45 Chapter 43 - Heading to Hogsmeade

***** Regular Chapter ***** A/N: Ok so I figured I'd answer this here, so its more visible. So in the actual game, the 3rd trial features you in the 'beetle and the bard' book, running around and avoiding/fighting death and his minions with the 3 deathly hallows, trying to find your 'friend' (in the book) - This friend in the actual 3rd trial is Headmistress Fitzgerald, but by the time you catch up to her, you find her at her funeral, already dead. The original point of the 'beetle and the bard' fairytale, and the reason the keepers used it as a trial, was that it was supposed to teach a lesson about inevitability and greed. That even with the power of the deathly hallows, you still cannot out run Death. Took me 4 playthroughs and a lot of research to really understand that 3rd quest. Anyways, hope you all enjoy! *****

Khan appeared in a flash, by the entrance to the Forbidden Forest, having used the Floo Flames network to get closer to Hogsmeade village.

After gathering his bearings, he began making his way towards Hogsmeade, putting up his various posters/sign-up sheets along his route.

Both himself and Flitwick, had been hard at work planning all the logistics surrounding the tournament. Finally 1 month later, they were finally ready to hold the event.

Wanting THE SUMMONER'S CUP to be successful, Khan himself had donated Over 1000 Galleons to the event, with prizes going to the top 8 competitors, and a bonus prize going towards the most creative outfit.

He had even commissioned a Trophy to be created for the eventual winner of the entire event, that cost over 500 galleons alone to make.

A Giant Chalice made of Goblin Silver, it was adorned with Blue Sapphire Crystals, and was quite large and flashy in appearance. At approximately 30 inches tall, Khan ensured that the Trophy would be worthy of representing the Tournament Name itself. (A/N: ya.... I just made it the actual Summoner's Cup from League of Legends Esports.... RITO don't ban my account plz LOL)

The cup itself was front and center on his Poster and sign up sheets, and Khan was hopeful that the prizes and trophy itself would aid in ensuring his tournament's popularity.

Sticking them up while walking to Hogsmeade, Khan littered the pathway with his various posters and sign-up sheets, ensuring nobody would miss them.

Along the way, he was slowed down by various inquisitive students asking about his posters and the subsequent tournament, not to mention numerous fans, all asking for his autograph.

He had even spotted a few of them wearing some new badges saying 'Support Jordan Khan!'

He was rather flattered with all the attention, truth be told.

Luckily for him, his girl fans had not yet formed. He figured most of them were already out in Hogsmeade, shopping with their respective friends, which he was thankful for.

Unfortunately, this wasn't completely true, as Khan was unaware that Rita Skeeter had released her article on the Weighing of the Wands recently.

Needless to say, this girlfans were more than slightly jealous at reading and seeing the various articles.

Khan had almost reached Hogsmeade village, when he spotted a familiar bushy head of hair.

"Hey Hermione!" Khan called out in greetings, accelerating his pace, trying to catch up to her.

She appeared to be walking alone, without either of her best friends, talking to herself. So Khan took it upon himself to catch up and accompany her for a bit.

She was, after all, the first friend he had made, that was similar in age, to himself, during this era.

"Oh! Um….. Hi Professor Khan." Hermione greeted him back, albeit somewhat strangely.

"Hermione…." Khan teased, not minding her awkwardness. He had just caught her talking to herself after all. "We are not even in Hogwarts anymore, let alone classes! Why do you insist on calling me by my title?"

"I'm sorry Jordan… force of habit." She apologized, looking off to the side blushing slightly.

"No harm done!" Khan waved her off, clearly indicating he was only teasing with a suave smile. "I couldn't help but notice your teeth by the way…. Did you get them done?"

Khan had realized while she had responded to him, that her originally large front teeth had now shrunken down to a normal adequate size.

"Oh….. well actually…"

Hermione went on to tell him all about the incident between Malfoy, Harry and herself, as they entered Hogsmeade village, Khan still idly putting up posters while listening.

Apparently there were also buttons that were being worn around, that said 'Potter Stinks' instead of 'Support Jordan Khan' like he had seen earlier in his walk.

