Here We Go

chapter 14

Chapter 14: Damned Tournament

Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will provably be changes in the first hour or so as I find things that didn't come out the way I wanted.
T

he method they'd used to obtain his blood to enter him into the Tournament was fairly obvious. It was made to look like a prank gone wrong, but the crush of people genuinely trying to help on top of whoever it was trying to get a sample of his blood made it impossible to be certain who or how many people swabbed his blood from the many minor cuts that were a result of the small explosion on the table in front of them (though he was certain that Hannah Abbott and Ernie Macmillan had been part of it).
The day before Halloween, the Beauxbatons delegation arrived in their cottage sized flying carriage, but they had to laugh when Fleur was the only Beauxbatons student who appeared to know how to cast a warming charm, because the rest of them just stood there shivering in their stylish robes which may have been a good idea in the south of France, but most certainly weren't a good idea in Scotland in winter with snow on the ground.
After a year of hard work and paying attention to his appearance and manners, Hagrid was a fine figure of a man (perfectly sized for her to boot), so Olympe was making no attempt to hide the appreciative looks she was giving her fellow half giant when she was introduced to him. Fleur was just as obvious when she ran up to kiss and embrace Harry and the rest of the group. When asked about this, she just said that she'd met them and become friends at the Quidditch World Cup.
Fleur stayed with Harry and the others when her Headmistress led her shivering schoolmates into the castle, partly because she'd missed them, but more because the feral grin on Harry's face promised that the show when the Durmstrang delegation arrived would be worth it.
About ten minutes after the Beauxbatons delegation went inside, the water began stirring out in the middle of Black Lake and the masts of the Durmstrang ship broke through the surface. Once it stopped bobbing up and down atop the water, the ship headed for the shore, propelled by magic. Fleur could hear Harry quietly counting down until the ship reached Hogwarts' wards, then they heard an almighty scream, followed by furious swearing in Bulgarian and a few other languages and shouted demands to turn the ship around and get him out of there!
The ship retreated outside the wards, and then they heard the loud 'crack!' of a clumsy disapparation before it turned around and charged at the shore again. A teacher on the ship hardly waited for the gangplank to be extended before he jumped off and rushed up to the castle, demanding that whatever attacked their headmaster be turned off and whoever was responsible be turned over to them for justice to be served.
The blustering fool was almost apoplectic when Harry just burst out laughing at that and he started screaming at him, but suddenly shut his mouth when he was hit full force by Harry's baleful glare as Harry began speaking in a quiet voice that easily carried to both the Durmstrang delegation waiting on the ship, and the ones huddled in the entrance to Hogwarts. "You demand that we drop the wards that are in place to protect well over a thousand students and others in order to accommodate one man who was evil enough to willingly agree to be branded with a dark object by a psychopathic mass murderer, do you? We are aware that Professor Karkaroff is a marked Death Eater who willingly served the Half-blood pretender who styled himself as Lord Voldemort. Hogwarts was given no choice about hosting this Tournament, but we will not remove the protections that are in place for our students and visitors just to suit one animal who escaped his well deserved fate by betraying his fellow Death Eaters. Your delegation can remain here for the Tournament without the Death Eater, or return to Bulgaria with him, these are Durmstrang's only choices…. And for your information, there is a standing order in Magical Britain for any and all Death Eaters to be questioned under Veritaserum and then punished for their crimes."
They heard another loud 'Crack!' of a clumsy disapparation from the direction of Hogwarts' gates and Harry gave a grim smile. "It would appear that Karkaroff has made his choice, I suggest that you contact your masters to get your orders about what to do with your students Mister….?"
The man was belatedly realising that there was obviously more to this boy than he understood and tried a safer route. "Popov…. that is Professor Popov, Master of Defence for Durmstrang! Who are you?"
"Mind your tone Professor Popov! I am Duke Henry James Potter, Head of the British Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter and Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black! As I said, I would suggest that you seek instruction from your school and your government as to what to do with Mister Krum and your other students post haste, as my understanding is that they will only have a day to enter themselves into the Tournament if they choose to participate."
With that, he turned and walked up to the entrance with the others.
On the Durmstrang ship, the other students were looking at Viktor Krum and asking him how this Duke Potter knew that he would be there, while up in Hogwarts' entrance, Olympe shared a grim smile with Minerva, as it appeared that this gods be damned tournament could prove to be quite interesting! The old man trying to hide in the shadows, however, was looking quite worried as he tried to work out how Potter could know so much about the tournament and Karkaroff, he must advise Anthony of these new developments!
Popov demanded, and was grudgingly granted, access to a floo to request instructions. Karkaroff's replacement (Dimitri Branimir, Durmstrang's Deputy Headmaster) arrived with Nikoli Miroslav, the Head of their equivalent to the Department for Magical Games and Sports at the start of the Welcoming Feast, and he found it as disturbing as Popov when this Duke Potter turned to give them a chilling look when Popov began telling him about the altercation when they arrived. Tony Abbott and Albus Jones had a similar experience when Jones was whispering to Abbott about how much Potter seemed to know.
