What If… Harry Potter

Ever since his name came out of the Goblet of Fire, Harry has had to watch his back constantly. It wasn't just from the Slytherins, either. The Hufflepuffs were incensed over him stealing Cedric Diggory's thunder in being Hogwarts Champion. The news article after the wand weighing, that was made up of complete lies, didn't help at all.

Harry ducked automatically when he started to walk down the main staircase and a yellow spell flew over where his head used to be. Instead of ignoring it like usual, Harry grabbed the railing, using his momentum from the duck, and turned around with his own wand out.

“Expelliarmus!” Harry shouted and a seventh year Hufflepuff's wand flew out of the startled boy's hand. An easy catch later, Harry turned back around and quietly snapped it as he walked down the steps.

“OI! Potter! Give me back my wand!” The boy exclaimed.

“What wand?” Harry asked and slipped the pieces between rungs of the railing and they slipped out of sight.

Steps thumped behind him and he turned back around. The older boy now had two people flanking him.

“You better give it back or...”

“I don't have it.” Harry said and waved his empty hand over the railing. “Why don't you go find it?”

The other two started to draw their wands.

Harry pointed his at them. “Do you want to lose your wands, too?”

They reluctantly put their wands away.

“This isn't over, Potter.” The seventh year said.

“If you ever find your wand, come shoot me in the back again like the slimy Slytherin you are.”

“I'm a Hufflepuff!” The boy exclaimed.

Harry looked at his angry face and shook his head. “None of you act like it.”

The three of them looked angry and Harry shook his head at them again and started walking down the stairs again.

“Do it.” One of them whispered. Since it was quiet on the stairs, Harry easily heard him and turned around to see them pulling out their wands again.

“Flippendo! Depulso! Expelliarmus!” Harry said and the boy on the right was flipped upside down and landed on his head, the boy on the left was thrown backwards off his feet against the stairs and hit with a loud grunt of pain, then both of their wands flew to his hand.

The middle boy looked shocked at his two friends laying on the stairs and clearly hurt.

Harry ignored him and started walking down the stairs again. He broke both wands, in different places so that they wouldn't just assume he broke them, and slipped them over different railings and let them fall down the lengthy heights that the staircases occupied.

Unbeknownst to Harry and the Hufflepuffs, a certain platinum blonde French girl was returning from her visit to the Ravenclaw Tower and had witnessed the whole exchange. She still thought Harry was a little boy and she heavily resented him after that article that stole her debut in the international papers; but, what she just saw gave her a few doubts about the things she heard about him.

*

Hermione sat on the couch beside one of her friends in the common room and she felt conflicted. On one hand, Ron was an utter git that couldn't control his jealousy over something Harry didn't even do. On the other hand, Harry was being pigheaded and would even listen to her trying to explain why Ron felt the way he did, so he could forgive Ron and they could be best mates again.

“Stop. Just stop.” Harry interrupted her diatribe and Hermione frowned at him. “I get it. I do.”

“No, you don't. That's why I'm trying to explain...” Hermione started again.

“...that Ron's jealous of me getting attention again, knowing I've never, ever wanted it. I try every year to survive long enough to make it to the next year and this year was just too much for him.” Harry said and Hermione was at a loss for words. “You're making me out to be the bad guy and I've done nothing wrong. I'm not going to apologize to the git.”

“But, Harry...” Hermione tried again.

“After the last three weeks of him acting like that, you'll have better luck making him and Malfoy best mates.” Harry said and stood up. “You need to decide whose side you're on. The innocent persecuted involuntary champion or the redheaded jerk that's wrong.”

Hermione's mouth dropped open and watched as Harry stomped away. She was too stunned by his ultimatum to say anything or tried to stop him from leaving.

“He's right, you know.” Neville's voice said from the next table. “You can't stay on the fence supporting both of them. Either you're for the one that's telling the truth or for the one that's doing his best to make Harry out to be the bad guy.”

Hermione wasn't sure how to respond to that. She didn't want to lose either of her friends and she didn't know how to fix things.

Neville stood up and sighed. “I'm just as bad as you. Not good enough to speak out and not brave enough to ditch a friendship that doesn't do anything to help me.”

Hermione watched him as he went across the room and walked up the stairs to his dorm room. She did not equate Neville's defeated look to her own, despite the two of them being so similar.

*

Harry dodged several spells in the hallways on his way to the Great Hall to eat and returned spell for spell. He thought that if he kept fighting back, someone was going to take notice. Since the professors were ignoring everything when he tried to ignore the attacks and not let things escalate, him fighting back would definitely gain someone's attention. He was right.

“Mister Potter!” Minerva McGonagall exclaimed when a student near the entrance hall yelled out in surprise by having their spell rebounded onto them and they grew tentacles out of their face. “Why are you casting magic in the hallways?”

Harry thought about ignoring her, then shrugged. Since she never helped him before now, he didn't expect her to help him now. “I'm just returning the favor, Professor.”

Minerva frowned at him. “Magic in the hallways is prohibited by the rules and...”

“...you never enforce it on anyone but me. I know.” Harry interrupted her.

Minerva looked like she was fighting to draw her wand on him. “You will serve a detention for your cheek, Mister Potter.”

Harry gave her a disbelieving look, then he laughed right in her face.

“Make that a week's detention!” Minerva spat at him.

Harry stopped laughing and smiled. “No, I don't think so.”

“Excuse me?” Minerva asked. “Are you refusing to comply to a professor's order?”

Harry's smile could have won Witch Weekly's yearly Smile Award. “Considering I'm not a student at Hogwarts, I have no obligation to even look at you, let alone obey your orders, you old bat.”

Everyone in the entrance hall gasped, even the boys.

Minerva's face turned bright red from both embarrassment and anger. “I will recommend that you be expelled for that, Mister Potter.”

Harry chuckled. “You can't expel me. The Chief Warlock, the Grand Mugwump, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, the Ministry representative, the Games and Sports representative, and two other headmasters of two different schools, all declared that I'm of age and must compete. I am the fourth champion with no school listed.”

Minerva sighed. “Mister Potter, you're still a student here and...”

“Cedric Diggory is the official Hogwarts Champion. The rules state that no school can have more than one champion. Therefore, I am not the second Hogwarts Champion nor am I a student. It would violate the rules if I attended or competed under the same school as another official champion.”

Minerva was surprised Harry could even make a distinction like that.

Harry saw the look on her face and it matched the ones his muggle teachers used to give him when he did well on tests... well, before Dudley told his parents and Harry was 'corrected' in his assumptions that he was somehow better than their precious Duddikins.

“Also, the rules state I can skip any lessons as long as I'm training for a task. Since a champion is exempt from all tests and exams anyway, why would I ever bother going to useless classes like Potions, History of Magic, Astronomy, and Divination?”

Minerva opened her mouth to remind him of the importance of Potions for future careers. As if he knew what she was going to say, Harry interrupted her before she spoke.

“Snape is a horrible teacher. Even if I wanted to work anywhere that required potion knowledge, he has convinced me to thoroughly hate the subject.” Harry said and them smiled. “Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm sure that's the reason he's such a git to every student but the Slytherins. He doesn't want anyone else to try to excel in potions because they might end up better than him.”

Minerva closed her eyes for a moment to try and calm down. She would not let him get to her, despite how valid his arguments were. “Since you refuse to attend detention...” She said to derail the conversation back to the original subject. “...as the Deputy Headmistress, I am revoking your privileges for Hogsmeade and any other extracurricular activities.”

Harry stood there and gave her a blank look, then smiled again. “Understood, Madam McGonagall. As you are the representative of the hosting school, please make other arrangements for my continuing stay inside the castle. I can no longer stay in Griffindor Tower.”

Minerva's face lost some of its color. “Excuse me?”

“You clearly stated 'any other extracurricular activities'. I must assume that means interacting with other students inside a common room and sleeping in a dorm with four other boys.” Harry said and Minerva realized she had already let Harry get to her and she just majorly screwed up. “I'm looking forward to not having to listen to Weasley snoring loud enough to wake the dead every night.”

Before Minerva could retract her statement, Harry walked around her and entered the Great Hall to eat. She turned to look and saw thirty plus students staring at her with surprised expressions on their faces.

“Someone take Pucey to the hospital wing before his face tentacles choke him to death.” Minerva said and entered the Great Hall herself. She would make the arrangements after lunch and give him one of the smallest rooms the elves could find for Harry to stay in.

