I own nothing, everything belongs to J.K. Rowling. I do this for my own enjoyment.

Here is the new chapter of this little tale. It is kinda shortish but I really enjoyed writing it. I've been playing a lot of magic the gathering lately so there are a couple of references to it scattered all around this chapter. Kudos to you if you get them all and hopefully they will bring you a smile as you read them.

Enjoy the chapter.

A/N2: Very important. Small, very small mention of H/R, H/G, R/L and G/L on this chapter. Not mentioning anything like that ever again.

Cannon Fodder.

Jack sat quietly in his chair after hearing the tale about the three teenagers' third year. If he was truthful he was surprised to find himself entranced by the little tale and slightly depressed after hearing the hardships the young man and his friends had had to endure in their short life. Usually he could very easily detach himself and look at the people he interviewed without getting drawn in but the young man in front of him seemed to have something that made it very easy to empathize with.

"What a strange coincidence. I imagine it must have been very hard to save the man that was responsible for your parents' murder." Jack commented as he thought on ways to help the young man sitting in front of him; maybe after talking to his higher ups he could offer him something.

"Yes, Luna always said that I was fate's bitch and Hermione would sometimes mention how I seemed to be the living proof of Murphy's Law." Harry cracked a small smile as he remembered how they used the term Harry's luck to refer to the times when everything would go pear shaped, before they did something amazing that got them out of their problems. "Some people call it luck Harry, I call it preparation." Hermione's voice resounded in his mind.

"Anyway, after we managed to save my godfather from certain dead we debated long and hard about what to do next. Finally after a while we reached the conclusion that even if we didn't say anything the headmaster would find out about our time travel so we decided to tell him what we did. Besides we thought that maybe he would be able to help Sirius get his freedom." Harry looked a bit crestfallen as he mentioned this as he remembered how Dumbledore had said that there was nothing he could do at the time.

"Luckily for us, he did believe us about Sirius and didn't say anything about us saving the Hippogryph. Sadly we had to give the time turner back since it was only a one year deal with Hermione." Harry explained the last part dejectedly as this had been a major hit for the three teenagers since by then they had gotten used to always turn back at least 10 hours a day; especially Luna since this allowed her to take their classes together.

Harry then perked up as he told Jack about their summer together and how Luna's father had, as part of the press, been gifted tickets for that year's Quidditch World Cup. He then excitedly explained that as Xenophilius Lovegood was anything but a Quidditch fanatic, it had been Harry's job, after a quick edit by Hermione and several derails from Luna, to write a recap of the game.

After that Harry detailed the attack on the World Cup carried out by a team of Death Eaters avoiding some of the atrocities committed by the masked outlaws and their narrow escape from the danger when Mr. Lovegood had defended them from a couple of attackers.

Jack sat there and quietly listened to the story. It really seemed that bad things tended to follow Harry Potter but each time he would come out on top and get stronger. As the story progressed, Jack was told about the Tri Wizard Tournament revival; the tournament that had been banned for years because of the propensity of the contestants to end up maimed or dead after it.

On top of that Jack heard about the "infallible" defences the officials had decided to put for the protection of the younger students and he couldn't help but question those people's sanity. As he finished listening to the young man, Jack could easily imagine what was about to come and looking towards Harry he could see it clearly written on his face; Harry Potter had competed in the Tri Wizard Tournament.

xXxXxXx

The morning after the Halloween fest there was a palpable tension inside the great hall as the students from all the houses tried to start their day after the unforeseen event that took place yesterday. Scattered around the place, there were also students visiting from the other two biggest schools in Europe looking with distrust at anyone that came close to them.

In the middle of all this there were three Ravenclaw students that seemed to be unfazed by all of it; Harry, Hermione and Luna were sitting at their house table chatting amicably as they ate breakfast ignoring the inane questions his housemates bombarded them with.

After Harry had been selected as the fourth champion in the Tri wizard competition and after the farce that had been the discussion with the tournaments officials where Harry had been forced to compete to the best of his abilities; Hermione and Luna had caught Harry coming back to the tower and quickly gave him his support sealing it with a loving kiss from both that left him with a silly grin all the way back to their new destination; the room of requirement.

Once they had reached their haven, not wanting to deal with all of the attention Harry's choosing would bring without talking beforehand, Harry had asked them why they were so quickly to believe that he hadn't put his name in the chalice. As an answer Hermione and Luna only laughed and then explained how absurd it would be to think that he wanted to be part of the tournament. Not only that, something always seemed to occur in Hogwarts and they were already expecting something like this to happen.

Their quick rendezvous at the room of requirement now finished and with the beginnings of a schedule for training the three teens had made their way towards their own common room where Harry had clearly stated that he hadn't put his name into the Goblet and that even though he didn't want to participate the tournament officials had decided that if he didn't he risked losing his magic. Of course this statement was met with disbelief from some people and with curiosity from others but the three teens had decided to ignore this and made their way towards their beds.

