Chapter 159: Results, The Book, Its Back! (1/2)
If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
[ ]
The link is also in the synopsis.
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
.
Quinn walked down from the judge's box to the rocky arena. The stage was abuzz with discussions about the performance, and no one was paying attention to the fact that Quinn stood in the center. He looked around, waiting to see if they would notice him and pay attention.
”Doesn't look like it,” his voice drowning among the chatter of hundreds. So he raised his fake wand to get some attention.
The people in the stands flinched when they heard a loud explosion. All eyes immediately went to the center of the field, where they saw a smiling Quinn twirling his wand.
”Good, now that I've everybody's attention, let's get started,” they heard him speak, ”We saw four stellar performances from our four brilliant, brave, bright, and boisterous champions.” He pointed at the judge's box, ”Our esteemed judges have given their opinion and scores to the champions' performance, and now I'm going to announce their positions relative to each other.”
The rowdy crowd finally calmed down enough to listen to Quinn.
”In the first position we have,” he paused before continuing, ”the Beauxabatons' champions, FLEUR DELACOUR!” Quinn raised his wand and shot out fireworks in the shape of the Beauxbatons insignia, which turned into Fleur's face before disappearing.
”She completed the task the fastest and with the most skill out of all champions. The judges combined those factors and decided to place Ms. Delacour in the first place.”
The Beauxbaton students were the first to jump in the air, cheering for their champion and school. But soon, they were drowned by the overwhelming hurrahs and roars of so many Hogwarts boys that even Quinn jerked back and looked at them with a startling surprise.
”.. . O-Oh, it seems that Ms. Delacour has able to amass some fan following in her short time at Hogwarts,” said Quinn, ”From the looks of it, she's well on her way to becoming the people's winning favorite.”
The boys roared louder at his words.
Quinn waited for them to calm down, but the boys continued to shout, and it went a little too long that Quinn had to shoot another louder explosion to forcefully calm them down — but the little f**kers didn't stop.
”Ah, screw it,” he muttered and aimed his fake wand straight at a part of the stands with the just boys and shot out a moderate explosive spell towards them.
The rowdy students saw the spell hurled towards them, and in an instant, the shouts turned to screams as they ducked and covered their heads to save themselves. But it wasn't needed as Quinn's spell collided with an invisible dome placed there to protect the audience.
”Ahem,” said Quinn as the dome stopped rippling, ”now that I've your attention, we can move on to the next champion in line.”
The boys stared at Quinn's carefree as if he just hadn't hurled a spell at them.
”The runner-up for the first task is,” said Quinn and imagined a drum roll in his mind, ”one of the Hogwarts champion, HARRY POTTER!” The Hogwarts insignia followed by Hary's face traced in fireworks.
Hogwarts as a whole, especially Gryffindor students, cheered loud for their house champions captain while the other houses also showed varying levels of enthusiasm and excitement. All-in-all it was a good show of support for the discredit champion and a start for things to start fresh.
”The last one on the podium was close,” stated Quinn as he turned to look at everyone, ”both of our remaining champions were brave in their approach, but their plans were a bit too reckless as such — both got burned as they played with fire.”
A few chuckles around the stadium told him that some found his joke funny, and others didn't.
”After much deliberation, the judges have decided that.. .” another round of drum rolls sounded in his mind, ”.. . coming in the third place is the Durmstrang champions, VICTOR KRUM!” The insignia of Durmstrang showed its glory, with the stern mug of Krum following shortly after.
There was a rough chant from the Durmstrang students and a few shouts from girls taken by Krum's stern and mind-your-own-business charm.
”Finally, we have our very own the very charming Hogwarts champion, CEDRIC DIGGORY!” shouted Quinn with another round of fireworks.
”No matter what their rank, our champions showed great ability and valor,” continued Quinn. ”Dragons are creatures of magic much stronger than us humans and even the fire-blessed Veelas; to outmatch a mother dragon and steal an egg from them is no easy feat. So the next time you meet them, give them the praise they deserve and applaud them for the heart and spirit they showed today — for they're champions!”
The response was.. . glorious.
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
”Haaa~,” breathed out Quinn as he sat himself on the barstool behind his desk. It was the evening after the first task, and Quinn had just got free; professors, head of schools, ministry employees, and students had praised him for his hosting, especially his entrance that jazzed the entire event up.
”Madam Pomfrey really needs to get loose,” he groaned, ”no reason to smack me on the back of my head.” The Matron wasn't happy about Quinn's little stunt at the start of the task.
He glanced at the full-body red robes with white highlights. ”Maybe, I should have gone blue or maybe even black.. . well, not black, it would've been.. . tragic if someone died.”
”It went well,” spoke Quinn to himself, ”but was it worth to pay of Bagman's debt?”