It wouldn't be until the next morning at breakfast that Minerva would realize her hasty decision had caused Harry's robes, tie, and scarf to lose their Griffindor colors and they were back to showing basic grey once more. Everyone noticed her embarrassed face as Harry sat at the Ravenclaw table and not at the Griffindor one.

*

Fleur Delacour sat at the Ravenclaw table and she did her best to not stare at the intruder. It wasn't like he was invading her personal space, even if he was talking fairly loudly with the odd blonde girl sitting at the end of the table. Was it because it was the first time she had seen the girl smile?

No, it was the distraction the messy haired little boy was causing and making the other Ravenclaws stare at him and whisper about him instead of her. She was the Beauxbatons Champion and was above such things as envy and jealousy over not having everyone's attention.

That last thought made Fleur's mind pause. Unlike the other boys around her, even her own classmates, she started to notice something very important. Harry Potter was ignoring her. How? Why? It wasn't possible! She was the center of everyone's attention, not him!

Fleur's mind whirled as Harry and the blonde girl stood and they walked by her without even turning their heads to glance at her, the most beautiful young woman in the school. No, the most beautiful in the country. No! Two countries! England and France. Even her mother told her that she was much prettier than her and her mother was a full Veela.

This couldn't be allowed to stand. Fleur would make sure the boy knew that she was the one that deserved the attention. She stood up abruptly and ignored her schoolmates and their questions as she followed the pair out of the Great Hall and out of the castle. She needed to find out where they were going.

They're feeding invisible creatures. Fleur thought as she stood off to the side of the clearing and watched the barefoot girl and Harry giving apples and sliced up beef to the Thestral herd. She couldn't see the skeletal horses, thankfully. Their omen was not something she wanted to bear. How can they see them? What had they been through to know death so intimately at such a young age?

The pair eventually finished and returned the bloody bucket to Hagrid's hut and the giant man told the boy to meet him that night wearing his cloak. Fleur was intrigued and was quite tempted to also show up, well out of sight of course.

Later that night, well after curfew, her plans had to change. Madame Maxime, her headmistress, was going on a date with the Hogwarts gamekeeper. She would have to sneak out later and not be caught by the wide awake giant woman.

Fleur was mired with indecision and couldn't gather up the courage to sneak out before Madame Maxime's date ended. That was a good thing, because the headmistress came rushing into the carriage and went right to her room.

“Zee task is dragons, my dear! Dragons!” Madame Maxime exclaimed.

Fleur gasped and started to tremble and shake. How was she supposed to fight a dragon?

“Do not worry, Fleur. I will help you come up with a good strategy.” Madame Maxime promised.

“But, zee rules...” Fleur lightly protested.

“Do not bother with following them to zee letter. Everyone cheats.” Madame Maxime said and hugged the girl. “I saw Karkaroff sneaking through zee woods. Krum will know of zee task by now.”

Fleur nodded and let herself be reassured by both the embrace and the words. It would occur to her later as she lay in bed that the only champion that didn't know about it was Cedric. She only felt a little guilty that she was going to keep the advantage of him not knowing. Any leg up would help her win, since the odds were against her. Victor was the favorite, since he was an international Quidditch star already.

*

Harry Potter sat in an empty classroom and took stock of his options. Professor Moody's advice to play to his strengths in the upcoming task against a dragon, namely him being fairly good on his broom, was something he was liking as a last option. But, flying gave him another idea. A potentially much better idea. It still involved flying, only not him on a very flammable and expensive broom.

He had a lot of work to do for the last two weeks to prepare and he didn't balk at it. He would perfect the spells he needed to look up and he would complete the task. He had no choice. With everyone against him and Hermione staying neutral, he needed to prove to everyone that he was more than his undeserved fame.

*

The four champions had gathered in the tent for the first task. Surprisingly, only three of them showed off nervous ticks. Victor kept tapping his foot and his knee kept bobbing slightly. Cedric paced back and forth, almost wearing a path in the grass at their feet. Fleur Delacour wrung her hands and tried to not chew her bottom lip off as she worried. Harry Potter sat at the side of the tent and looked bored.

Fleur had been too busy the last two weeks to maintain her observation of the messy haired boy that seemed to be completely immune to her allure. She had tried a few liberal applications during meals and didn't get any reaction from him while also making the other boys around her drool like idiots. How could he not be affected?

The judges and Ministry representatives entered the tent and gave the description of the task, then Fleur reached into the bag and pulled out the Swedish Short-snout. She almost sighed at getting the easiest dragon. It was naturally calm and her powers would work on it well.

Victor went next and he grunted at the Chinese Fireball. Cedric pulled the Welsh Green and his subtle nod at Harry almost made Fleur choke.

He told him! He let the secret out! WHY?!? Why would he give such a great advantage away? Fleur shouted in her mind as Harry pulled out the Hungarian Horntail and she almost missed the boy's mumble about always getting the hardest creatures to fight against. What did he mean by that?

Everyone but the champions left the tent and soon the cannon sounded to start the task.

“Good luck.” Harry said in a calm voice.

Cedric was first and he nodded before he strode out of the tent. The sounds from the crowd and the announcer's commentary let the other champions know what was going on. The Hogwarts champion made a good showing, despite a couple of mistakes, and the crowd cheered when he retrieved his golden egg. The cannon sounded again.

“Good luck.” Harry said in that same calm voice.

Fleur barely nodded as she almost ran from the tent. The boy's eerie calm in the face of danger was unnerving her. Did he not realize that he had to face a man-eating dragon? That he had to steal one of their eggs and live to tell the tale?

All other thoughts fled Fleur's mind as she confronted her 'easy' dragon and she focused on her strategy. She could do this. She was strong, powerful, and the most beautiful girl in two countries. A mere dragon was no obstacle for her. She was going to show everyone exactly what she could do.

Back in the tent, Harry remained sitting at the side of the tent and waited. He only half-listened to the commentary, since nothing that happened actually affected his own performance. If his first game plan didn't work, he had two backups, one including summoning his broom. He had been smart and had stashed it under the bleachers under a notice-me-not charm yesterday.

When the cannon went off again, Harry spoke one last time. “Good luck.”

Victor nodded and left the tent with a determined look on his face and a strong stride. Harry again ignored the sounds of the crowd and the commentary. Now was not the time to be distracted. He had his own dragon to face soon and he needed to keep his wits about him. He kept whispering the two spells he would use and his empty hand practiced the wand movements.

In almost no time, the cannon sounded to announce that it was Harry's turn. He stood up and tossed his grey robes aside, stretched a little from sitting so long, and walked out of the tent at a normal walking pace. He didn't rush or try to delay it, which the crowd saw when he appeared in the arena. Half of the crowd jeered and hollered at him and the other half laughed.

Harry was wearing a head to toe full-body blue onesie. It even had the feet slippers. Did it make him look foolish? Yes, it did. For now. He glared at the crowd and they didn't stop their act, so he took out his wand and cast the first spell he had mastered. Camouflage. He tapped the onesie and the entire single item changed from a bright blue to match the colors and shapes of black rocks around the arena.

The entire crowd suddenly stopped making noise and looked shocked. The judges also stopped their muttering and were impressed at the soundless and perfectly cast spell.

Harry held in his smirk at shutting them all up, because he had another spell to cast and he could smile after that. He raised his wand and cast the spell, also soundlessly and perfectly. Avis, the flock of birds conjuring spell. Six woodpecker birds appeared around Harry's head and everyone was surprised that there was no signature crack sound that usually came with the spell.

Then he cast it again, and again, and again. Thirteen times did he cast the same spell, a magical number, and there were so many birds that no one could see him anymore. They also couldn't see his grin at them all remaining quiet. Suddenly, the birds shot away from where they were and the mass of birds flew across the arena and drew everyone's eyes to the target.

The dragon roared at the challenge to its nest and eggs, only to rear back in annoyance as every single bird landed on its face and started to peck at its scales. Three of them had even gotten inside its mouth! The dragon closed its eyes and mouth to stop any chance of more of them getting inside and used its tongue to destroy the three inside that were pecking at its teeth.

No one saw Harry as he snuck around the walls and approached the nest, grabbed the egg, and slowly made his way over to the exit. His plan had gone exactly as he thought and he cancelled both his disguise spell and the bird conjuring spells.

