Harry Potter was doing the final checks on the complex runic circle on the floor. He breathed out, determined to try it this time - he checked and rechecked the runes over and over, surely the ritual should work.
He placed his wand and pocket trunk on the floor, as well as changing from his usual self-cleaning clothes to muggle ones - magical items can interfere with rituals, leading to unexpected outcomes and weird side-effects, the boy was not taking any chances.
Sitting cross legged like a monk he started chanting in a quiet murmur, one by one runes lit up in an eerie cyan glow. It took exactly seven minutes for Harry to finish the chant, the blue glow intensifying each moment, then after his final words, the light shot towards him as he grunted and fell to the floor clutching his head.
A curse left the boy’s lips - as his pained expression eased, until eventually he got up from the floor, his eyes opened, still glowing in the same cyan light the runes had been, yet it was getting dimmer by the second and soon his eyes were looking normal again.
A few blinks later the boy smiled - the world seemed quite slower in his vision - it seems the ritual was a success.
The boy got up and cleaned up the remains of chalk on the floor before heading towards the long parchment near Marauder's map.
Tomorrow was the final draw - if someone was going to drop his name in it either already happened or will happen tonight.
His eyes scrolled through the parchment, reading with blazing speed. There were not that many entries, and so far, based on past days, most of them looked legitimate - they only spent a few minutes inside, likely just dropping their own names in before leaving the ward.
There were some who took tens of minutes - which the boy took note of - if no one more suspicious appeared he would be forced to investigate them one by one.
Finding no one new, the boy put down the parchment in disappointment, then glanced at the Marauders map - just in case, he quickly noticed a lonely dot approaching the great hall - Bartemius Crouch.
The boy shrugged his shoulders - as the head of the department of international affairs, Crouch was probably just inspecting the cup or something -initially it seemed weird he was doing that in the middle of the night, but then again, international affairs - perhaps he was used to living in weird time-zones across the globe. Harry put the map down and went to test his improved reflexes against dummies.
Harry watched with a smirk as the dummies slowly manoeuvred before launching spells - he was finding them easy in fact too easy. Perhaps he should ask room for a better challenge?
Seemingly agreeing to his thoughts, the room morphed once again - the dummies were gone, the arena got smaller, in the centre there was now a fancy looking suit of armour just standing here.
Curious, the boy went closer, yet just a few steps away from the armour it moved - it felt like a flash in the boy’s eyes - he could see it, yet his body was barely able to dodge, just by a hair's breadth.
Then it happened again, and again - Harry’s eyes were in full focus, yet his body hardly kept up, he barely managed to cast a curse at the armour - the same curse with corrosive properties he learned from Krum's school book.
Dummies practically melted under this curse, yet the suit of armour… there was not even a scratch! Harry cursed as the dodging dance continued, what felt like hours later, the exhausted Gryffindor slumped to the floor, too tired to move anymore. Luckily for him the armour did not actually hurt him physically - the few hits he got did hurt a ton, yet they mostly just pushed him out of the bounds of the arena where armour stood.
The few scratches he got were quite simple to heal - Harry was in fact happy to finally practise some of the healing spells he read about in books.
All tired and sweaty, he asked the room for a shower and after freshening up was about to head back to his room.
Glancing at Marauder's map he could see all the dots were still - it was in fact quite later, most people were probably sleeping - until he saw a moving dot - Barty Crouch!
Curious, the boy glanced at his parchment - it has gotten significantly longer than last time - it seems like Crouch spent a few hours at the cup….
Harry furrowed his brow - the old man was a known wizard, somewhat cruel, yet he always fought against dark lords and their followers. Perhaps that was a mask all along? Was he in fact one of Voldemort's lackeys?
Harry glanced at the map where the moving dot finally slowed down - it was inside Alastor Moody’s office near his classroom, yet the former auror was nowhere to be seen…
Harry put the map into his pocket - he would worry about this tomorrow or better to say later today? - it was after all way past midnight. He was too tired now to think about this.