Apparent, Malfoy had attempted to give Hermione one, also offending her in the process, calling her a mudblood.

'Seems like bigotry still runs deep in this age…' Khan mumbled to himself disgustedly.

Harry of course kept to her defence, but the conflict escalated into a magical confrontation, during which, Hermione got hit by a stray spell, making her front teeth grow even larger than they were originally.

Hermione went on to confess, as Khan accompanied her into Honeydukes, that when she had visited Madam Pomfrey to get her teeth fixed, since they had grown to an abnormally large size, Hermione had simply allowed her to fix her teeth, as she saw fit.

Which, unfortunately for Hermione's parents (who were dentists - she described them as teeth medi-wizard equivalents) meant that they were fixed and adjusted back to normal size magically.

Khan grinned at Hermione's clever use of with-holding information. She could not get in trouble with her parents, for something that she did not do herself.

'Smart girl…' Khan complimented her in his head, as he purchased sweets for the pair of them before they exited Honeydukes, planning on heading to the 3 Broomsticks to grab a few mugs of Butterbeer.

Walking out of the shop, Khan meanwhile was quite surprised by the price of sweets.

Originally, similar to the price of potion ingredients, costing up to 150 galleons for simple common ingredients, various Honeydukes sweets and candies were upwards of 10 galleons each, with some of the fancier ones costing him up to 50 galleons.

Now however, it appeared that he was able to buy numerous amounts of sweets for both Hermione as well as himself, for a total of only 2 galleons.

Khan could only imagine the state of the economy, if the price of common goods had fallen that much.

'Perhaps I set the prize totals too high….' Khan thought of his tournament prizes in comparison to the new converted costs. 'Honeydukes alone was almost 10 times cheaper….."

Khan was now realizing that 500 galleons was now quite the large sum of money, if the prices of Honeydukes was any indication.

Khan lost in his thoughts, it felt to him like They both arrived quite quickly to the 3 broomsticks. It appeared busy already, full of eager Hogwarts students, all enjoying their free afternoon.

Khan went ahead to order and grab their drinks, Hermione requesting 2 for some reason, before she went off to reserve a table.

The bar being quite busy, Khan had to wait for a little bit, before he was finally able to order and receive his drinks.

Walking around, carry 3 mugs of butterbeer, Khan looked all over, before finally spotting Hermione, apparently talking to Moody and Hagrid.

"-ice ter see yeh, Hermione!" Hagrid tried to wink sneakily at her, but failed due to his large size, as Khan noticed right away. "Prof. Khan, good ter see yeh too! Yeh two enjoy now!

Hermione blushed in response, while Moody's magical eye whirled around to view the arriving Khan.

"Granger. Khan." Moody grunts at them in farewell, before limping off accompanied by Hagrid.

Khan shakes his head at the odd encounter, but thinks nothing of it, before sitting down and handing over Hermione's 2 drinks, before continuing with his previous conversation.

"Well I must say, it does look great!" He compliments her giving a thumbs up after she had finished her story, the 2 of them now settled into a booth.

Hermione blushes in response not really knowing how to reply.

Khan was quiet the entire walk from Honeydukes to the 3 Broomsticks, and this compliment appeared to come out of nowhere.

Hermione didn't know of course, Khan was in his Nerd mode, thinking about the economy, and naturally had jumped back to their previous conversation about her teeth, as if no time had passed.

Naturally Hermione didn't mind the silence DURING the walk, as she was whispering to a Invisibility Cloaked Harry, who was staying hidden to avoid bullying during this Hogsmeade visit.

She felt quite bad for Harry, as she was supposed to be accompanying him…. However she was simply enjoying her time with Khan too much to really pay much attention to Harry.

This resulted in Harry complaining about not getting any Honeydukes sweets, and pestering her to at least get him Butterbeer.

She had agreed of course, before whispering at him to stay quiet and hidden…. She didn't want to be interrupted after all.

