Chapter 60: The Champions
“The Hogwarts Champion,” Dumbledore called, “will be Cedric Diggory!”
“Darn,” Angelina mumbled. She was seated next to Hailey today, with her parents on her other side; Dumbledore had approved their presence. Ron was sandwiched between Sadarina- who, as always, was next to Hailey- and Silversong, with Hermione sandwiched between Ginny and Ariel on the other side of the table. It was rare for Ginny and Ariel not to sit next to one another, but not unheard of.
“Hoping for a Gryffindor victory?” Hailey asked.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “And I was kinda hoping for it myself, too. Would’ve been fun.”
“Not really,” Hailey told her. “It’d be mostly just boring. Especially to a phoenix, even if you stuck to the ground and didn’t travel by fire.”
She looked at her. “Really?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I can tell you more after each Task is revealed- but honestly, you’re not missing much. Well, except perhaps the Yule Ball that Rarity is undoubtedly making you an astounding gown for, but you don’t have to be a Champion to attend that.”
She scowled. “But I do have to be a Champion of Sunset for that,” she informed her. “Those dress robes of hers are so ugly…” She shuddered.
“Shouldn’t be a problem after we get Morning in front of Rarity,” Hailey told her. “You’ll even have her dress to tempt her with, not just your own.”
Very suddenly, the Great Hall went silent, and Dumbledore’s speech about supporting the Champions was cut short. Angelina looked up- and at once, she could see why. The Goblet of Fire had turned red again, and was throwing sparks out into the air- exactly as it had for the three Champions. Once more, a tongue of red flames shot into the air, and released a scrap of parchment.
Dumbledore, almost automatically, reached out and caught the piece, before staring at it. Finally, he spoke.
“The Champion from the Salem Witches’ Institute, which is not participating, is Harry Potter.”
A wave of chuckles had swept the room when he’d mentioned that the Witches’ Institute wasn’t participating, but when he said the name, it was instead a wave of laughter- which seemed to be the strongest at the Gryffindor Table. Even Hailey chuckled.
Angelina, however, didn’t laugh. She looked at Hailey. “Isn’t that you?” she asked.
Hailey shook her head. “No, actually, it’s not.”
Right on time, the doors out to the Entrance Hall flew open with an echoing bang- and people across the Hall, mostly on the Gryffindor table, gasped as Harry marched dramatically into the room. Confusion was immediately evident in Dumbledore’s eyes, but Harry ignored it as he marched up to the teacher’s tables, his hat lopsided, turned, and proceeded to join the rest of the Champions on the other side of the door behind the teachers’ table.
Dumbledore watched him go, and even once he’d disappeared, he still stared. Finally, he turned back to the room at large, stared at Hailey for a couple seconds, and sighed. “Alright then. As I was sayi-!” He broke off… as the Goblet of Fire turned bright red again.
“Not again,” Professor McGonagall groaned.
Dumbledore captured the piece of parchment, and stared at it too. “The…” He began. “The Champion for CSGU, whatever that is, will be Silversong.”
There was an immediate uproar.
“Who dares mar the name of Celestia’s School?” someone hollered.
Angelina looked past Hailey, Ron, and Sadarina, to Silver.
“So…” Silver muttered slowly, and scowled. “How… How did…?”
“Silversong?” Dumbledore repeated.
Silver blinked. “Oh, that little wench,” she snarled, and rose from her seat. She wasn’t nearly as dramatic as Harry- at least, intentionally. She still drew everyone’s attention as she stormed up to the staff table… and stopped. “I object to my participation in the Tournament,” she stated, loudly and clearly, directly to Dumbledore’s face. “I was not aware my name had been submitted.”
“I am sorry to hear that,” Dumbledore answered her calmly, in a tone that carried just as far without being as loud, “but it is a binding contract. Please join the other Champions, and we can discuss it in finer detail in a minute.” He gestured towards the door.
Silver sighed, evidently not liking his answer, but accepted it, turned, and walked resolutely through the door.
Dumbledore turned to the Goblet. “Next,” he commanded. The room held its breath.
The blue-bell flames in the Goblet of Fire… went out.
Dumbledore sighed. “I guess that was the last one. Okay. As I was saying…”
Dumbledore looked up, and sighed, as Hailey entered his office a week later. As usual, she had Sadarina by her side and was floating the nearly four foot high stack of pages that comprised the weekly report in front of her. Far less normal was her somber expression.
“What broke?” he sighed.
“I need to request a suspension,” she answered, in a calm, almost deadly voice.
“Oh my,” he muttered. “What happened?”
“Righteous Fury,” she answered, like it was a name.
“An interesting name,” Dumbledore noted.
She snorted. “It’s positively pedestrian by Equestrian standards.”
