Hi everybody, this is my Christmas story for this year. As always I own nothing but the idea for this little story. This story has three chapters and I will post one each day.

Happy reading.

Unwilling Champion

Harry had rarely before been as happy as he was now that he had ignored the instructions of Dumbledore to stay at Privet Drive last summer. For one thing the summer had been much nicer without the emotional abuse from his relatives. Really, thinking that Harry would be safe there after the episode with Aunt Marge was idiotic. Next thing was that other countries were going easier on the underage magic laws. They didn't have detectors as good as the ones of the British Ministry and therefore it was impossible to track underage magic precisely. As long as the Statute of Secrecy wasn't broken they really didn't care that much. And third, his stay at a Summer School / Quidditch facility that also offered summer classes in the common magical subjects helped him catch up with a lot of material that had formerly escaped his understanding.

Potions was much easier to understand without a teacher that hated him for the circumstances of his birth. History was actually interesting with a teacher that didn't lull him to sleep every class. His Transfiguration and Charms-work had improved a lot with individual coaching, thanks to having only ten students in the class. Harry had even learned the basics of Ancient Runes, which was a fascinating subject. He had easily passed the entry test for fourth year after that. And, of course, he finally could enjoy his summer. Flying every day, getting good food and making new friends had done a lot for Harry. He had been happy when he returned to Hogwarts. Funnily, until two weeks before the new school year was about to start, nobody had even noticed that he wasn't at Privet Drive. So much for looking out for him. Dumbledore couldn't care less.

The Weasleys had tried to get him for the Quidditch World Cup finals, for which Mr Weasley had got tickets from work. While Harry had organised to go to the Burrow using the Knight Bus, as he didn't want to miss the finals, from talking with the Dursleys Mr Weasley found out that Harry hadn't been there the whole summer. Of course that led to Mrs Weasley trying to reprimand Harry, which he had blocked saying that the Dursleys had signed his permission form at the station to get rid of him for the whole summer and that there was nothing wrong with him not wanting to go back there with how they always treated him like the plague.

Of course, Harry hadn't really got the signature at the station. He had sent a school owl, much less suspicious than Hedwig, to Privet Drive two weeks before the year ended and suggested the solution to his relatives. He had come across the information about summer schools in the library and had requested an application form by owl. The form had come just before he had to sit his end-of-year exams and he had sent it on to the Dursleys, knowing that this was something they would probably allow. Considering that neither wanted to live together anymore, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had signed the form immediately. Having him go to summer school was a lot better than having him at Privet Drive. So the owl had brought back the form and he had taken the Knight Bus to Diagon Alley to buy his supplies after he got his acceptance letter from the school. It had arrived three days before the year ended with a list of supplies he would need.

The school used the summers to better its income by offering the summer classes in combination with Quidditch training for students from all countries. The only condition was that the student could speak and write English. But honestly, a magical language course only took two weeks for one language to be known perfectly. After one week one could speak enough to get by easily. It had been in Australia in one of the sparsely settled areas. For eight glorious weeks he had been free to be a normal teenager. Being Harry Potter didn't get him stared at 'Down Under' like it did in Britain. It had been noted, but then shrugged off. Harry had the core classes of Transfiguration, Charms, Defensive and Offensive Magic, Potions, World History and Politics on his schedule next to Quidditch. Additionally, he chose to learn Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Broom Crafting, Fencing and Languages. With magic it was easy to learn four different languages within eight weeks. He now knew French, German, Spanish and Russian. He figured with the countries being fairly close to England and being the most spread languages, it would be good to start with them. He could add more later on after all.

Hence, each morning he had classes from eight to one, then he had time to do his homework for two hours after lunch and then till seven was Quidditch training. The weekends were free and with the limited homework they got, it was set up to make sure that they could finish it easily in the two assigned hours, they had made trips to sights all over Australia. They had gone to Ayer's Rock, the Great Barrier Reef, had visited Sydney and Melbourne and some preserves. Harry had loved every minute of it. Getting to Australia had been easy with the portkey he had got through Gringotts courier. While travelling with an international portkey wasn't the most pleasant experience, it was well worth the results.

