Chapter Text
Ch.40 Of Girlfriends, Dark Lord and Dancing
As soon as Harry walked into the tent, the first thing that he saw was that Cedric, Fleur and Krum sitting up on their respective hospital beds... well, Krum was lying on his stomach, shirtless with paste coating his back to heal some extremely nasty cuts which were clearly hade with talons. They were not a pretty sight to see. Cedric had bandages wrapped around his head, his arm was in a sling and his legs had a cast on them. He was also shirtless like Krum and there was healing paste on various spots across his torso.
Fleur on the other hand had bandages on her left leg. Either she had been touched by the Hydra venom or badly burnt by the Hydra. The former was more likely as her Veela Heritage gave her a certain immunity against fire. Normal flame spells likeIncendioor the bluebell flames wouldn't even harm them one bit.
As soon as Harry entered the tent, all eyes turned to him.
"You're alive and uninjured?" Fleur asked with bewilderment, blinking her eyes to confirm she was seeing perfectly.
"Obviously." Harry said before he turned to Cedric. "How are you feeling Cedric?"
"Like a herd of Hippogriff ran over me. But, I will be fine."
"That's good."
"Why is she so shocked that you're alive?"
"She had very little faith in my ability to fight a Chimera." Harry replied.
"YOU FOUGHT A CHIMERA!?" Cedric yelled before he began coughing violently. Healer Wynter who had been standing there immediately rushed to Cedric and did some sort of spell which ceased his coughing.
"Mr Diggory! Control yourself! You have just came out of the medical emergency ward child. Don't shout, it will put stress on you." She chastised and Cedric nodded.
"'Ow did you do eet?" Fleur questioned.
"Killed it."
"What?" It was Krum who asked. Cedric was wisely keeping quiet as Healer Wynter was still glaring at him.
"I killed the Chimera." Harry repeated with a casual shrug.
"Come Mr. Potter. You look completely uninjured but, I will still check you." The Healer told Harry after she shifted her attention from the Hogwarts champion.
Harry sat on the bed as she ran diagnostic spells on him before saying, "I must say Mr. Potter. You look remarkably uninjured for a person who has just fought trolls, orcs, spiders, a Hungarian-Horntail Dragon and killed a Chimera in the last four hours."
"Well... Thank you. But, can I have a pepper-up potion? I am feeling exhausted." Harry replied.
"I don't know what they were thinking when creatures like Dragons, a Gryphon, Hydra and most maddeningly a Chimera of all things for a school competition. The Orcs and trolls were alright but this is madness." Madame Pomfrey spoke up as she handed Harry his pepper-up potion. Healer Wynter nodded in agreement.
Harry drank the potion and shook his head as steam came out of his ears and he felt a rush of energy. "What happened to you two?" Harry asked Fleur and Krum once the side-effects of the Pepper-up potion stopped.
"Ze Hydra spat its venom and some splashed on my leg. Eet was just after I picked my key. So, I portkeyed out with the key as eet hurt a lot." Fleur replied, suppressing a wince.
Hydra venom, when it came in contact with skin or fabric, reacted very similarly to a muggle-laboratory acid. It left second-degree to third-degree chemical burns on the skin depending on how much cam in contact with the skin. Thankfully, the magical world had treatment for it and the person wasn't scarred for life unlike in the muggle world. But, that was better than being bitten by the Hydra atleast.
"The Gryphon clawed me on the back. The gear protected me to an extent but it was destroyed in the process." Krum replied while still lying on his stomach facing away from Harry.
Gryphons, while not extremely dangerous like a Chimera or a manticore were formidable opponents in their own right. They had a tendency to collect shiny treasures and protect them fiercely. Also, their claws were extremely sharp, deadly and almost unbreakable. There was a reason that the Gryphon claw was such a valuable material in the market. So, collecting a shiny golden key which a Gryphon was protecting was a suitably dangerous task.
"HARRY!" Susan's voice called and Harry turned towards the source of voice, only to feel a pair of lips smash against his own. Susan was snogging Harry like her life depended on it.
