A/N: This is one of my ten Patreon-Fuories. Currently up to date with all my other public websites, with four chapters of advance tent always avaible on my Patreon at all times. Updates once every two weeks. Enjoy!
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“-arry Potter!” Where is he? No, more importantly, when is he? Has it worked? Has he ma? Harry’s head is swimming, his senses barely registering. Getting his mind in order is a matter of some difficulty but takes no lohan a handful of actual seds. In the end, it’s not as though he’s overwriting another miirely. He is who he is. Ultimately, it’s more like memories he hasn’t had a reason to think about in quite a few years are suddenly much more vibrant and in the forefront of his mind. Memories of his earlier life. Memories of a cupboard uhe stairs, of a letter to Hogwarts. Of years spent in the school, both wonderous and terrifying in equal measure. The first thing he registers about his surroundings is just hoeople he’s surrounded by. The sheer number of bodies damn near gives Harry a heart attack. He almost goes for his wand, uo being surrounded on every side without at least a wall at his back. But in the end, he mao hold off as he figures out that he’s not in danger. He’s in the Great Hall, which means it HAD worked. Time Travel. Helluva a drug, heh. Still, he’d spent so many of his formative years in this pce. Feasting day in and day out. Knowing he was in the Great Hall and surrounded by Hogwarts Students wasn’t very helpful. He o know what year it was. Not that he knew WHERE he was, he o know WHEN he was. Slowly fog on his immediate surroundings, Harry lets out an explosive breath… only to realize everyone is staring at him at the moment. Not just those immediately around him, but everyone in the Great Hall is looking his way. Fuck, Ron and Hermione look so young. … It probably says something that even having everyoaring at him doesn’t really narrow down the exact time period all that much. Though, the fact that it’s night time at least precludes this from being an End of the Year Feast. At the same time- “Harry! Harry, my boy! Please, up here!” Dumbledore. Harry blinks as his eyes are immediately drawn up to the High Table where the Hogwarts Faculty normally sit. Except it’s not just the High Table right now. In front of it, there’s also a massive, familiar chalice. Harry blinks as he takes in the view of the Goblet of Fire, along with Headmaster Dumbledht beside it holding a slip with Harry’s name on it. It’s in that moment that he finally catches up to the end of his newly vibrant early memories as well. Oh sure, he recalls what happened in his Fifth, Sixth, ah Years as well as the years after Hogwarts just as easily, but there’s a differeween recalling something and having just lived it. The start of his dreams with Voldemort are fresh in Harry’s mind now, as is the mixed bag that was the Quidditch World Cup. Great show… poor after party. Arriving ba this moment specifically was irritating to say the least. Slowly, Harry begins to rise from his seat. It was almost as though Magic unishing him for his hubris. He’d been allowed to go ba time against all odds, but in doing so, he’d found himself bound to this stupid fug cup again. He would have preferred the start of the Year instead of this, if only so that he could have choseher he wao let his added to the Goblet or not. But… beggars couldn’t be choosers, he supposed. Wordlessly, Harry walks the length of the Great Hall. Everyone’s eyes are on him, but now that he knows where he is and has full access to his senses, he’s not ed. There ARE threats in this room, but none from the students. Not yet anyways. Entering the side chamber where the other Triwizard Tour Champions are waiting, Harry pays the three no mind. They all ask him questions, but their words barely eveer. He’s already pnning out his steps, already sidering his move.
