By the time the Second Task came around, Fleur felt a lot more confident about how she would do in it. After plenty of swimming lessons and having already swam to the mermaid village multiple times, she was sure that she would do fine.
After this was over though, she had no desire to ever be underwater ever again. While she felt more comfortable as a mermaid it made her feel so unlike herself and it just felt too weird for her to want to do it unless it was absolutely necessary.
Last night Harry had been taken by Professor McGonagall but not before getting her to confess that it was for the tournament.
Fleur guessed that it meant that Harry was the thing that she would sorely miss and have to rescue.
While she would have preferred that they didn't place actual people into unnecessary danger, she was grateful that it was Harry going underneath the lake and not Gabrielle. She would never have allowed that knowingly.
As the crowd of spectators swarmed around the lake to watch them begin, she looked around at each of her fellow champions.
She had spotted Krum once going to go practice in the lake, and Marie had hinted at already having figured out her clue but as for anyone else, she had no idea if they had solved the egg clue or figured out a way to be able to breathe underwater.
It appeared however that Marian suddenly looked even more nervous as she was told about going underneath the lake.
Dumbledore began explaining what they had to do while she listened intently, making sure that she had everything down.
"You will each have 1 hour to try and get to your hostage, rescue them and bring them to the surface, at which time the clock will stop for you and be recorded. Good luck. " Dumbledore announced.
Finally he told them to start, and she wasted no time, not bothering to look at her fellow champions to see what they were doing and instead started hissing the Parseltongue spell that would turn her into a mermaid.
People were no doubt confused by all the hissing she was doing, but she ignored them and turned herself into a mermaid, ignoring the no doubt startled or shocked looked she got for such a transformation.
Swimming as fast as she could, she was at least happy that she could probably swim way faster than if she had simply used a bubble head charm, her tail and rather strong swimming skills as a mermaid gave her a huge advantage.
Already knowing exactly where the Mervillage was, she swam over and arrived in less than 9 minutes before finding Harry tied down, appearing to be asleep with some other people needing to be rescued as well. She recognized Roxanne's hostage, her little brother, as he was also her own cousin.
Leaving him behind to be rescued by Roxanne, she swam over and used a spell that she had been practicing using underwater to cut off the ropes tying him down and grabbed him.
He wasn't too heavy fortunately, but she did have to slow her pace just slightly as she pulled him to the surface.
As soon as they broke through into the air, the spell currently causing Harry to sleep wore off as he woke up.
"What took you so long?" He asked her cheekily as he looked over at her.
"I got here as fast as I could." She answered, grinning at him, "It looks like I get to be your hero this time around."
"Be honest, how beautiful a maiden in waiting do I make?" He asked with a grin and a dramatic hair flip.
"Oh you're quite the catch, I think I'll keep you." Fleur answered before kissing him heatedly.
It was approximately forty seven seconds later when they both remembered they still needed to get back to shore. They made it back in record time, since Fleur noticed Harry start to shiver in the cold water.
Everyone looked quite surprised to see her back so quickly as it had really only taken her 10 minutes to complete the task but everyone still cheered nonetheless as she transformed back into her Veela self.
She noticed that Marian had apparently already failed in the task, and likely hadn't been able to figure out a way to breathe underwater as the girl was still standing there, still totally dry.
Dumbledore had been able to cast a spell allowing the spectators to watch the remaining champions compete on a huge projected screen of some kind.
Roxanne, Marie, and Nicolette had all used the Bubblehead Charm, and Krum was using a partial transfiguration of himself into a shark, although it didn't appear to help with actual swimming much.
Roxanne got caught by some Grindylows but she managed to escape, and then Nicolette ran into the same problem 5 minutes later.
Finally when it became clear that she was now caught as a couple of Grindylows held tightly onto her, Professor McGonagall, evidently having already been down under the lake to run interference if necessary came in and rescued her before bringing her to the surface.
Now there were only 3 champions left still trying to rescue their hostages.
Marie got to the mervillage first and rescued her champion, which was her mother before coming back, managing to get to the surface only a minute past an hour.
Krum was next, followed by Roxanne.
As the judges deliberated, she took the opportunity to congratulate all 3 of them.
