"Come to think of it, shouldn't you be the one feeling the most miserable right now?"
Walking through the empty Great Hall, Tver suddenly said this to Harry.
Still a little dazed, Harry opened his mouth, staring at the professor's smiling face, and for a moment didn't know what to say.
"You clearly didn't put your name in, yet you still have to bear the responsibility of being a Champion, and endure all the misunderstanding and criticism that's about to come."
Harry listened somewhat blankly. He still had no idea what kind of scrutiny awaited him as this unexpected extra Champion.
"You… you're willing to believe me?"
Tver let out a helpless chuckle. All that careful groundwork, and this was the adorably simple question it led to.
"Harry, I'm your teacher. I know your abilities very well. You've made remarkable progress over the past three years, but deceiving the Goblet of Fire is still far beyond what you can do right now."
Harry immediately let out a breath of relief.
For him, this had been the biggest point of confusion.
As for the danger of the tournament, he felt he'd already faced more than enough over the past few years. Surely they weren't going to drag out another basilisk for him to fight?
And when he thought about the fact that he would now represent Hogwarts as a Champion, Harry broke into a wide, delighted grin.
"Thank you for believing me. I'll work even harder, so that one day you'll think I really have reached that level!"
"Then keep working at it~"
At the entrance to the Great Hall, Tver waved goodbye to the visibly excited Harry.
The moment Harry's figure disappeared from sight, Tver said quietly, "I hope things stay this easy for you in the future…"
...
The criticism came faster than expected, and in a much stranger form.
Starting the very next day, the students learned that this tournament would have five Champions, and that Tver would be participating in a performance capacity.
That revelation sent discussions about the tournament soaring.
After all, the night before, everyone had been imagining how the professor would lift the cup, and how all those Galleons might be spent.
In most students' eyes, no matter which school they came from, no student Champion could possibly compare to a professor.
Especially not a professor this powerful.
Now things were different. The professor would take part in the competition without affecting its fairness. It was the best of both worlds.
So everyone quickly threw themselves back into enthusiastic discussions about the upcoming tasks and how the Champions might perform.
But for Harry, things were nothing like that.
As the sudden fourth Champion, the doubts and suspicion he faced were enough to leave him struggling to breathe.
"Professor, please help Harry."
A few days later, Hermione finally couldn't stand all the pointing fingers and whispers anymore. The moment class ended, she dragged Harry up to the podium and pleaded with Tver, who was packing up the exam papers.
Watching the papers neatly gather themselves and fly into the paper bag, Tver glanced at Harry, who was standing there with his head lowered.
His face was full of gloom, yet he stubbornly pressed his lips together.
This wasn't the first time he'd been through something like this. Back in his second year, plenty of people had suspected him of being the Heir of the Chamber of Secrets.
Tver still remembered how many of them had come to apologize once the truth came out.
So even now, with the Hufflepuffs convinced that Harry had stolen Cedric's chance to be Champion, and with almost no one trusting him, Harry was still managing to endure it.
The only thing that truly hurt him was Ron.
"I thought you'd already prepared yourself for this," Tver said, lifting the bag of papers as he led the two of them toward his office.
"I… I thought if I told them the truth, they'd understand," Harry said, sounding wronged. "Especially Ron. He's worse than Malfoy!"
"Hey, Potter, ready to enjoy a taste of death?"
Speak of the devil.
The moment class ended, Draco had come to wait outside Tver's office as well.
He'd been holding his bag with a slightly sour expression, but the instant he saw Harry, his face lit up with a look of undisguised schadenfreude.
Draco was probably one of the very few students in the school, aside from Hermione, who actually believed Harry hadn't deliberately put his name into the Goblet.
Not because he trusted Harry, but simply because he thought Harry didn't have that kind of ability.
Still, for Harry, it barely counted as a small comfort.
"Shut up, Malfoy!" Harry snapped, glaring at him fiercely, as if pouring all his pent-up frustration onto him.
"At least I'm better than you. You didn't even get the chance to have someone throw your name in!"
Draco froze for a moment, a flash of irritation crossing his face.
"That's… that's because I'm not as obnoxious as you!"
Harry gave a quiet snort and said nothing. The silence hurt far more than any comeback ever could.
"Bastard—ow!"
"Ow!"
Tver withdrew his hand after knocking both of them on the head and walked into the office first.
"That's enough. Get in here already, unless you're planning to keep loitering at the door."
Hermione covered her mouth and laughed as she followed him in. Harry and Draco shot each other resentful looks, then shoved past one another into the office.
By the time they got inside, the only chair in front of Tver's desk was already occupied by Hermione. The only thing left for them was the small sofa to the side.
They exchanged disgusted looks and awkwardly sat down at opposite ends.
"All right," Tver said calmly, handing Harry a glass of pumpkin juice. "Misunderstanding is something that never really goes away. As long as you don't have absolute proof or absolute strength, there will always be people who doubt you."
"Come to think of it, I was considered pretty strange back at Durmstrang too. Not many people wanted to talk to me."
Back then, he had been withdrawn and gloomy, unwilling to interact with anyone, spending his days either in class or buried in books.
That kind of demeanor would have seemed odd even among dark wizards, let alone at Durmstrang, where the students were still far from becoming true dark wizards.
Naturally, it drew a lot of hostility.
Bullying was something no school could ever completely avoid.
Harry looked up, surprised.
"Then… how did you deal with it?"
"By having absolute strength."
Tver smiled at him.
When it came to bullying, the one thing Durmstrang could be said to do "well" was that it allowed schoolyard violence to turn into sanctioned violence…
"…"
The three of them fell silent. Thinking of the professor's overwhelming strength and the ever-present dueling grounds, Harry couldn't help but silently offer a moment of sympathy for anyone who had ever tried to pick a fight with him.
Still, the shift in focus did make him feel a bit better.
"Besides," Tver continued, "this isn't what you should be worrying about right now. What you need to think about is how to deal with the first task."
"As Draco just said, it's very likely a task that could put your life in danger."
Harry's heart tightened instantly. Hermione reacted even faster. She jumped to her feet, drained her pumpkin juice in one go, and grabbed Harry's arm to pull him toward the door.
"Thank you for talking to him, Professor. I'm taking Harry to practice magic right now!"
"And you?" Tver asked, turning his gaze toward Draco.
Just moments ago, when he saw how anxious Hermione was for Harry, Tver had clearly caught a flicker of envy in Draco's eyes.