Chapter 95 - The Second Task Pt 4

***** REGULAR (MAKEUP?) CHAPTER ***** A/N: And we're back to our regularly scheduled releases. I know sunday and wednesday are my regular upload days, but im gonna be doing my best to release as many bonus chapters as possible while im on sick leave for the next 3 weeks .... Im ngl tho, the writing was pretty messy at first.... like I knew what I wanted to say.... just not how to say it.... As the chapter went on however, things started to come out a bit more smoothly. Hopefully, thats a sign that we're getting back to normal!

In other news.... I also wanted to thank each and every one of you. Not just for sticking with this story for this long without any updates, but also for your kind words and warm welcome back. I went though some dark times (literally LOL and figuratively) and I truly did miss you all <3. Anyways..... enough with the sappy shit! Hope you all enjoy! *****< p>

* A few minutes ago *

Khan powerfully kicked, rapidly swimming through the dark depths of the lake, with a giant bubble of air surrounding his head, and his wand out wearily in front of him.

He was feeling rather paranoid after all.... there should be no way that this task should be so simple and straight forward.

Expecting magical aquatic creatures such as Kelpies, Kappas and Grindylows to interfere, Jordan and Fleur had spent a lot of time studying and preparing all sorts of countermeasures in the remaining few weeks leading up to the second task. 

But, to his surprise today, there were none present at all! He had not met any obstacles on his way to the center of the lake, where Nerida had told him the mer-village was located.... and that was with him swimming for the past..... *Khan calls out 'Tempus!'*... 14 minutes!

"Is that..." In fact, after only a few more moments of swimming forward, Khan could see a the blurry outline of what looked to be a village under water.

It was the mer-village in the distance! He had finally arrived!

And without meeting any obstacles either!

How Suspicious...

Rapidly approaching the village, it eventually came into focus, displaying numerous huts and houses lining what looked to be a village square.

A choir of merpeople also appeared to be singing in the middle, calling the champions towards them with their song, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue of a giant merperson, surrounded on all sides, by the four hostages who were of course, still unconscious and tied up on their poles.

Quickly spotting Natty, Gabrielle, Hermione, and Krum's date (whatever her name was), Khan hurriedly accelerated his pace of swimming towards the four hostages. 

Rapidly approaching the hostages, Khan was only 40 ft. away from reaching Natty, when suddenly, a large object shot out like a blur, moving quickly and powerfully, before coming to a stop right in front of Jordan, blocking his way. 

Himself coming to an abrupt stop, Jordan's face slowly became more serious, as he took in the creature that was now directly in front of him.

'Is that a horned serpent?' Khan wondered to himself immediately recognizing the beast, as he gazed upon the giant snake. 'Seriously??? Instead of Kelpies, Kappas or Grindylows, they prepared this damn monstrosity?'

A large 60 ft. beast in length, it appeared almost like a wingless dragon; A huge snake, thicker around than a 'forgotten forest tree-truck', with giant horns protruding from all around his head, almost like a mane, it appeared quite intimidating as its scales were blazing bright, appearing to be almost glowing in the depths of the lake. And in the middle of its large head, was a bright blazing crest, almost appearing like a giant diamondlike crown. 

'This thing is comparable is comparable to Lord.... probably also the apex of its race if that crownlike crest on its head is anything to go by...' Khan thought to himself, in slight awe.

Having a close affinity with beasts thanks to Poppy and their various adventures together, Jordan had a great appreciation for all magical beasts, to say nothing of such a rare beast like this horned serpent. If only it wasn't currently blocking his way....

Unmoving, the huge beast simply eyed Khan, obstructing Natty from his view. It was quite calm; Although it could feel Jordan's monstrous magical power bubbling underneath, it had lived for quite a long time, and it was thus confident that it could handle anything this little human could throw at it. It's Master mate had commanded it to 'block' anyone who tried to remove the hostages, and so it would do its job as simply as possible.... it did not want to waste unnecessary energy after all. 

Khan meanwhile, was mentally reviewing all his currently mastered spells, attempting to think of some sort of creative way to possibly battle this giant magical beast, make it past him, and rescue Natty..... all while having his movement hampered by simply being under water.

'I can't, after all, simply blast it with his ancient magic like I had previously done while taming Lord of the Shore....' Jordan mused to himself. His ancient magic was primarily lightning based after all, and himself, not to mention the hostages, were all submerged in water..... 'Of all luck.... of course the most powerful magic at my disposal, the only magic that would probably even damage this great beast to begin with, would do more harm to myself, than it would to the magically powerful Horned Serpen-'

Khan's thoughts were interrupted as he noticed what looked to be a 1/2 shark 1/2 man swimming towards him.

'What the bloody hell is that!?!' Khan thought, his eyes wide with slight panic at the shocking sight, immediately thinking it was some sort of mutant merperson, before eventually figuring out who exactly this was. 