Of course Peeves ended up showing up with the two remaining hostages at that point, having lurked at the bottom of the lake until he realized they wouldn't be rescued as a way to prove that he had completed the task as well.
Neither hostage was too happy to find they were rescued by a poltergeist, but Peeves still proudly displayed the two rescued hostages that he had saved nonetheless.
Finally Dumbledore announced the scores:
"Marian Dumas, having failed to complete her task or show the capability of being able to breathe underwater as the task requires, we are forced to award her only 1 point."
Marian nodded. It was 1 point more than she likely expected to get.
"Nicolette LePeux failed to complete her task but exercised excellent use of the bubble head charm, therefore we award her 25 points."
Nicolette also nodded, gratefully.
"Roxanne Delacour also used the bubble head charm and managed to complete her task in 1 hour and 10 minutes. We therefore award her 37 points."
That wasn't too bad, Fleur supposed, although she wondered just what Krum and Marie would be getting.
"Viktor Krum using a partal transfiguration finished in 1 hour and 5 minutes, for which we award him 40 points."
Krum only nodded glumly, even if it was a decent score.
"Marie Dupris finished only a minute outside of an hour using a bubble head charm and therefore we award her 47 points."
If Marie managed to get 47 points, she herself was likely to get a perfect score she realized.
"Fleur Delacour using a dangerous and illegal spell was disqualified and given 0 points," Dumbledore announced.
Immediately there was a clamor of angry protests by the students and even some of the faculty. Even she felt quite cheated as there was absolutely nothing in the rules that prohibited her from using parselmagic or turning herself into a mermaid. Su had even checked just to be sure.
"Silence!" Dumbledore roared, "as per the rules I am allowed to disqualify the Champion from my school if I feel that they have committed any illegal actions in a task. I have also concluded that after such horrible and blatant cheating already committed in this tournament, we simply could not allow anymore to continue. While it pains me to have to disqualify my own Champion representing my own school, she simply broke the rules and the magic that she used was of the most evil and dark nature once used to rape innocent merpeople."
"There is nothing in the rules against using parselmagic Professor or that particular spell." Su shouted angrily.
"Be that as it may, I still have the right to disqualify my own Champion should I so choose. I want everyone to know that Hogwarts is a school that will not stand for even the smallest amount of cheating. Hogwarts is one of the best schools in the world and I intend to keep it that way." Dumbledore argued.
Of course people still protested, but Dumbledore decided to leave just then, citing important business.
"This is so totally unfair." Gabrielle insisted.
Personally Fleur was angry too but she didn't say anything, only chose to listen to the rest of them and their complaints.
It was just a silly tournament, but the idea that Dumbledore would disqualify her for cheating like that was preposterous. She reasoned she had little chance of winning now.
DUELDUELDUEL
Dumbledore actually did have important business to attend to but it wasn't what anyone might have thought.
He was quite eager to get back to his project which was already nearing completion.
After some effort, he had already managed to create the bodies of two dozen world leaders and it would not take long to bring them to life.
The only problem however would be finding a decent test subject. It had to be someone who would not be missed for a long period of time while he experimented on them, had no family or friends who might be get suspicious of any differences between the real thing and the clone, and also be easy enough to capture and steal memories from without drawing too much attention to himself.
He had finally selected Mr. Crouch, the head of International Magical Cooperation because first of all he was often gone on long business trips to other countries as part of his job and so would not be missed for some time, had no family or even close friends who really knew him all that well, and as an added bonus had some influence in the international community, which would certainly aid him in sending his clone out to discreetly obtain more samples of more people he intended to clone.
Now that Crouch's clone body was ready, all he needed now was to get Snape to create the potion that would bring the clone to life.
When he got to Snape's secret lab, he found Snape currently smoking a cigar.
"Be careful of the smoke Snape, it might mess with our two subjects in unforeseen ways." Dumbledore cautioned.
Snape let out a puff of smoke from his lips and then said, "I'm done Dumbledore, that thing over there might look like Lily, but she'll never be her."
Dumbledore sighed. It appeared Snape was being difficult again. He only needed Snape for a little bit longer but he still needed him to make the potion as he was the only one with the ability and the knowledge to create it.
