Chapter 98 - Crossed Wands Pt. 1
***** Bonus Chapter ***** A/N: OK so I basically marathoned the past day and finished my 2nd playthrough of cyberpunk lol.... Then passed out for another day LOL.... And wow that Alien isolation thing in cynosure really fucked with my nerves lol... and like i even though I don't really like songbird, I totally sympathize with her, and really wanted to kill her off to save her from myers..... Still ended up saving her to get the new ending of course, but like... After watching it, I almost wish I hadn't. Like there really are no happy endings in night city huh.
As a side note, seeing the new ending did connect some dots for me, and got me thinking of some crazy cyberpunk story. I even ended up writing a short Prologue LOL.
But ya, just wanted to share lol. Hope you guys enjoy! *****
"Good job class! Well done as usual!" Khan announced, clapping his hands, and drawing attention to himself.
Jordan of course was in the middle of teaching one of his defense classes. And As was with most of his classes, they were combined with other houses of the same year, Khan currently teaching the third year Gryffindors and Slytherins, with a bunch of older visiting students auditing the class standing at the back, as per usual these days.
It had been a month or so since the exciting second task had taken place, and with the Third task scheduled at the end of the school year, with the Champions themselves knowing nothing about what they needed to prepare for, the school term was back in full swing.
Unfortunately for Jordan, that meant he was busier than ever. Aside from teaching his various Charms and Defense classes, he had also begun studying for his N.E.W.T.s that he was scheduled to take at the end of the year, alongside the seventh years.
And that was in addition to the various investigations he had on the go. From Sebastian, to Poppy, to exploring his new ancient magic powers apparently not only effecting his emotions, but also allowing him to excel at manipulating multiple elements, to the currently unknown third task that he would inevitably have to prepare for, needless to say, Khan had a lot on his plate.
Luckily, Fleur was by his side, helping him study for his N.E.W.T.s as she did for his O.W.L.s, Fleur's father Louis, strangely no longer interfering with their private time..... at least, as much as he used to.
However, aside from the increased workload, not much had happened over the past month.
For Khan and Fleur anyways.....
For Hermione however, that was of course a different story.
Rita Skeeter had struck once again, targeting Hermione this time.
And Similar to Hagrid, it seemed that her news actually had an effect on its intended recipient. Except, instead of Hermione running away and skipping out on her responsibilities due to shame, it instead affected the various readers.
With the reputation for being a know-it-all, combined with the general lack of socialization between houses in this current era, Hermione already wasn't what you would describe as a 'popular person'. Not that she was hated originally mind you..... more as if she was just generally not 'well liked'.
This however, happened to change upon the release of Rita's new Article.
Speaking on her love life, Rita had managed to twist her various male friendships with both Jordan and Harry, instead making it seem as if Hermione were some kind of succubus, targeting and seducing two young heirs to Ancient Noble Families at the same time.
Going so far as to accuse Hermione of using 'Love potions' to ensnare their affections, even Jordan had to admit that this most recent story was not a good look for his first friend.
This obviously resulted in Hermione's popularity dropping in the school, even lower than it originally had been, with many individuals outright shunning her.
It got so bad, that Hermione even began receiving hate-mail from random fans, some of them even booby-trapped with various harmful spells or substances.
Khan himself personally couldn't really understand why the general public were so easily swayed these days by gossip.... Rumors in tabloids were hardly anything new, himself and his family being written about numerous times in the past.
However, similar to how the students had not believed Rita's article about himself being a dark wizard, the general public too did not believe most of the stories printed about the infamous Khan family in the paper, at least in the past....
Being an ancient and noble family, responsible for owning and controlling an international Spice trading company, while employing thousands, both magical and muggle to help run their operations, they contributed majorly to the entire British Economy. As a result, the Khan family was quite the Powerful, not to mention popular, family, in both muggle and magical worlds, to the point that even the Muggle King of Britain granted their family a title of nobility, Unlike the other Ancient and Noble families in the British magical society, who's titles were self awarded based on their 'blood purity'.
These days however, with the Khan family having fallen into obscurity for the past 100 years, Jordan was currently unsure how the general public would react in the current age.
Although he hadn't received any hate-mail like Hermione or Hagrid, Khan was a little hesitant to believe that the general public would react similar to how the Hogwarts students did, especially without knowing him as well as his students.
Especially after that near-damning article that Rita released about him being from 100s of years ago..... No.... Jordan was certain that the general public probably detested him as much as they did Hagrid and Hermione.
Thus, even though he was increasingly busy, Khan did have eventual plans to combat this false narrative.
In fact, in the following weeks after Hermione's article had been released, Khan constantly found himself thinking about releasing his own publication.... He had enough money after all, especially with inflation devaluing the cost of goods, allowing him to buy more, with less galleons.
