Chapter 200: Eye of the Storm
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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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10 March 1994, Hogwarts, Scotland
Harry laid down on a very comfortable couch, pondering about the end of the duelling tournament. Most of what he felt was relief at evading Dumbledore's ploy, unintended or not. He didn't know for sure if the headmaster had purposely put him in the position where he was forced to compete and do well without showing any sign of advanced magic, but the man sure as hell made things difficult for the young Slytherin.
Nevertheless, he did well enough and embarrassed Dumbledore all the way. A vindictive part of him relished at the thought.
Surprisingly, the match between Daphne and Penelope Clearwater was the highlight of the tournament. People praised the younger girl's inventiveness and tactics. She really took everyone by surprise with it, and there were whispers of offers of apprenticeship on her graduation. Harry was happy for her, immensely so; the blonde had probably gained more than enough opportunities to help her sister than all of her family's gold could ever buy.
Tracy, Blaise, Daphne, and Harry threw a small celebration following the end of the tournament. The festivities weren't boisterous, but they were enjoyable, nonetheless. They snuck out of the castle to the Three Broomsticks and treated themselves to a nice outing. Astoria even joined in for a brief while, before her older sister ushered her back into the castle. Daphne, on the other hand, looked slightly less tense. This was the first time she made any inroads regarding her sister's condition, and Harry wished her all the best.
Tracy had practically guaranteed an offer to the Court of Slytherin, alongside Nott and Daphne. Nott's invitation was an obvious decision because of his father's current position as the leader of the traditionalist faction. Malfoy would have probably been offered one if his father was alive. Hopefully, the Court would take the hint about Harry stating multiple times in the common room that he didn't want to join their ranks. Their eavesdropping charms in the common room should do the rest.
Harry didn't know if Daphne was going to accept a position in the court. She never really showed any interest in the idea, not like Tracy and Blaise did, but there was no guarantee that Blaise would have been picked over Malfoy either. So far, Daphne seemed committed to helping her sister, anything else would feel like a distraction.
As for the tournament itself, after defeating Percy Weasley in the semifinals, Gemma Farley was able to snatch a victory over Penelope Clearwater. The muggleborn did put up a good fight, nonetheless, but Farley was just more experienced. There were rumours that the Court of Slytherin liked to hold challenges and duels when it comes to getting promoted or whatnot, and since Farley was probably either the King or one of the Queens of the Court, she had to have trained her arse off to maintain her position.
Daphne had proved to everyone that she could hold her own against more powerful opponents. The ice magic that he had taught her was very impressive. It did help that the blonde had an aptitude for it, and she was lucky that elemental magic was so close to Transfiguration and Charms that they weren't banned from duelling tournaments.
It was a funny little anecdote. Since transfiguration and charms were so broad, officials just couldn't decide on a list of allowed spells as they do on offensive magics. So, they just put in that magic not cast directly on a person was allowed as long as any wounds didn't resist magical healing, and the whole thing didn't cause any form of instant or guaranteed death or maiming. The idea is that, in the worst case, healers would be able to put someone back together as long as they get to an injury quickly enough, and that they could cast their healing spells unimpeded.
It made sense from a safety aspect, but it made duelling heavily in favour of people who have a knack for transfiguration or charms, instead of normal offensive battle magic. An Auror would be disqualified in less than five seconds in a dueling tournament, just because of their training.
Still, that was two tasks out of three. Only one remained, and Harry could finally relax. Thankfully, the two tasks were relatively tame so far. Harry expected Dumbledore to pull something during Daphne's match as Lupin predicted, but the headmaster seemed to have refrained from it. The man probably expected Clearwater to wipe the floor with Daphne and arranging an accident could easily set back Dumbledore's policy of Muggleborn equality that he built his entire political powerhouse over.
But there was always the third task. The final task. And it worried him. The fact that the whole thing was a secret already freaked him out.
Harry looked at the window, hoping to distract himself from panicking, and noticed that the sky had grown dark outside since he had taken his seat on the couch. The softly glowing, late-day sun had been replaced by bright, twinkling stars, standing out starkly against the vast canvas of night sky they rested upon.
Harry was so lost in thought that he hardly even heard his door swing open. He glanced over his shoulder nonetheless, allowing his hand to twitch towards his wand, but it was only Daphne.
"I was wondering where I might find you," she said.
"Here or the library are both usually pretty safe guesses."
The blonde snorted in disbelief, "It's funny. It's disturbing just how much you like it here, in this room of illusions, when you can just experience the real thing. You could easily build a study like this one outside the Room of Requirements, in one of the abandoned classrooms or something. I know that this place is useful and everything, but not as a place to hang out in."
She had a point. Why did she have to sound so reasonable? Intellectually, he knew that everything in this room was just a bunch of charms, transfigurations, and illusions put together, but he always felt in control. Whenever he felt overwhelmed or scared, whenever he doubted himself, Harry liked to come to this room and feel in control once more. There was something calming and relaxing about it, even if it probably wasn't healthy.
"You might have a point about building my own study or something. It still won't be as secure as this place though."
Daphne's response was a snort, "Come on, Harry. All I had to say to enter the room was that I wanted to enter your study. Not much of a security system, is it?"
