AN:
moontheir4 chapter 11 . Feb 26:
I really liked the movie Lucy, but due to plot reasons I'm going to think Lucy was kind of one of a kind where the genetics and drug mixed excellently together.
erozoth chapter 11 . Feb 27
MC has his reasons for starting to get involved, mainly he wants to make a name for himself. There weren't many other worlds that weren't dangerous for Darrow. Harry Potter has similar magic, and a society and structure he could understand. Overall low risk.
kirosyamcha chapter 10 . Feb 27
The 100 was a great show for like 3 seasons! ( I watched all of them ) Past that oh boy did things get weird. The grounders would be interesting but ultimately useless. They don't really bring anything new and are low tech the Jaffa would destroy them no problem.
The actual 100 or space station people could work as they already have a high technical know-how, are used to authoritarian government but slavery might be a problem with them.
frankieu chapter 12 . Feb 27
Thanks for reading! …Sorry to disappoint he went with someone more 'experienced'.
chapter 12 . Feb 27
Let's hope not I quite like solar systems to not blow up!
Kulha chapter 12 . Feb 27
Chances are still ¼ and with the power of the author Tada! They pick the same dragons. Really the dragons themselves are irrelevant.
Also this story isn't that realistic, I mean our boy Darrow became a god in basically the second episode.
Gnormann chapter 11 . Feb 27
MC is an adult masquerading as a child and an older adult. He is both Father and Son ;)
jiubantai-taicho chapter 12 . Feb 28
There is something planned with 'Vikings' however it might not be what you expect.
vera841 chapter 12 . Mar 2
Darrow has never met one on one or had any interactions with Dumbledore. If anything you could even say he purposefully avoided Dumbledore's attention at all costs.
The only professors Darrow has interacted outside of class was Lockhart all throughout second year and Flitwick twice in third year. Once when Flitwick invited him to his office to congratulate him and another when Darrow approached him about the restricted section.
Thank you all for you input it is appreciated and please don't be surprised if I 'steal' some of your suggestions.
Story inspired heavily by 'Cruel To be Kind', '12 Steps To Omnipotence', 'Rise of an Empire' and a million and one other fanfics. If you see stuff and think that it's similar to another fanfic. it's probably because we read the same story and I liked that plot line or idea.
BEWARE this is a 'Gary Stu, wish fulfillment, power fantasy type story.
Thank you for reading!
Enjoy
Chapter 13:
Scene Break
Year 6, Day 105: Harry Potter Universe, December 1994
I was lost in my book reading the theory and experiments of Marc Wallaby on liver and kidney functions in his controversial book 'Elixirs for Digestion, Regression and Rejuvenations, the functions of your Organs' when I hear the 'tick-tockin' of heels on stone floor.
I was really deep into the restricted section at a table tucked between some dusty shelves so I wasn't expecting any company.
One of the benefits of being a champion was getting access to the restricted section again. After Lockhart's untimely departure I was left locked out with the ever vigilant Madam Pince checking for permission.
I had ultimately asked Flitwick during third year for access but, as a true Ravenclaw, the professor was a stickler for the rules and insisted I wait until I was a prefect in 5th year.
Personally I think he was dangling to make sure I applied for the position.
Looking up I saw a blue dress, the telltale sign of a Beauxbaton student. Both men and women's uniforms were quite stylish unlike our robes. I especially liked the cut of the men's jackets it was very fitted and partially reminded me of a fantasy military dress I once saw.
As my eyes rose they naturally followed the curvatures accentuated by the uniform and only for a split second stopped on the unbuttoned chest area where the above average curves met curly blond locks.
Moving up, sharp golden eyes met my blues for a silent moment. It took a little bit to connect the dots but she spoke before I could say anything.
"Le Marteau de Marseille we meet again." She said.
I admit her accent was cute just like her ski sloped nose.
My fingers automatically snap in recognition.
"The dueling competition. Michelle Cas…" I said letting the word drag on since I didn't fully remember it. I'm pretty sure I didn't hear her full name in the first place.
"Michelle Castries." She finished for me.
"You did not compete this past summer." She stated. "We were all expecting you back. Many of us prepared."
'Like that would have helped.' I couldn't help but smirk.
"Yes, I decided I could use my time more wisely." I said leaning back in my chair. Apparently she didn't like that answer as she frowned. "Sorry to disappoint."