Harry moaned into her mouth as he felt her tongue battle his own for dominance. They jumped apart as someone cleared their throat. That someone was Hermione who was smiling at them mischievously.
"Ahem. You two love birds can snog the life out of each other later." She said and Susan blushed. Harry just raised his eyebrow at her, unfazed by the statement. Ron grinned beside Hermione and gave him a wink and a thumbs up.
Fleur was looking amused and... jealous? While Cedric was looking away from where they were. Krum was still facing the wall as his back was injured and he was lying on his stomach.
"That was awesome mate." Ron said.
"What, the kiss or the task?" Harry asked with mirth.
"Err... I was talking about the t-task." Ron stuttered. "I can't believe that you killed a Chimera. A Merlin-be-damned Chimera. It was awesome!" He gushed.
"Yeah. No one has single-handedly killed a Chimera in history Harry." Hermione said. "It is said that it takes around 60-70 wizards to subdue a Chimera. Harry, what you did... will go down in history." She gushed like Ron.
Harry briefly wondered if this was the reaction of his best friends, what would Ginny and Colin do? Hermione and Ron, who were his best friends for more than three years were gushing about his achievements. Colin and Ginny were already his biggest fanboy and fangirl respectively. Their reactions would be astronomical.
"Yeah. By tomorrow they will be calling you the boy-who-kills-Chimeras or something." Ron added and Harry groaned, breaking out of his musing.
"That's just what I needed. Another moniker. Like the boy-who-captures-dark-wizards wasn't bad enough... I swear if they give me one more moniker like that for killing the Chimera, I will sue them." Harry grumbled and his friends laughed. The Boy-who-captures-dark-wizards was the literal headline of the Daily Prophet after the Quidditch World Cup fiasco.
Susan went to check up on Cedric but, that was when five Judges entered the tent. Sirius beamed at Harry and he smiled back before casting a glance at Karkaroff, who flinched as he met Harry's eyes.
"Ms. Bones, Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley, what are you all doing here?"
"Err... we came to congratulate Harry, professor and see if he was alright." Ron said.
"And also see Cedric." Susan added.
Dumbledore smiled at them before saying, "While, your concern for your friend is admirable and the wish to congratulate him on his achievement is completely acceptable, I am afraid that I would have to request you all to leave the tent so we can broadcast the points and the next task's instructions. You can meet up with them afterwards."
Harry's friends nodded and immediately left. Then the broadcasting enchantment was started with a wave of Dumbledore's wand.
"Champions, we decided to come here to award you points and give you instructions for the next task instead of calling you all outside, seeing that some of you are injured." Dumbledore informed in his grandfatherly voice, casting a glance at the three injured champions who nodded gratefully .
"I am pleased to inform you that this marks the end of the first task. Now, as for the points for the third round, Mr. Krum aborted the task after being injured by the Gryphon so, we have to give him zero points. Ms. Delacour on the other hand picked the key up but aborted the task as her leg was injured due to the Hydra spitting venom on it. So, we decided to award her 25 points out of 50 for the round."
Fleur smiled and nodded at the statement.
Harry decided that it was fair enough because she technically completed the main part of the task and only was unable to reach the exit. So, 25 points were fair.
"Mr. Potter, on the other hand completed the task by slaying the Chimera, a feat previously unheard of and wasn't even injured in the process. So, we decided that we will be awarding him... full points." Dumbledore finished before looking at Bagman.
"Oh... err... Yes! So, the standings are as follows," Bagman started after consulting the parchment in his hand. "In the first place, Mr. Harry Potter with 148 points, followed by Ms. Fleur Delacour with 105 points, followed by Mr. Viktor Krum with 85 points and finally in the fourth place, Mr. Diggory with, unfortunately, zero points." Bagman said.
