Here We Go

chapter 13

Chapter 13: Black Lady

Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will provably be changes in the first hour or so as I find things that didn't come out the way I wanted.
W

hile the kids were working their bums off with their studies, and other duties on top of that, Sirius wasn't as busy. He had his official duties, but he was devoting a lot of energy to a side project that had started back when he and Regulus were still brothers and friends. What Harry and Hermione told him about what Reggie died trying to do motivated Sirius to carry through on what they'd planned as boys, updating the Black Lady.
The Black Lady was quite possibly still the world's fastest magical ship, the 135 foot three masted Bermuda Sloop was originally created in the Eighteenth Century as a privateer and smuggler's ship but she was given quite a major revision in the late Nineteenth Century. She was converted to Gaff Rigged to cram more sail onto her, and the bowspit extended and the Jib was exchanged for an oversized Genoa for the same reason. The other changes were more important and extensive…. the hull, masts and rigging were covered by Runes based Impervius Charms to reduce the drag as she moved through the water or air. The hull, frames, decks, masts, rigging and sails (black, of course, like the rest of her) were all covered by runic unbreakable, featherweight, notice-me-not and disillusionment charms and wards and the expansion charms inside the hull were made permanent with Runes. The Impervius and Featherweight Charms combined with the extra sail area were what made her by far the fastest ship in her day, several times faster than any other Magical or Muggle ship at the time, and it was debatable whether anything her size was faster even now. Ward stones and power stones were added along the entire length of the keel to power all the charms and wards, and more runic arrays were added to effectively turn the keel into a broomstick that could propel the ship over the water, under the water or through the air. The schlag-ruthes (striking rods) that were mounted down both sides of the deck as her 'ship's guns' were now Rune based and drew on the power stones to cast powerful stunning, blasting, cutting and banishing spells (and summoning charms for that matter), with the cannon balls etc being banished riding in grooves carved into the top of the schlag-ruthes.
Given that the Black Lady was the pride of the House of Black (she had been used to drag the House back from the brink of financial ruin more than a few times over the last quarter of a millennium) and their biggest secret, she held a prominent place in the hopes and dreams of the Heirs of the House, so Sirius and Regulus had spent quite a bit of time debating potential improvements to her instead of concentrating on their lessons when they were growing up (not that either of them ever did much of that). There wasn't much to expand on the improvements made in the Nineteenth Century, but a new development in sail handling had come out in the Nineteen Sixties which could significantly reduce the crew requirements, roller furling, so Sirius and Regulus had discussed how to use Rune operated roller furling arrangements on the Genoa, booms and spars to allow her to be run by a crew that was a fraction of the normal size, and that was what Sirius was working on now, converting the Black Lady's rigging to roller furling.
Locating the Lady was a simple matter once he'd been cleared and accepted the title of Head of the House of Black, because they only had two bases for her, either Black Rock off the coast of Scotland or Isla Negra in the Caribbean, and the Head of the House of Black could Port Key to either. Both Black Rock and Isla Negra were located on Ley Lines, and these powered the wards which ensured that they were impregnable, unplottable and invisible. They also powered the stasis charms over the caves where the Lady was housed up out of the water to prevent deterioration, and kept the Lady's power stones charged. Sirius soon found her at Black Rock and brought in rigging and Runes experts to make the necessary upgrades. Some of these men suggested that the sail area could be further increased by changing to Gunter rigging, and Sirius gave them leave to investigate this, as he didn't really understand what they were talking about.
They should have been keeping a closer eye on Jones, and watching for whoever it was who was going to emerge to fill the vacuum left by the Death Eaters, but they didn't. Hagrid tried to talk to Aragog into taking his mate and progeny and leaving peacefully, but he barely got out of there alive after that and the memory he showed them of their discussion was disturbingly close to the one Harry and Ron had had with Aragog in the other timeline. The decision to do what Harry had told Hagrid would be necessary if Aragog wasn't prepared to be reasonable wasn't easy, but it was quickly reached, and Harry, Hermione, Hagrid and the rest of their strongest magic users got ready to burn out the nest, while the rest of the adults, Efa, Emyr, Ulfr, Snorri, Olag, Gringott, a large force of elite Goblin 'Guards' and the Centaurs were there to watch over them while they concentrated on controlling the Fiendfyre and deal with any Acromantulas that escaped the nest.
