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Harry Potter and the Tri-wizard Follies
Ch 3 Follies at the Cup

The days leading to the world cup was filled with morning kata and studies in laws of the court and inheritance. The morning before going to the world cup while somewhat normal for Harry sinking into his magic during the kata; an unknown visiter saw what can only be described as truely magical. As he did his morning kata Harry closed his eyes sinking into his magic and letting his muscles and reflexes go on automatic feeling his magic flow, he doesn't see the shimmer of his magic creating an aura around him. Harry rounds out the kata in moves that flow into a few blasts to the targets a few meters away. As he cools down the turns to go in Harry notices Hermione looking with shock and awe etched on her face. "Uh, Hermione? Are you ok?" Harry asks. Hermione shakes her head and whispers "how in merlin's name did you do that?" Looking confused "do what?" Harry responds. Hermione looks closer at Harry and notices that not only is he missing his glasses but the scar he's famous for is gone. "While you were doing that exercise there was a glow around you. I've never seen that happen and only heard myths about that happening in kung fu movies." Hermions tells him. Harry looks at Hermione in the eye "I was doing my tai chi kata and learning more about my chi." She nods and asks "would it be possible for me to learn as well?" Harry shrugs "I guess so. I've been learning this to keep control of my emotions so I don't have an incident like last year. You know how I blew up my aunt Marge." She nods and leads Harry back into the burrow "go shower I want to comepare essays later today."
Harry showered and brought down all his finished homework along with some books on meditation and occlumency having owl ordered it a week previously. As he sits Hermione whispers "how did you get that glow around you?" Harry responds "pleased don't mention that to anyone. I don't want to be considered more of a freak than I already am." A shocked look cross her face and whisper/whimper "but you're not a reak. Not to me anyway. You're my friend Harry." His response was to whisper "I'm glad to be your friend Hermione, but how can I not be a freak? I mean I survived somehow the killing curse and can speak to serpents. One thought to be impossible the other rather rare and considered a trait of evil." He sighs and starts to read the book on occlumency. Hermione smiles weakly at Harry then looks over his homework surprised "How Harry? how did you finish all this?" He says smiling at her "I had two weeks with nothing to do but homework." She nods and makes some notes from his potions essay then looks at him "would you teach me what you did?" Harry smiles at her coming to a decision hands over the book on meditation techniques. "Everyone is different Hermione what works for me may not work for you. This book has a few ideas that may work but here is a piece of advice as you meditate try to feel your magic trust me when you touch it the first time it's the most incredible experience ever." he says. She nods then opens the book and starts to read.
When the other Weasleys come down for breakfast Harry and Hermione had gone to the living room to read respective books. Ron looks at them "what's with the book mate? It's summer hols a time for fun." Harry looks at him and replies "and have you finished your summer homework yet? we only have a couple weeks before term starts." Ron blushed to his ears 'But that's ages away." Harry shakes his head "the only reason I have as much time as I do now is because I got it out of the way at the start. You're good at chess and strategy Ron consider this like chess a bit is it better to wait to the last second where you don't have the time to think properly on responses or plan ahead gets things done so you have all the time needed for other things." Ron looks at Harry in shock then at his other friend then at everyone else and whispers after thinking through everything using as Harry said the chess strategy "you're right mate. It would be better to have things done early so I can have time for what I love." Ron looks at his friends whispering "can you help me with it?" Hermione looks up from her book replying "we can help but won't do it for you. That way you can learn the material." Ron nods sadly knowing that his fun time soon will be done for the summer. Harry looks at Hermione saying "give Ron that meditation book when you're done I get the feeling he'll need it too." She nods then looks at Ginny "care to join us?" Ginny nods then squeaks running for her room to get her homework most of which is done. Coming down to the table with Ron they start on their homework with occassional help and advice from Harry and Hermione.
