Chapter 93 - The Second Task Pt 2
***** Regular Chapter ***** A/N: Shitty day at work today.... So kinda annoyed tbh. I went for a massage afterwards, so Starting this chapter late as a result. Sorry about the late post. I think the make-up chapter will have to wait til tomorrow tbh with what time this chapter is finally going up. But in other news....Time to officially start the Second Task. Hope you all enjoy! *****
Harry felt as though he were trapped in a nightmare.
He was fully aware that even if, by some miracle, he managed to find a suitable spell, he would be hard pressed to master it completely overnight.
How could he have let this happen?
He had even received clues from Jordan regarding the second task over Christmas, and yet here he was, the night before the second task, with still no idea how he was going to breathe underwater.
Sitting with Hermione in the library, the evening before the second task, Harry feverishly tore through numerous books, in an attempt to try to find anything that would help him with completing the second task.
"There must be something..." Hermione muttered from the side, while moving a candle closer to her. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."
Her head was buried in an old tome named 'Olde Forgotten ' with her nose about an inch from the page.
"I should've learned to be an animagus.... like Sirius." Harry moaned in despair, ready to give up on ever completing the second task. "That way at least I could've changed into a Fish or Frog on command."
"Don't be ridiculous Harry! It takes years to become an Animagus, and then you'd have to register yourself and everything! Prof. McGonagall told us remember? So that you can't abuse it....." Hermione rebuked him, moving onto another close by book, named 'Enchanted Flora and their mystical properties.'
"Hermione.... I was kidding..." Said Harry wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning anyhow..."
"Oh this is no use.....' Hermione complained, not really listening to Harry, and shutting the Herbology book rather violently in exasperation. "Who on earth would be interested in learning about a plant that changes your hair into green vines?"
"I actually wouldn't mind reading about that..." A timid voice, Harry and Hermione recognized as belonging to one Neville Longbottom, called out from in front of the pair of them.
Harry and Hermione looked up to see Neville timidly emerging from behind one of the bookshelves.
"Hey Neville, what're you doing here?" Harry called out in greetings, towards his Gryffindor dormmate.
"Hey guys.... Um.... Professor McGonagall wants you Hermione.... I'm here to call for you.." Neville answered hesitantly.
"Why?" asked Hermione, looking a bit surprised.
"I dunno... I was just told to tell you to report to her office immediately..." Replied Neville a bit intimidated.
Harry felt his stomach drop at the news. Was professor McGonagall going to tell her off for helping him? He was, after all, supposed to be figuring out how to do these tasks alone...
"I'll meet you back in the common room Harry..." Hermione interrupted his thoughts, herself looking just as anxious as Harry was feeling, as she got out of her chair, packing up a few books into her backpack in haste. "Bring as many of these books as you can ok?"
"Right.... I'll see you later Hermione..." Said Harry uneasily, as Hermione left heading towards McGonagall's office, leaving Harry and Neville staring at each other awkwardly.
"Um..... did you need help with anything Harry?" Neville called out after a few moments of awkward silence. "I could probably help you if it has anything to do with Herbology...."
"Honestly Neville... I'm not studying Herbology..." Harry replied in frustration of his situation. The second task was already the next day, and he still had no idea what he was going to do...
"Sorry.... I Um.... overheard Hermione talk about a plant just now so I just figured...." Neville apologized, not wanting to trouble his friend more than necessary, especially with the second task occurring the next day. He could only imagine the amount of stress Harry must be under... "Maybe I could help you with whatever you're studying until Hermione gets back?"
"We're not studying Neville... and while I do appreciate the offer, unless you know of a way for me to breathe under water, I don-"
"Did you just say breathe under water?" Neville suddenly cut Harry off, somewhat excited.
"Yes...."
"I have the perfect thing!"
*****
* The Next Morning *
Khan emerged, Fleur at his side, out of the Entrance Hall double oak doors, heading down the castle grounds towards the lake.
As they walked, they say that the audience tents that had previously circled the dragon's enclosure during the First task, were now placed along the opposite bank of the lake, rising in stands that were packed to the bursting point, and reflected in the lake below.
