Chapter 96 - The Second Task pt. 5
***** BONUS CHAPTER ***** A/N: One thing I missed out on while sick, was The release of the new Cyberpunk expansion..... So I've been marathoning through the game. And ngl, this story has me by the gut..... Always had a thing for spy thrillers, but all the little twists and backstories have really got me thinking creatively about a lot of different storylines. *****
*A few minutes ago*
The aforementioned, newly arrived Harry, was staring in shock at the giant snake being chased by his older friend.
And while he knew that Jordan was quite strong magically, he could see that the numerous Diffindos that Khan was casting while chasing the large beast, was barely making a dent in its scales..... 'So why then was it running awa-'
Interrupting his own thoughts, Harry too starting panicking, finally seeing what exactly was happening, now that he was finally up close to the action.
Turns out that the giant snake was not running away from Jordan, but instead was moving to intercept Fleur!
And looking at the nearby Krum, who still remained unmoving from the place the Serpent had knocked him, seemingly incapacitated, Harry had no doubt that Fleur would soon be in for a world of pain.
Turning back towards Khan, Fleur and the Serpent, Harry began to swim as quickly as his Flippers would move him, moving in their direction intending to help his older brother figure. Although truthfully, he did not know how he would be able to assist, especially if Jordan, with all his power and magical combat experience, was having such a hard time already.
Unfortunately, he too was obviously not fast enough, even with his Gillyweed transformed limbs. Thus, just like Khan slightly in front of him, he could only watch in horror as the Horned Serpent descended upon Fleur.
However, just as the Serpent was about to reach Fleur, literally inches away from smacking her with its tail, a strange sound was heard throughout the lake, stopping everyone and everything in its tracks.
"♩Ahhhhh♩"
Harry felt his thoughts go blank, as he watched both Khan and even the large Horned Serpent immediately halt in spot upon also hearing that strange sound.
"♩LaLaLaLaLa♩"
'How enchanting.... almost like its calling out to me.' Harry thought to himself absentmindedly. 'How lovely.....'
Harry felt peaceful, light, and free. As if all worries and stresses had suddenly left his body.
'I could just listen to this all day....'
"♩AhhhhAhhhhAhh-'
Harry's thoughts immediately returned to him, as the strange melody was interrupted. Shaking his head slightly of his trance, Harry could only watch in horror as the Horned Serpent smacked Fleur away, before following up with a loud
"RRROOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!"
The Horned Serpent was enraged!
'Wait wh-' Harry's thoughts were once again interrupted, as what happened next completely shocked him.
Bellowing out in fury, the Horned Serpent turned towards the now fleeing Krum, who was currently swimming away with his rescued hostage as fast as he could, and opening its mouth, it shot out what looked like.... an ice blast?!?
Flying out, immediately freezing the water in its direct path, the blast eventually caught up to Krum and his rescued hostage, completely engulfing them in a light blue beam, before fading away.
'Holy shit.... What the fuck!?!' Harry exclaimed in shock.
"RRROOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!"
The Horned Serpent roared triumphantly, as Harry looked over the shocking battlefield in front of him.
What was left over was a giant iceblock with the Sharkman Krum and his rescued hostage, stuck frozen inside, with Khan comforting a battered Fleur slightly behind them all.
'How th- Wha-' Harry had no clue what the hell was going on.
One second everything was perfect. The next second, it all fell apart.
Just what exactly happened?
*****
* A few minutes ago - Outside the Lake *
"♩Ahhhhh♩"
Opening his eyes in confusion, Louis looked back towards the Orb to figure out whats going on. And what he saw completely shocked him!
Literal inches away from Fleur, the Horned Serpent had stopped in place!
She was alright! The Serpent didn't actually hit her!
Being as old and powerful as the Horned Serpent was, it rarely listened to Louis. Even his wife Apolline, who's family the Serpent was bound to protect, had trouble getting it to listen, once it had its mind set on something. So the simple fact that it had even stopped in the first place was shocking enough.
But that wasn't what shocked Louis.
