Excerpt from the Daily Prophet.
Dragons, Wixen, and Dark Magic, oh my!
By Rita Skeeter.
Well, my dear readers, it's been a day since the events of the first task of the Triwizard Tournament that is being held at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and while I'm sure most of you tuned into the WWN to listen in to the broadcast, I'll be filling in those missing details that you may have missed out on as well as giving my own opinion about how each of our four champions tackled the task.
The task itself started out as an unknown danger to each of the champions before stepping out into the arena yesterday, even the Headmasters and Headmistress of each of the schools had no clue what to expect till just before the task that would test each of the daring and ingenuity of the four champions, the task itself was simple, to retrieve the golden egg but the real danger came from what they were retrieving it from. Dragons, that's right my dear readers each of the champions had to circumvent one of the most dangerous five X-class creatures the magical world has ever known. Though, while the champions didn't know at the time, the danger wasn't real. Each dragon brought to the task was one that was approached months ago and offered a large amount of gold to pose as a threat, but not a real one to the champions. In addition to the gold the dragons were promised that they themselves would not be harmed as long as they did not try and kill any of the champions, to which they had agreed, this will be an important fact coming up later on, but let's talk about the first Champion that had stepped out into the arena: Victor Krum.
The world-renowned Quidditch Seeker entered the arena with his head held high, but left in obvious disappointment, for the dragon he was to face was supposed to be a Zemy, a terrifying three-headed dragon from northern Bulgaria, but apparently, someone at the Ministry made mistake and asked for a Zemj instead, a two-headed dragon from southern Bulgaria known to be a protector of cities(We can add this to the Ministry of Magic long list of "Mistakes" that had happened over the last few years). And all Mister Krum had to do was simply ask the dragon nicely for the egg and it was handed over, much to the disappointment of the crowd and Mister Krum himself, he was awarded a total of thirty-eight points for his knowledge of his homelands myths and the pure nerve of his actions.
Zoë's room
Harry had retired with Zoë, Ron, and Hermione to the Lieutenant's quarters in Hogwarts to avoid the undoubtedly loud and wild party going on in the Gryffindor Common room at the moment to enjoy a hot meal with his sister. It was an awkward one, to say the least, he didn't even know where to start with Ron and Hermione, so he had settled on just playing with his food. It was apparent that Ron and Hermione didn't know what to say either, as they both sat next to each other as awkwardly as Harry on the small couch not really speaking either.
Zoë was looking between the three of them with a bored look as she sipped on a glass of strawberry wine, "So," the older hunter says, "What exactly did these two do?" she asks, waving her free hand over at Ron and Hermione as she looks at Harry.
Harry mumbles something, causing Zoë to sigh, and before she tells him to speak up, Hermione beats her to it.
"We didn't believe him when he said he didn't put his name in the goblet," the bushy bookworm says, "and I slapped him,"
Ron's head snaps to her, his jaw hanging open, "You hit him?" he says in shock.
"I was scared!" Hermione blurts out while turning to Ron, "He grabbed me, dragged me off to a side corridor, and did the thing when he looks at you and calls on the Hunt, my fight or flight response kicked in and I slapped him," she explains before turning back to Harry, "I'm sorry, but when you focus on someone like that it is very, very intimidating, I'm sorry, Harry," Hermione says, with the start of tears in her eyes.
Harry shuffles in his seat awkwardly, he didn't like it when people cried, and he didn't know how to deal with it, "It's fine, Hermione," Harry mumbles out while looking back down at his food.
"No, No it's not, Harry," Hermione says angrily, angry at herself for hitting him, for being so foolish, "It's not okay, Harry, I shouldn't have, we shouldn't have done that, and I don't even know how to begin to make it up to you," she says mournfully, as she puts her face in her hands.
Harry's lips press into a thin line, he wasn't mad at either of them, disappointed, sure. But they were still his friends, what they did didn't change his feelings for them. They've been through a lot together, The Stone and the Catacombs, The Heir and the Chamber, Artemis, and Sirius. They had his back through it all, and never held it against him for attacking them when he had lost himself to the Hunt.
