37 - Coming Together

Draco Malfoy's exodus from Hogwarts was all anyone could talk about for the week. The berk had been lording it over everyone in the castle for four years running, and now he was suddenly gone. And even better, it was all down to his own stupidity.

Who else would have had the immense arrogance required to make a lethal run at someone right there in the Great Hall in front of everyone?

And then, adding fuel to the fire, there was Albus Dumbledore's abortive attempt to keep the matter out of the legal arena. It was one thing to excuse a minor schoolyard fracas, but a literal attempted murder? The students were suddenly seeing the Headmaster in a very different light.

Between Snape and Malfoy, they were left wondering if their esteemed Headmaster had ever given even the slightest damn about the well being of the innocent children he was responsible for.

It was likely that their sentiments were winging their way back to their parents attached to a veritable parliament of owls, and as far as Fleur was concerned, that could only help. Many of the students had family who were on the Wizengamot. Some even had parents who were involved. Every little hit to Dumbledore's reputation among the members strengthened their ability to deal with him when the time came.

And then Malfoy's surprisingly rapid conviction was reported, and that took over as the topic of choice for the week following.

Unlike his father, Draco did not get life in Azkaban – but he did receive a ten year sentence. The difference was down to his age, and the fact that he did not successfully cast an Unforgivable. Of course, from what Fleur knew of Azkaban, he would be very lucky to survive it, let alone with his sanity intact.

The British Wizengamot, like Madam Bones, apparently did not want that sort of person running loose in society. Who knew?

And once more Albus Dumbledore managed to shoot himself in the foot, as the Muggles would say. Specifically, he chose to act as defense barrister for the younger Malfoy, and failed miserably. Draco Malfoy was convicted on his own words; a lifetime of arrogance learned at his father's knee led him to believe that his money would get him out of anything — money that he didn't seem to realize he no longer had, at that — and thus he saw no issue with admitting his intentions, fully and openly.

Dumbledore's defense was sunk before it could even get started, and he was left with nothing more than egg on his face.

The Daily Prophet took great delight in rubbing his nose in it over the course of the week. This was, again, all to the good: if the public thought that Dumbledore was losing it, then anyone continuing to support him would be seen in the same light. They weren't there yet — Dumbledore had a lot of nearly fanatical supporters that they would have to convince — but every little bit helped.

The old man took to glaring at the Potters at every available opportunity, but as before they simply ignored him.

But while all this was going on amongst the Hogwarts contingent, Harry was getting more and more unsettled by the lack of news regarding a trial for his godfather. Fleur could understand this; the man was completely innocent of the crimes he was accused of, and they had handed the Minister an easy way to save face when he corrected it. They were both starting to wonder if the Minister's apparent sincerity had been too good to be true.

Fortunately for all concerned, their fears were put to rest with the latest issue of the Daily Prophet. Fleur sensed her father's hand in the announcement too, as it took yet another not-so-veiled swipe at Dumbledore:

Sirius Black: Guilty — or Innocent?

by Cordelia Chase

In a surprising move late yesterday evening, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge announced that a trial will soon be held for Sirius Orion Black III on the matter of the betrayal of the Potter family to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named on that infamous Halloween night in 1981. This has raised a great many questions, not least of which is, "why bother with a new trial for a convicted Death Eater?"

That question has the simplest and yet most shocking of answers: Sirius Black was never convicted of the crimes in question. In fact, he was never even tried in the first place. He was simply arrested and tossed into Azkaban without any investigation whatsoever.

"Black's guilt has been called into question by events that I can't speak of due to the ongoing investigation," stated Minister Fudge. "I can't say which way the trial will go. I can only say that we will get to the truth, and act accordingly to rectify this error by the previous administration if needed."

Error, indeed.

Every single Death Eater had a trial after the end of the war, save one: Sirius Black. Even the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange and recently-convicted Lucius Malfoy had trials. But not Black. Why?

The answer to that question is currently unknown.

The who, however, is well documented. Official records from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement show that the transfer to Azkaban was signed off by three people: Bartemius Crouch, then head of the DMLE; Millicent Bagnold, then Minister of Magic; and Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore as Chief Warlock.

One can't help but notice that Albus Dumbledore's competence is once more called into question. What is going on with our esteemed Chief Warlock? Has it been going on longer than we thought?

Perhaps it is time to investigate Albus Dumbledore and find out once and for all if he is fit to hold the positions of power he currently enjoys.

"Yes! It's about time!" crowed Harry, who had been reading over her shoulder.

Smiling, she wrapped an arm around him and drew him close. "Padfoot will be pleased," she predicted. "Zere is no date, though."

"I'm sure your Dad will let us know," he replied.

"Now we just have to hope that the Wizengamot is mostly honest," fretted Hermione.

"It'll be fine," opined Neville. "Malfoy was the source of a lot of bribes according to Gran. Without him, there aren't as many willing to spread gold around. And with House Malfoy sidelined, I can't think of anyone else who would benefit from stopping Black being declared innocent."

"Not to mention that nobody wants to be on Harry's bad side," said one of the twins.

"Once they find out that Padfoot is Harry's godfather, they'll know that they have to be honest or face the consequences," agreed the other.

"Harrykins has a pretty good track record lately," noted the first.

"They won't want to go against that," said the other.

"They're right," agreed Neville. "Harry is popular right now, and they won't want to be seen to be on the wrong side of him."

Harry blinked at this information, and Fleur gave him another squeeze. His aversion to fame was one of his better qualities, as far as she was concerned. It was unlikely he would ever let it go to his head; instead, he would avoid it as much as possible.

===[~]===

Late that night, all four Champions stood quietly just off the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch, staring at Ludo Bagman's retreating back. They had just been informed of the nature of the Third Task of the Tournament. It was going to be a maze.

