Chapter 6: The Tri-Wizard Tournament

A/N: Ok, as always, I own none of this, and these are simply my adaptations of J.K's world, mixed with the minds of other writers. As always, if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, I apologize, I do m best to get rid of them during editing, but nobody is perfect. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

Even with Harry slipping into the Chamber every day, October came quickly enough. Every day he would give himself another six hours to work with by using Slytherin's time-turner. Regardless of his trips back in time, the leaves of the trees surrounding the castle began to change, and cold wind made itself known to the inhabitants of Hogwarts.

No matter how quickly time flew for Harry, apparently for the rest of the student body, it was going at a snail's pace. The Tri-Wizard tournament and the excitement that followed it made it difficult for the other students to focus on anything else outside of classes.

The reactions of all the houses may have differed, but even within Gryffindor, there were three separate factions to be a part of. Ron, Seamus, and a vast majority of the rest of the house fell into the first, those who were determined to enter themselves into the tournament. Then faction two made up people like Neville and Hermione, who could not help but be a little interested in the new experiences to come. Finally, group three, filled with just Harry, a boy who couldn't be bothered with eternal glory or riches, already being famous and rich as it is.

Today was October the thirtieth, and soon, the contingents from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons should be arriving. There was a feast planned in their honor for that evening, something that Seamus had crowed excitedly a few places at the Gryffindor table away from Harry.

Harry had put everyone else out of his mind, staying firm to his book, a transfiguration text. He only glanced away towards Hermione, who was scribbling fiercely her own notes on what appeared to be Charms work. He also noticed some pumpkin juice making its way towards him, courtesy of the clumsiness of one Katie Bell. He absently vanished the liquid coming towards him, not noting Katie's surprise at his use of the spell.

Salazar had told him that he had certainly inherited his father's gift with Transfiguration. The founder was quite touchy about his heir having a similarity with Godric, was proud of Harry's excellence none the less. Unfortunately, the areas outside of Potions that his ancestor was a master at were labeled mostly forbidden in modern times by the Ministry.

That was something that Salazar was most indignant about, considering a majority of the studies had nothing to do with causing harm to other witches or wizards. Salazar was adamant that Ravenclaw would have been even more upset than he, something about magics being all about power and intent, and it was something that Harry could agree with. As long as his intentions weren't too out of line, he had no issue with most magics that Slytherin lectured about.

Harry was currently working on his own little pet project. He was trying to adapt the bird conjuring spell to conjure something else. He didn't want it to be too difficult and kept it as close to a bird as possible. Harry had decided to play homage to his favorite Potions professor and change it to summon bats.

"Vespertilis" Harry incanted firmly, making a swooping upside-down arch with his wand.

He was met with partial success, while he could perform the bird conjuring spell well enough, a sixth-year spell, he was having trouble getting the modifications for his own just right. Instead of a perfect bat coming into existence, Harry managed a headless, white one, that at least was still capable of uncoordinated flight.

The deformed creature made its way across the table, landing in front of Hermione, who poked it curiously with her wand. It evaporated in black mist. Harry scratched his head in confusion, still trying to figure out how he couldn't get the adaptation to work. 'Guess I should study the nature and anatomy of bats more.' he mused to himself.

Hermione shot him a weak smile after the bat disappeared. She was a little miffed that when she tried to rebuke him in classes for not trying hard enough or paying attention, he would perform the mentioned spell perfectly, or had an answer on the tip of his tongue in the case a teacher's attention was brought on to him. Harry knew that Hermione was trying to come to terms with the fact that Harry was much more studious that she was used to and had no explanation to his effortless success in classes.

Considering that Harry was only excelling so well due to the time-turner, he didn't hold that against her. He did hold against her the constant nagging and interrogation he got from her when it came to her prodding into matter's that did not concern her, like how he was finding the time to get so far ahead of everyone else.

Harry tried to be as patient with her as possible, knowing that the girl was used to being the best academically out of their year. Harry doing so well without any help from her more and more frequently was coming as a surprise for her, and he was sure that she would adapt to his new self eventually.

He returned her smile and went back to working on his spell.

"Vespertilis" he repeated, attempting to flow more magic into the spell.

He was rewarded with an extra deformed bat, but at least they were both darker in color that time.

'They were a little better formed at least.' he thought to himself as Katie set his creations aflame as they began rustling her hair and disturbing her meal. There had seemed to also have been something resembling a head this time on this attempt. Hermione had snorted at the show.

'I'd like to see her create a new spell.' Harry thought a little peeved. Between everyone's obsession with the tournament, and Hermione's reaction to his change in behavior he had found himself alone more often than he had grown accustomed to at Hogwarts. it reminded him of when he was just the freak under the stairs.

It made it easier to delve deeper into advanced magic, but that just continued the growing rift that was his friendships with Ron and Hermione both.

"At what time do you think the other schools will be arriving?" Alicia asked from across the table.

"I'm not so sure." Was Angelina's response. "I just wonder how they will be getting here."

A gasp of excitement caught everyone's attention. The random student who had uttered the noise was staring out the window towards the direction of the Black Lake.

