Lurk
patreon
Incubus of Hogwarts Ch.3
🕑 Added 2023-12-24 14:26:37 +0000 UTC"How much longer will they be up there?" Lavender was impatient. Their transformations hadn't taken this long to complete. Daphne was lounging around calmly. They were in the prefect's bathroom. The bath wasn't drawn, so Lavender was sitting with her legs dangling over the edge of the empty tub while Daphne leaned against a marble wall.
"He's using a magical creature, it probably adds a million complications to the procedure." Daphne had earned an affinity for vibrations from her snake transformation, she could "hear" every single time Lavender bumped her feet against the wall of the bathtub. It was a weird feeling, and Daphne already anticipated it would be painful to be in a hall full of people stomping around. But she also appreciated its uses, and being able to morph into a black mamba also helped temper any regrets.
Lavender on the other hand wasn't too happy with her changes. She'd chosen a fox because she wanted to be a cute fluffy animal, and she knew Harry would scoff at a rabbit. After being asked to narrow it down (how was she to know that there were different types of foxes?) and being shown pictures by Harry, she choose the white one because it was the fluffiest and cutest one. In retrospect that had been a bad idea, she'd almost thrown up when she saw the poor little guy dead inside of a cage. She'd kept her eyes shut throughout the entire ritual, not wanting to see any more.
The caption on the little book Harry had shown her said the fox had really good hearing, so she was anticipating that to be her ability. Oh how wrong she was, her hearing wasn't any better than before, and she still didn't know what she'd gotten from the little critter. All she knew was that the room was almost suffocating in its heat, she didn't know how Daphne wasn't sweating bullets like her. She'd already removed all her clothing except for her Bra and panties, but that didn't help at all.
"It's almost midnight, maybe we should go up there and look for him." Lavender suggested, swooning at the thought of walking through those cold Hogwarts corridors.
Daphne didn't dignify that statement with an answer. And she didn't need to, for in that moment two popping sounds heralded the entrance of Harry and Hermione.
Harry had a smug smirk on his face, happy that everything had worked out as planned. He raised an eyebrow at Lavender's state of dress but set it aside for later. Next to him, standing no more than 3 feet tall, was house elf Hermione. It seemed that the ritual wasn't meant to be used with magical creatures, for she didn't look completely like a house elf. She had the green skin, diminutive stature and the pointy nose and ears; but she wasn't bald, she kept her same bushy hair as in her human for. Her face also looked just a pinch more human than a house elf's.
Harry cleared his throat "Hermy, say hello to your mistresses, Lavender and Daphne"
The house elf-girl hybrid bowed low, "Hermy is here to serve you mistresses, Hermy hopes she will be a good elf!"
"Did you scramble her brain or does she just want to talk like that?" Daphne asked.
Harry sighed "She's stuck like this, permanently." this was an unfortunate turn of events. He had hoped to be in bed and sleeping by midnight, but this threw a wrench in that plan.
Lavender had the ghost of a smile on her face, "So wait, Granger is stuck as a house elf forever?" she threw her head back and burst into laughter.
"What are you going to do about it?" Daphne questioned.
"What we are going to do is simple." Harry said. He'd been churning this in his head before arriving here. "First of all, I'm sending Granger over to her parent's house to erase their memory of her."
"Do you trust her with a memory charm?" Daphne raised an eyebrow. Lavender wasn't even involved in the conversation, she was on the floor laughing, which coupled with the overwhelming heat made her feel a bit light headed.
Harry shrugged, "If she fucks it up it's the same outcome, we just want the parents out of the picture. Now, we need someone to frame for her murder, any suggestions?"
Daphne wracked her brain for anyone in the school she found annoying; the answer was everyone, but no one jumped out at her as needing their life ruined.
Seeing her indecision, Harry turned to Lavender, "How about you Lav-" He stopped when he saw the girl was actually convulsing on the floor, her body drenched in sweat and her skin red.
