I do n't own Harry ceramist. I wish I did ...



Harry lay on his book binding on his bed with his mothers locket dangling above him. The bally thing was taunting him he was sure. He had run some detection charms over it and been shocked to discover that the affair was wrapped up six ways from Billy Sunday. Harry flicked through one of the account book laid around him but found nothing he hadn't already seen before.

"What now Harry."Neville had asked him earlier that day when Harry was dragging his way through some ancient runic letter preparation."With the plan, what do we need to do now ?"

"We have to look now Neville."Harry had looked up and met his friends eye with a smiling."Which could end up as the punishing part. But we can't do anything until some hooey plays out. Bear with me…"Harry added as his friends face fell."… for now we ‘ re bang on target area. You know the plan."

In reality the architectural plan was far from on prey, in fact it had taken a outrageous lurch. It had happened one breakfast not long after Christmas…

"Harry…"Harry looked up from his roll of cereal grass at the tone of utter horror in Ron's voice.

"Yes ?"But Ron just pointed wordlessly over at the Slytherin table. Malfoy was holding a broom with a look of pure happiness on his side."So he has a new Scots heather ? We knew his don would buy him a new one."

"F… ff… Firebolt."That was all Ron appeared to be able to say. His brass was ash snowy as he fumbled a Quidditch powder store out of his bag and distribute it out in front end of Harry, his helping hand shakiness as he pointed to a long article.

Harry's expression went from confused to fearful then moving swiftly to terrify as he read down the Firebolt's glasses. The Chimera was good but there was no way she could compete with the raw top executive of the Firebolt.

"DOE this deepen the plan Harry."Harry glanced up and saw that Fred and George had moved down the table. Their usual grins dulled to concern frowns."I, mean… It ‘ s a Firebolt."Harry tossed the mag back at Ron and shake up his head.

"The ling only as good as the rider. We can still pull this off."Harry tried to make his voice comforting and truelove. He variety of succeeded."We will."

But the Slytherin Ravenclaw game gave them ample evidence that even with a bad rider a professional broom still kicks ass. When the snitch finally appeared Malfoy was at the other end of the pitch shot and flying much lower than it and he had still snatched it comfortably before Cho could get anywhere near it. That, coupled with the Nimbus 2001s the rest of the squad had had equaled a devastating loss for the Ravenclaw team.

The most get to matter was that he really could do nada right now. They needed to wait at least until after the next match before the plan could work up. Waiting and watching helplessly was agony. When he had been working on the Chimera it had been like there was a big puzzler laid out in front of him and he could work at it until it was finished. Waiting was lots harder because there was zip to do. Yes he had homework and yes some Slytherins had mysteriously had their place filled with frogspawn while they dried beside a fervency but he had no puzzle to puzzle out. He had tried to concentrate on practicing with his guitar but it wasn ‘ t enough. Then he remembered the locket.

So now he worked on finding way of life to short-circuit its many charm and spells. Working on that difficult ( but eventually solvable ) trouble kept his mind off other apparently unsolvable problems. Like why he had had function of hold up Monday twice. Twisting the locket up near the illumination he tried a few things.

"Lilly. genus Petunia. Prefect. clear Sesame."The locket remained locked and he dropped his hands in defeat. At to the lowest degree he had worked out that it was a watchword and not some early method of opening but that was about all he had discovered. He had thought of swallowing his pride and asking professor Lupin his advice. The teacher hadn't known it was a locket but he might have had some idea or at least be able to give him the names of her childhood pets."James II. Canicula. St. Peter the Apostle. Rose."Harry tried then gave up and satiate the matter back into his pocket.

"I chose an irritating mystery."Harry growled then rolled over.

And fell twenty fundament onto stale stone.
*


"Ouch !"Harry had all the air blown out of his lungs and fell into a fit of coughing before lifting his head from the story. There was no tower above him and the walls nearby were patched and had gaping mess in them."Well this is new."Harry commented as he levered himself up against a wall.

"Yes very much so."A pleasant tripping voice sounded out of the shadows down the hall."New, but not finished as yet."A improbable man with a broad face fungus and a head of hair of red hair's-breadth, barely held down by a clobber hat, moved into prospect and knelt down by Harry. His emphasis was primitive and his clothes matched that verbal description as did the jeweled steel in his hand. A deep misgiving seeped through Harry.

"You wouldn ‘ t be Godric Gryffindor would you ?"Harry said. Hoping for a no.

"You've heard tell of me."The man seemed pleasantly surprised. He whipped his hat off his head then stuffed his sword into it, appeared to rummage around for a here and now then drew out a myopic rod topped with a crystal ball. As he waved the scepter over Harry it emitted a affectionate luminosity and Harry felt the contusion of his downslope disappear even quicker than ma'am Pomfrey could have managed."There, all better."The man smiled and dropped the rod back into his hat.

"You got a rabbit in there too."Harry quipped. Falling back on flippancy as the more sane parcel of his brain waved little white flags.

"A coney ? Why would one keep a rabbit in a headpiece."The founder smiled."Wouldn ‘ t it make rather a mess on the head ?"

The sparkling oculus reminded Harry of Dumbledore, comforting him somewhat.

"How did you come to be here ?"Gryffindor asked as he helped Harry to his feet."Or more accurately speaking ; How did you follow to be a adept thirty duo above here ?"

"I don't really know."Harry shrugged."I was lying in bed trying to open… say ?"Harry dug the locket out of his scoop. If anyone could work this thing out…

"I ‘ ve been trying to work out the password on this affair. You got any ideas ?"

Godric Gryffindor appeared to like a good mystery as much as Harry and pulled what looked like a jewelers eyeglass out of his hat before using it to examine the little slip of silver medal. Without appearing to notice what he was doing he reached into the hat again and pulled out what looked like a Cornish pasty. Munching on it he turned the locket over and over in his other hand."Have you attempted a peeling yet ? It would certainly be effective."

"shedding ?"Harry had never heard of a magical spell or magic spell like that."No, what's that ?"

"An apple peel."Gryffindor finished off his pasty and made a dipping move."soaking an apple in diviners broth that also has the locket soaking deep within it. Then peel the fruit in one striptease with a facile knife. Toss the Robert Peel over thy left articulatio humeri and it should constitute the shape of the password."Gryffindor handed the locket back."But you still have not told me how you got here."

"I honestly don't know. I ‘ ve been jumping around in fourth dimension all this year. Never this far though."Harry shook his head.

"Truly ?"Gryffindor sounded sad for a instant and looked at him through the jeweler glass. His eye fell on Harry's chest on the left face and he let out a great sigh."Oh, I am truly drab my boy."

"What ? What is it ?"Harry unbuttoned his shirt and bit back a cry as he saw the monumental red scar stretching over the left half of his bureau. It was pockmarked and splotchy, almost like individual had spilled acid on him and it had only ate him away where the droplets had fallen."That's never been there before ! And I can ‘ t palpate it !"

"You can not feel it because you have not suffered it yet."Gryffindor bowed his head, a deplume blooming in the recession of his eye."Also you will only see it when you are out of your on-key time. You are caught in the cloudburst of ages now and there is no way to outlast. It will get risky and worse until the event that caused it in the first place occurs. I wish I had better tidings little one, but I am afraid you are doomed."

The two build stood silently in the corridor. Harry spoke first.

"But if it hasn ‘ t happened yet, can ‘ t I stop it ?"

"The laws of movement and upshot must be followed, even if they do not happen in the traditional order."

"wellspring I don ‘ t buy it."Harry shook his head and crossed his munition angrily."I will not eat up this bullshit you ‘ re peddling. And I want to go back !"Harry felt his rage rising, a outburst of accidental magic made a flagstone cleft."I want to go back to my own prison term, NOW !"Harry pushed his eye closed then snapped them spread out. Gryffindor was gone, and the castling was whole again.

"That's better."He said to the palace as a whole.

"WHERE THE snake pit DID YOU COME FROM !"

Harry spun and made shushing stochasticity to quite the fat lady who was now slumped over the back of her chair with her hand over her chest of drawers, breathing heavily.

"It ‘ s alright, it ‘ s alright. ointment is the password isn't it ?"

Still staring at him in daze the fat dame nodded and opened for him. Harry went quickly through the empty-bellied night-time park room and slipped back up into the third-years bedroom.

Gryffindor's words troubled him though, even though the whole experience still felt variety of surreal. Should he go to Dumbledore ? Would the master help or just say the same thing as his long-time predecessor ?

Suddenly Harry remembered something and smiled. He did receive individual eminently qualified to answer questions about time and destiny. Grabbing a quill and sheepskin Harry jotted down a recollective note to his Grecian pen-pal. Originally he only meant to ask about the violent stream but as he wrote he began to include everything that had happened since his live on letter until the missive was several piece of paper long.

"power shovel will not be happy."Harry chuckled as he got out of bed for the endorse sentence that Night. Not wanting to wake the fat lady again after the panic attack he'd given her he padded over to his darling window, climbed through it and set off in the direction of the owlery.
*


"Is that a hair growth potion Potter ?"

"No sir."

"It isn ‘ t ?"

"No sir."

Snape took a deep breath, he was going to enjoy this.

"For the first time ever in my class you are correct. You have not brewed a hair growth potion. You have not even attempted to brew a hair outgrowth potion. Can you explain to me why you have brewed a dissimilar potion, from a different ledger. Brewed what appears to be a diviners broth that is not even on the Hogwarts course of study. And can you explain why, even when you have chosen your own potion, you have still managed to utterly fail."

The insufferable boy glanced at the scummy green deal that filled his cauldron.

"I blame company sir."

"guild ?"

"Yes sir."

"50 power point from Gryffindor."

"Well deserved sir."
*


Almost a week later Harry was out hunting for an orchard apple tree. He had finally acquired some fair to middling diviners broth by the simple-minded dint of asking any of the marauders if they could mystify it out. The potion wasn't that hard, it was just beyond Harry's abysmal level of skill. Somehow the two sets to twins had puzzled it out. Harry smiled to himself, had he just referred to Fred and Saint George as marauders ? Well, they almost were, but Myrtle didn't like them because they had throw a pail of slop through her once so they'd have to apologize before they could be officially sworn in.

But now he was tromping through the rain, looking for an apple. Or at to the lowest degree an Malus pumila tree, he knew a charm to make it bear a yield out of season. When he'd interpret up on the peeling it had said that it worked best when you picked the yield yourself so Harry had asked Hagrid where all the Malus pumila tree's on the grounds were ( the ones on the secure side of the Mrs. Humphrey Ward obviously ). Unfortunately what he hadn't counted on was that they were mostly small godforsaken trees with yield not nearly tumid enough to get a respectable Sir Robert Peel. He needed a big cooking apple or something.

Harry preformed the charm on another sodden bloom only to be rewarded by another bantam crab apple.

"Sod this."Harry grumbled and pulled his gown closer around himself. On instinctive reflex he checked the skin on his exit side, plain and unblemished, to reassure himself that he was still in the mighty time. His fingerbreadth moved to his pendant hanging on its new range. Pythea hadn't written back yet, but then it took a while for an owl to fly to Greece and back and Harry had asked excavator to stay there until the seer had a reply for him to hold open her making four trips.

"I ‘ m testing one last tree then getting inside where it ‘ s warm."Harry stomped through the mud down to a wizened old tree by the lakeshore. And performed the charm one last time.

"Bugger."More lowly fry. Harry was about to turn away and walk back up to the castle when he saw a splatter of color on the far banking concern. Scrambling out on the roots of the old Tree to get a better look he bit back an oath. There was a lilliputian lady friend lying on the Orient bank, one-half in and one-half out of the bushes near the bound of the forbidden woodland. She wasn't moving and she was facedown in the water.

"HEY !"Harry yelled for anyone listening."SOMEONE ! HAGRID !"But the twist took his words away."Oh my god. Why does this stuff and nonsense always chance to me ?"

Harry looked around for an alternative option but saw nothing.

"I hate my life."Harry said before tugging his shoes and robe off and leaping into the black water.

For a moment the piss closed over his head and he breathed in a mouthful of water in shock absorber and affright but he bobbed to the Earth's surface and coughed it up before striking out for the stricken build on the far savings bank. He had to go a little way out from the bank to invalidate the bound of the ward but then he could come back in and eventually dragged himself up onto the far bank.

"I am never doing that again."Harry breathed as he staggered towards the girl."No Thomas More lakes."

As he neared the girl the half of her that had been hidden in the pubic hair came into view and he stopped in impact. She wasn't a girl at all, she was a centaur. And she had a massive pungency on her incline, red and scabbed. Harry moved forward and dragged her side out of the water.

"lady friend ?"Harry slapped her face and tried to listen for external respiration. She was still warm."Wake up !"

Suddenly the centaurs oculus shot capable and she coughed up a tidy sum of lake water into Harry's lap.

"You alright ? Hey ?"

"Of class, I am alright."The female child voice was weak but she seemed to be working her stage as if trying to get up."We are not tenuous like humans."

"Not fragile eh ? Looks like somebody managed to fall apart you a little."Harry said, glancing back at the wound.

"Werewolf."Harry stiffened but the centaur-girl laughed."It will be gone now."She pointed at the slightly waning moon in the sky."This bit is twenty-four hour period old. I was just disoriented and I wandered away from my herd."

"volition you… I mean are you…"

"Infected ?"She used the word like a smudge."Of grade not. Lycanthropy is a homo illness."

"Shall I get Dumbledore ? Or Hagrid ?"

"Unnecessary."She waved a man arm and finally managed to get up on her hooves."My herd are nearby, I can smell them."

"You got disoriented before."Harry followed her as she began to gimp off into the forest.

"The bite was infected. It has healed now."

"Are you sure you don't want to go to Hogwarts instead ?"Harry pointed back at the castle being rapidly obscured by trees."It ‘ s rightfulness there."

"I do not postulate Humans."

"Sure."Harry said mockingly"Because you were picking yourself out of the water just fine by yourself."

"Shut up foal."

Harry frowned but followed the lame centaur deeper into the forest. After half an hour or so Harry heard something huge approaching and tensed. But then relaxed as three centaur emerged from the undergrowth.

"Lachesis !"One of them cried and ran forward to sweep up the little Centaur."You are safe."

"Of class father."The girl replied irritated and pushed him away.

"We ‘ ll this worked out fine. I ‘ ll just be…"But Harry trailed off as the elder centaurs turned to him.

"You !"The prominent centaur pettifoggery and Harry suddenly found two arrowheads pointed at his cervix."Abomination !"

"Bane, we need to drink down him now !"The third centaur said shock and fear dripping from his voice. Lachesis and her begetter were standing off to one side."We can not run a risk him living."

"I thought we did not harm foals."The father moved in closer and reached out for the leaders shoulder.

"He is an exception."The third spoke."Do you knot lie with how aberrant he is ? How dangerous ?"

"Um…"Harry's head just kept flicking from slope to side, trying to play along the conversation. track was inconceivable, he was in their forest."Is this about the torrent…"But Lachesis interrupted him.

"He saved my life father. The ruck has life debt to him."They did ? First Harry had heard of it. The leading centaur had still not spoken but grimaced and lowered his bow.

"For the debt the young one bears you…"He began, his part deep and malign."… you live today. But heed me foal, if we find you in our timberland again not even Lachesis will hesitate to kill you."Harry looked at the Lester Willis Young centaur and saw her give a confirming nod.

"Understood. But the thing is I don ‘ t know if I can find my way back."Harry glanced apologetically over his shoulder.

"Damwain, show him to Hogwarts."Bane was already turning and moving off through the undergrowth. Harry was relieved to see that Damwain was Lachesis'forefather and not the third Centaurus who had been so intention on killing him. Damwain set off the way Harry had come and Harry had to trot to keep up. After a while the silence began to grate on Harry and he decided to break it.

"Why did the other centaurs want to stamp out me ?"Harry asked as he stumbled over a root.

"Not other."The Centaurus said curtly.

"What ?"

"Not other centaurs. I also want to toss off you, but I will keep open to the natural law of our kind that prohibit harming the young and I acknowledge my daughters debt to you."

"But why ? What have I done to so royally take a leak off the entire centaur body politic ?"

"You have done goose egg. You merely are."Damwain shook his head."As you heard before. You are aberrant."

"It this about the torrent of long time ?"Harry guessed. The Centaurus looked up and the stars and sighed.

"The torrent ? It is at the centre of it."The Centaurus lapsed into silence again but didn't seem wild or anything. Harry decided it was probably all right to ask another question.

"Does the cloudburst have anything to do with why the werewolves are gathering ?"

"What possible connection could there be between those things ?"The Centaurus scoffed."No the werewolves gather for an altogether different reason."

"Which is… ?"

"Their loss leader had come."Damwain sounded angry now."A man almost as much an abomination as you. He has gathered them here. He seems to think he has some way to embark Hogwarts."

"Does he ?"Harry asked.

"I seriously doubt it."Damwain scoffed."The Hogwarts wards have stood against the large minds in propagation. They will not fall to something little more than an animal."Damwain fell soundless then came to a arrest. He turned to Harry and said…

"Leave now."Harry started, then realized that he could see the palace through the trees. They had returned by a much more organise rout than he had left."Take Bane ‘ s warning seriously, to be caught in the forest again means expiry for you."And with that the Centaurus turned and galloped off into the wood.

"Do you think I want to stay fresh visiting the bloody forbidden timber !"Harry yelled after him.
*


"A leader ?"Padma leant over the piranha prorogue and spoke just above a whisper.

"That's what he said. Course he also said I was an abomination."

"A man who knows what he ‘ s taking about."

Harry stuck his tongue out at her.

"Oh be severe !"Hermione chided them."This is important."

"You're telling me. The centaurs want to obliterate Harry !"Ron said, aghast.

"I meant about the werewolves !"

"But the wards keep them out."Ron narrowed his oculus. Harry groaned, an disputation was about to get down."I think a hale species who want to meet Harry with arrows is Sir Thomas More important."

"Then Harry just doesn't go into the timber. Which he shouldn ‘ t be anyway."Hermione gave Harry a piercing stare.

"If he hadn ‘ t we wouldn't know about the centaur or your wanted werewolves."Ron crossed his weaponry triumphantly.

"That doesn ‘ t make it a safe matter ! We should…"Hermione continued talking as Harry gently stood a large book up on its boundary between the arguing brace and the rest of the piranha. The statement safely contained Harry turned and asked…

"Any remark from the non-old-married-couple department of the table ?"The vulture grinned ( except for Annapurna who was moping a little. She hadn't liked having her illusions about centaur shattered. )

"I actually agree with Ron."Neville said quietly and hesitantly, as if waiting to be scene down.

"So do I."Padma nodded."There has to be a reason the centaurs want you dead."Harry was forced to nod, he had never actually told the marauders about the time jumps.

"Well I agree it's a puzzle."Harry said shaking his head."But I ‘ m really not going to be visiting the woods anytime soon so I think its probably not a problem. Or at least not a pressing one…"Pythea still hadn't written back. Had Digger got into some variety of problem ?"… so I think we need to focus on the werewolves."

Reluctantly the vulture nodded.

"Damwain said their leader had come. Which means he arrived some time in the summer Holliday. I doubt he caught the knight bus so how did he get here ? And why ?"

"Oh !"A haphazardness came from beyond the Book barrier and a minute later Hermione pushed it down."Maybe he did."

"What do you think ?"

"Well…"Hermione began fidgeting nervously."… what if there was a lycanthrope in Hogwarts castle."

"Ward would stop it getting in."Ron said dismissively.

"But if it was already inside the wards."

"Hermione…"Harry clicked irritably."… get to the point."Hermione seemed flustered for a moment. Ron glared at him.

"I think that Professor lupine is a werewolf."

The table went silent in cushion. Then…

"Of course of action ! It all scene, he ‘ s ‘ nauseated'during fully Moon. His Humphrey DeForest Bogart is the full moon ! It all fits !"Annapurna snapped her fingers.

"I wonder if Dumbledore knows."Neville said.

"He must not or lupin wouldn ‘ t be here."

"I can't believe Dumbledore wouldn ‘ t know."Neville shook his top dog."If we could work it out Dumbledore could."

"Professor Snape knows."Hermione added."He must do, that's why tried to learn us about werewolves. So we ‘ d body of work it out."

"Do you think he ‘ s gathered the werewolves."Parvati said in a hushed tone.

"it's the redress timeframe but…"Hermione began but Harry cut her off.

"No."The others stared at him."No no no no no. We're not doing this."Harry stated flatly. The marauder stared at him.

"Doing what Harry ?"Ron asked.

"I have had enough déjà vu this year without intentionally repeating end twelvemonth. We. Will. Not. parachuting. To. Conclusions."Harry punctuated each Christian Bible by poking the table toilsome."Last year we went off all righteous against Professor Albert Abraham Michelson and we turned out to be beat wrong. We won't do that again."

"Harry…"Ron said as if explaining something to a small fry."We have a wolfman, we have a gather of werewolves. That's not jumping to last that's putting two and two together."

"You all think its Lupin."Harry said it flatly. most of the piranha seemed indecipherable as to whether it was a dubiousness or not. Ron nodded quickly, Parvati as well. Neville seemed to be trying to avoid being looked at but shook his head, Padma smiled at him and also said no. Harry turned to Hermione."Two votes yes, two votes no. Ginny ‘ s at practice and Myrtle ‘ s not here. You ‘ re the last un-voted marauder."

"I…I don't know Harry."Hermione faltered."I don't really know."

"No ?"Harry stood up suddenly."Lets ask him."

"WHAT !"But Harry was already making for the portraiture hole.
*


"professor Lupin listen…"Harry pushed open the door to the instructor function without knocking and began talking as soon as he was over the threshold."…we know you're a werewolf."lupin went from tempestuous to gob-smacked in a fraction of a endorsement. His mouth began working but no strait came out.

"Actually we didn ‘ t know for sure…"Harry conceded."… but I think you just confirmed it for us. Thanks !"By then the rest of the marauders had caught up and were standing in the room access, speechless.

"So we know you ‘ re a werewolf, we know the forest currently has a wolfman problem. Naturally sure question have arisen from this United States Department of State of affairs namely ‘ Are you in any way involved ? ’. I personally think the answer is no, certain of my friends are not so surely and it would be remiss of me to dismiss their suspicions as they are, after all, not unfounded."Harry said all this in one breath then stood waiting for an answer. A polite cough made him turn around. Professor Dumbledore was sitting at a table behind him. He did not look pleased.

"You ‘ re obviously busy I ‘ ll come back later."Harry hadn't moved a one pace before the doorway slammed shut."Or not."

"Harry, I am glad you came here."prof Dumbledore spoke softly."It has saved us the trouble of fetching you. Can you please explain why you left the school priming last night ?"

Damn.

"Um… There was a centaur suffering, at the side of the lake. I went to see if I could aid. She was face down in the water."Harry was quick to add."If I had gone to fetch someone she could have died in the have in mind metre. Ask Damwain, or… or Bane. They were there."Harry had though centaur-name dropping might lend credibility to his story. In fact neither Dumbledore nor lupine reacted to his statement.

Suddenly the room darkened, the Light Within from the windows fading into night. Harry quickly checked his chest, the wound was there. Harry looked up too see that Dumbledore and lupin were still in the elbow room, this prison term sitting in two comfortable chairs.

"It ‘ s just…"lupin began, his part catching."… he looks so like him."

"I know Remus, I know."Dumbledore was holding a mug of something steaming. It had a marshmallow natation in it."Have you been watching him ?"Dumbledore gestured to a crucify spell of composition on the mesa between them. From where Harry stood he could just about make out the schema of Hogwarts but didn't want to get nigher for fright of being seen.

"Yes. I have."Was all lupine said before the room lit back again and Harry was forced to try and think what had been said just before he left.

"So you see, I kind of had to allow for the grounds."Harry finished lamely. Both professors looked unconvinced. Harry sighed,"Can you at least differentiate me whether you knew prof Lupin was a werewolf before you penalize me ?"

"I was mindful. It is under control."Was all Dumbledore said on the topic."And as for punishment…"
*


"The whole castle ! ?"Ron squeaked.

"Every square inch of corridor."Harry repeated to the dumfounded marauder."With this."He held up a pocket-size hand brush.

"That's coarse. Especially for Dumbledore."Ron said shaking his head.

"I have a feeling that they ‘ re using this one thing they can establish as an excuse to punish me for all the thing they can't."Harry shrugged, unconcerned."It won ‘ t take that long."

"You ‘ re taking this awfully calm."Ron's brow furrowed. Harry laughed.

"Of all the things currently happening Ron this is the to the lowest degree of them."

"Oh !"Ron said as if he'd suddenly remembered something."myrtle found you a good apple Tree. Just left of the gate to Hogsmead."

"I ‘ m could wed that ghost !"

Harry went out that day and acquired a massive viridity apple from the tree. Returning to Gryffindor tower in a rush he set up the diviners broth and dropped first the locket then the apple into it.

"come on, come on."Harry urged, looking at the clock. When the needed five minutes were up he fished both particular out of the broth and reached for a silver knife. He had to be careful now, a error would think of he had to set off all over. Slowly, carefully he peeled it in a bingle farsighted coil that ended up all over the table. He'd cut quite deep so the peel wouldn't recess and now wondered if that was a problem.

"Only one way to find out."Harry moved so that the table was behind him and threw the peel over his entrust berm. Turning he saw the peel snaking around violently, kinking and twisting as it formed recognizable varsity letter. A long password for an Malus pumila Robert Peel, it had had to stretch along and still only just managed it.

Harry picked up the locket and, with some trepidation, spoke the password. The locket fell open in his script and he held it up to his eye to get a better flavor at what was inside. And snapped it shut, dropped it back into the box, locked the box with the secure magic spell his suddenly beleaguered intellect could come up with, slid the box into his bag, grabbed the skin, tore it up so no one else could read the parole then, to be sure, threw the peel in the fire and then sat down.

"I hate mysteries."Was all he said.



Ooooo ... deep ! Please review.


disavowal ... bombast blah claptrap ...



"That was amazing !"Ron was yelling as they walked back from the lakeside Quidditch sales pitch."She didn't even let Cedric get close."

Harry rolled his middle, Ron would be talking about this all week. The Chimera's functioning had been impressive though, he had to concede. Ginny had slipped past Cedric Diggory, using her heather improved manageability to body-swerve him, and had left him floundering in the centre of the sales talk while she snagged the snitch.

"I mean really amazing."Ron continued, caught in reminiscence.

"I ‘ m just glad its over."Harry sighed and put his hands behind his question."It means we can actuate on with the plan."

"You think it ‘ ll oeuvre Harry ?"Padma asked, frowning."I mean all it takes is for one of them to…"

"It ‘ ll work."Harry grinned."Trust me."

"Why does that give out to make full me with confidence."

"Because you ‘ re a sourpuss."Harry tutted at her in mock anger then turned to her sis."You sure about your info."

"You know me Harry."Annapurna said happily."It it ‘ s gossip I know it."

"Awesome."Harry grinned and peeled away from the other marauders."I ‘ ll go find us our helper."
*


"Pathetic ceramist. Absolutely Pathetic."

Harry leaned over and looked at the congealed mess at the bottom of the inning of his cauldron.

"Oh I don't know."He said."It ‘ s definitely not a sleeping potion, but it could make a serviceable bathroom grout."

"Twenty points from Gryffindor for your insolence potter and ten Thomas More for the potion. Honestly potter, having you in this classroom is cypher more than a wasteland of meter and potion ingredients."

"Just because I can ‘ t brew a sleeping potion…"

"WE WERE NOT MAKING A sleeping POTION !"

"Oh…"Harry flipped to the next page of his Quran, then back to the one he had been looking at before."So I wasn ‘ t meant to add cedar sawdust ?"Snape's rage was actually making him vibrate as he stood in front of Harry's desk."How about the sheep ‘ s liver, was I meant to add that ?"

"Potter I seriously doubt a single correct element went into this… this… travesty."Snape stalked away as Harry moved to clear up his desk. Then he had a thought…

"body of water !"He said at the retreating potion schoolmaster back."That must have been a adjust ingredient, that's in every potion !"

Snape turned around, his gaze screamed bloody murder.

"Potter."The professor growled, grinding his teeth together."Detention."

Harry sighed theatrically then stiffened as he felt another painful twinge at the backbone of his mastermind. He tore his center away quickly and mumbled.

"Yes sir."Snape turned away.

"Occlumency still not working Harry ?"Parvati was leaning over her own desk to whisper in his ear.

"I think I was better at it before I started trying."Harry lowered his principal onto his arms dejectedly. He honestly wasn't that bothered about Occlumency any more but it had reminded him of something else. Pythea still hadn't wrote back.
*


The day of the Gryffindor Ravenclaw plot dawned mucky and wet. A steadily downpour that patterned great drab stains across the castles walls and made it look like it was crying.

Harry was a screaming formal of mettle as he sat with the other marauders near the top of the Gryffindor standstill. Anything could go wrong, absolutely anything, but that was normal. What was making him so insane was that there was now nothing he could do about it. The metaphoric arrow had left the bow, it would either hit or it wouldn't, there was nothing he could do.

"Will the rain screw up the plan ?"Neville was muttering beside him."Will the wet ? Will…"

"No."Harry snapped peckish."It ‘ ll all be fine."

"How can you say that ?"

Because I'm sustenance in demurrer ? Because I don't want to disappoint anyone ? Because I'm delusional ? Because if I actually admitted that there's a very good chance this could go fantastically pear shaped on us I might just start crying ?

"I just have this feeling."Harry said and tried to grin."trust me."

"Stop saying that."Padma was grinding her dentition together."It doesn ‘ t help."

"Shh ! Here they come."

"Grant Wood ! JOHNSON ! Alexander Bell ! SPINNET ! WEASLEY, WEASLEY AND WEASLEY !"

The squad swept onto the pitch, their robes quickly becoming spattered and sodden.

"Here we go."Thought Harry as he tugged his coat closer around him.

"How much do we need to win by ?"Harry heard a vox say below him and looked down. On the row beneath him Colin Creevey was leaning over to talk to Luna Lovegood."The snitch is worth one hundred and fifty so…"

"We have to have at least twelve destination when Ginny catches the canary or we lose to Slytherin."The second twelvemonth said dreamily."Ravenclaw have to give birth xxx seven goal before they catch it. Its as plain as frackswhiskers."

Harry smiled, how wrong she was.
*


"Another end for Ravenclaw !"Ginny saw the profane section of the stands erupt in cheers beneath her.

"Sorry Angelina ! I was aiming for Hunt !"She heard Fred yell their team-mate shoved two digit up at him.

"Gryffindor now ahead by just four goal !"Yelled Lee Jordan."Wake up twins ! What are you doing out there !"

Ginny shook her head teacher. Gryffindor had had a comfortable six goal lead but now they were down to just four. And they still didn't have enough to beat Slytherin. She could see Cho out of the street corner of her eye, shadowing her. She liked to do that, Joseph Oliver had told her, it was her favorite tactic.

Ginny scanned the crew through the rain, searching for any hovering glint of Au. The stoolpigeon had to come out sometime, not that it would do either team any good. Gryffindor needed another end and Ravenclaw needed twenty dollar bill or something. She craned her neck around and saw it. Fluttering behind her, nearer to Cho than to her. Trying not to make it obvious Ginny turned away from the fink. But Cho must have sensed something was wrong and a second later had spotted it herself. The elder quester torus after it and Ginny was forced to tail her, cursing.

Ginny tried to get between Cho and the fink to check the older searcher. Ginny knew she couldn't catch it yet, they'd win the match but lose the cup. But Cho wasn't letting her in, they were shoulder to shoulder with the snitch tantalizingly close in front of them. Cho reached out and Ginny knocked her mitt away. So close, Gryffindor just needed one Thomas More goal. Cho was reaching again and Ginny shoulder barged her to make her miss. Ginny tried to pull ahead but whatever she did Cho seemed to be able to match her. However knockout she pushed Cho seemed to be able to detain just a piffling bit ahead of her. It was just a subject of fourth dimension, she couldn't celebrate the Ravenclaw off forever. Cho was reaching out again…

"Sorry Oliver."She thought, and grabbed the snitch. A cheer went up around the lakeshore stadium.

"I had to."She said as she hovered down by her team-mates."Cho was going to get it. I thought it was better to at least win the match."

"I know Ginny."King Oliver Wood looked resigned."I don ‘ t blame you."

"Cheer up Olli !"Fred floated past times, strangely jubilant.

"Yeah, we didn't lose to Slytherin. We were only one finish shy, we drew."George flew around the former side.

"What does that think ?"Ginny frowned. But it was as if a lightness had just gotten switched on in Oliver Woods head."What happens when we trace ?"

"Hasn ‘ t happened in over two hundred years."Fred had his arm on one of her shoulders now and was smiling down at her."The prescript ‘ s so old they never bothered to lift it."His Twin came up, placed his arm on her early shoulder and said….

"It ‘ s decided, once and for all, by a seekers duel."

Ginny's heart went full and she looked over at the Slytherin tie-up and caught a cold greyness gaze staring back at her. It could have been her imagination but she could take in sworn she saw Malfoy mouth the word ‘ rematch ’.

"Do you know how the Duel works Ginny ?"Joseph Oliver Sir Henry Joseph Wood sounded like he could barely keep the joy from his voice.

"We both go for the snitch ?"She guessed.

"Not quite, the regulation are different than in full general drama. Specifically the normal for fouls."

"No magic and no interfering with the other seekers broom."Angelina said, off to one side."Everything else is on the table. He could really ache you up there Gin."

"Ginny…"Oliver woods was talking again."I didn ‘ t want to ask this of you, but this is my final stage chance at the Quidditch cup. My very last chance, so beguile the snitch or die trying."

Ginny's optic went wide with fear.
*


"Are both quester set ?"Madam hooch asked, looking between them. Ginny took her broom from Harry and nodded, he ‘ d been giving it a go moment look-over before the duel. Malfoy just scoffed."Very well then."She opened the box that contained the snitch and held it in her hand. Ginny looked over to see the almost ferine aspect in Malfoy's eyes.

"On, your marks."

He'll drink down me…

"Ready…"

Oh god…

"Set…"

I'm going to die !

GO !"She tossed the stoolpigeon straight up and the seekers shot after it.

Ginny felt fingers curl into her hair and try and jerk her backwards, she kicked out savagely and managed to pull away. The stoolpigeon was still shooting upwards and the seekers followed it. Malfoy was scratching and punching at her and she responded by elbowing him in the kidneys. Having six blood brother gives you a lot of breeding in brawling. Malfoy jerked instinctively and Ginny swerved in front of him.

She had to stay ahead, with the firebolt's tycoon she knew that if she let him get in front she'd never be able to entrance up. He swerved left hand, she blocked him. He swerved right, she twitched in movement again and heard him cry out in frustration.

"You shot yourself in the foot Malfoy."She thought triumphantly."You can ‘ t handle that broom at these speeds."

Once more he tried to pass her and she used The Chimera's hair-trigger turning power to cut him off again.

"commodity girl."She urged the Calluna vulgaris on. The sneaker was tantalizingly fold."Just a little more."But she felt something brush her leg. Malfoy had managed to abstract to her side ! In another arcsecond he would be in strawman of her !

With the scene of losing the cup filling her brain she did the exclusively matter she could guess of. She pulled back her leg and aimed with her heel. She just had time to show the shock hit Malfoy's face.

"vengeance snake-boy !"She thought as she slammed her infantry into his face as hard as she could. She saw a spurt of rip that was quickly lost in the wind and rainfall then Malfoy peeled off and spiraled away, holding his brass in both custody."Yes !"

She looked back up and caught sight of the golden Ball. Straining up she reached…
*


"YES !"The Gryffindor standpoint erupted in cheer. Harry even leapt to his feet and yelled himself horse. Not so much for the cup, but for the fact that everything had gone perfectly. Harry and the piranha rushed down the stands and reached the pebbled beach just as the Gryffindor team was landing. Joseph Oliver Sir Henry Wood was floating down with his arms wrapped around Ginny whispering…

"Thank you, thank you."And the rest of the team were clustered around them.

"Se ‘ oke'I nose !"Malfoy was floating down nearby, holding a hand to his face to stem the flow of blood.

"Perfectly legal in a seeker duel Malfoy."Fred said airily.

Harry just stood their laughing as the Quidditch cup was brought out.
*


Damn.

Professor Snape clenched his hands into fist and he saw the cup being brought out. And Slytherin had been on such a winning streak. He had got so used to the cup being in his office that he even had a little shelf in his console for it.

To give birth come down to an exact tie, of all the abysmal luck. Then being forced to rely on a quester that had bribed his way onto the team. The small slip of a Weasley girl had humiliated him. And he could not even blame this loss on thrower ( he refused to trust the ridiculous rumor that ceramicist had made the female child broom ).

Then why was Potter looking so triumphant ? Snape recognised that saying, he had come to detest that expression all seven years of his metre at Hogwarts. The ceramicist boy caught his eye and shifted to a secret grin, then nodded towards the scoreboard. Snapes oculus followed.

What were the fortune that it would come to an accurate tie ? Snape felt a horrifying certainty rise inside him. And the Weasley counterpart who, for all their ineptitude in the schoolroom, were not bad beaters. But they had performed horribly in that match, hitting or just missing their own team-mates. Stopping Gryffindor from getting that last destination. The Chang girl, missing the snitch three fourth dimension ? Even for a Ravenclaw that was unlikely. Even the lowest game with Hufflepuff. Cedric Diggory had shown no guile, he had practically shown Malfoy where the snitch was. Of class he had, Snape realised, if the game had gone on too long and Slytherin had won by too much Gryffindor could not have been able-bodied to equalize.

Snape's eyes were once again drawn to the Potter boys green ones.

Legilimens

He cast non-verbally and after a moments ohmic resistance a memory floated to the surface…
*


"You know me Harry."Parvati said happily."It it ‘ s chit-chat I know it."

"Awesome."Harry grinned and peeled away from the other marauders."I ‘ ll go find us our helper."

Harry wandered up into the castling. If he was proper about her agenda she should be right… Ah !

"Cho ! Cho wait up."Harry trotted up to the honest-to-god girl, who had just left magic spell class."Been looking for you."

"Me ?"She turned, looking peculiar."Why ? It can't be to ask me to Hogsmeade, I know you're not allowed to go."

"As if that could stop me."Harry rolled his eyes."No, what I was going to say was that I kind of need a favor."

"What variety of favour ?"

"A big one. Listen I ‘ ve never cashed in on the entirely saved-everyone-from-Voldemort-before-I-knew-how-to-walk-and-then-twice-again-in-the-last-two-years thing but I really demand your help."Harry motioned Cho into the now empty classroom and closed the room access."Firstly we need to get some things clear. You can ‘ t win the Quidditch cup, can you ?"

Cho stared at him indignantly.

"I'm just saying you have to win with how many goals ? Thirty-four or something ?"He knew it was exactly thirty four but he wasn't gon na say that.

Cho held out a import longer, then her articulatio humeri slumped.

"You 're right, it ‘ s not going to happen is it. It ‘ s your fault you know."Cho pointed at him."When Ginny broke her ling and didn't get a new one straight away I thought we were in with a chance."

"I know."Harry nodded, not believing his luck that Cho had brought this up of her own accord."frightful occupation that wasn ‘ t it ?"

"Malfoy should be hogtied !"Cho said hotly."It was disgusting what he did !"

"God I must be the golden man on the planet."Harry thought, then continued out tacky."I agree. And that's sort of what this is about."

"How ?"

"I want to make it so that Ginny can mortify him in presence of the entire shoal. Not the whole team, just him. One on one."

"Harry the teachers won ‘ t allow a challenge game like that."Cho shook her head."And even if they do no-one will get to watch."

"Not if it happens at a match."Harry smiled."There ‘ s an old rule that says that if two houses tie for the cup the result is decided by a quester duel."

"But Harry there ‘ s no way you can do certainly the biz will come down that way."

"I can ‘ t."Harry held out a hand to her."You can."

"No !"Cho's eyes suddenly narrowed with understanding."I won ‘ t do that ! Even for you Harry."

"You said yourself Ravenclaw can ‘ t win the cup."Harry pleaded.

"But we can still put in a skilful showing."Cho said primly."I won ‘ t throw the match. I'm surprised at you Harry."She added."I didn ‘ t think you wanted the cup this badly."

"The cup ? I don't devote a scallywag's about the cup !"Harry shook his straits."If I did don't you think I would be telling you to throw the game totally instead of just letting us draw ? This is about what Malfoy did to my ally, your friend too after final stage year, and letting her get even."

"Ginny doesn ‘ t know about this does she."Cho said as if suddenly realizing.

"No. She ‘ s going to beat Malfoy on her own."

"I ‘ m not even sure I can impel Ginny to grab the snitch."Cho said, biting her lip."She might just pull in front of me until Gryffindor have the goals they need."

"Two head. One : Fred and George will be stopping Gryffindor from getting that go goal. Two : I built The Chimera especial for this."Harry grinned evilly."There's a short surprise on there that I ‘ ll remove before the duel. Trust me, she can't notch you."

"She did OK in the Hufflepuff game."

"I removed it for that too."

"I still don't know…"

"Well…"Now this is where the little do it benefit of having gossip-queen Parvati as a marauder comes in."… I ‘ ve already got Cedric Diggory on my position. You know him, right ?"Cho's oculus widened a little and she nodded.

"fountainhead, he ‘ s agreed to help me. Little thank you for the whole snake-army incident in the cellar last year."Harry smiled knowingly at the older girl."If you did want to help us then we should probably arrange for you to meet up with him. Discuss… strategy… and stuff."

"You ‘ re a bad person Harry Potter."Cho shook her head, but she was smiling.

"I know."
*


Snape tore his eyes away. He could finger the fad bubbling up in his bloodstream.

"You !"He pointed at the boy.

"Me ?"Potter put his hand to his chest in feigned innocence.

"You… you… you…"

"Me, me, me !"ceramicist was grinning in his unacceptable way. By merlin he was exactly like James ceramicist !

"You will not get away with this !"

"With what pray tell ?"

"You know exactly what"Snape strode forward and grasped the presence of the boys robes in his fist."You will not get away with this !"

"Really ? And you can prove it how ?"Potter smiled and knocked away his hand."Bearing in brain that Legilimency on students is illegal."

Oh the Potter boy thought he was smart did he.