Abbott had obviously decided that everything that was going wrong with their plan was Harry's fault, because he was concentrating on trying to stare him down rather than what he was saying as he explained the changes to the judging for the Tournament as well as the other rules, and this in turn led to an angry discussion with Miroslav, who was demanding to know what the arrangements had been before it was changed to this fair and equitable arrangement. The Bulgarians had only agreed to be part of this tournament so that they could use the fame of the youngest seeker in the history of professional Quidditch to improve their country's image. They had believed that the late notice of who had to attend to be part of the judging panel was just finalising the details, not a change to what had been planned as Abbott let slip. Finding out that the British had planned to control the judging panel with their people to influence the scores of the tournament meant that there would be some serious discussions going on between the Bulgarian and British governments.
Louis Rosier, the French government's representative, didn't care one way or another, his master's plan was just to use the Tournament eliminate the threat posed to the current regime by Delacour by killing off his half-breed spawn and ending his line, and if they could pin the blame on the half-breed Headmistress, all the better. The plan was to do this in the second task, because it was perfect for what they were after. Veela powers centred around fire and air, and Veela and Mers were mortal enemies, so having Delacour's Heir attempt an underwater rescue of her sister from the Mers…. there was no way that they could survive that! Of course they'd need to ensure that there was no way that anyone could identify who was responsible afterwards, but Mers were weak minded creatures and it shouldn't be too difficult to set enough of them off on a rampage to kill the rest of the hostages, competitors and creatures in the Mers' village.
Of course…. Potter should be gone by then, that Horntail that they were arranging for him to face in the first task was a nasty piece of work, she'd already killed her mate and half a dozen handlers before she had the clutch, and she'd be twice as dangerous now! So, eliminate Potter in the first task and the Veela and hopefully the rest of the competitors and their hostages in the second, then all they had to do was have it come out that the Tournament was all the British's idea and they'd be totally discredited, they just had to make sure that they got what they wanted before the rest of Europe came in to pick over the bones once the British were brought down. He nodded to himself at that, yes... that should serve their plans well enough.
Albus was shocked when Arabella Figg levitated the Goblet of Fire's casket into the Great Hall, because the woman hadn't been much more than a Squib before he bound her magic, so how could she be displaying this much magic now? He was also furious that Bones had stayed on for the proceedings after she came to investigate why a marked Death Eater had been trying to get into Hogwarts, and then she, McGonagall and the other Hogwarts professors had supported Potter when he had the gall to openly question the veracity of the controls offered by the age line he said that he'd cast around the Goblet where it would be on display in the Great Hall. The brat had stood there and sprouted a pile of nonsense about how easily the age line could be bypassed, saying that between having his parents murdered by a monster eleven years ago and the castle being invaded by several mountain trolls last year as soon as he returned, he had a history of bad luck on Halloween in the Magical World, so he wanted assurances that all reasonable measures were being taken to ensure that no-one could enter him in the Triwizard Tournament against his will. As a result of that, Bones and the other busybodies had insisted that the Goblet be placed in a separate chamber off the Great Hall, with Aurors and teachers from all three schools watching it, as well as the age line at the doorway into the chamber, and that every student coming into the chamber to enter themselves into the Branimir tournament be made to confirm that the name recorded on the slip they were putting into the Goblet of Fire was in fact their's.
That had forced him to waste half the night setting an illusion over Potter's entry slip that would be strong enough to convince the guards that it was actually the entry slip for one of the Gryffindor Seventh Year's who was entering himself in the tournament, but disappear as soon as it went into the Goblet, then use slight of hand in class to switch the slips without anyone noticing. He patted himself on the back for a job well done when he saw the stupid boy coming out of the chamber after he had supposedly entered himself into the tournament successfully.
Harry was getting angrier and angrier as he waited for the names to come out of the Goblet of Fire, because while he was certain that his name would come out of the Goblet, he didn't know who put it in there or how they did it. Amelia was ready to duck in and grab the slip before anyone could do anything to it, but all he could do was wait for the axe to fall.
When Fleur's name came out as the Champion for Beauxbatons, she rose and gracefully headed for the chamber where the Goblet had been sitting through the day, pausing to curtsy to Madame Maxime and Professor McGonagall, but ignoring everyone else involved in the tournament.
The way that Viktor Krum angrily stood and marched to the chamber with no more than a perfunctory bow to the High Table when he was announced as Durmstrang's Champion made it fairly obvious that he had been entered against his will as well.
From the way Terence Higgs jumped up and strutted to the chamber when he was announced as Hogwarts' Champion, he'd been expecting this, and he didn't seem to have been forced to enter the Tournament. Then Harry held his breath, hoping against hope that he was wrong and his name wouldn't come out this time, but then the flames flared up again.
