Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord", enjoy!

* Review response:
shugokage, nopparitari, ElementalMaster16, animekingmike, Nanashi113, The Swordslinger, Zobx, lilmisadiva, Lord Xantos A. Fowl, Sithslayer69, Goldrune09, emarald777, kazers, Sk8ernv, Zarosian Chaos, skywiseskychan, thank you for your reviews, folks!
Gruffard, yeah, basically the same as canon *wink*
Shinku Ryuuga, I think I have said multiple times before that the story will not be continued into the fifth or any subsequent year.
Akuma-Heika, not plan on implementing either of those two ideas about basilisks, but I may change my mind. Mad Random Writer, acrazysmile, Wyrtha, coldblue, As for the Katie scene - I'll leave what happened there to your imagination.
GunSlingerMarston, no poll, but he second wife will indeed be discussed in the future. =)
Toby860, like with Shinku Ryuuga's question, I've already answered it more than once: the eye will be used in its time.
pandora vanity, why do you think she dragged him out of the village?
Ananstra, my bad. Will fix it (when I stop being lazy).

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "Freezing" anime/manga series.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"powered speech / true prophecies by the seer"
"spells / parseltongue"
messages

chapter 60: The first task

Over the last week before the Triwizard tournament's first task a large stadium was constructed near the entrance onto the Hogwarts grounds. And judging by the size of the said stadium, it was pretty clear that whatever would be there on the arena will be both spectacular and impressively big. And, taking Harry's knowledge and guesses about the beasts he might have to face while on that arena into account, it was pretty obvious that the green-eyed teen was getting more and more nervous with each passing day.

Thankfully, on Saturday morning he got several hours of break from his not-happy thoughts about this approaching 'date' with some extremely dangerous beast – somehow Katie managed to get the quidditch pitch reserved that day and the young Potter had to concentrate on training the new seeker instead... Alas, once the training session was over, Harry's thoughts were again directed towards the first task and the monsters he had to face there, in front of an audience no less...

Despite his passable skill in occlumency, by the dinner time the green-eyed wizard's nervousness had reached heights so great that a certain blond witch decided that she should take helping her intended relax in her capable ...um ...hands. Whatever she did, when young Harry was seen next, which was just a couple of minutes before the curfew, he appeared to have completely forgotten about his nervousness and had a rather silly smile on his face...

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The green-eyed teen's tenseness started returning bit by bit next morning, but he still managed to eat a full-course breakfast. After that, Hermione all but dragged him to the library, insisting on him finishing any of the essays he hadn't completed already. And even though spending his morning repeating the incantations for the spells he was likely to use during the first task would have been a better use of the time, doing homework kept his thoughts away from the monsters he had to face in just a couple of hours, and that was good enough for Harry...

Lunch came a bit sooner than the dark-haired wizard would have liked – the first task was scheduled right after the meal – and by the looks of it, he wasn't the only champion who was on edge: mademoiselle Delacour had barely nibbled her food and Cedric didn't appear to fare much better. And while the young Potter couldn't see Mr. Krum from his seat at the Gryffindor table, it was likely that the ever-scowling Bulgarian seeker too was quite nervous.

Once the lunch ended, the champions were instructed to follow Mr. Bagman out of the castle, and the head of the department of Magical Games and Sports led the four teens towards the back entrance of the stadium, and, once inside, he guided the champions into a small room down the corridor. The said room completely lacked any decorations and had only four spaced chairs for furniture. It also looked like some powerful sound-blocking wards were in place as no sound from the outside could be heard in the room, even with the door still open.

"Alright, sit down." Giving the teens enough time to get seated, Ludo continued: "It's time to fill you in! Right now I'mto be offering each of you this bag." He said brightly as he held up a small sack of pure silk, inside which something was moving. Something that most definitely didn't make any of the champions less nervous about the task. "From this bag you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different... er... varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else too... ah, yes... your task is to collect the golden egg!"

Well, at least they didn't have to fight a bloody dragon or something equally dangerous to death, Harry thought. It was a weak consolation, though, as it was highly unlike that those beasts would just let you take the fake egg from them...

