Mother and Father were among the people crowded along the lakeshore, and Harry saw Mother straighten when he caught her eye, as if she thought he might have intended to dive into the lake after all. Harry managed to shake his head, and Mother stepped subtly back.
"Minister Fudge!"
Cornelius Fudge started and turned around to stare at Harry. His eyes widened, and then he made a clucking sound. "Mr. Malfoy! You aren't in any sort of swimming gear. You should enter the lake as soon as possible. The others dived in five minutes ago!"
"I'm not concerned about winning." Harry halted in front of the man, folded his arms, and tilted his nose back. "I want to know if you told all the parents about the possible danger their children could be in when they were placed under the lake."
He supposed he was taking kind of a gamble. There was no guarantee that all the people under the lake were children. Maybe one of the other Champions had a parent or an aunt here or something. But he would have wagered on them taking people who could be found at Hogwarts.
From the way the Minister's eyes bulged a little, Harry would have won.
"I—ah?" Fudge worked a finger under his collar and pulled it away from his neck, coughing. "Of course we did. As many as were feasible."
"Ah." Harry gave him a thin smile. "I know that my friend Hermione Granger is under the lake." He raised his voice, noticing that more people were listening to him now. Then again, it was pretty boring to watch the surface of the water when you couldn't tell what was going on underneath it. "She's Muggleborn. Did you inform her parents?"
Fudge actually took a step away from him.
Maybe I can get good at behaving like a spoiled kid, Harry thought, and experienced a sudden surge of gratitude that Snape wasn't at Hogwarts anymore.
"No—no time—of course, we asked Miss Granger, and she said she would be okay with it—"
"And what about the person Fleur Delacour is rescuing?" Harry picked her at random, but he was sure she was his best choice, since Krum was going after Hermione and Cedric's person probably lived in Britain. "Did you have time to owl their parents in France to ask?"
Maybe that was going to backfire, he thought. Maybe it was another one of the Beauxbatons students who was of age and they had given permission for themselves. Harry hadn't paid enough attention to Delacour to have any idea.
But from the way that Fudge's face went pale, it wasn't. Harry sneered a little.
"You put an innocent French child under the lake without asking permission of their parents?" he asked, and raised his voice a little more. "I thought the Tournament was supposed to improve international relations, not endanger them."
Draco sounded as if he was having a choking fit behind him. Harry just hoped his brother didn't really laugh and give the game away.
"They're not in danger!" Fudge blurted abruptly. "It's, ah, just a race, you see, to judge which Champion can display enough skill at magic to rescue their chosen person and get back most quickly! A race. That's all."
Harry folded his arms and tried to imitate Mother's glare. "You're sure?" And he was going to kill Draco if he didn't stop laughing.
Fudge nodded and tried to lower his voice, although he quickly raised it again when Harry glared at him. "I promise you, Mr. Malfoy. It's just to make things exciting for the audience. None of the children are in danger, of course not."
Father had come up behind the Minister, although Harry was pretty sure Fudge was so focused on Harry himself that he hadn't noticed. He was proven right when Father spoke and Fudge jumped almost four inches in the air. "Have you thought of the reasons why this was a poor choice, Minister?"
"Lucius!" Fudge spun around and tried to use a shining smile on him. "Of course, we know that Mr. Malfoy has been rather resistant to participating in the Tournament, but—"
"Our son has already been through enough trauma and loss," Mother said, stopping beside Father and linking her arm with his while she stared down at Fudge. "To make him fear the loss of one of his few dear friends is inexcusable."
Harry wondered why Fudge was sweating so much. Was he more scared of Mother than Father? That was kind of stupid, unless Fudge had actually seen the Black madness in action.
....
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