And that was only taking his personal funds into account.... to say nothing of what he had currently sitting in his larger Khan family vault in Gringotts.
Other than that however, there wasn't much else that happened the month of March.
Classes were running as usual; Well.... somewhat usual...
Originally only previously popular amongst the Hogwarts students, after Khan's performance in the second task, it appeared that his popularity with all students was at a new all-time high!
From using a lightning construct to dominate a Dragon, to creating a giant whirlpool to deal with the Horned Serpent, Jordan had shown complete and utter domination for this Triwizard Tournament so far, earning respect from not just the Hogwarts students now, but also from their visitors, the Beauxbatons and Drumstraung students as well.
And Finding out that they could audit classes, similar to Fleur who had been sitting in on all of Jordan's classes since January, all the visiting students from both schools, soon began attending both Khan's Charms and Defense classes, in hopes of learning something from this magical powerhouse.
In fact, Beauxbatons and Drumstraung students would constantly be seen in the following month, queuing for hours outside one of his classrooms before one of his scheduled classes, just to ensure they would have a spot.
Flitwick had even started humorously forcing Jordan teach more of his Charm's classes much to his dismay, when it was evident that their visitors were here primarily for him.
And when they finally got to learn from him, similar to the Hogwarts students, they were stunned at the amount of knowledge and experience Khan possessed.
From his numerous stories of combat against all the numerous Goblins, poachers, and magical beasts, to his vast combat experience teaching them previously unknown tricks such as Spell combinations, each and every visiting student eventually wished to learn from and take lessons from Khan.
As such, Jordan's lessons, which were already mainly double classes for most Hogwarts years, were now even more popular than previously, with numerous visiting older students constantly auditing the classes and taking up the back.
Which brought us to today, Khan teaching the third year Gryffindors and Slytherins, with the visiting older students all lined up along the back, listening in eagerly.
"Well done so far today with Spell Chaining! You all are making excellent progress!" Khan was currently teaching his students to use their basic casts to link together their various magic spells.
Having learned this trick from his old friend Lucan Brattleby, when just starting school, he went on to use this trick multiple times against his various foes encountered on his adventures.
"Even though basic spells do not cause too much damage on their own, keeping an enemy incapacitated in between your spells is its own benefit in itself, especially when fighting multiple enemies at the same time." Expanding on his previous lessons involving spell combinations, Khan was teaching his class to use basic spells to essentially juggle their training dummies in between casting their Levioso/Descendo combination.
"However, practicing on training dummies can only take you so far..... so in light of this, we are going to take a little trip." Khan continued his lecture. "Everyone follow me!"
His class (and the auditing visiting students) happily followed Khan out of the class and through the hallways, Moody paranoidly bringing up the rear, his mad-eye constantly scanning about for threats.
Although he was enjoying Lord Khan's various lessons, and implicitly trusted him not just with the classes, but also the safety of the students, some habits died hard, and after having been trapped in a truck of half a year, Moody was feeling especially paranoid.
The students meanwhile, were extremely excited. The last time Prof. Khan had taken them on a field trip outside the classroom, he had taught them 'Summoners Court', and that was probably their new favorite game, especially now, with quidditch on hiatus for the tournament.
What he teach them next?
Leading his class through the numerous Hogwarts hallways, Khan eventually came to a stop inside.....
*RING*
The Clock Tower!
"Ah.... Prof. Khan! Good to see you and your class!"
And upon reaching there, a familiar face greeted him.
"Prof. Flitwick! Thank you for taking the time to assist me today! I really appreciate you spending your free time here with us!" Khan warmly greeted his (other) mentor who was waiting for them in the clock tower, before turning to address the curious looks on the faces of his students. "All right class, from the beautiful looks on your faces, you are all probably wondering what we are doing here exactly...."
"Something I've always preached is that mastery goes hand in hand with a little practical application." Khan continued his lecturing. "Take the Summoning Charm for example. You could just as easily perform the charm all you wanted in class, summoning books from end to end, and perhaps eventually, with enough practice, get proficient enough with the magical skill."
"But why do that, when you could more easily learn, and master it with some actual practical application, similar to what I did with Summoner's Court!"
The class cheered in excitement at the mention of their newest favorite game, Khan pausing momentarily, before continuing.
"Well looking at your reactions, it seems as though you may have guessed what we may be doing here." He teased, smiling at the students slowly catching on. "That's right, I have something new to introduce....."
Turning around to the open space inside the clock tower, he waved his wand, and with wood and other various building materials flying in from seemingly nowhere, used his spellcrafting skills to create what looked like two raised dueling rings, before turning back to his class, dramatically finishing....
"Welcome to Crossed Wands!"