In the early hours the next day well before dawn Harry, Hermione and the younger Weasley children were woken up by Mrs. Weasley. "Come on wake up got to go for the portkey if you're to go to the world cup. Up you get." Mrs. Weasley calls for everyone. After an early breakfast Arthur Weasley leads everyone up Stoatshead Hill "keep up everyone and keep an eye out for that portkey it's to go off soon." Mr. Weasley calls. "Hey over here Arthur. Cedric and I found it." was heard as Mr. Weasley leads everyone to where the voice came from. Mr. Weasley say "hey there Amos and this must be your son Cedric. I've heard a lot about you. You know my children and these are Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. They'll be going with us today." Amos Diggory looks at Harry speculatively and nods "I've heard of you young Harry. My Cedric actually won a quidditch match against you." Cedric looks at Harry apologetically shaking his head "there were dementors at the game dad." Amos just smiles at his son saying "Ahh but you didn't fall off your broom because of them did you my boy." Finding the portkey Arthur has everyone place a finger on it "hold on everyone the portkey will activate in a few seconds." With a tugging sensation from the navel the portkey activated and Stoatshead Hill was empty again in the pre-dawn morn.
During the time before the match was to begin Harry helped Arthur with paying the camp fee and setting up their site. In the middle of lunch He was exposed to 'the man of the hour' Ludo Bagman who went on about the upcoming match and luring the twins into a bet giving 'good' odds on their bet of "ireland wins but Krum gets the snitch". Harry tunes most of this out until Ludo say "wish i was still at Hogwarts. It's happening there this year." He looks at Ludo wondering what's happening at Hogwarts this year and gets an unsettling feeling in his gut. At this time Percy was going on about his boss Mr. Bartemious Crouch and how he's proving his worth to him. Shortly thereafter said Mr. Crouch shows up accepting a cup of tea from Percy calling him 'Weatherby' admonishing Ludo about lax security and trying to leak information about Hogwarts events before they get to school.
After Bagman and Crouch leave Harry looks at Percy and say "Percy? I'm not sure if it's your intent, but are you courting Mr. Crouch?" Percy looks back blushing to his ears and asking beligerently "just what are you insinuating Potter?" Harry shakes his head taking a calming breath before replying "I'm not trying to insinuate anything, but from what I read of other cultures what you're doing are part of more than a few courtship rituals." Raising a placating hand to forstall a major blowup Harry expounds "there's nothing wrong with having the ambition and drive to be the best in your office and getting your boss's favour, but don't take things so far that you loose sight of your integrity and honesty." Percy still looking unsure about Harry responds "You don't understand. To get anywhere in the ministry you have to know the right people and be in their good books." Harry smiles and shakes his head "Percy look at your father. He heads his department seemingly low as it is, but he did it without compromising his morals and honor. As I said nothing wrong in wanting to be the best at what you do, but don't take the easy path and following blindly to what your boss say. Your brothers Bill and Charlie they work at some very dangerous places where you rise or fall on your own merits and not on who you know." Percy shakes his head worriedly "you've given me much to think on." As Percy leaves for the tent to check on work Harry shakes his head then looks at Mr. Weasley "sir I hope he learns how treacherous a game he's wading into." Arthur looks at Harry and say "I'm surprised you know so much and hope things don't get too bad for Percy."
The time leading to match a while later with many not realizing that the boy with Hermione and Ron is Harry at least until he speaks then they know and are surprised that lack of glasses and scar make such difference. Harry just says in reply when asked "I'm more than a scar and glasses." Harry also directs his friends in some meditation and works more on his control for though he don't have much more magic then before he is much more connected. When Hermione asked before the match starts he said "it seems what most magicals forget it not just having power that's important but being connected to it and allow it to help you do what's natural. Using wands was supposed to help a magical to follow their magic and get to know it better. If you notice in the history of magic and not what Binns teach you'll notice that wands are rather new invention for focus and before wands and most foci mages didn't use them." Hermione nods then meditates while holding her wand. Though she could feel her magic more, she hadn't been able to follow to her core.