Another moment of silence passed. It seemed this was not how she expected the conversation to go.
"Alexey won, he faced Fleur. He was going to go straight to the adult competition but came back to face you again. I made it to semi-finals." she stated flat. "Mueller made it to semi-finals in adults."
I nod my head in acknowledgement. "Congratulations are in order then."
"We all wanted to duel you again."
"Is that why you're ambushing me here…for a duel?" I asked leaning in towards her.
She flushed at my question.
"Non. It was hard to track you down today. I had to ask many students, before I did not find a good time to approach you." I looked at her to continue.
"I wanted to know why. Next summer we have to compete in the adults. You will still be in the 17 & under."
"Ah, I'm not coming back next summer either. I'm afraid my competitive dueling days are over for good." I said in fake disappointment.
"Why not? You are good! You could win the adults and move to the higher levels!" She said a bit more passionately than she probably expected.
I looked at her eyes but my gaze couldn't help but follow her blond curls down to her unbuttoned middle area.
'Aw Gawd Dammit.' I curse inwardly.
'This is why the Hogwarts girls are giving you the stink eye!' Though they are a bunch of hypocrites since I've caught them gossiping about the tall sophisticated French boys as well.
'Ugh teenagers!'
"Like I said I have more important things to do." Her cute eyebrows frowned in concentration. "However since we are both here for the year I don't see why we can't have a few matches." I could see a pleased reaction from her.
"However I want something in return." Now she looked intrigued.
"And what is that?" she asked.
I stood and closed the distance between us. She was a fairly tall girl but at 6'1" I towered half a head above her. She was going to be the solution to my little problem.
Our eyes met again and I held the gaze in silence for a second before I spoke.
"I would like for you to be my date for the Yule ball."
For a moment she didn't react and then she…smirked?
'Wait what?'
"I accept."
Scene Break
"Mate no WAY!" Terry exclaimed.
I just smirked at him. "Yes WAY!"
"I don't believe it!" Michael said.
Andrew just shook his head. "If there's anyone that could, it's Darrow."
"Nah UH! How? When? I won't believe it until I see it!" Terry said in denial.
"You won't believe what?" Padma asked as she and Mandy reached our group.
Before I could say anything Michael answered.
"Darrow's going to the Yule ball with one of the French girls." He said and pointed across the great hall at the table where they were sitting. " The one standing now with the big ah…" and he caught himself before he could finished.
Both Mandy and Padma had wide eyes and sporting an intense look drilling deep into all of us.
…personality" Michael finished.
We all cringed inwards.
'…Smooth dude ..very smooth…'
Scene Break
The hallways were a beehive of activity with students from all three schools chatting, gossiping and meeting their dates or friends.
I was one of those students.
It didn't take long and I spotted Michelle coming down the hallway.
'Lord forgive me for I may sin!' I was impressed.
She was wearing a dark blue sleeveless plunging neck dress that gradually turned lighter as it followed the well accentuated curves of the body going down to her knees where the peacock eyed hem slit revealing her toned legs while plunging to the floor behind her.
As she walked towards me I could see heads turn, conversations stutter and from the smile on her face I knew she was enjoying it.
I guess when you are classmates with Fleur it's nice to get attention for yourself.
"You look beautiful" I said.
"And you look very modern." She replied.
I did. Everyone was wearing their fancy traditional dress ball robes looking like little magicians. I didn't like that so I went for something much simpler and to my tastes.
'Wizarding traditions be dammed!'
A dark blue tuxedo, custom made, with a wing shaped bronze bowtie, enchanted to flutter once in a while, along with bronze winged cufflinks. 'Ravenclaw Represent!'
"And American." Golden eyes looking up at me.
"Why thank you! I am American!" I replied proudly.
"Now shall we?" I said and extended her my arm.
She smirked, lifted her chin and chest ever so slightly and hungrily grabbed my hand.
Scene Break
"The school is much more modern than Hogwarts and not nearly as big. It's not exactly a castle but more like a grand chateau, 'un palais'." Michelle said.
She was engaged in an animated conversation with Hermione about the differences of the schools.
"Oui." Fleur confirmed. "It is much more comfortable and the grounds have wonderful gardens. Hogwarts is very…rustic."
I had thought for sure Michelle and Fleur would be 'frenemies' or rivals or something like that but instead they were cool with each other.
