Chapter 52 - Where is Khan?

***** Bonus chapter #4 ***** A/N: First task done, and with it, our intro volume, 'A Journey Begins Anew' comes to a close. Our first real canon changes are becoming more evident, and Got a few more storylines to further develop that were recently introduced, a few to finish up, and a few new ones to introduce in volume 2. Should be fun! *****

Harry awoke the next day, feeling lighter than he had in weeks. The first task was finally done, and although he wasn't best mates with Ron anymore, it seemed the rest of the school (save the Slytherins of course) was now rooting for him as well, after his particularly good showing in the first task.

He had received multiple compliments, from both the Ravenclaw house as well as the Hufflepuff house, on his excellent performance.

Everyone knew that Harry had perhaps performed the best, right behind Khan. It was only thanks to Karkaroff and his obviously biased scoring, that he was tied with Krum for 2nd place.

That however, meant that Hogwarts, had both 1st and 2nd places after the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament!

Heading down to the common room to wait for Hermione, he thought about the previous evening after dinner, when they had both gone to the Owlery.

Wanting to update Sirius on his successful first task right away, he had dragged Hermione along with him, filling her in on what Sirius had told him regarding Karkaroff being a death eater.

Although he had spoken to Sirius a few days ago, the same night he had found out about the dragons, he was more preoccupied with the first task, and completely forgot to tell his best friend about it.

"Well I suppose that makes sense... I recall hearing Malfoy brag about how his father knew Headmaster Karkaroff and them being old friends." Hermione had acknowledged at the time. "I wonder if he could have possibly slipped your name in the goblet..."

Reaching the Owlery, he tied an already prepared letter to Hedwig, before carrying her towards a window, nuzzling her closely for a few moments before sending her own her way.

The letter tied to her leg was much longer and heavier than usual; Harry hadn't been able to resist giving Sirius a blow-by-blow account of exactly how he had swerved, circled, and dodged the horntail. Not to mention, Harry could not resist talking about Khan, and his impressive display of elemental magic.

"At any rate, you need to be careful Harry." Hermione began lecturing him, now that his task was over with. "You've still got a long way to go before you finish this tournament. If that was the first task, I hate to think what could be coming next."

"What could possibly be worse than dragons?" Harry questioned curiously, to which Hermione actually had no answer. The only thing she could think of worse than dragons, would be dark/evil wizards…. And It wasn't like Harry was going to fight evil wizards, right?

They began heading back to the castle, Hermione satisfied that she had wasted enough time for the Gryffindor house to set up the common room for Harry's surprise party.

"Speaking of dragons, I wonder where Jordan went off to with that Hebridean Black Mother and her eggs." Hermione had decided to change the topic, to hopefully keep Harry in the dark a bit longer. "He was missing at dinner…."

Harry thought back to a flustered looking Fleur, looking all around for Jordan during dinner, as it had been common for them to been seen dining together most nights.

"Yeah, I still have to tell him about his scores as well as the details about the 2nd task." Harry commented. "He did seem pretty angry…. Perhaps he's just taking some time to himself to let off some steam."

"Well, I do hope he's alright." Hermione responded worriedly.

They both made they way back to their dorm, chatting idly, before Harry was surprised by the Gryffindor house throwing him a victory party for coming 2nd place.

Everyone was congratulating him, and even Ron had the decency to not cause a ruckus.

The party had ended with Harry opening his egg, revealing the rather screeching and cryptic clue, deafening everyone in the process.

As he sat in the common room, still getting congratulated by all the passing Gryffindors, reminiscing about everything, Harry found that All in all, he had a great night.

"Good morning Harry!" Hermione greeted him, shocking him out of his thoughts of the previous night, with her typical hug, and a large grin on her face.

"Good morning yourself!" Harry replied teasingly. "What has you in such a chipper mood this morning?"

"Oh nothing much…. I just found out how to get into the kitchens last night from Fred and George." Hermione responded coyly.

"Oh boy…. Is this about what I think it's about Hermione?" Harry asked with an exasperated expression on his face.

Hermione may be his best friend, but she really was exhausting when it came to her convictions.

"No….. not exactly." Hermione responded blushingly, caught in the act. "I just want to talk to actual house-elves to learn from them, and why they like to serve."

"And this has nothing to do with you SPEW or whatever?" Harry accused with a teasing smile on his face.