"Ladies first." Bagman said, offering the bag to Fleur. The French witch put her shaking hand inside the bag and a couple of seconds pulled it back with something in it. As the Beauxbaton champion opened her palm, Harry could see a petite silvery-green snake with feathery wings and a collar with number three on it around its ...neck? The said 'snake' also appeared to be in a pretty bad mood if lightnings cracking around it were any indication... "Quetzalcoatl from Central America." Ludo commented cheerfully, which caused Fleur to glare at him as dropped into her seat.

Victor Krum was the next one to put his hand into the bag, and the young Potter noticed him grit his teeth a moment later, indicating that the surly Bulgarian got something as vicious. Harry's guess was proven correct when Victor carefully pulled his hand out of the bag, revealing a miniature dragon that had its teeth sunk into the Durmstrang champion's finger while it was clawing ever-frowning teen's palm with its tiny claws in attempt to hold onto its 'prey'. The dragon also had a collar, but with number one on it.

"Hungarian horntail dragon from Central and Eastern Europe." Bagman said, in case any of the champions didn't recognize the beast... Cedric was next, and the Hogwarts champion got himself a beast that looked like snake with split tail and dragon-like head. The collar on its neck had number two on it. "Great Wyrm from Kazakhstan steppe." In his research of the beasts that he could end up facing for the first task, Harry had came across wyrms – they were renown for their ability to manipulate earth and the viciousness that they protected their nests with. If not for the gut feeling that his own monster would be even worse, the green-eyed teen would feel sorry for Cedric. "I know this is just a formality, but, Mr. Potter..." Bagman said as he raised the silk bag. Sighing, Harry stood up and put his hand into the bag, fishing the last monster from it. Just from the feeling of nine sets of tiny teeth sinking into his skin, Harry knew exactly what he got even before he could see the beast.

"Fucking great, a hydra!" He swore as he tried to pry the damned thing off his hand. Finally succeeding in this, the green-eyed Gryffindor took a good look at the monster he had to face for the first task. The hydra had nine heads, all armed with mouthful of sharp pointy teeth, and its four legs had large sharp claws which would likely be as big as an adult human on the real thing. The hydra had thick and hard greenish-yellow scales covering its body, and its long tail ended with several huge spikes. The hydra's central head had a collar with number four on it around its neck.

"Don't worry, the model's bites aren't poisonous." Ludo reassured... Indeed, the hydras were known to have potent neuro-paralytic poisons, often also with some acidic properties, that they spit at their prey during their hunts. "And just like Mr. Potter had correctly said, this is a Great Hydra from Amazonian swamps." Mr. Bagman made a short pause before continuing: "Now, you have each pulled out the beast you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take them on, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr. Krum, you're first and are coming with me. The rest of you, I'll be locking you in this room and I will personally retrieve you when it will be your turn. Once you've completed your task and are given a clean bill of health by our healer, you will be allowed to watch other champions attempt to retrieve their own eggs."

Harry scowled: not only he got himself possibly the most dangerous of the four beasts, but he also was the last one to enter the arena, which meant that will spend the entire time of the first task either by being locked in this damn room or by trying not to become Hydra's lunch...

While the damn room had been silenced, one still could feel the ground shaking as the beasts were were trying to keep the champions' away from their nests, and this made waiting for your turn even more tortuous. And by the time Cedric was summoned to face his beasts, Fleur looked like she was going to faint at any moment. Harry himself wasn't faring much better, though concentrating on the happy thoughts about his times with Draconica was helping him a bit...

Eventually, the French champion was summoned, leaving the young Potter alone in the room. And since he knew that he was next, nothing could keep his thought off his impending encounter with the hydra. But before the green-eyed teen could work himself into a panic attack, his mind entered another state, where he didn't care anymore: come what may, there was noting that he could do to avoid participating in this trice damned task.

After what seemed like eternity, Ludo Bagman unlocked the room for the third time, indicating that it was Harry's time to face his beast. Already knowing that, the dark-haired wizard didn't need to be told what to do as he stumbled out of the room much like he was sleepwalking. The head of the department of Magical Games and Sport eyed him carefully for a moment, before shrugging and leading him to the thick iron gates that, apparently, led onto the arena.

