The End of a Toad (Part One)

A few weeks after the Fourth Task, Fleur caught up with Harry while he was outside practicing spell chains with Flitwick. The diminutive professor had been gradually pushing Harry towards doing some of the simpler chains silently and while he could get most of them down they weren't very powerful yet. "Excuse me, Professor," said Fleur. " 'arry, Madame Maxime has requested to speak with you and Professor Babbling as soon as possible."

Flitwick shrugged good-naturedly and holstered his wand. "That's quite alright, Miss Delacour. Harry, continue to practice strengthening those. You're improving quite nicely."

Harry, breathing hard, nodded and put his hands on his knees as he doubled over. "Sure…thing…Professor." Flitwick chuckled and headed back inside. After a minute Harry finally regained his breath and stood straight. "Shiva's on break at the moment. We can go grab her now and head over. What did Madame Maxime want?"

"I do not know," Fleur shrugged. "She simply said zat it was quite urgent and zat both of us and your guardian should be zere. Ze phrasing was worrying but she did not seem flustered so whatever ze discussion is I don't zink ze zreat is anyzing immediate."

"So it might just be something about the final Task?" Harry asked. Fleur nodded and threaded her arm through his.

They walked through several corridors only passing by a few people – for which Harry was rather thankful. Even after almost three weeks of officially dating Fleur he was still getting quite a few nasty looks and whispered comments. While he couldn't entirely blame them the real issue was that everyone seemed to think of Fleur as simply a piece of meat. They weren't so much complaining that Harry had multiple partners, they were complaining that he 'nabbed the Veela'. It wasn't everyone in the castle, but it was enough to get his blood boiling every time he saw someone whisper to their friend as he walked by with Fleur. Hermione had been required to physically restrain him the first few times.

By now all three girls had found a far better motivator to ensure Harry behaved.

Knocking on Shiva's office door, Harry stepped inside only to find her standing at the chalkboard with her wand stuck in her hair and a determined expression plastered on her face while she tapped her foot staring at the diagram displayed in front of her. Harry couldn't resist laughing at that picture and Fleur started giggling a little as well. "Bit of an issue, Shiva?"

"Hey, kid," she said waving her hand but not looking towards him. "Oh! Here it is!" She reached out and crossed off a rune in the scheme and added a slightly modified one in its place. "Gotcha. Now that will work. What's up, Harry? Oh hey, Fleur," Shiva said nodding to them both as she took her wand out of her hair and cast a quick copying spell on the board, transferring the diagram to a nearby sheet of parchment.

"We need to head over and talk with Madame Maxime about something. We think it has to do with the Final Task, but we aren't completely sure," Harry said.

Shiva raised her eyebrows. "Ooookkkkaaay…you don't need my permission to walk across the grounds, kid."

Harry snorted. "No, I meant Fleur, me and you. Not just Fleur and me."

"Oh, well you should have said that to begin with. Give me a second." The professor cast a quick cleaning charm on her robes, straightened her hair and waved them out of the office. Falling into line with the two Champions Shiva looked at them both critically. "So what does she want me for too?"

Both students shrugged. "No idea," Harry said. "Fleur was saying that she didn't seem frightened, just a little worried." Shiva frowned and lapsed into silence.

The trio made it to the Beauxbatons carriage without incident and Fleur showed them into the Headmistress' office. The large woman quickly stood as they entered and nodded to each. "Hello. Zank you for coming so quickly. I have two guests who wished to speak wiz you all."

Harry and Shiva frowned at that while Fleur just looked puzzled. "Headmistress, zis seems most irregular," the blonde said.

"It is," Maxime said sighing. She took her wand and sent a quick spell towards the door and leaned back. "I assure you zough. No one here wishes to harm any of you. Zis is simply a secure location for ze meeting."

Shiva narrowed her eyes at the other woman, but before she could say anything the door opened again and two more people stepped into the room. Her gaze shifted to the newcomers. Both were dressed conservatively in something that could pass as either demure robes or fashionable Muggle clothes and carried themselves with a sense of authority. The woman smirked in amusement at the three people sitting across from the Headmistress while the man nodded happily at them all.

"Hello, hello! So good of you three to come and agree to speak with us. I apologize for the bit of cloak and dagger but sometimes it's necessary," the man said. He stepped up and offered his hand. Shiva let out a breath and shook her head. She stood to accept the handshake from both the man and the woman as did Harry and Fleur before all five sat down again with the chairs twisted to face each other in a loose arc.

