Returning to Hogwarts was a pain, but necessary. It wouldn’t do for him to blow his cover too early. After all, if he was going to do that, he might as well have broken the connection to the Goblet of Fire. Still, he couldn’t just act like nothing had happened. While Ron wouldn’t blab the details of their encounter to anyone any time soon, the rest of House Gryffindor would almost certainly be abuzz with rumors.

After all, the vast majority of them had been up all night waiting for their ‘Champion’ to come back to the Tower so they could celebrate with him. His absence was undoubtedly noted, and Harry had made sure to cover all his bases.
 
Which was why he was actually rather relaxed when he found himself called down to Professor McGonagall’s office after classes the very next day. The school’s rumor mill had likely been churning all day long, and while Harry hadn’t answered anyone’s questions, not even Hermione’s, that didn’t stop EVERYONE from speculating all the same.
 
And to be fair, Professor McGonagall WAS supposed to be his Head of House, so he didn’t begrudge her this meeting. He would have lost more respect for her if she HADN’T called him in and questioned him about all of the things she should be questioning him about. Still, he has to admit… it’s been a long time since he sat down across from the severe-looking Scottish Witch. Long enough that the nostalgia brings a small smile to his lips before he can truly stop it.
 
“Mister Potter.”
 
As always, McGonagall’s tone is cutting. However, there’s also a hint of affection… of concern as well. She does care about him, for all that she does her best not to show it too much when in a situation like this one. Nodding his head in acknowledgment, Harry meets the older witch’s eyes.
 
“Professor. What can I do for you?”
 
Said eyes narrow at his rather… casual tone. But if she expected him to be all nervous and fidgety, that wasn’t going to happen. Harry could have pretended sure, but he felt like it would have come across as rather… fake no matter how perfectly he managed it. Instead, he was going to do this his way.
 
“You can answer my questions to my personal satisfaction, Mister Potter. Else I’m afraid this issue might have to be escalated up to the Headmaster. First, where did you go after the feast last night?”
 
Letting out a sigh, Harry tells… a half-truth. Better this then trying to fake it till he breaks.
 
“I went for a walk, Professor.”
 
Before McGonagall’s incredulity can coalesce into words, Harry explains himself.
 
“I couldn’t stand the thought of going back to the Tower if I’m being honest. I sort of knew they would all be there. My House. And I knew they wouldn’t believe that I was telling the truth, that I didn’t put my name in the Goblet and that I had no desire to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. I knew they would want to celebrate my ‘ingenuity’… so I left instead. And went for a walk.”
 
His matter-of-fact explanation and calm tone, combined with the somewhat accurate lampooning of his fellow Housemates, clearly throws his Transfiguration Professor for a loop. For a moment, McGonagall frowns… and in that moment, Harry lets his curiosity get the better of him.
 
“Do you think I put my name in the Goblet, Professor? Just wondering.”
 
The Scottish Witch stares before shaking her head.
 
“No, Harry. I do not.”
 
Suddenly she was using his first name. Her tone was even softening. Harry smiles crookedly at that, not entirely willing to let up.
 
“Really? I’m a troublemaker aren’t I? Always sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong.”
 
That, to his mild amusement, prompts a scowl from McGonagall.
 
“You are not a troublemaker, Harry. You are a Gryffindor. You go where your heart leads. Yes, you can be reckless at times. Give you an enemy to fight and you will dog the issue until the ends of the Earth. But what purpose would throwing your name into the Goblet of Fire serve you, really?”
 
Blinking, Harry rocks back in his seat for a moment, not expecting McGonagall to be so… forthright. Seeing his reaction, the Transfiguration Professor lets out a soft sigh.
 
“Besides. While you are many things, including the cause of more than a few of my headaches over these past few years… you aren’t a liar, Harry. If you say that you did not put your name in the Goblet of Fire, then I trust you.”
 
He’s touched. Truly, he is. Of course, that feeling lasts all of a moment before Professor McGonagall sees fit to get them back on track and he’s forced to in turn lie to her.
 