The dragon slowly opened its eyes when the annoying pecking stopped and almost sighed in relief.

Harry waved to the spot where the judges were and gained their attention, held up the egg with a smug smile, and entered the medical tent.

The crowd went wild.

The only one that didn't react with surprise was a short blonde Ravenclaw girl and her smile matched Harry's. She slipped away as the other students celebrated and made her way down to wait outside the medical tent. She stood off to the side and no one paid her any attention, which was exactly as she liked it. If no one noticed you, they couldn't target you.

Inside the tent, Madam Pomfrey fussed over a completely unhurt Harry Potter and he didn't object, since he had to wait for the announcement of the scores. He ignored the chuckling of the two male champions and didn't bother looking at the French champion, because he knew that her opinion of him was even worse than the rest of the school's. Standing there in a blue onesie wasn't going to help that. At all.

Unlike the other champions, Fleur had peeked out of the medical tent to watch the little boy's failure, in an attempt to make herself feel better about her initial opinion when Harry had become the fourth champion... only to nearly choke on her words when Harry performed NEWT level spells easily. He then retrieved his egg the fastest out of all of them and without any incidents or damage.

“Harry!” Hermione's voice cut through the silence of the medical tent as she ran inside and tried to hug him.

Harry stepped back and held up his hands to catch her by the shoulders and stopped her. “You made your choice, Hermione. You preferred to keep Ron as a friend instead of me, so now you're stuck with him.”

“Oi!” Ron said as he entered the tent. “We came here to forgive you for dropping us.”

“Ron! That's not why...” Hermione tried to explain.

“You. Are here. To forgive. Me.” Harry said, his voice flat.

“O'course! We figure someone's really trying to do you in. Now that you've beaten a dragon, you can come back to Griffindor and...”

“Get out.” Harry spat and Hermione gasped. “I never want to see your stupid face ever again, Weasel.”

Ron's face went red with anger and he raised a closed fist. “What did you call me?”

“Does hearing the truth hurt?” Harry asked and Ron's hand shook. “I never thought I would ever agree with Malfoy on something, though.”

“Harry, please. Don't do this.” Hermione pleaded.

“Me? I didn't do anything.” Harry said and motioned for them to leave. “Only champions are allowed in here. Goodbye. Don't let the flap hit you on the way out.”

Hermione opened her mouth to respond and stopped when Ron grabbed her arm.

“You're going to regret this, Potter.” Ron said, his voice low.

“Oh, no. I'm going to regret having you telling lies behind my back and turning everyone against me. Poor me.” Harry scoffed at Ron's embarrassed face. “How is that any different than how you've acted all month? Right, it's not. Good. Bye.”

Hermione had tears in her eyes as an angry Ron dragged her out of the medical tent.

“You chose... poorly.” Luna's soft voice said when they passed her.

Hermione wiped at her eyes. “I thought... it was better to try and keep their friendship alive.”

Luna gave her a sad smile. “You should have tried to keep your own alive instead. Without your friendship to keep him happy in the Griffindor Golden Trio, why would he ever want to stay?”

“Shut up, Loony!” Ron almost shouted.

“Ron!” Hermione gasped.

“Come on, we've wasted enough time on these losers.” Ron said and started to pull on Hermione's arm again.

“Weasleys were declared blood traitors for a reason.” Luna suddenly said, her usual dreamy expression gone. “Perhaps a certain studious student might want to look that up, even if it is too late to make any difference.”

Hermione yelped when Ron's hand convulsed and squeezed her arm a little too hard. She punched his shoulder and he let her go. She rubbed her arm where he hurt her and frowned because Ron didn't bother apologizing. He took her hand instead and dragged her away once more.

Luna turned when the announcer said it was time to give the scores and she felt proud when Harry earned the most points for his performance and didn't cause any harm to the dragon or was hurt himself. She waited right where she was until Harry's face appeared in front of hers.

“You didn't change?” Luna asked and stared without blinking at Harry still wearing the blue onesie.

“Why would I change? You made this for me.” Harry said and held a hand out to her. “I bet you're as hungry as I am. Why don't we visit the kitchens and see if Dobby can make us something?”

Luna tentatively took the hand and blushed when Harry's fingers intertwined with her own. “Okay.”

The pair walked back towards the castle and did not see the French champion watching them.

*

Minerva felt frustrated when she had to get out of bed and make her way across the castle to get to Griffindor Tower. The house elves had reported that they couldn't clean because there was a party going on this late at night, which forced her to show up to confront them.

“What in Merlin's name are you celebrating?!?” Minerva exclaimed as she stormed into the Griffindor common room.

The party came to a screeching halt and most of them looked afraid.

“Professor.” One of the Griffindor Flying Foxes said and gained her attention. “A Griffindor and a quidditch team member defeated a dragon today.”

Minerva felt like slapping the girl for saying something so stupid. “Miss Johnson.” She said as she composed herself and only let sternness show on her face instead of anger. “There's no quidditch this year and Mister Potter is not a team member.”

That statement seemed to confuse the girl and a few other people. When Minerva glanced around, she saw several students putting cups of suspicious liquid away. She didn't comment on it and most of them relaxed.

“When the tournament's over, everything will go back to normal.” Angelina said, proving she was both drunk and delusional.

Minerva didn't want to remind them of reality, except none of them seemed to understand the situation. She sighed and took a moment to put her thoughts in order. When she had everyone's attention, she said something that brought her shame and embarrassment.

“Mister Potter is not a student at Hogwarts.” Minerva told them and nearly everyone made surprised sounds. “He is not a Griffindor, he is not on the quidditch team, and he doesn't sleep in the dorms.”

“I thought he was only staying away because of Ron's insults.” One of the Weasley Twins said.

“And his snoring.” The other twin said.

“And his farts.” Seamus Finnegan joked. No one laughed.

“He really left?” Lavender Brown asked as her best friend hugged her.

Minerva thought about staying quiet about it and sighed again at having to repeat those stupid buttons she wasn't allowed to confiscate. “Hogwarts can only have one champion and it's Cedric Diggory.”

“We all thought he was fighting for his house of Griffindor.” Someone across the room commented and everyone started talking and agreeing with him.

That comment brought Minerva's fading anger right back. “Why would he fight for people that don't believe him? That curse and torment him in the hallways? That make fun of him and laugh when every other student calls him names or trips him?”

That made the whole room fall silent and all of them looked guilty.

“Has it finally sunk in? Good. I don't like repeating myself.” Minerva said and gave them a good glare. “You will clean up this mess before you go to bed. The party is over.” She ordered and walked out of the room. Her anger didn't abate until she was back in her bed and she felt exhausted. She wished that berating her students for their behavior wouldn't tire her out so much in the future.

*

Harry sat in his room in front of the fireplace and he felt something he had never felt before. He felt free. He had beaten a dragon, told off the berk that used to be his best friend, and spent the afternoon with a quirky girl that made him laugh. Their friendship was both odd and had come out of nowhere, which the both of them were trying to come to terms with.

Neither of them had a good history with making friends, let alone long lasting ones, and they each had someone they thought were their best friend betray them and make fun of them. It was a weird thing to base a friendship on and both of them agreed on that. Of course, both of them being lonely helped, too. They had latched onto each other and wouldn't take the other for granted.

In fact, they had worked out the clue for the second task already. Luna had some weirdly specific skills when it came to creature care and had known Mermish as soon as the screeching from the egg had started. A quick dip in a tub later, they heard the clue and worked out that Harry would need to retrieve something he would sorely miss when it was gone.

Luna had blushed when Harry's eyes immediately went to her face. Her whispered words that she didn't like him in that way, didn't bother him. Neither of them were old enough to date or had any real experience in that area. Harry made a joke about the blonde leading the blind, meaning Luna and him with terminal nearsightedness, had Luna almost rolling on the floor in hysterics.

Harry smiled at that and laid down on the couch. Luna was in his bed and he didn't mind, since the couch was just as soft and comfortable. Plus, Luna usually got kicked out of the Ravenclaw dorm by her housemates and that just made Harry like her more. He didn't fit in with his old housemates, either. He fell asleep and didn't see Dobby pop in to put a blanket over him and tucked him in.

*

Filius Flitwick was stunned the next morning when he was presented with transfer papers into Harry Potter's fictional school. Luna Lovegood claimed his fake school was so much better qualified to teach and had much better student body than Hogwarts. When he tried to talk to his prefects about it, each of them gave him excuses and wouldn't explain anything about Loony Lovegood.

