The Protagonist System

The Girl Who Lived Sentenced To Become The Girl Who Died!

By Rita Skeeter

Yes, you heard that right, dear readers! The latest revival of the Tri-Wizard Tournament has already been marred by the illegal participation of an underage participant, and now that participant has been barred by the judges from using the only legal tool the champions are allowed to bring!

Unlike her competitors, Harriet Potter, a very young girl of only 12 years of age, will have to face all of the tasks of the tournament without a wand. This is outrageous! Her name coming out of the Goblet of Fire under an unnamed fourth school, has already forced her to withdraw from our prodigious learning institution called Hogwarts, just so she wouldn't lose her magic.

Now, she isn't even allowed to use a wand to cast that magic!

Official protests have already been filed with both the Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards, with copies sent to both the head of the Auror Department and the head of the Magical Games and Sports Department. If one champion isn't allowed a wand, why are the other three champions allowed a wand?

Will the judges continue to allow a child to fight in the deadly tournament with her bare hands like a muggle, choosing to let her die like one, or will they let the young witch unleash the magic we all trusted to save us from the darkest wizard in the world when she was only a baby?

Harriet Potter saved us all back then, so I call upon you all to help save her now.

--

“Okay, I agree that she's a good person to have on our side and not against us.” Harriet said as she looked up from the newspaper the next morning. “Even so, did she have to be so blatant to portray me as a little girl?”

I chuckled and patted her shoulder. “She might have gotten the age wrong; but, she captured the situation perfectly. These people owe you their lives and then sentenced you to not use your wand.”

Harriet folded the paper without reading the full article inside and put the paper aside to dig into her breakfast. “Shouldn't we be eating in the Great Hall? Won't it look like I'm hiding from them?”

I bit into a piece of toast and chewed for a moment before I swallowed and answered. “We're avoiding the attention, not hiding.”

“Isn't that the same thing?” Harriet asked and took a bite of her own piece of toast.

“No, because when everyone reads that and gives you sympathetic looks, you're going to start thinking they need to be forgiven for everything they've said and done to you.” I reminded her and her face went red. “I don't blame you for wanting to keep your friends, Harry. I blame them for not being your friends and making you give them up for being so stupid. Again.”

Harriet nodded and concentrated on eating. She had gone through a similar time in second year after they found out she could speak to snakes. Ron had been the most horrified by her association with a slimy Slytherin icon at the time.

The boy wouldn't even look at her this year and had said horrible things behind her back. He wrongly thought she wouldn't hear about him doing so, only she did. Some people liked seeing the anguish on her face when they hurt her like that, especially Draco Malfoy.

“You know, you could give them all a nightmare about your visit to Aragog's nest.” I suggested and she looked surprised, then she had to cover her mouth when she laughed and stopped herself from spewing bits of food all over their small table and the other food there.

“That... would probably... kill Ron.” Harriet said between laughs as she used a napkin to clean off her chin and then her hands.

“Probably.” I said with a smile. “It also might remind him you were there for him when he needed you.”

Harriet sighed and sat back on her chair. “I don't think it matters now. I'm not a student here anymore.”

“No, you're not.” I said and nodded at the door. “Should we get to the next lesson early and you can work off some of your emotions?”

Harriet gave me a sad look. “I don't see how practising with my new wand matters, either. I'm not allowed to use it.”

“Yeah, about that.” I said and took a platinum ring out of my pocket. “There's no rules that stop you from wearing jewellery and I am qualified to make magical foci.”

“But... but, isn't that cheating?” Harriet asked and then cursed herself under her breath for not accepting it right away and had to question it.

“They said the wand was too powerful and barred you from using it, because you're too powerful and will beat the other champions without even trying.” I told her and she blushed. “So, don't use a wand. If they assume you're doing wandless magic, then there's nothing they can do to stop you.”

“But...” Harriet took the ring and rolled it around in her fingers, as if it was a wand and not a metal ring. “...what if I slip up when I'm excited about it working and tell someone what it is?”

I raised my eyebrows at her and her blush changed to an embarrassed look. “Should I include a compulsion to not blurt out the truth?”

Harriet kept the embarrassed look and nodded, so I took out my own wand and she held the ring out for me. I cast it on her instead, just in case. There was no telling how she was going to react after she completed the first task and all of her old friends forgive her for lying and tricking them by entering the tournament.

“Go ahead and try it on.” I said and put my wand away.

Harriet did so and looked disappointed that nothing happened. I laughed and stood up. “It's a focus, not a power booster like they thought the wand was. Come on, let's go practice with it. You have to learn to not point and shoot like you do with a wand, because that will give away you're using another focus as soon as you start casting something.”

“Isn't that what a focus does? Focuses the magic when you point it and use it?” Harriet asked.

“Technically, yes.” I said and we left her set of rooms and made our way to the second floor. “What it actually does, is let you pour your magic into an object and your words and will form it into the spell you want, which it then becomes reality.”

Harriet gave me an odd look. “Then why does mispronouncing something cause wildly odd effects?”

“Because you were told it would do that and believe it.” I answered and her mouth dropped open. “How you were taught to use magic was the most limiting and least fun aspect of how magic works. It constricts your thinking and forces you to work within their rigid framework and stops you from even thinking about innovation or improvisation.”

Harriet stared at me and didn't respond for the entire walk down to the second floor and into the girl's bathroom.

“Hi, Myrtle.” I greeted the floating ghost before she could scream about intruders in her bathroom. “We're heading down to the chamber again to train. Do you want to come along?”

“No, thank you. I've explored all the pipes since the last time you offered.” Myrtle said. “There's nothing else down there for me to poke through.”

“You could move on.” I suggested and smiled at her.

“Unless you can resurrect Olive Hornby to let me get my revenge, that's not happening.” Myrtle scoffed and crossed her arms.

I chuckled and motioned to the sink, then had to physically turn Harriet towards it and poked her side to tickle her and stopped her from staring at me like I had two heads. Harriet laughed and them glared at me, then she huffed and turned to hiss at the sink to open it.

“We'll see you later, Myrtle.” I said and pushed Harriet into the slide. She gave a good scream as she fell and then started cursing at me as she disappeared from sight.

Myrtle laughed pretty hard at that and waved goodbye to me, so I waved back and jumped down the slide head first. I had a lot more teaching to do before Harriet would be ready to face the upcoming tasks without freaking out.

Well, more freaked out than she was going to be when facing a dragon. It was a tossup if she would still get the Hungarian Horntail, though. The established rule for ladies first would change when she drew her lot from the bag, with Fleur going first and then her.

Maybe a randomized spell discreetly cast on the bag would fix that, or I could let things play out and see what happened. That was the funny thing about coming here and only slightly changing things. Some things could be immutable and would always happen, no matter the world and timeline, then others could be completely different. It all depended on the series of events leading up to that pivotal moment.

I would check the bag to see if it already had a spell on it and would dispel it if there was. No one would set Harriet up to face the most dangerous dragon without a wand, not if he had anything to say about it.

*

It had taken a lot of reassurances and convincing by the new Minister of Magic to not allow an ICW representative committee to enter Britain's sovereign soil to monitor the farce that the international Tri-Wizard Tournament had become. ICW oversight was something Amelia Bones didn't want, mostly because she was still up to her neck in disappearances, thefts, evidence of corruption, and many other things that had plagued the Ministry of Magic since Cornelius Fudge ran off with his secretary.

So many things had come to light since then and the mess the pudgy man left behind would take a long time to sort out. At least his wife had been found and she had vehemently denied any involvement with her ex-husband's bribery and thefts, since he had left her high and dry and she had to dip into her personal savings to have a vacation, which ended up becoming permanent because she loved it there.

At the moment, Amelia was in a meeting with all of the remaining heads of the departments in the Ministry. “What's the people's reaction to the newspaper article?” She asked and was met with many angry faces. “That bad?”

“It's worse.” Rufus said. “As head of the DMLE, I've had reports of protests and riots outside the Daily Prophet, which were quietly handled. No arrests.”

“So soon?” Amelia asked.

“Early morning deliveries. The post gets to some places much sooner than others, like Hogwarts.” Rufus answered and turned his head to glare at the man that was technically responsible. “It's only going to get worse as the news spreads to those that don't get the paper delivered.”

“What would you have me do?” Bartemius Crouch asked. “Igor officially protested and Olympe seconded it. Out of the five judges, we had a vote and it went the way Igor knew it would.”

