Chapter six (HPOCSI1)

**September 1st, 1994.**

It was September first once again and Percy was sequestered on the Hogwarts Express, avoiding firsties and other annoying people, and already having drained a lot of magic from the other students.

Thankfully Percy remained undisturbed until he arrived in the Great Hall where after the start-of-term feast Dumbledore announced the Triwizard Tournament, to Percy's disapproval.

"Are you gonna try getting past Dumbledore's defenses, Percy?" Michael Corner asked.

"No," Percy replied, not seeing the point in the tournament.

"Eternal glory, though. You'd have a real chance of winning that for Ravenclaw." Michael said.

"Name one previous winner of the tournament," Percy replied in amusement.

No one. Literally no one could name one.

"Eternal glory? I don't think so." Percy quipped, amusing those nearby. "Cheating to get in would only get me bad press and these competitions are for the merely above-average to have something meaningful in their meaningless lives so that they can forget that they'll never be remembered like Merlin, Morgana le Fay, the four founders, Gellert Grindelwald, Dumbledore, Nicolas Flamel, or Herpo the Foul." It spoke volumes of the Ravenclaw houses arrogance that none of them realized they were included in that insult.

"Or Harriet Potter," Cho Chang added.

Percy rolled his eyes, Harriet was a second rate witch at best and that was being generous.

Once Ravenclaw Tower was all asleep, Percy sneaked out and then traveled to the Room of Requirement where he quickly entered the Room of Hidden Things.

Locating Ravenclaw's Diadem took him a few hours, but Percy soon found and cleansed it, gaining himself a new prize.

With his task and looting the Room of Hidden Things done, Percy sneaked back into Ravenclaw Tower with no one the wiser.

**October 30th, 1994.**

The last month had been good for Percy. He mastered the amazing Unsupported Flight ability, learned from Dumbledore about Transfiguration and Percy was making incredible progress due to his own advanced knowledge and the knowledge taken from Voldemort.

The students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had just arrived at Hogwarts and everyone was settled in the Great Hall.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and most importantly guests," Dumbledore said politely. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

One of the Beauxbatons girls still clutching a muffler around her head gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh. Dumbledore chose to ignore the appalling behavior and continued.

"The tournament will be officially opened after the feast," Dumbledore said. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!" He sat down, and Percy watched as Karkaroff leant forward at once and engaged him in conversation.

Percy focused on eating and people watching; assessing peoples magical power with Magic Sense. Fleur Delacour had beauty, brains, and plenty of power... she was a must for his Lady McKinnon. Percy decided to chat her up some later.

The remainder of the feast passed in relative silence for everyone and Dumbledore stood up.

"The moment has come," Dumbledore said. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those of you who do not know them, Mr. Bartemious Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation" - there was a smattering of polite applause from the Great Hall- "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports." Percy rolled his eyes when Bagman was given a much louder applause due to his fame.

Dumbledore continued, informing the Hall of all the hard work Crouch and Bagman had done to make the tournament possible, and that Bagman and Crouch would be on the panel of judges.

"The casket please, Mr Filch." Dumbledore finally said, and Filch brought it forward. "There will be three tasks spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways... their magical prowess, their daring, their powers of deduction, and, of course, their ability to cope with danger." At his last word, there was absolute silence...

"Each school shall have one champion, and they will be marked on how well they perform each of the tasks and the champion with the highest total points after the third task will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire." Dumbledore said, keeping things short and to the point. He drew his wand and magically removed the Goblet of Fire, placing it on top of the casket.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as a champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," Dumbledore said. "You have twenty-four hours to do so. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will reveal its choices of the most worthy to represent their schools."

After some final warnings, they were all dismissed.

Percy enjoyed watching people enter themselves, but he wasn't at all impressed by Angelina Johnson from Gryffindor, Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff, or Cassius Warrington from Slytherin. None of them were really anything special and Percy realized that this was why magicals like Dumbledore and Voldemort seemed to be such godlike beings... everyone else was just way weaker. Percy continued reading while everyone else waited the remaining minute for the Goblet to finish up; indifferent to the tournament and it's tasks, which Percy had already realized weren't all that difficult.

Dumbledore dimmed the lights and Percy marked his place and closed his book.

Viktor Krum was chosen for Durmstrang.

Fleur Delacour was chosen for Beauxbatons, and Percy applauded politely and whispered congratulations to her, which none of her fellow students had done. Sadly, Percy had been unable to flirt with her since last night and he was hoping that his self-control would draw her in.

Cedric Diggory was chosen for Hogwarts, and Percy merely rolled his eyes. Cedric was exceptional at Charms and above-average at other fields, but he wasn't anything special.

