Chapter Text
Harry sat in the Astronomy tower, not feeling like being gawked at while he ate lunch. Every year it was something else that singled him out and marked him as different. First year had been the points debacle when he and Hermione had helped smuggle the dragon out, second year, well, who knew that speaking with snakes wasn’t that common? He certainly hadn’t. Third had been the Dementors and Sirius and trying to get an adult to do the right thing, which they hadn’t. Go figure. He knew he couldn’t rely on adults, that they would only let him down or cause him more misery or pain, but he had been hoping there might be a way for Dumbledore to get him out of competing in something he didn’t sign up for.
“Nice brooding spot, Harrykins.” Fred said, plopping down on the ground opposite him, George beside him.
“Thanks.” He said warily.
“How are you really doing? None of this ‘fine’ shite you always say.” George asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Not good.” Harry reluctantly admitted, looking down at his lap. “I don’t understand why I can’t get out of it when I didn’t even enter to begin with. How can it be a magically binding contract? I mean, wouldn’t whoever entered me be bound?”
“We asked the same things.” Fred nodded.
“We were told it was too complicated for us to possibly understand.” George complained.
“Which basically just means-”
“Someone did a good job messing with the goblet-”
“If it truly recognizes you as a contestant.”
“We tried to ask the Headmaster-”
“But he said there was nothing he could do-”
“As if he’d been trying and not just pandering to the Ministry.”
“How was it in the dorm last night?”
“Well, your brother has decided I must have entered on my own and betrayed his trust for not telling him how I did it.” Harry sighed. “Does he not get how much I hate having attention on me? Like, have I not made that obvious?”
“Oh, you definitely have.” George snickered.
“We’ll sort Ron out, don’t worry. What about the others?” Fred asked.
“I don’t think they’ve made up their minds.” Harry said slowly. “I mean, I know Neville believes me, but the others, well, they don’t seem to know what to think.”
“Considering weird shit has been happening-”
“Each year you’ve been here-”
“That’s not all that surprising.”
“Fair enough.” Harry snorted, starting to feel better. “Would you, erm, would you guys want to maybe help me? Like, with the tasks and preparing? I just, I never wanted to do this like you two did and I haven’t even had half the classes that Cedric has, so I’m already behind.”
“Why do you think we’re here?” George asked curiously.
“We’re not losing you to some stupid contest, little brother.” Fred said adamantly, ruffling his hair.
“I expect the first task will be leaked at least a few days before, if not a week.”
“We’ve looked back over some of the older tournaments and their tasks-”
“And come up with a potential plan to help you at least get out alive.”
“We’ve got class coming up, so we can’t go over it now, not in detail-”
“But meet us tonight and we’ll find a place that might be better for us to practice.”
“Thank you.” Harry said gratefully, gathering his bag and accepting the hand up that Fred offered.
“The interviews are meant to be in the next few days,”
“But don’t say anything. Not a single word.”
“You’re a minor, and in order for them to speak with or about you,”
“They’ll need a guardian’s permission.”
“And the last thing my Aunt and Uncle would want is me talking to the press.” Harry chuckled. “Brilliant.”
“We’ll talk to Cedric, make sure he knows and can help protect you.”
“We’ll try to get to Fleur and Viktor, but not sure it’ll work.”
“I’m really really glad I met you guys.” Harry said, feeling overwhelmed with their determination to help him.
“Get to class, Har. And make sure you eat the snacks that pop into your bag.”
“We need to build up your strength if you’re going to compete.”
“Yeah, alright. See you later.” Harry waved to them before running to class, feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted off of him.
He was called to the hospital wing later that afternoon, because apparently each Champion was required to have a general check-up before competing. It was amusing to Harry because he’d gone the past three years at school without one. He wasn’t surprised that Fred, George and Hermione went with him. She was trying to convince Ron he was being an idiot and that Harry was their friend, but he wasn’t listening.
“Now,” Madam Pomfrey said, standing in front of the four competitors with their friends or guardians off to the side, “a general health check-up is required so that we are able to note any existing injuries or illnesses that happened in the past, to better treat any injuries that may occur during a task. Any questions?”
“How far back in our history are you planning to scan?” Harry asked, biting his lip.
