48 Chapter 46 - Misunderstanding

***** Regular Release ***** A/N: So I saw a comment asking if this prophecy will act alongside Harry's prophecy, overwrite/void it, or act independently of each other. Without giving too much away, I did write this prophecy with Harry's in mind…. Obviously some big changes to canon are coming up, but I've planned things in a way that everything should still make sense in the end, for both. Anyways…. With that out of the way. Hope you enjoy the story! *****

Luna stilled once more after she spoke the last sentence of the poem, mouth closed, eyes dead still staring straight through him, unblinking.

Khan meanwhile was in awe.

He was never that talented in divination, but that appeared to be a genuine prophecy.

He will need to study the entire prophecy later, so see if he can decipher any clues, but hearing of a warrior with 'ancient might' part, Khan naturally assumed the prophecy was about him.

'I wonder who the 'dark lord' is that re-emerges.' Khan pondered to himself. 'And the 'ancient evil'…. Is that in reference to someone like Ranrok who can use 'ancient' magic, but does 'evil' with it? Or 'ancient' as in someone old, using something evil like 'unicorn's blood' to stay alive past their natural life spa-'

Khan's thoughts were interrupted as Luna came out of her trance, back to rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, continuing from where she cut herself off, as if no time had passed, and the prophecy never happened.

"-u! The Nargles hid my shoes from me; this will be most helpful for finding the Blibbering Humdingers tonight!" She moved forward to grab the Boots Khan had conjured, skipping around as she tried them on and got used to the fit.

Feeling satisfied a few moments later, she put on a weird pair of glasses, that were quite large and odd looking. Multi-colored with 5 appendages sticking off either side, they made Luna appear as though she were a 'multi-coloured' owl.

"Luna?? Is everything all right?"

She appeared to not even remember the prophecy just now....

"Oh yes! Just keeping an eye out for wrackspurts with my Spectrespecs! You never know when they could strike!"

".... They look... useful..." Khan attempted to respond politely.

"Hmmmm." Luna skipped up to him, tilting her head off to the side in curiosity. "You seem like a Nargle too....."

'What the hell is a nargle.... and why would I seem like one...' Khan slowly felt his sanity leaving him.

"I don't mind really!" She spoke out dreamily. "It's not yet Yuletide, so there isn't as much Mistletoe for you all to go around in."

She patted him on his shoulder nodding placatingly, like it was ok and that she accepted him, even as a 'nargle'.

"Well come along!" Luna began skipping away in glee, satisfied she had comforted Khan adequately. "We're off to find the elusive Blibbering Humdinger!"

"Wait.... Luna!" Khan called after her, as she skipped away, singing a tune to herself. "Damn it..... this girl is so random..."

Pushing aside all his various questions about the prophecy she had just made, and all the nonsense she was just speaking, Khan rushed after her, deeper into the forbidden forest.

*****

Harry meanwhile was in his invisibility cloak, following Hagrid and Madame Maxime, as they took long strides through the Forbidden Forest.

This was the 1st of his appointments for the night, his meeting with Sirius coming later at 1 am.

As for what he was doing here.... well Harry didn't really know.

Back in the 3 broomsticks, when Khan had gone to get their drinks, Moody and Hagrid had come around, and somehow, Moody's magical eye could see through his cloak.

Harry assumed he told Hagrid, because Hagrid then told him to meet that very night with his cloak, at his cabin.

So here Harry was.... past midnight, and slowly approaching 1 am, his next appointment time with Sirius, and it seemed all Hagrid wanted to show him, was his date with Madame Maxime?

All they had done was whisper sweet nothings to eachother, while led them both deeper into the forest.

Eventually they were far enough away that Harry couldn't see the castle and lake in the distance, and he seriously began to consider leaving.

If they didn't get there soon, he was going to turn around, go back to the castle, and just leave Hagrid to enjoy his moonlit stroll with Madame Maxime...

*ROAR*

Harry heard an earsplitting roar off in the distance, with multiple men shouting as well.

Hagrid led Madame Maxime and himself around a clump of trees and eventually came to a halt, by a large clearing.