“It is?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
She nodded. “Lyra Heartstrings plays a lyre. Bonbon owns a candy shop that sells, primarily, bonbons. Vinyl Scratch is a DJ. Rainbow Dash has rainbow hair and likes to dash. Fluttershy is shy. Applejack runs an apple farm. Lack Effort- one of our Astronomy student instructors- lacks effort. Crash Course is only good at crash courses. Hard Spell has a really hard time spelling- both in spelling words, and in casting spells. And Righteous Fury?”
Dumbledore winced at her building tone… and the implication. “Got really angry?”
“He put Pansy Parkinson in the Hospital Wing twice this week, the second time with a concussion and a broken jaw, for blaspheming the name of Celestia’s School for Gifted…. Raeths. It means the same thing, but the correct word is an Equestrian National Secret on this side. Anyways, he was fired from his position as a Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts and given a weeks’ detention. He also failed to obey orders to stop, so he was effectively ‘on probation’ from the Equestrian Royal Guard as well. We contacted his commanding officer back in Equestria, and apparently, private Fury- used to be Corporal- has always had a persistent discipline problem.” She sighed.
“Who did he disobey?” Dumbledore asked, watching her. If the disobedience was enough to earn him a demotion in what was apparently some kind of military-like system, it had to be pretty bad.
“Princess Luna,” Hailey answered darkly. “The Commander in Chief of all Equestria’s armed forces.” She sighed. “He’s lucky she didn’t decide to imprison him right off the bat, because not only is she one of our best fourth-year Student Instructors for Defense Against the Dark Arts, she’s also one of Equestria’s diarchs.”
“Oh my,” Dumbledore breathed.
She nodded. “Last night, I crossed paths with him, in another battle with Pansy.
“He had a knife.”
He winced. “Is she okay?”
“Unhurt,” Hailey answered. “After that second time, she’s taken to carrying her wand everywhere, in her hand. He tried to sneak up behind her- and while she didn’t have time to reason out a suitable defense, she’s a natural with blasting spells.”
He flinched. “How much is left?”
“He’s still alive,” Hailey answered calmly, her tone suggesting he was only just. “He was wearing his Royal Guard armor, and it’s so heavily enchanted that anything short of the Killing Curse itself won’t really hurt him. He was knocked backwards, but he easily kept his footing and, discarding the knife, drew his own wand. We think he knew he wasn’t going to get close again- not with her wand trained on him, at least.”
“How… Did she get him again?”
Hailey shook her head. “She was still in a panic, trying to get a shield up- she’s really bad at those- and he was halfway through throwing a blasting spell back at her when Sadarina destroyed his wand, and I blasted him as well.”
“That had to be scary,” Dumbledore observed.
Hailey cracked a grin. “Oh yes. Pansy had seen his armor absorb her blast and protect him from it- so when his wand exploded a second later, immediately followed by my blast forcing him to perform a feat normally reserved for ghosts, then Princess Luna’s class’ blasts ripping his armor to shreds in a surprise practical…” She sighed. “Luna’s class is full of very high-level Guards and other similarly skilled personnel. On top of that, the Guards are not supposed to wear their armor on this side of the Gate, by decree of Princess Celestia three and a half years ago.
“So of course, while I helped Pansy calm down, waived her spell as self-defense, and advised her to go for disarming rather than a shield next time, he was issued a court date on the way to the Hospital Wing; he will be court-martialed for Conduct Unbecoming in about three weeks, then charged with Aggravated Assault, among other things, in Equestrian criminal court two days later.”
“Sounds like everything is handled,” Dumbledore muttered.
Hailey sighed. “Equestria doesn’t have very many prisons, and the ones they do have are incredibly expensive to run thanks to not having a Dementor-equivalent to act as prison guards, nevermind how hard it is to contain three different kinds of innate magic…” She sighed again. “Equestrian law actually prohibits imprisonment in most cases. It’s actually cheaper, most of the time, to assign someone to follow him around. As such, their laws won’t allow for imprisonment until he breaches his restraining order a second time. However, he came this close to killing her the first time.” She held her hand up, holding her fingers about a half a centimeter apart. “Of the crimes he will be tried for, three of them carry those rare Equestrian prison sentences… and one of them is the only way to get a death sentence in Equestria: Attempted, or actual, violent murder… of a child. They use a different word, but it means the same thing.” She sighed. “I don’t know about you, but I want him out of this castle before he has a chance to try again.”
“Violent murder?” he asked.
She nodded. “The Blasting Spell is classified as a Level One Lethal Spell- can kill, but often won’t- but the knife he nearly got her with is a Murderous Weapon, and the defining attack for the crime.”
“... Alright,” he muttered. “He’ll be suspended. Some… twenty-three days?” He looked up at her.
“His criminal trial will be in twenty five days as of today- he will be missing classes for it.”
He nodded. “Twenty five days, then. And if the judges don’t mind, can I request a copy of the verdict?”