"What is that?" Dean asked from over Harry's shoulder, apparently, he was the unfortunate sod with a good view out the window.

Harry looked out as well to find out what the fuss was about. All he could make out was some carriage in the air, being pulled by what he thought were flying horses, heading straight for the Hogwarts grounds.

The coach was a pale blue and decorated in what Harry typically thought something French would be. It passed by the central tower, disappearing out of view, and Harry returned to his book, putting it out of his mind.

Someone must have alerted the staff, because Dumbledore and a contingent of teachers were making their way out of the Great Hall.

Harry was not afforded peace to his book for long, as another excited voice drew the attention of all those who had not followed the staff out of the hall. "Something's happening to the lake!" a first year Hufflepuff had squeaked rather loudly.

Students excluding Harry fought their way towards the windows to get a better view.

"It's bubbling up! someone exclaimed.

"It looks like a ship's mast is coming up out of the water."

"It must be Durmstrang." A Ravenclaw prefect announced.

"Me mam mentioned that the school is somewhere in Scandinavia." Seamus piped in from the Gryffindor table.

"If everyone could find their seats at their house tables!" the voice of Dumbledore, magnified by his wand to his throat as he returned to the hall. "Let us leave a good impression on our guests."

The scramble that followed left Harry squished tightly between Katie and a sixth-year girl he did not know very well. His attempts to remove himself from human contact were met with little success by the time the new arrivals at Hogwarts made their entrances.

The students from Durmstrang showed up in what could only be described as matching cold-weather uniforms, made from brown fur coats and fuzzy hats. As they entered, a silver-haired, mean looking man followed the students in, with his arms wrapped around the shoulders of one remaining student.

"That's Victor Krum!" Ron hissed down the table, admiration locked in his eyes.

"Igor!" Dumbledore welcomed, arms outspread and eyes twinkling beneath his glasses. He was met with a jovial chuckle, as the man relinquished Krum and met the aged wizard for a brief hug in greeting.

"Madame Maxime is on her way, she is relaying some extra instructions to your Groundskeeper about her horses." the foreign professor announced in surprisingly unaccented English. Dumbledore simply nodded and gestured with his head for the other headmaster to take a seat up at the head table.

Harry let his attention return to his book at this point, decidedly over the excitement of the events to come. He wasn't roused out of his book once again until Katie elbowed him after he summoned another group of deformed bats to terrorize her.

"You're not acting like all these other idiots." she glared at him, gesturing around the table with her head.

He looked around and noticed that most of the other boys had their eyes fixated on a rather pretty platinum blonde from the French who had just started seating themselves at the Ravenclaw table.

Harry just shrugged and proceeded to continue practicing his new spell. Another attempt left Katie being terrorized, and ultimately her bullying Harry into giving the practice a break until he could no longer terrorize other students.

At one point, the food that Harry had clearly not been paying enough attention to, as he was now left hungry, disappeared. He had missed the majority of the feast with him having his face in his book.

"Now that our guests have arrived, and we are all fed and watered, it is time to get to the main event of the year." Dumbledore announced from behind the head table, before making his way to the lectern at the head of the hall. "It is time for the Tri-Wizard Tournament to begin, but first, the rules."

The Headmaster's words were mostly lost on the students, as everyone's eyes were drawn to the large goblet being brought in by a couple of Ministry wizards. The artifact had blue, crackling flames spewing from its basin, and Harry could see Ron eying it with obvious desire. The ginger-haired boy's want of stepping out of his older brother's shadows made apparent in that moment.

"First, let it be clear, that no student under the age of seventeen is allowed to enter the tournament." The hall immediately erupted into groans of annoyance, and in some cases, outrage. Harry was certain that he had heard the almost seventeen Weasley twins swear rather loudly.

"I have," Dumbledore continued, "to ensure that no mishaps take place, taken the liberty of drawing an age line around the goblet of fire here. Aside from this specific rule, the tournament will proceed as it always has. Those who wish to enter, may merely write their names and the names of their school on a slip of paper, and place it into the goblet before tomorrow evening's feast, where it will announce each school's champion."

Most every student at every table began frantically searching for slips of paper right in that instance. Harry had to pull his book out of the way of all of the quills and ink bottles making an appearance on the table, wary of a spill.

With the ensuing chaos caused by the announcement, and the following dismissal from the Headmaster, Harry decided a visit to the chamber would be better off than returning to the noisy Gryffindor common room.

When Harry made his appearance in Salazar's study, his ancestor made a comment on the spell that he had already been working on.

"I'm glad you gave up trying to use butterflies for your spell, they are such a feminine insect."

Harry took that as a cue for him to cast his modified spell. "Vespertilis" A lone, darker, and now almost completely formed bat came into existence, fluttering around the study, and grabbing the eye of Salazar's pet snake. Unfortunately for the snake, it was a part of the portrait and would not be gaining a tasty snack any time soon.

"Butterflies would have been simpler than these bats." Harry defended himself.

Slytherin sneered in response.

