Chapter 297: The Family-Hunter Strikes! Barty Jr: Strange, Why Was I Chosen?
In the stands, the students stared in shock at the colossal creature.
Even at this distance, its sheer presence pressed down on them.
The thing rising from the lake might as well have been a mountain. Its massive tentacles churned thousands of tons of water with casual sweeps, and a rank, briny stench spread across the shore.
The merpeople who had been prowling angrily near the surface all vanished into deeper water.
"Galloping Gorgons… what is that?" Lee Jordan's voice shook, giving words to everyone's thoughts.
"There have always been rumours of a great monster in the Black Lake… but who knew it was something out of legend like this?"
The impact was easily on par with the black dragon.
"It was that that hauled me out!" Dennis Creevey shouted, pointing at the Kraken, practically vibrating with excitement.
He and his brother Colin both had their cameras out, shutters clicking nonstop.
At the start of the term, Dennis had fallen into the lake by accident.
A tentacle had scooped him up and dropped him safely back in the boat.
"So it is not Ethan's art piece," Harry said slowly.
Hermione nodded. "No. Giant squids really do exist. The books do not say they get this big, though."
It had probably been here since the school was founded, a millennium ago.
A pet of the Four Founders, bound to protect the school.
That was why it had not dragged Dennis under and eaten him, but lifted him out instead.
No student or teacher had ever been able to command it. Not even Hagrid.
Judging by the way Hagrid looked ready to fling himself into the lake just for a chance to be picked up, that much was obvious.
"But Ethan managed it," Hermione whispered, eyes blazing.
"He found a way to make the giant squid show itself and help run the task."
Ethan's word carried weight on par with the Founders'.
Hermione flushed hot with excitement. "Amazing. It is too amazing."
"If only I could catch up to that kind of blazing light, and stand beside him…"
Harry and Ron looked at one another.
They both swallowed back the urge to say that in Hermione's mind, that "blazing light" was one good flare away from burning everyone else to a crisp.
Out on the lake, the champions facing the monster for real were not nearly so impressed.
"We thought the second task might be easier without a dragon," a Durmstrang champion shouted hoarsely. "This is worse!"
A giant squid above, merpeople below.
Ethan, I am checking your family tree when this is over.
And the Ministry officials. Who had authorised this?
"Achoo!"
Down on the organiser's platform, Ludo Bagman sneezed, then clutched his head in despair.
The glory of the Bagman family was clearly going to end with him.
It was not that he did not want to stop Ethan.
He simply could not.
The boy was the new star of the Ministry. No one wanted to be the one to say no.
Minister Fudge, please come back.
While everyone was still reeling from Hogwarts "pulling the boss," Fleur suddenly screamed and pointed at the Kraken.
"T‑that is my sister!"
"It has my sister!"
The Kraken's tentacles were wrapped around several limp figures.
Mr Diggory. Mr Lovegood.
Even relatives from overseas, dragged here from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons.
A proper kin‑hunter.
Very much in line with Ethan's inhuman style.
"Father…"
Cedric's pupils shrank as he stared at the round, familiar figure.
Beside him, Neville all but folded in half, howling, "Gran!"
Krum's brows drew together.
The more he looked, the more familiar this setup felt.
This was what Death Eaters did.
Only this time it was all above board, in front of the Ministry and three Headmasters.
He had taken the champions' families hostage in full public view, something no Dark Lord had ever managed.
"Kudos," Krum muttered. "Ethan, you are not to be underestimated."
"One third of the time has already passed."
Ethan's clear voice, ringing like spring water over stone, floated down from the sky.
He stood casually on the invisible Glass Bridge, looking down at them with bright blue eyes.
In his hand, the rose under glass had already shed several petals.
"Time…" Fleur whispered, horror in her eyes. "When time is up, you will never see your loved ones again."
Reason said Ethan would not truly kill anyone.
Instinct said this newborn sun just might.
"Our goal is not to kill the monster any more," Fleur shouted. "We have to save them, quickly!"
She looked desperately toward her sister.
Then stopped.
"Eh?"
She frowned and peered more closely.
Something felt wrong.
In the Kraken's grip, the "sister" in the Beauxbatons robes had the faintest curl at the corner of her mouth.
A strange, wicked little smile tugged at that childlike face.
That was not Fleur's sister at all.
It was Barty Crouch Junior under Polyjuice.
Pretending to be unconscious, letting the Kraken "capture" him.
He had slipped into the heart of the task.
Waiting for his chance to kill Ethan.
It was a risky gambit.
One misstep and everything would fall apart.
Even Barty Jr. had not expected it to go this smoothly.
"It is all thanks to Mr Lamp," he thought, exhilarated.
"If not for his help, I would never have infiltrated this easily."
To meddle with security this tight, in a task this closely watched, as if he were running the event himself.
Astounding.
"This time I will not fail Mr Lamp or the Dark Lord," he vowed. "I will kill Ethan."
"All it will take is one Avada Kedavra."
He ground his back teeth.
He knew the entire flow of the task now. There was no way to lose.
"Ah!"
"Damn it! You lot are attacking us?"
"The Black Egg is broken!"
The panicked shouts snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Black Egg?" he muttered, frowning.
What was that?
Bagman had not mentioned anything about it.
The unfamiliar word scraped across his nerves.
A bad feeling crawled up his spine.
A heartbeat later, it proved right.
There was a tiny, sharp crack.
Boom.
Power exploded.
The blast almost peeled the skin off his face.
Barty Jr. jerked, eyes bulging.
On the Beauxbatons' side of the lake, the girls were shouting in anger and fear.
Beside them, something surged up.
Black mist billowed skyward, dense and choking.
Like a hundred Dementors spilling from a single point, it poured out and spread, hanging over the champions' heads and dimming the very light from the sky.
The dark water turned darker still.
A screech tore out of the cloud, inhuman and shrill.
The champions clapped their hands over their ears, faces twisting. It was like claws raking glass, a sound that scraped straight down to the bone.
"What is that?" Barty Jr. choked.
He stared, stunned.
Bagman had never said there would be any monster besides the Kraken.
Had Ethan added this too?
Why?
Well. He was the chief architect of the task, and the Ministry's hand‑picked "new saviour."
He did have the right to do as he pleased.
"It is fine," Barty Jr. told himself, swallowing, forcing his panic back down.
"That thing cannot touch me. The more chaos, the better my chances. It is good for me."
The words had barely formed in his head when the black mist twisted.
And rushed straight at him.