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The odds 86 unbetaed (Patreon)

Published:
2021-08-01 08:50:09
Imported:
2021-09

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Okay, here is chapter 86 of The odds were never in my favour, which title is simple! The First Task.

Several precisions: this will be the September chapter of The odds; as said in announcement III a few hours ago, I am publishing it now as a reward for the support of all the faithful readers. 

It won't be betaed before that, first because I'm really busy, and second because this is the last chapter I've truly completed and I will have to advance into the story a bit more before feeling comfortable of the readers having caught up with me.

There's also a third, and this is that this chapter is big. Really big, at 19000+ words.

And yes, it is exceptional. Next chapter of this AU story will resume at a more 7000-10000 words immediately after, it's just that with all the things that needed to be developed for the First Task, the chapter was necessarily to be more akin to a double one than the normal standard.

Also I didn't want to include cliffhangers for this one. I had this chapter in mind for years, not the moment I began to write Alexandra's story, but months after that.

Now I think I have told everything I wanted to say...the European Magical Tournament can begin.

May the Odds be in your favour, Champions...

Comments

Anonymous

The first task was awesome, love that Romanova finally got taught she wasn't the best think since sliced bread.

Liedral

Eh.... Lol... she used the leviathan as a projectile. The poor creature, used as a harpoon twice.

Bel

Thank you for putting this out early, and best of luck with getting ahead of the unfortunate situation that you found yourself in. I really liked this chapter, especially with the larger word count allowing for more viewpoints as we got to see people react to the events of the first task. Poor Cedric and Hooper managed to come out alive but didn't necessarily put out a good showing, though I suppose Alexandra made up for that. The confrontation between the champion of Death and Chaos has to go down as both awe-inspiring and horrifying to some of the more 'normal' students. Even Dumbledore was gobsmacked at the lightning spell she put out or levitating the Levitiath (was he shocked that it was Alex doing those things, or the feats themselves? From the description of Dumbledore and Grindewald's duel in Hogsmede and the fact that it's been repeatedly mentioned that Dumbledore and Grindewald's duel had burned down half of Berlin, I would say he could duplicate those feats...but Alex is fourteen. He must be a bit afraid of how powerful she would be when she is fully grown.) It's great to see Alex get one over on Lumidila. I bet this is the first time her schoolmates have ever really seen her hampered before, so I expect that some suicidal idiot is going to try to jump her when she's 'weak, but then again, that's probably against the rules. The Gryffindors seem a bit shaken about how outclassed they are, and probably also realised how powerful Alex is for more than hearsay. I wonder what Lily thought of that, bet she's proud of her little girl. The seal that was unleashed and these Styx snakes seem pretty big news. Ra's trying to foist the blame onto Alex and Osiris instead of realising he fucked up is typical.

Sebiraider11

Hmmm ... did I enjoy this wild ride? ... Hell yes I did. The Chapter is great. While I noticed two instances where a tiny little bit of rephrasing would enhance the experience a bit. the first of these instances is in Ra's segment, when he laments the Light Champions death: (...) They had killed a promising champion who held so much potential to insult and weaken his cause. (...) Right now one gets the impression that the "his cause" applies to Ra himself, because there is no one else whose cause it could be. this makes it seem as if Ra laments the death of a danger to him. If you exchange the "his" with "Osiris' " or add a "brother's" after the "his" you change the owner of the cause and you would get: - ... insult and weaken Osiris's cause. ... - ... insult and weaken his brother's cause . ... instead of ... insult and weaken his (Ra's own) cause. ... The second one is with Dumbledore in his ninth point. Instead of an "and" I would take an "of" : ... logic of annihilation of everything that was holy ... that one flows better than the ... logic of annihilation and everything that was holy ... that is there now. I hope this helps a bit before I put my other thoughts to digital paper.

Dale

I seriously enjoyed this addition, it was well worth the wait! I'll note the deaths have fully showcased how dangerous things are getting. I find Ra to be just as insane as ever. You'll note gentle readers, he fully blames EVERYTHING on the Dark and his Brother; even though just before that he noted he'd known (and approved) of the impending assassination attempt. He truly believes he is Right and Good, and anything and everything that even causes him any difficulty is something that deserves to be obliterated and expunged from Reality. He is at LEAST as monsterous as his Brother, and I hope to see him BURN eventually....