Quinn wanted to be close to the action of the Tri-wizard tournament, and the sure-fire way to stay close constantly was to become a part of the tournament. Being a champion was struck off right from the get-go; except a champion, there wasn't much a student could do, so Quinn decided to take someone else's job from him.
Ludo Bagman was the designated host, so Quinn exploited the debt and took the job from him. It was the first time ever Quinn had dug into his royalty account to take out a minuscule amount of money from his earning made from his invention; other than this, Quinn never had to dip into that account as his student account at Gringotts was enough for his annual expenses.
If there were any questions regarding Bagman's sudden hosting assignment to Quinn, they were erased after his performance.
”I would be close by in every event from now on,” he said, ”I do wonder if this was the correct decision — I gave up anonymity in return for access.”
If Quinn had been any other student in the stands, he could've worked with certain invisibility; one didn't know what to look for when they didn't know it wasn't coming. But with being a host, Quinn would be near the scene and would have a much easier time working magic if needed.
”Well, with that level of access, I can get by without anyone knowing,” shrugged Quinn.
He studied the ancient, black leather-bound book on his desk. He took out fresh sheets of paper and a black-inked fountain pen. Straightening his back, he opened it gently and started carefully reading the contents, making detailed observational notes about the contents.
After an entire noisy day of announcing and speaking to so many people, Quinn enjoyed the quiet and peace and was just getting into the rhythm, but it seemed that some people had other plans as the office door opened and four people walked, all had a skip in their step and a clap in their hands as they seemed in a pretty celebratory mood.
He looked up and saw the golden squad — all four members entered his office. Harry was in the lead with the golden egg resting in his hands; following him were Ivy and Hermione, and they were swaying to the beat of Ron clapping his hands behind him.
”All of you look happy,” commented Quinn, closing the book and setting the papers aside, ”Mr. Weasley, welcome to my office; this is your first time here.”
”Err, right,” replied Ron, something about Quinn made him stop clapping.
”Harry, I'm a tad bit disappointed that you didn't try Parseltongue against the dragon. I really wanted to see if the dragon would've reacted to the snake speak.”
”With all the people looking at me? Yeah, right. I would've been branded Voldemort's next coming in tomorrow's newspapers,” scoffed Harry.
”A little price to pay for the betterment of magic,” shrugged Quinn. ”I'm surprised that all of you are here,” Quinn said as he waved his fake wand to set four chairs for his guests, ”I assumed all of you would be busy with the celebrations inside with your fellow Gryffindors. What makes you all come here leaving all that behind?”
”We wanted to show you the egg,” answered Harry; he sat down and set the golden egg on the desk.
”You helped Harry out a lot; it's only natural that we let you have a look at the prize,” chimed in Hermione.
”We thought you would like to get your hands on the egg; you're the type to get all excited about magic,” commented Ivy.
”Well, you got that right,” said Quinn, picking up the golden egg, weighing it in his gloved hands, ”Oh my, this is heavy,”
At first glance, the surface of the ostrich-sized golden egg looked like it was an ornate egg etched with beautiful and intricate patterns, but to anyone who had extensive runic knowledge, the designs became runes.
As Quinn rotated the egg, the initially small smile widened till Quinn seemed amply happy. The answer to the riddle inside the egg was clearly inscribed in the runes etched on the surface. If one could read the runes, they would know what hid inside.
”Why are you smiling?” asked the redhead Potter.
Quinn held the egg in his left with palm up. ”Did you open the egg up?”
”Yes, I did. In front of the entire Gryffindor house,” answered Harry.
”Be honest with me, was coming here with to show me this egg wasn't so a show of appreciation, was it?”
The four Gryffindors glanced at each other. Seeing that reaction made Quinn silently let out a single chuckle.
”It's a show of appreciation,” answered Ivy, shrugging, ”but stuff can be two things.”
”I can respect that,” he answered.
Ivy Potter stared at Quinn and then garnered a guess, ”You already know what the egg is, don't you?”
”Yes, I do,” he nodded, ”but unfortunately for you all, I won't be sharing my finding with you fine Gryffindors.”
”Eh? But why?” asked Ron, dumbfounded. The Weasley couldn't understand why someone from Hogwarts (sans Slytherin) wouldn't tell a Hogwarts champion about the egg.
”Well, I can't give it away; it wouldn't be fun that way,” grinned Quinn. He put the egg back down on the table. ”Find the clue on your own. As far as I know, the champions don't have an unfair advantage for the second task, so you won't get any from me.”
”How about a hint? You do know what happens when we open it, don't you?”
”I know what will happen if I open it right here right now.”
”Sounded like a banshee.. .. Maybe you've got to get past one of those next, Harry!” said Ron. He could swear that his ears were still ringing from the time Harry had opened the egg in the common room.
”It was someone being tortured!” sighed Harry. ”I'm going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!”
”Don't be daft, Harry, that's illegal,” chided Hermione. ”They wouldn't use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions.