Hermione made her way with a group of girls to the 'Goblet of Fire' room as they'd taken to calling it. After breakfast a great number of the students had made their way there to watch people drop their names in the goblet. Rumor had it a number of underage students had attempted to enter their names … with rather humorous results. Many were sporting white hair and beards. This had led a few girls to hiding out in the infirmary until the overabundance of facial hair was gone.

The younger students (those third year and younger) merely had "I'm an underage wizard" flashing in neon across their forehead. Hermione chuckled. Colin Creevey had the flashing sign at present, but he seemed to be enjoying it – had insisted his younger brother, Dennis, take his picture at breakfast so he could send it home to their father.

She had brought a book with her, a new one that the "wizarding culture class" had recommended. She'd done as Lucius asked and offered her help to Professor Finch. Hermione had explained her mistakes with the Malfoy family and her apology … and Mr. Malfoy's request that she help with the classes.

Professor Finch had heard about the apology occurring in Gringotts – and had been impressed that a muggleborn had found that form of apology and had gone through with it in such a public setting. She was quite happy to have a motivated, highly intelligent muggleborn help her plan lessons. Yes, Professor Finch knew how to teach wizard traditions – she'd taught several years at an exclusive wizarding girl's school in Switzerland – but all of them were born to magical parents and didn't need the very basics explained them. Hermione could tell her what needed more in-depth explanations and what the muggleborns would grasp all on their own.

She sat behind Harry and Draco, who were at present cheering as Victor Krum entered his name. Victor looked over at Harry and Draco with a smile – which widened as he spotted the bushy head of hair behind them. Hermione blushed and looked back down at the book. The Bulgarian seeker was quite … interesting, although he was three years ahead of her.

Harry watched with a smile as Cedric marched in with friends to drop in his name. Harry had always liked Cedric – anyone who could rein in the twins and get them to 'use their powers for good' was already a hero in his book. A group of giggling girls were following him and Harry's eyes were drawn to Cho Chang. She had turned into a real looker this year … or perhaps he was just now noticing. She saw his glance and smiled at him. Harry had always been nice to her – even after she took the seeker position on the Ravenclaw team and their teams were competing against each other.

Harry grinned a bit goofily at Cho and then shook his head. They only rarely spoke to each other – usually she was at the Reserve for a day or two before school to do shopping, and she talked a lot with Martin Prewett, who was in her year – and Mafalda's brother. But Harry saw her mostly from a table or two away unless she was debating some point with her fellow Ravenclaws - Hermione, Padma, and Mafalda.

At last the expected entertainment arrived – the Weasley twins made their grandiose entrance. They had asked Severus if they could use the student lab the evening before. Severus had not been fooled by their angelic smiles, but it was always amusing to watch Fred and George's plots so he had allowed it.

Severus hovered in an alcove, lost in the shadows as he usually preferred to be. He smiled at little as the twins took their aging potions while Cedric rolled his eyes and Hermione scolded … telling them it would never work. Severus had felt an increasingly heavy feeling of impending doom ever since the other schools had arrived, now as he looked at the Goblet and all the excited students the feeling intensified.

Sometimes Severus wondered if had had some latent talent in precognition … or if it was just that there always seemed to be danger on the horizon for he and Harry … and all of their friends, he conceded with a grimace. He managed a smile, though when the twin's slips of parchment were thrown out of the goblet and the twins themselves landed on their butts, now sporting long gray hair and beards. The also had blinking letters on their foreheads spelling out "Nitwit 1 and Nitwit 2". Ginny quickly whispered to Colin who grinned and hastily took some pictures.

The twins started a wrestling match and the other students cheered them on until another group came into the chamber. The French students went by them with condescending sniffs. The wizards stopped in their tracks to watch Fleur Delacour sway past to drop her name in the goblet along with one or two of the other Beauxbaton witches. The Hogwarts witches for the most part frowned at her; unhappy at the amount of attention Fleur seemed to garner … all the French females, for that matter.

The students changed out frequently, coming and going in chattering groups until late afternoon. Then the goblet was taken to the Great Hall and dinner served.

Severus felt even twitchier as Dumbledore pranced down to the goblet to give a dramatic speech and call out the champions for each house … "Fleur Delacour …. Victor Krum …. Cedric Diggory …." Each name was greeted with wild cheering from the schools. The champions walked toward the back room to be given the rules and photo opportunities for the ministry.

Severus had thought that his anxiety would diminish, but instead, it spiked … and then the goblet started spurting blue flame again and Severus rose, the rock of ice in his gut growing to boulder – like proportions.

Sure enough, his anxiety was rewarded with another slip of parchment erupting from the goblet. Albus had noticed Severus' look of horror and turned in time to catch the parchment. His face looked thunderous … and then oddly devious before shouting "Harry Potter? …. Harry Potter!"