The triumphant look on Jones' face as he called out "Harry Potter!" almost without looking at the slip proved that the bastard was involved in this, but the way Amelia's shoulders drooped and she said "Come with me please Duke Potter, we will have to try and work this out." after she snatched the slip from him to check what was written on it confirmed what he already knew, that unless by some chance they'd used the wrong blood on the slip, he would be forced to participate.
The others in the chamber looked on wide eyed as Fleur greeted Harry with a teary kiss and embrace, and the muttering grew louder when Harry then openly offered commiserations to Viktor for being forced into this as well, and Viktor returned the sentiment, adding more for Fleur when she confirmed that she had also been forced to compete.
Harry looked up when Amelia, Minerva, Poppy, Filius, Angela and Sirius came out of the huddle over the slip that was used to enter him, but Amelia shook her head resignedly before addressing Jones and Abbott. "Mister Jones, Mister Abbott, I understand that the two of you were the key organisers of this tournament… is that correct?"
Bagman tried to interject that he was as well, but one look from her shut him up and then she looked back at Jones and Abbott, waiting for an answer. Jones tried his usual crap. "Yes Amelia, we were, why do you ask?"
"It is also my understanding that this tournament was supposed to have been between the three major schools of magic in Europe, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, is that correct…. Albus?"
He was a little more hesitant this time. "Yes?"
"Well how in the seven hells do you explain an entry from a fourth school that none of us have ever heard of… the Jafar School of Sorcery in Saudi Bloody Arabia, being accepted?"
He immediately fell back on his old standard, an attempt at misdirection. "I don't know Amelia, did you do this Harry? Did you enter yourself from this school?"
Harry pulled out his Rowan wand, blasting a chair in the corner into smithereens and then hissed at him.
"That is Duke Potter to you old man! And as you bloody know well unless your memory is failing, I made a vow on my life and magic in front of you and the rest of Hogwarts not two months ago that I would not enter myself into your damned contest, and nor would I request, induce or knowing allow anyone else to enter me into your damned tournament either!" He pointedly glanced at the smouldering wreckage in the corner. "As it would appear that I still have my magic, I obviously didn't bloody enter myself! I've never heard of that damned school, which my geography training tells me definitely isn't in Europe, and how the hell did your vaunted controls to ensure that only those who were of age could enter the tournament fail?"
"Control yourself Harr…." Harry's wand rose to point unerring at a spot right between his eyes and Jones anxiously corrected. "Duke Potter! You will show proper respect to the school and government officials in this room!"
The temperature seemed to drop when Harry replied. "I am showing the idiots who organised this farce that three of us have been forced into more respect than they deserve!…" He paused and glanced at the school representatives "But I do apologise if I have failed to show due respect to anyone not responsible for the mess we find ourselves in..." Olympe, Minerva, Filius and Professor Branimir all nodded to him, acknowledging that the young man had a right to be angry, and mostly happy that the anger wasn't directed at them, but Jones, Abbott and Bagman were angry at the continued slights against them. "However…. neither Director Bones' question about how a fourth school from outside of Europe was added into the tournament, nor my question about how the supposed controls to ensure that only those who were of age could be entered into the tournament failed have been answered! Was this Triwizard Tournament restricted to the nominated three schools or not?"
Abbott sparked up now. "Do not talk to your betters like that Potter! Just shut up and do as you're told you stupid boy!"
Amelia put a hand on Harry's shoulder to calm him down, as he was ready to explode, and then turned to Abbott. "Who is the champion of the Minor House of Abbott, Mister Abbott?"
"What?"
"Are you deaf, or merely too stupid to comprehend a simple question? I asked you who your House's champion is Mister Abbott. You have just abused, ridiculed and insulted Duke Henry James Potter, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter and Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Under the Most Ancient House rules of Magical Britain, Duke Potter must demand satisfaction now, because someone of his station cannot ignore a slight of that magnitude, but while from the evidence of that chair, he is most probably quite capable of dealing with you himself, as one of his nominated guardians I must respectfully request that he leave the matter in the hands of one of his three champions…. or perhaps one of his two primary guardians, as Duke and Duchess Black appear to be almost as angry as Duke Potter is at this slight, so once again…. who is your champion, or do you actually have the fortitude to try and face one of Duke Potter's champions yourself?…. Though if he is feeling very charitable, Duke Potter may decide to just take everything belonging the House of Abbott in compensation."
"What? He… he can't do that!"