Once he did and animated at least one clone, he would be able to simply extract blood from it and use it to start animating more clones, making Snape no longer necessary to his plans although he would certainly keep him around just in case.
Still he would now need to convince Snape since he was too strong to imperious.
Fortunately he still had one trump card to play.
"I do believe that I have a solution to that problem, my dear Severus," Dumbledore explained, "I've recently learned that Lily apparently had a pensieve and deposited all of her memories inside it before she died."
Snape looked at him with a look of incredulity, excitement, and a slight amount of anger.
"Why didn't you tell me about this before?" Snape demanded.
"I only recently learned of it," Dumbledore claimed.
This was actually a lie, he had known about it since before she had even been killed.
Concerned if something ever happened to her after hearing the prophecy about Harry, Lily had decided to place most of her memories inside of a pensieve so they could be viewed by either her son or husband and still have some connection with her should she die.
Even then he believed that Lily had already been planning to use the spell that would sacrifice her own life in order to save her son's and never expected to actually survive herself. Lily had always been the type to be prepared.
Her one mistake however had been trusting him with her pensieve to be given to Harry when he was older.
Although he had intended to do this, he had been planning on giving it to him much later than she had intended after he had modified some of her memories to cast himself in an even better light so that Harry would be more inclined to blindly follow him.
For this reason he had hesitated about telling Snape before but he had finally been forced to conclude that Harry was now lost to him forever, the negative influences of both Amelia and Narcissa Black already having done too good a job on him.
"Just think Snape, she'll have all of Lily's memories and you won't even know the difference, you can even modify her memories to make her think that she really loves you." Dumbledore claimed.
Snape seem to think about this for a moment before finally agreeing, "All right Dumbledore, I'll do it, but not for you, for Lily. I'll bring her back just the way she was though without tainting her memories. I don't deserve her anymore since I'm pretty much the cause of her death. However I can at least do this much for her and give her another shot at life."
He looked back over at the form of the Lily clone.
Dumbledore gave him a pat on the back then said, "When will it be ready?"
"In a few days." Snape claimed.
Dumbledore nodded.
"Excellent." Dumbledore said, "I'll return tomorrow with the pensieve to transfer the memories to the clone before we animate her and Ariana."
He phoenix traveled out to return to his office, where Barty Crouch was waiting for him.
With Snape now having agreed to finish the potion for him, he could now proceed with his own plan.
"Dumbledore, you wished to see me?" Crouch asked, "I'm assuming that it is about the second task. I just wanted to offer my full support for your decision to disqualify that Veela girl."
"Good." Dumbledore said, raising his wand before Crouch could react, "Imperio."
Crouch tried to resist but the strength of his spell was too strong on him and he finally managed to gain control as Crouch was forced to relax as his expression went totally vacant.
Telling his mind to simply stand there, he allowed himself to look upon his new guinea pig.
Yes, he would do quite nicely, he thought.
Turning to a secret cupboard, he found 3 pensieves. One filled with various memories collected over the years from various people that he deemed important, one that had been the one that had been Lily's, and one that was currently empty.
Selecting the one that was currently empty, he began the process of transferring memories from Crouch's mind to the pensieve.
He did not get far however before he found out something quite interesting.
Quite interesting indeed he realized and just might be quite valuable to him. This was going to be a busy few days.
DUELDUELDUEL
Following the ridiculous judging of the second task, Fleur had asked Harry to give her a massage to help her cool off.
Now she lay on her bed totally naked while Harry gave her a full body massage.
It was something she absolutely loved. While some of the girls might like specific parts of their bodies touched, she enjoyed having her entire body felt up from head to toe.
Harry patiently focused on her feet and legs at first, slowly taking his time before he got to her more sensitive bits.
Though his gaze continually went to her bum, but the simple fact was that Fleur had far too magnificent a body not to have all of it given plenty of attention. He was of a similar opinion as she was; while he did like touching her sensitive bits more, there was still a huge amount of appeal in just touching all of her, basking in the knowledge that he could bring her pleasure by simply caressing her body.
Just as he was starting to go up a bit higher, Pansy came in.
"Krum is outside the common room wanting to talk to you and Harry." She told them.
