Chapter 56 - When Khan Disappeared

***** Bonus Chapter ***** A/N: Releasing this a bit earlier, as I got a lunch to get to.... so unfortunately this is unedited. Also Got a longer note in the chapter, so I'll keep this one short. An old friend might make an appearance soon. Got some plans brewing 🤓 *****

"Truthfully sir, I haven't quite figured everything out…"Khan replied rather sheepishly. "But I'll give you the story from my point of view. Hopefully that will help shed some light on some things."

Dumbledore nodded his agreement, quite curious himself how everything happened.

"I suppose it started when I came to visit you the night after the first task…"

*****

*Night of the first task*

Khan flashed alongside Sol into the headmasters office, still looking quite angry.

"Lord Khan!" Dumbledore greeted him jovially, as if his earlier outburst during his task had never happened. "Well done during the first task!"

"…" Khan did not say anything, and remained staring at Dumbledore still angry as ever.

"I'm quite proud of you for defeating a dragon in direct combat, in addition to not harming her dragon eggs!" He continued, undisturbed by Khans stare down. "Not only that, but you are in the lead for the triwizard tournament with a total of 46 points!"

"…" Khan still not saying anything, was internally slowly beginning to get placated, especially hearing that he was in the lead.

He was certain that his outburst cost him a lot of points after all.

Externally however, he kept his frown, arms still crossed, as he held his silence towards Dumbledore, waiting for him to finish.

"I have of course, spoken with the dragon handlers on your behalf." Dumbledore continued, hoping that this last act of his would finally placate the young lord. "They have agreed to let you continue to care for the Hebridean Black Mother Dragon as well as her eggs."

Khan finally gave Dumbledore an acknowledgement, nodding in response.

"Now how can I help you, Lord Khan?" Dumbledore smiled.

"As you can tell sir, I am still rather upset at this entire situation surrounding this tournament. As a result I am not in right mind to teach classes for the moment." Khan began, taking a seat in front of the headmaster's desk. "Thus I will be taking the rest of the week off, for personal time, to clear my head, and settle some outstanding affairs."

Dumbledore nodded his agreement. The young lord would be the center of attention, even more so than he was already, due to his outstanding and rather flashy victory over a dragon in direct combat. It would do him well to take a mental break.

"Secondly, I have another request." Khan said. "I require the usage of a portkey, to quickly move items to my shop in Hogsmeade."

Visiting his shop earlier over the weekend, Khan realized that there was quite the economic opportunity for him and his shop.

It seemed that in addition to Tomes and Scrolls going out of business, Hogsmeade was also missing a local broom shop, with Albie Weekes' shop appearing to have closed.

Thus Khan had wanted to take advantage of his current time off and retrofit his shop to sell Spellcrafts in addition to Brooms!

Dumbledore thought about it for a moment. Certain noble heirs had portkeys that would teleport them to a safehouse should any danger arise. This should be no different in function, especially considering Jordan was a lord of a noble house.

'And besides, Jordan would not abuse his portkey usage.' Dumbledore thought as he pointed stared at Sol, still perched on his shoulder.

She had grown quite a lot in the past few months approaching the size of a young adult phoenix, Dumbledore observed, but it would still take a few months for her to fully mature.

"Yes thats no problem my boy! I will cast you a portkey that will be able to bypass the Hogwarts wards." Dumbledore agreed finally, after weighing everything in his head. "If you have your desired item with you, I can even change it into a portkey now!"

Khan nodded his thanks, before taking out an old book from his inventory.

Dumbledore did not recognize it right away, but Khan was quite familiar with it, as it had served him faithfully ever since Professor Weasley had handed it to him that 2nd day of school.

It was of course, his Hogwarts Field Guide.

Not really using it much this year, as he had completed all the tasks the previously before his coma, such as collecting all the field guide pages scattered about the Hogwarts valley.

Nonetheless, Khan still kept his field guide on his persons, as he had began his magical career with it.

It would simply feel odd to be without it.

So what better way, to make it useful once again, than if he Turned it into his shop portkey.

Holding it out to Dumbledore, he handed it to him unceremoniously.

Dumbledore took it opening up the first few pages, skimming it over in curiosity.

There were very few books he was unfamiliar with after all.

Eventually, he finally recognized it, reading over some of the completed field guide pages.

"Is this a Hogwarts Field Guide?" Dumbledore said in wonder. He had not seen one of these, the last one being used before his time at Hogwarts, as none of the students under his tenure as headmaster had joined after first year.

Turns out, the last student to use it at Hogwarts was Jordan Khan.

Dumbledore probably should've known that, but being preoccupied with the tournament this year, that particular detail slipped his mind.

"I've had it with me my entire magical career, thus it would be weird for me to be without it." Khan began to explain. "As a book I always keep on my persons, it would be quite the inconspicuous portkey."