"You really should have learned the rules of Magical Britain before you attacked Duke Potter Mister Abbott, for insults such as you have offered to someone of Duke Potter's station, he can and indeed is expected to do that and much, much more to you and your insignificant house, and he has done so to others of higher station than you before this. I can't believe that you can be ignorant of this after what has been happening in Magical Britain since last August.… you only had to read the Daily Prophet to see it and if your daughter hasn't been telling you what has been going on at Hogwarts for over a year, she would be almost the only one! Now…. while Duke Potter is considering the fate of you and your house, I would suggest that you try to be as helpful as you possibly can, in hope that it may induce him to be more lenient…. Duke Potter asked you two questions, what is your answer?"
Abbott was trying not to faint at the thought of losing everything, even his life…. and hoping against hope that the people he worked for would save him, but he realised that he had to give these people something if he was to have any hope of lasting long enough to get help, so thinking fast he carefully worded his reply. "We didn't believe that it was necessary to specify the schools that were involved because we never expected any entries other than from Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang…. and I am uncertain exactly how the Goblet determined that entries qualified as being of age before they were accepted in the tournament, but the documents were quite clear that that was the case." He certainly wasn't going to admit that it had taken them months to dig up the name of the last official school of magic they'd had in Saudi Arabia (which had closed nearly two hundred years ago) to use for Potter because the rules there said that you're of age as soon as you hit puberty!
Amelia glanced at Harry and he gave her a subtle nod, as they may as well try to get the bloody thing cancelled, or get these bastards to bury themselves if it wasn't.
"Then as one of the officials responsible for the running of the tournament, are you prepared to formally attest that Duke Potter has legally attained his age of majority, as he has been accepted by the Goblet to compete in the Triwizard Tournament Mister Abbott?"
"Well…." He sensed that there was a trap in there somewhere but was more interested in saving his own skin at this point. "Yes! I attest that Duke Potter and the other champions in the Triwizard Tournament have all legally attained their age of majority."
Amelia nodded and turned to Jones. "Mister Jones, as one of the nominated Ministry officials responsible for the running of this tournament, do you also agree that Duke Potter has legally attained his age of majority, as is officially required for him to compete in the Triwizard Tournament?"
"What is the purpose of this questioning Amelia?"
"Yes or no…. Albus! Unless the appointed tournament officials formally attest that Duke Potter legally meets the requirements to compete in the Triwizard Tournament, the entire tournament must be cancelled because he can neither compete or withdraw, surely you must be able to see that?"
The repercussions of being held responsible for having the entire tournament cancelled after so much money and political influence had been spent on making it happen flashed through his head and what to do was clear to him. "Yes! I attest that Duke Potter and the other champions in the Triwizard Tournament have legally attained their age of majority."
Amelia just looked at Bagman. "Of course! They are all legally of age to compete in the tournament!"
She just looked at them for a little longer. "Very well, as we have unfortunately confirmed that this entry that someone else put in for Duke Potter is indeed sealed with his blood, Headmistress McGonagall has advised me that from Hogwarts' legal representative's advice, Duke Potter is therefore legally and magically bound to compete under the terms of the tournament contracts. Given that the three Ministry officials responsible for the running of the Triwizard Tournament have all formally confirmed that the evidence proves that Duke Potter is legally of age, I must allow the tournament to continue, but my department will be investigating the entry that put Duke Potter in the tournament as it shows clear signs of being enchanted. We will pursue the matter until we determine who it was who entered him and they will be punished!"
She turned to Harry. "You have my assurance that we will not let this rest Duke Potter, but unfortunately you are required to compete in this tournament that you have been entered into against your will. I hold my department partly responsible as this was done under my people's noses, so if there is any training or assistance you require to enable you to compete safely and effectively, let me know and I will do everything in my power to arrange it…."
She glanced at Abbott. "Now…. the question remains in regard to what reparations you require of Mister Abbott and the House of Abbott for his insults. Will you require Mister Abbott to meet one of your champions, do you claim what the House of Abbott owns, or both?"
Harry looked critically at Abbott and shook his head. "I'd rather not insult any of my champions by making them deal with something like that Director Bones.…" He quickly turned to Angela to cover his smile as Ulfr and Snorri solemnly bowed to him in thanks at that. "Regent, what does the House of Abbott have that's worth claiming?"
Angela shook her head musingly. "Not much My Lord. They do own a few nice properties that they're currently hiding under holding companies here and on the continent, but we'd have to clear out the people currently living in them….. the family businesses here and on the continent are moderately profitable, they have a number of house elves who appear to be good workers, and there's two or three hundred thousand galleons in their vaults but that's about it, unless you wish to claim the daughter for a plaything?"
Harry screwed up his face. "Oh my gods no! I'd be afraid of what I'd catch from her, the amount she's been passed around already!…"
He stopped to think for a moment. "Okay…. Empty out those properties and claim them and the businesses if you believe that they're worthwhile, take any of the elves that are worth claiming and the gold…. Do you believe that I should call for an oath from the Head of House that the House of Abbott will never act against me or my houses and allies again?"