He kneeled down beside her "Lav, talk to me, what's going on?" he asked her frantically. Lavender struggled to get the words out, everything around her burned and she was pretty sure she was blind. "I-I-I'm b-b-burning u-up" she wheezed out.
It took a second for Harry to make the connection. In her infinite stupidity she'd picked an arctic fox, and now she'd gained its ability to insulate the body from cold. This would be useful if Hogwarts was in the North Pole, but even Scotland in September wasn't cold enough for what the girl needed.
"Daphne, draw a bath! Hermy, fill it with ice cubes!" Harry barked at them. Hermy worked faster than Daphne, she conjured up thousands of ice cubes inside the Jacuzzi tub before Daphne had even moved. The Slytherin, knowing not to be slow when Harry used that tone, rushed to open the taps, letting the water flow into the tub.
Harry pulled out his wand and hit Lavender with multiple cooling charms, waiting for the tub to fill up. "Make it go faster!" he yelled.
"Yes Master Harry sir" Hermy answered, she snapped her fingers and the faucets began blasting jets of water into the tub. Once he saw it was halfway full, Harry threw an unconscious Lavender in.
The tub filled up and Hermy turned the faucets off. "What the hell is going on?" Daphne was harried, the sudden turn of events leaving her slightly disoriented.
"The dumb bitch chose an arctic fox, now she can't survive in a temperature above freezing."
Daphne tried to hold back a chuckle but couldn't. Of course out of the three of them Brown would be the one to get fucked by the ritual.
Lavender's head burst from the surface of the water, splashing droplets of cold water all over the trio. She was breathing heavily and tears were coming down her eyes. "I didn't even want to do the stupid ritual in the first place!" She began weeping in earnest. Her life was completely ruined!
Harry had a migraine forming, his nice comfy bed was looking ever so distant now. He made the executive decision to delegate.
"Daphne, I trust you." he addressed the girl seriously.
Daphne narrowed her eyes, wondering what he was getting at. "I'm giving you the job of mocking up Granger's murder."
"WHAT!" Daphne was livid. He was pawning off the hard work on her.
Harry's eyes hardened. He backhanded her across the face "Don't ever question me! You should see this as an opportunity, if you're able to pull this off it means your skills are as good as you think they are, and I can begin trusting you with more advanced work." The unspoken words being that he'd allow her to freelance and gain power for herself in the future, "Unless you want to stay and deal with the little mermaid here."
Daphne shook her head. She had already forgotten the slap, thinking about how Harry had implied he'd allow her more agency.
"Good, now take Granger with you." Harry turned to the elf, who had been silently waiting for his next command. "Hermy, you will do everything mistress Daphne tells you to do, understood?"
Hermy nodded enthusiastically "Yes master Harry sir, Hermy understands!"
"Who do you want me to frame?" Daphne asked him.
"Do whoever you want, except for the obvious."
Daphne nodded curtly. "Follow me elf." she spat coldly at Hermy. She turned and walked out of the prefect's bathroom with the little elf bouncing behind her.
Inside, Daphne was jumping with excitement. Whoever she wanted? That gave her so many options. While she couldn't think of any student she hated more than the other, she could still pick one.
"Mistress should be watchful of prefects." Hermy suggested.
Daphne kicked Hermy's legs out from under her, causing the little elf to fall hard on her face. Hermy groaned while picking herself up "You will only speak when spoken to, understood elf?"
Hermy nodded weakly.
With the little bint out of the way, Daphne picked up her train of thought. She really hoped they didn't bump into any prefects, because then that person would be the frame by default, and that was no fun. Unless she bumped into that Hufflepuff prefect Diggory, his insipid niceness and general good mood made her want to slit his throat, he was the personification of everything Hufflepuff. Then again there was Hannah Abbot, her red face annoyed Daphne to no end. Or maybe Padma Patil? The Ravenclaw had bumped into her once and apologized profusely, Daphne hated people weak enough to apologize.