Looking at the human body with the head of a shark, Jordan had figured out that it was Krum! With Harry's body size being to small for this 'thing' to possibly be him, it appeared that Krum had attempted to transfigure himself.... albeit rather badly.

Swimming right past Jordan, Krum also 'attempted' to swim past the horned serpent, not paying it any mind, his currently shark-like eyes apparently dead-set on rescuing his yule ball date.

Khan watched baffled, as the giant horned serpent moved as quick as lightning, striking out with its giant fin-like tail, and smacking Krum with a giant *SLAP*.

Flying backwards towards him, Jordan quickly swam in the water, dodging the waterborne Krum before his body smashed into him. 

'Fuck me that's fast....' Khan muttered to himself, in slight awe at the serpent's movements. Although he knew that they were capable of magical flight and invisibility, and could quite easily inhabit mountain ranges and valleys like other dragons, Jordan also knew that its natural habitat was actually in the water, causing it to move just as fast, if not faster, in the water than in the air or on land.

'Fast, magically powerful, intelligent.... and to top it off, I can't even use my most powerful form of ancient magic here against him....' 

Khan was in a bind..... He knew that if he were on land, this would be an entirely different story, but down here, he could not make use any of his current strengths, namely his speed, his magical beasts, or his ancient magic.... shit even his regular fire spells or even glacius, one of his signature combo spells, wouldn't work here.

It appeared he would have to get creative with things.

Holding out his wand, he pointed at the currently stationary Horned Serpent, and gathering his magical power, casted a few overpowered diffindos, more as a test than attempting to harm the beast. 

Aside from being unsure whether such magic would even harm the beast if he were to even hit it, he also wanted to gage the speed of his combat oriented spells in the water.

Watching as his giant group of diffindos flew out of his wand, indeed moving a little bit slower than usual, Jordan watched in slight surprise as the Horned Serpent didnt even bother moving, preferring to stay stationary and simply tank the attack, this giant blade, impacting it's body, before simply fading away.

'Not even a scratch...' Khan, looking the scales where the diffindo had impacted the beast, couldn't even make out any markings, let alone any damage done, if any at all.

This was truly discouraging...

Aside from his ancient magic, (and dark magic which he also refused to use against magical beasts) diffindo was one of his most damaging spells. To see it shrugged off so nonchalantly was disheartening to say the least.

Spell combos were probably out of the question as a result as well; seeing as diffindo was so easily tanked, Khan also doubted that simple control spells would wor-

His thoughts were once again interrupted, this time by the giant serpent, moving quickly once again.

'Fuck.....' Khan was panicked! He quickly swam out, moving as quickly as he could, even attempting to 'flash-swim' all in hopes to reaching them in time.

The serpent was moving to attack once again, as it seemed that someone had once again, attempted to move past him, to reach the hostages!

Except this time, instead of Krum that he was attacking, it was Fleur!

Recognizing her swimsuit anywhere, he saw that she, like him, had also employed the bubble-head charm, as she swam forward with a giant air-bubble around her head, in attempt to reach and hopefully free Gabrielle. 

Coming from another angle to himself, she had timed it so that she would be making her approach, as the Serpent was busy with Khan's Diffindo. And although she knew that the Diffindo would not do much damage to the beast, she hoped that it would at least be busy retaliating to the attack long enough that she would be able to rescue Gabrielle and escape.

Although she loved her husband, this was still a competition after all. Not to mention, she still wanted to win!

Unfortunately for her however, the serpent did not retaliate as she expected. In fact, it did not retaliate at all, choosing to tank the spell, and chase her instead. 

'Damn it.....' Fleur thought to herself, as she watched the serpent rapidly approach. 

"Diffindo! Diffindo! Damn it!" Khan yelled out inside his bubble, making himself deaf in the process, not that he cared at the moment.

Jordan was truly panicked now... he had seen how hard Krum had gotten hit, how far he 'flew', not to mention the fact, that Krum had yet to make an appearance, he could only assume that Krum was still incapacitated. 

But Krum was a professional Quidditch player. And Although he wasn't as muscular as say the beaters were, he was still in very good shape, being trained to absorb the many hits the players go through throughout games. So the fact that he was still incapacitated, made Jordan truly worried for his girlfriend, especially with the rapidly approaching giant serpent. 

In fact, Khan was so worried, that he completely passed by a newly arrived Harry, not even noticing him.

Swimming as fast as possible, he kicked and pulled at the water, even casting Bombarda behind him, in hopes that the explosion would propel him forward fast; it did in fact, propel him forward faster, however try as he might, he obviously could not catch up to the Serpent before it reached Fleur. 

He could only watch, helplessly, as the Serpent quickly descended upon Fleur. 

