The Anti-Heroine || A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter L

CHAPTER L:

Harry's POV:

Dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table and Hermione smiled back at the headmaster. It was a cold smile, the one Harry had dubbed her 'I am planning which spell I am going to use to make your insides your outsides' smile. It was, in his opinion, gloriously effective. Madam Maxime certainly looked a bit wide-eyed.

Madame Maxime cut a striking figure even while seated, having changed her usual uniform of black satin for a flowing gown of lavender silk, but Harry thought Karkaroff looked no different then usual. Ludo Bagman had chosen horrendous bright purple robes with large yellow stars and thankfully the final member seated at the top table, Mr. Crouch– or rather, the polyjuiced Barty Crouch Jr– was much less of an eyesore in his very proper, stiff-looking steel grey dress-robes. Barty also looked very bored with the proceedings though he perked up slightly at the sight of their approach and nodded to the empty chairs on his right.

Harry quickly steered Hermione over to the empty seats, thankful for the fact it would have them seated far enough from Dumbledore that any chance of interaction between Hermione and the headmaster would be limited.

There was no food as yet on the glittering golden plates, but small menus were lying in front of each of them. Harry picked his up uncertainly and looked around– there were no waiters. Dumbledore, however, once the champions had all chosen a seat, looked carefully down at his own menu and then said very clearly to his plate, "Pork chops!" And pork chops appeared.

Getting the idea, the rest of the table placed their orders with their plates too. There was a gentle hum of conversation in the hall, students chatting casually to their partners and the others seated at their tables while eating the delicious food the Hogwarts house elves had produced for them.

Viktor and Daphne, Harry was glad to see, appeared to be getting along well, with Viktor enthusiastically describing Durmstrang to a genuinely interested Daphne.

"Vell, ve have a castle also, not as big as this, nor as comfortable, I am thinking," he was saying. "Ve have just four floors, and the fires are lit only for magical purposes. But ve have grounds larger even than these– though in vinter, ve have very little daylight, so ve are not enjoying them. But in summer ve are flying every day, over the lakes and the mountains–"

"Now, now, Viktor!" said Karkaroff with a laugh that didn't reach his cold eyes, "don't go giving away anything else, now, or your pretty lady friend will know exactly where to find us!"

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling. "Igor, all this secrecy, one would almost think you didn't want visitors."

"Well, Dumbledore," said Karkaroff, displaying his yellowing teeth to their fullest extent, "we are all protective of our private domains, are we not? Do we not jealously guard the halls of learning that have been entrusted to us? Are we not right to be proud that we alone know our school's secrets, and right to protect them?"

"Oh I would never dream of assuming I know all Hogwarts' secrets, Igor," said Dumbledore amicably. "Only this morning, for instance, I took a wrong turning on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I have never seen before, containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamber pots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly it is only accessible at five-thirty in the morning. Or it may only appear at the quarter moon– or when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder."

Despite himself, Harry snorted into his plate and Hermione rolled her eyes– whether at him or Dumbledore, he wasn't sure.

Meanwhile Fleur was criticizing the Hogwarts decorations to Neville, and despite how genuine her expression appeared in its disdain Harry wondered how much of her diatribe against Hogwarts was real and how much of it was faked due to her intense dislike of its conveniently within earshot headmaster.