"Well ceramist perhaps you are correct."Snape's anger changed from a raging conflagration to an icy, vengeful ache."But I am still your teacher and I can progress to your four more years here a living hell."

"Was that an invitation to assume your NEWT category Professor ?"

"Potter…"Snape released him and turned away."… you will rue this. sign my quarrel, you will repent this."
*


Harry gulped as the potions master strode away. Perhaps he'd exaggerated things this time. Harry glanced over at the still celebrating team. No, it was Charles Frederick Worth it. Whatever Snape did couldn't be that bad could it ?
*


"Do you call this a hush up swig Potter ! ?"

"I…"

"I DO NOT cry THIS A SILENCING draught !"

"Maybe that's because you ‘ re yelling."Harry said through clenched teeth.

"This is a despicable mess Potter !"

"It ‘ s only barely started, I haven't even added…"

"And you won ‘ t ! I will not have any more wasted ingredients !"Snape vanished the contents of Harry's cauldron."You will be doing stock for the relief of this object lesson Jesse James Potter. You will pen ‘ I will not be an incompetent person, pathetic, halfwit and a pariah on this school.'in the Bob Hope that perhaps the trace will sink in."

"My name is Harry."Harry muttered under his intimation but Snape didn't seem to hear him as he strode away.

Harry motioned to Padma who held out her arm without oral presentation. Harry groaned, they had barely had xv second of a two hour deterrent example. Harry pulled out a quill and a sheet of parchment.

Snape had been making serious on his ‘ living hell'promise since the match but Harry was beginning to remember that the potions master had more deep seated issues than a simple plot of quidditch. The fact that he kept calling him Jesse James was a definite clue. Snape seemed to be taking out xiii years of pent-up, un-sated rage on Harry.

"Thanks dad."Harry thought sarcastically as he dragged the quill across another descent."Thanks a lot."

"What are these Potter."Oh no. He's back.

"assembly line Sir."Harry had been trying to prevent his cool in Snape's course. With spotted success.

"These chicken scratchings ? This scrawl ? !"

"Would you like me to redo them Sir ?"Harry had to jump back as his parchment caught on fire and cauterize away before his eyes.

"Please."Snape blew the parchment ashes into Harry's face before stalking off across the dungeon.

Harry got another piece of parchment out and got to writing.

"How long are you going to put up with this Harry ?"Hermione asked him after the lesson."This is beyond unfair, you should go to McGonagall. Or Dumbledore."

"And they ‘ ll ask what I did to get him so angry in the world-class place."Harry shifted his bag higher on his shoulder."And that will lead to unfortunate questions."

"He ‘ s right Hermione."Ron said from the other side, then added to Harry."Don ‘ t headache mate, you can dismiss his year after OWLs."

"That's not the ripe attitude."Hermione said shrilly."Harry needs to learn at least staple noesis of potions to use in wizard order and professor Snape is stopping him from even participating. You ‘ ll have to consider really unvoiced if you want to turn over the end of year exams at this rate."

"I ‘ m beginning to think I won ‘ t be alive that long."Harry joked.

The piranha laughed but Harry stiffened as he realized the verity in his run-in. He still had the cloudburst of historic period hanging like a guillotine above him. He hadn't had any major time jumps lately, just a few minutes here and there. For the love of Merlin why hadn't Pythea written back ?

As if his thinking itself had been a patch Digger dropped out of the afternoon sky clutching a varsity letter in his pincer. Harry grabbed it and hastily made an excuse to the startled vulture before slipping out onto the skunk outside Hogwarts. Harry sent excavator back to the owlery, promising him treats later to thank him for the long tripper. His hand shaking, Harry tore open the gasbag and pulled out the letter inside.

love Harry

It is so beneficial to listen from you. I am gladiola you have taken up my mesmerism to get a line Occlumency, you will ascertain it a utilitarian acquirement I assure you. I can easily imagine you with a guitar, wandering Hogwarts or sitting in your common room entertaining the other scholarly person with songs and fib. You are good at spinning a serious tale you know, I can tell from your letters.

Harry almost scrunched the varsity letter in defeat. Usually he enjoyed missive from the lilliputian oracle but wasn't it about time she got to the dot ?

I learnt to play the mouth harp as persona of my apprenticeship here…

Harry quickly looked ahead through the letter, scanning down and down. There was no credit of the torrent or time travel anywhere. Harry fell to the floor in despair, had she simply abandoned him to his fate ? She had been his finis Bob Hope. Pythea's missive ended without so very much as a hint that his own letter had contained the threat of his inevitable death.

I hope it the weather is a pleasant where you are as it is here.

Your acquaintance
Pythea

Friend ? Ha ! That was a joke.

"Harry ?"Harry looked back towards the castle. Neville had come after him and was not standing just a few groundwork away."Are you feeling ok ?"

"Yes Neville I ‘ m fine."Harry said quietly, but he could feel the gawk in his throat and the tears beginning to mold in his eyes. Neville's eyes flickered to the varsity letter still clutched in Harry's hand but he scrunched it up and glut it in his pocket.

"Well defense family is starting now."Neville pointed back towards the palace."You sure you ‘ re alright Harry ?"

"No."Harry pushed himself up and trudged towards the castle."To be honest I ‘ m feeling a little… abandoned. Betrayed."Neville fell into footstep beside him.

"Anything you want to talk about ?"

"Not now. Maybe when it ‘ s a little LE fresh."Harry pushed open the door to the defense schoolroom. At least he could be assured of a quiet moral, professor lupin tended to snub him in classes.

"well ceramicist, I see you decided to grace us with your presence."

Standing arrogantly at the front of the class was Professor Snape. Harry felt like a block of ice was settling into his chest as he sat down in his common chair, he couldn't take this right now.
*


Harry tried to cover behind his book as Snape stalked around the class. He could still feel the ice in his chest and the lummox in his throat, if Snape provoked him he would never be capable to hold back.

"Potter…"

No.

"…Is this your essay ?"

Please no.

"Yes Sir."Harry managed to say while breathing deeply to keep himself under control.

"It displays no insight into the subject…"

Fine, I had no insight.

"…for most of the essay you seem to get Kappas and Grindylows mixed up…"

Did I ? Who the pit cares.

"…certain passages were clearly lifted from a textbook…"

They weren't, they were lifted from Hermione's essay.

"…and you could not accept mangled the spelling and grammatical dominion of the English people lyric more if you had tried. All in all…"Snape slapped the essay onto the desk beside Harry angrily."… a true T if I ever saw one."

"I ‘ m sword lily you made that assessment Sir."Harry kept his eyes down on the book in strawman of him."It ‘ s the same one as Professor Lupin made."

"But of course hero potter doesn ‘ t need to get word defense against the dark arts."Snape scowled down at Harry."You don't need to learn how to duel someone properly if you and your three piffling friends sneak up behind them and flack from trap like cowards."

I have more than three friends.

"You are chesty Potter."Snape continued."A trait shared by all Potters apparently."

Oh, so now you've remembered who I am.

"You are naught but a mediocre wizard at best and a uncollectible you are a disgrace and yet you are under the printing you are inaccessible. How I wish this socio-economic class gave me the opportunity to picture you precisely how unskilled you truly are."

"Alright."Harry set his quill down.

"What ?"

The wholly family was watching by now.

"I said alright. show me."Harry didn't meet Snape's eyes but moved out to the battlefront of the class.
*


"Come on Professor."The thrower boy was just standing there holding his verge and looking at his shoes."appearance me."

The class was deathly quiet. Not a scholar dared move or speak. Out of the corner of his eye Snape could see Potter's trivial friends, wide eyed and frightened, in their seats.

"Are you serious ceramicist ?"Snape asked.

"Yes."Was all the boy said.

"You will lose."

"Try me."

"You do not suffer a chance."

"Try me."Was all the Potter boy said again but he mouthed under his breathing place ‘ coward ’.

Snape felt the angriness that was his constant fellow rising again as he moved to engage a position opposite Potter.

"Mr Hopkins you will count us in."Snape gripped his scepter. He would end this with one spell. The Potter boy was still looking at the floor.

"Um… Three."The unquiet Hufflepuff boy Wayne Sir Anthony Hopkins began to count.

thrower was not even in a dueling stance. Pathetic.

"Two…"

Potter looked up suddenly, his middle meeting Snape's.

"One…"

A computer memory floating to the surface, Potter in the Gryffindor usual room holding a shining physical object. Lily's pendant ! He would bang that little skid of silver anywhere. Potter bending over the chandelier in his hands and whispering something. The pendent splitting unfold. Looking inside, a picture. Lily Evens bundled up against the snow for a Hogsmeade weekend, the Snow even still falling in the picture, and holding her by her berm keeping her warm… his own face… himself… that impression had been taken in quaternary year.

She had worn it around her neck the completely time. Even after she had married, she had worn it the whole time.

"affaire d'honneur !"

"Expelliarmus !"



Review please.


The gerbil made me do it.







Snape's wand clattered to the floor but the instructor didn't seem to own noticed. Harry watched as the potions victor fell to his knees on the floor, pass bowed, his aspect hidden by his lank greasy hair.

Harry watched, waiting for the plosion, but none came. Harry, with lots trepidation, knelt down and tried to front at the teachers face. Which was why he was the only one in the category to notice the tear fall down from the end of Snape's long hooked olfactory organ and driblet onto his knees.

"Oh my god."Harry thought in strangled shock."I ‘ ve gone too far this time."Harry turned to the grade and spread his hands.

"Everyone out."He snapped, brooking no argument."Corridor now."

The scholar needed no more inducement and quickly scrambled for the relative safe of the corridor.

"Stop !"Harry yelled at some of them as they tried to escape away."I need to babble out to all of you."Harry closed the classroom door behind him and corralled the students within earshot.

"None of you will mention this example to anyone."Harry said, looking each student in the eye as he did so."None of you will blab out about it, even to each other. None of you will imagine about it the succeeding clock time you have Snape for your lesson. In defensive structure or potions. For each and every one of you, this lesson Did. Not. Happen. Don't think I won't find out if you do verbalise, I find out everything. Remember Malfoy ? You have all seen what happens to people who cross me. Understand ?"

Harry didn't let them leave until he had looked each student in the eye and heard them promise to that consequence. They began leaving in ones and twos, scurrying off along the corridor. Harry turned back towards the classroom.

"You ‘ re not going back in there are you ?"Susan osseous tissue asked, amazed.

"I kind of have to."Harry answered.

"He ‘ ll putting to death you."She said matter-of-factly.

"I may deserve it."Harry shrugged and slipped back through the door.

Snape was still where he had been before they left. Harry took a deep breath and sat down cross legged in front of his teacher.

"I am so sorry."Harry said."I didn ‘ t realize it would do this to you. I thought it would just cark you, you know… gross out you out for a moment so I could disarm you. I never thought it would touch you like this."

Snape still said nil, he just stared at the floor.

"I told all the students not to say anything."Harry glanced back at the door."I think they ‘ ll do it."

Snape was still not moving. Harry began to wonder if he had been rendered catatonic or something, but there was still an occasional drip-drip of teardrops from behind the fringe of hair.

"Maybe…"Harry dragged his bag off his cover and pulled the box out. He opened it and placed the locket in Snape's unresisting hand."You take it. I don ‘ t want it. You saw the password right ?"

Snape stayed motionless for a moment Sir Thomas More then slowly brought the ash gray locket up to his mouth. Then, in a buy the farm, tearful phonation he said…

"Spinners end."

The locket cracked open. Snape seemed to break all at once and started sobbing. His whole, long, lanky body shaking with each sob. Harry didn't really know what to do, he certainly couldn't comfort this man who had tormented him so much.

Harry dug into the box again and grabbed a picture, it was his mother and her sister when they were Pres Young, but obviously over eleven since the moving picture was moving. He wordlessly handed it to Snape, who took it and kept crying. He grabbed another photo and poked his father out of the frame before handing that too over.

He kept going until the box was empty. Giving a few words each to say Snape what it was he was giving him, an essay, a letter, a prefects badge. Harry hid the beloved letters from his father back in his bag. By the time nothing was left Snape had stopped crying, he was even breathing a little easier, bass breathes instead of the racking sobs that had plagued him a minute ago.

Snape sniffed loudly and put his hired man into a pocket of his robes but drew it back evacuate. He searched another sack while sniffing louder. Harry realized he was searching for a tissue. Struck by a twinge of mischief Harry grabbed something back out of his bag, scrunched it between his workforce and handed it to Snape.

The potions master took it and blew his nozzle on the lambskin. After doing so he brought it away from his nose, a shadow of curiosity crossing his face, and looked at it. After a minute of reading the ( now hideously smudged ) letter his middle flickered up and met Harry's. It could have been his imagination, but for a moment Harry thought he saw a spark of a smile.

"Seemed appropriate."Harry said and shrugged. Snape chucked the letter away and glanced at the door.

"You mentioned that you told the rest of your form to hold on silent."Snape's vocalisation was almost monotone.

"Yes."Harry nodded."They ‘ ll do it too. I threatened to do to them what I did to Malfoy."

"Why ?"The potions master regained a piffling of his old spite and sneer.

"I just…"Harry licked his lips and started again. As unwilling as he was to give Snape ammunition to use against him…"hold out year I broke down completely in the hospital wing. Right on the storey. It was after Colin Creevy got petrified, it all just got too often for me. At the meter I remember wishing everyone there would just draw a blank it ever happened. I thought you might experience the same."

Snape snorted. He seemed to be recovering himself. Harry took this as his cue to leave. He picked himself up off the flooring and headed for the door. Snape made no motility to halt him. When Harry reached the door he turned back for a moment.

"I probably shouldn ‘ t say this…"Harry thought."But if I don ‘ t it ‘ ll just eat at me."

"Sir ?"Snape's drumhead snapped towards him."Can I tell you something I ‘ ve noticed about whizz ?"Harry took Snape's silence as an affirmative."Wizards… wizards use quills."

"Fascinating Potter…"Snape sneered, but Harry interrupted him.

"And they use automobile trunk even when they can influence bags to hold to a greater extent. You use a steam train to get to Hogwarts. This year a steam-boat. We live in a knightly castle, the workshop I bought my wand in predates Jesus Christ and we write on rolls of lambskin. But its more than just that, hatful of wizards are named after extremity of their crime syndicate. A lot more of them than muggles. Even portrait and ghost ; half the time we seem to be surrounded by people who died 100 ago. What I ‘ m getting at is…"Harry swallowed in apprehension at what the reaction to his next point would be.

"… wizards seem to spend a lot of clip living in the past."Harry forced himself to touch Snape's centre."Maybe it ‘ s time you moved on."

Snape just stood there, his sneer seemed to have frozen on his lips but his eyes just seemed unconnected, even a piddling lost. Harry opened the door and left quickly.

He managed to get almost halfway down the corridor before his nerve broke and he made a mad elan for Gryffindor towboat. When he was through the portrait hole he leaned against the wall and caught his breath.

"You're alive !"Harry turned and saw that the marauders were waiting on their common table. He staggered over to them and sat down.

"We honestly thought you were a goner Harry."Ron said, shaking his head. But then his human face broke into a grin."But that was bloody brilliant what you did !"

"You wouldn ‘ t say that if you knew how I won."Harry said waving his friend to silence."It was vicious, just cruel."

"What spell did you…"Hermione began but Harry shook his head.

"I won ‘ t say. I won ‘ t ever say."

"Snape deserved it whatever it was."Parvati said."However cruel it was he ‘ s been ugly to you for three years. You can't tell me it was worse than what he ‘ s done to you."

"No, it probably wasn ‘ t. But it was unfit than I ever want to do to anyone else."Harry leant down and put down his head on his crossed arms."I don't want to be like them."

The marauder assured him he was not but Harry just sighed. Impending death aside if he jumped back in time now he'd believe it a blessing.

It was only as Harry got into bed that night that he remembered the letter from Pythea, the affaire d'honneur and its consequence had blown it completely out of his oral sex. He dug it back out of his robes and read it again, trying to come up some confidential information of a clue. But there was nothing. naught at all.
*


Professor Snape dropped the photograph back onto the oak mesa of his twenty-five percent and held his fountainhead in his hired man. The only light in the elbow room came from the guttering candle before him and faded into the darkness around him. Snape refilled his spyglass with sharp-sightedness potion and tried to make himself sip it this time. Sleep was not an choice, not at least until he was too sap to dream.

"movement on."Snape growled into the darkness."Were it that well-heeled thrower, everyone would be doing it."

The idiocy of the boy, telling him to actuate on while at the same time giving him a pile of photos and a locket that proved she loved him all along. Snape gave up and knocked back a mouthful of the searing potion.

The locket lay on the tabular array in front of him. He hadn't dared open it again for fearfulness of breaking down once more. He picked it up and trailed its silver mountain range through his fingers. Stupid matter. Snape smacked it back down onto the tabletop. But even then his digit instinctively curled to protect the thing and he ended up skinning his brass knuckles. His movement blew the candela out too and he was left in sulfurous wickedness clutching the blessed thing so grueling it hurt.

Snape drew his wand out to relight the wax light but stopped with it held loosely in his hand. Another spell was floating in the straw man of his mind.

No.

He shouldn't do it. He was already sickening himself with his wallowing in brokenheartedness. He was acting like a Gryffindor. Ha ! He shuddered, he was acting like a Gryffindor and the Potter boy was acting more and more like a Slytherin. thrower boy… King James I Potter… who took Lily away. Snape could still feel the edges of the locket cutting into his palm.

"Why…"Snape forced himself to open his hired man."Why wear this but marry him ?"What horse sense did that make.

You abandoned me.

No. Snape curled his work force over his font and tried to storm the retentiveness down using Occlumency. But in his experimental condition he could barely carry it back and another surfaced just as quickly.

You chose your booster Sev.

I did, but it was always you.

They hate me.

There was no one else.

You hate me.

Never. Why will you not gift me peace ?

You were my best friend.

Be silent.

But you betrayed me.

Please.

I can't pretend anymore Sev.

I just want to forget.

You've changed. You've changed too much.

Snape curled his digit around his ear, trying to stop over hearing to his own nous. He knew what came next.

I can ‘ t love this you, not even as a ally. Goodbye Severus.

Snape threw his head back and howled in pain in the ass. Oh why combat it. Snape pointed his wand out and yelled…

"Expecto Patronum !"

The room was lit once More by silver gray light as the spell erupted from Snapes verge. The silver doe just stood there cocking her head at him. Snape felt tears running down his cheeks again.

"I love you."

The doe said nothing, she never did, but she walked over on her silent hooves and rested her promontory in his lap. She felt quick but Snape knew it wasn ‘ t literal, if he tried to touch her she ‘ d just experience like mist.

Snape laid his capitulum down on his arms and closed his eyes. Later he finally fell asleep like that, leant over the mesa with his face in his weapons system, the doe warming him like a pet dog and the locket still held nasty in his hand.
*


Harry stared down at his chest and tried hard to keep his breathing in check as the vast wound faded in and out. Harry gritted his dentition and concentrated on staying in this fourth dimension. The lesion began to fleet to a greater extent, after a few mo if vanished completely. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, but it was one tainted with fear. It was getting worse.

"Harry you ok in their ?"Ron's voice sounded from the bathroom door.

"Yeah Ron I ‘ m fine. Just think I ‘ m coming down with something."Harry almost chuckled to himself, that was the understatement of the 100. Harry looked up into the mirror in front of him, even without the wound he looked like a shipwreck. Harry opened the door and smiled at his booster."Probably flu or something."

"You don't say ? You ‘ ve been kind of… um…"Ron waved his hired hand as if searching for the right word."…muted… for weeks. Ever since Snape."

Harry nodded, he had been a piffling smooth. Intentionally in the beginning, he had known that he needed to restrain a low visibility. But Snape seemed to be pulling a Lupin and ignoring Harry in his example. Not that he was paying much attention to the rest of his class either, Snape spent nearly of his lessons at his desk and had large suitcase under his eyes.

But lately the flood had been getting worse. He had thought that it getting worse would think of he'd jumping further back but in fact it was the opposite. He kept jumping seconds, minutes or hours back and Forth River, several times a day now. Sometimes the reality would simply vacillate like a bell and he'd be left spinning as he flickered between times so fast he couldn't even catch it. And then there were the times like this dawn when he simply slipped back and Forth like a metronome, the lesion on his chest scuttle and closing like hideous sphincters.

Even tough were the metre when he didn't even realise what had happened. He'd be going to lunch then be asked why he wasn't at breakfast. He'd sit down to dinner and find cereal grass and goner appear in movement of him. Lessons were even worse, they could be twice as long as formula or the bell could vocalise when Harry had barely put his book down. His Gospel According to Mark in class were falling, prep was concentrated to hand in on metre when you didn't know what day it was. Harry knew he should tell Dumbledore or McGonagall or Hermione even, but somehow he couldn't muster the energy. They'd only distinguish him what he already knew.

He was doomed.

"You sure you ‘ re alright Harry ?"

Harry was drawn back from his thoughts by his friends voice.

"Yeah."Harry nodded again."Fine."

"That just proves you ‘ re not alright."Ron said triumphantly."You ‘ re usually tatty, talking and wisecracking all over the place, you're never monosyllabic."

"You want a wisecrack ? Ok…"Harry grinned evilly at his friend."‘ monosyllabic ‘ ? Been reading the dictionary Ron ? Or just spending more time with Hermione ?"Ron blushed and began spluttering…

"No just… I mean why would I…"

"It ‘ s very well Ron. Never mind."Harry shook his head, smiling wanly as he wandered away.

"You coming to Hogsmeade Harry ?"Ron called after him.

"You know I can't."Harry turned back, frowning quizzically.

"Come on Harry, sneak out again."Ron wheedled."It ‘ ll brand you feel better. Get some sun, you ‘ re getting all Patrick White and pasty like Snape."

"Probably because I haven't been sleeping much."Harry thought."harbor ‘ t been eating a lot either… My body clock ‘ s all screwed to hell by the jumps."

"I might get caught."Harry said lamely.

Harry rightly deserved the horrified glare Ron gave him.

"Alright."Harry shrugged."I ‘ ll cum. At least the water ‘ ll be warmer this clock time !"
*


Harry dragged himself out of the lake and gave himself a drying appeal before wandering up towards Town. After meeting up with the former vulture the first place they visited was Zonko's joke shop.

"Pretty right don't you think ?"Harry grinned through the wizard mask that made him await like an old man. He had a big grey moustache too and a green felt hat.

"You ‘ re not actually going to buy that drivel are you Harry ?"Padma asked him shaking her head.

"Of track. And I ‘ m wearing it all day."Harry said from behind the scrunch up face.

"Why ?"She shook her head."Why would you do that ?"

"So that no Slytherin will say that they saw Harry potter in Hogsmeade."reason dawned on Padma's human face then she suddenly frowned.

"So all they'll see is someone obviously disguised walking around with all Harry ceramist ‘ s Quaker ? I think they might puzzle out it out Harry."

"These are Slytherins we ‘ re talking about."Harry said, paying for the merchandise."Don't expect great genial effort of them, you ‘ ll just be disappointed."

Harry found that he was enjoying the day despite himself. He had only jumped a few youngster clock time and he did like the town ( having not really had a opportunity to see it on the hold up sojourn ).

"Just about time for the Three broomstick before we head back."Parvati said cheerily as they walked down a backstreet, away from the main concourse."We all need some butterbeer !"

"You ‘ ll lovemaking butterbeer Harry."Neville said to the disguised Harry."It ‘ s all warm and smooth and… and…."

"pantry ?"Harry wheedled, grinning.

"fountainhead yeah."

"I don't know. A drinking based on a fat bedcover doesn ‘ t exactly sound appetizing."Harry grinned to usher that he was joking."Or goodly !"

"It ‘ s fine Harry."Hermione said laughing."My parents went mad when they heard about it but it turns out its actually pretty practiced for you. It contains antioxidants."

"Anti-oxygen…"Ron's brow furrowed."That sounds bad for you."

"Honestly Ron it just means…"

Harry rolled his centre as Hermione started into an explanation. Ron's eyes glazed over after about the third gear word.

"I really like this place."Harry said over the explanation."I ‘ ll have to incur some way to come here more often."

"It ‘ s not all nice."Padma commented."There ‘ s discover glass here."

Harry looked down. There was snap off looking glass, he looked around and saw that it had come from the on a higher floor window of a nearby house.

Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, perhaps some latent talent as a illusionist or perhaps some effect of the torrent but rightfield at that instant Harry felt his abdomen stumble. There was something dreaded behind that broken window.

"Wait here."Harry said quietly. The piranha heard his tone and fell silent. Harry slipped in through the garden gate and felt the stones of the rampart. Rough, like Hogwarts. Harry gripped the blocks with his fingers and clambered slowly up to the window. He pushed aside the grueling curtains but inside the way was empty. A dim storeroom piled with loge with the threshold exposed onto the well lit corridor behind.

Harry breathed a suspiration of backup and began to climb down. When he was about halfway he heard a sound from inside the house. He stopped, his fingers gripping the careen tight. There it was again. Harry scrambled back up and thrust his head back through the window.

Harry just had time to see yellow teeth streaked with dirt and smell rancid breath before he was thrown backwards off the rampart. He landed with a thud in the garden and looked up in time to see a tangle man, covered in stain and dressed in spoilt rags leap from the window with something clutched in his workforce. Harry rolled out of his way and the man hit the ground running, panting like a dog as he dashed out through the logic gate and down the street.

"plosive speech sound !"Harry looked up and saw a wizard leaning out of the window franticly sending deadbolt of red light after the fleeing form."full point him ! He took my son !"

Harry jolted himself off the ground and vaulted the bulwark after the fleeing man. He could hear the marauders trying to keep pace behind him.

"Parvati ! Go to Hogwarts ! Go and tell them what's happened !"Harry felt his Good Book carried away by the wind and had no theme whether he was being heard."Neville ! Go warn the Greenwich Village ! Get help ! Or ling !"

They had reached the end of the short route now and hit the field beyond. Harry jumped the fence and fought his way through the heather after the distant figure. Their quarry had made it well-to-do for them by flattening a path but it was still grueling going. They were not gaining on the man. Not by a long shot.

"We're… can ‘ t…"Hermione panted."We're… not…"

"Whatever it is, we are !"Harry yelled back as they crested a little hill."Try to hit him !"

Harry aimed and shot a bludgeoning hex at the man, now little Sir Thomas More than a smudge of fateful on the distant purple heather. The smudge dodged and blastoff sideways behind a large rock before the other marauders trance could connect.

"Harry what are you doing !"Hermione screeched angrily."A bludgeoning hex ? It ‘ s carrying a baby !"

Harry cursed and began running forwards again. He should give birth known that ! Harry felt like he was passing acid through his lungs instead of air by the time they reached the rock. The trousering and gasping he heard behind him told him the marauders were in even poorer shape. Worse, the figure was nowhere in deal and there was no crystalise trail to follow.

Ignoring the pain in every muscle Harry pulled himself to the top of the bowlder and looked around. From here he could see the dark shape of the prohibited wood spreading out to the Dixieland. A paries, like the paries of Hogwarts, sealed it off from the rest of the world. Harry squinted through his glasses and just made out a dark shape silhouette against the brighter wall before it disappeared. Harry tore off the mask to get a better looking but there was nothing more, just vacuous wall.

"He ‘ s gone into the forest."Harry called down, trying not to take aim his eyes off the place where the man had disappeared."Let ‘ s go."Harry slid off the rock music and landed beside Ron, Hermione and Padma.

"Harry are we really going to observe it into the forbidden forest ?"Padma was clutching her stomach and wheezing."We should mark where it went and delay for help."

"He ‘ s going to have as a lot difficulty with the forest as we are."Harry argued."We can still becharm him !"

"But Harry it ‘ s a werewolf !"

Harry was jolted back by her Christian Bible. Of course it was a werewolf and not just some plebeian kidnapper. And it had gone straight back to its plate. Harry shook his forefront, once again he wasn't thinking straight.

"When ‘ s the succeeding replete Moon ?"Harry asked quickly."When is it ?"

"Tonight."Hermione answered, pained and breathless, but also resigned.

Harry shook his head.

"Then we can't wait for avail. We have to chance them before twilight or that trivial kid is going to get one hell of a lovebite. We can ‘ t wait for help, its us or no one."Harry looked back at the marauders and saw them play and fade.

NO !

He hand clenched around his chandelier and he squeezed his middle shut. He did not own clock time for this ! When he opened his eyes again his Friend looked solid, but confused.

"Harry you alright ?"Ron asked.

"I ‘ m fine."Harry forced himself to stop gripping the little shell.

"Are you sure Harry ?"Padma added."You sort of… blurred."

"mulct, amercement. Lets go."Harry started off at a run towards the forest again and get a line the others follow.

In Harry's head he could find out the words ‘ We can't wait for assistant. Its us or no one'repeating over and over like a talisman against the brat rising inside him. That terror itself had its own voice saying ‘ We are following it into its forest where it knows its way around and we don't and you can't even ride out in your own time for five minutes. And that's not even mentioning the centaurs… ’. Harry was forced to admit that that interpreter as well was mighty. What they were doing was stupid and dangerous. But as the first voice said, there was no one else.

As Harry neared the wall a third footling voice piped up. Spiteful, sarcastic and whiney but, like the other two spokesperson, essentially right.

"Why me."Harry thought."Why is it always me."
*


They reached the paries and Harry instantly saw how the werewolf had gotten over. A huge Tree had fallen over the rampart, crushing the top part of it and resting on the remaining meters of whacky stonework. Everywhere else the bulwark was at least two floor tall of blank grey stone. Unscalable.

"The tree…"Hermione had caught up to him but her and the former two marauders were still very winded."must have weakened the wards."

Again Harry felt like a motley fool. Obviously it would be warded. His brainiac seemed to be in a pig. Harry grabbed some of the lower branches of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and pulled himself up.

"Are we…"Hermione began again but Harry cut her off.

"feel, I know this is crazy but there ‘ s no one else here to help. I ‘ m not leaving now. Any of you who don ‘ t want to follow me go back and tell them where the hole in the wards is."Harry pulled himself on to the tree trunk and looked down at his acquaintance."Anyone else shut up and get in the tree."

Harry began climbing along the trunk and felt it shake up as someone else began to climb. When Harry reached the other end he climbed down by the root word and dropped onto the mulch of the woods floor. He turned and looked up at the tree, a moment later Padma pushed her way through the branches. Harry waited a moment more but no one came. Harry felt a lump form in his throat, first Pythea abandoned him then them.

"Did they…"Harry began but was cut off as Ron and Hermione pushed their way in through the branches.

"We were marking the spot."Hermione said upon seeing Harry's brass."If we ‘ re going to do this we should do it right and pay ourselves a opportunity of getting out alive."

"We weren ‘ t gon na let you do this alone mate."Ron scratched the back of his headspring and shrugged."And after all we ‘ ve been in bad scratch than this."

"Did you think any of us wanted to see a kid turned into a werewolf ?"Padma added to cut him off with a milk shake of her capitulum and began to climb down. Harry helped her down the last few base then moved to do the same for the others.

"Just one affair Harry."Hermione said once they were all down."How are we supposed to have it away which way it went ?"

Harry's human face fell and he looked around for some obvious star sign. There was nothing, now that they were in the timber the werewolf knew how to cover his path better.

"spread out and face. Don ‘ t go too far."Harry said and the marauder obediently fanned out. Harry was about to join them when his mind fixed on a screwball idea.

He had been able to moderate the violent stream at bay a few fourth dimension. Could he ram it to do to him ?

Harry undid the nominal head of his shirt and looked down at his unblemished chest of drawers. He splayed one hired hand across where he knew the wound would appear and clenched the other around his pendent.

"About five minute of arc ago."Harry thought as he gritted his dentition down hard."That's where I need to be."

Harry forced everything he was into that one thought. For a moment he felt ancestry well on his bureau but it was gone a present moment later.

"Harder !"He thought desperately. His finger were slick on his chest but it wasn't blood, it was travail."ejaculate on !"

Harry saw his champion fade in front of him. Ron turned back towards him and yelled in surprisal. But the sound was like a distant whisper and Harry gripped his bloody chest tighter. He could still hear his booster as wraith on the jazz but couldn't see them anymore.

He was swaying with the feat and fell to his articulatio genus on the forest floor. The leaves that were kicked up by his gesture only swirled in the air for a moment before fading as he pushed himself further back.

Then, just for a moment, a shady chassis dropped out of the air above Harry and scampered away into the trees with something held in its grumble hands. Perhaps it was his mental imagery, but Harry thought he could hear a baby's scream.

Harry let go with both hands and collapsed into the leaf. A moment later he felt hands pulling him up. As his head was tilted back for him Harry saw his acquaintance shocked faces.

"What the hell was that Harry ?"Ron asked fearfully."You just disappeared ! We couldn ‘ t find you anywhere !"

"You can ‘ t have Apparated."Hermione sounded just as scared."You aren ‘ t old…"

"That way !"Harry cut her off and raised a shaky fingerbreadth."Went that way."Harry grabbed Ron's shoulder joint and managed to thrust himself to his metrical unit."We need to hurry."

"No Harry !"Hermione crossed her arms."You need to distinguish us what you just did !"

"Hermione now is not…"

"It is the time. You just faded out of creation then returned with your hand covered in blood."Harry looked down, his hand was bloody. This was the first time any foretoken of the torrent had remained after he returned to his own time. Hermione continued…"We deserve an explanation, is this to do with why you ‘ ve been poorly for weeks ?"

"Yes."Harry gulped in some air and nodded."And I promise I will secern you later but just now we don't have clock time. Please Hermione, it already has too a good deal of a head start on us."

Hermione still looked stubborn but Padma took the office out of her hands.

"wellspring I ‘ m not waiting around."The twin turned and began to walk off in the charge Harry had pointed. Harry grinned and staggered after her. A moment later he felt Ron catch him and put an arm around his shoulder joint to stabilize him

"You ‘ re in really bad shape mate."He commented.

"Tell me about it."Harry quipped to his taller friend as they stumbled forward."I ‘ d like to end just one year without ending up a wreck of one kind or another."Harry turned back and saw Hermione following and smiled.

They walked in silence for a while. Padma spotted a set of footprints on the ground that told them they were still going in the right instruction. It looked as if the werewolf was following a sort of cervid trail through the timber. After ten proceedings or so Harry was able to walk unaided again but he was still sword lily they had found the track. He really didn't want to cause to deteriorate himself into the deluge again.

"Shush…"Harry waved the others to quieten."Do you rib see that ?"Faint vocalism drifted between the trees before them. Angry voices and one senior high pitched cry.

Harry dropped to a hunker down and went forward as quietly as he could. He couldn't hear the piranha following but he knew they were. The vox got louder as they approached a shaded dell in the woods.

"opus of dirt !"A loud smack sound filtered up from the dell. Followed by a thump like a body hitting the floor. Through it all Harry could see a baby crying."Why did you have to screw it up !"

Harry crawled to the edge of the dingle and poked his pushed a trap through some tussock of Mary Jane to see down. The lycanthrope they had chased was cowering on the trading floor in social movement of a huge bear like man. A vast bear like werewolf, Harry amended as he saw the sharp Brown dentition and icteric eyes staring balefully out of its head. Now that he could get a illuminate face at them Harry could see that they were both wearing the same mud and soil encrusted rags, their original colour and cut lost completely beneath the grime. Their hair's-breadth and deal were caked in mud as well, as were their unshoed feet.

"You bastard Verrine !"The expectant man growled as he picked the wiry lycanthrope off the floor and shook him.

Harry could see the baby lying abandoned on the ground nearby. He could feel the marauders getting in locating beside him. Making their own viewing holes.

"Why now !"The man continued to rant."Why do it now ! When we ‘ re so close to getting the mother-load you go out and pilfer one child ! They ‘ ll be on the lookout for us now !"

"But Greyback."The pocket-size man ( who seemed to be called Verrine ) whined."This was what you told us all to do. What you taught us. Get the children so we can change state them. When I found the gap in the cellblock I had to opportunity it. I thought you ‘ d be happy."

"Happy ? felicitous ! ?"The strapping werewolf threw the other to the ground and kicked him in the stomach."You moron ! We ‘ ve been working for months and you screw it up in a day !"

"But… but…"Verrine wrung his hands."They still don't know about it ! We can still go through with it !"

"We ‘ ll have to you runt ! I haven ‘ t worked this heavy to stop now."Greyback aimed another savage kick at the man on the base and Harry slid back a footling from the dell. Harry figured the vociferation sister was cover enough to speak without being heard and whispered…

"Any ideas ?"

"We can ‘ t sneak by them."Hermione said under her breathing time."Maybe if we levitate the baby…"

"They'll see that."Harry shook his head."They'll see anything inside the clearing. We need to accept them out."

"Two replete grown lycanthrope ?"Padma shook her head."We ‘ ll need a plan."

"Will we ?"Ron asked, glancing back at the grass between them and the puppet."I mean there are four of us and two of them. Why don't we just jump them ?"

"Ron !"Hermione hissed."Of all the stupid…"

"Brilliant !"Harry interrupted."He ‘ s rightfulness !"Padma and Hermione looked traumatise. Surprisingly so did Ron.

"We've got so used to being the underdogs we didn ‘ t see it. There are more of us, we have wands and we have the element of surprise. Hermione, Padma…"Harry pointed back at the clearing."… you aim for the big guy. Me and Ron will aim for the little one."

"What are we firing ?"Padma asked.

"Anything disabling, and aim high school. We don't want to hit the baby."Harry crawled back to the edge of the dingle."On three. One… Two… troika !"

Harry raised to his knees and aimed his wand at the startle werewolves. Hermione had fired a full-body-bind that froze Rebel in his cartroad before Padma's blasting expletive threw him to the ground. Harry had stuck by the true bludgeoning hex. He didn't hear what Ron cast but whatever it was combined with his own attack threw the scrubby werewolf take in across the clearing and smacked him into a rock.

Harry rushed into the dell. He followed Hermione's example and ossify Verrine from close range as he tried to get to his feet. The werewolf's branch smacked to his slope and he toppled like a tree. Harry turned back and saw that Padma had already reached the crying bundle on the floor and was picking him up.

"Is he alright ?"Harry asked worriedly.

"I have no idea."Padma admitted."Since he ‘ s been dragged through the Wood with only a blanket to protect him, I ‘ m guessing he ‘ s a little cranky. commodity thing it's a warm day."

"Harry…"Ron was standing over the big werewolf with his wand still out."… should we… you know… do something perm to them ? contain them ?"

"You mean kill them."Hermione said flatly."In common cold blood. While they ‘ re petrified."

"Hermione ‘ s right."Harry shook his read/write head. In his short life he had already killed two people ( Tom Riddle didn ‘ t count ). But both prison term it had been to save his liveliness or the life of his ally."We can ‘ t. Maybe we should, but we can ‘ t."

"They ‘ ll kill former people Harry."Ron said hesitantly."They ‘ ll turn former hoi polloi. They ‘ re animals."

"mulct then. Do it."Harry pointed at the immobile men on the floor."Finish them."

Ron's optic widened in blow. He raised his verge and pointed it at the big werewolf on the level. For a moment he stood there, indecision sack on his fount, then he dropped his arm to his face again.

"See. Not so easy."Harry turned and began walking back the way they had come."semen on guys. That was enough moral for today's story."

The predator were about to play along him when…

"Harry…"Ron said worriedly."Isn ‘ t it a bit… dark ?"

Harry felt the coldness exertion of terror again. The utmost of the sunset was just visible over the tree diagram and the shadows were at their longest.

Not long before nightfall. Not long before the moon.

"Oh god ..."Harry said, spacious eyed."RUN !"
*


Harry dared a glance back through the woods as he pelted as fast as he could down the track they had come up on. It was full dark now, and the moon rode over the trees.

"Wah ! ! Wah ! !"

"Can ‘ t you shut that brat up !"Ron yelled at Padma, who shot him a deadly glare.

"Bring him here."Harry slowed down and pointed his scepter at the squalling baby."Silencio !"The infant's oral cavity still worked but no sound came out. Harry breathed loose for a minute, then he heard a howling go up from the trees behind them.

"Run !"The marauders were jolted into motion again."Hermione go ahead ! Keep Padma and the little terror in the middle !"

Harry looked back over his berm and saw a shape hurtling down the way of life towards them.

Not a time to pull punches.

"Acerbus Cuspis !"

The poorly sparkle enveloped the snaring thing and it's impulse rolled it into a jalopy at Harry groundwork. He petrified it for dependable measure. Harry turned and sprinted to catch up with the rest of the marauders.

"How… close…"Ron panted."… tree."

"Further."Was all Harry managed to puff out. A growl behind him was all the admonition he got and he threw himself on Ron, knocking them both to the soil as a lycanthrope pounced over their head.

"Ferio !"Harry yelled from the story, but his hex missed and smacked into a George W. Bush. The wolf snarled and lifted itself to its invertebrate foot before getting hit from behind by Hermione and being slammed into the dry land. Harry pulled himself and Ron off the floor and began running forward again.

"There it is !"Harry heard Padma cry from far ahead. Harry squinted and realized he could make out the dim embodiment of the wall in front man of them. Another howl went up behind them and was picked up by another voice and another and another, stretching across the forest.

"Come on come on !"Harry skidded to a stop by the bottom of the fallen tree and scanned the darkened wood. drift ? Harry fired another curse into the dark but it hit zilch."hastiness up !"Harry helped Ron into the tree diagram then scrambled up behind him. He heard a snarl behind him and whirled, aiming his wand at the sound.

"Acerbus cuspis !"

The light brightened the clarification like a pyrotechnic but the wolfman dodged it. Harry slipped and fell onto the folio mulch. The Wolf pounced at him but was hit in the air by three enchantment from above and fell hard. Harry scrambled back into the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and ran as firmly as he could for the base hit of the exterior. He dropped onto the ground outside and stumbled a few footfall to where the marauders were standing. He saw Hermione point back at the wall and yell.

"Harry !"

A werewolf was clambering along the tree diagram, its long slavering natural language glistening in the moonlight.

"Depulso !"Harry banished the loup-garou and saw it sail back over the wall.

"Wingardium Leviosa !"Harry heard Hermione yell and saw the tree careen on its rubble place of origin."Help me !"

"Wingardium Leviosa !"Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the tree.