Maybe Bullstrode and her revolting odors? Zabini and his tendency to underblink? That first year that sneezed in the corridor?
She thought about Filch but discarded him immediately. He'd been bringing misery to these useless twits for decades. He provided an invaluable service that she would be remiss to interrupt. That also took her head of house out of consideration (besides, she suspected Potter wanted to deal with Snape himself).
It was when her mind shifted to Gryffindors that she hit on the perfect victim. The one person who's suffering would bring the most laughter, the one student who stood out among all the others as deserving to be miserable. She just hoped she'd be able to schedule regular Azkaban visits, just to bask in their broken form.
"Elf, take me to Gryffindor tower, 4th year boys dorm."
"Yes mistress."
...
Meanwhile, Harry had a crying girl to deal with. He was very distressed himself, he should have vetoed the arctic fox, and he should have known what would happen to her. Harry might treat them like trash most of the time, but he genuinely cared for his girls (except for Granger). He might abuse Lavender, but he also loved her, it was impossible not to after being with someone for four years. He had no idea how to fix this, it was clear cooling charms wouldn't do the trick.
Harry sat down on the edge of the tub, he dipped his finger in the water and pulled it back when he felt just how icy the water was. "Lavender, come over here."
Even in her distressed state, Lavender still responded to his commands, and she waded over to meet him at the edge. Her tears had mingled with the water, but Harry could still tell which was which. "Baby I… I'm finished, I can't even be out there for a few minutes without getting a heatstroke."
Harry stroked her face softly, his skin prickling at how cold it was. He didn't want to admit it, but his heart was breaking, the helplessness he felt for not being able to help only added to that. For the first time he realized that the bond hadn't been a one way thing. He began to desperately think up spells that could fix this, scenarios in which they could still interact normally, but nothing came up. That is, until something in the back of his head told him to take them somewhere cold, like the North Pole. His brow furrowed for a second, wondering where the hell that thought had come from, until he realized it was his instinct. He hadn't needed to use his Incubi instincts in years, but they were always there, and right now, he would listen.
"Take my hand." Harry said firmly. "But-" Lavender protested.
"Trust me"
"But Harry, if I get out-"
Harry waved his hands "Lavender, I said trust me."
The girl looked into his eyes and knew she had to. She would trust Harry with her life, he might treat her roughly every once in a while, but he still had her best interest in mind. So she grabbed his hand and allowed him to pull her out of the water.
Harry waved his wand between them and they were both divested of all their clothing, except for his socks. He noted that even though cold was now the default setting for Lavender's body, her nipples were still painfully erect.
"What are we going to do?" Lavender didn't think she could have sex, all that heat would no doubt be terrible for her. But if that's what Harry wanted…
"Just let me do one more thing." He waved his wand over himself, using the strongest warming charm he could muster. Taking a deep breath, Harry popped them both away.
Lavender felt the familiar sensation of house elf apparition, and suddenly her body felt perfect, even better than in the ice bath. She gasped in awe at where he had taken her.
It was daytime in the arctic, there weren't any ice storms sweeping through, so she could see the landscape perfectly clear for miles on end, just frozen tundra stretched out endlessly. The sun was very low, it was only slightly lighter than twilight. For the first time since the ritual, Lavender felt truly comfortable.
"Harry, I didn't know you could apparate so far." she turned to her boyfriend, who was trying to cope with the temperature. A warming charm could only do so much, he was shivering slightly, but at least he wasn't freezing like a naked man in the tundra should be. "I'm a very powerful man, Lav."
Lavender rushed to him and hugged him close to her, her pointed nipples feeling exquisite against his hard chest. Here, their joined heat felt comforting instead of suffocating. But Lavender knew this was only a patch "Harry, this is the only place in the world I can feel comfortable in, and it's full of nothing, how are we going to make this work?" Her tears returned, though this time just a few droplets. Harry wiped one of them, "For now love, let's just think about us, in this moment."