Everyone in the tent nodded at the results. Sirius shot Harry a smile and had a proud look in his eyes. Karkaroff was glaring at Harry and Fleur. Madame Maxime looked concerned while Bagman looked like his dreams were coming true. Dumbledore was looking every bit of the grandfatherly headmaster with twinkling eyes and everything.
"Professor Dumbledore, will you give them the instructions for the second task while I fetch the eggs?" Bagman asked. Harry frowned. What did he mean by eggs?
"Of course Ludo." Bagman nodded and exited the tent.
"Champions." Dumbledore addressed them. "The second task will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth. All of you, in the meantime won't be idle despite the three month gap that you are receiving in-between. We will be giving each one of you a golden egg. The Golden egg will contain a clue for the next task. Now, there would be two rounds in the task and there is a little... ah, advantage that each one of you will receive according to the number of keys you retrieved today."
Cedric's smile dropped. He won't be receiving a single advantage since he hadn't taken a single key.
"The advantage will be declared on the day of the task in the concerned round. As I said, you would be given the clue for the first round of the task. We are not telling you what the first round is. You will have to figure it out yourself from the egg we will give you. For the second round, you will have to retrieve a treasure by breaking through wards that we and the rest three champions choose to put up."
"Rest three champions?" Krum asked.
"Yes. You all will be given three boxes to ward to the best of your abilities. The wards you put up should be same on all three boxes as each box will be going to your fellow champions. Now, the boxes, one from each of your fellow champion will be placed in a room that our warders have warded. You have to break through the wards of the room, then proceed to break the wards on the boxes that his or her fellow champions have warded." Dumbledore said.
"There will also be an additional box that would have been warded by one of the four heads namely Madame Maxime, High-master Karkaroff, Lord Black and me for you all to break. For breaking the room's wards you will receive 20 points. For breaking the wards on a box, put up by your fellow champion, you will receive 15 points. And by breaking the ward on the box warded by one of us, you will receive 35 points. Of course, you won't get the box that your head of institute has warded. So, for example, Mr. Diggory will be receiving a box that would have been warded by either Madame Maxime, Lord black or High-master Karkaroff."
Cedric looked panicked. Harry felt bad for the boy. He was the weakest champion among the four of them.
He had no proper idea about warding and ward-breaking as Cedric had taken COMC, Charms, Transfiguration, DADA, Herbology and History of Magic as his NEWT subjects. He had no knowledge of Arithmancy and he had dropped Runes after OWLs despite having qualifying marks to take the class. He may be very good with charms but, that was not enough to break wards. Also, the quality of Hogwarts DADA classes, or the lack of thereof, put him at an huge disadvantage.
Fleur on the other hand was one of the top students in Runes, Arithmancy and Charms. She was actually pursuing a mastery in enchanting if the interview she gave was anything to go by and wished to join theBureau d'Énigmes— The French equivalent of the Department of mysteries. She was also a trained duelist.
At Durmstrang, they had ward study as a compulsory subject since their third year, replacing Herbology. It was because the weather there was not suitable for most variety of plants save the local species. So, students couldn't study Herbology beyond the basics. They had also replaced DADA with combat magic. So, Viktor Krum had a bigger repertoire of combat spells than Cedric at the very atleast
Harry himself had studied wards extensively under the tutelage of Salazar and Helga. Also, many of his ancestors from the Potter family had been expert warders and curse-breakers. So, he had an extensive knowledge of wards that would make a senior Gringotts curse-breaker burn with jealousy. He was also a trained duelist, had studied spells long lost to time under the founders and had the Potter and Black family Grimoires at his disposal. It was actuallyunfairto the rest three of the champions thathewas participating in the tournament. But, Harry had no choice other than to compete. And if he was going to compete, he would compete to win.
"Now, Ludo. Please give them the eggs." Dumbledore said.
Harry had been listening to the instructions so intently that he hadn't seen Bagman enter the tent, carrying four golden eggs. He handed one egg to each of them.
"If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open... see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg - because it will tell you what the first round of the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go" Bagman said in his usual cheerful tone.