“Now then, you went for a walk you say. Where did you go, Harry?”
 
“The Forbidden Forest, Professor. I know, it wasn’t a good idea. But at the time, I suppose I wasn’t thinking straight. All I knew, or at least, what I felt I knew… was that anywhere I went in the Castle, I would be discovered. So I left the Castle… and I went into the Forbidden Forest to get my head on straight.”
 
Any softening of features or tenderness that he’d managed to extract from the severe Scottish Witch vanishes at his words as McGonagall suddenly looks quite stormy.
 
“You do know that the Forbidden Forest is forbidden to students for a reason, yes Mister Potter?”
 
Pretending to be sheepish is simple enough. He just hands his head and averts his gaze.
 
“Yes Professor. Instead of getting my head on straight, I near got it knocked off. Honestly, I was almost killed out there… but fortune was still on my side it would seem.”
 
There’s a beat of silence where McGonagall clearly has to rein in her desire to yell at him. Finally, she lets out another sigh, this one much more exasperated.
 
“Is this where your new… pet came from?”
 
Here, Harry lets himself adopt a smile as he lifts his head. In the end, he’d decided to keep Bellatrix with him in her animagus form. Even once her disappearance from Azkaban was discovered, no one would suspect her seeing as her animagus form was something she gained in the future that never was. But of course, that meant Harry needed a reason to suddenly have a greyhound trailing after him at times and spending her time in his dormitory.
 
That was where she was right now in fact. Sleeping on his bed, last he’d left her. Still, concealing a dog from the Hogwarts Faculty would be impossible. Instead, Harry had flaunted her so far. It was no wonder that McGonagall had ultimately brought her up. He’d all but been daring his Head of House to do so.
 
“Yes, Professor. She saved my life. And I guess I saved hers. I don’t know how she got into the Forbidden Forest in the first place, but together, we managed to escape. I was hoping that I’d be allowed to keep her. She’s very well-behaved so far.”
 
As Professor McGonagall chews on that for a moment, Harry considers her briefly. He would be lying if he said he didn’t at least have her in mind, back when he was first planning this journey back in time. He had very specific goals to accomplish now that he was back here. He had things to get done before his time at Hogwarts came to a close.
 
He needed to make connections with more than just Bellatrix. She was only the start, and if he was going to have the power to deal with what was to come to pass, then he needed more witches. Minerva had very nearly been one of them, but ultimately Harry had set her aside as an option. It wasn’t that he didn’t consider her worth his time… but more that she was past her prime.
 
There were ways of dealing with the effects of aging, of course. With a few more witches connected to him, Harry could even de-age Minerva himself. Perhaps he even would. But for now at least, the Scottish Witch was a little too old for his tastes. More than that though… she was Dumbledore’s creature through and through.
 
Albus Dumbledore wasn’t a bad man. Had he made mistakes? Certainly. Was he perhaps going a little senile? Hm, up for debate, but potentially. No one was perfect. No one was infallible. Dumbledore was just as much a mortal man as the rest of them, and having been in the old wizard’s shoes, having been the one that everyone turned to for all the answers… Harry could sympathize with Albus, at least a little bit.
 
After all, he hadn’t been able to make everything work out either. He’d ultimately failed to fix things.
 
The difference between him and Dumbledore was simple. Where Albus had decided that offing himself to secure his Double Agent’s place at the enemy’s side was a ‘good enough’ way to die, Harry wasn’t about to just end it all because the going got tough. Don’t get him wrong, he would always appreciate everything the Headmaster had done for him… but at the same time, he didn’t trust the man. The mistakes Dumbledore had made, the way he’d gone out… and the things Harry had to do all culminated in a simple conclusion. He could not count on Albus Dumbledore in this timeline.
 
In fact, he was pretty sure that if the aged wizard found out what he was doing, if he found out Harry’s plans… he might just try and stop him. Best to not let on what he was up to until it was too late, if ever. Frankly, he-
 
“Detention, Mister Potter.”
 
