Humanity's Campione (HP/Campione)

The school settled back into a normal rhythm for Harry. The only major difference was that Ron avoided him, which was hard since they lived in the same dorm. They still spoke in passing, but they no longer spent much of their time together. He started hanging out primarily with Dean, but at the very least he hadn't revealed Harry's secret.

Harry also hadn't seen much of Luna, the girl seemed content to avoid him altogether. He'd tried talking to her, but she skipped away as soon as possible. Ginny had tried to talk to the girl, but beyond acting cordial, Luna wanted nothing to do with Campione. In the end, Hary wouldn't force her to interact with him so he just left her alone.

At the moment, Harry was sitting in Dumbledore's office with Paolo and Erica. The two older men had called them here to inform them about something.

"We know how Erica was entered into the tournament," Paolo stated.

Erica and Harry were both mildly surprised. The two men were powerful, but they figured it would take longer for them to find the culprit. Seeing their surprise, Dumbledore explained further.

"We planned to go through the professors first and see if we could pick up any odd signs using a specialized detection spell Paolo knew. It turned out, we didn't have to look much further than the professors."

Harry looked between the resigned Dumbledore and calm Paolo. "Who was it?"

"It seems that your newest professor, Professor Moody, is somebody using Polyjuice Potion."

"And how the bloody hell did that get by you Dumbledore?" Harry questioned irritably. From what he understood, Dumbledore had known Alastor Moody for years. How could he possibly not know the difference between his friend and someone pretending to be one?

"Alastor has always preached 'Constant Vigilance' and has been largely avoiding interacting with me one-on-one. It seems the imposter used that as an excuse to not be put in situations where he'd be forced to discuss things he wouldn't know." Despite his explanation, Harry could see that Dumbledore was disappointed in himself.

"We asked you here because we wanted to ask what you wanted to do about him." 

Seeing Paolo look to him for the decision once again reinforced the fact to Harry that he was the most powerful person in this room. The final decision lay with him, not these two older and well-respected members of the magical society.

Harry considered his options for a moment, glancing at Erica who grasped his hand tightly in support. In the end, he sighed.

"Leave him alone for now, but monitor him closely. We could deal with him, but it would just send Voldemort running in whatever form he is in. Right now, our goal should be finding a way to track down all of his Horcruxes while monitoring the imposter, so we can eliminate him entirely."

Both men nodded and began to make plans for how to accomplish that, while Erica and Harry left the office. 

"Thank you for trusting that I can handle this tournament," Erica said and leaned her head on Harry's shoulder.

"I know you're capable Erica, but if Moody does anything to put you in danger, I'll kill him and figure out something else to track Voldemort."

"So protective, Lord Potter," Erica said with a sultry voice as she leaned up and kissed Harry. They were interrupted by the sound of footsteps and pulled away, turning toward the end of the hall where Hermione had come running. 

"Harry, I figured it out." She seemed slightly out of breath, having run straight here.

"Figured out what?" 

Hermione glanced around to make sure the hallway was empty before she leaned close to the two and whispered. "I know who the god you saw is."

That certainly got his attention and Hermione elaborated further. 

"I looked through all of the major religions to double-check if you missed anything, but it wasn't there. I instead started branching out to some of the lesser know ones, but it was hard to find them since Hogwarts doesn't exactly have a focus on religion. I had to ask a Ravenclaw who had an interest in the subject for some of the books she had."

Hermione rattled all that off quickly before she took a breath and said a name.

"Ereshkigal. You couldn't find her name because she's a Mesopotamian god, hardly anyone even talks about them. She's the goddess of the dead in Mesopotamian myth, it all fits perfectly."

Hermione quickly handed him the book she'd been carrying, the page already open to the entry about Ereshkigal. Harry read it while Erica looked over his shoulder, the two quickly getting all the information about the god.

"Well you know who the god is, but now what?" Erica asked.

"She looked trapped, and the visions I got seemed like she wanted me to free her."