The smell of roasting Acromantula coming from the entrances to the nest, and the carcasses that Harry had seemingly casually carved up with flame whips from a second wand in his off-hand as he maintained primary control of the Fiendfyre that was burning out the nest was making them gag, but they managed to contain the Fiendfyre within the nest until it had consumed everything that it could use for fuel and burnt itself out. None of the observers failed to note how the Fiendfyre had burnt away enough of the earth around the tunnels and chambers of the nest to create the sizable depression where the nest had been.
No-one was happy about the need to wipe out hundreds, if not more, of sentient creatures like that, but they kept reminding themselves that the Acromantulas had had a choice, which was more than the Centaurs and thousands of other creatures that they'd killed over the last half century had had. It was a valuable lesson actually, to be reminded that they had…. and would most probably again in the future, been forced to face and deal with others who had no more regard for the lives of innocents than the Acromantulas had had.
Of course Jones attempted to stop them wiping out the nest, and afterwards (after the fool who called him in a panic to tell him that they were doing dark magic in the Forbidden Forest released him from where Alastor had silenced him and stuck him forty foot off the ground on the trunk of a tree) he tried to guilt them and turn public opinion against them by twisting the story of what they'd done as he railed at them in front of the students in the Great Hall to cast them in a bad light. Unfortunately for Jones, they were waiting for him to try this and Amelia was ready for him, so she silenced and immobilised him this time, then laid out the true facts of the matter for everyone, right back to the point where he had supplied a mate for Aragog and then planted the memory in Hagrid that he was the one who had found her.
By the time Amelia finished telling how many students and others had disappeared in the Forbidden Forest and had probably been killed and eaten by the the Acromantulas, how many rare and wonderful creatures like the unicorns were believed to have been killed by them, how the animosity and aggression of the Centaur Nation towards the wizarding kind over the past fifty years had come from how many of their people they'd lost to the Acromantulas, and the fact that the great Albus Dumbledore had repeatedly refused to help them get rid of the problem that he'd created, until they stopped asking…. She hardly needed to point out that it still wasn't safe to go into the Forbidden Forest because most everything else in there had been forced to become aggressive and dangerous, just to survive.
Amelia released Jones and Minerva sent him to his chambers once the facts of the matter were told, because leaving him immobilised after that would have most probably seen him killed. She also very publicly fired the Senior Auror who had called, and later freed, Jones in front of everyone, citing that they'd betrayed their oath to the DMLE, the Ministry and the people of Magical Britain by putting the interests of a known liar, thief and criminal over those that they'd sworn, and been paid, to support and protect. Harry and the others smirked at how many of the students were rushing off to owl their parents about what they'd just heard, knowing that the story would be all over Magical Britain by the morning, and the morning edition of the Prophet would tell everyone else.
For once, the Prophet didn't disappoint, their speculation on the damage caused by Albus Dumbledore's hubris and self serving machinations and gleeful (and surprisingly accurate) reporting of the fate of the Senior Auror who'd sided with Dumbledore against the interests of Magical Britain was a stark warning to those who were still stupid enough to be holding onto the image of him as the 'Leader of the Light'. One thing in the articles that was quite a pleasant surprise was the sympathetic reporting of the situation with the Centaur Nation, and the opinion expressed that Magical Britain owed them an apology and assistance for the atrocities foisted on them by one of its more prominent members.
While this was going on at Hogwarts, Ted had been assisting Jean with her divorce proceedings. Nigel had only just stopped short of physically attacking her for ignoring his demands on Christmas Eve, and it had only gotten worse since then, because in his mind, their now dead daughter had only been holding back his plans for the future, so they were much better off without her. Jean had walked out halfway through January, she just took the few personal items that mattered to her and left, moving into the Black Townhouse with Cissa. Nigel didn't really have a leg to stand on when she left him with all of their assets aside from what she'd inherited from her family and his solicitor wasn't up to matching Ted and his team, so all of his spurious claims for damages and the Brody family assets were tossed out by the magistrate.