“It will cover anything from the past 17 years, 14 for you, for each person to make sure we aren’t missing anything.” She replied, and Harry felt his shoulders tense, but when he looked at Fred and George, they just winked at him. Apparently they were really here to see everyone’s reactions about what had happened to Harry over his life that no adult ever stopped.
“I volunteer to be first.” Fleur said, stepping forward. Her list was pretty short, just a few lines, before Madam Pomfrey moved on to Cedric, who had a few more lines than Fleur, but it was still not even half a page. Viktor’s was pretty long, but as a professional quidditch player, it was expected. It stopped around two and a half feet, but didn’t take long for the Matron to review it before she was finally at Harry, who sighed heavily and nodded for her to get on with it already.
He rolled his eyes at the shocked gasps as his record went on and on, finally stopping around four and a half feet. Fred and George came over and handed him a pasty and put their arms over his shoulders, brushing their nails on their shirts as he took a bite and looking around the room disapprovingly.
“Oh, would you look at that, Freddy.” George said calmly.
“It looks as though we were telling the truth all along when we brought up how bad Harry’s home life was, Georgie.” Fred agreed.
“Almost as if we thought going to an adult would actually help Harrykins,”
“Instead of us brewing our own nutrient potions,”
“So he could recover from the starvation,”
“Or the Skele-grow we altered to help with fractures,”
“Not even mentioning the blood replenishing potions since everyone-”
“In this entire damn school-”
“Never thought he needed-”
“Proper medical care.”
They were snarling by the end and glaring at the adults that they had each tried to talk to to get Harry somewhere safe. Harry just rolled his eyes and ate the pasty, letting them get it out of their system.
“Zey reported child abuse and you just let it ‘appen?” Fleur demanded, her hair starting to fly around her, highlighting her Veela heritage.
“You knew he was being hurt and never tried to heal him?” Cedric asked incredulously.
“No vonder he didn’t go to you for help.” Viktor scoffed. “You should all be ashamed.”
“I healed enough.” Harry grumbled, shrinking against Fred and George when everyone turned to look at him, before the Champions gathered around him and guided him and the twins out of the hospital to where the Drumstrang ship was moored, herding them on board. He lost sight of Hermione when he left the hospital.
“Ve have good healers.” Viktor stated, waving someone over. “Zey should be able to help.”
“More zan zose imbeciles at ‘Ogwarts, anyway.” Fleur agreed, still seething with rage.
“Does the Headmaster know?” Cedric asked, looking at the twins.
“He’s the one who forces Harry to return to his relatives each summer.” George replied.
“We’ve picked him up and taken him to ours a few times, so we can keep a better eye on him getting well before school starts.” Fred added.
“I’ve never gone home on holidays during the school year, and I asked the first two years if I could stay over the summer, but was told it wasn’t allowed.” Harry shrugged, letting Viktor push him back to a chair so his healer could take a look.
“Someone set this up.” Cedric growled. “Someone is using you for something, Harry.”
“Figured that much out, funnily enough.” Harry said, grinning when Cedric snorted.
“Shame we can’t have quidditch this year.” Cedric sighed. “I was hoping for a rematch after the Dementors fucked up our match last year.”
“We’ll just have to have a scrimmage between our teams between tasks, then.” Harry shrugged. “If you think you can beat me in a fair game, that is?”
“Oh, you’re on Potter.” Cedric laughed, patting his shoulder.
“Calm down!” Viktor shouted at his Healer. “Yes, ve know it is bad. Can you fix it or not?”
“It will take months for him to be fully healed! If not years!” The Healer shouted, his accent much less intense than Viktor’s. “I can get it started, but with the tasks I can’t be sure he won’t be derailed. He will need to try and use cunning and wit for his tasks over physical or magical skill and strength as much as possible so that the healing sticks.”
“I can probably do that.” Harry said cautiously. “As long as you can do the bones on the weekends, it should be fine.”
“I’d like a copy of the nutrient and other potions you gave him.” He directed to Fred and George who raised an eyebrow before looking at each other and having a silent conversation.
“One condition.” George said.
“What might that be?”
“You write a recommendation for us.” Fred stated.
“We took our OWLs last year, but we have two versions.” George added.