It was Angela's turn to look at Abbott critically. "If it conflicts with an oath he's already made to act against you it could kill him…. but I don't believe that you can afford not to My Lord, he has the look of someone who's likely to try and come after you because of the perceived insult, even though he's the one who offered the insult."
Harry nodded. "Do you have a suitable oath available?"
Ten minutes later, Abbott had made the oath, and while it obviously did conflict with a previous oath he'd made from the way he struggled with it, there wasn't enough specific conflict between the oaths to kill him. Harry felt a little guilty for half wishing that it had, as the arrogant bastard had infuriated him and he had obviously been prepared to take an oath to act against him.
When Bagman called on Abbott to give the Champions (and Duke Potter, as he insisted that he was no school's champion and should not be called that) their instructions, Abbott bit out the terse, pre-prepared lines which basically said that they'd have to find out on the day what it was and then stormed out, furious about how he and his house had been humiliated.
Afterwards, Fleur came back to Corvus Tower with Harry and the rest of them, because it had been agreed with Madame Maxime before they left France that she'd be staying with them, and they all sat down to discuss what had happened in the chamber. They started with Amelia, who told them that Jones must have another wand somewhere because the magical signature on the slip didn't match anything they had recorded for him, but she was sure he'd done it… but she stopped and asked. "I don't like the girl, but does Hannah Abbott really get around as much as you said she does in there at thirteen Harry?"
Harry grinned. "Not having had anything to do with her, I wouldn't really know Auntie Ami, but the comments I hear at mealtime seem to say that she tries to. I just wanted to slap her father down to size, but I was serious about the fact that I'd never touch something like her, I'm quite happy with the people in my life and don't have any interest in anyone else."
That earned him a kiss from Hermione. She'd been quite scandalised by what he'd said in there but was furious about Abbott's comments to him, and remembered what sort of girl Hannah Abbott turned out to be in the other timeline, so she decided to let him off the hook.
They then quizzed Angela about the value of what they were claiming off the Abbotts. There were half a dozen significant properties in the south of France and around the Mediterranean which probably represented the majority of the worth of the Abbotts, so they'd obviously been hiding their money in them and she'd be claiming those, but they had a few more which would cost more than they were worth to fix up, including their home, which Angela would leave them. Most of the businesses were better money spinners and worth more than they'd been made out to be (especially the core import/export businesses), so they were being claimed, but the Abbotts could keep the dodgy ones that were making a loss and had no inherent value. About a dozen of their elves appeared to be skilled and young enough to be valuable and able to adapt, and they'd be better treated in Harry's family anyway so they'd be claimed. The Abbotts had more gold than Angela indicated she knew about, as Tony Abbott's and the Abbott family vaults actually held over half a million galleons between them, that wasn't enough to really make a difference to Harry, but she'd be claiming all of it to slap Abbott down, because more than a little of the Abbots' wealth had come from Harry via Dumbledore. While they were taking between four and five million galleons off the Abbotts all up, their official worth of one million galleons was only being halved, so the House of Abbott had been doing the vast majority of its business under the table, which was rather suspicious for a supposedly respectable house.
What they were claiming wouldn't destroy the Abbotts, but it would make their real circumstances rather tight and it would take a lot of work for them to recover. Perhaps more to the point, Tony Abbott would be tearing his hair out, trying to work out how they'd known so much about where he was hiding all the money, and that in turn would probably make him worry about what other secrets they knew about, so with any luck he would be bright enough to stay well away from them from now on. The message being sent was that they could have easily destroyed him and the House of Abbott if they chose, but they'd been lenient this time.
They used the gloo to go to Gringotts straight away and submit the memories to show that the three nominated Ministry officials running the tournament had formally confirmed that Harry had legally reached his age of majority, which was more than enough to have the fact officially accepted under the current requirements, and Hermione qualified as well as the wife of someone who had been accepted as of age. Under the Most Ancient House laws that applied to both of them none of this was really required, but Gringott started the process for both of them to give to Fudge and his supporters a slap in the face because once the evidence was accepted and lodged in the system, their status could not be challenged under the current rules.
Gringott also started the process to transfer everything that they'd decided to claim from the House of Abbott, so when Tony Abbott rushed into Gringotts the next day to try and move things around to save those parts of their fortune that he believed he'd managed to keep hidden, he got quite a nasty shock.
When they went down to breakfast the next morning, there were quite a few looks directed their way, but before the students had been dismissed the night before, Pomona had announced that the DMLE had confirmed that Duke Potter had entered by someone else, using an enchanted entry slip to cover up their actions. She'd also reminded the Hogwarts students of the magical oath that Harry had made, saying that he'd given the officials a demonstration which proved that he had most definitely not lost his life and magic, which in turn proved that he had not been involved in his being entered into the Tournament.
