WTF, no he didn't. He got coached the whole way through by Crouch, an admission made later on in the book. And let's face facts: adventure has never been too strong a theme in this story. Intrigue has been the game that Santi's played thus far, and he's bound to play it more with Skeeter in play and Harry potentially looking to figure out who set up Nathan. It'll be interesting sure, but a change of themes would have been nice.

 

What?....

The entire premise of this story has been that Harry studies his ass off because he wants to prove his worth in the face of his brother being the BWL (something that gives his brother all the undeserving attention, and leaves Harry in the shadows - at least in the beginning.)

Now, Harry trains for months on end, busts his ass, and fails to get into the tournament AT THE LAST SECOND, only to wake up and find out that his brother got into the tournament without even having to try (again, receiving something undeservedly, which Harry has to struggle to earn).

Sure, his brother's in danger and Harry will obviously want to help him out, but come on - He's not even remotely angry. He considers the situation for all of, what? five seconds before saying, "Oh, that's cool. I guess I gave it my best shot - I'll just sit on the sidelines now and help Nathan."

I'm with Teenages. That's just retarded. Having him fail to get into the tournament is an awesome move. Not using it to further the rift between Harry, his brother, and his family makes no sense. It pretty much goes against everything this story was based on.

Also, someone else mentioned this, but it deserves repeating. This story is what, 200k words now? So far the whole story has been mostly buildup. The biggest draw - the thing every single person following this story was looking forward to - was the Triwizard tournament. I have faith in Santi, but if fourth year goes by and Harry isn't involved in some even remotely awesome plotline (finally), then jeez - wtf.

Disappointing update on multiple levels.

/rant

 

Santi........Santa

I fucking knew my parents lied to me. You are real!

P.S. Next year I want to read the entire finished story + I also want Megan Fox -make it happen.

 

Harry's failure at entering the Tri-Wizard tournament is most awesome plot twist anyone has ever wrote.

But...

Promising us advanced magic? Really? The story until now is full of it. You may want to rename the story "Harry Potter and Advanced Magic"

 

So, in this chapter, Harry found out that he won’t be able to compete in this tournament. A lot of people have expressed their rage at this mostly because we have followed this character a long way. We saw him get picked on by Ravenclaw, transfer to a different school and excel, and then he put more effort into preparing for the tournament than we had ever seen him put forth previously.

This was supposed to be the year. Harry’s return to Hogwarts to show on a grand stage the things he has accomplished. His revenge against his former house and his breakout moment was supposed to be this year at least in the minds of most readers. Let’s be honest, no matter what he accomplishes this year, it won’t be the same as preforming in front of a grand stage showing to the world how much he has progressed.
It is another year of him learning advanced magic, and character interactions with minor drama. This is what the author’s note seemed to promise which when it follows one of the most substandard chapters that we have seen thus far makes me question how good this story will be when it is over.

The summary promised a Harry that would become infamous, the category promised adventure, and the buildup for his triumphant return to Hogwarts promised in the year that Voldemort was plotting to return lead us to believe that we would see our first taste of adventure.

This hasn’t happened. Instead we get Harry failing by a second, not reacting to the failure, his brother getting into the tournament, Calypso going completely out of character and letting a Dark Arts comment slip out when she had clearly planned out her interactions with his family so carefully, and more promise of “OMG Harry practices the Dark Arts and they are evil” drama.

The Santi’s parting comment saying don’t worry there will be advanced magic and character interactions just left me even more disappointed. Perhaps, the most annoying thing was the part of this chapter where Harry was supposed to assist his brother and Krum. It essentially relegated him to supporting cast for this year.

 

I agree that the lack of a reaction to his failure is suspicious, but I have a feeling that the author's keeping that in the wings for a later chapter. Not only is he probably doped up on calming draughts, he's just been informed that his brother's life is in danger. One earth-shattering revelation at a time, folks.

 

I have to agree with Rakkety Tam comment on this chapter. In fact I was about to sit to write something very similar to it, but he beat me to it. So instead of reiterating what he already said I'm just going to add to it.

Besides my own personal disappointment with this chapter, it would seem that Santi has sacrificed a great deal of great story potential with not having Harry become champion(combined with how he wrote out the aftermath) and will receive very little story potential for it. I do hope I'm wrong and that Santi does have something up his sleeve, but I really doubt it will make up for the lack of Harry competing in the tournament.

Several people have already commented on Harry lack of reaction, but the truth is that Harry's very public and embarrassing attempt to enter his name in front of all of Hogwarts should have caused an explosion of emotion or a complete hardening of his personality. Combine that his inept and over shadowing brother getting into the tournament should have made him lose his cool. Him failing in front of Hogwarts should have hurt him and his brother getting in the tournament should have destroyed him and filled him with emotion of shame, embarrassment, worthlessness, and a real sense of betrayal. Not all of those emotion are logical to the situation, but emotions rarely are and like what another commenter said it's a little late for Harry to have that kind of reaction so far after the affect.