Harry stumbled to his feet; hearing whispers of "He's not seventeen …" "… he's a cheat …" At some of the tables with older students there was anger - the younger students looked a bit envious. At the table with fourth year students there were varying degrees of unhappiness. Dudley looked stunned and Ron, sitting beside him looked upset and perhaps jealous. Hermione and Malfada looked disapproving … Harry could almost hear Hermione muttering about all the rules that had just been broken. Draco, though … Harry almost stopped and smacked the back of his friends's head … Draco looked ecstatic – gleefully smug that Harry had accomplished this.

"Way to go … I want all the details after they chew on you and send you back out …" Draco hissed, beaming at Harry with a fierce grin. Harry sighed; Draco would be absolutely crushed when he found out that Harry hadn't done this.

Harry stepping toward the Head Table with a vaguely satisfied looking Headmaster behind him broke Severus out of his state of frozen horror. The angrily bellowed "NO!" from Professor Snape silenced most of the hall … even Karkaroff and Madame Maxine, who had begun spouting protests.

Harry quailed a bit at the sight of a totally enraged Professor Snape, and a fair percentage of the student body was abruptly reminded of why having a parent that worked at Hogwarts could be problematic. A few first years squeaked and slid under the table at the sight of Snape bearing down on Harry.

Severus reached Harry and grabbed an arm, whirling around and leading him swiftly up past the Head Table and into the chamber the other champions had disappeared into. Albus was left to scurry behind, any glee he'd felt that Harry would have to compete and, perhaps learn some skills was gone. He'd noted not only the anger Severus was feeling in the Potions Master's eyes, but also the stubborn determination that had served Albus well during the last war. He knew that stubbornness was going to be pitted against him in this.

A horrified Cornelius Fudge and Bartemius Crouch followed behind, leaving the Great Hall to erupt into loud arguments and shouting. Neville and Blaise were especially virulent in what they said until some Slytherin prefects hexed them silent, hissing that Slytherins stuck together … even if it was only in public.

Harry was immediately bombarded with shouted questions about whether he'd put his name in. Severus didn't bother to add his own query, just locking eyes with Harry and waiting for an answer.

Harry deliberately held the gaze and answered, "No, I did not put my name in the goblet or ask an older student to do it for me." Severus relaxed minutely and nodded to Harry, patting his shoulder and turned to face the other occupants together.

"But, of course, he is lying …" Madame Maxine shouted, knocking a hanging lantern with a bluebell flame out of her path. More squabbling occurred with Moody protesting Harry could not have cast the high-powered Confundus that was sure to have been used.

Albus, though, was locked in a stare-down with Severus. Harry had his attention fixed on both of them. This was the confrontation that they'd all been expecting … it was a miracle it hadn't happened before. They had all known that eventually Albus would push and Severus would push back. Harry had hoped it would be later – after all the Horcruxes were gone, though there was still the one in his scar to consider.

Barty Crouch finally bleated that Harry was now a Hogwarts' champion and Severus drew himself up and said with a snarl, "Harry and I will be leaving for Dragonsrest, then, Headmaster – you will receive Harry's official withdrawal from Hogwarts within the hour … as well as my resignation. Harry cannot be a Hogwarts' champion if he no longer attends here."

Barty paled dramatically and Fudge looked horrified. Madame Maxine cocked an eyebrow. Albus was about to lose his prize pupil … perhaps he would attend Beauxbaton's brother school that taught the males – Loupbaton? Igor was similarly intrigued, though he was less certain that Harry Potter would leave Britain.

The air in the chamber grew heavy with angry magic from both the Headmaster and his recalcitrant Potions Master. Ozone crackled and everyone watched as they squared off. They hoped the chamber could withstand the conflict.

"Harry will not be leaving Hogwarts, Severus." Albus said in a frighteningly even and calm tone that was somehow even more threatening.

"He will not be participating in this tournament to satisfy your 'need to train him'." Severus hissed. Severus abruptly threw a wandless and wordless silencing ward with his left hand – wand still in his right hand that was around Harry's shoulder. This caused the impromptu audience to gape and mentally decided Snape had better odds of coming out alive against Dumbledore than they had originally thought.

"Before you go any further … let me assure you if you try to force this with your 'powerful connections' … I will make sure you no longer have connections of any kind. Lucius and I took pensieve memories from Petunia when I first took custody of Harry – memories of you telling Vernon Dursley that Harry was to be toughened up and 'to not be raised a spoiled wimp' … the scene where you sent off the muggle Social Worker and did nothing about Vernon's abuse … one of you dropping Harry there on their doorstep like a bag of trash in the first place - and I still have the lengthy list of Harry's injuries the Healer recorded when he first arrived at Spinners End." Severus watched Albus' eyes take a shocked and faintly betrayed look and then his face froze into a neutral mask. "You'll be removed from your positions for binding Dudley's magic when he was so young – that alone will ruin you … the charges for what happened with Harry – you'll be lucky to escape Azkaban."