No..... he was shocked by his Daughter, Fleur. Or more importantly, what Fleur was doing.
"♩LaLaLaLaLa♩"
She was singing!
A beautiful voice rang out, even calming the rowdy surrounding crowd with its melody.
"I can't believe it....." Louis muttered aloud, in slight shock and awe of his daughter.
And looking around at the now quiet crowd, it seemed like they too were in shock and awe of his daughter.
But he knew better.
"What is happening Louis?" Dumbledore's inquiry cut into his thoughts. "How is Fleur doing this?"
"Remember how we were just talking about those unique Veela magical abilities? Abilities, like those used by my Wife's great, great Grandmother to tame and bind this Horned Serpent to her family, that have not been seen in decades, if not centuries?" Louis replied bragging, nose up in the air proudly. "Well it seems as though that is no longer true."
"Wait.... do you mean.."
"Yes exactly.... it seems Fleur has been able to manifest a long forgotten Veela ability, known as 'Allurement'." Louis continued. "An improved variation of their regular, more commonly known 'Allure' type magic, instead of using their bodies as a medium for their Allure magic, as demonstrated during their dancing at the Quidditch World Cup this past summer, they instead use their voices to charm and ensnare their targets."
"Wait so Veela are actually Sir-"
"Yes thats correct..... And it stems from this long forgotten ability of theirs..... You see, 'Allurement' is more commonly referred to as...."
"The 'Siren's Song'."
*****
* In the Spectator Stands *
"♩LaLaLaLaLa♩"
Apolline could hardly believe what she was hearing. Fleur was.... singing!
And not just that, Fleur had manifested the legendary ability of her great, great-grandmother, Allurement!
A more common ability amongst Veelas during the 15th and 16th centuries, Allurement was essentially the ability responsible for making Veelas once feared throughout the magical world. Utilizing allurement to tame numerous fearsome magical beasts as their allies and protectors, their ability eventually became infamous worldwide.
Even in the muggle world, their ability was feared. Colloquially known as the 'Siren's Song', once heard, it was apparently even responsible for luring numerous muggles to their death.
Apolline being half Veela of course, knew that this was not their intention.... simply an unintended consequence of her ancestors attempting to tame Various magical beasts, and muggles overhearing them.
Looking around at the crowd sitting together with her and her daughter however, and their blissful, peaceful expressions, it was hardly any surprise.
While their current allure-based magic utilized their entire bodies as a medium for their charm based magic, Allurement focused all its charm-type magic in their voice, resulting in a much more potent and concentrated charm-type spell.
This particular ability had not been seen in Veelas in over 150 years, and even back then, it was rare, her own great, great-grandmother being the last known Veela to manifest the ability.
And with Full Veelas becoming less and less common, with many of them marrying non-Veelas over the years, there was little hope that the allurement ability would manifest in the current day.
Apolline herself was already half Veela, so to see her own daughter Fleur, manifest their ancestors ancient ability, was needless to say, completely mindblowing to her.
Growing up, Fleur didn't have much interest in her Veela heritage. Seeing it as the 'thing' responsible for her poor treatment at her classmate's hands, she took more after her father, wanting to instead excel at wand based magic, and prove that she is more than 'just a Veela'.
Even at 17 years old, in her final year of formal education, Fleur refused to learn or improve any of her allure-based magic, even at the insistence of Apolline. She was apparently fine with her simple control over her Allure.
But now, in a span of months, she had gone from a quarter-Veela witch with barely manageable control over her Allure, to manifesting an ancient legendary Veela ability not seen for years?
Although Apolline knew Fleur's allure had been actively changing her lately, helping her to successfully entrap the young, but impressive, Lord Khan, but could it actually change her this much?!? To the point that she ended up manifesting a long lost Veela ability?
Happiness and pride radiated off Apolline, as she watched her daughter utilize the ability of her Great, Great-grandmother. The same ability her Great, Great-grandmother used herself to restrain this very same Horned Serpent all those years ago.
She was so proud in fact, that her Allure was starting to subconsciously seep out of her, affecting those immediately in their vicinity.