It was obvious that some of the students, especially the Slytherins, wanted to say something about it, but Higgs had reported how Harry and his family had utterly destroyed the Head of the Department of Magical Cooperation, and how he couldn't do a thing about it when they'd been taunting him with the fact that they could do anything they liked to him and his house. What Higgs hadn't shared with his house mates, but owled his father about straight away, was how horrified Abbott had been when he saw how many of what he'd obviously believed to be well kept secrets Potter's people had uncovered, because that was the sort of thing that made players of the game dangerous.
Terence was Slytherin enough to know not to go up against someone who was too cunning or powerful to beat…. they'd all had a glimpse of how powerful the House of Potter could be when Potter came into their world over a year ago, but now he'd seen that Potter and his people were cunning as well, if not bloody brilliant…. and there was no way that he would be going up against people like that unless his father directly ordered him to. Given that his father was the one who taught him how to play the game, that wasn't likely to happen.
He knew that his father had aligned himself with Abbott and the people behind him after Potter and his people destroyed the Dark Houses' power base last year because their family businesses had been dealing with the Abbotts' for decades and having a strong and stable group behind them protected their house, but he was confident that his father would have made arrangements to ensure that they couldn't drag him down with them…. It was now looking like a better bet would be to align themselves with Potter's people, but how to do it…. feed him some of the information that the people behind Abbott gave them to help get ahead in the tournament, tell him something real like the fact that they would be facing dragons in the first task to get on his good side? That seemed the more prudent option but he'd have to wait and see what Dad's response was.
Of course Harry already knew about the dragons from the other timeline, so he had been regularly visiting Charlie's reserve and the one which supplied the Welsh Greens as well for most of the last year, talking to the dragons and their handlers and convincing them that the safest plan for the dragons, their eggs and the humans who were being forced to deal with them was to work together. They also got the dragons used to the idea of sitting on fake eggs and trusting other nesting mothers to mind their eggs for them when they had to do something which would endanger them, and they'd practised putting on a show for the ones who came looking for dragons for this, so when Abbott and the others came to Charlie's reserve and Charlie gave her the signal, Snazak the Horntail had put on her act. The handlers played along, telling them to stay back because that one had been dangerous before, but she was worse now that she had a clutch of eggs to look after. None of them were at all surprised when Abbott and co insisted that the Horntail had to be one of the dragons they provided for the tournament.
When Higgs came to him and told him about the dragons, Harry took a look inside his head and saw that he was basically feeling him out on behalf of his father with a view to changing allegiances. Discussions with the others garnered the consensus that the House of Higgs had the connections and temperament to potentially be useful allies, and that they tended to honour their word and stick with their allies until they were given a good reason to change, so Sirius threw some deals their way to make it worthwhile for them to pursue an alliance with them (the biggest carrot being a stake in handling the businesses they took off the Abbotts, because that would strengthen the House of Higgs' business interests), and Harry included Terence in their plans to survive the first task while putting on a good enough show to throw off the ones who were behind this. Terence understood that even though Harry had already known about the dragons, coming out and telling him like he did had been accepted as a sign of good faith, and he breathed a sigh of relief that he'd made the right decision.
The simplest way to convince Terence and Viktor to go along with the plan was to introduce them to the dragons, so that's what Harry did (after getting an oath from them that they'd keep the secret to themselves). Proving that the dragons would work with them unless provoked and walking them through the act made it fairly simple to get them on-board, and when they asked how this had been organised Harry just said that they had found out about the plans for the Tournament over a year ago, and had been working on a plan to beat the bastards at their own game since then. He also pointed out that being a parseltongue gave him a big advantage when it came to sorting things out with the dragons, as did having a good idea of which dragons they'd be facing, because he was pretty certain that he'd be the one facing the Hungarian Horntail as she was supposed to be the most dangerous, so the other three should concentrate on memorising the moves that the other dragons would make. He did feel a little guilty that he didn't tell Terence and Viktor that the dragons' eggs weren't real, but rationalised that they'd be more careful if they believed that the risk was greater, and therefore less likely to do anything that might provoke the dragons into a more dangerous response.
They had fun winding up Jones, Abbott and Fudge, because Minerva had stopped Jones when he announced to Hogwarts' students that the quidditch cup was cancelled for the year and told him "No it bloody well isn't!" in front of the whole school. When Jones tried to insist that the quidditch stadium would be needed for two of the tournament tasks she told him that while the Ministry may be able to insist that the tournament be held at Hogwarts, they didn't have any right to interfere with school activities, so they'd just have to build facilities for the tournament somewhere else, and got Hagrid to specify an appropriate location for it. She rubbed salt in the wound by getting Madame Maxime, Professor Branimir and their students' enthusiastic support for a friendly inter-school quidditch contest which proved to be more fun for the players than either Viktor's professional games or the cut-throat school contests they were used to.
