Disclaimer:

This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books and Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Author's note:

This is a little AU story trying to exploit a plot hole in GoF. I know it's been done before, but here is my take on Binding Magical Contracts into which you can be entered without your consent.

Enjoy!

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Demonic Intervention

Chapter One

Harry lay awake.

Would he ever be able to sleep again? The moment he closed his eyes, he saw the eyes of Cedric, staring up unseeingly into a cloudy sky.

Why Cedric?

Why him?

It was so unfair, on them both.

Cedric could still be alive if Harry hadn't talked him into sharing victory.

Victory, Harry thought miserably. Mockery would be more fitting.

Voldemort was back, but nobody was listening.

Cedric was dead, and he had nobody to talk to.

He could always talk to Ron and Hermione, and they would offer him as much consolation and encouragement as was in their power, but they didn't understand. Not really. They couldn't because they both had a mother and a father to comfort and encourage them. They could imagine living without parents no better than he could imagine what growing up with parents might be like.

He had seen his mum and dad, or rather their shadows. He had heard their voices, or rather an echo of them. He had seen the echo of a smile on his father's face, heard the shadow of comfort from his mother's ghostly mouth.

He wanted to cry. He really wanted to cry, but he dreaded waking up the others.

Perhaps he should do it anyway. Crying wouldn't go down well at Number Four, Privet Drive.

Dumbledore was sending him back to the Dursleys. Again.

Admittedly, Dumbledore did listen to his report about Voldemort's re-birth, and he also did believe him. In fact, Dumbledore was about the only one who had believed him right away.

Thinking about it now, it almost seemed as if Dumbledore had believed him too readily. As if the old headmaster had been expecting something like this to happen.

Harry remembered the glint of triumph in Dumbledore's eye. It had been there for only a fraction of a second, but Harry had seen it.

He had a nagging feeling that something was off. Dumbledore and Moody were supposed to be friends, right? If somebody disguised themselves as Ron Weasley using Polyjuice Potion, would the impostor be able to fool him, Harry, for a whole year? And Dumbledore was allegedly the most learned person in wizarding Brit-

There was a sudden movement at the foot end of the bed.

Whipping out his wand from under his pillow, Harry sat up. He pointed the wand into the general direction of the intruder and hissed, "Reveal yourself or I'll hex you!"

He couldn't see a thing in the darkness – and he didn't have his glasses on, anyway – but whoever or whatever had entered his bed and was weighing down the mattress far too much to be just Crookshanks!

"Um, easy there," a female voice said. "I'm just the Tooth Fairy."

"I'm sorry," Harry snapped, not sounding sorry at all, while he groped for his glasses with his left hand, "but I'm really not in the mood for any kind of nonsense right now."

"All right, all right," the voice conceded, "not the Tooth Fairy, but a tooth fairy. Would you mind me conjuring up some light?"

There was a tinkle, melodious and very faint. A sparkling fountain sprung up the very instant Harry put his glasses on. Tiny stars sailed away from it, filling the space between the hangings of his four-poster bed with a soft glow that intensified until he could see the trespasser properly. She wore a tight, ivory-coloured dress with lots of frills. Although her hair was pulled back into a bun, she looked less stern than McGonagall did. Her smiling face seemed strangely ageless.

"That should do," she said pleasantly. "The magic also keeps in the sound so we won't disturb your room mates."

Harry shook off the surprise.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"I want nothing. I'm a tooth fairy and I'm here for you."

"Did the twins put you up to this? To cheer me up?" he asked wearily. "Tell them you tried, but it didn't work."

"Nobody put me up to anything," she said with a hint of a frown. "I'm just doing my job."

"Oh, come of it. The Tooth Fairy isn't real! Children are just told comforting tales about her when they lose their milk teeth."

Children who had parents were probably told nice tales like that he thought bitterly.

"Well, we are real, but we are far too few these days so we hardly get around to visit even half of the children. Sadly, this has led to suspicions that we don't exist."

"Just stop it, will you?" Harry said impatiently. "You don't look anything like a fairy!"

"Yes, that is because in truth I'm a demoness. A benevolent one; don't be alarmed. Since a certain bunch of spiteful entities gave our species such a bad name we changed our designation. We don't want to frighten children, after all. Besides, only the few children who know about magic ever notice. All the others think fairies look exactly like I do. Well," she said and glanced at a gleaming clipboard that had come out of nowhere, "You are Harry James Potter, yes?"

Harry nodded mutely.

"Well, you are one of those who were overlooked when they were little. I'm here to make up for that lapse," she smiled genially. "I'll grant you a wish."

"Can you bring back Cedric?"

Harry blurted the words out without taking a single second to think.

"That depends on who Cedric is," she said, still smiling, "and where he disappeared to."

"He was a Hufflepuff seventh year, and he was murdered."

The smile was gone.

"I'm afraid reversing death is beyond my pow-"

"In this case, never mind!"

Harry scolded himself for his stupidity. He shouldn't have allowed the spark of hope! It was always the same – he was shown something desirable, and then it was moved out of his reach before he could get hold of it.

"You are hurting," she said softly. "Was Cedric a good friend of yours?"

"No, maybe friend isn't the right word. It's complicated."

He took a deep breath, and then all his misery spilled forth. He told her about being entered, without his consent or even his knowledge, into a tournament for adult wizards, then forced to compete and, to add insult to injury, being shunned for that by almost the entire school, including even his best friend. He told her about dragons, Acromantulas, Blast-Ended Skrewts and Potter-stinks-badges, about defamatory newspaper articles, Ron and Hermione under the lake, Death Eaters masquerading as teachers and using Unforgivables during lessons, about Voldemort's return, treacherous rats, Priori Incantatem and a seventeen year old boy who was murdered because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"And nobody will listen about Voldemort being back, especially not this idiot of a minister! How can somebody so stupid have such an important position? It's no wonder things keep going wrong in the wizarding world," Harry said at the end of what probably had been two hours. He felt drained, but also slightly relieved. "I'll have to warn people! With Voldemort back, there soon will be bloodshed all over the country. Can you help me, at least, with this?"

"I feel deeply sorry for you," the demoness said earnestly. She reached for his left hand and patted it gently. "I'll give you a chance to put things right. However, I can only grant you one hour, and there is also a condition: You mustn't be seen. This place is rather crowded, so take great care. And remember, Harry, you must be back here in one hour exactly."

With that, she tapped his wrist with some force, and something appeared there that looked at first glance like a wristwatch. It had no hands, though, and the face was completely blank.

Harry suddenly felt dizzy. His vision blurred.

Then he had a sensation of falling.

Falling.

Falling...

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To be continued

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Thanks to Oriel Subtle for beta reading. :)