Thus, after the summer, Harry looked totally different to his former looks. He had got charmed contact lenses to get rid of his glasses, as his trainer had commented on how easy it was to lose them and then not being able to function properly. That was neither good in a duel nor in a Quidditch match. There was a good magical optician in Sydney and Harry had got the lenses for twenty galleons. They would work for ten years and adapt to his eyesight, slowly correcting his problems as far as possible and then he could decide if he wanted to take a potion to completely cure his sight or keep using the lenses. Next to that he got a balanced diet, put together by specialists for dietary needs of athletes, so, after a week, he started feeling the effects of potions and good food. He had grown about ten centimetres over the summer and finally wasn't the smallest one in his year anymore.

He had also been informed about certain things that all young wizards went through, which were caused by puberty. All male participants of the summer school had to sit through the four hours' class during the first week and were educated about sexual urges that would happen, thanks to their magic maturing, biological development of their bodies and of course the development of their female friends. They learned ways how to prevent pregnancies that wizards could use and a charm that would work on a witch that didn't take a special potion. They were given examples how gold-digging witches had used irresponsible wizards to get their gold, claiming they had a right to it, because they had had the wizard's child. As most wealth of the magical world was in male hands, it was a good piece of information to have.

Said knowledge of how to prevent getting a girl pregnant had come in handy on his birthday when, after a great party with lots of drinks, he had somehow landed in bed with Gem, a girl his age that he had spent a lot of time with during class and training. They were on the same team, she played chaser and he seeker. It had been fantastic, but Harry was really glad that they had used protection, because he was simply too young to become a father. Gem saw it like him, she didn't want to have a child yet. It would disrupt her plans for the future. She wanted to have fun and she really liked Harry, but a child was too much of a responsibility right now.

Harry and Gem had been a couple from that day on and currently led a distant relationship. Gem went to school in America. Her mother had needed to go on a business trip this summer and therefore had enrolled Gem at the school, because she loved playing Quidditch, and normal camps only lasted one or two weeks at most, which was too short to be a good solution and they didn't want to leave her completely alone. Harry had got them post-boxes that were connected to each other in Melbourne. He could put his mail into the box, tap it twice with his wand and it would send the contents to the other box, allowing him to stay in contact with Gem. With the long distance between Scotland and America that was a good thing. Even if Hedwig loved delivering his letters, she wouldn't be able to cross the ocean that far in one go. And he didn't want her to get hurt.

His studying over the summer had led to his performance in class getting much better. While he wasn't at Hermione's level, he now easily followed the material and, except for Potions, where Snape was as biased as ever, he got really good grades now. He didn't even need Hermione to look over his homework anymore. While he would still sometimes ask her for a detail he wondered about, he didn't have her basically do his work anymore. He had been really disappointed that Quidditch had been cancelled this season, because, after the summer, he had really looked forward to showing Malfoy up on the pitch.

Right now, he was shocked that his name had come out of the Goblet of Fire as the fourth champion. Hermione was pushing him to get up and join the other champions. She didn't look happy and Ron looked downright nasty. Did they believe that he had put his name into the Goblet himself? They should know him better. Well, right now he had no other choice. He walked towards the door that the other champions had gone through. But if the teachers thought he would simply take this silently they were dead wrong. His studies during the summer had covered the history of magical contracts briefly. He would have to see if this one was really binding.

Harry watched how the three headmasters discussed what had happened as if he wasn't even there. Bagman looked far too happy for his liking and Crouch looked far away. And of course Snape had to be here and make disparaging comments about him. How he always broke the rules and so on. McGonagall seemed to also not believe him. Hm, Crouch's eyes were strange. Didn't Professor Moody say you could see if somebody was fighting the imperius curse in the eyes?

"Alright, I think I have a right to say some things. First, I want to see the piece of parchment with my name on it. I didn't put my name into the Goblet, so I doubt that the piece of parchment would bind me. You said we would need to write our name and our school onto the parchment, Professor Dumbledore. As I never did that, how could I be bound?" Harry asked.