They had made an interesting discovery while Jean was spending time with them, that she was actually a witch…. she was only about as strong as Arabella had been when she first went to Hogwarts, but she was a witch. Harry was fairly certain that he knew why Jean had been dismissed as non-magical, so he went to dredge the answers out of Albus Jones' head (this was actually the main reason he'd kept him at Hogwarts, to give himself time to harvest over a century of secrets and machinations from inside his head, and carefully remove those memories which were dangerous to others). Sure enough, once he'd become headmaster, Dumbledore had begun preventing invitations being sent to any prospective students whom he believed could potentially harm the reputation of his school through lacklustre performance (the book of magical births that was used for the Hogwarts invitations, like the goblins' inheritance tests, gave an indication of how strong the child's inherent magic was). Invitations were still sent to magically weak children of powerful or connected magical families, but any so-called Muggleborns or children of families who couldn't make their voice heard who didn't show strong enough magic were scratched from the list.
Given how well transferring Percy's magic to Arabella to boost her magical strength and knowledge had worked for her, Harry did something similar with Jean, and Cissa, Andi, Ted and the others she worked with took on her magical education. Once she was free of Nigel Granger, Jean had gone back to her first love…. research. Originally the plan had been for her to do their research in the non-magical world, but now that she had magic, she was directing all of their research in both the Magical and Non-Magical worlds, and she was loving it!
It was amusing for the family to watch how close Cissa and Jean were getting, as Cissa had been raised to despise Muggles and Muggleborn like Jean as something sub-human, but even with the difference in backgrounds and ten year age difference, the two women became incredibly close. Andi had no trouble admitting that Cissa was closer now to Jean than she was to her, her own sister, in fact she was happy for them, because they'd both been through a lot and they were helping each other.
As they came to the end of the 91-92 school year, the other students, Arabella and Jean were confident as they headed for their OWL exams, and Harry, Hermione and Hagrid were going well with their NEWT studies, but Harry and Hermione swore when the Prophet excitedly broke the story that the Quidditch World Cup was being held in England that year, and that it would be between Ireland and Bulgaria, because that confirmed Harry's theory that the main events of the other timeline would still be played out, just with a different cast and timeframe, was correct. Finding out that Viktor Krum was the Bulgarian team's seeker at sixteen was further proof, as was finding out that the age of majority was sixteen in Bulgaria and most of the European Magical countries.
Of course, Amelia had no more luck in getting suitable DMLE security allocated to the World Cup than she had in the other timeline, but they had the trunk flats, gloos and support of the Goblin Nation this time, so they could have the forces available when they needed them. It was rather interesting to discover that Hannah Abbott's father had replaced Barty Crouch Senior as the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and Harry saw in Jones' memories that he was working with Abbott to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts this year. Unfortunately whoever was behind them was a far more formidable opponent than Jones, Abbott or Fudge though, because it had already been formally agreed between the competing countries that it would be held in Britain, and Hogwarts was the official school of magic for Magical Britain so it had to be hosted there.
They attended the World Cup in force, so that they had a reason to have tents set up in all the areas where they thought trouble could occur. Amelia had trusted Aurors and Hit Wizards waiting in each of those tents, and they were introduced to the ones in charge of the goblin guards they were told that Dukes Black and Potter had hidden from sight inside the expanded trunks there (there was no reason for anyone else to know about the gloos).
One difference from the other timeline that they found at the World Cup which actually confirmed that the Tournament would play out much the same as it had before was the fact that Jean-Pierre Delacour was attending the World Cup with his family, because he was Magical France's equivalent of the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, so he'd come to Britain to formally sign the final contracts for the Tournament on behalf of his government, and he and his family had been invited to attend the World Cup as guests of Magical Britain's Minister for Magic.
Sirius had used his money and influence to keep the fact that the House of Black had a box over twice the size of the Ministry's right beside it a secret, and Fudge, his 'supporters' and the Ministry hacks who'd managed to wrangle invites to join him were pissed off to see Arthur Weasley, Amelia Bones, Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Sprout and a number of Hogwarts professors in the Black box with Black, Potter and their allies. Jean-Pierre hadn't missed the fact that while he was having trouble keeping the wizards in the Ministry box away from his wife and daughters because of the traces of Veela allure that they couldn't help letting escape, the wizards in the Black box were showing no signs of being effected by their allure.