Another day arrived as Harry walked into the great hall with slow steps - he did not like this day. It was today his name would be drawn from the cup and a lot of people would look at him with jealousy and disdain - the whole situation of being the fourth champions did not help one bit - other schools also disdained him for such.
The boy sat down at his usual spot on Gryffindors table, not long after Ron and Hermione sat by his side - it was another of those days that no sitting at other tables' rule was enforced. Which did not make any sense to the boy - they were drawing Hogwarts champion from the cup, not choosing which house was superior in any way.
His friends were still discussing what they had seen inside Beauxbatons carriage - Fleur was kind enough to give them a tour just the previous day, just day later after Victor did the same for Durmstrang ship - shoving all there was to see and not only the duelling arenas.
Harry had to admit - it was nice to see Fleur and Victor getting along, sure they got along decently during his initial time around, but now they seemed closer, like real friends. He got closer to them as well… But today, he could hardly think about other stuff - all his thoughts were on upcoming selection.
The rest of the feast passed like a blur of memories, and finally his dreaded moment arrived - three champions were chosen, yet the cup still stirred with magic, and an additional piece of parchment was spat out right into the headmaster's hands.
“Harry Potter”
Amid the murmurs and noises Harry silently walked towards the champions room - there was no point in arguing if he placed his name inside or not - even if he were to do so, the fault was in fact Dumbledore’s for not placing sufficient protections around the cup - surely it would be simple to just burn the parchments of anyone under 17?. Harry just told a short no for headmasters inquiry before joining the other champions in the small room.
“Hi Harry”
“Morning Harry”
“Hello Fleur, Victor, Cedric”
Cedric just stood there confused - he just spoke with other champions for the first time, and Potter seemingly was buddies with them for ages?
Sweet voice of Ms Delacour broke his confusion - “Are they expecting us to come out or something? How come you are here?”
Harry looked briefly at his feet, showing his embarrassment - “It seems… there was an error with the cup, I was chosen as a champion as well”
Silence followed as fellow champions processed his words.
The silence was interrupted by clamour of footsteps as all headmasters, Severus Snape and Alastor Moody entered the room.
Harry felt multiple probes on his mind shields - which hardly required his effort at defending - curiously glancing around he saw Karkaroff frowning - clearly the foreign headmaster was not aware of his occlumency skills.
“Did you enter your name into the cup or ask anyone to do so, Potter?” - Surprisingly it was Severus Snape who started his questioning this time around - Harry was not going to submit so easily this time - this was hardly his fault.
He met his least liked professor's eyes head on - as if mocking him to try wandless mind attacks again - “I did not, but why am I even questioned? Should you not ask the headmaster there as to why he even left the loophole of allowing someone to drop someone's else’s name?”
Harry held back his smirk as he saw other headmasters turn their furry towards Dumbledore - clearly they were not informed of this… mechanic.
Dumbledore looked ashamed - or faked the look, it was hard to tell - “I am sorry, it is my fault… I must be getting forgetful with age… But Igor, Olympe, surely you do not expect a fourth year from Hogwarts to do better than your seventh years?”
Madame Maxime and headmaster Karkaroff exchanged a glance - it did not seem likely for that to happen…. And even if it did, the boy was Harry Potter - him winning would not hurt their schools fame in any way - it was even better if they won - winning against the legendary boy who lived would bring more attention to the schools.
Alastor’s voice sounded to further appease their rage - “Perhaps we should worry more of who placed the boys name inside - perhaps it was out of rage, in hopes of boy’s death”
A long discussion followed, eventually Harry was accepted as forth champion - at least by important people - the explanation of rules and other things continued for a while.
Near the end Harry was feeling glad it was finally getting over - yet something different happened from last time, Dumbledore caught his gaze before he could leave.
