THE CHAMPIONS
As soon as Harry entered the room he searched for Cedric: their eyes met and Harry immediately said
“I’m sorry, this is not my fault, and I really didn’t want to take your spotlight”
Cederic sighed “This is another one of your misadventures isn’t it”
Harry shrugged as he sat down “Yet another proof of the fact that I do not control this stuff”
Sirius was immediately by his side, and Dumbledore announced his latest predicament.
As expected Madam Maxime and Karkaroff were both enraged, but Sirius took the reins
“Enough” he said, and they both shut up “You are adults, this is a child. I would expect a much more decent behaviour. But once a bad apple” he turned to look straight at Karkaroff “Always a bad apple”
Before the argument could continue, Harry spoke up
“I never wanted to partecipate, I have been entered in this tournament against my will, and I do not wish to win. I will do my best to do the worst I can. I am no threat to the possibility of your champions to win, I’m just trying not to lose one of the very few adults who actually care about me. So there is that”
“Ze arr Harry Potter” said Fleur, it was not a question
“Unfortunately yes” answered Harry
“You’re good tho, you could win” commented Cederic
“He is fourteen” said Krum in his heavy accent
“I may not be an internationally famous Quidditch Player, but I have faced my challenges, and I survived, thank you very much”
Cederic commented again “Yeah what was that thing with Ginny Weasley and a Basilisk?”
“A...basilisk?” asked Sirius both worried and surprised
Harry just waved him off “it was not important. Ginny’s a little traumatized, but we survived, that’s everything, really” he said and Sirius sighed
“What am I going to do with you kid?”
Harry smiled and shrugged “Love me and support me?” Sirius messed up his hair
“I do believe we must go on with the schedule,” said the Umbitch.
And so the meeting went more or less as Harry remembered: they told them about the tasks, and Harry had to calm Sirius down more than once.
Finally they were sent back to their rooms. Harry had to, once again, explain that no, he did not want to do this thing. Both to the other champions and to the Gryffindor common room.
A nice change from the first timeline was that Ron was at his side, and so were Hermione and Neville. He never properly realized just how much it had hurt seeing Ron turn his back to him, and he only understood how important the other boy was to him when he felt the relief of him staying by his side.
That night Harry slept, knowing he would do his very best to fuck up the whole tournament. And the first step was to talk to Charlie Weasley.