"Did he say what it was about? I'm kind of busy here at the moment." Fleur pointed out, sounding somewhat annoyed at being interrupted.
"He didn't say, but he said he'd wait for you both until you got out." Pansy replied.
Grumbling just a bit, Fleur quickly put some clothes on and headed out with him.
When they found Krum still waiting outside he turned towards them.
"I just want to say that I don't believe that your Headmaster was right in disqualifying you like that." Krum started, "In fact I've discussed it with the other Champions and we've all agreed that we will wait until you are allowed to start and go on into the maze and get the head start we feel you deserve."
Fleur seemed genuinely surprised but also touched.
"I can't believe that you would all do that for me." Fleur commented, her eyes wetting at the gesture.
"It was all agreed upon. Both your friend and your cousin of course very quickly supported my idea and it didn't take much for either Nicolette or Marian to either. All of us just wouldn't feel right not at least giving you the advantage that you so rightly deserve. Nicolette and Marian also said that they didn't expect to win anyway and this way they would at least be competing fairly." Krum admitted.
Harry himself was actually touched by this gesture as well and was now starting to view Krum almost as a role model.
"I find it very powerful that you would choose to do this." Harry replied, "Despite all of these scandals that have rocked the tournament, this still proves that we can be above winning and instead simply do the right thing. While Dumbledore may have thought that he was proving a point that Hogwarts would not stand for anything else, I think this will be even more powerful, not just for Hogwarts but for all 3 of our schools."
"I hope for the same." Krum answered honestly.
"You've been a fantastic Champion and representative of your school and country." Fleur told him.
"I suppose I have gotten used to it, I am an internationally famous Quidditch star and everything I do seems to be judged by other people and reflected upon by my country. It is the same for the tournament. I try to take advantage of the great opportunity to show just how good the people in my country and in my school are." Krum responded.
It struck Harry that Krum would make such a comment as he realized that such a remark also applied to him. He was easily one of the most famous people in Britain as the boy-who-lived and even the world by now as a 2 time World Dueling Champion and what he said and did not only reflected upon himself but upon others as well whether he liked it or not. While there were plenty of bad people that he didn't care what their opinion was, there were also plenty of good people as well, as he imagined was the case in just about every country, both good and bad. It was an important thing to learn and left him wondering if perhaps he was to try to do the same.
Fleur and he chatted with Krum a bit and congratulated each other on successfully completing the Second Task before Krum decided to ask him something.
"Harry I was wondering if I might ask you a question, but you have to promise not to say anything about it to anyone, especially Hermione?" Krum asked nervously.
"Of course, go ahead." Harry told him.
"I recently learned that Madame Hooch, your Flying Instructor will be retiring at the end of this year. I would like an opportunity to be able to be close to Hermione if I can. You see, I really like her, more than any girl I have ever known and I would like to opportunity to see if anything more happens between us."
"Wouldn't that interfere with your Quidditch playing?" Harry asked.
He shrugged and said, "No more so than it has while I've been at school. As the Seeker I don't usually need to have the rest of the team around to practice with. I should be able to do most things here and being the Flying Instructor would not require taking too much time since I would only actually be teaching the first years at the beginning of the year and then of course supervise Quidditch matches."
"Well if you really want to do it, I think you should go for it." Harry stated, giving his advice.
"Then I think I shall." Krum answered.
DUELDUELDUEL
Dumbledore patiently stood over his next victim who was still currently sleeping: Barty Crouch Jr.
He had already knocked out the house elf that had tried to stop him as he entered the house, but he had actually been polyjuicing someone else anyway in case he was recognized: Mcnair, one of Barty Crouch Jr's old fellow Death Eaters, who was currently in hiding from the ministry and would be perfect for his little plan.
What he had learned from Barty Crouch's memories had given Dumbledore an idea. With the knowledge that his son was still alive and locked inside his house, he had decided that this presented a good opportunity.
If he were to play this right, Barty Crouch just might lead him to Voldemort himself if he were to free him and point him in the right direction in trying to find him.
He looked upon Voldemort with mixed feelings. At first when Voldemort had started up, he had actually agreed with many of Voldemort's ideals and admired him for his capabilities and had actually tried to recruit him to his cause.