"No!" Hermione responded, slapping his arm playfully. "Jordan already convinced me it was a bad idea anyways…."

"Speaking of Jordan, you reckon we'll see him today?" Harry asked.

"Oh I hope so!" Hermione responded, grabbing Harry, and pulling him to his feet, eager to get to breakfast. "I do want to ask him about his lightning spell construct!"

*****

Unfortunately they did not see Khan that day, or over the next few days for that matter.

Khan had even skipped out on teaching his various Charms and Defence classes, completely worrying the entire Hogwarts student body.

There was one particular instance, where Fleur was seen cornering Hermione and Harry after dinner one night.

"Excuse me? You are good friends with Jordan Khan, yes?" Fleur asked, surprising both Harry and Hermione with her missing French accent. "Have you seen him lately? I am growing quite worried."

Fleur was acting as if she were now his housewife, worried to death about her missing husband's wellbeing and welfare.

Harry was stunned into silence by that particular surprise, himself appearing as though he was affected by Fleur's passive allure, eyes wide, remaining transfixed.

Hermione meanwhile, was unhappy, both with Harry dumbfounded reaction, misunderstanding it and assuming her allure was beginning to work on him, and with Fleur's obsession with Khan.

She believed that Fleur was a harlot, and that simply, she was not good enough for her good friend Jordan.

He needed a pure and loyal woman to stand next to him. Not a harlot that will cause trouble at every turn.

Convincing herself it was in a fashion similar to how a little sister was protective over her older brother, Hermione responded guardedly to the Foreign woman.

"Yes… we are his friends… his best friends in fact!" Hermione bragged, blatantly assuming that they were best friends since Khan had trusted them enough to introduce his rare battle partners to them. "And no! We don't know where he is…. He's been skipping out on teaching his classes the last few days as well."

"Please tell me you know where he might be?" Fleur grabbed Hermione's hand, almost begging her.

"I'm sure he's fine Ms. Delacour. Probably just taking some time to himself after that first task debacle." Hermione was now feeling awkward, with Fleur and her actions, and attempted to placate the poor woman. "He's bound to show up before the weekend at any rate. The first round of his tournament is this weekend after all."

"Yes…. Of course." Fleur took a few deep breathes to calm herself back down, completely forgetting about Khans upcoming tournament, with her recent panic at Jordan's disappearance. "Please let me know if he contacts you before then?"

Hermione nodded her agreement, before Fleur finally departed and left the great hall, still with a worried look on her face.

Looking at a still shell-shocked Harry beside her, she elbowed him exasperatedly.

"Why don't you find Colin and take a picture with his camera?" She exclaimed in a huff, assuming him to still be under her allure. "It'll last longer."

"Oooofff!" Harry was shocked out of his stunned state with a violent elbow to his stomach, courtesy of his bushy-haired friend. "No! I wasn't…. It's not like that Hermione!"

Hermione eyed him suspiciously.

"I don't like HER like that….." he glanced at Cho seated at the Ravenclaw table out of the corner of his eyes, before continuing his explanation. "I was just surprised by her accent, or lack of it."

"Yeah…. She strangely has a British accent now, when only a few days ago, at the first task, she still had quite the strong French accent." Hermione commented in response, as she too had noticed that particular detail.

"Maybe she's been practicing for Jordan…. You think they're a couple?" Harry followed up, as they too began to make their way out of the great hall and on their way to a new portion of Hogwarts they hadn't yet visited. "They've been dining together now for almost a month…. And I'm sure you've heard the school rumors."

"Those same rumors that said you submitted your name on your own?" Hermione fired back, unhappy with those particular rumors about Khan and Fleur. "He's just being gentlemanly to our guests…. It doesn't mean anything!"

"Hmmmm… maybe." Harry commented half heartedly. He didn't want to argue, but he personally agreed with the various rumors.

Khan and Fleur really did match each other in terms of looks and noble temperament; at least he thought so anyways.

They both walked side by side, as they went down a flight of stairs, along with a few Hufflepuff students, who greeted Harry excitedly.

He was still quite the celebrity as the first task was still fresh in everyone's minds.

Coming to a stop in front of a painting of a bowl of fruit, Harry (and Hermione) was eventually able to disperse the Hufflepuff students, after patiently answering their questions.

