Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harry Potter!

Smoke: Magic Hacker

Chapter 2

The Champion Hacker

It hadn't been a bad few months for Harry Potter. He sat back at the Gryffindor table relatively content it had been a pretty good beginning to his 4th year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He tried not to let this Halloween get him down. It seemed like very few people remembered or cared that it was the anniversary of his parents' deaths. They praised him when it suited them, hated him when they accused him of something without proof, and then conveniently forgot that he hated his fame, and more so because it was in the darkness of his parents murder that the morons praised him, reminding him all the time. Then they carried ion, trying to make him out to be an attention seeker, for something he couldn't even remember. If he wanted attention, they would know it because it would be under his own brilliance.

Other than those depressing thoughts, the only thing he could really say he disliked was that his best girlfriend Luna Lovegood was at her own table. It was a nightmare how bitchy other houses got when someone not of that house sat at their table, even him, and he was supposed to be their saviour and sometimes hero if he cared to be, and they weren't in their fair-weather hate modes. He would expect that sort of thing from Gryffindors and Slytherins as most of them could be complete douches, but not Hufflepuffs, or Luna's house, Ravenclaw.

The magical people (most of them) were too stupid and ignorant for their own good, and always following the lead of fools like Dumbledore, so if he said to dislike a certain type of person they tended to believe that person was evil whether true or not. They never seemed to follow anyone who was open, even Voldemort hid tons of crap from his Death Eaters. If Harry was going to be a leader he was going to have to be like that too with the mindless masses, but he knew that with those close to him, the truth would be the answer to loyalty and strength.

The mindless masses would hate the truth, and side with Dumbledore and Voldemort in their hate, screaming louder and louder, but force it on them out of nowhere and they could do nothing but accept, and accept they would when they saw the way their world could be like if only they stopped listening to ignorant old men and looked for themselves.

Harry's Aunt Petunia had told him that the magical people hadn't a light bulb between them, but he had been certain she was exaggerating. But it turned out she didn't know the half of it, and was off the mark by a hefty margin. It was unreal how ignorant, arrogant, and quite honestly the worst thing about them was their lack of common sense and imagination, and that last part was coming from mythical beings. He could be arrogant at times, but they took the piss, and weren't awesome like him. He hoped his mother had never succumbed to the stupidity like many if not all muggle-born witches and wizards did, but maybe she did if she listened to the crazy old headmaster the way nearly everyone else seemed to.

Thankfully his muggle family had seen to it that they had gotten him the best tutors they could afford, and got him training in many different disciplines, from hand to hand to the sciences. Though, he had a sneaking suspicion that that was just to get back at the magical world and the Headmaster Dumbledore for dumping Harry on their doorstep in the middle of the night like he did. The old man had left a letter that was damning him if you read between the lines of 'look after this poor child', it read things like 'he just needs to survive' and 'we won't be paying attention as long as he survives do as you see fit to raise him proper', which was what the old man expected.

However, the old man didn't quite get what he expected. Harry wasn't a skinny runt, barely looked after with below average intellect, so Dumbledore could come swooping in the hero to make him into another obedient sucker. Instead, what he got was a lean muscular boy talented in the art of kicking arse, a wit so sharp that it cut, and was highly opinionated, along with being able to play several instruments, draw, and with an incredible knack for the sciences, and technology, along with above genius level intellect. It was kind of sad how primitive the magical people had let themselves get when they had such potential.

Harry smirked at the thought as his silver framed glassed scanned out over the darkness lit only by a few candles and the blue flames of a goblet that sat on a plinth in front of the stereotypical wizard headmaster. Harry was looking out of the lenses of his glasses with his emerald green eyes. His raven black hair was kept in neat disarray, and out of all of the Gryffindors he was the only one wearing muggle clothes to the Choosing Ceremony for the Champions of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. He was wearing light beige combat trousers (as you could never have too many pockets) with a brown belt with brown walking boots, and a white shirt that was only done up with 2 buttons, in the centre with the cuffs open since they always kept the Great Hall so hot, and everyone else wore robes, but at least the French schools robes were thin silk.