"Your task will begin once these gates open." Ludo instructed. "And it will end either when you have retrieved the golden egg or when you're unable to continue." Harry just nodded in an absentminded way. "Good luck, Mr. Potter." With those words Mr. Bagman disappeared into a side passage, obviously trying to get back to his commentator's booth as fast as possible. Still, the young Potter had to wait for almost five minutes, before the gates in front of him opened...

As the gates opened, Harry was immediately hit by a wave of tropical heat, which was rather unexpected given how cold late November was this year. Shaking his head, the green-eyed youth examined the arena, which had been turned into a believable replica of an Amazonian swamp. The hydra's nest was located near the center of the arena and was just a huge heap of moss and old leaves with about half a dozen of greenish-brown and a single golden eggs laying haphazardly on it. The hydra itself – presumably female – was lying on the muddy ground several feet away from the nest, three of its heads keeping an eye on the nest, while the remaining six were scouting the area both for prey and possible threats to the eggs.

And since the whole arena was turned into a swamp, the young Potter found himself at a great disadvantage when compared to the other champions: their beasts all lived in the areas with solid and mostly stable ground. And let's not forget that thanks to its nine heads, hydra could look in all directions simultaneously... Shaking his head to banish the unneeded thought, Harry concentrated on finding a way to retrieved the golden egg without becoming a lunch for the beast.

"Accio golden egg!" The dark-haired teen mouthed, attempting to summon the damned egg. Unfortunately, it looked like the tournament's organizers had thought about this and had placed an anti-summoning enhancement on the egg. Still, the young Potter thought that this was a good attempt, even if it had failed spectacularly... He could see the audience either cheering for him, or booing at him, but as he couldn't hear them, he didn't let the spectators to bother him in any way...

Alright, since his plan A had failed, it was time for the plan B. Tapping himself on the top of his head with his wand, Harry disillusioned himself, hoping beyond hope that hydra couldn't see in some part of the electromagnetic spectrum where the charm wasn't masking him. Next thing, he cast a silencing charm on himself to minimize the chance that the beast would hear him approaching. After that, the young Potter used a charm that he had found in Salazar's grimoire to make himself faster and stronger. Of course, doing something like this put a great toll on his body, but the green-eyed teen reasoned that exhaustion and possible muscle ruptures was preferable to becoming hydra's meal. Finally, Harry cast a modified feather-light charm to make himself lighter and, thus, able to walk on the water.

With all these spells cast, the green-eyed teen began creeping towards the hydra's nest, paying extra attention to doing it without creating any sounds or visual effects that could alert the monster about his presence... If he was doing it like this, why did he cast the spell to make himself stronger and faster? Simple, the spell had a pretty long incantation and required rather time-consuming wand movements – he might just not have enough time to cast it later, when he'd really need it...

When he was about ten meters away from the nest, Harry cast an illusion over the golden egg, making it look like it had disappeared. Then he quickly hid behind a thick tree, while the hydra started looking around for its lost (even if fake) egg. After several minutes of not being able to find either the egg or the thing that had taken it, the beast stopped its searches and returned to lying next to its nest.

Once the hydra had calmed down and was lo longer looking for the disappeared golden egg, the young Potter created another illusion that made it look like some sort of a creature that looked much like a cow was stuck in the swamp in the direction, opposite to where he himself was hiding. This got the hydra's attention and the nine-headed monstrosity spit some of its poison at the illusion. Thinking quickly, the green-eyed teen made the illusion play a dying animal for maybe half a minute, before making it stop moving altogether... Hydra, being no the brightest magical beast, thought that it had killed something and, standing up, headed to where it thought its future meal was. Still, at least one of its heads was always keeping an eye on the eggs.

And as the nine-headed beast was walking away form its nest, Harry slowly approached it and picked up the still hidden under his illusion golden egg that he was supposed to retrieve. Now he just needed to get out of the arena... Nodding to himself, he dropped the illusion of the dead cow and started running in zigzags towards the gates, no longer caring whether the beast could hear him or not: with being light enough to walk on the water and with the boost in speed he got from Salazar's spell, he could easily outrun the hydra, and since he was still disillusioned, the beast couldn't easily hit him with its poisonous spit... Not that it stopped it from trying, as was evident by splashed that occurred around the running teen.

