The Plan

Hogwarts Library

"No, that won't work, either," Harry said, brushing off Hermione's suggestion. "Dumbledore clearly managed to tie the age line into the Goblet itself."

"How could you possibly know that?" Not for the first time, Hermione found herself out of her depth when discussing magic with Harry Potter. The sheer amount of thought Harry and his friends have put into getting past the age line in only a few hours was simply staggering.

"Fred and George were able to put their names into the Goblet before being rejected by it," Harry explained impatiently. "If the age line wasn't tied into the Goblet of Fire, it wouldn't have let Fred or George so much as cross the line. It also wouldn't have stopped me from levitating the paper into the Goblet from behind the age line."

"The Goblet must be an incredible artifact," Calypso muttered. "To be able to adapt to a new set of enchantments after centuries is astonishing."

"Or Dumbledore is just that good," Harry argued. "Either way, it doesn't help us. We can't summon the damn thing, we can't fly the paper into it, we can't use an aging potion..."

"Have you tried layering the new age line on top of it?" Viktor asked.

"Earlier this morning." Harry's expression hardened.

"And?" Nathan asked, still a little shocked to be sitting next to Viktor Krum.

Harry grimaced. "I wouldn't recommend it."

Calypso looked at him curiously. "What happened?"

"Exactly what I said would happen," Harry said, irritably. "Dumbledore's age line blasted me half-way across the Great Hall and fried my age line the second I completed the spell."

Viktor looked thoughtful. "Can we break it down? I know that Dumbledore is an incredible wizard, but we have several hours."

Harry and Calypso shared a look.

"It might be possible," Calypso said in German, causing Nathan and Hermione to look at her in surprise – everyone had been speaking English. "But it would probably require us to repeatedly use the killing curse against the line itself. We'd need to hammer it down with everything we've got, and based on Dumbledore's skill with wards, even that might fail."

Harry frowned. "That's not going to happen. Nathan and the rest of my family don't know just how far I've progressed with the Dark Arts. Besides, I doubt I could even manage a killing curse, let alone one strong enough to break down a ward cast by my Grandfather. Also, since the ward is tied to the Goblet, even if we did break it down with a killing curse, there's a chance we could damage the Goblet itself."

"I am out of ideas then, Harry," Viktor admitted, also looking terribly uncomfortable at the thought of using the killing curse in such a public forum.

"Wait," Hermione said, "Why can't you try to break down the ward?"

"Time mostly," Calypso lied immediately. "Dumbledore is one of the most powerful wizards on the planet. We don't have the time to break down his ward."

Hermione and Nathan both nodded, though Hermione continued to look skeptical.

"I still don't understand why the aging potion didn't work," Nathan said. "Fred and George were seventeen, right?"

"Physically, yes. But they weren't really seventeen." Viktor pointed out.

Hermione looked thoughtful. "But how did the Goblet know that?"

"Dumbledore obviously enchanted the Goblet to respond to how the person..." Harry trailed off, inspiration striking him. Turning to Calypso, he excitedly said, "That's it! The Goblet responds to how the person perceives themselves. The key isn't your physical age, it's how old the individual believes themselves to be!"

"It could be both," Viktor quickly added. "What's to say that it's not physical and mental perception. Someone might try to manipulate one of those things, but who would think to cover both of them."

"So all I need to do is take an aging potion and confound myself into believing I'm seventeen." Harry grinned. "Brilliant."

"That won't work," Hermione and Calypso said simultaneously. Surprised, both girls looked at each other, and Calypso gestured for Hermione to go first. "You can't confound yourself. Your mind will reject it, and the spell will eventually fail."

"So I'll have Viktor or Calypso do it," Harry said uncaringly.

Calypso shook her head. "There's a bigger problem, Harry. The confundus charm will only provide a very basic amount of cognitive confusion. For example, you can confound someone to think they're a tree, but they won't really believe it. It's a subtle difference, but mind magic is all about subtlety. Besides, I doubt a confundus charm would have much effect on you."

"What?" Hermione asked, surprised. "Why?

"Occlumency," Harry said, understanding immediately. "Shit."

"Exactly."

Seeing another plan get shot down, Nathan stood up and stretched. "I think I'm going to get some food. We've been working for hours."

Hermione and Viktor stood up as well.

"I am going to go for a quick fly if we're taking a break," Viktor said. "I think better in the air."

"I think better in the air as well," Nathan said immediately. "Maybe we can –"

Hermione grabbed Nathan's hand, dragging him away from Viktor. "We need to get some food, remember?"

As the group separated, Calypso watched as Harry continued to pour through several books, his expression growing more and more upset.

"There has to be a way," he eventually snapped. Standing up, Harry walked past a scowling Madam Pince and into the Restricted Section.

Trailing behind her boyfriend, Calypso watched as Harry pulled book after book from the shelves, angrily replacing them all after a few seconds.

"Can I help you find something, Mr. Potter?" Madam Pince demanded.

Turning to face the librarian, Harry said, "I need a book on mind manipulation. Maybe something that touches on advanced forms of the confundus charm?"

The matron frowned, her brow wrinkling in thought. "I might have something...." Trailing off the woman bustled over to a particularly dusty corner of the section before grasping a faded leather tome with a purple cover. Flipping to the index, she nodded. "This is probably the closest thing to what you're looking for. It deals with a form of magic known as Legilimency."