Speaking of that bowl of fruit, they were here to visit the Hogwarts Kitchens, Hermione dragging Harry here with her to investigate the House-elves.

Seizing his arm, she pulled him in front of the picture of the giant fruit bowl, and stretching out her forefinger, like Fred and George instructed, she ticked the huge green pear.

It began to squirm, chuckling out loud, and suddenly turned into a large green door handle.

Hermione then reached out to seize it, pulling the door open, and pushing Harry hard in the back, forcing him inside.

He had one brief glimpse of an enormous high-ceilinged room, as large as the Great Hall above it, with even 4 giant matching tables, to match the 4 house tables in the Great Hall.

There were mounds of glittering brass pots and pans, heaped around the stone walls, and a great brick fireplace at the other end.

Harry was gathering his bearings, still getting a good look around at the entire room, when something small hurtled towards him from the middle of the giant kitchen area, squealing with joy.

"Harry Potter, sir!!!" It was Dobby! "Harry Potter, it izz youzz!"

The next second, all the win had been knocked out of him, as the squealing elf hit him hard in the midriff, hugging him so tightly, he though his ribs would break.

"D-Dobby?" Harry gasped.

"It is Dobby, sir, it is!" squeaked Dobby excitedly in response, still hugging him tightly. "Dobby has been hoping and hoping to see Harry Potter sir, and now Harry Potter has come to see him!"

Dobby finally let go and stepped back a few paces, beaming up at Harry, his enormous green tennis-ball-shaped eyes brimming with tears of happiness.

He looked almost exactly as Harry remembered him; the pencil-shaped nose, the batlike ears, the long fingers and feet, there was no doubt that this was his old friend Dobby.

But what exactly was he wearing?

When Dobby had worked for the Malfoys, Harry recalled, he had always worn a filthy pillowcase.

Now however, he was wearing the strangest assortment of garments Harry had ever seen; A tea cozy for a hat, on which he had pinned a number of bright badges; a tie patterned with horseshoes over his bare chest, Dobby not wearing a dress shirt, or any shirt for that matter, for go with his tie; a pair of what Harry recognized to be children's football (Soccer) shorts, to go with 2 odd, unmatching socks on his feet. One was pink with orange stripes. And the other, Harry recognized as the old black one, he had previously removed, and used all those years ago, to trick Mr. Malfoy into freeing Dobby.

"Dobby, what're you doing here?" Asked Harry in amazement.

"Dobby has come to work at Hogwarts sir!" Squeaked Dobby in response. "Professor Dumbledore and Professor Kitty gave Dobby a job during the summer sir!"

"Oh he did? And where were you working before this?" Harry asked curiously. It had been in 2nd year after all, that he had last seen his friend Dobby. If he recently only got a job at Hogwarts, then there was almost a year before that time...

"Dobby has traveled the country trying to find work sir." Dobby squeaked. "But Dobby wasn't able to find work sir, since Dobby wants paying now!"

The other house-elves, who had all been listening and watching the newcomers with interest, all looked away at these words, as though Dobby had said something rude and embarrassing.

Hermione however, commented from the side "Good for you, Dobby!"

"But lucky for Dobby, Professor Dumbledore says he will pay Dobby, and give him work!" Dobby squeaked. "So Dobby is a free elf, still has work, and gets 1 Galleon a week, with 1 day off a month!"

"That's not very much at all!" Hermione complained.

"Professor Dumbledore offered Dobby 10 Galleons a week, and weekends off...." Dobby gives a little shiver. "But Dobby beat him down miss..... Dobby likes freedom and payings..... but Dobby isn't wanting too much. Dobby likes work better miss."

Hermione nodded, not saying anything. She had forgotten in her Righteous fury, that she had originally come to learn more about the house-elves, not get outraged on their behalf.

Dobby was probably the most progressive house-elf she had heard of, and listening to him now, and how he argued AGAINST more pay/time off, she was realizing that some of her own values were perhaps not lined up with theirs.

"And besides, Dobby is liking his work here in Hogwarts very much!"' Dobby nodded his head eagerly. "Professor Lightning even lets Dobby accompany Zeke now when feeding his Beasties!"

Dobby appeared quite proud with that statement, the other house-elves also looking quite jealous of Dobby, when he announced that.

"Professor Lightning?" Harry asked curiously. He doesn't know of anyone who matched that descrip- "Wait... do you mean Professor Khan?"