spell, translation spell!” Melinda shouted. Harry removed his wand but was then shoved to the ground by Ginny. The dragon swooped low and gorged the ground with her talons. As quickly as his panicked mind could, Harry cast the spell on his throat and ears.
“Where are my eggs!” The Short Snout’s second roar formed words that rang in his ears.
“Wait! We don’t have your eggs! Look, I’m not holding them.” He scrambled to his feet in case he had to run again. Harry was a bit too frazzled to focus on his grammar so hopefully that came out intelligently. He’d spoken at normal volume to the portraits but now he shouted as loud as he could. Hermione knew he could do this but hadn’t heard it before. Ginny didn’t know at all.
“You ate them.” She seemed less sure now and flapped in place rather than attack again.
“We’ve been nowhere near your nest. Can’t you smell that?” Melinda said this time. Harry had never heard her shout before, he didn’t know she could. The dragon paused and seemed to consider that. Her handlers finally came running towards them. She turned to hiss at them and Harry and the girls took the opportunity to bolt in the other direction.
Several professors met them at the castle and mass amounts of fussing commenced. All the attacked students were sent to the hospital wing for a check up. Harry was fine but did accept a wizarding loganze for his throat. The second he’d taken the translation spell off his throat swelled up and his hears ached. Melinda complained of similar symptoms and wrapped herself around Harry’s torso under his shirt and didn’t acknowledge anyone. Dad showed up at his bedside, quickly looked him over, then stormed out to make whoever misplaced a dragon wish they’d never been born. Most of Slytherin house, even Draco, swarmed him with questions and demands to tell the story a thousand times. Harry could see Hermione was getting similar treatment by the Ravenclaws.
Things had just begun to die down when Ginny pushed her way through the green and silver crowd.
“Harry!” Several slytherins glared at her but she took no notice. “This is my big brother, Charley.” She waved a red-haired man over. This time the Slytherins parted of their own accord. This young man had fearsome scars. “He’s one of the dragon handlers, he wants to ask you how you could talk to her.”
“I’m sorry she attacked you. It wasn’t her fault though. Someone let her out of her cage and tried to cast several confusion spells on her. Fortunately dragons are resistant to magic and she’s calmed down now.” Charley was the coolest, manliest person Harry had ever met. The complete opposite of Percy and Ron. If it wasn’t for the red hair you’ wouldn’t guess they were related. Harry explained how he talked to her.
“Could your familiar talk to her too?”
“Yes, but I don’t think normal snakes could. She used my translation spell and she has a much better understanding of language after growing up with me.”
“Have you ever met a runespoor?”
“No. They’re venomous so they’re not allowed in school.”
“Hmm.” Charley considered this for a second. “We’re going to have to experiment with this. Nobody’s ever tired parslemouth before. If you want a job after Hogwarts send me an owl.”
“Thanks.”
Back at the common room, Draco got Crab and Goyle to distract the gossip hounds so he could talk to Harry.
“Hey.”
“Hello,” Harry eyed his friend/former friend?
“I’m done being angry at you,” Draco declared in his best haughty Malfoy heir voice. “You’re a bastard.” Before Harry could answer he continued. “Truly, you’re a bastard. Your mother was married to someone else when you were born.”
“That’s not funny.”
“I’m not joking.” His smirk said otherwise and Harry was happy to have him back so he let it drop.
<0>
Harry didn’t use the Marauders map too often. Catching multiple foot prints in obviously compromising positions made the appeal wear off. He happened to be looking at it, however, when he spotted Barty Crouch in his dad’s office one night.
He went to investigate only to be caught by Professor Moody. His magical eye couldn’t see under the invisibility cloak but it could make out Harry’s footsteps on the dusty floor. He confiscated the map as punishment for being out after curfew. Harry couldn’t really argue with that. Dad had warned him the map was technically an illegal artifact and not to get caught with it.