Antony444
>>64879213

Thanks! Yep, Lyudmila got a bit of her ego knocked out of her...unfortunately, since she's very much alive and more or less unharmed by the experience, this means she is in a position to analyse what went wrong and correct it. And this isn't good news for the other Champions...

Antony444
>>64879441

Yep, the sea snake's handlers are going to have a lot of work to be forgiven for this not funny game...

Antony444
>>64887417

Ra is the perfect textbook definition of the fanatic, unfortunately. He has learned little in thousands of years, and the chances of him learning something new before the end is...not insignificant, but not extremely likely either. But yeah, this Tournament is dangerous, and unlike Rowling's version, I fully intend to show it. Seriously, in canon the Champions' progress was a stroll in the park. Dumbledore blattered about security and everything, but there wasn't exactly mortal danger after the Hungarian Horntail, and even it Harry managed to easily deal with it on his broom. The European Tournament brings the level to the maximum, because the Exchequer isn't interested in playing with kid's gloves.

s22132

I feel like Alexandra's biggest strengths, other than her raw power, will be her pragmatism and focus. She's not there to make big gestures or clever plots; she plans to survive, and isn't picky about how she manages it. Impressive showings by some Champions. Others? Not so much. I'm quite curious to see how the other Hogwart's students react to Alexandra now. How many Darwin Award winners do we have left? Take care.

Alex S

Enjoyed the numerous scenes finally being shown after months/years of hints and foreshadowing. Warrington in particular served as a nice wake up call for the level of magic needed at the tournament. As for Ra, once again I really appreciated the expansion of his character. For all this AU has been negative on Dumbledore, the Archmage really humanizes his faults by comparison.

Antony444
>>64890995

Yep, Dumbledore is a very moderate and younger Ra...or Ra is a more fanatical and immortal Dumbledore, it depends on your perspective, I suppose...

Antony444
>>64889657

Yep. Not to say raw power isn't important (it is), but having a series of plans and/or contingencies and methodically executing them while ensuring you don't lose focus of your goal is a good trait to have. The number of Darwin Awards has slightly decreased since Warrington and his fellow Durmstrang Champion aren't there anymore...but one Trial is far from enough from removing all the candidates, as I'm sure you will agree.

Anonymous

Thanks so much for the great chapter. I noticed that the names for the 3rd task were mixed up. You listed Karamnov as the Beauxbatons champion and de Courtois as Durmstang's. Now, this is a tournament. Not the so-called canon Tri-Wizard. Ouch! Three dead and it is just the first task. I am happy that you continue to show that not ALL of the light champions are idiots. Hopefully, the shock that Fleur received will be sufficient to jolt her common sense a tad bit.

Antony444
>>64938067

Ah my mistake, I will immediately correct that. Thanks for the support!

Anonymous

The reaction from Dumb-as-a-door and any relevant extra flunkies to her ice serpent spell is missing, I believe. Unless it was somehow hidden from view, despite the screens?

Sebiraider11

The first Task is over and it was a tiny, little bit dangerous. Who'd have thought? Merely 6 Champions being able to get their clue is somewhat of a warning sign for the future. Some Reputations will rise, while others are more or less in free fall right now. Most of the Participants are in over their heads and the public will notice it. Henri and Eleonora were smart and crafty in the Arena and they are more or less the sole mitigating factor for the Light's reputation in this debacle. Malatesti was somewhat of an idiot, but he survived and showed off a bit, if not enough. Then we have Lucrezia Sforza, who managed to show off in a good way and cemented her own chances at winning, through slyness but not necessarily through her own power. And then we have the top scoring monsters of the year, who blew their task completely out of the water. Both were capable of showcasing their sheer power and skill in the most dangerous task. Let us not forget Fleur, who is in dire need of anything positive happening through her own actions if she somehow wants to salvage anything from her reputation. Not only did she forego the task at hand to attack a witch that was younger then her, no she got rag dolled multiple times and got fried when she tried to sneak up on said younger witch. I rather doubt that her father will be very happy about that. I believe this will bring us to the first seal that was broken and Ra's reaction to it. At least the power of ignorance is strong in him. I might be wrong but I think the following seals will be more and more powerful. Not that the first seal was truly that weak, but we saw the help that Fate gave. One victim at exactly the right time and *poof* an extinct species slithers anew through the world. That hardly broke the statute as Ra will be disappointed to find out, but it will in time lead to the big breaches. When we are talking about Ra, he will not take these Events very well. Poor Birdbrain, his animagus form really messes with his reasoning capabilities. He will try to see a few people assassinated. It won't really help him all that much. To get Alexandra and Lyudmilla he has to do it himself and if he does, Osiris will try to find out if he can get an endless supply of fried phoenix wings. Surely the world would be grateful if he ended world hunger? Now we just need a few more perspective's for the aftermath. The King, Queen and Lily would be interesting, the british ministry less so ( "Arrest her!" "Boss, she used an army killer spell, we can't arrest her!" "I'm perfectly willing to let you bring that sacrifice, because then we can get international help.").