With no reason to refuse, he brought the paperwork to Minerva and it was approved without her even looking at it. Any mention of Harry Potter caused the woman to agree to pretty much anything. When Filius asked about it, Minerva explained that since he wasn't a student, she could no longer protect him. That she genuinely believed that, let Filius know she wasn't in her right mind. When had she ever protected the boy?

Luna was overjoyed to receive approval during her first class, that just so happened to be Charms with Filius, and she stood up and walked right out of the classroom without looking back. Not surprisingly, no one tried to stop her or even asked her where she was going.

*

Over the next few days, there was only one girl in the whole school that wasn't happy to hear about Luna joining Harry in exile. Ginny Weasley. She had loved the Boy-Who-Lived since she was a little girl just old enough to read. She had been dreaming about him rescuing her like a princess and them flying off together on the back of a hippogriff, just like in his third book, Harry Potter and the Griffon's Pride.

Then in second year, he actually did rescue her from a beast, using a sword and everything. Ginny's love had cemented after that and she wasn't going to let anyone get between her and her dreams. She tried to follow in Luna's footsteps and filed for a transfer to Harry's fake school, too. Unlike Luna, she had four brothers that vehemently objected and two upset parents to convince. She failed.

*

Fleur was a little upset that she could no longer find Harry or the blonde girl. They never showed up at meals, went to any classes, or had any other friends or means to contact them. It was almost like they had become completely invisible. The worst part was that no one cared and some even said good riddance.

The announcement of the Yule Ball sent the entire school into a frenzy and Fleur resigned herself to yet another school function where she couldn't relax, because her allure would make any date she chose into a drooling mess. She hated that she could barely talk to anyone without them becoming a little glassy-eyed and absent-minded.

Even Cedric and Victor succumbed after a while and Fleur didn't have the time to meet someone else and have them adjusted in time to have a good date. They both had dates, anyway.

So, her search for the fourth champion became almost as frantic as she had been while preparing to face a dragon. She knew he had some resistance to her powers and he had handled his dragon like an expert.

Both of those aspects were alluring and she was sure that she could convince him to go with her to the Yule Ball. As friends. Yes, only friends. He might be a champion; but, he was still barely a teenager at 14 years old. Had he started puberty yet? There were no hairs on his chin that she could remember seeing.

Fleur walked down the hallway between the Griffindor and Ravenclaw towers for the tenth time when a soft voice interrupted her frantic pacing.

“You're too late. Harry already asked me to go as friends.” Luna said and Fleur jumped and whipped around to stare at the short blonde that hadn't been there a moment ago.

“How did you do that?” Fleur asked.

“Oh, I said yes.” Luna said, intentionally misunderstanding her and not telling her how she had simply stepped out from behind the tapestry Fleur had just passed. “If your date steps on your feet too much, I will let you borrow him for a dance or two.”

Fleur blinked her eyes and watched with fascination as the blonde girl skipped... yes, she actually skipped... down the hallway and whistled a weirdly catchy tune that stuck in her head. The tune would stay there for three entire days and had spread to several of the other French students.

*

On the evening of the Yule Ball, the entire school had gathered in the entrance hall and stared up the main staircase when Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood appeared. They were covered from head to foot in silver and gold fabric, matching perfectly, and they looked like they belonged on top of a trophy for a dance competition.

“I told you everyone would be speechless.” Luna said, proudly.

Harry chuckled as he escorted her down the last set of steps. “You technically win the bet, even if some of them are blinded by the reflections like I bet.”

Luna giggled and hugged his arm. “You really don't mind going along with anything I ask.”

Harry shook his head. “I can't remember ever having this much fun while turning people's attention on me against them.”

“Well, there are still two more Triwizard events.” Luna said suggestively and Harry laughed.

“Mister Potter, Miss Lovegood. Please take your places over there with the other champions.” Minerva said and motioned to where Cedric, Victor, and Fleur stood with their dates.

Harry nodded and led Luna over to them. He had a hard time not laughing at the mix of looks on their faces. Disgust, shock, surprise, and revulsion were on Cho Chang's, Cedric's, Hermione's, and Victor's faces respectively. The last two were kind of hard to figure out. Roger looked dazed and didn't quite see them and Fleur's face looked like she was trying her best to keep it blank and was losing.

Luna wasn't phased in the least by their reactions. She gave Roger a pointed look and then smiled at Fleur. “Miss Delacour, you can have two dances with Harry after the opening dance.” She declared, as if she was a queen and granting favors to her subordinates.

Harry couldn't hold his laugh in anymore and let it out. “Bahahaha! L-L-Luna... Merlin!”

Luna gave him a smug smile and moved them over to stand in the front. “Professor McGonagall is going to sort by age, so we're first.”

Harry kept chuckling. “Of course she will. She knows how much I love attention.”

Luna giggled. “You need a more sarcastic tone when saying things like that. Some people assume you're being serious.”

Harry glanced around and saw that she was right. “Who cares what they think? They can all piss off.”

“Harry, that's not nice.” Hermione said, trying to mitigate the anger she could see on their faces.

“So what? They're not nice to me and I'm the one that has to be nice back? I don't think so.” Harry said and then chuckled. “It's not like any of this matters, anyway. Once the tournament is over, I'm never going to see any of them ever again.”

A soft gasp came from a bunch of the girls and Harry rolled his eyes.

“What? Did you think I'd want to stay here after everything you all have put me through the last four years? You're all idiots if you believe that.” Harry told them.

“B-but you're the Boy-Who-Lived! You can't leave!” Ginny exclaimed. She had almost added 'me' at the end of that and barely stopped herself.

Harry looked over at her and was about to respond when he saw she was on Neville's arm. “You actually asked her? Good on you, Neville!”

“Th-thanks, Harry.” Neville said, his face red. “I... uh... never thought you put your name in.”

Harry smiled. “I know, Neville. Only a couple of people believed me.” He said and patted Luna's hands on his arm. “They couldn't speak up without getting dogpiled like I was and I knew better than to ask them to.”

Neville nodded and stood a little straighter.

“That's the signal. All right, everyone but the champions and their dates, go on into the Great Hall.” Minerva said and walked over to the champions. She saw them already arranged by age and height and nodded in approval.

Minerva turned around and watched the rest of the students enter the Great Hall and nearly all of them gave Harry some kind of look. None of them were flattering. She couldn't berate them for it, because how they felt was how they felt and that was that.

Harry gave her a particular look for not stopping them and Minerva did her best to not flinch at his accusing stare. Once everyone was settled at their individual tables, she gave the signal for the champions and their dates to enter the Great Hall.

Everyone's eyes were on them and a lot of them winced at seeing the silver and gold outfits on Harry and Luna, which was why they wore them. Being a spectacle for people to look at was the entire point of their fashion statement.

They reached the middle of the room and Minerva positioned them before going to the head table. The music started and the champions opened the ball with the first dance. Harry and Luna ignored the normal procedure for the traditional dance and had fun instead. Funnily enough, no one called them on it and they were soon joined by other people that wanted to dance for fun and not be so formal.

It set the tone for the rest of the night. Fleur accepted Luna's proclamation and took her two dances with Harry, one fast and one slow, where she did her best to overwhelm him with her Aura... only for him to barely pay her any attention and he thanked her for the dances. Even the people around them caught onto him humoring her and not actually enjoying them.

When they stopped dancing to enjoy the formal meal, both Harry and Luna had been delighted with causing everyone to relax with their funny dancing. Both of them ignored any formal talking and only discussed things with each other, mostly because no one else had their particular outlook on their lives and no one else could understand their point of view.

As soon as they could, Harry and Luna left the Yule Ball and returned to their room. The house elves had made it into a split dorm and they both had a separate bed, which made the both of them happy. A chaste kiss was shared and both blushed, because neither of them felt that spark that would cause them to lose themselves in the thought of never ending the kiss. They were friends and that was all they would ever be for each other. It was their first kiss though, so they went to bed thinking the night had been perfect.

They were the only ones that thought so. Fleur had abandoned her date to try and follow Harry when he left, because she had enjoyed the two dances she had shared with him. Unlike every other boy she had tried to dance with, he wasn't a bumbling idiot after half a dance. He also didn't leer at her like she was a piece of meat or tried to grab her arse. That alone had endeared him to her.