"Severus …" Albus started to make a plea, but Severus' grim look told him it was hopeless.

"I won't do it willingly or happily … but I will do it if you try to stop me … Harry will not be placed in danger like this – teaching him is one thing … dropping him in the deep end without a thought is another." Severus barked at the Headmaster.

Harry watched it all with trepidation. He was relieved that his dad hadn't agreed to him being a champion, but he knew the chasm opening between Albus and his father was not a good thing. He was a little disappointed; he'd thought the Headmaster had realized he wasn't a piece of meat to be waved in front of the mad dog Voldemort had become. Still, a solution needed to be found.

"Sir, I might have an answer to this problem." Harry tugged on Severus' sleeve. Albus turned to him a bit impatiently, Severus glared – the boy had better not think that competing was a good idea.

"The champions used to have 'seconds' that helped them, and took their place if they were too injured to continue … or … um, killed." Harry began, but Albus immediately brightened – catching on immediately. Severus caught on as well, but he was less sanguine – if Cedric managed to get a paper cut Albus would be pushing for the second – Harry - to compete.

"If anything should occur that would make Harry champion … we'll be out the door. Is that understood?" Severus locked the Headmaster into another stare for a few moments. Albus nodded curtly – yes indeed, he understood alright.

The captivated audience – even if they couldn't hear the confrontation – was told that Harry was not a champion – but Cedric's second – and the other champions would soon have theirs as well. They were confused, but quite willing to go along since it would mean that Hogwarts no longer had a second champion. Barty was told to 'hush up' by Fudge when he started to babble that it wasn't possible. Fudge had no clue of what Albus was playing at … but if it kept Harry in Hogwarts and out of the Tournament – he was all for it.

They left the chamber and went into the Great Hall. The champions lined up with Madame Maxine behind Fleur, Igor behind Victor and Severus was behind a nervous Cedric – and Harry in front of Cedric.

Albus strode down to the Goblet, Barty and Fudge flanking him. Albus waved his wand and sweated while casting spells. Moody stood behind him frowning. This was not the way it was supposed to happen – but at least Potter was in the tournament in some way or another. He could work with that.

At last the goblet complied with Albus' wishes and he stepped back and cast a light Sonorus – enough so everyone could hear him. "The Tournament, until the 1700's, always had 'seconds' available to assist the champions and take their place if injury or death took out a champion … apparently with the edict that only seventeen year olds would be competing the goblet decided to add the seconds back into the game – Harry Potter was chosen as the Hogwarts' second …" with that the goblet threw out two more parchments for Albus "… and Selena D'Ville will be the Beauxbaton's second … and Vanyel Marsden is for Durmstrang."

There was relieved cheering from many – this meant nothing was taken from Cedric, and there was only one champion for Hogwarts. Blaise and Neville remained angry and a bit jealous … leave it to Potter to become 'the second' – they would have liked a shot at that. They then managed to whisper around that if a younger wizard was allowed to be a 'second' … that everyone should have had a chance. A few frowned and nodded uncertainly.

The feast got back underway and everyone returned to their seats. The Slytherins all grouped around Harry jovially congratulating him on his cunning – very few of his House looked put out about it. The twins edged through the crowd and added their admiring comments … now that their housemate's status was no longer threatened they were quite approving of Harry's achievement.

Harry weakly tried to insist that he hadn't put his name in – that only got him good-natured jostling and winking from his housemates. Harry finally gave up and replied to questions of how or why he'd done it with a Slytherin smirk and a casual shrug. The Slytherins found this amusing to Harry's relief and at last the meal ended and Harry fled to his dorm, closely followed by Draco.

Harry braced himself for a barrage of queries from Draco, but he just stood by his owl's perch and stroked the bird's feather, murmuring to him for a minute or two. Then he turned to Harry, looking puzzled.

"You really didn't put your name in the goblet, did you?" Draco asked. Harry shook his head and let Draco mull that over for a time. "Someone is trying to kill you again, then?" Draco sighed in resignation and Harry grimaced with a nod.

"Whoever put my name in is not a friend … that's for sure." Harry's eyes blazed in temper – he'd wanted to vent for hours, now. "And – it was no student. Manipulating the goblet into taking my name took a lot of power and know-how. You saw how Albus sweated over the goblet when we came back out – he was getting it to change me to a second. And going back to having 'seconds' in the tournament would have been something the goblet would have wanted."

Draco's eyes took on a calculating look. "We need to make a list of wizards and witches that had access to the goblet from Wednesday evening until the names were drawn … there can't have been that many with the magical power and knowledge of how to get past the spells."