The excited babble of the crowd echoed across the water, surrounding the couple strangely, as they walked arm in arm, towards the otherside of the lake, where the five judges were sitting at another gold-draped table located by the water's edge, alongside two rather familiar faces.
Krum appeared to have already arrived and was already waiting by the judges table, talking in rapid Bulgarian to his headmaster.
"Excellent! Well met Jordan! Glad to see you!" Dumbledore excitedly greeted his senior and his partner with a slight smirk. "And you as well Ms. Delacour! I'm sure I don't need to introduce of our current guest to the two of you...."
And indeed, he did not have to introduce the guest seated alongside him that morning, as both Khan and Fleur were rather familiar with the Gentleman seated beside Dumbledore.
That's right... it was Louis Delacour!
"Papa! What are you doing here?" Fleur greeted her father with slight confusion. Although she had expected her family to be watching this second task, she was certainly not expecting him to be present at the judges table.
Dressed in a grey three-piece suit, he sat at the judges table, looking quite regal and imposing, his face returning to a more neutral, serious look, as he turned towards Khan.
"I will be watching your performance closely today bo- Mr. Khan..."
"Of course sir! I shall strive to live up to your expectations!" Khan responded professionally, although internally he was beginning to feel a little anxious.
He had to impress him! Her father had outright asked him at that Hogsmeade meeting after all, if he was prepared to protect Fleur from any dangers that may come there way.
And Louis Delacour may not have told him directly, but Jordan understood the implication that was veiled in Fleur's father's words; that his future relationship with his daughter perhaps depended on his performance that Second Task.
'I don't think my 'bubble-head charm' plan will be good enough anymore....' Khan thought to himself. 'I'm gonna need to change some things up, if I want to dominate this task and impres-'
"I'm..... here..." Harry panted, arriving in a huff, interrupting Khan's thoughts, and skidding to a halt in the mud, accidentally splattering Krum's robes.
"Where have you been?" A bossy disapproving voice sounded out from the judges table. "The task is about to start!"
Khan unfortunately recognized this voice. Looking around, he saw Percy sitting at the judge's table.... evidently Mr. Crouch had failed to turn up again.
Jordan of course, knew that Crouch was unfortunately being controlled via the imperius curse by Lord Voldemort... but to have him miss two Triwizard tournament events, back to back.... surely he must know that would look suspicious.
So What could Voldemort be having him do that was so important, that he ended up missing both the Yule Ball, and now this Second Task?
"Now, now, Percy!" said Bagman, looking quite happy to see that all four champions had now arrived. "Let him catch his breath!"
Khan turned to greet his younger friend with a comforting smile, before turning back to the judges table to see who else was sitting there out of curiosity.
In addition to Percy, Dumbledore, Bagman and Louis, both Maxime and Karkaroff as expected, were also seated at the judges table.
And while Maxime looked upon himself and Fleur with an encouraging smile, it seemed Karkaroff appeared somewhat tired, and even haggard, slouching in his chair, looking completely uninterested in the second task.
'Weird.... To think that he was so invested before.' Khan thought to himself, remembering how upset and irate Karkaroff had been at Harry's forced participation just a few short months ago.
Shaking the random thought out of his head, he continued looking around, trying to see if he recognized any of his friends around in the crowd.
And After only a few minutes of scanning around, he had managed to locate quite a few people he recognized; Daphne, Her sister, Malfoy and his Bodyguards, Ms Delacour, even Luna was there to cheer him on, wearing a rather colorful phoenix headpiece, that was of course fully animated and enchanted to shoot out small fireballs at random intervals.
However, try as he might, he could not find his first friend Hermione, nor could he find Natsai!
Which was strange as he had just seen them both at dinner the night before... And Natty wouldn't miss this, let alone Hermione, who was also best friends with Harry... What exactly was going on?
In the meantime Bagman had begun moving among the four champions, spacing them along the bank of the lake, at intervals of ten feet.
Khan was lined up first of course, followed by Harry and Krum, with finally Fleur.
After having finished lining all the champions up properly, Bagman returned to the judges table, before pointing his wand at his throat, and announcing 'Sonorus!'.
"Testing... ah Excellent... Welcome everyone to the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament! I am of course, your host for this morning not to mention one of the judges, Ludo Bagman!"