He kissed her tenderly, much more tenderly than he ever had before. The extreme contrast in temperatures making it that much more sensual. Lavender opened her mouth to allow him access to her tongue. Their tongues mingled and Harry's hands lowered to grab her ass and push her body up against his, letting the heat between their legs come together. Lavender moaned into his mouth when she felt his penis rub up against her pussy.
Harry could tell the warming charm was wearing off, but he didn't rush things. They stayed like that for a while longer, their bodies pushed up together while they explored each other's mouth slowly. Harry pushed her down onto the snow, never breaking the kiss as he laid her down on her back.
Lavender brought her hand down to grab his penis, her ice cold fingers sending a shock down his rod. Her entire body was like that, a cold slate that made the hairs on Harry's body stand on end. It was that mixed with the contrasting heat of her mouth and sex that made this an incredible experience.
Lavender pumped him only a few times before she guided his tip into her sopping wet cunt. Harry took it from there and gave a powerful thrust into her heat.
"Ooooh!" Lavender moaned. Her dirty blonde hair fanned out to make for a beautiful picture against the white snow. Harry began stroking in and out of her, his mouth moving down to capture one of her painfully hard nipples. Lavender's hips pushed back against his. She gripped her other breast, tweaking and twisting the flesh as Harry's organ made her feel wonderful.
The snow was wet and slippery under them, they were sliding with each thrust. Harry began speeding up their rutting, to increase pleasure but also to stave off the deathly cold that was now attacking him in earnest. He thought to stop for a moment and use another warming charm, but something told him it had to be like this, with the two of them divested of clothing and magic, just two more animals rutting in the hard tundra.
Lavender gripped Harry's face as she felt her orgasm coming. They looked into each other's eyes. She never realized how much better his green eyes looked without glasses. Harry's body was starting to feel numb, even with the activity he was putting it through. Knowing he didn't have much time, he gave one more powerful thrust that brought them both to orgasm.
His seed shot into her, mingling with her own secretions, just like it had a million times before. But this time, something different happened. When Harry shot his cum into her womb, Lavender began emitting a white glow, a glow that blinded the exhausted and freezing Harry.
Knowing that he couldn't stand any more of the cold, Harry popped them back to the castle, to the Gryffindor common room.
Apparating such long distances took a lot more out of him than he realized. He rolled off Lavender onto the wooden floor of the common room and closed his eyes to rest. Allowing whatever was going on with Lavender to happen. It couldn't be bad, his instincts had clearly led him to do it, and she wasn't yelling in agony or anything.
After a few minutes the glow finally died down.
"What, happened to me?"
Harry turned his head and was shocked at what he saw. Lavender had changed; her skin was now a pale shade of blue, her hair was white as snow and cascaded down to her back in smooth strands. She'd lost a few inches in height, from a first glance she looked just under five feet. Her boobs had gotten even bigger, going from a D cup to a Double E that looked even more incredible in her smaller frame.
Harry stood up "You've become an ice nymph."
"A what?" Lavender asked. She was inspecting herself, very pleased with what she saw. And best of all, she could handle the warmth again!
"An ice nymph, one of the many sexual elementals that Incubi command." Harry was licking his lips. "You have some power over ice, you'll be able to freeze things with a touch and you can withstand extreme temperatures."
Lavender tried it out, touching the floor and trying to will it to freeze. After a few seconds, a sheet of ice began to radiate out from her finger. "This is so cool!"
Harry really wanted to fuck her like this, but he wanted sleep even more. "I don't think you have an off switch though, so this will have to do." he waved his wand over her and placed a glamour so that she would appear to be her old self.
"We'll talk more tomorrow." he gave her a peck on the lips and left for his dorm room. Lavender realized she was naked and hurried up to her bed.