He noticed the odd looks he received from Hogwarts girls but pretended he didn't while lavishing in the attention from the cuties even though most of them wouldn't have a chance with him. First it was mostly subconscious on their part and he was sure that would be thinking 'father' rather than lover because of certain curses that he didn't approve of. He didn't much approve of enslaving house elves so this rubbed him the wrong way even further, and any man having to be so cruel to any woman to keep her was pathetic.

Then if they weren't cursed they would have to get through Luna first, and though small; she knew some wonderful methods for getting rid of undesirable wastes of time. He was hers as far as she was concerned, and he liked it like that. It was easy to have a cute girlfriend who was fun and intelligent to hang out with rather than have to deal with girls all the time trying to get his attention and having to stamp every and anyone he 'dated', and it was better because Harry and Luna had been best friends since they met her first year.

They had met when Harry had protected her from a few older boys from Ravenclaw bullying her because she was unusual, and not to mention smarter than them, and they didn't like that. However, Harry was smarter than her in many ways, which made his house choice odd as Gryffindors were brave (in other words – stupid – foolish – dangers to themselves and others), not smart.

The Sorting Hat had said Harry would have done well in Slytherin House, and he could have cared less, and agreed, as he knew how to defend himself from wanabee minions. So something was messed up as the hat put him in Gryffindor anyway, which was a shame as he had to put up with so many idiots he tried to avoid. It wasn't like all of the Gryffindor's were idiots, but just most of them, and even the smart ones, Granger at the top of that list, followed rather than thinking for themselves because they were bookworms above self-thinkers.

It was mind bending how some of them didn't understand the words 'get lost' until they were shoved to the floor in frustration and annoyance, and one boy still didn't get it. He had stopped using any kind of physical force quickly as that had seen consequences of snitches and a head of house who wouldn't listen to reason, (she still didn't listen), and he created better methods that didn't get him into trouble, so made sure to use some of that 'Slytherin' cunning instead as they seemed to have short memories and wouldn't leave him alone.

Harry didn't like bullies so he was only too eager to stick up for the small blonde, and sent the boys packing with metaphorical tails between their legs. Harry had been at Hogwarts for a year already and hadn't made any friends, no matter that some crazy bullying ginger boy from his house kept trying to force his 'friendship' on him, and he couldn't use violence or get detentions even though it would be justified, and telling on him, she expected him to just go and 'play' nice, as if; he didn't like bullies, so didn't want to know.

Then Harry had to deal with that weirdly ignorant Granger girl all the time. She didn't like being second best to another Gryffindor, let alone that he didn't try very hard, and if she ever beat him in class he didn't actually care because he had better things to do than getting good grades, (his genius was beyond any magical qualifications or stupid magical world job, and he had money, plenty of it), or believing crap written in books by idiots who didn't get the concept of experimentation. It was all good for Harry sometimes as some of his private projects translated into areas of classes, and if he did fall short it was because he had disproven the teachers methods and they wouldn't listen because they didn't understand, or like being wrong to a child.

Then Hermione Granger would look smug with her nose held high, but his shrug and non-caring attitude got to her, and the next lesson would see her lose just because Harry didn't like to let her stay smug forever. Then he didn't know how a smart muggle-born girl could be that ignorant. He was certain if he gave her the nullifying stamp that he made with Luna's help as his cute test bunny, she would run to Dumbledore thinking he would fix the wards if she even realised the truth: as if! He would probably go around wiping memories and try to find a way around Harry's seal. Hermione could have been a friend if she wasn't such a big headed book loving idiot who chooses not to look beyond the 'wonder'.

Though, Harry had managed to find a few different ways to stop memory modification, and the hardest was the easiest for both Harry and Luna, which was the art of occlumency, which was certainly needed when Snape the Bastard and Dumbledore went around raping children's memories at their convenience. Harry found the talent quite easy with all of the meditation from his 'kung fu' and combat classes and everything. With shields around the mind, mind magic wouldn't work, which meant no memory modification. They would just have to fake it, as they faked many memories all the time to keep the memory thieves ignorant of the danger they could pose to the pureblood world in the immediate future.