The others stared at him disbelievingly. Snape of course said how arrogant Harry was. Especially Madame Maxime and Professor Karkaroff scoffed how ridiculous the excuse was. But Harry got the piece of parchment. There was his name in his writing, but no school.

"This is from one of my essays. And it has to be an older one, because I haven't used blue ink all year. I handed in all my essays in black ink, as all my teachers will be able to confirm. With how the parchment is formed, it is clear that it was torn from the top right corner of a parchment sheet which is where I write my name. Hence, as I would have needed to state which school I compete for, I doubt that the contract could have been formed properly. I am enrolled at Hogwarts, but the Hogwarts champion is clearly Cedric," Harry stated, noticing that Cedric's look changed to more accepting than before.

"Be it as it may, your name coming out of the Goblet forms the contract. You are bound to compete in the Tournament, Mr Potter," Crouch stated.

"A magical contract can only be formed with conscious agreement of the one being bound by the contract. Said act can be done by writing with the blood of the bound party, which clearly isn't the case here, by placing the signature onto the contract itself, but that requires the full name and the last is by stating all necessary information for the contract, in this case the name and the school. But if you don't have a written contract, you need to personally put your name into the artefact that creates the contract. Meaning if Miss Delacour for example only wrote Delacour, Beauxbatons on her slip of parchment, the contract couldn't have been formed, as it lacked important information," Harry stated, "It could have meant a sibling for example."

Fleur seemed to blanch hearing that. Probably she had a younger sibling.

"It doesn't matter. You have to compete, Mr Potter or risk losing your magic," Crouch stated.

"Professor Dumbledore, is there a way to determine if somebody is under the imperius curse? I mean when you have the person that is suspected to be under it?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore's eyes widened and he looked at Crouch.

"Yes, it is. The difficult part is determining it when the curse is already gone," Dumbledore answered and used a spell on Crouch who glowed red, "Definitely under the imperius curse. How did you know, Harry?" He asked while stunning Crouch.

"In Professor Moody's class we covered the unforgivables. He said you can see it in the eyes if somebody tries fighting it," Harry answered.

"Good work, Potter, constant vigilance," Moody hollered.

"So what now?" Karkaroff asked, "Will the boy have to compete?"

"I will check the rules for such a case. And Barty will be brought to St. Mungo's for treatment to get rid of the imperius curse. Perhaps he can shed light on this mystery. For now, we will err on the side of caution and assume that Harry is a champion. If it turns out that he isn't bound, he will retreat and the other three will do the Tournament tasks. If Harry is bound, he will have to do his best. I will see to it that we find out the truth as soon as possible. It is obvious to me that whoever put Barty under the curse is responsible for Harry's entry in the Tournament," Dumbledore announced.

Harry sighed. Why was a fourteen-year-old boy the one to spot an imperius curse and not the greatest wizard of his time or a legendary ex-auror? Well, at least now he had a chance to get out. Hopefully, the rest of the school wouldn't start a repeat performance of his second year.

He should have known it. Wizards were stupid. The Gryffindors didn't want to hear that he didn't put his name into the Goblet and were happy to have their own champion. Harry finally had enough and cast a sonorus on his throat.

"Silence!" He shouted and stopped the incessant babbling, "Good, now that you finally let me talk, listen. I didn't enter my name myself, but Mr Crouch was found to have been put under the imperius curse. Professor Dumbledore performed a spell to determine that part. Mr Crouch was sent to St. Mungo's to find out more. The adults have no idea if he was the one to put my name into the Goblet and if the contract is really valid for me. Professors Dumbledore and Moody are investigating the issue. I will only compete if the contract is valid. I was also not entered for Hogwarts, Professor Moody suspects them making the Goblet believe I was the sole candidate for a fourth school. So please don't taunt the Hufflepuffs, as Cedric is the true Hogwarts champion. He won the selection fair and square. If I have to participate, I will do my best, but don't expect wonders from me, I am still just fourteen years old and only had three years of magical education. I doubt I could take on Angelina, who put her name into the Goblet, in a straight duel."