Harry hurried up alongside them, and for a split second, he thought he was seeing bonfires, and men darting around them... but then he realized and his mouth fell open in shock.

Dragons.

4 fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing onto their hind legs, inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood. Roaring and shooting out torrents of fire into the sky with rage at their captivity and restraints.

There was a silvery-blue one, with long pointed horns, snapping and snarling at the wizards on the ground.

A Smooth-scaled green one, writhing and stamping against his restraints with all her might in outrage.

A fire red one, with a fringe of golden spikes around its face, making it look quite majestic, as it launched giant fireball after giant fireball into the air in hatred.

And finally a gigantic black one, more lizard-like than the others, and a lot more muscular. It was making a horrible noise, a screeching type of scream, a combination of fear and rage.

There were at least 30 wizards, 7-8 per dragon, all attempting to control them and calm them down. Pulling on the chains connected to straps around their necks and legs, the handlers pulled with all their might, to very little success.

"Is'n' it beautiful?" said Hagrid softly.

"It's no good!" One of the handler's yelled out. "Stunning spells, on my mark!"

Harry saw all the other dragon handlers pull out their wands.

"Stupefy!" they all yelled out in unison, as 30+ stunning spells shot out into the darkness at the 4 unruly dragons, bursting into a shower of sparks as they impacted the dragons scaly hides.

Harry watched, as each of the 4 large dragons collapsed, hitting the ground with a thud that made the trees around them shake.

"Wan' a closer look?" Harry heard Hagrid ask Madame Maxime excitedly, as the pair of them moved right up to the fence, as the dragon keepers finally lowered their wands, satisfied the dragons were temporarily knocked out.

Slowly walking over to their fallen charges, each the size of a small hill, they hurried to tighten the chains and fasten them securely to iron pegs, which they forced deep into the ground to limit their movements.

They were about halfway through their work, when suddenly one of the Handlers heard from right behind him, in a sharp whisper.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The keeper immediately fell, paralyzed from the spell.

The other keepers noticed immediately, but unfortunately, their attacker was disillusioned, and was able to pick off 5 more keepers, before one of them, was finally able to sense him.

"Stupefy!" Charlie Weasley, from his years as a Quidditch Seeker star at Hogwarts, had better senses than his counterparts, and was finally able to sense where their attacker was, casting a stunning curse at him in the process.

The invisible assailant dodged the stunner with a blue flash, coming out of his disillusionment as a result.

Getting a good look at the attacker, Harry of course recognized him immediately.

It was Khan!

But he seemed quite angry, as his eyes were glowing red, face full of hatred. Harry could feel Khan's magic mounting, as the pressure pushed against him in waves, as he struggled to maintain his composure under his invisibility cloak.

Why was Khan attacking?

"Oh hello! Are you a ghost? I am Luna! There are a few green wrackspurts around you, you know!" A dreamy voice called out from behind Harry, scaring him.

Harry turned around quickly, seeing the newly identified Luna, wearing weird looking glasses.

"You can see me?" Harry asked, confused, as he was still in his invisibility cloak.

"Of course not silly!" Luna commented back airily. "I can see the wrackspurts around you! But yours are green.... and Jordan's are red. Maybe that's why he's down there!"

She tilted her head cutely as she thought about it.

"We were supposed to be looking for the Blibbering Humdingers, but oh well..... Dragons are just as good I suppose!"

Luna proceeded to sit down, and pulled out a box of popcorn from somewhere, snacking on it idly, as she watched the combat in front of her, as if it were a muggle movie.

"Did you want some?" She offered some to Harry, still in his invisibility cloak. "The show is about to start!"

She pointed at Khan, who was starting to make his move.

*****

- A few moments ago -

Khan was chasing after the skipping Luna, still battling the random spiders that kept trying to attack them, when he heard a roar and some shouting coming from afar.

Calling after Luna, they both went over to investigate, and what Khan saw had enraged him.

30 or more poachers, all firing stunners at the 4 Nesting Mother Dragons, before proceeding to chain them down, with limited movement.

