Collateral Damage

Albus sat in his office in contemplation. He was quite smug as he thought about making the Marauders give the oath. He expected it to drive a wedge between Harry and Sirius who was the only person who could literally take Harry from him. He smiled at his thoughts of the brilliantly successful plan. His problems came during his attempts to gain even more control over Harry.

That whole plan backfired and allowed Harry to break away from the people who kept him informed about what Harry was doing. He thought about what Severus said and it did seem as if the boy's bindings were coming unraveled. It was obvious from the first task that the power block was gone with how he stood up to the dragon.

The small glimpse he got of Harry's mind also showed that the mental block was gone as well. The speed at which Harry's mind was moving rivaled that of his mother and one of Harry's former friends, Miss Granger. If there was one thing Albus did know, it was that once Harry started connecting the dots, he would have a lot to answer for.

The other problem Albus had was who to select as Mr. Potter's hostage in the second task. With him having cut all ties to his friends along with walking out on Miss Granger during the ball, he didn't really have anyone to choose from. In his original plans, Mr. Weasley would be his hostage. Albus was going to use him as the person Harry would miss most to throw some suspicion on Harry's sexual orientation therefore keeping the many girls that were interested in Harry from approaching.

If they could forestall the inevitable, then maybe Miss Weasley would be ready to take up her role in Harry's life just as he and Molly planned. He then had the brilliant idea, at least in his mind, to use Ginny as Harry's hostage. He had already saved her once; surely he would do it again.

Albus gave a little shudder as he thought about the Chamber of Secrets incident. One of his biggest fears was that the Weasleys would find out that he knew about the whole thing and allowed things to progress as they did. There were also several choices Albus had made for the Greater Good that he was not too proud of. The three that were the worst were centered on Harry where in all three cases; Harry ended up facing Voldemort alone and almost died each time.

Ginny Weasley's involvement in the chamber incident was just basically collateral damage in the war. The fact that she would be mentally scarred from the experience for the rest of her life was a justifiable expense to ensure the Greater Good.

Harry's name coming out of the Goblet had been a surprise to him but he took advantage of the situation and tried to use it to his advantage. The fact that it worked against him was an annoyance at best. Albus knew Tom was behind Harry ending up in the tournament and it didn't bode well for what lie ahead. The real concern for Albus was that with Harry cutting ties with him and everyone else, there was no way to subtly guide Harry along and this time he would be on his own. He hoped that this wouldn't be the fourth and final major mistake in his choices regarding Harry.

****

The day of the much anticipated second task finally arrived and the Great Hall was pretty lively at breakfast. The only people not enjoying themselves were the three champions who were looking around nervously as if they were searching for someone. Megan was sitting next to Cedric and whispered "Cho will be fine. If you can't get to her, I'm sure Harry will have your back."

"I know but while we protected you, we couldn't do the same for her. Speaking of that, I wonder who they got for Harry."

She cast a quick glance over at the Gryffindor table but noticed there were a lot of Lions missing this morning. "I don't know. It seems as if half the Lions are missing this morning."

Cedric glanced over and then looked back at his own table where he found Leanne sitting there eating. He got up and went over to her. "Hey Leanne, I know you're friends with Katie Bell. What's up with the Gryffs this morning? It looks like half their house is missing."

"Yeah, Katie told me they were going to try and talk to Harry this morning and tell him that they're pulling for him."

"Oh okay. It just seemed kind of strange that they were all running this late. I was hoping nothing had happened."

Once he sat back down, he whispered "The Gryffs were lying in wait for Harry this morning. Pity they don't know that he's been in our room for a couple hours already."

She punched his shoulder and whispered back "You prat, why didn't you tell me. I wanted to wish him luck."

"Didn't you do that last night with that kiss?"

She blushed "I...we didn't."

Cedric chuckled "No but you wanted to. So who do you think his hostage is?"

"Ten galleons say it's the little Weasley stalker."

Cedric snorted "Which one, the boy or the girl?"

"The girl you idiot."

At that moment, the rest of Gryffindor house piled into the Great Hall with a dejected look on their face. Once they settled and took their seats, it was obvious that Ginny was missing. She whispered "Harry's gonna love fishing her out of the lake. It'll probably make her stalk him even more."

With an evil grin, he asked "What? Are you afraid of a little competition?"

"As if, they say all girls turn out like their mothers. Now, you've seen mum and you've seen Molly Weasley. Which would you choose to spend the rest of your life with?" She said with a smirk.

"Point, but since I know both of them, even at her worst, your mother is nothing like Molly 'The Howler' Weasley on a normal day."

"Well I wasn't exactly talking about how they acted."

Cedric chuckled "I know and yes your mum is pretty hot."

"Oh? Have you been perving on my mum?"

"NO! Hell Meg, she's practically my own mum as well." When he turned to look at her, he noticed she was holding her sides to keep from busting out at his sudden embarrassment.

....

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