Jolting from his inner thoughts, Harry meets Professor McGonagall’s eyes. It takes him only a second to process that no, he didn’t miss her saying anything nor was he in trouble for ignoring her. That was just the way that his Head of House had decided to restart their conversation.
 
“You’ll be with me for the next four Fridays, serving Detention for your foolish decision to go out into the Forbidden Forest, a place with a name that should have made it obvious whether you were allowed to be there or not.”
 
Harry can’t help it. He knows he SHOULD just bow his head and nod, acting all chagrined… but it wouldn’t feel real, he has to admit.
 
“Sorry Professor. I guess I just see the Forbidden Forest as my own little home away from home these days. Between being sent out there for Detention in my First Year and having to negotiate with Aragog to clear Hagrid’s name in my second…”
 
Trailing off, Harry just shrugs, offering his Professor a cheeky smile. She looks at him over the rim of her glasses for a moment before just shaking her head in exasperation.
 
“As I said, you will be serving Detention with me for the next four Fridays. Ahead of time, I have a little homework for you. I want you to put together a list of things you think you might need to know in order to survive the Triwizard Tournament. Gather what reading materials you think might be useful from the Hogwarts Library as well. You will be going over what you collect during your Detentions.”
 
It hits Harry then, just what she’s trying to do. She’s trying to help him. Of course she is. She’s Professor McGonagall. No matter how severe or disapproving she might be, she will always care about her students. And so… she’s using this as an opportunity to force him to prepare for the Triwizard Tournament. Technically, she’s not allowed to help him. She’s not allowed to assist him. Of course, Harry is well aware that Karkaroff and Maxime completely flout these rules over the course of the upcoming year.
 
He's a little surprised that Professor McGonagall is willing to join them in that though. Perhaps she perceives in him a sort of melancholy and devil may care attitude that he hasn’t been able to fully conceal. His actions, when taken through a certain lens, might seem suicidal, he supposed. And so, unlike the first time around… she’s trying to help him in one of the few ways she possibly can.
 
“… Very well, Professor. And my new pet? Will we be having any further problems on that front?”
 
Lips thinning out, McGonagall shakes her head.
 
“No. So long as you take care of her and make sure she’s properly behaved; we won’t have any issues. I would rather not have to call you back into my office because of anything she does however, do you understand me?”
 
Rising from his chair, sensing the dismissal, Harry nods his head, projecting earnestness as he gives McGonagall a genuine smile.
 
“Of course, Professor. Thank you, Professor.”
 
His gratitude is even sincere. By all rights, they should have been more suspicious. It was just last year for all of them that they had not one, but two unregistered animagi show up at Hogwarts. It was why Harry hadn’t brought Bellatrix to this meeting in the first place. He didn’t want to give a contemplative McGonagall even the slightest chance to consider casting the Animagus Reversal spell.
 
However, upon further reflection… Harry wasn’t sure that Professor McGonagall knew Sirius OR Peter were Animagi, even now. It all depended on how much Dumbledore had decided to tell her. With the Headmaster always inclined to keep secrets, and Remus gone from the Castle… huh, there was less likelihood of anyone thinking that his new pet might be an Animagus then Harry had initially thought. He’d worried over nothing.
 
“You’re free to go, Mister Potter. And do try to stay away from anything forbidden for at least the next week, you hear?”
 
Harry tilts his head in what MIGHT be agreement as he throws McGonagall one last smile before leaving her office. Honestly, it depends on what she means by ‘forbidden’. He has no intention of going back into the Forbidden Forest. Nor is he planning on making another trip to Azkaban any time soon. However… that doesn’t mean he’s going to sit idly by.
 
He has the cover of the Triwizard Tournament to operate under at the moment. He had… not quite anonymity, but freedom beyond his wildest dreams. No one was looking to him to save the Wizarding World. No one even knew the world was in danger. But Harry did. He knew what the future held, and he wasn’t about to let anyone stop him from fixing things.
 
That meant, however, that he needed more power. He needed more magic. He needed… more witches. Luckily, he had a list. And though McGonagall had been struck from it as a possibility for the time being, that still left plenty of other options for him to pursue.