"See you in four months, Fleur," said Harry, as Fleur walked back over to join her mother.
As she reached for the quill her mother was holding, she look at Harry and said, "In four months, mes amies."
They were gone in the whirl of a portkey a moment later.
"Nice girl, when you get to know her," said Hermione.
"Yes," said Daphne, but it appeared almost a knee jerk reaction and her mind was on other matters.
Hermione's remarks broke them out of their inner reflections and had them all quickly moving towards the Great Hall to attend their breakfasts.
Daphne knew there was something important she needed to remember about Veela she was once told, but couldn't for the life of herself remember what that was.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
When the owls came in as usual as breakfast wound down, Harry was quick to receive and start reading his copy of the Daily Prophet. Hedwig was carrying a letter for Hermione from her parents, so Harry's copy of the paper was delivered by another owl, a barn owl.
The front page was all about the Second Task, even covering Harry's 'rather ingenious' method of completing it. He was a little surprised the reporter, someone he didn't know, didn't call him a cheat, or anything.
If anything, the reporter stated disappointment in the designers of the Task for not foreseeing how easily it could be completed and taking steps to make it a worthy challenge for of-age witches and wizards.
He then covered the points that Harry covered about how the Task was, in it's original make-up, utterly worthless as a Task for spectators. And then went on to include Harry's ideas to make the Task 'observable', while also adding his own ideas. Then included the point about how the original Task was to have included hostages and asked how they intended to include said hostages without the competitors knowing about them in advance, as the Task was originally organised for the competitors not to know. All points of which Harry could only agree with.
He also wrote the article about how Fleur was hurt and how Harry and medi-wizard Robinson had to work 'feverishly' to save her life, right in front of everyone. And the article was accompanied by a photograph of Harry rescuing Fleur and another of him and Robinson working on her on the stage.
However, the first article had a line at the bottom that claimed information concerning 'Lord Potter's Secret Crush' and directed the reader to the second page.
~ # ~
LORD POTTER'S SECRET CRUSH
Not happy with two witches under contract to bond - Harmony Gringer (16), muggleborn, and Heiress Daphne Greengrass (15), pureblood daughter of Lord Samuel Greengrass - Harry Potter (15) was already moving onto his third conquest, Miss Flear Delacore (17), the Beauxbatons Champion, writes Kate Erister investigative journalist for the Daily Prophet.
Immediately after his suspect but successful attempt at the second task, where he flaunted his knowledge of twisting rules, Lord Potter 'put the moves' on Miss Delacore in a tent directly behind the spectator stands. The poor girl was in the middle of recovering from a terrible ordeal, which forced her to retire from the event, when Mister Potter entered said tent.
We are not privy to exactly what was said between the two, but it was very apparent on both later exiting the tent that a certain something must have happened as both were acting overly friendly with one another.
Is Lord Potter, who was partly responsible for Miss Delacore being in that tent in the first place, looking for a third notch on his bedpost?
We shall endeavour to find just that out.
~ # ~
As soon as he finished reading, Harry muttered, "Uh-huh!" And immediately pulled out parchment, ink and quill.
'Time to sic Ted onto the bitch,' he thought as he began to write.
As he was writing he was thinking about how it was that Skeeter even knew about it. More to the point, why it was her writing about it, when he knew there were two other journalists also there.
'She had to be hidden,' he thought. 'Either that, or―'
Stopping, he looked to Hermione and asked, "Hermione. Animaguses―"
"Looking to become one?" she asked.
"No," he replied. "At least, not yet. No, I wanted to ask if a wizard or witch could only become a certain type of animal... say, a mammal, or something."
Surprised at the question, she replied, "I... actually don't know. Evidence to date states, 'Yes,' to the second part. All the animaguses we know or knew of were mammals. Professor McGonagall was a cat, Sirius is a dog, Pettigrew was a rat and your father was a stag.
"However, lack of evidence to the contrary does not mean proof of fact. Perhaps we should ask either Professor Flitwick or Biffingwater. I'm sure they'd have a much better idea.
"What made you ask?"
Harry slid his copy of the Prophet over and tapped the article. "Skeeter's up to her usual tricks. And, since I don't remember seeing her at the event at all, I think she must've either been under a hiding charm or invisibility cloak... or she's an animagus."
Hermione frowned in concentration and said, "I don't remember seeing any animals there."
"I saw a water beetle," he said. "Since it's not the season for them, I thought it might be one. Possibly even Skeeter."
"We'll ask," she nodded.
Later, they did just that, asked both Professors Flitwick and Biffingwater about limitations on just what sort of animal a person could take as an animagus. The result was that the only limits they believed to exist was that a person had to be a witch or wizard, have sufficient mental focus to both find their animagus form, put in the effort to achieve the feat, have the will to change into it and that it was believed it couldn't be a magical animal (though, that last was only a belief).
"So, a witch or wizard could have the animagus form of a water beetle?" asked Harry.
"Yes," shrugged both professors.
Harry immediately alerted Madam Bones to that and suggested to her he believed Skeeter might have the animagus form of a water beetle.
She said she'd take it under advisement.
Two weeks later, the Daily Prophet carried the story that Rita Skeeter, who's real name was Terri Teaske, was arrested for failing to register she was capable of attaining her animagus form nor that it was a water beetle. She received a substantial fine as penalty.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
The Unspeakables held off taking Dumbledore to and beyond the Third Task, as they wanted the true results of the Second Task at hand, just in case.
However, information garnered from the Task proved not to be needed, so they were ready to take the man past that time.
That led to that morning - or, truly, this morning. The day after the Second Task when they'd be stepping him through the Third Task. Dumbledore had actually been with them for almost five weeks. They'd planned for him to think he'd been with them for just over five months.
To keep things correct in the old man's mind, they'd been feeding him hair growth potion in his food, and also giving him haircuts. His once near buzz-cut hair on his head had been allowed to grow out to almost shoulder-length, while his multi-feet long beard had been trimmed back to barely touching his chest. Then they'd gone ahead and obliviated him of the knowledge of both happening. Added to it, they'd also had him change his robes and underwear on a couple of occasions, fading them each just a bit and backing the idea he'd been there for the five months they wanted him to think he'd been. And his hospital slippers had been scuffed up like mad to make it look like he'd been wearing them for the whole time.
As usual, he was brought into the interrogation room with his hands manacled behind his back and the large black bag over his head.
After the bag was removed, he was sat in the Truth Chair and the magics on the chair activated, Croaker appeared looking haggard. Though odd, it was not done by magic, but by cleverly applied make-up.
With a sigh, he said, "Good evening, Albus."
"Algernon?" asked Dumbledore. "Whatever is the matter?"
While Dumbledore appeared to be oozing care and consideration, it was not difficult to spot the excitement in the old man's posture. It was clear the old man was expecting something momentous to have occurred as a result of the Third Task.
"Long day," said Croaker.
"Yes?" pressed Dumbledore. "Did... something happen?"
"Tell me how you defeated Grindelwald, Albus," Croaker demanded. "Was it some esoteric magic you used?"
"Why is it important to you?" Dumbledore shot back.
Croaker frowned and said, "I'm asking the questions, Albus. How did you defeat Grindelwald?"
"That isn't important, Al―"
That was as far as he got before he was hit with the massive Legilimency attack.
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