As if they couldn't tell that simply by the state of the pitch.

Harry was not nearly as much of a Quidditch nut as, say, Ron Weasley (even Victor Krum wasn't that obsessive about Quidditch, and that was saying something), but he still thought it sacrilege. Then again, he also thought it horribly unfair for those that wanted to play professionally that they cancelled Quidditch this year in the first place. And all for a Tournament with only a single competitor from Hogwarts.

Shaking his head to clear those thoughts, he turned back to the problem at hand. A maze wasn't so bad, but the fact that it would be full of some of Hagrid's more interesting creatures certainly was. Harry, more than most, had a fair idea of what kinds of creatures might be involved there. But what could he do about it?

Before he could figure that out, though, his train of thought was interrupted — by Cedric Diggory of all people.

"Is it just me," wondered the real Hogwarts Champion, "or is this Tournament a complete joke? The audience will be staring at the outside of the maze for however long. They won't be able to see a single thing!"

Harry thought Cedric was right — on all counts — and his mind started churning. If he and Fleur weren't the only ones who thought this was a useless exercise, then that might open up some options…

"Da," agreed Viktor. "They stared at the vater for an hour in the last task. I vonder who thought of that?"

"Dumbledore or Bagman, probably," mused Harry absently.

They all fell silent for a moment, and he continued to turn over the problem in his head. He had an idea that he thought would be fitting, but he wasn't sure how the others would take it. Well, Fleur he could predict, but Cedric and Krum?

"What if we stuck it to the Tournament for this task?" he blurted before he could stop himself.

"Vut do you have in mind?" asked Krum curiously.

"Non, not 'ere," frowned Fleur, who was studying Harry intently. "I know zis look. Let us take zis somewhere more private."

Surprisingly, both of their fellow Champions were amenable, and they quickly made the trek to the Beauxbatons carriage, which the other two had never seen the inside of before. Had they waited even just another minute or two before leaving the pitch then something more interesting might have happened, but as it stood they arrived without incident. Fleur led them all into their suite, which thankfully had a reasonably sized sitting room.

While she went to gather some drinks, Harry settled into an armchair and ignored the others while trying to think things through. There were no rules against his idea so far as he knew; it was just a matter of selling it to his fellow competitors. And then they would have to deal with the fallout, which was much harder to predict.

He absently took a swig from a butterbeer that his wife handed him and thought for a moment longer before she finally prodded him.

"Now zen, mon amour," she said, "why don't you tell us what is putting zat expression on your face?"

Harry shook himself and focused back in, first on Fleur's beautiful face, but then he took a hard look at Viktor and Cedric. He didn't know either of them well, but he knew them well enough to think that they would hear him out. Their expressions were serious ones, so he started talking.

"One of the points of this Tournament is to — how did they put it? Improve international cooperation, right?"

"Not the words they used," said Cedric, "but yeah, that's a big part of it. Why?"

"I was just thinking that competing against each other isn't very cooperative, is it?" Harry grinned.

Fleur got it instantly — her eyes widened, and a malicious sparkle appeared there. She, like him, was very angry with the Tournament organizers. Madam Maxime only got a pass because she had nothing to do with the Task selection, and also had genuinely apologized to Fleur shortly after their wedding for getting her mixed up in it.

Cedric was a little slower, but then he blinked and a smile slowly appeared on his face.

Krum was apparently more of a thinker than Harry had given him credit for. He stared off into space for a long moment, the gears almost visibly turning in his head, before he turned a focused, interested expression on Harry.

"Vut did you have in mind?" he asked simply.

"We work together," said Harry simply. "We all wait for everyone, and go in together. We beat the maze together. And then we all take the cup together, and win the tournament together."

Were Harry anyone else, such a suggestion might have seemed utterly self serving. But this was Harry Potter – who was currently legitimately tied for first place, and with only a fraction of the education the other three had. That he was known to be almost completely selfless to begin with certainly didn't hurt either.

"Oh my," breathed Fleur. "Zat would be merveilleux!

Harry grinned tightly at her.

"I hate to say it, but I'm really liking this plan," admitted Cedric with a growing smile. "Especially given the kinds of creatures Hagrid is likely to put in that maze."

Krum, who had been studying Harry intently, raised one bushy eyebrow at Cedric. "Vill they be that bad?" he wondered.

"Oh yeah," nodded Cedric. "Hagrid has no idea what is actually dangerous to normal people."

"Then I like it," nodded Krum.

"Are we all in then?" asked Cedric. "I am."

"Da," nodded Krum.

"I no longer care 'oo weens," shrugged Fleur. "I am een."

There was a brief silence. Harry, for his part, was busy staring off into space. Another idea had occurred to him that could make the task trivially simple to accomplish. A poke from his wife brought him back out of his thoughts, though.

"Huh?" he blinked. Then he mentally replayed the conversation in his head. "Oh, yeah, I'm in."

"What were you thinking about?" wondered Fleur. "Your mind was elsewhere."

"Oh, I just had an even worse idea is all. We'd have to check the rules to see if it would work, though."

Cedric studied him for a moment, before he finally leaned back and raised his butterbeer in salute. "You've had one good idea tonight," he said. "Why not try for two? I've got the time."

"I have novhere else to be," smirked Krum.

"And I am already at 'ome," grinned Fleur.

Harry smirked and explained his idea.

And they laughed long and hard, each of them envisioning the scene. Only a a few very minor tweaks were needed to flesh it out, and – presuming the rules allowed it – they were ready to go.

And so it was settled: they were going to work together — and they were going to make an absolute mockery of the Tournament.

===[~]===

"Did you look at the rules?"

"Yup. There basically aren't any."

"What?"

"We can't start with anything but our wand, but that was the only restriction."

"Bon."

The Third Task was going to be very interesting indeed.