Anonymous

Between this chapter and the last, I think I have a feel for Lyudmilla Romanov's character now. Basically, underneath the aristocratic polish and psychopathic style, she's a brat. Spoiled and isolated by her station and personal talent, she can't connect with anyone save through violence. Note that when Alexandra shut her proposal to wreck the task down, her immediate response was to turn ugly. We don't know exactly how she got to be this way, (and Loki's influence certainly isn't helping), but I think a significant part of her motivation is that she's lonely. And isolation at the top of Durmstrang has led to arrogance. Note the differences in how she treats her own substitute council, and how Alexandra treats hers and her friends, which is interesting as Alexandra was also very isolated, but in a different way. Alexandra gained friends before she came to power, while I suspect that Romanov never truly had friends before, and gaining magical prowess only increased her reasons to hold others at arms length. Romanov is without question a monster, but most monsters are tragic on some level.

Nicholas
>>64953573

Nice evaluation. I mostly agree but do think you are seriously underestimating the Styx Vipers. While we don't know a lot given the general power of magical creatures in this setting and the Exchequer's ruthlessness I predict that the ICW has three days, maybe four, to discover what happened and deploy hundreds of wizards to Egypt to hunt the Viper. If they don't manage that Egypt is going to lose a major city because the Vipers are going to kill all the people. I'm pretty sure Ra considers the death of a couple million people to be a major breach of the Statute.

Nicholas

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Every cloud has a silver lining. Getting this chapter early is mine for the loss of unbeted chapters of the nameless story. Of course every silver lining has a cloud. Now I am going to have to wait two months to find out what happens next:( As far the chapter, there is a lot here but most of it should wait for my fanfiction.net review. I do have one question I hope you are willing to answer. Did the Exchequer have multiple rituals set up for this or only one. Ra seemed to think that this ritual required exactly this sequence of events. Did the Exchequer have an alternate ritual ready if Romanov killed one of light champions? Thanks for all your hard work!

Antony444
>>64950606

No, it isn't. They were just so gobsmacked about the Lightning spell overwhelming the performance their brains stopped functioning for several minutes. Don't forget that at the end of the chapter, the Task is barely over. There's going to be many reactions to what just happened, plus of course there's the podium and the rewards plus a lot of things happening. After the killing, the politics...

Antony444
>>64970608

You're welcome. No, there's only a single ritual, but which can function no matter who killed a Light Champion. If say, Lyudmila had done the deed, the same Seal in Egypt would have been activated, but it would have been Chaotic magic infusing the Seal, and thus an entirely other magical species would have been summoned into existence, not the Styx Viper. Given how...bad the animals dedicated to Chaos are on average, let's say the poor Egyptians were reasonably lucky it was Alexandra; Death kills you, but as said in the chapter, it's quick. With Chaos, you're definitely not going to the afterlife so easily...

Antony444
>>64964027

I'm not going to spoil Lyudmila's childhood story, but you have indeed put the finger on several good points. And no, Loki's influence isn't helping (Chaos rarely makes you more pleasant than you were), but she is in many ways the symbol of some really wrong things happening in the Houses of Eastern Europe. Lyudmila carries a lot of the blame in her dark reputation, but she's hardly the only one...surprised not a lot more readers spoke about Karkaroff's reactions, to be honest.