"You are my heir, easy does nothing to commend you. If you brought this to a teacher, the added difficult would reward you with a higher level of earned respect, and maybe a higher grade if they award you extra-credit."

"What are you visualizing though?" the portrait asked. "And how much of bats have you even studied?"

"I wasn't really." Harry admitted. "I never really had to think about it once I got the bird-conjuring spell down."

"Well, bats differ from birds greatly. You are also trying to conjure multiple, are you not?"

"Yes, I have been testing the differing levels of power, but every time I try, I always either get less than I hoped for, as well as something deformed."

Slytherin was silent for a moment, before nodding and speaking out again.

"For now, I think it would be best if you simply focused on making one at a time, until you get used to how to conjure from pure air. You should also study the creatures more thoroughly, as with any art of magic, if you can visualize it easily, the easier the magic comes."

Harry nodded in agreement. "I had already determined that I need to study the species more. I guess I have been too ambitious in trying to summon multiple bats at a time though. I just want to have this as a tool as soon as possible."

Salazar hummed in thought. "You should be proud of the progress you have made so far, not many other fourteen-year olds could boast to dabbling in spell crafting, even if you are only modifying a per-existing one."

After another moments pause, the portrait spoke up again. "Try forming just one and truly think of it forming from just the air molecules around you. It may help the process, just use a bit more visualization than you were."

"Vespertilis" Harry firmly spoke, copying his previous wand movements. He focused on one perfectly formed bat, one he had scene in a drawing during his many stays in the library this year. He thought of air molecules and dust sticking together to create what he desired.

A moment later, a bat that appeared to be missing only its left ear was fluttering around Harry, but other than that seemed to be acting exactly as a bat should, well, at least a conjured one.

"Much better." Salazar praised. "If you continue practicing on from there, perfecting the one, and then adding one bat at a time, you should make quicker, and more stable progress." A sound idea from his ancestor, and one he would not take for granted considering the extra success the man had helped him achieve.

"You've spent a lot of time down here since you discovered my study." The founder observed during Harry's quiet contemplation. "And that does not include your used of my time-turner either."

"All of my year mates are obsessed with the tournament." Harry defended. "I don't enjoy constantly listening about it when I could be spending my time learning stronger magics and bettering myself."

"Do not forget your friends." The portrait warned. "You will need them in the future, should you exert your talent of getting yourself into a hairy situation once again."

"I haven't forgotten them!" Harry defended hotly. "But it is hard to spend time with them when they don't do or talk about anything that I find interesting currently. Hermione is the only one I could talk about all of this stuff, but she seems jaded about the fact that I appear to be just as smart or possibly smarter than her now that I am applying myself!"

"Choose better friends then." was the calm suggestion.

"There are none!"

"If you are sure."

"I am!" Harry replied confidently. After that, the only sound in the chamber was Harry's continued practice of conjuring his bats, attempting to create more so that he could have a swarm around him, acting as a flying shield.

After getting about five almost perfect bats to fly around him with one incantation, Harry cast a tempus charm, and noted how late it was.

"I only have thirty minutes until curfew. I will probably be back tomorrow. Anything you think I should work on?" Harry asked his ancestor.

Salazar thought for a moment before answering. "Yes, see if you cannot find Godric's and Rowena's room. It would satisfy me to know that my heir was also able to find their legacy within the school."

"You miss them." Harry realized.

"Of course I do. They were my peers in magical ability at the time. Though Godric could be childish, he was still an accomplished wizard and had my respect. Rowena and Helga were two of the best women of the age. A scholar belongs amongst other scholars." Slytherin admitted.

Harry nodded in understanding. "I'll search for it when I have the time."

"Go find your friends for now child." Slytherin shooed him away. "You will need them in due time, I am sure."

Harry agreed, and made his way out of the Chamber, certain to lock up and to cast some mild privacy spells over the area as he left Myrtle's bathroom. He was hoping people would have actually returned to the common room by that point, he was hoping to socialize a little bit outside of artistic representation of his family.

When he eventually entered the common room, he found his male year mates and a few other students hanging out by the fire.

"Are you the only ones around?" Harry asked as he crossed the room to join them.

"The older years are still by the goblet, and the younger years have already gone up to bed for the most part, same with the girls." Ron answered, a little downcast.

"Not happy about the age rules then?"

"Pissed off is more like it." Ron admitted.

Harry didn't say anything to that. He knew that Ron wanted to get outside of his brothers' shadows and was sure that with this opportunity being yanked out from under him, he would be a little sour for the next few days.

"Did you try and enter Harry?" Seamus asked quietly.

Harry shook his head, a soft chuckle escaping his lips.

"Absolutely not. You think I like crazy things happening to me every year? No, if I want excitement, I'll go take my broom to the pitch. I was working on my bat-conjuring spell in an unused classroom and made some good progress."

The other boys chuckled as well when Harry brought up crazy things happening around him. "Blimey mate, you've turned into a boy version of Hermione over the summer, haven't you!" Dean teased, prompting Harry to launch a pillow at the darker skinned boy.

That single act of juvenile behavior would be one of the last friendly encounters he would have with his dorm mates for some time to come.