After maybe twenty seconds of running like his life depended on it – which it actually did – Harry finally reached the gates. And as soon as he crossed them, they closed, ensuring that he was safe from the raging hydra... Breathing a sigh of relief, the young Potter started undoing the spells he had cast on himself, starting with the self-enhancement as he could already feel the effects of using it for too long. Next, he canceled the feather-light charm and removed the disillusionment from himself and the illusion from over the golden egg. Finally, just a couple of moments before Ludo Bagman and madam Pomfrey approached him, the green-eyed Gryffindor had removed the silencing charm he had cast onto himself.

"Congratulation on completing the task!" The head of the department of Magical Games and Sports said cheerfully. "Madam Pomfrey here will escort you to the first aid booth now..." The medi-witch indeed looked eager to get the young Potter under her care. "Meanwhile, I will have to rejoin my fellow judges so that we can give you your score." Harry just nodded, before allowing the Hogwarts nurse to guide him to her domain – his legs felt so damn tired now that he wasn't sure that could even walk without some form of a support...

After maybe three minutes of, madam Pomfrey finally brought him to the first aid booth and, as soon as she had him seated on one of the beds, she started casting diagnostic spells on him. While she was busy with those, the green-eyed teen looked around. On the bed to his right sat Fleur with her hands twitching every now and then like she been struck by a lightning – which, considering that her beast had been a Quetzalcoatl appeared to be quite possible. A bed further to the right was occupied by Cedric, who appeared to have his right leg broken and healed recently... On the bed to Harry's left Victor Krum was lying on his stomach with his back almost completely covered with an ointment to heal serious burns.

"What were you doing out there? It looks almost like you've just ran a marathon!" Before Harry could think of any reply, the medi-witch continued. "Never mind, you appear to be pretty healthy, so I'll just give you a potion that should give you your strength back." The dark-haired teen just nodded, even if he wasn't sure that this was such a great idea: after all it indeed looked like all other champions had suffered more serious damage to their health.

"Alright, everyone!" Ludo Bagman's magically amplified voice said. "The judges are ready to announce Mr. Potter's scores." Harry could feel that the entire stadium suddenly got much quieter as no one wanted to miss anything now. "Mr. Dumbledore?" Since the judges all sat on the balcony above the medical booth, the green-eyed wizard could see the Hogwarts headmaster – who had Ron Weasley sitting next to him – raise his wand. A moment later a silver ribbon left Dumbledore's wand and twisted into a large figure four.

"Methods that Mr. Potter used are neither noble nor spectacular. I can't in a right mind give him more." The ancient wizard commented, causing quite a few people on the tribunes to shout in discontent... Headmaster Karkaroff was next, and had decided that 'three' was the most that the young Potter was worthy of. He also didn't comment his decision. Headmistress Maxime was next, and the french witch gave Harry 'nine'.

"While I agree with headmaster Dumbledore that monsieur Potter's attempt wasn't as spectacular as many might have wanted, monsieur Potter certainly did complete the task given to him, and he did without hurting the beast, its eggs, nor he was hurt by the beast." She commented. Mr. Crouch was the next one, and he gave Harry 'seven', refusing to comment his decision. Mr. Bagman was the last one to give scores, and he gave 'nine', apparently for the same reasons as madam Maxime.

"Congratulations, all of you, on successfully completing the first task of the Triwizard tournament." Ludo Bagman said as he entered the first aid booth several minutes later. "Now, just a quick few words before you can start enjoying a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty fourth." He made a pause to, possibly, add some dramatic effect to whatever he was going to say next. "But, don't think that you won't have to do anything until then: we're giving you something to think about in the meantime!.. May I?" He asked Victor.

"Of course, Mr. Bagman." The surly Bulgarian nodded.

"Thank you." Picking up Victor's egg, Ludo showed it to all of the champions. "Inside the golden egg that you have just retrieved there is a clue to what your second task will be." Indeed, around the 'equator' of the egg, there was a thick ring with relief runes on it. "You will need to open the egg first to get that clue, of course." Of course... "And solving the clue stored inside will enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"

That's all, folks!
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