Harry could barely believe it when Luna had told him about the 'anti-libido' curse that girls were forced to suffer, and near forced him to find a way around it as she recognised his intellect as dangerous to the pureblood culture of the magical world, and loved that about him. He could have torn down the wards but that would have likely gone badly, and not had any effect as the curse would have ran long enough to fix them, and hunt for the culprit(s). So they had to bide their time, and at least when Harry and Luna got to 'that' stage in their relationship he would be able to pleasure her as much as her him.

But shaking that off, he was certain that his nice quiet year full of researching how awesome he could be was going to be ruined; he would even bet 1,000 galleons on it, which coincidently was the prize money amount for the tournament winner. The tournament practically screamed out: 'hey Harry I'm going to screw up your year and Dumbledore is going to help me, yay won't that be fun?' Though, he was sure it could be fun looking at all of the losers with the trophy in his hands having won to rub it in their pathetic faces.

His glasses zeroed in, with a small green pentagram like the targeting lock on thing on the screen of a fighter plane, targeting the cup, it flickered-red as it scanned with tiny letters in the lock-on. Blue writing spread along his vision telling him of a confoundus charm on the cup. That could only mean that whoever was after him this year wanted him in the tournament, so it was unlikely that it would be an attempt on his life because that was too overly complicated to be a sure fire murder plot, though with wizards that wasn't a certainty as they seemed to enjoy huge overly complicated evil schemes.

The three official champions had just been called, and went into the Great Halls antechamber. His glasses scanned each one, nearly stripping them off their clothes as he scanned them through to the muscle and bone with three different target circles, zooming in and around with tiny blue dots marking their face's and finer points, detailing the girl more than the boys, and she had a nice rack he noted first.

However, her chest area aside, Harry was surprising how none of them were in very good physical condition. The half veela, Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons School was the fittest, but that was likely because of her veela blood, but she could be a lot stronger with some work. But other than that, Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts, Hufflepuff House, and Victor Krum of Durmstrang Academy weren't all that magically powerful either, so maybe they had some other talents.

The scan bough up their records one after the other, but nothing suggested anything special. Fleur had a younger sister and was in part veela, and though it said half veela, veela only came in female, so he corrected that to state she was veela as any boys they had were human. His records showed that she was the top viable candidate from her school as her practical magic weaving was slightly above the next best choice.

Cedric was one of the popular crowd (because he was supposedly good looking and smart), and according to Harry's records of every student at Hogwarts there were several more viable candidates, himself included. If only he was allowed to place his name in the goblet, the cup might have actually chosen him if the cup hacked through the statistics using magic in any way similar to Harry. He felt that the goblet was likely one of the very few pieces of magic that could impress him.

Last was Victor Krum. He was the star seeker for the Bulgarian Quidditch team, and played for a team that roughly translated as Mountain Seekers. He also had an older sister. She was only a five years older at twenty-two and treated him like a child. Their parents were dead, and she had looked after him and his younger siblings for the past three years, supporting his career in quidditch. The Krum family had been wealthy enough that his older sister could be given legal guardianship.

His younger siblings were twins-a boy and a girl. There were no pictures of them in any of the magazines where Harry got a lot of useful information for his growing network, but they were both two years below him and went to Durmstrang.

Victor was the most likely candidate for champion of his school, which wasn't surprising when Harry realised that the other students seemed to have only been decoration. It became obvious that their head teacher planned for Victor to compete. Since he was the quidditch star and all of that, it was likely that his people expected him to be champion, so the 'ex' Death Eater head teacher needed to make sure Victor became champion to save face, so left anyone the goblet might have chosen instead, back at the school, and it was a certainty that the other schools (minus Hogwarts) would all cheat, so that gave Victor some even footing.

Harry would certainly cheat. If everyone else was cheating, then cheating had to be a part of the game. Unofficially cheating was all a part of the tradition of the tournament. Let the better cheater win. However, with fools like Dumbledore and McGonagall running Hogwarts cheating in Cedric's favour wasn't likely going to happen unless he cheated himself, which seemed highly unlikely as his records were clear as day 'honourable', unless he was that good of an actor, which he wasn't.