"It would have to be a timed portkey, since you carry it on you, and we can set it to teleport over to your shop once a month." Dumbledore nodded his agreement. It was quite normal after all, for wizards to be seen with spellbooks. "As common in all timed portkeys, we can also set a "phrase" to allow it to activate before the designated time."

Khan nodded in agreement. Timed portkeys were the most common type previously, with many noble heirs wearing them, in case of emergency.

Set on a yearly timer as to not go off during the school year, many heirs would wear/carry various types of portkeys on their persons, allowing them to call out an activation phrase to teleport them to a designated safehouse, in case of danger.

These were much more practical than the 'touch type of portkeys, as they could allow students to carry them at all times, without a protective magical casing.

In emergency situations, every second was valuable. Thus, having a portkey that could teleport you instantly upon phrase activation, would be much more desired, over a portkey that was kept in a protective casing, and needed to be unlocked and grabbed to use it. Even if said portkey WAS always active.

"Just use my stores' name for the activation, 'Stitches and Draughts'." Khan requested, keeping the activation phrase simple and relevant.

"Oh and if you could, set the timer activation for the 27th of every month?" Khan remembered his agreement with Fastidio on the 14th and 28th of every month, and decided to set his portkey timer to go off before Fastidio's designated chaos days.

"Portus!" Dumbledore casted the portkey spell, after nodding his agreement regarding the activation phrase, and the timer, turning his Hogwarts field guide into a portkey.

Dumbledore noted to himself, that he should register this Portkey with the ministry on behalf of Khan. As Khan was a Noble Lord, along with Dumbledore's current connections, getting the registration accomplished quickly should be quite the simple manner.

Khan took back his Field Guide from Dumbledore, putting it away into his inventory.

*** A/N: So i was replaying the game again just looking for details i might have missed. And just in general, I always assumed the inventory was just a game function, and not really relevant to lore.... but like the 2nd day, when you get the field guide from Prof Weasley, you put it under your arm, and it disappears, twisting away. Weasley doesn't even comment on it, so looks like its not something unique to the MC and his/her ancient magic. I always assumed it was some kind of bottomless bag or something for the inventory, but seeing that... looks like, at least back in the day, students had some kind of dimensional pocket to hold their items. Might explore this more. ***

Nodding his thanks to the Headmaster, Khan got up out of his chair to leave, eager to return to his vivarium and tend to his new dragon.

"I thank you for your assistance Prof. Dumbledore." Khan said as he shook Dumbledore's hand, before moving towards the center of the room. "I realize my actions may have been heavy-handed, and I apologize for dragon egg remains."

"However, I do not apologize for my outburst, and am completely disappointed in the tournament organizers." Khan continued, Sol echoing his sentiments, with a low angry trill, as she too was quite protective over Jordan's magical Beasts.

"I can only hope that the following tasks shall be more appropriate and not dangerous to innocent magical beasts. Otherwise…" Khan finished in farewell, leaving his threat towards the end, unspoken.

Dumbledore nodded logically in response, thinking about the plans for the following tasks. Not that he was intimidated by Lord Khan, but due to the fact he rather agreed with him. Perhaps some changes were in order, and not just to the tournament…

"Farewell sir."

And with that statement, Khan and Sol flashed out of the Headmaster's office.

*****

The next few days passed without much incident, Khan spending most of his time in his Vivarium, trying to get his new dragon to stop attacking him.

The Female Hebridean Black Dragon upon reawaking from her electric coma, had immediately began raging, looking for her eggs, thinking that something had happened to them while she had been passed out.

Even after Khan had taken out her eggs and given them to her, showing her that they were fine, the Dragon still was not placated, angrily spewing dragon fire at Khan and any of his beast friends.

Not that Khan could blame her.

Her and her eggs were used for sport. Not only that, but she had awoken (after getting knocked out by Khan and his Lightning contstruct), in another unfamiliar place, surrounded by other magical beasts that could be a danger to her eggs.

Placing her in the same vivarium as his other battle beasts, the dragon was especially ferocious towards Prince and Lord of the Shore. Having taken up residence in the nearby Castle ruins, she angrily shot fire towards them as well as Khan any time they tried to approach.

As the days passed however, Khan grew increasingly more frustrated, as the dragon seemed just as distant to him, as it did when it first arrived.

Seeing that his current actions were getting nowhere, Khan decided to pivot, to work on another task of his during his time off.

His first priority was trying to get the dragon comfortable and trusting him, but it seemed that was a lot more difficult than any other beast he had encountered.

Though, He supposed that was probably the reason his friend Poppy was rumored to be the last dragon rider. If it were easy, more wizards would have become dragon riders over the past century.