"I know what Legilimency is. I don't need to sense emotions or pull at memories." Irritably, Harry left the restricted section, dropping the one book he was still holding onto the table he was working at with the others. As he started to flip through the pages, he suddenly stopped and lifted his head. Calypso was standing a few feet away holding the book Madam Pince had offered; however, it wasn't what she was holding that caught his attention, it was what she was feeling.

"Harry, promise me you won't be upset with what I'm about to tell you," she said, unease radiating off of her.

"Upset about what, Calypso?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"You have to understand," Calypso put the book on the table and sat next to him, "by the time I suspected anything, it was too late to tell for sure. I didn't think telling you would do any good."

"Calypso," Harry was beginning to grow concerned, "tell me what?"

Taking a calming breath, Calypso said, "Your detention with Ivan, you remember it, right?"

Harry's eyes hardened. "Vividly."

"I think – and I can't be sure, mind you– that what you remember is a lie."

Harry blinked in confusion. "What?"

Opening the book to a specific page, Calypso pushed the tome at Harry, who glanced down at it before his head snapped up.

"A false memory," Calypso said seriously. "I remember talking to you after your detention. You were a little sore from the lashes, but you were fine, Harry. It wasn't until almost a week later that you started to close yourself off."

Drawing his wand, Harry cast a privacy and aversion charm around them. "What are you saying?" he demanded. "What Ivan did was real, Calypso. It happened."

"And you would think it was!" she countered. "I don't think Ivan broke into your mind, Harry. I think he slipped a false memory into your subconscious while you were distracted with the pain from the lashes. Every time you thought about the detention, every time you went to sleep, the false memory would slowly begin replacing the original until you were only left with the lie."

Harry shook his head empathetically. "No, that's not true. I remember what happened, Calypso."

Calypso sighed. "Fine. It really doesn't matter as I can't prove it. Your extensive use of Occlumency likely hid the change in your memory. Ironically, if you weren't so good at Occlumency, perhaps my father or I would have realized what had happened."

"Why are you telling me this?" Harry asked, the answer coming to him the moment he asked the question. "Fuck. This is how I get past the age line, isn't it?"

Calypso nodded. "You completely open yourself up, and I'll implant a false memory since you can't do it to yourself. It should be easy, all I need to do is change what you perceive to be your birthday."

"Easy?" Harry glanced down at the book and began to read exactly what was involved in the process. When he was done, he threw his head back and laughed bitterly. "Calypso, this is not simple! So much of my life is tied into my age. Merlin, I have a twin brother!"

Calypso bit her lip. "I didn't say it would be simple, I said the process would be easy. Unlike what I think Ivan did to you, there's no way a false memory would last or completely override your concept of self. Your mind would reject the notion the second a single thing reminded you that you're not seventeen. However, if we time it just right..."

"I'd have a few seconds where I believed it to be true," Harry muttered. Flipping back through the pages of the book, he flinched. Reading out of the book, Harry said, "If not applied with suitable subtlety, a false memory can come into conflict with the true memory. When the conflict manifests, the individual will feel as if their brain has been set on fire, liquified, and has started to leak out their ears."

"Pain or not, it could work." Calypso seemed to be thinking out loud. "If I cast the spell when everyone is already sitting down at the feast, that will diminish the chances of someone interfering or trying to get your attention."

"We turn them from potential distractions into spectators, they might talk, but they shouldn't try to get my attention." Harry found himself nodding along with his girlfriend. "Still, I doubt the replacement memory will last longer than a minute, probably a lot less, so we'd have to do it right in front of the age line. But that still leaves one problem, Calypso."

"What?"

Unable to think of a nice way to put it, Harry just decided to be honest. "Calypso, I don't want you messing with my mind. You could literally plant anything inside my head."

"You don't trust me?" Calypso asked, unable to hide the hurt from her voice.

Harry refused to feel bad. "I'm sorry, Calypso, but how would you feel, especially after everything you just told me about Ivan? I do trust you, but I don't think I want anyone screwing around in my head."

"I understand," Calypso said eventually, "or, at least, I think I do. I wouldn't want to give anyone the opportunity to mess with who I am either, even you."

Placing his arm around Calypso, Harry tried to think of something to say when there was a sudden explosion, followed by a puff of bright purple smoke at the other end of the library. As one, Harry and Calypso stood up and made their way over to see what the fuss was about. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry spotted Madam Pince rushing over to the area as well.

"That wasn't funny, Michael!"

Turning his head, Harry saw Padma Patil, covered in confetti and bird feathers, hitting Michael Corner while Su Li laughed next to them.

"Sure it was," Michael grinned. "Just not to you."

Staring at his former classmates, Harry felt nothing but contempt and anger as Madam Pince threw the group out of the library. To come so close to entering the tournament, only to be stopped at the last possible moment was not something Harry was willing to accept.

"Old classmates?" Calypso guessed, seeing the expression on Harry's face. When her boyfriend didn't bother to respond, she said, "They don't look that impressive."

"Calypso." Harry finally spoke, a burning desire to prove himself overruling any objection he might have previously had. "I'll let you implant the false memory."

Calypso didn't bother hiding her surprise. "Really?"

"Yes." There was a cold, almost calculative, look in Harry's eyes as he turned to face her. "But first, we need to get Viktor. I need you to make an unbreakable vow."