The time soon came to enter the stadium for the match. Walking up to the top box where seats are Harry and company passed several classmates and others all wondering who Harry was since they didn't recognize him. Chuckling to himself Harry thought 'if only they knew.' Upon reaching their seats Harry noticed minister Fudge, and two others whom he thought could be ministry heads as well and greeted them with a polite "Hello" and nod of the head. Also arriving were the Malfoys. The elder Malfoy looks at Arthur and sneers "what did you have to sell to get seats up here?" Mr. Weasley blushed a bit but refused to answer remembering what happened only a couple years before. Draco upon noticing Harry but not recognizing him smirks saying "and who are you? You don't want to be around these." pointing to the Weasleys and Hermione. Harry gives a look of mock hurt and placing a hand on his chest "I'm hurt you don't recognize me Malfoy. I've beaten you in every quidditch match we had together." Draco's jaw drop looking closer and finially recognize Harry mostly from his voice. "You should respect your betters Potter. You'll be happier." Harry merely smirks and meditate a bit while the stadium fill up. Felling something nearby Harry whispers 'Don't do it." The hand leaves as he opens his eyes to see the team mascots shows.
First up were looked like very beautiful women coming to the field and doing a dance that enraptures many of the men in the stadium. Harry looks around and notice Ron and a few others starting from their seats then looks at the women dancing wondering 'what's going on? why do they affect the guys like that? ' After pulling Ron back into his seat Arthur whispers to him "they're veela that's why the boys are going nuts." Harry nods "ah." He looks at the veela as they leave the field for the Irish team mascots the leprecauns. Watching the Irish mascots display Harry feels his magic sing in his veins at the power being shown. He whispers to no one in particular "wow those guys are powerful."
An hour into the match Harry was enthralled by the moves displayed by both sides and also quite dissappointed in the seekers. He loved the moves and interceptions done to interrupt plays. His dissapointment was that the seekers couldn't find the snitch he'd been tracking for the last 30 or so minutes. He shook his head noticing that the irish team running roughshod over Bulgaria. Krum knowing his team would never catch up on chaser points caught the snitch ending the match with Bulgaria losing by 10 points instead of more otherwise. Harry nodded at that knowing he'd do the same if he was in that situation.
Following the match Mr. Weasley led Harry and his friends to their camp passing many parties many in celebration of the win and some in commisseration of the loss and thanking Krum for making it not as bad as it could be. After a couple hours of talking about the match and Harry letting known he'd been tracking the snitch the last half hour of the match; everyone went to bed so they can get the portkey home the next day. Later that night Harry was woken with an urgent shake and "wake up." Harry groggily sits up "what's wrong Mr. Weasley?" The response of "death eaters in the camp" brought him to full wakefulness in no time. Harry quickly gets out of bed and dress with his wand in hand "ok Mr. Weasley what do I need to do?" Mr. Weasley smiles as he wakes his son "I need you to help protect the girls Harry." He nods and reply "you got it sir." Walking out of the tent with Ron and the twins finding Hermione and Ginny; Harry looks at Hermione "Hermione you'll need to keep your wand on hand and I hope you can connect more with your magic we may need it tonight." He looks at Ginny "when we get home I'll have to help you learn a bit of what I can do to protect yourself."
Looking at Ron; Harry asks "do you have your wand?" Ron's reply of "oh no it's missing" after checking his pockets makes Harry shake his head. "Ron you'll need to keep better care of your stuff." Harry tells him. Harry looks at the twinns saying "you two take the front while the girls and Ron are after and I'll take the rear that way everyone is safe as can be. Because of how serious the situation is no one commented on the fact Harry took the lead. While Mr. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie go to stop the death eaters; Harry and company go towards the forest a bit in they stumble upon a group of foriegn witches surrounded by rather aggresive boys. The twins yell "OY! what are you chaps doing?' The leader of the boys sneer at the group "we're just showing these wogs there place now get lost." Harry upon hearing this looks at the witches who are some shivering and whimpering others quite wounded; nearly loses his composure. "You think attacking girls or those percieved lesser makes you feel better? Mean you're of higher status?" Harry shakes his head sadly "you don't know how wrong you are." The lead thug sneer at Harry "and what are you going to do about it?" Harry looks at the twins and nods then at Hermione "Hermione get the girls calmed down while the twins and I show these idiots their error." Harry walks calmly to the thugs lightly dodging the spellfire as the twins throw their own with interesting results. Harry upon closing in start using his tai chi to incapacitate the thugs before stunning and wrapping in ropes via INCARCEROUS spells. All told the fight lasted but a few minuites.