Khan, in the present time, was watching Hermione blushing and decided to press on, deciding now was as good a time as any to ask about her missing friends. She appeared to be in a better mood at least, now that he was accompanying her.

"Now care to tell me why are alone, talking to yourself, on this fine Hogsmeade day? Your best friends abandon you or something?" Khan asked.

"Well.... Ron of course is still being a prat about the entire thing." Hermione started complaining, truly upset that her best friends were fighting. "And Harry.... well he's avoiding the crowds."

She glanced awkwardly to her side once again, before continuing. "He's been the focus of a lot of negative rumors lately, especially with the recent Daily Prophet articles from Rita."

Khan looked surprised at her news, so Hermione produced the paper she had folded up to save, before presenting it to him.

Khan looked over the paper with slight amusement.

Harry had been the main focus of Rita's article, with much of the front page being given over to a picture of Harry, and a majority of the article being about Harry's life story, rather than it was the Triwizard tournament.

Khan and Fleur meanwhile were relegated to page 7 of the newspaper, their article written in such a way, that it presented them as a budding couple, with Fleur a foreign seductress sent to bring Khan back to France, and bring another noble family away from magical Britain.

There was barely any mention of Krum, his name only appearing squashed into the last line of the article about Khan and Fleur.

Khan looked over the small photograph of Him and Fleur. The Khan in the photo seemed rather happy with the Fleur in the photo, the 2 of them whispering to each other, laughing intimately, as the magical photograph was of course animated, as usual.

'Wow... even the photo makes us look like a couple..... the newspapers are getting better at fabricating stories it seems.' Khan mumbled to himself.

Familiar with propaganda, Khan knew it's effectiveness, especially with public perception, upon which one's reputation was built.

He had to give it to Rita.... it truly was a believable story.

Moving back to Harry's rather large article, Khan read a few lines in amusement, Rita having exaggerated and made up a lot of the interview.

'I suppose I get my strength from my parents. I know they'd be very proud of me if they could see me now... Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them, I'm not ashamed to admit it.... I know nothing will hurt me during the tournament, because they're watching over me'

Khan snorted in laughter.

It seemed Rita truly liked to take 'writer's liberty' when it came to interpreting Harry's life and his responses.

'Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl, who like Harry, is one of the top students in the school.'

"Oh are you and Harry now dating?" Khan asked as he finished up with the articles, looking at a blushing Hermione with a grin, who rejected that idea right away.

"NO!" She roared. "We're best friends! We're not dating! She's lying!"

"Oh then is she also 'lying' about how 'stunningly pretty' you are?" Khan continued teasing, clearly amused with his flustered friend.

"Well what about you and Fleur then?!?" Hermione decided to fire back, teasing Khan in equal measure. "Has she snared you with her Seductive wiles, and successfully convinced you to follow her back to France?"

She was rather curious about Khan and Fleur. It bothered her that Khan might be getting too intimate with the foreign Veela.

Truthfully, she was just jealous at the straightforwardness of the French woman.

"Touché.... and no she hasn't!" Khan replied as he laughed.

They continued teasing each other, and Khan found he was enjoying this back and forth.

Time quickly passed, and Khan realized he still had to visit his shop, him having spent most of his day putting up posters, and accompanying Hermione.

"I hate to cut this lovely conversation short, but I need to head to my Hogsmeade shop after this." Khan interjected, as he finished his most recent mug of Butterbeer.

"Can I accompany you?" Hermione asked, eager to see this shop of her friend.

"If you wish..." Khan replied. "Although I must warn you, it might get a little boring, while I am taking care of business."

Khan was not too worried about his shop. With Fastidio there, he doubted that anyone would've attempted to take it over, even after 100 years abandoned.

Not to mention he had Poppy there, the House-elf that had come with his shop.

Even though he had freed Poppy, she had insisted on staying to care for the shop; Although Khan doubted she was still alive, he was hopeful that her descendants had stayed to care for his shop, similar to her.

Deep in his memories, and accompanied by Hermione (and a cloaked Harry), Khan made his way through the Hogsmeade streets, heading towards Stitches and Draughts.