Play to Your Strengths by Lady FoxFire
Summary: Before the first task in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Moody told Harry to ‘play to your strengths’ and Harry took those words to heart. Of course the Wizard World was less than pleased with the new Harry.
Categories: Non Buffy/Angel Stories > Harry Potter Characters: None
Genres: Action/Adventure
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 5 Completed: Yes Word count: 9798 Read: 150595 Published: 2011.07.20 Updated: 2011.07.23
Chapter 2 by Lady FoxFire
After the first task Harry’s life was very definitely no longer a picnic. Instead of just dealing with those who believed that Harry cheated to entered the Triwizard Tournament, he now had to deal with those who believed he cheated because he used Muggle items to defeat the dragon.

Hogwarts was split into two camps. The pro-magic camp, who thought that the use of Muggle things was cheating, was made up of Pure-bloods and those who were raised in the magical community. It surprisingly also included a good number of Muggle born, Miss Granger was also counted in this group. She could often be heard telling the younger Muggle born that if they wish to remain in the wizard world that they need to learn to separate the two worlds. They should become the best witch or wizard possible while learning everything they could about their new world.

The other camp, the pro-Muggle camp was much less vocal about their support of Harry. Not because they lacked the numbers but because the other students and teachers would turn a blind eye to them when a pro-magic person decided to help them correct their beliefs. It was easier to keep their heads down and mouths shut than to speak out in support.

Fortunately for Harry very few who were in the pro-magic camp were willing to back up their opinion with spells and hexes. They spent most of their time making snide comments at him and wearing buttons that declared Harry a cheater. So it was no surprise to most that in order to get away from them Harry spent most of his time either in the owlery or in the Library under the watchful eye of Madame Pince.

It was during transfiguration class that Harry’s life turned even worse when Professor McGonagall announce the Yule Ball.

“The Yule Ball is approaching… a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open only to fourth years and above, although you may invite a younger student if you wish. Dress robes will be worn and the ball will start at eight o’clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then…” Professor McGonagall looked around the room, eyeing certain students. “The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to…. Er… let our hair down. But that does not mean that we will be relaxing the standards of behavior we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarrasses the school in any way.”

A number of students turned to look at Harry at McGonagall’s comment.

As the change of class bell rang and the students started to gather their bags and escape the classroom, Professor McGonagall called out, “Potter… stay behind.”

As the last student fled the room, Harry walked up to McGonagall’s desk. McGonagall adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose as she looked at Harry, her lips pressed together in a disapproving way.

“Potter, the champions and their partners…” she said before Harry interrupted her

“What partners?”

“Your partner for the Yule Ball, Potter,” McGonagall said coldly. “Your dance partner.”

“Dance partner? But I don’t know how to dance,” Harry said quickly. “Beside I doubt anyone would be will to be my partner.”

“Be that as it may, Mr. Potter, you will have a date for that night,” McGonagall stated firmly. “I expect you to do your part as a representative of the school. Am I clear, Mr. Potter?”

“Yes, professor,” Harry replied dejectedly.

~*~

It was a little over a week later that Harry sat down heavily on a chair in the owlery. “I give up!” he proclaimed. “I can’t find a date for the ball.”

Hedwig flew down and landed on an owl stand next to the writing table and the chair Harry was currently in.

“kruff-guh-guh-guk,” Hedwig said as she bobbed her head.

“I have asked,” Harry sighed. “I’ve even posted notices that I was looking for someone to take the ball and the answer is always no. Sorry, I already got a date. I’m doing my hair that night. I don’t date cheaters.” Harry snorted. “And anyone who might go with me is scared of someone else.”

“hooo-uh, hoo-uh, wuh-wuh-wuh”

Harry ran his hand through his hair. “Hedwig I even posted notice near the Slytherin house. I’ve tried everything.” Harry chuckled sadly. “The blond in Ravenclaw, Luna I think her name is. She said she would go with me but couldn’t because the snorkack told her she can’t go with me. She said that I had to go alone in order to achieve my goal. I have no clue what goal was she talking about!”

