Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts was already a mind-blowing experience, since he's been exposed to magic and all sort of crazy thing. Then it turns out that Hogwarts will be hosting the Triwizard Tournament, a competition between three students from Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Drumstrang.
But to the dread of everyone, the fourth champion is none other than eleven-years-old Harry Potter.
And the Unethical Binding Contract is a one-shot fic by justafandomfollower. It can be read here
on Archive of Our Own and here on FanFiction.Net.
And the Unethical Binding Contract contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
- With a greater age gap between Hermione and Krum, she is not his date to the Yule Ball; instead Hermione attends the Ball as Harry's date, but they're clearly just friends as they're too young to think about anything further.
- At the same time, while Harry was still reasonably friendly with the other three Champions in canon, here they all become closer after facing the threat of Quirrell/Voldemort together, with the three promising to write to Harry over the summer.
- Age Lift: Cedric, Fleur, and Krum are all 17 years old, older than they would be in 1991note .
- Big Brother Instinct: The other champions are greatly protective of the much younger Harry, even outright cheating to make sure he'll get through the challenges.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Brought up regarding the unnamed wizard Quirrell/Voldemort Imperiused to capture Harry after he touched the Portkey; this wizard was only commanded to subdue Harry, so he is quickly overpowered by the other champions.
- Everybody Has Standards: Almost everyone is too horrified at the idea that Harry will have to compete in a tournament that had been originally suspended for the death toll to even consider he tried to get in on purpose (of the named characters, only Draco Malfoy seems to think it, but he's The Bully and eleven himself), to the point that Rita Skeeter (a notable Hate Sink in the source material) doesn't even consider to write any of her sensationalist stories on Harry, focusing instead on the fact Harry was somehow dragged in the tournament.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: A key reason for Voldemort's failure is that he was unaware of Lily's protection making it impossible for him to touch Harry, allowing Harry to turn the tables on Quirrell just by touching him.
- I Reject Your Reality: This version of events shows Fudge even more determined to believe Voldemort's return is a fabrication even when there are four respected young wizards from different schools around the world as witnesses and not just Harry, who Fudge could just blame as being in confederacy with Dumbledore. The story do shows that because of said multiple witnesses, more people are willing to accept said return than in canon, which may lead to Fudge getting his karma earlier.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Even without the Halloween Troll incident, Hermoine still becomes friends with Harry and Ron while working together to find ways to help Harry survive.
- Even with four champions advocating that they saw Voldemort in the graveyard, Fudge refuses to accept that they saw him and claim they caught Quirrell's hallucination. That said, the students and staff at Hogwarts are more than willing to believe the quartet.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: All three of the other champions do their best to help Harry after he's entered into the Triwizard Tournament despite being only eleven, including both informing him as to what the next task is, improving his plan for the first task, and guiding him to the goals of the second and third tasks.
- Spared by the Adaptation: A combination of Victor and Fleur joining their Hogwart companions in taking the Goblet during the third challenge along with Quirrell's refusal to kill means Cedric survives the graveyard encounter and returns with the other champions to Hogwarts.
- What You Are in the Dark: It's noted that, at their core, Cedric, Fleur and Krum were all chosen because they are champions even outside of this contest, citing their personal experiences in canon such as Krum challenging anyone wearing Grindlewald's mark or how Fleur would stand by Bill even after his disfigurement.