Now of hours later after the announcement, sitting inside the great hall, the Ravenclaw trio was wondering why no one had made an official statement about Harry's participation. This would quiet down all of the questions and stares coming from the students and would make their life easier.

Hermione discreetly scanned the great hall as she buttered the slice of bread she was holding on her hand. It seemed that most of their housemates had understood that questioning them for information was a waste of time and had decided to stop.

All around in the other tables she could see that the visiting students were very distrustful; sitting all together in small groups and refusing to speak to anyone else. It also seemed that the other students from Hogwarts were starting to realize the futility of the questioning stares and had all decided to focus on the delicious food that was served that morning.

As Hermione continued her scan, the brunet witch reached the red and gold table were a pair of blue eyes was sending murderous glares towards their table. "Ugh! Why is Weasley looking at us as if we'd just killed his puppy?" Hermione asked looking towards her best friends.

"It's because he is jealous." Luna answered. Seeing the look of disbelief in their eyes she continued. "Yes, he is jealous of both of us, Hermione. Even since first year he has been infatuated with Harry and after he became your friend and then mine he has been jealous of both of us." Luna happily explained as if it were obvious.

"That… that oddly enough makes a lot of sense." Hermione conceded; Maybe this was the reason he always seemed so mad at them Hermione concluded, and maybe that was why Ginny seemed to be the exact same way when she saw them together.

As her brown eyes crossed again with the blue orbs that were still glaring at them, Hermione imagined Harry locked in a passionate kiss with Ron and she couldn't stop feeling a knot forming inside of her. The image was quickly substituted by Ginny petting a moaning Luna and Hermione felt her anger reach new heights. More images of Ron with Luna and Ginny with Harry quickly rushed to the brunet girl making her feel sick.

Without thinking Hermione channelled all that anger and flashily set on fire the piece of bread that she was grabbing making the redhead teen sitting across the room rock backwards in his chair and fall to the ground with a resounding thud.

A victorious smirk appeared of the enraged girl's face before the fog created by her anger dissipated leaving her feeling like utter shite. Not only had she just shown a hall full of students, magic that was supposed to be impossible to do but she had used this to bully someone.

She had never used her magic like this. Yes, they had hurt people defending themselves against previous attacks and she had even pulled something similar against the twins when they got the map but all of those times it was against people that were of similar magical level or people that were trying to hurt them. This time she was just doing this to scare a student that for all purposes couldn't really harm them and this make her feel like a really crappy person. Had she fallen so far away from her beliefs that she thought that this was right?

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts Hermione silently promised to herself to rein her temper better and to not use magic to become what she despised the most, a common bully. Her mussing were cut short as she felt a pair of lips lightly land on her right cheek and hand ruffle her bushy mane of hair and caress her neck from behind.

Looking towards her right she saw her blond girlfriend give her a happy grin. "Hmmm toast." The girl cheerfully said before she took the slice of bread from her hand. Hermione could only shake her head in amusement at Luna as a feeling of content filled her and a small smile escaped her lips. Turning her eyes towards her left she saw Harry eating with his left hand while his other hand was busy playing with a lock of her hair. Hermione's smile grew bigger and bigger as felt completely at ease between these two.

She was thankful to have found someone that understood her and cared for her no matter what happened. She hoped that she would always have her two best friends at her side because without them she didn't know what would happen.

xXxXxXx

Next to the Quidditch pitch, where hundreds of people usually gathered to watch fourteen players fly around in brooms in one of the most dangerous sports in the world, there was an almost empty tent where only a raven haired teen waited patiently.

Harry was sitting quietly, playing with the small black figurine with the form of a dragon. He was here alone waiting for his turn in this madness called the Tri Wizard Tournament; the toy in his hands, if you could call a toy something that viciously attacked anything that tried to grab it, proof that only the craziest people would call this a competition. Steeling himself, Harry put away the small dragon and started warming up while he waited for his time to face the first task.

From the point he had found out about his unwilling participation in the tournament, Harry with Hermione and Luna's help had trained constantly to be as prepared as possible in the hopes that he wouldn't be another statistic in the margins of history books as a dead champion.

All that time Hermione had been in charge of creating a schedule based on the previous competition; Luna for her part had been the one in charge of mixing everything he learned to create different strategies; some crazier that the others.

It wasn't until a couple of days ago when he had found out about the reason why there where so many causalities in this tournament; in the first task they were going to be facing dragons. When they had found out Hermione and Luna had gone green at the thought of him facing a full grown killing machine and had spent the day looking for everything from weak points to tactics to use against them. Sadly it seemed that one of the quotes from the books described best how to deal with the dragons. "I wouldn't stand in front of that monster. Of course, I wouldn't stand behind it either. In fact, standing anywhere near a dragon is not much of a plan. Running, now that's a plan!"

