Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) — same username as here and link in bio.
"For the Second Task, what we have before us is essentially a race. But in true Tri-Wizard fashion, it is a race, longer and more complex than any I have ever seen. First of all, the champions must journey to the bottom of the Black Lake where they will come in contact with people who have agreed to be their hostages and helpers for this task. Subsequently, they must journey to the island on the other end of the lake. There they will be expected to mount brooms and retrieve the antidote to the potion that keeps their hostages asleep. From there, they must journey across a specially created tunnel that leads to a secret surprise. The surprise is the last part of the task, and let's just say it's a fiery one" Bagman said, and the giant screens behind him showed massive amounts of fire.
It was clear to see that this task had been planned specifically to be a spectacle. To take attention away from any and everything else, to entertain, pacify, and lull in equal measure. That was why the Quidditch stands had been grossly expanded. That was why tickets to this event were sold at half price for British citizens— a subsidy directly from the Ministry's coffers, and why the news article about the attack Japan had made on the ICW camp enforcing the ceasefire in Asia had broken this morning.
Breaths were held as much of the world waited to see if war was truly coming. Breaking the ceasefire should have meant war from every nation signatory to it, but very few had citizens broadly in favour of spending lives and gold waging a war to protect people they would never meet, see, or even hear about much. Japan had taken a calculated risk, and I had no idea if it would work.
What I did know was that I was going to enjoy winning this one. Post Christmas break, we were all more or less at 100% and this made this a completely fair challenge. Or as fair as it could be with someone like me on the board. The threats to my life were not limited to schoolyard foes and rivalries, and that was enough to make it clear to me that this didn't matter. I'd still win because Doom would never lose, but I'd do it with the understanding that the gap between me and them meant nothing because they weren't the yardstick I would measure myself against. That yardstick sat calmly on the judge's table, not even decent enough to openly declare himself my enemy— just satisfied with trying to make others do his manipulations on his behalf.
In the original task, Potter had used gillyweed to cover the distance and had made it there first because of the advantages of the substance. In this world, beyond being tested, we had been searched for magical substances of any nature, so I doubted something like that would have been appreciated very much. It mattered little, though. The task switched focuses too quickly for me to agree to being relegated to only living beneath the sea for an hour. What if I finished in less time? Sure, I could take a lesser dose, but then what if I needed more because the black lake ended up being much more troublesome than anticipated.
Either way, it was less than suitable for my purposes, and so I had to settle for an alternative. In this case, that alternative ended up being transfiguration. While I hadn't ended up having an animagus form, my studies with Sirius ha taken my human transfiguration skills to a level where even Tom Riddle would have been jealous. The canon rang out and both Cedric and Fleur used bubblehead charms like in the books while Krum transfigured his head into a shark in a feat that I could have easily replicated if not for the indignity that doing something so inelegant and imprecise.
Instead, I took my time to make something beautiful. The first transfiguration began in my lungs. Sirius had been the one to plan out and do the studying for this on account of his infinite free time, so I was essentially just copying his work. I transfigured my airways next, and then came my neck, to create a set of gills that would take in and expel water, a set of airways that would accept that water, filter it and take out the oxygen before sending the rest of the water out through the gills. The biology didn't make complete sense, but I had Manton's law— the basic rule that it was nearly impossible to kill yourself with your own magic and if you tried to do something otherwise suicidal, your magic would step in to bridge the gap rather than letting you die. Once he finished with that, I transfigured my feet into a set of flippers before looking at the clock to note that two minutes had passed. The others had a lead on me, but nothing insurmountable.
I dove into the water, and began to flap my feet to orient myself. I placed my wand flat on my palm before silently casting the point-me spell for Hermione. Even before I'd looked into the crowd and found her absent, I knew she would be the one chosen. If Dumbledore had been using her to spy on me and then noticed we had fallen out, this would be just the thing he would do to bring us back together without having to move a finger of his own. That was the kind of manipulation he favoured— the one where he got other people to do his dirty work for him without even telling them to do it, making it seem like it was their idea. The wand spun about listlessly before pointing back towards the castle. Probably some sort of ward on the hostages to prevent them from being tracked. That wasn't my only option though because there was only one place they would have kept them.
"Point-me, Merpeople Village" I subvocalized. When the wand pointed straight ahead, I smiled before pointing my wand behind myself and using one of the elemental spells I'd learned to shoot a jet of water straight behind me that shot me forwards at great speed.
