This chapter starts immediately from the last.
Victor rolled across the sand, wincing as a blast of water left a crater where he stood before. As he popped up, he flicked his wand twice, once towards the man in front of him blasting water based "spells" at him, and once towards the ship that was his home for his stay at Hogwarts. The charm he sent towards the man fizzled as it hit a screen of water, as the man muttered "Protego."
Viktor growled as he launched a curse. Ever since he had appeared, the man had launched water at him, some with enough force to gouge holes in trees and rock, as the terrain could testify. "What are you?!" Viktor grunted in frustration as with expert precision, his curse was blasted by a jet of water, causing an explosion of steam.
"Viktor, I am hurt! Do you not remember your darling grandfather!" Striding forward, the man swirled his wand around his head, using water to form tigers and lions that he sent towards Viktor.
Fleur circled her opponent, a woman closely resembling her grandmere. A shield rose in response to the flick of her grandmere, an arc of water splashing harmlessly against it with a muttered "diffindo."
"My dear, please, fight me. Show me that my hair in that wand is put to good use. Show me that you are worthy of it." Her grandmother smiled as she used precise swift motions to send six jets of water, with tinges of red. Fleur growled, vowing to destroy that cup, as she started to duel her grandmother, the wand in her hand flashing with shields, charms and curses. Each attack soundlessly parried by the apparition wearing her grandmother's face.
The crowd in the Great Hall were in shock at the task that the champions would be forced to face. They gasped when the duels began, and then stayed silent to watch the spectacle, with only Clyde and Ludo commentating. Sirius however shook with rage. Cedric grabbed him by the collar, making sure he didn't move. "He will be okay." The young man said to the former resident of Azkaban.
"That blasted cup brought them!" Sirius hissed, his eyes flickering black for a moment. There was nothing he wanted more than to get up and launch curses at that blasted Goblet.
"Yes, it did. But we knew that it was a terrible piece of work, and we knew it was going to be bad when the date was pushed back. " Cedric's voice was calming, thought his fist was clutched so tightly that his knuckles popped audibly. "Look around Sirius and ask if you are the one most upset here."
Sirius did as the Hufflepuff advised, looking around the Great Hall. He saw Minerva at the head table holding a fork that was slowly turning the consistency of clay as she lost control of her magic in brief spurts. He saw Albus with his hands folded in front of his face, seemingly unfazed, if one didn't see the hatred and fury in his eyes. The sight that stopped his rage cold however was the look on Severus Snape's face.
Severus looked at the image from the Goblet, locked in place. His shields around his emotions slowly crumbling as She launched endless amounts of charms and curses at her own son. His hands trembled as he saw a flash of red hair, and a tear ran down his face. He jumped when a hand touched his elbow.
Hagrid frowned at the Goblet, but moved towards Snape. Gently placing a hand on the Potion Master's elbow, he shielded the man's breakdown from the public with his bulk. Severus whispered,"He has to kill her…"
"Its nah her Severus. It isn't her a' all. It's tha cup, and Harry's smart. He'll kno' tha." Hagrid barely spoke aloud, knowing that Severus would hear him. After all, Severus heard most things.
Shutting his eyes firmly, Severus began to actively Occlude for the first time in years. As he instructed Harry, a Master Occulmens would never have to actively occlude unless under high stress. He mentally scoffed as he stuffed his emotions back behind their walls, building memory locks and corridors to block off that section of his mind once more. In under a minute, he was completely under control.
"Thank you Hagrid for reminding me of the potions I needed to check on. Excuse me." Severus stood and made his way from the room, his graceful stride eating the distance swiftly. Hagrid nodded his head and moved back to his chair. Severus may not be able to watch Harry win, but he would be damned if he missed his friend conquer the cup again.
The crowd watched as two of the heroes of the Blood War fought against their son.
Harry rolled, ducked, and jumped to every side, as the watery apparitions of his parents blasted him from both sides with shots of water. Every moment that he moved, he was rapidly thinking. What do I do here? They are utilizing water, so I could… let's try it.