Hearing Fudge and his patrons complaining about Weasley and Bones gave Jean-Pierre the opening he needed, because Monsieur Weasley's achievements in improving relations between Magical Britain and both the goblins and the British Muggles (as Magical Britain called the non-magical people who shared their islands), had been quite favourably reported in the ICW by Magical Britain's new representative and others, as had Madame Bones' achievements in dealing with dark wizards, so he had an excuse to give Apolline and his daughters the introductions to Monsieur Weasley, Madame Bones and their companions that Apolline so obviously wanted.
When Apolline was being introduced to Harry Potter though, he glanced at the Ministry people and other Purebloods who were trying to listen in and then quietly spoke to her in a goblin dialect that even Jean-Pierre couldn't understand, but Apolline obviously did. The way that Apolline blanched at what she was told didn't bode well, but she immediately turned and urgently whispered to him to make their apologies to the British Minister, because their family would be joining the party in the Black Box!... And if politics forced him to stay, to tell them that she and their daughters had been made uncomfortable by the unwanted attention they were receiving in the Ministry box, so they would be watching the game from the Black box, where they were more comfortable.
Jean-Pierre almost challenged one of the arrogant British Purebloods to a duel then and there when he sneered and told him that he should control his creatures better after he advised Fudge that his wife and daughters were being made uncomfortable in the Ministry box, so his wife had requested that they join the party in the Black box, but he managed to get control of his rage and just tersely advised Fudge that this type of behaviour was the reason that his family were not staying before stomping off to join Apolline, Fleur and Gabrielle in the Black box….. but his anger faded slightly as he saw them happily chatting with the people there.
He paled as much as Apolline had when she whispered to him what Harry had told her about the expected trouble coming that night, that the Bulgarian team's Veela mascots would need to be protected from attacks by wizards, and that Fleur and Gabrielle would be in considerable danger in the coming Triwizard Tournament. He might have discounted the first warning as paranoia, but as Veela, Apolline and their daughters were related to a number of the Bulgarian team's mascots and they had already seen enough to know that that warning was quite justified as many wizards here had less control around Veela than those who were more used to them. The warning about the Triwizard Tournament was the most frightening though, because no-one outside the select group of senior government officials setting it up were supposed to know anything about that as yet, and not even Fleur knew that he had been informed that if she didn't represent France in the Tournament, the Delacour family would lose everything and be hounded out of Europe.
They blocked Apolline from sight so that Efa could pop her down to the Veela Mascots' dressing room. At first they brushed off her warnings, but two of them were daughters of her first cousins, so she had enough authority over them to make them listen. Eventually they all agreed to wait in the dressing room for her and the goblin guards who would escort them to a safe place immediately after the game. One of the other Veela had retorted that there was no way that they'd be safe with British wizards but she just looked the girl in the eye and told her that not one of these wizards had made her or her daughters at all uncomfortable, and that the young Duke who warned her about this in formal high goblin was providing what were obviously elite goblin warriors to escort them to safety. That stopped them. "But no wizards can speak high goblin! That is only used for the formal interactions between the Goblin and Veela Nations!"
"This one can! And on top of that he has warned us of things relating to a coming event that my husband was assured that less than a dozen senior government officials know about! This Duke is no ordinary wizard and my family at least will heed his warnings! My cousins' daughters will be coming with us, if any of you end up as wizards' sex slaves because you chose to ignore his warnings, on your heads be it!"
With that, Efa popped Apolline back up to the Black box, but not before she dropped the glamour to reveal herself as a Reeve. Needless to say, once the ones who were higher up the pecking order in Veela society explained about the Reeves, there was considerable discussion in the mascots' dressing room before they headed out to perform, because from what they said if anything having a Reeve serving him was even more astounding than what Madame Delacour had told them.