After ruffling her feathers, Hedwig says “Hoo-hoo. kruff-guh-guh-guk.”

Harry snorted then started to chuckle. “I can just imagine it,” he exclaimed happily. “This is my date for the evening, Professor. Well I don’t really know her name; you see I asked Sirius to find me a date, so he sent me a Muggle lady of the night. Said she could my date and make me a man.”

Hedwig bobbled her head quickly as if she as chuckling too. “hooo-uh, hoo-uh, wuh-wuh-wuh”

“Eww. Eww. Eww,” Harry exclaimed as he shook his head violently. “I couldn’t imagine dancing with Sirius even if he’s uses polyjuice. It’s just… eww!”

“Hoo-hoo. kruff-guh-guh-guk.” Hedwig said cocking her head to the side.

Harry once again shook his head. “Thanks for the offer, girl but I think it would best if my date was human. That way they can’t claim I’m doing something bad with you or claiming I don’t approve of human females like they’re saying I’m anti-magic or anti-tradition. I just guess I have to go to the ball dateless”

Hedwig flew over and landed on Harry’s shoulder. She gentle nipped his ear before saying “Hoo-hoo.”

Harry slumped in this seat. “Not much is going on,” he replied. “I’m still working on trying to figure out the clue for the next task. I can’t figure out who the horrible screechy wailing is meant to be. Draco has to have someone helping him with the buttons since he recently came out with a new saying ‘Potter the new word for cheater’”

Hedwig cooed in reply as she groomed Harry’s hair.

“With how everyone is treating me, I don’t know if I want to return next year,” Harry admitted. “But I don’t want to stay with the Dursley’s either. Of course I doubt I would be given a choice since I’m an underage wizard.”

“kruff-guh-guh-guk.”

Harry turned his head so he could look at Hedwig in surprise. “That can’t be right. It can’t. I mean they would tell me won’t they.”

“Hoo-hoo.”

Harry sat there in surprise before he slowly said. “Hedwig? Do you think you could take a letter for me?”

~*~


“Put it back, Ron!” Harry could hear Neville saying as he climbed up the started to the fourth year boys’ dorm.

“And what are you going to do about, Longbottom?” Seamus’s voice could be heard saying. “It’s not like the cheater deserves robes like that! Let Ron have them.”

“Ronald Weasley, the thief,” Neville replied. “Has a nice ring to, doesn’t it.”

Harry leaned against the wall next to the door to the dorm, waiting to hear Ron’s reply.

“I’m not a thief,” Ron exclaimed.

“And yet you’re taking Harry’s dress robes,” Neville countered.

“He doesn’t need it! He doesn’t even have a date!” Ron shouted. “No one wanted to go out with a cheater.”

“He still has to go to the ball; he’s one of the champions,” Neville stated. “Of course you can take Harry’s robes and try to wear them but I’m pretty sure they’ll be too small for you.”

“Enlargement charm,” Seamus chimed in. “He can use it to so it fit.”

“Right. And do you know how to do it? How about you Ron? Can you do that spell?” Neville asked.

“Hermione can. Or any of the older students could,” Ron replied snidely.

“Alright. Then you go right out there and ask them to do it for you. Of course then they might ask you why your mum bought you robes that are much too small for you. How you going to explain that? I’m sure that your brothers would realize that those aren’t the robes your mum bought you,” Neville said calmly. “Of course McGonagall will find out eventually. She’ll figure it out when Harry tells her his robes are missing or he appears in his normal robes.”

“Fine!” Ron could be heard exclaiming. “I hope he chokes on them.”

Harry shook his head sadly as he waited a few minutes for things to calm down before entering the room.

When Harry entered the room, Neville was at his own trunk pulling out his dress robes while Harry’s robes lay on his bed. He gave Neville a small nod of thanks when the other boy glanced over at him.

“So cheater, who are you taking to the Yule Ball?” Ron asked in a snide tone of voice and Seamus and Dean chuckled.