Benjamin Mages

First of all, loved the chapter. Absolutely don’t get me wrong.

Benjamin Mages

However I have one concern about Alex. She’s kind of too competent. She doesn’t feel like a teenager, though that can be put aside since different teenagers are at different levels of maturity. But this has particularly been bothering me since Alex broke highly advanced runes to get into the Malfoy’s place as a 4th year student something that no amount of death juice should let her do. Narcissa even lampshades this. And now she’s kicking the asses of more experienced wizards and Champions left right and center. Now some of this can definitely be blamed on her absurdly high power level. But not all of it. And it’s kind of played for laughs how incompetent everyone but her and Exchequer is plus Lyudmila, but also it’s weird? Just wanted to put this out there since it’s bothering me.

Anonymous
>>64992983

Frankly, I believe this issue with Alexandra boils down to the Morrigan’s influence. We know that her core was turned dark by a ritual before birth, and likely the Morrigan has been subtly preparing her for her destiny ever since. Her unusual competence runs as far back as her first year, where she managed shopping in Diagon and boarding the train all by herself, dealt with no less than 3 murder attempts by her own House, killed a troll, broke through the obstacles to steal the fake Stone, and managed to survive a duel with an Exchequer Pawn. There was some overt intervention for the last two, but most of it was her own skill and brains. Alexandra is repeatedly ahead of the game in survival, strategy, and combat. Is much faster to react to deadly situations than an inexperienced preteen should be, and yet her interactions with her friends show that she is NOT a sociopath, contrary to some characters’ opinions. She is instead a throwback to the warrior maidens of old, the valkyries, shieldmaidens, and warrior witches of legend. Alternatively, she has been deliberately groomed to be a foreshadowing of a type of witch that will be needed in the age to come. I don’t believe this is a coincidence or sloppy writing.

Anonymous

"I certainly hope so. The Morrigan is going to be insufferable after today. I think I am going to have to endure this Trial’s retelling for several centuries." - not a single 'crow about it'? Not punny!

IAmTheGuardsman

Overall good chapter, we got to see the other champions do stuff and show us what they are made of. I am overall most disappointed in the champion of war because his plan seemed to be “overwhelm the dangerous beastie with sheer power” and he had to show his animagus form to survive and only barely got his clue. Really only showing the killey side of war and not the cunning strategy side. Alex showed everyone that she is not to be messed with by zapping the whole field (I wonder if this will be enough to get the light to leave her alone) Eleonora and Henri showed themselves to have some brains as did Lucrezia so those are actually credible players in the future. Other than that there’s not much to say other than the obvious spelling and grammar issues (but it’s pre beta so they will probably be fixed later)

IAmTheGuardsman
>>65016928

By the way are we ever going to get a map of the borders of the magical world? I am morbidly curious as to what happens when a Frenchman draws the map of Germany (given Bavaria and Prussia are independent it’s probably really bad)

Gremlin Jack

In the list of Chanpions for exvery contest there is a mistake in the Earth Trial - Pyotr is the Durmstrang champion, he has been switched with Ambre of Beuxbatons. The point count at the end of the chapter is also off. Sculoa Regina should be 239, Durmstrang should be 126, the other two are fine.

Anonymous

By asking out of curiosity. When will Alex be widely recognized by the common people as the lady of magic? That was the question that came to my mind after this chapter.

Antony444
>>65322089

The First Task alone will make sure she's well on her way for that. For the average wizard or witch, this'little' display of power was just way above their imagination...there's recognition when you do that sort of stuff.

IAmTheGuardsman

Given that my curiosity is endless in regards to this story and cannot ever be satisfied (only sated for a time) I have a question that has been eating at me for a while: In chapter 63 we learn that Cho Chang’s real name is Xiao Hong Ming. This is apparently an important name but I have no idea what significance this has (the best guess I have is some connection to the Ming dynasty but they lost power before the statute so it is unlikely to be correct). Please, oh omniscient author, enlighten me as to the significance of Cho’s true name.

Antony444
>>65598158

Your theory is correct. Cho has the blood of the Imperial Dynasty in her veins. Technically, she could be Empress...if there was a Magical China to come back. And there isn't. As a result, most people in Britain wouldn't care about her true name, even if it was revealed. But there are other people who don't share this opinion...