The others were surprised hearing all of this information. Hearing it like that made it sound stupid to think that Harry could be a champion. Of course, there were some who didn't believe him, to Harry's hurt Ron was one of them. Hermione looked sceptic. How could they of all people doubt him? He cancelled the charm and went back to the dorm. He just wanted to think and write some letters to Gem and Sirius. He needed advice right now. He was really glad now that he not only had a post box to exchange letters with Gem, but also with Sirius. After he found them in Melbourne, he bought two sets of them. One for Gem and the other he had sent to Sirius with Hedwig as soon as he was back in England. Now he had a fast method of communication that couldn't be intercepted. He took half an hour to write the letters and send them off. After that he got ready for bed.

The next morning at breakfast Harry was subjected to many glares and sneers. He really hoped that Dumbledore would hurry with declaring that Harry was entered against his will and that they were trying to find out if he really had to compete. But the headmaster took his time. Bastard. Only a distinct look from Harry and curiously Professor Flitwick finally made him move. Why did he need to be prompted?

"Please listen to me for a moment," Dumbledore said loudly, and the students quieted down, "Thank you. As you have seen yesterday evening, Mr Potter was chosen as a fourth champion for the Tournament. We are currently trying to determine if he has to participate, as he didn't enter his name by his own volition. He wasn't entered for Hogwarts and it is being discussed if his entry therefore was valid. It has already been determined that Barty Crouch, the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, had been placed under the imperius curse. He is at St. Mungo's now for treatment and we hope to get information on who put the curse on him and if he was the one who put Mr Potter's name into the goblet under a fourth school. I ask you all to not target Mr Potter with your irritation about the situation as this is in no way his fault," Dumbledore ended his speech.

Whispers erupted all over the Great Hall. Harry soon had enough and left to get some peace and quiet. He walked to the lake and sat down leaning onto the bark of a tree. Why had Ron and Hermione looked like that? Why was Dumbledore hesitant to clear things up? And what should he do to prepare for the Tournament? He couldn't simply hope that everything would work out and he could withdraw from the Tournament. He needed to prepare, but the point was, without knowing what to prepare for that would be difficult. Not to mention that preparing on his own would not be that efficient. He needed to have someone to practice spells with. Normally he would have asked Ron and Hermione, but, with how they behaved, he wasn't sure if that would be the right decision.

Okay, he had to think strategically. The other champions were older than him and had studied more magic than he had. The teachers were forbidden to help him prepare, which sucked. Hence, he needed to find outside sources. His best bet would have been Sirius, but with him being a wanted man that wasn't practical. Perhaps Professor Lupin. He would probably have some time he could spend on helping Harry. He was really knowledgeable about Defence and he had been one of his father's best friends. He would set up a letter and send Hedwig to him once he returned to the castle.

He would need to see what he could find out about the Tournament. If there was a common theme about the tasks, he would have an easier time preparing.

Harry was officially frustrated. He had asked Madam Pince where he could find books that described former Tournaments, but they were all either borrowed by other students or in the restricted section of the library. The waiting lines were also too long for him to be feasible. He asked if he could get a pass for the restricted section, but Professor McGonagall blocked his request, calling it useless and told him to wait for the available books. Was she out to get him killed if he had to participate in the task? And why did she have that disapproving look on her face? He had done nothing wrong.

Ron and Hermione were also shunning him. He really didn't know why they were behaving this strange. Well, time to try another avenue. There was after all a renowned duelling master in the castle, who was pretty neutral to all the stressing out. Perhaps he could get some general information from Professor Flitwick.

To say the head of Ravenclaw house was surprised to find Harry at the door of his office was an understatement. Over the past three years the boy had never come to him with any kind of question but considering that Minerva was behaving very unreasonable in this mess, he could somewhat understand it. He invited Harry inside and listened to his problem.

"I see, that is indeed a problem for you. I would give you the pass for the books you need, but sadly the headmaster has forbidden to give access to those books. I think it is ridiculous. And as I am not allowed to give you any hints, the best I can do is giving you general advice and the names of the books that would help you most. Look up magical creatures, enchantments, wards, defensive spells of a wide variety and dangerous plants. Look up how to counter them or avoid them. Practice the spells you look up until they are second nature to you," Flitwick advised and wrote down a few book titles, "You might want to ask outside of Hogwarts for the books that are restricted here."