"Fine. But you'll help with the decorations. I'm rubbish at this stuff."
"Trust me, I know. You might be brilliant at magic, but your tastes leave very much to be desired."
Harry didn't know what the blonde expected him to say in response to that, so, he just stayed silent. After a good minute, Daphne decided to speak up, "You've been off lately. I was worried."
"Off how?"
"Look, Harry, you have this horrible habit of keeping things to yourself and getting lost in your thoughts whenever you're nervous about something. I just wanted to check in on you. We haven't really spoken to each other, properly I mean, since the tournament ended."
The last Potter gave her an amused smirk, "The tournament ended days ago."
"I know. But normally, you would have been with me, getting ready for your next challenge. You'd have something prepared, like a new type of magic or something, an impossible task you give to yourself that you somehow persevere. But so far, all I've seen you do is just lie down and get lost in your own head."
"That's the thing, Daphne. I don't know what to do next. The whole multidimensional magic is a dead end, and I can't experiment with something like this without some major risks. I don't know what the next task is going to be, so I can't prepare you for it. With Sirius returning and attacking Barty Crouch of all people, with the way things are shaping up to be… I just have a bad feeling, that's all."
"A bad feeling how?" Daphne asked without any sign of mockery in her voice, "You won so far. Dumbledore is being criticized for his actions. There's even talk about the Wizengamot choosing someone else as the next Chief Warlock. You did all that. After decades of people trying, you're the first person to actually hurt Dumbledore politically. You only have to go through another task and that would be it. You'd have won."
Harry shook his head, "It's not that simple. The elections are months away. People will forget quickly, and Dumbledore will either do something to get the public's opinion in his favour, or he'll force the Wizengamot's hand. He could easily just withhold his new prison and force the ministry to build a new one. That's not mentioning probably made back a lot of gold during the tournament. Azkaban's destruction somehow ended up making Dumbledore untouchable, no matter what the public opinion of him will be."
"Fine. Maybe Dumbledore won't be hurt. But that doesn't mean that something bad is going to happen."
"It's hard to explain. It's like we're in the calm before the storm, the eye of the hurricane, like standing at the edge of a cliff. Barty Crouch getting killed, the Hogsmeade attack, Azkaban's destruction, it's all been building up to something big, something that I don't know. I hate not knowing. And I can't help but feel like the third task will be what triggers it all. Having the event on the day of Beltane, and it being a mystery task as well, it's not a coincidence. Something is coming and I just can't figure it out. And since I don't what that is, I can't make any preparations against it… I just don't know what to do!"
Harry hadn't even realized how loud his voice became in the end as he finally voiced his frustrations for the first time in almost a week.
Daphne looked at him, with her eyes slightly wider than usual, before steeling herself, "Have you thought about not doing anything at all?"
That wasn't an answer he expected to hear, and that rendered him speechless. Before he could even think about a retort, Daphne interrupted him, "Look, I know what you're going to say. It's your responsibility. Dumbledore is going after you. But think about it for a second. Ever since you've been in this school, you've stopped so many disasters. But after each one, there was always another one coming. You've been jumping from one crisis to another that you never even thought about what it all meant, you never even considered taking a break."
"It's not my fault things like this just keep happening to me…"
"Are you sure about that? Did these crises keep occurring to you, or have you just kept chasing them? You are amazing at everything you do, so much so that it's intimidating. But I realize now that you're not doing it because you crave success, but because you're terrified of failure, terrified of not mattering."
Harry froze at his friend's words. Daphne had just cut through every front he had and reached his core, "It's what's made me a great wizard."
"I'm not sure it has. I think in all the mayhem, all your fear of losing, that you forgot something very critical."
"Which is?" he couldn't help but ask.
"Not everything has to do with you, Harry. I know you keep trying to involve yourself in situations that should have never involved you. You did it with Riddle. You did it with Hogsmeade. And you have been doing it in this tournament. For some reason, you crave the conflict, the challenges, like they're making you matter somehow."
"I do not," Harry protested.
"Then why didn't you change schools," the blonde simply answered, "You could have asked Arcturus to send you to another school easily. Your French is good enough for Beauxbattons, and Ilvermorny has probably surpassed Hogwarts in terms of magical education. The only advantages here are the library and the Room of Requirements. You could have easily made do with the Ilvermorny library and just come to visit the castle for your research, and you have made no effort to really raid the Room of Hidden Things. So, after humiliating Dumbledore and dragging out his dead sister to the media, you made no moves to leave what is effectively his castle."
"I didn't want to leave you…"
Daphne snorted, "I would have followed you anywhere, Harry. I don't know about Tracy and Blaise, but I wouldn't have minded switching schools with you. Face the truth, Harry, you have spent years distracting yourself with challenges no student should be able to face, building an identity around them… Maybe you're right – Merlin knows just how often you are – and something is coming. But that doesn't mean that you have to be involved in any way. You need to use whatever time before the third task to take a break and make a decision that you would stick with it. And whatever you choose, I want you to know that I will be by your side, supporting you. Goodnight, Harry."
"Goodnight," Harry murmured back at her.
The blonde left the room as quietly as she entered, leaving a pensive boy behind, and a silence that he felt was too stifling.
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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.