I suppose it's not to late to rewrite the chapter as Santi has done that before.

 

After thinking a lot about the further development of this fic, I think we could see an unexpected confession: Harry discovers that may have been manipulated by Lord Voldemort, when he possessed Quirrell's body. I'm not surprised that Nathan will discuss that detail to his twin after a big argument with him, precisely because of the Harry's belief that there is no good or evil in magic, there is only the power and the intent that magic is used for.

This discussion (which would cause Harry discovered that detail) could be in one of the hard lessons where Harry teaches Nathan as that the latter prepares for the Triwizard Tournament, and could lead to a complete break with his brother if Harry says the fact of always feeling slighted by his brother publicly, although he is much better wizard that Nathan.

 

I don't think he lost a lot of "story potential" by not having Harry in the tournament. If he had gotten in Harry would not just have won, he would have dominated. It just could not have turned out any other way and while that might have been fun to read this way makes the path the story will take quite a bit more uncertain. If the story goes downhill we can all point to this as the turning point but I have a little more faith in Santi than that. He has put together an awesome story up until this point and I expect that to continue.

 

Yes, he updated!
I had to reread this: “Instantly, the Goblet's fire vanished, the blue and white flame disappearing completely, leaving Harry's parchment to touch down into a black tar-like ooze.” I was thinking “no” and “yes” at the same time. “No” because, well, I would have liked to see Harry wiping the floor with a dragon, but “yes” because I always knew this was coming. I knew it. Harry loves his brother and I think that if both of them had gotten into the Tournament then this would have turned into an angst-fest. On one side, he would have wanted to win but on the other, his brother could be hurt.
I am glad that Santi went with this route. As someone already mentioned, it wouldn’t have been enough for me to have Harry being awesome at the tasks.
I liked the way Harry reacted in the Great Hall but I think it was completely out of character of him to react the way he did later. He accepted it so easily. Harry is extremely arrogant and I find it hard to believe that he would take to his brother becoming a champion so easily. Yes, his brother just got into a very dangerous tournament but I would have thought that Harry would focus on himself before he focused on his brother. Not only did he fail, but his brother got what Harry wanted because he was the Boy-Who-Lived. Nathan may not have wanted to be a champion, but that would only add insult to injury, wouldn’t it?
I hope Rita writes an article about Harry’s immersion in the Dark Arts and how he could influence his brother. Another take? Maybe Rita could blame Harry for what she will say was Nathan putting his name in the Goblet. I think this is unlikely, but maybe she could cite Harry’s previous accomplishments and maybe even mention his daring attempt to enter the tournament as what drove Nathan to put his name into the Goblet, even though by the time Harry was making his last attempt at putting his name in Nathan’s name was already in. Of course, in this scenario she would then shape Harry into a dark wizard, mentioning Calypso being in Sixth Year Dark Arts. This would serve to turn Harry into a dark wizard and to make Nathan look like a spoilt brat.
If that article is written, then I could see Harry and Nathan stop talking to each other. When they reconcile I don’t think Harry will offer to help Nathan again. Really, I expected Harry to support Viktor or refrain from taking sides, but I thought that Harry would be channeling his anger that someone had entered his brother into the Tournament at Nathan.
I agree with the guy who mentioned Viktor dying instead of Cedric. If Harry does help Nathan, then I think this would make him feel guilty and drive a wedge between Nathan and Harry. Harry mentioning that he should have helped Viktor could make Nathan mad. Additionally, I don’t think that Nathan would have wanted to share his victory with Viktor, unlike in canon, where Cedric and Harry agree to it. I think that if both Nathan and Viktor end up in the cemetery then it wouldn’t have been something they agreed on.

 

For what it is worth I found this to be a decent update. Not great mind you, but I believe that the reason for this is simply because the update is shorter than all of the other recent ones. In regards to Harry not expressing much emotion I do not believe it to be unrealistic as expressed by many members here. He is sedated to an extent and then he is immediately saddled with the information that someone may be trying to kill his brother by entering him into a dangerous magical tournament.

Personally, I do not mind that he is not going to be a member of the tournament, actually I rather like it. If I wanted to see a story about Harry doing better than the other contestants of the TWT and showing up all of his peers I would read one of the other countless fics that feature such a Harry. I like that the Santi will be showing a different side of it. I believe that the Santi will do great this year, he has a lot to work with in regards to Karkaroff wanting him to support Viktor, but supporting his brother instead, Rita creating a divide between his him and his family, the "secrets" Calypso holds. Then you even have the relations with the rest of Durmstrang, Hogwarts, Nathan's friends, and the politics of the TWT.