Dumbledore began his speech, but soon he and everyone were distracted by the fire in the goblet turning red once more. He caught the parchment with Harriet Potter's name on it, eyes widening in surprise, and he called out Harriet's name.

Harriet sat, stunned, as everyone turned to look at her. Harriet tried assuring Ron and Hermione that she didn't put his name in, but they both just stared blankly back. Percy sent his father a Patronus message and rose and tapped Harriet's shoulder. "Don't worry, I know that you didn't put your name in. You aren't a cheater, even if most probably think that you are right now." Percy cast a subtle Compulsion on Granger as part of a plan of his.

"I sent father a Patronus message and he'll be here soon," Percy reassured.

Dumbledore called Harriet up again and Harriet went with Percy joining him and silencing Dumbledore and McGonagall's objections. "This is a consequence of your incompetence and you really don't wanna burn this bridge right now after your incompetent safeguards endangering students."

Insults were directed at Harriet and Percy made a note of the people making them. They entered the side chamber.

"What is it?" Fleur asked. "Do zey want us back in ze hall?"

"No someone put Harriet in as an attempt to get her killed without even getting their hands dirty. Harriet has to sit through this until our solicitors can review the contract and get her out of it." Percy replied boredly. "It shouldn't be too hard, Harriet didn't enter herself." Bagman came in, tried grabbing Harriet by the arm and was telekinetically halted.

"Don't man handle nobility," Percy warned, his eyes flashing red as an intimidation tactic.

"Y-yes," Bagman said in fear, causing Percy to smirk. Bagman then tried explaining that there was no way out for Harriet.

"Then you'll have your life ruined to the point where me having you Crucio'd to death would seem like a kindness," Percy warned. "But I'm sure that you'll make the right decision to avoid that... there is no shame in taking a supposedly cowardly way out. Honestly, why bother living? You're a degenerate gambler who's massively in debt and now this. Your life is actually pretty pointless."

The door behind them opened again, and a large group of people came in: Dumbledore, McGonagall, Barty Crouch, Snape, Madame Maxime, and Professor Karkaroff.

"About time," Percy snarked.

"Mr. Black if you are staying then you will be civil," Dumbledore said.

"Fine, but my father won't be happy," Percy said.

"No one cares what your worthless father thinks, Black," Snape said in anger.

"And no one cares what a worthless coward like you thinks. Why are you even here? Did Dumbledore not train you to stay yet?" Moody got a laugh out of that.

"Perseus," Dumbledore said in exasperation after cutting off Snape's reply.

"Fine, but control your pet Death Eater before he loses another body part," Percy warned. "Now get to the important details we have solicitors to meet with."

"The first task is designed to test your daring," Crouch told the champions, "so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard... very important..." Percy fought the urge to snort in derision.

"The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges."

"The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first task is over. Owing to the demanding and time consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests and are not required to attend classes."

Harriet would later find out that she was trapped in the magically binding contract. There were no loopholes to be exploited and her participation was a done deal. Percy had convinced her to use her class exemption on Potions and History of Magic and he would teach her Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and magical combat in the Room of Requirement. Predictably, Ron Weasley had abandoned Harriet and so had Hermione when she viewed her association with Harriet as a threat to her plans of being Minister for Magic and 'reforming' the Wizarding World. Harriet was shocked, but Percy and Sirius were both there for her.

Percy almost felt guilty for turning Granger against her, but it took so little effort that Granger clearly already agreed with the compulsions command. That meant that Granger did consider her friendship with Harriet a threat to her plans and considered the dissolution of it an acceptable sacrifice.

Percy wanted to preserve his power and not have it weakened by Granger years from now. Percy would be fair with his power; muggle-borns and half-bloods would all have equal opportunity, traditions would be kept and the nobility would keep their power and privilege, crime would be punished regardless of a persons rank, and peace would be had, but not by dragging those of higher standing down like Granger intended.

Between his apprenticeship with Dumbledore, teaching Harriet in two classes, keeping his grades up, and carrying out his self-study, Percy was very busy. And Percy was also sexually teasing Harriet, who looked kind of like a younger Katie McGrath from Merlin and Supergirl. It had taken him a while to figure out which celebrity Harriet resembled, but Percy was very pleased. Percy had been making out or snogging with her a lot... but he still made sure that she learned all that she could and Percy slowly undid the damage caused by Snape to Harriet's skill in Potions. Harriet was making excellent progress in her training and had already learned about the dragons and had a plan for them.

Percy wasn't even surprised when Harriet completed the first task using a Summoning Charm to call her broom and using minor illusions to distract the dragon. Harriet was soon slightly ahead of Krum in scores.