Harry rapidly shifted his movements from dodging to systematic evasion while advancing towards Lily's form. For the first time, he launched a spell forward, a boiling charm. As Harry blocked a whip of water from his father, he saw his mother point her wand at a stone and it start to levitate.
By nature, the boiling charm is a slow charm, used primarily in household situations where swiftly heating water to a boil could be bad. When used in a duel, it was an orb of a spell that slowly moves towards an opponent, evaporating any water in its path. Thus when the rock went in front of it, it attempted to do as the charm was supposed to do.
"Shi-" With a loud pop, similar to a popgun, shards of the stone blasted everywhere. With flicks of his wand, Harry transfigured the earth under him into air, creating a bunker that he took cover in. As soon as his feet touched the soft sand in his bunker, he pointed his wand up. A single piece of porcelain attached itself to his brow, and Sirius' words resonated in his head, from the times they were training with elemental magic.
By nature kid, fire is the easiest elemental magic to utilize. But it is also the hardest to use with versatility. Fire has a purpose. Consume. When you feel that… and can control it, Fire itself with obey you.
Harry didn't say anything as both of his parents looked into the bunker. Lily smiled as she pointed her wand at her son. "You lose son…"
James darted back as a bright speck of light appeared at Harry's wand tip, and he flicked it up. In a blink it was gone, appearing in his mother's forehead, turning the water that made her appearance clear with the concentration of magic.
"Sorry mum. Scintillatio" With a single word, the spark of light erupted its form released as a massive blast of fire and heat.
Viktor heard the rush from the blast as did his grandfather, who erected a massive shield to stop the heat wave from touching him, inadvertently protecting Viktor as well . Taking the moment, Viktor muttered six words in Norse and swirled his wand around his right hand. Black liquid stemmed from the tip, slowly molding itself to his hand as if it were a second skin. With a swift jab, a run was applied to the back of his hand, and another added one to his palm. He held his wand carefully against the rune on his palm as his grandfather took notice of him again.
"Ah, a Durmstrang technique. Tough boy, that black iron must burn like hell on your hand. To bad, I won't let you touch me with it!" A swirl of his wand and a shield appeared out of the water and attaching itself to the stump that ended his right arm. Covering half of his body, the shield was circular, and had a sharp point in the center. Viktor started to back away. His grandfather was a Schildknappe in Grindlewald's war. A defensive powerhouse that was legendary for using shields as weapons.
"Grandfather, I don't want to do this, please back down." Viktor pleaded as the rune on his palm finally charged. Normally, this technique was used to erect a shield, but Viktor took inspiration from the blast that Harry did earlier. All he needed was a single touch.
"Boy, you know exactly what I am. I am Schildknappe! I am the Wall of Knue, I am Viktor The First. Earn your name boy." His grandfather growled before he rushed forward, his shield leading the way.
Viktor rolled out of the way as finally, the summoning charm he performed earlier finally brought his broom to him. Hopping on it swiftly, he rose in the air.
Fleur felt the blast wave of the attack that Harry used to vaporize his mother's form. It blasted her forward, towards her grandmother who created a wall of water spikes, that she quickly froze. Thinking quickly, Fleur blasted a banishing charm onto the earth, forcing her up and over the wall and behind her grandmother. With another flick, a massive severing curse removed her grandmother's head as she settled on the ground with a rough grunt. As the body dissolved into water, the lake continued to bubble.
Harry locked eyes with his father who had a frown marring his features. "You shouldn't attack your mother like that Harry."
"As if that thing was my mother." Harry bit back as he readied another orb of fire. A furious anger welled deep inside him. Even his father's voice was tainted by the cup's magic.
With a swish of his wand, James created chains of water around his person. "That won't work Harry. I saw it once, I know to avoid it now."
Harry grimaced, and flicked the blast at James anyway. With rapid jabs, a trio of piercing hexes followed. James just flicked his wand, the chain surrounding him circling in a rapid pace, as another flick surrounded the orb of fire in a bubble of water. With a flick of his fingers, the water bubble rocketed over the lake, as the hexes slammed into the chain links of his defense, shattering them. Only for the links to reform nearly instantly.
