Chapter 343: Chapter 342 The Entrance of the Valley (2 in 1)
"Someone from Palmer Sports Magical Item Supply wrote to complain that our final payment has not been settled, urging us to pay them the rest of the galleons quickly since the tournament has started."
The night after the official start of the first tournament task, Matthew was in the common room Voldemort had prepared just for him in Hogwarts Castle, listening to the assistant beside him give him a briefing on the preparations for the tournament.
"Tell them to wait two more days, when the first tournament task is completely finished, the final payment will naturally no longer be owed to them. Also, why have I never heard of this Sports Magic Firm before? Shouldn't the normal supply of tournament items be provided by the official Department of Magical Games and Sports?"
Faced with Matthew's question, the assistant showed a difficult expression but ultimately answered.
"Regarding the competition equipment for the first tournament task, it was Mr Rahman who took the initiative to contract this business, and he said that this Palmer Sports Magic Item Supply Firm was owned by a friend of his, and the quality of the goods provided were all guaranteed."
Matthew frowned.
"That's the nature of these Middle Easterners, they want to do business no matter where they are. Why wasn't I told about this earlier?"
"You weren't in charge of the purchasing side of the tournament before, sir, but of course, if you need to investigate that information now, I can go and prepare it now."
"There's no need for you to make preparations now, but you'd better go and alert Rahman first thing in the morning that if anything goes wrong with the first tournament task that was not meant to be, he'll have to expect my impeachment in the Confederation."
***
The place that Cedric had brought Jon to was indeed a remote area at the very edge of the Forbidden Forest.
In front of them, the Ukrainian Ironbelly was positioned exactly in the direction of a valley entrance, and to enter the valley, one had to either pass through this dragon's territory or climb the steep mountain rocks.
For a human with dexterous limbs, climbing is not an impossible task, and with the aid of magic, a wizard can, in just a short time, circumvent the dragon and climb up to the other side of the valley.
However, the same could not be said for the Centaur, whose upper body resembled that of a human, but whose lower body resembled that of a horse, whose four hooves might be able to walk on flat ground, but it was difficult to climb the mountain.
"There are three exits like this one, and apart from this one which is occupied by an Ironbelly, the other two are guarded by another Ukrainian Ironbelly and a Norwegian Ridgeback respectively."
As Jon surveyed the terrain, Cedric also informed Jon in full of what he had found here last night.
"Just three exits in total, and they all happen to be blocked."
Jon cupped his chin and looked at the Ukrainian Ironbelly lying a short distance away through the moonlight, obviously maintaining a certain amount of suspicion at such a coincidence.
But suspicion aside, Jon didn't give up on his promise to Cedric that he would act.
He looked at the Ironbelly as he slowly jerked his wand around.
"If we want to get this exit open, then the least we can do is get this dragon out of where it is now, and then immobilise it,"
Cedric subconsciously swallowed as he looked at the behemoth in the moonlight.
"Last night, I tried to lure it away from here for a while and then contact Firenze, so he could escape from the valley with the rest of the Centaurs, but the dragon seemed so lazy that my spell didn't seem to bother it at all, and it didn't even open its eyes to look at me for a moment when it was hit."
There was a clear note of frustration in his tone, but Jon wasn't surprised by it.
The dragon hide's magical immunity ranked at the top even among all other magical creatures, like the Manticore he had fought off during the day, which had also been known for its extremely magic-resistant hide defence, only suffered a few physical wounds from Jon's enhanced version of the Invisible Sword Curse, which would have shredded a normal magical creature to pieces.
Even if Jon ignored the fact that a judge would use a Prior Incantato charm on his wand after the tournament to check for used spells, using a killing curse directly on the behemoth in front of them would still be unlikely to kill it.
So when resorting to brute force didn't do the trick, Jon had to find a way to outsmart it.
"You said earlier that in addition to the two Ukrainian Ironbellys, there is also an entrance that is occupied by a Norwegian Ridgeback?"
Cedric nodded.
"That's right."
"Come on, let's go to that Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon and check it out."
With Hoss as their transport, they were soon on the other side of the valley, where another dragon also lay at the entrance, only this one was much "smaller" than the Ukrainian Ironbelly.
The Norwegian Ridgeback is similar in size to the Hungarian Horntail and is considered one of the most aggressive dragon species in the world, but compared to the Ukrainian Ironbelly, its size is considerably smaller, without being overly large and fleshy.
If he were to choose a target to deal with, then Jon felt that this Ridgeback would be the best option.
But even against the Ridgeback Dragon, Jon was not going to do it by force, he had already experienced how powerful the defence of these dragons was when he had dealt with the other dragons while collecting the golden flying snitches this afternoon, normal spells did not affect them at all, the only vulnerable point of defence on the dragons were their eyes.
As long as a spell could hit their eyes, they could circumvent the thick dragon hide and let the magic work directly on them.
So, Jon planned to use some trickery.
He and Cedric hid behind a tree, and then he waved his wand.
"Expecto Patronum."
Silvery light gathered around him and soon a male lion and a small badger appeared silently in front of him.
Watching this sight of Jon summoning the Patronus Cedric's eyes widened, there were many rumours about Jon that he had heard in Hogwarts castle.
Some said he would be the number one criminal under Dumbledore and would love nothing more than to kill wizard students with bloodlines and then take their skulls as collectables.
Others claimed that Jon Green had been using the Unforgivable Curse to kill people, and he would become sick to the bone if he didn't use the Killing Curse to kill someone for a day.