"Durmstrang is very similar to here. Our castle is smaller, more wide than tall." Johan, Fleur's date added in.
Of all the things to diverge, I did not expect the dates to be different, though in hindsight I guess I should have seen it, especially since Padma was part of my Raven group and not in Gryffindor like the movies.
All the champions and their dates were seated at the same table, I made sure of that.
Krum still went with Hermione and Cedric with Cho but Fleur went with Johan a tall Norwegian and one of Krum's buddies. I went with Michelle and Harry brought Sue Li from Ravenclaw.
Me and her knew each other well enough and like the rest of our house she supported me but overall we didn't particularly hang out.
"And cold, much colder in winter. Here is cold autumn at best so far not like the cold up north." Johan readily agreed with Krum.
I took another bite of my stake, medium rare. The food so far was good.
"And what about the curriculum?" Hermione asked. " You've all been attending the 7th year lectures how do you find it?" Of course she would want to know.
"So far it is similar." Fleur responded. "You do focus quite a bit more on self-study we would typically have more lectures." She continued.
"Father says it's the fault of the board and ministry, cost cutting measures leaving the school understaffed. It was a big surprise we were going to host." Said Cedric. "On the other hand fees haven't increased in half a decade so there's that I guess."
Hermione scowled. "It isn't right, education is very important the ministry should fund the school more or they should raise fees to make up the deficit."
I was going to retort but surprisingly Sue Li was first.
"You know the fees are still quite high. Many wizarding families can't afford to send their children to Hogwarts. You know muggleborns get an automatic acceptance and are subsidized by the ministry?" she asked and we all sensed a tinge of annoyance.
I couldn't help but had to add my own two cents.
"That and the ministry also subsidizes a lot of the day schools around the country. There's only so much to go around."
Hermione actually flushed in embarrassment. I saw Harry make a move to speak and jump to her defense but Krum beat him to it.
"For us the curriculum is a lot more practically based." Krum said switching topics and we could all see Hermione was relieved.
"Headmaster Karkaroff says that you can know all the knowledge in the world but you never practice it won't stick." Johan added.
That we actually all agreed on.
"It's a shame we have no exchange programs like the muggle schools." Cedric said. "Would have loved to study a year abroad."
At that everyone perked up.
"That would have been wonderful!" Hermione said. "I've visited France a few times with my parents and have been trying to learn the language on my own but it's not the same without exposure! Think how great it would be to be immersed!" she said excitedly.
"And to see your school! The gardens sound so wonderful. Hogwarts can get a bit dreary!" Cho said and Sue Li agreed heartedly.
Soon the conversation shifted and I saw Harry engage Krum well more like drill him with questions about flying and Quiddich.
Scene Break
"It's not harsh I promise it's a muggle drink." I said as I handed out the conjured glasses with the milky liquid in it.
"It even has a fruity after-taste."
The ball was winding down, the teachers were a bit more scarce and somehow all of our dates were not with us. So it was just us the boys huddled around to make sure none of the teachers see us.
"It smells good." Johan said.
"And it taste good." I reply.
"Come one now, bottoms up! Cheers!" I say and down the shot with the rest following me.
"Weaker but smooth. I like it!" Krum confidently stated.
Harry nodded as well.
"Definitely bring more of that for tonight." Cedric said. "You all got the invites yea?" We nodded and confirmed. "6th floor, don't worry about the prefects you should be fine as long as you don't meet Filch but we have something in the works for that too." He said.
Make no mistake there were parties that happened at Hogwarts and after the Yule ball of course there was going to be an after party.
You have magical teenagers from 3 different countries stuck together in a magical castle that is mostly patrolled at night time by prefects …who are also students.
Yea not hard to figure out how to have a party, you ask the prefects to look away or better yet you invite them as well. It also helped that this was the one night that all the teachers would try to turn the proverbial blind eye to it.
There wasn't just one party there were several but all the champions were invited to the 7th year one which was the important one since that's where all the foreign students were going to attend.
It was the Hufflepuffs that were organizing the party since Cedric was the Hogwarts champion after all.
"No worries I'll bring a few bottles of Sake I have even betters ones." I affirm. "Now let's do another one before someone realizes how suspicious we look." I say and start pouring another shot.
"We should cheers to something." Johan said.
