A sirius matter

Chapter 26 - The Fourth Champion

At this moment, the Occlumency training that Harry had practiced kicked in and he woke up without a scar headache, after only spending two minutes connected to Riddle. He was somewhat pleased that he'd been able to break the connection painlessly without having cleared his mind, but he was also upset that he didn't hear Tom's plan. He sighed and cleared his mind, and went to sleep about a half-hour later.

-ASM-

The next day, Harry found out that he was now known throughout most of the school as a coward. Hermione, Neville, and Ginny insisted that it was ridiculous, listing actual heroic things he had done for the past three years.

Hermione explained, "The only thing is that you only do that sort of thing when someone's life is at stake, not to entertain the school."

He took a deep breath. "I guess so. I suppose it's better to be called a coward than the heir of Slytherin anyway.

-ASM-

It didn't take long for him to find out the origin of that rumor, as Draco proudly displayed his badge that said, 'Support Cedric Diggory – A Real Champion!' while they were waiting outside the door to take Double-Potions a few weeks later. When Draco touched it, the words changed to 'Potter's scared!'

"Oh that's really witty!" snapped Hermione just before Professor O'Brian walked up to them.

She took one look at Malfoy's badge and summoned it off his robe, leaving a hole in the material. "Fifty points from Slytherin for wearing this piece of garbage!"

She then noticed others wearing the badges and summoned them all, taking ten points from everyone who had them, leaving five Slytherins and three Gryffindors with gaping holes in their robes. Harry and Hermione were saddened to see Ron among them.

After she'd done her usual search for cheaters, Professor O'Brian announced, "Today we'll be making antidotes, and Mr. Malfoy has volunteered to test his for the class. We'll be poisoning him in an hour."

"No you won't!" he shouted. "My father will…"

"My point exactly! Malfoy, you don't want to be volunteered to do something dangerous any more than Mr. Potter! However, you have to hide behind your father! You don't have the guts to refuse on your own like Mr. Potter did! If you'd been entered into the tournament you'd have gone along with it, and then begged your father to get you out of it the next day instead of standing up for yourself!"

"Then I don't have to take the poison?" asked Draco.

"No, you do have to take it. Hopefully you'll make an acceptable antidote before then."

At that moment, the door opened and Colin Creevey came saying, "Harry Potter's presence is requested for a Triwizard Tournament photo shoot."

"What? Why?" asked Harry.

"The reporter Rita Skeeter wants to interview the champion who refused to participate."

"No, thank you," answered Harry firmly. He whispered to Hermione, "I want to see Draco poisoned," causing a slight giggle.

"You heard Mr. Potter. She can write a story about the people who wanted to be school champions."

-ASM-

Draco's antidote didn't work at all, but as he was turning green, Hermione kindly let him take her antidote so he could avoid a trip to the hospital wing. While they were leaving class, Harry said, "You shouldn't have given him your cure."

"I thought it would annoy him more to owe a favor to a mudblood." They both laughed as Draco, who'd overheard him, stormed off without a word.

-ASM-

The next morning, the Daily Prophet carried a fictional interview by Rita that basically said that Harry, while crying on her shoulder, admitted to being too scared to face the challenges of the tournament, and left the impression that Hogwarts didn't have a champion because of this. As Harry watched people laughing at him, he performed the 'Sonorus' charm on himself and stood up in the middle of breakfast.

"Excuse me. I've got something to say. Everyone who had Potions with me yesterday knows that I refused to give that Skeeter woman an interview, so anything she said about me is rubbish. Not to mention that she seems to have forgotten that Cedric Diggory is our school champion! Obviously this so-called reporter doesn't care what the facts are. Therefore my question is, WHY ARE YOU EVEN READING HER TRASH?" He then sat down and removed the charm from his throat.

Dumbledore stood up and announced, "Mr. Potter is quite right. He did not give Ms. Skeeter an interview, so any claims she has made regarding him are false. On the other hand, I personally introduced her to Mr. Diggory, yet she did not mention him at all in her article. I wonder if she suffers memory problems, or is simply a liar." Everybody laughed.

This actually seemed to get through to several of the students (none of the Slytherins) who stopped whispering about him. Aside from the fact that Ron still wasn't talking to him, everything was back to normal.

Harry and Hermione were walking toward Hagrid's hut that Saturday when they heard a male voice shout, "Stupefy!"

They both ducked down, avoiding being hit by the red beam. Harry turned and saw Karkaroff running toward them with what appeared to be a blanket. As Harry was reaching for his wand, Igor threw it on top of him. Hermione reached for the blanket as Karkaroff shouted, "Activate," and both teenagers felt the familiar tugging behind their navels as they disappeared.