In the Great Hall, Clyde was speaking rapidly," Folks, I don't know how else to explain it but it seems James Potter's infamous defensive chain is now unbreakable! I heard tales of the chain in the War Ludo, but I've never seen it in person!"
"Well Clyde, the defensive chain Potter was infamous for was one of the reasons he was on a short list of possible Defense Against the Dark Arts professors at Hogwarts. Sadly he died before Dumbledore could ask hi-" His voice died as Harry Potter did something no other had been able to do before him.
With a growl at the smirk on James' face Harry levitated a pebble out of the sand. "Muto." With a slash of his wand, the pebble swiftly morphed into over 100 links of black chain, that were swiftly forced to circle their master.
Ludo spoke rapidly into the microphone, "It seems Harry Potter has observed and copied the Defensive Chain that James created from water, utilizing a pebble that he transmutated into, I suspect iron."
"To see a child of 14 doing this is incredible Ludo! The Defensive Chain is one of the techniques that has never been duplicated due to the concentration required!" Clyde was right in that, as the concentration of the movement of the chain was the hardest aspect of the entire formation. It was why most people just conjured granite to block curses.
Viktor blasted down from the sky like a hawk on the hunt. Pulling up as he was inches from the ground, he rocketed towards his grandfather. Rolling, ducking and swerving around blasts of water, he rapidly approached the shield held in front of his prey. As he was less than meter away, he forced his broom down, so the tail of the firebolt slammed into the edge of the shield, the metal ring around the bristles pressing the shield out of the way. Viktor rolled with the broom, straining slightly out of the way as sharp blast of water carved a groove from his cheek, and slammed his black covered palm into the chest of his grandfather.
BOOOM. With a massive blast of force and sound, Viktor's palm exploded.
Harry and James paid no attention towards the explosion beside them as they simply blasted each other with curses, hexes and transfigured objects, they simply shielded against it and kept firing, the light of their eyes showing their focus.
Fleur paid no mind to the two duelists, other than to make sure that she avoided being collateral damage as the two Potters tried their best to kill each other. She had watched from afar as Harry rapidly showed why she did not want to join in the duel with him. Being able to duel with James Potter, even if it was a simile of the man was something she wanted no part in interfering with. It didn't help that in the space they were in, they were utilizing transfiguration like it was going out of style, mixed with dozens of different spells, most of which were, by her estimation, extremely deadly combat-based spells. As she crossed behind them focused on getting to Viktor, she swore she saw Harry flick into existence a granite block to block a stray spell from hitting her, even though it disappeared in an instant.
When she arrived in the now crater in the beach she gasped. Viktor laid there, his robes gone on his right arm, burns covering his right side, and his broom in shards across the hole.
"Viktor! Can you hear me?" Fleur asked softly as she settled beside him, and tried to see where the damage was the worse. "It's a miracle you aren't dead!"
"Where's my wand?" Viktor gasped as Fluer prepared herself to heal the Seeker's arm. Looking around swiftly she grabbed the wand from where it lay beside her kneeling form. Pressing it into his left, unblackened hand, she raised her wand to heal him when a furious agony burned from her right shoulder. Forcing her to the ground, the pain rose as in her mind a thunderous voice said," No spells shall be cast at your fellow Chosen for this task!" In an instant the pain was gone, leaving her shivering in the crater.
Viktor took a deep breath and tapped the rune on his blackened hand, still legible of the black iron. With a hiss, the wounds on his arm started to heal, the Welsh rune for Healing glowing brightly on the back of the hand whose palm once held the welsh rune for explosion. With a serious of pops that made him grit his teeth in pain, Viktor's hand was healed as well.
Pointing his wand at the hand, he started to mutter the counter charm to remove the black material from his hand. Slowly, as if peeling off skin, the black iron, less than a millimeter thick slowly pulled up and off his limb. With a grumble he cast Tempus, and the time puffed out of his wand like smoke. He cursed.
It was only 6:20am.
Harry panted in exhaustion as he parried the sword made of ice that his father banished at him, when for a flicker of a second he saw it, and pounced. With a subtle slash he thought 'Seruv'. An arc of green light blasted forward, slipping through a separation in the chain that was circling the man and connected, separating James' shoulder from his left arm, and cutting through a portion of his left leg. James' eyes widened as Harry blasted a superheated rock through his chest turning him into steam.