"The tournament?" Krum said but I quickly interrupted him. "Nah, enough of the tournament we'll be doing a lot of that tonight." I said and paused. "How about something else?" A smile forms on my lips and I turn to look at Cedric and Harry.
"How about a cheers to Cedric and Harry." I said coyly, everyone looking at me. "To having caught Yellow Fever!"
Cedric's eyes instantly widened and he flushed profoundly. Harry frowned for a moment then followed suit Cedric. Johan and Krum looked confused so I quickly pointed with my head towards them.
"Asian girlfriends!" and I could see the connection being made as both boys smiled wildly.
"To Yellow Fever!" Krum said louder and more excitedly than expected.
"To Yellow Fever!" both me Johan followed suit.
Cedric and Harry didn't say it but even looking like lobsters they raised their glass in acknowledgement and downed their shot.
Scene Break
The 6th floor classroom was subtly decorated in Hufflepuff colors there was a table with a variety of drinks set up at the back and there were plush and comfy seating areas along with tables strategically throughout the room.
I have to say that I am impressed. There was a lot of 'production value' put into this 'secret party'; the Puffs really liked their comfort.
"Here you go." Terry said and handed me a bottle of Stella and the rest their drinks. I brought a lot of the muggle drinks which were quite well received.
After we all changed from the ball I took Michelle and my Ravens, minus the second years, to the after-party.
Even though it was restricted for the 7th years I got them in. Harry and Hermione managed to get Ron and his date Lavender Brown in.
That relationship seemed to be happening way faster than I remembered.
Also with Harry being busy engaged in conversation with the champions Ron was mostly hanging on with the rest of the Gryffindors. Neither he nor Harry spent much time together commiserating about Cho or Hermione since both were distracted.
So both were actually in good spirits. Honestly it was a bit weird. You see before I hadn't really spent much time around the main characters only brief interactions so there was still this image in my head were they were woefully two dimensional.
Hearing them talk nonsense about school, teachers, crushes, tall guys and the hot girls really drives it to you that these are actual fourteen year olds that are soon to be thrust into mortal danger.
'Its actually kind of fucked up!' I couldn't help but think.
Still a part of me was happy that right now in the moment they were just plain teenagers having a good time.
"Cheers to Darrow! The future Tri-wizard champion!" Michael said.
"Cheers Darrow!" Padma and Mandy said.
"Yea, best of luck mate!" Andrew added. "Cheers Darrow!" Terry and Luna said.
"Thanks yall!" and we all took drink. "Cheers to yall and to a good night!" and we did another.
While I'm sure nothing was going to happened there were two thoughts that kept wiggling their way to the forefront.
'One, take care of Luna and two take care of Michelle.'
Scene Break
Year 6, Day 125: Harry Potter Universe, December 1994
Overall the Yule ball and after party went pretty much as expected. There was decent food, tacky decorations and awkward teenagers. Also their music sucked. The classical bits were ok but overall not my kind of music.
The Ravenclaw girls were a bit passive aggressive about my choice of date, specifically them not being said date. However this was much more intentional on my part than I let on.
Going with a girl in my year would automatically label us a in a relationship in the eyes of the whole school. That is a whole lot of drama I wanted to avoid. That and the fact a 14 to 15 year old girl would have expectations of us embarking on a journey to 'discover' our bodies.
'…Teenagers'
Yea, I'm a creep but not that big of a creep. At least a fully developed almost 18 year old who seems like she has some prior experience with men I could justify it…barely.
That and it made me an instant legend with the all the boys in my year…from all houses.
It was New Year's Eve and I, Michael Miercuri, was at a party hosted by the Three Cauldron's guild for their members and business partners. It was fancy and allowed the upper echelon of the guild and high society to mix and mingle with. It was a party, networking and charity event at the same time.
It honestly wasn't bad. Pretty good event with great food and a variety of people and I would have had a much better time if I hadn't been 'assaulted' by people wanting to talk to me.
Both business and simple curiosity, the rich yet still mysterious American, the 'cowboy' that took care of his guest first before finding his son during the world cup terrorist attack.
Apparently people remembered that stuff and sometimes even embellish the story. 'I most definitely was not riding a Pegasus swinging a lasso'. 'The nonsense some people will say.'
I had managed to pawn off my previous group of assaulters to Nick where I'm sure they were having a riveting conversation about some nonsense or other, giving me a breather. So I was heading to the bar where a chocolate colored, high cheekbone witch, that caught my eye, was waiting to get the attention of the bartender.