When the spell ran its course after three minutes, I cast another point-me, and noted that I had to turn East now. I did this two more times until I noticed that I had come to a stop in the middle of some reeds so dense that I struggled to see the other side. I didn't even need to hear the Grindylow screech to notice its presence as it jumped for me. I shot it with a piercing hex instantly, sending the dead creature flying backwards, floating through the water as it leaked blood from a coin sized hole in its head. Of course, Grindylow never hunted alone, so when one grabbed at my foot, I did not jolt in surprise, but kicked it coldly, knocking it off before landing another piercing hex.
The next two came from in front of me, and I sent an overpowered bludgeoner that was wide enough to turn the both of them into one large bruise. One grabbed a hold of my back and bit down. I scowled at the pain before I reached behind me with my right hand, wrenched the bugger off and stabbed my wand into his mouth. Its head exploded around me, coating the water I swam in a deep red. More were coming, I noted. I scowled, having to abandon my initial plan of just killing them before casting another point-me. I picked a random direction and shot there instead. This time I allowed the spell die out in a minute when I felt something bite into my torso. The grindylow that had managed to attach itself to me as I sped past never got to regret its actions for long as I dragged it off and neatly bisected it in two parts.
I considered stopping to do what I could to heal the wounds I'd sustained but disregarded the thought. Grindylow bites weren't poisonous, and those things had small fangs, so the blood loss would be minimal. And then there was the fact that I didn't have forever to finish this task. Another point me sent my bolting straight north. After three minutes, when I stopped and used another point-me, it sent me back the way that I had come. So that meant I had missed it. Not good, but not the worst thing in the world, either.
I kept moving through the water, certain that I had to be relatively close to the Merpeople settlement, especially since I knew that three minutes of my water boost wasn't so much that it would cover more distance than I could quickly swim. It took me two minutes of swimming to catch sight of the merpeople village. And when I did, I began swimming towards the hostages who were clearly chained in the middle of the village. So focused was I on completing the task, that I barely noticed the tail of the giant sea serpent until it slammed into me and ent me flying to the ground. Coiled around the whole village itself, the giant serpent hissed in my direction.
I contemplated the best spell to use in an attack, and abandoned he thought just as quickly. Sea Serpents were just as hardy as dragons were, and in this case, I would be fighting with three massive disadvantages— no lightning or fire magic considering our present setting, there was the fact that spells traveled through water slower than they did through the air so hoping to nail it with a conjucvitis curse or something of the like, that I would have hoped to do against a dragon would basically be a waste of time, and then there was the fact that the entire task was being broadcast live preventing me from using anything truly dark in this to avoid being the subject of even more controversy.
I sighed and prepared to unleash a storm of magic when the creature turned its horned head in my direction again. It was like it was daring me to strike. And so I did. I sent five piercing hexes in the time it would have taken most to cast one. All five washed against hide stronger than steel as its tail came in my direction again. This time, I used the same water jet I'd been using for transportation to send me backwards before it crashed into me again. The tail shot through the hot water and the snake hissed from the shift in its surrounding temperature when I felt the need to facepalm.
It's a snake. It's a fucking snake. It came after me again, but this time I focused on pushing air backwards to create a bubble air charm. I didn't need something to supply air for breathing. I just needed to be able to speak.
"Great serpent" I said in parseltongue. The serpent turned its head in my direction once more.
"A speaker?"
"Yes, Great serpent. I seek to make my way to the village" I said.
The snake looked behind itself towards the village before nodding, and moving its head away from the village, ending its blockade.
"Great Serpent, if you would, please prevent any others from gaining access" I said.
"Your will be done, King Speaker" It said, after taking one long sniff in my direction. I nodded and swam towards the hostages. The merpeople watched me approach with their hands on their spears and Lolabugs. I reached the statue to find four people tied up. Fluer's sister, Cedric's date to the Yule Ball, Cho Chang, and Krum's own date. My hostage was someone I hadn't expected. Instead of Hermione, it was a red-headed boy tied to the statue by his feet. Ronald fucking Weasley.
I scoffed at Dumbledore's pathetic attempt at manipulation before I cut him loose and grabbed a hold of his body and sent us jetting towards the other end of the lake where the man-made island was located. I only had to reroute with point-me spells twice until we were right beneath it. A silent 'ascendio' sent us flying from the bottom of the lake into the sky. Once I was in the air, I waved my wand like a conductor and used one of my favorite elemental spells. It couldn't be used offensively, it was something baked into the spell's matrix, but it was fun as all hell.