"Wingardium…"Ron began but Harry cut him off.

"No ! You two blockade any to a greater extent of them getting over !"

Harry concentrated on the tree, trying to escape from it free of its trestle. Another dark form jumped onto the trunk and Padma blasted it off. Two more than jumped on and Harry forced himself to digest only on the tree and intrust his booster to deal with the werewolves.

Suddenly, with a shuddering fissure, the tree came free of the wall and jumped a few beat into the air. Shaking its passengers off in the cognitive operation. At Hermione's urging they pulled the tree diagram forwards and dumped it on the flat coat nearby. Harry yelped in surprisal as they saw a lycanthrope scrabble over the damaged wall, its swearword giving it strength beyond any natural animal.

"No !"Hermione said as Harry raised his sceptre."I want to see if its worked."

Harry kept his baton trained on the thing but didn't cast anything. The dark physique squatted on the top of the wall for a import then bunched up and jump off at them. There was a smashing flare of Light and it was repulsed, confound back into the forest with a yelp of pain.

"Hermione ? What the damn hell…"Ron asked.

"The cellblock. The tree was disrupting them."Hermione brushed her whisker off her sweat-dripping forehead."They should be back now."

"Hermione…"Harry didn't finish the sentence, he just stepped forward and hugged the startled female child fiercely."Keep being overbold ok. God knows one of us has to be."Harry released her and looked back at the wall. Three loup-garou sat there now but they made no move to come any closer. Perhaps they had retained just enough of their human mental capacity to see a example. Harry gave them the finger then turned back to his friends.

"We should go."Harry lit his wand and waved the marauder back towards Hogsmeade."I may be wrong. But I think we ‘ re past curfew."







Try to leave a veto revaluation here. I want to screw what I can convert for the better. Not spelling, I do n't care about that. Do you intend the pacing 's ok ? I sometimes think I 'm moving the plot too fast.


Yeah, i know this chapter 's a bit shortly but it was a logical stead to stop.



Hogsmeade looked a lot more menacing at Nox. Perhaps it was the way the old family seemed to lean out over the street. Perhaps it was the eerie want of noise or that light olfactory perception you get at the kickoff of night.

Or perhaps it was that the prof that had eventually found them were McGonagall and Snape.

When the marauders had wandered back into the settlement they had had the ( then sleeping ) baby taken off their hand rather swiftly and been hurried back up the route towards Hogwarts.

"Of all the irresponsible, betise and idiocy you lot have got yourselves into !"McGonagall raged as they walked back along the route. Snape was uncharacteristically silent but he glowered at them with his bloodshot eyes. All of them except Harry, who's eyes he didn't seem to want to meet.

"I hope all of you are proud of yourselves !"McGonagall continued as they passed the gates of Hogwarts.

"‘ Oh, thank you for saving the baby.'” Harry muttered under his breath."‘ Without you shaver he would have suffered a fate unfit than destruction. You ‘ re poor boy.'” But the teacher didn't seem to hear him ( which was perhaps for the skilful ).

They walked in quiet up the long path towards Hogwarts but McGonagall surprised them by not taking them inside. Instead she led them round to the left towards the nursery. Harry could see the shimmering line of the ward, easily visible in the dim light.

Harry then saw who they were heading for. Dumbledore was standing on a patch of scuffed ground near the edge of the greenhouses staring out towards the forbidden timberland. Occasionally he would take a few steps and glance at a particular place in the Ward. He also kept glancing at a ragged art object of parchment he held in his hired man. As they approached he folded it calmly and slipped it into his robes.

With a frown Harry realized it was the Sami opus of parchment he's seen lupine and Dumbledore pawing over in a flashback. What did it do ? Harry tried to think back, it had been a map of Hogwarts and they had been keeping sentry on him with it. Did it somehow show what he was doing ?

"Mr Potter."The Headmaster had turned to reckon at him. He did not look pleased."So you return to us again."

"Yeah, like a flaming boomerang."Was what Harry wanted to say but he wisely replaced it with"Yes Sir."

"And can you tell me why you think you have the right hand to shamelessly ignore school pattern and flaunt the protection set up specifically to protect the students of this schoolhouse ?"

"We saved a baby."Harry said through gritted teeth."Doesn ‘ t that tally for something ?"

"Mr Potter this is not a matter of results it is a matter of intentions."Dumbledore said, staring at him over the rims of his spectacles."Do you bear me to continually leave out your flagrant normal breaking simply because it coincidentally causes some good ?"

"We coincidentally saved a baby !"Harry argued. He heard Hermione trying to shush him and pulled back a little."There was nothing else we could do. No one else was there to help."

"Why were you in Hogsmeade in the first place ?"

"Testing how well that niggling scrap of composition in your pocket works."It was a stroke in the iniquity but Harry saw the feeling of shock absorber mark Dumbledore's cheek before he steadied himself again. Harry noticed that both Snape and McGonagall looked obscure. Was Lupin the only teacher who knew ?

"I do not bonk of what you speak Mr Potter."Dumbleore said lightly.

"The map of Hogwarts."Harry spoke slowly and carefully. Taking an evil glee in seeing every word bring further jounce to the old man's case."The one you and Lupin have been using to check me. Watch everything I do. You sit up at night, with a mug of coco and a marshmallow and watch me."

The secrecy between the young wizard and the old one was almost palatable. Harry broke it first.

"Why didn ‘ t you use it to find the kid ? Or Ginny at the end of last class ?"Harry stared Dumbledore down. He felt a mollify prod on the backrest of his brainiac."And don't even think about Legilimensing me. Honestly, and you talk to me about breaking linguistic rule ?"The prod receded and Dumbledore looked down at his feet.

"I could not use it to find the tiddler because it does not offer beyond the borders of Hogwarts."Dumbledore said slowly. His vocalisation oddly shamed."And I could not use it to find Miss Weasley because neither the sleeping accommodation, nor the passage leading to it, nor the cloaca under Hogwarts are displayed on it. It ‘ s makers never ventured into them."

A muteness fell again. Neither company seemed to have anything to add to the conversation.

"The werewolf said they had a plan to get into Hogwarts tonight."Ron blurted out in a spate. Everyone looked at him and he blushed to the roots of his hair."well they have to know."He defended to Harry.

"I know Ron."Harry turned back to the Headmaster."He ‘ s compensate, they did say that."

"Harry they are unlikely to do anything now that we have been roused."

"No, they are."Harry shook his question."They specifically said they were going through with it anyway."

"Perhaps."Dumbledore conceded."But in a thousand days the werewolves have never breached the wards around the boundary of the forest."

"But I breached them earlier this class !"

"Yes."Dumbledore nodded."By swimming out into the lake past their boundaries."

"well couldn ‘ t the werewolves do that ?"

"Harry…"Dumbledore seemed to retrieve some of his old sense of humor."To you the giant squid is merely a playful lake wight. But it in fact one of the most ancient guardians of Hogwarts. If any dark creature attempted to reach Hogwarts through the lake, commit me Harry, they would not get far."

"And what…"Harry swallowed nervously."… what if all this is connected to… you know… Voldemort ?"

"My info tells me that Voldemort is in hiding in Albania."Dumbledore explained."As he has been since you evicted him from the eubstance of professor Quirrel."

"Oh…"Harry felt anger ebbing out of him, leaving a sort of hollow."… good."

"Now…"professor Dumbledore raised both his palms, facing out. A becalm motion."… we will carry on this discussion, and discussion of any penalization incurred, in the break of day. please return to your vulgar room, Severus will play along you. Minerva, would you help me check over the wards one final time before we all retire ?"The two old teacher moved off, leaving the marauders with exclusively Snape for company.

"Come on."Snape's voice sounded horse and Harry realized that this was the inaugural meter he had spoken during the intact exchange.

The piranha followed him in quiet up to the fat lady's portrait and spoke the password. Snape didn't even say anything to them then, he just stalked off with his oral sex bowed down into his neck.

Harry shook his head. Every clock time he saw Snape like that it reminded him of what he'd done to him.

Harry walked into the Gryffindor mutual room.

"You're alive !"Harry heard mortal yell.

"Wait."Harry closed his eyes and held out his hands for quiet."Did I just come back from a Hogsmeade weekend that ended with us chasing a werewolf into the forbidden forest ?"

"Um… yes ?"

"Oh good."It had just been convention déjà vu, not the time locomotion variety. Harry opened his eyes and walked over to sit at the piranha table with Ginny, Neville and Anapurna who had been waiting for them. The former marauders sat down too. It was the middle of the nighttime but somehow everyone knew they couldn't go to sleep yet. The four who had come from the timberland hastily outlined what had happened to their friends.

"What am I missing ?"Harry murmured, tilting himself back on his chair."How else could they get into the grounds ?"

"If they hired some hex breakers somehow…"Neville's voice trailed off as they all contemplated the possible action of penniless timber monsters hiring the Robert William Service of skilled mavin and of the skilled ace working for them willingly and of the werewolf retaining decent self control after transforming to not eat them.

"Unlikely."Harry decided and closed his optic. God he was tired.

"If some of them trained as curse breakers…"Ron began but Hermione cut him off.

"Then they ‘ d forget everything once they transformed."

Harry massaged his temples with his digit and felt the gritrock on them, they were still all mucky from the forest.

"Could they somehow distract the giant squid ?"Ginny asked looking tired as well. No one answered her. No one had any resolution. But Harry was will to blaspheme that whatever it was was justly in front line of his face.

"Can werewolves even swim ?"Ron asked and Harry groaned. They weren't getting anywhere. Not a surprisal really. Harry looked over his troops, Ginny was virtually asleep on her death chair ("We keep forgetting she ‘ s not as used to this as us."Thought Harry. ) Hermione looked almost quick to faint, the strain of all the classes this twelvemonth on top of the day they'd all had was just too a great deal. Neville and Parvarti were all right but himself and Ron ? Ha ! Harry laughed to himself. Both him and Ron, and to a lesser extent Padma and Hermione, looked like they'd rolled in the malicious gossip all Nox. Which, Harry admitted, they had.

Harry looked at his dirt encrusted handwriting. There was something there. Something just out of reach.

"Guy ‘ s…"The vulture's heads snapped to him."… expression at my mitt. There ‘ s something we ‘ re missing and it ‘ s here."

"Harry you ‘ re imagining things."Hermione sounded like she was barely remaining conscious."I know, I keep thinking I ‘ ve thought of something too."

"No, no there is something."Harry shook his head. His handwriting, what was there ?

"Harry you look faint mate."Ron's voice, but Harry wasn't listening.

His hand, beaten and scratched. One fingernail broken a little from a fall. soil under his fingernails. Dirt everywhere on his hand. Dirt everywhere on their hands…

Harry stood decamp just and scrambled for the door.

"They were covered in dirt !"He yelled, a bit hysterically."Why didn ‘ t I see it before !"

"See what Harry ?"Hermione asked. The marauder were staring at him.

"They were too filthy. Don't you see !"Harry motioned them to get a movement on out of their chairs but they didn't budge. Harry threw up his hands in aggravation."You don ‘ t get that dirty just running around a timber. And it was the incorrect case of grime too… loamy… dark. Under their fingernails and in their tooth !"The vulture still looked on in bleak incomprehension.

"Don't you see what they're doing ! Dogs behind a fencing !"Harry saw understanding dawn in one or two sets of eyes."They ‘ re digging a crashing tunnel !"
*


"Neville : McGonagall ! Ron : Dumbledore ! Padma : Snape !"Harry rattled off as they raced out the portrait hole. Harry cupped his hands to his rima oris and yelled."MYRTLE ! Sweet marauder theatre specter ! Get here NOW !"

"Harry ?"The glowing miss slid out of the stonework and flew alongside him as he pelted down the corridor."What is it ?"

"wolfman, tunneling into the school."Harry saw the ghosts already white face turn of events whiter and her eyes bulge."Is must come up somewhere on this side of the hospital ward. Go under…"

"Go metro and line up it."myrtle finished for him. She sounded absolutely terrorize. Her smoky mannikin was ever quavering in the air. But she swooped off in the direction of the glasshouse, her spindly hair whipping in the flatus behind her.

"Wonderful."Harry thought as he shot down a stairway."At least one of the marauders has her head on straight."

Harry barged through a side door and the night air hit him like a bulwark. He breathed it in, welcoming the stale into him because it would help wake him up.

"Lumos !"Hermione had lit her wand. Smart that one. Harry followed suit and soon the four predator were scowering the grounds. Harry glanced over them, had he chosen wrongly ? He'd sent the stock marauders to see the teachers and kept the relatively refreshed ones with him. Except for Hermione of course of action, who he ‘ d kept because he relied on her to be the brains of the operation. But was she alert enough to do that now ? Harry cursed as he realized his choice also meant he had put the youngest member, Ginny, in harms way.

Harry shook his caput, null to be done about it now. Harry saw Vinca minor arc out of the earth like a dolphinfish, raise her deal as if to say ‘ I'm going as fast as I can ’, then dip back underground.

"Where would they be ?"Harry peered at the tree line, trying to catch some touch of movement. Nothing."Damn it !"Where would they tunnel up to ? Would they even be able to aim at a specific topographic point when subway system ? The public blurred around Harry and he clamped his men over his pendent.

book binding ! Not now ! The lesion on his left-hand chest was beginning to hurt now, and was streaking his shirt with blood. I need to be here !

After what felt like an age the torrent retreated and Harry stumbled forward to resume the search. Suddenly Harry heard a ghostly squeal and saw myrtle trebuchet out of the ground.

"There ! There !"Myrtle was panicked and shaking, pointing back down at the ground.

Harry followed the job of her hand, it was the piece of scuffed turf they had stood on earlier that evening during their discussion with Dumbledore. With some trepidation Harry got closer and stopped to listen. From under the ground came the plain strait of scrabbling claws.

"Oh no no no no no."Harry shook his headspring to try and turn back the icy grip of concern and looked back at the castling. No teachers yet, the marauders must have been having trouble convincing them. Harry looked back at the solid ground, they would break through any minute."Colloportus."He tried, desperately, aiming at the ground. But cipher happened, the spell wasn't meant to be used that way.

"Guys ! Get back !"Harry waved the marauders away."Get behind stuff, we ‘ ll need to observe them back if they break through."Harry looked around, panicked. Was there something they could cover the background with ? No.

"Vinca minor !"Harry looked up at the quivering spook."I don ‘ t want to ask this but… can you go down there ? Distract them. Try to keep them from digging up."

The spook shook her head vigorously, her optic encompassing behind her goggle-like glasses.

"Please myrtle !"Harry begged."I can't think of anything else !"

The ghost began crying and hugged her arms into herself but she slowly floated down and skid into the ground. After a present moment the scrabbling stopped and a growl and yelping filtered up through the earth. Harry glanced around desperately, that had bought him seconds at most. His heart lighted on a cumulus of plant cutting off in a wooden bin beside the glasshouse. Yes !

"Help me rib ! Wingardium Leviosa !"Harry pointed his wand at the bin. It rocked on its base and Harry heard his friends add their interpreter to his. Glancing fearfully at the bulging footing Harry maneuvered the bin onto the ground and dropped it with a crunch.

"Incendio !"The bin burst into flame. Harry sent a few bludgeoning hex's at the slope of the matter and it collapsed into a balefire. Harry saw the former marauders levitating offshoot onto it from where they hid near the greenhouses.

"fountainhead, that won ‘ t hold on them from digging up."Harry thought, scraping sweat off his brow."But it ‘ ll give them a surprise when they do."

Suddenly the balefire sagged in the middle. Harry looked around and realized he should probably be behind something. He turned and dashed towards the doorway of Hogwarts. Behind him he heard a howl of inhuman botheration and a dry clangor as the bonfire caved in on itself. More howls of pain, filling the air with gloomy reverence. Harry glanced over his shoulder at the fire.

A burn lycanthrope, howling in searing pain, burst up through the footing like an ancient god, ferine and muscular. It clawed its way onto the pasturage and set off like a bullet towards him. Harry was so frighten off he tripped and was sent sprawling across the primer coat. He rolled and tried to aim a hex at it but he was shaking so often it missed by a statute mile. Harry could see another werewolf erupt out of the terra firma and turn on the marauders but all his attention was focused on the one in presence of him. The one that was going to belt down him. He shot again but it barely grazed its side. It lunged, and Harry felt its celebrate breath.

"Sectumsempra !"

The Friedrich August Wolf's neck exploded in a crashing fountain but its momentum carried it onto Harry, crushing him under its. Harry could feel his ribs crack and smell its putrid fetor but then it was lifted off him and tossed aside. Harry looked up and saw Snape framed in the door, a flavour of murder in his eyes.

"Stupefy !"The potions master yelled and a red spell shot across the reason and the werewolf that had been chasing the marauder fell limp onto the ground. Harry heard a scrabbling sound and saw another just clawing its way out of the hole in the land. Snape said no conjuration this time but it's head snapped back as if it had been shot and it slid back into the hole. Three more scrambled out, slavering and growling to shoot its place.

"Ferio !"Harry yelled, and the one he had been aiming at jerked back."Confringo !"The blasting curse threw it back into the hole.

"Leave them to me Potter."Harry heard Snape growling."Go help your friends."Snape curled his arm back and yelled something guttural before throwing a ball of red light down into the hole in the ground. Harry was knocked off his feet as an seism rocked the earth and a great cloud of dust poured up from the pit. Snape had collapsed the tunnel. She potions master smiled evilly, the smoke and rubble giving him an almost satanic visage as he turned and began throwing swearword at the remaining two werewolves.

Harry ran towards the marauders and skidded to a check in front of them. They looked tired and scared and Hermione was leaning on Annapurna and not putting weight on her left foot, but for having just battled werewolves they looked alright.

"Snape's beginning to uprise on me."Harry grinned. The piranha smiled, then Hermione seemed to see something and put her hand to her neck opening in horror.

"No !"
*


A moment of coincidence can modify everything.

Only individual floating above the scene could have seen the whole thing.

Hermione pointing to something sparkling on the priming coat. Pushing herself off her supporter and hopping towards it frantically. Tripping…

Harry turning and stepping over to pick it up, holding its golden mountain range clenched in his fist.

Snape throwing curses at the last lycanthrope, laughing as it scrabbled backwards, trying to get away from him. Snape throwing another curse but, in his glee, missing. The expletive flying through the air, rippling it like a oestrus wave. Shooting straight into the sparkling golden hourglass handing from Harry's hand.

The sound of shattering course. Far meretricious than it had any good to be.

The spray of silver gray sand, fanning out and covering the mighty side of Harry bureau, burning through his shirt and eating away the flesh underneath.

Each grain of sand making a picayune pockmarked hole, like drops of acid.

Snape looking on in horror, wand still outstretched.

Harry screaming. Screaming and falling to the storey, clawing at the bloody fix of his breast. Screaming like he'd had his essence cut out.

Then slowly, fading. Fading as his sidesplitter grew softer and softer. Until it was nada more than a breath of wind.

Then gone.


Pain, everywhere, burning. Flickering too fast to see anything but his damaged body beneath him. Roaring, he could hear the river here, flash than ever before. zip made sense, nix was real but the pain.
*


"Severus… Severus are you asleep ?"

Snape slowly raised his head from his hands and looked up at Madam Pomfrey. Had he fallen asleep ? There were times when his thought had curled round each other enough to seem like pipe dream. But no, he mustn't have. Surely he would have dreamt of her.

Snape could experience the locket in the top sac of his robes. He had carried it with him since he had got it. A constant drain on his will. Walking around, every day, trying to pursue his routine with a venomous cocktail of grief and heart clenching regret. But he couldn't leave it, every clip he tried he just felt his digit close around it tighter.

And now he had guilt to add to the mix. Guilt he richly deserved. He had killed him, killed the survive region of Lily Arthur Evans left on this earthly concern. He deserved everything, he clenched his fist until he could sense his nails digging into skin. It meant nothing.

"Severus some the great unwashed are here."The schoolhouse suck spoke softly, as if he were a dying patient. Which, Snape conceded, he looked like rightfulness now. He wearily dragged himself to his human foot and moved out from behind the curtains surrounding his bed.

The hospital wing was full but still. Snape looked over at the bed where the granger girl was lying. Her foot healed of course but no one had asked her to lead. ceramist's other friends were there too, in chairwoman, propped on nearby seam or, in the case of Longbottom, simply collapsed on the level. Snape could sympathize right now.

On the early slope the lycanthrope were chained, the two that had survived his attack and transformed back with the light source of day. They had been dragged up here by the aurors so that they could be treated before being thrown in Azkaban. No trial would be had. None was necessary. They neither had the right wing to one nor deserved that rightfield. Snape felt no grief for the ones that had been carted away to be burned or for the many that had undoubtedly died when he collapsed the burrow. Any vestige of humanity they had they had given up when they agreed to keep an eye on Greyback.

A splinter of a thought process wormed its way into Snape's brain. Why hadn't Johnny been demonstrate at the onslaught ? The children claimed to take petrified him but that would barely own lasted an hr on a werewolf. He should cause been there. It would have been gratifying to number him as one of the absolutely. Then at least Snape could stimulate said something secure had come of everything.

"professor Severus Snape ?"

The clipped voice brought him out of his persuasion and he looked at the two new figures in the backstage. Even in his wasting DoS Snape took in the two-dimensional Grey robe, the file cabinet folder, the slightly arrogant demeanour without any evidence of real power and neatly labeled both of them.

"From the Ministry,"Snape said. It wasn't a question. But something was off about them he realized, the char, her eyes far too appraising under her neat poor hair's-breadth and the man perhaps a specter too relaxed for a bureaucrat dragged out of his situation. Not aurors, they didn't have that feel… Oh !"Unspeakables ?"

"Correct prof Snape. Full marks."The woman smiled and raised her eyebrow. Snape sighed inwardly, he hated people under the delusion they were overbold than him."My name is Natalie Zhao and my colleague is Sean Rhyfedd."She indicated the man with a wave of her hand. Rhyfedd opened his mouth to speak but the charwoman continued talking and he shut it again.

"We are here to investigate the Holocene epoch issue here."She smiled and pulled a quill feather and parchment from her booklet."I understand that you have had a trying sentence but certain questions must be answered."

"I thought the situation was being investigated by them."Snape jerked his head towards the aurors. One of the lycanthrope on the floor looked up at him and leered.

"You misunderstand Mr Snape."The man spoke for the showtime time."The werewolves are indeed being dealt with by the aurors. The situation we were speaking of was the expiry of Mr Potter."

"Harry !"

Snape heard a curtain being thrown back and a consequence later felt himself surrounded by Potter's clique.

"Do get laid where he is ?"

"What happened to him ?"

"SILENCE !"Snape snapped, far louder than he intended. They fell silent and he turned back to the Unspeakable. Taking a minute to measure the index social organisation he addressed the woman directly."You mean the fade of Mr Potter,"he said hopefully.

"No."Rhyfedd cut in at the like time as his fellow said.

"I ‘ m afraid not."She waved her wand at an discharge bed and nine stools fell around it."Let's sit down."

Snape heard a chortle from the other side of meat of the room.

"Something to add, werewolf ?"Rhyfedd said angrily.

"Lost your hero."The werewolf chuckled insanely as he stared out from behind his crustlike lids."Why don't you use the small map ?"

The auror kicked the inhuman thing and it fell silent, muttering to itself.

Snape dismissed it and opt a throne next to the wall, at to the lowest degree that way he could not be surrounded by children.

"You are cognizant that Miss…"Ms Zhao consulted her papers"… sodbuster, was given especial permit to have a time-turner this year ?"

"You know that I am."Snape replied acidly."Unless the thirty page class myself and the former teachers here were asked to take out was somehow lost in the Ministry's system. In fact that context is not unlikely is it ?"

"We get hold of more fear in our department,"Rhyfedd said. He turned to the children at the board."Did you notice Mr Potter displaying any odd deportment this year ?"

"Odd behavior…"Weasley scratched his head."Odd behavior is pattern for Harry."

"time loss."The Unspeakable crossed his arms irritably."Did he sometimes seem to not know when or where he was ? Did he appear to have sex what was about to find ? Did anyone attestant him in two space at once ?"

"Yes,"The vernal Weasley answered quietly."The first two."

"I saw him in two home,"Longbottom said wetly. They all sounded as tired as Snape felt."I was with him in the library and I looked out the windowpane and I saw him on the dope outside too. I just thought it was some sort of trick he was pulling."He sounded like someone had drowned his pup. Or perhaps a bag of puppies.

"Don ‘ t look bad,"Natalie Zhao smiled at the pupil."Even if we had known earlier there would have been nix we could accept done. It's an effect we call the flood of ages."

That sounded fellow, some old narration ?

"Those lost in the torrent of ages…"he said, trying to remember the passing."… are lost to prison term and light. Living in nothing. Trapped in eternity."
*


Flickering, even the good deal crawled up and down the likes of waves. The sky just one arching fuzz of grey. The ground under his human foot felt shadowy and unreal.
*


"Yes that's correct,"Ms Zhao nodded, pleased."You see, a time-turner only works because of the Baroness Dudevant inside it. It is literally the sand of meter. Usually it is inert but there are ways of drawing out its power. Now, the construction of a time-turner is designed so as to rule that big businessman safely. Moving a person back in time a shortstop way relatively safely."

"Relatively safely,"Rhyfedd said, chuckling dryly and shaking his head.

"But…"Zhao continued."If the sand is loosed from the time-turner after it has been activated and it touches a individual. That soul gets the full brunt of the George Sand'power."

"The gist has been known since antediluvian times."Mr Rhyfedd pulled a bundle of around twenty dollar bill report out and spread them out in front of Snape. The all had pictures in the corner. The one-time ones were indecipherable, the newest mostly looked like awful themselves."As you can see the recent ones are mostly departmental accidents."

Snape nodded.

"What is this downpour then ?"he asked.

"Essentially… time."Ms Zhao shook her head sadly."Imagine the time-turner essence multiplied by a billion, and totally uncontrollable. The somebody begins moving through sentence without ever stopping in any one moment for more than a millisecond."

"Of course we can only guess at the effect…"Rhyfedd said."… Since no one has ever come back."

"So what are you going to do ?"Parvati Patil demanded shrilly."How do we fix it ?"

"Miss…"Zhao met Snape's eyes for a moment then continued."…Patil."

Snape felt his heart skip about a century beats. Had he just been casually Legilimized by a Ministry employee ? He found himself forced to swiftly and radically revaluate the woman in nominal head of him. His mental defenses were a little fractured right now it was straight, but he would have been happy to face even Dumbledore with no Thomas More defense than this. He had grown too soft.

"Miss Patil,"The woman continued."I know this is intemperate for you, all of you. I know that it is sluttish to grieve if you have a body, or some planetary house. But you must understand your friend is not coming back."

"You don ‘ t know that !"Ginevra Weasley almost screamed.

"He ‘ s unassailable than you think,"Longbottom said desperately.

"This is not something you can fight,"The Unspeakable shook her point."It ‘ s not something real or physical. It ‘ s not something tangible, it ‘ s something inevitable."
*


Slipping, priming coat always slipping. Too much pain to even cogitate. Blood that flowed out of him and disappeared into the air like mist. The sand still burned in him, burning but the ancestry kept flowing. Burning train of thought cutting into him from all sides, tying him up. Lying like red hot spear across his skin. He couldn't ignore the bother, it was the one existent thing he had.
*


"Just side it kids."Rhyfedd crossed his implements of war."The boy who lived is gone for good."
*


Harry kneeled under the flickering sky, a grey aurora burn into his heart. It was too much, he wasn't sure if he would go mad or just bleed to death. Either seemed preferred. The nuisance was just throbbing harder, the fiery bonds tightening around him. Invisible Bond. zilch was real here. Oh god it hurt ! Harry threw his head back and howled,

"assist me !"His intelligence were caught and whisked away as soon as he spoke."somebody ! Help me !"Harry barely felt the sobs bust up his physical structure."Someone…"

"Harry…"

Harry felt the pain ebb away, leaving a dim ache. The sky dimmed like smoked ice. The flickering ground became grey and unyielding under his pes. He felt the burning at the stake threads pushed off him as the gray space expanded, carrying them with it. He stood on wobbly legs inside the little bubble of reality.

"Harry."

Harry whirled towards the vocalization and fell to the solid ground again, this time in relief. weeping welled in the corner of his eyes. He gulped and said,

"Pythea !"

"Yes Harry."The petty seer was sitting crossbreed legged in the middle of the Second Earl Grey bubble."Yes it ‘ s me."

"How…"

"Or, more correctly it's a bit like a recording of me,"Pythea smiled, her multicolor eyes holding deepness Harry couldn't even hypothesis at."Like a portrait. I ‘ m a charm cast by the rattling Pythea. She hid me in the letter she sent you."

"Why ?"Harry shook his headspring."Why this way ?"

"It was the alone way."Pythea looked suddenly a slight scare off but pulled herself back a moment later."If the rest of my order knew you were even remotely connected to the torrent…"She shuddered."… well at the very least I would have been unable to help oneself you. The inundation is abhorrent to everything we stand for."

Abhorrent… that sounded familiar.

"For the Same reason the centaurs do ? They sa-"

"You met centaurs !"Pythea stood and hurried towards him, looking over him as if to see some sign of injury."How did you survive ! They would receive killed you…"

"They let me go."Harry thought back, it seemed like a spell ago."Said they had a debt to me."

"Do not frighten away me like that."Pythea put a hand to her chest and seemed to be breathing heavily."You were lucky. Very lucky."

"If I was golden I wouldn't be caught in this thing."Harry waved his hands at the deal around them."“ ‘ Thea you got to help me."

"Harry I will not lie to you."She was right up adjacent to him now, looking down into his eyes."To my knowledge no-one has ever survived the torrent of ages."

Harry closed his eye and bowed his point. His finish hope…

"Harry, the inundation isn ‘ t even something natural."Pythea held his Kuki in her manpower and pushed his heading back up."Time-turners are one thing, they let you pass back and Forth River in the same time watercourse. Anything you do in the past does not disturb the hereafter, because it has already happened you see ? The natural law of causality are preserved. The torrent is unlike, it defies the rule of fate. That is why my purchase order, and the centaurs, hate it so much. They think it is dangerous, tangling lot. That is why you have been moved outside of metre, the creation itself it trying to shut out you out. Destroying a scourge to itself."

"So why are you here ?"Harry pushed her hands away. He was crying now, he knew he looked pathetic but he couldn't stop himself."If no one ‘ s ever survived why bother even coming !"

"In the hope that you could be the first."She glanced up at the faded ceiling. The bubble had shrunk noticeably since they had started talking. Harry could see the threads of fire curling about the edge, like circling sharks."I can ‘ t carry this much longer."

"How ! How can I be the first ?"

"I don ‘ t know. But I know one thing, you are never going to do it sitting on the dry land. You will not survive unless you take control."

"You don ‘ t know what it feels like…"Harry began but fell silent. What did it count how very much it hurt ? It had to be done."What do I do if I can get control ?"

"Don't you know ?"She sounded amused.

"I…"A mad idea hit him. A Harry ceramicist plan."Yes. I think I do."

"Good Harry."She raised her hand towards the greyness wall."Are you prepare ?"

Harry felt for her pendent, still hanging by his heart. He nodded.

"Do it !"

The wall disappeared and the lances whipped inwards into his flesh. Harry howled and grabbed them in both hands.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaa !"

It was like the Cruciatus burnt into every molecule of his cutis. And across his palms where the ropes of fire writhed ? It was a century clip worse !

"I am the boy who lived !"Harry cried into the perfectly air."And you will act !"

Harry jerked his hands up and felt the burning reigns cut into his hands.

"SHIFT !"

Hogwarts appeared before him for a here and now, a scholarly person looked at him in shock before it was all whisk off away.

"No ! Again !"

The earth became flaming rock and the air acid smoke.

"No ! hear to me !"Harry gripped down harder on the duds and pulled them to his face, ignoring the tears flowing down it and the pain enveloping everything."SHIFT !"

Bare rock 'n' roll, an empty sky.

Water stretching as into the distance.

The lightlessness of distance. As cold as nothing.

"NO !"Harry was loosing it, the reign were slipping through his fingerbreadth."Please ! I can ‘ t do it !"

Suddenly he saw her again, just for a moment, one green eye and one purple. Hovering in the air before him through the mist of pain.

"You can do anything."

"Aaaaaaaaa !"Harry fell to his knees and pulled the flame to his chest, right up to the searing wound. Between his clenched fist nestled the small pendent. A niggling nub of aplomb in the world of flaming. He could do this.

Hogwarts again, a werewolf lunged before it all slipped away.

"YES !"

The greenhouses pulled out of the mist. The whizz, the sound of magic spell. An insensate howl.

"YES !"

Harry ceramicist laughed through the pain in the ass and the blood.
*


Hermione pointing to something sparkling on the ground. Pushing herself off her friend and hopping towards it frantically. Tripping…

Harry turning and stepping over to pick it up, holding its golden range of mountains clenched in his fist.

Snape throwing curses at the last wolfman, laughing as it scrabbled backwards, trying to get away from him. Snape throwing another whammy but, in his gleefulness, missing. The nemesis flying through the air, rippling it like a heat wave. Shooting straight towards the sparkling lucky hourglass handing from Harry's hand.

Harry smiled, and stepped in movement of the curse.
*


Dirt…

Very wet dirt…

That was the number one thought that went through Harry's head. He opened his centre. The dirt in nominal head of his nose was moving ever so slightly, the little grains rolling back and Forth. His breath moving them. He was breathing again.

Some ace at the side of his head… familiar… speech sound. somebody was speaking.

"Harry ?"

Harry twisted against the ground, movement returning to him like a distant store. A figure standing there. Low to the ground.

"Harry dear boy they told us you were dead !"

Professor… he knew this person. He liked this person.

"Professor Flitwick."Harry's voice came out at barely a whisper.

"My dear boy you ‘ re bleeding !"

Harry looked down. One side of meat of his chest was pockmarked with niggling holes like someone had grated him and the other side had two massive diagonal over it, meeting in a interbreeding. Snape's curse word, Harry remembered, that had hit him there.

"Are you alright ? You don ‘ t look like you ‘ re in pain ?"

Harry chuckled wryly. After the human race of flame the pains from his chest were nothing.

"You need the Hospital extension Mr Potter."

Harry felt himself lifted up with magic and stood on his substructure. He was still exactly where he had been before getting lost in the torrent, on the ground near the greenhouses. He saw some men in long black robes standing guard over the caved in tunnel but they weren't looking his way.

"I can take the air,"Harry mumbled as professor Flitwick pointed his verge at him again. He had clawed his way out of non-existence, he could walk to the Hospital Wing.

Harry stumbled off towards the door of Hogwarts.

"Of course of study you can Mr Potter."Professor Flitwick chuckled."I was merely going to leave you with some clothes."

Harry looked down, he was wearing Pythea's pendent but nothing else. He glanced back at the ground where he had appeared, there was a lot of gray-headed ash and what looked like a burnt belt buckle. Near where his feet had been there was a puddle of molten rubber.

"Oh."Harry blushed and tried to cover himself with his mitt. With a wave of his wand the little teacher gave Harry loose conform to pajama pants and a dressing gown. Harry vaguely registered that they were blue and gold."Thanks…"

Harry turned and continued his halting walk towards the hospital wing. He could see Flitwick walking behind him, probably with his baton out in type Harry tripped. The hall were deserted this betimes in the break of day and Harry had no company as he pulled himself laboriously up a staircase.

He glanced down at the two wounds on his chest, the sand suntan and the cuts. There was something wrongfulness there. Harry shook his oral sex, zero about bleeding that much was right. Harry reached the doors to the hospital wing and pushed the doors open.

He saw his friend, Snape and some other people look up in shock. In his state, lightheaded from blood departure, he said the first thing that came to mind…
*


"Just typeface it kids."Rhyfedd crossed his arms."The boy who lived is gone for good."

The threshold to the hospital wing burst assailable and the ceramist boy stepped inside, wavering slightly as if drunk.

"You know who I hate ?"he said, smiling crookedly."Godric Gryffindor… jerk-off !"The boy took two steps and fell on his face on the common cold tiled floor.

Snape saw the educatee and the school nurse rush to Harry through a daze but he felt something else. A bubbling, floating sensation rising from his chest. He clamped his hand over his mouth but it escaped through his poke anyway, a snort that jerked his head back. He gave up trying and broke out in fit of laughter.

"Something amusing professor ?"Ms Zhao asked him, eyebrows arched in amusement.

"Hates… Ha ha ha ! Hates Godric Gryffindor ! Ha !"Snape held his paw to his aching sides and bowed down as another bout hit him. He pointed at the former Unspeakable."And he walked in… right after you said… Ha ha ha !"

Why couldn't he stop laughing ? More importantly, why didn't he want to ?

"Perhaps you should lie down Mr Snape."Natalie Zhao looked like she was barely stopping herself from giggling."You ‘ ve obviously had a trying night."

Yes, that must be it. Just tired.

Snape got up and walked towards the threshold of the hospital wing. As he passed the ceramicist boy's bed the joke broke out again and he had to accommodate the doorcase for support.

"Severus ?"Snape saw Filius Flitwick staring at him in shock absorber."Are you alright ?"

Yes, Snape realized, he was. It felt like a neat pressure had been lifted off him. He must just be tired.

"I have had a long night."he told his bloke teacher before turning and walking away and leaving a very stunned muteness in his wake.
*


"That was odd."Padma said dryly before turning back to the hospital bed where Harry was lying.

Harry chuckled, it was good to be back amongst friends.

"These won ‘ t heal Mr Potter,"he heard Madam Pomfrey say while running her wand over the two wounding on his chest."Neither of them. I ‘ m afraid you ‘ ll have mark there for the relaxation of your life."

"Great…"Harry said, his voice sounding decrepit and airy in his ear."… more scars."Harry pointed at his forehead."I have enough problem with this one."

"Well it's your own fault…"Harry heard an acerbic vox say."You survive the killing curse and get one cicatrice, you survive the torrent of ages and you get two to a greater extent. If you don't want more mark stop doing unimaginable things."

Harry leant his headspring up and saw two people he didn't know standing by the foundation of his bed, a man and a woman.

"Please forgive my Friend,"the cleaning woman said smoothly."There was a departmental fortuity in which he lost his sentience of tact."

The man snorted. Harry smiled, he thought he would wish this woman.

"We are from the Ministry,"the cleaning lady continued,"The Department of Mysteries."

"We need you to tell us how you survived the torrent,"the man said.

"But obviously we would not impose on you in your current state,"the woman added easily."If we returned this evening ?"She glanced at gentlewoman Pomfrey, who nodded.

"This evening then."She straightened."I look forward to your story."She walked out of the hospital annexe, the other Unspeakable followed, grumbling.

Harry looked at his booster and grinned.

"So, my entrance ? Good or so-so ?"

"well ten out of ten for timing Harry,"Hermione grinned.

"But what you said was a bit off,"Padma chuckled."‘ I hate Godric Gryffindor'kind of a non-sequitur."

"And for Harry potter, the-boy-who-cracks-one-liners…"Ron grinned broadly."It was kind of disappointing."

"I blame blood loss."Harry leant back against the bed, he was just now realizing that he had last slept over twenty dollar bill four hours ago. Or Sir Thomas More, or less, he didn't quite have intercourse how the clock time in the soaker counted.

"How did you make it Harry ?"Hermione asked curiously.

"How ?"Harry felt his lid drooping."I ‘ m a marauder. We don ‘ t lose."A view crossed Harry's brain and he managed to pull himself back from sleep."Where did Vinca minor get to ?"

"Don't know."Ron shook his oral sex."None of us have seen her."

"Should justify to her. See whether we can notice some ghost-flowers."Another thought process hit him."The werewolf ? The approach ?"

"All dealt with Harry."Parvati put her hand on his berm reassuringly."Everyone ‘ s alright and the crisis is over. Earlier than usual too."

"Yeah !"Ron perked up."We ‘ ve got almost three months of school left ! We usually don't save everyone for historic period yet, we may actually get time to deliver fun and…"

"written report for our end of year exams."Hermione said brightly. It was like watching a see-saw, the delectation in Ron's font faded at exactly the Lapp rate as Hermione's began to grow.

"Oh Harry, say her,"Ron urged."Tell her we ‘ re having fun not studying."

"I may receive to take Ron. If I want to do little matter like not get chucked out of Hogwarts."Harry tried to fetch to bear any knowledge he had gleaned from the last few months of lessons and found only denudate mark."Definitely."

"It ‘ s alright Harry,"Ron said comfortingly."You ‘ re obviously sick. I ‘ ll ask you again when you ‘ re better."
*


Albus Dumbledore glanced at the map once again, when the dot had reappeared he had not believed it. He had thought there had to be some kind of mistake.

"He truly is whole ?"he asked again.

"I would not say unharmed…"Poppy Pomfrey shook her forefront."But he is alive and with a little care he will be fine. cicatrix, as I said, but zero more."

"Thank you Poppy. You are forever the bringer of sword lily news."

Poppy knew him well enough to greet the polite dismissal in his voice and left his position quietly. Dumbledore turned to the former person in the office.

"He survived…"professor lupin was hunched over a mug of something steaming. It smelled dire but apparently it helped. Even with it the poor werewolf looked pitiful, apparently hearing the other werewolves howling so close had made his wolfman mind even more fractured than usual."How could he live on ?"

"I do not know Remus."Dumbledore shook his caput."I truly do not know how he survived. I am in the unusual status of having not the faintest musical theme. That worries me deeply. The boy himself worries me deeply."

"He disturbs me."

"Remus you must try to-"

"I know,"Lupin croaked in his abrasive phonation."It ‘ s just that he walks around looking so like James. existence so like James. He calls his friends the Marauders you know, when I heard that I almost… He has no right."

"It is just a name Remus,"Dumbledore said soothingly."And the boy is good of enigma, I still can ‘ t oeuvre out where that pendent of his came from. I don ‘ t get it on how he managed to rig the Quidditch cup and I certainly can ‘ t prove he did. I don ‘ t experience how he beat Severus in a duel. And now the torrent…"Dumbledore reached out and stroked Fawkes, the phoenix let out an appreciative trill.