"Thank you, Professor. That's more than Professor McGonagall was willing to do to help me. It is like she is angry at me that I was entered, even if it wasn't my fault. I can understand that the Hufflepuffs are somewhat reserved because they have their own champion to support, but so many, even if they know now that I didn't enter on my own, are giving me the cold shoulder. I mean, I don't care so much about certain Slytherins like Malfoy, he has been a pain in the arse since we started school in first year, but didn't the other students learn anything after it was proven that I didn't open the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry asked.

"I can only say that many feel that it is unfair that you always seem to be the one in the spotlight, something they want for themselves. It doesn't matter to them that you would rather like to have nothing to do with it. You have the talent to get into trouble a lot of times and some think you are allowed to get away with things they don't. It's somewhat true because Professor Dumbledore has a strange interest in you. Other students wouldn't have been allowed to go unpunished after breaking so many rules, even if you had incredibly good reasons each time," Professor Flitwick explained.

"I know," Harry sighed, "But I simply can't stop myself when I know that something needs to be done. And I always tried to get help from a teacher, but it always ended badly."

"How so, Harry?" Flitwick asked.

"In my first year Hermione, Ron and I had puzzled out that Professor Dumbledore kept a Philosopher's Stone hidden for his friend Nicolas Flamel. I found out that Hagrid had slipped up about how to get past Fluffy while being drunk and tried to warn Professor McGonagall, but she sent us away when we told her that someone tried to steal the stone. My first plan was telling Professor Dumbledore. But he had gone to the Ministry and wouldn't return before the next day. She blew us off and didn't even put guards at the corridor. Why not position a house elf to keep watch just in case?

"Then, in second year, Ron and I had just deduced where the entrance of the Chamber was, when we found out about Ginny being taken down there. We sneaked out because we had overheard that Lockhart was about to tackle the monster. We didn't like him and knew he was incompetent, but we didn't want him to die, so we wanted to give him the information we had. He was about to run and tried to obliviate us to not be found out. Would you have tried again after two times being blown off or being better off trying on your own?" Harry asked, "Had we not acted, the Stone would have fallen into Voldemort's hands sooner or later, because face it, the bastard is smart and would have figured out how to get the stone out of the Mirror of Erised. Then Ginny would be dead now and Voldemort back through using the diary that had possessed Ginny if we hadn't gone into the Chamber. Not to mention the basilisk under Voldemort's command would have been a terrible weapon. And then there is of course all the ridicule Snape is allowed to heap on me just because I look like my father."

Flitwick wanted to curse his colleagues for how they treated this boy. He could see that Harry had become better than last year, probably from the summer school he went to. They had got the results of his classes from Australia for his normal school file and he had to say he was impressed how fast Harry had improved. It seemed, with the right support, he was quite capable. In his class, Harry's grades had risen from between low to middle E to high E and sometimes O. It was only a question of time until he would permanently get that O. Alastor was telling him the same about Defence though Harry had the O there and even Minerva had noticed an improvement and graded him with E now instead of A. But if the others didn't start changing their behaviour, Harry might break one day. There was too much pressure on him that somewhat prevented that he reached his full potential.

"I can only say that my door is open to you, even if you aren't in Ravenclaw. Try to ignore those that ridicule you and show them up by outperforming them. You have the potential and you finally started to use it. The summer school seems to have done you a world of good," Flitwick said.

Harry smiled.

"Yes, I enjoyed the time there. I could finally be normal, just Harry and not the Boy-Who-Lived," Harry agreed.

At Gryffindor Tower, Harry sent a request for the books Flitwick had recommended, which he couldn't get at the library, to Gem. Coincidentally her mother led a bookstore, so he hoped she would be able to get him the books he couldn't get from the library. From what Gem had told him, her parents were divorced, and she lived with her mother. Her father, after finding out that his wife was a witch, didn't want to stay with her and left one evening before Gem was even born. Her mother had a boyfriend of four years though and Gem hoped that Roger would finally marry her Mum.