Distantly, he’s aware of Ludo Bagmaering the rht behind him and all but having a seizure over how excited he was. The man was retively harmless though, so Harry lets him be, his mind still rag as Luds the others up to speed. There’s so much to do and so little time. Holy, he’s not sure he afford to be bogged down here for too much lohis was dealt with swiftly enough in the previous timeline, right? The door behind him opens again and this time Harry finds himself forced to pay a bit more attention as a number of powerhouses step into the room. His hackles are unsciously raised just by finding himself in the presence of the three School Administrators, along with Mr. Crouch, Professonagall, and Professor Snape. For a moment, Harry siders removing the Imperius Curse from Mr. Crouch… but holds off for now. “Madame Maxime! Say it is a joke! Zis quiet little boy ’t possible be expected to pete!” Harry tilts his head to the side at that, Fleur’s words some of the first to actually register and pierce through the fog of pnning currently draped over his thoughts. ‘Quiet Little Boy’ indeed… heh, he’d be sure to show her otherwise ter, but for now he wasn’t ined to rise to the bait. In fact, once he gets over the immediate fight or flight respohat es with being in a small enclosed space with this many threats, he finds he ’t be bothered to rise to the occasion whatsoever. Let Dumbledore figure this out. That was what happe time, right? Except, within minutes of Harry once again cheg out on the versation, there’s a pair of wizened old hands on his shoulders and a grandfatherly face looking him in the eye. “Harry.” To his credit, the Headmaster has some in his gaze, as though he’s worried by Harry’s listless rea to all of this. He doesn’t uand that it’s not because Harry is shellshocked, but more because none of this truly matters. “Did you put your o the Goblet of Fire, Harry?” The question is spoken calmly, but the accusation i in it is… irritating to say the least. Finally, Harry actually remembers how this whole versatio. Right, they were trying to make him out to be the bad guy here. They were trying to bme it all on him. Perhaps not Dumbledore… but everyone else wao pin this whole shitshow on the you person in the room. What a bunch of scumbags. Slowly, Harry’s emerald gaze pans over the room, taking in the unfriendly faces all around him. When he finally looks babledore, he ’t help the scoff that spills forth from his lips, leading the Headmaster to let go of him and frown as he takes a step babsp;“Right, because that’s the most reasonable expnation here, isn’t it? It was all my fault.” Most of the people in the room bristle at his ck of respect, but Harry isn’t done. Gring now, he scowls. “Me, a Fourth Year, mao surpass the Age Line of the Greatest Wizard of e. Then, after I did so, I somehow mao tri a artifato putting me in a Fourth School all on my own.” There’s a beat of silence before Dumbledore interjects again, likely to head off any angry outbursts from the others. “Did you have an older student put your name in the Goblet of Fire for you?” Harry ’t help the bewildered look on his face, truth be told. He vaguely remembers this question from the st time around, but now… well, he’s had a long time to think about how stupid it was. “Why would that even be an option, Professor?!” The aged Headmaster looks taken aback by his question, and so does everyone else, allowing Harry to tinue on. “What the HELL was the point of having an Age Line if youudents could have just paid off older students to put their names in for them?! What kind of magically binding tract allows for that sort of loophole in the first pce?! For that matter, what sort of magically binding tract allows for THIS to happen?!” He tell his words are having some effe those in the room. Karkaroff looks like he’s sucked on something particurly sour. Maxime at least looks thoughtful. Dumbledore has a grimace, and the three actual Triwizard Champions are all bnk-faced and wide-eyed as Harry makes some very good points. Oher hand… there’s always Severus Snape. “And what exactly are you g happened, Potter? Because from where I’m standing, it’s quite obvious you’ve done what you always do and found a way to circumvent the rules.” Looking at the man who pyed no small part in sig Voldemort on him and his parents, it takes every ounce of self-trol Harry has not to whip out his wand and kill Snape on the spot. But no, it wouldn’t do to reveal his hand too early. He o be free if he wants to get things done, not locked up in Azkaban. Although, he will o make a trip there some time soon… just not in s with his wand snapped if he could help it. Before Harry answer, an ued savior does it for him. “Don’t be daft, Snape. You know what he’s g. And he’s right too.” Mad-Eye Moody ehe room and immediately occupies everyone’s attention. But then to be fair, someone like him