Harry and Hermione had warned Fred and George that it may not play out the way it had in the other timeline, but told them about the bet that would have paid off so well if Bagman hadn't paid them off in Leprechaun Gold. They wanted to repeat that bet, so knowing how well the twins could haggle, Hermione fronted them another 5000 galleons to bet with, on the basis that she'd get the 5000 back, plus a third of their winnings if it paid off, and if not they could pay back the 5000 when they had the chance. They all had big grins on their faces when Bagman gave them 46:1 odds for Ireland winning, but Krum catching the snitch, before he confirmed that their bet was for 5500 galleons, but he took the bet anyway, just before the Director of the DMLE stepped out of the shadows to inform him that the DMLE was keeping an overview of all betting at the World Cup to protect Magical Britain's reputation, so all legitimate winnings would be paid. That almost made Bagman soil himself, but he was confident that there was no way that he'd ever have to pay off on a ridiculous bet like that anyway, and young Krum had been incredible at catching the snitch before the opposing chasers had a chance to build up much of a score since he started.
They shook their heads in disgust at the rest of the idiots in the Ministry box who were carrying on just like Ronald Fudge when the Veela Mascots were performing (and swore under their breaths at the witches with them who were stopping them from climbing over the railing to go to the Veela). Bagman scrabbled to collect as much of the Leprechaun Gold that the Irish team's Mascots were throwing into the crowd as he could, but an itching between his shoulder blades and a feeling of dread made him look around, to see Amelia watching him closely from the Black box. She just shook her head grimly when he caught her eye, and he dropped the Leprechaun Gold as if it were burning him.… The way that Ronald Fudge greedily scooped up all the coins Bagman dropped was yet another connection to the other timeline.
Bagman put his head in his hands when Krum took a bludger to the face, and at the end of the game, he furtively looked Amelia's way, hoping that he'd be able to scurry away without her noticing, but she was looking straight at him again and beckoned him over, so he had to pay the twins their winnings and bet before he was allowed to leave the box. Amelia rubbed salt in the wound by having each coin tested to ensure that it wasn't Leprechaun Gold, and then sent someone from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad with him to oversee him paying up on the other bets he took, and ensure that he took the details of the people and amounts he still had to pay when he ran out of gold, which shouldn't take too long as the twins took a lot of the gold he had, but at least more people had been betting on Bulgaria than Ireland.
Amelia left a couple of Hit Wizards in the Bulgarian Mascots' dressing room, and a couple more in their tents, and between them they arrested over a dozen wizards who came there to try and grab the Veela to force them into servitude as personal sex slaves.
The Mascots had to admit that Madame Delacour had been correct, as every one of these wizards controlled themselves and shook off the effects of the allure remarkably well, though one of the Veela got her face slapped by Madame Delacour and was told that her family would be formally advised of her behaviour when she tried to turn up her allure to get a response from them. It was the most pleasant interlude any of them had had with wizards, up until one of the goblins came in to say that there was a commotion where they'd expected at the edge of the camp anyway.
Jean-Pierre felt honour bound to take the French Aurors who were assigned to guard his family and do what he could to help protect the French and other international visitors attending the World Cup, because while not an Auror himself, he was an intelligent and powerful wizard and the need to protect his Veela wife and daughters had served to hone his fighting skills quite well over the years. It was noted by many of the Bulgarian visitors that while a French official and French Aurors were out there trying to protect them among other visitors, their own people had apparently hidden somewhere safe, and the Bulgarian news services carried many stories about this when they got home.
None of them were at all surprised to find that it was the Aurors, Hit Wizards and goblin guards that they'd salted around the expected problem areas who took down the false Death Eaters, but Amelia was furious when she found out that John Dawlish, who was in charge of the Minister's guards, had called all the Aurors officially on duty at the World Cup away from where they had been posted to protect the people attending the World Cup to form a cordon around Fudge's tents. Those who had abandoned their posts on the orders of someone with no authority to call them away were hard pressed to come up with a reason for her not to fire them on the spot when they were being raked over the coals back in the DMLE offices. Unfortunately she couldn't do anything to Dawlish, but word quickly got around about what happened to those who were stupid enough to answer his call.