"Newton, you're forgetting your manners," the woman said with a lightly scolding tone. "This is my husband, Newton Fulcanelli and I am Paracela."

"Pleasure," Shiva murmured. "I assume you already know us, but just in case, I'm Bathsheda Babbling, this is Harry Potter and Fleur Delacour."

Paracela nodded. "We do know of you. We've been taking stock of your ward for some time now actually. Manners are always appreciated though."

Harry's eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. Fleur stiffened beside him and Shiva subtly fingered her wand. "Taking stock of me how?"

Paracela smiled and shrugged casually. "Nothing dangerous or invasive, young one. Simply keeping our eyes and ears open. We like to determine one's character before we agree to meet with them. The Quibbler was quite useful for once instead of simply being amusing. I must congratulate you by the way. I never would've thought that Xeno would be able to resist printing his conspiracy theories!"

Harry relaxed slightly and snorted. If they knew Luna's father personally then they probably were okay. The man may be not be entirely stable, but he seemed to have a decent head for people from what Luna had said. "Don't thank me for that. That was all Luna. You can't refuse that girl anything and her father is even more wrapped around her finger than the rest of us."

Newton chuckled as well. "Well I for one rather miss some of the wilder stories. We went on several hunts with him in the past to try and track some of the critters he talks about. Paracela and I actually found a few on our own solo excursions some years ago. It's a good way to pass the time."

"I can imagine…" Shiva said trailing off and furrowing her brow. She stared at the two visitors muttering softly, "Why do those names sound so familiar?" Newton sat up a bit straighter while Paracela's mouth thinned into a line.

Harry's eyes narrowed as he stared back and forth between the couple. "Fulcanelli was a pretty famous alchemist…"

Newton deflated slightly and Paracela's grin widened considerably. "Go on," she said winking at him.

"Newton and Paracela…I don't suppose you're named after Paracelsus by any chance? Another famous alchemist?" Harry asked. At her nod, Shiva gasped and stared between the couple.

Fleur just looked between the other four people and grimaced. "I feel I am missing something extremely important in zis conversation."

Harry ignored her for the moment, focused fully on Newton and Paracela. "So then Newton would be for Isaac Newton…Merlin…" He suddenly shot to his feet and pumped his fist in the air. "Ha! I knew it! Hermione and I were right!" He turned back to the two and smiled wide before bowing a bit. "It's an honor to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Flamel." As he said that, Fleur gaped staring goggle-eyed at them.

Paracela chuckled and patted Newton's leg while he sat there looking dejected. "She was sooo close," he moaned. "She would've had it in another minute or two!"

"And yet I still win," Paracela said. "We haven't been back to San Diego in a while. I think this time we'll go to the International Comic Con."

"It's so boring!" Newton whined.

"It's getting better! They have a new logo and location this year!"

Harry stared between the two and laughed. "Why are you deciding on a vacation?"

Paracela saluted him. "Because you won me our bet, Mr. Potter. Every time we switch to a new identity, Newton and I have a bit of an ongoing wager over whether a Muggle-born/raised or a Pureblood will figure out who we are first."

"Well naming yourselves after famous alchemists and keeping the N, P, and F initials really doesn't make it that complicated," Harry snorted.

Newton groaned and held a hand over his eyes. "See that's what I said! But noooo, apparently it's still too subtle for most magically raised. I haven't won the darn bet since the 11th century!"

Shiva gurgled and struggled for words. "11th century…but…you're…"

"Far older than 600 something," Paracela laughed. "I'll grant you, the Nicolas and Perenelle names lasted a lot longer than we had expected. Plus the manner of killing them off was annoying to the extreme, but don't make the mistake of assuming that was the first time we had to do it."

Newton sighed dramatically and lowered his hand looking at Harry, most of the joking expression gone from his face. "You said you and your girlfriend assumed we were alive? When was this?"

"My first year," Harry shrugged. "We weren't sure whether Dumbledore actually believed you would let yourselves fade away or if he just wanted us to believe it, but we didn't think you'd just give up because of one guy trying to steal your stuff even if that guy was possessed by Voldemort."

Paracela smirked. "I don't know what Albus was smoking that year, but it must have been strong. Even just as Perenelle and Nic, we were around for over six centuries. Seriously, to think we'd just roll over and die between a single upstart tried to steal our fake things…idiots. I swear the world is getting stupider every century."

