Author's Note: I actually wrote another chapter for the summer covering the dueling tournament and the world cup, but it just seemed entirely pointless to write about and it just wasn't that good. Suffice it to say, Harry won the world championship again beating Lao in the semi-finals and Gabrielle in the finals who came in second.
They went to the world cup where nothing happened because Lucius Malfoy and many of the death eaters are now in prison or in hiding.
In getting back to Hogwarts, the sorting ceremony was altogether different from before.
It began the same however as names were called and sorted into each of the first four houses but when it got to "Lucy Dawes" a little redheaded girl, she was sorted into Peeves, followed by her twin sister Mary Dawes.
Harry privately wondered if perhaps they had another couple of Weasley twins on their hands, but decided it was too close to call.
Nevertheless both girls seemed happy to be in Peeves and they gave them a warm welcome as they went sat down at their table.
Peeves looked positively gleeful of course as he welcomed the new students into his house, he knew what it meant, House Peeves was here to stay for at least 7 more years.
Harry however was somewhat disappointed as it might mean the end of watching the girls walk around in their underwear, something he had come to enjoy over the summer.
At any rate, after the sorting ceremony Dumbledore got up to give them some interesting news.
"I would like to present Professor Alastor Moody, who will be filling the Defense Against the Dark Arts job this year," Dumbledore said, "I wish to assure everyone that he has properly been vetted and administered certain tests to make sure that he isn't impersonating anyone, isn't a fraud, or anything besides exactly who he is, the ex-auror Alastor Moody."
Moody stood up and surprisingly nodded over at their table.
"What happened to Lupin? I liked him," Tonks said, sounding upset.
"Apparently Dumbledore must have sacked him," Harry replied.
"I can't imagine why, he was actually a rather decent teacher I thought," Tonks answered.
"Well we all know Moody from pre-auror training. He's a bit paranoid but a decent teacher nonetheless," Susan commented.
Moody went and sat down and Dumbledore continued:
"I am also very pleased to announce that this year Hogwarts will be hosting the Triwizard cup."
A flurry of whispers and conversations suddenly broke out at that.
"What's the Triwizard Cup?" Su asked.
"It's a tournament that used to be held between two other magical schools in Europe where each school selected their best student and tried to win by getting past certain magical obstacles," Susan explained, "however it was discontinued a long while back because champions kept dying."
Dumbledore continued on with his announcement.
"In order to provide additional safety we have decided to impose an age limit of 17 for any who wish to enter," Dumbledore said.
"I guess that counts me out," Su said, obviously disappointed that she wouldn't be able to compete.
"You could still do it though Fleur, you're of age now," Pansy pointed out enthusiastically to her.
"I'll admit I'm pretty tempted but we'll see," Fleur replied, still considering it.
After finishing, Dumbledore allowed the feast to begin and they began eating.
Instead of sitting back down however Dumbledore came all the way over to their table.
He doubted it was to see if they had anymore salt and pepper. Knowing Dumbledore he wanted something from them.
"Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said, "I just want you to know that as a 2 time world dueling champion, we feel that we would be willing to make an exception and allow you to enter the tournament despite not being of age. I'd be more than happy to put your name into consideration for you so that you can."
Harry thought about it for a moment, but then decided he really did not want to compete. Just the annual dueling tournament was good enough for him, and he wanted to continue focusing on that.
"No thank you Dumbledore but perhaps Gabrielle or Su would like to take you up on your offer,," Harry suggested.
Dumbledore frowned and said, "The offer was only for you Mr. Potter, we can't be sure that they would be as prepared as you would be expected to be."
"Nonsense, both Gabrielle and Su are just as good of duelists as me," Harry claimed.
When Dumbledore saw that he would get nowhere with Harry, he seemed to give up.
"I'm sorry to have bothered you Mr. Potter," Dumbledore answered as he turned around and headed back to the teacher's table.
"Dumbledore must really want you to compete in the tournament," Gabrielle observed.
"Isn't it obvious?" Susan said as she tried to explain: "Harry is the most well known Hogwarts student in the world and one of the best duelists in Britain, so of course he wants Harry to compete. Harry would be perceived as Hogwarts best chance of winning by Dumbledore. Dumbledore wants to win as it would seem to validate the strength of the magical education taught here, and so reflect upon Dumbledore as a headmaster."
"Is it really all that important?" Harry asked.