Ron had been there through thick and thin, sacrificed himself so they could move forward to protect the Stone, and faced his greatest fear to help uncover the truth of the Chamber of Secrets, had treated him like family when Harry had never had any before.
Hermione was the one to figure out most of the stuff they had faced, worked through the puzzles, and even faced death to get them the information on the Basilisk. She had tutored him and made sure he had passing grades when he was hopeless with schoolwork with her own limitless understanding and patience with him.
They both chased after him in the forbidden forest when he had charged after Sirius to kill him, just to make sure he was okay.
They were both his friends, through thick and thin, Harry couldn't be angry with them after all they'd been through together.
"Can we start going through the side corridors again?" Harry asks, looking up at them both with a lazy smile.
The next champion to step into the arena was Fleur Delacour (the half-Veela daughter of Apolline Delacour and Lastat Delacour) dressed in a muggle military outfit (A French Foreign Legion officer outfit), her match was almost over as quickly as Victor Krum's match. She had walked confidently into the arena and proceeded to use her innate Veela magic and charm to put the dragon to sleep with a simple lullaby. But as she strutted like she was on a catwalk to claim the golden egg, the dragon let off a snort of flame in her direction, but, once again thanks to her creature bloodline, she was unharmed by even magical dragon fire and could only scuff at the sleeping beast as she took possession of the egg.
She was awarded forty points by the judges for her calm use of her race's innate magic to get the golden egg.
But this reporter has to ask two very important questions, first, out of all the judges, Zoë Nightshade the representative of the Hunters of Artemis had awarded Miss Delacour with a low score of a three with a scowl on her face when the rest of the judges awarded the girl with high numbers, just what problem does Miss Nightshade have with the Beauxbatons Champion? Could it be because Miss Delacour is half-veela? Or something more? For this Reporter was told by an anonymous source of a slight disturbance in the champion tent between Miss Delecour and Harry Potter.
The second question is how safe is Hogwarts with a Half-Veela wandering around the grounds unchecked? The many stories of the Veela's bloodthirsty hedonism come to the forefront of mind whenever the race comes up, and if this half-veela is powerful enough to charm a dragon to sleep, what is she doing to the students of Hogwarts?
The House of Black
To say that Sirius Black freaked out when the broadcast cut out when the announcer had said something about the dragon changing would be an understatement. He had one lag in the floo with Remus and Dora right behind him when it had cut back on with the announcer speaking in a shocked and disbelieving tone about how Harry had just killed a huge black dragon with a curse, which had stopped the three of them as soon as they had heard it.
Harry had just killed a dragon in single combat.
Harry had just killed a dragon in single combat with a single spell.
Harry had killed a dragon in single combat with only one spell, a feat that had not been recorded being done on the British Islands in the last three hundred years.
To say those in the house were shocked would also be an understatement.
"Well," Nymphadora says in a small voice, looking at the wireless in shock with wide eyes, "It doesn't seem like he needs our help," she says before she starts to laugh in disbelief.
Sirius wouldn't wait to write to Harry, sending him a small glass mirror and instructions on how to use it to talk to the boy himself.
The third out of the Tent was Hogwarts very own Angelina Johnson, and what a show the girl put on for the crowd, starting out by transfiguring a wall around her, hiding her spellwork from both the crowd, judges, and, most importantly, the dragon, she created and charmed four golems, looking just like herself, to distract and confused the dragon. They were sloppily done, but that could be due to how quickly she was able to create them, and while the four golems were confusing the beast, she had used the chameleon charm to disappear in the background to sneak around the Welsh Red to capture the prize, not a very Gryffindor tactic, but one could hardly argue with the results of it.
Miss Johnson was awarded the highest point total of forty-two points, putting her in first place with her bravery and ingenuity in the face of the unknown.
Zoë's Room
The three friends were laughing like the last month hadn't happened as they ate ice cream brought to them by Dobby as they talked about everything that they had done separately over the last few weeks. It was then that Hermione had asked a question that had been burning in her mind since watching Harry kill the dragon.
"Harry," Hermione says, catching the boy's attention, "Where did you learn that curse, the Gaé Bolg?"
Harry stops, eyes going wide as the spoonful of ice cream that he was about to eat stops right before his mouth, "Oh, um, from, ah, Teacher or, um, well, Scáthach," Harry says stumbling through his words as he watches Hermione's jaw drop.
