Much Deadlier Tournament Rewrite Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Everything up until Sue brings him into the closet is pretty much unchanged. Everything after is new.

-

After a brief period of silence from everybody in a square mile radius, McGonagall attempted to rush him to Madam Pomfrey for a check up. Even his head of house seemed hesitant to speak to or especially touch him, as if he might kill her too.

She didn't press the matter when he refused her with a glare.

Cold, ugly rage emanated from him like a miasma of deadly gas.

He wasn't angry for any logical reason, but for purely medical ones. It was only with righteous rage that he managed to keep the bile down at his disgust. He had killed a dragon, and it felt awful. He also didn’t appreciate the professors crowding around him and who seemed to be re-evaluating him. Especially Moody, who seemed to be making a threat assessment of the youngest champion. Ahrry could practically hear him going through a spreadsheet in his own mind.

Actually his reaction made the most sense. Harry secretly appreciated the grizzled bastard's consistency.

It wasn't until the handlers carted off the dragon and declared it well and truly dead that the judges announced his scores.

All tens. Harry may well have just won the tournament.

Some of the less sociable students had started filing out as soon as he touched the egg, either content that they already knew his final score, which wasn't exactly a Sherlock Holmesian leap in logic to suspect was high, or to avoid the crowd currently flooding from the stands. He groaned as he made to follow, not at all eager to deal with the back patting, congratulatory pablum and assurances of a fictional past belief in him or his honesty.

Charlie Weasley, of all people, stopped him at the entrance to the arena.

"Hey um. Bagman wants a word with the school champions." He said in an overly polite manner.

The second eldest Weasley had always been so likable and the sudden Percy-esque shift put him into a tizzy for a whole five seconds as he tried to understand the sudden change. Oh right. He and the other dragon handlers probably weren't happy with him. It would come as a massive blow to most of them, both personally and professionally, to have lost one of their wards.

Harry hadn't thought of that.

Oh god! Hagrid!

"Seeing as I'm not a school champion, you can tell him I politely declined." Harry said, imitating Charlie's mannerisms. "Or that he can sod off. I don't care which."

He took his egg and left, eager to be alone and insult himself for being so stupid.

The sea of students and outside spectators just beyond the enclosure and forming intermittent crowds all the way up to the castle doors parted as if he were the wrath of god as he passed. His anger momentarily subsided as he felt, for the first time ever in the aftermath of a life and death situation, like a complete badass. He tried to fight the feeling back, but it was there to stay.

It made sense that people deferred to men capable of single-handedly slaying dragons and basilisks and whatnot, but how long would this last? He didn't get this kind of treatment after dealing with the dementors last year, which a similarly incredible feat. Then again, people only heard about that in rumors, as with previous years. The whole world had witnessed his latest exploit.

He found himself hoping it would last forever. This berth of space, this hesitance to approach him or get in his way, was so incalculably preferable to the usual fawning and hero worship that had been a constant in his life ever since he entered the Leaky Cauldron on that fateful day. It sounded terrible in his head to think it, but he really did prefer fear to idolatry.

He was soon stomping through the corridors of Hogwarts, ducking beneath banisters and pushing aside faux walls in an attempt to make a beeline to Gryffindor tower and his four poster bed. Sweet oblivion awaited him and he didn't want to keep her waiting after having pulled an all nighter out of nervousness.

It was while traversing one of the dustier and less oft-used secret passages that he finally let his guard down. It was a small hallway filled with broom closets and store-rooms on either side. Despite being only a few strides long and having no incline it somehow connected the fourth and seventh floors. It was one of the best shortcuts to his common room. He was practically home and the stress of the day was beginning to fade.

That was when a pair of unseen hands grabbed Harry around his chest and yanked him into one of the closets, forcing him to drop the golden egge and try to bring his hands up to defend himself, but he froze.

In fact, he froze exactly five times. Once from being grabbed unexpectedly, again at the sudden feeling of soft lips pressed against his own, a third time when he saw the oriental beauty those lips belonged to, a fourth time when he realized it wasn't Cho like he initially thought(and hoped), and a fifth time when Sue went from lightly kissing him to practically eating his face.

It was that last one that made him pull away.

“Er, hello there, Sue’s tonsils. It’s so nice to make your acquaintance.” He said as he pushed the waif away from him by the shoulders.

He had meant for it to be acerbic, but it came out strangely flirtatious. They just looked at each other for a moment as his words rattled in both of their brains.

She started giggling. He started giggling. She covered her mouth to try and stem the flow, but it turned into a torrent of outright laughter. He would have descended into it with her had he not been distracted.

Harry was a little too stricken by the sound of her voice, her real voice, and the beauty of her laughter. It was tinkly, like wind chimes. If it was her intention to seduce him she should have started with that, not the whole forcing a snog on him.

