Harry Potter gets smart and takes control - The Goblet

Chapter 29 Un-housed

This one has some trigger warnings details are at the bottom of the page for anyone who wants to check them.

This one is a big one! I hope you enjoy it!

Harry joined Hermione in the hall for breakfast, after sending Sirius a very quick perfunctory note saying he'd managed the task but not much else. When she caught sight of him, she squealed and launched herself off the bench at him in a hug. It was only due to quick reflexes that he managed to catch her.

And tentatively hugged her back.

She beamed at him, "I was so worried you didn't come back! Are you okay? What happened? Have you seen the paper? Or the Quibbler? Luna dropped one-off for you. Have you been to the tower yet?" She fired off questions one after other at him.

He laughed and took a seat next to her.

"Sorry, I went to check on the dragons, and help the handlers persuade the Fireball to take the ointment for her cursed eyes. She was a mess after having her eggs crushed," Harry explained.

"I stayed down there last night, fell asleep before I could come back to the castle. Charlie let me crash in his tent. What was in the paper?" He asked.

Hermione sighed, "well, she didn't mention you directly, and didn't name you... But she went into great detail about how heroic the other champions tasks were. She didn't name you, but she did say that the fourth champion did not use any magic at all, but merely took the cowards way out. She then went on to look at the 'evil' dark history of Parseltongue." Hermione said, frowning.

Harry sighed, his good mood vanishing, "well it's better than it could be. I can't stop them mentioning me completely, but it does stop her from naming me and claiming to have interviewed me, or others about me. So it's an improvement."

"The Quibbler's actually better. Surprisingly so for a magazine that writes rubbish." Hermione said.

"It's not rubbish, read it with the glasses," Harry said absently opening the Quibbler, and ignoring Hermione's, "what?"

The front page had a huge photo of him, nose to nose with the dragon. The first 5 pages were exclusively on dragons. A lot of the conversation he had with Luna was in the piece. She seemed to have interviewed some of the handlers as well. Harry was pleasantly surprised to see that the article wasn't about him, just the dragons. Though there were plenty of photos, especially of him, sitting with the dragon, looking over the dragon's wing at the judges and of him stroking the dragons cheek. The piece also explained about dragon bonds, bargaining, and the magic behind it. It was brilliant.

The next few pages had more articles about him. One double spread went into detail rebutting Skeeters original article and explained what really happened to get him into the tournament and possibly why. One talked about who could possibly be behind it. It pointed potential fingers at everyone from Voldemort, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Moody to Minister Fudge. Harry thought it was a good subtle dig at all of them, really.

The next page was completely devoted to an article all about how he managed the task and his scoring. It also covered his oath, why he made it, and why he only made the oath then. It was a surprisingly good article, not playing him up, but not playing him down either. There were more dragon photographs too.

He flipped through the rest of the magazine, reading the other articles Luna had written on how the other champions had faced their dragons. It was clear she had interviewed Diggory and Delacour too, but she seemed rather scathing of Krum who had hurt his own dragon. She had not spoken to him at all.

When he put on the Spectra Specs, he used them to read the Quibbler's hidden articles. Harry had been worried about how much the articles about him would look into Dumbledore. Harry was taking a risk already by working with Luna, as it was without the old farts permission. He was worried that if the Quibbler painted Dumbledore in a too unsavoury light, it would have drawn the man's eye onto Harry again. Harry was in a very awkward and vulnerable position at that moment of not being able to do much other than fly under the radar until he was free of the man's magic.