“So Ron, I heard that Hermione turned down your gracious invitation. Heard she found someone better than you to go with,” Harry replied as cast a charm to remove the wrinkles from his dress robes.

“Well… well that because someone got to her first, that’s all. She didn’t realize I was going to ask her so she went for the first person to ask her,” Ron explained away Hermione’s actions. “She’s too honorable to dump him for me.”

“If you say so,” Harry replied as he grabbed his shower items and headed to the showers.


~*~


The students gathered in the entrance hall near the doors to the Great Hall waiting to the appointed hour in which the ball would begin.

Harry barely paid anyone notice as he waited off to the side for the night to begin.

“Champions over here, please,” McGonagall called out off to one side of the doors. She quickly explained that the Champions and their dates were to remain to the side of the door while everyone else went inside. Once the other students were seated they were to enter the Great Hall in procession. She never noticed that Harry was lacking a date.

It was as the last of the students found their seats that Professor McGonagall realized that Harry was missing a date.

“Where is your date, Mr. Potter,” she demanded.

“I don’t have one,” Harry answered in a bored tone. “It turns out that all the girls were busy this night and couldn’t break their engagements. Something about getting their hair done, having manicures and root canals.”

“You shouldn’t have waited till the last second,” McGonagall snapped before telling the Champions and their dates to remain here before she hurried into the Great Hall and to Dumbledore’s side. They spoke in hushed voice for a moment before McGonagall hurried back.

“Line up with your dates. Mr. Potter take the last position, please. Follow me,” McGonagall directed before entering the Great Hall and heading for a large round table at the far side of the hall, where the judges were sitting.

Harry held his head high as he passed his fellow Hogwarts students, ignoring the snickering that followed him about not having a date.

The Champions and their dates took their positions at the table and normal dinner conversation soon commenced. Krum spoke about the castle his school was housed in. Percy Weasley spoke of his promotion and how he was here representing Mr. Crouch, who was feeling ill. Delacour keep insisting that Beauxbatons was better in every way than Hogwarts.

At the end of the meal, Dumbledore vanished the tables to the side of the hall and conjured a raised platform. He then climbed up on the platform, facing the crowd.

“Due to an unfortunate circumances Mr. Potter‘s date was able to attend,” Dumbledore said.

“What happened, Potter? Did the Knockturn Alley whore get a better offer,” someone shouted out.

Dumbledore looked in the direction of the voice with a disappointed looking. “As I was saying, Mr. Potter’s date could not make it. Unfortunate the tradition of the Triwizard Tournament dictates that the dance must be started with the Champions and their dates,” Dumbledore said. “Therefore I am asking if one of you lovely ladies would volunteer to start the dance with Mr. Potter.”

The reactions among the ladies varied; some looked to their dates for guidance, others giggled or made snide comments to each another about how every girl turned him now and how he had to rely on the Headmaster for a date, while yet others looked smug at how their hero had fallen.

Finally Daphne Greengrass stepped forward. “Since the only way for the ball to begin is for someone to volunteer to dance with Potter, I might as well do it,” she said.

“Excellent,” Dumbledore said happily as he waved the Weird Sisters up onto the stage.

Harry walked over to Greengrass and with a courtly bow, said, “May I have this dance, Miss Greengrass.”

Daphne brushed past him as she made her way to the dance floor. “Understand this, Potter; I’m only doing this so the ball can begin.”

“I understand completely,” Harry said flatly unwilling to betray how he felt.

The Weird Sisters began to play a slow, mournful song as the Champions lead their dates to the floor and began to dance.

Not even a quarter of the way through the song; Greengrass dropped Harry’s hand and stepped away from him. “Thank you for the dance, Mr. Potter,” she said.

Harry’s nostrils flared as he realized what happened. Taking a breath he said, “It was my pleasure, Miss Greengrass,” he said with a bow. “I hope you enjoy the rest of the ball.” And with that Harry walked off the dance floor and out of the Great Hall. His head held high the whole time.

The next day the Daily Prophet printed their version of the event including a photo of Potter walking out of the ball leaving his date behind.


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