//------------------------------//
// Chapter 55:  The Goblet of Fire 
// Story: The Accidental Invasion 
// by computerneek 
//------------------------------//

“Do I need to say it?”
Barty Crouch Jr. jumped at least a foot in the air when the youthful voice sounded out from behind him, right after he’d turned away from the Goblet of Fire, having successfully dropped Harry Potter’s name into it.  He landed with a loud clatter- thankfully, he was disguised as Alastor Moody- and whirled around to look, briefly forgetting about the magical eye he’d taken from the real Moody.
It was Hailey.  She was leaning casually against the podium the Goblet of Fire had been placed on, completely unperturbed by how her robes were flapping as if in a very strong wind despite her hair flowing gently and sedately down her back.  She was even facing away from him.
He took the chance to glare at her while he tried to figure out what she was talking about.  Hailey Potter…  She was, in a very real sense, his archnemesis.  She was well on the way to getting him kicked out- unless it was some elaborate ruse, but it certainly didn’t seem like one- and on top of that, she had humiliated him in every class so far.  In the first class it had been simple- when he had demonstrated the Killing Curse and told them they wouldn’t be able to do it, she’d promptly drawn her wand to cast it, and correctly at that, on the spiders remaining in the jar.  She’d then told his class that it didn’t take dark magic at all- only a willingness to kill…  Or simply immense power, which she said was how she’d done it.
The second one…  He’d tried to show them what the Imperius Curse was like, but they’d all resisted it so well most of then hadn’t even noticed it…  and she’d gone on to bounce it back at him before giving him detention for it!  Not only had he been busy with his Polyjuice Potion at that hour, but he still had no idea where her office was…  which meant he was well on his way to getting kicked out far short of his goal.
If it wouldn’t have undermined his position, he would’ve cast the Killing Curse on her just to be rid of her!
She turned her head slightly, towards the Cup.  Not far enough for her to see him, but far enough to make her meaning clear.  “Do I?” she repeated.
He whirled the magical eye around to check the area.  Yes, they were alone- just he and Hailey.  Even the nearby rooms and passages were all empty.  Nobody was invisible, either.  He took a deep breath, on the pretense of answering her question, and made his decision.  Nobody would know, after all- especially if he transfigured the remains into something he could tuck into his robes.
“Avada Kedavra,” he whispered, as quietly as he could.
Hailey shattered like glass as the Curse flew through her- in an effect he recognized all too well from magical projections.  In her place, there was an unfamiliar first-year girl he was certain hadn’t been there a second before, who caught his curse almost casually in her hand, like it was a physical object.  She lowered it down to look at it- and as she did so, he noticed that she was standing inside the age ring as well, though unlike Hailey, her robes weren’t trying to blow themselves off of her.
“Really?”
He jumped.  It was Hailey again, leaning against the other side of the podium, and facing him this time.  “H-How?” he began.  He focused with his magical eye…  Yes.  This time, he could see through her clothes without seeing through her as well- a characteristic of real people.  Projections didn’t have anything under their clothes- no skin, no nothing.
Interesting.  Her underwear was a matching set, and not the plain ones Madam Malkin made.
She ignored his question.  “So do I need to say it?”
The first-year stuck one end of his spell bolt in her mouth and bit it.  The spell bolt seemed to be about as big around as his wand, and a foot long- and as she lowered it from her mouth, he saw that she had, indeed, taken a bite out of it like it was a glowing green breadstick.  He turned the magical eye on her, expecting to see a projection- but, with a pang of horror, he realized that it couldn’t see her at all, though it could see the spell bolt.
Finally, he answered Hailey’s question.  She was far too fast with a wand for him to beat her without the element of surprise- and especially if there was someone else here, he didn’t want to tip his hand any more than he already had.  “Say what?”
“Detention,” she answered, her tone making it a command.  “My office, seven thirty in the evening.  Monday.”  She smiled.  “If you survive this, of course.”  She held her hand out towards the first-year.