Neither Dad nor Moody seemed surprised to hear that Crouch was snooping through Dad’s things. Crouch was very hard on ex-Death Eaters and was probably just looking for dirt on Dad. Dad found several potion ingredients missing and redid his wards on the cabinets and complained to Dumbledore but that was all that happened.
A month later Barty Crouch became ill and stopped appearing at all Tri-Wizard events. Maybe one of Dad's defensive spells got him.
<0>
Knowing there was a dance coming up had the school in a tizzy. Why did boys have to ask the girls out? It was so unfair. Then again if girls were in charge of that they would probably gang up on boys with packs of their friends. That would also be terrifying. The situation was made worse by Harry’s friends. Draco was completely unfazed and confident in his ability to find a date and was more worried about Crab, Goyle, or other Slytherins making the house look bad. Hermione couldn’t be bothered to take time out of her study schedule and largely ignored Harry when he tried to talk about it. Melinda, who had given up almost all potential to be a sexual creature by combining herself with Harry, found the whole ‘human mating ritual’ entertaining.
To Harry’s abject horror, multiple Slytherin girls started circling him like sharks. Even Pansy was now eyeing him like the last pumpkin pasty, although more reluctantly than the other girls so this was probably a suggestion from her parents. Harry wasn’t even sure he wanted to go to the stupid dance. He asked Hermione to go with him as a friend. She accepted carelessly but the very next day asked him if she could back out. Krum, of all people, had asked her to the dance. Harry wasn’t going to ruin his friend’s chance at romance for his own comfort and released her from her former obligation.
He thought the matter was settled but apparently someone told Krum something because he cornered Harry in the hall a few days latter. “What is your relationship with Her-mi-oninie?”
“What?” It took Harry an embarrassing second to recognized his friend’s name under that accent. “We’re just friends. I only asked her to the dance as friends, because we weren’t going with anyone else. Honest.” Being a wizard meant Dudley could no longer intimidate Harry with his sheer size but Krum was another matter. The frowning, tall, buff, older student made him twitch for his wand but he kept it together.
“Very well.” Krum accepted this after a moment’s consideration and walked away. Harry sighed to himself, he was glad Melinda wasn’t there to comment. He continued walking towards the library to meet up with his friends when another person approached him.
“Potter! Can we talk?” Diggory abandoned a group of Hufflepuff students to run towards Harry.
“Sure.” He was smiling so Harry didn’t think it was a bad thing.
He glanced around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping before talking. “This is a little sudden but would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me?”
“What?” Harry said for the second time in five minutes.
“If you don’t want to that’s fine. I was just thinking, neither of us are dating anyone else and you’re a great guy.”
“Yes!” That came out louder than Harry intended. “I mean, yes, I’ll go to the dance with you. You don’t seem like the kind of person to ask me just because I’m a celebrity.” Diggory had told other students off for harassing Harry about having his name in the goblet.
“Likewise.”
<0>
Harry purposefully waited for a time when Melinda and Draco weren’t around to approach his dad in his private quarters. “Dad, I want to go to the ball.”
“With friends or with a date?”
“Date.”
Dad set aside his quill and got out his wand. “If you want to start dating you have three options. Attend a lecture from me, from Pomphery, or from McGonagall. Or,” he levitated a book from a cupboard and dropped it in front of Harry, “read this book cover to cover.” Harry flipped open the book, spotted several diagrams then shut it quickly.
“Why McGonagall?”
“Just because she’s unmarried doesn’t mean she hasn’t had serious romantic relationships. Also she’s the head of Gryffindor, she’s given many students this speech.”
“Why not the other heads of houses then?” Dad frowned at him for a second before recognizing that it was his curiosity asking rather than any desire to disobey.
“Flitwick is part goblin, he hands out reading material to any students that ask him. I suppose you could ask Sprout if you want.”
“Dumbledore doesn’t do these lessons?” he used to be head of Gryffindor.
“He used to. But he’s completely queer so his knowledge of women is purely theoretical.”
“What if…you wouldn’t mind if I went out with a boy?”