Fleur finally managed to restart her brain and rejoin the conversation. "You are ze alchemist pair?! Ze founders of ze school?! And you are speaking wiz us?!"

"That we are," Newton laughed. "Peace, little Veela, we're just two extremely old senior citizens who like looking after our legacy when we have the chance."

"This conversation isn't just a social visit though, is it?" Shiva said leaning back and crossing her arms. Her comment wasn't a question.

Paracela slowly shook her head and mirrored the other woman's posture. "No, it isn't. We have some information for you that we felt should be passed along."

"Why us?" Shiva asked.

"Well to be perfectly honest, we like you. We keep tabs on the big things and young Harry has impressed us," Newton said. "We were going to consider offering to let you do some research with us in a decade or two. We've come forward a bit earlier as events have started becoming increasingly charged each year. Ms. Babbling, you're a rare one. You'd be amazed at how many educators would've simply looked the other way upon discovering a bit of child neglect. That you not only took control of the situation, but actively worked to assist was extremely impressive. Had you spoken French we would've tried to recruit you to our school."

Paracela took up the narrative as she smiled at Fleur. "And you, Mademoiselle, have been consistently exceptional throughout this year. Your previous school performance was noteworthy as well though not quite as flashy." Fleur blushed and mumbled something unintelligible.

"So, to be blunt," Newton said shrugging, "we would prefer you and your friends survive and flourish. In the interest of assisting in that endeavor we're willing to pass along some…interesting bits of info every now and then. Such as who we believe to be behind the mockery of fair play that this Tournament has become."

"Well the Umbitch is obviously involved," Harry said narrowing his eyes. "From what Fleur's said though, her father should be taking care of her soon enough."

"Oui, he has most of ze necessary documentation and Fudge is starting to back off from shielding her. She will be gone by ze time ze Final Task is complete," Fleur said fire flashing in her eyes.

"Ah, but do you suspect who pulls her strings?" Paracela asked.

"There's a couple of possibilities," Shiva said nodding thoughtfully. "All equally worrying and with potentially multiple players involved. The worst options I think are Voldemort, Fudge or Dumbledore. I would've originally thought attempted assassinations wouldn't be Dumbledore's style, but I'm starting to change my opinion on that."

Harry frowned, "I'd still prefer to think that he's simply a manipulative arse, but not evil. It is getting harder and harder to entertain that possibility as this year goes on."

Fleur shook her head. " 'arry, no sane individual would place a zirteen year old Veela in zat lake. I do not care how manipulative you zink he is, he is as bad as ze Toad in my mind."

"Yeah, that was where I hit on him to," Shiva nodded as did Paracela.

"Agreed," Paracela said. "We worked with him for quite a few years in the past. Albus was always well educated and did his homework. He'd have known about the Treaty of Athens and the danger involved. He has a hand in recent events and while it might be subtle it is not idle."

Newton grimaced. "He was a good man once…"

Harry sighed and leaned back into his seat. "Well he certainly hasn't shown that side concerning pretty much anything dealing with my life. Do you have any proof? That's always the problem when dealing with Dumbledore. He's good at working behind the scenes and doing legal gymnastics to avoid being punished for anything."

"Unfortunately, we still lack that proof," Paracela said shrugging. "As you just said, he's good and has been playing this game for a long time. We're continuing to keep our eyes open and investigating a bit here and there, but we mostly just wanted to pass along our suspicions and warn you to keep your eyes on the man. Forewarned is forearmed and all."

Shiva nodded and leaned forwards to fix each with a considering look. "Can you help us at all?"

"Can we? Certainly. Will we? Well…that is an entirely different animal," Paracela sighed.

"You aren't willing to do anything beyond give us a heads up?" Harry asked incredulously. Fleur also looked rather affronted as she reached over to take Harry's hand and squeezed softly.

Newton grimaced. "I wouldn't say that exactly. The thing is though, we made it a policy not to interfere to any large extent. If we stepped in every time things started going to hell we'd quickly become a crutch for humanity. People would stop trying to fix things for themselves and just wait for us to do something. Eventually we'd tire of it, stop helping and then the world would self-destruct when the next self-important idiot stepped forward to cause trouble."

"This country stopped standing up for itself a long time ago," Harry muttered.