Harry felt a sight escape his lips as the figurine started to wildly move inside his pocket. Leave it to his luck to not only put him face to face with a dragon but make him face the worst dragon of all. His mind went again to that book and especially to a paragraph that talked about the Hungarian Horntail. "While it is true most Dragons are cruel, the Hungarian Horntail seems to take particular glee in the misery of others, often tormenting its victims much like a cat plays with a mouse before delivering the final blow." He would definitely need all his abilities to get out of this one alive.

A loud gong reverberated all around the tent bypassing the silencing charms put in place so they couldn't listen to the previous competitor fight; something about testing their melt and creating character; Harry scoffed at the idea, the damn bastards only wanted to see them suffer. This sound made the small dragon sitting in his pocket stop all movement as it signalled the start of his turn.

With his head held high Harry started making his way towards the tent's opening, he had trained for this moment for weeks and there was nothing else to do but face it with everything he got. If they wanted to make this a show, to create bad publicity and gossip around him, to make him into a deranged useless young man well, he was going to do his damn best to make sure they regretted it.

As he opened the flap, a myriad of sounds assaulted his senses. Cheers, spiteful comments, laughter and cries mixed all together creating a cacophony of sounds that left the young man disoriented for a few seconds.

In no time at all Harry quickly regained his bearings; this was no different from the many times he played Quidditch. Finding his target, a golden egg inside the dragon's nets, he deftly pointed his wand towards it and clearly intoned "Accio Golden egg."

The accio or summoning charm, as the name implied, was used to summon anything the caster wanted from a distance as long as he had a clear image of the object. This was one of the first spells they had practiced this year together as its versatility could help Harry in many different situations.

Trying to capitalize on the idea that wizards tended to obviate the most common solutions to a problem, Harry went for the easiest solution; when you have a problem, avoid it. Sadly it seemed that the organizers stupidity reached only certain degree as the egg stayed in its place even though Harry was sure he had made the correct motion and incantation. Plan A had gone down the drain.

Without missing a beat Harry implemented his second plan and concentrating on the image of the huge serpent that was burned into his mind started talking to the dragon in Parseltongue {I mean no harm oh great beast!}

While reading about dragons, they had found that many experts around the world theorized that dragons, being closely related serpents, should be able to understand their language granting the ability to all the parselmouths to communicate with the fire breathing behemoths. This of course was an unproven theory since there weren't many speakers of the tongue willing to come face to face with a dragon to test those claims but for Harry who didn't have a choice in the matter speaking to the dragon could help him avoid a bloody confrontation.

Just as Harry finished speaking in Parseltongue, he decided that once he got out of this one alive, he would be sending some very heated howlers to those so called experts as it seemed that, judging by the huge fireball sent his way, speaking in Parseltongue was more likely to enrage a dragon than to make him more approachable.

Quickly trying to avoid the fiery furnace that was the dragon's breath, Harry leapt to his left and hid behind one of the big boulders that were scattered all around the place. This action proved to be right on time as less than a second later he heard the sound created by the overheated breath pass next to him leaving only smouldering rocks in its wake.

Harry could feel the adrenaline rapidly pumping through his veins, his whole body screaming at him to just turn around and run from the nasty piece of work that was the Horntail. Harry had to take a couple of deep breaths before his pulse, albeit still very elevated, started coming down.

Plan A and B were down now, its remains burning in the fire that was the dragon's breath. Harry urged himself to think, right now the dragon seemed to be passive but it wouldn't be long before it started getting anxious and started burning everything, including his rocky protection down. He knew that he had all the tools to complete this task he only needed to focus.

Harry found himself thinking what would Hermione and Luna say? Immediately his mind pictured Hermione, with her beautiful bright brown eyes and her gorgeous smile telling him to be cunning and smart, to avoid a direct confrontation and try to use everything around to his advantage.

He could feel the beginnings of plan form in his mind, when out of nowhere the image changed to show an older Hermione encased in the tightest black leather suit he had ever seen. The suit showcased a fantastic pair of long legs that finished in a very well formed ass and her, now completely developed breasts, bounced lightly every time she moved. The costume was completed by a blood red cloak that flew behind her back.

Harry cursed himself as he felt his pants tighten up. Since the time they had gotten together almost a year ago he had been having constant dreams involving his gorgeous girlfriends in various states of undress. They always came at the most unexpected times and left him feeling flustered.