Seeing the foriegn witches somewhat calmer but some are looking a bit pale Harry looks at the twins "guys I need you to keep a look out for the adults." He then looks at one of the more healthy girls "I need you to get a healer quick as you can." She nods before running off. Harry looking at witches goes to the ones the worst off and with wand in hand connect with his magic thinking 'heal' as he waves his wand over the worst wounds without saying any incantations not knowing any healing spells. It takes almost half an hour before the girl returns with at least two adults. One looks like a healer and the other looks like a ministry official. Harry upon seeing them finishes healing best he can then sighs as he fall to his knees "oh Merlin, going to need a lot of rest from this." Harry say nearly completely exhausted. The adults look at him then the others "did he actually heal all this?" while looking at one of the girls with a more torn up dress. She nods whispering "I don't know what spell he used. He didn't actually speak when he did it." After the adults checked over the witches a voice was heard incanting MORSMORDRE and something appear in the sky. Still a bit hypersensative from the magic; Harry feels incoming spells before he sees yelling "DOWN"pulling his friends down as jets of red pass overhead.
"STOP!!" yells the voice of Mr. Weasley coming into the area. Another voice sounding like Bartemious Crouch yells "WHICH OF YOU CAST IT!!" looking around wildly. Harry look at Mr. Crouch "what are you on about?" Mr. Crouch points up "WHICH OF YOU CAST THAT?!" "Oh Harry it's the dark mark!" whispers Hermione urgently. Harry looks at her "the what mark?' Her responce of "you know who's mark" makes Harry understand a bit better. He looks at Mr. Crouch saying "I don't know what spell does that but i did hear a male voice yell morsemordre if that means anything." Mr. Crouch points to the aurors barking "search for who cast that mark." After a few minutes an auror leads a shivering house-elf to the group "we found her over there with this in her hand" pointing to a group of bushes and showing the wand. Ron yells "THAT'S MINE!" pointing at the wand. Mr. Crouch looks at him wildly "Is that a confession?" Mr. Weasley stares at Crouch in anger "Do you honestly think I'd teach my children how to cast that mark?" Mr. Crouch looks a bit nervously then shoves the wand back to Ron "keep better hold of your wand." Looking at the house-elf "As for you Winky this means clothes. You were supposed stay where you were told. I dismiss you from service to my family." Harry looks apalled by what happened as Mr. Crouch gave Winky a dress. He looks at Mr. Crouch angrily then at the cowering and whimpering Winky goes to her whispering soothingly to her "shhh, calm Winky. There wasn't anything you could have done with the death eaters around. I know how would you like to join my family?' Winky looks at Harry whimpering a bit "youse want Winky to join your family? I'm a bad elf and been freed." Harry looks at Winky already seeing the magic slowly leaving nods in agreement "Yes Winky I want you to join my family and you're not a bad elf." Placing a hand on Winky's head Harry whispers so only she can hear "I Harry James Potter accept Winky the house-elf into my family by the old covenant as family to family to help me in my duties to kith and kin. I promise to accept and consider your council as regards to family and to protectyou as you protect me and mine." Winky with tears in her eyes whispers "I Winky accept the offer of Harry James Potter to join his house and to help him in his duties and to protect his secrets and family." The swirl of magic around the two grow in intensity healing Winky making her grow a bit standing straighter then before with an outfit that looks right out of a maid fashion magazine. Looking at the outfit Winky start to cry "Master Harry give Winky clothes?" Harry shakes his head "no dear Winky what you're wearing is called a uniforn. It shows to all that you are in service to my family. Besides that is much more dignified than an old pillowcase or rages. I ought to know." Harry then looks at Mr. Crouch angrily "why would you sentence a sentient to death? For what because she didn't want to get hurt in the stamede?" Mr. Crouch responds with "she was told where to be and should have stayed there no matter what. What do you mean sentencing her to death she could have found work easy enough." Shaking his head Harry mutters "such arrogance not even thinking of how the elves came to be as they are."
A short time later Harry along with the Weasleys and Hermione find the portkey home. Once everyone was touching it and command given everyone left the camp.