She nodded. “You will already be receiving a copy, since the victim was under your protection, and Pansy will also be receiving a copy, as the victim.” She sighed. “You- and she- should be receiving notices in the mail in a few days, along with instructions for how to claim damages against him for the crime, as victims. Remember that, in terms of actual value, it’s five knuts to the Equestrian bit, and you shouldn’t have any trouble at all recovering the cost of repairing the wall downstairs. We’re also going to want to notify Pansy’s parents before they receive that same notice and instructions. They won’t be too happy, but at least they won’t panic if we can at least explain the circumstances of the crime before they get the legal notice.”
Dumbledore nodded. “Alright.” He looked down at his desk, then back up. “How are our guests?”
“Doing pretty well, I’d say. Fleur- the Beauxbatons champion- stopped Fury the first time he attacked Pansy, when it was just fists, and ended up with a black eye- but between the two of them, they were able to overcome him. On the second attack, Krum cast a rather clever alert charm to summon help while he watched from a safe distance. It found me and Luna- and after he ignored Luna’s orders, I stopped Fury from beating her with a broom handle. After Luna had laid down the law against him, I forced him to accompany me and Pansy to the Hospital Wing, and explain directly to Madam Pomfrey what had happened, in addition to his other punishments.” She sighed. “Other than that, they all seem to be doing fine. Plenty of them have made British or Equestrian friends- even Fleur, easily the most aloof of any of them.
“Anyways.” She glanced sideways at the pile. “You probably already know what I’m going to say about the detention.”
He smiled. “He skived off again, didn’t he?”
She nodded. “We’ll have to conspire to tell him where my office is at some point- at this rate, he’ll be fired too quickly.”
Dumbledore chuckled. “So… There’s a few things I’ve been meaning to ask you about.”
“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Yes. First of all, how did you do… whatever you were doing, during the Weighing of the Wands yesterday?”
“Ahh, that,” she chuckled, her mood rising rapidly after he had granted her wish. “Are you also going to ask about what happened the night of the Goblet of Fire?”
He nodded silently.
She sighed. “It was all long and boring.”
Nearly a Week Before…
“Hailey.” It was Silversong, as soon as the judges had entered the room.
Hailey, presently disguised as Harry and strutting like she owned the place despite her deliberately careless appearance, looked up, made brief eye contact with her future self, and allowed herself a flicker of a smile. This was a planned encounter between her past and future selves- though they wouldn’t come into direct contact. She was only here for appearances, after all- so Harry could be properly given his first instructions, before vanishing into the thaumion flow again until the next event, the Weighing of the Wands. Her notebook was devoid of details for this particular event, suggesting that not much was about to happen.
Her future self raised an eyebrow. “Yes?” she asked. She was… oddly cheerful, Hailey noticed. It was a far cry from how positively jubilant her present and- especially- future selves had been when she got the notebook, but it was definitely a step up from where she was. She had to wonder again- was Lyra’s mental health stuff just that effective, or was there something else that was making them happier?
“Tell me there’s a way to get out of this Tournament,” Silver commanded. Hailey had deliberately avoided talking to her since she’d arrived in the room; she wasn’t entirely certain how to manage the conversation with one of the people that knew who she really was… while a few months behind them in the timeline. They’d think she was an imposter.
“There is,” her future self told Silver. “However, it’s a very particular one. There’s a lot of requirements you have to meet, then you have to announce your objection to participating in front of the Goblet of Fire, a majority of the Judges, and a majority of the spectators.”
Silver tilted her head. “What are those requirements?”
She shrugged. “Well, unlike Harry, you actually meet most of them… but there’s one that nobody can know except yourself. Your reason for getting out has to fit certain parameters… and not knowing you were entered doesn’t fit them. So, what is your reason?”
Silver scowled. “My… reason?”
“Yes. Why shouldn’t you compete?”
“I…” She paused. “I possess an unfair advantage that none of the other Champions do,” she told her. “It wouldn’t be a fair competition.”
Her future self sighed. “Unfortunately, overqualification isn’t a valid reason to break the contract.”
“Aren’t magical contracts consensual?”
She nodded. “They are. But there are a few magical objects powerful enough to force one on you without your consent- and the only one the Ministry hasn’t yet destroyed… is the Goblet of Fire.”
“Great,” Silver moaned.
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Righteous Fury? As in Loyal Dumb Paladin or Astartes Space Marine?
11175057
Going by the actions described, Astartes Space Marine.
I'm guessing either anger management classes have not been working for Righteous Fury or Equestria doesn't have anger management.
If his anger is a side effect of his special talent, maybe a certain spell known by Starlight Glimmer might not be a bad idea. Might still be, since it would make him bad at everything else though.
I'd say he got what he deserved, even if it is Pansy we're talking about. Nice integration of Fleur and Krum though, I always thought they deserved larger roles than the "spoiled" pretty girl and the excuse for a "love triangle"
Mirror pool? Or a changeling?
11175501
Heh heh Neither, actually. This time.