"Any luck?" I ask as I stand next to her.
"Not quite." She answers and looks at me.
"Soon enough I'm sure." I say and lean in a bit over the bar and put my hand up.
Immediately the bartender stops his service on the other side and approaches us.
There was nothing magic about it I simply bribed all the bartenders to provide me service first.
I turn and point to the lady. She takes her cue from me and orders.
"An Anjanas gin." She says.
"And an Old Fashioned for me." I add and turn to witch.
"I'm sorry I didn't catch your name."
"That's because I haven't given it to you." She responds with a small smile looking slightly up at me. She's tall but she still has to look up at me, since I hover a few inches above her.
My eyes can't help but admire her, her conservative silver dress hugs the curves in just the right ways showing an athletic toned figure with slender long legs I could picture being wrapped around me.
"My mistake." I say with a smile. "I thought you did. Please accept my apologies Miss…?" and I leave the sentence hanging as I gently keep eye contact.
Eventually she relents.
"Sinistra. Aurora Sinistra."
"Pleased to meet you. " I say. "My name is,"
"I know who you are Mr. Miercuri" she interrupts me. "Even if you hadn't been the man of the hour tonight I would still know." She said and paused for a second. "Your son looks the spitting image of you."
I smirk a bit and turn back to the bar. The bartender put down our drinks with a small 'thud'.
"A handsome boy isn't he?" I ask letting a tinge of smugness seep through.
"That he is." she said surprising me. Intrigued I looked at her.
"I thought professors were not supposed to comment on their students." I respond back and take a sip of my drink.
She does to and lets the silence sit for a moment.
"So you did know my name before." She states and smirks.
I make to say something but I stop. 'I've been caught.'
"I did." I respond returning her smirk.
"So then Mr. Miercuri how can I help you?" she asked taking another sip of her drink though her eyes never left mine.
"Oh, you know the usual, hoping to see if I can bribe you to bring my son's marks up." I say cheekily.
She almost snorts.
"Ah, and what bribe are you offering?" she said leaning in closer, her scent invading my system.
I reciprocate and lean further in.
"You see I was thinking first a drink, then 'a dance' and lastly breakfast."
If my forwardness surprised her she didn't show it. For a second she was silent then she leaned back.
"Ah, see there's a small problem with that offer." She said coyly.
I faked intrigue. "Oh, and what is that?"
"Well you see, as a rule I try not to 'dancing' with my any of my students parents." She says and sips her drink.
"Really?" I say exaggeratedly. "Well I have a rule of trying to 'dance' with all of my son's professors." I reply.
She smiles sharply. "Is that so? All the professors even the Creatures professors Mr. Hagrid?"
I almost snort, instead I take a sip without breaking eye contact.
"Of course, I heard he's a strong fellow, could lift you right up, think how fun that would be." I respond coyly.
"And the charms professor?" she quickly looking intrigued.
"I hear he's quite the enchanter, knows how to handle a wand and just the right size." I say without skipping a beat.
She almost laughs at that one. "And the potion's master?" she asks again, enjoyment could be seen behind her big brown eyes.
"A man that spends hours mixing a cauldron must have the firmest wrist. He could spin you two ways from Sundays." I say.
She actually laughs at that one.
"What about the headmaster?" she asks coyly once more.
I take another sip of my drink and let the silence sit.
"The headmaster would be the first I would ask to 'dance'. At a hundred and fifty I'm sure he has learned a trick or two." I say raising my eyebrows.
She stares at me a bit. I can see she is thinking what to say which way to lead the conversation.
"Mr. Miercuri, I can only imagine the rumors that would start if you invite the headmaster to dance." She says.
"I can only imagine as well, alas he is not here so that would not work." I say and pause.
"Besides in my defense I would much prefer if those rumors were of you instead." I out my drink down and extend my hand as invitation.
She doesn't react right away, instead she looks at me for a moment and then two. I can see she is weighing scenarios in her mind.
I don't flinch instead I keep strong letting her come to me.
She smile puts down her drink and grabs my hand.
Scene Break.
Year 6, Day 145: Harry Potter Universe, January 1995
I watched as Michelle skillfully batted Mandy's spells away while responding with her own Stupefy which surprisingly Mandy was able to reflect back.