He almost viewed it as a shame that Voldemort was unwillingly to see reason and listen to him instead of striking out on his own.
Still, he chose not to try and stop Voldemort when his Death Eater movement was still young and vulnerable and instead let it play out and see what they would do. At the time he had been having trouble building enough support in getting made the next head of the International Confederation of Wizards and also getting numerous laws passed at home and he figured that a war would help achieve those objectives.
With Voldemort attacking magical Britain as the incompetence of the Ministry began to shine through, he had stepped in appearing to be the only one capable of stopping him, which of course he was.
In gratitude, the Wizengamot bowed to his every demand, as he insisted that it was all needed in order to fight such a scourge. When Voldemort was finally defeated and the Death Eater movement broken up, he managed to convince the the International Confederation of Wizards that it was in large part due to his own efforts which gave him just enough of an edge to become the next Supreme Mugwump or Head of the organization, which only allowed him to spread his influence and his efforts to improve the Greater Good and society at large.
In short, Voldemort had essentially been quite useful to him during the first war.
For all his bluster and being the big bad unstoppable Dark Lord, Voldemort was a coward. He never fought a fight he wasn't already sure he could win.
Due to his own rather formidable skill Voldemort was always too scared to ever engage him in combat and simply hide while he let his goons do all the dirty work.
He was sure that he could of defeated Voldemort easily if he ever stuck around to actually fight him but he was too cowardly for that.
Whenever he managed to track Voldemort down, he'd run for it like the coward he was.
Voldemort definitely might have his uses though as he represented a seemingly more dangerous enemy for magical Britain and would likely get his political enemies, such as Narcissa and Amelia Black off his case and focus on Voldemort instead.
He might even be able to repeat his successes during the first war if it was done correctly.
The thing was, however, he couldn't simply let Voldemort run around outside of his control like he had last time. Instead he intended to use Barty Crouch Jr. to lead him straight to Voldemort before he could manage to come back and start where he left off.
As his victim still slept he finished with thievery discreetly done tracking and listening spells he had put on him. Not even Voldemort, in his current state, would be likely to detect them.
Finally he took another swig of polyjuice before putting the flask back into his pocket and kicking Barty Jr. to wake him up.
Barty Jr. began to stir and open his eyes, no doubt adjusting to the fact that his mind was now entirely his own for who knew how long as he looked up in surprise at who appeared to be Mcnair.
"Mcnair?" Barty Jr. asked.
"I finally learned of your plight from your witless father and came to rescue you." Dumbledore still pretending to be Mcnair said.
Barty Jr. began to got up. "Where is he?" He demanded angrily, "I"m going to kill him!"
"I've already captured and Imperioused your father." Dumbledore answered, "We'll keep him around until he no longer serves our purposes. Besides, it's just a bit of poetic justice that he suffer the same fate that you have all these years."
Barty Jr. still looked angry but finally nodded and said, "Where do we go from here? Surely you must have a plan."
"I do, and I need you for it. You see things have changed a lot since you were incarcerated. Most of us Death Eaters are either dead, in prison, or in hiding. We must be returned to our former glory." Dumbledore claimed.
"What do you need me for?" Barty Jr. asked.
"You're already presumed dead and no one is looking for you. I even risked my own life just coming here to rescue you since the Aurors are still trying to catch me. That means we need you for the most important part: finding and bringing back the Dark Lord." Dumbledore answered.
Barty Jr. looked surprised, but only for a second and then he developed a huge eager grin on his face. "I will always be loyal to the Dark Lord." Barty Jr. told him with a look of pride on his face.
"That is excellent to hear. I've received reports that the Dark Lord may be in hiding in Albania. I need you to find and locate him and then help with whatever he needs to be brought back as I have heard that he may not be at full strength or even have a body." Dumbledore said.
"How will I contact you or anyone else?" Barty Jr. then asked.
"It's far better if you don't try to contact anyone, not even me. Like I said most of us are in hiding and we can't risk attracting any unwanted attention to ourselves. Just use whatever money your father still has lying around the house and sell a few things if needed once you get out of Britain and you are less likely to be recognized. Also make sure you change your appearance somewhat with this wand I have for you." Dumbledore replied.
