A pillar of flames burst to life, whirling in heatless blue. It only lasted a few moments before fading away, revealing….
A young man with short, wavy brown hair, blue eyes, and a scruffy beard. He looked around in apparent bewilderment. “Oh this can’t be good.”
Dumbledore looked at the young man in confusion. He was far too old to be Harry, but just maybe… “Excuse me young man, but would your name be Harry, by chance?”
The young man’s eyes widened. “Bloody hell, no! I’m Daniel. I shouldn’t be here. I can’t be here. This isn’t real.”
The Headmaster watched as the young man grew progressively more distraught with each moment. He tried a cheering charm to help the boy relax. It did not work out the way he expected.
“Bugger me. Magic’s real. And I’m in the Harry Potter universe. I’m bloody Harry Potter again.”
“Excuse me, Daniel. But what do you mean by you’re Harry Potter again?”
“You see, I’m an actor. I played Harry Potter in the movies. Magic isn’t real!”
***
Poor Daniel. The Goblet couldn’t find the Harry Potter it was looking for, so it decided that someone who had once been Harry would have to suffice. Things did not improve for Daniel, as everything about the Wizarding world seemed designed to offend his sensibilities. When he demanded time to sit down with the Professors to talk to them about the world of his birth and the books into which he’d been drawn, his feelings of doom only increased.
“You mean you really plan on making me fight a dragon? Every test you’ve conducted has shown you that I’m a muggle. You can’t expect me to compete.”
“I’m afraid that the Goblet forms a magical contract, one that would take away your magic should you fail to participate.”
“Well that’s settled. I’ve got no magic to lose. I’m out. I’ll find my own way home.”
The Headmaster and Professors watched Daniel get up and walk out the room.
***
Okay, perhaps they wouldn’t have actually allowed him to leave the room, let alone the tournament. It seems the Goblet was able to use its magical tie to the young man to cause him intense pain should he try to leave the grounds. Or refuse to participate. The more Daniel resisted, the greater the pain rose, until he was knocked unconscious at one point.
He had no choice but to participate in the tournament.
In that case, he would be forced to fight a dragon. Without magic. Without a broom. With not even the ability or chance to access the muggle world for things he would recognize that might help him.
Needless to say, this did not end well for Daniel.
The audience fell silent as they watched the Not Harry scamper behind a rock, trying to hide from the dragon. The young man peeked around the rock long enough to catch a blast of flames to the face. There wasn’t much left to save at that point.
***
Or maybe Daniel makes the right decision and stays behind the rock, doesn’t move and just times out the event, content to take a score of zero for the event. At least he participated, so he wouldn’t have any more negative encouragement from the Goblet.
Time spent learning magic proved useless. He couldn’t wield a wand. Couldn’t use any of the other artifacts of magic. He did prove a smooth hand at Potions, much to the irritation of Professor Snape. He couldn’t find anything in the boy to dislike. There was no resemblance to James and as a muggle, he was really beneath the Professor’s notice. The only reason the young man was allowed to attend the classes was because the Headmaster insisted, as a method of building a connection to the young man.
More time passes. Daniel slowly settles into a routine, attending those classes that he could actually understand, such as the aforementioned Potions, or Astronomy, even Ancient Runes. He flicked from class to class until he found those that used less magic and more science. He also spent time with the contingents from the other schools.
When it came time for the Yule Ball, he decided to escort one of the various Professors he’d grown close to, having a delightful time, though he wasn’t a fan of the music. That might have been more due to context than the actual musical ability of the various performers. Still, he had fun that night as he danced with many of the people he’d made friends with, most notably among the elder students and the various faculty.
When it came time for the challenge in the lake, Daniel wasn’t sure which one of his friends had been taken, but he knew there was no way for him to get to the bottom of the lake. He still couldn’t do magic and they wouldn’t let him order things from the muggle world to let him scuba down there.
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Instead, he kept his clothes on, jumped into the lake for a moment, floundered around, then struggled back onto the docks. Once again getting zero points.