The problem she had was she had lost him in one of the upper hallways. Disappointed, Fleur left the castle and returned to her room inside the carriage that she and her schoolmates shared. Her frustration was pretty high, considering she wanted to enjoy the evening a lot more than she had.

How could Harry ignore me after only two dances? Fleur asked herself as she rolled over in bed, sleeplessly. She knew he didn't think about Luna like that and they were just friends. Wasn't she pretty enough to keep one little boy's attention for more than ten minutes without using her allure?

More than a few people also laid in their beds at the end of the night and felt just as frustrated. Neville was disappointed that he hadn't gotten a kiss for treating Ginny so well. He hadn't really expected her to do more than dance with him; but, he had thought he had earned a kiss on the cheek at least for being a gentleman.

Ginny was disappointed that she hadn't managed to dance with the boy she loved even once. Hermione was disappointed when Ron had interrupted her perfect date with Viktor Krum and cost her a toe-curling kiss. Ron was disappointed that he hadn't managed to get a dance with any of the French tarts, especially Fleur. He had gone stag and had no idea why no one wanted to spend any time with him.

On and on it went in people's heads, because everyone's expectations hadn't quite been met, even though the Yule Ball had been the very first time any of them had attended such a function at school. Most of the professors only saw it as more work to try and keep the students in line, especially Minerva and Snape. They had spent most of the evening patrolling the gardens outside to break up snogging couples.

*

Harry and Luna spent their days avoiding other people and studying their hearts out. They also took small trips around the school's grounds and helped Hagrid take care of the various animals and creatures. It was a great time for the both of them, because they could study as much as they wanted and at their own pace.

Since Luna was a Ravenclaw, she shared her passion for learning with Harry and he learned that it could be fun to learn new things. Even studying potions on their own had been enjoyable without having Snape breathing down their necks and ruining their work.

They did all the old assignments of previous students that Madam Pince shared with them in the Library and she quickly stopped leering at them as they touched her precious books. They were quiet as well, so she had no further complaints about their behaviour. Treating the books with respect had earned her respect in turn.

By the time two months had passed and the second task was upon them, both Harry and Luna had finished all of the OWL work that would let them take the exams at the end of the year. Both of them sent in requests to attend homeschool exams at the Ministry, since they weren't Hogwarts students.

When Harry woke up the morning of February 24, he was surprised to see that Luna was still in her bed. He woke her and they washed and dressed in their best clothes to go to breakfast in the Great Hall instead of going to the kitchens like usual. No one paid them any attention until they sat at the end of the Hufflepuff table.

“Oi! What are you doing sitting here at our table?” A harsh male voice asked from not far away.

“Apparently something you have no clue about, despite eating three meals a day here for years.” Harry snarked and a few people chuckled before they could stop themselves.

Luna giggled and dished up some pancakes and pudding for herself. “We're not allowed to sit at our old house tables because they would be either insulted or assume we've returned to them, neither of which we want them to think, despite us not really caring about their opinions.”

Those comments made a few people upset.

“Harry, you can't really mean that.” Ginny said from the Griffindor table.

Harry ignored her and ate his toast and jelly. He would have eaten more, only he was expecting to do a lot of physical activity soon and didn't want to feel sluggish. With Luna's help, he had practised swimming and casting the Bubblehead Charm without having to speak the incantation.

Luna's eyes moved around the different tables and she made note of who was missing. She leaned into Harry's side and whispered who wasn't there and who was. Harry huffed and shook his head at what she said. They both knew the professors were stupid and now had the proof, because they had chosen their hostages poorly.

Cedric had Cho Chang, Viktor had Hermione, Fleur didn't have Roger, and Harry didn't have Luna. Who did they pick as the people they would miss the most? Luna speculated that Ron was chosen for Harry and someone close to Fleur had been found somehow.

Harry whispered in her ear and his idea made her giggle. They had both heard how Ron had embarrassed himself and most of Griffindor House by publicly and loudly asking Fleur to be his date. It would be childish to turn that against him and both Luna and Harry thought that would be appropriate.

It would also unnerve the other champions, because they assumed they had to rescue their chosen hostages, even if no one told them who those hostages were supposed to be. That was a loophole Harry wanted to expose and he would have a bit of fun using it.

“I'll make sure Colin has his camera ready.” Luna whispered just before Minerva McGonagall walked over to Harry.

“Mister Potter, it's time for the next task.” Minerva said from behind him.

Harry looked up at her and then turned to look to see Professor Sprout approaching Cedric, Madam Maxime approaching Fleur, and Karkaroff with Viktor. “Why are you approaching me? I'm not from Griffindor or Hogwarts anymore.” He said and then smiled. “Was Headmaster Dumbledore too busy to attend to Cedric?”

Minerva sighed. “Just come along. I'll lead you to where you need to go.”

Harry chuckled and stood at annoying her without really trying. “I already know where to go and what to do.”

Minerva ignored his words and walked with him out of the Great Hall and out of the castle to go towards the Black Lake. There was a large tent there on the side and huge stands build beside the lake for the entire school to watch the task. The other three champions soon joined him inside the tent and they heard all of the other students pass by and fill the stands.

“Hey, Harry.” Cedric whispered and caught Harry's attention. “I tried to find you a couple weeks ago to ask if you figured out the clue.”

Harry thought about not telling him the truth, then mentally shrugged. “A couple of weeks ago? I knew what it was the day after the first task last November.”

All three of the champions gave him surprised looks.

Harry chuckled at that reaction. “Luna was right. Even after what I did in the first task, you all still underestimate me. That's good. Very good, actually.”

Viktor Krum huffed. “You are overconfident.”

Harry gave him a flat stare. “When I win the tournament, I dare you to say that to my face again.”

Viktor frowned at the blatant challenge. He started to reach for his wand when the tent flap opened.

“We're ready for you now.” Minerva said. She had stood just outside the tent flap to intervene in exactly this kind of situation. She led the four champions to the edge of the water and onto a small dock.

The announcer told everyone what the task was and Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur took off their robes to reveal swimwear underneath. Fleur's silver bathing suit was skin tight and a lot of people made shocked sounds and then they enjoyed the view. Not Harry, though. He used his wand and transfigured his fancy robes into a scuba suit that would keep him warm under the water, fins and all.

Only a few people noticed the change, Minerva included, and she once again regretted losing such a promising student from both her House and the school. She wasn't sure why the newspapers hadn't reported it yet, since it had been well before the first task that he had withdrawn from Hogwarts.

The cannon went off and Harry, Cedric, and Fleur cast the bubblehead charm. The judges were surprised when only Harry cast it soundlessly and then he was off like a fish and left the other champions behind. Viktor Krum spent about ten minutes partially transfiguring himself into a shark before he started as well. It took him even longer to figure out how to swim that way.

Down under the water, Harry quickly made his way to the merpeople's village and he didn't have to search most of the lake for the hostages. He arrived and saw that Luna was right. Ron, Hermione, and Cho floated there tethered to the town's square monument and looked drowned. The last hostage was a young girl that looked a lot like Fleur.

How did they get her here? I didn't see Fleur talking to anyone that looked like her parents. Harry thought and swam over to Ron. Instead of freeing him, he took out a little bag of grey liquid and a straw, stuck the straw in his mouth and squeezed out the contents, and spelled Ron's mouth shut. He wouldn't swallow it until he woke up.

After that, Harry shook his head and floated over to Hermione. Again shaking his head, he was visually showing the merpeople that guarded them that he was looking for his hostage. He did the same for Cho in a clear refusal and ended up floating in front of the little girl that he didn't know.

Harry gave the merpeople a nod, used his wand to cut the string of seaweed holding her, and then cast a sticking charm on her arms and hung her limp form over his back and wrapped her arms around his shoulders to keep his hands and feet free to swim.

His reasoning was that the girl was the only genuine hostage that he needed to rescue, since she was the only one who was innocent and shouldn't have been involved with this whole thing. Harry started swimming up to the surface to get out of the way of the other champions and to also not inadvertently lead them right to where they needed to go. Why should he make it easy for them?

The pair broke the surface and the little girl woke up as soon as her head broke the water's surface. She started babbling in very accented French and Harry only picked out one word in ten. Even with so little information to go on, he knew she was upset with being there, with not seeing her sister, and she was really happy that her hero had saved her.