But seeing as that wasn't working, he decided to move on towards his 2nd priority, which was investigating Moody.

Khan was already highly suspicious of Moody with his actions over the first few months of classes. Not even mentioning his lack of mentorship towards Khan, Moody was worrying even Tonks with his previous actions towards the end of summer.

However, He had not made any other suspicious moves after the Goblet of Fire debacle, as Khan had been watching him more closely over the past month.

Well.... Khan had encountered Moody interrogating Karkaroff a few weeks ago, but Moody tended to interrogate everyone when speaking with them, so he didn't think much of it.

But this time, Khan decided to take a more active approach to his investigation.

Finding out from Tonks about Moody's Hidden Compartment on his flask, as well as his hidden copied Epitaph located within, Khan planned to speak with Moody, hoping to trap him, and trick him.

If this was an imposter Moody, he should not be able to replicate the hidden compartment on the flask, or the contents within, especially with an epitaph that specific for himself.

So, Khan's plan was to speak with Moody, speaking again about his battle against the Goblins, asking to see his epitaph in the process. If Moody was not able to produce it, or appeared confused about the hidden compartment, Khan would take that as proof Moody was an imposter, and incapacitate him.

Reality however, would be a different story.

Floo-flashing to the Defense Tower, he moved quickly towards the Defense classroom, dressed in his Merlin's cloak, already ready to do battle.

He walked into Moody's office, finding him in the middle of preparing ingredients to make a potion.

"Hello Sir, could I have a moment of your time?" Khan greeted him politely.

"Very well, boy." Moody nodded, looking up from his preparations. "Your first task was quite the impressive display of magic."

Surprisingly, Moody was quite accommodating to Khan, engaging him in conversation, even praising him for his performance during the first task.

"Thank you sir, it was nothing." Khan replied respectfully. "I actually came here, to request something. You see, I was feeling slightly nostalgic, and was hoping to view my epitaph that you took a copy of, so that I may also make a copy.

Speaking briefly for a few moments, Khan eventually made his request about his epitaph as planned, requesting to see it to create a copy of it for himself.

Moody's mad eye whirled around to stare at him uneasily, before he grunted his agreement, taking out his flask and opening up the hidden compartment with no hesitation. Reaching in, he took out a piece of Parchment, handing it over to Khan.

Once again, Khan was surprised, as Moody not only appeared to know immediately where the hidden compartment was on his flask, but he was also able to produce the epitaph from said compartment.

Seemingly Khan had been wrong in his assumption that this Moody was an imposter.

Still, Moody was acting odd, that much was for certain. Khan was now considering investigating the circumstances surrounding Moody. Perhaps he was being controlled by an Imperius spell.

"Geminio!" Khan casted the doubling charm on the piece of paper, after confirming it was indeed his epitaph, he took out his Field Guide, to slip in his newly copied momento.

"What is that book, boy?" Moody appeared quite curious of his field guide, not recognizing it.

"Oh it's just a Hogwarts Field Guide." Khan stated nonchalantly. "I got it from the Deputy Headmistress. Has all sorts of useful information about Hogwarts."

Khan handed it over to Moody for him to take a look. It wasn't like there were any personal secrets of his hidden within.

Moody idly browsed through the book, reading a few field guide pages in passing, fascinated by the information.

"Will you be returning to class soon boy?" Moody grunted, still browsing through his book. "After your first showing, I have been considering giving you more responsibilities."

"Yes sir. Next week I will be returning to my duties." Khan nodded, thinking that perhaps Moody was finally deciding to act as a proper mentor. "I just have a few more things to take care of, such as my Hogsmeade shop."

"You have a Hogsmeade shop boy?" Moody sounded surprised.

"Yes sir. It's called Stitches and Draughts an-" Khan was cut off by the sight of his Portkey activating, teleporting it and Moody off towards his shop.

Khan had inadvertently activated his newly created portkey. Still new to him, he was not used to carrying a portkey, or avoiding the activation phrase just yet.

"Shit...." Khan grumbled to himself. "Totally forgot about my portkey activation phrase. Hopefully Fastidio doesn't think he's a new playmate or something..."

Khan was reading himself to Floo-flash over to Hogsmeade to retrieve Moody from his shop, when his Kleptomania kicked in, as he looked around Moody's empty office.

This was one of the only staff rooms he had not been able to investigate this year, with Moody constantly watching guard over it with his magical eye, and various magical traps.

"Moody is a senior Auror.... He should be fine with Fastidio for a bit...." Khan justified to himself, as he took the opportunity to look around his office.

Rummaging around, Khan was on the look out for anything unusual or interesting. Deep in his search, he did not realize he had company, until he heard a familiar voice, clearing her throat.

"Ahem!"

Hermione and Harry had arrived.