"This boy, this boy that so often rest period on, is a utter whodunit to me. Not only that, he seems to take no queasiness about disregarding my authorisation, ignoring my advice. I can not even celebrate him within the footing of Hogwarts against his will. So very much repose on him, but I don't understand him and I certainly can not curb him."Dumbledore sighed."I have rarely felt as old as I have in these preceding three years."

"He ‘ s not James."Remus shook his head.

"I hope not."Dumbledore closed his centre in sadness."But he seems to possess courage like James IV Potter."

"courageousness ?"Remus snorted."He ‘ s afraid of urine !"

"Well we both know the reason for that."Dumbledore quieted himself. Some arcanum were so important they should never be voiced."I suppose all we can do is wait and see."The two men fell silent. Dumbledore listened to his whirling auto, after all these old age the sound was very comforting.

"rich person you found another Defense teacher ?"Lupin asked suddenly. Dumbledore sighed.

"I have been talking to another old Friend. I have Bob Hope that he will accept the job."

"Good."

The muteness returned, sullen with all the things not being said.
*


Snape awoke refreshed for the first time in week. He had gone directly into his bed after leaving the Hospital Wing and now the clock on his wall read eight thirty, he had slept all day. His body must deliver been trying to pick up up on lost time.

He pulled his gown on and grabbed his wand from the bedside table. His hand went out on reflex to grab the other item there and he stiffened. The locket sat there, shining up at him. Snape swallowed toilsome. Did he desire to acquit Lily Herbert McLean Evans around next to his nerve forever ?

Snape picked the locket up and held it lightly in his hand. Something must be done with it. He strode out of his tail and down the corridor, scarcely glancing at the students he passed. He did not stop when he passed the great doorway or Hogwarts but kept up his pace until it brought him to the shores of the lake.

He was breathing hard, and not from the walk. The locket was still clutched in his hired man. He had to do it quickly otherwise he would lose his will.

You abandoned me Sev. I thought we were best friends ?

No. Not now.

You called me a mudblood.

"And what about you !"He spoke savagely to the locket nestled in his palm."That day beside the lake after our exam. Where were you ? Sitting and talking to your other friends. Leaving me all alone. You didn ‘ t come over until Henry James Potter got involved. You abandoned me farsighted before I abandoned you…"Snape drew his hired hand back."… I just did it better."And with all his strength he hurled the footling bit of ash grey into the dark water.

I can not believe I had the intensity to do that.

Snape shook his oral sex, he felt like he had begun again after years of living in stasis. Harry was right hand, wizards lived in the preceding far too a great deal. He had finally gotten rid of the last…

No…

Snape felt his spirit dashed in a moment. He still had one live on firearm of Lily Evens. A piece he could not be rid of. He hung his heading, and he had felt so free. The yesteryear was an anchor, Lily Arthur Evans was an mainstay. He could never be truly free.

Or could he ? As the Potter boy had so clearly proved, sometimes the impossible was simply something that hadn't been done yet. But it would require Occlumency of the high order.

"Luckily,"thinking Snape."I am an Occlumens of the gamey order."

Snape sat down cross legged on the smoke, cleared his brain, closed his eyes and proceeded to erase Lily Evans. Each memory was locked away, one by one, from their start meeting to the finally day he ever saw her. He blocked them all. He would still keep back the configuration of them, a dim knowledge, but it was the best he could do.

It would be loose if he had a pensieve, Snape realized and momentarily thought of borrowing Dumbledore's. But no, he didn't want the old man to know about this. And besides, considering that Lily Herbert McLean Evans was the custody he had had over Snape all these days he might not be inclined to help.

Snape closed the lowest memory and stood up, feeling lightheaded. Would this work ? He began preparing to cast the spell, raised his wand then dropped it again to his side. He could not disgorge it, he had no felicitous memory board anymore, he had just locked them all away. Snape cursed, it was hopeless. Then a mad idea struck him, he looked out over the lake, at the blazing sunset painting the Benny Hill with red and gold. He raised his weapon and felt the summer fart Rush through his robes.

So far from spinster End. So far from the smog and debris and specify streets. Here the air was vindicated, it smelled of heather. The stars were absolved, free by streetlights. Hogwarts, and the land around it, was his abode. This was a glad memory.

"Expecto Patronum !"

He screwed his eyes shut at the moment of casting, he could not give birth to watch. He felt the warmness of his patronus in front of him, touching his hand. He had to count eventually, he would bear to. courageousness, he was not a coward.

Snape snapped his center receptive and almost melted onto the story. Tears sprung into his center. Writhing and looping in the air was a dilute Snake, curling like a ribbon caught in the confidential information. He had been successful, the last theatrical role of Lily Evans in him was gone.

"Is that your patronus ?"

Snape turned towards the voice. It was the unspeakable, Natalie Zhao, she was standing calmly a few steps behind him with her hands clasped in front of her. She must have crept up on him, he had been quite distracted.

"You are still here ?"he asked."Did you question Harry all day ?"

"We left and came back,"she said, moving up to stand by the lake beside him."I ‘ ve just come from talking to him. Surviving the torrent, he really is amazing…"She trailed off shaking her mind in disbelief.

"He is nothing if not surprising."Snape found he had little ire towards Harry Potter any to a greater extent."But I think you would be less astonied if you saw the mouth mess he manages to make of potions."

"Perhaps."She smiled, it pushed niggling dimples up on her cheeks. He pointed at his patronus, still writhing in the air."Very nice…"

"Is it ?"Snape turned back to the snake. It was not, he now realized, a very interesting looking serpent. Perhaps a little more than a meter long with harsh, dark bands all the way up its slight body. It had no hood behind its thin out oral sex like a cobra or a rattle like a rattlesnake, nothing that obviously identified it. Snape wondered what species it was.

"A ring krait,"Natalie Zhao said smiling. She hadn't had eye tangency, she must just deliver guessed what he was thinking."Very nice."

"Really ?"Snape's curiosity was piqued."Does it have any particular… qualities ?"

"Well…"She appeared to consider for a import."It ‘ s diet is kind of interesting."

"How so ?"

"It primarily eats other snakes."

"Really…"Snape found himself warming to the striped reptile.

"And it ‘ s deadly,"Ms Zhao continued."Sometimes the victim doesn't feeling anything at the site of the bite for a while, lulls them into a treacherously sense of security."

"Hmm…"

"It's a redoubtable toxin."The Unspeakable reached out and tickled the little glowing snake under the mentum."I think they ‘ re quite interesting."

"I think it will do nicely."Snape canceled the charm with a flick of his wand and his krait faded away.

"Why do you have it off so lots about snakes ?"

"I keep them as pets."She seemed to sword herself a touch. Perhaps she was used to blackball chemical reaction when people heard about her hobby.

"Fascinating,"Snape said, and found that he meant it."Do you have any kraits ?"

"You ‘ d have to be crazy to celebrate one of those as a pet. But I suppose you like dangerous pets here…"She smiled again, cheekily."… you apparently keep werewolves."

"Accidentally."Snape motioned towards the castle and they both began walking towards Hogwarts."You wouldn't numeration rats that invaded your wine cellar as dearie would you ?"

"No, I ‘ d count them as disengage snake food."

Snape chuckled. Laughing again, he really did feel like a new man. But there was something in the back of his mind now. Something he'd heard ? Something she'd said ? Hmm… it was right at the edge of his mind.

"Well I have to get back to the Ministry,"Natalie said, they had reached the front of the castle."Got to fill in the paperwork. God knows Rhyfedd won ‘ t bother, that man has an attitude problem…"

"He is a small minded, talent to a lesser extent man who is constantly trying to assert himself over you where he has no correctly to be because it shirks his ego to work under a cleaning lady,"Snape stated flatly.

"I know,"Natalie replied simply."You had him pegged within five seconds of meeting him. My honcho at the Ministry however…"She spread her hands hopelessly."… four twelvemonth and counting. I ‘ m hoping they catch on any day now."

"Let me bring in you to Sibyll Trelawney one day."Snape shrugged and smiled in pity."Then you will truly know what it is like to stimulate an irritating co-worker."

They were both standing in front of Hogwarts, but neither of them seemed to desire to move.

"Well…"She broke the stalemate."… I should go. Thank you for showing me your patronus."

"Would you mind showing me your Snake collection at some compass point ?"Snape found himself asking."I find myself strangely interested."

"Strangely interested…"She smiled that infuriating grin again. Snape was beginning to conceive she might actually be wise than him."… good choice of words."And with that she turned and began walking down the path towards the gates of Hogwarts.

Snape would ingest felt elated, but at that moment what he had been thinking slipped into place and he frowned, then clenched his clenched fist as the full implications sunk in. He hoped he was wrong, he really did.
*


"Albus,"he stepped out of the staircase into the schoolmaster study.

"Severus,"Dumbledore greeted him."To what do I owe this late Nox visit ?"

"nada good I am afraid."Snape shook his read/write head."This good afternoon I remembered an offhand comment one of the lycanthrope in the infirmary Wing made. Taunting us about a map."

"They could not have known about it."Dumbledore's oculus narrowed."You are not accusing Professor lupine once aga-"

"No."Snape waved the complaint away."No, that is what I thought initially, it would have been good if I was right. I went to gossip the werewolf in the Ministry dungeons. He said he heard it because they were waiting underground, listening. They heard you talking to Harry when we brought him back from Hogsmeade."

"I fail to see the parking brake in that…"

"Albus, commemorate what else you said that evening."

"I…"The Headmasters face went blench and his eyes opened wide."I said that Voldemort was hiding in Albania."

"Yes."Snape nodded."I think we now know why Greyback was not section of the attack. He had already left on a more important errand, a dog running back to its master. He left because he knows where to look."



This chapter beta 'd by Costa Rican colon. Thank you Colon !

What did everyone think of the detour from cannon in this book of account ?
The next one goes back towards the line of the books a bit, somewhere between the how close the first two were and how out there this one was.

leave a review and I 'll get on with composition ...

Harry thrower and the Harry Potter and the feel of Njordr !


I do n't own Harry ceramicist. I wish I did. Unfortunately the whole blowing-out-all-the-candles-at-once thing does n't always work.



She brushed up against the wall, her well muscled flank pressing against the wooden pane. Her ears were attuned to the lilliputian scritches coming from around the corner and the tiny step on the floorboard were still visible, glowing hot prints leading the way. She eased herself up to the edge then poked her rebuff nose around and struck.

The rat tried vainly to struggle as the toxicant seeped into it and she waited patiently as it died. She did not even have to dislocate her jaw to fit the little thing in. It was merely a taster anyhow, her master had promised sweeter centre soon.

She slid, replete and languid, through the old sign of the zodiac. Soon pride would get and milk her venom, making her feel empty and exploited, but her master needed it so she steeled herself against his touch. Not that pridefulness wasn't gentle, it was his smell that irked her.

She knew that the three men who served her overlord had other names but she preferred her own, Ambition, Pride and decay. She had named them after what she smelled on them. Master was, of course of instruction, just Master.

She slid into her masters room and curled up beside the fire. Her maestro was asleep but the others were talking again, she pushed her head down between her roll to stymy out the audio, but it wasn't enough.

"The merest mistake will alert them."pridefulness was saying."There are people who know him very well."

"I am cognizant of that brother."dream replied archly."And after all the study I have done I am one of them. You stay here and tend to our Edgar Lee Masters motive, I will get the job done quite sufficiently in your absence."His voice made it quite pass that pridefulness's absence would in fact make the job much easier.

"The only reason you have this job is because I would be missed."

"The reason I have this job is because our schoolmaster gave it to me."aspiration grinned."Never draw a blank that."

"Careful brother,"Pride sneered."Take care that you never forget who you have to thank for your exemption and for your chance at vengeance."

"Who ? Our Almighty for ordering me freed and planning how to achieve it or you for merely telling him where I was ?"

"Both you arrogant little-"

"Arrogant ?"ambitiousness laughed. She liked Ambition a bit more than than Pride, he was more like a snake."That is undoubtedly and most obviously the pot calling the caldron black. Besides…"ambitiousness narrowed his eyes."I ‘ ve been wondering how prospicient you knew where I was and did nothing about it."

"I could not compromise-"

"Of course."Ambition turned away, dismissive."You could not compromise your position. Just like you can't now. So just the get the fuck out of my way blondy, I ‘ ve got a job to do."

"I see you've learnt some colored oral communication rotting in Azkaban."

ambition whipped around and punched Pride straight in the stomach. Ambition was melt off and stringy but the punch had weight behind it and pride crumpled to the floor. Ambition followed it up by stamping into Pride's kidney.

"Learnt some other affair in there too brother."dream drew his wand and pointed it as the groaning figure on the level."So if I were you I ‘ d never give into the delusion that you ‘ re the power player in our trivial co-operative venture."

Pride tried to lift but Ambition stamped on his hair.

"And another thing…"dream leant down to verbalize close to Pride's ear."Our master remembers which of us remained loyal to him during his twelve year… convalescence."dream grinned."And you weren ‘ t one of them, brother. So you stay here and milk the bloody snake and Leslie Townes Hope you build up enough brownie points to get you back in his serious books. You stay here and brew the potion and I will dole out with everything else !"

ambition scuffed his foot back and forth, jerking Pride's hair and making him grit his tooth in pain. Ambition laughed and strode out of the room.
*


"Harry ? We have a… a sort of proposition for you."Fred and George had cornered him in Ron's bedchamber, they both had that mischievous smell about them.

"I'm intrigued."Harry closed his book of account and tossed it to one side."Apprehensive but connive. Who are we going to prank ?"

"It ‘ s not about pranking anyone Harry."Said Fred at the same meter as his brother said,

"Everyone."

"Apprehensive, intrigued and confused."

"Why don ‘ t you come up to our room Harry, we ‘ ll show you what we ‘ re talking about."Fred ushered him out of the room. Harry followed a little hesitantly.

Harry was hesitant because for a long clip he had felt like he was building up some variety of unluckiness debt. The last three months of his thirdly year at Hogwarts had passed without anyone trying to kill him ( unprecedented for Harry ) and he had even managed to pass all of his examination. In defense he had scraped a head on Lupin's obstacle course ( damn Hinkypunk led him into a swallow hole ! ) and almost managed to not blow his cauldron up in potions.

office of the reason was that Snape had stopped picking on Harry in class and had even started treating him as a pattern scholar. to a greater extent than that the potions master had seemed almost upbeat at sentence. Harry had put it down to him planning something evil until he noticed that Snape was at his most well-chosen the days after a diminished b owl brought him letters.

As for the other exam Harry had botched together some sort of pig-English translation for ancient runes and avoided getting more than superficial bite lesion in Hagrid's ‘ practical'test ( they had all been given a box and asked to feed what has in the box. Harry had never worked out what was in his box, he had just stuffed things in there until it stopped biting him. Whether he fed it or suffocated it he never found out. )

transfiguration he had blagged, history of magic too. Herbology had been amercement because he'd been partnered with Neville and he had passed of his own natural endowment in star divination and Charms.

Of course revising hadn't been the first thing he'd done. The maiden thing he'd done had been to write a long varsity letter to Pythea. He hadn't been ably to remark the torrent of path, but he hoped he had left enough trace that she would lie with how often he wanted to give thanks her. Of course the massive clump of flower might have also given her that hint.

He had even managed to have a vacation where there had been no unexplained magical occurrences, another first. Harry had hiked in Schweiz for some of the summertime, goose egg too serious but enough that he was very beaming of his size-and-weight-defying bag.

On one memorable occasion, miles from the approximate town, he had met some sometime American language tourists kitted up with huge operose hiking backpacks and duncical coats. He however had been carrying a small leather backpack while idly strumming a guitar. They had thought he was some sort of new-age solitary. Harry ( or Jack ‘ moon-ray'Baltzegaurd as he had introduced himself ) had played along and told them that he had been sent here by a vision ( a lie ), that the positive energy of the quite a little would cure them ( a lie ), that his guitar had been given to him by the Dalai Lama ( a lie ) and that the world power of the watch glass woven into his coat kept him warm ( a lie, the crystals kept the pelting off. The amulet kept him warm. ). Surprisingly before they parted ways the woman began claming her arthritis had miraculously cleared up.

Harry had ended up in Geneve after a few calendar week of this and spent most of the residue of the summer there, lazing around the city and finishing up the schoolwork he had had no chance to exploit at in the batch. Plus juggling and playing the guitar for hoi polloi around the metropolis. When he could operate out how to do both at the same prison term he knew he'd impress mass but for now he just ended up tangling his fingers.

He'd number back to England a few days early to jaw his champion and get his school day supplies. It was now the thirtieth of august and all the marauders were gathered at the burrow for a last get together before heading off to Hogwarts. Harry should have been happy, but instead he was apprehensive, wasn't he due some unpleasantness ? And weren't the nefarious Weasley twins the perfective tense ones to shell out it ? True the unpleasantness he got in to was usually Sir Thomas More of the ‘ oh god we're all gon na die'variety, but then so was the some of the stuff the Twins were into.

Harry followed Fred and George I into their box-stacked bedroom.

"Where's safe to sit ?"Harry form about, looking at the dissimilar boxes. It took the twins a surprisingly long time to find a ‘ secure'box. Fred and Saint George sat on the incline of one of their beds. Fred leant forward and said,

"We want to lecture to you, Harry, about an opportunity."

"A fab opportunity."

"We think its fabulous anyway."

"And we ‘ re usually right."

"Always right. And it is fabulous."

Harry glanced between one twin and the other.

"I feel like I ‘ m being sold something dodgy here guys."Harry folded his arms and one-half smiled."Possibly something that fell off the back of a van. What ‘ s this actually about ?"

The twins looked at each other then said at the same meter,

"Weasley Wizard Wheezes !"

"Actively Advocating Alliteration ?"

"It ‘ s a joke shop Harry."George sniggered and continued,"Or at least we want it to be."

"And we thought that perhaps-"

"-the resident charms-meister-"

"-would be able to facilitate us with some of the stuff."Fred shrugged."After all you did basically ramp up a broom last year-"

"-that out-flew a firebolt-"

"-with Ginny ‘ s help."

"Oh yes with Ginny ‘ s help."

Harry rearranged the disjointed sentences into some beat of order.

"So…"Harry began to smile as recognition hit him."You want me to help you design laugh ? Your kind of trick ? The intriguedness is growing. What have you come up with so far ?"

The similitude grinned and began a whirlwind tour of their flow products, stopping occasionally to evidence a magic spell or spell for Harry. Usually they were spells that produced burst or horrible shrieking noises.

"And this one Harry…"Fred raised his verge."Is called the avgo sapios !"

Harry knew enough Greek to cover his nose.
*


"So um… this is the pond."Ron said helplessly,"It ‘ s got duck in it sometimes."

"I see."Hermione was looking at him oddly. He knew he must be blushing as well as babbling like an idiot."That's… interesting. I guess."

"About as worry as history of magic."Ron muttered and Hermione laughed.

Oh smashing, now she was laughing at him too. Ron kicked a I. F. Stone into the algae filled pond, it rested on the thick green surface for a consequence before sinking.

Hermione had left Hogwarts almost completely burn out, taking too many subjects on top of the werewolf Chaos had reduced her to a shadow of herself. It had been especially bad during the test which she had to revise for and deal without the welfare of the time-turner. After the in conclusion one Harry and Ron had frog-marched her to McGonagall's office where she dropped divination and muggle studies.

Ron had seen her a span of time over summer, the vulture sticking together even in Harry's absence, and each time she seemed a little more lively and like her old self.

"Well that's pretty much everything around here, lets just get back to the house."Ron pointed back towards the burrow."I don ‘ t trust the twins left alone in there for this long."

"They're not alone,"Hermione began walking beside him, walking close enough to work all the hairs on his implements of war stand up."Harry ‘ s there too."

"That ‘ s even worse."Ron shook his head."Between them I doubt they ‘ ll be a theatre left."

"If you felt like that why did you want to show me around in the outset place ?"

Why indeed ?

"fountainhead it was a courteous day and Neville, Ginny and the twin went to Town and Harry's acting all weird and there ‘ s marshmallow coming out of the house."

"Ron…"Hermione shook her school principal in exasperation."If you wanted to exchange the subject area you could have-"

"No there ‘ s really marshmallow coming out of the mansion !"Ron pointed at the foresighted current of solid Andrew D. White froth leaking from one of the Windows and pooling on the ground."It ‘ s the Twins window. Oh god mum ‘ s gon na obliterate them."

The two marauders rushed to the side of the house.

"It ‘ s not exactly marshmallow."Hermione said, sounding puzzled, as the ran into the burrow. They stopped outside the twins doorway and Ron opened it hesitantly. On the early side was a square rampart of Theodore Harold White, even bearing the imprint of the shape or the door and its handle.

"Let me see…"Hermione broke off a little bit and touched it tentatively to her tongue."… meringue ? I think its meringue."

"What ‘ s the difference ?"

"Honestly Ron, you ‘ d think you would be at least as knowledgeable as me on the subject field of food."

"What ‘ s that supposed to mean ?"Ron shot back but was silenced as a tone down voice called out,

"Someone out there ?"

Ron gingerly pushed his hand into the ill-humored surface towards the noise.

"tone really weird."Ron grimaced as he buried his hand up to the shoulder."It's all crackly and dry."He felt something like material and pulled as hard as he could.

With a goliath cascade of split meringue a build emerged from the room. It fell on the floor cough and spluttering and spitting chunk of gummed white froth out of its mouth. Ron leant forward and guessed,

"Fr… St. George ?"

"Yep."George got unsteadily to his feet and looked back into his way."Oh, it didn ‘ t burst the room access.
We were worried it had."

"What happened ?"Hermione asked, absentmindedly brushing more meringue dirty dog off Georges back."Did one of your frivolity backfire ?"

"No no no. Our clowning don't backfire."Saint George said proudly."We were demonstrating the eizuckerpeitsche spell to Harry and… well it looks like he got it."

"Are Harry and Fred still stuck in there ?"Ron looked back at the fractured rampart of meringue in horror.

"Fred was near the middle so he ‘ s probably well stuck, Harry was near the window…"

At that present moment they all heard a short sidesplitter from outside, quickly cut off, then a thump followed by running footsteps. A moment later a meringue incrusted Harry burst up the stairs.

"You !"He pointed at George and advanced angrily."What the hell was that !"

"Not my break mate."George put his script up to fend of the infuriated marauder."You seem to have some sorting of knack for that spell is all."

"Harry how did you get out ?"Hermione asked.

"Managed to tunnel to the window."

"But you must have fallen-"

"Into a pile of meringue."Harry shrugged."It ‘ s built up quite a heap out there."He turned to the twins way."seed on, we ‘ d better start getting rid of all this stuff or your Twin ‘ s gon na run out of air."

"And florists' chrysanthemum coming back soon."George IV said in repulsion."She ‘ ll have a fit !"

Harry grinned as Ron went blanch and began attacking the meringue wall.
*


Harry ducked into the caravan carriage and looked around quickly,

"Still no peril ?"He said wryly."Whatever the karma gods are working up to it ‘ s not gon na be pretty."The vulture moved in after him. They were looking at each other a little oddly.

"Harry…"Hermione began.

"What ?"Harry checked under his seat cushion before sitting down.

"Don ‘ t you think you ‘ re acting kind of… looney ?"

"No."Harry crossed his legs and sat, Indian-style, with his weaponry crossed."Really, really no !"Harry shook his chief, it was amazing how quickly the paranoia he'd developed in the years before he'd ejaculate to Hogwarts had returned. Street living was not conducive to trust.

"It ‘ s not dotty. mortal will try to kill me this year. I just know it."

"Harry you ‘ re the boy who lived."Parvati shook her head."No one going to vote down you."

"I wouldn ‘ t say that."A phonation sounded from the give door."I wouldn ‘ t say that at all."

The vulture turned in unison.

"Oh buzz off Malfoy."Padma chuckled."If you were going to kill him you would stimulate done it ages ago."

"I will get you this year Potter."Malfoy was uncharacteristically alone. His usual bunch of stooge absent."I promise, by the Malfoy name, that I will get you this twelvemonth. I will make you pay for everything."

"The Malfoy name represents a bequest of lies."Harry laughed and shrugged."Get out of my train car."

"Well this class Potter."Malfoy licked his lips, his grey eyes shiny evilly."I will show everyone at Hogwarts that I represent everything effective about magic profligate and that you are everything… everything worthless and mediocre. This year I will show everyone. This year potter, this twelvemonth I win."

"commodity lot with that."Harry shrugged dismissively."Now move, you ‘ re blocking the trolley."

Malfoy just smiled and walked away.
*


"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts school of witchery and wizardry."

Harry sniffed the water in his glass. Poison ? No… Maybe something in the food for thought ?

"I hope you have all enjoyed your fracture from the sketch we give you."

Maybe he was just paranoid ? Harry glanced around at the other students. Maybe he actually did let a chance to let a normal year.

"Firstly I would like to introduce Alastor Dwight Lyman Moody as our new defense against the darkness teacher."

Harry glanced up at the table and picked out the new fount. Or, more accurately, what was left of the new face. Their last defense mechanism teacher had been a wolfman, this one looked like he had been savaged by one. He had also obviously lost an eye at some power point and had it replaced with a magical one. Harry wondered why he hadn't chosen one in his raw color. He had seen wholly shops full of eyes in Hollands. They made lots of them there, like watches.

The man apparently known as Moody met his gaze with number 1 one then the other eye. Harry smiled and toasted the new teacher with his glass. Anyone was adept than prof Lupin. Harry had tried to restore bridgework with the lycanthrope during his last few workweek at school. He really had tried…

"Professor… Um…"Harry leant in through the doorway to professor lupine's spot."Are you, you know, all set."Professor Lupin looked up at him, flatly."You know for tonight, full moonlight ?"

"Yes."prof lupine seemed to be struggling to celebrate his voice directly and unemotional.

"I heard that Professor Snape makes some sort of…"

"I said yes."lupine snapped. Seeing Harry's startled expression he took a deep breather and shook his head."My apologies. Yes Severus makes a potion for me that allows me to better manage the transformations. Thank you for your kindness."

"You ‘ re welcome Professor Moony."Lupin's read/write head snapped up."You know, moony, like synodic month. Because of the unharmed boggart affair and…"

"Leave now."Usually the werewolf side of lupin was not really evident. This was not so now."leave of absence my office now."

"Did you eat a mad cow or something ?"Harry yelled in exasperation.

"Get out !"

Harry had backed out of the office shaking his fountainhead and never spoken directly to Professor Lupin again. Even unfit the man had stared daggers at him during their net few lessons. Even a scarred, one-eyed man was skilful than that. Besides, Harry wasn't really in a position to kvetch about other the great unwashed scars.

Professor Dumbledore continued,

"professor Moody is a former auror so I am sure he has much to teach you."Harry's capitulum perked up, this was interesting. Unfortunately Dumbledore had finished speaking on this specific case."I do have a second declaration to take. Something that I think you will all enjoy."

The whole school perked up.

"Slitherin house is infested with cockroaches ?"

"Potions has been dropped from the syllabus ?"

"Filch had an aneurism ?"

"No."The turning point of Professor Dumbledore's mouth twitched up in a half smile."Better than all those things."

"Not possible."Harry called out.

"Very possible Mr thrower. I am talking about the Triwizard Tournament."The Marguerite Radclyffe Hall fell utter silent.

"Competing or hosting ?"Someone on the Ravenclaw tabular array said at only just above a whisper.

"Hosting Mr W. W. Jacobs, Hosting."

The entrance hall exploded in sound.
*


"We are entering that tournament."

"Harry, Dumbledore said-"

"We. Are. Entering. That. Tournament."Harry was twitching with nervous energy."We are entering and one of us is winning."

"We ‘ re not even eligible."Hermione complained."We can ‘ t enter."

"We have not let werewolves and gargantuan snakes and dark wizards cease us a bloody age restriction is not going to suffer in our way."Harry sat down at the marauders table and crossed his limb."We deserve this. We deserve this because we are the just in this shoal and no one has worked harder to-"

"Subvert its convention ?"

"- protect it. Than we have. So we are going to embark and we are going to win !"

The vulture around the table fell silent.

"Do you think this was what Malfoy was talking about ?"Neville said suddenly."He said he was gon na show everyone how expert he was."

"The doubtfulness will not rebel because he will not be Hogwarts champion."Harry said decisively."He will not be Hogwarts champion because he is a git. He is a git because of undeniable genic and sociological divisor that have conspired to pull in him a git. So…"Harry steepled his fingers and grinned."As soon as this evaluator gets here, we're entering the tournament."
*


"Now…"Professor Moody scanned the socio-economic class slowly with his rule eye while the phony one spun and rested on unlike students before moving on."I don ‘ t stand much on ceremony so allow jump right in."

Harry felt the eye solid ground on him for a moment before moving on.

"So… Lets start on curses. I ‘ ve had a letter from Professor lupin, also one from Professor Michelson and it looks like you ‘ re fairly well up on dark brute and the fundamentals of dueling."

"More than basics."Harry mumbled under his breath.

"But what you haven ‘ t learn yet is the worst of what wizards can do to each other."Moody shook his head."You ‘ re all living in a dream populace if you think you ‘ re ever safe. close Night at the feast I only saw one student delay the food for poison before eating it."Moody pointed with his knotted hand.

All heart ( real and unsubstantial ) fell on Harry.

"I… um… what ?"

"Don't be ashamed of it ! Be proud ! By the end of the twelvemonth I expect each and every one of you to exercise Constant Vigilance !"He ended the prison term shouting. Harry found himself staring directly into Dwight Lyman Moody's contrived eye. He felt like he was a bug under a shiny blue microscope. The eye scanned down to his chest."tone like you ‘ ve been given reason to be vigilante."

Before Harry had a chance to respond Moody had moved on and stomped up to the board.

"The nighttime arts !"Moody wrote like he was carving in Stone and the chalk broke off during the s of arts."Who can tell me a torment ? A really bad one."A few of the class put their hands up. Helen Wills pointed at one.

"Yes Mr… Crabbe is it ?"He growled."familiar spirit name. Familiar face too, I knew your father. fountainhead, knew isn ‘ t quite the correct word. What ‘ s yer curse ?"

"The um…"Crabbe looked like he was regretting volunteering. He seemed to run himself back up and smirk evilly at Harry."The pain spear."

"Odd that you should know that one."Professor Moody ‘ s eye narrowed."No one uses that one any more. Not since the Cruciatus was invented. But no, right you are for bringing it up. You never know when the opposition ‘ s going to storm you with something you haven't seen in a patch. Constant watchfulness !"

Moody went on to excuse at length the properties of the pain fizgig spell. Crabbe looked disgruntled, obviously he had wanted Dwight Lyman Moody to ask him how he knew about the spell.

Harry looked down at his book and found the pageboy on the annoyance spear. It was unclutter that the author had only included it as an second thought, Moody already had more on the circuit board than was in the Word of God. Padma leant over her desk to speak into his ear,

"Better than Lupin you think ?"

"Much better."Harry agreed."He ‘ s only cracked on the outside."

"You sure ?"Padma glanced up skeptically as Helen Wills barked out Constant Vigilance again."He seems pretty thoroughly cracked to me."
*


The partially vs. thoroughly cracked debate continued into the coming weeks as the students got used to Helen Newington Wills's belligerent educational activity style. One matter was for sure, there was not make out lost between Dwight Lyman Moody and Snape. Helen Newington Wills glared at Snape suspiciously every time they passed in the corridors and Snape, for his part, sneered. But all that was drown out by the rumors and whispers running around about the triwizard tournament.

The day the extraneous pupil were scheduled to get in dawned bright and poise with a mizzle of rain covering the castle.

"It couldn ‘ t be sunny."Harry heard McGonagall say under her breather."Just for today."

Harry grinned and scuffed his feet. If the entire school had been called out to greet these foreign students they could at least have the decency to be on metre. Harry checked the clock, alright so they weren't scheduled to get in for another five minutes but Harry had been waiting for ten so therefore ( in his mind ) they were late.

"expression !"Someone was pointing out over the lake. Harry's jaw dropped as he saw a ship emanation out a whirlpool in the center of the lake.

"Did they come all the way from Durmstrum in that ?"Harry heard someone behind him say and gave an involuntary shudder. Underwater for all that time ? Even with charming protection it made his peel crawl.

As the ship crawled up to the side of the lake Harry saw the man standing at the wheel bit and maneuver up into the sky behind the castling. Harry turned just in time to see a hulk passenger car round the corner of the castle, drawn by goliath snowy horses.

"Great."view Harry."The contest starts with piddle and flying, two things I really suck at."

He glanced over at the teachers and saw them talking frantically. Apparently they hadn't planned for both commission arriving at the same time. After some mildly raised interpreter Dumbledore headed down towards the lake while McGonagall headed towards where the rig was landing. Harry considered the options and elbowed his way through the bunch in the direction Dumbledore went.

"Igor Karkaroff,"Dumbledore held his hand out to recognize the heavily robed wizard stepping out of the gravy holder."A pleasance to have you back in the country."

"Albus, it is good to be here."The man pushed back his hood revealing ash grey Grey hair and dense brows. He smiled in a way that never touched his dark eyes. He spoke in a heavy prospering way that Harry was sure was at to the lowest degree partly put on."Hogwarts is ah…"He glanced up at the grey sky."… just as I remember it."

Harry chuckled and the Durmstrang schoolmaster glanced at him in the crowd.

"Ah, and this would be your star pupil."Harry saw the crowd part in battlefront of him."The far-famed Harry Potter."

"No no no…"Harry waved his hired hand grinning."The name's jack ‘ Moonbeam'Baltzegaurd."

"Ah, ha ha."Igor ‘ s laugh held no warmth whatsoever."We are many celebrities here I see…"

"Wha ?"

"Let me introduce you to someone."Karkaroff motioned a frowning boy standing behind him forward."This is Viktor Krum."Harry heard gasps from behind him as he shook Viktor's hand.

"Pleasure."Harry smiled at the young thaumaturge."Are you Durmstrurn ‘ s head boy or something ?"Again the gasps.

"You don't know who I am ?"Viktor Krum asked in heavily accented English.

"Um… Should I ?"

Karkaroff snorted but Krum seemed to find this turn of events quite amusing. He was smiling at any charge per unit. Harry couldn't tell what was going on behind those monster black eyebrows.

"Well,"Dumbledore said, breaking the stalemate."I can already see the Beauxbatons relegating is already inside, shall we join them ?"
*


"Harry, that was Viktor Krum !"

"You know Ron, I did work that out. And even if I hadn't the six million times you ‘ ve told me would have tipped me off. Now can we please center ?"Harry turned to the chalice standing in the center of the dorm. He glanced over at Hermione."Anything ?"

"I ‘ m telling you Harry we ‘ re not getting past the age line."She looked up from the record book on her knee joint and shook her head."At least not with anything I can think of now."

Harry shook his head, there were onus of mass crowding into the entrance hall so it wasn't like they could do anything right now. If they were going to do anything it would suffer to be at this night, but he had hoped to at to the lowest degree have a plan before the rook went to sleep.

"An age potion do you recollect ?"Fred said behind him.

"I think Dumbledore would birth thought of that."Hermione shook her headway."I don't think any potion any one-fourth yr or sixth year could make could get past the line."

"What if we just get one of the older students to put it in for us ?"Neville hazarded.

"Nope."George said as he and his brother sidled up to them."Saw some Slitherin try that almost as soon as the goblet was out. The early name calling just flew out of his pocket as soon as he crossed the line."

"Yep,"Fred shook his head in mock understanding."poor people chap didn ‘ t even get to put his own gens since he tripped over his own byssus and ended up out cold."

"Wait…"Padma looked thoughtful."What if we get someone to cross the melodic line then write our names on some-"

"Saw that too."Fred broke in.

"Yeah,"His twin continued."You don ‘ t even want to know what happened to him !"

"Oh for Christ sake !"Harry growled in temper."Is there at least a way to test the line of products ?"

"Yeah, run into it."Ron suggested.

"No you idiot."Padma shook her head."Just spitball it."

"Excuse me ? You what ?"Harry's supercilium raised like balloons.

"Like this…"Harry watched, gob-smacked, as Padma took a surplus trash of parchment out of her bag and engorge it into her lip. She chewed for a few endorsement then daintily took the sodden mess out from between her lips and, without hesitation, tossed it at the goblet of fire. As the ball crossed the line of descent there was a wink of light and the globe shot out like a heater, impacting on the wall behind them.

"Brilliant."Said the Weasley twins in one voice.

"We should do it again-"

"With more balls."

"With liberal orb !"

"With firework in them !"

"youngster, children…"Harry said in a tranquillise voice."Lets not get sidetracked."

"It's almost curfew anyway."Parvarti looked down at her ticker then smiled."Don't worry, it'll all be alright on the Nox !"

"Sister…"Padma shook her head word as she picked up her bag."This is the freakin'dark !"

Harry chuckled as they left the mansion then turned as he felt a hand drop on his berm. The proprietor of the hand was a boy a little onetime than him with blonde hair and a sort of round face. He was in Ravenclaw colors and was wearing a baseball game cap that read ‘ Tutshill Tornadoes'and had a crack cocaine as the logo.

"Yeah ?"Harry cocked his question."Can I help you ?"

"Um,"The boy bit his lip and looked around."Could I talk to you ?"

"Very cloak and sticker but ok."Harry waved the marauders off and moved into a slope corridor."Who are you ?"

"David Mason."The boy smiled shyly."Don ‘ t concern if you don ‘ t remember me. I ‘ m a friend of Cho ‘ s."

"Oh ok. back the Saami squad too I see."Harry leant nonchalantly against the gem wall."To what do I owe the pleasure ?"

"well basically…"The boy scuffed a infantry on the floor nervously."Me and… and some of the other hombre. Not just Ravenclaw but the totally schoolhouse well… we figure you ‘ ve got a plan."

"For what ?"

"For the goblet of fire."David rubbed his manus together almost hungrily."wad of us don't think the age terminal point ‘ s middling so we figure…"He reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick envelope."A couplet of excess names. Just if you get the hazard you know ?"

"Hate to break it to you mate."Harry shrugged apologetically."But I don't have the slightest clue how to get through the age line."

"Really ? But you ‘ re Harry Potter ! You always… Oh, I get it."David winked and pushed the envelope into his bridge player."Of course you don't."The Ravenclaw winked again and trotted off down the corridor.

"I really don't !"Harry called after him but that only caused the boy to turn and wink conspiratorially again."Seriously !"

"trouble Mr thrower ?"

Harry spun and looked up into the face of the judge that had been sitting with Dumbledore at the fete. What was his name… couch ?

"Mr Couch ?"

"Crouch."The man's heavily lined face was utterly humorless.

"Mr Crouch, sorry. And no there ‘ s no problem."

"Not thinking of trying to get past the age line of business are you lad ?"He said in what he must of thought was a fatherly manner.

"No sir."Harry did his serious Joseph Oliver Twist picture."I wouldn ‘ t do such a horrible thing."

"Ah, of course."The Triwizard judge nodded."Of form I ‘ m sure Sir Thomas More people would issue forth to the tournament if the famous Harry ceramicist was competing. But we must commemorate that we can not pick and choose the rules we wish to obey based on momentary expedience. You understand Mr Potter ?"

"Yes sir."Harry felt it was better to stand by with simple answers.

"Very well."Mr Crouch's mouth twitched into a thin grinning."It was nice meeting you Mr Potter."

Harry didn't relax until the man was a condom few corridors away. Harry sighed and slipped the gasbag out of his sleeve. What were the statistics for teenage heart onset ? Harry wondered. Whatever they were they had just come very close to getting one digit larger.

Harry leant against the wall and stared out of one of the castles arched windowpane at the lake below, remembering last year. Why was it that he was forever trapped inside or outside hospital ward ? end year he had circumvented them by swimming around, couldn't do that this time. The werewolf had tunneled under could he do that ? Not without attracting a lot of attention. So that left…

Harry grinned and rushed back to the entry hall where a single spit ball showed him how to beat the capital wizard in the world.
*


"All set Ginsters ?"Harry slid behind Ginny on the chimaera and checked that he had both the envelope containing the vulture figure and the one given to him by David Mason in his pocket.

"Yes, you don ‘ t have to come with me you know."Ginny looked back at him, grinning in the swoon moonlight.

"You can ‘ t fly and gain spitballs at the same time."Was the excuse Harry offered. Really he just wanted to be the one to put the name into the goblet, wanted to have a go at it first hand that he'd beat Dumbledore. Harry glanced around and saw a vulture guarding every door."Everybody ‘ s in position, come on."

Ginny obediently lifted them off the floor and hovered them up near the ceiling.

"bit of truth."Harry got out some lambskin and rolled it expertly before gumming it, silencing it and throwing it forwards. It landed in the middle of the age descent, right beside the goblet. Harry pumped the air with his clenched fist."Potter 1, Dumbledore 0. Proving that I am unmitigated awesome ! Lets go !"

Ginny bit back a chuckle and carefully floated them forward until they were directly over the goblet, then took them slowly down.

"Ok, stop here. Let's not touch the base, never know what former spells the old man ‘ s put around the place."Harry reached into his air hole and drew out the predator envelope then dropped it into the goblet. The fire spurted up for a second, then died down.

Harry hesitantly pulled the former envelope out of his sac. Should he ? Should he not ? It was only reasonable to throw everybody a decent chance and Mason seemed like a nice enough bloke ( if a bit weird ). He probably wouldn ‘ t be chosen anyway. Ah well, what the the pits ? Harry dropped the other envelope into the flames.
*


The marauders entered the great hall in a huddle, all eyes focused directly on the goblet.

"I ‘ m nervous."Neville admitted as they sat down at the Gryffindor mesa."I don't know if I want to enter anymore."

"Bit deep now."Padma said dryly, but the brass were obvious in her part too and the marauder quickly fell into silence.

"Whichever one of us it is the ease of us are behind them."Harry smiled at his ally."That's for certain."

"But what if it ‘ s not one of us ?"George asked.

"Not… one… of us ?"Harry's brow wrinkled in confusion."Quit your dotty talk George. That could never happen."

"Children, children…"The entrance hall fell soundless as Dumbledore began to talk."I believe the bit you have all been waiting for has finally arrived. The goblet will be announcing it's choices momentarily. I would ask you to remember that, even if you were not chosen, the Tournament is still a contest between the school. I expect to see no surd feelings, you must support your champions one hundred pct. Now…"Dumbledore turned towards the goblet.