“I’m sorry. I assumed you were just accustomed this kind of thing and I wanted to try with you. I figured it you expect girls to make it easy.” Sue admitted, still stifling laughter.

Harry gaped at the girl and her words. Accustomed to what? Getting borderline sexually assaulted by Ravenclaws on his way to bed? Did somebody give him a reputation for liking easy girls or something? That would probably be Draco.

“Sue, that was my first ever kiss.” He told her, honestly. “Not that I did much back.”

She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Right. I just stole Harry Potter’s first kiss. Next you’ll claim to be an erumpet in a trench coat.” She said.

He just stared at her blankly. When the realization came to her that he wasn’t lying she made the first expression, aside from boredom and mirth, he had ever seen on her face. Absolute disbelief.

“It’s okay. I won’t report you for the theft, you can keep it for now. But I may ask for it back in the future.” Harry told her, this time intentionally being flirtatious. “But I’m not in the mood for it now. Right now I’m more than a bit angry. I’m more than a lot angry. And exhausted to boot.”

Sue was finally composing herself and listening intently as he spoke. When he finished she squinted her eyes ever so slightly in that way she did when she was thinking.

“A few quotes from the trashy novels the other girls in my year come to mind. Something, something, take that frustration out on me, something something, get a better night of sleep in my bed.” She said in her normal dismissive monotone. “But I’m exactly as inexperienced as you are, and I wouldn’t actually mean such an offer, let alone have the ability to deliver. So instead, I will offer to escort you back to your common room and a future date to Hogsmeade.”

Harry nodded.

“I accept.” He said. “On both accounts.”

He offered her his arm and she took it. Together they exited the overly large broom closet and straight into Penelope Clearwater. Ravenclaw prefect and Head Girl. Girlfriend to Percy Weasley, the most rule-married prefect in the history of Hogwarts.

She was just standing there, smoking a fag, and staring boredly at the door they just came out of and, by extension, them.

She exhaled a plume as they stared back at her. Harry in a panic, Sue plainly.

“To answer your next two questions, I was in the next room over to smoke in privacy and heard everything. Not sure how much I believe, especially from Potter,” She told them before taking another drag. “That will be zero points docked, and zero detentions. On account of I’m pissed to be on patrol instead of at the Task where my boyfriend is. Now get out of here.”

They both obeyed, with Harry taking a moment to retrieve his golden egg before following Sue out.

As promised, she walked him all the way back to the Gryffindor common room, though they did not re-lock their arms during the trip. It seemed neither were comfortable with even that level of intimacy yet, let alone the whole kissing thing.

It wasn’t until they came upon the fat lady’s portrait that Harry realized he had been the one leading and that he just revealed the entrance to the Gryffindor common room to an outsider. It wasn’t exactly against the rules, but it was a social Faux Pas.

“I can show you to the Ravenclaw common room if it makes you feel better.” Sue offered.

She was better at reading people than she was at expressing herself. Which wasn’t saying much.

“Maybe after our Hogsmeade date.” Harry suggested. “But I guess this is good night.”

“Good night, Harry Potter. I will see you Saturday at the carriages.” Sue told him.

They did not immediately go their separate ways, but instead stood there staring at each other awkwardly. He felt like he was supposed to do something. Hug her? Kiss her? Shake her hand? Invite her inside?

That last one actually sounded like the most sensible to Harry in that moment, but Sue took the decision from him by turning heel and walking away. It was probably for the best.

He shrugged and entered the common room to find it empty. He assumed that his fellow Gryffindors assumed, rightly, that they ought to remain out of his way and were loitering elsewhere. He climb the stairs, entered the fourth year dorm, dropped the golden egg on his nightstand and crawled into bed.

His legs felt like lead as he climbed those stairs and when his head hit the pillow, so did it. It was only as he neared sleep that he realized how starving he was. He hadn’t had breakfast, or even dinner the night before.

Whatever. He’d eat during dinner, or else sneak into the kitchens if he missed it.

-

When it rains, it pours, and for the remainder of that week in rained women for Harry Potter. It seemed every girl in the castle suddenly wanted a piece of him.

If the longing looks and whispers weren’t proof enough, them coming right out and asking him for date certainly was.

“What the hell is a Yule ball?” Harry asked the poor Hufflepuff third year that asked him out first.

“Um, it’s, uh…” The girl stammered. “It’s a dance. On Yule. Will you go with me?”

“No.” Harry said, somehow enunciating a double u at the end.

She fled from him crying loud enough to get the attention of the second years in Herbology class at the time. He had thought sitting on the benches by the greenhouses would make for an excellent bit of privacy to read up on what passed for a chemistry book at Hogwarts, but now that privacy was gone.

What the hell was her problem? He’d never even met the girl before, he doubted they’d ever even made eye-contact or passed each-other in the halls a single time. And she was crying for being rejected by him? Where did she get off!

And thus, his groundhog day began.

