Second Task : A Game (2).

The four champions made their way to the Quidditch pitch that had been transformed into a large-scale version of the map Ludo Bagman had just shown them.

The structure now clearly looked like a desert-themed temple that lay in ruins. The temperature matched the look since the champions had already started to collect sweat on their brows.

The crowd sent thunderous applause on their entrance, making everyone a little self-conscious. Out of all the champions looking for signs of their enemies, Loki was the only one who calmly inspected the audience instead.

The pathway out of the tent led the champions to the centre of the arena, right on top of the capture point. They remained on one half of the capture point since a wall of spirituality blocked the other half.

They could've crossed it if it was a normal wall of spirituality but it seemed like Dumbledore had modified it to create a physical barrier instead.

The applause settled as the champions reached the capture point before Ludo Bagman took over with his commentary.

"Our champions have arrived at the capture point! And seem to be waiting for their enemies! Should we reveal to them the foes they have to vanquish to win this round!?"

"YAAAASSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!" The crowd cheered.

"That was too low!!! I couldn't hear you!!!!! Come again!!!"

"YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Alright. Then in three, two, one! And-"

*BANG*

There was a sudden *puff* of smoke in the other half of the capture point, which slowly cleared to reveal the large figures concealed inside.

Loki's mind raced through his memories to figure out exactly what the animals were, he spotted a large cat, a large fiery golem, a floating robe and a humanoid figure which had several plants growing from its body.

'What is that?'

'How come I've never read about it in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them?'

'Why do I get the feeling I know exactly what that is but I can't remember.' Loki activated his spirit vision and grew shocked.

'That mess in its Body of Heart and Mind….that's not an animal, no animal could have such complex thoughts! A human? So an out-of-control Beyonder!!!?'

'Why did they bring a Beyonder who lost control into this match? Didn't they have a better option? Why couldn't they have just used a normal Beyonder!?'

'Now that I think of it, isn't Harry's current potion name Guardian? And he became a tank? Is this for the sake of helping him quickly digest his potion?'

'*Sigh* and I still haven't figured out how to use the chatterbox to complete the ritual for my Sequence 5.'

"Are you seeing this!?" Ludo Bagman shouted, "The champions have to face them head-on!!!!! The enemy team consists of a Wampus Cat, a Lethifold, a Lava Golem, and a Druid!!!!!!!"

Almost as soon as Bagman said the words Druid, the humanoid plant lifted its arms causing several vines to spread out of its body and bury into the ground, turning it over as it infested and wrapped around the capture point.

Harry dodged them and Fleur and Krum followed but Loki stayed where he was, 'It won't be able to do harm since that thing's probably the healer, so this is probably a healing method?'

'If he tries to hurt me directly, he'll probably get kicked out of the match.'

'If their healer's a plant, can't we just use a little fire and kill it?'

"You can step on its plants. It's the healer of their team." Loki explained causing Harry, Fleur and Krum to carefully step on the plants like Loki was already doing, and after they realised nothing was happening to them, they relaxed.

"Everyone!! Count with me!!! Three!!!" Bagman shouted.

'Three!' all the champions thought inside their heads. Paying full attention to their enemies on the opposite side.

The Wampus cat *growled* while the Lava golem stomped its feet to send tremors across the arena. The Lethifold only scarily hovered in its position, the darkness in place of its 'face' stared right at Loki.

"TWO!!!!"

'Twoo!!!'

Loki saw Krum prime his wand while Fleur created thin invisible but strong strings using her Beyonder Abilities and wrapped them around her hands.

Harry on the other hand primed his wand with spirituality, ready to use a spell he had worked on in preparation for the second round.

"ONEEEEEE!!!!!"

A loud *buzz* resounded throughout the arena before the wall of spirituality that was stopping both sides from interacting with each other vanished.

The Wampus Cat almost immediately pounced at its closest prey, Fleur.

The Lethifold dashed towards Harry and the Lava Golem towards Krum.

"Expecto Patronum!!!" Harry shouted, causing a thin ethereal wisp of airy fluid to pour out of his wand and converge into a large white stag.

The Lethifold *screamed* in pain as it was scared away by the stag. Since no matter how it tried to get closer to the capture point, the stag always blocked it from coming closer, burning at what seemed to be its sanity each time it moved closer.