" Like it or not," Susan explained, "your winning the world dueling championship two years in a row no doubt has already brought a lot of prestige to Hogwarts. The International community has most certainly taken notice and Dumbledore I have no doubt will have led people to believe that it is a result of good teaching at Hogwarts."
He nodded, he supposed that that would make sense even though completely inaccurate. From what he'd heard from Fleur and Gabrielle about Beauxbatons it seemed far superior in terms of quality teaching in most cases.
"That's ridiculous though," Fleur exclaimed, agreeing with his own thoughts, "half of the teachers here are terrible and don't seem to know what they're doing."
"True but that isn't what the international community will really notice, they'll be more focused on the champion of Hogwarts and if they end up winning the tournament. It will make it look like Dumbledore is actually doing a good job to them," Susan pointed out.
"Why didn't he want me or Gabrielle to try and compete if we have a really good chance of winning too?" Su asked.
"Since you're both foreigners it would only take away from his claims that British wizards are truly the best," Susan answered, "It looks bad if someone not from Britain ends up being judged better than all the other British students and represents Hogwarts, like British wizards were so bad that they had to get someone from another country to have someone decent. He likely doesn't want Fleur competing for the same reason even though he can't really do anything about it if she decides to enter."
Harry was going to object that this sounded a bit ridiculous but then he was reminded of the Olympics that the Dursleys had watched every 4 years back when he lived with them. No matter what, the Dursleys always cheered on the British athletes even though they hadn't even heard of their names before or likely even the sport. Just the fact that they were British was reason enough for them.
Countries that won a lot of medals tried to prove that they were truly the best because they had the best athletes.
He supposed that Dumbledore's probable motives were actually quite human, even though he still resented him for it.
"Well I'm entering just to spite him," Fleur cheekily claimed.
"Go for it Fleur," Harry said.
DUELDUELDE
That night, while he sat in the common room, reading a book on dueling, Gabrielle walked out in her underwear.
Yet when she saw Lucy and Mary sitting out on the couch, she froze.
To her surprise however when Lucy noticed, she asked, "Ooh does this mean that we get to go around in our underwear in the common room?"
"We've just gotten rather used to it, but with you two here it might now need to be different," Gabrielle admitted.
"We're all girls here except for Harry, and we don't mind if he sees us in our underwear," Mary claimed.
"Or we see him in his underwear," Lucy said unabashedly.
"You're kind of young for that," Gabrielle tried to say.
"We could always go naked instead," Mary suggested.
"You've got a rather cute body, it seems a shame to cover it up," Lucy observed as she looked over at Gabrielle, still dressed in her underwear.
"We wouldn't want to deprive Harry from it," Mary added.
"Do you want to see Gabrielle's naked cute body Harry?" Lucy asked.
These girls seemed to be the girl versions of the Weasley twins, although much more open about sexuality it seemed, even at such young ages.
He blushed at her question however.
"He definitely does even if he doesn't want to admit it," Mary observed.
"Maybe he just doesn't want to give us a reason to be naked too," Lucy pointed out.
"Probably just doesn't want to see our little girl bodies and be called a pervert," Mary claimed.
"Is that your problem Harry?" Lucy asked, pretending to be concerned.
"I really don't think that its a good idea for 11 year old girls to be naked in front of a 14 year old boy and Gabrielle and the rest of the girls are only in their underwear because I'm engaged to all of them and I already know them quite well."
Both girls nodded at each other.
"Well then I suppose we can live with that. Nudity for the girls you are engaged to, but not for us and you," Mary concluded.
"Not unless you want to go naked in front of us Harry we wouldn't have a problem with that," Lucy added.
"You girls are a real piece of work you know that," Gabrielle commented.
"We know!" Both of them said at once.
After a moment's pause they started up again.
"So I hear there are some really good pranks that are pulled in this house," Lucy asked, grinning.
Yep, definitely like the Weasley twins.
DUELDUELDE
Later in the week, they had their first lesson with Moody.
Harry and the girls were of course already used to Moody, and so were unsurprised by his beginning speech on constant vigilance.
However, they were not prepared for what he said next.
"While you may have a rather good knowledge of dark magical creatures due to the instruction of Professor Lupin last year," Moody concluded, "you're terribly behind when it comes to curses. Now who can tell me what an unforgivable curse is?"
Had Hermione actually been in this class she most certainly would have known and immediately raised her hand, but they were sharing with the ravenclaws in this class.
