Dark Lord Dumbledore

Ignoring the blatant continued attack on her two schoolmates, the pretty witch continued to try her best to get into Chad's good graces and fix the damage done to their school's reputation.

"My name is Arielle Aumont, a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to meet you monsieur..."

"Harry. It is also a delight to meet you, Arielle. The beauty of Beauxbatons female students is well known, pity you didn't leave the uncouth baggage handlers behind and fill their positions with more charming witches."

As Chad said this, he moved his gaze up and down the French witch that had earlier been shivering with a muffler wrapped around her face. She had long since removed it after he had shamed the two men for doing the same and was now blushing red, indicating her face was flushed with heat and no longer cold.

Whether this was embarrassment from his earlier remarks, a spell, her shyness from being stared at like a piece of meat, or her own attraction to him was unknown.

Chad's reply had been a backhanded compliment, while at the same time, once more showing his disdain for the two furious soy boys staring daggers at him. The four other male students from Beauxbatons had also now joined them in trying to kill him with their eyes.

To suggest that the only good thing about their magic school was its gorgeous females was the equivalent to calling it a bordello. Then again, they were French, so this may have been a compliment to them.

Nevertheless, the six witches that had come to Hogwarts to compete were indeed top-quality beauties, and his statements from before had been truthful.

Many of the Ravenclaw boys even nodded subconsciously, agreeing with him that more hot witches at Hogwarts would be much welcomed. Of course, the dirty looks from the girls stopped them from saying anything aloud.

Chad just smiled at the Ravenclaw ladies to reassure them they were also appreciated. Although natural beauty was celebrated, it was not a deal-breaker for him with his ability to magically create supermodels and brainwash them into adoring concubines.

It was a big part of why he was not susceptible to Arielle's flirting, romance and d.e.s.i.r.e had lost a lot of meaning when you could manufacture its solution on a whim.

"Will you be competing in the competition?" Arielle asked in her accented English, once again choosing to ignore Chad's baiting.

"No, even if I was old enough, the rewards are just not worth the risk of death. I hope you don't either. The organisers of this event are not exactly what you would call responsible or rational. I bet you the thousand Galleon prize money that it involves XXXXX creatures." Chad replied.

Since she was doing her best to resolve the matter of her compatriot's blunder, Chad decided he could at least give her a chance and do the same. She was pretty after all, and he was curious how she would react when she learnt his identity and age.

"Surely it won't be that dangerous, I thought the organisers placed limitations to prevent death? This is a competition for students, after all." Arielle reasoned, thinking the comment about his age must mean he was sixteen instead of the same age as her.

"You would think so, but I have a reporter friend that informs me the Triwizard Tournament uses a magical contract to enforce those selected to compete or lose their magic. Does that sound like a reasonable condition for a contest to promote interschool unity?" Chad replied.

"Surely not!" Gasped Arielle in shock.

As if by design, McGonagall stood up to announce the tournament and its rules for entering. First, she introduced Ludo Bagman and the newly appointed pure-blood that replaced Crouch, then the three heads of the schools as judges.

With that out of the way, she got down to business. Launching into a drawn-out explanation of the dangers while the Goblet of Fire was brought out. The artifact was to be an 'impartial judge' to select the champions of each school.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said McGonagall.

"Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will announce the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools.

"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation, I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line.

"Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected, they are obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. Please be very sure before you drop your name into the goblet."

Arielle stared aghast when Chad was proven correct on the foolishness of those in charge. It was just a sporting competition between schools, was there really a need for magical contracts and the chance of dying?

"As I said, not worth the rewards for the risks involved," said Chad.

The students that had overheard the entire conversation couldn't help but feel the same way, even the Beauxbatons students couldn't help but grit their teeth at the new pressure applied to them as the representatives of their school.

They had thought it was just going to be regular competition to test their skills and abilities, with a duel or a simulation. Now they were being told that if they were chosen, champions would have to see it through to the end no matter what they had to face!

Of course, when beautiful women and men's egos were involved, there was always a few that disregarded wisdom in favour of a chance to get some strange.

"Hmpf, McGonagall wouldn't let the tournament go ahead if it was dangerous. Even if you are scared of danger, that's no reason to try and frighten others." Announced Roger Davies, a Chaser for Ravenclaw's Quidditch team, with a sneer.

Chad just sighed. There was always one idiot that put caution to the wind in his pursuit of the fairer s.e.x, even if their chances of succeeding were low.

Looking around to see how many others agreed with Davies, he wasn't surprised at all to see the sixth and seventh years looking at Roger like he was an idiot. Only the male Frenchies seemed to be agreeing.

This was understandable since, over the last two months, the shot callers of Ravenclaw had ignored his warning to leave Luna alone and had needed to be forcefully taught the error of their ways.

It was nothing overt or something that could be tied to Chad in any way. But since all those that ended up being beaten and bruised, unable to move from where they lay at the bottom of the stairs they were found had been known bullies of Luna, the smarter ones knew who was responsible.

When even girls were not spared a mysterious thrashing, the older years quickly stopped the campaign of isolation against Luna Lovegood and let her be.

Since none of the victims could identify their attacker, and the only proof they had was that they were bullying a second year and Chad had told them to stop, they could not go to a teacher.

As demeaning as it was to be labelled a clumsy idiot, it was much better than pitting yourself against the Boy-Who-Lived as the villain in the scenario.

Unfortunately for Chad though, Roger Davies was a fifth-year and had yet to cross the line beyond childish insults against Luna. And the six 'clumsy' older students were not going to warn him of their own mistakes and be exposed.

Although Ravenclaw was not known for their social abilities, they were still wise enough to see sudden personality shifts, and correlate them with 'accidents', especially when it happened repeatedly.

The problem was, just like the other Houses, there were always a few that seemed to be miss-sorted. Roger Davies was thick as pig sh*t.

'Wasn't this the guy that went to the Yule Ball with Fleur in the original timeline?' Chad thought to himself. 'Well, if he wants to be an idiot, I may as well profit from it.'

"Oh, so you plan to try and beat McGonagall's Age Line and enter the competition?" Chad said with mockery evident in his voice.

"Of course, I am. As if I would be scared of a school tournament!" Replied Roger, like a lamb to the slaughter.

"Oh, so you know how to bypass the Age Line?"

"All it will take is an Aging Potion, McGonagall must be slipping if she thought she could stop us Ravenclaws from entering. Right lads?" Said the idiot confidently, drawing support from the Quidditch teammates sitting with him.

"It won't work, but since you are so sure, how about a bet? One hundred Galleons says an Aging Potion will fail, and another hundred if you want a sure-fire method to put your name in the Goblet of Fire. Unless, of course, you are scared?" Challenged Chad, closing the trap now that the blowhard had run willingly into it.

Caught out with his own bravado, Davies could only grudgingly agree or risk looking the fool after jumping in and questioning people's bravery.

With so many witnesses, Chad wasn't even afraid of the idiot welching on the bet. He could earn more than the tournament's prize money by extorting illogical wizards for a guaranteed entry method.