Hermione and Erica shared a look. "Are you sure you want to? She is a god, after all, Campione and gods fight whenever they are around each other."

"I suppose the legend does say that whoever gathers the three Deathly Hallows would become the Master of Death, so maybe you'd have some way to control her," Hermione suggested.

Harry shrugged. "Either way, right now I only have two. Who knows when I'll find the third."

"I've been thinking about that. What if we made a tracking spell that could find it? I doubt any wizard or witch could cast it, but if we make a spell focused on tracking the last one with the ones you already have, and you cast it with the Elder Wand and your Campione magic, maybe you could find it that way," Hermione put forward as an idea.

"I could get my uncle to help us make one."

Harry sighed and reluctantly nodded his head after considering something. "Get Dumbledore to help you too. He's one of the most knowledgeable people on the subject of the Deathly Hallows, along with his general magical knowledge. Despite how I feel about the man, he is a capable wizard."

The three ended up going back into Dumbledore's office and informed the two older men. They made sure not to mention anything about Ereshkigal or the visions and simply said Harry wanted to complete the three grimoire set. 

----

Erica stalked down the halls as Colin Creevey followed behind her. She'd been pulled out of class for the "Weighing of the Wands" which was a tradition for the tournament to ensure that the Champions' wands were all in working order.

Harry had asked if she wanted him to come with her, but she'd left him in Snape's classroom and gone alone. This event would be interesting since her wand was just Cuore Di Leone in another form. 

Colin prattled on questions about Harry and his relationship with her, but she ignored him and continued on her way. The weighing was being held in a fairly small classroom in the castle, and as she stepped into the room she found only one champion there at the moment; Fleur.

"Blandelli," Fleur said indifferently, her nose upturned.

"I'm surprised you don't bump into things with how high your nose is raised. I can see straight into that empty head of yours."

Fleur sniffed haughtily but did lower her nose somewhat self-consciously. Eventually, Viktor Krum, headmasters, and Paolo made their way into the room. Paolo made his way over to Erica and stood behind her as she sat in a chair, Viktor and Fleur sitting separately from each other and her. 

Three other figures made their way into the room as well. One was a cameraman for the Daily Prophet while the woman next to him was the person writing an article on the tournament, Rita Skeeter. The last was an elderly man, Olivander, who would inspect the wands.

"Oh, and if it isn't our youngest champion. I'm sure we have time for a quick interview."

Erica put on her best Fleur impression as she looked down her nose at the woman.

"Not interested." It was clear all Rita was here for was a scandal and to attempt to stir up drama.

"Oh it won't take long, I'm sure we can-" Rita tried to protest, but Paolo cleared his throat behind Erica and she quickly found an excuse to walk away. Erica could hear her speaking to Viktor, her first question making her initial impression clearly correct.

"So, how do you feel about competing with someone so much younger and less experienced than you?"

Viktor also seemed unwilling to entertain her, most likely used to people like this from his quidditch career. Rita also made her way to Fleur, and even with how much Erica disliked the girl, the woman didn't even bother to hide the racism in her comments, as she spoke about Fleur's veela heritage.

"Rita Skeeter is a well-known rumor monger, but most of wizarding Britain tends to believe her crock," Paolo informed his niece.

"Unfortunately, these people are Harry's subjects. If only he was Italian," Erica muttered quietly.

"Luckily he isn't, or he would be in direct conflict with Lord Doni. There have been a rare few times in history where two Campione were born in the same country, and each time it happened it led to conflict and widespread death."

Eventually, the champions lined up in preparation as Olivander stood before them on a raised dais. The ministry officials, Bagman and Crouch, were in attendance as well. The first to go up was Viktor, whose wand was made by Gregorovich and Erica tuned out the few idle comments Olivander made about its make before saying it was up to standard.

Fleur's was next, and Olivander made his bias clear as a not-so-subtle disparaging remark was made at the fact that a veela hair was used as the core, apparently from Fleur's grandmother. 