Some even went so far as to say that he is an adult wizard using Polyjuice potions to pretend to be a child every now and then, but in reality, he is a puppet that Dumbledore uses to put on a show.
Not everyone in Hogwarts castle had their own independent thinking like Cedric, who in private actually rarely bothered to read the Daily Prophet's news, instead collecting newspapers from other magical societies in Europe and learning quite a bit about what was being said that differed from what was being said in Britain.
Cedric knew that Jon was not as unscrupulous as the rumours made him out to be, and the two Patronus summons alone were proof enough of his character, as no dark wizard could successfully learn the Patronus Charm, and none of the professors within the entire Hogwarts castle, according to what he had suspected, would be able to use it.
But the two Patronus still gave Cedric a great shock, not only because summoning two Patronus at the same time was simply unheard of, but more crucially because he knew the history of the former Hogwarts and was well aware of what the Lion and the Badger represented to this school.
Jon had noticed his shocked expression too but wasn't too bothered about it.
Because even Dumbledore had worn basically the same look when he had first seen his two Patronus during the holidays.
Patronus is known to change according to the caster's heart, which not only means that each person's Patronus is not set in stone, but is a strong indication that the animal forms summoned by the spell are a direct manifestation of the wizard's inner self.
And the lion and the badger represent two noble characters found in the past Hogwarts Houses.
And Jon's Patronus is clearly special, not simply because there are two of them, but crucially because the lion and the badger can have a direct effect on reality as if they are two real animals.
While Dumbledore developed the Patronus charm in depth for the Order of the Phoenix wizards to learn to use Patronus as a means of transmitting messages in place of themselves, this was only done later by improving the charm and the magic itself.
Jon's Patronus, on the other hand, was somewhat unusual as it had been summoned with these differences from the very beginning.
But even someone as knowledgeable as Dumbledore could not figure out why Jon's Patronus had these special characteristics, other than determining that such a change was certainly not a bad thing for Jon, at least his Patronus charm could be used in more places, such as helping him to keep most of the Death Eaters at bay when he was at the North Pole.
In the present, the two Patronus could likewise give Jon more help as well.
After being summoned, without Jon needing to verbalise anything to them, the lion and badger parted and charged towards the Norwegian Ridgeback.
Their bodies glowed with a soft silver light at night, so they were spotted at first instance by the Ridgeback, which had been alert even during its resting time, as they dashed out from behind the trees.
"Roar!"
It roared as it rose from the ground, the ground trembling around it, and Jon's two Patronus appeared very dwarfed in front of a behemoth like it.
The Ridgeback Dragon was flanked by dozens of golden flying snitches, fluttering their alchemical wings and flying around it at speeds inscrutable to the naked eye.
Jon patted Hoss, whose body jerked under the dragon's roar and subconsciously tried to find a place to hide first.
"Don't be afraid, I'll hold the dragon back, you take Cedric and charge into the valley and find the Centaur, or at least make contact with them first."
Hoss turned his head to look at Cedric and couldn't help but snort, his small and big eyes clearly revealed his dislike, and his body, which was several times larger than Jon's, actually leaned towards him in a small birdlike manner.
This caused Jon to slap him on his bald head.
"You don't like people anymore! Don't blame me for not reminding you that almost all the Centaurs hiding in this valley are children and women right now, they just need an extra push to breed, maybe one of the pretty young maidens will take a liking to you if you show up like a hero?"
At the sound of Jon's enticing words, Hoss's eyes lit up, his powerful fantasies already making him think about whether his future child with the pretty young maiden would have a horse head and body or a human head and horse body.
Cedric, on the other hand, looked at Hoss, who was suddenly very active and agitated, he had only thought that this Pegasus was just a little bit unique looking, but he had never thought that it could play so... Fancy.
Before he could get back to his senses, Jon had already started urging Cedric to get on Hoss's back as well.
"You go ahead and find those Centaurs, I'll be right behind you."
Cedric wasn't thinking about abandoning or not abandoning at this point in time, he was clear enough to know that he wouldn't be of much help to Jon here, and on the contrary, might be holding him back.
"I'll find Firenze and get some help from them."
He rode on Hoss's back, and before he could finish his sentence, Jon waved his wand and smacked Hoss's horse's bottom, causing it to turn into a gust of wind, then the man and horse together, making a dash in the direction of the Ridgeback Dragon that was being pestered by the two Patronus.
In a blink of an eye, Hoss passed the Norwegian Ridgeback and took Cedric into the valley.
And Jon came out from behind the trees at this time and looked over at the dragon that was being entangled by the lion and the badger.
For a dragon that would be considered to be at the top of the food chain, even if the Patronus Jon had summoned had the strength and aggression of a normal animal, it would hardly be able to do any effective damage to it.
But Patronus are not exactly real creatures of substance, and even if Jon's Patronus can do physical damage, in the end, they are both still conjured by a charm made up of magical power.
No matter how much the Norwegian Ridgeback tried to tear them apart with its claws or spewed out dragon breath to roast them, it never got any results from the battle.
Even if the lion and the badger were unable to do much effective damage to it, they still made it feel sick as if they were two flies that could not be swatted.
Just as its attention had been all drawn to the two Patronus, Jon raised his wand and aimed it at the Ridgeback's eyes!
"Confringo!"
Instead of using a Conjunctivitis Curse, Jon went straight for the curse he could cast with the fastest speed, the Blasting Curse!
A huge explosion rang out directly around the Ridgeback Dragon's eyes, its extremely fast reaction speed made it close its eyelids the moment the explosion was created, but as the weakest part of its defence, even with its eyelids closed, the spell still caused damage to it.
----
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