Chapter 04

Without another word, Dumbledore carefully finished drawing his wand and, as instructed, handed it to her over his left shoulder.

Plucking it from his fingers she said, "Thank you. We can't have you doing anything foolish, now, can we?"

"Now, Amelia, there was no need―" he began.

"Be silent!" she hissed. "You will be silent or I will silence you. If you then wandlessly remove that silencing charm I'll stun you."

"Amelia―" he began again.

With an immediate twirl and jab of her wand, she quietly incanted, "Silencio!"

As she'd threatened, Dumbledore was immediately silenced.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

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Down in the arena, Harry was unaware of what had just transpired in the VIP section. However, he had a pretty good idea it would happen sooner or later.

"From now until I have completed my task, I better not hear you. If I hear you, I will think you are attempting to distract me. If I think you are trying to distract me, I will consider it hindering," he continued.

"Mister Bagman, you are to immediately cancel your Sonorus charm. If I hear you during my task, I will believe you are attempting to hinder me and call on the Goblet to strip you of your magic."

Harry then heard an immediate and almost quietly muttered, "Quietus!"

"Headmaster Dumbledore, you and your staff are also so warned. Staff of the other schools, so are you. Students, you are also warned. Guests, with the exceptions of the currently active staff of the wizarding British DMLE who are currently on duty, so long as what you are doing is in the course of your duties and not an attempt to hinder me in my task, you are not. Such is the power of the Goblet of Fire; for the duration of the Tournament, such is the authority I now hold.

"You have all now been warned. After your collective treatment of me over the past few weeks I am not in a forgiving mood. Do not, for even a moment, believe I will forgive your transgressions against me.

"I, Harrison James Potter, by right of primogenitor Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter, do so swear it!"

Dumbledore gave a little start of shock upon hearing that. He was absolutely positive Harry did not know of his heritage. He did not even know the boy knew his true first name.

Harry gave it a moment for everyone to absorb what he'd just told them. To a child, they all immediately shut up and looked back with expressions ranging from shock to outright fear.

He continued, "You stupid, daft bastards in the Ministry and the Heads of the three schools, clearly had no idea of what you were doing by using the Goblet of Fire as the ultimate adjudicator for the Tournament. You've given a fourteen year old and three other just-of-age wizards and witch the absolute power to strip you of your magic, if not outright kill you. And there's not a bloody thing you can do about it until the Tournament has concluded. Think about that for a while, won't you?

"Next: As you're all now aware, my task is to get that golden egg sitting in the dragon's nest over there," he pointed it out, "And take it back to where I walked in," and indicated that point. "There were no other instructions. In other words, I can take as long as I bloody like to complete my task as there is no time limit. No limitations have been placed on me. I can also go about it in whatever way I like, so long as I accomplish the task.

"Has every one got that? That means that whatever I do is within the rules of the task and the tournament. So, while what I do might seem inconsequential or irrelevant to the task to you, does not mean it's against the rules of the tournament. Therefore, just because you cannot understand what I'm up to, does not mean you have the right to interfere with what I'm doing."

Turning slightly to his right, he snapped his fingers.

Immediately, his dark khaki, British Army 'army surplus' echelon bag appeared with a pop before him.

"I bet you're all wondering how I did that," he snarked. "Too bad I refuse to tell you. If you cannot figure it out for yourselves, I think you're too daft to be told."

Popping his wand back up his sleeve, he reached down and unzipped the bag. From within the wizard-spaced interior, he pulled out a hip-height pedestal and set it firmly on the ground. Then made sure it was as close to level as he could get it by squirming it into the sod under the pedestal base.

Next, he pulled out a pensieve and placed it atop the pedestal.

Next out of the bag was a common folding 'banana' sun lounger. He immediately set it up so the pedestal was alongside it with about a three foot separation and with the foot of it facing the judges section in the stands. The pedestal was on the lounger's right.

Next came a novel with a bookmark within. He dropped that onto the lounger.

And, finally, he drew out a rack of vials. Each was numbered and contained memory strands.

One at a time and in sequential order, while holding the rack with his left hand, he pulled out a vial and poured the memory contents into the pensieve. As each strand went in, he tapped a rune on the edge of the pensieve with his wand. This added them to show in the sequence they were entered.

With all memory strands added he returned the rack of now empty vials to the bag.

Turning back to the audience he redrew his wand and, once again, cast Sonorus on himself. "Because it might take quite some time for me to figure out just how I'm going to complete my task with only three and a bit years of magical education under my belt, I've brought some... entertainment... for you all.

"Be very aware: While the entertainment I'm providing for you is playing, I'll be trying to figure out how to complete the task. I'll be concentrating on that, so any distractions from you I will consider hindering me. Again, you have been warned."

Cancelling the Sonorus he then tapped the activation rune on the pensieve to show the memories in the air above the bowl.

As soon as the first began, he immediately enlarged it to about twice human size.

The memory showed him, in his Hogwarts uniform, standing in a bare white room. He called this 'Memory-Harry'. He'd recorded it in the Room of Requirement, late at night.

Memory-Harry was speaking. "Testing... testing... one... two... three. Testing... testing."

As the memory played, the real Harry adjusted the volume so that everyone in the stands could clearly hear it.

"Testing... Testing... One... two... Are we ready yet, Harry?" asked Memory-Harry.

"Yep, all set to go!" the real Harry loudly replied.

"Excellent!" said Memory-Harry, appearing as if he was looking back at the real Harry. "Make yourself comfortable. This is going to take a while." There was a short pause before he added a short bark of laughter and said, "What am I saying? Of course you already know that. You set this whole thing up!"