Amelia rubbed her face with a hand, because the frustration over the situation was getting to her. “You do realize we have to respond to this and none of you are going to like it.”

“I knew that as soon as Mister Peverell refused to provide new and powerful foci for the other champions and explained why.” Bartemius responded. “I am prepared for any judgment you deem necessary, despite the fact I've done nothing wrong.”

Amelia held in her swear word at that qualifying statement. “It apparently doesn't matter if you didn't do anything wrong, since you're all at fault for making Britain the laughing stock of the entire world.”

Bartemius nodded acceptance and waited for his sentence.

“You are hereby suspended as a judge from the tournament.”Amelia told him. “Your current position as head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation will be under review as well, since you allowed a known Death Eater to manipulate you into compromising the entire country's trust in the Ministry.”

“I understand.” Bartemius said, his voice grave.

Amelia turned her head to look at Ludo Bagman, whom at first had been jovial and joked about the mess they were all in. Now, he looked like he was balloon that was deflating and was losing more air as she watched.

“As for you...” Amelia started to say.

“I'll clear out my desk.” Ludo said with a sad voice that echoed in the room. “There's no way for the Department of Magical Games and Sports to recover after something like this. I'll accept full blame for it and save you the trouble of giving me the proper punishment after you review my job performance.”

Amelia closed her mouth and nodded, then changed what she was going to say. “It should help us when we tell the press you've resigned over how all of this is turning out. Gaining some sympathy is better than animosity.”

“What about Albus and the other headmasters?” Arthur Weasley asked, even if he felt uncomfortable speaking up in such an important meeting.

“All of the current judges are being suspended and the magical governments of both France and Bulgaria have been contacted.”Amelia said, her voice grave. “Their possible tenure as headmasters are being called into question, since their first act as judges was to allow an underage student to participate in the tournament and their second act was to deny that same underage student a wand to defend themselves.”

“What kind of examples are they setting for the other students, if this is how they handle something so simple?” Griselda Marchbanks asked and no one had an answer for her. “I think it is high time to physically go to Hogwarts to check on what classes there are actually like and not the dismissive words Albus keeps giving to the Department of Education about how everything is fine.”

“Are you doing it because of him or because Harriet Potter was forced to withdraw from the school?” Amelia asked and showed her own surprise about learning that. The savior of the wizarding world hadn't been a student at the best school in Britain for over a week and no one outside the school knew about it.

“Both.” Griselda answered and her old wrinkled face showed distaste. “How could those idiots let her leave? Do they even realize the damage something like that is going to cause us?”

“Do you mean the education department or the country?” Arthur asked.

“Yes!” Griselda almost shouted and took a breath to calm down. “Not only are we losing a famous person from the rolls, we also lose the chance to be proud that Harriet Potter graduated as a Hogwarts alumni.”

“She could always enroll again.” Amelia tried to placate the woman.

“And be a year behind her classmates, the same classmates that berated her for being a liar and a cheater?” Griselda asked and held up the more in-depth article inside the newspaper. “I think that would be worse for our education system and our country than her leaving. It makes her look like an idiot that couldn't pass with the rest of her year!”

Amelia understood her point of view and nodded. “Gather up some of your cohorts from your department and head on over there. If you focus on the examiners you use to conduct the OWLs, they can monitor the appropriate classes to see how they really are and not the flowered reports you already have piles of.”

“Thank you, Amelia.” Griselda said. “I'll have them brush up on their disillusionment charms, too.”

“What? Why?” Amelia asked.

“You don't think they'll see what's really going on if they sit in the classroom in full view of everyone, including the professors, do you?” Griselda asked back.

Amelia shook her head and looked at the remaining department heads. “We need to continue cleaning this place up and working to get this place back up and running... the right way.”

“Yes, Minister.” They all said and nodded.

“Good. Thank you all for coming and I will keep you all updated. Dismissed.” Amelia said and her office cleared out in only moments. Even the aged Griselda had beaten Arthur out through the doorway and that made her silently chuckle. The old biddy sure could move when she wanted or had a reason to.

The problem Amelia now had was choosing appropriate judges for an international competition that wouldn't be biased against her, Britain, the Girl-Who-Lived, creatures, foreigners, and anything else that could set someone off on a rant. Who the hell could she pick that fit those qualifications?