“I would be glad if you could follow me to my office, you being an underage wizard in a competition declared for adults of age causes some complications I believe you should be aware of” - he turned his head towards the potions master - “You too tag along, Severus, I might need your… expertise on some fields”
Harry followed the archwizard with heavy steps - inwardly hoping he could somehow survive the encounter without resetting the loop once again….
“So, do you think Harry did it? He thought his fame was not enough?” - a somewhat upset voice of Ron sounded in Gryffindor's common room.
Fred was mimicking Ron’s expression behind him, while George was keeping a ‘beware of idiots’ signs, pointing arrows to both of his brothers - of course this was all behind the youngest Weasley boy’s back - Hermione had a hard time keeping her laugh in, yet she did need to bring some sense to her friend.
“Ron, why would you think Harry would do that? Also remember his duel with Krum, do you think you of all people would be able to fight on their level? I admit I would not be able to do that!”
Ron seemed to kind of get it, yet his pout still remained - “Of course I am not as great as the boy who lived! But why would he even enter and prevent others, like Fred or George, from taking the glory?”
The twins exchanged a glance behind their backs, one of the signs slowly turned, now pointing to George rather than Ron. Ginny who sat in the armchair to the side of Ron’s one, could not stop her laughter anymore, after a minute of laughter she noticed Ron did not glance her way yet - looking to the side she saw some upperclassmen who were rolling on the floor from laughter - she understood that they must have put a privacy charm around this part of the room to enjoy the show.
“Ronald Weasley, if you actually thought for a moment, you should realise that Harry is the fourth champion - I even overheard teachers saying that a fourth school was written of the parchment - if you so wished to participate all you had to do is write a fifth school on parchment and ask an upperclassmen to drop it in for you?”
Ron seemed deaf to her reason as he finally glanced around and noticed the laughing Gryffindors - his sister even! Turning around he saw the signs pointing to him, and two sheepish grins from his brothers.
Cursing he went to his room. As laughter subsided, it seemed party preparations were underway - one way or another Harry was a champion now, a Gryffindor champion - of course fellow Gryffs wanted to celebrate!
“Lemon drops?” - Dumbledore offered his bowl of lemon drops that looked freshly made - for the nth time this evening… Harry was first annoyed by the headmaster's hospitality, and was even becoming suspicious of them - who knows what he put inside?
The ‘talk’ about him becoming an aged wizard dragged on long enough - sure he did learn various things he never knew - like he could become head of house Potter, gain a Wizengamot seat, access to Potter bank accounts… Other accounts than the heir’s trust vault - he never even knew those existed!
Yet last hour was dragging in circles, repeating things, and Albus was offering candies, tea, and various other food with increasing frequency - he had to admit he was hungry, haven’t eaten for a while, yet he preferred eating twins tampered food with pranks inside than whatever Headmaster made for him.
Suddenly he realised - their speech stopped a whole minute ago - quickly glancing he could see headmaster and Snape with their gazes locked, until they both turned to him.
“Thank you for explanation, headmaster, professor, yet it is getting late - I am afraid I must leave now”
Harry slowly got up and tried to leave the office - yet the door was locked. He gripped his wand in his pocket and turned around - “Headmaster, could you unlock the door?”
Albus chuckled - “Yes, Harry I could unlock it, but I believe we still have some things to discuss, do we not? I believe it's about time the potion would start working, and I have some questions for both of you”
Severus quickly got his wand out, they stood there in a triangle, seemingly wary of each other, only the headmaster was relaxed, his wand still nowhere to be seen.
“This is not what we discussed! And when exactly did you administer the potion to me?”
“Now, now, do not worry Severus, your oath determines your alignment depending on the alignment of the oath's target, does it not? You realise that if … the target's alignment is in doubt, yours is as well?”
Harry’s eyes darted between the two grown ups, he knew he had no chance, but he would not be going down without a fight, but still, what potion they were talking about? He was sure he never ate a bite since the great hall. Unless… The air in the office was quite heavy for the past hour”
Snape seemed to realise it too - “You senile fool! I am getting out of this farce!”
