Chapter 42: Goblet Problems (SPOILERS)

[Grrarrggh]

Were the rules of how names go into the Goblet ever made clear? It seems like literally anyone, especially with no ageline, could have put Harry's name in. He wasn't a surprise fourth name either. Hell, some Harry Potter fan club member could have. Great way to sell merchandise ;)

[SiblingCreature]

Are we sure that the Agent In Place is even still In Place at this point? If they were an upper level student at the time they may well have graduated by now and be out of the picture. I think it's the AIP's patron that we need to be concerned about there, s/he was the one pulling the strings and there's no reason to think their campaign is over.

I also think that there are now multiple parties working against Harry and Co and those parties may not be working towards the same goals.

My current theory is that Delores Umbridge was the AIP's patron, and she has been the evil puppetmaster up until now and she was controlling the AIP and Wormtail. After the Battle of Hogwarts I think Wormtail escaped from the Patron, and sought out Voldemort.
I think Voldemort and Wormtail subsequently recruited Snape and Malfoy, and they are now following a similar plan to what Barty Crouch Jr carried out in the original timeline to kidnap Harry and resurrect Voldemort.

The more things change the more they stay the same. That said, if I'm right then with both the Patron and Voldemort plotting against Harry & co and at cross purposes to each other, to say that Harry's now in uncharted waters would be something of an understatement.

-SC

[RagnorakTres]

Bloody buggering hell indeed.

Let's make a list of all the potential pros and cons of this course of events;

Pros:
Harry is WILDLY more powerful than most people would expect or could even conceive of out of a boy scarcely into puberty. This gives him an advantage in any straight-up combat or endurance Trials.
Harry has been exercising his wily muscles a lot more than before. His wits are sharper, his plans more cunning...personally, having seen his conduct thus far, I would've Sorted him into Slytherin...barring the huge extenuating circumstances surrounding him; not just his foreknowledge, but his unwitting role in the last war, the Prophecy, the whole kit and kaboodle. I suspect Sorting to be as much about inter- and intra-House politics as it is about classifying 11-year-olds.
Once again, Harry is on the front lines, if you will. Here he has the power to swing results where he wants them, and the wit to see the tipping points.

Cons:
Harry is wildly unprepared for this. He honestly expected to be left out of the Trials (though why I don't know; see Maxim 17), this has blindsided him to a certain degree. Now, this Harry is much more wily than before, so I don't doubt that the broad strokes of a plan are already in place, and he possibly even has a fallback plan in place already, but that doesn't diminish the impact of your Plan A turning inside out, believe me.
Draco's in this fight, and he's not acting like the ferret ought. So the question is, of course, what the hell is he/are his benefactors planning? Draco in the books falls very neatly into the cats-paw/lieutenant sphere of influence, but here I don't know if that will hold true. Draco kind of turns around when he gets tired of being played like a cheap piano in the books, this one is probably too enraged (or Imperious'd) after his repeated humiliations to appreciate that he's being used. He may even have forced his way onto the field as a player rather than a piece, much like Harry has. I think it's important not to dismiss him yet.
Uncharted territory. Harry's foreknowledge crutch is gone, and this campaign is on Ironman, no save scumming allowed. Now he has to rely entirely, perhaps for the first time since he came back, on his wits and skill at Xanatos Speed Chess. Hope he's been practicing with Ron enough...

All told, a promising start to this year. I don't know about you all, but I'm excited to find out what fresh hell awaits our heroes around this next corner.

[Grrarrggh]

That and perhaps a minor God complex. This Harry seems to completely hate not knowing what's going on which is why he continually laments that his need to change things means his foreknowledge becomes more useless.

Well, he could argue that not knowing things in time was a major cause of everything going to hell in the original timeline.

On a related note: I've had several reviewers castigate me because Harry didn't do anything to prevent his name coming out of the hat. What could he have done without tipping his hand?

Not knowing was definitely part of it. But it was the knowing and doing nothing about it that really screwed pre-merged Harry and that wizarding world, and that is not on him but instead Dumbledore and other adults.

