A/N: I found myself wondering just how the tournament organizers expected the third task to end. Had Krum not been imperioused, had Harry not delayed to save Fleur, Harry might have reached the center well ahead of the others …
Warning: Not for the squeamish.
Disclaimer: Jo's world and characters are the property of Jo, some publishers and studios, and an infinite number of lawyers.
- TTTAD -
Fleur ran through the maze as quickly as she could, knowing that all the other competitors had a solid head start. Her only hope was that maybe a wrong choice at a turn, maybe some missing bit of knowledge, they might be delayed and give her a chance to catch up.
Turning one last corner, she suddenly dug in her heels and tried desperately to stop. The first thing she had seen ahead was an enormous beak. As her mind caught up with the details, she saw that the passage widened ahead, and in the opening was a hippogriff. A very aware, almost enraged hippogriff. Because even though Veela could be said to have been at war with Merpeople for centuries, that was just due to an unintentional insult between two races who hardly ever encountered each other. Veela and hippogriffs, however, had evolved as natural competitors, as each trying to dominate the other in their natural habitat. The mutual hatred was racial. Biological.
But as attractive as attacking the beast might seem, she knew it would delay her too much. Cost too much of the energy she would undoubtedly need later in the maze. She couldn't afford to indulge her anger here. Fleur ruthlessly pushed the hippogriff from her mind, convinced it couldn't reach her - it was too large to move beyond the widening of the passage. She paused and turned to regard the passages behind, considering which branch to take on her way to the cup.
- TTTAD -
The narrow passages were also helping Krum. He was currently trying to deal with a blast-ended skrewt. Larger, heavier, and not quite so agile as Harry, getting underneath the beast to attack the more sensitive underside simply didn't occur to him. Instead, he was cycling through his repertoire of curses and hexes, hoping one might penetrate the creature's seemingly impervious shell. And occasionally jumping out of the way as the skrewt crashed into the hedge where he'd been standing. Or ducking around a corner of the maze as the skrewt fired sparks at him with its tail.
- TTTAD -
Cedric knew he was about to die. What moron, what village idiot, would put a flipping 14 foot spider in a maze? He was far out of his depth, and unlike a Gryffindor, knew when to quit. Good Hufflepuff that he was, he was now working very hard to stay away from the spider, scrambling back through the maze as quickly as he could to get away, and only staying ahead because the spider wasn't able to turn corners quickly.
- TTTAD -
At this moment, Harry reached the center of the maze, and the plinth supporting the tri-wizard cup. With a grin of triumph, his hand closed on a handle. Instantly he felt that hook in his naval, and had a sinking feeling …
- TTTAD -
But this story isn't about Harry's coming ordeal. It is about the Third Task and the competitors he left behind.
The witches and wizards in attendance, including the judges, including those who had more than a little creature in their blood, were bored. None of them knew where the competitors were, as there was no way to see them in the maze. The occasional noise they heard, without a frame of reference to let them know who was encountering what, and where, did nothing to help them understand the progress, success or failures of the competitors. Great for suspense, but that was the only excitement to be had. After the second task, one would have hoped the organizers might give some thought to making the task interesting for the spectators. Sadly, no-one had. Almost all those assembled had long ago turned to their neighbors in the stands, chatting aimlessly.
This was the situation as Harry reached the cup at the center of the maze.
Instantly as Harry touched the cup, trumpets blared, fireworks exploded, and the hedge maze collapsed. The sudden clamour caught everyone off guard as they chatted. Many took a moment to watch the firework show before looking to the awards platform and maze to see how they had done and who had won.
The competitors, too, were caught off guard by the hedges collapse, the scant instructions at the start of the event saying nothing about that.
Krum had ducked around a corner, but with the sudden removal of the hedge he was hiding behind, the skrewt's latest blast of sparks struck home directly in his face. He screamed horribly as his skin burned and his hair and robes caught fire. The skrewt spun and set to his now cooked meal.
While spiders have trouble taking corners at speed (too many legs!), they're wicked fast on a straightaway. With the hedge gone, it was able to quickly overrun poor Cedric, immediately sinking its fangs into him to deliver a full pouch of neurotoxins, enzymes, and acids. Cedric's organs and heart went into shock almost instantly. And then started to liquefy.
Hippogriffs … well, they have amazing reaction times. Fleur was still fixated on reaching the cup, not understanding why the hedges had collapsed. So she looked around for the cup that would now be much easier to reach, the hippogriff having already been disregarded since it was unable to reach her. The enraged hippogriff had no such distraction, and instantly surged forward to bring both clawed feet down on the screaming witch, before clamping her head in a beak designed by nature for but one purpose.
By the time the tournament officials looked down to the maze, the third task done, and Hagrid's wee beasties were well into their meals. While most of the audience screamed in horror (apart from a few reformed death eaters who were celebrating, as they hadn't yet noticed Harry's absence), the headmasters and shocked officials tried to think how to avoid Azkaban, or worse, being sacked. And whether they might blame it all on Dumbledore, it had been his idea after all to bring this death-trap of a tournament back. Over all the scheming, horror, delight, and general clamour, a lone deep rumbly voice muttered loudly,
"Oh, tha's not good. They shouldn'a done tha'"
- TTTAD -
A/N: My deepest and humblest apologies if I killed your favourite character … but they were on the stage as the scene commenced. Please don't blame me. Blame them, for entering a contest without researching its bloody history. And blame the wizards who organized this debacle – as noted elsewhere, magic must rot their brains; none of them have a lick of sense.