"FLEUR!!!!"

*****

* Outside the lake, a few minutes ago.... *

The crowd, not to mention the various judges, were in an uproar of excitement.

"A Horned Serpent!"

"It's Huge!"

"I thought they were Extinct!"

Various Conversations sounded throughout the crowd, their voices displaying their excitement, even as their eyes remained glued to the viewing orb floating in front of them displaying all the action.

"Louis! Where did you even find him!?" Dumbledore couldn't help but ask, while watching the orb himself.

"He is actually my wife's family's magical beast guardian." Louis replied with a slight smirk towards Dumbledore. Since he was in such a privileged position of power, it was always assumed that many of their family privileges were a result of himself as well as his office. And while, it was partly true, with some of their influence and power coming from him, it was in fact his wife, and her Veela family heritage, that was responsible for a majority of it. 

This Giant Horned Serpent, for example, is just one of the many privileges that was afforded him and his family, when he married his wife. He truly loved her, and would brag about her any chance afforded to him.

"It's been in her family for over 200 years, protecting them and their Veela heritage from those that would seek to do them harm." Louis bragg- explained to Dumbledore. "Apparently her great, great, Grandmother was able to use her Veela magical powers to tame it, and bind it to the family."

"Veela magical powers?" Dumbledore inquired further. To his knowledge, other than their Alure-type of magic, as well as their abilities to transform into a Harpie-like creature and launch fire, he did not know of any other 'Veela magical powers'.

"Indeed! Aside from their most common powers, it is said among Veela at least, that some are able manifest other special powers. These magical powers unfortunately have not been seen in decades if not centuries, and thus, Veela only have their old tomes and stories of old to refer to." Louis further explained to Dumbledore, before he silently casted another Sonorus and turned to address the crowd, intending to provide commentary. 

"And would you look at that folks! It seems Mr Krum is the second one to reach the mervillage!" He paused momentarily to let the crowd (primarily the Durmstraung students) to cheer before continuing. "He is looking quite... unique with that partial self-transfiguration. And what is he doing? .... it looks like he's just going straight for the hostages and ignoring the Horned Serpent! Is his shark transfiguration interfering with his ability to see right in front of him?!?"

"OOOOOOOOOOO" The crowd moaned in terror and awe, as they watched the Giant serpent move like lightning, quickly and powerfully smacking the Sharkman away with its tail.

"OUCH! That looked like it hurt! And look at this... it seems like Mr Khan has decided to finally make his move! Lets see what he has planned shall we?" Louis commented, himself now concentrating harder on the orb. 

Although he had been told multiple times, by his wife, that the boy would be his future son in law, Hell would have to freeze over before he would 'happily' approve of his little flower dating anyone... let alone this playboy..... He had seen the numerous women interacting with him during the past few weeks.... quite intimately in fact.... Was his little girl not enough for the bastard?!

As such, he had directed Gabby to room with her sister to prevent night visits, not to mention preventing them from spending almost any time together privately... If he had his way, they would be spending NO time together, but that had been quickly veto'd by his wife... Oh well.. Perhaps if this boy could impress him during this second task, he would approve of the two of them having dinner privately once again.... And even then, he wouldn't 'happily approve' of them.... he would simply just 'approve'.... Ya that sounded good, as It also had the bonus of keeping his wife placated...

"And Wow, would you look at that!? Multiple powerful Diffindos! Will it do anythin-"

*BOOOOM* 

A loud Clash like boom sounded out of the viewing orb, the video itself shaking inside the viewing orb, indicating the recording orb was jostled around, as the Diffindos made violent contact with the Serpent's body, before eventually fading away without a trace.

"A valiant not to mention powerful attempt! Unfortunately for Mr Khan, it appears his magical power is insufficient to pierce through the Horned Serpent's magical scales!" Louis kept up the color commentary. "And..... whats this? It seems... Yes! Our 3rd and 4th contests have finally arrived! And wow! It seems like the representative from Beauxbatons, Ms. Delacour, is taking a rather aggressive approach almost immediately, seemingly banking on the Serpent being distracted by Mr. Khan's magical attack! Will her risky gambit work?! It seems like.... Oh no! It seems like the Serpent noticed her!"

The crowd watched with bated breath, as Fleur swam towards her sister, the serpent moving to intercept, with Jordan hot in pursuit, firing out diffindos in front of him, while casting Bombardas behind him. 

"It seems that Mr. Khan is attempting to lure the serpent away or damage it, but to no avail... it looks like the Serpent is not stopping..." Louis had to stop commenting, and look away from the orb.

Even though he was a judge, and had to stay impartial, it was hard for him to comment let alone observe his little girl, especially when she was split seconds away from receiving a powerful smack from their family guardian.

So needless to say, what he heard next confused the hell out of him. 

"♩Ahhhhh♩"