Harry again felt his irritation rising from Fleur Delacour. From the beginning, when Harry had arrived in the room, she had been acting like as if he did not even exist in the room.
He wondered if she did not witness him sending a professor smashing into the wall? Where did all the arrogance came from to treat him like invisible air.
He turned his face with a grin plastered over it towards Fleur. Seeing Harry's face, a chill ran down Fleur's spine and she gulped in fear.
"Honor? you say, Miss. Delacour?" said Harry in extremely cold and steady voice.
"One thousand galleons?" He scoffed.
"I believe even before you arrived here in magical Britain, you must have heard and known my name," said Harry. "After all it not very common for a child to vanquish Voldemort."
Everyone except Dumbledore flinched at the name and Fleur nodded subconsciously in reply to Harry's question.
"And if you don't know, I am Lord apparent Potter. I have so much gold that I can swim in it and yet you say, one thousand galleons?" chuckled Harry.
Harry turned around and faced everyone present in the room.
His heavy voice boomed in the room, "I will make myself clear, one last time."
He continued, "I did not put my name or asked anyone to do so in the Goblet of Fire. And therefore, any accusation against me or any slander against me, and I will retaliate with force. I won't tolerate any kind of insult."
His eyes turned cold and in the dimly lit room it looked like two green blazing orbs, "I also expect a detailed investigation, and not only for formality, into who put my name in the Goblet."
"I hope DMLE will be called upon and the school does not put everything under table," said Harry with his eyes narrowing towards Dumbledore.
"And since, now that I am magically bound to compete, I will do so," finished Harry.
At all this declaration, the atmosphere in the room turned extremely awkward and no spoke for some time.
"Well, shall we crack on, then?" said Ludo Bagman diffusing the awkwardness, rubbing his hands together and smiling around the room. "Got to give our champions their instructions, haven't we? Barty, want to do the honors?"
Mr. Crouch seemed to come out of a deep reverie and a state of shock. He arrived near the fireplace from where he was standing near the wall.
"The first task is designed to test your daring," he told Harry, Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor, "so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard… very important…"
"The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges."
October 1994
Chamber Of Secrets, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
With a pop, Harry arrived in his room in the chamber. He had no visible reaction and looked calm but from inside he was seething in anger.
He had hoped that this would be a calm year for him and he could use the time of the Triwizard tournament to accomplish his political goals and devise a method to get Sirius free of all charges. But now all his hopes were in drain.
Harry need not be a genius to figure who would be the ultimate mastermind behind his name coming out of the Goblet other than Voldemort. What he could not figure was, what Voldemort wanted to accomplish with this?
After absorbing Voldemort's memories, Harry understood one thing very clearly that Voldemort would not choose to kill him indirectly. Voldemort's ego would not allow him to do so. He would want to kill Harry with his own hands. This meant that at some point during the tournament, Voldemort would probably be making an appearance.
"Either he has rebuilt his body or is in the process of doing so," muttered Harry to himself.
No matter whatever, this time Harry was going to be prepared for Voldemort.
He needed to Fasttrack his actions. Before his confrontation with Voldemort, he needed to destroy all the horcruxes and ultimately kill Voldemort for once and all.
The other thought in Harry's mind was about Dumbledore. He wondered if the headmaster knew who was person responsible for putting his name in the Goblet.
He wondered if Dumbledore himself had some role to play in this? After all, in his first 2 years the old coot himself had paved the path for the confrontation between him and Voldemort.
With various different thought going through his mind, Harry went to bed.
November 1994
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Next day, early in the morning, Harry was having his breakfast at the Gryffindor table.
Dumbledore along with other heads of house including Severus Snape were present at the teacher's table. Snape tried to maintain a neutral expression on his face but failed miserably and was almost staring at Harry with burning eyes. What Surprised Harry was the wide smile present on Dumbledore's face. The old coot liked as if he had gone senile and was smiling wildly.
Very few students were present in the great hall and all of them were giving weird glances at Harry. The most noticeable among them were the Hufflepuff who were staring at him with all the hate they could muster. Only if they were brave enough, would they have fired some spells at him, wondered Harry?
At this moment, a small commotion happened at the entrance of the Great Hall and a bunch of Gryffindors entered the hall. Walking in front of them was Ron Weasley and Harry's other two roommates, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan.
"Here comes the house of brave and courageous, who charges in face of danger," sighed Harry in annoyance. "Foolishly."
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