Nevertheless he and all the girls knew the answer as Scrimgeour had taught them about them over the summer.
"An unforgivable curse is one of three curses deemed by the ministry to be so illegal and harmful that the use of one of them upon another human can lead to a life sentence in Azkaban," Susan said.
"Correct," Moody answered, "although of course certain exceptions have been frequently made. I've had to use one of them on two occasions in order to save my own life. It certainly wasn't something that I enjoyed doing, as it shouldn't be.
Unforgivables were used far too much and to often tragic results by death eaters in the war with Voldemort."
All the ravenclaws shuddered at Moody's mention of unforgivables and the name Voldemort but Moody ignored this and continued on.
"Now who can name one of the unforgivables for me?" Moody asked.
"The imperious curse," Pansy said.
Moody pulled out a spider from a glass jar from his desk and pointed his wand at the spider before it could get away.
"Imperio," Moody yelled.
Immediately the spider stopped trying to get away and instead began to do rather odd things that a spider would not be expected to ever do.
Since Scrimgeour had actually done this same demonstration before, Harry was not at all surprised by this.
Moody began explaining about the Imperius Curse, followed by the Cruciatus Curse, and ending with Avada Kedavra the killing curse.
After killing the spider, Moody told the class: "The killing curse, there is only one person known to have survived it and they are sitting right here in this room."
Moody looked directly at him and so did the rest of the class.
Personally he couldn't help think about the fact that out of the countless thousands or tens of thousands that had died from the killing curse over the years, he had been the only one to ever survive it. Not even his parents, just him.
What made him so special that he should live and all of them should die?
DUELDUELDE
He was still thinking about it after dinner and after dueling practice.
Flitwick had held him after to give him extra homework, and only Pansy had remained behind to wait for him.
As he went with her back to their common room, she asked, "So what exactly has been bothering you?"
"Nothing is bothering me," Harry tried to deny.
She looked at him pointedly and said, "I know you well enough to know when something is bothering you and it definitely is. During practice you seemed like you were somewhere else and you couldn't even do the Wasumi spell correctly, a spell you've used 100 times, Flitwick even had to pull you aside afterwards to make you practice it more. Something is bothering you, I know it."
He sighed. One of the girls always seemed to pick up on it when something was bothering him, and it was usually Pansy.
"It's just what Moody said about me being the only one to survive the killing curse," He confessed, "Why should I be the only one to survive it instead of the many people who didn't including my parents?"
"So you feel guilty for living when they all died?" Pansy surmised.
"Yes," he admitted.
"That's survivor's guilt Harry, it's quite natural to feel that way," She answered, "we think that we don't deserve to have survived when so many others died. Often we wish that we could take the place of a person who died who we feel deserves it more. Yet it is important to recognize that while we may not know why we survived, we shouldn't be upset over our good fortune and instead only be grateful. Live life to the fullest and think of it as a great gift, instead of letting our guilt consume us and thus make the gift of life a waste."
"You seem to know a lot about this," He observed, "did you survive something you haven't told me about?"
"I didn't survive when I probably should have died if that is what you are asking," Pansy admitted, "but I still experience much the same thing when it comes to me and my life with Draco. There are so many people that are forced into undesirable marriages or into abuse, yet out of the many who never escape, I was one of the few lucky ones. What makes me so special that I should be so lucky?"
Harry couldn't believe that Pansy would feel this way as to him she was very special. Of course she deserved to have gotten away from Draco.
"There's no way you ever deserved to be with Draco, and you are very special, especially to me," Harry answered, "I would save you again in a heartbeat if I had to."
"I know that, but it took awhile to fully realize that," she said.
As he thought for a second he asked, "You know the way things are maybe we could get the legality of marriage contracts repealed. I was thinking we would have to wait until I came of age, but I'll bet Narcissa and Amelia could get it passed much more quickly."
"I think that would be a good idea, but it would have to be done carefully. Many wizards still regard their daughters as mere bargaining chips but at least they afford them some degree of making sure they are cared for and raised properly. Without that I'm afraid that girls would be treated far worse as they would then not have any real value," Pansy pointed out.
He nodded as this did make sense, but he still felt he could improve the situation somewhat.
"What about you though?" He asked, "If you could get your own marriage contract to me repealed would you want to? It would leave you free to seek out any other man that caught your fancy, someone much less complicated than me."