“Of course not, as long as you’re happy.” Dad said seriously then added, “I still wouldn’t recommend talking to Dumbledore, he has an appalling resume of past relationships. Don’t repeat that to anyone. I only know because he taught me legitmancy.”
“What? You read Dumbledore’s mind?” Despite the importance of their previous discussion this was far more interesting.
“He insisted on me practicing with him before I joined The Death Eaters. Now, your decision.”
Harry thought it over for a second then picked up the book. “I’ll take the book.”
“I expect to be informed who you’re attending with before the actual night of the dance.” Dad returned to his work, knowing better than to pester Harry for a name immediately. Harry left, wondering if he could get away with the day before the dance.
<0>
“So you’re going with Diggory, Hermione’s still going with Krum.” Draco considered this for a second. “I need to ask Delacour out.”
“Don’t ask her if you don’t like her,” Hermione chastised.
“She’s part veela, I like her just fine.”
Hermione shook her head in a way that indicated she wasn’t going to have this conversation. Harry never knew how to approach the idea of arranged marriage that was still practiced by several pureblood families so he also moved the conversation along.
<0>
Mrs. Malfoy arranged for a weekend shopping trip. She somehow got in contact with Hermione’s mom and brought her to the wizarding shops so she could help Hermione pick out her dress.
“My mom thinks it’s a mom’s job to help her child dress up. Oh, sorry Harry,” Hermione said.
“It’s alright,” Harry touched the photo of Lily he carried.
“Why did you bring her?” Draco pointed to Melinda, who was sitting on one of the chairs in the dressing area, slightly freaking out the shop attendants. Mrs. Malfoy and, to her credit, Dr. Granger remained largely unfazed by her presence and how she commented on Harry’s clothes.
“She has to be able to fit in whatever I buy.”
“You’re not taking her to the dance, are you?” Hermione asked.
“I don’t know. Or maybe I’ll want to wear these robes somewhere else.” Hermione, who had grown up in a middle class family, understood this, Draco looked at him like he was insane.
<0>
Delacour had already agreed to go with an older student when Draco approached her so Draco attended with Astoria Greengrass. Harry didn’t know her that well but she had always been polite in the common room. Draco and his date were very noble and pure-blood throughout the whole event.
Hermione looked fantastic, second to Delacour and the French girl had magic veela powers so it wasn’t a fair competition. Harry told her this later. Maybe he could see why Krum had been concerned about him as competition. But Harry and Hermione just felt very comfortable around each other it wasn’t weird for them. She assured him he looked very nice as well. Although she would say that considering she had helped him magic his unruly hair into submission.
It turned out to be a good thing Harry was dating a taller boy. Draco and a few other Slytherins had given him dance lessons but he still sucked at it. He could barely follow let alone lead a dance. Cedric was very sweet about it and didn’t mind Harry staring at their feet until he got the hang of it.
Harry walked out with Cedric to start the ball with the other champions. He felt a bit better knowing Hermione was nearby with Krum. Cedric looked far to dashing really to be with awkward Harry. Harry heard whispering to that effect. When they were dancing though, he didn’t think about any of it.
<0>
For Christmas Harry owled both Moony and Padfoot edible treats. Draco got a nice glass bird that he’d found in shop months ago. Ron got more chocolate frogs, Ginny didn’t get anything as she’d already gotten the binoculars and wouldn’t getting extra presents just because her family was poor, and the twins were given Moony and Padfoot’s names and addresses so they could owl their idols.
Draco gifted him a subscription to the Quibbler, Harry wasn’t sure if it was a gag gift or not, he might still be upset about their earlier fight.
He and Hermione exchanging books was tradition by this point. He sent her a few vintage books he’d found in the attic of Spinners End last year and finally remembered to ask Dad if he could give away. She gave him “The Untold History of the Familiars of Famous Witches and Wizards”.
<0>
Severus hated the wizarding world sometimes. They were better about boys dating boys (thank you Dumbledore) than the muggles. But they couldn’t just send the champions into the lake to find a pearl or something, no they must rescue their underage girlfriend/boyfriend/sister. Let’s just sent Harry into a lake supervised only by merfolk when there’s someone trying to kill him.
