Chapter 146: Argog and the Other Tournament

[The chapter is edited by Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

"Wait! Stop!"

A clutter of Acromantulas surrounding Quinn were attacking him with the sole desire to feast on his flesh. They were trying hard to get a taste of human flesh and blood, but stopped when they heard a word from a voice. With piercing cackles and shrieks, they protested against getting held back, but a louder, more piercing, mighty shrill screech made them cower and bend their eight legs in submission.

The human, on the other hand, exhaled a deep breath, releasing a small puff of icy mist into the air, and with it, dozens of ice spears manifested into the dark surrounding, gleaming in the spiders' eight-set eyes.

'That was, ugh,' thought Quinn, refraining his hands to go to his ears, 'so damn harsh!' He moved towards the source of the shrill to see a bigger, meaner, bulkier Acromantula slowly creeping towards him as the crowd of regular Acromantula parted way for the eight-legged elephant-sized monstrosity.

'Wait, wait, wait...' thought Quinn with a mental chuckle of disbelief, 'Isn't this one too big?' The ice spikes around him rotated to face the new arrival, but in the face of the arachnid, they were akin to thin ice picks.

"Human..." There was grey in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head were milky white. It was blind.

"... You must be the one who is called Aragog," said Quinn, raising his chin to peer at the leader of the Acromantula colony composed of all of his sons and daughters.

"That I am," he said, clicking his pincers rapidly. "Why have you entered my home, human?" He looked around, and with his eight white eyes, he made a sidelong glance around his children. "... Not only that, but you dare to harm my children. Give me a reason why I shouldn't kill you on the spot."

Aragog could sense that some of his children were gravely injured; a few of those not in any condition to live much longer, but he showed no grief for them. This was the Forbidden Forest: the strong lived, and the weak perished.

"I want to venture inside to get to the cursed vault," said Quinn, his voice amplified and distorted, ringing inside a silent forest.

"So? Why should I care about it?"

"Do I look like I care about what you think? I don't give a shit about what you and your children think or want."

The entire cluster of spiders stepped closer to Quinn, their pincers clicking rapidly and continuously, filling the forest with a sickening noise capable of bringing shivers down the spine of most people.

"Don't test your luck, human. I can make your death… not so swift," spoke Aragog, the fangs inside his mouth gleaming as he calmly snarled.

"Oh, yeah?" scoffed Quinn, taking the provocation as a chance to pump magic into his spikes, enlarging them as ice creaked and cracked while manifesting. "Bring it on; let's see who comes out alive. I like that hide of yours; maybe I will strip it off your carcass."

The colossal arachnid didn't make any moves or spoke anything in reply. The eight blind eyes focused on the vague figure of Quinn. His pincers were slowly opening and closing. Before long, Aragog clicked his pincers once for a fast and crisp noise to shatter the pregnant silence.

"Hmph, cursed vault you say..." Aragog scoffed with derision. "Humans have always been dull-brained. Go. I am looking forward to the day you die and rot inside."

Aragog screeched and clicked his pincers, and it seemed to be an order to his children because the Acromantula retreated away from Quinn, shooting webs above to the trees, climbing up to disappear in the dark forage of forest. Leaving Aragog and Quinn on the ground as they kept watch upon the two.

"Beware, human, if you come out injured. Neither me nor my children like you. Should we get a scent of your blood wafting around, we will drag you to our nest," there was a gleeful tenor in his voice as he too made webs up to climb up the forage, "I look forward to the day when I get to taste your flesh and blood... I hope the day comes soon."

Aragog, the Acromantula, disappeared and left before Quinn could say anything.

"Yeah, run, you better run, big freak," grumbled Quinn. He waved his hand and the ice spikes puffed in a cold mist.

He moved his gaze towards the fallen Acromantulas, which had gotten too injured in the fight for them to move. They were heavily wounded and, as such, were now thrown out of the colony.

"The law of the jungle, huh," muttered Quinn moving towards the fallen. Noticing Quinn approaching, the Acromantula's eight eyes shifted towards him.

"Human..." said the spider with four twisted legs.

Quinn stared down at the spider, which he had ended up injuring. He matched eyes with the arachnid and nodded,

"Yeah, I understand..."

"... Thank you."

Quinn extended his hand towards the spider as he looked up above at the leaves, ignoring the Acromantula eyes peering down at him. He looked past them and breathed out.

*Crack…*

Closing his eyes, Quinn heard the silence of the forest before looking down. Laid near his feet was the lifeless body of the spider. The eight-set of dull, wholly black eyes with no whites were looking as if staring at him.

