Fourth year, Harry went back to Hogwarts in a more settled frame of mind. He knew his life was in danger here and that any wrong move could easily destroy him but he had a plan now. A tentative plan but still a plan for his future. And that was better than he'd ever had before.
While he didn't openly acknowledge the betrayal of Ron and Hermione, nor did he encourage them to continue playing the 'We're your friends, Harry. You can talk to us and tell us anything' game they had been playing for the last three years. A game that had only resulted in getting Harry hurt when something he'd said or hinted at had come back to haunt him from someone who shouldn't have known anything about it. This year, much to their chagrin, Harry said very little to either of them of a personal nature. And of course, he was still doing his absolute best to ignore the stalker girl they insisted on forcing him to deal with. He was no longer lying to himself about their trustworthiness.
This year, since the Ministry had backed off, Dumbledore had re-instituted his Greater Good game again. The school would play host to the Tri-Wizard Tournament, a practice that had been disbanded over a hundred years ago due to the high death rate of the participants in it. Hogwarts would host the student candidates and their headmasters from the two other European premier schools of magic.
Since the rules said one had to be seventeen to enter the contest, Harry had at first breathed a sigh of relief. His relief lasted only long enough for him to realize with Dumbledore involved it didn't matter that he was three years too young. Dumbledore would find a way to get him involved anyway since all his ploys were about testing Harry to begin with. Testing him in ways that could conceivably lead to his death.
And he was correct. When the names came out of the Goblet of Fire almost everyone was shocked, surprised and angry to hear Harry Potter announced as the fourth candidate in the Tri -Wizard Tournament. Almost everyone was. Dumbledore quickly hid a smug smirk under a heavy frown and a worried look so that no one would ever suspect he was pleased with this turn of events. Likewise the new defense teacher, because once again Remus Lupin hadn't lasted out the year to return this year, also hid a smirk that could only be described as pleasurable.
Potions Master Severus Snape though was anything but pleased. He was furious. Not quite frothing at the mouth furious but still furious enough for his magic to get involved, setting his robes to rippling gently in a breeze that wasn't actually there. He'd snapped his head up so fast to glare in Harry's direction, he set his hair to swinging like a black oily curtain in the man-made breeze the motion had generated. Then he turned a fierce look onto Dumbledore but he was too late to see the pleased look Dumbledore had hidden under his heavy frown.
Ron had acted predictably. He was furious and accused Harry of being nothing but a glory hog. He re-instituted the slurs against Harry right then and there, bringing back the lapel pins saying 'Flush the Potter' and lambasted Harry at every chance he was given. A pin he'd immediately produced from his pocket and placed on the breast pocket of his school robes, telling Harry louder than words, Ron had known Harry's name would come out of the goblet when he'd come down for dinner.
Once again, he had Harry driven off the Quitditch team and out of the tower as a trustworthy and dishonorable Gryffindor. Not that Harry had actually been in the tower at all. He was a Gryffindor in name only as once again Dumbledore had refused McGonagal's request to move him back into his proper dormitory. She'd tried because once again the end of the year events had shown Harry to not be at fault or of any particular danger to his fellow students. But this year, not even she'd been surprised when Dumbledore refused to consider it. She knew by now he had his own reasons for wanting the boy isolated from his peers and the yearly trials only helped him to achieve those ends.
....
Join my P@treon get free advanced chapters.
Paid members can get upto 60+ chapters ahead of the public release.
Link : [email protected]/KittyLovesMilk