He tossed a wand at him and Barty Jr. grasped it reverently, likely not having used a wand in over a decade.
Still holding onto it, he gave it a few swishes and tested out a few spells. They weren't entirely done right but that was to be expected after having not used magic in so long, even if he had been using his own wand.
Finally he nodded and said, "It'll do."
Dumbledore helped him get on his way and continued giving him a few more instructions, it never occurring to Barty to ever question anything. After all he was his rescuer and he seemed to only want him to do the very thing he most wanted to do himself: bring back the Dark Lord.
Finally Barty Jr. left and Dumbledore used a portkey to get back to his office.
'Step one complete.'
DUELDUELDUEL
A few days later Snape finally finished the potion and he and Dumbledore finished transferring memories to both clone Lily and clone Ariana, the latter of which Dumbledore had supplied with false memories as he lacked a way to supply her with any originals beyond his own memories of her.
What he was doing had actually never been done before, supplying someone with a lifetime's worth of memories and have them believe that they were real.
It had taken him awhile to develop the technique and it would only work if they put the memories into a totally empty mind such as the ones they would be using, but it should work.
Now it was the moment of truth.
Dumbledore agreed to go ahead and start with clone Ariana first and then wait a few weeks before they started with Lily while she was monitored in case anything went wrong at Snape's insistence.
Pouring the potion down the girl's throat, they forced her esophagus to swallow the potion using a spell and then waited.
They watched as gradually color began to appear on her face and then her vital organs began to function.
Suddenly she took a huge breath as her eyes fluttered open.
"Where am I?" She asked.
"You just had an accident but we've managed to save you." Dumbledore insisted.
She looked just like her only without the gaunt and weak looking body that he remembered her having, the Ariana he had always wanted but had never got.
At the time of her death, Ariana had been fourteen and that was the same age that he had opted to have her be, only with some huge differences.
In life she had been afflicted by magical fits and accidents preventing her from being able to really function, being almost entirely confined to their house and away from the public.
This Ariana was totally free of that and instead had memories of a life not as his sister but as his great granddaughter produced from a squib mother, and then squib grandmother who he fictionally had had when he had sex with a Muggle many many years ago.
She would remember then that her parents had died recently and he had stepped in as her new guardian and caretaker.
"Do you remember the accident?" Dumbledore asked, checking to see if the memories he had implanted had worked.
She thought for a second and then said, "Yes I do, I was practicing a spell that you taught me and then it ended up blowing up somehow."
"I believe so as well." Dumbledore answered, relieved to find that his memory implantation had worked.
"Where's my wand?" She asked looking around.
He reverently handed her the wand that the original Ariana had gotten. They had hoped that getting her a wand would help straighten her magical fits out but ultimately they had decided not to let her use it.
Ultimately he had held onto it all this time as a keepsake and he was grateful he had as it would be necessary to prove something else.
She took her wand again and immediately he sensed that the wand was already accepting her as its owner.
Evidently her magical signature was exactly the same as the original Ariana which was very good news. He had actually programmed into her brain memories of learning spells while being home schooled by tutors for years but it would require her having the same magical signature of the real Ariana for it to work.
"Would you mind doing a few spells for us?" Dumbledore asked.
Ariana waved her wand and non-verbally used the Patronus Charm as a beautiful white horse erupted from her wand as it began to canter around the room.
While this would be considered impressive for a 14 year old to do, it was actually a rather simple spell for the girl if you included all the many other spells she had been programmed to know.
Ariana would have been quite powerful had it not been for her magical fits and with magical training, and as a supposed great granddaughter of his, widely considered one of the most powerful wizards in the world, no one would likely bat an eye if she was far more advanced and skilled than the average witch.
"Very good," He praised.
She smiled warmly at him as he had hoped, as he had implanted tons of very fond memories of him and her and her deeply loving and respecting him and his ideals.
This Ariana had been wiped of her weaknesses and instead made into the perfect girl. Very smart and very magically powerful and, most importantly, totally loyal to him and to his ideals. He smiled warmly back at her as he knew that this would only be the beginning.
No, she wasn't just like Ariana. She was better.