Although, one thing I wouldn't mind would be the Santi showing exactly what these "clues" he included were. I know I didn't find any of them, and I've read this fic at least five times. (Edit: If anyone else would be so kind to point these out I would be grateful).

Also, please don't categorize me as some random person that came from FFN, I've been browsing this site for a while. At the very least I hope you can tell that I am not one of them by actually using capitalization where needed.

 

The cofundus he took ma have effected Ivans manipulation maybe that exlains how harry seems out of character

 

I don't mind him not being in the tournament if there is something bigger happening...I just doubt that it will. As for faith, I reserve that for authors that are established. He hasn't written any other truly amazing fanfiction of any notable length like Nuhuh, Joe, etc. They have a long enough history of awesomeness that I can trust they know what they are doing. If he completes this story and it lives up to its potential then I would add him to that list, but I won't do it before. I've seen many stories filled with potential crash and burn at the end because the author simply couldn't end it properly.

 

Is it just me or do a lot of reviewers seem to expect a massive falling out between Harry and his family like the ones done in a thousand cliched wrong boy-who-lived fics when there's no real evidence that that's going to happen? Alright, Harry seemed to get over his disappointment pretty quickly but maybe his anger/disappointment was overridden by his concern for his brother - you know, the sibling that he loves and who doesn't hate him.

I predict that we'll see more bitterness from Harry about his failure to enter the tournament, though he'll keep it to himself, and that if there's any conflict between Harry and Nathan it'll be caused not by dark magic (because Harry knows his brother's opinions on it and I doubt Santi will try and have Harry teach it to his brother) but by Harry also helping Viktor. Based on canon and Santi's earlier chapters I'll go as far as to say that Ron will be the cause of the problems.

 

This has been an issue for awhile. People overlook the fact that Lily knew Snape practiced the dark arts while and Hogwarts, and she knows that he still practices them. She is still friends with him.

The main issue with the dark arts is that they are dangerous when cast properly and at a high level are very dangerous when cast improperly. Some of the darker aspects of magic go too far such as what Voldemort did, but law enforcement has been authorized to use the unforgivables in the past.

Also, if you remember from DH, many of the characters, including Lupin, chastised Harry for going too soft during fights. The order is not above killing well most of them aren't...perhaps, only Dumbledore and Harry in canon. Though Harry isn't above tossing around unforgivables in some cases.

 

I wonder if Nathan will be affected by Ron's refusal and Harry POV towards the situation?
It might make Nathan difficult to forgive and forget than it did in the canon!

 

I liked the chapter. I enjoyed having the rug pulled out from under me, and I'm not worried about the direction. In order for Voldemort to be revived, Nathan would have to beat Harry to the Cup, and I really don't see Harry playing Krum's role in the maze. Especially since he can fight off an Imperius and probably outduel Cedric, Fleur, and Harry.

However, I do agree with others who've complained about Harry's lack of reaction. I would've liked to see a paragraph or two showing Harry's frustration and coming to some sort of early terms with it or clamping down on the Occlumency before Dumbledore got into Nathan''s situation. Maybe if he were obviously out of it due to the drugs or something, but he's otherwise completely normal. I'm sure that Santi plans on going into it in later chapters, but you'd think the initial recognition of his failure would hit him hard before he got control of himself. This Harry doesn't seem the sort to shed a single, manly tear while Dumbledore looks away, but something.

I have the feeling that's more about Dumbledore's character than Harry's. Harry asked Dumbledore if there was a way around the age line; Dumbledore said yes. Not because he'd intentionally left an opening-- he'd closed all of them he could think of. But I believe Dumbledore gave that answer because he knew he couldn't think of everything. He's trying to get Harry to think of new solutions both to stretch his creativity and to emphasize that there's no such thing as a flawless spell.

 

I'm not sure about the relevance of this question, so I apologise in advance if it's not thread-suitable;

Does anyone have any idea about the respective power levels of Harry and Nathan? Is Nathan the stronger wizard but Harry the better one or is Harry somewhere near his power level and more advanced?

I don't think it's really important to the story but I would like to know nonetheless.

Also, has Santi given any indication as to when we'll see a serious fight? I'm talking something along the lines of Dumbledore vs Voldemort. I'd love to see how he handles that.

 

As far as I've seen there are no 'powerful' wizards in Harry Potter, just skilled ones. Can't remember where I read it, but someone made a list of examples, like Dumbledore claiming to be "just a shade more skillful" than Grindelwald.