just had a preseo him… even when he was actually a polyjuiced Death Eater in disguise. His magical prosthetic eye spins this way and that, before fog on Harry even as his remaining real eye sweeps over the assembles wizards and witches. “Boy’s right. What was the point of an Age Line if anyone could put anyone else’s name in the Goblet, eh? But that’s not even what’s important. Wouldn’t be a problem if he’d e out as the Hogwarts Champion, would it?” Madame Maxime frowns at this. “But ‘e is ze ‘Ogwarts Champion! A sed one!” Shaking his head, ‘Moody’ takes a swig from his fsk. Once again, Harry is struck by the urge to Expelliarmus the man’s fsk out of his hand. Let the Polyjuice Potion spill all over the floor. But no… no, that would be a bit much this early in the game. “He’s unaffiliated. A fourth ent school. Potter is an isnd unto himself in this Tour. Which is exactly what whoever put his name in wants.” There’s a beat as everyone processes that. Of course, not everyone uands what he’s getting at. “Zis is still eous! ‘e now has a pete for ze honor and glory and a thousand Galleons besides! Zis isn’t fair!” He’d fotten Fleur was so… bratty when she was younger. Not that it makes her any less beautiful, Harry must admit. She could throw a full-blown tantrum and she’d still somehow mao make it look sexy. That said, she’s clearly wrong about some things here, and Harry sees no reason to let Barty Crouch Jr. as Mad-Eye Moody do all the talking. “I have no need for the glory or the gold. I’m the Boy-Who-Lived. And my bank at at Gringotts certainly isn’t hurting, even after over a decade of . By parison, peting in a school tour isn’t going to make me any more of a celebrity than I already am.” In truth, he could always use a little mold. And a thousand Galleons wasn’t anything to scoff at either. At the same time though, the truth rings in his words. For some, it sways them even more to his side. For others, like S only makes them ahe Potions Professor is scowling furiously now, as Harry’s disguised Death Eater ally backs him up. “Damn straight. And more than that, Potter isn’t strong enough to fool the Goblet of Fire. None of your students are. Which means someoh the magic to cast a very powerful fundus charm wao make sure the boy peted. They hoodwinked an a magical artifact, just as the boy said. You think a Fourth Year is capable of that?” “… But why? Why sign Harry up for a fourth school like this?” Cedric Diggory’s fusion is palpable as he finally speaks up, his brow furrowed. The Hufflepuff Champion has been listening to Harry and ‘Moody’ quite closely, and Harry say they’ve swayed him siderably already. But at the same time, he still doesn’t truly uand. To be fair, he’d willingly signed up for the Tour, so of course he wouldn’t. “Heh, to try a him killed, of course.”
The room explodes as everyories to talk at once. Cedric just blinks, even as everyone else reacts with disbelief or derision. Harry, meanwhile, finds himself a bit lost in thought. Even as Karkaroff derides ‘Moody’ as paranoid and Barty Jr. turns things back around oher wizard iacur fashion, Harry is more focused on what he wants to do . Because… in truth, he didn’t have to deal with this shit if he didn’t want to. The Triwizard Tour represented opportunity, there was no doubt about that. Even with his cims to Fleur that he needed her the glory nor the gold, he could certainly make use of both. More than that, his participation iriwizard Tour represented a clear and direct path to not just Voldemort, but his followers. Harry knew where Voldemort currently was. He could hop over there after getting a couple of other things done and deal with the Dark Lord with a snap of his fingers. But Voldemort’s followers were a little more difficult. He knew who they all were of course but getting them all together wouldn’t be something he could just pull off at any time. Oher hand, being bound to the Goblet of Fire for a year would be annoying. It wouldn’t limit him all that much, but it would require him to be present for each of the Tasks when they arrived. Tasks that he could excel at, and in doing so attract the eye of many a witbsp;He had to sider precisely what he’d e back for. He was here to stop the end of the world. Did he have time for this stupid school tour? More pertily, was he ready to deal with the fallout of breaking the trabsp;Because he could do it. Without suffering any of the sequences, even. Harry knew full well how to break the magically binding tract with the Goblet of Fire without being hit by the backsh. However, there would still be fallout. There would be questions that he probably wouldn’t want to answer. As Dumbledore finally brings the debate to a close and Bagman takes the opportunity to jump in aarted on the instrus, Harry makes his decision then and there. He ’t afford to be anythihan decisive. The world is depending on him.