When they examined memories of the dark mark that was cast, and cast Prior Incantato on the wand used to cast it (after it was separated from the arm that a goblin battleaxe had removed from its castor) showed that this was in fact a clever copy of Riddle's dark mark, but they didn't tell anyone else that they knew this because if someone was trying to use the Death Eater threat to create mischief, it was easier to use the same ruse in their response.
They were upset to hear that the Delacours had no way of keeping Fleur out of the Tournament when they visited them at Chateau Delacour to try and convince them that it was too dangerous for her to compete. When that failed, they showed Jean-Pierre and Apolline the confessions that showed what the ones who'd been arrested trying to abduct the Bulgarian Veela had been planning to do and explained how simply a betrothal contract could be lodged through the corrupt British Ministry of Magic, especially when the person in charge of the Ministry Department overseeing their reason for being in Magical Britain was automatically made their magical guardian if no-one else had officially taken on the role.
Unfortunately, when they suggested that Fleur would be safest if she were entered into male and female line betrothal contracts with the son of a family friend to protect her, like they'd done to protect their lot, before she went to Britain, Jean-Pierre advised that they had never had laws of that nature enacted in France, adding that they'd never been stupid enough to provoke the goblins that much when where those laws had come from was explained. Furthermore, he explained that the only friends they had with sons had their own lines to continue, and none of them had sons who weren't already locked into betrothal contracts for that purpose.
The Delacours were shocked when it was Harry's wife Hermione, who'd been raised in the non-magical world and therefore was expected to oppose things such as betrothal contracts and plural marriages, who pointed out that Harry still had one title, and was heir to another, which weren't as yet being used for betrothal contracts. That led to it being explained that Harry was Earl Flamel, Head of the British Noble and Ancient House of Flamel, and Heir to Comte Flamel, Head of the French Noblesse Ancienne House of Flamel. Fleur and Gabrielle were called in and the situation was explained to them (without going into detail on the more unsavoury elements, but Fleur had heard enough from other girls to understand what they were getting at). They were both enchanted with Harry Potter, even after it was explained to Gabrielle that there was no truth in the stories she'd read about him, so they readily agreed to being entered into betrothal contracts with him.
Jean-Pierre called the family avocat to the chateau while they contacted Ted to come up with ironclad betrothal contacts that would cover them legally in both Magical Britain and Magical France, as they were being lodged in Magical Britain to make use of the British laws for male and female line betrothal and marriage contracts, and both houses were French for one set of contracts but Harry was a British citizen. What they agreed on was male and female contracts between Harry, as Head of the British Noble and Ancient House of Flamel, and Gabrielle, as Heiress to the French Noblesse Ancienne House of Dubois, while the other male and female contracts were between Harry, as Heir to the French Noblesse Ancienne House of Flamel and Fleur, as Heiress to the French Noblesse Ancienne House of Delacour (Nicolas Flamel flooed in to sign those contracts as Head of the French Noblesse Ancienne House of Flamel). They also formally made Sirius, as Duke Black, the legal Magical Guardian of both Fleur and Gabrielle in Magical Britain and formally lodged all the paperwork via the British and French goblins.
This meant that Harry was wearing another two betrothal rings, and Fleur and Gabrielle went back to Beauxbatons wearing their betrothal rings on display, as well as their Heiress rings. This was an attempt to ward off the male students who were constantly coming on to them, and hopefully reduce the amount of animosity directed at them by the other girls, who seemed to have the idea fixed in their heads that Veela were just waiting to steal their boyfriends away from them.
Private discussions with Jean-Pierre clarified the reason for the timing of the start of the Triwizard Tournament in this timeline, because Fleur didn't turn sixteen until a week before Halloween, so the French government would have insisted that the Tournament couldn't begin until after she became of age, because the requirement for all competitors to be of age in their countries had been made up front due to the expected furore when the bloody history of the tournament was uncovered would only be worse if people ever discovered that they were exposing minors at that much risk.
Hermione burst out laughing when she and Harry went to look at the Potter family tapestry after Fleur and Gabrielle's betrothals had been magically confirmed, saying. "On behalf of myself and my other wives to be, may I offer our thanks that you have not used the divorces, imprisonment and beheadings that your namesake did to get his six wives my Lord?"