Paracela shrugged. "True. But it doesn't change our policy. And besides, we might be unaging, supernaturally healthy and regenerative but we are not immortal. We haven't survived this long by getting involved in every wannabe Dark Lord or master fool that sprang up."

"We are however," Newton said holding up a hand, "willing to help a little. We won't fight your battles and we won't publically reveal ourselves. However…I cannot condone what Albus appears to be doing. If you neuter him we will take care of him."

"Take care of him, how?" Fleur asked shrewdly.

"Leave that to us," Newton said firmly. "Albus is an old friend. Even if I find his recent actions to be repugnant, I have no wish to see him die in prison or be summarily executed."

Paracela's smile had an evil little set to it. "I think you will find his fate rather karmic."

"Please," Harry entreated quietly. He stared at the floor scowling and continued, "That man made me live with the Dursleys and has kept everything he possibly could from me since I was a baby. Shiva and I have been trying to get something on him for almost four years now. Please. I need to know what you're planning before I can agree to let you deal with it."

Paracela looked to Newton with raised eyebrows. He sighed heavily but waved her to go ahead. Turning back to the trio, she smirked. "Well…Albus is quite old. We were thinking he might be more comfortable in a…group setting. Perhaps a…new home. With his magic properly bound up by a nice little potion we invented a few centuries back of course."

Shiva's eyes widened before she started laughing hysterically. "A Muggle nursing home? Seriously? Okay, I vote we let them have the geezer! Imagine how frustrated he'd be trying to tell everyone 'No, you don't understand! I'm the leader of the Light! I must return to my fellow wizards!' It may not be Azkaban but it's certainly prison."

Harry considered that, looking to both Fleur and Shiva before finally turning to the Fulcanellis and nodding. "Okay."

"Excellent!" Paracela said smiling. "You neuter him, either politically or personally and we will take care of the rest."

"We'll contact you if we find anything concrete," Newton said. "I do hope this all turns out well enough. This has been some of the most fun I've had in decades!"

Fudge was sitting in his office with his head in his hands. How had things progressed to this point? All he had wanted was to humiliate the Potter boy a bit. Take him down a peg or two and teach him some respect. Now though…now Fudge was facing political and economic censure from nearly the entirety of the ICW unless he acted soon.

He had given Dolores free rein in crafting the Tournament Tasks and that had been such a foolhardy mistake. Even after he realized the damage she could be doing he'd still trusted the woman to take care of it. Now the French were out for blood, the Scandinavians scented weakness and the rest of the ICW were peering at his administration far too closely. If they actually followed through on their threat to examine his practices for compliance…they'd likely find his special vault. From there it wouldn't be simple disgrace; it would be Azkaban.

Fudge whimpered. He wouldn't let that happen.

"You called for me, Minister Fudge?" Sébastien Delacour asked with a smirk as he stepped into the office and took the seat across from Fudge.

"Yes, yes I did. I've gotten the recent request from your superiors."

"Oh, good. I was hoping that'd come in before the Task started. I am rather displeased that the attempted murder of my daughters has gone unanswered for nearly two months," the steel in the man's voice was frightening.

Fudge shifted several papers around to try and cover his hesitation. "Yes, well it took some time to complete the internal investigation and agree to some of the stipulations…"

Delacour had the audacity to snort. "And your conclusions?"

"Dolores Umbridge is the individual culpable for the continuous safety oversights involving the Triwizard Tournament. She is currently on a leave of absence and left no forwarding address." Which was actually true. He had hoped to be able to contact her and tell her to run. Or at least tip off Lucius so that her memory could be taken care of prior to any interrogations…Fudge sighed. "I can however, say with some certainty that she will be at the Final Task of the Triwizard Tournament. I can arrange for Aurors to be there to conduct the arrest and transfer her to you."

Delacour just smiled and shook his head. "Thank you for the generous offer, but I do believe the French officers will handle the arrest ourselves." Fudge sweated a bit at that. He knew that Lucius had one or two contacts among the foreign Ministry, but their influence was minimal. He'd just have to hope his Undersecretary would be able to resist antagonizing them enough to render truth serum a viable option…or maybe Lucius would know what to do to get around this…

"Yes, of course," Fudge said nodding hurriedly. Better to keep the man happy for the moment. Even if Dolores did spill some secrets she didn't know enough that would see him following in her wake and any goodwill he could engender with the damnable French should be sufficient to at least see him allowed to retire with grace. "Perhaps a peace offering as well?"