The fun continued when Jones and Abbott tried to demand access to school funds to get the facilities built in time for the first task and Minerva told them to shove it up their arses, saying that it was their responsibility to provide the facilities for their tournament, not Hogwarts. When Fudge said that the money would have to be taken from the Ministry funding for the school, an emergency session of the Wizengamot was quickly called and the vast majority of the Wizengamot told them that if they tried to touch one knut of Hogwarts' funding for this tournament, they'd all be out on their arses before they could cry "Mummy!" Of course, seeing who it was who coughed up the funds to get the stadium built also helped them map out who the players behind this were (aside from Fudge, who was obviously made to fork out his share for screwing up so publicly…. again).
Jones, Abbott and Fudge were also angry when Abbott and Bagman turned up with reporters, photographers and Garrick Ollivander for a 'Wand Weighing Ceremony' publicity event for the tournament and the Champions and Harry told them to piss off. Garrick knew who he should trust now, so when the competitors in the tournament refused to have their wands examined he played along. "Quite right! No witch or wizard can be forced to hand their wand over to anyone else unless they're at least suspected of having committed a crime! You gave me the impression that the competitors had agreed to my coming here to do this Mister Abbott, but it would apparent that you misled me!" He then turned to Harry and the others. "Duke Potter, Miss Delacour, Mister Krum, Mister Higgs, please forgive me, it was my understanding that this was being done with your knowledge and agreement. You have my apologies and I will bother you no further..."
Harry had to hide a smile. "Not at all Mister Ollivander, I'm sure my fellow competitors will join me in saying that we do not hold this against you, we understand that the blame lies with the organisers of this ridiculous tournament." Fleur and the others agreed and Harry went on. "But with regards to what you were saying about witches and wizards not being forced to hand over their wands, why are we made to do that to get into the Ministry of Magic then? "
He could see the mirth in Garrick's eyes as he pretended to be outraged. "What? What are you talking about Duke Potter?"
"You have to hand your wand over at the security desk when you go into the Ministry of Magic and they do something to scan it, then they hold most people's wands until they leave. I don't know how it's determined who's allowed to keep their wand and who isn't, but the only ones I saw getting their wands back were wearing expensive looking robes..."
"What? That's an outrage! You can't just take someone's wand from them and then arbitrarily decide who gets them back. How long as this been going on?"
"I wouldn't know Mister Ollivander, don't forget that I only came into the Magical world a little over a year ago."
"Of course, I apologise Duke Potter, this disgraceful news put that from my mind for the moment..." He turned on Abbott. "You're a representative of the Ministry Mister Abbott! How long has the Ministry been doing this... interfering with something so personal and important to witches and wizards with no justification?"
Abbott was ropeable, because Potter had done it to him again, he set him up for ridicule with the press right there, taking notes and pictures. In his mind's eye, he could see the story that would be in tomorrow's Prophet and it wouldn't be the publicity piece for the tournament it was supposed to be, it would all be about the Ministry interfering with witches and wizards' most important possession for no good reason, and arbitrarily taking wands away from some while returning them to others... Shit! He could see a couple of the damned reporters running out the door, they must be trying to get to the Ministry to demand to know what the rules were before the ones on the security desk could be told to keep their mouths shut, he had to get word back to the Ministry before it was too late... "I don't know Mister Ollivander, as far as I know that's always been the policy for visitors to the Ministry. I will investigate the matter when I return but if you will excuse me, I must make an urgent Floo call..."
Harry could see what he was trying to do, so he kept him there a little longer, taking the opportunity to twist the knife a little more. "The House of Potter would also like this information Mister Abbott. I realise that you do not make decisions for the Ministry, but this appears to be a clear abuse of authority and discrimination as well. If the Ministry has a justifiable reason for demanding to see people's wands and taking them, it should apply to everyone, not just the people who don't look important. The Muggle world has laws to ensure that everyone is treated equally and they should be applied here too. So as I said, the House of Potter formally requests a copy of the same information that our allies in the House of Ollivander have requested, and I thank you in anticipation of your prompt response to the matter."
He smiled inside at the tightening of Abbott's expression which showed that he'd gotten the message, that the House of Ollivander was an ally of the House of Potter, so Garrick was protected by the oath he'd had to make to Harry on Halloween. Abbott just nodded tightly and turned and stormed off, because it was too late to head off those reporters now so the best bet would be to head straight back and tell Cornelius so that they could work out what to tell Potter and the press.
Half of the reporters thanked Harry before they rushed off to write up the story that had come out of this altercation, because the Ministry abusing people's rights and corruption made for a much bigger story than the expected puff piece on their stupid tournament.