In front of his brunet girlfriend there was a huge explosion and a white bright flash that seemed to encompass everything in the horizon. Harry felt the images quickly change and he saw Hermione standing at the edge of a cliff, next to her Luna was kneeling wearing what seemed to be the armour used by a squire. Below them everything was completely devastated.

"The enemy has been destroyed my lady." Luna said still kneeling on the ground. "So have the forest, the spectators, the castle, your cat…" The image dissipated from his mind and Harry felt a chill run down his spine. Maybe that could be plan Z; unleash the mighty Hermione Jane Granger against the puny dragon.

Now that his fantasy was finished Harry concentrated once again in the plan and quickly started looking for a distraction. "Misdirection, Harry" Luna's soft voice echoed in his head reminding him of a tactic Luna had borrowed from the goblins. "How to create the perfect cannon fodder."

Step 1: Find your cousin.

Grabbing a couple rocks that were lying around in the ground Harry started waiving his hand in an extremely intricate patter. Slowly the pebble started changing shape until it no longer resembled a rock. In its place now a small figurine that looked very much like his overweight cousin sat unmoving.

Step 2: Fire your cousin.

With a quick Engorgio spell the figurine grew until it was at least a two feet tall. This was followed by a wave from his hand as Harry banished his cousin lookalike until it came to rest behind one of the boulders where it was protected from the dragon's fire.

Step 3: Find another cousin.

With the first mannequin in place, Harry started transmuting another rock until it looked now like an almost perfect replica of a Slytherin blond haired ponce, one engorgio and one banishing spell later the figure was sitting behind another boulder.

The raven haired wizard repeated the process a couple more times creating a small army of miniature unmoving people. Three Dudleys, two Malfoys and even one Ronald Weasley stood ready to provide the teen with the much needed time.

Now came the hardest part; setting the stage. With this thought in mind Harry started charging as much magic as he could preparing for his next spell. He could already feel his magic to start dwindling after casting that much magic in a short span of time; he only hoped that he wouldn't faint in the middle of it all.

Praying to all the deities that his gamble worked, Harry stepped out of behind the boulder and caught the attention of the Hungarian Horntail. The fire breathing beast wasted no time and with a roar that would bring the bravest men to their knees sent a powerful fire blast that threatened to reduce Harry to cinders.

"Aguamenti" Harry screamed at the top of his lungs while making a horizontal S pattern in the air. The water making spell, a charm usually taught to sixth year students, like its name suggested created a jet of water from the caster's wand. While it was true that this spell usually only produced enough water to douse plants and sometimes to put down small fires created in the woods; when someone as powerful as Harry overpowered the spell with as much magic as he could, the resulting stream of water could easily put to shame even the top of the line fire trucks with their potent water pumps.

The water jet and the fire stream clashed in the middle of the arena with no power gaining a clear advantage. Harry maintained the spell for a couple of seconds before he staggered backwards into the safety of the boulder. As he hid behind the rock Harry saw the now more powerful fire melt the arena creating a straight line of blazing dirt where he was once standing.

Harry gave a sigh of relief as a thick fog started descending onto the arena. Everything was in place now, the only thing he needed was to make his move and the dragon would have no idea about what had happened.

Animating the statues proved to be as difficult as Harry expected since this was a skill taught only during the last year here at Hogwarts. Harry was thankful that he didn't had to give them a patter since that would make it that much more tiresome and complicated. Once he had finished casting the spells to make his small soldiers move, Harry cast on himself a disillusionment charm, a silencing charm and an odour masking charm; making himself practically invisible to anything.

With all of these charms in place, Harry commanded the lookalikes to assault the dragon ordering them to make as much noise as possible. Very careful with his steps Harry rushed towards the now unprotected nest while the dragon sent wave after wave of bright red fire towards the attacking figures Harry had conjured.

Finally after a few seconds and one close call where the dragon's spiked tail had almost reached him, Harry managed to grab the golden egg from the nest and quickly made his way towards the tent.

Walking towards the tent Harry felt the charms in his body break as his magic was completely depleted. He could imagine that the figures had stopped at the same time that the other charms had fallen, reverting back to their previous state. Luckily for Harry he was close enough to the protecting barrier that his last steps took him inside where he was protected from the very enraged beast.

Just in passing Harry thought about how much trouble the dragon handlers would have trying to calm down the beast so they could take it away. A small smirk crossed his face; they deserved all that for putting four teenagers face to face with a murderous dragon.

Harry felt his vision start dimming before he crashed into the ground with his egg in hand. His last coherent thought was how proud Hermione and Luna would be as he told them where his plan had come from and how gorgeous they would look when he saw them. Harry fell into a deep slumber with a big smile engraved on his face.

xXxXxXx

Yep, Hermione has a jealous and protective streak a mile long. And just like her I'll try to not bash Ron anymore. Though I can't promise anything :P.

Thank you for reading.