She gave him a look of total incredulity and said, "There is absolutely no way that I would ever leave you or not want to marry you. I love you, I love you so much sometimes it hurts. I would do anything for you and if that means sharing you with other girls and dealing with your excess baggage then so be it."
"I just wanted to give you the option. I love you and it would hurt to see you leave me, but I love you enough to at least offer it to you," He answered.
He put his hand into hers and gave it a little squeeze.
"I'm grateful that you would care about me enough to at least make such an offer, but we're together now, and only death is ever going to change that," she answered.
She gave him a kiss, a long passionate one filled with desire.
Unbidden his hand slipped down to cup her bum and he gently tried to pull it away, but Pansy stopped him.
"It's all right Harry," she said.
"What if I hurt you though?" He asked fearfully.
"How would you hurt me?" He asked.
"What if I lose control or go further than you want me to?" He asked.
"Is that what you're worried about, that you might lose control and hurt one of us?" She asked incredulously.
"That's what happens when boys and men lose control," Harry admitted.
Pansy stopped in her tracks and asked, "I'm sure some men do, but definitely not you Harry, you've always been the perfect gentleman."
"Most of the men I know do. What about my uncle, or my cousin, or all of his friends that used to beat me up everyday? Or Ron? Or Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle? Most of the boys I know lose control and when they do they hurt people."
Pansy sighed, as he finally admitted what his problem was to her.
Virtually all the males that he knew when they lost control hurt people, and when he was being intimate with one of the girls he couldn't totally trust himself or his actions. He'd never forgive himself if anything bad happened to any of them because of him.
"You just haven't had a lot of good male role models in your life. You have Sirius, but you still keep him at a distance and now I can see why," Pansy figured, "Harry I want you to know that I trust you not to hurt me, so do all of the girls. If I really wanted you to stop, I know I could tell you to stop and you would immediately stop."
"What if I couldn't stop and I forced you anyway? You'd most likely hate me and then I'd be just like Draco to you," he answered.
Pansy did something she had never done before and slapped him. Hard.
It caused his cheek to sting where it landed.
"Don't you ever say that again," she said furiously, "you are absolutely nothing like Draco and if you ever did try to hurt me I would slap you just as hard as that. The man I know you are would never hurt me anyway."
He was stunned. He had never seen Pansy become violent like that before.
"I just hurt you Harry and I did it intentionally. Do you hate me now?" She demanded.
"Of course not, I love you Pansy, you know that, even though I'm a little hurt that you would slap me," he answered.
"That's exactly my point," she argued, "even if you did hurt me, I'm sure it would be unintentional, and I would still love you."
He suddenly understood her point, even if she had had to slap him in order to do it.
Pansy then began to cry as she said, "Do you know how much I love you Harry? Slapping you hurt me just as much as it did you, as it should be. A person that truly loves another person would never want to cause them too much pain. I know you love me so I know that you will never abuse me."
"I never really thought of it like that," he confessed.
"To be honest Harry, if it was just us two in a relationship I would most likely be hurt for thinking that you didn't want me, and that was the reason that you held back," she answered.
"How could you think that though Pansy? You're so beautiful. Merlin, there are days that I can't even stop thinking about you, and just how lucky I am to have you," He replied.
"Harry if you really want me, you can have me. I regard my body to be yours just as much as it is mine. Whatever you want to touch, you can touch, and I promise I won't get upset," she answered.
Sheepishly, and still somewhat nervous, he gazed down upon her beautiful body trying to decide what he wanted and was okay with.
He finally asked, "Can I touch your butt?"
She grinned and obligingly turned around so that he could get a full view of her succulent rear.
Placing his left hand upon his left cheek, he was forced to concede that it admittedly felt good, firmer than he would have guessed.
Growing more bold he slowly began to massage his hand against her full bum, causing a moan to come from her mouth.
"You like that?" He asked.
"Mmm yes," she answered, "I've been wanting you to do that for forever now."
"For forever?" He asked.
"Yes," she answered bluntly, "for forever. You want to go back to our common room to continue this and make out?"
"Absolutely," he answered happily.
It was a new thing for him, but he wasn't about to turn down a lovely rear to feel up when it was offered ever again, he promised himself.
DUELDUELDE
As the weeks went by, all of the students eagerly awaited the arrival of the two other schools that would be competing in the tournament, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.
For both Fleur and Gabrielle, it meant seeing their old friends at Beauxbatons again and both were understandably quite excited.