“We have what our parents have seen-”
“And our actual results.”
“Can’t have them thinking we’re intelligent-”
“It would ruin too many of our future plans.”
“We’re working toward our Potions Mastery with Professor Snape-”
“And he is being blocked from being able to apply our modifications-”
“To the general populace.”
“Recommend to your Ministry that it be published-”
“World-wide Potions Master publication, published-”
“And we’ll share.”
“Done.” The man said certainly.
Fred pulled a small notebook from his pocket and handed it over, grinning when the man’s eyes widened and he muttered rapidly in Bulgarian.
“How’d you trick your OWLs?” Cedric asked curiously.
“Simple switching spell.” George shrugged.
“Mum was expecting poor results, so we drew up a false set-”
“From Charlie’s old ones, keeping our actual results for ourselves.”
“They’re registered with the Ministry-”
“But we know she’ll never think to look into it.”
“That’s bloody brilliant.” Cedric laughed, giving them both a high five.
“We know.” They replied simultaneously.
“Wonder what would ‘appen if zis was leaked to ze press?” Fleur asked absently.
“Nothing.” Harry scoffed. “The press here pushes whatever they feel like. It’s nothing more than idle gossip. You can’t tell me Rita Skeeter is a good writer when she didn’t even do a single bit of research about Sirius Black before publishing how dangerous of a criminal he was.”
“What do you mean?” Cedric asked, his brow furrowed.
“I mean, he was never given a trial. He was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, but the people with the power to fix it don’t give a damn. You’re telling me that as such a supposed intrepid reporter as the Daily Prophet swears to have, not a single one of them did any research beyond what they’d heard over the past 13 years?” Harry asked, raising his own eyebrow. “Fudge knows, Dumbledore knows, and neither of them have done shit to fix it. Because fixing it would be admitting the Ministry was wrong and that Dumbledore left him in Azkaban for some reason only he is aware of. You can’t tell me with all of his supposed powerful positions that he couldn’t call for a trial, even saying he demanded a re-trial, that it wouldn’t happen?”
“What the hell is going on in Magical Britain?” Cedric groaned. “You know what? Doesn’t matter. I’m gonna talk to some of the other Heirs and we’re gonna push this shit.”
“Heirs?” Harry asked, not quite understanding what that meant in regards to wizarding culture.
“Yes, those of us, like you and me, who come from Ancient and/or Noble houses. Wizarding families who have been part of our community for hundreds of years. Which we were all informed you had been schooled on. Based on this, I’ll let them know we have to catch you up. Might not be this year, but over the summer and next year we’ll try to get you what you need to understand it all.” Cedric rambled.
“He needs an Inheritance test, too.” Fred added.
“And probably an audit on his accounts at Gringotts.” George agreed.
“I can take him this weekend.” The Healer said with a groan. “His eyesight … I don’t even know how he isn’t constantly running into things. Those glasses need replacing, and if you are active, I’d recommend magical contacts like Viktor uses.”
“We’ll all go.” Fleur stated. “We’ll make our appearance as ze Champions to ze public, presenting ourselves as a united front supporting ‘Arry.”
“Here, you will need to start on these for the next few days,” the Healer said, handing Harry a few vials, “and I’d like to start on your bones next weekend. I should be able to have them all corrected before the first task. The scars, unfortunately are not going to be able to completely disappear, but use this salve after you shower and it will reduce their appearance and the pain that you may have grown accustomed to having around them that you no longer notice. The instant someone messes with it who is not meant to be using it, it will turn their skin a bit green.”
“If zat happens,” Viktor said, “you vill need to come back here to get a replacement.”
“Champions, and friends,” Karkaroff said, approaching them, “you must be on your vay to dinner. Should you not feel safe returning to your dormitories, you are velcome to return here.”
“We appreciate that.” George said.
“Not sure what the old man has in store for Harry this year.” Fred agreed.
“And we’d rather not take chances.” Cedric added, grinning at the twins who smiled at him proudly.
“Alright, mother hens,” Harry chuckled, getting to his feet after handing back the empty vials, “let’s go eat.”
“You’ll sit wis us.” Fleur said, looping her arm through Harry’s. “We’ll all sit wis Cedric at his table.”
