[HP] The magic thieves #11 (Patreon)

Chapter #11: The project progresses.

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Harry and Hermione don’t know for how long they embraced each other but there was one thing for sure, that was something the dark-haired wizard needed after hearing the reason why his parents were targeted, he felt angry, he felt betrayed by everyone for hiding this information from him and most of all, he felt so much disappointment towards Dumbledore.

He didn’t want to believe it, after all, the old wizard was one of the few adults Harry admired, and realizing that it was all fake, that he was hiding something like this from him was insulting, it didn’t make sense no matter how much he tried to rationalize it, maybe if the old wizard explained his reasons Harry's feelings might change, however, considering how cold Dumbledore has been towards him this whole summer, he holds no hope about him telling him until it’s too late.

Soon he fell asleep with Hermione in his arms and he felt right, this was the place for him, he didn’t want to be elsewhere, if there was a lesson he should've learned last year is the fact that he can’t trust anyone but Hermione, tonight it has been proven that's the thing he needs to do, he had nothing against Sirius but it was clear that the man was dealing with his own demons.

He doesn’t know for how long he slept but there was one thing for sure, it seemed like he slept for some time, after all, the moment he started to wake up, he saw sunlight in the room which is interesting considering that due to the position of this room's window, the sunlight is only able to enter past noon.

“Oh Merlin,” Harry said before groaning as he looked around for his glasses and soon, he felt a pair of soft hands handling him the glasses. “Oh, Hermione…You’re still here, how long did I sleep?” Asked the dark-haired wizard with a confused expression.

Soon, he looked around the room and he was able to see that Hermione didn’t waste any time after what happened last night, the folders with all the information they got from the department of magical artifacts were scattered everywhere, and she was holding one parchment with some strange markings and he couldn’t help but feel impressed, she then gave him a little peck before she got back to work.

“You slept almost twelve hours, you were very tired Harry,” Hermione said with that smile of hers that he loves the most.

He couldn’t help but smile back at her and then he remembered what they discovered yesterday, the prophecy, the secrets, the questions, the attack on Mr. Weasley, it was too much to think about before eating, he'd kill for some cold pizza right now.

“If it weren’t because I’m starving I think I'd still be asleep,” Harry told his girlfriend before yawning and she giggled.

“You can come back to sleep later if you want to, you should get something to eat in the kitchen, kreacher made the typical English breakfast,” Hermione’s words caught his interest.

However, he was also thinking about all the parchments that were scattered in the room, he knew he shouldn’t ask her anything because right now he was hungry and he was exposing himself to a long explanation but he was curious about what kind of information Hermione had gotten from this.

“Uh…Mione…What’s with the parchments? Have you found something interesting that could help us with our project?” Asked Harry before he grabbed his toothbrush and put some past on it.

“I’m just starting to check out the information about the goblet of fire, it's just that I was too caught on some interesting devices…Did you know that the ministry could ban certain words from being spoken? Unless you were hiding under the Fidelius charm, saying one of those words will get you a personal visit from the Auror department…It’s kind of a taboo,” Hermione said with a mysterious expression.

Harry couldn’t help but chuckle while he was washing his mouth and Hermione decided to wait until he finished so she could show him some interesting information she found, it took him two minutes to finally accomplish that and come back now with his hair and face completely washed, he couldn’t help but exhale happily.

“Now this is the feeling that I love, my mouth is so clean and fresh that I feel like I'm freezing the whole room,” Harry giggled before he joined his girlfriend on the floor.

They now shared a more intense kiss and this small show of affection was on the verge of becoming something more intense, however, Hermione suddenly stopped the kiss as she found something interesting in the parchment she had been reading, Harry could only sigh, he truly wanted to end this war once for all so he could snog his girlfriend all day without worrying about anything else in the world.

“Look, Harry…The theory has been confirmed!” Hermione said happily before she clarified her voice so she could read out loud the information she found.

“Conditions.

-The participant or participants must write their name with their own hands and put their names on the goblet with their own hands, and by putting the name by themselves if refuse to compete, they will be stripped of their magic.

-The goblet is capable of sucking the magic out of a person, it’s based on an ancient weapon muggles had, according to the legend, a deity gave certain humans magic while another deity gave something to non-magical people to balance things, this is because there has to be some power balance to stop the destruction of the world.

However, even though the goblet hasn't been programmed to reject the people who had been set up by someone else who put the name on it, a person won’t lose their magic under the following conditions:

-If the participant doesn’t meet the requirements to participate (age, magical knowledge, height, and whatever other thing the judges might consider)

-If someone managed to falsify the participant’s handwriting to put the name on the goblet, this is a mechanism to stop someone from getting forced to participate as a prank or as an act of vengeance.

In the case the participant meets one of those conditions, even though the goblet might recognize him as a participant, there’s no binding contract, so, by consequence, the participant doesn’t have to participate, and nothing is going to happen to that person, actually, it would harm the one who falsely put the person’s name in the goblet.

However, if the forced participant decides to participate in the first task then the contract becomes valid and there’s no going back from this point.”

Harry couldn’t help but feel angry after hearing all that.

“So, there was a way for me to not participate and no one told me!” Harry said angrily.

“Harry before you snap and hate someone and by that someone I mean the headmaster as I know you don’t have a very high opinion of the man, and I can’t blame you as I feel the same, I have to tell you that there was nothing in the rulebook regarding what we learned,” Hermione said with a worried expression.

Harry’s anger was still present, however, he decided to calm down and listen to what else his girlfriend had on her mind.

“First of all, the reason why I think this wasn’t specified is because the rules need to be simple, second of all, this was guarded in the department of mysteries and this was written almost two thousand years ago Harry,” Hermione’s words made Harry's eyes widen.

“Maybe they thought that that the prize was just too amazing to specify something like this I mean, one thousand galleons is a lot just like the promise of eternal glory is for some people,” Harry couldn’t help but remember Ron, the prat surely wanted all that for some reason.

“I think the same too, and I mean…A barbaric tournament like this needs to have loopholes to make it interesting just like the battles in the Roman coliseums, the rulebook may look like they’re trying to keep the participants safe but at the same time they have truly crazy tasks, in the last one before it was discontinued, the wizards had to steal the dragon from a real dragon nest in the middle of a volcano,” Hermione said before gulping.

“Well, at least something has been confirmed…Now we know there’s a way to strip someone of their magic,” Harry said with a wicked smirk.

“Oh that’s the best part, we need to talk about that, you’re going to find it very interesting, trust me,” Hermione had a wicked look too.

Their project was becoming more and more real with each second that it passed.