I created a slide from the air around us and both Ron and I slid down the slide. I cushioned my landing with another packet of air and let Weasley eat sand as we landed. I waved my wand at him, casting a featherweight spell before transfiguring him into a rat. It felt fitting as I reached down to pick him up. I was still in my swimming trunks and another wave of my wand turned them into a set of robes. Nothing as comfortable as what I usually wore, but more than enough to shield me from the Sun's harsh rays and the scouring winds of the island.
I slipped Rat-Weasley into my pocket and began to make my way through. There were two options. Go flying to get the antidote for the sleeping potion he was under, or just bypass it entirely and move on to the next stage. Considering I had no desire to wake up the nincompoop, the solution was simple. I walked past the brooms until the camera behind me, the floating snitch-like device spun to my front. From it came a single voice.
"Acquiring the antidote is a compulsory part of the challenge, Mr. Potter. Every part of the course must be completed in order for a champion to be declared to have finished the course" Bagman's voice said. I nodded, slightly irritated, but not too surprised. Imagine if someone could just forgo getting the hostages entirely and skip to the end of the course. That had no chance of going over well with anyone involved. Besides, his words were that I had to acquire the antidote, not that I had to feed it to the Weasley spawn. And if I wasn't forced to, I wouldn't be inviting his company on this thing.
I walked over to the brooms. 'The Hummingbird' was written on it in silvery cursive font. It was quite dissimilar from my fireboat. Where that one had been all rough angles showing that it was built for pure unmatched speed, this one was different. It had a softer appearance, more rounded corners than sharp angles. There were four of them floating next to each other. I waved my wand over myself, transfiguring the robes I was wearing into a near-skintight leather ensemble.
Exercise with Flitwick and the effect of my rituals meant I was physically fit in a way that neither Harry Potter nor Tom Riddle had been. When I swung my leg over the broom, I felt a different set of instincts take over. The same instincts that took over when I got into a duel or fight as well. Harry Potter's instincts. All three parts of me had become one, but I could still tell when something was more suited to one side than the other. Designing the ritual and learning new pieces of magic was all Tom, the courtroom performance was Doom at his peak, and this? This was Potter. I shot into the skies with more force than I expected, but I quickly adapted to all the broom's quirks.
It was as if it spoke to me in a language only we knew. It told me how fast it could do, when it could make turns, what turns it could make, and how it could dance. It told me, and I listened as I cut through the air above the island, making turns and loops as I completed an imaginary circuit in my mind. It was useful for getting used to the Broom and his capabilities.
By the time I came to a stop, Krum was already dragging his hostage, the Greek girl, from the water. I wouldn't bet on beating the man in the air with his famed skill in that respect, so I channeled my energy into maintaining my lead. I looked up above at the target, and really considered my options. There was a golden cage with four vials suspended within it. Trying to summon one of the vials had already failed. In fact, any attempt to affect the cage with magic failed. The obvious ward was not the cage's only defence. The other defence was the herd of harpies.
Screeching magical creatures with avian bodies and human ears. Not just human heads, but female human heads and torsos— well, female human heads with beaks in place of mouths. Their breasts hung out, flapping about the place. I sighed and shot off towards them. The Hummingbird was slower than the Firebolt in a straight line, but it could do things that were impossible with the faster broom. The harpies turned to me as I approached— there being too many of them for me to even consider trying to sneak past. They dove in my direction, and I slashed my wand through the air, focusing my intent and using one of the few Black family spells that I could use in a public area, creating a torrent of blue flames that engulfed the approaching creatures, overwhelming their magical resistance with the dark magic, and spreading to the ones behind.
They separated once they clocked that the flames were spreading from creature to creature, and I took the chance to shoot at the cage. The cage's door swung open with a wave of my wand and flew into it. Sound fell away as I slammed the cage shut behind me. There was scarcely enough space for a single person, and the harpies instantly surrounded it from all corners, snapping their beaks and dragging their claws in my direction. I turned back to the cage's interior, picking up one of the vials and slipping it in my pocket. When I moved the vial, a glamour fell away, revealing what lay behind the vials, a single egg.
A few seconds later, the cage shook as a rush of flames surrounded it, cooking all the harpies. In their space was a creature no one ever wanted to see approaching them in the sky. The Hungarian Horntail was some distance away, but its attention was fixed intently on the cage— the cage I was shut within. And I could tell just what it wanted.
A/N: Is it a Triwizard tournament without a dragon? Next two up on patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga ( same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.