"SCÁTHACH!" Hermione all but screams, "You've met Scáthach!?" she pauses before her eyes light up, "The Gate," she says breathlessly, "The Gate is the Gate of Skye, oh Merlin, does that mean, that, that Hogwarts is…" she whispers to herself in shock.
"How do you know about the Gate?" Harry asks, confused, he didn't tell Hermione about it when he had originally found it because he knew she would freak out about how dangerous it was.
Hermione blinks and looks back up at Harry, "Atalanta told me about it, I just didn't think it was the Gate of Skye," she says blinking for a moment, "Does that mean the Legends about the some of the founders were trained by Scáthach are true?" she asks, almost to herself.
Harry snorts out a laugh at his friend's reaction, "Doubt it, Scáthach told me she hadn't had any visitors for a long time until I showed up, besides mortals can't go to the Land of Shadows, the shadows would eat them," Harry says with a shrug before going back to his vanilla ice cream.
Before Hermione could open her mouth and ask a hundred questions, Ron speaks up first, "What I want to know is who switched out the dragon and how?" he says before taking a bite of his Rocky Road.
And before any of the golden trio could offer up any theories on that, Zoë asks her own, much more damning question.
"What I want to know is who was the blond girl kissing Harry?" Zoë asks with a little heat to her voice as she turns to look at Harry with a glare, he had dragged her away before she could share her "piece" with the girl.
"That's a good question too," Ron says, as Harry ducks his head not looking at Zoë with bright red cheeks, "When did you hook up with a snake, mate?" Ron asks Harry, as the Heir to the Hunt mumbles something about the owlery.
Zoë turns to Ron with a raised brow, "Snake?" she asks, "What do you mean by that, boy?" she inquires in a curious tone.
"Oh, that girl was from Slytherin, Daphne, I think her name is," Ron says absently mindlessly.
"Oh? And just where would the Slytherin common rooms be located?" Zoë asks politely.
"In the don-Oww! Fuck, why did…" Ron begins to say before Harry quickly and swiftly kicks him in the shin from under the table as he looks at Ron with the universal face of "Shut the fuck up". It hits Ron then and he turns back to Zoë with a confused look, "Don't know?" Ron says it like it was a question much to Harry's cringe.
"Mmmhmm," Zoë says as she leans back in her chair and turns to look at Harry with narrowed eyes.
Harry sighs, "It's not that big of a deal, Zoë," Harry says as he lets go of his spoon and leans back in his own chair, "We're dating, that's all, she's nice and kept me company when no one else was," Harry says defending Daphne as both Hermione and Ron looks a bit ashamed about leaving Harry on his own, "So please don't scare her, or hunt her, or whatever, and for the love of Hades, don't tell Artemis about it," Harry pleads.
Zoë frowns for a moment before a smile starts to spread slowly across her face as she looks at Harry, "Alright, fine little brother, I won't do anything to her, and I won't tell your mother," she says as Harry sighs in relief, "Because you're the one whose going to tell her," Zoë says as her smirk turns cruel and watches as Harry pales.
The last, and arguably, the most anticipated champion went last, our very own Boy-Who-Lived, and my dear readers this one was one for the history books. From first stepping out of the champion's tent, Harry Potter was out for blood shown in his use of advanced transfiguration which can also be called by another name "Battle Magic" this branch of transfiguration was used by the Battle Mages of centuries past to fight off armies and Harry Potter used it to fight his dragon.
Harry Potter didn't come to distract or trap a dragon, oh no, he came to hunt and kill it, showing the influence that these "Hunters of Artemis" had on him.
His showing was easily one of the most fan-pleasing one's there was, with his volleys of stone spears, his use of the Terrain and transfiguring it to his advantage, and his creativity while dealing with the dread beast before him. But during his bout with the Feathered Serpent of the South American jungles, this reporter had noticed something. Harry was quick on his feet, and moved so fast he almost seemed a blur at times, but it was no quick-step technique nor any enhancement charms used on himself, no, this was raw speed.