Harry had to stop from laughing as she tightened her grip on him and kept talking while he swam the both of them back towards the shore. It had been barely twenty minutes, well within the time limit of an hour, and he noticed the odd looks on a lot of people's faces. The judges on the other hand, did not look happy.

“Mister Potter!” Barty Crouch Sr. exclaimed. “What is the meaning of this?”

Harry reached the shallows of the lake and cancelled the sticking charms on the girl's arms. She didn't let go, however. So, he stood up and carried her with a piggy-back ride, which made the girl giggle happily. Madam Pomfrey fussed over them and wrapped them up in a blanket with a warming charm.

“Sir, the task was to rescue a hostage. I rescued a hostage.” Harry said and feigned confusion.

“You were supposed to rescue your own hostage.” Albus Dumbledore said, clearly disappointed. “Someone you would sorely miss if they were gone.”

Harry pointed over at the stands where the students were and right at Luna. “Obviously, the clue was misleading. My best friend is right over there and she's the only one I would miss if she was gone.”

Luna blushed at being called out like that, even if it was playing right into their plan.

“If that's true, then why did you rescue Miss Delacour's hostage?” Minerva asked.

“No one told the champions anything, so how did you know which one was which?” Harry asked her and she sighed at the mistake. “I looked at each hostage and compared them to the clue. The only actual hostage was the only one that didn't match the others. Since everyone would sorely miss a child if they died, she was the obvious choice when Luna wasn't there for me to rescue.”

A lot of the audience nodded their heads in agreement.

“Be that as it may, you still retrieved the wrong hostage and will be penalized for it.” Albus declared and the crowd shouted angrily at him. He looked pained at the pure hatred he received for saying that.

“I was back first, performed the task the quickest without being harmed, and returned with a hostage. How is it my fault that you used the wrong hostage?” Harry asked and the crowd shouted louder in agreement. “Who was it, anyway?”

“Ronald Weasley.” Albus said, magnanimously.

Harry burst out laughing at the stupidity. “You think I'd miss him the most? Are you barmy?” He asked and kept laughing. “He was the first one to call me a liar and a cheat when my name came out of the goblet! Ha hahaha! Oh, that's really funny! We haven't said one word to each other since last November and he dropped me as a friend last October.”

Albus sighed when a few of the students also started laughing. “You need to learn to forgive, Harry.”

Harry stopped laughing and glared at the headmaster. “Why would I do that? After the first task, he said he wanted to forgive me for being a liar and a cheat because someone was trying to do me in. I told him to shove it and I never wanted to see his stupid face again.”

“Harry, carrying such hatred in your heart will lead you down a dark path.” Albus said as if imparting some great wisdom.

“HA! I don't hate the berk. I just can't stand bullies and he bullied Hermione for years. She's too ignorant to understand that negative attention doesn't count as good attention. It took me a while talking with Luna to figure that out myself.” Harry said.

A few of the students nodded because they felt the same way.

“It's stupid people like you that need to stop trying to shove Ron and I together all the time. You are causing the hatred to grow and make things worse, just like you do with shoving Griffindor and Slytherin together in most of their classes. You make them fight all the time and never do anything to stop it.” Harry told him.

Albus sighed as the crowd vehemently agreed with Harry. “People need to learn to work out their differences and they can only do that if they do it together. It's the only way for them to forgive those that transgress against them.”

Harry gave him a shocked look and then laughed. “You really believe that! HAHAHAHA!”

“It's not funny, Mister Potter.” Minerva said, her face stern.

“It's hilarious! He actually thinks putting people that hate each other on sight in the same room will make them work out their differences!” Harry said and held his sides from laughing so hard. “All he's doing is making it worse. They get no reprieve from antagonizing each other all day, every day, and it's only this year when the entire school has rallied against me like they did in second year that they eased off on their fighting to fight me instead.”

The crowd's noise suddenly dropped to almost nothing at his words, because it was true.

There was a sudden splash of water and everyone turned to look at the lake and saw a severely scratched up Fleur Delacour stand up on shaky legs and stumble towards the judges.

“Zee grindylows... stopped me... and broke my bubblehead charm.” Fleur said, tears in her eyes. “I cannot... complete zee task.”

“FLEUR!” The little girl's yell startled a bunch of people and she tossed off the blanket as she dropped from Harry's back and ran into the water to lunge at her sister and hugged her.

“Gabrielle? What are you doing here? Why are you wet?” Fleur asked as she hugged the girl, then her face took on a look of horror when she realized she had been on Harry Potter's back. “You were my hostage!?!” She exclaimed and hugged her tighter. “Where are maman and papa?”

Gabrielle babbled on in rapid French and told her what happened.

Fleur's horror was replaced with anger and she glared at the judges. “YOU MONSTERS! YOU KIDNAPPED MY LITTLE SISTER AND DIDN'T ASK FOR PERMISSION FROM OUR PARENTS!”

The members of the press jumped on that declaration with abandon and started talking to the surrounding students. They would try to interrogate the embarrassed judges when there were less people around. Kidnapping a citizen of another country was a huge mistake.

Gabrielle babbled some more and motioned towards Harry. Fleur nodded and walked over to him with her sister almost glued to her side. Before Harry could do more than smile at her, Fleur had let her sister go and wrapped her arms around his neck. She was only 2 inches taller than him, so they fit together almost perfectly.

“You rescued my sister.” Fleur breathed into his ear, making him shiver. She felt him react through his diving suit and managed to not smirk at finally getting him to react. She apparently didn't need her allure at all and just had to do things the old-fashioned way to get a rise out of him. “I cannot thank you enough, Harry.”

“I-it's okay.” Harry squeaked as his voice cracked.

Fleur felt quite happy to have done that to him. She leaned back slightly and gave him a searching look. Instead of doing what she should have done, namely kiss both of his cheeks to thank him, she chose to reward him instead. She also figured that he might not avoid her if she took matters into her own hand instead of trying to hunt him down later.

“Non, non, I must thank you properly.” Fleur said mischievously, then she leaned in and kissed him right on the lips.

Surprised sounds came from everyone, especially from Gabrielle and the judges nearby.

Harry wasn't an idiot and had been much more open and used to showing affection with Luna the last few months that they had been friends, so he put his arms around the French girl and held her tenderly as he kissed her back. He was doubly glad that Luna had insisted they practice kissing, so that their future girlfriends and boyfriends wouldn't be disappointed.

Fleur was not disappointed. She almost melted into his arms and moaned as she snogged him quite thoroughly, their tongues caressing each other, and his hands didn't try to roam to her backside or her breasts to grope her. He was a true gentleman and that turned her on even more than the great kiss did.

“Ahem.” Minerva said instead of coughing to get their attention. “I said AHEM!”

Harry broke the kiss with a chuckle and he saw that Fleur was just as amused by the interruption as he was. He let her go, bent down, and picked up the blanket to wrap it around Fleur and Gabrielle.

“Thank you, kind sir.” Fleur said with a teasing smile and hugged her sister again.

Gabrielle babbled at her in French, clearly a little upset.

Fleur softly laughed and bent down to kiss her forehead. “You need to be a few years older before you are allowed to kiss anyone like that.”

Harry still wasn't an idiot and wisely did not offer to let her little sister practice with him. “We should go inside the medical tent and get you both looked over.”

Fleur followed him into the medical tent where Madam Pomfrey gathered the supplies she needed to tend to Fleur's injuries. Gabrielle had easily moved to hug Harry as she waited for her sister to be healed. She babbled at him and Harry still only caught one word in ten, which made his responses a little stilted.

That he was trying made Fleur smile. She knew he had more to him than his resistance to her allure. That he would humor her sister as she babbled at him only made her like him that much more. How could she have been so wrong about him when they had first met?

Her snap decision to dismiss him as unimportant had severely hampered her ability to see what was right in front of her. A good person that would treat her and her sister as normal people and not like the half-creatures that the English Ministry classified them. He didn't see their Veela sides at all and that was more precious to her and her family than anything else in the world.

Half an hour later, Harry, Fleur, and Gabrielle sat with Luna in the stands and watched as Viktor Krum returned just outside the time limit with Hermione. Ten minutes after that, Cedric returned with Cho Chang. Twenty minutes later, the merpeople returned Ronald Weasley to the dock. When Ron's head broke the surface, he started freaking out, mostly because his mouth was sealed shut and he was soaking wet.