"My friend Marie wrote me and told me that she was one of the students that was coming, and so did my cousin Roxanne," Fleur informed them.
"I wonder just how they are going to choose who each of the champions will be?" Harry asked.
"Maybe each of the headmasters choose," suggested Gabrielle.
"If that's the case then there's no way he'll pick Fleur," Su said, "most likely some bigshot 7th year, dashingly handsome and a dandy. Someone who will look and act satisfactorily as well as perform well in the tournament. If that's the case, then my money is on Cedric Diggory."
"Well I don't suppose that would be too bad," Susan said, "I rather like Cedric as the captain of my quidditch team, but I don't think Dumbledore will be the one choosing him. Otherwise the other schools wouldn't be sending so many other students to try and see if they will be chosen to compete."
They all nodded at that.
When it came time for the other schools, they waited patiently as Beauxbatons arrived in a flying carriage led by huge flying horses.
Harry really couldn't blame them for wanting to travel in style, although the carriage did look rather extravagant.
When they all got out of the carriage and began to file into the castle, Fleur and Gabrielle embraced their cousin and their friend.
Their cousin Roxanne had long red hair that went halfway down her butt and Marie had long white mid back length blonde hair and had piercing light blue eyes.
Both of the two Beauxbatons girls were quite beautiful, despite not being veela and were earning a lot of looks from many of the Hogwarts boys.
Indeed many of the boys at Hogwarts looked like their eyes were going to pop out at the sight of the many Beauxbatons girls.
Harry just rolled his eyes at this however, he already had plenty of beautiful girls to occupy his time and vision with.
"This is our fiance Harry," Fleur introduced both Marie and Roxanne to him.
He took both their hands, planting a kiss on each one much to their delight.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," he told them.
"Fleur told me that you are quite the charmer Harry," Roxanne claimed, winking.
"Sorry but Harry is already taken many times over," Gabrielle said, lunging over to give him a kiss and prove her claim.
"I can see that," Marie said, looking at all of Harry's girls assembled around him, "it looks like he's already got an army to defend him."
"I must know though Harry, how did you manage to win all of these girls' hearts?" Roxanne asked.
"I have no idea," he confessed, earning laughs from all the girls.
Their headmistress, a very large woman just as big as Hagrid bade them both to come along, breaking up the reunion as Marie and Roxanne reluctantly followed their classmates.
Still he noticed that they all sat down at the Peeves table as that one had the most room, there not being a lot of students occupying it so at least they would be sitting near each other.
Durmstrang arrived a few minutes later in a ship appearing underneath the lake.
Harry wasn't sure just how they had gotten under the lake, but he knew enough about magic to know that just about anything was possible.
As the Durmstrang students filed in, Susan immediately exclaimed excitedly, "It's Viktor Krum."
Harry did recognize the Bulgarian Seeker. They had seen him play at the World Cup.
Needless to say, many of the Hogwarts students also recognized him and were pointing at him.
As Krum walked by Ron however, Krum brushed against him causing an overexcited Ron at actually touching him to faint.
Nobody even needed to do anything to him for Ron to embarrass himself, he thought, he just did it on his own.
Looking down at the fallen Weasley, Hermione who was standing next to him said, "Sorry about him, he suffers from fainting spells, the poor boy."
"What is your name?" Krum asked, looking right at her.
"Hermione," she answered.
"I am very pleased to meet you Herm-own-ninny," Krum said, badly messing up the pronunciation of her name.
He nevertheless took her hand and kissed it, "I can see that British girls can indeed be quite beautiful."
Hermione blushed at the compliment.
Krum moved on with the other Durmstrang students, leaving behind a suddenly very nervous Hermione and a completely stunned looking Ron who was only just now coming to.
"Viktor Krum actually touched me," He exclaimed in amazement as he grasped the part of his coat that Krum had accidentally touched.
Harry rolled his eyes at this, Ron really could be pathetic at times.
Actually make that all the time.
When the Durmstrang students had settled in further down the Peeves table from the Beauxbatons students, Dumbledore, now sitting in between both the two other headmasters, began his speech.
"We'd like to welcome all of our guests to Hogwarts," Dumbledore announced, "Madame Maxime and Igor Karkaroff will be helping to judge the tournament along with me, Barty Crouch, and Ludo Bagman, who helped to organize this tournament."
As each person was introduced they stood.