Just before Harry entered his bedroom, Hermy popped up next to him.
"Master Harry, Hermy has taken Mistress Daffy to her room."
"Is it done?"
She nodded happily "It is being done master."
Harry nodded, wanting to get to bed as soon as possible. "You know what you need to do, I gave you three tasks, now leave."
She gave one dutiful nod and popped away. Her three tasks were simple; erase her parent's memories, follow fake Moody around and read every book in the Hogwarts library on magical theory, in that order of importance.
Finally, he would be able to sleep. He opened the door to the dorm and made a beeline to his bed, plopping down on its soft surface and closing his curtains. There was a weird smell coming from somewhere in the room, but he didn't care.
In only a few minutes, he dozed off to sleep.
...
He had to give it to Daphne, she had impressed him.
He'd wanted to punch her in the mouth after he'd been woken up from his much needed sleep by screaming, but after he got some extra rest he had to applaud her for it, it was a brilliant choice. He promised her an extra birthday present for her good work, of course, once she learned what happened to Lavender she wanted only one thing, that he give her the same kind of power.
It was weird how easily everything had settled. For all intents and purposes, a student had been murdered in school just a week ago, but everyone forgot it with ease. Harry had to wonder if Dumbledore had put the school under a spell. Oh, they still spoke of it all the time of course, but it was treated like a piece of gossip, like an action movie they'd just seen, not like the grisly murder they thought it was.
Harry still remembered the look on poor Longbottom's face when he woke up to find Granger's 'corpse' next to him. The innocent little fool, he'd never done anything to hurt anyone, but his weakness and fear made him a preferential candidate for someone as twisted as Daphne.
He caught her eye when they were dragging Neville away to Azkaban, in his pajamas and with blood all over him, with the entire student body shouting abuse and throwing things at him, some of them even slinging curses at him. He observed her when Longbottom's grandmother appeared in the great hall, half-distraught and half-furious, as she slapped her pleading grandson as hard as she could. Poor Neville was shouting his innocence at the top of his lungs until he had no voice left. It must have seemed too ridiculous to be real to him, he must have thought it was just a nightmare, he was sorely mistaken.
Harry watched Daphne through all this, and he knew she was masturbating every step of the way. Her hand was under her skirt, she was hidden behind everyone so she could not be seen, and she was getting off as she watched her work ruin an innocent, harmless kid's life.
That was when Harry realized she was special. She wasn't just a psychopath, she was something more, something that needed to flourish.
So when she'd wanted him to make her into a creature like he'd done with Lavender, he didn't rebuff her. He didn't tell her to shut the fuck up. He did something he should have done a long time ago.
He'd only ever scratched the surface of his incubus heritage, he'd used the sexual powers, followed the instincts when they wanted to guide him, and he'd enjoyed the low hanging fruit. Up until he'd seen the true depths of Daphne's darkness, he'd always planned to just bind a bunch of women to him, take care of Voldemort at some point and then disappear from the wizarding world, away to a hidden castle in a city of clouds. But now he realized that he'd been misusing his gift. An incubus was a powerful demon, a creature of a higher order than muggles or wizards or any creature on this earth. It was his right to rule this entire world, and he would exercise it.
So Harry became obsessed with unlocking his full power. He pulled Granger off Crouch watch (she'd found out fake Moody's identity, how many times a day he communicated with Voldemort and other assorted facts) and had her help him and Daphne study Incubi. Harry had of course read about his bloodline, but he'd been shortsighted, only seeking the small sexual abilities that came with the power. Now they were studying the darkest of matters, seeing how they could fully unleash Harry's power. Daphne was almost as motivated as him, he'd promised her power unimaginable the moment he became whole.
Lavender for her part was enjoying being an ice nymph very much. Her only disappointment was that she hadn't been able to turn the tables on Daphne. She'd wanted to abuse the girl now that she was more powerful than her, but when she realized Harry would be granting Daphne powers whenever he transformed, she knew it was a very bad idea. Still, she worked at her powers, she was now able to make an entire room freeze over in mere seconds. It was incredible, to go from being a below average witch to a powerful elemental.