He also wrote another letter to Sirius to tell him about the strange behaviour from Dumbledore. It made no sense to outright forbid Harry from getting books that could help him survive the Tournament. Ron and Hermione were still keeping their distance. Well, if they wanted to be arses, there were others he could ask for help. And one was just entering the dorm.

"Neville, just the wizard I wanted to see," Harry greeted the surprised boy smiling.

"Me? Why?" Neville asked disbelievingly.

"Because you are a Herbology genius, my friend. As Professor McGonagall wasn't very cooperative in giving me at least some general help for the Tournament, and the headmaster forbid letting students get the books about the previous Tournaments from the Restricted Section, I went to Professor Flitwick. He at least told me the general fields I should look up and what I should practice. I already sent out a letter to Professor Lupin if he would help me practice Defence and perhaps Charms and Transfiguration. But you are the best in our year in Herbology and even the fifth and sixth years respect your knowledge in the class. So, I wanted to ask if you would be willing to help me out there. While I don't know yet if I really have to compete, I don't want to be caught unprepared. Not when I am already the underdog," Harry explained.

"Uh sure, I will help you all I can," Neville agreed, "Where do you think we should start?"

"Let's start with the dangerous variety of plants that I could have to face, then go over to useful plants that could help me in different circumstances," Harry answered and took out parchment and a quill.

Neville told Harry all about plants he knew that he thought Harry might find useful. After a while Dean and Seamus arrived at the dorm and wondered what the two were doing. When Harry said research for the Tournament they were first interested, but then retreated after seeing that they were working on Herbology.

Days fell into a routine for Harry. He ran in the morning, a habit he had taken up with Gem during the summer, then he ate a healthy breakfast, mostly sitting with Neville now. After that he went to his classes, using History and Divination, which he hadn't been able to get rid of, as he couldn't start Runes late, only after passing an OWL he would be able to take the class at NEWT level if he wanted to, to read other books, much to the disapproval of Hermione. After classes he went to an abandoned classroom, to his joy Neville had offered to be his training partner, even if the blond boy doubted he would be any good at it. They worked on the spells they had learned so far and those Harry had looked up already.

Surprisingly, with Harry's help, Neville became fairly good at Defence. Harry found out that Neville used his father's wand, because his Gran wanted him to be more like his father and the wand was meant to help him with that. It was then that Harry found out about the sad fate of Neville's parents. As Harry knew that the wand chose the wizard, he feared Neville's wand wasn't compatible to him. Thus, he came up with a plan to get permission for Neville to get his own wand during the next Hogsmeade weekend. After another useless attempt to get Professor McGonagall to do her job as head of their house properly, they went to Professor Flitwick. He agreed that Neville should have a proper wand and offered to take the two to Diagon Alley this weekend, as this should be solved soon. Both boys were happy about that.

In the evenings Harry did his homework and research for things to learn next. Remus Lupin had agreed to come to the castle each weekend to help them with learning spells and give advice how to deal with several creatures. As Dumbledore wasn't really cooperative in the whole matter, Harry decided to simply use the Shrieking Shack for training with Remus. They could access it from the grounds and Remus could apparate there. The first session was planned for Saturday afternoon as in the morning the trip to Diagon Alley was planned.

Gem had sent him a list what her mother had available in her shop and what the books would cost. Harry planned to send the gold over with his post-box and she would send the books in return. Therefore, each evening Harry sat on his bed and read one book and wrote the best spells he found down or made notes on creatures or obstacles he thought could be used. He started with the History of the Tournament though, as simply trying to learn something without a direction was stupid. He found out that the first task traditionally was facing one or another dangerous magical creature. And the organisers were really crazy with what they brought. There had been cockatrices, manticores, chimeras and dragons just to name a few. And the dragons had been the less dangerous choices.

So right now, Harry and Neville would better concentrate on what creature might be used in the first task and find a counter strategy against it. The one problem was that, if Harry had to do the task, he would only be allowed to use his wand.

And that's the end of chapter one. Chapter two will be up tomorrow. Until then.