“Needs salt,” the little girl muttered.
He looked.
She raised the now twice-bitten spell bolt into the air, and threw it at him.  It immediately resumed acting like a spell bolt- and he moved, as quickly as he could.
Her aim was already off a little, but it still passed so close to his shoulder his robes flashed ablaze and he felt it singe his skin.
He stared at the two girls, standing on either side of the Goblet.  What exactly was Hailey playing at?  And who was that girl?  The stolen magical eye could read nametags from across the room- but it still couldn’t find her!  Even his normal eye couldn’t find her nametag- her hair was draped over it!
Hailey sighed.  “For the compound crimes of submitting a name other than your own…  and for submitting a name in the first place, as a staff member.  We’ll do you a favor and not mention that curse to the Ministry.  Shoo.”  She flapped a hand at him, as if to ward off a fly.
He left.





It took until Hermione was halfway through getting dressed before she realized that Hailey’s bed wasn’t just empty, but still made.  Even she couldn’t make these beds as well as the house-elves did, and it looked like a house-elf had done it.
“Hey, Silver?” she asked, keeping her voice down to avoid waking the other British Gryffindor girls.
Silver looked up.  As usual, despite having been a girl for a much shorter amount of time, she was far faster than Hermione, so she was just slipping her shoes on.  “Hmm?”
“Where’s Hailey?” Hermione asked, adjusting her skirt until the waistband sat just right on her waist.
She glanced at the big clock over the door.  “Oh, she’ll be in the Entrance Hall, guarding the Goblet of Fire.  She asked me to cover for her this morning so she could get some sleep.”  She looked up at the clock; it was five o’clock.  “Still got half an hour- you want to grab some breakfast with me?”
She grinned, picking a shirt from her trunk and flicking it out to unfold it and reveal which way was forwards.  At least wizards knew what ‘fit-cut’ was, so it wasn’t exactly the same as a boy’s shirt.  “Sure, why not?”  She paused, checking the shoulder seams, with special attention to the ones that went underneath her shoulders.  Unlike Hailey, she hadn’t had a few hundred galleons to spend on a TARDIS-like trunk, so she only had three shirts- and especially with some of the stuff that she did in her research efforts, these shirts wore out fast.  She’d already ripped a shoulder seam all the way up through the collar on one of them, delegating it to the trash can.  “As soon as I find some clothes,” she muttered, glancing down the side.  Bits of the seam were separating, but none of them were in dangerous spots- and besides, unless it split big, it would be hidden underneath her robe, so inconsequential anyways.  She put her arms into it, raised it up to put her head in- and stopped, lowering it again.  It had split, right down the middle of the front, where there wasn’t even a seam.  She sighed, idly wondering exactly what possessed it to split there of all places.  “Speaking of which, it looks like I’m down to just one shirt now.”
Silver winced.  “Yikes.  Do you need one of mine?”
She sighed, glancing to the side.  She’d turned in a little early the night before, so it seemed the house-elves that Hailey had taken her to meet a few days after the Welcoming Feast had managed to get her laundry done overnight.  Fortunately, she wouldn’t need to be borrowing any of Silver’s several shirts; Silver had also had gold to throw at TARDIS-trunks.  “I shouldn’t,” she answered, plucking her third and final shirt from her trunk.  She shook it out, and examined it as well.
This one was in slightly worse condition; there was a little hole in one of the underarms, and the embroidery on the chest was tearing apart…  But, as she put it on, it didn’t rip in half like the other one had.  “Okay, that one works.  And it’s going to be fun…”  She sighed, internally berating herself for forgetting to replenish her clothes during the summer.  At least Madam Malkin’s bras had spells on them to keep them from stretching out.  “I really should have thought about regular clothes last time I was in Diagon Alley, not just dress robes.”  She picked up one of her two surviving robes, after a shoulder seam had been ripped open on the third, and slipped it on; her robes were made of much heavier fabrics than her shirts, with stronger seams to match.  That one had only ripped because she’d landed on it wrong…  Or, more accurately, because Theodore Nott had hit it with a severing charm while she wasn’t looking.  She left it unbuttoned while she slipped her shoes and socks on, grabbed her hat from her bedside table, and finally stood up.  “Alright,” she told Silver.  “Let’s go get breakfast.”
