Chapter 393: The Second Task (2 in 1)

Chapter 393: The Second Task (2 in 1)

Jon got up from bed each day and routinely used an Animagus transformation incantation with his wand aimed at his heart area.

He had done this almost daily for six months and had never stopped, and only after he had done this would he start to wash up and then have breakfast.

When he arrived in the great hall, Lee, George and Hermione were all already seated.

"I read the Daily Prophet, and it's the only one that sticks stiffly to the Ball, insisting that we stole something valuable from the castle, and it's only because of the Dark Lord's generosity that we weren't pursued and continued with our day. Oh yes, and they've published photos of those portraits and pieces of armour you destroyed, Hermione."

George said smugly, holding a cup of pumpkin juice.

"Looks like Fred and I got great results for our Weasley orb!"

The alchemical ball Hermione had used to successfully blow up that armour in the Headmaster's office was of course the Weasley twins' research success that Jon had discovered in the middle of the summer.

The most perfect thing they had made so far was this little bomb, with a stable trigger and a decent amount of potency; right at the end of the first task, George had shown Dumbledore what they had accomplished and shared all the tricks and materials to make it in the hope that it would reduce some casualties and injuries to the wizards of the Witching Horizon.

As the twins had said to Jon during the summer holidays, they didn't hide their research from Dumbledore, and with Durmstrang's funding, they had no worries about their experiments, and could also make it possible for the Witching Horizon to get the blueprint for free.

But even if they wanted to give them away for free, Dumbledore certainly saw the value in them.

The Weasley twins were ingenious and gifted in alchemy, and it was not unheard of for wizards to think of embedding a blasting curse within a sphere to mass produce this advanced dark magic, but the biggest problem with this idea was the instability of the blasting curse runes, the timing of when the finished product would explode and the nature of the explosion would be unknown even to the person who made it.

The Weasley twins, however, had overcome this difficulty, and Jon had no idea how they had done it, but it seemed that they had used some ancient rune that had been passed down in the Weasley family, and when the technology of the alchemical sphere had matured completely, they had given away all their research for nothing, and of course, Grindelwald's side had paid for it, so they had received a copy of such technology as well.

After learning of the Weasley twins' work, Dumbledore did not accept the gift, but after careful consideration, he offered to give them a patent for their invention and a share for each Weasley Orb they produced.

But such a payment was also refused by the twins, who remained true to their initial idea of giving it away for free without taking a knut.

In the end, Dumbledore didn't insist any further, and simply left a trophy in the Weasley twins' names in the showroom he kept in the wagon while giving the Weasleys a generous bonus in the Witching Horizon for George and Fred's absolute excellence, honouring and rewarding their parents.

In response, George and Fred didn't refuse again when they learned of it, and Arthur and Molly, although they didn't know exactly what they had done, were both happy and proud of it.

The Weasley Orb Hermione had used in the Headmaster's office this time was the finished product that Dumbledore had given her, which Witching Horizon had made using the technology provided by the Weasley twins.

It was the first time it had been used in a real battle now, and it had yielded remarkable results.

"It is very useful and not too shabby in power." Hermione gave her approval.

Although they were the ones who had actually infiltrated Hogwarts castle on the day of the Ball, outside opinion had little effect on Jon and the others.

It was even safe to say that this incident was no longer even mentioned in the magical dailies except for the Daily Prophet, which was still covering it, and instead, the focus began to be on the second task of the Triwizard Tournament that would be taking place today.

In fact, as early as the end of the first task, Jon already knew what the second task would be.

The three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament had been proposed by one task each from Voldemort's side and Dumbledore's side and the final task would be decided by Matthew and the others. Updated from novelbIn.(c)om

The snatching of the Golden Snitches from the Forbidden Forest was the task proposed by Voldemort's side, and the second task was naturally chosen by Dumbledore and the team, so Jon and Diane had a huge head start against Draco and Emil.

Of course, such a head start was allowed by the rules, just as Draco and Emil actually knew about the first task well in advance before the first task started.

Matthew gave a serious glance at all the champions present, but of course, he only gave a quick glance at Jon and just focused on Diane, Draco and Emil.

Diane was certainly not swayed in any way, she had been all set when she registered herself from Durmstrang and chose to throw her name into the Goblet of Fire.

Emil certainly didn't grimace either, not that he wasn't afraid, but the moment Voldemort had found their house to make them replace the Bella couple in the Lestrange House it had been predetermined, he could only move forward, not backwards.

Draco was also calm, except that if anyone had been staring at him, they would have noticed that his calves had actually been trembling slightly.

For him, only from the second task onwards would he really be participating in this Triwizard Tournament, having previously, thanks to Jon's blessing, made him escape the first Dragon crisis without suffering much disdain or scorn.

And now, though, he couldn't even show how much panic he had inside on the surface.

Jon had actually contacted Lucius privately once before this task had started, asking him if he wanted to do the same scenario as the first task again, where he had eliminated Draco at the very beginning of the task, and there was no need to inform Draco himself, as long as Lucius agreed to it, he would find the opportunity to do it at the very beginning of the task, that way Draco's reaction would still look realistic at that time, and anyway, the Malfoys didn't really care about results.

Well, maybe Draco would care a little, but even if he did, it wouldn't matter.

Lucius had obviously given this a lot of thought and eventually turned Jon down.

He obviously had some regard for saving some dignity for his son's future life in the castle. It would be fine to be knocked out by Jon the first time, after all, Jon's strength was obvious to all, but if he had to be beaten by Jon in the same way in two consecutive tasks.

Draco would not be able to stay in Hogwarts Castle, and even Lucius himself might be doubted by the other Death Eaters.

So no matter what, this time Draco was going to have to compete in the tournament on his own.

After seeing that no questions were raised, Matthew glanced at the time on his pocket watch and, without further delay, officially began the inspection process before the tournament began.

They checked the wands and belongings of all four of them in turn, as they had done before, and it was worth noting that the herb held in the hands of both Draco and Emil was allowed to be held, and the item made using shards of Ashwinder snake eggshell and worn by Jon and Diane were allowed to be kept.

The second task is different from the first one as the champions are allowed to use magical items to the appropriate extent, and this appropriateness can only be as appropriate as the judging panel allows.

After making sure there were no other problems, at nine o'clock in the morning, Matthew announced in front of all the students, professors and journalists around that Jon and the others could proceed with their pre-tournament preparations.

It didn't take long for Jon to figure out exactly what this so-called pre-tournament preparation was; it was a period of time specifically reserved for them to figure out how to break the Black Lake ice fast.

During this time, the four champions were not allowed to attack each other.

Such a rule in disguise was restricting Jon, because if the task was announced straight away, the ice surface of the Black Lake would surely turn into a battle royale stage.

It didn't matter if they got the pearls or not, they would just do it and eliminate everyone else, and the person who won would end up first in the second task.

To avoid this, there was a period of preparation before the task, and the task would only begin once the champions had gone underwater.

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