If you, my dear reader, remember the last time I wrote about Harry Potter then you will recall my fear of the use of illegal blood magic on him, it seems my fear was well-founded, because there is, that this reporter knows of, no other way for Harry Potter to move as fast as he did without the use of it. But sadly the Ministry of Magic has yet to comment on any investigation into this very illegal crime going on at Hogwarts.
But, my dear reader, that isn't even the worst of it.
The Slytherin female dorms.
Daphne was exhausted emotionally and mentally from the events of the first task, first was she and Harry cementing a relationship, then the nail-biting fight he had with the dragon and how he ended it, she still didn't know how she felt about him invoking dark magic that powerful, but then there was that Zoë girl, and how she had looked at her after she had kissed Harry in front of her like she was going to hunt her down or something.
Daphne shivered at that thought as she made her way back to her dorm room from her shower, she had absolutely no doubt the girl would do just that.
Daphne sighs out as she stops at her dorm room door and turns the handle, just for it to be wrenched open by Pansy who was looking at her with the widest eyes and the most scandalized look on her face before Pasy grabs her bathrobe and drags her inside of the room before slamming the door shut behind them.
"You're the one who's been snogging Potter," Pansy accuses, pushing Daphne against the door, the purple eye girl's head immediately snaps to Tracey, who was laying in her bed, head hiding behind a textbook trying her best to blend in with her bed.
"Tracey!" Daphne snaps at her best friend who flinches and pushes herself deeper into her bed trying to hide away from her friend's justified anger at her, "I told you to keep that fact to yourself!" Daphne yells.
"They tricked me, okay! I'm sorry!" the beanie-wearing half-blood yells, throwing her hands in the air, and tossing her book across the room, almost smacking Lily Moon across the head.
"Oh, My, Witch-Father," Pansy says with a little scream of excitement, "Do you have any idea how many weeks I've been trying to find out who was snogging Potter?" she says as she lets go of Daphne to walk back over to her own bed, "and now I find out it was one of us the whole time!?" she says with a laugh as she lays down.
Daphne huffs as she walks over to her own bed, "Why do you even care, Pansy? Aren't you busy dry-humping Darco's leg?" she says as she opens her trunk to pulls out her pajamas.
"First off, I don't dry-hump Draco's leg, I have that boy wrapped around my finger," She says with an arrogant smile, "Second off, Potter is like, THE forbidden fruit of any Slytherin girl, you should hear what the Carrow twins say about your boyfriend, not to mention the boy if fit as the Shadowlands and deliciously dangerous," Pansy says with a smirk.
"Harry isn't dangerous," Daphne immediately says while pulling on her pajama bottoms with her bathrobe still on.
"You tell that to the dragon he killed this afternoon," Pansy says snarkily, "I mean, didn't you feel that pulse of dark magic coming off him? I mean, it's no wonder why the Dark Lord tried to off him as a baby," she says with a bit of a dreamy tone to her voice.
Daphne didn't have an answer to that.
Oh no, not the worst by a long shot, for you see, my dear reader, Harry Potter has accomplished a feat that hasn't been done in almost three hundred years, Harry Potter slayed a dragon in single combat.
And just how he did that will shock you, because it did me. Harry Potter used Dark Magic artifacts to accomplish it, that's right my dear reader, solid proof of what I've been saying all along, Harry Potter has gone Dark. The artifact that he used was no other than the Spear Gaé Bolg, an incredibly cursed weapon that once used only has one purpose, to hunt down and kill whatever it is thrown at in a truly disturbing fashion, I won't share the details here for my readers with weak constitutions, but by the time the Spear had done its work, the dragon died a gruesome death at the hands of Harry Potter.
Now, I'm sure you're asking yourself on where Mister Potter got his hands on this incredibly powerful dark weapon, well we need to look no further than the lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis, Miss Zoë Nightshade, for, quote, "The Spear(Gaé Bolg) in the Property of the Hunters of Artemis" end quote.
There we have it, my dear readers, the Lieutenant herself all but admitted the corrupting influence that the Hunters of Artemis is having on our Boy-Who-Lived. It is just this reporter's opinion, but I believe whoever was responsible for handing this evil spear to Harry Potter should be put on trial and sentenced to the harshest punishment that the Ministry of Magic can bring to bear.
