Chapter 62 - Preliminaries Underway

***** Bonus Chapter ***** A/N: So I got into Cyberpunk after edgerunners, and just saw the Phantom Liberty Trailer. I really hyped for it ngl. Always had a thing for spy thriller types ahaha. *****

The first set of preliminary rounds got under way quickly, after Jordan's epic speech, with many of the contestants eagerly casting their summoning spells in quick succession, hoping all to impress their idol.

Khan was watching from the center stage, looking imposing as ever, as he stood there smiling, with his phoenix perched atop his shoulder.

He was feeling quite satisfied with his speech. And judging from the reactions of all the students, as he watched them all compete or cheer, it seemed that it adequately hyped up the crowd, the way he had intended.

Many of the younger students would be eliminated today, with only 25 out of 128 participants moving on. Thus Jordan hoped that todays tournament would be lively enough for most of the younger students to enjoy.

Unfortunately, Jordan had misunderstood, as much of the excitement today was generated from a combination of Khans first real public appearance since the first task, mixed with his new 'drip-inducing' outfit introduced to all the ladies, and not just by his speech, as he originally had thought.

Sol meanwhile was happily basking in all the attention, happily enjoying all the cheers her and her bonded partner were generating.

"Jordan! Everything looks amazing!"

Looking over Khan saw Hermione rushing center stage, with Harry trailing a short distance behind her.

"Hey Har-mione!" Khan greet them with a smirk at his given nickname. "Or maybe Harmony is better…."

Hermione appeared affronted by his nickname, not sure how to take Jordan combining hers and Harry's name.

She didn't want him to misunderstand her relationship with Harry. They were just best friends!

"Don't do that! It's not like that!" She reacted with a huff, answering as Harry arrived behind her. "He's just a friend! Basically family!"

Harry had walked into Hermione saying "he's just a friend", and found her red face rather odd, but didn't think much more of it.

"Ahahah!" Khan rumbled with laughter at her embarrassment. "Family eh…."

He wiggled his eyebrows, insinuating something else.

Hermione, of course, knew immediately what he was teasing her about, and became even redder.

It's not like she had never thought of Harry that way, but that was before Jordan came along….

Besides. Harry liked Cho Chang, right?

"Hey Jordan!" Harry greeted Khan upon finally arriving, a few moments behind the excited Hermione. "Everything looks great, and that opening speech was awesome!"

Harry complimented his older brother figure, feeling quite proud of his friend, as he looked over all the courts from atop center stage.

"Thanks Harry! I'm rather happy that everyone seems to be enjoying themselves!" Khan responded, still smiling.

Looking down, Harry spotted tons of excited and cheering students, all of them yelling in excitement as they cheered their younger housemates.

Looking at the current ongoing matches to see if he recognized anybody, Harry noticed a Redheaded girl, dressed in old Gryffindor quidditch robes, currently dominating her match with ease.

It was Ginny Weasley, and she appeared quite skilled for a third year at the summoning charm, Harry thought to himself, slightly in awe at her advanced skills.

It appeared that the first few set of matches were done, if Ginny was already competing, being a third year.

Harry had noticed that all of the first matches were comprised of first years not really knowing how to cast the summoning charm. As such Hermione had dragged him through the crowd towards center stage, stating they would have time to cheer for their housemates later.

'It did take us a little while to get through the crowd…. But I didn't think the matches would be that quick, being a best of 5.." Harry thought to himself.

"Jordan, my dear! Everything looks wonderful, and you in particular, look absolutely dashing."

Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a distinctly female voice. Looking back over to where Khan and Hermione were standing by chatting, he spotted the other Champion, Fleur Delacour, rushing center stage, just as he and Hermione had done just moments ago.

Unknowingly to the 3 of them, Fleur was a few moments behind Hermione and Harry, as she had to make a quick stop by the washrooms to change a particular piece of clothing that had gotten soaked.

Khan meanwhile was stunned, as he looked over to see Fleur giving him to most heated gaze, as she rushed center stage, staring unblinkingly at him.

He didn't think he had done anything special in the time in between when he had seen her earlier that day for breakfast. Why then, was he gaze so much more heated than when he last saw her...

He could've sworn that he saw hearts in her eyes for a second for some reason.

"Fleur, thank you for coming!" He greeted her with their usual kiss on the hand. "I appreciate your support, especially as from a visiting school."

"Of course! I wouldn't miss this!" Fleur moved over to grab his arm, as was typical for her now. She believed that the spot beside Jordan belonged to her.

Fleur however, found she was blocked off, Hermione moving in between the two of them, with a slight pout on her face.

"You seem much more relieved today, Ms Delacour." Hermione greeted Fleur. "Quite different from a few nights ago, when you were fretting about Jordan's disappearance."

"Of course I am! Jordan has returned to me!" Fleur gave Khan another heated smile, before turning back to Hermione. "The better question is, why were you not worried about Jordan's wellbeing, if you are supposedly his friends?"

"We were confident in him returning to us!" Hermione responded heatedly. "As his closest friends, we knew there was no need to worry."

"Ah yes... you are Jordan's 'Best Friends'... What is your name again?" Fleur looked at Harry and Hermione, motioning with her hands 'air-quotations' at the words 'best friends', nose turned up at them, as she stared at Hermione condescendingly. "I know Harry over here of course, as a fellow Triwizards Champion, but you fortunately I still don't know."