As she spoke, and as they continued on out of the dormitory, she did up the front of her robes- so she was done by the time they reached the common room.





“Hey Hailey!” Silver greeted, trotting over towards where Hailey was sitting on the floor, leaning against the podium holding the Goblet of Fire.  Her robes were blowing as if in a strong wind, but her hair wasn’t.
Hermione, a piece of toast in her hand, walked up with Silver, right up to the age line.  Neither of them crossed it.
Hailey, looking exhausted, rose to her feet and stepped out to meet them.  “Good morning,” she smiled.
“Why are you guarding the Goblet?” Hermione asked curiously.  “Wouldn’t Dumbledore’s age line be enough…?”
Hailey gestured at the floor behind her.  There were a few crumpled-up wads of parchment or paper lying on the floor within the age line.  “People- underage people- are throwing their names at the Goblet from outside the line.  If they manage to hit it, that would legitimately bypass the age line.”  She looked at Silver.  “Your job, while you’re guarding it, will be to keep people from throwing their names in.  If they can cross the age line and drop it in normally, that’s completely fine.”  She offered Silver what looked like a collapsible baton.  “You can use this if you want.  Wiggle the lurgid diagonally to make it longer or shorter, and don’t be afraid to block any thrown names in any way you need to.”
“Does that include the Misty Step?”
Hailey nodded.  “Don’t be afraid to break the laws of physics.  And…  About the Age Line.”  She looked to the side, and blasted a clump of parchment out of the air with a column of fire from her empty hand.  “That’s another five points from Slytherin, Nott,” she called disappointedly, before turning back to Silver, then reaching out and touching her forehead briefly with a finger.  “The Age Line protects a cylindrical volume straight up from the line to the level of the Cup’s brim, and a spherical volume of the same radius set in the center of the Cup.  The shield I just gave you will make you immune to it for about two hours, but it won’t affect your clothes- you’ll get a windy effect, as you can see.”  She gestured down at her own robes.  “Sadarina will be back in about an hour.  Any questions?”
Silver nodded.  “Did you know Hermione’s down to her last shirt?”
Hailey raised an eyebrow, while Hermione blushed and averted her eyes.
“Won’t Sadarina be unable to cross it?” Silver corrected herself.
Hailey smiled.  “She’s a couple thousand years old, remember.  No age line on the planet is going to bother her.”
Silver nodded.  “No questions, then.”
Hailey nodded, then stepped sideways out of the ring.  Almost as soon as she’d stepped across the line, her robes stopped acting like they were in a high wind.  “Alright.”  She looked at Hermione, as Silver started prowling around the Goblet, experimenting with the baton as she went.
“What?” Hermione asked, while Hailey stifled a sudden yawn.
“Sorry about that,” Hailey muttered.  “Are you really down to your last shirt?”
She nodded.  “Uh- Yes.  I couldn’t fit any more in my trunk on the way here- I was going to write to Mum to send some of my older shirts.”  She sighed.  “It’s not perfect, but it’ll do.”
Hailey smiled.  “Don’t worry about that,” she told her.  “There’s something I meant to show you last summer, and now’s a perfect time.  Anyways…”  She stretched herself out.  “I need to get some sleep before I pass out down here.  How’s…  Noon-ish?”
Hermione tilted her head.  “Should work.  What is it?”
“I’ll meet you in the common room,” she began- then smiled suddenly, her eyes glinting mischievously.  Her normal, almost playful tone returned as well.  “Unless you want to join me in the dormitory, of course.”