With the Lethifold taken care of for now, Harry shifted his sights to his two teammates.

Fleur was riding the Wampus Cat by stringing around the strong threads she'd created around the cat's neck while trying to choke it to death. Seeing her handling herself well, Harry shifted his focus to Krum who was struggling under the embracing assault of the Lava Golem.

"BOMBARDA!" Krum yelled, forcing back the Golem's giant hand that was moving towards the capture point to sweep all of them away from it.

Krum's bombarda was so strong that the golem almost tumbled backwards.

'Everyone seems to be doing fine?' Harry concluded as he controlled his patronus to keep away the Lethifold.

Bagman's commentary said the same.

"Is everyone seeing this!? Our champions are faring so much better than the XXXXX-rated creatures by the Ministry of Magic! Look at how elegantly Miss Fleur is handling the Wampus Cat. Isn't it awe-inspiring!?"

"YAAAAEEEEEE!!!!!" There were several claps and shouts but they only lasted until Bagman said-

"Or is she?"

All of a sudden Harry had a terrible premonition. He looked at Fleur and Krum for any hints of something going wrong, but he found none. Fleur was still tackling the Wampus Cat and Krum was fighting with the Lava golem.

Harry then turned to look at Loki, but even he seemed to be fine. Except when Harry really looked at him, he seemed to be shouting something but his words never reached his ears.

The noise from the Lava golem fighting Krum was too loud to understand what Loki was speaking.

'...Lethifold…fake…'

'The Lethifold is a fake?' Harry somehow understood. He immediately turned to look at the Lethifold being chased around by his Patronus and realised it was moving to the same three places again and again.

That was when suddenly, Harry heard Fleur scream before it was abruptly cut short!

"ARRRGGGHHHHHH- MFMFMFMFMFMFMMFMFM!!!"

Fleur struggled and tried her best to fight off whatever was hurting her but she couldn't, she was being choked too fast and her grip on the Wampus Cat was going limp.

That was when Loki flicked his wand and cast a spell, "Expecto Patronum!!!"

A silvery mist emerged out of Loki's wand and formed into a similar drab of robes, except this one was a pristine white.

The robes swerved mid-air, flying straight at Fleur.

Everyone in the Quidditch stadium thought whatever Loki had done was attacking Fleur, perhaps he was trying to get rid of competition?

Except when it the bundle of white robes landed on Fleur and wrapped around her face tightly, everyone noticed that it seemed to be floating a little, almost as if there was a layer of something protecting her face from it.

And suddenly, there was a bright shimmer that radiated a little distance between the bundle of white robes and Fleur's face before manifesting in an explosive reveal was a Lethifold the was wrapped tightly around Fleur's neck, that had been choking her all along!

"Tha's right! The Wampus Cat worked together with the Lethifold to turn it psychologically invisible before it latched onto Fleur who was close to defeating the Wampus Cat!" Ludo Bagman explained with excitement.

The Lethifold *shrieked* as it ran away from Fleur, allowing Loki to pull her to himself with a flick of his wand, directing his Dementor Patronus to toss her in his direction from on top of the Wampus Cat.

He then uncorked a bottle of stamina potion and stuffed it into Fleur's mouth for her to greedily swallow.

Harry looked at the two culprits with a little fear, but then immediately brought back his Stag Patronus to chase the real Lethifold instead of the one the Wampus cat had created by hypnositing them all.

'Phew! Almost thought I'd be eliminated for using the Patronus spell.' Loki exclaimed mentally.

'Good that using it to help Fleur only counts as using it to help her stabilise her emotions that were affected by the Lethifold.'

Done with helping Fleur, Loki gave her a stern warning not only to her but also to Harry, "Make sure it doesn't happen. I've got very few stamina potions!"

Harry and Fleur nodded, going back to their opponents since Harry was already feeling a little burdened when he was forced to handle the Wampus Cat without any spells, since his only spell, the Patronus, was being used to keep the Lethifold away.

'Neither team has even begun to capture the point yet since we're all fighting on the capture point at the same time.'

'We need to do something to get those four out of the capture point so that we can capture it.' Loki thought as he looked at the three creatures fighting the three of his own team and then looked at the Druid.

'I hope that thing's roots aren't counted as a part of its body…if they are it'll be rather difficult to remove it from the point.'

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