October 30th almost snuck up on Harry and his girls. They'd been so engrossed in their new interests that they'd forgotten about the tournament. By then they'd already come up with a rough plan: on the night of a full moon, Harry would need to make a virgin sacrifice, with all his women acting as conduits to enhance the powerful magic that would be unleashed. It would need to be in a place rotting with powerful dark magic. There was also some very intricate rune work involved, and Harry hadn't hesitated to visit his mother to get her involved.
Lily had been livid that he hadn't informed her of anything that had happened, but she was more than happy to help, especially at the thought of becoming a demon with her son.
The only other thing Harry needed was something he could easily gain: more women. For the ritual to be effective, he had to have more than just the four he had bound to him as of now. Depending on how fast he could find worthy slaves, he estimated he'd be able to perform the ritual before the school year was out.
At this very moment though, Harry and Lavender were standing outside with the rest of the student body, waiting for the arrival of Beauxbaton and Durmstrang.
The student body awed at the first sight of the magical carriage flying in overhead, led by a dozen Abraxan that Harry just knew the new groundskeeper (whatever his name was) would be forced to care after. The chilly October night was the perfect backdrop for this most magical of scenes.
The Beauxbaton carriage touched down on the courtyard and, after a few seconds, the headmistress stepped out, all eight feet of her.
"Dumbleedore, eet iz wonderful to see you again!" She held her massive palm out and Dumbledore obliged with a kiss to her knuckles.
"Always a pleasure Madame Maxine." Dumbledore really missed Hagrid at a time like this, the big oaf could have kept this Hippo occupied and out of his hair.
"Ladies…" Maxine waved her wand and all the carriage doors opened.
The entire male population of Hogwarts held their breaths when they saw the streams of hot, young French girls exiting the carriages. It resembled a catwalk, as all the teens strutted out gracefully in their blue silk uniforms, hair done up and make up on their face.
"Bloody hell!" of course Weasley would be the one male who couldn't control himself. Harry snorted, even though he was sporting a semi just looking at these girls.
Then she stepped onto the dew-laden grounds of Hogwarts. Almost immediately, every male eye had gone from observing all the girls to watching only her. She was a perfect beauty, everything about her seemed designed to make men drool, from her perfect model proportions, her blonde hair that almost shone in the night, her ruby red lips…
Harry narrowed his eyes, realizing that this girl's beauty was not natural. Sniffing the air, he saw that she was emitting some kind of pheromone that was making the male population look slack-jawed. So she's a Veela. A thin smile reached Harry's face, oh this was perfect.
The girl was clearly used to the attention, and she didn't think too highly of the swooning boys, nor anyone else for that matter. She followed her headmistress into the castle with nose constantly upturned.
The mopey Durmstrang delegation arrived soon afterwards to less fanfare, at least until it was discovered that Viktor Krum was part of the group. There was another "Bloody Hell!" from Weasley and then the students were finally allowed to go back inside where it was warm.
"What are you scheming?" Lavender whispered, though she knew exactly what he was scheming. Harry was glancing over at the Ravenclaw table, where the Beauxbaton students had decided to sit, probably because their robes matched.
"What do you think?" Was his reply as he looked away from the table and returned to his meal.
"So you're thinking about taking her?"
Harry snorted "She was mine the moment she stepped foot here, I'm just sizing up the rest to see who's worth a shot."
"Oh, I wanna play!" Lavender 'subtly' looked over, checking out the girls, "That one has a nice body, but her face is pretty busted, that one has no boobs at all… the one on the left has some dick sucking lips if I've ever seen them."
"Wow Lavender, didn't know you swung that way." Dean commented, having heard the tail end of her musings.
