Chapter 176: Tasking Course
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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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15 January 1994, Hogwarts
Harry sat with the rest of his yearmates, looking unconcerned as he waited for the first task in the school tournament. Funnily enough, it seemed like this task helped unite students from all four houses, then anything else. It was mostly out of fear and panic. This was literally the first time that the students would ever display their magical prowess, and they were all forced into it.
If anything, Harry was impressed with the speed of the organization of the first task. The logistics must have been a nightmare on such short notice. Dumbledore announced the whole thing just a couple of months previously, and yet the stadium looked full when he briefly glimpsed it before he and his classmates were forced into a tent.
Even the students with more pride than sense started to panic then. A couple of poor Hufflepuffs were hyperventilating. Poor Ernie Macmillan was being comforted by Susan Bones, who looked abnormally pale. Ravenclaws weren't any better with most of them just muttering lists of spells, similar to how Hermione did just before her sorting. At the thought of the Gryffindor girl, Harry couldn't help but feel guilty for a fraction of a second before steeling himself. This was not the time to wallow in pity about what could have been…
As for the rest of the students, Gryffindors looked just as pale, except for Neville that is, who looked eerily calm. Harry attributed it to the constant dangers the boy had been in and being in the spotlight since he was a boy for 'defeating' the dark lord.
The members of Harry's house weren't any better. Nott looked calm but he could tell that the boy was panicking but was barely controlling his expressions to not appear cowardly. His new followers seemed to admire him but didn't share his facial control. Draco Malfoy even looked paler than he usually was. Members of the House of Snakes had a lot more at stake since it was an unspoken rule that the Court would pick the most impressive showings in the school tournament.
The only ones not panicking were Harry's friends, and that was because he had trained them to the point of absurdity. They probably think that the task would be a relief since they wouldn't have to go through the frankly over-the-top obstacle courses that he made in the Room of Requirements. Harry knew that no one was going to be disappointed with their performance, no matter what they met.
After all, he did stay in the castle for Christmas and encouraged them to do the same, for the sake of training. Well, it was mostly a justification, a reason to stay and not go back home, back to Arcturus. He had promised himself that he was going to tell the Black Patriarch about Sirius' fate, the moment he saw him. The information was too sensitive for an OWL, he justified to himself. No, he just wanted to tell him in person to stop him from doing anything rash. And the tournament did provide another excuse to not meet him since staying in Hogwarts for Christmas would have been a good opportunity to train for it.
It was all lies and excuses.
He was delaying the inevitable. Harry didn't know how Arcturus would react.
In the end, Harry was afraid and cursed softly to himself, "Coward!"
And he was a coward for telling him. Perhaps it was for the best that the Black Patriarch would not know about Sirius' fate… No, Arcturus had to know. It was his right to know what happened to his grandson, even if it would break his heart.
Harry resigned himself to tell him after the first task. The Black Patriarch did send a letter telling him that he was looking forward to his performance. He would ask Arcturus to speak in private and tell him about Hogsmeade, about what truly happened. He owed the man that much.
Daphne seemed to have heard his curse, "Are you alright?"
Harry forced a smile to his face, "Yes, it's nothing. What are those two up to?"
He was, of course, talking about Tracy and Blaise who seemed to be pointing their wands at a mirror for some reason. He could have probably figured it out with his Arcane Hearing, but he wanted to change the subject.
It worked since the blonde gave him a sly grin, "It's something they've been working on since they announced that the upper years were going first. Do you remember the Omnioculars that you modified to show what was happening on a mirror for Hogsmeade?"
Harry nodded and Daphne continued, "Well, Blaise and Tracy have been working on charming them to be controlled from far away. They asked Flitwick for help and everything."
The last Potter couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this, "That's some very advanced charm work. Why didn't they just ask me?"
"They thought that they could do it on their own. And from the looks of it, they did it. Here, let's go see what they're doing."
The two young Slytherins slowly walked up to their friends and Harry was able to take a look at what Tracy and Blaise were doing. The idea was simple. They have anchored an Omniocular to the mirror in a way that every charm cast on the mirror would be affected by the Omniocular from afar. Of course, it wasn't exactly efficient since the Omniocular would use a limited amount of magic that was added when the anchoring charm was cast. Luckily for them, Harry had used some jewel craft to add a small power source to all Omnioculars when he modified them, so it could hold up. Harry had also isolated the artefacts to stop ambient magic from modifying them, something that stopped the mirror from exploding from the constant spells that they were adding to them. Still, for Third Years, it was very impressive.
Blaise whooped slightly when they approached them, and Harry couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm, "You know that a lot of people would call what you're doing to be cheating…"
"If you're not cheating, you're not trying. You taught us that." Tracy replied.
Harry snorted in return, "My own friends, using my own words against me, what has the world come to?"
Blaise chortled, "It's not technically cheating. The rules were very clear. We can only enter the arena with our wands and our tourney clothes, and we can't leave this tent until it's our turn. They said nothing about doing some reconnaissance before the task even starts…"
"I suppose that's true. We wouldn't really be Slytherins without trying to find loopholes." Daphne said.
"Exactly…" Blaise and Tracy replied at once.
Harry didn't really think about doing that. He already had a plan, and it should work no matter what was in the first task.
Suddenly, Tracy shushed them, "Stop talking. It looks like the fifth years are starting."
"Who is the idiot in the Quidditch robes?" Blaise asked.