Harry just looked at her, confused, until she nodded at the tapestry and he groaned and banged his head on the wall when he took a closer look, because he was identified there as Henry Potter VIII. He knew that while the others wouldn't get the link themselves, Hermione and Jean would make sure that they all knew about Henry the Eighth and his six wives before too long. Hermione just laughed again, kissing him and leading him back to the others.
Minerva and Pomona were called to the Ministry to be informed about the Tournament a couple of days before the school year started. When they arrived, Abbott, Bagman and Jones were waiting with Fudge, along with the Umbitch, so they knew what this was about from what Harry and Hermione had told them. Fudge and the others were ropeable when Minerva and Pomona stood their ground and insisted that Hogwarts' official legal representative go over the Tournament contracts and confirm that Hogwarts was legally required to host and be involved in the Tournament.
Ted took his time going through the contracts and clarifying every detail before he grudgingly agreed that Hogwarts, as the official school of magic for Magical Britain, was legally required to host and participate in the Tournament. He did, however, manage to force the Ministry to formally provide a legal addendum which officially stated that Albus Jones' involvement in the Tournament was purely as an official representative of the British Ministry of Magic, not as a representative of Hogwarts, and Minerva advised Jones that Hogwarts would not be paying for him to work on the Tournament.
He then forced them to provide another legal addendum which formally confirmed that the six Judges for the Tournament would be the Head of each school and each country's equivalent of the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, or their delegates, because they were trying to insist that Dumbledore would be the Judge for Hogwarts, and Abbott and Bagman would both be judges as well, while France and Bulgaria would only have the Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang voting, so Britain would have had three judges while Bulgaria and France only had one. They only gave in when Ted and Minerva told them flat out that unless they had a formally binding legal agreement from the Ministry to guarantee that the judging would be fair and equitable across all three participating countries, the matter would have to be formally decided in the ICW courts (which would of course take months). When Ted suggested that they contact Monsieur Delacour, who he'd met at the Quidditch World Cup, to get France's official position on the question, they had the legal paperwork formally lodged within half an hour.
Unfortunately, Ted couldn't find any way to justify forcing any change to the contract which would allow them to get Harry out if he was entered by someone else as they were sure would happen, because whoever the puppet master was this time had been clever enough to stipulate that it would be a binding contract for the one who's magical signature matched the blood used to seal the entry, and that was pretty much the standard definition of a magically binding contract.
Another problem they had was they they couldn't get their hands on the documentation that stipulated how the goblet of fire was configured for the tournament, because Jones and Abbott argued that would give Hogwarts an unfair advantage, even when Ted suggested that all three schools be provided with the documentation, they refused to budge, which in itself told Ted and Minerva that this was how they set it up to trap Harry into the Tournament.
When they sent Jean-Pierre a copy of the addendums that they'd forced out of the Ministry of Magic, he was both amused and aggravated, because they proved that he hadn't been shown the full documentation, even though he was the one who had been required to sign the final contracts on behalf of France. He had news for them too, because in secret talks with Beauxbatons' Headmistress Olympe Maxime she had confessed that the government was holding her status as a half giantess over her head to force her cooperation with the Tournament. She was reportedly relieved to hear that the Headmistress of Hogwarts was aware of what was going on, and was looking forward to working with her to try and protect their students in this. Jean-Pierre said that she was quite distraught when he informed her that their government would be ensuring that Fleur would be Beauxbatons' Champion. When he mentioned that it was almost certain that Victor Krum would be Durmstrang's Champion though, she'd apparently started swearing about how much she hated the idea of having to deal with that foul creature Karkaroff. Jean-Pierre couldn't work out why they all burst out laughing at that, but Harry eventually got himself under control enough to explain that Karkaroff was a marked Death Eater, and Hogwarts' wards were set to attack the Death Eaters' dark marks when they crossed her boundaries, so they expected to see Karkaroff replaced as Durmstrang's representative quick smart when they told the Ministry that it wasn't possible to turn Hogwarts' anti dark object wards off without dropping the wards altogether, and they couldn't do that because it would put the students at risk, as all the parents would of course agree when they heard about the problem. Jean-Pierre joined in the laughter then, because they obviously had the Ministry over a barrel with the open threat to tell all the parents if they tried to insist that they drop Hogwarts' wards to allow a marked Death Eater in.