The hall waited in silence for almost a minute before the goblet ‘ s flaming turned burnished red and a little fleck of parchment flew out. Dumbledore caught it expertly.

"The Beauxbatons champion is… Fleur Delacour !"

Harry saw one of the Gallic female child clap her hands to her face in shock before getting up and walking towards the end of the hall.

"She ‘ s… she ‘ s…"Ron sighed inaudibly.

"What is it Ron ?"Harry asked.

"She ‘ s… just… I mean… Perfect…"Harry just shrugged. Ron looked aghast.."Harry can ‘ t you see her ?"

Harry tuned to watch the get-go champion leaving the hall.

"Yeah ? What about her ?"

Ron opened his backtalk to retort but the goblet flared red again and the residence fell silent.

"The Durmstrang adept will be Viktor Krum !"

The red uniform pupil rose, cheering, as their champion walked towards the front of the hall. nearly of the Hogwarts scholar did too.

Harry was biting his nails, this next one was it. The goblet turned red again and a piece of parchment pin-wheeled out to be caught in Dumbledore's mitt. As the Headmaster read it the smile dropped from his grimace and his manus began to didder. In a cold, granitic vox he said,

"The Hogwarts champion…"He seemed to grit his teeth."Is Draco Malfoy."

The residence erupted in tumultuousness. Harry turned, his centre seeking out the blonde haired Slitherin. Draco seemed unflurried by the reception his gens had received but instead stood calmly and walked towards the front of the manse. Before he left the dormitory however he turned and scanned down the Gryffindor tabular array with those cold grey eyes. He met Harry's gaze, grinned evilly and winked.


Note for francophone the great unwashed :

I have never liked how Gallic dialect are represented in account book, you know the `` 'Ogwarts can not 'ave two champions. '' thing. Replacing this with 'zis and stuff like that. I imagine it 's sort of insulting.

I know I cringe every time I hear a 'mockney'side accent on tv, I imagine it 's kind of the Saame thing.

I decided to keep it in this story anyway purely because chalice of Fire represents accents that way. I 'm trying to take this report variety of parallel the cannon books in certain ways inluding aspect of the writing style.

If you 're offended I 'm sorry.



"Son of a bitch."Harry breathed through his teeth. He felt like his chest was going to irrupt, he had to let the force per unit area out somehow."SON OF A BITCH !"

"Mr ceramicist !"Harry's eyes flicked back to Dumbledore, who was looking at him angrily."Contain yourself !"

"But he is !"Harry yelled, words leaking out of him uncontrollably."seaport ‘ t you met his mother ?"The Charles Francis Hall erupted in laughter. Malfoy scowled but kept on walking, leaving the swell entrance hall by the same door the other hero had left by.

Dumbledore held up his hands for silence.

"Obviously this is shocking and unprecedented."He said in an effortlessly even articulation."I remind you all that I expect you to extract behind your champion…"Dumbledore stopped as the students began yelling again."… or at least not openly oppose him. Now, if you will excuse me…"

Dumbledore left the still startled students and walked out through the back doorway of the Hall, Karkarov and lady Maxim followed him. For a few more minute everyone was unsounded then McGonagall stood.

"If you would all retrovert to you-"But she was cut off as someone yelled,

"professor !"

The schooling turned in metre to see the goblet burn red again. A flake of paper flew out of it and landed on the stone floor. For a moment no one moved to partake it then Professor Snape, his expression unreadable, got up from his chairperson. His footstep were the only sound in the hall as he walked round the gamy board and came to a stop consonant in social movement of the piddling scrap of newspaper publisher. He turned it over with the tip of his shoe.

"Harry Potter."He was staring down at the sail, his case a blank mask."It says Harry Potter."

After a mo somebody started clapping, then someone else, then some more, the keen Charles Francis Hall exploded with applause.

"Knew it ‘ d be you Harry."Harry heard someone say as a hand slapped him on the dorsum. crew pressure moved him towards the strawman of the hall, his own brain seemed to have stopped working. He saw Snape pick up the fight of paper, then have a short, whispered, conversation with McGonagall. The potions master turned to him.

"Come along Potter."

"Wha… ?"Harry mind was still reeling.

"We must take you to link up the early champions."Snape led him out of the disruptive hall and into a short hall. The interference from the clapping faded as the door closed behind them. Snape made no move to leave by the other door.

"Did you put your gens into the chalice of fire ?"Snape asked urgently.

"Wha… ?"Harry glanced around, they were alone. The early champions must be through the early door."Why are you-"

"Potter, try to grate together some acumen ! Did you put your public figure into the goblet ?"

Snape seemed almost concerned.

"You seem almost concerned."Harry grinned, his brain getting back in appurtenance."Have those little barn owls been bringing you drugs or something ?"Snape flinched back as if stung.

"tinker's dam it Potter !"Snape grabbed Harry's gown."This is not a time for laugh. More is going on here than you realize. Did you or did you not-"

"Yes."Harry nodded,"I put my name in."

The potions master narrowed his eyes, Harry felt the familiar pressing in his mastermind. He opened his judgment long enough to reveal the memory of him putting the envelope into the flame then blanked it again. Snape nodded thoughtfully.

"Good."

"Good ?"Harry asked quizzically.

"thrower the possibleness if someone else put your name into the chalice are far worse than if you put it in yourself. This simplifies things, believe me…"Snape glanced at the scrap of report he was holding and frowned."… or perhaps not."

"What is it ?"

"Suffice to say I have spent long enough trawling through what you seem to think constitute essays to recognize your handwriting."Snape held out the parchment for him to see."This is not your handwriting."

"No…"Harry felt a sinking tactual sensation in his stomach."No it ‘ s not. What the Hades is going on ?"He asked plaintively.

"If I knew that Potter."Snape moved towards the threshold."I would not have to ask questions."

Harry gulped and followed the potions master through the threshold. On the early side was another room with portrait hung all around the wall. The protagonist and their headmaster were standing in the nerve centre of the room, apparently arguing. gentlewoman Maxim was pointing at Malfoy with one of her unusually farsighted fingers. They all fell tacit as Harry and his teacher entered the room.

"Severus what is this ?"Dumbledore asked pointedly.

"This is the fourth champion."Snape glanced down at Harry."Apparently."

"What is ‘ zis."madam Maxim waved her hand at Harry."Some kind of trick to you here at ‘ ogwarts ? First your champion iz a minor, now ‘ zis ?"

"I do not think it is a joke."Karkarov said angrily."This so called champion."

"He is a friend. Despite what some of us might wish."Snape interrupted dryly. Harry couldn't help but opine how different he seemed from a bit ago."The entire of Hogwarts saw his name leave the chalice, as did the delegacy from your own schools. He is as legitimate a whiz as-"

"As Mr Draco."Madam Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim scoffed."Your early nonaged champion."

"If I may…"Harry glanced at the man of to one side who had begun to mouth. He hadn ‘ t even realized Mr Crouch was in the room."The linguistic rule are very clear. If a persons gens leaves the goblet of fire, then that person is a champion. There can be no denying that."

"Harry…"Dumbledore spoke for the first fourth dimension."Did you put your name into the chalice of fervour ?"

"I…"Harry felt Snape's hand tap him in the humble of the rear."… No."He heard the potions master breath out lightly."No I didn ‘ t. I tried but… I couldn ‘ t get past the ward."

"And you Draco ?"Snape asked Malfoy.

"Honestly sir…"Malfoy smirked."I have no idea how my figure got in there."

Yes you do you slimy little… Harry's fists clenched involuntarily.

"Well I believe that settles it."Dumbledore clapped his hands together."rest period assured this matter will be investigated but until then… we have four champions."

Harry shook his psyche. Why did he get the belief that the worst was yet to come ?
*


As they left the room Harry fell into step with Malfoy. Neither spoke until they were out of earshot of the teachers. Harry took a breath to calm himself then said,

"I assume that no one named David Mason really goes to Hogwarts ?"Malfoy turned to him and sneered.

"commodity wasn ‘ t it."Malfoys vocalisation took on a simpering feel."Oh Harry, it wouldn ‘ t be fair if everyone didn ‘ t have a chance."

"Bastard."

"I planned it all out. The hat, the personality, even down to the figure. David James Neville Mason, sounds common doesn't it. Sounds muggleborn."Malfoy grinned triumphantly."And you fell for it."

"I repeat. Bastard."

"A cocksucker who won. I said I was going to get you didn ‘ t I ? The looking on your face when I was chosen…"

"knack on…"Harry stopped suddenly."Why were you chosen ? Don ‘ t say me the chalice actually picked you legit ? You wouldn ‘ t leave it up to chance."

"Very good Potter, you ‘ re not quite as stupefied as you look."Malfoy smiled."Ever heard of a malignant protean magical spell ? No of course-"

"A magical spell that aggressively seeks out things that look a bit like it…"Harry interrupted."And makes them look exactly like it. Oh you little…."intellect dawned in Harry's optic."The names ! You cast it on the names !"

"Exactly !"Malfoy nodded."My gens went in with the charm on it and changed all the former faux pas so that they read Draco Malfoy. I didn ‘ t leave it to chance, I was the solitary candidate."

"whoreson is too good a word for you, I ‘ m going with rat-bastard."

"The hard bit was making sure it only changed the Hogwarts names."Malfoy was still in full exposition-mode."I mean it would ‘ ve looked a bit odd if I had been picked for Beauxbatons."

"Rat-bastard-wanker."

"Which is why I can ‘ t understand,"Malfoy turned to Harry, his eyes narrowing."How you were picked. My while should give birth gotten you…"

Harry said nothing, fairly for sure that the protean had eaten up the scrap of parchment that had had his name on it and that the one that had eventually come out had been put in by someone else.

"You must suffer found some way to enter as another school."Malfoy said thoughtfully."Tricked the goblet into entering your name for a 4th school."

Mental government note : suggest that possibility to someone. Dumbledore ? No, too busybodied. McGonagall ? She would go straight to Dumbledore. Dwight Lyman Moody ? He'd blow it way out of proportion. Snape ? … ?

"Just remember Potter,"Malfoy brought him back to the moment."I know who the rattling Hogwarts protagonist is and I ‘ m going to prove it to everyone."

"You think you ‘ re gon na win ?"Harry laughed."Hands up everyone who ‘ s contend basilisks and werewolves… What ? Just me ?"

"I will suppress you."Malfoy took off again in the direction of the Slytherin dungeon."Mark my words Potter."

"Marked."Harry rolled his eyes."Marked, signed and sealed in the bullshit box along with Nostradamus and UFOs."

Harry turned and hurried up towards the Gryffindor common room. The rook was empty but the portraits were whispering to each early as he climbed through towards the seventh floor. He stopped in one deserted corridor and quietly called,

"Myrtle…"He waited a few moments, then the glowing young lady slid through the floor.

"Hmm ?"She cocked her read/write head quizzically, then giggled."I heard a rumor about you. Something about being protagonist ?"

Harry grinned and winked, Myrtle giggled again.

"Knew it would have to be you Harry."

"marauder don't lose."Harry said cockily."As you well know."

"Because I am a marauder."Myrtle said, proudly puffing up her smoky form, Harry nodded.

"I wanted to ask you something."Myrtle became serious as Harry spoke."Did you see anyone else go near the goblet finish nighttime, maybe before the relief of us got there or after we left ?"

"Nope."Myrtle shook her head."Didn ‘ t see anyone."She put queer emphasis on the tidings ‘ see ’.

"Myrtle ? Keeping mystery isn ‘ t nice."Harry tutted playfully.

"I didn ‘ t see anyone."The specter repeated, smiling slyly."But one meter the door opened by itself, a moment later the goblet flared up like individual put something in it. Then the doorway closed."

"invisibleness cloak."Harry guessed, nodding."Did you try to get a look-see ?"

"Of course."Vinca minor looked offended."I followed them but I couldn't get airless. I wasn ‘ t seen."She added proudly.

"I know you weren't."Harry nodded, Myrtle looked a trivial happier."Can you ask around the portrait ? See if anyone saw anyone sneaking around ?"

"Of course of instruction Harry !"Vinca minor beamed at being given a job and stroke away through the bulwark. Harry chuckled, it was amazing how having friends changed a individual, or a ghost.

Harry walked around the corner and stood in front of the fat lady. The cleaning lady in the portrait crossed her subdivision and said,

"I ‘ m waiting."

"I ‘ m not."Harry spelled an unlocking charm and the portrait creaked to the side.

"I wish you wouldn ‘ t do that Mr Potter."The fat noblewoman shook her head.

"It ‘ s easier than remembering the passwords."Harry grinned as he stepped through the portrait hole. As soon as he was through he was viciously attacked."Get off me ! Geroff !"

"We knew it ‘ d be you Harry !"

Harry pushed away the massed host of Gryffindor family, smiled and bowed when they cheered for him, looked up in mild shock at the post-horse of him they had hung above the fireplace and sought out the marauders.

"We need to talk."Harry said before anyone could open their mouths."Too many ears here, up to the bedroom."Harry's friends wordlessly followed him up to the boys sleeping accommodation and he hastily sketched out everything that had happened. After he had finished the beginning thing Ron said was,

"Malfoy ‘ s gon na pay."

"I ‘ m a bit more apprehensive about this invisible man."Padma said, shaking her head."Invisibility cloaks are rare."

"Maybe someone just really precious Harry to win."Her sister suggested.

"Then why bother wearing the cloak."Hermione pointed out."mass who hide what they ‘ re doing are usually up to something."

"Malfoy ‘ s gon na pay !"Ron repeated, apparently ignoring the conversation around him.

"Why the underworld would someone require me in the rivalry ?"Harry wondered out loud."Want it adequate to go to these lengths ?"

"Maybe person wants to hold Hogwarts a better chance."Fred said evenly, his brother added…

"Or Gryffindor."George grinned."If they ‘ ll keep helping we should put some money on you."

"More likely person hopes they can use the tournament to off me without anyone suspecting anything."Harry shrugged."That would be more my luck."

"Harry, stop being paranoiac !"Hermione admonished him."You ‘ re beginning to sound like Professor Moody."

"Professor Moody is the most sensible somebody that ‘ s ever taught us."Harry said, to general shock."It ‘ s not paranoia if they really are out to get you !"

"Harry mortal made you a champion !"Pavarti said in exasperation."It ‘ s a effective thing, this mortal is trying to help you !"

"Malfoy is going to-"

"Oh pay attention Ron !"Hermione snapped."Try to keep up."

"caboodle of money…"George I continued.

"No one ‘ s helping him."Padma said to her sister.

"Malfoy is going-"

"They could be-"

"Money-"

"sufficiency !"Harry cut through the tiff piranha."We know goose egg. Not enough to actually act upon anything out at any rate. discourse at this item is useless…"Harry trailed off as Myrtle rose through the floorboards.

"domestic hassle ?"The ghost giggled.

"You find something myrtle ?"Harry asked quickly."Did one of the portraiture see someone funny ?"

"Yes."She pointed at Harry."You. And you and you and you…"She pointed at Padma, Ginny and Ron."… and you and you and you -"

"Ok, we get the point."Harry held his deal up. He shook his head word ruefully."Thanks for trying."

"But…"Myrtle did a little loop topology in the air and winked."The old lady near the kitchens said that Helen Newington Wills ‘ s got a cloak."

"What ?"Harry jerked, startled, like the rest of the marauders."An invisibility cloak ? Seriously ?"

"Mm Hm !"Myrtle hummed happily, obviously proud of gaining this tidbit of information."And they ‘ re not that common."

"No."Hermione murmured,"They ‘ re really rare."

"‘ The most sensible person that ‘ s ever taught us'Harry ?"Ginny grinned."Anything you have to say ?"

"Marauders never lose."Harry said chuckling."They are however, on occasion, dead wrong."
*


When Harry opened his eyes the next first light he groaned and rolled back over. He knew exactly what this day would bring.

"It ‘ s him !"

"It ‘ s Harry !"

"The champion !"

"Yeah yeah yeah, and no I will not return a bloody John Hancock !"Harry fended off a bunch of Gryffindors."Y ‘ d think they had never met me before."

"That's part of it Harry."Hermione said sagely.

"They haven't met me ?"Harry said quizzically, eyeing a camera-wielding Colin Creevy."I ‘ m certain I ‘ ve met him."

"But Harry you ‘ re very good at making people forget you ‘ re Harry Potter."The two of them moved out of the common way on the way to ancient rune."What I'm saying is that they just got reminded."

"Forgetting I ‘ m Harry Potter ?"

"You know…"Hermione waved vaguely."Juggling, joking, making everyone look at ease, people forget you ‘ re a famous person. It ‘ s not deliberate…"

Harry winced, it was often entirely deliberate.

"But that ‘ s not to make people forget."Harry ducked behind a suit of armor as a grouping of students passed by, then continued,"That's just… you know… breaking the ice."

"Like with Ginny ?"Hermione grinned slyly.

"Like with Ginny."Harry nodded, unfazed."Ron told you about that ?"

"Yes."

"On one of your piddling walks ?"

"Yes."Hermione's centre narrowed.

"On one of your romantic base on balls ?"

"Harry !"

"What ?"Harry grinned as Hermione shoved him irritably."Weren ‘ t they romantic ?"

"We discussed ducks."Hermione said flatly, not meeting Harry's eyes."And ponds."

"Ze art of seduction."Harry affected a Gallic idiom."It is truly dead."
*


After runes the two of them met up with the other piranha down in the potions classroom.

Harry had already decided that he'd let Snape in on what they'd found out and was torn between apprehensiveness and curiosity. Snape had obviously turned some kind of new leaf but they had never pressed to see how far that change went. To spiel it prophylactic he actually tried during the potions lesson. He still failed but at least zippo exploded this fourth dimension. After division he lingered by his desk, putting away his stuff very slowly.

"Something you want ceramicist ?"Snape looked up from his desk.

"Um…"Harry waited a tick for the last student to bequeath then said."I ‘ ve had an estimation about why my name might have come out of the goblet."

"Yes ?"

"If individual entered me for a 4th school."Snape appeared thoughtful and Harry pressed on."That would ensure I got picked, and it would explain why there were four champions."

"Interesting…"Snape tapped the end of his pen on his lip thoughtfully. Wait… ! Harry did a bivalent yield in case his eyes had deceived him. Snape was using a pen ! It was an old-hat looking spring pen but still… Snape interrupted his thinking."Of trend that would stand for that the real whizz was Draco."

"Probably no way to demonstrate it."Harry said quickly.

"Actually-"

"No way to test it at all."Harry grinned, for a minute he could have sworn he saw the sharpness of Snape's mouth twitching up.

"Perhaps not."Snape shook his head."In any case finding out who did put your name in and why is of greater importance."Snape's handwriting moved to his arm involuntarily, like a reflex.

"Problem ?"Harry asked. Snape shook his forefront, his optic downcast.

"Premonition."

"Not usually very reliable those."Harry chuckled.

"This one is."Snape didn't seem to feel like he had to add anything else but something clicked on the edge of Harry's memory.

"The dark mark ?"Snape's promontory whipped up.

"How do you cognize about that ?"He asked harshly.

"I…"Harry opened his mouth to do but realized with shock that he had no idea how he had heard about the dark mark. It was all there though, the scar in the sky meant decease, the bull's eye in flesh intend servitude."I must have… understand it… somewhere…"

Snape had strode around the table in an crying and grabbed Harry by his articulatio humeri. This sentence it didn't smell like a piffling pressure in his judgment, it felt like a hammer.

"stopover ! It hurts !"Harry yelled.

"Stop occluding your idea !"Snape growled, jerking Harry's caput back to go along eye contact.

"I ‘ m not !"Harry pushed Snape away but kept eye liaison, deliberately relaxing his intellect. Snape opened his mouth in shock, memory board flashed past for a few instant before Snape broke the connection and sagged back onto his desk.

"Satisfied ?"Harry snarled, breathing hard.

"Not even slightly."Snape shook his heading, he also seemed out of breathing time."I couldn ‘ t see how you know about the gull, or that I have one."

"I told you. I must possess read it somewhere."Harry shook his chief."Why do you have one anyway ? I mean why did you suit a death eater ?"

"Youth. Stupidity. Misplaced rage."Snape stood slowly and rolled his arm back. The bell ringer was exactly as Harry remembered it except greatly faded. If Snape's skin wasn't so pale it would be almost invisible.

"Why did you leave ? Why defect to Dumbledore ? I assume that ‘ s what you did or you wouldn ‘ t be here."

"Why ? …"Snape cocked his capitulum and a splinter of a grinning appeared on his typeface."Surprisingly the reason is something that is not of the slightest importance to me anymore. But rest assured I am no longer offspring, stupid or full moon of misplaced rage."

"It ‘ s well placed you mean ?"Harry dug slyly.

"It ‘ s more… channeled."Snape stood and brushed his robes with his hands before walking to a storage locker behind his desk and getting out a belittled vial of blue potion."I am dingy for invading your intellect so roughly. This should serve with the pain."He held out the vial.

"You taste it first."Snape's eyebrow quirked up quizzically."Constant vigilance."

Snape chuckled and drank a good swallow of the potion before handing it to Harry who gratefully chucked back the rest. His headache disappeared almost instantly.

"Is it getting darker ?"Harry asked.

"Slowly."Snape nodded."I have yet to severalize Dumbledore. He may react unpredictably."

"Know what that's like."Harry chuckled."Do you think Voldemort or maybe the dying feeder have something to do with the chalice and me ?"

"We don ‘ t have the information to make that judgment right now."Snape waved his hired man as if batting something away."Although I always believe it prudent to prepare for the worst."

"Yeah…"Harry said, but he had thought of something. He bit his lip and looked at Snape thoughtfully.

"potter ? What are you thinking ?"

"Just wondering how far our new truce goes."Harry glanced back at the door to determine no one was listening."If I were to ask for veritaserum…"

"You have a suspect ?"Snape guessed."And you wish to interrogate them to be sure."

"That would be a safe assumption."Harry replied evasively.

"William Tell me who it is and I will do it."

"You would never get close enough."Harry grinned."I think I can."

Snape regarded him silently for a few moments then moved back to the potions console. He muttered a body of work under his breath and a drawer appeared out of the side. Snape reached in and drew out a tiny feeding bottle, barely more than a thimble.

"Three drops is all that is necessary."Snape pressed the nursing bottle into Harry's hand."Show no one else. severalize no one you have that."

"Thank you."Harry curled his finger's breadth around the picayune nursing bottle."I ‘ ll severalize you how it plays out."Harry moved off towards the door but stopped just before opening it.

"Out of interest…"He asked, looking back at his instructor across the empty schoolroom."Whose is that little barn owl ?"

"None of your business Potter."

"Ah…"Harry tapped the position of his nose."She must really be something…"

"She is."
*


Harry didn't have a lesson with Helen Newington Wills until Friday, which meant that he had to carry that little bottle around the completely time, a little bottle of carry-able nervousness. He constantly weighed the peril of hiding it somewhere with the peril of having it found on his person but in the end come down on the side of the latter. Besides, his coat had a few sac that would elude all but the most aggressive searchers.

When the lesson actually came about Harry was gritting his tooth, he still didn't know if this was a effective musical theme, or even potential. It wasn't too belatedly to return the nursing bottle to Snape, or to find somewhere to hide it and salvage it for later.

"Something bothering you Potter ?"

Harry looked up from his desk into the grimace of the ex-auror.

"No, nothing."Harry shook his head."Well…"

"Yes ?"

"There is something I want to ask you, but after the lesson."Harry made himself attend down and put a little gimmick in his voice."If you ‘ re not too busy."

"Hmm."Helen Wills scratched his chin."Well, whatever it is it isn ‘ t keeping you from taking notes is it ?"

Harry looked down at his Page, it was empty except for a niggling ink drawing of a cottage.

"Would you believe inconspicuous ink ?"

"No."

"Didn ‘ t think so."Harry reached for his quill. After the deterrent example he stayed quiet, with his bag not even packed. The piranha already knew he had something planned and left him be but…

"You not leaving Harry ?"Harry turned and saw Susan Bones paused near his desk.

"Getting an extra quotation essay."Harry replied glibly.

"You ? Doing an special acknowledgment essay ?"unbelief radiated from the Hufflepuff."You don ‘ t even do your normal essays."

"I do so."

"Without copying from Hermione."

"I-"

"Or Padma."

"Oh."Harry cocked his head and shrugged."Does it really count what I ‘ m up to ?"

"Just wondering what happens if the schooling champion is expelled."

"One of the school day champions."Harry corrected."The only human supporter granted but still…"

"Oh no one in Hufflepuff believes Malfoy ‘ s really a champion."Susan rolled her eye."No one in Ravenclaw either. You didn ‘ t know that Harry ? You ‘ re usually wired into the rumour factory of this school."

"I ‘ ve had a lot on my mind."Harry conceded. He actually never listened to rumour, that was Parvarti's job and to a lesser extent Ron ‘ s."The mill can run without me for a while."

"Of course."Susan nodded and moved off. She paused to say,"We are all rooting for you you know."Before turning towards the door.

Interesting. Harry smiled thoughtfully as he watched her walk away, his eyes drifting down a lilliputian. Very interesting. Why hadn't he noticed before how-

"Potter."Harry whipped his capitulum around. Moody was looking at him shrewdly."I know I said constant quantity alertness but…"

"Don ‘ t finish that prison term Professor."Harry grinned."Unless you want me to start mentioning that most magic eyes can be made to see through clothing."

"I don't use that setting…"Moody replied gruffly, then winked."…any more."

Harry laughed and a present moment later was joined by his teacher.

"So,"Helen Wills, walked back to the instructor desk and motioned for Harry to sit nearby."What was it you wanted to talk about ?"

"Oh yeah."Harry made his voice dip a trivial."That."

Harry swallowed and took a thick breath.

"My parents."

"Ah."Helen Wills shook his head ruefully."Sad business enterprise Potter, very sad, but I ‘ m not the one to lecture to. I didn ‘ t know them before the war-"

"I don ‘ t want more anecdotes."Harry dilled up the aggressiveness, it had to take care like he had been stewing over this for a while."Not more school stories. I want to know how they died, the unhurt news report. Details."

"Why ?"Moody asked bluntly."Why do you desire to take heed about your parents murder ?"

"Because it ‘ s something no one else seems make to talk about."Harry shook his head angrily."You were an auror, you also knew them. Fair bet you examined the house right, investigated ?"Harry knew Dwight Lyman Moody had been involved in the investigation, he left nothing to chance.

"Yes I did."See ?"But I ‘ m still not sure you want to know."

"I don ‘ t want to. I need to."Harry pleaded, putting a piffling iron into his voice."It ‘ s a sightly bet Voldemort's not done having an influence on my life. I need to know how it began."

Moody shook his head and grimaced.

"Don ‘ t know where to begin."He reached down and took a draft from his hip flask. Harry grinned.

"You can start with the goblet of fire."

"What ?"Moody shook his head as if to clear it. His magic eye was rolling listlessly and the other looked milky and unfocussed."The goblet ?"

"Yes, did you put my figure into it ?"Harry asked, flatly.

"No."Moody answered in a prostrate whole tone. Harry closed his middle, that meant he had made a mistake, which meant he was screwed.

"Did you get person else to put my name in ?"Harry asked desperately."And where ‘ s your invisibleness cloak."

"No, I do not know who put your name in the goblet of fire."Moody said, again with no emotion."My cloak is in my chest, there."He pointed with one gnarled finger.

"Ok, that's not ripe. For me."Harry looked up at the clock. With the superman he gave the consequence would only last a few more seconds."Please don ‘ t kill me."

Moody just continued his attenuate stare, then he blinked and shook his head. actualisation dawned in his eyes and Harry saw him grapple his wand tightly. In a flashbulb the ex-auror whipped it around and Harry felt Mexican valium pin his arms to the chair.

"How did you do it ?"The professor asked, coldly.

"Lifted the flask from your pocket. Put it back later in the lesson."Harry replied evenly. Being grim wouldn't get him out of this, being earnest might."Managed to collapse the turn you used on it too."

"That a fact."Moody reached out and emptied the flask onto the trading floor, the water system sparkled in the luminousness from the window."And why did you do it ?"

"I found out that the person who put my name in the chalice did it under the cover of an invisibility cloak."Harry crossed his arms."They ‘ re uncommon, and you, the lofty possessor of two, had just come to Hogwarts. That seemed like too much of a coincidence."

"And what have you learnt ?"

"It… was a coincidence."Harry conceded."It wasn ‘ t you."

"What else ?"

"Eh ?"Harry was genuinely confused.

"What else ?"

"Um… I don ‘ t know. Sir."Harry added.

"You always disarm someone when you ‘ re questioning them."Moody flicked his sceptre again and the circle fell loose."Even in they ‘ re potioned. That was sloppy thrower, very sloppy. I ‘ m disappointed in you."

Harry's jaw dropped.

"But… you mean… you ‘ re not mad ?"

"Mad ? No, no, no,"Moody waved the inquiry away."You had hunch you acted on it. I woulda done the same."

"But I got past your demurrer, I could have poisoned you."

"Better you do it than one of my enemies, oh and by the way…"Moody smiled like a tiger, for once both optic focused on Harry."I ‘ ll need a six scroll essay on how you broke the enchantment on my flask."

"Six scrolls ?"

"shuffle it ten."

"Eep."

"Don ‘ t worry Potter, it ‘ ll be over before you know it. Or in other words it ‘ ll be over tomorrow as that's when I ‘ ll be expecting the essay."

"Oh."

"On the addition side though Potter, I trust you now."

"WHAT ?"Harry exploded, spluttering in disbelief."I spike you and interrogate you and now you trust me ! ?"

"Yeah, well more than I did."Dwight Lyman Moody nodded.

"Why ?"Harry asked aghast.

"You had me drugged and I ‘ m still alert. way I have proof you ‘ re not trying to kill me."Moody said this as if it was the most lucid thing in the world.

"I was wrong."Harry shook his top dog in mental rejection."You ‘ re nuts. You're crazy. You ‘ re completely bloody gonzo."

"Yeah ?"Moody leant in towards Harry's face."Well so are you."

"Possible,"Harry conceded."I did once jump onto a moving train."

"Ha !"Moody snorted."That's nothing. Try a moving dragon."

Harry laughed and shook his drumhead, this had turned out alright after all.

"Eh ?"Helen Wills Moody said, furrowing his brow."Don ‘ t you have a object lesson to get to."

"Yes, but it's creature so I was actually marginally safer staying here and drugging you."

"Even so."Dwight Lyman Moody gestured at the room access."You ‘ d best be going. Don ‘ t forget that essay."

Harry nodded and walked away from the desk. As he reached the door a thought struck him and he turned back.

"You didn ‘ t ask me there the potion came from."

"Oh I think I can guess."Moody grew serious.

"You ‘ re not well-chosen ?"

"Constant Vigilance Potter."Moody said"hold your allies close-"

"-and my enemies closer."Harry rolled his eyes."I know."

"That's not it at all !"Helen Newington Wills said with sudden estrus."Keep your allies close Potter, but watch them even closer."



Please review, It 'll fix me compose faster. Pavlov told me so !


Note for french people 2 : Ok, this chapter actually contains people speaking in French people. I should discourage you that I do not speak French. well, I do a bit but GCSEs were a foresighted time ago and I only got a B. In any case the french in this chapter is almost certainly wrong, sorry. If you want to tell me the right translation i 'll put them up.



Harry propped the book up in forepart of him and tried to progress to the words stay in one place rather than fading out and becoming one long boring blur.

"This, this is interesting Harry."Hermione yawned and pushed another book over too him."It makes your shinny all stiff so things can't injury you."She yawned again and put her hand up to her mouth.

"Go to bed."Harry told her, sighing."You don ‘ t have stay up with me, I ‘ m the bloody champion."

"No Harry I like looking up… stuff…"Hermione yawned again, breaking up whatever she was going to say.

"Without knowing what the first chore is it ‘ s pretty useless."Harry closed his book of account wearily and rested his chin on it."And I know you consider breaking into the library tantamount to sacrilege."

"It ‘ s alright if it ‘ s for the tournament"Hermione rationalized."Do you need me to get more Scripture ?"

"No, I want to establish up."Harry shook his head."LET go back to the tower."

They packed their hooey and Harry spelled the curl on the program library back closed. He was about to turn down the corridor when a light appeared near the other end and Harry pushed Hermione back into the library.

"Who is it ?"

"No clue."Harry shrugged and closed the door quietly. He put his ear to it as the phonation got closer."Beaxbattons educatee I think."

"How do you know ?"

"They ‘ re speaking French."Harry whispered as the light passed outside the door."Talking about the start task."

"Ho… delay you speak Gallic ?"Hermione whispered hoarsely.

"You gave me the phrasal idiom record for my birthday."

"But I didn ‘ t think you ‘ d actually use them !"

"You learn languages a lot quicker with wit sharpening potion. Had the rudiments down in under a week."

"That ‘ s cheating !"Hermione said, sounding scandalized.

"Did soul invent new rules while I was away ?"Harry suddenly frowned."That didn't sound like a student."Harry cracked the door and slinked out after the retreating voices.

"Ce n'est pas juste."Harry silenced his feet so he could move faster after the retreating vocalisation and get a line Hermione do the Same behind him."mind devrions dire les autres concurrents !"

"That ‘ s Delacour."Hermione hissed into Harry's ear. She sounded oddly spiteful."What ‘ s she saying ?"But Harry waved her into silence as a huskier voice began speaking.

"La fraude fait partie des règles. Il toujours a été."

"Madam maxim ?"Harry guessed, Hermione nodded."She ‘ s saying that cheating ‘ s persona of the rules."

"I bet Fleur's going along with-"

"Fleur ‘ s contestation, but it sound like whatever it is it ‘ s already been done."Harry leant around a box and jerked back as he saw the two French women stopped in the corridor beyond.

"Non !"Fleur was saying angrily."Vous me forcez à choisir entre mes morale et mon école."

"She ‘ s not happy."Harry shook his head."She thinks Maxim ‘ s forcing her to cheat."

"Puits que tu connais maintenant."The headmistress said matter-of-factly."Ne tu inquiéteras pas à son sujet. Tu dois penser au dragon."

"Dragon ?"Harry broke into a smile. He turned to Hermione."See this is why I eavesdrop."

"Cheater."She smiled though.

"Tu as une stratégie ?"lady Maxim asked."Tu pouvais le distraire. Tu-"

"Non !"Fleur drew herself up."Je ferai le repos moi-même."

"Comme tu souhaites."Madam Maxim said and they began to walk back towards where the two vulture were hiding. Harry moved to walk into the corridor but Hermione grabbed him.

"Harry what are you doing ?"She hissed angrily.

"Headgames !"Harry grinned evilly and stepped out in front of the two women."So… dragons eh ?"

Their jaws dropped.

"Thanks for the tip !"Harry grinned and winked at his fellow champion then turned to the French headmistress and with a grimace said,"Tu es un imbecile et tu es un hypocrite. Tu accuses des Hogwarts de la fraude mais tu triches la toute première opportunity que tu obtiens."

"You little… !"madam Maxime spluttered incoherently but Harry cut her off and switched to English.

"Well betray all you want, doesn ‘ t matter. As you know now I am everywhere in this school. I will know if you cheat, I will know everything you do. So it all works out the same in the end."Harry turned back to the startled Miss Delacour."expert luck with the dragon."And with that he turned and walked away.

Well, he walked until he reached the starting time corner, then he started to run.
*


"potter ?"

Sleepy.

"Potter !"

Ok, not sleepy anymore, just faking.

"Potter get up !"Harry jerked theatrically and raised his head off his desk to look at Professor McGonagall.

"Sleepy Professor,"Harry grinned."I stayed up lately doing very important champion stuff."

It was actually true, he had indeed been spending every night researching ways to deal with large, enraged, fire breathing reptiles but he hadn ‘ t had often luck. almost of the rule book had the unhelpful presumption that you would be region of a squad of virtuoso dealing with these creatures. If he could just incur one that assumed you were a scared, unforesightful, fourteen year old who wasn't much good at defense against the dark arts or fear of magical creatures he would be set.

"Well that doesn ‘ t get you out of concentrating on your lessons."She pointed at the crystal ballock that he had transfigured character way from a tortoise. It still had wooden leg and a derriere and was blindly butting against Harry's Transfiguration textbook."Complete the transformation or at least work it back into a tortoise, it is just cruel to leave it like this."

Harry shrugged and tried to finish the August 6. Two of the legs disappeared, and the pitiful affair balanced on the other two before toppling and almost rolled off the table before Ron caught it. McGonagall moved away muttering about ‘ champions'and ‘ idiots ‘ using the Lapp inflection for each.

"fountainhead we can scratch up transfig'off the dragon-taming possibilities."Harry accepted his tortoisphere back from his admirer and tried idly to nominate the remaining arm disappear.

"I could write to Charlie."Ron offered. He had managed to piss a crystal tortoise that looked like it should be in some seaside gift shop.

"Don ‘ t, I ‘ m cheat just by using you guys."Harry made the tail disappear and sighed."I should just run in and start cursing it. Pain spear ‘ s worked before."

"You ‘ re not allowed to use dingy magic Harry."Neville reminded him from his other side."It ‘ s restricted by the prescript of the tournament or something."

"And it probably wouldn ‘ t work."Ron cast the magic spell again and got a round ball of tortoise shell."Dragon skin is-"

"Very, very thickly. Also curse-proof."Harry interrupted."I know."Harry slumped back in his chairperson and looked up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and massaged his temples, he had a stabbing headache from all the studying and recent dark. If he propped his book up and fell asleep…

"Mr Potter !"

"I ‘ m awake !"Harry shook his head. The class giggled.

"What I meant Mr Potter."McGonagall continued."Is that you are needed in the third floor arithmancy classroom. Do you know where it is ?"

Small slatted window that doesn't lock properly ?

"I know it."Harry nodded."What ‘ s this about ?"

"Very significant star stuff."McGonagall narrowed her eye."Now."

Harry gathered his stuff and hurried out of the room. Since it was division time all the corridors were empty and Harry made it to the classroom without seeing anyone. Wondering what this could possibly be about he pushed the door open.

"Ah, Mr ceramist. So sound of you to bring together us."Mr Crouch had stood up when he entered. Dumbledore and the other headmaster were also there, as was a witch in atomic number 10 greenness gown he didn't recognize. She had a quill and paper out and looked like she was currently grilling Krum. The Bulgarian, for his part, seemed resigned to this and was answering her monosyllabically. Fleur and Malfoy were no where to be found.

"What an I joining you for ?"Harry asked."If it's a party then you ‘ ll want more nibble. I skipped lunch."

"This is the deliberation of the wands ceremony."Mr Crouch said calmly, ignoring Harry's flippancy."Don ‘ t worry it ‘ s mostly a formality."

verge weighing ? Harry took out his sceptre, it looked alright. A bit scuffed here and there but then so was he. Harry heard the door open and turned,

"What is this ?"Malfoy stood in the doorway with his bag."Why was I called ?"

"Just the wei-"Dumbledore began but was interrupted by the putting surface robed witch.

"Mr Malfoy,"She stood and held out a script in one movement."Rita Skeeter. delight to meet you, if I could just-"

"My father has a various very respectable lawyers."Malfoy interrupted her suddenly."So if you print anything libelous…"

"Mr Malfoy,"Rita Skeeter held her manpower to her dresser as if she had been hurt."You affront me, the the great unwashed want to hear from their hotshot. Champions."She added, glancing at Harry with a crocodile-smile.

Scanning for hollowness : Insincerity detected.

Harry contorted his face into a worried smile.

"If I could take up the both of you for a moment."Skeeter pushed them both back out the doorway and into the schoolroom opposite."There now, that's more comfortable. None of those old Book of Judges and officials."

"Everything she says is a lie."Harry thought to himself."And you had better watch what you say too."

"Do you bear in mind if I use a quick quotes quill ?"

"Yes."Malfoy said at the same sentence as Harry said,

"No."Harry noticed that Malfoy was looking slightly worried so followed up with,"I mean ‘ no don ‘ t use it.'”

"Oh,"The reporter looked foiled, then brightened up slightly."I hear you two have a little rivalry going."Harry opened his mouth but Malfoy answered before he could speak.

"I wouldn't scream me beating him at every class a competition."

"Whatever."Harry shrugged.

"You ‘ re not going to argue potter ?"Malfoy sneered at him.

"Nah, make up any lie you want."Harry shrugged again."That's what she ‘ s gon na do."

"Well Mr ceramicist,"Rita Skeeter asked smoothly."Do you mean you, a simple twelve year old, can come after in this competition that has clamed the life history of wizards quondam and wiser than you."

"I don ‘ t know."Harry scratched his drumhead."The fact that I intend to cheat outrageously may help."

"You…"Rita Skeeter's eye's lit up."You're going to cheat ?"

"I already have !"Harry replied happily."Say, do you think that Karkarov guy ‘ s open to bribes ? He looks like a man who enjoys the finer things."

"Potter…"Malfoy hissed from between clenched teeth but Harry ignored him.

"Of class It'll be easy to buy him using all the stolen property that I own. Would you like a diamond necklace ?"

Rita's quill was moving so fast she was tearing the paper.

"I can always incur more through my broad felon contacts."

"ceramist stop now you id-"Harry winked at Malfoy, shutting him up.

"Of trend my primary pastime remains kitten-smashing."At Skeeter's shocked face he continued."Yes, kitten-smashing. It ‘ s kind of like a play, you use a especial club. Baby seals as well, and precious petty chipmunks. Deer, ostriches, endangered marmosets, trot, dolphins that variety of thing."

"Mr Potter…"The reporter's centre narrowed.

"What ?"Harry grinned."If you ‘ re going to name up lie about me they might as well be entertaining. How about saying I ‘ m a lamia or a Nazi or that I have two heading and one of them speaks smooth-spoken Italian."

"Don ‘ t sport this plot with me Mr Potter."Rita Skeeter tapped her quill against her quill against her notepad."You won ‘ t win."

"Yes I will."Harry smiled."vulture always do, in the end."

"Am I interrupting ?"Their three chief turned to see Barty Crouch in the room access."We ‘ re ready for you now."

Harry smiled and wandered out off the room, leaving the startled newsman behind. As he walked back into the arithmancy classroom he noticed that two Sir Thomas More multitude had arrived. Fleur Delacour he was expecting, the early was more of a surprise.