Dumbledore waved his wand again and the broadcasting enchantment was ended. And soon they left after Krum, Cedric and Fleur were transported to the Hogwarts infirmary and Harry claimed the carcass of the Chimera and the acromantula spiders he had slain before he headed to the Gryffindor tower, where he was sure that a party was waiting for him.
The Riddle House, Little Hangleton
25th November 1994
Tom Riddle a.k.a. Lord Voldemort sat in a high chair in the Riddle House in Little Hangleton with his familiar Nagini curled around him as heCrucio-edthe man who had dared doubted his plans.
Thirteen years ago, he had gone after the Potter family on Halloween night, trying to end the person that was prophesized to vanquish him: Harry Potter. The child born as the seventh month, July, died to parents, Lily and James Potter, who had thrice defied him. He didn't know the rest of the Prophecy that his servant, one Severus Snape, had brought him after eavesdropping on an interview that Albus Dumbledore had taken to hire the divination professor: Sybil Trelawney, the great grand-daughter of Cassandra Trelawney.
The Potters had gone into hiding under the Fidelius charm shortly after their son turned a year old as he had sent numerous of his death eaters to end the family but the Potters had either evaded them or the order and Dumbledore had intervened causing a great loss to his forces. But they made a mistake while going into hiding. They trusted the wrong person and Peter Pettigrew betrayed them. The sniveling coward, also known as Wormtail was actually a pathetic and useless wizard who betrayed his own friends because he was afraid of him. But, he had not outran his usefulness at that time, so he had kept Pettigrew alive.
But, the night he went to the Potters, in his hubris, he never noticed the sacrificial ritual(or so he assumed) that the mudblood, Lily Potter had made which led to his downfall. The killing curse that he had cast was rebounded at him and had it not been for his horcruxes, he would have died. How the mudblood had gotten knowledge of such a ritual to rebound the killing curse that even he didn't have a clue about was beyond him. He didn't evenknowwhat she had exactly done! He was speculating that it was a sacrificial and blood magic ritual but he had no definitive proof of that fact. But, regardless, it had lead to his downfall that night and the subsequent rise of Harry Potter as the boy-who-lived and a symbol of hope for the world.
In the boy's first year, the year the Philosopher's stone was at Hogwarts, he had carefully observed the boy and concluded that he was nothing special, giving credence to his theory. The idea that the boy could even touch him had been thrown out of the window by Christmas. But, at the end of the year he had done just that. He had touched Quirrell and the man had turned to ashes, leading him to flee his host's body to Albania. He concluded it was probably due to whatever magic the mudblood had done which had saved the boy. The boy was no more than an average wizard.
One of his servants had come searching for him shortly after March 1994, and with the aid of the servant, who had came searching for him, they had worked together to give him the body of a toddler to enable him to make the journey to Britain. That was also when his servant had stumbled upon Bertha Jorkins, a witch working at the British ministry. From her, he had came to know two important things. One: The Triwizard tournament was being held at Hogwarts. And two: one of his most loyal servants, whom he had thought to be dead was still free but, under the imperious curse.
So, he had concocted a plan to regain his body and free his servant to aid him. All he needed was a few drops of the boy's blood. Which better enemy than the person who was credited for his downfall all those years ago? And the boy was an average wizard at the best. So, it would be an easy task to kill him and announce his return. The hope of Britain would be snuffed out with the corpse of the boy who lived.
But, all of those perceptions of Harry Potter being average had gone out of the window when he had returned to Britain. The boy was the youngest U-18 World dueling champion and already making waves in the wizarding world. Shortly after that, he had caught eleven of his followers who had tried to spread terror at the Quidditch world cup and sent them to Azkaban after facing them eleven to one! The followers may not have been members of his inner circle but they still were qualified witches and wizards.
Somehow, Harry Potter had gone from a weak, average wizard to a powerful and skilled wizard in a gap of 2 years.