“Works for me.” Cedric shrugged.
It wasn’t surprising that whispers were already spreading through the Great Hall when they all arrived and sat together. Even Fred and George sat with them, with Lee, Hermione, and Cho joining them after a few moments. Eventually Flint and Warrington joined them from Slytherin. They were all interested in a few scrimmage quidditch games, even though Hermione was more just watching them during those discussions. They agreed to do Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff first, then Ravenclaw and Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin, Slytherin and Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Oliver was over the moon about getting to play again, when he’d turned around at the Gryffindor table, even if they had to repeatedly remind him they were only scrimmage matches.
“Pardon the interruption,” Dumbledore said, smiling at them, “but I wonder if I might borrow Mr. Potter for a few moments to clear up what happened this afternoon?”
“Nothing to clear up, sir.” Harry said in confusion. “We did our medical evaluations, hung out, and came to dinner. What are you referring to?”
“I’d like to go over some of what was said, and I don’t imagine you want to discuss your medical information in front of your fellow students.”
“And when will you be meeting with Cedric?” Harry asked, leaning his chin on his palm with his elbow on the table. “If you’re wanting to talk to me about mine, surely you’ll be needing to meet with him as one of the Hogwarts Champions as well?”
“I’m pretty sure his guardians or Head of House should be the only ones involved with his health plans, sir.” Cedric said sweetly. “As his health is their responsibility specifically, not that of the Headmaster.”
“He probably just tricked the evaluation like he did the Goblet.” Someone muttered angrily, but it was loud enough the hall went quiet.
“You know what,” Harry said, standing up finally and looking around the hall, “Fuck this. I am sick of all of you talking about me behind my back. I’m tired of defending myself against what you perceive. You claim I’m doing things to be more famous, or to be popular. Tell me, then. What did I do to become famous?”
“You stopped You-Know-Who.” Padma Patil said.
“Right. I supposedly stopped a Dark Lord and survived a deadly curse. As a baby. And what happened to me? I became an orphan. You all tease and bully me for abusing and using my fame, but do you not understand that I’d give it up in a heartbeat if it meant I wasn’t an orphan? You all have already decided what you see when you look at me. You’ve already told me how you feel about me, about how useless or stupid you think I am. How I’m supposedly just like a parent that I can’t remember because I only had a year with them. So I’m done playing nice. You want to gang up on me? You want to accuse me of shit? Bring it on. Because I may not be able to defend myself against my muggle relatives outside of school, but you better believe that I won’t hesitate in the magical world from now on.” Harry grabbed his bag and left the hall, the others who he’d been sitting with, getting up and following him out and directing him to an unused classroom on the fourth floor.
“That was epic!” George cheered, picking him up and spinning him around in a hug.
“Oh, Merlin, did you see Dumbledore’s face?” Fred cackled.
“Forget Dumbledore, did you see Professor Snape?” Warrington snickered. “He looked like he swallowed a fly.”
“That felt good.” Harry said, his face feeling warm.
“Don’t hold it in, Potter.” Flint said in a teasing tone. “I gotta say, based on that outburst, you’d have done well in Slytherin.”
“The hat thought so too.” Harry admitted with a crooked grin.
“Us too.” Fred and George shrugged, grinning just like Harry.
“Is he safe in the Lion’s den?” Warrington asked, looking between Fred, George, Lee, and Hermione. “If he isn’t, we can press a re-sort and keep him safe in the snake pit. We have very strict and specific rules, so he wouldn’t have to worry about being attacked in his sleep or anything.”
“I’m fairly certain with Fred and George around him, anyone who would try anything would be signing their own death certificate.” Hermione said, smiling a little evilly. “And Neville knows a lot of dangerous plants that could mysteriously end up in their beds or meals.”
“We should be able to keep him safe. We managed it during the Chamber ordeal.” Fred shrugged.
“Oh, I forgot about the Chamber. I was gonna suggest, if you all wanted to practice or study somewhere away from prying eyes, we could go down there?” Harry said. “Of course, we should probably do something about the Basilisk corpse that is most likely still sitting there.”
“You should call ze Goblins, first.” Viktor said cautiously, searching for the words. “Professor Flitvick could bargain vith zem. Zey can take care of ze corpse and vill ask only a small percentage of ze profits you can make from it.”