After a few moments, his entire form started to bubble and shift when he swallowed what was in his mouth. A few seconds later, he completely changed to become a carbon copy of Luna Lovegood, only wearing Griffindor robes.

“Ha ha! You see that?!? Harry was right! Magic itself changed his chosen hostage to become who he would miss the most!” Neville exclaimed, just as Harry told him to.

That proclamation made everyone start to loudly talk about it, especially the members of the press. The judges looked very put out that the hostage they set for Harry to retrieve, now looked like his date for the Yule Ball and what he himself had said he would have rescued if she had been there.

It really drove home that the other judges shouldn't have listened to Albus Dumbledore's assertion that the redhead was what Harry would miss the most. They weren't even on speaking terms. Why would Harry bother rescuing him?

It was also hilarious. The second Luna was freaking out and running around like a chicken with their head cut off while also gripping herself between the legs and crying. Minerva eventually stopped trying to corral Ron-Luna and let him-her tire himself-herself out.

When he-she finally collapsed a few minutes later, since wizards and witches were not in the best of shape, she levitated the exhausted person into the medical tent and out of the public eye. It was much too late to mitigate the fallout of two champions complaining about their chosen hostages.

Fleur and Gabrielle had laughed pretty hard during the whole thing and had hugged both Harry and Luna to within an inch of their lives. Neither of their targets complained, because the four of them appreciated both giving and receiving genuine hugs.

The scores were given out after that and clearly showed how biased they were against Harry Potter. He had only received half points for saving the wrong hostage, despite her being the only real one. Fleur had more points and that was just stupid. She even complained to the press that she didn't deserve any points for not completing the task and would complain to her government about her sister's kidnapping.

The four of them left and went towards the castle. When they reached the French carriage and had to split up, Fleur once again pulled Harry into a tight hug and snogged him nearly senseless. She made him promise to meet up for a meal sometime in the next week and looked smugly at his red face. After another brief kiss to say goodbye and more hugs from Gabrielle, the two French girls entered the carriage.

Luna smiled dreamily at their interactions and took Harry's hand. She led him up to the castle and to the kitchens to grab a quick bite. Dobby was delighted to help and they were soon stuffed, tired, and went off to their room to go to bed. He tucked the both of them in and they thanked him for being such a good friend.

Dobby waited until he popped away before he cried and happily proclaimed they were the best witch and wizard in the entire world.

*

The international papers tore Britain apart for their treatment of French citizens. Kidnapping of an underage girl without informing her parents, made the British government throw both Albus Dumbledore and Madame Maxime under the proverbial bus to save their own skins. Funnily enough, everyone expected that move from Minister Fudge and roasted him for it.

Back at Hogwarts, the entire school's population were also feeling guilty, because everything Harry Potter said was quoted verbatim, even in their own national newspapers, and now everyone knew how he had been treated by his previous peers. The population also all knew that Harry was no longer a student at Hogwarts and none of them were happy about that... except for a certain French witch.

Over the next few weeks, Fleur adored the fact that she could spend as much time with her new pseudo-boyfriend as she could stand, because he was still a little too young for them to be together officially. Harry was perfectly fine with that, because he had convinced her to give him French lessons.

Fleur, being the teasing and playful sort, took that to mean many other things than just learning the language. Harry blushed constantly as he learned a lot more than he ever thought possible about French culture.

Surprisingly, Mr. And Mrs. Delacour were overjoyed at Fleur finding someone that could resist her supernatural powers and secretly delighted in the fact that she had to entice the young man the normal way, by using her natural charm and spending time with him. Gabrielle was also all over him, because he had saved her from the scary lake and her kidnappers. He was a true hero in her eyes and she loved him with all her heart.

Harry and Luna continued to study for their exams, even as Harry prepared for the final task. They knew it was going to be a maze for the champions to navigate and he would need a wide range of spells and counters for everything he would meet in the maze.

The best part about the whole thing was that Fleur didn't try to get them to train with her or tried to sneak around to find out what Harry was learning. She respected his privacy and Harry admitted to Luna that he was seriously falling for the French champion because of that. He was a private person, as was Luna, and they both knew Fleur also kept personal things to herself. It was perfect in their eyes and their friendships were all the stronger because of it.

Time seemed to move quickly, despite them all working so hard, and it was soon the day of the final task. Because of the previous point totals that were skewed in favor of the 'real' champions, Harry would be the last to enter the maze. The crowd booed the announcer and the judges and shouted insults. Their defense that they couldn't change the numbers after they were announced, was laughed at.

Cedric was first and he entered with loud cheering. Thirty seconds later, Viktor entered with minor cheers. A minute later, Fleur was told to enter. Instead of leaving right away, she turned to Harry and loudly proclaimed that he was her official champion of the tournament, kissed him deeply to make him blush, then she entered the maze at a run and with a giggling laugh that echoed off the hedges.

Two minutes later, it was Harry's turn. He walked inside calmly, his face still slightly red, and cast a spell Luna taught him as soon as he was out of sight. A few seconds later, the hedges moved slightly and a tiny glowing fairy floated there.

“Thank you for answering my call, brave fairy knight.” Harry said and held up a small sugar cube.

The little fairy glowed brightly at the praise and then sucked up the sugar cube like a vacuum in only a second.

Harry chuckled and offered another cube. “We face many challenges this night. I hope I can count on you to lead me to the prize at the center and I'll protect you along the way.”

The fairy sucked up the second cube and bobbed up and down, clearly agreeing, then zoomed down the path and took off to the right. Harry quickly followed and they started making their way through the maze.

Half an hour later, Harry's quest for the cup was interrupted by a scream from a familiar voice.

“Find Fleur Delacour!” Harry shouted at his fairy scout.

The fairy obeyed immediately and led him to where Viktor Krum was using the Cruciatus Curse on Fleur. Harry felt something well up from deep inside himself and he wasn't sure what it was. He didn't fight the feeling as he let his wand snap up and pointed it right at Viktor's chest.

“Depulso.” Harry said, his voice deep and anger filled. He didn't flinch when Viktor's chest crunched and caved in and the body flew backwards from the strength of the spell and hit the hedges, only to be grabbed by entangling vines. In only a few moments, the body was gone.

Fleur let out a sob and Harry ran over to her and dropped to his knees. “H-Harry... you... need to go.”

“Never.” Harry said and cradled her head and tried to stop her from shaking too much. “I'm never letting you go.” He promised and didn't wonder where his sudden devotion came from. That was when he figured out the weird feeling he had felt. It was possessiveness. Fleur was his and no one hurt what was his.

“You'll... lose...” Fleur tried again to argue.

Harry leaned down to lightly kiss her forehead and raised his wand. He sent up red sparks for her and then red sparks for himself. “Fleur, I stopped caring about winning the tournament the day after we shared our first kiss.”

Fleur blinked her eyes at him in confusion. She would later claim it was her twitching from the curse, even if they both knew she was lying. “Wh-what... why...”

Harry pet her hair and smiled warmly at her. “I figured out that there were much more important things to care about than fame and fortune.”

Fleur blushed from embarrassment and also from the compliment. She was embarrassed becuse she did care about the fame and fortune to prove herself and she was complimented because Harry meant that being with her meant more to him than that.

The hedges on their left parted and Minerva McGonagall stood there with a shocked look on her face.

“It's about time.” Harry said and stood up, very carefully picked Fleur up, and placed her on the floating stretcher behind Minerva. “She was hit with the torture curse multiple times and she needs to be treated immediately.”

Minerva shook off her shock and nodded as she waved her wand at the stretcher. “Follow me.”

Harry held Fleur's hand and walked beside the stretcher as they made their way out of the side of the maze and around it to the medical tent.

Madam Pomfrey gasped when Minerva told her what Harry said and Fleur reluctantly let his hand go as she was tended to. Harry sat at the side of the tent to wait and would stay there for as long as it took. Minerva left for a few minutes and then Fleur's parents and sister entered the medical tent.

“Harry!” Appoline Delacour exclaimed. “What happened?”

Harry told them exactly what happened, what he did, and didn't try to hide anything or lied. Jean-Claude nodded along as he explained dropping out, because he couldn't leave Fleur when she was so hurt.

