Chapter 177: Rules Remade

The tournament remained suspended for six days.

During that time, no task took place, no champion trained under official direction, and no school gained access to secret event information. The Goblet stayed inside a warded chamber under seals from all three schools and two Ministries.

The legal review reached three conclusions that no delegation disputed: Edward's and Harry's entries were fraudulent, the magical hooks attached to them were real, and no tested removal method could separate those hooks without risking harm to the boys or the legitimate contracts.

Soul Ash was considered and rejected. Its only controlled result involved already separated residue. The tournament hooks were active bindings attached to living people.

Formal forfeit remained safe. Edward and Harry could answer each task by declining and receiving no points. The contract would end after the final task.

That solution protected them from compelled participation. It did not address competitive fairness or the possibility that the saboteur had designed the tasks to reach Harry outside the arena.

Dumbledore held the first planning session in a classroom with a circular table. Every selected student attended with a guardian or adviser. Healers, curse specialists, judges, and school representatives occupied a second ring.

Edward sat between Sirius and the family solicitor. Harry sat with Mrs. Weasley and McGonagall.

Karkaroff opened bluntly. "Durmstrang will not compete against three Hogwarts names while holding one."

Madame Maxime agreed. "Nor will Beauxbatons."

Crouch proposed excluding Edward and Harry from scoring while leaving their bindings active. Harry would forfeit. Edward could do the same.

Cedric objected. "Then someone placed two students in danger and the schools continue as if nothing happened."

Fleur asked whether the tasks could be cancelled entirely. The contract allowed unanimous cancellation, but the attached hooks would remain until the original end date unless safely discharged. No one could predict what dormant obligations might do.

The safest path was to present three controlled tasks with explicit forfeit routes and let every attached name answer them.

"That does not require a competition," Sirius said.

"No," the curse specialist replied. "Competition is a political choice. Controlled completion is the magical need."

The group separated the two questions.

For the bindings, all five selected people would receive each task summons. Any could participate, forfeit, or withdraw after beginning. Healers could stop them without contractual penalty beyond points. The tasks would occur in closed, inspected grounds.

For the competition, the schools considered several formats.

Awarding only Cedric, Fleur, and Krum points preserved tradition but turned Edward and Harry into unranked targets. Counting all five favoured Hogwarts. Creating separate individual and school scores still left unequal numbers.

Adeline Shacklebolt proposed equal teams of four.

She attended as a seventeen-year-old Hogwarts entrant whose verified name had not been chosen. Her written proposal did not demand a place for herself. Each school would field four consenting champions. Hogwarts already had three attached names, so it would select one additional student; Durmstrang and Beauxbatons would each add three. Every champion would receive an individual mark, and the four marks would then be added for the school total. Equal team sizes prevented Hogwarts from gaining an automatic advantage from the two fraudulent entries.

Tasks would be redesigned for parallel attempts or team cooperation. No event would place twelve students against one uncontrolled threat. Every added participant could withdraw before signing the amended rules because the Goblet had not bound them.

Karkaroff disliked changing the tournament. His students liked being offered equal places.

Madame Maxime required medical review before supporting the plan. Sirius required that Harry and Edward retain the original right to forfeit. Mrs. Weasley wanted Harry excluded from any task involving direct combat.

Harry finally spoke. "I want to know the tasks before deciding each one. If it can be done safely with a team, I may choose to do it. If not, I forfeit."

Mrs. Weasley looked ready to refuse for him. McGonagall reminded the room that a guardian's role included helping a fourteen-year-old make a decision, not pretending he had no voice.

Edward gave the same answer. Participation would be task by task, after safety information and guardian review.

The panel adjourned rather than vote immediately.

Over the next three days, each Ministry reviewed the equal-team proposal. Healers demanded lower exposure times and more emergency stops. Judges rebuilt the scoring around equal four-person totals. The original task designers produced team versions without disclosing exact obstacles to students.

The final agreement required unanimous approval from the three headmasters, both Ministry delegations, the medical panel, and every added champion. It also required written acknowledgement from the five bound students and their guardians that forfeit remained available.

Translated copies were read aloud in English, French, Bulgarian, and Russian. Each volunteer met a representative without their headmaster present, reducing pressure from school pride. Two students declined after those meetings. Their names never entered the public record, and their schools could not penalize them.

The panel added a forty-eight-hour waiting period before final signatures. Enthusiasm in the Great Hall could not substitute for time to reconsider. Only after the period ended did the seven volunteers become supplementary champions.

Only then did selection begin.

Hogwarts invited verified entrants who were seventeen. Applicants submitted records and a statement about why they wanted the role. A panel including one professor from each house and two outside judges chose Adeline. Her emergency-planning work, Ancient Runes skill, and willingness to challenge procedure counted more than family name.

Durmstrang added Volodya Petrov, Igor Vasiliev, and Nikolai Sokolov, all of age and all willing after reading the amended terms.

Beauxbatons added Elodie Lemaire, Lina Moreau, and Margot Dupont under the same conditions.

The names were announced in the Great Hall one week after the sabotaged selection.

Hogwarts fielded Cedric, Adeline, Edward, and Harry.

Durmstrang fielded Krum, Volodya, Igor, and Nikolai.

Beauxbatons fielded Fleur, Elodie, Lina, and Margot.

Twelve participants stood before the school. Only five were attached by the Goblet. Seven had signed the amended tournament rules and could withdraw entirely.

Crouch explained the scoring. Each task produced individual marks based on published categories. The four marks would be added for the school result, so every delegation contributed the same number of scores. The highest individual total would receive the personal award. The highest school total would receive the team award.

No applause could erase why the format existed.

Dumbledore addressed that directly. "This is not a celebration of tampering. It is a controlled response designed to protect those bound without consent and to preserve equal standing among our guests."

Edward watched Moody during the explanation. The professor's face revealed annoyance when the forfeit rule was repeated and satisfaction when Harry chose not to withdraw in advance.

Both reactions were subtle. Neither was proof.

Afterward, the champions received only the first task's risk category. It involved large magical creatures, retrieval of an object, fire exposure, and a strict time limit. They would learn the species after the official inspection, early enough to make an informed decision.

Mrs. Weasley immediately requested the medical report, Sirius asked for the barrier specifications, and Edward checked the exact forfeit deadline. None of them treated the phrase "controlled task" as a substitute for knowing what the controls actually were.

The saboteur had forced two names into an ancient contract. The adults and students had not made that act fair.

They had made its consequences narrower, visible, and subject to choice.

The amended agreement entered each school archive beside the original contract. Future organizers would see both the sabotage and the safeguards created in response, not only a polished tournament result.