But now we come to the same questions we had last time my dear readers, just who are the Hunters of Artemis, but unlike last time, I have some answers.
It took a little digging and a lot of favors, but I have finally dug up some information about the Hunters of Artemis from the Magical Congress of the United States of America, though anything truly concrete seems to escape me.
First off, the Hunters of Artemis is an all-female group, not a single male hunter among them. Males are actively discouraged from trying to join the group, which begs the question, why would they be looking to recruit our Boy-Who-Lived in the first place then? Are they using their female wiles to convert our Harry Potter to go Dark!?
The second thing I had found out is that Diana Phaesporia has been the leader of the Hunters of Artemis for the last two hundred years. Now, for a Wixen, it's not an odd thing for one of us to live well into a second century of life, with Armando Dippet living well into his third century of life, but here's the twist, Diana Phaesporia isn't on any registry for Wixen kind in American. So what is she? Or is the name a title? Is the Hunters of Artemis some kind of sex cult looking to steal away our Boy-Who-Lived?
Don't worry, my dear reader, I won't rest until I uncover the truth about what's going on with Harry Potter and the Hunters of Artemis!
The Queen was nestled away in her corner, tuck out of sight and dozing, waiting to be either called on by the moon girl or her fledgling to call for her, when she had arrived back at the ancient castle after being gone for so long, she had immediately known something had happened to her fledgling by how he had acted, and during their talk, she had found out that the bushy one and redheaded one had upset her fledgling.
That would not do, not do at all.
She had hunted down the bushy one and had pecked her into submission before lecturing her on her audacity, how dare she leave the fledgling in his time of need, she was supposed to be the wise one! But she acts like an eagle at times! The redheaded one was smarter, he had fled every time he saw her hunting him in fear of what was to come, but sooner or later she was going to corner him and show him the error of his ways as well.
Soon The Queen hears the door to the owlery open and silent footsteps enter, if it wasn't for the blessing given to her by the moon girl then The Queen might have missed it, her head comes up, hoping to see her fledgling, but deflates as she sees the angry one walk in, the Queen Huffs dismissively before tucking her head back under her wing, intent on getting a little more sleep.
"Hedwig," the angry one calls out, "I know you are here girl, I have need of you,"
The Queen looks down at the angry one and barks, "No, I am sleeping and do not wish to be disturbed, be gone," the Queen says.
The angry one sighs, "I have something important for you to do, I need you to bring something to Lady Artemis and you are the fastest way to do that," the angry one says.
The Queen hoots at her dismissively, "She is your Lady, not mine, find another way and be gone"
"Harry might be in danger of discovery," the angry one pleaded to the Queen, who finally lifted her head at the words of Harry and danger.
"Danger? What danger? Whose eyes need to be clawed out?!" the Queen asks angrily, who dares threaten her Fledgling!
"It is a reporter, do not worry, we will take care of it I just need you to bring something to Lady Artemis," the Angry one asks once more as the Queen considers it.
The Queen hoots once more, "It is a long trip back…"
"I'm sure Lady Artemis can get you close to the islands in some way to make the return journey a little quicker," the angry one says before pausing for a moment, "and I will have some bacon for you upon your return," she says with a sigh.
The Queen immediately glides down to the angry one before barking again, "I demanded four whole pieces as a sacrifice when I return, angry one, and for you to say nothing to my fledgling about it!"
The angry one shakes her head with a slight smile, "I won't tell him, thank you, Hedwig, Here," the angry one says as she holds out a newspaper clipping for the Queen to take.
The Queen takes the paper offered before taking flight out of the owlery window before she reaches into herself to grab the shining silvery light deep within her, and in a flash of moonlight, the Queen disappears to meet with a Goddess.
Chapter done!
I have crawled out of the rabbit hole that I made myself and am pretty sure I traumatized myself with "in the coils of the serpent."
Anyway, in this chapter we get to see the trio reunite, Zoë being a wicked older sister, Slytherin finding out about Daphne and Harry, and Rita being Rita.
In the next chapter, we get to see the meeting between Agent Doe, Dumbledore, Zoë, and Harry, and after that, we get to see someone try and kill Harry and almost succeed.
Kingsaxcul, Out!