"Good job Mandy!" I shout. The girl only scowls at me.
Neither her nor Padma were too happy to have Michelle join our training sessions, she was beautiful, foreign, older, more mature, 'experienced' and confident in ways they simple weren't. Part of them wanted to be her and the other part instinctually resented her, 'competition'.
Of course they were too polite to say anything so the annoyance was translated into intense dueling sessions.
…intense from one side at least, Michelle was after all an experienced duelist while the girls usually had a practice session once every two weeks or so. Their progress was great and I hoped it would help them in the coming troubles but it simply couldn't compare with someone who trained specifically to win one on one duels.
I had moved our sessions to the RoR and simply pretended I found this cool new space. With it being winter and Michelle joining the sessions so I could uphold my end of the bargain with her we had outgrown the old classroom we used.
Truthfully we had outgrown it even before Michelle but with her addition is was more obvious, our duels were a lot more destructive and we tended to use more of the environment. I was very careful not to put too much power into my spells, though I did dislocate her shoulder twice.
'Stupid shoulders, once you dislocate them once it's like they are more predisposed to happen.'
It was also eye opening for the rest of my 'friends' on the difference between us. In a way it allowed me to raise the stakes without scaring them too much.
All of this compounded with the influx of foreign students and we needed somewhere more private and adequate for destruction to practice. So the RoR it was. I did ask them politely not to mention the Room to many other people.
'It would cut down on us being able to use it.' Of course they agreed especially when we were able to discover we can change it to whatever type of room we want.
Before we knew it, it also became a semi-secret chill spot.
Of course the first thing I did was remove the cursed Diadem which was stored in my house in an especially made silverbox.
The hocrux was some nasty magic once you got close to it and felt it.
'10/10 would not recommend splitting your soul or mind or whatever is called to make a hocrux.'
I see Mandy throw up a protégo shield and absorb another spell. She starts an incantation and twirls he wand towards Michelle a stream of playing cards shoot out of the tip in fluttering spirals looking to overwhelm the French student.
'Not bad." I think. The ravens had been advancing and were now even experimenting with different spells and transfigurations in the sessions.
I still made it a point to emphasize simple spells and speed but hey have to let the imagination flow as well. Experimentation is good for development, especially when it doesn't quite work out.
Michelle swung her forearm to the right and a massive wind blew the cards away and back towards the caster. In one smooth motion she reversed course and swung left releasing a Stupefy which drops Mandy.
'She definitely won't like that.'
Scene Break
Year 6, Day 180: Harry Potter Universe, February 1995
The contestants were all lined up in their outdated swimwear, expect for me of course. I was wearing my full school robes.
Just like the first task as we were getting closer to the event the teachers started letting out more clues. An essay on the proper use of gillyweed, lectures on mermish, bubblehead charms and other such little and big clues passed off as homework or research projects.
The ministry officials and teachers alike asked if I needed to change or if I simply didn't have swimwear they could loan me some. I reassured them that I knew what I was doing and wouldn't need anything else.
I saw Harry awkwardly take the gillyweed from Moody. I wasn't next to him as I was standing on the opposite side next to Cedric, either way it was still painfully obvious since Harry was not smooth at all.
The cannon went off and the champions jumped in.
The official was about to remark as to why I haven't done so as well but he stopped when he saw me casting charms on myself. I was casting a variety of warming charms, an overpowered Impervius and some other water repelling and waterproof spells.
Since I was wearing my full school attire, shoes and pants included, I wanted to reduce drag as much as possible for when I went underwater.
Realistically I didn't need them but I had to be seen making the effort.
Harry eventually jumped out like a performing dolphin at sea-world and once he was back underwater on the way to the objective I decided it was time for me to make an entrance.
I used Ascendio to launch myself in a long and high parabolic jump and as I reached the top Arresto Momentum allowed me to gentle my descent, my robes lightly billowing around me I gently landed on the surface of the lake.
"Ladies and Gentlemen it looks like Mr. Miercuri is taking a totally different strategy compared to the other contestants! He is now walking on the surface of the water!" Ludo Bagman announced for the pleasure of the crowd.
I didn't even bother with a spell to walk on water. I simply used the natural water bending abilities that came with my godhood. 'The crowd can try to figure that one out by themselves.'
I picked up the pace and started to slide as if I was using skates the water pushing me forward.