Dumbledore didn’t let him actually go in the lake but Severus was part of the standby rescue and medical team in case anything went wrong. Part of the emergency team had already been deployed to retrieve Delacour from the grindelows.
“Well, can you see them?” Severus demanded from Moody.
“Not at this distance,” Moody snapped back nastily. Stigma of being an ex-Death Eater (thank you Dumbledore).
Someone else appeared on the water. As a father he immediately recognized that Harry was out there. It was actually two figures, treading water. He summoned up the boat before Diggory even waved for assistance. He and Pomphry went to retrieve the boys and check them over.
Harry looked disoriented but otherwise fine. Diggory handed him over to Severus and Pomphry before pulling himself into the dingy.
“What was the point of that?” Harry complained even as Severus spelled him dry.
“I guess they want the drama,” Diggory seemed to find this funny.
Krum arrived just outside of the time limit and needed help getting out of his partial transfiguration. Diggory handily won the second challenge which made up for his low points against the dragon.
0
Harry was glad Hermione was also in a relationship with an older student. Because she was he had an excuse to not talk to Dad about his relationship. "Yes, Dad I know that he's a legal adult and I'm a minor but Hermione are is in the same boat, we're practically on the buddy system." Hermione had solved her problem by just not telling her parents how old Krum was. "I think they'd be okay with it but why worry them. It's not like we're going to do anything inappropriate anyway."
Harry's dates were mostly holding hands, studying together, going to Hogsmeed, and flying together. Kissing too but not where people might see.
<0>
As an official date of one of the champions, Harry was given a front row seat. Not an optional front row seat, as he discovered when he tried to refuse it. In a rare show of kindness, Pansy told a first year who told everyone that Skeeter and the Profit gossip column were angling for a photo of Harry and Cedric showing PDA or tension between Harry and Cedric’s parents.
Unable to exchange his seat, Harry instead found a quiet spot outside the maze to hide. Draco covered for his absence. He’d owled Cedric ahead of time where he’d be and why he couoldn’t see him off at the gate. He was expecting Cedric or Hermione to come find him before the challenge so eh wasn’t surprised to hear someone approaching. He was however a bit surprised to see professor Moody. He was about to say something but Moody drew his wand.
“Stupify!”
Harry groggily regained awareness to the sound of uneven footsteps. He could hear but couldn’t move and it felt like he was floating. He managed to get his eyes open and realized he was being levitated through the hedge maze by Moody. The man was muttering to himself in a worringly crazy fashion. He blasted a large spider aside and dropped Harry. Harry landed flat on his back, he would have winced if he could. Moody did something with the Goblet and grabbed Harry’s immobile arm in a vice grip. Harry felt the pulling force of apparition and then found himself looking up at an unfamiliar sky.
“Get comfortable, Potter.” Moody levitated him again, forcing him against hard stone. To his horror, Harry realized they were in a graveyard. Moody tied him to a headstone then limped away. Harry couldn’t move, he couldn’t hear or see anyone around, he didn’t know where he was, and now he couldn’t breathe. He had never had a panic attack before and he wouldn’t have one now. Harry focused on trying to get his right hand opening and closing until Moody returned carrying a bundle of cloth.
There was something alive in the cloth. It was infant sized but far too demonic to be a human. Looking at the twisted, red eyed creature made Harry’s scar sting. Moody set up a bath-tub sized cauldron and over a fire. He spoke to the creature, that Harry was starting to suspect was Voldemort, while he worked. Moody’s appearance started to change. His hair grew shorter, he became taller, he kicked off his false leg and grew a new one, and his blue eyeball popped out onto the grass. A scraggly man Harry didn’t recognize finished preparing the potion and dropped Voldemort into the boiling water.