"I know him. My father has complained about him a lot," Daphne responded, "His name is Ludo Bagman. He used to be some big-shot Quidditch player years ago, and he's now the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. A complete buffoon, according to Dad, and he has a gambling problem, but he is charismatic enough to make enough friends to keep his position."
Tracy snorted, "Well, he's certainly let himself go…"
She was right. Perhaps, years ago, the man was an athlete, but it must have been a long time ago, considering how out of shape the man looked. He was really on his way to becoming truly obese and his old Quidditch robes did emphasize his gained weight.
The man looked to be speaking and from the crowd's reactions, they seemed to like what he was saying. And just like that, the students took places at the starting line, and a few were in a running stance, a stupid idea especially considering that the finishing line was on the other side of the Black Lake which looked partially frozen over.
There were a few floating wooden platforms near the starting line, where the lake wasn't frozen yet. A couple of brave students – or was it stupidity? – decided to run forward and leap towards the wooden platforms. Most of them slipped or just didn't land their jump and fell into the cold water. They tried to get up to the platform. A few succeeded, and a few just gave up and released some red sparks into the air, forfeiting the task. The truly unlucky ones were attacked by Grindylows, small green water demons, that liked to overwhelm trespassers with their numbers.
A few savvy ones used a Revulsion Jinx to break their grips and ascending charm to get out of the water. Furthermore, the Weasley Twins, who were still at the start, had the obvious idea of summoning the platforms towards them at first and simply used a wind charm to propel themselves away.
Of course, the rest followed their lead without even thinking twice, the idiots did not expect to be bombarded with pranking spells the moment they left the shore. Of course, they weren't able to reach the other side of the lake as a gigantic tentacle rose from the lake and attacked their makeshift raft. The twins were able to evade it with two well-placed banishing charms, which made the tentacle move away, but the impact was more than enough to make their platform flip over.
"Is that the Giant Squid?"
Harry shook his head, "Maybe, but I think it's some kind of construct. The Squid isn't really tamed, and they can't train him to be part of a school competition, especially with Dumbledore saying that it would be harmless. Not that I know a lot about Giant Squids."
Tracy shushed them again, "Shut up. Let's just focus on the task."
Harry's theory made more sense, especially with the giant whales that appeared out of nowhere to attack the other students as well by blowing water underneath their platforms. These were probably conjured creatures or something similar. It would be very unconventional to train whales to do that…
Thankfully, the Weasley Twins were somehow able to tangle two tentacles together and get up onto another platform, while shivering in cold.
They were the first to arrive at the second part of the task, where the lake had frozen over. After a quick heating charm, they tried to walk towards the ice which happened to be very slippery. Alas, the two boys seemed ingenious as they transfigured their wooden platform into two pairs of skates and moved towards the finishing line.
Of course, it wasn't that simple. There seemed to be some kind of curse on the ice, as their skates seemed stuck, for the lack of a better word. The twins were able to right themselves and stop tripping, only for a giant storm to appear out of nowhere, with wind powerful enough to send them flying back.
The two Gryffindors countered with a shield charm, which came dangerously close to breaking as it was peppered with small shards of ice at high speeds. It took almost ten minutes for the two of them to finally go through this obstacle, only to find themselves in some kind of freak fog.
The Omniocular couldn't see inside and from the looks of it, the Weasley twins shared the same issue. Tracy turned to Harry, "Didn't you enchant the Omnioculars to see through the Peruvian Darkness Powder?"
"Yes, but it can't see through things. Like it or not, the fog is something material. It's not dark, just obscured. We'll have to wait for them to get out."
It took five minutes, but the twins seemed to have figured it out by creating a vortex of wind to suck up the fog slightly. Harry noticed that they looked more bruised than they came in but didn't really say anything. Finally, after almost half an hour, they finished the obstacle course and came in first place, at least for their year, that is.
Daphne looked pensive, "This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be…"
"We've been brainwashed by Harry's insane training. It will be hard for the rest, trust me," Blaise remarked with a dry tone, even if he looked slightly less tense than before.
Alas, the boy had a point. Harry did train his friends a bit too much, but this task was not designed for third years. A lot of the spells and transfiguration that would be useful were taught at the end of this year or the next one. He couldn't see a way for his classmates to not embarrass themselves during the task.
Daphne seemed to have a similar train of thought and asked hesitantly, "Do you think we should tell the rest?"
Before Tracy and Blaise could protest, she continued "You said it yourself. It's very unlikely that we would lose thanks to Harry's training. We won't lose much by helping them, will we? Just look at them."
The duo looked at their shivering and pale classmates and released a sigh, "Fine, but we're not telling them about the Omnioculars. At least we might make some connections with this."
Harry suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Sometimes, Tracy and Blaise took all that Court of Slytherin nonsense way too seriously.
When Professor McGonagall came to get them around thirty minutes later, the room was far more relaxed than it was just an hour previously. The idea that the worst they could get was a few bruises and fall into the freezing lake was more than enough to calm the students, who thought that they were going to fight a dragon or something as ridiculous. Who would make thirteen-year-old wizards and witches fight Dragons of all things?
If anything, from the grateful, looks that their classmates gave them, the four of them made a lot of friends then, or at least, gained a lot of favours they could cash out later.
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AN: I wanted to know what you thought about the format of the first task. I wanted it to be challenging but still harmless enough. Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.