I knew exactly where the mermish village was, since I went to it a few times while I was exploring the lake during my swim sessions however once again I needed to make a show of it.
"It now seems that Mr. Miercuri has transfigured his ears into" Bagman paused "well I guess he transfigured them really big round ears! He has stopped and is staring down at the water."
I couldn't help but sweat-drop when I heard the commentary. He wasn't wrong. I did make my ears big and changed the shape a bit to better pick up sounds underwater. That's because I was going to use my magical sonar technique, based off of well real sonar.
The spell was simple and complicated at the same time. At its core all I would be doing is send burst of a combination of sound, light and magic and see what gets reflected back and interpret the information just like real sonar.
Technically I could do it with just sending bursts of pure magic but I didn't want to raise too many questions. As a god I had control over my magic and instinctual senses that no average wizard could ever hope to have so simply doing it through magical aura while being a 14 year old might raise a few more eyebrows than needed and I wanted to save my capabilities for the last task.
"He has stuck his head in the water! Does this mean that he's about to plunge and try to catch-up to the rest of the champions?" Bagman continued.
I as well continued my show.
With my head in I used my wand and sent out the bursts. From outside the crowd just saw the flashes of light and some of the water rippling.
"Is it possible that Mr. Miercuri is trying to use another variation of the Lumos and see down to the bottom of the lake?" Bagman asked the crowd "Let's see if this Lumos strategy works as well as it did in the first task!"
I wasn't in the right spot, not only could I hear it and feel it through my magic it was simply preplanned by me. I raised my head from the water, bubblehead charm still active and slid to another spot.
I repeated the whole process 3 more times in different spots until I was right above the hostages.
The whole process didn't take too long but deciding that I had wasted enough time, I still wanted to get first place, I turned my head back to normal did a quick check and recast on the various charms that would help me underwater and plunged right in.
I used my water-bending to swiftly propel myself. I couldn't help but feel the urge to try and become one with the water once again but I used my Occlumency training and kept focus.
It didn't take long to reach the hostages. They were the same as the movies with Michelle being my hostage.
Through the water I felt the other champions, they were still a bit off but making good progress. The Mermish didn't even try to bother me, they knew better than that so I quickly removed Michelle's bindings.
As we breach the surface of the water the spell wore off and she regained consciousness.
"Hey, it's me, Darrow! I got you out of the water." I tell the disoriented girl. "Michelle! Look at me!" I say calming her down and bring her focus to me.
"Listen. We are quite a bit away from the medical tent. It's too far for us to simply swim there. Ok?" she looks around while struggling to keep herself afloat. She like the other hostages was wearing a full uniform.
"I have a way I can walk on water. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to petrify you and then levitate you and walk you there quickly. Do you understand?" the girl nods and acknowledges "Oui."
A quick Petrificus Totalus and levitation and we are on the way to the Medical tent platform. On the way to show that I knew my stuff I cast warming and Impervius charms to dry her and I cast a few diagnostic spells to ensure there was nothing wrong with her body.
"Ladies and gentlemen Darrow Miercuri is the first one to complete the task in what is probably record time! Only a mere 20 minutes!" Bagman announced above the cheering crowd. "While not as spectacular showing as the first task it was very efficient and methodical!"
"Good work Mr. Miercuri! You not only rescued the hostage but you also ensured that she was kept warm and dry on the way back. I also saw you performed the basic diagnostic spells. Nothing wrong I suppose?" Madam Pompfrey asked as she took over Michelle.
"Nothing that I could see though I've only practiced those spells a few times so I might have messed them up. You should do a full diagnostic just in case. And thank you Mrs. Pompfrey!" I reply. The witch nodded and took Michelle in the Medical tent where her friends were waiting.
I had a little chat with the judges, the officials and reporters explaining some of the spells I used and before I knew it the task was over. It went pretty much the same way as cannon since my strategy had almost zero interference on what the other champions would do. Harry rescued both Ron and Gabrielle and got a big smooch from Fleur. 'Lucky bastard.'
I received tens all around with a nine from Karkaroff. Even he had conceded that I did excellent, efficient work. This put me firmly in the lead for the third task just as I wanted.
There was the usual celebration in the common room with my fellow Ravenclaws but unlike the first task it was much more subdued. I had already proven my abilities to my housemates so half of them expected it and now it seemed most were very optimistic I would win.
AN:
Thank you for reading.