He turned his head to the left to see the inner depth of the place he had come to call the Underworld. He realised there were more and more blackened trees, greyish ground, and dull grass. And perhaps it was because of his transfigured eyes, but Quinn felt that the Underworld was more lifeless than the last time. To his right was the path that led him to the outside; he could see the brightness inviting him to move towards it in the distance. The trail led back to the brighter portion of the Forbidden Fore with plenty of lights to light up the surroundings.

He sighed. The mood to go left deeper into the Underworld had disappeared. Right now, he wanted to go back to the castle and relax. But before that, he had work to do. He turned away from the spider body and walked a few steps before..

*Crack*... *Crack*... *Crack*...

- (Scene Break) -

Inside a classroom in the Transfiguration wing of the castle stood four people, looking at each other apprehensively. From the looks of it, they weren't happy to be in the same room. The four were dressed in similar black robes and grey uniforms beneath. The only difference was the colour of the trims present on the robes and the personalization in the uniform; Red and Gold, Blue and Bronze, Yellow and Black, Green and Silver.

"Why in the world are we called here?" asked the person dressed in Green and Silver. He was known to the students for his ever-present mocking smirk, but currently, his face was locked in an uncomfortable expression as he stared at the other three.

"I have no idea," said the girl dressed in Red and Gold, shaking her head. She had been nervous coming here, but when the girl saw her company, she calmed down.

"I have no idea, but we can pretty much assume what this is about," shrugged the boy in Blue and Bronze. Slight intelligence flashed in his eyes as he observed the pattern he saw in the people with him.

"Well, he is the one who called us. I'm sure he has something important to say," spoke the boy dressed in yellow and black. If he had been in another group, his lovely smile would have charmed others, but the other three just wanted to bash his face in just so that they wouldn't need to see it.

Before it opened, there was a knock on the door for another person dressed in Blue and Bronze to enter the room. He gazed at them, and a smile bloomed on his face as if joyous to see them all.

"Pucey, Johnson, Davies, and Diggory," said the black-haired boy in a pleased tone, "I'm glad you've accepted my invitation. I was worried that you might be busy."

The four watched as their inviter, Quinn West, fifth-year Ravenclaw, stood by the door, looking at them. He turned his head outside the room and said, "Everyone is here; you can enter."

The four watched with confusion and curiosity, wondering who Quinn was talking to. Two people enter the room; one blond posh-looking boy and a flamboyant brunette girl.

Quinn took out his fake wand and waved it once, for seven chairs to be pulled out from the room's corner. The seven chairs circularly arranged themselves in the center of the room. He nonchalantly pulled a chair and sat down, making himself comfortable.

"Sit down. We have a lot to discuss," he said, causing others to look at him as he acted like this classroom was his home.

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"West, why did you call me here? I'm busy," grumbled Adrian Pucey, sixth-year Slytherin. He looked at the other Hogwarts student and sneered, "and you invited these plebs to come here."

"Who do you think you're calling a pleb, snake," sneered Roger Davies, sixth-year Ravenclaw, looking defiantly at Pucey as if ready to fight.

"You both should calm down," sighed Quinn, pointing to the two who came with him, "we have guests."

Angelina Johnson looked at the two unfamiliar people and asked, "You are from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, right?"

"Yes," said the flamboyant girl in heavily accented English, dressed casually with her legs crossed as she leaned into the back of her chair, "Kari Haugen, from Durmstrang. I'm seventeen years old."

The posh-looking blonde boy seeing Kari introducing herself, also decided to introduce himself, "Good evening, my name is Albert Acy, seventh-year, Beauxbatons, at your service."

"I'm guessing that all of you are interested in the reason why you were called here," said Quinn addressing their primary source of curiosity about this gathering.

"Given that all of us here are the captains for the house Quidditch teams. I can safely assume that it's about Quidditch," offered Cedric as he looked at the people present in the room.

"Nothing less expected from the champion," said Quinn, lightly clapping, "Yes, you're correct. It's related to Quidditch." He pointed at the two foreign students and continued, "These two are also Quidditch players from their respective schools... They are both captains. They will be my contact with their schools."

"Not Krum?" asked Roger Davies as he glanced at Kari.

Kari narrowed her eyes in response. "Yes, me and not Krum. Krum went pro. He has nothing to do with Durmstrang Quidditch anymore. Neither the school nor his pro-club team wants him to play at Dumrstrang."

Davies had the decency to look embarrassed after being indirectly berated.