***
Or maybe they let poor Daniel order from the muggle world. Because he was only limited in what magical aides he can use, he’s allowed to use all the muggle things he can order. He gets a full wetsuit and scuba gear, a speargun, and some powerful lighting to take down into the lake with him. Fortunately, he’d been able to spend some time getting used to the water in the weeks leading up to the challenge.
The Black Lake deserved its name, as Daniel had a hard time navigating the further down he went. Not to mention he hadn’t expected to need to go so far down, at least according to his partial recollection of the books and movies. Fortunately, the grindylows decided to leave him alone.
Oops, talked too soon. Thought too soon? Anyway, the little buggers decided that Daniel looked tasty and he wasn’t able to dissuade them with his speargun once he’d shot his load. The creatures dragged the young man into the depths and he was never heard of again.
***
Or maybe they really do leave Daniel alone and he makes it down to the captives and finds Professor Sinestra tied up. There was one other captive left but he knew better than to help her. He manages to cut her free and brings her back to the surface. With the Beauxbaton Champion having been unable to complete the challenge, Daniel manages to actually get points for that round. Not that he wants them. He still has no plans of fully participating. Especially given that he knows, or at least thinks he knows what’s going to happen after the final challenge.
Several days after the completion of the second challenge, Daniel decides to confide in Sinestra, telling her about what he remembers from his world’s stories of Harry Potter. While still confused about the supposedly fictional nature of their world, the Astronomy Professor is fascinated with the implications, one of the things that had originally brought them into greater contact than just that of Professor and student.
Over the course of the next few weeks the two go over things, eventually bringing in the original two Heads of House, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick. Between the four, they hatch a plan that would allow them to hopefully catch, not only the masquerading Barty Crouch Jr., but also a possible Wurmtail.
It was decided that they would allow Barty to hatch his plan as originally designed. At least according to what Daniel remembered. There would be extra precautions for Daniel as he went into the maze, especially in regards to the soon to be Imperiused Durmstrand champion.
The day of the final challenge arrives. Harry enters second, stopping almost immediately inside the maze and stepping aside to wait for his escort. They arrive quickly, moving through the maze together to confront Victor Krum, then emerged to find Barty already knocked out and trussed up, with several wands on him.
The group sent to the graveyard never do find Wurmtail though, leaving a worried Daniel and a frustrated Dumbledore.
***
Or perhaps things don’t go quite as planned for Daniel in the maze. Barty had figured things out ahead of time, especially with the performance at Black Lake. Instead of relying upon trickery and the Imperius, the polyjuiced Death Eater grabs Daniel near the entrance of the maze, dragging the young man to the center, through all the defenses, and finally to the cup, the modified portkey taking them to the graveyard.
Daniel finds himself tied to the tombstone and the ritual undertaken by Wurmtail, all under the watchful eye of Barty.
Things don’t go quite as planned.
What emerges from the cauldron is a weakened body, too frail to even support itself. Worse than useless. It soon dies on its own, to the dismay of the watching Death Eaters and the silent delight of Daniel. The screaming soul fragment that emerged from the corpse went flying through Daniel, who could only shudder at the contact.
He really shouldn’t have chuckled in relief. Then he wouldn’t have drawn the attention and ire of a frustrated Barty Crouch Jr, who had just witnessed his entire plan go up in spectral smoke.
“Avada Kadava!”
***
Or maybe Daniel takes things in hand right from the beginning…
“Bloody hell, no! I’m Daniel! And if this is Hogwarts…” Daniel whirls and points at Professor Moody. “That man is a polyjuiced Death Eater!”
Barty was a fast dueler, but he wasn’t faster than both Dumbledore and Flitwick. He managed to block one stunner, but not the other.
The Headmaster looked from the collapsed man to his Potion’s Master, who immediately left to fetch the veritaserum.
While not the outcome he had anticipated, perhaps Dumbledore could make use of this ‘Harry’.