It reminded him of his Horntail Hall adventure, where these poachers would make dragons battle, simply for their amusement.

Completely Unacceptable.

Looking around, Khan knew that a direct confrontation would be a terrible idea, especially with over 30 poachers together. Not to mention, he was also taking care of Luna, who wouldn't be very helpful in combat....

But he couldn't just leave these dragons here to suffer.

His eyes turned Red, as his anger and rage took over his more rational thoughts, and he looked for an opportunity to attack and make a move.

Drinking an invisibility potion to empower his Disillusionment spell, Khan proceeded to sneak around, thinning the ranks as best he could, with Petrificus Totalus!

Unfortunately, he was only able to remove 5-6 poachers, before 1 was able to notice, and fire a stunning spell at him!

Dodging the stunner with his flash step, Khan was unfortunately forced out of his disillusionment state as he came to a halt, staring at the 20+ poachers remaining, who were all staring at him wearily as well.

It created quite the uncomfortable stare down for a few moments, before Khan decided to make the first move, casting 'Imperius' at one of the poachers, causing him to fight some of his comrades in distraction.

Khan then casted an over-powered group 'Accio' on a set of poachers, following up with a descendo, shattering their bones, taking another 5 of them out of the fight.

Dodging a few more flying stupefys sent his way, Khan was about to return fire with his ancient magic when he was interrupted by a giant man, leaping in between the 2 sides.

"Stop!" Screamed out Hagrid.

"Step aside Hagrid!" Khan ordered, eyes still red. "I must free these Dragons, from these poachers who plague our lands!"

"But they ain' poachers!!!" Hagrid roared in response. "They're dragon tamers!"

"Dragon tamers?" A bit of red disappeared from Khan's eyes. "What kind of dragon tamers stun and chain up nesting mothers?!?"

"We actually put them out with a sleeping draught on the way here; thought it might be better for them to wake up in the dark and quiet of the forbidden forest….." one of the Poach- dragon tamers responded. "But as you witnessed, they weren't happy at all…"

Khan looked over, only to recognize Charlie Weasley, as one of the dragon tamers.

More red disappeared from Khan's eyes, as he powered down, coming out of combat mode, slowly realizing the situation.

'Shit…. I used an unforgivable too….' Khan was always quite ruthless with poachers, never hesitating to use the unforgivables on his enemies, such as them.

If anyone deserved it, it was poachers and their targeting of innocent magical beasts.

Unfortunately these individuals weren't poachers, and now he had used an unforgivable on an innocent.

"Wait…. Why did you even move nesting mothers in the first place?" Khan asked, slightly hoping to distract the group from immediately calling him out on using an unforgivable.

"Well…. Champions aren't supposed to know this, but with Madame Maxine here, I suppose telling you would be alright…" Charlie responded. "They are your first task! Dragons!"

"Ok…. But you could've gotten male dragons…. Why would you choose nesting mothers, who are arguably more aggressive than regular dragons…." Khan was not happy they were using pregnant nesting mothers in this upcoming first task.

Pregnancies were stressful enough on any mother… to subject them to more stress simply for a competition made them no different from the poachers of old…..

"Thats….. a big part of the task, to be honest." Charlie answered sheepishly, ashamed that he was subjecting dragon mothers to this. "Each of the champions will need to steal a golden egg to pass…. It had to be nesting mothers, so they would be more protective of the Egg!"

"Are the designers of the tournament crazy?!?" Khan yelled out in response. "Steal a dragon egg, from a nesting mother dragon? That's the first task?!?"

Khan remembered attempting to return a dragon egg, alongside Poppy, to a nesting dragon. And truth be told, that was hard enough, and they were just returning the egg…. Stealing the egg…. No doubt would've costed both of them their lives.

But now, these tournaments organizers wanted them to do that very same thing?!?

Fucking lunatics!

Fighting a dragon would've been hard enough, even with Khan's ancient magic…. But these were nesting mothers. On top of being more protective of their eggs, they were much more aggressive when it came to their territory.

If this was the first task, Khan could only imagine what the rest of the tasks would be.