Dumbledore chuckled again - it was his office, no way either of them was leaving before he allowed it.
Seemingly out of nowhere all the furniture in the room started coming to life, turning towards the duo. Dubledore was surprised to see Harry dodge his sneak attack, but his relaxation never ceased - the boy was not skilled enough to dodge all of his arsenal in the office. He only dodged a single chair - all other things were on to Severus as he had to admit, that man was dangerous.
Severus was already bound in place, his wand placed on the table - as all the remaining furniture, every book, every quill turned against the boy he could hardly resist - he tried casting some burning spells in panic as well as shields - yet it proved useless - the fire was out as if the air itself pushed oxygen out of its way, the shields did not block a thing - they were meant for spells not animated furniture. He could not even resort to transfiguration as seemingly everything in the office was already under the headmaster's transfiguration control in some way… Now the boy was bound as well, he was looking at his capturer with a deadpan look - he could now only pray the loop would not reset… again.
Snape almost spat at his employer - “If I was on the dark side, how would you trust the potions I brewed for you?”
Albus stopped, seemingly in thought - “Good point, my boy, I vaporised it and guided it to you two with magic, while keeping a protective air layer around me…. I never considered seeing if it works or not… “ - He looked at Severus - “How about this? Would you tell me how come your cape is behaving so weirdly all the time? Did you train to walk in such a way or is it a spell?” - Dumbledore's glasses twinkled, it's like he already guessed the answer a long time ago, but still seeing Severus admit it would prove the potion was working.
Potions master tried hard to keep his mouth shut, yet could not resist answering in the end - “It’s another of my spell inventions” - his cheeks were redder as if in shame, then he turned his furious look to Albus - “And if I was in fact on dark side I would have said the same even if potion was fake”
Dumbledore rubbed his beard - “that seems to be true… Perhaps I should test it myself?” - he opened a nearby drawer and took out a bezoar, it was somewhat shiny looking - headmaster chuckled seeing Snape’s eyes widen in recognition - yes it was from the rare goat-like magical creature - a greek demon!, that worked against all poisons - well all that have been tested so far. Then he took out a nearly empty vial from his pocket and dropped the final drops into his mouth.
“Hmm. Would be better if it tasted like lemon… go ahead Severus, the honour is yours!”
Snape had a scowl on his face as he pondered for just a minute - he knew a lot of things about the headmaster, but there was indeed one curiosity sitting on the back of his mind for the past week - “Where did that Nundu heart come from? I never saw you leave the school! And such well preserved ingredients certainly require… special storage conditions.”
Dumbledore grumbled - he really did not want to disclose his vault! - his eyes turned towards the golden bezoar, just as his hand was about to touch it Snapes mocking voice resounded.
“Don't bother - this variation of veritaserum is not in fact poisonous, even that bezoard would not help against it. I am sad to see you waste such a rarity”
Albus seemingly gave up and started telling his tale - “There’s this room on the seventh floor, believed to be built by Rowena herself….”
“... and the password is ‘FawkesThePhoenix123FFaawwkkeess’”
Harry was shocked to hear such a use for the chamber, even more to actually see Albus blushing so hard - surely that password was a weird one…
“Ekhem. Where was I? It seems the potion is working fine… Now Harry James Potter” - he glanced at Harry, his expression back to stern cold look as if in interrogation… or it was indeed an interrogation - “Have you always been Harry Potter? What is your relation to Voldemort or Tom Riddle?”
“Yes I have been for as long as I can remember. The only relation is the scar as far as I know”
“Hmm, but it could be that the scar took over… Or your memories were erased…“
“What do you mean headmaster?”
“Ah, you know Harry, in your scar there is a piece of Tom Riddle's soul hidden - like the diary had one” - Dumbledore put his hand over his mouth - he forgot the potion did not fade from his system fully yet.
Harry was just staring wide eyed - he did NOT know that.