Harry's scan turned from them automatically within a few moments, once they were all gone, into the antechamber of the Great Hall, and Harry wondered how he was going to react to what was about to happen since he had known about it before hand, and the conspiracy against him. He also knew the fair-weathers were going to be up in arms, and not think anything through for themselves, and let their anger and jealousy rule them as they can't show that towards the Hogwarts champion, but he couldn't care as they were losers because of that.

The Goblet of Fire lit up crimson once more, and spat out the last name, "Harry Potter!" the old headmaster called out automatically once he caught the small piece of parchment the cup spat out. The old headmaster hadn't looked surprised to see it at first as hundreds of minuscule blue target nodes scanned every minute twitch of his face as if they were actually on his face feeding Harry readings. After Dumbledore read the name he did a very good job of looking surprised, but not good enough for his glasses to not see slight traces of amusement.

"Harry Potter!" the old man called again while everyone looked to Harry in shock or anger, hate and disgust while he thought of how he should react.

It was strange, especially considering many of the under seventeens not allowed to enter themselves in the tournament had tried to outsmart Dumbledore's age line and failed. It was pitiful that anyone would look at him like that for supposedly being smart enough to trick the age line just because they didn't have the imagination to do it themselves. He knew how to get around it and he wouldn't have needed tricks for that, which made him smarter by far as it was amusingly simple how nobody thought of the simple when it came to things that seemed complicated, and in need of 'tricking'.

"Please, join the others, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said in a disappointed voice while Harry stood with a sigh as he didn't need his glasses to hear the slight twinges of enjoyment in the old man's voice. The old man thought he was smart, but a scheme willingly walked into was hijacked from the start and no longer your scheme. Harry wished he could gloat to the old man, but all in due time.

The green eyed boy paused for a moment as he made a decision that should amuse Luna and him as a grin stretched his lips. He figured that he might as well get some digs in just to make a point. If he couldn't gloat, then he should enjoy making fun of everyone, and making them all look as stupid as they were anyway.

"Okay, but you shouldn't look so disappointed Professor, or are you just embarrassed that a fourteen year old outsmarted you whereas older students couldn't?" he asked, on a roll.

Harry wasn't easily embarrassed and his lessons in the muggle world covered public speaking as his uncle, knowing he would be famous thought it would help put people in their place, so he continued without thinking about all of the wide-eyes on him.

"You were awfully amused when other underage students lost to your age line," he said, smirking. "But me...? While they were off trying to age themselves I was learning how to remove the age line and put it back after me! It was just convenient that the likes of Fred and George Weasley and many others showed me what the effects of crossing your line would be so I could put those effects back, and nobody was the wiser!"

Harry chuckled while everyone looked so flabbergasted, especially Dumbledore as he was blushing. The Weasley twins however, gave Harry a salute of respect each as he walked passed them, and straight into the antechamber with the other three.

Cedric was an okay looking boy but Harry couldn't see why so many girls wanted him to marry them some day or whatever. Did they like bushy eyebrows that much? Krum was ugly in Harry's opinion, but his files showed Krum's older sister, and she was quite the good looking girl, odd that. He had heard girls and boys say so during the Quidditch World Cup too when he went with Luna. He was brutish, and if not for his fame as a Quidditch Star for the Bulgarian team wouldn't get anywhere with any pretty girls. It was just lucky it seemed only Hogwarts was cursing girls as far as he could tell.

Fleur Delacour was smoking hot, and had a nice rack. He had to stop himself from looking through her clothes, just to take a peak, (but he didn't think she quite matched up to Luna, and she encouraged him to use his x-ray functions on her as she found it fun-naughty-fun). She had long blonde hair tied back to her shoulder blades, wearing a silk blue and white uniform from her school. Her eyes were crystal blue and her pale face was just the sort you could get lost staring at while her body was slim, and her breast while not small were not too large; they suited her and were firm. He could feel her allure, but ignored it unlike the other two who could not stop staring at her like lechers.

"Who are you?" the blonde seventeen year old girl demanded in her cool French accent rather snootily as if he was beneath her notice, which got the notice of the other two. Harry wondered whether he could get her to bow before him if he could find a way to hack into her natural ability and turn it off, or control it.