He paused, basking while the crowd applauded him politely, before continuing.
"I am joined today by our Three Lovely Headmasters; Albus Dumbledore, Olympe Maxime, and Igor Karkaroff, who will be once again be serving as judges for our task this evening!
He paused once again for the headmasters to all receive their applause, albeit not nearly as long as he had just paused for himself, before continuing.
"Unfortunately my ministry partner, Mr Crouch, is feeling rather ill today, and will not be available to judge our competition.... but not to fear everyone, for he has sent his assistant, Mr Percy Weasley to judge for him in his place!"
He paused once again, for Percy to receive his applause.... Although he probably shouldn't have with what ended up following.
"BOOOOOO!" Khan heard the twins and Ginny, leading the audience in booing their bother, from the crowd, much to his amusement.
"Finally, we have our final honored guest! The head of the French 'Bureau des Aurors', he has graciously agreed to help the British ministry with the remaining Triwizard Tasks! Please welcome, Mr. Louis Delacour!"
A loud round of applause rang out, a large portion of it coming from the Beauxbatons students, who of course recognized Fleur's father.
A powerful not to mention good looking older French Wizard, The head of the Bureau des Aurors was very widely admired by the French wizarding public.
"In fact, he will actually be helping kick off this Second Task.... If you please, Mr Delacour." Bagman finally finished his introductions, cutting off the 'Sonorus!' cast on him, in order to let Louis take over the explanations.
Standing up from the Judges table, he turned to address the audience.
"Hello everyone, and thank you for the warm welcome." He boomed.
It appeared Louis had self-cast a 'Sonorus!' on himself wandlessly.
"Today, our champions will be tasked with swimming into this lake in order to 'recover what was taken from them'."
"They will swim out, departing from this shore in 5 minute intervals, in order of points, with the 1 hour time limit starting once the champion with the least amount of points has finally departed the shore."
"However, in addition to simply 'recovering what was taken from them', they will face unknown obstacles and challenges in their underwater search..... Can't very well just be a swimming challenge after all."
The crowd laughed, Louis pausing for a moment, before continuing.
"Now you might be questioning.... why did we gather you all here, and set up all these stands, if the entire second task is going to be underwater? Wouldn't that mean, you would all be braving this cold weather simply to watch a lake?"
He paused dramatically, the crowd hanging on his every word.
"Lucky for you all, I have just the thing for this very occasion!"
Taking out his wand, he waved it around flashily, before casting out loudly a spell that Khan didn't recognize.
'Visio Lumina!'
Immediately upon casting the spell, Louis' wand began emitting a pulsating light that gathered together to form a giant, floating, shimmering Light Orb, that went on to float above the Lake.
"Now this is a custom spell, that I have recently created for our French Auror force. Developed last year, we now use it primarily for...."
'Nexus Conexio!'
Seemingly not finished, he then loudly cast another spell that Khan didn't recognize, before finishing off his previous sentence.
"Gathering intel."
Almost immediately, the Light Orb began displaying a live recording, shocking all of the champions, not to mention the entire audience.
Jordan himself, was looking at the Orb, his eyes wide with surprise.
The Orb appeared to be showing the bottom of the lake.
And in the frame were four people, who were each tied on individual poles, and guarded by squads of Mermen, Khan of course, recognizing who these people were.
It wasn't a personal talisman or item that the champions were supposed to recover! It was their actual close family or friends!
"Each Champion has had a close friend or relative taken from them! It will be up to them, to rescue and 'recover what was taken'." Louis continued his announcements in the background, not that Khan was listening, the words going in one ear, and out the other, his thoughts preoccupied with who he saw on screen.
Hermione was there! So was Gabrielle alongside a girl Khan recognized as Krum's Yule Ball date!
So it turns out they needed to save an actual person.... and not just any person, but the one chosen for him.
Although Jordan did indeed have a connection to both Hermione and Gabrielle, he knew that they were not his 'close friend' he was supposed to recover for this specific second task.
You see, tied up, on the pole between Hermione and Gabrielle, was Jordan's own personal friend, not to mention Dumbledore's Mentor.
"Natty..."