"Oh? Such as?"

Fudge pushed several sheets of papers to Delacour. "The Final Task is to be a floating labyrinth. There will be magical creatures and enchantments inside the confines to challenge the Champions, but there should be minimal risk as outside personnel will be immediately on hand to assist if needed. The walls will be transparent to observers as well so everyone should be able to watch what is going on inside. I trust these safety precautions are to your liking?"

Delacour took the diagrams and spent several minutes looking them over before nodding. "This is a runic expansion charm? I am slightly concerned about…oh no, never mind. I see the addition that prevents collapse while personnel are still inside. Excellent." He set the papers down and gave Fudge a genuine smile for the first time. "It's good to see that your government is finally taking this seriously."

"We have always taken it seriously," Fudge said scowling slightly. "I simply trusted my Undersecretary too much and the oversight Bagman was supposed to be providing was horribly insufficient. He will be properly disciplined as soon as the Tournament is over."

"Ensure that he is Fudge. Ensure that he is. We will take care of Umbridge."

Harry caught the rosemary scent of Daphne's perfume as the door to the owlery opened behind him. He lifted a hand in a wave while he kept talking with Hedwig. "I'll be fine, girl. Yes, if I'm not fine I will give you an extra two treats for every day I'm in the hospital wing. And yes, Hermione, Tonks or Fleur will watch out for you if something happens." Hedwig barked and started nipping at his finger. "Ow! No, I'm not trying to pawn you off on my girlfriends! I'm telling you you'll be taken care of in case the worst happens! Hedwig stop!" The snowy owl barked again and glared at him twisting her head. "I told you, I plan on being fine, girl. Okay?" She twisted her head back to him, barked, nipped his finger far more affectionately and took wing back to the rafters.

Harry shook his head muttering, "Crazy bird." Turning around to Daphne he smirked. "How come you always manage to be the one to find me the day before these Tasks and not one of the others?"

Daphne shrugged. "Probably because they look for where you'd go while I look for you."

"There's a difference?" Harry asked furrowing his brow.

"It's subtle, but yes there is." Daphne sighed and stepped up to look out the window. "You should stop trying to hide before these things, Harry."

"I'm not hiding," he said. She shot him a glance with raised eyebrows. "Okay fine, I'm not intentionally hiding. I just like some time to think beforehand. That gets a bit tough when everyone wants to talk to me and go over last minute things."

Daphne sighed. "I know the feeling. Harry, I want to ask you something. And I would appreciate it if you thought about it for a time before answering."

"Okay…"

Daphne kept staring out the window and stayed silent. Harry had started to fidget by the time she finally started to say something. "Harry, I…would you be…are you willing to consider…" she scowled and her mouth clacked shut. "Do you plan to try and win this Tournament tomorrow?" she finished in a rush.

Harry frowned. That wasn't what she had been planning to ask. He didn't need to be taking Divination to know that. Well if she didn't want to ask her real question he wasn't going to force her. "I may not have entered myself, Daph, but I would like to try and win, yeah. I think I have a decent shot at it. While I don't need the money, I can use it to help invest in the twins getting a physical shop location with enough room next door for a Potter Runes shop also in the future. Or I could just donate the winnings to an orphanage or something if they have enough and don't think we need the extra money."

Daphne shook her head, the ghost of a smile on her lips. "Typical. Both noble and practical options. I'll admit I'm a little surprised you're thinking ahead so much. It's…good to see you can make long term plans beyond a year out…"

"Daph," Harry said coming up beside her and reaching out to squeeze her shoulder, "what's going on?"

Daphne turned to look at him and narrowed her eyes. "Why do you have to be so bloody exceptional?"

"What?" he asked shaking his head in confusion.

Daphne didn't bother to respond verbally. Instead she reached out and pulled his head to hers drawing him into a kiss. Harry's eyes widened and he froze. She had barely touched his lips before she pulled back and hugged her arms around herself. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. Good luck in the Task tomorrow, Harry." Without another word, Daphne turned on her heel and practically ran from the owlery.

Harry was left standing and gaping at the door and his vanished friend. "What the hell just happened?" he asked quietly. Hedwig flew back down to his shoulder and barked knowingly. Harry scowled. When his owl knew more about people than he did…there was a problem. He needed to find Hermione. Or maybe Fleur would be better for this.