“You were not supposed to know that… Did you know this before? When was the last time you felt anything about the scar?“
“No I am hearing this only now, last time my scar hurt was at the quidditch cup, when the death mark appeared in the sky.”
Dumbledore then cast a few complex charms with his wand - seemingly inspecting the boy.
“It seems his mind is not tampered…. And there’s no spells affecting him”
Severus turned to the headmaster - “I believe that clears both of us”
“Not so Severus, you see it could be he has joined his side, being unaware of the scar. Did you, Harry? Given the chance would you abandon your friends just to get anything for yourself? be it money or power or anything else?”
“No, I would never join Voldermorts side or abandon my friends… well that is unless they abandon me first. “ - focus seemingly returned to the boy's eyes as he stopped his mindless answering, with a shaky voice he added - “Headmaster… What do I need to do to remove that… soul fragment from me? I assume it's nothing healthy for me?”
“I guess you truly are Harry, my boy… just different, way different.” - Dumbledore’s voice regained its grandfatherly warmth, then he did a pause - noting that he did not feel compelled to answer anymore - “I am afraid I do not know how. But I cannot deny the possibility that such a method exists…”
The chairs morphed and both Harry and Severus found themselves free again. They picked their wands, pointing them at the headmaster.
“I am sorry for my behaviour, you truly need to be careful against the dark side…”
The duo grumbled at the same time - they held their grudges, yet realised that chances of taking the archwizard down were almost non-existent, especially in this room.
“Now Harry, take a seat, you too Severus. I believe it is time we tell him the full story, and the prophecy as well”
Severus shot a stern glare towards Albus.
“Not to worry Severus, you yourself saw how good his occlumency is - I believe he is one of the few ones capable of shielding against him. Now that we have determined he is not possessed by the dark lord, his occlumency skills can only assure us he won't leak the secret. I already shared too much tonight, I might as well share the full story”
He turned back to his guests - “Now any tea? Snacks?” - at least he had the courtesy to refrain from offering lemon drops again.
Severus and Harry exchanged a glance - no way were they eating anything the headmaster offered, Harry was sure he would research that air filter around the body spell, as well various spells to check for poisons and other harmful substances.
Hearing his stomach grumbling Harry murmured the name of the kitchen elf and asked for some snacks, blatantly choosing to ignore the headmaster's offer.
It was getting late as Harry was slowly walking towards the common room - he knew a feast awaited so he was slow on purpose - to have more time to organise his thoughts as well as wasting final minutes until the damned Snape’s brewing left his system.
It appears Voldemory ruined his life by killing his parents due to some stupid self-fulfilling prophecy…. Who would have thought? Now even if he escapes the time loop his life would not end well - he had a piece of dark lord's soul inside him… Not to mention the stupid prophecy said only one of them could live…
Not even archwizard Dumbledore knew how to destroy the fragment without killing him - the best he knew of is that Avada Kedavra would just claim one soul - which will likely be a fragment as its weaker than his soul… but he was not certain - Albus admitted there was a chance it would kill Harry and Voldemorts soul would just take over his body in that case…
They boy sighed just before the portrait of the fat lady - it seems now he had even more things to resolve before even trying to resolve the time loop! There’s no way he was going to escape with a piece of Voldemort inside him… And who knows how many items like diaries the dark lord even had? Dumbledore suspected it was three or seven in total - any more soul splitting would be disastrous for the soul and Tom Riddle did fancy magic numbers… It was definitely more than just the diary as with just a single split the soul would not be that weak to shatter a piece into the boy’s scar. The other interesting bit of information was that Voldemort himself seemingly did not know of the accidental fragment inside Potter.
Harry pushed the sad thoughts aside - it's not like worrying would help resolve his problems, he needed to learn more, until he found some solutions. But now it was time to relax after a stressful day - he had a feast to celebrate.
As soon as Portrait slid open he could hear various shouts of congratulations towards him, his worries pushed to the corner of his mind, a smile spread on his face as he joined the fun and celebrations.