"Oh that's alright, I know it can be hard to learn names, when you're in a new country and not familiar with the language." Hermione fired back, even though Fleur had lost her accent completely by now.

Khan meanwhile, was watching his 2 friends introduce themselves to each other, strange smiles on each of their faces. While they appeared to be quite civil in their discussion, Khan once again thought he was seeing things, as he could've sworn he saw lightning clash between their eyes, as they stared at each other unblinkingly.

He wisely decided to stay out of it, and not intervene, instead choosing to pet Sol, while looking out over all the courts, watching passively over all the games taking place below.

Harry meanwhile decided to join Khan, and looked back towards crowd, leaving Hermione and Fleur to get to know each other, as they looked at all the participating contestants below.

Looking back towards a certain court, It seemed Ginny had won, as Harry could no longer see her playing her match anymore, apparently being replaced by Colin Creevey, who was playing against a Hufflepuff girl on the same court.

'Colin doesn't seem like he's doing very well...' Harry noticed that even though Colin seemed to be enjoying himself, camera around his neck, as he casted another summoning charm, his opponent had all 3 balls still on the board.

In comparison, Colin had overshot his first 2 shots, knocking his own balls off, scoring himself no points.

'At least he looks unique..... maybe he'll win the costume prize.' Harry commented to himself, as he watched Colin summon his last ball..... right off the edge of the board.

Colin was decked out in his Muggle Bowling Jersey, looking quite unique in appearance, especially compared to all of the robed students, with a lot of them emulating and copying Khan's Relic Robes Outfit.

Everywhere he looked, he saw poorly made imitations of Khan's relic Robes, with at least a few of them situated around every single Court.

It made it appear as though Khan was in multiple places at once, watching over the entire tournament. Although, they were poorly made, so if you looked close enough, you would notice the difference.

Harry watched Colin lose 2 more matches in a row, before he was finally eliminated.

He continued to watch a few matches idly passing the time, watching the competing younger students below.

As Harry was scanning over all the courts, after a particularly exciting match between a Slytherin girl and a Gryffindor he recognized to be Colin Creevey's brother, when he noticed a very interesting costume.

A younger student was participating in a match in what looked to be a very good replica of Jordan's Relic robes. Looking identical to Khan's, Harry noticed that the Ravenclaw symbol even shimmered when the student would cast their Summoning charm on their respective balls.

Thinking back to Jordan's demonstration in the Hogwarts Express, as well as the numerous times in class Khan had demonstrated a spell, Harry realized, that if he didn't know any better, we would have assumed Khan to have given this younger student his fancy Robe, as the similarities were just uncanny.

Funnily enough however, this was not the thing that was 'interesting' about the student's costume. No... what Harry found interesting was the headpiece that younger student appeared to be wearing.

It was a large Dragonhead-like headpiece, adorned with large antlers, with animated long whiskers coming off its head, completely cover the student's face, and preventing anyone from knowing who they were.

Harry of course, recognized the detailed headpiece; It was Khan's construct he had created out of Lightning at the first task of the triwizard tournament, to take down the Mother Dragon.

Hermione had called it Qilin he recalled, although truthfully, he still did not know much about the ancient magical creature.

Every so often, it would roar out a small flash of lightning, wowing the spectators.

Harry was quite impressed with the creativity and skill of the younger student. And not just with their costume making, as it appeared they were also quite skilled with the summoning charm, as they would also go on to dominate their Summoner's Court Match, their headpiece roaring out sparks of lightning in victory.

Khan himself, had noticed the commotion and seen the student with the unique looking headpiece. He was quite impressed with the craftsmanship and skill with which the headpiece was created.

And even though the Headpiece completely disguised and blocked off her face, Jordan of course, recognized the student, from the Relic Robes being worn; It was Luna Lovegood!

Watching the cloak shimmer every time she casted her summoning charm, It appeared like she had taken his actual old Relic Robes Warming cloak that he had wrapped her up in the previous morning, and coopted it for his tournament. Not to mention, she was combining it with a unique headpiece she created on her own that was self animated, and actually roared lightning!

Khan had a right mind to award Luna the 'Most Creative Costume Prize' the very first day, even without seeing the upper years outfits. How could anyone else top that?

"Obviously he needs a proper woman to stand beside him!"

"Yes! He needs a proper British Woman! Not someone who is fleeting!"

Hermione and Fleur meanwhile, were still having their cat fight, sending subtle digs at each other, behind the 2 boys.

"Prof Khan, this looks fantastic!" Prof McGonagall called out, interrupting the small group out of their respective actions, as she too had now joined them on stage, accompanied by Flitwick. "Although it's not quite as exciting to watch as Quidditch, the tournament atmosphere is quite lively!"

She complimented Jordan, quite happy with the way he had turned out so far. He was completely exceeding all her expectations she had for him, when they uncovered him that summer, all those months ago.

"Thank you ma'am!" Khan looked back over from the crowd, and turned to face the newcomers, waving at his mentor Flitwick, as he answered McGonagall. "And not to worry.... this is just the Preliminaries."

"Flitwick and I have designed some unique Summoner's Court Variants that should make the Semi-finals, 3rd place, and finals matches really exciting!"