When the day of the first task came, it wasn't too difficult to create a situation to get everyone but the competitors thrown out of the Champions' tent so Harry could walk Viktor and Terence through the moves that their dragons were expecting. They both got a little singed when they zigged when they should have zagged, but they got the golden eggs without being serious injured or upsetting their dragons too much, and the dragons went back to look after their real eggs happily. Veela were more fireproof than normal humans, so as per the plan Fleur put on more of a show and tantalised the audience by casting off her burning robes just as she left the arena with her egg. Due to the fact that dragons have far better hearing than most people realise, Harry was able to call the moves to Snazak without anyone else hearing as he dodged and dove through his act, and he dropped his burning robes as he ran out of the arena with his egg like Fleur had, but what he was wearing underneath wasn't as interesting as what she had been. He'd been getting a running commentary on the performances and scores from Hermione as the task progressed, so he wasn't surprised to see that the scores were fairly close for the other three. Of course, his score was lower, because only Auntie Minnie and Madame Maxime gave him a fair score for the task, but the point was to survive and none of them, the dragons or their eggs were really harmed, so it was a win in his book.
After the first task, Harry had a quiet word with Viktor and Terence about the second task, telling Viktor that his date for the Yule Ball would most likely end up on the bottom of Black Lake as his hostage for the second task, so he should think long and hard about who he took to the ball. Viktor was a little worried about that, because he was actually betrothed to a girl back home, but their families had agreed that it would be best to keep the betrothal a secret to protect Sofia from the news hounds and people who would try to use her to influence him, and his manager kept the secret because it was better for his image if he was perceived to be available to his female fans. Terence was even more worried, because his betrothal was well known, so logic said that Gemma would be his hostage. They were still covered by the oaths that they gave before the first task, but Harry added Gemma to the oath so that she could prepare for what was in front of her, and helped Viktor word a warning to Sofia's family to be careful as they got closer to the second task.
Harry was also worried about his girls, because while the most logical choice for his hostage was Hermione, he didn't know whether Jones and the others would pick one of the others to throw him off, because the others looked (and were) more vulnerable. He had also managed to see what the plans for Fleur, Gabi and the rest of them down there were in Rosier's head, which just made him want to kill Rosier.
Some things were better this time than last time though, because Harry had had over a year to practice the functional metamorphmagus transformation into a merman and swimming and fighting in that form. Fleur and Gabi had confirmed that gillyweed worked for them like it did for humans, and had been practising swimming in that form since the beginning of September (because as Veela, swimming wasn't something they were that used to), and Hermione and the other girls had been practising for over a year too, as well as being accomplished with the bubblehead charm. Harry was also far more powerful and had a much bigger arsenal of spells that he could cast both non-verbally and wandlessly than he had in the other timeline, and they had the Lady.
By the time the second task came around, Sirius had been testing the Lady's underwater capabilities for nearly a year. He'd confirmed that she could travel and stay underwater for days without trouble and the disillusionment charms, wards and the like seemed to work just as well underwater, as did the schlag-ruthes (except perhaps for the cannonballs etc). This gave them the foundation for their plans for the second task…. the crew would bring the Lady into the lake a day or so prior to the second task and use the wards to keep her hidden from detection. They'd move in on the Mers' village on the morning of the task and try and capture the ones that Rosier was planning to use to make the Mers kill everyone, and they would try to deal with any Mer aggression against the competitors and hostages as well.
They all had to laugh when Viktor told them what he'd decided to do about his date for the Yule Ball because while it was rather wrong, it was so fitting…. he charmed the pants off Hannah Abbott (well not literally, because she was only thirteen and he was faithful to Sofia, and for that matter he was worried enough about what Harry had said about her that he'd explained all this to Sofia and their families in case anything came out in the news back home) and was seen to be spending a fair proportion of his free time with her right up until the second task, so Hannah could be the only logical choice for his 'what you'll sorely miss'. This meant that if anyone else were selected for his hostage, Mister Abbott would have quite a bit of explaining to do, and he would hopefully do something to make the hostages safer if his own daughter was down there.
Professor Branimir had tried to convince Viktor that someone older and more attractive (and who had a better reputation) would be a better choice for his date to the Yule Ball as Durmstrang's Champion but Viktor shut him down by asking why the daughter of the esteemed Mister Abbot would be unsuitable as his date, and what was this reputation he was alluding to? The Professor gave up at that, because he hadn't been told why he was being instructed to get Viktor to change his date, he'd just been sent a message ordering him to do it. He got the point when he was told closer to the second task that Viktor's date from the Yule Ball would be the hostage waiting for him at the bottom of Black Lake, but he pointed out that he should have been told that at the start and it was too late to do anything then.
Harry didn't share Rosier's plans with Viktor or Terence, he didn't see any point in worrying them because they were already going to be doing everything they could to protect all of the competitors and hostages. He'd only told Viktor about what the task was in an attempt to prevent a vulnerable girl being put at risk by the tournament, and that had actually worked out quite well thanks to Viktor's sense of humour.
A/N: For Australian readers…. yes, I couldn't resist when I had to come up with a given name for Hannah's father. ;^)