He had heard that men had gotten away with raping veela, blaming their power, which was why they tended to stay in groups, or stay out of certain ministries. He hated weak minded fools who would try to weasel out of punishment by saying they were under another's control. Death Eaters had been the same, getting away with murder, and Harry wouldn't stand for that and would put them down without the Ministry getting in the way.

Harry could tell that she was using translation magic because he was too, and hearing two different languages from her was a little odd because their translators were vastly different as Harry made his himself, and it was integrated into the watch on his left wrist, which was silver on a thick brown leather strap with so many functions and protections if he were to sell it, it would be in the hundreds of thousands.

Harry was just grinning, keeping up the act that he outsmarted Dumbledore, which he did. He could have done what he said he did if he wanted to compete, but then he would have added his name under Hogwarts. He didn't like the thought of cheating out another student like he 'was' because Cedric in his books was the Hogwarts Champion, and Harry, some other school he would have to 'name' just to make a point that Hogwarts cheers for Cedric even if, or when he loses to Harry.

Harry didn't have time to answer as the three school heads, Dumbledore from Hogwarts, Karkaroff from Durmstrang, and Maxime from Beauxbatons entered the chamber. They were followed by the head of Gryffindor: the stern Professor McGonagall with the head of Magical Sports and Games; that weird Barty Crouch ministry employee, the greasy potions 'teacher' Snape, and the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher with the perverted eye.

Harry had been having fun as he had already put a scrambler on, and placing it in certain locations in the castle, entwined within warded areas (taking the idea from a certain undesirable charm in certain wards) so kids and anyone walked through it spreading the charm throughout the school just mainly for Harry's amusement but to keep kids dignity, especially his and Luna's. He knew how to disrupt the old 'aurors' eye mainly because his glasses could see through things too, though likely more advanced, as he improved his glasses so the scramblers didn't affect them, and he could control his x-rays and didn't use them in that fashion unless necessary as it could also act like a muggle x-ray which was good enough most of the time when looking for hidden items, or people.

"Harry Potter!" McGonagall jumped in before anyone else could, and marched up to be in his face. "How dare you think you can circumvent Professor Dumbledore's age line?!" she demanded, appalled. "You'll be serving detention for a very long time for this!" she reprimanded heatedly.

"Sorry Professor!" he replied, amused as he knew he had the upper hand. "I don't think so – well, not without giving every single person who tried to circumvent the old geezers ward detentions too, or do I have to employ a lawyer to see whether they agree with you punishing me alone? You're only angry because I won where older and more advanced," he laughed there, mocking the word, "students' had failed so miserably."

"Professor McGonagall!" Dumbledore interrupted before she went off on a rant. "Harry is – though unfortunate it may be – correct; we cannot punish him without everyone else just because he chose to be more imaginative. However, Mr. Potter how did you make sure your name was chosen; I would have thought if you would enter your name that you would have entered it under Hogwarts."

"Confounded the goblet to believe that four schools competed!" he answered, shrugging as his eyes skipped over Alistor Moody, the Defence Teacher, and he wisely chose not to speak as he knew Harry was on to him, and he wasn't stupid enough to think he was just a stupid, ignorant child. He could see the cunning in Harry's eyes, so went with it to see what would happen. "But anyway, what does it matter?" he asked whimsically. "Even if I denied doing anything at all, no one would believe me, well mostly no one. They all think I enjoy being praised for Voldemort's," most flinched, "defeat, and my families murder, and that I enjoy all of the moronic attention, so you know what, I don't care what they think because I'm in this tournament now and I'm going to win!"

"Dumbledore...!" Maxime complained. "You surely are not going to let him compete; he is but a big mouthed little boy!"

"Unfortunately there is nothing we can do!" he replied with a sigh, and lying his arse off more than Snape does when someone makes a complaint against him bullying students. "He has to compete, and if we tried to stop him; we would be in breach of contract and suffer rather than him."

The woman stormed out after that with Fleur jogging to keep up with the huge woman's strides while Karkaroff glared at Dumbledore. "This is an outrage!" he declared.