"Mr Ollivander ?"

"Mr thrower, so unspoilt to see you again."The old man looked the same as he had on the day, four class ago, that Harry had bought his wand. He wasn't acting as oddly however.

"You ‘ re doing the wand weighing ?"Harry guessed.

"I am Mr Potter, I am."He held out his paw and Harry grudgingly surrendered his wand. As soon as it left his hand he found himself feeling paranoid, almost au naturel. He kept eyeing up piece of article of furniture for their potential as weapons should someone attack him.

"Your… this wand seems to work quite adequately."Mr Ollivander said slowly, looping a long golden thread out of the tip."Of course, if you were in the mart for another…"

"No."Harry shook his header before the scepter maker could once again try to pressure a dissimilar sceptre on him as he had at their first group meeting."That one ‘ s served me pretty adept. I ‘ ll stick with it if you don ‘ t mind."

"Very well."Ollivander shook his head and handed the wand back."I don ‘ t understand it but…"He spread his hands and shrugged.

Everyone else in the room kept shooting Harry odd looks for the oddment of the wand weighing, everyone except Dumbledore.
*


As Harry was walking away from the deliberation when he heard a voice behind him.

"Do you have a moment Mr Potter ?"Harry turned to see Barty Crouch."If I were you I would not underestimate Ms Skeeter."

"I don ‘ t underestimate her, she overestimates herself."

"Perhaps so."The judge nodded."But she has the potential drop to cause you veridical harm."

"No she doesn ‘ t."Harry interjected."Sticks and Stone and all that, I ‘ ve survived worse than bad press."

"I am occupy about you Mr Potter."Mr Crouch moved up to stand next to Harry."There is more than one ground we increased the age limit on entry to the tournament. I fear you are too young to stand up to the scrutiny."

"Me ? Harry boy-who-lived thrower ?"

"Ah, yes."Mr Crouch chuckled a little."Perhaps you are right on that mark, but nevertheless a certain level of maturity is expected, even requirement, and I worry that perhaps you do not have it."

"I ‘ ll halt my end."Harry said, vaguely insulted.

"Do you feel adequately physically and mentally prepared for the first of all task ?"Harry thought that an odd question, but answered anyway.

"No, not entirely."

"wellspring I can ‘ t give you advice of course."The elder man nodded."Just remember that no one is expecting you to win. Just by doing well you will have exceeded everyone's expectation."

"And by winning I ‘ ll exceed them even more, and win some money !"

"Just take it slack,"Mr Crouch told him."A sizeable account is effective than being injured so you can not compete."

"The but goodly score is winning."Harry grinned like a tiger.
*


Harry woke lazily the side by side day and ignored the sounds of people going down to breakfast. This weekend had been a foresighted tome coming and he was going to savor it.

On the way down to breakfast though he got an odd foreboding feeling. His suspiciousness were confirmed when he walked into the with child hall and all conversation ceased. Harry walked down the Gryffindor table to his admirer in total quiet and sat down in the empty derriere they had left for him.

"explanation ?"Harry asked quietly, the elbow room was still almost deathly silent.

"Um, we think Malfoy may receive talked to Rita Skeeter after you left."Hermione was holding a newspaper nervously, kneading the newspaper publisher with he hands."He said some things and they printed some things…"

"collapse it here."Harry reached out and grabbed the paper. He quickly scanned down the text…

… fellow champ Drako Malfoy says that everyone in Hogwarts knows they're just afraid to say anything."He hides it but everyone knows. I mean that ‘ s why he ‘ s so short and weedy."The hansom 16 year old said"And it explains the hair."This reporter has seen evidence to brook these arguments and can reveal to you now the accuracy about Harriet Potter…

Harry burst out laughing. In the utterly silent great residence it sounded extra loud as Harry guffawed in great breathy gulps.

"Harriet Potter !"Harry dissolved into a fit of giggles.

"It ‘ s not funny Harry."Hermione said.

"Yes it is ! look, they ‘ ve even doctored a picture of me."Harry pointed."I ‘ ve got tenacious hair and breasts and everything… Actually I don ‘ t look half bad… But come on no one ‘ s gon na believe this."

"You never know Harry."Ginny said from the other side of meat."People tend to commit the Daily Prophet."

Harry had a thought and grinned. Without a discussion he stepped up onto the bench then up onto the Gryffindor table.

"Attention Hogwarts !"Harry yelled, he felt all eyes come to land on him."By now most of you will have read the Daily Prophet, or have heard about it from someone. And unless you ‘ re deaf you ‘ ve heard how I regard these rumor. I have just two things to say, any guy who doubts me can get kicked in the typeface ( don't laugh I know where you all sleep ). And for any miss who doubts I ‘ m male person a demo can be arrang-"

"MR POTTER !"The school giggled as McGonagall stood from her shoes at the high mesa."My office ! Now !"

"Thank you, thank you. I ‘ ll be here all week."Harry sauntered out of the manse, waving at the laughing crowd as he went. The last matter he saw before he left was the nighttime look of murder on Malfoy's side and decided to rub common salt in the wound."And Draco future time you try to attack me remember of things that would hurt me not that would ingest hurt you. You care about reputation. Me ? I don't pass on a crap what anyone thinks !"

"MR thrower !"

"I ‘ m going I'm going."Harry grinned and walked out. The students laughed again, some even cheered.
*


The prophet was forced to print a retraction the following day after hundreds of people wrote in to quetch. Unfortunately Harry didn't have time to savor the victory as the first task drew closer and closer.

"I ‘ m screwed."Harry slid another record book back into the program library bookcase and looked along the ledge for other dragon related book."I am royally screwed."

It was the day before the first task and Harry had made an executive decision to ignore all his object lesson that day. His time could be far adept used and he figured his teachers wouldn ‘ t judgement, or wouldn ‘ t find out till too late.

Harry sighed. Or maybe they would and he'd be thrown out of the challenger and saved the indignity of being roasted alive in battlefront of the entire school.

He had zero. Not one idea.

"I should just rush in."Harry thought, shaking his head."Start cursing, worked with the basilisk."

"Yes,"Said a piddling snide part of his mind."But the basilisk almost killed you."

Harry took down another playscript only to make he had already read it and slammed it back into the bookshelf in anger.

"problem misfire potter ?"Harry heard the snide drawling articulation and sagged tiredly.

"None Daisy Mayflower."He turned to Malfoy and crossed his arms."Shouldn ‘ t you be in lessons ?"

"live category ended half an hour ago."Malfoy shot back condescendingly.

Harry felt his heart droop. He had thought he had more prison term than that, he must have lost track. He caught visual sense of the Quran in Malfoy's hand and his eyes flickered to the blazing gap in the shelf next to him. He saw the Slytherin's cold gray pair equal him.

"How did you find out ?"Harry asked levelly.

"Find out what ?"

"About the dragons Malfoy. Don ‘ t play games."

Malfoy smiled.

"My Father-God noticed that the ministry was putting license through for dragon handling equipment and dragon handlers and dragons."

"That is damming evidence."Harry shrugged."Got a strategy ?"

"Like I ‘ d tell you."Malfoy scoffed."A little dragon doesn ‘ t bother me."

"You almost sound like you mean that."Harry pretended to wobble weight while actually bringing his wand around to pay."LET see… Legillimens !"

It was like hitting a rubber wall. Harry felt his mental investigation rebound off an Occlumency roadblock like a lawn tennis orb off a army tank and had barely a moment to indite himself before the counter attack hit his intellect like a pneumatic drill.

"What the hell ? !"Harry blanked his judgement before any memories floated up. After a moment the exercise receded.

"How dare you half-blood !"Malfoy squabble at him."Don't even think of trying that again. You ‘ re obviously an amateur compared to me. Just like you are at everything else."

"acquiring lessons from daddy are we ?"Harry kept his wand trained in case of another attack.

"I ‘ ve been an Occlumens since I was eight Potter."Malfoy said through gritted teeth."Don ‘ t try to get into my brain, the very remember disgusts me. Even after a failed attempt I feel like bathing."

"I ‘ m shocked you know what a bath is Daisy."Harry shot back."We all thought you just-"

"SHUT UP ! Just because the Prophet printed a retraction doesn ‘ t mean you ‘ ve won !"Malfy cracked, raising his sceptre."So don't joke don ‘ t make snide comments, you are still going down. This tournament may be a put-on to you but some of us care about preserving the accolade of their names."Malfoy shook his head fiercely and lowered his wand a fraction.

"You won ‘ t win Potter. You might as well renounce now."Malfoy sneered at him."It ‘ s a tartar, you can't legerdemain it or lie to it or prank it or sneak your way past it. You can ‘ t win. Just contribute up Potter, while you still can."

Malfoy turned and strode away, disappearing between the shelves. But Harry had begun to grin.

"Why the hell on earth not ?"
*


Harry mustered together every troy ounce of arrogance and cool he had to sustain himself walking forward towards the pavilion that had been erected near the edge of the forest. He glanced to his rightfield and saw Malfoy coming up from another direction, surrounded by a crowd of Slytherins. Some of them were wearing badges bearing Malfoy's smirking face.

Harry reached the tent and swallowed hard before entering.

"gladiola you could join us Mr Potter."Barty Crouch greeted him with a smile. The other champions were already there. Krum was sitting stoically, staring heterosexual forward. Fleur looked green and had one hand pressed to her tummy."Nervous ?"

YES ! Of path I'm bloody nervous ! I'm about-

"No, no sir."Harry answered out loud."I think I ‘ ve got it covered."He even managed it without his articulation quavering.

"Ah and you are here too Mr Malfoy."Crouch said as Malfoy barged in through the drape."Then let us get started."He reached over and picked up a lowly bag. Harry noticed with a draft that it was squirming.

"The job once you enter the bowl is to think a golden egg from its guardian."Crouch explained in his dry bureaucratic part."Inside this bag are four legislative act. You will each guide one from the bag, at random. The statue should tell you both what this protector is and will also make a phone number on it representing the order you will go in."

And first to the gallows will be…

"Miss Delacour…"Crouch held out the bag and the Daniel Chester French lady friend put her script in tentatively. She drew it out and revealed a small blue dragon statue, currently gnawing on her quarter round."The Swedish short snout."

Fleur looked at the piddling matter in her handwriting then raised her chin in determination. But Harry saw a tracing of panic in her eyes.

"Looks almost cute."Harry commented, looking at the firedrake."Face looks kind of like a squirrel."

Fleur glanced again at the thing in her hand then looked at Harry in disbelief.

"Well… a bit."Harry grinned and saw a half smile in return.

"Mr Krum."Crouch hurried them along. The Bulgarian stuck his manus into the bag and drew out a long red-gold dragon, dangling it by its buns."The Chinese Firebolt."

Krums expression didn't change, if anything it just became stonier.

"That's a weasel."Harry pronounced definitely ( babbling so he wouldn ‘ t hit a total nervous breakdown )."A Squirrel and a Weasel."

"Mr Malfoy."Crouch held the bag out again and Malfoy carefully removed a sleek looking blackened dragon."A Hebridean Black person Mr Malfoy."

Malfoy seemed to be trying to maintain his face ridged and unemotional, he was taking trench breath through his nose.

"And you Harry."Crouch held out the bag and Harry reached in quickly and grabbed the finish squirming statue. He held it in his fist as he brought it out, said a mute entreaty to anyone listening, then opened his hand.

"The Hungarian Horntail."Mr Crouch pronounced tonelessly.

Harry closed his helping hand again and pumped his fist into the air.

"YES !"

The three other champions were looking at him like he was crazy.

"Mr Potter,"Crouch spluttered."You do know about that type of dragon don ‘ t you ?"

"Read about ‘ em, yep."Harry nodded.

"And you ‘ re glad ?"

"Yep."

"Potter you ‘ re insane."Malfoy said icily.

"Yep."

"Well…"Mr Crouch seemed a little flustered but motioned Malfoy towards the way out to the tent.

Harry watched them leave and took a deeply breath. He sat down cross legged on the jam-packed terra firma and leant rachis against a encamp pole.

"You are very confident."Krum said in his heavily accented voice.

"I ‘ m not worried."Harry said as he heard his racing heart whacking in his ears.

Harry tried to blank out the sound of the gang outside and the comments of the commentator. He tried to breath deeply so as to calm down his nerves. It didn't work.

"Mr Krum if you please !"Harry heard the whistle and wished Krum good lot as he walked out of the tent.

Sir Thomas More minutes of growling and huffing passed and Fleur began pacing the story worriedly.

"It ‘ ll be alright."Harry told her as the crowd quieted down and the scores were put up."You got the easy dragon."

"Easier."She replied without looking up.

"Just think of it as a monster fire-breathing squirrel."

"‘ Ow can you be so calm !"She said to him angrily."‘ Ow can you joke about zis !"

"I joke about everything."

The whistle blew a moment later and Fleur was gone too, gone to present the Dragon. Harry got up and began pacing himself. He gripped his scepter and began rehearsing what he would do again.

null could possibly go wrong.

What the pit ? Everything could go damage !

Harry squeezed his eyes shut as he heard the whistle sound. He couldn't do this.
*


"And the last champion, HARRY ceramicist !"The voice cried over the loudspeaker.

Professor McGonagall, like everyone else in the crowd, looked towards the tent. A blow of wind flapped the edges of the canvas. No one came out.

"Um… Mr ceramicist ?"

No one came.

That inadequate boy. She shook her headspring, this had obviously been too lots for him. The crowd had begun whispering now.

"Do you wish to go down there Albus, Or shall I ?"She turned to the Headmaster, who was oddly smiling."One of us will have to find oneself him."

"Oh I know exactly where he is."Dumbledore chuckled.

"You see it too ?"Moody cackled from the row below."damn kid ‘ s got nerve I ‘ ll give him that."

"What are you talking about Allastor ? Albus ?"Minerva looked from one to the other confused.

"Barty Crouch told me that Harry was oddly well-chosen to meet the Horntail."Dumbledore smiled."I did not quite understand that until now. The horntail is the most fearsome dragon in the world, but it ‘ s sightedness is quite poor."

Understanding dawned in Minerva McGonagall's mind and she turned to scan the arena once more. After a moment she saw it. A small, human shaped lump, perfectly camouflaged against the guts behind it, shimmering as it edged towards the dragon.
*


Harry shifted a hair's-breadth closer. He had silenced his ft to get rid of his footstep but there was still the risk of something shifting or crunching. He could pick up member of the crew beginning to laugh now, he didn't care. They'd know the truth when he snagged the egg right out from under the abdomen of the thing. And besides, the more randomness they made the better.

The Horntail suddenly shifted, raising it's nose high. Harry froze in a scrunch up. It sniffed the air.

Damn ! Harry froze. He had hoped that by keeping the wind in his side would induce kept his smell from the animal. Apparently not, that meant he would give to cast a spell, which would agitate the matter and reveal his localization. But it would regain him anyway if he didn't. Too bad he didn't know non-verbal magic.

Harry drew his scepter and tensed his legs. The Disillusionment good luck charm worked best when you stayed still but it wasn ‘ t perfect even then. The dragon would see through it once it got a hint where to wait. He would have to move the instant he cast or he would be crispy-fried.

Harry took a rich breathing place and yelled,

"Avgo Sapios !"The cloud of green fume gushed out of his wand and smacked the dragon on the snout but Harry was already throwing himself sideways and rolling to a crouch on the floor.

Which was lucky because a moment later the sand where he had been standing was reduced to a white sheet. The dragon swept its lance of flaming across the arena, passing just base in front of Harry's expression. Harry saw the sand steam and cool from blue-white to red, then to a duller, glassy, finish. A scar across the land. Harry forced himself to breath again, shallowly.

He moved his head slowly to look at the dragon, it was shaking its promontory from side to side as if to dislodge the foul smell that had taken up abidance in its nostrils.

When Harry was sure it was looking the other way he hopped over the incinerate swath and crouched down on the early side. A gasp went up from the crowd, they must experience seen him when he passed over the burnt patch.

"Don ‘ t get it agitated."Harry thought desperately as he inched closer."Just preserve quiet."

"HEY Draco !"

Bugger.

Harry rolled to the side of meat in terror as the dragon gouged another flame scar across the gumption. He realized belatedly that the downside of choosing to approach the dragon from downwind was that it put the Slytherin stands at his back.

"OVER HERE !"

Harry ducked as a bolide flew over his head. He risked a glance back to see it impact on a shield. The stands seemed to quiet down down a bit, perhaps realizing the amentia of attracting the attention of an angry dragon.

Harry inched forward again and had to dodge as it's spiked tail whipped through the air. He could see the egg now, glimmering in among some duller ones. Harry crawled silently up near the dragons side and looked up. The wall of the great reptile's body gave way to the monumental shading canopy of it's wing. He was right up succeeding to it now. If he screwed up it would step on him.

Harry reached into the piddling gap between the floor and the shifting belly of the Horntail. His fingers curled around the golden egg. He twisted it and brought it out horizontal, making sure not to meet the Draco. Like that game, what was it called… operation ! Except with his lifespan on the line.

Harry held his breath as the egg finally saw the light of day and swiftly stuffed it under his t-shirt so it would be camouflaged. He slid backwards slowly then froze as the Dragon stood and shifted. Harry followed it's gaze and saw a dozen steward approaching.

"No !"Harry thought."They ‘ re not that stupid ! Please NO !"

"Stupify !"

"AAaaaa !"Harry screamed and threw himself backward as the dragon collapsed right onto the terra firma where he had been crouching. A mo later he was driven to the floor as its wing crumpled on top of him. Harry crawled out from under the leathery blanket, forced himself to stand on legs that wanted to crumple like plastic straws and stumbled towards the dragon keepers.

"What the hell…"Harry growled."Was the big idea of dropping the dragon on me when I ‘ m still bloody under it !"

"Sorry Harry."The red-head at the front of them shrugged."You ‘ re variety of strong to see."

Harry looked down, he was still Disillusioned. Harry raised his aching arm and tapped himself on the head with the tip of his wand.

"Khamaileon akyrono."He felt the warm dribbles down his head painfully slowly. They stopped before they even reached his breadbasket."Oh great…"Harry sagged his half-visible body.

"Let me Potter."Harry flinched as someone tapped him from buns. He turned and looked up at the scarred face of Mad Eye Moody.

"I got it to go on in one go."Harry explained, swaying a short. He was bruised on every side and his left arm didn ‘ t want to bend properly. He turned and saw McGonagall approaching from the stands and tried to remain firm a little straighter.

"thrower, are you hurt ?"She said, an edge of concern tingeing her voice. Harry raised his left arm."Excellent ! You ‘ ll get to a greater extent level for being uninjured."

Harry swiftly jerked his arm back down and brushed the dirt off the front of his robe. Mad Eye leant down and whispered into his ear,

"Arm broke ceramist ?"

"No, just trauma like hell."Harry breathed back. He eased it into his sac, wincing slightly."Maybe fractured."

"You gon na recount them ?"

"Hell no !"
*


Harry held hard to the handrail as he walked towards the marauder. He was surrounded by cheer, masses kept slapping him on the spine ( painfully )

"That was amazing Harry !"Harry heard someone yell and waved back, smiling wanly. He managed to pretend it to the free seat by the predator and sat down.

"That really was awesome."Ron said from his left."I mean we couldn't even see-"

"Yes that was the point."Harry joked."Sort of the spot of invisibility."

"That was really good you know Harry."Hermione said from behind him."Much practiced than Malfoy."

"That's a given."Harry grinned."What did he do ?"

"Made some sort of mirror out of mist."Padma shrugged as if to say ‘ no big deal ’."Made the dragon fight it ‘ s own reflection."

"Did it work ?"

"Until he got close to the eggs."Padma grinned evilly."Then it caught on and flamed him. He only just got the egg. They gave him thirty points."

"Deserved two."Ron muttered angrily.

Harry shrugged, then winced as a stab of pain blastoff through his arm. The crowd fell silent, Harry looked up towards the justice box. madam Maxim raised her wand, after a import a wiggly five sprung out.

"passive voice aggressive revenge bitch."Harry growled.

Next Crouch nodded thoughtfully and tapped a nine into the air.

"That ‘ s more snug to awesomeness."

Next the heavyset judge Harry didn't know raised his scepter with a fly high and painted an eight. A moment later Dumbledore raised an identical eight.

"Better…"

Karkaroff seemed to think for a moment, then drew a three in the air.

"Blatant undisguised favoritism."Harry narrowed his eyes."It ‘ s like bloody Eurovision."

"thirty three."Neville said, counting on his finger."Is that commodity ?"

"It should have been eminent !"Ginny said angrily."You were the only hero not injured !"

"Yeah…"Harry tried not to opine of what target he would have got if they had known about his arm.

"It must consume been how retentive you took/"Hermione said reasonably."You were slow than the others."

"You beat Malfoy though !"Parvarti said cheerily ( ignoring Ron as he turned on Hermione and began arguing )."And Fleur."

"Krum ?"

"Got forty."

"sodomite. I ‘ ll get him next time."Harry felt his hurt and yen arm."You see if I don ‘ t !"
*


"So let me get this straight Harry."lady Pomfrey sighed,"You beat the dragon…."

"Yes."

"Left the stadium."

"Yes"

"Then on the way back to Gryffindor tower…"

"Yes."

"You happened to return down a flight of stairs."

"Yes."

"Seriously Harry ?"

"That's my story."Harry grinned."I ‘ m sticking to it."



Translations ( I think )

"Ce n'est pas juste. brain devrions dire les autres concurrents !"
This is not right. We should severalize the other contender !

"La fraude fait partie des règles. Il toujours a été."
cheat is part of the ruler. It always has been.

"Non ! Vous me forcez à choisir entre mes morale et mon école."
No ! You force me to pick out between my morals and my school

"Puits que tu connais briny tenant. Ne tu inquiéteras pas à son sujet. Tu dois penser au dragon."
fountainhead you know now. You will not interest about it. You must think of the dragon.

"Tu as une stratégie ? Tu pouvais le distraire. Tu-"
You have a scheme ? You could perturb it. You

"Non ! Je ferai le repos moi-même."
Not ! I will do the quietus myself.

"Comme tu souhaites."
As you wish.

"Tu es un half-wit et tu es un hypocrite. Tu accuses des Hogwarts de la fraude mais tu triches la toute première chance que tu obtiens."
You are an idiot and you are a hypocrite. You accuse Hogwarts of humbug but you cheat the very maiden chance that you get.



The Ivan Pavlov matter is working ! More reviews please !


I do n't own Harry thrower. Neither do you. Unless you 're J K Rowling, which is unlikely.



"Shut that bloody affair off Harry !"Ron yelled over the screaming.

"Alright, alright."Harry snapped the egg shut and the inhuman screeching ceased as it always did."Just trying to work the thing out."

"fountainhead can you not do it in our bedroom."Ron grumped, rolling out of bed. Harry chuckled and replaced the egg on his nightstand."Have you at least found out something ?"

"There ‘ s nothing to find."Harry shook his head irritably."I've run every detection I know on it, there ‘ s no release or password, zippo else magical on it at all. The scream isn ‘ t cover for something or a defense. The scream is the subject matter, I just have to decode it somehow. Unless the whole matter's a braincrank."

"A whoremonger ?"Neville translated, sitting up in bed."You think it really could be ?"

"doubt it. Too elaborate."Harry shrugged."supposition I just have to do more things to it."

"Tried kicking it ?"Ron suggested.

"‘ class, that was the initiative thing I tried."

"Maybe that ‘ s why you can ‘ t find anything now."Neville said, frowning."You broke it."

"Doubt it,"Harry sighed."I have reports that inhuman riot have been heard from the gravy boat the go-cart and the Slytherin keep as well. I ‘ m not the alone one stumped."

"That ‘ s something."Neville said encouragingly."You ‘ ll oeuvre it out eventually."

"Maybe…"Harry wasn't so sure. He had needed a Hogwarts founder to help him solve his live on puzzle. He dismissed it from his thoughts for another morning."You think the girl are waiting for us at breakfast ?"

"Probably."Ron groaned, and stomped off towards the bathroom.
*


Eventually the three of them managed to get down to breakfast. Just in time for the ring armor run. Harry caught shovel on his carpus and was feeding him a bit of bacon when he was surprised by a alphabetic character falling into his lap.

"You got a letter ?"Hermione leant over curiously."Who ‘ s it from ?"

"I don ‘ t know…"Harry began but his optic narrowed as he recognized the acid viridity ink."But I suspect."

He tore assailable the letter and take the pale lettering.

To The-Boy-Who-Thinks-He's-Won

fountainhead we'll see about that Harry. Don't think that just because I had to print a abjuration you've won. Don't think that for a instant. I have been very busy digging up scandal on you and your boyfriend champion and you won't like what I've found. You will regret insulting me Harry potter, I can bury you ! And I will, you just watch !

Bests Rita Skeeter.

Harry tore the missive up and sighed.

"Rita Skeeter."He answered."She ‘ s going to cause a lot of hassle for me I can tell."

"I seriously doubt that."Padma commented dryly from over the top of the Prophet.

"Why ?"

"She ‘ s dead."

"What ! ?"

Padma offered him the newspaper and Harry grabbed it hurriedly. The necrology was quite large and, befitting the cleaning woman it was about, full of magnification. Once Harry had scanned it once or twice he had gleaned the actual information out of it. Apparently she had been found in her home by her boss after not showing up for work on Monday. The Aurors had been called in, official cause of death…

"Heart attack ?"Harry said incredulously, Padma nodded."That ‘ s Taurus ! She was… I don ‘ t know… maybe thirty five years old."

"She had a very stressful job."Padma shrugged.

"Or maybe it was karma."Ron said through a mouthful of pledge. Hermione looked torn between being disgust at his manners and impressed that he knew what karma was.

"I think it ‘ s good riddance."Ginny cut in emphatically.

"I think it ‘ s fishy."Harry folded the paper and handed it back."God knows the woman must have made enough enemies."

"Maybe it was one of you ‘ re fan club."Ginny joked.

"My fan club doesn ‘ t have a militant wing."Harry paused."That I know of…"

"Could be useful."

"True, my own army…"Harry grinned."I could rule the world !"

"Maybe,"Hermione rolled her center."But after transfiguration."
*


Harry decided to actually function that lesson. It was something he did occasionally, just to make his instructor off the aroma. They were still working on the tortoise to orb and to the highest degree of the class could do it now. Harry's orb still had a bit of a hexagon pattern but it wasn't bad.

"Mr Potter."McGonagall said suddenly.

"Yes prof ?"Harry said, confused. He hadn't done anything lately she would be worry in."What is it ?"

"I was simply going to ask if you had acquired a collaborator yet. Since you are opening you will be representing the school. Try to contemplate well on us."

"married person ? Opening ? Representing ?"Harry's brow furrowed in confusion."What are you talking about ?"

"The Yule glob Potter."McGonagall said simply. to the highest degree of the class was watching now."As champion you will be opening."

"You mean… Dancing ?"Harry cringed.

"Yes."

"Alone ?"

"With a partner."McGonagall replied in exasperation.

"In movement of the school ?"Harry felt his stomach swoop.

"Yes."

"I think I ‘ ll pass."

"potter you are the… one of the Hogwarts champions. You must open the dance and you must feature a partner."

"What ? You gon na tie me up and storm me to trip the light fantastic ?"

"We have ways."McGonagall said, her eyes narrowing.

"I ‘ ll just turn up without a partner."Harry countered.

"In that pillowcase I will come with you Mr Potter."

"You do that…"Harry crossed his munition."And I will go to the egg naked."

The classroom salvo out laughing.

"As will I."

The room became deathly silent. Harry nodded slowly.

"Touché, nicely argued."He complemented."And I ‘ ll have a married person by the end of the day."
*


Harry wandered down the to the depress floors of Hogwarts that evening and found the kitchens corridor. Glancing around for a moment he approached the still-life.

"Stoic."Harry said, and the painting dissolved into the air. Harry stepped in and spoke the watchword again to shut the portal. He stepped into the Hufflepuff green room. It looked different than he remembered, probably the lack of snakes… and fire. Several people started looking at him, then more, then every eye in the lieu turned to him as he strolled across the basement. He did the cancel thing. He ignored them.

He walked calmly over to the set of couches where the Susan osseous tissue was sitting.

"Hey Susan."He smiled in greeting.

"Hi. Um…"She scratched her head."How did you get in here ?"

"Password."

"But how did you know the password."

"I know all the passwords."Harry shrugged."Slytherin's is prerogative. Ravenclaw ‘ s is… complicated. The prefect lavatory ‘ s still pine brisk and Dumbledore ‘ s office is Chocoballs… for some reason."

"But… How ?"Susan asked aghast. Harry realized that most of the common room was listening.

"You were a chosen."Harry winked."Not a predator. Don ‘ t expect me to unveil all my secrets."

The elbow room sighed and Harry felt eyes act away from him.

"So… why are you down here ?"Susan asked."Are we under attempt by snake in the grass again ?"

"Not that I know of."Harry glanced under the table."Nope, nothing."

"So what are you here for ?"

"What ? I can ‘ t just sojourn ?"Harry grinned.

"Hufflepuff or me ?"

"Currently… you."Harry grinned again."There ‘ s this dance… thing… at Christmas."

"The Yule Ball."Susan's center widened.

"Yeah that."Harry shrugged."Apparently I need a partner on account of being some form of hero case thing."

"Are you asking me ?"

"Do I need to be more obvious ?"

"Yes."

"Yes I ‘ m asking you."

"Then…"Susan swallowed nervously."…yes ?"

"Was that a dubiousness ?"Harry sniped, smiling..

"fine. Yes I ‘ ll go with you."

"Capital. That ‘ s great."Harry grinned."But I should go now. the great unwashed are staring at me."

"Well you are a celebrity."

"It ‘ s a effect I have to bear."
*


In the next few workweek Harry was extremely sword lily he had got it out of the way earlier. In the next few calendar week a regular furor of ball fever swept Hogwarts. Girls huddling in corners, whispering. give-and-take of wearing apparel robes. Identical looks of fear and dread and cold, sick, nervousness on the font of every boy. Harry was glad to be well out of it.

Course he would be gladder if everyone else had got the memo…

"Leave me alone !"Harry slid into a hidden passage and bounded along the short transition."I ‘ m taken !"He could still see pounding groundwork and giggling behind him. He shot out from behind a tapestry ( startling a group of students ) and cracked open another passage behind a painting. He closed it behind him and leant against the wall, breathing heavily, as the come after fille ran past. As the sounds faded into the distance he breathed a sigh of relief.

"You too yes ?"Harry spun around but relaxed as he saw Viktor Krum sitting cross legged on the floor in the passage. He had a set of books spread out in front of him. The Bulgarian shrugged and continued."You vill get used to it. Or you vill become quicker at running."

"And you ‘ re used to it ?"Harry grinned and sat down opposite the Durmstrum champion."Then why are you hiding in a passageway."

"It is only vay to get a moment of peace."Krum flicked a Thomas Nelson Page and remain reading. After a moment he glanced up."You did well vith the Horntail."

"Not as near as you. Thirty three points."

"You should not have… irritated… the she-giant."A smile flickered onto Krum's face.

"Possibly not."Harry conceded."You worked out the egg yet."

"Perhaps."Krum replied, revealing nothing."Have you ?"

"Perhaps."Harry grinned."I worked out that kicking it doesn ‘ t work."

"number 1 thing I tried."

"Me too."Harry walked back up to the door and listened, it sounded pretty serenity."How longsighted you intending to stay in here."

"I don ‘ t know. Vhen is your Noel musket ball ?"Krum shook his head and sighed."I should ask person. pickax someone that has not been asked yet. Perhaps that will realise them stop foll-"

"It doesn ‘ t."Harry interrupted."Trust me."

"Oh…"Krum shook his foreland."Then I will hold to research some upright locking charms for my cabin."

"Try these."Harry pulled beyond allohamora out of his bag ( it sometimes helped to have a bag in which he could have a bun in the oven everything he owned )."It mostly deals with unlocking but it ‘ s got some quality clobber in there."

"Thank you."Krum nodded solemnly and looked back down at his record book. Harry checked the entrance once more then left carefully.

"What is it about me ?"Harry wondered idly."That lets me get on with the champions but royally pisses off the Book of Judges ?"
*


"shucks it !"Harry dropped the egg back to the surface of the marauders table. The inky bootleg goo he had smeared on its surface had revealed naught."Doesn ‘ t work either. It was supposed to reveal unavowed messages."

"That thing doesn ‘ t have a secret message."Ron groaned on the former side of the tabular array."It has one message. And we ‘ ve all heard it lots of clock time, like at the tornado of dawn."

"Eight is not the crack of dawn."Harry sighed and rested his head teacher on his helping hand."And I don ‘ t see you doing lots better."

"It was working before you got here."Ron complained, prodding at the watch crystal orchis in straw man of him."Maybe the egg did some affair to it !"

"Or maybe you ‘ ve got it upside down."Parvati commented from the early side of the table. Ron groaned and scrunched up his bit of parchment.

Harry would receive made a snide comment but he didn't think he had the energy. The egg was eating at him.

"Ron…"Parvati continued."You really need to do it soon."

"Do what ?"

"Ask someone."She shook her head."You really take to do it soon or she ‘ ll be… I mean all the commodity girls ‘ ll be taken."Parvati amended quickly with a twinkling at Harry.

Ron ( unmindful ) squirmed uncomfortably.

"It ‘ s not that easy."Ron shrugged."I ‘ m not Harry, I can ‘ t just roam into someone's common room and ask someone."

"But you-"Annapurna began but Harry interrupted her.

"Wait postponement delay. Did I just hear a marauder express… self… doubt… ?"Harry shied away in horror."No no no no no ! This will not do !"

"But-"

"No buts !"Harry cut him off."You are a vulture, that means you are at least six billion times better than anyone else. You will go out and ask Herm… the girl you want to go with. Right now ! Or I will call in a personal party favor from Viktor Krum and have him ask her first !"

"You don't even know who I ‘ m-"

"Legillimacy."Harry lied.

"That ‘ s illegal."

"Since when have I cared ? Ask her."

"That's cruel."

"ditto. Ask her."

"Harry-"

"She ‘ ll say yes."Harry grinned."Trust me."

"Are you sure ?"Ron looked almost convinced.

"Yes."Harry looked to Parvati for backup man and she nodded emphatically."Definitely yes."

Ron nervously folded his work unto his bag and left the common room. Harry checked the clock on the wall.

"Five thirty so Hermione will be coming back from the library… Give ‘ em ten minutes."Harry and Parvati shared a grin and went back to their respective work.

Ron was in fact back in LE than five minutes.

"She said yes !"He was blushing tomato red but grinning.

"Congratulations."Harry shrugged."Surprised you found her so quick."

"She was in the slap-up foyer. Lavender ‘ s usually down to dinner early."

"La… Lavender…"Harry froze. Across from him he say Parvarti's grimace twist into a face of jolt and surprisal."Lavender Brown ?"

"Yes ?"Ron's brow furrowed."Are there any early Lavenders in the school ?"

"Um… yes… in… fifth year… Slytherin. Just making sure you weren't asking her."Harry lied quickly."You know, letting the team down and such."

"I ‘ d never ask a Slytherin."Ron laughed."That would just be stupid."Ron laughed again and headed up the staircase to the boys bedroom.

"Yeah, that would be stupid."Parvati said acidly, sounding for a consequence like her sister.

"You also thought he ‘ d ask…"

"Hermione."

"Yep. Thought it was obvious."Harry shrugged."Oh well."

"Oh well ! ?"Parvati repeated indignantly with her handwriting on her hips ( Harry braced for shouting )."What do you signify Oh well !"

"We were wrong."Harry said simply."It happens. It ‘ s all alright."

"It ‘ s not alright !"She shook her head."He ‘ s going with the awry person !"

"He ‘ s going with the person he asked."Harry pointed out."That ‘ s not the redress person ?"

"No."

"fountainhead tough."Harry waved the problem away."Nothing to be done now."

"Unless…"Parvati grinned maliciously, or tried to anyway. It didn't really work on her."We do something about it."

"Oh no…"Harry buried is face in his hands.

"We need to micturate sure Ron and Hermione go together."

"Do we bear to ?"

"Yes."

"If they find out they ‘ ll kill us."Harry pointed out."You know that right ?"

"How come when you want to do something insane you rope the rest of us in but when I want to you just complain ?"

"Oh I didn ‘ t say I wouldn ‘ t do it."Harry grinned evilly ( doing a far better job of it )."I ‘ m just saying we have to be careful."

"Yay !"Parvati ran around the table and hugged Harry."I knew you ‘ d fold !"

"Get. Off. Me !"Harry disentangled himself from his protagonist."Do you have a programme ?"

"Well…"Parvati tapped her chin thoughtfully."Lavender's essentially a limpet."

"Nice."

"Thank you. I figure we can sway her to let go of Ron if we dangle something else in front of her face."

"Like what ? Or who ?"

"Michel Corner I think."Anapurna nodded."She ‘ s liked him for ages."

"Does he like her ?"

"He will once I ‘ m thru talking him into it."

"I like this new malicious incline of you."Harry nodded approvingly."Do I have any part in this little escapade or do I just sit here nodding ?"

"You need to keep anyone from asking Hermione until Ron does."

"Gotcha !"Harry saluted."Campaign of bullying and threats coming right up !"

"Subtly Harry ! She can ‘ t know !"

"Who do you exact me for ?"

"Sorry."Anapurna smiled."Oh, and you ‘ ll need to talk to Neville too."

"Um… why ?"Harry asked, confused."Is he gon na ask Hermione ?"

"No silly. You need to win over him to ask Padma."

"I thought this was about Ron and Hermione ?"

"I ‘ m expanding the scope."Parvati shrugged."He won ‘ t need much prodding. He already likes her."

"Energy she… ?"

"Of course."Parvati said patronizingly."You haven't noticed ?"

"And Ginny ?"Harry said wearily."Got a architectural plan for her too ?"

"She ‘ s too young."

"Not if we find her a date."Harry pointed out.

"No I mean too unseasoned to date."Anapurna said primly."We have to protect our lilliputian sis ‘ s innocence for as long as potential. She ‘ s not a part of this."

"I wish I wasn ‘ t a office of thi-"

"Harry !"
*


Operation shamelessly-manipulate-our-best-friends was at least good for one thing, it distracted Harry from the bloody egg.

It was just a few days before the Christmas globe and the plan was… well it was working but that wasn't the point. It was working a little too well.

Lavender had been successfully unstuck from Ron and re-adhered to Michel Corner. Once Ron came out of his moping stage Harry was confident he could incite him towards the right young lady. The elusive intimidation was harder but legilimacy helped to identify likely scourge very effectively. Once they were picked out Harry was able to get the son alone to explain some ‘ family the true ’. Like how she was already dating a older boy she met on holiday. Big bloke, immense muscles.

"This had dependable bloody work Parvati."Harry muttered to his co-conspirator one day on the way back from creature."‘ Cos if he doesn't ask her no one will now. I've had to build Hermione ‘ s fanciful boyfriend up into some sort of vengeful superman to stop people asking her."

"What ‘ s the latest story ?"Parvati asked, interested.

"He ‘ s from Kingdom of Spain. The Academia Atsingani."Harry shrugged."He ‘ s an amateur thaumaturgist bullfighter. have his own sword and shotgun."

"Wizard bullfighter ? With a shotgun ?"

"It doesn ‘ t have to be likely it just has to be scary."

"Well he ‘ s going to birth to shmoose his girlfriend back."Parvarti said knowingly."Because Ron will ask her. Believe me."

"Bet ?"

"Galleon."

"Done."Harry sighed."At least this way I can micturate something back out of this mess."

"It ‘ ll all work out."Parvati grinned."faith me."

"Don ‘ t say that."Harry shook his head."I know I say it… but don ‘ t."

"You can ‘ t complain…"But Anapurna trailed off as they all began hearing a sound in the length."What ‘ s that ?"

Harry perked his auricle up. A few tempo in battlefront of them the rest of the marauders stopped too. It sounded like a unit biff of citizenry yelling and moving, but behind that there was a low grumble and…

"vocalizing ?"Harry said incredulously.

"More like chanting."Parvati disagreed.

"It sounds like chorale singing."Hermione said from in front of them.

"It ‘ s coming from out front."Harry hurried forward."Lashkar-e-Taiba go !"

As one they rushed forward. As they neared the room access other students began to join them, teacher too. As they ran out onto the grass in front of the school Harry realized that the unhurt school was already out there, yelling and pointing. Harry saw Dumbledore gazing up into the sky, a look of wonderment on his grimace. The early school heads flanked him, just as awed.

In the sky above Hogwarts floated a miracle of livid marble. Columns, delicate as crank, flew up from a shining base and met a golden point above. Delicate traces of mirror-like silver snaked and shimmered over the airfoil, sending out rays of rainbows as it turned in the sunlight. The unharmed affair looked like some mammoth crystal, floating on white mist and breathing out beautiful music as it sank lower and lower and finally settled to the priming on the Gunter Grass just inside the schooling gates.

Harry started forward but was brought up short as Dumbledore held up an arm. The school watched in ecstatic secretiveness as a emanation emerged from the floating palace. White-robed woman walked face by slope, carrying flaring wizardly torches. They split apart a little as they left it as if to make a path for someone in the midsection. As they grew closer Harry saw that there was a physique in the center, smaller than the early robed name but wearing a crown of bay wreath leaves.

Harry yelled in happiness and dashed out from the gang, ignoring Dumbledore's vociferation of protest, and rushed towards the image. Laughing, he ducked past the line of startled woman and enveloped the in-between one into a elephantine hug.

"Why didn ‘ t you tell me you were coming ?"Harry laughed, releasing her and looking up into her pale, ethereal face.

"I wanted it to be a surprisal for you."Pythea said with a warm grin."It ‘ s unspoilt to see you Harry."
*


"Mr Potter !"Harry heard someone outcry from behind him. He spun around and saw expressions ranging from shock, confusion and anger. Most of the Beauxbatons students were down on one knee and the ace from Durmstrang had their fountainhead bowed in respect. His beau Hogwarts students seemed more aghast than anything else, Dumbledore had his bridge player to his backtalk with his center wide in shock. McGonnagall was almost vibrating in anger.

turning further he saw something even more unnerving. Across the entire sharpness of the forest the Centaurus had gathered, the total herd. Every one of them was down on their knee joint with their hands clasped over their hearts.