Erica hadn't interacted with the larger wizarding public, but just based on her experiences at Hogwarts, wizarding Britain was not the most accepting sort. The entire debate between pure-blood, half-blood, and muggle-born was cause for concern in this country and the overall state of its political environment.

As she thought about it more, she glanced up at her uncle who continued to stand behind her, his face calm and collected.

"Just how bad is the blood status issue in Britain?" she asked her uncle quietly. Paolo glanced down at her, his towering frame forcing her to look up at him.

"It varies depending on who you talk to, but overall the pure-blood sentiment is much more common than any kind of equalist one. Old, rich families ensure that any reforms are slow and hard to succeed."

Those thoughts remained in Erica's mind as she walked towards Oivander, passing Fleur who looked irritated at the man's comments about her wand. Once she reached him, she handed Cuore Di Leone in wand form over to the man.

"I can't say I have seen many wands from Italy," Olivander said as he began to look over her wand. After a moment, his face took on one of intrigue. "Is this made of metal?"

"It's a wand that doubles as a magic sword. It was forged with Wootz steel."

Olivander continued to look over Cuore Di Leone in interest. "Ah, magic swords are more prevalent for those trained as knights by the other mage associations." He held the wand up and cast a simple spell to summon doves, which worked seamlessly. Cuore Di Leone was bound to Erica, but she'd allowed Olivander access in the interest of not causing an issue. 

"Is that against the rules of the tournament?" Rita asked, her tone excited and leading.

"No, technically the rules of the tournament allow any medium. A long time ago when the tournament was first instated, staff weren't phased out yet and were allowed. Magic swords fall under a similar vein."

Rita looked disappointed that Olivander had shot that idea down, but Erica was handed her wand back, and the group was corralled together to take a photo for the Daily Prophet. Rita once again tried to get an interview with Erica, but Paolo's presence dissuaded her, and she left unimpeded afterward.

Once they were away from the rest of the group, the uncle-niece duo paused as the older man posed a question. "Are you having second thoughts about coming here after seeing how wizarding Britain is?"

"No," Erica answered instantly. "I wanted to go with Harry, no matter how bad it was here."

Paolo considered his words for a moment before continuing. "The Copper-Black Cross is blessed to be associated with two god slayers, but we are not located under Lord Potter's area of control."

Erica furrowed her brow as she listened to her uncle. "What are you saying?"

"Consider this a teaching moment. Lord Potter's domain is the United Kingdom, while our base of power is in Italy. He will end up needing to establish his power here, what are his two options to do that?"

After a moment of thought, Erica came to her answer. "He can either ally himself with the Wizengamot, or form his own mage association, but the Wizengamot is run by the same people who try to keep this country bigoted and isolationist. His best option is to make his own association."

"That may not necessarily be the case, I'm just trying to get you in the proper mindset as his knight. Your job is to help him with whatever he may need, both as a knight and ensuring he's well informed, but the final decision will always lay with him. It's perfectly possible for him to simply force the Wizengamot to change their ways, his authority allows that. It just comes down to what type of king he wishes to be."

They continued to walk together, Erica asking a few more questions to get a better idea of the big picture before she parted ways with her uncle. She hadn't considered the other facets of her role as Harry's knight, but thanks to her uncle she had a better understanding. Now, she would do everything possible in her time here to get a handle on the state of Harry's country, so that whatever he needed she would always be able to offer.

----

Author's Note:

A shorter chapter focused on some stations of canon I had to get through. Wanted to show some more of Erica and Paolo and how he's trying to guide her so that she can properly serve as a Campione's knight. 

Next chapter will be the First Task, then we've got the Yule Ball, and after that will be back to a story on the Campione side of things. I want to make sure I have a good balance between the two plots, but I am curious which side of things is more interesting for you guys. I have a pretty strong guess which it is, but let me know.

1. Harry at Hogwarts interacting with people and the eventual end of Voldemort and his identity revealed.

2. Harry interacting with gods, Campione, and other mage associations. 

Let me know, and as always engagement fuels the muse.