Harry nodded, now grimly determined to find out who had put him in this position. He'd hated the look of disappointed anger that his father had had when he'd thought Harry had done this. He'd really never been glad his father was a master of Legilimancy before now.

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Severus penned a letter … a very lengthy letter … venting all his anger and describing a few unspeakable deaths he might give to Albus or whoever had put Harry's name in the goblet. He finally ran out of rants, descriptive tortures he planned and signed off. He duplicated the letter and sent one to Lucius and one to Tom. Tom would be amused and Lucius would think of ways to implement the tortures and deaths.

With his anger banked a little he wrote a less heated letter to Rosmerta and reassured her that he had things under control … he hoped.

He was much too keyed up to sleep, so he plotted, instead and found a few ways to ensure Harry stayed safely on the sidelines of the tasks that would occur. He huffed, he was going to need to guard a Hufflepuff … a letdown for him, but he liked Cedric well enough, so it would only be annoying he supposed.

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Severus endured the following two weeks well enough, at least he no longer had Head of House duties – that was all Sinistra's now.

Albus was stiffly polite, but his eyes had a rather cold anger in them when Severus was around. Severus didn't like the new attitude, but he'd known the old warlock would be incensed at the threat to his position in the wizarding world. Without the threat, though, Albus would have had Harry as a fourth champion – Barty had already declared it.

Hopefully Albus would come out of his snit eventually. In the meantime, Severus would endure the little slights and digs. He now only had half the house-elves he usually had to clean the classrooms and cauldrons … however that just meant he oversaw more detentions while grading papers. Inventory expenditure got trimmed back a bit … so students found themselves learning to harvest their own in the greenhouses – Sprout had been glad to oversee this in their classes.

The worst blow had been when Albus had stopped the elves from offering coffee at breakfast … but everyone suffered with Severus' grouchiness over that, though. Minerva had sent a hasty owl to Rosmerta to obtain Severus a large bag of coffee grounds and a pot. So, Severus had a pot spelled to be ready the moment he got out of bed in the morning – which was actually better, he felt – Rosmerta and Elizabeth had sent him a cup that magically held the entire pot. Beth must had picked it out, since it was crystal and had unicorns, similar to the ones he conjured for her.

Severus had hoped Albus would limit the harassment to himself, but there were some digs aimed at Harry, he felt. Blaise and Neville had started a bit of a hate campaign against Harry – they insisted they hadn't conjured the "Potter Stinks" buttons some students wore … the ones who felt they should have had a shot at the position of 'second' for the champion. Still Blaise and Neville were quickly becoming outcasts in Slytherin for wearing them – therefore breaking the Slytherin code of closing ranks against attacks like this. Crabbe and a reluctant Goyle also had them, but most knew that Crabbe had no will of his own and Goyle had no choices so the Slytherins did not bother them.

Albus carefully explained he had no business insisting the students cease and desist "it was the students right to express themselves".

Then there were the interviews with Skeeter. Severus had been stunned that Albus had agreed to let her do the interviews for the Daily Prophet – and he hadn't warned Severus of it beforehand. "After all, he hadn't informed any of the other champions or seconds' parents!" Albus managed to say with an almost perfect look of bewilderment.

So, Severus sat at the Head table approaching the end of November with the first task only two weeks away glaring at the interviews by Skeeter "Harry, the twelve-year old 'second'…" He'd thought the papers had learned their lesson in being more accurate. Albus was twinkling at his own paper … looking rather satisfied. Minerva's jaw was clenched, she was having difficulty keeping out of the feud between the two of them. She felt that interfering might make it worse.

Severus stood abruptly, paper clenched in one fist … he'd show Albus he wasn't affected by all the pettiness. He strode down toward the fourth years, letting his face settle into a menacing glower. The hall gradually grew silent as he got to a apprehensive looking Harry.

"Potter! You've been lying to me!" He barked loudly and ignored Harry's sputters of 'What! How … when?' "You've led me to believe you are fourteen! … It says right here you are twelve!" He waved the paper at Harry and his voice dropped to a sneer. "Surely a well – respected newspaper like the Daily Prophet would not mislead the public by telling falsehoods?" Snickering broke out. "50 points from Slytherin for allowing me to believe you are fourteen!"

There was a collective gasp from the students. Snape had taken points from Slytherin! Two first year Hufflepuffs fainted and the Ravenclaws vowed to see if the runes or astronomy charts showed the impending end of the world. Harry went back to weakly sputtering '50 … points…?'

"…and 60 points to Slytherin for being able to do fourth year spellwork when you are clearly only twelve …" Severus swept on out the doors dramatically, leaving the students relieved and chuckling … the world wasn't ending after all.

Only Albus seemed unamused.

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