“Alright. Uh, Cho, would you want to see if Professor Flitwick would meet us in the girls bathroom on the second floor? The one no one uses?”
“Is Myrtle going to be there?” She asked, her face scrunching up.
“Probably, but she’ll listen to me and mostly leave us alone.” Harry replied, trying not to laugh.
“I’ll go with you.” Cedric offered, rolling his eyes when Fred whistled. “We’ll meet you there in ten minutes?”
“No detours!” Lee called, laughing when Cho flipped him a rude gesture.
“Just, uh, it opens with Parsel, so don’t freak out too much when I hiss at it.” Harry said, trying not to show how worried he was about the people who joined him abandoning him for it.
“Cool.” Flint said, leading the group back out of the classroom and down to the bathroom where Cho and Cedric came in with Professor Flitwick a few minutes later. Harry hissed and asked for stairs this time, so they didn’t have to slide down the slimy tunnel like he’d done before. Because that was incredibly gross.
They worked together and vanished the small animal skeletons at the bottom. It took all of them to shift the fallen rocks around and create a path they could all walk through without having to crawl. When Harry opened the last door, everyone looked around in awe, but stopped and stared, faces pale, when they saw the Basilisk.
“You killed that?” Lee croaked.
“Yeah.” Harry nodded, walking forward to see what kind of space they had.
“This will make Gringotts very happy indeed.” Professor Flitwick laughed, walking along with Harry. “It has been many years since a Warrior such as yourself, Mr. Potter. If it is alright with you, I’ll summon them here and they can come directly into the Chamber without going through the school?”
“That would probably be best, actually.” Harry nodded.
“‘Ow old were you, ‘Arry? When you slayed ze beast?” Fleur asked while she set cleaning spells to the floors.
“Twelve.” Harry replied, absently rubbing where he’d been bitten.
“THIS is what was petrifying students?!” Cedric exclaimed.
“Well, yeah. See, the eyes of the Basilisk can kill immediately, but no one actually looked it directly in the eye. Mrs. Norris saw the reflection in the water, Colin saw it through his camera, Justin saw it through Nick, but Nick is already a ghost so he couldn’t die again. Hermione and Penelope were using mirrors to look around corners when they were petrified.” Harry replied.
“How did it not hurt you?” Flint asked, pointing at the mess that was the creature’s eyes.
“Fawkes came and damaged its eyes bad enough that I could at least fight it with my eyes open.” Harry stated. “Used the Sword of Gryffindor to kill it.”
“Are you hiding the sword under a glamor or using a different charm to keep it hidden?” A Goblin asked, approaching him while five others gathered around the creature and began measuring and talking excitedly.
“Er, no? It’s the Sword of Gryffindor, not mine personally. It’s in the Headmaster’s office.”
“It is yours by right of conquest.” The goblin growled, looking at Flitwick who looked equally angry. “As is the heirship of Slytherin.”
“Like Tom?” Harry scrunched his face up.
“Who?” Flint asked, looking at him weirdly.
“Tom Riddle. Er, full name Tom Marvolo Riddle, his mum was a Gaunt, a descendent of Slytherin, but she married a muggle and had Tom. Which is rather funny, honestly, because everyone was always telling me how Voldie Shorts was a pure-blood fanatical, but the bastard was a half-blood.” Harry replied.
“You-Know-Who was a half-blood?” Cedric asked, frowning as much as the Slytherins.
“Yeah, his diary self told me as much when I came down to rescue Ginny.” Harry answered, frowning when they didn’t seem to be understanding. He jumped when the goblin shouted something at the others and turned to Harry.
“Soul Magic.”
“Er, yeah, I think so?” Harry scratched his neck. “I mean, the diary said he was draining Ginny’s life force to bring himself back to full form. As she was dying, he was gaining life. It was incredibly creepy.”
“What happened to the artifact?”
“Stabbed it with one of the fangs.” Harry pointed at the empty point in the creature’s teeth. “Screeched pretty horribly, black goo oozing out of it and everything. When he disappeared, Ginny was able to recover pretty quickly. I think the Headmaster has the book. I only have speculation about it, but I’m pretty sure that Lucius Malfoy put it in with Ginny’s books when he and Mr. Weasley fought in Diagon before school started, not knowing what it was exactly.”