"Indeed!" Snape finally butted in. "Though I doubt very much the boy has the intellect to perform such magic let alone discover where to find it!"

"Whatever Snape, you ignoramus...!" Harry said with a nonchalant shrug before casually walking passed them all and out of the antechamber just for show; who cared what he or any of them thought? They were morons, and incompetent, falling right into Dumbledore's hands, along with the escaped Death Eater's, but he would have to wait because it was better to get information off from observation before going right in and kicking his arse.

Harry found himself walking through Great Hall a few moments later, and out into the Entrance Hall where a cute blonde girl with dreamy blue eyes and slender body stood waiting for him wearing black and blue Ravenclaw robes while talking to a pair of out of place goblins about something odd he was sure by their expressions. They actually almost looked pleased to see him as Luna stopped talking to beam lovingly at her man.

The goblins glared at Harry after a moment of blessed silence before forcing a huge sack of gold into his hands and looking very displeased. "You won the bet fair and square. One hundred thousand galleons!" one said glaring at him as if it was his fault they were stupid enough to accept the bet in the first place.

Harry chuckled as the bag was feather light or he might not be able to lift it with all his winnings. "Here, one hundred thousand on me to win the tournament!" he replied handing the gold back, smirking while they got greedy grins spreading across their lips as they hoped they could keep it that time.

"Deal!" they agreed. "Five to one odds on you to win!" they both said together shaking his hand each with swirls of purple light sealing the bet, to keep both sides honest.

"Well, pleasure doing business with you fine gentlemen!" Harry said smugly while taking the blonde girls eager hand. "So, Luna, want to find somewhere alone where we can, find something fun to do?" he asked with a grin while she hugged his left arm to her chest and dragged him off with a wide grin.

Meanwhile by the Entrance Hall doors Fleur Delacour had returned with the intention of asking Harry Potter up front the truth. He didn't seem to be the type of person who gave a darn about fame or glory if her heightened senses were anything to go on. It would have been a disconcerting conversation with both of their incompatible translators working roughly together, but it wasn't too difficult to ignore the echo of English and French together; she was actually impressed that anyone at Hogwarts would wear a translator.

However, it was also the way he spoke about his predicament. It sounded like the school believed what they wanted to, and that he just chose to make life easier and take the credit anyway. It held many merits as morons who believed he did nothing, but hated him because of blood prejudice couldn't torment him by accusing him if he already admitted to it, although they likely would, it would prove they were jealous fools.

Though, thinking on it she was certain his method for getting around the age line was floorless if he could perform the magic. It was actually quite the clever idea. While everyone else thought of tricking the ward, Harry Potter thought of just outright taking it down. However, seeing that he was betting with goblins made her doubt that he was innocent for a moment until she approached them, and they turned to her.

"What was that first bet Harry Potter made with you?" she demanded, surprising them.

The first goblin laughed and saw no harm in telling her, "bet us one thousand galleons, one hundred to one that he could get into the tournament as a fourth school without doing anything to try!"

"B-but he admitted it!" she replied, confused as goblins wouldn't be stupid with gold or treasures, ever.

"Yeah, so," the second goblin added. "Made a bet with us by magic – it makes sure both sides keep to the debt and have the money to pay out – magic would have known, and we would have won – they already made the choice that he did it before he chose to take credit anyway. Clever wizard that one, smarter than any we have ever met. Thinking about it now, we gave him too higher odds, but we might be lucky; you might win!" They laughed as they left her and exited through to the outside.

She sighed as it would have been easier to hate Harry Potter than feel sorry for him, but she felt a bit odd that the goblins felt that he could actually beat three people with three years more experience and education than him. She shook her head as that was just impossible, and those goblins didn't know what they were talking about. Okay, she would believe he was innocent, but there was no way a boy like him could beat her.

She wouldn't be able to stop thinking about him and everything that went on in the antechamber with him, all night.

She realised, Harry Potter didn't trust his teachers, and that placed on her metaphorical detective cap as she had to find out the truth that was Harry Potter and the conspiracy revolving around him.

to be continued…