Lavender smiled at him, "Only when Harry wants me to." she held onto her boyfriend's arm and he played his part, rolling his eyes in a way that implied 'Golly gee I sure wish!'.
Dean and Seamus laughed, "You're a lucky bugger Harry, I wish I had a bird who was down for that." Seamus spoke.
"I bet that sexy French bint does all kinds of stuff." Ron spoke, a faraway look in his eyes that disgusted everyone at the table, including said French bint.
"Excuse-moi." the veela girl cleared her throat, a look of revulsion on her face as it was clear the ginger boy had been talking about her. The ginger's eyes widened in shock and fear before glazing over in lust as he stared at her breasts.
"We apologize for him, he's kind of an idiot." Parvati assured the girl in embarrassment. Fleur scoffed and, not wanting to spend any more time here, she turned to Harry.
"Will you be 'aving ze bouillabaisse?" she asked, pointing at the dish as she doubted these British brutes even knew what it was.
She was shocked when she noticed the boy was looking at her with disinterest, as if he wanted her out of there as much as she did. "Sure, help yourself." he said, making no motion to offer her the plate and instead turning to speak with the girl next to him. She grabbed the plate and walked away from the table.
No man ignored her! It wasn't her being vain, her Veela magic was something no man could overcome, no matter how mentally disciplined they were. Only men that had no interest in women were immune to her charms. She glanced behind and saw the boy kissing the giggling girl next to him. So he clearly wasn't gay, this made no sense!
Harry smirked at the veela's retreating back, she would surely mull that over for a long while. He hoped she'd seek him out in private to try to get some answers.
The night continued until Dumbledore revealed the Goblet of Fire and announced that the champions would be selected the following night.
Later that night…
Barty Crouch glanced up at the Goblet, twirling his wand in his mangled fingers. He hated being in this pig's body, there were more parts of him laying around random bogs in England than what actually remained attached. The only disability he enjoyed was the peg leg, because he had been the one to impart it unto Moody. It brought back memories of much better times.
But regardless, he was here to fulfill his master's orders, the reward he would receive for his loyalty would be worth all the months he would be spending as a cripple. And besides, he'd spent years imprisoned in Azkaban and by his father, this was paradise compared to that.
He walked up to the magical artifact with his wand at his side. He pulled a slip of paper from his robe that had the name Harry Potter scrawled on it, taken from one of the boy's assignments. He dropped it into the goblet and watched the flames turn blue. Swiping his wand in a harsh motion he shot a powerful confundus charm at the goblet; its flame flared a sickly green, the fire growing to the point where it looked like it was going to spill out and lick the mantle under the goblet. Just when Crouch thought he might need to shield the mantle, the fire died down and the goblet returned to its normal state.
Satisfied that his work was done, Crouch slinked off back to his quarters.
The moment he left the Great Hall, a disillusioned Albus Dumbledore appeared. He'd arrived here a few minutes before the impostor, leaving his office the moment the portraits told him he had moved.
Dumbledore cast a diagnostic charm on the goblet, and there it was: Harry Potter had been entered as a contestant for a fourth school. Well, that definitely eliminated Pettigrew as the fake Moody, Dumbledore highly doubted the sniveling little man was capable of such a well applied confundus charm. Severus and him had placed a bet at the start of the year on the identity of Voldemort's agent.
Seeing that he wasn't needed and that everything had gone along smoothly, Dumbledore decided to return to his quarters.
When the headmaster disappeared up the stairs to the second floor, Harry and a glazed eyed Cedric Diggory popped out of a broom closet. Diggory had been making his rounds in the fifth floor when he suddenly got the strong urge to head for the great hall. Harry was hiding under his invisibility cloak, the Marauder's map in his hands. He'd been heading to the great hall to write Malfoy in when he'd seen both Crouch and Dumbledore were there. So he knocked Diggory out and left him in the broom closet while he popped over to the hall, were he saw both Crouch and a hidden headmaster tamper with the goblet.