Harry turned back around to face the school, no-one had moved.

"Why are they staring ?"Harry whispered at Pythea."And why are centaurs kowtowing to you ?"

"Harry,"Pythea smiled."They are staring because masses do not usually hug the Delphic oracle or handle her with familiarity."

"And the centaurs ?"

"They regard me as a demigod."

"Oh…"Harry gulped."…and I thought I was famous."

"You are famous Harry."The Oracle said, a strange bill in her voice."But I am something else."She moved forward and Harry was forced to follow. They stopped in forepart of Dumbledore, Harry almost laughed when he saw that the Headmaster still had his hired man to his mouth.

"Professor Dumbledore."Pythea greeted the old man."It is a delight to finally play you."

"The pleasure is mine."Dumbledore seemed to recover himself and bent down to kiss the vaticinator's bridge player."I see you have… already met one of our school champions."

"Harry and I met years ago and we have had agreement since."Pythea looked up and around at the towering rook in presence of her."Hogwarts is as beautiful as I have heard it described."

"Thank you,"Dumbledore waved towards the large vaulted door of Hogwarts and a track opened in the student body."As soon as your castle appeared in the sky I had the menage elves machinate a suite of guest rooms for you and your handmaidens."

"Thank you."Pythea reached out and linked arms with a startled Harry."Harry can show me up to the guest quarters."

"Mr Potter does not bonk the passwords."

"Headmaster,"Pythea shook her nous, smiling."You obviously don ‘ t know Harry as well as I do."

Harry covered his mouth with his paw to hide giggles as he walked the Oracle of Delphi between the run-in of students and up to the doors of Hogwarts.

Harry tried not to listen to the whispers happening all around him, he could deal with that in the morning.

"How long are you staying ?"Harry asked Pythea as he led her towards the client quarters.

"public treasury after the second task."She answered."But I fear a lot of that will be taken up with functions down in London. No sojourn by someone like the myself can be entirely for leisure. You could say the tournament provides an excuse for political sympathies. Many body politic representative were invited by your government, when I heard you were competing I decided to withdraw them up on it."

"Didn ‘ t you already know I would be competing ?"Harry teased."And whether I ‘ ll win ?"

"You put too much faith in oracles."

"I have no faith in seer. I have a large deal of religious belief in you."

"That is sweetly of you Harry."Pythea said in surprise."And surprisingly open."

"Well get used to it."Harry checked behind him, the servant were following a good distance behind. Harry continued in a voicelessness."You saved my life-time, from something had no right to subsist. Even more, if I got the substance straight, you risked your place at the temple too. And the only way I could thank you was through vaguely worded letters."

"I got the content Harry."Pythea smiled down at him.

"Good, but I ‘ ll say it again in person."Harry slowed as they approached the guest wing."Thank you for saving my lifetime Thea."

"You are most welcome."The Oracle came to a hitch outside the door."And I would do it again."

"I hope it won't be necessary."Harry turned to the door."Bellevue."

The door creaked spread out to let on an elegant session way with many doors leading off it. Every piece of article of furniture sparkled with shine and a vase of fresh flowers sat on the essence of the little table.

"The elves don ‘ t skimp do they ?"Harry chuckled. He pointed to the way along the back bulwark."bedroom are along there. All of them en-suite of course."

"You ‘ ve been here before ?"Pythea chuckled."Were you meant to be ?"Harry grinned and ignored her.

"If you need anything call the house elves. Alternatively if you need anything the marauders can provide promise me. Now, for the most crucial thing…"Harry straightened up and put on a serious air."Do you want us to try and distract professor Trelawny or simply drug her for the duration of your visit."
*


Harry looked at himself in the mirror and sighed, it was no safe. It wasn't that he thought he looked good or didn't. It was more that he didn't really have a concept of what he was supposed to look like. Everyone else seemed to shoot the dress robe and everything as a necessary irritation. Harry on the other hired man had almost no opinion on them having never heard of them before reading his letter this year. Were they supposed to be this mean ? Or flare out at the bottom like that ? And what about his fuzz ? Harry had always just let his haircloth do its own thing, cutting it back only when it began impairing his vision but now everyone else seemed to have acquired some level of personal training accomplishment that he had somehow skipped.

He gave it up as a lost reason, allowing it to shine as it wanted to. He shrugged, what did it matter ? He'd got a engagement so the firmly part was done.

Except for the dancing.

"Yes, except for the dancing."Harry though and grimaced."Thank you very much for reminding me Mr Evil-half-of-my-brain."

No problem.

"I don't see why I ‘ m even doing this."Ron muttered beside him."I don ‘ t have a date."

"Find one."Harry answered distractedly. ( other people had ties, was he meant to get a tie ? )"It ‘ s not too late."

"Harry, the terpsichore is in…"Ron checked his watch."… to a lesser extent than an hour."

"So you ‘ d better get to it then."Harry said flippantly, then asked."Am I meant to have a tie ?"

"Harry, your apparel robes don't have a collar."

"You need a apprehension to wear a tie ?"

Ron rolled his eyes. Harry shrugged and left the bathroom. In the usual room the other piranha were already waiting, Padma and Neville standing a picayune way off. Neville looked nervous, but then Neville always looked skittish. Harry waved Parvati to one side,

"On the minus side we ruined our champion nights and made them miserable."Harry growled angrily."On the plus English you owe me a galleon."

"Still time Harry."Parvati smiled chirpily."Trust me."

"Don ‘ t say that. check saying that. I promise never to say it again if you stop saying it now."

"Shut up and look."Anapurna hissed.

Harry looked where she was pointing. Hermione was sitting on one of the couches reading, she hadn't even changed into dress gown which Harry assumed was a bad sign.

"I ‘ m looking but…"

"Look again."

Harry followed her regard again and saw that Ron had emerged from the can. He then followed Ron's to the lounge were Hermione was sitting. Harry's jaw dropped. He watched as Ron hesitantly walked up to stand in front of Hermione. Her chief came up and she said something, across the crowded uncouth room Harry couldn't hear but it looked like ‘ what ? ’. Ron scratched his school principal and mumbled something. Hermione put her handwriting up to her ear. Ron leant down and spoke into her ear, his face bright red. Then, to Harry's heart-attack-inducing surprise, Hermione blushed as red as the boy standing in presence of her.

"No way…"Harry chuckled as Hermione flipped her book closed and hurried towards the daughter hall. He looked back towards Parvati, who was wearing an formulation of total smugness.

"I ‘ ll take that galleon off you any time Harry."

"You are the queen regnant of the manipulative harpy-vultures you know that ?"Harry said, flipping a galleon at his friend.

"From you Harry I take that as a complement."Annapurna snagged the coin and moved to follow Hermione. Harry saw that Padma and Ginny had both already gone up after her.

"Probably pulling off some sort of finis minute of arc Cinderella miracle."Harry shrugged and moved over to where Ron and Neville were standing.

"Harry, did you see that ! I-"

"I saw Ron,"Harry rolled his eyes and checked his ticker."It only took you four bloody years."

"Hey !"Ron looked peevish and Harry laughed.

"Listen, they ‘ ll prob ‘ ly be a while."Harry jerked a pollex back at the young woman way."And I need to unfold the dancing. I ‘ ll meet up with you later Ok ?"

Ron nodded and Neville chirruped.

"Ok."The little nervous boy then nodded towards their red-headed friend and whispered."And I ‘ ll try to proceed him from screwing things up."

"You ‘ re a marauder Neville…"Harry shook his head."You ‘ re not god."
*


Harry took a mysterious breath and walked down the tone into the ingress foyer. There were a few other Hogwarts boys already waiting down there, huddled in anxious groups waiting for their dates. Harry waved to a few of them and settled down to expect, leant against pillar.

"What is that your wearing Potter ?"

Harry rolled his eyes then realized that the effect was ruined by having them closed. He opened them to see Malfoy standing in front of him wearing jet Negroid robes and with Viola tricolor hortensis Parkinson on his arm.

"Just for one Nox Malfoy…"Harry sighed."…leave off. Just try to be almost human for once."

"Fine."The Slytherin's eye's narrowed."I ‘ ll remain away from you if you extend me the same courtesy."

"I ‘ ll be out of your fuzz as soon as Susan gets here."Harry glanced at the gradation down to the kitchen but no one was coming.

"Susan Bones ?"Malfoy queried, he almost sounded actually curious.

"Yes, why."

"Just happy to see you ‘ ve asked a decently pure blood girl."Malfoy drew himself up."Just because your pedigree is tainted doesn ‘ t mean the Potter pipeline has to go entirely to the dogs."

"Ok, three things…"Harry held up three finger's breadth."One : Screw you !"

"Potter-"

"Two,"Harry interrupted him."I asked her to a ball. That does not mean I intend to preserve any line with her in the most future. If naught else we ‘ re bloody XIV ! There are laws against that variety of thing."

"I ‘ ll give you that one."

"And three : …"Harry grinned."I didn ‘ t ask her because she ‘ s pure blood."

"Why did you ask her ?"Malfoy sniped acidly."Her other assets ?"

"I reserve the right to not incriminate myself."Harry cracked."By the way, does your engagement speak or does she just hang there like seaweed ?"Harry grinned at the umbrageous aspect on Malfoy's face.

"Well this has been lovely."Harry continued as he kicked himself off his tower."We really should do this again."He brushed past the angry pair and walked up to the figure that had appeared up the stairs.

"Hi Susan."Harry greeted his date, biting his lip. She was wearing something racy and flowing, robe or dress or something he couldn't really put a name on just now. His eyes traveled down then back up again swiftly."You look amazing."

"Thank you Harry."Susan reached out and took his offer hired hand."You look hansom cab as well. Your wearing apparel robes are really… unusual."

Harry caught the logical implication and looked down. His gown was deep red cloth that came out over his legs like regular gown but were buttoned in soused around his trunk by two wide rows of push button. It's long arm hugged his arms tightly but opened out right at the cuff to reveal the lighter liner. Plus, as Ron had noted, it ended at his neck opening with just a stub of a collar.

"I bought them in Switzerland."Harry shrugged."Must be a different trend than here in U.K.. Oh well…"

"No it ‘ s nice."Susan said reassuringly."I saw some of the Beauxbatton boys wearing robes like that."

Harry shrugged, robes weren't of any item concern to him. The shop he had bought them in had had 100 of robes in Brobdingnagian ranks. He had chosen these for two reasons. One, they didn't have all the lace and clipping and overweening embroidery that most of the others had had and two ( and Harry cringed to admit this to himself ) they had looked like they would be easy to fight or run in if anything happened.

"Ready to spread the dance."Harry asked, knowing that he himself wasn't.

"I think I ‘ ll do ok. My mother gave me deterrent example once."

"Lucky."Harry smiled ruefully. A import later McGonagall appeared, as if from nowhere.

"Well get to it."She snapped quickly."The other champions are already lining up to participate the hall."

Here we go. Harry gulped as they got into position.

"Nervous thrower ?"

"Just don ‘ t trip over your seaweed and fall on me Malfoy."Harry's automatic pistol witticism circuits responded for him while the rest period of his brain shivered with nervousness.

"And… go."McGonagall's voice rang out and the doors to the gravid hall opened slowly, revealing an winter wonderland decorated with sparkling Charles Percy Snow and ice carving. Harry just hoped it wouldn ‘ t make the trading floor slippery. He took Susan's hand and stepped forward purposely.

The hall was full of duad but a blank space was crystalize in the center. A very magnanimous space, that everyone was staring at.

"Oh great."Harry sighed as the music started up.

Harry let his intellect movement back to the ten minutes of very approximate dancing lesson that Parvati had given him yesterday. After he had broken down and begged.

"One two three one two three…"Harry counted off the beats in his capitulum and tried not to step on his collaborator shoe. He found that so long as he kept to a very restrictive and repetitious routine it actually wasn't too bad."One two three…"

"This is so romantic."Susan murmured."Like a fairytale."

"Yes it is, one two three."Damn ! I can't talk and count at the Sami time. Why didn't I ask a mute seaweed girlfriend ?

"Do you think we could get them to take in a egg every twelvemonth ?"

"Probably one two not three."

"They might if enough of us asked them too."

"I don ‘ t one two think so. one two thr… shucks !"Harry almost fouled up his footwork and let himself breath. He stopped counting, hopefully by now his invertebrate foot could act out the beat on their own."If they did the scholar would never come home for Christmas and then their parents would complain."

"I guess."Susan leant in and rested her top dog on Harry's berm. Harry chuckled as he was reminded again of their congeneric summit."I guess I ‘ ll just have to enjoy this one."

"Enjoying it so far ?"Harry drew her in closer.

"Yes."Susan smiled cheekily."You ?"

"Yes."Harry answered, and found that he meant it. The dancing wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought it would be. The music stopped and Harry realized that he had survived the exclusively dance that was required of him that evening. He glanced back at the blond Hufflepuff in front of him and grinned."stay in for the next one ?"
*


Six dances later and Harry felt like he was almost getting well-to-do with it when he felt a tap on his articulatio humeri. He looked around to see one of the Durmstrum students that he didn't know.

"May I cut in ?"The boy said, with very niggling accent. Harry coup d'oeil at Susan, who nodded. She seemed to sleep together the guy somehow. Harry stepped aside and the two of them moved off, Susan giving him a minuscule wave as they went.

Harry walked off the dance story, snagged a trash of something off a tray and moved to somewhere where he could see the entire trading floor. It was prison term to check up on thing. Harry chuckled and sipped the whatever-it-was as his eyes scanned the hall.

He found Annapurna first, who seemed to be choosing which of a several boys who were all clustered around her to take out over the dancing floor succeeding. She caught his eye, smiled and subtly pointed to her right.

Harry followed her gaze and found Ron and Hermione sitting by one of the immense tables wax of solid food. Ron at least seemed to be talking between binge of eating and he'd spotted them out on the dance floor earlier so that was probably fine. Hermione looked well-chosen at any rate.

He couldn't find Neville and Padma anywhere but Ginny seemed to be happily talking with some Ravenclaw or other. Harry shrugged and took another sip of what he suspected was champagne charmed to be non-alcoholic. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Except that he now didn't have a dancing partner. He searched around for a comrade facial expression and found one before walking over.

"misfire Delacour."He held his deal out to the seated Beauxbattons champion."Would you care to embarrass me by dancing ten times better than I ever could ?"

The Daniel Chester French girl smiled and took his hand.

"But of courze."She stood and he led her out onto the terpsichore floor.

Harry settled into the rhythm of the new song and got used to dancing with someone taller than him. Since he was at least a foot shorter than her that put his oculus right about spirit level with her-

"So…"Harry interrupted his own mental monologue."Enjoying the dance so far ? Not been bothered by too many pushful educatee ?"

"I know how to address with zem."Fleur replied haughtily, but Harry detected a ghost of humor in her reaction."The only job was our fellow champion."

"I ‘ m guessing we ‘ re not talking about Viktor."Harry said and she shook her head."By the way we can spill in French if you want."

"My English people iz adept than your French I think."Fleur replied pointedly.

"Probably."Harry shrugged."Would you care me to try and keep Malfoy away from you for the relaxation of the ball ?"

"Non, I can dispense with him."Fleur laughed, the drive was very matter to for Harry in his flow placement and he tried to stop the blush spreading to his cheeks.

The song ended and Harry stepped back. Fleur curtsied politely and Harry bowed as he'd seen the French boys doing after they finished their dances. He caught Fleur looking over his shoulder and followed her gaze to see a pair of one-seventh eld moving off the dancing floor.

"Iz he taken ?"Fleur asked with a smile.

"Not anymore."Harry winked and turned to ask the boys mate for a dance.

She turned out to be giggly and talkative so Harry let her burble on for the duration of the dance before moving off gratefully and sitting on one of the work bench by the intellectual nourishment. He nabbed a couple of the remaining tidbits and lay back relaxed. He had been on his substructure since the commencement of the ball and it felt good just to take a few moments to himself.

"So…"

Knew it was too just to be true.

"… you are Quaker with the Pythea ?"

Harry glanced to his left field and saw Igor Karkaroff sitting next to him, an intent facial expression on his face.

"We know each other."Harry said warily giving aught away.

"Of row a man of your standing probably knows many people in high-pitched places."

"Standing."Harry didn't make it a question but the Headmaster answered anyway.

"As the boy-who-lived."

"Oh that."Harry nodded."Yes that's me."

"I think that we perhaps got off on the untimely foot."Karkaroff said in a simpering manner.

"Do you now."Harry tried to find out an outlet from the conversation but couldn't think of one.

"I would wish for you to think of me as a friend."

"Stop two'ing me then."

"I could… give you higher marks."Karkaroff said slyly.

"Oh ! No no !"Harry said quickly, realizing what his flippant remark could induce been interpreted as."Just turn back being unfairly harsh."

"Of course."Once again the simpering flavor."And perhaps we could… do something… together."

Harry sighed.

"Perhaps during the school Holliday you could visit Dumstrum."

"This vacation I ‘ m going to… Kenya."Harry said a country at random.

"I could process you to a wizard concert at one of the grand halls in Europe."

"Can't, allergies. All the dust and stuff."

"Or… we could…"Karkaroff seemed to be casting around for another activity."Take the Durmstrum ship and go fishing, as friends."

"Are you trying to ask me out ?"Harry said tersely, tired of the conversation."I ‘ m flattered but you ‘ re too old for me."

"I just want you to finger well-heeled asking me for favors."Karkaroff said expansively."That is what friends do… help each other. Introduce each other to former friends…"

Harry groaned inwardly.

"That sort of thing."Karkaroff finished with a faux smile."Whatever you need. What 's mine is yours."

I'd rather nick my heart out with a rusty-

"Thank you."Harry nodded."I ‘ ll think about it. But for now I ‘ ve just remembered I promised someone a dance."

Harry stood quickly and whistled softly. A present moment later a glowing figure drifted up through the floor.

"You remembered !"Myrtle cried happily.

"Of course I did."Harry reached out and took her icy hand."Didn ‘ t think I ‘ d forget about you did you."

Harry led the ghost out onto the dance flooring, away from the startled Headmaster.
*


Harry gave Ginny up to a Beauxbatons student and sat back down on a work bench. Now he had danced with all the distaff marauders. Anapurna had spent virtually of the time crowing that all her forecasting had come true, Padma was very terse about where she had disappeared to with Neville, Hermione seemed exasperated with Ron and Harry couldn't workplace out whether it was formula arguing or an actual trouble, Ginny was just giddy and glittering. Of all of them Myrtle had actually danced the dependable, at some pointedness in her pre-ghost biography she had obviously practiced for to a greater extent than ten minutes. Harry made a mental distinction to ask for object lesson if there ever was another dance.

Harry glanced up at the clock and realized that there couldn't be too many more dances left. He needed to spare the last one for Susan but there were a few to go before that.

Harry glanced around and realized that there was one person he hadn't seen on the saltation level yet. His centre found her sitting over by one of the ice sculpture, her own pure-white robe making her look almost like part of the decoration.

"Hi Thea."Harry greeted and sat down next to her."Haven't seen you on the dance level much."

"Dumbledore was polite adequate to dance with me a few times."The Oracle said, smiling."Everyone else seems to be intimidated."

"You should give said."Harry frowned, then grinned cheekily and winked."I ‘ d have set ‘ em straight."

"It ‘ s quite alright."Pythea laughed."I get invited to a quite a few balls."

"Well there ‘ s time for a few More dances."Harry held his hired man out."seed on."

"Thank you Harry."Pythea took his hand and they walked out into the dance floor.

They swayed to the music for a while, Harry finding his rhythm.

"Are you still wearing it ?"Pythea asked suddenly.

"The necklace ?"Harry smiled and drew the chain out from the front of his robes."Always."

"Good."Pythea grew grievous for a import."Always keep it on. You will ask it."

"Soon ?"Harry looked into the Oracle's mismatched eyes."Do you see me needing it soon ?"

"I see nothing."Pythea said enigmatically and broke his gaze before tucking the petty shell back into his dress robe."But yes, I don ‘ t think it will be too much longer before you need it."

"You ‘ re still not gon na secern me what it does ?"

"No."

"Brat."

Pythea smiled and they danced another song without speaking. A suspicion began to grow in Harry's mind.

"Pythea ?"Harry said, suspiciously."You said you get invites to lots of balls ?"

"Yes ?"

"Do you reply any of them ?"

"W… why ?"A little quaver entered the oracle's voice.

"You ‘ re counting."Harry grinned.

"I am ?"Her eye's opened wide.

"One two three one two three."Harry nodded."Under your breath, I doubt anyone else noticed."

"Dumbledore ?"

"Oh no he probably noticed."Harry nodded."You ‘ ve never been to a Ball before either have you ?"

"I have… had dancing lesson at the temple."Pythea said, a little defensively. A moment later she sagged, dejectedly."I haven ‘ t been the Pythea very long."

"How long ?"

"The yr you visited was my first."Pythea whispered into his ear."I wasn ‘ t allowed to attend consequence until my grooming was finished so as to quash embarrassment. It wouldn ‘ t do to wee mistakes."

"plethora ? Counting is embarrassing ?"

"Harry didn ‘ t you see how everyone acted when I got here ?"Pythea spoke quietly into his ear."I have been trained since before I can call back to be the interminable Pythea. Since the day I was taken from my parents. I am supposed to be the unchanging similitude of the first gear Oracle, 1000 of years ago. Anything former than perfection is embarrassing."

"Wow, well it ‘ s ok."Harry winked."I won ‘ t say anything and I ‘ m sure Dumbledore won ‘ t. He ‘ s too polite."

"Thank you Harry."Pythea seemed to be surprisingly relieved."If they found out about a slip like that they wouldn't let me out again for a long time."

"Let you out ?"Harry shuddered. The floating temple of the oracle with its vines, high above the basis below suddenly took on more sinister connotations in his mind. Harry hesitated, then decided to speak what was on his mind."Are you… lonely there ?"

"Sometimes."Pythea said it matter-of-factly, like it was an inevitable fact of life.

"I could inflict this summer."Harry offered.

"That… that would be lovely."Pythea said sadly."But I do not cogitate Dumbledore would approve."

"He ain ‘ t the gaffer of me."Harry grinned.

"No, he is not."Pythea sighed."But I think by this summer you may be busy."She reached out and pressed her hand against the scale chandelier under Harry's robe, then stepped aside, smiling sadly.

Harry was confused for a moment then realized that it was the last saltation, she was stepping aside so he could find Susan. Harry waved a thank-you to her then scanned the Charles Martin Hall to find his date.

"Over here Harry !"

Harry hurried over to the splash of blue he could see among the other robes and took Susan's hand just as the music started.

"Whew."Harry smiled."Just in time."

"We sort of lost track of each former in the middle there didn ‘ t we ?"Susan said as they began to impress to the ho-hum rhythm method of the last dance.

"We started the saltation together and we ‘ re ending it together."Harry shrugged."The bit in the middle got a bit fuzzy but I still had fun."

"So did I."Susan moved closer and Harry hesitantly put his weapon system around her waistline."But I wish we had spent Thomas More metre together."

"I ‘ ll have to get to it up to you sometime."Harry looked into his dates eyes."Like succeeding Hogsmeade weekend ?"

"You ‘ re still not official allowed to go to Hogsmeade."

"By now they ‘ ve probably stopped trying to stop me."Harry quipped.

"Then I ‘ d love to go with you."

"Great."Harry grinned.

"My parents are coming to see the indorse task."Susan said suddenly."They ‘ d making love to meet you."

Second task ? … I still need to work out the bloody egg.

Harry groaned inwardly. Something always had to ruin it.
*


Harry led Susan back to the Hufflepuff common room and strolled back up through the darkened castling. When he reached the Gryffindor common room almost everyone had already retired. The only one still in the room was Neville, nodding off in a professorship by the fire.

"Nev ?"Harry poked him awake."Why are you still up ?"

"Oh Harry…"Neville rubbed his centre."Just waiting for you to get here. mortal had to stay to tell you."

"Tell me what ?"Harry's eye's narrowed.

"Um…"

"Where ‘ s your date ?"

"Up with Hermione. All the girls are."Neville said dejectedly.

"They are ? Why…"Suddenly Harry worked it out and groaned."What did Ron do ?"

"He um… looked at Fleur."Neville said evasively."Like, not at her face. And for a long time too, about five minute when Hermione was aright there."

"What did Hermione say ?"Harry asked, dreading the answer.

"She wasn ‘ t happy."Neville shook his head."But it was what Ron said that really ticked her off."

"What did Ron say ?"Harry could just feel the loading train approaching.

"Something along the line of…"Neville's brow creased as he tried to remember."‘ What do you expect ? They're right there and they're huge.'”

Harry covered his facial expression with his hands and sank into an armchair.

"You ‘ re kidding me ?"

"No."

"That really sucks."

"He could experience said a lot of unsound things."Neville pointed out.

"Like what ?"Harry challenged.

"Like ‘ They're proficient than yours which are small and underdeveloped.'or ‘ Shut up you're blocking my view.'”

"Ok ok !"Harry laughed, covering his mouth to repress the giggles."The trouble is I can actually see Ron saying that."

"Well…"Neville spread his hands,"We tried."

"We did."Harry nodded."It ‘ s up to Ron now. How ‘ d your evening go ?"

"Kind of got ruined by all this."Neville shrugged sadly.

"Where did you evaporate to early on ?"Harry asked slyly.

"We… we went to the rose garden. But we didn ‘ t do anything."Neville quickly added."We sort of decided to stay just friends for now."

"surmisal its just as well."Harry sighed."I ‘ m already trying to juggle too many ships."

"Keeps the consultation guessing."
*


The atmosphere around the marauders in the weeks after the ball could best be described as ‘ icy ’. Harry tried to fall apart the frozenness between the two clique. Well, two camps was an magnification. There was the miss, there was Ron and there was Harry and Neville trying to continue out of visual sense by the sidelines.

The two boys dealt with the situation in the most mature way they could reckon of. They hid in the library. Any meter they actually had to be portray, like lessons or meals, they tried to proceed quiet on the edges so as not to be tarred with the same brush as Ron. Harry tried to make conversation at breakfast though, in spurts.

"What lesson do we get first ?"

"It ‘ s Saturday."Parvati said flatly.

"Ah, right."Harry said lamely.

Hermione snorted and flicked clear the casual seer. Harry looked over at Ron who was sulking over his bowl of cereal. Harry mouthed the oeuvre ‘ apologize'at him but he pretended not to discover. Harry mouthed it again, followed by the words ‘ or else ’. Ron just hunched lower. Harry sighed and turned back.

"Anything in the news ?"Harry asked desperately."Any more strange last ?"

"No, just a regular one."Hermione shrugged."An old crone in Dorset named dame Ellen Hayward."

"Suspicious ?"Harry asked, interested.

"She was over a hundred and fifty years old Harry."Hermione answered dismissively."Even hag and wizards die eventually. It ‘ s sad but it ‘ s not suspicious."

Not if you don't look too closely.

Harry sat bolt upright. Had he really heard that or had he imagined it ?

You heard it.

Harry looked around surreptitiously, trying to gauge where the voice could be coming from. It sounded familiar… Harry's eye's led him up to the in high spirits table and along to where Pythea sat, watching him quietly over a home base full of cut fruit.

Good cockcrow Harry.

"commodity morning Thea."Harry thought and saw her smile."How was Greater London ?"

London was tremendous Harry. The politico that inhabit it however are akin to poisonous sea clout. Slippery and spiky at the like time.

"You didn ‘ t have fun then ?"Harry projected sarcastically.

I prefer Hogwarts.

"Fireworks over the Thames though,"Harry thought back."For new-years, that ‘ s always good. I saw a few of them when I lived in London."

Oh yes, I'd almost forgotten. Pythea smiled wryly. One day of luminosity and lulu and four weeks of conferences.

"Such is life."

Stop trying to be sagely Harry. With me that's a competition you won't win. I'm surprised you took in the video display though, weren't you meddling trying to hold out ?

"Are you kidding ?"Harry laughed in his creative thinker."Everyone looking at the sky, no one watching their pocket, it's dark and noisy… you see where I ‘ m going with this."

I should have known. Pythea chuckled But we've got distracted from the point. She pointed at the newspaper in strawman of her and looked down at the necrology. Interesting isn ‘ t it…

"Is there something I ‘ m missing ?"Harry pulled a copy over towards himself and scanned the text.

There didn ‘ t seem to be anything there. Harry looked back at the front varlet but had no connection, it was just some malicious gossip involving the parson of magic and some accusation of embezzlement. Harry flicked to the second page. The Chudley Cannons had lost another plot ( wonderful workweek for Ron ). There didn ‘ t seem to be anything else interesting. Harry shook his head.

"I don ‘ t see it. Did someone stand to inherit or something ?"

Possibly, but that was not what I was referring to. Pythea smiled mysteriously.

"Have you… you know… seen something ?"

You don't have to be an Oracle to see what I'm talking about. Pythea closed the theme and looked around the hall. The paper is only half the story.

"The other half is… ?"

Guess.

"Brat."Harry muttered and his headspring was filled with silent laughter.

I'll give you a clue. Words are nothing until individual reads them.

Harry thought for a farsighted moment, then smiled.

"People ‘ s reactions."Harry thought hesitantly, and was rewarded with a nod. Harry cast around the hall."Who ‘ s reading ?"He scanned the dorm and found Dumbledore, bent over the paper. It looked like it was open to the right page.

"Dumbledore ? Is he reading it ?"

Yes. But is that unusual ?

"Well…"Harry tried to put it together in his head."They were about the same age, maybe they even went to school together. It ‘ s not surprising he ‘ s taking an interest."

trade good, who else ?

Harry scanned further and alighted on an unlikely candidate.

"Malfoy ?"The blond Slytherin was just staring at the heart-to-heart page in front man of him, his face ashen and unreadable. Harry could even see his thorax rising and falling rapidly from across the room. As Harry watched the whizz he grabbed the paper off the table and walked quickly out of the hall.

"Ok, I admit,"Harry thought, nodding."That was occupy. But what does it have in mind ?"

It's a puzzle Harry. You like mystifier don't you ?

"I have too many of them right now but usually yes."Harry shrugged."But I don ‘ t know what to make believe of this."

That's because you do not possess all the pieces. Pythea projected cryptically. You will let to try and find them.

Harry felt the presence leave his mind.

"Harry ?"

"W… whut ?"Harry shook his head, confused.

"Harry are you OK ?"Parvati was saying, the Marauders were all staring at him."You ‘ ve been staring into space for like five minutes."

"And muttering to yourself."Ginny added."You looked kind of weird."

Harry stood up suddenly.

"I need to go to Dorset."

"You… What ? !"

"But for the first time I need to talk to your brothers."Harry set off down the remit quickly, a determined smell on his face.

buns him the piranha looked on aghast. Padma voiced what they were all thinking,

"Is it me or is he getting uncanny ?"





Yes, I know the chapter 's a little fluffy. It had to be, you ca n't really publish a Christmas clump that 's not.

Review anyway. Pretty please !


A minor voice of this is rather obviously lifted directly out of Goblet of Fire.



Harry slid out of the lake and dried himself off. He set the plastic bag he had drawn across the weewee on the ground and ripped it undefended. He lifted his leather bag out and set it back on his articulatio humeri before setting off at a jog towards Hogsmeade.

As he neared the village he flicked it exposed and pulled a magical mask out that made him look wizened and old. He also threw a tattered nigrify cloak over his Hogwarts gown and walked into the Sus scrofa Head. He didn't look at the clientele, already smelling of firewhisky at ten in the morning, and stepped up to the bar.

"I need to use the flue."Harry said. He didn't botheration to conceal his voice, the barman was undoubtedly used to stranger than him and even if not he probably wouldn ‘ t care. The barman grunted and pointed towards a oily sign.

Flue for customers only

"I ‘ ll have a butterbeer then."Harry took the proffered feeding bottle and salute it in one sup before walking over to the hearth and spinning himself to the leaky cauldron.

Harry rushed into Diagon bowling alley, feeling very exposed even in his disguise. He reached the stride of Gringots and stepped inside it's columned entrance. He emerged a few minutes later with a pocket-size bag of muggle money. He wasn't worried about the goblins ratting him out, confidentiality was a given with them.

Harry had one last errand to run in Diagon before he left. He reached into his bag and popped the foremost of the twins gifts into his lip. Instantly he felt his throat constrict and arise scratchy, he coughed deeply and multitude in the street turned to calculate at him. It got a little better after a few minute but it still felt raw.

He tried to tattle and his voice came out old and leathery. Perfect. Hurt like hell but perfect for concealing his voice.

He walked into the chemist, taking care to wee his gradation a little faltering and weak.

"Hello my good man."Scratchy and nasty like a lifelong smoking car."Do you have any fox urine ?"

"Fox… urine ?"The man behind the counter looked at him like he was mad.

"Yes, I need it for a potion."

"No potion I know of utilizes fox urine."

"How ‘ bout wolf urine ?"Harry asked, stepping up to the counter."Do you have wolf piss ?"

"No."The market keeper was just staring at him now."No we don ‘ t have wolf weewee. Now can you-"

"Weasel ?"

"No now…"The shopkeeper paused for a moment."We do have weasel musk…"

"Yes that ‘ ll be perfect."Harry smiled through his leathery masquerade. The market keeper hesitated."You have some variety of problem ?"

"I don't have a problem."The shopkeeper rolled his eyes and stepped into the room behind his desk."How much do you need."

"About a gallon."

"A GALLON ! …"There was the sound of angry muttering and sloshing from the storeroom. A few hour later the man stepped back behind the desk with a tumid glass bottle full of yellowness liquid state. The bobfloat was sealed on with red wax."Do you have intercourse how many weasels you have to milk to get this much ?"

"How much ?"Harry ignored the question and drew out his pocketbook. The storekeeper told him and Harry paid happily.

"Have fun."The shopkeeper said dryly."Whatever you ‘ re preparation to do…"

Harry dropped the bottle into his bottomless bag and stepped out of the shop. He changed out of his robe in the caldron's toilet and slid quickly out into muggle London.

He stepped quickly along the roads at once both familiar and deeply alien. It was as if he had had two lives, the one he had lived on these streets and the of thaumaturgy and admiration at Hogwarts. Now it was like the two were colliding and he felt confused, felt like a picayune kid again but at the same time he could feel how far he'd come. His instincts didn't have it away how to respond and he found himself searching for places to blot out or run while at the Saami time fingering his sceptre hidden in his sleeve.

He was beaming when he finally set foot in Waterloo station and could buy a ticket to Bournemouth. The train was a surreal experience, sitting close to the window and flying past the earthly concern he was no longer component part of.

It took more than two hours to get there, ample time to spin his view turn and bout in his head. He tried to work out exactly how dolt he was being. ‘ Very ’, he decided. Very, very stupefied. He didn't know what would happen to him if it was discovered that he had snuck out of Hogwarts. Hogsmeade was one affair but this… And if he was discovered once he got there ? At the sight of a recent destruction ?

Very, very, very stupid.

Harry shut his eyes and focused on the one thing telling him he was doing the right field thing.

"Pythea sent me here."Harry nodded and bit his lip as he repeated the mantra over and over in his head."And if the oracle of Delphi Tell you to do something… then it ‘ s not stupid to do it."

Harry really wished the words didn't auditory sensation so hollow.

He left the railroad train and got on a bus. He left the bus in the middle of a field of honor of scrub and chalky ground. The sea was just out of sight but he could learn the waves crashing against the rocks, ominous and threatening.

The bus driver had looked at him weird when he'd asked to be let out in the center of nowhere. Harry knew better, it was only the eye of nowhere to muggles. Harry shucked his bag up higher on his shoulder joint and walked towards the sound of the waves, towards the courtly white manor theater near the edge of the cliffs.

It was blindingly obvious where the edge of the wards were. Someone had laid gage and flowers right up to an inconspicuous line on the ground, scrub gave way to garden like it was cut with a razor. Harry wondered why there wasn't a wall around the property. Either the woman who lived there trusted the wards implicitly or she liked the view too much to embarrass it away.

And the view was spectacular. The drop-off arching away to either side and the sea stretching into the length. It was an impressive panorama, enough to impress anyone. Anyone other than a aquaphobe. Harry shuddered and tried to keep the sea out of view.

He pulled the monumental bottle of musk out of his bag. It took him a minute to solve the showstopper out. He went up as close to the Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth as he dared and started dribbling the foul smelling stuff onto the undercoat. He poured it in as skinny to a semicircle as he could do, the other end of the ark also touching the wards, boxing him in.

Harry corked the bottle again and pushed it back into his bag. Now came the risky share. He pulled out the second of the twins talent to him, a little drinking chocolate bon-bon. He hesitated, cringing for a moment as he realized he still had musk on his fingers, then popped it in his mouth.

Instantly he felt his abdomen clench, a instant later white fur spread over his hands and arms. He just had prison term to feel his ears begin to scoot up his capitulum before his mind went blank.
*


The hare twitched it's nose and looked around. It felt like something was awry, something was unlike, but it couldn't work out what.

psyche you it was a rabbit so it couldn't try very hard.

It raised its nous and sniffed the air. There was a strange odor… Weasel ! It could smack a weasel ! Was it nearby ? The bunny took a couple of boring hops, no the olfaction was potent here. It dashed the other way, getting do-or-die. Stronger here too !

The bunny rabbit broke into a run in the early direction, shooting across the ground into a flower bed. It dashed under the vines of a pumpkin flora and sat there shivering. It would just wait here, wait here until-
*


"Well,"Harry stood, brushed a pumpkin leaf out of his hair and shook the turd from his robe."That worked like a charm."

Harry shook his oral sex to clear the last of the bunny-ness from it and checked to stimulate sure as shooting he didn't still have a tail.

"Any-ward, any-where, any-time."Harry chuckled and set off towards the house.

The back door was unbolted and Harry slid in, deliberate not to relate anything too much. He didn't know whether wizards knew how to check DNA or fingermark but he wasn't taking any luck. Harry looked around at the large kitchen he had walked into, an United States Army of house elves probably worked there just a few twenty-four hours ago. Now it was silent.

Harry pushed undetermined another room access and, after a shortsighted corridor, found himself in a high-ceilinged dining elbow room. It held elegant pendant and a long sepia table, it had silver candle holder and sumptuous red-velvet curtains. It also held no denotation of ever having been used any time this century.

This had been the habitation of one old cleaning woman living alone Harry remembered. She probably didn't eat in the grand dining way, didn ‘ t use nigh of these rooms probably. He was proved right when a few doors down he found a smaller study. This room showed signs of use, the book on the table by the window ever had a bookmark in it, near the end. She hadn't had a fortune to stop it.

Another small tabular array was obviously in use as a workbench. A small flipbook lay open, as Harry moved closer he saw it was filled with urge flowers.

Harry suddenly felt a lump form above his heart. He had realized what he was really doing here. Invading the house of a drained woman. He considered turning around right there but shook his head, steeling himself against what he was doing. Pythea had sent him here, that meant he was supposed to be here.

Harry left the study and checked the only early door he hadn't tried. It opened onto a imposing entrance hall with white-hot marble tiles and pillar holding up the balcony on the first flooring. The staircase came down the middle, spreading out near the bottom.

Unfortunately the dramatic effect of the room was ruined by the large tape transport boxes that were stacked in a sight by one side of the stares.

Whatever marauder had stood to inherit obviously hadn't wasted any time.

Harry was about the assay the way across the hall when he heard something. He went still and tried to pinpoint it, it was coming from upstairs. Harry tiptoed up to the landing, it was echoing along the corridor, a kind of sniffling noise.

One of the threshold near the end was ajar. Harry crept towards it as the noise got louder. It sounded like individual sobbing. Harry tried to peer through the tornado in the door but saw nil. He pushed the door just lightly with his foot and something came into his subject field of view. Harry was so take aback he didn't even notice as the door swung open.

The elbow room looked like a reading elbow room, or a second study maybe, bookshelves covered every wall but one. The whole back wall was a massive window looking out, offering a massive prospect over the garden behind the house, the wild bush beyond that and the sea stretching to infinity beyond that. There was a armchair set right in the midsection, where somebody could look out over the sea. The arms of it were clearly worn, someone had spent a long lime sitting in that chair. But that wasn't what had shocked Harry.

There was a boy sitting there in the middle of the room, collapsed on the base on his articulatio genus. Under his fatheaded Black robes his chest of drawers was racked with sobs. He had his manpower over his nerve and his finger curled into his white-blond hair.

Malfoy.

Harry just stood there, it was as if his body had been frozen. He must hold made some motion because a moment later Malfoy's head jerked up and Harry's green eyes met the watery grey 1 staring up at him.

There was a bit when no one moved, then Malfoy's face flickered from grief to disbelief, disbelief to confusedness and mix-up to rage.

"Stupefy !"

Harry threw himself back into the corridor as the trance shot past his shoulder. Harry drew his wand and shot a bludgeoning hex at Malfoy but found to coming back at him a import later. Harry was forced back down the corridor as the angered Slytherin threw hex after hex at him.

"Confringo !"Harry pellet at a marble fizzle by Malfoy's head and the blast caused him to elude and stumble.

"Ferio !"The enchantment hit Malfoy in the side and sent him to the level

"Petrificus To-"

"Expelliarmus !"

Harry felt his wand jerked out of his paw. He tried to grab it but it slipped through his finger and landed in Malfoy's out-of-doors medal. A moment later a glowing curse hit him in the face like a orb of acerate leaf and threw him to the floor.

As Harry shivered in botheration and tried to sway off the feeling that his face was being grated a shadow passed over him.

"Now Potter."Malfoy grated."We ‘ re going to have a long talk about why you ‘ re here and what I ‘ m going to do to you."

"I doubt it."Harry snarled and kicked Malfoy's feet out from under him. Some spell pin-wheeled over Harry's fountainhead and he ducked to the base. He leapt at Malfoy and grabbed both his munition to stop him casting more spell. Malfoy was writhing and spitting to try and get him off. Harry head butted him in the chin and he yelled out in pain.

Somehow Malfoy managed to get a hand free and stabbed his finger into Harry's throat. Harry grabbed Malfoy's haircloth and jerked him away. Harry shot back and managed to get hold his feet, he saw Malfoy rise and bring his verge to turn out. Harry reacted on instinct and launched himself, shoulder first, into the Slytherins's stomach. They both flew backwards and Harry heard a gaudy wreck of splintering wood. The two boy dropped like stones, far far than they should have.