Harry noticed that Hagrid was currently setting up something in the middle of the room, placing a stand, and then a large box on the ground.
As he lifted something out of the box, Dumbledore explained what it was.
"As you can see, my Care of Magical Creatures Professor is setting up the Triwizard Cup, which will be the impartial judge for selecting each champion from each school. Students that are 17 or older may elect to put their names into the goblet for consideration, but do not do so lightly, as doing so creates a magically binding contract that forces you to compete should you be chosen. There will also be an age line in place preventing any students under age from submitting their names."
Harry stared at the Triwizard Cup as it gleamed a bright blue.
It would be nice to compete and win, as an image of himself winning entered his mind, yet it quickly faded, he really didn't need any more glory or money. He would let someone else get some for once.
After Dumbledore finished his speech, the food arrived and they began to dig in.
There were several dishes he didn't recognize, which he guessed were from countries that Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students were from.
"Fleur tells me that you are a world dueling champion," Marie said, addressing him.
"That's correct," he responded.
"I imagine you must be pretty good if you managed to beat Gabrielle over the summer, she's really good from what I've seen and heard," Roxanne admitted.
"Gabrielle is very good, and she beats me just as much as I beat her, I got lucky again this year, but next year I fully expect either her or Su to beat me," Harry answered.
"So were either of you planning on entering?" Susan asked the two French girls.
"We are," Roxanne replied.
"I hope one of you end up getting it then," Susan said.
"Thank you," Marie answered.
When it came time, both of them entered their names into the goblet, along with Fleur.
Harry hoped that at least one of them would be selected.
DUELDUELDE
A few days later Dumbledore sat in his office just before the names for each of the champions were to be selected.
He hadn't been in a particularly mood to begin with, but now it was even worse. He'd dedicated his life to the service of the greater good and he couldn't understand why people would ever think he was a bad guy. Everything he did was for that yet now he had the likes of Amelia and Narcissa Black breathing down his neck about some of the controversial laws he had gotten passed over the years.
All of those laws had been for the greater good yet now they were getting reviewed or repealed left and right. They had even managed to wriggle into some of the International laws he had passed with the ICW or International Confederation of Wizards. His previously excellent standing in the International Community was now being called into question if you could believe that.
While he ultimately planned to replace members of the ICW that disagreed with him, he could not have them messing with anything until then. What he needed was a distraction, something that would restore his standing among them, but also keep them occupied and busy enough not to bother him until he was able to execute his plan but he couldn't decide what.
Now to add to his frustration he had the tournament to worry about. Instead of something that would help his standing in the International community, it appeared it would weaken it.
Using a spell, he had learned just who each of the champions would be for each school and he was not pleased.
The Durmstrang and Beauxbatons Champions were okay with him, as they would be selecting Viktor Krum and Marie Dupris, but the Hogwarts one certainly did not make him happy.
He had been hoping that Cedric Diggory would be chosen since Harry had refused to submit his name. Cedrice would be perfect. He was the embodiment of what he wanted Hogwarts to be perceived as strong, brave, yet fair, and it certainly helped that he was handsome and charismatic.
Instead, he had learned the goblet would be picking Fleur Delacour.
This would not do at all. In addition to actually being from France she had spent more time at Beauxbatons than at Hogwarts. Even if she won that would give Beaxubatons a lot of bragging rights as a former Beauxbatons student was deemed better than all the other students at Hogwarts, making it appear that Beauxbatons was actually the better magical school.
He was well aware that Beauxbatons and Durmstrang probably were better. Many of his staff were complete idiots unfit for teaching, but were totally and blindly loyal which was exactly what he looked for when hiring.
A smart and suspicious teacher who didn't entirely subscribe to the whole "Dumbledore is the greatest wizard ever" might start snooping around and he would run the risk of them finding out about his plan.
Despite it being incredibly doubtful, he still wanted to be cautious nonetheless.
While students would lack a better education, it would be made up for in ideals by teachers that he felt agreed with his same principles and goals for the most part.
The Triwizard Tournament was a way to prove that Hogwarts truly was the best. It didn't matter if most of the students weren't as good as the average Beauxbatons or Durmstrang student. As long as he had a champion that beat the best their school could offer, that would be what people focused on.
While he tried to remind himself that it was just a simple tournament and not necessary to his greater plans, he still was upset and wanted to fix it.
He lacked the ability to change the cup's mind or remove Fleur's name from it, but there just might be a way to improve things.