But, he hadn't abandoned his plan. He entered the boy's in the Triwizard tournament with the aid of his freed servant. He would make sure that the boy would either die in the tournament or reach the cup and be transported to him, where he would use his blood to resurrect his body. Then he would duel and kill Potter, proving to the world that he was the most powerful wizard in the world and what had happened on Halloween 1981 was nothing but bad luck.
The boy had been entered in the tournament successfully and, Potter had proved his innocence in the matter with an oath. But, it didn't matter as there was no way out for the boy. He would have to compete. Lord Voldemort's plan was successful. Like usual.
And today, the news proclaimed that, Harry Potter had killed a Chimera. A merlin-be-damned Chimera! A feat unheard of. And the kill wasn't luck. It was skill. And power. He had seen the task in the mind of his servant by Legilimency a few minutes ago and also sensed his fear. The servant had then questioned him if it would be better to use the blood of some other wizard or witch other than Harry Potter.
He sneered at the thought. For all the boys accomplishments, he would still be the better wizard. He was Lord Voldemort. What could a boy, how much ever skilled, do against him when Albus Dumbledore had failed?
And it was better if the boy accomplished more of such feats. Wizarding Britain would look upon Potter as an figure of power and hope. And when he announced his return with the dead body of Harry Potter, their savior, it would give a message to the world: All those who dared oppose him, regardless of how powerful the person was, would fall by his wand. He was the greatest wizard of all time and no person could hope to stand against him. Not even Harry Potter.
He just hoped that his servant would keep the boy was successfully subdued till he regained a proper body. For all his skills, power and knowledge, he couldn't hope to duel Harry Potter or anyone for that matter, in the body of a toddler. Once he regained a proper body no person would be able to stand against him. Not even Albus Dumbledore or Harry Potter. He would finish the mission he had started all those years ago. He would rule the wizarding world.
But... yes... He shouldn't rely on a single servant. The boy was dangerous and could overpower most his servants as he had done at the world cup. Hmmm... what to do... yes, when would the rest of his servants come in use? Time to summon a few more death eaters.
Room of Requirement, Hogwarts
30th November 1994
Harry tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for his two girlfriends. McGonagall had announced a few days ago that the yule ball would be taking place at Hogwarts on 24th of December. Of course, Harry was aware of the fact but he had completely neglected it till now in the heat of the first task and learning new magic. Now, he had to dance in front of hundreds of people and international media at that.
McGonagall had informed him that he would open the ball with the other champions. He needed to bring a date and learn dancing. He had no problem with the former. He had two girlfriends and there was no need to look for a date but, he had still asked Susan officially to be his date to the yule ball immediately after that. And today was his first dancing lesson with her. Daphne was also going to help them. He couldn't take her to the ball as their relationship was a secret but, he had promised her a dance after the Yule ball.
Daphne was going to go to the ball with a boy from Ravenclaw. The boy she was taking was apparently into wizards instead of witches and already dating a boy from Hufflepuff. The Hufflepuff boy was going to accompany Tracy Davis, Daphne's friend to the ball.
A truly Slytherin move.
Soon, the door opened and Daphne stepped into the room, wearing Slytherin robes. Harry felt that the Hogwarts uniform was one of the worst articles of clothing made, as they hid his girlfriend's beautiful figure.
"Where's Susan?" She asked as she closed the door behind her. Harry shrugged in reply. She looked thoughtful for a moment before she grinned and closed the distance between them.
"Well, till she comes, let us do something, shall we?" saying so, she smashed her lips against Harry's and the couple started snogging.
"I am five minutes late and you both already started without me?" An exasperated voice asked from the doorway. Harry and Daphne broke the kiss and saw Susan mock-glaring at them with her hands on her hips "And I thought we were here for dancing and not for sexual activities."
They gave her an innocent look. "True. But we got bored waiting for you so, we decided to do something productive. Now, that you are here we can start Harry's dance lessons."
Susan nodded and they started Harry's dance lessons. They proved to be more difficult than Harry had thought and much more boring, But, having Daphne's and Susan's body pressed to his and stealing snogs was worth the torture.