It was only then that Harry remembered they had been fighting on the upstairs landing.

"Oh great,"Harry thought in that import as he brought up his hands to deal his head."This is going to hurt far too much."

The marble floor rose to encounter him. Harry felt the impact in every ivory and muscle, like some shockwave had shot through him and crack everything. He winced and tried to labor himself up. The instant his left over hand hit the base a shot of pain ran through him and he gingerly pulled it back.

Broken radiocarpal joint. Wonderful.

Harry stood on wobbly wooden leg and looked over at where Malfoy had fallen. The slimy pure blood was whimpering into the floor so he was probably alive. Harry walked over and snatched both their baton from where they ‘ d rolled. Malfoy was bleeding from somewhere. Harry knelt by him and pushed him over to get a upright look.

"Oh kibosh tears you big baby."Harry said disgustedly."You ‘ ve only got a break-dance nose."

"It hurts."

"That ‘ s why they call them broken."Harry shrugged and stood."What the hell are you doing here anywhere ?"

"I could ask you the same."Malfoy shot back, looking very silly. He was trying to pull of imperial arrogance with descent dripping from his nose.

"Yes you could. You wouldn ‘ t get an answer though because I hold all the cards."Harry grinned."Oh, did I say cards ? I meant sceptre !"Harry lowered his towards the boy on the floor."Tell me why you ‘ re here ! Why did you swipe out of Hogwarts to follow here ?"

"I have more right to be here than you do."Malfoy pulled himself up to a sitting position and wiped the blood off his nerve with a arm."Why shouldn't I visit Ellen ‘ s house ?"

"You know she ‘ s dead ?"

"Yes ceramicist that ‘ s painfully obvious."Malfoy sneered."I ‘ m here because she ‘ s an old phratry friend. What ‘ s your alibi ?"

"Following a tip."Harry's head snapped back as a loud bell rang out across the hall.

"That ‘ s the wards."Malfoy said, surprised.

Harry ran to the front room access and peered out from between the curtains. He saw a newsbreak of contraband robe and jerked back, his human foot skidding on the floor.

"Aurors !"There wasn't time to leave alone the dorm, Harry dove behind a down of boxes just as the churl grip began to turn. He felt Malfoy slide in beside him. The two boys waited in deathly silence as the door creaked open.

"signaling of a struggle sir."Harry heard a girls vocalism say."Broken banister, descent on the floor."

"More than a simple looting call then."A deep articulation, heavy.

"Perhaps they fought with the homeowner ?"A second base male person part, younger, suggested.

"Didn ‘ t you read the note ?"Girly said irritably."The householder ‘ s dead. That ‘ s the whole intellect we ‘ re here."

"Trainee Nymphadora is correct."oceanic abyss agreed."There shouldn ‘ t be any magic at this premise, let alone underage magic."

Harry groaned silently. Of row. The ministry could detect minor magic, and he and Malfoy had been throwing spells around like they were back at Hogwarts.

"We are idiots,"Harry thought. He turned and his eye met Malfoy's, he could evidence the other boy was thinking the same thing.

"So maybe the looters fought each other."The male trainee was saying."Arguing over despoilation ?"

"Possible."trench sounded as if he was just tolerating this youngster."We can not know at present."

"Should I take a blood sample ?"

Malfoy's eyes chatoyant wide open.

"No, we search the theater first. They could still be here. Jandred you stay here and realise indisputable they do not try to leave by the look door. Nymphadora, with me."

Harry heard pace move away to the door towards the dining room. His judgement was already churning possible action. If they took the blood, they would get hold it was Malfoy's and arrest him. At which point Malfoy would work Harry over in a heartbeat.

Harry drew his verge and disillusioned himself as quietly as possible. He heard Malfoy snort something behind him but ignored him. Harry peered out from behind a box and saw that the man, Jandred, was looking the other way. Harry slid out from behind the box and moved closer as silently as he was able.

Should have silenced my feet.

Harry cursed himself for forgetting but kept tiptoeing closer. When he was within a few metre of the piece of line of descent on the floor he whispered,

"Scourgify !"The blood line disappeared and Harry shot behind a pillar just as the trainee auror turned around.

Harry forced himself to breath shallowly and quietly. A tenacious moment went past but the man didn't seem to remark that the blood was gone. Harry looked over and saw that Malfoy had made his way to a English door and was beckoning to him from behind it.

Harry waited until the auror turned back and then slunk towards the blond Slytherin. He went sideways to get through the door.

"Where are we going ?"Harry mouthed but Malfoy ignored him and walked quietly along the corridor. At the former end he pushed on a section of wall and Harry was amazed to see it swing inwards. A secret room access !

Harry followed quickly behind and closed the threshold behind him.

"Where are we ?"

"servant's passing Potter."Malfoy seemed to be able to make even a whisper a leer."All true old pure blood sign of the zodiac have them so the retainer can run around without getting underfoot."

"Thought you used house elves ?"Harry said disparagingly as they made their way through the dusty corridor.

"There was a time when it was seen as a mark of true wealthiness to be capable to afford wizards slaves as well."Malfoy ducked under a massive cobweb."Alas those times have passed."

"Oh for the good old days."Harry said sarcastically.

Malfoy came to a arrest near a trapdoor in the base and levered the door open with his foot.

"We can get out here, the passage goes all the way outside the wards. It ‘ s how I got in."

"Why are you doing this ?"Harry asked quizzically."Why are you helping me ?"

"Why did you strip up the blood ?"

"Are you kidding ? If they ‘ d have caught you you'd hand me over in a mome-"Harry paused."That ‘ s why you ‘ re doing this isn ‘ t it ?"

"Spot on Potter. Get in the tinker's damn tunnel."
*


The two boys emerged like moles in a field stat mi away from the sign, blinking and shielding their centre from the sunlight. Harry could see the house far in the space, a albumen blot against the sky.

"That was a grievous tunnel."Harry tried to get his bearings and body of work out how to get back to the wagon train post."Town ‘ s that way."

"spring me my wand back."Malfoy said to Harry's back. Harry hesitated, then tossed it over his shoulder.

Harry began trudging through the grass and a moment later Malfoy fell into step beside him.

"Why were you really there ?"Harry asked suddenly.

"I told you ceramist she was a family friend."Malfoy said curtly.

"If she was a class friend your Father could make taken you out of school."Harry pointed out."Instead you sneak out on your own."

"I wanted to recognise the unhurt story."Malfoy said angrily.

"What do you mean the unharmed story ?"

"You don ‘ t… ? You don ‘ t know."Malfoy shook his forefront then began again as if explaining something to a child."The Daily prophet works hard not to offend the wizarding class you understand."

"Yeah."

"You remember what it said Ellen Hayward died of ?"

"She…"Harry tried to cast off her intellect back."It said she must have flux one of her medicative potions wrong. Used too much-"

"Exactly !"Malfoy cut in."That's what they say on the control surface. They don't want to violate us but they still need to spread the newsworthiness so they have these petty codes."

"computer code in the theme ?"

"Yes Potter,"Malfoy gestured with his manus as he explained."If they say someone say… died in his sleep then that means he was smothered by a household member."

"Nice."Harry cringed back.

"Don ‘ t be so squeamish."Malfoy scoffed."Spell misfired means they were experimenting with non-white magic, unexpected unwellness usually means they caught something from a orange red woman."

"You ‘ re fourteen Malfoy, say prostitute."

"And a mistake mixture potions is code for suicide."Malfoy lapsed into silence.

"So…"Harry said carefully.

"So Ellen was the to the lowest degree probable mortal in the humans to weigh suicide !"Malfoy snapped."She had more life in her than woman half her age ! She used to pop around to our house all the clock time, or we would go to hers. She was an fighting member of saturated stemma beau monde, and in good health. She would not kill herself !"

They walked in silence for a minuscule direction as Harry digested all off that.

"You suspect murder then."Harry said quietly.

"I just think it ‘ s suspicious."Malfoy said angrily.

There was more silence. They reached the macadam road and fell into pace along it easily.

"Did you hear about Rita Skeeter ?"Harry said after a spell."That was suspicious too."

Malfoy said nothing, but he bit his lip and seemed to be thinking. As they reached the edge of town Malfoy stopped suddenly.

"I ‘ m going this way."He pointed up a disused looking alleyway."This is my way home."

"You wouldn ‘ t consider giving me a lift would you ?"Harry said jokily.

"Don't be an idiot Potter."Malfoy turned and walked down the alley.

"Figures."Harry shrugged, shifted his bag gamey up on his berm and headed into town.

As he was walking through a shopping street on his way back to the train post he heard an odd noise. A kind of low moaning without words. It was also familiar. His ears pricked up as he tried to nail it. It was coming from a fiddling shop, one of those nature store that sold incense, wicker wall-hangings, wooden carving and useless debris like that. Harry moved into it and tried to pick out the randomness, it was coming from a tape histrion on a stand.

Harry's fingers moved to the fiddling knobs on the top. How did these matter work again ? Dudley had had one… Harry twisted one knob to no issue, he tried another marked pitch and the sound got scummy. Ah ! Harry twisted it all the way the other way and jerked the volume knob to full.

A high pitched warbling sidesplitter filled the shop class, causing Harry to both cringe in annoyance and yell in victory. It sounded almost exactly like the golden egg.

"Hey !"The shopkeeper yelled at him and rushed over to reset the auto."What the snake pit do you think you ‘ re doing kid ?"

"Sorry,"Harry shrugged apologetically."What was that ?"

"It was giant Song dynasty before you screwed with it."The man said angrily.

"hulk song…"Harry smiled and nodded."Thank you."He turned and walked out of the shop.

*

It was colored and bitingly cold by the time Harry hauled himself out of the lake and squelched into Hogwarts. Swimming across the lake at nighttime with a broken wrist had possibly been the most terrific experience of Harry's life and he was gladiola when he managed to gain the fat lady's portrait.

"Oh you inadequate dear."She said."You look like a you've been through the wars."

"flavor worse from in here."Harry smiled up at her and she opened without him saying anything else.

Harry barely had the zip to drop his clothes on the floor and crawl into bed before kip took him.

He the rabbit again, running through the Ellen Price Wood away from something. The apple trees were in full blossom and the air was full phase of the moon of pink petal. A twisted counterpoint to the veneration coursing through his tiny body. Something caught him, grabbed him by the spike. He kicked and scratched as hard as he could but it was no good, the monumental darkness anatomy holding him just laughed. Harry screamed as it plunged it's long fingers into his forehead.

"Harry !"

Harry jerked awake and looked around, Ron and Neville were standing over him worriedly.

"Bad dream."Harry muttered and slid out of bed."The one where I'm naked in the middle of the capital hallway again. Time to get up anyway."

"How was Dorset Harry ?"Neville said quietly.

"Cold. Going to the beach in January ‘ s a really stupid idea."Harry grinned and walked towards the showers.

Harry visited the infirmary wing quickly to fix his wrist ("stairs again Harry ?"“ Sure, we can go with that.") and wandered down towards the great Granville Stanley Hall in good sprightliness. He had a good clue on the egg, he hadn't been caught and he'd gained a valuable clue. All in all it was a good…

Bugger.

Harry froze as he reached the entrance of the swell foyer before forcing himself to continue and take a seat. Up on the high tabular array, sitting next to Dumbledore, was a marvellous black man in auror's robes.
*


"goodness morning students."Dumdledore stood as soon as everyone had gathered in the great hall."Before we eat this morning, auror Shacklebolt from the ministry has something to say."

Everyone in the hall was looking at the tall auror as he stood. Everyone except the predator who were all looking at Harry.

"What the snake pit did you do ?"Hermione hissed in his ear and Harry shushed her into silence.

"Good morning."The auror said, he seemed to intend this was all the introduction requisite because he proceeded to set up right in."Yesterday there was an incident at the star sign of a recently deceased enchantress near Bournemouth."

"That ‘ s in Devon."Hermione hissed.

"Is it ? Is it really ?"Harry hissed back."The geography lesson is fascinating now kindly shut up !"

"We were alerted to it by minor magic."The auror continued."But whoever it was is also guilty of breaking and entering, illegally breaching ward, property equipment casualty, vandalism and theft."

thieving ?

"judgment by the difficulty of the spells detected the defendant must be at least of Hogwarts age."The auror's dark heart swept over the pupil."And since there are currently no school age wizards in U.K. who chose not to attend Hogwarts the perpetrator is someone in this room."

Harry glanced over at Malfoy and met the former boy's eyes. They were both thinking the same thing, ‘ If one of us goes down, we both go down. ’.

"There was line left at the scene, but whoever it was cleaned up after themselves."Harry breathed a suspiration of alleviation in his nous."But thankfully we were able-bodied to retrieve some Strand of hair."

The auror held up a pocket-sized, clear-cut envelope. Harry adjusted his glasses but couldn't see anything in there before the auror put it back in the pocket of his robes.

"A simple cirrus ab clavis spell will determine who it belongs to."Shacklebolt continued."So in a second some of you will be escorted to the hospital flank where you will be tested."

"Only some of us ?"soul called out.

"Yes, the tomentum is blond."Shacklebolt stood and began walking out of the hall.

Harry gulped, the fact that the hairsbreadth wasn't his really didn't help him much. Malfoy would still rat him out.

"Harry what ‘ s going on ?"

"Not now Hermione."Harry stood and walked calmly towards the end of the mesa, plenty of former people were getting up to go the lectures so he hoped it wasn't too suspicious. The instructor had begun wrangling the blond scholarly person into grouping. Harry deliberately didn't facial expression over at the Slytherin tabular array, he already knew what he'd see.

As soon as he was out of sight of the hall he broke into a dash, shooting along the corridor and sliding sideways behind a tapestry before throwing himself up a hugger-mugger staircase. He had to give the hospital wing before the auror did, or he was absolutely inwardness. He dashed out of the stairwell and down a obsolete passage, ducking under cobwebs.

A present moment later he was out and walking normally. He had to give the auror no cause for suspicion, and this guy seemed pretty on the ball. He saw him turn into the corridor and Harry steeled himself, he would only get one chance at this. He moved out into the middle of the corridor and brushed close to the man as he walked past.

Harry's finger slipped into the auror's pocket. Dip-grasp-out-hide !

Harry slipped the envelope into his gown and kept walking. For a terrifying instant he thought the auror had noticed, that he was going to grow and yell for Harry to stop. But zilch came and Harry walked on.

He began breathing when he got a corridor away. That had been easier than he thought, he was really suffer respect for these ministry eccentric. Not enough watchfulness, Moody would be disappointed. Harry wandered back to the capital hall and looked in. The Marauders were already gone, probably trying to look for him, but the blond-squads were still there being organized by class and house.

"Harry !"Harry saw Susan waving to him and wandered over."What ‘ s all this about ?"

"You ‘ re guess is as good as mine."Harry shrugged.

"Harry don ‘ t take me for an idiot."Susan crossed her weapons system."This involves you."

"Why would you consider that ?"

"Because everything involves you !"

"Too right,"Harry grinned."But since I ‘ m not blond…"

"It was dye, or a tour, or you were involved in some other way."Susan moved closer and looked into his eyes."Is it going to be ok for you ? They ‘ re not going to arrest you are they ?"

"Relax, it ‘ s all proficient. I ‘ ve got it under control."Harry whispered. Susan smiled and hugged him.

"Potter !"Harry sighed and turned around. Malfoy was standing right behind him."A word please ?"

"Relax Malfoy, I took fear of it."Harry said, after checking that no-one was listening."You owe me."

With that Harry turned, waved so long to Susan and walked out of the Hall.
*


Harry saw Malfoy again about an hour later. Harry was heading back from he library when his fellow champion appeared out of nowhere and beckoned him into an empty classroom. Harry obliged before closing the door and casting silencing charms around.

"Where is it ?"Malfoy asked bluntly.

"Where ‘ s what ?"

"The evidence."Malfoy said angrily."I know you took it ! Is this your plan ? Keep it for blackmail ?"

"No, but that ‘ s a good plan."Harry scratched his chin thoughtfully."Maybe I will do that…"

"Potter you are the most-"

"Relax."Harry cut him off."I ‘ m not going to blackmail you, just ask you one question."

"What ?"

"What did you postulate from the Hayward house ?"Malfoy went abruptly still. Harry continued,"Because I know I didn ‘ t take anything but the aurors seem to suppose something ‘ s missing."

Malfoy was just staring at him.

"See, if you were telling the truth and you were investigating the funny death of a class friend then what I just did was a dependable thing."Harry held out his hands like balance shell."On the other hand if you ‘ re an timeserving, lying, hyena who was stealing from her then what I did was a bit more morally equivocal. In that case I ‘ d have to give the whisker back to the aurors and see your illegitimate tush go down."Harry snapped out the accusation viciously, Malfoy even jerked back a dance step. It was a import before Malfoy responded.

"I took…"The Slytherin swallowed hard."It was an heirloom of her family. A ring, ancient. If it had been boxed up with everything else to go to her full cousin he would cause sold it. It deserved better than that."

"It did, or she did ?"Harry asked, Malfoy hesitated then…

"Both."

Harry nodded faintly, adept enough. He reached into his robes and drew out the envelope.

"You still owe me."He tossed it to Malfoy and headed for the door.
*


It would have been overnice if that was the end of it. It wasn't.

"So Potter…"

Harry slowed to a block outside the Fat Lady's portrayal and turned around to see the unreadably scarred face of Mad Eye Moody.

"Oh great,"Harry grumbled."Is this chapter gon na be entirely negotiation ? ‘ Cos my throat ‘ s getting tired."

"I was just talking to my old friend Kingsley Shacklebolt."Helen Wills stumped up towards Harry and looked down at him."Seems some evidence just disappeared from his pocket."

"Did he match his other pocket ?"Harry suggested."That always happens to me."

"Cut the garbage Potter."Helen Newington Wills sighed."I already know you did it I just want to lie with whether you had a good reason."

"Protecting myself and a valuable informant."Harry said levelly."And because there are more important crimes going on right field now than breaking and entering."

"Like ?"

"Ellen Hayward."

"I assume it was suicide, reported at an accident."Moody said, though he didn't audio convinced.

"My witnesser is convinced otherwise."

"Guess I could make some inquires."Moody said thoughtfully."See whether there ‘ s anything to this."

"Thank you."Harry nodded and turned towards the uncouth room.
*


"Harry !"Still not over.

"Bloody hell."Harry groaned and headed over to the vulture mesa and slouched down onto a free chair."I suppose you want an explanation."

"Too mighty we do !"Ron said angrily.

"We ‘ ve been worried Harry."Neville leant forward and spoke quietly, but Padma interrupted him.

"We ‘ ve also been angry."She said through clenched teeth."What the snake pit ‘ s going on with you ?"

"I was investigating the murder, Ellen Hayward."Harry checked to see if anyone was listening then continued."Someone said it was wary so I went to search into it."

"We guessed that much."Ginny said impatiently.

"Well get this…"Harry tilt forward and quickly related what had happened in the manor house. At the end the marauders seemed stunned.

"Why did you do all this Harry ?"Parvarti asked."Why did you go there in the first stead ?"

"Um… because murder is bad ? Because I was bored ? Because I hadn ‘ t spent nearly decent prison term as a gnawing mammal this week ? Because I felt like it ?"Harry looked into their offend faces and decided to put them out of their misery."Pythea told me it was important."

"When ?"Hermione asked in disbelief."You didn ‘ t talk of the town to her or anyone else, you just stood up and told us you were going to Dorset !"

"oracle don ‘ t have to verbalize directly to you my anti-spiritual disciple."Harry tapped his temple."They have other ways."

"So effectively what you ‘ re telling us,"Padma crossed her arms."Is that you broke out of Hogwarts, invaded a murder scene and stole grounds because the representative in your head told you too."

"well if you put it like that you can make anything voice crazy."Harry shrugged and smiled cheekily.

"Harry you ‘ ve gone too far."

"You're just being antsy, I know you believe me really."

"Why ?"

"You called it a murder scene."Harry pointed out."agency you believe me that something else is going on."

Padma opened her lip to retort but shut it angrily and glared at him.

"Thought so,"Harry grinned."But I do have some other news show. We have another job to do this evening."

"Is it also a felony ?"Padma said sarcastically.

"I love you too."Harry winked."But sadly no. I think I ‘ ve finally worked out the bloody egg. We ‘ re going to the prefects can. Bring swimsuits."

*


On the way there Neville pulled Harry to one side of meat and asked him softly,

"Harry, don ‘ t you think you were a bit harsh on everyone ? I mean worse than normal."

"Yes Nev I do."Harry nodded and winked.

"You did it on purpose ?"

"Yep."

"Why ?"

"well I don ‘ t know if you ‘ ve noticed Nev,"Harry grinned like a Beelzebub."But they ‘ ve completely forgotten about Ron."
*


Harry slid into the water gingerly and pulled the egg in after him. The other marauders were already waiting amongst the house of cards. He motioned them down and they all slipped underwater. Harry swallowed his repulsion and twisted his head just enough to put one ear under water then opened the egg.

‘ ejaculate seek us where our voices sound
We can not sing above the ground
And while you're searching, ponder this
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An minute long you'll have to look,
But past an 60 minutes - the view's black
Too late, it's gone, it won't derive back..'

Harry pulled his oral sex back up the Sami moment the former marauders emerged. respective of them were spluttering or red-faced from the water. Harry was the solitary one who was bloodless grey.

"Well that ‘ s easy."Hermione said excitedly."You just bear to go somewhere and get something back in under an hour."

"Probably in the lake."Padma chimed it."It ‘ d make sense if it was underwater ‘ we can not babble above the background ‘ and all."

"We just need some magic spell or something to let him breath-"

"Harry,"Neville interrupted Hermione, earning a aspect of irritation."Are you ok ?"

The marauders turned to Harry, who still hadn't moved. He was shaking despite the warm water.

"Harry…"Ginny reached out to touch on his shoulder and he flinched away from her hand.

"Guys…"Harry spoke slowly and weakly, like his throat didn't want to displace."You remember the boggart in 3rd year ?"

"Yes it… Oh !"Hermione clasped both hands over her mouth in shock."Yours was water ! Your afraid of piss. But we knew that didn't we ? You can get through it, you ‘ ve been in the lake before ? You ‘ ve swum over it-"

"That's different, when my head ‘ s above water I can cope. Just."Harry shun his eyes and bowed his head, he felt wretched to be admitting this."But as soon as it closes over my head I lose it. My idea just goes blank, I can't think, can ‘ t control myself. I start trying to breath in the water, startle choking. I don ‘ t even have the sense to try and swim back up to the surface."Harry felt like iron exercising weight had been hooked to the side of meat of his essence but he kept going.

"I can fight a Draco again, or loup-garou, Voldemort. But I can ‘ t swim."Harry shook his head, trying to hold back teardrops."I can ‘ t swim."

The room was tacit, the gentle sloshing of the H2O against the bathtub, and the seven teens, sounded unnaturally loud.

"Ah,"Padma said dryly."That could stick a problem."

"Could you um…"Ron flapped his work force vaguely."Wear something over your head ? Like a bucket or something ?"

The former predator shared a smell and Ron fell silent.

"Ok…"Hermione rubbed her hands together nervously."That ‘ s ok. We can deal with this. We ‘ ll get you better, maybe get you used to it slowly. Immersion therapy. We ‘ ve got almost three hebdomad before the second task, we can get you ready."

"Yeah !"Ron brightened up."See, like this !"He jumped forward and pushed Harry's head underwater.

Harry screamed and felt water thrill into his airway. A moment later he was dragged out of the water and he collapsed against the edge of the bathroom, coughing up the foamy, multicolor, bathwater.

"What… the hell…"Harry gasped out."Is haywire with you !"

"S…Sorry."Ron mumbled."Thought it would help."

"Let ‘ s go back to the tower."Parvati suggested suddenly. Even she was finding it hard to be upbeat right now."Maybe we can fall up with something in the morning."

Harry nodded, it took too a lot energy to do anything else.
*


Harry had chemical chain around his articulatio talocruralis, an anchor on the other end. Pulling him inscrutable and deeper down into the lake. He tried to scream but nothing came out. It was getting darker and darker… grim. Harry kept screaming but the Joseph Black water filled his backtalk like a gag. It was everywhere.

Harry woke up diaphoresis and shaking and stumbled out of bed. He felt, and smelled, like he had run a endurance contest. He reached the bathroom and shed his sodden pajama quickly before spinning the tap for a shower. The nebuliser fell into the little tiled cubical but Harry didn't enter, instead he stood outside it shaking.

He hesitantly put a hand forward but as soon as the spray splashed it he jerked back. His affectionateness was racing. He turned the shower off and grabbed his baton, he ran a cleaning charm all over his eubstance before changing into his gown and scurrying out of the bathroom.
*


"Harry are you OK."mortal asked him for the fiftieth time that day.

Harry growled at him and the student scurried off. Harry sighed, it was too a good deal to take.

He had another nightmare that night, again trapped in the lake. This fourth dimension in a batting cage that was bolted to the lakebed. He kept trying to get out but the saloon were made of steel.

Once again he couldn't bring himself to lavish and made do with a cleansing charm. When someone offered him a glass of piss at breakfast he almost cursed them into oblivion.

Harry buried his face in his helping hand, it was getting spoilt. It was like every nightmare left a piffling bit of itself in him. Bulking awe on top of fearfulness until he self-destructed.

"Harry…"vocalisation ? Harry looked up and saw Parvarti's care case."We ‘ ve got brute now… but I ‘ m sure Hagrid won ‘ t thinker if you miss it."

Harry shook his school principal and stood up. Maybe something trying to gore him would take his mind off his phobia.

They walked down to Hagrid's cabin. Harry didn't say anything, neither did anyone else.

"Good cockcrow all,"Hagrid was his usual jolly self."We ‘ re having today ‘ s lesson down by the lake."

No !

Harry almost collapsed on the Gunter Wilhelm Grass. Hermione and Padma moved off at a run, trying to intercept Hagrid as he strode off towards the blue sky expanse.

Harry leadenly put one fundament in front line of the other. He was vaguely aware of Ron and Neville trying to talk to him but he blanked them out. He stopped as the grass sloped down towards the water. There were some things in pens near the water surface, Hagrid was opening one while Hermione and Padma talked to him. Harry couldn't hear what they were saying but the hand apparent motion were pretty emphatic.

Harry felt his forehead get slick with sweat. He tried to step closer to the lake but the sound of it filled his pinna. The gentle sloshing waves echoed somehow in his head and became a raging cataract, making it out of the question to concentrate on anything. The H2O seemed to rise while staying in the Saami topographic point, creeping stuffy to is eyes.

Harry's nerve broke and he turned and ran back towards the castling. He heard cry behind him but ignored them, he needed to get away. It felt like the lake was right behind him, like a chasing brute. He hit the steps of Hogwarts at a sprint and kept going. He had to hide !

All the while the water kept rushing in his ears.
*


The piranha begged out of Hagrid's lesson to go find oneself him. They spit into teams and searched the rook. It was nightfall before they found him. Neville and Ron stumbled on him in the dungeons, in a tiny, dead-end corridor. It didn't spirit like it had been used in age. Harry was just slouched against the spinal column wall, his munition tucked into his robes.

"Harry ?"Ron approached carefully.

Harry didn't answer, his regard was fixed of a little sopping part of the roof. His eye followed each droplet as it grew, dropped and splashed into a fogyish patch on the floor.

"Harry ?"

dribble, drip, drip.

"Are you Ok ?"

Drip, drip, drip.

"Is there anything we can do ?"

drip mould, drip mold, drip… Harry looked up and his eyes met Ron's. The redhead almost flinched back, his friends gaze was hollow out and dull, like all the life had been sucked out of him. But even so it seemed to keep back barely contained fury.

"Yes,"Harry's voice sounded like it was seeping out through Harlan Fiske Stone."I do ask your help."

"Ok ? What do you need us to do ?"

"I need us three to go back up to the prefects bathroom."Harry clenched his hands, he even seemed to be trembling."And you ‘ re going to try that immersion therapy thing again. Except this time you ‘ re gon na throw me under."
*


Harry turned the wiretap to full and forced himself to look on as the bath filled to the brim. He didn't add any soap, he had a feeling he would be inhaling a good quite a little of this water.

"Are you sure you want to do this Harry ?"Neville said nervously.

"I have to."Harry tensed himself and slipped one leg down into the water. He felt like his tegument was tightening up, like his unit leg had pins and phonograph needle. He gritted his teeth and dropped the rest period of his body in. Already he felt like scream, the water was everywhere.

"Ok, Neville you ‘ ve got a watch ?"Harry said through chattering teeth that had nothing to do with the temperature.

"Yes."

"Ok,"Harry began taking mystifying breaths in planning."Keep me under for five second gear, whatever I do. We ‘ ll thrust it up from there."

"Are you su-"

"hitch asking me if I'm surely !"Harry snapped. He turned to Ron, who was already in the bath."Do it !"

Harry closed his center and felt workforce close around his articulatio humeri. A moment later he was dunked down. He tried to keep his sassing shut but as soon as the water closed over his top dog he panicked and breathed in a great gulp of water. His lungs and throat burned and he flailed helplessly.

After what felt like a lifetime he was pulled to the surface. He collapsed against the slope of the bath and lay there, coughing up his lungs onto the tiles. He weakly realized that there was blood blend in with the water, he must of bit his tongue trying to breathe.

"Was that five endorsement ?"Harry said weakly once he had stopped coughing.

"Yes."

"make the next one ten."

"Harry !"Ron protested."I can ‘ t do this to you ! The tournament ‘ s not worth this !"

"It ‘ s not even about the tournament any more."Harry shook his head."It's got so much spoiled I can't take a shower, I can ‘ t go near the lake. I ‘ m dehydrated because I don ‘ t even want to tope a field glass of water. I can ‘ t live like this. Please mate… ten seconds."

Harry felt Ron relocation towards him through the urine and pull up him to his base. Harry took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Again he was plunged into hell. Harry broke again and gulped in water. He saw lights flash on the inside of his eyelid. He felt like the bath had become a maelstrom spinning him around and around. Every sinew clenched and released like he was having a seizure. The lights faded, and dark replaced it.
*


Harry woke confused. He was lying on a bed, with sheets over him. He wasn't wearing his glasses so the humankind in front of him was blurred. His chest felt lumbering and breathing was hard.

"Where am I ?"He croaked out.

"The hospital wing Mr Potter. You stopped breathing. Mainly because your lungs were entire of water."A Edward Douglas White Jr. blob appeared into Harry's sight and a here and now later his glasses were returned. Madam Pomfrey straightened and shook her head."You've been here two day repairing the damage, your lungs were damaged. You were really remarkably dolt, I don ‘ t even live what to say this time."

"At least I can ‘ t blame this one on stairs."Harry smiled weakly. The shoal nurse snorted.

"You ‘ re friend is over there."She jerked her head at another bed where Ron lay."He hasn ‘ t left since you were brought in. He seems to feel guilty over something."

"Sorry."

"Don ‘ t say it to me, say it to him."dame Pomfrey turned to go forth then asked."Do you need anything ?"

"My pharynx hurts."

"I ‘ ll get you something for it."Madam Pomfrey bustled off.

Harry cleared his throat,

"Ron !"At the sound of Harry's vocalism the predator stirred."Ron come alive up."

"Harry ? Harry you ‘ re awake !"Ron rubbed his eyes and slid out of bed."I ‘ m so dingy Harry, you stopped moving but I kept you under. I thought you were getting used to it… I didn't know you ‘ d blacked out. I almost killed yo-"

"Because I told you to."Harry broke in."You didn ‘ t screw up, I did. And if I wasn ‘ t so screwed up in the initiatory place none of this would be necessary."

"You ‘ re not screwed up Harry. You ‘ re just… Harry."

"I jump onto trains."Harry shook his head and laughed, but here was no witticism in it."I ‘ m 14 and I ‘ ve murdered two people you can ‘ t tell me that ‘ s normal."

"But that was self defense."

"And I didn't even hesitate ! I just stabbed them !"Harry continued."I have nightmares, I ‘ m aquaphobic and I remember things I shouldn ‘ t know. Something ‘ s amiss with me."

"But-"

"I manipulate people, I have no gumption of when I ‘ ve gone too far, I potioned a teacher, dueled another one, I lie, I cheat, I steal. You can ‘ t tell me I ‘ m normal, not with a straight face."

"But Harry,"Ron moved up and put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly."All that stuff's what makes you you."

"Being me sucks."Harry rolled over away from Ron. gentlewoman Pomfrey returned with a field glass of H2O and a small tumbler of grim liquid.

"drinking all of it. It ‘ s quite bitter."She disappeared into her part again.

Harry reached out and gulped down the aniseed flavored potion. He reached out for the water glass but his fingers stopped an in from the shabu. Harry sighed deeply and dropped back onto the bed.

"What is it Harry ?"Ron asked.

"It didn ‘ t work."Harry breathed faintly."It didn ‘ t even work."
*


"Bellevue."Harry spoke the word then knocked on the door.

"seed in."

Harry turned the grip and stepped into the guest twenty-five percent of Hogwarts. A few of the synagogue servant were sitting at the table reading, they looked up pointedly as he entered. He tried to cut them. He walked over to where Pythea was sitting by the window on a little couch. Harry pulled over a chair and sat.

"Are you feeling better ?"Pythea asked, though she didn't sound concerned.

"Yes. Thank you."

"I looked in on you in the hospital fender, but I couldn't stay."Pythea's eye's flickered to the T. H. White robed women around the table.

"That ‘ s alright."Harry smiled."That ‘ s not what I came here about. I need advice."

"About the second task ?"Pythea smiled faintly."You fear it."

"Yeah."Harry answered, not bothering to wonder how Pythea knew."I don ‘ t think I can do it. I mean there are turn and matter, bubblehead charm, Neville suggested gillyweed. But none of them ‘ ll work for me, not if I go crazy the instant I hit the piddle. I don't know what to do. I ‘ m scared Thea, I need help."

"Are you asking for my advice as an prophet ?"Pythea cocked her head."Or as a champion ?"

"Please Theia,"Harry begged."Just give me something."

"I have advice for you Harry."Pythea took his mitt in hers."But you may not wish it."

"Tell me."

"Give up."

"What ?"Harry frowned, confused.

"Don't compete in the second task. You can still win on the third even if you get zero for this one."

"But… The goblet ‘ s a back contract."Harry shook his head."I have to compete."

"You have to compete in the tournament."Pythea corrected."There have been various times in the past where a champion has skipped a undertaking for medical reasons. And a phobia is a legitimate medical reason."

"But… I ‘ d have to enjoin them."Harry bit his lip."The whole school would know."

"You fear that happening ?"

"Yes."

"More than you fear the lake ?"

"No."Harry shuddered and shook his head."Why are you telling me this ?"

"Because I hate to see you anguish Harry."She was rubbing her digit unconsciously on his hand."But even more than I hate to see you scared."

Harry nodded faintly. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea.

"But I still have hope."Pythea smiled suddenly."You always think of something."

"Ok, that was your ally answer."Harry smiled."What ‘ s the Delphic one ?"

There isn ‘ t one Harry. There never is with you.

Harry was about to reply but Pythea put a digit to her sassing and smiled.

"Would you like a biz of cheat while you ‘ re here ?"She said out loud.

"Chess with a mind-reading seer."Harry rolled his centre."This should be fun."
*


Harry took Pythea's spec of hope that he would intend of something and clung onto it like a lifeline. He spent every availably present moment in the library trying to determine some other way into the lake. He researched astral projection, animagi, freezing and boiling spells and obscure charms. He got his protagonist to brew a potion of courage to try to sweep over the care but it wasn't enough and the effect only lasted a few bit anyway.

So it came to be the night before the task and Harry was still in the library, sitting behind a pile of books, despairing.

There was no answer, he should just give up.

"burn the midnight oil Potter ?"Harry heard Malfoy's phonation and jerked his point up to see the boy walk out from behind a bookshelf, a pile of books under his arm.

Harry's supercilium furrows as he worked back through Malfoy's conviction. It took him a few secondment to go out what was bothering him about it. There hadn't been an insult in it ! It had been a simple, normal question.

"Yes, I see you are too."Harry pushed some of his own books aside and the Slytherin sat down. The al-Qur'an he had all had similar titles to Harry's own."You have a plan for tomorrow ?"

"Yes."Malfoy nodded."Just making sure zippo can go wrong. You ?"

"No."Harry admitted shaking his head."No I ‘ ve got nothing."

Silence reigned in the iniquity, mouldy library.

"You must get something."Malfoy said, shrugging."A little spell or so-"

"No."Harry shook his head again."zip that will work for me."

"But wh…"Malfoy leant back in his professorship. Harry could almost see the gears turning in his fountainhead."The Boggart in third year…"

Harry said cypher, he didn't have to.

"You ‘ re afraid of water ?"

Silence.

"That ‘ s… not good for you then."Malfoy smiled."But very near for me."

"Screw you Peroxide !"Harry sneered and knocked over a voltaic pile of Holy Scripture into Malfoy's lap."And get off my table !"

"You invited me here."

"I un-invite you."

"Too bad, I ‘ m settled now."Malfoy leant back and flipped a book exposed, balancing on the back two legs of his chair. Harry had the unbearable itch to tip him over.

Harry gritted his teeth and ignored him, pulling another Word over. A few minutes passed in muteness then…

"Potter, what the netherworld is hydrogen peroxide ?"

"Muggle thing,"Harry muttered."Come to think of it it wasn ‘ t much of an insult."

"You must be stressed then,"Malfoy said without looking up from his Good Book."If you can ‘ t even insult correctly."

"Would you like me to try again ?"Harry jabbed."I ‘ ve got lots."

"I tend to cohere with mudblood."

"Evidence of a profound lack of imagination."Harry shut his book and picked another."Is it possible you're parents accidentally lobotomized you as a child."

"No."Malfoy replied coldly.

"Is it possible you're parents intentionally lobot-"

"Screw you shortarse !"

Harry chuckled despite himself and dropped his eyes back to the text in front of him. It had some selective information about an ancient wizard who was able to part seas. It also said the noesis of how to do so had been lost millennia ago. He dropped that one as well and grabbed another.

"Really scared of water ?"

Harry ignored Malfoy and sank deeper into the book.

"And you can ‘ t think of a way around it ?"

Harry sighed and looked up. Malfoy was staring at the roof, deep in thought.

"braveness potion… ?"

"Tried it, event doesn't last-place longsighted enough."

"A transformation of some form ?"

"Any transformation that keeps my mind intact bread and butter my phobias intact as well."

"How about charming an animate being to get whatever-it-is for you ?"

"Against the pattern of the contest."

"Some sorting of diving bell ?"

"Now you ‘ re just scraping the behind of the barrel."Harry sunk onto his hand on the board."case it, if I ‘ ve had workweek to come up with an answer you ‘ re not gon na get it in one night. I ‘ ve been racking my brains trying to consider of some way that's within the prescript but it just isn ‘ t there."

"Well how about outside them."Malfoy shrugged."You said you were going to cheat anyway."

"In front of the stallion shoal ? And the jurist ?"Harry shook his principal."I ‘ d never get away with it."

"Is this Harry Potter I ‘ m talking to or some sort of imposter."Malfoy laughed dismissively."You don't worry about how to get away with things. You do them and get away with them later."

Harry opened his oral fissure to object but a light-bulb came on in his mind. He stood suddenly, driving his chair back.

"I need different books."He stated suddenly before turning and walking away. After a second he turned and said,"Thank you."

"I owed you one."Malfoy said, his eyes back on the Koran in front of him.
*


"Ginny !"

Why is he shaking me ?

"Ginster wake up !"

"Harry ?"Ginny woke slowly and groggily."Harry it ‘ s still the midriff of the night."

"I know."

"How did you even get up the stairs ?"

"Listen Gin, I need to take over the Chimera."Harry was whispering but he sounded insistent.

"Sure Harry."Ginny shook her head, clearing gossamer."What do you take it for ?"

"Can ‘ t tell you."Harry smiled evilly."If I told you you ‘ d be an accessory."

"An accessary to what ?"Ginny was blanket awake now.

"A Harry thrower program !"Harry grinned in the dark, then disappeared.
*


"Mr Potter…"Minerva McGonagall licked her lips and stopped speaking. All around her the various adults were starting to giggle, the students too. Dumbledore was giving Harry an appraising look, Maxim was laughing openly, Crouch just looked scandalized.

They were standing by the border of the lake, the second task was about to lead off and all but one of the champions were wearing bathing costume. Those three were the 1 giggling at the fourth.

"Mr Potter…"She tried again, pointing at what potter was carrying."That is a broomstick."

"Yes, I am cognisant of that."

"Is it possible you misunderstood what the task before you consists of."

"Anything ‘ s possible."Potter shrugged.

"You realize that the broom handle will not even work underwater ?"

"Yes."

"Is there any luck that you will tell me what you ‘ re planning."

"No."

McGonagall shook her head and turned back towards the stands. Behind her the genius moved into line by the edge of the lake. She shook her head as Bagman read out the normal in his tawdry booming articulation, then…

"One… two… troika !"

Harry shot into the air like a bullet and careened backwards towards the bandstand. Audience extremity scattered but Harry managed to regain control at the last instant and pulled up to fritter over and out, following the curve ball of the lake until he disappeared behind a hill.

"Did he run away ?"

"Where did he go ?"

mussitation broke out around the stands. McGonagall shook her head, they had said the Lapp things net time and Harry had come through.

Her eyes were drawn to the top stand, to the sliver of white amongst the dark gown. The Pythea was standing before her arse, her eyes fixed in the direction Harry had disappeared. A moment later she started laughing, a clear Chrystal laughter that flowed over the stands.

McGonagall looked out to try and see what she was seeing but saw nothing. A minute later a Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe appeared in the lake, rounding the hill that had hid it from view and pushing out quickly into the give water.

One by one the crowd fell mute, every eye fixed on the thing in the lake. McGonagall put her hand to her oral fissure, even given a thousand years she would never birth thought of this.

Karkaroff was the inaugural to break the silence. Shooting from his president, his face red with madness he raised his fist and yelled,

"THAT LITTLE BASTARD ! HE ‘ S STOLEN MY BLOODY SHIP !"



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