"You've heard her," said Quinn, "The reason I have called you here is that I've been handed to manage the Quidditch season at Hogwarts this year —"

"West, you do know that Quidditch was canceled this year for the tournament, right?" said Angelina. She glanced towards Cedric at the mention of the tournament.

"Why are you all looking at me?! It's not my fault," protested Cedric when everyone, not just Angelina, gave him the same look.

Quinn chuckled at the scene before answering, "Ms. Johnson, the Quidditch house tournament might have been canceled, but that doesn't mean that we can't enjoy Quidditch this year. I've decided to continue with the theme of improving international relations and start a Quidditch tournament involving students from all three schools."

"What do you mean?" asked Adrian, confused.

"It will be a Quidditch tournament with the same rules, no difference there. Unlike our house tournaments that have only four teams, I have decided that there will be ten teams competing for the top spot, sounds good?" explained Quinn while observing how the others were taking it.

After everyone nodded, Quinn continued, "While this tournament is open to everyone, the teams will be decided by the ten team captains. They will be in charge of who they want to take in their teams. As there are ten teams, that means that seventy students will be participating in the Quidditch tournament."

The four Hogwarts captains, along with Kari and Albert, looked interested and excited about the idea. They had thought that they would be missing Quidditch this year, but from what Quinn was saying, it was looking like they would not only be playing Quidditch, but it would be a unique experience from their usual annual tournaments.

"Out of the ten team captains, six of them will be from Hogwarts, two of them will be from Beauxbatons, and the last two will be from Durmstrang," said Quinn and cut off Albert before he could speak, "Given the number of students at Hogwarts, this is fair... Also, I'm not finished. There are some conditions to build a team."

"What conditions?"

"First, let's talk about the Hogwarts teams. Let's say the captain is from Ravenclaw. Excluding them, there will be six more members. Out of those six members, only two members can be from Ravenclaw. As such, only 3 students can be from the same house as the captain."

"What?!" exclaimed Adrian, "You can't do that!"

Even the other Hogwarts house team captains looked uncomfortable with Quinn's conditions.

"I can do that and all other kinds of things. I have complete control over this tournament. To be blunt, I don't answer to any of the faculty members. If I wanted the snitch to be ten points instead of one-fifty, then that would be the official rules," said Quinn, leaving the others stunned.

"Let's continue," he said. "Out of the remaining four members, one each needs to be from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. That means two of the members from every team won't be from Hogwarts, allowing Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to have plenty of representation. Finally, the last two members can be chosen from other Hogwarts houses or from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. It's up to the team who they want."

Quinn turned to Kari and Albert and gave them their team building conditions, "Let' say if the captain is Kari. Then other than her, she can only recruit one other Dumrstrang member in her team. One of the team members must be from Beauxbatons, while the remaining four will be from Hogwarts. The condition on Hogwarts members is that out of those four members, only two can be from the same house."

His eyes glanced at every member of the team. He enjoyed their stunned expression.

"I know the first thing that popped in all your minds when I spoke about teams. All of you thought about entering your usual squads," said Quinn. "Four out of ten teams would've ended up being our house teams while at least two more would've been solely from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. I'm willing to bet a lot of money that the rest of the four would've gone the same way... But where's the fun in that? Let's try out something different while we have the chance."

"I have a few questions," spoke Cedric, a slight crease between his brows.

"Of course."

"I am assuming that we all are going to be captains," asked Cedric, pointing to the six Quidditch captains.

"Yes, all of you will get a team," answered Quinn, and seeing that it was Cedric who asked the question, Quinn notified him, "If you don't wish to participate, given that you're a champion, you can hand over your spot to another Hufflepuff."

Cedric nodded. The tasks hadn't been revealed; as such, Cedric didn't know if he would need to back out of the Quidditch tournament.

"My question is about the other two Hogwarts teams. With us four," said Cedric point at the house team captains, "every house gets one team each, but what about the other two? Which two houses get two teams?"

The house loyalty was strong in Hogwarts, so Quinn had expected the question, "It will be a lucky draw. I will have someone neutral pull the houses out."

"What about us?" asked Albert. "Who gets the second team from our schools?"

"Durmstrang's second team will go to Krum. Of course, he can opt-out." He then turned to Albert and asked, "Does Ms. Delacour play Quidditch?"

Albert shook his head in reply.

"I see. Please give me a recommendation," asked Quinn. He then looked at the captains and smiled, "Start recruiting people, captains. This is going to be different from your usual seasons. There's no continuity. You will be building everything from scratch."

Quinn West - MC - Challenger, organizer.

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Aragog - Acromantula - Power is the law. (exception = Hagrid)

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