From the lake, yet more figures rose. This time they were beasts, lions, tigers, snakes, and even massive deer and stags.
Harry turned towards the lake as he heard the other two champions gasp. Slowly rising from the lake was a massive elephant made of water, slowly dripping as its form solidified. With a loud trumpet it started to rush forward.
Viktor groaned as he rose his wand, transfigured walls from the sand so that he had a defensive position and started launching piercing curses towards the mass of lions and stags headed his way. "Hasta Hasta Hasta. Fleur, please wake the hell up, I'd like some help. Hasta."
At Viktor's urging, Fleur slowly woke. As she sat up, she took in the situation. Pointing her wand over the wall she was facing, she took aim at a crocodile that was rapidly closing in. "Needral" The crocodile fell into water with dozens of razor sharp needles in the puddle. She took aim once more, as the piercing hexes continued to pour from Viktor.
Harry retreated as the surge of water beasts slowly overwhelmed his position. Every time he destroyed one with an arrow, piercing hex, transfigured weapon or anything else, two more took its place. It was literally like fighting the waves themselves. Rapidly turning the ground in front of him into a 3 foot wide trench, he filled it with fire to create a barrier. As the creatures kept coming, the fire continued to be put out by the very destruction of the beasts it was defending from. Harry kept retreating, firing curses.
"Why wont they just die?!" Harry growled to no one as a lion's slash got through his defense, and ripped a gash across his chest before he could kill the beast. With a growl, he launched a massive incendio created fireball down the middle of the group of beasts. He watched in shock as any beast near the fire got turned to either a puddle or steam. Harry grinned savagely as he flicked his wand, and a whip of fire appeared at the end.
Sirius smiled as Harry utilized the Fire Whip that he taught him a mere two days previous. Lashing with it could cause a massive amount of damage, possibly even killing a person. However the true use was the controlled waves, arcs, and fireballs that the caster could use if they manipulated the whip right. Even now, Ludo was going on about the young man's skill with the whip, even as Sirius knew it wasn't just Harry's skill alone.
With a slow circle around his body, Harry stopped unleashing hell up on the beasts and instead created a massive wall of fire fueled from his wand. Slowly he tightened the circle. His muscles straining, as if he were carrying a large weight, he used both hands to slowly tighten the circular motions, the flames of his wall obeying his will creating a swirling vortex only a foot from his frame.
Fleur and Viktor watched as every beast in front of them shifted targets towards the column of swirling fire and heat that Harry had become. With a nod to each other, they started taking shots at every single beast they could, regardless of if it was headed towards them or Harry.
Harry strained against holding the fire in formation, its desire to be free forcing him to exert all his willpower to keep it in place. Slowly he added more fire, his wand spitting fire like a dragon. With a roar of action, he compressed the fire further, turning the red and orange flames surrounding him white and blue with heat. As soon as the heat racked up he circled his wand once, and blasted the fire forward towards the lake. He would end this now, or die trying. With a sound similar to a scream, the fire blasted forward towards its arch-nemesis.
Viktor noticed the heat before he noticed anything. Fleur, being a veela could handle the temperature and Fire was rarely an issue for her. Viktor however, swiftly realized what Harry was going to do and didn't have a veela's protection. So, he created a bunker from the wall in front of him, vanished the sand behind him and ducked for cover as a literal sea of white hot flames collided with an army of water. In instants the entire beach was covered by boiling hot steam, and still the fire continued.
Fleur was a veela and could handle heat. It was in her nature to enjoy warm places, and the nearest veela Enclave was on a volcanic island that rarely dropped below a comfortable 27 degrees Celsius. The steam from the war of the elements however was easily 200 degrees Celsius. In an instant, Fleur transformed, forcing her veela wings out of her back and took off, trying to avoid the blistering steam. Her scream of pain and agony would haunt anyone who heard it for years as in the moment before the transformation she burned.