Slytherin girls, Hufflepuff girls, Ravenclaw girls – though oddly, not any Gryffindor girls, kept coming around asking him for a date to whatever this Yule Ball was. Apparently he missed the announcement, and didn’t care. He would not be attending.

“You will be attending the Yule Ball on Christmas.” McGonnagal informed him on Wednesday when he bothered to show up for class.

“Bet you I won’t.” Harry told her cheekily.

“Oh yes you will, it is a Triwizard tradition for the Champions to perform the opening dance, and you, as the representative at Hogwarts, will not make an embarassment of our house by failing to show up.” She said with a glare he’d have to be moron to challenge.

A shame he recently misplaced all of his IQ points.

“Well, it’s a good thing I am only contractually obliged to partake in the three main tasks.” Harry told her. “It is also good that I am not the Hogwarts Champion, Cedric is. It is a Triwizard tradition that THREE champions open the Yule Ball dance. Not four.”

She was absolutely fuming now. That sour lemon look she tended to wear now looked like something something an ad company would want to purchase for a sour candy commercial. He was in danger.

“If you do not show up to the Yule Ball…”

“You’ll what?! Force me into a deadly tournament against my will where I am likely to die or else lose my magic forever?!” Harry yelled.

That shut her up. He didn’t know if she was actually afraid of a violent confrontation at him, shocked to see such a mild-mannered boy scream at her when he’d never so much as talked back to her in his life, or what. But she shut up.

“Or maybe you’ll force me to spend a year of my life surrounded by soul sucking demons who constantly make me relive the murder of my mother and father, making my ears ring with her death scream?” Harry offered. “Or why don’t you go all out! Throw me into a crucible of deadly traps and challenges. The chessboard was your little addition, wasn’t it?”

She swallowed, hard and seemed to pale a little. But she didn’t have an answer for him.

“Please, professor. Tell me. What can you POSSIBLY threaten me with.” He pleaded. “I am genuinely curious.”

She didn’t answer him. She didn’t even try to think on it. She merely nodded.

He took this as her excusing him, which he accepted. He didn’t bow, or apologize for his uncharacteristic behavior, as he felt more than justified. He didn’t even push his chair back in, he merely stood up and left her office.

Just outside he found Ron and Hermione.

“I told her you would rather spend yule camping with Aragog than go to that ball.” Ron said, apologetically. “I’m sorry.”

Oh, they were talking again now, were they? Whatever. What anger he had for Ron before paled in comparison to the constant rage he felt these days.

“For what?” Harry asked, referring to his apology.

“For not being a good friend and standing by your side, instead being out here where I couldn’t back you up.” Ron said.

Wow. Harry challenged him and Ron stepped up to the plate. Swung it out of the park. Why was he suddenly less angry? Still angry, but less so.

“Are you the reason that the Gryffindor girls aren’t harassing me?” Harry asked.

“Oh yeah! I asked them all out and now they all think they’re going to the Yule ball with the famous Ronald Weasley.” Ron said. “It’ll be a day before they all learn from each other that it was a sham, but that’s time I bought you all the same.”

That actually got a smile out of Harry, the first he’d felt since the harassment had begun.

“Oh, plus Hermione and Ginny have been following you, giving death glares and verbal threats to any Gryffindor girl looking your way.” Ron added. “They had a talking to most of them already, and reached an understanding. Or tried to, apparently they all find being a dragon slayer is eminently hot.”

Harry sighed, and rubbed his eyes.

“Thank them for me, will ya? And thank you. For being back.” Harry said. “Now go ask Hermione to the ball before somebody beats you to it.”

-

“You will be walking me to the Yule ball.” A seventh year Sliytherin demanded of him while he

Harry looked at her. She could have been Millicent Bullstrode’s older, stronger and prettier cousin. Muscular girls could still be attracrtive, right?

“Are your legs broken?” Harry asked.

“What?” She asked, a hint of fear entering her voice.

She probably thought he was threatening to break them himself. He needed to be more careful with his sarcasm now that he was a well-known dragon killer.

“Are your legs broken? If not, then I’m sure you can walk there yourself.” He said scathingly. “Or did you think the reason I rejected everyone else was because I was just waiting for some demanding woman to order me to do it?”

She tightened her jaw and nodded, either out of respect, gratitude or apology, he couldn’t tell.

At this point he gave up on studying chemistry at all. After his great success with that first bit of magical chemistry he thought to maybe focus on that. But with all of this drama with the ladies he couldn’t bring himself to concentrate.

In fact, he had half a mind to cancel his date.

-

Notes:

First of all, why was I always under the impression Penelope was a Hufflepuff? Well she was the only named prefect active in the fourth year so I sued her for this.

Not sure if you all remember, but I held a vote months ago on what to move from MDT over to Insubordination. So most of the comedy, the school changes and such are switching. The romance with Sue, the trial and the angst is staying here. The focus is on the title. A deadlier tournament.