“Bone from the father,” he said. He cracked the ground at Harry’s feet and levitated white dust out. “Flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed.” He pulled out a knife. Harry realized what he was about to do and shut his eyes just in time. The man barely shouted at all as his own hand splashed into the cauldron. He shuffled closer to Harry. He released the paralyzes spell probably just so he could smirk at Harry’s attempts to twist away from the knife. “Blood of the enemy forcibly taken.” He cut through the sleeve of Harry’s school robes and into his arm. He collected several drops of Harry’s blood on the knife then tapped it into the cauldron.
Harry waited, watching the cauldron and praying that the thing was dead. He didn’t really believe in God but something seemed to answer his prayers because a horrid scream came from cauldron. Harry’s scar burned again. A vapor that didn’t look dissimilar to the Hogwarts ghosts swirled angrily into the air.
“Master? Master what’s wrong? I don’t understand!” The man shouted. Something had gone wrong, Harry started tugging at his bonds. His hands were slippery with his own blood and he managed to pull one loose. His wand, his wand was still in his pocket.
“The boy!” The mist hissed. At this the man seemed to remember that Harry was there. Harry wasn’t having that. The man was slow fumbling for his wand with only one hand. Faster than he’d ever moved in his life, Harry magically cut the ropes around his legs and torso. The mist held the outline of a face and suddenly rushed at Harry, shrieking. The horrid pain in his scar made Harry fall back to the grass. He lay there gasping, the man had his wand out and was coming for him, he didn’t see the mist, but he could hear a large snake approaching. The triwizard cup was just out of reach. Hopefully it was still a portkey.
“Accio goblet!”
“No!”
Harry felt the tug behind his navel as he teleported. He was suddenly in front of the maze, looking up at the stands of students. People started shouting when they saw him.
“Voldemort, he…” Harry tried to explain. Dumbledore, moving very quickly for an old man was suddenly between Harry and the audience, Dad a step behind him.
<0>
Harry lay in the hospital bed. Pomphry had fixed up his arm but not released him yet. The teachers had heard his story but nobody else had been allowed in to see him yet, not even Melinda.
Most of the teachers were bustling in and out, seeing to the crowds, rescuing the real professor Moody from his own trunk, but Dad had stayed at his bedside, hovering over him just to make sure he hadn’t been bitten by that ‘infernal snake’.
Pomphry had forced some sleeping potions into him so Harry’s attention was starting to waver despite the fuss.
“Now Severus, just to be clear, you dug up his father?” Harry mentally perked up at Dumbledore’s voice. “And then poisoned his bones with concoction of your own design that would render them useless in any incantation.”
“You’re damn right I did.”
“This is beyond drugging a man’s tea.” When had Dad done that? McGonagall sounded disapproving. “To desecrate a muggle grave…”
“If I hadn’t my son would be dead! You will hear no apology, Minerva.”
Harry started laughing as a thought occurred to him and gave up on feigning sleep. The adults all turned to look at him. “He…He tried to come back with a potion.” After the all stress, he just couldn’t stop laughing.
<0>
From Harry and (the real) Professor Moody’s descriptions the Death Eater was determined to be Barty Crouch Jr. Son of Crouch Sr. who had been managing the tri-wizard tournament until his mysterious death earlier in the year.
More of Crouch’s plans came to light. The Crouch house elf admitted that Senior had smuggled his son out of Azkaban only to keep him prisoner at the family home. Voldemort controlled a wizard long enough to get to the Crouch home and free Junior. From there they planned how to get the Dark Lord his body back.
It was nearly impossible to smuggle port keys onto school grounds so they chose to use the Goblet. To get Harry to touch the goblet his name had been entered. When that didn’t work he was set up to date Cedric and stay close to the champions. Cho had been Imperius cursed into dumping Cedric and then Crouch encouraged Cedric to ask Harry out. Harry retreated to his bed before he could hear exactly how much the unforgivable had been used on Cedric.
“Harry do you want to talk?” Melinda asked.
“No, the first person to ever ask me out was cursed into doing so. I can I just have a minute to myself, please?” Harry must have sounded pathetic because she actually let him have it.