“We need that diary.” The goblin growled, looking at Flitwick. “We can trace if there are any other pieces from it and make sure they are destroyed or returned to the largest soul shard to see if it returns his sanity.”
“I don’t need to be a part of that, right?” Harry asked, not wanting anything to do with it.
“No, this is something children should most definitely not be involved in. We will handle it, even if you are already a blooded warrior. We will not risk you further until we’ve had the chance to offer you proper training with your earned weapon.”
“Oh, sure.” Harry nodded. “Well, what do you think, guys? This work for practicing?”
“Slytherin was said to have a secret library.” Flint said, looking around at some of the walls. “If we could access the books, they might help you in these tasks. Viktor said you aren’t going to be allowed to use much magic while you’re healing, so finding something that would allow you to have even a small edge, such as your Parsel abilities, would be beneficial.”
“That opens up.” Harry said, pointing to the giant face, before hissing and climbing up the steps that appeared for him. He was surprised to find a quaint sitting room and decent sized library along with a bedroom and bathroom. There was even a Potions station that the twins were interested in. “Wicked. Well, unfortunately, unless you can speak Parsel, you won’t be able to get in without me.”
“No worries, Harry. This is, by far, the coolest thing that I’ve seen around the school.” Cedric said, eyeing the books excitedly with Cho, Flint, and Warrington. Hermione was at a different section, looking like she very much wanted to start going through them.
“Sorry to interrupt, but it is getting late, and curfew is soon.” Flitwick said as he climbed in. “Mr. Potter, when you are next planning to come for a study session, shall we say, just let me know so I can make sure that I have the time free to escort you.”
“We’ll get a plan together-”
“And have it to you before the weekend-”
“Sir.” Fred and George said, putting their arms on Harry’s shoulders again.
“Good. I expect your interviews will be tomorrow after the wand weighing, so try and get some rest.” Flitwick stated as he led the group of students out and back through the bathroom. He dropped each group off at their common rooms, which was nice.
“Want us to set wards around your stuff?” Fred asked as they climbed through the portrait.
“Sure. Hopefully I can find a few more in Parsel from that library. Those would be helpful to know.”
“If you need any extra help picking out new glasses this weekend, Haz, let me know.” Hermione said, giving him a side hug. “And don’t forget me when you go down to study. I could use somewhere other than the library, the common room, or outside to practice and such.”
“Sure thing, ‘Mione. Night.”
“Night boys.” She waved them off before skipping up to her dorm.
“What are you doing in here?” Ron demanded when his brothers entered their dorm.
“Why, Ronniekins, it almost sounds like you were caught doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing?” George said in a low voice.
“Perhaps we should offer Harry our interrogation services to find out what you did to his things?” Fred agreed, while Ron’s eyes went wide. He quickly threw the map back on Harry’s bed along with his cloak.
“Those are family heirlooms, brother.” George said, his wand twirling in his hand.
“Are you trying to start a blood feud?” Fred demanded, waving his wand at his brother.
“At least you put everything you took back down.” George grumbled.
“Don’t let us catch you stealing from a prominent family again.” Fred said sternly.
“You could have just asked.” Harry finally said, taking his things and putting them in his trunk where George put up a few wards keyed specifically to him.
“Just so it’s clear,” Fred said, looking at the other fourth year boys, “anything happens to Harry in here, and you’re all free game.”
“Without our usual sense of restraint.” George agreed. “Except you, Nev, we’re good with you. Harry said you’re the only one who hasn’t been an ass to him since this happened.”
“It isn’t his fault shit happens every year he’s here.” Neville shrugged, his cheeks pink. “Besides, he’s always been kind to me.”
“Have a good night, boys. We’ll see you at breakfast, Har.”
Harry rolled his eyes when they finally left and went to take a shower so he could put the salve on that Viktor’s Healer, who said to call him Vasiliy, had prescribed. He was surprised by how much better it made some of the scars feel when he was done. Neville and Hermione were at Harry’s side for each of their classes the next day, after the wand weighing that morning, while various members of the group from the night before would often walk with him between classes as well as eat lunch with him.