There was the option to simply create another magical school and submit Cedric Diggory's name again under that so he would be guaranteed to be a champion.
Yet was it really necessary? People were sure to object and it might arouse suspicion.
He could simply claim that Hogwarts was so good that the goblet simply couldn't narrow it down to just one champion.
Yeah no one would believe that.
Actually scratch that, he was sure Hagrid at least would, the oaf.
He was just about to simply decide that his rigging the tournament just so that he could get another champion was too petty to actually do but then he had an idea and seemed to be very low risk.
It also would help create just the distraction he was looking for. It would cause a scandal, one that would definitely distract the ICW for awhile and also if he did it right, improve his image with them. Best of all, it was very low risk, with a very small chance of him being discovered or even suspected.
If he were to create multiple schools and then submitted the names of a few extra Beauxbatons students, it would make it look like Beauxbatons had actually been the one that cheated.
It would not then be too much of a leap for people to think that Beauxbatons had also cheated to make sure one of their former students was the Hogwarts Champion as well.
Therefore the reason that Fleur Delacour was the Hogwarts champion would be regarded as simply cheating at the hands of someone from Beauxbatons, in addition to them having multiple champions.
Durmstrang and likely the entire wizarding world would be offended that such activities had taken place, especially since Madame Maxime had always championed fairness and would then be caught in a major scandal.
People were already skeptical of the controversial headmistress anyway and this would only seem to prove it. As a half giant and a woman, many felt that she was untrustworthy or lacked the mental capacity to adequately run a school. This could potentially ruin her.
He'd never liked her anyway. She just didn't seem to understand the greater good and sacrifice like he did. He could live with discrediting her and magical France would no doubt still blame her for what happened, if only for allowing it to happen in the first place.
Best of all, he would never be suspected. No one would ever believe that he would actually try to help Beauxbatons win and make it even harder for Hogwarts.
He snuck down to the cup very late at night to enact his plan.
DUELDUELDE
When it came time for the cup to choose the champions, Harry waited somewhat impatiently with the girls to see who would be selected.
Dumbledore stood next to the cup waiting for the first name to pop out.
At last the cup belched fire as the first name came out.
"The Champion for Hogwarts is Fleur Delacour," Dumbledore announced.
Immediately there was clapping and cheering from not only the Hogwarts students but from the Beauxbatons students as well, who had known Fleur as all of them were around her same age and been classmates with her.
Fleur went up and passed through the door that Dumbledore directed her to.
Another name came out and Dumbledore read it.
"The Champion for Durmstrang is Viktor Krum."
Krum shrugged and went through and followed Fleur.
With the next and what Harry assumed last name Dumbledore said:
"The Champion for Beauxbatons is Marie Dupris."
Marie got up with a squeal of delight and congratulations from her classmates as she also went inside the room.
Dumbledore turned to follow them, but suddenly another name came out of the goblet unexpectedly.
As Dumbledore picked up the name and looked at it with a grim look on his face, he called:
"Roxanne Delacour!"
Roxanne looked stunned, not expecting there to be a second champion and for it to be her.
Everybody forgot to clap for her, but Madame Maxime still directed her student to go through the doors.
Just as surprised as everyone was by another Beauxbatons champion, yet another name came out of the goblet.
Dumbledore grabbed it and read: "Nicolette LePeux."
A tall blonde 7th year Beauxbatons witch stepped forward, also equally shocked as she went inside the side room as well.
Another name came out of the goblet, and this time Dumbledore asked Mr. Crouch to read it, which he did.
"Marian Dumas," he read as he tried to process his shock.
Another Beauxbatons girl got up, stunned to be chosen.
It was quite obvious something was going on, Harry thought. It seemed pretty obvious that someone in Beauxbatons had cheated and tricked the goblet into giving their school multiple champions. Fleur had had only good things to say about her former headmistress, but it didn't mean that she or someone else in their group might not be above cheating.
The names seemed to stop after that however and everyone was eager to find out just what had happened when a final name came out of the goblet.
This time a very angry looking Karkaroff grabbed it, expecting to find yet another Beauxbatons student's name on it but instead he suddenly looked rather puzzled as he asked, "Who's Peeves?"
Mary and Lucy clapped and cheered to an otherwise completely silent room.
"Hah hah, yes!" Both of them exclaimed at once.
Author's Note: I'll bet none of you saw that one coming.