Harry blasted the fire forward, a chunk of porcelain covering his eye as he channeled a fourth of his crown. The most he could control at any form of combat, even now his emotions flipped flopped repeatedly. Rage, boiling rage poured through his veins as he forced even more fire forward. His rage, suddenly was disintegrated by a wave of sadness which was wiped from his mind by a fierce desire to win. He would win this war against the lake, damn the consequences. Still more fire poured from his wand.
The Goblet of Fire shuddered as the battle took place, and the audience in the Great Hall watched as a savage scream of glee erupted from the cup. They could only watch in horror as the lake bubbled even more furiously, and the beasts were joined by featureless men and women, only to be vaporized by the endless fire from the Last Potter.
The clock tower rang, Five minutes until 7 am.
Viktor huddled in his bunker, sweating furiously. He cast cooling charms repeatedly, trying to keep the temperature from cooking him alive. With a sigh, he started to vanish more earth under him, dropping down. He had to escape this heat as cooling charms weren't enough.
Fleur flew around the upper limits of the steam cloud, her skin slowly healing, as she launched fireballs down into the steam that burned her so fiercely. How dare something burn her, a veela. With an avian scream she launched still more fire, cursing the steam for harming her. Lost in her nature, she would not return until the threat was killed.
Harry panted as he blasted more and more fire forward. His vision was dimming, and his skin was steaming from the heat. Yet still he forced fire forward, as the Lake still existed he was sure. He took a single step forward.. and fell on his face, the fire from his wand ceasing in a final wave of white flames. He lost consciousness just as the Clock Tower chimed 7 and the end of the Task.
Fleur continued to blast the now calm steaming lake with fire slowly gaining her mind back. As soon as she was completely in control, the fireball barrage ended. Slowly she started floating down, her flawless skin slightly red from the heat. As she lost consciousness from the agony of the task and regaining control, she plummeted towards earth.
Viktor felt the battle end deep inside the hole. Even from the depth he was at, he felt the vibrations of the blast of fire as it roared across the beach. When the fire ended, he assumed it was safe to rise out of his hole. With a charm he levitated himself out of the hole he created and viewed the beach. What was once sand and pebbles was now a foot thick layer of glass that was hot enough to boil the water that was still on it. The lake itself was steaming, nearly in a boil from the heat. Less than a foot from the start of the glass laid Harry Potter who was unconscious. As he looked around he saw Fleur falling from the sky and pointing his wand stopped her fall into the still brittle and horribly hot glass with a series of spells. Gently, he levitated her to safety and collapsed himself.
In a rush, the occupants of the Great Hall started to rush towards the lake. First to see it in person and next to make sure the chosen were okay. Madam Pomfery rushed forward, leading the crowd. She barked orders as soon as they cleared the trees. "I want Mr. Potter and Ms. Delacour on stretchers now. Take them to the Hospital Wing. Albus, Minerva, I need a path to Mr. Krum."
Following her instructions to the letter, the teachers swiftly transfigured a path from the molten glass, turning it back into sand. Alastor and Karkoroff kept the crowd from the champions and from being hurt by the still hot beach. Sirius and Cedric placed Harry on a stretcher and started to rush him towards the Hospital wing, while Madam Maxime and Aimee did the same to Fleur.
Viktor woke to the gentle prodding of the Matron. "Ugh… careful…"
Madam Pomfrey erected a silencing bubble around them. "Mr. Krum, were you aware that you are lucky to be alive?"
"What do you mean?" Viktor asked, as the medical witch levelled a stare that would kill some at him.
"Mr. Krum, you have a several torn muscles in your abdomen, have had them for over a month, and the only reason you aren't dead is that you weren't stupid enough to take a blast wave from the battle head on. If you had done so, the tears that were slightly healed would have likely tore completely, causing debilitating agony. The cup would have killed you for not competing." Madam Pomfrey looked at her patient, as she flicked her wand around the injuries, slowly knitting the wounds and the muscles back together. "I can only assume it happened during that impromptu quidditch match. "
He nodded in shame, as the Matron continued to verbally berate him. In the end however, he was the only Chosen to walk off the beach.
An- Second task done... oh, and a nice double feature. read a nice longer author note with the next chapter. -Zero