As for what Harry could have done without tipping his hand? Nothing. With the lack of ageline, Dumbledore's lack of spine, and with neither Harry nor his allies being completely and utterly omniscient.... I suppose he could have put a 24-7 guard around the goblet, accosting anyone who went near it, or very loudly proclaiming he would NEVER enter. I do hope he complains this time and does everything magically possible to prove that he didn't put his name in.

[SiblingCreature]

As for what Harry could have done without tipping his hand? Nothing. With the lack of ageline, Dumbledore's lack of spine, and with neither Harry nor his allies being completely and utterly omniscient.... I suppose he could have put a 24-7 guard around the goblet, accosting anyone who went near it, or very loudly proclaiming he would NEVER enter. I do hope he complains this time and does everything magically possible to prove that he didn't put his name in.

I refer you back to what Tempest Kitsune said earlier:

I would like to note that the handwriting discussion may be a chekov's gun primed to fire next chapter.

It seems very likely that the slip of paper with Harry's name will be subjected to some handwriting analysis at some point in the next chapter. That said I somehow doubt it's actually going to help Harry to get out of having to participate in the Tournament yet again.

-SC

[Storyteller]

It seems very likely that the slip of paper with Harry's name will be subjected to some handwriting analysis at some point in the next chapter. That said I somehow doubt it's actually going to help Harry to get out of having to participate in the Tournament yet again.

-SC

No, but it will prove that someone is tampering with the tournament, and taking in how difficult/dangerous/lethal the tournament is, points to someone trying to maim or kill Harry. And that all the champions should be on guard, since someone is either trying to kill one of their number, or is willing to push an unwilling student into the game. If the person is from Hogwarts, they are willing to sabotage Fleur, and Draco. If not someone trying to guarantee Hogwarts win (the entire school knows that Harry is very good in a fight by now), then they shoved a fourth year student into a deadly tournament.

Either way, if Harry can prove it wasn't him that put his name into the Goblet, it proves that something is going wrong with the tournament.

[Grrarrggh]

The name on the slip could easily have been printed. I haven't seen anywhere that says the slips had to have the entrants signature. So handwriting analysis is pointless. Can't Harry just do what he did when he magically proved to the Weasleys that he wasn't lying? I thought it was OOC that Hermione didn't suggest that the first time around.... Then again I thought a lot was OOC during the beginning of the TWT.

[jgkitarel]

Except, the magical community doesn't use print the same way we do. Yes, it could have been printed, but the print would have been from a press, not a printer. Something being printed, at least in the context as we understand it, would be a giant red flag to them.

However, his name cropping up is immaterial, as all of the names were put in by someone else, not any of the participants. Thus, his name coming out can easily be ascribed to random factor, though it will depend on Dumbledore.

[SiblingCreature]

However, his name cropping up is immaterial, as all of the names were put in by someone else, not any of the participants. Thus, his name coming out can easily be ascribed to random factor, though it will depend on Dumbledore.

Well no, The other schools had their names put in by the principle of the school. Presumably each school had it's own pre-selection process that involved the student signing a parchment for submission to the goblet. For Hogwarts students however, it was up to them to submit their own name to the goblet.
I'm not sure what you mean my the random factor. Random selection of a name can still only happen if the name is in the selection pool. That means someone had to put it in, and by right no-one else should have been entering Harry's name but Harry.

In any case I rather suspect that the handwriting with on the paper for Harry's name will be Harry's and the school name will be written in a different hand. (Most likely cut from an old Potions essay...)


-Neelix

[Grrarrggh]

Except, the magical community doesn't use print the same way we do. Yes, it could have been printed, but the print would have been from a press, not a printer. Something being printed, at least in the context as we understand it, would be a giant red flag to them.

However, his name cropping up is immaterial, as all of the names were put in by someone else, not any of the participants. Thus, his name coming out can easily be ascribed to random factor, though it will depend on Dumbledore.

I meant printed as written in HARRY POTTER HOGWARTS rather than script http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/har ... 0826224906
Print writing is wildly hard to match to a single 'writer'.

Was it stated that all of the Hogwarts names were put in by other than the entrants themselves?

[Grrarrggh]

You know, considering how absolutely terrible Dumbledore is at reading people and predicting their actions, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he is convinced Harry put his own name in or that one of the G6 did it for him. Hell, he's probably of the opinion that Harry is using this to become Minister of Magic.