He wasn't surprised that Dumbledore knew about Moody being a fake, he was sure Dumbledore knew everything that went on in his castle other than Harry's escapades (Harry had been smart enough to have his mother create a charm that made the user invisible to portraits, Harry and his girls used it every time they wanted to meet). Dumbledore would get what was coming to him soon, even the most powerful wizard in the world wouldn't stand a chance against a full fledge Incubus.
Harry commanded Diggory to cross the age line and drop Malfoy's name in the goblet. He then had him confound the goblet for the second and third time that day (twice to be sure). When a diagnostic charm proved that his efforts had been successful, Harry called the Hufflepuff back to him.
He cast a memory charm from under his cloak and, his work done, popped away back to his bed, leaving a confused Cedric Diggory wondering how he'd ended up in the Great Hall.
...
"…the Hogwarts champion is… Cedric Diggory!"
The entire hall, save for the Slytherin table, burst into cheers. The Hufflepuffs were the happiest of all, finally one of their own would prove that they weren't useless pushovers. Cedric gave one of his congenial grins and walked confidently to the backroom were the other two champions were waiting.
"Finally, we get our moment in the sun!" A random Hufflepuff spoke proudly. Professor Sprout beamed at her table, finally, Hufflepuff House would prove themselves…
The goblet flared blue once again and the entire hall was silenced.
All three of Dumbledore, Harry and Crouch could have won an Oscar for their perplexed gazes, though all three of them wouldn't need to fake anything once the paper was read.
The goblet spit out its final slip of paper and Albus plucked it out of the air. He turned from fake to genuine shock when he saw what was written.
"Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy." He read in a monotone, completely shell-shocked.
"WHAT?!" came from at least a dozen different people, all for different reasons.
"Is this some sort of joke? I demand an explanation!" Malfoy yelled in indignation.
Harry was simply quiet, he should have known Diggory would fuck it up somehow. What a worthless idiot. Still, this didn't change anything, in fact, it made killing Draco that much easier.
"Mister Malfoy, Mister Potter, if you would please head for the back." Dumbledore pointed them over in a voice that brokered no discussion.
The Malfoy brat growled as he stood up and stomped off behind Harry, who was trying his best to look shaken and scared.
Once inside the room, the three champions threw confused looks at the two boys.
"Vat iz it, do they vant us to go back?" Krum asked.
"We've been entered into the tournament." Harry responded calmly. Malfoy growled.
"Is this your doing Potter? Your idea of a joke?"
"Ask yourself this Malfoy, why would I want to team up with you to compete in a dangerous tournament?"
Malfoy raised his chin, "You wanted to take advantage of my superior intellect and skill to drag you to victory, don't think it'll work Potter, when we win, I will receive the credit!"
"You guys are kidding right?" Cedric asked.
"I'm afraid not my dear boy." Ludo Bagman entered cheerfully through the door, followed by a disgruntled headmasters and one nosy journalist.
"This is an outrage Dumbledore, Durmstrang will not stand for this!" Karkaroff yelled.
"I cannot believe we trusted you Dumbleedore, this eez in very bad faith."
Albus put his hands up to appease them and began talking. Harry had to give it to the headmaster, the way he spun it was wonderful. There was some talk about how it had to be a frame up, he reminded the other headmasters that two fourth years competing was more a hazard than an advantage. Fake Moody chipped in with how it was clear someone had it in for Harry (he omitted Malfoy, to the blonde's chagrin) and yadda yadda yadda.
In the end, it was agreed Harry and Malfoy had no choice but to compete as a pair, and it was reasoned that two fourth years that hated each other wouldn't be on equal footing with older students anyways.
Harry was more interested in the person in the room that looked at him the most. He'd caught Fleur glancing at him quite a few times, looking away every time he caught her and blushing. So that was going along well. It was only a matter of time…