"♩AhhhhAhhhhAhh-'
So one can only imagine the look of terror that replaced the look of pride on her face, when the Horned Serpent broke free of its Allurement-induced trance, smacking Fleur away, before letting out a loud
"RRROOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!"
Evidently Krum, for some reason, was unaffected by Fleur's Allurement, and took advantage of her temporary charm over the Serpent, to rescue his hostage, and flee.
This move apparently had angered her family beast enough, that he had been able to break free of Fleur's allurement charm, all in order to stop Krum from escaping.
Apolline watched horrified, as her family protector then proceeded to fire its signature Ice blast at the fleeing Krum and his rescued hostage, freezing them whole.
"RRROOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!"
Listening to her Family Beast roar out triumphantly, a worried Apolline could only pray that Fleur was alright.
*****
* In the Lake *
Shaking his head of the joyous haze that was induced by Fleur's singing, Khan immediately swam over to where Fleur was floating lifelessly in a panic, as fast as he could move.
Not only had she gotten smacked rather hard by that large and now enraged Horned serpent, but more importantly, the contact had completely cancelled out her bubble-head charm!
Fleur could drown!
And from the looks of things, Fleur remaining unmoving, Jordan could only assume that she was unconscious.
Reaching her after a few moments, he immediately cast a bubblehead charm on her, in an attempt to save her, only to realize that it didn't work underwater! It only created a bubble around her head! It didnt remove the water inside the bubble!
Turns out that the charm only worked when first used above ground, in order to trap the air inside the bubble first!
Shit!
What the fuck was he gonna do?!?
'FUCK! Think Jordan, Think!'
Truthfully, he didn't know any water spells other than 'Augamenti' and that produced water, not removed it!
But he had to do something! Fleur was going to drown at this rate!
Grabbing her head, he did the first thing he could think of, and tried to push her into the bubble surrounding his own head in a panic, in hopes they could share his air at least.
Unfortunately however, that didn't have the intended effect, instead popping his own bubble, resulting in himself as well, now being at risk of drowning!
FUCK!
Grabbing Fleur in his arms, Jordan immediately began kicking upwards towards the surface. He knew he wouldn't make it, being hundreds of ft. underwater and short of breath already (being panicked as well as not having time to take a full gasp of air before his own bubble popped), but hopefully, he could get Fleur as close to the surface as possible, so hopefully she would survive. He father was overseeing things after all.
Kicking furiously, Khan exerted what little remaining energy he had left in his body, trying in vain to reach the surface, but sadly to no avail.
Slowly he felt his strength leaving..... Fleur getting heavier in his arms....
His head was pounding, his lungs screaming for air that wasn't there.
Blackness slowly crept into his sight.... But Jordan could do nothing with the magic he knew.
'Is this how it ends?' Khan couldn't help but wonder to himself, thinking back to all his adventures. He had always thought that he would end up dying fighting the good fight, so to speak.
So to learn that he might actually die, drowning due to his own stupidity of popping his own bubble, made something inside him snap.
Drawing on his ancient magic, he then linked it with his family magic, just like he had always done, utilizing his ancient magic to augment his elemental abilities.
You see, the Khan family, were known for being fearsome elemental mages. From his father, who excelled at fire-based magic, to his many-times-great-Grandfather Ghengis, who was an Archmage that controlled Earth-based Magic to an obscene level, every single Khan, had an element they excelled in.
For Jordan, his element was obviously lightning. Excelling at it ever since he discovered his ancient magic at the beginning of his 5th year, he found that controlling that element simply felt natural to him, even more recently going from simply directing where and who the lightning to strike, to actively controlling it and forming it into its own Lightning based creature.
Thus he simply assumed that his family talent was for the lightning element.
But maybe he could do more. Maybe what he had mistaken for talent in the lightning element, was actually a result of him using his lightning magic in combination with his ancient magic. Maybe he coul-
'No time for thinking or analyzing!'
Wand in hand, he proceeded to channel as much ancient magic boosted elemental magic as he could, before releasing it altogether in a giant concentrated blast.