Gabrielle sat on his lap and hugged him, tears in her eyes. She babbled in rapid French at him and Harry smiled, because he understood eight in ten words, which was a massive improvement. He easily caught that he was once again a hero to both her and her sister and he was never getting away from them, not that he would ever be allowed to try if she had anything to say about it.

Her words made that feeling in Harry's heart pulse and he realized Gabrielle was also included in his possessiveness. He put his arms around her and responded in her native language as he told her that like Fleur, she was his and he was never going to leave them, no matter what.

There was a loud bang from outside and it put everyone on guard, then the tent flap opened and a very angry Karkaroff stormed in with his wand raised.

“Where is the murderer?!?” Karkaroff shouted and swung his wand around, then he saw Harry sitting on the ground at the side of the tent. “YOU!” He yelled. “AVADA...”

“Reducto!” Jean-Claude said and Karkaroff's hand and wand disappeared in a spray of blood.

“ARGH!” Karkaroff yelled and dropped to his knees. He used his left hand to grab the bleeding stump and the sudden movement pulled up his left sleeve. Everyone in the tent saw his Dark Mark and both Appoline and Minerva gasped.

“He's a Death Eater!” Jean-Claude exclaimed. “Reducto! Reducto! Reducto!”

Karkaroff's heart disappeared as several holes were blown in his chest. No one moved or said anything about the brutal slaying of the Durmstrang headmaster and his lifeless body fell to the ground. The tent flap opened again and Albus Dumbledore, Madam Maxime, and Mad Eye Moody were there.

“What is going on in... oh, dear.” Albus said as his eyes landed on the dead body on the ground.

“That death eater tried to cast the killing curse at my daughter.” Jean-Claude said and didn't put his wand up.

“Igor Karkaroff was not a death eater, Jean.” Albus said with sadness.

“Look at his arm and his actions during this entire tournament and tell me he wasn't evil.” Jean-Claude said and huffed. “Also, my name is Jean-Claude Delacour. Stop trying to make out like we are familiar with each other, Mister Dumbledore. That is not true.”

Albus looked pained at being corrected over something so trivial. “Now is not the time for arguing personal preferences, Jean.” He said and motioned to Mad Eye. “Please escort Harry to the castle. There is much to discuss...”

“NO!” Several female voices yelled.

Harry almost choked as Gabrielle hugged his neck tightly and wouldn't let go. He felt a little warm inside at someone denying the headmaster on his behalf, since it had never happened before.

“Everyone, calm down. One of the champions has died and it must be investigated...” Albus started again.

“One of the corrupted judges is also dead after trying to cast the killing curse, you barmy old fool.” Jean-Claude said and raised his wand. “Or are you going to try to cover that up with everything else you've done in this horrible school?”

Albus sighed at being called out. “Harry is suspected of murder, Jean. I am only trying to protect him.”

“HA!” Harry barked the laugh and everyone turned to look at him. “You were the one to force me into the tournament. What was it Snape said before I stopped going to Potions class? Oh, I remember. It was to make me be bait for whomever was trying to kill me and to let things play out to find out who it was.”

“Harry.” Albus said with disappointment. “You were not supposed to know that. I must talk to Severus and impress upon him the necessity of not revealing important things.”

“That's Mister Potter to you, Mister Dumbledore.” Jean-Claude said and his wand moved up slightly. “You may leave this tent with your henchman and you can send in the Aurors when they arrive.”

Albus' face twitched slightly.

“You didn't call the Aurors?” Jean-Claude asked, surprised. His wand hand dropped back to his side. “Didn't you just say that a student was dead? What is wrong with you?”

Albus sighed again. “You are interfering in things that should not be interfered with.”

“I agree.” Mad Eye Moody said and his wand whipped up to point at Jean-Claude. “Incarcerous!”

“NO!” Those same voices cried out as the French citizen was wrapped up in tight ropes and fell to the ground beside the death eater body.

“Come along, Harry. You must head to the castle immediately.” Albus said, his own wand out and not pointed at anyone.

“Non, non, non.” Gabrielle whispered and wouldn't let Harry go.

“It's all right, Gabby.” Harry said and patted her back. “Stay here with Fleur and your mother. As soon as we're outside, the others can handle McGonagall and then you can help your father get free.”

“Excuse me?” Minerva gasped.

“You've always done what the headmaster wanted, even when you knew he was wrong.” Harry said and carefully stood up. Gabrielle sobbed and reluctantly let him go. He gave her cheek a kiss and she blushed and felt faint. He passed her off to her mother, whom looked very sad.

“Enough dilly-dallying. Get moving.” Mad Eye said, his mouth flicking and his tongue darting out.

Harry nodded and used Gabrielle's closeness to draw his own wand, then he quickly turned to face him and Dumbledore. “Expelliarmus!”

Both wands shot out of their hands and Harry caught them. Madame Maxime's large fist slammed into the side of Moody's head and the man dropped to the ground. Albus tried to raise his hands in surrender to stop her from hitting him, too. It didn't work. He was laid out beside Moody and wouldn't wake for a very long time.

“Mister Potter, how did you know something like this was going to happen?” Madame Maxime asked as she freed Jean-Claude and then pointed her wand at Minerva to stop her from doing anything.

“Something always happens at the end of the year and it's always because of my Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.” Harry said and tucked the two new wands away, despite one of them feeling better than his Holly and Phoenix Feather wand. “Why would this year be any different?”

Minerva felt horrible at hearing those words, because she finally realized he was right. Every year something bad happened and it always involved the DaDa professor. Perhaps the curse on the position meant more than just losing the new professor every year.

“That is well reasoned.” Appoline said and pulled Harry into a hug. “Are you all packed?”

“I have been since Christmas.” Harry said and Fleur's mother smiled. “Dobby!”

“The great Harry Potter sirs be calling for Dobby!” Dobby said when he popped in.

“Put my things in Fleur's room in the carriage and tell Luna it's time to go.” Harry ordered.

“Miss Lovey is already by the carriage, Harry Potter sirs. She just be waiting on yous all.” Dobby told them.

“Then let's go. We all know there will be nothing but a cover-up if we stay here.” Jean-Claude said and picked up Fleur against Madam Pomfrey's protests. “She will be better tended to in France.”

Madame Maxime kept Minerva under her wand and guarded everyone's back. She needed to make it up to the Delacours for allowing their second daughter to be used, despite her own protests of it being wrong.

The large group left the medical tent and quickly made their way across the grounds to the carriage. The other students from Beauxbatons were already inside and Harry hugged Luna before they went inside to join them. Before anyone else could do anything to stop them, the carriage took off and left the tournament behind.

Minerva and Madam Pomfrey ran out of the tent when they thought it was safe to do so to find someone to tell what happened. No one saw Mad Eye change back to Barty Crouch Jr. and his magic eye rolled under the cot and out of sight. When the Minister and his advisor Lucius Malfoy entered the tent to investigate, a quick Avada Kedavra dealt with the problem.

*

Inside the graveyard in Little Hangleton, Voldemort's order to 'kill the spare', ensured that he didn't have a live enemy to take blood from. Both he and Peter Pettigrew cursed at being so stupid as to assume Harry Potter had been there as well.

Needless to say, the ritual failed when they attempted it and used Cedric's deceased blood. Peter bled out from losing his hand, Voldebaby's homonculus body broke down inside the potion, and the spirit screamed in pain as it was forcibly ejected. Nagini was left all alone and she consumed both Peter's and Cedric's bodies.

The massively bloated snake would be found a week later by the villagers and killed, revealing the two partially digested bodies that couldn't be identified. Two John Does would be buried right next to the Riddle Family and no one would ever find out what happened.

*

Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood received the results of their OWL exams in August and they had passed them all. They didn't have the highest scores, so there was no real excitement over them passing their OWLs early.

While on vacation in Sweden, the Delacours and Lovegoods met up with another family, the Scamanders. Not surprisingly, Luna and Rolf hit it off like dry kindling in a campfire. Their mutual love of exotic creatures had pretty much attached them together at the hip... and the lips... for the entire vacation.

Two years after that, when Harry was 17, he married Fleur Delacour and took her name, to honor both her and her family. His vault was transferred to the Gringotts branch in France and they never returned to England.

Luna was married to Rolf the next year and they all lived happily ever after.

Sirius Black and Remus Lupin remained bachelors and lived together in Grimmauld Place for the rest of their lives. Many parties were had, women bedded, and no children were brought into the world. They were content that their family names and their blood-born curses had died with them.