Everyone who did their OWLs and NEWTs in their group did well, Ginny, Neville, Arabella and Jean did the worst in the OWLs, and they still managed mainly 'EE's and 'O's with one or two 'A's. Harry and Hermione had only been revising most of the subjects, so they'd done most of their OWLs back in the Christmas break, getting straight 'O's, which meant that their end of year exams had been mostly NEWTs. They were also working through their non-magical secondary education and taking their exams externally, but they'd both gotten a leg up with that through independent study while they were hiding in the library right through primary school, and they would be working in earnest on their various masteries and the rest of their NEWTs in the coming year, but the whole group was in their NEWT years now, something which would almost certainly confound and enrage others when they discovered this.
The one who was most likely to be enraged was glaring at the groups sitting at the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables from his place at the end of the High Table with a vindictive gleam in his eye, because he knew from his meetings with Anthony that everything was in play to ensure that Potter's name would come out of the Goblin of Fire on Halloween…. The fact that they insisted on having another British competitor to go on and win after Potter was killed off because Magical Britain had to be seen to do well against the Europeans was problematical, but they'd gotten around that by hiding the fact that Harry Potter was actually being secretly entered under the auspices of the Jafar School of Sorcery in Saudi Arabia because of that damned rule written into the contracts that all competitors had to have reached the age of majority in their own countries by the start of the Tournament, and Saudi Arabia was the only country where a twelve year old like him could meet that requirement, at least he'd already reached puberty.
Jones was infuriated when Potter and his associates were quietly talking to each other all through his rousing speech about winning eternal glory in the Triwizard Tournament, so he publicly chastised him, but Potter threw it straight back at him.
"Was I preventing any potential competitors hearing what you were saying about the Triwizard Tournament Mister Jones?"
"No but…."
"If you must know I'd already decided that I had no intention of entering a dangerous contest of this nature even before you mentioned that pesky requirement to have reached your age of majority before the Tournament begins, so as neither I nor any of my friends will have reached the age of majority in Magical Britain by then, what you were saying was for the older students rather than us, was it not Mister Jones?"
"Yes, but…."
"You appear to be confused about this Mister Jones, perhaps this will help clear the matter up for you."
With that he stood and when he spoke, his voice carried clearly into every corner of the hall. "I, Duke Henry James Potter, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter, swear on my life and magic that I will not enter myself in the Triwizard Tournament, and nor will I request or induce or knowingly allow any others to enter me in the Triwizard Tournament as I have absolutely no wish to participate in the Triwizard Tournament…. So Mote it Be!"
There was a flash as magic accepted his vow, and then he cast a 'Lumos!' that almost blinded everyone in the Great Hall with its intensity.
Once he'd proven that he still had his magic he continued in the same voice. "Is that clear enough for you Mister Jones? As I still have my life and magic, that should be a clear indication to everyone here that I have no intention of entering the Triwizard Tournament or having anyone else enter me in the Tournament, and I most definitely do not wish to participate in the Triwizard Tournament! Therefore if I do end up being entered into your damned Tournament and still have my life and magic, it will obviously have to have been done without my knowledge or agreement. However, given that you have stated that entry into the Tournament will form a binding contract, which implies that penalties will apply for non-participation, if someone does manage to enter me against my will, I acknowledge that I will grudgingly participate, but I can assure you that I will hunt down and kill any and all of the bastards responsible for entering me into that death trap! Have I clarified the situation for you Mister Jones?"
Jones just stared at him in horror, thinking that entering the brat in the contest may not be such a good idea after all, this boy had obviously gone dark, perhaps it would be a better idea to just let sleeping dogs lie?
He belatedly realised that Pomona had done nothing to rebuke the boy for the language and tone he used, but when he turned to look at her, both her and Minerva's expressions seemed to be saying that they wished he'd just die, so he refrained from saying anything.